W W W .W E STERNGAZETTE.C A • @UW OGAZETTE
Let it snow This week’s snow dump was fuelled by the great lakes, experts say. >> pg. 3
thegazette Not ready for winter since 1906
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2013
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CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
VOLUME 107, ISSUE 37
Western holds first International Week Growing global outreach part of Western’s strategy Jeremiah Rodriguez NEWS EDITOR For the entire week, the walls of the University Community Centre will be draped with banners and flags from all over the globe. With 60 different events taking place all over campus this week, you might find yourself walking into one by accident during Western’s first International Week. Each day until Saturday, from 9 a.m. until dusk, numerous faculties, clubs, businesses and speakers will descend onto nearly every building at Western with a wide array of activities. The inaugural week’s kick off coincides with the University Students’ Council support services’ annual Ethno-cultural Awareness day. The plethora of day-long events range from teaching simple phrases in more than seven languages each hour, to opportunities to learn abroad to international film screenings in the evenings, to workshops and lectures about job hunting internationally. The wide scope may seem daunting but everyone involved seems more than willing to step up to the task. “We’ve never really had a celebration specifically as to what makes us international at all once,” Kris Duncan, communications officer of Western International, said. “Just looking at the map in the UCC atrium — where students can pin up where they’re from or where they’re going — you can see how much of an international community is here at Western.” Each day, special guest speakers will touch topics like Japanese poetry, international identity, peace building and on Thursday Western Heads East will be talking to international students through Skype who are interning in places like Tanzania and Korea. There are currently approximately 1,200 Western
London lacking labour? Richard Raycraft NEWS EDITOR
Haida Liu GAZETTE
CITIZENS OF THE WORLD. Flags hanging over the University Community Centre atrium symbolize the start of Western’s International Week, celebrating and enjoying the diversity on campus.
undergraduates studying abroad. On Friday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., the Don Wright Faculty of Music is inviting students to bask in musical stylings from Russia, Korea, Czech Republic, Finland, China and Cuba during the “Songs of Many Lands.” Planning for International Week started nearly a year ago with organizers wanting to have a focused way to celebrate diversity on campus. “It was a little difficult to get the logistics together, but there are already so many international events going on campus all the time, it was just a matter of coordinating all those different things in one week,” Julie McMullin, vice-provost international, said. On Tuesday night, Western International’s “World’s Challenge Challenge” invited participants to present a solution to an global problem of their choosing to a panel of judges. Groups were judged on ambition
Just looking at the map in the UCC atrium — where students can pin up where they’re from or where they’re going — you can see how much of an international community is here at Western.” — Kris Duncan
communications officer of Western International
along with practicality and feasibility. Solutions included a sustainable Africa through investment in agriculture, reducing plastic consumption in water bottles, sustainable
cooking and micro-financing in developing countries, to name a few. On campus, there are approximately 2,800 international students, with international students comprising 10 per cent of all incoming undergraduates this year. “At Western, one of our priorities is to internationalize our school and one of the ways we can do that is by celebrating the different communities on campus. But we really want to increase all those numbers,” McMullin added. With the first day going off without a hitch, organizers are looking forward to the rest of the week’s events and encourage students to possibly try or do, or listen to something totally new. If you need to know which event you accidentally walked into, or if you’re just looking for a full rundown, visit internationalweek. uwo.ca.
London may have high unemployment, but that is mainly due to a skills mismatch between what workers have to offer and what employers are looking for, according to the London Economic Development Corporation. London’s unemployment rate currently sits at 7.9 per cent, the lowest it has been in four years, though still above the national average of 6.9 per cent. Despite this, Robert Collins of the LEDC admitted that London was facing a labour shortage of the right type of workers. This indicates a skills gap between employer demand and the skills supplied by workers. “There are shortages mainly in the IT sector, some in the advanced manufacturing area, and what I mean by that is that more recently with the low cost of borrowing money and with the productivity challenge that companies have been facing, they’ve been investing in new technology to produce those goods, which then requires an advanced skill level to operate that equipment, so to a certain degree equipment has been replacing people,” he explained. “Then it’s finding the individuals with the right skill sets to support that equipment.” Collins talked about two possible solutions. One involves providing better labour market information to workers and students so the skills shortage can be addressed, and the other emphasizes training workers on the job as well as out of one. “We know that we don’t have as many people being attracted early enough to areas such as computer science,” he said. “We know that’s a demand occupation, we also know that if there were more people graduating with those skill sets, more companies would locate here.” >> see SKILLS pg.3
November 15th is wear purple day. Visit London Abused Women’s Centre at www.lawc.on.ca/shinethelight for more info.
