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Free passes at Parks Canada page 5
Rye philosophy prof studies legendary activist pages 6 - 7
yersonian R WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017
ryersonian.ca Volume 71 Number 14
Produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism
RSU ELECTIONS
Campaign path comes to an end RSU election candidates were scattered throughout campus early this week as students lined up at the polls. ryersonian.ca EBONY-RENEE BAKER | RYERSONIAN
What’s online Text goesabout here. Xxxxx xxx xx x x. Xxxxx xxxxx Xxxxx Read musicians on-campus, xxx xx x x. Xxxxx xxxxx Xxxxx xxx xx x x. Xxxxx xxxxx women’s film Xxxxxxx xxxxxmarches, Xxxxx xxx xx a x x.student Xxxxx xxxxx Xxxxxxx xxxxx Xxxxx xxx xx x x. Xxxxx xxxxx Xxxxxxx xxxxx on eating disorders and more at Xxxxx xxx xx x x. Xxxxx xxxxx Xxxxx
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Wednesday, February 8, 2017
RSU BoD members resign
Five board members at the RSU step down days after Singh impeachment motion fails ANDREA VACL RYERSONIAN
Five faculty directors resigned from the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) board of directors (BoD) Monday, citing a lack of change and misalignment of values. The directors who resigned are Sandra Bahoua, Anthony Esguerra, Nav Marwah and Michelle Park of the faculty of business management, along with Michael Foppiano of the faculty of engineering and architecture. They posted a statement on their personal Facebook accounts, explaining they could “no longer fulfil (their) commitments with the current executives in power.” “Over the course of the year, we quickly realized that inflated egos, office politics, administrative incompetence, and fiscal irresponsibility would prove to be obstacles in our efforts for pushing our mandate,” the statement said. RSU bylaws state the president and the executive committee recommend students to fill vacant BoD seats. RSU president Ullah said he would be seeking approval of the board to approach current election candidates running for the director positions. They would be asked to see whether they would like to fill the missing seats on the current BoD. Ullah calls the directors’ statement — which brought up alleged issues of communication, transparency and 6 Fest refunds at the union — “unfortunate.” “I empathize where they are coming from,” Ullah says. However, he said most resigning directors
ANDREA VACL | RYERSONIAN
Harman Singh sitting front row at the Board of Directors meeting on Friday Feb. 3. A motion to impeach him failed.
never approached him about the union’s dysfunction. “It is a different thing between saying that RSU is messed up with the refunds and to decide that the RSU is wrong as a whole. So it was unfortunate to see people jump to conclusions without bringing it up.” The directors’ announcement came after a Feb. 3 BoD meeting where a motion to impeach Harman Singh — the RSU’s vice-president student life and events — was not passed. The motion cited several concerns over financial matters, including approximately $80,000 that went through personal bank accounts — one of which was Singh’s own — to facilitate e-transfers for 6 Fest refunds, which are still incomplete months later. The total refund cost is approximately $30,000 over the original estimate. Marwah, one of the resigned
directors, said the BoD was misled about the progress of 6 Fest refunds and overall budget. “We were constantly told, ‘Yes it’s looking good,’” Marwah said, adding executives were repeatedly asked for reports on the event. “They knew at that time, from what we know, that they were over-budget. They chose not to tell us. And my personal opinion is by chance that they’re not releasing the report until after elections are done. And that’s a coincidence?” Singh is running for RSU president on the Spark slate in this year’s RSU election. Ullah is also on Spark, campaigning to represent the faculty of engineering and architectural science on the board. Neal Muthreja, the RSU’s current vice-president operations, is running against Singh for president on Ohana slate.
