October 23, 2017

Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 7 October 23, 2017 thevarsity.ca —— University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

Students with mental health issues may be subjected to mandatory leave

Candlelight vigil held in solidarity with Somalia Community members from across Toronto come out to show support

Policy drafted for situations of deteriorating academic performance, harmful behaviour

Cravings and compulsions

Nouran Sakr Varsity Staff

A proposed university-mandated leave of absence policy is currently being considered for students who, due to mental illness, display significant impairments in their academic performance or aggressive behaviour toward themselves or others.

This process, currently described in a draft policy, would only occur if supportive resources and other accommodations were not available to the student or were unsuccessful.

The university has been considering the policy “for a few years” according to a Governing Council memo. Its importance initially emerged in the Ombudsperson’s 2014–2015 report. If the Executive Committee endorses the policy on December 5, then it will go before Governing Council on December 14 for approval. The administration expects the policy to be implemented starting in January 2018. The policy will apply to all domestic and international students.

Discussions with registrar’s offices, academic administrators, deans of students, health, wellness and counselling staff, faculty, and student groups are ongoing; revisions of the current draft will be based on the feedback received.

According to the draft policy, if a student’s behaviour requires intervention, the academic division heads will notify the Vice-Provost Students, who decides whether to apply the policy. “I really expect that, if it’s used, it would be used only a very small number of times, in a given year,” said Vice-Provost Students Sandy Welsh.

The student will be encouraged to seek a voluntary leave of absence. “The hope is that the student will be in a position to be well Mental health, page 3

Editorial The Hudson lawsuit settlement leaves students in the dark

Comment

page 11

Simrit Khabra Varsity Contributor

The East African Student Association (EASA) held a vigil on October 20 to commemorate the victims of the October 14 bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Naima Aden, President of the Somali Students Association, spoke about the importance of raising awareness and standing with a grieving community through the rebuilding process. “Our lives are valuable, our lives will not be forgotten, and our lives will not be ignored,” said Aden.

Attendees included students from Ryerson University, OCAD University, York University, George Brown College, and U of T, as well as community members from across the GTA. As numerous speakers shared their remarks, attendees stood together donning red ribbons and holding candles.

Other speakers included Salma Hussein from the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA); Samiya Abdi, a community advocate; Walied Khogali, President of the Toronto Environmental Alliance; Henry Ssali, Founder and Executive Director of the African Alumni Association, and Imam Yasin Dwyer, Ryerson’s Muslim Chaplain.

Emmanuela Alimlim of the Eastern Africa Students Association, one of the organizers of the event, set the sombre mood of the vigil, saying, “The reason we wanted to come together was to unite. To see each other as a community.”

When asked about the importance of showing solidarity, Alimlim said, “We are the minority. We know the climate of what is going on. We need to have this space for us because our voice seems to get lost. Our death doesn’t seem to count to many people.”

Ammara Wasim, Vice-President Communications of the MSA, told The Varsity that two executive members of the MSA are Somali. “We wanted one of them to have a space to talk at this event. We thought it would be really beneficial for them to see the MSA as inclusive.”

Somalia, page 3

A student explores the nature of addictive personalities page 12

10

PEARL CAO/THE VARSITY

Talking to Guys We Fucked

Holy Polynya!

Blues hit the ice

Bernie’s coming to town!

We interview the “antislut shaming podcast”

A professor investigates the appearance of mysterious hole in Antartica

Women’s team crush Lions 7-0 in home opener

Tickets sold out in under a minute

A&C

page 16

Science

page 17

Sports

page 21

News

page 3

2 • THE VARSITY

news@thevarsity.ca

Comics of the week Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 7 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6 (416) 946-7600 thevarsity.ca thevarsitynewspaper @TheVarsity the.varsity the.varsity The Varsity

MASTHEAD Jacob Lorinc Editor-in-Chief

editor@thevarsity.ca

Tom Yun Managing Online Editor

online@thevarsity.ca

Rachel Chen Managing Editor

managing@thevarsity.ca

Elham Numan Creative Director

creative@thevarsity.ca

Blythe Hunter Senior Copy Editor

copy@thevarsity.ca

Jack O. Denton News Editor

news@thevarsity.ca

Teodora Pasca Comment Editor

comment@thevarsity.ca

Kaitlyn Simpson Features Editor

features@thevarsity.ca

Reut Cohen Arts & Culture Editor

By Jessica Ye

arts@thevarsity.ca

Connie Liu Science Editor

science@thevarsity.ca

Daniel Samuel Sports Editor

sports@thevarsity.ca

Pearl Cao & Piyumi Konara Design Editors

FIRST-YEAR DIARY ENTRY #1

designer@thevarsity.ca photo@thevarsity.ca

Steven Lee Photo Editor Mia Carnevale Illustration Editor

illustration@thevarsity.ca video@thevarsity.ca

Shaq Hosein Video Editor Mohammad Durrani & Tamim Mansour Web Developers Michael Teoh Deputy Senior Copy Editor Aidan Currie Deputy News Editor Sophie Borwein Public Editor

webdev@thevarsity.ca

deputysce@thevarsity.ca deputynews@thevarsity.ca public@thevarsity.ca

The reality of living in a technological society

By Corals Zheng

Vacant Vacant Associate Senior Copy Editor Associate Science Editor Josie Kao & Jillian Schuler Associate News Editors

Vacant Associate Sports Editor

Ibnul Chowdhury & Jenisse Vacant Minott Associate Design Editor Associate Comment Editors Min Ho Lee Vacant Associate Photo Editor Associate Features Editor Vacant Vacant Associate Illustration Editor Associate A&C Editor Vacant Associate Video Editor Copy Editors Jayra Almanzor, Isabel Armiento, Marisa Balleani, Megan Brearley, Darren Cheng, Laura Coburn, Angela Fu, Kevin Lu, Natalie Marshall, Nora Moidu, Ethan Raymond, Imani Stewart Designers Darren Cheng, Keith Cheng, Namita Singh

BUSINESS OFFICE Kary Cozens Business Manager

business@thevarsity.ca

Emma Findlay-White Advertising Executive

emma@thevarsity.ca

Angela Lee Advertising Executive

angela@thevarsity.ca

The Varsity is the University of Toronto’s largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock. Content © 2017 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

Sudoku

OCTOBER 23, 2017 • 3

var.st/news Mental health, from cover enough and be working with us to consider a voluntary leave,” said Welsh. She added that if the student does not agree to go on a voluntary leave and the university still has concerns regarding their mental health, the mandated leave will be applied.

Welsh emphasized that the mandated leave is not punitive or disciplinary; rather, it is a policy of last resort. However, the mandated leave policy allows the student in question to appeal the Vice-Provost Student’s decisions to the University Tribunal’s Discipline Appeals Board.

The policy also cannot be applied to students who already have a treatment plan and are able to attend and participate in their classes.

Both mandatory and voluntary leaves of absence have terms and conditions that may include any limitations to the student’s access to campus premises or activities, the addition or removal of any notation of the student’s academic transcript, financial implications, alternative housing arrangement if the student lives in a university residence, consideration of the student’s access to a campus Health and Wellness Centre, and a verification that it is safe for the student to return.

The applicability of terms and conditions of the voluntary leave would be recommended by the student support team, usually comprised of representatives from the stu-

Somalia, from cover dent’s program, registrar’s office, and other on-campus support and resources. They are then agreed to by the Vice-Provost Students.

The student will also be assigned a case manager involved in the recommendation of the terms and conditions, responsible for supporting the student, providing them with resources, and facilitating between them and the university.

The policy allows the university to implement the leave more efficiently and grants the student more access to the help they need.

In the past, U of T used the Code of Student Conduct to enforce the leave; Welsh believes that its use is a disciplinary policy and is not appropriate if students have serious mental health issue.

“We’re very impressed with the policy,” wrote Mathias Memmel, President of the University of Toronto Students’ Union. “We’ve discussed it at length with the Vice-Provost, Students, and the university has implemented many of our suggestions.”

Although Memmel stated that the policy is “clearly a very positive development,” he believes that the decision to mandate the leave should only be made in consultation with a medical professional. He also suggested that the university produce two guides to the policy: one specifically for medical professionals and one for students.

Bernie Sanders to speak at U of T Prominent American senator will speak about health care at Con Hall

The vigil was held at front campus. ALEXANDRA HU/THE VARSITY

The speeches all touched upon the importance of solidarity in the aftermath of the bombing in Mogadishu. Some students, however, expressed their skepticism toward this notion.

Abdi brought up the influence of outside actors in the initial stages of the aftermath of the bombing in her remarks with the crowd.

“For the past 27 years, whether it is large agencies, UN-based agencies, or other international agencies have collected money in the name of Somalis,” she told The Varsity.

“The government of Somalia doesn’t get any direct funding from this. Only the international agencies that continue to perpetrate this cycle of dependence [do], and they are not interested in long term solutions.”

Abdi also spoke about the lack of coverage in the media of this attack. “Sometimes we can just follow what’s on CNN, and America

cares about it then we care about it.” Regarding the impact of this event on the Somali community in Canada, Abdi said, “There’s a community trauma. I don’t have to be directly affected by [the bombing] to feel that.”

“If you look, in the Somali community, there is so much detail [about Mogadishu],” said Hussein. “Outside [the community] there is one video of a woman. No one is talking about the human impacts, just numbers.

We are brushed aside.”

The Facebook event for Solidarity With Somalia links to a GoFundMe page called Help Aamin Ambulance. The EASA was collecting donations for the fund throughout the night.

According to its page, the organizers of the project aim to help deliver medical supplies, transportation services, and first aid in Mogadishu. The fund has over 257,000 kr of their 300,000 kr goal.

Jack O. Denton News Editor

and U of T, will centre on what the US can learn from the Canadian single-payer health care system.

The event, scheduled for 11:00 am, is free, but registrants are limited to two tickets per order. Registration, which does not guarantee admittance, opened on October 20 at 10:00 am.

According to U of T News, the event sold out “in one minute” after more than 20,000 people flooded the event page. However, a number of people told The Varsity that the tickets seem to have sold out in a manner of seconds. Apparently, 16 tickets were reserved for members of Governing Council.

US Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will speak about health care on October 29 at Convocation Hall in an event titled “What the U.S. Can Learn From Canadian Health Care.”

Sanders, of Vermont, is a leading American democratic socialist who inspired a grassroots movement when he unsuccessfully challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2016 presidential race.

The talk, which will also include Dr. Danielle Martin of Women’s College Hospital

Sexual assault comes to light at the Citizen Lab 2014 incident illuminated by letter from director, perpetrator fired

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

Carey Davis Varsity Contributor

An alleged sexual assault that occurred at a Citizen Lab event in 2014 was revealed in an open letter from Director Ronald Deibert, posted the Citizen Lab website last week. The alleged assaulter, Morgan Marquis-Boire, has been removed from his position as a security researcher and technical advisor with the lab.

According to the letter, posted on October 13, Marquis-Boire allegedly sexually assaulted an-

other individual during the Citizen Lab-hosted Cyber Dialogue conference in March 2014.

In the letter, Deibert says Marquis-Boire requested to resign from the Citizen Lab’s technical advisory group in September, shortly before the accuser approached Deibert to inform him of the alleged sexual assault. Following this encounter, Deibert terminated Marquis-Boire’s position at the Citizen Lab. Marquis-Boire also held positions at First Look Media, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Freedom of the Press Foun-

dation. EFF has revoked affiliation with him following the sexual assault allegations.

Marquis-Boire did not respond to The Varsity’s attempts to contact him.

Deibert writes that he broached the possibility of pursuing legal action or going public with the unnamed individual, both of which the individual declined at the time. However, after a second consultation with the original party, Deibert wrote that he felt it was his “responsibility to make a public statement on behalf of the Citizen Lab.” In the letter, Deibert states the Citizen Lab stands “behind survivors of sexual assault in all its forms, [supports] those who come forward to share their experiences, and [is] committed to creating safer spaces in our community.”

The letter indicates that the Citizen Lab incorporated a Code of Conduct in July 2017 to “clearly articulate what constitutes inappropriate behavior at events we organize.”

The Citizen Lab declined to comment beyond the scope of the letter. Similarly, U of T’s media relations did not directly address the alleged sexual assault, explaining to The Varsity that they were first made aware of the incident via Deibert’s letter on October 13.

In an interview for The Varsity regarding sexual violence policy at U of T, Executive Director, Personal Safety, High Risk and Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Terry McQuaid said, “We know that sexual violence is a broader societal issue, and universities are no different, they’re grappling with this issue as well.”

Deibert also alluded to the management of and attitudes toward sexual violence at the Citizen Lab in his letter. “We will continue to monitor the situation closely, are committed to ongoing internal dialogue, and aim to be responsive to feedback from our community,” Deibert writes. “This incident highlights that there is much work to be done to counter a toxic culture of sexual discrimination, harassment, and violence in many areas of the tech community, and we are fully committed to that fight.”

Focused on global security research and development, the Citizen Lab is based out of the Munk School of Global Affairs at U of T. The Citizen Lab has hosted the Cyber Dialogue conference annually since 2011. The conference invites private and public voices to discuss cyberspace security and governance.

4 • THE VARSITY • NEWS

news@thevarsity.ca

666 Spadina proposal to include affordable housing, improved streetscapes Mixed-use, 11-storey building suggested Erin Calhoun Varsity Contributor

The Toronto and East York Community Council amended the proposed development for 666 Spadina Avenue at a meeting on October 17 to recommend an investment into affordable housing and improving streetscapes in the area.

The proposal, submitted by Spadina Towers Inc. in July 2016, suggests adding an 11-storey, mixed-use infill building with 133 rental apartments and an on-site park. The lot, built in 1972 and listed as a heritage building, currently hosts a 25-storey apartment building with 334 rental units.

The report sent to the Toronto and East York Community Council states that the application underwent modifications to reflect the concerns of citizens and City Staff — the City of Toronto Official Plan requires residents of the area to be consulted before intensification of development. The modified proposal is meant to supply “a positive contribution to the neighbourhood through the addition of the new onsite park, POPs [Privately-Owned Publicly Accessible Spaces], and pedestrian circulation throughout the site.”

Sue Dexter, U of T Liaison for the Harbord Village Residents Association (HVRA), stated that the development proposal is “great for the community.”

The Harbord Village area — spanning from Bloor Street and Spadina to Bathurst Street and College Street — is a densely student-populated area, and the accessibility of more affordable housing close to campus is vital to them. Dexter said that the neighbourhood welcomes the large student population.

Dr. David Hulchanski, a professor of housing and community development with the Faculty of Social Work, with the Department of Geography and Urban Planning, commented, “Infill, residential land

use intensification, is good, more rental [opportunities are] good.”

It is recommended that the owner of the lot be required to act pursuant to Section 37 of the Planning Act, which refers to height and density of developments, and reflect community benefits. The agreement would secure a cash contribution of $800,000 from the owner. Under the agreement of the Chief Planner and Executive Director, $400,000 would go toward creating affordable housing within Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina, and the other $400,000 toward improving local greenscapes, public realm, and neighbourhood greening improvements in the vicinity.

According to Dexter, the planning process of the development has been much more productive and collaborative than the university’s conflict with the city over the lot across the street, 698 Spadina.

The university’s plan is for the 698 infill to be 23 storeys and have zero green space — which stands in contrast to the modest 11 proposed storeys and the ample green space proposed for 666 Spadina, which would double the amount of park space in Harbord Village.

The HVRA believes that the development “creatively addresses the need for rental housing, for affordable housing and for community green space.”

The report cites the “Harbord Village Green Plan,” which is designed to preserve and maximize the green spaces in the Harbord Village area. The plan aims to target park improvements, street keeping, and other motives such as laneway greening.

When first proposed in July 2016, attendees in a community consultation were concerned about the site’s local green space and impact on the heritage site.