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thegazette • Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Vigil held for Walji family Sheds light on immigrants’ struggles
CROSSWORD By Eugene Sheffer Haida Liu GAZETTE
SHINING A LIGHT. A vigil was held at King’s University College last night to remember the Walji family, who were found dead in their Richmond St. apartment on October 31. The family of free immigrated to Canada over 15 years ago, and event organizers said they had been “in limbo” since then, unsure if they would be allowed to stay.
Julian Uzielli EDITOR-IN-CHIEF A vigil was held last night in memory of the Walji family, who died last month in their apartment near campus. Students in the Social Justice and Peace Studies program at King’s University College organized the vigil. Event organizers said they wanted to remember the family, but also draw attention to the social circumstances with which they struggled. “It’s a very tragic story and one that hits our community very hard, and I know that King’s and Western alike has many intersections with the refugee and immigrant community,” said Klaire Gain, a fourth-year Social Justice and Peace Studies student, in an interview before the vigil. Gain, who helped organize the event, is also a volunteer with Joseph’s House, a temporary home for asylum-seeking refugees. “I’ve witnessed firsthand the hardships that families such as the Waljis have to face under the refugee policy here in Canada,” she said. The Walji family came to Canada
from Tanzania 15 years ago, and since that time Gain said they had been “in limbo,” unsure if they would be allowed to remain in the country. Mohammad and Syroz Walji came to Canada to seek medical care for their daughter Qyrza, 21, who had cerebral palsy. Mohammad was a superintendent at 1223 Richmond St., a building with many student tenants. The family “constantly feared deportation,” according to a statement from King’s. The Waljis struggled to support their daughter, who graduated from Oakridge Secondary School last year, often accepting donations from friends and community members to help pay for Qyrza’s treatment, according to the statement. The vigil included speeches and words from students, community members, friends and family of the Waljis. Gain said she also hoped the vigil would create an opportunity to address the problems faced by immigrants and refugees in Canada. “This is an avenue for us to start a dialogue about the injustices within Canadian refugee policy, and remember and really just
commemorate the wonderful family that the Waljis were,” she said. “We decided that this isn’t the kind of community that we want to live in, and we decided that something needed to be done about it.” The Walji family was found dead in their Richmond Street apartment on October 31. Though police are still investigating the case, it is being treated as a murder-suicide. “This evening is about remembering the Walji family and providing community support for everyone who knew and loved them,” Gain said. “And I just think that we also want to remind everyone that we have a lot of work to do when it comes to refugee policy. It’s important to note that circumstances such as this are not individual cases, and immigrants and refugees face a tremendous amount of uncertainty under Canadian policy.” Gain said she had met the Waljis before but did not know them well. “I do have a lot of friends and family who knew them, and they just speak of how wonderful they were and how loving and caring of a family they were,” she said.
News Briefs
Local open learning at UBC
Solution to puzzle on page 8
The University of British Columbia has launched an online digital literacy course accessible to students and faculty alike. Available to all members of the UBC community, the new local open online course, or LOOC, is a localized version of a massive open online course, or MOOC. MOOCs are online courses granting unlimited participation with worldwide access. The digital literacy course, code M101, is part of UBC’s Master of Education Technology program and covers topics including Mining (research), Meshing (idea creation), and Mobilizing (generating value from information). Combined efforts from the Faculty of Education and UBC library have made the project possible. The first set of students enrolled in September, and the project aims to be open to the entire UBC community in early 2014. UBC promotes the program as
self-paced and flexible to student schedules. “A lot of flexible learning has to do with the University’s understanding of how it can be flexible, I see this from the other side — how do we enable our learners to be more flexible?” David Vogt, Graduate Advisor for the MET program, told UBC News. Six UBC librarians have been responsible for LOOC content, though the project intends to open content creations to students in the future. “For students and the UBC community, the LOOC is filling a large information gap. It provides education in an area that isn’t currently addressed in a campus-wide way, and allows for the community to engage in information and conversations about social network technologies while growing digital skills,” Erin Fields, UBC Library’s teaching and learning librarian said to UBC News. —Tristan Wu
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.
