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“Our President A wedding dress Is Black” printed in 3D pages 6-7 page 8
yersonian R WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2017
ryersonian.ca Volume 72 Number 11
Produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism
Safety without stigma at the Moss Park site
“
We were able to convince the police chief that this was a crisis... They knew people were dying.
The overdose prevention site was set up by volunteers as an unofficial response to the spike in opioid-related deaths DEVIKA DESAI RYERSONIAN
Organizers behind an overdose prevention site in Moss Park are willing to stay open all winter to help drug users get through the cold weather. Before coming to Ontario, Leon Alward — better known by his street name, Pops — had been sober and not using drugs for more than nine years. He had been using street heroin to combat chronic back pain. Although doctors in New Brunswick had prescribed the fentanyl patch, he was refused the same by six different doctors
What’s online Check out ryersonian.ca to read about how the SafeTTC app has fared since its launch.
after moving to Ontario. The process to get medical coverage took months, which barred him access to methadone, an alternative. “My option was only one,” Alward said. “I had to go to street drugs.” Heroin, Alward said, was the easiest to find, and so it became his drug of choice. “I didn’t like it,” he said. What he didn’t know was that street heroin is often laced with fentanyl. He found out the hard way. “My son’s friend was dope sick,” Alward said, “I had a little bit of money and I said, ‘Listen,
”
DEVIKA DESAI | RYERSONIAN
Leon (Pops) Alward draws on his own experience of using street drugs to support other users at Moss Park.
I’m going to help you.’” He took the boy to a Tim Hortons bathroom to inject, while his son lined up to buy them coffee. “But when I went to use, it was fentanyl and we didn’t know that,” said Alward. “Because I was treating us both, I put a little extra into the mix and because it was fentanyl, it was two to three times
Listen
took staff hours to revive him. His son’s best friend, on the other hand, was in the hospital for days. Alward now volunteers at the Moss Park Overdose Prevention Site at the corner of Shuter and Jarvis streets.
the dose I was used to.” Both men immediately overdosed and dropped to the floor. “(My son) came in to find out why we were taking so long, and his dad and his best friend were on the floor,” Alward said. “No heartbeat. No respiration.” Alward said that once both were rushed to the hospital, it
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ryersonian.ca Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Women in leadership Corporate culture continues to be plagued by gender discrimination DEVIKA DESAI RYERSONIAN
Ryerson co-op student, Tuho Labonno, has had two jobs: one at an information-technology firm and the other at an insurance firm. Labonno said that more than 60 per cent of workers at the middle-management level at her workplace are women. However, only four per cent held a top executive position. According to a survey done by Catalyst, a Canadian research non-profit that works to advance women in leadership, 47 per cent of the Canadian labour force was comprised of women in 2016, compared to 37 per cent in 1976. However, despite the increasing proportion, the survey states that women’s progress in reaching senior management positions is stalled, with only 37 per cent of positions held by women. “I don’t want to call it learned helplessness but…I’m just used to it,” said Labonno. “(When) someone says, ‘Oh, these are the statistics,’ I’m just like, ‘Yeah, I knew that. Not a big deal.’” According to the study, men were two to three times more likely to be in a senior management position than women. “The higher up you go, the less you see women, period,” said Gerald Hunt, a human resources professor at Ryerson. He explained that it is likely to vary depending on location and type of industry sector. “(The) IT sector, for example,
DEVIKA DESAI | RYERSONIAN
Ryerson co-op student and women’s rights advocate, Tuho Labonno, stands on Gould Street.
are not too bad (at hiring) visible minorities, but are terrible on women,” he said. Labonno described a conversation she had with the chief information officer (CIO) of the insurance firm she worked at on the topic of gender diversity. “He said, ‘Oh we absolutely know what’s going on,’” she said, adding that he did express a desire to change it. “I asked him how can we change it … and he said, ‘Tuho, if there’s a will there’s a way. Just work hard and you’ll achieve it,’” she said. This contrasted with another conversation she had with a
female executive at the same firm. “She said, ‘Still, the realities for a woman is very different from a man. It’s always a battle, always a grey area,’” said Labonno. Women who identify as visible minorities are even more underrepresented in the workforce. A 2016 Catalyst survey done on visible minorities in the Canadian workforce stated that twothirds of visible minorities are in the labour force, out of which only 38 per cent of management positions held by visible minorities are held by women. Visible minority women also experience the highest wage gap, according to same survey,
earning 84 per cent of what visible minority men earn and 74 per cent of what all men earn. “Maybe it’s because a lot of the people in the management roles are very homogenous in terms of their ethnic grouping, which is something I’m sure we all do,” said Margaret Yap, a human resources professor at Ryerson. “We all like to work with people who look like us.” Visible minorities encounter the same experiences as women, with only a few making it to senior management roles in organizations. “I wouldn’t say that this is for typical types of corporations,”
said Jeffrey Reitz, a University of Toronto sociology professor. He said that the disadvantage stems from negative stereotyping of visible minorities in current culture and that this stereotyping becomes “more intense as the status of the job arises.” Along with Ryerson professor Rupa Banerjee, Reitz co-authored a study which found job candidates with Asian-sounding names are less likely to be called for an interview even if they have a better education than their Anglo-Canadian counterparts. As a result, Ottawa is now piloting a “name-blind recruitment project” in which names are removed from job applications to avoid unconscious bias. The practice completely changed the demographic of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra when it was first implemented in 1980. Although it used to be made up almost entirely of white men in the 1970s, the project drastically changed the makeup to almost half female and much more diverse. “We were quite pleased as this was one of our recommendations,” said Reitz. “The concern now is to see the details and how they’re going to do this.” “People who are concerned that changing the procedure, I think, are worried about what it might show. I hope that concern doesn’t carry the day.” @DevikaDesai1
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Wednesday, November 29, 2017
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Niagara zone’s price drops MITCHELL THOMPSON RYERSONIAN
NATASHA HERMANN | RYERSONIAN
Pay phones continue to be useful to low-income families and individuals, as well as newcomers to Canada.
