August 25, 2020

U THE UBYSSEY

AUGUST 25, 2020 | VOLUME CII | ISSUE III USING GLORY HOLES SINCE 1918

SIX MONTHS IN...

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TUESDAY AUGUST 25, 2020

U THE UBYSSEY August 25 2020 | Volume CII | Issue IV

EDITORIAL Coordinating Editor Pawan Minhas coordinating@ubyssey.ca

Video Editor Akshay Khandelwal video@ubyssey.ca

Visuals Editor Lua Presidio visuals@ubyssey.ca

Opinion + Blog Editor Sam Smart opinion@ubyssey.ca

News Editors Charlotte Alden and Andrew Ha news@ubyssey.ca

Science Editor Myla White science@ubyssey.ca

Culture Editor Danni Olusanya culture@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Diana Hong sports@ubyssey.ca

Photo Editor Sophie Galloway photos@ubyssey.ca Features Editor Bailey Martens features@ubyssey.ca

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President Rees Pillizzi president1@ubyssey.ca LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to acknowledge that this paper and the land on which we study and work is the traditional, occupied and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples,

including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

LEGAL The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia (UBC). It is published every Tuesday by The Ubyssey Publications Society (UPS). We are an autonomous, democratically run student organization and all students are encouraged to participate.

Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff and do not necessarily reflect the views of UPS or the University of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of UPS. Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of UPS. The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guiding principles.

The Ubyssey accepts opinion articles on any topic related to the University of British Columbia and/or topics relevant to students attending UBC. Submissions must be written by UBC students, professors, alumni or those in a suitable position (as determined by the opinions editor) to speak on UBC-related matters. Submissions must not contain racism, sexism,

COVER Lua Presidio

homophobia, transphobia, harassment or discrimination.

Authors and/or submissions will not be precluded from publication based solely on association with particular ideologies or subject matter that some may find objectionable. Approval for publication is, however, dependent on the quality of the argument and The Ubyssey editorial board’s judgment of appropriate content.

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EDITORS’ NOTE When will it get better?

Six months ago when public health officials urged the public to stay home for 14 days, more than 20,000 of us petitioned to cancel in-person classes at UBC. At first, we believed that the pandemic would last just a short while. We booked flights home and panic-bought toilet paper and hand sanitizer as we logged on to international Zoom classes.

Then as our classes came to an abrupt end, students lost out on graduation, job prospects and coveted summer internships.

Then we bought masks and kept six feet apart.

Things are not back to normal and likely never will be.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating impacts and has exposed systemic injustices. Through the course of the pandemic, protests have erupted in support of Black Lives Matter, housing has become even more precarious and the lack of adequate mental and physical health care for certain demographics has become clear.

Six months later, there are more questions than answers.

In this issue, students grapple with the tangible effects of COVID-19 and the less-visible impacts of a social and racial reckoning. Students shared their stories of loneliness, self-discovery and skyrocketing Netflix usage as they’ve spent months trapped indoors.

But one thing rings true: we are resilient. Even alone, we have found ways to be together whether on Zoom, Animal Crossing or distant walks.

This is what inspires us that one day we will change out of our sweatpants and put on that new outfit we bought but never got to wear out.

We put this issue together in hopes of capturing this moment in time, not just for us, but as a tiny time capsule for future UBC folks. Welcome to 2020 — ­ it hasn’t been great.

BAILEY MARTENS AND DANNI OLUSANYA FEATURES EDITOR AND CULTURE EDITOR

UBC ANNOUNCES SPLIT BETWEEN ONLINE AND IN-PERSON INSTRUCTION FOR FALL Despite this announcement, most faculties so far have announced they will be exclusively online and are not requiring students to be in Vancouver. Faculties are slowly releasing their own specific plans. As of publishing, most faculties will be fully online, while arts and law will be mostly online with some small in-person classes.

BC RESTART PLAN PHASE 2 BEGINS

UBC ANNOUNCES APRIL U-PASS REFUNDS After the university transitioned classes online in March, many students stopped using transit but were on the hook for the $41 monthly U-Pass fee. The refund was only available for students who did not load their April U-Pass, did not use their April U-Pass if loaded or used less than $41 worth of fares in April.

JUMP START, IMAGINE DAY TO BE ONLINE

AUGUST 25, 2020 TUESDAY

MAY

COVID-19 TIMELINE

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WORDS Charlotte Alden and Andrew Ha ILLUSTRATION Lua Presidio

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APPLICATION OPENS FOR THE CANADA EMERGENCY STUDENT BENEFIT

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NEST REOPENS DOORS AFTER CLOSING ON MARCH 17

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JUNE 1

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The Nest reopened on May 20 — initially planned for May 19, but AMS President Cole Evans said the society needed an extra 24 hours to clear up a “couple health and safety things.” The opening will happen in three phases, with the first phase including the physical reopening of the space, takeout dining and limited services. The second and third phases include sit-in dining with physical distancing and the gradual increase of in-person meetings and (small) events.

TRANSLINK RESUMES BUS FARE COLLECTION On May 4, TransLink announced it would be resuming bus fare collection and front-door boarding after cancelling fares on March 20. TransLink has lost $75 million each month since that date, and restarting fare collection is estimated to provide TransLink with $2 million a month.

Student involvement in Jump Start has been correlated with improved student retention, higher GPAs and an improved sense of belonging at UBC. But UBC announced that Jump Start and Imagine Day will be delivered virtually this year.

UBC said it is working to create an “enriching and inclusive” experience for students, while meeting health and safety guidelines.

BC RESTART PLAN PHASE 3 BEGINS

On April 22, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $9 billion in student COVID-19 support, after many students were ineligible for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. Students could then apply for $1,250 a month through the Canada Emergency Student Benefit. The $9 billion in support also included the creation of the Canada Student Service grant and in theory up to 116,000 jobs.

