October 31, 2016 by The Varsity

Vol. CXXXVII, No. 8 October 31, 2016 thevarsity.ca —— The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

The inevitability of death may expla in our fascination with the stories of those who have lef t their terrestrial bodies behind Feature: page 12

UTSU AGM approves Appellate Board, changes to budget policy Meeting lauded for civility, early conclusion Kaitlyn Simpson, Jack O. Denton, & Aidan Currie Associate News Editors and Associate Features Editor

As the union’s Vice-President Professional Faculties Ryan Gomes put it, Thursday’s University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Annual General Meeting (AGM) was one of the most “civil” in a long time. To the noted surprise of the executives, the chair, and the members alike, the meeting was remarkable precisely for its lack of controversy, unlike the AGMs of previous years. It was called to order at 6:45 pm and adjourned at 8:35 pm. Past meetings have been marked by disruptions, long delays, and divisive motions. Following introductory remarks on procedure and equity, the meeting began with a 25-minute presidential address and question period with UTSU President Jasmine Wong Denike. Denike outlined various UTSU initiatives and campaigns. She argued that the UTSU

has been responsible with their funds and stressed the importance of holding the union accountable. One question for Denike came from a UTM student, who asked about the UTSU’s upcoming anti-Blackness town hall and their efforts to reduce anti-Blackness on campus. Denike replied that the UTSU is “attempting to work with Black groups on campus in a much more constructive way.” There were also three motions on the agenda, one of which was an omnibus motion to apply all of the bylaw amendments made by the board; all of the motions carried. University College Literary and Athletic Society Vice-President Daman Singh moved an amendment to bylaw 6.2 concerning the Elections and Referenda Committee’s ability to call multiple ratification meetings. This sparked debate over the democratic process of the UTSU and clarification on the proposed Appellate Board’s purpose as part of the bylaws. AGM, page 3

Trouble in the long run The stagnation of Canadian long distance running Page 21

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#utsuagm16 in tweets

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@TheToikeOike | Toike Oike: 6:32 PM, October 27, 2016 I suppose we’ll just join the Varsity in using the hashtag #utsuagm16

@thereutcohen | Reut Cohen: 6:42 PM, October 27, 2016 When you’re three samosas deep and the meeting hasn’t started #utsuagm16

Theft

@Senor_Thomas95 | Matt Thomas: 7:32 PM, October 27, 2016 This AGM is unnervingly tame. #utsuagm16 @ryalexg | Ryan Gomes 8:03 PM, October 27, 2016 Fight me over Twitter so my friend can get bingo pls #utsuagm16 @WarnerYYZ | Stephen Warner 8:11 PM, October 27, 2016 There’s a weird hum in the room and I want to make a joke about UTSU silencing its members with white noise. #utsuagm16 @iris_robin | (Iris) Robin 8:47 PM, October 27, 2016 I missed all of the #utsuagm16 coverage but it looks like it went pretty well? Good on you, @UTSU98.

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var.st/news AGM, from cover

U of T to host oﬃcial debate with Jordan Peterson Debate in early stages of planning, confirms U of T Media Relations Director

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Students discuss the bylaw amendments at the AGM. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY Singh spoke to The Varsity following the AGM, bringing up last May’s contentious annual ratification meeting. “In the scenario that we get to May, and the election is over and students came out and voted down the results, in the proposed bylaws the election and referenda committee would have had the authority to re-host this meeting, and re-host it with the exact same motion that had failed,” he said. “I thought that this was fundamentally undemocratic.” The bylaw amendments also establish an Appellate Board, which would hear any complaints a student would have about the election beyond the Elections and Referenda Committee. According to the text of the bylaw, the Appellate Board “shall be limited to the hearing of appeals and disciplinary decisions from the Grievance Officer, the Elections and Referenda Committee, and the Executive Review Committee,” and that all decisions made by

the board are binding on the UTSU. The other two motions concerned the budgeting process: UTSU Engineering Director Andrew Sweeny’s motion makes the UTSU earmark at least 25 per cent of its gross revenue to clubs, events, and services; and VUSAC Vice-President Stephen Warner brought a non-binding motion to have the operating budget specify the amount that the union distributes to each of its levy groups, which include LGBTOUT, BikeChain, Downtown Legal Services, and others. Giving The Varsity his overall thoughts on the night, Vice-President Internal and Services Matthias Memmel said he’s “pleased that we had members show up. I’m pleased that everyone was civil — we’ve not always had meetings where they’ve gone as smoothly as this. But, you know, people raised concerns that they felt strongly about in the room, and we were able to answer them, I think, to people’s satisfaction.”

Peterson made national headlines after he released a series of YouTube lectures on gender and “political correctness.” Jenna Moon Varsity Contributor

One month after Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson published his first YouTube video decrying “political correctness,” the university has agreed to host a debate including Peterson and another participant. In a series of videos published on October 24, Peterson discussed the university’s response to his stance on gender identity. The first video decried the letter sent by Dean David Cameron and Vice-Provost, Faculty & Academic Life Sioban Nelson on October 18, which urged Peterson to stop voicing what they called “unacceptable, emotionally disturbing and painful” comments on gender pronouns. The second video explained Peterson’s disagreement with the letter. In the third video, Peterson stated that Cameron had agreed to provide a forum to discuss free speech in an academic manner.

In the video, Peterson lauded the university’s decision to “do the right thing,” saying that it was “unbelievably good news because it means the university has decided to uphold its position as an investigator into complex intellectual matters, and that we can discuss this like civilized human beings.” In an email to The Varsity, Media Relations Director Althea Blackburn-Evans confirmed that a forum would occur but could not confirm details on how or when the forum would operate, as it is still in early planning stages. There is also no word on who will debate Peterson in the forum. Peterson called on his supporters to commend the university for their willingness to uphold free speech on campus, and encouraged them to send emails thanking the university for “their quick and forthright action.” Peterson could not be reached for further comment by press time.

UTSU to hold town hall on anti-Black racism Town hall one of Black Liberation Collective’s demands to union Tom Yun News Editor

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) has announced that it will be hosting a town hall to address anti-Black racism within the organization. The Town Hall to Confront Anti-Blackness within UTSU will be held on November 10 at the UTSU office from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. “This space will be prioritizing the voices of Black UTSU members. Non-Black and nonmembers are asked to be respectful, and to not take up space at the town hall,” the description of the Facebook events reads. The consultation was listed as a demand by the Black Liberation Collective (BLC) in the group’s call for a boycott of the UTSU. In addition to this town hall, the BLC is also calling on the UTSU to drop its ongoing lawsuit against former Executive Director Sandy Hudson and to secure clubs funding for Black student groups. Three weeks ago, members of the BLC staged a protest against the UTSU, where they occupied the union’s office at Hart

House Circle and plastered the building with posters. The BLC’s concerns with the union were outlined in an online statement and include the lack of full clubs funding for the Black Students’ Association, the absence of UTSU executives during the BLC’s rallies, and allegations of “character assassination” against Hudson, who is co-founder of Black Lives Matter–Toronto. “The town hall is a response to the claim that the UTSU is institutionally anti-Black. We’re committed to serving Black students, and that means taking accusations of antiBlack racism seriously,” UTSU President, Jasmine Wong Denike told The Varsity. “It’s incredibly important that we listen to the concerns of students.” Initially, the UTSU announced that members of the media would be barred from attending the town hall “in the interests of creating an environment where our members are comfortably able to communicate their concerns.” A similar town hall held by Ontario’s AntiRacism Directorate and Pride Toronto did

The UTSU oﬃce after the BLC protest on October 11. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY not have restrictions on the press. On Sunday morning, Denike indicated that the union has since reversed its decision and the event “will be open to members of the

student press should they request access in advance.” The BLC could not be reached for comment prior to press time.

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UTSU VP External Lucinda Qu resigns Union mum on details of resignation Tom Yun News Editor

The UTSU has announced the resignation of Lucinda Qu, the union’s Vice President, External. Qu’s resignation was confirmed at the October 19 Board of Directors meeting. The agenda for the meeting included a confidential motion that was discussed ‘in camera.’ The union’s statement was released shortly after 12:00 am on October 29; it highlighted Qu’s work supporting UNITE HERE Local 75 and the Good Food Markets over the summer. “We thank Lucinda for her service to the UTSU, and we wish her the best in all of her future endeavours,” a portion of the statement reads. The union’s statement calls the reasons for Qu’s resignation “personal,” with no further details and asks “that members of the community be respectful of her privacy.” The statement clarifies that Board of Directors will soon be accepting applications to fill the vacancy and appoint a new Vice President External, with more details to come this week: “All applicants will be interviewed by the Nomi-

nating Committee, which will then forward no fewer than two applicants to the Board. Applications will close on 25 November 2016.” Under the UTSU’s bylaws, elections can only happen during the designated fall and spring election time periods; because of this, the vacancy needs to be filled through an appointment. UTSU President Jasmine Wong Denike told The Varsity that the Board of Directors agreed to hold off announcing Qu’s resignation until the nominating committee was struck. “Board members were given a week from last Thursday (Oct. 19th) to nominate themselves to sit on the committee,” she said. Qu was elected during the spring elections with the Hello UofT slate, along with the rest of the current executive. The last time a UTSU executive resigned in the middle of their term was in November 2014, when Pierre Harfouche, Vice-President University Affairs at the time, circulated his resignation in an email to the UTSU Board of Directors. Denike declined to divulge further on the circumstances of the resignation, citing Qu’s privacy. Qu did not immediately respond to The Varsity’s request for comment.

NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

Qu was elected during the spring elections, along with the rest of the current executive.

The Explainer: the UTSU’s U of T renews agreements Appellate Board with hospitals Another layer added to union’s grievances process Aidan Currie Associate Features Editor

Changes have been made to the way the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) hears grievances. Among the changes to the bylaws included at the UTSU Annual General Meeting on October 27 was the introduction of an appellate board to hear student complaints regarding any UTSU election. This board will operate beyond the Grievance Officer, the Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC), and the Executive Review Committee (XRC). According to Bylaw 17, the Appellate Board would be composed of four Class A members and three Class B members. Class A members are students enroled at the Faculty of Law; Class B members are students enroled in first-entry programs who have completed at least two years of study. The bylaw states that all members of the Appellate Board must “not have previously sought or held elected office in the UTSU.” Members of the Appellate Board are also not permitted to hold any sort of office in the UTSU or a divisional student society during their time on the Appellate Board, except for Class A members, who are allowed to hold office in the Students’ Law Society. Any person appealing a decision made by the Grievance Officer, the Elections and Referenda Committee, or the Executive Review Committee has the right to do so through the Appellate Board. In each instance, the Motion to Appeal

must “persuade the Appellate Board that the decision [of the Grievance Officer, the ERC, or the XRC] should be reviewed” and that any such body “misapplied the relevant Bylaws and/or Policies, or otherwise breached the principles of fundamental justice.” Individuals with the right to appeal a decision may do so within a strict time limit of the Board of Directors ratifying a decision by the committee in question. In the case of appeals of the Greivance Officer or the XRC, that time limit is three days; in the case of appeals of the ERC, it is 24 hours. Individuals with the right to appeal include those “who submitted the original complaint to the Grievance Officer, ERC, or XRC” and any person on whom the decision imposed a penalty. From that point, the Appellate Board will decide whether or not to hear the appeal. If the board declines to do so, the original decision will remain standing. If it votes to hear the appeal, the appellant and the committee will be informed and must submit written arguments and documentary evidence two days prior to the hearing in the case of appeals of the Grievance Officer and XRC, and 12 hours prior in the case of appeals to the ERC. A key point is that all deliberations of the Appellate Board would be ‘in camera’, meaning in private. After such deliberations, the Appellate Board would issue a decision within six hours of the hearing’s conclusion for appeals to the ERC, and no more than twelve hours in the instance of an appeal to the Grievance Officer and the XRC.

TAHSN agreement last signed in 2011 Tom Yun News Editor

U of T has renewed affiliation agreements between itself and the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN). TAHSN is a consortium that includes U of T and numerous hospitals in Toronto, including Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Sinai Health System, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Hospital for Sick Children, St. Michael’s Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Women’s College Hospital, and the University Health

Network — which includes Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. The agreement was last signed in December 2011 and provides a framework for collaborations, such as joint research and hospital placements for U of T medical students. Updates made to the 2011 agreement have been made for clarity, legislation and policy changes, and to “reflect the changing relationship with the TAHSN hospitals.” Governing Council approved the renewed agreement on October 27.

