November 21, 2011

THE Varsity

21 November, 2011

Vol. CXXXII, No. 11

a new

TheVarsity.ca

This changes everything again. Again.

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Tempers run high at UTSU AGM

Proxy voting, by-law amendments, union finances main points of contention photos by Bernarda Gospic and Wyatt Clough

Simon Bredin VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The routine agenda of UTSU’s annual general meeting held Tuesday November 15 was overshadowed by heated rhetoric, constant disruption, and a palpable sense of tension. Approximately 100 students gathered in the Medical Science building auditorium to consider several amendments to union by-laws and approve the financial audit of the union. Instead, the meeting descended into a three-and-a-half hour discussion that left many frustrated.

Proxy voting A number of students raised concerns regarding the amount of proxy votes at the AGM; 511 out of 613 votes cast were proxies, making up 83 per cent of voters.

“UTSU bylaws are democratically established by members, and they outline the right for members to carry proxies, so that our members who are unable to attend the meeting can participate and be represented,” said Danielle Sandhu, UTSU President.

Some attendants felt the proxy system worked well.

“It’s impossible to invite every member of the union to a meeting,” said Dimitri Kyriakakis, President of the Greek Students’ Association. “They’re trying to find the most democratic method.”

Proxy voting forms were available three weeks before the meeting, but in a November 18 closed-door meeting of the St. George Round Table, college leaders claimed to not have been informed about the deadline.

Confusion also arose regarding the alleged absence of the proxy vote deadline in UTSU’s AGM advertisements.

“This is my third AGM, and every single year, there is a problem with proxies. Every year we are left scrambling at the last minute,” said Alex Heuton, Innis College Student Society’s President, who went uninformed about the deadline until hours before the meeting.

But Sandhu said the information was printed clearly on their advertisements.

“The deadline for returning proxies is indicated on the proxy package itself, and members were reminded of the deadline directly when they came into the union office to pick up their forms,” she said.

Limited debate A motion to limit the number of speakers sparked objections from some of those in attendance. The measure capped the number of speakers at six — three for a motion and three against.

Jake Brockman, an Arts and Science Faculty Council representative, said that the motion “undercut the legitimate democratic process.”

“These proxy votes were not only used to vote on the substantive motions, they were used to limit the debate,” he added. “The simple presence of all those proxy votes fundamentally changes how outsiders to the process view it as legitimate or in this case, illegitimate.”

Other participants, however, saw the measure as time-saving.

“There were too many people that had too many opinions to handle them all in one meeting,” said Kyriakakis. “Really, we are trying to address the agenda that the UTSU brought to us.”

Few questions answered At times during the meeting, UTSU President Danielle Sandhu and chair of the meeting

Ashkon Hashemi appeared to grow irritated, repeatedly calling for order and ruling many speakers out of order in mid-speech.

“It was disappointing to see at a time where students need to be united that a few members disingenuously disrupted the meeting,” said Sandhu in a statement issued to The Varsity after the meeting. “It was clear that these members were unfortunately aiming to create controversy at the meeting.”

Hashemi didn’t permit any questions on specifics of the union’s finances. Member inquiries concerning a $200,000 increase in staffing costs and an $80,000 expenditure on office inventory were not allowed. Also unaddressed was the union’s operating deficit from last year.

Asked for the specific cost of union-led advocacy during the provincial election, Sandhu declined to provide any specific figures and referred the student to another committee.

Pressed for an answer outside the meeting, Sandhu responded that “if members have questions about the finances of the Union, they can come to the Union office at any time and learn more.”

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CUPE 3902 on verge of strike Union proposes smaller tutorial sizes and lower tuition, among other things Georgia Williams VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

CUPE Local 3902, the University of Toronto Education Workers’ union, is urging members to vote in favour of going on strike next week.

The current collective agreement with the union expired at the end of April, but negotiations with the university have been ongoing since July without either side coming to a final agreement.

The union represents TAs, lab demonstrators, PhD course instructors, invigilators, and those employed in accessibility services for all four campuses, as well as the Institute of Aerospace Studies.

If a strike vote is passed, TAs and lab demonstrators may be on the picket line early in the new year.

James Nugent, spokesperson for CUPE local 3902 Unit 1, outlined the proposal they put forward to the university.

“Our wage proposal is to maintain where we’re at. We are simply asking for funding to be kept at the level of inflation,” Nugent said.

The proposal includes saving the funding package, maintaining the package’s integrity, reinstating the Doctoral Grant eliminated by the Provost, having smaller tutorial sizes, and reducing tuition for

graduate students funded for only four to five years (a PhD takes an average of six years to complete).

Nugent claimed that 47 per cent of tutorials have more than 50 students, and 100 tutorials have over 100 students.

Jaby Mathew, a political science TA at the St. George campus, echoed Nugent’s concerns regarding overcrowded tutorials, which he said affected the quality of education for undergrad students.

“I don’t think there should be more than 20 students in a tutorial. What kind of experience are the undergrads getting? If they have large lecture sizes and large tutorials, undergrads aren’t getting [the education] they should,” he said.

Mathew even went as far as to call himself and other TAs “grading machines,” as large tutorials require hours of grading, eating away at time to prepare and meet with students.

Nugent clarified that the vote won’t initiate a strike but gives the union legal stance to call for one. He said the union in fact hopes a positive strike vote will motivate the university to negotiate seriously just as it has in the past. Mathew predicts that a “strike vote is bound to happen.”

Nugent cited a recent piece from The Globe and Mail, which ranked U of T last in terms of student satisfaction.

CONTINUED FROM P2 By-law amendments A handful of union by-law amendments also proved to be a source of contention. In an apparent mix-up, union executives and the public appeared to be working from two different versions of the by-laws. The version online were referred to repeatedly by members in attendance but seemed to differ from the hardcopy version used by the executive.

While union executives claimed that all amendments were intended to clarify the by-laws’ language or to eliminate redundancies, others took issue with the proposed changes.

One controversial motion removed the requirement that future AGMs be advertised in specific campus newspapers. The new wording of the by-law calls for advertisements in any “campus publications.” Some speakers felt it was counterproductive to make the by-laws less specific, potentially opening the door to future abuses.

In a later statement, Sandhu explained that the intention of the change was to allow the union to make advertisements in publications beyond those already used.

Another motion appeared to remove the current cap on the number of proxies that UTSU Directors could carry. While Sandhu alleged that the cap is retained in another section of the by-laws, audience members working off the online copy could find no such requirement.

Asked about the discrepancy between the two documents, UTSU Trinity College Director Michael Scott was at a loss.

“I’m not entirely sure. I was looking at the unofficial copy from the website. They had a copy that had a slight difference,” Scott said.

“I guess theirs is the official copy, and I really hope it is.”

The most recent publicly available online version of the by-laws does not contain information about the capped number of proxies.

Both amendments passed by a significant majority that was made up mostly of proxy votes.

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“I think a lot of student leaders are just looking for a productive forum in which to discuss the issues,” said Brockman. “But they ought to feel that their voice was heard, that they had a chance to debate substantive matters. And that simple benchmark wasn’t met.”

Union activities These controversies overshadowed the other announcements made by Sandhu. Her presidential address unveiled a host of new services for clubs and students, slated to begin next term. These include discounted membership of up to 20 per cent for the city’s popular Bixi bike rental program, cheaper photocopying services, and expanded support for club promotion efforts.

Sandhu also spoke on the future of lobbying efforts of the union, which will be focused on ensuring the implementation of the provincial Liberals’ promised 30 per cent tuition cut.

“With the election of a minority government, we collectively have an excellent opportunity as students to shape how the grant program will be administered,” she said. “As students, we need to be united and work together to lobby the government to ensure that all of our members have access to the grant.”

AGM chair Ashkon Hashemi counts votes during a motion.

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Former British PM on finding faith

Canada is a model country for interfaith communities, he says Murad Hemmadi VARSITY STAFF

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke about the role of faith in addressing health issues at the University of Toronto on Thursday. The event, which took place at the Multi-Faith Centre, also showcased the works of Department of Medicine assistant professor Michael Silverman and six Toronto-based Faiths Act fellows, who are part of The Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

During the symposium, Blair talked about the need to develop “mutuality of faith and equality between people” through interfaith dialogue. He suggested that the “threats to the world [today] are to do with whether people of different faiths and backgrounds can live together.”

Blair told reporters after the main event that European nations can Bernarda Gospic/THe VArsity

learn from Canada’s example.

“I think, in many ways, Canada is a model of how people from [different faiths] can come together,” he said.

Blair went on to describe that his foundation champions the idea that faith can be a force of good.

To continue his organization’s work, there are Faiths Act fellows stationed all over the world who help mobilize interfaith action.

Faiths Act is “all about action and service to demonstrate that your faith is compelling you to do something positive for humanity, rather than something negative,” Blair said.

Some of the Toronto-based fellows are U of T’s Multi-Faith Centre workers Davina Finn and Anna Siu. Siu is an OISE graduate.

Along with four other fellows, they talked about their work and upcoming events to promote inter-faith dialogue and address the Millennium Development Goals of

combating HIV/AIDS and malaria and improving maternal health.

Blair also mentioned that universities have a part to play in encouraging multi-faith dialogue.

“The university is absolutely above [all] else the place where these issues should be discussed and debated,” he said. “It’s really important that at this stage, that people in their student years do get this sense of coming together.”

Blair continually emphasized the role that faith had to play in positive action. “You judge a person and a society by how they treat the other,” he said. “That is the notion at the heart of my foundation.”

Silverman, a U of T professor, also emphasized that “all the great religions have been [forces] for good.” He spoke about the process that led him to work with the Salvation Army in Zimbabwe, as well as Christian and Muslim groups in Guyana.

Offensive image taken down from Hart House Staff and students’ equity concerns appeased by removal VARSITY STAFF

NOTICE TO GRADUATE STUDENTS OPIRG-TORONTO OPT-OUT University of Toronto Full and Part-Time Graduate Students who wish to opt-out of OPIRG-Toronto fees can claim a fees refund with proof of enrolment as a graduate student for the 2011-2012 academic year at any time during the academic year by appointment at the OPIRG-Toronto office.

OPIRG-Toronto already provided a number of opportunities in September 2011 to opt-out without making an appointment.

In addition, the OPIRG-Toronto Board of Directors will accommodate Graduate Students who wish to opt-out (please bring proof of enrolment) with no appointment necessary during the following times: St. George Campus: November 28, 29, 30, and December 1 and January 12th From 11-7pm at the OPIRG-Toronto office located at 563 Spadina Crescent, Room 101.

Mississauga Campus: Wednesday, December 7th and January 11th From 12-7pm at the UTM Student Centre located at 250 The Student Centre • 3359 Mississauga Road North Mississauga, ON ( Near the Students’ Union office ) Scarborough Campus: Thursday, December 8th and January 19th From 12-7pm at the UofT Scarborough Campus Student Center cafeteria located at 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON OPIRG-Toronto 101- 563 Spadina Cres. Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2J7 Phone: 416 978 7770 . Fax: 416 971 2292 Contact OPIRG-Toronto at opirg.toronto@utoronto.ca or (416)978-7770 for more information.

A sambo image that hung in Hart House’s Debates Room was recently removed after it was reported offensive by staff and students.

Commissioned by Vincent Massey in 1919, the image is one of 16 painted wooden shields intended to depict aspects of Canadian identity.

However, some critics say that the sambo image is a stereotypical caricature of a black person’s face.

On November 10, Hart House interim Warden Bruce Kidd announced to the Board of Stewards his decision to remove the shield in accordance with U of T’s equity policy.

“We strive to the best of our ability to make every [space] accessible, welcoming and affirming to all students, faculty, staff, and members of the public. In making this decision, I hope that I underline that message,” he said.

With this ruling, Kidd hoped that all persons of African heritage will continue to feel welcome and a part of Hart House.

On September 20, the OISE Centre for Urban Schooling hosted a workshop in the Debates Room on the Canadian context for equity and social justice teaching.

Directly above their slide presentation hung the sambo image.

Professor Nicole West-Burns was one the instructors presenting that day. She was disturbed to see the image, and noted that the remaining fifteen shields displayed objects such as a sheaf of wheat, a fish, etc.

Immediately after the workshop, West-Burns and her colleagues reported the image to U

of T administrators.

