OPENWIDE v. 19.4 XL

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*Interview with Astra Taylor Inside*

OPENWIDEZINE.COM

VOLUME 19, ISSUE 4

04-05: When a Holocaust survivor dies 06-08: Trashland 09-10: FIMS goes abroad pt.3 11-12: Deconstructing AOC 13-15: In Conversation with Jacqueline Lee-Tam 16: Ford’s in denial and we’re in debt

Western Life 17-19: Alumni Bios 20-21: In defence of Lady Godiva 22-23: Journalism can be a risky career choice, but I don’t care and neither should you.

24-27: An Interview with Astra Taylor

Creative 28: Easy Student Meals 29-30: An Interview with AI, the underdog USC slate of 2019

31-33:

In the Hands of Babesthe Youth Target of Juul electronic cigarettes

34-35:

I landed my dream job

E ditors Note

Brienna French editor-in-chief ZEHRA CAMILLERI managing editor VICKY QIAO world editor

Dearest contributors and readers, While you curl up with this issue, either with cake at our launch party or at home in your PJs, I want you to take the time to think about publications like Openwide mean to you, your community, and your university experience. Doug Ford recently introduced legislation that allows students to opt out of their ancillary fees, which is where funding for these publications comes from. These cuts will be a big blow to campus democracy, and I urge you to think about this as you enrol next year. This is my plea to every student impacted by Openwide and (other things like it), do not opt out of your auxilliary fees.

Otherwise, creative, critical, and student led voices will be silenced.

I would also like to congratulate Elisabeth Edwards, our incoming Editor-in-Chief. She’s an extraordinary journalist and leader, and I am excited to see how she furthers the publication. You’re in good hands!

Many thanks for the amazing year!

Brienna

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Front Cover Photo credit: Kewen Yan DISCLAIMER: the sole responsibility of this publication lies within its authors. Contents do not reflect opinions of the University Student’s Council of Western University (“USC”). The USC assumes no responsibility or liability for any error, inaccuracy, omission, or comment contained in this publication or for any use that may be made of such information by the reader.

BRIELLE GOULART A & E editor ELISABETH EDWARDS western life editor VICTORIA GIGUERE creative editor ANASTASIA INTOUNAS web editor NOAM LEVY graphics editor HANNAH AVIV graphics editor JILL HUANG DING graphics editor Brett Pech graphics assistant JESSICA IEZZI promotions MEGAN BISHOP promotions

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When A Holocaust Survivor Dies in 2018

//Hannah Aviv All opinions expressed in this article are solely representative of the author.

“All Jews Must Die” Robert Bowers screamed as he burst into a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed 11 people including a Holocaust survivor. The event shook the entire world as the words the shooter screamed were all too familiar. “All Jews Must Die.” These words could give any Jewish person chills, as they are what Adolf Hitler demanded when he and his Nazi army killed 6.1 million Jewish people between 1941 and 1945.

As a person who was raised Jewish in a very Jewish community, this event was really jarring to me. My Facebook feed was flooded with my friends, some of which who reside in Pittsburgh, posting about how the incident affected them.

I didn’t know how to comprehend this event. Anytime I try to post about something Jewish related, someone hops on to tell me I’m wrong or works to state false facts. In all honesty, I am scared to express my Judaism.

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This shooting also brings up two large-scale issues in the United States of America; one of which Canada faces too. The first and the most obvious: America has a gun control problem the second, We need to address and work towards abolishing antisemitism. Rose Mallinger, one of the victims of the

shooting, was a Holocaust survivor.

This woman survived Nazi torture and mistreatment where her life was at risk every single day, yet she was killed by an anti-semitic hate crime at the age of 97. Rose survived on little to no food, with rats in a tiny bunker, and abuse of all kinds everyday for years, to move to America as she was promised that America is the land of the great and she would be safe there. America, you have not only failed Rose, you have failed all Jewish people and all other minorities.

In 2018, the United States of America had 338 mass shootings. Given that there are only 365 days in a calendar year, America had a mass shooting almost every single day last year. The fact that the President of the United States still cannot admit that there is a gun problem, truly shows how blinded Americans are to the issue at hand.

Many Americans took to Facebook, to state that the shooting at the synagogue was not an act of antisemitism. When a man walks into a Jewish place of worship and announces “all Jews must die,” it is an act of antisemitism. When Jewish people are directly targeted simply because of their religion, it is antisemitism. And when your President is too caught up in his own bullshit to

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see that there is a gun problem in your country, you’re screwed.

Last year in Canada, hate crimes rose by 47% to a jarring 2,073, and 842 of those crimes were against religion; Antisemitism is the most common hate crime in Canada. It’s seen through micro-aggressions, stereotypes, and hate speech. For example, swastikas get drawn on the sidewalks of Jewish Day Schools in my area. Anti-Semitism is a real problem. Along with that, it is a problem at Western University.

On March 11, 2019, a student leader in Perth Hall, the building I Soph in, anonymously drew a Swastika on the whiteboard. When asking the person to remove it in our group chat, I was told that it was actually the Buddhist sign even though it was directly under a Star of David. I was told it was “fake news” and student ‘leaders’ (I don’t believe they deserve this title) told Campus Police that I was overreacting. Antisemitism is everywhere, it is where we least expect it. In that moment, I had never felt more alone in my life, and this is just one instance of antisemitism on campus.

When a Holocaust Survivor dies in 2018 from a mass shooting, we need to have an important discussion. Why

do we let these hate crimes occur so frequently? Why are we so desensitized to violence that when someone who survives one of the worst hate crimes in history dies in a shooting, we do not do anything to change laws and to prevent it from happening again? I am tired of this narrative. I am tired of seeing people die from gun violence. And I am scared to be Jewish in a world where being so is hated. We need change and we need it now.

I never want to hear the phrase “All Jews Must Die,” yet it echoes in my head.

I think about the synagogue shooting almost every day. It could have easily been me, it could have easily been my family or my friends. I should not be at risk of death for my faith and religion and neither should anyone else.

I will always remember the victims of that shooting and I will always mourn the loss of the 6.1 million Jewish people during the Holocaust.

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Trashland openWIDE// WORLD

When you think about fashion photography, I bet you do not picture models wearing secondhand clothes in a scrap metal yard, surrounded by thrown-away household items. When I came across the idea of doing a fashion photo shoot with “garbage,” I threw ourselves over it (get it?). Simply put, I wanted to create a culturejammed project to spark a different conversation on fashion.

leaving myself with an abundance of unnecessary things. Japanese Organizing consultant Marie Kondo encourages her fans to let go of everything that no longer “sparks joy” in life. I could donate my clothes, but I knew if I don’t change my unhealthy relationship with material things, I would be in this same situation in another 6 months.

individuals and positively impacts the environment. After months of coordinating and planning, we created this photoshoot titled ‘Trash Land Rebels’ with Goodwill’s support. Our shoot focuses on the recycling of earth’s resources, including both thrifted clothing and discarded metals.

Instead of chasing after fashion We fail to make the connection trends, finding a style that suits between our closet and our my personality, my values, and my We live in a materialistic world environment. Besides its budget is much more important that is constantly feeding us environmental impact, clothing to me. Through thrifting, I have the next fashion trend and the production consumes huge developed a much more healthy newest gadgets, as if they are the quantities of natural resources like and sustainable relationship with solution to our happiness and the fresh water, affecting the ecosystems material things. Support ethically ultimate expression of love. We and human health. Donating to produced clothing, try a clothing are conditioned to manage our charitable second-hand stores such swap with your friends or a emotions and connections through as Goodwill Industries does help weekend DIY project to upcycle material things: buying gifts for bring items to a new home, but we what you have into something new. friends and family, upgrading also need to know that 80 – 90% Be a rebel in the age of fast fashion! possessions to celebrate success, of donated clothing does not get using retail therapy to cope with sold. According to a report by CBC, Location: John Zubick Limited negative feelings, etc. And as soon about $173 million of second-hand Scrap Metals and Recycling as the brief surge of dopamine is clothing donated by Canadians Photographers: Caylin Sun and gone, we start our search for finding were sold in foreign countries, Kewen Yan the next wonderful thing. often developing nations, putting Models: Vicky Qiao and Brienna local textile industries in difficult French The media that surrounds us situations.

Sponsored by: Goodwill Industries also contribute to our growing impatience and boredom (i.e.

With Brienna French, Vicky Qiao Instagram feeds and email and Kewen Yan, we put together subscriptions). Too often, we buy a photoshoot to break the stigma new clothes not because we really of second-hand shopping. We need them, but because we are decided to pitch our idea to bored with what we have. I, too, was Goodwill Industries - a social guilty of obsessing over trends and enterprise that believes empowering 6 //v.19.4

Let’s Talk Trash! openWIDE// WORLD

//CAYLIN SUN

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My Exchange to Hong Kong // Cory Hollister de Melo

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get up early in the morning. I wake my mom up. I make myself a quick breakfast. I load my stuff into the car. I get in the passenger seat. I play some music in the car as I drive into the sunrise. I arrive at the airport. I go through security. I wait for the boarding call. I get on the airplane. I put my carry-on under the seat in front of me. I look out the window as the plane slowly loads. I stare forward as we depart and I think to myself, “holy shit.”

