October 26, 2015

vol. cXXXvi, no. 7

T he UniversiTy

of

ToronTo’s sTUdenT newspaper since 1880

26 ocTober 2015

STUDENT LIFE

Alleged history of sexual assault at WCSA pub crawl prompts boycott WCSA implements changes to make event safer, more inclusive EMILY COLERO

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Content warning: Discussion of sexual assault The annual Halloween Streetcar Pub Crawl hosted by the Woodsworth College Students’ Association (WCSA) is facing scrutiny after reports of sexual assault and rape in previous years have come to light. In response to the allegations, some students are calling to boycott pub-crawl and have set up their own alternative event on Facebook.

“Over the past two years, there have been multiple incidents of severe sexual violence at previous WCSA Halloween Streetcar Pubcrawls,” reads a portion of the boycott event’s description. “WCSA has failed to inform the student body of these attacks at their event, nor have they made sufficient efforts to improve the safety of this event. Despite making promises to substantively address sexual violence within their community, there has been no evidence that they have followed through with this.”

ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT Veronica*, a student who attended WCSA’s Streetcar Pub Crawl last year, alleged that the WCSA president at the time sexually assaulted her.

“I went on the WCSA streetcar event with the WCSA president, who was a close friend of mine and I got very drunk,” she recalled.

“It was easy to do because there was no way to track the number of drinks you’d had. I was just given a bunch of drink tickets at once.”

Veronica said that the WCSA president offered to take her home afterwards. “I was house-sitting at the time so I was alone. I remember going to bed and then I remember waking up under the covers with him under the covers with me. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

“This isn’t really to do with WCSA — it just shows what kind of leadership there was at the time,” she commented.

When asked what could be done to make the event safer, Veronica said that there should be more active bystanders. “They should have people who are sober and watching out for students who don’t look comfortable or who don’t seem to be able to take care of themselves.”

THE BOYCOTT Lisa Meyer, a fourth-year Woodsworth College student, and Celia Wandio, founder of Students Against Sexual Violence U of T, are calling for students to boycott the pub crawl, or for WCSA to cancel the event altogether.

They said that they would like WCSA to refrain from hosting events involving alcohol until they make a commitment to the safety of the students and to have students at each location monitor potential unsafe situations.

Continued on PG 5

Thanks boys As the storybook seAson comes to A close, we look bAck on how the toronto blue JAys cAptured the heArts And imAginAtions of the city.

PG 27

Fans celebrate resurgent Jays at home at the Rogers Centre. ZHU/CC FLICKR

STUDENT LIFE

New College Student Council’s fees withheld for months Current NCSC executive blame previous vice-president finance after failing to file audit on time TOM YUN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

For several months, the University of Toronto administration froze the accounts of the New College Student Council (NCSC), as the audited reports for the 2013–14 year were not filed on time. The NCSC accounts remained frozen until this month.

The NCSC is funded by a compulsory levy, which all New College students pay.

According to the Governing Council’s Policy for Compulsory Non-Academic Incidental Fees, every student society is required to submit an auditor’s report by December 31 each year. The university withholds fees from student societies that fail to meet the deadline until an auditor’s report is submitted.

The NCSC’s reserve funds were not affected. During the time that their levy was withheld, the NCSC continued to operate using these funds.

MISAPPROPRIATED FUNDS Nicholas Grant, vice-president finance of the NCSC, told The Varsity that the auditor sent him a list of 25 items where “the money didn’t seem to be allocated properly,” with the costs of these items ranging from $50 to $50,000.

According to Grant, many of these items were not properly listed in the budget under the correct portfolio. “There [was] something to the tune of $30,000 that was not listed anywhere and there was all this extra money that they couldn’t really explain where it came from,” Grant added.

In total, Grant said that there was around

$70,000 in funds that were improperly allocated and he confirmed this issue was eventually resolved. “Those were the missing pieces towards the end of all this. And that’s what dragged into September.”

ALLEGED MISCONDUCT Grant placed much of the blame for the situation on his predecessor, Alicia Lazaro. “The current executive of the NCSC alleges the previous vice-president finance acted irresponsibly and didn’t do their job,” said Grant, adding “we allege that the main cause of our financial problems is that this individual did not complete a financial audit to be presented to the university, falsified information, destroyed documents, and deliberately avoided transitioning execs in an attempt to delay discovery of these problems.”

Continued on PG 5

INSIDE Just watch me

In the wake of Trudeau’s majority Malone Mullins and Haris Yaqeen consider the future Comment PG 11

A cast of characters

We sit down with lauded historian and alumna Dr. Margaret MacMillan to discuss her newest book and the CBC Massey Lecture series Feature PG 14

Futurepop?

The Varsity in conversation with Purity Ring’s Megan James Arts & Culture PG 18

2 NEWS

T H E VA R S I T Y

M O N DAY 26 O C TO B E R 2 015 news@thevarsity.ca

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BUSINESS OFFICE

THE EXPLAINER HOW TO BE RE SP E CTFUL THIS HALLOWE ’E N Costumes are fun. Here’s how to dress up without contributing to oppressive structures.

1.

Cultural appropriation is the act of one culture

a marginalized racial identity without having to

borrowing or using the intellectual property, tra-

suffer the consequences of living it is extremely disrespectful.

ditional knowledge, cultural expressions, and/or artifacts from another culture without permission

2.

6.

Does your costume sexualize or fetishize people

and utilizing it for a commercial purpose. Under-

who are marginalized? Members of racialized and

stand this and do further research if you need to.

colonized communities are affected by hyper-

When you pick your costume, ask yourself: is

sexualization. Wearing a “sexy” cultural costume

this racist?

perpetuates these harmful ideas.

7.

Does your costume use sacred cultural arti-

3.

If you are not sure, asking more questions can help.

4.

Does your costume rely on you assuming a differ-

facts as props, and/or does it involve imita-

ent culture? If you’re going as a fictional character

tions of traditional garments? If so, do some-

Cherlene Tay Business Associate

who happens to be of a different race or culture

thing different.

Emmett Choi and Michelle Monteiro Advertising Executives

of a negative or inaccurate cultural stereotype?

cisgender man thinking of going as a trans woman

Does your costume involve the use of makeup

for Hallowe’en, don’t do it. Again, marginalized

to darken your skin? If so, don’t do it. Taking on

identities cannot be put on and taken off at will.

Parsa Jebely Business Manager

business@thevarsity.ca

The Varsity is the University of Toronto's largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. The Varsity has a circulation of 20,000, and is published by Varsity Publications Inc. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock.

Content © 2015 by The Varsity. All rights reserved. Any editorial inquiries and/or letters should be directed to the sections associated with them; emails listed above. The Varsity reserves the right to edit all submissions.

Inquiries regarding ad sales can be made to ads@ thevarsity.ca. ISSN: 0042-2789

to you, re-think it. Is the character an extension 5.

8.

Is your costume gender-appropriate? If you’re a

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NEWS 3

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FEDERAL ELECTION

Widespread increase in voter turnout for forty-second federal election Over 70,000 students voted at campus polling stations

VOTER TURNOUT IN THE 42ND FEDERAL ELECTIONS PER CENT

75.7

1979

69.3

1980

75.3

1984

75.3

70.9

1988 1993

67.0

1997

64.1

60.9

2000

2004

64.7

58.8

61.1

2006 2008

2011

68.5

2015

SOURCE: ELECTIONS CANADA DEVIKA DESAI AND ZUJAJAH ISLAM ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR AND VARSITY STAFF

The 2015 federal election brought about a number of significant firsts — not only did a Liberal majority defeat a decade of a Conservative government, Canada made strides in representing its diverse and multicultural identity by electing a record 88 women, 10 Muslims, and 10 Indigenous Members of Parliament (MPs), including its first MPs of Somali and Afghan decent.

This year’s election saw a seven per cent rise in voter turnout. Around 68 per cent of eligible voters voted this year, a noteworthy peak in the two decades since 1993.

The House of Commons is now comprised of 184 Liberals, 99 Conservatives, 44 New Democrats, 10 Bloc Quebecois, and one Green.

Liberal candidates prevailed in all three ridings that encompass U of T campuses — University-Rosedale, Scarborough-Rouge Park, and Mississauga-Erin Mills — Chrystia Freeland, Gary Anandasangaree, and Iqra Khalid won with 50 per cent of the vote or more.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NDP Perhaps one of the most surprising results of this election was the significant majority win for the Liberals. National public opinion polls show that about a month before Election Day, there was a momentous turn in supporters for the three major parties. Before mid-September, the NDP was in the lead, with the Liberal party rising to second place towards the beginning of September. By the end of September, Liberals were first in the polls, their support rising rapidly, while the NDP fell to third place.

There are several speculative explanations for the NDP’s sudden decline, the most popular reason being strategic voting. “I think there was substantial strategic voting in this election, particularly from NDP voters who abandoned that party to

support the Liberals,” said Peter Loewen, a political science professor at U of T. Stefan Ferraro, a political science teaching assistant at UTSC, as well as an NDP supporter and volunteer in Eglinton-Lawrence, describes his experience as a canvasser at a UTSC federal elections panel held last Thursday. “I would argue that 95 per cent of [NDP supporters] said, ‘I’m sorry, I love the NDP, but I’m so scared of Harper that I can’t vote for you this election.’”

Ferraro believes that Trudeau’s promise to reform the electoral system contributed to the rise in strategic voting. “This sort of gave NDP supporters the confidence to say, ‘not this time.’” Ferraro mentioned that during the last run of the campaign, CBC reported that around one in four NDP supporters had switched their vote.

HOW THE CONSERVATIVES FARED While the NDP faced a severe setback this election, the Conservatives managed to maintain enough seats to be the official opposition. Although the Conservative party lost the election, Matthew Gregory, the outgoing president of the UTSC Conservatives, is more optimistic about the Conservative’s result.

“The Conservatives fared fairly well actually.

If we look at all previous governments that had been in power for this long, we see a trend of complete collapse because people eventually get tired of them... For a party change after ten years, 99 seats helms is a massive achievement.”

With a Liberal majority and Conservative opposition, it will be interesting to see how the new government functions. “They [the Liberals] will be able to implement their agenda, but they’ll also have nowhere to hide if they are unable or unwilling to follow through in their promises. In a minority government situation, they could have reneged on some of their more ambitious proposals in the name of pursuing compromises with the other parties,” said Chris Cochrane, a political professor at UTSC.

While Loewen agreed that the Liberal majority will make it easier for them to pass their agenda, he remains cautious about how far they will be able to go. “The prose of governing will overtake the poetry of campaigning, and [the Liberals] will find it difficult to achieve many of their policy objectives.”

One of Trudeau’s main policy objectives includes replacing the current first-past-thepost system to a more proportional electoral system. If it does follow through, it will mean substantial change for the strategies employed in the next electoral campaign.

VOTER TURNOUT AND YOUTH PARTICIPATION According to Elections Canada, over 70,000 students voted at polling stations on university campuses.

“Unsurprisingly I think students responded really well to the Liberal’s plan to invest $1.5 billion into youth employment, an issue that of course resonates with youth entering the work force,” said Anthony Piruzza, who serves on the executive of the University of Toronto Liberals. “There were definitely aspects of the Liberal platform that resonated well with the student population and we tried to highlight these policies, some of which also include the addition of a Prime Minister’s Youth Advisory Council and marijuana legalization.”

Piruzza also attributed the positive response to the large student participation in the campaign itself, a sentiment that Thea Hays-Alberstat, another Liberal student supporter, echoes. “I mainly worked out of Chrystia Freeland and Adam Vaughan’s campaign offices and I was amazed to see the amount of young people volunteering. I think young people saw that over the last 10 years, the Harper government didn’t prioritize youth issues at all. I think that many realized, such as I, that just voting wasn’t enough to get rid of Harper, that we had to give our time to educating more on why the Liberal party was

the best choice for Canadians. I think by the amount of volunteers the Liberal Party mobilized, that is really what helped them win a majority.”

Natalie Petra, director of communications for the NDP Youth of Canada, discussed the importance of a social media strategy for greater youth electoral involvement. “I designed the outreach and community strategy myself,” she said. She outlined the threepronged strategy that the NDP followed: mobilizing the youth on the ground, developing a targeted social media plan, and engaging in a lot of youth debates and media appearances.

“We wanted to empower our youth activists in various provincial wings, regional youth clubs, and campus groups by giving them the resources and training needed to support and volunteer with the local candidates. There were more ways to get involved than ever, and students really took advantage of that,” Petra said.

“Ultimately youth engagement is simple,” said Matthew Campbell, fourth-year representative for the U of T Conservatives, who also worked as a summer intern for the Conservatives’ campaign. “Our formula was basic — knock on as many doors as possible, and engage with the entire family.” Although Campbell does not believe that the overall increase in voter participation reflects a major increase in youth turnout, he did remark upon on the extent of youth participation that he witnessed during the campaign.

Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at U of T, said that the high voting turnout is an anomaly and that it will likely decrease in the future. Loewen on the other hand, believes that voting turnout is likely to continue at this level.

Anthony Piruzza contributes to The Varsity.

4 NEWS

T H E VA R S I T Y

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FEDERAL ELECTION

“If Trudeau is wise…”

U of T’s Robert Bothwell on the federal election results JACK FRASER

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Robert Bothwell is one of Canada’s most prolific historians and the director of the International Relations program at Trinity College. He has written books on Pierre Trudeau, the Cold War, Quebec, and Canada-US relations, including The Penguin History of Canada. His extensive knowledge of Canadian history gives him an unique perspective on the 2015 federal election, the Harper years, and what to expect from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Robert Bothwell is a prominent Canadian historian and U of T professor. COURTESY OF ROBERT BOTHWELL

The Varsity (TV): One explanation for the result of last week’s election is that Canadians ‘don’t vote people in, they vote people out.’ Is that an accurate description?

Robert Bothwell (RB): It’s true most of the time. The phrase is ‘oppositions don’t win elections, governments defeat themselves,’ and never has that been more true than with Harper. [laughs] I’m only surprised that it didn’t happen several elections ago.

TV: Susan Delacourt wrote a book two years ago that described Canadian voters in the twentyfirst century as taxpayers rather than citizens, voting selfishly rather than in the national interest. Did this election repudiate that idea?

RB: This election wasn’t about personal gain, I really don’t think so. Harper of course probably was the most cynical Prime Minister in Canadian history. Every political season he would drop goodies to this section or that section and he was no different this time...

I think that theoretically people wish for a world where there’s no taxation, he’s not stupid to believe that, but in this case a lot of Canadians voted against their own selfinterest. It’s clear that people in higher tax brackets who voted Liberal were voting for higher taxes on themselves, and many people did. Harper would be very disappointed in this; he really does see economic self-interest as a primary motivator, and sometimes that is true, but not universally. Canadians were voting against the spirit of the last ten years. They were voting against meanness and nastiness, voting against the abuse of the political system. For most Canadians it was an unease that someone like Harper epitomized and represented, and the reaction was just ‘enough!’

TV: Would you characterize Harper’s time in office as transformative?

