Vol 42 issue 2

Online threats

Attack on women

Hart House returns

Walk in the wild

Judon’t Judo

Anonymous blog threats made against women call for an increase of campus security.

Rude comments may be commonplace on the Internet, but it’s a bigger issue than we think.

We the Family cast talks about the play that will kick off Hart House’s new season.

Students are invited to indulge in UTM’s plant life. No science degree required.

Acting Principal Ulrich Krull talks about the tranquility behind the martial art.

Medium News, page 2

Medium Opinion, page 6

Medium Arts, page 7

Medium Features, page 11

Medium Sports, page 15

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09.14.2015

Threats target feminists at U of T Anonymous threats posted on popular blog cause increased security at U of T campuses NICOLE DANESI NEWS EDITOR U of T has increased security on all three campuses following online threats made against feminists at the university, according to an email from U of T provost Cheryl Regehr last Thursday.

Posted by an anonymous individual under the name “Kill Feminists”, the comments encouraged the violent killings of feminists at the university, calling for the murders to take place in a sociology or women and gender studies classroom at the university.

In a statement released on Friday, blogTO confirmed two of the threats originated from comments on a blog post published on their website, blogto.com. The threats have since been removed from the site.

“I can confirm that two such comments were made on this site and that we have provided information to local law enforcement regarding the matter,” said Tim Shore, blogTO founder and publisher.

According to Shore and Toronto Police Services, the comments were originally published on September 5,

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

The threats encouraged the violent murders of feminists at U of T. although it is currently unclear when the university or police were made aware of the threats. It is also unclear how long the comments remained visible online.

Unconfirmed reports also mentioned that similar comments were

posted on Reddit, though statements from UTM Campus Police and Peel Regional Police only identified blogTO as the source of the threatening comments.

On Thursday, U of T VP and provost Cheryl Regehr released a state-

ment alerting the U of T community of the situation.

“The university is currently working with Toronto Police Services and Peel Regional Police Services to support an investigation into anonymous threats made on a public blog against the Uni-

versity of Toronto,” said Regehr. “We have increased campus police presence on our three campuses, and we are monitoring the situation closely.”

It is not known how many officers have been assigned for extra security on the three campuses, or when security will return to its normal operations.

In an email to The Medium, Peel Regional Police inspector Steve Mendyk confirmed the comments were originally reported to UTM Campus Police by an unidentified UTM student and that Peel Regional Police would be on campus on Friday.

“In light of the release of the information about the threats, Peel Regional Police 11th Division have decided to provide an increased police presence at the school today to assist students and faculty in feeling safe as they go about their day,” said Mendyk. He also told The Medium that police have determined the threats were likely targeted at the U of T St. George campus, and the investigation will now be conducted by Toronto Police Services.

Threats continued on page 4

Ongoing underspending at food centre UTMSU financial records indicate $5,581was left unspent from food centre levy while need rises NICOLE DANESI NEWS EDITOR In late August, multiple media outlets reported the opening of a food bank at Halifax’s St. Mary’s University as part of a nationwide trend of increasing need for food assistance programs at postsecondary institutions.

At UTM, statistics reported last April by the UTMSU Food Centre demonstrate a general increase in usage.

When comparing the number of times students have used the food centre’s resources, the report showed an increase to 41 visits to the food centre in last February, compared to 32 visits in February of the previous year. March also saw a significant increase as this year’s visits rose to 76, while last March had 54 member visits to the centre.

Last January, however, witnessed a drop compared to January 2014 from 47 visits to 29.

The latest statistics available on the UTMSU food centre usage go up until April of this year.

According to figures reported in UTMSU’s 2015/16 preliminary budget, UTMSU received $14,560.32 from the 2014/15 food centre levy, which charged both full-time and-

ZARA RIZWAN/THE MEDIUM

The UTM Food Centre had 41 visits in February 2015. part-time students $0.55 each.

After expenses for salaries and food, $5,581 was left unspent from the food centre levy.

As for UTMSU’s 2015/16 preliminary budget, the union expects to receive $14,851.53 from the food centre levy, which has been increased to $0.56 for both full-time and parttime students. The union is also bud-

geted to underspend by $1,801.53 this year.

Among financial changes at the food centre, UTMSU is budgeting to spend less on labour than it did last year, with a budget of $3,700, but more on food, allocating $9,000 for food purchases. Financials reported from the 2014/15 academic year report $4,500 spent on labour and

$4,479.32 on food.

As reported last September by The Medium, unspent funding from the food centre levy returns to the union’s overall operating budget.

A draft of a new food centre constitution published on March 27, however, calls for the food levy revenue left at the end of the year to be used only for activities related to the

centre. Specifically, it calls on the union to “allocate any money left over from the budget to a reserve for the food centre. Money in that reserve shall not be used for any purpose other than the food centre.”

The Medium was unable to verify as of press time whether the drafted constitution has been passed, or if last year’s food centre levy surplus was reallocated to the union’s operating budget.

Also reported last year by The Medium, UTM’s food centre faced challenges including lack of adequate space and equipment.

According to Vicky Jezierski, UTM’s director of hospitality and retail services, her department assisted the food centre in dealing with these issues following a presentation made earlier this year by former food centre coordinator Nourhan Afify to the Food Services Advisory Committee.

“Hospitality and Retail Services made the decision to help with the UTMSU [food centre],” said Jezierski. “We made arrangements to secure the food centre’s current location as well as to purchase the freezer and shelving units.”

The current food centre location is larger than the previous location, and is now found in the Davis Building, room 2102.

09.14.2015 THE MEDIUM NEWS

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UTMSU seeks changes to Chartwells contract September 5, 7:55 p.m.

Driving Offences Two reports of a speeding vehicle on Residence Road. Driver was cautioned by UTM staff.

September 6, 10:44 p.m.

Liquor License Act A male was observed by Campus Police sipping from a beer bottle on a pedestrian walkway by Outer Circle

Road and Residence Road. Male was issued a provincial offence notice for consuming liquor in a public place.

September 9, 12:11 p.m.

Trespassing A non-community member was aggressive towards another non-community member. The person was cautioned and verbally trespassed by police not to return to UTM campus.

These reports are those that have been released to The Medium and do not necessarily constitute an exhaustive list.

Students can contact the UTM Campus Police at 905 828 5200, Peel Regional Police at 905 453 3311, or Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222 8477.

UTMSU to open convenience store

ANDREEA MIHAI/THE MEDIUM

The contract includes key performance indicators to measure Chartwells’ performance.

UTM three times annually and will be scored out of 40 points by both Chartwells and UTM. A low score will mean that Chartwells pays UTM $5,000 as a penalty, while a high score will require UTM to award Chartwells with $5,000. No financial transaction will take place between the two parties if the score results in neither award nor penalty.

“Chartwells’ proposal, in comparison to the other bidders, provided the UTM with the best plan to meet the key success factors as laid out in the [RFP],” said Paul Donoghue, UTM’s chief administrative officer.

The RFP was established by Kaizen Foodservice Planning and Design Inc., the company that was also responsible for developing the new food service contract among other tasks.

Three eligible corporations applied and each bid was evaluated against criteria developed from Kaizen’s community engagement methods, which included consultation with the UTM community through focus groups, surveys, and other methods.

Unlike the previous contract between Chartwells and UTM, which featured significant portions of the document blacked out and not available to the public, the new contract can be found in full on the Hospitality and Retail Services webpage.

Store continued on page 4

Months after UTM’s Hospitality and Retail Services awarded a new food services contract to Chartwells, UTMSU is planning to lobby for changes to the contract so student groups are no longer required to use Chartwells when booking rooms outside the Student Centre.

Chartwells is the same food provider that has been at UTM since the 2004/05 year.

In an email to The Medium, UTMSU president Ebi Agbeyegbe discussed the new Chartwells contract and the issue of food security on campus.

“The UTM Food Centre has witnessed a surge in student usage because of the unaffordable food options,” said UTMSU president Ebi Agbeyegbe, who was a member of the Request-for-Proposal and Food Service Advisory Committee. “The university administration has failed to address the growing concern related to food security.”

According to Agbeyegbe, UTMSU plans to lobby against the exclusivity of Chartwells’ contract. Currently, food ordered in rooms outside the Student Centre must come from Chartwells.

“We have lobbied the university administration to change the food

services contract with Chartwells to permit student groups to purchase more authentic food from a list of approved vendors,” said Agbeyegbe.

According to the contract, UTM will earn 17.5 percent of monthly net sales to UTM and if Chartwells earns more than $11 million in net sales annually, Chartwells will pay 21.5 percent of its net sales on the exceeding amount, with 17.5 percent paid directly to UTM and four percent to a “Program Enhancement Fund”.

The new contract is set to expire in five years on May 31, 2020, which is half the term of the previous Chartwells’ contract.

The new contract, dated May 22 and signed on June 1, includes “key performance indicators”, which according to the Hospitality and Retail Services department, will judge the quality of Chartwells’ operation. Indicators include customer service, performance reviews, as well as attention to sustainability and marketing.

According to an announcement posted on the UTM Hospitality and Retail Services website, if Chartwells does not meet the set KPIs, the new contract will put UTM in the position “to hold Chartwells accountable for implementing immediate and decisive corrective action”.