That’s when it hit me: I was going to spend 5 months away from home, away from anybody I knew. “What the fuck am I doing?” I get a short anxiety attack, thinking maybe this isn’t the brightest plan after all. I realize I don’t have any friends there to greet me upon my arrival, and a feeling of regret overcomes me within 3 minutes after my departure.

I calm myself down, knowing there was no turning back at this point. I begin looking at the glass half full by viewing this exchange as a chance to reset: it is an opportunity to drop my anxieties at Western and embrace new friendships. It is now time to sit back and try to enjoy this 14-hour journey as much as possible.

It wasn’t until my 2nd morning in Hong Kong that I met someone I could truly call my friend. I was a hungover wreckage, but that didn’t stop me from thinking to hang out with this guy I had just been introduced to. I got downstairs to talk to him, and quickly realized he was in most of my classes. Any remaining anxiety vanished as I made my first friend. v.19.4// 9

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oon after, he asked me to go grab a beer. In his laidback voice, he told me something so small but weighed significantly on my exchange experience: “You know, you don’t have to be friend with everyone on exchange. You don’t have to be mean to anyone or anything, but you can actually pick who you want to spend your time with.” It is weird how I always kind of knew this, but just needed someone else to say it to me to validate it.

This was a turning point in my exchange experience - I started prioritizing people who made me happy.

Thereon, I was happy… for the most part.

To be honest, it wasn’t all good times. I felt lonely very often, and I felt socially anxious meeting new people as I often do. Being in a foreign place with strangers may sound exciting at first but it can be tough. Instagram and Facebook make exchanges seem glamorous but for some, including myself, it really isn’t a 24/7 choo-choo express of happiness. You get times where you miss your friends at home, and times you can’t call your proudest moments. Also WOW does it suck to be connected (online) with your friends back home while also feeling completely disconnected from them.

Going on exchange to Hong Kong was a privilege afterall. I faced hardships, but I also learned a lot about another culture, other people, and myself. I made lasting friendships and explored a whole lot of places. My advice to anyone going on exchange? Be a partial yes-person. Say yes to opportunities as they come, but remember to reserve some me-time for yourself. Don’t go on exchange expecting all the Instagram-painted glamour you’ve seen. Wait for the good people and good times (don’t force them), and they’ll come eventually.

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Where am I now, you ask? I’m riding economy class on the 24/7 choo-choo express of happiness, waiting for more good times to come here at home in Canada.

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It’s just like, too much…

Me, you, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

I

//Lena Gahwi

don’t think you can overstate the sheer hilarity of the current Republican news coverage of American Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Apparently, she dresses too nicely, she wears too much red lipstick, she cares too much about her skincare routine, she pays her staff too much. AOC is a hypocrite, she claims she couldn’t afford the move to Washington but if that were true, how would she be able to afford blazers???????????????????

In a recent New York Post article, entitled Gas-guzzling car rides expose AOC’s hypocrisy amid Green New Deal pledge, published March 2, 2019; the authors state that AOC spent, “…$29,365.70 on those emissionsspewing vehicles, along with car and van rentals — even though her Queens HQ was a one-minute walk to the 7 train.” They argue that this is proof that AOC fails to live the life she advocates for, they give the example of her cooking on a live stream and not composting the potato skins she peeled. And if you are anything like me, the only question you can ask yourself is “are you f****** kidding me?”

Can you imagine working yourself to the bone as a poor woman of colour; getting nominated in a New York district, beating out a Democrat who had been in office for 20 years; getting elected to Congress as one of the youngest women ever, AND YOU ARE CHASTISED FOR NOT COMPOSTING POTATO SKINS? (Composting is very important of course, I am not trying to diminish that.)

The fact of the matter is that there is no space for critical women’s voices in government. Representatives like AOC, Ilham Omar, or Canada’s Niki Ashton, are carving out these spaces by hand and it is a bloody process. They are not welcome there, they are not wanted for anything other than a photo op. Their efforts and opinions are often trivialized and disregarded.

I am not really interested in talking about the Green New Deal, and more importantly, I don’t think that issue matters all that much when it comes to this article. For example, the only direct AOC quote included in the article mentioned above is the following, ‘We’re like, ‘The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,’ ‘the progressive darling said in January, speaking of herself and her fellow millennials. ‘And, like, this is the war; this is our World War II.’

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Despite all of the truth spoken in that quote, the intention with which this quote was chosen is very telling. The New York Post would like us all to think that young women are stupid, they say "like" a lot. For some reason, that is enough to disregard legitimate critiques and opinions expressed in stereotypically feminine vernacular.

Young women and femme identifying and presenting individuals face an unfair disadvantage when it comes to participating in political life. They are held to a standard far above those of their peers or superiors. The current president most likely can’t locate his own nation on a map, and yet AOC is seen as incompetent when she fails to speak in a way deemed professional (*masculine but not too masculine*).

The expectations for young women in politics is incredibly unrealistic, and every interaction they have within mainstream politics, including their interactions with media outlets, bombard them with the message that they are out of place and unwelcome. This is why young women are less likely to run for office, this is why they are hesitant.

A false binary is perpetrated between skincare routines and foreign policy. These issues are viewed as irreconcilable within the mind of one individual. The feminine has historically been placed as the antithesis to the powerful, and this remains to be a reality. This has an implication on how women view themselves, and where they derive their strength from. I alongside many of my classmates, often begin a question in a class by apologizing. I often question my own expertise on issues I have spent my entire undergraduate career exploring.

This is a dehumanizing experience, but moreover, it is wildly incongruent with my abilities and vast amount of knowledge. I say all of this because it is no surprise that AOC is discredited with every decision and move she has made. This is how women and femme identifying individuals are treated in every avenue of their lives.

This is how women are treated in the classrooms of our own universities. The pattern is recreated at all levels of interaction with the world around us.

I am writing this article, partly because I am frustrated. Partly as a call to every woman, femme, or transindividual, person of colour, anyone, and everyone outside and critical of the status quo to please, please, run for office.

However, more importantly, I write this to AOC; to my mom; to my lovely best friend; to my dear Women’s Studies Student Collective; my colleagues in the struggle working for the Gender Equality Network on campus; every woman and femme identifying person in my International Relations classroom; and anyone else that needs to hear it. To them, I have three requests, 1. Never apologize for taking up space, or speaking, 2. Speak in any way you like, 3. Remember that you are in fact an expert, and you have a right to be one.

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In Conversation with Jacqueline Lee-Tam:

On Pipelines, Empathy, and Climate Justice // Vicky Qiao

I

n May 2018, the federal government of Canada announced its decision to purchase Trans Mountain Pipeline from Kinder Morgan to complete the pipeline’s expansion. The expansion would mean a seven-fold increase of the existing oil traffic - 250 commercial vessels per month. This would significantly increase the chance of major marine oil spills, which has always been dramatically underestimated by the oil and pipeline industry. Refer to Globe & Mails piece “Weigh Anchor” for a visual/ informational explanation of the project1.

Three months later, the federal court would overturn the approval of the pipeline expansion and the project would be subjected to a one-year delay. The specific stop-order was won through the legal challenge led

by Tseil-Waututh Nation, filed against the National Energy Board for unjustified, “exclusion of marine shipping from the scope of the project” (Federal Court of Appeal). The expansion project, however, was already delayed by over a year due to other legal challenges and protests. Activism from local communities in British Columbia was a major factor that contributed to the successful delay. People were protesting on the street, disrupting ground operations, and filing legal cases against Kinder Morgan and the National Energy Board (which is mainly made up by oil executives, not surprisingly). Many youth activists participated in these grass root initiatives and fought against these institutional powers. Jacqueline Lee-Tam was one of them.

Lee-Tam joined this resistance against the Trans 1

Mountain Pipeline as part of the Watch House Project in summer 2018. She joined the Indigenousled resistance to the pipeline, spending time at Kwekwecnewtxw, also known as The ‘Watch House,’ a traditional Coast Salish longhouse that has historically been used to watch over the enemy. The Watch House was built at the gates of Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Terminal and became a community hub for people who organize blockades. Blockading involves physically blocking working crews from entering pipeline sites, and it served as a crucial tactic in the delaying the Trans Mountain Project. Lee-Tam’s personal involvement at the watch house also included cleaning, cooking, and tending to a secret fire - a representation of the intergenerational fight against pipelines.

Having always been fond of nature, Jacqueline LeeTam’s environmental activism sparked at a young age. “I wanted to protect this space [nature] from degradation,” says Lee-Tam. During a debate on pipelines in the 9th Grade, she found herself writing a long list of arguments against the construction of pipelines, but unable to come up with any in support of them. Lee-Tam began getting involved in protests, and soon realized the power of people gathering together. In Grade 10, she participated in a protest against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project upon its approval by the Harper government.