“I thought I had a lot more of the board’s trust,” Singh said after the Feb. 3 meeting, adding that he thinks politics influenced the board members’ decisions. “It shows the true colours of people.” “The question is not, ‘Why did Harman take this money?’ The question is, ‘Who gave Harman that money?’” Ullah said. Ullah and Muthreja both signed off on the approximate $30,000 transaction to Singh on Dec. 16. After delays for reports on 6 Fest financial information, Foppiano said he retrieved financial records from October, showing the RSU’s 6 Fest budget was in a $650,000 deficit. That was a different number from what Singh claimed during a meeting the same month, where Foppiano recalls Singh said the 6 Fest budget had been balanced.“It’s either
gross incompetence or a lie,” says Foppiano. Singh refuted these claims at the RSU BoD meeting on Feb. 3. “From what I can recall I never once said that the budget is balanced. When asked about the budget I said it looked good. It looked OK. It might be off by a bit,” said Singh. Ullah also said the directors have always had access to the information, and “it’s their responsibility to reach out or not.” However, several directors have brought up issues regarding transparency at all BoD meetings, not just about the 6 Fest refunds. Park said board members and some executives “weren’t in the loop or aware of the information really throughout the entire year,” making communication about issues within the union difficult. Although Ullah agreed there’s a “lack of infrastructure” for communication within the RSU, he said allegations that the union hasn’t been transparent are misleading. “People are saying we’re not transparent, that we’re not involved. They also forget where we started two years ago,” said Ullah, recalling that the union did not aptly communicate with the press or publish financial budgets, audited statements and financial documents before his Transform slate swept the 2015-2016 RSU election. Ullah said he and staff will meet and get “professional help” for the union. Esguerra said their resignations will bring a critical lens to “what is wrong with the (RSU’s) operations right now.” @AndreaVacl
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Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Rye’s MBA rep among best SARAH CUNNINGHAMSCHRAF RYERSONIAN
Ryerson’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It was rated 10th best in Canada by Canadian Business magazine due to its rapidly improving reputation. The interim director of Ryerson’s MBA program, Chris MacDonald, says he was pleased by the results, which were published in September 2016. “We take this as a sign that our reputation is finally catching up to our quality. We are only 10 years old, this is our 10th anniversary as an MBA and a business school. So we don’t have the decades of history that University of Toronto (U of T) or Queen’s or McGill have, so we’re pretty excited that being in the top 10 programs in Canada puts us in that league.” The deputy editor of Canadian Business, Graham Scott, says the rankings are based on the opinions of Canadian corporate recruiters, business people and MBA grads who were surveyed about their perceptions of various MBA programs.
speculates it’s due to more MBA grads entering the workforce. “It’s not through the pamphlets I can hand out, it’s through having people working at banks and prominent consulting firms and at non-profits saying, ‘Yeah I did my MBA at Ryerson, it was fantastic, let me tell you about it.’” Allison Macleod, a Ryerson MBA student and the vice-president of communications for the MBA Student Association, says the school’s reputation has been boosted by its students’ success at national and international case competitions. “That’s where (Ryerson has) been gathering publicity, we’ve been winning these big case competitions. We’ve been characterized as the underdog in them so it’s been a really great thing to see. I knew I wanted to be part of a program that’s still building itself rather than coming into an established program and maybe getting lost in the fold,” she says. After completing an undergraduate degree in film studies and commerce, Macleod was teaching film at Scotland’s University of Glasgow when she decided to transition back to Canada. She chose Ryerson over the
COURTESY CHRIS MACDONALD
Chris MacDonald, the interim director of Ryerson’s MBA program, says Rye’s reputation is catching up to its quality.
is, because it’s still building its identity, it really supports its MBA students going out and linking into the wider community.” Students with a background in business, says MacDonald, can accelerate their MBA and complete it in one year. And, compared to the other GTA MBA programs, Ryerson’s tuition is a fraction of the cost. He says Ryerson can keep its tuition more affordable because it receives government funding, while schools like U of T do not; free-market MBA programs can set their own price. “Our program is regulated by the province the same way undergraduate tuition is.” He says Ryerson has no interest to go free-market in the future.