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thegazette • Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Snow here, snow there, snow everywhere Megan Devlin NEWS EDITOR Winter came early at Western this year. It’s only early November, but throngs of students were already shaking the snow off their Canada Goose jackets as they walked into class yesterday. Intense lake-effect squalls blanketed London with over 15 centimetres of snow yesterday and Monday night, creating a winter-wonderland for students but treacherous driving conditions on the highway. There were 106 vehicle collisions on the 401 between Monday and Tuesday afternoon, translating to about six collisions an hour, according to Sgt. Dave Rector of the Ontario Provincial Police. The OPP also reported several intermittent highway closures on the 402 and 403 because the sheer number of collisions along stretches of the highways made travelling unsafe. James Voogt, a professor of urban climatology in Western’s department of geography, explained the sudden and early dump of snow was of the lake-effect variety. “[Lake-effect snow is] something that’s quite regional to southwestern Ontario. It’s not actually part of a weather system that’s giving precipitation everywhere,� he said. He explained the snowfall was caused by cold wind blowing over still-warm lakes early in the winter. A temperature difference of about 13 degrees Celsius between the warm lake water and cold air is required to create lake-effect snow. “If the lakes freeze over that cuts off the supply of heat and moisture
Haida Liu GAZETTE
that’s required to form these snowfalls,� Voogt said. Lake-effect snow causes extremely localized squalls. As soon as the wind direction changes, the fetch — the length of time the cold wind blows over the warm water — gets reduced and a storm can be transformed into a sunny day. Voogt cited Buffalo as a famous victim of lake-effect snow squalls from the winds off of Lake Erie. Though early in the year, this type of snowfall is not uncommon in Southern Ontario. The infamous “snowmageddon� blizzard three years ago that caused December exams to be cancelled at Western was a lake-effect snowstorm, Voogt said.
Environment Canada issued a snow squall warning for London Monday night through Tuesday afternoon. However, Environment Canada predicted more seasonal temperatures to return later in the week, with a high of 12 degrees expected on the weekend. Rector urged drivers to make sure their cars were equipped for winter conditions, and most of all, to drive slowly. “If you see snow, go slow. There’s no magic to winter driving, it’s just slowing down,� Rector said. “Based on what we’ve seen in the past 24 hours, if people don’t change their driving habits there will be more collisions.�
Debate sparks over skills Skills gap may fuel a labour shortage >> SKILLS continued from pg.1
It’s not just a local problem. As the Canadian economy undergoes rapid changes and the population begins to age, questions are beginning to rise about how Canada will address a labour shortage. But a new study by the Institute for Research in Public Policy authored by economist Cliff Halliwell says that a labour shortage can be met in the long run — provided that we meet a possible skills gap. “While labour-force growth will slow, this demographic transition is something to adapt to, not necessarily something to offset. The key challenge is to ensure we effectively develop, match and use the skills of Canadians,� Halliwell said in a release from the Institute.
We also know that if there were more people graduating with those skill sets, more companies would locate here.� — Robert Collins,
director of workforce development, London Economic Development Corporation
While attracting skilled immigrants to acquire the types of skills Canada needs is discussed often, Halliwell argues that there are still a large group of young people in Canada who can rise to the challenge. “Our focus must be on making sure young people get off to a good start in the labour market, and helping people already in the workplace who want to enhance their skills and opportunities while remaining employed,� he said in the release. Among Haliwell’s recommendations is to have increased flexibility in post-secondary education. This should be done to increase accessibility to skilled trades, on-thejob-training, and the occupations currently in demand that are causing possible labour shortage issues.
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thegazette • Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Arts&Life
word of the day Pulchritudinous Adjective. Characterized by or having great physical beauty and appeal.
