November 2014

November 2014

Meet Hugh Segal

Saints of the Century

Evenings of Song

A conversation with the Master of Massey College.

Phil Schwarz reports on the festivities of Saints Week.

John Tuttle tells us about the chapel choir and music at Trinity.

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Content

APRIL 2013

November 2014

21ST CENTURY RUSH PUB

NO ONE PUTS SANA ALI IN A CORNER

WALLBALL

Can this tradition align with modern progressive values?

The brutal odyssey of Trinity’s blood sport P.

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P.

18

Our exclusive interview on her public departure from Team Renew

P.

29

Features A Letter from the Editors p. 2

Old Politics For a New Age

Responsible Leadership Aditya Rau p. 3

A conversation with Master of Massey College and Former Canadian Senator Hugh Segal.

by:

Kaleem Hawa

Alumni Donald Belfon p. 4-5

Pg. 7-9

Food for Thought Amanda Greer p. 6

Saints of the Century

Attitudes Towards Alcohol Iris Robin p. 12 Fashion at Trinity Martina Bellisario p. 16-17

by:

Phil Schwarz

Coffeehouse; Chocolate Dinner; a magical ball. Phil Schwarz reports on the festivities of Saints Week.

Pg. 10-11

Trinity during World War I Maddy Torrie p. 18-19 On the Beaten Path Trisha de Souza p. 21 Why Love One but Eat the Other?

Sarah Levy p. 22-23 Bookshelves Rebecca Zhu p. 24

Evenings of Song and Reflection in the Trinity Chapel by:

Sara Abhari sits down with John Tuttle, organist at the University of Toronto, Music Director at Trinity, and conductor of the chapel choir.

Pg. 13-15

T’was the night before exams Emma Smith p. 25 Christmastime in the City Veronica Stewart p. 26 The Klamboner Damian Klambauer p. 27 Things to Do Around Town Simone Garcia p. 28

Sara Abhari

The need for Policy Change Regarding Sexual Assault by:

Larissa Parker

The lack of a comprehensive sexual assault policy at Trinity means affected students don’t receive the help they deserve. This was my experience.

Pg. 20

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Salterrae • November 2014

21ST CENTURY RUSH PUB

Editor-in-Chief Sonia Liang

Can this tradition align with modern progressive values?

APRIL 2013

Masthead

NO ONE PUTS SANA ALI IN A CORNER

WALLBALL

The brutal odyssey of Trinity’s blood sport Our exclusive interview on her public Director of Public Relations departure from Team Renew Amanda Greer P.

21

P.

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Senior Copy Editor Simone Garcia

Senior Photographer Alexandra Witt

Senior Design Editor Helen Picard

Treasurer Allison Spiegel

Salterrae Executive Copy Editors

Amanda Greer Iris Robin Maddy Torrie Junior Copy Editors Nikita Gupta Sarah Millman

Design Editors

Claire Shenstone-Harris Veronica Stewart Guy Taylor Junior Design Editors Amanda La Mantia Rachel Chen

Salterrae Contributors Columnists

Martina Bellisario Simone Garcia Amanda Greer Damian Klambauer Rebecca Zhu

Staff Writers

Iris Robin Emma Smith Veronica Stewart Maddy Torrie

P.

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Writers

Sara Abhari Donald Belfon Trisha de Souza Kaleem Hawa Sarah Levy Larissa Parker Aditya Rau Phil Schwarz

Photographers and Illustrators Martina Bellisario Rachel Chen Trisha de Souza Makrand Gupta Sofia Jelovac Amanda la Mantia Mirka Loiselle Helen Picard Dryden Rainbow Alexandra Witt Adriana Workewych

Cover Photography Alexandra Witt

Letter From The Editors The second issue. It is here.

In this indeterminate time of year between autumn and winter when all anyone wants is to be on holiday already, we have come to provide you with some exam-time entertainment. This issue, we’re happy to provide you with a diversity of material; from the historical, to the whimsical, to the musical.

Many important discussions are taking place at Trinity right now, both in formal and informal spaces. This issue of the Salterrae seeks to reflect these discussions and provide a space for people to express their views and concerns. We hope that you will read these pieces and find them informative, thoughtprovoking, and at times contentious.

Putting together an issue is hard work. For this one we’d especially like to thank our junior reps - Sarah and Nikita who have been a valuable contribution to our copy editing team, and Rachel and Amanda who have done a fantastic job working with the magazine’s layout.

Please send an email to salterrae@trinlife.com if you would like to contribute to the next issue of the Salterrae. As always, we’re happy to hear and share new ideas and new talents.

Stay salty, - Sonia Liang, Simone Garcia, and Helen Picard

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Aditya Rau • Responsible Leadership at Trinity

Responsible Leadership at Trinity Musings From Trinity’s Head of Arts By: Aditya Rau Illustration: Adriana Workewych The idea of a community has been celebrated, challenged, and abandoned since the start of the academic year. From gender issues to Trinity’s representation on the University of Toronto Student Union (UTSU) Board of Directors, our social fabric has been stretched. Our political experiment has been tested. This community is tired. Our debate has been divisive, our reactions insensitive, our faith in each other — and in our institutions — shaken.

Whenever we gather, we seek to fulfill a responsibility that we each took on at our respective Matriculation ceremonies: to build a community with responsibility and leadership as its pillars.

It is on this foundation that we have risen to the challenges thrust upon us. From collectively defeating a skewed agenda at the UTSU Annual General Meeting (AGM) of 2012 to reshaping Rush in an effort to make it more inclusive, we have shown our dedication to these values. Responsible leadership defines each Trinity student, and in turn, the Trinity experience.

We aspire to responsible leadership, yet we have fallen short. This community, too disillusioned with the challenges of today and our responses to them, is struggling to come together.

Important issues of gender - in particular, the attempt to change identity language in our governing documents to “Members of College” and to strike segregated TCMs from the text have left many feeling disheartened. In light of these setbacks, numerous individuals have expressed the feeling of being “disappointed to be a Trinity student.” The questions raised were, “how could students look their peers in the eye and deny them fundamental recognition of their respective identities?” and “how could we fail to build a community where students of all gender identities feel comfortable?”

Similarly, Trinity’s stance on the UTSU’s proposal to restructure its Board of Directors elicited

varied responses, most of which were conflicting.

We clashed over whether or not our students are getting the most accurate representation of events. We clashed over whether or not Trinity’s hostile environment is one that demands political involvement. We clashed over whether or not enthusiastically encouraging students to proxy their votes at the AGM is responsible.

Students are disappointed with the College and this community, and this disappointment seems to be fostering indifference. Yet, to adopt an attitude of indifference at a moment where the College is trying to better understand its social policies would be irresponsible. Apathy cripples progress. An apathetic approach to combatting the UTSU’s anti-democratic practices would have left us without university-wide online voting in 2012. An apathetic approach to building a more vibrant and dynamic community would have left us with segregated residences at Trinity and St. Hilda’s. Finally, an apathetic approach to understanding the place of alcohol at Trinity would have left us without a survey and policy that best reflect the needs of this community.

“Apathy cripples progress” Both in the past and today, apathy has not defined this community. Since the TCM of October 6, 2014, discourse on gender equity has increased. Similarly, in preparation for this year’s UTSU AGM at the end of October, many students took the time to become fully educated on all sides of the contentious issues at hand.

Ultimately, it was the presence of informed Trinity students at this year’s AGM that ensured college representation on the Board of Directors was not lost. Curiosity has been sparked, conversation has flourished, and commitment has been strengthened. These are the hallmarks of responsible leadership.

Responsible leadership entails a recognition of the difficulties that lie before us. It demands a resolution to grapple with the challenges we encounter, and an understanding that from our failures emerge lessons that ameliorate our social and political endeavours.

Our shared history reminds us that our hopes for Trinity today, and Trinity tomorrow, are inextricably bound together. At a time where an absence of consensus has driven this community apart, we must be willing to listen, to learn, and to change for the better.

As members of the Trinity community, it is our responsibility to build communities that are safe, inclusive, and

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representative of all. This is not to say that there will not be disagreement and that there will be no discord. There is a reason why change to our Constitution demands these interactions. The TCM erects barriers to change in order to ensure the stability of our democratic system. Discussion and debate act as safeguards to our democracy; the fact that constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority to pass is reflective of the criticality of consensus at the TCM. Agreement is difficult to obtain. However, once again, this challenge speaks to the need for student engagement with the issues, and our response is reflective of student’s care for each other.

Reading this, your time at Trinity may have just begun, or it may be arriving at its natural end.

Despite these varied experiences, we all collectively struggle because we believe that our actions will define the Trinity experience five years, ten years, and fifty years from now. We continue to struggle over traditions and their place in the midst of an ever-changing and diverse student population. And we’ve responded by trying to make traditions - or traditions as institutional memory defines them - less anachronistic. We continue to struggle over gender and its role in College governance and leadership; and we’ve responded by encouraging education and discourse in different spheres.

Ultimately, our struggles are defined by this community coming together, recognizing errors, and considering solutions. It is our deep care for one another that inspires us to face communal challenges head on.

Our minds and hearts may be weary. Yet we must be full of hope.

Salterrae • November 2014

Itchy Feet Ditching the books and hitting the road Writing and Photography: Donald Belfon

On a cold December night last year, fellow 1T4 alum Alanna Ross and I made a pact on the back of a used napkin at the Lakeview Diner. A travel pact.

mountainous challenges of Huaraz, and finally the attractive tranquillity of Mancora with a vigorous energy we thought had been long sucked from our souls.

Over midnight wings, mac & cheese, and grossly overpriced beer, we drew a crude map of the coasts of Peru, Ecuador, and Chile. Six weeks, two people.

I don’t think any of us were quite ready to come home from our idyllic nirvana, but the healing waters of the Pacific Ocean left us with enough courage to brave our impending convocation.

This was our very own incarnation of the ubiquitous and omnipresent “Grad Trip” that so fervently accompanies new graduates in the wake of their startling independence and uncertain futures. Neither Alanna nor I had solid plans on what we wanted to do after graduating, but we both knew that more school was not on our immediate agendas.

A month later, back home, newly convocated, but not yet settled into any routine, I realized that I had not had enough of that travelling life. I think Alanna and I were still in Peru when we had the fleeting idea to drive out East and go camping in PEI for a few nights. This idea, however, faded into the background following our return home.

Days turning into weeks as convocation came and went.

So, after a few dedicated months of planning, the recruitment of just a few more willing soon-to-be Trin alums, and while riding on a high that can only be achieved by the [successful] culmination of four years of perpetual papers, tedious tests, and acrimonious assignments, we set off for Peru.

The first of May was the first day of our adventure. Our crew - now composed of Ivana Tanzini, Alanna, Annie Lewis, her brother, Alanna, and myself - took to the Andean verve of Cusco, the jungles of Machu Picchu, the extreme urbanity of Lima, the arid deserts of Huacachina, the

That was the case until Emily Jennings - another illustrious 1T4 alum - decided that she, too, desired to embark on a month long grad trip, this time across Canada and the United States. Unlike myself, Emily had a destination in mind, wanting to go home and spend a few weeks with her parents in Vancouver.

The plan was to drive East with Alanna and go camping on Prince Edward Island for a few days, and then pick up Emily on our way West to drive through America’s infamous Midwest. We would

then drop Emily off in Vancouver and I’d make the slow pilgrimage back to Hogtown with a childhood buddy.

