28 October 2015

MANITOBAN the

THE OFFICIAL UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA STUDENTS’ NEWSPAPER

SCIENCE

Out of this world Research finds radio halos surrounding galaxies Page 17

COMMENT

Reasserting Canadian conscience Conservative defeat calls for verifying national values Page 9

FEATURE

Scared stiff An exploration of death in the spirit of Halloween Page 12-15

VO L 1 0 2 · N O 1 1 · O C TO B E R 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 · W W W.T H E M A N I TO B A N .CO M

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Index

VOL. 102 NO. 11 October 28, 2015

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Craig Adolphe

editor@themanitoban.com / 474.8293

BUSINESS MANAGER Adam Owczar

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ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Michelle Arentsen

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EDITORIAL

NEWS EDITOR Ethan Cabel

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FEATURES EDITOR Dana Hatherly

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COMMENT EDITOR Evan Tremblay

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MANAGING EDITOR Lauren Siddall

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Chantelle Dubois

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ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Seamus Hamilton-Pattison

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SPORTS EDITOR Mike Still

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COPY EDITOR Tom Ingram

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EDITORIAL

DESIGN

In deep water

design@themanitoban.com / 474.6775

DESIGN EDITOR Bradly Wohlgemuth GRAPHICS EDITOR Bram Keast

Climate change threatens current way of life

graphics@themanitoban.com / 474.6775

PHOTO EDITOR Carolyne Kroeker

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DESIGN ASSOCIATE vacant GRAPHICS ASSOCIATE Kelly Campbell PHOTO ASSOCIATE Chantal Zdan

page 8

REPORTERS

NEWS Garett Williams NEWS Aleah Isaak NEWS Samuel Osho SCIENCE Malak Abas ARTS & CULTURE Olivia Michalczuk ARTS & CULTURE vacant SPORTS Andy Che ASSISTANT COPY EDITOR Sarah Doran

VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTORS

ARTS & CULTURE

NEWS

The great debate

Getting nothing but lemons

Should cassettes stay a thing of the past? page 21

Generation squeeze argues intergenerational inequality page 4

ARTS & CULTURE

Jeremiah Yarmie Jordyn Lerner Ryan Capar Tobi Nifesi Ryan Stelter

Anthony Labonté Justin Ladia Sari Habiluk Caroline Norman Sam Sector

Jeff Miller

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Writer in residence helps students, community members hone their craft page 22

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News

News Editor: Ethan Cabel Contact: news@themanitoban.com / 474.6770

Resolution sought in economics department dispute CAUT to vote on censure motion against U of M next month GARETT WILLIAMS, STAFF, WITH FILES FROM ETHAN CABEL

W

ith a Canadian Association of within one department,” he said. framework it comes up with, is to University Teachers (CAUT) Leece, who was appointed from restate its commitment to methodvote to censure the University of outside the department, said he has ological pluralism within the departManitoba over disputes in its eco- been going back and forth between ment,” he said. nomics department only a month the two camps as an independent Robinson said he expects to hear away, a solution to keep the depart- mediator throughout the summer and from university administration this ment from splitting apart is begin- fall in order to resolve the dispute and week and, depending on the status ning to take shape. keep the unit under one roof. of negotiations, CAUT members will A CAUT report released in “This has been an issue that has vote to pass the motion, withdraw it, January details academic disputes been ongoing for years,” he said. “It’s or push the decision six months down between so-called “heterodox” taken a lot to get to this place – emo- the road to its next meeting. economists, who favour critical tions run pretty deep.” approaches to the discipline, and “I don’t want to predict anything “orthodox” or mainstream economists, definitive but I have a feeling that “There are no who study the aggregate behaviour of we’re getting close,” Lecce added. institutions in individual buyers and sellers in the market economy.

Splitting the department?

Canada that are The report claims that the hetThe proposal to split the unit first under censure right erodox faculty members have been came up on April 23 when Richard marginalized within the department Lobdell, a professor in the depart- now, so this would and their academic freedom has been ment of economics, tabled a motion violated through a series of decisions at a department council meeting rec- be something stretching back to 2006. ommending the split. The motion was that’s relatively The report lists eight recom- approved with 12 in favour and six mendations toward restoring bal- against, with two abstentions. extraordinary” – ance between the two camps, which All six heterodox professors voted David Robinson, include appointing an acting head against the motion. from outside the department, repreThough the CAUT censure executive director, sentation from both sides on search motion is scheduled to be tabled at Canadian Association committees, and an external review of the association’s Nov. 27-29 council both the undergraduate and graduate meeting, Leece said the motion is of University programs. not impacting the push to resolve the Teachers Steven Lecce, associate professor dispute in the department. in the department of political studies, “What CAUT does or doesn’t do is was appointed acting head by univer- not anything over which we have any sity administration and leads a work- control,” he said. “Again, the primary He noted that censure motions are ing group negotiating to resolve the motivation is to make things better rare and have been passed by CAUT dispute. here, on the ground.” only twice in more than 30 years, In September, the Manitoban most recently against First Nations reported that one of the options on University of Canada in 2008. the table was splitting the department “This has been an If the motion passes, the associainto two academic units – an option tion will request that all its members issue that has been CAUT executive director David refrain from taking jobs and particiRobinson said at the time would ongoing for years. It’s pating in activities at the university, result in the eventual dissolution of including speaking and attending taken a lot to get to the heterodox unit, made up of six conferences at the U of M. professors.

“It’s essentially like an academic this place – emotions boycott, However, Lecce told the in some ways,” explained Manitoban this week that he is “cau- run pretty deep” – Robinson. tiously optimistic” that a resolution is “It speaks to the [school’s] repuwithin reach that will prevent split- Steven Lecce, acting tation,” he added, “And there are ting the department into two separate no institutions in Canada that are head, department academic units. under censure right now, so this of economics “What we’re working towards is would be something that’s relatively an internal re-organization of the extraordinary.” department, so it looks like we’ve moved away from the division CAUT hasn’t officially been The report of the department into two new updated by U of M administration The CAUT economics report was departments,” he said, explaining on the status of negotiations but the first of two released concerning discussions continue surrounding Robinson said he has heard some the University of Manitoba in 2015. curriculum and a governing structure. “potentially interesting” proposals The second detailed disputes within “The idea is to still, in a way, have kicked around. the faculty of architecture and led relative autonomy for what we might “I think one of the things the uni- then-dean Ralph Stern to abandon call two streams, but to have those versity has to do, in whatever agree- a bid to retain his job when his term relatively autonomous streams housed ment it comes up with, whatever ended Aug. 31.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY STEVE LECCE

The report on the economics department was compiled during an investigation in the spring and summer of 2013 and outlines myriad disputes within the department between the heterodox and orthodox groups.

It argues heterodox economists have been marginalized over time and no longer hold positions of authority or influence in the department.

The report claims the dean of the faculty of arts interfered in the hiring of an orthodox professor to teach Canadian economic policy and criticizes the decision to select Pinaki Bose, a so-called orthodox economist from outside the U of M, to head the department in 2010. In both cases, heterodox candidates unsuccessfully competed for the positions.

Bose led the way in implementing curriculum changes to increase quantitative requirements at the

undergraduate level and to reduce the number of elective courses required for graduate students.

These curriculum changes were met with staunch resistance by the heterodox camp, which is comprised of six professors who claim the changes disadvantage their research and reduce their course offerings.

Many of these six professors have been active in the department for decades, including in leadership roles.

During the spring, Bose sought an extension of his term in the position for another five years while Fletcher Baragar, a heterodox professor, sought to succeed him.

Ultimately, Lecce was appointed as acting head and leads the working group established by the dean of arts to resolve the dispute.

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News

News Editor: Ethan Cabel Contact: news@themanitoban.com / 474.6770

Aboriginal youth incarcerated at higher rates, study funds Research shows street-involved aboriginal youth more likely than non-aboriginal youth to face jail time SRUTHI TADEPALLI, THE UBYSSEY

Brittany Barker

PHOTO PROVIDED

BY BC CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN HIV-AIDS

VANCOUVER – A recent study has found that aboriginal youth are incarcerated at a higher rate than non-aboriginal youth.

Kora DeBeck, assistant professor in the school of public policy at Simon Fraser University and research scientist for the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, was one of the authors of the study, titled “Aboriginal streetinvolved youth experience elevated

and May 2013, which analyzed risk of incarceration.”

DeBeck found that even when youth between the ages of 14 and 26. taking into account drug use, Participants in the study completed homelessness and other factors a questionnaire administered by an that put youth at an increased risk interviewer once when they became for imprisonment, street-involved involved with the study and twice a aboriginal youth were still more likely year from then onward.

In total, 1,050 street-involved to end up incarcerated than streetinvolved non-aboriginal youth. youth were interviewed during the The study sheds light on poten- study period, including 718 men and tial explanations for the difference in 248 aboriginal participants. Over the youth incarceration between aborig- study period, 378 or 36 per cent of parinal and non-aboriginal groups. Due ticipants reported being incarcerated to general limitations, it cannot, how- at least once. ever, highlight specific causes.

After adjusting for drug use, “Oftentimes we’ve seen that when homelessness, and other factors, the there’s these kinds of discrepancies, study found that street-involved some people instantly look and say aboriginal youth were 1.4 times more aboriginal youth are just committing likely to face jail-time than their nonmore crimes,” DeBeck said. aboriginal counterparts.

This may help explain why aborig“But I think what this study shows is that there may be something else inal people comprise approximately happening as well and that there four per cent of the Canadian popucould be different policing practices lation but make up 23 to 27 per cent or just different risks for aboriginal of inmates in provincial and federal prisons. youth.”

The study used data collected The primary outcome of interest through the At-Risk Youth Study for the study authors was recent incar(ARYS) between September 2005 ceration – which is defined as spend-

ing a night in detention, prison, or jail in the last six months – compared to youth who had not been incarcerated in the previous six months.

The pattern of aboriginal youth being incarcerated at a higher rate was even addressed at an election event in the Vancouver Quadra riding earlier this month.

According to Joyce Murray, who was recently re-elected as the Member of Parliament for the riding, the Liberals plan to spend $2.6 billion on “bridging the gap” to help aboriginal youth complete their high school education.

“In B.C., there are more aboriginal people that go to jail than graduate high school on reserves,” said Murray.

“It is a tragedy of lost opportunity and lost fairness.”

Despite limitations in their ability to explain the disproportionate incarceration rates for aboriginal youth, DeBeck said these studies are important in order to look at this issue more closely and begin untangling why the discrepancies exist in the first place and then have policy

interventions to reduce them.

When DeBeck was asked what she hoped people would take away from the study, she said she would like it to change the context in which people look at the health outcomes of others.

“What I hope that it does is bring attention to how lots of the health impacts we are seeing in the real world are often influenced by larger social and structural pressures and factors,” she said.

DeBeck also noted that she would encourage people “to not look at [...] certain differences in health outcomes as just a result of people’s individual behaviour, but seeing that that behaviour is shaped by the environment and the laws.”

Generation Squeeze calls for intergenerational equality Liberal majority government should fulfil its promises for youth in the 2016 budget, organization says SAMUEL OSHO, STAFF

GRAPHIC BY KELLY CAMPBELL

D

uring the recent federal election campaign and in its aftermath, a youth advocacy group has been exerting increasing influence on federal political parties, particularly the newly elected Liberal majority

government.

Generation Squeeze came to the attention of the federal parties by calling for immediate action on issues facing Canadians age 40 and younger, including stagnant incomes,

rising housing prices, high cost of liv- generations. ing, and mounting student loan debt.

Generation Squeeze uses both Generation Squeeze started as awareness and lobbying to place a research project on intergenera- demands on the federal parties. In tional inequality in Canada at the particular, their research showed University of British Columbia that the federal government currently (UBC). It has since evolved into a spends $20,868 per person age 65 and national non-profit group with the over, $7,185 per person aged 45-64 and aim of creating a lobby group for $4,349 per person under age 45. younger Canadians.

After the victory of prime minThe research team morphed ister-designate Justin Trudeau, the into an awareness group with the youngest party leader in the race, backing of several supporters such Paul Kershaw, founder and executive as the United Way, the Vancouver chair of Generation Squeeze, told the Foundation, the Social Sciences Manitoban that he is optimistic about and Humanities Research Council, the potential influence of Generation the Mowafaghian Foundation, and Squeeze moving forward.

Vancity Credit Union.

“We had some parties during the According to the Generation campaign coming to us and seekSqueeze website, the group has more ing our advice and endorsements on than 16,500 registered supporters certain issues and referring to our from different parts of Canada. research in their own platforms, this The team gained tremendous shows that we had substantial influattention when it gathered 51 sub- ence,” Kershaw said. missions for its creative video cam“However, our research on our paign during the election, which platform shows that by comparigave young Canadians the opportu- son with the dollars all the parties nity to submit videos showing how invested in people aged 65 and older, they were being socially and finan- they only offer younger Canadians cially squeezed compared to other pocket change.”