According to the new contract, the KPI listing is set to be reviewed with

Mississauga Council opposed to possible 2024 Olympic bid

Tennis pro wrongly arrested by NYC undercover police

Man arrested after carrying fake gun on Mississauga transit

Ontario to welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees by end of 2016

Former Liberal PM supports Trudeau at rally

Mississauga Council have voted against supporting a Toronto bid for the 2024 Olympics. The decision came after the council discussed the lackluster impact the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games generated for the municipality and overall cost involved in filing the bid. The bidding process costs approximately $50 million to complete.

A NYC undercover police officer is under fire after wrongly arresting former tennis pro James Blake. Blake is now calling for the officer to lose his job. The violent takedown in front of an NYC hotel was caught on security camera.

A man has been arrested and charged for carrying a fake gun on Mississauga Transit on Saturday. Peel Regional Police have not yet released the name of the individual who was seen carrying the fake in his waistband and getting off the bus at the Square One Terminal.

In an announcement made on Saturday, Premier Kathleen Wynne has declared 10,000 Syrian refugees will be welcomed to Ontario by the end of 2016. The announcement follows the implementation of a federal matching program, which will match up to $100 million donations towards the cause.

Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien came out to support Justin Trudeau at a rally event in Hamilton on Sunday morning. The former prime minister focused attacks specifically against the NDP and Mulcair.

Source: Mississauga News

Source: CTV News

Source: CBC News Toronto

Source: Canadian Press

Source: CTV News

ANDREEA MIHAI/THE MEDIUM

UTMSU also considered opening a dentist office.

KARUNA ISRANI WITH NOTES FROM NICOLE DANESI After hearing feedback from students at the UTMSU Ministry of Student Services, the student union has finalized a decision to open a convenience store on campus.

The store will be in the now vacant room next to the Multifaith Centre, which previously housed the UTMSU Copy Centre. Initial discussion for use of this space was divided between using it for a convenience store or for a dental office.

In a vlog posted to the UTMSU YouTube page on May 18, UTMSU VP university affairs and academics Nour Alideeb explained that placing a dentist on campus would provide students with a way to easily make use of student’s health and dental insurance plan.

“A lot of students don’t take advantage of [the dental plan] because it takes a lot of extra time to commute to wherever [their] dentist is,” said Alideeb. “Having a dentist on campus would be really beneficial.”

RYAN ATKINSON

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«NEWS

THE MEDIUM 09.14.2015

Campus Police expands its force

»DO YOU FEEL SAFE ON CAMPUS?

Eight new staff members are hired at UTM

Owen Yang 2nd year, social science

Shadia Ali 1st year, political science

I don’t feel that safe, but there is no threat to me.

So far, yes.

Hafsa Abdulhakim 1st year, science

Lawson Lu 2nd year, management

I feel very safe on this campus.

Yes.

ANDREEA MIHAI/THE MEDIUM

According to Campus Police, 847 crimes were reported in 2014 while 935 were reported in 2013.

ASSIA MESSAOUDI UTM Campus Police are expanding their force, having already hired three new building patrollers and proceeding to hire two special constables and three additional campus patrollers.

According to Campus Police manager Robert Messacar, who had transferred to UTM from UTSC last year, the increase is not due to an increase in crime, but rather an increase in student population and the increased presence of building patrollers is anticipated to further decrease the number of incidents on campus.

Recent Campus Police annual reports show a decrease in reported

incidents of crime and other offences by 88 occurrences between 2013 and 2014.

“This is a very safe campus,” says Messacar. “Our goal is to make students feel safer on campus.”

Responsible for tasks including campus patrols and educating students, additional building patrollers will provide special constables with more time to respond to calls that are more serious and time consuming.

Special constables hold the same amount of authority held by regular police officers and undergo similar screening to that of a regular police officer, the only difference being that they’re only employed by UTM. Previously, special

constables would oversee serious occurrences as well as performing tasks now assigned to building patrollers.

According to Messacar, the campus police budget increased this year, but only proportionally in order to cover the salaries of the new hires.

At UTSC, campus police plans to hire two new special constables, leaving them with 17 special constables by the end of the academic year. Campus police at U of T St. George currently employs 34 special constables and UTM’s special constable total will grow to 14 special constables following the acquisition of two new special constables.

Threats pose low risk to U of T Threats continued from page 2 It is currently unclear what led police to believe the threats were intended for St. George.

According to Shore, blogTO collects the online IP addresses of commenters, although it is unclear if blogTO was able to attain the IP address for the source behind the threats.

“We have provided all information available to local law enforcement to assist them with their investigation into this matter,” said Shore in his statement. “Commenters are also asked to provide a name and email

address, although this information is unverified.”

According to U of T spokesperson Althea Blackburn-Evans, the comments pose a low risk to the university.

“The university has also consulted experts in risk assessment, who have advised that the online threats indicate a low risk of violence,” said Blackburn-Evans in an email sent to The Medium on Friday. “That assessment is consistent with the advice from Toronto and Peel police services.”

Also on Friday, U of T president

Meric Gertler released a statement to address the threats made against the university.

“Many of you are disturbed, as I am, at news of anonymous online threats targeting women at our university,” said Gertler. “I am immensely proud of the contributions members of the U of T community have made to the women’s movement and to feminism.”

As of press time, no suspects have been named and it is unclear if Toronto Police have any leads as to the identity of the individual who published the threats.

UTMSU to compete with campus vendors Store continued from page 3 On August 24, UTMSU president Ebi Agbeyegbe and VP internal and services Francesco Otello-DeLuca appeared in another vlog to announce that a store will be coming to campus.

“Over the years, many students have brought up this idea at the Ministry of Student Services,” said OtelloDeLuca in an email to The Medium.

“The idea became more feasible after the UTMSU-managed printing service became so popular that it was relocated to the information desk.”

According to Otello-DeLuca, items sold will include products regularly found at convenience stores, except for lottery tickets and cigarettes, though specifically which items will be sold will depend heavily on student opinion.

Otello-DeLuca also told The Medium the store plans to compete with

other campus vendors to provide affordable options to students and pricing will be structured to ensure the store does not run a profit or deficit, so that it remains a service and not a profitable venture.

Items sold will include products regularly found at convenience stores, except for lottery tickets and cigarettes.

It is currently unclear when the store will open and according to Otello-DeLuca, items sold at the convenience store will be decided at the next meeting hosted by the Ministry of Student Services.

09.14.2015

MASTHEAD EDITORS Editor-in-Chief Maria Iqbal editor@themedium.ca Managing Editor Maria Cruz managing@themedium.ca News Nicole Danesi news@themedium.ca A&E Kate Cattell-Daniels arts@themedium.ca Features Farah Qaiser features@themedium.ca Sports Eric Hewitson sports@themedium.ca — Photo Mahmoud Sarouji photos@themedium.ca Design Sarah Yassine design@themedium.ca Copy Akshaya Sharma copy@themedium.ca Online & Blog Corey Belford Kimberly Johnson blog@themedium.ca online@themedium.ca ASSOCIATES News Menna Elnaka A&E TBA Features TBA Sports TBA Photo TBA Copy TBA GENERAL STAFF Webmaster Luke Sawczak web@themedium.ca Distribution Manager Alex Ciesielczuk distribution@themedium.ca Ads Manager Mayank Sharma ads@themedium.ca BOARD OF DIRECTORS Maryam Faisal, Jeremy Wu, Leo Jiang, Natalia Ramnarine, Rebecca Xu, Saima Khan (ex-officio), Christine Capewell (ex-officio) COPYRIGHTS All content printed in The Medium is the sole property of its creators, and cannot be used without written consent.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor will be edited for spelling, grammar, style and coherence. Letters will not exceed 700 words in print. Letters that incite hatred or violence and letters that are racist, homophobic, sexist, or libelous will not be published.

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To contribute, email editor@themedium.ca

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5

When numbers matter You don’t have to be good at math to see the problems in UTMSU’s budget I’m not someone who’s particularly knowledgeable about numbers. I performed decently in high school math, but understanding finances is a completely different story.

I was in the office over the weekend with our bookkeeper, familiarizing myself with where our files are kept and what kinds of work she does.

Thankfully, I had her to teach me how everything works, such as payroll, and tracking revenue and invoices. That kind of information is pretty useful for someone who’s in charge of handling levy funding for a relatively large organization on campus, to say the least.

But here’s the thing: there are other groups on campus with similar—and even greater—student funding. The students who run them are responsible for handling the money you pay each year with your tuition.

It’s easy to assume that whoever is in charge of the money knows what he or she is doing. But they’re students just like you. In fact, as a news story this week about the UTMSU Food Centre reveals, sometimes those in charge of the money don’t know what they’re doing, or don’t handle the funding responsibly.

The numbers are in the preliminary budget for this year, available on the UTMSU website. UTMSU will also have to present its audited financials

from the previous fiscal year at its annual general meeting, likely later this semester.

It’s a legal requirement for not-forprofit corporations to present these statements to its members. Predicatably, when the financials are presented at these meetings, a lot of the information goes over our heads. It’s even worse when the person delivering the presentation simply reads the numbers without much explanation.

