Matthew Merkel, staff
The federal govern
ment announced on Oct. 7 that eligible international students will be granted the authorization to work more than 20 hours per week off campus. The temporary change will run from Nov. 15 this year to Dec. 31, 2023.
According to the govern ment of Canada’s website, foreign nationals with an approved study permit appli cation submitted by Oct. 7 will
also be able to take advantage of the new changes.
International students are currently restricted to work ing 20 hours per week off cam pus during the school year.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser stated that the move would help continue the growth of Canada’s post-pan
demic economy, help employ ers in markets experiencing labour shortages find new staff and give post-secondary students a better opportunity to make money and gain work experience.
“More than 500,000 inter national students who are already here in Canada are going to be eligible to work
more if they choose to do so,” Fraser said.
UMSU international stu dents’ representative Kunal Rajpal said that the govern ment’s ruling will help give international students the flexibility to work hours that are more conducive to a stu dent’s schedule, allowing for more optimized study time
and planned savings.
Rajpal said that the existing law negatively affects inter national students in a variety of ways. He said that inter national students are limited in their choice of employer, and claimed that this leaves international students more vulnerable to abuse within the workplace. He said the new law will help broaden inter national students’ options and, ultimately, improve their bottom line.
“We can earn more, we can live comfortably,” Rajpal said.
“We are going through a housing crisis, minimum wage is too low, we do not have international health care, inflation is as high as it could be, we are going through financial distress.”
Then-Minister of Inter national Trade Diversification James Gordon Carr stated that 2018 statistics showed that international students con tributed an estimated $21.6 billion to Canada’s GDP, and supported almost 170,000 jobs. Between January and the end of August this year, more than 452,000 international study permits have been pro cessed, a 23 per cent increase from the same period in 2021.
The Bisons soccer squad won the first stage of the Duckworth Challenge against the Winnipeg Wesmen over the weekend.
The team opened the twopart series with a 3–0 win on Thursday, Oct. 6. Bison mid fielder Jessica Tsai opened the scoring at 30:19 in the game, with forward Bianca Cavalcanti scoring nine min utes later. Cavalcanti scored a second goal in the second half that would cap off the shutout.
On Saturday’s game, the Bisons dominated with a 6–0 win. The onslaught began
early, with Cavalcanti scor ing the first two goals followed by forward Janelle Chomini before half time. In the second half Tsai got two goals of her own, and was followed by defender Bianca Bucci with the final goal.
The team will wrap up the regular season next week against Alberta opponents
Both the Bisons men’s and women’s hockey teams kicked off the regular season over the weekend.
The two teams are off to a rocky start, each going 0–2 in their first two games. How ever, it was not without effort.
The Bisons men scored four
goals in their first game that resulted in a 6–4 loss to the UBC Thunderbirds, includ ing two goals from forward Brett Davis. In the wild second game against the T-birds, the Bisons put up seven goals in a close 8–7 loss, with five differ ent scorers for the Bisons side and two goals apiece for both Davis and forward Tony Ape tagon.
On the women’s side of things, defenceman Hanna Bailey was the lone goal for the Bisons in their first game — also against the UBC Thunderbirds — in a 6–1 loss.
The T-birds put up another six in game two, a 6–2 loss for the Bisons, with forwards Aimee Patrick and Julia Bird netting the two points for the Mani
The golf team finished off their season with the Canada West Championships tourna ment last week in Victoria, BC.
The team finished sixth overall. Individually Stefan Lavallee and Cameron McIn tyre shot +9, Trent Robertson shot +11, Connor Stewart shot +14 and Cole Peters shot +20.
With the growing inter national student population contributing so much to the economy, Rajpal said that it is important their value is reflected in laws and poli cies. Although he said stu dents have been happy to see the temporary change intro duced, Rajpal argued that it should be made permanent.
He also highlighted the need to reinstate free health care for international students living in Manitoba, something he continues to advocate for.
“I hope to see [the] govern ment recognize our value and make laws according to that, like for example, reinstating international student health care,” Rajpal said.
“International students [are] crucial to the economy of the province and the country, and with that, we should get the relevant protections,” he said via text message.
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October is Student Suc cess Month at the Univer sity of Manitoba and this year the month features a variety of workshops on career prep aration, stress management, academic writing, research skills and cultural adaptation and identity.