Here, she caught media’s attention by being a “visual representation” of the project. Covered in tar-like paint with a bright, fearless smile on her face, Lee-Tam

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/kinder-morgan-trans-mountain-pipeline-bc-coast/ article35043172/)

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was widely featured in news coverage of the rally (June 2014).

Another powerful experience shared by Lee-Tam, besides her summer spent at the watch house, was her completion of a two-year program at Pearson College, a United World College. Located on the shores of Pedder Bay, south of Victoria and in the midst of a forest, the campus was cut off from urban life and celebrated diversity. Established as a peace school, the program comprised of 160 students representing 80 countries. It was designed to bring together students from different cultural backgrounds in order to, “make them encounter each other and overcome differences.”

Through this unique program, Lee-Tam saw the real impact of climate change in people’s lives. She met a friend from the Marshall Islands who will lose her home and face displacement if sea levels keep rising; a friend from Syria who lived through the immense atrocities of the Syrian war – a war partly galvanized by the prior sweep of droughts that saw mass migration to urban centres; a friend from Burundi who grew up in refugee camps after fleeing from political instability aggravated by the effects of climate change and resource scarcity. Hearing heartwrenching stories from these people, she was inspired by their resilience and saw the intersections of climate change in a global context.

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Last September, Lee-Tam traveled all the way to Montreal from Vancouver and became a student at McGill University, where she enrolled in Environmental Studies and Economics. Lee-Tam was surprised that a lot of the people she encountered on the East Coast had little knowledge of Kinder Morgan and other pipeline projects. This lack of awareness is tied to the lack of coverage, as mainstream media fails to adequately inform the public about issues that are critical to our environment and to the lives our fellow citizens. Corporations often have influence over the selection and framing of media content, filtering out conversations that do not serve their financial interest.

Similar to news outlets, universities are also subjected to corporate influence. It is common for universities to invest in big oil and gas companies. This is why Lee-Tam is became a member of Divest McGill, a group that pushes the university divest from unethical investment funds. McGill is one of few post-secondary institutions in Canada that is currently reviewing a divestment plan. Here at Western, the university is not only invested into oil corporations, but is also home to programs under the direct auspice of Yamana Gold, a mining corporation that has contributed to “significant environmental, health and stress impacts,” including cyanide spill and water contamination.”

(MiningWatch) University is where we expand our knowledge

and learn about social responsibilities; yet we are subject to involuntary supporting industries that are devastating the land and people we are taught to respect. Education, nor development, nor economic prosperity, should be obtained at the cost of the environment. “The environment and economics are always pinned against each other,” says Lee-Tam, “but that’s such a fallacy.” We live in a world where the greatest power is concentrated in the hands of the very few, one that is, “in need of radical change.”

Young people are fighting for that change. Recently, 16-year old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunburg gained media spotlight and ignited a global movement. She started the #FridaysForFuture protests and encourages school children around the world to walk out of class to rally. The youths are rising for our future and there is great power in their actions.

I feel that power in Jacqueline Lee-Tam’s gentle, but undaunted voice. “We are all humans with stories,” she encourages all to value the fundamental connections we share and to recognize the intersections between all kinds of justice - race, gender, environmental, etc. “When you’re fighting for climate justice, you’re not only fighting for reductions in greenhouse gas emission,” says Lee-Tam, “everything is interconnected… know that you kind of have the obligation to show up and use your privilege to help others.”

Land Recognitions Vancouver is located on the unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations; Montreal (Tio’tia:ke) is located s on the unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Huron-Wendat, Iroquois, and Mohawk First Nations. Tio’tia:ke is historically known as a meeting place for many First Nations including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg Nations.

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Ford’s in Denial We’re in Debt How changes to OSAP are affecting students and their financial futures //Elisabeth Edwards

Since Doug Ford assumed office at Queens Park in June 2018, the PC’s have set to work mending the province’s approximately $15 billion-dollar deficit. Complete shutdowns of the Green Energy Act, Cap-and-Trade programs, and safe injection sites have worked against Liberal ideology while Ford points at the most arbitrary (and most needed) sectors, hoping to drastically reduce spending. Now, Ford has put students on the chopping block in perhaps the most impactful moves by his administration so far.

As university students were settling in to their first week of second semester, the Ford government set to work unrolling their plans for massive cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP). Scraping free tuition to students from low-income households and reducing the qualifying yearly income cap for applicants from $175,000 to $140,000. However, the Ford government also promises a 10% cut to tuition fees starting September 2019, taking roughly $360 million away from universities and $80 million from colleges (Jeffords 2019).

In fact, logging into the OSAP website users are now greeted with a friendly advertisement: “Did you know: Starting September 2019, going to college and university in Ontario will be more affordable thanks to a 10% tuition reduction for Ontario students” (OSAP 2019). The Ford administration flaunts their financial reform as an essential step towards reconciling the debt they believe former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne dug Ontario into over her term, claiming the changes to OSAP will save the province billions while putting students with the most financial need first.

Many disagree with these changes, claiming that Fords plan will do more to sabotage students than support them. Ontario’s chair for the Canadian Federation of Students Nour Alideeb is one of the many young people to question the authenticity of Ford’s concern for students. The PC’s changes to the program means low-income students would no longer be guaranteed free tuition and grants, forcing them into taking loans and threatening their financial security for years to come.

A 2017 report from Global News claims that according to the Canadian Student Loan Program, it takes the majority of students 10 years to pay off their student debt. Now, under new legislation, that number could rise exponentially (Abedi 2017). The outcry from students across the province has been an inspiring movement, one that will hopefully continue to represent our generation as one that will not stand for injustice and oppression. *Look for the coupon (see reverse) 16 //v.19.4

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FIMSSC Career Conference Alumni Bios In January 2019, FIMSSC hosted its annual ‘FIMS Career Conference,’ an event exclusive to fourth year students. Every year they host a group of impressive alumni as speakers, and this year was no exception. Here is a compilation of some of the speaker bios from this years event, to demonstrate what you can do with your MIT, MPI, or MTP degree, but to also persuade those of first to third year that this is an event worth attending, when your time comes:

Angie

Angie Campanelli graduated FIMS in 2003 and has worked in media every day since. From Canadian lifestyle shows and red carpets to Huffington Post and documentary films, she’s totally submersed in MIT every day. She’s now transitioned into digital media, teaching, consulting and blogging.

Alex Paterson (MPI 2008) is the Executive Director of Canada 2020, Canada’s leading independent progressive think tank. He advises progressive organizations and political leaders across Canada and in the UK, Germany, France and the US. He holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Carleton and following graduation from FIMS, worked as a producer for CBC News, a communications strategist for Greenpeace, and a digital consultant for the Liberal Party of Canada. While at Western, he was an MIT Soph, wrote for the Gazette, and served as FIMSSC President, and Theatre Western Coordinator.

Kevin

Alex

Kevin Hurren is a former speechwriter for Ontario’s 25th Premier, Kathleen Wynne, as well as a senior communications advisor for members of her cabinet. Prior to entering politics he worked as a freelance journalist, with bylines appearing in Maclean’s, Metro and NBS, as well as in non-profit communications. Currently he’s an independent writing consultant based in downtown Toronto, with clients across the business, education and entertainment sectors. He is also former chair of the Ontario Public Service Pride Network, and still writes on LGBT issues for IN Magazine.

Hurren graduated from Western University with an honours specialization in MIT, a minor in writing and a certificate in communications and public relations.

Lia Karidas holds a BA Honours in Media, Information & Technoculture, and an MA in Popular Music & Culture from Western.

Life after FIMS led her steadfastly toward the live entertainment industry, where she has spent the last decade as a “Jill of all trades.”

Having worked in fundraising, event coordination, project management and marketing, Lia has supported the “biz” side of “show biz” in its many forms. Currently residing in Montreal, she is a senior marketing coordinator for Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group.

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Liisa

Liisa Sheldrick is a certified Communications Management Professional (CMP) and the marketing operations manager for the Industrial and Safety Markets Centre at 3M Canada.

She joined 3M in 2010 and currently leads a team responsible for the company’s industrial channel marketing and operations. For nearly 20 years Liisa has concentrated her strengths and skills on generating ideas and revenue, inspiring action to reach goals and solve problems, focusing on the future and building capacity in others.

Rebecca Ford has spent 8 years in the video game industry. She currently is Director of Community and Live Operations at Digital Extremes, mastering all things digital and online for video games.

Rebecca

Laura

Laura Mallozzi is a digital marketer with a passion for interactive media and a knack for problem solving. She started her career agency-side, creating content strategies for Dairy Queen Canada and The Home Depot. She moved client-side in 2016 to work with the newly formed Digital team at McDonald’s. She recently joined the Performance Marketing team at KFC where She leads Digital Media, CRM, Local Store Marketing, Direct Mail, and Digital Couponing initiatives. Last year, she was recognized as Bronze Winner in the Globe and Mail’s Canadian Young Marketers Competition. Outside of work, she enjoys kickboxing, Instagramming (@forthefoodblog) and travelling.