Pay phones still ringing up profits NIKHIL SHARMA RYERSONIAN
Pay phones across Canada still generate revenue and remain an important public communications service in a tech-savvy world. Pay phones across the country racked up $22.2 million in 2016, according to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) 2017 communications monitoring report. Five years ago, total payphone revenue was $64 million. Average revenue earned per pay phone was $385, a decline from $413 in 2015. The number of pay phones also continued the downward trend of the past few years. In 2016, there were 57,542 pay phones remaining in Canada, a decrease from 66,997 in 2015. Even with 86.1 per cent of Canadians having access to a mobile phone, pay phones remain a valuable resource to those without a wireless device, including newcomers. When founder and president of the Newcomer Students’ Association of Ryerson, Sara Asalya, immigrated to Toronto with her
family from Gaza about six years ago, pay phones quickly became a critical way of communication. Asalya, her husband, and two children rented out a room at a student residence at Seneca College when they first arrived in the city. While they had access to a landline, Asalya said she felt lost without a cellphone during the first week of life in Canada. When Asalya would go out to run errands, she would often use the pay phone to let her husband know when she had arrived safely and if she was on her way home. “I think (pay phones) are crucial and very important in particular for newcomers, low-income families and homeless people,” she said. Asalya said since she did not have access to a GPS, a phone call to family and friends through a pay phone helped her navigate the city. As a newcomer to Canada, Asalya said you may not have the luxury to afford a cellphone. Currently, there are 80 payphones available to use on Ryerson’s campus. Asalya said it would be helpful
if the university posted more signage directing students to where they would be able to find pay phones on campus. She said she still turns to use the coin-operated phone service when her cellphone runs out of battery. According to the quantitative study Payphone Use in Canada: 2013, which surveyed 1,001 adults aged 18 and over, 32 per cent said that had used a pay phone at least once over the past year. Robert Hudyma, an associate professor at Ryerson’s School of Information Technology Management, said the decreasing number of pay phones is simply a result of lack of demand. “Pay phones still serve a service, but less so than before because the large number of our population have smartphones and cellphones,” Hudyma said However, he said pay phones remain affordable and accessible to low-income individuals. “It’s (cellphones that are) considered a priority,” Hudyma said. @_nsharma
Ryerson is waiting on a response from FedDev Ontario concerning its second application for federal money to support a new startup hub in Niagara Falls. The zone is modelled on the DMZ and asks the city to pledge $4.2 million over five years to support it. That’s down from the first application’s $10-million price tag. The more than 50 per cent reduction has not been explained. Aside from a brief given to city council noting the expense would cover programming and operation costs, details as to where the money is going have been few and far between. But Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi told the Ryersonian one of the changes made between applications was an overall shrinking in the size and scale of the zone’s operations. “In 2015, we put in an application to FedDev and that was much bigger than the one we put in at this time,” Lachemi said. That inflated the cost for the city to $10 million, he said. When the first application was rejected and Ryerson reviewed FedDev’s comments, he noted, “they wanted us to reduce the overall project size.” In response to FedDev’s feedback, “we looked at the programming and reduced the level of programming and reduced the level of activities we wanted to have,” Lachemi said. “That’s why the contribution, for the municipality, went from $10 million to $4.2
million. We think the chances of it getting funded are greater now.” But some say the price for Niagara Falls is still too steep. City councillor Carolynn Ioannoni said the multimillion-dollar expense doesn’t make sense for the city’s downtown, where property values are lower than in Toronto. As well, “the city of Toronto paid nothing for the DMZ at Ryerson, so why are we asked to pay?” But Lachemi said the city has more of a need for a program like the forthcoming zone than Toronto or Montreal does. “I can tell you if we had the same situation in Montreal or Vancouver, I don’t think we would get the same level of funding from the city as we would for regions. They have different priorities. They care about their local population and they care about creating opportunities for their youth,” Lachemi said. “Toronto is a world class city. But outside Toronto, the main challenge is to keep their talent locally. If we’re talking about Niagara, I can tell you that’s a big problem. They’re losing a lot of talent and a lot of youth.” Lachemi said this is why FedDev was created — to spur growth in regions like those around southern Ontario. The viability of its projects requires cities step up. “I don’t think we could get federal funding or provincial funding without funding from the municipality. You need to have leadership,” Lachemi said. @M2Th0mpson
COURTESY JOHN VETTERLI | FLICKR
Niagara Falls will hear back from FedDev about the application in a few months.
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Wednesday, November 29, 2017
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MOSS PARK cont’d...