Oct. 19 will also mark the International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating, and will feature workshops educating students on the problems and risks associated with contract cheating.
Contract cheating refers to students outsourcing their schoolwork to homework websites, essay mills or per sonal acquaintances.
“This is often the time of term where things become a little bit overwhelming some times,” Stephanie Young said, student transitions co-ordin
ator at the University of Mani toba.
“There’s a lot of successes that students have by October, but also a lot of stressful situa tions, so what we like to do is offer a range of events by sup port units across campus.”
Young highlighted a ser ies of academic workshops that will be available online, enabling students to partici pate virtually.
“They have topics ranging from creating a study sched ule, to preparing for mid terms, to preventing procras tination, and so students of all levels would benefit from those workshops,” she said.
The next upcoming work shop will be held on Oct. 13, and will focus on academic writing and the use of aca demic sources.
There will also be career-ori ented workshops on topics
ranging from job searching to using LinkedIn, as well as workshops from the Eng lish Language Centre such as “Small Talk Strategies for the Classroom,” which will help students for whom English is a second language to connect with their fellow classmates.
The International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating occurs during the third week of Student Success Month.
Francois Jordaan, academic integrity specialist at the U of M, said that workshops on the subject are not only intended to inform students of the rules surrounding contract cheat ing, but to warn them of the potential risks involved.
“These sites that get involved in contract cheat ing, that help students to write their essays,” he said, “in many instances, they’re pred
atory sites that will eventually blackmail students.”
Jordaan said that the switch to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the number of these predatory sites.
“In many instances, what we’ve seen is that students who just express frustration about writing an assignment, that they would put [that] on Instagram or Twitter,” he said.
“All of a sudden these bot messages will just come in from these different sites say ing ‘oh you need help, I can write your assignment, send me a DM and we can work out a price.’”
Jordaan said that in some cases, after paying hundreds of dollars for these sites to complete their coursework for them, many students would then receive messages threat ening to inform their school
that they cheated unless they were paid more money.
He said that students who are struggling should seek help from their instructors or the Academic Learning Cen tre.
“That’s kind of what we want students to know about this International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating,” he said.
“We don’t want to scare them, but we want students to be aware that it’s just not worth it.
“All that stress and anxiety of maybe being blackmailed, all that money that you’re put ting in, it’s not worth it.”
The University of Mani toba Students’ Union (UMSU) held its biweekly board meet ing Oct. 6. Three motions were discussed during the session.
Brought forward by the executive committee, the first motion approved by the board of directors was cen tred around creating a work ing group tasked with making an outline for community rep resentative positions on the UMSU board of directors.
The executive team believes there should be more struc ture in the governing docu ments for community repre sentatives. These guidelines would be created in a collabo rative fashion that would con sider UMSU’s knowledge of the community representa tive positions.
Once the group has finished presenting its recommenda tions to the governance com mittee, a vote will take place on whether they are accepted or not. If approved, the gov erning documents will be amended, and the group will subsequently be dissolved.
The second motion cen tred around the Sept. 8 death of Queen Elizabeth II. UMSU’s position statement book does not have any pol icies surrounding the Brit ish monarchy, so a statement was drafted by the executive committee and proposed to the UMSU board of directors.
After discussion among the board members, a vote was held to determine if the sta tement would be released. Six people voted in favour of the motion, eight voted against and five abstained, meaning the motion was dismissed.
The third motion, moved by UMSU 2SLGBTQIA+ com munity representative Alex Rana, discussed the forma tion of a new UMSU Equity, Diversity and Inclusion work ing group (EDIWG) for this academic year. The purpose of this group would be to provide a safe space for members of designated UMSU communi ties to discuss equity, diversity and inclusion within UMSU and at the U of M.
EDIWG would be com prised of an UMSU Indige nous representative or desig nate, UMSU women’s repre sentative or designate, UMSU 2SLGBTQIA+ representative or designate, UMSU inter national students’ represen tative or designate, UMSU Black students’ representative or designate and an UMSU accessibility representative or designate.
Any student who iden tifies as belonging to the Indigenous, Black, women’s, 2SLGBTQIA+, international, accessibility-seeking, mature, part-time or racialized com munities could also be part of the working group.
These members would all
have voting privileges, while the UMSU president and vice-president advocacy, who would also make up part of the group, would not.
