October 16, 2017

Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 6 October 16, 2017 thevarsity.ca —— University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

HUDSON LAWSUIT SETTLED Two-year lawsuit settled out of court 11 days before trial was set to begin

Jack O. Denton News Editor

Former UTSU Executive Director Sandra Hudson settled out of court with the UTSU on October 12, putting an end to the drawn-out lawsuit between the union and three former staff members and executives.

“Ms. Hudson has voluntarily agreed to repay a portion of the overtime payments which were approved by members of a prior executive committee,” reads an October 12 press release from the UTSU. The union acknowledges in the release that “allegations of fraud and theft against Ms. Hudson were not proven.” The amount that Hudson agreed to repay was not disclosed.

Former Engineering Director Andrew Sweeny, who was present at a meeting to approve the settlement, has criticized the settlement, telling The Varsity that “it was a poor deal.”

“I don’t think we pushed hard enough. I think we could have pushed for a better settlement,” Sweeny said. “Or at worst, we still would have done better in court.”

Hudson, according to the UTSU’s release, acknowledges that the UTSU believes it had a reasonable basis to start a lawsuit. Moreover, the statement says that “all parties believe that the lawsuit was not racially motivated” and “regret the acrimonious nature of these proceedings and inflammatory public comments made in and about them.”

The UTSU launched its lawsuit against Hudson, former UTSU President Yolen Bollo-Kamara, and former UTSU Vice-President Internal and Services Cameron Wathey in September 2015, alleging civil fraud. BolloKamara settled with the union in January 2016, with Wathey settling in May that year.

The UTSU sought $277,726.40 from Hudson — given to her in a compensation package when her contract with the union was terminated — in addition to $200,000 in punitive damages. The $277,726.40 compensation package represented approximately 10 per cent of the union’s operating budget at the time.

The UTSU’s case hinged on the allegation that Hudson’s dismissal was without legal

grounds and was orchestrated by Hudson, Bollo-Kamara, and Wathey. The details of Bollo-Kamara and Wathey’s settlements remain confidential. In the wake of Wathey’s settlement, then-UTSU President Ben Coleman said that “the testimony received from Wathey… helps our case” against Hudson.

The UTSU had alleged that Bollo-Kamara and Wathey “breached their fiduciary duty” by signing off on 2,589.5 hours of overtime for Hudson, which was included in the severance package when her contract was terminated.

Of those 2,589.5 overtime hours, 1,974.5 were logged in a single entry on April 1, 2015.

Hudson countersued the UTSU for $300,000 in November 2015. In addition to denying the union’s allegations, Hudson’s counterclaim alleged that she was “subject to inappropriate conduct and unwelcome comments from UTSU directors. Some of the comments were in relation to [her] perceived sexual orientation, gender and race.”

UTSU President Mathias Memmel released a statement to The Varsity following the press release. “We’re very pleased–this is an objec-

tively positive resolution for the UTSU. 95% of civil cases end in confidential settlements, so this was always the most likely outcome.

Scepticism is justified, but I ask anyone who’s sceptical to trust that this board and these executives would only do what’s best for students, and would only have accepted the best possible offer.”

Emergency meeting to approve the settlement The UTSU’s press release reveals that its Board of Directors approved the settlement in an emergency meeting on October 10.

A confidential recommendation, which was the only initial item on the October 10 agenda, garnered 17 votes in favour, four opposed, and one abstention.

“While the vote wasn’t unanimous, I have no doubt that every director did what they thought was best for the UTSU,” Memmel wrote, “and acted as their conscience required–I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Notably, Vice-President External Anne Lawsuit, page 3

Faculty at Centennial, Sheridan go on strike Strike impacts UTM, UTSC joint program students Jillian Schuler Varsity Staff

As of Monday, October 16, students enrolled in joint programs at UTSC with Centennial College and UTM with Sheridan College have their college classes cancelled as faculty go on strike indefinitely.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) represents 12,000 faculty members at colleges across the province, including those working at Centennial and Sheridan colleges. Following failed negotiations between the union and the bargaining

teams of the 24 colleges where the faculty work, OPSEU 556 set a strike date for 12:01am on October 16.

OPSEU works to ensure fair say for its 12,000 faculty members. Key proposals include having an even ratio of full-time to contract faculty, increased job security for partial load faculty, and academic freedom that will give faculty a stronger voice in academic decisions.

Faculty from three joint programs at Centennial College — Paramedicine, Journalism, and New Media Studies — are going on strike. There are 170 students enrolled in

these programs, however, less than half will be affected by the strike as they are currently at UTSC, according to Mark Toljagic, Communications Officer at Centennial College.

At UTM, there are about 1,000 students enrolled in joint UTM–Sheridan College programs, including those in the Communication, Culture, Information & Technology program, as well as the Art & Art History, and Theatre & Drama Studies program.

Centennial College libraries, athletic facilities and child care centres, among other basic amenities, will continue to function normally despite daytime classes being cancelled. As

well, all students have been supplied with information on properly crossing picket lines if the event were to arise on campus.

At Sheridan, there are similar plans to keep services open, with all non-faculty based operations, such as the student health centre and food services, still for open for students at the college.

UTM has also posted an FAQ page specifically for students in the Sheridan CollegeUTM joint programs that will be updated as more information about the ongoing strike becomes available.

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From the Varchives: the Hudson lawsuit Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 6 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6 (416) 946-7600 thevarsity.ca thevarsitynewspaper @TheVarsity the.varsity the.varsity The Varsity

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September 21, 2015 The Varsity first reports on UTSU audited financial statements that revealed severance payments of $342,150 from the year before.

2.

September 28, 2015 Within a week, the UTSU had filed a lawsuit against Sandra Hudson, alongside former President Yolen Bollo-Kamara and Vice-President Internal & Services Cameron Wathey.

3.

November 2, 2015 Bollo-Kamara and Wathey filed notices of their intent to defend against the civil fraud suit.

4.

October 17, 2016 On the same day as a turbulent free speech rally featuring Jordan Peterson, members of the Black Liberation Collective protested the UTSU office and accused the union of perpetuating anti-Blackness.

5.

January 16, 2017 The UTSU amended their statement of claim to allege that Hudson operated a secret email account, operationsutsu@ gmail.com, which received forwarded emails from the official executivedirector@utsu.ca email.

6.

February 27, 2017 Tensions flare over the UTSU Board of Directors’ continued in camera, or private, meetings, many of which centred around the Hudson lawsuit.

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Hudson, from cover

Boucher voted against the confidential recommendation. UC Director Aidan Swirsky and Engineering Directors Chris Dryden and Andrew Sweeny also voted against the recommendation. “I voted the way I did because I ultimately felt it was in the best interest of the UTSU and our members,” Boucher told The Varsity. “I do want to say that I genuinely believe people in the room had those same intentions. This was not an easy vote for anyone.”

The meeting concluded with the acceptance of the resignation of Sweeny. “Sweeny states that, when he ran for election, his goals were to see through the reductions in service levels and the lawsuit against Ms. Hudson,” read the minutes of the emergency meeting. “Given that both have concluded, he is submitting his resignation.” According to Sweeny, the settlement was “so dissapointing” that he could not continue to support the UTSU as an organization. “Resigning was the best way to express that sentiment.” Sweeny also notes that, in the light of the debate surrounding the lawsuit in the 2017 UTSU elections, he “[feels] like this settlement failed those who supported Demand Better based on this issue.”

Only 22 of the 51 members of the Board of Directors were present at the meeting.

Memmel did not directly acknowledge that the October 10 emergency meeting’s recommendation was about the Hudson lawsuit.

Background on the two-year drama The Hudson lawsuit has been a salient fixture

of campus life since it began. Hudson’s claim that she was subject to inappropriate conduct in relation to her race has been a point of particular concern.

Members of the Black Liberation Collective (BLC) occupied the UTSU’s office in October 2016, calling for a boycott of the union and issuing three demands: that the Hudson lawsuit be dropped, that funding for Black student groups be increased, and that the union host a town hall for Black UTSU members to address what they called “systemic anti-Black racism” within the organization. The protest was accompanied by vandalism of the union building.

The BLC and its supporters disrupted the April and July UTSU Board of Directors meetings, calling for a second legal opinion on the Hudson lawsuit from a lawyer who identifies as Black in April and protesting when the motion to do so was rescinded in July. Former UTM Director, Hashim Yussuf, called the lawsuit against Hudson “nothing but anti-Blackness.” BLC member Yusra Khogali accused the UTSU of the “character assassination” of Hudson.

All money received by the UTSU will be accounted for in the audited financial statements for 2017-2018; this includes extraordinary payments, such as a potential payout from Hudson.

The Varsity has reached out to Sandra Hudson and her legal counsel, and the BLC for comment.

Alcohol-licensed events temporarily banned at Trinity College Provost Moran cites concern for student safety Kaitlyn Simpson Features Editor

“Events are integral to the social fabric of” the college, says student head.

NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

The Provost of Trinity College, Mayo Moran, has suspended events with alcohol licenses across the college, citing “a concern for student safety,” according to a statement released by the student heads of Trinity.

The event ban comes two weeks after Trinity College students passed a vote of non-confidence in the Office of the Dean of Students at the Trinity College Meeting (TCM), Trinity’s direct-democracy student government, and one week after TCM Chair Leila Martin wrote a letter to the Board of Trustees requesting an investigation into allegations made against the dean’s office.

Trinity College regularly hosts licensed events where alcohol is sold to students who are of age. These events require a Special Occasion Permit, issued by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, and must be approved by the dean’s office beforehand.

At this time, all licensed events have been banned at the college, but non-licensed events will continue as planned.

On October 13, the Head’s team met with the Provost; Monavari said that they discussed “safety, developing transparency and accountability between student leaders

and administrators, and clarifying roles in different echelons of Trinity governance.”

Monavari said that the ban is “a temporary measure” put in place by the Provost “in light of the vote of non-confidence.” It is unclear how long the ban will be in effect.

Monavari said that “events are integral to the social fabric of” the college and that the two parties are “swiftly working to resolve these issues.”

A meeting is currently being scheduled by the Provost for the student Heads and the Office of the Dean of Students to discuss future steps.

Monavari is at the centre of one of the allegations outlined in Martin’s letter.

During a residence party at Trinity on September 23, Monavari was allegedly assaulted by a Campus Police officer when he was apparently pointed out by Assistant Dean of Students for Residence Life Adam Hogan and Assistant Dean of Students for Student Life Christine Cerullo, who allegedly stood idle while Monavari was assaulted.

Monavari claims to have been uninvolved with the residence party, and has since issued a formal complaint to Campus Police.

Moran and the Office of the Dean of Students did not respond to The Varsity request for comment as of press time.

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City Council opposes U of T bid for Spadina-Sussex residence University’s appeal to Ontario Municipal Board rejected based on heritage, height concerns Tamim Mansour Back End Web Developer

On October 2, Toronto City Council adopted recommendations by city staff to oppose the university’s application at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) to amend zoning bylaws in order to build a residence on the northwest corner of Spadina Avenue and Sussex Avenue. The motion passed during the review of the Order Paper; it was passed with consent and no debate from council.

The accompanying report by city staff criticized the proposed residence, saying that it is not consistent with provincial plans and that the 23-storey building “is not appropriate for its context as it is too tall, too bulky, and does not provide appropriate tower setbacks.”

The university recently published a report as part of its application to amend the St. George Secondary Plan, which projects a need for 2,300 new beds by 2020 to meet the increased demand for student housing.

Christine Burke, Director of Campus and Facilities Planning, said that this urgent need for residence spaces motivated the appeal

to the OMB. “We heard [the community’s] concerns and we made adjustments to the project,” Burke explained, “but we did put in an application in October of last year and with more than three years of consultation, we felt that we needed to move the project along towards a resolution so we could move the project forward.”

The report further elaborates that the proposed demolition of 698 Spadina conflicted with the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. 698 Spadina was designated a heritage resource by the city in March 2017, approximately seven months after the university had submitted its application to the city.

The university objected to the designation and has brought the issue to the province’s Conservation Review Board, a tribunal that is able to make recommendations to the municipal council or the tourism minister to repeal heritage designations. Burke said that the university does not believe the site has heritage value based on the findings of heritage consultants retained by the university.

A prehearing conference was held in July,

and party status was granted to the Harbord Village Residents’ Association. The report claims that the prehearing was adjourned for four months “to allow for public consultation and settlement discussions,” though according to Burke, there have been no settlement discussions. “Essentially, the university is seeking to resolve this appeal together with the OMB appeal, so in more of a comprehensive settlement,” Burke said.

The report also raises concerns over the possible intrusion of the building into the silhouette of 1 Spadina Crescent as seen from the southwest and southeast corners of College Street and Spadina.

The report marks bicycle parking as inadequate; current bylaws require a minimum of 238 long-term bicycle parking spaces for the proposed development. The current plan allows for only 116 long-term spaces.

Burke contends that the bylaws do not have bicycle parking standards specific to student residences. “So what we did with our transportation consultants in planning the residence is... we took a comprehensive study of the demand generated at other student

residences that we own and operate to try and understand and figure out what the... appropriate parking rate would be and that’s what we applied to the project.” Burke also added that the St. George Secondary Plan had “substantially” more bicycle parking spaces than required.

The university has requested that the OMB conduct a mediation to settle this conflict.

The first prehearing is scheduled for January 2018, where an assessment will be done to identify all parties for the mediation.

In the meantime, the university has other plans to add more residence spaces. Burke said the university is looking to extend Graduate House along Harbord Street and to provide more student family housing in the Huron-Sussex neighbourhood.

Even with the rising opposition against the Spadina-Sussex project, Burke remains “optimistic” that a settlement will be reached, hoping that “it’s just a matter of time.”

Burke also maintained that the university remains committed to its guarantee of providing residence spaces to first-year undergraduates.

SMCSU election results to be released October 17 Candidates focus on equity, transparency, communication Daniel Kim Varsity Staff

The St. Michael’s College Student Union (SMCSU) elections are over, with the polls having closed on October 15. Successful candidates will be the first members of the new ‘re-imagined SMSCU,’ whose guidelines were founded based on the conclusions of a special advisory committee over the past few months.

Nominations for Vice-Presidents of Communications, Community Life, and Arts included only one candidate each, while VP Finance, VP Athletics, and VP Religious and Community Affairs had no candidates despite an extended nomination period.

According to Erin McTague, the Chief Returning Officer of the elections, “It will be the decision of the elected union members to decide the process for filling the vacant positions,” and uncontested candidates will take on their roles after the Election Appeals Board has ratified the election results.

“The St. Michael’s community has worked together to create a fair and effective electoral process for a new student government,” said Stefan Slovak, SMC’s Director of Communications, Events, and Outreach in an email to The Varsity. “All those involved approached it with good will. We are confident that, with students working collaboratively with the University, a new era in student government is about to begin.”

Presidential candidates Samantha Douek and Jeremy Hernandez-Lum Tong are both running for SMCSU President.

Douek said that she was motivated to run for president because she saw students around her lose “interest in [SMCSU] and community life.”

“If everyone is thinking the same things, and I have these ideas [for SMCSU]… then I might as well take the first step,” said Douek.

“I think the main thing I would love to work

on is to embrace St. Mike’s traditions,” Douek stated. She believes that the Catholic values of SMC are “part of the identity that separates us from other colleges.”

Douek also added, “I think [it] would be nice to have connections between current students and [alumni] from an experience standpoint, because they have gone on and done a lot of interesting things.” She continued by noting that speaking with alumni would be helpful to students still figuring out their future, both at the university and beyond.

Hernandez-Lum Tong has previously been involved with SMCSU as the Religious & Community Affairs Commissioner. On Facebook, he presented a platform that detailed his plans for numerous areas of campus life. Notably, he discussed the issues of financial transparency, community life, and equity.

If elected, Hernandez-Lum Tong plans to periodically post the SMCSU budgets online “in order that a greater transparency and trust may be rightfully regained.” Moreover, he plans to continue with no-cash transactions to better manage the accounts and ensure accountability.

Hernandez-Lum Tong has supposedly “begun negotiation to reintroduce pub nights.” He claims that it’s an “impossibility” for club nights to come back, but “pub nights are more manageable.

Hernandez-Lum Tong acknowledged a “growing distrust among students” concerning their status at SMC. “I can guarantee that we will work to ensure that every student has an equal access to any resource, any event, any opportunity, [and] any SMC privilege offered by SMCSU,” he wrote in the Facebook post.

