Volume 44 issue 18

Oppositon to leave policy

The Crazy women

Laramée’s book sculpture

Behind staging freedom

Bell Let’s Talk Day

News, page 2

Opinion, page 5

Arts, page 9

Features, page 14

Sports, page 18

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02.05.2018

Mandated leave policy is withdrawn A letter from the Ontario Human Rights Commission prompted U of T to pull the policy from the governance cycle FATIMA WASIF ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR WITH NOTES FROM ALICIA BOATTO NEWS EDITOR The University of Toronto has withdrawn the university-mandated leave of absence policy proposal from the current governance cycle, following concerns raised by the Ontario Human Rights Commission in a letter to the university.

The OHRC’s letter alleged that the university’s policy “falls short of meeting the duty to accommodate” as outlined by the OHRC.” Initially proposed last year, the policy would have allowed students with mental health issues to be put on mandatory leave of absence from school if seriously harmful behaviour has been displayed.

According to Sandy Welsh, U of T’s vice-provost students, the letter is currently being reviewed by the university.

“We continue to be confident that the proposed policy is compliant with the Ontario Human Right’s Code. We’re taking the time now to address the policy. We only just received the letter and we want

JULIA HEALY/THE MEDIUM

The policy proposed allowing students with mental health issues to be put on mandatory leave. to take the time to incorporate the relevant legal factors that can be easily seen and understood by all members ofour community,” Welsh stated.

The proposed policy has faced opposition from several student organizations, such as U of T’s Art and Science Student Union. The

ASSU called the policy “explicitly punitive” in an online Facebook post. Welsh denies that the policy is meant as a form of discipline in any capacity.

The union also drafted an open letter to the vice-provost calling on the withdrawal of the policy.

“The Office of the Vice-President

and Provost has introduced a policy that will, in effect, force students to leave the confines of the University, including their friends, housing, and co-curricular activities, to seek medical support outside of their community,” the letter reads.

Welsh stated that a new timeline for an edited proposal has not yet

been determined. If the policy undergoes substantial changes and is re-entered into the governance system for approval, it may need to begin the approval process once more.

According to Welsh, the viceprovost students office had been in consultations with students throughout the development of the policy and will continue to conduct meetings with student groups.

Welsh also explained the university’s intent to increase budgeting for mental health, including more counsellors across campuses, in hopes of increasing student access to mental health resources.

“The mental health crisis on campus is very real. We hope that the withdrawal of this policy is a step towards university administrators addressing our demands of prioritizing increasing funding to the chronically underfunded mental health and accessibility resources on campus and to address these issues through a student-oriented, disability justice framework,” wrote ASSU’s executive Nooria Alam in an email to The Medium.

OHRC continued on page 3

SCSU candidate disqualified second time Presidential candidate and current VP operations Deena Hassan was disqualified for pre-campaigning ALICIA BOATTO NEWS EDITOR

Scarborough Campus Student Union’s elections review committee has disqualified the recently re-instated candidate and the current VP operations, Deena Hassan, following the hiring of a new chief returning officer for the Spring elections.

After the appointment of a replacement CRO Sahabthan Jesuthasan, the ERC had reversed their decision to disqualify Hassan. She was briefly reinstated on January 29th to the elections race before being disqualified again on February 2nd after accumulating over 40 demerit points, due to pre-campaigning and her declaration of intent to run for president before the nomination period.

“Hassan has garnered extensive support for her candidacy before any other candidate had the right to do so. There is also evidence in the form of screenshot text messages that have parties that are associated with Hassan indicating

MAISHA ISLAM/THE VARSITY

Hassan was ultimately disqualified for pre-campaigning and misrepresentation of facts.

Hassan’s wish to run as a candidate for president. With the precedence already being set in previous rulings I find the actions after the Jan 22nd 2018 Pre-campaigning,” stated an update on demerit points through

the SCSU elections website.

Hassan was initially disqualified from the race after accumulating over 35 demerit points, because she was photographed wearing a SCSU sweater while campaigning, which

was considered to be an “abuse of position”, according to the elections code. After the appointment of a replacement, CRO Sahabthan Jesuthasan, the ERC reversed their decision to disqualify Hassan.

The ERC also alleged that Hassan intentionally blamed former CRO Mahir Zuber of corruption in the all-candidates meeting and misrepresented facts.

Hassan was quoted during the protest saying, “The VP operations always sits on the hiring committee responsible for the hiring of the CRO.” The ERC responded on the elections website that “the hiring of the CRO is listed as a responsibility of the ERC. This is clearly outlined in the EPC. The CRO deems this act to be intentional. Hassan has been through SCSU election processes in the past, her ignorance for the rules, and what has happened in the past is questionable.”

On January 22nd, Zuber had resigned following the all-candidates meeting where he claimed he was assaulted and thrown onto a table by students who stormed the meeting.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available.

02.05.2018 THE MEDIUM NEWS

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UTMSU hosts Day of Action The day was held to prepare for Ontario’s provincial elections

January 29th, 2018 Traffic Complaint A staff member reported a traffic complaint to Campus Police. A car driving on Outer Circle Road did not stop at the stop sign located by P9.

The vehicle did not stop and continued driving through the stop sign at full speed. Campus Police attempted to contact the driver. Investigation is ongoing.

January 31st, 2018 Theft A student reported to Campus Police the theft of his laptop from a cubicle on the third floor of the library. The student had gotten up to use the restroom and when he returned to his workspace, his laptop was no longer there.

January 31st, 2018 Police Assistance Campus Police attended parking lot 4 for a female screaming for help. Peel Police also attended. Campus Police approached a vehicle in the back of lot 4 where two occupants were observed in the car. The occupants had been play fighting.

January 31st, 2018 Theft A student reported to Campus Police the theft of her laptop from a couch on the third floor of the library. The student went to see one of her friends and upon return, her laptop was no longer there.

These reports are those that have been released to The Medium from Campus Police 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-TIPS (8477).

The Medium AGM has historic turnout

FACEBOOK.COM/UTMSU/PHOTO

All events were in the Student Centre and featured a banner drop showing UTMSU’s activist goals.

MENNA ELNAKA MANAGING EDITOR The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union released a statement on its Facebook page last Thursday on the Provincial Day of Action, advocating for students’ rights and concerns.

“The mandate of the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union has always been and always will be to advocate for our students’ rights, to voice our students’ concerns and to advance the common interests of students at UTM,” read the statement. “It is these beliefs that have led us to fight for numerous campaigns throughout the years.”

UTMSU outlined some of their demands on the Provincial Day of Action including free education, affordable transit, and OHIP for the international students who, according to the student union, pay three times more than domestic students.

The statement also highlights UTMSU’s work on the GTA U-PASS throughout the past year with coalition partners to “alleviate this huge burden.” As for the free education, the union emphasized the importance of free education to “prioritize a quality, publicly funded education system.”

In light of the Provincial Day of Action, UTMSU held an “All Out” day that featured a banner drop in

UTMSU and ASSU oppose policy

OLIVIA ADAMCZYK/THE MEDIUM

Over 40 students came out to vote at The Medium’s AGM. ALICIA BOATTO NEWS EDITOR The Medium’s Annual General Meeting saw a historic turnout with over 40 students and the first changes to their constitution and by-laws in the last six years.

The AGM required at least 40 eligible and current members of the UTM student body to be present in order for a motion to be passed.

With there being approximately 43 students in attendance, changes to the constitution included the removal of the business manager as a job position and replacing it with

the managing editor position.

Voting rights had been extended to both the managing editor and the design editor. The ad manager was also granted voting rights in the case of a tie in The Medium’s editorial board elections.

The financial statements were also approved, in which Fruitman Kates LLP. was named as the auditor for The Medium’s fiscal year ending in April 2018.

Besides the minor changes made in the constitution, the AGM saw the announcement of the winners for The Medium’s annual writing and photography competition.

the CCT building that pointed the three demands mentioned in their statement. The day also featured the chance for voter registration, games and prizes, and free food.

Ending their online statement, the UTMSU executives said: “As your students’ union, we want your voice to be heard. We want your voice to aid in the creation of a democratic and equitable society all across the province. As students, our strength lies in our power and the only way to move forward is if we remain united.” They also asked students to voice their demands and concerns, as well as to vote for the Ontario provincial elections that are coming up on June 7th this year.

JULIA HEALY/THE MEDIUM

Several student organizations including UTMSU, UTSU, and ASSU have spoken against the policy.

OHRC continued from cover “It’s shameful that it required the involvement of the Ontario Human Rights Commissioner for the university to withdraw the policy in the face of concerns voiced by student leaders, faculty, staff and disability justice advocates alike,” Alam continued.

The University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union has also vocalized opposition to the policy.

“The UTMSU has been in discussion with the Vice Provost, Students and her office about the mandated leave policy since the first semester.

Throughout, we had provided issues that we had with the policy but the it seemed like the policy was going through regardless of major criticisms. The vice-provost students office was rushing this through governance and we lobbied for this to be considered later after an extensive review and student input,” UTMSU’s president Salma Fakhry stated.

“Even with edits made to the policy to make it better, the policy as a whole did not sit well with us and made us feel we were not being heard. The fact that the Ontario Human Rights Commission has intervened is indicative of how far the

administration is from understanding student accommodation, “added Fakhry.

As previously reported by The Medium, the initial policy proposed that in rare cases, the administration would place the student on a leave of absence from the university. The policy would be used in cases where students were deemed dangerous to their own safety and to the safety of their peers by the administration.

Welsh did not confirm if amendments to the policy will be made indefinitely or when the policy would be re-released.

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«NEWS

THE MEDIUM 02.05.2018

»HOW DO YOU SUPPORT BELL LET’S TALK DAY?

Zeahaa Rehman 3rd year, Linguistics

Mania Negru 2nd year, Management

“Talking about the ways the campaign can improve.”

“Message my friends and check in on them.”

Students prompted about elections UTMSU’s goal is to get students thinking Ontario provincial elections

OLIVIA ADAMCZYK/THE MEDIUM

The union’s aim is to spread awareness among students about the upcoming provincial election.

SHARMEEN ABEDI STAFF WRITER

Matthew Huynh 1st year, Comp Sci.

Matthew Soriano 4th year, Economics

“There’s still a stigma.

Attending events like this breaks down barriers.”

“Raise awareness by spreading the word about people who can help.”

Vandalism in St. George prayer room

The University of Toronto Mississauga Students Union is aiming to spread awareness among students about the upcoming 2018 provincial elections and student issues. Several banners were hung around campus featuring questions regarding free tuition and platform points young voters want to see represented by politicians.

“We ask these questions because we really want students to be aware of the upcoming Provincial Elections in June and why they should

start thinking about the priorities they have in mind,” stated UTMSU’s vice-president external Jose Wilson in an email to The Medium.

