THE VARSITY
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GradFest crowds wrapped around Front Campus in UTGSU's "biggest event" ever
Op-ed: Let’s stop talking about the U-Pass 23,000
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The Varsity acknowledges that our office is built on the traditional territory of several First Nations, including the Huron-Wendat, the Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit. Journalists have historically harmed Indigenous communities by overlooking their stories, contributing to stereotypes, and telling their stories without their input. Therefore, we make this acknowledgement as a starting point for our responsibility to tell those stories more accurately, critically, and in accordance with the wishes of Indigenous Peoples.
Indecent exposure at UTM Nature Trail
UTM Campus Safety has increased patrols in the area
Junia Alsinawi Deputy News Editor
On Thursday afternoon, Peel Regional Police received a report of a man exposing himself at the UTM Nature Trail between 2:00–2:30 pm.
Police informed the UTM Campus Safety Office of the incident, and the “university issued a UTAlert to make the UTM community aware of the incident, and to highlight safety resources and supports,” a university spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Varsity
“UTM Campus Safety has increased patrols in the area and is supporting Peel Regional Police in their investigation,” the statement continued.
Peel Regional Police did not respond to The Varsity’s request for comment and have not
confirmed whether the man has been identified.
The UTAlert sent to UTM students described the man as “a male, black, between 6 and 6 foot 3, muscular build, shirtless, wearing red shorts, with long hair, possibly dreadlocks.”
The alert advises community members not to engage with the man and to contact Campus Safety immediately if they see someone matching this description. UTM Campus Safety can be reached at 416-978-2222.
If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence or harassment at U of T:
Visit safety.utoronto.ca for a list of safety resources.
Visit svpscentre.utoronto.ca for information,
contact details, and hours of operation for the tri-campus Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Centre. Centre staff can be reached by phone at 416-978-2266 or by email at svpscentre@utoronto.ca.
Call Campus Safety Special Constable Service to make a report at 416-978-2222 (for U of T St. George and U of T Scarborough) or 905-569-4333 (for U of T Mississauga) Call the Women’s College Hospital Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Care Centre at 416323-6040
Call the Scarborough Health Network Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Care Centre at 416-495-2555
Call the Assaulted Women’s Helpline at 1-866-863-0511
“Cooking mishap” evacuated dozens of students from Woodsworth Residence
Toronto Fire Service mobilized after pot left on stove caught fire
Junia Alsinawi Deputy News Editor
Cover: Jaylin Kim
On the morning of Wednesday, September 17, students evacuated the Woodsworth College residence building at 321 Bloor St W after a small fire broke out in a fourth-floor suite. Over a phone call, the Toronto Fire Service told The Varsity that no injuries were reported and that the source of the fire was determined to
be a pot left on the stove on the fourth floor of the residence. The incident was deemed a “cooking mishap,” said a spokesperson for the Fire Service, and no foul play was suspected.
The Fire Service received a call reporting the fire at approximately 10:51 am that morning, and was on the scene shortly after.
Each suite in Woodsworth Residences has a full kitchen with an electric range, and meal plans are optional for residents.
The Woodsworth College Residence Council declined to comment on the incident.
Neighbouring buildings were also evacuated, and Campus Safety was on the scene. Multiple fire trucks arrived at the high-rise residence building within minutes of the Fire Service receiving the call, and the evacuation lasted around 40 minutes.
No bubble zones have blown onto campus since May bylaw
None of the 26 potential sites at UTSG have established protest bubble zone status
Emma Dobrovnik Assistant News Editor
On May 22, Toronto City Council approved the Safe Access to Social Infrastructure bylaw, which allows owners of places of worship, child care centres, and elementary, middle, and high schools to restrict protests within a 50-metre radius of the institution. Of the nearly 3,000 eligible sites, 46 have established protest-restricting bubble zones since applications opened in July.
As of September 4, there are no bubble zones established on U of T campus. However, the nearest bubble zone — the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Center — is less than a kilometre away from Robarts Library, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), and Sidney Smith Hall.
The bylaw states that blocking or discouraging people from accessing a facility or “expressing an objection or disapproval towards any person based on identity” is prohibited in a bubble zone. Enforcement officers may issue fines of up to $5,000 for people engaging in prohibited behaviour.
Although post-secondary institutions don’t qualify for bubble zone status, campus facilities such as daycares and religious centers are eligible to apply. When asked whether religious groups and places of worship on campus could request a bubble zone independent of the university, U of T Media Relations stated that “it would appear [the bylaw] does not apply to universities, but the reporter should confirm with the City of Toronto.”
In a statement to that “an owner or operator of Social Infrastructure, which includes childcare centres and places of worship as defined in the by-law, may submit a request for the establishment of an Access Area.”
In the new bylaw, bubble zones are referred to as Access Areas. Across its three campuses, the University of Toronto operates six child care centers and approximately 20 multi-faith spaces.
The bylaw is intended to protect vulnerable institutions and ensure that people can safely and
about the safety of Jewish facilities following attacks on religious community centres. The City’s public consultation report found that even though
In a statement released on May 29, the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario said, “As we are seeing more efforts of crackdowns,
UTMSU Student Centre flush with four new bidets
Of two buildings with bidets at U of T, none at St. George campus
Ella MacCormack News Editor
On September 17, the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU), together with the Muslim Students’ Association, announced that bidets have been installed in three UTMSU Student Centre washrooms — the first bidets on UTM campus. The only U of T campus without bidets is St. George.
The only other bidets at U of T are four in the UTSC Student Centre, first installed in September 2024. UTSC Student Housing & Residence Life also now offers bidet installation for a $100 fee if requested by a student.
As quoted in the May Governing Council meeting minutes, Vice-Provost Sandy Welsh said her office “received an excellent student presentation on this subject and was currently
looking into the matter,” referring to the student group Bidets at U of T’s presentation, and added that “each campus would be responsible for any installations on their respective campuses.”
Just this month, Bidets at U of T released the results of their bidet-focused survey, which showed that 97.8 per cent of the 927 respondents agreed that bidets improve their sense of hygiene and well-being.
Aliya Ali Shaikha, a UTSC graduate and founder of Bidets at U of T, wrote to The Varsity , “I was surprised at how fast the UTMSU implemented bidets. Huge thanks to the president Andrew Park, General Manager Shane Madhani, and Division 2 Board of Director Adam El Falou for making it happen. UTM’s implementation has created a movement across Canada. We only go up from here.”
Palestine demonstrations is a pattern that can be seen across our campuses, the province, and the country.”
SIMONA AGOSTINO/THEVARSITY
Bonnie Crombie steps down as Ontario Liberal Party leader
After low support from party, Crombie will resign after new leader is chosen
Celesta Maniatogianni Varsity Contributor
On September 14, Ontario Liberal Party leader Bonnie Crombie stepped down after receiving only 57 per cent support from delegates at the party’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). Though she exceeded the 50 per cent threshold required by the Ontario Liberal Constitution, some party members had been calling for her resignation if she received less than 66 per cent. First elected leader in 2023, Crombie will remain in the role until a successor is chosen.
Although she exceeded the 50 per cent threshold required votes to remain party leader at the largest AGM in party history, Crombie announced she would be stepping down a few hours after the results were released.
Initially, Crombie had intended to stay on as leader, stating that she and the executive council believed “a leadership race at this moment would do more harm than good for our party.”
In a statement to the CBC, Crombie added, “I wanted to be sure the party was ready to take on the significant challenge of putting on a leadership race and could draft a clear roadmap… They have assured me that the party is ready, and I am confident they can handle that task.”
The Ontario Liberal Party is now preparing for its third leadership race since 2020, finalizing
how the election will be held, when voting will occur, and candidate entry fees.
What led up to Crombie’s resignation?
This month’s AGM was the first since the province’s 2025 general election, in which the
Liberals failed to form Official Opposition and Crombie did not win a seat in the legislature.
Crombie took accountability for the party’s loss to the Progressive Conservatives, after a party report revealed their campaign — primarily focused on healthcare — did not resonate
with voters, who were more concerned about affordability.
Despite this, the Liberals regained official party status for the first time in seven years, increasing their seat count from nine to 14 and received 30 per cent of the popular vote.
Reactions to Crombie stepping down Leading up to Crombie’s leadership review at the AGM, some Liberal party members called for her to resign if she received less than twothirds support as party leader. Noah Parker, a party organizer who had advocated for a leadership race, is quoted in a CBC article as saying, “people in the electorate and Ontario Liberals will relish an opportunity to set a new course, one of which that can beat Doug Ford.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford posted a statement on X thanking Crombie for her years of public service: “Politics demands a lot of personal sacrifice, including time away from family and loved ones. I want to wish Bonnie all the best in her next chapter.”
John Fraser, who has served twice as an interim leader of the Ontario Liberal Party said “[Crombie] did the right thing. She put her party, her team, and the people of Ontario first because she knew that 57.5 would be a distraction.”
GradFest crowds wrapped around Front Campus in UTGSU’s
“biggest event” ever
Graduate orientation drew in 2,250 registered students with almost 1,000 on waitlist
They do want to engage with our union. They want to participate if they’re given the opportunity,” said Shimshek in an interview with
the waitlist to prevent food waste. At times, the registration table reportedly had a wait of over half an hour.
On September 16, the University of Toronto Graduate Student Union’s (UTGSU) graduate orientation, GradFest, was impossible to miss on Front Campus lawn, featuring a 25-foot inflatable volcano rock climb, a lineup stretching from Gerstein to Convocation hall, and over 2,250 registered participants. On June 23, the UTGSU doubled GradFest’s budget to $85,650 in anticipation of high attendance, with VicePresident (VP) Graduate Life Eliz Shimshek calling it the UTGSU’s “biggest event” ever.
“This event really shows that [graduate students] do want to engage with the university.
The Varsity
GradFest’s Instagram post promised an afternoon of “free food, live music, fun games & prizes, exclusive swag, and a chance to connect with your new grad family.” The festival included a services fair with community partners and student services, as well as activities like a photobooth, three inflatable games, and vendors like Nestlé, KitKat, and Sally Hansen.
There were 2,250 registered spots and a waiting list of almost 1,000 students.
Registered students were encouraged to arrive by 6:15 pm before tickets were released to
While no official turnout numbers have been released, all of the catered food for 2,500 people was eaten. BBQ Gourmet provided hot dogs, hamburgers, and ice cream, using half of the event’s budget.
“I’m very proud of what my team did and what we accomplished with the four and a half months of planning. Everybody put in the work, and it showed on the day.” Shimshek said, thanking the UTGSU and the 50 graduate student volunteers. “I think it really gave us a good start for the year. We set a high bar that we’re going to be maintaining.”