RB: It certainly represented a huge difference in policy, no question, [but] I think also a huge difference in spirit and zeitgeist. Curi-

ously, the same thing was said about the Diefenbaker government in 1963. The ‘63 election was very largely about Canadians wanting to go back to the past. Wanting to go back to the past is a serious motivation in politics... [there] is a parallel, but there are many differences too. Diefenbaker had a half-decent cabinet. This guy had, with one or two exceptions, a bunch of stooges, and their relationship to him was essentially that os soldier to captain, trying to show off allegiance. Tolkien would call them Ringwraiths, surrendering their souls in return for power. It’s not hard to compare Harper to Sauron though.

TV: Earlier you mentioned Canadians voting against Diefenbaker for things to go back to the way they were. Was the vote for the Liberals as opposed to the NDP any indication that Canadians wanted something familiar back?

RB: Well, the NDP promised a new vision [but] with the economics of [1930s Prime Minister] R.B. Bennett. That’s what really got me. In the Globe and Mail, [former Québec premier] Jean Charest referred to Mulcair as being on the right wing of his provincial cabinet in Québec, and his personal system of economics being deficit reduction or abolition. I guess Mulcair really believes [in it].

What struck me about Justin and company was that they obviously had been paying attention to what progressive economists have been writing, and I’m sure that’s true of many members of the party as well. Trudeau’s vision of progressive economics is of the twenty-first century, whereas the other guys were back in the desperately erroneous economics of the 1930s, which was horrifying to see. Mulcair’s strategy was basically ‘extend foot, wiggle toe, fire!’ [laughs] Silly.

TV: Would you say that the NDP’s balanced budget promise wasn’t a mistaken attempt to expand their lead by luring moderate Conservatives?

RB: Mulcair made the same mistake that

Horwath made in the 2014 [Ontario provincial] election...` Wynne’s election strategy in 2014 was bang on and she understood something about the Liberal party: the Liberals depend on progressive voters. She cut the knees out under Horwath, and Justin did the same thing to Mulcair. We don’t know for sure whether it’s conviction or just good politics, but if the Liberals are going to survive they have to survive as a progressive party, not as a pale imitation of the Conservatives...

You can’t ignore your progressive base because you’ll turn around to find that they aren’t behind you anymore... In the 1988 election, Ed Harris was going to bring the NDP to the top and send the Liberals off to the pit of hell. The way to beat the NDP, then as now, is to go left, because when the NDP thinks that it’s close to power it begins to behave in a quite conservative way. Mulcair said things on the campaign that, aside from being untrue, were calculated to offend the NDP’s supporters.

TV: If that’s true, how can Trudeau maintain supporters who voted for him strategically against Harper?

RB: If Trudeau is wise, and there’s no reason to think he isn’t, tactically he should be congenial to the NDP. There are members of the NDP who aren’t far from the Liberals in their policies... One thing that has to be done to the Parliament is to reform the rules of the House [of Commons}. Now this sounds terribly tedious, but it really is what would destroy Harper’s legacy. [Harper] obviously had a contempt for Parliament... Between the strangling of debate in Parliament [and] the treating of Parliament as less than a photoop — all of that has to come to an end. That would restore our most valuable traditions, because without them we don’t have responsible government; under Harper we certainly didn’t, once he got a majority he just did what he damn well pleased. Ideally that should be done with the full cooperation of the NDP...

This would be a root and branch repudiation of the way the Conservatives wielded power.

In a way that’s more important than the policies.

TV: Does Harper’s stripping away of those traditions make it easier for Trudeau to succeed?

RB: Yes, I think that it does. I’m continually flabbergasted at the way Harper behaved; he had so many characteristics that were obviously undesirable. Trudeau is clearly very different, and I have every expectation that he’ll change the whole style.

TV: With all the talk of restoring Canadian traditions, will this country be able to return to the supposed glory days of peaceful foreign engagement?

RB: I believe that our foreign policy and our military policy should work together, and they should be effective. I believe that Canada should participate in international coalitions.

I also believe that they have to have a point and be effective. That is very much a Canadian tradition. The first question we should ask is ‘does it work’ We have a reputation for that. We used to be pragmatic... Harper sees the world in bright primary colours. Going into his mind is like reading a comic book: POW! BANG! ZOWIE! Canada should be a competent, constructive, pragmatic, intelligent, practical force in international affairs.

Boy, do I believe that. It’s on that basis that Canadians are respected abroad. Not because they had big ideas about peacekeeping, but because they were prepared to do something practical. For the first time in years I’m actually telling young people that working for the government is a worthwhile career.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

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$15,000 allegedly missing from NCSC budget

WCSA releases statement on pub crawl

The NCSC office. The student society had its accounts frozen until October. SNEHA DASGUPTA/THE VARSITY

CONTINUED FROM COVER

Grant said that he became aware of these issues after taking office. He claimed that Lazaro did not provide him with a transition package and after he took control of the vice-president finance’s email address, he noticed that there were no emails between Lazaro and the auditor. Lazaro reportedly told Grant that she did not have any communication with the auditor, and that the 2013–14 audit was her predecessor’s responsibility. “[This] is untrue,” said Grant, “because her predecessor’s term would’ve been done by the end of the financial year so there’s no way she could’ve compiled the audit.”

However, the auditor told Grant that he had been constantly exchanging emails with Lazaro.

Grant believes that Lazaro deleted the emails. “The auditor actually forwarded over all these conversations,” said Grant. “There are about 50 or so messages back and forth between her and the auditor explaining in great detail the situation, so she was well aware of everything.”

Grant also stated that there were important financial documents saved in the NCSC’s Google drive that were overwritten during Lazaro’s tenure.

“We actually lost all those financial documents and financial statements, such as the cheques that were going out, any contact that she would’ve had. It would’ve been all stored centrally and it was stored centrally for all the previous years, but that’s all been overwritten on all of our digital documents and we can’t find any of that.”

As of present time, Lazaro had not responded to The Varsity’s request for comment.

TROUBLES WITH THE AUDITOR Grant also disclosed to The Varsity that the accountant who was in charge of the c ouncil’s audit quit the auditing firm unexpectedly in August and “the firm had to start much of the work over again.”

Afterwards, the person in charge of the firm assumed most of the responsibilities that the previous auditor had. However, Grant noted that the auditor “hadn’t left com-

plete documents” although he said that he was able to get much of the important information for the audit within the two months before the auditor left the firm.

AFTERMATH The NCSC held an emergency meeting on September 25. Between several in-camera sessions, there were discussions of increasing the scrutiny put into the budget, doing more to keep executives accountable, as well as working with the University of Toronto Students’ Union and the Office of Residence and Student Life at New College. There was also talk of possibly implementing changes to the position of vice-president finance, as members of the council felt that the previous vice-president finance was unprepared for the challenges of the position.

Althea Blackburn-Evans, director of news & media relations at U of T, confirmed that the NCSC’s audit was eventually received and that the administration has ways of assisting the student societies that fail to meet the deadline.

“The satisfactory auditor’s report was submitted in October of this year so the funds have been received,” she said. “If the student societies ever miss a deadline, the vice-provost students will work with them and with the appropriate student life staff to help them meet the obligations of the policies.”

An audit for the 2014–15 year will have to be submitted by the end of this year, and according to Grant, this audit “already has a whole bunch of problems with it that we’re trying to deal with.”

“About $15,000 [is] just straight up missing, as in money that just disappeared from the office,” said Grant. “I have had these conversations with the president from last year after he had already left. He said that there is just money just disappearing and nobody really paid attention to it or cared what’s going on.”

“This is going to be a problem for my year coming up because I have to complete [Lazaro’s] audit now for the most recent financial year that just finished. There are massive paper trails that are missing.”

WCSA has implemented procedures to make its annual streetcar pub crawl safer. IRIS ROBIN /NEWS EDITOR

CONTINUED FROM COVER

“The fact that WCSA has never told their constituents about the assaults is completely unacceptable and downright shameful,” Meyer said. “It is WCSA’s responsibility to ensure that students who attend their events are safe and this is something they have failed to do year after year.”

WCSA rents out a streetcar to take students to several different bars, but according to Meyer, who worked with WCSA on the event in 2012, it’s not a safe or guaranteed mode of transportation.

“WCSA is very clear year after year that ‘the streetcar waits for no one’,” said Meyer, adding, “I remember being at the event and scrambling to find people you know that the streetcar was about to leave the bar. If the people couldn’t be found, the group would leave without them. Additionally, there was no ride back from the third and last bar, meaning that all attendees would have to find their way home while being piss drunk.

Back in 2012, we ended in Little Portugal.”

“I decided to help with this boycott because what has happened at previous WCSA pub crawls has been horrible,” said Wandio.

“There are suggestions that they are taking more safety precautions as a result but there has been no clear attempt to communicate this to students. While off-campus alcoholic events are difficult to regulate, WCSA needs to do more in order to ensure the safety of all its students and to show that they take sexual violence seriously,” Wandio added.

Jasmine Denike, vice-president external of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), said, “the UTSU will not be endorsing the boycott of the Streetcar Pub Crawl but we do encour-

age the WCSA executives to re-evaluate the event and find ways to improve the safety of students who are attending.”

“As these incidents have happened in the past, it’s a possibility that they may happen in the future. The best way to avoid them is to acknowledge them and to take the necessary steps in preventing them from ever happening again,” Denike said, adding, “it’s not the fault of the current exec — they haven’t done anything wrong. I’d just like to see the event made safer and better. It’s not an attack on WCSA. Everything needs to change to be safer.”

WCSA’S RESPONSE WCSA released a statement on Sunday, October 25 regarding the pub night. The statement outlines the changes that have been implemented in order to make the event safer.

“Our Vice-President of Social Affairs has personally met with our Dean of Students as well as our Student Life Coordinator to brainstorm ways to mitigate risks, as well as meeting with the executive team of WCSA to discuss how to minimize risks for our students.

We have created a detailed risk management plan for the evening and implemented changes to make the event more inclusive and safer for all our students,” a portion of the statement reads.

“WCSA does not tolerate assaults of any kind nor do we act in a way that puts our students at risk,” said Olivia Hauck, WCSA president, and Ongio Tsui, WCSA vice president, social, in a joint email to The Varsity. “In the past we have always worked to ensure that measures were put in place to keep students safe at our events including sober leaders, wristbands to identify students, train-

ing, and strong communication with venues.”

Hauck and Tsui also told The Varsity that they have made changes to the event.

According to Hauck and Tsui, these changes include holding the event on a Tuesday instead of a Thursday or weekend evening, a move aimed at minimizing crowds at the venues. The event’s time has also changed, starting at 7:15 p.m and ending around 11:00 p.m.

Only Woodsworth students will be allowed to participate at the event this year, and the bars will either have a private section reserved for Woodsworth students or the entire bar will be booked out. No drink tickets will be handed out to students as they have been in previous years.

Hauck and Tsui said that more “sober leaders” are being added to the event to escort students to and from the streetcar, ensuring each person has a safe way home if they wish to leave early. According to Hauck and Tsui, the majority of the leaders will also be first aid certified. The “sober leaders” will each be responsible for a group of students, of whom they must keep track of throughout the night and whom students must check in with before leaving. All students will wear wristbands and each group will have different coloured wristbands.

WCSA has also introduced a “pre-event workshop” to tell students about “check-out” procedures” and to ensure they know whom to ask for help. The streetcar will also take the students back to campus this year.

A separate budget for “home-returning” has been allocated for students needing TTC tokens or taxi money, and leaders can accompany students if they are leaving alone.

With files from Iris Robin

6 NEWS

T H E VA R S I T Y

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STUDENT LIFE

Trans Inclusivity Project fights transphobia and transmisogyny Horizontally-structured group first of its kind at U of T IRIS ROBIN NEWS EDITOR

The Trans Inclusivity Project (TIP) is a new club at the University of Toronto founded to address the systemic inequality experienced by transgender students trying to access education, as well as the violence experienced by transgender people in Toronto.

“Even organizations and faculty within U of T have a history of perpetuating transphobia and transmisogyny, both through intentional and unintentional means.

Simply put, this history is an unjust one, and it urgently needs to be addressed with accountability, and sweeping changes,” said Jades Swadron, an organizer with TIP. One of TIP’s main objections to the RCPA panel discussion was the involvement of large corporations. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

A UNIQUE GROUP Although TIP is a student group recognized by both ULife and the University of Toronto Students’ Union, its services are also available to the greater Toronto trans community.

“While TIP also serves to act as a student advocacy group in the case of students experiencing transmisogyny or transphobia, but with such a large school, it should also come as no surprise that it plays a role in the lives of people who are not students or faculty,” said Swadron.

“Being able to provide outreach for trans people who are not students, and also letting trans students interact with them and grow off their experiences, is definitely an invaluable experience for both parties involved.”

A unique aspect of the group is that rejects a hierarchical structure, preferring a horizontal structure instead. “Due to the ways in which trans people have had to endure marginalization so consistently, it is in our experience that only the most privileged trans people seem to get into positions of power, even within our own communities,” explained Swadron. “[Every] time a trans person seems to be able to succeed, they are leaving everyone else around them behind. Our successes are all too often tokenistic, and rather than bringing up the community, they just seem to separate

us… With the marginalization that trans people face, a few people getting a chance for success is absolutely insufficient for changing the overall status of trans people,” she said.

PROTEST AGAINST RCPA EVENT TIP recently held its first events — a meeting, and a protest against a panel discussion held by the Rotman Commerce Pride Alliance (RCPA), both of which Swadron feels were successful.

The protest occurred on Wednesday, October 21, outside the U of T Faculty Club, where the RCPA-hosted panel discussion took place. The panel discussion, entitled ‘The Business Case’, was designed to create discussion around how LGBTQ+ inclusion throughout the workplace drives acceptance and authenticity.

“As LGBTQ+ and ally business students, one of our aims is to help build a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQ+ individuals in the corporate sphere and to further the dialogue around the important issue of diversity in the workplace,” said Christopher Morello, president of the RCPA. Morello added that through the discussion, the RCPA sought to address some of the historical and systematic marginalization of LGBTQ+ people in business by connect-

ing students interested in finance, consulting, accounting, and legal careers with special networking opportunities to reduce barriers into the workforce.

However, TIP saw cause to boycott the event, citing the cost of the panel discussion, sponsorship concerns, and co-opting of the term ‘intersectionality’ as reasons for the boycott. “The way in which the Rotman Commerce Pride Alliance positions diversity and inclusion as not having inherent value beyond their ability to increase profits, renders it a matter of tokenization and superficial marketing schemes, and affirms our standing that corporations will forever place us in the margins,” read part of a post in the boycott’s Facebook event.

“One of the core mandates of the RCPA is to support the visibility and acceptance of trans people in business,” said Morello in response to the boycott. “All RCPA members actively engage in trans inclusion workshops with the University of Toronto’s Sexual Gender and Diversity Office, the 519 Church Street Community Centre, and the Miamibased YES Institute. Since our founding, the RCPA has welcomed numerous trans students and professionals to our events in a truly safe environment,” he added.

While Swadron acknowledged that the RCPA’s event was not without merit, they objected primarily to the involvement of large corporations in the event’s funding. “[As] an event aimed at LGBT people, the RCPA’s event was already trying to do something right. However, the way the event was very much wrapped up with corrupt corporations, and depicted business as an unrealistic saviour to queer people. These sorts of things made protesting the event a very much prudent thing to do,” Swadron said.

Morello told The Varsity that the RCPA tried to meet with TIP organizers in advance of the panel discussion and protest, but that attempts were unsuccessful. “We appreciate the value of diverging viewpoints within our community and extend an invitation to anyone interested to engage in dialogue to drive equality forward,” Morello said.