Before I continue, I really must establish the obscenity of our itinerary. Coming off our trip to Peru, where crossing the country was an easy combination of trains, planes, and automobiles, I can now admit that I severely underestimated the ravage that driving from Toronto to Vancouver would wreck all over my body. In just over a month, I put over twenty-two thousand kilometres on my car and traversed across fifteen states and eight provinces. Early morning starts after getting only five hours sleep quickly became the norm.

Sitting behind the wheel of a car for the better part of the day, while not physically strenuous, still managed to leave me exhausted after finally switching off the ignition for the day.

When you take a look at our itinerary, it might come as a surprise that my sharpest and fondest memories don’t come from Vancouver, Quebec City, Boston, or Chicago. Instead, my best memories came unexpectedly while traipsing through the American Midwest, the Canadian Prairies, and the place of international weirdness that just seems to always exist in locales like Kootenai, Idaho, or Medicine Hat, Alberta.

About halfway into our trip, Emily and I found ourselves bounding across the South Dakota in-

“I don’t think any of us were quite ready to come home from our idyllic nirvana, but the healing waters of the Pacific Ocean left us with enough courage to brave our impending convocation.”

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Donald Belfon • Itchy Feet terstate toward Mount Rushmore. The road lead us through towns and villages whose big claim to fame were oddly alluring roadside attractions like “The World’s Only Corn Palace” and the “The World’s Largest SPAM Museum.” These stops were welcome breaks from the accepted monotony of getting from point A to B that is expected on a road trip as ambitious as ours.

Turns out the “Corn Palace” was a high school auditorium not unlike the one home to the East High Wildcats a la High School Musical. The disappointment was earth-shattering, but even then, as we made our way back to the car, we both burst

dom of unexpected adventures into unchartered territory is what I think will be my sharpest and fondest memories from my undergrad.

I will never forget the big events like my first toga party, or my last Conversat. Nor will I forget driving to Barrie at two in the morning for slushies, rushing the stage at a Yelle concert, or standing in line for ten hours at Honest Ed’s for a hand-painted sign.

These are the things that evoke the best of my time at Trin.

“For the fifty miles leading up to this monument of a-maize-ing ingenuity, there was a billboard lauding the majesty and awe-inspiring beauty of the aforementioned corn palace.”

TheWorld’s Only Corn Palace was simultaneously the high and low point of our adventure through South Dakota. For the fifty miles leading up to this monument of a-maize-ing ingenuity, there was a billboard lauding the majesty and awe-inspiring beauty of the aforementioned corn palace. After fifty billboards stretching two states, each one of them chocked full with praise and promise, Emily and I simply had to pull off the interstate and into the town of Mitchell to experience this castle of corn.

With the energy of two angry toddlers itching to get out of the car, we charged for the entrance.

into fits of laughter at the sight of an actual statue of corn, meant to commemorate this important building and its cultural and financial significance to this middle-of-nowhere town out in South Dakota.

Retrospectively, our trip across the country was quite similar to the established non-routine that typified my undergraduate life. Like a road trip, school was different every day, only loosely tied together by the schedule of a Humanities undergraduate student. Between the twenty hours of class a week that kept events cohesive, the free-

If anything, these two trips taught me that my itchy feet are not the result of some innate force driving me to travel, but rather an attempt to recreate the daily wonderment that goes hand in hand with anyone’s undergrad.

Every day in school had the potential of being a trip to the Corn Palace, the RCMP uniform museum, or that truck stop in Detroit, Oregon. Especially before exam season, I just want to stress that while getting there may be the plan, do not forget to take an off-ramp every few hundred kilometres.

Scheduled Stops: 1. Toronto, Ontario 2. Quebec City, Quebec 3. Campelltown, New Brunswick 4. Alberton, Prince Eduard Island 5. Fundy National Park, New Brunswick 6. Boston, Massachusetts 7. Orchard Park, New York 8. Chicago, Illinois 9. Sioux Falls, South Dakota 10. Buffalo, Wyoming 11. Yellowstone, Wyoming 12. Sun Valley, Idaho 13. Burns, Oregon 14. Cape Lookout, Oregon 15. Portland, Oregon 16. Victoria, British Columbia 17. Tofino, British Columbia 18. Vancouver, British Columbia 19. Whistler, British Columbia 20. Jasper, Alberta 21. Edmonton, Alberta 22. Calgary, Alberta 23. Regina, Saskatchewan 24. Thunder Bay, Ontario 25. French River, Ontario

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Salterrae • November 2014

Navigating the Challenges of Late-Night

Food Delivery Decision-Making Cuisines to Match Your Every Psychological Need By: Amanda Greer Illustration: Amanda La Mantia Last week, after traipsing back to Trinity through Toronto’s autumn gloom at the end of a long day of classes, I found that dinner was slightly more unpalatable than usual.

Four years (yes, four years) of Strachan food flashed through my mind’s-eye, like a horrific supercut of a 60 Minutes exposé on prison food.

Out of this drudgery, however, a light appeared in the form of the Internet and food delivery’s deliciously convenient offspring: Just-Eat.ca.

As I scrolled through the site’s numerous options, I began to experience another dilemma: How do I select a food type to suit my current gustatory needs?

This issue may also keep you up at night. I know the feeling of wanting pizza, but reveling in the delusion that sushi is “like, not that bad for you” while ordering six yam tempura rolls.

As I retrieved my food delivery from a kind man with gentle eyes, pretending that I really needed those three pairs of chopsticks, the idea for this column arrived in a haze of MSG: a definitive guide to ordering food based on specific mental and physical conditions.

1. Indian Food: Perfect for: Days when your life is feeling a little bland. Maybe you are beginning to worry about the intensity of the psychological relationship you have with your favourite sitcom characters - you probably cried while re-watching the Monica and Chandler proposal scene from Friends. Maybe you have realized that the most meaningful conversations you have are with YouTube commenters or Tinder strangers. Either way, some naan will do you good.

Watch out for: Sneakily high minimum delivery fees. You are easily looking at 30 bucks if you don’t have a delivery partner-in-crime. You might also have to deal with awkward remarks

from the delivery person, like, “Is all that food for you?” or, “Why are you crying?”

2. Greek Food: Perfect for: When you are feeling quirky, yet underappreciated. Greek food is truly the dark horse of the food delivery game. When people order food, very rarely does someone suggest a spread of souvlaki and tzatziki sauce. You should order this on days when you dare to be different.

Watch out for: Poor quality maintenance. Meat kabobs and rice do not travel all that well.

Although it is worth it for a good tzatziki sauce, you might be left wondering why your rice is held together with glue.

3. American Food (i.e. Burgers): Did you know you could order burgers? Now you do.

Perfect for: Days when you want something simple, but can’t be bothered to get it yourself.

Need a burger and fries desperately? Do not get off the couch - just order from Hero Burger.

This is the lazy man’s delivery method.

Watch out for: Poor transport. As with Greek food, burgers do not transport all so well. Is it worth it? Is Meryl Streep a national treasure?

4. Sushi: Perfect for: Like, when you just can’t even. Like, when you are just, so done. The lack of kale in Strachan’s salad bar has just gotten on your last nerve. You are going to be up super late,

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and you need something healthy to fuel your studying. Like tempura. And gyoza. And sushi rolls with tempura bits. And literally everything tempura-ized.

Watch out for: Potentially nothing. Delivery charges are usually reasonable, and sushi transports well. Is this the holy grail of delivery foods?

5. Pizza (Thin Crust Gourmet): Perfect for: When you’ve been having lofty aspirations. Your mind is eager and ambitious, and you need a digestive tract to match.

Pepperoni? Only if it’s New York style.

Mushrooms? Truffles only, please. Pair this food delivery with a lovely wine, and start working on that blog you have been meaning to start - the one that will inevitably launch you to the heights of intellectual stardom.

Watch out for: Vultures. Everyone and their mother will want a slice. Make sure to establish boundaries.

6. Pizza (Fast Food-Style, i.e. greasy, cheesy, and shameful): Perfect for: Drunk.

Watch out for: Drunk.

Kaleem Hawa • Old Politics for a New Age

Old Politics for a New Age A Conversation with Master of Massey College and Former Canadian Senator Hugh Segal By: Kaleem Hawa Photography: Alexandra Witt “John Lennon and Yoko Ono were coming to town.”

It is nine in the morning. Hugh Segal sits huddled in his office overlooking the Massey College quadrangle. The orange and green hues of autumn filtering in through trees outside give the meeting a groggy feel, no doubt exacerbated by the early hour. Segal “draws strength from the morning,” and seems quite prepared to field questions about his youth, his career in politics, and his time at the Canadian Senate. But first, he is quick to recall a particularly poignant moment from his time as an undergraduate at the Univer-

sity of Ottawa.

“In 1969 when I was at university, I served as a Vice President on the student government. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were on their ‘Give Peace a Chance’ Bed-In, which was basically an opportunity to stay in bed at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal and make their case for peace.

Our student government President back then, Allan Rock, had gotten it into his head that he would invite Lennon and Ono to the University of Ottawa, enticing them with the promise of a meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau.”

Chuckling, Segal continues. “What we knew then that people have forgotten now is that Allan was a ‘Paul Hellyer Liberal’, having supported Hellyer on the ballot against Trudeau’s leader-

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ship nomination. As you can imagine, this made his ability to get John Lennon an appointment with Pierre Trudeau close to zero.”

“But they came anyways, with their kid in tow.

Allan and I went to meet them at the train station in Ottawa – Mr. Lennon, Yoko Ono, and the kid – and whisked them off to a big press conference where I was told I’d be holding the baby. I was Vice President Academic, and what do Vice Presidents Academic do? They hold the baby.”

Segal grins. “After that they hung out at the chapel with Father Rabi, the chaplain of the campus. And it turns out that they’re ‘sort of vegetarian,’ so what does the Vice-President Academic do? He gets shipped down to Nate’s

Salterrae • November 2014 Deli to bring back a smoked fish plate for them to have lunch.”

“In the end, they stood in front of the famous pillars at the University of Ottawa and addressed a huge crowd. Allan even took them for a drive in his Volkswagen through Rockcliffe to try and see Pierre Trudeau, but he was obviously unavailable. It took them until a week later to finally get to see him, and what was truly astounding

the Conservative office, walked past the Liberal office, walked past the NDP office, and stopped at the Parti Québécois office and started taking out all their files. And I said to myself, ‘this is not who we are, this is not what we do.’ My fellow students at the time had the right to be a part of any political party as long as it was non-violent and believed in achieving its goals in peaceful ways. This was a challenging, challenging time. But, you know, it’s one of those things that shapes you and gives you some sense of balance and perspective.”

“The fact that forty years later, I’d be standing in the Canadian Senate fighting for greater parliamentary oversight over national security – well you can trace that right back to that seminal experience that I had as an undergrad.”

was how the picture we took from that day – of John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Mr. Trudeau – was the first picture of Prime Minister Trudeau to go global around the world. This is before Twitter and before e-mails. That photo spoke to millions because he had been the first NATO leader to associate himself with the ‘Give Peace a Chance’ tour. It is fascinating for me to look back on that and realize that I had truly been a part of a piece of history that set Trudeau on the trajectory to becoming one of the most different kinds of Prime Minister out there at that tumultuous time.” *** Naturally progressing from the Lennon story, Segal reminisces about a seminal moment from his time as an undergraduate. “I remember the War Measures Act. At that point, I had been elected President of the student government, and so I got to experience firsthand the imbalanced application of the law on specific groups.