Moss Park site brings together volunteer clinicians and peer support workers The volunteer-run initiative was started by five people in August. In a matter of three months, the number of volunteers has risen to more than 170. As of last Friday, the site has reversed 107 overdoses. “A lot of us are drug users ourselves, and a lot of us work in the harm reduction field so we really know what we’re doing,” said Sarah Ovens, one of the five main co-ordinators who oversee the site. The impetus for the site, according to Ovens, came from a weekend in July when six people died from overdoses, all within a 10-minute walk from the park. “There was a meeting with the mayor where we realized, ‘Holy shit, they’re not doing anything,’” she said. It was at that point that she, along with others, started a GoFundMe page. With the money obtained, they bought two tents and pitched them in August. The Moss Park Overdose Prevention Site is the first unsanctioned injection site set up in Toronto. Weeks after the site started up, a permanent supervised injection site also opened at the Works, a harm reduction facility near Yonge-Dundas square. Plans for
this site were approved in March by the city. The other two sites at South Riverdale Community Health Centre and Queen West-Central Toronto Community Health Centre are scheduled to open as permanent sites later this month and next month, respectively. The site at Moss Park operates every day from 4 to 10 p.m. Volunteers who are on duty for the evening arrive at around 3:30 p.m., laden with medical and food supplies. With the cold weather fast approaching, the two tents have now been replaced by a trailer and a heated tent supplied by Ontario’s Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT). The trailer was funded by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). The EMAT tent comes with 24-hour security supervision and staff to operate the generator, a cost that Megan Lowry, a registered nurse and site volunteer, said was a “deterrent” to the operation of the site. The tent, she said, was also “too small.” The team requested a trailer to accommodate more people, but she said neither the municipal or provincial governments were able to help.
“At a certain point, we just decided to go on ahead and get a trailer on the support of CUPE,” said Lowry. Lowry dedicates her time to treating users in the trailer and overseeing the clinical volunteers who work at the site. “Part of the agreement we had with Toronto police is that we always had a clinician who was able to run it,” she said. The trailer is staffed with one clinician and with one peer support worker — a person who has a lived experience of drug abuse and/or harm reduction. According to Alward, although peer support workers may not have clinical know-how, their experience and familiarity with overdoses is essential to ensuring an effective procedure is followed when treating someone with an overdose. “As soon as your emotions get involved, you lose focus and you focus on the person, rather than the objective,” he said. Alward said it took more than three and a half hours of negotiation between volunteers and the police to allow the tents to be set up on the first day. “They (the police) initially came here and were set on arresting everyone, as soon as we allowed
DEVIKA DESAI | RYERSONIAN
The trailer is a recent addition to the Moss Park site and was supplied by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
DEVIKA DESAI | RYERSONIAN
Megan Lowry, who is a registered nurse, has been a volunteer at the site since its second week. She oversees the work of clinicians in addresing health-care needs.
the first person to use the facility,” said Alward. “We were able to convince the superintendent and the police chief that this was a crisis,” he said. “They knew people were dying.” Evan Dwinnell came to Moss Park even before the site opened up. “I’d be sitting behind the arena (doing drugs), and there’s a community centre, so I’d feel terrible about that,” he said. “I’m not a bad person, I’m not a criminal, but when you’re in an anxious state to that degree, it’s torture.” Dwinnell first began using opioids when he discovered a prescription of morphine hidden in a beam he was tearing down during a construction job. His addiction eventually progressed. Soon he was using OxyContin and heroin. “I struggled with that during my whole twenties and I was off and on methadone, which is just a very, very miserable way to live,” he said. Although he finally entered a program to tackle his addiction, he fell into using cocaine and later crack cocaine. “(There are) times that I can remember when I was needle-using … in a Tim Hortons bathroom or whatever. You don’t feel good about it, but there weren’t any alternatives,” he said.
Dwinnell said that despite being a drug user, he never associated with other users. “In a sense, I’ve always been really alone with my addiction uses,” he said. He doesn’t come to the site to make friends, but there, “everybody is in the same boat.” “Everybody at least treats each other with some measure of respect,” he said. “The people down here that are trying to foster a spirit of recovery. It’s not unnoticed. You definitely feel it.” Lowry agrees. “The community that has been built around this place has been really positive and really supportive,” she said. While volunteers work to aid and assist those who visit the site, they ensure that their presence is as minimally intrusive as possible. During her first shift as a volunteer, social work student Laura H. was assigned to stand at the entrance to the “chill out and smoke” tent — the place where people visiting the site can consume their drugs in an environment that is safe, warm and relaxed. While it is her responsibility to note down how many people enter the tent and what kind of drugs they carry with them, she will not enter the tent.
Continued on next page
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Wednesday, November 29, 2017
‘It’s their space and it’s their tent’ DEVIKA DESAI | RYERSONIAN
The “chill out and smoke” tent is a safe space for users to consume their drugs in a warm, relaxed environment.