TIP plans to host a workshop on Wednesday, October 28, explaining their call to boycott the RCPA event. “The reception we have received has been both [despair-inducing], in the sense that there are still bigots around campus, but also heartwarming, due to the positive impact we have been able to make already, just in TIP’s first semester of existence,” Swadron said.

ADMINISTRATION

In Conversation: Sandy Welsh New U of T vice provost, students on representing students and improving services EMMA COMPEAU VARSITY STAFF

Sandy Welsh, new but not a stranger. MALLIKA MAKKAR/ PHOTO EDITOR

Although technically new to the position, Sandy Welsh, the University of Toronto’s incoming vice provost, students, is no stranger to the University of Toronto. With 21 years of experience in positions that ranges from professor to vice-dean. Welsh has the experience, knowledge, background, and big ideas needed to take on the immense task of improving student life for the largest student body in Canada.

Welsh officially began her five-year term on July 1, 2015 and worked closely with student groups in an effort to encourage students to vote in the federal election.

Now that the election is over, Welsh will be prioritizing student engagement across all three campuses to get to the root of the most important issues facing students. On reaching out to students, Welsh emphasizes that she is eager to speak with students. “I’m really willing to have the difficult conversations that

people want to have and to hear the things that people tell me.” Welsh hopes that her background in a tri-campus department will help her achieve her goals of building a sense of community for students at U of T. Accommodating differences in the student body is another important part of being vice provost, students. Representing all students across three campuses, including graduate students, Welsh notes the different experiences between that of a graduate and undergraduate student and has begun to pinpoint areas of interest for those different groups including mental health services. One of the graduate-focused initiatives is providing locations for counselling services that are different from those of undergraduates. Welsh says that an awareness of cycles is important and that student services are “not a one size fits all model. ” Another priority for her is continuing work to provide services for victims of sexual violence and to establish training for dons, staff, and faculty on sexual violence and consent.

Welsh is also prioritizing improvement of the student experience for international students, and is working to have embedded counselors at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Looking to the future, Welsh says, “I hope that one of my legacies will be what comes out of our recommendations for sexual violence, and to leave students feeling that they know where to go.”

“I take administrative jobs because they call out to me. It’s because there is a job that touches me in some way, and I really think is important. I want to know what I can do to help students, and if there is a legacy I hope I have done some things that make life better for all of our students here.”

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ACADEMICS

TORONTO

St. George introduces exams on Saturdays, Friday mornings

“The real work is in the hand and in the heart” Toronto poe t laureate discusses plans for a citywide poem

Schedule may cause problems for religious students, commuters

Anne Michaels is the fifth person to hold the position of Toronto poet laureate. COURTESY OF ANNE MICHAELS

SAMINA SULTANA VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

JULIANN GARISTO/THE VARSITY

IRIS ROBIN NEWS EDITOR

Students writing final examinations in December at the University of Toronto should book off their weekends, as the UTSG exam schedule includes Friday morning and Saturday exam slots for the first time.

UTM and UTSC have had Friday morning and Saturday exams for several years.

According to Steve Bailey, director of academic and campus events at U of T, the additional exam times are the result of a late Labour Day this year. Since classes did not begin until the third week of September, there is less time for students to write their exams at the end of the semester.

Abdullah Shihipar, president of the Arts & Science Students’ Union (ASSU), told The Varsity that he does not think that the situation could have been avoided. “Having discussed this with the faculty, the academic calendar is quite constrained this year and it seems like Saturday exams were the only option to fit all these exams, while keeping the study period,” he said.

Shihipar noted that the schedule might cause problems for students who have exams at the same time as their religious observances, and for students for whom commuting on weekends can be an additional challenge. “These students will be accommodated like an exam con-

flict… It is not an ideal situation and the Faculty seems to acknowledge this,” Shihipar said.

“Saturday exams might seriously affect Jewish students on campus as it goes against the rules of Sabbath.

[The] university has to resolve this situation and at least offer alternative days of exam sitting,” said Yana Staroverova, a third-year mathematics and economics student.

Alex Verman, a fourth-year political science student and ASSU executive, echoed Staroverova’s concerns. “As a Sabbath-observant Jew, I know that this introduces another unpleasant complication that students will have to navigate.”

Verman resolved to help students access the accommodation they need in order to write their exams free of conflict. “I can only hope that the Faculty will be cooperative, patient, and lenient, fee-wise, with providing exam deferrals, especially to those students who cannot write exams on Saturdays for religious reasons, and I intend to work to that end,” he said.

U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science website states that students who have exams scheduled at the same time as religious observances should contact the faculty registrar for assistance.

Doyun Kim, a second-year East Asian Studies student, does not believe the schedule is fair to students.

“I can understand why [the new examination times] were put in place; however, for students, it largely cuts

into time that is set aside for their own use, and adds to the stress of student life,” he said, highlighting the inconveniences of extra commuting.

“One particular inconvenience is that commuters who live away from the campus area of downtown Toronto will face their commutes for just one to three hours of exams on days when they normally would not make the commute,” Kim said.

“This costs money and time that they could spend on other pursuits — destressing from exams, studying for other exams, or following other interests.”

“Given that students tend to look forward to Friday mornings/Saturdays as time that they have to take care of themselves, I believe that it is to the detriment of students’ mental health and wellbeing to take this time away from them as a permanent change. Perhaps it makes sense only as a temporary measure introduced for this single semester,” Kim said.

Looking to future examination schedules, Shihipar said that Friday morning and Saturday exams will probably be here to stay. “We know that this will likely be in place next year; however, we are hoping it does not go beyond that.”

With files from U of T News Alex Verman contributes to The Varsity

Toronto’s new poet laureate is U of T alumna Anne Michaels. She is the fifth person to hold the position.

Michaels, who will officially take office on December 1, said that she was thrilled and honoured to have this opportunity, hailing it as a “tremendous opportunity to do something of value.”

During her three-year term, Michaels wants to create a citywide project to celebrate the diversity of languages in the city. She also mentioned a series aimed at elementary and high school students that would celebrate the rich literary history of poets and writers in Toronto. “There are many important sites in city that are literary,” Michaels noted.

The project is in the early stages of development and would involve contributions from across Toronto. “All voices are equal, everyone is speaking up,” said Michaels on the collective participation aspect of the project.

As an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto’s English department, Michaels enjoys speaking to students. She said that her students have a real drive and a commitment to working hard.

“The great thing about this position is that it is about literature, about power, about speaking out, and about great faith and hope.

Millennials and every generation will be [or] are eager to have a voice in how things are and how things work,” said Michaels.

“Writing is a way of understanding, a way to try and get to the heart of the question. It teaches you how to love... It allows you to go into unparalleled territory,” Michaels said.

When asked if technology will change the way people write, Mi-

chaels, who writes using a pen and paper, stated that there is truth to writing in your own hand. “You force yourself to get at something.

With a screen it is easy to type things in, to erase it. In your own hand, [there is] something more at stake somehow.”

“The real work is in the hand and in the heart. Technology is just a tool,” she said, adding, “the true art of writing, what it takes to write a book, technology can never change that. That journey is a deeply interior journey, a real journey of thought. Technology can aid once you’ve written [and] technology is fantastic for revising and editing. It makes that process so easy, but the actual creating — technology can’t change what that is.”

Michaels has been working on a novel for a number of years now, and in addition to a children’s book coming out next month, she has another book of poetry coming out next year.

For Michaels, the writing process occurs daily — she takes time to write each day. “It is important to commit yourself to every day...

Think about what you want to say before you say it. Really work through your ideas, why you’re writing, what you’re writing, [and] what’s at stake.”

“Build in thinking time into your work. Nobody can really just sit down and bang it out on the computer or on the page without thinking, revising, failing, how many times do we ever get it right the first time,” Michaels said. “Usually we have to say it several times before we get it right. It should be empowering, not a drag, [and it should] really shape what you’re thinking to reach the heart and head of the reader.”

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Annual General Meeting Part 2 Wednesday 18 November 2015 OISE Auditorium (G162) | 5:30pm-10:30pm Registration starts at 4:30pm Every member* at the University of Toronto Student’s Union can participate in this meeting.

Agenda: ’ Call to Order ’ Welcoming Remarks ’ President’s Address and Executive Question Period ’ Approval of Agenda ’ Approval of Minutes ’ Receipt of the 2014-2015 Audited Financial Statements ’ Appointment of Auditors for 2015-2016 ’ Confirmation of Board of Directors Structure ’ Approval of Bylaw Amendments ’ Adjournment For the full text of all the resolutions to be considered at the meeting, please consult the University of Toronto Students’ Union Website at utsu.ca/agm

Accessibility Wheelchair accessible. If you have any accessibility requests, require ASL interpretation, childcare, or have other inquiries, please contact Ryan Gomes, Vice-President Internal and Services, by November 11 at vpinternal@utsu.ca or 416-978-4911 x240

Instructions for voting by proxy If you are unable to attend this meeting, and wish to give another person the authority to vote for you, please complete an online proxy form at https://utsu.simplyvoting.com

by Tuesday 17 November at 5pm. You can login to the online proxy system starting Tuesday 10 November at 9am.

The UTSU proxy system is now online.

Please note that due to the regulations applicable to the Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act, the member who is giving the authority to vote to another member must initiate the process.

Further instructions on voting by proxy will be available at utsu.ca/agm

Save time and pre-register Want to avoid the line-up at registration and have your name printed on your voting card? Our pre-registration will be available for individual members between 9 November and 13 November. If you cannot pre-register, you can still register at the door.

*Members of the UTSU include: Â’ Full-time undergraduate students at the St. George and Mississauga campuses Â’ Toronto School of Theology students Â’ Transitional Year Program students Â’ Students on a Professional Employment Year (PEY) program

M O N DAY 26 O C TO B E R 2 015

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NEWS 9

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ACADEMICS

Number of applications to US law schools may increase Ontario law schools experiencing slip in applicants EMILY JOHNPULLE

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Nearly

88% 35%

According to a survey by Kaplan Test Prep, the 2015–2016 year may see an increase in the number of students applying to law schools south of the border, making it one of the most competitive law school admissions cycles for Americans, as well as several hundred Canadian students.

Eighty-eight per cent of the 120 law schools surveyed agree that this increase in applications is possible. Data from the Law School Admission Council echoes this possibility as the number of Law School Admission Tests (LSATs) taken between December 2014 and June 2015 has increased.

are confident that their law school will see a spike for the 2015-2016 application cycle, compared to Kaplan’s 2014 survey when only 46% expressed confidence that their law school would see an increase in applications over the previous cycle.

of law schools cut the number of seats for their 2015 class of first-year students, much lower than the 54% who reported doing so for the 2014 class of 1Ls.

This projected increase comes after the cohort entering law school in 2014 was the smallest entering class in 40 years. Fifty-four per cent of schools reported cutting the number of seats for the 2014 class, while 35 per cent of law school cut the number of seats for the 2015 class.

Jeff Thomas, Kaplan Test Prep’s executive director of prelaw programs, stated that the previous drop in LSAT takers and law school applicants was due to the poor employment opportunities for potential lawyers. Following the 2008 recession, when there was a boost in applications to law schools

and a subsequent large number of law school graduates, the job market could not accommodate the new lawyers.

“What we are seeing now is a slow and somewhat steady increase of jobs in the legal industry. There [is] a general consensus that while the market is still fragile, we have turned a corner,” said Thomas. “Another key point to mention is that many law schools have responded to this situation with pro-activity and innovation, including changes to their curricula to make their students more practice-ready for the workforce.”

NUMBER OF APPLICANTS TO U OF T LAW COMPARED TO OTHER LAW SCHOOLS IN ONTARIO

2013 2014 2015 Lakehead

1135

916

937

Osgoode

3106

2725

2491

Ottawa

3199

2753

2683

Queens

2786

2498

2351

Western

2713

2364

2117

Windsor

2290

1965

1786

Toronto

1765

1978

2009

DECREASE IN APPLICATIONS TO ONTARIO LAW SCHOOLS Although U of T produces more applicants to American law schools than any other university in Canada, thousands of students will be applying to law schools in Ontario where the number of applicants tells a different story than in the US. According to data obtained from Benjamin Alarie, associate

2013 to 2014 Toronto Law All Other Ontario Law School

2014 to 2015

Cumulative, 2013 to 2015

12.1% 1.6% 13.8% -13.2% -6.5% -18.8%

professor and chair of admissions at U of T’s Faculty of Law, Ontario law schools have experienced a drop in applications from 2013 to 2015, with the exception of U of T, which has seen an increase in applications.

Of the 18 law schools in Canada, seven are located in Ontario. Statistics from Ontario Universities’ Applications Centre, show that all Ontario law schools had previously seen a steady increase in the number of applications from 1997 up until 2013.

Mya Rimon, assistant dean of students at Osgoode Hall Law School, said that word of the struggling legal market is beginning to impact applications to Canadian law schools as it once did to US law schools.

“I think, also, that there has been more recent media attention (ie. starting in about 2012) in Canada about the ‘articling crisis’ (although I don’t necessarily agree with that premise) so there may be some concern (warranted or not) about the Canadian legal job market,” said Rimon.

COMMENT var.st/comment

26 O ctOber 2015

comment@thevarsity.ca

Pro-choice? Speak up

Women fighting for reproductive rights have little use for silence ARTICLE BY TEODORA PASCA AND ILLUSTRATION BY ELHAM NUMAN VARSITY ASSOCIATE COMMENT EDITOR AND ASSOCIATE ILLUSTRATION EDITOR

S

everal weeks ago, late for class, I hastily rushed past a group of pro-life demonstrators congregated on the corner of Harbord and St. George. Organized by University of Toronto Students for Life, this protest and others like it on campus are part of a larger, nation-wide pro-life initiative called the ‘Choice Chain.’ The aims of this campaign include “saving babies,” and “sparing women from the physical, emotional, and spiritual damage that abortion inflicts.”

Demonstrators came brandishing enormous laminated placards displaying blown-up photos of blood and guts. At other demonstrations, post-abortive women have been encouraged to hold signs condemning their own reproductive decisions that proclaim 'I Regret My Abortion' and 'I Regret Lost Fatherhood.'

Although they attempt to assert their legitimacy using science and appeals to morality, most pro-life organizations like Students for Life actually spread misinformation.

If I had stopped to confront the protesters that day, I would have reminded them that it was almost 30 years ago that the Supreme Court of Canada deemed legal restrictions on abortion unconstitutional. This is due to the fact that women’s rights to their own bodies are protected under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees all individuals the right to security of the person. This fundamental provision throws legal weight behind the idea that a woman cannot be forced into any activity involving her own body without her consent.

With their essential goal to control women’s abortion decisions — which is a fundamental question of bodily integrity — these pro-life protestors are clearly unconcerned with women’s Section 7 rights.

Pro-life ideology within the context of sexual assault is especially abhorrent. As the Campaign Life Coalition puts it,

“A baby is not the worst thing that could ever happen to a rape victim — an abortion is.” Not only do rape victims have their bodily integrity forcibly violated, but pro-life groups argue that these victims are also required to bear children conceived under these horrific circumstances. In this way, pro-lifers that encourage women not to have abortions are preventing victims from regaining some control over their own lives when they need it most.