Even when preparing the story “Chronic underspending continues for food centre,” our news editor had to consult outside sources to help make sense of the numbers in UTMSU’s budget. Understanding these numbers is not something that comes easily, but it’s essential if you care about how your money is spent.

Furthermore, it doesn’t take an expert to look at UTMSU’s budget and see that something is wrong. As reported, the food centre has been significantly underspending its levy.

“What’s wrong with that?” you might ask.

Well, the food centre levy was actually established by a referendum several years back (when the “food centre” was still a “food bank”), meaning students voted in favour of paying a certain amount each year towards the service, for that specific purpose.

But at the end of the fiscal year, when

there are leftover funds, they all end up back in the general UTMSU operating budget.

That means some of the money we agreed to pay specifically for the food bank gets used for other purposes.

And we don’t know what they are.

By the way, for any club representatives who are struggling with small budgets, did you notice that UTMSU had over $12,000 left over from their academic society levy last year?

And here’s the kicker: they’re planning to have another $14,000 left over this year.

For any student parents on campus who make use of the daycare, notice that the budget doesn’t contain any information on if or how the $12,000 from the daycare levy are used.

While we’re looking at the budget, take out your calculators and add up the totals on page two. Notice anything? That’s right, the numbers don’t add up. They forgot to add the leftover funds from WUSC into their total.

So the number you’re reading at the bottom of that page is in fact wrong.

And all it took was a careful look at the financials to figure that out.

These things are worth bringing up when financials are presented at an annual general meeting. But like I said before, they rarely are, either because students do not understand them or no one seems to care.

But groups should also be responsible for appointing the right people to explain their finances in a way that their members will understand.

For example, groups can call in an auditor to present the financials.

That at least provides members with a knowledgeable person who can more or less be trusted to provide answers about anything that doesn’t make sense.

But even more important than an auditor is an audience who asks questions. We won’t learn until we take enough care to ask.

Like I said before, understanding finances may not be easy. Our own team at The Medium is made up of students just like you. The difference is that when we don’t understand something, it’s not good enough to just let it go. We have to ask so that we can inform.

Your job as a reader is to pay attention.

YOURS, MARIA IQBAL

CORRECTION NOTICE The photo for the article “Saini goes on leave” (Sept. 7) was mistakenly credited to Mahmoud Sarouji instead of to Edward Cai.

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THE MEDIUM 09.14.2015

Online threats part of an ongoing issue Writing any sort of criticism or opinion piece, especially as a journalist, is bound to get under someone’s skin.

I’ve only ever been confronted once.

Despite the heated introductions, the entire ordeal ended in a handshake.

They never threatened me. I never threatened them. The entire thing was resolved.

Yet when it comes to certain topics, all of a sudden your life becomes fair game. “Next week when a feminist at the University of Toronto tries to ruin your life with false rape allegations, rent a gun from a gang and start firing bullets into these feminists at your nearest women’s studies classrooms.”

This is the comment that was posted on a blogTO article, screenshots of which are now circulating on the Internet. It was posted on the article “15 Instagram accounts for Toronto vegans to follow” by an anonymous source dubbed “Kill Feminists”.

It’s really easy to tell someone not to worry. They’re online comments.

They’ve been made before and they’ll be made again. Nothing ever comes of these things. It’s all a part of the on-

line culture. But what about the times when they’re the catalysts for a massacre? Dubbed “the first sexist crime in history”, Marc Lepine was responsible for the 1989 Montreal massacre, when he gunned down 15 women and injured 14 others. In his suicide note, he wrote, “I have decided to send the feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker.”

Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old responsible for the 2014 Isla Vista killings, uploaded his manifesto to YouTube before going on a shooting spree, murdering seven and injuring 14. He stated, “I’m going to enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoilt, stuck-up, blonde slut that I see inside there. All those girls that I’ve desired so much, they would’ve all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance towards them.” He blamed his loneliness on women rejecting him, warning them that, “You girls have never been attracted to me. I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me. But I will punish you all for it.

[…] Tomorrow is the day of retribution.” I don’t need to give my stance on feminism to explain why one comment, one time, is a problem.

I understand that comments made online are often ignored due to their immature nature. But when they promote violence, it’s time to look into it.

When the case was reported to the students, crucial details were left out of the report. The provost’s email last Thursday stated: “The university is currently working with Toronto Police Services and Peel Regional Police Services to support an investigation into anonymous threats made on a public blog against the University of Toronto. We take these threats very seriously and want to ensure that we have a safe campus community.”

This was sent five days after the comments were posted and students were left in the dark as to who was being threatened. Regardless of whether or not this was a misguided attempt to ensure students didn’t go into a panic, the non-disclosed information only served as proof that our university wasn’t doing all it could to protect

us and inform us.

When the news from CUPE came out about the nature of the threats, a new fire started. The vague email swept the true danger under the rug completely, which introduces the idea that a threat against women isn’t worth mentioning.

We need to talk about these problems in depth. Women are being targeted by those who don’t understand, support, or care about feminism. It isn’t a movement based on becoming the superior overlord of the universe.

It’s about equality. You’d think something as simple as, “We want respect and equal rights”, wouldn’t warrant online threats, deaths, or a “meninist” movement, but here we are.

Why aren’t we talking about it more? Well, there is an entire Tumblr blog dedicated to cases on violence against women when they reject men.

Everything from men dumping their drinks all over women to men going on killing sprees and women being victim-shamed and having threats hurled at them are all over the blog.

So far, there are 54 pages of content

beginning only from May 26, 2014.

There are countless other blogs: feministing.com, tfbomb.org, and geekfeminism.org are a few. People are talking about it. People are trying to bring light to the issue.

But more needs to be done. One comment is enough to support that women are constantly facing threats like this. Disagreement doesn’t warrant death or rape threats. Does our school need to become a headline before more people acknowledge that there’s a problem? Campuses need to keep students informed so we can work together as a community to keep one another safe.

Students, anywhere, should never be afraid to come to school. They should never feel as though their safety has been compromised. Young women were the target of this commenter’s threats, and this is just a drop in the bucket.

Sincerely, Maria Cruz Managing Editor

09.14.2015

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7

Hart House actors get their hands dirty Season opens with world premiere of dark comedy by prolific Canadian playwright George F. Walker KATE CATTELL-DANIELS A&E EDITOR I sit in the lobby of Hart House theatre, flanked by John Cleland and Sarah Murphy-Dyson, two members in the cast of George F. Walker’s new play We the Family.

This is quite the occasion for Hart House—the opening of We the Family will be a world premiere, and director Andrea Wasserman and the cast have worked alongside Walker to bring this piece to life.

Walker is famous in the theatre world for his larger-than-life writing that has been seducing actors and directors for many years. It is difficult to take a postsecondary or even high school level drama course and not know about Walker’s body of work.

I’m interested in how much he’s been involved in this production so far, as well as whether or not this has changed anything in the actors’ experiences.

Hart House Theatre usually hires non-union actors for their performances, but We the Family incorporates both union and nonunion performers. This, I think, speaks to the diversity of characters in the script, reflected in the diversity of performers.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Medium: So, let’s start with

CHRISTY TAM/THEMEDIUM

Hart House Theatre—picturesque on the outside, lethal on the other side of the walls. an easy question. How’s rehearsal?

John Cleland: It’s good. It’s interesting because it’s a different style than I’m used to. There’s no table work. Just dove right into running, which is how George works.

Sarah Murphy-Dyson: He just wants us to say the words, and mean them, and that’s it. If the play is alive, he’s happy.

We come in having done the work, on our own, and then what I

really liked about this is that I find that each time we run it, there are different things lying, and you just kind of get deeper into it each time.

Things just kind of reveal themselves.

TM: You’re getting into tech week. Are you nervous? Excited?

SMD: Well, I’m not nervous— yet. I’m pretty excited about it. It’s going to be a bit of a transition because we’ve been working onstage but with bare basic props and a set.

So, as you can see, the set is pretty phenomenal, and there are a lot of scene changes and costume changes and those kinds of things.

The changes are not always fun, but adding that extra dimension to your character through the costume is always really neat.

JC: You’re aware that you’re anticipating but you don’t really know until you’re in the clothes. They affect you physically.

It’s a bit nerve-wracking doing a

George F. Walker work; that Hart House got it is pretty phenomenal.

I don’t know if I feel any pressure around that, but a more intense excitement. This is the first time I’ve done a play by Walker.

SMD: And getting to be the first people to perform this, it’s a huge honour. It really is yours.

TM: And George F. Walker’s been involved, somewhat?

SMD: I’ve done a couple of other plays with him in the last little while and he was much more involved. I think with this one, he loves and trusts Andrea and loves and trusts Hart House and I understand why, having worked here. It’s a well-oiled machine. Everything is just there for you. You don’t have to do anything—just go out there and say some words.

But [Walker] really hasn’t been here all that much, he’s just given it to us to go with. But it’s neat when he is here. Of all the playwrights, I think I would have expected him to be very precious with the words, but he’s the opposite. Say whatever you want, as long as it makes sense and get you where you need to get to. But what I’ve found is that even if you do that for a while, you always come back to what he wrote.