Members would be respon sible for identifying ways to improve equity, diversity and inclusion within UMSU and at the U of M for future years. EDIWG would also cre ate a detailed report to be pre sented to the UMSU board of directors by the end of winter semester 2023, which would address the research con ducted.
After a vote, the motion was carried by the UMSU board of directors.
UMSU president Jaron Rykiss read aloud the new UMSU land acknowledgment statement. Created alongside Indigenous students’ repre sentative Ishkode Catcheway, the acknowledgement will be voted on in the next board meeting, where if approved it will officially become a part of UMSU’s governing docu ments.
Rykiss shared that UMSU has created a statement in support of students affected by the death of Mahsa Amini, as well as a letter intended for affected students to provide to their professors outlining why they would be using the U of M’s student absence pol
icy. UMSU also reached out to the U of M administration requesting fee extensions for students affected by events in Iran. This request was approved.
Rykiss has also worked on getting international students free health care. He drafted a letter to send to U of M pres ident Michael Benarroch, which will request his support for the cause.
The Canadian Federation of Students was also discussed at the meeting. Rykiss had no new updates for the board regarding the federation’s lawsuit against UMSU, but did share that tickets have been purchased to attend a Cana dian Federation of Students conference in November. The entire executive team, as well as UMSU international stu dents representative Kunal Rajpal, will attend the confer ence.
There, UMSU plans to pre sent the results of its upcom ing referendum concerning its membership in the Cana dian Federation of Students. Rykiss also hopes to propose a motion concerning online voting, which he claims has been ignored by the federa tion twice before.
Tracy Karuhogo, UMSU vice-president student life, discussed Indigenous Stu dents Month, which takes place in November. Event planning is already under
way, and an Indigenous stu dent bursary is also slated to be awarded during the month. UMSU vice-president commu nity engagement Elishia Ratel announced that from Oct. 25 to 28, UMSU will be hosting Halloween events.
Victoria Romero, UMSU vice-president advocacy, shared that she is working on making the university a more family-friendly place for stu dents who have children. She will also be researching worker’s wages on campus to ensure that students are being paid a living wage.
UMSU vice-president finance and operations Brook Rivard announced that halal food options are now available at Degrees restaurant. He also noted that a survey will be sent out to students this week, asking them how their experi ence with the U-Pass and Win nipeg Transit has been so far this year.
The University of Mani toba has extended the fall fee deadline for international students from Iran, as the Iranian government has been shutting down internet con nections throughout the coun try in response to the protests. These blackouts have made it difficult for students to con tact their families and access financial support.
“When we find students in a crisis, for example what our Iranian students are going through right now, the uni versity always looks at ways to sort of ease the financial distress at the moment,” said Jane Lastra, associate regis trar and director of financial aid and awards at the U of M, “and right now, of course, that’s the fall tuition dead line.”
“We all thought it was important and manageable to extend the fee deadline to allow the time for students to transfer the funds from back home if that was the case dur ing the blackouts that are being experienced.”
An Iranian U of M student who asked to remain anonym ous in order to avoid scrutiny from the regime said that they “really appreciate this exten sion on the deadline of the tuition fee,” but hoped the university could do more.
They said that they person ally have had difficulty con tacting their family due to
A number of students at Sharif University of Tech nology in Tehran, Iran were arrested and injured by police Sunday, Oct. 2 amid protests over the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.
The protests at Sharif Uni versity are part of a more than two-week-long wave of dem onstrations across Iran after Amini died in police custody.
Amini was arrested in Teh ran on Sept. 13 by Iran’s mor ality police, who accused her of violating laws requiring women to wear a headscarf and loose-fitting clothes.
Witnesses said she was beaten while being trans ported to a detention centre. She fell into a coma and died in hospital on Sept. 16.
The Iranian police denied the allegations that they beat Amini, and said that she died due to heart failure, which Iran’s interior minister claimed was caused by pre-ex isting health issues.
Her father, however, told news outlets that Amini had no serious health problems, and that she had bruises on her legs.
Demonstrations in reaction to Amini’s death began in her hometown of Saqqez on Sept. 17 and have continued in more than 45 cities throughout the country.
The unnamed Iranian stu dent said that “the most important thing that they are demonstrating for is free dom.”
“In the previous protests a few years ago, we were see ing that the most primary [demands] of people were eco nomic problems that they were facing,” they said.