Wilson explained that this campaign is to ensure that students’ issues are at the forefront of every candidate’s platform. “All of next week and ongoing, we’ll be registering people to vote to make this whole process as easy and as accessible as possible.”

UTMSU’s president Salma Fakhry added, “We really want to get students to start thinking about the priorities they have in mind when they do hit the polls in June.”

Students were able to write unfiltered responses to the questions.

Their answers ranged from demanding more food on campus to protesting the discrepancy between domestic and international tuition fees.

According to the UTMSU, these campaigns are also intended to bring awareness among students about issues such as rising tuition fees.

UTMSU did not say what would be done with the students’ responses, or if the posters are being monitored for inappropriate content when asked.

Unions renegotiate membership UTMSU and UTSU will review their membership agreement

POMPEI79.WORDPRESS.COM/PHOTO

A Turbah Box was found damaged in the Bahen prayer room.

MENNA ELNAKA MANAGING EDITOR A Turbah Box was found damaged on Friday in the Bahen prayer room in the University of Toronto downtown campus with a hate note left instead, as reported by the Muslim Students’ Association.

Turbah is a clay stone used among Shia Muslims to keep the surface of their prayer natural. The MSA released a statement on their Facebook page on Saturday saying, “This is an explicit act of hate towards Shia Muslims. As an organization that represents all Muslim students on campus, we believe this horrendous act is despicable and has no place in our community.”

Referring to it as an “Anti-Shi’ism” act, which means hatred toward the Shias who represent a minority sect of Muslims, the MSA president Ammar ElAmir told The Medium that the association believes another Muslim, who is not part of the minority sector

of Shia Muslims, was responsible for the hate incident.

“We also strongly condemn this act of hatred and recognize the need to provide a safer space on campus for all Muslim students. Anti-Shi’ism is a very real and prominent issue that we will address in collaboration with all other Muslim groups on campus,” he said. “We want to make sure that the perpetrators and anyone else who holds this prejudice realize that this behaviour is not and never will be acceptable.”

The MSA, in collaboration with the Thaqalayan Muslim Association at U of T, will be launching poster campaigns around the Multi-Faith spaces at the downtown campus. They will also contact “Khateebs (preachers) and Imams to address the prejudice and hatred in their Friday sermons on campus.”

As of press time, the investigation of the vandalism is undergoing and the MSA is waiting upon a response from U of T’s Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office.

OLIVIA ADAMCZYK/THE MEDIUM

The current agreement between the two parties was drafted in 2008.

ALICIA BOATTO NEWS EDITOR The UTSMSU and UTSU will be renegotiating their membership agreement that governs the relationship between the two student organizations.

In a press release posted on both the UTMSU and UTSU’s respective Facebook pages the unions state that the agreement will be negotiated with the assistance of a third-party facilitator.

Both parties are autonomous organizations and function independently of one another. The UTSU claims to represent the interests of all U of T

students including students at UTM, according to the original 2008 agreement.

“UTSU shall continue to represent the interests of, and provide services to, UTM undergraduate students in situation where broader, campuswide advocacy is appropriate,” the agreement reads.

The agreement permits UTSU to represent UTM students during meetings at Governing Council as the sole representative of UTM full-time undergraduate students, as well as meetings at Hart House Council and meetings of the council on student services.

The agreement also permits the

UTSU to provide services to UTM students that the UTMSU does not provide, if the UTSU feels the need that such a service or program be in place.

By the agreement, UTSU is also responsible for sending UTMSU the fees and levies collected from UTM students which are known as the UTMSU Fees.

UTM undergraduates currently pay fees for both the UTMSU and UTSU through their tuition fees.

According to the press release, a vote will be held to determine the termination of the deal if both parties are unable to reach an agreement.

02.05.2018

MASTHEAD EDITORS Editor-in-Chief Mahmoud Sarouji editor@themedium.ca Managing Editor Menna Elnaka managing@themedium.ca News Alicia Boatto news@themedium.ca A&E Kassandra Hangdaan arts@themedium.ca Features Mahnoor Ayub features@themedium.ca Sports Vanessa Cesario sports@themedium.ca — Photo Olivia Adamczyk photos@themedium.ca Design Mirabelle Eze design@themedium.ca Copy Ayesha Tak copy@themedium.ca Online Meg Sharpley online@themedium.ca ASSOCIATES News Fatima Wasif A&E Keena Al-Wahaidi Paula Cho Features Jessica Cabral Marium Faisal Sports Amrish Wagle Photo Chen Gong Yasmeen Alkoka Copy TBA GENERAL STAFF Webmaster Florence Cao web@themedium.ca Distribution Manager Alison Ross distribution@themedium.ca Ads Manager Mayank Sharma ads@themedium.ca Cartoonist Anthony Labonté 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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The era of “crazy women” Uma Thurman’s op-ed shed a light on many abusive muse-director relationships On February 3, The New York Times published an op-ed tell-all of the abuse Uma Thurman had to endure from Harvey Weinstein and Quentin Tarantino. According to the article, Thurman claims that Tarantino forced her to do a scene in one of Tarantino’s best films, Kill Bill, despite knowing that the car had issues and it was likely Thurman would obtain a severe injury. This happens after her run-in with Weinstein who sexually assaulted her in a hotel room. While Uma Thurman’s confessions harken back to the Weinstein expose that dominated much of the media in late 2017, it’s not her confessions that I want to touch upon.

Even before Thurman came out with this op-ed, she had a brief interview on the red carpet over her play’s Broadway premiere, The Parisian Woman. Uma Thurman’s anger could be seen when asked about the Weinstein debacle, bringing life to the adage “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” When the interviewer kept

pushing Thurman for a response, Thurman remarked how regretful she feels when she talks in anger and stated she has a lot to say about the situation, but she will reserve it for another time. Presumably, the recent New York Times op-ed was the time she talked about.

To set the facts straight, according to the video evidence published on the article, Thurman is visibly injured, and Tarantino runs to her aid and flashes a smile when realizing Thurman is still moving. However, Tarantino failed to feel remorseful after the accident—he permanently injured Uma Thurman for life, which did affect her career and her mental health. Thurman did not get any compensation. However, the media circuit afterward did paint her as a “crazy woman” after her fallout with Tarantino. Thurman’s career trajectory, while not entirely similar, reminds me of the toxic muse-director relationship between Megan Fox and Michael Bay. It is well-known that

Megan Fox’s acting career took a dip after Bay removed her from the Transformers franchise. In fact, in Wall Street Journal interview with Bay, he commented “Well, that’s Megan Fox for you. She says some very ridiculous things because she’s 23 years old and she still has a lot of growing to do. You roll your eyes when you see statements like that and think, ‘Okay Megan, you can do whatever you want. I got it.’ But I 100% disagree with her.” It was a polite way of Bay explaining to the media why he is dismissing Megan’s allegations—she’s crazy.

At least in Thurman’s case, she and the public got closure that she is in fact not crazy because Weinstein admitted he assaulted her in a hotel room after his walls came crashing down during #MeToo. However, a woman who is abused in professional and private terms should not need the validity of her abuser to realize she isn’t “crazy.”

It is infuriating that we consid-

ered a woman “crazy” for most of her career and only now did her abuser come out and reveal half-heartedly that he did abuse her. Despite her begging to gain access to video that incriminates Tarantino, only now are the perpetrators hanging their head in shame.

If the public can take anything away from toxic muse-director relationships, as exemplified by Thurman and Tarantino or Fox and Bay, it is that the “crazy woman” narrative is not just physically and emotionally harmful, but it can lead to lifelong permanent injuries, or ending a young promising actor’s career in ashes.

AYESHA TAK COPY EDITOR

CORRECTION NOTICE The January 29 article “Remote sense nature no longer hidden” has been corrected.

The heart’s constant search for survival What we listen for with our brains intent...

It is that everything has a single beat.

Our mind is in full control, so it shouldn’t be difficult. Like playing an instrument or teaching a lecture— how do the profs not have notes!

There is beauty in ability.

Doesn’t matter what you do, or how you got there. Different limes of light, just sometimes, will shine clearer or darker, whichever your fix—I won’t judge. There’s a turning point for everyone during their imaginative stay, their dominance or acceptance now becomes brighter.

Becomes? Is that insinuating that the positive need in promoting Locke’s

“the self ” is something that is given to us, through outside understanding?

Through awareness? Sometimes it just takes an “offer” of—perhaps call it knowledge or escape—to grant a person inner essence. Just maybe, a simplified realization to tap into their senses. Sometimes, connection is muddled though, and either through our own relative choices, past and otherwise, temptations will beget immediate satisfaction.

Our lives are now in turmoil, substandard towards existence. Because of our punitive decisions that char-

acterized the whole decades of our life—have a drink, or smoke some pot. Does making something legal take away the harmful effects? I’m not asking, but smiling, in a sort of simplicity. I think life is full of various escape mechanisms people use to avoid taking responsibility for their actions, or just ways that we live with them.

I’m reading over such an opinion and I recognize the dominance of an indecisive cord, or note, of mismanaged attention to disclosing the truth. Although I do believe that anyone and everyone only needs to

be honest with themselves to truly redeem their freedom, we must remain cognizant of outside influences and listen to our blood.

But in all the years I have been at UTM, I realized something today while buying some U of T apparel from the bookstore. My senses told me that everyone sees things differently—so find what speaks to you, and hear your music play.

“Memory is the power to awaken in the mind simple ideas” — John Locke (1632-1704) SHANNON SCHILLING

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THE MEDIUM’S WRITING AND PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST WINNERS PORTRAIT WINNER: Yasmeen Alkoka

NON-FICTION WINNER: Maryam Al-Juboori

Treasure My earliest memory goes back to a hot summer night. That night, we slept on the grounds of the first floor in the living room. The room had windows in three of its sides. I woke up in the middle of the night from the noise outside. A bright light shone from behind the curtains. Frightened, I looked for my parents, only to find out my parents were not in the room. It was only my sister and me.

Through the curtains, a plane-like object was flying in the sky. I shook my sister to wake up, saying, “It is a plane, it’s a plane. A reeealllll plane!” We ran towards the windows with all excitement. The plane rained beautiful fire-

works across the sky. The streets were roaring with excitement and pulsing with energy. “Allah Akbar!” people scream. The Iraqi flag on our neighbor’s roof swam rapidly in the sky. I have never seen such a fascinating scene.

Mom grabs our small bodies. “Are you idiots?” Mom screams, “You want to die?” She holds our hands and pulls us through a small one-person-sized yard located behind the kitchen. We climb a small ladder that is connected to my grandparent’s palm garden.

An underground storage lies beneath a small tent in the garden. I start crying. I have never been here.