“If it’s not broken don’t fix it. U of T, they’ve got a product, they make SOURCE: CANADIAN BUSINESS
“This was the second year the rankings have been based on reputation. It’s subjective in that it relies on peoples’ awareness of the school and that they believe the grads it turns out are of high quality.” So what led to Ryerson cracking the top 10 best programs in the country only a decade after its inception? MacDonald
the pricing decisions the more well-established MBA programs at U of T and York because of its cheaper cost and relationships with industry professionals. “Ryerson is only one year, really centred on making industry connections. It sort of jumpstarted my move back into Canada and needing to rebuild my network and doing so affordably. What’s unique about the program
same way Ford decides how much to charge for their cars.” Macleod is glad she chose Ryerson because of the positive, team-centric environment. “Ryerson is really a program
that promotes diversity, it brings in candidates from all sorts of different backgrounds. It’s a smaller program so you’re not getting lost in hundreds of MBAs, you
all know each other. So there’s a strong sense of community so that’s why I chose it. Plus it’s more affordable.” @S_cunningham8
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Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Wi-Fi hot spots will be on location at Ryerson LAURA WOODWARD RYERSONIAN
The Ryerson University Library and Archives (RULA) is in the planning stages of lending Wi-Fi hot spot devices to students. The RULA, the Borrowing Lending Services (BLS) and the Library Information Technology Services (LITS) are discussing the logistics of a lending program, which would give out small wireless gadgets that provide Internet access. “The BLS and the LITS have discussed the ideas, have agreed to work together on it and are in the process of working through the details,” said Mandissa Arlain, the RULA’s communications librarian. The idea came from fourthyear mechanical engineering student Farbod Mansorian through a SoapBox suggestion. Mansorian suggested the idea as a way for students to work on assignments during their commute. “I spend almost two hours a day travelling to and from campus. I wish the library would lend mobile Wi-Fi hot spot devices so I could better use my time by watching online tutorials and accessing D2L,” Mansorian wrote in SoapBox. Mansorian is now working with RULA to make his
suggestion come to life. Toronto Public Library launched a Wi-Fi hot spot lending program in June, 2016. The program, funded by Google and the City of Toronto, is designed for low-income families who do not have access to Wi-Fi at home. The hot spots have unlimited Internet, and are lent out for six months during its ongoing pilot program. Sara Tavakolian, the senior branch head at the Toronto Public Library, told the Ryersonian that the hot spot lending program has been successful. “We are looking to expand in 2017, because the pilot has been very successful. The feedback has been very positive from participants,” Tavakolian said. Toronto Public Library has 189 devices in circulation across six branches. The library got a special rate with Rogers Communications of $50 per month, per device. If a user loses the device, there is a $215 replacement fee. Because the Wi-Fi hot spot initiative is still in discussion, the cost of the devices for Ryerson students is yet to be determined. @LauraWoodward
TAGWA MOYO | RYERSONIAN
Students will be able to connect their phones and laptops to Wi-FI hot spots soon.
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Free pass, high price Parks Canada worried about a rise in visitors for Canada’s 150th
COURTESY ALISON WOODLEY
Park staff are concerned that the amount of traffic for Canada’s 150th will harm the local environments. LARA ONAYAK RYERSONIAN
Parks Canada is offering free admissions to its national parks and historic sites. But environmentalists are concerned about the harm the influx of visitors may pose to park wildlife. Sara Edge, an environmental studies professor at Ryerson, said noise pollution, waste production and higher foot and vehicular traffic are some concerns she has regarding free admission. According to Parks Canada, over two million visitors have obtained their free passes since Dec. 1. The regular cost for a family is $136 for a day pass. Mhairi McFarlane, conservation science manager for the Ontario region of the Nature Conservancy Canada, said her staff monitors the infrastructure and key wildlife on a regular basis. “(Monitoring infrastructure) allows us to document any problems and carry out any repairs as quickly as possible so we can keep our visitors safe, and the wildlife our properties support, protected,” said McFarlane. Despite the concerns, Edge said this creates a great opportunity for those who will visit a
national park for the first time. “As Canada continues to diversify and with so much of our population growth stemming from international migration, it is important that our incoming citizens and residents have the opportunity to develop an attachment to ‘places’ that have ecological significance and reflect important parts of our country’s natural history,” she said. Last December, Parks Canada released a report showing almost half of all national park ecosystems were in fair or poor condition. “You have a situation where park ecosystems are struggling, budgets have been dramatically cut to deal with that and on top of that visitation is already high and has increased dramatically,” said Alison Woodley, national director of the parks program at the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. “So our concern is that there needs to be a plan in place, the government needs to reinvest in conservation capacity, education and interpretation capacity.” However, Edge and Woodley said that promotions such as free admission can encourage people to care about the environment. “In an increasingly urbanizing world, if we want people to care
about the natural environment, prioritize it in decision-making, value it, and choose to preserve it over other options that could result in short-term economic gain. We have to encourage experiences and opportunities that allow people to be exposed to or reconnect with nature,” said Edge. “There was overwhelming support expressed on the public forum (following) a nationwide public consultation of the future of Parks Canada,” said Woodley. (They’re) focusing on nature conservations, ecological integrity and protecting these places so they can be passed along for future generations.” If you’re planning on visiting a national park, Edge suggests to do some research in advance about the wildlife and habitats. “This will help you get more out of your visit and also prepare and inform you about how to be sensitive and respectful to the surroundings and avoid causing adverse impacts,” she said. “If you truly take the opportunity to enjoy nature to its fullest (then) this is a great step forward in cultivating harmonious interrelationships with our natural surroundings.” @ LRonayak
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Redefining a Legacy NAME | RYERSONIAN
GP03J3S | © GREENPEACE
A Ryerson professor says Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter wasn’t just an activist, but an unrecognized eco-philospher IVA CELEBIC RYERSONIAN
No stranger to the media, Greenpeace activist and counterculture journalist Robert Hunter had a canonic presence in Canada until his death. Decades later Ryerson professor of philosophy Thomas Hart is out to prove his imprint is even larger. While his actions were fierce and at times dangerous, there was a complex philosophy underpinning all that he did — one that has been largely overlooked. Hunter left behind over 100 boxes of unseen writing, fictional and theoretical, exploring the tug-of-war relationship between humanity and nature — at a time when climate change threats had not yet entered public discourse.
