Issue 7

The Peterborough and Trent University

Independent Press

Volume 50 | Issue 7 | November 2, 2015

An exclusive interview with Maryam Monsef

INside:

Liberal MP of Peterborough & The Kawarthas

Trent launches Research Park

$2 punk shows at the spill

writers reading: bob bossin

this week’s hot dish

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It has come to our attention that the fictional short story published about Sadleir House had an unintentional basis on real people.

We offer our sincerest apologies to the families involved, and assure no harm was meant in the publication of what we thought to be fiction.

The article has since been retracted from Arthur Newspaper.

Arthur’s on the Airwaves!

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Guest editorial: to build or not to build?

By Betelhem Wondimu

To build or not to build? That was the question I was faced with as a member of Gzowski College Cabinet when a $14,000 Gzowski College office expansion proposal was presented for approval at a recent [Gzowski] Cabinet meeting.

After being updated on a round of deliberation, which included a presentation and a showcase of the area where the expansions were set to happen, and long conversations with cabinet members, I was left with an overwhelming feeling that the proposal was a quick fix that came with a hefty price tag of $14,000 – a huge financial burden that students would have to bare.

With the growing need to remedy the situation, I voted for an alternative option that called for more consultation, and at that point, the decision I had made seemed right. Based on the facts presented, I came to the conclusion that a $14,000 investment in expansions would be a sound one that demanded further consultation with the student body.

Unfortunately, there was a lingering feeling of dissatisfaction with the decision I had made and I began to revise the whole proposal.

The first step was to look deeper into why did Gzowski College office need an expansion. A quick visit to the Office was just the reminder I needed; the office had four student staff, with three students waiting to see an academic advisor in a cramped hallway amongst a clutter of office supply.

The glaring difference of waiting to see an academic advisor at Champlain versus Gzowski was astonishing. The process of seeing an academic advisor within it-

self is usually a stressful process for firstand upper-year students alike. The hectic environment present at the Gzowski office only adds to anxieties that students might experience. During my first year, I personally began seeing an academic advisor in Champlain instead of Gzowski because I experienced the less hectic setting there [in comparison to the Gzowski College Office].

In terms of structure, a lot has changed in the College Office since my first year.

Now Gzowski College Office, similar to the rest of the colleges, employs nine student staff and an academic skills instructor in addition to a college head and academic advisor.

The addition of student staff and an academic skills instructor presents the amazing opportunity to provide a greater provision of services, ranging from eventplanning geared towards raising awareness of various causes to coaching writing and

study skills.

However, it ultimately resulted in significantly less space in what was already a small office. Due to the lack of adequate office space, Gzowski College is now at risk of losing an academic instructor, who might have to be transferred to another College with more space.

Although the difficulties currently facing Gzowski College seem isolated, it points to a larger structural problem that exists at Trent University, which is that this lack of student space comes about as a result of cost-saving measures and a lack of funds.

For example, rooms in Bata library that once served as student spaces have now been converted to office spaces.

In the case of Gzowski College, the youngest College at Trent, the initial construction planning consisted of a much larger space; however, due to insufficient funds, the building was scaled back.

Ultimately, students are being forced to

Opinion

constantly make sacrifices; in this case, I believe Gzowski students are being robbed of the “Trent Experience” which students affiliated with other Colleges get to experience. Gzowski students pay the same amount in tuition fees as other College students, thus should be able to acquire the same amount of services.

At the end of the day, knowing that Gzowski College students would be put at a disadvantage made me re-evaluate my stance on the expansion. It is no longer a clear decision. Although the proposed plan was made to meet accessibility standards, increased traffic in the area would be inevitable.

The other concern was the allocation of funds. The estimated cost of $14,000 would be allocated from a reserve fund that Colleges have as a result of money that wasn’t used from the allocated annual budget. The reserve fund is put aside in case of contingency purposes, such as infrastructural problems or maternity leaves, for example.

Although the proposed expansion can relieve some of the challenges currently faced by Gzowski students, it does not present an ideal situation. More consultation with students and other proposals should be considered in the future.

The challenges Gzowski College faces beg the question: “How can we prevent such problems in the future?” To go back and assess infrastructural problems might prove to be costly and difficult. The ultimate answer for me rests in the $15 million new Student Centre, of which $10.5 million was funded by a student levy, ensuring that the lack of student space continues to be the central issue to be tackled by the project.

Editorial: shaping Canadian identity

By Yumna Leghari and Zara Syed

Canada woke up on October 20th to a different political atmosphere. Arguments of unprecedented optimism aside, we no longer live in a Harper government.

During the elections, a fire caught amongst Canadians that challenged the years of apathy that election time typically evokes within the population. Voting became cool again.

Though there are many issues that we will face going forward, we are on the path to reclaiming Canada’s national identity. In Maryam Monsef ’s words, “We’re reclaiming Canada’s reputation on the international stage.”

This was clear at Trent University’s launch of the International Institute for Environmental Studies. Here we were at the Gathering Space in Gzowski, celebrating the launch of a Research Park, when just recently the funding for Experimental Lakes Area research (among many other environmental initiatives) were suspended.

The last decade saw the scientist muzzled, and any talk of environmental planning treated like a bad word.

During a locally held panel called Get Science Right in 2014, Trent professors Kathryn Norlock, Marguerite Xenopoulos, and Brad Easton were trying to raise awareness in regards to slashed research funding.

The Big Chill, a report that had been conducted by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), found that “90 % [of scientists] feel they are not allowed to speak freely to the media about the work they do and that, faced with a departmental decision that could harm public health, safety or the environment, nearly as many (86 %) would face censure

or retaliation for doing so.”

When discussing the Research Park, there was not a hint of fear within the Gathering Space. There was only hopeful optimism.

Notable individuals discussed the future that the partnership between Trent University and Nanjing University would bring, and that future looks quite bright.

It is clear that, even in that moment within the Gathering Space, we are reclaiming what it means to be Canadian.

We are reclaiming what it means to be multi-cultural, and environmentally conscious innovators that tap into the strength of diversity and creative thinking.

Trent University produces impressive alumni, and with the building of the research park, we are sure to bring to this campus some of the brightest minds that this generation will have to offer.

Identity is malleable, and often the shifting sands of politics can affect this identity.

The personal reflects the political, and for

many, these two are inseparable.

As first generation Canadians who were not born here, this applies even more so.

Many of you will relate to and understand the identity crisis suffered under Bill C-24 (Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act), which affected Canadians who were not born in Canada, or were individuals who held dual citizenship.

Comments of “old stock Canadians” were thrown around casually, and the classic question of what it means to be Canadian became a hot topic of discussion.

Who were we kidding though? It didn’t matter how angry we got, or how many petitions were mailed to Parliament; the deed had been done and we were told to sit down and accept it. On this matter, the tides are changing, as the Liberals have promised to rescind this ludicrous bill.

None of us are naive. We know that Trudeau is eerily echoing the gallant promises of change and renewal that America saw during Obama’s “Yes We Can” Photo by Samantha Moss

campaign. Despite this, the facts remain, and in the short time period that he has been in power, Trudeau has made some encouraging moves.

There is a resurgence and excitement surrounding the rediscovery of identity. Canada was sleeping, apathetic, and nearing a defeatist disposition.

Our international reputation was disintegrating and we were are long considered a peaceful nation. It is time to rebuild.

Time to rebuild our personal relationships with this land, to acknowledge that we are entering a new era that will be more mindful and accepting than the last cold ten years that saw immigration policies quietly become stricter.

A decade is a long time, and we have both spent our developmental years under the Harper government; a government that singled out people of Middle-Eastern and Muslim descent through vicious fear mongering. Growing up as visible minorities who fell into this category, it wasn’t easy.

Now, we have more female representation in the House of Commons than we have ever had in Canadian history. We have more Indigenous representation, and multicultural representation than ever before.

It is startling to think of Peterborough’s past MP, now that a woman of colour who we not only admire but relate to , represents us on a national level in such stark contrast.

So, when we click on that Youtube video of Trudeau wearing a kurta and doing the bhangra, or see a photo of him sharing a meal with people Stephen Harper didn’t consider “old- stock”, we can’t help but feel a little excited, and a little relieved.

The worst is over. Perhaps we can heal, Canada, while we all find ourselves again.

Volume 50 | Issue 7 | November 2, 2015

3

Opinion

Conflict, social media, and the Trent community

By Nona Robinson

Social media can be wonderful for connecting people, for sharing information, and even for discussing different points of view. What these platforms are not, though, are particularly effective ways of developing empathy and understanding for each other.

Recently, there have been some problems involving the Trent community on Facebook. Discussion posts have erupted into flame wars in which participants have been hurt and upset by the content, and also by language and personal attacks.

The issue of online conflict is hardly limited to Trent. Discussion, debates, and attacks have infamously escalated across the Internet, at times to the point of chasing people out of conversations, bullying, threats, and causing real harm.

Universities can and should encourage discussion and debate on controversial issues. Students are very often leaders in social change; they are passionate and idealistic in promoting their views. But how can we encourage all this, and still maintain an environment in which people feel safe expressing their ideas, advocating for themselves and others, and disagreeing with each other?

Trent community members can and do engage in a high calibre of debate. It’s possible to argue with the other’s position, while still thinking of the person on the other side of the screen.

Personal attacks don’t lead to reasoned debate, critical thinking, or, for that matter,

convincing others of our viewpoint. It can be tempting to score points while forgetting how others may be feeling, especially if we can’t see them. Online, we can’t rely on empathizing with body language, facial expression, or tone of voice, all of which are important indicators of how people are reacting to what we say. Emoticons don’t cut it. Online, it is much easier to project and make assumptions about a person’s intentions. It can be tempting to mock, bait, or tag-team to get a reaction. Unlike in-person conversations, it’s easier to lash out at a computer screen, or to attack text on a Facebook page.

With all of that, computers should be exploding all over the place. But principles of conflict resolution and effective communication can apply to online conversations, just as with in-person ones.

Asking open-ended questions can help clarify where someone’s coming from: “Okay, I’m not sure what you mean by that, can you explain?” Checking interpretation can also work: “So, it sounds to me like what you’re saying is ______, am I getting that right?” Acknowledging and validating people’s feelings and values can be powerful: “This clearly means a lot to you, and I didn’t realize that. Can you tell me more about it?” Another one: “It’s clear that X is really important to you, and Y is really important to me. Is there any common ground?”

Similarly, talking about the impact of behavior can be valuable: “When you said _____, it really hurt, because _____. Can we talk about it?” It’s important to ac-

knowledge that this can be hard to do, and people don’t always have the emotional energy, particularly if they’re already upset.

Taking a break from the conversation can certainly help with this, as can asking ourselves, “What do I really want this person to understand?”

And what if the person is saying something with which we really differ? How about, “I really disagree with that, because X, Y and Z.” Then it becomes about discussing with the person about what they said, which is much more likely to help them consider your point of view.

It’s worth considering how social media reflects the Trent community, and how student leaders and the University should respond. What are workable solutions if there is an eruption on Facebook or Twitter? What sort of impact does acrimony of the type we’ve seen recently, have on the Trent community, and on how our community is regarded by outsiders? How can we encourage civil discussion on controversial issues? What are ways that students can be empowered to take responsibility for social media posts, and what are constructive ways for students to intervene if trouble erupts?

There is the option of University policies or the TCSA. But are there ways to prevent escalation of the type that may need outside help? How can participants understand the impact of what they’re saying, when they’re not face-to-face with the person they’re disagreeing with? The TCSA and Student Affairs have been talking about having an open forum to discuss approaches to all of

these questions.

Understanding the power behind words is important. For people who have been marginalized or discriminated against, advocating for themselves and others can be crucial, and it can also be exhausting. Being attacked or mocked for this advocacy hurts. For others, freedom of speech is sacrosanct. Are these two positions irreconcilable?

