Volume 49 Issue 21

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

INside:

Cultural Outreach 2015 part of our Arts@Trent pullout TCSA Discrimination, Elections, Staff Plan

Trent Students Study Hares

The Importance of Community Theatre

Photo by Jenny Fisher

A Look at Trent’s Hockey Team

Contents 7PMVNF ] *TTVF ] .BSDI

0GGJDJBM NBTUIFBE CZ +BDLTPO $SFFL Press (FPSHF 4USFFU / t 4VJUF 1FUFSCPSPVHI 0/ t , ) 5 UFM FEJUPST!USFOUBSUIVS DB t XXX USFOUBSUIVS DB

$P &EJUPST /FXT #VSFBV .BUUIFX 3BQQPMU "ZFTIB #BSNBOJB 1BU 3FEEJDL 3FO[P $PTUB

$PQZ &EJUPS

;BDIBSZ $PY

&NNB $VMMFO 6HZFO 8BOHNP

1SPPGSFBEFS

+BDL 4NZF

-JOETBZ 5IBDLFSBZ

"SUT #VSFBV

1IPUPHSBQIFST

4JNPO 4FNDIVDL

+FOOZ 'JTIFS $BMFJHI #PZMF ,FJMB .BD1IFSTPO #SJBO )PVHI

#PBSE PG %JSFDUPST

Pages 13-20: Arts at Trent Feature Cultural Outreach photos on Page 16!

This Page: All About Arthur t .BOEBUPSZ "SUIVS *OGP t 5*J) #&-- JHFSFODF

Pages 21-26: Arts&Culture

Pages 3-5: Campus News t 1H 5$4" EJTDSJNJOBUJPO BOE EFCBUFT t 1H 4USJLF BWFSUFE

t 1H /FX 5$4" TUBGGJOH QMBDF ESBX JSF

4FDSFUBSJFT ;BSB 4ZFE t 5SFBTVSFS 3FO[P $PTUB 7PMVOUFFS 4UBGG *TTVFT 6HZFO 8BOHNP .FNCFS BU -BSHF ;BDIBSZ $PY *TBBD -JOUPO %BWF 5PVHI

$POUSJCVUPST #SJBO -VLBT[FXJD[ t "CCZ 4QBSMJOH t "MFYBOEFS 8BMTI $IFMTFB -ZWFS t &SJO .D-BVHIMJO t .BSZ 8JMMJBNT .BUUIFX )BZFT t .JDIBFM #BSSFUU t 3ZBO -BNPVSFVY 4BCSJOB $BMPHFSBDPT t 4BSBI .D%POBME t 5BSB )FOMFZ 7BMFOUJOB 4DBSUBQFOOB t 8JMM 8JMMJT t $PMMFFO "SNTUSPOH $BSNFO .FZFUUF t +PSEBO 1PSUFS t 5PN )VSMFZ t ,BUF 3PTT /JLPMBZ "GPOJO t +BNFT ,FSS t /BUIBO 1SFOEFSHBTU 8JMM .VTDIFUU t -FJHIUPO 4DIVCFSU t 5$4"

$POSJCVUPST BSF FODPVSBHFE UP BUUFOE UIF XFFLMZ TUPSZ NFFUJOH 8FEOFTEBZ BU QN JO UIF 5SFOE 1VC BU 5SBJMM $PMMFHF PS UP DPOUBDU UIF FEJUPST JG DPOTJEFSJOH TVCNJUUJOH UP BO VQDPNJOH JTTVF 0VS FNBJM BEESFTT JT FEJUPST!USFOUBSUIVS DB

Submission guidelines "SUJDMFT "SUJDMFT TIPVME CF TVCNJUUFE WJB FNBJM UP FEJUPST! USFOUBSUIVS DB JO UIF CPEZ PG UIF NFTTBHF PS BT BO SUG EPD PEU PS UYU BUUBDINFOU 5IF CPEZ TIPVME CF BQQSPYJNBUFMZ 800 words. -JTUJOHT BOOPVODF NFOUT PS CSJFGT TIPVME OPU FYDFFE 100 words. 'FBUVSF QJFDFT DBO CF VQ UP 2000 CVU NVTU CF BSSBOHFE JO BEWBODF XJUI UIF FEJUPST

*NBHFT *NBHFT TIPVME CF TVCNJUUFE WJB FNBJM (PPHMF %SJWF %SPQCPY PS TPNF PUIFS GJMFTIBSJOH TJUF 1MFBTF TBWF BT UJG XJUI B EQJ PG OP MFTT UIBO QJYFMT

-FUUFST -JNJU MFUUFST UP UIF FEJUPST UP XPSET -FUUFST MPOHFS UIBO XPSET NBZ CF QVCMJTIFE CVU "SUIVS SFTFSWFT UIF SJHIU UP FEJU GPS MFOHUI BOE DMBSJUZ CVU OPU DPOUFOU

t 1H 1SFTJEFOUJBM $BOEJEBUFT t 1H 71 $BNQBJHOT &RVJUZ $BOEJEBUFT t 1H 71 6OJWFSTJUZ $PMMFHF "GGBJST

2

www.trentarthur.ca

1H 1IPUP FTTBZ #BDLSPPN $BCBSFU 1H 8IZ EP NVTFVNT NBLF VT UJSFE 1H 'JWF 'FNJOJTU .JOVUFT #BUUMF

t 1H -FWZ 2VFTUJPOT t 1H &RVJUZ $PNNJTTJPOFS $BOEJEBUFT

Page 10: Academics t *U T OPU B CVOOZ JU T B IBSF

Pages 11-12: Local t 1H #PPLMPWFST DPMVNO /FX DBGĂ?

DPMVNO FYQMPSFT /BUB T

t 1H -PDBM MFTTPOT MFBSOFE GSPN 'FS

t 1H 3FWJFX PG "45$ T 4XFFOZ 5PEE

Pages 27-29: Opinion t 1H &EJUPSJBMT BOE -FUUFST t 1H &TTBZ PO UIJOLJOH

Page 30: Clubs&Groups t $BUDI UIF CJH POF 1UCP $BSQJOH t 5'4 QSFTFOUT Frank t 5SFOU 3BEJP T FMFWBUPS QJUDI

Page 31: Sports t 5SFOU )PDLFZ UFBN TFBTPO SFDBQQFE

Back Page: Listings & Live Music

HVTPO

This Issue in History: Volume 1 (1966), Issue 21b This might come as a surprise to students and community members, but there was once a time when Arthur was not the bastion of journalistic and investigative integrity that it is now.

How many Trent students do you know that have recently heard subtle tingling sounds wafting across campus from the Champlain quad? Not many? Well that’s not surprising given the fact that there is no longer a bell servicing the college from Champlain Tower.