“When the issue around the Blackamoor head shield at Hart House was brought forward, Professor Kidd and I immediately met with the individuals to gain a full understanding of the issues,” said Lucy Fromowitz, Assistant VicePresident of Student Life.

“We had several meaningful conversations, and ultimately, Professor Kidd determined that the appropriate resolution was to remove the shield, and I fully support this decision,” she asserted.

Toronto’s calibre,” said Lloyd Wiredu, president of the National Society of Black Engineers at U of T. “It is offensive and unacceptable.”

Further consultation about the shield’s meaning was sought from experts in heraldry, visual art, and human rights. Kidd also consulted persons of African decent who explained the negative attributes of sambo imagery. West-Burns was pleased with Professor Kidd’s decision and handling of the situation.

“It makes a difference in how that space is received. It is a statement of how we need to try to move forward and make all spaces on this campus spaces where students’ social identity factors are not used against them to make them feel that they are not included or that they are less than [others]. I think it was the right decision,” said West-Burns.

Fromowitz agreed. “The University of Toronto has clear policies on equity, diversity, and excellence. Our values of inclusivity and respect for all members of our diverse society are meaningful to us.”

The president of the Black Students’ Association, Shauntel Parkinson, is also satisfied with the result.

Recreation of sambo emblem at Hart House.

“Any student of minority West-Burns explained why the descent could feel the same level imagery was troublesome for her of offensiveness and exclusion if and others. their group was depicted as an “For the first time in my career, I object, caricature, or rarity. It’s [was in] a space that felt overtly, sys- uncomfortable,” said Parkinson. temically oppressive. And it was op- “I’m thankful and respectful of pressive based on issues of race and the decision that Professor Kidd racism,” she said. has made. It proves that he and the “This image has no place in the U of T administration are aware of modern world — not in an educa- the underlying equity issue and tional institution and certainly not have taken the appropriate and in an institution of the University of necessary steps.”

MINHEE BAE/THe VArsity

Dalana Parris

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JHR hollers for change in the DRC Organization puts pressure on authorities to defeat corruption and sexual violence Jonathan Scott Currently the “rape capital of the world,” according to a recent United Nations report, the Democratic Republic of Congo is facing one of its most lethal wars since WWII, but also one of the worst cases of injustice against its citizens.

To raise awareness about the human rights crimes in the DRC, Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) in partnership with the Political Science Student Association hosted an annual fundraiser, “Hollerday,” at Hart House last Tuesday, November 15.

The event focused on the anarchy in the DRC as a result of the economic and political instability brought on by blood minerals like coltan, which are in high demand for making electronics such as phones and computers. The fight for control of resources and right of extraction has led to a variety of human rights violations, chief among them being sexual violence.

A May 2011 UN report stated that one act of sexual violence is committed in the DRC per minute, most of them by the military, police forces, and civilians.

During the event, speakers dis-

latar added that rape in their society is the legal equivalent of jaywalking in Canada.

Another speaker, Glenys Babcock, President of Pragmora, an international peace thinktank and peace activist group, spoke about the negative effects of rape on lives of DRC victims.

Babcock said that the stigmas associated with rape, and the accompanying physical and psychological mutilations, result in husbands leaving wives for being “unfaithful” or for being unable to have children. Sometimes, in an effort to save their family’s honour, young girls who suffered rape and became pregnant, may be forced by their families to marry their attackers.

The repercussions even extend to men, Babcock added, saying that victimized men can be left with Participants at JHR’s Hollerday event against sexual violence in the DRC. the “dishonour” of another U of T JHR executive, agreed. ties into ending their current system engaging in homosexuality, a “If they [corporations] know that of rampant impunity. crime in the DRC. people are going to stop buying their Margaret Flynn, Amnesty InterAs the rate of rape and sexual vioproducts if they don’t stop what is national’s representative, discussed lence in the DRC rises, JHR continhappening in the Congo, then it’s the current culture of impunity in ues to advocate bringing the guilty more likely they will actually do regards to sexual violence in the DRC. to justice. something.”

According to her, the current system “Before social change happens, it JHR funds go directly to their on- is underdeveloped, corrupt, and in always seems impossible,” said Nguythe-ground DRC project, which the hands of those committing the en. “But once that change happens, works toward advancing victim’s crimes themselves. we could not imagine our life without rights and pressuring local authoriJHR youth coordinator Ken Zo- that change.”

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VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

cussed the importance for consumers to put pressure on electronics companies and governments to stop the violence in the Congo.

“The key to getting people involved is to show them that they are complicit in this,” said JHR U of T chapter executive Cassandra Dang Nguyen.

“If we can make the connection visceral, if we can make it strong, then there’s more of a chance.” Goldie Poll,

Student group celebrates first Israel Week Chief organizer criticizes Israeli Apartheid Week Jennifer Gosnell VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

November 14–18 marked the first annual Israel Week at the University of Toronto.

Israel On Campus, a ULife-recognized student club, hosted a variety of events designed to “offer a different way to look at Israel,” according to organizer and fourth-year history student Esther Mendelsohn.

The week was meant to offer a broad, academically-oriented perspective on Israel because, according to Mendelsohn, “It’s easy to get caught up and only see [Israel] through the very narrow lens of politics.”

“Politics is relevant and important… No one’s shying away from politics, but there’s so much more, and we’d be remiss not to talk about it,” she said.

Humanitarianism was the focus of the group’s first Israel Week, and guests discussed a variety of the humanitarian causes that the country supports. Some of the guests included Dr. Gil Gross, a participant in the Save A Child’s Heart mission to Tanzania, and Zaki Djemal, the North American Representative for IsraAID. Mendelsohn sat down with The Varsity to discuss the group’s goals and motivations for the week.

Mendelsohn repeatedly emphasized the need for “open, honest, and nuanced discourse, as long as it’s respectful.” She dismissed the notion that the week was merely “Zionist propaganda” or pro-Israel PR; rath-

er, she said it was about getting the facts and engaging others in discussion.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), whose organizers were unavailable for comment, remains a contentious issue for Israel On Campus.

While stressing that she doesn’t see Israel Week as IAW’s polar opposite, Mendelsohn did criticize the group for being, “not proPalestinian [but] just anti-Israel.”

“I criticize Israel and I don’t consider myself anti-Semitic, but there is a line. And when you use certain words, certain rhetoric, and especially images that are in no way based in fact then, yes, it crosses a certain line and becomes anti-Semitic,” she argued.

Mendelsohn dismissed IAW and organizations like the “socialist newspaper at Sid Smith,” saying they’re “fringe” and “radical” groups that aren’t reflective of the majority of her peers.

She also had harsh words for UTSU, which has reportedly supported IAW in the past, either directly or through its OPRIG affiliate.

“My issue is that my student fees pay for this, and [it’s] a body that purports to represent all students picking a side on such a divisive issue,” she said.“The UTSU has said this year that what’s happened in the past doesn’t necessarily need to happen again, so I’d call on them to reconsider their funding and their support [to IAW].

“I think the solution is not to lend their name or support, financial or otherwise, and to just say ‘You can have your week, and you

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can have your week’ … but not to make certain students feel like they don’t belong, because that’s exactly what it feels like.”

Israel on Campus plans for next year’s events to be better publicized through displays around the university, but they hope to continue the discussion in a “more moderate place.”

“When you have a lot of rhetoric, emotional grabs using certain words, it can polar-

ize the discourse, and we don’t want that,” Mendelsohn said. “We want to bring it back to a place where we can disagree with each other but also find points where we agree, and that’s the only way to move forward on campus and in the Middle East as well.”

Student members currently fund Israel on Campus, though it will be looking for other funding sources in the future. It is independent of other Jewish or Israeli campus groups.

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UTSC Pan Am building developers shortlisted

Company with construction death last year not among candidates Akihiko Tse VARSITY STAFF

The 2015 Pan American Games are drawing near, and U of T Scarborough has shortlisted developers for its new Pan Am Aquatics Centre. The death of a construction worker last year in the Scarborough campus, however, is creating concern about the university’s choice.

While building UTSC’s Instructional Centre on March 12, Hilit Mutlu fell 10 metres through a hole on the second floor down to the basement of the $70 million facility developed by construction company Ellis Don. “This is actually the second fatality with this group of companies and the second fa-

tality as a result of a fall,” a spokesperson for the Ontario Federation of Labour said at the time.

Ellis Don was given permission by the Ministry of Labour to continue construction and meet the building’s March 31 deadline to satisfy the government’s economic stimulus package condition, said Jim Derenzis, Director of Facilities Management at UTSC. “Since then, our dealings with both Diamond & Schmitt (the architects of the facility) and Ellis Don have ceased from a project perspective,” he said in an email.

The company was not part of the developer shortlist for the new Aquatics Centre, which includes the Aquatic Consortium of Toronto

2015, Hunt-Urbacon LP, and United Toronto.

UTSC will finalize its choice in the summer of 2012.

Derenzis added that the incident is still under investigation, but the university is still awaiting recommendations. No university personnel have been summoned by the Ministry.

According to Ministry of Labour statistics, Ontario counted 10 fall-related fatalities on construction sites in 2009. In the most recent available records, four fall-related fatalities were recorded in the year ending May 5, 2010.

In June 2008, a colleague of Mutlu’s fell three metres from a support beam at a condo

side, prompting OFL President Sid Ryan to call for a police investigation to determine if criminal charges could be laid against their employers.

Describing the incident as “another preventable death,” Ryan wanted an inquest under the Bill C-35 amendment, which places a “legal obligation under the criminal code around employer negligence.”

The amended bill would allow for the prosecution of corporate executives, directors and managers under the Criminal Code of Canada who fail to maintain a safe and healthy working environment for its employees.

UTSC has had no affiliations with Ellis Don prior to the Instructional Facility.

NEWS in Brief Canadian tap water potentially contaminated

Queen’s scraps fine arts program

Balls banned in Toronto school

The federal government is failing in its efforts to protect Canada’s water, leaving tap water susceptible to contamination, according to an Ecojustice report.

Ontario and Nova Scotia got A grades for waterprotection efforts, but the federal government at large got an F. Despite this, only seven provinces and territories have installed new plans to improve water-protection.

Recent progress, the report said, has waned in the decade since Ontario’s Walkerton disaster. Just this week, CBC has reported finding an unacceptable level of lead and copper in the drinking water at a number of Fredericton schools.

Queen’s University has decided to suspend enrolment to its Bachelor of Fine Arts program for the 2012–13 school year. Due to budgetary constraints, “the Faculty does not feel it would be responsible to continue to admit students at this time,” said Associate Dean of Arts and Science Gordon E. Smith.

While enrolment numbers are up, the program’s small classes and special classrooms have become expensive to finance. The 107 students currently enrolled in the BFA program have been guaranteed degree completion.

A Toronto school has banned hard balls, such as basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, and even tennis balls in the name of safety.

As of November 14, students at Earl Betty Jr. and Sr. Public school in East York are now only allowed to bring Nerf and sponge balls to school.

In a letter sent home to parents, any hard balls “will be confiscated and may be retrieved by parents from the office.”

The ban was issued after a parent suffered a concussion after getting hit in the head with a soccer ball.

—Gabriella Lambert With files from The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s

—Morgaine Craven With files from the Toronto Star

—Zakia Chowdhury With files from the CBC

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Unethical oil The exploitation of the Lubicon Cree and their resources needs to stop Simon Capobianco VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The recent decision of the Obama administration to delay the construction of the Keystone pipeline has been the topic of much public debate, and the larger issue of the Alberta tar sands project is, of course, always the subject of controversy. Proponents argue that it is a source of badly-needed jobs in trying economic times. However, opponents point to the environmental costs, the hazards of climate change, and the increasing cost-effectiveness of renewable energies like wind and solar.

More or less lost amid the geopolitical, environmental, and economic debates, however, is the effect that the extraction process is having on First Nations communities who live near the oil deposits. One such community, the Lubicon Cree, have had their economy destroyed, their rights trampled, and their health compromised by oil extraction without any form of compensation from the Canadian government.

