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Flying high in Texas
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yersonian R WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017
ryersonian.ca Volume 71 Number 19
Produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism
FEATURE
Health, Fitness... Drugs? How young adults are balancing vegan dinners, toned abs and hard drugs. See pages 6-7. JULIA HO | RYERSONIAN
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Tales of student housing page 3 Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Ryerson’s plane builders flying high LAUREN MALYK RYERSONIAN
Ryerson’s Aero Design (RAD) team flew into the top 10 during the Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) Aero Design Series. RAD placed eighth out of 34 teams in the competition. The Aero Design Series consists of aircraft taking part in a heavy lifting competition. This year, in addition to being in Texas, the competition had a new rule. “Our vehicle had to carry tennis balls as passengers and weight as luggage,” said fourth-year aerospace engineering student, Ryan Long. RAD’s plane was names Wilson after the brand of tennis balls the team had to buy. Wilson was able to carry 34 balls. The engineering design team was started in 1986, making it one of Ryerson’s oldest clubs. It consists of at least 40 students, with the majority from Ryerson’s aerospace engineering program.
COURTESY RYAN LONG
Members of RAD carrying their plane, Wilson, to the competition’s runway.
In the competition, aircraft were separated into three different categories, including micro, average and advanced classes, with each stream focusing on carrying as much payload as possible
while flying a circuit of the flying field. Each year, Ryerson’s team aims to build two planes, one for the micro class and the other for the average division.
This year, RAD’s team behind the micro class plane had the opportunity to experiment with new manufacturing processes to create a carbon fibre wing and tail structure.
“Designing the plane really helps some of the students on our team learn about manufacturing processes. “That is something that is really big in the industry right now and very valuable to employers as well,” said Long. A large part of the micro class is having “a really compact design and assembly,” said Dylan Krcmariov, a Ryerson aerospace engineering student. RAD’s plane ended up being six inches in diameter and eight inches tall. RAD tests their plane in Stouffville, Ont., near the town’s airport because their planes need plenty of space to fly; Wilson has a four-metre wingspan and can go about 60 km/h. Long said the team is confident that their success will continue next year. @lmalyk
Expansion wouldn’t change school’s focus
While Ryerson considers a Brampton hub, Lachemi says the focus remains downtown BROOKLYN PINHEIRO RYERSONIAN
Even if Ryerson establishes a campus in Brampton, it won’t take away from the school’s focus on its current urban setting, says president Mohamed Lachemi. “We have 44,000 students in the downtown area. We are not moving our core business elsewhere,” said Lachemi.
Ryerson University has expressed interest in expanding its presence to Brampton in partnership with Sheridan College. Brampton is one of the province’s fastest growing cities and the largest one without a university presence. “We think it is important for Ryerson to work with local and provincial partners to find innovative ways to deliver education,” said Lachemi.
Ryerson was the first university to express formal interest in partnering with Sheridan to move into Brampton. Wilfrid Laurier University, in partnership with Conestoga College, also expressed interest in expanding into Milton. The Ontario government is contributing a combined $180 million to the two new university sites. The province is specifically looking for schools to focus on
science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) programs. According to Ryerson public affairs, the school’s strengths in computer science, engineering, business and mathematics, in partnership with Sheridan’s expertise in engineering and technology, will make the team well-suited to provide students with the skills to meet current workforce needs.
If the expression of interest is accepted, the two schools will then work together to create a full proposal to be submitted to the province. “Brampton is considered a fast growing city in Canada,” said Lachemi. “(W)e are still working in that context of an urban area.”
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
News 3 4
R yersonian STUDENT HOUSING
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Students versus landords University students, often first-time renters, continue to be unaware of their rights as tenants and feel taken advantage of by property owners. BROOKLYN NEUSTAETER RYERSONIAN
When it comes to renting in Toronto, students don’t always know their rights as tenants and some feel their landlords are taking advantage of them. Ryan Clarke is a third-year hospitality and tourism management student at Ryerson and moved to Toronto last May. He lives in a two-bedroom apartment on Sherbourne Street and splits the $1,520 rent with his roommate. But after multiple maintenance issues, Clarke said he regrets signing a lease. The rental office at his apartment building could not be
BROOKLYN NEUSTAETER | RYERSONIAN
Ryerson student Ryan Clarke sits in his two-bedroom apartment.
reached for comment. “It’s hard when you are a student – you just have to accept it,” said Clarke. “I’m getting screwed over, but what can I do about it?”