Kershaw, an associate professor at UBC’s school of population and public health, emphasized that the new government will only benefit young people if organizations like Generation Squeeze monitor them before they table the 2016 federal budget.

“At Generation Squeeze, we know a better generational deal means uniting generations in future budgets. We will be working with newly elected MPs in all parties to make intergenerational solidarity a priority,” Kershaw said.

“From the comprehensive study of the federal election platforms, the Liberal Party platform would increase spending on retirees more than any other national party while providing less money for postsecondary and child care than did the NDP and Greens. We will also emphasize that the Liberal platform is relatively strong at containing medical care spending.”

“This in turn left fiscal room for the Liberals to propose more new spending for families with children than any other party,” Kershaw said.

VOL. 102 NO. 11 October 28, 2015

News

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Master of social work in indigenous knowledge awaits funding approval New program eagerly anticipated by community members, prospective students ALEAH ISAAK, STAFF

The University of Manitoba’s William Norrie Centre on Selkirk Ave.

I

nner-city social work students, North End community members, and University of Manitoba administrators met last week to discuss a new academic program that continues to generate excitement—the master of social work in indigenous knowledge.

The meeting was held at the Community Education Development Association at 419 Selkirk Ave. and was intended as an update about the status of the new program.

The program has been approved by the University of Manitoba senate and is waiting on funding from the advanced learning division of Manitoba’s Department of Education and Advanced Learning.

The program will provide a unique social work education that focuses on the experiences of indigenous people and their distinctive needs in a social service setting.

There are currently three universities in Canada offering an indigenous-based master of social work – the University of Regina, University of Victoria, and Wilfrid Laurier University. This would be the first program of its kind in Manitoba.

“There is an important need for indigenous social workers to explore indigenous forms of caring that are

applicable to the unique circum- is a true commitment to the apolstances of indigenous clients and ogy that the university has made communities,” states the senate pro- and takes action on – the Truth and posal for the program.

Reconciliation Commission and the The senate proposal states that Phoenix Sinclair report,” Hayes said. the program will have two full time “The North End is rising and we elders who would teach courses want to know if the university is with alongside faculty members. us.”

There will also be an elders’ advisor council for the program. Students will also be required to attend a cul- “The North End ture camp at the beginning of the is rising and we program.

“It would involve faculty mem- want to know if bers and elders co-teaching courses. the university is It would involve important cultural experiences for students,” said James with us” – Steve Mulvale, dean of the faculty of social Hayes, president, work at the U of M. “We really see it as this ground- Inner-City Campus breaking, innovative program not just Students’ Council for the faculty, but the field of social work across the country.”

The goal of the new program is to move away from a eurocentric worldCommunity members and stuview by putting indigenous knowl- dents who attended the meeting edge at the centre of a social work wanted to know the status of the education, explained Steven Hayes, program, which was approved by president of the Inner-City Campus the senate in 2014.

Students’ Council.

Once approved for provincial “We want to impact how social funding, the program will be offered work is practised. The potential ben- at the William Norrie campus on efits for this are far-reaching. This Selkirk Ave. in the North End.

GRAPHIC BY BRAM KEAST

Some who attended the meeting nity members; everybody wants that feel that the program has taken too program,” she said. long to launch.

David Collins, vice-provost of Jean Pelletier, outreach chair for integrated planning and academic the North End Community Helpers programs at the U of M, told the Network and a graduate of the U of Manitoban that program delays have M inner-city social work program, been due to thorough community has been waiting several years for the consultation.

“The planning for the actual final program to officially launch.

Pelletier first heard of the poten- submission that was approved by the tial for such a program in 2008, when senate in the summer [of 2014], that she began her bachelor of social work work went on for a long period of at the William Norrie campus. She time,” he said. plans on applying for admission to “The reason for that was the nature the master of social work in indig- of this program. There was a great enous knowledge once the program deal of community consultation is officially offered by the university. which is not part of the normal pro“It’s not just going out for a degree, cess [...] The faculty made sure that it’s healing within, and then continu- the community had a great deal of ing on to help others heal on their say in this.” journey,” Pelletier said of the imporThe university has been meeting tance of the program. with the faculty of social work and In the new program, students will the province’s advanced learning be evaluated on their academic work division. They are going through the as well as emotional self-awareness, process of evaluation and the provand their understanding of spiritual ince is being asked to fund part of and physical impacts on health and the program. well-being.

Discussions with province about Pelletier attended the meeting to funding have been productive, understand where the program is at Collins said. in terms of its development.

“My understanding is that there is “It was not just social work stu- a lot of interest in this program.” dents in attendance. It was commu-

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News

News Editor: Ethan Cabel Contact: news@themanitoban.com / 474.6770

UBC president’s resignation sparks freedom of information backlog UBC inundated with requests over resignation of former president Arvind Gupta DAVID NIXON, THE UBYSSEY

a large workload for the amount of staff,” said Neal Yonson, who has similarly filed around a dozen requests as founder of UBC Insiders – a blog dedicated to digging deeper behind the scenes of UBC’s decisionmaking processes.

“It’s hard for me to say for sure they need more staff, but I’m certainly left with that impression from the outside.”

Jude Crasta, AMS vice-president external, puts the average completion time for the AMS’s FOI requests somewhere between a minimum of six or seven months with the longest taking 18 months.

Cost-recovery fees are also assessed for any record searches exceeding three hours of work – recently the AMS paid around $6,022 for 2,000 pages of documents related to the UBC Farm, a 24-hectare model farm on the UBC campus.

PHOTO BY KOSTA PRODANOVIC FOR THE UBYSSEY

VANCOUVER – The lack of substantive answers around former University of British Columbia (UBC) president Arvind Gupta’s resignation has hit UBC’s two freedom of information staff the hardest, raising the question of whether UBC does enough to support access to information.

The small access and information department within the office of university counsel receives an average of 20 requests for information each month, but in August a deluge of 47 came in – half of which were from journalists and community members trying to find out why Gupta resigned.

Shortly before the start of UBC’s fall term, Gupta resigned suddenly after only one year of his five-year contract with the university. Since then, the university has been roiled in internal strife and many questions have been raised about the circumstances behind the resignation.

“In the five years I have been at UBC, this is the largest number of requests I’ve received about the same issue in such a short period of time,” said Paul Hancock, legal counsel for information and privacy at the office of university counsel, in an email.

Freedom of information (FOI) requests are how information is sought from a public body when the material is sensitive in nature or unsatisfactory responses are given when asked for directly.

“In the five years I have been at UBC, this is the largest number of requests I’ve received about the same issue in such a short period of time” – Paul Hancock, legal counsel for information and privacy, UBC office of university counsel When a spike in volume happens, file completion times slow down. The office even became two months late

for its routine posting of the April 1 - June 30 quarterly FOI report.

These spikes raise questions about the office’s ability to handle requests from students and community members in a timely fashion. British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act – the provincial act governing FOI requests – requires they be answered within 30 days, but at UBC they’re rarely completed by then. The files can drag on for months or even years.

Hancock said the university’s average file completion time is 40 days. It’s skewed, though – half are routine personal records requests from students, faculty, and staff and they don’t take much time. Requests made in the public interest by the UBC Alma Mater Society (AMS), the university student union, and student media consistently take long periods of time.

“The time for response at UBC is atrocious. They frequently respond with requests for extensions,” said Geoff Lister, former coordinating editor of the Ubyssey. Lister has filed about a dozen requests with UBC over the years – most of which have taken many months to be completed.

“I think they are dealing with

time staff member who was hired in response to seven straight months of more file requests being opened towards the end of 2014. The requests were being made at a far faster rate than they could keep ahead of and requests have been steadily increasing by 5-10 per cent every year.

Hancock attributes that to “rapid increases in the size and complexity of the university,” but also a growing public interest and demand for accountability, which he calls a good thing.

“While we can’t control how many requests we receive, we can try to respond as efficiently as we can,” said Hancock, noting that UBC’s productivity levels – measured in number of files responded to per month – compares favourably to similar organizations. He calls it a “lean but efficient” system and he’s confident they can begin reducing their average file time with the second staff member.

Despite the best efforts of the “The time for office’s staff, the delays, fees, and redactions – blacking out sensitive response at UBC parts of documents – lead many users is atrocious. They of the system to believe it’s being abused. frequently respond “The reality is their office is overloaded and because the university with requests for chooses to censor and fight so many extensions” – Geoff requests – the office has no choice but to spend huge amounts of time Lister, former on each request instead of simply coordinating editor, releasing information that is due to the public,” said Lister, who notes the Ubyssey that students are in an especially weak position with busy schedules All the students interviewed were and high turnover rates. clear in distinguishing the system “Filing for information requires from the office staff who they have patience and stamina that few stubeen found helpful and cooperative. dents have simply because, when they “They’re good people and do get their requests back, they’re gone,” their job to the best of their ability,” said Lister. said Yonson. “They might just be Requests concerning Gupta’s understaffed.” resignation were grouped together Hancock estimates FOI requests to improve efficiency and will be cost the university $220,000 per year, released to journalists and the comincluding the 20 per cent of his time munity all at once in early November he devotes to FOI work and other – four months or so after most of them overhead. That’s less than five per cent were made. of the Office of University Counsel’s budget and 0.023 per cent of UBC’s total budget – cost-recovery fees charged would be subtracted from that.

That budget includes a second full-

Editorial Editor-In-Chief: Craig Adolphe Contact: Editor@themanitoban.com / 474.6770

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The end is nigh Acknowledging and living with climate change EVAN TREMBLAY, STAFF

GRAPHIC BY EVAN TREMBLAY

The world is burning. of reversing the course. But it’s quite a depend on them, and will suffer as nience. In a world of shrinking food not driving or taking planes. This Over the summer, for days, the bit worse than that. The greenhouse surely as us as climate change pro- resources, massive human migrations, means not buying new things. This sun was veiled in smoke, a gibbous gases started the process, but the pro- ceeds. Imagine the vast farmlands and extreme weather, of wars fought means eating very little meat, and and hideous orange. At midday cess is now self-perpetuating. The we all depend on – and which in turn over dwindling resources, can there much less food generally than we you could look directly at it. An old climate is a dynamic system that has depend on stable climatic conditions be any doubt what our society will now consume. Constantly evolving neighbour commented that he had been put out of balance, and it will – dead. It does not take great imagi- come to be? and being fine-tuned so that through not seen such a thing since the erup- seek a new equilibrium. nation to picture the suffering that As weeds replace the ancient for- the years there is a shrinking, rather tion of Mount St. Helens. That was The greenhouse gases have raised will follow. ests, so it will be with us: “The best than expansion, of one’s ecological the first time the sun was dimmed, the average temperature of the earth. lack all conviction, while the worst footprint. Avoiding any of the more when it was fires in Saskatchewan But that rise in temperature has set are full of passionate intensity.” Even vulgar aspects of our culture – anyand the Northwest Territories. off a whole series of positive feedback in a stable, generous climate, humans thing with the word “celebrity” is a Greenhouse Later the smoke returned. The loops, which themselves now contribare prone to war, genocide, and cru- good start – which do nothing other gases started the rainforests of Washington were ute to climate change. elty. Dark inertia will take terrible than instil the desire to consume. dry, dying, and burning. At midday, The disappearance of sea ice in forms, which will do nothing to stop This would result in a massive process, but the near Riding Mountain, the smoke the north causes more heat to be the ecological ruin around us. amount of free time, since such a lingered in the valleys like mist. The retained, thus accelerating warming. process is now lifestyle would require less money horizon was indistinct, and the birds The increase in summer temperatures Appropriate lifestyles to maintain, and thus fewer hours self-perpetuating seemed loath to fly. causes permafrost to melt, venting The future before us is bleak. The worked. This free time can be dedimethane into the air, thus further myth of progress is just that – a myth. cated to living mindfully: meditaBad things coming accelerating warming. Even if we Unlike animals, plants cannot There’s no cosmic law declaring that tion, reading, cultivating of personal As the years go on, more and were today to stop the emission of move quickly. If conditions change the future will be better than the interests (I’ve been teaching myself more forests will burn. More and greenhouse gases (our governments rapidly to something unsuitable for present. Look around you – are there contact juggling), creating art, going more days will be shrouded in smoke. cannot even commit to meaningful them, they will die. If they cannot any signs that as a culture, we accept for walks. Things that require very Ecological collapse, brought on by reductions over the course of decades), disperse seeds far and quickly enough what is only the logical result of our few resources, produce no waste, and climate change, will continue for the positive feedback loops that we to keep pace with a shifting climate, actions? Sooner or later, we’re going make the lives of each individual, and the rest of our lives – probably for have kickstarted cannot be stopped. they will become extinct. to have to change our lifestyles. We their whole social circle, richer. many centuries – getting continuThe damage done to the earth Mature ecosystems take many should start now, while there’s still A life of poverty by our current ously worse. This is the new business not directly caused by warming – years to develop; individual large time to figure out the best way to live. standards – so that it can more easily as usual: endless death and destruc- the acidification of oceans, the loss trees are usually hundreds of years I can’t dictate to others what that be rich in spirit, and just in actions. tion, the unravelling of the thread of of arable soil, the cutting down of old. There will always be plant life, looks like, and I’ll never be in a posi- I think it’s a good trade-off, and I life which has allowed our species carbon-sequestering forests – weaken even in a changing climate, but it will tion to guide the course of society. encourage everyone to consider doing to flourish. the very systems that might play a be young, sickly, weedy, uncomplex But it’s not hard to imagine a very this, to whatever degree they’re able.