Since the exploitation of their lands in the mid-70s, the Lubicon, who have not signed the rights to their land away in any treaty, have plunged into poverty. Although they were once self-sufficient, their hunting, trapping, and fishing economy has been devastated by the intensive extraction process. The worst oil spill of the last 35 years has contaminated their wetlands. Also, they face the constant hazard of a hydrogen sulfate or “sour gas” processing plant built near their proposed reserve. In 2007, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing

decried the “appalling living conditions” in Lubicon and the “asphyxiation of livelihoods” resulting from “the destructive impact of oil extraction activities.”

The Lubicon’s community of Little Buffalo is without running water and sanitation.

This, combined with the abject poverty resulting from the collapse of their economy, has resulted in outbreaks of tuberculosis and waterborne diseases unheard of elsewhere in Canada. The community suffers inordinate incidences of miscarriage, stillbirth, and other maternal health issues.

A high youth suicide rate is one consequence of the despair resulting from the near total lack of opportunity.

The Alberta government’s share of the profits made from exploitation of Lubicon land is over $14 billion. After the Lubicon refused a federal settlement offer, which then-Alberta premier Don Getty described as “deficient in the area of providing economic stability for the future,” the government refused to negotiate further. Talks broke down again in 2003 and have not resumed.

The federal government has responded to

UN condemnations of its violations of the Lubicon people’s human rights by claiming that the declarations that enshrine them are not legally binding. In 2009, they argued that the Lubicon Cree’s rights to their ancestral home were “extinguished” by Treaty 8, a land deal signed between Canada and several First Nations in 1899. Leaving aside the fact that the Lubicon Cree were not a party to Treaty 8, a cursory look at the circumstances under which it was signed is rather illuminating.

In his careful study of Treaty 8, Canadian historian Rene Fumoleau describes how a bedraggled population of natives, suffering from starvation as a result of settler incursion and the imposition of parliamentary restrictions on their hunting, agreed to sell their land to the Crown out of desperation. “Some people at Fort Chipewyan, [one of the signatories], firmly believe that their forefathers signed Treaty 8 because they were told that ‘the Queen will never let your children die from hunger,’” Fumoleau notes, adding that “this might well be true.”

The federal government has responded to UN condemnations of its violations of the Lubicon people’s human rights by claiming that the declarations that enshrine them are not legally binding.

The motivation behind the government’s eagerness to work with the natives is also made clear. After rich gold and mineral deposits were discovered in the Athabasca area, Ottawa, “desiring to secure its rights to the greatest portion of the loot … prudently hurried to send a treaty commission to deal with the Indians and to purchase from them a complete surrender of their land rights.” A government agent discussing the treaty process advised: “no time should be lost by the Government in making a treaty with these Indians for their rights over this territory” because “they will be more easily dealt with now than they would be when their country is overrun with prospectors and valuable mines be discovered.”

Although clearly in bad faith, the settlements of 1899 provided significant, albeit unfair, monetary compensation to the native bands whose land was ceded for development. The main reason for the large payments was a fear on the part of the government that the natives, who were adept at guerilla warfare, might forcibly delay the mineral boom if they felt that they were being cheated.

Needless to say, the Lubicon Cree have no such leverage for negotiations today and the government’s stance reflects that fact.

If Stephen Harper plans to continue marketing the bitumen extracted from the Lubicon’s land at the expense of their human rights as “ethical oil,” however, he would do well to invest a small part of the profit from that oil in repairing their devastated community — even though no one’s going to make him do it.

Due process Extrajudicial executions undermine the rule of law Wes Dutcher-Walls VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The killing of anyone considered a “public enemy” is bound to be accompanied by some euphoria. Political leaders might breathe a sigh of relief at the achievement of a policy goal. A general sense of closure may be felt, perhaps like the one that a victim’s family experiences after the execution of a murderer. Osama bin Laden, Anwar al Awlaki, and Muammar Qaddafi — three men who met their sudden ends in the past months — were so deeply abhorred by so many people that they could be aptly described not only as public enemies but global enemies.

Their actions, whether the violent religious delusion of bin Laden and al Awlaki or Qaddafi’s narcissistic despotism, were entirely antithetical to the ideals of tolerance, freedom and peace.

Because of this, the killing of these men may have seemed to be the only possible outcome of the belated attempts to bring them to justice. However, the deaths of bin Laden, al Awlaki, and Qaddafi were quite unlike the execution of a hypothetical murderer. The United States government and the fighters who triumphantly stormed Qaddafi’s hometown of Surt last Thursday denied their targets any semblance of a fair trial; these were extrajudicial executions, and the alarming contrast between the proclamations of justice and the obvious lack of it was buried beneath the elation.

I should pause here to disclose

that I am morally averse to capital punishment in almost every case.

This aversion inevitably coloured my reaction to the news of these men’s deaths. If I were to support the death penalty, it is more than likely that I’d think that they “deserved” to die. But by what judgement? Even if trials had taken place, these “executions” would have still happened in a murky, legal grey area. In the case of bin Laden, for example, the US military killed a person who was technically stateless in a sovereign state with which it was not at war. Meanwhile, Anwar al Awlaki was an American citizen, killed without the due process granted to his compatriots at home. Qaddafi’s death too was legally fishy, even apart from the troubling lack of details surrounding how he died. It isn’t clear whether there existed a judicial system stable enough to give Qaddafi a fair trial.

Clearly, the justification for these killings was the near-unanimous (and much-deserved) moral condemnation felt by people around the world. There was a widespread sentiment — both implicit and explicit — that these men deserved to be punished in the most severe way possible. I agree wholeheartedly, but I was disappointed by the way in which this punishment occurred. Bin Laden, al Awlaki and Qaddafi should have been brought

to trial where for the first time their actions could be fully laid bare and subjected to legal scrutiny. By simply killing them, the US government and the fighters in Surt missed an excellent opportunity to add legal formality to the moral condemnation already felt around the world.

The killing, or less likely, the capture, of bin Laden formed a sort of long-term American national project in the wake of 9/11 and was inherit-

provided sufficient closure.

Even if the fighters who entered Surt last Thursday intended only to capture Qaddafi, I doubt that they would have been able to restrain themselves from violence towards him. The experience of not only coming face-to-face with such an infamous and despised man, but of having him entirely at one’s mercy is probably unique in the range of human emotion. As for bin Laden, what orders were actually given to the Navy SEALS prior to the raid? While it is clear that al Awlaki was killed intentionally in a strike of surgical precision, the question remains as to what intent or instruction led to the deaths of bin Laden and Qaddafi. Were fair trials ever in the cards for them? For the United States, this question points to the dubious legal legitimacy of the decade-old “War on Terror.” For Libyans, the circumstances of Qaddafi’s death raise questions about the ability of the newly-freed nation to proceed with dignified restraint and respect for the rule of law, even in dealing with the man who brought them so much misery.

The success of future US foreign policy and the viability of Libyan democracy hinges on the capacity to grant the due process of law to all.

Further extrajudicial executions by the U.S military would severely un-

Bin Laden, al Awlaki, and Qaddafi should have been brought to trial where for the first time their actions could be fully laid bare and subjected to legal scrutiny. ed and ultimately carried out by the Obama administration. To a lesser extent, al Awlaki’s apparent complicity in the Fort Hood shootings and the attempted “Christmas Day bombing” gave killing him a sense of priority too. In the case of Libya, the capture or death of Qaddafi appears to have become a benchmark by which the revolution — and the airborne NATO mission in support of it — could be judged a success or failure. Further, most Libyans despised Qaddafi so intensely that only the catharsis of his death would have

dermine the very narrative that has sustained US foreign policy for ten years: that of the worldwide confrontation between law-respecting, liberal-democratic order and lawless, repressive chaos. And even the most optimistic observer of the Libyan revolution must have winced at the heedlessness of Qaddafi’s killers. To convince me, and indeed to convince themselves, that their move towards democracy is not illfated, Libyans would have had to grant Qaddafi a fair trial of the kind he never granted to his political opponents. Without the precedent of such a legal process, will a people without a tangible democratic tradition be able to avoid a descent into religious authoritarianism and progress towards democracy? Whoever is to blame, Libya missed a major opportunity both to engender international confidence in its nascent experiment in democracy and to demonstrate to its people that government can be a force for justice.

Disparate as their cases may have been, bin Laden, al Awlaki, and Qaddafi all sought to impede and destroy liberal democracy, and neutralizing the threat they posed was rightly a goal of the international community. However, to kill them without trials was simply to replace the dangers of tyranny and religious extremism with a more subtle threat to liberal democracy: the rule of moral condemnation.

Societal consensus must not be allowed to usurp the rule of law, no matter how heinous the crimes of our “global enemies” are.

8

monday, November 21, 2011

THEVOL. Varsity CXXXII Y

T

No. 11

VARSIT HE

VARSITY COMMENT

comment@thevarsity.ca

Are the liberal arts doomed?

JESSICA ZOU probes the fate of undergraduate programs in the humanities

TH

ES

TUDE

AP NT NEWSP

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I

f you think that we have already emerged victoriously from the economic recession, then you are being far too optimistic. The long list of articles that shows up whenever you type “economic crisis 2011” into your search engine serves as a reminder that a global recession might be just around the corner.

As the global economy is still struggling to pull through, I can’t help but brood over the fate of the humanities. The field of study that was so exalted in the past is now finding itself losing the limelight, or even worse, facing annihilation.

This possibility did not cross my mind until I stumbled upon an article in which the author offered a critical analysis of the embarrassing situation of humanities programs in American private universities. The decline in the number of humanities programs offered is due to the significant reduction in endowments, an unavoidable consequence of the recession. One of the most shocking examples is Centenary College, which has eliminated half of its 44 majors, mostly humanities specialities including Latin, German Studies and Performing Arts. The undeniable truth has become that most money lies in professional industries such as IT, business, and engineering. The stereotypical image of a dejected artist living alone in a decrepit apartment with meagre budget for subsistence and whose fame only comes posthumously probably deters people from rebelling against the rules set up in

Bernarda Gospic/THe VArsity

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, in which physiological needs sit triumphantly on the widest throne at the bottom and self-actualization stands timidly on the tip of the

pyramid.

However, as someone who finds the ferocious stares of the dollar sign uncomfortable, I strongly object to the cruel and uncompro-

mising slashing that has occurred.

There is a reason why those programs are classified under the discipline of humanities. They explore all facets of the human experience and bring us closer to knowledge of ourselves. Furthermore, studying humanities gives us the opportunity to appreciate the ingenuity of the human race, allows us to see the mistakes our ancestors made in the past so we can avoid them in the present and the future, and helps us understand the progress of homo sapiens in the long river of history. I mean, don’t you just admire the professor who can quote the Iliad? I do.

Having established the importance of humanities to our life journeys, it is imperative that we think about how to revitalize them. The University of Toronto has maintained respect for humanities by offering a wide range of programs and implementing breadth requirements for Arts & Science students and similar measures for those in other faculties. But it can do more.

For example, departments could collaborate further to create additional interdisciplinary programs or offer more workshops to hone students’ creative thinking and other vital skills.

Of course, students with a passion in humanities should be encouraged to take the initiative to found relevant clubs to extend intellectual stimulation outside of the classroom. After all, it is our job to ensure the liveliness of the humanities, which lie at the core of our spiritual existence.

Instituting Libyan democracy PATRICK BAUD and KATE BRUCE-LOCKHART explain how Libya needs to set up vital institutions if it wants its new government to succeed

O

n October 31, 2011, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s intervention in Libya ended. This was less than two weeks after the capture and killing of former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi by rebel forces. Two weeks ago, the final contingent of Canadian airmen involved in the war against the Qaddafi regime returned home to CFB Greenwood in southwestern Nova Scotia.

Though many are celebrating the apparent success of the right to protect in Libya, the victory is not conclusive and the task of reconstruction looms. Libya’s transitional government faces the challenge of rebuilding the country after eight months of civil war and more than 40 years of brutal dictatorship. It remains unclear what the lasting consequences of the NATO intervention will be and what role the international community, particularly Canada, will play in shaping the new Libya.

While the NATO intervention aided the rebel forces, it is uncertain whether it prevented largescale civilian massacres. There are reports of significant killings at the hands of both Qaddafi loyalists and rebel forces. Also, it is possible that violence will break out in

post-Qaddafi Libya if the coalition supporting the transitional government falls apart or splits along tribal lines.

Even if there is little or no outright fighting in the short term, the task facing Libya’s leadership is a difficult one. Unlike its neighbours Egypt and Tunisia, Libya has few formal institutions. The result is that it will be difficult for the transitional government to fulfill its promise of holding free elections within the year.