BROOKLYN NEUSTAETER | RYERSONIAN
Clarke’s living room floor after a flood.
Clarke said mould has been growing under his kitchen sink for months. His air conditioner broke in the middle of the summer and there is water damage from a flood that happened over a year ago, when the unit was occupied by the previous tenant. All of these issues have yet to be fixed. Earlier this month, a city committee pushed forward new bylaws that crack down on bad landlords. These bylaws, if approved by city council, will ensure that building owners register each year with the city, create and maintain plans for waste management and cleaning, conduct regular inspections, handle pests, use licensed contractors for mechanical system repairs and more. Cathy Crowe, a distinguished visiting practitioner at Ryerson and an advocate for affordable housing and the homeless, said implementing these new bylaws would benefit student renters. “It’s going to help the most
vulnerable and that’s often students, because it would provide more protection,” said Crowe. “When stuff like that happens, it makes the landlords watch what they are doing in a proactive sort of way.” According to a report from the CBC, there are currently 2,800 rental buildings in Toronto. If city council approves the proposed bylaws, inspectors will start visiting those properties regularly to ensure landlords are providing proper living conditions for tenants. Fourth-year Ryerson photography student Connor Remus, who shares a house in the Dovercourt Park area with three other roommates for $3,000, said he agrees with the new bylaws and that landlords need to be held accountable. “This past September, (my landlord) texted – not a formal written notice, texted – one of us that she would be raising the rent $1,000 or else she was evicting
us,” said Remus. Remus added his landlord does not talk to all of the tenants, just one of them, making it difficult for him to get in touch with her. After some negotiating, Remus’s landlord agreed to a rent increase of $500, but that is still well above the allowed 2.6 per cent increase rate. Remus has still not received any formal notice – something that is illegal under the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Act. “As a student, you have book fees, tuition, transportation, groceries, other amenities – $500 doesn’t come easy to a student to just tack on,” said Remus. Remus had previously spoken with a real estate lawyer, but he doesn’t want to take action against his landlord and have to deal with the stress of finding a new apartment while finishing up the school semester. Clarke has yet to speak with a lawyer – he said he doesn’t have the time as a student. “It’s so unrealistic,” he said. “You don’t have time to find a lawyer, plus you have to balance it with school and work. “Landlords know us as students (that) don’t have the resources to go against them. Once you sign that lease, you’re screwed… until you own a place, you’re not going to get anything special.” But with Toronto’s high-priced housing market, many millennials won’t be able to own a property anytime soon. The reality of the marketplace seems to suggest that affordable housing is unobtainable for young professionals due to the lack of low-cost rental supply. For now, Crowe suggests students should contact their local city councillor if legal help isn’t an option when they have serious landlord issues. @BNeustaeter
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Studying indigenous culture
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Ryerson survey finds students split on mandatory course JULIA MASTROIANNI RYERSONIAN
Students at Ryerson University are divided on whether Ryerson should implement a mandatory course on indigenous culture in Canada. In a poll conducted by the Ryerson School of Journalism, of 897 students, 35.6 per cent agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that Ryerson should implement a mandatory course on indigenous culture. While 29.6 per cent disagreed or strongly disagreed, 34.8 per cent of students were neutral. Duncan McCue, who is the Rogers Visiting Journalist at Ryerson and reports on indigenous issues for the CBC, said Canadians don’t have the historical base that they need to understand the treatment of indigenous peoples in Canada. “The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was very, very clear that reconciliation is not going to happen unless the academy,
that being post-secondary insti- courses was 55 students. This Canada about indigenous issues, indigenous culture and history tutions, start sharing the history year, enrolment has risen to 770 he doesn’t think a mandatory into the general curriculum in of what happened in this country students.” course is the way to do it. pieces. “So if you’re taking a Canawith all students.” She said students “now under“It can create a very difficult dian literature class then there The commission, a part of the stand what’s going on better, and learning environment for all stu- should be indigenous authors in Indian Residents” when a por- the canon, if you’re taking a bioldential Schools “(Students) now understand what’s going tion of students ogy course, then there should be Settlement aren’t interested, a section on indigenous world Agreement on better, and have a bit more sympathy McCue said. views for science.” with a main Parul Verma, McCue said the post-secondgoal of inform- to the challenges indigenous people face.” first-year