Not if there’s respect and concern for each other. Sometimes debating on one side or the other helps hone in on and refine our understanding of issues, but only if it’s a dialogue. The best kinds of discussions are ones in which people actually listen to each other’s viewpoints and learn from each other, even if they are on opposite sides.

Making an effort to see where someone’s coming from, having a desire to find common ground, and caring about people as much as we do about scoring debating points, are all helpful when discussing controversial issues. People can passionately advocate a position, and vehemently disagree about an issue, but still maintain civility. And nobody’s going to be convinced if they’re feeling attacked, mocked, or backed into a corner.

It’s not easy or simple to find the answers when it comes to balancing freedom of expression, rights of individuals, respect and care for others, diverse viewpoints, and debating difficult issues. It can be particularly challenging when doing it across social media. I like to think that our amazing Trent community can rise to the challenge.

Insider tips for math students

By Mark Bloomer

4

I became a math student because when it comes to school, that is all I am good at.

Although I am a decent copy-editor, I can’t write an essay to save my life. Since your value as a student is represented by percentages and equations, math students have a significant advantage; however, there are also some major drawbacks to being in the mathematics stream at Trent.

It is made to be quite an exclusive club, and with the small amount of support we receive, even A-students are never safe from a dreaded C. In first year, my classes were in the hundreds, and in second year, 30 students is a large class. The faculty did a good job of discouraging students from pursuing mathematics.

Speaking of my first year, it went well for me, for the most part. I scraped by with a GPA just barely within scholarship range.

You might now be thinking, “Wow that’s great, what is he complaining for?” I treat school like it’s my job. I do math between five and 13 hours each day. I take maybe two days off monthly.

So, if I get a C, I am missing over 30% of the material. But am I really? That would be nearly impossible. So, I say I barely scraped by because I had a particular professor, we’ll call him Dr. Doom, whose classes hurt me so much, I finished with a whopping overall 8%. That pretty much eliminates any hope of getting a full ride. You can assume that I am like the majority of students in that I have roughly negative $1 million.

Another thing that made first year kind of rough was that it didn’t feel like the majority of people did very well. That made it very hard to find a fellow student who was able to help me out. Unfortunately, the Champlain (now OC) math help centre was unable to contribute to my first-year assignments and I was told later that their

www.trentarthur.ca

function was to provide high school level math help... at a university. The Gzowski student math tutors are amazing, but there is often no room to stand, let alone sit at the math centre - and the faculty will kick you out because that is where their meetings are.

Your best bet if you’re struggling is to see your teaching assistant; they are magical. That is, if you have one. I am now in my second year and out of the five classes I’m taking, I have a TA for one. Many of my classes have also fallen below the minimum number of class hours (36) as outlined by Trent’s own policy.

Faculty treats this policy as a “loose guideline” and a “fudge-able minimum.”

Meanwhile, we are seeing very high dropout rates in these classes where the minimum was not met. My career and economic stability are not fudge-able. Our grades will have adverse affects on our lives for decades to come and it does not feel like Trent takes their end quite as seriously.

This is getting too negative; let’s get back to pros of being a math student. YouTube! I got my highest grade ever because of Kahn Academy on YouTube. Seriously, if you are taking Linear Algebra, watch all the videos on that topic; you’ll be glad you did and you can skip the cash grab textbook.

But this begs the question: How can a series of free automated videos get me through an entire class, but a prof can utterly fail to get some hard-working students through their classes? In the cases where I received below the minimum class hours, I would have much rather taken the classes online instead. If you are below 36 hours, it really defeats the purpose of paying the prof in the first place. YouTube becomes much more effective than a series of rushed, half-baked lectures.

Most people don’t like math and I don’t blame them. I’ve pushed this farther than

I think most people normally would, and I am starting to feel not quite sane. This might be because even after my hard work, there is still no sense of stability for my future.

I feel like I am guaranteed to fail classes regardless of my actions and it is severely impacting my mental health. I do not be-

lieve that there is any chance I would make it through my third year at Trent, which is why I will not return next year. It is far too risky for me to invest more money here. It feels like the faculty want mathematics to be an elite club and it feels very spiteful. At the end of the day, I feel like a means of income for Trent rather than a human being.

The crux of Israel and Palestine

By Dan Morrison

Like trying to explain all the various intricacies of test cricket, it can be difficult to know where to start when talking about surges in violence between the Israeli state and the Palestinians. This most recent surge, referred to by some the Third Intifada, is no different.

It is a spate of violence that has seen 64 Palestinians killed and estimates ranging from 6000 to 8700 injured, as well as 9 Israelis killed and 80 injured.

Too often, the media outlets ignore the historical context, hide their bias, or both. To be upfront about this reporter’s bias; I am very much biased, biased towards the oppressed and dispossessed Palestinians and all the Israelis caught in between, and biased against an unjust Israeli government, the illegal settlers, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), and the often corrupt and morally bankrupt Palestinian leadership in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Today’s situation has evolved roughly like this. Following the end of the British mandate, Jewish forces defeated a weak Arab force and declared independence in 1948. Estimates range from 700,000 to over a million on the amount of Palestinians displaced and expelled by the conflict, while many Arabs were absorbed into Israeli society.

In 1967, following a six-day war, cleverly referred to as The Six Day War, Israel seized, among other lands, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem in a war against Syria, Egypt, and Jordan.

East Jerusalem was occupied and declared Israel’s capital, an act in contravention of international law, not recognized by any in the international community.

Since then, Israel has expanded its settlement, arguably colonization, of the lands.

According to Israeli human rights centre B’tselem, there are now 125 settlements in the West Bank with a settler population of around 550,000. There are also a further 100 outposts, assisted by ministries but without official authorisation. Until 2005, there were also settlements in the Gaza Strip. These settlements are illegal as international law prohibits settlement of lands that you are militarily occupying.

To accompany this, house demolitions and land expropriation has become commonplace. It is not uncommon for settlers to take over the houses of Pales-

tinians, while house demolitions are being used as a means of punishments for alleged Palestinian terrorists, as Electronic Intifada recently highlighted. These are illegal under international law. It punishes the families of the alleged perpetrators, and thus amounts to collective punishment. As well as this, it often happens without the due process of justice having taken place.

Within the West Bank, control is shared between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli forces; the PA has the most responsibility for controlling Area A and controls civil matters in Area B, while Israel has complete control of Area C and retains security control in Area B. Within these areas, Palestinians have little freedom of movement, requiring permits to come and go between certain checkpoints. Travelling between the West Bank and Gaza is near impossible.

Israeli control is marked by arbitrary interrogation and arrest, collective punishment, and brutal repression. PA administration is not much better, with Human Rights Watch criticizing them for beating protestors and stifling dissent.

International human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and Israel-based groups, like B’tselem, have extensively detailed abuses and injustices occurring in the Occupied West Bank, the centre of most of the current upsurge, and in Gaza.

Human Rights Watch documented in its 2015 World Report how Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza is leaving 80% people requiring humanitarian assistance, and a 45% unemployment rate in one of the most densely populated areas on Earth.

This on the back of Israel’s 2014 massacre in Gaza, a third in seven years, which the rights group notes left at least 2,100 people dead, 1,500 of whom were civilians and 500 children. Amnesty International also reported these figures, among other human rights groups. There are extensive allegations of war crimes against both sides.

Amnesty records the enforcement of a 500 metre buffer zone of Gaza’s land border with Israel, enforced by live fire on people who encroach. Israel continued to enforce restrictions on the square miles in which Palestinians fish, an area smaller than that set out by the 1993 Oslo Accords. Amnesty recorded that many fishermen were shot, causing injury and death.

In the West Bank, given Israel’s physi-

cal presence, the nature of the oppression is just as draconian, but only in a different way. Checkpoints are erected to inhibit freedom of movement, with people requiring specific permits and needing to present identification. Israelis in Israel are not subject to such measures, nor are the Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

As B’tselem has reported, ill-treatment of Palestinians has become commonplace. Israeli forces submit Palestinians to a “small dose” of ill treatment such as a slap, a kick, an insult, a pointless delay at checkpoints, or degrading treatment. This has often evolved into something more than this, with arbitrary beatings and arrests not infrequent occurrences.

Human Rights Watch noted the case of the cousin of a Palestinian burned alive by settlers last year. According to the group, undercover Israeli forces broke into the home, beat the cousin unconscious, then arrested members of the family.

On another occasion, Israeli forces beat and arrest two students protesting outside Birzeit University – a video of the protest showed an undercover police officer shooting one of the students in the thigh from close range as he was dragged away.

During the current upsurge, the repression continues unabated. Israel carried out extrajudicial killings on Palestinians, often when they posed no imminent threat to life.

Mondoweiss, International Solidarity Movement, and Electronic Intifada have all detailed instances where Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces under the precept of stabbing attacks, only to place a knife on them after they have been killed.

Soldiers recently shot one seventeen-year-old girl 8-10 times at a checkpoint on her way back from school.

Eyewitnesses said that her hands were raised and that she was not holding a knife.

Middle East Eye reported the shooting of a Palestinian near the Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron. Eyewitnesses reported that he was searched “before orders were given to execute him.”

One eyewitness heard a policewoman say, “He looks nice, shoot him.”

International Solidarity Movement reported that he was then shot.

So, that is where the violence comes from. From people despairing at the injustice and oppression in which they live, brutalized by their enemy. It comes from conscripted young soldiers, who only know

Opinion

to be hostile to Palestinians, often only following orders.

It comes from politics and ideology, trading peace and security for supposed supremacy.

The conflict is much more than a political conflict, maybe be not even a political conflict. It is a human conflict exacerbated by a political process that is at best rubbish, and at worst, an insidious deceit.

So, what now? How do we achieve peace?

I had started to write about how Israel isn’t going to give up the occupation until it is too costly, which is true - there was even a Martin Luther King quote - and that the Palestinians should take the lead, stop all the violence, and just sit down. In the streets.

But that’s not going to happen. I had written that Israel should cease the occupation, oppression and apartheid, allow Palestinians the rights they are entitled to. However, there are too many things that solving the conflict depends on, too much has gone before.

If Israel would stop its arbitrary and unjust Occupation of Palestinians, if Palestinians would halt their own violence, if Israel would cease settlement building and hold settlers to account for the crimes they’ve committed, if the Palestinian leadership wasn’t so inept, or corrupt or if a broker more honest than us could be found.

None of that is very realistic though.

Those are pretty big if ’s.

If I was a Palestinian living in the West Bank or Gaza, I certainly might fancy throwing the odd stone at the cocky teenage soldiers who’ve been ritually humiliating me on the way to school, on the way to work.

And above all, how do you reason in a situation where both sides feel like they are fighting for their lives, their existence, and where many feel they have the God-given right to kill and cleanse? You can’t.

Don’t get me wrong, Palestinians make their own mistakes. But Israel is the oppressor and occupier, the purveyor of injustice. I just can’t see how a positive solution can be found any time soon.

I will leave the final word to Peep Show protagonist Mark: ‘I’ve started to get the feeling that…everything is fucked, everything is just completely fucked.

I am starting to get that feeling, too.

Volume 50 | Issue 7 | November 2, 2015

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campus

9th annual David Morrison lecture challenging the system

By Adriana Sierra

The David Morrison Lecture, held in the name of Dr. David Morrison, founding chair of what is now the International Development Studies Department, has brought an array of globally distinguished scholars and notable personas to speak on topics related to Development.

This year, the David Morrison Lecture was hosted by Ms. Winnie Byanyima, the Executive Director of Oxfam International. Ms. Byanyima’s lecture, titled “Rising Inequality and the Need for an Economy That Works For All”, challenged the current economic system and explored solutions that would generate fairer, more equal outcomes.

Ms. Byanyima packs an impressive history. She was the first female Ugandan to receive a degree in aeronautical engineering, a combatant during times of political strife, Uganda’s ambassador to France, and later the Director of the Gender Team in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Program.

Today, Ms. Byanyima is a globally recognized figure in the struggle for women’s rights, social equality, and peace building.