This is where my grandma keeps her pickles, where she always told me to not go, where the planes cannot be seen. I stop crying as Mom lights the candles. No pickles are in here. No voices are heard. It is just a cold room now. The walls are colored with charcoal stains. Crumbs of dirt are scattered on the floor. A deserted chair sits by a corner. The walls tighten up as we spread silently through the room. I claim a corner for myself and crumble under a blanket to sleep. I wake up. Sleep. Wake up. Sleep, and wake up again.

I’m not sure if it is night or morning anymore. I cannot remember the

last time I came out from this underground-pickle storage. Fireworks are still going. Glass is shattering on the grounds above us. I cannot understand why I am down here when everyone is celebrating up there.

The murmuring of prayer surrounds me. Mom would repeat, “God save us.” Daddy is always standing on the prayer rug with his hands lifted up. Isn’t he tired? I think. I sit in the corner with my two siblings, my older sister, Sarah, and my five-year old brother, Abdulrahman. I wonder why only my grandma plays the matches game with us. Mom would like it.

Mom is always crying these days.

Mom does not eat. Mom says it is enough if only we eat. I want to eat ice cream. Sarah always nags me whenever I cry. I cannot help it. I hate this corner. I’ve always had nightmares. I hope this is one. *** We make it out of the storage a few days later only to see that our house is full of broken glass, and the streets are colored in red. I learn much later that the planes were not there for entertainment and fireworks; they were the U.S planes that have come to kill us.

LANDSCAPE WINNER: Jesse Garcia

FICTION WINNER: Melissa Barrientos 11:07 AM, 25 February 3052, Laboratory Room 4 Located Dr.-serial number: 10007400You have chosen to begin at -Laboratory Room 4- on -February 25th, 3052 at 11:07 AM-.

-Rewind. Play In -Laboratory Room 4- , rows of long tables occupy the room’s center.

Filled with beakers and flasks, the tables gleam with the bright overhead luminaires. A pile of unfinished notes lay rumpled on top of a counter. Only two humans currently inhabit the room.

“Dr. Horten, your latest drug, the ‘Youth Enhancer’, was truly astonishing. It retracted the visible signs of aging more potently than natural collagen has ever been able to do before.

The people absolutely loved it. So the Orenago Pharmaceutical Association is asking you to solely dedicate yourself to the medical aesthetic field.” says Dr. -serial number: 18960309- , one of the humans inhabiting the room.

“But Chief Niven, what about the ‘Cancer Curing’ drug I’ve been working on? Please let me finish my research first” responds Dr. -serial number: 10007400-, the other human and a common inhabitant of -Laboratory Room 4-.

“I’m sorry Dr. Horten but you are needed in our aesthetics department,

not the diseases department. Anyhow, with the new compounds from Saturn 3, a cure will be found shortly.

Your priority should be to help Orenago progress!” exclaims Dr. -serial number: 18960309-. He strides to the room’s exit as he says with finality “I expect your next drug will enhance Orenago, Horten.” The reverberating sound of the slamming door challenging the fading timbres of his resonating voice.

The remaining doctor runs her fingers through her hair until it’s caught in the end tangles and sighs. Dr. -serial number: 10007400- walks over to the crowded counter and grabbing her X-pen she opens her Air File in the space above. Opening a new Air File she writes ‘Experiment Eternality’.

-Fast Forward- 2:04 PM, 10 June 3054, Laboratory Room 4 -Play An empty flask rolls around in a looping circle, papers marked with illegible scrawls are scattered across the tables, and unused petri dishes are cluttered with the sanitized instruments.

The laboratory room is filled with young medical aesthetics practitioners; apprentices perhaps. They occupy every available space on the tables.

“Dr. Horten, astonishing news! The protein Q3 from Mars matches your formula for the ‘Ethnic Changer’’’ says one of the apprentices to Dr.

Zero. With a tight smile Dr. Zero stands up and follows the apprentice.

The table they stop at is far and the surrounding apprentices are obscuring my view. Voices are overlapping, indistinguishable.

Dr. Zero reappears. Sitting down at her centered table she grabs her Xpen to tap at the space above. An Air File with the title ‘Experiment Eternality’, alongside other files, appear on her Air Folder. ‘Hunger Eliminator’, ‘Face Reshaper’, ‘Mood Levitator’.

Dr. Zero’s eyebrows scrunch downwards and her lips tighten. She murmurs, “It’s not enough.” She scrolls through her Air Folder once more and then closes it. “No closer to being Prime Planet than two years ago.”

An apprentice working nearby, on what appears to be an artificial model of the dermis layer of the human face, hears Dr. Zero’s and turning to Dr Zero with a frown he says, “I wouldn’t say Orenago hasn’t progressed in the last two years Dr. Horten. In fact, your ‘Eternity Pill’ influenced the implantation of those new laws last year.” Dr. Zero frowns now as well. She’s trying to recall the laws the apprentice mentioned. “Remember? The set of laws that increased Orenago’s productivity over 60 percent” “Oh! You mean the ‘Happiness Laws’.”

“The ‘Happiness Laws’? Oh that’s right, I forgot you like to give things

a title.” the apprentice grins brightly.

“Yes, the ‘Happiness Laws’” Dr. Zero sighs, “but the laws implanted last year were just a logical follow-up to my drug. After all, why would Orenago continue to believe in inefficient notions like that of marriage or religion? They are now immortal. It’s logical that Orenagonians should now study longer, retire later, and work indefinitely.”

“Oh, I heard it’s because some people refused to take the ‘Eternality Pill.”

“Why would they refuse? The OPA is a part of Orenago’s healthcare system. We know what is best for the people.” She frowns. “Don’t they know we strive to enhance Orenago?

So we can be Prime Planet?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter anyway since your drug became mandatory to Orenagonians with the ‘Happiness Laws’. Even if they refused, they are obligated to take it.”

He shrugs. “I hear it was even altered to be a vaccine so the process can move faster in conservative lands.”

“Really? I didn’t know they changed my drug to a vaccine.” she grins. “The name ‘Eternity Pill’ must be confusing then.”

The apprentice laughs.

-... My view is shifting. Figures and colours are swirling rapidly-- No its-its advancing past me.

Its stopped. Its dark. Oh- it’s the same lab room as before, just empty

of its earlier occupants. The room is empty, but still messy. Humans are so messy.

Something moved.

A hand running through tangled hair. My view is adjusting. Its Dr. Zero.

“Evolve” she whispers into the dark “Orenago needs to be Prime Planet.”

She’s standing by her table at the center of the room. With a firm nod she grabs a capsule infused with a dark substance from her table and swallows it unhesitatingly. Quickly grabbing a stray tablet from the table she lifts it to her face and gazes upon the hissing blue screen.

Dr. Zero’s body is changing. Blue electricity bolts race across her body.

Her pupils dilate into a blue rim in a pool of whiteness. Her body glitches.

The tablet falls through her faded fingers.

The glitches stutter.

She’s facing me. I’m facing me.

A high screech sounds. Frightened.

Glitch. Gone.

The tablet resumes its static hissing. Blue rimmed eyes flash from its screen.

- I… help… evolve … Orenago…

Prime Planet -Rewind“Best for the people” “Altered to be a vaccine” “‘Eternity Pill’” The apprentice laughs

PHOTOJOURNALISM WINNER: Zaakirah Karbary

POETRY WINNER: Shifa Siddiqui

OFF TO A NEW START That night, I found myself meeting you in the same old place.

The harsh reality was a mere phase.

These cracked floors dug open those daunting memories.

For they pierced through my soul and left me wondering.

Why you? Why did I give myself to YOU? My hand traced along the chipped walls that echoed those haunting stories One who used to hold my hand is now kneeling in front another.

As you reach to pull out the diamond ring, the same ruby color.

The truth became a blur in this toxic air.

For building deeper relationships turned into despair Thought this was a tale of two lovebirds for a lifetime.

For that wish lost its chime the moment I threw the dime.

The truth unfolded as I heard a faint “I do� from afar.

With the people cheering and the fireworks disappearing.

The toxic air became breathable for the very first time.

As I pull myself up, I found myself leaving that same old place.

The harsh reality was in fact a mere phase.

Planting the floor with pecks of roses, the daunting memories were buried for centuries.

Covering the walls with hopes and dreams, my victories outshone the haunting stories.

Off to a new start I go, never looking back as I grow.

02.05.2018 » 9

Judging a book by its landscape art Guy Laramée’s Oxford Dictionary is a twelve volume carving about the degradation of knowledge KASSANDRA HANGDAAN A&E EDITOR

In commemoration of UTM’s 50th birthday, along with UTM Library’s 10th anniversary, the library commissioned Guy Laramée to make “Oxford Dictionary”—a book sculpture. Currently, the book sculpture piece is encased with glass and placed in center of the library.

After receiving approval for an artistic proposal by the 50th Legacy Fund, the UTM Library began its search of artists in March 2017. The library was awarded $10,000 to fund its artistic project.

Shelly Hawrychuk, interim chief librarian, stated that the library wanted a timeless piece of art for the UTM community’s enjoyment.

Hawrychuk said, “The legacy fund for the 50th anniversary of the campus was developed for groups to create or obtain something that was to be a legacy piece or project - something that would stay on campus and be a part of the future of this campus. […]

In the library we thought that a piece of art, which represents the campus and what we are and do in libraries would be perfect. We wanted to have something in our library that would last well beyond us.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF UTM LIBRARY

Laramée’s artwork is laced with symbolism about the modern world.

According to Daniela Cancilla, communications librarian, the search for artists was intentionally local.

Cancilla browsed online websites and found Canadian artist Laramée.

Initially, Cancilla emailed Laramée examples of artworks that she found appealing. What appealed to Cancilla, and the rest of the library staff, about Laramée was his unique style. Laramée carves and sandblasts volumes of books to etch out meandering landscapes.

“My work with books deals first

with the loss of culture. We lose bits and pieces of culture(s) every day. For example, the paper version of the dictionary is now hard to find. Specialized researchers might still use it, but as a cultural icon, it is now replaced by an online database,” Laramée said, regarding one meaning of his artworks.

Cancilla’s personal interpretation is that Laramée equates the corrosion of landscapes with the corrosion of knowledge. Specifically, Cancilla said that the way that Laramée carves out

his books visually depicts the degradation of culture. Cancilla admitted that the themes underlying the “Oxford Dictionary,” particularly, bears only a broad relation the campus.

Laramée further added that his work revolves around the theme of knowledge.

“I would like us to remember that we cannot only know the world, we also be the world,” Laramée said.

When asked why UTM library decided to install an art piece in particular, Hawrychuk explained that librar-

ies have a close connection with the art world.

“Libraries are responsible for the stewardship of knowledge and for the commitment to stewardship of the cultural and historical legacy of our community,” Hawrychuck elaborated.

Cancilla also added that the installment of the art piece had an aesthetic purpose—it was made to beautify the surrounding environment. Another purpose for the artwork, according to Cancilla, was to have a centerpiece for students and staff to gather around; in a way, the presence of the artwork aims to foster a sense of campus community.