FIRST-TERM AND FULL-YEAR GO GLOBAL EXCHANGES CANCELLED In an email sent to students on June 1, UBC announced that all university travel for students in fall 2020 had been cancelled, including the exchange programs. Students set to go on a firstterm or a full-year exchange have two options: to withdraw from exchange completely or request to change their exchange from term one or full year to term two only.

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CO-OP INSTITUTES INTERNATIONAL RESTRICTIONS The June 1 announcement that Go Global term one and year-long exchanges were cancelled was coupled with the announcement that all university travel in the fall had been cancelled. This meant that students in Canada can’t do outbound co-ops — even to countries with a low number of COVID-19 cases.

JULY AMS ANNOUNCES TRANSIT SUBSIDY FOR JULY AND AUGUST After the U-Pass was cancelled for the summer, many students living in the Vancouver area told the AMS and GSS that they needed to take transit to get to work or campus. The AMS agreed to subsidize the rest of the cost of a monthly pass for those who applied through an online form, so those students would only pay the $42.50 a month they would normally pay for the U-Pass.

END OF THE CANADA EMERGENCY STUDENT BENEFIT Students financially impacted by the pandemic will stop receiving the Canada Emergency Student Benefit at the end of August. The benefit has run for four months, covering four periods from May 1 to August 31.

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CANADA STUDENT SERVICE GRANT ON HOLD After WE Charity backed out of administering the grant following controversy surrounding its relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Canada Student Service Grant was placed on hold.

The grant was supposed to allow students to earn $1,000 for every 100 hours of volunteering to a maximum of $5,000.

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CLAUSE IN UBC HOUSING CONTRACT COULD LEAVE STUDENTS UNEXPECTEDLY HOMELESS THIS FALL WORDS Vik Sangar ILLUSTRATION Lua Presidio

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n late July, third-year history student and Fraser Hall resident Kelli Burns got an email from UBC Student Housing and Community Services (SHCS) about changes to her residence contract.

The email highlighted two groups of amendments to the contract: the first group reflecting changes in the Sexual Misconduct Policy, the second relating to COVID-19.

“I didn’t give [the email] much thought because I thought the contract update they were talking about only really applied to social distancing within residence and safety measures they’re taking,” Burns said.

What Burns didn’t notice in the contract was a new residence clause that gives SHCS the authority to remove students from residence if they deem it necessary due to COVID-19. Burns was unaware of the new clause until she spoke with The Ubyssey.

“It’s very scary, knowing that my main place of residence … has the ability to kick me out and not help me with any kind of alternatives or any other outcomes. I could be homeless in the middle of a pandemic,” she said.

A CLAUSE TO ‘PROTECT THE UNIVERSITY’ The clause, which exists in both yearround and first-year housing contracts, is meant to address issues that may arise due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Student Housing and Community Services may be required to close certain residences, certain classes of accommodation, or reduce the number of residents in residences. In such case it may terminate this Contract and require you to vacate your accommodation without offering you alternate accommodation,” the clause reads.

AMS VP Academic and University Affairs Georgia Yee has been vocal about her disappointment with the new clause.

It came to her attention when she noticed growing concerns about the clause on Reddit.

“It’s clear that this current clause is mostly to protect the university and absolve it of legal liability in case of a COVID outbreak,” she said. “What we’re really seeking from [SHCS] is to communicate this COVID-19 clause to residents and to be able to commit to supporting students in the event of a residence closure. “[The AMS is] advocating for residents to have a right to reasonable notice, and to ensure that no student resident will go homeless,” she added.

Yee noted that the student society has been in contact with SHCS about students’ concerns with the clause in order to ensure proper student consultation in the future.

The AMS conducted a survey earlier in the summer with the goal of gathering information on the financial, academic, physical and mental health of students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eighty-five per cent of respondents felt that the UBC COVID-19 response has not been adequate in addressing issues in student housing affordability.

Of the 809 students who signed a year-round housing contract for the 2020/21 school year, 68.5 per cent reported that they were concerned about successfully meeting their rent payments

during the year.

Andrew Parr, managing director of SHCS, explained that the clause will only need to be exercised in a worst-case scenario situation such as “a significant outbreak of COVID-19 in a residence building that would require relocating students from that building.”

“Any decision to close a residence building would be made in close consultation with our health care partners,” he said.

The clause states that the university would not provide students with alternate accommodation in the case that they have to close or lower numbers in residences.

But in statements to The Ubyssey, Parr said that UBC would “work to ensure” displaced students would have housing on campus.

“There is capacity in student housing to accommodate displaced residents,” Parr added. “We’d work closely with [Vancouver Coastal Health] and the Provincial Health Authority in such a situation.”

A ‘PRECARIOUS SITUATION’ Dr. Penny Gurstein, a UBC professor who specializes in sociocultural aspects of community planning, expressed concern about the new clause.

“I’ve never seen something like that,” she said. “What it does is it puts the students in a very precarious situation in that [there’s] no guarantee that they would actually have housing if … we get a second wave.”

This unexpected addition to residence contracts is also affecting first-year students like Amelia Creemer, who will be living in Orchard Commons this fall.

“There wasn’t much information about warning. Do they give you two weeks to get out, or two days or a month? That’s my biggest concern, especially because I’m coming from California.”

Creemer expressed concerns about potentially having to find a new place of residence, saying “that could be a little bit hectic and crazy. And I definitely wouldn’t really be focusing on any academic material.”

Creemer noted that she appreciated knowing the university would try to put in effort. But the lack of a housing guarantee is something Gurstein and Yee find particularly alarming.

“Given that Vancouver has a very low vacancy rate, how are these students necessarily going to find accommodation that they could afford and that would suit what they need?” Gurstein said.