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Second free speech rally held outside Simcoe Hall Rally held by organizers of called Students in Support of Free Speech Jack O. Denton Associate News Editor

On the cold and rainy afternoon of October 27, directly preceding the UTSU Annual General Meeting, a group of students organized a rally outside Simcoe Hall, where Governing Council was meeting. The event was the second rally held on the topic of free speech following the release of the YouTube lecture series by Professor Jordan Peterson in which he outlines concerns surrounding “political correctness” and what he sees as a rising threat to the principle. The lectures have drawn responses from student unions and the administration, who have criticized some of Peterson’s statements about gender and the use of gender neutral pronouns. One letter from the university urged the tenured professor to stop making public statements about gender in the wake of threats made against transgender students. The letter was heavily criticized by Peterson and his supporters, who saw it as an attempt to silence him. The student organizers of the rally formed a Facebook group called ‘Students in Support of Free Speech’ (SSFS), which had over 800 members as of press time; SSFS was recognized by ULife as a student group on October 30. The event was attended by around 60 people at its peak and did not see any of the tumult that marked the first one on October 11. The event’s description on Facebook stated that “radical left wing activists are trying to impose censorship on our thoughts and speech, and declare a moratorium on any form of expression that THEY deem offen-

sive.” The rally’s organizers insisted their event was apolitical. Speaking to The Varsity, organizer Maria Morzc said that “Free speech is not a system of beliefs; it is a fundamental human right. And, also, free speech is, basically, I mean, all we want is to state our opinions without being silenced, without being labelled, without being assaulted, and we welcome members of the so-called ‘radical left.’” Another organizer, Riley Moher, described the group as “not a libertarian group, we’re not an alt-right group, we’re not a liberal group, we just stand for the freedom of speech.” Much of the rally followed an open mic format and did not have any featured speakers other than the organizers of the rally, unlike the October 11 event which highlighted Peterson and conservative commentator Lauren Southern. A number of the speakers made comparisons between the university’s request that Peterson stop making public statements and totalitarianism. One speaker compared their struggle to the struggles of Chinese citizens decades ago in having to adopt the ideology of Maoism or face execution. “We’re faced [with] the idea of political correctness, with the social ostracization of us, of people who speak out against such mediocrity, against such cruelty, against such an affront to human rationality and the liberal values that Canada and America and the rest of the civilized world has been based on,” he said. Jacob Ritchie was walking by the event when he decided to participate, and he expressed an opposing view. Speaking of Bill C-16 — a piece of legislation aimed at protecting individuals from discrimination based on gender identity

Students braving the rain gather in front of Simcoe Hall. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY and gender expression that Peterson criticizes in one of his lectures — Ritchie said to the crowd, “There’s nothing saying, like, if you go up to a guy and talk to them and you don’t use their pronouns you go to jail or you’re sectioned under the human rights law. It’s if you discriminate against them and you can go and prove that they’ve suffered a harm. And really I think there’s a much higher bar for that than you guys think there is. I think this whole thing is misguided.” Ritchie was heckled by some attendees during his statements, but organizers ensured that he could complete his remarks. Speaking with The Varsity after his statements, Ritchie said that he thinks the whole issue of free speech has been blown out of proportion. “I don’t think there’s a problem with free speech on campus, or in Ontario, or in Canada,” he said.

Morzc said that her cause supports marginalized groups and stressed the importance of free expression to address the issues that these groups face. “Please clear up the confusion. Because, you know, we support the LGBTQ rights and the Black rights, the rights of Black students, the rights of Black individuals in society, in general, and we recognize that they face unique challenges, and we recognize that they need to address those challenges,” she explained. “However, we believe that actually promoting freedom of speech and freedom of expression would go a long way towards actually addressing these existing problems, and stifling free speech will do the opposite.” SSFS’s rally was supposed to culminate in a march to the UTSU AGM at OISE, but inclement weather prevented that from happening.

Candidate left oﬀ ballot in SMCSU fall elections Accidental omission leads to repeat election, new Chief Returning Oﬃcer Lesley Flores Varsity Contributor

The St. Michael’s College Student Union (SMCSU) is holding a re-run of its Fall By-Election after first-year General Councillor candidate Mikayla Teofilo was accidentally left off the online ballot. In a joint statement to The Varsity, SMCSU President Zachary Nixon and Vice-President Jessica Afonso commented on the error. Nixon described the omission as “an honest mistake in entering information into the U-Elect system.” Nixon and Afonso also explained that they were only made aware that Teofilo was missing from the online ballot on October 21, the final day of the Fall ByElection period. Zakk Dodge, the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) of the election described the mistake as a “series of unfortunate situations and circumstances on my behalf.” He continued, “I made a very human mistake of becoming overwhelmed with my midterms, the circumstances of my work, and my time handling a new member in my life (a wonderful puppy).” On deciding how to rectify the unprecedented error, Afonso said that she and

NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

SMCSU President Zachary Nixon described the incident as “an honest mistake.” Nixon “had no doubt that the election had to be re-run, but we were unsure how to do so with time constraints.” She went on to say that “unfortunately two candidates withdrew from the race,” as running the election a second time had

been stressful for sthem. In a public statement posted on the SMCSU Facebook page on October 23, the union asked St. Michael’s College students to re-cast their by-election votes, assuring students that it “holds democratic princi-

ples in the highest regard” and that “mistakes like this will never be made again.” In addition to the public statement on Facebook and the organization of a second by-election, a formal performance review of the CRO presiding over the by-election was held to “decide on ramifications accordingly.” Following the formal performance review of Dodge, the Executive Committee hired Peter De Sanctis as the interim CRO for the rest of the election. When asked to respond to the Executive Committee’s decision, Dodge told The Varsity, “I send my deep regards to all of the people involved and understand the decision behind that.” Afonso explained that De Sanctis’ “working knowledge of our electoral process gave him an edge” and that the position would become vacant again once the election ends. The second run of SMCSU’s Fall ByElection for five new General Councillors is currently underway, with a Candidate’s Forum already held on October 26 and a shortened voting period taking place from October 31 to November 2.

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U of T student among 99 individuals arrested at pipeline protest Parliament Hill protestors opposed Trans Mountain Pipeline Mahrukh Ali Varsity Contributor

On October 24, approximately 200 protesters marched on Parliament Hill on behalf of Climate 101, a group in opposition to the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and further oil infrastructure expansion. A total of 99 individuals were arrested and issued citations by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for trespassing. The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is a $6.8 billion project proposed by US energy company Kinder Morgan; it would become the only pipeline system within North America carrying crude oil and refined products to the west coast. The expansion would run from Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia alongside the existing Trans Mountain pipeline. Amanda Harvey-Sanchez, a third-year student at U of T, was among the 99 protesters arrested. She told The Varsity, “The Liberal government was elected on a promise to respect Indigenous rights, take strong action on climate change, and address the needs of young people. If [Prime Minister Justin Trudeau] approves the Kinder Morgan pipeline this December, he will break all of those promises.” Harvey-Sanchez also believes that the protest achieved its target, which was to bring “the issue of Kinder Morgan outside

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Police arrested pipeline protestors in front of Parliament Hill on October 24. of BC and show Trudeau that young people across the country are calling on him to reject the pipeline.” Anti-pipeline protestors say that the Kinder-Morgan pipeline poses health risks and compromises the future of today’s generation and the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Harvey-Sanchez explained that

pipeline spills pose “significant health risks because they contaminate the ecosystems that communities depend on for food and water.” “The Kinder Morgan pipeline would also require increased tanker traffic, meaning that there is the additional risk of spills at sea,” Harvey-Sanchez continued.

“Pipelines and tankers carrying diluted bitumen, such as Kinder Morgan, are especially prone to failure, the spills are much harder to clean, and the impacts are worse than with conventional oil.” In terms of the impact on the First Nations population, Harvey-Sanchez gives a Canadian example: the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, a community near Sarnia, Ontario. It is “surrounded by 40% of Canada’s petrochemical refineries and is a striking example of environmental racism. The health impacts from pollutants in Aamjiwnaang include skewed birth ratios and increased risk of cancer.” Detractors say that approval of Kinder Morgan would indicate a refusal to work with the Indigenous population of Canada, particularly those who have opposed the pipeline. Harvey-Sanchez believes Trudeau’s message of ‘real change’ elevates the protestors sentiments, who believe that real change is comprised of opposition “to pipelines” and supporting “strong climate action and respect for Indigenous rights.” The federal government has not made a decision on whether to approve the pipeline expansion, although Bloomberg reports that the project is likely to be approved.

U of T’s Family Resource Centre to close permanently December 1 Drop-in support centre has been in operation since 2005 Katrina Wozniuk Varsity Contributor

U of T’s Family Resource Centre (FRC), located at 7 Glen Morris Street, will be closing December 1. The FRC, a child and parent drop-in centre for children under five, has been run by the Early Learning Centre at U of T. In an email sent out to parents who use the FRC, the Early Learning Centre explained that “the FRC will be permanently closing as of December 1, 2016 due to financial constraints.” Nellie Chang, a parent who uses the FRC’s services, emailed the Early Learning Centre to express her dissatisfaction with the closure. Chang wrote that she was “very sad to hear that the Early Learning Centre and the University of Toronto will close this amazing place in December.” She continued, “I do not believe an alternative centre with the same level of care and comfort [exists] in this part of the city. For the sake of the families that rely on the FRC now and for the new ones to come, I strongly urge you to reconsider the closure of the centre.” Althea Blackburn-Evans, Director of Media Relations at U of T, explained that the decision to close the FRC was not taken lightly. “We know how important the Family Resource Centre has been to families, especially the opportunity it offered to connect with other families,” she said. “The decision to permanently close the resource centre was a difficult one,” Blackburn-Evans continued. “The Early Learning Centre, like many childcare centres, is fac-

ing challenges times with the introduction of full-day kindergarten among other factors. We want to keep fees affordable and ensure we can continue to offer students lower fees.” Blackburn-Evans also clarified that there are other similar services at U of T. “Among other considerations was the fact that there are many similar drop-in programs offered by schools and community centres near the St. George campus that will provide families with alternative options,” she said. Jeannette Doherty, a parent who used the centre when she first came to Canada, told The Varsity, “I don’t think the university realizes how important this service is to the many families coming with new UofT students or employees, and can’t communicate strongly enough how big a loss it would be. There simply isn’t another service of this nature in Toronto to families like ours.” Parents who spoke with The Varsity also talked at length about the contributions of Teresa Biderman, the Family Resource Centre’s coordinator and only staff member. Sarah Donnelly, a mother of two, told The Varsity, “My son and I will very much miss not only the place to play, and the community, but also Teresa Biderman when the centre is closed. She is the vibrant spirit at the centre of everything and goes above and beyond her job description to make everything run smoothly and make everyone feel a welcomed member of the group.” The closing of the FRC will not affect the daycare services provided by the Early Learning Centre.

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The Family Resource Centre is located on the first floor of the Early Learning Centre.

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Indigenous and Northern Aﬀairs Minister speaks at Trinity College Bennett talks Nation-to-Nation, endangered languages, re-Indigenizing urban spaces Kaitlyn Simpson Associate News Editor

Federal Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett spoke at Trinity College on October 28. The event was part of a series called Conversations with the Chancellor Bill Graham; it consisted of a brief introduction made by Trinity Provost Mayo Moran, a discussion period, and a question and answer period. A reception was held when the formal event finished. Students, alumni, and special guests were in attendance; a variety of topics related to Indigenous affairs were discussed at length. Carolyn Bennett has been in politics for many years, beginning her career serving in the House of Commons in 1997. Bennett is currently a Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Toronto — St. Paul’s. Trinity College Chancellor Bill Graham is also an experienced politician for the Liberal Party, serving as Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre-Rosedale from 1993–2007 and holding senior cabinet portfolios under Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, as well as the party’s interim leader. The conversation between the two political figures began by broadly discussing the historical and current relationship between the government and Indigenous peoples. Bennett stressed that, in the past, the relationship has been blatantly paternalistic towards Indigenous peoples. However, Bennett

stated that under the leadership of Trudeau, every minister’s mandate reiterated that “the relationship between Indigenous people and Canada is the most important relationship.” Bennett explained, “It is about changing the nature of the relationship.” Bennett suggested that, in changing the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian government, a “Nation-to-Nation” approach is required. Bennett hopes that, in the future, the people working for her department would “be hired by the First Nations to go through that same work.” In response to her employees potentially working for Indigenous peoples at some point, Bill Graham made a joke, saying, “They’ve gone over to the enemy.” Bennett responded swiftly saying those attitudes are in the past. She added, “We actually see this as a partnership.” The preservation of Indigenous languages was also discussed; Bennett reiterated that the endangered languages and the extreme importance of Indigenous education are the responsibility of the government. Throughout the conversation, specific examples of Indigenous concerns and issues arose. There was discussion on pipelines, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Additionally, the history of the residential school system in Canada was mentioned. Bennett noted the effect of “intergenerational

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Carolyn Bennett seen in 2008 with then Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieﬀ. trauma” and that there’s “not a capacity to deal with this in a way that could break the cycle, in terms of the intergenerational effects of this.” Following the conversation with Graham, one attendee asked about the potential for re-Indigenizing urban spaces where people are often distanced from Indigenous issues. Bennett acknowledged that the “Indigenous

population in Toronto is the biggest Indigenous population in the country… but they’re totally invisible.” In terms of resolution, Bennett said that the government must change their “urbanAboriginal strategy.” Bennett explained how this relies on a “commitment to reconciliation.”

