27 July 2022

Since 1914

UMSU highlights plans for new semester Colton McKillop, staff University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) board members discussed preparations for a new semester at the University of Manitoba during their most recent board meeting last Thursday.

Issues discussed included the return to in-person classes, as well as a proposal to restore international students’ health care.

UMSU president Jaron Rykiss said the union is “doing a lot” to prepare for in-person classes and activities to resume in the fall.

“The name of the game for us this year is really making sure that students have the resources that they need to return back to classes,” he said.

“Not only are students going to be confused because we have three cohorts of students who have not experienced life on campus thus far, but students are going to be anxious, right?” Rykiss stressed the importance of UMSU providing resources for students experiencing mental health struggles.

He said members had been chosen for the mental health working group, commenting during the meeting that they had received over 60 applications, and that UMSU was looking to partner with other organizations to provide mental health support.

Radio silence from UMFM Gillian Brown, staff For three days, U of M radio station 101.5 UMFM went silent.

The station’s tower and transmitter sit atop the Richardson

Arts & Culture

The radio silence stemmed from a restaurant fire on July 17 that damaged the building’s main electrical systems, and caused additional outages at

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Woozy psych-pop Genre-bending Winnipeg project returns with new album

July 27, 2022

Building, and its equipment resides in one of its upper floors.

CBC 89.3 FM and other businesses in the building.

UMFM has worked with the Richardson Building since the current station’s inception in 1997.

6 Sports

From Zoom to classrooms Resilience is key for return to campus

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Cont’d p. 4 / Campus

Additionally, UMSU’s course delivery mode working group will offer students a way to conduct classes both safely and conveniently by offering in-person, online and blended course options. UMSU is also preparing its proposal for an international students’ health care policy after the PC government removed international students from the Manitoba health care system in 2018.

Cont’d p. 4 / UMSU

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“The name of the game for us this year is really making sure that students have the resources that they need to return back to classes” — Jaron Rykiss, UMSU president

>

3 Comment

Local legend

Purple and yellow

Same old tune

Winnipeg-born Canadian footy star honoured

New provincial party has big plans

Tory leadership race prioritizes extremism

The Official University of Manitoba Students’ Newspaper

Vol. 109 No. 1

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Vol. 109

No. 1

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ? editor@themanitoban.com Gillian Brown

THEMANITOBAN.COM 109 HELEN GLASS BUILDING

BUSINESS MANAGER ? accounts@themanitoban.com Dhruv Patel

UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

ADVERTISING CO-ORDINATOR ? ads@themanitoban.com Richard Plant

204. 474. 6535

MANAGING EDITOR ? me@themanitoban.com Grace Anne Paizen COPY DESK ? copy@themanitoban.com Ezra Taves (ed.)

The Manitoban is the official student newspaper of the University of Manitoba. It is published monthly during the summer and each week of regular classes during the academic year by the Manitoban Newspaper Publications Corporation.

NEWS DESK ? news@themanitoban.com Matthew Merkel (ed.)

Colton McKillop (ed.)

The Manitoban is an independent and democratic student organization, open to participation from all students. It exists to serve its readers as students and citizens.

RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY DESK ? research@themanitoban.com applications open see themanitoban.com/jobs FEATURES DESK ? features@themanitoban.com applications open see themanitoban.com/jobs COMMENT DESK ? comment@themanitoban.com Ivan Nuñez Gamez (ed.)

ARTS & CULTURE DESK ? arts@themanitoban.com Alex Braun (ed.)

SPORTS DESK ? sports@themanitoban.com applications open see themanitoban.com/jobs PHOTO DESK ? photo@themanitoban.com Ebunoluwa Akinbo (ed.)

DESIGN DESK ? design@themanitoban.com Matthew Doering (ed.)

GRAPHICS DESK ? graphics@themanitoban.com Dallin Chicoine (ed.)

AUDIO DESK ? audio@themanitoban.com applications open see themanitoban.com/jobs SOCIAL MEDIA DESK ? social@themanitoban.com Jory Thomas (ed.)

VOLUNTEERS THIS ISSUE ?

WINNIPEG, MB

The Manitoban is a member of the Canadian University Press, and our journalistic standards can be found online at toban.news/jsp.

The newspaper’s primary mandate is to report fairly and objectively on issues and events of importance and interest to the students of the University of Manitoba, to provide an open forum for the free expression and exchange of opinions and ideas and to stimulate meaningful debate on issues that affect or would otherwise be of interest to the student body and/ or society in general. The Manitoban serves as a training ground for students interested in any aspect of journalism.

Students and other interested parties are invited to contribute to any section of the newspaper.

Please contact the appropriate editor for submission guidelines.

The Manitoban reserves the right to edit all submissions and will not publish any material deemed by its Editorial Board to be discriminatory, racist, sexist, homophobic or trans-phobic, ableist or libellous.

Opinions expressed in letters and articles are solely those of the authors. Editorials in the Manitoban are signed and represent the opinions of the writer(s), not necessarily those of the Manitoban staff, Editorial Board or the publisher.

A “volunteer staff” member is defined as a person who has had three volunteer articles, photographs or pieces of art of reasonable length and/ or substance published in the current publishing year of the Manitoban.