Amareena Saleh-Singh, a first-year master of public policy student, shared her GradFest experience with The Varsity: “I think [the UTGSU] was confused about what it was supposed to be, because it was supposed to be an orientation… Advertising, clubs, and services felt like not the main thing. It was like an after party. We got climbing and mini golf and stuff.” She added, “I think it should happen earlier on, because there was a section with community partners, Accessibility Services, and Financial Aid, but I’ve already been introduced to those, because Orientation Week was two weeks ago.”
The U of T School of Graduate Studies’ annual orientation took place on August 28.
Crombie steps down after receiving slim 57 per cent majority at Ontario Liberal Party AGM. JULIA DEDDA/THEVARSITY
Ella MacCormack News Editor
Students meet on Front Campus for GradFest.
Opinion
September 23, 2025
thevarsity.ca/cateogory/opinion opinion@thevarsity.ca
Op-ed: Let’s stop talking about the
U-Pass
There is a litany of real transit solutions for students, and the U-Pass isn’t among them
Since co-founding the University of Toronto Rocket Riders — the first transit advocacy group at the St. George campus — in March 2024, I have had countless opportunities to listen to students’ transit needs. These interactions have reinforced my understanding of students’ acute need for better public transit in Toronto.
However, even as service disruptions have become mundane and emergency maintenance a constant for the TTC, the one solution that student advocates continue to bring up time after time is the U-Pass. Short for universal transit pass, the U-Pass is a proposal to include an unlimited TTC pass for all students at the university as part of their tuition fees.
So what’s the problem with such a proposal?
In the winter 2025 semester, Rocket Riders conducted a transit survey at the St. George campus, which received over 200 responses. Survey findings have made it clear to me that a U-Pass is less desirable and feasible than its proponents believe it to be.
In my view, it is irresponsible for student advocates to commit to the U-Pass when students have so many transit needs that deserve more of our attention. We learned from the Rocket Riders Transit Survey that service reliability is by far the number one concern students have with the TTC today, followed by frequency and safety. The U-Pass does nothing to address these issues, nor is it a particularly realistic remedy for the cost issue.
A short history of the U-Pass
My views on the U-Pass emerged through discussions with Elijah Miller-Buza, my fellow copresident of the Rocket Riders and a University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) director-at-large. Miller-Buza believes that, though the U-Pass is a “very appealing concept,” it ultimately “feels more feasible than it is.”
A UTSU policy document last updated in 2020 includes a commitment to supporting the U-Pass as part of the UTSU’s sustainability policy. In a 2018 referendum, 65.6 per cent of UTSU voters rejected the U-Pass when asked if they would pay an eye-watering $322.50 per session, almost $400 in 2025 when adjusted for inflation.
More recently, in a now removed September 2024 Executive Report, the UTSU recognized that “momentum has halted for the time being” on a renewed attempt at the U-Pass, admitting in a January 2025 interview with The Varsity that it was not going to happen anytime soon.
The U-Pass proposal, then, is hardly new. The 2018 referendum ought to have served as a decisive judgment of the U-Pass, yet successive generations of student union executives have decided to reopen the conversation without engaging the student body.
a constituency of students who take transit but would receive no benefit from the U-Pass.
Miller-Buza raises a unique point in saying that “a U-Pass gives the TTC an extremely predictable income source… in perpetuity.” This presents the potential of disincentivizing the TTC from addressing student concerns as the “funding they [would] receive from students would be unlinked from… how well they serve students, or how they consider students, or how they [reach out] to students.” For context, with this semester’s undergraduate enrollment, the TTC would receive
It is irresponsible for student advocates to commit to the U-Pass when students have so many transit needs that deserve more of our attention. CHLOE WESTON/THEVARSITY
Why should we stop talking about it?
89.6 per cent of respondents in Rocket Riders’ transit survey indicated they were willing to pay some amount for a U-Pass. Yet, less than 10 per cent of respondents were willing to pay more than $400 for one, and whatever price the TTC may demand now will likely exceed the 2018 figure adjusted for inflation. This attitude explains why so many students turned out to vote against the U-Pass in 2018, and nothing about students’ willingness to pay today indicates that this would change.
Furthermore, the provincial government’s introduction of the One Fare Program has made cross-system transfers in the GTA free. This renders a potential U-Pass completely useless for the 32.1 per cent of survey respondents who use GO trains as part of their commutes, creating
approximately 19 million dollars from a mandatory U-Pass fee.
The effort it would take to overcome the obstacles to the U-Pass would, in my opinion, dominate the work of transit advocates, at the cost of everything else. Such a trade-off is not worth it if it means that transit advocates must give up the capacity to work on any other transit issues, especially if the U-Pass brings with it unintentional consequences.
What are the alternatives?
“We should not be in the business of extinguishing the perennial light at the end of the tunnel, only to offer no alternatives,” said Miller-Buza. “Measures like a student fare, increased frequency on routes near campus, and fare capping provide a multitude of benefits, all while being… far more
feasible than the U-Pass.” The responsibility then falls onto us as student advocates to change the minds of those who shape transit conversations on campus, as I discussed in a January 2025 interview with The Varsity
One alternative is fare capping, a proposal to limit the maximum amount a TTC user can pay for transit each week or month. TTCriders — the premier grassroots advocacy group for transit users in Toronto — has an ongoing campaign for fare capping, and 97 per cent of students surveyed supported fare capping when introduced to the idea.
Fare capping gives students the flexibility to commute as many times as they need to per week instead of packing all their courses into a few days, as the most they can pay for transit will always be the same. What’s more, the TTC has already endorsed fare capping in principle, with its Strategic Planning Committee voting to further pursue fare capping in a September meeting. A concentrated push from advocates, in my view, could easily get this over the finish line.
Miller-Buza also points out Toronto’s odd lack of a student fare when “cities all around the world either have free transit for students or specialized student fares.” While the TTC offers a discounted post-secondary monthly pass at $128.15, students on an adult fare would need to ride the TTC at least 10 times a week for it to be economical, something that only 35.7 per cent of Rocket Riders’ survey respondents do. This is another example of something that could realistically be changed with intense, directed pressure.
If student politicians want to deliver better transit for students, it should not matter how flashy the proposal might be or who takes home the credit. In the words of my fellow co-president, it’s our job as advocates to “redirect students from the false hope presented by the U-Pass to the tangible and achievable progress that can be made elsewhere.” Students deserve a better public transit deal. Let us therefore move on from uninspired, repetitive U-Pass discussions and towards effective, meaningful, and ready-made solutions.
Rudy Yuan is a fourth-year student at Trinity College studying international relations, German studies, and political science. He is the co-president of the University of Toronto Rocket Riders — The Student Transit Forum.
Doug Ford’s Bill 33, another push towards privatization
The time is now to block Bill 33
Emmanuella Nwabuoku Varsity Contributor
In May, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative provincial government proposed the Supporting Children and Students Act, Bill 33. It amends the 2017 Child, Youth and Family Services Act; the Education Act; the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act; and the Ombudsman Act. The alterations and amendments include limits on financial transactions, increased ministerial powers to request audits, increased government jurisdiction, and board requirements to collaborate with local police services.
I believe this bill, and other policies to be mentioned, contribute to the privatization of Ontario, particularly through worsening and defunding public services.
The inclusion of collaboration with police requires boards to implement School Resource Officer (SRO) programs. This means the bill mandates Ontario school boards to grant officers access to school grounds and permission to participate in school programming.
Additionally, via the Lieutenant Governor in Council, the bill regulates interactions between the boards and the officers. This means determining
the circumstances in which the board must provide officers access to the school’s premises and allowing officers to participate in school programs, sidelining democratically elected school board officials.
The Ford government justified Bill 33 in a news release published on May 29 saying its purpose is to “strengthen government oversight, accountability and transparency,” making it one of their many attempts to increase their control of school boards under the guise of accountability and safety.
One such attempt was made by Minister of Education Paul Calandra, who publicly criticized school boards for financial mismanagement, and used the claim to assume control of over five school boards. Another is the Ford government’s current use of rising school violence rates to propose the reintroduction of SROs.
These educational reform policies are justified by their advocates as an attempt to ensure safety and efficiency. But this relies on the idea that the proposed solutions resolve the issue of violence in schools — a notion I vehemently disagree with.
One of the problems that the Ford government aims to use SROs to solve is the supposed financial mismanagement by school boards, where claims of trustees spending exorbitant amounts of funds are
cited as an example. One instance was a school board spending upwards of $45,000–50,000 on an art trip to Italy. The situation is presented as greedy trustees brazenly misappropriating systemaltering funds. But according to the CBC and
"This bill does not solely affect students, but also parents, teachers and the wider community, as it is being used to justify education budget cuts to education and greater government overreach."
Global News, the travel and upgrades funds came from an amalgamation of staff savings and predetermined expense budgets in a surplus year.
While I do not agree with the spending, I do think that the provincial government’s outrage was excessive, as those funds alone could not resolve staff shortages nor cover classroom expenses. As for the increase in school violence, overpolicing is not an appropriate solution. A quintessential example to prove this is Toronto and Montréal’s crime-to-officer ratio. In 2023, Toronto had 167.8 officers per 100,000 people and a 61.10 Crime Severity Index (CSI) –– CSI measures changes in crime severity year-to-year. Comparatively, Montréal had 221.1 officers per 100,000 and a CSI of 78.26. This statistic implies that having more officers does not necessarily reduce crime rates and their severity.
Another counterpoint against the overpolicing proposal was the program’s past failure. SROs were first instituted in 2008 and cancelled in 2017. It was removed as a result of the harm the officers caused from their hypersurveillance and arrests of predominantly non-white students, which warranted an apology from the Toronto city school board.
Rudy Yuan Varsity Contributor
SROs simply proliferated racial profiling and discrimination. Students of colour are profiled both in and out of the classroom — Black students in particular. In fact, Black people in Toronto were 3.25 times more likely to experience a street check than white people. There is no reason to believe that these statistics that exist outside schools will not reappear within schools. Frequent suspensions of Black students, lack of resources in the classroom, and heightened surveillance risk
pushing students into the prison system, thereby strengthening the “school-to-prison” pipeline.
This bill does not solely affect students, but also parents, teachers and
cuts to education and greater government overreach.