Spencer Daniels is a Senior Product Manager with the Ontario Digital Service – an exciting new area in the Ontario government committed to transforming the way that people interact with government. He’s committed to connecting people, ideas and organizations to better understand user needs and build the right solutions. He believes that software, like people, is always a work in progress.

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Jasmine

Jasmine Irwin is a MPI graduate from the class of ‘13. After working for Western USC as the Vice President Communications on their 13/14 Executive, she worked as the Director of Communications for the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. She then got a job with the Liberal government at Queen’s Park, serving Deputy Premier Deb Matthews as a Legislative Assistant and Press Secretary, and then Minister Mitzie Hunter as a Policy Advisor.

She is now completing her MA in Political and Legal Thought at Queens University (but don’t hold it against her).

In Ryan Louis’ professional career he has produced and developed editorial, co-branded and white-label content for print, online, television and events. He has worked with car brands, charities, food brands, home design stores, electronics companies, and banks.

Ryan currently works at Vice as a project manager in the integrated production department. He oversees the execution of sponsored videos and articles that merge the Vice tone and style with clients’ brand messages. Previously he worked at House & Home Media as a producer on a small team who developed and ran a profitable video site. Ryan also worked in the creative services department on sponsored print pieces and branded events. He is currently an instructor at University of Toronto teaching multimedia storytelling.

Tyler

Ryan

Tyler Buist is the digital producer for CBC News Network’s Power & Politics, the highest-rated daily political news show in Canada.

Since graduating from Western (BA ‘12, MAJ ‘13) he has held several positions in CBC’s parliamentary bureau covering provincial, federal and international elections as well as the day-to-day political moves that affect Canadians. In his current role, Tyler is helping to shape Power & Politics’ digital strategy and increase the show’s online and social output by telling stories in unique ways to fit a variety of platforms.

Monica Eden Rossa started her tenure with Beattie Tartan in Canada almost a decade ago. Monica leads Beattie Tartan’s Toronto office and works with clients like Dallas Green, The Yacht Week, FOOi, Crombie REIT and VanHack. She’s a seventime award-winning public relations director with experience in consumer, lifestyle, wine and spirits, technology, and entertainment. She’s a fearless, solution-oriented thinker with an entrepreneurial eye on team collaboration and growth. Monica earned a M.Sc. from New York University, a Bachelor of Arts and Certificate in Digital Communications: Social Media & Virtual Worlds from the University of Western Ontario, and a Level 2 Award in Wines & Spirits from London’s Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

Monica

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openWIDE// WESTERN LIFE

In Defense of

Lady Godiva //LG

Submitted to both the Purple Arm and Openwide

W

hen the faculty painted over the new mural of Lady Godiva painted on the inside of the Undergraduate Engineering Society doors, I was livid. I had a suspicion that the tastefully done, anatomically correct form was censored for one reason: ‘we don’t want to be known for misogyny! Western Engineering doesn’t drool over women’s bodies!’ Now, this thought could have been a knee-jerk reaction, but I realized that - while it is a famous work of art - the Vitruvian man (in all his naked, detailed glory) was on full display in a “public” area of the building. Around the same time, the cover of OPENWIDE zine featured a naked woman’s torso. Despite the paint covering the body, you could see nipple. Even the Gazette seemes to remain unpunished, with their annually published Sex Issue with typically NSFW photos. I had some FeelingsTM, but I knew that no matter how many opinion pieces I wrote, this issue would fall on deaf ears.

So LG, why are you bringing this up now? This summer, an incoming FIMS student attended Western’s Summer Academic Writing Clinic (SWAC).

At this clinic, one of the lecturers started to go off on a tangent on Lady Godiva - about how he was responsible for having the silhouette removed and how he was a good Ally™ to the feminist movement for doing so. Most of these incoming students were not in engineering and would not have the harmful stereotype that engineering is a ‘boys club’ corrected during O-week. In a recording of the clinic, I heard the lecturer boast about how his students in Engineering Communications were unable to in their written assignment to convince him of the importance of Lady Godiva to the culture (and women) of Western Engineering. A second year student in a beginner

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Figure 1. The silhouette of Lady Godiva, circa 2013. Not only was this mural painted over, but a photo of the mural has been censored from the Purple Arm for fear of administration

writing course likely does not have the knowledge, skill, inclination, nor responsibility to convince this Old White Man™ that he was, in fact, not correct.

This presentation left the incoming students with a first impression of engineers as illiterate misogynists - a stereotype that Women in Engineering and engineering schools across the board are desperately trying to dispel.

Well, my dude, how could you possibly understand that Lady Godiva acts as the only feminine figure for people in engineering to look up to? While there has been some movement to celebrate other innovators who were forgotten by history (ex.: Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr), Lady Godiva is taught to be someone that every single engineer can - and is expected to aspire to be; serving the public for no personal gain.

She is considered the ‘patron saint’ of engineering. For Lady Godiva, her position as a public servant comes first, a woman second, and her attire last. Engineers remember Lady Godiva as someone who was willing to give up her dignity - well beyond her lifespan - to serve and protect her people. An important fact that, almost a millennium later, has all but been forgotten.

She is not remembered or celebrated by lay people as anything more than a woman who rode naked on a horse (and who was an object in Peeping Tom’s origin

openWIDE// WESTERN LIFE

story). Engineering students keep her memory alive, seeing beyond the inaccurate “sex symbol” occasionally attributed to her. Her silhouette reminds us of her personal sacrifice, not as some weird, perverse obsession with the naked form of a woman. To imply so reduces Lady Godiva to her body and perpetuates the archaic idea that a woman’s worth is measured only by her body and the clothes she wears (or doesn’t wear).

UofT’s Skulepedia nicely sums up her symbolism to North American engineering schools: Godiva’s story is one of self-sacrifice and devotion to the benefit of society. She is the epitome of the character traits that are required of every Engineer.

She understood that her duty to her citizens was more important than her own feelings and desires.

Now, the Engineer’s integrity must be maintained because in this day and age, money is too often taking precedence over safety and public good.

She embodies the spirit of our noble profession, and we should take heart from her story to stand up for what is right in the face of adversity, instead of being passive spectators

As a final thought, there is no place in an engineer’s busy schedule for gendered judgement. Restricting the expression of women in engineering in this way has changed from “seen but not heard” to “exist, but don’t be seen or celebrated.” Thus continuing the decadesold tradition that women in engineering are engineers first and foremost, but never women; that we are simply “one of the boys,” “not like other girls,” and “can take a joke.” Perhaps the continued eschewing of modern “‘feminism’” by engineers is a product of administrations refusing to allow students to celebrate women, instead choosing to remind each batch of new students that a woman’s figure has no place in an engineering school.

Figure 2. The Front and Back covers of the OPENWIDE publication distributed in the UCC in 2013

v.19.4// 21

Journalism can be a

openWIDE// WESTERN LIFE

But I Don’t Care and

One night during the first year of my

undergrad, my apartment’s Wi-Fi went down and, out of desperation for free Internet at 11:30 p.m., I went to a nearby pub to finish an essay.

Surrounded by books and bent over my laptop with a pint close by, I managed to ignore the rowdy table next to me until one of its occupants detached from the group and approached me.

“What are you doing?” he slurred. I explained the situation.

“What program are you in?” he wanted to know.

“English,” I replied, bracing internally for this drunken stranger’s reaction.

“English!” he roared, looking over to his friends and gesturing excitedly. “She’s in English!” He turned back to me. “Listen, we were all in English too. We’re celebrating finally be fucking done!”

His eyes then went dark, and he leaned over conspiratorially. “Get out,” he said to me. “Change your major. The only thing you can do with an English degree is teach” – he pounded his fist on my table, shaking my pint – “or journalism. And trust me, YOU don’t want to be a journalist.”

Tired, cynical and full of self-doubt, my then 20-year-old self heeded the warning of a swaying young man whose face I now can’t even remember.

It’s one of the biggest regrets of my life.

I’ll reluctantly admit that I am a believer in fate and related cosmic signs, so I remember thinking to myself how eerily coincidental it was to be sitting in that booth that night.

There I was, toiling away at the beginning of my degree parallel from those who were looking back with resentment at the end of theirs, urging me not to make the same 22 //v.19.4

mistakes they did and go for a career I’d been considering. It was like a scene from a Greek play.

I convinced myself this was the universe’s way of confirming what I thought I already knew: there was no future in studying literature, and certainly there was nothing to be gained in aspiring to one day write for a living.

I’m not going to tell you that with some soulsearching and introspection, I immediately changed my mind and decided to apply myself as an English major, just to prove this jackass wrong. I’m sorry, but I’d be lying if I told you that thanks to bullheaded perseverance and the right moves, I now write profound, highprofile columns from my stylish loft in (blank) metropolitan city.

What I can tell you is that I used his words, and the words of a few others, as a reason to stop myself from trying new things and taking chances, and I shouldn’t have. Doing so meant missing out on countless opportunities that could have changed my life for the better.