Any individual who qualifies as a volunteer staff member must be voted in by a majority vote at a Manitoban editorial board meeting. Elected representatives and non-students may be excluded from holding votes as volunteer staff members in accordance with the Manitoban Constitution.

VOLUNTEER STAFF ? interested in volunteering? email me@themanitoban.com today!

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All contents are ©2022 and may not be reprinted without the express written permission of the Editor-in-Chief.

The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same A common phrase that we students have heard over and over during these past two-and-a-half years is that we are living through unprecedented times. Despite enduring the COVID-19 pandemic, two premiers that have failed to prioritize students, ever-rising tuition and everdecreasing provincial post-secondary budgets, one faculty strike and one almost-faculty strike all within the past two years, we have persevered.

Throughout these times, the Manitoban has continued to serve the U of M by providing objective, quality news coverage of issues that concern you directly, and has done so since Nov. 5, 1914.

Print issues of the ’Toban are finally returning to stands across campus for the first time since April 2020, and we saw this as the perfect time for a makeover.

The paper’s new print banner returns to its 1998 iteration, while the rest of the cover calls back to when we didn’t even have the software to pull the design together at all.

In doing this, we’ve been able to acknowledge our past and give credit where it’s due. We can recognize the student journalists that paved the way for us, letting us grow into what we’ve become, the students who held those in power accountable and stayed true to their constituents — even during a city-wide general strike, the Great Depression, both World Wars and, most recently, a global pandemic.

Thank you for sticking around long enough to see that path stretch on all the way to our 109th year. I can’t wait to see what we can do for you next.

— Gillian Brown, editor-in-chief

Index News pages 3 to 5

Editorial page 6

Comment page 8

Diversions page 10

Arts & Culture pages 12 to 13

Sports page 14

Features page 15

News

July 27, 2022 news@themanitoban.com

New political party enters provincial race Matthew Merkel, staff the newly-formed Keystone Party registered with Elections Manitoba On June 28. This granted the party the ability to endorse candidates on a ballot in the next Manitoba provincial election.

Although the Keystone party is in its infancy, core ideals have already been developed that shape its identity.

Another topic that has quickly become an embodiment of the party is its position on measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. On July 15, Friesen expressed his disapproval of these measures while speaking at the party’s public launch at Vimy Ridge Memorial Park.

With a hard stance against COVID-19 measures, traditionally right-wing views and a colour scheme that contains mostly purple, similarities can be spotted between the Keystone party and the People’s Party of Canada.

photo / Keystone Party / provided

According to the party’s “statement of principles,” the maintaining of Canadians’ rights and freedoms, preserving a capitalist system that promotes free trade and private business and the limitation of governmental powers with an emphasis on empowering local municipalities are distinct qualities of the party’s identity.

work together to get things rolling in a very different direction than they are right now.”

graphic / Dallin Chicoine / staff

Keystone party aims to implement a ‘bottom up’ approach

“I honestly think that we are a centre party, and that politics have moved so far left that we look right” — Kevin Friesen, Keystone Party Leader

Keystone party leader Kevin Friesen believes that through this model his government may help address Manitobans’ most pressing issues.

Roads, infrastructure, healthcare, education and reconciliation are on the top of his list.

According to Friesen, the issues the party aims to address are “hot topics” concerning Manitobans.

“We didn’t form just to get one thing done now. This is a long-term project, we hope that this is a viable option for a long, long, time.”

Friesen also said that his party can help students. He believes that students today are in a tough position and deserve programs that will set them up for long term success.

He said the recession that the province is entering will be “very, very difficult” for students.

“It’s going to be very hard to get their feet under them.”

One priority for Friesen is establishing programs to help students gain that footing, “A lot of you are going to be entrepreneurs and you’re going to want to build businesses, you’re going to do those things and it’s going to be very challenging. I think we all have to

Even so, Friesen says that there is no affiliation between the two parties. He says that the purple found within his party’s logo is the result of a lack of options available due to colours being chosen by other parties, and that the difference between the two parties is much more than meets the eye.

Friesen points to his party’s “bottom up” approach, with less power centralized in leadership as the main difference between the two.

when it came to things like making the government smaller and less government involvement in peoples’ lives.”

Friesen said that he does not believe the two parties will ever have an affiliation.

Expert Analysis

However, he does recognize that many have labeled the party as right-wing.

Although this may be the popular opinion, Friesen does not agree. He says that the Keystone party holds many left-wing ideas, and claims that when compared to the other political parties in Manitoba, it sits relatively in the centre of the political spectrum.

“The two parties that are the majority of seats right now, they are so far left right now that we would definitely be right of them, but I would still say that we have a centre thinking.”

Professor Allen Mills does not agree with Friesen’s assessment .

The former chair of the University of Winnipeg political science department says that the NDP remains on the middle to left-wing of the political spectrum, while the Progressive Conservatives continue to occupy the centre-right.

“I honestly think that we are a centre party, and that politics have moved so far left that we look right,” Friesen said.

Mills believes that the Keystone party may be in for a tough time while attempting to garner long term support.