ALTHOUGH THEY ATTEMPT TO ASSERT THEIR LEGITIMACY USING SCIENCE AND APPEALS TO MORALITY, MOST PROLIFE ORGANIZATIONS LIKE STUDENTS FOR LIFE ACTUALLY SPREAD MISINFORMATION. Practically speaking, pro-life groups’ claims to abortion's apparent harm are rather misleading. Consider, for example, a 2012 US study that found that abortion is a relatively safe practice. Ironically, women are 14 times more likely to die during or after childbirth than as a result of post-abortion complications.

It has also been indicated that the majority of women also do not regret terminating their pregnancies; in 2015, the University of California, San Francisco surveyed nearly 700 women who had received abortions over a three-year period. Over 95 per cent of these women did not regret their decisions, and the few who did had low social support or experienced pressure from their partners. In other words, the choice was not wholly their own.

Given the strong feminist community on campus, I am inclined to believe that many U of T students would support women in their fight to maintain control over their own bodies. Yet why do anti-abortionists remain relatively unopposed on campus? I have yet to see any counter protests or campaigns holding them to account for spreading misinformation.

While it may seem like these pro-life groups are fighting a losing battle, there is too much at stake to be complacent and allow their organization to go unchecked. Support from the Canadian government for abortion services has been lacking.

Under the Conservative administration, significant cuts were made to a number of Canadian women’s groups in 2010, and again in 2013, the government refused to fund abortions for overseas war rape victims and child brides.

Meanwhile, the pro-life movement is modernizing to attract youth to the cause by means of podcasts, video contests, and giveaways. As Jonathon Van Maren from the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform stated, “The hairline cracks are starting to form in the abortion consensus, and the more young people we throw at it, the bigger the cracks are going to get.”

At U of T, pro-choice supporters have the ability to make a powerful statement that women's bodily integrity is a cause deserving of our attention. If you believe in reproductive rights, then organize a counter-protest, or at least go out of your way to combat pro-life arguments, either directly with protestors or amongst your friend groups. Women should not have to feel like their bodies, as well as their fates, rest in hands other than their own.

Teodora Pasca is a second-year student at Innis College studying criminology and ethics, society & law. She is The Varsity’s Associate Comment Editor. Her column appears every three weeks.

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So the election is over: what now?

After the Liberal's sweeping victory on October 19, Justin Trudeau is now Canada's prime minister-designate. CANADA 2020/CC FLICKR

The arrogance of hope

Strength through stability

Trudeau presents us with an opportunity, but it's up to us to take it

The newly-elected Liberals are unlikely to bring about revolutionary change

MALONE MULLIN

HARIS YAQEEN

VARSITY STAFF

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Ten years ago my mom came back from the elections centre with grim news. She’d just voted for our local Tory candidate, hoping that a silver-haired man named Stephen Harper would help our family emerge from a financial rut. “It’ll be good for the economy,” she assured me.

As we now know, her hopes were held in vain. Harper leaves behind a legacy not of stability and national fortitude, as the Conservative Party has always upheld, but one of precarity and shame. After ten years, we’re a country of unapologetic genocide and aggressive ethnic nationalism. We’re a stain on international efforts to reduce carbon emissions. We don’t care about protecting our civic rights. On top of it all, according to the last report from Statistics Canada, we’re in a recession, once again. Sorry, mom.

Whether Trudeau and the Liberals can rectify all that has gone wrong remains to be seen.

But with a majority government — even a comparatively progressive one — a dangerous situation arises, especially on the heels of such relative horror. The election might be over, but our participation needs to endure beyond what we put in the ballot box.

The Liberals hold 184 seats, and 140 of those are rookie MPs. They’re up against an atrophied NDP, with 44 seats, and a Tory bloc that shrank overnight to a portion of its once dominant legion. The reins are firmly in Trudeau’s hands, and with a fresh Parliament, there is strong potential for achieving significant change.

Already, he’s promised to legalize cannabis, Colorado-style, and to keep the state from interfering with abortion rights. He’s set the agenda to include inquiries into over 1,200 missing aboriginal women, an ongoing national disgrace that Harper wouldn’t touch. He wants a proper climate policy devised before the November UN summit in Paris. It’s promising for anybody whom these issues concern, that is to say, most of us.

Despite all the good news, however, we should probably learn a lesson from my mother.

Simply voting and then returning happily to obliviousness sends the Prime Minister-designate the message that he can take risks without worrying about public opinion. It's like watching the Leafs during the playoffs, but not paying attention to the preseason — and having the audacity to wonder how it all went wrong in the end.

For a man who was, and is, in support of Bill C-51 and Keystone XL; for an MP who voted willingly with Harper on tightened cannabis penalties in 2009; and for a politician who considers arms deals with Saudi Arabia a legitimate means of national revenue; perhaps blind faith isn’t the best approach to the imminent Trudeau era.

The relief caused by Harper’s exit is surely one to revel in, but an absence of blatant racism, environmental irresponsibility, and generally authoritarian tendencies does not necessarily mean that ideal progressive behaviour will immediately fill the vacuum. Democracy is an ongoing process, not an absolute; so while the Conservative’s departure from Ottawa may signal a step in the right direction, it remains our responsibility to keep the new incumbents accountable for their election promises.

Do not allow the rhetoric of change to fool you into lowering your guard — there’s a lot of damage to be undone and progress to be made, and we’ve only just gotten started.

Expectations for the incoming Trudeau government are high, and every possible source of commentary has thrown in its two cents on what we can expect in the next five years. So, aside from clickbait Buzzfeed articles, what change will the establishment of a new Parliament bring?

To answer that question, we need to take a look back in time. Our venerable fathers of confederation, looking south of the border, saw a godless land of wily politicians, bitter partisan politics, and freebooting frontiersmen. Of course, being the steadfast loyalists that they were, they wanted Canada to be the exact opposite of that. Thus, Canada’s institutions were born — slow-moving and with strict divisions between provincial and federal powers.

Gradual change and stability have characterized our governing institutions ever since.

Relating this to Trudeau’s mandate, then, the structure of the system means that little is going to change for the average person. Our provincial governments far outspend the federal government, while continuing to control critical sectors like health, education, and utilities.

The formulation and implementation of policy in many important areas of federal decisionmaking will remain within the hands of unelected and level-headed institutions like the Bank of Canada, the judiciary, and the civil service. Despite cranky voices from the wee corners of the Internet, griping that Harper has somehow damaged them in a meaningful way, these institutions remain independent and non-partisan, just as they were envisioned to be.

These factors — compounded with a preponderance for political parties in the developed world to campaign from the left then govern from the centre-right — mean that even with a majority, the Liberal government will remain on the same slow and steady course Canada has been on since the end of the Second World War. To say that this election is revolutionary for Canada in any sense exhibits either partisan hackery, or a fundamental lack of understanding of Canadian politics.

And what does the future hold for the Conservatives? Some lessons to learn, I hope. The turning point of the election seems to me to have been the transformation of the niqab debate, and by extension the Islamic community, into an electoral issue. Despite whatever good intentions there may have been when these issues were first brought to the table, the Tories’ public relations were unfortunately mismanaged, and were interpreted as an attack on immigrants in general.

This was an unlucky mistake. The perception of the Liberal Party as a glorified nationwide country club, amongst immigrants and their children still has weight. Consequently, the fact that many immigrants who have 'small-c' conservative values shied away from the Tories simply because they felt the party isn’t ‘for them’ is a missed opportunity. The Tories have done excellent work in creating a party where all who support family values and fiscal responsibility can come together under a big blue tent, but clearly more needs to be done.

The Ontario PCs under Patrick Brown have made great strides in this regard and may serve as a future template.

It’s going to be business as usual; and I can’t think of a better outcome than that in a place like Canada.

Malone Mullin is a fifth-year student studying philosophy. Her column appears every three weeks.

Haris Yaqeen is a third-year student at Trinity College studying international relations and near & middle eastern civilizations.

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M O N DAY 26 O C TO B E R 2 015 comment@thevarsity.ca

OP-ED

A fall reading week may be in the works

Where UC’s response to voyeurism went wrong

University College's washrooms became gender segregated after incidents of voyeurism. YASSINE ELBARADIE/ THE VARSITY

Segregating washrooms is a disservice to students RACHEL BALL-JONES VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

U of T's student leaders call for a Fall Reading Week. MALLIKA MAKKAR/PHOTO EDITOR

Cast your vote in the referendum tomorrow ABDULLAH SHIHIPAR, BEN COLEMAN AND VERE-MARIE KHAN ASSU PRESIDENT, UTSU PRESIDENT, UTSU VICEPRESIDENT AND UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS

Around this time of year, students are drowning in a sea of midterms and papers. Desperate for a respite, the only break students can look forward to is a two-day fall break in November. While other institutions and campuses like Ryerson, UTM, and UTSC have instituted a fall reading week, the St. George campus currently has no week-long break in the fall semester. But we can change this.

Beginning this week, Arts and Science students will be voting in a joint referendum held by the Arts and Science Students’ Union (ASSU) and the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU).

The goal is to see if they approve of restructuring Orientation Week, in order to make room in the academic calendar for a Fall Reading Week. If approved, we can lobby for a change that would see Orientation Week moved up one week and a reading week established in late October or early November.

Classes, as a result, would start earlier in the year. This follows a similar change made to the orientation weeks at the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses. Unfortunately, fall reading week cannot be created without making this compromise, as the academic calendar is already extremely constrained with a limited amount of teaching days available.

Creating a Fall Reading Week would be beneficial because at U of T, students are burdened with a heavy course load, extracurricular activities, part-time jobs, and the stresses of being a student. We all need a breather because most students of U of T are overworked and stressed. The university has a major problem when it comes to tackling mental health.

Simcoe Hall has committed itself to making the university a more accessible and mental health friendly institution, as outlined in the 2014 Provostial Advisory Committee Report on Mental Health. Students continue to complain about the learning experience, the isolation they feel and about the direct services the university provides for counseling and accessibility. Mental health is not an individual issue, it is one that is exacerbated by systemic inequalities. Creating a Fall Reading Week is the first step to taking a systems-based approach to mental health. It is the first step in what must be a comprehensive plan to make the university more mental health friendly. A fall reading week would allow students to take a much-needed break, get away from the city and reconnect with family and friends.

Other than the clear benefits to mental health, there are also pedagogical benefits to having a Fall Reading Week. Not only would this ease the burden on students for handing in essays and studying for midterms, but the week presents an opportunity for further learning and growth. At present, in the winter reading week, students often go abroad with professors to partake

in intensive courses, and the Centre for Community Partnerships offers students the ability to volunteer for a week through Alternative Reading Week. Many student unions and clubs also offer travel opportunities and day trips that students can take advantage of. These initiatives can be replicated in the fall term as well, allowing students to take advantage of and benefit from a greater number of opportunities.

Fall Reading Week is something students have called for over the years. UTSC got it first, now UTM has it, and it is high time that the students in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the St. George campus get one as well. While it is not the only solution to the systemic mental health problems at this institution, we believe a Fall Reading Week is the step in the right direction.

But, ultimately, it doesn’t matter what we think. Orientation week is student-run and students must show that they approve of moving it forward, before we can even think about lobbying for a Fall Reading Week. Above all, we ask you to voice your opinion and vote in this important referendum.

You can vote from Oct 27th – 29th on utsu.simplyvoting.com.

Abdullah Shihipar is the president of the Arts and Science Student Union.

Ben Coleman is the President of the University of Toronto Student Union.

Vere-Marie Khan is the Vice President University Affairs of the University of Toronto Student Union.

On September 15 and September 19, two women were filmed while taking a shower in the Whitney Hall washrooms at University College (UC). It is unclear whether the voyeurs were members of the houses in which the incidents happened, or even if the incidents were linked in any way. In any case, the UC dean of students decided to segregate the majority of their washrooms by gender for the first time since the washrooms were first made gender-neutral.

This decision was intended to protect students from further voyeurism, but its actual effect is to validate conservative criticisms of gender-neutral washrooms, as well as to damage the sense of safety of students who do not fit into the gender binary.

It is important to first understand the specific context of this situation.

Every washroom in UC’s residence buildings is co-ed, and this policy is clearly stated and communicated before students move into residence.

The policy exists in order to reinforce the norm that all UC members are equal, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.

Especially for co-ed floors, gender-neutral washrooms encourage students to look beyond barriers like gendered washrooms, which represent one small yet significant way that society reinforces not only the gender binary, but also stereotypes regarding how genders should interact with each other (that is, assuming one’s gender will necessarily impair them from respecting another’s privacy).

What’s more, UC houses both the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies and a major LGBTQ student organization, called LGBTOUT. More broadly, UC and its members are known for emphasizing equality and individuality.

For these reasons, the LGBTQ community at UC is arguably the most vibrant on campus, while mutual trust and acceptance of gender diversity are incredibly important to the college’s identity.

It is very unfortunate that a college that prides itself on inclusivity and self-expression without judgment has been faced with this violation of trust. What was perhaps equally disappointing, however, was the UC’s dean of students decision to segregate the washrooms.

This decision irresponsibly validates those who have doubts about gender-neutral washrooms, and promotes the idea that students cannot be trusted to engage with one another appropriately in such a private space. Specifically, this decisions sends out the message that women and men are inherently different (and every student necessarily falls into either category), and as such, no two people with different genitals should ever be forced to defecate within one hundred feet of one another. In short, by segregating the washrooms, UC confirms to these traditionalists that the safe space the college has built for people who live outside society’s gender binary is undeserved.

This sentiment is unacceptable.

Segregating washrooms is doing these students a disservice. Many individuals, who come to UC specifically for its strong LGBTQ community, now face the prospect that their needs for a safe space are less important than the needs of others.

It is also worth noting that this incident has not been a recurring trend, nor has it been proven that the perpetrator was a UC student, or even related to the college at all.

There does not seem to be a legitimate basis on which a long established tradition of inclusivity and tolerance is unilaterally upended.

By segregating the washrooms, the physical accessibility of the washrooms do not actually change.

This means that any voyeur who had the audacity to film students would be able to continue unless the administration physically placed guards at the entrance of the washrooms — an equally ridiculous solution.

The dean of students should have left the question of washrooms up to the UC residents, to ensure that students — those who are actually affected by the decision — are comfortable with the outcome.

Holding informational sessions on the gendered, socialized roots of voyeurism, while also encouraging community discussions on the importance of trust on residence, would have better tackled the root of this problem. As it stands, the dean’s decision only served to reinforce rigid gender stereotypes and move the college backwards, rather than progress together and rebuild broken bonds of trust.

Rachel Ball-Jones is a third-year student at University College studying political science, peace, conflict, and justice.

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T H E VA R S I T Y

COMMENT 13

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Digitizing education Technology is here to stay — let's use it to the fullest SIMON SPICHAK

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

MIRKA LOISELLE/THE VARSITY

The way lecture material is presented, taught, and studied is changing.

Many professors have adopted the PowerPoint approach over the more traditional 'chalk and talk,' while students have ditched pen and paper in favour of laptops and tablets.

Yet, the use of technology in classrooms has been criticized for being potentially harmful to students. A recent article in the New Yorker presented a professor who chose to ban laptops in his classroom, after a study showing that “disconnected students” performed better in a post-lecture quiz than students who used technology during the lesson. However, though certain studies have shown that multi-tasking negatively affects academic performance, the advantages bestowed by technology easily outweigh the disadvantages.