What comes out of him is, I think, the best way of saying it.

Walker continued on page 9

Major Lazer and the last night of summer Electronic music and glow-in-the-dark comes to the Blind Duck; students enjoy end-of-summer bash KEENA AL-WAHAIDI Now that the first week of school has come to an end, the only exciting thing to look forward to every day is hoping your professor finally uploaded a copy of your class syllabus, and that said syllabus is going to be followed with some degree of accurracy. However, the Blind Duck proved once again that there are more exciting things on campus than homework, profs, and pulling all-nighters, providing students with some well-deserved time for relaxation before facing the pile of textbooks waiting for them over the weekend.

On Thursday, UTMSU hosted the first pub night of the year at the Blind Duck. The theme of the event was Last Night of Summer, a title that probably struck more than a few sensitive chords after having become a sad reality for students.

The pub night was pretty much

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UTM’s first pub night welcomes musical sensation Major Lazer and glow-in-the-dark dancing. a farewell to summer, and a welcome back to UTM. There were a couple of things that students were looking forward to upon arriving at the event Thursday night.

First, the pub night was glowin-the–dark, which went well with the electric music. It was too bad more people didn’t show up in white, because colours would have

been flying everywhere in the darkness. However, it was good to see so many people make it out to the event—lack of participation can be an issue on a campus populated by

so many commuter students.

Second, the incredible Jillionaire from the electric music group Major Lazer was the host. Major Lazer has had quite the year, with their song “Lean On” already number four on the Billboard charts this week. To be in the same room as Jillionaire was exciting for many students, and he kept up the positive vibe from the packed dance floor throughout the event.

The best part of pub nights is that you’re at school, but you’re not really at school in the traditional sense of the word. And the fact that students were celebrating the last night of summer was a reminder of what will come in the months ahead. We all knew that summer is coming to an end, but this way we could welcome the start of fall with a colourful, electric dance party with about 500 friends. And luckily for UTM students, there will be many more pub nights to come.

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«ARTS

THE MEDIUM 09.14.2015

Digimon, love, and a new indie album Up-and-coming singer/songwriter Yanis Khamsi releases EP—and talks about how it came to life EMILY MAK Unfamiliar with folk music, I didn’t know what to expect from independent folk singer Yanis Khamsi’s new album, Queen Kari.

Khamsi mixes traditional sounds and modern references to Netflix and Digimon with a youthful voice that matches well with the themes underlying his work. Full of quirky lyrics and magical realism, the songs express the different dimensions of childhood and innocence. The first track, “Goggle Head Blues”, is catchy, bright, and only two minutes long, serving well as the opening to the album. The titular track continues with the puppy love sentiment but is lyrically bland, although the simplicity may come off as charming to others.

“Earl of March” is my personal favourite. It brims with that endof-summer, melancholy feeling. It’s about the nostalgia that swells up inside you when the adventure ends and you feel the blues of growing up. The line, “shogun of the bathroom stall while the kids hung out in the stall” is so very lonely, demonstrating Khamsi’s ability to capture compelling images through his words.

YANIS KHAMSI/PHOTO

Yanis Khamsi shows off the talents that led to his new album release, Queen Kari.

“Momentai” is slow and mournful, because childhood is also about letting go and being afraid of things not quite understood. The last track, “Jeri”, although a rather forgettable acoustic ballad, has surreal imagery with the line, “I saw the long-eared rabbit on my bed with three horns on his head”.

On a whole, Queen Kari is a highquality, cohesive album. The album rises above the weaker tracks with

engaging lyrics and whimsical ambience. As a young independent artist, Khamsi has lots of room to grow.

I got in touch with the Ottawa-born musician for an interview to discuss his album.

The Medium: When I listened to your album, I noticed some references to the Digimon series. For example, the title of the songs and the lyrics.

Yanis Khamsi: Yeah, there is

something about that series that I just keep coming back to. I was eight years old when I watched it.

Then at around 16 to 17 I watched it again and from there it brought on new life. A lot of the media for adults is very self-aware and very cynical. This stuff is very innocent and creative, which is what I need, where I think most great art comes from. That’s why everyone says young people make the best art.

This series just seems to represent the childhood imagination and the creative potential that comes with being a child.

TM: What made you decide to pursue music?

YK: I guess the bug just bit me.

I would watch people play and was full of envy more than anything else.

Some people just like the idea of, “Oh gee, I could be on stage”. And then that thought passes. For some reason I just couldn’t let it go. It had to bring itself out.

TM: What about singing? The description on your Bandcamp profile says, “One day, I just felt like singing.”

YK: Yeah, absolutely. Singing came a lot later. It was a lot more spontaneous. Before that, I was playing instruments here and there.

I never really thought I could sing.

But around 18, I started getting that confidence back and I really just started pursuing it.

TM: More on the industry then; what are your thoughts on streaming music online and inadequate compensation? I mean, someone could just play your music online and not buy it.

Queen continued on page 9

Musicians pack U-Fest Outdoor music festival provides adventure with plenty of surprises

NAMRAH TAHIR

Think all school-related reading is awful? Enlightened by a book you never would have touched if not for a professor pounding you over the head with it? Required Reading discusses.

During the summer, I took New Writing in Canada as a requirement for my English major. It involved reading five texts, ranging from topics about native Americans to British colonialism to slavery. A text that stood out to me in particular was Ru

by Kim Thuy. Ru is a story about a woman recalling her childhood as she becomes caught in a civil war in Vietnam and escapes with her family to Canada. Her family is also caught in major transitions from their old way of life to their new one. She becomes a mother of two children, one of whom is autistic and serves as a parallel to her experience coming to a new country, as she identifies with his inability to hear and speak without being deaf and blind.

The entire text is structured in segments, rather than chapters, strung together by Ru’s thoughts and emotions laced with poetry and wit.

I liked the way Thuy expresses Ru’s complicated character. Her name is more complex than it seems, just like the book. Its single syllable may make the novel appear to be small and easy to read, but it actually carries much more meaning and requires a more in-depth analysis to really appreci-

ate the fluidity and strength of every word it contains.

When I first bought the book, I suspected it would be my favourite text. I thought I could read the novel on the bus to school, as a mere 79 pages on an e-book didn’t seem like a big deal. I was greatly mistaken.

I got through almost half of the ebook but had to go back to previous pages over and over again because of the lyrical writing and metaphoric connections between the short segments. I was weighed down by the heavy words and wondering how such a light read had become so loaded, as if each segment of Ru’s life was a heavy rock that was collected in a bag.

Ru’s character is stuck in between two identities: Vietnamese and Canadian refugee. Knowing this, she spends a lot of time in limbo as she tries to fluctuate between the two but is not bound to one over the other.

This makes Ru easy to identify with, as someone who is in a new country but also has to at least attempt to maintain the cultures and traditions of her home country. Ru’s identification with the Vietnamese women carrying the inaudible history of Vietnam on their backs was riveting, as you start contemplating the fact that there is more than one history, and that some histories are more dominating than others. I was very fortunate that I got the chance to not just read, but understand Ru as a text that is worth much more time than a single bus ride to school.

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A variety of artists performed at U-Fest’s outdoor music event at UTM. ANDREW PLUMMER I am not part of any breed of concertgoers; however, it was nice to explore their habitat at the U-Fest Outdoor Concert, if only for a short duration. I felt like a younger Christopher Columbus.

Approaching the Blind Duck, I had already constructed an image in my mind: zealots shouting piously to their god, a horrific man—Marilyn Manson without his stage makeup, perhaps— and their god, in turn, shouting back, His oratory spells forcing His voice over the acolytes lest it drown beneath their cacophony. The fluctuating din coming from the pub only foreshadowed the paganism to come.

The reality was at odds with my mental construction.

Instead of a makeup-less Marilyn Manson and his followers, those who peopled the crowd were a quiet, studious folk who listened attentively to the sequence of slant rhymes and the

“dropping of the bass”. They cheered when they were expected to and gave off several “whooooooos” when someone was “sick” in the usage of the word that does not refer to one’s health or mental state.

I found myself sitting on the knoll of a hill, bobbing my head where I imag-

At the end of his performance, I at once felt like a teenage girl who had just watched Twilight. ined the beat to be—I could only guess for the more dynamic songs—and lying upon my XXL Fahrenheit jacket when the songs made me introspective. By the fifth act, whatever semblance I had of Christopher Columbus was gone and I had now become assimilated into their way of life, if only temporarily.

Near the beginning of the festivities, Arlind Kadiri grabbed the mic not unlike the way Donald Trump probably grabs money. At the end of his performance I at once felt like a teenage girl who had just watched Twilight: I thought to myself, “Wow! I just can’t— wow!”

There were also several rappers— one of whom I believe must have been a descendant of 2Pac—and even the U of T Dance Club, whose act, though short, was good enough for me to consider joining them.

Whether I will become the stereotypical concert fanatic, not change at all, or apply Zeno’s views on the illusion of distance to human change itself, I am not sure. What is certain, however, is my sudden fondness for melody.

The author David Shields once wrote that literature is a metaphor for human existence. Music, I now understand, operates in a similar manner.

