Tuesday, February 7, 2017

BHM

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SINCE 1906

westerngazette.ca TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 • WESTERN UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER • VOLUME 110, ISSUE 31 losing our memory (cards) since 1906

SECOND-PLACE SLATE FILES SEVEN APPEALS FOR USC PRESIDENCY PG3

MEN’S HOCKEY MISSES FIRST PLAYOFF SPOT IN 18 YEARS PG14

COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING GOES BEYOND THE BOOKS PG15

The Black History Month Issue is a collaboration between The Gazette and the Black Students’ Association. This year the BSA’s Black History Month Issue Committee worked towards expressing the various shades of blackness.

SEE INSIDE PAGES 5 TO 12 FOR MORE.

TARA MAGLOIRE GAZETTE

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ANTON ALLAHAR

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MICHAEL CONLEY GAZETTE

In the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Anton Allahar discovered his calling. Years later he would become a professor of economic and political sociology of the Caribbean at Western University.

Anton also spent a year as president of the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA).

Though as much as his present day work and accomplishments are a reflection of his personality as a life-long learner, Anton’s career may have never taken off if not for a single act of random kindness.

Anton was born in Trinidad in 1949 and attended a Catholic high school. In October of 1962; Anton was 13 and had just entered his first year of high school.

“The priests came into the classrooms and took us all out and put us in the chapel to pray... We did this for three days,” says Anton. “It was the Cuban Missile Crisis and we were praying that Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev [would] not unleash communism on us.”

According to Anton, the communists were described as evil people who eat babies and killed Jesus.

“Ed Mirvish himself (the store’s owner) was for some reason quite taken with me... We’d sit down and talk and he wanted to talk about the Caribbean,” says Anton. “It was an intellectual exchange because I had good cultural capital.”

After learning about Anton’s desire to study in university, Mirvish paid the fees for his first semester.

Rather than run away in fear, Anton decided to run toward them and learn about them. As he read more about these communists he started to question what they were actually doing wrong and whether the church may be lying.

“I became somewhat taken with some uncharitable people. I became obsessed with the Cuban revolution. I was reading and talking so much about it,” says Anton.

“One usually hears the history from the perspective of the victor, from the top down, and I was trying to give a view of what things were like in that period from the perspective of the underprivileged, the downtrodden, the enslaved.”

Today it’s difficult to walk into Anton’s office without being immediately engulfed by his intense interest in the Caribbean. There is a photo of Fidel Castro, a small plaque from the king of the Tonga and various other Caribbean paraphernalia. He comments that while they’re not in his office now, he is most proud of his two honorary degrees from the University of Havana and the University of Oriente, Santiago de Cuba.

When Anton came to Canada in 1969 he wanted to go to university and study, but like many he lacked the money.

To help earn some cash he got a job at a place in Toronto called Honest Ed’s.

“I never forgot him for it… I think back — if it weren’t for that random act of kindness on the part of Ed Mirvish, maybe I wouldn’t have been here today,” says Anton. “To that extent, serendipity... could explain this. There was no grand plan. I just wanted to go to school and study and I met great people along the way and that’s part of it.”

With good luck on his side Anton has had a long 33 years teaching, writing and researching at Western. Now he is in his final year, but that doesn’t mean the long journey is coming to an end.

Anton describes his passion for Caribbean studies as more of a vocation than a job.

“A job you do nine to five, a vocation you do whether you’re paid for it or not,” he says. “I will be retired next year and I will do exactly what I do, now: read good books, talk to bright people, write essays, for no money.

It’s in my DNA; that’s what I do.”

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 • 3

news

Team DiBrina files seven appeals post-USC elections RITA RAHMATI NEWS EDITOR @RITARAHMATI

MOSES MONTERROZA GAZETTE

Tobi on top: Team Tobi wins USC elections with 4,261 votes RITA RAHMATI NEWS EDITOR AMY O’KRUK FEATURES & GRAPHICS EDITOR @NEWSATGAZETTE In a heated election, students have elected Team Tobi as the next president/vice-president of the University Students’ Council.

Team Tobi’s presidential candidate Tobi Solebo and vice-presidential candidate Landon Tulk won with 4,261 votes, beating second-place slate Team DiBrina, who finished with 3,265 votes and third place slate, Team Jan/ Mohammad who received 1,118 votes.

Decked in red, the winning slate’s campaign team and friends were ecstatic upon hearing the news as the room erupted in a cheer.

“Tobi! Tobi! Tobi!” Could be heard chanted throughout The Spoke as they celebrated their victory.

“People believed in what we had to say,” Solebo said. “We promoted something that the public got excited and optimistic about, and I think that’s the most exciting

AMY O’KRUK GAZETTE

part of it.”

Landon Tulk, Solebo’s running mate, also expressed his happiness and gratitude for the win.

“We’re overwhelmed,” Tulk said. “This is incredible. We knew we were underdogs going into this and we kept pushing, and it may have been that mentality that pushed us over the top.”

The other slates congratulated Team Tobi on their win and wished them luck in the future.

“Tobi and Landon are two extremely deserving candidates,” said Mohammad Hussain of Team Jan/Mohammad. “I think it’s great that we had three different slates to bring something to the table so that more students could get what they wanted.”

Harry Orbach Miller of Team DiBrina also had positive sentiments about Team Tobi’s victory.

“We wish [Team Tobi] the best of luck,” said Orbach Miller.

“They ran a great campaign. And hopefully, it all works out well for them.”

As a personal friend of Team Tobi’s, Anooshae Janmohammad congratulated the duo and

reflected upon her own experience throughout the campaign.

“Honestly it was an incredible experience. I’m so glad that I went out and did it,” said Janmohammad. “I learned a lot and I’m probably never going to get this experience again.”

Voter turnout was up from last year at a 27.9 per cent turnout rate.

Of 32,796 eligible students, 9,165 voted — a 3.8 per cent increase from last year.

With files from Sabrina Fracassi, Connor Malbeuf, Connor Clark, Grace To and Drishti Kataria.

People believed in what we had to say. We promoted something that the public got excited and optimistic about, and I think that’s the most exciting part of it.

TOBI SOLEBO USC PRESIDENT-ELECT

Drama is brewing in the aftermath of the 2017 USC elections with the second-place slate filing multiple petitions with the USC’s Appeals Board, while the winning slate is five points away from potential disqualification.

Team DiBrina filed an appeal regarding by-law 2 violations with the Appeals Board. In a statement to The Gazette, Team DiBrina said they filed three petitions for appeal at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, one hour before the election results were announced. Later that night after the results were announced at the Spoke, the slate filed another four appeal petitions — a total of seven appeals filed on Thursday.

While the nature of the appeals is currently unknown, Team DiBrina’s competitor and winner of this year’s USC elections, Team Tobi, stands at 26 demerit points, with 31 being the disqualification threshold.

The Appeals Board is supposed to decide within 48 hours of receiving an appeal petition if it will consider the case.

If it decides to take on the appeal, “the board contacts the petitioner, the respondent and intervenors as of right, and a panel is selected to hear the appeal. Only then can the hearing be scheduled and thus made public,” according to board chair Laura Lepine.

As of yet, no notice has been put on the USC website inviting intervenors as required by USC by-laws and no information has been made public about the appeal.

In the past, appeal hearings have been held within a week of the board taking on the case, but that’s not

an exact time frame, according to Lepine.

The Appeal Board’s decision may directly follow a hearing on the same day or be released with written reasoning within two weeks of the hearing.

In the event any appeals take Team Tobi’s demerit count over 30 points, Team DiBrina could be the winners by default. Team DiBrina came second in the 2017 elections, 996 votes behind Team Tobi.