Struggling to maintain a healthy lifestyle Mackenzie Morison CONTRIBUTOR
the benefits of physical activity, sleep and proper nutrition. “Exercise releases endorphins, which make you happy. After a workout you’re pretty much guaranteed to feel better. Even I find that on days when I’m really stressed out I can come to the gym, teach a class, and feel great afterwards,” McKinnon says. “Prioritizing your studying over working out, especially during exam time, is never a good thing. You are more productive if you take a break from studying, and if you schedule things properly you will always manage to fit it in.” After those late study nights, the morning caffeine run to kick-start your brain into action may seem like a simple solution at the time, but becoming aware of the choices we make every day is critical to our performance. “A helpful thing to know when you’re studying and don’t plan on sleeping at all is that if you don’t sleep enough you don’t remember
Pizza Pizza, Harvey’s, Mcdonald’s, Starbucks, and those late night Subway runs. These are primary go-to places when trying to settle that grumbling tummy. Between academics and social commitments students often complain they find it difficult in their busy schedules to make time to focus on other areas that contribute to their well-being. Exercise, getting enough sleep and planning nutritional meals seem to fall short in the face of classes and coursework. Receiving adequate levels of exercise is not only key to leading a healthy lifestyle or achieving that rocking bod, but has even been proven to combat depression and pose as an effective tool for stress management. Shelby McKinnon, the assistant fitness coordinator at the Western Student Recreation Centre, explains
enough,” McKinnon says. Just like adequate levels of exercise and smart nutritional choices are vital to maintaining ones health and performance, giving yourself a set bedtime and wake-up call allows your brain to function at optimal performance. “If you get eight hours worth of sleep, things will be stored in your long term memory much better than if you had three to four hours,” McKinnon says. “Things are actually stored in your short term memory if you don’t have enough sleep.” Food selections on campus are a tough transition from home-cooked meals. Passing by those delicious donuts mocking us from behind the Tim Hortons glass or the drifting aroma of hot and ready-to-eat pizza slices from the University Community Centre food court leads us down the road to temptation. However, the need to fill up your plate with green vegetables has never been more important.
Logan Ly GAZETTE
“There are studies that have shown your brain can only absorb a certain amount of information in a certain subject area at once,” McKinnon says. “What you eat helps fuel your brain so if your brain has good fuel to work off of you
will function properly. Not eating enough will affect your workouts, sleep, and happiness.” Maintaining health is crucial to ensuring one gets the most out of university.
A timely romantic comedy
Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Mackenzie Morison CONTRIBUTOR About Time GGGHF Directed by: Richard Curtis Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Bill Nighy, Rachel McAdams, Lydia Wilson
Leaving you more time to work on what’s important.
With the help of Creative Services Online FTP Upload, you can send your files directly to us from the comfort of your own home.
www.usc.uwo.ca/creative_services/upload.php Second Floor, UCC Building Room 265 + 267 519.661.3578 creativeservices-usc.ca
If you had the ability to go back in time what would you change? The film About Time stars Domhnall Gleeson as the kind, socially awkward Tim Lake who has the ability to go back to any point in his life, and do it again. Although About Time is not a flashy major motion sci-fi picture that many people prefer, the British romantic comedy focuses on the development of characters and expressing meaningful yet heartbreaking themes. The presence of real-life problems and the comforting and humorous manner in which director Richard Curtis tackles love, sorrow and death makes a wonderfully acclaimed film.
Once he turns 21, Tim’s father (Bill Nighy) mysteriously calls his son into the study where he awkwardly explains that the men in his family have the ability to “travel in time.” Although he can’t change major events in human history, Tim has the mystical talent to travel to past moments in his own life. All Tim has to do is find a dark place, clench his fists, think of the moment he wishes to return to, and he can redo whatever he likes. Tim declares he will use it to chase after one of life’s ultimate pursuits — love — or as he puts it, “to get a girlfriend.” With many fleeting attempts Tim eventually woos the stunning but insecure Mary (Rachel McAdams), and the two eventually lead an ordinary but romantic life together. With this extraordinary ability, who among us would miss the opportunity to re-do past mistakes, help our loved ones or revisit a lost family member or friend? Tim doesn’t miss this opportunity. Time and time again he uses his talent to
fix both the incidental mishap in life as well as the tragic accidents. Using his power, Tim’s life becomes a story that he’s constantly able to rewind, rewrite and reshape. However, while editing out the awkward and painful parts of his life he eventually comes to see them as not only unavoidable, but essential. When his odd but loveable sister Kit Kat (Lydia Wilson) gets into a horrific accident he discovers his unique gift has its limits. Through a great deal of trial and error Tim learns his gift cannot truly save himself or those close to him from the sorrows we all go through in life. Life is like a rollercoaster —filled with all kinds of ups and downs. It’s from all the messy bits that we grow, learn and develop into the people we are today. More than just your average boy meets girl romantic comedy, the film leaves the viewer thinking about meaningful questions. The comical, witty and thoughtful script of the film leaves its viewers genuinely moved.
