Thursday, February 26, 2015

Thursday, February 26, 2015

THE THE THE

Issue 77

CONCUSSION CONCUSSION CONCUSSION

by DEVIN GOLETS It’s Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015, and the men’s Western Mustangs hockey team is in Toronto to take on the York Lions. The ’Stangs are in hot pursuit of the Windsor Lancers for first place in the Ontario University Athletics west division and the game’s importance cannot be overlooked.

But for Mustangs forward Ryan Kirk, the game means much more.

“433 days,” he says without hesitation, when I ask him how long it’s been since he last played.

Taking me back to a game against Queen’s on Nov. 16, 2013, he explains how it took just one shift to turn both his season and his world upside down.

“It was an innocent play,” Kirk says. “I was trying to get off the ice, and got hit by two guys at once on both shoulders. I got whiplash, and that’s where the problems came from.”

As soon as Kirk got off the ice, his eyes started flashing different colours. As is the Canadian Interuniversity Sport protocol, the team trainer took him straight to the dressing room for concussion testing. The results left Kirk thinking he would be all right, but after waiting a week to start training again, the dizziness came back.

Three weeks after the hit, Kirk went to the Fowler Kennedy Sports Medicine Clinic at Western ­– his first step in a long road to recovery that made him more than acquainted with a wide variety of medical professionals.

“I think I’ve seen three doctors, three massage therapists, two physiotherapists, one chiropractor, one audiologist, one ear, nose, and throat specialist, and one athletic specialist,”

says Kirk. I do the counting for him and tell him that’s 12 people.

“Sounds about right.”

Make it 13. It was an optometrist who told Kirk his eyes were not functioning together, which appeared to be the main problem in need of fixing. Some eye exercises showed his left eye was not aligned with his right when focusing, which made it painful to read. Ninety per cent of Kirk’s energy was being used to keep his eyes aligned, leaving the finance student dizzy after just one line of reading. By the time May 2014 rolled around, most Western students were off enjoying their summer vacations, but Kirk was preparing to write his December exams.

Sustaining a concussion is as frustrating as it is painful. While broken wrists and twisted ankles have concrete treatments and timelines of recovery, a concussion can shift from a physical injury to a more psychological one, leaving an athlete wondering when they will be back and when the headaches will cease. The questions don’t always have a definitive answer, which often leaves players itching to get back in the lineup with a temptation to return too soon.

“One day I’d feel good, the next day not as great,” Kirk explains. “Sometimes you think you might not ever get better, which is another aspect of it.”

The hockey world is all too familiar with the scary effects of concussions that can lead to depression and even suicide. Though the connection remains unclear and research is relatively sparse, the issue has been front-andcentre following the sudden deaths of former

NHL players Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, Wade Belak and, very recently, Steve Montador.

In 2008, data from the National Academy of Neuropsychology’s Sports Concussion Symposium in New York revealed that 759 NHL players had been concussed in the previous 10 years. Since then, the concussion parade has continued, cutting short the careers of promising talents like Marc Savard, Paul Kariya, Eric Lindros and Keith Primeau. In 2011, Sidney Crosby made concussions national news when he disappeared from action for the better part of two seasons after he took a high hit during the Winter Classic. According to the CBC, about 13 per cent of NHL players on active rosters were out of the lineup on any given night due to concussions in 2012.

Despite the staggering statistics of players sustaining concussions, many players feel pressured to skate through head trauma for fear of losing playing time or future contract offers.

The fast and forceful nature of hockey is a breeding ground for concussions. Many former NHL players continue to suffer from post-concussion syndrome — just this month 29 former players launched a $5 million lawsuit against the NHL. The players allege the league “failed to protect them against the risks of the repeated head trauma they sustained during their pro hockey careers,” according to Sports Illustrated.

The devastating effect of concussions has led to measures to curb them. In recent years, the NHL has implemented stricter rules against headchecks, but this has had little effect.

>> see CONCUSSION pg. 8 Graphics by Mike Laine GAZETTE

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thegazette • Thursday, February 26, 2015

Caught on Camera

CROSSWORD By Eugene Sheffer

Kelly Samuel • GAZETTE

LIKE A GUMMY-GOBBLING, GOBSTOPPER GUZZLING KID IN A CANDY STORE. Music junkies unite! Old and new music alike find a cozy home at CHRW. Rows of sweet jazz and blues mingle with earthy folk, meanwhile those old emo EPs hang out with themselves, because, well yeah. Take a look for yourself!

St. Patrick’s Day campaign benefits kidney cancer Megan Devlin ASSOCIATE EDITOR @MegAtGazette

A Western Law student is launching a charitable St. Patrick’s Day campaign for kidney cancer by selling T-shirts that read “Patrick was no saint, he was a mustang.”