The amended proposal will be presented to the Toronto City Council on November 7, 2017.

U-Commute panel discussion criticizes public transit, calls for free services Transportation funding and student fares among main concerns Alex Tough Varsity Contributor

TTC criticism, alternatives for transportation funding, and student transit were the topics of conversation at an October 20 panel regarding transit in Ontario. The panel included New Democratic Party MPP Cheri DiNovo of Parkdale—High Park, the Green Party of Ontario’s Transportation Critic Tim Grant, Dr. Ehab Diab of the University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute, Suhali Barot of transit advocacy group TTCriders, and Moaz Ahmed of transit advocacy group CodeRedTO. The event was organized by the U-Commute project in conjunction with the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) and the Ryerson Students’ Union.

DiNovo said that the TTC should consider important changes, including providing its services for free.

“Make it at least seniors free, people on social assistance free, people with disabilities of all sorts free, and that’s the very least. I think that the aim should be that everyone should travel for free. The service is a necessity, it is not a luxury.”

The TTC was recently named the best public transit agency in North America by the American Public Transportation Association, largely

for its ambitious “five-year modernization plan” the strives to improve many aspects of the TTC, such as public safety, employee relations, financial stability, and public reputation.

Grant highlighted more of what he perceived to be shortcomings by the TTC, such as riders contributing 76 per cent of operating costs, “the highest in North America.”

He also implied that its current troubles have been caused by ineffective spending on major transit projects in the last 30 years. Barot criticized the elevated cost of transit and explained that a low-income transit pass is “extremely important in a city where a third of the people make minimum wage.”

With regard to funding alternatives for provincial transportation projects, Grant opined that road tolls are a win-win for both public transit and drivers. On the contrary, DiNovo proposed a “progressive taxation” solution, which would mean taxing large corporations “a little bit more,” seeing as Toronto has “the lowest corporate tax rate of any jurisdiction in North America.” She also hinted that the cost of operating future transit systems could be handled by publicprivate partnerships.

Free or partially funded student transit was both endorsed by Grant and DiNovo. “The province can

show real leadership here by providing a free transit for students, which would be ideal… The province can be somewhat of a facilitator, and if not free, at least pay 50 per cent of the cost of student transit,” said Grant.

DiNovo, who will not seek reelection next year, also stated the importance of student participation in getting cheap transit. “It really requires you to be active and noisy … there’s two elections coming up this year: there’s an election in June, provincial, there’s an election next fall in 2018 for the municipal. If you care about this issue, make sure you know where your candidates stand on it and their parties and make sure that you are there at the all-candidates meeting for [them] to answer questions about your transit.”

The panel was preceded by a presentation of the Draft 2041 Regional Transportation Plan by Metrolinx Director of Regional Planning Antoine Belaieff, which contained the planning decisions required to accommodate transportation growth for the next 25 years in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Belaieff mentioned the challenges currently facing the provincial transportation system, such as the fast-growing population of the GTHA areas and the backlog of investment in the project.

PERSONAL ASSISTANT NEEDED TO START WORK IMMEDIATELY FOR ME TO START AS A PART TIME POSITION. I am offering 16 hours per week at a rate of $25.00 per hour.

ALL APPLICANTS SHOULD EMAIL DIRECTLY AT "neilsnothot@gmail.com”

The 11-storey building will join the lot’s current 25-storey building, built in 1972.

SHANNA HUNTER/THE VARSITY

OCTOBER 23, 2017 • 5

var.st/news

Report on potential restructuring of Faculty of Forestry released Document details student, staff feedback as second round of consultations open

Jillian Schuler Associate News Editor

The second round of consultations related to the potential restructuring of the Faculty of Forestry began on October 5, when Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr published a report summarizing the results of the first round and opened the floor to comment on the report.

Concerns and suspicions remain among students, alumni, and administration from both the faculty and the broader university administration. In the first round of consultations, they were given the option to submit online written opinions, as well as meet with members of the administration to express their views on the issue.

Initial consultations on the future of the Faculty of Forestry ran from May 12 to July 4 after Regehr published a memo explaining the consultations in March.

Regehr’s report The discussion paper is broken down into two sections: a summary of the feedback received and a range of questions and answers

from during the discussions.

The Office of the Vice-President and Provost received 99 online submissions. Professor Elizabeth Smyth, Vice Dean, Programs of the School of Graduate Studies and Chair of this first phase of consultations, met with 79 various faculty members, students, staff, and alumni in 13 in-person consultation sessions.

A large variation of groups met with Smyth, including representatives of the School of the Environment and representatives from the Dean’s offices of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, as well as UTM and UTSC. Potential restructuring suggestions ranged from expanding the current faculty to closing the faculty altogether and transferring the programs into cognate units.

Feedback from the online submissions as well as the face-to-face meetings stressed the importance of the Faculty of Forestry and listed its contributions to the overall field of forestry. In addition, both feedback outlets produced varying statements of concern over Forestry keeping its faculty status.

With the faculty and the ad-

ministration having a history of discussing potential restructuring, the report mentions that “having been cast as ‘trouble makers’” in past discussions, the alumni are concerned with the fairness of the current process.

Stakeholders respond Forestry Matters, an online group led by students Theresa Richlin, Annonciade Murat, and Basil Southey submitted a petition related to the consultations with 886 signatures at the time of submission on July 2. The introduction of the petition reads, “The Faculty of Forestry is at risk from inappropriate academic restructuring that could further restrict programs and operations and threaten the future of forestry education at the University of Toronto.”

Questions such as “How can consultations take place over the summer if some students are away?” and “How could the consultation take place without a Dean at the Faculty of Forestry?” were asked during the consultations and reflect the concerns expressed in this petition.

Current Dean Robert Wright

took office immediately following Dean Mohini Sain leaving the post.

Wright expressed his admiration of how openly the consultation process was carried out and stressed the importance of restructuring in order to “stay at the cutting edge” of forestry science. However, other groups involved did not share his optimism.

Marcin Lewandowski, Chair of the Faculty of Forestry Alumni Association, while impressed with how well the consultation paper balanced the opposing opinions on the issue, said that he took issue with the language used in the discussion. The language “insinuated that there’s a problem with the Faculty of Forestry, and to us, at least, it is an attempt to create a problem as opposed to a problem that exists.”

However, Lewandowski concedes that as long as the administration continues to recognize the importance of forestry science and ensures that there is a teaching staff to properly teach the curriculum, the alumni will be satisfied.

Southey, President of the University of Toronto’s Foresters’ Club, expressed disappointment, feeling as though undergraduate students

have been overlooked. The consultations were completed during the summer, while many students were away working. Southey mentioned in an email to The Varsity that undergraduate students “had to struggle to be involved in the conversation,” claiming that the administration “made no effort to include undergraduate perspectives.” However, Southey still expresses hope that the administration will work to strengthen the faculty by increasing the resources available to the faculty.

The next step in the process is collecting and reviewing responses and comments to the report. Following the high volume of participation in early stages of the process, Regehr expressed her optimism on the outcomes of the discussions.

Regehr welcomes any comments or feedback on the discussion paper. “Everybody who wanted to voice an opinion and engage had an opportunity in the first stage,” she said. “They have an opportunity again now in the second stage.”

Trinity administration responds to vote of no confidence, allegations Provost Moran elaborates on alcohol ban, plans for reconciliation

HELEN CHEN/THE VARSITY

Josie Kao Associate News Editor

In response to a vote of no confidence in the Office of the Dean of Students on September 25, Mayo Moran, Provost and Vice Chancellor of Trinity College, sent an email to all Trinity students.

In the email, Moran says that “some of the decisions [of the Dean’s office], particularly where they involve discipline, will be the source of unavoidable tension between some of the students and the Dean’s Office

which is responsible, among other things, for maintaining discipline.”

“I realize that some of the allegations may worry you, particularly because you do not have the full details,” Moran’s email reads, “But I do want to assure you, as your Provost, that the Dean and her staff approach all student issues in an attentive, thoughtful way.”

The administration and students have been working to resolve dissatisfaction over how the college has handled a number of recent events, including an alleged as-

sault of Co-Head of College Bardia Monavari while two assistant deans watched, and the Provost’s decision to suspend alcohol-licensed events at the college.

“We are working with the student leaders and others on a plan to re-establish the strong working relationships that enable us to hold the unique events that Trinity students enjoy,” wrote Moran in an email to The Varsity.

Monavari said that “students are disappointed--to say the least.”

A few weeks after the vote of

no confidence was passed, Moran issued a temporary ban on alcohol-licensed events at the college, stressing that “the well-being of all our students is our top priority.”

“Because of serious concerns arising out of recent student-organized parties in residence, I placed the privilege of hosting licensed student-organized events on hold,” she said. “The hold will remain in place until we can be confident that future student-organized events can be conducted safely and responsibly, and with regard for the larger student body and applicable law and policies.”

The vote of no confidence was motivated in part by Monavari’s assertion that he was assaulted by a Campus Police officer while Assistant Dean of Students for Residence Life Adam Hogan and Assistant Dean of Students for Student Life Christine Cerullo stood by and watched.

Monavari consequently filed a complaint with Campus Police. He says that the Campus Police had confirmed that they received his complaint during the last week of September but have not contacted him since.

Another motivation was the college’s alleged mishandling of Trinity student Tamsyn Riddle’s sexual assault case, which resulted in Riddle filing a human rights complaint against the college and U of T. Monavari stated that many of the

events included in the TCM motion had “no causal link to alcohol.”

“By focusing on alcohol, the administration has effectively turned its attention away from the source of the issues,” said Monavari. “The assault that took place on September 23rd was enabled by a failure to act--not alcohol.”

Monavari notes that the Dean’s office’s “inability to follow up right after the incident was a result of negligence-- not alcohol,” and that Riddle’s human rights complaint was a result of “inadequate policy and decision-making--not alcohol.”

Despite this, Monavari says communication between the student leaders and administration has been “very professional.”

“We are working towards a reconciliation process between the Heads team and the Dean’s Office; this will be done with the aid of a third-party counsel,” he said. “It is important to emphasize the following: there is no personal animosity between the student heads and the Dean’s office.”

“We are also looking to any ways to improve what we do and are hopeful that something positive will come out of this difficult set of circumstances,” said Moran.

Campus Police did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.

All statements sent to The Varsity

by Moran were made on behalf of the college and its staff.

6 • THE VARSITY • NEWS

news@thevarsity.ca

Understanding mental health services at U of T Students, know your rights Joshua Grondin Varsity Contributor

A 2016 survey conducted by the Canadian Association of College & University Students Services estimated that nearly a fifth of Canadian post-secondary students struggle with mental health. The University of Toronto is certainly not an exception to this; its intense, competitive academic atmosphere can leave students feeling isolated.

The spontaneity of symptoms of mental health issues can make it difficult for students to complete their work on time or plan with professors for adjustments.

Mathias Memmel, President of the UTSU, told The Varsity, “The administration’s primary focus is academic excellence, sometimes at the expense of students’ well-being.

U of T was one of the last universities to start taking mental health issues seriously.” Memmel added that things are slowly improving, but the university’s “instutitional priorities” remain a barrier.

U of T is obliged to follow the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, and it has committed itself to following the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s guidelines on accessible education. Internally, the university’s Statement of Commitment Regarding Persons with Disabilities states that “the University will strive to provide support for, and facilitate the accommodation of individuals with disabilities so that all may share the same level of access to opportunities, participate in the full range of activities that the University offers, and achieve their full potential as members of the University community.”

If you are a student struggling with your mental health, you are guaranteed fundamental rights to make education accessible.

The following rights represent only a portion of those afforded to you.

You have the right to register with the Accessibility Services office on your campus.

While you are required to provide documentation of your disability and its related functional limitations, you do not need to disclose your specific diagnosis to instructors.

You may have the right to make-up tests, extensions on coursework, alternative evaluation formats, and exam rescheduling. These adjustments are made on a case-by-case basis depending on your condition and recommendation from documentation from health

providers.

You have the right to use service animals and support persons on campus. Possible exceptions are service animals being prohibited from areas where food is stored and served, and when their presence endangers another person’s health and safety.

You have the right to access Health and Wellness Centre services, which include individual psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, and group therapy. Students with disordered eating also have the right to access a dietician on campus.

Finally, whether or not you have accessibility needs, you have the right to file a petition for extensions on term work and final exams or for other special circumstances.

UTM and UTSC students can file with their registrar offices, and UTSG students can file with their faculty. If your petition is denied, you have the right to appeal.

For students who feel their rights have been violated, the Office of the Ombudsperson serves as an impartial, confidential, independent, and accessible third party. They analyze problems, identify possible solutions, and provide advice on how to proceed.

Memmel mentioned the UTSU’s recentlylaunched online help desk service, which aims to connect students to the right resources and provide one-on-one consultation for any academic, financial, or service issues they may experience.

Additionally, the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students (APUS) has formed a mental health coalition with the goal of presenting “a more student-focused and holistic set of recommendations to the University to address student stress and distress, and to advocate for better resources and supports for students.” Both the University College Literary and Athletic Society and the UTSU have mental wellness commissions, and the engineers’ Skule has a director dedicated solely to mental health initiatives for students in its faculty.

For crisis situations, more information on resources, or advice on dealing with mental illness, students can access Good2Talk, a helpline dedicated to student mental health, open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Disclosure: Joshua Grondin is the Associate to the Vice-President External at the UTSU.

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

Samantha Douek to lead new, “re-imagined” SMCSU Election results released October 17, three spots vacant on council Daniel Kim Varsity Staff

Samantha Douek is the new President of the St. Michael’s College Student Union (SMCSU), the union’s first since it underwent a “re-imagining” process after its dissolution in December 2016. The election results were released on October 17.

The voting period for students at St. Michael’s College (SMC) ran on October 11–15.

The new council will consist of six members, most of whom have not been part of SMCSU before. There remain three empty spots on the council for which there were no candidates.

The Varsity has obtained only the online results of the election. According to Chief Reporting Officer Erin McTague, there were 410 online ballots and two paper ballots cast. The results of the paper ballots are excluded from The Varsity’s count.

Douek defeated Jeremy Hernandez-Lum Tong, SMCSU’s former Religious and Community Affairs Commissioner. The presidential race was the closest of the three contested positions, with Douek receiving 46 per cent of the vote and Hernandez-Lum Tong receiving 44 per cent. The two-percentage-point difference means Douek won by a margin of six votes.

There were 40 spoiled ballots that accounted for 10 per cent of the presidential vote.

Kate Strazds won the election for VicePresident with 56 per cent of the vote and Peter Tao placed second with 35 per cent.

The difference between the two candidates was 87 votes. Thirty-five votes, totalling nine per cent of the ballots cast, were spoiled.

Alison Feise won the election for VP Academic Affairs, securing 54 per cent of the vote. Rida Hasan placed second with 30 per cent. The difference between the two candidates was 101 votes. The vote for VP Academic Affairs had the highest amount of spoiled ballots among the contested races at 67,

which accounted for 16 per cent of the vote.

Three candidates ran uncontested for their positions. Hiromitsu Higashi will serve as VP Communications, having garnered 82 per cent of the vote; John Russell will serve as VP Community Life after receiving 81 per cent of the vote; and Maher Sinno will take on the VP Arts position with 80 per cent of the vote.

Samantha Douek The Varsity interviewed Douek on the results of the elections and plans for the future.

“I’m really thankful to everyone that supported me,” Douek said. “I really look forward to working with everyone and sharing my ideas… I just really want to make sure that everyone has a really great year.”

With regard to her marginal victory, Douek explained that, even before she began her campaign, she knew that the race against Hernandez-Lum Tong would be very close. “[Hernandez-Lum Tong] is... very involved in St. Mike’s and he’s a really great candidate,” she said. “I really respect his ideas and what he stands for, even though I hold different ideas.”