09.14.2015 THE MEDIUM ARTS» 9

Actors discuss leaving the norms behind Walker continued from page 7 JC: There’s weirdness to it. You try to say it the way you would say it, but then in the end, I find myself coming back. The more I say the words, I feel they are actually what would come out of my character’s mouth.

TM: What do you find are the biggest challenges in this play?

SMD: I think probably the costume changes are the most challenging thing.

JC: As well, the play—in true George F. Walker style—is dark, dark comedy. He writes very vicious characters who love each other but in a very odd way.

I love playing characters who are unlikable but you always have to find that kernel of what does make them do the things they do, which has to be honest. And that’s been a challenge so far. It is important to be a villain that people can laugh at.

And laugh with, as well.

TM: So what are the rewards, then?

SMD: I don’t even know where to start. For me, my character has a great arc and is a very troubled soul. I love Lizzie. Walker writes for women in a way I’ve never experienced and it’s actually impacted how I live my life. He gives wom-

en a voice, he makes it okay to be loud, to be ugly, all the things we’re taught typically are not feminine characteristics. That just goes out the window. So I always love getting into the characters, and then finding all the interactions with the other characters. They’re just people doing their best to get by, and a lot of what they say and do may be perceived as ignorant and offensive, so getting to go there and play with all these different people is fantastic.

“[Walker] makes it okay to be loud, to be ugly, all the things we’re taught typically are not feminine characteristics.”

It kind of sets you free to say and do things you never would.

TM: In theatre school, they spend a lot of time pounding into us this thing about “hits”. You’re supposed to play your “hit”. And I think yes, but also no.

JC: I think that’s the beauty of theatre. That you are never trapped in who you are. You can play something that is exactly the opposite of who you are. I think of myself as a

character actor—I’ve always loved playing villains and playing roles that other people don’t want to play.

TM: Do you find that, as actors, there’s a point where you have to sacrifice art to make money, or vice versa?

SMD: I’ve done quite a few commercials, and maybe a couple of them could be considered artistic.

It’s not a sacrifice, but having a meatier role is always what I want to be doing. But for me I sometimes supplement it with teaching—I teach ballet—and I think it’s always good to have something on the side so that I don’t have to make money [acting]. I think that’s an important thing—that you have to commit fully.

JC: I came out of theatre school with very high ideals about what I would and wouldn’t do, figuring money would just happen, and I figured out pretty early on that theatre is not a way to make a living. So anybody coming into the business now needs to have a multi-pronged attack. If they want to do theatre, then they also have to be able to do voice or film and television and supplement that theatre, and I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of voice work as a supplement.

We the Family opens on September 18 at Hart House Theatre.

REWIND CHRISTOPHER ANTILOPE Bullets to the face. Knives in the gut.

Being frozen in a meat truck. This is a story that has come to be legendary in 20th-century cinema.

Marking its 25th anniversary, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas remains one of the greatest films depicting non-fictional American mafia. In this week’s Rewind, I felt it necessary to kick off the school year with a classic film, and one of my favourites.

Directed by Scorsese (Raging Bull, The Departed, and The Wolf of Wall Street), Goodfellas stars Ray Liotta (Field of Dreams, The Rat Pack), Robert De Niro (The Godfather Part II, Meet the Parents), and Joe Pesci (Home Alone, My Cousin Vinny) as real life mobsters spanning “three decades of life in the mafia”, as the poster’s tagline describes.

Similar to The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese’s use of comedy counteracts the gore and drama. He does this to entertain his audiences while also showing them a piece of history.

Another Scorsese-esque element that makes his movie enjoyable is the use of protagonist voiceover, whereby the audience is invited into a conversation with the charac-

ters. Liotta’s character goes as far as breaking the fourth wall and speaking with the audience at the end of the movie to close the conversation and to cap the history spoken about throughout.

The film’s realism, cinematography, music choices, and improvisation are a few of the reasons for the film’s success. The movie focuses on the real in what seems to be an overthe-top story, fresh with killers eat-

The movie focuses on the real in [...] an overthe-top story, fresh with killers eating dinner at their mother’s house. ing a meal at their innocent mother’s house and the pros and cons of living in an up-and-coming family in the 1960s. It inspires everyone to strive for the best, but tells you to achieve your goals within reason, or you may have to pay severe consequences, such as jail or casualties.

Like other mob movies, it shows audiences the incredible rise to power, but reminds you in its final moments that, truly, the bigger you are, the harder you fall.

MMMM

Khamsi proves new styles still emerge Queen continued from page 8 YK: I do agree that musicians should be compensated a lot more; they spend all their time on the road nowadays but still can’t make ends meet. The Beatles quit touring because their album sales were giving them enough money, and they had the time to just live and just make really good albums.

But musicians should definitely be compensated more. I mean, we live in the age where people aren’t buying things anymore.

TM: So what was the process of publishing your album like?

YK: After I finished Digimon on Netflix, I needed to find a great recording studio. Oak Recording Studio is right here in Toronto, easily accessible for anyone in Mississauga. What I loved is that they have free studio musicians. It’s got a full band. As for mastering, the works get sent out to a different engineer. I recommend that to anybody, because that way they can use their special gear. I sent it out to a place in Ottawa called Conduction Mastering. Once that was done, I got the incredible Alexandra Laine to do the album art. We worked together.

YANIS KHAMSI/PHOTO

Cover art for Khamsi’s album Queen Kari, by Alexandra Laine.

The result was a more talented version of what I saw in my brain.

TM: After that, how did you promote yourself as an independent artist?

YK: I was pretty diligent the past few weeks, sending it out to everyone I could. The Internet can allow you to send your music to everyone. That’s

really what I recommend; make awesome music and get people to hear it.

Or if you’re really good, play live. Be committed to quality.

TM: What is your songwriting process? When does the seed of a song begin to sprout in your mind?

YK: I’m inspired by wherever I am at the time. Winter, childlike inno-

cence. Because I find different seasons bring things out of you.

Writing songs can be work. A lot of it comes from confidence. I like my work, people like my work, so let’s get to work, versus sitting and waiting for that stroke of inspiration. I think that’s a little overrated.

TM: Are there any stories or people

behind your songs, your lyrics?

YK: A lot of the titles are obscure.

It’s basically protection. We are the Internet generation, right? We’re all quiet people. We all say we’re extroverts but if somebody walks up to us on the TTC and says, “Hi, how are you?” we immediately clam up, but then over the phone or the Internet we can open up.

So it’s not about anyone in particular, but for example in the track “Queen Kari”, it will forever be me, 10 years old, and the feelings of being in love.

TM: Who are your musical influences?

YK: Bob Dylan, John Mayer, and Neil Young, who mixes folk music with childlike innocence. He doesn’t sing in a traditional Irish way like me because it would be a parody if I did it! I love tradition but I will only approach it with authenticity and reality.

Also Joni Mitchell, who applies great imagination to great work ethic, and Leonard Cohen. I love him because he was a poet first.

Currently studying journalism at Humber College, Yanis Khamsi now resides in Toronto. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

09.14.2015

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11

A glimpse into the Class of 2019 Among the 3,808 new students, UTM welcomes a football player, an editor, an Olympian hopeful FARAH QAISER FEATURES EDITOR Meet the Class of 2019—a group of about 3,808 students within the approximately 13,700 undergraduate students here at UTM. While that number may seem small, that’s 21 percent of the entire student population.

We talked to a number of firstyears to hear their stories.

Zeahaa Rehman, a first-year CCIT major, chose UTM because it was close to home. “I visited Ryerson and St. George too,” she says.

“This campus is bright and open and I really liked that.” The diversity of the UTM community was also a big motivating factor.

Rehman attended Clarkson Secondary School alongside approximately 800 other students. “If you put it into perspective, compared to other schools in Mississauga, my high school was really tiny,” she says.

At Clarkson, Rehman was a coeditor for her high school newspaper—although her path to that position was a long one. “In my first year of high school, I wrote quite a bit for [the newspaper],” she says.

In her second year, the newspaper

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In 2014, UTM welcomed 3,493 new students. This year, there has been an increase of 315 students. failed to be published. “It was hard finding people wanting to write,” explains Rehman. “People would show up to the first meeting and then they wouldn’t show up again.”

However, the lack of participation didn’t stop her—she continued

to write and help out with her paper, and progressed to becoming a coeditor. As co-editor, Rehman made the decision to change mediums for her high school paper. “We wanted to be more current so we decided to move the paper online.” As for her

future, Rehman hopes to continue writing throughout her undergrad.

For other new first-year students, the decision to choose UTM was not based on convenience, but experience. “I visited UTM for a conference two years ago—I can’t remem-

ber what the conference was,” says Mahera Islam, a first-year humanities major. “But it was such a welcoming environment.”

As for Jessica Agbayani, her family’s experiences encouraged her to choose UTM. “I think I had a lot of influence from my sister—she introduced me to the VCC program,” says the first-year VCC major. Agbayani was a part of her high school drama club, where she helped with stage management for original plays. Given her experience, it was only natural that the VCC program would appeal to Agbayani. “[UTM] was the only school that had something like it, and I found it interesting so I came here,” she says.