“(After reading) it just blew my mind. I couldn’t believe no one was talking about these books,” Hart says in his office at Ryerson. Hunter’s writing is a fusion of politics, spirituality, psychology and ethics. He was concerned with Western societies and their ability to fabricate a mental barrier between their everyday life and the state of the environment — which was rapidly altering after the Industrial Revolution. Hart says Hunter’s theories strike a level of unique philosophical depth that are consistent and way ahead of their time. He was reflecting on corporate greed and vanishing natural resources, back in 1968 and 1971. “I guess my academic hat was still on (while reading), and I realized a ton of stuff
was drawing on existentialism, phenomenology, gestalt theory…but Bob never went to university. Obviously he was just a voracious reader, particularly interested in the intellectual movement of ecology,” says Hart. In his writing, he clearly articulates his philosophy of the environment, where we have gone wrong, and how we can initiate change on physical and cerebral levels, to live in harmony with nature. Dropping one’s ego, getting past the solipsism, and reconnecting humanity to nature are fundamental ideas that lifted Greenpeace operations in the ’70s — except Hunter had penned it all three years before he co-founded Greenpeace. “He was simply a public intellectual, who already knew the direction he wanted to go
in, but didn’t have a movement,” says Hart. Although it isn’t unusual to discover the profundity of an individual until after their death, Hart explains this process is slowed when we live in a society that restricts us to one persona at a time. “We lead these fragmented lives where we have multiple personalities; student, worker, parent, and it’s impossible to live consistently – our whole life is not an integrated whole. Work and play oppose each other. I want to get rid of this and amorphous Bob, expand him, to get people to realize that you can be a lot of things,” says Hart. Hunter and his friends made caring for the environment “cool” back when the first mass fear of assault on nature began in 1969 with nuclear testing in Amchitka, an
sonian island in Alaska that would face 20 years of monitored radioactive leakage. The shock wave of the nuclear blast risked triggering an earthquake, Pacific tidal waves and extreme wildlife disruption Activists alike rallied with Greenpeace, forming a gang of charged eco-warriors and eco-cowboys; defenders of Mother Earth. They garnered a lot of media attention to the intentional and unstoppable destruction of the Canadian landscape. The group did all it could do to sound the climate change alarm. Hunter even insisted on using the phrase “climate collapse,” instead of global warming or climate change, because he felt the urgency was diluted in delicate language. Being Greenpeace president from 197377, he led many radical eco-missions, including the famous goose-chase on water to track down Russian whalers slaughtering sentient whales. With only an inflatable raft, a zodiac map, and the I-Ching text, he tracked a pod of whales to protect them from shots being fired by the Russians. Irritated with the flailing speedboat, the whalers fired a harpoon right over his head, lodging it inside a whale calf that happened to be under legal hunting size. Hot blood oozed everywhere from the drifting mammal, and the camera was rolling. The footage aired on television in 1975 and prompted public distrust in big
Features corporations. Hunter believed people could change the world more effectively with a camera than a gun. Hart knew little about Hunter besides being a Greenpeacer – as he too participated in anti-nuclear protests in the mid-’80s. After spending some time studying in Europe, Hart came home and attended a family backyard barbecue. His brother-in-law Will, son of Bob Hunter, asked if Hart would deliver the memorial speech that year for his father, since he is a practised lecturer. For 10 years, the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto had hosted an annual memorial speech for Hunter. The crowd has been dwindling, and the family was beginning to worry that Hunter’s accomplishments would be left in the dust. Hart’s sister married Will after Hunter died of prostate cancer in 2005, so they never actually met. In preparation for the speech, he read three of Hunter’s published books: Erebus (1968), Enemies of Anarchy (1970), and The Storming of the Mind (1971) — and couldn’t look back. “I was starting to get consumed seeing through these lenses, and that’s when I realized I drank the Kool-Aid. I woke up one morning and I couldn’t go back to seeing
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the world the way I used to anymore,” says Hart. After hearing him channel Bob’s voice, the Hunter family immediately encouraged Hart to undertake the work of the whole archive.