A similar scenario occurred two years ago when USC slate Team Litchfield edged out Team Sophie by 32 votes. When demerit points were tallied, Team Litchfield had 30 — one shy of disqualification.

Team Sophie appealed the demerit points awarded to Team Litchfield. After weeks of deliberation, the USC Appeals Board awarded Team Litchfield two more demerit points — a total of 32 — enough to be disqualified. As a result, Team Sophie won the 2015 USC election.

Currently, Team Tobi has received the second highest number of demerits for any presidential candidates since at least 2000, the first being Team Litchfield.

Before Litchfield, the most demerit points a winning slate had accrued was by Tom Stevenson who won the presidency in 2007.

Stevenson was awarded 18 demerit points as a result of two separate infractions, both of which were committed by members of his campaign team.

Solution to puzzle on page 15

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4 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017

news

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Violette Hammad takes the throne as KUCSC president MOSES MONTERROZA NEWS EDITOR @MOSESMONTZ

MAAILAH BLACKWOOD GAZETTE

Western’s student Senate: no longer under-engaged Grace of Spades GRACE TO NEWS EDITOR @GRACE_KTO Unlike this year’s USC election, the Senate election has a much more crowded list of candidates. The USC election saw 18 acclaimed council positions, which led to an unexciting competition.

For Senate, only two positions are currently acclaimed, which are undergraduate senators for business, education, engineering and law and Schulich.

This year, there are five running candidates to fill the four graduate student Senate positions, 23 running to fill the ten undergraduate faculty Senate positions and a total of 27 undergraduate students running for the four at-large Senate positions.

To put things in perspective, last year, only 11 candidates ran for six of the student-at-large Senate positions. In 2015, 17 students ran for the seven available Senate seats for student-at-large.

So what caused so many to run for Senate this year while only a handful of students went for the

USC councillor positions?

It could be that in the past, Senate competition was almost non-existent compared to the USC. This reputation could have led more students to apply for candidacy as they were under the illusion that the positions could be more easily attained.

Another possible reason that could have made Senate so popular this year may be because its role at Western has been made more wellknown. The Senate focuses primarily on academic policies, which has a direct impact on Western students’ studies and overall education experience. These policies include exam and assessment policies and program changes.

In an opinion piece written by past year’s chair and vice-chair of student senators Harry OrbachMiller and Courtney Hardy, the student Senate has played a large role in student issues and advocacy at Western. They have been busying themselves on issues such as the implementation of a fall reading week, course assessment procedures, a mental health strategic plan, ways to combat on-campus Islamophobia and increased senate transparency.

The Senate has also acted as the voice of students in discussions such as the lack of student input on Homecoming date changes

and the MTP program cut. Both of these issues have caused some heated debate in senate meetings and have highlighted the concerns of the students at large.

Maybe the time change in USC election this year was a reason of the large turn-out of student Senate candidates. The ongoing USC election could have helped to inform the prospective Senate candidates on the roles of both student bodies. Previous years had the Senate election held with the USC. While the USC election was held earlier to allow for a buffer period in the case of election appeals, the Senate election is being hosted at the same time as the past. However, this raises some concerns about voter turn-out since it is arguably more convenient to vote once for both the USC and Senate.

No matter what the reasoning was behind the running candidates, it’s refreshing to see that the Senate has increased student interest. We’ll only hope that the higher number of candidates will also translate to a higher voter turn-out.

Graduate and undergraduate student candidates will be campaigning for their respective Senate positions until Sunday, Feb. 12 at 11:59 p.m. Voting will take place from 8:00 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 13 to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14.

Violette Hammad has been elected the next King’s University College Students’ Council (KUCSC) president after a significantly larger voter turnout than last year.

“I’m very grateful for all of the support I’ve received this year and my campaign team has done such a great job; we’ve worked so hard together,” Hammad said.

The third-year sociology and political science student won 468 (60.3 per cent) votes to her opponent Mark D’Souza’s 308 (39.7 per cent) vote count.

Hammad said that her first move as president will be meeting administration and meeting “with the current president to outline how I can get started with the things that I talked about in my platform.”

Carmen Sleewa, teaching assistant at King’s, said she knew from the start Hammad would make it as president.

“I think she’s well-deserving,” Sleewa said. “I remember her from first year as a frosh and I pegged her as president since her first year, so I’m pretty happy.”

Nate Little, current KUCSC president, was proud of both candidates and their hard-fought campaign. Last year, Little ran unopposed and as a consequence received a smaller voter turnout.

Despite the fact that this year’s overall turnout was slightly over 20 per cent, Little said that it was a big improvement that can be attributed to the quality of candidates this year.

“If you want to get students engaged you need to have quality candidates,” said Little. “I’m happy, I think succession planning is going to be easier because we work together on a daily basis already.”

Hammad will begin her term May 1. Until then she will be getting accustomed to her new position with the help of current executives.

Wrapping up demerit points in this year’s USC election RITA RAHMATI NEWS EDITOR @RITARAHMATI Demerit points have stacked up for some slates throughout this year’s University Students’ Council presidential campaign.

The final demerit point tally is: 26 points for Team Tobi, 12 points for Team Jan/Mohammad and 0 points for Team DiBrina.

Demerit points are awarded to candidates who break the rules as stated in by-law #2 of the USC’s elections procedures and are awarded by the Elections Governance Committee (EGC), led by the chief returning officer (CRO) Erin McCauley.

The slates were given demerit points for a variety of violations, most of which were considered minor violations.

Team Jan/Mohammad was awarded six points for violating

section 12.1 early in the campaign period when they used copyrighted logos and the prohibited use of the colour purple in their campaign video. The EGC determined the video had the potential to influence many students with over 2,000 views, and so it was considered a major violation.

Notably, Team Tobi was awarded eight points for unauthorized campaigning — campaigning outside the designated hours — inside two main campus residences as stated in section 11.9.3 of by-law #2. Similarly, they were awarded six points for unauthorized campaigning in a Huron University College residence.

Other demerit points were given out for social media posts such as pre-campaigning through sharing Gazette articles on the election and postings using the USC logo.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 • 5

Black

black history month

History Month

“Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.” — Zora Neal Hurston We are the Black Students’ Association (BSA) of Western University. Since 1993, the BSA has been a socio-political club with a deep investment in the issues that affect black students on our campus. We are an anti-oppressive space that calls for the celebration of black joy, community and kinship. The events that we organize for our members are designed for black Western students to remain conscious of, and to critically analyze the various black experiences.

Together, we position ourselves as both teacher and student and effectively ‘speak truth to power.’ We fight for full recognition and appreciation in our community, campus and curriculum. Our activism is practiced in speech and in action. We have forged a dynamic space of protest and reclamation, of expression and healing on this campus.

We organize to unlearn all that has made us feel subordinate, deviant and abnormal.

The Black History Month issue is an intimate display of our stories, lives and journeys.

We have compiled this work to state the following: We are black.

We are proud.

We are here.

And we are dynamic.

— Saredo Mohamed, BSA President

BLACK HISTORY MONTH ISSUE MASTHEAD COMMITTEE SAMAH ALI, EDITOR IN CHIEF TARA MAGLOIRE, CREATIVE DIRECTOR MAAILAH BLACKWOOD PHOTOGRAPHER AND VIDEOGRAPHER DIKA OJIAKOR, EDITOR MARIAM AHMAD, EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS AKUAH FREMPONG, AMIR SULEIMAN, R.A ROBINSON, KEYANNA DRAKES, AMAL MATAN, JADE VAUGHAN, SAREDO MOHAMED, JONATHAN HERMINA, AZIZA MILLER, LILIAN ESENE, ALISHA MUCHEMI, YAEL KIDANE, TARA MAGLOIRE GAZETTE

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6 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017

black history month

•

Being a hip-hop head and black feminist is tiring trap song of the week comes on at a party.