When I started university, my confidence was already on shaky ground as a mature student and the first among my siblings to attempt a degree.

I had no idea how to navigate the system, let alone add extracurricular activities to my workload. I felt like I didn’t fit in anywhere.

In the term after the encounter at the pub, I somehow worked up the nerve to approach the doors of The Gazette’s office in the faint hope of volunteering as a writer. I stood at the threshold,

a Risky Career Choice

openWIDE// WESTERN LIFE

d Neither Should You

// Angela McInnes watching the paper’s bright young staff buzz throughout the newsroom, before promptly turning on my heel and walking away. I had gotten used to giving in to voices, inside and outside of my head, telling me there was no point in getting a degree in English, let alone trying for a career in journalism.

I dropped out of school not long after this.

I did go back, and I did finish, but I still told myself to rule journalism out of my post-grad options. After all, the industry was going through some significant shifts at that point and I needed something stable. I enrolled in a post-grad college program in public relations instead, because it wasn’t teaching, and it wasn’t journalism, but it was something that might lead to a job.

and now work full-time for that college paper where I got my start. After this I intend to make my way as a community reporter; nothing flashy or glamorous, but simply using my craft to tell important stories.

Fortunately, I can’t think of a more exciting time to be a journalist than right now.

The industry’s existence is going through constant changes and threats; even smallscale student publications are battening the hatches for perilous days ahead. It’s a precarious job and I can see why many would shy away from it like I first did. But trust me when I say that you should never turn away from doing what you believe in, or from pursuing the career path of your choice.

The hokey finale? Whatever the risk is, it’s always worth it so long as it makes you happy.

During this program, I took on a freelance position at the college’s paper as a film reviewer. I didn’t think much of it, but the paper paid per article and I needed money.

To earn more funds, I started writing some local news, and discovered I actually really liked it. This was several years after walking away from The Gazette without even giving it a chance.

To think of where I’d be now if I hadn’t denied myself that experience.

Eight years after the encounter at the pub, I applied and got into Western’s journalism program, for the sole purpose that journalism is something I enjoy and want to do, and I’m done listening to negativity from people who don’t even know me. I graduated in 2018

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openWIDE// ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

An Interview with Astra Taylor on her Documentary, ‘What is Democracy?’ //Brienna French Astra Taylor’s film ‘What is Democracy?’ debuted last year, with the coinciding book being released this May. I recently had the privilege of attending a screening of the film at King’s University College, where I met Astra, and she graciously agreed to interview for Openwide. ‘What is Democracy?’ applies Plato’s theoretical conceptions of philosophy to current phenomenons, such as wealth concentration and deterritorialization. This film is available for viewing online on the National Film Board's website.

Brienna French: What made you decide to film ‘What is Democracy?’

Astra Taylor: I started making the film ‘What is Democracy’ because that was a question that was sincerely on my mind. It was on my mind for two reasons. First, I was involved in economic justice organizing, and questioned how to combat concentrated economic power, so that of course brings up the question, can you even have a democracy in a society where wealth is incredibly concentrated? Where a handful of people own as much wealth as the bottom 50% of the population? So, that was on my mind. Then, I wrote a book called ‘The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age,’ which looked at the way new media also concentrates power and wealth, in the hands of Silicon Valley, tech companies, and investors. They had built their business models on the promise that they would democratize communications and society more broadly, which wasn’t happening. I was starting to ask the question, ‘what would a more democratic internet look like?’ These are the things that were percolating in my mind, and I thought film was an appropriate medium because I’ve made other philosophical movies. I really like the challenge of making a movie where instead of a person being the star, such as in a biopic, with a story of a famous illustrious person; I like this

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idea of ‘how do you make a film where an idea is the star?’ We live in a world of ideas, as well as humans. I think it’s a worthy and fascinating challenge, to try to shift our idea of what a character is, and what a story is.

BF: You briefly mentioned how the internet can be democratized, do you have an idea of how that could happen?

AT: The argument in the book is that the problem with the Internet, is that we pay way too much attention to change. There was this idea of an ‘Internet Revolution,’ how it’s exciting we can all comment, instead of just tuning in to the 500 channels on our cable box. We have to pay attention to continuity. The underlying continuities have to deal with the prevalence of advertising, the television channels, or those newspaper pages from the old model.

The advertising business model creates a lot of pathologies, especially when transferred into the digital space, because then it becomes not just about trying to sell you something, but becomes a whole architecture of surveillance, like behavioural targeting. I think if we want to democratize the internet, we have to change the business model. We have to think about roles for public media and public funding. We have to think about how we can take private data off of the commodity exchange, and make it into something that is either left alone, and keep things private, or made into something that’s only analyzed for the public good. I think there’s no democratizing communications without thinking about the material basis for them, and

openWIDE// ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

thinking about limiting the power of monopolies, and breaking up where a company controls multiple levels of the production and distribution. For example, the way Amazon has a web posting service, makes films and television shows, distributes them, and controls these real world distribution networks. It’s not just a monopoly in one field- it’s every level of the business process. We need to break up the sectors. My point in that book is that it’s not about the technology per say, it’s about the economic interests being served in them, and the profit motives underlying them.

BF: I’ve seen a lot of hyper-conservative Facebook ads lately, and I’ve been wondering why they’re targeting me with them! I think they would know at this point I am not conservative...

AT: I got targeted for a bacon sandwich the other day, and I was like ‘how many times have I typed the word vegan in here?’ Haha. I think those ads are still laughably bad on some level, which raises two problems. One, is this whole data marketing thing just a whole bubble founded on bullshit? There’s a really strong case to be made that that’s true, that a lot of it is hype. However, in my organizing, with a group called ‘the debt collective around issues of predatory lending,’ we saw that our members are targeted, they are disproportionately poor, oftentimes single mothers, oftentimes black and brown.

We see the kinds of ads they get targeted with, and they tend to be ads for discriminatory, often outright criminal financial products. Not even payday loans, but total scam services. I wrote a piece in the Nation a few years ago on this, called How ‘Companies Turn Your Facebook Activity Into a Credit Score.’ It can go from being ridiculous to scary pretty fast.

The film doesn’t have a lot of the internet in it, and in a way I’m trying to make the same kind of case about continuity and change. The problems of democracy didn’t begin with the election of Donald Trump, or with the advent of social media, but actually this material dimension- the problem with the divide between the rich and poor goes back to before capitalism! Back to Ancient Greece, to Renaissance Italy. The struggle between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ has been with us for a long time, and we have to face it.

BF: What was your favourite moment filming this and why?

AT: I think they were moments where I broke out of what

I thought were the more typical modes, moments like bringing Salam the accordion. That was a moment where I thought I was doing something more reflective of how I see the world, and seeing people as political beings, but also as creative beings- as multifaceted humans. I had just been playing music in my partner’s band, and I had just been playing the accordion among other instruments, so when she said she had studied the accordion, it was this very magical moment of connection; I did not expect that a 21 year old girl from Aleppo would be a student of accordion. It’s that we’re not just victims, and even if our agency is limited because of political realities, we’re still full human beings with interests and dreams. That was a moment that felt special, and that I was on the right path.

BF: How do you attempt to conduct your interviews without influencing people’s responses? Do you follow a certain ethic in finding these candidates and speaking to them?

AT: I am inspired by this documentarian that I recommend everyone look up, her name is Heady Honingmann. She is, in my opinion, the world’s master of ethical conversation. I wouldn’t even say she does interviews, even though she does- her films are very interview based, but she just conducts them in such a way that they transcend some of the cliches. She did a Q and A where she said, “I don’t think of people as subjects, I think of them as humans.” When you shift your perception of the person in front of you and stop thinking of them as a subject where you just need to get your soundbite and move on, but really engage with who they are, it changes the soul of the exchange. In this film, I tried to talk about ideas with people, and I of course had specific ideas I wanted to talk about, because those are the ones that I’m interested in, but I also tried to listen to what people were interested in. I wasn’t worried about influencing people to say something inauthentic, I was more worried about not giving them the space to say something that was authentic. I knew that I wasn’t putting words in people’s mouths, so I wasn’t worried about that. I was more worried that I would miss the opportunity to really tap into what they cared about. There are always ethical concerns, such as about representing people fairly, and a lot of these concerns come through in the edit. Documentarians have different approaches. For me, it’s fine to condense what people say, but you can’t change the total of their intention and meaning. I really do think a lot about this basic ethic,

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openWIDE// ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

while I’m editing and trying to represent and condense a long conversation into a 3 or 4 minute scene. And then, there are other ethics, too; there are ethics of filming vulnerable people, who don’t have as much power. With the Guatemalan immigrants in the factory, they were the one set of characters in the film where I actually flew down to show them the scene to make sure they were okay with it. I would never put anything in a film that would have made them feel vulnerable or endangered.

Nobody else was in this position, for example, I’m still in regular contact with the refugees Salam and Abid, so I knew there was no harm. For those folks, I wouldn’t want them to feel that there position was any more precarious because they participated in this movie.