All proceeds from shirt sales will go towards Kidney Cancer Canada and the founder plans to get #AMustang trending on social media to further raise awareness.

“The colour for kidney cancer is actually green, and I know a few people who have been affected — not in my immediate family but people who are very, very close to

me,” Matei Olaru, the third-year law student behind the campaign, said.

Kidney cancer is not a wellknown cancer, Olaru said, and he saw an opportunity to raise awareness.

He thinks his campaign will play into Mustang pride.

“I know that pride here is a very big thing. I think this is a chance to turn that pride — which some people see as a party mentality — into a good thing,” he said.

If the campaign is successful at Western this year, Olaru envisions similar shirts and hashtags for every university across Canada.

“We can have #AGoldenhawk at

Laurier, #AGryphon at Guelph,” he said.

Kidney Cancer Canada describes itself as an advocacy and support charitable organization run by patients for patients.

“Through our mission, we are working to create a community of Canadians affected by kidney cancer and ensure that no one is alone on this journey,” the organization’s website reads.

Olaru says he’s set a goal of selling 3,000 shirts through his website

by St. Patrick’s Day. Shirts can be purchased online by credit card at PatrickWasNoSaint. com and will be distributed on campus.

I

KNOW THAT PRIDE HERE IS A VERY BIG THING. I THINK THIS IS A CHANCE TO TURN THAT PRIDE — WHICH SOME PEOPLE SEE AS A PARTY MENTALITY — INTO A GOOD THING. MATEI OLARU

THIRD-YEAR LAW STUDENT

Courtesy of Matei Olaru

Solution to puzzle on page 7

The Cryptoquip is a substitution cipher in which one letter stands for another. If you think that X equals O, it will equal O throughout the puzzle. Single letters, short words and words using an apostrophe give you clues to locating vowels. Solution is by trial and error. © 2002 by Kings Features Syndicate, Inc.

00

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thegazette • Thursday, February 26, 2015

Campus plan presented to students and faculty Rita Rahmati GAZETTE STAFF @uwogazette

released without some criticism.

Transportation, parking and preservation of open are the largest areas of concern. Attendants at the meeting raised numerous questions and issues with these areas such as the loss of forest areas and concerns over placing of parking.

“I think that the increased focus of walkability is a key component that I’m very happy with. Great to see that they are developing within the current area of campus,” Sookraj said.

“I think the success of a campus is not a building or a series of buildings but the campus as a whole.

The sum is greater than its parts,” McLean said.

McLean does not predict many major revisions to the Plan and it is projected to be released in April.

“I encourage students to come check out the full plan and contact one of their elected representatives or department of educational budgeting and planning just to ensure that any concerns that they don’t see in the draft are included in the final copy,” Sookraj said.

Current students are welcome to submit their thoughts on the plan until February 28 via email to masterplan@uwo.ca.

“ The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

Winnie Lu • GAZETTE

City council green lights food trucks on city streets Brittany Hambleton CONTRIBUTOR @uwogazette

A unanimous vote during London’s city council meeting on Tuesday will allow food trucks to park throughout the city.

After the 15–0 vote, the council decided to launch a pilot project for the summer of 2015 that will see eight food trucks parked in various locations throughout the city.

Jesse Helmer, Ward 4 councillor, is looking forward to seeing the project take off.

“What we’ve brought forward is regulatory changes that allow food trucks to operate on city streets and in parking spots on those streets, so not just anywhere,” Helmer said.

He explained that until now, food trucks have been allowed to operate on private property. Owners could park their trucks in privately owned parking lots and pay rent to the owner of that space.

Helmer cited the grilled cheese and BeaverTail trucks that students

have already seen around Western’s campus as examples of this.

“The changes are just to expand the number of places the trucks can park to include city parking spots on some roads.”

There will, however, be some restrictions imposed on food truck owners. A license will cost $1,225 and trucks will not be permitted to park in residential areas. Operators must maintain a 100 metre setback from elementary and secondary schools, as well as special events that already have food vendors.

Trucks are also not permitted to park within 25 metres of existing restaurants.

Food trucks have been a topic of debate for several years now, and previous councils have voted against them over fears that current restaurant owners will lose business.

Ward 10 councillor Virginia Ridley recognized this issue.

“We’ve heard from the downtown restaurant owners and there’s a limited amount of dollars that people spend,” she said. “The concern is

now they’re getting less of it.”

The project will run during the summer with plans to evaluate its success in the fall. In this meeting the council will discuss whether or not the restrictions that have been put in place are necessary.

Helmer cited the concerns of current restaurant owners that those setbacks are necessary to protect their businesses from the competition of food trucks, but he is confident that once the pilot is launched and the council can see how it is going to work everyone’s fears will be put at ease.