“But right now in this pro test, which is very import ant to notice, is that they are demanding their freedom and the most basic human rights.”
The crackdown at Sharif University was triggered by students staging a walkout and chanting anti-regime slo gans.
As hundreds of protest ors gathered on campus and streets nearby, videos posted to Twitter showed riot police using tear gas on students, with what appeared to be gun shots audible in the distance.
While riot police eventually cleared the Sharif University campus, protestors filled the streets until after midnight.
“All of these students in this university are some of the brightest students or some of the brightest and elite people in Iran,” said the anonymous Iranian student.
“These are the most pres tigious universities in Iran [and] it is not easy to get into [them],” they explained. “So killing and attacking these students[…],it’s like in Canada [if] police forces attacked stu
dents in Toronto.”
Sharif University was one of numerous universities in Iran where protests broke out on Oct. 2 , including schools in cities like Yazd, Mashhad, Shiraz, Kermanshah and San andaj.
access them.
“We have emergency loan programs, we have emergency bursary programs, we operate a food bank that’s open Mon day through Friday,” Lastra said.
She also highlighted addi tional bursaries currently offered by the university, and said that students are wel come to come to the financial aid and awards office to dis cuss their financial concerns “face to face.”
Lastra said that the deci sion to extend the deadline comes from the office of the vice-provost, which alongside UMSU and the University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association has worked to provide students with infor mation on what financial sup ports are available and how to news@themanitoban.com
The University of Mani toba Students’ Union (UMSU) held an awareness campaign about healthy sexuality from Oct. 3 to 7.
UMSU vice-president stu dent life Tracy Karuhogo said that the campaign’s goal was to help make discussions surrounding sex on campus informative and less intimi dating.
She said that the U of M should be a welcoming place for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation, a theme that helped influence UMSU’s slogan for the week, “cum as you are.”
“They should be able to feel comfortable in their sexual ity,” Karuhogo said.
The goal for Karuhogo was to “raise awareness, and to just create an environment where people can comfortably talk about sex as well and be able to learn more about it,”
Like previous healthy sex uality week promotions, this year’s iteration featured events and free condoms.
UMSU handed out sex toys on Tuesday night dur ing “Sexy Sexual Health Trivia with Samantha Bitty,” a free event hosted by sexual health speaker Samantha Bitty at the VW Social Club in University Centre.
The toys were purchased using a discount provided by Love Nest, a locally owned chain of stores that specializes in sexual pleasure and rela
tionship-based products.
UMSU also partnered with both Klinic Commun ity Health, which provided sexual health products, and Respect Educate Empower Survivors (REES), an online platform for reporting sexual assault, harassment and mis conduct.
UMSU also tabled in UC, where representatives handed out lube and condoms. Karuh ogo said these free items were all a part of UMSU’s plan to help educate students about sex.
Throughout the week, UMSU posted sexual health infographics and videos.
The basics of healthy sex uality were featured on Mon day. Vaginal and breast health
was covered on Tuesday. The next day, testicular health and 2SLGBTQIA+ sexual health was discussed. Thursday fea tured information about con sent and sexual violence, while Friday was centred around birth control and safe sex.
Karuhogo encouraged stu dents to share the week’s con tent and refer back to it in the future. She said that UMSU will also be having more edu cational health promotions this year, including a mental health campaign from Nov. 14 to 18 and a second healthy sex uality week in the winter.
Sexual health resour ces listed by the University of Manitoba
University Health Service: 204-474-8411
Student Counselling Centre: 474 UMSU University Centre, 204-474-8592
Health and Wellness Office: 469 UMSU University Centre Nine Circles Com munity Health Centre: 204-940-6000
Women’s Health Clinic: 204-947-1517
Klinic Community Health: 204-784-4090 bedsider.org
Sexual Education Resource Centre Manitoba
Elah Ajene, staff
H umans and wildlife are inextricably linked. Our activities directly influ ence the natural community around us.
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic — which prompted nationwide lock downs — as we altered our behaviour, so did nature.
University of Manitoba post-doctoral fellow in the department of biological sci ences and adjunct professor at the U of M’s natural resour ces institute Miya Warrington sought to find out what birds were doing in response to changes in human behaviour during the lockdowns.