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thegazette • Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Editor’s Picks > The essentials for your week
ON TV
IN THEATRES
ON DVD
ON DISC
Parks and Recreation
Nebraska
Turbo
ARTPOP by Lady Gaga
A block of two episodes marks Parks and Recreation’s return from a hiatus. Featuring humour ranging from savvy references to hot political events, these episodes will surely make any political science enthusiast jump for joy. In one episode, Leslie is forced to filibuster — in a Wendy Davis-esque way — a motion to deny certain voters the right to vote. In the second episode, Leslie faces a recall vote, which is undoubtedly one of the worst things to happen within a network television series within recent memory.
From the creative minds of Sideways and The Descendants, comes a new film about an elderly man and his son who decide to take a road trip from Montana to Nebraska. The premise immediately produces a ton of red flags. Montana to Nebraska!? That sounds like perhaps the most horrendously boring scenery that one could encounter in a car. Honestly, one would have to drive through either Wyoming or South Dakota. Regardless of this seemingly shoddy plotline, Nebraska is garnering loads of Oscar buzz so who knows?
It’s a snail that is fast! Snails that race! Isn’t that the most brilliant idea for a children’s movie that you’ve ever heard? Ryan Reynolds (oh man) stars as Theo “Turbo,” a mere garden snail who aspires to become an Indy 500 champion and thus, be the fastest snail in the world. Who came up with this? They deserve a huge hug because this is just fantastic. It’s a snail that races! Anyway, a lot of racing scenes in stunning animation are featured along with the voice talents of people like Samuel L. Jackson (this is a kids movie) and Snoop Dogg (What were they thinking, though?)
ARTPOP was leaked two weeks ago and everyone was buzzing about it. Now that it is officially released, listeners can actually go out and support the Queen of Weird herself. ARTPOP is a startlingly different effort from Gaga. It veers more to the odder side of things. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what sets this album apart from all the others that she has released. However, what can definitely be said is that, like the rest of Lady Gaga’s albums, there will be great singles from ARTPOP.
Atwood scores a hat-trick with MaddAddam
Matt Helfand CONTRIBUTOR MaddAddam GGGGH Margaret Atwood MaddAddam is the highly anticipated concluding novel in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian trilogy which includes previous novels Oryx and Crake (2003) and The Year of the Flood (2009). MaddAddam picks up the storyline right where the previous two novels left off, brilliantly fusing the plot together from them. With her newest novel fresh off the presses, Atwood is at it once again, delivering a riveting and beautifully crafted story. Margaret Atwood, the 73-yearold Canadian author, can be considered nothing less than a true literary heavyweight. Atwood has over 50 publications under her belt, and holds honourary degrees from 19 different universities from Trent to Harvard. She won the Booker Prize (the Superbowl of English novels) in 2000 and has been short-listed for the award another five times. Atwood is well known for her humour, her active use of Twitter, and generally being epic. All three books are set in a notso-distant future where the world is run by a few select corporations,
genetic engineering of nature is taken to extremes and extreme poverty and disease are rampant. In this world a brilliant yet deranged scientist named Crake releases a bioengineered pandemic, which destroys the majority of human life. Concurrently, Crake also creates a new type of hominid species (conveniently known as “the Crakers”) with the intention for them to replace humanity. The Crakers are designed to possess none of the vices inherent in regular humans including greed, jealousy, lies, and written language. For good measure Crake even endows Craker men with giant blue penises (if you’re into that). While this novel may seem like it belongs in the sci-fi section, Atwood herself prefers the term “speculativefiction” specifically because the content of this novel is not particularly far fetched. In fact, what makes the MaddAddam trilogy so poignant is its gritty realism. Atwood is describing a world which could very well exist within our lifetimes, and in some was already does. Atwood’s vivid depiction of a society on its last legs is utterly chilling, and although the fate of humanity in MaddAddam is nothing short of apocalyptically horrible, there is a certain perverse beauty in the post-pandemic society, especially in the fact that with humans out of the picture, life on Earth has a chance of survival. As a stand-alone novel, MaddAddam is an exciting and compelling story of group of human survivors attempting to retain a sense of humanity, and trying to survive in a shattered world. However, MaddAddam’s true value is in relation to the rest of the trilogy, for which it serves as a magnificent concluding chapter. While you would not let this act as a deterrent from picking up this book as your first foray into the MaddAddam universe, there are obvious reasons why it is better to read a trilogy in sequential order. Overall, kudos to Margaret Atwood on this one; MaddAddam belongs in the “must read” category.