This has not always been the case, however, as there used to be not just one but two bells ringing brightly across Trent University’s main campus from between the soaring columns of rubble aggregate that are now called Thom Tower (the structure was renamed to celebrate Trent’s master planning architect Ronald Thom).

Way back in 1966, volume 1 issue 21b (that’s not a typo there actually was an issue 21b), Arthur published a shockingly short and inadequate brief on the university administration receiving a second bell for Champlain Tower, a kindly gift from a Mr. Arthur Miller of Belleville, Ontario.

Unfortunately, for reasons unknown to this editor, the article in question is vague and omits many facts that would inform a proper understanding of this important situation.

Not only does the article not go into detail about the bell’s harrowing journey from Bellevillle up the 115 to Peterborough (since the article makes no mention of alternative modes of transportation I am forced to assume it

travelled by automobile), it also fails to provide a sufficient description of it’s prior ringing-place, and of the university’s mysterious benefactor a Mr. Miller (if we are to actually believe that not a pseudonym inspired by the infamous 20th century playwright).

To its credit, the article does mention that the bell was “used on the first international train leaving Montreal’s Bonaventure station for Chicago in the 1880s,� a fact which would have made it somewhat of an important historical artifact. However, this raises even more unanswered questions such as: to what uses was this bell was put to for the 75 years between 1890 and 1965? Why would this so-called Mr. Miller donate a piece of Canada’s heritage to a fledgling residential college full of rowdy students? And were there not warning flags raised in the minds of administrators given that this convenient philanthropist hailed from the conspicuous town of BELLeville? It seems all too suspicious! A conspiracy perhaps?

It is unfortunate that these and the many other critical questions surrounding this issue may never be appropriately answered since the writer of the article is never named and the bell in question has long since vanished into murky oblivion.

However what is clear, thankfully, from this whole debacle is that in the decades since this utterly shameful excuse of journalism was published Arthur has slowly but surely reformed from its past mistakes. We are now proud to say that we no longer publish issues of the paper that are only six sentences long.

s ’ r u h Art on the airw ave s!

0QJOJPOT FYQSFTTFE JO UIJT QVCMJDBUJPO EP OPU OFDFTTBSJMZ SFGMFDU UIPTF PG "SUIVS TUBGG WPMVOUFFST PS JUT #PBSE PG %JSFDUPST $POUSJCVUPST BSF FODPVSBHFE UP BUUFOE UIF TUPSZ NFFUJOHT PS DPOUBDU UIF &EJUPST UP EJTDVTT TUPSZ JEFBT "MM BSUJDMF BOE MFUUFS TVCNJTTJPOT BSF EVF 8FEOFTEBZ BU OPPO -JTUJOHT $MBTTJGJFET BOE &WFOUT BSF EVF 5IVSTEBZ BU BN BOE TIPVME CF TFOU UP MJTUJOHT!USFOUBSUIVS DB "EWFSUJTFST BSF FODPVSBHFE UP DPOUBDU BEWFSUJTJOH!USFOUBSUIVS DB GPS BE SBUFT BOE DPOUSBDUT

1H " MPPL BU MPDBM UIFBUSF

PG UIF #BOET QSFWJFX

Pages 6-9: TCSA Elections

$BOEJEBUFT $IBJS $BSNFO .FZFUUF

t t t t

92.7 FM

5VOF JOUP 5SFOU 3BEJP '.

BOZ 4BUVSEBZ GSPN QN UP IFBS The Arthur Hour "SUIVS T WFSZ PXO SBEJP TIPX 8F MM QMBZ FYUFOEFE JOUFSWJFXT XF DPVMEO U GJU JO UIF QBQFS UBML BCPVU UIF CJHHFTU TUPSJFT SBOU BCPVU PVS FEJUPSJBMT BOE QMBZ BMM TPSUT PG HSFBU MPDBM NVTJD &BDI XFFL XF MM BMTP QSFWJFX DPOUFOU GSPN UIF VQDPNJOH JTTVF (FU UIF TDPPQ GJSTU CZ TJNQMZ UVSOJOH PO ZPVS SBEJP :PV KVTU NJTTFE 1BU UBMLJOH BCPVU UIF 5$4" EFCBUFT BOE IPX SJEJDVMPVTMZ MBSHF UIJT JTTVF JT %PFT BOZPOF BDUVBMMZ SFBE UIJT 5XFFU VT B QJD PG UIJT XJUI UIF IBTIUBH *3FBE1BHF5XP UP XJO B GSFF DPGGFF JG ZPV SF JO UIF GJSTU UXP

CampusNews TCSA election candidates square-off in heated debates

By Jack Smye

Thursday, March 12, saw candidates running for the board of the Trent Central Student Association (TCSA) square off in the Lecture Hall of Sadleir House in a preelection debate.

Starting off the night was the position of Vice President University & College Affairs. Candidates Kelsi Dalton and Pippa O’Brien faced questions regarding how they would improve services for students and how they would make students more aware of academic policy.

Dalton spoke to narrowing down issues and bringing them to students through social media. O’Brien, meanwhile, suggested that events should be organized around getting students out.

Both candidates also talked about their extensive experience within different factions of the TCSA, and up until the end they fed off each other’s points and seemed to agree on most issues.

The final question sparked some debate, however, when they were asked how they would reach out to the vast majority of students. O’Brien critiqued some of the TCSA’s past events and Dalton defended by saying the TCSA has been doing the things O’Brien has been suggesting.

The position of Vice President Campaigns & Equity, meanwhile, had its three candidates start off with the same sort of respectful civility.

Asgiga Corriveau, Betty Wondimu, and Hilary Stafford responded the same way to the first question and fed off each other

L-R: Asgiga Corriveau, Betty Wondimu, and Hilary Stafford. Photo by Pat Reddick.

when they were asked about the prospect of de-federating from the Canadian Federation of Students.

All three answered with a rehashed version of saying that decision is ultimately up to the student body.

The candidates were providing excellent answers to the questions asked, but it was somewhat unfortunate that similar questions regarding defederating from CFS were asked twice more by members of the audience. Only three questions were allotted for audience members.

One audience member became quite loud and impassioned while asking, but the question was still handled elegantly and professionally by all of the candidates.

Things picked up significantly during the Presidential debate with the first question asking about how each candidate would be handling the declining budget.

Jeff Campbell squared off with Brendan

Edge in the first round and stressed the importance of students uniting to push back against tuition hikes.

After the second question, which was about the kind of new services the potential presidents would like to implement, Alaine Spiwak critiqued Chris Mckinnon for answering with something she argued the TCSA was already doing—that is, promoting communication between executive members.