“He was simply a public intellectual, who already knew the direction he wanted to go in, but didn’t have a movement.” — Thomas Hart
ANDREA VACL | RYERSONIAN
Opposite page, photo of Rex Weyler (standing) with Bob Hunter (right) as the Phyllis Cormack and crew return to Vancouver from the 1975 whale campaign. Photo above, Thomas Hart reading in the archive at Robarts Library. Photo right, Hunter with Greenpeace pet Iguana Fido. Fido sailed with the crew during the 1976 whale campaign. He was released in Hawaii.
Over 100 boxes of scattered writing, collected over more than 30 years sit in the Robarts Research Library. The archive includes several finished and unfinished manuscripts, correspondences, anthologies of essays and research, hard drives of footage and a fictional sci-fi trilogy. Hart plans to make the archive digitally accessible for everyone online, and has been busy cataloguing everything in chronological and thematic order. He hopes to expand on Hunter’s work with the memories of others, and place it back on the map, in what Hart believes is a time of ferocious need for accountable environmental change. “My hope is that people see that there was something far more substantive than Greenpeace Bob Hunter,” says Hart, “and that Bob’s view of how we need to change, in order to survive, will be acknowledged.” He says he spends one day a week at the library freaking out, and walks back to Ryerson campus with his head full of stuff, feeling completely elated. Since the release of How to Change the World in 2005 — a documentary of unearthed basement footage of Greenpeace missions — a lot of people have been wondering what’s next for the resurgence of Hunter’s legacy. Hart says he’s received emails from people in Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco and Washington D.C., thanking him. He’s been contacted by almost all the original Greenpeacers with questions and gratitude. “I even got an email message from the guy who took care of Bob’s kids while he
GP03IW9 | © GREENPEACE
was away writing in his cabin, saying he’s just desperate to have more of what Bob wrote for 15 years. Some people will flat out say, ‘Bob Hunter was the inspiration of my life,’” says Hart. Written decades ago, his philosophies can be applied today, as we navigate an atmosphere that has reached its tipping point. Hart says the project will take eight or nine years to complete, and he is considering it a second PhD. “First it was Nietzsche on the philosophy of education, and now it’s Bob Hunter on the philosophy of the environment,” says Hart. He has just signed a book deal to author Hunter’s first ever-academic biography — focusing on his intellectual contributions, not his life’s tale.
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Ryersonians in New York ryersonian.ca Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Bringing a comic book to life
Yona Strauss and Izzy Ahrbeck explore the theory of dual personas through a comic book and web series ANDRE VARTY RYERSONIAN
There is this theory that we all live two different personas. One public and one private. Neither of these two ever meet, for reasons we can’t quite understand. This theory is what inspired a group of RTA School of Media (RTA) students to create Dawn Hughes and The Rise of Eve Fantastic. This hybrid comic brings together old and new ways of storytelling by creating a series of six “webisodes” to accompany physical and digital versions of the comic. Dawn Hughes and The Rise of Eve Fantastic tells the story of an insecure high school art student named Dawn Hughes who is tired of being unnoticed and decides to adopt a new superhero alter ego named Eve Fantastic. Through Eve, Dawn is able to overcome her woes and finally become a star. But it’s not without losing her best friend and making mistakes along the way that Dawn realizes she needs both her personas to work together. Yona Strauss, co-writer and director, came up with the idea almost a year ago. “(The idea) is so different from what it used to be. It’s almost wrong to say, ‘yeah that’s what it is.’ It’s a completely different entity now,” says Strauss. In its earliest stages, Strauss first approached her friend and
illustrator Katie Burns with the idea of creating a comic book that talked about issues that she was dealing with in her life. She wanted to tackle it with the same tone as Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Walter Scott’s Wendy. “The beginnings of this project were very beautiful, but it all came from very embarrassing beginnings,” she says. “I was feeling embarrassed about a few situations, like when I was at this party with this guy who knew me personally but didn’t act that way with me in public.” It was in that moment Strauss realized she was living two separate personas. “I felt like he knew me in this one context and then in another context I was an entirely different person,” she says. “I think that’s very common with people our age especially,” says Izzy Ahrbeck, co-writer and producer. At this point, Strauss had shared her idea with Ahrbeck in hopes that they could work on this idea together and pitch it as a practicum project for their final year. “We always want to hide a certain side of ourselves and also the fact that we do have two personas sometimes,” says Ahrbeck. “So when Yona and I were talking about it, I completely loved the idea because I could relate to it.” Currently in the process of post-production, the team is hard at work finishing the rest of the