Increased overreach lessens the power of democratically elected trustees. Parents then feel they no longer have a voice, causing parental
Researchers have a responsibility to provide hope for the future
Our role in addressing the weaponization of gender online against women human rights defenders
Zoë Reichert Varsity Contributor
Content warning: This article contains mentions of misogyny and gender-based violence.
Maryam AlKhawaja is a human rights activist from Bahrain. She spends her time fighting for the well-being of others, but has since become a target of violence herself. Online, she faces coordinated hacking attempts and defamation campaigns designed to destroy her professional reputation and her will to continue her work by making false claims about her sex life.
Offline, she is targeted, harassed, and filmed without her consent. But AlKhawaja refuses to be silenced. She remains a vocal critic of the regime that exiled her, teaches other activists how to defend against digital threats, and has shared her story with the world.
AlKhawaja is one of dozens of women human rights defenders whose stories I have had the privilege of listening to as a research assistant at the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
Through this role, I have come to believe that researchers who deal with human subjects have a responsibility not only to elevate their voices, but also to give visibility to their resilience as well as their struggles. As researchers seek to expose wrongdoings and problems, we must also acknowledge the agency of people who have been victimized, highlight potential solutions, and provide hope for the future.
Rise of digital transnational repression
Journalists and activists who have fled their countries of origin for safety often find that the
governments they tried to leave behind follow them through social media and their phones, hoping to silence them. We call this type of cross-border targeting digital transnational repression (DTR), and it has become increasingly prevalent in the borderless world of the internet.
In our recent report on gender-based DTR, we draw on interviews with women like AlKhawaja, finding that women face threats of sexual violence, defamation campaigns that target their sexuality, and threats to their children and families as part of gender-specific DTR. Human rights and freedoms are under threat globally, and these women are on the frontlines of that fight.
One interviewee expressed her frustration at the weaponization of gender by perpetrators, saying. “It’s much, much easier to silence [women], to pressure them with their family… And they know that.”
As researchers, we have a responsibility to try to tell difficult stories, filling in the gaps left by previous research by focusing on the impact of variables such as gender on DTR.
Narrative agency
At the Citizen Lab, I received training on working with research participants and conducting trauma-informed interviews. The academic skills I developed through this work have allowed me to see the complexity of gender-based DTR.
If our goal is to create change, to convince policymakers to address gender-based DTR, then the way in which we present our research is crucial to creating the outcomes that will most benefit the women we interview.
We have already seen a similar scenario with hospitals in Ontario. Bill 60, Your Health Act, was proposed in 2023 to lessen burdens on the healthcare system through allocating funds to integrated community health centres or private corporations. The result was less funding for public hospital equipment and salaries.
Another example was the Greenbelt — Canada’s largest protected farmland — controversy spanning from 2018 until this year, where Ford proposed to sell the land to housing developers. Although due to public backlash, he rescinded his promise, the point remains. Ford’s policies primarily cut low-income Ontario residents off from accessing publicly funded services. Doug Ford wishes to privatize Ontario, and with his policies, he might
But this need not be the case. As seen with the Greenbelt controversy, voicing your opinion publicly and choosing to educate others on policies can affect the path politicians take. Voice your grievances, and just maybe we might be able to block Bill 33’s overreach of
and with his policies, he might succeed.
I could write about the trauma inflicted on targets of spyware and online harassment campaigns, or the impact on victims’ ability to trust others and form relationships. I could write about death threats, rape threats, and states hiring mercenary hackers to silence opponents. Or about how quickly digital threats can escalate to physical ones.
But that is a narrative that gives oppressors all the power. A narrative that rips the agency away from the resilient people who push back against tyranny around the world.
When I joined the DTR team at the Citizen Lab in May 2023, I expected to be horrified and outraged hearing the experiences described by our interviewees, many of whom sought safety here in Canada and were still reached by foreign states. And I was horrified and outraged, but I was struck also by the fact that no matter the struggles they faced, the women we talked to would keep going.
One of our participants put it this way, “… they think [because] I am a woman, that… I should be easily destroyed. But I’m not.”
I have come to believe that ‘resilient’ is the word that best describes the women who shared their stories with us. Many of them choose again and again to continue fighting for human rights and freedoms, even when the odds are stacked against them, and that is something truly remarkable.
Unfortunately, in my research, I find that the theme of resilience is often missing from writing on the subject of extra-territorial states and state-sponsored targeting of journalists,
activists, and human rights defenders. If we keep writing away the agency of the people we call “victims,” we are diminishing their power, which is exactly what the perpetrators of DTR want.
While I am angry that foreign states are causing people in Canada to feel unsafe, I am also wary of centring state actors in what should be a very human discussion. Initiatives to address DTR in Canada should involve victims, not as objects to be safeguarded by our government, but as people with expertise, experience, and valuable insights into this dangerous phenomenon.
I think the best way to encourage governments like Canada’s to address DTR in a way that will not alienate the people we want to help is to write about victims as actors in their own right, who deserve to be informed and consulted about policies which will affect them.
The university has a responsibility to train future researchers on how to use a traumainformed approach to ensure researchers give visibility to these women’s resilience as well as their struggles.
Every headline that informs us of the global rise of authoritarianism, of fascism, of the weakening of international law, disguises the people on the other side of that fight.
The motto of University College is “parum claris lucem dare,” to shed light on that which is obscure. That is our role as academics today: to shine a light, not just of truth, but of hope.
Doug Ford wishes to privatize Ontario,
CHLOE WESTON/THEVARSITY
OLIVIA MAR/THEVARSITY
Business & Labour
23,000 workers at Ontario’s colleges go on strike to protect their job security
Provincial funding cuts and international student caps are causing large job losses
Eddes Dulaj
Varsity Contributor
On September 11, 23,000 support staff employed at all 24 Ontario public colleges — including IT workers, food suppliers, and custodians, among others — went on a province-wide strike against the College Employer Council (CEC). These support staff members are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU) for college workers, while the CEC is a provincially mandated organization that acts as a bargaining agent for all of Ontario’s colleges.
Job security is a major factor behind the strike. Government cuts to college funding have led to the loss of nearly 10,000 jobs, including positions in student service and financial aid offices. Parttime employees were also working on expired contracts while earning minimum wage. OPSEU engaged in 21 days of negotiations with the CEC over these concerns, but was unable to reach an agreement, resulting in the strike.
Decreased funding at Ontario colleges Ontario has the lowest post-secondary funding per student of all Canadian provinces. In 2024, Doug Ford’s government cut $400 million from the post-secondary education budget.
Recent legislation capping the number of international students accepted at postsecondary institutions is also affecting college
finances. Between September 2023 and September 2024, 23 of 24 institutions saw a 48 per cent decrease in international student enrolment.
Low levels of provincial funding have forced colleges to rely more on international student tuition, which is, on average, 5.3 times higher than domestic tuition for undergraduates and 2.9 times higher at the graduate level. Because international tuition makes up a significant portion of total revenue, caps on international student acceptance directly limit institutional funding.
The effects of funding cuts
Lack of funding has led to the cancellation or suspension of at least 600 college programs, contributing to widespread job losses among college employees. OPSEU president JP Hornick said in a conference that 1.5 million Ontarians have experienced a campus closure in their community.
One key program affected is Confederation College’s Culinary Management program in Thunder Bay, the only one of its kind in a 1,000-kilometre radius. The program has played a role in combating food insecurity in the region.
A study from the US-based State Higher Education Executive Officers Association found that students who experience a campus
Building real-world connections on Offline: A new social app
U of
T students are turning late-night coding into an app designed for real-world social connection
Zuhal
Olomi Varsity Contributor
Three U of T students realized an important truth during their summer internships: as technology advances, genuine in-person connections are becoming rare. That insight inspired them to create Offline — an app that matches users based on their proximity, interests, and hobbies.
In an interview with The Varsity , co-founders Vikram Narra, Syed Asad Hussain, and Haris Malik — all fourth-year computer science students — shared the inspiration and journey behind their startup.
From late-night idea to startup Offline was born when Narra posed a question: “What if two people walk past each other and they get a notification on their phone, matching them based on compatibility?” Offline offers more than just matching users. Its ‘wave’ feature lets users request a match after viewing someone’s profile — sending a wave that the other user can choose to accept.
Following the beta release, Offline added a feature that, as Hussain explained, lets users “read other people’s thoughts in the room.” The feature, inspired by Instagram Notes — where users share their thoughts with followers — limits visibility to people within a certain radius on Offline.
Narra says that the startup aims to build a community at U of T before expanding to other universities. “We’re trying to niche it down to
just universities… similar to what Facebook did in its early days, releasing it to Harvard and then all the Ivy Leagues,” he said.
Offline’s privacy features
Building trust and protecting privacy is central to Offline’s strategy. They plan to use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to connect users based on proximity, removing the need for GPS location sharing. BLE functions like regular Bluetooth but consumes less energy while maintaining the
September 23, 2025
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shutdown are 71.3 per cent less likely to reenroll and 50.1 per cent less likely to earn any qualifications or credentials compared to students who have not witnessed such closures.
Technology is also contributing to job losses. Some positions at Ontario colleges are being replaced by automated services. At St. Lawrence College in Cornwall, over 100 staff positions have been cut in the past year, with library coordinators replaced by book vending machines.
What comes next?
The CEC has called two of OPSEU’s demands unreasonable: a prohibition of campus closures or mergers during the lifetime of the agreement, and a ban on staff reduction.
Graham Lloyd, the CEO of the CEC, said in a statement, “OPSEU is ignoring the reality that college enrolment and revenues are down as much as 50 per cent. No organization
same range. Using Bluetooth Low Energy, the app works “without WiFi, without data, without your location sharing, and it will be completely private, ” explained Malik.
Users can customize what they share through in-app filters. “The main thing for us is that we want to give the user as much control as possible — over who they can match with [girls only, men only, or both] and even where they can match,” said Narra.
Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: Lessons from the founders
The Varsity asked the founders what advice they have for aspiring entrepreneurs, AI enthusiasts, and students hoping to break into the field.
Narra wrote in an email to The Varsity that students should “be delusional.” Adding, “we would have absolutely nothing in terms of a [minimum viable product] (MVP), but we would email investors and talk to them as if we were
managing a drop like this can commit to these out-of-touch demands.”
However, OPSEU points out that taxpayer dollars are being redirected to non-college training programs. Since 2020, the Ford government has committed $2.5 billion into the Skills Development Fund to support such programs, with OPSEU reporting that much of the funding is going to privatized postsecondary education.
Negotiations between both parties have been at a standstill for more than a week. As of now, no new talks have been scheduled. Workers remain on the picket lines to protect their job security, but the strike is also causing program cancellation — George Brown College, for example, cancelled full-day programs at its child-care centres due to educators and assistants participating in the strike.