“It’s not my space and I’m very aware it’s not my space,” said Laura, who currently studies at George Brown and has applied for advanced standing in social work at Ryerson. “I’m trying not to be a watchdog. It’s their space and it’s their tent, and I really need to be mindful of that.” There’s no doubt that the site is popular, not only among
drug-users but also among members within the community. According to Lowry, once the site was established, others started visiting the site to talk to clinicians about other health-care-related problems. “There’s definitely a huge need for health care that’s more accessible to folks in this community,” she said. Currently, Moss Park is the
only site in Toronto that remains unsanctioned by the city. According to Ovens, there are no plans to sanction it. “To operate a legal sanctioned site, you have to go through a lengthy, difficult application process,” she said. Part of the application involves getting approved for an exemption from criminal laws around possession of drugs, so that those using small amounts of drugs within the facilities cannot get arrested. Application criteria range from the policies used to operate the facilities to the types of ventilation and heating systems used. While the site has been set up primarily to serve and help people, Ovens added that they want to show that running a safe injection site is “not that complicated.” “There are a number of places that would like to open up space tomorrow, but they can’t because of the exemption process,” she said,
adding that it can take up to a year to get a site approved. Peter Leslie, a former paramedic, is involved with the sites at the Works and at Moss Park. “I would say (Moss Park) is more relaxed,” he said. “We actually are able to assist people with injections and accommodate people who smoke various drugs,” he said. While staff at the Works are able to instruct users on the best methods and needles to use when injecting themselves, they are not allowed to inject for them. Currently, there is no definite plan of action for the operation
CLASSIFIEDS
of the site once winter settles in. But Ovens is determined to keep it open. “All of us live this 24/7,” she said. “This was basically my life before this started because I had lost so many people and a lot of us are advocates in other ways. “We sit on task forces, provincial advisories, work at the services offered, advise the government. We’re all doing everything we can.” @DevikaDesai1
With files from Michael D’Alimonte
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Ryerson has its first black female president. Halfway into her tenure, the activi MATTHEW AMHA RYERSONIAN
A modest corner office on the third floor of Ryerson’s student centre is home to the school’s student union president. Just outside the door, the entire floor has been littered with equity slogans and event paraphernalia— an ode to the woman it houses. Her name is Susanne Nyaga. She sits confidently, but greets me with the warmth of an old friend. Although typically donning a long braided look, today her hair is curly— a reimagining of the sort of thing we’d see from Chaka Khan in the ‘80s. It’s a fittingly unapologetic expression of her identity. Nyaga is the first of her kind to hold Ryerson’s highest student office. She’s a black woman, an immigrant, and an unabashed social justice activist — she also makes no qualms about reminding you if you happen to forget. She speaks in paragraphs — a sort of middle ground between political-speak and a more traditional activist vernacular, where “marginalized folks” are front and centre for nearly every conversation regarding her time as president. She is an anomalous character in Ryerson’s political history as well, an outsider to the system. Some may describe her as an activist playing president — an actor who has managed to make her way behind enemy lines with hopes of flipping Ryerson’s political structure on its head. Which, if you ask her, is at least half right. Nyaga is refreshingly open about her progressive convictions. Among them is her hope to change the name of the university, to remove Egerton Ryerson’s likeness from the university, her vehement support of Black Lives Matter Toronto, and desire for free university education. She is Ryerson’s rebel with a
cause — a number of causes. Nyaga emigrated from Kenya as a sixyear-old, eventually settling in Hamilton. She describes a typical diaspora experience: seeing her first snowfall, watching her parents undertake menial jobs, and suffering a desperate struggle to grapple with her own identity. In Kenya, Nyaga was never made to think about her blackness, because everyone was black. Hate, bigotry and conflict were typically due to sectarianism and rivalrous tribal disagreement, not because of the colour of your skin. For her, Hamilton gave new life to the word “racism.” “Me and my sister were playing in the park with a new family on our street, we were about seven to eight. The dad of the kids we were playing with starts screaming at his kids, saying ‘Why are you playing with black kids? All black children have guns,’” said Nyaga. “That was the first time we were like, ‘wow, racism is real.’” For Nyaga, childhood in Hamilton meant attending schools where she was the only racialized student in the room. In a larger sense, it’s an analogy of her time in the Ontario city. Ostracized for her then thick Kenyan accent, or the traditional food she would bring during school lunch hours, she’d grown used to becoming the “other.” Nyaga wanted a change, and decided to make the move to Ryerson in 2013 after thinking to herself, “It’s in central, downtown Toronto, I’m going to apply for residence, it’s probably going to be a whole bunch of dope racialized folks.” Instead, she quickly realized she was the only black person on her floor, and one of only a few in the entire 14-floor Pitman Hall residence. She says student groups helped give her the sense of community that she was longing for. “They saved me,” said Nyaga. In the years since then, Nyaga has
Ryerson University’s first female, black president sits in front of the Egerton Ryerson statue on Gould Street. She in
chaired and co-chaired a number of student groups on campus in an effort to give back. When asked about what inspired her to take on her role as RSU president, Nyaga softens into her chair and looks up at the ceiling. “I thought, if I don’t step in, who will?” she said in a hushed tone. One thing is clear: Nyaga wasn’t happy with the RSU. She gives the specific example of the RSU’s vice-president of equity position, saying, “If you don’t understand equity, and you don’t understand how to be an ally, you should never take that role. You’re doing more harm than
I thought, if I don’t step in, who will?
— Susanne Nyaga
good. And the past two years, that position was not filled by somebody that was doing work.” She uses the RSU’s slashing of both RyeACCESS and the Racialised Student Collective as examples of the way past decisions by the union have overlooked marginalized communities. Despite identifying these issues, and creating a clear vision for change at Ryerson, Nyaga didn’t think she had much of a shot at winning the election. She decided to give it a go anyway, recruiting a Justice League of characters from around campus to run on her slate, Elevate. She reached out to students around campus she thought were doing progressive work — or as she calls them, “leaders in social justice.” “There have always been woke stu-
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Features
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
7
ent Is Black
ist-turned-politician talks about what it’s been like in the president’s chair
NATASHA HERMANN | RYERSONIAN
ntends to have the statue removed from campus before the end of her tenure.