Dr. Akram-Lodhi, Chair of the Department of International Development Studies, introduced Ms. Byanyima and attributed the fifth Sustainable Development Goal, to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls,” to Ms. Byanyima more than any other person.

“University is where I really became a serious activist and a feminist – I am a feminist.” Ms. Byanyima began by recalling her time at Manchester University as one of debates, movements, and a process of learning to organize for change.

She argued that the role of universities is to form creative and political citizens; “Yes,

I said political.”

Ms. Byanyima then addressed the problem with our current economic system. She argued that the space of global economic and political thinking is confined to a few elites who “pretend to have the answers.” And yet, we are experiencing inequality at unprecedented levels. The 1% has more wealth than he rest of the world combined.

So far, the argument has been rooted in the notion that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” that economic growth will trickle down and will eradicate poverty. Ms. Byanyima argued the contrary and challenged economic measures of development.

She presented the cases of Nigeria and Bangladesh, whereby Nigeria went through a period of dramatic and sustained economic growth, while at the same time living conditions and poverty levels remained unchanged.

On the other hand, Bangladesh, a poorer nation by measures of GDP, possessed a more equal population. Despite Nigeria’s higher GDP, its child mortality rate was three times higher than Bangladesh’s. She argued that solutions do not lie in economic growth, but in addressing inequality.

Ms. Byanyima argues that inequality affects us all. It undermines social mobility, safety, and democracy. It touches a moral nerve. And yet, rising inequality has been justified as a necessary byproduct of economic growth.

According to Ms. Byanyima, “the current economic model is broken. It doesn’t work for women and neither is it developing stable economic growth.” S he argues that at the root of the problem of persistent and rising levels of inequality is power, which necessarily requires a discussion on gender.

“Everywhere, where there is power and wealth, you will find that women are un-

derrepresented.” Ms. Byanyima exemplified how women do not benefit from the economy as men do by providing statistical figures of lifetime income gaps.

In Germany, for example, the lifetime income gap between men and women is 49%, which means that over the course of a lifetime, women will earn half of what men do. Additionally, out of all billionaires in the world, 11% of them are women.

Out of those 11%, only 25% are selfmade billionaires.

Household work, an occupation traditionally filled by women, is excluded from the economic sphere.

Because it is invisible in terms of the economy, household work is not seen as valuable. However, Ms. Byanyima argues that the value of this invisible work amounts to $23 trillion per year.

She challenges the notion of the ‘homoeconomicus’ by questioning: “Who cooks his meals? Who washes his clothes? And who cares for his children?”

Why, then, has such a flawed economic system survived? For Dr. Byanyima, the answer lies in wealth. Because power translates into money, wealthy individuals and corporations “hijack democracy” through lobbying, corruption, and financial influence.

Much of the lobbying and corruption occurs with the purpose of influencing tax structures. Corporations all over the world evade taxes by employing a number of different tactics.

In Africa alone, $11 billion were denied from public resources in the form of tax evasions. Corporate tax evasions hinder the provision of public goods and services, which directly affects women, as they tend to take the place of the government when these services are lacking.

Ms. Byanyima argues that we need a “more human economy,” one whose poli-

cies are open to morals and compassion.

She proposes three pillars for transforming the current system into an economy that works for all: The first pillar consists of addressing taxes. She argues that the burden of taxes should be taken off the poorest and enforced on corporate interests. A more fair, global approach to taxes is necessary to ensure that adequate resources are directed towards public services.

The second pillar is one of redistribution.

The money from fair tax regimes should be invested in health, education, and other public goods to eradicate the poorest of the poor. Dr. Byanyima views redistribution as a pro-growth policy, and states that social protection is a safety net that should be the responsibility of governments. This approach to redistribution, she argues, makes society as a whole more compassionate and less focused on individualism.

Additionally, redistribution through public services also addresses an aspect of gender inequality.

“When you ensure that families don’t have to pay for education, you don’t make them take difficult choices,” explains Ms. Byanyima. Often, it is girls who are disproportionately affected by the lack of basic services.

The third pillar consists of valuing all contributions that people make, especially those of women. This pillar involves redistributing household responsibilities and ensuring equal opportunities for all.

Before sharing inspiring words with students and community members alike in the ensuing reception, Ms. Byanyima left the stage with some final words, asking us to rethink our role in perpetuating or alleviating global inequality: “In my view, we all face a choice. We can either walk a path that elites have paved for us, or we can choose a far greater journey.”

With the Ambassador Program, students can get work experience with big travel incentives

There’s a company out there that wants to help students not only get the work experience they need, but the life experience as well. TourRadar, a source to book group tours online, has started a unique Ambassador Program for students in university.

The Ambassador Program gives students the ability to fund their own tour along with a chance to win $1,000 toward the flights. On top of that, other prizes are up for grabs, including a set of Beats Solo2 Wireless headphones. After signing up, students will refer others and when those people book a tour, the student who referred them will receive five per cent of that total trip cost towards their own (for a lifetime)! If you want to check out the program and sign up, go to www.tourradar.com/ambassadors.

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campus

Why don’t PhD students teach courses at Trent? Part 1

By Troy Bordun

It may be news to some undergraduates that very few Trent PhD students teach.

Under CUPE 3908 Unit 2, incoming PhDs are offered Teaching Assistant positions for four years, but none are offered their own course.

This is not the case at other universities; PhD teaching (course development, lectures, grading) is often part of the admission offer.

This lack of teaching is more than a minor inconvenience for Trent’s PhDs. It is not uncommon knowledge that before graduation, PhDs should teach at least one course in order to be a suitable candidate for tenure-track jobs.

Recent research conducted by Vitae concluded that most tenure-track jobs are secured by PhDs within four years of their last year of study (in the U.S.).

Although their data does not track the hires’ teaching experience, many U.S institutions do offer PhDs teaching opportunities. If most jobs are going to upper year or recently graduated PhD students, surely having taught a course increases one’s chances on the market.

By creating a program without an offer to teach, Trent may well have crafted programs without comprehensive exams.

By the end of their degree, students who did not secure a teaching position during their four+ years are therefore far behind their peers graduating from other

universities.

Securing some PhD student teaching is on the shoulders of Trent faculty and CUPE 3908. Dr. Liam Mitchell (Assistant Professor, Cultural Studies) has broached the topic within his department.

He bluntly stated that without his t eaching opportunities at the University of Victoria, he would not have been hired as a professor here. Professors in other departments are now obligated to take similar steps and bring this up for debate at department meetings.

CUPE 3908 needs to widely announce article 5.10 in the Unit 1 collective agreement.

Adjunct faculty comprise Unit 1, which may include successful PhD student applicants. The article states: “At its discretion, the Employer may offer Course Instructor positions to Trent postdoctoral Fellows, and Trent doctoral students in their last university-funded year of study, without competition.” I have yet to hear of this article being implemented.

This is perhaps due to confusion about the Units and their implications. Some graduate students have remained a Unit 2 employee when hired as an instructor.

As a Unit 2 Instructor, the student does not get “right of first refusal” (job security) for future courses, but this is common at universities that offer PhD student teaching because teaching is part of the program, inseparable from students’ studies.

Work and study, for graduate students, are linked components of PhD student life.

Article 5.10 states that the university may not exceed six doctoral or postdoctoral hires in any academic year.

Alongside questions such as Who are these six? What is the departmental breakdown?

What courses can be taught?, I find the inclusion of postdoctoral fellows alongside PhD students controversial. Postdoctoral fellows will have likely taught before.

Postdocs are thus in direct competition for adjunct positions with Trent PhD students who have not taught. It doesn’t take a PhD to see who has the upper hand in the applications.

The Unit 2 agreement also contains an article stating how many hours a graduate student may work. Students can work ten hours a week, thus a position as a course instructor likely violates the Unit 2 agreement since teaching a course for the first time will require more than ten.

The Unit 2 agreement applies to scholarships as well. If a graduate student wins a scholarship from OGS, they sign a contract stating that they will not work more than ten hours a week. Students are essentially penalized for getting a scholarship at Trent. This is not true for all Canadian universities, such as York.

Corey Ponder (PhD candidate, Cultural Studies, Trent) was invited to apply to teach an English course. The process was transparent and he was hired. While

grateful for the opportunity, he calls the experience like being thrown into the “pedagogical fire.” Designing a course, preparing lectures, and grading papers may take up to forty hours a week for the first-time instructor without a TA. This inhibits PhD students from completing their own dissertation work, but the rare chance at professionalization could not have been turned away.

As noted, Trent offers PhD candidates funding for four years, although, according to some studies, a PhD may take upwards of nine years. In light of this fact, universities in the U.S. have begun funding PhD students for five years.

The four-year funding structure and lack of teaching opportunities at Trent leaves PhD students in a bit of a conundrum: try to compete with Unit 1 members and outside applicants for courses and, if hired, likely spend an extra year (or two) working on PhD program requirements; or, try to complete the degree in four years but remain behind your peers in terms of professionalization.

My interviewed PhD students were all in agreement about the importance of teaching for their success in the academic job market.

Any bargaining that takes place amongst students, union, administrators, and faculty must include not only teaching, but considerations of the academic job market, the high price of tuition, and union agreements.

Volume 50 | Issue 7 |November 2, 2015

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Writer’s reading: Bon Bossin

Photos by Jenny Fisher

emerge from the darkness.”

Davy fixed horse races to gain profit and bailed out gamblers by ‘lending’ them Can you imagine finding out your father money. Davy has been described to be “the had a secret life of crime before settling bookies’ bookie” and was once known to be down?

“Toronto’s top layoff man.” Lewis Macleod That’s exactly what happened to Bob remarked, “that kind of world-imprinting Bossin, whose father’s story is told in his power impresses me” after speaking about latest award-winning book, Davy the Punk. Bob’s father.

Bob came all the way from British However, don’t let Davy’s past of crime Columbia to present this book at Trent’s confuse you. Bob describes his father as Writer’s Reading series on October 21. “funny” and “quite a loving father.” One He is described as an “esteemed thing that stood out in Bob’s memory is how musician, author, and raconteur singer.” He his father would say: “Even a fish wouldn’t even made sure to leave some writing ad- get into trouble if it kept its mouth shut.” vice to Trent students before he returned to Bob believes he [Davy] learned this life British Columbia. lesson during his life of organized crime.

As Lewis MacLeod explained Bob’s Early on in the presentation at Traill father, Davy Bossin, as an “elite-class College, Bob played a folk song on his guicriminal … all about high-level ‘fixing’; tar and sang lyrics about betting on horses. order is plucked from chaos; constellations One of the lyrics was “all horseplayers die

By Jenny Fisher

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broke.”

This song is about Bob’s dad and his secret life. Bob toured a “live one-man musical” with songs all written about his father.

This tour was done shortly after the book, Davy the Punk, was released. Bob even insisted that the audience participate in his presentation and sing some parts of the song. Then he read a passage from his book, which is a winner of the Heritage award.

While reading the passage, Bob’s voice changed to make certain accents and tones as he read the dialogue of the different characters. This proves that having the author read you their story out loud can give away more of their original intentions for the story.

As described on the back of his book, “Bob Bossin is the founder of the legendary Canadian folk group Stringband” and “has recorded a dozen albums”. It also says, Davy the Punk “tells the story of his father’s life in the gambling underworld of the 1930’s and ‘40s. This poignant memoir of father

and son is packed with street-wise stories and troubling revelations about Canada as it was in the first half of the twentieth century.” This book has been recognized to show an “anti-Semitic Canada that is typically left out of history books.”

Before the event ended, Bob made sure to leave behind some advice. In fact, he was very eager to give writing advice to Trent students. This advice is particularly useful for students who hope to continue writing after school. First, he said to be a genuine author, then he left a serious of questions that Trent University students could ask themselves before writing.