nutri- ary level is a challenging place to ing Canadians tion and food stu- force students to learn something about what – Jacqueline Romanow dent at Ryerson, they don’t want to learn. He sughappened in also thinks a man- gests mandatory courses at the residential datory course high school level may be more schools, produced a document have a bit more sympathy to the won’t work for uninterested stu- helpful. detailing, among other items, challenges indigenous people dents. “If you don’t really want The survey at Ryerson Univercalls to action for post-second- face.” to take that mandatory course, sity was a randomized poll, conary institutions to require educaAmong Ryerson students, two you’ll just be against the idea of ducted person-to-person from tion for students on the history of out of five respondents rated their what you’re learning and the feel- March 3-7, 2017. The margin of Aboriginal Peoples. knowledge of history and cur- ing of being against it will grow.” error is plus or minus three perJacqueline Romanow, chair of rent issues facing the indigenous McCue’s solution is to weave centage points, 19 times out of 20. indigenous studies at the Univer- population as a one or two out of sity of Winnipeg, helped imple- five, with one being “remedial” ment a mandatory course on and five being “deeply knowlindigenous culture this year. She edgeable.” Only 4.4 per cent of Call 416-979-5000 Ext. 7424 said the impact of implementing respondents rated their knowlthe course has been most strongly edge a five. felt in her program. “In the 2015Though McCue agrees that it is 2016 year, our enrolment in those critical to educate all students in
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
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The journey to health, fit
Health-inspired young adults are also indulging in recreational drug It’s a Friday afternoon, 25-year-old Julian Riley’s day off. He’s in the kitchen washing vegetables for his lunch before he heads to GoodLife Fitness — the gym he attends four times a week — for a workout. There’s some orange juice in the fridge, but he opts for water. “I don’t drink juice or pop, just water to keep it healthy.” The weekend is here, and nighttime will bring Riley’s weekly opportunity at blowing off some steam. Acid is on the menu for the night, but perhaps cocaine will have to do if he cannot score some in time. Riley’s living room coffee table is scattered with paraphernalia, and he
and his roommates are passing a blunt around. “I consider myself pretty healthy...I try to cook and eat mostly vegetables and exercise regularly,” said Riley, adding that he feels the gym is necessary to stay in shape, having grown up playing competitive soccer. Recently, more people are choosing healthy and responsible lifestyles., often prompted by “fitspo” accounts on Instagram and other social media. For example, the account @jenselter has over 10.8 million Instagram followers, and promotes exercising and eating clean. But there is an alarming crossover. The normalization of drug use has been on a continual rise as well, partly due to music festival and club culture. And the demographic that has subscribed so heavily to healthy practices is often also involved in the seemingly contradictory drug-using party culture. Riley, who never experimented with drugs or alcohol in high school because of soccer, had his first experience with recreational substance use in his first year of university. He drank lean, a mixture of cough syrup and Sprite, to attend a Kid Cudi concert and the introduction to other drugs followed soon after. “I was like, well I’ve gone this far so why not,” said Riley on his experience with lean and why he eventually continued to cocaine and MDMA. His relationship with those drugs mostly surfaces on his days off, when he will often go out for a night of drinking to relieve the stress of working five days a week. “I’ll go out, and then I’ll drink a bunch, and once you start drinking your pockets get wider and you get more generous, and you’re like, ‘Why not indulge more? You know? Why not take it to the next level?’ Cause I’ve always been a person to push myself athletically, so recreationally it’s like, let’s go all the way.” It was also during his first year at university that Riley began regularly working out to stay in shape because of the absence of his high school soccer regimen. In conjunction with exercise, Riley also abides by a relatively healthy and strict diet, allowing only the occasional hot chocolate or bubble tea to satisfy his sweet tooth. But perhaps healthy living and drug use aren’t as mutually exclusive as they may seem, seeing that Riley is “living proof that you can be both.” Aside from health reasons, he maintains a good physique in order to look good while he’s out partying. “I’m a little bit of a narcissist and self-obsessive...I feel like that’s just a part of, ‘Ya, I want to go out and feel good and look good and look my best and therefore I’m going to workout, but I also JULIA HO | RYERSONIAN want to have fun.’” Riley isn’t alone in this type of reasoning. Michael Julian Riley washing and prepping broccoli for lunch, with his drugs waiting for his night out. Hucko, a 23-year-old business student, said, “with festivals