And even if free and fair elections are held, there are still few guarantees that the new government can create meaningful changes in the lives of Libyans, at least in the future.

Instead, the new government needs to focus on building viable institutions. It must draft and enact a constitution. It also needs to

set up a rudimentary bureaucracy to implement its policies. The new government will also have to tackle thorny issues, such as how to manage Libya’s significant oil wealth and reclaim the billions Qaddafi and his cronies stashed in bank accounts across the globe. They also face dealing with the remnants of Qaddafi’s military forces, as well as the various armed groups that participated in the revolution.

All in all, this is a tall order for a country that has no experience with democracy or even formal, modern governance. While it is unproductive to dismiss the transitional government’s plans outright, its fragility must be recognized. Due to the dispersed nature of military and political power in the new Libya, the failure of the government would likely result in a new civil

Arguably, a new civil war in Libya would do more to jeopardize regional security than Qaddafi’s regime has in recent years.

war. In a worst case scenario, Libya could become embroiled in an intractable and prolonged conflict similar to the war that has ravaged Somalia since 1991.

Arguably, a new civil war in Libya would do more to jeopardize regional security than Qaddafi’s regime has in recent years. Moreover, such a conflict would undoubtedly result in more civilian killings, perhaps on a greater scale than during the fighting between Qaddafi loyalists and rebel forces.

It would be difficult for NATO to intervene again because they would be forced to pick sides in a conflict without any clear criteria for doing so.

In order to avoid further conflict, it is crucial that those NATO member states that intervened against Qaddafi take immediate measures to ensure a stable transition to democracy in Libya. This means working with the transitional government to create an effective means for power-sharing among Libyan factions and dealing with urgent issues such as the future of the military and the use of oil wealth. Doing so will certainly be difficult, but it is also necessary to protect the viability of the new Libya.

comment@thevarsity.ca

VARSITY COMMENT

monday, November 21, 2011

9

Not being afraid of failure

How our educational system keeps us cloistered from the real world

ALEX ROSS/THe VArsity

David Woolley VARSITY STAFF

What is the one thing you fear most in school?

A failing grade. But what is the one thing that the world’s greatest inventors, entrepreneurs, athletes, and superstars say is integral to their achievements in life? Failure. When it comes to business, sports, art, or life in general, failure is something to be embraced, yet our school system at all levels stigmatizes failure as the worst possible outcome.

Throughout your education, you are taught that a failing grade is something to be ashamed of. You have displayed that you are inept and unintelligent when it comes to the subject matter. If this were not bad enough, you are not given a chance to redo the assignment or course. You are stuck with that failing grade — forever pulling down your GPA. In other words, one failure causes permanent and disastrous consequences for the rest of your endeavours, while also undercutting your achievement in other areas. Under the current school system, that failing grade is a black mark on your academic record that cannot be expunged. Failure is then something to be avoided at all costs.

But this is completely the opposite in the real world. You can fail, sure, but your failure is not something you have to drag around with you. You can rewrite the bar,

your business can go bankrupt, you can lose a game, or not get a part in a play, but none of these things will affect the overall success of your life. You will always be able to pick up and move on from them.

Would it surprise you to learn that Henry Ford had two failed companies — the Detroit Automobile Company and the Henry Ford Company — before he finally founded the successful Ford Motor Company and revolutionized manufacturing?

Ford’s first job was as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company, owned by the very Edison who revolutionized daily life with his invention of the light bulb.

But prior to this, Edison developed a number of failed light bulb prototypes. He is rumoured to have said, “I have not failed 10,000 times, rather, I have found 10000 ways not to make a light bulb.” Whether or not these were his exact words, it is completely accurate. In real life, failures are something to be learned from

in order to achieve greater success.

It may seem odd to include as an example of failure someone who was a seven-time Mr. Olympia winner, a millionaire by the age of 30, a film star whose films grossed over a billion dollars in the 1980s alone, and was elected Governor of the most populous state in the U.S., yet, as Arnold Schwarzenegger has openly admitted, his entire life has been about failure.

Schwarzenegger’s training in order to become the world’s greatest bodybuilder required him to push his body to its limits. He would not stop until his body failed him and prevented the training from continuing. This idea has framed the rest of his life. In business ventures, acting, politics, or any other endeavour, Schwarzenegger embraces failure because he understands that without pursuing your breaking point, you will never be aware of just how much you can actually achieve.

Apple founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, was

You can rewrite the bar, your business can go bankrupt, you can lose a game, or not get a part in a play, but none of these things will affect the overall success of your life.

seen as one of the most innovative thinkers and business leaders in his field. However, few people remember that in 1985, Jobs was fired from Apple for his outlandish and expensive ideas. Upon leaving, he founded NeXT Computer, a company the average person may have never heard of. In 1986, Jobs bought the struggling company Pixar and turned it into the animated film giant it is today. It was not until 1996 that Jobs was brought back into Apple’s fold, but once it was done, he transformed the way we look at technology. None of this may have happened — the iPhone, Toy Story, iTunes — had it not been for Jobs’s initial failure and his insistence on pursuing new challenges.

By stigmatizing failure in schools, by presenting it as the absolute worst possible outcome, something to be ashamed of and worn as a mark of ineptitude for the rest of one’s academic life, our society has enforced the belief in most people that it is better not to try than to try and fail. Achievements are made only by those who refuse to accept this notion and view failure as an outcome almost more desirable than success — as something that holds invaluable lessons from which to learn.

The advancement of society is driven by these achievements, without which we would collapse. When schools enforce a fear of failure, it leads our society down the road to ruin.

Hopefully, we can all learn from our education system’s failure.

VARSITY FEATURES

10 monday, NOVEMBER 21, 2011

features@thevarsity.ca

Get a move-on this Movember

This month, grow big or go home (your facial hair, that is)

by Erene Stergiopoulos with ‘staches by Mushfiq Ul Huq

The Einstein

The Dalí

The Nietzsche

The Rollie Fingers

The Wyatt Earp

The General Ambrose Burnside

The Clark Gable

The Charlie Chaplin

The Super Mario

The Burt Reynolds

The Genghis Khan

For the dapper and unreasonably intelligent gentleman. These whiskers lend credibility to that physics thesis you’ve been working on — which, let’s face it, isn’t worth anything without sweet facial hair.

While often overlooked nowadays, Earp was a 19th-century saloon keeper with a penchant for making it big in gold mines. For an updated look, wear this classic ‘stache with grills and high-priced bling.

The Groucho Marx

If you’ve got greasepaint to spare, pay homage to comedian Groucho Marx with this vaudeville-inspired number.

But if you forget to pair it with round glasses, your friends will probably disown you.

Your style is impeccable, if a bit bizarre. This ‘stache is best worn with deep colours and rich textures. Think aubergine velvet blazer with the musk of 1000 leopards.

A pioneer in facial hair, Burnside was famous for his unique hirsute stylings (sideburns were named after this guy). If you happen to like cravats or highwaisted britches, the Burnside is definitely on your side.

Your look is subtle but distinctive. The obvious sartorial choice for a Mario ‘stache is overalls, but you can also explore your options with cowboy boots and a bolo tie.

Feeling saucy and selfindulgent? This classic upper lip ornament will give you the upper hand in any argument. Contrary to popular belief, it does not give its wearers immunity to syphilis.

You are as fetching as you are fascinating. Impress your friends with your innate Hollywood glamour, and pair it with a satin robe and cigars for a decadent at-home feel.

For the sexy but understated man. Sport this with a medieval minstrel costume for a post-modern take on the all-American moustache masterpiece.

Inspired by the Major League Baseball player of the same name, this handlebar mustache demands a fair bit of daily upkeep and, er, wax. Best worn with a baseball cap, or for a bolder look, try it with a zebra print onesie.

For the silent comedian, pair this ‘stache with a bowler hat, or you risk offending a lot of people.

Hanging out with kids and dogs is also a plus.

It’s no coincidence that Genghis Khan founded the largest contiguous empire in history. Sport these whiskers with an oversized sweater and combat boots for the perfect winter warrior look.

arts@thevarsity.ca

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

MONday, NOVEMBER 21, 2011

11

Living arts: psychic encounters

Bernarda Gospic/THe VArsity

DANIELLE KLEIN has her fortune read by a professional psychic and things get a little spooky…

“C

an you see? Does she have a scarf on her head?”

I peered in through the glass of the psychic’s door, genuinely expecting a combination of Professor Trelawney and Jafar from Aladdin; perhaps she would be donning a long, flowing orange skirt, or sporting gray hair with the unruliness of a recently electrocuted cartoon character. The exaggerated Hollywood figure that I conjured up in my mind did not, however, bear any resemblance to the disappointingly normal-looking woman who let us in.

Genuine curiosity and superstition prompted me and my friend to make an appointment with a psychic. When phoning the psychic I could barely contain myself asking whether or not she had been sitting by the phone, knowing in advance that I would call.

Astrology and tarot have always intrigued me, and shamefully, I receive my daily astrological forecast in my email and count one or two Virgo-themed Twitter accounts among my feed. On any given day, I can usually tell you whether or not the moon is in my sign.

My friend and I had done intensive Googling (page one only) to come up with questions to ask the psychic. The great minds of various psychic-themed message boards

advised us to ask open-ended questions to allow for wide-ranging answers. We wrote our questions by coming up with basic concepts that we would want to know about: career, finances, education, romance, and, for good measure, contact with deceased relatives.

With our questions scrawled on a cue card, we climbed the stairs to the psychic’s office, which was not draped in dark curtains and did not feature a prominently displayed crystal ball. Our psychic’s office was rather like any other office, except for some tarot cards that were tacked onto the wall. So far, we weren’t sensing any overwhelming supernatural energy or seeing the cliché trappings of a psychic, to our disappointment.

The psychic handed me a deck of thick, large tarot cards and asked me to shuffle them. I can’t emphasize the heaviness of these cards. I have never been a skilled card player, and even at my best, shuffling a deck of cards isn’t my strong suit (pardon the pun), which is why I have no explanation for my sudden decision to try to get fancy in shuffling these cards. My attempt at a bridge was sad, and the psychic watched my clumsy try at impressing her with an air of superior ambivalence.

After a painfully prolonged minute or so, I finally gave up, having not

even successfully moved one card, and sheepishly went about mixing up the cards using a more graceful, if unimpressive, strategy.

The psychic, unfazed, took the cards back, spreading them all out before me and having me pick five. I tried to let instinct guide me, though instinct coincidentally happened to lead my hands to cards distributed at fairly equal distances from one another from left to right.

The psychic then laid out the cards with four forming a rectangle and one overlapping the inward corners in the centre. Now I could ask my questions, and the answers, it seemed, were in the cards.

Shockingly, our Google research failed us as the psychic advised me on my first question that I was being too vague. So I altered, “Can you tell me about my future career?” to “What will my future career be?”

Presently, it turns out, I am not on the correct path. I need to learn more and take more courses. In two years (rather conveniently upon my graduation), I will figure it out — but the psychic didn’t answer my question, so I’ll be waiting until 2013 to have that information. I do know that I was “born to help others,” and thankfully I will “always be financially independent.”

The psychic was surprisingly therapeutic. Although she was of-

fering predictions for the future, she framed her fortune-telling in suggestions about the ways I am presently limiting myself. She did provide specific information. Looking me in the eye, she asserted, “You will meet your partner in the year 2014.” I involuntarily chuckled, but she plainly clarified, “It’s in the cards,” with a knowing smile.

By my final question, I was feeling confident and decided to go for a question in the realm of the supernatural; the psychic advertised that one of her specialties is communication with the dead. I asked about a dead relative of mine and if I could possibly communicate with them.

She confidently responded, after reading the array of cards, “She is very close by to you at all times, and she hears your thoughts.”

By now, I was spooked. The psychic’s close reading of the tarot cards was eerily accurate as she described my insecurities and preoccupations.

Her pragmatic style of interpretation and her confidence as she relayed the contents of my future to me were disarming and hair-raising.

The reading was very brief, and the speed at which she interpreted the cards was simultaneously impressive and frustrating. I wanted to stop her and ask her to slow down and explain her thought process to me. How does the card of “swift-

ness” in combination with the card of “temperance” mean that I will always be financially independent?