Technological devices allow students to compose notes more quickly and in a variety of interactive formats, whereas writing notes can make it difficult for them to keep up with the lecture. As a person afflicted with atrocious handwriting, my laptop allows me to take legible notes copy and paste figures from lectures rather than copying them.

This allows me to pay more attention to what the professor is discussing. Some students have combined these two methods by annotating printouts of lecture slides.

Laptops and tablets also provide applications that can increase the accessibility of lecture materials.

For instance, programs such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, which convert speech into text, can accommodate students with different levels of ability.

While technology has the potential to be distracting, considering how difficult it can be to stay engaged for three hours at a time, students themselves should not take all the blame. When technology is used correctly in a classroom setting, it can actually prevent students from checking Facebook.

In fact, the most engaging lecturers that I have had have incorporated technology by using videos, animations and graphics to describe concepts. It is much clearer and easier to view a diagram presented on the screen than are drawn on a chalkboard. The range of technology available to instructors also allows them to tailor their presentations to several different types of learning styles, and explain abstract concepts in interactive ways, thereby keeping students engaged.

As frustrating as platforms like Blackboard may be, they allow students to ask lecturers questions and review material posted ahead of time. Furthermore, online courses offered at U of T are beneficial to commuters or individuals with parttime commitments. In the online classroom, students are often given windows for deadlines so they can

make them work with their own schedules.

Yet there is no doubt that classrooms with integrated technology are not perfect; in fact, there are some developments that may still need some work. Some professors have adopted the 'flipped classroom' approach — in which students learn lecture materials at home, and do activities usually qualified as homework during class time — which may cause some students to struggle with concepts they were once taught directly by a professor. Furthermore, classes that offer supplementary online questions for purchase may put students who cannot afford them at a disadvantage.

In light of this, it is important for educators to take the opinions of students into account when they are assembling their lecture materials. As students, in order to maximize the benefits we get out of educational technology, we should learn what approach works best for us, and make these views clear to our instructors. Technology in the classroom is here to stay, and with increased discussion and experimentation, we can gradually learn how to use it to its fullest potential.

to know more about how to handle their money. Given their lack of financial smarts, students — especially first years — are often unprepared for the responsibility of credit cards. Unsurprisingly, then, the Canadian Credit Counselling Society recommends students wait until at least third or fourth year to sign up. This, however, should not be the status quo. Although most students aren’t given much financial advice in high school, the University of Toronto does offer financial counselling and information about financial management. Unfortunately, unless it is mandatory, students likely will not take advantage of the opportunity; in fact, they might not even know of the resources they have available to them.

This problem has a relatively easy fix. Financial counselling should be integrated into orientation during frosh week, and the university should dedicate an increased emphasis on alerting students to these services throughout their undergraduate careers. Much like how new students are matched up with a

personal librarian, U of T’s financial services could similarly reach out to students by offering financial advice by setting up a personalized system of financial counselling.

Until then, students should be aware that owning and using a credit card is a real responsibility. A credit card can be extremely beneficial, but not if the cardholder mismanages their finances.

If you’re considering making this decision, make sure to actually speak to your bank and find out which type of card is best for you before signing up.

Credit card debt is not a result of evil bankers going after youth in hopes of making a quick buck. Instead, massive credit card debt can be attributed to financial illiteracy and, consequentially, recklessness.

With great credit comes great responsibility — so do your research, or risk amassing debt.

Simon Spichak is a third-year student at New College studying neuroscience.

The case for financial literacy

ALASTAIR MCNAMARA/THE VARSITY

Student problems with credit card an easy fix EMA IBRAKOVIC

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

A recent news article in The Varsity explored the risks of using a credit card as a student. While the article rightly highlighted the potential problems of credit cards, it is important not to demonize credit cards and companies based on a few negative experiences. Instead, it is a general lack of education about finances, and incorrect use of credit accounts, which often leave students in a hole they can't climb out of.

To begin with, it is important to understand the basic benefits of a credit card over a debit card.

Establishing a good credit history from a young age shows that you are responsible with borrowed money.

Furthermore, a good credit score means you might pay lower interest on mortgages or car payments in the future. Without credit history, it is difficult to get approved for these things at all.

Depending on the card and bank, you can also benefit from features that a chequing or savings account doesn't have. For example, students can get cash back on everyday purchases, or collect air miles. The Royal Bank of Canada offers credit

cards with no annual fees, while the Bank of Montreal has a special a student price card integrated with their Mastercards, which gives users various discounts at a multitude of popular stores like Aldo, H&M, McDonalds, and Nike.

Despite these clear benefits, credit cards have an unfortunate reputation. Among students that owe thousands to OSAP or banks, the very mention of credit cards conjures up the image of wealthy bankers luring innocent children into high interest, low payback agreements. However, instead of blaming the organizations that offer credit cards when something goes wrong, we should look to the failure of our educational institutions to teach us financial responsibility, and our own failure to seek out resources.

A recent study by the Investor Education Fund showed that only 40 per cent of parents with students fresh out of high school believe that their child is ready to make important financial decisions, despite 70 per cent of students in the same study saying that they would like

Ema Ibrakovic is a first-year student at Victoria College studying social sciences.

A cast of

characters Prominent historian and U of T prof takes on 2015 CBC Massey lecture series SALVATORE BASILONE VARSITY STAFF

Y

ou may never have heard of Harry Kessler, but you may want to read his diary. Born into German nobility in 1868, he saw first-hand the remarkable changes that swept Europe over the last half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. Kessler eventually died an exile from his homeland in 1937. His address book is rumoured to have contained over 10,000 names including Auguste Rodin, George Bernard Shaw, and Kaiser Wilhelm II. Perhaps most importantly, he kept a detailed journal throughout his life, a journal that allows us to view history through his eyes.

Kessler is one of the many historical figures, some widely known and some wonderfully obscure, whose stories make up History’s People: Personalities and the Past, the 2015 Massey Lecture Series and accompanying book, written by celebrated Canadian historian Dr. Margaret MacMillan.

Currently a professor of history at both U of T and Oxford, MacMillan has published numerous books over a teaching career that spans 40 years. I spoke with her in the wake of her last Massey Lecture stop — Koerner Hall in Toronto — to discuss History’s People, working with the CBC, and her own approach to the f ield of history.

WHY HISTORY’S PEOPLE? The Massey Lectures is an annual lecture series first commissioned by the manager of English language CBC networks, H.G. Walker, in 1961. Walker hoped that the lectures would “make significant contributions to public awareness and understanding and... further development of the art of broadcasting.”

Today, the CBC invites noted scholars to give original lectures on a subject of their choice on five university campuses across Canada, with an accompanying book printed by House of Anansi press.

When MacMillan was asked to present the 2015 Massey Lectures, she was inspired by a simple, but compelling historical inquiry: the role of individuals.

“I think what I’m trying to say is that, for various reasons, people matter in history,” says MacMillan as we sit down to talk over Skype; she returned to Oxford shortly after completing the Toronto leg of her series.

“Sometimes they are people who helped create history by writing records, but some-

times they make a difference at particular times. So, I’m not saying that individuals are more important than the great currents of history, I’m saying you need to look at both.”

The figures written about in History’s People are not given full length biographies. Rather, MacMillan sometimes looks at the most impactful moments of her subjects’ lives. Sometimes she examines their specific actions, and sometimes at specific aspects of their character. This approach, MacMillan says, serves to explore how these individuals fit into our understanding of the times in which they lived in and events they lived through.

“I think if you focus too much on biography then of course you are leaving out great social or political or economic or intellectual changes,” she says, adding that, “There has always been a tension between history and biography, because historians tend to think biographers don’t get the history right, and biographers tend to think that historians don’t get the people right.”

MacMillan’s cast of characters is varied. Her work includes Babur, the first Mughal Emperor of India, to Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of John Graves Simcoe, who was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

WWII has a substantial presence in the book; national leaders Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, and Mackenzie King are all discussed, as are more humble figures such as Holocaust survivor Victor Klemperer. “It was a mix, and there were lots of people I’d love to have done, but there just wasn’t space,” says MacMillan.

Asked how she came about with her particular selection of historical figures, MacMillan tells me how she “made lists of qualities, and then... narrowed that down.”

“I thought ‘who would illustrate these things?’” she mused. MacMillan’s process is reflected in the structure of the History’s People, which is divided into chapters which are titled by qualities such as ‘Hubris,’ ‘Daring,’ ‘Curiosity’ and ‘Observers.’ Ultimately, however, it was Macmillan’s own observations and curiosities that drove the final decision on who made it into the book, and who didn’t, such is the prerogative of an historian as established as MacMillan.

“I chose to look at people in this particular book just because I wanted to,” she says. “I went partly by people I was interested in, partly by people I already knew something about, or by people I wanted to find out something about.”

History’s People: Personalities and the Past was published September 8, 2015 by House of Anansi Press.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS

think good academic history “ Ishould be capable of being read by anyone who is interested.

APPROACHES TO HISTORY Although MacMillan is a veteran of academia, she believes history should be an inclusive subject. Asked whether she changes her approach when writing popular, as opposed to academic, history MacMillan responds that there should be no difference between the two.

“I think good academic history should be capable of being read by anyone who is interested,” she says, “I think sometimes [the term] popular history is used... to denigrate.

As if being popular is a bad thing in itself. I think there’s good history and bad history, some is popular, some is not.”

One particular approach to historical research with which MacMillan takes issue is historiography, or, what she calls in History’s People the “rather tiresome trend” of historians “looking increasingly at themselves, how they ‘created’ the past.”

The trend, she says, is not inherently problematic, but ultimately a distraction.“I think historiography is important, and we all should be aware of it” she replies, when asked to elaborate on this. “Why I find it tiresome is because I think there is a bit too much of it. I don’t think it is bad in itself, but we don’t want to be just doing that.”

Ultimately, MacMillan says, there is value in delving into historical records.

“I would hate to see historians just spending the majority of their time looking at what other historians have said about something. I believe that you should go back and look at the records, go to the archives, read what was said at the time, try and get to the documents and the material from the time.”

MacMillan is the former provost of Trinity College, and now does double duty teaching at U of T and Oxford.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROB JUDGES

has always been a tension “ There between history and biography, because historians tend to think biographers don’t get the history right, and biographers tend to think that historians don’t get the people right.

”

UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE, PLACE AND TIME In Macmillan’s own words, History’s People has no definitive thesis, nor does it have a particular moral thrust. “I’m not a moral philosopher,” she says. “I think what historians try to do is understand how things happened in the way they happened.” Although, as MacMillan herself describes, she “may have very strong views on some of these characters,” her real goal is “to explain them and understand them.”

To illustrate this point, I asked MacMillan to elaborate on her analysis of US President Richard Nixon, a historical figure about whom she has written in the past.

”

“Nixon’s presidency is now overshadowed by memories of Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, and above all Watergate” she writes. In her writing, however, MacMillan chooses to concentrate on his trip to China in 1972, and the opening of relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States. This is, in her view, a circumstance which may not have happened even up to the present day were it not for Nixon’s visit.

MacMillan contends that it was not her intent to balance Nixon’s bad deeds with his good ones. “I think you can recognize that [Nixon] did many things that were wrong and reprehensible. But what I wanted to look at was... his willingness to take a risk in going to China... not to provide a final judgement on Nixon.”

She goes on to say that, had she intended on biographing her subjects’ careers, the book would be palpably different. “What I was looking at was a particular quality in these people, and I chose them because for me they illustrated that quality.”

ENCOUNTERING THE CBC The Massey Lectures are described on the CBC’s website as having “established their place as a Canadian institution and an annual highlight of our national intellectual life.” It is described as an optimistic, almost romantic description by the ever-changing public broadcasting institution, and I was curious to hear about how MacMillan interacted with it.

MacMillan is not sure what led to her invitation to be this year’s Massey Lecturer. “Don’t ask me; they have their own process and suddenly an invitation emerges,” she laughs.

Once selected to give the lecture, MacMillan says she was given “a completely free hand.”

“When I asked what sort of thing I should talk about they said ‘anything you like.’ And that’s what happened.” Having completed the book, she says that she did “receive some editorial input from [the organizers], but nothing to sort of shape what I was saying.”

Reflecting on the experience, Macmillan remarks that the collaboration with the CBC was “great fun.”

“I hope one day you’ll be asked to do them,” she says. “I had a wonderful time, I went right across Canada, I met lots of people, and that was really fun. You know, it’s a privilege, and I enjoyed it.”

var.st/arts

ARTS&CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

26 O ctOber 2015

THE HOUSE THAT HARTT BUILT While many know of The Cineforum, few are aware of the theatre's mysterious curator DANIEL GOODMAN

F

rom the street, 463 Bathurst looks like any other building on the block: a narrow-windowed residence of asphalt and brick basking in the fading colours of fall.

But look closer and you’ll see a quote by Aldous Huxley etched onto the front steps: “I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin,.

Welcome to the humble abode of Reg Hartt, The Cineforum, a chaotic, two-story living space and private theatre specializing in eclectic alternative film screenings. Ever wondered what the experience of Murnau’s Nosferatu scored to Radiohead’s Kid A would be like? Come to the Cineforum and find out.

“Cecil Taylor [the noted American jazz pianist and poet] said that the key to success in the arts is to find someplace small and in your own city,” Hartt tells me. “A space where you can present your own ideas on a regular basis without being interfered with. I think I’ve found that space.” He gestures around the small kitchen we’re sitting in, shelves overflowing with crockery and books. Just down the hall, the 40 seat theatre room boasts a mammoth subwoofer, crisp projection technologies, and two insulated spectrum speakers cleverly hidden behind monster masks.

Everything in The Cineforum is made with care — it’s just as much Hartt’s character as it is the theatre’s character. You can tell as soon as you sit down. It exudes genuineness, an independent and handcrafted quality tangible only to small spaces that are deeply loved.

Hartt regularly holds lectures and screenings in this velvet-lined incubator; intimacy and a reckless disregard for convention are essential to his process. Disagree with his opinions and selection? He couldn’t care less.

Doing things on his own terms has always been the highest priority for Hartt, well past any financial validation or recognition from the public.

This attitude existed long before The Cineforum’s inception. Before establishing the theatre in the early 90s and becoming friends with esteemed journalist Jane Jacobs, the film archivist acted as a cinema studies consul-

A portrait of Reg Hartt. JACOB LORINC/ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

VARSITY STAFF

Two vintage dolls found in The Cineforum. JACOB LORINC/ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

tant at Rochdale College — an educational experiment in student-run curriculum and cooperative living in the early 70s. He was, and always will be, a student enrolled in the school of cinematic exploration.

Despite turning 70 next June, Hartt shows no signs of slowing down; upcoming projects include a new layered score for The Birth Of A Nation, rescoring Von Stroheim’s Greed, and a second production of his own revision of The Epic of Gilgamesh (which has recently found an American publisher). As he attributes to the “I Ching,” a text whose teachings Hartt applies to everything, along with the epiphanies afforded by psychedelics, “the resilient man is like water; he plunges into every crevasse, fills

it up and moves on, without losing the core of their being. Living is a whole series of deaths and resurrections,” he says. “You get used to something, it falls apart. You have to regenerate and find something new, and preferably something that finds your interest. By virtue of curiosity and the necessity of growth, you continue.”