When you hear Drake say things like, “I hate calling the women bitches, but the bitches love it,” it’s an out-of-body experience. You know that to some extent, you are the woman that he is talking about.

But if the beat is hard enough, you might just make yourself forget.

SAREDO MOHAMED CONTRIBUTOR “Strumming my pain with his fingers Singing my life with his words Killing me softly with his song Killing me softly with his song.”

— Lauryn Hill of The Fugees’ “Killing Me Softly”

QUEENS VS. CYATTIES There is a tendency when speaking about hip hop and feminism to compare popular female hip-hop artists like Nicki Minaj to artists such as Lauryn Hill. Within this binary, Lauryn Hill is treated as a ‘black queen’ who symbolizes the last great era in hip hop when female artists ‘respected themselves sexually’ — whatever that means. Conversely, Nicki Minaj is depicted as a hypersexual product of the industry who is lost in the capitalist sauce.

These comparisons are particularly common in the comments section of their videos on YouTube.

The commenters may think that by comparing these two hip hop titans, they are creating spaces for black women to be portrayed as artists instead of as sex symbols. In reality, what we are at risk of doing when we compare female artists based on anything other than their music quality is something far more damaging and misogynistic than we may be aware of.

Rhetorics that praise Lauryn Hill only to shame Nicki Minaj turns the competitive nature of hip hop into a perverted litmus test that places the worth of women in relation

To be a black feminist hip-hop head is to be in a constant struggle with what you enjoy and what you ought to enjoy. It’s a constant negotiation between your beliefs and what you can allow yourself to indulge in. To be a black feminist hip-hop head is to be in a sort of cruel, unrequited love; it is to connect with something so deeply that its absence becomes unimaginable to you. However, that thing that you yearn for, that has offered you language in response to your silence, scorns you. It refuses to recognize you in return.

As a black feminist, who at least pretends to be woke, my deep love for hip hop can be both liberating and alienating. We all have our stories about when it happened: when you fell in love with hip hop and realized that for the rest of your life it could never again be something that you dabble in occasionally. For myself, it was when I heard the album Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest and reimagined what sound could do to a person. However, there’s something unexplainable that happens to someone like me when the new

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Me: “I like Wu-Tang Clan” Him: “You like Wu-Tang?? I bet you can’t name five members though!!”

Me: “Bruh.”

Women that are interested in almost anything other than what men expect them to be interested in — painting nails, making sandwiches, being interrupted — often face opposition.

This happens when women show interest in science, sports, politics and even in hip hop. Have you ever been a female hip-hop head and tried to discuss it with men that also have an investment in hip-hop music and culture?

Sometimes these are extremely fruitful discussions. Sometimes you end up battling tooth and nail explaining why Illmatic is just a better album than Reasonable Doubt.

But often, he wants to spend the entire conversation questioning the degree to which you are a legitimate hip-hop fan.

When a woman wears a shirt with the Wu-Tang logo or mentions the name 2Pac in any sentence, it is often followed with an intensive interrogation through which she must present her entire hip-hop

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TARA MAGLOIRE GAZETTE

resumé to prove why she deserves a voice in the conversation.

She must prove that she isn’t simply a bandwagoner and that she actually cares about these things in private. She must demonstrate that her interests aren’t merely a party trick she performs when men are watching. When men conduct these interrogations, they often think they are the gatekeepers or guardians of their beloved artform.

In reality, they are insinuating that they alone have an authority over hip hop and that a woman’s place is to be seen, but never heard.

So what does it mean to be a black feminist hip-hop head?

It means creating your own space within hip-hop culture. It means recognizing yourself as a legitimate stakeholder within the conversation and refusing to go unheard or misinterpreted. Most importantly, it’s listening to Lauryn Hill when she told us, “baby girl, respect is just a minimum” and recognizing that both the Lauryn and the Nicki parts of you deserve that respect and don’t need to be validated by men.

Being black and nerdy

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to how valuable we find them as sexual commodities. This is not to say that artists shouldn’t be compared — hip hop is an inherently competitive genre, birthed from a tradition of rap battles and cyphers.

But it is a subtle misogyny, and the most dangerous form, because it disguises itself as a compliment.

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Conventional ideas of blackness intersected with nerd culture is a foreign oddity. A central part of black nerd culture is how its members are united by that dire sense of being the other, within the other. Being a ‘blerd’ sets you apart and yes, in that difference, there’s pain. But it’s worth it, and it should never stop you from enjoying what you love.

Blerds live in a tango — caught between drowning in white fandoms or suffocating in the sparsity of nerdiness absent in mainstream black pop culture.

Storm and Black Panther held the torch of blackness in our modern mythology first. Superheroes like them embody of some of our most admirable human traits. They carry hope, justice, determination and bravery in addition to their strengths. Each one of them is an outcast and will always be simply by birth. Much like the elusive and somewhat eccentric black nerd.

In a world full of increasingly visible and often violent anti-black images, many people turn to some form of self care. A nook that either confirms your reality as you see it or something that’s a mirrored alternate universe where the implausible injustices of reality are vanquished.

Perhaps it’s something that affirms your own unique and dignified existence as a black individual in a world that so often attempts nothing

but to suppress the black spirit. For blerds, it’s a passion for what they hold dear.

More often than not it can be nearly impossible for black individuals to engage in predominantly white spaces of entertainment.

Black nerds are consistently confronted by the erasure of their individuality. It’s often surprising for the white Game of Thrones geek to find out their black friend enjoys the series too.

Within their own circles, black nerds often face a pressure to conform to mainstream black culture.

Black communities uphold a sort of cultural status quo from which the others are subject to either ridicule or exile.

Black geeks, comic collectors,

MAAILAH BLACKWOOD GAZETTE

gamers, film buffs, art aficionados and more are all united by the wonder and refuge they find in their niche. We placate the angry pain of black youth by delving deeper into strange or alternative escapes, refusing to let go of those idealistic dreams of attainable justice that captivated us in the first place.

From there came the subtle sewn seeds of black power and feminism woven into young minds by writers’ quills who’d been through it, whose dotted ‘i’s and crossed ‘t’s offered answers to long-asked questions strewn in the catacombs of curious minds.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 • 7

black history month

When is the right time to protest?

DIKA OJIAKOR CONTRIBUTOR The Toronto Pride Parade of 2016 was a remarkable success for many reasons. For one, it was the first time a Canadian Prime Minister marched with the LGBT community in one of the biggest parades in the country. It was a peaceful parade for the most part, especially in comparison to Stonewall, the first pride march which ultimately turned into a riot.

All was well, except for a 30-minute disruption by Black Lives Matter Toronto — a disruption that got a lot of people talking.

It was my first Pride parade and I was proud to march alongside my friend John, who had only recently come out as gay. I was also proud to live in a country where being queer was considered something to take pride in, not something to hide or be ashamed of. So when I left my apartment and walked down the streets of Toronto waving my rainbow flag with John by my side, I was expecting a smooth and joyous march, and to maybe even catch a glimpse of the Prime Minister.

We stopped at Starbucks for some coffee, where we met a long line. Everyone seemed cheerful and polite, waiting their turn.

The line was getting shorter, and people everywhere were talking and laughing.

And then it happened.

It was one of those moments — very few ever occur in life — where you knew something crucial was taking place before your very eyes.

The streets turned silent, and amid the occasional murmur and whisper, we could hear a voice amplified by a megaphone.