Still, Douek said that she was “able to earn the trust of the students and, even though it was a slight majority, it was a majority.”

When asked about the union’s three vacant positions, Douek stated that the elected members will “discuss which next steps to take to fill these positions.” She continued by saying, “I’m confident that between [the elected members] we can come up with a plan on how to move forward in a way that’s fair.”

Hernandez-Lum Tong said that he was “very disappointed” with the results of the election.

“It does hurt and probably will hurt for some time,” he said. “But putting my sadness aside, I do wish to extend a huge congratulations to Samantha and the rest of the students who won.”

The new SMCSU will be the first student government at the college since December 2016.

PAULINA PETROVA/THE VARSITY

OCTOBER 23, 2017 • 7

var.st/news

Scarborough Campus Students’ Union campaigns for Academic Advocacy Demands include right to refuse using Turnitin, self-declared sick notes Abhya Adlakha Varsity Contributor

The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) at UTSC has launched a new petition, the Academic Advocacy petition, intended to fight for the academic rights of students and to make education more accessible. SCSU Vice-President Academics and University Affairs Christina Arayata explained the rights the SCSU is currently campaigning for in their Academic Advocacy campaign include the right to refuse to use Turnitin and selfdeclared sick notes.

Arayata said the main objective of the campaign is to make students more aware of their rights and to help them take more control over their education. Arayata has been working on the campaign’s foundations since summer.

Recently, the SCSU put up large banners in the Market Place, UTSC’s communal cafeteria-style area, containing several petition highlights.

The right to refuse Turnitin According to Arayata, many students are not aware that they have the right to refuse to submit their assignments through Turnitin, an online academic plagiarism checker.

This right is mentioned in the university’s Conditions of Use of Turnitin.

A student can refuse to use the service as long as they inform their professor in the early days of class, preferably the first day, and the professor will have to find another way to check assignments for that student.

Arayata thinks that, though professors do mention this in syllabi, students miss it because of the heavy jargon; the SCSU wants more accessible language in syllabi that describe student rights.

Self-declared sick notes Getting sick notes from doctors can be a lengthy and an expensive process, said Arayata. She added that the Health and Wellness Centre is already facing backups

SCSU VP Academics and University Affairs Christina Arayata is leading the campaign.

MAISHA ISLAM/THE VARSITY

with appointments, which concerns students because they lose marks each day work is late.

The SCSU prefers if every student were able to use one self-declared sick note per semester for every course by going to the registrar and filling out a form. The university would need to create a system to facilitate this.

The SCSU is also campaigning for the right to privacy of grades, removing the laptop ban in some lectures, a credit-no credit extension until the final day of the study break, and a five per cent cap on late penalties.

“Even if this may not affect you now, it might affect you sometime in the future,” concluded Arayata.

Hart House debate committee University College hosts Omar Khadr’s lawyer renovations set to begin in January Speech touches on Guantanamo Bay, nationalist politics, Islamophobia Silas Le Blanc Varsity Staff

The Hart House Debates and Dialogues Committee held an event called “The Rule of Law in an Age of Fear” on October 18. It featured the lawyer of Omar Khadr, Dennis Edney. Khadr is a Canadian, born in Toronto, who was sent to Afghanistan by his Al-Qaeda-affiliated father. He was captured at age 15 by US soldiers after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed US Army Sergeant Christopher Speer.

At age 16, Khadr was taken to Guantanamo Bay and held there for 10 years. Khadr sued the Canadian government, claiming that his rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been infringed upon. He received a $10.5 million settlement in 2017.

Edney spoke on topics including the 2016 US election, fear mongering, Islamophobia, and his experiences at Guantanamo Bay. The intention of his speech, he stated, was to “[challenge] you to question whether the concept and practice of justice is being carried out in your name.”

Edney described Guantanamo as a microcosm to the breakdown of the rule of law. He pointed out the rarely talked about secret prisons in Guantanamo Bay, designed for enhanced interrogation techniques. “It doesn’t take much imagination to understand what that means,” said Edney. “Omar Khadr spent most of his life in one of those places.”

“I decided to write to my government, the Liberal government of the day, to inquire as to the status of Omar Khadr and to remind them of their international obligation to assist a Canadian citizen, under international law and under international humanitarian law,” said Edney. He received no response and went on to defend Khadr. He said he sacrificed a great

deal in doing so, spending life savings, missing both of his children’s graduations, and giving up “a huge part” his business.

In his first meeting with Khadr, Edney found the young man shackled to the floor, “his whole body suffering from extensive shrapnel injuries.” Edney said that he had trouble controlling his emotions. “I didn’t know whether to shout, to scream, to cry, I didn’t know what to do. I was not prepared for what I was witnessing.” A particularly horrific experience, he said, was witnessing the sexual abuse of every single detainee “because there is no greater way to get to a Muslim, who prides in his body.”

The Liberal government, Edney stressed, did not do enough to repent for “the horror that they created, assisted in,” saying the party gave only “half an apology.”

Edney broadened his remarks, speaking about the current geopolitical state of the world: “The political temperature has been dominated by populists such as Trump, and European nationalists who want to tighten borders and restrict the flow of refugees from war-torn countries, especially Muslims.” He went on to describe the entire Trump campaign as based on fear and bigotry, comparing the security measures proposed during the Republican presidential campaign to those of Nazi Germany.

In his closing words, Edney spoke on how an individual can make change in their own society. “We may not have control of world events, but we do have control over how we respond to the world. We do have control [over] how we treat each other. So in the end it’s not about policies that work, it’s about forging consensus, fighting cynicism, fighting the critical will to make change, and to find the character to open our hearts to one another.”

Proposed renovations prioritize undergraduate usage and accessibility Ann Marie Elpa Varsity Contributor

A Town Hall hosted by the University College Literary and Athletic Society (UC Lit) on October 10 discussed many of the drastic changes planned for the UC Building. The renovations, proposed in 2015, are part of a multi-million-dollar 10-year plan to restore the historic university buildings. Construction is scheduled to begin in early January of next year.

According to University College Principal Donald Ainslie, there are four core principles that influenced the renovations’ design. The first was to “put undergraduates first.” The second was to place focus on heritage, since UC is a national historic site. The third principle was accessibility. “We wanted the idea of the college to be for everyone,” said Ainslie. Plans are in place to add a new elevator to the front of the building.

“The final priority in the renovation was ensuring that UC... [is the] iconic building of the University of Toronto... We want to make sure that... U of T’s identity as one of world’s great teaching and research universities [is] embodied in the use of the building.”

New features will include a restored library and reading room, which will be named after former Toronto Dominion Bank CEO Ed Clark for his $2.5 million donation. UC alumnus Paul Cadario also donated $3 million to the restoration project; there will be a conference centre at Croft Chapter House named after him.

The renovation costs are to be covered by college donors and a student levy established under UC Lit, which increased by $12.50

in accordance with a vote in March 2016.

“Over the past three years, a student advisory committee appointed by the UC Lit has and continues to be involved in discussions on the renovations to ensure the needs of students will be prioritized in them, especially since UC students are paying for the renovation costs,” wrote UC Lit President Albert Hoang to The Varsity. “A large majority of UC students in March 2016 voted in favour of increasing their student fees by $12.50 per session (part time students would pay $5 per session) and these increases would go towards the student levy collected over 20 years.”

Several areas near UC will be inaccessible until the end of construction in spring 2019.

The UC quad walkways will be closed to build wider paths; the east and west hall on the second floor of the college will be closed and will become the new library and Clarke Family Reading Room; and the Alumni Lounge and the F Wing Basement will be inaccessible.

Student organizations — including the college newspaper The Gargoyle, located in the F Wing — are working with university officials to “find a way for them to continue their activities even during the construction,” according to Ainslie.

Student events, including the Fireball social and Orientation organized by UC Lit, are also expected to be affected by the renovations.

“Students will still be able to enjoy events put on by the UC Lit and its ancillaries,” said Hoang. UC Lit said it will be working with the college administration to “preserve the spirit and quality” of social events.

Comment

October 23, 2017 var.st/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

A justified stance against inequality The protest at the Keith Davey Forum highlights serious concerns about how U of T addresses social issues

JESSICA YE/THE VARSITY

David Allens Varsity Contributor

The Keith Davey Forum on social inequality, co-organized

by Victoria University, the Department of Political Science, and the Association of Political Science Students two weeks ago, was promoted as an opportunity to learn more about social injustice from visionaries in academia. Yet, by posing the question of whether social inequality was a “real problem,” the framing of this event seemed to negate the plight of marginalized people.

When the organizers announced the title of the forum and began to promote it, numerous student groups, including the Arts and Science Students’ Union, the Black Students’ Association, the Caribbean Studies Students Union, and the Victoria University Students’ Administrative Council Equity Commission, expressed concern. Individuals from these groups then came together to protest the event, holding signs reading, “Social inequality is real and is a problem and is everywhere.”

According to a joint statement released the next day, the underlying rationale behind the protest was not to “[condemn] any individual’s desire to solve the problem that is social inequality, nor was it meant to delegitimize any individual’s experiences.” Rather, the protest was meant to stress that the groups most affected by social inequality should not be left out of discussions surrounding the issue.

Despite the criticism it received, the protest held at this event was more than justified. The goal was merely to draw attention to the problematic wording of the topic and the continued existence of social inequality around us. As a result, it accurately reflected the mood of many socially conscious students in attendance at the forum, some of whom walked out with the protestors after they had finished making their statement.

Victoria University and the Department of Political Sci-

ence are bound by the university’s policies, statements, and agreements, which are committed to anti-discrimination and equity. Because of this, I had originally hoped that these core values would be demonstrated throughout the discourse — especially since the students in at least two courses, POL101 and Vic One streams, were in some way incentivized to attend. Unfortunately, the forum was unconducive to a productive discussion on social inequality.

I was shocked that, in a world where overt displays of inequality are not socially acceptable, a panel of well-educated white males and one white female could be charged with leading a discussion that at least partially involved asking whether social inequality was a real problem. The representation of racial and religious minoritiesw and LGBTQ+ people on the panel would have created an environment that demonstrated a more expansive worldview and challenged the audience’s beliefs and assumptions on the topic.

As part of the forum’s opening remarks, Antoinette Handley, the Chair of the Department of Political Science, recognized that the topic of discussion had been framed in a problematic way. This problem should have been addressed throughout the planning stages of the event, not just once the forum was already underway.

Handley made flippant comments trying to imply that the forum was on “social inequality on the one hand, and economic inequality on the other.” This proves that the panel and its organizers were not there to talk about the systemic and root causes of social inequality, choosing to ignore the impact of history on the present state.

In response to the protest, two arguments have emerged.

Firstly, some have said that the protesters would have gained more had they stayed and participated in the discussion.

However, for some students, there was no compelling reason to remain in an environment that could only be described as toxic — particularly if students felt they were part of a marginalized group whose concerns were being ignored.

In choosing to leave, the protesters made a statement that they would not participate in a forum not receptive to their concerns.

Those who say that the protesters would have gained more had they opted to stay should also realize that it would have only legitimized the event, providing the organizers with a larger audience.

Secondly, some have argued that the protesters interfered with the organizers’ right not to be interrupted; they should realize that the protesters were merely exercising their own rights to freedom of assembly. Free speech and civil discourse is a two-way street. Even if people take issue with the interruption, the protest lasted approximately five minutes — the event evidently continued as planned after the demonstration ended.

The outcome of this event could have been circumvented had the organizers chosen to change the title, but this would have done nothing but deflect attention from the panel’s underlying issues with diversity. If the title had been changed, we would have ignored the issue because it would not have been brought up. Therefore, the organizers should have revamped the panel to include a more diverse selection of people.

Events like the Keith Davey Forum matter: they are intended to help individuals understand the real issues facing disenfranchised groups at the university and in the community in general. As a result, the university may consider this a learning opportunity and a chance for reflection on how their actions have unwillingly supported the systematic oppression of the voices of the disenfranchised, in academia and otherwise.

David Allens is a first-year student at Victoria College studying Political Science and Caribbean Studies.

OCTOBER 23, 2017 u 9

var.st/comment

A $15 minimum wage has health benefits Two U of T medical students reflect on the upcoming wage increase in Ontario

Introducing the Comment columnists The section’s new regular writers will tackle issues on campus politics, current affairs, and student life Angela Feng Campus Politics Columnist Angela Feng is a second-year student at St. Michael’s College (SMC) studying History and Cinema Studies. Knowing that it is often easier to ignore politics than follow it, she is hoping to break down student politics in a clear and understandable way so that hectic academic schedules will not get in the way of participation in student politics.

Angela was born in Toronto, but she was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, returning to Toronto for high school and university. She obsesses over movies and argues about everything. After university, she is not entirely sure what she will do, but she hopes to travel and write.

In addition to The Varsity, Angela writes for SMC’s The Mike.

A lack of income can create barriers to healthcare and aggravate existing health problems. STEVEN LEE/THE VARSITY

Patricia Hoyeck & Mariam Naguib Varsity Contributors

On May 30, the Ontario Government introduced Bill 148, which includes an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by January 1, 2019. Economic research supports this increase: a higher minimum wage will increase household spending, which contributes to domestic consumption and economic growth.

Raising the minimum wage also addresses significant wealth inequities. The share of Ontarians earning low wages has grown, and it’s not just teenagers. A 2013 report found that 60 per cent of workers earning less than $15 are over 25, and these workers are much more likely to be women, racialized, and recent immigrants. The $15 an hour minimum wage will therefore help to close the wage gap for them.

Not only is this policy sound from both an economic and equity perspective, but it is also great for health. As medical students, we are learning about all the things that make us sick. A surprising amount of our health problems are affected by modifiable social factors: the Canadian Medical Association identifies 13 social determinants that contribute to 50 per cent of what makes Canadians sick, and poverty is one of them.

Research has demonstrated time and time again that living in poverty is bad for your health, and we can see why: income has an impact on the education people can receive, the food they can put on the table, and the housing they can afford.

Every day in the emergency department, health care providers and medical students meet patients who are affected by job insecurity, either due to precarious work or low wages.

For example, we met Shirley*, a 42-year-old single mother who is living with diabetes and has two young kids. She came in with a complication from her chronic health condition that was clearly the result of her not taking her medications as prescribed. With further inquiry, it became clear that she wasn’t taking them because she could not afford them; Shirley works full-time, and at minimum wage, she is forced to prioritize food and rent over her health.

In medical school, we learn how to manage conditions like Shirley’s and about the array of drugs that help to curb associated complications. But for many patients, affording the medications they’re prescribed is very difficult, and this difficulty contributes to broader health care costs to both the individual and the province. In 2010, the estimated burden of diabetes in Ontario was $4.9 billion; this was projected to increase by 42 per cent by 2020. What we don’t always talk

about, but that have very strong relevance, are the policies outside of the health system — such as Bill 148 — that will help patients afford necessary prescriptions to manage acute and chronic illnesses.

Currently in Ontario, someone who works full-time in a minimum wage job falls below the low-income threshold and has difficulty making ends meet. In fact, even a $15 minimum wage, while a major improvement, still falls below the calculated living wage in most parts of the province, including Toronto, where the living wage is $18.52. Poverty is linked to chronic disease such as diabetes and heart disease, and workers in the lowest fifth of earners experience higher rates of poor mental health and multiple chronic conditions.

Not only does poverty affect families in the here and now, but in the future as well: studies have shown that poverty occurs in intergenerational cycles. Shirley’s kids, for example, are experiencing the stressors of living with insufficient income for adequate food and housing. Poverty is linked to delayed growth and cognitive development in children, and associated stressors can manifest in the form of mental illness later in life. A policy that adds more money to Shirley’s budget will have a positive impact on her children in the present and future.