ON THE CHARTS “Story of My Life” by One Direction This nostalgia-filled song from One Direction has a music video featuring gaggles and gaggles of photographs. Additionally, they’re all seriously upping that cute factor by appearing alongside their families, including their moms for some. This will likely cause many girls worldwide to conclude that not only are they dreamboats but also, seemingly sweet guys. The actual song is predictably catchy. For real, curiosity levels reach an all-time high because no one has any idea what addictive substance they embed into their melodies.
Gazette Tested >> The Green Monster Don’t be scared, the Green Monster will only terrorize the toxins in your body, leaving you revitalized and glowing with health. This nutrient-dense smoothie is perfect for those rushing to find a healthy breakfast in the morning or for a pre or post workout drink — and it is legitimately delicious.
Ingredients
• 5 ounces of spinach (you can start
smaller and work up to this amount if you’re still scared)
• 1 banana • 1/2 cup soy or almond milk • 1 tbsp ground flax seed • 1 tbsp peanut butter (or other nut
butter)
Directions Combine ingredients in a blender, blend it, drink it, love your life. For variation, use 1/2 cup of mixed berries in place of the nut butter and add in a bit of pomegranate juice. Throw in a couple slices of avocado and/or carrot sticks if you’re feeling adventurous, or use dates and cacao powder for a chocolate smoothie. All paths will lead to Popeye strength and super immunity.
— Mary Ann Ciosk
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thegazette • Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Opinions
I can assure people, hopefully it doesn’t happen again.
— Rob Ford
Robbing Rob of his privacy Cool Story Broekoff
Iain Boekhoff NEWS EDITOR It’s official — I know way too much about Rob Ford’s personal life, and so does the whole world. This is because he smoked an illegal drug one time while drunk. But is that really something the world should know or care about? Absolutely not. Last Tuesday, the world was introduced to Toronto mayor Ford after he admitted to smoking crack cocaine in one of his “drunken stupors.” Which, I think we all agree, is one of the best ways to admit to smoking crack. Ford denied it for months, but who wouldn’t? Lance Armstrong denied using performance enhancing drugs for years and was sober the whole time. I can’t really blame Ford for denying it in the most unequivocal of ways, even though the smart thing would have been to
admit it right away and go to rehab for a few weeks. The media circus engulfing Ford makes him come off more of a victim than anything else, drawing sympathy rather than condemnation. Why are these “journalists” camped outside the man’s house on a regular basis? Why are reporters following his children as he accompanies them trick-or-treating on Halloween? They’re just waiting for him to say “fuck off” so they have something more to show the world. To top it all off, why did The Toronto Star — as responsible journalists serving the public interest — need to pay for a video of an inebriated Ford cursing and threatening murder? We know the man has a critical drinking problem, so this video adds nothing to public knowledge. Secondly, who hasn’t said things they regret or can’t remember under the influence of alcohol? This sort of tabloid journalism is what has led to massive scandals and wide disrespect for media and journalists. Ford’s mainly being vilified for one-time drug use, but the media didn’t attack or question Justin Trudeau’s ability to do his job
when he admitted to illegally smoking marijuana while a sitting member of parliament — a far more important job than mayor of Toronto. Just a theory, but maybe the reason Trudeau has one of the worst attendance records and has only tabled a single bill in the House of Commons is that he’s too busy getting high and eating pizza. The most tragic thing about everyone talking about Ford is that, on the same day, one of the most unprecedented political moves in Canadian history happened — the suspension of three sitting senators without pay. This is what we need to be hearing about, but instead the media makes Ford the laughingstock of the world. Ford’s clearly not resigning, so we should encourage him to get help and welcome him back in a few weeks after rehab so he can do his job again — this time without the media harassing him and his family. Because, let’s face it, he’s just the mayor of a city — his actual power is surprisingly small. There are far more important people and things happening in the world that we need to care about.