Since UBC student housing does not fall under the BC Residential Tenancy Act (RTA), student residents are not protected by the same laws as other tenants. This gives SHCS the ability to impose such clauses.

“This [clause] is really pushing it in my opinion,” Burns said.

Second-year chemical engineering student and Marine Drive resident Humleen Samra feels that not being protected by the RTA only makes the clause even more frightening.

“This clause wouldn’t be excusable in an apartment downtown. People would go crazy, [the landlord] would get sued.

But just because we live on campus, just because we’re students, we’re subject to lower living standards?” she said. U

AUGUST 25, 2020 TUESDAY

INTROVERTED OR EXTROVERTED, UBC STUDENTS EXPERIENCE SIMILAR SOCIAL CONNECTIVITY DURING THE PANDEMIC

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WORDS Myla White ILLUSTRATIONS Napat Asavamongkolkul

ecent research focused on UBC undergraduates has found that we might be more resilient than originally expected when it comes to feeling connected to others.

A joint study between researchers at UBC and the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has found that people experienced surprisingly little change in feelings of social connection, on average, in the face of a considerable reshaping of their social lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using previously obtained measures of social connection, well-being and extroversion, researchers were able to compare self-reported feelings of connectedness between introverts and extroverts from before and after the onset of the pandemic.

The portion of the study conducted by UBC researchers utilized a subject pool consisting entirely of UBC undergraduate students. These participants reported slightly lower levels of social connection during the pandemic.

In this portion of the study, extroverts initially showed a greater decline in levels of social connectedness than introverts.

“However, when we controlled for levels of connectedness prior to the pandemic … extroverts fared better than introverts,” reads the study. In other words, if an introvert and an extrovert were to start with the same level of social connection, during the pandemic the extrovert would actually experience higher levels of social connection than the introvert.

Yet whether these levels of connectedness should be controlled is up for debate.

“I think that comes from the fact that social connection and extroversion are so tied together,” said master’s of psychology student and study co-author Dunigan Folk.

“Some people would say, ‘well if you control for [pre-pandemic levels of] social connection in extroverts, sure, then you show that extraversion is maybe protective in this one analysis.

“But social connection is such an integral part of being an extrovert that like, what’s left?”

While this research has provided a window into how UBC students responded socially to the pandemic, questions might arise about the generalizability of the

findings due to the subject pool.

However, the second portion of the study spearheaded by researchers at UCR, with a subject pool consisting of adults from the United States, the United Kingdom and 26 other countries, yielded similar results.

“Generalizability is always a difficult thing but we also found similar resilience in this study too, which was more an adult sample from the US and UK. And there is a lot of research coming out that is finding a surprising level of resilience,” said Folk.

It might seem surprising that the average undergrad didn’t feel much difference in their social connectedness after the onset of the pandemic, with physical distancing measures swiftly coming into effect in BC in March.

However, when faced with the deprivation of their usual sources of social connection, humans might find alternate ways to feel close to others.

Since physical distancing guidelines have gone into effect, Canadians have organized Zoom happy hours, had distanced park visits and clapped together for frontline workers. According to the study, “[t]hese acts of solidarity could plausibly satisfy the need to belong, such that the pandemic could produce unchanged — or even elevated — feelings of connection.”

But Folk acknowledges the constraints of the present research. Data for the second time point was collected in the first week of April, meaning that the April findings can’t necessarily be generalized to the rest of the pandemic.

Folk intends to follow up with the same cohort of students in the future to continue this line of research.

“I think what makes our paper unique compared to a lot of the other research is that we actually have measures from before COVID-19,” said Folk. “Whereas a lot of research tended to start [during the pandemic], which is still valuable. But it just doesn’t quite give you the look at the impact of the pandemic.” U

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BEHIND THE BARRIER

RACIALIZED STUDENTS IN THE PROVINCE FACE TIERED ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE SERVICES

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hen Chihiro Asami felt a sore throat coming on, a possible COVID-19 diagnosis wasn’t her only worry. She was working at a local cafe when her manager suggested she talk to a doctor— something Asami is not comfortable doing in English .

An international student hailing from Miyazaki, Japan, Asami was busy taking her last set of courses at the University of Victoria (UVic). Like many others, health care access wasn’t at the forefront of Asami’s mind— until she was directly confronted with barriers to it.

Over the last four years of her degree, Asami has often chosen to attend non-essential medical appointments in Japan, where she is from. Beyond the cultural unfamiliarity with the Canadian medical system, language remains the biggest barrier. “[Receiving health care in BC] is not as comfortable as going to [a] clinic in Japan because of the language barrier,” Asami admits. “I try…[to] minimize the health service that I receive here.”

She remembers feeling nervous about being sick, since the potential for transmission with customers and coworkers at the local cafe she works at was high.

The UVic Health Clinic has already switched to Telehealth services, so Asami had her appointment over the phone and then came in to be tested. To her relief, Asami tested positive for strep throat instead of COVID-19.

When she went to the pharmacy to pick up medication, the pharmacy hadn’t received the prescription order from the clinic.

“I was feeling really bad that day. So I really needed the medicine immediately,” said Asami. “I cried, actually. The pharmacist [said], ‘sorry, but there’s nothing [we] can do at the moment.’” Frustrated with the miscommunication, paired with the intense unwellness she felt, Asami left without her prescription.

She admits to feeling that if she had been more confident speaking English, she might have been able to get the medication she so badly needed that day.

Asami is not alone in feeling like there is a different system for BIPOC and racialized international students when it comes to receiving health care.

But access to the kind of health care BC is renowned for is not a universal experience.

People of colour often have to contend with language barriers, cultural assumptions and underlying biases when accessing health care spaces. Going to the doctor is far from a simple task.