dents here, it was just about finding them,” Nyaga said. “We’d figure everything else out after.” When asked about election night, she recalls the wait for results to roll in. Her eyes are back on the ceiling, fixed. An involuntary smile is immediately wiped from the corner of her lips, as she talks about coming to terms with the fact that, although successful that night, much of her slate was not. As the winners were announced, Camryn Harlick’s name was one of the first. When they won, Nyaga was convinced the rest of the slate would follow suit. But, one by one, she watched as every other member came up short. President was named last, and when her name was announced as winner, she describes her reaction thus, “I was like, ‘oh
shit’ ...I was a little shook.” As her tenure as president finally got underway, Nyaga found that “the Canada 150 thing” was the beginning of a lot of her issues with the student union. Nyaga and vice-president of equity (Harlick) thought Canada’s history of anti-Indigenous racism should be a featured part of the university’s so-called celebration . People disagreed. “There was no communication at all, and (there were) dynamics people weren’t willing to understand. Nobody made an effort to speak to the first Indigenous member of the RSU (Harlick), and instead they went to the media — we were attacked in the media.” Nyaga also mentions her very real intentions to remove Ryerson’s current namesake from the university’s legacy
— starting with the name, and the stately Egerton Ryerson statue that looms over students on Gould Street. Our eyes are now locked. Nyaga takes a deep breath and says, “these are all just ideas, but in a perfect world, we’d like to change Ryerson’s name, and take down that Egerton Ryerson statue. Ryerson students deserve more than that.” As we speak, she perks up when asked about name suggestions. Among the names she has heard, Jack Layton University stands out, “I loved that one. I think Jack was an amazing person.” Other candidates are Central Toronto University, or for the school to be named after an Indigenous leader. Ryerson University is known, somewhat informally, as an oasis of creative liberal ideals. And for this, since becoming president, Nyaga has faced criticisms of bias — particularly from conservative students on campus. And it’s a fact she’s very aware of. “Complete objectivity is impossible. We are very biased, but biased towards students on campus — all of them.” There’s a pause in our conversation as I asked about a panel discussion on free speech that was cancelled on campus earlier this year, and the keynote speaker, Jordan Peterson. Nyaga recoils at the mention of the controversial University of Toronto psychology professor. I can tell she doesn’t want to talk about him. Although not a product of the community, Peterson has become a favourite of the far right. He’s also known to doxx campus activists — a practice of publicly broadcasting identifying information of people you take issue with. With a fan base that extends to 256,000 on Twitter and 513,000 on YouTube, doxxing enemies— for Peterson— is feeding red meat to a rabid group ready to pounce on whoever is pointed to. Most recently, Peterson doxxed two student activists in the wake of Ryerson’s cancelled free speech event, which lead to throes of violent harassment for the students in question. He’s also known best for his adamant refusal of the use of gender-neutral pronouns, and he has become a central figure in nearly every conversation on free-speech in Canada. Standing up, Nyaga says “He should be fired — U of T are losing out on students because people just don’t feel safe anymore.”
As far-right ideas make their way further into the mainstream, they’ve made their way to Ryerson as well. For Nyaga, finding a common ground can be a difficult task. “Far-right, cis, white men are crying about how everyone is a snowflake, now that we’ve come to the table. But the reality is, when you hear them begging for the ‘good old days,’ those days never involved people like me.” Nyaga looks to challenge the contemporary conservative understanding of free speech as well. To her, it’s a tool to empower voices that have been historically marginalized, not for people at the top of the power structure to perpetuate hate. “Freedom of speech isn’t hate speech, and it doesn’t mean freedom of consequences either,” said Nyaga. When asked if Ryerson has the intention of silencing campus voices, she makes clear that the university has made these decisions independently of the RSU. But moving forward, she says “we have equity policies, and anything that doesn’t follow our policies will get shut down. It’s very simple...We will shut it down.” Over the course of my more than one-hour conversation with Nyaga, the parallels between her and a bright-eyed, first-term Barack Obama are clear. For one, she’s Kenyan, and the first of her kind to hold her office at Ryerson. She has also entered politics at Ryerson as a complete outsider to the system, and she has been slighted because of it. “People are not happy that I’m sitting here, and they’ve created barriers for me to do the most basic things,” she said. “There is an intentional effort, whether by executives or by the board, to exclude, rework and alienate the responsibilities as president, because I’m the one sitting as president.” @amhamatt
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Instagram campaign shows true beauty of Ryerson students
Arts & Life A marriage of art and science ryersonian.ca
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
HEATHER STEWART RYERSONIAN
Combining art and technology, a new media student is giving her grandmother’s wedding dress new life with the help of 3D printing. Michaela Milligan, a fourthyear at Ryerson, is using a 3D printer to create 80 per cent of a dress that she is modelling after the one her grandmother wore at her wedding. The creation is for her thesis project and is made in memory of her grandmother, who died a year and a half ago. “I have been trying to figure out a way to honour her for the past year and a half, and try to figure out a way to feel connected to her again,” said Milligan. She said that adding a technological element is her way of modernizing the dress that her grandmother wore. “She was really important to me. She was really supportive of all of my endeavours in the arts,” said Milligan. “I decided that I would not only recreate her wedding dress, but also connect it to me by bringing in the new media aspect by 3D printing half of it.” The dress will have a base and sleeves crafted out of traditional fabrics like lace. Other elements like beading, the structure and the skirt will be printed in 3D. She said that the base of the dress has to be made with regular fabric so that it is comfortable to wear. Milligan said that in the past she has made small figurines and Christmas ornaments for her siblings with a 3D printer, but has yet to take on something this complex. “I wanted to challenge myself because I have worked with
HEATHER STEWART | RYERSONIAN
Michaela Milligan, pictured, wanted to replicate her late grandmother’s wedding dress for her thesis as a way to honour her.