Warrington, who is cur rently doing research in the United Kingdom, analyzed 25 of the nation’s most com monly observed bird species in her recent publication — including the European robin, blackbirds, mallards, gulls, crows and the great tit, among others.
“We actually leveraged the power of citizen science,” she said. Citizen science is a method of scientific research which involves public partici pation.
Using eBird — a commun ity-based platform run by the Cornell lab of ornithology — members of the general pub lic were able to provide realtime data of bird sightings, creating an online database for researchers.
“From there we did all sorts of filtering and models just to find things out,” Warrington explained.
Alongside the bird obser vation data, Warrington also used human mobility data from Google which tracked individual movement pat terns using cellular networks.
Warrington and her col leagues found varying results for different bird species depending on the location being observed.
“We had all these interest ing mixed trends,” she said.
Amid the lockdown, pub lic park use and outdoor rec reational activities increased. In instances where humans had picnics, scavenger species such as crows and gulls would feed on the waste often left behind. Warrington explained that over time this was not beneficial to the scaven ger species, and the crowd in parks seemed to disturb them.
Further data analysis showed that as people spent more time at home in their yards and gardens doing daily activities, sightings of the gray tit bird were significantly reduced.
“That suggests that they
were disturbed by people coming into the yards and enjoying it with their pets and spending a lot of time out there,” Warrington explained.
Other species — such as blackbirds — were spotted more frequently. However, Warrington noted that this could have been influenced by humans putting out more bird feeders and baths.
“We changed the behaviour and animals responded, both in good and bad ways,” she said.
Overall, Warrington explained that bird behaviour
did not follow a fixed trend, but rather changed depending on the specific human activity — whether we stayed at home and spent time in our yards or gardens, visited parks or drove our vehicles.
According to Warrington, the fact that birds were able to respond to the drastic changes in human behaviour is a posi tive sign.
“That means that nature can be resilient, right?” she said.
In the wake of the cli mate crisis and biodiversity decline, Warrington explained
that changes in human behav iour can make a great impact on nature.
“But we have to be very careful and thoughtful about it because we know that there’s a lot of little nuances to that,” Warrington added.
Regarding the next direc tion of her research, Warring ton said that she will aim to be increasingly species-specific and analyze threatened spe cies within the community.
“The human behaviour is changing a lot, so the animals will,” Warrington said. “That’s why we started this project.”
Warrington’s project is part of a larger study, which focuses on wildlife behaviour previous to this.
With the sudden pandemic, Warrington and her col leagues saw a gap in this area of research that prompted them to look for answers.
“You’re curious because you’re a scientist, you want to help because there’s a crisis going on,” she said.
“We changed the behaviour and animals responded, both in good and bad ways
— Miya Warrington, Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba
t is a truth universally acknowledged that football is a brutal sport.
I
On Sept. 29 in the National Football League, the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals were set to face off on Thursday Night Football (TNF). It was a much-antici pated game, as the Bengals and Dolphins are both teams with exciting young quarter backs, Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa respectively.
However, four days prior to the game, the Dolphins went up against the Buffalo Bills where, with 2:28 left in the first half, Tagovailoa was pushed backwards while throwing. He fell down on his back so force fully that the back of his head hit the ground hard.
When Tagovailoa managed to get up after the hit, it was clear even on live TV that he was disoriented, struggling to stay up or walk, even fall ing back down to the ground. Despite this, he would later come back in the second half and play for the remainder of the game.
This raised questions about whether Tagovailoa should be
the quarterback for the Dol phins in the TNF matchup against the Bengals. Despite the concerns of many, he was cleared to play.
Horribly, near the end of the second quarter of the TNF game, Tagovailoa was sacked and his head once again hit the ground hard in the process.
This time, the hit resulted in Tagovailoa lying on the ground with his fingers held up in a contorted manner, all the while not moving. The game was quickly halted and delayed. Tagovailoa was later taken off the field on a stretcher, and it is not known yet if he will be able to play again this season.
This whole ordeal reignited the long-running debate over concussions in football, and more specifically, the rate at which they occur as it pertains to player safety.
I greatly enjoyed my time as a football player. I began
playing in grade four where I would begin to create last ing memories and bonds that remain to this day. I will never forget the excitement of my
concern for football players.
first win.
In a medical context, I can only say that my experience playing football was lucky. In six years, I never had any ser ious injuries that hindered me from playing or required me to go seek medical attention out side of athletic trainers. How ever, I myself suffered a minor concussion when I was 12.