Climate change has been brought part in offsetting the damages done life; the lowest common denominator. different lifestyle from what most If enough people give up on someon by centuries of unhindered indus- by humans. Not only have we set our The world will be poor where it was people in our society live, one that thing bad it can make a difference; try and capitalism. Simply put, we house on fire, we got rid of the fire once wealthy. would not only be more spiritually at this point, it seems like individual have injected so many greenhouse alarm and extinguishers long ago.

As this diminishment of the rich- fulfilling, but significantly less harm- sacrifice is our best hope. And if not gases in the atmosphere that we have ness of the natural world proceeds, ful to the world around us. It would – living a life focused on living lightly upset a balance that took 3.8 billion Every plant yielding seed human society will suffer a similar only become easier, as more and more and doing no harm is its own reward. years or so to develop.

Plants are the foundation of any fate. Even now, we have abandoned people adopted it.

If it were only a matter of green- ecology; we have a bad habit of over- as useless most of the finer arts our Purposefully spare, so as to house gases, we might have a snow- looking them as essential to our well- ancestors made, trading beauty and consume few resources and generball’s hope in hell of pulling through, being. All animals, including humans, subtlety for cheapness and conve- ate virtually no waste. This means

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Comment Comment Editor: Evan Tremblay Contact: comment@themanitoban.com / 474.6529

Elections and Canadian values Reasserting guiding principles in the wake of Conservative defeat TOM INGRAM, STAFF

GRAPHIC BY KELLY CAMPBELL

S

tephen Harper is no longer the driving force of Canadian politics.

Though I’m less than happy with the results of the federal election, it is a relief to be able to say that.

While most Canadians seem glad to see the back of him, the usual gadflies have predictably emerged to salvage what they can of Harper’s reputation in an effort to construe him as some kind of noble, tragic hero. This simply cannot be allowed.

Electoral moneyball

Under Harper, the Conservative Party of Canada developed a relentless election-winning machine. I would liken the Conservative strategy to the concept of “moneyball,” wellknown from the book and Oscarnominated movie of the same title.

The moneyball strategy is to find underappreciated player statistics that are good proxies for games won, and throw as much money at purchasing players with these statistics as possible. In this way, you can build a game-winning machine out of seemingly uninspiring players who were overlooked by other teams.

The Conservative strategy is to target their base and hit it hard, and to effectively ignore anyone else.

They seem uniquely uninterested in changing the minds of people who disagree with them or in bridging ideological gaps (the Liberals, on the other hand, were largely voted in by people who disagree with them).

Hence the dodging of debates, the failure to respond to the media, and the dubious electability of many of their candidates in the last election.

The reductio ad absurdum of mon-

eyball is that if you do it too well, you break the game. If you can trade on the athletic stock market with enough efficiency, then actually playing baseball becomes somewhat redundant. The outdoor theatre in which spectacles of success, failure, grace, and meanness play out for the public becomes a kind of ridiculous and antiquated ritual.

are simply out of court for anyone Our politics may be democratic, but with the Balinese gamelan into somewho wishes to be considered a seri- culture is not, and values cannot be thing more than vulgar Orientalism. ous person.

I would point to writers like decided by popular vote.

To take one example, let’s look Canadian values are the assump- Robertson Davies, whose Dunstan at the absurd non-issue cum elec- tions which underpin the life and Ramsay recounts his transformative toral wedge that was the debate over work of the most excellent Canadians. life journey at its end, uncertain of whether Muslim women should be They are the standards by which we many things, making judgments that allowed to wear the niqab, a tradi- judge ourselves. If many Canadians can never be more than tentative and tional face-covering veil, during citi- hold an opinion that is vicious and contingent. zenship ceremonies. uncharitable, all this means is that In a country that is arguably When it became clear that their many Canadians are – by our own founded on the original sin of invahard-line stance against the niqab shared cultural standards – rather sion and genocide, we should never be Our politics may was causing them do well in the polls, poor Canadians. so certain of ourselves – and our place the Conservatives doubled down.

If I were to define Canadian valhere - so as to permit the embrace of be democratic, They announced a potential ban on ues, I would locate them in institu- bluntly moralistic terms like “barbut culture is not, the niqab for anyone providing or tions like the open-minded, humble, baric.” We do what we can to stop receiving public services from the and welcoming United Church of the things we judge to be wrong, but and values cannot federal government.

Canada. we don’t get up our asses about it – They announced a plan for an I would point to scholars like because after all, who the hell are we? be decided by RCMP tip line to report “barbaric Marshall McLuhan, the obscure We certainly do not stir up xenopopular vote cultural practices,” a term that comes Catholic mystic who was deeply phobic rage at an entire vaguely from a bizarre and pandering piece suspicious of industry and brand- defined ethnic group, whether out of legislation passed earlier this year ing and could rarely bring himself of tactics or sheer bile. We certainly Likewise, moneyball in politics concerning honour killings, forced to make straightforward arguments; do not tell people what they can and diminishes the extent to which the marriages, and polygamy.

Northrop Frye, who turned literary can’t wear at citizenship ceremonies electorate is treated as intelligent Essentially, this was a matter of criticism on its head in a quixotic or while working for the government human beings rather than objects stoking the base’s enthusiasm by attempt to recapture an epiphanic – the Canadian thing is to be vaguely that tend to behave in a certain way. making promises that appeal to the vision he had in his school days; and uncomfortable telling people to do It emphasizes the voices of the least dangerous, xenophobic elements of Erving Goffman, the sociologist who anything at all. excellent people in our country – Canada. The issues per se are unim- envisioned that “it is possible for all of I was taught as a child that whose votes are as good as anyone portant matters of principle involving us to become fleetingly for ourselves Canadians do not start fights – we else’s – and speaks to the least excel- a small number of people, but they the worst person we can imagine that end them. I was taught to respect, lent impulses of the human soul. It represent something much larger: a others might imagine us to be.” welcome, and learn from people of leads to treating almost anything that flagrant defiance of Canadian values, I would point to musicians like R. other cultures. I was taught to protect works as a valid electoral tactic. and an appeal to backwards people Murray Schafer, whose soundscape nature, to be polite to others, to help This last is where I must draw the and base impulses. compositions show an awareness of the less fortunate, and to always seriline. Harper’s defenders like to suga majestic natural environment in ously consider the possibility of my gest that people object more to the On Canadian values which we are only temporary visitors. own wrongness. way he did things than the things he According to polls, a great many Or perhaps Malcolm Forsyth, who These are Canadian values as I did. Putting aside the issue of whether Canadians actually supported blended eastern Anglo-Canadian understand them. As far as I’m conor not that’s true, it’s important to Harper’s stances on these issues, culture with the rich indigenous cul- cerned, anything further is a barbaremember that methods matter. especially the niqab. The polls can say ture of the Prairies and his own South rous innovation that has no place in Some methods run afoul of what they will; notwithstanding their African heritage, and Colin McPhee, the country that I love.

Canadian values. Some methods dubious accuracy, it means nothing. who turned composers’ fascination

10 Comment

Comment Editor: Evan Tremblay Contact: comment@themanitoban.com / 474.6529

Legalize it – and by ‘it,’ I mean ‘all of it’ All drugs should be treated the same as marijuana EVAN TREMBLAY, STAFF

C

ommanding a majority of the seats in the House of Commons, and with the already-established support of the courts, there is no reason the incoming Liberal government cannot make good on its promise to legalize, tax, and regulate the sale of marijuana. The ending of the prohibition on marijuana is the proper time to reconsider our society’s stance on other drugs as well.

Many drugs, like marijuana, are not illegal because they are inherently addictive or harmful – the arguments put forward as justification for the legalization of marijuana apply to them also. There is no reason (other than the weight of tradition and old attitudes) that a significant part of currently outlawed substances cannot be legalized, taxed, and sold.

Tobacco is the example par excellence of a reasonable drug model.

Those who choose to use it are free to do so. Those who choose not to use it are free to do so. Its sale is prohibited to minors and tobacco smoke is outlawed in places where it would be a nuisance. Whatever you might think of smokers and smoking, it‘s a model that works for pretty much everyone, including the government, which derives ample revenue through taxation.

Alcohol is another example of a drug that is regulated and integrated into society, and one that bears particular importance when discuss-

ing the reasons for keeping drugs illegal. Alcohol is addictive, and in large amounts severely impairs the judgement of the user to the degree that they are more likely to harm themselves or others, and are a minor threat to society as a whole.

It is a form of madness peculiar to our present society that we believe in the justice of laws which would forbid a plant growing from seed But we accept that the majority of people can responsibly consume alcohol; the issue is not alcohol itself, but people who use it inappropriately.

For the sake of safeguarding our individual right to get drunk (which is nothing more or less than altering your state of mind, as all drugs do), we accept a small social burden of alcoholics and drunk drivers.

Small change

Once legal, marijuana will be much like tobacco and alcohol; there will certainly be people who abuse it, or use it in inappropriate situations. But these are the same people

who drive drunk – the problem is them, not the drug. The situation will actually be better than those two drugs, as marijuana does not make people violent as alcohol can, and its smoke is less harmful than that of tobacco.

Caffeine is an extremely commonly consumed drug that is not only addictive, but completely unregulated.

It is neither better nor worse than other drugs – it is merely accepted for what is, and serves as proof that although government regulation may be desirable for some drugs, it is not really necessary.

The experience in places quite similar to Canada – Colorado, for instance - has been that once marijuana is legalized, it is absorbed into society with surprising ease (its use is already widespread, legal or not), and many positive effects, such as a reduction in violent crime, follow. It is also important to note that, with a natural alternative available, many more harmful chemicals, such as antidepressants, will become less attractive. All things being equal, people will choose the drug that works for them, and self-medicate.

Marijuana is grouped with the likes of caffeine and nicotine, all plants. It is a form of madness peculiar to our present society that we believe in the justice of laws which would forbid a plant growing from seed. The consumption of plants

shorter history of use. Marijuana has been used for 5,000 years; LSD has been used for about 75. But whatever the history of use, the reason remains the same: people take a drug for the specific effects it produces in the mind. Synthetic drugs are frequently more powerful and less unpredictable (some say they have less “personality”) than plant-drugs. They are also, relatively speaking, more dangerous.

If that seems like tacit support for harsher control of synthetic drugs, it isn’t. Gasoline is more dangerous than water, but only if you’re an idiot – or if someone tells you that a jerry can is full of water when it’s full of gasoline. Because synthetic drugs are pure chemicals, and because they must be manufactured and sold illegally, purity is always an issue. Mistaken assumptions about purity and chemical content, leading to unintentional overdoses which can be avoided in legally regulated substances, are an unnecessary risk imposed by the current prohibition. Legalized and regulated, this risk would decrease – at least for appropriately cautious individuals. The most dangerous drugs would become safer.

I do not advocate a pusher on every corner, tricking unsuspecting children into getting hooked on addictive substances. But for a variety of reasons, adults may want to avail themselves of the specific effects that drugs can offer. If it helps, think of antidepressants; it might be nice if no one resorted to chemical happiness, but that’s really a choice we should leave up to depressed people.