Manitoba directing U of M to freeze faculty salaries: U of M, Faculty Association Presidents UMFA exploring legal action days before November 1 strike deadline Garett Williams The Manitoban

WINNIPEG — The University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA) is accusing the province of illegitimately interfering in its collective bargaining process with the university after the Progressive Conservative (PC) government directed the University of Manitoba (U of M) to extend its existing contract for a year without a salary increase. In a joint release issued by U of M President David Barnard and UMFA President Mark Hudson Friday afternoon, the parties — who have been negotiating a new collective agreement since May — said the province forwarded a directive this week calling for a compensation freeze. “This 11th hour action represents illegitimate government interference in a constitutionally-protected process of collective bargaining,” Hudson said in the release. Issued after the first negotiating session since the two sides agreed to mediation earlier this week, the release says the province is looking to stabilize public sector compensation levels by asking public bodies, including the U of M, to stretch current contracts an additional year. “The [U of M] is an independent body whose board must have the autonomy to engage in all aspects of negotiation,” Hudson said. “The province has unnecessarily

endangered a complex negotiation through this misguided interference, and its action has jeopardized the educational goals of every [U of M] student.” Hudson continued, “UMFA is currently exploring legal options, and continues to focus on negotiating a fair deal for its members.” The two sides agreed to mediation earlier this week after the faculty union, representing close to 1,200 professors, researchers, and librarians, set a November 1 deadline to reach a new agreement before picket lines go up. “We now find ourselves in the unusual circumstance of having a newly articulated provincial mandate regarding public sector compensation levels that will have a profound impact on the final compensation levels that we will be able to negotiate, despite having already made what we believe to be a fair and reasonable offer,” Barnard said in the release. In September, the university presented the union with a four-year settlement offer, which included an average salary increase of 17.5 per cent over the four years. Saying the offer fell short of addressing issues critical to the union — including collegial governance and performance indicator concerns — the union responded with a oneyear proposal, which included an average 6.9 per cent salary increase. Manitoba Minister of Finance Cameron Fri-

MIGUEL YETMAN/THE MANITOBAN

esen said in an email from his office that the PCs, elected in April, inherited fiscal challenges that require stabilization over the long term. “Our government was given a clear mandate by Manitobans to fix the province’s finances, to secure and protect the services we all depend upon,” he said. “While we are not going to comment on these negotiations, we will continue to urge all public stakeholders to work cooperatively within this very challenging environment.” University of Manitoba Students’ Union president Tanjit Nagra called the intervention worrying and said the government interference

confirms her suspicions that the PC administration is no friend to the public service: “I am extremely worried about where this is going to put the 30,000 students next week.” “It sounds like there is going to be a strike and I don’t know how long it is going to last but it sounds like there won’t be an agreement any time soon and that worries me a lot because it will affect the term for many students,” Nagra continued. Since mediation began this week, the mediator has put both the university and faculty association under a media blackout surrounding negotiation status.

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October 31, 2016 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

Playing dress-up The sexualization of women's Halloween costumes is a troubling trend

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Daryna Kutsyna Varsity Contributor

“Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girl can say anything about it.” I’m sure most of us are familiar with this Mean Girls quote. The 2004 movie about catty high school girls has managed to maintain its cult classic status for well over a decade, in no small part because of its funny-but-true social commentary. Sexualized costumes are a staple of Halloween for many women, and this is particularly true among high school and college students. Though it may seem benign to some, the trend of being pressured to ‘dress sexy’ for the holiday is rooted in the objectification of women and problematic gender norms. Popular culture is littered with references to high school girls dressing in provocative costumes and sexualized takes on traditionally non-sexual characters. Virtually every wellknown show about high school life — Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars, to name a few — present a sexy costume as a rite of passage for gaining both social acceptance and the attention of primarily male romantic prospects. The sexy costume trend is especially troubling because it begins at an early age. For many girls, this is a fun and exciting transition to adulthood. Yet for others, it’s a push to give up childhood too early and narrow down their costume choices, all the while being intensely uncomfortable in a too-fitted latex dress. On the other hand, young men are not pressured to the same extent to dress up in a way that highlights their bodies. This is how we end up with the frustrating discrepancy in fabric coverage between a man’s and a woman’s

costume, when both intend to dress up as the same thing. Girls who do not embrace the trend with open arms are often afraid of being seen by their peers as childish or prudish, violating social norms that dictate how they are expected to look, despite the irrationality of these expectations. In high school, when self-esteem is extremely dependent on peer validation, the easiest thing to do is to go with the flow. Unfortunately, going with the flow is hardly a harmless option, considering the ways in which women’s sexuality is manipulated by society. Despite sexy costumes being more or less the norm, for instance, many individuals believe that when a woman dresses sexy, she is granting them the license to sexually target, objectify, or otherwise solicit her. Women in revealing costumes are catcalled, harassed, and subjected to persistent and unwanted attention. When they attempt to get out of such situations, they are told far too often that they ‘must have wanted it’, because they wore such a costume in the first place. For a long time, judging women’s costumes and their presumed promiscuity has been considered fair game. As evident in both the media and societal interactions, when a woman wears a sexy costume, observers feel entitled to comment, labelling her publicly and privately as a ‘slutty’ version of whatever she is supposed to be. Such gendered slurs are extremely common accompaniments to any costume that exposes a woman’s body. Then follows the problem of next-day judging. In the television show How I Met Your Mother, the characters Ted and Marshall have an annual tradition of sitting on a curb on November 1 to watch women do their ‘walk of shame’ in their ‘slutty’ costumes. Despite

shaming women for their outfits and what they choose to do in their sexual lives, this is seen as a funny, innocuous tradition. In a similar vein, many of us have likely overheard or engaged in such commentary. At this point, many will object: if a woman has a problem with being objectified and sexualized during Halloween, could she not just choose a costume that isn’t overtly revealing? This raises a catch-22 that many women are all too familiar with, but Mean Girls hits the nail on the head: when Cady shows up in a ‘vampire bride’ costume, she is incredibly out of place next to the women around her, who are mostly dressed in lingerie and animal ears. Women who don’t comply with the trend are perceived as anomalies, perhaps even as ruiners of the alleged ‘spirit’ of the holiday. Essentially, young women are in a lose-lose situation: flaunt a sexy costume and risk the slut-shaming that may come with it, or turn to a fairly limited number of non-provocative costumes and be seen as a prude. Furthermore, it’s important to remember that even women who exercise agency, who feel no pressure to dress in a sexualized manner but do so for their own pleasure, are subject to the same degrading treatment and judgment. Sexy costumes can and should be a fun, daring way to celebrate a holiday, and what a woman wears should be solely based on her choice and discretion. It’s time to leave age-old sexist norms at the coat check and embrace the knowledge that a woman’s clothing does not define her character, sexuality, or self. Daryna Kutsyna is a fourth-year student at Trinity College studying International Relations and History.

10 • THE VARSITY • COMMENT

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An accountability balancing act

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The Black Liberation Collective’s demand that the UTSU drop their lawsuit against Sandy Hudson is unreasonable

Tell us what you think. The Comment section is the perfect place at The Varsity for those who are just itching to express their opinions about what is happening in the world around them. If you want to get involved, here are some things you should know. 1)

You can write about (almost) anything. Common topics include politics, campus life, pop culture, and university aﬀairs. That said, you can pitch any ideas you have in mind, as long as you can make what you are writing about relevant to students, The Varsity’s primary audience.

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The BLC accused the UTSU of being anti-Black at a demonstration earlier this month.

You aren’t writing a diary entry or an essay. University students often get

Haseeb Hassaan Varsity Contributor

On October 11, 2016, the Black Liberation Collective (BLC) held a protest at the UTSU office. The protest called for a boycott of the students’ union and demanded that the UTSU do the following three things: First, “Immediately drop the ongoing lawsuit against Sandra Hudson — which alleges she owes students over a hundred thousand dollars in fees — and release a public statement of apology, acknowledging the deliberate targeting and criminalizing of Ms. Hudson, as well as taking full responsibility for the mental, physical, psychological, and economic anti-Black violence inflicted upon her.” Second, “Meaningfully address the systemic anti-Black racism within the UTSU by holding a town hall for the Black student body to open up a conversation of transparency on their responsibility and future commitment to challenging anti-Black racism.” And finally, “Make the UTSU operating budget public and release it every year prior to the student union election and following the aforementioned town hall, as well as commit to allocating annual funding for Black student groups to organize at the University of Toronto.” The BLC have some legitimate concerns about racism on campus. Alongside societal systemic barriers to participation and expression that Black and other students of colour face, U of T has a historical legacy of antiBlack racism that continues into the present. In this context we must also acknowledge the immense stress placed upon marginalized students when striving to obtain and maintain positions of power at the university. What is also pressing is that, during her tenure at the UTSU, Hudson bore a portion

of the brunt of the attacks that took place against the union. Simply look at UTSU politics from 2009 to 2013, all the raucous AGMs that took place during this period, and the language that was directed at them. In 2009, when the UTSU hosted a town hall about student grievances, Hudson was yelled at by a multitude of students. On another occasion, a brick was thrown through the UTSU office window while she was working. There was also oppression on the part of the administration; as Governing Council was voting to increase tuition fees, Hudson and others who fought for the students’ rights were reprimanded through the university’s code of conduct. All of this, on top of the stress of being a marginalized student on campus, would certainly have taken a toll on Hudson. Despite the legitimacy of these concerns, however, the BLC’s demand for the UTSU to drop the lawsuit against Hudson is not the right response. The UTSU alleges that Hudson was improperly paid $247,726.40 as part of a termination agreement made in April 2015, despite the former UTSU executive never having expressed dissatisfaction with her performance. This sum is equivalent to approximately 10 per cent of the UTSU operating budget. While rulings have not yet been made in terms of Hudson's liability, and it is unclear whether she engaged in wrongdoing, the magnitude of the accusation makes it clear that this issue is appropriate to be dealt with in a legal proceeding. The UTSU has a responsibility to pursue this course of action in order to secure accountability to the students it serves, and from whom it collects fees. Moreover, the other accusations made against the UTSU shed light on the fact that this issue is far more multifaceted than the BLC makes it seem. Some of the statements

made against the UTSU are devoid of context. For instance, the BLC claimed that the UTSU did not release its club funding for the Black Students’ Association in the fall of 2015, and that the amount allocated for them was substantially lower than previous years. The BLC pointed to “anti-Black racism” as the reason for the funding cut, despite the fact that the Vice-President Campus Life Akshan Bansal was impeached at the time and replaced by Alessia Rodriguez, thus delaying the release of funding for their group. The BLC was not the only club to get their funding slashed, as other large student groups have made similar complaints to this effect. The BLC also argues that, by supporting the creation of a St. George’s Students’ Union, the UTSU is backing an endeavour that will disenfranchise students at both UTM and UTSC, which have large populations of marginalized students. Yet no UTSU executive member currently supports the creation of the Students’ Union. Finally, the BLC criticized Robert Boissenault, former Associate VP Internal and Services, characterizing him as “anti-black, Islamophobic, sexist and [having] racist sentiments.” These accusations are baseless and ad hominem; there is no excuse for this type of language directed at an individual without any source. These questionable statements cast doubt on the BLC’s concerns as well as their requests for redress. The group has many valid reasons to bring issues of racism at U of T to light, but some of their demands of the UTSU may be misdirected. Haseeb Hassaan is a third-year student at St. Michael’s College studying Political Science.

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OCTOBER 31, 2016 • 11

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What happened in Paris Reactions to Kim Kardashian West’s robbery experience illustrate the trivialization of violence against women Avneet Sharma Varsity Columnist

“Can she, will she, rethink her social media ways?” asked Lianne Italie in a Toronto Star article regarding the recent robbery of Kim Kardashian West. “Unlikely.” Earlier this year, Kim Kardashian West was robbed at gunpoint in a private Paris residence by a group of male assailants. The men forced their way into the apartment, tied her up, locked her in a bathroom, and stole $10 million USD worth of jewelry. Since the event, there has been speculation about the role social media has played in the incident. With 84 million Instagram followers and 48 million Twitter followers, Kardashian West is known for the heavy documentation of her everyday life on social media. Yet, the important question isn’t whether Kardashian West should “rethink her social media ways.” Rather, it has to do with whether she should be required to do so. Framing the Kardashian West robbery in terms of her ‘irresponsible’ usage of social media contributes to a culture of victim-blaming when it comes to violence against women. Indeed, most responses to the attack place the onus on Kardashian West to have prevented the robbery, rather than on the robbers themselves for having perpetrated the crime. For instance, Robert Si-

ciliano, a security analyst who runs a firm in Boston, responded to Kardashian West’s use of social media in a CBC article: “It is beyond irresponsible. It is just crying out to be robbed.” Siciliano is specifically referring to Kardashian West’s documentation of her stay in Paris — including an Instagram update a few days before the attack of her sporting a 15-carat diamond engagement ring, and a Snapchat video released an hour prior to the attack of her alone in a Paris hotel suite, wearing a white bathrobe and the ring. Valued at $3 million, the ring was reported to be one of the items stolen by the gunmen. Siciliano’s statement that Kardashian West’s social media use is analogous to “crying out to be robbed” is uncomfortable, since it borrows similar ideas from victimblaming in rape culture. While safety is a major concern in the use of social media, Kardashian West did not give away her exact location in real time, nor did she actually cry out to be attacked. These statements attempt to justify Kardashian West’s robbery as a result of her own ‘foolish’ actions, which takes responsibility away from her attackers. The criticism of Kardashian West’s use of social media is paired with the misrepresentation of violence against women in the media. One of the most prevalent responses to the attack is whether or not it matters due to Kardashian West’s socioeconomic status. It is important to remember that, despite Kar-

dashian West’s social power and influence, she is still a woman being attacked by a group of men in an isolated situation. In this case, as with many cases of violence against successful women, the victim is dehumanized or discredited. The general public is so far removed from Kardashian West’s life that they treat her robbery with the same gravitas as a scene on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. One of the most severe reactions to what happened is an article that accuses Kardashian West of faking the robbery, lying about the assault, and filing a false claim with her insurance company. The website, which is being sued by Kardashian West for libel, lacks any factual support. The trivialization of the attack also takes physical form in a Halloween costume depicting Kardashian West being bound and gagged as a robbery victim. The costume, dubbed ‘Parisian Heist Robbery Victim Costume Kit’, was selling for $70.00 on Costumeish, and it essentially equated the robbery to a fun pop culture moment. The satirization of Kardashian West’s life should not extend to a situation in which her safety has been jeopardized. It is sometimes difficult to remember that Kardashian West is a human being, and this combined with the violent, gendered dynamics of the incident have made for a toxic combination. While Kardashian West’s celebrity status has certainly played a role in the ensuing media reaction, it is also eerily reflective of the way

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in which society reacts to violence against women. In the case of sexual assault in particular, much of the responsibility is placed on the survivors for not having prevented the assault, rather than on the perpetrators for committing it. Additionally, women are often dehumanized in most cases of violence, as the general public may be too far removed from the situation to put it into the correct context. What happened in Paris may

seem like an isolated incident, but Kardashian West’s celebrity status doesn’t make her an exception to the rule. In order to combat misogyny, we need to take a more critical look at the representation of women in the media, especially in cases of violence. Avneet Sharma is a second-year student at Trinity College studying English and Book and Media Studies. His column appears tri-weekly.