When discussing with Laramée about the conception of an artwork, the librarian staff spoke with Laramée to express what they thought about the library’s role. In terms of artistic direction, Cancilla said that the library granted Laramée artistic freedom.

“He was impressed by our natural surroundings and so he wanted to incorporate that into the sculpture,” Hawrychuk said.

In terms of dimensions, “Oxford Dictionary” is twelve volumes long and is 30x9x12 inches. Cancilla stated that in the upcoming weeks, overhead lights and a plaque for the piece will be installed.

Welcome to a festival for flower faces Hosted by Clara Lambert, UTM’s Art Fest 2018 featured visual artwork and performative styles PAULA CHO ASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR

Last Saturday, the UTM Artistic Resource Team hosted Arts Fest 2018. The annual event provides a platform for all students to showcase their works of visual and performing art. The show consisted of two acts separated by an intermission where audience members could tour the visual art exhibition.

At the end of the night, all submissions were adjudicated by staff members for the judge’s pick award as well as by the audience for the viewers’ choice.

The festival’s opening act featured an 80s medley performed by a nine-member ensemble. Dressed in leopard print and neon colours, the choir exuberantly sang a combination of upbeat and nostalgic songs, such as “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and “Thriller.”

The emcee of the show, Clara Lambert, then came out to address the audience. Throughout

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The festival showcased performances by Rosalynn Mutheardy and Maggie Kennedy. the night, she introduced each artist with humorously written bios.

Most of the acts featured vocalists singing either their take on a wellknown song or an original piece.

Some of the acts that stood out to me were by Rosalynn Mutheardy and Maggie Kennedy. Mutheardy

sang a chilling instrumental cover of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley while playing the piano, and Kennedy showcased her tap dancing whilst delivering a memorable vocal performance. It seemed as though they felt every word they sang with undeniable passion for their art.

Also noteworthy was Darren Clift’s spoken word piece, which he titled Stay Weird. He poetically listed different iterations of what normalcy has come to mean, and how being weird and “exceeding societal expectations” is far more valuable.

During the intermission, I ob-

served the student-created visual artwork on display. The talent in terms of artistry and professionalism was noteworthy, as the exhibition felt similar to a real art gallery.

One of my favourite pieces was “Self Portrait” by Ryanne Florence.

Her usage of oil as the medium on a huge cream canvas stood out. Her illustration included fiery red hair and realistic dimension in facial features, as well as bursts of paint in the background which were cohesive with the overall colour scheme.

The title “Flower Face” perfectly encapsulates Arianna Hoard’s illustration. Using acrylic on canvas, Hoard depicts a human with visible hair and a neck, but whose visage is covered with smeared pink peonies.

In my opinion, this piece was beautifully executed. Lastly, I admired “Dream River” by Linyun Huang, in which she used small brushstrokes to portray a serene river landscape.

Flower continued on page 11

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ARTS THE MEDIUM 02.05.2018

Dropping a mellifluous poetic verse Notably present at The Art Bar’s weekly poetry event, held at Free Times cafe, was The UTSC Poets RACHAEL MASIH In conjunction with the Free Times Cafe, this past Tuesday, the Art Bar held its weekly poetry series. This time, the event was hosted by Rosa Arlotto, and performers included the Tysdals group, Pino Coluccio, and Gary Johnson.

The event took place in the backroom of the café. There was a stage with a painting of a Mexican guitar on the back wall. Small booths filled to the brim as people trickled in off the frozen streets into the café.

The Art Bar series showcases the voices of Canadian writers, emerging poets, and newcomers to the world of verse and poetry. Three featured artists perform each week.

Then, the floor opens up to anyone in the audience who wishes to participate in an open mic opportunity afterwards. The Art Bar offers a relaxed environment for people to be vulnerable and share their work, as well as a platform for learning writers to chat with established poets about their experience.

Coluccio took the stage first and he commanded the stage. Wearing a leather jacket, Coluccio drew laughter from the audience with his poems. Some poems were “Thirsty and Miserable”, “Where has all the

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Poets at The Art Bar’s weekly poetry event dropped verses with religious undercurrents.

Mayo gone?” and “The Finger.” The audience burst into fits of laughter as Coluccio recounted personal anecdotes, like fun poems based on life experiences and the movies he likes to watch. Many of these poems can be found in his new book Class Clown.

The evening turned a serious route when the next featured artists, The UTSC Poets, took the

stage. Three women, in particular, stood out from this group: Noha Kandeel, Deborah Ocholi, and Téa Mutonji.

Kandeel delivered a beautiful poem speaking to her relationship with her mother, describing the quiet strength of mother. One line she uttered, “[Their] tongues are back bones,” describes how her mother was confident in her

speech.

Ocholi graced the audience with an intense poem about relationships affected by religion. She wrote gorgeous lines such as, “The holy arching of her spine.”

Mutonji presented a poem about the unpredictability of heartbreak saying that it “Starts at 7 p.m. and never ends.”

Then, the eclectic Gary Johnson

strode onto the stage. Johnson is a poet, as well as a photographer and a farmer. He performed a poem that resonated with everyone in the room called “The Word” about the desperate pursuit of the perfect word that will complete a project, line, or verse. Johnson effectively uses alliteration in his work and presents rhythmic poetry that satisfies the melodic itch of the ear.

For the open mic slot, six people presented poems on the spot and were met with applause. Only two people entered online to win the $80 prize for the open mic. The first contestant whipped out a surprise falsetto voice to sing his poem to the audience. The poem detailed the chill of winter wind. In conversation, he spoke about wanting his voice to invoke the same chills that he was referencing in the poem.

The laughs from the audience were an extra benefit. The emcee for the open mic event measured the applause exactly by employing a decibel reader.

The Art Bar holds weekly events.

The atmosphere and people at these events create a welcoming environment for novice writers to seasoned professionals to engage in the art of poetry.

J.T. brings the Man of the Woods back Justin Timberlake’s recent album is a refreshing, eclectic mix of country and pop music tracks MAYANK SHARMA ADVERTISING MANAGER

In early 2018, Justin Timberlake dropped a trailer that gave us a glimpse of the direction of his new music. If you don’t count the soundtrack of the 2016’s film, Trolls, it had been five long years since Timberlake took the music industry by storm. The preview of the album showed the artist going back to his roots while blending it with his signature music style. The name of the album—Man of the Woods—with the artist himself hailing from Tennessee, suggested that this album was to feature country music. After multiple listens, is it a country album? The question is contestable.

The President of Pop has striven to innovate music with every album.

For example, the album Justified introduced us to the perfect blend of beat-boxing and pop, FutureSex/ LoveSounds gave us touch of electro pop and funk, and the 20/20 Experience had more hits than misses.

The Man of the Woods, has a new take on pop, funk, disco, and country.

The entire album is mix of modern-

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Timberlake’s newest album innovates the pop, funk, disco, and country genre. day Americana, but, I thought, falls flat in some tracks.

Timberlake knows how to play the game though. The singles prior the album’s release included “Filthy”— the most Timberlake-eque and least country song that is guaranteed to unleash killer dance moves when it

comes on, “Supplies”—a puff of auto tune with a chorus that sounds like something you would sing around a campfire, “Say Something”­ —a collaboration with Chris Stapleton.

In the album, “Sauce” is the most Timbaland-produced sounding song to keep long-time fans happy, “Mon-

tana” sounds like a mix of Michael Jackson and the Bee Gees. Timberlake’s duet with Alicia Keys in “Morning Light” provides light reggae with smooth vocals. As a whole, the album goes into the classic Timberlake territory, while positioning itself with country.

Timberlake does go back to his roots by collaborating with Pharrell Williams in the production of this album—something he has not done since 2002’s Justified. Though you can see Timberlake trying to find the sweet spot of mixing country and pop, the album shows the growth of the artist. You can see and hear that he has grown and is happy being a down-to-earth family man. Though he does throw in some of this adultthemed lyrics, this album does sound very personal to him. Timberlake’s wife. Jessica Biel, provides her vocals in multiple songs, and “Young Man” is dedicated to their son Silas. Even the meaning of the name Silas is “of the forest,” as confirmed by Timberlake himself to be the inspiration behind this album’s title.

It is refreshing to see Timberlake dedicating his art to ones close to him while making it sound good. This album might not always sound like the Timberlake you are used to, but I applaud him for stepping out of his comfort zone. Timberlake might not have brought sexy back with Man of the Woods, but he sure is trying to reinvent it.

REWIND VICTORIA DANESI STAFF WRITER Brief Encounter (1945), directed by David Lean, gives a glimpse into a short and ill-fated relationship. Set in 1938, Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) is a British suburban housewife.

Jesson goes into town every Thursday by train to shop as an escape to her mundane life. At the train station, she meets the married Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), a doctor.

The next Thursday, the two meet again on the street by chance and have lunch. They end up spending the day together before going back home to their families and continue to meet weekly. Realizing the feelings they have for each other are forbidden, they grapple with their newfound affection.

The film cleverly begins at Jesson and Harvey’s last encounter. As an internal monologue, Jesson narrates the story of their doomed relationship while she sits at home with her husband. This narrative structure brings a sense of urgency to their fleeting affair, with tension growing as the story of the relationship ending unravels.

When Jesson and Harvey coincidently meet again, Harvey sarcastically jokes, “What exciting lives we lead, don’t we?”

This gives a nod to the simplicity of the plot; this short relationship has no lasting effect on the world.

ZEAHAA REHMAN In WRI395, titled Re-languaging: Writing Across Cultures and Languages, the readings for the course explore the concept of how speakers perceive language and translation.

The professor for the course is Josh Dittrich.

The second reading in the course—the first chapter of Alastair Pennycook’s 1994 book The Cultural Politics of English as an international language—helps solidify this abstract concept. The book discusses the presence of English as an international language in colonization, politics, and postcolonial lives and literature.

The reading explores the process of language translation. Translation, according to professor Dittrich, does not occur from one language to another. The vocalization of thoughts is also a sort of translation and neither language nor translations are ever unbiased.

The first chapter, titled “The World in English,” explores the imperialism and worldliness of English, as well as its reputation as a global, beneficial, and neutral language. Pennycook elaborates on how English dominates popular culture and academic knowledge, acts as a gatekeeper in many different situations, and how this can possibly entail linguistic curtailment or worse, linguistic genocide.

Myself, along with three other classmates, were responsible for

The performances by Johnson and Howard is what makes the film so enthralling. The passion and sorrow they convey makes the story feel so much bigger than it is.

Jesson struggles with being stuck between her family and new love, and this is what I find most interesting. She constantly questions herself and what her feelings tell her. In one instance in her narration, as she looks on at her husband, she explains that she should appreciate her happy family. Despite this, she continues to see Harvey. She is conflicted in her feelings and the independence she has every Thursday. Jesson’s inner conflict and the way the relationship ends is incredibly poignant when reflecting on a woman’s place in society pre-WWII. The black-and-white cinematography paired with production design is stunning. Many of Jessen and Harvey’s moments of affection take place in the smoke-filled train station where their affair goes unnoticed from other passengers. It adds a feeling of secrecy to the plot and allows the two characters to express their true feelings.