Before long, the Starbucks line was empty. People ran to the door, the window, wherever they could to see what was going on outside. Pride had been interrupted by a group of people dressed in black. People

Months after the disruption at Pride, the conversation regarding whether BLM had chosen an appropriate occasion to stage their protest still bubbles with life. Many still feel that the disruption was unfitting to an event like Pride. To such people, I have but one question: in a world like the one we live in, where black folks remain on the receiving end of police discrimination and outright racism at every turn, is there ever a right time for black people to protest?

DIKA OJIAKOR

carrying drums, megaphones and long sheets of paper were making demands. Demands about police exemption from Pride, about monetary compensations, about support for black queer youth. It was the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter, and they had just disrupted Pride.

As I tried to make sense of what was going on, I noticed that John, who is white, was grimacing. He was unhappy with the disruption, unhappy that this group had chosen Pride, an occasion of acceptance and commemoration, to stage their political protest. More than that, he wanted me to know that he was unhappy, because he suspected that I didn’t understand how the disruption made him feel. We went back to my apartment to discuss what had taken place. To this day, despite the apology eventually issued to BLM

by Pride Toronto, John and I still disagree on the appropriateness of the disruption.

Months later, the conversation regarding whether BLM had chosen an appropriate occasion to stage their protest still bubbles with life.

Many still feel that the disruption was unfitting to an event like Pride.

To such people, I have one question: in a world like the one we live in, where black folks remain on the

receiving end of police discrimination and outright racism at every turn, is there ever a right time for black people to protest?

Given the long history of police brutality against black bodies in North America, this question becomes ever more pertinent.

Whether it be the 1965 Civil Rights demonstration march in Selma, Alabama protesting segregation in the south or Colin Kaepernick, the American football quarterback, choosing not to stand during the national anthem, in the eyes of many it seems it is never the right time to protest discrimination when you’re black.

Pride should not be seen as a sacred stage where all forms of political protest should be disallowed.

Indeed, Pride itself is a political protest. It is dismissive, if not vulgar, to disregard the demands made by those who ask for acceptance in an event whose mission it is to celebrate acceptance and diversity.

Perhaps this is why the overwhelming negative response to the BLM protest is particularly disappointing.

What should happen next? I think BLM and the organizers at Pride both have a lot to learn from the protest and its aftermath.

For BLM, it is important to re-examine certain demands made

TARA MAGLOIRE GAZETTE

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during the disruption, and elaborate further on the benefits meeting such demands could bring. The demand to remove police floats from Pride is a good example. BLM should explain more clearly why such a demand was made, and how its fulfilment would help create a safer space for marginalized groups of colour, while not compromising security at Pride.

For the organizers of Pride Toronto, although a good first step, it is simply not enough to recognize your event’s long history of anti-blackness. You have to actually do something about it. Start by providing continued space, funding and logistical support for black queer youth, the number one demand made by BLM during their protest.

And while you’re at it, maybe seriously begin to consider the eight other demands made — demands that you pledged to meet. I am optimistic that last month’s majority vote by the Pride committee to endorse BLM demands will lead to a more inclusive event this July. Until then, one can only watch and hope.

Pride must not forget that it is about two things: celebration and demonstration. It is not okay to forgo one and embrace the other.

While we celebrate the undeniable progress that has been made

in our acceptance of LGBT people, we must remember to recommit ourselves to the fight against the marginalization of the very groups that were at the forefront of the Stonewall demonstrations. We must remember that these groups still face an unsettling amount of discrimination and mistreatment even within their own communities, and must commit ourselves to providing a safe environment for them.

Here at Western and in the London community at large, we can make this commitment by standing up for those among us who are the most vulnerable. This means speaking up against anything that threatens inclusivity and equality for all in our community and educating ourselves on the issues before making conclusions. It’s easy to dismiss the BLM disruption at Pride as inappropriate or even selfish without actually taking the time to look into the reason why so many felt the need to protest. We must be conscious of such tendencies so as not to fall victim to the very impetuousness that caused many to oppose the demonstrations at Stonewall.

For me, the protest at Pride was a call to action, and its message was straightforward: we cannot afford to hang up our boots while there’s still work to be done.

TARA MAGLOIRE GAZETTE

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TALKB(L)ACK T mental health R.A. ROBINSON AND JONATHAN HERMINA CONTRIBUTORS Growing up, my Jamaican father called therapists “mad doctors.”

It was a term he had learned while living in the Caribbean. When I told my roommate about my father’s idea of “mad doctors,” he told me his Caribbean father sounded a lot like mine. There was a general consensus in the Caribbean that only people who lost touch with reality went to these so-called “mad doctors.” So when I made the choice to go into therapy at Western’s Student Health Services, there was already work I would have to do.

I told my therapist I am a black Caribbean body living in London.

What this means is that I’m often confronted with microaggressions, slurs and online death threats for inhabiting my body. In addition, my queerness and fatness only complicate the racism I experience.

I first began to see my therapist after I was hospitalized due to a severe panic attack and the doctor who attended to me strongly recommended I see a psychiatrist. At the time, I was a gym-goer who also did a weekly radio show at CHRW and I spoke often on LGBTQ issues as well as issues that dealt with both race and class. I was well aware of the obstacles of being both black and queer in London. I know my therapist knew this because I told her. After all, she prescribed me medication because of how racism and homophobia induced anxiety in me.

So when my therapist told me that I needed to lose weight in a conversation about what I was doing with my time, I knew something was off. Immediately, I flashed back to when she suggested that I fabricate my realities. As a person of many intersections, my body always represents many realities. Unfortunately, the only reality she focused on was the one where I was fat.

My roommate was shocked when I told him my therapist suggested I was misusing my time. The combination of my use of time coupled with my weight presented a new trauma that felt racialized due to historical associations with blackness as laziness.

Since this happened at a school that strongly advocates mental health, I decided to talk back. So my roommate and I set up a meeting with my therapist. Racial trauma has taught me to bring support to confrontations between my body and the institutions who want to forget I have one. I also couldn’t forget that I needed him — a thinner, lighter body — to verify whether or not my experience was even real.

As a part of a highly body-conscious culture, my roommate and I were aware of how her comment resonated. Conversations that deal with the stigma associated with weight and the ways in which “easy” weight loss advice is not only ineffective but incredibly harmful, take place at Western every day. As a mental health professional, I assumed my therapist would privilege the way fatphobia affected my mental health over the way fat represented my poor use of time.

TARA MAGLOIRE GAZETTE

• www.westerngazette.ca

THERAPY: and blackness The narrative of black laziness is not new. The implication of telling a queer man to lose weight lies in the fact that, despite making up five per cent of the population, 42 per cent of men who experience eating disorders are gay. I told my therapist who I was and what that meant. Instead of seeing me as an individual facing a special set of problems, my reality was washed away to make space for an investigation of my fatness.

Maybe I am black, fat and lazy. Maybe, as a queer man, I should consider the implications when participating in my community’s eating disorder epidemic. And maybe I’m making it all up.

The narrative of black laziness is not new.

The implication of telling a queer man to lose weight lies in the fact that, despite making up five per cent of the population, 42 per cent of men who experience eating disorders are gay.

Whatever the reality, I would need to speak with my therapist to figure it out.

The confrontation went as poorly as we predicted it would. My concerns were interrupted by de-escalation techniques that emphasized the impossibility of racism seeping into our progressive campus, derailing my presentation of evidence. The academic studies I brought with me that spoke to the violence routinely enacted on large, black, queer bodies within mental health facilities were overshadowed by a psychiatric degree able to disavow years of research. The letters I had written for me by my Western professors meant nothing to an institution that is often more concerned in protecting the job security of its staff than the mental health of its patients.

Black folk cannot directly talk back to institutions that refuse to hear them. Yet, despite everything, mental health advocacy remains as insistently important as ever. Black folk need access to mental health care that pay attention to their experiences. Full stop.