HEATHER STEWART | RYERSONIAN
Milligan estimates that her 3D printed dress will take over 200 hours to make.
sculpture before, mainly clay,” she said. The design is made digitally in a 3D model on the computer. Once it is ready to go, it is just a waiting game as the 3D printer makes the design come to life.
Milligan is using Ryerson’s Fabrication Lab to print the dress. The lab opened its doors in early 2017, and now has 23 printers available for FCAD students to use. The cost of printers in The ‘Fab’ Lab ranges from $800 to
$5,000, but students only have to pay for the cost of the materials they use. Jeremy Littler, a technical support worker in the lab, said that the most common type of 3D printing is called fused deposition modelling (FDM). “The easiest description for it is if you imagine a glue gun — and I think that everybody has used one of those — you are basically pouring material and it builds up layer by layer,” said Littler. “Instead of using glue as the material, you use filament. It gets heated up and melted just like a glue gun.” The types of filament used to print 3D objects vary in finish, colour, durability and strength. “You don’t have just the option of a hard plastic, it can be flexible. They can resemble fabric,” said Stephania Stefanakou an
employee in the “Fab” Lab with a specialization in 3D fashion garments. There are not currently any filaments available that feel as soft as fabric like cotton, but according to Stefanakou, the technology is advancing every day. “I think that 3D printing allows you to push the boundaries of your imagination,” said Stefanakou. “You are able to do so many things that a sewing machine cannot do. It simplifies the process of pattern drafting and sewing and all of those techniques.” According to Milligan, the process of 3D printing is a long and tedious one. Just the beading of her dress alone will take 24 hours to print. She estimated that all of the printing will total around 200 hours. When everything is printed, the dress will be assembled by sewing the 3D printed materials to the base. Milligan said that even though she doesn’t have a background in fashion design, her many years as a “theatre kid” have made her comfortable with a sewing machine. Milligan’s thesis will be displayed in the new year at the new media thesis showcase. “For my final exhibition of the dress, I am going to wear it. Imagine Say Yes to the Dress when they come out and stand on the pedestal in front of those three mirrors and their whole family is behind them,” said Milligan.
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Equestrian team saddles up
Sports
ryersonian.ca Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Finding space near campus
Ryerson’s five-year search for a closer soccer field continues DANIEL MARINO RYERSONIAN
Going to school in downtown Toronto has many advantages, but finding close fields for Ryerson’s soccer teams is not one of them. Ryerson’s athletic department was fortunate that a portion of the former home of the Toronto Maple Leafs became available in 2011, leading them to unveil what is now the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC). While that means that the basketball, hockey and other indoor teams have access to a state-of-the-art facility, it is proving harder to find a space for the soccer teams to call home. A professional stadium is not falling into their laps any time soon. Ivan Joseph, Ryerson’s director of athletics and coach of the women’s soccer team, said that finding a new home for Ryerson soccer has remained a priority for the school. “We’re always looking at partnerships and opportunities that come our way,” Joseph said. “We’ve tried to partner with the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic School Board in order to share facilities, and we continue to look at opportunities that might present themselves.” Currently, the men’s team practises at Downsview Park, which is about an hour commute from Ryerson or a 35-minute drive.
2017 Remaining Games
RYERSONIAN FILE PHOTO
One of several places where the Ryerson soccer teams have played is Lamport Stadium.
tices between two different fields. “Can you imagine if we told the basketball team they only had half the gym? That just doesn’t work,” Joseph said. “So after the first year, we moved to two different locations to accommodate us, and it’s worked a lot better.” Having the team play so far away also hinders its ability to grow in popularity among Ryerson students. While students can catch a Rams home basketball game after class by walking to the MAC in five minutes, they have to trek anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to see the soccer teams play, and that includes switching public transit vehicles. “You can’t expect students to stay around and come back when you’re an hour away from campus,” Joseph said. “The ones that come out are die-hard fans, so that’s a nice pleasure to see.” As for right now, Joseph is looking to find a closer home field so students won’t have to add to their busy travel schedules and fans can come out and support the team. “We’re looking to find one any time there is one available. I can’t tell you how soon, but we are always looking…we’ve been looking for the last four or five years.”
The women’s team splits its time between Monarch Park Stadium and Regent Park’s athletic grounds. Regent Park is a closer location, a 20-minute walk or 12-minute commute on public transit from the university, making it a quality candidate to become a Ryerson home field. Unfortunately, Joseph said that the school has been unable to form a partnership with a park that gets plenty of booking opportunities. The team only gets to practise there once a week. “Right now, if you go down to
Downsview, it adds two hours to your day at least, by the time you go there and back,” said Joseph. “By the time you have a two-hour practice, another two hours you do your rehab…your evening is spent. “It’s not very conducive of being a quality student-athlete or a high-performing athlete, period,” he said. Travelling to Regent Park from Ryerson is a significant difference compared to travelling to Downsview Park from the school. Commuting to Monarch Park Stadium is between 33 and 45 minutes. As Joseph said, adding trav-
elling time for students who are already busy with their studies, work and home lives, doesn’t leave much time for athletes on the soccer team. Finding a field closer to campus where the school teams could practise and play permanently would go a long way to taking that burden off these student-athletes. However, it hurts the team in more ways than one. Joseph said the team was having to share the field for practices when the women’s team was exclusively at Monarch Park, which is why they decided to split the teams’ prac-
Basketball
Basketball
Hockey
Hockey
Wednesday Nov. 29 Rams vs U of T @ Goldring Centre Women 6 p.m. - Men 8 p.m.