Far too often, people are unable to prioritize their health because of low income. Increasing the minimum wage is one way of addressing this reality and has been shown to have a direct impact on health outcomes. Researchers at U of T have predicted that increasing the income of Canadians in the lowest income quintile by $1,000 would result in nearly 10,000 fewer chronic conditions overall, as well as 6,600 fewer disability days taken over a two-week period.

A 2008 report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks estimated that if the incomes of the lowest fifth of earners were raised to the level of the second-lowest fifth, this would result in $2.9 billion in health care savings. A reduction in illness and increased well-being due to increasing incomes for low-wage workers carries benefits for individuals, families, and the province as a whole.

A higher minimum wage is a great start to addressing health issues before they even develop — it is a preventative approach. We applaud the Government of Ontario for taking this step toward a healthier society.

Patricia Hoyeck and Mariam Naguib are students in the Faculty of Medicine. They are steering committee members of the Decent Work and Health Network. *Name has been changed for privacy reasons.

Zach Rosen Current Affairs Columnist Zach Rosen is a second-year student at Trinity College studying History and Philosophy. As Current Affairs Columnist, he is looking forward to using his platform to offer views on a wide variety of issues that will affect U of T students as citizens of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the world.

The kinds of issues that will be examined in the Current Affairs column will be those that are impactful and important to all readers.

Aside from writing for The Varsity, Zach is a member of the U of T Undergraduate Mooting Team and plays intramural hockey. He is from Montréal and would like to go to law school after he graduates.

Adina Heisler Student Life Columnist Adina Heisler is a third-year University College student double-majoring in English and Women & Gender Studies. She is very excited to be The Varsity’s Student Life Columnist this year.

Adina is 20 years old and originally from Connecticut — she is a dual citizen; her mother is Canadian and her father is American. Alongside her position at The Varsity, she is one of the two volunteer coordinators for the Sexual Education Centre at U of T. Within her column, Adina hopes to bring to light everything that is constantly happening on campus — it can be hard to keep track of what is going on and why we should care. Marginalized students, including students of racialized backgrounds, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities may feel particularly sidelined in conversations about campus life. Adina hopes her writing can get readers to think critically about these issues.

10 d THE VARSITY d COMMENT

comment@thevarsity.ca

Crack down on harassment, not protest The ban on abortion facility protests, though well-intentioned, violates fundamental rights

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

Zach Rosen Current Affairs Columnist

Last week, Attorney General of Ontario Yasir Naqvi announced the Safe Access to Abortion Services Act — a bill that, if passed, would no longer permit anti-abortion protests within a certain distance of abortion clinics, the homes of abortion providers, or pharmacies that sell pregnancy-terminating medications.

The bill — partly motivated by an incident earlier in the year outside an abortion clinic in Ottawa, wherein a woman was spit on — would prevent any anti-abortion demonstrations within 50 metres of these facilities. The buffer zone could be expanded to up to 150 metres by ministerial order.

This idea has undeniably noble motives.

It is crucial that women can access abortion services without being subjected to intimidation or harassment. There’s no question that being subjected to protesters may make a difficult situation even more difficult. However, disallowing all protests, without discriminating between those that are intimidating and those that are peaceful, is not the way forward.

The problem with this type of legislation is that it does not distinguish between protest

that becomes violent and protest that remains civil. Although the government has every right, and indeed a strong responsibility, to protect women from harassment, the right to free assembly prohibits it from protecting women from protest itself.

No matter how unpopular a view may be, there should always be room within the law to express that view in a peaceful, non-intimidating, and non-harassing demonstration. There must be a legal basis for a citizen to stand in the public square with a sign or a placard or a chant and demonstrate peacefully. The despicable acts of a handful of fanatics do not justify collapsing this foundational democratic principle.

It is true that pro-life demonstrations can still be held outside the prescribed distance from abortion clinics and pharmacies.

However, it doesn’t follow from this that the right to protest has not been seriously infringed: the right to protest needs to entail the right to protest effectively.

The last few months have seen several high-profile protests, including the Women’s March in the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration and the protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Disruption of the institutions being protested was a central objective of these popular movements. The Women’s March blocked major streets and public spaces in numerous cities and towns worldwide. At Standing Rock, some protesters literally tied themselves to construction equipment, making their physical bodies an obstacle to the project they opposed.

Protesters need the capacity to disrupt and disturb. It would not have been right to relegate these protests to other locations, constraining them to where they would do the least damage and robbing them of their capacity for impact. Disruptiveness, as long as there is no violence, is not justification for stifling protest. Without the capacity to meaningfully disrupt, a protest has almost no purpose at all.

That being said, even without outright harassment, the presence of the protestors, from the perspective of a woman seeking an abortion, can make an already difficult situation even harder. Many women who get abortions are likely already subjected to an unjust amount of shame and fear, and there are enough obstacles preventing them from getting the care they may need. This is an undoubtedly important point. According to

Sandeep Prasad, Executive Director of the pro-choice advocacy group Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights, “Supporting reproductive rights requires governments to recognize the intersecting barriers individuals face when trying to access health care.” Prasad is right. We need to be sensitive to the challenges that women already face when trying to access reproductive care, and we need to be careful not to add another.

However, the possibility that a protest may prevent women from getting an abortion cannot be a reason to prevent a protest from taking place. We can’t prevent a protest because that protest is peacefully achieving its objective. As wrong as that ideology is, the fact that it might successfully do so cannot be a reason to make it illegal; the right to protest needs to apply equally to all points of view.

There is no ‘right to protest insofar as the government supports your position.’ There is no ‘right to protest as long as your protest doesn’t actually make a difference.’ The right to protest needs to be blind to content, ideology, and perspective. Fundamental rights don’t have normative qualifiers.

Women should not be harassed by protesters, and we should make sure that laws prohibiting harassment and intimidation effectively prevent that from happening. But the right to peaceful demonstration is sacred, and it cannot be forestalled because it might work, regardless of how destructive that result may be.

And that right cuts both ways. Pro-choice and women’s rights advocacy groups can provide women the support they need by lobbying for public information campaigns about reproductive health, pushing for more expansive sex education, and making contraception free and accessible. Just because people have the right to protest abortion doesn’t mean we can’t, or shouldn’t, openly oppose their point of view.

Measures should be taken to protect women from harassment and intimidation by protesters. It seems only sensible that this issue should be addressed by tightening existent laws against harassment and intimidation by protesters, or creating new ones, rather than by infringing the right to protest.

Zach Rosen is a second-year student at Trinity College studying History and Philosophy. He is The Varsity’s Current Affairs Columnist.

Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor should be directed to editorial@thevarsity.ca. Please keep submissions to 250 words; letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Re: Bernie Sanders to speak at U of T Hopes “I so want to go to this. I hate his fiscal views with a fiery passion, but I greatly respect the guy.”

– Amanda Ellen (from web) “Erika, Clinton goes to McGill and Bernie goes to U of T. It’s like they’re running against each other in Canada.”

– Erik Underwood (from web)

Hesitance “Alexandra Hall I wanna go so bad but the idea of spending anymore time in Con Hall than I have to is kind of a drag” – Samantha Yang (from web) “Wonder if the balenciaga wearers of u of t will show up to this” – Walter Seon (from web)

Pragmatism “Very fitting for there to be quotas for tickets XD” – Ben Kong (from web)

Panic “whaaat it doesn’t guarantee admittance??? Ben Milligan” – Danielle Brandow (from web)

“Damn it guys why do you not make this lowkey now I’m worried about getting tickets cause too many people know” – Amin Sharifi (from web)

“IF ANYONE WAS SUCCESSFULLY ABLE TO REGISTER AND HAS AN EXTRA SPOT I WILL PAY YOU FOR IT!! I was refreshing the page from 9:57 and immediately at 10 they sold out :(” – Michelle Shams (from web)

“Willing to pay for a ticket. PM me” – Semih Topbas (from web) Disappointment “too bad the tickets sold out in a milli second.....”

– Erin Frances (from web) “Tickets were gone within 5 minutes!!!!! Damn!!!!!”

– Maria Afaq (from web)

Editorial

October 23, 2017 var.st/comment editorial@thevarsity.ca

A quarter-million-dollar thought experiment The secrecy surrounding the UTSU’s settlement with Sandra Hudson makes it difficult to take an informed stance on the lawsuit’s conclusion The Varsity Editorial Board

On October 12, the lawsuit brought against former University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) Executive Director Sandra Hudson ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.

The suit was filed in September 2015 after the UTSU’s Board of Directors alleged Hudson had committed civil fraud in receiving $277,726.40 in a compensation package upon her contract’s termination. For two years, the suit dominated student politics, but it was resolved in a confidential settlement 11 days before its trial was set to begin.

The UTSU’s official statement reads that Hudson has agreed to repay “a portion of the overtime payments” that were paid out to her. While this amount may be disclosed at some point as an ‘extraordinary payment’ in the UTSU’s audited 2017–2018 financial statements, little information has been provided about the terms of the settlement or how it was reached.

As far as students are concerned, this means very little has been resolved. Without speculating or jumping to conclusions, it’s almost impossible to take a stance on the lawsuit’s conclusion in light of the dearth of information available. The fact that students have not been permitted access to the facts means that engaging in a meaningful and informed debate about the settlement is virtually impossible — a serious issue in light of the accountability concerns involved.

The secrecy of the proceedings has led to an extremely unsatisfactory result: students have been denied the information required to take a stand on the results of what is and has been for several years a clearly high-stakes case.

In a statement to The Varsity, UTSU President Mathias Memmel wrote, “Scepticism is justified, but I ask anyone who’s sceptical to trust that this board and these executives would only do what’s best for students, and would only have accepted the best possible offer.” Memmel’s request will be difficult for students to grant, especially when considering that this lawsuit was the result of an alleged abuse of power by former executives.

We do know that the decision to settle was

not unanimous. The Varsity recently broke a story about the four members of the UTSU Board of Directors who voted against the settlement. Reasons cited for this divergence included skepticism about the quality of the deal and the importance of seeing the case through to trial. It is also telling that only 22 of 51 board members — a board formed after an 11.8 per cent voter turnout in last year’s UTSU elections — were present for the vote.

The anger and frustration that has been targeted at the UTSU in the wake of its decision is understandable. Despite the lawsuit now having reached its conclusion, no confirmation of liability has been made.

We do not doubt that a number of the UTSU’s constituents believe Hudson is guilty.

However, legally speaking, this will likely never be proven. Many people continue to hold steadfast faith in the adversarial nature of the trial process and its potential to bring out the truth in even the thorniest of proceedings. Accordingly, many students have criticized the UTSU’s decision to opt for a resolution out of court, and they have interpreted its decision as a sign of weakness, or even betrayal.

The truth is that settlements in this province are hardly uncommon: a substantial portion of lawsuits never make it to trial.

Meanwhile, the legal system is overloaded with cases, and the courts are crumbling under their weight. The recent scramble to address this issue in the criminal law context following pressures from the Supreme Court in the R. v. Jordan decision, in turn, have sapped up the resources available for civil cases. Trials often take months or even years to resolve, and legal fees can reach exorbitant levels as more time elapses.

It is therefore possible that the UTSU made the most prudent decision in settling the case out of court, but it is impossible to make this judgment with any kind of certainty. From the beginning, a shield of confidentiality has — understandably — prevented access to the evidence that was to be presented at trial, making it difficult to speculate as to the UTSU’s odds of winning the case in court.

And without information about the terms of the settlement, we cannot make the call as to

CARISSA CHEN/THE VARSITY

whether they reached a comparatively good deal.

The UTSU has stated that the money it will receive from the settlement will be accounted for in next year’s financial statements. This does not offer us much comfort; it is still unclear how this will be done and whether it will be explicitly delineated as settlement money in the UTSU’s records.

It is also curious that despite accusations made against the UTSU in the past, the lawsuit being motivated by anti-Black racism is now effectively a footnote in the its resolution. As part of the settlement, Hudson has now acknowledged that racism was not a motivation for the lawsuit. This flies in the face of what community groups such as the Black Liberation Collective (BLC) have been protesting since early in the proceedings.

Members of the BLC have called for boycotts; the organization’s demand for a second legal opinion by a lawyer who identifies as Black had been voted down by the UTSU Board of Directors.

We can only wonder what evidence was presented that allowed the very serious accusations of racism to be relegated to the cut-

ting room floor, or what the BLC thinks about the lawsuit’s conclusion, as the organization has not responded to The Varsity’s requests for comment since the announcement about the settlement was made.

The need for confidentiality in legal proceedings is understandable, but it has also rendered this case full of bitter compromises and closeted skeletons. The real tragedy here is that students have been shut out of a conversation in which their interests were undoubtedly at stake. Though many have taken to social media to express their distaste for the case’s conclusion, pulling together a thorough case against the UTSU’s decision will be very difficult without the facts.

Hopefully the backlash the UTSU has received will spark some generosity in disclosure — that is, if there is anything else at all they are legally permitted to tell us. In the meantime, it is deeply frustrating that all we can do is speculate.

The Varsity’s editorial board is elected by the masthead at the beginning of each semester.

For more information about the editorial policy, email editorial@thevarsity.ca.

YORKVILLE

JARVIS STREET

BLOOR STREET THE ROM

YONGE STREET

KENSINGTON MARKET

CAMPUSONE

CHINA TOWN AGO

QUEEN WEST FASHION DISTRICT

KING WEST ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT

UNIVERSITY AVENUE

All-inclusive living in downtown Toronto’s premier student residence.

LITTLE ITALY

SPADINA AVENUE

Boot your commute.

QUEEN’S PARK

METRO HOSPITAL

MATTAMY ATHLETIC CENTRE MAPLE LEAF GARDENS

COLLEGE STREET

DUNDAS STREET

EATON CENTRE CITY HALL

KING STREET

QUEEN STREET

HOCKEY HALL OF FAME

ROY THOMSON HALL

ST LAWRENCE MARKET UNION STATION

RIPLEY’S AQUARIUM CN TOWER AIR CANADA CENTRE ROGERS CENTRE

GARDINER EXPRESSWAY BILLY BISHOP AIRPORT

This is CampusOne. Close to Ryerson, OCADU and directly across the street from UofT. Apply Now at Live-CampusOne.ca or visit us at 253 College Street for a tour TODAY! *CampusOne is an independently owned and operated residence affiliated with the University and the University assumes no responsibility in regard to any agreements entered into by students/residents with the Owner and the Operator. The University makes no representations or warranties and assumes no responsibility for the conditions of services provided at the Academic Residence.

My addictive personality A student explores his cravings and compulsions Words by Aidan Currie Illustrations by Pearl Cao

When I was a kid, I would frequently walk downstairs to find my father on his computer. A couple of hours later, I’d walk by again and he would be doing the same thing, in a different position, but maybe with a cigarette in the ashtray.

He was playing Civilization, a computer game where you essentially build an empire from scratch, wage wars, and rule over your kingdom. Hours were spent on that game — more than anything else, it seemed. My father was completely addicted to it.

My mother always told me that I was like my father in that way: easily addicted to things. When I was 14, I met an older kid named Alex, who introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons. Alex and his friends would invite me over on Saturday nights to ‘campaign’ with them.

I’d arrive at 6:00 pm and bike home at around 3:00 am.

I bought my own special set of die, three instruction manuals, and a cape and sword. To this day, my mother jokes she had “post-traumatic stress” from the time I became obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons.

“You have an addictive personality,” she once said to me. She warned me about things I could get addicted to: video games, food, porn, cigarettes, drugs, attention, work projects. The list went on, seemingly forever. While not individually unhealthy, these were things that could become unhealthy in large doses.

Luckily for her, my interest in Dungeons & Dragons subsided after Alex and his friends went off to university.

Where do addictive personalities start?

I wanted to know a little more about the ‘addictive personality’ that I’ve apparently harboured my entire life. I looked for somebody who might be able to tell me what it was. After numerous emails to professionals at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), I got a reply from Dr. Nigel E. Turner, a research scientist at CAMH who specializes in gam-

12

bling addiction.