Over the last few months, racial tensions have seen an uptick, with increased reports of racism across the country, particularly in Vancouver and Toronto — significant hubs for Asian migration and settlement.

This has been devastating for communities of colour who have also seen higher infection rates than their white counterparts. While Vancouver does not currently collect race-based data, in Toronto, Black people and other people of colour make up 83 per cent of reported COVID-19 cases despite only making up half of the city’s population.

RACIST JOKES AND LANGUAGE BARRIERS Long before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, racial microaggressions were already commonplace.

For Georgia Yee, who serves as the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs at the University of British Columbia (UBC), decoding spaces of care is something that she has had to do from an early age whenever she took her Grandmother to the doctor. “[My grandmother] wouldn’t be able to get past [the] language barrier or communicate, and the health care practitioner would get really, really mad,” said Yee.

WORDS Danni Olusanya and Dorothy Poon ILLUSTRATION Lua Presidio

Combined with the cultural barriers between her grandmother and her health care workers, Yee remembers associating her grandmother’s inability to speak English with a sense of frustration. “‘Why can’t my grandma just learn English?’

“As a child, that’s something that I remembered thinking,” said Yee. “And now that I look back on that, [I think] it’s really the lack of training that health care practitioners receive.”

After nationwide reports of xenophobic attacks against racialized persons came to light, Statistics Canada launched a survey focusing on the impact of COVID-19 in individuals’ experiences of discrimination throughout the country.

Yee’s family in Alberta experienced this kind of discrimination first hand at the onset of the pandemic.

“I’ve definitely seen a lot of anti-Asian sentiment really amplified in light of COVID ... [My family] had their property vandalised. There’s no indication that [this] was specific[ally] anti-Asian, but a Chinese-style lantern [was] knocked over.”

ACCESS IN LAYERS: THE STUDENT HEALTH CARE EXPERIENCE IN BC Rebecca Shang requires regular acupuncture treatments after a car accident three years ago.

According to Shang, ICBC requires a referral for her acupuncture claims.

This means frequent doctor’s visits at Victoria’s Jubilee Medical Clinic to obtain referrals.

While the majority of her appointments at the clinic have gone smoothly, Shang’s experience with one particular physician brought cultural barriers in the BC health care system to light.

The physician refused to provide a referral to acupuncture services based on his lack of confidence in it as an effective form of treatment. She recalls him allegedly telling her that acupuncture seemed fake because it failed to yield immediate, short-term benefits for her.

Although medical practitioners have differing opinions on treatments for their patients, acupuncture is a well-known method for pain management. A 2018 study done by the American Academy of Family Physicians found that it helped some patients with chronic pain management beyond a mere placebo effect — an assumption which has often been attributed to non-traditional, nonWestern forms of treatment.

For Shang, the treatment has been effective over a longer period of time. She ultimately had to switch to another doctor at the same clinic to continue her acupuncture treatments.

STUDENT HEALTH SERVICES RESPOND TO COVID-19

However, Yee sees overt racism to be far more permissible in Vancouver than in her hometown, Calgary. “[In Vancouver] it is far more acceptable to make bat soup or wet market jokes, [but] they all contribute to a pyramid of [violence].”

In the 2019 AMS Academic Experience Survey at UBC, more than a third of students reported experiencing race-based discrimination. For Chinese students, this figure rose to 50 per cent, for Chinese international students rates were at 63 per cent.

These experiences of racism can wear on a person’s mental health.Despite this, Yee also believes that there are certain stigmas attached to seeking counselling services as an Asian person.

“I’ve often felt that my perspective has not been taken into consideration when seeking mental health support. [There are] different racialized stereotypes of a ‘socially-pressured Asian’ [who] is under pressure from [their] parents,” said Yee. Asami and Yee are two examples of a greater pattern in British Columbia.

In the face of unique challenges resulting from COVID-19, Student Health Services at both UVic and UBC have moved to Telehealth models. But currently, only students within Canada are eligible for appointments.

This September, a new service for UVic students called SupportConnect, which will provide around-the-clock mental health services to students, is set to launch in 27 languages.

At UBC, the Empower Me platform fulfills the same role, with the program offering support by phone in multiple languages.

However, services are generally limited and only operate in a short-term capacity.

UBC Counselling Services has also begun the work to create spaces for BIPOC students. Jenni Clark, associate director of Counselling Services, recognizes the distinct needs of students of colour. She said the office is trying to address this through a BIPOC-specific support group. “[This] would be safe place for [students] to come and be facilitated by staff [who] themselves identify as BIPOC,” said Clark.

As health care institutions on the UBC campus adjusted to protocols imposed by the provincial government, service usage declined.

According to UBC Student Health, there has been a 21.59 per cent net decrease in student health visits from the pre-COVID-19 period (December to March) to the first few months of the pandemic (April to July).

There was a decline in the proportion of international students accessing these services.

Mental health services at the institution also saw a net number of visits decrease with 50.48 per cent fewer visits from during the first quarter of the pandemic (April - July). Despite this, the proportion of international students who sought access increased by 5.4 percent. The amount of students accessing the services who identified as BIPOC also increased by

AUGUST 25, 2020 TUESDAY

3.4 per cent.

At UVic, health appointments from the same time frame declined 57.61% while mental health services saw a decline of 34.45%. However, the COVID-19 period also coincided with the integration of Health and Counselling Services into the Student Wellness Centre, which impacted student access figures in the April to July time frame.

Stephanie Inman, communications coordinator at the Student Wellness Center at UVic, said that numerical data on accessing health services focusing on international versus domestic student access is generally not collected. This is also the case for race-based data pertaining to Health and Counselling services.

HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS AT UVIC, UBC UNDERGOING ANTI-RACISM TRAINING In the wake of the death of George Floyd this past June, universities across BC have also been making commitments to engaging in anti-racist work. At UVic, President Jamie Cassels committed to “continuing the necessary work to confront racism, recognizing that many current assumptions, attitudes and habits stand in the way of change.” At UBC, President Santa Ono committed to “dismantlling the tools of oppression and white supremacy that remain prevalent and entrenched in our everyday systems.”

Health services at both institutions have attempted to bridge gaps in coverage through training.

UVic’s Student Wellness Centre, for instance, implemented “ongoing professional development around antiracism, accessibility and equality,” in addition to Indigenous Cultural Acumen Training for its staff. Inman placed particular emphasis on making health spaces at UVic accessible for Indigenous students, with the option to work with Indigenous-identifying counsellors.

The Centre said it works in collaboration with International Student Services to coordinate health care access and arrange for translation services or other accommodations on an emergentneed basis.

Marna Nelson, director of Student Health Services is hoping that her staff remains informed about racial disparities in health care through professional development sessions. Annually practitioners participate in continuing medical education which includes formal courses on diversity as well as the San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training course. They also have a Student Diversity Initiative as well as a small group training on trauma informed care.

“These sessions deal with [the] topics and training so that individuals in our health unit[s]...are learning strategies to help with these very important issues,” said Nelson.

UVic has also been moving toward providing a stronger support system for BIPOC students. The Wellness Centre has been using student feedback to tailor its counselling support group this upcoming fall, a Student Advisory Group for the Centre is in the works to better tailor services toward the needs of its service population, and a Diversity and Inclusion Working Group is also being implemented at the Centre to address specific issues uniquely relevant to students of colour.

RACE AND HEALTH CARE BEYOND COVID-19 In mid-June, Provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix announced an independent investigation on Indigenous-specific racism in the BC health care system,

appointing UBC law professor Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond to spearhead the project.

The investigation will be the first comprehensive look into the direct impacts of racism, in explicit or implicit forms, in health care delivery throughout the province.

Turpel-Lafond’s team is looking at a range of racialized experiences and systemic issues in the way health care is delivered and experienced by British Columbians—particularly those from racialized backgrounds.

While the scope of her report is currently on anti-Indigenous bias, she believes there is a need to systematically examine intolerance and racism against other marginalized groups in BC. “All forms of racism should be examined with the kind of skill set that understands that all racism isn’t the same,” said Turpel-Lafond.

“We understand that it’s all wrong.

It’s discrimination. It’s illegal. It’s inappropriate, but how racism affects people and affects those implicit and explicit values and beliefs needs to be unpackaged. And how much work we’ve not done [on] that is staggering.”

In June 2020, Vancouver City Council announced its unanimous endorsement of “a call for race-based and sociodemographic data in BC.” The council’s motion proposed that the absence of such data ignores the disproportionate rate of health complications among marginalized groups within the larger population,“resulting in missed opportunities to address long-standing health inequalities.”

This approach is reflected in UBC’s and UVic’s health care systems, both of which do not mandatorily collect detailed, race-specific data.

Turpel-Lafond points to the need for reform in the health care education system itself. Students in health care, she said, do not currently have adequate outlets to speak out about incidents of sexism, racism, homophobia, workplace bullying and beyond.

Combined with a fear of workplacediscrimination, health care students also serve as examples of marginalization by existing institutions.

She stressed the need for students to continue pushing for their voices to be heard. “[This initiative] allows me to go into the medical schools, nursing schools and elsewhere and say, ‘your own students have been addressing this. What have you [as institutions] been doing?’ But the fact that they [the students] have been shut down—I don’t want them to get discouraged. They need to double their efforts.”

The data collection phase of the project is set to conclude by the end of this year.

Many Canadian universities, including UBC and UVic, do not collect race-based data on the makeup of their student populations. As a result, detailed data on how race impacts health care delivery is not currently available.

For students like Yee, racism and accessible health care are interconnected issues.

“Without acknowledging that racism is already intrinsically part of this crisis [of COVID-19] we can’t move forward,” she said. U Danni Olusanya and Dorothy Poon wrote this piece as a collaboration between the Martlet and The Ubyssey to better understand the racialized experiences of post-secondary students accessing health care on the West Coast.

Editing was also done collaboratively, while The Ubyssey’s Lua Presidio designed the graphics for this piece.

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VISITS TO UBC STUDENT HEALTH SERVICES DOMESTIC (70.2%)

DOMESTIC (73.8%)

INTERNATIONAL (26.2%)

INTERNATIONAL (29.8%)

DEC – MAR

APR – JUL COURTESY UBC STUDENT HEALTH SERVICES

VISITS TO UBC COUNSELLING SERVICES DOMESTIC (72.5%)

DOMESTIC (67.1%)

INTERNATIONAL (27.5%)

DEC – MAR

INTERNATIONAL (32.9%)

APR – JUL COURTESY UBC COUNSELLING SERVICES

VISITS TO UBC COUNSELLING SERVICES BY SELFREPORTED RACIAL IDENTITY BIPOC (57.6%)

PREFER NOT TO SAY (8.9%)

CAUCASIAN (33.5%)

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TUESDAY AUGUST 25, 2020

STORIES FROM SELF-ISOLATION Quarantine has long been called the great equalizer, yet when we locked our doors on the world that we once knew, a world without masks and a newfound fear of the outside, we didn’t find ourselves equal. This series of stories is about us: the flights we took as we hurried home from campus, the connections rekindled with family and, of course, the never-ending boredom.

ILLUSTRATIONS Maya Rodrigo-Abdi

AUGUST 25, 2020 TUESDAY

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TEMPERATURE CHECKS, ANIMAL CROSSING AND TRACKING APPS: FINDING MY NEW NORMAL IN QUARANTINE WORDS Blossom Cheng

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eturning to Hong Kong was nothing less than an incredibly stressful trip. My flight had been unexpectedly moved up a week, leaving me with a day to pack all my belongings from my dorm to move into storage. At the airport, I felt underdressed in my mask as most of the other passengers were decked out in gloves, goggles and hazmat suits.