comic, which people will be able to read both online and in print. The print issue will see a limited release, while the online version will be available for everyone. As Strauss and Ahrbeck explain it, readers of the online version will be able to press a play button and view the webisodes as the story progresses. As for the physical copy, readers will be able to scan personalized QR codes with their mobile devices and view the webisodes on their phone. “The videos also wouldn’t be the same story, they would just accompany one another,” says Strauss. “So you’d read (the comic book) and to get deeper into the feeling you’d watch these little vignettes.” The videos will be live action, but will also include animated doodles to create a similarity with the comic book. Both Strauss and Ahrbeck hope that the story of Dawn Hughes will connect with others who share the same story. “Everyone at a certain point in their life has felt like Dawn,” says Ahrbeck. “It can really relate to both men and women.” “We hope that people who read this don’t leave it with the fun question of, ‘are you a Dawn or are you an Eve?’” says Strauss. “Moreso we want people to realize that they can be both.” As the countdown ticks, Strauss and her team are still
COURTESY SKETCHY PRODUCTIONS
Official comic book cover illustrated by Katie Burns.
accepting donations through their IndieGoGo page to help complete their project. The official launch party for their project is set for
March 2 at The Great Hall venue at 1087 Queen St. W.
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Sports
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Rams volleyball cruise past Brock ryersonian.ca Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Learning from the best JORDAN ARSENEAULT RYERSONIAN
Growing up in Toronto, Ryerson Rams’ captain Michael Fine remembers watching his hockey idol, Doug Gilmour, play at Maple Leaf Gardens. Little did he know Gilmour would eventually become his coach, and that his career with the Rams would be spent playing under the same roof his favourite player once did. Fine’s hockey journey began at age three when his dad taught
him how to skate. It wasn’t long after that Fine knew the sport would be a big part of his life. After playing seven seasons of minor hockey with the Mississauga IceDogs, Fine was selected in the third round of the OHL draft by the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. “Mike is a 91 (birth year) much like my son Jamie, so I was able to follow Mike’s career closely in the top minor league in Toronto,” said former Ryerson coach Graham
Wise. “Mike was such a good player that I really didn’t think we would even have a chance to try and recruit him, with the possibility that existed of him going pro right away.” With two seasons in the OHL under his belt, Fine was traded to the Kingston Frontenacs. The move not only brought him closer to home but provided the young forward with an opportunity of a lifetime. “Playing for Doug was a dream
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come true. He was my favourite hockey player but even more importantly he’s just a good person,” said Fine. It was during his two years at Kingston that Fine really developed as a player. Under the guidance of Gilmour, Fine recorded 95 points in two seasons. That was a vast improvement, after scoring only 54 points over his previous two years in Sault Ste. Marie. In his over-age year, Fine was traded to the Saginaw Spirit where he
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played his best season, recording 67 points. After completing his junior career, it was time for Fine to decide on which post-secondary school he would attend. @JordanArseneaul
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Next week I’ll be contacting first- and fourth-year students by email and asking you to participate in an important student survey. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) measures Ryerson’s performance and helps improve the quality of the student experience. Please check your @ryerson email account for my letter and more details. We want to hear from you. This is an opportunity for you to provide input and ensure we have an accurate picture of student life. I urge you to complete the survey promptly. You will join students from universities across Ontario who are also participating in the survey, which focuses on key characteristics of a university education such as: • academic challenge • active and collaborative learning • student-faculty interaction
• enriching educational experiences • a supportive campus environment
Your opinion matters. Thanks in advance to each of you for being a part of this exciting initiative.