BF: Many of the people you interview publicly speak truth to market forces, and power more generally.

Did you have anyone who refused to talk about this on camera, given the increased consequences of demonstration in our surveilled state?

AT: No, not in terms of speaking against the market.

If anything, people are really eager to talk. I think that people do not feel listened to in our society. It’s not just in North America, but in Europe as well. It’s not just that people want to talk, they are so grateful for the opportunity to talk- that’s the more striking aspect.

However, Salam was worried to say anything about Assad. Having just landed from Syria, there are moments where she still had the mindset of someone who had been in a civil war, in a conflict zone, which is totally unimaginable from our perspective. She didn’t need to talk about that, that was fine, it was something that was so understandable.

BF: The people you interview are of extraordinarily diverse backgrounds and lifestyles- I think that was one of the greatest aspects of the film. Did any of these conversations change your conception of democracy, or your approach to activism, or both?

AT: Yeah, I think the film made me much more attached to the word democracy. Remember that opening scene with Wendy Brown where I say, ‘Hey, I thought about making democracy the theme of the film,’ I could have made the theme neoliberalism, capitalism, socialism, or revolution in general. But, I kept coming back to the word democracy because it is an important conceptit’s so capacious and open. I think that it made me feel

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committed to viewing the concept of democracy with the radical quality it possesses and needs. In talking to so many people from all walks of life, of course there are groups of people who were left out- I couldn’t put every type of human being in the two hour film. For example, there was one man at a screening the other day, he was an affluent Manhattan dwelling person, and he said ‘well, why did you include issues of government with these issues of wellbeing?’ I thought that was such a privileged question. For many people these issues include, whether or not you can sleep through the night, whether you even have a place to sleep, whether you can afford health care, whether you’re going to get raped for protesting.

These are not separate from questions of government!

These are the real conditions of our lives, so that has made me much more attuned to the way democracy has to be something that relates to all aspects of our lives.

The film tries to make that case by looking at health care provision, schools, work places, and saying we have to have democracy in the home. This idea that democracy is just something that relates to government, and that if people would just chill out with all their personal demands, we could create a structure that works- it’s not where I am at after making this movie. We have to open our eyes to the fact that so many people do not feel secure in this world, and that this is a political problem.

BF: In the film, Wendy Brown states that democracy has always had exclusions, and that there needs to be a we for it to function, however this is a problem when considering the transnational issue of wealth concentration. Do you think this applies to other deterritorialized phenomenons, such as climate change?

And are there events, in your opinion, that require some sort of international public sphere?

AT: Yes, I think there are lots of spaces that require an international public sphere and climate change is a really good example. The challenge though, is that as regular people, we can’t just leap up to be a supranational sphere and influence policy. Even if we could get an international climate accord, then who would enforce it? I think she’s raising an important strategic point, which is that democracy has to be rooted to have strength, and this is the challenge of our time. This is why some of the cutting edge climate activism that’s happening is incredibly territorial- it’s Indigenous, community based fighting against extractive fossil fuel

openWIDE// ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

capitalism, by protecting their traditional territories, and resisting mining, fracking, and other kinds of mineral exploitation. These very rooted place-based communities are fighting for climate democracy at the international level. There is a paradox here, a binary- they say lets go global or let’s go hyperlocal. We have to think both at the same time, and when we’re looking at democracy through the lens of inequality, then the old cliche is true, ‘they have the money but we have the many.’ The challenge is that people in very different contexts, backgrounds, and places, have to all organize where they are, and yet somehow figure out how to act in solidarity, as a confederation or movement of movements in order to tackle that higher level of power. The left has spoken of internationalism since the beginning of the ‘left,’ but we’re still struggling with how to put that principle into practice.

change, the polls show that people, even Americans, believe it’s real and want to promote climate stability over economic growth. Think about how much effort has been put into persuading people from that view, and people are still ecologically minded, even if they’re not active yet.

This is some cause for hope.

BF: If we are to demonstrate locally for changes, and these demonstrations make up an international movement when combined, is there a certain way you see them communicating with each other?

AT: I think this is something we have to keep experimenting with, because we going to have to use digital technologies in our communications, and we are going to have to have meetings, conventions, and conferences. As I move away from the film and book, which comes out in May, I think that climate is the issue that we have to seize on at this moment, in creating these forms of rooted organization and international deterritorialized collaborations. There needs to be some kind of statement of principles- I think the Leap Manifesto in Canada was interesting, it’d be interesting to know what an International version of the Leap would be like. I think we need to globalize that in some way.

The final chapter of the book is about climate through the lens of time.

We need to create these channels of communication that you mention, and they have to be face-to-face and digital.

The problem with the internet is that we can’t afford to not use it, for all of its pathologies, and all of its problems.

The best antidote to surveillance is just strength in numbers. There is a point where they can’t surveill and suppress everyone, and this is where it comes back to the issue of numbers versus wealth and ownership. I think the best protection is building a truly mass movement.

Even with all of the misinformation around climate

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openWIDE// CREATIVE

Victoria Giguere So you’re finally starting to get a hang of this whole student living situation. You’ve probably come up with a decent weekly meal plan: If it looks anything like the list I’ve courteously written, then this article is for you.

So you’re not a Junior Masterchef champion, and you’re not Bill Gates either. BUT there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to make some (kinda) healthy meals at great prices!!!

Do you have to use all of these meal ideas? Heck no! Can you tweak them? Yes! (who am I to go against your shrimp allergy!) More importantly, can you live off of something better than Kraft Dinner and ramen??? YES I have lovingly crafted a few loose recipes (I say loose because the ingredients aren’t really measured at all - I believe in a cooking style that emphasizes tasting and smelling and seeing where things take you!!

STIR FRY - DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 1/5

1. Heat up some oil in a pan. Don’t burn yourself.

2. Sautee your protein: beef strips, chicken, pork, tofu, other vegan stuff, etc. etc.

3. Grab something at least resembling vegetables, and your choice of noodles, rice, or other carbs!

4. Add the vegetables in and let them cook down until soft (this could take a while if they’re frozen but if they are fresh they will burn in -2 seconds).

5. Figure out your sauce situation: yes, you can use a bottled sauce, however if you’re looking for a really easy stir-fry sauce, mix a ½ cup of soy sauce, 2 tbsp honey, and 2 cloves of garlic. Once you’ve got a sauce prepped add it to your protein and veggies.

6. Once the sauce is hot, add your carbs! Noodles will take a little longer to cook than rice (of course, make sure your rice is pre-cooked before putting it in).

7. Serve hot and if you’re feeling *fancy*, add some sesame seeds on top!!

BAKED MAC + CHEESE - DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 2/5

1. Most people are terrified of making a homemade mac sauce. BUT it’s SUPER EASY! You start by making something called a roux.

Basically, heat up some butter and flour at the bottom of a small pot until it forms a paste, kind of like cake batter consistency.

2. Slowly mix in milk-for every tablespoon of butter/flour mix, add about a cup of milk. It should thin out to a crepe batter consistency.

3. Now’s the fun part! Get some pasta going in some boiled water and cook it till it’s al dente (a fancy chef way of saying still kinda chewy but a good kinda chewy-y’know) 4. While the pasta is cooking, add grated cheese to your milk mixture. Look for melting cheeses: cheddar, gruyere, pepperjack, etc. are perfect!

5. When your pasta is cooked and your cheese sauce is thickened, drain the pasta and add it to your sauce. Mix it up nice and good.

6. Here’s where we are going to be fancy! Pour the macaroni into a baking pan (8 x 8 preferably). Add some panko, parmesan and parsley on top and bake that puppy until golden brown on top! Voila!

EASY CHICKEN PARM - DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 4/5

1. Don’t let the 4/5 fool you, once you’ve gotten the hang of breading the chicken you are GOOD! Alternatively, if you are vegetarian, feel free to replace the chicken with eggplant rounds cut about ¼ inch thick. First thing, prepare your breading chain: a bowl of flour, a bowl of 2 beaten eggs, and one of panko or other bread crumbs.

2. Prep your chicken: slice across the breast to butterfly it, cut it in half, then put it on a cutting board and place saran wrap over top.

Take out some extra aggression by beating it with a rolling pin to make it flatter.

3. Heat up some oil in a pan, enough for a shallow fry. Dredge your chicken in flour, eggs, then panko, and drop it in the oil. Cook for about 6 minutes per side or until golden brown and 165 degrees in the center.

4. When you’ve cooked the chicken, prep a baking tray with a layer of tomato sauce at the bottom. Lay out your fried chicken on top and cover with mozzarella, and more tomato sauce. Cook until the top of the mozarella is bubbly and browned.

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openWIDE// CREATIVE

An Interview with AI: the underdog USC slate of 2019 We managed to catch Ariana Magliocco and Inam Teja, or Inamiana Tejliocco, during their busy campaign for President and Vice President in this year’s University Student Council elections. Here’s what they had to say.

OPENWIDE: Thank you so much for sitting down with us, we at Openwide really appreciate it.