I remember waking up, going across the street to the student union building, and finding an armed personnel carrier parked out front. I guess they were concerned about potential instability from our very active sovereigntist Parti Québécois club on campus.”

This story reinforces the passion that underscored Hugh Segal’s early foray into politics and subsequent 45-year career on The Hill and at Queen’s Park. In that time, Segal served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, senior aide to Ontario Premier Bill Davis, and as Senator for Kingston-Frontenac-Leeds from 2005 to 2014.

“I was very interested in politics from a young age. That was another reason that I went to university in Ottawa – it was the centre of the federal political system. When I left Ottawa University, my first job was as a full-time staff member for David MacDonald, a Member of Parliament from PEI. David was a United Church minister and so I wrote the first drafts of his sermons when the Ministers were away for the summer months, even though I’m Jewish.”

Eyes twinkling, Segal recalls, “You could say that a lot of those sermons were a bit more Old

Tensing up, Segal continues. “I was always one of those who took the view that the War Measures Act was excessive. I saw it as a core violation of our civil liberties that would never have been tolerated in the United Kingdom or the United States, and that would never have been tolerated in Canada either if we had had the Charter of Rights in 1970. And so I will never forget that day when the police came to the student union headquarters, walked past

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Testament than they were used to in rural Prince Edward Island, but they got over it pretty well.“ “After that, at the age of 21, I ran for Member of Parliament and came within 500 votes in a riding where the Liberals would traditionally win by 10 or 15 thousand votes. After that I got to work for Bob Stanfield [Former Premier of Nova Scotia

“I was Vice-President Academic, what do Vice-Presidents Academic do? They hold the baby.” and Progressive Conservative Leader] who I thought was one of the most decent, balanced, thoughtful, and progressive people to ever serve in national politics.”

Segal sighs and leans back in his chair. “What bothered me most was seeing him not succeeding, even though he was all those good things. I quickly began to learn that there are many things that shape outcomes in politics; quality and competence are just two of them. When you’re an idealistic young person, you have to learn those things about the harsher realities and begin to factor them into your own judgments.”

Reflecting on what he’d learned throughout his time in politics, Segal is blunt. “I think there is a part of politics which is about entertainment.

And so, it becomes really important that a politician find a way to be engaging and to say things

Kaleem Hawa • Old Politics for a New Age in a way that will make people want to stop and listen. Stanfield never gave into that sort of thing; if you asked Bob Stanfield a question, he would pause for ten seconds and think about the answer. Well nowadays, the average news clip is ten seconds! And while Bob Stanfield thought gardening was a wonderful hobby, Mr. Trudeau was doing double gainers off diving boards!”

Segal laughs and shakes his head. “As you can imagine, it was very hard to compete with that.” *** “When I heard about the shootings, I was stunned.”

As was inevitable, given that our interview took place the day after the October 22nd shootings on Parliament Hill and the murder of Corporal Nathan Cirillo near the National War Memorial, the conversation turned to Segal’s reaction to the event.

“Look, let me say this. I’ve walked those halls for over 20 years in my time in politics, and so it hits you very hard when you see that happening.

When I was a junior research assistant for MacDonald I would have to do research for Question Period in the House of Commons, and so I did a lot of work in the Library of Parliament.

That’s why I thought it was so poignant that they brought the shooter down outside the library yesterday. If he had gotten into the library on a Wednesday morning, when a lot of people your age are sitting in the library doing work for MPs and Senators, it would have been total carnage.”

“And of course there’s a series of hypothetical questions that have to be asked; if the guys at the front door were better armed, if they normally walked around with submachine guns, could they have stopped [Michael Zehaf-Bibeau] sooner?

Do we even want guys at the front door of Parliament with submachine guns on a regular basis? Do we want a parliament building where families and visiting tourists wander through with guides to see everything, or do we want a place that is shut down to the public? My instinct is that we want to tilt towards the open model because that’s who we are as a society. But we have to think about what else we do.”

Segal continues passionately, “I think we have to put yesterday in perspective and consider it as no more than a terrible criminal act against an unarmed soldier standing at the War Memorial. Obviously the guy had criminal intent as he entered the parliament buildings with a loaded gun and came within feet of the where the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition normally stay. We have to ask some tough questions, no doubt, but I don’t know that we should come to core conclusions about Canadian society based

on what appears to be isolated individuals acting out some measure of anger or insanity driven by their own personal circumstances.”

“When I was Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade and later as Chair of the Special Committee on Anti-Terrorism, we issued some very interesting reports on things like home-grown terrorism which made it clear that there is a significant impact of the web on young males – not necessarily of any ethnic background in particular – who would act out a measure of frustration through violence.

We need to understand our linkages to younger members of our community and look at a broader problem that we have where young men are not getting into university like they used to and aren’t doing as well economically as they used to.

As far as I am concerned, the two freedoms that matter most in this world are freedom from fear and freedom from want. And if you look at those parts of the world that are most torn up by terrorism, there is an absence from freedom of fear and an absence of freedom from want. These two absences feed off each other.”

When pressed on the similarities between this stance and the one taken by Justin Trudeau in reference to “root causes” following the Boston Bombings, Segal is quick to reply.

“Let me be clear. We absolutely need to understand the entire cohort of folks who tend to be the age group and gender demographic from which these violent actors have emerged. This doesn’t suggest, however, that every kid that comes from a poor background or that every kid who has been marginalized will act out. And this is where I think Trudeau meant well but got it wrong. We need to look first at our security apparatus and the quality of our criminal intelligence work, and only after that should you look at root causes.” *** “I’ll be the first to admit that we have a crisis of confidence with our Senate.”

In the wake of the Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin scandals, various accusations have been leveled against the house of “sober second thought.” Segal weighs in with his views.

“One of the most challenging political crises for me was during the government motion to throw out Senators Wallin and Duffy because of an alleged gross misconduct. I felt it quite inappropriate that there hadn’t been a trial or due process and was surprised to see them considered the imposition of what would amount to be a $270,000 fine in lost salaries over what might have been as much as $60,000 in dispute. I’m not suggesting that everyone is beyond reproach

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here – on the contrary, I am very careful about taxpayer’s money – but to throw people under the bus in such a manner was a violation of everything I believe in.”

Segal continues concisely. “It wasn’t a popular position to have at the time, but I had it because I still use a mirror to shave every morning and I have to look at myself in it and ask, ‘was this the right thing to have done or not?’”

When asked about ways to combat the crisis of confidence Segal presents an incredibly interesting perspective.

“I’ve always supported the notion that there should be a more democratic base for how the Senate should operate. To have such a major part of our legislature in Ottawa not be elected is truly stunning. The fact that the elected Member of Parliament for Kingston has no greater power to introduce legislation or to vote in favour or against legislation than I did as an unelected Senator is not acceptable.”

“And so I think there is a middle ground on this that can help improve our Senate without needing to amend the constitution. We did this during the Meech Lake Accord: Mulroney did not give up his constitutionally enshrined right of appointment but said ‘I won’t appoint anyone unless they’ve been chosen in some democratic way by a province.’ And so then Alberta had Senate elections in 1989 and they elected Stan Waters, a retired general, who Mulroney then appointed to the Senate. None of this was a violation of the constitution.”

As the interview comes to a close, Segal is quick to make a final statement, “I don’t think the notion that we can have this institution go on in perpetuity without being elected makes any sense. We cannot give up the project of making our Upper Chamber more democratic. If anything, we need to protect our institutions of government and make them more adaptable to our changing world.”

Given Hugh Segal’s storied career in policy, business, and politics as well as his steadfast commitment to his principles, very few are so well poised to do so.

Salterrae • November 2014

Saints of the Century Revisiting La Belle Époque

By Phil Schwarz Photography: Ali Witt, Sofia Jelovac, and Makrand Gupta Shining, shimmering splendour.

At this year’s annual Saints Charity Ball, Trinity College met the fantastical lavishness of La Belle Époque for a magical evening. At St. Hilda’s on Saturday November 8th, we opened our eyes and our hearts to the warm embrace that is turn-ofthe-century Paris. Our two co-chairs Rhiannon Langford-Kyle and Max Laurin, along with much assistance from their executive, managed to successfully recreate the zeitgeist of the era.

Saints of the Century was described as “an era exploding; a festival to celebrate the onslaught of innovation,” by the event’s chairs. Months of preparation preceded the first formal of the year. Head of Decorations Jane Mochina, among several others, spent countless hours of planning and crafting decorations in the dark, desolate, dreary abyss known as sub-Cartwright.

Its exact location remains unknown to this day.

The extensive time and efforts put forth by numerous committee members and volunteers, like Rachel Copp Clark, collectively allowed for the event to be a grand success. “I painted literally a million polka dots, but Jane made everything fantastic,” exclaimed Rachel. The event would not have been made possible were it not for the dedication of these passionate students.

The proceeds from this year’s Saints of the Century will be donated to support a local charity, SKETCH, which is geared towards bettering the City of Toronto’s disadvantaged through the arts.

SKETCH began as a project of artist Phyllis Novak, and has since grown to provide children and adolescents the chance to explore their creative side in a safe setting. The organization offers the opportunity to experiment in fields ranging from theatre, to the culinary arts, to digital media, and maintains a strong emphasis on equality and inclusivity in all its activities. In fostering such a positive environment for people to grow, SKETCH is creating more involved and socially conscious citizens, working towards improving our society as a whole.

Fine examples of involved, socially conscious citizens could also be found on the night of the Saints Rush Carnival. Filled with exotic beasts, entrancing beats, and eccentric characters of all sorts, the night was undoubtedly one of marvel. All who came bore witness to the Buttery’s transformation: from a dreary eatery to a captivating carnival of wonder, painted in a myriad of vivid colours and stripes.

This Rush followed the format of more recent rushes. Those wishing to participate were escorted outside by the carnival’s ringleader, played by Keanu Uchida, and divided between those wishing to be rushed and those wishing to rush someone. Lined up at opposite sides of the parking lot outside, participants scrambled to find their desired dates once the clock tolled midnight. Although some people spent the next morning trying to piece together their nights and figure out who they actually rushed, the event nevertheless went off without a hitch.

The only alarm of the night was St. Hilda’s fire alarm, which went off at four o’clock in the morning thanks to an over-microwaved muffin.

In the week leading up to Rush, the Saints executive also managed to successfully initiate a game of ‘Spy vs. Spy’ and raise additional funds for the charity. The objective of the game was to track down the target one was assigned, hunt he or she down, and kill them by the gruesome hand of a sock or dull spoon. The results of the game are not yet known; the game itself could quite possibly be ongoing. The executive hopes that it did not leave anyone in a perpetual state of paranoia, but thank all for their participation.

Saints week began on Monday evening, when Massey Common exploded with an exceptional exhibition of the senses. The halls echoed with melodic symphonies from the old-time cabarets and music halls of the Golden Age; the alluring scent of freshly baked Famoso pizza overcame the questionable odour ingrained in Massey House. This chorus of voices emanated from

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the sultry karaoke styling of individuals such as first year representatives Andreas Kyriakos and Keanu Uchida, the latter performing a scarily accurate rendition of Fergie’s “Fergalicious.”

Cartwright Carnival set up shop Tuesday afternoon, featuring an abundance of games any carnie would love. The pièce de resistance that day was a glorious 14-foot-tall bouncy castle that could take one back to a time when midterms were a distant future and one had never heard of Strachan food. To quote first-year Katie Fettes, “It was the happiest I have been in a really long time. Definitely the highlight of my week.”