Until an agreement is reached, both students and staff remain caught in the crossfire of Ontario’s post-secondary funding crisis.
sitting on a gold mine.” An MVP is a basic version of the final product that users can test out before the official product launch.
When answering how you can grow in your career, Hussain wrote, “being a likable person… goes a long way. Most interns bring roughly the same technical skills, but not the same soft skills. Teaching someone a new programming language is easy; teaching someone to be likable is not. To truly stand out during your [work experiences], you need to develop strong soft skills.”
Malik points to his technical experience, explaining how important it is to build a variety of skills. “Working on everything from drones to humanoid robotics taught me to set a high bar, think deeply about human needs, and navigate complex systems. Each of those experiences pushed me to see challenges from new angles and deliver work that really matters — skills I’m now pouring into building Offline,” he wrote.
Shreya Gaur Varsity Contributor
As an international student living off-campus near Erin Mills Town Center, most of my time is spent commuting to UTM. For myself and the thousands of other commuter students at U of T, commuting inevitably becomes one of the biggest parts of our lives and even our identities as students, for the years we spend in university.
We share stories of missed buses on important test days or finding new friends as we tumble onto them when the bus driver abruptly hits the brakes. No one ever presents a PowerPoint during freshman orientation on how to handle the embarrassment of running after a bus and missing it anyway, or the importance of showing up at the stop 10 minutes before the Transit app says the bus will arrive. No one tells you that, no matter how early you get to a bus or streetcar stop, you still might not even make it to campus on time amidst the rush of students and other Torontonians trying to use the same mode of transportation. Eventually, we commuters come to learn about these unspoken norms and assimilate ourselves into the crowds that are running to the bus, streetcar, or train, waving like a child trying to catch a bubble in the sky for the driver to stop for just one more second. Commuting can add to the load of pressure U of T students already face academically and socially. Crowded settings and long lines of people waiting to get on the bus can leave some feeling anxious and overwhelmed. The changing of seasons compels us to consider new factors and change our commuting styles accordingly. Women, especially, might experience safety concerns about commuting. The effects of commuting on mental health are like the views from the bus or train windows on our daily rides — after a while, they become mundane and overlooked. But this makes it all the more important to dig into the unique ways in which commuting affects us beyond surface-level annoyances.
How does commuting affect mental health?
My first commuting experience to U of T was on the MiWay bus, which I used to commute to the UTM campus for August orientation. The cool air conditioning on the bus felt like a haven, soaking all the late summer sweat and heat from my body.
But as time went on, the September rush of students turned my initial 40-minute commute into one that took an hour, sometimes longer. Eventually, I started thinking that there was a correlation between my ability to focus in class and how long I was waiting at my bus stop. The frustrations and anxiety of getting to class on time would make me give up on even paying attention in the lecture. Once, I was lost in a daydream due to my lack of sleep the night before, and I ended up missing my stop. That day, I was brought to tears in disbelief over how hectic merely commuting to school was becoming.
As my years at U of T pass by, commuting has become monotonous. The thought of looking at the daunting line of people trying to get on the 44N bus going to Kipling Station makes me want to run away. Obviously, I’m only one of thousands of commuters at U of T, so I know that my experiences are common among my peers. In this way, I guess I feel a bit less isolated, but commuting can still be awful.
A 2019 review by Sarah H. Norgate from the Directorate of Psychology and Public Health at the University of Salford in the UK explored multi-modal commuting, which involves more than one mode of transportation. The review examined 47 empirical quantitative studies, 23 of which included over 500 participants.
Deeper than delays
The mental health effects of commuting on students
Zoya Rizvi is a fourth-year student majoring in communication, culture, information and technology; and professional writing and communication at UTM who has been commuting for the past three years from Milton, Ontario.
Rizvi’s firsthand account exemplifies Norgate’s findings on the connection between commuting and mental health. When The Varsity asked about how she thought her long, multi-modal commute affected her mental health, she explained that her commute routinely leaves her waiting, tired, and feeling isolated.
“I travel quite far, so I spend a lot of the time on the bus or on the train, or at a stop. I spend quite a few hours a day… waiting for something, and I’m always moving, so I don’t have time to sit and work on a specific thing,” said Rizvi.
To travel to UTM from Milton, Rizvi takes three transit systems, one of which is the more ‘reliable’ GOTrain. Unfortunately, the Milton Transit that she also takes is comparatively unreliable, with her bus only coming every 20 minutes.
As many multi-modal commuters know, scenarios like this make our travelling fragmented, leaving us either racing to catch a bus or a train at the last minute, or waiting extended periods of time if we miss them.
Rizvi echoed her frustration at this side effect of multi-modal commuting, explaining how having to connect between buses often means that “nothing is lined up. If something goes wrong and you miss the first bus, you’re gonna wait like 20 minutes at the station for the next one, and then you’re gonna mess up the next one. It’s like a chain reaction or a really bad domino effect.”
“If I had a shorter commute or worked remotely more often,” continued Rizvi, “I think I’d feel more balanced. Less time in transit would mean more time for rest, creativity, and actual work. I’d probably feel less rushed and more in control of my day. ”
Caoilainn McKenzie Murray, a third-year psychology and biology student, also expressed that “a shorter commute (or even multiple commuting options, like more buses) would help my mental health significantly. It would reduce daily stress and give me more time for school work, but also potentially sleep, exercise, and hobbies, which would most likely boost my mood and overall energy.”
Another finding of Norgate’s study was that multi-modal commuting was linked to higher sickness rates, self-reported health complaints, increased perceived stress, and reduced sleep. The study found that greater total waiting time significantly contributed to commuting stress.
Furthermore, multi-modal commuters were more likely to have increased “job strain” at work due to their long commute times.
Fourth-year digital enterprise management
UTM student Disha Bais attested to this. “My commute affects my emotional energy during the workday by having to constantly worry about planning how long I should stay on campus before travelling back home, what is the ideal time in the day I should plan to go home before the bus gets crowded.”
Commuting during different seasons
There are three main ‘seasons’ for commuter students: fall, winter, and spring. The fall semester at U of T begins in late summer, so we commuter stud ents know the joy of having that sliver of summer commuting before the fall coolness sets in.
Sure, summer might be when the sun blazes into your eyes, and your hair feels like it is about to burn off. But when the buses arrive on time, undelayed by inclement weather and uncramped by the extra space that winter coats occupy, I, as a commuter, smile a bit wider. I revel in those fleeting moments when I’m guaranteed to find a spot to sit, with the air conditioning or open windows sending gusts of cool air towards me.
Rizvi explained how the different seasons changed the level of difficulty in commuting. For her, commuting in the winter is “terrible,” partly because the sense of timing fragmentation in her multi-modal commute is exacerbated by the cold weather.
“Getting to campus is a mission when it snows a lot, and sometimes it slows you down so much that you miss the bus, and sometimes the weather is so bad that the bus is either really early or really late,” said Rizvi.
Constant transit unreliability creates anxious and stressful commuting
circumstances for students, ultimately building up throughout the year as a heavy mental weight on our shoulders. Like Rizvi, I am hypervigilant about my commuting schedule during the darker seasons. I don’t mind taking classes that end later during the fall season, but during the winter, those evening classes mean having to commute in the dark, which entails safety issues like standing at unlit bus stops. This causes my hypervigilance to turn into tension and stress, often leaving me with a headache by the time I get home.
The time loss of winter commuting has had a direct negative impact on Rizvi’s academics, as she recounts having “missed so many classes from [missing a bus or train connection].”
She pointed out a potential solution to this time-loss phenomenon, recounting that she, along with other students, emailed the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) to inquire about increasing the usability of the 44 Mississauga Road MiWay bus, which goes directly to the UTM campus from Meadowvale Town Centre. She says no changes were made.
Crowding concerns and the hidden costs of commuting for women students
For Bais, crowding is her biggest safety concern, especially at night. She becomes extra cautious of her surroundings, making sure that she does not trip or bump into anyone, and that those around her don’t have any “ill intentions towards” her.
The unease is similar for Ruaa Haseeb, a fourth-year digital enterprise management student who also commutes to UTM. “My daily commute isn’t very long since I only need to take one MiWay bus, but the experience still affects my mood, because the bus is often full, which sometimes makes me feel anxious, especially if I have to stand or if there isn’t much personal space. That crowded feeling can make me a bit tense before I even start the day.”
Bais noticed that she would feel uneasy, on edge, and slightly drained when she arrived on campus on a crowded bus. It would become hard for her to focus in class, whereas on days the bus was less crowded, she would start her day feeling relieved and productive. Rizvi also noted that as a woman, she experiences an extra layer of anxiety and perceived danger in common commuting situations like coming home from campus alone in the dark.
That it gets dark earlier in the winter exacerbates her feelings of unsafety as a woman travelling alone at night. “I’m looking back every five minutes… to see if anyone’s behind me,” said Rizvi. “[Whether] it’s a man or woman, if they’re behind me, it feels unsafe. My stations are a little less populated, so the combination of being mostly alone… and [being in] the dark makes it creepy.”
As a woman myself, I share some of the same concerns as Rizvi. Overcrowded buses are not just a minor annoyance, but they spark my fears of things like being inappropriately touched or colliding with other passengers. According to a 2022 brief by Woman Abuse Council of Toronto, between 2011 and 2015, there was approximately one report of sexual assault on public transit every three days in Toronto.
I have had the unfortunate experience of having to leave campus at 9:00 pm in the dead of winter, thanks to a late lecture. It feels eerie, walking alone in the dark between far stretches of campus. Every few seconds, I’ll turn and look to see if anyone is walking too close behind me. I actively try to make myself smaller and unconsciously squeeze my fingers and clench my jaw as I wait for the bus to arrive. Whenever I have to commute home from campus late at night, I put both my AirPods in and don’t listen to music, but try to seem as if I am lost in it, as a way to be hyperaware of my surroundings.
Can commuting concerns be addressed?
Over the last few years, the UTMSU has brought about changes to how UTM students are able to pay for commuting, introducing initiatives like the U-Pass, a paid program for fare-free rides on MiWay buses. Surface-level changes like these aren’t what commuters need. We need meaningful resources that will change not only the way we commute, but also how our commutes affect our mental health more broadly. We need bigger and more frequent buses running to the UTM campus. We need campus-specific resources to let us know of live updates on bus delays and detours.