He continued to say, “While there may not be a specific portfolio on SMCSU for matters of equity, I have always said that the only way equity can become a thing is if each member is willing to become a person who sees no distinction among others.”

Elected officials will take their place on a “re-imagined SMCSU.” NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

All-candidates forum On October 10, an all-candidates forum was held. Candidates discussed questions regarding communication with the administration, the recent SMCSU controversies, and questions about equity from the audience.

Peter Tao, a vice-presidential candidate, and Hiromitsu Higashi, the VP Communications candidate, both stated that they would set aside time for some form of face-to-face communication with students. Tao said he would hold office hours.

Rida Hasan, a VP Academic Affairs candidate, stated that as a second-year student, she “has a fresh outlook on everything.” She claimed that her open personality will allow her “to gain a lot of students’ trust.”

Vice-presidential candidate Kate Strazds emphasized that “social justice, equity, and inclusivity are all things that very dear to [her] heart.”

She stated that a student union and its leaders should promote equity. “I believe that mandatory equity training for leaders should be implemented,” said Strazds.

Audience Q&A During the audience Q&A period, SMC and SMCSU alumna Julia Ursini asked about dealing with the multi-faith diversity at SMC. She directed her question to the presidential candidates, asking them how they planned to create “a more inclusive SMC that accommodates this [multi-faith] diversity.”

Ursini cited an incident in 2016 where students expressed desire for a multi-faith space, to which SMC President David Mulroney had replied that if they wanted a safe space, they could go to the other side of campus. Ursini clarified that the statement was not a direct quotation.

Slovak later said Ursini’s comment on Mulroney was “inaccurate.”

Hernandez stated that creative problem-solving would be required to overcome any barriers to equity. He further added that having open resources and receiving feedback would be crucial to the process.

Douek noted that she was not Christian and was surprised that such a comment could be made by Mulroney. She emphasized her desire to create an inclusive environment where diversity is supported.

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CFS accused of unlawful conduct in missing motions from June National General Meeting Federation did not add motions to agenda, calls claims defamatory Aidan Currie Deupty News Editor

The Varsity has obtained copies of four motions that were submitted but not added to the agenda at the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) National General Meeting (NGM) last June. The motions in question, submitted by the the Vancouver Island University Students’ Union (VIUSU) and Douglas Students’ Union (DSU), alleged that the CFS breached their fiduciary duty and engaged in unlawful conduct.

According to Mathias Memmel, President of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), the motions had been distributed to the member locals present prior to the NGM. Memmel confirmed that the Selkirk College Students’ Union received a letter from Gowling WLG, a law firm, explaining why their submitted motion was ruled out of order.

Memmel could not confirm if the VIUSU and DSU had received similar emails from the CFS. “In this case, it was more important that the information be made public. That’s what the movers set out to do, and they were successful,” Memmel said of the information provided in the motions.

Student union elections interference The first motion, submitted by the VIUSU, alleges that the Canadian Federation of Students–Ontario (CFS-O) has been interfering in university and college student union elections “for well over a decade.”

This includes, but is not limited to, recruiting pro-CFS-O candidates and putting together slates composed entirely of pro-CFS candidates; producing campaign materials; and interfering in the hiring of returning officers while receiving confidential information from those officers, and in turn instructing them to induce fines on unfavourable slates.

The VIUSU alleges that the CFS-O interfered in student union elections for the UTSU, University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union, University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, and Associa-

tion of Part-time Undergraduate Students, among others in Ontario.

The motion states that the “election manipulation efforts” were led by Toby Whitfield, who was the CFS Executive Director at the time of the NGM. According to the motion, Whitfield was CFS Treasurer at a time when CFS-Services “operated a slush fund used to cover legal costs of CFS loyalists and to undertake covert election operations.”

The VIUSU alleges that Whitfield engaged in “general anti-democratic activities.” It suspects Whitfield was manipulating other student union election activities as an employee in the CFS National office in Ottawa.

York Federation of Students The VIUSU’s second motion alleges that despite membership fee increases that have taken place since the 1996–1997 academic year, students belonging to the York Federation of Students (YFS) still pay only $2 per semester, whereas students from CFS member locals across Canada pay $4.43 per semester, over twice as much.

According to the motion, “The shortfall between what the YFS should have remitted in membership fees over the years and what it actually remitted now exceeds $1,000,000.”

The allegations follow that the CFS National Executive ensured other member locals were aware of the YFS’ failure to collect the correct membership fees “in the hopes of shaming the YFS into doing the right thing.” The motion goes on to claim that in the past three years, CFS leaders “reversed that effort.”

CFS Bylaw 1, Section 3.c. states that member locals are responsible for upholding the bylaws and for ensuring that the federation’s fee is collected at their institutions.

“We will be working with the YFS to resolve it. As for punitive action, no, it can and will be resolved through dialogue,” Peyton Veitch, National Treasurer of the CFS, said in an email to The Varsity.

Unpaid NGM fees The DSU alleges that since 2015, Veitch and

his predecessor Anna Dubinski have been “extremely lax” when collecting outstanding delegate fees for general meetings.

According to CFS Bylaw 1, Section 3.b.i., “Each member of the Federation will have one (1) vote at and participate in general meetings of the Federation provided all outstanding delegate fees for past meetings have been paid in full.”

The DSU alleges that, according to Jenelle Davies, the current BC Representative on the National Executive, there are “at least ten and as many as fifteen member locals” attending NGMs that have not paid outstanding delegate fees, making them ineligible to vote at meetings.

The motion goes on to state that as a candidate for re-election as CFS National Treasurer at the Fall 2016 NGM, Veitch “had an interest in ensuring that no member local that might be supporting him in the election was deemed ineligible to ‘vote at and participate in general meetings’ due to owing delegate fees for past general meeting.” According to the motion, Veitch did not inform the rest of the National Executive of this conflict of interest, violating his fiduciary duties as treasurer.

Veitch told The Varsity in response that his fiduciary duty “means acting in the Federation’s best interests.”

British Columbia Federation of Students In its second motion, the DSU gives historical background to an agreement by the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS) and CFS National, where the BCFS agreed to allow the CFS to take over the administration of membership fees collected from CFS member locals in BC. The motion alleges that, in response to the BCFS’ opposition to former CFS National Chairperson Bilan Arte’s candidacy for election, BC member locals were targeted “for retribution.”

During this “retribution,” the DSU alleges that the CFS stole BCFS fees; the amount stolen “likely in excess of $700,000.” In re-

sponse to this, CFS National member locals from BC stopped paying fees of any sort to the CFS in an effort to force the stolen funds to be returned and for the guilty parties to be punished.

According to the VIUSU’s second motion, this is to protest the “flagrant disregard for the Bylaws and other democratic structures of the Federation.”

“The Federation provides a component allocation totalling 1/6 of the national membership fees collected in British Columbia.

Upon receipt of the national membership fees being withheld since 2014, we will send them their provincial allocation,” Veitch said.

The motion alleges that former CFS National Treasurer Dubinski “unlawfully denied” BC Representative Davies access to the financial records of the CFS, a right afforded to “any member of the board of directors of a corporation falling under the Canada Notfor-profit Corporations Act.” Davies told The Varsity that she has only been able to gain access to the CFS budgets, including “whatever is presented at National Executive meetings.”

“They said I would use the information to harm the Federation,” alleged Davies.

What is happening now?

According to Steven Beasley, Executive Director of the DSU, the motions, which were originally intended to be presented at the NGM, were presented to the entirety of the BCFS at the BC General Meeting. Members in BC resolved to present the motions to the CFS at the NGM in November on behalf of all of the BCFS. Juhi Sohani, CFS National Communications Director, told The Varsity that there were some questions to which she could not provide answers. The Varsity asked to speak with CFS Chairperson Coty Zachariah, though Zachariah was unable to comment.

Toby Whitfield is no longer CFS Executive Director; The Varsity was unable to obtain his personal contact information for this article.

A look into U of T’s 2016–2017 academic offences Of 46 cases handled by University Tribunal, one resulted in acquittal Ilya Bañares Varsity Staff

In June, an independent tribunal at the University of Toronto recommended to the Governing Council that Chris Spence, the former Director of Education of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), be stripped of his doctorate from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education due to concerns of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis.

The case drew attention in large part because tribunal proceedings concerning academic offences are made publicly available on the website of U of T’s Governing Council. Case summaries, statistics, and minutes of the process are all presented.

The Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters, which governs academic life at the university, outlines six possible academic offences: falsified documents, unauthorized assistance, impersonation, plagiarism, re-submitting one’s own work, and making up facts.

The Varsity investigated all 46 incidents from the 2016–2017 academic year, and according to the raw data, only one student was acquitted, constituting a 2.2 per cent clearance rate. This means that in a given year, there is a 97.8 per cent chance that severe disciplinary action will be taken in response to a reported academic offense dealt with by the tribunal. The one case in which charges were dismissed was when a student was accused of plagiarism and unauthorized assistance in a course that was disrupted due to the 2015 TA strike.

The number one infraction of the 2016– 2017 year was the falsifying of documents, which pertained to 50 per cent of cases, followed by plagiarism at 39.6 per cent and unauthorized assistance at 30.4 per cent. Many of these cases concerned multiple transgressions. Close to a third of the incidents resulted in the tribunal recommending expulsion, in addition to long notations on transcripts.

There were 38 offences involving undergraduate courses, and among the three campuses, 43.5 per cent of all tribunal cases originated from UTM, followed by UTSG at 34.8 per cent, and UTSC at 4.3 per cent. Not all academic offences took place in courses.

Other examples include falsified documents used in applications to jobs and other universities.

The average time between the charge and the hearing of the case was roughly seven months, ranging from a low of two months to a high of about three-and-a-half years.

Chris Lang, Director of Appeals, Discipline, and Faculty Grievances, said, “Any student who comes before the tribunal, either themselves or with a representative, has access to all the information and can therefore know what’s persuasive at the tribunal, how to prepare a case… It’s about transparency.”

According to Andrea Russell, Director of Academic Affairs at the Office of the ViceProvost, Academic Programs, “All full-time

students who are members of UTSU and who have paid the Downtown Legal Services levy that UTSU administers are eligible to access [their] services free of charge.”

The cases presided over by the University Tribunal represent only a fraction of all academic offences. “The vast majority of academic offences are not resolved at the University Tribunal, but rather within a division or a faculty,” Russell explained. The facts of these incidents are not publicized or reported online.

There is a selection process to choose tribunal members. According to Lang, members are made up of Chairs — “legally qualified people” — faculty members, and students. Chairs are approved by the Academic Board, based on recommendation by a nominating committee, and the others are appointed by Lang himself as the tribunal secretary.

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news@thevarsity.ca

Practice rooms for music students unavailable as construction project plays on

Hart House Debate panel tackles Trudeau’s first two years in office

Renovations expected to be completed by end of November

Panelists praise PM, condemn failure to deliver on electoral reform Silas Le Blanc Varsity Contributor

Renovations are part of a $190 million upgrade to U of T labs. SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

Alex Tough Varsity Contributor

Four practice rooms in the Edward Johnson Building (EJB) are closed as a result of renovations to the electro-acoustic music studio (EMS), a recording space for music students located in the basement of the building.

There are around 30 total practice rooms available to students at the Faculty of Music.

Renovations to the EMS, part of a $190 million upgrade to U of T’s research labs, called Lab Innovation for Toronto, are expected to conclude by the end of November.

Kevin Howey, Associate Dean of Operations at the Faculty, told The Varsity that “most of what’s happening now is inside the EMS space, so the impact on the surrounding area really has been reduced greatly.”

Howey stated that in addition to creating an environment for students to learn about new music technology, the renovations to the EMS had the goal of installing more heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning into the area to bring “more air” into the space.

Howey also suggested that a closure of one more practice room might be on the way. “It could be one small section where [the con-

struction crew] may have to run some ducting,” he said. “We’ll need to plan a few days when one of the other practice rooms will essentially have this ducting added through the ceiling.”

As a solution to the closed practice rooms, eight more have been added on the third floor of 90 Wellesley Street West, said Howey. “So we’re actually four practice rooms ahead of where we were.”

Jonathan Wong, a Music Education student majoring in the clarinet, noted the distracting drilling noises and dust plaguing the rooms during construction. “They’ve opened up an additional four practice rooms over there, which is nice, but it’s not as convenient for us,” he continued.

Wong also said that the rooms still available in the EJB are being completely booked up. “I was bugged because my favorite practice room has been taken over,” he said.

Rebekah Tam, President of the Faculty of Music Undergraduate Association (FMUA), said that the closing of the four rooms hasn’t had much impact on student life because people are used to a first-come, first-serve online booking service for practice rooms.

On October 10, four guests of the Hart House Debates & Dialogue Committee sat on a panel discussing their views on Justin Trudeau’s first two years as Prime Minister of Canada.

The guests included Karim Bardeesy, Dr. Mel Cappe, Dr. Donna Dasko, and Toronto Star columnist Tim Harper, who moderated the event.

The panelists mostly spoke positively about Trudeau, complimenting his ability to create change and his positive reputation among other leaders and among Canadians.

Dasko, the former Senior Vice President of Environics Research Group Ltd., pointed out that a lot of polls regarding Trudeau are inconsistent. She claimed some polls show that Canadians lean toward the Liberal Party in the next election, while some polls have the Conservative Party leading.

Dasko added that another measure of a Prime Minister’s success is to explore their ability to deliver on promises made during their campaigns. She noted that out of Trudeau’s 226 promises made in 2015, 131 of them have been kept, or are in progress, while 54 of them have not been acted on. The remaining 36 have been outright broken, most of them regarding electoral reform.

Dasko cited Trudeau’s promise to run on a deficit, his aggressive approach to the environment, and the upcoming legalization of marijuana as examples of Trudeau’s ability to deliver change, which she said was another way to measure the success of a Prime Minister.

“I think the implementation is an issue,” Dasko told The Varsity, discussing Trudeau’s ability to effect change. “When I was talking about change, I was trying to emphasize what I see as a very significant policy change from

the previous government. The real test of that will be the ability of the government to implement these changes. So it’s not just passing legislation, it’s actually implementing them.”

Cappe, the former clerk of the Privy Council of Canada, and most recently Canada’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom, pointed out that Trudeau is now the oldest among the party leaders. New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer are both 38 years old. Cappe also stated that if he were to assess Trudeau as he would a 4th year university student, he would score around 80 per cent.

Cappe stated that Trudeau did well on most of the criteria he used in his assessment, which included how Trudeau has changed how Canadians view themselves, how they are viewed abroad, how he left the Canadian economy, what he has done for human rights and security, and whether he could win another election. Cappe’s major concern was Trudeau’s broken promise to deliver on electoral reform.

Bardeesy, a former Director of Policy to the Premier of Ontario, started by stating that the Liberal Party is planning for multiple terms.

He pointed out Trudeau’s struggles with NAFTA renegotiations. However, he sees this as a missed opportunity to explain the benefits of trade to Canadians. Bardeesy said that Trudeau does well in representing Canadian identity, and other leaders are competing in this way. He believes that Trudeau will possibly receive backlash in the future, regarding a possible terrorist attack, and focusing too much on Indigenous issues.

The event had a high turnout, with many people asking detailed questions. The speakers were impressed by the students’ interest in the topic.

“What’s exciting is when you see young people coming out to talk about politics, which can be a really boring topic,” Dasko stated.

Referendum proposal submitted to defund OPIRG UTSU will consider a petition to end research group’s 50-cent levy Daniel Kim Varsity Staff

On October 6, a petition that seeks to eliminate the student levy for the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) was submitted to the UTSU. The petition has received the necessary 250 signatures to begin the formal process to hold a referendum to defund the group. OPIRG is a province-wide network of campus groups that, according to the OPIRG-Toronto’s website, share a mandate “for action, education, and research on environmental and social justice issues.”

There are currently 10 other university campuses in Ontario that have an OPIRG chapter.

In compliance with the Charter for Referenda, under Schedule B, any referenda that concerns a recognized campus group is put to a vote concurrently with the Fall and Spring elections. However, due to an administrative error on the part of the UTSU, the vote will occur from November 20–22 under the terms of Schedule A of the charter.

Mathias Memmel, President of the UTSU, wrote that “while Schedule A referenda are

technically initiated by the Executive Committee, the UTSU won’t be taking a position in the case.”

Moreover, since the changes to the Charter for Referenda in the Spring, petitions regarding student groups need only 250 signatures, as opposed to 5,000.