Lean is best known for his colossal epics like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965), but the small-scale intimacy of Brief Encounter gives an insightful look at a different side of the iconic filmmaker.

reading this chapter and preparing six questions to guide class discussion on Pennycook. None of my group members, myself included, grew up speaking English as our first language. As a result, we have a lot of shared experiences in our navigation of a country and culture dominated

by English and native English speakers. In each other, we found kindred spirits who understood the sense of dehumanization that often accompanies when pieces of your identity—your name, religion, and nationality—are mispronounced, who related to the self-doubt that comes with constantly being mocked and corrected for your accent, and who sympathized with the heartache that comes with the realization that assimilation and acceptance comes at the cost of your language. Language, as I learned through Pennycook’s words, carries the weight of a culture with it.

As a diaspora child from a previously colonized country, I am aware of the Eurocentrism that permeates the society I live in. Yet it was through Pennycook—and the discussion his work stimulated, both in and outside of class—that I realized Eurocentrism also permeates every word I use. The medium I use to convey my message, whether it is in my thoughts or in my spoken or written words, carries with it a violent, imperialistic, and biased history.

02.05.2018 THE MEDIUM ARTS » 11

Figuring out the buzz

Bad Buzz is an emerging Toronto-based punk rock band

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Bad Buzz formed in 2014, originally comprised of three members.

KEENA AL-WAHAIDI STAFF WRITER

One question I’ve been wanting to ask Bad Buzz, a Toronto-based punk rock band, is whether or not they still get nervous after playing at big venues.

Finally, I got my answer.

“We definitely get a rush from it,” they tell me. “We all have a lot of experience now in front of crowds of different sizes, and we always practice our asses off to ensure we have our set down tight for each show. So we’re all quite comfortable on stage.”

Playing in a variety of spaces, including Canadian Music Week and the Smiling Buddha, isn’t so intimidating anymore for the punkrock band that may remind you of a spunkier Fall Out Boy or Green Day. Troy Fullerton, Andrew Laurie, Tristan Loria, and Ross Carvelli are the four band mates that make up Bad Buzz. The band wasn’t always keen on sticking to the punk-rock sound initially.

“Our initial goal was to be a skate punk/garage punk band with fast, energetic rhythms and catchy guitar lines. Throughout the years, we’ve expanded our sound and now draw from our influences in the alt/hard

rock and pop punk scene when writing new material.”

The band’s debut album Far From Home boasts some tunes that take pride in musical realness. The authentic vibes that spur out of the record come with an attitude, one that claims punk rock music is back to dominate.

Carvelli, Laurie, and Loria first formed Bad Buzz together in 2014, and later added Fullerton on when they needed a second guitarist to allow their music to reach its full potential. Their musical background isn’t too shabby—the band claims that they’ve dabbled with music production before and have even been in other bands before coming together four years ago.

Although Far From Home released recently in September, they’re introducing new singles at some upcoming shows. Since drummer Tristan spent some time away near the end of 2017, the band mates used their time to collaborate on new material in time for his return: “Since he’s gotten back, we’ve been able to flesh them out and develop them to a point where we’re all really happy.”

Pressing on details about the origins of their band name, they give me the inside scoop on how band nam-

ing isn’t as complex as some people might be under the impression of. In fact, they only settled on “Bad Buzz” after the last member of their group joined in: “It took us a while to settle on a name we all like. It was nothing specific, just us goofing around with ideas and that’s the one that stuck.

We decided on Bad Buzz just before Troy joined.”

Their most memorable show was at the aforementioned Smiling Buddha, a music venue in downtown Toronto catering to live metal punk and comedy shows.

“We set a date for the show and worked backwards to figure out deadlines for each of the major milestones in creating the record. It takes a long time to get vinyl pressed, and we wanted to ensure we’d have them in time for the show. We ended up getting them the week of. The show was a blast and the place was packed.

A lot of our friends and family came out to support us, which meant a lot.”

On Far From Home, you can expect music coming from places in the heart, to downright love ballads.

A memorable one for me was Wait for Me, where they cue typical over the top melodrama belting out: “You lead me to believe you’d wait for me.”

Art Fest shows talents

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Art Fest is an annual event for UTM students to showcase their artistic talents.

Flower continued from page 9

Although whimsical in appearance, the painting is realistic and reminds me of Claude Monet’s signature style.

At the conclusion of the event,

the much anticipated results of the judges were in.

Both the judge’s pick and viewer’s choice went to LA Music for his outstanding keyboard and vocal performance.

In regards to being a part of the

Artistic Resource Team, Adelaide Chan, a first-year student, says that “Helping out at Arts Fest was amazing. I’m so grateful to have been apart of a group so full of teamwork and talent.”

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Stage and resist: beyond the curtain Guest scholar professor Elizabeth Maddock Dillon discusses staging freedom in the Atlantic World MAHNOOR AYUB FEATURES EDITOR

For the second speaker in the 20172018 Home, Exile and Return series, the UTM English and drama department hosted Dr. Elizabeth Maddock Dillon. Dillon, who is a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, teaches courses in the fields of early American literature, Atlantic theatre and performance, and transatlantic print culture. She is the author of two books, The Gender of Freedom: Fictions of Liberalism and the Literary Public Sphere, and New World Drama: The Performative Commons in the Atlantic World, 1649-1849, which won the Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History from the American Society for Theatre Research. In the context of her book, New World Drama, Dillon speaks about staging freedom in the Atlantic world.

“I hope to explain some of the key claims I have mentioned in the book that will help frame the talk,” says Dillon, “This book began with a simple observation that there was a

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Dr. Elizabeth Dillon is a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. lot of interesting things going on in early American theatre that no one ever talks about. And the reason that no one talks about it in the scholarly world has to do with the way we carve out disciplines.” When we

currently speak about American literature, English literature, and Canadian literature, it is often not realized how most of the plays that were performed in colonial North America were written by British authors, as

Dillon explains, and “They were often performed by British performers as well, and that meant that scholars of American literature didn’t read them because they didn’t count as being American text. So, there’s a

way in which early American theatre just falls through the cracks.”

Although it is not considered national American because it’s written

by British individuals, despite the fact, as Dillon notes, that “Hundreds of thousands of early Americans, including blacks, whites, and native Americans, attended these plays, performed in these plays, regularly quoted lines from these plays, and even died in the streets fighting over performances of these plays.”

A national view of culture, according to the English professor, is one that occludes the history of these performances from view, “But if we change the geography of the field, in how we describe culture, and if we look just not at early American but also the Atlantic world, which I do in this book, an entirely new scene of literature and culture shows up.”

Referencing ideas discussed in UTM’s 18th century theatre class taught by professor Teddy Robinson, Dillon provides background for theatre in the 18th century by stating, “Theatre in the 18th century was a very different place than it is today.”

Stage continued on page 15

Networks, resumes, and, a little bit of luck Conversations from last Thursday’s Careers in Humanities and Social Sciences networking event MARYAM FAISAL ASSOCIATE FEATURES EDTIOR

The Career Centre at UTM, along with the Language Studies Academic Society, Historical Studies Society, and the UTM Anthropology Society, hosted a networking night for students interested in pursuing careers in the humanities and social sciences, last Thursday evening.

The event began with 14 speakers giving a brief introduction about themselves. Each of them then joined a table of students for 15 minutes, after which the speaker moved onto the next table. The circuit was repeated four times, being followed by halfan-hour of unstructured networking.

The Medium spoke with many panelists throughout the evening.

Conversations ranged from lessons from a lawyer, a tour guide, an environmentalist to those from a health and safety coordinator, and an arts and culture supervisor for the City of Mississauga. This career networking night was, as the Career Learning Network’s website states, an

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The networking event was organized by the Career Centre in collaboration with student societies. opportunity for students to see how their studies could be applied outside the box. Other speakers included, but weren’t limited to, a program manager at WE, a journalist, a school principal, a firefighter, consultants, and a business data analyst.

Aakanksha John, a U of T alumna

who did her undergraduate degree in equity studies and diaspora and transnational Studies, said she started off doing tour guiding as a “side hustle.” A newcomer to Canada she was recruited by Brightspark after her first year—the company that she still works with—during a job fair at

U of T. While transitioning and settling in Toronto, becoming a tour guide was one of her ways of “building a relationship with Canada and to understand the way its people saw it.” She wanted to change the way people thought about exploring a city and enjoyed mentoring youth. John

grew up outside Canada and wanted to apply her learning of alternative narratives of history to being a tour guide. Being a firm believer in “making education work for you,” John took a gap year. Although she did apply to a master’s degree in social work, she wanted to continue with tour-guiding because she thought it was a perfect gap year opportunity.

She ended up taking it on full-time to explore new locations, as well as growing as a traveler and becoming a more “holistic” person. She wanted to “better understand how people and their societies and their cultures work in different places when they interact with [her] and other people” and looked at it as a “pseudo experiential research site.” She is a staunch believer in not doing anything she’s not passionate about and shared that she had just been to three cities in the last couple of days.

Abee Sivakumaran, another U of T alumna, did her undergraduate studies in equity studies and women and gender studies.

Careers continued on page 17

02.05.2018 THE MEDIUM FEATURES» 15

The production of a play and a public Theatre continued from page 14 The professor says, “Imagine being more like at a football game than at the theatre.” She adds, “In fact, I always laugh when I’m at the theatre and there’s this announcement that says, ‘If you have any candy, please unwrap it now.’”

Although now theatre is largely a quiet, observation-centered experience, according to Dillon “When in fact, in 18th century America, there’s this phrase that you see in newspaper reports about theatre. Quite often, it says ‘The performance continued in dumbshow.’ That means the audience were screaming so loudly that no one could hear what the actors were saying.” With there being a regular phrase, according to the theatre researcher, it conveyed that this was a normal occurrence, “There was so much noise coming from the audience, and that noise mattered just as much as what was going on stage.”

Another term that has been used to describe this, as Dillon says, is the active audience. Dillon shows the audience a picture of people “not sitting quietly” in the dark at the theatre and says, “huge numbers of people went to the theatre.

One small fact that shows how significant theatre was as a kind of cultural common language in the 18th century, of course, is that there was no television, no movies.” She gives the example of Charleston, South Carolina where, “In 1795, the city of Charleston’s theatre had a seating capacity of about 1,400 people and a population of less than 12,000.