We arranged a time to meet, and I visited his office in the CAMH tower building.

Turner’s office was a cacophony of artifacts accumulated through a life spent doing research. It was cluttered, to say the least: papers were strewn about, books on addiction and gambling towered on bookshelves, and posters about gambling and paintings done by Turner himself covered the walls. Of the four fluorescent lights meant to illuminate his workspace, one worked and two didn’t.

I relayed to him an anecdote about my obsession with Dungeons & Dragons and my father’s gaming addiction, among other unhealthy practices. I asked him to diagnose whether or not I had an addictive personality, and whether they were even real.

“Yes and no. How’s that for an answer?” he replied with a drawn out laugh.

Some personality types are more prone to addiction, Turner explained. There are two primary reasons why people become addicted, the first being that, quite simply, an addiction feels good.

“That’s one of the ways in which you could become an alcoholic, ’cause you keep just wanting to get that ‘feel good’ feeling,” Turner said. “That’s true of heroin, cocaine — they feel good! These drugs work! They do what they’re supposed to do. It’s true of cannabis, it’s true of gambling, it’s true of video games. These things work, they make you feel good.”

The fascinating part of spending an hour in a stuffy office with Turner was that everything he told me seemed to come alive.

“The second reason that people get into addictions is to feel better, to escape, to forget about your problems, and that’s very clear with alcohol,” Turner continued.

“You’ve heard the person who’s drinking their problems away, forgets about all the problems. There’s a t-shirt I think, [of] Homer Simpson saying ‘Beer: the cause and the solution to all of life’s little problems.’ That’s a very good statement about the escape as a motivation for addictions.”

Turner went on to explain what he called the “three pathways theory” for how individuals become addicts.

The first pathway, as he explained before, was that a substance or activity feels good. The second is when people seek an escape. He referenced people with anxiety problems, depression, or who have gone through traumatic life experiences as those who might follow this pathway

to addicti “So the dictive pe problems said. “And sonality b into it bec The thi sivity. Tu character antisocial ity disord “Now they’re pi to them,” that [good thrills.”

If there it has to d like takin feature th call it an At this lying to m tive perso antisocia share this

Who els When I b sonalities reach out dictive pe that my p that they for all I k I did, h friend of diction to RENT in to him in Sulliva had histo he carefu school: d he though “But fo of your li

ion. ese people are, you can’t say they’re really an adersonality, they just want to escape from their s, that’s how they deal with their problems,” he nd the first group aren’t really an addictive perbecause they just wanna have fun, and they get cause they’re having too much fun.” ird pathway to addiction has to do with impulurner explained that impulsivity is a personality ristic including but not limited to people with l personality disorder or narcissistic personalder. people who are impulsive by nature, what icking up on is that feel good is more attractive ” he told me. “Impulsive people are looking for d feeling], looking for that high. They want the

e is an addictive personality, Turner concluded, do with impulsivity: “They enjoy the thrill, they ng risks, so you may have a type of addictive hat gets people into addictions. I wouldn’t really addictive personality.” point I began to wonder if my mother had been me all these years. Maybe I didn’t have an addiconality after all; maybe I was just an impulsive, al narcissist. I searched for people who might s problem.

se has an addictive personality? began my search for others with addictive pers, I posted a Facebook status asking people to t to me, explaining that I thought I had an adersonality. My friend Daniel thought I meant personality was addictive to other people, and y couldn’t get enough of me. He could be right know; and I wouldn’t mind that, to be honest. however, find someone to speak with me. A mine, Winston Sullivan, spoke about his ado food. He and I were in a theatre production of my first year at university, but I hadn’t talked a while, except for some hellos here and there. an explained that his parents told him his family ory of severe addiction, similar to mine, and that ully listened to safety-related messages in grade don’t do drugs and don’t drink alcohol. He said ht he was safe. ood isn’t something that you can simply cut out ife because you eat excessively,” Sullivan said.

“When I was still in elementary school, I came home after school and ate handfuls of cereal at a time until supper was ready. My parents asked me to stop, then would confiscate or hide it from me.”

When we were talking, I realized that this was something Sullivan had put a lot of thought into. When I asked him to describe the nature of addiction in general, he said that addiction was a set of cognitive pathways that cause a person to “overvalue the pleasures of certain actions or substances to the point of self destruction.”

He continued, telling me that some people have certain personality characteristics that make those types of pathways develop more deeply and easily. This was the same thing Turner told me.

“When I find something that I like, I usually like it so much that it occupies an unhealthy portion of my time and mental energy,” Sullivan explained. “For example, [I] don’t play video games much, but when I do, I spend all my waking hours playing it for a few days, ignoring my other needs and responsibilities.”

To curb his cravings, Winston occupies his time with other things, getting involved in groups, activities, or going on the internet. “Unfortunately, I rely too heavily on these crutches and become unable to function without them, and they become unhealthy and it often seems like I am unable to do anything to a non-obsessive extent.”

Can addiction ever be good?

As I sat in Turner’s small, dimly lit office, I began to wonder whether there were positive aspects to addiction. For about five minutes we spoke about his paintings — his love for the art was clear, given the array of canvases strewn about the office. I asked him if he was addicted to painting. He said yes, adding that the difference was when a gambler gambles and loses, they’re in debt. For Turner’s addiction, the stakes are not as high.

“It’s been proposed that there are some behaviours that can be thought of as addictions which are not harmful, that they could be a positive addiction,” Turner said. He cited love as an example, but noted that, in some ways, addictions to substances and cer-

tain activities are essentially founded by the feeling of love, except that the feeling of love is directed toward unhealthy practices.

“Our brain’s all messed up, basically,” said Turner. “It doesn’t know what we’re being in love with. That has been suggested,” he speculated, “that people who are addicted are addicted because they didn’t get enough love or enough affection in life. It’s compensating. Nobody gets enough love so we should all be addicts.”

A psychologist, a painter, and a philosopher, Turner and his insight helped me better understand what I’ve often struggled with my entire life. I certainly didn’t pay him to diagnose me, but nonetheless I walked out of his office with a lot to think about. I’ll be the first to admit that I take on a lot at once. Perhaps that’s part of my addictive personality, perhaps born of a need to prove myself, or an insatiable addiction to the numerous interests I occupy my time with.

So, as Sullivan observed and Turner concluded, some personality traits or types, particularly the impulsive ones, have a higher likelihood of becoming addicted.

“But there’s no addictive personality, per se,” said Turner. “No one is invulnerable to an addiction. People vary in their susceptibility to specific addictions, and some people are more susceptible to addictions in general, but I would say no one is invulnerable. [In] the right circumstances, a person could become addicted to something.”

13

Arts&Culture

October 23, 2017 var.st/arts arts@thevarsity.ca

Daniel Dale talks truth in the Trumpian age on Canadaland

Modern Love brings intimacy to an audience

And what it's like to be blocked by the President on Twitter

Producer Amory Sivertson says the podcast explores "what it means to be a human being"

The Star reporter with host Jesse Brown. PHOTO COURTESY OF HOTDOCS

Jack O. Denton News Editor

Daniel Dale is blocked on Twitter by the world’s most powerful man: the wealthy real estate developer-turned reality TV star-turned President of the United States, Donald Trump. Dale is a soft-spoken but astute journalist covering a politician with a diametrically opposed personality. As the Toronto Star’s only reporter in Washington, he has the responsibility of being the sole deliverer of DC news to Canada’s largest daily — his task is weighty, but it’s one that he says is “awesome as a reporter, because you get to pick and choose what story to jump on.”

The Thornhill native made the trip back to the city for a taping of Jesse Brown’s hit media criticism podcast Canadaland, recorded live as part of the Hot Docs Podcast Festival. Before taping, Dale took some time to sit down for an interview with The Varsity.

Tackling Trump via Twitter As soon as he wakes up in Washington DC — even before he puts his glasses on — Dale checks Twitter. “I wake up at seven something, and he’s usually tweeted by seven, and it’s like, ‘Has he already made a new claim? Am I already behind waking up at like 7:15 in the morning?’” he says.

“Which is ridiculous.”

Twitter as a medium has, in a way, become a hallmark of Dale’s journalism and earned him a bit of a cult following, mostly due to his long-running, occasionally droll fact-checking of Trump. Pointing out inaccuracies ranging from incorrect tax rates to utter lies — like the time Trump lied about getting a congratulatory call from the leaders of the Boy Scouts — Dale’s feed is one I would recommend following.

And now it’s gotten him in hot water: blocked by the President of the United States. “I think it’s hilarious,” Dale says.

“My editors and people I know were kind of outraged by it — and, in principle, I think it is troubling that a powerful politician would try and deny information to a journalist in even the most minor way.”

Dale calls the block a “hilarious inconvenience,” though also revealing: “It tells us something about this man, this president, that even someone pointing out his inaccuracies on Twitter is enough that he doesn’t

want to look at it.”

Twitter has become what many believe to be an invaluable tool in the journalist’s toolkit. But, as Dale warns, “Twitter is awful in an awful number of ways.” He says it can be bad for a journalist’s mental health, and that “it can wear you down if you spend too much time in your mentions.”

From Ford to... this?

Dale covered City Hall in the Rob Ford years — no easy task, and one that he barely escaped unscathed. Once, the former mayor chased and cornered him in a park near the mayor’s house with a raised fist. The wake of this incident would lead Dale to serve the mayor a libel notice.

The reporter says that there are “a lot of similarities” between Trump and Ford, including “the way that they have harnessed anti-elite sentiment” despite both characters’ elite status, and being “loudly, angrily anti-media in ways that their respective institutions hadn’t previously seen.”

He points out an interesting nuance in the difference between the Ford and Trump populisms: in some ways, Ford “sought to include members of diverse communities and minorities, whereas Trump is solely focused on white people.”

Dale is quick to note, though, that the “frequency and the needlessness of the dishonesty” from Trump has surpassed the level of outrageousness from Ford.

Given that he’s covered two brash, antimedia politicians, I asked Dale whether he thinks that the relationship between journalists and politicians should be mutually antagonistic. Not quite, he says. “It’s sort of one step calmer than that. It necessarily has to be a skeptical relationship: you’re not there to be their friends, but that doesn’t mean you’re there to be their enemies, either.”

It’s hard to escape covering Trump in today’s America. Dale was down in DC for the end of the Obama years, “covering America more broadly.” He thinks that if Hillary Clinton had won, his job “would be super different.”

“My job is almost exclusively covering Trump,” Dale says. “He’s all anyone wants to read about right now.”

On Canadaland Dale’s appearance on Canadaland was characteristic of the deconstructive, conCanadaland, page 15

From left: Rannells, Joy, and Lee. PHOTO COURTESY OF HOTDOCS

Katie MacIntosh Varsity Contributor

A woman who's in the best relationship of her life, only to discover she’s been taken for a ride by a Craigslist conman. A husband’s “birth plan” that goes disregarded when his wife goes into labour prematurely. A young man who ignores his ringing cellphone in favour of hooking up with a stranger, only to wake up to an inbox full of voicemails informing him that his father has slipped into a coma.

All these are pieces from the archives of The New York Times’ “Modern Love” column, a fixture in the paper’s Sunday edition since October 2004. These were also the three pieces presented by its audible counterpart Modern Love: The Podcast at this year’s Hot Docs Podcast Festival.

The festival, held at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, featured live performances from a number of podcasts, including other fan favourites like Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids and The Nod, along with Q&As and panel discussions with the people behind them. While Modern Love’s title may imply a focus on romantic love, the personal essays that appear both in the column and on the podcast are actually more loosely organized around the theme of “being a person.”

“I think Modern Love is really a way to further your education about what it means to be a human being,” said podcast producer Amory Sivertson in an interview with The Varsity. “No matter who we are or where we come from, or what our circumstances are, we all have a deep relationship of some sort ... These stories are universal.”

Sivertson was joined on the Hot Docs stage by executive producer Iris Adler, sound designer John Perotti, and the column’s editor, Daniel Jones, to talk about the podcast’s production. As much as the stories themselves speak to the love and loss we all face in ordinary life, the voices that bring them to life are not quite average: the podcast has featured prolific talents such as Colin Farrell, Judd Apatow, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The Toronto panel was interspersed with performances and boasted a twothirds Canadian cast: Murdoch Mysteries’ Hélène Joy, Kim’s Convenience’s Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and Girls star Andrew

Rannells, reading his own essay for the column.

The simplicity of the podcast’s concept —'actor reads essay' — belies the amount of work that goes into each episode. The difficulty of transmuting written pieces into engaging audio was a topic that came up repeatedly during the discussion: from the selection of essays to finding actors that suit them to nailing the sound design.

Production is a painstaking process.

And yet Modern Love: The Podcast never feels clichéd, trite, or melodramatic; it is clever, poignant, and intimate. Sometimes it makes you laugh; sometimes it makes you feel like someone has taken a jackhammer to your heart. All of which is to say, it is very good.

If you don’t trust me, trust its popularity: in its first month alone, the podcast saw over 1.4 million downloads. “I’m afraid the podcast is better than the column,” joked Jones at the event.

He’s not wrong to be a bit concerned. As lovely as the column is, “Modern Love”’s audio incarnation is truly spellbinding.

Much of this can be chalked up to the sound design.

The challenge, Perotti explained, is using sound to create a mood which best captures the story. Sometimes music is a tool to bring more energy to a scene when monologue alone falls short; sometimes it’s used to “tamp down” the drama when it borders on being too much.

That kind of attention to detail — which has entailed researching exactly how Andrew Rannells’ Nokia cell ringtone sounded, recording background noise from a specific location, digging through sound banks to find just the right sound— seeps into every aspect of the podcast’s production, to the point that the writers of the original pieces are also contacted and interviewed for each episode to get their take on the stories and to find out how their lives have changed since they took place.

“Hearing something out loud is so different from reading something on a page,” said Sivertson. “I see this as really breathing a different kind of life into these pieces by giving an actual voice to them.”

As the column continues to receive a bottomless pit of submissions – over 8,000 a year for 52 slots, according to Jones – there is no shortage of eligible stories for them to tell. Some of the newer additions Modern, page 15

OCTOBER 23, 2017 • 15

var.st/arts

Canadaland, page 14 versational, and occasionally quirky show that fans know and love. The Hot Docs theatre was packed as the bass-fuelled intro played and Dale joined Brown on the stage.

I won’t ruin the podcast for those of you who are listeners, but suffice it to say that Brown and Dale covered similar material to what Dale and I discussed, from fact-checking to fun with the Ford family. The show also included a few curveballs from Brown, who dug up some bylines and free-speech activism work from Dale’s days at the Guelph Mercury — may it rest in peace — and at York University.

Canadaland, in the midst of a fundraising push, had a new venture being showcased at the live show: a beer called Canadaland Sour. Audience members who Tweeted #canadalandsour were promised a free beer after the show on the sidewalk outside the cinema.

“This is legal, I’m told,” Brown said, half-joking.

Unfortunately, the line outside the cinema was more than the coolers were equipped for and I didn’t get my Canadaland Sour — but that didn’t sour the experience in the slightest.

Modern, page 14 to the column focus on issues that were formerly taboo, for example, relationships in the transgender community, which has opened up these topics to the podcast as well.

“We want to have a diverse range of voices, and tell a diverse range of stories,” said Sivertson. “I feel like sometimes the only thing that we can agree on is that there’s nothing more powerful than loving and being loved.”

— With files from Reut Cohen

From left: O'Connell, Bloom, and Maracle. PHOTO BY COLUMPA BOBB, COURTESY OF TOUCHWOOD PR; PHOTO BY TRACY CHEVALIER, COURTESY OF TOUCHWOOD PR; PHOTO BY DANI COUTURE, COURTESY OF TOUCHWOOD PR

The International Festival of Authors returns to Toronto The festival, which runs until October 29, will feature several U of T faculty members Vivian Li Varsity Contributor

The International Festival of Authors (IFOA), an annual event that brings accomplished writers together to engage with the greater Toronto literary community, began this year on October 19.