disadvantaged students were in need of additional resources and support in order to achieve the same level of success in the educational experience. Frequently cited groups with obvious disadvantages and needs in a physical, social, and financial sense include but are not limited to students with disabilities, LGBT students, and Aboriginal students. From this angle, the PSC provided valuable resources, advocacy against discrimination, and — most importantly — connections and a sense of community between similarly disadvantaged students who would otherwise be socially and culturally isolated on campus. The new policies being implemented by the USC reduce and damage the PSC’s ability to address these specific students in need — and the many testimonies now emerging from individual students on how their mental health and physical safety is now being impacted by these new policies needs to be taken at face value. The intentions behind the new policy changes to make the PSC more accessible to the general student population are certainly welcome — and in fact, have always been reflected in the PSC’s open door policy and slogan “All Identities Welcome” — but there are ways to implement these policies without damaging at-risk students. To penalize the PSC for historically devoting its very limited resources to supporting at-risk students rather than marketing misses the core mandates of the services. The message that the USC and the
VP Internal is sending to current, future and prospective students whether inadvertently or not is — “if you have any special needs, we are no longer willing to support you on campus.” Personally, this message infuriates me. I don’t want my Western to be unaccommodating to diversity — do you? — Alex Lu
Letters to the Editor
PSC woes serious issue Re: “Q&A With Council,” Friday, November 8, 2013 To the Editor: In response to the USC’s Q&A on the status and future of the Peer Support Centre, I am appalled by the USC’s continuing insistence that the changes are uncontroversial. The fact that numerous well-reputed organizations ranging from the Graduate Student TA Union to the Committee of Women in Anthropology have been expressing their concerns as watch guards on these drastic changes in policy guiding the PSC should point to a serious issue at hand. By continuing to paint their policies revolving around the PSC as unanimously beneficial, the USC seriously disrespects both internal and external partners who have been working very hard to get these issues to light and its student body by demonstrating an enormous lack of transparency and accountability. What these organizations — and many students — are concerned with is that the USC is now abandoning its mandate on equity and right to education. The mandate that the PSC originally followed was built on principles of equity, which integrated an understanding that
Science III
Ford fat jokes not welcome in future issues To the Editor: I was incredibly disappointed to read your “catchy” call for letters in Thursday’s Gazette: “Have an opinion as big as Rob Ford?” A fat joke? Really? This would be shameful and unprofessional at the best of times, but considering that last Wednesday’s editorial was an excellent piece by Kevin Hurren about the harm of fat-shaming, it’s also just embarrassing. There are plenty of things about Ford to poke fun at: his bigotry, his arrogance, and his general unsuitability for the position of Mayor of Toronto — but leave his weight out of it. — Jennifer Spence FIMS MA II
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Volume 107, Issue 37 www.westerngazette.ca
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Gazette Composing & Gazette Advertising Ian Greaves, Manager Maja Anjoli-Bilic
Diana Watson
Gazette Staff 2013-2014
Christine Bonk, Hamza Tariq, Stephanie Grella, Kevin Heslop, Lily Robinson, Sara Mai Chitty, Taylor Lasota, Anne Wozney, Nathan Kanter, Emory Liu, Jenny Jay, Jonathan Dunn, Sam Frankel, Cheryl Madliger, Josh Teixera
News Richard Raycraft Megan Devlin Iain Boekhoff Jeremiah Rodriguez Arts & Life Brent Holmes Mary Ann Ciosk Bradley Metlin Sports Daniel Weryha Nusaiba Al-Azem Caitlin Martin Newnham Opinions Kevin Hurren
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• Please recycle this newspaper •
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thegazette • Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Sports
saywhat? “Alcohol and Twitter don’t mix.”
Brian Burke, President of Hockey Operations for the Calgary Flames, offers up wise advice at the PrimeTime Sports Management Conference.
Rundown >> Along with their recent Yates Cup victory, three Mustangs players swept the Ontario University Athletics football players of the week. Lirim Hajrullahu was named special teams player of the week, while Preston Huggins took home the defensive honour and Matt Uren claimed the offensive prize.
Mustangs lose to Guelph in close contest Gryphons defeat Western 4–3 in nail-biting tilt Bradley Metlin ARTS & LIFE EDITOR The Western women’s hockey team fell 4–3 to the Guelph Gryphons this past Sunday despite a rallying effort near the end from the Mustangs. The Gryphons came out strong at the beginning of the first period, with left-winger Amanda Parkins quickly potting a goal in the first 40 seconds of the game. Gryphons’ Head Coach Rachel Flanagan noted it really helped her team through the entirety of the game. “Scoring early was really good for our team’s morale and allowed us to stay focused despite being emotionally and physically fatigued from our Saturday game,” Flanagan said. Notable about this game was a staggering amount of physical contact from both benches. Indeed, Mustangs defenceman Michelle Saunders mentioned an ongoing rivalry between Guelph’s and Western’s hockey teams. “We have a history with Guelph and we joke around about being ‘cursed’ since they are the only team we have not been able to beat for a while,” Saunders said. “We are a very aggressive team, therefore the penalties were obvious and the physical play was definitely coming.” The second penalty of the game, a tripping penalty 11 minutes in, gave the Gryphons a power play and opportunity to really surge ahead. They answered the call and centre Jessica Pinkerton delivered a second goal for the Gryphons. The rough play continued with three more penalties within the first period. It was another tripping penalty, coming with a minute left in the first period, which allowed Saunders the opportunity to knock the puck into the net. The penalties continued throughout the game, yet both teams failed to capitalize on the power play opportunities afforded to them.