“We would definitely have a right leaning when it comes to things like fiscal responsibility and getting our province out of the hole that we’ve dug, so people would put us on the right as far as that is concerned. They would definitely put us on the right

He said that holding opposing views toward COVID-19 measures may not be enough to sway centre-right voters from a Progressive Conservative party Regarding healthcare, Mills said he doesn’t see current Tory voters

departing the party.

“I’m not sure that it has any great consequence for the provincial Conservative party,” he said.

“I think that they’re nimble enough to head off any sort of concern that people have around the mandates, because I think that’s the issue that’s driven this particular development.”

Mills speculates that the Keystone party might find support in towns where there was a concentrated resistance to COVID-19 public measures in southern Manitoba. Even so, he still does not think that it will affect support for the Progressive Conservatives in that area, or give the Keystone party long term momentum there.

“This kind of concern may well resonate in those southern Manitoba constituencies where there was assorted resistance […] in places like Winkler, and Morden, Steinbach, “I don’t see that the provincial Conservatives can’t head that off by adjusting to their concerns.”

news@themanitoban.com

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News

Vol. 109, No. 1 news@themanitoban.com

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Cont’d from front page

The union’s campaign will advocate for the province to provide free health care for international students once again.

This contrasts with UMSU’s stance last year, which proposed to allow international students to buy into Manitoba’s health care, a position that the union pragmatically adopted due to the Manitoba government’s apparent unwillingness to reinstate universal health care for international students.

Representatives from UMSU recently met with Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Immigration Jon Reyes to discuss the need to address international students’ health care. They are working to co-ordinate another meeting regarding the issue at the end of August.

UMSU would be willing to collaborate with the provincial government if it is receptive to the proposal, but is prepared to hold a month of action to pressure them if it is not.

“We really want to highlight the fact that international students get overlooked a lot of the time, so we’re looking to create an international student welcome guide,” said Rykiss.

“We’re meeting with our marketing team to make sure it looks great and reads easily,” said Rykiss.

graphic / Dallin Chicoine / staff

Student union discusses in-person classes, international student health care

Campus station knocked off the air following building blaze <

information to domestic students.

He added that he hopes to draw attention to “the fun stuff” of campus life such as orientation events, concerts and finding new friends and community “that can surround them for their next three or four years or more at the campus.”

“We’re looking to have a street party on UMSU street one of the days [and] we’re looking to have a concert at the Burton Cummings Theatre,” he said.

Rykiss said UMSU was also planning a festival to showcase local music and vendors, adding that more information about the concert at Burton Cummings would be available soon.

news@themanitoban.com

Rykiss also highlighted the importance of providing support and

Cont’d from front page

Station manager Jared McKetiak, who first became involved with the station in May 2001, reported that in all his time as an employee of UMFM he has never seen “a prolonged outage like this.”

Now, McKetiak said the station is “feeling pretty fortunate” that it was back up and running so soon.

He said his correspondence with representatives of the Richardson Building indicated that the supplies necessary to get UMFM back on the air needed to be flown in from out-of-province.

“It was looking like there wasn’t going to be a full restoration of power until Friday morning, but when we came into work Wednesday morning, we were suddenly back on air,” he said.

Despite the outage, McKetiak reported that “it didn’t affect the normal day-to-day.”

going from the station and sending in their programs from home. The one difference was that listeners were only able to tune in via the station’s website.

Part of UMFM’s allure for McKetiak is the station’s ability to adapt, like interrupting programs in the middle of the day to “jump on and talk about things that matter.”

“The format of the station, the fact that it’s campus and community, it allows us to adapt very, very quickly, and change and do things that commercial radio stations [can’t],” he said.

He emphasized the importance of having “diversity in media here in the city.”

“I think that it’s important that people can choose to turn their dials to UMFM and they’ll hear sort of an eclectic mix of music and talk programming that they’re not going to get anywhere else.” news@themanitoban.com

The station still broadcasted 24/7, with radio show hosts coming and

Manitoba’s youngest now eligible for COVID-19 vaccine Matthew Merkel, staff On July 20, Manitoba Health announced that vaccine eligibility would expand to include children aged six months to four years old. The decision was made after the federal government and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) approved a Moderna vaccine for younger Canadians.

Currently, only 14,900 doses are available for the 76,700 children in Manitoba that fit within the age group, so supplies will be limited.

First Nations, Inuit and Métis children are prioritized to get the vaccine.

Children who suffer from chronic illness or have underlying medical conditions will be among the first to receive their dosage as well.

Kevin Coombs, a professor in medical microbiology and infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba believes that this new round of vaccinations will help fight the spread of COVID-19 among multiple age groups.

“The more people who are vaccinated,

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irrespective of age, the better for the rest of the population, through the process of ‘herd immunity’,” said Coombs in an email interview.

“If there are fewer susceptible hosts, then the virus cannot spread as efficiently.”

More than two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine mistrust continues to circulate among different groups around the country. Coombs respects that some people may be apprehensive to getting the vaccine, but insists that the positives outweigh the negatives.

He states that parents should assess the risks of a COVID-19 vaccine like they would any other.

“Some people may object to children getting the vaccine at what might be perceived as early, but there are several vaccines given to children even younger,” said Coombs.

“Vaccines still are much safer than getting infected.”