and all that stuff becoming huge, peo look good, and they’ll work out and st go to a festival and do drugs…but I d age to do both.” However, unlike Ril healthy while still doing drugs, whic “You can do both, but one is having t Hucko was a part of the enormous become increasingly popular. He did to’s Veld music festival during the su versity. MDMA is among one of the music festivals. Hucko’s occasional M quickly escalated into cocaine every t about three times a week for him and conscious of his diet and exercise, sp gym even during his heavy partyin Marilyn Herie is a teacher on sity of Toronto in the faculty of socia for Addiction and Mental Health (CA generation has the pressure of look ple weren’t posting how they looke “Visual representation of ourselves, media channels, means that if I’m no at these different social and cultura social media as a “rigid stereotype of said her children’s friend circles have ture of myself in the mirror, in the p with a completely buff six-pack.” For Herie, it’s the personal b creasing presence on social media th healthy living and drug use. “It’s all ier person that’s in festival culture or that go along with that and at the sa ical consciousness. So maybe part of Riley’s justification for his drug speculation. He said, “if I eat healthy then on the weekend, one or two nigh
“I know people wh health stuff, and th night out drinking an
And his rationale may not be invalid said there might be cause to believe th tor for hard drug users like it does fo in 2006 for The Society for Researc
sonian
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Features
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tness and the drug dealer
gs. How did these two paths converge? By Julia Ho
ople want to do that, and they want to tuff for however long and then they’ll do think it’s common with people our ley, Hucko doesn’t believe you can be ch he realized after quitting last year. the exact opposite effect of the other.” s festival and party culture that has d MDMA for the first time at Toronummer before his second year of unie most popular substances to take for MDMA use at concerts and festivals time he went out drinking, which was d his friends. Hucko is also extremely pending five to six days a week at the ng phase. n addiction approaches at the Univeral work and has worked at the Centre AMH). She said that the social media king good because “in the past, peoed at parties and events.” She added, , through Instagram and other social ow publishing myself and how I look al events, I need to look good.” Citing f beauty,” the mother of young adults e shared photos like these online: “Picperson’s underwear, smoking a joint…
branding of individuals with the in hat possibly drives the intersection of part of that kind of brand, the partr club culture and wants all the drugs ame time the kind of vegan and politf it is, ‘If I’m healthy I can indulge.’” use comes in a similar form to Herie’s y enough and go to the gym enough hts won’t affect my health that badly.”
JULIA HO | RYERSONIAN
Julian Riley lifting weights in his room before heading to the gym for a full workout
that physical activity may delay diseases related to tobacco use. This is especially relevant for those who find they crave smoking while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, something that Riley and many others are prone to. Factors such as these contribute to the complexity of the health versus substance use relationship, as these variables dictate where a specific person lies on “the spectrum of risk,” according to Herie. Additionally, Herie said factors such as genetics and social capital determine whether someone can use safely and without completely compromising the integrity of health. One of the factors Herie mentioned was an individual’s social network. Though drug use is not uncommon among young people, studies conducted in 2015 by CAMH show that nondrug users make up the majority of the teenage population, which Herie said can be extrapolated and applied to young adults. “Depending on who a person is associating with; it might look like that’s what the majority of the population is doing. If you’re going to a festival, going to a club that is what the majority are doing. But not everyone that age is doing
ho are really into the hen they go and do a nd doing cocaine.” – Michael Hucko
d. As a form of harm reduction, Herie hat exercise provides a protective facor tobacco users. An article published ch on Nicotine and Tobacco suggests
those activities that often.” “I think it’s actually really common, even just from people I know. I know people who are really into the health stuff, and then they go and do a night out drinking and doing cocaine,” said Hucko, who also admitted that he would only do drugs with his drug-using friends while abstaining around his other friends out of guilt. Similarly, Riley will rarely refuse drugs when offered to him by friends for fear of missing out. “To an extent, it is social conformity,” he said. To further emphasize the prevalence of drugs in healthy individuals, he references professional football players who “train so hard just to go out and do a shit ton of hard drugs,” adding that it seems to be most people’s way of dealing with a stressful work life. When asked if he plans on eventually quitting drugs, Riley said, “If I’m successful, I already know what drinking does to me, why would I just afford more drinks and drop (the drugs)?” But despite that, he predicts he’ll stop taking drugs by the time he’s 30 — the point when he “should be really serious about his life.” In the meantime, however, he’s “always down for a drink…and a little indulgence.”