Students currently at UTSG pay a 50-cent levy per session to OPIRG-Toronto as part of their tuition. Students are able to opt out of this fee before October 2 through an online form on the UTSU website or by visiting OPIRG’s office.

Rumours had been circulating since frosh week about a group of students who were looking for signatures to defund OPIRG. The rumours, however, could not be confirmed as none of the lead petitioners publicly stepped forward. Even now, their identities are not public.

Souzan Mirza, a board member of OPIRGToronto, expressed her disapproval with the petition.

“OPIRG’s programming is widely enjoyed by students across campus, and the 50-cent levy we receive from UTSU members is optional. So we were surprised to hear that a

small group of students wants to organize a referendum outside of an election period, rather than simply opting out of the levy or raising concerns with us.”

Mirza also conveyed her concern regarding the change to the Charter for Referenda.

The reduction in the number of signatures needed means that referendum questions can be posed to the entire UTSU membership with support from less than two per cent of members.

“Since OPIRG began in 1981, we have enjoyed broad support from students, organizations, and staff across campus,” Mirza wrote, “because OPIRG provides essential programming and support for student research, education, and social justice organizing.”

In regards to the UTSU’s error, Mirza wrote that OPIRG was concerned with the union’s failure to follow their own bylaws.

“They were planning on holding a referendum on the petition during the October elections without giving 14 days notice to their membership, a fact we had to make them aware of,” she said.

Mirza also explained that OPIRG has yet to have come in contact with the main actors of

the petitions, and that the group’s knowledge of the petitions has only come from their correspondence with UTSU President Memmel, Vice-President Internal Daman Singh, and the Chief Returning Officer.

According to Mirza, the impact of defunding OPIRG “will impact the countless students who enjoy our programming, volunteer opportunities, and rely on our services throughout the year. OPIRG supports equity and anti-oppression initiatives on campus, and defunding [OPIRG] will impact already-marginalized students and organizations on campus.”

In 2012, the Graduate Students’ Union voted unsuccessfully on whether or not to remove OPIRG’s levy from graduate students. However, this is the first time that the UTSU has had to call a vote to decide the removal of the levy from undergraduate students. Calls to defund OPIRG are not new on Ontario campuses; the group has faced criticism for ‘radical left-wing views’ in the past, and for supporting the Communist Student Research Group and Students Against Israeli Apartheid.

The Varsity is unable to identify the members leading the movement to defund OPIRG.

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Governing Council Business Board releases reports on endowment, capital projects Recommendation for revision of workplace harassment, violence policies also presented Michael Teoh Deputy Senior Copy Editor

On October 10, the Business Board of U of T’s Governing Council held its second meeting of the 2017–2018 academic year at Simcoe Hall. Comprised of 42 members, the Business Board is responsible for monitoring the cost-effectiveness of the university’s resource allocation and approving its business policies and major transactions.

Among the 22 slated agenda items for the meeting were the annual endowment financial report for the previous academic year, revisions to the Workplace Harassment Policy and Workplace Violence Policy, and the status of capital projects on campus costing over $2 million.

The endowment report, presented by Sheila Brown, U of T’s Chief Financial Officer and a member of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM) board, states that as of April 30, 2017, the university had “over 6,000 individual endowment funds totalling $2.4 billion market value,” a net increase of $282 million from the previous term.

Established in 2000, UTAM oversees the management of U of T funds, which includes the university’s endowment and pension funds.

U of T is the only Ontario university that owns a distinct not-for-profit for investment management; other universities use their governance committees and staff members.

According to Elizabeth Church, the university’s Issues and Media Strategist, “the Business Board sets the targets for investment returns and risk tolerance. The responsibility for asset allocation is delegated to the administration and then further delegated to UTAM.” The largest contribution to the increase in endowment funds was the university’s investment income, totalling $341 million. In comparison, the 2015–2016 academic year’s investment income totalled $13.1 million.

In the latest Endowment Annual Financial Report, Brown attributed the approximate $327.9 million increase in investment income to a “favourable” investment market, compared to “years, such as 2015-16, when investment markets are poor.”

In the 2016–2017 academic year, the university also received $36 million in endowed donations and $8 million in transfers from its unrestricted funds, while it incurred net losses of $22 million on fees and expenses and $81 million on spending allocation.

The endowed donations comprise part of the $2.24 billion raised by the Bound-

U of T’s endowment funds total $2.4 billion. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY

less campaign, surpassing the campaign’s original $2 billion goal six months ahead of schedule. According to its website, the Boundless campaign “is a transformational fundraising effort that embodies the University of Toronto’s bold vision for the future.”

Its three priorities are strengthening the university’s role within Toronto, establishing strong international partnerships with leading institutions globally, and reimagining undergraduate education.

Amendments to the Workplace Harassment and Workplace Violence Policies were also presented for recommendation at the Business Board meeting; if applicable, approval will be decided on October 26 by the Governing Council. The amendments “add specific references to the Policy on Sexual

Violence and Sexual Harassment and the Sexual Violence and Prevention Centre.”

The Business Board also released the Report on Capital Projects as of September 15, 2017.

Of the nine properties undergoing construction listed in the report, the overall total project cost (TPC) budget is at least $342,026,121, with the Faculty of Architecture cost remaining in camera. The UTM Deerfield Hall North Building Phase B has the largest TPC budget on the list at $120,086,121; it is currently 49 per cent complete and slated for completion in September 2018.

The UC Revitalization project, set to start in 2018, and the renovation of the Davis Building’s Meeting Place in UTM are two major capital projects that will start this academic year.

UTSU to stop printing City report supports permanent implementation of International Student Identity Cards Bloor bike lanes Council to vote on report on November 7

Service provided through CFS deemed unnecessary

Keith Cheng Varsity Contributor

Josie Kao Associate News Editor

Toronto’s transportation services released a report on October 3 summarizing the results of a year-long pilot project researching the effect of bike lanes on Bloor Street. The results have revealed that the bike lanes have had a positive impact on the community and the report advocates for their permanent implementation.

The project was established in May 2016 in response to rising concerns about cyclist safety on Bloor Street. According to the final evaluation, the project sought to improve safety for cyclists while encouraging more Torontonians to travel by bike. Since the addition of bike lanes in August 2016, there has been a 49 per cent increase in cycling on Bloor Street with 25 per cent representing new riders.

The comfort and safety of cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians were all found to have increased since the implementation of bike lanes. Preliminary data shows that there is a 44 per cent decrease in the overall number of conflicts on the road as well as an increase in road users’ feelings of safety.

Mayor John Tory said in a May 4, 2016 Toronto City Council meeting that he wanted an “extremely rigorous, objective measurement” of the effects that bike lane implementation would have on the community.

The bike lanes that run along Bloor Street West between Shaw Street and Avenue Road are used by many U of T students to commute to campus.

Emily Doucet, a PhD candidate at U of T’s De-

partment of Art, said she is “definitely in support of the bike lanes.” Doucet uses the Bloor bike lanes daily and said that the presence of bike lanes makes her feel safer during her commute.

“I rode down Bloor before and you [were] just that much more in the way of car doors and stuff. It’s still not perfect because people move doors the other way now, but it definitely makes a difference, and I see a lot more different kinds of people biking now too.”

Matti Siemiatycki, an Associate Professor at the U of T Department of Geography and Planning, thinks that the permanent implementation of bike lanes on Bloor would be “a critical step for the city of Toronto,” and will “contribute to making cycling a viable option across the city.”

Siemiatycki, whose research interests include transportation policy and planning, believes that this project has significance beyond simply improving cycling culture.

“Because of that evidence-based process, we can now look at this project and accept its merits,” said Siemiatycki. “I think this points to an approach that should be used more broadly for infrastructure.”

The project has garnered significant support from members of the community, including Tory, who recently tweeted his support for the permanent implementation of the bike lanes.

The report is to be presented to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on October 18 and then voted on by City Council on November 7.

On October 3, the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Services Committee voted to stop printing International Student Identity Cards (ISICs) out of the UTSU office.

ISICs are a form of student ID available in Canada through the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

The motion was moved by UTSU President Mathias Memmel, who argued that the service was an “inefficient use of labour hours given that students are able to do it online,” according to the meeting minutes.

UTSU Vice-President Internal Daman Singh wrote to The Varsity that “the infrastructure for making and printing ISIC cards was terribly outdated and would often be broken.”

“The process of printing a single ISIC card would take up a substantial amount of time for our front-line workers, and the labour costs of printing ISICs was simply not worth keeping the service,” Singh explained.

UTSU Vice-President External Anne Boucher echoed Singh’s statements, calling the CFS servers, required to print ISICs, “absolute garbage.”

“It just makes sense to get rid of something unreliable and inaccessible when a reliable and accessible version of it becomes available,” Boucher said.

In the meeting minutes, Memmel further stated that he found it “interesting” that the CFS would allow ISICs to be purchased online

“given the CFS’s stance on the accessibility of online voting.” The UTSU has long criticized the CFS’ unwillingness to allow students to vote online in referenda on matters such as defederation.

“It’s nice to see the CFS is beginning to see the value in online platforms,” said Boucher.

“I hope this will translate over to online voting — otherwise, it would be morally inconsistent on their part.”

ISICs provide students with “discounts in Canada and around the world and [demonstrate] you’re a full-time student (which is handy when people don’t recognize your student card),” according to the CFS’ website. The cards are available for free as a benefit of membership in the CFS. In 2016, the UTSU released a report on the CFS that criticized the organization of overstating the value of ISICs. The report stated that, in theory, the cards grant access to student discounts, but in reality do not provide a tangible benefit above standard student IDs. “There are few, if any, discounts available only to students who have ISICs,” according to the report.

An audit of a secret CFS bank account revealed that the account received payments titled “International Student Identity Card applicant.” The account has also been linked to a travel company that distributes the cards.

The CFS did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment.

Comment

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Alert social media companies about violence Encouraging users to report crime shared online promotes good digital citizenship Gabrielle Warren Varsity Contributor

Social media has slowly become a staple of our everyday lives. While it can be used to mobilize support for natural disasters or congratulate your Aunt Carol on her new baby, its wide appeal has a darker side.

Crimes posted online have become a prime example of the darker capabilities of the networks we use each day. In March 2017, a Facebook Live stream documented the gang rape of a 15-year-old in Chicago.

While two arrests have since been made in the case, none of the 40 people who viewed the livestream reported it to Facebook.

Conversations around crime and harassment online tend to focus on the incompetence of social media services in protecting their users. However, social networking sites are decentralized, so it is unclear who is to blame when violent content goes unreported.

In order for internet spaces to become safer, members of the online community should assume responsibility for monitoring and reporting livestreamed crimes.

In May, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, released a statement in response to an infamous murder in Cleveland, Ohio that was filmed and then shared on Facebook. He claimed that, to respond to what had happened, Facebook would employ 3,000 employees to scan their site for violent and inappropriate material resulting in better protection for their users. While this approach is a step in the right direction, it is impossible for a taskforce of social media police to detect every incident. If users are openly encouraged to report what they see, it is more likely that operators will know a crime is taking place on their platforms. A pressing concern is addressing the reasons why people may not report. University of

California Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh told the Los Angeles Times that a possible explanation is desensitization: “People are so used to hoaxes and… fiction online that their first reaction, depending on the circumstances, may well be, ‘This is a joke,’” Voolokh explained.

Raymond Surrette, Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Florida, explained in an interview with The Guardian that the lack of reporting may be due to the normalization of seeing too much. “A lot of younger people have grown up under selfsurveillance. They are always on camera, taking pictures, selfies and driving towards the big umbrella of oversharing,” Surrette said.

Social networks like Facebook, which has over 2 billion users, are vast communities that often mimic behaviours humans have exhibited for decades. After the 1964 sexual assault and murder of Kitty Genovese, a woman whose cries for help were allegedly ignored by the residents in her apartment building, psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley coined the term “bystander effect," which describes a situation where the presence of others who could offer assistance discourages people from intervening.

A video from the Retro Report, a YouTube documentary channel that connects major news stories from the past to stories in today’s news cycle, suggests that the bystander effect continues to be relevant today. Experts in the video quipped that, while people who stumble upon livestreamed violence may acknowledge that what they are watching is horrifying, they simultaneously assume that someone else will eventually report it. The danger of everyone thinking in this way is that no one wants to be the first to intervene.

Combatting the bystander effect in digital spaces makes these spaces better for all. To report livestreamed and online violence is to not

Videos of violent content often go unreported by social media users. JESS STEWART-LEE/THE VARSITY

only protect the individuals you know, but to set a precedent for other users. Failing to make a statement is a statement in and of itself.

It is not unprecedented for social media platforms to be a part of this process.

Facebook has been proactive in the area of cyber-bullying — their website provides comprehensive guides for children and parents on how to deal with online harassment. There are also easily accessible reporting tools.

In the analogue world, jurisdictions such as Québec and Brazil have put in place Good Samaritan laws to prompt action from those who witness crimes in progress. These laws are the result of societies grappling with how to engage citizens in dangerous situations, and their purpose is to legally protect people who give assistance to individuals in grave danger. The reasoning is that if protection is given, citizens will act without fear of legal repercussions for offering aid.

In Canada, there are no laws that require

citizens to report crimes they see online.

However, according to Daniel Tobok, an internationally recognized cybersecurity and digital forensics expert based in Toronto, a possible loophole could be a little-common section of the Criminal Code of Canada. Section 22 states that an individual who “omits to do anything for the purpose of aiding any person to commit” a crime is also responsible for that crime. This suggests that witnessing a livestreamed crime and not reporting it could possibly have repercussions, especially if the intent in doing so is to assist the perpetrator.

If we were taught to be caring toward one another before the emergence of the internet, we should continue to uphold that lesson now more than ever. It is time for us as social media users to take responsibility for the digital spaces we occupy.

Gabrielle Warren is a third-year student at Trinity College studying Political Science.

U of T is ill-equipped to handle fentanyl overdoses Providing staff and student leaders with naloxone training would better prepare the university for emergencies Adina Heisler Student Life Columnist

Naloxone is often administered in response to fentanyl overdoses. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY

It’s no secret that the opioid crisis has hit Canada hard — in 2016, over 2,400 Canadians died from opioid-related overdoses.

Just over a year ago, police and community groups warned that the fentanyl crisis would come to Ontario. Last month, The Varsity noted that “between July 27 and August 1, Toronto saw 20 overdoses and six deaths related to fentanyl-laced drugs.” Fentanyl is considerably more toxic than most opioids — and most users don’t realize just how small a quantity of it can be fatal.

While no fentanyl overdoses have been reported at the University of Toronto thus far, it would be foolish to think this crisis won’t affect U of T students. A 2015 alert from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) and the Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use noted that fentanyl could be mixed into other recreational drugs such as cocaine and MDMA, or ecstasy. The CCSA reported that as of 2015, about 3.5 per cent of Canadians aged 15-24 had used cocaine in the past year, and as of 2013, over 60 per cent of recreational drug users in Toronto

had used MDMA within the past year. Even if students aren’t using opioids, they may be unintentionally exposed to fentanyl through other drugs.

Other Canadian universities are taking steps to ensure the safety of their students.

Before the start of the semester, the University of King’s College in Halifax trained about 70 people to administer naloxone, the medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Dalhousie University has naloxone kits available at their health and wellness office.

These are important, potentially life-saving interventions that ought to be implemented at more Canadian universities. It’s both surprising and frustrating that at U of T, residence dons at most — if not all — colleges are not trained in naloxone administration. As recently reported by The Varsity, Innis College, Trinity College, New College, and University College have all confirmed that their dons do not carry naloxone. Woodsworth College, St. Michael’s College, and Victoria College did not respond to The Varsity’s requests for comment on this subject.

Naloxone appears to be generally hard to find on campus. It’s not available at the Fentanyl, page 9

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Fentanyl, from page 8 Health and Wellness Centre, and it isn’t carried by Campus Police or U of T Emergency First Responders (UTEFR). The idea of providing naloxone kits was apparently discussed at meetings of the Ontario University & College Health Association, though nothing has come of the suggestion thus far.

An official reason for this has not been made clear. Althea Blackburn-Evans, Director of Media Relations at U of T, said conversations on the subject are ongoing and that potential concerns may include securing the safety of the person administering treatment, as well as health considerations such as allergic reactions. Blackburn-Evans added that she was not privy to all of the conversations on this topic.