GRAPHIC BY EVAN TREMBLAY Antidepressants are addictive – being illegal makes a mockery of they can do harm, as well as good. the splendour of the natural world, Substances currently illegal are no of which we are all a part, and to different, except that their effects are which we owe our lives. We can pleasant and sought after, rather than choose for ourselves to consume or merely negating depression. not consume a plant, but it is playing God to dictate to others which plants Choice they may or may not consume. If our It comes down to a freedom of lawmakers declared citric acid a vice, conscience – and of consciousness. and outlawed oranges, what would If mature adults want to temporaryou think of that law? ily alter their state of mind – and expand their consciousness through that – what moral argument exists to If mature adults counter their right to do so? Drugs as a general category are not as addictwant to temporarily ive and dangerous as we are told by alter their state of people like Stephen Harper, who said without blushing that marijuana was mind – and expand “infinitely worse than tobacco.” Two their consciousness of the worst drugs out there, in terms of harm and addiction potential, are through that – what alcohol and tobacco, and our society moral argument isn’t collapsing because of them.

As we move towards the legalizaexists to counter tion of marijuana, we should remember the other drugs consigned to the their right to do so? margins of our society. Benign or harmful, I do not believe that anyNot all drugs, of course, are one save the individual has a right derived from plants, and many that to dictate what they consume, or are bear no resemblance in the final choose which lens they view existence form consumed to the seed which through. Whether it’s LSD for spiritgerminates. The drug prohibition ual knowledge or heroin because life is just that – a prohibition on drugs, sucks, so long as you’re not impedin which plants are a not-infrequent ing the flow of traffic, who am I (or legal casualty. anyone else) to judge, let alone forbid?

Drugs synthesized by humans are newer than plant-drugs, with a

VOL. 102 NO. 11 October 28, 2015

Comment 11

Don’t be an idiot Culturally appropriative Halloween costumes are disrespectful mockery SEAMUS HAMILTON-PATTISON, STAFF

W

ith the exception of those who carry a puritanical aversion to anything remotely close to the cadaverous, Halloween can be a wonderful time of year.

For young adults, it’s party time.

Your coolest home-owning friends are probably planning some sort of costumed shindig already. Even if they aren’t, there’s a bevy of nightclubs and pubs in Winnipeg ready to play host to the masquerading masses.

You’ll get dressed up as something iconic, hilarious, scary, or endearing. You’ll have some drinks and hit the dance floor. A perpetually roaming club photographer might snap a photo of you for social media posterity, and that’d be pretty cool – but if you end up in the news the following day, there might be a problem.

This article is about that problem. I mean, it would be, if I hadn’t already written that article two years ago.

One of the first articles I ever contributed to the Manitoban was an indictment of one individual who on Halloween of 2013 chose to hit Stereo Nightclub in blackface. The photo of the individual was shared hundreds of times on social media, according to the CBC. The image was posted as a part of Stereo’s promotional photography albums. Thus the establishment also came under rightful fire for allowing the individual in.

This Halloween, save everyone the grief and the media circus.

If you, as a non-black individual, want to dress up like a culturally iconic black celebrity such as Jimi Hendrix, then I’ll applaud your right to do so, but only if you leave your face the colour it is.

You are not making a more accu-

rate costume by painting your face in such a way. You are evoking an age-old cultural stigma, the wounds of which are still far from fully healed.

The Black Lives Matter movement and the very recent, very racially motivated riots in Ferguson, Mo. are proof enough that the marginalization of black North Americans is far from over. As such, no one stands to benefit from treating blackface and minstrelsy with any kind of frivolity.

You are not making a more accurate costume by painting your face in such a way. You are evoking an age-old cultural stigma, the wounds of which are still far from fully healed Cultural appropriation certainly doesn’t begin and end with blackface – far from it. A cursory Google search will yield innumerable options for “Indian” (in a misnaming that deserves its own article) costumes for both adults and children. those it belongs to for long enough.

The indigenous minority has been What might be a cute Hallow’s eve persecuted for years. From colonial- outfit to some will be racially and ism to the “cowboys and Indians” even spiritually offensive to many. trope to the (albeit, recently banned) Again, this isn’t exclusive to any wearing of Native American head- particular racial minority. This also dresses at music festivals such as means no “Chinamen”, Hinduistic Osheaga and the Edmonton Folk deities, stereotypical Hasidic Jew Music Festival, indigenous culture garb (if Macklemore couldn’t get has been taken out of the hands of away with that one, just think how

GRAPHIC BY JUSTIN LADIA

you’ll fare), and any other racial ste- knowing that you’re aligning yourself reotypes under the sun. against the right of Canadians and The point of this article is not to Americans alike to have their respecinfringe on your freedom of expres- tive cultures and races respected and sion – it’s to prompt you to think free from mockery. about what that expression represents.

You are free to dress in whatever costume you please on Halloween.

However, if you choose to evoke such racially charged imagery, do so

Features

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Features Editor: Dana Hatherly Contact: features@themanitoban.com / 474.6520

Dying, death, and the dead Introduction to the morbid feature, in the spirit of Halloween DANA HATHERLY, STAFF

T

he history of Halloween has been linked to ancient Celtic origins, when people would ward off ghosts with costumes and bonfires. Once designated as a time to honour saints and martyrs – in other words, people who have died – it remains a widespread time of celebration and superstition, of life and death. This edition of the Manitoban’s features section focuses on the latter, with stories of death and dying – from dealing with

Extinction or, more accurately in the deceased and preventing death to global catastrophe and human this case, complete annihilation of annihilation. our species on Earth due to humanAlthough global traditions in the caused catastrophes such as nuclear spirit of Halloween vary in countries weaponry and climate change has throughout the world, death is uni- been considered a serious threat by versal. Scientific perspectives and scientists. As part of this feature, the belief systems about dying and the Manitoban’s science editor, Chantelle dead have been observed and debated Dubois, discusses the Bulletin of the over time. Unanswered questions Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock, a about the missing and deceased leave symbolic representation of our proxus yearning for more. imity to total annihilation.

Jeremiah Yarmie, a biology stu- Abas examines the science and art dent at the U of M, contributes a of embalming, or preserving the dead. medical sci-fi article that looks to Lastly, for medical students, the future of humanity and the pos- encounters with death are regularsibilities for achieving eternal life by ities on the curriculum; students must overcoming death. study the bodies of the deceased to Since ancient times, humans have learn about the living. University of dealt with death differently in vari- Manitoba medical student Jordyn ous societies. Humankind has had Lerner shares his experience with a plethora of beliefs and practices death on the syllabus. for mourning and celebrating the deceased. Science reporter Malak

Three minutes until midnight A history lesson in our many brushes with destruction CHANTELLE DUBOIS, STAFF

T

he Doomsday Clock provides a symbolic measurement of how close humanity is to its own annihilation. Established in 1947 by the Science and Security Board of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock was initially set at seven minutes to midnight, making its debut on the cover of Time in that same year.

The founding members of the board were scientists involved with the Manhattan Project.

The clock was developed as a way to communicate the dangers of nuclear weapons to the public as tensions between the Americans and Soviets during the Cold War began to rise. At that time, America was the only nation known to have nuclear weapon technology.

The Doomsday Clock has oscillated between two minutes and 17 minutes to midnight over its 68 years of existence

Three minutes to midnight – 1949

In 1949, seismic activity raised In 1984, the Bulletin of Atomic suspicions that the Soviets had car- Scientists moved the hand closer to ried out an underground nuclear midnight, explaining that “every test. Fear of the progression of the channel of communications has been Soviet nuclear program sent the constricted or shut down; every form American government into a panic, of contact has been attenuated or cut and a nuclear arms race blasted off. off. And arms control negotiations The Americans increased funding to have been reduced to a species of accelerate military programs and later propaganda.” develop the hydrogen bomb.

Two minutes to midnight – 1953

In 1952, the Americans tested their first hydrogen bomb. The bomb resulted in a yield of 10.4 megatons with a fireball more than three miles wide, destroying an island. The test was only meant to prove the theory behind the bomb, as a deployable bomb had yet to be developed.

Soon after, in 1953, the Soviets also carried out hydrogen bomb testing. While their bomb was much less powerful, with a yield of 400 kilotons, it was small enough for deployment. With the power of destruction increasing on both sides, the Doomsday Clock ticked closer to midnight.

Four minutes to midnight – 1981

Nearly 30 years later, Cold War Since then, the board has reviewed the clock every year to determine the reached a new height. While varistate of humanity’s safety. The board, ous events had led to the Doomsday which includes 17 Nobel laureates, Clock’s hand moving further away now considers climate change and from midnight, indicating hope for emerging technologies to be among the future, the events of 1981 brought the hand mere minutes to the hour the biggest threats to humankind.

The Doomsday Clock has oscil- once again. The Soviet invasion of lated between two minutes and 17 Afghanistan, provocative American minutes to midnight over its 68 years rhetoric, and a rapidly increasing of existence. Here are some of the arsenal of intercontinental ballistic more terrifying moments in history missiles and planes capable of delivthat brought the world less than five ering nuclear bombs on both sides minutes from Doomsday since the threatened the future of humankind. clock was first set.

GRAPHIC BY BRAM KEAST

Three minutes to midnight – 1984

Nuclear weapon proliferation continues to be a threat Three minutes to midnight – 2015

While the Cold War has long since ended, relations between Russia and the U.S. are once again icy. Nuclear weapon proliferation continues to be a threat. It is thought that there are nine nations currently operating with nuclear weapons, including Russia, the U.S., France, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea.

In addition to the risk of nuclear catastrophe, climate change continues to melt polar ice caps, thaw permafrost, and destroy shorelines, with a continued dependency on fossil fuels further threatening the safety of humanity.

VOL. 102 NO. 11 October 28, 2015

Features

13

The end goal of medicine A fictional look at a future without death JEREMIAH YARMIE

Oct. 28, 2205

This morning, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a landmark in the field of medicine: humanity has beaten death.

Humans have fought against death for some time. Different societies practiced different forms of medicine, sure, but the end goal has always been to prolong life.

Medicine advanced tremendously in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Physicians and nurses found new ways to save lives by using groundbreaking discoveries made by medical scientists.

Countless individuals aspired to become physicians, attracted to the prestige, money, and power associated with the profession.

But somewhere along the way medical professionals lost sight of what they were working towards.

No one was asking medicine’s big philosophical question. Nobody was asking what the end goal of medicine truly was.

It is clear today, in the wake of WHO’s announcement, that the answer to that question is eternal life.

Gone are the days of “old age,” a time when things like cancer and dementia easily stole our bodies and minds.

Experts have predicted the conquering of death for quite a while now.

The potential for this shift in human existence was first noted when medical scientists and physicians successfully overcame the process of aging.

By genetically altering our biological clocks, processes like cancer and tissue wasting were permanently prevented.

Although the biological degradation associated with aging was halted, things were not perfect. There was a mental disconnect between our bodies and minds that allowed for things like dementia and depression to cause more suffering than ever before.

Despite our physical wellness, the suicide rate had actually increased in the mid-to-late-22nd century.

Medical researchers and professionals worked diligently to bring our level of mental health care to the same level that physical health care had achieved. Eventually the HappyHub, a brain implant which provides our brains with biochemicals when our normal levels fall out of balance, was developed.

The last piece of the puzzle was defeating infectious diseases.

Pathogenic bacteria and viruses have always proved to be a daunting challenge for us as humans due to our differences in biology. Bacteria and viruses reproduce much more rapidly than we do, so no matter how quickly we adapted, they were always one step ahead of us.

This problem was solved when medical researchers realized that instead of attacking these pathogens, we should be improving our defences.

To achieve this, researchers developed a way to improve the efficiency of our immune systems through the use of specialized nanobots.

The World Health Organization’s announcement this morning came after confirmation that the common cold, humanity’s last known infectious disease, had been eradicated Our nanobot-bolstered immune systems are now so adept at fighting off infections that it was only a matter of time before every single human pathogen would be wiped out.

The WHO’s announcement this morning came after confirmation that the common cold, humanity’s last known infectious disease, had been eradicated.

Today, physical and mental health has progressed so far that the global suicide rate has dropped to a fraction of what it used to be. Infectious diseases are no longer a concern.

Suffering is a concept that will hopefully be forgotten over time.

The potential for this shift in human existence was first noted when medical scientists and physicians successfully overcame the process of aging. By genetically altering our biological clocks, processes like cancer and tissue wasting were permanently prevented Sure, people can still die in freak accidents, but current health and safety technologies make those scenarios nearly impossible. For instance, we no longer have to worry about murder or assault due to the DePROVOKER chips that are inserted into our brains alongside our HappyHubs shortly after birth.

Death is a thing of the past, and

GRAPHIC BY KELLY CAMPBELL

I couldn’t be more excited about it.