“Probably when we look at the pilot we’ll be able to ease some of those restrictions, presuming that the food truck entrepreneurs come forward with food trucks that do well,” Helmer said.

Ridley is also excited about the project and hopes that it will be a success.

“It’s a symbolic move that says we are open to change, we are open to progress and we’re ready to start moving forward.”

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By Levin C. Handy (per http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.04326) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The first draft of Western’s 2015 Campus Master Plan was presented to the Western community on Wednesday. The 141-page document, first released in early February, contains projected improvements and additions to the development of campus including new buildings, improving campus aesthetics, and increasing parking.

“Master plans have to look forward and the difficulty is how far forward can you look. The intent is that it be a living document that is constantly referred to,” Mike McLean, manager of planning and design in Facilities Management, said.

Both faculty and students attended the meeting, including USC president-elect Jack Litchfield and vice-president external-elect Richard Sookraj.

“The presentation did a very good job of recapping the major concerns and points of the Campus Master Plan,” Sookraj said.

The plan has been a collaborative process between faculty, students and the city of London.

Student input was welcome during

the consultation period with presentations being open to students and planning involved USC input.

The London community has been part of the deliberation in forming the plan, which was presented to the city at a community meeting on February 23.

“We have asked them for their feedback on our master plan. The good news is that we have engaged them and they are not raising any red flags,” McLean said.

The plan has been designed to be open to changes and accommodate for new information as other plans have been in the past. For example, the 2007 Campus Master Plan believed there would be no need for new housing in the close future, however in 2010 it was forecast that student enrollment would largely rise. As a result, Ontario Hall was created in order to support Western’s mandate to provide housing for all first year students.

“Although our priorities may not be clearly identified in the master plan we have to have something in place and I think that this is what this master plan does. It is flexible enough that if there is something that we couldn’t anticipate, we can accommodate,” McLean said.

The plan has not been

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thegazette • Thursday, February 26, 2015

arts&life

saywhat?

“I don’t have a girlfriend but I know a girl who would be mad at me for saying that.”

• Mitch Hedberg

Seeing positive results on first blind date Kant Touch This

Nathan Kanter SPORTS EDITOR @NateAtGazette

I had never been on a blind date before.

Granted, I was nervous. Not because it was a first for me, but because I’m not a very talkative guy — at least when I first meet people. I’m often shy at parties — until the alcohol kicks in — and when introduced to new people elsewhere, I usually don’t say much unless it’s about hockey, which I could go on for days about. But on a blind date, that’s probably not advised.

An entire night of talking with a stranger, with limited sports talk?

Oy vey.

The plan? A dinner at the Church Key – a nice little restaurant on Richmond – followed by a trip to Fleetway, where my date and I were would commence in “activities of our choosing.”

Apparently it has more than just bowling, which I was not aware of; it also had rock climbing and mini golf (glow in the dark!)

I was actually excited. So excited, in fact, that I missed the bus and ended up being slightly late. Great start, right?

My date assured me that it was fine, and that she had only just walked in. Phew.

As we sat down, a group of older adults beside us said to the waiter who had seated us, “they’re on a blind date? Cool.” No pressure, it’s not like it’s my first time or anything.

But within a couple minutes I was relieved: it was clear we had a lot in common, and conversation came easy. After the usual introduction stuff – where are you from, what are you studying, etc. – topics ranged from traveling, to the typical “what are you doing after you graduate?” and, naturally, to food.

About halfway through dinner, we inevitably came across the, “Oh you know so-and-so, so do I!” It turned out a buddy of mine I was going to go to Europe with this May knew my date. The key word here is going to go — as in, at one point in time, I had plans for that.

I had since backed out of those plans, leaving my friend without a trip mate.

“Oh, so you’re the guy who bailed on him!” Yes, I’m that guy.

The guy who ditched his friend and screwed him over. Hi, nice to meet you!

But all in all, the dinner went very smoothly – at least in my eyes – and afterwards we ventured off to Fleetway. At dinner, we both had happily agreed that rock climbing was not our thing – a fear of heights was one of several things we had in common – and so the options for activities was narrowed down to mini golf and bowling. After

laughing at how bad we both are at golf, we settled on mini-putt.

But when we arrived at Fleetway, there was one small problem. The place had been flooded earlier, so there were only two things we could do: five-pin bowling or billiards. Are you kidding me? What are the odds of the damn venue flooding?

Despite my limited experience while under the influence at Jacks, we both agreed that billiards was the obvious choice.

I soon learned that engaging in an activity while on a date — as opposed to going out to a movie — makes things much less awkward. That was definitely my biggest takeaway from the night.

Apparently there are studies on this – something members in The Gazette office had told me beforehand, so kudos to them.

After a few rounds of pool, it was time for a trip to Dairy Queen.