The silver lining to commuting Living oﬀ campus can have its benefits — all it takes is a shift in perspective Zara Narain Varsity Contributor

Commuting generally spells earlier mornings, longer days, and less sleep for many students at the University of Toronto; combined with the monetary constraints that arise from the costs of tuition and textbooks, commuting is often incurred as a necessary evil. While the average commute varies, students travelling from destinations such as Scarborough, Brampton, and Mississauga can lose upwards of three hours each day on public transportation. Commuting detracts from students’ time and energy, which can constrain their ability to balance the demands of academic life with extracurricular involvement. In such a predicament, a silver lining may seem elusive, yet commuting may actually help increase a student’s productivity and involvement on campus.

Universities hail time management as an essential skill for undergraduate success. While this skill is important for all students, it is especially meaningful for those who commute. Clearly pressed for time, these students have greater incentive to utilize theirs more productively. As such, a draining commute can lead to academic success and improved extracurricular involvement by challenging students to develop better time management skills. Commuters are likely to find themselves in two different scenarios during a typical school week. In the first, commuters file through a full day on campus, which, apart from classes, labs, and tutorials, is likely to consist of long gaps in one’s schedule. Although students may choose to treat these gaps as free time by procrastinating on the Internet, this time can also be productively used to refuel before hitting the books, which will allow commuters to more easily complete their tasks.

In this way, commuting serves as a daily reminder that students need to prioritize their tasks and manage their time effectively. As students improve these skills, their attitudes and grades will follow suit. In the second scenario, commuters may find their day on campus too brief. Because commuter students face more barriers to getting involved on campus — mainly due to very late meetings — they often take off right after class in order to get home on time. Yet, a connection to one’s school is often established through activities, clubs, and organizations, and scheduling accordingly can enable commuters to become more proactive in seeking out opportunities that do suit their schedules. The U of T Co-Curricular Record (CCR) site aids students in this process; not only does the CCR database allow students to search for opportunities specific to ‘Commuter Life’, but students are also able to

narrow their searches to opportunities offered on days and times that fit their schedules. Students will find that commuting an hour and a half downtown for an hour-long tutorial will seem less taxing when they decide to volunteer some time to a student group beforehand. Thus, perhaps paradoxically, the added difficulty of getting involved may lead commuters to be more dedicated to their extra curricular commitments. Finally, access to campus resources — namely libraries and other quiet study spaces — is sometimes overlooked and taken for granted by those living in residence due to their close proximity. However, commuter students may come to view such resources as luxuries. College writing centres and instructor office hours can hold new value for commuter students when they are viewed as advantageous ways to fill gaps in schedules or as coveted opportunities when time is limited. In

either case, a new appreciation for resources leads to more usage, and ideally, rewarding academic results. While commuting is not always an ideal reality for students, through a change in habit and perspective, commuter students can lessen the burden imposed by their commute. This does not mean, however, that the onus to accommodate commuter students shifts to the students themselves. Executives on studentled groups, for instance, should consider commuter student needs; all that may be required is simply pushing meeting times earlier. As the costs associated with university continue to rise, there will be no shortage of commuter students to benefit from such changes. Zara Narain is a second-year student at Victoria College studying Ethics, Society, and Law, History, and Philosophy.

t’s nearing the end of the 1850s, and construction workers are bustling to finish building University College. Among them are stonemasons Paul Diabolos and Ivan Reznikoff. Diabolos is waif-like and ambivalent, while Reznikoff is hulking and surly. Diabolos finds Reznikoff’s face so monstrous that he carves a gargoyle in his image next to a chimney near Croft Chapter House. Diabolos carries on an affair with a woman named Susie, who is betrothed to Reznikoff. Reznikoff learns of this and confronts Diabolos on a deserted worksite. Brimming with anger, Reznikoff grabs an axe and chases Diabolos through the skeletal University College, avoiding stray construction material and crumbling stones. On the third floor of University College, Diabolos hides. Once he hears Reznikoff lumber up the stairs, he jumps from his hiding spot and stabs Reznikoff with a dagger, killing him. Diabolos throws Reznikoff’s corpse down the stairwell, where it is concealed for over three decades. The body isn’t discovered until 1890 when a fire destroys part of University College. Reznikoff’s body is eventually buried in the University College quadrangle, but his spirit still wanders the halls of University College. At least, that’s how the story goes. The story of Reznikoff and Diabolos has been told for decades and is passed on today through campus ghost tours or upper years looking to scare incoming students. The tradition of telling ghost stories, of course, extends beyond U of T. Ghosts have demanded our attention since the beginnings of human civilization. Ghost stories were a prominent part of ancient societies as far back as Mesopotamia, and they still play a part in many modern cultures. Ghosts are a ubiquitous source of intrigue for believers and casual skeptics across the world across history. Whether we believe in them or not, we’ve kept ghosts alive through speculation and merely listening to them.

Sophia Savva Varsity Contributor

Why we care A great number of us care about ghosts, whether we admit it or not. A recent poll, conducted by the Angus Reid Institute in August of this year, revealed that approximately 30 per cent of Canadians believe in ghosts. Personal beliefs aside, popular ghost-hunting television shows like Ghost Adventures and the large demand for ghost tours around Toronto show that people have a fascination with ghosts. The University of Toronto History Society started their own Halloween Campus Ghost Tour; it garnered so much interest that they had to ticket the event. John Robert Columbo, author of Ghost Stories of Canada, calls Toronto the “scariest city in Canada” in a 2008 interview with the Toronto Star. According to Colombo, Toronto has the largest number of reported ghost stories in Canada. Matthew James Didier is the founder of the Toronto Ghosts & Hauntings Research Society (TGHRS), a research group dedicated to investigating local ghosts from an “agonistic” angle. TGHRS focuses on historical accounts, folklore, eyewitness accounts, and scientific investigations of local “ghostly” events. Didier notes that all sorts of diﬀerent people have reached out to TGHRS, including people he wouldn’t expect. Some of his clients are reluctant to admit any belief in the paranormal for fear of what it personally and professionally reveals about them. These people wrestle for logical explanations or seek TGHRS for rationalization of what could have caused their experiences. But why do they care? Why not just write oﬀ these experiences as coincidences or a trick of the light? “One could discuss the reminder of our existential being, concerns about whether or not spiritual beliefs (or non-beliefs) need to be re-examined, or concerns because some beliefs state that anything seemingly beyond comprehension is somehow evil or bad, so the concern is almost about safety,” says Didier.

Richard Fiennes-Clinton is the creator of Muddy York Walking Tours, which runs ghost tours at UTSG. As he makes his way through U of T’s most haunted sites, Fiennes-Clinton sometimes wonders if the ghosts he talks about really exist, if they’re listening to their stories being passed on. However, he adds that he enjoys not knowing for sure if ghosts exist. “It’s almost as if something would be lost if the category of ghosts were another subject that we could clinically prove or disprove, one way or another. I think that a great part of the thrill is definitely in the not knowing, and I will always look forward to holding on to the mystery,” says Fiennes-Clinton. Fiennes-Clinton says this curiosity about the unknown is probably what draws others to ghost stories as well. “I would say that everyone wonders about the mysteries and life and death to some extent, and the chance to learn of what might come next is probably alluring to many people,” he explains. “People are drawn to explore things that they don’t know the answer to.” Anastasia Liu is the founder of the U of T History Society’s Campus Ghost Tour, where she is a tour guide, researcher, and organizer. Liu, similarly to Fiennes-Clinton, thinks the opportunity for speculation is what draws people to ghost stories. She uses the story of Robertson Davies as an example. Davies was the founding master of Massey College at U of T. He loved to tell ghost stories at the college’s yearly Christmas parties and even joked that he would one day come back to haunt Massey College himself. Ever since his death in 1995, students and faculty have reported strange sightings and noises from inside the halls of Massey College; tales of Davies’ haunting still linger today. Liu points out that Davies’ life might not be as widely discussed, if stories about his haunting did not exist. Davies coming back as a ghost leads to questioning: why is Davies still haunting Massey College? Is there an

afterlife afterall? The ghost story invites us to wonder. Justin Stein, a doctoral candidate at the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, says, “The idea that consciousness or other forms of human energies can survive bodily death” cannot, in a sense, be disproved. Like Fiennes-Clinton and Liu, Stein thinks the unknown — the inability to know for sure if you will live on after death — is something that most people are interested in naturally. Humans are often afraid of the unfamiliar and the unexpected, especially when it comes to something as inevitable, yet unpredictable, as death. According to recent statistics from September 2016, necrophobia is the second most common phobia in the United States, with almost 70 per cent of the population reporting a fear of death. In the previously mentioned Angus Reid Institute poll, approximately 77 per cent of Canadians believe that “certain things that happen on Earth cannot be explained by science.” Ghosts create a narrative of what happens after death and oﬀer an answer to questions about life after death that science can’t explain. It makes sense, then, that a large part of society cares about them. Why has the ghost story persisted? The image of a listless, ghostly woman with long, disheveled black hair draped in a white robe may be familiar. She will usually have her arms

outstretched, hands limp, sometimes with eerie flames lapping around her. In Japanese folklore, she’s known as a ‘yūrei’, a spirit that haunts certain places or people until her unfinished business is resolved. The first yūrei stories were told in the 1750s, and they’re still an important part of Japanese culture today. Versions of the yūrei also appear in horror movies like The Grudge and The Ring. Other legends, like werewolves and vampires, sparked public hysteria in early societies but are now viewed as nothing more than fictional characters. In Europe during the mid-1600s, supposed werewolves were arrested, tried, and sometimes executed. When tuberculosis broke out in New England in the early 1800s, people were afraid corpses would reanimate to suck the life out of the living, much like vampires. To protect themselves, people dug up graves and beheaded the corpses if they seemed too lifelike. Unlike ghosts, few people in modern Western society speculate about the existence of werewolves or vampires anymore. Stories about such creatures usually only appear around Halloween, whereas ghost stories seem almost omnipresent. So why have ghost stories persisted? Why do we keep coming back to them? Marlene Goldman is an English professor at U of T and the author of DisPossession: Haunting in Canadian Fiction, a book exploring the overwhelming occurrence of ghosts and themes of haunting and possession in Canadian fiction. In DisPossession, Goldman focuses on ghost stories resulting from the unresolved clash between Aboriginal peoples and settling invaders, specifically immigrant or diasporic experiences, “the alienation of the female body,” and why ghost stories seem to be predominantly explored by women writers. “I think

some of the stories I was told are absolutely unforgettable. Ghost stories carry an emotional charge that other stories potentially can’t carry, like romance, or comedy, even tragedy,” says Goldman. “[Ghost stories are] potent vehicles for carrying individual, cultural, and sometimes national information. I look at them as, sort of, a machine to carry information.” Goldman also says you can look at ghosts as “figures from the past” with something to say to future generations. According to her, ghosts stop us in our tracks: we have to freeze and listen to what they have to tell us. “Ghosts can really [present] moral instruction when we least want to hear about it,” says Goldman. “[Ghost stories] might be horrifying because we don’t want to listen to what they have to say, or we feel guilty about ignoring certain things — that would probably pertain in the case of settler-invader ghost stories — but I think they’re omnipresent and will continue to play a role in the way we tell stories.” Liu personally tells ghost stories for her love of history and her interest in immortalizing those who would otherwise be forgotten. But she thinks people first started telling ghost stories out of “hope and fear.” “Telling ghost stories encourages the belief in ghosts — the hopeful belief that after someone died, they can still be with you. This sort of comfort can certainly help in the grieving process,” says Liu. “For the same reason, these stories can be told to elicit fear: be a good person, for if you wronged someone, they’ll be back for you, or if someone wronged you, you can come back for them.” “I believe ghosts represent hope in its darkest, most desperate form which I think is beautiful and immensely interesting,” explains Liu. Once again, room for speculation also fuels the persistence of our fascination with

the ghost story. “Once, I attended a panel of horror authors who unanimously agreed that they enjoy writing the genre because of its room for speculation,” Liu elaborates. “No one knows what ghosts are really like or if they even exist so the storyteller can really unleash their creativity with ghost fiction, especially because ghost stories are like mysteries.” A reflection of society Ghost stories are sometimes a product of their time. In the nineteenth century, according to research mentioned in a BBC article written by Hephzibah Anderson, 70 per cent of British and American ghost stories published in magazines were penned by women. Oftentimes, they allowed women to express thoughts and break traditional gender roles in a restrictive society. The ghosts themselves also reflected women’s role in society. Like women in the nineteenth century, ghosts were outcasts. They could observe everything, yet could not participate in many sectors of society. “Assuming ghosts aren’t real, the psychological basis for hallucinating these familiar faces is… interesting to investigate,” says Liu. “[The psychological basis] could be guilt, it could be hope, it could even just be hallucinations. Therefore, I find the people who have seen ghosts of people they know just as interesting as their stories.” An article by Kira Cochrane for The Guardian investigates the popularity of ghost stories in the Victorian era. It reports that various commercial, economic, technological, and scientific changes in society could have contributed to society’s fascination with ghosts. In the nineteenth century, people started to believe that ghosts were inside of you, which strongly relates to the later psychological theories of Sigmund Freud.