Over the last three years, I’ve witnessed U of T students suffer the tolls of commuting. I’ve also experienced them myself. If there is any way to mitigate the stress, frustration, hypervigilance, and anxieties that are exacerbated by commuting, we as commuters should all invest in them, to make our lives as U of T students easier, healthier, and more productive.
I don’t want to feel like I’m entering a battle zone just to get to a lecture. And I don’t want my fellow commuters to feel that way either.
Arts & Culture
September 23, 2025
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TIFF review: Barrio Triste
Stillz’ fuck you to North American TIFF audiences
Samantha Dolores Sanchinel Varsity Contributor
Content warning: This article mentions violence, suicide, feminicide, transphobia, misogyny, and antisemitism.
In the found-footage style movie Barrio Triste, Colombian-American director Stillz provides us with an intimate look at a gang of teenage boys from a Medellín, Colombia barrio triste or sad neighbourhood. Torn-down, half-built cement houses, narrow passages, broken lights, unpaved roads, animals, blood, graffiti, and gothic/punk sensibilities litter the streets of the film. TIFF’s International Programmer, Latin America, Spain and Portugal Diana Cadavid, described the film as “trippy, strangely poetic” and a “portrait of violence and loneliness,” on the film’s TIFF page.
Barrio Triste certainly is that; however, the violence takes a back seat to the disaffection apparent in the lives of the teen boys, where mourning, horror, and ritual coalesce into the low-fi static of a teenager’s stolen handheld TV camera.
Upon hearing that the film was directed by Bad Bunny collaborator and music video director Stillz of “Baticano,” “Yo Visto Así,” and my personal favourite, “Yo Perreo Sola,” with the film’s music direction from the electronic/experimental artist ARCA, I was immediately sold.
The film is executively produced by Harmony Korine, of Kids fame. I expected Korine’s shock-jockey stylings to play a role in the feel of the film, as suggested in the name of his production company behind Barrio Triste , ‘EDGLRD.’ However, as Cadavid notes, the film “steer[s] clear of exploitation.” Perhaps, thankfully so.
When thinking about representations of Latin American gang violence, exploitationist and sensationalist North American media warn us
of beheadings, disembowellings, and stacks of cocaine. These tropes support American interventionism and the ever-continuing ‘war on drugs.’ In contrast, the film also steers clear of another trope about Latin America, of sharp, slick, bright reggaeton — as we find in many Stillzdirected music videos.
As a result, we can see why IndieWire Executive Editor Ryan Lattanzio describes the film in an online review as meandering. We miss the ultraviolence and utter nihilism of exploitation — though there is one disembowelment! Instead, we are given close-ups of a pet rabbit, a mother stripping sugar cane — while she tells the camera of the warnings she gives her son against staying out at night, and multiple close-ups of make-shift religious shrines mourning murdered and kidnapped young men.
The violences of daily life are seen in smaller vignettes throughout the film. As we follow the eye of one kid who holds the camera stolen from a TV news crew, we see another kid trying to take his life by jumping in front of a motorcycle, a group of buzzcut-shaved boys piled on a couch watching static on a TV, and we stare with the protagonist into a broken, flickering streetlight.
We consistently come face-to-face with childhood innocence transformed into violent disaffection. As the director said in a Variety interview about his inspiration for the film, “When I was growing up, I heard a lot of stories in my family from Colombia about kidnappings and things like that. I think [Barrio Triste is] a way of me visualizing what that felt like as a kid hearing those stories.”
The childlike point of view plays into the storytelling as well, where the struggle between good and evil is represented through the camera as extraterrestrial-like angels and demons who provide a backdrop to the motivations of teenage boys.
Where the film lacks, however, is in its consistent disaffection. The flickers of hope,
long gazes into blinding light, noise-engulfing sound, do not linger enough for meaning.
As the boys drive down to the site of their first ultraviolence, we hear on the car radio an interview with a serial killer. In this interview, the serial killer talks about murdering sex workers, how he does it, and what he does with their bodies. He also talks about harming animals, and the shock at discovering that the woman he was going to kill had a ‘package.’
Near the end, we return to the serial killer, and specifically the murder of women, with graffitilined walls depicting the acts described in the initial interview. As we follow the camera through a claustrophobic staircase, we see the naively drawn, almost childish, stick figures of beheaded women with exaggerated breasts. It may be drawn by the serial killer himself or by the boys. The killer is depicted with an engorged penis, devil horns, and surrounded by the occasional swastika.
The graffiti speaks to a Latin American machismo taken to its furthest degree as consumed and reproduced by children and teens. Yet, the film fails to truly confront the realities of feminicide in Latin America. The tension and horror of the scene is deflated by a jumpscare courtesy of teen boy Calambre.
As Marcela Lagarde y de los Ríos writes in the preface to Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in Latin America, “Feminicide is genocide against women, and it occurs when the historical conditions
generate social practices that allow for violent attempts against the integrity, health, liberties, and lives of girls and women.”
In Latin America, we have seen how the reality of feminicide has sparked social movements like Ni Una Menos and greater concerns for transfeminicide to hold governments and communities accountable.
Barrio Triste merely touches on these issues. The occasional lingering gaze on fearful women dressing up a kid for her first communion, the radio program, the graffiti. The only hope that seeps through the disaffected violence comes solely through the mourning of boyhood. But perhaps that’s more honest, through the eyes of our boys, Juan, Calambre, Pocillo — and Stillz.
I personally also wanted more nihilism, ultra-violence, or even schlocky bromance; the movie did not give it to me. We are given a taste at the beginning, but as quick as the ultraviolence happens, as quickly as any boyhood bonding shown through the splashes of a pool, or the sausage-link bowels of a sacrificed boy surrounded by pig’s blood, a machete dance à la Star Wars Kid, or the invitation for the suicidal boy to join the gang, we return to the meandering movement of the camera.
The movie camera’s static, which remains on screen throughout the whole film, parallels the constellations of a dark, cosmic, mostly empty galaxy, with only distant stars as flickers of light.
TIFF review: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Rian Johnson’s new mystery has a gothic twist
Isobel Knight
Varsity Contributor
The pantheon of legendary film and television detectives has remained largely unchanged for the last decade. Few recent characters have managed to eke out a spot next to legacies like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot in the public consciousness. That was, until 2019, when director Rian Johnson came out with Knives Out and its lead detective Benoit Blanc. Blanc, played by Daniel Craig of James Bond fame, appeared in the first two films in the Knives Out series, and again in this year’s Wake Up Dead Man, which premiered at TIFF. Always appearing amongst an ensemble cast of newcomers and stars alike, Johnson’s Knives Out films follow Blanc to new places as he solves murder cases.
This third installment, Wake Up Dead Man , follows a reclusive rural community where a murder has been committed at the community church. The victim, Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin), was killed during a service, but there seems to be no logical answer as to how. It is a locked room murder, one that appears blatantly unsolvable: an act of God, if the faithful are to be believed.
The church community — a cast of locals featuring standouts like Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, and Kerry Washington — revolves around the recent addition to the clergy, a young priest played by Josh O’Connor. The local police
chief (Mila Kunis) is dumbfounded, determined to find the culprit but with absolutely no leads to go on. Enter: Benoit Blanc.
“This was dressed as a miracle,” Blanc says in a recent trailer. “It’s just a murder. And I solve murders.” The slaughtered priest’s close circle of devout followers are all under investigation as
church’s primary caretaker, while others — such as Scott, Washington and Jeremy Renner — shine despite their more supplementary roles.
Newer actors are also given chances to shine, such as Cailee Spaeny, who featured recently in Alien: Romulus (2024), and Daryl McCormack from Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022), and
Blanc attempts to divine who could be responsible for the death.
As has become the norm for the Knives Out series, the ensemble cast of Wake Up Dead Man sparkles with talent and variety. Close gives a compelling, straight-backed performance as the
Twisters (2024). Each actor takes great advantage of their material, and the cast has not a single weak link.
The highlight performance of the film, however, is Josh O’Connor by far. His over-eager, dirtymouthed priest is instantly likable, and O’Connor
skillfully plays each emotional beat. His dynamic with Craig is equally enjoyable, as the script pushes and explores the relationship between the atheist Blanc and the orthodox reverend.
As the film progresses, we see O’Connor’s priest pushed to the limits of his faith, and forced to contend with the darkest parts of the human psyche. Thanks to skilled scripting and performance, we’re right there with him. The proper time and focus are given to selling this internal conflict, and it pays off.
The cinematographic aspects of Wake Up Dead Man were also a real standout. While the previous films were also well-shot, there’s an intentionality to many of the compositions here that was just a delight to see. Motivated lighting plays a key role in many of the film’s crucial scenes to a strikingly beautiful effect. The gothic church interior is gorgeously captured, providing a dramatic contrast with the scenes that take place in the forest. The script is tightly written, knowing just when to slow down and when to run wild, creating a final product that felt closer to a 90-minute watch than 144.
The Knives Out films are sublime, crowdpleasing detective fiction, cartwheeling constantly between emotional sincerity and self-referential comedy. Wake Up Dead Man is a thoroughly satisfying entry to the series, in many ways surpassing the previous films with its deftness. It officially launches on Netflix on December 12.
I sincerely look forward to giving it a rewatch, and I hope Benoit Blanc continues to grace our screens for years to come. He just doesn’t get old.
As quickly as the ultraviolence happens, we return to the meandering movement of the camera. COURTESY OF TIFF
Johnson’s Knives Out films follow Blanc to new locations as he solves murder cases. COURTESY OF TIFF
“A work of time”
An interview with Yantong Li, curator of Dwelling under Distant Suns
Michelle Wong Varsity Contributor
Dwelling Under Distant Suns, an exhibition curated by Yantong Li as part of the Master of Visual Studies (MVS) degree’s requirement at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, is currently available for viewing at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at U of T’s Art Museum.
Exhibition dates are from September 4 to December 20. The exhibition is also supported by the Jackman Humanities Program as part of its 2025–2026 theme: Dystopia and Trust.
I’m a museum enthusiast and have visited the Art Museum many times. However, despite my frequent visits to museums and galleries, I have never had the opportunity to learn from the curator’s perspective.
I had the honour of interviewing Li, someone who is extremely passionate about his work and utilizing different formats of media to voice his beliefs. Upon entering the museum, I could hear different audio tracks overlapping each other and see an area on the left, lit solely by a curved screen in front of a bench for the audience to sit on.
The exhibition, Dwelling Under Distant Suns, is assembled through the struggle of depicting an increasingly dangerous environmental landscape. The exhibition showcases different methods of speculation and mythmaking through motion pictures, highlighting various topics surrounding water, heat, agricultural lands and human interactions. It also encapsulates the geopolitical and environmental past, present and future.