Agbayani has to commute a long distance to attend UTM, but she says her classes are worth it. “I’m surprised, I guess—I did choose courses that I liked, but when I got here, it wasn’t like, ‘oh, school again’,” she says. “It was like, now I understand what you’re saying and I like it and I’m interested.”

Jack Bertini, a first-year criminology major, chose UTM because it felt more like home than the other universities he had visited.

Class continued on page 12

Mapping the campus nature trail for hikers The trail is slowly being marked with GPS tags to foster awareness for various ecological issues FARAH BADR UTM’s nature trail will soon be dotted with nuggets of enlightenment for curious hikers and eager students alike to uncover.

Maika Seki, a third-year biology student, has spent the summer carefully locating noteworthy areas of tree growth to be catalogued online, along with the help of Francisco Santos, a volunteer in the Chatfield lab.

Under the supervision of professors Steven Chatfield and Fiona Rawle, Seki also located areas of noteworthy tree growth for each of these sites to aid with the cataloguing.

Seki was the first student to participate in this project, with the burden of the early setup stages placed on her shoulders. “I had to reach out to experts in the field, such as the Association for Canadian Educational Resources, to see how the trail could be established efficiently and effectively,” she said.

ACER (also known as Climate’s Sake) is a non-profit organization that focuses on science outreach and works to encourage the development

CHRISTY TAM/THE MEDIUM

Over 24 trees can be found at various locations around campus marked with a QR code. of, as Seki called it, “citizen scientists”.

They have also previously established a similar project on campus: the treecaching trail. During 2014, Nimesha Basnayaka, a recent UTM graduate from the environmental science and geography program, tagged over 24

trees along the trail as a part of her biology internship with ACER. Each tree specimen or noteworthy area, chosen by Seki, will have a QR code. All sites are in the vicinity of the trail. “You can install applications on your phone that can scan QR

codes, which—similar to barcodes— can store information,” she says. “The QR code has many uses, and for the purposes of this project, we saw it as a tool to link it to a URL of a website.”

The information can also be accessed directly through the website.

Seki is currently awaiting approval from the UTM Grounds Committee to implement this collection of codes. Due to the pending approvals, she has resorted to the temporary use of geographic information system devices and programs such as Google Earth Pro to record the sites and display the written features that she has prepared. This process was completed with the help of Tanya Kenesky, a GIS specialist at the UTM library.

Once scanned in, the QR code will lead directly to a website. The written features of the website were designed with two parts to target two distinct audiences.

“One is catered to those outside the disciplines of biology and science, to encourage them to become a little more literate, or at least curious, about important ecological topics such as invasive species and toxic plant identification,” Seki explained.

“We chose these topics because they are important, but not enough of the general public are comfortable or knowledgeable about them.”

Trail continued on page 12

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«FEATURES

THE MEDIUM 09.14.2015

Chartwells to be Fairtrade certified soon Despite its good intentions, fair trade may not be the final solution ANDREEA MIHAI Our campus is in the midst of enforcing some big changes: by December 2015, UTM is hoping to be a certified Fairtrade campus.

According to the food service contract signed in May 2015, Chartwells has agreed to be Fairtrade certified within six months of the agreement, along with promises to increase the purchase of cage-free eggs (“by 100 percent annually”) and to “sustainably source 100 percent of wild caught fish and seafood.”

Now, let’s be honest here: do you actually know what fair trade is? To save you the trouble of having to look it up in a dictionary, here’s the short summary. Fair trade is a movement that aims to help producers in developing countries get fair prices for their products. This (according to Merriam Webster) reduces poverty, provides ethical treatment for both workers and farmers, and promotes environmentally sustainable prices.

According to Simmy Saini, a fourth-year environmental management and sociology major, once UTM is certified, it will only be able to buy products with the Fairtrade International blue and green logo, even though there are other logos representing a variety of fair trade certification organizations.

Saini says she vaguely understood

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UTM is planning to become the 10th Fairtrade certified campus here in Canada by December. what fair trade meant when she started the Fairtrade at UTM Research Opportunity Program over the summer. Saini and three other students did extensive research to get a sense of what was going on in terms of fair trade for both the campus and in the surrounding community.

“From the surveys we did, we realized a lot of students didn’t understand what fair trade was about,” said Saini.

“Operation Groundswell (a backpacktivism group in Guatemala) had originally designed a fair trade program several years ago,” says Nicole Laliberte, a geography lecturer at UTM. “When we got there this summer, none of Groundswell’s partners were still with Fairtrade. Though they still participated in justice and equity, the Fairtrade certification and market had become primitive to them.” Laliberte was one of the fac-

First-year students excited to begin higher education

ulty members who went on the Guatemala trip and also supervised the ROP project.

Kristen Schaper, a fourth-year major in environmental sciences, wanted to participate in the Fairtrade at UTM project because she had gone to Guatemala with student life at the beginning of the summer and had seen how fair trade wasn’t effective.

Schaper remembers one of the farmers at whose homestead they

spent the night. “He told us that fair trade was no good for him and he wanted nothing more to do with it because it was too expensive.”

To participate, the fair trade certification itself costs about $6,000, which farmers pay from their own pocket. “If a farmer sells maybe about 100 pounds of the coffee on the fair trade market, then the rest of what they have has to go to the regular market, even though it is fair trade,” says Schaper. “They don’t end up making that $6,000 back. A lot of the farmers go for organic certification because it’s less expensive, about $3,000, and they can sell all of that.

Organic is much more popular than fair trade.”

Schaper and Laliberte found that many of the producers had chosen direct trade. In direct trade, the producers cut out the intermediary and sell their beans directly to vendors.

Laliberte learned that the people they had met in Guatemala sold their beans directly to Moonbeam Café in Kensington Market.

Pierre Desrochers, associate geography professor at UTM, calls fair trade “a well-meaning dead-end”.

“Fair trade is a movement that is based on charity. You’re telling people not to buy coffee because it is the best price or quality, but because it is a charitable act,” he says.

Fair continued on page 13

QR codes can be used for a self-guided tour

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Seki plans to mark hotspots for animals and birds too.

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Trail continued from page 11

New students chose UTM for various reasons such as location, experience, and program choice.

Class continued from page 11 “I’m coming from a really small town called Brighton—it’s near Kingston. I went to a high school of 400 kids, so UTM felt like normal to me.

“I played football and hockey both inside and outside school for four years,” he continues. Bertini plans on trying out for the varsity football team in his second year—for now, he’s focusing on getting used to his first year at UTM.

About 18 percent of UTM’s entire student body consists of international students. Julie Zhao, a first-year commerce student, came from the U.S. “I heard a lot of good things about UTM,” says Zhao. “It’s also bigger than what I expected!”

For some of the new students, spotting the UTM deer is already on their minds. “My friend saw four of the white-tailed deer already,” says Po Tin Lai, a first-year CCIT major. “I still haven’t seen any yet.” For Tin Lai,

CCIT became her program of choice due to her interest in gaming design.

The 3,000-plus members of the Class of 2019 are incredibly varied.

Leonard Lyn, a father, is beginning his undergrad studies alongside his daughter—both are entering their first year together. There’s Anqi Luo: a first-year table tennis player who recently participated in the Pan Am games. What will these four years bring for them? We’ll see in 2019.

The second part of the website was designed as a teaching tool for plant science courses at UTM. Seki mentioned that topics from BIO203, an introductory course on plant morphology and physiology, were incorporated into the project. This includes information on plant reproduction and pollination, seed dispersal, and plant chemical defenses.

Apart from trees, she has also highlighted animal hotspots to be marked along the trail with the

help of fellow biology ROP students working on other projects.

Farah Qaiser, under the supervision of Professor Sanja Hinic-Frlog, helped locate noteworthy areas of bird populations, while Bansari Patel and Johnathan Branco, under the supervision of professors Christoph Richter and Monika Havelka, recommended certain areas of deer populations to be marked.

The next time you’re off for a hike on the trail, keep an eye out for the little black and white squares. And make sure to feel the tree bark while you’re at it.

09.14.2015 THE MEDIUM FEATURES» 13

Students share budgeting tips

For this week’s Blackboard Special, An-

Sedmihradsky says that the dessert is

drew Sedmihradsky, the global mobility co-

believed to have been created in honour

ordinator at UTM’s International Education

of Anna Pavlova (1881–1931)—a Russian

Centre, has shared his wife’s recipe for a

ballerina who came to Australia on tour in

classic Australian dessert: the pavlova.

the 1920s. She is famed for her short bal-

If you remember last week’s issue, you’ll

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CIBC survey shows that 51 percent of postsecondary students required additional financial support.

MAHNOOR AYUB Have you heard about Alex Kenjeev?

Kenjeev, a U of T law school graduate, paid off a $114,460 student loan in cash back in 2012. While keeping bank tellers counting for two and a half hours was not particularly impressive, paying off his entire student loan certainly was.

According to the 2012 annual report on student financial support published by the U of T Governing Council, 45 percent of all full-time undergraduate U of T students receive OSAP support.

While the report states that “over half ” of the students graduate without OSAP debt, a CIBC survey from August raises two cautionary flags.

Number one: a staggering 48 percent of students remain concerned about covering their upcoming school year’s tuition and living expenses.