Ariana and Inam: We love opening wide. It’s our favourite posi-publication.

OW: Why did you decide to run?

A: Well, sitting on the USC I realized how much I enjoy being the centre of attention, and how much I enjoy people coming up to me and saying they value the things I have to say, so I really thought this was a great opportunity to boost my self confidence, boost my resume, and maybe make me more popular in the process.

I: Everything is about sex, except sex, which is about power. Also, I didn’t get the consulting job I wanted to for the summer, so I thought this was a pretty sick backup.

OW: What prepared you to run, specifically?

I: I’d like to say it’s all my qualifications, but in reality, it’s my unique ability to kiss ass in the most exquisite way possible.

A: I’ve been in FIMS for 4 years. I’ve been in so many photos, you wouldn’t believe how much marketing material I had. And honestly I would just say my selfies. They made me feel really prepared. Also, my parents credit card.

OW: What is one thing you would continue from the previous USC slate?

A: Turtlenecks. Always wearing turtlenecks. I’m actually hoping Mitch will donate his collection of turtlenecks to me. I think that would be really in the spirit of passing down valuable knowledge. The knowledge is in the turtlenecks, they actually do the speaking for him.

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openWIDE// CREATIVE OW: Does your buck-a-bagel cover all bagels, or just the lower tier bagels, such as cinnamon raisin?

A: Only some bagels, only certain times of the year. Conditions and restrictions may apply. You actually have to enter a lottery, and one person every 4 years is selected, to get one bagel for a buck.

I: And only on long weekends, but we didn’t want to confuse constituents with unnecessary information.

OW: You claim you want to ship to a time where OSAP cuts haven’t happened, what would this ideal time be? And has Western ever had a prime?

I: Just think about the timeline we live in. Donald Trump is president. A crack cocaine smoking mayor’s brother is in charge of my education. Mario Kart Double Dash only has one edition. People question the validity of pineapple on pizza. It’s so clear to me that someone went back in time and fucked the world over.

We should just revert back to the natural state where Western is indisputably on top. None of this ‘Queens is cool’ bullshit.

A: I think that the ideal solution is that education is free for everyone except for straight white men. It’s called reparations bitch.

OW: How do you plan on getting around all the tough questions from students?

I: I took an evasive driving course once, when I was learning how to be race car driver, so I really know how to skrrt around around those questions. So, someone says the word abortion and I’m like skrrrt. Israel Palestine?

BDS? Skrrrrt. Like it’s just a dodging instinct that I’ve got.

A: As a woman, I’m really going to use my period to my advantage. And I think when I get a question that I don’t know how to answer, I’m just going to tell them that it’s my time of the month and that I’m too confused to understand what is being asked of me. Being a woman in politics has perks.

OW: So that being said, are you also going to offer free menstrual products in the UCC? A: We need to offer free hygiene products to deal with manstruation, like chastity belts. We’d also like to build a greenhouse with moss pits where women can go and free bleed. You just sit on the moss and have your period with your fellow bleeders. With this implemented, we won’t even need to buy them tampons.

OW: So we hear that your campaign has great corporate sponsorship. Can you please list these sponsors and if there are any sponsorships that you rejected?

I: To start off, we only pick sponsors who share values with us. And I think that that’s important for us, because we don’t want to accept money from anyone who is damaging our environment or harming the people that we care about.

A: And because we care deeply about Trans rights, we have gladly accepted a corporate sponsorship from TransCanada Pipeline.

I: We think that our smoke free campus initiative is really going to be bolstered by the fact that we have a longstanding relationship with big tobacco. Western currently has a lot of investments with them, and so we think this would be a really easy sponsorship for the USC to secure. We also secured a sponsorship with Juuls, they seem to be sweeping the nation, and we think this is a great opportunity to get on board with wide spread nicotine addiction in a way that we’ve never seen before. To get with the youth, we need to provide them with nicotine options that are sleek, cool, and come in an array of flavours.

A: We did decline a sponsorship deal from Amit Chakma, who had pledged to give up his entire bonus. We just felt that he deserved that bonus, and he should really keep it.

OW: Can you tell me how many demerit points you’ve gotten so far?

I: Over 69420.

OW: Any notable incidents?

A: I made eye contact with the other slate, and they said I was campaigning across political lines.

I: I liked something from the Gazette 3 years ago, which got us at least 70 points.

A: I ate a bagel at our booth, and they claimed that we were trying to bribe people with our bagels.

OW: Do you have any further plans in politics?

A: I want to be the CEO of the Canadian Corporation, which will soon overtake democracy, because it’s more efficient.

I: I don’t think so. I really do believe that politicians are like diapers- they should be changed frequently, and for the same reason.

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The Youth Target of JUUL Electronic Cigarettes

Stanley Park ~ Alexander Quiquero ~ Darian Wrenshall ~ Julia Sebastien [Editor’s Note: The authors have created multiple pieces of satirical artwork to accompany the writing. They focus on the questionable tactics companies use to advertise nicotine products to children and teenagers. Please refer to the next two pages to view these pieces] Contrary to popular belief, Juuling, an electronic cigarette, is very harmful, susceptible to abuse, and can cause addiction. Currently, Juul use is popular among adolescents because of its trendy designs, appealing flavors (like Fruit Medley and Crème Brulee), and its discreet profile. Even though advertisers promote Juuling as a cigarette quitting aid and a safe alternative to traditional smoked tobacco, these claims are deceptive and simply untrue. In fact, the amount of nicotine in a single Juul pod is equivalent to a whole pack of cigarettes, and it provides its users with a nicotine peak in about 5 minutes. Juuls actually produce more nicotine than a conventional cigarette, as they have been reported to contain approximately 59 mg/mL of nicotine per Juul pod compared to the average 10 to 15 mg in a single cigarette. Therefore, this suggests that 20 puffs of a Juul is equal or higher in nicotine content than the amount absorbed through cigarette inhalation.

Furthermore, compared to other electronic cigarette brands, the Juul’s e-liquid contains 5% of nicotine by volume, which is approximately twice the concentration of nicotine in other similar electronic cigarettes.

Aside from the Juul’s addictive nature, the impact on the developing brain is a great concern for teenagers.

Scientifically, inhaling nicotine at a young age reduces the level of activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, damaging the user’s cognitive behavior and decision making as well as “increased sensitivity to other drugs and greater impulsivity” (Fraga 2018).

Backed up by researchers, recent studies discovered a significant level of chemical toxicants “in the urine of adolescent” Juul users and showed that “acute exposure to nicotine impacts brain development during adolescence” (Chu et al. 2018). Nevertheless, the most prominent threat for teenagers ‘Juuling’ is revealed in its patented formula of nicotine. While other electronic cigarette brands are using ‘freebase

nicotine’, Juul uses ‘nicotine salts’, because it closely mimics the natural chemical structure of nicotine found in tobacco leaves. As a result, the nicotine is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and makes the inhaling process less harsh, making it easier for teenagers to inhale more nicotine for longer periods of time.

We chose Crayola crayons [as a comparative] specifically not only because JUUL also seems to be linking itself to youth’s “back to school” shopping season, insisting it is a social-status must-have for “cool” youth, but also because its product design and packaging share disturbing similarities with crayons.

Both products are long, thin, brightly-coloured handheld tools with limitless shades and flavours to entice youngsters with. Crayola seemed like the perfect vehicle for arguing how juul targets and entices young people, including minors, whether on purpose or not, with specific youth-centric appeals to social status and colourful variety. Coupled with claims of the vape industry that vapes are desirable (and safe) for minors to use (as they are not as toxic or addictive as cigarettes), comparing vapes to crayons seemed like the ideal means of using shock factor (or the uncanny) to expose the dangers of letting children play with such things.

When first brainstorming our topic, we looked at images of Juul starter packs with cartridges and noticed how long, thin and colourful they were. Like crayon sticks with the cartridge refill boxes resembling Crayola’s signature wavy black strip. We then looked up Crayola boxes for reference and realised that they are packaged in nearly the same way as cigarettes; both come in a cardboard box that flips open to reveal small long cylinders peeking out enticingly, ready to be plucked by eager fingertips. Upon making this connection, we felt an even stronger motivation to expose vape packaging (and branding) for what it is: a v.19.4// 31

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deceptive trap that hides how addictive and dangerous vapes (especially nicotine ones) can be in pushing its product to all kinds (and ages) of consumers.

With our [satirical] ads, we wanted to strike an unsettling chord with viewers by putting vapes in children’s hands and packaging, but our “back to school” piece specifically uses crayola and elementary school imagery to show how JUUL positions itself among common school supplies, claiming to be both harmless and a must-have for success in the coming year to fit in. As explained above, school is a prime location for peer-pressure to take hold, so using school imagery helps us pinpoint the social pressures JUUL ads place on its young viewers to conform. The beginning of the school year is a time when children participate in a metaphorical talent show where, if they show off the right outfit, and the right trendy “necessities” prove their social worth to their peers and hopefully ensure a successful year with their peers.