Li’s exhibition showcases works from Alvin Luong’s newly commissioned film, Cyanide Debt (2025), and his previous works, Endowment (2024) and Amortization (2024). The exhibition also features Solveig Qu Suess’s double-channel video Holding Rivers, Becoming Mountains (2025), Kent Chan’s Future Tropics (2023–2024), Solar Orders (2024), and many more.
Following my brief tour of the exhibition, I spoke with Li about himself, the story behind the exhibition, and what he hoped the audience would take away from their visit.
The Varsity: Could you please tell us a little about yourself? Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Visual Studies in Curatorial Studies at U of T?
Yantong Li: I came from an arts background. I was actually in the curatorial stratosphere prior to coming to Toronto and to the MVS program. One of the main reasons I pursued this program is that I am quite new to Toronto and Canada in general. Because of my prior experience in the studio and curatorial stuff for several years, I really wanted to know more about the preferred methodologies and strategies that go into professional curatorial work.
TV: What is the story behind the exhibition?
YL: Although this exhibition came from a conversation I had with Solveig, another driving force was a trip I had back to my hometown, Dali, two years ago in Yunnan. I couldn’t see the snow on the peaks of the Cangshan mountains, which had always been there.
This exhibition, in some ways, is really close to home. It was also born out of my observations of different phenomena that often feel disconnected from daily media outlets. They’re very much the everyday condition of these spaces.
The root question that Solveig discusses in her video is when these issues occur across a very deep, tempor scale and also across physical distances, what are some of the means to represent them when everything we see nowadays in the media is basically just immediate images of catastrophe? We are documenting catastrophes the moment they happen, but not when they are in the process of happening.
TV: What inspired the name of the exhibition?
YL: The name was gathered from a
book called Mekong
Dreaming. I was reading the book while I was starting research leading up to this project, and there’s a chapter called Dwelling Under Distant Suns, and I was really fascinated by why he used the plural “suns” and not the singular “sun.” It was a way to introduce different subjectivities, even though we are living under different unified systems of governance.
I was also really fascinated by what it means to dwell because dwelling is a verb and not a passive state of living. To dwell means making constant connections, and artists are always making meaningful connections with their subjects of research, and using that as a point of departure into the suns, or multiple unified forms of governance. So when I found the title when I initially read it, I was like, “Yeah, it perfectly encapsulates what I’m thinking.”
TV: What was the process for selecting the pieces on display?
YL: I was really interested in durational representations — films, videos, et cetera — because I don’t want to go easy on the audience, to just tell you what the artists are talking about, because I feel like that’s really irresponsible to their research and the subject of the research. If I simply introduce pictures and some sort of statement underneath, that’s it. That’s the only thing that the audience can take away from the picture, and the story behind it.
In the current media scape, you’re already seeing images of violence that are directly in your face without explanations on why and how they occur, and the different forces that come into play to shape that very moment. So, they are a work of time, pieces that took lots of time to create, and you must be able to have time on your hands to actually engage with and understand these works.
TV: What were some emotions you felt while curating this exhibition? It may feel like a lot to the audience, given the sheer amount of information.
YL: I feel the same way. It’s because the research for this exhibition is so rich and so potent. Like, I don’t know how many times I watched Solveig’s film, Holding Rivers, Becoming Mountains, just to write down different things. But every time I rewatch it, I find things that I didn’t notice, because every cut and every sequence has its own inherent meaning in a sense. Solvieg doesn’t tell you anything; it’s very elusive, and
you have to read into it and actually unpack. However, that is not my wish, for the audience to unpack everything, because I am not able to unpack everything, and there are so many little things that go into this research.
TV: What should be the main takeaway from this exhibition?
YL: What I want the audience to take away is that I don’t think the environmental, social and cultural issues presented in the exhibition only belong to a certain geography; it’s a worldwide issue.
For example, the parties that participated in the survey of the Mekong River — to document the ecological challenges it faces due to large-scale development projects — during the development of the hydroelectric dams actually perpetuated the construction of dams, surveys of dams, and hydroelectric development.
The same group also used the hydroelectric development on the Niagara Falls as an example for the Mekong River. So, if you were to really look into how these governmental, developmental, and hydroelectric forces interweave with each other, it becomes something that very much bleeds across geography.
For audiences that come in, I really wish that each audience member could sit and really engage and depict the different threads that all the pieces at the exhibition are trying to push out and find their own entry ways into the pieces as well. All of the works require lengthy sitting time, so you probably will need to come a few times to actually unpack everything they are discussing.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
chapter in Andrew Alan Johnson’s
Film still of Solar Orders. Two-channel video, 17’41, 2024. COURTESY OF KENT CHAN
Film still of Holding Rivers, Becoming Mountains. Video, 2025. COURTESY OF SOLVEIG QU SUESS
Film still of Endowment, 2024. Video, 11:05 min. COURTESY OF ALVIN LUONG
Future Tropics, 2023–24. Two-channel video. COURTESY OF KENT CHAN
Film still of Solar Orders. Two-channel video, 17’41, 2024. COURTESY OF KENT CHAN
September 23 2025
thevarsity.ca/category/science science@thevarsity.ca
Discovering the rhythm hidden in every step U of T researchers study the nature of rhythm-based movement in early childhood
Mikayla Samuel Varsity Contributor
Have you ever found yourself walking in time to the beat of a song? It’s not just something that only dancers or drummers can do, but rather something that all of our brains fundamentally allow us to do, often without us even noticing. That spontaneous alignment, when our bodies instinctively fall into rhythm with sound, is called auditory-motor entrainment.
But here’s the real question: How early in life does this ability emerge, and how refined is it in young children who are still learning to control their bodies?
At UTSC, under the supervision of Mark Schmuckler in the Department of Psychology, I worked as a PhD student with the help of four undergraduate students: Ninthujah Suthaharan studying human biology and mental health, Mikayla Lafrate studying neuroscience and psychology, Kaynaat Abrar studying population health and psychology, and Shabiga Ragunathan studying human biology and population health.
They helped me recruit participants and collect data as I set out to explore just how early this ability emerges. We investigated whether children aged three to five years — some of whom are still developing basic coordination — instinctively adjust their walking pace in response to changes in the tempo of a metronome, and what that entrainment might reveal about how rhythm influences motor development early in life.
The beat beneath our feet
Auditory-motor entrainment shows up in all kinds of ways: from toddlers bouncing to music and runners syncing their strides with a playlist, to patients recovering from injury where rhythmic cues have been shown to support motor coordination and aid in regaining
functional movement. It’s our brain’s way of linking what we hear with how we move.
Researchers have long known that adults can synchronize their movements to rhythmic sounds. A 2023 study conducted by UTSC researchers Schmuckler and Angelina Paolozza, and published by the American Psychological Association discovered that infants as young as 14 months are capable of increasing their walking pace in response to a metronome tempo set faster than their usual cadence.
However, this particular study focused on just one tempo manipulation, while ours was interested in seeing what happens when we take all forms of instruction away, and present individuals with more subtle changes in tempo. We used a pressure-sensitive walkway that records detailed information about each footfall as individuals cross it. Then, we had children aged three to five walk across the walkway while metronome clicks were played at slightly faster and slower tempos than the children’s usual walking pace. These tempos were played in random order, not just from slow to fast.
We found that young children can adjust their walking in response to a range of subtle tempo changes, not just a single beat shift. More importantly — unlike in studies with adults, which frequently rely on participants receiving verbal instructions to match their steps to the beats they hear — they did this without any verbal instructions. Even in studies withholding instructions from adults, participants may be more likely to realize the concept of the experiments because of their simplicity. Comparatively, children are less likely to do so, highlighting that they don’t need to be taught to walk in time with the beat.
Although evidence of auditory-motor entrainment was seen across all of the ages included in the study, the three- and four-
year-olds were less consistent in how they responded to the tempo changes, as they seemed to have a harder time slowing down than speeding up. This alludes to potential limits to how much motor adaptation can effectively happen in response to sound, and suggests that slowing the body down may simply require more control and effort than speeding it up. This is because slowing down means braking against the body’s natural rhythm — a skill that young children may still be developing.
By contrast, the five-year-olds’ step adjustments looked a lot like adult patterns, with smoother, more consistent steps that were a better fit to the subtle changes in tempos.
This study also examined whether prior experience with music or dance made a difference in one’s ability to match their footfalls to the varying changes in auditory information. Previous research has linked such training to sharper timing and coordination because it involves practicing movements in sync with external rhythms.
In our study, children with previous experiences like ballet or piano lessons did not necessarily adjust their steps any better than those without such formal musical or dance training. This suggests that basic gait entrainment is a largely automatic process that relies more on general movement and perception systems than on specialized training.
The importance of rhythm
This ‘inherent rhythm’ in humans is especially interesting because it extends beyond movement alone. The ability to synchronize with sound is also connected to language development, attention, and social bonding. Beyond that, understanding how rhythm and movement connect can help us better support motor development in children.
While rhythmic cues have long been used in adult rehabilitation settings to help regain motor function after impairment or injury, they have rarely been applied in pediatric settings. Findings from our research indicate that children as young as three years old spontaneously respond to subtle changes in rhythmic cues, suggesting that such approaches could be introduced much earlier, tapping into children’s natural sensitivity to rhythm to support development in a more intuitive and accessible way.
For instance, embedding rhythmic cues into everyday play, music, or movement activities could provide a child-friendly route to strengthen coordination, attention, and motor skills in the pediatric rehabilitation programs designed for movement disorders or recovery from injury.
The beat goes on
There is still a lot to explore. For instance, do children maintain their adjusted walking patterns once the beat stops? Do children with developmental delays show the same kind of automatic entrainment? And how would mild biomechanical challenges, like a weighted backpack, influence the ability to entrain? These kinds of questions take a step toward building a deeper understanding of how robust and flexible auditory-motor entrainment really is.
But for now, one thing is clear: even before they’re old enough to tie their shoes, children are already adjusting their steps in response to what they hear. What begins as a subtle connection between sound and movement opens the door to powerful possibilities for deepening our understanding of development, unlocking new insights into how what we hear shapes the ways in which we move, and guiding the next generation of movementbased therapies in pediatric care.
JAYLIN KIM/THEVARSITY
The multisensory experience of eating Flavour is
shaped by senses and memory, far beyond just taste
When you take a bite of your favourite dish, you might assume your taste buds are doing most of the work. The famous five tastes — sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami — are the foundation of human flavour perception.