The lavishness of La Belle Époque was highly pronounced at this week’s high table dinner. Diners indulged in a succulent coq-au-vin as well as an assortment of French-inspired chocolate treats. A representative from SKETCH spoke at dinner, thanking the college for its contribution.

The unequivocal highlight of the eventing was when Rol, a young aspiring musician, spoke about her incredible experience with the organization.

Phil Schwarz • Saints of the Century er when I heard about the Saints coffeehouse. It was such a great experience to perform for the Trinity community and to support SKETCH!” The night of Saints itself was one to remember. Cartwright Hall housed the Moulin Rougethemed dance area, draped in luxurious red satin curtains and covered by a tent made of helium balloons. Guests made their way to the Abbott Room, which was decorated with a Moroccan influence; there, people could have their photos taken and have evidential proof that they had, in fact, made it to Saints at some point during the night. The bar and lounge area was located in Melinda Seaman, where a wide array of exquisite desserts and pastries, as well as savoury hot foods were available.

Following high table, Melinda Seaman hosted Saint’s’ Trivia Night and the Lit debate. This year’s Trivia Night gave way to a new era with Julien Ferland and Marcus Tutert, who took the throne from reigning champion Guy Taylor. That night’s resolution kept with the Parisian theme of Saints, where debaters argued over whether it be resolved that “Honhonhonhonhonhonhonhon baguette honhonhon.” Feature debaters included Co-Chair Rhiannon Langford-Kyle and Head of Food & Drink Emily Brade for the Government, as well as Kendra Dempsey and Jennifer Whyte for the Opposition. That night, attendees learnt that Kiga’s love of birds is only matched by Kendra’s fear of them, and that – to Rhiannon’s dismay – Pinterest boards do have a maximum capacity.

“Getting to speak at the Lit’s Saints Debate was great, except for the fact that Kaleem Hawa didn’t even bother showing up. I mean, this is for charity. That’s so inconsiderate,” said Kendra.

Melinda Seaman turned into the famous Parisian

cabaret Folies Bergere on Thursday night. Members of the Saints of the Century executive sold a variety of donated baked goods and tickets for the raffle, which included over $700 worth of prizes, to collect additional funds to donate for the charity. The performances were stellar and gave for a phenomenal representation of all the talent Trinity College fosters, although there were several performers whose talents were unknown to many.

Trinity College was also privileged to have Rol feature as the night’s opening act, demonstrating her impressive musical abilities. The young artist expressed her love and respect, saying that “Trinity is too dope.” Bosi Moragia and Minha Lee were the last to perform at coffeehouse. “Going last wasn’t ideal, but the energy in the room was still buzzing, so it turned out great,” Bosi explained.

Their performance was a spectacular close to the evening. The crowd cheered in adoration at the harmonious duet that performed with much confidence and emotion. Minha commented, “Bosi and I had just talked about making music togeth-

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Being a member of the executive was an incredibly insightful introduction to the internal workings and planning of events at Trinity College.

Like any other large event, certain unexpected challenges arose; however, after skilful problem solving and a couple sleepless nights, the group nevertheless managed to procure a splendid ball. Seeing all the work put forth come together to materialize into what was once only a vision was a truly rewarding experience. The immense amount of thought and attention to detail put into the entirety of this year’s Saints most certainly did not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

To all of those who contributed in some means, I thank you on behalf of the executive. Every one of us was working towards raising the most we could for such a phenomenal cause like SKETCH. The painstaking efforts most certainly paid off and I would not have had it any other way.

Salterrae • November 2014

Attitudes Towards Alcohol Why Trinity College’s Oldest Tradition Needs a Serious Change heavy drinking is dangerous, excludes people who do not, or cannot, drink alcohol.

“I would define [a drinking culture] as a social environment that places harmful pressure on its participants to drink,” said former Sober Patrol Captain Elisse Magnusson (1T5). Elisse acknowledges the presence of alcohol in many social situations at Trinity, but does not think there is any exceptionally harmful pressure to drink beyond that which is generally present in North American college culture. However, at the University of Toronto, there is evidently a difference between Trinity, which has a liquor license, and the other colleges.

While students at other colleges probably drink as much as Trinity students, the licenced events make a difference, Basil says. “I’d say in some ways [the liquor license] makes it more official that we drink that much. At Trinity, because all the events have alcohol, it sort of makes it an even more integral part of our culture.”

By: Iris Robin Illustration: Trisha de Souza “Trinity is the very definition of a drinking culture,” declared Basil Southey (1T8) when asked whether or not a drinking culture exists at Trinity. “Every single event involves alcohol or revolves around alcohol, even when the event itself theoretically has no affiliation with drinking,” he said.

What bothers Basil the most about the drinking culture at the college are the jokes about alcoholism that arise from the acceptance, and arguably the promotion, of heavy drinking habits. “If you can joke that nonchalantly about alcoholism, you clearly have not been affected by an alcoholic in your life,” he commented.

The presence of a “drinking culture” at Trinity College appears to be widely and tacitly acknowledged, but there is less consensus on the extent to which it harms our student body and the bodies of our students. Some of our members believe that the presence and normalisation of frequent alcohol consumption has allowed the college to develop effective mechanisms and structures to deal with the effects of overconsumption of alcohol. Others argue that the practice and encouragement of

Jaclyn Flom (1T7) believes that events such as Bubbly, which is very alcohol-centred, could still be a lot of fun if there was no alcohol. “If I took away the alcohol aspect, I still think it would be a really cool event with the classy music and the atmosphere,” she said.

Frosh Week is the time when new students get their first impressions of the college and its drinking patterns. “I know in Frosh Week, my experience was a lot of people saying that you are allowed to drink and we are not going to fault you for that and provide the resources for you to be able to do so, but there wasn’t as much emphasis on ‘if you don’t want to drink, it’s okay,’ or, ‘here’s an environment where no-one will be drinking,’” Jaclyn said.

During my own Frosh Week, the Tabula Rasa of 2012, there was alternative programming for those who were quieter or did not want to drink.

As considerate as this was, I am not convinced that this is the solution to including those who do not drink. Encouraging safe and moderate drinking would definitely be a better approach than setting up a dichotomy whereby one either gets trashed or does not drink at all.

“I think the most important changes that could be made should be done on an individual level,” said Elisse, adding that people need to

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be accepting of those who choose not to drink, and should not encourage dangerous drinking.

“Most alcohol consumption occurs in private settings with friends, and so I think that these are important spaces to look out for one another,” Elisse said.

The pervasiveness of alcohol at our events extends beyond parties; it also affects the operation of our clubs. The Trinity College Literary Institute (The Lit) and the James Bond Society are prominent examples. “One of the number one reasons people go to the Lit is for the free beer,” said Basil, who also expressed disappointment that the James Bond Society does not show Bond films on a regular basis.

These two clubs, on paper, are about debating and movie appreciation. In practice however, they revolve strongly around drinking.

Despite certain drawbacks both in terms of health and social fabric, the drinking culture at Trinity may in fact better equip the college to handle alcohol-related issues. “I think Trinity has better mechanisms for helping these students than many other places,” said Elisse.

“I think a lot of problems are actually taken care of by Trinity’s alcohol culture.I think the alcohol culture and the way that we deal with it is really good compared to other institutions,” agreed Jaclyn.

Indeed, there is a certain rationale for making alcohol more accessible. Many argue that since underage students will probably be drinking anyway, the best thing to do is to make it possible to drink in a familiar, safe environment. This does, however, leave me wondering about whether the structures we have in place are truly about the safety of students, or if they are merely reactionary establishments.

The same question can be applied to Trinity’s other mechanism: the Sober Patrol, which has garnered high praise as an initiative, is built around the premise that students are inevitably going to get too drunk for their own good. The fact that the Sober Patrol exists anticipates dangerous drinking behaviour, but is not proof of any commitment to reduce or discourage it.

I cannot with any certainty say to what extent our drinking culture is harmful, but we could definitely do better.

Sara Abhari • Evenings of Song and Reflection

Evenings of Song and Reflection in the Trinity Chapel An Interview with John Tuttle By: Sara Abhari Photography:

Helen Picard Trinity’s iconic chapel was a gift from businessman Gerald Larkin, built in 1955.

It was designed by British architect Sir Gilles Gilbert Scott, who also designed the Liverpool Cathedral and the famous red telephone boxes in Britain. The chapel is made almost entirely of solid masonry, and the glassstained, panelled windows are the most distinguishable feature of Trinity’s outward appearance. In the evenings when the sun is low, light spills in through the stained glass and envelops the chapel in a warm yellow glow.

Every Wednesday between 5:15 and 6 PM, the chapel is filled with the melodious tones of the Trinity chapel choir performing their Choral Evensong service.

Singing from a balcony overlooking the chapel, the choir is composed of about twenty-five members, many of whom are Trinity students.

Conducting the chapel choir is John Tuttle, the Director of Music at Trinity College.

Tuttle has been an organist at the University of Toronto since 1979, and is an adjunct

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professor at the Faculty of Music. John’s primary occupation, however, is as a church musician at Saint Thomas’ Anglican Church on Huron Street.

On a Monday evening before choir rehearsals, I met with John in the choir balcony - which also houses the Great Organ - to receive some insight into the chapel choir and the Anglican musical tradition at Trinity.

You’ve been director of the Exultate Chamber Singers, the Hart House Choir, are teaching organ music at the U of T faculty of music, and are currently organist at St. Thomas’ Church. What brought you to Trinity College?

I have been the organist here at the University for over 35 years, and I’ve been teaching at the Faculty of Music for almost as long. But I’m a church musician first. Working at Trinity with smart people, good singers, who can make a commitment to something like this is a great opportunity.

It’s also a chance for me to work with divinity students. You may or may not know that the church has by and large given up on good music - in most churches, what you will hear sounds pretty awful. It’s expedient really: music which requires no commitment, no time to learn, and isn’t crafted very well.

None of that applies to real church music; real church music is an offering. That’s partly why I came here. I wanted the opportunity to work with divinity students, to let them see what a real live church musician actually does, because they are going to go off and become priests somewhere. If they have the chance to hear what good music sounds like, then maybe they will set their expectations higher.

Salterrae • November 2014 We have people from the music school, from the Engineering faculty, graduate students – sometimes we get people who have graduated, but who like the music and continue to come. The only thing that we ask from choral scholars is that they be students at the University of Toronto.

written for that office of Evensong is really quite a special thing.

How long has the chapel choir been around?

Could you give some insight into the history of the choir?

I don’t know a lot about it. I think John Sidgwick was the name of the fellow back in the 50’s and 60’s who more or less started the choir, as we know it now. For about ten years, around the time that I moved to Toronto in 1975, Robert Bell was running the choir. He was also at St. Mary Magdalene’s on Ulster Street.

Evensong is the perfect service for that, because you don’t have to go up to the altar, and you don’t have to take communion. You can just sit there and let the music wash over you and then you can walk away from it, or if it strikes you, then you can pursue it.

Robert was the one who started the choral scholar’s program. After he retired, it was Willis Noble who ran the choir. I have been here for nearly nine years now. The choir been going on for a while; it’s been up and down. The choral scholars program is an excellent way to give it stability.

Was there a time when the choir performed at something other than Evensong?

“I believe that the kind of music you listen to is just as important as the food you eat.”

How often do you meet with divinity students?