Once I got on the plane, I sanitized every surface in front of me with my little bottle of hand sanitizer. The aircraft was much emptier than usual, the seat next to me was unoccupied, which made me feel safer during mealtimes. I appreciated the extra space.

When I finally arrived in the city after an exhausting 13-hour flight, I received a tracking bracelet to wear during my compulsory 14-day quarantine, which was paired with an app to make sure I stayed home.

My experience quarantining alone in my room consisted of freaking out over every little cough and sneeze and frantically writing essays trying to make up for lost time.

Whenever I left my room, either to go to the bathroom or to grab a snack, I wore a mask to protect the rest of my family.

In the first month, I mostly stayed inside, completing my assignments and exams. There were very few local cases of COVID-19 and life returned to some sense of normalcy during April and May. But there were still big changes.

Everyone still made sure they were wearing masks when going outside; shopping malls and restaurants frequently administered temperature checks before allowing people in. I’ve gotten so used to wearing a mask that I feel wrong when I leave my house without one.

And while it’s somewhat uncomfortable to wear a mask for long periods of time, I know that it’s to protect myself and those around me.

The glares you get from other people if you don’t wear a mask also adds to the incentive. It became normal to see people use envelopes or mask holders to keep masks sanitary during mealtimes.

Social media and WhatsApp groups became filled with posts about how to properly store your mask when they are not being used to minimize the chance of infection.

In July, the city went through its third wave of COVID-19 cases. Some days there were over 100 cases. Social distancing measures came back in full force, meaning that public gatherings could not exceed two people. Wearing a mask became mandatory in indoor places. Dining-in past 6 p.m. was also banned.

It is uncertain whether the number of new cases each day will stay up, but I have been staying home for the past few weeks as I have been let go from my summer job.

My attempts at staying healthy and active while at home have been futile. I find myself staying seated for hours on end with horrible posture, binge-watching Netflix shows. Staying motivated is something many are struggling with right now.

I have to continually remind myself that it’s okay to take a break and relax.

Besides, why would I start on my readings when I can play Animal Crossing and run from all of my looming problems? U

BOREDOM, FRUSTRATION AND EXHAUSTION: SUMMING UP MY QUARANTINE EXPERIENCE WORDS Vik Sangar MARCH 13, 2020 UBC announced the transition to online learning for the remainder of the semester.

This came as a relief. I spent the days prior constantly refreshing r/UBC and reading the latest gossip about when school would finally shut down because of the pandemic.

Fast forward to late March: with quarantining and online courses, how hard could this possibly be? Well, pretty damn hard. Gone were all the opportunities I once took for granted — ‘normal’ office hours, asking questions in class without having to speak into a microphone and being able to see my classmates outside of the little squares on my computer screen. On top of this came the unfixable, quarantine-induced laziness, which completely took away my motivation to study or even put it in a regular amount of effort into my learning.

APRIL AND MAY Now these were some strange months. Classes were over, so I didn’t have to wake up at a normal time anymore.

I was getting out of bed around 2 p.m. everyday. Frantically following the news for updates from Bonnie Henry everyday, forgetting what it meant to take care of myself.

From binging on junk food, to doing nothing but watching Netflix all day. I hadn’t shaved my face in weeks. At one point, I even joined the revival of every Gen Z’s favourite childhood online game, Club Penguin. This was pretty entertaining. But even Club Penguin got boring after a week or so. By May, I made the impulsive decision of registering in two summer courses to put at least a bit of routine back into my life. I couldn’t handle doing nothing anymore.

JUNE Woohoo! BC managed to flatten the curve. Places were finally opening back up again.

I could finally get a haircut and start seeing people. But with this came the constant paranoia of “What if I contract the virus?” This led to sanitizing my hands to the point where they felt brittle, having a mini heart attack when I saw anyone cough or sneeze and showering immediately after returning home from an outing.

JULY Being around my parents so often was really starting to irritate me — complete alone time was next to impossible. Sure, I could still hang out with friends in small groups, but it wasn’t enough. BC still wasn’t stabilized so partying, going out everyday and returning myself to a pre-quarantine lifestyle wasn’t an option.

Yet, I was envious of all the Snapchats and Instagram stories of people having mass gatherings, partying downtown and living like we weren’t still in a pandemic. I was so tempted to accept invitations to events and gatherings and fighting the urge was next to impossible. I was craving a taste of pre-quarantine life. I decided to pick up old hobbies that I hadn’t done in years. I hadn’t read for pleasure since early high school. What was I turning into?

AUGUST The summer is almost over? Where did the last five months go? I thought time flies when you’re having fun, not when you’re bored out of your mind. The COVID-19 cases are rising again? I thought we were supposed to be done with this pandemic by May! U

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TUESDAY AUGUST 25, 2020

HEALING WOUNDS WORDS Lalaine Alindogan

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PARADISE FOUND WORDS Jane Diokpo

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h yes, 2020: the year that was supposed to be good but pretty much turned out the total opposite.

Graduations were cancelled, travel bans were enacted, movie releases were postponed, businesses shut down, many beloved celebrities passed away and most significantly of all — ­ the quarantine started. Summer this year was pretty much cancelled, for absolutely everyone.

Yet, I for one found myself having the best holiday I have ever had in a while. When I found out about quarantine, I don’t think I cared much. I’ll admit right now that I’m a total introvert. So I guess my opinion has less weight when I say summer this year has actually been pretty good!