I share the same opinion that many sports fans are cur rently speaking about with regard to player safety and concussions. Even as a former football player and diehard football fan, watching what happened to Tagovailoa in real time only reinforced my
Head injuries can be dir ectly linked to serious brain damage in those afflicted. A major fear shared by many concerning head injuries is the possibility of developing chronic trau matic enceph alopathy (CTE) — a condition that can ser iously alter someone’s behaviour and health.
As such, many parents in recent years have refrained from letting their children play football to keep them as safe as possible. According to an NBC news article from 2018, 48 per cent of parents in the United States would encourage their children to play a sport other than foot ball to avoid the risks posed by concussions.
This parental concern reaches across international borders. In Canada, the fear of children developing brain damage due to football injur ies has grown to a point where in 2019, Football Canada —
Canada’s governing board for football — banned all children 12 and under from compet ing in full-contact football. In fact, the ban was finally imple mented just this year.
There needs to be some thing done in order to cre ate a safer athletic climate in the world of football, in Can ada and elsewhere. It is a great game that I relished playing, enjoy discussing and adore watching.
There is simply no sport as enthralling.
It is a shame that many chil dren are being robbed of the chance to create life experien ces and to learn the many les sons football has to teach and has taught me.
It is even more of a shame that they are missing out for good reason. I can’t speak on what specifically should be done, but solutions need to be devised and executed prop erly to ensure that the chil dren of the present and of the future can play football safely.
There needs to be something done in order to create a safer athletic climate in the world of football in Canada and elsewhere
T
hough physical illness is quick to come to mind concerning the pandemic, there is much to be said regarding the mental health narratives that formed among the masses of people who had been forced to remain in their homes throughout 2020 and onwards.
Lifestyles and daily sched ules, which had been the means of survival, escape or interaction for countless indi viduals, were suddenly swept up by COVID-19 and thrown into the air for workers, stu dents and caregivers to help lessly reach out and try to hold onto, often to no avail.
Hopes and aspirations were put on indefinite hold, and dreams were forced to be rescheduled. It was the hot test — if not the only — topic the world of public affairs seemed to be willing to offer that year, and it became clear that change had begun to con tinue its gradual pace forward.
I had bleached my hair just that March. I wanted to have something strange about me in my final high school photo graphs. Clout chaser I was, but the motive wasn’t only based on stroking my ego. Many of the people I looked up to had already graduated, and they had also committed to notable bits in their own senior year pictures.
I really liked the picture I ended up taking — my arms crossed, sunglasses on and hair orange-d — and I was confident that I had been cringy enough to achieve post-irony. Quarantine started a week or two after, and the curtains closed quietly on my high school career.
Of course, school was still going on, but I had gotten used to setting my morning alarm a minute before my first Zoom meeting so that I could be counted for attendance before going back to sleep. Taking notes and doing assignments on my own was just a natural continuation of what I was already doing while sitting in class.
Part of me enjoyed the lei sure, and with it, the freedom of existing independently from social interaction.
My main problem was bore dom. Many of the hobbies I have now are a result of trying to find ways to kill time during the long stretches of nothing ness that came with graduat ing during COVID.
Though I still do these things and enjoy them to some extent, it became pain fully obvious that my bore dom was deeper-seated than just looking for stuff to do. I
shaved my bleached hair. I could move my hand to write or draw, but in the backrooms of my mind, there was still something unfulfilled.
It was easy to sate myself, I thought. But as I learned to operate my life on my own, the empty place inside me remained.
In entering quarantine, depending on others to ful fil emotional needs became much more difficult. There’s some baggage in that state ment, but unpacking it comes secondary to the point I’m try ing to make.
It’s possible to use the
beginning of quarantine as a clear dividing line in one’s memories. You can examine yourself closely this way, not just as a single entity, but as
the change from before-per son to now-person took place.
Change is a continuous pro cess, yet it’s only here in the present moment that we can reveal our selves as the now-people we have become.
time we’ve introduced our selves as now-people to the world, and I’m not yet sure whether the changes were good or bad. They may prove to be neither in the future.
the “before-person” and the “now-person.”