What happens after that is any- longer needed since there will no lonLet’s marvel at what this means for body’s guess, but I’m sure we will ger be deceased individuals to replace. all of us moving forward into the figure out new things to explore as As a result, the current generation of forever-future. a collective entity. children will be the final generation Unlimited time means that everyThe WHO made another major of new humans. Mandatory sterilizabody has the opportunity to learn and announcement during this morn- tion for all individuals will be impledo everything. Experts believe that ing’s press conference. The Global mented within the next few months. every single individual will have mas- Reproductive Restriction, which was Once this generation reaches adulttered all skills and fields of knowledge established at the beginning of the hood, it is very likely that most family within the next five hundred years. 22nd century to combat the unsus- structures will be dissolved.

Eternal life has given us the oppor- tainable growth of our global populaI think these personal sacrifices tunity to end natural inequality at tion, has officially ended. are an extremely fair payoff for the the small expense of individualism.

Instead, it has been replaced with opportunity to live forever. Only time In just a few hundred years, every- the Global Reproductive Prohibition. will tell what humanity accomplishes body will be the exact same.

New generations of humans are no next.

14

Features

Features Editor: Dana Hatherly Contact: features@themanitoban.com / 474.6520

A guide to modern-day embalming Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse MALAK ABAS, STAFF

deceased taken during happier times.

The actual embalming process can now begin. Arterial embalming is what gets the body’s blood out and the embalming solution (called formalin) in. The blood is typically removed via the right jugular vein.

The formalin is pumped into the body through the arteries, and the embalmer ensures that it spreads throughout the entire body by massaging the body again.

Moisturizer, foundation, and mascara are as important in the process of embalming as trocars and formaldehyde

PHOTO BY CHANTAL ZDAN

D

eath can be a very ugly thing.

With dying comes decomposition, germs, and general grossness. So if you’ve ever seen a serene-looking dead person (or at least a photo of one), they were probably preserved through the art of embalming.

Embalming, despite being generally associated with the tombs of ancient Egypt, is a process used to this day to help preserve the recently deceased through physical and chemical processes.

In ancient Egypt, there were trained priests who would guide the body through the process of mummification, in which they would wrap the body in a cloth and scrape the brain out with a piece of iron.

Embalming in past millennia was often partnered with a cultural significance – Egyptians believed that

the soul of the person who had passed on would return to their corpse, thus the attempts to keep it as pristine as possible – but this is not so much the case today. In fact, embalming is banned in both Judaism and Islam, and has no history in Christianity or Buddhism.

So, why do we choose to embalm our loved ones? It remains a matter of personal preference. Some people are embalmed for the sake of having an open casket funeral. Some professional embalmers believe that seeing a loved one post-embalming can actually help initiate the process of grieving.

And guess what: it’s not as creepy as it sounds. Let’s go over the modern-day science and artistry of embalming.

If you have ever watched embalm-

ing in a movie, you may assume that it’s more invasive than it actually is.

Research suggests that seeing a loved one post-embalming can actually help initiate the process of grieving Organs are, in most cases, not removed. What is removed, however, are bodily fluids, which are usually replaced with a formaldehyde-based solution to preserve cells and prevent deterioration.

Before that, the features of the

body must be set. Bodies naturally stiffen after death, and massaging the body slows this process. The face is shaved for both men and women.

The body is washed in a disinfectant, and the body is then ready for facial rearrangement.

The eyes are closed with great care, as the eyelids tend to sag. A cotton ball or plastic cap is sometimes used to fix this. The process of sewing eyes shut is a myth, but depending on the nature of the body, the eyelids may be glued down. The mouth and jaw may then be wired shut. This is done by inserting a wire into the mouth with a needle injector, and tying it tightly to ensure the mouth doesn’t drift open.

It is now the embalmer’s job to ensure the body looks as serene and content as possible, and many will consult a photograph of the recently

Cavity embalming is the next step.

The embalmer will make an incision just over the belly button, and use a sharp object called a trocar to puncture several organs and drain their fluid content. If an embalmer was to forget or ignore this step, many of the gases and fluids drained using the trocar would find their way through the body and expel themselves out of the body’s nose and mouth, in what embalmers call “purging.” Maybe this part actually is as creepy as it sounds.

The incision is then closed up with a trocar screw.

At this point, the embalming process for most bodies is over. If the body is severely damaged, extra cosmetic or draining procedures may be used. Usually, however, this is the time when embalmers will wash the body for a final time.

Then the body will be dressed and makeup applied. Makeup is usually applied to all genders in hope that the body will look more vibrant and peaceful. Moisturizer, foundation, and mascara are as important in the process of embalming as trocars and formaldehyde.

The body is now ready for whatever lies ahead.

While some people may think of this process as disgusting or scary, I implore you to think about it as a surgical process that has existed for longer than almost any other. The need to see our loved ones one last time, the desire to look healthy even postmortem: these feelings connect us to human beings in ancient Egypt and even the people of the Chinchorro culture in 5000 BCE. Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. It wouldn’t hurt to ask yourself what you want to happen to your body afterwards, either.

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Death on the syllabus One student’s experiences with death in medical school JORDYN LERNER, VOLUNTEER STAFF

PHOTOS BY CHANTAL ZDAN

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ost students at the University of Manitoba wouldn’t consider death to be part of their curriculum.

But for medical students, death is just that.

In the preclinical years of medical school, death is formally denoted on the schedule by the location of a session being held in the Gross Lab. Gross Lab is short for Gross Anatomy laboratory. “Gross” is used in its traditional sense of “large,” rather than the modern meaning of “disgusting,” although many have made that joke.

Students work in groups to dissect their cadaver. Cadavers are dead bodies that have been bequeathed to the university. One student reads from the anatomy atlas while the others move through layers of fat and other tissues to find the organ in question.

If an organ is difficult to dissect, students examine prosected specimens instead. Prosected specimens are cadavers, or parts of cadavers, that have been previously dissected.

The Gross Lab sessions differ by organ system. When learning the anatomy of the nervous system, students are presented with an unassuming white bucket. In that bucket, submerged in a pool of liquid preservative, is a whole brain, a half brain, and a spinal cord. Students reach in, grab the specimen they need, and start learning.

A quote on the Gross Lab wall reads “mortui vivos docent.”

It means the dead teach the living All dissections are done with the utmost respect for those who gave their bodies.

A quote on the Gross Lab wall reads “mortui vivos docent.” It means

the dead teach the living.

In the clinical years, death is no longer a series of scheduled sessions.

Instead, it’s an unplanned, but not unexpected, part of hospital life.

In the emergency room, death is announced overhead by “Red Romeo 3.” This is paramedic code for an unstable patient under resuscitation after a traumatic injury. Within minutes of the announcement, the team is working on a man who was attacked with a weapon. They take over CPR from the paramedics and give the patient litres upon litres of blood. Although he has no heartbeat, the patient isn’t technically dead until half an hour later, when the team leader calls it and announces the time of death.

Much like in the Gross Lab, mortui vivos docent holds true in the hospital. A young man is dead on arrival in the emergency room after a motor vehicle accident. His pelvis is very unstable from the force of the

collision. If he were alive, his pelvis would need to be secured right away, or he could die from internal bleeding.

But since he’s already dead, there’s no such urgency. Instead, it’s a chance for medical students to feel an unstable pelvis so that they can recognize it on a living patient.

In the clinical years, death is no longer a series of scheduled sessions. Instead, it’s an unplanned, but not unexpected, part of hospital life Death isn’t always an unplanned experience in the clinical years.

Students on their obstetrics and gynecology rotation participate in

an abortion clinic. Students sit in the procedure room while women undergo dilation and curettage.

Dilation and curettage is a procedure in which the cervix is opened and the contents of the uterus are removed. The physician examines the tissue to make sure the entire fetus is removed. Depending how far along the pregnancy is, that could mean looking for a head, torso, and four limbs. Failure to remove all the fetal tissue could result in an infection for the woman.

Whether in the Gross Lab or the hospital, experiences with death in medical school are inevitable. The important thing for students is to learn from each death they encounter, so that they can better prevent the next.

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Science & technology Science & Technology Editor: Chantelle Dubois Contact: science@themanitoban.com / 474.6529

Music of the spheres The local connection and history of radio astronomy CHANTELLE DUBOIS, STAFF

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n international collaboration is observed galaxies, which create a shedding light, or rather radio halo cloud that has otherwise been frequencies, on the true shape of dis- invisible to observers.

In order to observe these clouds, tant galaxies. Among those involved is the University of Manitoba’s own galaxies were viewed edge-on to help Jayanne English, associate profes- distinguish the galaxy from its halo. sor in the department of physics and English scaled 30 images from a astronomy. selection of 35 galaxies, and stacked The Continuum Halos in Nearby them to see the typical distribution Galaxies (CHANG-ES) survey uses of the radio halo. the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array “From the median image of the (VLA) telescope in New Mexico to galaxies made from the radio data, collect data on galaxies as close as 11 you can see the large vertical extent million light-years, and as far as 137 away from spiral disks that is othermillion light-years away. wise invisible in optical wavelengths.

The shape most people are familiar It shows that these radio halos are with when it comes to galaxies are the not just associated with a few galaxflat, two-dimensional spirals. When ies, but rather are a more common astronomers observe these galaxies, property,” English said in a U of M there appears to be nothing above or news release. below this flat spiral.

The team also found evidence that This is because the galaxies are the density of the radio light halo only being observed in the visible correlated with the star formation light spectrum. The CHANG-ES rates; the larger the halo, the higher survey observes these galaxies in the the star formation rate surface density, radio frequency spectrum. The team the measure of how many stars are discovered that a radio halo exists all born per year in a region of a galaxy. around the visible spiral after observ- This, along with other measurements, ing 35 different galaxies. could help astronomers determine the The radio halo is created by the age of observed galaxies. noise emitted by cosmic ray electrons The results of this survey will help moving around in the galaxy’s mag- astronomers and physicists answer netic field at the speed of light. questions about the evolution of galThe recently upgraded telescope axies, the formation of stars, as well as enables scientists to collect data on their magnetic field structures. faint radio light surrounding the The observation of radio halos

confirms theories and predictions of the VLA’s namesake, Karl Jansky, on cosmic-ray halos. His predictions date back to to 1961 and are described in his book The Origins of Cosmic Rays.

Jansky is known as the father of radio astronomy, and was the first to detect radio frequencies of extraterrestrial origins in the 1930s, mostly by accident.

Working for Bell Telephone Laboratories, Jansky set out to determine what was disturbing transatlantic radio-telephone communications.

After collecting data for seven months, he discovered weak 20 MHz static, which he eventually learned was coming from the centre of the Milky Way. Jansky would eventually complete his master’s dissertation on star noise.

Since then, radio astronomy has expanded and now includes mapping of gas clouds, the discovery of neutron stars which emit beeping, and the discovery of quasars.

Radio astronomy also led to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which is considered one of the most essential pieces of evidence for the Big Bang theory.

The unit of measurement for the strength of an astronomical radio source has also been named in Jansky’s honour.

GRAPHIC BY CAROLYNE KROEKER

Diversions Graphics Editor: Bram Keast Contact: graphics@themanitoban.com / 474.6775

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ILLUSTRATION BY BRAM KEAST

ILLUSTRATION BY BRAM KEAST

VOL. 102 NO. 11 October 28, 2015

Diversions

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ILLUSTRATION BY BRAM KEAST

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editor: Seamus Hamilton-Pattison Contact: arts@themanitoban.com / 474.6529

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Playing dress up Halloween is not an excuse to perpetuate stereotypes LAUREN SIDDALL, STAFF

GRAPHIC BY CAROLINE NORMAN

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es, Halloween is fun. It’s an excuse to eat junk food, drink, and listen to “Monster Mash” on repeat. It’s also an opportunity to showcase your creativity – and apparently to perpetuate stereotypes.

Part of the problem is costume

retailers. While most of us plan to create our costumes from scratch, very few people do in practice. Thus, we rely on the pre-made costumes of retail conglomerates. While the costumes are convenient, there is an alarming lack of fabric and a disre-

gard for respectful social norms.

Making fun of a nationality, religion, race, occupation, or gender is frowned upon every day of the year; Halloween is not an exception. But yet, we continue to purchase the

grossly overpriced costumes, regardless of their implications.

Saving lives is already sexy without a “sexy” nurse costume. And frankly, it’s demeaning to the people in the occupation. Their job is not

to wear the smallest dress they can fit into; it’s to ensure the wellbeing of their patients – which I’m certain they would not be able to do whilst wearing fishnet stockings and a skintight corset.

Morbid music Three albums that are suitably macabre for the season SEAMUS HAMILTON-PATTISON, STAFF

Halloween and the days approaching it are a time when many look to temporarily embrace the macabre.

Music and the feelings it is capable of evoking can help with this to a great extent. It is with this objective in mind that I would like to share some albums that I feel best showcase the dreary, the depressing, and the downright creepy.