Ice cream is never a bad idea on a date, no matter the weather. The key here was that we had wagered ice cream on the result of the billiards games. Small things like this are a good way to keep the date interesting – at least that’s according to me and my limited experience in the dating world.

As it turns out, by the end of the night it was clear to me that going on the blind date was a great decision. My date was extremely nice and talkative, and we had a lot in common.

Overall it was devoid of any outrageous incidents from some of The Gazette’s past blind dates and it was far from awkward. Or maybe it was far from normal, I could be greatly mistaken ... it wouldn’t be the first time.

A

S IT TURNS OUT,

BY THE END OF THE NIGHT IT WAS CLEAR TO ME THAT GOING ON THE BLIND DATE WAS A GREAT DECISION. MY DATE WAS EXTREMELY NICE AND TALKATIVE, AND WE HAD A LOT IN COMMON.

Bill Wang • GAZETTE

The fascination with anti-vaccination Meerna Homayed CONTRIBUTOR @uwogazette

While vaccines remain one of the best tools in our arsenal for survival, recent anti-vaccine support has led to several breakouts of measles in the United States and Canada.

The opposition to vaccines, specifically to the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, stems from a study published in 1998. The study, conducted by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, linked the MMR vaccine to autism in children.

The journal that published the study later redacted it in 2010 due to the use of fraudulent data to obtain its conclusions. As a result, Wakefield was stripped of his medical license.

Despite this, the fear of vaccines remains with celebrities like Jenny McCarthy frequenting talk shows to preach the dangers of autism associated with immunizations. Western students, however, express different concerns.

At Western, Student Health Services has nurses delivering publicly funded vaccines daily to students.

“Each student is given an information sheet to read before getting an injection and then any questions are asked before the injection,” says Cynthia Gibney, director of Health Services at Western.

“We don’t have many students defer the vaccines,” says Gibney.

“However, we see the students that want vaccines, not usually the ones that don’t want them.”

Typically any concerns that arise are regarding what’s in the injections, not about any links to autism or mental disorders.

“Usually the list of ingredients is questioned because there are some ingredients that are used as preservatives that sound ominous,” explains Gibney.

Gibney explains that Student Health Services is able to provide reading material for students seeking more information about vaccination.

Jimmy Dikeakos, an assistant professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at Western, explains that vaccines are important for herd immunity, which helps to shield those who cannot receive vaccinations, such as infants, pregnant women and immunocompromised patients.

P

EOPLE IN CANADA ARE FORTUNATE TO HAVE ACCESS TO VACCINES, WHEREAS OTHER REGIONS IN THE WORLD ARE STILL STRUGGLING WITH DISEASES THAT ARE NO LONGER AN ISSUE IN CANADA BECAUSE OF THE WIDESPREAD USE OF VACCINES. JIMMY DIKEAKOS

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY AT WESTERN

“Herd immunity is only possible with high rates of vaccination so that individual outbreaks cannot spread throughout the population,” he says.

Dikeakos explains that a lot of research has gone into vaccine development and because of this, there are many diseases that have almost disappeared.

“People in Canada are fortunate to have access to vaccines, whereas other regions in the world are still struggling with diseases that are no longer an issue in Canada because

of the widespread use of vaccines,” he says.

However, the anti-vax movement has now propelled a measles outbreak in the United States — a disease that was once almost eradicated.

Canada has been affected by the outbreak as well. Ten cases of measles have been diagnosed in Quebec and 11 people from the Greater Toronto Area have also been diagnosed with measles since the end of January.

“People should be aware that it takes years and years of hard work and numerous safety checkpoints before a vaccine can be given to humans,” explains Dikeakos.

Surprisingly, the most resistance comes from educated upper middle class parents who’ve done plenty of research into vaccines.

Alison Thompson, an associate professor of pharmacy at the University of Toronto, explains that lack of information is not the problem. Rather, lack of trust is at the heart of the issue.

“The more people learn about new technologies, like biotechnology for example, the more resistant to those technologies they become,” Thompson says.

She explains that when new mothers are asked to trust blindly in the safety of vaccines, it goes against their belief system. Skepticism of public health arises when trying to make health decisions for their children.

In order to regain the trust of the public, Thompson believes that public health should engage with worried parents instead of ignoring the discourse of mistrust.

“The only way to build the trust back up there is to get independent data that’s trustworthy and have the people who are delivering these messages be trustworthy themselves,” she says.

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thegazette • Thursday, February 26, 2015

On Disc

GGGGF Artist: Savvie Album: Night Eyes Label: Tiny Kingdom Records

Courtesy of Verbatim

Shachar Dahan GAZETTE STAFF @uwogazette

A computer crash can result in a devastating loss of files. Many students fail to back up their files during the school year, resulting in chaos if a crash occurs during essay-writing season. Fortunately, there are plenty of options to back up your files and make sure you don’t lose anything important during a crash.