Now, I didn’t get to do a lot or anything special in Vancouver — ­ but as a homebody, that was enough for me! Nobody bothered me much (you best believe people kept their personal space for once), there were no essays or assignments to hand in at chaotic deadlines, I got to sleep as long as I wanted; I was living in paradise.

Now I’m in no way trying to downplay the horrible impact of quarantine, but rather trying to look at the bright side — ­ and it seems like things were mostly bright in my experience.

I went to visit my older sister in Ottawa at her apartment for a while too. We got to play video games, have picnics in a park and binge-watch loads of movies together. We got to do so many things that we had not been able to do in a long while.

It felt pretty great to reconnect with her through things we used to do together. I hadn’t really seen her in person for two years (we were both busy and in different provinces, so we only had Skype video calls from time to time).

I’m not sure if we’ll ever be this close again. Even if I don’t think I learned anything new about myself or her, we had a lot of fun anyway. In a sort of peculiar way, COVID-19 brought us together. U

or me, the most troubling burden of the pandemic was feeling trapped each day in the legacies of toxic Filipino culture.

As I isolated with my family, I could feel my mental health spiralling downwards. I was becoming familiar with the critical difference between being alone and feeling lonely – realizing that I was significantly happier living alone in my basement suite than moving back into a Filipino household of six. Instead, I continued to quarantine in the space where I, for the majority of my adolescence, struggled with depression, anxiety and a severe amount of insecurity.

As Abby Paison writes in “Addressing Toxic Behaviors in Filipino Families,” “These spaces ... can be filled with judgement, drama and toxic social behaviors like child bragging and comparing, body-shaming, gossip and even subtle public ridicule.”

As a first-generation Filipino-Canadian, there is a deep internalized pressure to live up to my parents’ expectations of academic and financial success ­— they often reminded us of the sacrifices they made to bring us to Canada. As a result, we were silenced from ever discussing low feelings of self-worth.

We were taught to stifle any signs of mental illness.

Explore the Subtle Asian Traits Facebook group and you’ll come across multiple discussions and satirical memes about mental health issues in Asian families being silenced or concealed. In many Asian households, conditions of depression, emotional abuse, body dysmorphia and addictive behaviour are not unusual within families. The harmful cultural traits that shaped our upbringing have created long-term effects on mental wellbeing and personal development.

Slut-shaming and body-shaming comments have echoed around my house since I was little.

Even this summer, my sisters and I can’t leave the house wearing shorts, a skirt or a tank top without being placed under a demeaning magnifying glass. We are shamed for showing too much skin, our bodies uncomfortably inspected for flaws.

Ongoing degradation alongside disciplinarian Asian culture as I quarantine at home prompts childhood trauma and memories of strict punishments involving public humiliation.

Emotional and physical abuse is regarded as normal — an intergenerational issue of Filipino families perpetuating a

culture of belittling their kids or neglecting mental well-being.

Our parents too are the product of their own trauma and upbringing within toxic Filipino culture.

Yet I have unconditional love for my family, who are an essential part of my life. I am thankful for my parents, whose tremendous hard work has blessed me this life in Canada.

Yet as a young woman, the life-long shaming and stigma around mental illness left me with a heaviness of insecurity, self-doubt and ultimately loneliness. It battered me numb and kept me up at night when I was alone in the dark with my self-destructive thoughts.

Being in such proximity to the source of my stress and trauma has driven me to disengage to improve my mental health. My family viewed these boundaries as disrespect.

This environment made the transition from self-hatred to selflove extremely difficult.

Even though it became crucial for me to spend time alone away from my family, it also was becoming detrimental to sit in a harrowing loneliness of my own making.

Total separation from my problems wasn’t the key to improving mental health. I realized that refusing to address the shadows of the past haunting my present mental well-being was not going to change my situation. My problems would not be solved simply by isolating myself and hiding in my bedroom.

As I began educating myself more on the societal structures that shape Filipino culture and family dynamics, I have used my social agency to speak out and encourage conversation.

I want my family members to heal from the wounds that they have long concealed.

I have learned that these feelings of loneliness during quarantine are best battled with self-expression.

As I continue to occupy myself through art and writing, I have also begun to open up about my mental health struggles to friends and relatives. In these new discussions that have arisen during self-isolation, I’ve discovered that I am not alone.

Many others are experiencing similar situations. To unlearn these self-destructive attitudes, I found that it’s okay to distance myself from culturally induced family dysfunction, to find support from external relationships and pursue more experiences that freely embrace my authentic self. U

AUGUST 25, 2020 TUESDAY

STAYING ACTIVE DURING COVID-19 WORDS Diana Hong ILLUSTRATION Ayra Faiz

The COVID-19 pandemic has left everyone cooped up at home. Now that we are in phase 3 of reopening, gyms and recreation centres are starting to open with restrictions. But it’s way easier to sleep, binge-watch Netflix and eat.

However, UBC Professor Guy Faulkner, the chair of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, said “physical activity is probably one of the best things we can do for our health at the moment … we may need to be creative, but we can find ways to be physically active.”

Working out helps manage people’s mental health, elevate mood and give a boost to the immune system. So, here’s a list of things to do to stay active during this global pandemic.

STRETCHING

RUNNING

Work on your stretches to increase blood flow to your muscles. Use walls and chairs at your house to stretch your arms and legs.

You can find many stretches on the Internet.

You can go running around a track close by or anywhere outside while listening to your favourite songs, if this helps! Remember to distance yourself from others and watch for cars if you will be running outside.

JUMP ROPE Throwback to that one middle school PE class and pull out that skipping rope. If you don’t own a jump rope, you can always make your own.

FOLLOW FITNESS INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS Follow UBC Recreation or other fitness Instagram accounts for workout plans that you can do for free.

TIKTOK DANCES TikTok dances serve as an entertaining way to get some kind of exercise in. Whether you’re learning how to hit the woah or throw it back, you’ll be sure to break a sweat eventually.