Alice Cooper Welcome to my Nightmare

Let’s start with a classic. Released in 1975, Welcome to my Nightmare is a concept album loosely based on the childhood nightmares of a fictional character created by Cooper. This album is perfect Halloween listening.

It’s not particularly heavy or ominous, but has all the elements of a corny classic horror film with a soundtrack more reminiscent of Rocky Horror than the heavy metal Cooper is known for producing.

The album’s bombastic Broadway- warped sense of humor, but adopts a these scars on my wrists/to prove I’ll similarities between this album, The meets-hard rock musical stylings frighteningly sombre tone for “Years try again?” and “Drop the needle Addams Family, and classic horror are contrasted by dark lyrical con- Ago” and the tracks that follow. For and stop what you’re changing into/ B-movies along the lines of Night of tent spanning a variety of horror this trio of songs, Cooper’s choice to Erase the end dissolving, disgrace is the Living Dead. movie mainstays. “Some Folks” is a primarily sing in a child’s sing-song needed more” that may underscore The music is a fairly basic popswinging, piano-driven song about a falsetto and using an infantile dialect what Anselmo was going through at punk/hard rock affair reminiscent repressed inclination to murder and takes them to a level of unnerving the time and inspired such themes. of Andrew W.K. or Jimmy Eat World. bloodshed awakening in ordinary comparable to, well, most horror Those looking for creepy music on Somehow, this musical backdrop blue-collar folk. The most upbeat and films that feature children. the heavy end of both the lyrical and works incredibly well with lyrics that typically hard rock song on the album, musical spectrum ought to take note handle horror tropes such as cem“Cold Ethyl,” concerns a man’s ill- Pantera of this one. It’s an extremely powerful eteries, ghosts, zombies, and Dracula The Great Southern Trendkill and emotional listen, with the added with a tongue-in-cheek enthusiasm. fated love affair with a corpse.

“Devil’s Food” and “Black Widow” Sometimes the circumstances bonus of likely scaring you away from Once again, this album’s vocaltell one continuous story about the behind an album’s creation bear just hard drugs forever. ist is perfectly suited to the material. rise of a sentient race of spiders that as dark a tone as the album itself.

Vocalist and bandleader Wednesday humanity will fall to and worship, In 1994, Pantera’s lead vocalist Phil 13 brings his parodic horror lyrics to with featured guest Vincent Price Anselmo was embroiled a heavy drug life with his charismatic, raspy bark delivering a perfectly clichéd mono- problem. He had, according to his and completes an album perfect to logue. It’s a testament to Price’s vocal bandmates, been behaving strangely keep the energy up and set the atmoand theatrical prowess that, in spite of and distancing himself from the sphere at any Halloween rager. the B-movie subject matter, the songs group, going so far as to record all retain a very unsettling, disturbing vocals for The Great Southern Trendkill atmosphere. in New Orleans while the remainder This atmosphere reaches its apex in of the band worked in Dallas. a trio of songs: “Years Ago,” “Steven,” The morbidity of this album lies and “The Awakening.” The music in the sheer volume of unadultertrades theatrical fanfare for eerie, ated hatred put forth by every single minor-key melodies carried mostly aspect of it. The music is crushingly by piano and a string section. The heavy and barely controlled, switch- Wednesday 13 lyrical subject has turned to Cooper’s ing from a punishing wall of noise Transylvania 90210: Songs of fictional character, Steven, who is to dragging, rhythmic thumping at Death, Dying, and the Dead now fully grown and a full-fledged a moment’s notice. Anselmo’s vitriol At the risk of coming across as serial killer, but with his child self ’s reaches alarming levels throughout oxymoronic, this last pick will make voice still whispering in his head. the album, his tortured screams car- for some great morbid party music.

Alice Cooper himself is the per- rying songs about drug abuse, suicide, Transylvania 90210 falls squarely into fect vocalist to fit his lyrical content. and more drug abuse. the Misfits-inspired “horror punk” He tackles songs such as “Some It’s lines like “Would you look at genre, combining upbeat punk rock Folks” and “Cold Ethyl” with a me now?/Can you tell I’m a man with music with lyrics that draw distinct

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Point/Counterpoint Why tapes are great Cassette tapes are coming back and should be embraced as a unique physical medium OLIVIA MICHALCZUK, STAFF

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illennials quiver with excitement at the sight of anything tacky, nostalgic or vintage. It became not a question of if, but when a genius and soon-to-be billionaire would begin the audio cassette revival when everyone is starting to realize that vinyl isn’t cutting it like it used to in a generation addicted to convenience.

The benefits of cassette are more than just the cool vintage appearance and throwback to nostalgic pop culture; they are both convenient and musically different than the media that are popular today.

There are quite a few benefits of listening to albums recorded to cassette for both the consumer and the producer. The beauty of an album not only lies in the songs themselves, but also in the composition and organization of the album. The ability to scroll through songs or handpick hits with CD or MP3 players have tarnished the way music is being consumed in comparison to earlier generations.

With the record and the cassette, music can be consumed and enjoyed from beginning to end, giving you the ability to understand the bigger picture and realize the intention of the artist.

Albums are stories and journeys that should be enjoyed in the linear fashion set by the artist themselves.

Cassette is much more difficult to digital, it is broken into tiny pieces. skip through, and that is a plus. You This is the difference of seeing a are forced into the habit of being a painting in real life or seeing it on thoughtful music consumer. a computer screen,” said Erenberg.

The rise of the record can be attrib“No matter how ‘hi-def ’ you make uted to many things, but the patience it, to a computer audio will always be and deeper understanding that can a matter of frames per second.” come from listening to the hard work The sound on an audio cassette of an artist from beginning to end is also more complementary to the could create a generation of educated sound that is produced by the instrumusic consumers. ments being played. The ability to Though you also get these benefits pick up and adapt to frequencies from vinyl as well, the tape proves to allows the sound produced by tape to be more convenient physically. be ideal and doesn’t require frequency The tape can go in your pocket or modification in the same way digital backpack, and the fear in the deli- recordings do. cacy of a vinyl is absent. Tapes don’t “You don’t have to change the skip, and the durability in compari- sound for it to become pleasing, son with CD and vinyl is a bonus. whereas digitally, you would be You can listen to tapes on the go and modifying the tone of your guitar,” designer tape players will soon be in Erenberg added. production. On the whole, the music Along with the technical aspect of industry may see a change in the type cassette recording, Erenberg highof music consumers with a growing lights the rewarding aspect of the prodemand for entire albums on vinyl cess along with the physical product. or tape.

“The most definitive answer I can Local musician Micah Erenberg give for tape being better is the feeling has and currently uses cassette tapes I get when I use it. You feel it in your to record some of his music. Though heart [...] When you record a track he says the convenience is clearly not and then you look at the physical up to par with the digital era, the tape and know that you are actually sound quality is much different from on that tape, it’s pretty amazing and that of digital recording. rewarding,” Erenberg said.

“Tape is continuous sound. What “Holding a tape and knowing what you record fully exists on tape and on you played is physically on it is some-

GRAPHIC BY SAM SECTOR

thing you’ll never feel while holding a hard drive.”

Now that cassettes are becoming available at major clothing distributor Urban Outfitters, it is only a matter of time before the appreciation grows with the nostalgia and the wave of supporters start buying music on

cassette.

We should all prepare for a wave of cassette parties and romantic boombox holsters playing your very own mix tape on the horizon.

Why tapes aren’t that great Cassette tapes should remain a niche market, not experience a mainstream renaissance SEAMUS HAMILTON-PATTISON, STAFF

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ostalgia can be an extremely still new, and it would be utterly powerful motivator. If a signifi- uncouth to reproach someone’s percant object of one’s past is no longer sonal preference for the cassette tape. widely available or relevant, then a However, from a strictly logical sense of nostalgia will often amplify standpoint, to embrace cassette tapes and create a great demand within a as a mainstream medium is to take person to have that nostalgic object one confusing step backwards in the made available again. way music is released and produced Nostalgia has created a rather in the present day. specific type of supply and demand First off, there’s the physical limiin artistic fields. It probably played tations of the medium itself. Tapes a significant part in Jurassic World are encoded with an analog signal. being the highest-grossing film of Though tapes have been and are now 2015. It’s why the upcoming seventh produced by professional manufacStar Wars movie has every chance of turers to a very high degree of quality, blowing Jurassic World ’s total out of the scientific fact is that, as an analog the water in December. Nostalgia is medium, tapes will always be more also why American clothing retailer susceptible to noise (known to ears Urban Outfitters has begun produc- worldwide as the ubiquitous “tape ing cassette tapes. hiss”) than digital encoding.

It’s a pragmatic move. Record The word “digital” has a bit of a stores and cassette tape manufac- dirty synonymy with the less perturers alike have noticed a definite sonal, the more computerized. This, upswing in the demand for the old again, simply doesn’t make sense. The physical medium. same diversified technology company But does it really make sense? that spawned compact cassettes also Movies based on old franchises are had a hand in creating the technical

specifications for compact disc digital audio – Philips.

The music you’ll hear digitally is lovingly crafted by an artist for your listening pleasure, just as it was when it was pressed on cassette or vinyl. Music should be appreciated regardless of the physical medium it is produced on, thus this technological advance should be embraced as Philips enabling us to hear it a little clearer.

There are still many who stand by analog mediums as a superior way to appreciate music. This opinion is a subjective one, but should be respected nonetheless.

That’s why vinyl’s renaissance is a good thing.

A vinyl record retains the sound and slight hiss of an analog recording, which many enjoy. Unlike cassette tapes, however, vinyl allows a listener to easily select their favourite track from an album. Furthermore, vinyl can sport some aesthetically impressive packaging: large album inserts

with lyrics and photos of the artists, a record that can be printed with a coloured or patterned face, and cover art you don’t have to squint to see. If you love owning physical media, then what better option is there?

Looking past the comparisons between digital and analog encoding, the only problem with vinyl is its portability. Vinyl is, for obvious reasons, completely infeasible as a portable music medium.

Thankfully, portable music has, for the vast majority, migrated to music players on smartphones and the iPod, Zune, or other portable music player.

Digital music can be enjoyed at a very high audio quality and has the added benefit of doing away with the now-unnecessary production of the portable Walkman and CD players.

Even for the audiophile who cherishes the allegedly “warmer” sound of analog media, it just makes sense to enjoy them at home with a highquality stereo system to highlight their defining features. Similarly,

when you’re on the go and your listening has been relegated to earbuds or headphones anyway, it’s logical to go digital and use your phone or portable music player. You’ll forego having to lug around a Walkman or CD player, and won’t be helping create a demand to bring them back, because they simply don’t need to come back.

Once again, if you vehemently adhere to cassette tapes as your preferred medium, then that adherence should be respected. You occupy a niche market.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying cassette tapes, but they ought to stay in that niche market. Cassette tapes crossing over into mainstream popularity in the modern age would be illogical and, when the added increased production of the Walkman is considered, rather wasteful.

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Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editor: Seamus Hamilton-Pattison Contact: arts@themanitoban.com / 474.6529

Kitty Fitzgerald: U of M’s writer-in-residence Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture provides opportunity for creative writers to hone their craft TOBI NIFESI

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s with any skill, writing requires consistency and knowledge to be honed. The University of Manitoba Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture is giving students and Winnipeggers the opportunity to

Beginning her residency in September 2015, Fitzgerald will be available at the university until early December.

Fitzgerald is a renowned storyteller whose works span from a short story collection to plays to novels. She is the author of five novels, including the critically acclaimed Pigtopia. She has written four plays for BBC Radio 4 and has been shortlisted for several awards, winning second place in the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for Pigtopia.

Born in Ireland, Fitzgerald moved to England after the Second World War and believes that her experiences at the time may have influenced her writing style.

“I am always searching for the right voice for whichever thing that I’m writing [...] I think my main theme is outsiders,” said Fitzgerald.

“It may be the fact that I was an immigrant in Britain [...] I think that is probably what influenced me at an early age; that notion that you can be PHOTO PROVIDED BY KITTY FITZGERALD rejected not just for who you are as a be advised on their writing this fall. person, but for where you come from.”

Students and other aspiring writShe believes that young writers ers can do this by booking a session need to get rid of the constraints that with the current writer in residence, limit them from writing in a certain Irish novelist and playwright Kitty style.

Fitzgerald.

As a radical politics enthusiast

growing up in a political environment, Fitzgerald was subject to certain barriers but learned to heed to her inner voice and write what she needed to say.

“I always have a notebook with me.

I am always making notes. I observe people all the time [...] and I read a lot of the news, I am very interested in what is happening in the world,” said Fitzgerald.

“What usually happens is there will be an inspiration that could come from any of those places – from observation, from listening, or from reading news.”

Aside from being inspired and having a creative process, she advises writers to set out a time and place to write frequently.