So that meant at a given night, more

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According to Dillon, in the 18th century, many people held theatrical experiences in common. than one-tenth of the population of the city would be gathered in one place, engaged in and responding to a theatrical performance.” According to Dillon, many people would have seen one play together and held that cultural experience in common, than people who would have read the same novel, or the same book of poems, or even the same newspaper. She continues, “So when we talk about the public sphere in early America, when we leave the theatre out of it, we are missing something really important—a really important location where public was formed and composed and understood.”

The professor elaborates by de-

scribing that as she turned the study into an Atlantic and Anglo-Atlantic project, which also changed some of the terms that she needed to use to talk about this field of culture: “The terms that emerge for me, one is performative commons, and one is what I call the colonial relation.”

Dillon settled upon using the term “performative commons” as an alternative to public sphere: “Particularly the notion of the print public sphere, which is one that has a lot of currency in literary studies, in particular early American literary studies.” As Dillon describes, the space of the theatre resembles a public sphere, “But it is very embodied

rather than abstract.” When Dillion first considered the term ‘embodied public sphere’, “I didn’t like that term either because of its resonances with other works [...] and the way that that term was related to the state.

And the state, again, linked to a kind of national framing, rather than an Atlantic framing of politics, people, and culture.”

Dillon suggests in her book that the place where we most often see this gathering of people in the 18th century is the theatre, and as she shows a picture of an 18th century theatre performance next to the Leviathan, she says, “There’s a way in which putting those next to each

other, you alan wealth, culture, and shaped the aesthetic world of the 18th century Atlantic.”

To provide a more specific example, Dillon takes a Caribbean-centred account of performance in the Atlantic world. She says, “In the ubiquitous advertisement of slaves for sale,” showing newspaper advertisements from 1786-1795, “18th century Jamaican newspapers display and exercise a technology of slavery, the imposition of social death by way of [...] restructuring of identity of value around bare labour.” Dillon uses the term bare labour to describe the position of slaves in the Atlantic economy of capitalist modernity; “Despite receiving inhumane treatment, slaves were assigned economic value, although that value, according to which they registered,” as Dillon references the 18th century text, “units of labour alone—just labour, no social identity, just labour” and slaves, as Dillon quotes arguments presented by Sylvia Winter, “were seen as “not a man essentially, but as so many units of labour power in the colonial Caribbean.” According to Dillon, the significance of the social death and the destruction of social identity that slavery sought to affect by stripping slaves of genealogical identity and kinship relationships “did not aim to eliminate life altogether, but to turn life into units of labour, unfettered by the frictions of human connection and sociality.”

Dillon then shows the audience images of newspaper advertisements, to contrast between runaway ads and the quotes on sales ads.

Theatre continued on page 16

Schedule some time for time management The UTM TimeTracker is a new scheduling tool introduced by the UTM Office of Student Transition SHAYNA JAN STAFF WRITER

As a university student, you grow accustomed to spending the majority of your time complaining about how much schoolwork you have, avoiding said schoolwork, then panicking when it’s 11 p.m., and you’ve only written the title on your 10-page paper due at midnight.

Do you ever find yourself thinking there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to juggle everything you have to do? If you have questioned this, you may have also heard the two words repeated to us multiple times after that first orientation session in the RAWC: Time management.

The Office of Student Transition (OST) at UTM has introduced an online tool to give students a platform to manage their activities and time. The Medium sat down with Sveta Frunchak, learning strategist at the OST, to discuss UTM TimeTracker, an online support tool that helps students effectively manage their time. This scheduling app

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The scheduling application allows users to import their schedules directly from ACORN. allows users to import their course schedule directly from ACORN, map out study times, extra curriculars, and work, while providing a recommended allocation of time for each area.

As Frunchak emphasized, the

idea for UTM TimeTracker came as a product of the research conducted in the area of time management, learning from results gathered by both research at the OST itself, and from previously published literature. Research has shown to suggest

a correlation between poor time management skills and low academic performance.

The OST recognizes that the university environment is a lot more flexible than high school, as the onus is placed on the student to

prioritize their own time and regulate their own activities. The UTM TimeTracker was developed to aid students during this transition.

Unique features include an assignment calculator, which enables students to break down papers into steps, with the recommended time needed to complete each one. There is also a built-in GPA calculator, which is very convenient for students hoping to predict and plan out the marks needed for a specific task or overall course.

This tool was “created for students and with students in mind” and has undergone several tests, involving test-running the program with UTM student volunteers themselves. A student focus group was able to provide insight on features they liked and disliked, and although the tool is still in the process of being improved, the OST is excited to launch the system and hear feedback from other student users.

Students can access UTM TimeTracker through the TimeTracker link on the campus’s website.

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THE MEDIUM 02.05.2018

So, you think you know how to save?

The second Financial Literacy Workshop hosted by the DEM association discussed banking strategies NICOLE SCIULLI STAFF WRITER

According to a 2014 study conducted by Statistics Canada asking participants a series of questions about inflation, interest, and risk diversification, only 18 per cent of the women and 32 per cent of the men, all with university degrees, answered all questions correctly.

Financially literate individuals were seen to be more likely to be preparing for retirement and reported having a savings plan.

To help students understand the role banks play in navigating personal finance, the Digital Enterprise Management hosted their second workshop on personal finance titled, Banks: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Radha Maharaj, an instructor from the ICCIT faculty.

Maharaj discussed how banks lend out money and the various investment programs students can either participate in or learn about, including mutual funds, bonds, and money market accounts.

Maharaj stressed the importance of money to achieve our aspirations and that it is never too early to save.

“Our life goals and financial goals are integrated,” the instructor added, “If you can save a few bucks today, you will become a better saver when you do have more money.”

Reiterating her suggested high-

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Banks: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was the second workshop by DEM Association. lights from the last workshop, she recommended opening a Tax Free Savings Account, and to set aside $20 every week. According to Maharaj, this will train you to save your money and it may then eventually turn into a habit. The instructor also said that many people feel unsure about money because they see it as a projection of themselves.

“At times, people equate your net-worth with your self-worth and that’s where a lot of insecurities with money come from.” Maharaj

said this can lead to mental health problems if someone struggles financially. Similar results, published in a report from the University of South Hampton for the Psychology Review in 2015, presented how a person with a mental health issue is three times more likely to be in debt. The trick, Maharaj said, is to use money as a tool, not a reflection.

The class explored how banks make money. Maharaj stated that banks only need to hold 10 per cent

of whatever deposits they have. The bank can take that 90 per cent and lend it out at a high interest rate.

The money will go to another bank and the same trend repeats.

“Eventually, that money will be worth 10 times more the amount it started as, which circulates throughout the economy, and that is how money is created.” said Maharaj.

Workshop attendees also completed a risk assessment. A risk assessment informs a financial con-

sultant at what level of risk your profile will fit into when you make an investment. Maharaj explained it is a Canadian regulation that before investing, people must complete a risk assessment because every person’s financial profile is different.

“Someone who is single and starting their career may take more of a risk than an older or married person because they are young. And if their investment crashes, they will still have time to recover the money,” said Maharaj. According to the regulation, your investment profile must match the investment you buy.

According to the risk assessment test in the workshop, most of the group fell into the moderate risk range. Maharaj then helped students to break down what type of investments we could purchase. Investments can be in the form of shares, where a small part of a company can be bought, or mutual funds. Maharaj said that mutual funds are “a basket that has stocks, bonds, and monthly interest.” A stock is ownership or equity in a company, so when stock is bought or shared, the owner will be part ownership of that company.

A bond comes from the government and, according to the ICCIT instructor, is more secure. All bond denominations in Canada come in $1,000.

Money continued on page 17

Advertisements, identities and parallels Theatre continued from page 15 Quotes say “New negroes for sale,” which, as Dillon says, “Identify them solely in terms of what kind of work they can do, and contrasting them to the runaway ads, where it turns out that despite the notion that slaves have no social identity, we get a whole lot of really interesting information about their social identity.” She reads: “The property of [...]. He was purchased in this place, he was seen here, he was in the employ of this person and this person. And so, we get on the one hand, ads for slaves for sale that suggest that they have no social identity—the only identity as labour. And on the other hand [an ad] for runaway slaves, which indicate that they have a very rich social identity.” Dillon reads another runaway ad: “Runaway from the subscribed, on the 11th of August [...] a negro woman [...] born in Kingston, remarkable for […] a head not having the smallest appearance of hair on it. Also, her daughter Fiba calls herself often Cuba and Abba— she is marked on both shoulders AW.” The ad also mentions them visiting other relations, friendships with other individuals on the lane, and mentions that they are well acquainted with another girl who vanished from town at the same time.

From these ads, as Dillon describes,

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Dillon notes contrasts between new sales ads and runaway ads from the 18th century Atlantic. we learn many things about them including names, “unlike the nameless labouring slaves, she has a place of birth, a daughter named Fiba or Cuba, she has a male partner, she has a son named Johnny, she has a friend named Bessie, and she has a unique hairless scalp. In comparison with the concise advertisements for slaves

for sale, the runaway advertisement [is] lengthy and replete with proper names and connections.” She continues to elaborate how in this instance, it is clear that the runaway woman is deeply embedded in a system of social relations that identify her as a social individual and not just a unit of labour. Dillon says, “We have a

lot of very rich information and social signifiers. One of the things that I’m interested in is the significance of textiles and of clothing. [. . .] Often in runaway ads we see lengthy descriptions of clothing that the runaway slave had.”

Dillon references the costume collection available on campus to

theatre students, but says that in the 18th century, “[People] could not go to the store to buy a pink shirt if they wanted to change their shirt. If they ran away in a white shirt, they didn’t have another shirt—it was just the white shirt. So, there’s a way in which clothing is incredibly distinct and not interchangeable and incredibly expensive. Costumes were also a big part of what theatres owned.” Dillon reads a description of a runaway slave that says: “‘A young negro man named Sharper, who had on, when he went away, a pompadour coat with frogs of the same color,’ according to the advertisement, it’s probable that Sharper may attempt to pass as free, ‘having already under an imposition of that kind having taken a cruise in one of his majesty’s ships of war by the name of Tom Jones,’” Then we learn that Sharper “is given to cruising in a ship in a pink coat with matching pink ornamental fastenings. Clothing here presumes a particularly evocative and provocative status in these advertisements.”

The English professor notes the contradiction that emerges between these two genres as we see conflicting ideas about embodiment, about naming and about the performance of social value.

Theatre continued on page 17

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Freedom in the realm of the aesthetic Theatre continued from page 16 “On the one hand, while slavery operates by what we could argue as the technologies designed to strip people of social relations and identity, on the other hand, black sociality and cultural production actually don’t go away at all—they proliferate under the sign of their own erasure.”

As Dillon describes the print public sphere as the vocation in which civic life is carried forward, “As a project of popular sovereignty, we find for the slaves that appear in pages of the Jamaican newspapers, a very different narrative—one which is highly material and performative, located in display and erasure, not just in reason, debate and argument, located then in the realm of the aesthetic.”