Calleigh Gingras, a student in the U of

M’s faculty of education, thinks that more vaccines available for children is a positive. After student teaching in an elementary school for more than a year, she hopes that children are given every opportunity to learn in a safe classroom environment.

“It just helps people come back to school quicker,” said Gingras.

“I think the pandemic did a lot of damage to the grade schooling system […] and it’s really frustrating.

I’m genuinely scared for a lot of kids because of how much they have missed out on with remote learning.”

“The kids are not academically where they should be.”

Vaccine appointments for eligible children can be booked by a parent or caregiver using the online vaccine finder or by phone at 1-844-626-8222.

Eligibility for the six months to four year age range is expected to expand once a new shipment of vaccines arrives in late July or early August. news@themanitoban.com

graphic / Dallin Chicoine / staff

Moderna shot available for eligible children 6 months to 4 years old

News

July 27, 2022 news@themanitoban.com

No federal plan, funding for anniversaries of treaties Report shows government unprepared to commemorate 9 treaties A federal government briefing document prepared for CrownIndigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) — the government agency responsible for managing relations between Canada and First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples — revealed last Tuesday that Ottawa has no plans or funding allocated to commemorate the upcoming anniversaries of numerous treaties.

photo / Ebunoluwa Akinbo / staff

Colton McKillop, staff

Out of the 11 numbered treaties, nine will reach significant milestones between 2021 and 2027. These anniversaries will mark 150 years since the signing of Treaties 1-7, 125 years since Treaty 8 and 100 years for Treaty 11.

The briefing note was released to the Canadian Press through access-to-information legislation and highlights the relationship between CIRNAC and Canadian Heritage, the department tasked with organizing and funding historical anniversaries such as the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

The two departments have been in communication regarding funding requests for the past year due to the large number of upcoming treaty anniversaries.

The report also points out that although Treaty 1, Treaty 2 and Treaty 11 were commemorated last year, these events should not be seen as a standard for future events due to the COVID-19 pandemic reducing their size.

Additionally, Canadian Heritage and other government agencies only provided limited funding for the commemoration of the three treaties in 2021.

These numbered treaties gave the Canadian government access to huge sections of land, and promised reserve land, payments and other rights to First Nations communities in return.

Many Indigenous people argue that these promises and treaty rights have never been fully respected.

Damon Johnston, president of the Aboriginal council of Winnipeg, said

the government’s lack of preparation was not surprising and pointed to the Canadian government’s long history of ignoring treaties.

residential school survivors to develop an approach to Canadian Heritage commemoration that centres on reconciliation.

Johnston said that treaties have been essentially frozen in place since the Indian Act was established in 1876.

Although he commended them for making “some good effort” towards respecting treaty rights, Johnston said it’s possible the government doesn’t want to “open a can of worms” by drawing attention to the treaties and the obligations contained within them.

“We had no rights, we werent Canadian citizens,” he said. “We couldn’t hire lawyers to defend out treaty rights or to take the government to court for that.”

“The meeting of expectations of Indigenous peoples around treaties leaves a lot to be desired,” he said.

Despite the treaties’ written forms lacking specific details on some issues, Johnston called them the “core of the relationship” between Canada and First Nations and argued that they need to be renegotiated in a modern context.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada’s final report advocated that the federal government collaborate with

“We’ve had better outcomes overall with Liberal governments than we’ve had with Conservative governments, but there’s still I think a lot to be desired in terms of our relationship with this government,” he said.

When asked if he thought the release of this report would encourage the government to change course and provide a more concrete plan, Niigaan Sinclair, acting head of the department of Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba, expressed doubts and offered a view similar to Johnston.

“I think that while this government is doing more than the previous premier, there are other issues that this government chooses to make their priorities,” Sinclair said.

“This government is interested in Indigenous peoples on its own terms, and that has a lot to do with resource projects, but not when it comes to substantive and systemic change.”

Government officials argued that celebrating the signing of treaties would be a fairly inexpensive way of advancing reconciliation, but lamented that Ottawa has so far offered little financial support to do so, partially because there is no dedicated source of funding.

Officials found that no federal department has a plan or funding in place for upcoming treaty anniversaries.

news@themanitoban.com

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Editorial

Vol. 109, No. 1 editor@themanitoban.com

Bridging the mental health gap is the community’s job Two years of online learning have taken a toll on students, now it’s up to us to fix it I never thought I would look back on my freshman and sophomore years of university and remember a Zoom screen with floating names. As far as I knew, conference call software was meant to be used by corporate employees. Little did I know it would become the norm.

When I thought about what university would be like, I always pictured the theatre-like lecture halls with a welldressed professor and an enthusiastic set of students willing to engage in the material being taught, yet instead all I got for two years were overpriced Zoom sessions with muted, faceless names and professors wearing the most enviable sweatshirts.

graphic / Dallin Chicoine / staff

Ivan Nuñez Gamez, staff

During those two years, there was not a moment where I did not question the efficacy of online classes, wondering if all students could empathize with both my academic and personal frustration. It was never about the class content or the pedagogical practices in place.

Rather, I came to realize it was about the feeling of not being able to move forward. It was about remaining static within my own living space to take classes, do coursework and merely exist, which can take a toll on anyone.