Fortunately, voices hidden in the confines of the confidential therapy room have spaces, like this one, if we make them. Making that space is what talking b(l)ack is all about. Unlike our fathers, I am prepared to talk black if it means disrupting a reality that refuses to acknowledge that I am already in it.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 • 9

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We’re separate, but connected ALISHA MUCHEMI CONTRIBUTOR

COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE

Obama’s legacy we refuse to acknowledge LILIAN ESENE CONTRIBUTOR I used to believe that black people could not dislike Obama, and those who did were traitors to the black community. How could they criticize this icon? His historic election sparked genuine feelings of hope and encouraged the idea that things would get better for the black community. I played into those same feelings, but have come to realize my ignorance in thinking that a black man in such a position would change things drastically for the community.

As someone who used to praise and defend Obama, it’s uncomfortable and painful to see the harm that the Obama administration has caused black people within America and around the world.

Being an immigrant and the child of immigrants, how can I praise someone who has deported more than two and a half million immigrants in the last eight years?

While restrictions have been put in place for who can be deported, the mass deportations typically target people of colour. Most of those deported are black and brown with a large per cent being from Latin countries — and yes, Afro-Latinos do exist. Obama has deported more people than any other U.S. president in history, earning him the name “Deporter-in-Chief” by many immigration rights groups.

While people are either elated or appalled at the idea of Trump’s “proposed” Muslim registry, the framework for this registry was already established during Bush’s presidency and solidified during Obama’s. The discriminatory National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) policy, defended by claims of monitoring terrorists, is a system that involves the registration and surveillance of people from predominantly Muslim countries.

It actively targets black and brown Muslims. The counter-terrorism no-fly list is also connected to this system, and is composed of people

from predominantly Muslim countries, including kids as young as four years old.

Not convinced? There’s more.

Obama’s drone strike programs have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. These programs are another part of the War on Terror, and the results are mostly swept under the rug or condoned since few of the many killed are civilians.

Aside from the ethical concerns of deciding whose lives are valuable, these strikes have taken the lives of thousands of people living the vicinity of where the terrorists are said to be hiding. Some of the countries that are currently under these drone strikes include Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Algeria and Somalia – and Obama recently intensified a counter-terror war in Somalia too.

These are just a few of the many examples of the terrible outcomes of the administration. It hurts to think of the treatment that these people have endured and the anti-black, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments perpetuated by these policies.

I think that the expectation for the Obama presidency to lead to the protection of black communities from things like this was a naive one. Though he is black, he is not a president of only black people. In his attempts to protect the American people, his policies have directly affected the groups who need the most protection.

Even when I attempt to talk about the pitfalls of his presidency to other black people, I’m often met with resistance. Some of those who choose to defend him highlight the wins of his presidency, which is fair, and others use his place in history and his “coolness” to try and explain away his harmful policies.

There’s no debate that Obama and his family are the flyest and most moisturized people to ever inhabit the White House, but I believe that we shouldn’t let things like perfect family portraits and videos of Obama dapping NBA players distract us from the harsh realities that minorities experienced under his presidency.

No amount of ‘coolness’ can cover up the pain that his administration has caused. His legacy is rightfully tainted, and we shouldn’t be afraid to acknowledge that.

My traditional Kikuyu grandfather who was born and raised in Kenya has well-intentioned spirits, but he always referred to AfricanAmericans as “them” or “those black people.”

This deliberate detachment from the western conception of blackness sparked a strong curiosity within me. When I finally built up the courage to question his disassociation from everything that was black, his response was as straightforward: “That’s not my history.”

This conscious separatism adopted by people such as my grandfather allows Africanness and blackness to exist in mutually exclusive worlds. Perhaps an explanation for this profound discordance in identities is found in the distance between the geographic borders of discussion. It has become clear to me that the reason such statements are able to flow so effortlessly from my grandfather’s lips, yet sit so painfully on my ears, is due to the deep difference in our respective relationships with blackness.

Somewhere along the line with every passport stamp I received, with every predominantly white classroom I found myself seated in and every agonizing mispronunciation of my last name, connecting to an African-American identity became more of a necessity than a choice. Within the western world, I was black and was forced to carry all the implications that contextually came with this identity.

I consider my relationship with the diaspora complicated. I was born in Manitoba to Kenyan parents, moved to California when

TARA MAGLOIRE GAZETTE

I was seven and then moved to Kenya seven years later and lived there until I moved again. I came to London for my undergrad almost four years ago. But regardless of having the privilege of spending a great deal of my teenage years in Nairobi, where both learning about the richness of Kenyan culture and building relationships with my family were made possible, I still felt a heavy detachment within myself.

On African soil, we speak of blackness in a different language. In Kenya, being black is the default, and as such its usage as an identifier is unnecessary.

On paper, I was not truly American when I lived in the States. Interestingly, this same un-Americanness was powerful enough to take away my authenticity of being Kenyan. When I moved to Kenya, the influence that America had on me revealed itself to the extent that my Kenyan legitimacy was often questioned. I was everywhere, but nowhere.

I once read an article that described living in the diaspora as never leaving the airplane on which you arrived. That we, as African diasporic bodies, are always airborne, never settled, never home. Perhaps this estrangement explains the complicated relationship many Africans have with adopting blackness as an identifier. In western lands, blackness needs no introduction. It is a marked category familiar to all, an identity crippled by the cruel legacy of slavery and discrimination.

More importantly, it is an identity that is still very much subject to the existence and understanding of whiteness.

On African soil, we speak of blackness in a different language.

In Kenya, being black is the default, and as such its usage as an identifier is unnecessary. Consequently, ethnicity, tribalism and differences in socioeconomic status take precedence in choosing one’s identity. It’s no wonder then that my grandfather sees himself as Kikuyu first above all else. Race is not something that he actively has to deal with, and so embracing the view that African Americans are different from him is not intentional but moreso, natural.

Unlike my grandfather, I’ve always struggled with two identities: black and Kenyan. I always felt as though living in North America denied me the privilege of adopting the African-American identity by choice unless I was given the airtime to accept it or deny it as such. I could not flirt with the co-option of black culture, it was ascribed on my body, with or without my consent simply by virtue of my skin colour.

Throughout my childhood, my parents wanted my black identity to come second to being Kenyan.

They hoped that my sense of ‘home’ would not dissolve in this new identity that I had found. Despite their efforts, I quickly realized that ‘Kenyan’ was not and will never be its own shade of black for as long as I reside in the diaspora. It neither excuses me from racial discrimination nor does it insulate me from prejudice. I am a black woman living in a society that sees blackness as homogeneous; a society that doesn’t care about the origin of my blackness.

Is African separatism from the western idea of blackness wrong?

Frankly, it depends on who you ask. Nevertheless, this doesn’t make transatlantic solidarity any less necessary. Blackness is transcendent in nature. A friend of mine says it’s like lasagna; layered and multidimensional, yet connected, whole.

I have come to understand that I am black and African, and that my dual identity is no less palatable.

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 • 11

black history month

If you have to ask, don’t say it

NABIH AMIR SULEIMAN CONTRIBUTOR Nothing angers me more than the following question: “Can I say the n-word?”

The person asking me this question is more than likely someone who isn’t black. Even more likely, I would exhale a breath of exhaustion, frustration and a little bit of “my nigga, are you serious?”

If you can’t say the actual word and have to refer to it as the “n-word,” chances are you shouldn’t say it. Opinions on this vary, but one thing remains clear — if you are white, you can’t say it.