A similar situation at the University of Ottawa may offer a clue into another potential motivation. While the university’s student federation initially planned to train 100 people in administering naloxone, it was announced prior to orientation week that leaders would be forbidden from doing so while on duty — lawyers had warned the federation about potential liability issues should the kit not be administered properly and cause an injury.

It’s true that naloxone may trigger allergic reactions or cause heart and lung problems for patients, and these side effects should be taken seriously. However, most other naloxone side effects are simply the symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Considering that administering naloxone is a life-saving medical intervention, it would be foolish to avoid using

it in times of desperate need out of fear of incurring potential side effects.

Besides, residence dons are trained in other types of first aid, which can also cause injuries and raise liability concerns. All dons receive CPR training, which can cause injuries even if performed correctly. In this case, the university seems to recognize that the potential to save someone’s life outweighs liability issues.

We should treat naloxone the same way we do CPR. Though the potential risks of administering the treatment should be accounted for, it’s time U of T officials recognize that the potential benefits more than outweigh those risks. While making naloxone kits and administration training widely available may not solve the fentanyl crisis, these measures have the potential to save lives. If even one person’s life can be saved, that ought to be the most important consideration.

In the meantime, it is fortunate that there are resources around Toronto that students can turn to. Free injectable naloxone kits are available without prescription from some participating pharmacies, which can be located on the Government of Ontario's website. It’s time the university offered similar resources to its students.

Adina Heisler is a third-year student at University College studying Women and Gender Studies and English. She is The Varsity's Student Life Columnist.

With love and courage On the election of Jagmeet Singh, and what it means for people of colour in Canada

CORALS ZHENG/THE VARSITY

Zeahaa Rehman Varsity Contributor

When I first met Jagmeet Singh, I was reluctant. Upon prompting from a close friend, I had half-heartedly agreed to participate in a charity initiative led by Project Ramadan, a non-profit organization that provides food baskets to local families in need. My friend dangled an opportunity to meet Singh, who was expected to drop by the event to show his

support, and I agreed out of politeness despite not really caring for the idea.

Though I hadn’t yet voted in any election apart from that of the University of Toronto Students’ Union, I considered myself a skeptic first and a liberal second. I was wary of politicians; everything they said seemed scripted, their every move calculated to secure votes.

Jagmeet Singh did not seem like an exception.

At the time, Singh was still campaigning for the leadership of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP). To my surprise, he kept his speech at the event short and simple, praising Project Ramadan for the initiative they had undertaken, lamenting the fact that despite federal budgeting, many families still went without food, and vowing to help combat this problem if elected.

Though I wasn’t on his team for the build, Singh approached our group afterwards. He greeted my volunteer group with a smile and a “hello,” and then he repeated the word in several languages. “Have I missed any?” he asked pleasantly. He inquired about what languages we spoke so that he could try his best to converse with us.

Despite my initial hesitation, Singh put me at ease; his actions seemed genuine and honest. Unfortunately, our meeting was too short for me to ask him about his policies in depth, and it slipped from my mind entirely until an incident that took place this fall.

On September 11, during an NDP rally in Brampton, Singh’s speech was interrupted by a racist heckler who accused him of supporting Shariah law and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Instead of fighting back, Singh replied to her by telling her that he loved her, supported her, and believed in her rights — even as she continued to yell and invade his personal space.

The video of Singh’s response to the heckler

went viral and was covered by national and international media. His “love and courage,” as he put it, was admirable to see — and it was something I wanted to see more of.

On September 30, 2017, I cast my ballot in favour of Singh in the NDP leadership poll. The next day, the federal NDP announced him as its next leader. Singh’s election was met with overwhelmingly positive reactions from visible minority Canadians and from prominent Sikh-Canadian social media personalities like Jus Reign and Babbulicious. There was joy at finally being represented in positions of power, and there hope because his win shows that minorities can overcome the numerous structural barriers set up against them.

To an extent, these reactions included disbelief. Singh’s win marks the first time a visible minority has headed a major Canadian political party at the federal level. Canada has come a long way since the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, in which the Canadian government forced a ship of Indian passengers — most of whom were Sikh — to return to India, despite both India and Canada being British subjects at the time. The Canadian government only fully apologized for this incident last year.

Of course, race relations in Canada still have a long way to go. On Singh’s first day as leader, Susan Bonner, host of CBC’s radio show The World at Six, tweeted a picture of Navdeep Bains, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and a fellow Sikh-Canadian, mistaking him for “Canada’s newest federal party leader.” She later clarified that she had meant to write that Navdeep Bains was only talking about the new NDP leader, but the damage had been done. The ‘all people of colour look the same’ rhetoric remains deeply ingrained in North American society.

Later that day, CBC correspondent Terry Milewski asked Singh about his opinion on the Air India bombing of 1985, and how posters of its alleged architect, fellow Sikh Talwinder Singh Parmar, occasionally pop up during celebrations of Vaisakhi, a religious festival in Hinduism and Sikhism. The questions were asked with no provocation by recent events and without any context; it seemed as if Singh was asked to weigh in simply because he is a Sikh and South-Asian.

Muslims and South Asians continue to face pervasive double standards. Instead of just being responsible for themselves, they are taken as representatives of their entire race or religion — and thus they are constantly expected to disavow and condemn any and all religious extremism, violence, and terrorism engineered by ‘Muslims’ or South Asians. The same cannot be said for their white counterparts. We would not ask white people to condemn the actions of George Zimmerman, Dylan Roof, and recent Las Vegas shooter Stephen Craig Paddock simply because they are of the same race.

Singh has faced obvious racism and xenophobia throughout his career, and there is no indication that this will stop with his election.

One only has to look to the comments section of any article he is mentioned in to come across racist remarks detailing why he will make a terrible leader, both for the NDP and for Canada.

Nonetheless, his election marks a turning point in Canadian history and a step in the right direction. I am hopeful that, like all the other barriers so far, Singh will overcome this.

How? With love and courage.

Zeahaa Rehman is a third-year student at UTM studying Linguistics and Professional Writing.

10 d THE VARSITY d COMMENT

comment@thevarsity.ca

Atomizing ‘Asia’ We must challenge the conflation of the cultural and the economic underlying generalizations about Asia

CARISSA CHEN/THE VARSITY

Ibnul Chowdhury Associate Comment Editor

Students at universities, and people in the west more broadly, are often transparently ambivalent toward Asian peoples and communities. At the University of Toronto, we benefit from access to affordable Chinatown goods and services and celebrate international students as part of our multicultural, cosmopolitan identity. Yet we also blame Asian investors for the overheated housing markets in Toronto and Vancouver, describe U of T as ‘too Asian,’ and — as comments on social media have revealed — consider The Varsity’s new Chinese edition to be a threat to English speakers.

This contradictory attitude toward Asia can be explained by the connection between the cultural and the economic. Where we materially gain, we embrace the multicultural trope; where we lose, we express contempt for all things cultural. While the rise of Asian economies is regarded as a capitalist miracle, Asia is simultaneously vilified for ‘stealing our jobs’ and outcompeting the west.

This double-edged sword of globalization has a history — one in which Asia is an ever-evolving abstraction in the Canadian imagination.

Recently at the Munk School of Global Affairs, Professor Iyko Day of Mount Holyoke College presented her work, Alien Capital: Asian Racialization and the Logic of Settler Colonial Capitalism, in which she explains the evolution of the Asian-North-American in the context of settler-colonial capitalism.

Day argues that Asian bodies are racialized as a negative consequence of capitalism. In the era of the Canadian ‘Yellow Peril’ of the late 19th to 20th century, Asian immigrants

were regarded as invaders that posed a threat to the romantic image of Canada as home of the European settler — which was not only xenophobic, but simultaneously erased Indigenous history.

Chinese labourers, who built the railways on the west coast, were defined by their cheap and efficient bodies. The very basis of their exploitation, however, was simultaneously a threat to the settler construction of ‘Canadian.’

Thus, acts of exclusion, such as the Chinese head tax, were implemented right after the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed and the government had profited from that labour.

The erasure of Asia continued into the 20th century with the Japanese internment camps during World War II. Fast forward to more recent history, and Day demonstrates a new but equally negative reality for the Asian body. Economic success has reconstructed Asians as the “New Jews” — a group in an international conspiracy of financial and economic power that poses a threat to the west. Nonetheless, there is a positive public relations spin to this conception. Spurred by the influx of professional, skilled immigrants in recent decades, the ‘model minority’ image has emerged to associate Asian culture with success.

The ways in which we both hold contempt for and praise Asians as the ‘model minority’ have problematic consequences for Asians themselves. ‘Asians’ are stripped of their individualities: they are homogenized as a singular idea, even though Asia is constituted of a plethora of diverging cultures and experiences.

This pattern of giving meaning to broad cultural categories is criticized by Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang, who recently

spoke at University College. Chang explored how, over the course of 150 years, groups once labelled as “lazy Japanese” and “degraded Koreans” were somehow ‘transformed’ into economically developed peoples.

Though culturalists attribute the successes of East Asian cultures to Confucianism, Chang pointed out that the very same cultures were previously used to explain the underdevelopment of peoples. Therefore, all cultures purportedly have qualities that are conducive and inhibitive to economic development, and institutions and policies that shape economies also cannot be ignored.

Attributing certain qualities to certain groups just because they appear to fit modern realities is misguided.

Simultaneously, this western cultural gaze of classification is used to denigrate communities seen to lack development.

Constructions of the smart, well-behaved, model minority Asian are used to justify denigrating other racialized migrants in Canada, while the ‘failures’ of Africa or the Middle East are attributed, again, to inherent cultural difference.

Today, the presence of Asian people in Canada continues to incite fears of economic uncertainties surrounding unaffordable housing, job dislocation, and stagnant wages for the settler Canadian. At the same time, those who do not fit this preconception may be dismissed as ‘failed Asians,’ associated not with economic success, but with terror, war, and poverty.

Even the academic experience at U of T reflects this by justifying the culturaleconomic logic of the ‘model Asian’ while demarcating who is permitted to fall within this stereotype. The Contemporary Asian Studies (CAS) program focuses only on East,

Southeast, and South Asia, regions that promise innovation, growth, and influence.

West Asia and the Middle East are left out of CAS, and they are instead studied separately in the Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations program.

We can expose and challenge the faulty logic of the western imagination of Asia by looking to flipped narratives. For instance, the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims being perpetrated by Burmese people in Myanmar demonstrates that Muslims are not necessarily violent and Buddhists are not necessarily peaceful. As protesters in Toronto and elsewhere call for the stripping of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary Canadian citizenship, we should understand that those we consider the model minority — locally and globally — do not always fit the cultural tropes with which we associate them.

Human beings are contradictory, complex, and cannot be boxed into scripts we create for them. The people who inhabit Asia — like people everywhere — are capable of both peace and violence, both prosperity and stagnation.

Globalization has blurred the line between the cultural and economic, and the flow of capital, labour, and bodies has produced legitimate anxieties about the redistribution of wealth. However, directing these anxieties toward abstract identities distracts us from unjust economic structures, and it pits peoples against each other. Challenging misconceived notions of Asia means understanding individual human experiences to find space for solidarity.

Ibnul Chowdhury is a third-year student at Trinity College studying Economics and Peace, Conflict and Justice. He is an Associate Comment Editor at The Varsity.

Editorial

October 16, 2017 var.st/comment editorial@thevarsity.ca

Allegations against Trinity are enough to give us pause

Public Editor

An investigation into the college’s Dean’s office is a necessary step in the face of mounting allegations

Reporting on the forum on social inequality News reports must include all relevant facts

Sophie Borwein Public Editor

DIANA PHAM/THE VARSITY

The Varsity Editorial Board

Following a resounding vote of no confidence towards Trinity College’s Office of the Dean of Students on September 25, students at the college have sent a letter to the Board of Trustees requesting an investigation into a series of allegations.

The letter, penned by Chair of the Trinity College Meeting (TCM) Leila Martin, lists five damning allegations. It accuses the office of mismanaging drug and alcohol abuse cases; of mismanaging the disciplinary process; of unilaterally altering the structure of the residence readmission committee, thus permitting the return to residence of a student facing sexual assault allegations; and of mishandling sexual assault cases themselves. It also accuses the office of actively putting a student in harm’s way by wrongfully turning him over to the campus police and failing to intervene when the student was allegedly assaulted.

While all allegations listed are unproven, the letter rightly states that their severity should be “enough to give us pause.” They should also be enough to warrant an investigation into the office’s conduct. If these numerous allegations are true, they represent a grave failure on the part of the Dean’s office, and an immediate need for reform.

The Dean’s office purports to foster the well-being and success of Trinity students. It is mandated to do so by working with student leaders, overseeing residence admissions, and most of all, ensuring that students receive sufficient resources and support from the college with regard to non-academic life.

The allegations listed in the TCM’s letter suggest that the office has failed to fulfill these duties.

In April 2017, Trinity College student Tamsyn Riddle filed a human rights application against the University of Toronto and Trinity College claiming that they mishandled her sexual assault case. She alleged that the investigation into her case was “disorganized and delayed,” only to end abruptly when the Dean’s office told her that an agreement

had been reached between the school and the alleged perpetrator — without any input from Riddle herself.

The fallout of this has fostered a sense of distrust among students now skeptical of the office’s ability to support them, and rightly so. In cases as severe as sexual violence, alleged mishandlings are deeply concerning — especially from the office that was primarily responsible for Riddle’s safety and for resolving her case, given that U of T’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Centre did not exist at the time.

While an important function of the administration is to ensure the safety of its constituents, Riddle’s allegations, as well as those of Co-Head of Trinity Bardia Monavari, suggest that the opposite has occurred in practice.

Monavari was allegedly turned over to Campus Police by the Dean of Students Office in the aftermath of a residence party he apparently had no involvement in. He claims to have been assaulted by the campus police — shoved from behind, his hands placed behind his back after he refused to give the officers his name — while the Assistant Deans of Students watched without interfering.

We should be concerned not only by the gravity of an allegation like this, but by the considerable number of students that came out to stand by it. Out of the 221 students present at the TCM, 209 students voted in favour of the motion of no confidence. In the letter, Martin called this the “largest TCM in history.”

Trinity students will know that such consensus is rare when deliberating on large-scale matters. In 2014, the TCM found themselves divided over motions to strip the TCM constitution of references to “Men and Women of College” and to desegregate the end-of-year TCM. The motions intended to expand the constitution’s recognition of gender identity to include those who do not fit into binary ‘male’ or ‘female’ gender roles. Both motions failed in secret ballot votes.

Such division only highlights contrasting instances of near-unanimity. If there’s one thing the attendees of the TCM can

currently agree on, it’s their lack of confidence in the Dean of Students Office. The students who have worked to make their concerns heard should be applauded for their efforts and their willingness to confront the administration.

What is also concerning is that the office has yet to publicly acknowledge its constituents’ concerns. When asked to comment on Monavari’s allegations, the office released a cursory statement to The Varsity listing safety as a top priority for the college, and refused to comment further. Over two weeks have passed since the alleged incident, and the only substantial commentary from the administration has been from Provost Mayo Moran, who placed a suspension on alcohol-licensed events at Trinity effective Thursday, October 12, citing concerns for safety.

That an administration is not willing to engage with students following an instance like this is untenable for maintaining a successful relationship with the body it is supposed to represent.

The gravity of the allegations make it all the more necessary for the students’ demands for accountability to be granted.

An investigation is a necessary course of action to ensure that the administration takes these issues seriously and to rebuild the currently broken relationship between the students and administration at Trinity. The investigation ought to be administered by the Trinity Provost so as to ensure that its recommendations are followed. Moran herself has a wealth of experience with handling matters of sexual violence on campus: over the course of 18 months, she led the expert panel for the University of Toronto’s sexual violence policy, meeting with students, faculty, and staff in order to draft recommendations for the policy.

What is at stake here is the well-being of students — something that the administration must, as a matter of duty, take responsibility for. To sit idly by without action is to alienate students and, worse, to jeopardize their well-being. An investigation is a step in the right direction for an administration apparently headed the wrong way.

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

At the Keith Davey Forum on Public Affairs on October 4, I watched from the audience as students took to the stage in protest. They voiced concern about the panel’s diversity, and the event’s title: “Social Inequality: Is it a Real Problem? Can it be Solved?” By asking this question, they said, event organizers were trivializing the lived realities of marginalized communities.

The panel was organized by the Department of Political Science, the Association of Political Science Students (APSS), and Victoria University, and was originally advertised as a conversation between Head of Massey College Hugh Segal, National Post columnist Andrew Coyne, and moderator Stephen LeDrew.