Finding peace amid a storm is a difficult task many students were forced to comply with.

We were expected to push ourselves through deadlines and everlasting Zoom sessions to maintain a sense of what we thought to be normal.

Though Zoom memberships have now expired without an expected renewal, sweatshirts are slowly wearing thin, and restrictions are essentially fully eased, one issue persists: the toll the pandemic has taken on the student body.

After two years of online learning, the longest professor strike in the University of Manitoba’s history and waves of COVID-19 contributing to tumultuous mental health, the student body is set for a huge in-person comeback this fall.

Though as a student-at-large, I took the news with excitement. However, I also reflected on the administration’s expectations of the student body.

More than simply complying with the health measures in place, I wondered if students were expected to academically excel. Was a decrease in students’ GPA foreseen? Will resources be available to guide students during their transition back into the University of Manitoba’s hallowed halls?

As I spoke with my peers, we realized our marks were not an accurate representation of our decaying mental health. Many students, including myself, found academics a distraction from the ever-worsening events that

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followed March 2020.

Many are immersed in textbooks and lectures, almost entirely dismissing the limited social interaction available. One of the in-person seminar courses I took this summer was expected to be a discussion-based course of about 30 people, but very quickly became an awkward conversation amongst four.

For one of my peers, discussion posts fostered a more comfortable environment for debate. She had never taken the in-person discussion-based courses because of the switch to remote learning. As students, keeping within our comfort zones helps us feel

safer. Now that we’ve grown accustomed to that, making the switch back to in-person, though exciting, will be a tough change for many.

Though I am a firm believer in the benefits that come with 21st technology, the pandemic has allowed us to grow comfortable with social distancing, with or without health measures in place. What once were tools to bridge the learning gap — a product of the restrictions that responded to COVID-19 — have now fuelled both academic and personal insecurities.

UMSU has moved forward with mental health initiatives and events to help rebuild the sense of community that

was once the standard for University of Manitoba students, but more needs to be done to ensure a smooth transition to in-person learning on all ends of the spectrum, from administration to the student body.

Though the incoming academic year comes with both new and existing challenges, it will be resilience — the same resilience that helped us persevere through two years of online learning — that will ensure we accomplish our personal and academic goals. editor@themanitoban.com

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Comment

Vol. 109, No. 1 comment@themanitoban.com

Federal Tories and extremism continue to converge Ivan Nuñez Gamez, staff The contentious battle to become leader of the official Opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada is slowly reaching its peak. Party members are expected to elect a new leader by Sept. 6, with results set to be announced by Sept. 10.

The leadership race has been portrayed as a move to unite the party following their unsuccessful election bid last year, in which former leader Erin O’Toole was ousted by Conservative members of Parliament (MP’s). This was after trying to appeal to undecided voters by pushing the party to the centre of the political scene — a move found by many to be “antithetical to core Conservative values.”

The election of Candice Bergen as interim party leader — a long-time social conservative parliamentarian who served in Harper’s government — signalled a clear shift among Conservative bureaucrats by demonstrating the growing distaste for moderate politics.

When selected, Bergen said she planned to focus on unifying the

Conservative party despite its conflicting views. Nevertheless, her support for the trucker’s convoy and anti-abortion has caused Canadians to question the political standing of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Furthermore, Bergen re-appointed MP’s to her shadow cabinet that were previously caught up in controversy due to their stance on vaccines. This includes Marilyn Gladu, who was ousted from her critic role by O’Toole after she pushed for the creation of a civil liberties caucus to oppose health care mandates, downplay the severity of COVID-19 and undermine the efficacy of vaccines.

If the interim leader seems to be damaging the party’s public image, the incoming leader is not offering much hope either.

Leadership candidates prove unity is more than lacking within Conservative party membership.

From the rise of social conservatism in support of Haldimand-Norfolk MP Leslyn Lewis, to former finance critic Pierre Poilievre — who is leading the race with 48 per cent of support — questioning former Québec Premier

graphic / Dallin Chicoine / staff

From Bergen to Poilievre, Conservatives did not learn from Harper’s demise

Jean Charest’s conservativeness.

Poilievre’s support for radical movements in the interest of maintaining his pledge to make Canada “the freest nation on earth” may wind up hurting more than helping.

With the party beginning to shift firmly to the right, going back to the ideology that once helped elect

Stephen Harper — allegedly one of Canada’s most polarizing prime ministers — they are set to remain in the opposition for the sake of pleasing the party’s far-right, extremist faction.

comment@themanitoban.com

The ‘pilgrimage of penance’ is not enough Ivan Nuñez Gamez, staff The Pope’s visit to Canada has long been awaited not only

by Indigenous peoples, who were directly affected by the atrocities committed during the colonization process, but also by Ottawa bureaucrats who have failed to fulfill their obligations in the reconciliation process.

Parliamentarians have demonstrated that there is no real intent to pursue reconciliation, prompting many to question what the government’s course of action will be once Pope Francis presents the Catholic Church’s formal apology.

The papal visit, deemed a “pilgrimage of penance,” will prioritze First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities from Alberta all the way to Québec, with Nunavut — the largest land claim in modern history — as the last stop.