“Who am I talking to? What do I want from them? What’s in the way? How do I overcome it?” Bob emphasized the need for writers to know their target audience and make sure they write for that audience. “For example, say I’m writing for middle-aged feminists. I should use lingo and metaphors that relate to that target audience; so, know your audience well!”

community

Trent student sex culture: raw data

By Reba Harrison

On October 4, a basic survey was posted on the Trent University Facebook group, enticing students to spill about their sex lives - or lack thereof - anonymously. This article is to publish the most interesting findings of this survey.

The survey was set up of Google Forms and, as the author, I was not able to see any additional information of participants, ensuring anonymity. Soon after the survey was posted, students commented on the Facebook post, critiquing the wording used within the survey. I was happy to update and edit the survey to reflect the students’ suggestions.

A total of 299 respondents provide the data below as a sample of Trent’s student sex culture as of October 16. It appears that the respondents were made up of 70% women and 30% men, assuming all participants identify as cisgender within a social gender binary.

Of the respondents, 26.6% define their sexuality as a label alternative to ‘straight,’ 13.8% of which identify as bisexual/pansexual. One participant in particular identified as ‘hetero-flexible’.

Analyzing the 47 survey respondents that wrote about their sexual fantasies, the two most common fantasies described

were bondage and submission/domination. Slightly less common were lesbianism (mostly answered by woman that identify as straight), sex in public, anal play, roleplaying various scenarios, threesomes, and urolagnia.

Group sex, rape play (consensual role playing of rape), age play, sensory deprivation, female ejaculation, and BDSM (bondage, dominance and submission, sadomasochism) were the next most commonly listed fantasies.

According to the survey, three times as many women were forced into sexual activity against their will than men. But considering over twice as many women responded to the survey, I argue that in this case, the statistics are somewhat equal to each other.

Eight respondents admitted to forcing someone to engage in sexual activity while fully understanding what they were doing at the time. An additional nine respondents agreed to this statement while also marking that they have been forced into sexual activity against their will.

One question asked if each respondent knew the location of the clitoris and how to stimulate it. For respondents with a clitoris, 95.2% answered yes. Of respondents without a clitoris, a whopping 85.6% said yes.

It is natural that people with vaginas may not have experienced a vaginal orgasm, but

16.7% of such respondents said they do not know if they have had one. While this can be analyzed as normal, it can also suggest a lack of sexual education.

These respondents further answered if they were comfortable with the appearance of their vagina. 47.8% said yes, 41% said somewhat, and 11.2% said no. Students with penises were asked the same question.

68.2% said yes, 25% said somewhat, and 6.8% said no.

When given the opportunity to disclose ways that they may feel embarrassed about sex as a whole, 61 students proudly announce that they feel no embarrassment and instead embrace their body, noises, smells, and all other parts of sexual activity.

Body image came in as the largest embrrassment factor with 78 mentions, 14 of which involved smells, sounds (i.e. queefs, flatulence) and sweatiness of sex activity, and 4 of which involved pubic hair of various situations. 11 students specifically mentioned awkwardness around anal arousal, whether requested or not.

A total of 36 students disclosed their performance-based embarrassments of sex, 10 of which specifically talked about achieving an orgasm too quickly or not at all. Some students further worry about erectile performance, that expectations which pornography portray in comparison with their personal sex lives, embarrassment around dirty talk, and awkwardness of condom use.

Have something to say about these findings? Write a letter to the Arthur editors!

And stay tuned for information analysis within Trent Health Services in an upcoming Arthur issue.

Historic Red Dog events

By Rhiannon Johnson

The Historic Red Dog Pub was originally opened in 1883 as Clancy’s Hotel, and is called Peterborough’s home for live music.

The large, open space inside provides a feeling of intimacy with a capacity of 250 people. While appearing to be a sleepy pub during the day, when the sun sets on Peterborough, the Red Dog becomes a helm of musical activity providing a space for both local and out of town bands. Acts such as The Arkells, The Sheepdogs and Shaky Graves have all shared the stage with local favourites Express and Company, Dub Trinity, and Cross Dog. The pub hosts a weekly events such as Red Hot Poker, a free points league based poker tournament that begins at 7pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, sees the Vortexans cover a variety of classic rock and blue songs with two sets, the first of which begins at 10pm. Sunday Funday begins at 12pm when the bar opens hosting a $4.50 Caesar special which runs all day. At 10pm, Gregory Dowey stands takesrequests from patrons and adding a unique spin on classic songs you can’t help but sing along to.

For booking or inquires, stop by the bar between 12pm-2am or call (705) 750-1710.

Stay up to date with events by joining the Red Dog Facebook group, and following our Twitter

and Instagram.

Upcoming Events:

t Friday October 30: Express and t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t

Company with the Lohrwoods and Kayla Howran Friday October 31: Elliott Brood Sunday November 1: Seagrave Friday November 6: Bright Light Social Hour Saturday November 7: Dub Trinity a tribute to the Clash Wednesday November 11: Finger Eleven Friday November 13: The Strumbellas Saturday November 11- Verns Comb Tuesday November 17: One Bad Son Friday November 20: Psych Ward Saturday November 21: Tripsonix Friday December 4: Uptown Burlesque with musical guests The Lumbermen Wednesday November 9: White Cowbell Oklahoma Thursday December 10: Single Mothers Friday December 1: Lowest of the Low Sunday December 27: Electric 6 with Tupperware Remix Party

Volume 50 | Issue 7 | November 2, 2015

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The Future

The Future

Trent Alumni Maryam Monsef is our new MP

Trent University announces partnership with Nanjing University

All photos taken by Samantha Moss

By Zara Syed

Trent University’s launch for the International Institute for Environmental Studies brought together great speakers from around the world and locally including Trent Alumni Maryam Monsef and Jeff Leal, who are successful local politicians.

Arthur got an exclusive interview with Monsef reflecting on the election, as well as Trent University being part of her success.

What was your degree in at Trent?

Monsef: Bachelor of Science and Psychology and I also focused on Biology.

You have built a strong body of leadership and community outreach, such as the Red Pashmina Campaign. Where did you begin your journey of activism?

Monsef: It was really here at Trent that I realized I have the means and the liberties here in Canada and in Peterborough to make a difference.

I was learning from some of the best professors in the country. They mentored me. They guided me. They pushed me when I didn’t believe in myself.

They believed in me.

Look at Active Minds, for example. Had it not been for Professor Deborah Kennett eagerly and enthusiastically, supporting it and carrying it to the next level, I don’t think that Active Minds would still exist.

I don’t know if we could have secured that two-dollar levy or that if today it would be the internationally renowned student organization that it is. Her support made a world of difference.

There aren’t a lot of Canadian students who have that privilege to be so closely linked with their profs.

Trent taught me about the important

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correlation between social justice and research.

It also taught me about the importance of acting locally and thinking globally.

I had the good fortune of working with brilliant minds from all over the world.

The hundred plus different countries that come to Trent from, those international connections really opened my eyes and we got good things done together.

There’s something about these walls. The people at Trent and in Peterborough.

There’s something about the river flowing through our campus, there is something to be said for the interdisciplinary approach to learning.

I was encouraged to take courses in Philosophy and Women Studies, research in Psychology and English, and benefited from a well- rounded education. There is just something about this university!

The more I learned, the more restless I became. There are challenges and issues that need to be addressed right now.

I believed that I have had the capacity to do something about it right then. Had it not been for my mentors, I would not have known that I didn’t have to wait until convocation to make a difference.

They taught me that I didn’t have to wait until graduation to dream big and make good things happen.

How do you feel about the change in voter apathy and the political atmosphere we have experienced in the last elections?

Monsef: Well sometimes when you have a really good thing, it’s human nature to take it for granted.

It’s not until it’s taken away that you realize how fortunate you are and I think that’s what happened over the last 10 years. The privilege of being part of the democratic process, we took it for granted.

I think in some ways we reclaimed our Canada this past election. Justin Trudeau, one of my favourite moments in the past couple of weeks, and as a journalist you may appreciate this, is when he stood up for journalists who were asking those tough questions.

I saw a tweet from Terry Milewski, when Justin Trudeau was in the Press Gallery, saying something like: “That was quite special. There’s a prime minister taking questions in the National Press Theatre with a journalist chairing.”

That open and transparent government has begun. A new era in Canadian Politics.

And I know this community understands that democracy is a two way street.

It takes elected individuals to represent their constituents with integrity but it also takes the people and the citizens of the country to work with those elected officials, to hold them accountable, to achieve those ambitious goals. I hope that that’s going to be the hallmark of this era.

That collaborative approach has already begun. Elizabeth May was recently invited to the climate change summit in Paris along with the other Premiers.

We’re reclaiming Canada’s reputation on

the international stage. It is so important; there are so many people all over the world that are happy that Canada is back.

Your message for Trent Students Monsef: It’s going to be more than that piece of paper that’s going to get you a job after graduating.

It’s a great honour to be a graduate of an establishment like Trent University but you need to explore all the ways that you’re a capable leader, all the ways that you’re a creative thinker and all the ways that you’re a team player.

Those co- curricular activities are what will set you apart from other who are vying for the same opportunities you are.

And dream big.

This is a great big country and one of the best in the world. Don’t let mistakes set you back. Learn from them, work hard and stay involved, socially and politically.

Also, thank you for coming out and voting! Thank you for helping us achieve one of the highest turnouts ever in our history.

Thank you for hosting debates and meet and greets and covering it whether it was Arthur Newspaper or Trent Radio. Thank you for volunteering.

And don’t stop. Don’t stop. Because it’s our generation that has to deal with the impact of climate change. It’s our generation that is going to look after our aging parents.

It’s our generation that’s entering a new economy where that “job for life” prospect is not there as much anymore.

How does it feel to represent a generational change? What it is to be a Canadian who embodies another culture?

Monsef: Don Tapscott says this all the time, and the first time I heard him say it when he was Chancellor at Trent, at Wenjack Theatre. He looked at us and said, “You are the most powerful generation to have ever lived.”

We’re more educated, we live in relative peace and security, we benefit from democracy, and at our fingertips is the most powerful tool our species has ever known; the World Wide Web. It connects us in a way we have never been connected before.

I am what I am and everyday I strive to be better than I was yesterday. For me, I’m here in a country that so many dream of being a part of, I’m here now with an incredible privilege I owe it to the 29,159 who voted for me to make them proud.

I owe it to PeterboroughKawartha, to those who didn’t choose me, to prove to them that I’m going to be their representative too.

I owe it to the women who paved this path for me, the men that have helped me, and the young people who joined my team and invigorated our efforts.

To those who come after me I owe it to them to do my absolute best. And that’s what I’m going to do.

You are such an inspiration to people everywhere, how do you feel reaching this success at such a young age?

Monsef: Somewhere between Cloud 9 and hitting the ground running, that’s where you’ll find me. I’m really grateful in all the ways this community has supported me and the incredible confidence they have in me. I know this job is not going to be easy, I know there are a lot of expectations.

A lot of hopes and dreams have been invested in this election, and I am going to work hard to make this community proud.

In the end, the measures for success will be- Have I worked collaboratively to make a positive difference in the lives of the people of Peterborough- Kawartha?

I go to Ottawa next week, which is the beginning of orienting myself. I know there will be 183 other Liberal MPs in that caucus.

We presented the country with a really ambitious plan and I am so looking forward to achieving it with one of the most diverse parliaments we’ve ever had. Under a leader that represents the generational change we so desperately needed.

Reflecting on your campaign, what will you take with you to carry you forward?

Monsef: Let me tell you what the most inspiring part of my campaign was.

As you know, there were people across cultures, across generations, across sectors, across party lines who gave and sacrificed so much on this 166- day campaign. I owe a great deal of gratitude to them.

The people who continue to surprise me the most, who continue to keep it real for me, are the young people that joined my team.

Some of them were there since I joined the Mayor’s race, some jumped on board with the nomination race, and others came as the Federal campaign began.

It’s those kids that knocked on doors with me, who showed up to events with me, who represented me at events where I couldn’t be present. They are the generation that has the most at stake, and the least voice at the table.