The second is that 36 percent of students expect to graduate with more than $25,000 in debt.

According to the survey, 34 percent of students have paid their education costs themselves through jobs, which is particularly surprising given the limited job market available to students.

“Remember: it’s not a grant; OSAP provides a tuition fee you must pay, only at a later date,” says Mark Boucher, financial aid advisor

at the UTM financial aid office. His statement highlights a fact that several students may not keep in mind: OSAP is not a safety blanket.

“With time your expenses grow and the benefits of financial aid shrink,” says Sidra Weqar, a fifthyear criminology major. “When students enter first year, the financial aid opportunities around them give an exciting impression of a jackpot.”

UTM student Janelle Douthwright shows the foresight required to be a financially successful student. “I haven’t been forced to live on a budget and I am grateful for that.

However, just because I haven’t been forced to, doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing so,” says the fourth-year criminology and sociology major, who has paid her way through university herself using what she calls “a combination of budgeting, saving, and finding a well-paying job—even if it’s not high-end”. After putting together her 2015/16 academic budget, she shares some valuable tips.

“I make ‘savings plans’. I set a realistic goal for a dollar amount of savings and a date,” she says. For example, automatic transfers on payday. She adds, “The more your savings grow, the more addicting saving becomes.”

For other students, perhaps setting a weekly or monthly budget may be the way to go. Review and record

your expenses. Be accurate and realistic.

Furthermore, different groups on campus organize free events. Take free gym classes. Organize a personalized diet plan with the dietician on campus for healthy eating on a budget. Maximize the benefits from what you have already paid for.

Douthwright takes advantage of the benefits of a credit card. “They allow me to earn points for free movies and gift cards, and to track all my spending,” she says.

She identifies her weakness as an impulse shopper, but to help herself, she keeps the receipts for everything she buys. She explains, “If I haven’t used it or worn it by the time the return policy is about to expire, I return it and get my money back.

If you haven’t needed it the last 30 days, do you really need it?”

Although practicing cautious buying and distinguishing between necessities and luxuries may seem easier said than done, the CIBC poll says that 44 percent of Canadian postsecondary students do expect to fully support themselves financially after graduation.

Sound financial decisions come from habits instilled over time. Being aware of your responsibilities and expenses after graduation pays off—literally—in the long run.

let, The Dying Swan.

recall that Sedmihradsky was the father

It seems that both Australia and New

who biked 600 km across the Trans-Cana-

Zealand claim to be the inventors behind

da Trail to raise awareness and funding for

this dessert. Several sources indicate that

Duchenne muscular dystrophy, along with

the New Zealanders created the recipe, but

his son Max, who has the disease. Max has

the Australians renamed it the pavlova. The

a sweet tooth: he’s an avid fan of ice cream

victor was decided by the discovery of a

and enjoys pavlova greatly.

pavlova recipe in a 1927 New Zealander

So what exactly is a pavlova? (Don’t

publication (Davis Dainty Dishes)—which,

lie—I know you’ve been scratching your

incidentally, is over 10 years before an

head for the last few minutes.) A pavlova

equivalent recipe could be found in Austra-

is a sweet dessert; its base consists of a

lia. Thus, New Zealand has been awarded

meringue crust and is usually topped with

the honour of being recognized as the in-

whipped cream and various fruits, such as

ventor of the pavlova.

berries and kiwis. Within the baked shell lies a soft inside of egg whites and cream,

And now, enough about the history— let’s take a look at the recipe.

and according to the recipes that I looked over, it’s as soft as a marshmallow.

Pavlova SERVES 6

INGREDIENTS • 4 egg whites at room temperature • pinch of salt

peaks form. Beat in sugar, a third at a time, until the meringue is stiff and shiny.

3.Sprinkle corn flour, vinegar, and

• 250 g castor sugar

vanilla over the mixture and fold in lightly.

• 2 tsp corn flour

Mound onto the paper-lined baking tray

• 1 tsp white-wine vinegar

within the 20 cm circle, flattening the top

• few drops of pure vanilla • 1¼ cups cream, firmly whipped • pulp of 10 passionfruit, or a mix of other fruit such as strawberries, blueberries, kiwi fruits, and bananas

and smoothing out the sides.

4.Place in oven. Immediately reduce heat to 150 C and cook for 30 minutes.

Reduce further to 120 C and cook for 45 minutes.

5.Turn off the oven and leave the dish to

METHOD

cool completely. Invert onto a platter,

1.Preheat oven to 180 C. Line a baking

pile on cream, and decorate with pas-

tray with baking paper and draw a 20 cm circle on the paper.

sionfruit pulp or other fruit.

9. Serve immediately.

2.Beat egg whites and salt until satiny

Fairtrade certification is only the beginning Fair continued from page 12 “Rather, farmers producing lowquality beans should find other crops or jobs, since the market would choose to buy the better-quality producers.”

“The way the economic system is set up, it privileges the retailers, as opposed to privileging the producers,” says Laliberte.

Rust, a coffee plant infection, has increased with global climate change.

“The small-scale producers are very vulnerable to rust destroying their crops,” Laliberte continues. Farmers are currently selling their product on a market that isn’t attentive to this fact. “They’re the ones taking on all the risk for global climate change in terms of their livelihoods.”

She says she can foresee additional problems with fair trade, such as the certification process. She says the more institutionalized it is, the harder it becomes to adapt to changes happening to small farmers, which was the original purpose.

UTM currently offers some Fairtrade coffees and teas at Deerfield Hall and in the Oscar Peterson Hall. Once certified, students will

be able to find Fairtrade coffee, tea, chocolate, and bananas at other locations on campus.

One of the steps a university needs to take before it becomes certified is to host a campus-wide educational event to inform students about fair trade. UTM’s Student Life plans to host events September 21–25, during Fair Trade on Campus week.

“Saying that ‘we are going Fairtrade’ is not the end of the conversation.”

—Nicole Laliberte “Saying that ‘we are going Fairtrade’ is not the end of the conversation—it is the beginning,” says Laliberte. “I’m really looking forward to where that conversation will take us and the kinds of engagement that we can have both with community partners, as well as with producers around the world, and a better understanding of where our food is coming from.”

09.14.2015

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15

The gentle way with Professor Krull Judo challenges Ulrich Krull, UTM’s acting principal, both physically and intellectually ERIC HEWITSON SPORTS EDITOR Many know judo as a Japanese form of wrestling, but for the analytical chemistry professor and acting principal of UTM, judo is more than the physical processes that seemingly comprise the sport—instead, judo is the philosophical practice of a conscious and tactful mind.

Once a scrawny 13-year-old boy from Etobicoke, Ulrich Krull joined judo because his parents believed it would add confidence to his step.

However, his parents didn’t realize at the time that the sport would also teach him philosophical values that would follow him for the rest of his life.

“Judo loosely translates into ‘the gentle way’,” Krull says when asked to define the sport. “It refers to the concept of how you use the energy in the world around you. The old saying, ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ is a good representation of the principle of ‘the gentle way’.”

Deceivingly muscular, Krull relishes the opportunity to share the

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

A judogi consists of three parts: a heavy jacket (uwagi), lighter pants (shitabaki), and a belt (obi). origins of the sport that has given him so many fond memories and opportunities. “Before the Meiji restoration, when the shogun moved out and they shifted to a democratic parliament, there was a young man who trained in the acknowledged samurai class, learning many martial arts

forms,” says Krull.

“Once the restoration took place, the samurai class became outlawed and the young man transformed his samurai practice into a sport where you still practice the same skills and techniques required to defend yourself, but the philosophy changed into

something more relatively safe—he named it judo,” he adds, suggesting the reason behind the term ‘the gentle way’.

Krull’s first-degree black belt represents only a beginner judo athlete, but when it comes to his mental approach, understanding and appreci-

ating what the sport accurately demonstrates, he’s a non-fictional Yoda.

“If you push your weight back into the world, you are not sharing the gentle way—confidence comes from a slightly different perception than [what] some others may have. It’s not a matter of walking into a situation and saying ‘I can handle myself ’; you say, ‘I can handle the situation,’ ” he says.

Gripping his black belt firmly, Krull reminisces about a particular class he wishes he had attended.

“When I was young, going through the beginner stages of my judo belts, I had unfortunately missed a class. In that particular class, they were teaching a choking technique where you press against your partner’s jugulars until their brain loses oxygen and they fall asleep,” he says. “The next week when I came back, I found myself upside down, held up by my [belt], being put to sleep by my partner who, unluckily for me, attended that class. […] The moral of my story is for students to go to class—you never know what you’ll miss.”

Judo continued on page 16

UTM receives a smash hit for ping pong National women’s table tennis prodigy and summer Olympic hopeful begins her first year ADAM PENKUL Students who come into the University of Toronto with an athletic scholarship dream of becoming professional athletes. This dream can certainly become reality for UTM’s Anqi Luo, who spent a large part of her summer competing in this summer’s Pan Am Games in Toronto.

Luo, who is joining the Erindale community as a first-year commerce student, is ranked as the best U21 and second-best overall women’s table tennis player in the country.

Luo’s talent was shown during the summer when Canada won the bronze for the women’s table tennis team.