For Hartt, this continuation embeds itself in trying out new ideas. He chalks this ideology up to the culture established by Walt Disney Productions and Warner Bros. Animation. Namely Warner's story sessions, called “no sessions,” the only rule being that each employee was never allowed to say no to any risky idea or permutation. This attitude would

go on to create Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes. These were the minds responsible for the golden age of American animation. The Tweety cartoon, that would circulate around his imagination as a child, was one of his earliest experiences with the magic of movies.

Now what does he think about today’s motion picture industry? Believe it or not, the answer still involves Disney movies. “The secret to the lifeblood of the movie industry is not government grants, it’s franchising. Franchises are stars, directors, producers, themes and connected stories. Every great work of literature is at least three parts — beginning, middle, and ending. Movies are like short stories: even a four-hour movie is not long enough to do the subject justice. They demand an episodic format to deal with great works, especially in adaptation, and I think you can do that with movies, if they are done right.”

Regarding his legacy, Hartt takes a more reserved stance, telling me he doesn’t mind if he has something to leave behind. He tells me a story about monks in Southeast Asia, and how they construct these beautiful sand mandalas, complex ritualistic symbols meant to focus the attention of spiritual practitioners. They pour over them with excruciating attention to detail, only to sweep them away after a few days. “The world is being cluttered with all these mandalas that we’re saving, and for what?” Hartt asks. “We don’t want our work to be swept away. We want something to endure after we’re gone, yet I’ll be quite content to have nothing left behind after I’ve passed.”

Hartt maintains that his true achievement is being able to teach other people to do things that matter to them. At the end of the day, that’s more important than anything else.

“All of the people that have lived with me or entered through here leave transformed, with a new sense of what they can do,” Hartt exclaims. “We’re here to work miracles. We’re not here to work with anything less than that.”

Some of The Cineforum's spooky objects. JACOB LORINC/ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

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Living Arts: A lesson in Lindy Hop Elizaveta Mironova attends one of UT-Swing’s weekly dance lessons

ELHAM NUMAN/ASSOCIATE ILLUSTRATION EDITOR

ELIZAVETA MIRONOVA VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

As you walk into the Polish Combatants' Hall, you are greeted by old linoleum floors, worn out beige walls, and dimmed lights. Smooth jazz is playing at a low volume, and you are instantaneously transported to the roaring twenties — the decade of swing dancing.

On Wednesday evening, I walked up to Cecil and Beverley to participate in one of UT-Swing’s weekly swing dancing classes.

Swing dancing was something I had only seen on TV, so I was excited to have the chance to try it out. I was equally nervous going in, so for the sake of mental preparation, I calmed

my nerves a bit by chatting with UT-Swing’s president Kahlil Heslop. He explained that the reason he liked swing dancing primarily was because “you don’t have to do gender roles – anyone can lead and anyone can follow.”

He pointed out that, since the class was for rookie swing dancers, nobody would judge me, and that the class was strictly for fun. “I like to dance with beginners because it gives them confidence and I’m able to spread the dance,” he explains. “But then again, dancing with the more advanced people – I like seeing where I am on that level and I can test out new dance moves.”

Reassured and ready to learn, the lesson began. Initially, the crowd was tentative, evidently uncomfortable with the idea of danc-

ing with strangers. Dance, in general, is an intimate activity, and not knowing anyone can make things a little bit tense. Luckily, that feeling was gone in a matter of minutes, when the group formed a circle and began learning the basic routine of the Lindy Hop. The routine establishes the foundation on which all swing dance moves are formed. It involves a steady, repetitive set of moves that need to become as close to second nature as possible in order to master the dance.

Through a series of instructions by Heslop and his dance partner, the group learned a series of dance moves to accompany the basic Lindy Hop routine. The moves required us to find a partner, and every time we mastered a part of the Lindy Hop, we were asked to switch partners. The hour was a perfect combination of good music, new dance moves, and making new friends.

Following the one-hour class was an hour of ‘social dancing.’ This, I felt, was more geared towards intermediate and advanced swing dancers. Dancers were allowed to choose whichever style of swing dance they preferred, whether it be Lindy or Charleston, with any partner they could find. Being a follow, rather than a lead, ‘social dancing’ was not particularly difficult for me. A few different leads asked me to dance, and promptly swung me around without much effort on my end.

If you think that your dancing skills are lacking, or that you aren’t as coordinated as they need to be, do yourself a favor and pay a visit to the UT Swing Dancing Club’s weekly classes. While the dance certainly takes practice, a few classes will have you swinging in no time.

A history of violence The two authors kicked off the International Festival of Authors with a discussion on violence and literature LOLA BORISSENKO VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

An audience gathered at the Fleck Dance Theatre on Thursday, October 22 to witness the opening night of the International Festival of Authors (IFOA), the highlight of the evening was a conversation with Steven Pinker and Ken Dryden on the topic of contemporary violence and literature.

Apart from his literary career, Dryden acted as the Minister of Social Development in Canada and played for the Montreal Canadiens hockey team in the 1970s. Pinker, who has taught at prominent universities such as Harvard and MIT, dedicated his career to the study of language and the cognitive development of the human mind. Dryden’s hockey background combined with Pinker’s psychological studies gave the authors a shared familiarity with violence, explaining the reasoning behind the event, “Writing, Violence and the Human Brain.”

Pinker began the discussion by claiming that, “as much as we have the capacity of generating violence, its levels are going down.”

He clarified that in the past forty years, levels

of violence have decreased significantly as the new generation became less tolerant of forms of abuse. He recognizes contemporary access to weapons of mass destruction, but argues that “you, as a twenty year old, who is inherently optimistic about the future, have the right to be.” Pinker further justified his points by referring to “the illusion of the good old days,” suggesting that society would have been degenerating if every grandparent had been right in valuing the past over the present.

Dryden supported Pinker’s argument with a reference to his former hockey career, suggesting that violent confrontations during hockey games have become more regulated with stricter punishments, and knowing these punishments, players have less incentive to fight.

Audience members later debated the authors’ claims about the decrease of violence during the Q&A session, referring primarily to the crime rates in urban North America during the 1970s, the 1990s and nowadays. While the authors’ claims surprised some spectators in the auditorium, others were more aware of the growing pacifism in our society.

Later on in the conversation, Pinker and Dryden deviated from their original topic

to talk about their experiences as academic writers. Pinker noted the difficulties he faced when transitioning from an academic writer to a literary author, since his primary goal was to “treat readers as intellectual peers” and not as intellectually inferior consumers. Dryden supported Pinker’s points by exemplifying his life in sports, which appeared to be less glamorous than many authors described it.

Dryden noted that a successful writer “writes it assuming that many people have had these experiences,” meaning that even amateur athletes share the anxieties and exhilaration that a hockey star would. Dryden later transitioned into a brief examination of the sociopolitical atmosphere in Canada as he inverted the expression ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way,' suggesting that older generations are responsible for foregrounding a favorable environment for the youth. Pinker and Dryden’s conversation culminated with a round of applause by an audience evidently pleased with the first day of an exciting week at IFOA.

ALTERNATIVE HALLOWEEN EVENTS IN TORONTO COREY VAN DEN HOOGENBAND ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

ZOMBIE PROM Palais Royale, 1601 Lakeshore Boulevard West.

Relive the nightmare of high school prom alongside the undead! The zombie outbreak experts from Ontario's only Zombie Survival Camp are hosting the formal, which will include live music, multiple costume contests, and zombie makeup artists toW transform you into the boo of the ball.

SILVER SNAIL'S SNAILOWEEN Andrew Richard Designs, 571 Adelaide Street East

Over $2000 in prizes, a Transformers coverband called Cybertronic Spree, and a whole lot of geek goodness are centre stage at the Silver Snail comic book shop's annual Halloween show. Snailoween is the perfect event for cosplayers and comic fans craving a chance to dress up after convention season.

6TH ANNUAL "BACK IN THE DAY" FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR 90'S HALLOWEEN 99 Sudbury Street

What would a listicle be without a reference to '90s pop culture? The 6th Annual Fresh Prince of Bel-Air 90's Halloween party pays tribute to the old school hip hop, R & B, reggae, and pop music straight out of the twenty-something year olds' most beloved era.

FAN FICTION THE SHOW: HARRY POTTER Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor Street West

Toronto's funniest comedians attempt to act out the most outrageous Harry Potter fan fictions they could find online at this one-of-akind take on the wizarding world. If you stick around after the show, the Comedy Bar will be hosting its own Halloween after party to keep the magic alive.

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The future of pop Ambient electronic duo Purity Ring discuss musical genres and collaborations

Purity Ring is currently touring their latest album, Another Eternity. AMANDA MCCAULEY/THE VARSITY

BRYAN HONG

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

By this point fans of ambient electronic music will have likely heard of "Purity Ring" — it would be hard not to. The Edmontonbased band, composed of vocalist Megan James and beat producer Corin Roddick, has been active since 2010 and has collaborated with Danny Brown, Angel Haze, and Ab-Soul. The self-described “future pop” duo are known for combining ethereal and atmospheric instrumentals with a youthful, innocent vocal delivery. Their debut album, Shrines, ended up on many critics’ best album lists in 2012, and earlier this year they followed it up with a sophomore album titled Another Eternity. The band is currently on their fall tour throughout North America and Europe, but amidst their busy schedule, The Varsity had the chance to speak with Megan James before they left Toronto.

The Varsity: You’ve described your music as “ future pop,” what does that mean exactly?

Megan James: “It’s a good excuse for not having to call yourself something. It’s kind of something we’ve gone back to just because it doesn’t actually mean anything. It’s really hard to define yourself in a genre and if you can call it the ‘future,’ then it doesn’t really matter because it could be anything.”

TV: When I first listened to Another Eternity, I could hear a difference production-wise and lyrically, in comparison to Shrines. What direction were you going for while making the new album?

MJ: “We tried for a long time to talk about what we wanted to make, what we wanted it to sound like, and where we would take inspiration from. But in the end, once we got together to actually write and make the things we thought we wanted to, it never really worked. We’d always hit a wall and it’d

be really frustrating. [Our album] didn’t really start to work until we let go of any ideas of what we wanted [our sound] to be, and made what we felt was challenging yet we were capable of.”

TV: What are some of your biggest influences when it comes to making music?

MJ: “In terms of production, I know Corin has quite a lot of hip-hop influences. I like a few songs here and there but I’m not as inspired by [hip-hop]. I appreciate it, and of course, I love Corin’s production, but it’s kind of interesting, because my vocals are an interesting mesh with a rapper. That’s why we were so stoked about the Danny Brown collaboration — because it was a juxtaposition that worked really well.”

TV: Who are some artists that you’d like to collaborate with?

MJ: “We’ve become friends with so many musicians that we’ve loved for a long time — [the band] “HEALTH” being an example.

We’ve always done little things with people who make music that’s inspiring to us, and we’re going on tour with “Empress Of,” who’s also done a remix [of one of our songs]. Why not work with your friends and put out each other’s things? It’s a community.”

TV: Do you have any advice for those aspiring artists trying to get their music out?

MJ: “I think having your music be the driving force instead of your success trying to be the driving force is the only way that you’ll be able to be satisfied with what you make. Whether other people hear it or not, if you’re making what you want to make, you can’t really go wrong. I know it’s really obvious but I’ve seen so many people try to make something that’ll ‘work’ and I think it’s wasteful if you’re not making something you love.”

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A WASTEFUL PRACTICE The Gardiner Museum's latest exhibit looks at the near extinction of bison in the 18th century. SNEHA DASGUPTA/THE VARSITY

The Gardiner Museum’s latest exhibit examines colonialism in North America VICTORIA WICKS COMMENT EDITOR

I’ll admit, I don’t really understand a lot of art. I routinely struggle, for example, to find meaning in a canvas that is merely covered in yellow, blue, and red squares (Piet Mondrian, I’m looking at you).

Lucky for me then, that Kent Monkman’s The Rise and Fall of Civilization had a relatively obvious, yet no less important, point to make. On display at the Gardiner Museum until January 10, this installation is simultaneously a stark reminder of North America’s colonial legacy and a testament to indigenous survival against all odds.

In the Gardiner’s 3,500-square foot special-exhibition gallery, Monkman has recreated the “buffalo jump,” a cliff formation used by indigenous people of the North American plains to hunt buffalo. At first glance, the installation was slightly underwhelming — the cliff, though about nine feet high, only took up a little space at the back of the room and left the rest of the gallery feeling empty and hollow.

However, it is in the exhibit’s details where Monkman’s message swells to the fore. Take for instance, the pile of smashed ceramics that lay at the base of the cliff, representing a clear condemnation of how European settlers nearly decimated the bison population in North America in order to make luxurious bone china.

The settlers’ wasteful practice of leaving bison meat to rot, not to mention state sanctioned bison hunting to make space for set-

tlers’ cattle ranching, deliberately eliminated indigenous peoples’ primary food supply and robbed them of their land. In this context, the meaning behind the installation’s title becomes clear: the rise of settler colonies like Canada came at the price of the indigenous existence. Such colonization is hardly a bygone historical phenomenon — resource extraction projects like Keystone XL or the Enbridge Pipeline often fall into oppressive colonial dynamics by impeding on indigenous sovereignty and desecrating traditional lands.

This being said, Monkman does not seem wholly pessimistic. There are several bison sculptures, a likely representation of the indigenous people, which rise from the broken shards of china that boldly resist concerted efforts of massacre. More bison, painted in various artistic styles along the gallery walls, create two circles — this is a nod both to the sustainability of indigenous bison hunting,

and the “continuous cycle of renewal and creativity that embodies [indigenous peoples’] spirit of resilience.”

It is also worth highlighting Monkman’s clever spin on Western art traditions, which have historically oversimplified indigenous culture. In the pile of ceramics sits a china bicycle seat, which reverses colonial narratives by depicting an indigenous woman atop a horse whipping a fallen cowboy. More broadly, the whole installation feels like a typical museum diaroma, yet it is critical of European settlers rather than glorifying them.

Perhaps most notable is the presence of Miss Chief Eagle Testikle, Monkman’s twospirited alter ego. While it is unclear why her arm is outstretched, her mere appearance functions much like the installation overall — defiant of colonial oppression by proudly embodying indigenous resilience.

2015/2016

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Hart House Theatre Season

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By William Shakespeare Directed by Paolo Santalucia

NOV. 4–21, 2015 BOX OFFICE:

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26 O ctOber 2015

N OW S

ARO

Student organized hacking event bags Google sponsorship, brings together a legion of participants from all over Canada

CIENC

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CSSU’s first Hack Night an instant success

science@thevarsity.ca

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SCIENCE

THE CHALLENGES OF CHILDREN’S HEALTHCARE IN ASIA Hosted by U of T Pre-Medical Society and Global Health Engage (Subcommittee of UTHIP), come out and learn about the challenges faced by healthcare providers in the care of children in developing countries.