The introduction of the telegraph and the use of Morse code also instilled the idea that spirits could communicate from beyond the grave, just as people could now communicate from miles away. The common use of gas lamps, which produced carbon monoxide, could have caused hallucinations that people mistook for ghostly encounters. As for our present day society, FiennesClinton says that our persistent fascination with ghosts could be because ghosts are often mirrors of ourselves. “In most ghost stories, the ghosts themselves are passionate, driven people,” says Fiennes-Clinton. “They are driven by unresolved passion, by revenge, or guilt, or unfinished business, or the need to resolve something that they never got the chance to work out in life. Ghosts may represent the dead but they cling to life and are desperate to interact with the world of the living.” “Regardless of whether or not [ghosts are] real in the same sense that the physical world is real, they certainly exist on the level of social meaning,” says Stein. “I’m comfortable somewhat assigning agency to spirits regardless of whether we can verify their existence through scientific means.” Rather than worry about whether ghosts are real or not, Goldman urges readers to think about the “most powerful ghost stories of our time” and what they have to tell us about our fears and desires. “What’s going on in our culture that we’re really wrestling with certain kinds of horror stories, or ghost stories?” asks Goldman. “[I invite] readers to really begin to think about what these have to say about our culture in particular.”

COMPOSITE ILLUSTRATION BY MUBASHIR BAWEJA AND ELHAM NUMAN, PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES

The Varsity investigates why ghosts and ghost stories continue to fascinate humanity

Arts&Culture

October 31, 2016 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

Faith fuels art at St. Mike’s College commissions first Artist-in-Residence in its 165-year history

Farhad Nargol-O’Neill is currently working on sculptures for St. Michael's Cathedral . Sabrina Ramroop Varsity Contributor

This year, St. Michael’s College is hosting its first ever Artist-in-Residence: Farhad Nargol-O’Neill. Nargol-O’Neill is a Torontobased sculptor who has worked on projects in different areas of the world, including Italy and Ireland. He is currently working on sculptures for the north and south transept doors of St. Michael’s Cathedral. Each door will have 10 panels, each panel telling a different story. According to Nargol-O’Neill, “This is the first time that the rosary is being carved in its entirety.” I walked into his studio and was greeted by eight large plaster blocks. Each block lay side-by-side on the table before me and had carvings of different figures in different settings. I looked at each panel one at a time, examining the intricate details and various depths-of-fields that they had. Awestruck, I asked him, “How does this all begin?” “I’ve been working with the St. Michael’s Cathedral for three years... Father Michael Busch, the rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral... [gave me] two goals,” he said. His first goal was to follow the Gospel stories. The second was to find a way to make this art particularly special to St. Michael’s Cathedral. With this in mind, Nargol-O’Neill began planning the transept doors. “The first step,” he said, “is the narrative — the Gospel story... This involves reading the stories, taking notes on each person — who they are, their relationships, what they feel. Father Michael Busch once told me to try to be present at the time of the story. Remember that they are normal people… with faults and vices.” Nargol-O’Neill described using art to convey this: “The plaster is poured and left to PHOTOS BY SABRINA RAMROOP/THE VARSITY

dry, and then I begin carving directly into it... There’s no room for error!” He explained that the planning process is as meticulous as the carving itself. In one of his panels, for example, titled “The Third Glorious Mystery – The Descent of the Holy Spirit,” Nargol-O’Neill described the image by quoting the Bible: “‘Old men will dream and young men will prophesize’... I believe that, when they say elderly people are ‘fading,’ I question this. Are they fading? Or are they merely becoming closer to God? The figure on the bottom of my work illustrates this... It is an old man that is carved very shallow. The young man, however, appears more vivid.” It’s this level of planning that goes into every single panel. “I do bas-relief, it’s a style of carving, carving out light and shadow,” he said. It involves imagining the position of each panel and understanding how it appears to the audience. Nargol-O’Neill noted that each panel appears differently every time one looks at it. I gave it a try and saw exactly what he meant — each figure looked different. Some of them appeared flat while others appeared more three-dimensional. This changed perspective of the piece as a whole, helping to shift the focal point of each panel. Finally, I asked, “How do these pieces relate to St. Michael’s Cathedral?” He showed me something I had not noticed upon my first glance. “These are Gospel stories that I’ve carved. Yet, I’ve allowed them to take place in the St. Michael’s Cathedral.” The first panel illustrates this, with the cathedral carved to accuracy — this includes the large stained glass windows and the pillars within. Nargol-O’Neill added that of all the planning and sketching that goes in to this project, “faith is the ultimate tool.” He added, “I’m not saying this because I am being commissioned, but because I mean it.”

"The Third Glorious Mystery – The Descent of the Holy Spirit."

OCTOBER 31, 2016 • 15

var.st/arts

A ubiquitous soundtrack Like the sound itself, the history of white noise has largely gone unnoticed A blow dryer, a dead channel, and muﬄed voices are all examples of white noise. ANDREW WEBER/CC PEXELS Lisa Power Arts & Culture Editor

‘White noise’ is a random signal with equal intensity maintained at multiple frequencies; the sounds of a blow dryer, a dead channel, muffled voices, or a fan are all examples. If you pause for a moment and listen to the dull hum of the outside world, that is an example of white noise. It has a storied history in multiple disciplines, from music engineering to statistical forecasting. It has also been used as a tool for artists, activists, and those who desire a good night’s sleep. On October 17, Merzbow’s album Pulse Demon, an example of noise music, was played to disrupt a rally on campus. The resulting effect was divisive: some supported

the move and others found it offensive. It also left some wondering what constitutes the many ambiguous sounds that we recognize as white noise. White noise, by nature, affects everyone differently. It’s also nothing new. Depending on what one considers white noise, like muffled voices, its origins date back to the beginning of humanity. Contemporary examples land around the rise of telecommunications and manufactured electronic signals, such as radio and television, which gained prominence in the mid to late nineteenth century. When Marcel Duchamp signed ‘R.Mutt’ on a urinal in 1917 and called it art, he effectively ushered in the era of post-modernism and its use of ready-made items. White noise — and more specifically, white noise

machines — gained popularity for their powerful metaphorical significance, which alludes to ideas surrounding the randomness of the world and the disconnect many experience from it. Over the years, white noise has been anything but static and has evolved in unexpected ways. Noise music originated in Italy when Futurists composer Luigi Russolo published L’Arte dei Rumori or The Art of Noises in 1913. The manifesto discussed how the industrial revolution had allowed humans to distinguish, understand, appreciate, and utilize complex sounds. The result was a genre that creates experimental music by using non-musical vocal techniques and a variety of unconventional instruments, like sound machines that produce hisses, static, distortion, and feedback.

Using white noise as a protest is not unusual. Probably the most recognizable example of white noise is the dead channel, also known as a ‘broadcast signal intrusion.’ This happens when a satellite signal is disrupted, sometimes by technical difficulties, other times intentional. One famous example occurred in 1986, when a local hero calling himself ‘Captain Midnight’ hijacked HBO’s satellite feed in protest of their exorbitant fee of $12.95 per month. Conversely, white noise is often cited as an effective sleep aid. Most high-end alarm clocks feature a ‘white noise mode’, and there are many videos around the web that play white noise for sleep. Baby monitors are fitted with white noise, the assumption being that the ambient background noise brings peace and calm. Since white noise is essentially a distorted signal, it takes a physical form whenever a picture or electronic image is unable to stabilize — a grainy, black and white pixelated image or speckles on a screen. Considered to be one of the earliest surviving examples of a photograph, “View from the Window at Le Gras” (1827) contained mostly white noise since the technology to accurately capture and stabilize light was still developing. White noise is often used as a trope throughout different media. Thriller movies, for example, often use white noise as a device to convey discomfort or agitation, like a dead television signal or an empty dial tone. Paranormal beings are usually only visible through a distorted screen, such as in The Ring. And sometimes it can become a character itself, like in Netflix’s Stranger Things when characters use ham radios that transmit high-frequency, crackling sound effects as they try to communicate with those stuck in the alternative reality called ‘The Upside Down.’ It is befitting that white noise has become a major part of pop culture without us even realizing it, since it does not desire centre stage. White noise is essentially humanity’s bass, forming the background beat that underscores our everyday lives.

Margin of Eras brings forth unseen talent The event instills hope for a future of meritocracy within the art scene Kiana Shahbazi Varsity Contributor

Between 2013–2015, only 11 per cent of artists featured in solo exhibitions in major art galleries across Canada were people of colour (POC), which reflects how the art world places POC at a systematic disadvantage. One possible solution to this problem is events like Margin of Eras, a multidisciplinary art exhibit founded by CUE. It seeks to remedy the epidemic of exclusivity experienced by many in Toronto’s art scene. Margin of Eras opening night took place at Super Wonder Gallery on October 21. The space acted as a canvas for the artists’ eclectic and soulful displays. Photographer Jah Grey’s label read: “I’m working to redefine masculinity and embrace vulnerability.” Other labels included Katelyn Gallucci’s investigation of one’s innate “desire to collapse time and create a clear path to the future” and Anthony Saracino’s exploration of “transgressions within institutions of control, and their effects on contemporary thinking.” Jason Samilski, co-founder of CUE, spoke about Margin of Eras and how it aims to address and rectify the historical exclusion of marginalized Torontonians “in the context of modern capitalism.” He emphasized how the exhibition fully

funds those who value humanity over bureaucracy. “Some of the best art is happening on the margins,” Samilski told The Varsity. “All we need to do is shift our systems to support these folks and bring them into this cultural narrative, so that we see art and culture that accurately reflects the demographic makeup of our diverse city.” The distinction of Margin of Eras comes from its political commitment to high access. Samilski noted that most art institutions have overly complicated, exclusive applications that are “in some ways antithetical to the artistic process itself.” In understanding the lack of resources provided for marginalized people, CUE makes the application as accessible and simple as possible. Leading up to the event, the CUE team members reached out to their peers, providing “the support and encouragement they need to rise up and even start considering themselves as artists in the first place.” For instance, individuals lacking a strong suit in literacy can apply through a verbal interview or attend an in-person mentorship session to get direct help in the submission process. With this event, CUE transcended the conventional approach of thematic curation and gave artists support to create with a liberated frame of mind.

“Some of the best art is happening on the margins.” PHOTO COURTESY OF CUE

16 â&#x20AC;˘ THE VARSITY â&#x20AC;˘ ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

Extraordinary Student of the Month: Ksenia Seliverstova George Moshenski-Dubov Varsity Contributor

Extraordinary Student of the Month is a monthly series in The Varsityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Arts & Culture section that highlights the exceptional roles University of Toronto students play in making their community better. Ksenia Seliverstova is a third-year Woodsworth College student majoring in Human Biology: Health and Disease and minoring in Russian Literature and Immunology, who prides herself on community service. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not an exceptional student, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a good student who tries to help out,â&#x20AC;? she said. Silverstova began volunteering in high school at her local church by running food drives and helping out in homeless shelters. When she arrived at UTSG, she joined Woodsworthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Community Outreach in hopes of continuing her work. Seliverstova ended up chairing the Community Outreach and received specialized training on how to approach someone who is homeless: sit with them, engage in conversation, or offer spare change. In the summer between her first and second year, Seliverstovaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s passion for helping others grew and her friends began to become

involved as well. Alongside Seliverstova, Ahash Jeevakanthan, Amy Ly, Janaat Uthayakumaran, and Conrad Chow created Helping Hands of UofT, an organization that raises funds and awareness for various disabilities. The group was created with the intention of giving funds raised to multiple causes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We can do a bunch of things, like marathons or helping out hospitals or having more accessible needs for buildings,â&#x20AC;? said Seliverstova. Last year, Seliverstova and the rest of Helping Hands hosted a bake sale to raise money and awareness for Reach for the Rainbow, a not-for-profit organization devoted to helping children with disabilities. That same semester, Helping Hands collected donations for the Canadian Cancer Society. Seliverstova also pledged to cut off 14 inches of her hair for donation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of people donated because they wanted to see me with short hair, but I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want people to associate [it] with that, so I kept telling them itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for a good cause,â&#x20AC;? she told The Varsity. As a result of all their efforts, Helping Hands quickly surpassed their goal of $500, donating around $1,300 to the Canadian Cancer Society. When asked why she decided

STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY

Seliverstovaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest piece of advice is to â&#x20AC;&#x153;get involved.â&#x20AC;? to chop off her hair, Seliverstova said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;What is it to me if I can help one girl?â&#x20AC;Ś Take my hair, make a wig, be happy. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m just happy with the amount of money we raised for cancer awareness.â&#x20AC;? Seliverstova advises fellow students to: â&#x20AC;&#x153;do the little things to make other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s days better,â&#x20AC;? like holding open a door for someone. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll make you feel better about yourself... Once you build up

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The Side Piece

Seliverstova sought to provide fellow students with a helping hand

enough confidence, you can do a lot more, you can volunteer and you'll feel even better.â&#x20AC;? If you know an extraordinary student on campus and wish to nominate them, email arts@thevarsity. ca; provide their name, email, and why they deserve to be featured.