Despite past regrets expressed by the Pope to an Indigenous delegation visiting the Vatican, the Catholic Church continues to fail their 2007 commitment to pay $29 million in compensation to residential school survivors, citing scarcity of funds.

Furthermore, calls from the Métis

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National Council for the restitution of colonial-era Indigenous artifacts have furthered the tension between Indigenous groups and the Catholic Church — who portray the artifacts as “gifts.”

The reconciliation agenda awaiting Pope Francis is broad and might not live up to the standards of Indigenous communities, but the neglect that Indigenous people continue to face from the political establishment is not promising either.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who identifies as a Catholic, has been one of the strongest advocates for a formal apology from the pontiff. He expressed his disappointment in the church, urging parishioners from across the country to contact local Catholic officials and ask them to “step up.”

Despite the Government of Canada committing to take significant steps toward a harmonious coexistence on Turtle Island, reconciliation requires more than a formal apology. The government must attempt to live up to its responsibilities toward Indigenous peoples and the land.

graphic / Dallin Chicoine / staff

The papal visit should be followed by government action toward reconciliation

To this day, dozens of Indigenous communities lack access to clean water, not to mention the many cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people that are being, once again, systemically neglected.

Reconciliation is not a hot potato, despite the issue being historically treated as such. Rather, it should be

a joint effort on behalf of all those in positions of power to apologize through both words and action, in order for Indigenous people to be able to move forward.

comment@themanitoban.com

Diversions

Vol. 109, No. 1 graphics@themanitoban.com

From our archives 100 years ago @FilbertCartoons

No. 608

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Arts & Culture

Vol. 109, No. 1 arts@themanitoban.com

David Cronenberg’s past futures Alex Braun, staff Fresh off his new feature film Crimes of the Future, which premiered earlier this year at Cannes to a six-minute standing ovation, David Cronenberg has been having a renaissance of relevance as of late.

The 79-year-old Toronto native has spent much of his career presenting grotesque techno-dystopias in which the mental and physical human forms are distorted by our technological surroundings.

As our own reality becomes more and more of a techno-dystopia, Cronenberg’s films offer an exhilarating and disturbing perspective on the intersection between biology and technology.

Programming coordinator for the Cinematheque, Olivia Norquay attributes Cronenberg’s return to body horror in his new film Crimes of the Future, as “an amalgam of his filmography in a way.”

“He revisits familiar elements of body horror and sexual politics that we see in Crash, Videodrome, Dead Ringers and The Brood,” Norquay said in an email interview.

Cinematheque is playing two of Cronenberg’s earlier films that deal with these ever-relevant ideas — Cronenberg’s original 1970 version of Crimes of the Future, and the 1983 cult classic Videodrome.

The ’70s version of Crimes of the Future, a film that shares a title with Cronenberg’s latest despite being largely unrelated, is one of the director’s first features. Norquay describes the two films as being thematically similar and complimentary.

“While Crimes of the Future (2022) deals with art and the body,” Norquay said, “the original short film from 1970 examines the body and humanity in relation to the environment and what lengths those in power will take to ensure their own survival.”

The film follows Adrian Tripod, director of the dermatological centre known as the House of Skin — the centre having formerly been directed

by Antoine Rouge, Tripod’s mentor and the namesake of a horrible venereal disease that has killed off most of the world’s sexually mature women.

The movie is a difficult watch. Filmed in silence and only soundtracked

by Tripod’s unreliable and stiffly delivered voiceover, we follow Tripod as he wanders around the University of Toronto’s myriad of modernist buildings, licking himself, studying people’s feet, finding amateur inventors of body implants and eventually joining up with a group of pedophiles who are looking to artificially induce

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puberty in young girls.

The result is a Kafkaesque fever dream that shows us a vision of an imagined near future that feels completely out of time. In fact, it feels shocking that it was filmed in 1970, especially in its restored form.

Videodrome shows a much more confident Cronenberg presenting a future that is no less disturbing and confusing.

Once again utilizing the simultaneously sleek and grimy buildings of Toronto, the film follows Max Renn, a sleazy TV programmer who stumbles upon Videodrome, a feed of violent pornographic footage that entrances him. As it turns out, watching too much Videodrome creates a brain tumour in the viewer that causes their reality to become warped to the point where they start to live Videodrome and transcend the need for their old body.

Visually, Videodrome is a real treat — nocturnal, lit by the enticing neon glow of the TV and deliciously disgusting in its horror elements.

Over time its plot has only become more relevant as our lives are being lived out more and more virtually. Not that Videodrome is a didactic screed against watching too much television.

In a lot of Cronenberg’s work there is an interesting dichotomy of horror and empowerment, mainly, of being freed from the shackles of humanity.

Videodrome is a perfect example of this, as Renn finds a sort of new life in his new flesh.

Norquay sees this metatextual examination of entertainment and mass media as one of the film’s great strengths.

“Videodrome is a really fascinating film because it’s challenging its own medium and film audiences,” Norquay said.

“The medium is the message,” she continued. “And suggest[s] that access to graphic images have changed our brains and how we function in the world.”

Both films are fascinating and are wildly entertaining glimpses into the mind of a unique genius, adding context and thematic background to his twisted obsessions.