I see them once a week. I’m not really teaching them, I’m advising them. They meet on Wednesday afternoons to choose the hymns for all of their daily offices and liturgies. My primary responsibility here is to provide them with ample music choice.

You also conduct the Trinity Chapel Choir, which performs Evensong on Wednesday evenings. Who are the members of the choir?

It’s interesting, because people most people expect that they would all be members of the Trinity College community, but they’re not. People from all over the University perform in the choir.

Diversity in the choir’s composition is one of the things I have promoted in my time here, primarily because we get a better choir by doing that.

I don’t know if there was ever a time they did more than just Evensong. There may have been a time when they did a Sunday afternoon service.

I jealously guard your time. I’ve had people say: “Oh let’s do a concert with the Gryphon Trio, let’s do this, let’s do that.” The next thing you know, I’ve got you all out for two more rehearsals, and I’m going to get dirty looks from somebody for that. And frankly, I’m not sure that the payoff is there.

I also like the chance to expose you folks to what I think is some of the greatest church music ever written. It’s a great opportunity for you, one that many people don’t have. You certainly don’t get it in many church choirs.

Occasionally, you will hear some of this music sung by a concert choir. To get to sing this week in and week out and to do it for the reason it was

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I haven’t been to church much growing up.

Would Evensong still be appealing to a person like me?

I think it’s a great thing for Trinity. I wish they would promote this more with the student body.

Frankly, I think it’s one of the better choirs on the campus. I know pride goeth before a fall, but it’s a fine choir.

“We have people from the music school, from the Engineering faculty, graduate students – sometimes we get people who are graduated, but who like the music and will come.”

At Evensong what kind of music could one expect to hear?

I pattern our Evensong after a generic English cathedral Evensong. If you were to walk into Salzburg Cathedral on a Sunday afternoon or even a weekday, the choir would come in and sing a service very much like what we do. We’ll sing the Versicles and Responses probably to something like Smith or Rose, we’ll sing Anglican chant, we’ll sing an anthem, we’ll sing a hymn,

Sara Abhari • Evenings of Song and Reflection possibly a Final Response. It’s the kind of music that wouldn’t be unusual to hear if you went to Westminster Abbey.

There’s a rhythm to it. The music is not the same every week. It’s not the same high or low every week. Sometimes, there’s a special day for a reason of the church here. Other times, it’s an ordinary day and you try to make the music just a little less spectacular so that when you have a spectacular day then you can really haul it up.

ears with great music, I compel you to attend a Choral Evensong service.

Importantly, during a busy and fast-pace school term, Evensong provides the opportunity for Trinity students to have quiet time for reflection and to escape from the daily stresses of University life.

Since you first joined Trinity College, what has changed in the music program?

Well the schedule hasn’t changed. I have purposely kept it that way. We have certainly expanded our repertoire. I’m a believer not so much in change as in perfecting things. Some of the music gets repeated over the years, and the reason for that is I want another kick at it. I want another try at it to see if we can polish up the things that didn’t go so well last time.

If for no other reason, you could stop by Evensong to enjoy one of the most beautiful sights at Trinity College - with the setting sun trickling through the glass-stained windows, and golden light dancing across the chapel, it truly is magical. Not to mention, there are delicious treats and great conversation waiting in the reception, which is situated in the Divinity common room after the Evensong service.

Here at Trinity you have been the organist and director of music since 2006. What does being the director of music at Trinity involve?

Other than the choir and doing the services, I supervise the organ scholar, I meet with divinity students, and I’m member of the senior common room. But other than that, I do whatever special music comes along. I play for Convocation, for example.

Did you play for matriculation this year?

Yes, David (the organ scholar) and I played a little duet by Schubert, which we’ve done in the last three or four years.

Finally, what is your favourite part about directing the Trinity College Chapel choir?

I love the people and their enthusiasm. The reason why it’s such a good choir is that you are all smart. I’m not being silly. Smart people pay attention; if something gets fixed it usually stays fixed. If the problem arises somewhere else, sometimes it gets fixed there too. Smart people tend to extrapolate ideas and use them creatively.

I love promoting this great music with you folks, and giving you an opportunity to sing. I think that’s terribly important.

I believe that the kind of music you listen to is just as important as the food you eat. I tell the divinity students, “if you are feeding yourself junk music for the soul, then it sooner or later is going to rot your faith.” I think that if you’re listening to terrible music it’s not really going to edify you.

Whether you are looking for an opportunity to sing hymns, or would simply like to fill your

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More than Just a Sweater

Salterrae • November 2014

The stories behind the sartorial choices of four Trinity students By: Martina Bellisario 16

Martina Bellisario • More Than Just a Sweater

Iris Robin

“I’ve had my cape for several years now. I found it in a thrift shop in Winnipeg for about thirty dollars, and I’ve still never seen anything that looks like this, not even in the United Kingdom. I believe it’s brocade, and it also has tassels – I really quite like this aspect of it. And it actually has pockets, which is fairly unusual for a cape. I’m not entirely sure what year it’s from, but I really love the detailing on here: it has these little dogs on it and this geometrical pattern. I wear it, weather permitting. So for example today is what I would call a cape day: it’s overcast, it’s cold, but it’s not too cold that I’d need something that’s heavier. I remember being really excited when I found it at the thrift shop: it immediately caught my eye because it was so bright. I thought, “Well, I need to have that, but I’m going to check how much it is.” I was so happy when I found that it was only thirty dollars. Because I find it very easy to get relatively inexpensive vintage clothing in Canada, but it’s difficult to find a selection comparable to what I might find in the UK or Europe, I think I’d say this is a very lucky find.”

Isidora Rovic

“I got this sweater at The Bay when I was shopping with my mom. I just love it because it’s very easy to wear: it’s long-sleeved, knitted; I think it’s really cute. I like that it has the blue collar at the top here, and I also love stripes. I tend to wear mostly black and white, mostly neutrals, and so it just goes really well with my style and what I like. It’s easy, and I like easy things that I can just pull on and go. I’d say my style is pretty - and I hate to use the word - basic. I like to wear tight black jeans, black boots, and a baggy sweater, which always seems to be black and white or striped. Usually my options are black and white or just all black; I really like that sleek look. I have these skinny black jeans that I think look so good with everything, they just work with every shirt that I have. I love baggy sweaters and more comfortable, loose things. I study a lot, and so comfort is always really important to me.”

“It’s definitely the fact that my mom knit it that makes it so special.”

“Usually my options are black and white or just all black; I really like that sleek look.”

Rachel Levitt

“This sweater is really special to me. It’s one of my favourite sweaters, and I wear it whenever it’s cold outside. But the reason why I love it so much is because my mom knit it when she was my age, and so it has a lot of history behind it and I just like wearing it now. It’s probably one of my favourite sweaters just because it’s really warm, too. It’s my go-to sweater. I obviously like the fit and the colour, but it’s definitely the fact that my mom knit it that makes it so special.”

Simone Garcia

“I had a similar denim shirt to this that I got two years ago at Anthropologie, and it was my favourite shirt. I just wanted a piece that you can layer over clothes: very simple, like a cardigan, but not quite a cardigan. I especially love denim because it’s so wearable and easy…and it’s soft! The one I have now is actually chambray. But the one that I used to have…when I was working this summer, I was working with this less than easy to get along with person, and he knew that I didn’t like him. I remember hanging my denim shirt over my desk one day, and I left to go to lunch, and when I came back both of the sleeves were ripped! I’m not implicating him because I don’t know if it was him; I could have ripped them by mistake. But the sleeves were ripped, and I was so angry because I wore that shirt every day, all summer, in different capacities. I was really sad.

Anthropologie had stopped making the shirt. So when I was in Montreal with my mom, I went to Club Monaco and found this denim shirt, which is almost like an updated version of my old one because it has long sleeves (my other one only had three quarter sleeves), and it also has double buttons, which I really like. It has this nice pocket that’s perfect for my phone, and it’s very soft and so wearable! It’s just my favourite piece: I can wear it camping, in the morning when it’s cold, and when I go out at night. All my family and friends say it’s the thing I wear most often. I love it!”

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Salterrae • November 2014

Travelling Back To 1914 Trinity during World War I By: Maddy Torrie Recently, after binge-watching Downton Abbey, I realised that if I had been born in 1895 instead of 1995, I would be turning 19 at the outbreak of World War I.

branches, lecture room chairs, topping the pile with barrels of tar. The eighty foot flare created from these efforts would put any Guy Fawkes bonfire to shame.

Worries about political science papers, college drama, and less-than-desirable Saints dates would mean nothing in lieu of a country and college preparing for war. My male friends might already be serving overseas. Perhaps my 16 year-old brother would try to enlist, as so many others his age did.

I might even be considering volunteering overseas in a support role.

The first classes of 1T7, 1T6 and 1T5 were expecting dramatic changes for the fall, but none so great as the World War. When Trinity College federated with the University of Toronto in 1904, it was predicted that the College would move to Queen’s park in the near future. A tentative date was set for 1914.

This imagined experience was a reality to students returning to Trinity in the fall term of 1914.

At the end of the summer one hundred years ago, Trinity students were, then as always, up to their usual debauchery. A favorite pastime of early Trinitrons was hurling glass bottles into a ravine

The outbreak of war would postpone these plans, and decreased revenue from student enrollment meant that Trinity had to sell their land in Bellwoods Park to the City of Toronto, leasing it back until the downtown project would be completed in 1925. As we covered in an earlier issue of the Salterrae (see Emma Smith’s article in the March 2014 issue), the schedule for the transition and the

At first, men left in small groups, but eventually the only ones who remained were those waiting for enlistment, or those who were granted special permission to continue their studies. Another St. Hilda’s resident commented, “It is a sad sight nay a dismal skeptical - to see deserted tables in the dining hall, the vacant seats in chapel, and a solitary few in the lecture rooms.”

Even the class of 1T8 was keen to follow the lead of the upper years, which resulted in the closure of the infamous Trinity house, lovingly known as “Jag House,” by its first-year residents. Jag House would no longer be home to brutal initiations ceremonies and first-year worms alike. A year later, the west wing of the Trinity building would also close. In the final year of the war, there were only 26 men left in residence, most under military age.

Although devoid of students, the Trinity buildings were put to good use. Trinity College provided ac-

“One single man graduated with the class of 1917.” in the Old Trinity Bellwoods park. The 1914 “bottle roll” was particularly spectacular, as some students had found the unlocked basement of the closed Trinity Medical School containing “hundreds, if not thousands of glass bottles, test tubes, retorts, and what not.”

Another event of the year was the infamous bonfire of 1914. To celebrate a victorious debate against Wycliffe College, Trinity and St. Hilda’s scholars secretly stockpiled firewood, fallen

scope for the plans were greatly impacted by the First World War.

War was declared in August 1914. “Most of us were at our family’s summer cottages when the news of war came,” remembers one St. Hildian.

“When we got back to the college, some men had already gone off. The numbers of students and younger dons thinned out steadily. One single man graduated with [the class of] 1917.”

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commodation, training space, and medical care facilities for the officers of the twenty-eighth Battalion, also called the Northern Fusiliers. Convocation Hall was used as a space for officers’ classes, the gymnasium for musketry drills, the playing field became a parade ground, the west wing became a residence for officers, and Jag House became a home for convalescent soldiers.

For the Saint Hilda’s women who stayed in residence, the atmosphere had changed substantially.