Did you know? Media Commons at U of T is loaded with a huge collection of rare and obscure media. Located on the third floor of Robarts, the Commons holds microfilm, online videos, television items, DVDs, and more. It also hosts events and screenings in its theatre. Note that while staďŹ&#x20AC; and students with T-Cards may borrow materials from the collection, some restrictions apply. Protip: While at university, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just hide in the library. Take advantage of leadership opportunities and training. New College, for example, oďŹ&#x20AC;ers the Leadership Certificate Program that trains students to lead eďŹ&#x20AC;ectively and become a recognized student leader. After you graduate, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s these skills that will set you apart in the competitive job market. Events: Resisting Oppression and Reclaiming Spirituality (ROARS) November 1 (first and third Tuesday of every month) 563 Spadina Avenue, room 100 An evening with photographer Peter MacCallum November 3 Media Commons Theatre, Robarts Library, third floor Gender Talk: Accessing Resources November 4 21 Sussex Avenue, room 421 Much Ado About Nothing November 4â&#x20AC;&#x201C;19 Hart House Downtown Toronto Record Show November 6 Estonian House Banquet Hall Dirty Laundry Poetry: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Multicoloursâ&#x20AC;? November 12 Location disclosed upon ticket purchase

Science

October 31, 2016 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

Canadian Science, one year later A student’s summary of the Liberal Party’s progress in science policy

NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan (right) holds a role that did not exist in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet. Anastassia Pogoutse Varsity Contributor

It has been a year since the federal Liberal Party came into power. Although less than 10 per cent of the party’s platform focused on science, the goals they set in this area were ambitious. Broadly speaking, their scientific pledges centred on exercising evidencebased decision-making and supporting scientists. A year in, the Liberals have fulfilled some of their pledges, but have fallen short on others. Below is an assessment of where the government stands in completing their science-related campaign promises. Chief Science Oﬃcer One of the Liberals’ platform promises was to appoint a Chief Science Officer (CSO), a position that would be similar to Chief Scientific Advisor in the United Kingdom and Science Advisor to the President of the United States. According to the Liberal Party, the CSO would report to the Prime Minister and be responsible for ensuring that government science is more accessible, scientists are able to speak freely about their work, and government decisions have a scientific basis. The previous government was widely criticized for restricting government scientists and preventing them from responding to the media. Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan says that she has been consulting with many different groups on this issue, but no appointment has been made yet. On top of the responsibilities outlined in the Liberal Party platform, a letter from the Royal Society of Canada also calls the future CSO to push for more funding for basic research funding and to launch an investigation into the closing of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans libraries, among other suggestions. Whoever is appointed to this position has a great deal of work cut out for them. Moreover, it is clear that these goals cannot be accomplished by a single per-

son. There must be a fundamental shift in how the Canadian government treats scientists and scientific information. Protecting freshwater and oceans On this year’s United Nations’ World Water Day, the government announced a $197.1 million investment in ocean and freshwater research to be rolled out over five years. Another $81.3 million will also go towards supporting marine conservation over five years. This funding announcement is leading to the expansion of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which is hiring 135 new employees. Part of this funding is also going towards the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Experimental Lakes Area, whose funding was cut by the federal government two years ago. The Experimental Lakes Area is an outdoor laboratory of 58 small lakes that have been devoted to scientific research on the impacts of climate change, pollutants, invasive species, and other perturbations in lake ecosystems. The long-form census and Statistics Canada The Liberals pledged to restore the mandatory long-form census and make Statistics Canada independent. One of Statistics Canada’s biggest projects is the census, which is conducted every five years. It is used to collect demographic data that is then used to make decisions about public services and other issues. For the census, one in four households receive a 36-page questionnaire. In 2011, the Conservative government made the longform census voluntary, and the response rate dropped from 93.5 per cent in 2006 to 77 per cent. The decreased response resulted in lower-quality data. Fulfilling a Liberal campaign promise, the long-form census was again made mandatory in 2016. This year, the response rate to the long-form census was the highest ever,

recorded at 97.8 per cent. The restoration of the long-form census falls in line with the Liberal government’s pledge to pursue evidence-based decisionmaking. However, they appear to be falling short on their other promise to “make Statistics Canada fully independent,” a drastic shortcoming marked by the resignation of the organization’s chief statistician Wayne Smith this past September. Smith cited the limitations imposed by a centralized IT service, known as Shared Services Canada, as the reason for his departure. Shared Services Canada was created in 2011 to consolidate and streamline government IT services. However, Smith argued that this agency has impeded the ability of Statistics Canada to carry out its work. He also believes that the centralized IT system makes the data collected by Statistics Canada vulnerable to privacy breaches. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said little about this issue, and it remains to be seen if the Liberal government will address Smith’s concerns. Climate change and sustainable technology The Liberals have pledged to take action on climate change by “putting a price on carbon,” reducing pollution, and investing in research in sustainable technology. Trudeau has announced that provinces must adopt either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system by 2018, otherwise the federal government will impose its own tax. This is set to be $10 per tonne in 2018 and will increase to $50 per tonne by 2022. A carbon tax already exists in British Columbia. However, not all provinces and territories are supportive of this plan, with some saying that they cannot afford it. As part of their investment in research, the Liberal Party has promised to establish Canada Research Chairs in sustainable technology. The first Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Chemistry was awarded this year to Dr. Zachary Hudson of the University of British Columbia. The government has also

taken steps to set up a panel to review how environmental assessment is performed in Canada. In the past, environmental assessments have been accused of being too lengthy and failing to protect important ecosystems. The panel will consult with First Nations groups and work closely with other departments, such as Fisheries and Oceans, Natural Resources, and Transport Canada. Coming close, but falling short The Liberal platform pledged $40 million each year to help employers create more co-op placements in STEM and business programs for young Canadians. However, since coming into office, the Liberals have announced $73 million in funding over five years — $14.6 million per year — for this program, which is a significantly smaller amount. Furthermore, the $200 million a year that was promised to startup incubators and accelerators and the $100 million pledged to the Industrial Research Assistance Program have been redistributed and postponed. Finally, the $15 million in funding promised to the Public Health Agency of Canada in each of the next two years, which was to go towards a campaign to boost vaccination rates, has been decreased to $25 million over five years. It is too soon to give the Liberals a grade on how well they’ve supported science in Canada. While some campaign promises have been fulfilled, other critical reforms are still pending. The steps taken so far have been a refreshing change following the funding cuts introduced by the Conservative government. However, if Trudeau and his party truly want to support evidence-based decisionmaking, scientific research, and innovation, they have a long way to go. Some of the most pressing issues include appointing a Chief Science Officer and addressing the concerns of Statistics Canada.

18 • THE VARSITY • SCIENCE

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The future of precision medicine Siddhartha Mukherjee delivers the 2016 Krembil Lecture at the Toronto Public Library Fatin Tawfig and Samyuktha Movva Varsity Contributors

Imagine waging a war in which you were required to craft uniquely tailored weapons to attack each individual soldier of the opposition. According to Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, the 2011 Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University, this scenario parallels the efforts currently being undertaken by researchers to combat cancer using precision medicine. Sponsored by the Krembil Foundation, Mukherjee spoke at the Toronto Reference Library on October 17 as part of Toronto Public Library’s The Cutting Edge series, a combination of programs and curated collections that explore ideas at the intersection of healthcare and technology. In his talk, Mukherjee used the historical development of cancer treatment as a lens through which to examine the emergence and onward trajectory of precision medicine. In contrast to blanket medical treatments that are intended to apply to all patients, precision medicine involves the designing of treatments that consider factors specific to each individual, catering to their unique environment, lifestyle, and even genes. The lecture outlined the progression of cancer treatment from ancient practices to modern technologies. In ancient Greece, the physician Galen theorized that cancer resulted from an imbalance of the four carnal fluids; specifically, he believed it resulted

POP TECH/CC FLICKR

Siddhartha Mukherjee believes that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to cancer. from an excess of black bile in the body. As a result, cancer therapies at the time consisted of surgically removing the tumour and subsequently the blood of the patient in an attempt to restore homeostasis within the body. Jumping forward to the nineteenth century, Rudolf Virchow rejected Galen’s theory and proposed instead that cancer had a cellular basis. Virchow argued that cells emerged from other cells, which led to the radical implication that cancer cells must arise from normal cells. Following on the heels of Virchow’s insight, William Halsted popularized a form of breast can-

cer treatment called radical mastectomy. Halsted operated under the theory that surgical treatments for breast cancer were not effective in the past because they were too moderate. The term radical, in this instance, must be understood with respect to its Latin stem ‘radix’, which means ‘root.’ Halsted’s surgeries — which consisted of entirely removing the breast and much of its surrounding tissue and muscles — intended to pull the cancer out by its very roots. However, this approach was informed by a primitive understanding of the nature of cancer; it was largely ineffective because it failed

to recognize that removal of the breast is futile in cases where the cancer has already metastasized into other parts of the body. Chemical therapies also emerged to treat cancer, in which chemical poisons, including mustard gas, were used to kill cancer cells. Cancer cells quickly became resistant to single poisons, so treatments were instead devised to involve the administration of chemical cocktails to cancer patients. Using this approach, physicians were sometimes able to produce temporary remissions. It was particularly successful in treating childhood leukemia, reducing the mortality rate from

nearly 100 per cent to approximately 30 per cent. These historical approaches are intrinsically similar in that they are all fundamentally impersonal and take a one-size-fits-all approach to cancer therapy. However, no two cancer patients are alike and, as Mukherjee puts it, “every cancer is its own cancer.” Therefore, game-changing advancements in cancer treatment can only be made by understanding that an individual’s cancer ‘fingerprint’ — the genetic makeup of their particular type of cancer — is distinct from that of any other individual’s. In other words, our war against cancer has been at a stalemate for thousands of years because we’ve been fighting without our greatest weapon — precision medicine. Thanks to whole genome and exome sequencing, the genetic blueprint of a patient’s cancer profile gives doctors information about aberrant genes leading to the manifestation of the disease. Rather than simply targeting individual genes in isolation, Mukherjee sees the future of cancer therapy involving targeted treatment of a whole network of genes. Cancer treatment is now in a rapidly advancing and innovative phase, with clinicians and researchers making great efforts to understand the unique physiology of cancer, which will hopefully enable us to deliver targeted therapies that spare the rest of the body from injury. It is beyond a doubt that cancer is a disease like no other, challenging each generation of scientists to push the boundaries of knowledge and devise novel strategies to combat this emperor of all maladies.

Stool transplants are a new method of combatting disease Researchers believe that stool transplants may be an eﬀective treatment for obesity Farwa Khtana Varsity Contributor

Unappealing as it may sound, the idea of having a healthy donor’s stool injected into the body of a patient has proven to be tremendously effective in curing a number of gut-related diseases and has been the subject of a vast amount of research. Recently, University of Toronto researchers Drs. Kenneth Croitoru and Andrew Paterson have focused their research on this relatively new approach to curing disease. While their research focuses specifically on combatting obesity, the method of stool transplantation has also been effective in treating other conditions, such as anorexia and exterminating a bacteria known as Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, an infection in the intestine. The new study, published re-

cently in Nature Genetics involved 1,500 healthy people. The researchers found four genetic markers that appeared to be associated with changes in gut microbiome. This suggests that genes play a key role in the development of obesity. The team has just received $1.5 million from the federal government to continue their research. If this study is successful, it could provide obese people with an alternative to costly and risky weight loss surgeries. Instrumental to stool transplants as a treatment is the idea that transplanting a healthy donor’s stool can help reconstruct the microbiology in patients suffering obesity. This is because according to Croitoru and Paterson’s research, people with obesity have different intestine bacteria than non-obese people. Microorganisms living in the gut play a key role, by affecting

hormones that affect insulin sensitivity and the amount of calories absorbed from food. By introducing healthy bacteria into the intestines of obesity patients, their bodies can better learn to absorb food more efficiently and help them shed weight in the process. Croitoru and Paterson’s study follows recent initiatives in this field. Studies preceding theirs have shown that when mice are raised in clean environments where they cannot develop gut bacteria, and are then fed stool from obese mice, they put on weight. The study supports the idea that once the stool has been injected, it will be effective in changing the microbiology of the guts, helping people shed weight. The process involves first extracting stool from obese patients and feeding it to germ-free skinny mice, to see if it would increase insulin resistance or make the mice increase

weight. The same stool, in a course of a few months, would then be fed to the fat mice, in the hope that they would not gain weight. If the process is successful, the stool can then be used for human patients. Due to recent success revolving around this unconventional and — let’s face it — cringe-inducing, approach researchers are beginning to take it more seriously. According to some studies, fecal transplants are more effective in clearing up recurring bacteria in the intestines than routinely prescribed medication. When tested against C. diff, researchers saw a 94 per cent cure rate. Stool samples are collected from healthy individuals who receive compensation. Mark Smith, Cofounder and Research Director of non-profit stool bank OpenBiome, provides some insight as to how the process of stool sample collec-

tion actually happens: “We have a three-step process for becoming a donor. Overall, the pass rate is about 4 per cent, so it is about twice as hard to become a donor as it is to get into Harvard. So you go through a 109 point clinical assessment. If you clear that — and most people don’t — then you go on and bring in a stool sample, and if you pass that, then you go in and get a blood draw. Because we invest quite a bit of time and money in finding donors, we pay the donors 40 bucks a sample.” The samples collected are then monitored and passed on to clinics for use in medical procedure. The method is already beginning to help treat individuals, to the point that it has even been referred to as the ‘miracle solution.’ In the near future, solving some of medicine’s toughest problems may be as simple as swapping stools.