In the West Indies, this aesthetic, Dillon argues, “is closely tied to the figure of the ’dandy,’ a figure of freedom, who we just met, on the run in a pink velvet coat and matching epaulettes, cruising the Caribbean.” As Dillon quotes from another historian, slaves were largely ascribed osnaburg as material for clothes on plantations, which is “Unbleached linen, largely imported from Scotland, very scratchy.”

Stripping Africans who survived the middle passage of their clothing, as Dillon says, “Putting them in osnaburg was significant as it was a literal denuding of a newly enslaved individual. This signified the capacity of osnaburg as itself a technology of social death.” The materiality of

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Materialism and aesthetic appear to be hallmarks of 18th century Atlantic theatre culture. fabric also has a signifying function that, according to the professor, in a certain way can’t be erased. “Clothing seems to have no function other than providing protection and covering, but it is part of performance.

Clothing participates in figurative and representative regimes. Clothing not only covers, it represents who we are—and we all know this because we choose what we wear everyday.”

Often when European writers came to America, Dillon mentions they would comment at length about the kind of clothing enslaved Jamaicans

wore: “They often noted that they were not wearing osnaburg, despite the fact that that was the clothing they were given by plantation owners. Excess and aesthetic in this case are political acts of creative destruction.” During Christmas time in Jamaica, Dillon mentions, “There was a performance where free and enslaved blacks would go to plantations and perform in the streets. They would perform various kinds of plays [...] and there were also groups of women who danced wearing identical dresses.” Dillon then presents a picture by

Jamaican-born painter Isaac Mendes Belisario portraying Actor Boy, a character from the Jamaican Slave celebration, Jonkonnu. Actor Boy is interpreted as an agent of chaos, a performer who parodies the culture of his overseers. Costumed in a Victorian style dress, boots, mask and a large carnival headdress, the Actor Boy performances were followed by a parade where performers would “compete against each other to see who was most spectacular.” The competition among actor boys, as Dillon notes Belisario’s description, was a

performance of performance itself, “We might see new forms of kinship that are framed in a spectacular display as a challenge to racialized regimes of social death.”

As theatrical history moves from the stages of Jonkonnu to England, the stylized black dandy symbolizes, in theatrical form, “the material excess of the costume of West Indian slaves.” Dillon gives the example of a character who is famous for his West Indian dialect and his striped suit.

“Iconography of the striped suit,” is in, as Dillon describes, that the character “dresses for display rather than for labour.”

Tracing the theatrical aesthetic and material relays in the cloth itself, Dillon describes the clothing as “A radical aesthetic of freedom. One crafted in relationship of social erasure that reveals an enduring Atlantic genealogy, one that places diasporic Africans at the centre rather than the margins of theatrical tradition.”

In the attempted genealogy of kinlessness established under slavery, as Dillon explains, “A radical aesthetic serves to open a space for being, and that space can’t be appropriated—it can be invoked, and it can be used to create new relations, a lateral kinship as dandy lines, as set girls.” And, as Dillon says, “All these relationships are grounded in the aesthetic and the material. And in this case, this material is silk and striped linen. That material is pink velvet and pompadour epaulettes.”

Keep your options open Low risk options Careers continued from page 14 She did her postgraduate degree in human resources. Initially, she wanted to become a counsellor but didn’t want to do a master’s degree and Ph.D. So, she was lead to human resources through advice from an academic counsellor. While doing her postgraduate, she did an internship with Metro, that had a health and safety position open within human resources, which she decided to go for because, as she said, “Why not?” She is currently an environment, health, and safety coordinator at AcklandsGrainger. When asked if she sees herself continuing in this field, she said she’s only been in the field for three years and doesn’t know what the future has in hold for her even five years from now. While it may be hard to see what your degree may bring for you in life, Sivakurman says, “Most of the skills you learn at school, such as time management and a good work ethic, are always transferable to your work place.” She preferred doing a master’s degree in HR rather than doing health and safety because it allowed her to dabble in other areas and specializations of HR. Karen Kwan Anderson is a citizenship and immigration lawyer and a sole proprietor at Mississauga Law Chambers. The first question a student asked her is what drove her to specialize in immigration law, and

her response was simply that because she’s an immigrant herself and has seen the work her parents had to do to keep her and her siblings “alive, fed and ready for school—it’s basically gone full circle.” Anderson now helps newcomers “settle in Canada and helps families stay together.”

“It is essential to keep the youth involved and engaged if you want to continuously grow.” says Stephanie Myhal She is a strong proponent of opening Canadian borders instead of trying to close them and appreciating talents and abilities from diverse walks of life. She also stated that immigration law is a “people type of law,” which is why she does it. She loves “learning her client’s stories, getting out there, and standing before a judge pleading my client’s case.” She is a UTM alumna and studied sociology, industrial relations, and professional writing and communications.

She worked three years as a personal injury lawyer and then moved into immigration law at the same company for another 12 years, before leaving to open her own firm.

She’s also part of a group called the

Mississauga Law Chambers, which is a group of 40 virtual lawyers who rent out office space for meetings near Square One, but work from home 80 per cent of the time. One thing she really enjoys is working from home and “being the boss of her own time.”

Mayank Sharma, UTM alumnus from the DEM program and marketing coordinator at Rabba Fine Foods, encourages students to take initiative and network during their time at school. Also serving as the Advertisement Manager at The Medium, Sharma says, “I’m lucky because [Rabba] is actually a great place to work, the maangement is very supportive of young individuals and students.”

Stephanie Myhal, an arts and culture supervisor at the City of Mississauga, specialized in arts at U of T and her goal was to become an art teacher.

When she graduated, however, there were no jobs. Because she had an English minor, she was asked to teach ESL. “Then, the job at the city opened to hire art teachers [as a recruiter], so I couldn’t teach art but I could hire teachers to teach art, which was still a dream come true for me and worked out really well,” she said. Myhal is now working on special projects for the city. One of her main projects is Doors Open for Mississauga. She added that it is essential to keep the youth involved and engaged if we want to continuously grow.”

Money continued from page 16 Maharaj said, “You pay for the bond and on it is the value of it, which is the money that you will always get back.” The bond also has a coupon rate which tells you the per cent of interest you can get.

When the interest rate of the market fluctuates, it affects the price of the bond. If your bond’s coupon value is below the market interest rate, it is seen as less attractive, so the bond price will fall.

“If you’re going to invest, you need to be in it for the long run [...] buy and hold” says Radha Maharaj As Maharaj further elaborated, “For a mutual fund, you can buy ones that have different compositions of stocks.” Mutual funds fall into different categories, such as a balanced mutual fund that has a mix of aggressive and safe stock options. Altogether, the volatility of the aggressive stocks can balance out with the security of the safe stocks. Mutual funds are run by a fund manager and each has a different investment policy.

According to Maharaj, if you are a

serious investor, not every stock may necessarily be good for you depending on your financial profile, lifestyle, and time frame. “Even though it’s a good return, it may not work with your goals.”

Maharaj added that before you try any investing, you should always have some money secured in case of an emergency in the short-term.

She also stated that investing is a form of gambling. “You need to be willing to lose that money.” said Maharaj. According to her, if you decide to go on the stock market, you want to buy shares of stocks that are safe and what people will always need, such as food, water, and utilities. When you have built up a larger money base and are secure in your savings, you can go after some more aggressive stocks.

Maharaj also said you need to hold your stocks, “If you’re going to invest you need to be in it for the long run.

You have to buy and hold” The longer you hold, she said, the more return you will have because the stock market oscillates with time.

Above all, Maharaj emphasized that each person’s financial goals and styles are personalized, and it is up to the student to create good spending and budget habits along with finding stocks or mutual funds that fit our financial profile, all the while knowing when to take risks or not.

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Talk your way to better mental health The HCC teamed up with Bell to host their own Let’s Talk UTM day last Wednesday in the CCT Atrium AMRISH WAGLE S&H ASSOCIATE EDITOR

On Wednesday, January 31st, Bell hosted their annual Let’s Talk Day and the whole nation answered the call. Every interaction was worth five cents. Interactions on social media and usage of Bell’s text and call services yielded the company donating a total of almost $7 million to mental health awareness and research. Coinciding with this initiative, UTM’s Health and Counselling Centre hosted the Let’s Talk UTM event to amplify this message of refining mental health through candor sharing and human affection.

The core purpose of this particular event was to expose the crippling stigma that inhibits almost two-thirds of individuals affected by mental illness from seeking help. Guided by this logic, HCC’s Wellness Ambassadors sought to establish an inclusive environment, encompassed by various organizations and resources available to a UTM student, proving that this campus is a space for open conversation and support pertaining to mental health. One of the organizations included the International Education Centre that attempts to tailor the education system for UTM’s global students, and operates in a holistic

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The centre of attraction of the Let’s Talk UTM event was the Stories of Resiliency exhibit. approach to meet everyone’s diverse needs. Their table included arts and crafts for students to design their own flag, or any other cultural symbol, which was subsequently posted over a wall to represent UTM’s multicultural diversity. As well, the Centre of Student Engagement appeared with the most interactive table of the event.

Students received the opportunity to mix water, soil, seeds and a hint of

miracle growth into a flowerpot, that they could subsequently take home and allow the plant to fully grow.

The Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre also showcased their services of developing and nurturing students’ academic skills, including writing and math. Other organizations present include the Office of the Registrar that serve as tourist guides of UTM’s academia, and ergo support students in

their conundrums pertaining to GPA, finance and tuition, courses, and academics in general.

The HCC had their own tables for promoting their mindfulness meditation program. The program includes free drop-in classes available to all students and requires no experience, commitment, or registration. However, the most vital table at the event stationed a mental health nurse for

Q&A, as well as allowed students to write insightful or supportive messages on a poster that were thereafter hung over a board. Some of these are still hung outside the RAWC Gym A/B. This aggregation of messages exhibits the deep consensus of the UTM campus to place a necessary and critical spotlight on mental health awareness. The event also offered some caffeine for students to grab in the morning, as well as a free self-care bag and a Bell Let’s Talk toque.

The centre of attraction was definitely the Stories of Resiliency photo exhibit. Portraits of UTM students were displayed at the centre of the event with a quote pertaining to an important message each one of them had about mental health. It was a heartfelt collage that illuminated the event’s highlight of mental health awareness. The Wellness Ambassadors also compiled a short video on their website of UTM students proclaiming what mental health means to them in their own words.

The main theme of the event was that talking is the most effective prescription for sustaining mental health. Words are the bridges that lead to a healthier mind and body.

Best encompassed in Dalai Lama’s own words: “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”

Diving into a healthier lifestyle today Swimming provides a multitude of perks to one’s health, such as improved cardio and muscle strength KAYVAN AFLAKI Swimming is an activity with several physical and mental health benefits.