GO FOR A WALK OUTDOORS Staying home 24/7 is not ideal for your health. So, walk around your neighbourhood or hit up your favourite outdoor areas to take a break and get some fresh air.

YOUTUBE WORKOUT VIDEOS The modern-day, at-home aerobics DVDs. You can choose from many workout videos on YouTube that you can find and follow along at home or outside. And they’re FREE!

STAIRS If you’ve got stairs at your house, go up and down as much as you can.

HIKING HOUSEHOLD CHORES Washing dishes, doing your laundry, mowing the lawn and more. Now that you are spending more time at home, keep busy by cleaning. You’ll have a tidy house and you’ll be keeping fit; that’s killing two birds with one stone!

Go hiking at your favourite hiking places and get some vitamin D. Don’t forget about physical distancing!

STANDING While working at home, try to work or make phone calls while standing up.

MAKESHIFT AT-HOME GYMS Whether you’re doing squats with your old textbooks or you have an extra $3,000 lying around for a Peloton bike, you can turn an unused area of your house into a gym of sorts.

DANCING For an at-home dance workout you can play Just Dance or Dance Dance Revolution.

You can also follow along with dance tutorial videos on YouTube.

WALL-SITS Use the walls at your house.

Sit like you are sitting on a chair against the wall. Maybe read a book if it’s too easy for you.

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TUESDAY AUGUST 25, 2020

EY’S S S Y B THE U

GOOD-ER TIMES GUIDE WORDS Sam Smart ILLUSTRATIONS Pat Tancharoen

Let’s be real: cases are going up in BC and a lot of that has to do with people expanding their social circles too large and too quickly. Be kind to others and find alternate ways to have a good time to avoid infecting friends, service workers and strangers.

This guide, inspired by Dr. Bonnie Henry’s Good Times Guide, will give you some ideas about how to have a good time while staying safe and preventing the spread of COVID-19.

PARK HANGOUTS COVID-19 is less likely to spread in outdoor environments where air circulates well and there’s tonnes of open space.

You can still see a few people and hang out, but the smaller the group the better. The best way to keep safe is to be in each others bubbles, already. Remember that a bubble of six people means you six only see one another and nobody else.

Otherwise, all their extra contacts are also in your bubble, which will be drastically bigger than what you thought.

If you’re with people from outside your bubble, stay at least two metres apart and respect that space, or ask for consent before coming any closer. Bring your own food and drinks, bring a little blanket to sit on to keep the ants off your pants and enjoy seeing your friends face to face, albeit from a little farther than before. Don’t share food, drinks, joints or anything else your mouth touches, for obvious reasons. Bring hand sanitizer too for some peace of mind.

FEELING UNDER THE WEATHER? DON’T RISK IT If you’re feeling any symptoms of COVID-19, even something as small as a headache or tiredness, don’t go out and see your friends. Stay home and organize a way to either socialize over the phone or over video call, or treat yourself with a nice time alone. Here are a few ideas for ways to treat yourself and have a fun time by yourself.

• Make yourself a cup of tea and watch some videos or a movie, • try baking something with the ingredients you have in your pantry, • allow yourself to play video games for however long you want, • read that book you’ve been meaning to read for months • go for a walk around your neighbourhood and try to find things you haven’t noticed before like a really cool tree or a house that looks nice, • paint your nails or dye your hair or something else fun to make you feel pampered, • message a friend you haven’t talked to in a while and catch up, • call your parents or loved ones and see how they’re doing, • try to learn a new skill that doesn’t require much, like HTML or a few phrases of a new language, • tidy up an area of your room or house that you’ve been meaning to tend to (this can be fun if you put on a podcast or some music and think about what to do with the space) or • make a blanket fort and just hang out in there with your laptop or a nice book.

These are all safe and fun ideas to make your day a little better when you’re feeling under the weather, all things that are much better than risking infecting other people. There are countless other things to do as well, just think about what makes you happy, what interests you or ask your friends what they’ve been doing to have fun alone.

GUIDE TO A SAFE MOVIE NIGHT Gone are the days of going to a friend’s house or a theatre to watch movies and hang out. The good news is, movies are easy to watch online and you can still connect with friends and watch the same thing at the same time, just separately.

For the synchronization of watching a movie, you can all use a streaming service or a downloaded movie on your separate computers and hit play at the exact same time to watch at the same pace, and you can let your friends know when to hit pause if one of you has to go to the washroom or something.

You can have a group chat or a group video call, and you can type your commentary every once in a while as if you were all in the same room together. The bonus to this is that you don’t have to deal with making your living room neat or making food for everyone, because you only have to worry about being comfy yourself!

You can make a nice bowl of popcorn or open up some bite-sized candies for yourself just like you were at the movies, and crack open a cold one of whatever variety you have around. Sure, it’s nothing like being in the same room with your friends, but this alternative is honestly just as good if it means keeping you and your friends safe.

HOOKING UP So you’ve been talking to someone online for a while and you’re ready to take the next step to see them in person and hook up. You can do this safely and minimize the risk of transmission with a few steps that require you both to be honest and open.

It’s truthfully very tough to have sex without being close enough to a person to infect them. Because of this, you have to have a conversation about how much you’ve opened your social bubbles, whether anyone close to you is high risk, whether you’ve had symptoms recently and if there’s been any recent risk of exposure. Both of you have to be honest with these things, and consider taking extra steps to protect yourselves if you have any doubts. You should always use protection like condoms and dental dams regardless of whether there’s a pandemic or not, because they protect you both from STIs and the novel coronavirus that has been detected in semen and feces. Consider positions that don’t require much face-to-face contact, consider both wearing well-fitted masks if you want to be extra cautious or just delay your hookup to a later date when you’re both sure you’ll be safe. U