But she was very clear when she was done answering a question, and she was not going to say anything further.

My brief, bizarre glimpse into the paranormal psychic trade ended abruptly after my final question. At the end of my reading, she eerily wished me “Good luck,” managing to sound both ominous and encouraging.

For skeptics and for the superstitious alike, visiting the psychic is at least thrilling. The accuracy of my nondescript psychic’s predictions for my future will be seen in two years if I find my career, or in three years, if I happen to fall madly in love. But for the present, she offered sound advice and exact descriptions that left me with fortune-telling fever.

I may not have met the eccentric, musky medium of my imagination, but the experience was nonetheless supernatural. With my future roughly scheduled and my ability to communicate with the dead confirmed, I left the psychic’s office perplexed, curious, and relieved that I was not alerted to my imminent death or inevitable failure in life. I can at least consider that much a victory for the future (and present) me.

12

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

MONday, NOVEMBER 21, 2011

arts@thevarsity.ca

No strings attached The Muppets are back!

Brandon Bastaldo VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Fuzzy memories of crowding around a monstrous 1990smodel, rear-projection, wood-panelled TV at some family gathering in my childhood are probably the first things that come to mind when I think of the Muppets.

Yeah, it was Christmas and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) was set on mindless repeat mode on some station that had already had its way with A Christmas Story (1983) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966). Growing up and watching any of the Muppets movies that were on TV, I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of confusion; I had no idea why these funny-looking creatures

were reenacting a very mature Charles Dickens’ story, nor did I pick up on the fact that they were all subversively poking fun at how ludicrous the entire thing was. Fast-forward nearly 20 years, and it is the exploitation of this underlying, self-reflexive humour that makes The Muppets so funny.

Written by funny buddies Jason Segel and Nick Stoller, The Muppets tells the story of Gary (Jason Segel) and his Muppet-born brother Walter (Peter Linz) who have grow up idolizing the Muppets. When Walter, Gary, and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) learn of an evil oil Tycoon’s plan to demolish the Muppets’ old studio, they try to rally the help of the now-defunct Muppet acting troupe in order to save their beloved, old stomping grounds.

I won’t lie: I’m a pretty big fan of Jason Segel, and hearing that his name was even attached to this project, I was both excited and frightened. While he has proven himself to be comedically consistent, taking on this franchise is indeed a daunting task, especially because the “Muppets-musthustle-to-save-the-day” story is an old and worn out one. But what took me by surprise was how aware director James Bobin, Segel, and the other contributors to the film were of this as well. This Muppets movie is not

trying to take itself seriously and instead provides a neat meta-commentary on the “Muppetverse.” Walter is a Muppet who is obsessed with Muppets in a film that is always playfully breaking the fourth wall and includes the audience in a way that doesn’t confuse its sense of humour.

This is why seeing characters speak straight into the camera and say that they need to include a montage to take up time, or watching the troupe decide to “travel by map” (a function in Kermit’s dusty Rolls Royce that allows them to move across continents in mere seconds as a red line on a map), it compels the viewer to step back and recognize that this film isn’t really taking itself seriously at all. Suddenly, The Muppets are not so strange anymore.

Watching The Muppets is like watching a PG-rated frat pack comedy, but the jokes about booze, weed, and endless references to both male and female genitalia are replaced with witty musical inserts and sassy, furry, little creatures. The Muppets is well worth seeing, if not for its endless line of well-timed celebrity cameos, then definitely because it reminds us that in a family entertainment industry ruled by Pixar animated features, these fuzzy little guys still have something new to offer.

album reviews Metals

Land & Sea

Omma Cobba

by Feist

by Sarah Slean

by Omma Cobba

After four long years, Feist has a new album out and I’ll give you the bad news first: there is no “Mushaboom,” no “1234,” and there’s not even the trendier, hidden, poppy tracks like “Secret Heart” or “Inside and Out.” Metals is completely new territory for Leslie Feist. As an artist, she is — wait for it — evolving.

As disappointing for junkies of indie pop singles as this might be, her development in musical style is better than the alternative; Weezer comes to mind in its post-Pinkerton stylistic Neverland of unchanging themes and power chords. So, she has abandoned indie pop, land of counting numbers and, er, mushabooming for a very moving and emotional album.

The mood of each song evokes loneliness and heartbreak, and there is also this earthy naturalistic vibe present as well. This is clearly a work of maturity.

The good news in all of this is that regardless of the somber moodiness, after a first listen, you might find yourself singing along.

—Jakob Tanner

There are probably a number of people who will listen to Sarah Slean’s new double album, Land & Sea, and say, “My, how much she’s matured.” Which is bullshit. Maturity in music is almost always synonymous with boring. And boring personifies the second half of her latest effort. Sea is crap. There are strings! They sweep! And, hold on to your butts, they swoop. If you like “Moon River,” then the Sea side might be for you. But if you were born in the ‘80s or ‘90s, you probably expect your music to be, what’s the word, interesting. Land is far more lively and, if taken on its own, actually constitutes a good album despite the heinous misstep that is “Everybody’s on TV.” But even then there’s a softness to it, a lack of edge. It’s a little bit like being mauled by a plush tiger.

Sure it’s a tiger, and that’s cool, but it’s soft and squishy to the extent that even a song like “Amen,” the album’s best, sounds a little fake. In general, the Land half of the is solid. It’s just that if you like to bleed alongside your music, this is not for you.

—Ryan Hanney

Omma Cobba’s self-titled debut is so blurry and hazy you can barely read the track listing on the back cover. Working between the vague boundaries of blues, folk, and early rock, the Halifax-born Toronto-based band claims to have recorded most of its album in an RV while travelling across Europe. True or not, the reverb-drenched production and trails of echoing vocals do effortlessly evoke the mysteries of the open road.

Most songs stick to the thump of a single drum accompanied by a maracca or tambourine, a sparse bass line rendered as a throb, and a few insistent guitar chords. Singer Dan Miller’s vocals provide variety, ranging from an effortless drawl on “Some People Say You’re No Good” to perfect wordless harmonies on “Policeman.”

Omma Cobba channel half-remembered twangs and echoes into something filled with sadness and wonder, evoking the morose ballads of Japanese psychedelic group Les Rallizes Dénudés. The result is low-key, relaxed, and shockingly good.

—Simon Frank

arts@thevarsity.ca

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

MONday, NOVEMBER 21, 2011

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Freshly pressed BRIGIT KATZ sits down with the director of the ROM’s Institute of Contemporary Culture to talk about their latest exhibit: David Hockney’s “Fresh Flowers”

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n unusual scene greets visitors of the ROM’s “Fresh Flowers” exhibit, a display featuring a collection of drawings by renowned artist David Hockney. A silent film projected onto the wall across from the gallery entrance shows Hockney sitting on a balcony in Paris, working on a sketch of the Eiffel Tower. But there is no stylus or sketchbook in sight. Instead, Hockney uses his thumb to render a soft, hazy outline of the Tower on his latest canvas of choice: Apple’s iPad. In addition to this short film, “Fresh Flowers” features around 100 of Hockney’s iPad drawings. They are displayed on 25 iPads mounted to the walls of the gallery space, while 20 iPods display a large collection of works that Hockney drew on his iPhone. The exhibit also includes several large-scale animated projections of the iPad drawings, as well as a slideshow with over 150 additional images.

According to Francisco Alvarez, managing director of the ROM’s Institute for Contemporary Culture, the museum decided to present the exhibit “as an opportunity to explore how a major artist has used new technologies.”

While Hockney’s iPad drawings are certainly innovative, they also represent a natural phase in the evolution of his work. The 74-year-old artist has toyed with popular technologies throughout his career, including Polaroid cameras, computer programs, and even the exterior of a BMW. Hockney’s willingness to experiment with unconventional media has made him a pillar of the pop art movement and has contributed to his reputation as one of the most influential artists of the 21st century.

Hockney began working with Apple products in 2008, when he downloaded a simple painting application called Brushes onto his iPhone. From the comfort of his home in the English countryside, Hockney sketched the vases of flowers that his partner placed on their windowsill each morning, using only his thumb and the Brushes app. Hockney soon began to draw other household objects and then expanded his digital repertoire to include portraits and landscapes. He quickly snatched up the iPad when it was released in 2010, using the larger screen (and eventually a stylus) to hone his technique and enhance the complexity of his drawings.

“The portability of [the device] and the luminosity of the screen are qualities that he really likes about this particular medium,” Alvarez notes. “[In addition to] the fact that he can draw very quickly, and there’s no clean up or mess.”

Soon after he started drawing flowers on his iPhone, Hockney began emailing his sketches

like free stuff? writeforarts @thevarsity.ca

to several of his closest friends, including the curator and cultural historian Charlie Scheips, who organized exhibitions of Hockney’s work in London and Paris before bringing the display to Toronto.

Hockney’s use of the iPad has provided an opportunity for museums to create an exhibition as futuristic as the medium itself. The “Fresh Flowers” exhibit at the ROM is WiFi accessible, allowing Hockney to update the display by emailing new drawings directly to the devices in the gallery. But perhaps the most exciting aspect of the exhibit is the collection of 20 drawings that feature playback animations which show the works being drawn from start to finish.

“What’s really interesting about [the playback feature] is entering David Hockney’s mind,” Alvarez says. “It’s not often that you get to observe an artist at work and this is a way of doing that. [The playback] is not exactly in real time because it’s sped up, but you see where his eye is going, what parts of the drawing are most interesting to him … You see his different approaches [to drawing].”

Although Hockney’s use of the iPad has attracted a considerable amount of attention, according to Alvarez, his works actually coincide with a broader trend that sees artists gravitating towards technological media.

“David Hockney’s not the first artist to use the iPad or even the Brushes application,” Alvarez explains. “A lot of artists are actually doing it. The thing is, he’s a big brand name, in a sense, so he gets to be the most prominent figure amongst a whole group of people who are doing both traditional and experimental things with the iPad.” It is too soon to tell whether this trend will take off and radically change the world of art as we know it. At this point, even Hockney reportedly views his iPad drawings as preparatory sketches as opposed to finished pieces with lucrative potential. But Alvarez asserts they are significant works nonetheless, which illuminate the artist’s ability to both employ and elevate the everyday objects of popular consumption. “[The iPad] allows [Hockney] to do very quick notes that he can later use to prepare his more important works, which I think are paintings,” he says. “But [his drawings] form a nice body of work in and of themselves as well, and they really illustrate how an artist can take a product which was probably intended to be more of a toy, or a time-waster … and really turn it into something that has a lot more value than the inventor ever might have imagined.”

Francisco Alvarez brings David Hockney’s Fresh Flowers Exhibit to the ROM. Bernarda Gospic/THe VArsity

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VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

MONday, NOVEMBER 21, 2011

arts@thevarsity.ca

In fair Verona...

The National Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet makes a stunning premiere Sophia Costomiris VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Vic’s 139th annual comedic production is a blast Nick Gergesha VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

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COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA

Showing their bobs

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The world premiere of the National Ballet of Canada’s Romeo and Juliet manages to be both elegant and lively. Adapted from Shakespeare’s tragedy with Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s dramatically nuanced score, the preformance features new choreography by Alexei Ratmansky, a revamp of the classic ballet intended to celebrate NBC’s 60th anniversary. The production is incredibly rich in detail, from the dancers’ costumes and the set design to Ratmansky’s modern, emotive choreography.

The premiere features an incredibly elaborate and beautiful set, which seems to take inspiration from the aesthetic of Zeffirelli’s 1968 film. Sparse, modern sets have their place, but NBC’s production is suitably lush in Renaissance-style detail. Lighting manages to imitate the Verona sun, and the dancers swirl about in complex, historically accurate costumes, which makes their skilled execution of the detailed, expressive choreography all the more impressive.

As danced by Elena Lobsanova, Juliet is, rightly, the centerpiece of the production.

The ballet adheres to Shakespeare’s conception of Juliet as a 14-year-old girl. Lobsanova’s Juliet is a nimble and delicate girl, capable of switching from impishness to impassioned romance at any moment. Lobsanova’s chemistry with Guillaume Côté (Romeo) is undeniable, and their dances together are incredibly expressive. At one point, the barefoot dancer who plays Friar Lawrence has trouble performing the marriage ceremony because his two charges are too busy literally falling into each other’s arms.