The IFOA was founded in 1974 and has since brought thousands of authors to the city, including 22 Nobel laureates. This year’s festival, based out of the Harbourfront Centre, will feature dozens of events, including readings, book signings, and panel discussions. U of T faculty members are among the participating authors.

Ronna Bloom is the author of six books of poems, including The More; she is also the University of Toronto’s Poet in Community. Bloom will be participating in a panel called “Poetry and Process” on October 22, discussing the themes that inspire her work and the processes through which she explores them.

Bloom advises aspiring writers to focus least on their final product. She explained that the most important part is to engage with the passion of the work and see what it is — sometimes it may be just a grocery list. Thinking of what the work could be can mean “the death song” of the work, she said.

Grace O’Connell, author of two novels, including Be Ready for Lightning, and an instructor at the School of Continuing Studies’ creative writing program, will be participating in a panel called “The Nature of Fear” on October 27.

The hardest part of creating an atmosphere of fear or suspense in writing is “getting fully into the headspace of that experience or moment, [as] it’s harrowing, and also complicated emotionally,” said O’Connell.

Both Bloom and O’Connell agree that a balance needs to be struck between focusing on one’s own work and engaging with the broader artistic community. Bloom said she needs both, though she thinks it depends on the writer. Sometimes she would prefer to just write and read poetry, other times to engage with new writers and help support them, emphasizing the importance of having options.

O’Connell said that encouragement from the community is an important part of the life cycle of a writer. “Most writers have had someone who encouraged them, even if it was just a brief conversation at a book event or such, and you want to pass that on to emerging writers,” she said. “I really do think it can have a positive impact on student writers just to be able to ask questions, get some encouragement and permission to focus on their writing life, and feel connected.”

Echoing Bloom’s thoughts about balance, O’Connell added, “It’s important to me to have community, but to balance that against burning myself out. In the end, the writing is the most important thing.”

When asked about the most important aspects of the IFOA, O’Connell related several anecdotes about memorable moments from past festivals. At one event, “Miriam Toews responded to [a] question of what is toughest about doing publicity for books by saying: ‘Well, it’s game six of the World Series and I don’t know what’s going on,’” said O’Connell. “The best part was Joe Kertes put his hand up, ostensibly to ask a question, and instead told her the score of the game."

“Those moments, those indelible memories, are the amazing parts of IFOA,” said O’Connell.

Another U of T figure who will be participating in the IFOA is Lee Maracle, an instructor in the Aboriginal Studies program and the author of works including Sundog and Ravensong. Maracle will be interviewed by Duncan McCue, journalist and host of the CBC Radio One Cross Country Checkup, at an event on October 26.

All three authors will be participating in panels that are free to students.

16 • THE VARSITY • ARTS & CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

In conversation with the creators of Guys We Fucked Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson discuss self-love, misconceptions of the show, and more Reut Cohen Arts & Culture Editor

Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson are the comediennes behind the weekly, self-proclaimed “anti-slut shaming podcast” Guys We Fucked, a frank discussion about sex and relationships. The New York Citybased duo have been performing together since 2011, and they started the podcast in late 2013. Past guests include Amber Rose and Dan Savage, as well as many of Fisher and Hutchinson’s past lays, lovers, and others in between. While in town for the Just For Laughs comedy festival last month, the two jumped on the phone with The Varsity to discuss free speech, the misinformation age, and practicing self-love — or even just self-like.

The Varsity (TV): What’s the number one misconception surrounding your podcast? Are there people who misunderstand what you’re trying to do?

Krystyna Hutchinson (KH): All the time. I think a big common misconception that… people perceive us to be, Corinne and I, to both be very kinky, and frequenting sex dungeons, and being bisexual. We’re really more vanilla people, sexually, with our own personal relationships, so people are always kind of shocked to know that we are quoteunquote more ‘regular’ than they think.

That’s the feedback that we get a lot.

I remember the other day we were talking to somebody, we were interviewing a

Hutchinson, left, and Fisher, right. PHOTO COURTESY OF JUST FOR LAUGHS

guest, and she said, “I’m shocked, I thought you guys were bisexual!” We’re not — we’re open, we’re open to things, but we’re pretty straight.

TV: Do you think it’s more your attitude in discussing sex that people find so refreshing?

KH: Yeah, the being able to go places that you don’t hear other people talk about. Usually it’s just within the privacy of your own home, with your friends, on a couch. The level of conversation that Corinne and I have with people is pretty intimate, so a lot of times people don’t get that we’re recording a podcast, and so I think people are always shocked at that level of honesty.

Corinne Fisher (CF): A lot of times the things that get aired are either the really quote ‘crazy’ stuff where people have sex swings in their houses, or a politician being like, ‘No one should be having sex ever, you should only have sex after you’re married, with your spouse.’

I think we’re speaking for the masses, the relatable amount of people: this is what most

people are doing on the day-to-day. Probably pretty vanilla, but then you have a couple of fantasies that at one time in your life you would like to play out with either a partner or friend or maybe a stranger. And those are fantasies that everyone has, but a lot of more vanilla-y people don’t discuss them publicly because we’re taught to think, ‘Ooh, this is naughty.’

TV: You might be getting this question a lot, but have your goals in doing the podcast or your aims changed at all since last year’s elections? Do you find that your environment has changed, or are you still just trying to keep it the same process?

KH: Corinne and I were in Los Angeles on election night, and so we experienced the disappointment of every American that voted for Hillary, and the shock, but also just the disappointment. It didn’t change how we do the podcast in any way except that Corinne and I just realized, goddamn, this is much more important, to make sure that our message is heard loud and clear.

Women are still struggling to get ahead in their various careers and struggling to be taken seriously, and we just saw it play out. Our whole country saw it play out on a stage, and we saw the guy [that we speak out against] win. And so that was just — phew! This honest conversation about what it means to be women, when it’s sexual, is just more important than ever. So if anything, that just kind of surfaced a little bit more after the election.

CF: We are obviously a very feminist podcast. Not everyone who listens identifies as a feminist, but [that] certainly is a large chunk of our listenership. We made a decision, Krystyna and I together, to officially endorse Hillary Clinton. Like, the Guys We Fucked podcast officially endorsed Hillary Clinton, and we got a lot of backlash from that from a lot of young women and it was really upsetting.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To read the rest, visit thevarsity.ca.

Seriously, what's so good about the TTC? Part II Two more contributors share their stories of public transit oddities

CORALS ZHENG/THE VARSITY

Varsity Contributors

Those of us who use the TTC on a regular basis know the system is far from perfect — commuters deal with a range of technical and non-technical issues: train delays, missing busses, and odd comments from strangers.

In this second installment of tales from the TTC, we’ve rounded up a couple of exceptional stories from the depths of Toronto’s tunnels that encapsulate the usual glitches in a typical transit journey.

I recall my first TTC experience as a new international student, trying to get to the Eaton Centre to buy a Canadian SIM card. I remember how scared I was when the subway stopped moving and I could barely understand the garbled announcement. We stayed stationary for 10 minutes, but when the train finally started moving again, we were told to exit at the next station because the line was going out of service. There was no one to ask for help and I had no ability to find my own alternative route. Instead, I had to find a train to take me back to St. George — the only station I knew — and then walk to the Eaton

Centre. I still have very limited knowledge on how the whole system works since it seems to operate on assumed knowledge.

— Charmaine Nyakonda I was once on the Bloor line and an older woman sat down beside me. She started talking to me and we fell into conversation about our days. Then she started to talk about her family. I couldn’t understand too much of what she was saying, but I made out that her son had drowned in a lake. I said, “Oh, I’m so sorry,” but then she started to laugh. We started talking about pets and she told me she'd had a dog once. She laughed again and told me he got run over. Then she told me that her father was in an airplane accident.

Through all this, she was laughing hysterically, like all these deaths were one big joke.

Finally we arrived at my stop, and as I was about to leave she gave me a hug. It was the most bizarre subway ride ever. On the one hand, she seemed pleasant, but on the other hand, she clearly had the most twisted sense of humour ever.

— Nicole Sciulli

Science

October 23, 2017 var.st/science science@thevarsity.ca

The permanent internet IPFS might be a viable alternative to HTTP Govind Mohan Varsity Contributor

We have reached a point where a life without internet access is simply inconceivable for many, and this is understandable. For the first time in human history, we are able to communicate instantaneously with almost anyone in any part of the world. As well, there is a vast repository of free information that lies within the reach of anyone who seeks it.

But the workings of the internet seem mysterious and otherworldly. What we call the internet is actually a whole bunch of protocols, defined as a set of rules that facilitate data transfer reliably among machines.

The predominant protocol that we see in almost every web address is the HyperText Transfer Protocol, commonly known as HTTP. Created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, it specifies rules for handling hypertext, which is structured text that uses logical hyperlinks between nodes containing text.

Though HTTP has served us well for the most part, the rapid expansion of the internet has been unprecedented, and it continues to expand at a frenetic pace. As a result, there are some problems that have revealed themselves over the years.

The predominant issue with HTTP is that it facilitates the transfer of a document, or group thereof, from a single computer housed in one location — the server — to another computer that could be in a completely different location — the client. This results in the slow and expensive internet that many currently experience.

Further, this tends to be unreliable because if a single link in an HTTP transfer cuts out, the entire connection is severed. This begs the question: can we do better?

Fortunately, this question is music to the computer scientist’s ears, and the proposed solution is the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Instead of delivering a document directly from server to client each time, this protocol allows a client trying to access the document to stitch together shreds of that document from other clients in the vicinity who have already received or are in the process of receiving it from the server.

This might sound familiar because this is exactly how torrents and other peer-topeer networks work. When someone tries to download a torrent file from a host, they are actually receiving different pieces of the file from ‘peers’ who are actively ‘seeding,’ or uploading, the file even though they haven’t completely downloaded it yet.

Even the user downloading the document is part of this process, and the more peers there are, the faster the download happens.

Their combined upload speed determines how quickly the pieces of the document can be up for grabs, and how quickly the client puts these pieces together in their machine depends on their download speed.

This occurs in any torrent client while downloading — hopefully legal — material.

The peer list shows their IP address, location, percentage of the file downloaded, and upload speed among other information.

Another massive advantage of the IPFS is that any media on it is completely distributed. Instead of a link referring to the physical location of a document as in HTTP, an IPFS link will refer to the ‘hash’ of the file’s contents. Think of a hash as a code language: for some sensible input – be it a text file, video, or anything else – a hash function will assign to it a unique sequence of characters.

If someone tries to access a file, IPFS will

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

essentially ask the network, ‘Does anyone have a file corresponding to this hash?,’ and any clients that happen to possess it will reply. Following this, a connection will be established between the device asking for the document and all the latter clients.

This is extremely powerful for another reason: any document on the IPFS network will permanently be on the internet. This can be used to avoid active censorship by any government or authoritarian body, and in fact, it has already been used for this purpose.

When the recent Catalan referendum was organized, the Spanish government actively tried to clamp down on any websites or on-

line content that the proponents of the referendum possessed. As a result, supporters turned to the IPFS to host a website that anyone can access and that no single authority could block. In order to do so, the government would have to block internet usage for all peers on the network and effectively deny internet access for everyone.

This revolutionary form of file transfer is only nascent as of recent. It is imperative that its impact be recognized as an alternative to the sluggish, centralized internet fraught with annoying ads and malicious distributed denial-of-service attacks that will eventually bring about its own undoing.

Massive hole larger than New Brunswick opens in Antarctic ice Hole mysteriously reappears after 40 years Rachel Takacs Varsity Contributor

In September, a large hole appeared in the Weddell sea in Antarctica. It was last seen in the same location 40 years ago but has now returned, leaving many scientists to question the reason behind its reappearance.

Dr. Kent Moore, an atmospheric physics professor at the University of Toronto, is a part of the team working on the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling (SOCCOM) project to study the hole. Scientifically it is referred to as a polynya, a stretch of open water surrounded by ice.

This is not its first reappearance. “Last year it opened up a month earlier for about 3 weeks,” wrote Moore in an email to The Varsity.

Polynyas have sparked the interest of scientists over the past few decades, and recent advancements in technology have been able

to bring in even more data for research. The SOCCOM team has for some time studied the southern waters using robotic floats that monitor the sea. It was only by pure chance that one float popped up in the Weddell region and signalled the return of this polynya.

The uniqueness of this particular polynya is due its large size, which spans approximately 80,000 square kilometres. Officially known as the Weddell polynya, it first appeared during the winters of 1974–1976.

According to NASA, at the time, “There was vigorous air-sea interaction within the polynya that resulted in the convective overturning of the water column and the formation of vast amounts of cold and very dense Antarctic Bottom Water.”

It is likely that this polynya formed under similar circumstances. Polynyas are known to exist in two states: open-ocean polynyas and coastal polynyas. The latter are created regularly in coastal regions as latent heat is absorbed when ice melts; this heat is then

SARAH MANIANIS/THE VARSITY

released into the surroundings when liquid water freezes.

These polynyas play a functional role in regulating the temperature of the ocean. Sea ice normally acts as an insulator, so its removal would allow for the transfer of heat from the ocean to the atmosphere. This eventually warms the atmosphere and cools the ocean.

“Polynyas are also regions of enhanced biological activity,” said Moore. It can serve as a breeding ground, feeding site, and migration destination for mammals and other marine species.

The world is familiar with the effects of

global warming, so it is easy to label the existence of the Weddell polynya as another victim of climate change. However, as Moore stated, “We are not sure if climate change played a role in its return.”

Moore said that the polynya formed near a seamount, or underwater mountain, called Maud Rise. The forced upwelling of warm deep water around Maud Rise is hypothesized to have helped maintain the polynya. “[It has been] two years now in a row that it has opened after a long absence,” said Moore.

“Time will tell if it returns more often.”

18 d THE VARSITY d SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

Celiac disease still under-diagnosed Most Torontonians with the disease don’t know they have it Utkarshna Sinha Varsity Contributor

Scientists at the University of Toronto have found that the majority of Torontonians with celiac disease (CD) remain undiagnosed.

The study, published in BMJ Open, screened blood tests and questionnaires of nearly 3,000 adult participants of diverse backgrounds living in Toronto for antibodies found in people who are suffering from the disease.

The study was led by researchers from the U of T Department of Nutritional Sciences.

Similar to prominent American and European studies conducted on the topic, they found that approximately one per cent of Torontonians are affected by the disease.

Previous surveys by the Canadian Celiac Health Survey showed a delay of about 12 years between symptom onset and diagnosis, suggesting the need for better screening for the disease in the Canadian population.

CD is an autoimmune disease caused by the body’s adverse reaction to gluten, a protein commonly found in wheat, barley, and rye.

Symptoms can vary from gastrointestinal discomfort to skin rashes, fatigue, anemia,

and weight loss.

The immune system of affected individuals reacts negatively to gluten and, over time, people can suffer from damaged intestinal walls. This can make it harder for people to absorb essential nutrients from food.

Although there is no known cure, the treatment for the disease is a gluten-free diet, which can help manage symptoms.

This includes avoiding wheat and barley and consuming more fruits, vegetables, dairy, and gluten-free alternatives for grain products.

Naturally gluten-free grains include rice, soy, and quinoa.

The Canadian Celiac Association warns those who may be affected by the dangers of hidden traces of glucose in processed and packaged foods. They suggest a list of glutenfree foods can be found on their website.

About 30 per cent of the American population carries the alleles linked to CD, but that is insufficient for the development of CD. Other environmental factors such as the timing of first gluten exposure and breastfeeding duration can influence the risk or its onset.