Campbell answered that he would strengthen the TCSA as a political union, pointing towards Quebec as an example.

Spiwak also critiqued Campbell for his answer, saying he had never been a part of the TCSA and his criticisms were unjustified. Campbell rebutted that he shouldn’t have to be involved with the TCSA to know about what they’re doing.

Spiwak challenged Campbell’s point, but agreed that more outreach was necessary.

Mckinnon agreed that the TCSA had been at times ineffective.

At this point, Edge had to be reminded to speak in a respectful manner for raising his voice at Campbell while claiming that Campbell didn’t understand the reality of student organizing in Quebec (the province Edge originates from).

The first half of the presidential debate was somewhat of a free-for-all and everyone was out against each other. As it proceeded, however, things calmed down and candidates started to feed off each other’s points.

Following the debate, the six students running uncontested for equity commissioner positions were given the opportunity to defend their platform against moderator and audience questions. All six performed admirably and were strong in their positions.

The last hour of the meeting saw all of the candidates come back up, answering questions from the audience and reiterating what it was they were standing for.

While things had heated up during the second round of presidential questioning, all members acted in a respectful and professional manner and civil discussion was had to try to get to the real issues.

By the end, it became clear that while the candidates were all very different with unique platforms, they did shared in a level of passion that can only bode well for the student body.

[See pages 6-9 for platforms for TCSA candidates and referenda questions. Also, see page 27 for editorials on the elections.]

Board members talk about racist acts and implicit bias in the TCSA

By Ayesha Barmania

Recent events at the Trent Central Student Association (TCSA) have elicited a conversation about racial discrimination in the student organization.

At the last two Board of Directors’ meetings on March 1 and February 8 there were points raised about prejudice inside the organization and its effects.

In particular, protest of the motion to impeach Vice President of Campaigns and Equity Boykin Smith’s decried the discriminatory nature of TCSA operations and individuals.

The challenge with discussing discrimination is that the forms of prejudice are often forms of “micro-aggressions” that are difficult to pinpoint and base a strong claim off of.

Micro-aggressions are an analytical category for phrases and statements that are a form of unintended discrimination.

Micro-aggressions point to a prejudiced world-view that implicitly shapes behaviour.

While the victim of discrimination may feel that something has happened that was prejudicial, the perpetrator might not be fully aware that their actions were taken as discriminatory. This makes it difficult for civil conversations about racial discrimination as the perpetrator might feel like they have done nothing wrong and in turn victimized for being called a racist.

“It is important to note that we’re not saying that they are a racist, but that their acts are racist,” said one former TCSA member in an interview with Arthur. It is difficult to extricate oneself from a prejudicial mindset that is naturalized, but recog-

nition of racist behaviour is part and parcel of improving the environment.

At an institution like the TCSA, it can be especially difficult to identify discrimination and pull apart prejudiced motivations from other issues of personal enmity and political difference, which are so closely intertwined.

It can be hard to differentiate between the various issues, but looking at the types of rhetoric used in conflicts with people of colour, a case can be made for racial discrimination. For instance, calling upon stereotypical attributes as grounds for a complaint.

Members of the TCSA who identify as a minority report that in some instances they suspect that their work was hampered by negative stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes. In terms of how the organization’s power dynamics, certain members feel like their exclusion corresponds along racial lines.

As the purpose of the TCSA is to come to appropriate compromises on political issues with input from student representatives, exclusion from any discussion is reprehensible. Whether that exclusion is intended or not, it is felt by those who should be included.

On top of that, larger project and priorities of the organization reflect a bias against people of colour.

Last year, the TCSA stymied a campaign for Black History/Heritage Month. This campaign was continued outside of the association’s auspices by dedicated individuals, who felt the need for this representation was greater than bureaucratic conflict.

Campaigns directed at representing minorities are often lacking or absent. “The

discrimination is evident in what is not seen,” said one former TCSA staff person.

Institutional Racism To an extent, the TCSA board flushes out and is reconstituted each year with the elections. The attitudes of those involved can be a personal struggle and reflective of individual issues.

However, racism is not solely an individual struggle. It can become embedded within institutions through policy, bureaucracy and a systemic lack of commitment to diversity.

To combat racism at the university and in the student union, the TCSA has a position, called the Anti-Racism Equity Commissioner who is tasked with running campaigns and working to combat racism on campus.

This past year, the commissioner was impeached after two months. Questions were raised about whether this was fair treatment, as there were other commissioners not impeached guilty of similar infractions.

While the TCSA has a formal position for challenging racism, racism is also challenged in the democratic procedure.

Recently, Trent4Israel, a student group founded in January, raised concerns that the TCSA’s policy to Boycott and Divest from the Israeli Apartheid state was an example of institutional oppression. They felt that the policy that targeted Israel as the Jewish homeland was anti-Semitic. This stance made some students feel uncomfortable with the association based on their Jewish identity.

There are, of course, many different types of discrimination that one can experience that are based on identity: gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnicity, disability, neuro-atypicality, and more. It is sometimes argued that inclusion in one marginalized community absolves an individual of a capacity to participate in other forms of oppression.

However, it is important to acknowledge that even minorities can perpetuate oppressive societal structures in other ways.

Anti-oppression Commitments The Community and Race Relations Committee of Peterborough (CRRC) is an organization devoted to identifying and eliminating racial discrimination in the area.

One of their key mechanisms for doing so is in running anti-oppression workshops for businesses, organizations, and for the public.

In an interview with Arthur, CRRC coordinator Cáitlín Currie described the purpose of anti-oppression workshops “to facilitate a consciousness raising and dialogue that can then be continued as these folks organize things through these lenses and work together on organizational projects.”

Anti-oppression is about creating the space for dialogue about these issues and hopefully giving a commitment to organizers to do better.

The above article was written based on interviews with current and former members of the TCSA who did not wish to be named in the article.

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

3

CAmpus

Contextualizing the collective agreement as TAs vote on ratification

By Ugyen Wangmo

Trent University faces potential imminent contingency of strike action by about 380 Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs).

GTAs reckon that the current tentative Collective Agreement the bargaining team negotiated with the administration doesn’t address the core issue—increasing tuition while the wages don’t keep pace.

“We will not strike because we need more money, we will strike because we need to be able to manage our tuition increases somehow,” said the President of Canadian Union of Public Employee (CUPE) Local 3908, Stephen Horner, who is also a member of the bargaining team.

He said that as a graduate student, the issue really is the tuition—it continues to increase, and the graduates’ strongest tool to be used against this increase is to fight for better wages through their union.

It comes down to this, explained Horner, “What we really want is the province to have a discussion about free education and to start moving in that direction, or at the very least we want tuition freezes and tuition rollbacks, for now.”