Though plot necessitates that the ballet end as a tragedy, Ratmansky’s creative choreography provides a certain levity. Ratmansky has Romeo and his buddies horse around: they chase girls and play swordfight. This combination of physical comedy with classical dance is incredibly successful, as Piotr Stanczyk’s dashing, ribald Mercutio nearly steals the show. Even though the audience knows how the story will end, the dancers are successful in conveying a sense of the present, and the feeling of suspense is rare and welcome in the retelling of a familiar story. By the time Juliet “sheaths” her dagger at the end of the ballet, some audience members were quietly sniffing.

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Copy editor’s challenge Fill in the blanks below to WIN (our admiration) (practises/practices) 1) The basketball team ______

Sketch comedy is a curious enterprise. Each vignette provides a small enough template for actors to expand upon a cleverly written joke or scenario but is simultaneously long enough for a weaker idea to fall flat. This is apparent in even the most well known sketch comedy programs; classics like Saturday Night Live and the Second City shows garner laughs and glares in equal amounts. The trick to these programs rests in having the good rise above the bad, and this, I would argue, makes for an enjoyable performance.

Now entering its 139th year, Victoria University’s annual “The Bob” opened this past Thursday on a positive note. Directors Jake Howell and Arathana Bowes opened

the show by encouraging viewers to “show us your Bobs,” a foreshadowing of the punnery that would envelop much of the program.

The show got it right in sketches like “The Edible Woman” and “Willie Shakes’ Bar and Grill.” The latter’s Shakespearian-themed restaurant proved comedic gold, with Nick Duranleau channeling Steve Martin as a waiter who’s had to tell patrons about the “Midsummer Night’s Cream” and “roasted rack of Hamlet” a few too many times. The former, with its gynecological fixations and Freudian bite (the “downstairs crumb catcher” or “hairy basket” housing an unwelcome guest), struck a desirable balance between staging, timing, and pop-cultural mining. It also managed to incorporate a certain Canadian author and Bob alumnus while remaining tastefully offen-

sive, which unfortunately can’t be said about the whole show.

This isn’t to say that certain topics are automatically taboo; it’s just that prolonging the focus can churn out groans. The show was not without its share of shifty moments; a sketch about Jesus Christ having a meal with his caricatured Jewish parents and a drawn out section on a self-destructive Taylor Swift jumping to mind. Similar sequences (and there were a few) could have benefitted from trimming, as their central conceit could not sustain an entire sketch.

However, for every stumble Howell, Bowes, and their cast encountered, they took steps to correct themselves with good lighting, good staging, and professionalism.

2011 finds an uneven pair of Bobs that ultimately makes for an enjoyable performance.

in the gym (everyday/every day) .

2) They wore their (everyday/every day) clothes to the

(practises/practices)

last

night.

copy@thevarsity.ca Bernarda Gospic/THe VArsity

science@thevarsity.ca

VARSITY SCIENCE

monday, november 21, 2011

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Abnormal sexual escapades

YASMIN SATTARZADEH takes a look at incest, one of the oldest and most controversial sexual topics

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here is one word that is almost always linked with the urge to run and hide: incest. But what does incest entail and why do some people engage in interfamilial relationships? The origin of incestuous behavior and its ongoing practice remains a puzzle; its beginning is ancient and has been touched on in many religious texts around the world. It doesn’t help that talks about incest, especially in the West, have been tabooed and avoided.

But breaking free from these norms, incest can be discussed objectively. For starters, what is incest? Incest, or consanguineous unions, describes sexual relationships between individuals with at least one common close relative. In legal terminology, incest often includes unions between nonbiological and biological relatives. According to a 1995 study by Maddock and Larson, sibling-to-sibling unions appear to be the most common form of consanguineous, or common ancestral, mating. This may still be the case today, but as far as the majority of Western society is concerned, individuals who engage in incest are usually considered sex offenders. Perhaps the lack of public and consensual incestuous relationships leads many people to conclude that all incestuous relationships are forced. So, at least in North America, people inevitably believe that incest is a result of sexual offense or is an offense itself.

If not out of force, or simple malevolent wrongdoing, incest may be a symptom of neurological deficit. Five Torontonian researchers published a 1998 article in the journal Annals of Sex Research containing

various studies that found a relationship between brain defects and unusual sexual behaviour. At that time, “the most interesting and best controlled study to date” was a blind study which found that 22 per cent of 86 patients with unusual sexual tendencies demonstrated sexual irregularities associated with specific patterns found in the temporal lobes of the brain. It found that from the sample size of 91 males, 92 per cent of incestuous partners were female and most often, the partner was their biological daughter.

In addition, 25 per cent of the incestuous individuals were pedophiles — a particular pattern of brain pathology was found in the left temporal frontal areas of the pedophilic brain.

Like pedophilic offenders, people who ini-

tiate incest have at times been referred to in the literature as “incest offenders.” Researchers like Lea Studer and A. Scott Aylwin wonder whether this category should exist on its own. Incest offenders, a subtyping of sexual offenders, seem to have unique statistics that describe them.

Like other sexual offenders, incestuous ones seem to have a particular track record that sets them apart.

As of now, there isn’t enough information to precisely explain why some people are inclined to partake in incest. It would be interesting to somehow incorporate the concept of “incest avoidance” into the context of research, howJenise chen/THe VArsity ever. There is undoubtedly an anti-incest attitude that is prevalent in Western society — if you’ve been outside or on the Internet, it’s an idea that finds its

way into common insults and is the butt of many jokes. This is pure conjecture, but the sheer resistance to the idea makes you wonder whether or not there are more people out there that have these desires or wishes. But just like with the treatment of other socially defiant behaviours, incest may be something that we train each other to suppress or nip in the bud.

Considering all our norms and values and the studies that show that incest is linked with mental illness, a person may seem a bit off-the-wall to suggest that incestuous thoughts are be a natural part of any family’s relations. But the infamous psychoanalyst Carl Jung explored the incestuous fantasies in families in his book, Psychology of the Unconscious. In it, Jung describes this phenomenon as “kinship libido,” which is necessary in achieving good experiences in early life. “Incest fueled desire” is said to be a part of normal human love that healthy families cannot do without.

On the other hand, this idea, along with the Freudian theory of the Oedipus complex, is contradicted by the Westermarck effect. According to Finnish anthropologist Edward Westermarck, young children raised in close proximity do not sexually imprint on each other or feel any attraction.

It seems that we can generally draw a line between a lingering thought about a stepbrother and actually acting on desires, so what does it take to break that barrier? Maybe you either can or you can’t. Maybe the barrier is best if it is never broken. Discussion about the topic is minimal and cultural resistance, for now, is unyielding.

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monday, november 21, 2011

VARSITY SCIENCE

science@thevarsity.ca

Talking with Tafarodi Psychology department’s Romin Tafarodi knows a thing or two about revolutionizing education Bianca Lemus Lavarreda SCIENCE EDITOR

Professor Tafarodi has been at U of T since 1996, and since then, he has been infamous for his adoption of a teaching style that’s open and that students can relate to. The Varsity got a chance to pick his brain and learn about his interests and thoughts concerning the roles of students and educators in postsecondary education.

Don’t be pressured into acquiescence and into the false consciousness that a field is a fixed entityand that’s all it could be for you as a graduate student... Part of what any student can contribute to a field is changing it, changing how it defines itself.

The Varsity: You study self-consciousness as “cultured” subjectivity. Could you elaborate on that?

Romin Tafarodi: [W]e have a constantly evolving kind of subjectivity, and our cultural practices, our cultural institutions, and our discourses are all playing into how our subjectivity and our selves are being formed and reformed historically. So, in this alternative casting, the self is a historical object, it’s something that comes to be, [and] it reflects the cultural world in which it grows… [What] we’re doing as scientists is not so much uncovering some truth that’s out there independent of us but in studying and talking about who we are; we’re refashioning ourselves. We’re changing, reflexively changing who we are and the kinds of experience that define our subjectivity.

TV: From the perspective of an educator, do you have any advice or life lessons you’ve learned for students who want to go to grad school for psychology?

RT: Don’t be pressured into acquiescence and into the [false notion] that a field is a fixed entity and that’s all it could be for you as a graduate student. Part of what any student can contribute to a field is changing it, changing how it defines itself.

TV: It’s hard to do that when you just measure them by their grades. How can you be innovative if you take a chance and do something, but you know you’re not going to do well?

RT: I’ve been very influenced by a number of educators who have very progressive ideas about education, what it could or shouldn’t be. Paulo Freire was a Brazilian educator who was a revolutionary educator and a Marxist and who wrote a wonderful book called Pedagogy of the Oppressed, where he talked about how most effectively

TV: What’s the most useful lesson that you’ve learned from a teaching perspective?

RT: I think that one of the most important things I’ve learned is how essential it is to find myself through others — to find myself through the voices and the emotions of students and to allow them to find themselves through mine.

So once again, there’s that mutuality that educators like Freire talked about: the fact that, really, in the best context, students are teachers, and students and instructors are both teachers and students at the same time… [This] goes back to Platonic teaching and to Socratic teaching: [Students learn that] within their own thinking they came to a particular vision or understanding or awareness that was facilitated by the classroom experience by the instructor but wasn’t solely determined by the instructor. That’s really essential to me and it’s what I try to do in classrooms. It’s getting harder because classrooms are getting bigger. It’s hard to have one-on-one interaction when you have 300 students; [that] kind of teaching is popular, you can understand, for bureaucratic reasons because it’s very efficient…

Wyatt Clough/THe VArsity

TV: That’s what every prominent psychologist has ever done… They come and they reformat what it used to be.

RT: Now you see that that actually interlocks with questions about how we educate, so, a question that rises out of that is, “How do we promote in students that kind of alternative understanding?”

have to be like Albert Einstein to do anything.

RT: The tragedy of that is that the very people who are espousing that point of view here are the most advantaged in society… So when we see it at this level, it’s particularly troubling for someone like me. Remember that university is supposed to be one of the seats of progressivism, if not the paramount one.

The pressing question that should be asked in that context is “why”? ... If each individual student looks at their own unhappiness, their own troubles, and says “Okay, this is about me, this is about me trying to adapt to my world. Let me go off in private and try to deal with this — my depression, my anxiety, my insecurity, my shame, whatever it is.” … A whole bunch of different atoms all over the place, dealing with things in their own way and misperceiving their problems as purely private and personal, is not going to lead to any collective kind of efforts for structural change.

The way it happens is utilizing the space of the university as a public sphere for dialogue between people…

The point is that when you come together and you address your problems within any kind of public sphere, there’s the possibility for political action, for change.

to educate those people who are in the least advantaged positions in society… I try to move away from what Freire called this “banking” approach to education, where you have this divide between teacher and student, and you have an authoritative teacher that’s depositing knowledge in the heads of students… [T]he heart of critical

theory and critical thought in general … means to try to penetrate through the illusion that things are the way they are because they couldn’t be otherwise — to penetrate through that and to recognize that things are the way they are because of historical processes … [There are] many of us who feel that university can do more than

[just help] students adjust to a world as it is; more importantly, it’s about providing students with tools and inspiration to change that world into something better.

I think it’s more hopeful to think that you can actually change the world, to create new places to be.

TV: A lot of people think that that’s not possible. They think that they

CONTINUED ON P17

VARSITY SCIENCE

A new drug gives hope to patients suffering from a common heart condition Ian Chan VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

A landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), a common and potentially life-threatening heart condition, can benefit from a new drug that can better manage the disorder: rivaroxaban.

The international study was conducted by researchers at Duke University and the University of Edinburgh and involved 14,264 patients with AF worldwide. This well-designed study found that rivoroxaban was as effective as warfarin at preventing stroke or blood clots but came with fewer side effects related to bleeding.

AF is the most common irregular heartbeat disorder, affecting about 250,000 Canadians. A normal heart pumps blood regularly throughout the body through coordinated contractions. However, in patients with AF, the contraction occurs chaotically and rapidly in the atria or the upper chambers CONTINUED FROM P16 I would argue that it’s probably the most debased form of teaching that we can pursue as a university… The best kind is when you have 10 people arranged in a circle, one of them happens to be an instructor and they’re involved in a dialogue about things they’ve found [valid] of concern.