Saturday Dec. 2 Rams vs Lakehead @ Mattamy Athletic Centre Women 6 p.m. - Men 8 p.m.
Thursday Nov. 30 Rams vs Western @ Thompson Arena Men 7 p.m.
Saturday Dec. 2 Rams vs York University @ Mattamy Athletic Centre Men 7:15 p.m.
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Editorial
Read more Opinions at ryersonian.ca Wednesday, November 29, 2017
EDITORIAL
Difficult discussions If you have the emotional energy, venturing away from non-threatening conversations at the dinner table this holiday season might be worth it. While most young adults use social media to stay on top of current events, join social movements and engage in heated political debates, confronting family members who disagree in person is just as crucial. And it’s arguably more effective when it comes to combatting social issues. The past year has confirmed that there are a wealth of social issues for us to worry about. Trans rights aren’t regarded as human rights, Muslim women in Quebec are prohibited from wearing the Niqab, and Black Lives (don’t) Matter. All of these are urgent and we need to address them. Yet, people seem to be more divided on what position to take. This is proof that these conversations are more important than ever. Millennials (18-34) in Canada are the amongst the most educated generations to date when it comes to educational attainment and political involvement. Although articles online advise us to shy away from engaging in political conversations at home, research has proved otherwise. An article by Brian Bresnick entitled These scientists can prove it’s possible to reduce prejudice cites a 2016 study called Durably
reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing. In it, researchers found that having “a 10-minute conversation with a pro-transgender canvasser can influence opinions for at least three months.” Bresnick said the study is the first large-scale, real-world one that shows lasting opinion change is possible. The findings extend to combatting other forms of bias. Kelly Swanson’s article, Experts Agree: Don’t avoid political conversations with family members, quoted a psychologist for Vox who concluded that by not having political conversations “you are perpetuating a system that continues to oppress certain groups.” Engaging with family members who have opposing political beliefs can help stop to perpetuate prejudice if it is done in an inclusive and respectful manner. Swanson writes: “By sitting next to someone that you previously thought was so different and having a conversation with them, you will begin to recognize the human elements to them. Racism and prejudice does not stem from hatred. It stems from fear. The only way to overcome fear and eliminate that fear is through dialogue.” But patience is key. If you don’t have that, choosing to stay quiet as a survival mechanism is a less taxing and legitimate alternative.
BROOKE TAYLOR | RYERSONIAN
OPINION
Hate-studying TAWANNA HYMAN RYERSONIAN
I am in my fourth year and the only thing that comes to mind is, “I can’t wait until it’s over.” Don’t get me wrong. At Ryerson I’ve met some wonderful people, I’ve passed (almost) every single course with at least a B minus *cough cough* and, compared to my York days, the commute isn’t so bad. The reason I can’t wait to get out of here is that the only type of journalism I’ve learned in my program isn’t my forte. At J-school, I’ve learned so many amazing things — how to edit videos, use proper Canadian Press style, create photo galleries and write hard news. To all the teachers, TAs
and peers who are reading this, I am not a negative Nancy. And, I swear I value everything I’ve learned. I appreciate the opportunity to get an education that many people crave to have and don’t get. But in all honesty, I have yet to learn something I really want to learn about, in the field. Fashion. Beauty. Entertainment. When I applied for Ryerson’s journalism program, I made a seven-page mock magazine as my portfolio. It included celebrity news: The Dixie Chicks’ comeback tour, Miley Cyrus grinding on Robin Thicke in flesh-coloured, skin-tight booty shorts and bra, and even school events at the time. It was maybe the last time I submitted something in my own writing style. I remember the first day, of my first year, in my first class, my teacher asked everyone why they decided to come to Ryerson for journalism. I said something along the lines of: “I decided to
come to Ryerson for journalism because I’ve always been in love with celebrity news and gossip.” My teacher responded: “Sorry to break it to you but we really don’t do that here.” Yup, I felt stupid. I didn’t realize how true her statement would prove to be. In year one, J-school focused on grammar and hard news, in year two, on reporting seminars and working with different apps usable for journalism. Third year was a lot of feature writing, which I can say I liked. My creative juices got to flow in that class and I lucked out with getting to study fashion journalism. And that’s that. No celebrity news, gossip or beauty. Everything that I grew up loving about journalism coverage and magazines I hadn’t gotten a glimpse of. I’m still getting an education, which is itself very valuable. And, maybe, after I’m done, I can take all the great things J-school has taught me and put it into the sort of journalism that I love.