Initially, when the word was being used there weren’t any positive connotations associated with it. The people I am referring to are not only white people but also nonblack people of colour. There seems to be a general understanding by, especially the Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian community, that it is permissible for them to use the n-word because they are not white, when in fact, they can’t because they are not black. Are we forgetting who made the pyramids? Or perhaps forgetting that the word “abeed,” a derogatory term that means ‘slave’ in Arabic, is still used against anyone with a darker complexion?

My take on this is that whenever black people are oppressed, we

always find a way of changing the undertone of the situation, whether that be through music such as rock ‘n’ roll, hip hop, jazz or other methods of reclaiming the n-word.

We, as a race, have taken control of the n-word’s narrative amongst ourselves. I repeat: amongst ourselves. To everyone else, this word is used as a means to oppress black people.

When non-black people use the word, it is in a weak attempt to be socially accepted into the black community as they function on the logic that, ‘if this community is allowed to use that word, and I use it, I must be a part of that community.’

People using this word rarely ask if it is alright to use, but assume based on their comfort in the social context they’re using it in that it is permissible to use. Typically, the word is less likely to be used when there are more unknown black people in the social context the word might be used in. In the setting they feel that it is safe to incorporate the use of the word, they think that we, as black people, hear the same thing from their mouth as we do when another black friend uses it, based on the fact that we are all friends.

But we are not all black friends.

When white people say it, there is a historical context behind the word — or maybe it’s just that faint “r” that I catch at the end. Using the n-word is just a way for people to be part of black culture but not assume the responsibility of being a black person. And that’s not cool, just awkward.

There is no justification for nonblack people to use the n-word and it frustrates me when white people

say, “if everyone can’t use it, no one can.” White people always feel this sense of entitlement since nothing has ever been taken away from them; that’s why when they can’t use it they think no one else should.

Non-black people of colour also share racial disadvantages, which means the n-word cannot have the same tone as when it’s used by white people. But what they fail to understand is that in every coloured community, the darker-skinned are always seen as the lower class. The same habits and slurs find new life in a context where racism from white people against black people becomes colourism from lighter-skinned people to darker-skinned people. In addition, the black struggle is one that remains unparalleled.

When most of these minority groups are fighting to be treated equally, the darkest are always making an effort to be treated like a human being.

Knowing all of this would put off most people from saying the word, so when people ask for permission I can’t help but wonder why. Some black people even avoid the word based on their own personal comfort. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t actually have a Whatsapp group with every black person in it where we come to unanimous conclusions on topics like these, and even though your one black friend may be okay with you using it, that doesn’t mean we all agree. It’s better to just avoid the word and the conversation in general.

Unless you’re black there’s really no question, and if you’re really asking, you already know the answer.

TARA MAGLOIRE

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Being an ally is not about getting a cookie; it’s work

AKUAH FREMPONG CONTRIBUTOR

DANIEL BODDEN GAZETTE

fill a gap in your program

So, you wanna call yourself an ally?

Well, join the club!

It seems to be that anyone and everyone wants to call themselves an ally without really understanding what it means to be one. I find this to be especially true when a large societal issue, such as the shooting of an unarmed person of colour or the issues of cultural appropriation, makes its way to the forefront sparking conversation among many.

The interesting thing about these issues is that they really aren’t that controversial, but they are typically only taken seriously after someone outside the marginalized group brings it forward. We then go along with the new craze of the week and in turn call ourselves ‘allies.’

To me, a true ally is someone who acknowledges their own power and privilege in society and supports individuals and groups who are oppressed, helping to fight for social justice, not just between a particular oppressed group, but all oppressed groups.

Allies are not only cognizant of their privilege but they recognize their own prejudices and biases and reflect on their experiences.

They listen to the experiences of others in order to bring change to society. Anyone, black or white, who denounces this simply can’t be an ally. Even when people know this, it’s important to refrain from the “white savior complex” — a mindset where white people think they are doing others a favour by joining the cause. Putting up hashtags and

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1: showing dedication; all about a particular topic or action 2: to be thorough in handling one’s business 3: down for any and everything 4: intrepidness; not showing fear

Definition Phrases “Cause I’m bout it, I mean I’m rowdy/I hang with these killas that everyone talk about.”

-Master P, ‘Bout it, ‘ DANIEL BODDEN GAZETTE

sharing articles brings awareness but it does not solve the systemic problems that occurred before the incident occurred and they don’t change the systemic problems afterwards.

In relation to black people, people of colour and those who aren’t either of the two, there is something to be said about the slacktivism of white people calling themselves allies towards these populations while continuing to not acknowledge their white privilege though they benefit from it.

Let’s take the Black Lives Matter movement. After a string of high-profile, unruly arrests and deaths of primarily black men by law enforcement, Canadians and Americans are discussing race relations at a level of detail never seen before. It seems as if every month, or even more often, a story of an unarmed black person harmed or murdered by a white authority figure using the excuse of “self-defense” to justify their inept and incomprehensible actions makes it on national news. The heartbreak of the Trayvon Martin case was one example of many. People, including myself, had to come to terms with how to explain to non-people of colour why it hurts me, hurts us and hurts society.

Having to explain why events such as the deaths of Mike Brown, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile are issues for not only black people, but society in general, is part of the problem. Cases like these go as far back as Rodney King and countless others, and if you refuse to acknowledge how patriarchy influences the vilification of black men and the systemic problems of racial injustice, as cases typically involving them are

‘cheddar Noun

1: A form of monetary currency, normally cash.

Definition Phrases “See it’s all about the cheddar, nobody do it better/Going back to Cali, strictly for the weather.”

– The Notorious B.I.G., “Going Back to Cali”

reported at greater rates, then you are never going to be an ally.

If you can’t realize and recognize the privilege that you stand on and how that perpetuates a racial bias amongst society then by no means should you be calling yourself an ally. In fact, you should be nowhere near the cause because in a few weeks or so when the story dies down, we will all go back to our lives as the oppressed while you return to your position as oppressors.

Although I am holding white people accountable since they control most, if not all major societal institutions, by no means is this accountability exclusive to them.

It’s important to hold everyone accountable to stress the importance of why we need to be allies, and why they need to understand that this world isn’t going to change without them speaking out about it.

To hold that much power in society, as a result of colonization, is essentially the reason why we live with Eurocentric ideals, plagued with oppression.

We all have a responsibility, whether we like it or not, to be global citizens and look out for one another, work against systemic barriers that hold certain individuals down, and protect ourselves against these racialized walls.

So the next time you want to call yourself an ally, really look at society and see what you’re signing yourself up for. Really look at the people that you are pledging to be allies for, look at the systems and social institutions that cause these individuals to be oppressed in the first place and finally look at yourself. See how you may be part of the problem and find ways to be a part of the solution.

Be an ally. Be accountable, be respectful and challenge society.

maxin’ Noun

1: A word used to describe someone who is relaxing to the maximum.

Definition Phrases

“On the playground was where I spent most of my days, chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool.”

– Will Smith, “Fresh Prince of Bel Air Theme Song”

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 • 13

opinions

Culture of division affects us all Stop!

Samah time!

SAMAH ALI CULTURE EDITOR @SISTERSAMAH Sometimes words are not enough to explain how you are feeling.

Sometimes you have no immediate feelings either. You’re just numb.

Your skin loses sensation and your heart slows its beating. You’re seeing but you can’t register. You’re hearing but not listening. You’re stuck in purgatory, questioning if this is real and is this happening during your lifetime.

Since November I’ve been numb.

Nothing has quite hit me yet, but the secondhand anxiety from my family is tangible enough for me to grasp that this is really happening.

Rita All About It RITA RAHMATI, NEWS EDITOR @RITARAHMATI It was tough enough to know Trump was elected through a rhetoric of hate, but to see him actually put through policies that discriminate against certain ethnicities and religions has broken my heart.