I was in the audience for personal reasons — as someone who studies income inequality in Canada in her own work, but also as a PhD student in the Department of Political Science, and as a Junior Fellow (now alumna) of Massey College.

So I want to be clear: I am not a detached observer of Wednesday’s events, and I’ve been watching the coverage of the event and social media commentary with greater interest than I likely would otherwise. Please keep these caveats in mind.

I also want to be clear that, as Public Editor, it is not my place to share my opinions on the controversy in these pages. But it is my place to highlight when The Varsity falls short of principles in its Code of Journalistic Ethics.

The Varsity first reported on the panel and protest in a story posted on its website the same evening as the panel. By the next day, several readers had commented to me that they did not feel the article told the full story. I think they were fair in their criticisms.

The Varsity’s Code of Journalistic Ethics states that journalists must report the news fairly. Fairness, it states, “is a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report.”

Yet none of the views of the panelists or organizers on the controversy — with the exception of those of the APSS, who distanced themselves from the event — were included in the story.

It was not until two days later — October 6 — that The Varsity addressed those concerns in a follow-up story.

This second story quoted Chair of the Political Science Department Antoinette Handley’s opening remarks at the event. As the reporter wrote, Handley began the event with a blunt admission that the panel’s title was poorly expressed. “Let me assure you”, she said, “it was never the intention of the organizers to cast doubt on the existence of social inequality or to trivialize it in any way. And yet I completely understand that that is precisely the reading that this framing of the question opens itself up to.”

Instead, Handley said, the organizers wanted to pose a question about the relationship between social and economic inequality. She went on to draw examples from her home country of South Africa, a place where, she pointed out, inequality is deeply racialized and gendered, and health outcomes are closely linked to poverty.

The follow-up story also importantly included comments from panelist Hugh Segal. This matters because Segal’s participation on the panel had been a point of controversy, following on the heels of a recent incident where a senior member of Massey made a racially offensive remark to a Black member of the College.

As the second story reported, The Varsity used the panel’s question period to ask Segal about social inequality at the college, and how he was responding to the incident of anti-Black racism.

Read the rest online at var.st/forum

The Holocaust, revisited

A student explores the resurgence of neo-Nazism and the future of Holocaust education Article and photos by Reut Cohen

Some things are too big for the mind to grasp. I often had this thought in my astronomy class last year while our professors tried to explain concepts like time dilation and special relativity. I could recite the facts back, but trying to hold everything together in my mind proved difficult.

Maybe it was the vastness of it. I spend a lot of time at university analyzing comparatively minute things, like the formulation of American foreign policy, or the way wage rates affect GDP. Switching tracks to learning about how black holes affect space-time, the composition of our universe, and the lifespan of our Sun requires a different mindset.

When I think about it, it’s not only in physics that I’ve had this experience. I’ve had similar experiences when it comes to studying war as well. I feel so tremendously privileged to live in a country that has experienced so little bloodshed, where few of us will ever understand what it is like to live a life in turmoil, what it’s like to be displaced or be a refugee.

Six million: the number of Jews that perished in the Holocaust. Some things are too big for the mind to grasp.

MY VISIT TO POLAND

12

I spent 11 hours of September 27 in Warsaw, Poland, a stopover on the way to visit family for the High Holidays.

Half my ancestry is Polish, but the country had never been fascinating to me. It wasn’t as exotic or forbidden as Iran, where the other half of my family is from. Poland brought to mind images of death and decay — it was a place we were lucky to have left behind.

In 1933, Poland had the largest Jewish population of any European country, estimated to be over three million. By 1950, this number had shrunk to approximately 45,000. Jewish life had been razed.

Jews returning to Poland after the war were unable to reconstruct their lives. Their property had been looted, destroyed, or in some cases taken over by non-Jews who had no intention of returning anything. Much of the property left standing was nationalized by the incoming communist regime.

Restitution experts estimate that the combined value of Jewish property in Poland that was stolen during the war exceeds $1 billion USD. Over 5,000 claims have been filed since the creation of a 1997 law regarding restitution, and the majority of them are still unsolved. Poland has only recently announced national legislative plans for restitution.

So this was where my family had fled, all those years ago.

And there I was, nearly a century later, just passing through.

One of the first stops we made was to the remnants of the walls that had contained the Warsaw ghetto. After Poland was occupied by the Nazis, they forced Jews living in Warsaw and its surrounding neighbourhoods to move into one city quarter.

The ghetto contained over 400,000 Jews, living in an area of 3.4 square kilometers. The ghetto was unsanitary and under-supplied with food rations, causing over 80,000 to die of starvation and disease.

Between July 22 and September 12, 1942, the Nazis murdered or deported 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. Of those, 265,000 were sent to the gas chambers of Treblinka. The Umschlagplatz — German for ‘collection point’ or ‘reloading

point’ — was the holding pen where Jews were taken before being loaded onto a train not far from the ghetto walls.

The memorial to the Jews who were taken from here to be killed is a simple, open structure that was built to resemble a train car. The stone is inscribed with the 400 most common Polish-Jewish first names. Easily, I found my father and brother’s names, as well as those of many family members and friends.

What made seeing the Umschlagplatz especially surreal was its location on what is now an ordinary street corner. Pedestrians were passing by all around us, on their way to work and school, and yet when I closed my eyes I could picture the trains, the lines of emaciated ghetto residents, the tearful goodbyes.

The ghetto’s remaining Jews had formed a resistance effort and had begun to organize paramilitary groups. Most of the residents moved into hiding places or bunkers that had been constructed by the resistance. When the Nazis moved to completely deport the ghetto’s surviving inhabitants in April 1943, they were met with the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the largest of similar uprisings that took place in ghettos across Europe.

One bunker, the headquarters of the Jewish Combat Organization, still remains at Vlica Míta 18. After the Nazis threw tear gas into the bunker to force out the fighters, many of the fighters committed suicide by ingesting poison rather than surrendering. The bodies of an estimated 100 fighters remain there in the bunker, not exhumed after the war, under a small hill next to some apartment buildings and a post office. The inscription of their memorial reads, in part: “Here they rest, buried where they fell, to remind us that the whole earth is their grave.”

Another of the sites I visited on my day in Warsaw was the Nożyk Synagogue, the only Jewish building of worship in the city to survive the war. As I sat in the pews of the main sanctuary, the hair on the back of my neck began to prickle.

Something was coming over me, and I felt tears forming in my eyes. The room was empty, but there were so many ghosts.

Maybe in another life, I would have prayed here. But then again, maybe in another life, I wouldn’t have been here at all.

HOLOCAUST REVISIONISM The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) defines Holocaust revisionism as attempts to minimize, distort, or deny the historical reality of the Holocaust, whether through discourse or propaganda. It comes in many forms: denying the existence of mechanisms of genocide like the gas chambers and killing squads, suggesting that the Jews played a role in their own destruction, or alleging that Jews use the Holocaust as an emotional trump card to make political or economic gains. It is also inherently an expression of antiSemitism.

‘Revisionist’ is a term used in historiography that often refers to breaking from orthodox interpretations of history.

However, Holocaust revisionism is different than other types of revisionist history because in the case of the Holocaust, the perpetrating countries have acknowledged their actions and sought reconciliation with victims.

Holocaust denial made it to the big screen last year in the form of the film Denial, starring Rachel Weisz. The film is based on the true story of a libel lawsuit that was brought against Deborah Lipstadt, a historian of the Holocaust, by David Irving, a once-respected historian whose reputation was tarnished by his embrace of Holocaust revisionism. Irving came to believe that the gas chambers were a myth, and that Jews had fabricated the details of the Holocaust to extract reparations from Germany after the state of Israel was created in 1948.

Irving didn’t deny that Jews had died during the war, but he disputed the details of the killing process. Because the United Kingdom’s libel laws place the burden of proof on the defendant, Lipstadt was forced to prove the facts of the Holocaust — including that it happened on purpose.

If you ever need to be reminded of the darker side of humanity, I invite you to scroll down to the comment section of any website or video that has anything to do with Jews. Denial’s trailer is no exception. On the one hand, the movie is an inspiring story of the triumph of truth over lies — on the other hand, just below, there are comments that routinely receive hundreds of likes.

“Another holohoax movie…”

“20 trillion Jews died to bring us this documentary.”

“The one event in history you’re not allowed to question or you’ll go to jail....tells you all you need to know about the veracity of the Holocaust.”

A RESURGENCE

A tribute to the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

During my years in Jewish day school, Holocaust survivors were brought in to speak to us several times. My own friends’ grandparents had stories and tattoos. It never would or could have occurred to me to question the reality of the Holocaust, because its effects were everywhere.

We live in a very emotional world, where people are affected not by memorizing lists of names and dates — this many Jews were deported here, this many were buried in unmarked graves there — but by understanding how history has affected others. While there is no way any of us will ever be able to fully grasp the personal impact of the Holocaust on its victims and survivors, hearing testimony and first-hand accounts of deportation, displacement, and genocide can give us insight into the terrible evils that were faced during the war years.

But it’s been 72 years. Survivors are no longer around in the numbers they once were, and most of those who are still alive experienced the Holocaust as children. Holocaust educators are facing a challenge: how to continue the legacy of testimony when there are no longer any witnesses alive?

We throw phrases like ‘post-truth’ and ‘fake news’ around constantly. To many, including the characters that populate the White House, truth appears to be more malleable than ever before. “I am very worried that there is a general sentiment out there that you have your facts, I have my facts, and whoever yells loudest wins,” said Lipstadt herself in a January interview with The Guardian.

The public resurgence of neo-Nazism that we have witnessed over the last couple of years is not new, but part of a

A mural of Marek Edelman, a Polish-Jewish activist.

The memorial atop the Vlica Míta 18 bunker.

very old story. The protests that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia this past summer, where neo-Nazis marched in the streets with torches, chanting “Jews will not replace us,” and President Trump’s subsequent remarks that there were “very fine people” on both sides, led some survivors to speak out on what they viewed as a reminiscent normalization of antiSemitic rhetoric.

Alan Zimmerman, the President of Charlottesville synagogue Congregation Beth Israel, would later recall the harrowing scene of Nazis marching with swastika flags outside his synagogue, yelling “Sieg Heil,” and “There’s the synagogue!”

After the local police department had refused to provide even one officer to help secure the synagogue during morning services, Zimmerman stood outside with a privately hired security guard for half an hour while three men dressed in fatigues and carrying semi-automatic rifles stood across the street. “Had they tried to enter, I don’t know what I could have done to stop them,” Zimmerman wrote for ReformJudaism. org. This should not be happening in 2017.

My intention is not to cause unnecessary alarm, nor is it to warn of an impending second Holocaust. “During the National Socialist era in Germany, the persecution of Jews and other minorities was carried out with the support of the state… this condition of being systematic, bureaucratic and statesponsored is what differentiates the past from today,” Dr. Carson Phillips, Managing Director of the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, wrote in an email to The Varsity.

“That does not mean that we ignore hateful rhetoric, rather that we double down and increase our commitment to educational efforts, nurture our democratic and civil society institutions, and provide students with the skills they need to combat intolerance and hateful rhetoric,” Phillips continued.

We must fight back against the increasing boldness of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, and part of this includes refusing to negotiate the facts of history.

Holocaust educators have been working to preserve the oral history of the Holocaust using new methods. “Making the personal oral histories of Holocaust survivors accessible to students as well as the general public continues to be a top priority for the Neuberger [centre],” said Phillips.

These new initiatives include collections of over 1,200 testimonies recorded in Canada, access points to the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, and a pilot project called New Dimensions in Testimony, which will use advanced filming techniques and audio recognition software to allow visitors to engage directly with a holographic projection of a survivor. “In this second pilot program, which runs through to the end of January 2018, students and visitors can ask questions and receive individualized responses from the recorded testimony of four Holocaust survivors,” Phillips explained.

In April 2017, Lipstadt delivered a TED Talk called “Behind the lies of Holocaust denial.” She concluded it by saying, “Truth and fact are under assault. The job ahead of us, the task ahead of us, the challenge ahead of us is great. The time to fight is short. We must act now. Later will be too late.”

For weeks now, my thoughts have been occupied by the bunker at Vlica Míta 18 and the stones placed on top of the memorial by visitors in accordance with Jewish tradition.

Several stones had been painted with the words of Hannah Szenes, a young woman who was recruited by Zionist paramilitary forces to parachute into Hungary to aid anti-Nazi efforts.

Szenes was captured within hours of stepping onto Hungarian soil, tortured, convicted of espionage, and killed by firing squad. She was also a poet, and her words on the stones at Vlica Míta 18, where her co-religionists had also fought and died fighting against great evil, read: “There is only one thing that can not be defended against, and that is apathy.”

This year’s Holocaust Education Week will take place from November 2–9. For more information, visit holocaustcentre. com/HEW.

Images outside the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

13

Arts&Culture

October 16, 2017 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

How SoundCloud inspired the Toronto sound Despite its troubles, the streaming service is essential to a new generation of artists and listeners

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

William Shepherd Varsity Contributor

Although I wouldn't recommend asking me if I enjoy reading while 50 pages deep into a sociology textbook, my life wouldn’t be the same without books. They’ve made me laugh, they've made me cry, and they've taught me to think independently — to critique and celebrate others’ perspectives and ideas.

Until about 600 years ago, however, unless you were a nobleman’s son or a celibate monk, you were flat out of luck. Anyone not belonging to an elite class would have been denied access to the stories and histories that are central to our culture today and remained illiterate and ignorant.

This continued until Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1450 and catalyzed the spread of knowledge, history, and mythology across the western world by making books easily reproducible, no longer requiring the labour of individual scribes. The wisdom of great writers who might only have been known to a select few before were now introduced to the public, allowing people to think about their lives in new ways and produce their own work, inspired by those who came before.

For so long, music was like a book in the 14th century: costly to produce, hard to acquire, and exclusive by nature. For example, in the 1980s and ’90s, most hip-hop and rap music came from either New York or Los Angeles. The infamous east coast/west coast beef generated tons of hype and musical pressure — almost like an evolutionary force, it made beats more inventive, lyrical flows more clever, and rivalries more intense as artists tried to stay ahead of the game.

In order to gain ground in the music scene, you had to have a lot of talent, but more importantly a lot of luck. You had to be in the right place at the right time in order to get noticed by a large record company whose resources would allow you to produce and publicize your music. Becoming a musical idol was a rare thing, and so many talented artists fell through the cracks.

Enter platforms like SoundCloud, which are dedicated to the sharing of music and have changed the game by allowing music creation to be organic. Aspiring artists no longer have to put life on hold to hustle in the hopes of making it. These days, all you have to do to be noticed is put a little effort into a track, upload it, and let people come to you. Musicians like Post Malone and Kygo have found fame by publishing their work on the web. But Toronto has felt the benefits of the SoundCloud age like no other.

SoundCloud and the Toronto sound Odds are, if you’re up-to-date with contemporary genres like trap and new-school R&B, your musical library contains the likes of NAV, Majid Jordan, and Roy Wood$. These artists, who now have deals with labels like XO and OVO, may seem as though they started out as big names, but most didn’t.

NAV, whose musical feature on one of Kylie Jenner’s Snapchat stories made him go viral, started off making tracks at home in Rexdale, posting songs like “Myself” and ‘The Mission” on the internet for fun.

Majid Jordan, an R&B duo comprised of Majid Al Maskati and Jordan Ullman, got their start by making music in Ullman’s dorm room at U of T, publishing songs on Sound-

Cloud under the alias Good People before a friend of Noah “40” Shebib, Drake’s main producer, pointed them out. The two didn’t need huge record deals for people to start appreciating their talent — they released quality music, and aficionados pushed them to the top by sharing and retweeting SoundCloud links or throwing their music on a party playlist. The record labels came later.

These artists, who have both been inspired by and inspire the likes of Drake and The Weeknd, have come together to form a sound that is uniquely Torontonian. The organic sharing of feelings and moods has created a sound that is often lonely, spacey, and soulful, filled with gorgeous synths, murky chords ,and crooning melodies capturing the joys and insecurities of a younger generation.

While visiting Shayan Abedi, an artist based in the Greater Toronto Area who goes by the performance name Cyrus, I was struck by the importance of this organic sharing and emotional connection to the Toronto sound.