He reasoned that education should be recognized as a public good, and that it benefits everyone to have a educated society. As such, it should be something that is funded as a society, so people are not forced as an individual to incur this massive debt to develop the skills and knowledge that make them contributors to society.

Although they recognize that provincial funding is really a core part of it, what they object to is the university’s decision concerning how they want to deal with that underfunding, says Horner.

“We resist the idea that they will deal with that underfunding by making graduate students pay more,” he stated. They object to the idea that the university can balance this budget by squeezing student workers for more tuition and then for not giving any of that back in wages, he said.

It was also pointed out that, “The fact that TAs at York and U of T rejected similar deals to ours is obviously going to be something that some members consider, but we are not facing pressure from those locals. We are collectively making a decision for ourselves. Whatever that is, we will then all move forward together.”

However, given the political climate and the status they started with, Gary Larsen, a member of the bargaining team, described the tentative contract as the “best possible deal that we can get. ... It’s not great but it’s just something that will keep us going for now.” The wage and the tuition connection is a big issue for the members, but they are voting on the whole funding package.

Although financing is generally the issue that takes the most attention, there is

4

www.trentarthur.ca

still quite a bit in the package that is good, pointed out Larsen. For instance, recognition of health benefits, quality of recognition of identity, rights, and core groups, PhD instructorship, and increase in professional developments.

It would be a mistake to say that on the whole the people who are displeased are dissatisfied with the package, but it does primarily stem from that one issue, noted Larsen.

“The key issue for us all the way through is having the employer recognize the link between the tuition that members pay and their need to work to pay for their tuition,” says the bargaining team. The failure of the employer to recognize that link is what is most frustrating and dissatisfying for the bargaining team and their members.

The bargaining team understands that the GTAs provide a vital role at the university in terms of making tutorials happen, being in labs, marking, and giving students feedback on their work. “If all of those things are not happening it is hard to imagine how the university would still deliver courses and how undergraduate students would complete their credits,” says the team. In the event of a strike, they sincerely regret that it would disrupt the regular functioning of the university.

However, it would also impact the members themselves by forcing them out of the classrooms. They would rather be in the classrooms working with the students than out on the picket line, handing out leaflets and carrying signs.

Although, as informed by Larsen, going on a strike is the last resort to be able to fight for some basic dignity and quality.

And strike action is the only, and strongest tool at the GTAs disposal.

Environmental and Life Sciences Ph.D. student, Clay Prateer, implied that the existing state of affairs doesn’t matter to him as long as they don’t strike.

The rest of the details won’t affect him too much because he is due to be finished soon. However, “I acknowledge that it might be important for others who are ear-

lier on in their studies to give it a serious consideration,” says Prateer.

Moreover he is also not fully aware of the entire details pertaining to the tentative agreement because he hasn’t received any of the details yet. His extent of knowledge regarding it is that the pay rate should increase slightly, and that they temporarily won’t go on strike, said Prateer.

According to him, his concerns regarding the possibilities of having to go on strike is “not getting paid regularly.” And he expects that striking shouldn’t affect his research, so long as he can continue to write his thesis. And, if it doesn’t push back on his graduation date, he is not too worried, he said. But he is not sure about how it might affect others who are taking classes or doing research.

In the event of a strike, Prateer feels that it would be more beneficial for him to not picket, and just continue to write. But if it lasts for a long time he will have to picket to get the strike pay.

“I am more worried about my thesis writing time than anything. Every semester that I go overtime will cost me around five thousand dollars more, as an international student, which is far more important to me than a strike,” he said.

However, everyone involved is at a different point in their career, and may have different priorities, “so I understand why many are opposing the ratification,” stressed Prateer.

Now that their membership draws closer to ratifying the tentative agreement, there have been opposing voices calling for acceptance or rejection of the tentative agreement for various reasons, said Environmental and Life Sciences program, Masters student, Lauren Banks.

There are questions about whether a strike would result in a greater wage increase, concerns over potential impacts on undergraduate learning, fears about inadequate wages, and about being sunk further into debt, says Banks.

However, as a member of CUPE 3908 Unit 2, she is proud of the bargaining team’s efforts to reach a fair deal with Trent. She understands that nothing exemplifies this more than their willingness to negotiate until 4am, four hours after they were in a legal strike position.

Instead of the two-year wage freeze that Trent proposed, the team negotiated for annual wage increases over the next three years, as well as a student recognition amount, and an increased contribution by Trent to the health plan, she said.

For the majority of graduate teaching assistants, their priorities are to stay in the classroom and continue in their educational roles. Many teaching assistants feel strongly connected to their students, are deeply invested in cultivating students’ understanding, and concentrate on being an academic resource for them, she said.

Without TAs (or academic assistants) many seminars, workshops, and labs would no longer be run in the event of a

strike, she fears. In addition, assignments wouldn’t be marked, potentially affecting outcomes for the semester. Thus, a strike is not a desirable result for undergraduates, TAs, or Trent, noted Banks.

Like their counterparts who are currently on strike at York and University of Toronto, many graduate students struggle to pay for tuition and living expenses.

In the current tentative agreement, wages will increase 3.5% over three years. For comparison, inflation has averaged 1.91% annually for the past 10 years, eclipsing our modest annual wage increase. In conjunction, tuition is slated to rise 6% by 2017.

These numbers reflect a graduate level education that is increasingly inaccessible financially, and is therefore a key bargaining priority for them, explained Banks.

If the membership did not ratify the tentative agreement, the membership would be in a legal position to strike. This outcome is not desirable for either the university or graduate student teaching assistants, she said.

However, if this were the outcome of the vote, “We need to stand in solidarity with our membership, as we ask other unions on campus and undergraduate students to stand in solidarity with us,” says Banks.

After talking to a number of undergraduate students, Arthur received two general contradicting reviews.

Some feel that it is unfair they be dragged into a negotiation when they have little or no involvement at all. They are worried they might not be able to complete their credits lest the strike continues for a long time. It would cost them an extra semester, and by extension, extra money.

In addition there is a great range of confusion and questions that would arise in trying to understand who would conduct seminars and tutorials, or conduct labs, and mark assignments.

So, these students argue that in the best interest of everyone, the disagreement between Trent and GTAs should be resolved within themselves. “Don’t jeopardize our academic life!” say the students.

However, other groups of students identified with the actions of their TAs, saying that their fight right now is for the benefit of not only current, but all future graduate students. “It is a little price we are willing to pay,” implied the students, if they want to secure a long term benefit.

Meanwhile, Executive Director, Marketing and Communications, Marilyn Burns, said “[the] University feels it is prudent not to enter into any interviews while voting on ratification of the agreement by the members is underway.”