Listening to them talk about the issues that matter to them the most and the environment is number one- they instinctively know that it is their generation has the greatest challenge to face (in that regard) if we don’t act now. I hope that some of those young people will be voting for the years to come.

Actually, I have a feeling we will be seeing some of their names on ballots in the years ahead. It’s those faces that I will see and reflect on when I’m making tough decisions. I hope that I pave a good path for them to follow.

By Adriana Sierra

This Saturday, October 24, Trent University hosted the launching ceremony for the International Institute for Environmental Studies on the first Saturday of reading week.

The International Institute for Environmental Studies (IIES) is an international multi-partner collaboration effort that is designed to foster research collaboration between students and faculty of member universities.

The IIES is an initiative pioneered by Trent University and Nanjing University and will potentially expand to include the University of Eastern Finland, John Hopkins University, and the University of Edinburgh amongst others.

The institute represents recognition of environmental issues as global, pressing, and trans-boundary.

It is an attempt to target environmental degradation through a collaborative, multicultural, and innovative approach, as its main function will be to facilitate the mobility of researchers to further allow for cooperation across borders.

In addition, the IIES is designed to allow collaboration and exchange of knowledge between its select member universities and institutions, government bodies, and industry partners.

The IIES will place Trent University at the forefront of environmental science and studies. Furthermore, it will provide spaces for networking and skill-building to those involved in its program.

The exclusive launching ceremony brought together an impressive array of academic and political figures.

President of Trent University Dr. Leo Groarke, Vice President International of Nanjing University Yi Pan, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and International Trade for Ontario Michael Chan, and

Mayor of the City of Peterborough Daryl Bennett, were part of the high-profile guest list.

The weekend-long event included a number of workshops on the core aspects of the IIES: environmental processes, environmental health, green technology and environmental policy. The workshops will be held annually.

However, this significant event appeared exclusive, without any press releases inviting the community on the Trent Uni-

versity website. Why was the launch of the IIES not open to students, not all over the Trent University website, newsletters, calendars, and media platforms? We can only speculate.

IIES will be made possible by significant donations, one of which has been from Trent alumnus, Justin Chiu.

Trent University’s Operating Funds have not been spent on the IIES, and the financial details are still in the works. Despite the details being unclear, the park is sure to bring great minds to Trent, fostering an exciting development for the University.

However, in order for the IIES to maintain its scientific integrity, these Industry Partners and their relationship to the research must also have full disclosure.

The production of scientific knowledge has been increasingly related to industry

and government interests rather than to the sake of knowledge itself.

Partnering with government and industry therefore raises questions on the transparency and bias within the research undertaken at the IIES. Trent University’s stride in tackling global environmental issues is countered

in failing to divest from fossil fuels, a controversy to consider for a University at the forefront of environmental sciences and studies.

IIES has the potential to address trans-boundary environmental problems and to facilitate collaboration across boarders and institutions.

Though the nature of its donors, partners, and exclusive launching event require further explanation, it appears a natural move for Trent, which is championing at second place in Canada overall primarily undergraduate category in Macleans Magazine.

It is institutions like IIES that promote collaboration and innovative approaches are indisputably needed to tackle the plethora of environmental issues that we face, and Trent University deserves merit for being at the forefront of such an initiative.

On your love life Monsef: (laughs) Peterborough now!

I’m

married

to

Volume 50 | Issue 7 |November 2, 2015

11

community

Drawing the Line returns for a secound round

All Photos by Keila MacPherson

By Keila Macpherson and Ugyen Wangmo

Just recently, “Drawing the Line” returned for its second moment. The atmosphere was entertaining and the air thick with cause – a cause to make Peterborough a safer place.

The event created a safe space to discuss ‘loudly’ the normalization of rape culture within the community – a conversation that is usually only a whisper at crisis centres or police stations.

“The night was a success with over 50 attendees and raised a fund of about $500 towards Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre (KSAC),” said Kristal Jones, the brainchild of the event.

The show this year fulfilled another great cause, which was “to make Peterborough the first UN-mandated safe city in Ontario,” Jones added. The guests signed a petition to emphasize the community’s desire to have Mayor Bennett take the necessary

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steps and be a part of the Global Safe Cities Initiative.

‘Drawing the Line’ takes its name from ‘Draw the Line Campaign’, a provincial initiative with the purpose of engaging Ontarians in a dialogue about sexual violence prevention, explains Jones.

The main objective of the event was to “raise awareness of the normalization of sexual and gender-based violence in our community openly in an public environment that encourages artists and patrons to be involved in meaningful ways,” Jones said. “Besides, these conversations should be had at public events where instances of sexual violence can, and do occur.”

In addition, it also created awareness about local campaigns and resources that support the initiative, namely HOLLABACK - a movement to end street harassment, KSAC, and COURAGE PTBO, an organization committed to addressing hate crime and street harassment in the City.

Since it started, the event has helped raise funds that have been donated directly to public education initiatives in the community, which help to de-construct the nature of rape culture, shared Jones. “Personally, I have noticed this conversation continuing in some unlikely circles, and that the climate of call-out culture is changing slowly and favourably for the better.” But it is not to say that the work is finished here, Jones stressed that “it certainly isn’t over and really it never should be.”

Talking to Arthur, Jones shared how “Drawing the Line” came to life in the first place. She experienced sexual harassment (both on-line and in person) after calling out a fellow local comedian for making jokes about rape and insinuating that he

would commit rape. The harassment included threats of rape, posts mocking her for being a survivor of rape, and members of this community barking in her face and referring to her as “rape girl”. When the justice system failed to provide any reasonable solutions after months of this type of harassment, she took her story to Facebook,

ees to use a statement explaining where they would “Draw the Line”. There was also a petition for guests to sign so Mayor Bennett could take the necessary steps to make Peterborough Ontario’s first ever UN-mandated safe city for women and girls.

The event was hosted by Jocasta Boone

and with an outpouring amount of support from hundreds of survivors and from the comedy community, “Drawing the Line” was born.

This event is important for Jones as she explained: “My abuser felt very safe within this community. He felt safe saying he would rape unconscious women, that he was dreaming of raping me. He felt safe encouraging others to join in his sexual harassment. I felt unsafe seeking support. I felt unsafe when I learned there was no legal way to make myself safer and free from this type of sexual harassment.

That is backwards, that is not okay. That needed attention. I am fortunate enough to have a supportive network of people who help me cope with my PTSD. Had someone else been the target, this situation may have ended with self harm or worse.” She stressed the prevalence of various forms of sexual harassment, and the dire need to (gradually) put an end to all of them.

The second part of “Drawing the Line” was a night that saw merriment and purpose; comedy, poetry, and musical entertainment interlaced with dialogue of a far heavier subject matter. It also included a raffle table full of prizes donated by local artists and musicians, and volunteer Keila MacPherson, a photographer who ran the photo booth and encouraged attend-

and featured music by The Faux Cults, The Crimson Maples, Tom Middleton, and Emma Keat. The night owed its comedic performances to Ray Henderson, Andrew Root, Mike Moring, Adam Martignetti, Dan Smith, Mike Judson, Kristal Jones, Zara Syed, and Kat Kendrick.

The fun didn’t stop there; it also hosted local poets such as Ezra Loyer, Yumna Sawnya, Genevieve Hinton, and Erin Mclaughlin.

The event “Draw The Line”, in support of KSAC and HOLLABACK Peterborough as sponsors by Kegi, was a night of entertainment with an even greater purpose: working towards prevention of all forms of sexual violence.

Music: show yourself!

By James Kerr

When I was a kid, I asked my grandfather what his favourite music was and he gave me a puzzling answer.

First, he groaned and huffed and shuffled his feet under his rocking chair, then he told me: “I don’t like the music you could get from tapes, it sounds dead to me.”

My grandfather didn’t like prerecorded music?!

My young mind felt like a cassette tape spitting its magnetized strip.

What other kind of music was there?

To me, music came from stored mediums, or from the radio. A song was recorded because that was the scientifically ‘perfect’ form of the song, obviously, because that was what was decided to be the True Representation of that song.

It bothered me to even listen to live versions of a song I knew because I couldn’t imagine why an artist would choose to change things in slight ways rather than keep everything exactly the way it was demonstrated to be best. It made sense.

Beyond my sister’s horrific violin

recital, which certainly constituted something more like family-obligated torture music wasn’t live. Music was a static, reliable, unchanging thing.

Why would you screw that up with a fuzzy-logical sense of… “art”?

My recording-bias opinion stayed pretty much the same until I was in second-year at Trent University, when my musical world was rocked. A lone musician touring between Toronto and Ottawa was staying on my friend’s couch, and they threw an event while he was there.

I didn’t know what a ‘House Concert’ would entail, but, like all the best events in life, I was unwillingly dragged there by a friend.

Turns out a House Concert amounted to Some Guy musician sitting on my friend’s couch with an acoustic guitar, and belting out songs about growing old, about his niece, and about a building on fire he once witnessed. I think I was sitting on a footstool, and the living room was crammed with people.

It was the most amateurish arrangement my critical brain could imagine, but as I listened to Some Guy and his guitar, it sounded so amazing, so… “living”, that I quickly came to understand that I had

misunderstood music.

As much as I love me some pre-recorded music, Neil Young will always cough during the same bar in “Heart of Gold”.

Freddie Mercury will always sing into the very same note shapes, like his very own sing-a-long.

My old Graceland vinyl record will always skip in the same places.

Sure, a recording can be a wonderful document, but this house concert dethroned for me the notion that it was the epitome of music. It didn’t matter who Some Guy was, or how good his music was - it was the playing, it was the living of the music, that’s what shook me. I suppose I had to understand what a ‘living sound’ felt like before I could hear how ‘dead’ pre-recorded music can be.

Over the next few weeks, with fear flashing in front of my eyes, my shyness almost overwhelming, I summoned the courage to venture into downtown Peterborough to hear some live shows, and there, I discovered a whole new world of activity.

It was noisy, it was flawed, it was crowded, it was smelly, and it was…glorious. For

community the first time, I felt like I was part of some living musical organism. The older denizens of Peterborough often tell me that in this town in the 1970s, it cost $5 to get into a show and the beer was less than a dollar.

Now, it still costs $5 to get into a show, and beer certainly isn’t less than a dollar. Live music in Peterborough, I found, was as amazing as it was unappreciated. This isn’t just background noise. It isn’t just a performance. Live music is a real and living ritual in which you should be involved.

It’s not perfect and that’s what’s great about it. Musicians don’t have to be perfect and they don’t have to be poor either.

That’s just the choice we show-goers make when we Pay What We Can at the door.

I encourage you to support the live music in your community. I certainly feel like it’s changed me for the better and someday, when someone asks me what my favourite music is, I’ll be able to tell them how I feel now.

I’ll remember my grandfather, and paraphrasing him a little, I’ll say: “I like music that people play when I’m in the same room. It sounds alive to me.”

Bras around the building for breast cancer awareness

By Jenny Fisher

In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Country 105/Energy 99.7 Studio, located on George Street, was covered in over 6,500 bras. This October was the fifth anniversary of the event, and saw the collection of more bras than any of the

four years before.

This year, the bra-covered building collected over $13,000, and still counting, to donate towards the Canadian Cancer Society. All this had been done thanks to the generosity of OLG Slots at Kawartha and a lot of local business and community donors.

After the event, the bras will be cleaned and donated to an organization called Bras For The Congo.

Vince Bierworth, Promotions Coordinator and Trent Alumni, explained exactly how much covering a building with bras could benefit a community.

“The idea initially started as an attempt to accomplish two things,” Bierworth explained. The first was “to create an event that raised much needed funds and awareness, utilizing the large audience both radio stations have, to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society for Breast Cancer Research.”

The second goal was to “create a great visual event that makes a statement and gets people talking about the cause.” Seeing over 6,500 very colourful bras hanging from a very prominent building in downtown is hard to miss, and at the very least, will prompt people to ask, “what is going on?”