External Hard Drive External hard drives are the most common devices for system backup because they’re so simple to use. Just attach the drive via a USB and drag your files over. Most external drives even come with software, which will automatically perform a complete system backup when plugged in.

Storage space for external hard drives generally begins at 500GB.

There are two types of external hard drives: hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD). SSDs have no moving parts, making them better for travel, but HDDs are much less expensive. For 1TB of storage, you’ll pay about $80 for an HDD, while a 500GB SSD costs around $250. That translates into eight cents per gigabyte for the HDD and 50 cents per gigabyte for the SSD. USB USBs — also known as flash drives, thumb drives or jump drives — are great for people who only need to back up their most important documents. USBs are small, with no moving parts, making them extremely portable. They range from 512MB to 512GB, but the best bang for your buck is for any USB drive over 64GB. It’s easy to save money on a USB drive – buy one that’s on sale.

A sultry voice, gritty guitar rifts and infectious beats are some of the shining qualities of Savvie’s debut album, Night Eyes.

Savannah Leigh Wellman sheds her former identity and position in folk band Redbird to create her first solo album. Savvie took creative control of her work and began making rock songs under her own label.

Savvie has created an empowering album. She chose to embrace a message of boldness. Her confident voice pairs well with the heavy guitar in her songs. Her music brings rock and pop together to create catchy melodies and head-nodding hooks.

One of the stand-out songs,

Online Cloud Storage For those on a student budget, Dropbox and OneDrive provide free cloud storage, serving as great alternatives to the other methods.

For those willing to make more of an investment, Acronis True Image 2015 is cloud-storage software, available for both Macs and PCs. True Image can do automatic backups, which is great for people who don’t want to deal with constantly plugging in external hard drives and USBs. Acronis could have designed a more appealing user interface, but this is still a solid piece of software.

True Image 2015 costs $50 — relatively cheap compared with similar software.

Verdict No matter which method you pick, it’s impossible to go wrong. You should use at least one, if not more, methods to back up your files.

Without You, features a grunge-like dirty guitar opening, creating a song that is low and powerful. Savvie’s voice is seductive with her tempting lyrics, “I know I’m not entitled / to claim you as my own / but there’s no reason for us / to spend the night alone.”

Her album explores different sounds with Gravity, sung with a science-fiction feel featuring breathy vocals, while songs like Trust the In Between showcase Savvie’s soulful voice as she sings of letting herself go. Dreams of Surrender achieves vocals that are echoing and soft. It encapsulates the dream-like state that is synonymous with the title.

The gradual building of guitar serves well as Savvie croons about showing weakness with A Blur and a Haze.

The album ends with the 10-minute long song, The Tower.

This epic ends with acoustic guitar and quiet vocals that diverge from the rest of the album.

Night Eyes is a collection of great songs benefitting from Savvie’s bold voice and her scope of styles. This being only the debut, she has a bright future ahead with hopefully more solo albums to come.

Go to savviemusic.com to get a free download of “Without You.” • Maddy Richard

MARCH BREAK OPEN HOUSE

Saturday, March 14, 2015 VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES ARE YOU: • Available to contribute your time for the day on March 14 • Interested in meeting prospective students and their families • Involved in campus activities • Enthusiastic and positive about your Western experience • Articulate, pleasant and responsible

TO APPLY: • Review the volunteer posting details on the Career Central website https://www.westerncareercentral.ca/home.htm • Email your completed application information to liaison@uwo.ca

DEADLINE: THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015

141104

30,000 acres of Canadian wetland are destroyed by human activity each year. Help us protect what’s left.

Please note that you must attend one of the following MANDATORY orientation sessions: March 9th at 4:30pm OR March 10th at 11:30am OR 4:30pm. If selected as a volunteer, location of the sessions will be sent to you via email.

longpointwaterfowl.org

6 •

thegazette • Thursday, February 26, 2015

opinions

I raise up my voice-not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard...we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.

• Malala Yousafzai

The problematic Twitter police Breaking Brad

Bradley Metlin SPORTS EDITOR @BradAtGazette

Boyhood has been lauded as groundbreaking by film critics for the devotion and patience of the its 12-year filming schedule. Despite this, the movie walked away with only one award at this past Sunday’s Oscars — Patricia Arquette for Best Supporting Actress.

I’m sure the memes of Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez uproariously approving of Arquette’s acceptance speech have circulated on social media enough for most to be aware of the content of her acceptance speech in which she called for wage equality for women.

As she seemed to conclude her thank yous from her pre-written speech, Arquette thundered, “to every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America!”