Monday, October 26th 7:00 pm – 9:00pm Health Science Building, Rm.106 155 College Street Admission: $5 early bird ($7 at the door) TORONTO: MOM MARCH AGAINST EATING DISORDERS Hosted by the National Initiative for Eating Disorders (NIED), this event will discuss the existing gaps in our healthcare system when treating eating disorders. The event will feature Dr. Blake Woodside, Medical Director and Co-head of Eating Disorder Program at Toronto General Hospital, as well as Wendy Preskow, President and Founder of the NIED. Tuesday, October 27th 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Ontario Legislative Building, Queens Park M7A 1A2 Admission: Free Outdoors

Over 400 people signed up for the first Hack Night. COURTESY OF TAAMANNAE TABASSUM

SHAHIN IMTIAZ

ASSOCIATE SCIENCE EDITOR

“[We expected] 50 people if we were lucky,” said Computer Science Student Union (CSSU) vice president Ivan Zhang regarding the turnout of the first meeting of ‘Hack Night.’

After just six days of promotion, over 400 people signed up.

Hack Night is a brand-new event organized by the CSSU, which is intended to be a mini-hackathon bringing together ‘code-cubs’ and ‘code-ninjas’ for a night of coding, learning, and innovation.

Their first official meeting was held earlier this month.

“In terms of planning, we were not expecting those numbers,” said Zhang, “…we realized our budget was not going to work for this scale, even with the money we received from our generous sponsor, Google.”

“If even a quarter of the people who RSVP’d or signed up show up, we were screwed. An hour before the event we finally made the call to reach [out to] the department [of

Computer Science] for financial aid and we were very grateful with how quickly they were able to accommodate […] our requests, and we were able to feed everyone,” he added.

still blown away with what was accomplished in mere hours.” Another impressive accomplishment was a web strategy game that pitted white blood cells against viruses within

“ONE OF THE COOLEST THINGS I SAW A HACKER DO WAS MAKE AN AI [...] PLAY TINDER AND TRY TO DECEIVE UNSUSPECTING MEN INTO DATES.”

Despite being thrown the unexpected budgetary curveball, the CSSU managed the event seamlessly. Large rooms in Bahen were packed with coders working on their individual projects while mentors were at hand to provide insight and help where needed.

“One of the coolest things I saw a hacker do was make an AI... play Tinder and try to deceive unsuspecting men into dates,” said Zhang.

“Although the morals behind this project is questionable, I’m

the human body.

Part of the Hack Night experience was an informative tech talk, delivered by Arseniy V. Ivanov, a formely lead developer at 500px and current computer science student.

In his third year at U of T he joined 500px (pronounced 500 pixels) — an online Canadian photographic community with six million registered users — where he remained for three years as lead developer, building robust systems and solving problems at scale.

As Hack Night will be a monthly

event from now on, Zhang has a vivid image of how he wants to see it evolve.

“My vision for hack nights is for it to become a tradition in the downtown core community for students who are interested in code to come together and collaborate. Not only will it be for just U of T students, but for all students from neighboring schools to come and collaborate with each other. This time we had students from high schools from North York to all the way up in York Region. We also had a few students from McGill, Ryerson, Waterloo, UOIT, and York. One of the focuses we are working on for our next iteration is to make it more open to non-tech students who want to learn code. We are getting feedback from attendees and our team is looking into the best method to make this possible.”

The next Hack Night event is planned for October 30 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m.

TURNING UP THE HEAT ON OBESITY AND TYPE II DIABETES The Toronto Reference Library is organizing a talk featuring Dr. Anthony Scime (Faculty of Health, York University) in a discussion of obesity, body temperature, and stem cells in relation to weight loss and increased insulin sensitivity.

Thursday, October 29th 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm 789 Yonge St., Toronto Reference Library Elizabeth Beeton Auditorium M4W 208 Admission: Free OPHA STUDENTS AND NEW PROFESSIONALS 2015 FALL NETWORKING The Ontario Public Health Association is hosting its fifth networking event this week where students will get the opportunity to meet with leaders and peers in public health in a casual environment.

Thursday, October 29th 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm 89 Chestnut St., Chestnut Conference Center, 2nd floor Admission: Free (OPHA member) / $5 for non-members

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U of T wins silver at international science competition iGEM placed at the Boston jamboree for bioremediation project

Students with the President of iGem. COURTESY OF THE IGEM FOUNDATION

NYIMA GYALMO

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

U of T’s iGEM team has scored second place at the international iGEM jamboree in Boston, MA. The team’s project focused on bioremediation of tailing ponds in Alberta via characterized bacteria plasmids that would degrade a key toxic compound found in waste water.

Prior to the fall jamboree, iGEM successfully received 5000€ for their proposal submission to SYNENERGENE, a European program that supports responsible research and innovation in synthetic biology.

The project involved collaboration with Alberta communities, as well as TU Delft — a university from the Netherlands — on the Application and Techno-Moral Scenarios. They also worked with SiREM Guelph to study the “ins and outs of the bioremediation industry and commercializations of bioremediation products.”

Dawood Cheema, a physics and mathematics specialist,

helped build the bioreactor and explained that the working prototype was presented alongside their poster at the jamboree.

“One of the criteria for winning gold was [having] a Wikipedia [page].” said Pavel Shmatnik, one of the team’s leads.

The team appealed for gold but were told that their penalty for not having a running Wikipedia page outlining the details of their presentation was regrettably the reason for their loss of first place.

“We created a viable bioplasmid, but there were a lot of set back[s] so we did not have time to characterize them,” said team member Joanna Dowdell. “We ended up presenting working software and showed this to the communities, and explained that we couldn’t characterize [the bio plasmid],” she added.

The policy and practice team also received the award for best application design, and were asked to present on separate occasions about their design at the Jamboree. Prior to the competition, iGEM also presented at the Keepers of Water

conference, in the presence of First Nations groups, in Alberta.

The iGEM team members were asked to be part of the Keepers of Water national board committee.

The iGEM 2015 team members came from a whole variety of undergraduate programs, portraying how he project truly endorses collaboration from all scientific fields.

“Personally my background is from sociology, this was a massive learning experience for me, trying to apply my knowledge which was completely different” said Shmatnik “iGEM really helped me with my lab skills, being a first year going into the project and now a second year coming out, my labs [now] make more sense and it’s much easier” added Christine Byrd, who studies human and molecular biology. iGEM is looking to put together a team for next competition, and will soon look to new undergraduates for proposals for this year’s projects. Their first recruitment event is happening this Friday, October 30 from 5 pm to 8 pm in room WE54G in New College.

Researchers find you might be sleeping too much New findings from sleep experts say that the eight hour night might be overkill FARWA KHTANA

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Sleep, sleep, sleep. For many of us, getting enough of it can seem like an impossible task. Between studying for midterms and trying to cope with overwhelming amounts of readings, sleep is something that students never seem to have enough of.

We all know that we need at least eight hours of sleep, but how many of us actually meet that requirement?

Before you despair, however, consider the following: many people in prehistoric times, before smartphones and homework were even invented, also slept less than eight hours.

In fact, new research conducted on the sleep patterns of people in non-industrialized areas, revealed that people in these communities got on average, 6.4 hours of sleep.

Not only is this about the same amount of sleep that people leading a busy urban lifestyle get, but the number also falls beneath the recommended eight hours.

The research was conducted by observing members of Bolivia’s Tsimane, who lead lifestyles of hunting, and live in houses made of grass and mud.

Members of the Tsimane do not have artificial lighting or climate control. After dark, they eat, chat, weave and sometimes hunt — taking this time to connect and socialize with family and friends. The research revealed that they would fall asleep, on average, three and a half hours after sunset, and wake up at sunrise. In fact, among them, the late risers were the ones that got up just an hour after sunrise.

Other research has found similar results. People who live in areas without electricity tend to sleep the same amount as

those who live in industrialized parts of the world. One of the primary researchers, Jerome Siegel from the University of California, stated that “seeing the same pattern in [makers] groups separated by thousands of miles on two continents [makes] it pretty clear that this is the natural pattern.”

The major factor contributing to this natural sleep pattern are temperature and light control. Having the right temperature when sleeping and allowing the right amount of light makes our body more relaxed and keeps our mind better rested.

Siegel said that we would benefit more from recreating ancient conditions of light and warmth. The study also found that the sleep patterns changed in winter and summer, and so did the nap times. This suggests that mimicking aspects of the natural environment can help regulate a natural sleep pattern.

Is technology to blame then? Apparently, yes. The study found that subjects that were on some sort of electronic device took longer to fall asleep then those who slept while reading a book. The subjects who spent more time on their devices were also found to be groggier in the morning.

So, how does all of this relate to the modern-day? Well, to start with, it implies that although, we as students may not get the suggested eight hours of sleep, we can do certain things to better regualte our sleep patterns.

Professor Judith Anderson of the Department of Psychology shared some tips. She advised students to find a sleeping routine and start it about an hour before bedtime. You can help make your sleep more efficient before you even go to bed by engaging in calming activities such as relaxing, or reading a

LAMA EL-HANAN/THE VARSITY

book. What is most important is to not look at any blue screens or electronics, as those keep your brain awake and stimulated.

She suggested letting the room be very dark; “your brain is able to fall into the deepest, most restful level of sleep if it is quiet and dark.”

Going to sleep and getting up at the same times every day were recommended as well, as this will allow your body to regulate its sleep cycle, It will also ensure that you are more efficient with your time because you know that everything has to be done by bedtime.

And finally, don’t hit the snooze button! This disrupts your natural sleep rhythm, and in fact, you may end up being in even deeper sleep than before the alarm was turned off.

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M O N DAY 26 O C TO B E R 2 015 science@thevarsity.ca

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Are you getting enough D? U of T nutrition professor discusses history of supplements on CBC documentary FARWA KHTANA

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

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Without enough vitamin D the body will become dysfunctional. MALLIKA MAKKAR/PHOTO EDITOR

We’ve all heard that vitamins are essential to a healthy lifestyle, but do we actually get enough of them?

While nutrition labels seem to provide promising data about how many vitamins we are actually consuming, the truth is that some of us may need more vitamins than we would like to think.

The Curious Case of Vitamins and Me, a documentary which recently aired on the CBC, explores the use of vitamins, and features the research of U of T professor, Dr. Rienhold Vieth. Vieth is a part of the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Laboratory Medicine. His contribution to the study mainly focuses on the increasingly prevalent lack of vitamin D among dark-skinned people living in Northern regions of Canada.

Vitamin D comes from a chemical reaction in the skin, which occurs naturally when the skin is exposed to sunshine 45 degrees above the horizon.

Vieth explained that if the sun is lower than 45 degrees, or “[when] your shadow is longer than you, then you are not able to make vitamin D anymore,” which can eventually lead to long-term health concerns.

He also explained that in historic times, when people migrated to the north out of Africa into areas where the sun shines less frequently, they would make up the required levels of vitamin D by eating fish, because they lived along the coast. Vieth also explained that these migrating communities ate a pound of fish a day, which for them, was sufficient. Today however, when people substitute a pound of fish for supplements and half a glass of milk, it still does not provide enough vitamin D for their bodies. For people who still live in these northern areas, this is highly problematic, especially for those with darker skin.

“Skin colour makes it harder and harder for you to make vitamin D,” Vieth said. “Basically, what we’re doing is transplanting people from an area for which

their skin is optimized in terms of its colour to an area where their skin is often too dark to be healthy.”

Vieth believes that it is important to study the effects of vitamin D because without it, the body will become dysfunctional. “Vitamin D, is simply a tool that you use in order to communicate...” he explained, “if you don’t have the right tools within your body, then mistakes can happen. Cells can become cancerous.”

“The documentary also covered key points such as how and why humans lost their ability to create their own vitamin C, the same way that other mammals do, and how daily intake figures for different vitamins are calculated, and evaluated.

Bryce Sage, the director and writer of the documentary, said, “We also look at case studies of individual vitamins, such as the efficacy of oral versus intravenous vitamin C in preventing colds or fighting cancer and the differing needs of vitamin D amongst individuals of varying skin colours.”

When asked what the implications of this research may be, he answered “We are learning that we have individual needs for vitamins, which vary by geography, skin colour, gender, age and genetics, which mean we have differing needs for supplements.”

According to the documentary, if the amount of vitamins in the body is low, then our bodies ration them towards our survival, as opposed to our long-term health. Sage also mentioned that the data collected for the vitamin D research was through double-blind placebo-controlled trials.

Sage believes that vitamin D is an important point of study in today’s world because scientists actively debate on the recommended daily intake, and it is important for biological functions in the body.

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SPOOKY HALLOWEEN CELLS The scariest non-costume is within ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY SAMANTHA YAMMINE VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Graveyards, haunted houses, and the desolate, abandoned corridors of Robarts’ upper stacks are not the only places where spooky things are happening this October. All across U of T’s laboratories, our microscopic friends are also getting in the Halloween spirit. The following images are all real and certified scary photographs taken at various research facilities by our school’s own talented microbiologists.

CELLULAR SHAPE SHIFTERS Candida albicans is an infectious fungus that is even scarier in action than in appearance.

This funky fungus hides out in the body, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. When it senses that your immune system is weaker than usual, it attacks and causes disease.

Pictured here are some of the different creepy shapes Candida morphs into, which allow it to hide from your immune system and invade different tissues.

THE EVER-WATCHFUL EYE These bloodshot branches belong to a starburst amacrine cell, a type of neuron in the eye. Starburst cells are responsible for sensing the direction of moving targets. They use these eerie branches to communicate with neighbouring cells to transmit visual information to the brain.

Submitted by Samantha Esteves, MSc student in the Lefebvre lab at the Hospital for Sick Children.

THE BATTLE OF HELLS DEEP These ghost-like yellow cells, whose colouring is caused by a viral infection that makes them fluorescent, are plunging head first into the fiery depths of a cellular hell made of astrocytes.

DEEP, DEEP DREAMS A representation of the confusing worlds we visit in our dreams. Created using the open source Google deep dream code, which reveals the psychedelic patterns hidden in the connections between brain cells.

Submitted by Samantha Yammine, PhD student in the Van Der Kooy lab at the University of Toronto.

Submitted by Samantha Yammine and Albi Celaj, PhD students in the van der Kooy and Roth lab (respectively) at the University of Toronto.

RADIOACTIVE SPIDER WEB This web of cells is made up of neurons that were born from stem cells in a dish. They form complex connections with one another both in a dish and in the brain, and they often look like irregular spider webs when visualized.

Some of the cells trapped in the web were infected with a virus.

THE HAND THAT FEEDS Not every cell made in a dish turns out perfectly, and this is an example of one that does not look quite as it should — biologically speaking. It seems this cell just wanted to dress up for Halloween a little early!

Submitted by PhD student Amanda Veri and postdoctoral fellow Teresa O’Meara, Cowen lab, University of Toronto.

LAKE OF SOULS The cells in this picture are familiar to neuroscientists as ‘astrocytes,’ but their resemblance to trapped spirits floating in an eery lake just can’t be ignored. This could be a neuroscientist’s take on the River Styx, or the lake in the cave where Harry Potter and Dumbeldore search for the first horcrux in The Half-Blood Prince.

Submitted by Samantha Yammine, PhD student in the van der Kooy lab, University of Toronto.

THE MUTANTS ARE SPAWNING This picture is of Caenorhabditis elegans, which, although both it’s name and it’s appearance may imply extraterrestrial origin, is actually a transparent roundworm. Shown here are two embryos that have mutations in a gene important for cell division.

Submitted by Abigail Mateo, PhD candidate in the Derry lab at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Submitted by Samantha Yammine, PhD student in the van der Kooy lab at the University of Toronto.