Looking at his ‘studio,’ you might not be impressed. It’s a half-lit basement with a lone table that holds only a MacBook and a microphone. Not glamorous, but as Abedi fiddled with his laptop, I could almost hear the gears turning in his head. This is how music should be — organic, grassroots, and easy for someone with good beats to share with millions.

The future of SoundCloud Recently, SoundCloud has fallen on hard times. Troubles with the monetization of the service have plagued it for years, resulting in mass layoffs this past summer. In a bid to bring in more money, SoundCloud signed deals with record labels like Universal and

Sony to charge a monthly subscription fee in exchange for streaming tracks by more mainstream artists. Monthly subscriptions, though, can be an obstacle to the freedom of use that makes SoundCloud so popular — the question of where to get the money needed to run a service like this invariably comes up.

SoundCloud’s business model must transform, perhaps to one similar to that of YouTube. Click on a video from YouTube’s front page and you’ll likely be faced with an advertisement for cornflakes, basketball shoes, or anything else that might entice a viewer. If you host content that attracts traffic, advertisers will pay for a spot.

This might work just as well with music as it does with video, seeing as SoundCloud boasts a whopping 150 million registered users and 175 million monthly listeners.

Spotify, by comparison, has only 100 million registered users. It’s clear that money is there for the taking — while SoundCloud cannot continue to offer music from bigger artists due to its current financial limitations, the numbers show that the creative diversity already on offer should be more than enough to compensate.

Find a business strategy that taps into this immense advertising potential and rewards artists for popular, original content, and you’ve found a goose that lays golden eggs.

Whether SoundCloud can learn from its financial mistakes is unclear. What is clear, however, is that the grassroots approach to making and sharing music works, and it must continue to allow young artists the chance to express themselves.

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Meghan Markle is more than just royal arm candy Let's treat the actress and humanitarian accordingly Lauren Dubay Varsity Contributor

A quick Google search for actress and humanitarian Meghan Markle results in a bombardment of DailyMail and BuzzFeed articles covering her relationship with Prince Harry, her clothing choices, and her workout regimen. During the recent Invictus Games that were held here in Toronto, articles that mentioned Markle mostly focused on her outfit at the games or the excitement of sighting her with the prince.

Like the rest of the world, I can’t help but be slightly envious of Markle’s fairytale-like love life and beauty. But I am even more enamoured with her work both on- and off-screen.

In the popular television series Suits, Markle plays the hardworking paralegal Rachel Zane, who has an incredible drive to help others through her work. It’s clear that Markle shares these traits with her character, because she dedicates much of her free time to working with a number of humanitarian organizations on a variety of projects worldwide.

As a feminist, it makes me cringe when a woman as talented and successful as Markle is recognized only by virtue of her connection to a famous or successful man. Since the start of her relationship with the hunky Prince Harry last year, you’d be hard-pressed to come across an article about her that doesn't include a mention of her relationship. Markle was the subject of the cover story of Vanity Fair’s October edition. The words plastered across the front page:

“She’s Just Wild About Harry!”

While I found the piece to be a well-written and entertaining read, its focus was less on Markle and more on the royal family. Her humanitarian efforts were alluded to a few times through small details about her recent trips overseas, and the article did refer to her as a philanthropist a few times. Yet there was no mention of her recent accomplishments in the 2016 World Vision Clean Water campaign in Rwanda or her piece in TIME regarding menstruation health in areas such as India, Iran, and sub-Saharan Africa. These endeavours are impressive and require a great deal of dedication, intelligence, and hard work. They should have been a main topic of conversation in the interview. Vanity Fair received backlash for this reason, and rightfully so.

In a speech addressing the United Nations in 2015, Markle related a story about her advocating for women’s rights at just 11 years old: she wrote letters to Proctor & Gamble and Hillary Clinton addressing a soap advertisement that implied that women were meant to stay in the home, cleaning. The ad was later altered to eliminate the sexist implication. This anecdote demonstrates the power of Markle’s social advocacy and humanitarianism, which are an integral part of who she is. The career she has built for herself in this field should be discussed and celebrated more often in media coverage.

Markle went on to attend Northwestern University for both theatre and international relations, combining both her passions. There, she gained the skills to both act on television

IRIS DENG/THE VARSITY

and film as well as to take on roles such as Global Ambassador for World Vision Canada, UN Women advocate, and One Young World Summit counsellor.

Those of us near the end of our undergraduate careers often find ourselves evaluating what we want in life, what we want to accomplish, and to what we want to dedicate our work. Being able to look up to hardworking and accomplished women such as Markle, who use their voices to better the world with strength and poise, can provide clarity and

motivation in this confusing and intimidating time in our lives.

When I’m up to my knees in assignments and grad school applications, and I feel like tossing in the towel, it’s Markle and women like her who inspire me to move forward. Not because of her royal boyfriend, but because of her hard work and accomplishments in the entertainment industry and as someone working to make the world a better place.

RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS THAT MATTER TO YOU TODAY Healthy ecosystems, healthy cities

Litigation and justice in Late Imperial China

Thursday, October 19, 2017 Location: Room AA160 | Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm

Thursday, February 8, 2018 Location: Room AA160 | Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm

Professor Marc Cadotte

Professor Li Chen

Dilution is not a pollution solution

Skimming the surface, but not superficially: Atmospheric chemistry at interfaces

Thursday, November 16, 2017 Location: Room AA160 | Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm Professor Frank Wania

Thursday, March 1, 2018 Location: Room AA160 | Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm Professor Jamie Donaldson

Against self-control

Rabbits vs. Foxes: Who will win?

Thursday, December 7, 2017 Location: Room AA160 | Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm

Thursday, March 22, 2018 Location: Room AA160 | Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm

Professor Michael Inzlicht

Professor Lisa Jeffrey

Mental illness and the brain: Research implications for detection and treatment of borderline personality disorder Thursday, January 25, 2018 Location: Room AA160 | Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm Professor Anthony Ruocco

For more information visit: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/research/events

16 • THE VARSITY • ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

Time is running out for Harvey Weinstein and his ilk The producer's recent scandal is representative of an endemic problem in Hollywood John Shutt Varsity Contributor

The story sounds like one out of the kind of award-winning film that Harvey Weinstein has been known to put out: a powerful Hollywood executive is brought down by a bombshell article claiming he sexually assaulted and harassed legions of women who had worked with and for him.

Unfortunately for Weinstein, this is not one of his prestigious projects with A-list stars signing on. It is a disturbing, real-life scandal that has turned him, as one of the industry’s most respected moguls, into a media pariah.

Ever since a New York Times investigation published on October 5 revealed over three decades of previously undisclosed incidents of Weinstein’s sexual harassment and abuses of power over women, Hollywood has been roiling with fury and disgust. Five days later, The New Yorker published a similar investigation that contained a damning audio recording, captured during a New York Police Department sting operation, of Weinstein admitting to groping model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez.

The 65-year-old producer, known for his fiery temper, has since been fired from his selfnamed company, which he founded in 2005 with his brother Bob following their departure from formerly Disney-owned Miramax.

The elites of Hollywood, from George Clooney to Angelina Jolie, have been turning their backs against Weinstein, and others have come out with stories of similar encounters.

Among his accusers are actresses Gwyneth

Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Kate Beckinsale, and Rose McGowan.

McGowan in particular has been blunt about the mogul’s illicit activities. Through her Twitter account, the former Charmed star refused to mince words, claiming that Weinstein raped her at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. Other allegations made by the dozens of women who have come forward include similar elements: Weinstein demanding the women massage him, watch him shower, or undress him.

The allegations against Weinstein have already triggered accusations against other stars. After Ben Affleck released a statement condemning Weinstein, other women came forward accusing Affleck himself of sexual harassment. Actress Hilarie Burton brought up an incident in which Affleck groped her on a 2003 appearance on MTV’s Total Request Live, while makeup artist Annamarie Tendler accused Affleck of groping her at a 2014 Golden Globes party.

As disturbing as these allegations are in our progressive era, this is only the tip of the iceberg with regard to a trend that has sadly been far too prevalent in the film industry and society in general: the abuse of power that executives, mostly male, can impose on their employees, whether those are movie stars or interns.

Despite these incidents occurring over a period of 30 years, they are only now being revealed to the public. This is not only because Weinstein’s accusers were unable to disclose the incidents at the time, but also because so many enabled him and turned a

blind eye to his behaviour, whether it was his former partners at Disney or the numerous stars and filmmakers with whom he developed strong working relationships, such as Affleck and director Quentin Tarantino.

Sadly, this has only enabled Weinstein and others of his ilk to use their authority to control women. They feel invincible thanks to their success, and they feel that nothing can bring them down. Prolific comedy director Judd Apatow agreed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that abuse is common in the industry and that many don’t realize this mistreatment immediately. “Young actresses are mistreated in all sorts of ways by powerful men who can dangle jobs or access to exciting parts of show business,” said Apatow. Putting their livelihoods at risk, he explained, is the reason Weinstein has been able to “operate like this for so many decades.”

One of the worst aspects of this scandal is that it has been par for the course in Hollywood since the Golden Age of the studio system in the 1930s and ’40s, when studio moguls such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Louis B Mayer and 20th Century Fox’s Daryl F Zanuck were notorious for giving promising female stars coveted roles in exchange for sex.

Marilyn Monroe was once quoted as saying, “I’ve slept with producers... If you didn’t go along, there were 25 girls who would.”

It is disheartening that an industry known for its progressiveness in technology and filmmaking, and one that brings us joy and entertainment, has not changed in terms of its treatment of vulnerable women. Beckinsale is right to call Weinstein “an emblem of

a system that is sick.”

In order for there to be a real shift in how women in Hollywood are treated, the circle of silence and denial will need to end. It is not just the victims who will need to be brave and speak out — it is also crucial for those who have stood on the sidelines and enabled this behaviour to come forward and end these abuses of power. To those executives who have committed sins akin to Weinstein's, I hope you are ready for what’s to come, because your time is running out.

Harvey Weinstein.

NICK STEPOWYJ/CC FLICKR

Victoria College Dramatic Society celebrates its centennial Theatre organization commemorates milestone with a seasonal focus on Canadian heritage Annika Olsen Varsity Contributor

The Victoria College Drama Society (VCDS) is celebrating its centennial season by focusing on bringing the works of Victoria University and University of Toronto alumni to life. Since its founding as the first drama society of Victoria University in 1918, the VCDS has developed into a platform that strives to provide the experience of drama to U of T community members of all disciplines, ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds.

The selection of plays for the centennial season leans heavily on drama, exploring the development of Canadian heritage and the meaning of a uniquely Canadian identity.

Leora Nash, one of the VCDS’ two Executive Producers, told The Varsity that the idea to focus on a celebration of Canadian theatre and its relevant themes came alongside the Canada 150 celebrations this past summer.

Nash and co-Executive Producer Alyssa DiBattista began planning the centennial last year.

Of the many diverse play proposals submitted by potential directors, Colours in the Storm, written by Jim Betts and directed

by Shannon Dunbar, was chosen to kick off the season on October 19. The musical follows Tom Thomson and his struggles as a painter, from his debut in Algonquin Park

to his mysterious death. The show focuses not only on an "iconic" Canadian artist, wrote Nash, "but also looks at the evolution of conservation... and the beginnings of what we might consider some of Canada's iconography (lush nature, outdoors)."

Contrasting with Colours of the Storm, which inhabits a more traditional perspective on Canadian identity, the play Lady in the Red Dress will display a more contemporary representation of our culture. Written by David Yee and directed by Jasmine Cabanilla, the play is a modern-day noir unfolding within the context of the Chinese-Canadian redress movement. “[It] comments on the state of diversity and inaction in our history,” Nash stated.

The season will also include a production of Bob Martin and Don McKellar's musical The Drowsy Chaperone, a parody of American musical comedies centring on the wedding of an oil tycoon and a Broadway star. Despite the show being a late addition to the season, Nash believes that it complements the other selections well, as it embraces a classical musical spirit. The final production of the VCDS’ 2017–2018 season will be a production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the first production ever put on by the society.

Nash stated that the VCDS is "very proud" to be including so much Canadian theatre in

Photocap. PHOTOCRED/THE VARSITY

The VCDS will open its season on October 19 with Colours in the Storm. AIDAN CURRIE/THE VARSITY

its season. The group has also been working in conjunction with Victoria University alumni on outreach efforts, including advertising, and on a centennial subcommittee focusing on planning and event logistics. A closing

gala, to be held in March, will honour both alumni and current students involved in the VCDS and Victoria University theatre.

Science

October 16, 2017 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

How I applied for medical school A recent applicant gets down to the nitty-gritty of the application process

FIONA TUNG/THE VARSITY

Matthew Veitch Varsity Contributor

“I want to be a doctor.”

If this applies to you, then you may have been among the thousands of people who had the pleasure of going through the grueling and exhausting process of applying to medical school.

The deadline for the Ontario Medical School Application Service (OMSAS) application passed only a couple of weeks ago on October 2.

I can only imagine all of the scrambling that must have happened as the deadline approached. The deadline last year was October 1, so I’m guessing they gave an extra day this year just for the procrastinators.

Don’t take that to mean that some people are submitting their application at the last moment just because of laziness or a lack of organization. The OMSAS application is no joke. But it goes beyond

simply sending in your transcripts to medical schools along with a letter about why you want to be a doctor. In fact, it can take years of planning, hard work, and dedication.

The application really starts when you have decided you want to be a doctor. From that point on, you have to study hard to get a high GPA, prepare for and write the MCAT — and rewrite the MCAT — enlist yourself in a variety of volunteer, extracurricular, and research activities, and ask for letters of recommendation. Actually writing and filling out the application can be quite challenging as well.

It starts off with simple personal information questions like your date of birth, citizenship status, and where you lived while attending high school. Though they may have been trying to ease us into the application with these early questions, it made me uneasy when I applied that where I lived dur-

ing my high school years wasn’t going to give me an advantage.

The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry gives preference to southwestern Ontario applicants and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine gives preference to applicants from rural northern Ontario.

Unfortunately, I was from neither of those areas.

Next, the application asks for a detailed autobiographical sketch.

This is where you tell your life story and explain every activity you’ve done since you were 16. They have several categories for you to select from, including Formal Education, Employment, Volunteering, Extracurricular, Research, Awards, and Other. If you’re particularly lacking experience in one of these categories, you may feel your heart sink.

Mine sure did.

You’ll have the pleasure of describing each activity in greater detail, but with only 150 characters, which is less than the number of

characters in this sentence. This can be difficult when you have to give the admissions committee a better understanding of what you did and what your role was, and at the same time explain how you demonstrated the attributes and personal characteristics they look for in future doctors.

It doesn’t stop there — you’ll have to find a verifier for every activity. The application asks for the verifier’s name, address, and phone number. For one of the activities I had listed, I remember that the only verifier I could ask was a girl I didn’t know too well. I felt like a bit of a creep asking her for her address and phone number, but thankfully, she was very nice about it.

Once you’ve finished filling out that behemoth, there will be essays to write. The University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine will be the school asking these remarkably tough essay questions. You’ll be asked to demonstrate that you are

a scholar, professional, communicator or collaborator, and advocate — these are the four clusters that medical schools look for.

When it comes to transcripts, even though you’ll be submitting them, you’re still required to manually enter into the application every course code and each grade you received during university.

After finally submitting the application, you can take a breath of relief — sort of. Depending on the schools you apply to, you might also have to write the CASPer test in about a month’s time. Then, of course, there are the interviews, but I’ll leave that for another time.

I personally know and have seen many people who are now in medical school face numerous rejections, rewrite the MCAT, take a fifth year to boost their GPA, and the like. They all eventually succeeded, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get in on your first attempt. Good luck.

18 d THE VARSITY d SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

Can bilingualism give you intellectual power?

Popular belief that bilingualism benefits the brain should be questioned

The art of science and the science of art

Roberta Buiani on ArtSci Salon and bridging the two disciplines

Roberta Buiani stands with a Cabinet Project inststallation at McLennan Laboratories.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERTA BUIANI

Tiffany Lieu Varsity Contributor

ZEANA SAMI HAMDONAH/THE VARSITY

Nicole Sciulli Varsity Contributor

Recently, The Varsity launched a novel project: a Chinese translation of the paper. This development speaks to the linguistic diversity of both the University of Toronto and Canada.

Over 50 per cent of the world is bilingual, but are there scientifically proven benefits of being able to speak more than one language?