That’s getting hard to do. We have 65,000 students; we have an increasingly overburdened faculty trying to teach them and fewer spaces to teach them in than ever before and less time to do it. It’s getting hard to uphold the kind of teaching that I think is valuable, that many people have thought valuable for many centrues. Those are real challenges faced by the university.

TV: Study designs and other technicalities aside, do you have any burning questions?

RT: My burning question, one that I think about a lot, is where we’re heading. What are we becoming? Part of the reason that I started teaching the media course was in fact a fascination with that question. The recognition that the kinds of information-communication technologies that we’re seeing popularized today and becoming so much a part of social and private life may be changing the way we experience ourselves So, the pressing question would be where are we going? Where are we headed? How is the experience that we have of being human, of thinking and being aware of ourselves ­ — how is that going to be different in 100 years? I think that’s something that we need to be thinking about now because the ways in which it becomes different, the ways in which it evolves, will be determined in large part by what we’re doing now. The way of life that we’re supporting or not supporting now will have a bearing on what we become. Our responsibility as a forward-looking society is to try to steer that kind of development as best we can. For example,

of the heart. This can lead to blood being pooled in the heart, forming clots that can later travel to other parts of the body. When this phenomenon occurs in the brain, it often leads to a stroke. The risk of a stroke is four to six times higher in patients with AF. The disorder can affect adults of any age; however, the risk is far higher past the age of 40. By age 60, one third of all strokes are caused by AF. Warfarin has been the standard treatment for patients with AF for decades. It is an anticoagulant that can treat the condition, but it also leads to an elevated risk of bleeding and requires more frequent monitoring through blood testing and dose adjustments. In addition, it frequently interacts with other medication and can be affected by diet. In fact, one third of all patients who are eligible for warfarin treatments do not take it because they are unable to cope with the frequent monitoring and controlled diet. It is hoped that the results of this new study can offer an alternative treatment for these patients.

Rivaroxaban can provide a more consistent dose of anticoagulant.

Patients with prescriptions can take a daily oral dose without having to worry about the complicated and rigorous management associated with warafin. The results of the study show that bleeding within the skull or bleeding leading to death in patients taking rivaroxaban was less than in those taking warfarin. Patients on this new drug did, however, have higher rates of transfusions and hemoglobin/hematocrit drop versus patients on warfarin.

News of the drug’s effects is particularly timely given that AF predominantly affects the elderly and that this age group is expected to increase substantially over the next decades in developed countries.

All things considered, rivaroxaban represents a promising alternative to the standard treatment. While the hope is that it will improve the quality of life for patients with AF, there need to be more studies to validate its safety and efficacy.

media literacy is not just about defending yourself against advertisements or learning the underlying mechanics of politics or economics

of how media institutions run. Media literacy is also about concern for the future, concern about how we can intelligently and reason-

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High quality, hand-picked selection. major & minor musical genres. reconditioned audio equipment.

3 minutes S of College & St.George, copy@thevarsity.ca 18 baldwin. 416.979.2822 aroUnd aGaIn reCordS

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JOBS BUZZDATA WANTS YOU! buzzdata is looking for dataloving students to act as Campus ambassadors. you are: • A data enthusiast who is passionate about everything data: visualization, trends, mining, and collaboration.

• Entrepreneurial, creative, and outgoing.

• Studying (or faculty) in a datarelated field; eg. computer science, mathematics; or a marketing/ communications field eg. journalism, bba. does this sound like you? email anthony@buzzdata.com for more info.

MENTORS NEEDED! to guide one-on-one creative 5-8 graders to complete exciting selfchosen projects meeting one hour weekly for 10-12 weeks. Weekend orientation at oISe/UT. ConTaCTS: LISa maLoney (905882-5482) or primementors.oise@ utoronto.ca

VARSITY CLASSIFIEDS Cost $12.00 for twenty-five words. $0.25 for each additional word. Rates include one line of bold type for the ad header. No copy changes after submission. Submit ads by email, mail or phone. Ads must be submitted at least four days prior to publication. Varsity Classifieds, 21 Sussex Ave, Suite #306, Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6. Call 416-946-7604 or email ads@thevarsity.ca.

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JOBS BUZZDATA WANTS YOU! buzzdata is looking for dataloving students to act as Campus ambassadors. you are: • A data enthusiast who is passionate about everything data: visualization, trends, mining, and collaboration.

• Entrepreneurial, creative, and outgoing.

• Studying (or faculty) in a datarelated field; eg. computer science, mathematics; or a marketing/ communications field eg. journalism, bba. does this sound like you? email anthony@buzzdata.com for more info.

MENTORS NEEDED! to guide one-on-one creative 5-8 graders to complete exciting selfchosen projects meeting one hour weekly for 10-12 weeks. Weekend orientation at oISe/UT. ConTaCTS: LISa maLoney (905882-5482) or primementors.oise@ utoronto.ca

VARSITY CLASSIFIEDS Cost $12.00 for twenty-five words. $0.25 for each additional word. Rates include one line of bold type for the ad header. No copy changes after submission. Submit ads by email, mail or phone. Ads must be submitted at least four days prior to publication. Varsity Classifieds, 21 Sussex Ave, Suite #306, Toronto, ON, M5S 1J6. Call 416-946-7604 or email ads@thevarsity.ca.

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Monday, November 21, 2011

VARSITY SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

Varsity Blues … Quidditch?

The Harry Potter sport may have a place at the intercollegiate level

y sit VAr T He G/ ON

A University of Toronto sports team spent the last weekend of October competing against teams from across the country, vying to be crowned Canada’s best. But unlike their fieldhockey or soccer counterparts, the U of T Nifflers aren’t an official Varsity Blues team, and their chosen activity, Quidditch, isn’t an official intercollegiate sport.

U of T finished last at the inaugural Canadian Quidditch Cup, hosted by Carleton University in Ottawa. “[It] sucks, because I feel like if we could get points on our spirit and enthusiasm, we would definitely come in first place,” said Rachel McCann, fourthyear chemical engineering student and this year’s team captain.

The Nifflers started with a 0–90 loss to the University of Ottawa. Ottawa won in aggressive fashion, striking Toronto’s chasers with heavy offensive pressure.

Toronto scored their first points of the tournament against McGill, the nation’s top-ranked Quidditch team.

Despite losing 10–270 in the first game and then 30–180 in the second, McCann recalls chanting with her teammates, “We scored a goal! We scored a goal!” against the stalwart McGill team.

Inspired by the success of McGill, U of T is beginning to implement similar game strategies. “McGill keeps their beaters back near the hoops, and they always have bludgers (dodgeballs); so if anyone comes close to their hoops, they get hit,” explained McCann. “They’re like a defensive wall and it works very well.”

The Nifflers won their last game against Ryerson in overtime with a final score of 140–90.

Despite propping up the standings, U of T walked away with the “Most Attractive Team Award,” first-year student Susan Gordon gleefully explained.

Toronto came agonizingly close to ranking seventh in the Canadian Cup. The win against Ryerson was no surprise to McCann who said, “[Ryerson is] quite small so we usually beat them.”

“It’s kind of sad,” whispered McCann, giggling a little.

Quidditch is a fast-growing sport at U of T. “The team quadrupled in size from last year,” noted McCann, with over 200 signatures on Clubs Day, 80 try-outs, and 50 members for what is technically only a campus club.

Despite the lack of official intercollegiate status, the Nifflers’ main competitive opponents are teams from other universities. Beyond the Canada Quidditch Cup, U of T nor-

IND AZ

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

BEL

Lia Kim

mally competes at the Quidditch World Cup, a competition organized by the International Quidditch Association. U of T is ranked 77th by the IQA, a magical non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the sport of Quidditch.

Given the team’s growth, the world of intercollegiate sports could one day welcome Quidditch to the fold.

Only a gifted divination professor could tell you for sure.

Quidditch is as physically demanding as many other “regular” sports. The best players are fierce and graceful. “[When] you think [of] Quidditch, you think of Harry Potter nerds, and you think it’s going to be a dainty little sport,” McCann pointed out. “Every single person would be shocked [at] how aggressive it is.”

In “Muggle” Quidditch, chasers try to shoot the quaffle (a volleyball) through their opponent’s hoops, which are defended by keepers. Meanwhile beaters try to slow down the offense with bludgers, and

seekers go after the (human) snitch.

Players make up for their lack of flying ability by dutifully carrying their broomsticks between their legs.

Quidditch is also a spectators’ treat.

Theatrics abound, with the golden snitch’s capture ending the match in a dramatic flourish, and scoring the team a final 30 points. The “snitch” has a sock and ball hanging from his or her waist, and is typically played by a cross-country runner. During the Ryerson game, the snitch took off in a car forcing the seekers to jog behind for part of the way.

Its roots in fantasy aside, Quidditch has the same athletic integrity as other interuniversity sports. “I always say you don’t have to know a lot about Harry Potter to play Quidditch,” said McCann, who admits that she’s no Harry Potter connoisseur.

“If [people] actually played and got hit, they’d know [Quidditch] isn’t a joke,” Gordon noted, listing the catalogue of injuries the team sustained in Ottawa. One player acquired a

bruised eye from a broomstick incident, while another had a fat lip after being hit in the face with a bludger.

There is no snickering at the idea of Quidditch as an intercollegiate sport, even from those in the Blues management. “I don’t want to validate whether or not a sport is a sport based on whether it’s Varsity,” said Beth Ali, Director of High-Performance and Intercollegiate Sport, her eyes sparkling with warm familiarity for Harry Potter. “I want to validate a sport as a sport based on whether it’s physically active, if the participants enjoy it, if there’s really good leadership, [and] if people are coming together in life-long activity.”

Ali recalls watching the Quidditch team practice on the backfield of Trinity College.

“They were in the rain and cold,” Ali said. “Tell me that’s not passion.”

Ali is cautious about the prospects of Quidditch at an intercollegiate level. “It’s a careful process to make sure that there is truly the capacity [for a sport to become intercollegiate],” she said. “There has to be a process, because resources are involved, and U of T is a very big place, with lots of varied interests.”

For their part, the Nifflers are content to remain a free-spirited mélange of students for now; the players have no dreams of Varsity Blues status. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, what college you’re in, what year you’re in, your race, your religion, [or] how old you are,” McCann said. “We’re all from U of T and we’re here to have fun.”

The Dumbledore’s Army at Victoria College concurs. “The brilliant thing about Quidditch is that it truly is a sport for all,” said Samantha Summers, President of the DA. “It combines traditional elements of athletics with literature and the virtues championed in the Harry Potter series. The result is a sport which encourages competition and personal growth, both on and off the pitch, while focusing strongly on building positive relationships between players rather than animosity.”

With the good feelings, and despite the casual atmosphere, Quidditch may eventually have enough of a following to meet the criteria that Ali outlines for intercollegiate teams: “officiating, coaching, player development, facilities, [and] financial resources to operate the program.”

Don’t be surprised then, if you open up The Varsity to see the U of T Nifflers with an OUA or CIS banner, and a few bruises to match.

How does a sport become intercollegiate?

Sports teams must start as clubs, before attaining Varsity status and then competing in OUA and CIS programs. According to Beth Ali, there is a “process by which you apply to become an OUA program, which starts with 10 athletic directors signing an intent to enter for a specific sport. And if there are 10 universities and directors that say they want a sport to become OUA [level], then they go

into a review process.” CIS-status requires another set of processes.

There are three levels of sports in the OUA sports mode: “market-driven, high-performance, [and] varsity clubs (competitive clubs).” There are also regulations that come into play when a sports team gains Varsity status, for example “course load requirements [and] drug education requirements.”

VARSITY SPORTS

sports@thevarsity.ca

monday, November 21, 2011

19

To rugby or not to rugby? BLUES We talk to women’s rugby player Hannah Ehrehardt for the

BY THE

latest in our End Game series SPORTS EDITOR

Hannah Ehrehardt is used to being underappreciated. The aspiring gym teacher and Varsity Blues women’s rugby player knows what it feels like to not to get the recognition her efforts deserve.

“Phys-Ed is one of the hardest things to teach, just in terms of classmanagement. And playing on a team that is very underappreciated is very hard too, emotionally,” Ehrehardt admits.

“When you’re putting your heart and soul into something and you’re not getting much in return, then no matter what you’re doing, it’s going to be difficult.”