I’m Persian; both my parents were born in Iran and most of my family still lives there; and many of my family members are Muslim.

For the majority of my life I’ve

Ellis in Wonderland ELLIS KOIFMAN CULTURE EDITOR @ELLIS_KOIFMAN Trump’s Muslim ban isn’t a quick fix solution; all it will do is increase a sense of fear and division. With the recent Québec mosque shooting it has become apparent that this is spilling over into Canada, too The Muslim-blaming mentality ignores larger systematic issues and falsely shifts blame onto an entire group of people.

That my family’s place of birth will cause them extra stress every time they leave the country they call home.

That my younger cousins’ President confidently says he does not like people like them, when they haven’t even fully realized themselves.

That people who share my beliefs are terrified every time they hear the call to prayer, never knowing if this will be their last prayer before they are slaughtered.

Knowing all of this has stopped me from feeling, but I commend those who are taking this on and turning it into power as they protest in the face of hate. Being apologetic to people like me is nice, but what’s also nice is feeling for others who cannot; using your network that people like me can’t reach. Feeling is important during times like this, and whether you are directly affected your support and voice matters. seen my ethnicity vilified, but Trump’s taken things to an even lower level than ever before. My heart breaks for all those whose lives have effectively been halted.

Ninety days will likely feel like a lifetime to many of these people.

The only solace I’ve found is seeing the thousands of people protesting, lined up in airports and gathering together to show support for those who are affected by Trump’s racist actions.

Thank you to all those who aren’t afraid to stand up against bigotry and for those who aren’t able to speak for themselves. I’m so grateful to be surrounded by so many kind and accepting people here at Western.

As a Jew, I find it difficult not to see historical similarities. The Jews were singled out and blamed leading up to the Holocaust — hatred and fear were used as tools to justify horrific acts.

For the first time in my life I find myself fearing war. When 9/11 happened I was too young to understand the weight of the situation. I was sad about what transpired but it ultimately didn’t have much effect on me. Meanwhile, millions were reeling at the chance of another World War. Should events further escalate in the United States, a grim future may quickly become too close for comfort.

See more online at westerngazette.ca

MOSES MONTERROZA GAZETTE

USC demerit point system needs serious reform

BY GAZETTE EDITORIAL BOARD

Thirty-eight demerit points were given out during this year’s USC presidential election. In the end, it didn’t really matter.

contested election, there were 503 votes (and a 41 per cent turnout.)

Team Tobi received 26 demerit points, Team Jan/ Mohammad were handed 12 points while Team DiBrina managed to end the campaign without any infractions. But did any of that have any effect?

At Huron, with a higher voter turnout than main campus has seen, candidates lost about one per cent of the vote for each demerit point. If you scale Huron’s model for our voter population, that could have a big impact on elections.

While some voters may have stayed away from campaigns that racked up an excessive amount of points, most likely dismissed the penalties as just part of the process. We would love to have every single campaign play by the rules but politics is inevitably a little dirty — rules will try to be skirted and manipulated.

A model where campaigns are penalized by losing votes adds a real incentive to staying within the rules. Right now, a campaign could rack up demerit points to gain advantages, staying under 31 needed for disqualification, and face a small financial penalty.

Especially when certain rules seem laughable. Candidates received demerit points for having the USC logos in videos, wearing purple in campaign material and for “pre-campaigning” by sharing a Gazette article before the campaign period about the lack of women who have ran for USC president. These all seem frivolous — is someone going to gain votes because someone was donning a purple Western hoodie in a video?

Bluntly, the demerit point system right now is toothless. The current structure is almost comically unimportant. It’s almost as though these rules have been made expecting a certain amount to be broken.

The solution is pretty simple:

Demerit points should target actions that give candidates unequal access to voters. There should also be real penalties. Huron’s electoral procedures are much more sensible compared to the ones that govern USC elections. For each demerit point, candidates lose five votes. That may seem like nothing but in the last

Remove the infractions that are superfluous and have no effect on who people vote for. Clarify the rules that create an unfair playing field — for example, more concrete rules dictating Facebook campaigning. Finally, reform the system so candidates lose votes instead of money for breaking rules.

With some reform, maybe we wouldn’t have seen 38 total demerit points in this election — or at the very least, they would have meant something.

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.”

Half-baked rules shouldn’t lead to disqualification Green Eggs & Hamza HAMZA TARIQ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @HAMZATARIQ_ USC elections are never over when they’re supposed to be.

One would’ve thought an almost 1,000-vote difference between the winner and second-place slate would’ve settled any doubts, but apparently not.

Team DiBrina has filed seven appeals with the Appeals Board while the winners Team Tobi are uncomfortably close to the disqualification threshold.

Here are some things for everyone involved in the elections

process to consider.

USC ELECTION RULES ARE HALF-BAKED, DUMB AND ABSURD USC election rules read like the ideas of a second-year poli sci student frantically pulling an allnighter for an essay due at 9 a.m.

Getting a press release where a slate is given demerit points for liking a Facebook post or using purple in their campaign video sounds like a pitch for The Gazette’s spoof issue — not an actual elections decision.

And let’s talk about how these rules are enforced.

A student can file a complaint with the Elections Governance Committee (EGC). But most students don’t care about USC elections, and most of those who do don’t really spend time learning ridiculous rules like what colour can’t be seen in a video.

So for the most part it ends up being that candidates keep a close eye on each other waiting for others to make mistakes. This time would be better spent campaigning and connecting with the student body.

An overzealous slate waiting for others to trip up over social media postings isn’t really following the spirit of the election either.

Elections rules should also be simple enough for any student to follow and for the EGC to be able to enforce rules itself with little outside help.

Team DiBrina, who spent much of their campaign touting their experience, can use the remainder of their terms involved with the USC to lobby for a change to these rules.

Team Tobi, while receiving a few of these absurd rulings, did manage to come the closest to

disqualification a presidential candidate has in at least 17 years, with the exception of Team Litchfield, who ended up getting disqualified.

They need to recognize this fact and pledge a change to election governance during their term to weed out many of these asinine rules.

A 1,000-VOTE DIFFERENCE I have recently come across many social media posts arguing for the “principle” of election’s rules while ignoring the margin Team Tobi won by.

In 2015, Sophie Helpard lost the election by 32 votes and was only installed as president after Team Litchfield was disqualified. Soon after, a plebiscite to impeach her was introduced at USC council and their problems didn’t go away until the slate was well into its term.

Thirty-two votes and there was

an uproar. What does Team DiBrina think is going to happen if they get installed? Not only will they spend the entire term justifying their legitimacy, they’ll face huge challenges implementing some of their radical platform promises, such as closing down the Purple Store and free movies at Western Film.

Ironically, in a year where the voter turnout has seen a slight uptick, the Appeals Board disqualifying an incoming presidential slate over arbitrary rules will make the USC the laughing stock of student unions across the country.

If they are about putting students first, then Team DiBrina should reconsider their appeals and accept the student body’s choice.

And Team Tobi should promise students a better election with no hare-brained rules in 2018.

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14 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017

sports

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Men’s hockey loses 18-year playoff streak CHARLIE O’CONNOR CLARKE SPORTS EDITOR @CHARLIEJCLARKE With a pair of road losses to Concordia and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières this weekend, the Western men’s hockey team has been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in Ontario University Athletics. The Mustangs will miss the postseason for the first time since the 1998–99 season, 18 years ago.

The Mustangs went into their Quebec road trip on a high after defeating first-place McGill in a shootout to close out their final homestand but knew their backs were against the wall.