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ryersonian.ca Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Finding rhythm with Cuban son
Sean Bellaviti hosts lecture remembering Buena Vista Social Club ABIGAIL MURTA RYERSONIAN
It was the summer of 1999. Sean Bellaviti, who was then an undergraduate student at York University, was working as a waiter in a pseudo-Italian restaurant in Bloor West Village that cooked pasta past the al dente requirement and offered the type of cheese an Italian would look at in dismay. Like the menu, the restaurant’s music was just as culturally inaccurate — it played Cuban music. All day and all night. More importantly, it played music by the group Buena Vista Social Club. Fast forward 20 years and Bellaviti finds himself at the Imperial Pub located just outside of Ryerson University campus. On a tiny stage located at the back of the bar, the music instructor is hosting a presentation on the band, acknowledging the impact it has had on him personally and on music worldwide. With a piano on his right, the Ryerson sessional instructor demonstrates key riffs that signify the essence of Cuban son, the genre Buena Vista Social Club embodied. He takes his audience through the band’s history and how it came to the mainstream. Originating as a social club in the 1940s in Havana, Cuba, the club was known to host dances and musical activities, making it a popular location for musicians to meet and play. The club shut down, but 50 years laterCuban musician Juan de Marcos González came together with
CHRIS BLANCHETTE | RYERSONIAN
Instructor Sean Bellaviti hosts lecture “The Sounds of The Times” at the Imperial Pub American guitarist Ry Cooder and other traditional Cuban musicians to revive the sound. These musicians were mostly veterans who had performed at the club during the height of its popularity, reviving the club’s initial premise. It became a collective of music i a n s until the b a n d progressively became a 13-memb e r ensemble, each musician bringing his own talent without outshining the other. Bellaviti’s roommate back in that summer of 1999 was a
Cuban musician. While the Italian restaurant introduced him to the band’s soundtrack, his roommate, Tony, was the reason he truly began to pay attention to the Cuban son genre. One day, Tony summoned him to the the living room. Bellaviti
Bellaviti was interested in learning to play Cuban-style piano. He kept his sturdy Heintzman piano by his bedside so he could practise the highly varied and arithmetically complex rhythms whenever he could. “While thinking of the band, to say that Tony k n e w I liked Buena V i s t a Social was an understatement,” said Bellaviti. “I practised the repetitive two bar Tumbao sound over and over.” Bellaviti’s obsessive yet passionate interest in Buena Vista
“To say I liked Buena Vista Social was an understatement.” - Sean Bellaviti took a seat on the couch and they began to watch the self-titled documentary Buena Vista Social Club. “It’s important to your training,” Tony said.