Cinematheque is showing Crimes of the Future from Jul. 27 through 31 and Videodrome from Jul. 27 through Aug. 3.

arts@themanitoban.com

images / Cinematheque / provided

Cinematheque presents two films by the Canadian body horror legend

Arts & Culture

July 27, 2022 arts@themanitoban.com

’Toban tracks: so, what did we miss?

A roundup of new Manitoban and Canadian releases from our publication break We’re back! It’s been nearly four months since our last issue and music releases kept happening, even when we weren’t there to report them. To quickly shout out all of the great local and Canadian music that we weren’t able to cover, we have put together a little playlist of the highlights.

Lots of great local releases are featured, like “i think it’s u” from Rainy Day Ritual’s excellent new album sparrow, or meadows’ impossibly catchy indiepop banger, “caught.” Shoegaze and dream-pop heavy hitters Living Hour have returned with the beautiful track “No Body” from their upcoming album, and Matlock’s own The Secret Beach has had a steady stream of great singles from his upcoming project including the lovely “Miss You,” which bounces along jollily while Micah Erenberg tosses off tongue-in-cheek lyrics about the emptiness of endless nights of partying.

Beyond local music, we also missed a few high-profile Canadian releases like Drake’s house-influenced excursion Honestly, Nevermind, Arcade Fire’s big comeback on WE and the long-awaited return of Alvvays on its dense new single “Pharmacist.”

There are also a few slightly lower profile releases represented here, like the woozy “tilted crowd” from the Toronto-based lo-fi indie project PACKS’ new WOAH EP, or “Degree” from the debut album by Cola, an offshoot of the recently defunct band Ought. Also of note is the great

Nunavut songwriter, Terry Uyarak, whose dreamy “Aniqsaatuinnarit II’’ is a real highlight. Additionally, Daniel Romano’s Outfit is coming off a prolific couple of years with “Genuine Light (La Luna Excerpt).” The track is just a little sample from the Outfit’s upcoming rock opera and motion picture, La Luna.

Check out this sampler and dig deeper into the tracks that you like! And thank your lucky stars that the Manitoban is back to keep you posted about these kinds of things.

Genuine Light (La Luna Excerpt) — Daniel Romano, La Luna

graphic / Dallin Chicoine / staff

Alex Braun, staff

Call Me Upset — Booter Massive — Nevermind

Drake,

Honestly,

caught — meadows, joyful Crucified — Sister Ray, Communion

Aniqsaatuinnarit II — Terry Uyarak, ATIILU!

tilted crowd — PACKS, WOAH

Miss You — The Secret Beach

i think it’s u — Rainy Day Ritual, sparrow

Unconditional I (Lookout Kid) — Arcade Fire, WE

Pharmacist — Alvvays

Wrong Side of the Sky — C.Ross, Skull Creator

No Body — Living Hour But They Respect My Tactics — KEN Mode Degree — Cola, Deep in View

Formentera — Metric, Formentera arts@themanitoban.com

’Toban turntable Alex Braun, staff

3/5 Stars JayWood, the project of Winnipeg’s Jeremy HaywoodSmith, went big on his new album Slingshot.

The album highlights the record’s lyrical meditations on heavy topics like social justice, racial identity and religion.

Haywood-Smith talks about drawing specific inspiration from Kendrick Lamar, one of the most acclaimed artists of his generation known for making knotty, highly conceptual albums. Musically, though, HaywoodSmith is pulling from all over, recalling psych-rock, indie-pop, hip-hop, neosoul, funk and rock all at once.

Predominantly, Slingshot is a chill album. Chill to a troubling level, like when you’ve sunbathed a little too

long and the world starts to spin. The production is so dense and the song structures are so convoluted that the songs are difficult to digest fully — there’s simply too much going on.

It seems like JayWood instead wants the listener to take in the record as mood music. Everything is buried in a sea of reverb, and the vocals are largely incomprehensible behind walls of guitar and synth pads. This leaves the listener to focus on the groove and space out as the myriad of other elements swirl in the background.

A few songs stand out from the pack.

Opener “God Is A Reptile” has a refreshing aggression and bite to it, smartly saving its introduction of the album’s default mode of sensory overload until its climax. “Just Sayin’” has great clarity, with a light funky groove and bright backing vocals from Ami Cheon. And “All Night Long” is another nice one, coming

at JayWood’s signature indie-groove sound through summery ’10s-era chillwave, a genre that I am always happy to hear nods toward.

The back half of the album becomes frustrating, especially in the stretch from “Kitchen Floor” to “Tulips,” where the tempos drag and the song lengths extend past the five minute mark.

“Kitchen Floor” seems like a lyrically-dense and interesting track, but the production is so washed-out that it is impossible to understand what is being said. Meanwhile “Shine” is supposed to be a protest song — the video juxtaposes footage of HaywoodSmith with footage of 2020 Black Lives Matter protests — but it is so chill musically that it sounds like more of a shoulder shrug than a protest.

JayWood’s Slingshot doesn’t quite follow through on its conceptual ambitions, but its infectious grooves and hazy summer vibes still make it a worthwhile listen.

image / Pitch Perfect PR / provided

JayWood, ‘Slingshot’

Hopefully this is just the start for Haywood-Smith as he becomes a more confident songwriter.