Maddy Torrie • Travelling Back To 1914

Lectures had dwindled to tutorial sized classes, as money was tight and needed for the war. The Women of College also served overseas and on the home front. Many went to England and France as ambulance drivers, clerks, physicians and support personnel overseas. Others worked in chemical laboratories with munitions, or provided help on farms. W.A Kirkwood and A. D Young’s comprehensive War Memorial Volume, published in 1922, includes detailed lists of every member of college’s war contributions, including those of Trinity’s female students.

Everyone in the college celebrated the Armistice exuberantly. Some lucky St. Hilda’s students were able to join a truck that was brought in to greet the soldiers, proudly waving the flags of the Empire, Trinity, and St. Hilda’s. Soon after the war, there was a military reunion dance which they held in the great hall. A student remembers, “the dust was gone, and the moonlight illumined the figures of a man and a girl leaning against a wall.

Trinity was young again.”

Trinity was young, but changed. In total, 543 men of college fought in the First World War, and 73 of those were current undergraduates. 149

honours were bestowed on the Trinity students who served overseas, in places such as Belgium, France, Italy, Serbia, Gallipoli, Palestine, Egypt, India, China, and Germany. Of those men, there were 197 wounded, and 56 casualties. Under Soldiers’ Tower, in 1927 a Carillion was installed inscribed with Met’Agona Stephanos in memory of the members of college who fell during the First World War. While researching this article, I came across a photograph of the victorious basketball team of 1914, looking uncannily similar to a Trinwearclad Trinity College Athletic Association team of 2014. I cross checked the names of the team with the list of the fallen in the first world war.

The captain, J. Hately and G. M Matheson, who graduated in the class of 1914, were both killed in service. Hately was killed in action on August 21st in 1917, and Matheson was killed in action less than three months before armistice.

As I flipped through names and descriptions of Trinity students who fought, I came across people — though separated by a century — were eerily familiar to me. This included Howard Manzer, who came to Trinity College from my hometown

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of Nanaimo BC, only to serve until 1918 before being discharged as medically unfit. I also found Andrew Kent Griffin, Trinity’s first Rhodes Scholar, a name I recognised from moments of procrastination in the Graham Library quiet rooms. He was discharged from Russia in 1919 on sick leave.

The many International Relations and History students at Trinity College may have studied World War I by discussing the decline of the Ottoman Empire, Austrian Archdukes, and nationalist Serbia, or at the very least, by pretending to have read Paris 1919. It is easy to forget that those who debated at the Lit, called their Frosh “worms”, and danced at Conversat had their lives and dreams uprooted by a global war. The same students who commented at the turn of the twentieth century, as we still do now, that “Beer was to Trinity students as Nectar was to the Gods,” may have sacrificed their lives shortly after.

This November, as we remember the sacrifices made in the First World War, we should not remember our soldiers as playing pieces on the risk-board of geopolitics or as unfamiliar names carved in Soldiers Tower. We should remember them as Men and Women of College.

Salterrae • November 2014

The need for policy change regarding sexual assault at Trinity By: Larissa Parker In the last year, articles concerning sexual assault have featured prominently on the internet, in magazines, and in university newspapers. It is fantastic to see that discourse is opening up on what is still an extremely sensitive subject.

When someone is a victim of sexual assault, it takes tremendous courage for that person to share their story. I was certainly not this courageous in my first year, and am extremely grateful that a conversation surrounding sexual assault has finally begun.

Today, Trinity promotes a strong position against sexual violence. However, that does not mean that sexual violence never happens, nor that it is easy to come forward if you have been the victim of it.

My own experience with sexual assault was greeted with widely different reactions. The first was one of compassion: those who had heard of my awful experience were genuinely sorry about what had happened to me and wanted to help.

The second reaction was that of indifference: many felt awkward discussing the subject and did not want to talk about it any further. The third reaction I received was one of hostility: some thought I was making the whole story up. When they finally did believe me, they questioned how I could be so irresponsible as to let something like that happen to me.

Many aspects of Trinity, including its academic support, vibrant student government, and wacky traditions, are wonderful. The way it handles sexual assault, however, is not. After my experience, I talked extensively with the Dean, the student heads, and confided in a few close friends. Yet despite reaching out, I finished my first year feeling helpless and totally unsafe. I also felt very alone. The people that I had confided in had already forgotten about my assailants’ crimes and were beginning to make small talk

with them again in Strachan, as if nothing had ever happened. I was so angry and obsessed with obtaining retribution that I managed to alienate many of the people closest to me.

It quickly became clear that while I needed support, the reality was - and still is - that Trinity College has no existing institutions to provide it.

Trinity does not have specific procedures or policies for tackling sexual assault, and the concept of sexual violence is not even present in our code of conduct.

University victims of sexual assault have three options: reporting the incident to their university administration, turning to the police, or staying silent. As New York Times author Walt Bogdanich rightly pointed out, most students who decide to say something will turn to their school officials rather than the police because they feel more comfortable in the institutions to which they belong.

“Not only does Trinity not have specific procedures or policies for tackling sexual assault, the concept of sexual violence is not even present in our code of conduct.”

Falling exactly into this category, I turned to Trinity for help. Yet as much as the administration wanted to, there was little that they could do.

ing.” Yet after the academic year ended, not only did no one follow up on how I was doing, but I was also never given an explanation as to the conclusion of the investigation. It was as though my case had ended along with the academic year.

Moreover, throughout this process, it was also recommended that I go to Counselling and Psychological Services (CAPS) to see Cheryl Champagne, one of U of T’s only campus experts on the matter. She referred me to the Campus Police and several help lines, not understanding my objections to filing a police report. She, like many others, did not understand the dynamic of Trinity’s small community. When your social space, academic space, and living space are all one and the same, it’s incredibly difficult to take that step and file those charges. And let me tell you: the last thing I needed at this sensitive moment was the added insecurity of having everyone at my college know the details of my experience.

It is no one individual’s fault that Trinity was unable to help me. It is however, the fault of a lack of policy at this college. The reality is, the cohesive and protective structures that Trinity prides itself on failed me.

This situation was the scariest thing to ever happen to me. And in my case, the situation never got resolved. For the sake of the rest of the Trinity community, we need to work on the serious lack of policy regarding sexual assault.

Victims of sexual assault should always feel like there is a space for them to come forward. The fact that there is not one at Trinity is unacceptable.

In three months, I had booked seven appointments with the Dean’s office, and while they were always willing to meet with me, I felt less confident each time. While the office

By Rhiannon Kyle did its best and performed an investigation, I was never Trinity Against Sexual allowed to witness or hear Assault and Harassment (TASAH): my assailants’ testimonies. And as a first These traumatic experiences are far too common at camyear against two puses all across North America, including Trinity. Many schools persuasive fourth years, it was are being criticized in media outlets for their ill-equipped responses evident that I to sexual violence survivors, and Trinity could very well be next. did not stand a chance.

Up to the last day of classes, I was constantly told that my “investigation was still ongo-

For these reasons, Larissa and I have restarted the club Trinity Against Sexual Assault and Harassment (TASAH) alongside Jordan May and Cas Legrand. TASAH aims to combat sexual violence by promoting preventative measures and holding awareness campaigns throughout the year.

We are also pushing for a policy on sexual violence by collaborating with the Community Affairs Committee of the Senate.

We firmly believe that simply airing a video on sexual assault during Frosh Week is not enough, and it is the responsibility of any socially engaged student to advocate for the needs of their community.

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Trisha De Souza • On the Beaten Path

On the Beaten Path The Chronicles of a Life Spent Waiting for the Bus Writing and Illustration: Trisha De Souza When you live off residence, whether you get to class or not is often in the hands of the commuting gods.

I live in Oakville. Recently, while waiting for the bus at 8:30 in the morning, I discovered that Oakville Transit had made some changes to its schedule. I got that panicky feeling you get when you know you’re going to be late and there’s nothing you can do about it. The panic caused me to pluck up the courage to phone a friend, for if I didn’t I knew I would be late. Again.

Silly me. I’d assumed that, since I live only 40 minutes from U of T, I should be able to leave my house two hours ahead of time and be punctual for class. But alas, that morning the commuting gods wanted to teach me another lesson.

Delays and rescheduling are a part of commuting life, no matter how inconvenient they may be. Yet, as for many other commuters, living at home far from campus is a necessary part of our university experience.

In an attempt to properly represent the commuting population, let me explain why we put ourselves through the pain of daily adventure-taking and exhaustive train rides home.

Simply put, money is our driving force. The costs of living downtown, in residence or otherwise, present a fairly sizeable barrier to us.

I would like to give some fancy excuse about how commuting “really is better” and make all you residence kids jealous. However, I have to admit that if it was more affordable, I would live downtown.

Living at home does have some nice benefits. My parents make delicious food; I have a comfortable room; and Oakville is a beautiful place. But despite all the love and comfort of home, I would still prefer to be able to get out of bed and be at school in a matter of minutes — if my budget allowed.

But the reality is, Presto expenses included, my yearly costs as a commuter student are far more

reasonable than my own year on residence.

My relative proximity to school is what makes commuting justifiable, and by saving a ridiculous amount, post-grad debt will be much easier to handle. Since I do live in the GTA, and the GO is a comfortable invention with cushy seats and a quiet zone on rush hour trains, living at home has balanced my home, school and work environments. This has left me with better grades and more discipline than when I lived on residence. I also have a deeper appreciation of my time on campus.

With all this said, it is imperative that there is an understanding of the struggle.

The struggle: the real reason that I am writing.

My experience as a commuter is not necessarily a standard one, but there are a few things that I believe are universal among those of us who live far away.

“Thank the stars for those of you who have offered your spaces for us to crash.”

1. Clothing. I cannot tell you how many times I have left my suburban home layered in a raincoat and woolly sweaters, only to find that halfway through the day the sun has decided to come out and play.

I am left sweating, fatigued from hauling along all my extra clothes, and stared at for picking such an outrageous outfit.

On the other hand, when autumn begins, I do not have nearly enough layers for the night time chill that settles in after my 8 PM class. I therefore end up running through Queen’s Park with chattering teeth, blue fingers, and longing for comfort from the biting northerly winds.

2. Going out. This is one of the hardest things to explain, especially for a GTA commuter like myself. “No, sorry I probably won’t be there. I

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have no real reason I just have so much work to do and I’m exhausted. Don’t hate me.”

It is not that we don’t want to hang out; it’s that the amount of effort it takes to go out is too much for someone who takes two or more hours of travel time daily. And yes, thank the stars for those of you who have offered your spaces for us to crash, you are all gems and our favourite people!

3. Isolation. Not going out with friends or having time to spend at College events leads to an inevitable feeling of isolation. It can be hard to stay in touch with everyone, and hard to be as involved with events. So much depends on your transit times: if you’re stranded downtown after midnight because no Go trains are running anymore, you might think twice before meeting people for drinks at 11. But we do really want to socialize, it’s just not always easy.

4. Academic punctuality. By this I mean showing up to class on time, and handing in assignments.

Especially for procrastinators like me, it would be awesome to spend the last few hours before an assignment is due working on last-minute changes, rather than waiting for a bus or train.

The fun just increases in the winter: public transit plus snow-storm equals disaster.

5. Exhaustion. The cumulative effects of the factors above, combined with carrying an extra heavy backpack around all day, leave you absolutely exhausted. And destined to be a hunchback.

All of what has been said has been said in sympathy for the commuter, that elusive figure who is sometimes there and sometimes not. Please remember not to judge the non-res kids that aren’t dressed weather-appropriately, or those commuters who don’t want to party on Thursday nights. Cut some slack for those who need to take a car, train, bus, or plane back to their hometown.