Flavour can be thought of as encapsulating the overall experience of eating the food, with taste being one aspect of that experience. In fact, science has revealed that flavour transcends the mouth. Eating is a full-body sensory experience shaped by sight, smell, hearing, touch, and even memory.
Senses of flavour
Somewhere between 75–95 per cent of what we think of as taste actually comes from our sense of smell, which is why food seems extra bland when we are congested from a cold. While taste buds on the tongue send signals about basic tastes, these signals don’t travel alone. Once they reach the brainstem — the part of the brain responsible for relaying sensory information — taste signals are integrated with smell signals to create the rich, complex perception we call flavour.
Vision also plays a surprising role in creating flavour. Humans are instinctively drawn to what we perceive as beautiful; this also holds true for food presentation. Visual cues play a critical role in shaping our expectations and enhancing our experience of flavour.
A 2014 study at the Culinary Institute of America found that attractively plated meals
were consistently rated as better overall compared to the same meals arranged less artfully. Researchers suggest this effect is due to the visual presentation signalling attention to detail, culinary expertise, and a high standard of ingredients or execution. Ultimately, this demonstrates that the eye plays a key role in priming the palate.
Just as vision sets the stage for flavour, sounds can subtly tune our tasting experience. Sound is another powerful, if less obvious, ingredient. Some restaurants deliberately pair dishes with curated music to enhance flavour, a practice dubbed sonic seasoning.
In a 2015 study conducted in Belgium, customers at a chocolate shop evaluated sweets while listening to specific auditory stimuli. For example, some chocolates were matched with songs from different countries. Chocolates that were paired with music that matched their geographical origins were reported to have provided a more enjoyable tasting experience for customers, who were even willing to pay extra for them.
So, it turns out that what we hear doesn’t just change how food tastes; it can even change what it’s worth, likely because music reminds a person of their emotional connection or a personal experience with the food.
Taste is also inseparable from touch. Studies conducted at Yale University Medical School demonstrated that the savoury flavour of monosodium glutamate (MSG) intensifies
when the tongue is pressed against the palate, suggesting that movement and pressure heighten taste perception. Temperature matters too; warming the tongue slows adaptation to sweetness, making sugar taste sweet for longer.
Flavour, in other words, is not only chemical but also shaped by the physical sensations of eating. But flavour extends even further, influenced not only by the senses but also by our cognitive abilities.
In one study at the Changshu Institute of Technology, participants were asked to memorize strings of numbers and letters before tasting sweet or bitter solutions. The results showed that the more information participants were asked to memorize, the weaker their taste sensitivity. This suggests that when the brain is under cognitive stress, such as juggling memory tasks, it devotes fewer resources to flavour.
Due to the interactions of various stress and food-related hormones, stress can also change our flavour preferences in food, often leading to a preference towards foods that contain more fat and sugar — ‘comfort foods’ if you will. These foods can, in fact, provide a feedback loop and lower stress, a reminder that what we taste and prefer depends as much on our mental state as on the food itself.
This connection between mind and flavour is now being explored not just in labs, but also in restaurants, where chefs are beginning to treat perception itself as an ingredient.
Neurogastronomy and the future of fine dining
Over the last two decades, fine dining has begun to merge meals with art, science, and even technology. A popular example is Le Petit Chef in Toronto, where guests watch a tiny animated chef come to life on their plates as they dine. These multisensory experiences indicate the commercialization of perception itself. Here, lights, soundscapes, and even off-the-plate elements like tableware and scent diffusers are orchestrated to alter flavour perception. In other words, chefs are no longer just cooking food; they’re designing entire sensory worlds.
The rise of multisensory dining owes much to neurogastronomy, a field coined by neuroscientist Gordon Shepherd in 2006 to study how the brain integrates sensory inputs into flavour. Beyond Michelin-starred restaurants, its insights are being applied to food marketing, product design, and even clinical care. For example, it’s being investigated to help cancer patients regain their sense of taste and enjoyment of food during treatment.
Ultimately, dining is not just about the taste buds but rather about the brain weaving a tapestry of sensory cues. So, the next time your favourite dish tastes a little different, consider the lights above you, the music playing, the plate beneath your fork, and even the memories it stirs. Eating is never just eating. It is, and always has been, a full-body experience.
Lauren Daunt Varsity Contributor
Array of small cakes in a bakery display decorated attractively, adding to the visual component of the multisensory experience of eating.
CHLOE WESTON/THEVARSITY
Sports
September 23, 2025
thevarsity.ca/section/sports sports@thevarsity.ca
Julian Recine: Finding strength on and off the rink
Recine discusses his time with the Varsity Blues
Caroline Ho Sports Editor
Julian Recine is no stranger to success. Last season, the third-year forward tallied 11 goals and 19 assists in 31 games for the Varsity Blues men’s hockey team. He also played a significant role in the Blues’ playoff run, scoring one goal and gaining three assists in the postseason.
However, Recine’s path has not been without hardship. In an interview with The Varsity, he detailed how the adversity he faced in his personal life has impacted him as a player and how it has significantly shaped his outlook on life.
The path from Ottawa to Toronto Recine began playing hockey at the age of three. “[My dad] bought me a pair of skates and a Sidney Crosby jersey and brought me to the ice hockey rink… from there, my love [for hockey] just didn’t stop. I kept playing all the way up.”
The Ottawa native continued to play hockey through the AAA ranks and went on to play Junior A, where he became assistant captain of the Ottawa Junior Senators of the Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL). After some time spent in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) with the Salmon Arm Silverbacks, he wrapped up his Junior career in Alaska with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs of the North American Hockey League (NAHL).
Signing with the Blues
Recine signed with the Varsity Blues for the 2023–2024 season and is currently pursuing a degree in
Blues
economics with a focus on data analytics at U of T. He was particularly drawn to the athletic facilities and academic reputation.
“I felt like it was a no-brainer to [sign with the Blues]. The coaches as well as the training
there and want to make sure they’re giving 100 per cent every day.”
Additionally, he shouted out members of the Blues support staff, including Amy Dinaut from the MacIntosh Clinic, and Equipment Manager Sam Asaro, who accommodate the players’ health needs and equipment preferences.
The upcoming season
Recine has high hopes for the Blues this season.
“This year, we’re in a great position to go far… I believe our team this year has been the strongest
staff… have all been amazing, they showed me what life as a Varsity Blue would be like, and I really enjoyed it and thought that this would be a great spot to progress into the next chapter.”
Recine emphasized his appreciation for the Blues coaches, who have made a significant impact on his time in Toronto. “Every day, [Coach Ryan Medel and Andrew Dovey] bring energy and passion. They worked hard to create a culture where the guys want to be
under the radar
The success of U of T’s ‘underground’ Varsity teams
The weekend football games, hockey games, and soccer matches, we’ve all heard about them, and we’ve attended many. But they’re not the only games U of T has to offer.
In fact, some of our most successful Varsity Blues athletes are winning in sports that many students don’t even know have teams. U of T offers a wide range of competitive sports, but I’d like to shine a light on three underrepresented varsity teams to keep an eye out for this season: water polo, fencing, and curling.
Fencing
Once you grasp the basics, fencing becomes an exciting sport of coordination, speed, strength, and strategy. It’s divided into three weapons: épée, foil, and sabre. In épée, the whole body is the target and touches with the tip score points. Foil and sabre require right of way, with foil targeting only the torso and sabre allowing hits with the tip or side of the blade anywhere above the waist.
As a Blues fencer myself, I find most people are not always aware of the physical strength and speed necessary during a bout, which can last anywhere between 30 seconds and three minutes. During the bout, the athlete must maintain a proper ‘en garde’ position and be constantly ready to attack or defend, either through lunging at a splitsecond notice or defending in reaction to the opponent’s actions. Due to its difficulties, it may take weeks of training before a new fencer can start fencing properly on a strip.
Despite having a smaller team, our Varsity Blues fencing team has had an insane track record. For
nine years in a row, the men’s fencing team has claimed the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) title, every year since 2016. The women’s team has had equal success with OUA championship banners every year since 2018, except for 2024.
This means that the Blues have finished highest in all three fencing disciplines amongst all Ontario universities. As the season begins in the upcoming weeks, the Blues are excited to train hard to maintain that streak.
Curling
it’s looked in the preseason since my time here, so we’re really excited for that… I think we have a great recruiting class of incoming guys.”
He fondly recalls last season, when the Blues had a strong playoff run. “We played our rival [Toronto Metropolitan University] TMU in the semifinal series last year at Varsity Arena, which was packed… It was really fun to play in front of all our fans.” While the Blues were narrowly edged out by the Bold last year, the men’s hockey program
has seen steady improvement. They finished fifth in the conference in the 2022–2023 season, climbed to third in 2023–2024, and reached second last season.
Facing adversity
Despite his success, Recine also shed light on some of the challenges in his personal life. “My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was obviously very tough to deal with, but seeing her strength and positivity through it… It’s been so inspiring. The support I’ve had on the team as well as [from] faculty members has been absolutely amazing and I’m thankful for it every day.”
His mother’s diagnosis has shaped his outlook on life, both as an athlete and as a student. Recine says it has taught him the importance of “being conscious and cognizant with your time and making sure to really put 100 per cent into whatever you’re doing… [I] wake up and [put in] 100 per cent every day because at the end of the day, I know my mom is doing the same.”
Advice to new students and looking ahead
His advice to new students: read your syllabi and plan ahead. “[As a student athlete, it is important to be] very conscious about your time. There’s only so many hours in a day to accomplish what you want to, and U of T is a pretty rigorous school.” Recine also emphasizes the importance of seeking out resources and utilizing social connections. “People love to help. I’ve noticed that in my time [here], and when people come up to me when they need help with school, I’m more than willing to help… [Other students] are a great resource.”
After university, Recine hopes to pursue a career in the real estate industry. “I think the analytical nature of my program and the rigorous education at U of T [and being in Toronto]… positions me well, and I’ve learned so much in my time here that could put me in a position to add value to that field someday.”
For those unfamiliar with the sport, curling may seem calm. But once you understand it, both watching and playing can be exciting. Curling is normally a team sport with two or four players per side, and the goal is to slide a granite stone toward a target at the far end of the ice sheet. Points are determined by how close each team’s stones are to the target, called the House. As the stone travels, athletes sweep the ice to reduce friction and control its path.
The sport requires not only physical strength and agility, but also mental focus. “Every shot forces you to juggle a dozen variables at once,” wrote curler Nadia Jouaneh, a third-year student on the team, in a message to The Varsity. The sport demands “constant on-the-fly analysis like ice conditions, rock speed, line calling, and more.” Because of its challenges, making a shot can be thrilling not just for the players, but for the audience, too.