On Thursday, they sat four points behind the eighth-place Lakehead Thunderwolves, but losing 4–7 and 3–5 to their Québecois opponents put the final nail in the Mustangs’ coffin.

Now, with just two games left on the docket, Western’s 8–16–2 record puts them six points back of Lakehead for that final playoff spot after the Thunderwolves’ win on Friday over Waterloo.

Western closes out their season next weekend in a back-to-back against Lakehead, which had all the makings of a thrilling showdown had the Mustangs won just one game in Quebec. Now, it’ll be a meaningless trip to Thunder Bay with both teams’ fates already determined.

Regardless of the outcome, the Mustangs will finish ninth in the OUA West — their worst finish ever

TAYLOR LASOTA GAZETTE

under head coach Clarke Singer.

All the Mustangs can do now is play spoiler to the Thunderwolves, who will be looking to improve their own playoff position in their homestand against Western. Lakehead can jump as high as fifth in the OUA West with a couple of wins.

Western has been abysmal on the road all year, with the losses in Quebec nothing unusual for them.

The Mustangs have just two away wins in 12 games so far, the same record as fellow basement-dwellers Toronto and RMC.

The last time Western failed to qualify for the playoffs, they at least had an excuse. In the '90s, the OUA’s divisional structure allowed teams with poor records to make it if their division was weak. Back in 1999, the Mustangs had a .500 record, and would have been the best team in other divisions.

This time, though, there’s nothing to justify an early exit. They would’ve been out of the playoffs in either division. The 2016—17 Mustangs have 18 players returning from last year’s Queen’s Cup finalist

team. The team fell short this year with an inexperienced defence and frequent mid-game collapses.

Last year’s Western team wasn’t pretty either, but they could score. the 2015–16 Mustangs finished fourth in the OUA in goals, scoring 35 more goals than they have so far this season.

What might hurt the most, though, is that the Mustangs had no shortage of opportunities to score this year. Despite having the fifthworst goal total of 68, Western has actually taken the sixth-most shots,

$

with 891. Western’s PDO of 96.5 is the second lowest in the OUA, suggesting they haven’t had their fair share of puck luck this season.

It’s hard to tell exactly where the Mustangs went wrong this year.

They’ve had a troubled season, struggling in all areas of the ice.

Whether the blame falls on young defence, an impotent offence, or just bad luck there’s no denying that this team has fallen short of the expectations of Western’s hockey program.

11

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 • 15

culture

Community-engaged learning

beyond the classroom NICOLE LAM GAZETTE STAFF @GAZETTECULTURE BREAKING THE WESTERN BUBBLE: START WITH CEL Sitting in the stands of the Western Fair Sports Arena, Brendan Dodd perched a laptop on his knees. He was working on a presentation for the London Blizzard Sledge Hockey Club, whose team practice was being held a few feet away from him in the rink.

After talking to one of the participant’s parents, Dodd gained a deeper understanding of why his work with the London Blizzard mattered. The parent’s son was born with spina bifida, and sledge hockey, a form of ice hockey designed for individuals with physical disabilities, allowed him to participate in a sport he loved.

“Through this conversation, I really gained a good understanding of the challenges that they’ve been through, and the fact that they can participate in what is basically Canada’s national sport — it’s a great thing to see,” says Dodd. “Just talking to this guy, wow, this person’s been through a lot, and yet, this organization’s providing a terrific thing for them, just an outlet for sport.”

Dodd, a first-year Ivey HBA student, partnered with the London Blizzard as part of an Introduction to Management in Kinesiology course he was taking last year.

The course is just one of many at Western to offer a CEL component as part of its curriculum. CEL, short for community-engaged learning, is a program unique to Western that involves partnering with local organizations in London and completing community-based projects.

The CEL component of a course can be mandatory or optional depending on the professor, and the projects tie into course content.

CONNECTING COURSE CONCEPTS Samantha Wiendels, a fourth-year psychology student who also took a CEL course, worked with the Salvation Army Centre of Hope in the withdrawal management centre for an addictions theory and research course. She and a partner produced a literature review on

supportive housing models and a research paper from interviews and focus groups they held with clients.

Wiendels loved the practical experience she gained from taking the CEL course.

“I wanted the opportunity to do more than read a textbook and actually get hands-on experience, and do something that’s going to go somewhere productive,” she says.

For Wiendels being able to put those into practice with her work at the withdrawal centre was one of the best parts of CEL. She was able to conduct research that was more than just a paper — her work led to improvements in some of the centre’s health care programs and eligibility for certain grants.

Dodd’s kinesiology management course is geared towards sports management, an industry he was able to get a taste of through his CEL project. Using course concepts, Dodd and his group did analyses, researched sponsorships, and planned events for the London Blizzard.

“Everything I learned, I applied,” he says.

GETTING OUT OF THE CLASSROOM Dr. Manina Jones, who is currently teaching Canadian Literature, Creativity, and the Local, has tried to teach outside of the classroom as much as possible. She wants her students to “break the Western bubble” and gain an appreciation of the culture and community outside the university. This term, she has held classes in the historical Eldon house, Museum London and the Museum of Ontario Archaeology.

Through the CEL component of her course, Wiendels was able to break out of her usual classroom rut. Going off campus to apply course content is new and different, and something she thinks many students covet. The excitement she felt from going to her CEL class or meeting with her community partner was something she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Melanie Stone, the vice president of women’s sledge hockey of Canada and one of CEL’s community partners, dismisses the idea that learning can only take place on campus. She

sees it as something that can happen right in the London community. For her, experiential learning is surprisingly collaborative between students and community organizations.

“Not only are you learning here [on campus] and taking it to the community, but you’re actually learning in the community.”

HELPING OUT IN THE COMMUNITY Not only was Dodd’s CEL project giving him insight into a future career and contributing to a course credit, but it was also making a difference in the community.

Dodd and his group were given a lot of freedom for their project, and were asked to come up with ways to better the organization overall. They analyzed what the club needed, and then planned how they were going to get those resources for them.

The two managers who run the London Blizzard were very impressed with their project. One of their most successful events was a bar night fundraiser for the organization. By the end of the term, Dodd and his group had raised a significant amount of money, recruited several volunteers and gained a lot of exposure for the London Blizzard.

Dr. Jones feels like students bring a fresh perspective to the community, and local organizations are very open to what their ideas have to offer.

“Those people really want them there, they’re really receptive to hearing the points of views of students, [because students] have really exciting new skills and perspectives to bring to those community

AMY O’KRUK GAZETTE

groups,” she says.

Lisa Boyko, the CEL coordinator at Western, sees CEL as an opportunity for student empowerment through community engagement. By witnessing issues that London faces firsthand and by making even a small change, she believes students will feel more invested in the community. She hopes they will realize that their skills and knowledge can make a difference, and this will lead to their development as “civically-minded community leaders.”

CEL started about seven years ago with one course. Since then, it has expanded to 40, and Boyko believes that the CEL program will continue to grow.

“Students are asking for it — students want real world application, they want experience, and this is one way to get it,” she says.

Despite its growth and glowing testimonials, not many Western students know about the CEL program.

Boyko is currently working towards flagging CEL courses as “CEL” in the Academic Calendar.

CEL courses listed in the Academic Calendar currently aren’t specified.

As part of his CEL project, Dodd took on responsibilities of a sports manager, a career he aims to pursue. It gave him a glimpse of what his career could potentially look like, and his partnership with the Blizzard helped him get his foot in the door. Dodd is currently still working with the Blizzard helping them conduct research.

But it’s seeing his project benefit the organization directly that would convince him to recommend a CEL course to a friend.

“You gain a different perspective on why what you’re learning actually matters,” Dodd says. “My work had legitimate implications for the organization. I could see it actually making a difference.”

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