Remember: where your journey ends, in that comfy downtown dorm room, their journey, traversing through time and space to get home, has just begun.

Salterrae • November 2014

Why Love One But Eat the Other?

A discussion of humanity’s paradoxical relationship with animals By: Sarah Levy Illustrations: Adriana Workewych and Dryden Rainbow

Over the past few years, the prevalence of animal rights issues in the media has been steadily increasing. From an investigation into the cruel down and fur harvesting practices of Canada Goose in 2011, to the popularity of the hit documentary Blackfish in 2013, it is clear that society is coming to recognize that humanity’s treatment of animals is problematic at best. These examples highlight a growing awareness of animal cruelty and the realization that exploiting animals for such trivial ends as clothing and entertainment is wrong.

This raises an important question: why does the consumption of animals for food remain so widely accepted?

Advocating on behalf of dogs, cats, and whales is widely accepted as the right thing to do; so why is speaking up for farm animals considered to be pushing an extreme point of view? The answer is defined by our paradoxical relationship with domestic and farm animals. While standing up for the former has become a moral imperative, protecting the latter remains optional, often chalked up to a matter of opinion.

To ignore the increasing popularity of vegetarianism and veganism in recent years would be a mischaracterization; however, such advocacy is met with significantly more adversity than efforts to safeguard pets and wildlife. You can’t even read a Buzzfeed post titled “15 Delicious Vegetarian

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Meals” without also facing a flurry of disrespectful comments about how vegetarians are either self-righteous, insane, or missing out.

For a while I brushed these comments off as the work of internet trolls, but I’ve come to realise that they are actually fairly indicative of what many people believe.

Over the past couple of months, these issues have come to the forefront of many a discussion in Strachan. The conversations follow similar trajectories, beginning fairly and respectfully with questions such as: “Why are you a vegetarian?” or “What are the issues?” Of course, these questions are welcome; when they are genuinely posed, it provides an opportunity

Sarah Levy • Why Love One But Eat the Other?

for mutual education and understanding.

However; more often than not, these discussions quickly devolve. Explanations are met with dismissal at best, and disrespect and derision at worst. Whenever these conversations take this turn, I always find myself confused.

Why do people get so defensive about a personal choice that I have made, as though it somehow reflects onto them?

The reason, I have come to discover, is because it does. The decision to leave meat off of one’s plate implicitly questions the choices of all those around them, forcing those people — if only for a brief moment — to re-evaluate their dietary choices. It is understandable that many respond defensively to this challenge. Still, in a community like Trinity, which prides itself on knowledge and discussion, it is a wonder that

“The consumption of animals, and the resulting cruelty of factory farming, has become so normalized in Western society that many find it difficult to empathise with the creatures that we have been taught throughout our lives to think of as food.” so many resort to rebuttals such as “meat tastes good, so I’m not going to stop eating it,” as if that somehow closes the discussion. It troubles me that educated people are so quick to close their minds and bury their heads in the sand.

There is, however, an explanation for this common display of willful ignorance. The reality is that the consumption of animals, and the resulting cruelty of factory farming, has become so normalized in Western society that many find it difficult to empathise with the creatures that we have been taught throughout our lives to think of as food. The mass consumption of animals is thought of as acceptable— natural, even—because we as humans occupy a “higher position on the food chain.”

In my opinion, it is that we transcend these base instincts, as we have done in most other areas of our lives.

It is time for us to evolve.

Those who continually insist, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, that farm animals are lacking in both thought and feeling come closer to that description themselves than the animals do.

It was on a kindergarten field trip to a farm that I first made the connection that the animals we were playing with, those destined for consumption, were not so different from or in any way less deserving of humane treatment than the dog that I considered my “best friend.”

Since coming to that realisation at a young age, I have not been able to shake the opinion that there is little difference between the animals we call food and those we call friends. Both advertising and the media are responsible for perpetuating this arbitrary distinction, a distinction that is more of a construct than grounded in fact. We must recognise that neither whales nor dogs are superior to the animals eaten every day. In some cases, farm animals experience an even wider diversity of emotion than those we work so hard to avidly protect.

Loving animals means loving all animals, not just the ones we deem cute, majestic, or with which we share our homes. One cannot claim to believe in compassion if one also believes in arbitrary exceptions.

My objective is not necessarily to convert you to vegetarianism, but rather, in the words of Albert Schweitzer, to have you “Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.” The animals we consume were forced to endure a lifetime of torture before being processed into a chicken nugget fit for our enjoyment. The food on our plate once had a face, a pulse, and a life of which it was robbed for those who “just can’t

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imagine giving up bacon.” We have a tendency to compartmentalize these facts, to imagine that our food magically appears in front of us while ignoring the reality of where it actually comes from.

“Loving animals means loving all animals, not just the ones we deem cute, majestic, or share our homes with.”

There is no excuse for turning a blind eye to the suffering of over 140 billion animals every year.

It is for this simple reason that I am proud to be on the right side of what should be a socially accepted wrong.

Salterrae • November 2014

On the Bookshelves of… e

v i l l A l i t S 1T5,

This issue of Bookshelves features 1T5 English majors and specialists, in one last desperate cry for relevance. Cue the Whoville chant: We are here! We are here!

Here’s your chance to learn about your fellow members of College, the ones who still lurk around Strachan or the quad. The ones who remember Wild Vines but would never dare step foot in Massey again. We’re too old for that shit. The ones who you need to suck up to if you want to go to Fourth Year Bar. The ones who are objectively cooler than you.

Brad Mulder’s (English and Cinema Studies Double Major) book of choice is…Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Perhaps one of the most famous books from the 20th century, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 tells the

By: Rebecca Zhu Illustration: Mirka Loiselle

story of John Yossarian, a captain in the U.S. air forces. Based on Heller’s personal experiences from World War II, this novel tells of frustrations with bureaucratic absurdity and attempts to stay sane during war. Perfect for fans of modern classics and non-linear storytelling.

Devyn Noonan (English Specialist) is currently reading…Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy Devyn is a huge fan of Victorian literature, and so it should comes as no surprise that she is perusing through a Thomas Hardy novel. Jude the Obscure follows the life of a young English stonemason who dreams of becoming a scholar, and the foibles of his love for his cousin Sue. This book deals with many of the major social themes of Hardy’s period, including class structures, religion, education, and marriage. Recom-

mended for fellow lovers of Victorian fiction, or anyone who wants to follow in Devyn’s footsteps.

Ishita Petkar (English and Aboriginal Studies Double Major, History Minor) is currently reading…House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski Mark Danielewski’s contemporary bestseller is a tricky but fascinating book. Using a self-professed unreliable narrator and multiple storylines, House of Leaves enthralls the reader with bold characters, plot twists, and unusual formatting like footnotes that contain footnotes, à la David Foster Wallace. Lovers of postmodern fiction, take note.

Martina Bellisario (English Specialist) is perusing through…Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion Named one of TIME magazine’s “Best EnglishLanguage Novels from 1923 to 2005” and later made into a screenplay co-written by Didion herself, Play It As It Lays tells of an unfulfilled thirty-year-old actress struggling to recover from a mental breakdown. Written in Didion’s signature terse, controlled style, the novel is brimming with fascinating animal and dream motifs. Play It As it Lays is perfect for readers who enjoy the candid style and content of contemporary novels.

Rebecca Zhu (English and Psychology Research Double Specialist) recently read…Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald intended Tender is the Night, his last completed work, to be his masterpiece.

The novel chronicles a wealthy young American couple, Dick and Nicole Diver, as they vacation around France. The Divers seem to be the pinnacle of perfection until budding Hollywood starlet Rosemary Hoyt destroys this illusion.

Fitzgerald paints characters that are incredibly magnetic and obviously flawed – the glamour of the novel constantly carries an undertone of darkness and melancholy. A must-read for all Fitzgerald fans.

Emma Smith • ‘Twas the Night Before Exams

‘Twas the Night before Exams By: Emma Smith ‘Twas the night before exams, when all through the quad, Not a creature was stirring - now isn’t that odd?

Notes piled under pillows with the intent, albeit hopeless, That knowledge would seep in through the night by osmosis

I promised myself that soon I’d awake, Then I heard pounding on the windowpane, I assumed that I must have been going insane, From under my bed, I watched in amazement, As John Strachan himself emerged through the casement,

The keeners were nestled all snug in their beds While visions of quad party danced in their heads, The rest of us losers, all self-damning, Strapped ourselves in for a long night of cramming

He landed with a thud and cracked the wood floor, There goes my deposit; thanks a lot you old boar!

I’m not sure how he got there, he was just a bust, But there he was staring at me with disgust,

When out in the quad there arose such brouhaha, I thought to myself, “It’s too late for toga!”

I waded through piles of books And went to the window to take a quick look...

His wrinkles had wrinkles, his stare made me wary!

His cheeks were all sallow, his frown curdled dairy, He had the puffiest sleeves that I ever had seen, I’d have thought him handsome if not mean,

I saw no half-naked frosh gyrating and shaking, So I knew my suspicion was likely mistaken, I told myself I must’ve had too much tea After all, I was starting to feel dizzy

His comb-over was fierce and his sideburns were bangin’, He had the sort of eyes a girl could get lost in, I slowly crawled out from under my bed, And he gave me a sympathetic pat on the head

When out of the corner of my eye, I swear, I saw the Bishop’s statue beckon me downstairs I was understandably freaked out by this animate Strachan, So I hid under my bed, with the curtains drawn.

He didn’t have arms, so I was quite confused, As his expression changed, I stared at him, bemused He put his hand on my shoulder, again, what the Hell?

I silently wondered if this could end well,

“You stupid, belligerent, ignorant fool!

Who on earth let you into this school?

Procrastinating moron, only air in your head Come down here this instant, before I come up instead!”

It turns out that Strachan is a fan of tough love, He wants what’s best for me, when push comes to shove, I knew in that moment I couldn’t let him down, I had to prove I deserved a Trin gown I worked like I had never worked before, But studying’s still quite the chore, And even if I don’t get that 4.0, At least Strachan will know that I gave it a go.

John Strachan’s voice was surprisingly shrill, He sounded just about ready to kill, What a nightmare! The floor began to shake —

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Salterrae • November 2014

Christmastime in the City

By: Veronica Stewart There is nothing better than the first snowfall of winter, the smell of a fresh cut evergreen just waiting to be decorated, and the instantaneous warmth of Graham library after battling sub-zero temperatures. Even if the snow doesn’t last, what does is the fact that once again Christmas has come to Trinity College.

Unfortunately, so have exams.

December is a month with which most undergraduates have a complicated relationship. On one hand, the holiday cheer is infectious. On the other hand, it is difficult to get into the spirit of the season while you remain in academic quarantine.

But fear not. While crunch-time marathon study sessions can’t entirely be avoided, I can provide you with a guide to making the exam season a little more fun. Every now and then you need to take a break and enjoy the Christmas traditions you don’t want to miss out on this December.

1. Christmas Dinner in the Great Hall. Or rather Strachan Hall, but apart from the name, the difference is trivial. Even if you do not leave your room for the rest of the month, the event you cannot afford to miss is Trinity’s Christmas Dinner. Don your gown, put your books aside for a few hours, and prepare to enjoy a delicious feast in a surreal setting.