Mohamed Lachemi President
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Editorial
Read more Opinions and Editorials online ryersonian.ca Wednesday, February 8, 2017
EDITORIAL
Reporting on Trump U.S. President Donald Trump’s erratic policies and blunt proclamations since he took office have surprised even his critics. His rash statements and flurry of executive orders has shocked both Americans and other citizens of the world, and added fuel to an already pervasive feeling of uncertainty and unease around the globe. At the Ryersonian, it is our publication’s mission to not only cover issues pertaining to campus life, but also to find the links between international headlines and the issues that concern our students and other community members on a daily basis. This is a challenge. Often, these links are not obvious. Nonetheless, every day we are encouraged by our professors to “find the Ryerson angle” for any topic we find important. After headlines exploded outlining Trump’s series of executive orders regarding immigration, (informally known as the “Muslim ban” among its critics), a member of our masthead said that the story was too vast and multifaceted for our publication to tackle head-on. Her argument was convincing: how could our publication produce any coverage that was adding a meaningful and new dimension to the discourse, especially when our scope has to eventually narrow down to Ryerson?
Could our campus newspaper constructively add to the global conversation, and moreover, find the “Ryerson angle” when we, along with the rest of the world, haven’t fully grasped the full extent of these rapid, yet wide-spanning changes? Given Trump’s propensity for unpredictable and fluid statements and policies, it is impossible to know what the lasting effects of the Trump administration will be. Producing content that fits within the boundaries of campus can sometimes seem insular and infinitesimal compared to the sweeping forces at play on the international stage. But it’s important that our publication find and amplify the voices of people here at Ryerson, and especially those who are being directly affected by Trump or U.S. politics more broadly. We know that such campus news stories do exist, because Ryerson’s community is highly diverse and there are many whose lives have already been affected or will be affected by the president south of our border. The campus activities surrounding the women’s march and the “Muslim ban” are cases in point. On second thought, the sweeping changes coming from the U.S. have left no one untouched, and finding the links between the world and our campus is inevitable.
JACLYN TANSIL | RYERSONIAN
RSU elections 2017/2018 poll lineup.
OPINION
You don’t need meat JOSEPH WONG RYERSONIAN
Drop those steak knives, my indoctrinated friends. Pull that pork from your stuffed pout and heed my warning before your plate plays its part in harming you and our planet. A video from the Beyond Carnism campaign has changed the way I see food. I haven’t eaten meat since I watched it earlier this year. It didn’t even bombard me
with graphic images of slaughter houses (that much). Carnism, a belief system described by Melanie Joy, is the reason why we eat meat and it’s really messed up. Carnism is an invisible belief system that conditions us to eat certain animals. It has robbed us of our free thinking, compassion, health and our beloved mother Earth. We seem to have no problem accepting that some kinds of animal consumption aren’t acceptable. Dog-eating is seen as wrong. So wrong that 11 million people signed a petition to end the annual 2016 Yulin dog-eating festival in China. Why don’t we feel the same caution about the meat we eat, but abhor dog meat? Joy says it’s because carnism has defence mechanisms. The first defence mechanism is denial. By remaining unnamed, carnism escapes our thinking and therefore isn’t a problem. Joy says the second defence mechanism is
justification. We were taught to think that eating meat is normal, natural and necessary. Would you be able to slaughter a cow with your own hands for food, because it’s normal, natural and necessary? Or does your squeamish reaction reveal that justification isn’t enough? The last defence is cognitive distortion. We’ve been conditioned to think farmed animals are disposable things. Personally, I can’t bear to kill these animals for my taste buds anymore, and a well-managed vegetarian/vegan diet can be equally, if not more nutritious, than a carnistic diet. This isn’t meant to shame you. Rather, I want you to be aware of the choice you are making when you’re eating meat and its dire consequences. Let’s eat well, love Earth and all its divine inhabitants.