It’s a fun, quirky idea that raises money and awareness for a very serious issue that affects many in our community. Not only has this idea benefited Peterborough, but now “the event has, for the first time this year, extended beyond Peterborough with a ‘Bras Around The Building’ event on the same day in Lindsay,” Bierworth shared.

He continued to say that the bra show is all “about using the power of the media we have to do some good in our community and help those individuals and families affected by Breast Cancer during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.”

Bierworth described, “Every time I looked out the window after we hung the

bras, I saw people stopped on the street, pulling into our parking lot, or standing in Del Crary Park taking photos of the building. Many people have come in off the street asking about what was going on. And after explaining it to them, many left a donation. Traffic on George Street in front of our building definitely slowed down for a look at the building after we hung the bras. We’re sorry if it took a little longer to get home that day”.

“As I was actively involved in creating the spectacle of bras hanging from our studio, I’m proud of the money we raised, the awareness we created, and the people that will be helped from our efforts,” Bierworth said. He also wanted to make sure to give thanks to everyone: “On behalf of Country 105 and Energy 99.7, along with the Canadian Cancer Society, I would like to thank everyone who made a donation and/or volunteered their time and energy to make this event happen. It continues to be a great success because of the people who rally behind it.”

Volume 50 | Issue 7 | November 2, 2015

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community

Trent Fashion Show!

By Reba Harrison

have many talents and create great connections.

Second designer to debut on the evening’s runway was Peterborough local Kathryn Bahun. Bahun’s store Blackbird Pie was featuring its latest collection of fun autumn and winter wear for the season.

“Blackbird Pie is clothing for your urban fairytale. With a nod to vintage styling, pieces are playful yet bold, innocent yet badass,” Harrison read on the runway. She added the store address as Slice of Blackbird Pie on Etsy.com.

The runway became the scene of a vogue cottage getaway with the sight of Bahun’s capes, skirts, and dresses. The greys, blues, and reds reminded the audience of the brisk wind and beautiful colours that would be seen again come sunrise.

Last on the runway was the two-part collection of Toronto fashion designer and interior designer Keren Milman. She is also the founder of Simply White Life Design Group in Toronto and is an artistic painter.

Flowing dresses, bright colours, soft fabrics, and oversized necklaces took to the runway, pulling the audience back into the memories of summer past. The free size designs flattered all body sizes of the event, and the happy colours were an ideal transition into a final model walkout.

Harrison reminded the audience that the models of Trent Fashion Show are students as they take turns posing one last time for the camera – sometime in a goofy manner!

Having raised $245 during the single intimate show, Harrison thanked her team members Megan McIlvenna, Morgan Smith, Charlotte Hannah, and Melissa Salvadori. The models immediately began to help clean up as they mingled with the audience by the refreshment table.Their next show is a 19+ runway event at Sapphire Room on January 21.

Photography by Paisley Spence

On the evening of Thursday, October 15, Peterborough’s Artspace on Aylmer St. held the first runway event of the academic year for Trent Fashion Show. The intimate audience of 25 picked up goodie bags as local musician James Higgins played an acoustic performance on the runway.

The show opened with an artistic dance piece about homelessness by local artist Wes Ryan. The theme is appropriate, as the annual goal of Trent Fashion Show is to raise money for the YES Shelter for Youth and Families on Brock St. In her introduction, director Reba Harrison mentioned that the shelter is an important issue to her and the Trent Fashion Show ‘family’.

The awareness of social issues did not stop there. Trent Student Sarah Jennings recently lost her boyfriend Jake Stanley.

Stanley was a talented young boxer and to highlight the upcoming ameuter boxing event, Jennings walked the runway in a shirt designed to Stanley’s passing. Model manager Melissa Salvadori held Jennings’ hand down the runway as a sign of support.

The boxing event will be taking place November 7 at The Venue. Tickets are $20 in advance at 705-876-0008 with all proceeds benefiting Team55, a suicide prevention group.

The first collection on the runway presented cozy, neutral pieces that carried with them a sense of thriftiness. ‘Knit Pick’ is the collection of director Harrison, also the owner and designer of NoRegretsFashion.com. The collection was the work of reorganizing the fabrics of knit clothing from the Free Market of Sadleir House’s basement.

Harrison explains that the purpose of the collection was to remind the audience about the importance of recycling material. Model Said Jiddawy assisted her in sewing as Harrison was occupied with event planning. It is common, said Harrison, for the members of the Trent Fashion Show to

Meet the team: Morgan Smith What is your major and year?

Third year Concurrent Education student - Double Major in Anthropology and English What is your position in Trent Fashion Show and have long have you be involved?

Media manager (First year as part of committee).

Why are you a member of the Trent Fashion Show?

I am sympathetic to the needs of others, whether that be supporting local talent or raising awareness for sensitive matters. The Trent Fashion show allows me to combine these two areas of interest into one!

What is your favourite memory or favourite part of the Trent Fashion Show group?

So far my favourite memory would have to be meeting likeminded people!

What are your long-term goals after you graduate Trent University?

I don’t know what my future holds beyond my undergrad but I can’t wait to find out!

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Arts&Culture

24 hours of mania and creation in local theatre

By Dane Shumak

Ask any theatre creator what they wish they had more of, and the answer (perhaps after “money”) would be time.

And yet, every year, a group of five writers, five directors, and a large number of actors seek to circumvent that in what might be the most manic undertaking of local theatre creativity in a Kawartha region that’s filled to the brim with activity each year. It’s a viewing experience completely unique from all others, and is not to be missed.

“The project is five plays, written, rehearsed, and then performed at the end of 24 hours,” explained project founder Ray Henderson. Ray goes on to explain how he got the idea from a traveller from New York City, talking about recent crop-up projects of 24-hour plays.

Always looking for new projects to bring to the Peterborough community, Ray launched the 24 Hour Project. By its second run through, it sold out.

Now the 24 Hour Project, known now by the moniker “The Project,” is approaching its 30th run through, and has reached a number of different iterations, including to local high schools, and with a spin-off for musicians.

“You have to be crazy in general to do a project like this,” said Andrew Root, the creator of the recent Peterborough success, “Crime City”, a monthly serial radio drama, performed live. Andrew is a first-time writer and returning actor, who this year is pulling double duty in what is affectionately known as a Dan Smith Double (named after long-time colleague of Ray’s, Dan Smith, who has written and performed in numerous Projects). “The rush you get from anything as high-wire as the 24 Hour Project is pretty addictive, so why not take that to the next level?” Andrew says about his choice to pull double duty.

Returning director, Sarah Tye, agreed with Andrew. “The best thing about the Project is the frantic, creative energy of the day, and the fun people you get to create

with! It’s exhilarating to have such a limited time to put together something great that will only be performed once.” Sarah also talked about the exciting challenges of working within the time frame, “[It’s] so different from how I usually direct...

I learned my first year directing that I needed to be okay with lines and blocking not being perfect... There just isn’t the time for that.”

Alessandra Ferreri, veteran writer, is returning from Toronto this year to write in the show. In her fourth year as a writer, she explained, “It’s probably the most thrilling 24 hours you’ll ever have. You never really know what you’re going to end up with at show time, which means you get to experience the night as both an audience member and as part of the creation.” Often, directors and actors take what they’re given from writers and twist it on its head, using the 24-hour timeline as a boon to explore beyond what would normally be acceptable or executed in a full production process.

So, what can you expect to see as an audience member?

“This is only my third year directing, and both of my previous plays have been so different,” Tye explained. “Year one was poking fun at the whole Rob Ford craziness (and it was super political and wordy), and last year was a post-apocalyptic action play about corporations taking over the world.”

As a director, you never know what to expect from the minds of writers with only 10 or so hours to work. Andrew said, “I’m looking to write the kind of show that is so stupid, it’s kind of smart, and bonkers enough that people will overlook its flaws. I would like it to be impossible to reproduce under any other circumstances because good taste would not allow it. But, y’know, classy.”

Lyndele Gauci, who is a long-time performer and also pulling double duty as a writer/performer this year said, “I’m going to have fun with it. I’m going to create a fun piece, pulling from what I find enjoyable and entertaining from an audience perspective. Of course, knowing

that one of the rules is to not write anything down before the night of, my ideas have fluctuated a lot!”

As an audience member, you’re brought along on the journey, and it becomes unforgettable watching the actors and creators cheer each other on through the absolute craziness.

For Ray Henderson, it’s another exciting

milestone. “When it’s all over, it’s a giant love fest and such a strong sense of community bonding. It’s also my son’s first Project. It should be pretty awesome.”

And after all, the best thing about Peterborough theatre is that you get to be a part of the family, whether you’re a creator or an audience member. It only takes... well, about 24 hours.

Academy for Circus Arts presents: Circus Stellar

By Keila MacPherson

Just because Reading Week is over, doesn’t mean the fun and entertainment has to stop! Take a break from studying and writing essays to watch a spectacular show put on by the members of Peterborough’s very own circus group.

On November 5 at 7:30pm, and on November 6 at 1pm and 7:30pm, the Peterborough Academy of Circus Arts (PACA) is showcasing their talent in the show Circus Stellar at Market Hall.

Circus Stellar is going to have an outof-this-world, outer space theme to it.

It will display the talent of performers that range in skill from beginner to seasoned circus artists.

There will also be a performance by someone from The National Circus School of Montreal, and many other award-winning displays.

PACA is a non-profit organization founded by Thomas Vaccaro after he moved to Peterborough from the United States in 2008. They receive funding from fundraisers, foundations such as Participaction, and local organizations such as Theatre Trent.

Vaccaro places a lot of importance on PACA having a collective and communitydriven feel to it. This is why he decided to go in the non-profit direction for the organization.

Also, circus arts in Peterborough seem to have always been rooted in community activities.

“Wandering around the city, I came across some friends, or people I came to know very well, and they were part of the Peterborough Circus Arts Jam […] a Trent University Club where they would hoop or use poi or juggle or just do very interesting things,” Vaccaro shared.

He trained at the National Circus School of Montreal and is now passing on his knowledge in aerial arts to kids that are interested.

“We do have weekly aerial lessons that are taught by Opal on Wednesdays right here in Market Hall. She has two

classes that are open to adults. I teach aerial lessons to kids every Friday at the Peterborough PAC,” he shared.

Along with lessons, Circus Jams are held weekly at PACE. They run from 8pm to 9:30pm. “[A]nybody in the community can show up, pick up a circus toy, just listen to music, and play around. We socialize for the first 45 minutes while playing, and the last 45 minutes are silent so that people can really either find different ways to communicate or really get in their own kind of flow-zone, or both,” explained Vaccaro.

Along with classes and Circus Jams, Vaccaro said he was looking into creating a program for senior residents of Peterborough, since there is a large retired population in town.

Whether you have always been fascinated by circus performances, such as Cirque Du Soleil, or if it is somewhat of a new interest, Circus Stellar is going to be a great show to watch, have some fun, and support local talent.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $17 for the matinee show on November 6 and $8 for children under 12 years old. They can be bought at the Market Hall box office or online at tickets.markethall.org.

For more information about PACA, go to: www.academyofcircus.org.

Volume 50 | Issue 7 | November 2, 2015

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arts

Movie review: Beasts of No Nation(2015)

With the rise of Netflix came the fall of video rental stores - other than the odd convenience chain that still clings to the practice of yesteryear. And while it would be easy to talk about Netflix’s dominance over the home entertainment industry, as everyone is talking about it, it’s safe to assume that most readers needn’t read anything on the subject at all. It’s a world that we’ve been living in since 2010, when the streaming service touched down in Canada.

The service is thriving and giving Hollywood home distribution a run for its money, we get it, but as of October 16, Netflix has targeted the studio’s pièce de résistance. With the release of their first feature film Beasts of No Nation, Netflix has gone after the movie theater, but I can’t help but wonder if they took a big enough risk.

In many ways Beasts of No Nation is a rallying call for the Hollywood anti-establishment. The film features an entirely black cast, many of them quite young, and many of whom have never acted before.