Courtesy of Eunhae Chung
WAIT FOR ME! Mustangs’ forward Megan Taylor (front) in a game against the Toronto Varsity Blues earlier this season. The team lost that game 2–1, and similarly was one goal behind in their recent game against Guelph.
The second period saw a concerted effort from both teams on defence, with both teams preventing any goals. Gryphons’ left-winger Rachel Cassidy broke through, however, securing a 3–1 lead 12 minutes in for the Gryphons. Four minutes later, the Mustangs refused to be overpowered, and Mustangs forward Natasha Panahi responded with a swift shot to the net, resulting in the Mustangs’ second goal of the game. Despite the goal, the Gryphons reinforced their lead with one
Naira Ahmed GAZETTE
minute left in the second period by a second goal from Pinkerton. Though the Mustangs’ morale was beginning to wane, a shot turned away by Mustangs goaltender Kelly Campbell in the dying seconds of the second period kept them competitive. During the third period, the Gryphons were intent on securing their victory and allowed few shots on goal. Saunders managed to outmaneuver the Guelph squad and connected with seven minutes left in the game, bringing the score
to 4–3. Saunders, who got two points this game, said she was not focused on individual achievement. “I was very happy that I could contribute that much to our effort, but ultimately it doesn’t matter how many points I get — in the end I wanted us to win and get two points in the standings per game no matter who scores,” Saunders said. Ultimately, however, this rallying failed to produce a win for the Mustangs. Prior to the game, Saunders’ expectations were
relatively high. “Since we came off from an awesome game on Friday against Brock, I was expecting another well-played game,” Saunders said. Flanagan offered a different opinion. “We always expect a tough game versus Western. They are a big, strong team and we know we have to bring our best game every time we play them.”
Courtesy of Eunhae Chung
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thegazette • Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Naira Ahmed GAZET TE
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RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS WANTED As a doctoral candidate I am conducting a study about transition from secondary school to Western university. We are recruiting full time undergraduate students ages 17 to 24 to participate in focus groups where they will share their transition experiences and their opinions on transition services and information provided by Western University. If you are interested in participating, please contact Lisa at lcossy@uwo.ca.
HOUSING RESIDENCE ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE Vacancies now available for first-year and upper-year students in main campus residences. Visit our website at www.residenceatwestern.ca and login to myResidence to complete the application and provide contact information. START LOOKING FOR next year early and beat the wait lists! Visit www.varsityhousing.ca for luxury apartments and houses. $500-$600. Downtown and near campus: 519-858-2525, tbell@varsityhousing.ca
UPCOMING EVENTS TYPHOON HAIYAN FUNDRAISER. Enter your team in a Charity Dodgeball tournament. Sat. Nov. 16th 2pm-5pm in Thames Hall Gym. All proceeds towards aid for victims of Typhoon Haiyan. Individuals and teams welcome. Email team name and member names to info.unicefwestern@gmail.com. Registration fee $10.00 freelance individual, $50.00 for a team of 5-8 members. Organized by UNICEF Western.
SERVICES FEELING STRESSED OUT? Registered Massage Therapy and Registered Acupuncture minutes away from Western. Coverage under SOGS and USC Health Plans. Call 519-601-5436 email: chaboczki@rogers.com ENGLISH (ESL) TUTORING: Are you having difficulty learning English as a Second Language in addition to your academic studies? Lots of experience with graduate students from many different countries. TESL Certified Instructor. Phone or text Tom at: (226) 791-2213. Email: wright.tomr@gmail.com TIPS ON HOW TO AVOID BEING PHISHED 1. Never respond to emails that request personal financial information. Reputable companies don't ask for passwords or account details in an email. TIPS ON HOW TO AVOID BEING PHISHED 2. Visit banks' websites by typing the URL into the address bar. Phishers use links within emails to direct victims to a fake site. If you suspect an email is bogus, do not follow any embedded links within it.
PUT YOUR SUDOKU SAVVY TO THE TEST! To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes.
For solution, turn to page 2