To introduce the themes of associating JUULs with school, popularity, and youth culture, we imported a wide crayon box image into photoshop, and added the text “back to school” in a chalkboard font to evoke children. We especially emphasised the supposed “coolness” factor of the JUULs by keeping the letters spelling “COOL” in a standout, blue font. Taking images of real JUUL products off of Amazon product listings, we covered each crayon, one by one, with an image of a JUUL, cutting it to fit the shape of the box, colouring it, and cutting out the Crayola box’ smiley-shaped cutout to show the JUULs continuing downwards. At first, we went with the original colours that the JUUL images were offered in, since they were considerably varied and vibrant, like crayons. After some time, however, we began adding more vibrant colours by colouring certain JUULs to match the colour of the crayon it was covering. After adding and adjusting the colours of a colourful segment from a real JUUL ad (the graphic rectangle on the left hand side), we adjusted the hues of the crayons one more time to make the colour scheme consistent, and added a blue kaleidoscope-like image to the background (then filled the other half of the image’s background with the same image mirrored, flipped, and tinted purple to create dynamism and tie the colours together from the Juul logo. Next, we pasted a recognisable image of a distinctly child’s hand reaching for (and 32 //v.19.4

grabbing) a JUUL to emphasise the viewer’s sensation of unease upon seeing such a dangerous device in the hands of a child and marketed to, and packaged as, an innocent child-friendly utensil. In our next culture jamming piece, we push the idea of JUUL ads marketing their product as appropriate (and safe) for minors even further but, instead of focusing on how Juul’s youth-targeting ad campaigns are promoted as a status-boosting essential, we focus on how the fun, multi-flavour and multicoloured nature of Juul’s ads and products portray its products as fun and harmless as children’s toys.

Our second poster depicts a young child toppling over a number of Juul electronic cigarette devices like dominos, with the Juul promotional kaleidoscope background, Juul logo and the slogan “Your journey starts here”. The images incorporated in the final poster, aside from the slogan text, were found online and manipulated in Photoshop. The Juul device images and Juul logo were taken from Juul’s official promotional images: the Juul device image was found on their home site, as well as their logo. The image of the child was originally a stock photo of a child playing with toys. The child was removed from the original background and resized to fit in the corner in the final poster. Lastly, the blue triangle kaleidoscope background was found on Google images, and is meant to imitate the colourful triangle kaleidoscope background that is a staple of Juul advertisements.

The Juul slogan, as found on their website, is officially meant to connote the customer’s journey in quitting their cigarette addiction with the help of the device, which is promoted as less harmful. Here, with the child toppling over Juul devices, we have subverted this slogan to reflect the reality of e-cigarette abuse in young people. The child is meant to bring forth the idea of young people using the device, that they’re literally “playing” with the device as if it’s a toy, and encouraged to do so by e-cig companies that take the health risks lightly.

Juul’s early advertisements clearly cater towards teens, despite professing not to. Stanford researchers looking into “the Impact of Tobacco Advertising” shared the results of a study they ran “of [JUUL’s] marketing campaign between Juul’s launch in 2015 and fall 2018. They looked at thousands of Instagram posts, emails, and ads, and came to this

searing conclusion: Juul’s marketing “was patently youth-oriented.” and that since 2017, “the number of high schoolers who used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days has increased by about 75 percent” (Belluz, Stanford). JUUL’s ads depict young, braceletted hands (not unlike those you’d find at Coachella) passing vapes around, and full body images of trendily dressed (and posed) young adults sporting their Juul in a hip and fun manner, an image that is incongruent with JUUL’s claims a) that they are not targeting teens and b) that most e-cig ads encourage its users to quit or reduce smoking nicotine (yes, even cigarettes). This image does more to promote the use of the device as a hip and fashionable statement for young people, all too similar to cigarette ads in decades past, then it does to promote weaning one’s self off of cigarettes at all.

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The dominos and the slogan are also meant to convey the idea that nicotine use is a domino effect that leads to increased nicotine use, and the abuse of other substances. This includes cigarettes, which the company allegedly seeks to help people quit (NCBI). Developing bodies and minds are much more susceptible to substance addiction, even more so when the product is promoted as a “safer” alternative to cigarettes. This, in many cases, misleadingly assures young people that hitting the Juul is not harming their body permanently.

The poster is designed in such a way that the eye is drawn to the left-most portion of the screen (as this is where the highest activity is), then follows the dominos to reveal the child on the other end. This is meant to create a subliminal shock effect as the viewer is initially lead to believe that the subject is the Juul brand, but in following the dominos finds out that the subject is actually the child. In separating the Juul branding and child spatially, the viewer is first confronted by their original connotation of the company/device’s message. As their eyes follow the visual aids (dominos) to the right of the screen, the child is revealed, which is meant to have the viewer question their initial belief. Lastly, the viewer sees a synthesis of the two halves of the image (in viewing the two halves as a whole), understanding the subverted connotation of the slogan, and perceiving the poster, and slogan, in this context upon further viewing. v.19.4// 33

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im moving to...

walt disney World

Yup, you read that right!

This summer I will be participating in the Walt Disney World’s Cultural Exchange Program (CEP). I will be moving to Orlando, Florida on May 19th and working for the mouse until August 29th. The CEP is an international program where post secondary students from around the world move to Walt Disney World and work in various customer service roles, getting to dip their toes into one of the largest media corporations in the world. This program is just a stepping stone for what I would like to do later in my life. If you know me, you know that a large part of my life revolves around Disney, so being able to participate in this program is a dream come true.

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Getting into the CEP was no easy feat. There were several rounds I had to go through, and the first stage was just submitting the application. It was a simple cover letter and resume followed by inputting that into the application as well as the learning skills I got from each job. From there

I was immediately sent to Application Received and a few moments later to Application Under Review.

I submitted my application on September 25th, which also happened to be the first day the applications opened; I’m a keaner.

On October 10th, I was moved to In Consideration, meaning that they were further considering me for the program. On December 5th, I got invited to participate in an interview!

I booked my interview for January 22nd at the Disney office in Downtown Toronto!

//Hannah Aviv told us in the presentation that over 1,000 people had applied for the program and less than half were interviewed. That sent a shiver down my spine.

Right after the presentation, they got started on the interviews. I had booked myself to be the first time slot so I could be a part of the first group to interview.

I was called into the room second and the interview was a total breeze. My recruiter made me feel so comfortable that it felt like I On January 22nd, I woke up was talking to a friend! My at 3:30am from the nerves, recruiter, Sara, actually has got ready and at 6:45am, my dream job! She is the and I left for the city to Communications Manager interview. I got to the office at Disney Housing! We at 9:00am (the earliest they spoke a bit about her and said we could arrive) and I how she got to her role and was in total awe: the office it inspired me to get there was decked to the nines in one day. After my interview Disney. There was a Mickey I left feeling confident Mouse phone and life size and excited. She had sort Star Wars figurines! of hinted that I would be getting in so I left with a The interview consists of sense of accomplishment. a morning presentation where they go over costs, The next part was the Visas, and they even have absolute worst. The waiting. trivia (I won a pen). They I had the first interview day

openWIDE// CREATIVE at the first interview time slot. That meant that I would also be waiting the longest to hear back. Interviews carried on across Canada until January 31st, and when you have that long of a time to wait, the nerves can really get to you. Especially since I had really wanted this! In the presentation they told us the latest we would hear back was February 15th. That was potentially 25 days of waiting, and boy, it was endless.

I’m grateful that through the process I’ve made some amazing friends.

My interview date created a group chat and we spoke every single day from when we got our interview invite (we still talk today)! They were a huge support system for me through the entire process because we were all going through the same thing.

On February 11th, at 12:47pm, I got my offer to work at Walt Disney World in Merchandise!

Getting the

notification was life changing. It didn’t feel real then, and it doesn’t feel real now. I am so grateful that I was able to have this experience and be able to get accepted! You’re probably asking many questions like, “do they provide accomodations?” “how will you be getting to and from work?” and “do you get access into the parks?”

Disney has four apartment complexes for the various programs they put on. With the complexes, we pay rent once a week deducted out of our paychecks and rent can vary from $103$134USD a week.

I will know what complex I am in a week before I arrive (this also applies to my work location).

I can be stationed in any park or resort or even Disney Springs!

I will also be globally trained, meaning, I can pick up shifts in any resort or park.

Disney promises I will be working a minimum of

40 hours a week and with my role in Merchandise, overtime is almost promised.

Disney provides transportation through bussing systems to and from work as well as to the grocery store and Walmart. Being a Disney Cast Member means I get free access into the parks as well and some pretty cool discounts on resorts and food in the parks.

Since this is an international program I will have the opportunity to meet people from across the world.

I have the same move in date as Mexico, Thailand, and Singapore, as well as the American Summer Program.

United Kingdom will be coming in June as well as several other countries!

You can catch me in the parks this summer having the time of my life!

Have a magical day! v.19.4// 35

Feeling down? Here’s a handy coupon to help get you through the semester!