During the 2024–2025 season, the men’s curling team won the McMaster Invitational Bonspiel earlier in January, and later finished in the top eight at the OUAs. Although the women’s team did not qualify for advancement in last
season’s OUAs after losing three of their four games, they learned valuable lessons and are preparing hard for the upcoming season.
Water polo
Last but definitely not least, one of the most successful Blues teams is the water polo team.
The women’s squad went undefeated during the entire 2024–2025 season, capturing National Collegiate Water Polo (NCWP) gold for the 11th straight year. The men’s team also claimed both the OUA and NCWP championships, making U of T the top collegiate water polo program not just in Ontario, but in the entire country.
Water polo is a team sport played in a deep pool with two teams of seven players including a goalie, each competing to throw the ball into the other team’s net. The pool is usually three metres deep, preventing players from touching the bottom. Players must score within 30 seconds before the possession is passed to the other team.
First-time watchers are often surprised by how physical the game is. “A big part of the game is played with a hand on your opponent, ready to push or pull them to stop their movement, give yourself extra space, or wrestling them for possession of
the ball or a better position,” said Julien BrandonRenaud, a U of T water polo athlete, in a message to The Varsity.
The water polo team’s successes have come with relentless training. Practice times average around 12 hours a week. Most days include a warm-up of about an hour-long swimming set of three to four kilometres, followed by countless passing, shooting, and explosive drills, often while wearing weight belts or using weighted balls to build strength. As the Blues get back into the season, they are definitely a team to look out for, with the women’s team playing their first match on September 26 at the Varsity Pool. These three teams are not the only underrepresented competitive groups worth noticing. Other notable mentions include badminton, wrestling, golf, and figure skating teams. The Varsity Blues hold incredible talent, and it would be a shame for it to go unnoticed. As this new school year begins, let’s explore new sports, connect with the athletes, and celebrate them at their next competitions.
TianTian Dong is a member of the Varsity Blues Women’s Fencing Team.
PARWIN RAFIE/THEVARSITY
TianTian Dong Varsity Contributor
Recine believes the Blues are in a position to go far this season. SEYRAN MAMMADOV/THEVARSITY
Blues bow to Gaels for sixth straight meeting
Gaels extend dominance against Blues’ Women’s Lacrosse team
Jean Patrick Vidad Varsity Contributor
Since their draw against the Blues in 2022, the Gaels have proven to be an insurmountable wall for U of T. On September 14, the Varsity Blues Women’s Lacrosse team fell to the Queen’s University Gaels for the sixth time in a row, with a score of 12–3 at Varsity Stadium.
Queen’s offence was a major strength as they found gaps in the Blues’ defence, exploiting them at will while stifling U of T’s opportunities with their ironclad defence.
What happened?
The Gaels’ command of the field was evident from their first possession. After winning the first faceoff, midfielder Abby Lee passed the ball to midfielder Sophia Wilson, who cradled the ball on the way to bury their first goal in just the 10th second, leaving the score 1–0.
Besides their struggles with creating opportunities and offensive execution, the Blues were also outdone in faceoffs. Queen’s won the second faceoff, as Lee once again nailed a wellplaced pass to the rushing attacker, Tara Meikle, who netted their second goal, 2–0.
The Gaels also took advantage of play restarts as midfielder Victoria Murray split her way into U of
T’s defence and found the back of the net to further the gap, 3–0. Queen’s added another score off of another play restart as midfielder Brooke Rutledge shot a goal, widening their lead to 4–0.
Despite the loss, Rheanna Swanson, the Blues’ “Tasmanian Devil,” stood her ground against Queen’s. After grabbing the ball, goaltender Elizabeth McDonald fired it across the field to the striding forward Rheanna Swanson, who missed her first shot but grabbed the rebound and scored the Blues’ first goal of the night.
“Rheanna Swanson is a very special member of our team, and she is really good at what she does. We can count on her for a couple of goals a game when we need her. That girl hustles harder than anything. We call her the Tasmanian Devil,” Coach Jesse Porter said in a post-game interview with The Varsity, when asked about Swanson’s performance.
Queen’s quickly responded as Rutledge unleashed another shot that found its way onto the goal to end the first quarter, 5–1. To start the second, Lee burst through the defence to swing for another goal, leveraging their lead to 6–1.
The invigorated Blues then started to mount a comeback. After McDonald blocked a Queen’s goal attempt, Swanson spun through the defence to tally her second goal of the night, 6–2. On a penalty opportunity, attacker Isabella Ward
recorded her first goal of the night, to cut the deficit to three, 6–3.
As quickly as the Blues got on a run, the Queen’s play managed to stagnate their offence and overpower them with their own production. Attacker Summer Thomas registered her first goal off a play restart, 7–3. The Queen’s defensive group also came up with timely stops after thwarting a couple of U of T’s chances to end the half.
From then on, the Gaels put on a dominant offensive display, putting up five more goals, and imposed an impenetrable defence that crushed U of T’s opportunities as they walked away with a 12–3 victory.
“This game was a huge improvement from previous times that we’ve played Queen’s. We’re not necessarily mad about this loss at all. We’re really proud of our defenders and how they showed up today,” said Porter, who remains optimistic about the team despite the loss.
What’s next?
Earlier on the same day, the Blues edged out Ontario Tech University in a 9–6 win, splitting the two games they played. After this game, the Blues sit at third in the division with a 2–2 record while the Gaels improved to 3–1, which is good enough for second place. The U of T squad returned on September 20 at Trent University, where they played the University of Guelph and Wilfred Laurier University.
“Next week, we’re hoping to come back even stronger, and continue working on our defensive system, as well as some of our plays, and just giving it our all on the field each game,” said Porter, when The Varsity asked about the expectations for
Blues take down the Panthers in exhibition match
The Varsity Blues Women’s Hockey team started their pre-season on September 19 with a successful exhibition match against the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) Panthers. Their first foray of the season was successful, and the Blues defeated the Panthers with a final score of 6–2.
What happened?
In the first period, veteran forward Emma Elders was first to score. Shortly after Elders’ goal, the Panthers were able to respond with a goal to tie up the game at 1–1. Trading blow for blow, forward Christina Alexiou secured another goal
The women’s hockey team notches their first win of the season at Varsity Arena
to make it 2–1 in favour of the Blues in the final minutes of the first period.
The second period started off slowly, with neither team able to score for the majority of the time. After 19 minutes of play without either side making any ground, the Blues exploded and scored two successive goals in under 30 seconds. Both goals were made by rookies, with forwards Emma Lambert and Petra Kilmes scoring the first and second goals respectively, bringing the score to 4–1 at the end of the second period.
The Panthers retaliated at the beginning of the third period by scoring a lightning-fast goal in the first minute, bringing the score to 4–2. Although the Panthers fought hard to recover in the final period, the Blues maintained their healthy lead for the rest of the game. Lambert secured her second goal in the final period, followed by Elders scoring the final goal of the game and securing the victory at 6–2.
Blues football team shows determination against the Queen's Gaels
Sam Henke comes in strong for the Blues despite recording a loss
Melaney Cerna Varsity Contributor
On September 13, the Blues took on the Queen’s Gaels at Varsity Stadium, falling 6–44 in a hardfought match against the Gaels’ well-practiced agility. The Blues last faced the Gaels on September 9, 2023, where they suffered a 9–42 loss.
What happened?
The game began with the Blues receiving the kick. Fifth-year receiver Jake Oseen set the tone early on, with a hard tackle just seven seconds into the game.
Still, the Gaels drew first blood, as fourth-year kicker Tyler Mullen converted a 32-yard field goal with 10:03 minutes left in the first quarter, bringing the score to 3–0. The Blues fired back, with fourthyear kicker Sam Henke drilling a 30-yard field goal
at 4:34 minutes to tie things up at 3–3, proving that the Blues weren’t going to back down.
However, late in the quarter, momentum shifted when Queen’s quarterback Alex Vreeken connected on a 27-yard touchdown pass with 1:19 minutes remaining, and the Gaels scored the ensuing extra point, giving them a 10–3 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Still, Toronto kept fighting. Henke struck again with a powerful 28-yard field goal at 7:19 minutes in the second quarter, bringing the score to 10–6 and narrowing the Gaels’ lead. Yet Queen’s scored a 14-yard touchdown pass just before halftime, putting them ahead 17–6 at the break.
The third quarter proved particularly difficult for the Blues’ defence. Gaels running back Jared Chisari scored on a 5-yard run, stretching the lead to 24–6. Despite the Blues’ struggles, various players saw individual success. Linebacker Elia Lini led all
In a post-game interview with The Varsity, Lambert spoke about her performance and thoughts on the upcoming season. “Honestly, it was a great game… I didn’t expect to score today, but I was super excited and hyped.” Lambert also emphasized her high hopes moving forward in the season, following a solid playoff run by the Blues last year. “I’m excited to keep winning and hopefully win the championship.”
What’s next?
The Blues continued their pre-season schedule with a match against the York Lions on September 20, where they shut them out with a 4–0 win. They will play the University of Windsor and St. Francis Xavier University this weekend, followed by their last pre-season exhibition versus the University of Guelph on October 3. The Blues Women’s Hockey Team’s first official OUA match will be versus the
players with eight tackles, while quarterback Scott Barnett had 213 passing yards.
Oseen continued to shine as a key playmaker, finishing with 11 receptions for 112 yards, while Chris Joseph added five catches for 67 yards.
Joseph was recently named Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Athlete of the Week, following a standout performance where he tied the U SPORTS single-game record for receptions for the second time this season.
Sadly, despite the Blues’ efforts, Queen’s closed out the third quarter with a touchdown and an extra point, bringing the score to 31–6. They added another 13 points in the fourth
sealing a 44–6 victory.
What’s next?
With the loss, the Blues’ record dropped to 1–3 on the season, and they are currently ranked tenth in the OUA. However, with the season only halfway through, Toronto still has plenty of time to mount a comeback.
The Blues returned to Varsity Stadium on September 20 for a matchup against Windsor University, where they lost to the Lancers 14–34. They will face Wilfrid Laurier University away this Saturday, on September 27.
William Kuk Varsity Contributor
The Blues registered three goals against the Gaels. KATE WANG/THEVARSITY
Despite starting the game fairly evenly, the Blues’ efforts fell short. ARU DAS/THEVARSITY
The Blues won their first pre-season match against UPEI. WILLIAM KUK/THEVARSITY
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