The gold standard for diagnosis is a smallbowel biopsy, but blood tests can be used

MIA CARNEVALE/THE VARSITY

as a screening tool. Blood tests can find antibodies present and should be conducted before and after an individual starts a glutenfree diet to track progress.

The study only screened participants

using blood tests and did not use a biopsy to confirm a definitive diagnosis for celiac disease. The researchers indicate that their results may not be generalizable to the wider Canadian population.

What’s the bycatch?

Devices intended to save endangered sea lions may have unintended consequences

New Zealand sea lions are an endangered species being threatened by sea lion exclusion devices. MISSBOSSY/CC FLICKR

Kasi Sewraj Varsity Contributor

Working to shine light on a major cause of death for the endangered New Zealand sea lion is Dr. Martin Krkosek, a U of T professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and his colleagues in New Zealand.

The region’s Auckland Islands, an uninhabited archipelago in the sub-Antarctic is a hotbed for arrow squid fishing. Sea lions, one of the top predators in the area, are still affected by this fishing, even though sea lion exclusion devices have been placed in the area since 2001 to help reduce sea lion mortality.

Sea lion exclusion devices work to reduce the amount of bycatch, the other marine spe-

cies unintentionally caught by fishing while targeting other species.

Sea lion exclusion devices function by placing a grid at the end of the net to allow squids, the intended species, to pass through, but blocks sea lions from doing so. Instead, sea lions are pushed to an opening at the top of the net.

However, sea lions may be harmed by these devices, which can reduce the life expectancy and the fertility of the animal.

While reports say sea lion bycatch has been reduced, Krkosek and his colleagues are not convinced.

“Most sea lions, alive, injured, or dead will be released from the net before it is pulled up and the fish brought on board,” wrote Krkosek. “Because the fate of animals that

are released from the fishing nets is not known, it has been assumed - but never evaluated - that by reducing bycatch the devices help protect endangered species.”

“Our results indicate that the devices do not work, and rather than protecting an endangered species they contribute to extinction risk by hiding mortality that occurs from fishery interactions.”

This research is significant because exclusion devices have been used around the globe for decades to protect marine megafauna.

Additionally, the loss of sea lions in the area can have a lasting impact on the food chain near the Auckland Islands.

“Only great white sharks sit higher than them on the food chain. [Sea lions] would be an important part of top-down regulation of

fish and squid species,” said Krkosek.

In an interview with U of T News, Bruce Robertson, a co-author of the study, stated that there are still many options open to the New Zealand government that can reduce the consequences of exclusion devices and fishing on the sea lion population. The New Zealand government says it’s working to stop the needless deaths of the sea lions and hopes to stabilize the population in the next 20 years, though the U of T researchers’ findings have been rejected by the New Zealand seafood industry. Any information presented in the study will only be factored into practice upon the completion of a review by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

OCTOBER 23, 2017 u 19

var.st/science

Dunlap Institute receives $23 million in funding $10 million will go toward new Canadian radio astronomy data centre Emily Deibert Varsity Contributor

A total of $23 million in new funding has been awarded to members of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at U of T. Of this, $10 million was awarded to Dunlap Director Bryan Gaensler to lead the development of a Canadian radio astronomy data centre, and $13 million was awarded to Dunlap Professor Suresh Sivanandam to implement a new infrared spectrograph for the Gemini Observatory known as the Gemini InfraRed Multi-Object Spectrograph.

The awards were announced on October 12 at the annual Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Innovation Fund awards ceremony held this year at the University of Manitoba. Canadian Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan presented the awards.

The underlying goal of Gaensler’s project is to manage the enormous amounts of data generated by radio telescopes that are currently surveying the sky. In some cases, like the recently completed radio telescope, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), this can be as much as one terabyte of data every second.

“The data rates are enormous,” Gaensler said in an interview with The Varsity. “The data sizes are just completely unmanageable, so big that you couldn’t even save all the raw data to disk if you wanted to — you’d have to process some of it as you go.”

These vast, previously unimaginable

Charmaine Nyakonda Varsity Contributor

All-sky radio astronomy surveys can provide answers to our questions about the universe.

NASA/PUBLIC DOMAIN

amounts of data are only one aspect of what Gaensler terms “21st century astronomy.”

Radio astronomers are also grappling with much larger fields of view than ever before: while telescopes used to point at small, specific regions of space, they now work to map the entire sky in radio wavelength. With this comes the need for near-instantaneous response times, as the chances of observing interesting, short-lived phenomena are much greater when you move from a small window to the entire sky.

While there are countless projects that can be done with an all-sky radio astronomy survey, Gaensler spoke in particular about three big scientific questions that he hopes to answer with the observations.

“Where does magnetism in the universe come from? What are all the different types of explosions and flares that happen in

the universe? And what are the processes through which gas is converted into stars?

So galaxy evolution, magnetism, and timedomain astronomy.”

The mandate of the CFI Innovation Fund is to support research that allows Canada to be competitive on a global stage. With the recent completion of CHIME and as the beginning of Gaensler’s radio astronomy data centre, it is clear that Canada is poised to become one of the key players in the radio astronomy landscape.

“We’re very much at the forefront,” said Gaensler, “and there’s some particular areas like pulsars and magnetism where we really own these topics.” “[There are] all these great discoveries that Canadian radio astronomers have made in the past. We’re building on that heritage.”

U of T -developed app can inform transit policy City Logger can track commutes and provide insight into modes of travel Devanshi Adhvaryu Varsity Contributor

Whether your commute is a short subway trip or a lengthy bus ride, you can use the City Logger app to monitor your data while aiding provincial governments in transit funding and planning decisions.

Developed by a team of U of T researchers, City Logger runs in the background of your phone and will collect location and time data to aid researchers in their understanding of transit user behaviour.

The app is part of a larger research project called the Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS), which has been conducted every five

Science Around Town Signaling mechanisms regulating neural circuit formation and their relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders Are you interested in learning how pharmacological approaches can be used to reverse neurological deficits? This seminar will delve into the biology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), its genetic risk factors, and how this information can be used to detect phenotypes associated with ASD risk genes.

Date: Monday, October 23 Time: 4:00 pm Location: Fitzgerald Building, 150 College Street, Room 103 Admission: Free 36th Annual Philippa Harris Lecture on Bioethics Issues in Cancer The University Health Network is hosting a seminar featuring speaker Teva Harrison, a young cancer patient, who will discuss her experiences with the disease as well as relevant ethical issues like selfidentity and balancing hope with medical uncertainty.

Date: Wednesday, October 25 Time: 12:30–1:30 pm Location: Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, 610 University Avenue, Dr. Bob Bell Auditorium Admission: Free Think Locally, Act Globally If you are interested in global health policy, nutrition, and child health epidemiology, come out to the John R. Evans Lectureship in Global Health. Dr. Cesar Victora will be speaking about how research carried out in Pelotas, Brazil has contributed to equitable global policies. Victoria’s keynote address will be followed by a panel discussion with other experts.

The app is currently available on Android and iOS. MIN HO LEE/THE VARSITY

years since 1986 to collect household travel data.

Chris Harding, a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil Engineering at U of T, has been one of the driving forces behind this project. According to Harding, the TTS had collected data from 150,000 households by landline surveying during 2011 and 2016. However, this method has been costly and time-consuming.

“We needed to explore new ways to collect data in a region, and smartphones were one of these things that we were looking at,” said Harding.

Harding notes that there are some limitations when it comes to surveying through an application, including technical limitations like

GPS location disruptions, and physical limitations like the way people interact with the application. However, this method has proven to be more advantageous than conventional forms of surveying in the past. Harding said that City Logger enabled his team to reach a younger audience range and capture transit trips that go unreported in most conventional surveys.

“When you have stand-alone apps, you would find that the trips go underreported anywhere from 25 to 40% of the actual trips that [commuters] make and so the app... allows us to not have that self-reporting [error],” said Harding.

City Logger is currently available for download on both Android and iOS devices.

Date: Wednesday, October 25 Time: 12:30–2:30 pm Location: The Faculty Club, 41 Willcocks Street, Main Dining Room Admission: Free

Sports

October 23, 2017 var.st/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

The Varsity Blues baseball win OUA Championship Blues pitcher Peter Nash describes the impressive feat

The Blues celebrating their first OUA Championship since 2012. PHOTO BY ALEX D’ADDESE, COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

Michelle Krasovitski Varsity Contributor

An 8–3 victory on October 15 saw the University of Toronto Varsity Blues baseball team win their first OUA title in five years.

A match where the Blues never relinquished their lead, the gold medal game was a reflection of the team’s strong season and even stronger lineup and roster, rallied together by first-year head coach Mike Didier.

Peter Nash, a senior in the Masters of Exercise Science program, was unanimously selected as the starting pitcher for the game and pitched six innings with dominance, recording six strikeouts while surrendering only two runs. A current coach in the Leas-

ide Baseball Organization, Nash grew up admiring Roy Halladay and Justin Verlander while playing baseball in Ajax. Reflecting on his team’s 9-7 season, finishing tied for third in the OUA standings, Nash said, “It was obvious that [the Blues] were a top contender.

Each game we lost, we knew we either beat ourselves or were right there. I had confidence at each position around the diamond, which I would argue is more than any other team could claim.”

Once October 13 rolled around and the playoffs for the OUA Championship officially started, Nash’s confidence was put to the test. Shutting out the Guelph Gryphons in the first round and defeating the Waterloo Warriors 7–3 in the quarter finals, the Blues

moved on to face the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in the gold medal game.

“I was both excited and nervous for the top of the Laurier order. They run three good lefties to start and follow it with the hitter of the year in the 4-spot,” said Nash, describing the strategy he and catcher Tanner YoungSchultz discussed going into the match.

“You could tell that, over the course of the game, they started to recognize my changeup and lay off when it ran off the plate,” continued Nash. “Nonetheless, the change-up was good enough to get sufficient outs. The bottom half of their order saw a bigger mix of curves and fastballs with a greater amount of righties.”

A critical defensive play came in the bot-

tom of the fourth, when a Warriors runner was caught stealing by Young-Schultz.

“I was confused why they decided to run, as Tanner’s pop time is just fine, and I didn’t have a leg kick going; they really killed their own rally being over aggressive,” commented Nash on the opposition’s questionable decision. He added that despite the encouraging play, there was no room for letting guards down, as “momentum is easier to believe as a fan.”

The offense supported Nash’s terrific start; outfielder Michael Deluca scored three runners by collecting hits in both the first and second innings. Second baseman Marco Bandiera, outfielder Bradley Bedford, and infielder Roy Suzuki also collected runs batted in (RBIs) throughout the game. This offensive outburst allowed pitcher Graham Tebbit a comfortable cushion to close things down, and in his three-inning appearance, he only allowed one run.

Nash had difficulty choosing his favourite moment of the game since there were so many RBIs to “get you excited,” but he enjoyed striking out Davenport with a 3–2 change up in the first inning. Davenport was the hitter of the year.

“I would put that second only to seeing my rookie, Mikey, hit a long fly out to the oppo gap that really showed his development over the course of the season offensively,” said Nash. “He went from the bottom of the order to hitting line drives and loud outs consistently, which poses good signs for a first year outfielder. Seeing guys improve is what makes me tick.”

As for the future, Nash will continue coaching elite youth baseball and playing for the Pickering Red Sox senior team. “[The Blues] have talent on the bench and on [the] pitching staff, so I have faith that U of T will be strong next year,” he said.

Queen’s Gaels earn commanding win over Varsity Blues Toronto’s sixth straight loss marks disappointing end to men’s football season Vincent Ruan Varsity Contributor

The Varsity Blues football season came to an end on Saturday afternoon with defeat in their final home game to the Queen’s Gaels.

The Blues’ offense started off hot as Blues quarterback Clay Sequeira ran for a 30-yard touchdown and later threw a 22-yard-touchdown to Nick Stadnyk to take a 14–0 lead.

The Gaels offense quickly put up points in the first quarter however, with Gaels quarterback Nate Hobbs throwing a 73-yard pass to a wide open Chris Osei-Kusi that resulted in a touchdown.

Hobbs later completed four straight passes for 31 yards before capping it off with a 21yard touchdown to Connor Weir to level the game 14–14.

The Blues managed to score only one touchdown in the second quarter. Hobbs was hit by Blues defender Corey Williams, fumbling the ball — a rare mistake from the Gaels’ offense. Brittley Mokube recovered the football for Toronto, running it back for a 30 yards for a touchdown. The Gaels took

over in the second quarter with three straight touchdowns along with a field goal to take a commanding 38–14 lead. Hobbs threw for a pair of touchdowns, while Blues quarterback Christian Krcilek threw a pass that was intercepted by Gaels linebacker Nelkas Kwemo and returned it 61 yards for a pick six.

The Blues’ defense was no match for the Gaels’ high-powered offense as Hobbs had a near-perfect day completing 32 for 40 passes for 436 yards and five touchdowns. Running back Jake Puskas led all players with 22 carries for 118 yards and one touchdown. Wide receiver Osei-Kusi led the Gaels with 12 receptions for 179 yards and two touchdowns.

Sequeira finished the game going 14 for 26 for 282 yards and two touchdowns. He also led the team in rushing with 73 yards.

Blues receiver Stadnyk finished with four receptions for 75 yards, along with two touchdowns.

A silver lining in the game was Blues fifthyear punter TJ Morton, who ended 2017 with 3,921 yards, breaking the OUA record for punting yardage in a single season held

by Guelph Gryphons punter Norman Nasser

Blues defensive lineman Mekhi Henry sacks Gaels quarterback Nate Hobbs.

PHOTO BY MARTIN BAZYL, COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

in 2000 with 3,621 yards.

After a long and hard-fought season, the Blues finish their season with a disappointing 1-7 record, missing the playoffs. With the help of a Guelph win over Carleton, the Gaels

secured the final playoff spot, finishing with a 4-4 record.

OCTOBER 23, 2017 • 21

var.st/sports

Varsity Blues take to the ice to open 2017–2018 hockey season Blues women undefeated, men split two games

Varsity Blues women blow out Lions 7–0 in home opener Silas Le Blanc Varsity Contributor

Toronto celebrates one of seven goals against York.

PHOTO BY MARTIN BAZYL, COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

Blues men have no answer for Ridgebacks’ third period comeback Rachel Quade Varsity Contributor

The Varsity Blues men’s hockey team led for the majority of the game against the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks on Saturday night at Varsity Arena, but they gave up three goals in the third period, dropping the game 3–2.

The Blues got off to a bit of a slow start in the first period, logging only two shots to UOIT’s eight midway through the frame. Toronto picked it up in the second half of the period and were rewarded for their hard work when they found a way to the back of the net. Ryan Kirkup began the play, streaking into the Ridgebacks zone down the left wing and, along with Connor Graham, claimed assists for Luca Leone, who buried the goal past Ridgebacks netminder Tyson Teichmann with some neat stick-work. The period ended 1–0 Blues, although the shot clock still favoured the Ridgebacks at nine to seven.

Although the shots in the second period were dead even, the Blues added to their lead, off a power-play tally from Aidan Wallace, assisted by Willy Paul and Evan MacEachern.

The goal came off a hooking call to the Ridgebacks’ Spencer Roberts. Both teams had an aggressive period, driving hard to the net, which resulted in a few minor net-side scrums that referees needed to break up. The shots were 14-16 for the

Varsity Arena hosted the Toronto Varsity Blues women’s hockey team home opener on Thursday, seeing a dominant 7–0 win against York. The score opened with rookie Louie Bieman scoring on the power play, off of a scramble in front of the net. Shortly after, Blues forward Kassie Roache made a pass from behind the York net to Lauren Straatman, for the one-timer goal. This was Roache’s second assist of the night.

York tried to score a goal to make the score 2–1 off of a scramble in front of the net. It was called a goal on the ice, but upon further discussion among the referees, they decided that the puck had never crossed the line. The Blues dominated York’s end, out-shooting them 11–2 in the first period.