In all forms of swimming, the participant remains supine and floating in a body of water. They coordinate the movement of several muscles of the body with a rhythmic breathing pattern to propel themselves a particular distance. There are several methods by which this can be performed called strokes. Strokes that are recognized in the realm of sport include the front stroke, the backstroke, the breaststroke, and the butterfly.

Evidence of recreational swimming in prehistoric times has been found, with the earliest evidence dating to carbon-dated stone age wall paintings from some 10,000 years ago.

Some of the earliest references to swimming date back to the ancient Greek texts, The Iliad and The Odyssey, and ancient Japanese scriptures from the first century BCE. However, it wasn’t until the early 19th century in England that swimming emerged as a competitive recreational activity,

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Swimming has many physical, as well as mental, health benefits. and until 1886 where swimming was included in the world’s first Olympic games in Athens, Greece.

Swimming is a workout that can be done throughout one’s lifetime

primarily because it’s amendable to the abilities of the participant. For high performance athletes, swimming can serve as an opportunity to build endurance, muscle strength,

and cardiovascular fitness. The rhythmic and fixed intake of air with each stroke promotes greater lung capacity.

The natural density of water replaces weights that would traditionally be re-

quired for resistance training on land.

The repeated activation of muscle groups all over one’s body require the heart to pump harder to send more oxygen and blood to working tissues.

The increased pumping strengthens one’s heart muscle, thereby improving an individual’s cardiovascular conditioning. Among the key muscle groups worked by almost all strokes are the deltoids and upper back muscles, the core abdominal muscles and obliques, the glutes, quadriceps, the hamstring, the pectoral muscles, and latissimus dorsi.

Swimming can be also regarded as a low-impact workout that confers several mental health benefits.

For the casual swimmer, a few laps, when done leisurely in a community pool, or even a lake by the cottage, can provide a chance to unwind from the daily grind of school and work. It can also serve as a social experience when arranged with friends or simply with fellow swimmers. Swimming can also be a pleasant way to cool down on a hot summer’s day.

Swim continued on page 19

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The benefits MMA fighting: an art of swimming MMA fighting requires immense amounts of hard work and training

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Swimming is ideal for those experiencing chronic pain.

Swim continued from page 18 The US Census Bureau reports that only two hours per week of aerobic physical activity, such as swimming, can significantly reduce one’s risk of developing several chronic illnesses.

Akin to other forms of physical activity, swimming has been closely tied to improved cognitive function, a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a lower risk of developing high blood pressure, and a lower risk of experiencing a stroke. Swimming offers a low-impact therapy for individuals with several injuries and conditions. Individuals with chronic heart complications are among the foremost group to benefit from swimming. The heart beats an estimated 17 times less per minute when compared with working out on land, according to a report by the American Council

on Exercise. However, the cardiovascular benefits are nearly comparable to activities like cycling and jogging.

Swimming is an ideal exercise for those experiencing chronic pain in the knee, ankle, and hip during highimpact exercises, such as running, or due to arthritis.

It is important to consider that the deep-seated mental and physical benefits that come with swimming can be achieved by anyone of any level or skill. For the inexperienced and novice, capitalizing on the health gains of swimming begins by consulting a certified swim instructor at a local community centre or private pool. Taking this first step, although challenging and even frightening, can ultimately mean adopting a major lifestyle change towards good physical health and mental wellness.

UFC refers to Ultimate Fighting Championship. It started in 1993 as a professional mixed martial arts organization offering elite-level fights.

The sport of mixed martial arts involves the use of unarmed combat.

According to UFC rules and regulations, unarmed combat refers to any form of competition where a blow is struck which, under reasonable circumstances, would be expected to result in injury. It allows for a combination of techniques from different disciplines of the martial arts, including grappling, submission holds, and striking.

MMA regulations, as seen in the UFC, incorporates aspects of other types of sport competitions. For instance, bouts are evaluated and scored by three judges and competitors are divided up into classes based on their weight. The classes range from the strawweight class to the super heavyweight class, similar to regulations governing the sport of boxing implemented by the World Boxing Federation.

The UFC also implements a multitude of safety regulations to protect the players relating to equipment and activity. All contestants are required to wear a mouthpiece during competition and must be approved

by the attending physician before the round can begin. The female mixed martial artists wear a chest protector and the males wear a groin protector during competition, while all competitors wear gloves, approved by the commissioner. Shoes and any form of foot padding is prohibited during a competition.

Being an MMA fighter requires hard work, dedication, and a high level of physicality necessary to become proficient in the multiple disciplines of combat training, which is required before being allowed to compete in a bout. According to UFC regulations, MMA fighters can incorporate elements of a variety of combat sports, such as boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kyokushin Karate, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, and multiple types of wrestling, including freestyle, and Judo.

The UFC estimates almost all MMA fighters are first trained in boxing to develop their striking skills, although some techniques are modified to enable MMA fighters to better protect their torso.

The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation explains that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu focuses on grappling and ground fighting. It is also a popular system of self-defence because it allows an individual to subdue a larger opponent with little to no strength.

The UFC incorporates taekwondo and Muay Thai, both styles which

focus on kicking techniques. According to World Taekwondo, the emphasis on kicking results from the belief that the leg is the strongest limb with the greatest reach. As such, its use allows for strikes while remaining out of reach of their opponent, which is why the techniques are favoured by MMA fighters.

According to the UFC, MMA fighters usually train in one or more types of wrestling because getting the opponents shoulders to touch the mat, known as a fall, is an automatic win in the bout. It also helps teach fighters who prefer to avoid wrestling the best methods to stay on their feet.

The UFC emphasizes the mental and emotional motivations of fighters as a critical component of success. Fighters must have the necessary drive to withstand and recover from their extreme physical exertion, not only in bouts, but in training as well.

While there continues to be a debate about whether MMA fighting should be considered a sport or not, regardless of where you stand on the qualification of MMA fighting as a sport, it is undeniable that MMA fighting and training is a full body workout. In the UFC, rising to the top is a full-time job requiring optimal levels of physical fitness, mental fitness, and body control.

The truth about sleeping disorders Sleeping disorders can affect a person’s life drastically which is why it is important to get the necessary help LABINA KHALID STAFF WRITER

Emily Lockhart writes about 8 common sleep-associated disorders in her article, “8 Common Sleep Disorders.” They include, Obstructive Sleep Apnea Disorder (OSAD), Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, Jet Lag, Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder, Narcolepsy, Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Syndrome, Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS), and Sleepwalking.

Sleepwalking is considered a parasomnia disorder. Both an article in WebMD and in HealthLine explain that other parasomnia disorders include nightmares, night terrors, sleep talking, “confusional” arousal, groaning, nightmares, bedwetting, teeth grinding, or jaw clenching.

An article on ACCQ Sleep Labs’ website adds other disorders to the list. These include Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS), Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD), REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder, Insomnia, and Circadian Rhythm Disorder. Persistent or continued form of jet lag and may worsen due to usage of digital devices at sleeping hours. The disorders lead to 24/7 fatigue, laziness, and lack of motivation. They may even cause irritation and frustration along with

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The causes of sleep disorders include physical pain or psychiatric disorders. drowsiness.

According to Lockhart, OSAD is a condition where breathing in the upper airways is temporarily blocked during sleep. This causes an interrupted sleep throughout the night due to loud, labored snoring, and stressful sleep. This results in severe daytime drowsiness, depression, moodiness, and an inability to concentrate during the waking hours.

OSAD is closely associated with another syndrome called UARS. They both are similar in respect to blockage of breathing.

Lockhart next talks about Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD) and Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder (APSD). DSPD is when patients experience difficulty waking up in the morning. It affects a person’s biological clock. The body no longer syncs

with normal required hours of sleep.

It is impossible for the diagnosed individual to wake up even with an alarm clock or with someone waking them up. APSD is the exact opposite of DSPD; individuals with this condition lose the need to sleep. Their biological clock sets to rise earlier than it should. ASPD is most common in seniors and is often linked to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Lockhart believes narcolepsy is one of the most dangerous disorders. The patients get “sleep attacks” at any time of the day. It does not matter where they are what they are doing. It can happen during conversing, walking, driving, climbing stairs, or working. The sleep attacks occur without warning and can occur despite a good sleep at night.

Narcolepsy causes a dysfunction in the brain mechanisms that manage sleeping and waking.

The ACCQ sleep labs website adds more to Lockhart’s explanation on Narcolepsy. They state that, “Other classic symptoms of narcolepsy include: cataplexy (sudden loss of muscle function), sleep paralysis (inability to talk or move upon waking or falling asleep) and hypnagogic hallucinations (vivid, dream like episodes that occur as you are falling asleep).”

Another WebMD article talks about sleep cycles and how REM plays a role in narcolepsy. During the sleep cycle, the sleeper enters rapid eye movement (REM) stage about 90 minutes into sleep. An individual with narcolepsy experiences REM almost immediately in the sleep cycle. REM may also occur during the waking hours.

Sleep continued on page 20

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The different sleep disorders Sleep continued from page 19 In Lockhart’s article, she discusses another disorder known as Non-24Hour Sleep-Wake syndrome. This is when the sleeping period grows longer and longer. The biological clock sets to 25 hours or longer. This condition is mostly found in blind individuals as there is an absence of light cues. Lockhart also talks about Restless Sleep Syndrome (RLS). RLS causes a form of sensation in the lower legs. It may burn, ache, itch, twitch, or tingle upon falling asleep.

This condition is often found in middle-aged people, especially those who have a family history of RLS. RLS is often associated with periodic limb movement disorder.

An article on WebMD, “Causes of Sleep Problems,” and an article on HealthLine, “Sleep Disorders,” state the general causes of sleep disorders to be physical disturbances, such as ulcers pain, chronic pain, or nocturia; medical issues, such as asthma, allergies, or respiratory problems; psychiatric disorders, such as depression or anxiety; environmental issues, genetics, night shift work, medications, or aging.

HealthLine shares medical treatments for sleep disorders. These

treatments include sleeping pills, melatonin supplements, allergy or cold medication, medication for any underlying health issues, breathing device or surgery, or a dental guard for teeth clenching.

An article on WebMD, “Preventing Sleep Problems,” shares healthier options as a way of preventing sleep disorders. Incorporate more vegetable and fish, reduce the intake of sugar, reduce stress and anxiety via physical activity, create, and follow a sleep schedule, drink more water during the day and less at night, limit the caffeine, decrease tobacco and alcohol consumption, and eat low carbohydrate meals before bedtime.

This healthy lifestyle not only treats the sleeping disorders, but can also prevent them. For further prevention, people are encouraged to sleep on a comfortable bed in a dark and quiet room. Keep the temperature comfortable—not too hot and not too cold. Turn off all electronics and try to relax before going to bed. Reading a book, listening to music, or taking a shower can all help people relax. If you are in bed and cannot sleep, making a to-do list may also be beneficial.

A good night’s sleep will lead to a productive day.