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Read more Voices online ryersonian.ca Wednesday, February 8, 2017
#BodyPositive ‘Body rolls, stretch marks and cellulite are all a part of what makes us human’
MADISON GOOD RYERSONIAN
Living with body image issues in a time where Instagram models and perfect gym bodies are idolized is a constant struggle. No matter when I refresh my Instagram feed, I’ll either see models who have been edited and posed to look their best with captions like #goals, or a gym meme that shames me for not choosing the gym over other hobbies in my life. For years I’ve had an on-andoff relationship with healthy
eating and exercise. During my first year of university, my mental health completely plummeted and I let that affect my physical health. I gained weight and lost confidence. My poor mental state persisted for two years until I decided to transfer into the journalism program and change the way I moved through life. I’m in a better mental space now than I was then, but I still struggle with liking my physical appearance. Seeing other people’s #TransformationTuesdays either makes me feel hopeful that one
day I’ll look like that, or defeated because I don’t and never will have that figure. Something that I’ve come to realize is that my self-worth should not be tied to how I look. But that’s easier said than done when you’re constantly bombarded on social media with pictures of what the ideal figure should look like. Many Instagram models are paid to post these kinds of photos or are sponsored by fitness companies, whereas my lifestyle is completely different. I’m not slamming the models — some of them work extremely hard to maintain the bodies they have and I admire that. It’s taken me a long time to understand that everyone has their own priorities and obligations, and keeping a strict exercise and meal schedule is not mine. Yet, even as I write this I know these insecurities will affect any relationship I’ll ever have. I have a constant feeling of inadequacy, as if I’m not cool enough or hot enough to be someone’s girlfriend. I’ve developed what I’ve started to call my “Instagram Anxiety,” meaning I feel constantly threatened by any other woman online who is more attractive than me and is in any way associated with who I am dating. I’m always reminding myself to fight back against these types of negative thoughts, but it’s tiring. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received is, treat yourself like you treat others. When I look at my friends, I don’t judge them
based on their weight or appearance, so why would I do the same to myself? Recently, I’ve come across the Instagram profile of Milly Smith (@selfloveclubb) who takes time out of her day to post how Instagram is different from reality. In one picture, she included two different angles of herself; the photo showed that a posed body looks much different than an un-posed, relaxed one. “We are so blinded to what a real un-posed body looks like and blinded to what beauty is that people would find me less attractive within a 5 second pose switch,” she said in her caption. The post has gained over 70,000 likes since she posted it this past week. It’s little reminders like these that help me up on my down days. But we as a society still have a long way to go. Body rolls, stretch marks and cellulite are all a part of what makes us human, and on a general level we all know that. But we don’t see that reflected in popular culture. I want to watch TV or turn on the radio without being subjected to an ad on how to lose weight fast. I want to go to a convenience store without being bombarded by magazines with covers that point out flaws in every celebrity’s appearance. I want to open my Instagram without hating myself for not having the same body that these fitness models have. I want to see myself in the
MADISON GOOD | RYERSONIAN
mirror as a person who deserves love and respect, instead of critiquing myself for how much my stomach hangs over my pants. As long as you’re healthy, I see no reason to force your body to match that idolized figure if it makes you unhappy. Do what’s best for you. Don’t do things just for the approval of other people. Instead of posting memes on Instagram that say, “I may not be a girl who knows how to contour my makeup, but I am a girl who knows how to go parallel with my squat. You tell me which is more important,” think about what you’re posting and how that might make someone feel. You can uplift people without making them feel bad for who they are. For me, I want my 2017 to be about #bopo (body positivity) instead of #thinspo (“thinspiration”). I have approximately 80 years on this planet and I’m not going to waste another minute of that time hating myself. @MadisonDGood
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Campus Connection
Tidbits and Teasers
Events
Get the full story at ryersonian.ca
Feb. 9 Global Opportuntiy Fair 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. SLC Amphitheatre
Before I was like, ‘Should I become a dentist? Oh no, I hate teeth.’
Women in the Creative Industries 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. Sears Atrium
Krizia Peluso Found in: Arts & Life
Feb. 10 Ryerson Soccer Alumni Appreciation Night 5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. Mattamy Athletic Centre
It’s just so much easier to get your credit card charged 9 or 10 dollars a month for basically all the music in the world, than torrenting ... and hoping there’s not a virus attached to it.
Feb. 13
Steven Ehrlick Found in: Arts & Life
RYERSONIAN.CA
There are so many brilliant scientists at Ryerson. Sometimes I feel like I can’t ever be at that level. Sometimes I put myself down, like, well, I’m not that smart.
Leslie Bone
Business Over Beers We’ve got a new show on Ryersonian TV. Reporter Laura Woodward breaks down the latest news in the world of business in the time it takes her to finish a beer. Head to ryersonian.ca to see what’s on tap for this week’s episode.
Found in: News
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Untangling the Web 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. The Venn, RCC Self-Healing Through Yoga & Art 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Tecumseh Auditorium, SCC
Feb. 14 Public Speaking Entrepreneurs 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. Launch Zone, SLC
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