The online voting for the 2014-2017 tentative collective agreement opened on March 4 for a period of 10 days. GTAs could be on strike as early as March 16 if members vote “no.”

[Keep updated on the results of the ratification vote by checking trentarthur.ca, or finding us on Facebook or Twitter.]

CAmpus

New TCSA staffing plan brings changes along with concern

By Zachary Cox

The 2015/2016 staffing plan for the Trent Central Student Association makes several structural changes in the TCSA, some of which have some Board of Directors members concerned.

The plan, which was approved by the Board of Directors at the March 1 meeting, involved logistical changes to some position titles, responsibilities, hours, and salaries.

After the meeting, TCSA Women’s Issues Commissioner Betty Wondimu expressed displeasure about how quickly the motion had to be passed.

“It’s unfortunate that the board was faced with time constraints in deciding the adoption of the staffing plan. It would have been useful to have reviewed the staffing plan thoroughly as members of the board,” she said.

The creation of a staffing plan has been an annual occurrence since 2009, when Tracy Milne became the Association’s Operations Manager and Benefits Coordinator. The document helps with budgeting for the year.

“A staffing plan is a map of the office in terms of personnel that allows us to see, in one document, what the makeup of the office is, who makes up the office and what their responsibilities are,” said Milne. “It’s a true picture of the folks that are in this office on a day-to-day basis.”

“The plan was updated and a suggestion was put to the committee from the Board Resource Manager (BRM) and myself being the Operations Manager. […] It was our best estimate and suggestion on how to strengthen the association with regards to staff for the 2015/2016 year,” said Milne.

A document that indicated the suggested changes was submitted to the Finance and Operations committee who looked it over and discussed it, before making a recommendation to the Board of Directors to accept it.

A number of the changes within the plan were to the hours of the executive.

Both the President and two Vice President positions had their summer hours altered.

The President will now work for 30 hours a week throughout the summer, rather than 35. Similarly, the Vice Presidents will no longer be working 35 hour weeks from July to September, but will rather be working for 20 hours per week.

“The president had 35 hours in the summer, but our office is only open 30,” said Milne, “so we reduced summer hours for the president’s role from 35 to 30.”

As for the changes to the Vice Presidents’ hours, Milne said that the heavy work weeks actually fall during the beginning of the school year and not over the summer, so the hours were adjusted with that in mind.

“We’ve always had consistent conversations around there really not being a lot to do in the office in the summer—it’s the first couple weeks in September where everything explodes,” she said. “What we proposed was that we would provide lieu hours, either bookable or bankable hours for all the extra time that will certainly be spent during the first weeks of September, but drop the overall hours to 20 a week and make it consistent throughout the year.”

The President’s yearly pay was not altered significantly, shifting from $23,951.20 to $23,962.50, but notable decrease in the Vice Presidents’ hours changed their salary from $17,236.60 to $14,310.

“It ended up bringing down the yearly cost of the position, the yearly salary of the position because of the hour decrease, but the actual dollars per hour went up from $13.30 to $13.50,” said Milne.

The hours of the Board Resource Manager (BRM) were increased from 20 to 30 per week and the Communications Coordinator salary was increased to $15.50 an hour, with both positions being moved into the full-time section of the plan.

These changes to the hours and sala-

ries caused some contention at the Board meeting, with Wondimu being one of the members who voiced her concerns.

“I guess my ideological problem with this is the fact that we’re a student union and executive positions are elected by students and represent the interest of students,” she said at the meeting. “Having full time positions leaves that room for lack of representation.”

Other changes present in the plan related to the responsibilities of various positions.

The BRM, for example, had some responsibilities that remained listed under the President. Milne’s position, as well, received an updated list of responsibilities that now denotes that the position holder is involved with transit, budgeting and management of bank accounts. This amounts only to a change on paper. “It’s not anything new, it just hadn’t been indicated before,” said Milne.

“We’re very organic, people take on responsibilities and sometimes they don’t get recognized as a responsibility until you’ve been doing them for a couple of years. So this staffing plan allows us to look at what it says we’re supposed to be doing and say: ‘Oh I also do this, this, this, and this,’ or ‘That I don’t do anymore.’”

Some new responsibilities were added, however, mainly to the BRM position that was added last year. “It was my desire to see someone who would be able to be a consistent presence in the office and through transition of executive comings and goings,” said Milne about the establishment of the position. “Without the BRM we would be lacking that continuity and resource that the new incoming executive can tap into.”

This year, the position has been renamed Association Resource Manager (ARM), to encompass the new human resource responsibilities that the position has for the entire Association and not simply the Board.

“There were many things that I wanted to ensure were happening with human resources in general in the office,” said Milne.

“My goal was to increase the hours of the position officially to 30 […] and add these HR and association resources to this position.”

Another change to the ARM position is that they will now be the acting Chief Elections Officer (CEO) throughout elections, a change that was made due to difficulties with finding a student to fill the position.

“Students don’t tend to have the capacity to be working 30 hours during election season, to be available to the candidates, to be available to referenda,” said Association Resource Manager Stephanie McKay. “As well, it’s not only the hours but the understanding of how an election is run.

All of the tedious nuances of the position,” she continued. “For a student, particularly on policy, it’s very hard to have those expectations to ensure that the election is being run legitimately and we’re not running into any issues.”

Three Brand Ambassador positions were added to the staffing plan, after a trial run this year, where the Ambassadors were promoting the brand and events of the TCSA “It was kind of a trial year to see how everyone liked it, and I believe pretty unanimously it has been deemed quite a success,” said Milne.

The final major change within the staffing plan was to the position of Advertising and Sponsorship Coordinator, which for 2015/2016 will be a 10 hour per week summer position for an individual who will look for sponsorships for the coming school year.

“This one has changed historically year to year in one way or the other,” said Milne.

“I think we’re still having a hard time pinpointing exactly the best number of hours, the time of year, the best set of responsibilities. This year we’re going to try 10 hours for the summer, make it a part-time job, only a summer job.”

Hey Trent students: Be a Waste Warrior!

By Colleen Armstrong

Are you a Trent student? Do you have mass amounts of college spirit? Do you want to help the environment? How about win some awesome prizes? Then the first annual Waste Warrior Challenge is for you!

Trent is having its first ever waste challenge between the colleges. The purpose of the waste challenge is to increase diversion rates of on-campus garbage.

What does this mean?

It means putting your garbage in the correct bins (compost in the green bin, recycling in the blue bin), hereby reducing the amount of garbage going to landfills, and educating the campus on how to be environmentally conscious with their waste.

When is it?

It takes place on March 16-20

Where is it?