Sitting on the couch as I watched, I felt very much like Streep and Lopez, aggressively nodding my approval of Arquette’s sentiments. You would think that drawing attention to a problem that affects 50 per cent of the population in an unfair way would be applauded and celebrated. Despite any nitpicking that could be done with her remarks, Arquette would surely be applauded for using her acceptance speech to shine the light on an important issue.

Wrong! In this day and age, “socially progressive” users of Twitter, Facebook and the general blogosphere are not content to let messages go unchecked. Leftist social media users now adopt a doctrine

thegazette

Volume 108, Issue 19 www.westerngazette.ca

Iain Boekhoff Editor-In-Chief Brent Holmes Deputy Editor Richard Raycraft Managing Editor

Contact: www.westerngazette.ca University Community Centre Rm. 263 The University of Western Ontario London, ON, CANADA N6A 3K7 Editorial Offices: (519) 661-3580 Advertising Dept.: (519) 661-3579

The Gazette is owned and published by the University Students’ Council.

Editorials are decided by a majority of the editorial board and are written by a member of the editorial board but are not necessarily the expressed opinion of each editorial board member. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the USC, The Gazette, its editors or staff.

To submit a letter, go to westerngazette.ca and click on “Contact.”

All articles, letters, photographs, graphics, illustrations and cartoons published in The Gazette, both in the newspaper and online versions, are the property of The Gazette. By submitting any such material to The Gazette for publication, you grant to The Gazette a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to publish such material in perpetuity in any media, including but not limited to, The Gazette‘s hard copy and online archives.

in which everything anyone says must be thrown under a microscope and searched for problematic attitudes.

In the press room, Arquette decided to elaborate on her speech: “It’s time for all the women in America, and all the men that love women and all the gay people and all the people of colour that we’ve all fought for to fight for us now.”

Many jumped on her statements as dismissive of other minorities. Some said her comments reinforced notions that cis-gender white women were the sole face of feminism.

Cannibalizing those who try to bring attention to important causes is something that occurs an awful lot on left-wing social media. Sure, Arquette’s comments might not have been perfect, but the point she was making was quite simple — it’s time for everyone to get involved in the fight against wage inequality in order to help all women.

She did not say, “ignore gay rights” or “let’s stop talking about the struggles of Black Americans,” as some have suggested. She merely noted that it’s time we, collectively, all fight for women.

Data from the American Association for University Women — which has slight bias but the numbers elsewhere are similar — suggests white women make only 78 per cent of what a white man makes for the same work. Black women only make 64 per cent while Latinas make an abysmal 53 per cent for performing an identical job.

The fight against wage inequality affects women regardless of their skin colour. Arquette is right — it’s about time everyone bands together and makes this an issue. Boyhood took 12 years to make, yet it took people on Twitter 12 seconds to react to Arquette’s statements.

Eschew the hypercritical nature sometimes, folks. Be critical individuals, by all means. But when someone publicizes an issue that would better the lives of half the population, there is no need to begin labelling her as “problematic.”

Gazette Composing & Gazette Advertising Ian Greaves, Manager Маја Анјоли-Билић

Robert Armstrong Diana Watson

Gazette Staff 2014-2015 Mohammad Abrar Abdul Hanan, Suhaib Al-Azem, Eric Bajzert, Sarah Botelho, Damon Burtt, Tabitha Chan, Jonathan Dunn, Spencer Fairweather, Sam Frankel, Devin Golets, Kevin Heslop, Richard Joseph, Drishti Kataria, Sara Mai Chitty, Soheil Milani, Mackenzie Morrison, Amy O’Shea, Vidhant Pal, Kyle Porter, Lily Robinson, Alex Seger, Tiffany Shepherd, Tristan Wu

News Amy O’Kruk Hamza Tariq Katie Lear Olivia Zollino News-at-large Kevin Hurren Opinions Nusaiba Al-Azem Arts & Life Conrad Floryan Jennafer Freeman Jenny Jay Sports Bradley Metlin Nathan Kanter Robert Nanni Jr.

Dear Life Your anonymous letters to life

Dear Life, Rest in pace, Brother Nate Black. London will never be the same.

Dear Life, Whatever happened to the UWO Lipdub that was supposed to happen three years ago?

Dear Life, In April, I hope Helfand finally admits he had no intention of taking the undergrad course to make him eligible for the USC election.

Dear Life, Housing is advertising so much these days… hope they don’t overbook the room next year…

Dear Life, Because.

Dear Life, Voting for people because you went to the same high school is just not right.

Dear Life, Walking into my morning Brescia class and smelling everything is like walking into a Starbucks.