“It felt amazing to compete in my hometown and to perform in front of all my friends and family,” Luo says about playing in Toronto. “It really gave an extra boost and confidence to my game.”

Luo also competed in the singles tournament, where she won her first four out of five matches, losing only in the quarterfinals to the eventual silver medallist. “I am delighted with my performance and I have successfully achieved my goal of medalling in the Pan Am Games,” she says.

Despite her busy athletic life, Luo

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

Wearing her favourite Pan Am jacket, Luo serves the ball from one edge of the table to the other. still recognizes the importance of her education and is excited for her first year at UTM. “As a first-year student, I am very curious about the university life,” she says. “I look forward to meeting new people as well as discovering what specific subjects and jobs that I would be interested to pursue in the future.”

The first year for any university student is usually a year full of challenges, with vastly higher expectations on students compared to when

they were in high school. However, a hectic schedule is nothing new for Luo. As a professional athlete, she practiced regularly and opted to complete her high school diploma in five years as a part-time student to accommodate her training and competition schedules.

“I trained almost every day, and I had to take my absence from school due to international tournaments every month,” she explains.

With such an intense schedule, it

should be even harder to continue an athletic career, but Luo knows what she is up against and is excited about the challenge. “Catching up with the schoolwork is going to be tough,” she admits. “In university, no one will be chasing after [me] to make sure [I] have everything in place, so it is really about the selfinitiative and being independent.”

Luo continues to be humble. Playing a sport at the international level is a great feat at any age, let alone for

a 19-year-old, but she appreciates all of the opportunities she is presented with.

“I am so glad to have the opportunity of experiencing an interesting and unique life that table tennis has brought me,” she says. She is also very proud to play for Canada. “My favourite part of being a professional athlete is having the honour of representing my country on an international stage.”

With so much determination and ambition, it can be expected that Anqi Luo will go far, whether she chooses to continue table tennis or follow some other dream. However, every dream must start somewhere, and for Luo, that somewhere happens to be UTM. Although the first year is full of changes, she plans to stay true to herself and participate in table tennis at UTM. “I am working on getting a table tennis club started at UTM, and I would like to shout out to all my peers at UTM to stay tuned for any announcements and hopefully they will have a chance to check it out,” she says. Believe in the hype around Anqi Luo because when you tune into the 2020 Olympics, you may see her represent her country on the biggest stage in the world.

16

«SPORTS

THE MEDIUM 09.14.2015

The freshman 15: fact or fiction?

Combat the epidemic that is sweeping across campuses of postsecondary institutions ASSIA MESSAOUDI It’s an enormous step for most students. It’s a time for change and new experiences. The beginning of university brings with it many new challenges—one of those being stress, and along with that, weight gain.

Stress is one of the biggest factors that contributes to unhealthy eating habits, resulting in a notorious phenomenon for many first-year students: the “freshman 15”.

Around campus, students and professionals shared their opinions about why students fall victim to the unnecessary weight gain.

Fatima Bulut, a fifth-year student who lives off campus, says she was someone who always liked to sleep in until the last minute possible, only giving herself enough time to get ready in the morning. Inconsistent sleeping patterns were one factor that triggered her weight gain.

“I never prepared breakfast or a lunch to take with me to school; buying fast food at school was easy,” she says. “For people with habits like mine and who have long days at school, it’s no wonder they would experience some weight gain. Even though I did minimal exercise, my diet was unhealthy.”

Bulut says that she thinks the freshman 15 exists because students feel they lack the time and organization to

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

Following easy fitness tricks and tips can turn that beer belly into a six-pack. prepare healthy meals.

“Sometimes people just don’t like the hassle of carrying food around with them,” she adds. She believes the freedom that university gave her was the thing that affected her most.

Her most important tip for first-year students is, “Don’t let freedom make you lazy!”

Tatiana Marie, a fourth-year student who struggled with the freshman 15, is now focused on leading a healthier lifestyle. Marie mentions that the concept of freshman 15 exists, although not necessarily the exact number.

“People gain anywhere from a few pounds to 20 pounds or more in their first year. The main reason behind this is, without a doubt, poor eating habits combined with little exercise. Being away from home or even staying on campus for hours on end means finding food that’s affordable and quick to attain,” she says. “Many students prefer the cheaper options to save money and don’t have the money for the healthier organic foods. As well, the added stress of studies can slow down your metabolism, making it hard for your body to break down fats.”

Marie has a suggestion for students

who want to combat the extra pounds.

“Find a way to exercise [every] day,” she says. “You might feel that you’re neglecting your studies when actually you’re allowing more blood to flow; over time, this increases your cardio and makes you feel more alert and energized, ready to tackle your textbooks.”

Kimberly Green, a registered dietician at UTM’s Health and Counselling Centre, understands what it takes to stay healthy through proper eating habits. “I’m a dietician, so I always stress that diet is important, but activity is important too. Unfortunately,

because of our busy schedules, we don’t actually find time for exercise,” she says.

Green also notes the importance of portion size. “When we eat out, we tend to finish everything because we paid, and it’s expensive,” she explains.

She says that when we eat at home, we tend to do better because we get to choose what we’re putting on our plates.

So what tips does she have for firstyear students trying to be healthy?

“The basic four food groups are important. I also use something called Balanced Plate—when you eat a meal, your plate should be a quarter protein, a quarter carbs, and half vegetables and fruits,” says Green.

Green believes the freshman 15 exists due to multiple factors. “It’s a combination of decreased activity—giving up sports for academics,” she says. “When people are on their own, it can be a lot more difficult to choose what’s best for you. The choice between costs also plays a huge role in eating healthy. Even if you end up buying a sandwich from on campus, bring some fruits and vegetables with you as snacks.”

The HCC offers student recipes and healthy eating handouts on its website. Students can also take part in one-to-one nutrition counselling that is offered free at the centre.

Prof. Krull finds Wheels keep on turning solace with judo Judo continued from page 15 Krull, UTM’s judo instructor, has found joy meeting students in a different context. He believes students should take more time to get to know their instructors on a personal level.

“If you’re not connecting with your professors as people, you are not getting the full value of what university can be. When students come out to a class and meet me

“It’s not a matter of walking into a situation and saying ‘I can handle myself’; you say, ‘I can handle the situation,’” — Professor Krull on the mat, I’m not necessarily the same formal person I am in the classroom,” he says.

When you think of predominant qualities most faculty members have at UTM, one would assume that they are driven and excellent at exceeding; these people have a repertoire of talents waiting to be uncovered. When you take the time to discover what your instructors know outside of the classroom,

you’re not only advancing your social skills, you’re strengthening your weaknesses.

Professor Krull recognizes that the school year is an intense responsibility for all students and adding physical fitness to their already overloaded schedule could cause them to shy away from activity. However, he agrees that students who maintain a level of physical fitness in their daily routine have a better chance of staying sharpminded throughout the entire academic year.

“My research supervisor in graduate school happened to play squash, so he taught me how to play and pushed me hard. I would attribute my successes to the fact [that] I felt better about myself in school, I had more stamina, and gained the ability to focus more attentively on my studies,” Krull says. if you want to participate in a group activity that challenges both your physical and intellectual capacity, judo has something to offer everyone, here in the athletic facilities.

Not up for it? The ambitious professor who finds deep meaning and purpose in judo, shares one last lesson: “You want to accept the challenge in life and reach for things that are difficult to do.”

NABEELAH SHAIKH/THE MEDIUM

People from all over Mississauga burn calories biking through beautiful UTM trails.

KARINA COTRAN On September 10, UTM hosted a community bicycle ride open to all residents of Mississauga.

These community bicycle rides are organized every day in various locations across Mississauga as an opportunity for its residents to explore the city.

UTM BikeShare, which hosted the event, is a free bicycle rental service that is open to all U of T students, staff, and faculty. Its primary goal is to promote going green at UTM by providing bicycles to those who are interested in helping preserve the environment.

For the community bike ride, UTM BikeShare also offered bicycles for those outside UTM who wished to participate in the ride. The community bicycle ride had 108 people

in attendance, bringing a sense of community and awareness to the UTM campus. The event welcomed enthusiastic adults of all ages, students from UTM, and families with their children dressed in riding gear and helmets.

“These community bike rides are done all around Mississauga, with UTM being just one of the locations,” said Irwin Nayer, one of the volunteers of the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee. He expressed his appreciation of the UTM campus, saying that “We didn’t choose UTM; UTM chose us!”

The cyclists went through the Sawmill Valley Trail beside the campus. There are two pathways to choose from based on difficulty— the unpaved path for those who are more experienced and desire a challenge, and the paved boardwalk for

those who want a more relaxed ride, which is recommended for familyoriented residents. The bicycle ride in its entirety was about a 14.8 km round trip.

UTM hosted this event last year as well. According to Chelsea Dalton, the environmental sustainability coordinator of UTM Environmental Affairs, “UTM students got involved last year and based on this year’s success, we hope to make this a yearly occurrence.”

Two third-year UTM students were a part of the event as well: Urvesh Prajapati and Vicki Tran.

Prajapati heard of the event from working at the BikeShare office, while Tran said, “I did this event last year but at a different location, and was interested in doing it again this year at UTM.”