Social Club was shared with colleagues and friends at York. They began to apply their jazz skills to the genre which then led them to finally perform their first Cuban music performance in 1999 at the Cervejeria Bar-Grill on College Street and Ossington Avenue. Buena Vista Social has recently marked 20 years of musicianship. While only some of the original members remain, the group performed its final show at Carnegie Hall in 2016. “Their music is timeless. You can listen to it whenever and wherever regardless of how you’re feeling,” said Prof. Alison Crosby of York University, who attended the Imperial Pub event. Bellaviti researches on the development of music, territory, and ethnicity, particularly within the Panamanian and broader Latin American context, as well as among Toronto’s Latin American community. He has worked closely within the urban Latin American musical traditions and among the communities that sustain them. Bellaviti maintains an active performance career in Canada where he continues to collaborate with numerous community-oriented creative projects. He has worked with a large number of jazz musicians, including Bill McBirnie, Lynn Macdonald, Janelle Monique and Matt Dusk. @abbymurta
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Repairing Ryerson’s athletes
With injuries inevitable, Ryerson’s athletic therapy department has the task of getting the Rams ready for game time BRIANNE SPIKER RYERSONIAN
Shirtless and lying face down on a therapy table is a member of Ryerson’s men’s volleyball team. He is receiving electrotherapy treatments on his lower back, three days before the start of the OUA Final Four. The room is large and brightly lit. Exercise equipment is everywhere with exercise and medicine balls, resistance and tension bands and balance boards occupying various walls and corners. In addition to the six therapy tables, three cold tubs occupy the far left side of the room. A large medicine cabinet and counter takes up the far right wall, while a skeleton wearing a collared orange shirt watches over the therapy table area. Even though the varsity season is winding down, it doesn’t mean the athletic therapy
department stops too. Led by two full-time staff, one part-time therapist and a team of athletic therapy students, the athletic therapy department is responsible for making sure over 200 of the university’s varsity athletes are healthy and ready to go for every practice and game. They are the ones on the sidelines and behind the scenes, helping athletes in their injury recovery, both physically and mentally. Since moving to the Mattamy Athletic Centre in 2012, the athletic therapy department has seen an increase in the number of athletes they treat. Back then, the integrated support system of athletic therapy and strength and conditioning wasn’t in place and they only had a third of the space they have now, with just two staff. Men’s hockey took place off-campus while women’s hockey was still a club team. Teams are now
LUKE GALATI | RYERSONIAN
Gillian Rossi and Brittney Clendenan from the women’s soccer team sit in an ice bath at Ryerson’s athletic therapy facility.
LUKE GALATI | RYERSONIAN
Ryerson men’s volleyball player, Uchenna Ofoha, gets his sprained ankle worked on at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
going deeper into the playoffs as well, which increases the need for treatment. Jerome Camacho has been the head athletic therapist at Ryerson since 2008. For Camacho, athletic therapy is a combination of art and science, balancing using people skills and what he learned in school. One of the biggest challenges Camacho has is juggling everything and ensuring that there is always a therapist at every practice and game — at home and on the road. Beyond helping an athlete physically, there is also a large psychological aspect of athletic therapy. “It’s a huge part of it,” said Camacho. “If you aren’t there with your mental stuff then, your body will just follow with what
your brain is telling you, so if you give up (and) throw in the towel, your body is going to give up and throw in the towel too. There is a lot of stuff we don’t learn in school but we learn on the job in terms of emotional intelligence, tactfulness, and being able to help the athletes be psychologically ready and be able to cope with what they are going through.” Athletic therapy works closely with the strength and conditioning department as their work overlaps in many areas. Both departments report to Ryerson’s manager of sport performance Brian Finniss, and he is also involved with every athlete injury report. For the strength and conditioning department, injury prevention is the first priority, followed by performance
enhancement. When it comes to strength and conditioning, Finniss said every athlete needs to know how to squat, run and jump properly. When it comes to programming for the athletes, there are areas that they adjust in what Finniss calls “prehab”. Instead of rehab, they aim to strengthen the body parts that are overused or at risk of getting hurt. @Brianne_Spiker
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Editorial
Read more Opinions and Editorials online ryersonian.ca Wednesday, March 22, 2017
EDITORIAL
Trip cancellation is disheartening, but not surprising A lot has happened since Donald Trump was elected president earlier this year. From a rise in attacks on journalists to the outright devaluation of women and even a constant dismissal of minorities as non-citizens, we witnessed a president rise to power, supported by powerful and arguably hatefilled rhetoric designed to isolate Americans. And with increasing political tension south of the border, it’s easy to get caught up in the headlines and wonder: What will be the next debacle to grace our TV screens? How will this affect Canada-U.S. relations? Where will we be in two weeks time, let alone two months? But while there is value in focusing on the bigger picture of the challenges both countries are facing, we feel it is our duty as a student-run publication to zero in on how these issues affect the lives of students. The Ryersonian learned last week, via an internal email that was circulated in February, about the university’s urban planning school decision to cancel trips to the United States. A team of reporters has been working – and will continue to work – diligently for the next couple of weeks on the impact this announcement will have on students. The cancellation comes as the
so-called Trump travel ban – an executive order that banned citizens of six majority-Muslim nations from entering the States – is before the courts. Much like other news from the political world, the Ryersonian sees the program’s announcement to cancel trips to American cities as disheartening but not surprising. While we recognize the valuable learning opportunities that will be lost, we must admit that we sympathize with the School of Urban and Regional Planning’s decision. Our newsroom is made up of student journalists, and while we foster an environment of learning and journalistic education, our No. 1 priority has always been the physical safety of students. That’s why, when we received a tip this week that the university had its first case of mumps at the Recreation and Athletic Centre, we pursued the story with vigour. We demanded to know why it hadn’t been reported to the university by the city. It’s also why we’ll continue pushing to learn about the urban planning school’s decision: because while physical and medical help is important at Ryerson, the safety and security of students in all learning environments - even when away from school - is vital.