The 2009 OUA All-Star didn’t even intend to be a rugby player when she joined U of T. “I ran track here at U of T in my first year, and I wasn’t really serious about rugby ‘til my second year at university,” she explains. “I was really, really into track all throughout high school and first-year university, and then I started getting more serious about rugby when I went to a tryout in second year.

“I got injured in my second year, which made me not be able to run track; that helped me with realizing that rugby was what I had preferred anyways.”

The seasons with the Blues’ rugby team since Ehrehardt switched sports have seen some mixed results. “We started off not very strong, but within the past three years I would say the program’s getting a lot stronger,” she says. “We never were really a team that other teams had an easy time beating, but we were always a team that teams did beat… This year was a breakout year for the Blues rugby team.”

The Blues went 2–3 in the regular season to take fourth place in the OUA Russell division and set up a quarter-final match-up with the McMaster Marauders. Toronto lost that game 0–48, but Ehrehardt points to some definite positives. “I think teams started to realize that they couldn’t take us for granted anymore,” she says. “And the OUA [Russel Division MVP] from this year (Karla Telidetzki) came from the Blues, so it was a huge accomplishment for us.”

Ehrehardt played out of position, at fly-half, for most of the season. “I would say I’m more of a natural scrum-half, which is

“I would like to play for as long as I can, but rugby’s a pretty brutal sport, so it’s not really an option to play later into your life.

It’s the kind of sport that you have to do [when you’re young].”

“I don’t want to say it’s marginalized at U of T, but because it’s not as popular as maybe other sports it doesn’t get much coverage,” she says. It doesn’t help that the team played most of their games this season at UTSC. “Varsity Stadium isn’t even lined for rugby games, so it doesn’t make much sense to play there, which in itself is an issue.

“It was a little disappointing to me to find in my first year that you’re playing a Varsity sport but no one really cares.”

Ehrehardt and Sun both highlight the game against the University of Waterloo as the hight point of the season. “[Waterloo] were ranked eighth or ninth, and they were expecting to beat us, and we ended up beating them within the last few minutes of the game,” Ehrehardt explained. “I’ve done a lot of athletics in my life, not just rugby, and I think that was my number one, all-time sporting moment of my life.

“It was just the most incredible feeling of overcoming challenges and obstacles.

The last four years, not really having been a winning team, and then … this final game against Waterloo, where we ended up winning within the last few minutes of the game — it was just an amazing feeling.”

Sun credits Ehrehardt with orchestrating the victory against Waterloo. “It was the highlight of the season; scoring five tries to one in the second Hannah Ehrehardt scored 15 points for the Varsity Blues in four regular-season games. half was a huge effort generally for the smaller, shorter sport [in which] all body-types are on everyone’s part.” girls,” she explains. “But I enjoy accepted, and that’s why it’s such a So what’s next? “My plan is to playing fly-half because you get good sport. It just completely cross- become a teacher, and I’m not to make a lot of the decisions on es the spectrum,” she says. “There completely ready to hang up my where the ball’s going and you are different positions that cater to boots, but I’m not sure how much can read the field a lot more than different body types, so it’s an in- higher I want to go [with rugby],” clusive sport. scrum-half.”

Ehrehardt muses. “I’m not sure if “It’s changing a lot. You used I want to pass on my knowledge Varsity Blues women’s rugby head coach Edward Sun believes to see a lot of tall and bigger girls, of rugby through coaching or if I that Ehrehardt made the most of whereas now you’re seeing a lot of want to continue to see how high I her new role. “She was the main the teams, they’re the same size can make it and how much longer distributor on the team to move the throughout, whether you’re playing I can play for.

“I would like to play for as long ball into the hands of people that in the front row, which is generally had specific roles,” Sun explained. perceived as the bigger girls, [or] the as I can, but rugby’s a pretty brutal “#10 isn’t her natural position, but back three, who are generally per- sport, so it’s not really an option to play later into your life. It’s the she adjusted and had the attributes ceived as the smaller girls.”

Despite the potential for ath- kind of sport that you have to do to do well at it.”

Sun believes that Ehrehardt’s letes of different body-types, Eh- [when you’re young].”

Ehrehardt admits that leaving natural athleticism and awareness rehardt admits that rugby isn’t as contributed to her success. “Her popular as it could be. “Rugby in after years with the team is painbackground in track helped her general is growing a lot, [but] it’s ful. “There’s definitely a feeling with the running aspects of the hard to just start and expect it to that it’s going to end. It’s actually position, and mentally, she realizes be super-popular among every- pretty sad; there are a lot of tears it’s a game of ‘numbers,’ especially one,” she says. “That being said, shed at the end of the last game Ontario is one of the strongest of a season. at fly-half,” he said.

At 5’3”, Ehrehardt challenges the provinces for rugby.”

“You make a lot of friendships idea that rugby is a game for bigger, Ehrehardt also feels that rugby too, so knowing that it’s coming to taller players. “I think rugby is a sometimes unfairly gets short shrift. an end is a really strange feeling.”

MURAD HEMMADI/THe VArsity

Murad Hemmadi

NUMBERS

8–9 The score by which the Varsity Blues men’s team lost the OUA water-polo final to Carleton University.

The defeat ended the Blues’ sequence of three consecutive OUA victories.

5 The number of consecutive victories the Blues women’s basketball team have recorded over the Guelph Gryphons following Saturday’s 64–56 victory in Guelph. Jill Stratton led U of T with 16 points.

34 The number of assists recorded by setter Steven Khuu in the men’s volleyball team’s 3–1 aggregate loss to the Queen’s Gaels in Kingston Saturday. The four games finished 23–25, 15–25, 25–21, 18–25.

6–4–3 The men’s hockey team’s season record following a 7–3 victory over the Concordia Stingers Saturday.

Blues goalie Brett Willows made 22 saves in the win.

DIVERSIONS

20 monday, NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Between the concrete and the clouds 1

2

3

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Crossword

by Bernarda Gospic 7

8

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19 23 26

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20 24

30

40 45 62

36

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49 51

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33 39

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41

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2.

3.

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5.

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29

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50 53

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56 61

9.

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Across 1.

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A distinctive scent Birthplace of Elvis Presley, minus the exclamatory syllable Cartographer’s product Japanese mathematics teacher Fit for a monarch What comes before Kosh Tie me up, en Español Bird of prey How the Scots say “no” Acronym for a Reich that lasted over 800 years (abbr.)

Informal way of stating amity (pl.)

Grade of cognac (abbr.)

Acronym for a neighbourhood deemed historical (abbr.)

Sloth’s numerical characteristic, backwards Be present at Manufacturer of plectrums

30.

31.

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Synonym for “detest” Whiskey’s malted grain Exclusively What saturation is coupled with in Adobe’s CS5 Fills up an empty tank Possessive adjective for more than one White vestments worn by clergy ___ tempore Potash _____ (pl.)

Lighthouse Lower one’s moral character Supreme god of the ancient Egyptians Skin care company Submachine gun once used by British forces What you do when someone pisses you off while driving Italian semiotician Umberto Zilch He who simply walked into Mordor

Call out for nominations The Varsity is calling out for motivated student leaders to run for its Board of Directors!

Extended deadline for nominations — ­ forms must be handed in no later than Thursday, November 24th at 5pm.

New election date — Thursday December 1st.

The duty of the Board of Directors is to act as student oversight for The Varsity’s financial and legal well-being as well as to help set long term goals for the corporation. Individual duties of directors can include consideration and monitoring of the annual budget, selection of staff, and discussion of ongoing issues of the corporation at monthly board meetings.

Available Positions 2 University of Toronto St. George Directors 2 Professional Faculty Directors Profacs: Engineering, Dentistry, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Music, OISE, Pharmacy, PhysEd 1 University of Toronto Mississauga Director 1 University of Toronto Scarborough Director

Please complete and submit a nomination form to the Varsity Offices at 21 Sussex Ave., 2nd floor. Forms can be downloaded from the Varsity website and picked up from The Varsity Office.

Mountain range in northern Russia Beer with bitter flavour Chain mail Present food to someone A request made online, sans vowels A yokel What one did with an abacus

Down

22

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35

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Pseudonym, in short Bambino’s surname Don of “Danza Kuduro” A short period of time, en Español Scottish way of saying “one” San Jose Sharks’ fundamental colour Boot brand that should be banned One who sends letters to you, sans writing utensil A football team has this many players on the field Lacking in variation in pitch Like stat, but not as urgent A faculty that likes to get physical Count again Synonym for basic (abbr.)

Companionless A German man “I challenge you to a ____!” _ light ____ moment The bestselling band in history A kind of colorant Soft feather Band of “Take on Me” fame Distilled from sugarcane Twelve-month periods (abbr.)

Class you take in business school (abbr.)

Indie pop band with a name meaning amusement An ancient kingdom in southwestern Arabia “Me, too!”

A manner of dressing using multiple garments An informal private conversation One who provides blood for transfusion A red deer A slab of stone beneath a window Genus that includes modern humans A lingering stench Name for a person who may be regarded as odd LOVE, rearranged Siesta Famous hockey player Bobby, backwards In God [they] Trust, in short form An early Unix command, or dregs (abbr.)

send a photo of your solution to contests@thevarsity.ca and win a very special prize

At the moment with Ivana Listen

I wish I had more time to spend with friends, but I realize that I can’t be there for everyone at the same time without losing my mind. Do you have any suggestions to help me not hate my isolated existence?

Oh lord, hunny, you are preaching to the choir! Ivana Listen gets busy (and lonely) too. Unfortunately, unless you’re willing to do a 360° in your personality, I suggest you set aside some time in your schedule for the people you find yourself chatting with the most often. If you guys tend to hit it off, then you know most of your social time is well-spent. Don’t bother trying to get to know a ton of people at once.

Ironically, you’ll just end up knowing no one.

I wish I knew the secret to managing my life during midterm season. Does anyone know?

Wait, is that the sound of life knocking at the door?

An unexpected visitor, as usual. No, I don’t think anyone has the solution to midterm insanity, and if they do, they must be batshit crazy deep down. I find it much easier to just accept that life is gonna suck in that period, and you’re probably going to cry — but you’ll get through it. As cliché as it is, our character is formed by our reactions to trying times.

Got a question? Need some relationship advice? Email Ivana at ivanalisten@thevarsity.ca

The Varsity

Weekly Horoscopes

by Destiny Starr Aries

March 21 – April 19 Remember that Paris Hilton song, “Stars are Blind”? Forget it: Paris was a jealous bitch, and the stars know everything.

Treat yourself to lava cake this week.

Taurus

April 20 – May 20 Love leads the way in Taurus’s celestial sphere from Wednesday onward. Show your sweetie the depth of your affection by offering something extra special, like a fruit roll-up.

Gemini

May 21 – June 20 Life will take a spiritual turn this week, as you consider the consequences of excessive burrito consumption on your mental welfare. Consult a gastroenterologist if things get out of hand.

Cancer

June 21 – July 22 As the most enigmatic sign of the Zodiac, you will give off particularly mysterious vibes this week. By Wednesday, let it all hang loose and wear a sassy hat.

Leo

July 23 – August 22 Leo, you are particularly sexy and exciting this week, and everybody’s noticing. Consider “forgetting” to put on underwear on Thursday if you attend The Muppets movie.

Virgo

August 23 – September 22 Reflect on the myth of Sisyphus as you embark on new endeavours this week.

Relieve your stress and take a relaxing night off at home, curled up with a Liza Minnelli film.

Libra

September 23 – October 22 Everybody loves Ryan Gosling, and you are no exception. Pay special attention to his facial bone structure, and you will achieve critical insights by Friday.

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21 No one has ever seen you and Batman in the same room before, and nobody’s taking any chances. Use this to your advantage.

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21 Keep in mind the old saying that birds of a feather flock together. Also, consider an animal-friendly alternative to that Korean Barbecue outing you were planning.

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19 The clouds of your current academic turmoil have absolutely no silver lining.

Don’t hesitate to bring that flask of gin to your next Robarts study session. You’ll ace that shit.

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18 This week is a time for self-knowledge and reinvention. Create a playlist of George Michael songs, and you will make new and exciting friends.

Pisces

February 19 – March 20 If you’re anxious about your body image this week, listen to your gut feeling.

Don’t get in touch with those Facebook acquaintances you deleted last year.