OCTOBER 31, 2016 • 19

var.st/science

Red pill, blue pill — no pill? A student’s perspective on antipsychiatry

ZAHRA DANAEI/THE VARSITY

Antipsychiatry takes a critical look at medicating mental health disorders. Kasi Sewraj Varsity Contributor

This year, the university’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education has brought forward a new scholarship: the Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry. This scholarship is for students who intend to study issues related to antipsychiatry. While psychology and psychiatry are fairly well known

and understood, antipsychiatry may seem obscure to many. Antipsychiatry is a field that views psychiatric treatments and the study of psychiatry as damaging to patients; it stems from the view that most illnesses treated in psychiatry are actually physician-created. This view has been popularized by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, who wrote a book in 1960 called The Myth of Mental Illness.

In the 1950s, the field went through a shift from psychiatrists who were dedicated followers of Sigmund Freud to new psychiatrists who were interested in a more biological approach to psychiatry. Freud, though influential for bringing popularity to the field, did not have much backing or scientific explanation for his writings — they were mostly observational and purely his own thought. Biological psychiatrists were more interested in using new pharmacological advances to treat ailments of the mind. The two different viewpoints often clashed and, to the public, created a very divisive view of what psychiatry was. When Szasz released his book, it was another disruption to the field. This lead to some trouble accepting psychiatry as a way of treatment and people seeing it as a potential way for physicians to control society. It is understandable that some believe that psychiatry is not a true medical field, but psychiatry is a field that is constantly evolving. Every few years, a new version of the manual that most psychiatrists use, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), is released. Those involved in psychiatry say this is to account for new progressions in the field, but updates made to new versions of the DSM are limited to only the ones that physicians are likely to use. If a new, better method to classify disorders is created, but it is thought to be too different than what was previously accepted, it will likely not be published in the

new manual. However, this does not make it impossible for the manual to include new additions: the first DSM had only 106 disorders, but the current one lists around 300. The number of disorders diagnosed each year has risen dramatically as well. Psychiatrists say that this is due to new discoveries in the field, while antipsychiatrists believe that this is due to over-diagnosis and over-classification. I believe that we should be open to accepting and critically thinking about all fields. One of the basic tenets of publishing articles in the sciences is reproducibility: if you cannot recreate the outcomes of a study and prove that it is generalizable, the findings are taken with a grain of salt. Shouldn’t this be the case will all scientific fields of study? The fact that there are scholars who want to research and further understand psychiatry and how we can improve the field should be welcome. I think the use of the term antipsychiatry does not recognize that the main goal of these studies is constructive: to further medicine and the understanding of how we treat mental illness. There is a lack of opportunity for those in the antipsychiatry field, so this new scholarship will help to further understand antipsychiatry and its potential merits. Perhaps if the psychiatry and antipsychiatry departments communicated more often and worked past their differences to learn from each other, there would be mutual benefit.

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20 • THE VARSITY • SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

Cough, cough

Science Around Town

Canadian Arctic regions have the highest rates of infant lung infection in the world Utkarshna Sinha Varsity Contributor

Scientists at the University of Toronto have found that infants born in some Canadian Arctic regions have the highest rates of respiratory infections globally. A recent paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that the hospital admission rates for infants under 12 months old with lung infections in Nunavut and Nunavik, Quebec are the highest in the world. In the most affected areas of Nunavik, nearly half the infants born in the region had an infection. Lead author Dr. Anna Banerji told The Varsity, “On average almost 50% of the babies born in Nunavik end up in the hospital in their first year of life.” Most of the sick babies admitted were three months old with no underlying or pre-existing condition and still suffered from serious infections that landed them in the hospital. Many were hooked up to breathing tubes and stayed in the intensive care unit (ICU) suffering longterm lung damage. They were often transported from their communities by air to regional hospitals hours away, needing intensive care and weeks to recover. Some were put on life support while some suffered from respiratory failure. Others passed away. The study included five regional and four tertiary hospitals in major cities that treated these patients. Nearly six per cent of all babies en-

roled in the study had very severe infections and were transported to tertiary hospitals. This high infection rate does not have a clear cause but, rather, points to underlying systemic problems in the northern communities, including overcrowding within communities and houses, cigarette smoking, and lack of proper nutrition. Dr. Banerji and her colleagues have focused their research on pediatric lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in Indigenous populations of Northern Canada for almost two decades. They have consistently found the main cause of LRTIs to be the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV infections were found in 40 per cent of the newborns, with these rates being higher than those for any other population worldwide. In other parts of North America, the rates of LRTIs range from one to three per cent. While fighting against this infection, the infants were often coinfected by other viruses, such as influenza, which further increased the severity of infection and the length of their hospital stay. With longer hospital stays come larger costs. The researchers have found that it would be cheaper to treat all the infants in the affected areas with preventative medicines rather than to wait for them to be admitted. The current medical treatment provided by the provincial government is palivizumab, a drug that is only administered to babies with

NICHOLAS M. PERRAULT/CC WIKIMEDIA

Canada’s Arctic vastly diﬀers from Toronto, in climate and health issues. pre-existing heart or lung defects and high risk of disease. Most infants do not meet the criteria. This study found that of nearly 300 newborns in 2009, only one received palivizumab treatment. Giving the RSV antibody to all infants would decrease the high hospital admission rates for lung infections. Banerji said, “The RSV antibody worked up to 96% in term infants so it would greatly reduce admissions for lung infections. 60% were not RSV so we need to address overcrowding, smoking, and poverty; increase breastfeeding; and improve nutrition.” Researchers have also found that providing the antibody for all babies would save some hospitals in the region hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by cutting back costs of hospital stays and treatment in the ICU. They could save at least $36,000 per an avoided RSV infection. The Nunavik office governs the region where hospital admissions caused by infections are the high-

est; it has recently announced that it will be giving palivizumab to every infant. Incidences of hospital admission and severity of infection were 10 times higher in Nunavut and Nunavik than the Northwest Territories. Banerji was surprised by “the major difference among the populations.” Although the reasons are not definitive, the study says this may be due to the higher per-capita income in the Northwest Territories leading to better nutrition and living conditions. It could also be because Nunavut and Nunavik have higher Inuit populations, which may be more genetically prone to these infections. Banerji’s paper has been given to the Nunavut government and the authors are calling for this issue to be addressed as a major health priority in the Canadian Arctic regions. The regional disparity in this case is of utmost importance for a public health intervention to be made.

Father of Canadian computing passes away Calvin Gotlieb was a U of T professor and key contributor to computer science Andrew Kidd Varsity Contributor

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Gotlieb contributed to the Avro Arrow in the 1950s.

The inaugural head of the University of Toronto’s Department of Computer Science passed away on October 16. Aged 95 and widely known as ‘the father of computing in Canada’, Professor Emeritus Calvin Carl ‘Kelly’ Gotlieb was renowned not only for his technical achievements but also for his study of the social effects of computers. Gotlieb and his team contributed to the development of the Avro Arrow, the crown jewel of the Canadian aerospace industry in the 1950s. Leveraging U of T’s computing power, the team performed ‘flutter calculations’ to determine how the aircraft’s structure would react under different conditions.

The cutting-edge design of the aircraft relied on Gotlieb’s computing expertise. Gotlieb also applied U of T’s computing resources to the St. Lawrence Seaway, a proposed shipping route to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. Designed as a joint scheme between Canada and the United States, the US government initially declined to participate. Gotlieb created a computer model of the waterflow through an alternative, all-Canadian version of the Seaway, demonstrating its viability and prodding the US to join the project. In addition to these contributions to Canadian engineering projects, Gotlieb also drove the adoption of computerized systems in airline reservations, traffic lights, and library catalogues. His simula-

tions demonstrated their feasibility and led directly to widespread adoption. Gotlieb was not only a talented computer scientist but also a visionary scholar studying the social impacts of computing. He was a key author of the United Nations’ Report on the Application of Computer Technology to Development, as well as a seminal text in the field, Social Issues in Computing. Professor Gotlieb also taught a U of T undergraduate course on these issues for more than 35 years, allowing students to learn from a world-renowned expert. Both the University of Toronto and the broader computer science community will mourn the loss of a giant in both computing and its social impact.

Do #Vaccines work by magic or science? With flu season around the corner, this talk features vaccine prevention expert Dr. Natasha S. Crowcroft. Come and learn how vaccines prevent diseases. Date: Monday, October 31 Time: 4:00–5:00 pm Location: Medical Sciences Building Room: 2170 Admission: Free Hacklab Open House Hacklab, a not-for-profit harbouring tech enthusiasts and DIY science projects, invites you to their open house every Tuesday starting November 1. Get a closer look at their laser cutter, 3D printer, labs, darkroom, and more! You can also bring your own projects to work on. Date: Tuesdays Time: 6:00–11:30 pm Location: 1266 Queen Street West Room: Suite 6 Admission: Free with registration U of T AstroTour The U of T astronomy and astrophysics department hosts a monthly public AstroTour on the first Thursday of the month. The planetarium shows will follow a brief presentation. Date: Thursday, November 3 Talk time: 8:00–9:00 pm Planetarium showtimes: 9:15 pm, 9:30 pm, 9:45 pm, and 10:00 pm Location: 50 St. George Street Room: Elevator lobby Admission: Free with registration MaRS EXCITE Info Session Have an idea for the next great innovation in health technology? MaRS EXCITE, a program aimed to help innovators evaluate their ideas in the health marketplace, is hosting an info session this week. Dr. Leslie Levin, Professor at the U of T Faculty of Medicine, and experienced strategy consultant Zayna Khayat will be speaking. Date: Friday, November 4 Time: 12:00–1:30 pm Location: MaRS Discovery District Room: Suite 100 Admission: Free with registration

Sports

g prog n i ram i n n s stagn u r ating e c n a dist

Athleti cs perform Canada is fu nd ance, n ot part ed for icipatio n

CORALS ZHENG/THE VARSITY

g n o l s ’ a d a Can

October 31, 2016 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

Over the past several decades in Canada, middle distance running times have steadily improved. Canadian long distance running, however, shows no such trend.

Top 50 Canadian Men’s 5,000m Times, according to Athletics Canada 14.00 13.90

Rowan DeBues Varsity Contributor

13.80

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Year Top 50 Canadian Men’s Marathon Times, according to Athletics Canada 138 137

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“We’re funded for performance, we’re not funded for participation.” These were the words of Peter Eriksson, Chief Technical Officer and Head Coach of Athletics Canada. Eriksson’s remarks were in response to marathoner Krista Duchene, who complained that the qualification times set to make the World Championships were too harsh. A very public war of words followed, prompting discussions within the running community about the health of Canadian distance running. Usually in running and athletics, as our knowledge of physiology, training regimens, and technology improves, so do the times of athletes. This general trend is demonstrated by the times of the Canadian men’s 5,000m; 22 of the top 50 all time bests have been run since the year 2000, including seven of the top 10 and 14 of the top 20. There is a clear, gradual trend towards Canadians getting faster as our understanding of training and the human body increases. However, this does not hold true for the marathon. Not only is Jerome Drayton’s 1975 time of 2:10:09 still standing 41 years on as the fastest Canadian marathon time, but a clear majority of the fastest ever Canadians ran prior to 1997. Dave Scott-Thomas works with seven Rio Olympians in his role as head coach of both the Speed River Track and Field Club and the Guelph Gryphons Track and Field team.