MONIQUE JAGPAL | RYERSONIAN
Honest campus tours.
OPINION
Careers, children & choices
KAREN CHAN RYERSONIAN
A short documentary titled Japan’s Womenomics done by Al Jazeera in 2015 outlined the problems of Japan’s economy, proposing that a possible pathway to a more prosperous economy would be allowing more women in the workplace. The documentary says that Japan’s women are some of the most highly educated around the world, but due to traditional views, they are often left out of the workforce.
Instead, women are expected to leave their careers and stay at home to take care of their families. I’ve tried to imagine myself in a position where I would need to drop my career and stay at home to tend to my family. Would I do it? No matter how I think about it, my answer is always no. I can’t imagine dropping the 17 years and counting of education I have been receiving since the age of four. If I was expected to simply drop all that, I wouldn’t be able to justify it to myself. I will have worked hard and put in the effort to get to whatever career I will end up going into. While there is nothing wrong with women choosing to become stay-at-home moms to take care of their families, I would emphasize that they are choosing for themselves to do so. The documentary focuses its story on women who want to be in the workforce. It discusses the
importance of needing working women, and it looks at the hardships they face as a minority. Working women are needed, both to shatter the glass ceiling and the gender pay gap. Women are needed to diversify workplaces and bring different opinions and ideas. My partner may have the means to take care of me and our family in the future. I might not need to work. But I would want to work. I would want to be given the chance to work and to use the skills I spent so much time, money and energy to learn, and apply them to a career. Being able to have a career and being given a choice of having a career is just one more step toward making our society equal. A longer version of this column is available at ryersonian.ca. @hikarenchan
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Read more Voices online ryersonian.ca Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Adventures of a polyglot How being self-taught in several languages changed my journalism career DIANA WHISTANCE-SMITH RYERSONIAN
I hated my Grade 12 French class. I convinced myself, at 17, that I in no way would need any other languages than English in my prospective career path. I was going to be a writer, a journalist. All I was going to need was an impeccable understanding of the English language and the willingness to spellcheck and grammar Nazi myself until I was blue in the face. I hated my Grade 12 French class because I thought languages besides English weren’t so important to me. Four years later, I’m a selftaught polyglot, currently working on my sixth language. Those six are English, Italian, German, French, Ukrainian and Dutch. I
have a lot of work to do before I can call myself a master in all six, but I’m getting there. I’ve lived and worked in Italy for months at a time as a reporter for an online publication, and I’ve worked for a sports company in Germany for a day. The life of a polyglot is endlessly entertaining. The questions that I receive usually range from: “You speak Italian? Oh, you must be Italian, right?” to “But wait, why are you speaking German? How do you do it?” By definition, a polyglot is someone who knows and is able to use several languages. Nowadays, becoming a polyglot is as accessible and as easy to do as using your phone and watching TV. My secret to learning multiple languages is no big “I’m a
mastermind in disguise” type of reveal. I use free apps (Duolingo, I owe you my life), which teach you the foundational grammar and sentence structure. When you’re feeling confident enough, try watching a TV series that you know like the back of your hand in the language you’re trying to learn. Then comes the leap of faith: go to the country you’ve been learning a language in, make friends and get a job there. Refuse to speak English until you’ve mastered a handful of conversational phrases or can navigate your way from Point A to Point B in one piece. What you’ll find is that if you are truly committed to learning a language, people are equally committed to helping you navigate through all that is lost in translation. In May 2016, after
COURTESY DIANA WHISTANCE-SMITH
Diana Whistance-Smith during her internship in Florence.