All the cafeterias on campus (Otonabee, Gzowski, Champlain, and Lady Eaton).

Who can participate?

Everyone! This is a campus wide challenge, and it is encouraged for people to share their knowledge on proper waste disposal!

A waste audit has been completed of all the cafeterias prior to this challenge in order to compare the results and declare which college is the champion of waste management.

The winning college will be treated to a hot chocolate and cookie afternoon courtesy of Chartwells. As well, students from that college can enter to win cool apparel, and the winning college will also receive a

“Sustainability Certificate” declaring them as the 2015 Waste Warrior Champions!

This waste challenge is brought to you by the Food Services Sustainability Committee, Sustainable Trent, Chartwells, Meal Exchange, and the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Society.

We are also looking for volunteers who are interested in helping with: OUTREACH: Promote the challenge by talking to students about how to separate resources properly, putting up posters, handing out flyers, lecture announcements, sharing on social media, etc.

THE AUDIT: Helping with the audit during the week of March 16. You can sign up for a shift 7:30pm – 9:30pm on Tuesday March 17, Wednesday March 18, or Thursday March 19. As well, this volunteering will be added to your co-curricular record. To volunteer please email anisahmadden@trentu.ca

A New and Improved Lug-A-Mug!

Have you heard about the money you could be saving if you lug your own mug? Over 50 cents per cup!

That’s right! $1 coffee and tea are now available at all cafeterias on campus (Otonabee, Gzowski, Champlain, and Lady Eaton)!

Imagine how much money you could save if you buy a coffee every week day - by saving 50 cents on every cup, you would save $130 in the span of a year!

Roll Up The Rim season is coming to a close and what’s better than a guaranteed win of $130 a year?

You’d be helping the environment by reducing the amount of energy and resources that goes into making those cups, as well as the energy and resources it Photo by Colleen Armstrong takes to dispose of them.

Be a true waste warrior by changing your habits [Editors note: we advise against using a and save yourself a real chunk of change simply by shoe as a beverage holder.] lugging your mug!

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

5

TCSA Spring Election Candidates: President

Alaine Spiwak

Brendan Edge

Chris Mckinnon

Jeff Campbell

Dear students, My name is Alaine Spiwak and I am a third year student studying International Development and Politics. I am excited and honoured to be running for the position of TCSA President for 2015-2016.

I am an active member of the Trent community as the current TCSA Ethical Standards Commissioner, co-chair of Trent Free the Children and Trent Get REAL, Gzowski College ISW volunteer, Trent Ambassador volunteer, and employee at the Trent Athletic Centre. I have a passion for social justice and thoroughly enjoying volunteering my time to the improvement of student life here at Trent.

My love for Trent University and all the wonderful people I have met here has motivated me to run in this year’s election. There is nothing more important to me than the students, and their ability to have their voice heard on campus. The TCSA exists largely in part to advocate for student interests, and I believe under my leadership we could accomplish this better than ever.

With improved outreach to students, greater accessibility to our board members, better advertising of services, and making our presence more well known on campus, we can work to build a better relationship between the TCSA and the students.

One of my main hopes for the upcoming year is to work with the board to uphold the qualities that make Trent and the students so special: our commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and sustainability, just to name a few. We already offer many great services, but I am looking to provide both new and improved services, along with better advertising to ensure students can access all we have to offer.

I have already begun creating ties between the TCSA and the Peterborough community during my time as Ethical Standards Commissioner with the implementation of discount cards to the Peterborough Farmer’s Market. I hope to continue developing this partnership and to increase and improve our relationship with the Peterborough community.

There are many things I wish to accomplish if elected, but most importantly, I am running to ensure student interests are always being advocated for.

In closing, the Trent Central Student Association as a whole has encountered some set backs this year, but it is time to push forward. I want to bring the focus of the TCSA back to where it should be: on the students.

Strong, reliable, and dedicated leadership will ensure that our focus never shifts, and that we can completely dedicate ourselves to the students who we represent. I can offer this to you, along with my promise to always act honestly, professionally, democratically, and fair.

If you chose to elect me, I promise to work everyday to make the TCSA an association students can be proud of.

March 16-19, 2015, I encourage you to vote for myself, Alaine Spiwak, for TCSA President.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

A Canadian Studies student, Edge is a new addition to the Trent family who brings with him extensive experience and a host of new ideas to make Trent University even better.

A writer for The True North Times he has had numerous Letters to the Editor published in The Hill Times, The Ottawa Citizen, and Toronto Star. Before transferring to Trent, Edge served as Vice President of the McGill chapter of his fraternity, Delta Lambda Phi, for two years and has worked to create a chapter of DLP here; an organization built on progressive values, community and weighing the minority and majority viewpoints equally. This provided him with the leadership training any representative of the people requires.

He also served as VP Fundraising on the McGill University Rowing Team, was a candidate for Le Parti Vert du Quebec in a provincial election and a nomination candidate in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke for the upcoming Federal Election; before dropping out of the race to focus on his studies. However he remains active in his political work and has acquired a working correspondence with politicians of all stripes. These experiences have given Edge a moderate, level headed approach to issues with a drive to hear all sides before coming to a decision; imperative in a world of harsh partisan politics.

Edge finds that Trent has many benefits, however he offers a number of proposals to improve student life on campus and in the community. Noting strife amongst elected officials, Brendan wants to mitigate that by actively bringing these groups together in an effort to improve communication and understanding between them; his door will always be open. This is, in part, to revitalize democracy on campus and work towards recognizing the efforts of students who not only carry a full course load; but who also participate in extra-curricular activities. If elected, during his time in office, Edge will: t 'JOE UIF GVOET UP FOTVSF ćF $FJMJF DBO stay open significantly later on Thursday and Friday nights so more students can enjoy it. And have TCSA invest more there t -PCCZ UIF TDIPPM GPS B IBMG DSFEJU UP students who serve in Student Government and Varsity Athletics, and carry a full course load t 1SPNPUF HSFBUFS DP PQFSBUJPO CFUXFFO the Executive and Commissioners, and the TCSA and College Cabinets through team building activities and a leadership retreats t &OTVSF UIBU UIF 'FEFSBM &MFDUJPO EPFT not pass over Trent in the Fall, so that all students have the opportunity to participate in the democratic process t %P NPSF UP BDUJWFMZ QSPNPUF 5SFOU T diverse student organizations and clubs, including expanding “College Groups Day� t 3FQSFTFOU 5SFOU TUVEFOUT BT B XIPMF and refrain from being the voice of only a minority, to the University, Media, City, and Legislatures t 8PSL XJUI UIF $JUZ PG 1FUFSCPSPVHI UP obtain more frequent “Trent Late Night� bus service on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday t 3FWJFX BOE VQEBUF OFDFTTBSZ CZMBXT t 4VQQPSU UIF NFSHFS PG UIF 5$4" BOE the TPSA, with adequate representation for part time students

Hello, For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Chris Mckinnon and I am running for President of the TCSA. The basis of what I stand for is fostering higher standards of professionalism, unbiased leadership and mutual respect among students by ensuring good governance.