He has worked for over a decade with Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis — Canada’s current fastest marathon runners. Scott-Thomas believes this slowing in pace came from a North American change in philosophy. “In the 70s, the running boom at its roots was competitive and about getting out there and putting miles down. It lent itself to strengthening [the body’s aerobic power],” he explained. In the 1970s and 1980s, Arthur Lydiard coached numerous Olympic Champions from 800m and up. He had his long distance athletes running a minimum of 160 kilometres per week. In 1998, when Scott-Thomas began coaching at Guelph, 100 kilometres per week was considered heavy mileage for a top athlete by much of the continent. However, when Lydiard’s Kiwi, Finnish, and Japanese runners ran long, they flourished. The fastest Briton, Steve Jones, ran long. The Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, who redefined the running scene in the 1990s and still dominate today, ran very long. Running long has now been widely accepted again as an integral part of building up your body’s aerobic power — an aspect of athleticism that is key in events from the 800m through to the marathon. So, if the science is now clear and we have an understanding of what it takes to be world class in long distances, how come Canada hasn’t struck gold, silver, or bronze for that matter? Running, page 22

22 • THE VARSITY • SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

Athletic scholarships are limited in Canada Funding for student athletes is minimal, non-existent for para-athletics Lukas Weese Varsity Contributor

It was one of the most difficult decisions of my brother’s life. It had boiled down to two choices: Schulich School of Business at York University or Bryant University in Rhode Island. It was April 2009 and my brother was deciding his future. My brother was a competitive tennis player and wanted a chance to play the sport he loved while getting a top-level education. When he finally made the decision to attend Bryant University’s Division I Tennis Program, it wasn’t just because of the business education, the tight-knit community, or living in Providence; for my brother, and many athletes like him, it was because American universities offer students the opportunity to play their respective sport for free under a scholarship. An article published in Maclean’s reports, “Canadian schools are currently forbidden from offering athletic scholarships that exceed tuition and student fees... While tuition in most provinces is over $5,000 a year, the average Canadian sports scholarship is $1,060.” According to the U Sports — previously Canadian Interuniversity Sport — website, “In the 2013–2014 academic school year, member universities together provided $15,981,189 in athletic scholarship money to CIS studentathletes, an increase of 9.5 percent from the previous season.” That’s nothing compared to

ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

what’s on the table in the US. Some US academic scholarships offer students a ‘full-ride’ that pay for virtually everything. These scholarships can easily reach $50,000. The average tuition for a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athlete is around $25,000. As a result of the size and scope of athletic scholarships, American schools are able to attract the best athletes in the world. This is why universities like the University of Alabama, the University of Michigan, and the University of North Carolina are able to recruit and produce talent that will eventually compete in sports leagues like the National Football League or National Basketball Association. Unfortunately, this means that Canadian universities are losing out on getting the best athletes,

since so many are leaving for the south to play in a more competitive environment. With undergraduate tuition and compulsory rates expected to rise to $9,541 by 2018, this leaves athletes who come from lower-income families discouraged from staying in Canada, since a Canadian athletic scholarship doesn’t equate to the cost of living expenses. Furthermore, the U Sports scholarship program faces an equity dilemma, as no scholarships are provided to athletes who have disabilities. Christina Young is a sophomore on the women’s wheelchair basketball team at the University of Illinois. She played basketball all throughout her life, from her humble roots in Cartersville, Georgia to being invited to try out for the US women’s wheelchair basketball

Canadian Champions in their respective distances — 1,500m and 5,000m — but neither managed to make the finals in Rio de Janeiro. Eric Gillis, who ran Canada’s best Olympic marathon finish in four decades, echoed Seccafien’s suggestion of greater support: “Any additional financial support is always a positive.” Running enough miles every week to be a top international distance runner is extremely time consuming, and for Gillis it comes on top of being a father and husband. “Yeah,” Gillis laughed, “I have a lot to thank my wife for that.” Gillis’ coach, Dave Scott-Thomas, lamented not being able to provide more coaches, physiotherapists, and doctors for his athletes at either Guelph or the Speed River: “In our environment we have lots of athletes who might not have the support staff they would need to have to hit their potential.” The solution seems simple: more accessible funding and support for internationally competitive athletes, and the problem is solved. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Recall Peter Eriksson’s comments on performance not participation; he refers to the funding squeeze

reality that is the Own The Podium (OTP) program. In its own words, OTP is “podium driven… without compromise… [and takes] calculated risks.” It funds those who are within reach of medalling and that trumps all else. It has been 24 years since the last middle or long distance medal was won by a Canadian, so even though Athletics Canada administers funding to athletes, this money is heavily biased in its destination to medalhopeful athletes — Andre de Grasse, Derek Drouin, Melissa Bishop, and the like. The results-first approach of OTP has therefore trapped Canadian distance running in a vicious cycle. It needs greater support and funding to help athletes excel further, but it will not receive greater support and funding unless athletes excel. However, continued development of programs like those at Guelph and U of T give great hope to the sport, as the two track programs combined sent 11 Olympians to the games in Rio. If you’re in Toronto or Guelph and want to see world class athletes, you need to only walk down to the university track.

team. One of the deciding factors for Christina to go to the University of Illinois was that it provided her with a full ride scholarship, even with her disability. Unlike U Sports, the NCAA provides funds in recognition of the importance of giving equal financial access and opportunities to athletes, even those who suffer from disabilities. There was movement within U Sports to revamp its scholarships to prevent an outflow of athletes to the United States. In 2009, the association proposed a ‘salary cap’ model, in which a total financial cap would remain in place at universities but the individual limit would be waived. In theory, this would allow schools to spend more money on a small number of local high-school

athletes to keep them from bolting to an American college. Ultimately, the model was never implemented. Instead, it left U Sports in disarray as there were opposing views among member universities, as some wanted to increase funding for scholarships, while others wanted the status quo to remain. On September 17, U of T’s homecoming game garnered little interest and the atmosphere was far from electric. A few students I spoke with after the game didn’t even know that Homecoming was happening. On Oct 1 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama at the Crimson Tides’ homecoming, they were hosting the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Hours before the game, thousands of fans tailgated in front of Bryant Denny Stadium. For a game that wasn’t even against an SEC rival like LSU or Texas A&M, it was a sell out of over 100,000 people. It is unfair to compare the football programs of U of T and Alabama, given that the Crimson Tide have won four National Championships in seven years. But the fact that the University of Alabama provides the opportunity of incentives such as full ride scholarships to its prospective athletes means it can attract and produce the best product, increasing revenues and fan viewership across North America. U Sports will never be the NCAA. But if there’s money to be spent to improve the quality of players and accessibility for athletes with disabilities, it should be spent in hopes of creating a higher-quality league.

Running, from page 21

Actually, the last time Canada won a middle or long distance Olympic medal was when Angela Chalmers secured bronze in the 1992 Barcelona games in the 3,000m — an event that no longer exists. Canadian athletes and coaches face some fundamental obstacles. Terry Radchenko is one of the University of Toronto’s middle distance coaches, most recently having great success working with U of T student and 1,500m Rio Olympian Gabriela Stafford. For him, there is one simple problem: he feels that the cold Canadian winters negatively impact the overall mileage runners can cover, as “it would be great to run outside all the time on a 400m track, not [inside] on a 200m track.” Beyond the meteorological limitations, a topic that came up repeatedly was the broader issue of support. Andrea Seccafien, running out of the University of Toronto Track Club (UTTC), believes, “We need to support athletes who are at the World Championship and Olympic level who have not made the final but show potential to be competitive at those events in the future.” Both UTTC middle-long distance runners, Stafford and Seccafien are

Sports In Brief The CIS is now known as U Sports Jaren Kerr Managing Editor

For the past 15 years, the highest governing body of university sports in Canada was Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) in English, Sport interuniversitaire canadien (SIC) in French, each with their own logo. As of October 20, the CIS changed its name to U Sports. Along with the name change, the league adopted a new logo: designed by Vancouver-based design firm Hulse and Durell, it is an uppercase ‘U’ with ‘SPORTS’ superimposed on top, crowned by a red maple leaf. Replacing the previous names and logos, U Sports’ rebranding aesthetically unites the organization for the first time in its history.

Fifty-six universities and 12,000 student athletes operate under the national organization; U Sports CEO Graham Brown hopes that the rebranding will empower their student athletes. Additionally, U Sports has updated its website and social media channels to reflect the new brand, with a promise to use “every technology possible to highlight, celebrate, and present the accomplishments of [their athletes].” Brown said their aim is “to create a massive shift in the way university sports are consumed in a fastchanging digital era,” with things like digital streaming becoming an increasingly popular alternative to television. U Sports will officially launch its new website early next year.

OCTOBER 31, 2016 • 23

var.st/sports

How do you cheat on your diet?

The merits of cheat meals vs. cheat days Stephanie Ntoukas Varsity Contributor

Within the health and fitness community there is a matter of controversy surrounding the different techniques that health conscious people employ to enjoy the foods they love while still maintaining their fitness goals. Cheat days are one strategy. On a cheat day, a person participates in planned days of indulgence, where food and drinks that are usually prohibited by a healthy diet are back on the table. Cheat meals are another strategy where, for a few meals per week, the person will break with their diet and eat what they like. Depending on the person and their goals, specific eating plans or diets can be useful tools for people to achieve certain body fat percentages and to gain lean muscle. Diets are a necessity for people with food intolerances, allergies, and certain illnesses. Research shows that caloric restriction can cause a drop in leptin levels. Because of this drop, decreasing caloric intake for prolonged periods of time can lead to a greater potential for uncontrolled binge eating down the road. Studies indicate that increases in caloric consumption, specifically carbohydrates, could help to avoid decreasing leptin levels and prevent uncontrolled eating. In other words, extreme dieters who are deprived of calories and crucial macronutrients — whether that be fats, proteins, or carbohydrates — are likely to indulge in foods uncontrollably during and after their diet ‘ends,’ which often leads to a cycle of ‘yo-yo’ dieting. Extreme, calorically restrictive, low carb or low fat eating plans over an extended period of time can lead to the psychological and physiological desire for more calories or more of a certain macronutrient that the individual is lacking, which can be fulfilled in the form of a cheat meal or cheat day. This is because

extreme eating plans are not sustainable in the long run, causing feelings of deprivation and lack of energy to rise over and above levels of self-control. Although an entire cheat day of eating poor quality foods is preferred by some, the majority of health and fitness experts strongly advise against it. Cheat meals vary in how they are incorporated into peoples’ lifestyles. Some people can have one cheat meal and get right back on track with eating healthier food for their next meal. For others, one cheat meal can lead to an entire day or even multiple days of eating poorly. Each person responds differently though, which is why exercise programs and nutrition plans must be individualized. For instance, I feel the strongest and can maintain my body composition the easiest while following a moderate carbohydrate, high protein, and high fat plan in terms of the three macronutrients. If I were to incorporate an entire cheat day every week, which I’ve done in the past, I would have increased water retention and feelings of sluggishness. Mindlessly consuming high sugar, high fat, and processed foods for a 24-hour period has set me back several days with my eating and nutrition habits, even leading to a cheat weekend or an entire week of poor eating. After years of experimentation, I have found that one to three weekly cheat meals, of about 500 to 1,000 calories in excess of my typical daily caloric consumption, allow me to stay focused at work and school while still feeling healthy and strong. Besides allowing for a certain number of cheat meals to incorporate weekly or monthly, another technique I also use is weekly preparing healthy versions of foods, by cooking in bulk and having high protein portable snacks on hand. For example, homemade protein cookies, protein pancakes, egg and veggie frittata, protein bars, and protein

MARLON MORTILLA/THE VARSITY

shakes are portable and made easily. One size does not fit all when it comes to finding what works best for you in terms of letting loose a little bit on your eating plan. A terrible thing to do would be to restrict yourself completely from ever eating anything lacking in nutrition and believe that you will be perfect and never slip up. Eating a balance of foods, with nothing off-limits is the best way to reduce the kinds

of cravings that can lead to a cheat day or a freefall circling into binge eating. Set up one to three meals per week instead of an entire day to enjoy your favourite foods, so you don’t feel the need to eat excessively. Stop restricting your food and start enjoying it in moderation, to build a healthy body and a good relationship with your food.

So You Think You Know Sports: foot darts Darts take to the street in this new sport Raghad A.K. Varsity Contributor

The world of sport is far more diverse than what you see offered at sports bars. This series will profile the lesser-known, the more interesting, and the downright peculiar sports that you haven’t heard of until now. Have you ever dreamed of playing sports in jumbo size? Look no further than the newfound creation of foot darts! As the name suggests, foot darts is a form of darts that is played out with your feet — but on a massive scale. The objective is to kick a soccer ball at a 22-foot tall velcro dart board, aiming the ball as close to the centre of the board as possible, in an effort to score points much in the same way as a game of darts. Foot darts is becoming a popular pastime, attracting attention in Europe, North America, and Australia. There are very

few intricacies to this sport — pretty much just kick the ball at the big inflatable dart board. Unless you’re already a pro soccer player though, mastering it could take ages. Created by Foot Sports UK, foot darts is accurately described as “the ultimate test of accuracy.” People are challenged to “step up to the oche and fire your highest score.” For those whose dart-playing vernacular is lacking, the ‘oche’ is the line behind which players stand as they — traditionally — hurl sharp, weighted projectiles at a wallhanging board. Dart players with the utmost skill have incorporated the consumption of alcohol into the traditional sport; perhaps that will become the next level of foot darts soon enough. The process of retrieving the ball when it gets stuck to the very top of the board notwithstanding, who isn’t looking forward to playing this absurdly oversized mashup of darts and soccer?

ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

OCTOBER 31, 2016 • 24

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SUDOKU “You have a 9x9 grid and then you have to make each row and each column and each 3x3 square have each of the digits from 1-9 appear once.”

Diﬃculty: hard

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