JayWood’s album Slingshot available at major retailers.

is

arts@themanitoban.com

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Sports

Vol. 109, No. 1 sports@themanitoban.com

Bisons, Bombers, in brief Updates from the summer so far Grace Anne Paizen, staff

Wog’s future

Alumna Desiree Scott

The quest for the Grey Cup

World Juniors a go

is bright

receives Order of Manitoba

still goes through Winnipeg

amidst controversies

Recent U of M grad and swimming sensation Kelsey Wog qualified for the International Swimming Federation (FINA) championships in the spring and just placed fourth at FINA in the 200-metre breaststroke this June.

Decorated U of M Bisons alumna, Desiree Scott, has added to her collection.

After defeating the Edmonton Elks Friday night in Edmonton, Alta., the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have opened their season a perfect 7-0.

Despite the controversy surrounding Hockey Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which saw multiple sponsors leave Hockey Canada — Scotiabank, Canadian Tire, Telus and Tim Hortons — and which also caused Imperial Oil to revoke its sponsorship of the men’s 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship, the World Juniors are scheduled to play from Aug. 9 – 20.

Next stop for the former Bison is qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics. This would be Wog’s second Olympics after making her debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this past summer.

It will be fun to watch Wog as she progresses in her career, particularly as an inspiration to incoming Bisons swimmers in her wake.

Winnipeg

The gold and bronze-medal winning Olympian, and current member of the Canadian women’s national soccer team, was awarded the Order of Manitoba on July 14.

No matter what other accomplishments are in the award-winning soccer player’s future, with the province’s highest honour, Scott becomes part of a select group of influential individuals and cements her legacy that is sure to inspire our university athletes.

In the meantime, and after finishing second in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) tournament in a re-match of the Olympic semi-final game against the United States national team, Scott and company qualified for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The team can still punch a ticket to defend their title at the Paris 2024 Olympics in the CONCACAF Olympic play-in series next September.

Sports

This is the first time the club has started 7-0 in a season since the 1960 Bombers squad.

And though some of the games have been close — particularly the win over the Toronto Argonauts in week four of the season, where a missed conversion attempt by the Boatmen sealed the win for the Bombers — the back-to-back Grey Cup champions have always found a way to win.

In fact, their winning streak is so impressive the Bombers haven’t lost a game at home dating back two-seasons. The last Bombers loss at home came in September of 2019 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, no less.

The other update to the tournament is that Russia — who has been banned from participating in IIHF events because of their invasion of Ukraine, which remains ongoing — has been replaced by Latvia.

And since quarterback Zach Collaros got his first start, the Bombers have gone 22-3 overall, again dating back to the 2019 season.

The response to the World Juniors will be interesting to see, especially in the wake of the Government of Canada freezing sponsorship funds to the national teams because Hockey Canada recently settled a sexual assault lawsuit that involved multiple past Canadian World Junior players.

In fact, just this weekend an investigation has been opened alleging the 2003 Canadian World Junior squad was involved in a group sexual assault.

At the moment, and with a glance at the standings and other teams’ current situations, the club is on track to beat every team in the CFL this season before actually playing a single playoff game.

If this trend continues, the Bombers are showing all signs of a dynasty.

U of M Bisons — Women’s Preseason Soccer Bisons @ Saskatchewan Huskies

Jul. 23 — Final: 2 – 3

Bisons @ Saskatchewan Huskies

Jul. 24 — Final: 2 – 4

Bisons @ McEwan Griffins

Aug. 2 — 12 p.m.

Bisons @ McEwan Griffins

Aug. 3 — 12 p.m.

Bisons @ North Dakota Fighting Hawks

Aug. 7 — 1 p.m.

Bisons @ North Dakota Fighting Hawks

Aug. 9 — 3 p.m.

The tournament will be exclusively held at Rogers Place, in Edmonton, Alta. It was originally shut down in December 2021 because of COVID-19related issues.

The next home game is Aug. 11 at 7:30 p.m. against the Montréal Alouettes.

Teams’

The storyline for the tournament has been indefinitely overshadowed by several outbreaks of toxicity in hockey culture this past year, primarily surfacing through the revoking of sponsorships.

With multiple court cases and a war acting as a clear damper on the tournament, the World Juniors will be a clear test to see if the legend of Canadian hockey enthusiasm withstands these accounts of misconduct.

Schedules

Valour FC Pacific @ Valour

Jul. 30 — 2 p.m.

Calvary @ Valour

Aug. 3 — 7 p.m.

York United @ Valour

Aug. 7 — 4 p.m.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers Blue Bombers @ Calgary Stampeders All times CDT

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Blue Bombers @ Montréal Alouettes

Jul. 30 — 6 p.m.

Aug. 4 — 6:30 p.m.

Features

July 27, 2022 features@themanitoban.com

photos / Ebunoluwa Akinbo / staff

Every child matters

In late spring, activists tied 215 orange ribbons to the fence outside St. Mary’s Cathedral to honour the 215 children found buried underneath the Kamloops Indian Residential School, affirming that every child matters

On a sidewalk beside St. Mary’s Cathedral — “we are still here”

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