Today, several writers are creating an online or social media presence for themselves and self-publication is becoming a very popular option for producing literary works. Fitzgerald believes there is a place for both ventures.

“I think there is a place for it [...]

[Hire] a professional editor to do the final editing because we need some distance from our work to see it clearly.”

“The difficulty with self publishing is if it is not picked up, getting

reviews, getting it out there, and getting known is quite hard, so you depend a lot on social media.”

She advised young writers who write as a hobby while focusing on a different career path to find the perfect balance between the two. Those that want to write professionally are urged to take it seriously.

“If you want to build a writing career, you have to take it seriously.

You have to have people who can give you honest feedback, not just friends who say ‘that’s great,’” Fitzgerald said.

“You’ve got to be tough because there are so many obstacles. I would encourage anybody who really feels they have a drive in writing to keep going.”

Fitzgerald looks forward to meeting students and Winnipeggers who are serious and passionate about writing during her time at the university.

Kitty Fitzgerald is available for help with creative writing at the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at 391 University College until Dec. 7. She can be contacted at 204-4801067 or at ccwocwir@umanitoba. ca to arrange a free meeting.

’Toban turntable Want us to review your band? Email arts@themanitoban.com today!

OLIVIA MICHALCZUK, STAFF

TOBI NIFESI

Ben Caplan and the Casual Smokers Birds with Broken Wings 5/5

The Sumner Brothers The Hell in Your Mind 4/5

hear how they do simple so well music lover, dancer, emotional, it’s mesmerizing. unemotional, or a person that owns The beautiful moving roman- a device that plays music, listen to tic piano ballad “Lovers’ Waltz” is this album. coupled with unconventional, raw ith absolutely no surprise, lyrics that seize your heart strings. www.bencaplan.ca Ben Caplan and the Casual This song inspires you to imagine Smokers’ sophomore album perches the most love you have ever felt, atop Canadian community and which still leaves me in tears every campus radio magazine !earshot’s single listen, though I have heard to national folk/roots/blues chart. it upwards of a dozen times.

The album opens with a beauti“40 Days & 40 Nights” is the fully twisted and villainous song most well-known song on the called “Birds with Broken Wings.” album, especially on independent This song contains a variety of radio stations. Many people I’ve instruments that add many moving spoken to became instant fans and layers that instantly hook you and went to Caplan’s recent show at keep you begging for more. the Good Will Social Club on that Caplan’s voice is raspy and ani- song alone. The crawling tempo mated. The wide variety of cultural throughout the song is so well done influences, including elements of and the pauses in the middle will Slavic and Spanish music, add so take your breath away in begging many more musical intricacies that anticipation. keep your ears keen on every note.

The lyrical genius of this album, The lyrical simplicity in the in both complex and simple tunes, album’s second song “I Got Me a is mind-blowing and the instruWoman” – in comparison to the mental composition is perfectly complexity of the first tune – allows complementary to a strong vocal you to slow down and appreciate performance. I honestly have to the band’s talent and Caplan’s grasp at any criticism, which slips PHOTO PROVIDED BY BEN CAPLAN AND THE vocals. Your appreciation of their through my fingers immediately.

CASUAL SMOKERS musicianship grows when you If you are a poet, musician,

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Dearest Friends.”

The lyrics are dark, melancholic, and emotive. Simply put, you might get lost in the words if you pay too icture a wave undulating in a much attention. heavy storm on a nippy and After a couple listens, “Ant overcast day. It is a dark and dan- Song,” “It Wasn’t All My Fault,” gerous sight, but it calms you nev- and “Lose Your Mind” stood out. ertheless. That feeling is what the The instrumentation on these Sumner Brothers have to offer on tracks was sombre enough for their their latest album, The Hell in Your gloomy lyrics, making the perfect Mind. balance.

Over the past ten years, the band On this album, the Sumner has developed a reputation for their Brothers sound like the National rootsy, gutsy, and stirring sound. with less baritone and more emoOn this album, they build on that tion. The Hell in Your Mind is alterreputation and dare unbelievers to native country music at its best. The doubt again. music is pleasant and the lyrics are Recorded in a cabin on Galiano unapologetically raw. Give it a Island off the coast of British listen.

Columbia, this record is reminiscent of a beautifully twisted sym- www.thesumnerbrothers.com phony – the music is excitingly unnatural.

The album opens on a loud emphatic note in “Last Night I Got Drunk.” As it progresses, it goes through the motions and tries to play it cool; cue “It Wasn’t All My Fault,” and “Go This One Alone.”

That being said, the album ends PHOTO PROVIDED BY SUMNER BROS on a more soothing note in “My

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Frighteningly funny Established musical improv comedy troupe kicks off new season with two-for-one Halloween show RYAN CAPAR

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his Halloween the musical improv comedy group Outside Joke is teaming up with the Dungeons n Dragons Improv Show to kick off their fourth season of comedy at the Gas Station Arts Centre.

Outside Joke is a troupe of seasoned improv veterans who have been entertaining audiences with their style of musical improv for over a decade now.

“We’re 13 years old this year,” said RobYn Slade, one of the six improv comedians that make up the group.

The group’s success and longevity is not only about each member’s talent but also the dedication they have for their craft and their desire to keep the show fresh and exciting for their audiences.

“We’ve grown and continued to grow by travelling to festivals and taking workshops both as a company and as individuals, and then we pour what we learn back into our shows,” said Slade.

The DnD Improv Show, on the other hand, has solidified its status as a theatrical hit over its nine-year run.

From 2011 to 2015 the show has earned five-star reviews from the Winnipeg Free Press and has been performed at a variety of festivals including the Winnipeg Improv Festival, Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

The decision to team up and launch the new season on Halloween is simple.

“We love a good party,” said Slade.

“It fits so well with the DnD Improv show’s aesthetic. Swords, cloaks, masks, fake blood. At the

Fringe Festival, they offer a discount for audience members who come in costume, so it’s a perfect pairing for improv and Halloween lovers alike.”

Outside Joke will kick things off first and treat fans to what they are known for: musical improv.

“Expect it to be weird, and fun, and bloody, and you’ll have a great time” – RobYn Slade, Outside Joke Improv “It’s been a while since Outside Joke got to bust out our signature musical improv show with all six members of our company, so we’ll be doing that for our half of the show,” said Slade.

Exciting moments are inevitable during improv because neither you nor the actors really know what’s coming next.

The second half belongs to the DnD Improv Show. If Dungeons and Dragons isn’t your bag, don’t worry.

“You don’t need to know the rules of DnD to enjoy the show,” explains Slade.

“The Dungeon Master does a great job of guiding the audience through the die-rolling, decision-making, and plot-twisting [...] Expect it to be weird and fun and bloody, and you’ll have a great time.”

Those who are new to improv and

have never attended one of these shows before should remember that, as an audience member, you are part of the show. That’s part of the fun.

When speaking with the Manitoban, Slade highlighted the importance of a great crowd.

“Not only is it important to us as producers, but there’s a kind of magic that happens when, as an audience member, you’re able to lose yourself in a crowd and laugh and cheer and maybe even cry a little without feeling self-conscious.”

Outside Joke and the DnD Improv Show will perform at the Gas Station Arts Centre at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31. Cover will be $15, and $12 for all students, art workers, and costumed audience members.

Tickets can be purchased in advance online at www.ticketweb.ca.

IMAGE PROVIDED BY OUTSIDE JOKE IMPROV

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Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editor: Seamus Hamilton-Pattison Contact: arts@themanitoban.com / 474.6529

25

Battling back

Sports Sports Editor: Mike Still Contact: sports@themanitoban.com / 474.6529

Men’s hockey splits series against UBC, snap three-game losing streak RYAN STELTER, VOLUNTEER STAFF

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his past weekend, the University of Manitoba Bisons men’s hockey team faced off at home against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in a two-game set. They were dominated in the opening game on Saturday 4-2 but battled back on Sunday afternoon to grab a 3-2 win in a second overtime.

Saturday night

The story of the night for the Bisons was special teams. They had four power plays, but were unable to cash in on any of them – including a lengthy five-on-three in the third period.

The Thunderbirds, on the other hand, capitalized on their only power play chance off a nice shot from the top of the wheelhouse via the stick of Scott MacDonald.

UBC opened the scoring five minutes into the first period off a scrappy rebound goal from speedy forward Anthony Bardaro. Manitoba

generated a few chances of their own, including a Warren Callis breakaway, but was stymied by Thunderbirds goalie Eric Williams.

The visitors jumped out to a twogoal lead early in the second, with MacDonald getting his first of two on the night. Manitoba was able to answer six minutes later, as rookie Liam Bilton shelfed a pass from fellow rookie Jonah Wasylak to make it a one-point game.

The Bisons’ momentum didn’t last long, as UBC scored 19 seconds into their first and only power play. They say that a two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey to have, and that was the differential going into the second intermission.

UBC continued their trend of scoring early period goals and fired one in off a two-on-one three minutes into the third. Manitoba was in a hole at 4-1, but they attempted to battle back and even found themselves with a five-on-three, but could

not convert. The Thunderbirds’ penalty kill was superb, blocking almost everything the herd threw on net.

However, forward Dylan Kelly scored off a sharp angle shot shortly after the unsuccessful power play and suddenly the Bisons had life.

They pushed hard for an equalizer, getting lots of chances and hitting the post on one occasion, however Saturday was not their night as they dropped the two points.

The Bisons answered back with chances, but nothing came of it. It a power play goal of their own after took 24 seconds into the second overcaptain Jordan DePape finished off time period for the home side to find a beautiful passing play on a Bison the breakthrough.

Winger Shaq Merasty picked up five-on-three.

The second period was a tight the puck in the neutral zone and came physical battle with both goalten- in on a two-on-one with defenceman ders making great saves. The middle Adam Henry. Merasty made a beauperiod started off with a flurry of tiful feed to Henry, and he made no Bison power plays, including another mistake, securing the 3-2 win. five-on-three, but they couldn’t conHead coach Mike Sirant talked vert despite generating lots of chances. post-game about the way the team Late in the second, UBC goalie performed on Sunday, claiming that Sunday afternoon Matt Hewitt made the save of the this was their best game of the year.

Manitoba had to put that loss on game on a Warren Callis penalty shot “It was the best game of the season Saturday out of their minds quickly, to keep the score tied. for us,” Sirant said. “It was a team win as the puck dropped on the second Manitoba came out flying in the – all forward lines made contributions. game on Sunday at 1 p.m. third period and were rewarded It’s a good team win.”

The herd looked sloppy in their when DePape got his second on the Manitoba snapped their three own end to start the game and found night, 57 seconds in, firing a low hard game losing streak with the win on themselves down 1-0 with five min- shot on Hewitt. UBC answered two Sunday and improve to 2-3-1 on the utes remaining in the first period. minutes later off a short side snipe by year. Manitoba heads to Calgary next Bardaro scored a power play goal off Austin Vetterl. weekend to take on the Dinos, who of a beautiful spin-o-rama at the side After three periods, the two teams are 3-2-1. of the net to put the Thunderbirds were in a deadlock. ahead.

The first overtime saw lots of

Finishing on a high note Bison women’s hockey team ends four-game losing streak at UBC ANDY CHE, STAFF

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he University of Manitoba Bisons women’s hockey team visited the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds this weekend on the back of three consecutive losses.

Entering the matchup, the herd’s last win was at Regina on Oct. 9.

In their trip to Canada’s west coast, Manitoba dropped a 2-1 decision before winning convincingly 4-1 the very next day.

The 2-1 defeat on Friday marked the first time since the 2012-13 season which the Bisons have lost four consecutive games.

Friday

UBC was looking to extend their run of four straight wins on Friday.

Meanwhile, Manitoba got off to the

perfect start in their hunt to end a three-game losing streak.

Charity Price scored just 1:51 into the game after linemate Nicole Carswell intercepted a Thunderbird pass in front the opposition goal.

Price managed to beat goaltender Samantha Langford’s high glove for her first goal of the season.

The goal also broke a cold spell for the Bisons, who scored in the opening period for the first time all season.

As quickly as the Bisons got their offense running, so too did the Thunderbirds, and the home side pulled off a first-period turnaround to take the lead before the first intermission.

UBC levelled the game five minutes after trailing through Rebecca

Unrau. The forward capitalized for her sixth goal of the season after a mad battle for the puck behind Manitoba goalie Rachel Dyck’s net.

Forward Katie Zinn, who gave possession away for the Bisons’ goal, made up for her earlier mistake by taking the lead for UBC just minutes after equalizing. The former Penn State player beat Dyck for her second goal of the season.