One implication of bilingualism is its influence on executive functions. Working memory is an example of an important executive function, as it controls important cognitive processes like conflict resolution, interference, and distraction. It can also predict the outcome of a child’s academic success. However, whether or not bilingualism can affect executive functioning has been a poignant area of debate.

A frequently cited 2013 study by Canadian and Spanish researchers investigated the differences of working memory between monolingual and bilingual children. Fiftysix five-year-old kindergarten students were tested with a Simon task paradigm, in which they had to press the button that corresponded to a stimulus on a computer monitor.

The results show that the reaction times of bilingual children did not slow even when there were incongruent trials, where the correct button was located opposite to the side where the stimulus appears on screen.

Reaction times also did not slow when misleading cues were presented, which suggests an overall enhanced executive control in bilingual subjects.

Not all scientists have come to this conclusion. Angela de Bruin, a researcher from the University of Edinburgh, conducted similar tests to investigate whether bilingual individuals display enhanced executive function. She was not able to find support for this theory in her data.

According to de Bruin, only half of the work presented at conferences supported a bilingual advantage, while the other half refuted it. What many believe is a concrete asset may actually be a hypothesis that is neither globally recognized nor pervasive.

The apparent support for the existence of a bilingual advantage may be due to a disproportionate representation in scientific publications. de Bruin found that 68 per cent of published studies supported a connection between executive function and bilingualism, whereas only 29 per cent of studies supported the other side of the debate.

Another component of executive function affected by bilingualism is inhibitory control,

which is the ability to regulate automatic attentional or behavioral responses and focus instead on the relevant stimuli.

Bilingual individuals experience this when they suppress their native tongue in order to communicate in their second language.

Prior research on cognitive changes related to bilingualism has hypothesized that the management of two languages may actually be an exercise of executive control functions.

It allows the brain to practice inhibitory control when speaking non-native languages, which can manifest as a bilingual advantage.

A Canadian study examined Frenchand English-speaking bilingual adults and hypothesized that bilingual individuals would outperform monolingual individuals with respect to interference suppression, but all showed similar response inhibition.

To measure interference suppression, the researchers used the Simon task, similar to the aforementioned 2013 study, and the Stroop task. The Stroop task measured the interference of reaction time and used three conditions: word reading, colour naming, and incongruent colour naming, when the colour ‘word’ does not match the colour of the letters.

Although both tasks measure interference suppression, the two tests showed contrasting results. With the Stroop task, monolingual anglophones and monolingual francophones both showed greater interference. However, this was not true for the Simon task. These inconsistent results were not able to provide clear evidence for a bilingual advantage.

Other studies are even more extreme and have shown that there is simply no connection between bilingualism and executive functions. Researchers from Duke University and Miami University found that early bilinguals — individuals who acquire a second language early in life — did not differ from monolinguals in performance on executive function tasks, but late bilinguals did and did worse. Their study further blurs the line between executive function and language acquisition.

Though knowing a second language can be useful for interacting with different cultures and travelling, the science behind a cognitive advantage of bilingualism is much less clear.

Some researchers have suggested that it can enhance inhibition and working memory, but there are others who entirely refute that a connection between bilingualism and executive function even exists.

As further studies continue to explore the effects of language learning on the brain, the cognitive effects of a ‘bilingual advantage’ must be called into question.

“I am a hybrid creature trying to balance research, artistic practice and curation, at the intersection of art and science,” wrote Roberta Buiani, an artistic director and lecturer at the University of Toronto in an email to The Varsity.

In academia, the disciplines of art and science are often established as two independent and incompatible structures. This is not the case for Buiani, who, as a co-founder of the ArtSci Salon alongside U of T Professor of Geophysics Setphen Morris, strives to bridge the divide between the two fields of study.

Inspired by Jim Ruxton, the organizer of a platform known as the Subtle Technologies, Buiani and Morris invented the ArtSci Salon as an off-shoot of the festival to cater to the growing community of scientists and artists seeking collaborations within the GTA. The salon has since established itself as an independent program that is steadily expanding.

Throughout the year, art, science, and tech enthusiasts meet to organize events aimed at facilitating dialogue on topics that pertain to both the arts and the sciences.

With an extensive educational background in the arts, Buiani is the mastermind behind the artistic facet of ArtSci Salon.

Buiani began her post-secondary education in Bologna, Italy, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Literature. While studying abroad, the lack of clubs and extracurricular activities led to an education primarily shaped by the bustling culture of Bologna itself. “[Bologna] was incredibly vibrant with culture and events, and... political activism,” Buiani wrote. Following this formative experience, Buiani completed a Masters in Art History, a PhD in Communication and Culture, two postdoctoral fellowships in the United Kingdom and Canada, and acquired “a professional background in Project Management and Digital Media production.”

In the present day, Buiani has focused her achievements toward her projects at the University of Toronto. “The type of work that I have been doing at the university is divided evenly between research and creation, curatorial work and teaching, [although] the university does not recognize officially the first two,” she said.

“I am fascinated by the way conventions and routine have made us absolutely unable to think outside the box and to imagine things beyond their so-called default uses,” Buiani continued. “Much of my work tries to change this.”

She said that boredom and routine have generated her desire to bring something new and innovative like ArtSci Salon into the Toronto community.

“It is a personal journey,” she said, reflecting on a recent ArtSci Salon venture known as the Cabinet Project. “I appropriated several abandoned glass cabinets around the St. George campus and asked artists to populate them with installations featuring art and science col-

laborations. The goal was to show the sciences under a different light and to reconnect alienated academic spaces with the architecture and the cultural vibrancy of the city.”

Since its creation, ArtSci Salon has advanced in reputation and participation. It is also open to the public, drawing the attention of students from other universities who are looking to volunteer or collaborate.

“It doubles as an outreach project and an inspiration for the science community,” Buiani added, “but it also offers space and opportunity to artists who want to take up the challenge and work with scientific objects and technologies.”

Given that the facets of the arts and the sciences are so diverse, students may feel pressure to choose between the two disciplines rather than understand how both can be functionally relatable. Buiani agrees that the roles of artists and curators are still widely misunderstood in the world of science, and similarly, that scientific research is often misinterpreted by artists and curators.

However, the objective of her work is straightforward: to further the understanding that technology, science, and arts are all entwined. “Specifically, we want to stir discussions and foster collaborations at the intersections of disciplines and to bridge different professional and cultural languages.”

“Our audience has become increasingly sophisticated in addressing issues regarding the topics and the projects proposed,” she continued. “We really want people to improve their literacy in science, without ceasing to think critically. We also want people to think beyond Western-centric and hegemonic science.”

Buiani feels that the movement of STEM to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) would do injustice to the arts.

“Unfortunately, this is still interpreted as a way to embellish science with the arts, or to use the arts to do outreach,” Buiani expressed.

“Adding the ‘A’ in STEM for us means demonstrating how arts and sciences can benefit mutually from each other through collaboration that shares research and methods rather than provides a service.”

For now, ArtSci Salon has been promoting itself to young scholars and undergraduate students, but not without difficulty. Buiani noted that many students, especially in the sciences, are often engaged in heavy amounts of coursework and may be unmotivated to attend events beyond their field of study.

Nevertheless, Buiani is hopeful that ArtSci Salon will continue to expand with time as the project becomes more widely known. Students are welcome to propose ideas for future events and are encouraged to get involved in the various positions that are available.

“I enjoy immensely the intellectual enrichment that comes from interactions with my colleagues,” remarked Buiani. “My hope is to create events that engage critically with topics in science, the high tech industry, and the arts that are often obscured.”

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‘Mini kidneys’ open doors to personalized medicine Organoids made from human stem cells model polycystic kidney disease progression

ZEANA SAMI HAMDONAH/THE VARSITY

Srivindhya Kolluru Varsity Contributor

A collaborative study by researchers in the US and Canada, including Dr. York P-C Pei and Dr. Xuewen Song from the Division of Nephrology

at Toronto General Hospital, developed miniature kidneys to track the progression of polycystic kidney disease (PKD). The team was led

by Dr. Benjamin Freedman of the University of Washington School of Medicine.

PKD is a genetic disorder that results in

LIGO detector makes waves at 2017 Nobel Prize announcement U of T researchers contribute to the search for gravitational waves Emily Deibert Varsity Contributor

On October 3, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Drs. Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Kip Thorne for their pioneering contributions to the Laser Interferometer GravitationalWave Observatory (LIGO) and the observation of gravitational waves. Ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein in his 1916 Theory of General Relativity, but they remained undetected for nearly 100 years.

Caused by the movement of masses, gravitational waves create incredibly weak signals

that, prior to LIGO, no detector on Earth could resolve. Finally, in the fall of 2015, gravitational waves produced by merging black holes were detected, marking the start of a new era in physics.

While the Nobel Prize can only be shared jointly by a maximum of three people, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) itself is a largescale, international effort comprised of 1,167 members across 103 different institutions — including a team led by Dr. Harald Pfeiffer of the University of Toronto’s Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA).

Graduate student Heather Fong, who has been involved in the collaboration since 2014,

Science Around Town

Charmaine Nyakonda Varsity Staff

the formation of cysts, or fluid-filled sacs, in kidneys, which can eventually lead to loss of kidney function. Currently, there is no cure for PKD, and treatments are only targeted toward managing symptoms.

Combining stem cell biology with the gene editing tool CRISPR, the team created kidney organoids that resemble a human kidney from human stem cells. The goal was to better understand the pathobiology of PKD and pave the way for patient-specific treatments.

Organoids are miniature organs created in vitro, or outside of a living organism. In this study, kidney organoids were created from pluripotent stem cells capable of developing into any adult cell type. These pluripotent cells were able to mature into cells that structurally and functionally resembled those found in human kidneys.

Once these kidneys were created in a petri dish, the researchers used CRISPR technology to edit the DNA at specified points and modify certain genes. By mutating two genes, PKD1 and PKD2, the researchers were able to engineer kidney organoids that interfere with protein production and induce PKD.

This allowed the team to observe the early stages of cyst formation, known as cystogenesis, which characterizes PKD. Through observing the kidney organoids, they also discovered that proteins responsible for PKD can be influenced by their environment and that manipulating cell environment can provide a better understanding of how PKD progresses. “[This] is telling us that looking at the outside environment of the kidney may be the key to curing the disease. This gives us a whole new interventional window,” said Freedman.

In Canada, PKD affects around one in every 500 people per year. Approximately half of the people with the type 1 autosomal dominant form of PKD will require kidney transplantation or dialysis by the age of 60.

The researchers hope to one day grow on demand new kidney tissue that is completely compatible with an individual’s body.

These organoids, with and without PKD gene mutations, have been shown to survive in mice. It remains to be determined whether or not kidney organoids can be used for transplantation in humans.

said that CITA’s role is “dominantly in data analysis.”

“Our main focus,” Fong said, “is to find [gravitational waves] emitted by compact binary coalescences (CBC), which could be two colliding neutron stars, a collision between a neutron star and a black hole, or two colliding black holes.

One project we are involved with is the development of a low latency detection system that can identify potential CBC [gravitational wave] events within seconds of the data being observed by the LIGO detectors.”

Fong herself has been involved in a number of LIGO projects, including one that brought her to LIGO’s Hanford detector for several months.

“At the detector, I was involved in characterizing the noise of the experiment and also acting as a liaison between researchers who were analyzing the data remotely and researchers who were on site trying to improve the detector,” Fong explained. She has also studied gravitational waveforms from numerical simulations and has worked on estimating the rate at which LIGO will observe black hole pairs.

As a member of the CITA team, University of Alberta undergraduate student Jaykumar Patel’s research focuses on “building a model to determine cosmological parameters entirely

from gravitational waves arising from collisions between neutron stars and black holes.” His work will help provide a better understanding of the conditions present at an era of the early universe that gravitational waves, but not light, will be able to probe.

Although only forming a small portion of the LSC, CITA’s contributions are integral. “I feel a sense of connection to the whole collaboration,” said Patel. “I remember waking up in the middle of the night when a new detection was made, and could see, in everyone’s messages, a wave of excitement spreading across the globe, just like the gravitational one did moments before.”

Both Fong and Patel agree on the importance of their work and the potential of the field in years to come. “It is very humbling to be part of such a prestigious collaboration at such an early stage in my career,” Patel said.

“Where we are with [gravitational waves] now, is where Galileo was when he pointed the first astronomical telescope at the sky, 400 years ago,” Fong added. “With [gravitational waves], we have a whole new way to look at the universe and that opens us up to a new, unexplored realm that’s rife with discoveries, and I think that’s something that will affect us, not just now, but for generations to come.”

Reading and Writing Epigenetic Marks for Genome Expression and Stability If you have an interest in scientific developments in cancer, come and learn more about Dr. Jacques Côté’s research. He will discuss gene regulation, DNA repair and replication, and how inaccurate reading and writing of these epigenetic marks can lead to cancer susceptibility.

Reflections on the North American Opioid Crisis Come and join Canada’s leading clinical pharmacologist and epidemiologist, Dr. David Juurlink, for a discussion on the implications of the opioid crisis. This talk will focus on the intersection between clinical, social, and political implications of drug use and misuse.

ArtSci Salon/LASER.TO presents: Narrating Neuroscience Are you passionate about sharing scientific research with people from diverse disciplines? Scientists, clinicians, and social scientists will come together with the general public to speak about how storytelling and the arts can be used to communicate, advance, and develop cutting edge research in the field of neuroscience.

Date: Monday, October 16 Time: 4:00 pm Location: Fitzgerald Building, 150 College Street, Room 103 Admission: Free

Date: Thursday, October 19 Time: 9:30–10:30 am Location: Health Sciences Building, 155 College Street, Room 610 Admission: Free

Date: Friday, October 20 Time: 6:00–8:00 pm Location: The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, 222 College Street Admission: Free with registration

Sports

October 16, 2017 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Talking first downs and touchdowns with Cole Goodfellow The Blues running back has dreams of making the CFL

Blues running back Cole Goodfellow in action against the Windsor Lancers. MARTIN BAZYL/THE VARSITY

Daniela Ruscica Varsity Contributor

Driven, determined, and passionate. In an interview with The Varsity, University of Toronto Varsity Blues running back Cole Goodfellow covers ground on his life and what it means to play football.

From being high school MVP to receiving an entrance scholarship to play football for the Varsity Blues, being able to play football means everything to the number 34 Blue.

“I feel like football is such a big part of my life now,” Goodfellow explains. Through tough training and maintaining grades, he’s strongly committed to the game he has loved for years. The opportunity to be on the starting lineup shows the kind of athlete he is and that coaches can trust him to execute plays and be a leader on the field.

“For me, [being a starter] doesn’t affect [my performance]. Either way I’ve got to be in the game, either way I need to be physically and mentally prepared to step in anytime,” Goodfellow says.

Thirty-four has always been his number: “it is really significant to me because it resembles Walter Payton and he wasn’t known for his speed, his power or his height or anything like that, he was known for his heart.

That’s what I model my game after.”

Having the opportunity to speak one-onone with him provides insight on how seriously he takes his role on the Blues. Playing football for many is more than just a game; it’s deeper than just win or loss. Athletes like Goodfellow play their sport out of passion.

One of the hardest lessons learnt from the Varsity experience, Goodfellow says, is “probably resilience and patience, to never give up… Know that hard work doesn’t go unrewarded.”

Goodfellow’s passion for football started as a young kid, when he and his brother would dream of someday playing in the Canadian Football League (CFL), making their love for football a full-time profession. “My goal is to get to the CFL, and to show that coming from a small town you can do whatever your dreams and desires ask, to not be limited or

stuck in one position.”

His favourite part of being a running back is getting past a defender and then scoring.

He feels there is no better feeling than dominating the other player in the role they were supposed to dominate and then scoring to put your team ahead.

The life of a student athlete isn’t all touchdowns and winning plays — “free time goes toward studying, free time goes to sleeping [and] nutrition to be prepared for practice and games.”

As the season draws to a close, the Blues currently sit in 10th place out of 11 OUA teams.

Through the 2017 football season, the Blues have had some tough luck, winning just one of their first six games. However, the team is still poised to come out strong and be prepared for the next challenge.

On September 23, the York Lions reclaimed their victory in the 48th annual Red and Blue Bowl hosted at Alumni Field, ending the Blues’ four-year win streak. Starting running back Kaleb Leach had some strong

plays as he made 14 carries for 70 yards, while Goodfellow rushed seven times for 46 yards in the game.

Although the Blues lost their winning streak and title, Goodfellow explains that winning isn’t everything.“I would probably say just to remember why you do the sport.