My final goal is to restore confidence in the Trent student union and establish a benchmark for future leaders to hold themselves accountable to students.

My vision for the TCSA is for it to be a unified effort of students where the focus is not to tell students what they should think but instead provide the resources for students to express themselves freely in clubs and groups and make up their own minds about what they should believe in.

In my opinion the TCSA’s main focus should be addressing the big issues that affect all students around the school such as enrollment, club funding, accessibility services, health and wellness, and providing up to date learning resources for students.

In addition, something I would like to improve on next year will be better allocation of funds and sharing of information with students. This includes notifying students what key issues are being discussed and analyzing what expenditures give little benefit to students we can re-allocate funding.

During my time at Trent as a visiting member to the Board of Governors, a member of Senate, and as a member of Champlain Cabinet I learned a great deal about the issues students are facing and how the TCSA operates to deal with these issues. What I’ve observed over the past four years is that there have been instances of ethics being violated and biases being shown because personal interests interfere with the interests of the students as a whole.

With my experience as a 4th year business student and as a past co-ordinator for Habitat for Humanity I have the knowledge and expertise necessary to balance the resources given to the TCSA by the students and lead the organization with the student’s best interests in mind.

With the help of the rest of the directors my goal will be to ensure we have a professional, unbiased view in regards to governance.

Some insight into my personality, I am someone who deals with challenges calmly and in an effective manner. I am professional and hold myself and others to high standards of accountability.

I am diplomatic and good at managing conflict. I am an experienced leader and I am good at keeping people together. I am easy going and believe in treating people with mutual respect regardless of their differences. I am determined, persistent, and I work hard to achieve my goals and the goals of the organizations I am responsible for. These are some of the qualities you can expect from me in the upcoming year.

Thank you for your time in reading this. If you have any questions and see me around campus don’t hesitate to ask.

I am a fourth year political studies major and I have decided to run for President of the TCSA primarily because I am concerned about the lack of student voice on campus. I appreciate and support the TCSA’s work in facilitating transit passes, student discounts, and health benefits, to name a few of the important services provided by the association. But the TCSA is first and foremost a union, and as such its primary focus should be on leading and supporting student driven political action.

There is a serious need to shift the priorities of the TCSA from organizing parties and facilitating basic student services, to providing directed, and effective advocacy on behalf of students, to all levels of government and the university administration.

The lack of student voice on campus is of particular concern under Trent’s current financial climate. The administration is passing on to students the financial pressure it is under through actions like the increasing of tuition, cuts to valued faculty and liberal arts programming (coupled with an increased focus on online courses), and attempts to freeze the wages of students working for the school in roles such as teaching assistants and lab advisors. Increased union action and advocacy is required to give voice to student concerns and ensure that financial troubles do not erode the small class sizes, unique liberal arts courses, and interactive learning environment that so strongly contribute to making Trent a great university.

In order to make real progress in addressing issues facing students, the TCSA must first accurately reflect the needs and desires of students. Recent efforts to foster engagement with students must be redoubled, by increasing dialogue and making it easier for meaningful interaction to take place between the association and the student body, in person and through social media. If elected, as part of a plan to see restored trust, and renewed student interest in the association, I would support efforts to establish a student ethical oversight committee, separate from the TCSA and executive, responsible for overseeing the ethical responsibilities of the board and holding the TCSA accountable, as was recently called for in a student-led petition for referendum.

The time to increase student influence is now. Ontario tuition fees are predicted to rise 13% in the next four years. The recent success of the student movement in Quebec has illustrated the power an organized and motivated student population can have in combatting austerity policies, and the resulting rise in tuition prices. One of my main objectives if elected, will be to increase opportunities for students to easily become informed and involved with efforts to effect meaningful change in the political environment beyond campus, which determines so much of the educational experience of Trent students. In order to accomplish this, the TCSA needs a motivated and assertive leader who is knowledgable of Canadian politics and capable of effectively interacting with government and the administration on behalf of students. This is what I offer as a candidate.

6

www.trentarthur.ca

Vice President Campaigns and Equity

Asgiga Corriveau Hello! My name is Asgiga Corriveau. It is my third year at Trent, I am in the Joint Psychology and Sociology Program. I have chosen to run for the Vice President of Campaign and Equity (VPCE), because I believe that I can help in continuing the legacy of those before me and reach out

Betty Wondimu Hello, My name is Betty Wondimu, I am cur-

TCSA Spring Election Candidates

to the masses about student issues and furthermore reach out to students to put forth whatever help I can offer. I believe I have the experience to be able to handle the position due to my prior experience with the Trent Student Central Association (TCSA). For the 2014/2015 academic year, I am serving as one of the Gender Issues Commissioner. With that position, I have sat on two committees: The Co-Curricular Committee and the Standing Committee for Organizational Review and Development. I also sit on the Action Committee on Gender Inclusion. Also while being in this position I have run a campaign for Self- Love Week and an activity for Trans Day of Remembrance. I was also a delegate that went to represent the TCSA at CFS in January 2015. As an Equity Commissioner I have sat on the Board of Directors for the TCSA, and I am aware of the By-Laws and

Operation Resolution that the Association governed by. I believe that my experiences from all my work thus far can be transferred and become skills I can utilise in the role of VPCE. Past experiences that would add on to this is that I was a member of Trent University Politics Society as a Deputy Member for Finance. In terms of being able to handle the work load, I believe I can do it; because while being a student and apart of the Association, I was also working at Bata, and was a part of other groups as an active member (such as: Trent Gives and Trent Students for Literacy).

As an Equity Commissioner I have been involved in many of this year’s campaign that was outstandingly done by the current VPCE Boykin Smith. Such as Sentenced to Debt and Cover ME. I am well aware of the current campaigns that the Association is involved in and hope to continue them to

help make students experience at Trent a good one. I am interested in having these campaigns reach the students in accessible and well represented manner. Some of my more specific focus would be on Fairness of International Students, Hike Stops Here & Debt Sentence; Africa is not a Country, United for Equity, and Consent is Mandatory. That being said it does not mean I will ignore the other initiatives that the Association represents. Also I believe I can be a good resource and a helpful hand to the Equity Commissioners whom are coming into office. Additional projects that I would like to get involved with are in Mental Health and representation of student voices that may not be represented. I would be open to listen and help whomever I can; I will always be open to suggestions and will help students in finding the answers to their questions.

rently in my third year pursuing a joint degree in International Development Studies and Economics and I am running to be your next Vice President of Campaigns and Equity.