trying to master Italian by myself, I took an internship in Florence for two months as a reporter for an online publication, running my own “Reporting in English” section. My colleagues spoke little to no English, and every event I would be attending and covering would be in Italian. “You have no choice but to be confident in the Italian you know,” was what I reminded myself more times in a day than I could count. By the end of my most recent stint at the publication in February, I was doing entire interviews on my own in Italian, coming up with questions on the spot. So I took that confidence with me to Frankfurt, Germany, when a friend I’d made through language exchange offered me an opportunity to work with her for a day. I made a point of keeping up my confidence when greeting customers, offering my help and spending eight hours with German colleagues and customers. I was “the Canadian assistant visiting from Italy who speaks minimal German but did a great job.” I made a video of myself speaking German in the store that day to show everyone back home what I was up to, and to advertise the truly awesome working environment. I still have people asking me, to this day, how on earth I’m speaking all of these languages. If I haven’t yet inspired you to learn a new language, or brush up on one you already know a
COURTESY DIANA WHISTANCESMITH COURTESY DIANA WHISTANCE-SMITH
Diana Whistance-Smith at her one-day job in Germany.
bit of, then I can at least answer the overarching question of this article: “Why did becoming a self-taught polyglot change your journalism career, Diana?” Confidence. To be thrown into any situation, foreign or in my own language, and tell myself that no matter who may seem more competitive than me, that I am just as capable as producing quality work. That I have been training for years to be the best that I can be in my field, and that no matter how daunting things may seem, that carrying myself confidently will get me the results I’m looking for. Thank you, Grade 12 French class. I probably owe you my career. A longer version of this column is available at ryersonian.ca. @dianawsmith
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Campus Connection
Tidbits & Teasers
Events March 22
Get the full story at ryersonian.ca
Chill Session 12:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Student Learning Centre Room 525
I can’t imagine myself there, even though I’ve been through it.
Voices of Experience: International Students 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. POD 60
Hani al Moulia Found in: Videos
March 23 Fresh Water Challenge & Design Thinking Hackathon
It’s kind of a hidden gem that Ryerson has.
5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Science Discovery Zone 159 Dalhousie St.
Kimberly Slimming
Death Cafe
Found in: News
SARAH JACKSON | RYERSONIAN
6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Eric Palin Hall, Room 222
March 25 It’s…my giveback. Ryerson has been good to me; the city has been good to me; so people should have these assets.
Barry Avrich
Newsroom Manager
Reporters
Copy Editors
Luke Galati
Yasmin Arnaout Justin Bellmore Olivia Ciarallo Jennifer Freedman Elysha Haun Monique Jagpal Lauren Malyk Taylor Moyle Brooklyn Neustaeter Brooklyn Pinheiro Mahyn Qureshi Brad Shankar Emily Srebotnjak Jessica Vomiero Diana Whistance-Smith
Brooklyn Neustaeter Chris Blanchette Palak Mangat
Sarah Jackson
Managing Editor Online Jennifer Ferreira
Managing Editor Video William Brown
News Editors Jennifer Ferreira Justin Bellmore Alexandria Pankratz
Features Editor Molly Tucker
Sports Editor
Managing Editors Social/Engagement
Brianne Spiker
Karen Chan Lamees Wajahat
Op-Ed Page Editor
Video Producer
Arts & Life Editors
Mitch Bowmile
Dressed as a leprechaun, Paschal Brogan, a fixture of Toronto’s St. Patrick’s Day parades, dances at the 30th annual event
Palak Mangat
Abigail Murta
Ryerson Games 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Kerr Hall
Check out our website to see all the pictures Sarah Jackson took of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Toronto over the weekend.
Found in: Arts & Life
Managing Editor Print
Luck of the Irish
Photo Editor Chris Blanchette Luke Galati Julia Ho
Instructors Gavin Adamson Peter Bakogeorge Rana Latif
Publisher Janice Neil
Business Manager Aseel Kafil
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