Ridgebacks when the buzzer sounded to end the second, but the Blues still held the lead at 2–0.

Both teams came out hard in the third period. Kirkup had a near breakaway in the early minutes, and the play led to a slashing penalty to Ridgebacks captain Danny Elser.

Play was held up for a few minutes before the Blues began their power play due to an injury on the play – UOIT’s Mike Robinson was helped off the ice, but he returned later in the game. On the ensuing Blues power play, Josh Maguire sniped home a beautifully placed shorthanded goal for the Ridgebacks going bar-down and chopping the Blues’ lead in half.

The goal seemed to invigorate the Ridgebacks, and they pressed hard, searching for the equalizer. The Blues responded but were unable to find the back of the net on two different two-on-one chances, and soon they were forced to the penalty-kill once again, after a hooking penalty to captain Charlie Connell. UOIT took advantage, with Robinson capitalizing off a big rebound, tying the game at two goals apiece.

The Ridgebacks took their first lead of the game less than a minute later, with Elser burying the pass from Ben Blasko on a two-on-one.

Both teams continued to press hard for the rest of the period, and although Blues goalie Frederic Foulem made some big saves to keep them within one, the Blues were unable to come back and the final whistle sounded with the Ridgebacks still up one.

The final score was 3–2 for UOIT, with the shots on goal finishing at 28-19 in favour of the Ridgebacks.

Blues men victorious in home opener Joseph Rossi Varsity Contributor

Blues captain Charlie Connell to circle around the net.

WENDY WEI/THE VARSITY

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team had a thrilling 2–1 victory over the Queen’s Gaels in their home opener on October 20.

The victory followed a 3–1 victory over Waterloo on October 13, in which Ryan Mendel made his head-coaching debut for the Blues. Mendel spent the previous seven seasons as an assistant coach with the Carleton Ravens.

There was excitement in the stands as many students came out to support their Varsity Blues. Queen’s dominated the first period with numerous scoring chances. First-year goaltender Frederic Foulem was up to the task, saving 15 shots Queen’s fired at him in the period.

Despite the Gaels’ domination, the Blues were able to convert on the power play as second-year kinesiology major Evan MacEachern scored on a shot from the point to give the Blues a 1–0 lead. Matt Campagna and Aidan Wallace were credited

The Blues’ dominance continued in the second period with Bieman scoring an unassisted goal, and her second of the night, on the power play. Toronto goalie Madeline Albert stopped all 10 shots this period, after only having faced two in the first. Toward the end of the second period, O’Brien scored off of a rebound to make it 4–0 for the Blues.

Toronto’s offense continued to dominate in the third period as Cristine Chao scored off another rebound. O’Brien scored her second of the night midway through the period, making the score 6–0 for the Blues.

Following the sixth goal, York forward Tayler Murphy was injured in a collision in front of the York net. She lay on the ice until paramedics arrived and took her off on a stretcher.

When the game resumed, York pulled their goalie and maintained pressure in Toronto’s zone. Albert made some key stops to keep her shutout intact. Laura Ellis scored an empty net goal with 50 seconds remaining in the game to make the score 7–0 for the Blues.

Blues assistant captain Ryan Kirkup looks to intercept the puck against UOIT. PHOTO BY SEYRAN MAMMADOV, COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

The Blues men’s next home game is against York University on October 27, while the women’s team returns to Varsity Arena on November 4 against Brock University.

with the assists.

The second period was fast-paced and evenly matched, with both teams having strong scoring chances. Both teams killed off two penalties in the second period and the Blues entered the third period with their lead intact. But just four minutes into to the third period Queen’s tied it up with a goal from Luke Bertolucci.

Shortly thereafter, the Blues took a penalty but were able to prevent Queen’s from scoring in large part due to a relentless effort from second-year Curtis Harvey. Harvey pressed the puck against the wall in the Gaels’ zone holding off four Gaels who tried to pry the puck lose.

The rest of the third period was full of tension as each side tried to break the deadlock. With the game tied 1–1 at the end of regulation the game headed to overtime. The threeon-three format in overtime opened up the ice and created multiple thrilling scoring chances on both sides.

Finally, Evan MacEachern picked the puck up in the Blues zone and blazed down the ice scoring top corner to give the Blues the 2–1 victory. The Blues are now 2-0 on the season and will look to build this momentum moving forward.

22 • THE VARSITY • SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

Blues soccer program playoff bound Men second seed, women fifth

Russell Rodrigues looks to play the ball across the box.

PHOTO BY DAVID ZHAO, COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

Blues defender Kelly-Anne Johnson eyes the ball in Toronto’s 4–0 rout against RMC. PHOTO BY DAVID ZHAO, COURTESY OF THE VARSITY BLUES

Blues men earn stunning victory against RMC

Blues men finish season in second place

Blues women beat RMC 4–0 to secure playoff spot

Five seniors close out their Blues career

Jackie Emick Varsity Contributor

Josie Kao and Laura Quon Varsity Staff

Michael Teoh Deputy Senior Copy Editor

Vanessa Wallace Varsity Contributor

The Blues men’s soccer team earned an impressive 4–0 victory against the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins on Friday night, whom they previously defeated on September 30 with a 4–0 win.

Going into the game with a record of eight wins, two losses, and four draws, the Varsity Blues had optimistic chances.

Blues midfielder Lukas MacNaughton scored the first goal in the fifth minute. The goal was scored at the penalty spot after the Paladins committed a foul in the box. This amazing goal placed the Blues in a perfect position to take an early lead.

Throughout the game, the Blues showed great skill within their crisp passing and speed. Right off the bat, they showed a very obvious advantage in the way the team worked together and communicated. A free kick for the Blues in the 19th minute was set up for success, but unfortunately failed with a bounce off the crossbar.

As half time approached, Blues striker Antonio Ajhert scored a quick goal in the 41st minute, pushing the Blues lead to 2–0.

Coming back from the halftime break, striker Nirun Sivananthan scored in the 51st minute rounding the total score to a solid 3–0 in favour of the Blues.

The game came to a brief stop when RMC defender Simon Leslie was injured and continued into the 75th minute when he was substituted out.

In the 80th minute, Blues midfielder Yousef Helmy brought the score up to an impressive 4–0 total, as the Toronto team continued to dominate the field with their determination and fierce plays.

The Blues’ solid victory matches their previous 4–0 win over RMC. Toronto enter their final regular season game against Queen’s University at 8:30 pm on October 21 at Varsity Stadium with a 9-2-4 record.

After this win, the U of T community should be excited to see what happens during the club’s postseason run.

The Blues men defeated the Queen’s Gaels 2–1 in a clean performance on Saturday night. The Blues finish in second place in the OUA Eastern Conference behind the Carleton Ravens going into the playoff run.

The team started strong with an early goal off a corner kick in the seventh minute by cocaptain Lukas MacNaughton. Toronto maintained a convincing defensive performance throughout the first half, holding the Gaels to only two shots.

Striker Jack Wadden finished the first half with a goal in the 44th minute, assisted by strike partner Nirun Sivananthan.

The Gaels rallied in the second half of the game with a stronger offensive attack, which culminated in Jacob Schroeter’s 83rd minute goal. Despite the goal, the Blues accounted for five shots in the second half and 16 total shots.

Blues defender Devon Bowyer made a nailbiting final minute save and goalkeeper Mark Rogal also had a solid performance with two saves throughout the match.

Despite some uncertainty in the closing moments, the Blues held off attacks and ended their regular season run with an 10-2-4 record. They will enter into the OUA quarterfinals on October 29, opponent to be decided.

The Varsity Blues women secured their OUA Playoff berth on October 20 with a comprehensive 4–0 victory over the the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins at Varsity Stadium.

The Blues dominated possession in the first half but were unable to fully capitalize against the Paladins, who focused strongly on defense. Toronto recorded nine shots to RMC’s one, with the breakthrough coming from a 39th-minute corner. Set-piece specialist Daniella Cipriano found centre back Christine Mulligan inside the 18-yard box, who managed to direct the ball into the net.

Cipriano and midfielder Julia Gonsalves linked up well on the right flank of the pitch throughout the half, providing a constant threat to the RMC defense. Striker Natasha Klasios demonstrated impressive hold-up play and dribbling, deftly creating chances for the Blues; this almost paid off in the 44th minute as she found strike partner Chelsea Cheung in space, but the RMC defense quickly removed the danger.

Both teams started strong in the second half, but Toronto fleshed out more chances, including a good run into the box by midfielder Vanessa Bucci and a 30-yard attempt

by Mulligan. The Blues finally found their second goal when the impressive Klasios found space and fired in a shot from 20 yards in the 58th minute.

Midfielder Maddie MacKay almost added a third in the 60th minute when her 30-yard rocket bounced off the upright before being cleared by the RMC defenders. The third goal eventually came from an incredible 35-yard lob from second-year midfielder Anna Crone, capitalizing on the RMC goalkeeper’s poor positioning to seal her first Varsity Blues goal.

Although RMC launched more attacks in the second half, they produced zero shots.

As the Paladins continued to fade, right back Cipriano found herself in more attacking positions, allowing her to play a smart one-two with Crone to score her first Varsity Blues goal in the 82nd minute.

“It’s such a good feeling to actually reach a goal… it’s been a long three years,” Cipriano said after the match. “It was a good dead ball from Anna… We pressed them really high so I feel like I definitely had the opportunity [to score].”

The Blues women played host to the nationally ranked Queen’s Gaels on October 21 at Varsity Stadium. Five graduating Blues athletes were recognized by University of Toronto Executive Director of Athletics & Physical Activity Beth Ali and head coach Luciano Lombardi before the Blues’ final action of the regular season.

Among the graduating student-athletes were co-captains Laura Krkachovski and Christine Mulligan, both defenders for the Blues since 2013. Midfielders Laura Snoek, Alyssa Golin, and Nicki Parkes are also set to move on from the Blues program following the 2017 season. Parkes, a chemical engineering student from Sarnia, was a honoured as an OUA East second team all-star in 2016.

The Blues and Gaels met for the third time in 2017. The Gaels won both previous matches with multi-goal leads. They meet annually in preseason at the Old Four tournament which was hosted by Western University in August.

The Blues had a slow start to open the match. Queen’s rookie forward Alexandra Doane opened the scoring in the 23rd minute. The Gaels entered half time with a twogoal lead courtesy of Jenny Wolever. The final Queen’s goal came early in the second half from Laura Callender off of a penalty kick in the 52nd minute.

Minutes later, the Blues retaliated with a goal by Kristin Parkes. The rookie’s shot came from directly in front of the net, leaving Queen’s goalkeeper Anna Stephenson little chance to make a save. A subsequent hustle play from veteran Chelsea Cheung resulted in another goal for the Blues, priming the crowd for a great comeback. Cheung’s goal was set up nicely by Mulligan’s free kick in the 76th minute.

The Gaels’ defense was on their heels for the remainder of the game as the Blues maintained momentum and had several rushes in the final minutes. Despite this effort, including two saves from Toronto goalkeeper Vanna Staggolis, the Blues were unable to make the comeback. The narrow loss lands the Blues in fifth place in the OUA East Division with a regular season record of 7-7-2.

The Blues will face the Ottawa Gee-Gees on October 25 in the first round of the OUA Playoffs.

OCTOBER 23, 2017 • 23

var.st/sports

WEEKLY BOX SCORES

The Future of Canada’s Territorial Borders and Personal Boundaries

FOOTBALL October 21

MEN’S

2–1

Varsity Blues

2–3

October 21 Varsity Blues

WOMEN’S

7–0

October 19 Varsity Blues

9:30 Refreshments 10:-00 * “Opening Remarks,” Robert Brym, SD Clark Chair, Sociology, U of T 10.15 – 12.00 * “Bordered Futures in a Borderless World,” John Hannigan, Sociology, U of T * “The Cyber-world and its Boundaries,” Ron Deibert, Political Science, Munk School of Global Affairs, U of T * Discussant: Heather Nicol, Geography, Trent University 1.30 – 3.30 * “Contesting Borders in the Arctic,” Klaus Dodds, Geopolitics, Royal Holloway, University of London * “Securitization along the Canada-US Border,” Alison Mountz, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University * Discussant: Emily Gilbert, Canadian Studies and Geography, U of T

October 20

2–0

Varsity Blues

1–1

Varsity Blues

5–0

Varsity Blues

York Lions

Laurier Golden Hawks

Guelph Gryphons

Western Mustangs

LACROSSE MEN’S October 21

October 22

5–30

Varsity Blues

5–18

Varsity Blues

WOMEN’S October 20

October 21

12–6

Varsity Blues

4–10

Varsity Blues

12–8

Varsity Blues

Brock Badgers

Guelph Gryphons

Brock Badgers

Western Mustangs

Laurier Golden Hawks

SOCCER MEN’S October 20

4–0

Varsity Blues

2–1

Varsity Blues

WOMEN’S Varsity Blues

SD Clark Chair

RMC Paladins

Queen’s Gaels

4–0

October 20

October 21

The 3rd SD Clark Symposium on the Future of Canadian Society

UOIT Ridgebacks

October 22

October 21

More information and accessibility assistance: anna.slavina@mail.utoronto.ca

Queen’s Gaels

FIELD HOCKEY

October 22

All Welcome Free Admission Registration required: http://bit.ly/2wLzO12

Queen’s Gaels

HOCKEY October 20

Friday 10 November 2017 East Common Room Hart House, U of T

38–59

Varsity Blues

RMC Paladins

2–3

Varsity Blues

Queen’s Gaels

RUGBY MEN’S October 22 Varsity Blues

18–59

Waterloo Warriors

OCTOBER 23, 2017 u 24

DIVERSIONS

CROSSWORD 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

21

19

23

26

31

27

36

33

37

39

42

43

11

24

32

35

10

20

22

25

9

45

29

30

50

51

34

38

40

44

28

41

46

47

48

49

52

53

54

55

56

57

ACROSS

DOWN

1. Hit the slopes 4. “Agreed!”

8. Get ready for a trip 12. Archer’s skill 13. Arm bone 14. Strong team 15. Econ. indicator 16. Canoeing challenge 17. Conga formation 18. More fit 20. “Beau ___” 21. Almost unique 23. Studio stock 25. End of a bridal path 27. Like a bairn 28. Grammy category 31. Binaural 33. ___ Beach, Calif.

35. Okra, essentially 36. Put to the test 38. Drew in mysteries 39. Kind of sprawl 41. Boardwalk treats 42. Greek thinker 45. Goodness 47. Cheerful tune 48. Cognizant of 49. Artificial conception 52. Crowning point 53. Chic or cheeky 54. It’s nothing, really 55. Accessible 56. Arborist’s concern 57. Brewer of golf

1. Bed problem 2. Clan members 3. Made known 4. Face-off 5. Experienced one 6. First name of two U.S. presidents 7. Act like a chicken?

8. Explorers’ destinations 9. Allies opponent 10. Small change 11. On bended ___ 19. Den denizen 20. Collect slowly 21. Blacksmith’s implement 22. Choral voice 24. Grig, when grown 26. Back in?

28. Boxing 29. “___ bitten, twice shy” 30. Picks up the check 32. An eye for the poetic?

34. Canter, for example 37. It’s a bore 39. Complete 40. ___ Dame 42. Blueprint 43. Some parasites 44. Soprano Gluck 46. Classroom drilling 48. Make a choice 50. By way of 51. Wing it?

Get Your TTC Post-Secondary Photo ID

MY CAMPUS

2017

A. Student

Carry your TTC Post-Secondary Photo ID when using your Post-Secondary Student monthly Metropass and present it to TTC staff upon request.

Post-Secondary Photo ID photos will be taken on: Wednesday, October 25 (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)

University of Toronto - St. George Campus Hart House Reading Room Visit ttc.ca for more information.