The before-person, who lived unaware of not just the coming pandemic but every thing else that would follow, is the prototype of the now-per son. When I compare the two, I realize that I can’t exactly pinpoint the moment where
Old friends cannot see what it has taken to turn into the you of today. Only the outcome, your answer to the question of continuing to be alive, can be seen.
Over the course of these past two years, the worlds of the social and solitary have bled through, and many life events were witnessed alone.
In fact, this may be the first
Even knowing that the now-people we have become will change further, is there anything we can do but con tinue? That’s something the before-person in me asks when I can feel the pressure of change against my back. It’s what they did, so it’s what I’ll do, too.
It’s possible to use the beginning of quarantine as a clear dividing line in one’s memories
The University of Mani toba Students’ Union (UMSU) is holding a refer endum this month to ask its members the following ques tion: “are you in favour of con tinued membership in the Canadian Federation of Stu dents?”
Voting will take place on Oct. 27 and 28 when members — all under graduate stu dents at the Uni versity of Mani toba — can head to the polls, cast their votes and make their voices heard.
All voting will take place online for this referendum. Students can choose to vote with their personal devices, or they can use an online vot ing booth that will be set up in University Centre.
Students should take the time to do research and edu
cate themselves on this important issue. It is a ques tion that affects every sin gle undergraduate student at the U of M, and each stu dent deserves the chance to raise their voice and be heard. Democracy works best when voters are well-informed and up-to-date on the issues that affect them.
This referendum will take place over the course of three weeks.
This week marks the first week, from Oct. 11 until Oct. 14. We are currently in regis tration week, where UMSU members are allowed to register “sides” for the cam paign.
A side is an organized team
of students who support one position on the referendum question. The side can then campaign to convince stu dents to vote in support of its position.
In order to register, these sides must have at least five members, with at least 50 nominators who support their position. The official side members and the nominators all must pro vide their first and last names, sig natures, fac ulties, years and stu dent ID numbers to the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) for the registration to be valid.
The second week, from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21, is campaign week, where the sides will have the opportunity to make their case to the student body. Campaigning is allowed from 9 a.m. on the morning of Oct.
17, and is allowed until the opening of voting on Oct. 27. Online campaigning, how ever, will be allowed until the end of voting on Oct. 28.
Voting takes place dur ing the third and final week, where students will cast bal lots on UMSU’s continued membership in the Canadian Federation of Students. Vot ing will take place online from 9 a.m. on Oct. 27 until 5 p.m. on Oct. 28.
I highly encourage students to do their research, pay atten tion during the campaign and, most importantly, get out and vote!
If any U of M student has questions about anything regarding this referendum, do not hesitate to contact myself, CRO Eric Johnson, at cro@ umsu.ca.
Democracy works best when voters are wellinformed and up-to-date on the issues that affect themletters@themanitoban.com
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Bedouin Soundclash is a name you maybe haven’t thought of in a minute, but those of us old enough to remember 2004 might have fond memories of its CanCon smash “When the Night Feels My Song.” The song is slightly confounding in all the ways that make the band such an interesting entity — a melding of reggae, folk, punk and pop with very few suitable com parison points.
I’ve always seen Bed ouin Soundclash as a sort of proto-Vampire Weekend, another band of hipsters appropriating a wide swath of world music. But its aesthetic vocabulary couldn’t be any further from Vampire Week end’s initial ironic Ivy League stance. Bedouin Soundclash sincerely cared in a folksy, old-school punk type way, and wasn’t afraid to be openly anthemic.
Their name, Bedouin Soundclash, is heady and puz zling too — evoking ancient nomadic Arab tribes and Jamaican dub parties in the same breath and representing a band that plays a mix of ska,
rock, electronic, pop and folk.
Its 20-plus-year career has led the band down many paths, working with artists from the electronic, jazz, pop and punk worlds in equal measure.
After breaking a nine-year hiatus with 2019’s MASS, the band is back with a new album called We Will Meet in a Hur ricane.
The 12-track record is being presented as a sort of back-tobasics, late career return to form. The production is shiny and poppy, but the arrange ments are kept to a select number of elements paired together in different ways.
The opening title track is a sugar-sweet ska-pop song that establishes the album’s theme of approaching apoca lyptic difficulties with a chip per optimism.
“Longer Days in Shorter Years” is a sauntering and slightly silly, lightly political bar-band rocker with a really infectious hook.