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Voices
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Read more Voices at ryersonian.ca Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Uncomfortable curves
‘It was my decision to make, but I feel like my body made the decision for me... I was booked’
OLIVIA ZOLLINO RYERSONIAN
I was a few months shy of my 16th birthday when I first realized something could be wrong with me. The pencil skirt I had just bought at the mall sat diagonally on my hips. At first, I thought it was just cheaply made. My mother fussed with the skirt, trying to figure out why it looked so odd. She mused that perhaps it was because I never wore tight clothing and we just weren’t used to seeing me like this. The skirt clung to the left side of my abdomen, creating an hourglass silhouette like Shakira. The right side was an unforgiving straight line. But it wasn’t the skirt, and my hips don’t lie. Scoliosis is an S-shaped curvature of the spine that occurs at puberty. Girls are more prone to having it than boys, and there are no conclusive reasons for why it happens. It could be genetic, but no one in my family has the condition. I guess I just got lucky. My family doctor referred me to an orthopedic surgeon at SickKids. During the initial appointment, he told me very few people have a perfectly straight back, which could be measured at zero degrees. Examining my X-ray, my spine appeared to slither down the page like a snake. I had two curvatures in my spine, both approaching 50 degrees. After monitoring the situation
OLIVIA ZOLLINO | RYERSONIAN
over a year, my doctor gave me an ultimatum: I could either take pain medication for the rest of my life while gradually becoming hunchbacked, or I could have surgery. The gravity of the situation was a lot for my 17-year-old brain to comprehend. The procedure would consist of fusing two titanium rods to either side of my spine and inserting screws into each vertebra. Like all surgeries, there were risks associated with the eighthour procedure. My parents told me it was my body and my decision to make. They said only I knew how I felt – and I didn’t feel great. I was embarrassed by my body. I tried to cover up my condition with
loose-fitting clothing. Because of my spinal curvatures, one shoulder was always elevated. That explained all the crooked haircuts and awkward school photos. Physically, I was in pain every day. Depending on how I slept, my ribs would press on my lungs. I could not walk far without taking a break to sit. It was my decision to make, but I feel like my body made the decision for me. After a few follow up appointments and a lengthy time on the wait-list, I was booked for surgery. Once I made the decision, I was surprised to find that I was looking forward to the operation. On the morning of the surgery,
I easily woke up at 6, excited to make the trek to the hospital. But the closer we got, the more nervous I became. It was one thing to make the decision, but another to go through with it. As I sat in a private room, dressed in a stiff blue hospital dressing gown, waiting for a nurse to wheel me over to the operating room, I was overcome by fear. It had been six years since I first discovered my scoliosis, and for the first time, every doomand-gloom question manifested in my mind. What if something goes wrong? What if I wake up in the middle of the surgery? What if they hit a nerve?
My anxiety piled on until a nurse eventually poked her head in. It was time. As I lay down on the steel operating table under a barrage of bright white lights, I was comforted by the easygoing demeanour of the doctors and nurses in the room. The anesthesiologist asked me to count backwards from 100. The last thing I remember is 97. I woke up more than eight hours later in a morphine haze. The surgery was a success. The healing process remains a blur. I would spend the next week in the hospital, fragile and in pain, but nothing would compare to the third day. As the nurses began the process of weaning me off of my medication, every breath became a struggle. Lying in bed withering in pain, it was easy to question whether going through the surgery was worth it. But as time went on, the pain slowly began to dissipate, and I became stronger physically and mentally. Before I left the hospital, the nurse took my measurements. I had grown three inches from the surgery. A month later, once I became more mobile, I decided to try on my old clothes to see how they fit my new body. I slipped on a skirt, looked in the mirror and cried. They were happy tears. It fit. @OliviaZollino
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Full story available at ryersonian.ca
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Campus Connection
Campus Comment
What’s your secret to preparing for final exams? “If I have to memorize something, I’ll make it into a rap or a song.”
– Olivia Maeder
Events Nov. 30: The Reconciliation Manifesto: The Life and Legacy of Arthur Manuel 6:30 - 9 p.m. Thomas Lounge, Oakham House
Fattitude! 7 - 10 p.m. Image Arts Building
Dec. 1: Ryerson Community Holiday Celebration
“Study ahead of time, every day. Make sure you keep reading that information over again and adding new parts to it, to make a snowball effect.”
BODY 365 | INSTAGRAM
2 - 5 p.m. Kerr Hall West, Upper Gym
Dec. 2:
– Devonte Morris
Body 365 Determined to portray bodies in their true unedited forms, fourth-year student Mikael Melo has started a photo campaign that advocates for body positivity. Body 365 is an Instagram company that hopes to shine a light on real bodies in the real world. Founded in December 2016, Body 365 focuses on the acceptance of different genders, ethnicities, and body shapes. The images are shot in Ryerson’s Rogers Communications Centre in Studio B. Melo welcomes all bodies to join the campaign through email or direct message on Instagram.
Newsroom Manager Joti Grewal
Managing Editor Audio Michael D’Alimonte
Deputy Editors Justin Chandler Nikhil Sharma
Managing Editor Print Donya Ziaee
Managing Editors Digital Melissa Galevski Olivia Zollino Kate Skelly
Managing Editor Video Jessica Cheung
Managing Editors Engagement Sophie Armstrong Morgan Bocknek Iris Robin
News Editors Matthew Amha Jacob Cappe Hayley Hanks Nikhil Sharma
Arts & Life Editor Michelle McNally
Sports Editor Brenda Molina-Navidad
“Jack & the Beanstalk” by Ryerson School of Performance
“Last year for exams, I pretended this was my job and I was going to get paid for it.”
– Eric Chau
Video Producer
Instructors
Milca Kuflu Mitchell Thompson
Natasha Hermann Imani Walker
Peter Bakogeorge Sonya Fatah
Features Editors
Audio Producers
Publisher
Photo & Graphic Editors Nadia Khamsi Ammi Parmar Brooke Taylor
Ricardo Serrano Justin Chandler
Video Reporters Julie Do Jenny Zhen
Social Producer Sade Lewis
Copy Editors Josh Cupit Joti Grewal Dan Marino
Dec. 4: Jac ly n Fr ie d m a n Toronto Book Launch 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Student Learning Centre
Op-Ed Editors
Devika Desai Heather Stewart
1 - 3:30 p.m. Ryerson Theatre
Reporters Matthew Amha Tawanna F. Hyman Leila Netz Isabella Perrone Aileen Zangouei
Janice Neil
Ad Sales Support Julia Dodge
Production Co-ordinator/Ad Sales Steven Goetz 416-979-5000 ext. 7424
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