2. Our National Pastime. Whether you were raised on the ice or this is your first time, there is nothing like skating in the city during the holiday season. As the winter wind whips against your face and you get more daring with your crossovers, you are as close as you will ever be to flying. Nathan Phillips Square truly comes alive

Illustration: Rachel Chen

in the winter – the glow of twinkling lights and the exhilaration of skating turns a regular night into an unforgettable experience.

3. Time Travel. Go back, way back. To a time when life was simpler and Christmas was magical. Walk the cobblestone streets of Toronto’s historic Distillery District and experience the wonder that is the annual Christmas Market. Shop, stroll around, and savour all the season has to offer.

4. Window Shopping. ’Tis the season for giving. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t get a little something for yourself. Break free from mall madness and peer into another world. The Hudson’s Bay and Holt Renfrew store windows are just the escape you need.

5. Black is Back. Black Friday may have started out as an American tradition, but that hasn’t held Canadian retailers back from propagating this form of manic consumerism. Not convinced? Set foot inside the Eaton Centre on November 28 and any remaining doubts will be dispelled. With stores opening at 6 AM, it becomes less about shopping and more about survival.

6. Let There Be Light. The official start to the Toronto holiday season is the Cavalcade of Lights. On Saturday, November 29th, gather in front of City Hall for a celebration that includes music and fireworks. The main attraction is always the unveiling of the year’s larger-than-life luminous display of Christmas lights.

7. Pinteresting. If your attempts at Pinterestperfect original gifts have been a little less-thanperfect in the past, don’t give up hope. The One of a Kind Christmas Show, running from November 27th to December 7th, is your saviour.

Find something unique for everyone on your list without ever having to resort to giving gift cards.

8. Walking in a Winter Wonderland. At

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the Hudson’s Bay on Queen Street, the windows are just the beginning. Venture inside and down the escalators into a world of Christmas bliss.

Wander the beautifully decked out halls with envy and walk away with trimmings for every occasion.

9. Make a Difference. While helping your community is encouraged all year round, there are a few special opportunities to give back this holiday season. Holiday Helpers is looking for more ‘elves’ to help wrap and deliver gifts to low-income families, the Salvation Army Kettle Campaign is looking for smiling bell-ringers for flexible shifts collecting donations, and Horizons for Youth shelters always feel the added strain of the holiday season and could use more hands to help with general upkeep to provide a positive atmosphere for youth without a home this holiday season. More information is readily available online, so take a study and shopping break for a couple hours and lend a hand to those who need it most.

10. Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread.

Christmas baking has no equal. Nothing smells and tastes quite like it. Just remember – make enough to share.

11. Snail Mail. Everyone loves to get mail.

Everyone loves to feel special. Brighten your grandmother’s day by sending her a handwritten Christmas card.

12. That’s a wrap! Take a much needed study break and break out the festive wrapping paper.

This will ensure every Christmas morning surprise stays a surprise. Shamelessly singing along to Christmas classics is optional.

Damian Klambauer • The Klamboner

T h e K l a m b o n e r Is that a ninth leg or are you just hungry

to see me?

By: Damian Klambauer Illustrations: Helen Picard Arachnida. The very word brings to mind images of sexy spiders scurrying across the squalid surface of the scabrously stained floor of the Larkin building after a Rush pub. As the ringleader retires to his raunchy reward, those spiders of college who have not yet located their mates return to the dancefloor to perform elaborate courtship displays, spin their spinnerets, throb their thoraxes, and sequentially wink all eight eyes in an amorous arachnid approximation of the so-called “wave.”

Like these cockblocked Claudii, the inebriated inhabitants of the Buttery preoccupy themselves with predicating procreation and boast loudly of their silk-protrusional prowess, spinning webs of lies in the hope of attracting suitors and finding a place to secure their egg-sac. These lonesome spiders should take solace in their solitude, for if they were to succeed in their search for a mate they may get eaten!

“I will take this opportunity to express my pleasure at having been born a human and not a spider.”

Yes, the previous 150 words were merely a lead up for me to talk about sexual cannibalism. You, dear reader, are probably angered and horrified that I wasted so many of your eyes’ saccades on this nonsense. Hold onto that feeling.

Cherish it. Draw strength from it. Seek solace in its dark embrace, and fuel it with the horrors you are about to read.

Sexual cannibalism is primarily practiced by the females of several arachnid

and insect orders, however some gastropods and copepods have been observed to exhibit the behaviour as well. There are several competing hypotheses to explain the evolutionally confusing behaviour, such as the adaptive foraging hypothesis, in which the female weighs the once-laid male’s value as a meal against him as a mate, and subsequently decides to eat him. I am certain that we have all, in starved, post-coital moments of weakness, lamented the distance of the fridge from our beds and at least briefly considered nibbling on the body lying beside us instead. However, I feel like I can safely say we have decided against it. Spiders are not bound by this morality, and therefore routinely elect to ingest their mates.

Another competing hypothesis is that females cannibalize males as a means of mate selection: removing undesirable males from the breeding pool and satisfying their munchies at the same time. I will take this opportunity to express my pleasure at having been born a human and not a spider. Rejection certainly hurts, but I’m sure all of us would rather endure lonely high school dances staring longingly from the sides of the room than be murdered and eaten for the simple crime of not having the moves that drive the mygalomorphs crazy.

“Rejection certainly hurts, but I’m sure all of us would rather endure lonely high school dances staring longingly from the sides of the room than be murdered and eaten for the simple crime of not having the moves that drive the mygalomorphs crazy.”

The final evolutionary explanation for sexual cannibalism is the mistaken-identity hypothesis, which holds that females cannibalize males who fail to court. That is, the male attempts to display his sexual prowess and fitness as a mate, but the female does not notice, or else is bored by the display, and decides to eat him instead.

Here we arrive at the conclusion that humanity is at least pretty okay, and definitely preferable to spiderhood. The only thing that can make walking home alone after a Rush worse is if, after returning to your room to drink a bottle of despair-wine and contemplate life choices, you are knocked to the floor and eaten alive.

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Salterrae • November 2014 ART and LITERATURE

Cost: $31.00

What: The Stanley Kubrick Exhibition – This exhibition examines the personal and professional life of one of cinema’s greatest directors, Stanley Kubrick. Letters, props, costumes, and other production materials will be on hand, including popular favourites like the dresses of the twin sisters from The Shining, the ‘Born to Kill’ helmet from Full Metal Jacket, and an authentic model of the War Room in Dr. Strangelove. There will also be items from two of Kubrick’s unfinished projects, Napoleon and The Aryan Papers, as well as photographs from his time spent as a photojournalist.

This is the first Canadian première of the exhibition – having already been held in Paris, Rome, and Amsterdam, it’s time for Toronto to get some Kubrick love. In conjunction with the exhibition, a film retrospective entitled “Stanley Kubrick: A Cinematic Odyssey” will feature twelve of Kubrick’s films and three of his short works.

Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox – 350 King St. West.

When: October 31 – January 25.

Cost: $10 for students.

What: Tokyo Police Club and Said the Whale – The Newmarket natives will be playing in Toronto with Vancouver-based band Said the Whale.

Why not listen to some great music, and support great Canadian artists while you’re at it?

Where: Danforth Music Hall, 147 Danforth Ave, Broadview Subway Station.

When: December 11.

Cost: $26.00 What: BadBadNotGood – The name of this group alone describes how we’ve been feeling after the past midterm season. If this is something that pulls on your heartstrings, join us. We’ll comfort each other.

Where: Opera House, 735 Queen St. East.

When: December 13.

Cost: $16.00

Where: Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen St. West.

When: November 29.

Cost: Free!

What: Axe Throwing at BATL - Instead of the tedious comparisons to Legolas or Katniss, you can now train yourself in the more dignified sport of axe throwing. You’ll need a group of at least twelve to book a three hour event, but you’ll get the chance to learn how to throw an axe and participate in a one-day tournament.

Where: 213 Sterling Rd. When: Whenever your soul isn’t dying under the pressure of tests/readings/pop quizzes. Could be a fun way to unwind!

Cost: $40 per person.

What: The High Park Zoo - You’ve probably heard enough about High Park to know it’s a popular spot for Torontonians getting back in touch with nature, but people often forget there’s a small zoo in it as well.

There are bison, peacocks, ponies, and other animals on display, and best of all, it’s free. Instead of puppy therapy this exam season, why not try de-stressing with some llamas?

Where: Deer Pen Rd, High Park Subway Station.

When: Open year-round!

Cost: Free!

Goings On About Town

What: Alex Colville at the Art Gallery of Ontario – The iconic Canadian artist has finally come to the AGO with an exhibit showcasing all of his best-known works. Additionally, the exhibit features a series of pieces curated by film director Wes Anderson, who used his indie-favourite Moonrise Kingdom to pay homage to the artist.

Where: The AGO, 317 Dundas St. W. When: Until September January 4.

Cost: $11 for students, free on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

MUSIC and THEATER

What: Caribou – Reviewed by The Guardian as being “rich, strange, and endlessly fascinating music”, Caribou’s newest album, Our Love is described as “a subtle, beautiful triumph.” Sounds lovely to us!

Where: Danforth Music Hall, 147 Danforth Ave, Broadview Subway Station.

When: November 24.

Cost: $24.00 What: Arkells – Self-described as “politically charged, heart on your sleeve lyrics,” Canadian rock band Arkells’ latest album High Noon was inspired by the band’s hometown of Hamilton, ON, whose unofficial slogan is “a work in progress,” How closely the album relates to the upand-coming city is something you will have to decide for yourself.

Where: Danforth Music Hall, 147 Danforth Ave, Broadview Subway Station.

When: November 27/28.

By: Simone Garcia FOOD/CULTURE What: The One of a Kind Christmas Show Gather ing the work of approximately 800 artisans for your browsing pleasure, the One of a Kind Christmas Show is the perfect way to find a unique gift for your loved ones. Shop for handcrafted ceramics, jewellery, furniture, clothing and accessories, browse through art galleries, watch a fashion show, or take part in artistic holiday activities. Since its first show in 1975, it has become the largest consumer craft show in North America.

There are also hands-on workshops where you can make unique gifts. Each ticket includes breakfast and admission to the show.

Where: Direct Energy Centre, 100 Princes’ Blvd.

When: November 27 – December 7.

Cost: $12.

What: Cavalcade of Lights - During the 48th annual Cavalcade of Lights at Nathan Phillips Square, visitors will see the lighting of the official Christmas Tree of Toronto. There will also be live musical performances, a fireworks display, and a dance party to culminate the evening.

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What: Cluny – New to the Distillery District, Cluny offers French food like you’ve never seen before. The menu offers classics such as French onion soup, frog legs, and steak frites, but all with a contemporary twist of Asian and Moroccan influences. The restaurant itself is housed in a historic building, with large, bright windows – essentially, the perfect lighting to Instagram your meal. If nothing else, the icecream filled macarons are a must-try.

Where: 35 Tank House Lane.

When: Open year-round!

Cost: Small plates start at $8, mains at $13.

What: Toronto Circus School – Tumbling is such an underrated skill. If joining the circus has always been a dream of yours, fear no more.

Now you, and maybe some adventurous friends, can schedule a few lessons learning all the tricks of performing under the big top. A fun, physical challenge, these lessons are a unique way of getting or staying in shape, and you never know when knowing how to use a trapeze will come in handy. There is also that special form of excitement reserved for telling someone you just came back from a Flying Trapeze class.

Where: 75 Carl Hall Rd, Downsview Subway Station.

When: Open year-round!

Cost: Drop in classes start at $25.