Submitted by Samantha Yammine, PhD student in the van der Kooy lab, University of Toronto.

var.st/sports

SPORTS 26 O ctOber 2015

sports@thevarsity.ca

Feminism, combat, and pillows Toronto’s Pillow Fight League fights for recognition EMMA KIKULIS SPORTS EDITOR

TIFFANY GO/THE VARSITY

I

t’s been a huge year for sport in Toronto. This past summer the city hosted the seventeenth Pan American Games in which Canadian athletes won a record 217 medals; the entire city got behind the unprecedented success of the Blue Jays, who made it all the way to the ALCS for the first time in 22 years; and Toronto FC have clinched a playoff spot for the first time in franchise history. With the right infrastructure and fan support already in place, is the city finally ready to welcome a new, unconventional sport into its successful roster?

Brandy Dawley, president of the Pillow Fight League (PFL), thinks so.

Started in 2006, the PFL is trying to distance itself from the girls-only slumber party image that perpetuates conversations amongst the ignorant. The PFL has hosted 65 events across North America over the last five years.

Pillow fighting prides itself on being a full contact, mixed martial arts, and boxing hybrid. The competitors, dubbed fighters, traditionally compete on floor mats and are equipped with one weapon: a pillow. Drawing inspiration from roller derby, the sport is all about contact — fighters use their pillows to incapacitate their opponents — and all contact must be made using the pillow.

Dawley, along with a few other fans of the sport, purchased the rights to the league after the original PFL went defunct in 2011, and they are looking to put pillow fighting on the map.

A proud feminist, Dawley recently talked to The Varsity about her plans for the league, the importance of female only sports, and the badass fighters who make up the PFL. The Varsity: What is the PFL and why did you make the decision to become the president of the league?

Brandy Dawley: Back when the original pillow fight league was still running I came to a couple of shows and I had the same reaction I’m expecting most people are going to have about the sport which is, you know, kind of: ‘ok sure girls pillow fighting this is going to be hilarious.’ I was picturing the same thing I think everyone pictures when they think of pillow fighting: some lingerie-clad bikini models hitting each other with pillows, [but] I went and it was nothing like that at all. It was the brutal exciting sport with these athletes. Just beating the crap out of each other with pillows and it was just so amazing that I became hooked… I was really personally disappointed when the league folded, and then I got in contact with a few other people

who were fans of the league… and we decided we needed to bring this thing back, and we bought it. And here I am.

we want to make sure that this is first and for most a women forward event, and a women forward sport.

TV: Do you think the PFL will be received as more of an activity or entertainment? Is Toronto ready to embrace pillow fighting as a sport?

BD: Well here’s the thing, I think now is the perfect time because women are starting to really make a name for themselves in sports. The women’s world cup finals was, I think, the top watched soccer game in US history. Ronda Rousey is one of the most notable combat athletes out there right now, women are finding their way onto coaching staff in the NFL and NBA; its not a boys club anymore. I think the general idea of women as athletes is celebrated more now than it was… even a year ago… I think now is the time that we’ll be taken seriously as a sport... We’re kind of counting on that ‘WTF’ factor to bring people to the first game. We’re hoping that people are as blown away by our athletes as we were when we first came to the shows and decide that they actually like the sport… the first show is going to be the toughest — getting people to take [the PFL] seriously. We’re hoping that...the press [are] there [and] get the chance to see what we’re about. Then people [can] decide to give us a chance… I’m very proudly a feminist and

TV: What is the selection process like for the PFL and how many fighters are you looking to take onboard? When can we expect the first match to take place?

BD: Right now we’re focusing on our crowd funding campaign and getting the seed capital for our first show because we kind of expended most of our resources in buying the league. We could have started our own league — many people have tried — but we wanted the first and the best… Now its time to plan the first event and we’re hoping that the crowd funding campaign will give us a little boost…

We have a tentative date and a tentative location… but it all depends on how the crowd funding campaign goes… If you want to become a fighter the website is jointhepfl.com you sign up — there’s a lengthy questionnaire.

We’re going to be having open tryouts, probably in November, and from there we will have coaches and they will be working with our athletes… Right now we’re looking for our first six fighters but we’re going to have a much larger roster as time goes on.

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Sport suspensions Tracing past transgressions of college and university varsity programs BARRY SANGHA VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

DIANA PHAM/ASSOCIATE ILLUSTRATION EDITOR

October has been a month of turmoil for the Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. The polytechnic college, just under an hour north of UTSG, suspended both its male and female rugby teams on October 2. The reason for the suspension: alleged violations against the college’s code of expectations.

“The school’s code of expectations includes guidance on dress codes, hazing, alcohol and drug use, among other areas” reads an article from The Canadian Press, in correlation with Humber’s policies, classified as a “level four” offence. The highest possible level of offence, level four suspensions are classified as acts or offences which “pose a danger or threat to individuals, are in many cases illegal, and in most cases have already caused physical or psychological harm.”

The indefinite suspension of the teams will be determined by the results of an internal investigation. The Ontario College Athletics Association (OCAA) has been informed of the suspension of both teams. “We take matters of

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our athletics, of our students, we take all this very seriously,” said Andrew Leopold, Humber College’s director of communications.

Although there has been much speculation as to why the college chose to suspend the teams, this isn’t the first time that a program has been suspended by an inter-college or inter-university governing organization like the OCAA. In March of 2014, the University of Ottawa’s varsity men’s hockey team was suspended after allegations of sexual assault arose after a tournament at Lakehead University.

Certain players on the team, however, were granted the opportunity to transfer immediately to another hockey program at a different university after Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) CEO Pierre Lafontaine waved the mandatory one-year waiting period. “Our position is to support the student athletes,” said Lafontaine, of the decision to let the players transfer. The team’s head coach was fired due to his failure to report the incident to the university.

Other instances of program suspensions include Dalhousie University’s women’s hockey program. The team’s 2013 season was for-

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feited due to the alleged hazing of rookie players. Although the entire team was not suspended — rookie players were allowed to remain — the team was forced to forfeit the season due to lack of players. In September of 2009, Carleton University also suspended it’s women’s varsity soccer team for rookie hazing.

The team was only suspended for two games, participating in charity work at a local soup kitchen during their off-time.

A case that hits closer to home is the suspension of the Ryerson Rams men’s hockey team in 2009. The university suspended the team for seven days for a breach of the student-athlete code of conduct in an incident involving alcohol consumption during a pre-season trip to New Jersey. Although seven days seems like a slap on the wrist in comparison to a yearlong suspension, the team was subsequently forced to forfeit two games, the head coach was suspended for four games and the team’s assistant coach was dismissed from his duties at the university.

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Fantasy sports takes on a whole new meaning Some of the best programs don’t appear on the varsity roster

sources, more participation from the student body, and more recognition from the university and the media.

ADIT DAGA

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The University of Toronto consistently tops intercollegiate rankings as one of the world’s best places to study. Studying, however, isn’t all we do. A large portion of the student body is unaware of the variety of non-varsity sports that are available to them.

WIZARDING GAMES ON FRONT CAMPUS Not many people have heard of The Nifflers who regularly practice at U of T’s St.George campus. The Nifflers play quidditch; a muggle adaptation of the sport from the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

Much like in J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series, and according to the International Quidditch Association (IQA) rulebook, there are seven players on each side — three chasers, two beaters, a keeper, and a seeker. Three kinds of balls: a quaffle, a snitch, and bludgers.

The chasers try to get the quaffle, a slightly deflated volleyball, through

ELHAM NUMAN/ASSOCIATE ILLUSTRATION EDITOR

one of three hoops guarded by keepers. Beaters throw the bludgers, dodgeball-style, at the chasers.

Seekers chase the runner, who has the snitch — a small ball — tucked into a sleeve attached to their shorts.

Quidditch is not yet allowed to join the ranks of more traditional collegiate sports such as varsity

swimming or varsity football. The quidditch community continues to lack support and recognition from students as well as the university. Former co-captain Matt Korda contends that recognition remains one of the team’s biggest challenges. “I do think that one of the toughest things about Quid-

ditch is moving the game away from the books,” he said in an interview with The Varsity last year.

The Nifflers, however, have made impressive strides since the club’s inception in 2009, and they have inspired teams to form on the UTM and UTSC campuses. But the team still needs more: more re-

EMBRACING YOUR INNER LEGOLAS AND YOUR INNER KATNISS The Hart House Archery Club owes some of its popularity to various fantasy and sci-fi series like The Lord of The Rings and The Hunger Games franchises.

Prospective archers need not fear — the stakes of the club aren’t life or death. Due to the rise in the popularity of archery, the club is growing faster than ever, so much so that former Varsity writer J.P. Antonacci described the space as crowded. “Eight spots was fine for training day, but during the weekday free shoots… the small space gets pretty crowded,” he explained.

At a closer glance, however, the possibility of growth for the club is immense. Archery is an Olympic sport, with events lasting as long as seven days at the 2012 Games in London. Historically, Canada’s achievement in archery has been almost nonexistent, but an investment in infrastructure and development for the fast-paced and growing sport within Canadian universities could change that.

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HOW THE JAYS SET FIRE TO TORONTO The Jays did what the Pan Am games couldn’t: get Torontonians excited about sport RYAN PARK

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

There are numerous ways to define Toronto: its breadth of diversity, the hospitality of its residents, or the quality of its leadership all come to mind. Last summer the city was defined by the mayoral election.

This year will be marked as the year of sport for Toronto, thanks not only to the Pan American Games, but the success of the Toronto Blue Jays.

2015 marked the most successful Jays season the city saw in the past 22 years. If you walked anywhere in the downtown core over the past two months you would have seen hundreds of Jays hats-and-jersey-adorned fans littering the streets.

Not only did the sale of various Jays merchandise skyrocket over the length of the team’s playoff stint, but so did collective pride and excitement about the team — a breakthrough Toronto based sports desperately needed. “[The success of the Jays] brings together people of different walks of life, social locations, and ages to share the experience of cheering on a winning team” said urban studies lecturer David Roberts in an interview with U of T News.

The success of the Jays couldn’t have come at a better time. University aged students alone have seen several Leafs and Raptors teams spiral into the abyss of NHL and NBA standings. We’ve lost playoff spots by one point on more than one occasion, and so desperately needed this ego boost to finally get over the memory of the 5-1 lead loss the Leafs had in the infamous game seven match against Boston in 2013.

Toronto celebrated with the Blue Jays this past September when they knocked off the Baltimore Orioles to win the AL East. KEITH ALLISON/CC FLICKR

The city reveled in the tenacity and expertise of Josh Donaldson, David Price, and Jose Bautista, who to many, are now considered civic heroes. Aside from the fact that the Jays roster was the best we’ve seen in decades, athletes, management, and the media continued to hype the success of the team until the bitter end. Now the only question left is sustainability.

Roberts admits that the civic pride and excitement the Jays created over the past few months in Toronto will be difficult to sustain after the team’s elimination from the ALCS on Friday, but there is still hope. “Part of the challenge of creating a greater impact is to figure out how to extend the feelings about the Blue Jays to the city of Toronto… [which will] likely takes some visionary civic leadership,” he said.

The Jays success may also translate into a newfound appreciation for university sport as well. The Varsity Blues men’s baseball and women’s fastpitch teams — both coming off third place finish’s in the OUA and OIWFA championships, respectively, this season, may be able to harness some of Toronto’s new found love of the game.

SPORTS IN BRIEF SEAN SMITH

SENIOR COPY EDITOR

LACKLUSTER LEAFS The Toronto Maple Leafs lost in a shootout to the Buffalo Sabres last Wednesday night. At the end of regulation play the game was tied 1–1. Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau got the Leafs out in front in the second minute of the game. It was over 50 minutes later before the Sabres could equalize.

Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier had an excellent game, saving 34 of 35 shots on net.

The loss could be attributed to the implementation of new overtime rules approved by the NHL this season.

Teams now play a three on three five-minute period. If the game is still tied at that point then each team will get a minimum of one point (as if the game had tied). After this, the game goes into rounds of shoot-outs to determine the winner of the game.

The Leafs and Sabres were even throughout the threeon-three, but the Sabres beat the Leafs 2–1 in the first round of shootouts, with Parenteau scoring for the Leafs, and Tyler Ennis and Matt Moulson scoring for the Sabres.

The Leafs have won only one of their first seven games.

RAPTORS BEAT WIZARDS TO CLOSE OUT PRE-SEASON

EXISTENTIAL SADNESS

The Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards 92–82 on Friday to finish the pre-season with a record of five and two. DeMarre Carroll scored 16 points while Kyle Lowry scored 13. The Raptors started slow, trailing for most of the second half, but started to turn things around taking the lead late in the second quarter.

Based on the raptors pre-season performance they are projected to win the Atlantic Division. If the projections are accurate this will be the third year in a row that the Raptors will have won the division; however, in both of the past two seasons the Raptors were unsuccessful at making it past the first round. In fact, the Raptors have only once, 15 years ago, made it past the first round of the playoffs.

Coming off a year with a franchise record number of wins, the Raptors will need to shore up their defensive problems from last year if they hope to get past the first round of the playoffs.

The Toronto Blue Jays ended their season with a loss to the Kansas City Royals 4–3 in a nail biter on Friday night in Game 6 of the American League Championship (ALCS).

Jays starter David Price got off to a shaky start allowing two solo home runs in the first two innings. The second home run, however, was not without controversy. One of the Royals fans reached out and caught the home run ball and there is some question as to whether, without the fans’ intervention, the ball would have made it over the fence.

The call on the field was challenged, but the ruling was inconclusive and the run counted.

The Jays’ three runs were batted in by two home runs hit

by Jose Bautista, the second of which tied the game just prior to a rain storm, which caused a 45-minute rain delay.

After the rain had passed Roberto Osuna conceded a run to the Royals, in the bottom of the ninth inning, allowing for the Royals to win the game and the series.

The Jays played a spectacular defensive game, but it was their offense that let them down. They stranded two leadoff runners and failed to manufacture runs, instead relying on home runs for all of their runs. The Toronto Blue Jays, and fans alike, have enjoyed an unexpectedly successful season. It has been over twenty years since this city has loved its baseball like it did this year. A lot of our players’ futures with the club remain up in the air — making for an interesting off-season.

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Notice of fall meeting of members

VARSITY PUBLICATIONS

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Fall Meeting of Members of VARSITY PUBLICATIONS (the “Corporation”), the not-for-profit corporation that publishes The Varsity newspaper and The Varsity Magazine, will be held

Room 200, 21 Sussex Ave. October 29, 2015 5:10 p.m. EST For the purposes of: 1. Reviewing and, if deemed appropriate, passing an ordinary resolution to approve the financial statements for the period of May 1, 2014 to April 30, 2014; 2. Reviewing, and, if deemed appropriate, passing an ordinary resolution to approve the public accountant’s report in respect of the financial statement;

3. Appointment of Peter Hogg CA as the public account ant; and 4. Transacting such other business as may properly be brought before the meeting.

Members who are unable to attend this meeting in person are requested to return the form of proxy to the meeting location at their earliest convenience, but before 5:00 p.m. EST, on October 28, 2015.

All members of Varsity Publications Inc. are entitled to receive this notice.

DATED at Toronto, this 15th day of October 2015 By order of the Board of Directors Alec Wilson Editor-in-Chief

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