Dear Life, Dogs, food and Taco Tuesdays. Life is good. wgaz.ca/dear-life

Associate Megan Devlin Photography Kelly Samuel Taylor Lasota Winnie Lu Graphics Jennifer Feldman Illustrations Christopher Miszczak Kirstyn Culbert-Kviring Graphics/Video Mike Laine Marketing and Recruitment Coordinator Vivian Liu

• Please recycle this newspaper •

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thegazette • Thursday, February 26, 2015

sports T H E

thursdaytweet Cleveland’s team is the #Browns, their helmets are orange, fans are blue and make no green. The owner’s slip will soon be pink.

• @WillPresti, referring to the revamped helmets for all 32 NFL teams

C O N C U S S I O N

C R I S I S

4 concussions happen each year in Canada

47%

Get out of my Laine

Mike Laine GRAPHICS EDITOR @MikeAtGazette

Concussion is just a word to most people. Specifically, a word that describes a head injury that hockey and football players often suffer.

But for anyone who has ever experienced a concussion, you’ll know that it’s so much more than just a word.

I’ve been playing hockey since I was seven and I couldn’t imagine my life without it. Today’s feature on concussions in hockey inspired me to write my own opinion piece on the injury. Every year, I usually sustain some kind of injury. But when I was 14, I sustained my first and, to my knowledge, only concussion.

It started as a pretty innocent play. I went behind the net looking for anyone who was open. When I realized the other team was in the midst of a line-change, I sprinted up the ice and moved into the opponent’s zone. I thought it was a one-on-one play — me against the defenceman — but I was wrong.

The second defenceman came on the ice and blindsided me in a Scott Stevens-esque manner. I hit the ice hard and stayed down knowing something was definitely wrong.

Luckily I had a good trainer — my dad — who told me to stay down on the ice until I felt like I could get up on my own. I eventually left the ice on my own power and sat on the bench while I got checked out. A few minutes later I started to feel dizzy, and was seeing stars while my vision faded in and out. It didn’t even feel like a headache, it just felt like I wasn’t there. After the game I went to

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of athletes do not report feeling symptoms SOURCE: PURDUE UNIVERSITY Mike Laine • GAZETTE

The repercussions of concussions the hospital to get checked out.

They said I had sustained a minor concussion.

All I remember of school the next day is straining to keep my eyes open. It felt like my head was bobbing up and down in the water.

Everything seemed blurry and my memory of that day is hazy at best.

Luckily for me, these symptoms only lasted a week and, after taking a game off, I was back to playing hockey without any real psychological or physical repercussions.

As I read today’s article on concussions in hockey, I could visualize and feel the pain that Ryan Kirk felt. It is a tough pain to describe because it’s not visual. It’s almost like a toothache. The constant pressure really overwhelms you physically and psychologically and can really make you question if it will ever end.

The thing is, it’s hard to open up about a concussion because it’s hard to explain. It is hockey’s version of shell shock where players are often lambasted for not returning to the ice. According to data from STATS, a sports statistics information company, there were 53 concussions last year in the NHL. While this is a decline from the 78 reported the year before, there is only so much the NHL can do to make players not hide head injuries so they can keep playing.

The truth is that this is a real injury, often more severe than broken bones, and hockey still struggles with this reality. Eric Lindros was stripped of the captaincy by Philadelphia and called a baby because he couldn’t return to the ice after suffering so many concussions. This culture has been brought to the forefront once again with the recent death of Steven Montador who had a history of concussions.

Trust me, because I speak from experience, concussions are a lot worse than any hangover you’ve ever had, and it’s about time they were taken seriously.

a concussion occurs every 4 minutes in Canada

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8 •

thegazette • Thursday, February 26, 2015

Athletes face tough road to recovery >> CONCUSSION cont. from pg. 1 Major impacts to the head cause the brain to bump, twist or rotate into a part of the skull, which can cause bruising as well as damage to nerves and blood vessels.

In Kirk’s case, the whiplash shifted his C1 vertebra, which caused a disruption of signals sent to the brain and ultimately his eye troubles.

Thankfully, Kirk never let the pressure to return to the lineup get in the way of his recovery. After participating in an acquired brain injury program at Parkwood Hospital in London, he learned how to build strategies to cope — even if it meant taking his time.

“Some people in there had a headache every day for the last two years and they don’t know what to do.

It was kind of scary,” Kirk remembers. “This is what you could be. I was out for 14 months this time. If I get hit again, it could be two or three years of feeling like this. [It was] kind of eye opening.”

With a strong network around him, Kirk was able to return on his own time to both school and hockey at Western. Not all athletes, however, are accurate in their self-assessments.

For one Western student in particular, an early return to the lineup proved costly.

Nick Eustace is a first-year student at Western who had his hockey dreams crushed during one of the most pivotal moments of his career. A Toronto native, Eustace grew up playing on the championship-calibre Mississauga Rebels AAA team. But amidst trying to garner attention from OHL and NCAA scouts, he was concussed.