Remember the enjoyment of it. If you lose the enjoyment of it it’s really hard to continue going, it’s really hard to motivate yourself. But if you remember you enjoy it and you love the game then you’ll keep pushing no matter what happens.”

No matter the outcomes of his games, Goodfellow strives for success. “If it’s a loss I’ve got to put in even more work and really push myself and drive myself to be perfect in my craft,” he notes. “It’s not enough to go out there and do what is asked of you, you’ve got to do above and beyond that.”

The Varsity Blues will play their final home game against Queen’s University on October 21 at 1:00 pm.

OCTOBER 16, 2017 u 21

var.st/sports

Blues soccer players’ pre-game rituals Midfielder Julia Gonsalves speaks to fellow athletes about their rituals

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

Julia Gonsalves Varsity Contributor

Serena Williams, unquestionably one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, wears the same pair of socks throughout an entire tournament. She ties her shoes a specific way, and she bounces the ball exactly five times before her first serve and twice before her second. Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky always shot his first shot in warm-ups wide to the right of the net. He drank a Diet Coke, a glass of ice water, a Gatorade, and another Diet Coke before every game, in that order. Finally, he would apply baby powder to the end of his stick before

stepping on the ice. Many great athletes have a surplus of seemingly outrageous superstitions and pre-game rituals. For some athletes, the rituals are much less extensive, but even so, many of these athletes feel that these rituals and superstitions, if not done, will significantly affect their game.

I spoke to some of our Varsity Blues athletes about their own superstitions and pregame rituals and came across some practices that would give Gretzky competition.

Second-year Varsity Blues women’s soccer goalkeeper Vanna Staggolis took me through her pre-game routine. She explained that before every match, she puts her right cleat on before her left and repeats

the practice for her gloves.

“It’s just the way I’ve always done it ever since I can remember,” Staggolis said. “I feel like I’ll suffer the consequences if I were to rearrange the order.”

She continued to explain that before the first whistle is blown, she will jump and touch the crossbar of her net. “This just gets me fired up and ready to face whatever I’m up against,” she said.

Laura Krkachovski, fifth-year defender and captain of the women’s soccer team, explained that she unties and then re-ties her shoes three or four times throughout the game. This happens once before warm-up, a second time before she steps out for the starting lineup, a third before the huddle, and finally at half time. When asked what might happen if she forgot any one of the ties, her eyes widened. Laughing, she said, “It’s in my head... I have to.”

Why mess with a good thing? Those are exactly the sentiments of men’s soccer players Devon Bowyer and Nikola Stakic. With the team currently in second place and with only one loss, we can safely say that this is a talented group of athletes — but is there something more to this team’s’ success?

Fifth-year defender and co-captain Bowyer described what he feels has contributed to some of his success. Before the start of each game, he has a special handshake that he does with his teammate and fellow defender David Colelli. After the handshake, he says a prayer that he explained started in his first year playing with the Blues.

His teammate and second-year centre back Stakic explained that, before each game, he eats two pieces of toast with breaded chicken, salad with tomatoes, and feta cheese and always one red gala apple.

Stakic also said that he showers before every game, saying, “I feel like if you feel good and

you look good, than you play good.”

We asked Stakic what he thinks would happen if he were to miss or forget one of these rituals. He said, “It just gets into my head and I feel like I’m not in the right mindset to play because I’ve been doing it for so long, so I have to do it.” Finally, before the start of the game, he sprints from his centre back position to the top of the 18yard box and jumps for a header. He then does three hops on the goal-line before he is ready to play.

According to a research study from 2010

by Lysann Damisch, Barara Stoberock, and Thomas Mussweiler, superstitions and rituals can actually bolster performance. Even though most superstitions and rituals may seem completely irrational and unconnected to performance, athletes rely on them for a sense of control over the outcomes of the competition and their own performance.

Athletes condition themselves to believe that objects or behaviours that have no rational influence on their success have a tremendous impact on their performance.

So, back to the question of whether superstitions and pre-game rituals actually do improve performance: some might be surprised to know that evidence shows that superstitions do, in fact, enhance performance by increasing confidence and self-efficacy.

Having a lucky charm or superstition results in athletes setting higher goals and increases their belief in their own ability, resulting in improved performance. In more direct terms, it is the psychological benefit of the superstition or ritual that improves performance, not the object or ritual itself.

So go ahead and carry a rabbit’s foot, wear your lucky headband, and never wash your winning jersey because, in the end, it may just work.

Varsity Blues rowers perform at 2017 Brock Invitational Regatta Rowers compete at famed Henley course, place first and second Kate Reeves Varsity Contributor

In the dim morning light, two fleets of athletes left Varsity Stadium on Saturday, October 14. One bus left at 4:45, the other at a much more reasonable 5:15 am — both headed to Henley Island, one of the most famous racing courses in Canada, to compete in the Brock Invitational Regatta.

Upon arrival, the team quickly unloaded the trailer, stacked high with slim boats, and began to re-rig the boats to be used the soonest. Around 7:00 am, it was time for the lightweight rowers to weigh in. Lightweight rowers must be below 72.5 kilograms for men and 59 kilograms for women.

Athletes stripped down to their racing gear, shedding layers of spandex and fleece, to be measured and stamped with their weight. Coxswains — diminutive but deceptively loud — were also weighed in. They

must be over 50 kilograms for women’s boats and 55 kilograms for men’s. After the weighing-in, the races began in earnest.

The Blues’ first race of the day was the men’s lightweight double, which took off around 8:00 am. Things moved quickly from there, as athletes darted in and out of the tented U of T area while preparing for their races. Those who weren’t scheduled until later in the day studied together on tarps laid over the muddy ground, hunched over textbooks with subjects ranging from calculus to Middle Eastern politics. Others watched races unfold from the river banks, cheering for teammates as they zipped by.

After their races, athletes carried their boats and oars back from the dock and huddled up together to debrief, usually with a bottle of water or a bagel in hand.

Most novice rowers had only really been rowing since the first week of September.

For them, Brock was a milestone — they

Varsity Blues heavyweight double Claire Kendall and Emily Princple.

PHOTO BY AUSTIN SHIH, COURTESY OF KATE REEVES

completed their first two-kilometre races, visited Henley for the first time, and caught their first crabs in Martindale Pond.

Highlights of the day included the Blues women’s team, slotted around 11:00 am, having a rough race due to technical issues but pushing through to the finish; the novice Blues men, who raced later in the afternoon, coming second overall to McGill University; and the best performance of the day — the women’s lightweight double team, who easily took first place in their race.

Brock was an important learning experience, a good way to measure progress, and an opportunity to prepare for the more important race coming up in two weeks: the OUA Championship, also held at Henley. After Brock, crews broke down their strategies and analyzed their performances, looking for ways to improve in time for the OUAs. Hopefully, the Blues can build on this momentum going forward and perform well in the OUA Championship at the end of the month.

22 d THE VARSITY d SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

Blues sweep Waterloo, Queen’s, and McGill over weekend Field hockey team third in OUA standings

Varsity Blue Isabella Watson battling against Waterloo Warriors defender Mitra Zaimi.

PHOTO BY MARTIN BAYZIL COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

Daniel Samuel Sports Editor

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues field hockey team returned to strong form as the team defeated the Waterloo Warriors and Queen’s Gaels on Saturday, and the McGill Martlets on Sunday at Back Campus Fields.

The Blues kicked off action on Saturday morning with an impressive 4–0 victory over Waterloo. Toronto dominated possession throughout the first half, initiating spurts of attack and clashing with the Warriors defenders. In the fourth minute, third-year defender Julia Costanzo scored the opening goal of the game.

Maeve Chambers defended well throughout the game, and midfielder Megan Johansen possessed the ball often, distributing

and initiating Toronto’s offense. After the ball was played down the right side, Morgan Sleeth received a pass and scored on a quick shot from inside the circle in the 28th minute to make the score 2–0. Blues fifth-year forward Nicole Spring launched a great attempt on net late in the first half but was unable to score.

Toronto continued attacking pressure early in the second half. Johansen produced quality chances on goal, eventually scoring in the 54th minute. Defender Taylor Fleck added Toronto’s fourth and final goal of the match in the 68th minute, and goalkeeper Sara Fredo earned the shutout in the victory.

The Blues finished the day with a key 4-1 victory over the Queen’s Gaels. Emily Ziraldo, Fleck, Anna Costanzo, and Isabella Watson provided the goals for Toronto, while the

lone Queen’s tally came from Leigh Janssen in the 59th minute.

Toronto closed out the weekend with a 4-0 victory over McGill, avenging the 4–3 loss they suffered against the Martlets two weeks prior. Off a corner, Fleck opened the scoring with a goal in the fourth minute, her third of the weekend. Toronto pressed their attack against McGill to earn consecutive corners.

Martlets forward Tania Iskandar had a partial break on goal, but Blues defender Nicole Hicks broke up the play. The second-year defender’s strong effort throughout the match played a key role in Toronto’s victory.

The Blues scored again in the 16th minute, as Johansen found the back of the net from close range. Sleeth added a goal in the 29th minute to extend Toronto’s lead to 3–0.

Despite the three-goal advantage, the

Blues were unable to continue their same high level of execution in the second half.

McGill began the half in aggressive fashion in search of the back of the net, with defender Breeshey Roskams-Hieter firing a shot just wide of goal.

Ziraldo jumped into the attack throughout the second half, launching multiple opportunities on frame. Ziraldo finally found the back of the net in the 57th minute. Anna Costanzo and Ziraldo provided the Blues with late chances for a fifth goal but were both unable to score.

Following the weekend sweep, Toronto now sits in third place in the OUA standings with a 5-3-2 record. The Blues return to action on October 22 against the University of Guelph and Western University.

OCTOBER 16, 2017 u 23

var.st/sports

Can the Raptors reach the NBA Finals?

Toronto lost key players Cory Joseph and DeMarre Carroll in the offseason

WEEKLY BOX SCORES BASEBALL October 13

October 14

October 15

6–0

Varsity Blues

7–3

Varsity Blues

8–3

Varsity Blues

Guelph Gryphons

Waterloo Warriors

Laurier Golden Hawks

FASTPITCH 3–1

Varsity Blues

0–6

October 14 Varsity Blues

Ottawa Gee-Gees

5–6

Varsity Blues

MEN’S

Ryerson Rams

Brock Badgers

HOCKEY 3–1

October 13 Varsity Blues

Waterloo Warriors

FIELD HOCKEY

Toronto Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas attempts to block Bradley Beal.

October 14

4–0

Varsity Blues

4–1

KEITH ALLISON/CC FLICKR

Alex Mulego Varsity Contributor

It’s that time of year again: the NBA season is about to begin. Last season, the Toronto Raptors finished 51–31, which was good enough to lock up their second straight 50-win season and third place status in the Eastern Conference. Their impressive regular season success, however, didn’t translate in the playoffs in the way fans were hoping for.

After a tough six-game series against the Milwaukee Bucks, the Raptors advanced to play a familiar foe in LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. While many were hoping for a competitive rematch, LeBron and company had different ideas: they swept them in four games.

After a long offseason, the Raptors were able to re-sign core team members Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Serge Ibaka, and Norman Powell in hopes of climbing the Eastern Conference ladder.

Despite many players returning to the franchise in 2017, one familiar face won’t be back.

The Raptors traded DeMarre Carroll and two 2018 draft picks to the Brooklyn Nets for Justin Hamilton.

After the trade was completed, Carroll told Postmedia, “I feel like a lot of guys didn’t trust each other, and a lot of guys, they didn’t feel like other guys could produce.” Raptors team President Masai Ujiri dismissed the comments and said that he takes them “with a grain of salt.” While many fans were also quick to dismiss Carroll’s comments, the numbers never lie — if we look at Toronto’s on-court stats, his statement seems to hold true.

The Raptors ranked dead last in assist percentage per game last season and were ranked second in isolation basketball. It’s easy to come to the incorrect conclusion that, since the Raptors won 51 games last year, their system works. You might be able to get away with playing isolation basketball during the regular season, but against tougher teams night in and night out during the playoffs, you need to be able to rely on other players.

The numbers show this to be true: the Raptors’ offensive rating ranked sixth in the regular season, while in the playoffs it was ranked third worst. Essentially, the Raptors were too predictable in the playoffs, which was almost their downfall against the Bucks, who ranked first in defense ratings in the playoffs, and it was certainly their downfall against the Cavaliers. Ujiri did try to address the team’s offensive woes by acquiring sharpshooter CJ Miles and drafting OG Anunoby. These additions add versatility to the wings and three-point shooting that is vital to making a deep run in the playoffs.

There’s been a lot of talk about how the Eastern Conference has become less competitive over the past decade, though with all the moves made this summer, you could argue that the notion is a thing of the past.

The blockbuster trade of the summer happened between the top two teams in the east last year, the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The trade centred around star guards Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas. It’s too early to tell who won this trade, but we know that it gives Boston the star power they were looking for and Cleveland the depth they were lacking. For the Raptors, this means that their strongest competitors last year arguably got even better.

While many teams have decided to wait out the Golden State Warriors era in basketball, there are still some teams in the west that are competing and changing up their rosters in the hopes of taking down this dynasty.

Oklahoma City Thunder made the biggest splash this offseason by adding all-stars Paul George and Carmelo Anthony; the Houston Rockets added Chris Paul to pair with James Harden; the Minnesota Timberwolves added Jeff Teague and Jimmy Butler to their young core; and the San Antonio Spurs added Rudy Gay to add depth to their roster.

For the Raptors, the road to the finals is a long one. But the key to their success this year is moving the ball a lot more on offense. With a full training camp and preseason to get familiar with one another, it’s important that trust is built between players.

Varsity Blues

October 15

4–0

Varsity Blues

MEN’S October 14

October 15

11–22

Varsity Blues

11–9

Varsity Blues

14–14

Varsity Blues

14–7

Varsity Blues

October 15

MEN’S October 14

12–4

Varsity Blues

6–0

Varsity Blues

1–2

Varsity Blues

WOMEN’S

1–5

October 14 Varsity Blues

0–0

Varsity Blues

Laurentian Voyageurs

Laurier Golden Hawks

Laurier Golden Hawks

McMaster Marauders

Brock Badgers

Nipissing Lakers

Laurentian Voyageurs

Nipissing Lakers

Laurentian Voyageurs

RUGBY

MEN’S

0–78

October 14 Varsity Blues

WOMEN’S October 14

McGill Martlets

SOCCER

October 15

October 15

Queen’s Gaels

LACROSSE

WOMEN’S October 14

Waterloo Warriors

Varsity Blues

43–0

Queen’s Gaels

Waterloo Warriors

OCTOBER 16, 2017 • 24

DIVERSIONS

CROSSWORD

ACROSS

DOWN

1. Hatched 5. Ruckus 9. Cold War grp.

12. Therapeutic plant 13. Missing a deadline 14. Bad thing to invoke 15. Daily buy for many 17. Slightest bit 18. Bar obligation 19. Agenda listings 21. Where the heart is 24. Maldives capital 26. Purge 27. Genesis garden 29. Banjoist Scruggs 33. Dinosaur’s origin 34. Last inning, typically 36. Casino roller 37. A question of timing 39. Chop ___ 40. Marmaduke, for one 41. Grills 43. Baneful bunch 45. Sad piece 48. Emulate Rocky 49. Bother 50. Grinders 56. Alley serenader 57. Surf’s sound 58. Missile housing 59. Eiger or Eisenhut 60. Dressing flavor 61. Work here and there

1. Proscribe 2. Grand ___ Opry 3. Cannery or Catfish 4. They’re often out on a limb 5. Love handles, essentially 6. Once around the track 7. Broke a fast 8. Thin ice, e.g.

9. Hawk of a sort 10. Apothecary’s measure 11. Dorm sights 16. Ceremonial Mass plate 20. Ball-bearing device?

21. Hands 22. Mighty companion 23. Advantage 24. Diner stack 25. Cards pitch-in 28. Spinal feature 30. Continues, conversationally 31. Often read act?

32. Flight segments 35. Syringes, for short 38. Chronic critic 42. ___ Tower 44. Draw breath 45. Chart fillers 46. Celebrity, perhaps 47. Breezy film 48. Like a fairy tale cupboard 51. Cabaret wear 52. Cleaning aid 53. Get in the game 54. Slippery ___ 55. Bribe

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Thurs. Oct. 19: 11 AM - 9 PM Fri. Oct. 20: 10 AM - 9 PM free

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