Both goaltenders remained sharp for the rest of the game, as the score would remain 2-1. Dyck finished with 19 saves while Langford was relatively untested with 15 stops.

Saturday

The Bisons gained an early lead yet again, scoring six minutes into

the second matchup on Saturday. handed before the midway point of Defenceman Erica Rieder tallied the game to restore the visitors’ threethe goal on a power play. goal cushion.

Carswell added to the lead, notchThe game finished 4-1 for the ing her second point in two games to Bisons, who had combined for just increase Manitoba’s lead to 2-0 mid- three goals in their previous three way through the first period. matchups heading into Saturday’s Celine Caron scored just 2:19 into head-to-head. the second period to mount a comThe two performances marked a fortable Bisons lead. Alana Serhan significant weekend for head coach notched the lone assist on the goal Jon Rempel’s team. Not only did the for her second of the game.

Bisons improve to 3-5, but finally Just a minute and 14 seconds later, scored a first period goal and more UBC launched a comeback bid when than two goals in a game for just the Kathleen Cahoon capitalized got the second time in the season.

Thunderbirds on the board.

That was as far as the hosts would Manitoba returns home next get to landing a second straight win weekend to host the Calgary Dinos over the Bisons, however. Leading on Oct. 30 and 31, respectively. scorer Alanna Sharman scored short-

26

Sports

Sports Editor: Mike Still Contact: sports@themanitoban.com / 474.6529

Bisons trample Golden Bears Manitoba punches playoff ticket with a win at home over Alberta RYAN STELTER, VOLUNTEER STAFF

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PHOTOS BY JEFF MILLER

n Friday, the University of his moments and Christie certainly Manitoba Bisons football had some big moments.” team went into battle during their last home game of the season against Shutting it down defensively the Alberta Golden Bears. The The Bisons’ defence was dominant Bisons cruised to an easy 29-7 vic- on Friday. They didn’t allow a touchtory, despite missing some key players. down and on two occasions forced This game never looked in jeop- a field goal with Alberta in the red ardy for the herd. They came out zone. flying in the first quarter, scoring a The Bisons’ front four won the touchdown on each of their first two battle in the trenches, recording drives. five sacks and repeatedly pressuring The Bison offence, led by backup Alberta pivot Ben Kopczynski. quarterback Foster Martens, who Christian Turner, a linebacker stepped in for an injured Theo Deezar, turned defensive lineman, made his garnered 11 first downs in the opening first start on Friday and shone. He 15 minutes alone. registered 7.5 tackles, including three Martens did a great job executing tackles for losses. He also pitched in the game plan, going 13-of-20 for 165 with 2.5 sacks on the night. yards and no interceptions. He also “I felt like we were dominant made several superb throws while on today, we had a good week of practhe run, evading the Bears’ pass rush tice,” Turner said postgame. “The effectively. offence has been carrying us, we’ve The six-foot-two Steinbach native been allowing a lot of points so we never missed a beat and helped the took it upon ourselves today to make Bisons punch their playoff ticket. a statement.”

“My role today was to just manage the game. I didn’t need to win the What’s next? game, I didn’t need to put it all on my Next week the Bisons head to back,” Martens said after the victory. Vancouver to take on the University of British Columbia in what will be a Dominant ground attack battle for second place in the Canada The Bisons offence ran the ball West. an astonishing 50 times, led by Alex The Thunderbirds edged the Christie and veteran running back Bisons at home the last time the two Andrew Barry. The two combined teams met, so the herd will be out for 186 yards on 28 attempts. Senior for revenge. fullback Matt Hallock added in two goal-line touchdowns as well.

Head coach Brian Dobie commented on the strong performance of the Bisons backfield post-game.

“The offensive line did a great job. Barry was like a bowling ball tonight,” he said. “Jamel Lyles had

A fitting finale Winger Selina Speranza strikes twice in regular season split, Bisons move on to playoffs ANDY CHE, STAFF

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elina Speranza scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win against Regina on Saturday and then scored again in a 2-1 loss against Saskatchewan on Sunday, as Manitoba concluded their regular season at home with three points.

The winger is the last Bison to score in the regular season, having also tallied their première goal against Thompson Rivers back in September.

Regina vs. Manitoba

Although the match kicked off with a slower tempo, chances were still created by both sides. Regina goalkeeper Savannah Williams smothered an early one-on-one chance by Speranza, while her opposite number Madison Wilford acrobatically held onto a chance in struck

from close range.

A minute after Wilford’s saviour moment, she was in trouble with a dipping shot from distance that just skimmed over her bar.

Manitoba was awarded a free kick from a dangerous distance midway through the first half. The set-piece tactic – inspired by Notts County Ladies FC who performed a fake argument of who was to take the free kick in order to psyche out the opposition – nearly gifted the Bisons a cheeky goal.

Defender Robyn Coffey made a crucial challenge late in the first half when she poked Karlee Vorrieter off possession, preventing a Cougars breakaway.

Just one minute into the second half, Speranza provided relief for the Bisons. Sent in on a one-on-one, she

kept her composure and finished to the near post for the breakthrough.

“Especially with a breakaway against the goalkeeper, you have to execute and finish for the team so we could get the win to finish the season on a positive note,” Speranza said about her goal post-game.

Just one minute into the second half, Speranza provided relief for the Bisons The Bisons kept the Cougars at bay for the entire second half, with Wilford making a crucial one-on-one save in the 75th minute.

Heading into injury time,

Manitoba’s defensive tactics began her fourth goal of the season to draw to crack when Alyssa Daley and Saskatchewan level.

Camille Plett took undisciplined yelHindmarsh proved difficult for low cards. The bookings summed up the Bisons to deal with in the first a spell of questionable calls made by 45 minutes, producing a total of six the referee during the 90 minutes, but shots at goal. Wilford saved three of ultimately it didn’t change the result. her attempts and two were blocked by defending Bisons.

Saskatchewan vs. Manitoba While Manitoba would have During their two previous meet- considered a draw a positive against ings this season, the Manitoba Bisons a team that had beaten them twice lost a preseason and a regular season already, fate just wasn’t on their side. match to Saskatchewan by 1-0 and Hindmarsh scored right at the 3-2 respectively. depths of injury time to clinch a The Bisons got off to the perfect hat-trick of wins by the Huskies start when Speranza struck just 13 against the Bisons during the 2015minutes in to their final matchup 16 campaign. game of the regular season.

The loss keeps Manitoba fourth in However, Manitoba was not in the Canada West table, which means celebratory mode for long. Seven they face MacEwan on the road on minutes after the half, Huskies Oct. 30 to open up the playoff season. midfielder Erica Hindmarsh scored

VOL. 102 NO. 11 October 28, 2015

Sports

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Graca grinds it out How Bisons midfielder Megan Graca overcame the challenges of soccer not once but twice ANDY CHE, STAFF

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xperienced, composed, and with a clever trick or two up her sleeve, the University of Manitoba Bisons’ Megan Graca knows her way around a CIS pitch. This season, the midfield maestro leads the team with five assists in 12 appearances and is set to conclude a memorable university career.

Although she keeps her game simple, Graca possesses a certain know-how that sets her apart from any midfielder. Her creativity can be summed up by a match this season against Calgary, when she took advantage of windy conditions and tested the goalkeeper with an impressive 40-yard volley. The result was a spectacular effort that struck the crossbar.

Yet things weren’t so defined for a younger Graca in her hometown of Thunder Bay, Ont. The product of Lakehead Express Soccer Club was a relative puppy amongst the top dogs of youth soccer.

For Graca, the experience was motivational both physically and mentally.

“For most of my soccer career in Thunder Bay I played with players older than me,” said the fifth-year player. “It made me push myself to be better every day. I had to be quicker and smarter about everything, knowing I had a disadvantage.”

As an under-18 player, she contributed to Lakehead’s gold medal victory at the 2010 Kanata Invitational Soccer Showcase Tournament. It was proof that her hours of effort on the training ground had paid off exponentially.

From the outskirts of northwestern Ontario, Graca then made the decision to try soccer outside of Thunder Bay. Although leaving home is never an easy endeavour, the verdict was decisive for the then-teenager.

“Right from high school I knew I

PHOTO BY JEFF MILLER

wanted to go away to university to play soccer,” Graca said. “It was just a matter of where and how far I wanted to go. I decided to pick the closest school from home and settled on the University of Manitoba.”

Her choice on joining the herd also extended a Lakehead Express connection with the University of Manitoba through alumnus Laura Harrison. The former Bisons goalkeeper was recruited from the Express in 2008.

From Thunder Bay to the Prairies in 2011, Graca had taken on another challenge: the transition of turning into a CIS-level athlete right out of the U-18 ranks.

There was a clear indication right At the peak of her eligibility, Graca from the kick-off of her Bisons career can hang up her boots having transithat the competitive nature of the tioned from an untested freshman to CIS was well beyond her expectations. a dominant presence in the Canada “Nothing really truly prepared me West Division. for the CIS besides field experience The journey not only earns a perin actual CIS games. The style of sonal ovation from the athlete herself, play in the CIS is way different from but it also sets a genuine example on what I experienced in Thunder Bay,” the approach to turn the next group Graca said. of young and talented Bisons into “It is much more aggressive and CIS success stories. you have to be so fit to be able to keep Perhaps the extra motivation to up with everybody else. It took me make a role model of herself came almost two years to finally get the with the honor of meeting soccer idol hang of playing to the level required.” Desiree Scott. A two-way midfielder First she conquered the chal- with tireless work rate, Graca’s style lenge at the U-18 level in Ontario, of play resembles that of the former then repeating that feat in the CIS. Bison.

“I admire her for her foot skills and toughness on the ball,” said Graca.

“Not only is she a good soccer player, but she also does a lot for the community like running soccer camps and is always willing to take time to talk to her fans. In my Bisons career, I was privileged to get to know Desiree and even have her coach a few of our training sessions.”

Graca’s greatest soccer memory might as well serve as a testament to yet another uprising in her soccer career. Like many athletes of her pedigree and experience, there are many moments to pick from, but her choice was clear: a goal that clinched victory against heavyweights the Calgary Dinos last season.

On the occasion, Graca curled a late free kick from distance beyond goalkeeper Samantha Chang-Foidl as the Bisons saw off the Dinos 3-2.

The strike marked her only goal for that season, but it was unforgettable nevertheless.

“It was an emotional yet thrilling goal. I was glad to be a part of the win and it gave our team more confidence.

I think we took that coming into this year’s season,” Graca said.

Any given CIS career is littered with an impressive number of lessons to be learned. Heading into her final playoff appearance at the university level, Graca is grateful for what Manitoba Bisons soccer has given her over the last five years.

“I’ve learned that you can’t take any moments for granted,” said Graca.

“Every game played has been such an amazing experience and I’ve learned so much from playing at the university level. Not only have I grown as a player, I have grown as a person and I can thank soccer for that.”

Bison briefs Volleyball and cross-country MIKE STILL, STAFF

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t was an action-packed weekend for Thunderbirds. The herd would was only able to put up more than 20 Cross-country the University of Manitoba Bisons come out on top, winning 3-2 (25- points in one set over the weekend Abduselam Yussuf and Rebekah yet again.

22, 24-26, 25-22, 20-25, 15-13) in game and was held to just 14 points on three Sass both put together strong showThe volleyball teams finished one, and 3-0 (25-23, 28-26, 25-20) in separate occasions. Jordana Milne led ings in separate meets for the herd. with opposite outcomes once more, the rematch. the way with 11 total kills.

Yussif finished second overall in a as the men maintained their undeThe Bisons got field of 415 runners feated record and the women took 34 kills from Adam at the Roy Griak two tough losses, while in cross- DeJonckheere Invitational in Sass did equally well in the third country two familiar faces have over the t wo Minneapolis, competition of the season, placing begun the campaign with impressive games. Luke Herr which took place performances. and Alex Strachan on Saturday, Sept. second in a field of 54 runners in the Ron also pitched in 26 – the first comPynn Invitational in Grand Forks, N.D. Volleyball defensively with petition of the It was a battle of two nationally 12 and 10 digs season. ranked teams in men’s volleyball respectively.

Yussif ran the on Saturday and Sunday night, as The women unfortunately couldn’t Next up for the herd is a tilt with 8-km race in 25:41, and his secondthe fifth-ranked Manitoba Bisons replicate the men’s victories, losing to MacEwan University on Halloween place result is the highest any Bison took on the sixth-ranked UBC UBC 3-0 in both games. The herd weekend. runner has finished in the Invitational

in over a decade.

Sass did equally well in the third competition of the season, placing second in a field of 54 runners in the Ron Pynn Invitational in Grand Forks, N.D. She finished the 5-km race in a time of 17:38, and was less than four seconds behind the winner.