This is a welcome departure from child actors who were trained to smile in Welch’s grape juice commercials, and it lends to a welcome sense of realism that serves as its story’s foundation. Beasts of No Nation

Hollywood at Home is a weekly column by filmmaker, writer, and critic Keith Hodder that highlights the variety of films and television programs that Netflix has to offer, along with recommendations of what to watch next and his opinions on the world of entertainment. Follow him @KeithHodder and feel free to suggest a film. follows a young boy who is taken from his community to become a child soldier, leading him into his country’s heart of darkness.

The studios would have been afraid to touch it. They’d draw up their bar graphs and reference demographics to confirm that audiences today would have no interest in such a story. We’d been fed a healthy diet of superhero films and CGI-dinosaurs and we’ve yet to piece together that what we’ve been eating is nothing more than sugary cereal that, while providing sustenance, is still rotting our teeth away.

This film has weight, it has a message, and it’s worth the watch for those ideas alone, but with that said, it fails to do something new.

At the end of the day, Beasts of No Nation has followed in the footsteps of its independent predecessors. It explores a story that Hollywood usually wouldn’t vouch for, other than when the film receives praise and makes its way to the Oscars to become a “Hollywood success story”. Other than Idris Elba (Prometheus, Luther) who is used as bait to draw audiences in, the rest of the cast are newcomers to the medium

and that is an exciting trend. Where Beasts and Netflix fails is that this story has been seen and told before on many occasions, and while stories have been repeated since their inception, what makes them different is how they’re told, how they’re executed.

There is nothing unique and surprisingly outstanding in Beasts of No Nation, but there is nothing noticeably horrible about it either. Other than its attempts to shock and awe, which fall flat, the rest of the film does what it sought out to do.

The performances aren’t bad or good, they simply exist and the actors do their jobs. I imagine this is making me come across as caustic, but I simply had higher expectations for this film because of its ties to Netflix.

Here there was a chance to go above and beyond, to show audiences that something exists outside of Hollywood and that we can be better storytellers. This was a chance to push the boundaries of entertainment and open the doors to a new age of filmmaking.

Maybe they’re playing it safe. Elba’s involvement lends to that belief, the thought that audience members still require

any idea what the real Steve Jobs was like.

There have been plenty of articles written about the accuracy and authenticity of the film. The real people who worked with Jobs have their own opinions. Some positive, some negative. They seem like fine articles and fine people. I have no reason to doubt them.

But that public outcry sort of encompasses what’s so brilliant about Sorkin’s particular version of Jobs. He feels so real it’s easy to take from him what you want, what you like and dislike - objective or not, just like it is with any real person. Just like it is with a friend or a colleague, it’s rarely so cut and dry.

In fact, in all likelihood I’m just projecting my own feelings about the character into this piece. After all, I’m just a guy, with his own unique brand of clouded thinking.

This particular screen incarnation of Jobs is like a canvas onto which you can project whatever thematic inferences you want.

It’s that lack of easy answers that I find most engrossing about Steve Jobs. That complication of the word genius.

The film itself has a pretty unique structure. It’s told in three acts, each in real-time in the moments just prior to one of Jobs’ big product launches. Within those three acts are several recurring storylines. His strained relationship with his daughter, his almost paternal association with former Apple CEO John Sculley, and, of course, his friendship with Steve Wozniak along with their frequent sparring sessions.

Much of it, I’m sure, is nonsense, at least when it comes to the nuts and bolts; the who and the where and the when. Somehow I doubt that poor Steve had the time for all these existential discussions, with the same handful of people, every time he launched his next make or break product. But the arguments and themes held therein help build that enigmatic character that gives the film its depth and, hopefully, paint a decent picture of who the man actually was. It felt like it did anyway.

Steve Jobs very much sounds like a Sorkin film, which means I can’t imagine the script could be less than 180 pages. The dialogue is sharp and rapid fire, with its writer’s characteristic rhythm. Most people who pay any attention to these sort of things probably already have their own opinion about Sorkin’s style, so take from that what you will, but he finds some truly touching moments tucked within that trademark banter. It took all I had to only ruin one of a handful of hauntingly brilliant lines from the film.

Danny Boyle, for his part, finds ways to inject the bland auditorium dressing rooms and backstage hallways with remarkable life. With workmanlike proficiency he captures the energy of Sorkin’s script while coaxing some great performances out of his actors.

Speaking of which, the cast is superb.

To borrow a phrase from the film (because the temptation was too much and now I’m ruining two lines), there are only A-players

some recognizable face value before we can commit to a film. But isn’t that such a traditional way of seeing things? Wouldn’t it be amazing to see a slate of films and from a ground-breaking company like Netflix that doesn’t feel like it’s shackled to Hollywood’s ankle?

Wouldn’t it blow the industry’s mind to know that there is a popular venue that is showcasing films from across the world that tell stories better than Hollywood ever could and with shoestring budgets that put the studios’ spend-sprees to shame? Maybe that’s wishful thinking, but after all, we’re the ones paying for the tickets and subscribing…

I’m keen to see what this release means for cinema in general, and though Netflix is somewhat secretive about their viewership numbers, I’m interested to know how this release measured up against the weekend’s box office. What’s interesting is that the numbers don’t necessarily matter to Netflix as much as they do to the studios.

Netflix already has their paycheck, we’ve subscribed, and even if no one watches the film they’re still watching something.

Studios simply cannot compete with that structure.

Film criticism is also an interesting conundrum. As a critic myself I’m conflicted as to whether the Netflix output should be compared to those of studios.

Beast’s modest low budget of 6 million dollars isn’t much in terms of the financial backing that is driving Hollywood. Is that to say that their limited resources limited Beasts of No Nation? I’m not too sure, but my problem with the film is not in the production design or in its use of talent, but rather in the story itself and that it fails to pull any punches and create a unique viewing experience.

Netflix did indeed go for the jugular with this new direction, but their bark was far more potent that their bite.

Movie review: Steve Jobs and the genius myth

By Brian Lukaszewicz

I’m skeptical of genius.

It’s not that I don’t believe it exists. There are some very bright people in this world.

It’s just that when that word gets tossed around, it tends to be in its most reductive form. It takes out all the luck, timing, and failure that usually accompanies some great accomplishment and boils it down to a simple myth: that it was all the unmistakable destiny of some great individual.

In what could very well be the thesis statement of the entire film, a disgruntled Steve Wozniak says late into Steve Jobs, the most recent biopic of its titular character (this time with the pedigree of an Aaron Sorkin script and the sure hand of Danny Boyle behind the camera), “It’s not binary.”

Was Jobs a creative original or an opportunist who knew how to find talent? A savvy businessman or the beneficiary of some very fortunate timing? A caring friend and father or an egomaniac who made the people around him miserable?

The truth is probably that he was all of these things. At the end of every genius is a human being. Jobs was no exception. Fallible. Subject to his own biases, ego, and a unique brand of clouded thinking. He was a magnificently brilliant guy and he was also very, very lucky. He had a way of failing up…

Of course, all of these superlatives and observations are my own. I don’t know if they’re what Sorkin intended nor do I have

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here. Michael Fassbender, while lacking a physical resemblance to Jobs, is magnetic in the lead role. More surprisingly though was Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, stealing the show from a supporting cast that also includes Jeff Daniels and Kate Winslet. I could have watched an entire film’s worth of the dynamic between Steve and Woz; they were that good together.

According to Wikipedia (because when I do research, I do it right), there have been five different biopics/documentaries released about Steve Jobs in the five years since his death. By all accounts, that seems excessive. Yet, given what I’ve seen from Sorkin and company, I feel the need to say it – I’m glad there was a sixth.

Arts

Wayne Kennedy: creator of $2 shows at The Spill

By Tyler Majer

The Peterborough Punk Prince doesn’t even live in Peterborough. He lives in Port Hope. Wayne Kennedy is a pretty rad guy.

Wayne is the creator and promoter of The Spill’s $2 Punk Shows, and is launching an independent folk-punk record label in the spring with his friend and fellow musician, James Higgins. His label should be up and running by the spring, but before you go scouring for records, read Wayne’s conversation with me about Peterborough, the $2 Punk Shows, and his sound.

How did the Punk Shows get started, and what was the original vision for them?

Well, originally, it started with my band Television Warfare [who] had a show booked here in February 2013. It was supposed to be our album release, like an E.P. release show, and due to us being dumb, idiotic people, we didn’t get the album done. And I didn’t wanna cancel the show, so I just said, “Let’s just throw a $2 punk show.” That’s legit how it started. And then that night was huge! It was just one of those things that you can’t stop, you gotta do another one. It was my way, my band hosted, [and] we closed out the night; it was our way of practicing in front of an audience.

We did that for about seven months. In August 2013 was the last show that year.

A year and half went by, and people kept asking me when the $2 shows were gonna come back. Then in October 2014, I messaged Dave Toby (owner of The Spill), and said, “Hey, do you wanna do them again?”

And he said, “yeah,” so we schedule in every second Friday of every month, and now we have a huge thing going. The vision was [just] I realized that this was a throwback to a lot of the punk shows in the ‘80s – two bucks, spray-painted banners and stuff, so I guess this is kind of an homage to that.

What do you think the Punk Shows add to the Peterborough music scene that was lacking before?

I think it adds consistency. There’s al-

ways something. There’s always a show every month at least. These shows aren’t competition. I support all bands as much as I can. Even outside of the Punk genre, Peterborough has a got a very rich mix of fuckin’ music. It just helps keep it consistent. I think it helps the Punk music scene out because some months, there aren’t any more Punk Shows, and there’s only one, so it’s a constant “just keeping it going.”

Do you think Peterborough needs Punk, compared to other cities?

I don’t know if it’s a matter of needing or wanting. I think that clearly with the attendance, Peterborough wants punk shows.

Maybe I’m fucking crazy, and people just like it because it’s two bucks and they can get drunk.

But I think, clearly with the shows this year, that Peterborough wants punk. Which is great. Cameron from Piss Locusts put on shows; Katie Green puts on shows sometimes. I love seeing that. It’s nice and Peterborough seems to love it. They pay two bucks here and they still got $18 in their wallet to get beer.

Well, with my stuff, it’s just me writing songs Acoustically, solo. The thing with me is people will tell me, like, “You’re not really folk.” And I’m not. I don’t think I’m folk at all. It’s literally as if I were to write songs for a band, these would be the songs, and I’m just playing them in a stripped down manner.

It’s like a band where, if the singer does a solo set… that’s the idea. I still play really fast, I still yell a lot. It’s just easier because I can play a show on the fly if I’m free.

Can you name some influences so the readers can get a basis for your sound?

A big one is Against Me, I really love the singer’s acoustic stuff. I don’t necessarily sound like that. Joey Cape, the singer from Lagwagon. Tony Sly (No Use For a Name), and then I like a lot of full bands.

Black Flag, The Descendents. I bring a lot of the full bands into the music, try and make it a little more thrashy with the music. Against Me is one of the biggest ones.

If I could write songs like that, that would be the goal. I would write songs exactly like that. *laughs*

What does Peterborough have in the music scene that other cities don’t?

Is there a type of band or a type of sound that you look for when you book people?

Enthusiasm. 100% enthusiasm. The biggest thing every band says when they play [is] they love the reaction of the crowd and the participation. That’s the biggest thing. I do the shows in Oshawa now, and Oshawa is great, too.

We get big numbers, lots of people come out, but Oshawa is a little different; there will be a group of people kinda at the front moshing, and then a bigger group in the front just standing. It’s not because they don’t like the music, it’s just the city. It’s a reserved kinda attitude maybe, I don’t know.

But Peterborough – definitely, people go nuts here. I see people crowd surfing at the shows sometimes. Peterborough definitely does enthusiasm.

Honestly, I look for bands that are in it for fun. I like bands that wanna have fun, because when you have bands that wanna book, and they want money… There’s nothing wrong with that. I have the utmost respect for any band that can do that, and get a paycheck from this. That’s the dream.