Tracks like “A Torn Jacket with Silver Lining” and “Man from Cascades” have truly strange palettes, mixing Spanish guitars, chirpy ska rhythms, country-ish pedal steel glides, lavish string
arrangements and vibra phone.
In general, the sound that Bedouin Soundclash ends up with here is without many clear analogues. The songs themselves are never too off the wall in construction, but the way they’re arranged is never not interesting.
We Will Meet in a Hurri cane is an album only Bedouin Soundclash could have made. It borders on cloying sweet ness, it’s a little too long and the songwriting is occasion ally a bit bland.
However, it’s all vintage Soundclash, and when it works, it really works.
We Will Meet in a Hurricane comes out Oct. 21, and will be available on major streaming platforms.
Alex Braun, staff
The Manitoba wedding social — an iconic tradition to some, a tacky social scourge to others, but something unique to our province, and one of our numerous questionable points of provincial pride.
Filmmaker Tavis Putnam saw the solicitation of poten tial social guests as a situation rife with comedic potential.
“I wanted to raise money to make a movie by having a social,” Putnam explained.
“I thought, ‘oh, well there should be a scene at a social in this movie if we’re going to have a social to raise money for it.’ And then the idea of having this guy go around and try to get people to go to a social kind of came to me.”
The movie, A Social, will be playing Oct. 13 to 15 at the Cine matheque, and was shot on a very low budget. The produc tion team consisted mainly of
Putnam, who wrote, directed and starred in the film, as well as cinematographer Jesse de Rocquigny and Tom Groom, who handled location sound.
The film’s plot is a fam iliar one to most in our fair city. Ross, the protagonist, is pestering acquaintances and friends to come to his mom’s wedding social, which is deemed “The Manitoba wed ding social to end all Mani toba wedding socials.”
Ross isn’t the most socially smooth guy, and trying to sell someone on actually attending a social is a bit of an uphill battle. The com edic thrust of the movie comes from seeing Ross fum ble his way through a series of doomed pitches to a cast of eccentric and recognizable Winnipeg characters.
The social is just one of the dubious points of civic and national pride we in Manitoba
cling to, and our flimsy prov incial identity as Manitobans and Canadians is something that Putnam hoped to explore in the film as well.
“As a colonial country, it feels like when people talk about Canadian culture they are mostly just talking about white Canadian culture,” he said. “I think that in itself is kind of funny because Can ada takes so much from other places.”
The film itself is shot in gorgeous widescreen black
and white, giving it a serene detachment and slight melan choly that adds depth to the cringy comedic situations and quirky characters.
The movie is also set in the dead of a Winnipeg win ter, which lends it a uniquely Winnipeg-y lonely coldness, a quality of our fair city that Putnam also hoped to explore.
“To me it is a very isolating place to live, especially in the winter,” he said.
“The city’s so spread out, and there’s essentially no pub lic transit and it’s so sparsely populated.”
The loneliness of Winnipeg informs Putnam’s characteriz ation of Ross, a sympathetic ally awkward and sincere guy who is desperate for commun ity and belonging.
“This character I sort of see as a very extroverted per son who wants a lot of social interaction and wants some
kind of community,” Putnam explained. “But he can’t, he can’t get it because his social skills are so terrible.”
Underscoring this desper ation is the recurring use of front-facing cellphone cam era footage from Ross’s vlog to an imagined audience of fans. These bits filmed in colour also serve as a visual contrast to the bleaker black and white sequences. Beyond these early screenings in Winnipeg, Put nam hopes to get the film on the festival circuit.
A Social is screening Oct. 13 to 15 at the Cinematheque. More information and tickets can be found at winnipeg filmgroup.com/event/a-so cial/2022-10-13/-30-
CJOB Tournament
Bisons
Bisons
Bisons
Lakehead
Oct. 7
Oct.
Final:
Final:
Wesmen Oct.
Bisons
Bisons
Bisons
Oct.
UBC
Regina Cougars
Regina Cougars
Oct.
Oct.
Oct. 14
Oct.
Winnipeg Wesmen
Bisons
Bisons
Bisons
Bisons Oct.
Winnipeg Wesmen Oct.
Lethbridge Pronghorns Oct. 15
Mount
Oct.
Final:
Final:
p.m.
Lakehead Thunderwolves
Bisons Oct.
Bisons
Final:
UBC
Oct. 15
UBC