“The first game of the season … I was going to get the puck in the corner and all of a sudden the defenceman got his hands up and hit me in the head,” Eustace recounts. “Right as it happened, I knew something was wrong. I blacked out for two or three seconds and went straight to the bench.”

After returning to the lineup later in the season, Eustace knew deep down that he was playing at risk.

A year after his first major concussion, he suffered a second one. As concussed athletes often remark, it wasn’t just one hit that knocked him out of the game.

Still young enough to move up the hockey ladder, Eustace let the pressure get the best of him, and he fell back down.

“I didn’t tell anybody for three weeks and just kept playing, and gradually it got worse and worse to a point where I just broke down,” he says. “I knew most likely that if I told my parents, I wouldn’t be able to play again.”

His intuition was right. Unfortunately, after speaking with doctors, Eustace was told he should no longer play competitive, hard-hitting hockey. He went from playing against top NHL prospects like Connor McDavid and Sam Bennett to playing in front of the empty Thompson Arena stands in Western’s intramural league.

“When the doctors told me, I was pretty mad and depressed,” Eustace says. “I honestly didn’t know what to do because hockey had been everything up until that point.”

Despite how difficult the news was to swallow,

Eustace benefited from a team of supporters, and, like Kirk, was able to make a full recovery. While attending St. Michael’s College School in downtown Toronto, Eustace was lucky enough to be part of the Return to Learn program. The program, created and run by Barbara Csenge, helps athletes return to school after enduring cognitive changes resulting from a concussion.

Starting in 2011, the formalized concussions management program focuses on supporting reintegration to cognitive activity and academics in six stages, in addition to return to play and physical activity.

“In the first year, we were developing an understanding of what the stressors were in the classroom,”

Csenge explains, illustrating the many ways concussion symptoms can be triggered off the field. Young people are athletes, but they are also primarily students — it is important to factor that into a recovery plan.

“Long periods, audio visuals like screens and computers and note taking can be stressful,” she says.

With the guidance of Csenge and a school support team, Eustace was able to participate in a program that reintegrates students back into the classroom at their own pace, whether that means going to school for half days or pushing back an exam date.

“In the past, the medical direction was really vague.

It was just ‘rest, and when you feel better, go back to school.’ With stop or full throttle, students had difficulty with recovery,” Csenge says.

The benefits of Return to Learn have gone beyond the yellow bricks of St. Michael’s as well, as the program has initiated a new concussion management protocol in schools across Ontario.

According to Csenge, defining the stages for recovery has become an important concussion education

tool because it clarifies restrictions and also provides reassurance about recovery.

“Creating a step-wise approach is helpful in the school setting because students can measure progress and student athletes can relate to working towards improvement and recovery,” she says. “You’re at stage three but you’re almost at four, and your goal is clearance at stage six.”

With some tough choices to make, Eustace took time to consider the advice of Csenge, doctors and his greatly diminished career options in the sport he loved. While he no longer chases a professional hockey career, he remains active in the sport. His strong team of supporters helped get his academic work back on track, but Eustace has taken his experience a step further and decided to help other student athletes facing similar challenges. After receiving an award from the Brain Injury Association of Canada last September, he is enthusiastic about taking on a larger advocacy role in concussion management for student athletes in the upcoming months. It offers him an opportunity to pay it forward for future generations of concussed athletes, and perhaps join a team like the one that was there for him.

“Within our school, it’s a team approach,” Csenge says. “We don’t have coaches who are uninformed or a math teacher who is unaware about the strategy. The parents at home are on board. Everyone surrounds the student.

The message is ‘you’re not alone.’ ” Kirk knows he was never alone at Western either. When he was finally ready to return to the lineup on Jan. 21, his teammates were too. Head coach Clarke Singer walked into the room and asked forward Noah Schwartz who he wanted to start the game with him on the left wing. Without hesitation, he nominated ‘Kirky.’

“A couple guys were more excited for me than I might have been,” Kirk says with a chuckle. “They were giving me hugs before going out on the ice.”

One of those teammates was defenceman Matt Paltridge, who has seen his fair share of teammates suffer from concussions playing hockey. Last year, forward Shaun Furlong was limited to only nine games after a blow to the head put him in the stands.

“It’s incredible what [Kirk has] gone through and what he’s done to come back,” Paltridge says. “It’s been months of seeing doctors and gaining clearance just to be on the ice. Everyone was extremely happy and excited.”

The Mustangs were ultimately swept in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the Lakehead Thunderwolves in early February. While they came up short on their season-long goals, the last 14 months have given Kirk a new perspective on wins and losses.

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat,” he says, quoting the late F. Scott Fitzgerald.

“I had been told I should pick up a different sport.

But in my mind I never really considered that. I didn’t want to be forced out of hockey — I want to leave on my own terms.”

Mike Laine GAZETTE

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