[But] I love bands that wanna have fun, that if at the end of the night, I hand them $40, they’re thrilled and grateful to have a packed room to play for. That’s gas in the tank, and they’re happy for that.

So, tell us a little bit about your own music, define it, and talk about it.

What are some of your favourite Peterborough bands? I don’t know if you should answer that question…

You’re gonna paint a fuckin’ target on my back with that one. I won’t say anything bad about any band whatsoever. I may have my opinions of things, but I won’t talk shit

about any band. I tell people to get out and support any band that they can, and that isn’t some sort of hokey tagline or anything.

Bands that really stand out to me are artists like Garbageface, because you know he’s very different. For a town where, you know, you’ve got your university indierock bands, which are all phenomenal, but then you’ve got those kind of obscure kinda things, and then you’ve got Garbageface, who is just totally unique. Maybe I’m misinformed on all of the other Peterborough doom rappers, but I love seeing him play a lot. I honestly haven’t come across a [single] Peterborough band that I don’t like.

That’s what I love about Peterborough. For a smaller city, there is a lot of music. There are still artists that I’m discovering on a day-to-day basis that I didn’t even know existed here. And that’s what I like about here, you are constantly finding something new. It’s cool.

Finally, what’s your favourite alcoholic drink? Beer and non-beer. I ask everyone at the end.

I don’t drink much beer, but when I do, I drink PBR because I have been told it’s just beer-flavored water and it’s cheap. And all the cool kids drink PBR. My favourite other drink would have to be Rye and Ginger because that’s just fucking classy. So fucking classy.The next $2 Punk Show is coming on Friday, November 13 at The Spill.

Make sure to check out Wayne’s monthly punk shows, usually held on the second Friday of each month, and keep a look out for any Folk You in the Face releases.

Steph Macpherson discusses her new album: Stones Yumna Leghari

Stephanie Macpherson hails from Vancouver, and has recieved the Vancouver Island Music Award’s Artist of the year award. Macpherson stopped by to discuss her new album, Stones, before heading to Trent Radio for a live set and interview. With down to earth folky vibes, and hard hitting lyrics, Macpherson’s tunes hit you right in the feels. Macpherson played at The Garnet en route to Ottawa for her promotional tour.

How have your travels been so far?

We spent the weekend vacationing in Montreal, and that was a lot of fun. Our Toronto show was great. We’ve been flying and taking trains. We got to reconnect with many people who we didn’t know had relocated from the West to Toronto. It’s been good!

When did you realize music was central to your life?

My parents realized it was going to be central to my life when I started singing along to Disney movies. They put me in voice and piano lessons when I was 4.

I picked up a guitar in High School and started song writing. So, I don’t remember a time when it wasn’t a big part of my life.

It’s been a coping mechanism and a source of fun, for as long as I can remember.

Who would you say you are influenced by?

I listened to a lot of Kathleen Edwards when I was writing this record, and Fleetwood Mac. I love Wilco. We listened to a Dawes album a lot while writing this album. I really like a lot of the Americana -folk-style.

What are the differences between Bells and Whistles [debut album] and Stones?

Stones is more mellow and somber. It’s more organic. Bells and Whistles had more pop influence, it had a cleaner sound.

What is your lyrical process like?

It doesn’t feel like a process of any kind.

I t’s almost like writing in a diary, but outloud and all at once. The words will come to me in fragmented sentences that somehow work together as a whole. Sometimes I sit down and write it all as a story.

It’s a pretty intermingled process. There is a song on the album called Cerulean Blue, which I wrote because I was seeing someone and asked him to give me a word or a colour, and he said Cerulean Blue, and I was like, you couldn’t just say purple? I couldn’t write it, and then I wrote the one phrase, “You move like a lost balloon,” not thinking it had anything to do with the song. Then things ended with us, and I sat down and remembered those words, and the rest just flowed out like it was already happening but I didn’t know it yet. My subconscious notifies my brain that it’s time to write, like, “here’s the thing that you know about yourself but didn’t want to admit yet.”

Ha! How do you feel about the recent elections?

There have been some encouraging first steps I think. He used the press gallery for the first time in seven years.

I woke up one morning and he was making a speech from the press gallery.

What are some struggles you’ve faced on the road?

I think the biggest struggle is finding session players who know my music, and making sure the sound remains consistant.

It’s hard to find a flow and have it sound the way it does on the album live, when new people are learning the tracks.

How was the Canadian music community treated you?

It’s unique. I’ve spent time all over Canada, and for me, it’s been very supportive.

I have never had trouble booking gigs and finding other artists to collaborate with.

There are a lot of us here in Canada being creative and trying to make something new. I’m meeting a musician I met on the road in Ottawa for a drink soon. Might pop in on Trudeau, and be like, hey buddy, let’s talk Arts!

Volume 50 | Issue 7 | November 2, 2015

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life

Hot dish: caramel apples Make sure the caramel and milk emulsify totally by mixing vigorously.

3. While the caramel is microwaving wash and dry the apples. Push one of the popsicle sticks into the bottom of each apple firmly. Prepare a flat plate with some wax paper or plastic wrap so the caramel doesn’t stick.

4. One at a time, roll the apples in the caramel until they are completely covered.

Then, place them on the plate in the fridge.

The faster you get each apple in the fridge the more even the coating will be.

Let them sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and voila your very own caramel apples.

By Marina Wilke

Don’t you wish these glistening caramel coated beauties were chilling in your fridge? All it takes to complete this recipe (and I use the word recipe loosely) is a bowl, a spoon and a microwave. So use up those leftover caramels from Halloween, or buy them half price and get your sugar buzz on.

Ingredients: 4-5 apples (depending on size) 50 caramels, unwrapped 3 Tbsp. milk or cream 5 popsicle sticks Instructions: 1. Unwrap all the caramels. You may want to get a friend to help because this takes forever.

2. Put the caramels and milk in a

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microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute then stir. Microwave for 1 more minute and mix again. If the caramels are still chunky

at this point continue microwaving and stirring in 30 second intervals. It shouldn’t take more than 3 minutes.

Hint: If you don’t have a microwave you can melt the caramels and milk on the stovetop, but I caution you to keep the heat low and stir constantly to avoid burning the precious caramel.

Advertisement

Volume 50 | Issue 7 | November 2, 2015

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listings: Want your event in the paper? Send yours to listings@trentarthur.ca

classifieds ELECTRIC CITY GARDENS offers a 40% STUDENT DISCOUNT

on all Entrees. Daily changing menu featuring lovingly prepared seasonally-inspired dishes. Can cater to any special dietary requirements (vegan, gluten-free, etc) and culinary cravings. (Advanced notice appreciated for menu alterations).

ECG offers attentive service in an intimate setting. Find us on Facebook.L.G.B.T. friendly. LLBO Licensed. Reservations strongly recommended: 705-749-1909.

Interested in learning to play Guitar, Ukulele or Bass? Take Lessons with Nick Ferrio at Hank to Hendrix Guitar Co. Personalized one-on-one instruction for beginners or intermediate players. Contact: 705-768-7544 or nicholas.ferrio@gmail.com Academic Mentoring Needs Math Mentors! If you’re interested in a volunteer opportunity of approximately one hour a week helping another student, consider applying to be an academic mentor in math or any other subject. The academic mentoring program is a mentormatching service that matches students with mentors with expertise in the subject with which they need help. Mentors help “mentees” work through course concepts and demonstrate good academic practice while gaining valuable volunteer experience. The minimum qualification of an academic mentor is an average of 75%. Visit us: www.trentu.ca/peermentoring Standard First Aid with CPR and AED: November 7-8, 14-15, 21-22, 28-29. 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Applewood Manor, 1500 Lansdowne Street, West.

November 14, 21, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. or November 24, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Applewood Manor, 1500 Lansdowne Street, West.

Clubs & Groups Volunteer with B!ke: Low on gold?

Pay for your bike with experience points! Level up your mechanical skills by volunteering in our teaching shop to earn experience points, then put your skills to use by refurbishing a bike from our dungeon! Collect 100 points in the shop and the bike is yours!

For more information or to register for the EarnABike Programme, contact B!KE at jeff@communitybikeshop.org.

LOCAL

A free tour of Peterborough’s Living History Museum, Hutchinson House. See inside one of Peterborough’s oldest houses. Bake and eat cookies in the old kitchen and learn about Peterborough’s history!

Meet at 1:30pm. 270 Brock Street.

To register, contact Caitlin: caitlin@nccpeterborough.ca Artisan Dreams: Nov 6 & 7, 10:30 3:30.Peterborough Public Library 345 AYlmer St N. Local artists and artisans. Free admission, Free prizes. Also, Wheelchair-accessible artisansdreaming.weebly.com 30 Craft Market: Nov 14 & 15, 10:30 - 3:00 pm. Rubidge Retirement Residence. 246 Rubidge St. Local artisans and crafters. All handmade 1/2 of everything is under $30 Free admission. Wheelchair-acccessible..Free prizes: buyhandmade.ca

30 Craft Market: Dec 4 & 5, 11 3:30 pm. Sadlier House (Hobbs) 751 George St N. Local artisans and crafters. All handmade. 1/2 of everything is under $30. Free admission. Wheelchair-acccessible.. Free prizes: buyhandmade.ca The Seasoned Spook Harvest Feast: Thursday November 12th at 6:30pm.

Held at the Seasoned Spoon Cafe. $20 for students, $25 for non-students. Join the Seasoned Spoon Café and the Trent Vegetable Gardens in celebrating the harvest season.

This full dinner fundraiser will feature fresh, fall veggies, grown right here on campus! Be prepared for an evening of delightful delicacies, entertainment and more! All proceeds will go to Trent Vegetable Gardens. Tickets can be purchased in the cafe as of November 2nd.

Seasoned Spoon Soap Making Workshop: Learn how to make your own environmentally friends sensational soap – phthalate and paraben free!

What a treat for the hands or body!

A great gift idea for family and friends too and just in time for Christmas!

There are infinite possibilities to substitute oils, add fragrance, and mix in other additives like flowers or coffee grounds. Either way you will leave with an abundance of hand crafted soap to stock up your home or give away as presents to loved ones.

Only 16 spaces available in this popular workshop so don’t miss out!

Wednesday November 18th!

Chocolate Extravaganza:Tuesday, November 3rd from 5-7 pm @ the Spoon. $5-$10 sliding scale.

Join food alchemist Dan Ledandan as he explores the craft of chocolate making and leads us in a spectacular night of celebrating cacao in all its forms!Take part in chocolate tasting, have the opportunity to design your own chocolate cre-

ations and more! In the spirit of Halloween and the Day of the Dead you are encouraged to bring costumes, snacks to share, musical instruments or whatever else you wish to contribute to add to the festivities

arts Vimy by Vern Thiessen: This Canadian playwright has written about one of the seminal battles in our history. A play not about war, but a dreamscape where small actions define us as individuals and as a nation. Eight young Canadians help define our nationhood through their courage and their love of our land.

Four wounded soldiers in a field hospital, all with PTSD, reliving the horrors of war. Directed by Bea Quarrie.VIMY opens October 30th, with 11 performances until November 14th, including a special performance on November 11th.Tickets are available at the Guild box office Dub Trinity album release! Come to The Red Dog on November 7th for the release of The People Hold The Power. Doors at 9 pm, music starts at 10 pm sharp.$7 or,$15 with a copy of the brand new CD! Attend a jazz performance! Donna Collison & Biff Hannon Jazz Duo at Curry Village: Saturday, November 7th, 2015 (306 George St. N., Peterborough) Presenting Bridget Moser’s “About Face.” Please join Artspace on Friday November 6, 2015 at 8pm for a new performance by Bridget Moser.

Admission is free but seating is limited so please arrive early.

This Friday November 6th. Doors at 7:30. 378 Aylmer Street North at Artspace.

street style: Halloween edition!