During the past three years I have managed to garner a vast amount of experience through my active participation in serving and representing the student body. I have served as a student representative on the Presidential Advisory Council on Human Rights, Equity and Accessibility and have served as the Women’s Commissioner and Ethical Standards Commissioner. I was also a part of the executive group for a regional group named Trent African Ca-

ribbean Student Union. If elected I would utilize the skills I have gained from these position to reconnect the TCSA with its member, run campaigns that speak to the student body, push for a more equitable campus, put students’ interests first andadvocate for students’ well-being. I have also had the opportunity to attend the Canadian Federation of Students training sessions and general meetings and hope to strengthen student voice through the campaigns, lobbying efforts and several services made available to our membership. I plan on sustaining the three overarching campaigns, expanding and creating new initiatives that will increase the

sustainability and relevancy of our student Union. Students face many challenges in the post-secondary education system and it is the responsibility of our student union, TCSA board of directors, colleges, clubs and groups, the administration and the community at large to tackle these issues in unison. I intend on working and collaborating with all the parties mentioned above, as we all have a vested interest in sustaining Trent University; a place I have come to call home! I hope to have gained you vote through the glimpse of the actions I would be taking to address issues faced by students at Trent.

United we are Stronger!

ling Centre. I would work with the Vice President of College and University Affairs to ensure that clubs and groups received mental health training and advocacy, and What can I do for you?

I would look into using resources such as t *G FMFDUFE 7JDF 1SFTJEFOU PG $BNQBJHOT Post Secret and Mental Health CPR to proand Equity I will work to ensure that all vide support for students. students at Trent have their voices heard, t 8PSL XJUI VOJWFSTJUZ BOE (PWFSONFOU while also encouraging students to become officials to address rising tuition costs more actively engaged with both the TCSA t $POUJOVF UP XPSL XJUI MFWZ HSPVQT UP and other groups on campus. ensure the best relationship between them t 4VQQPSUJOH DBNQBJHOT UIBU BSF SVO CZ and the Trent Central Student Association. organizations such as the Canadian Federt 3BJTF BXBSFOFTT GPS TFSWJDFT UIBU BSF QSPation for Students, but making them more vided by the TCSA including the Grocery Trent specific in order to meet Trent Uni- Assistance Program, as well as tenant rights. versity student needs. t *G FMFDUFE * XPVME MJLF UP JOUSPEVDF Qualifications more mental health awareness on campus t &YQFSJFODF XJUI EJČFSFOU QSPHSBNT by working with groups such as Active at Trent including the Impact Leadership Minds, and the Trent University Counsel- Program, Student Ambassadors and Best

Buddies. t $VSSFOU GSPOU EFTL FNQMPZFF BU UIF 5$4" t &YQFSJFODF XJUI MFBEFSTIJQ USBJOJOH which included conflict resolution, personal leadership skills, working in a team and stress management. t &YQFSJFODF QMBOOJOH BOE QBSUJDJQBUJOH in events on campus including the Impact Leadership Conference and a number of different open houses, as well as numerous workshops. t * IBWF B HFOFSBM JOUFSFTU JO TUVEFOU leadership and governance and was a Vice President of activities and an executive member of Relay for Life in high school. t *G FMFDUFE * XJMM EP NZ CFTU UP FOTVSF that all students have a say in how the TCSA can help them. I will be a leader for all students so that the student voice can be brought into the student association.

of Campaigns and Equity position. I want to make a difference for students and allow their voice to be heard.

Hilary Stafford My name is Hilary Stafford; I am a 3rd year French and psychology student who is currently enrolled in the Teachers Education Stream program. I am also a current front desk employee at the TCSA; which is what inspired me to run for the Vice President

Indigenous Students Commissioner

Brendan Campbell Tânisi, nitôtêmitik. Nitisiykâson Brendan Campbell êkwa nîhithaw nitha/ nêhiyaw niya. Môniyawi-sâkahikanihk kâyahtê nitohcîn, mâka oskana kâasastêki niki-nihtâwikin êkwa niki-pêohpikin. Hello, honoured friends. My name is Brendan Campbell, I am Plains and Woodland Cree. I am from Montreal Lake Cree Nation, SK, but I was born and raised in Regina, SK.

When I had first arrived at Trent in September as a new student, ready to become part of a community so far from home, I was very apprehensive. When I had joined TUNA as an Urban First Nations student, ready to receive teachings and participate in cermony, I was also quite apprehensive.

It was a very overwhelming experience, which had prompted me to re-evaluate my identity and how I can contribute to an Indigenous Space.

Any individual of any identity will learn all too quickly the discomfort and uncertainty about how to contribute to an Indigenous Space when introduced to ceremony or any discussion regarding indigeneity. For those of us who are indigenous, this can be due to a reality that is often overlooked: there are many ways to be indigenous and therefore many ways to contribute. In the past, it is undeniable that there were many ways to be indigenous to Turtle Island. But today, with individuals who have roots in many

different nations and can be found thriving in many walks of life, the diversity is impossible to fathom.

As an urban-raised Cree student in Anishinaabeg Territory attending a university that has a blend of many different teachings, I am positioned in way that allows me to see their potential contributions to an Indigenous Space. I cannot overstate importance of providing a space for Indigenous Students to practice their spirituality and ceremony in all its forms. At the same time, through my own experiences and my current responsibilities within the TUNA and FPHL, I have seen the trepidation that Non-indigenous Allies and Urban First Nations have in approaching this space. Although an Indigenous Students Commissioner should concentrate their efforts on the needs and interests of Indigenous Students, I feel it is also important to be an open door to all who would like to genuinely contribute to Trent’s Indigenous Space.

As a TUNA member, I am taking part in creating an Indigenous Space that explicitly represents the views of all indigenous students at Trent. We are very fortunate to be a home to many diverse nations: Cree, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Inuit, Métis, and Mik’maq. It would be wonderful to provide the space for students of such diverse backgrounds to learn the diversity within their own nations and to appreciate the diversity of all the nations together. Hopefully these efforts will contribute to the Indigenous Space here at Trent for generations to come, such that all Indigenous Students will know that they can call Trent University home.

There are many positive changes to come and I look forward to working with you in any capacity that I can.

Kinanâskomitinâwâw, Thank you all, Brendan.

TCSA Spring Election Candidates continue on Pages 8 and 9

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

7

TCSA Spring Election Candidates

Vice President University and College Affairs

Kelsi Dalton Hello TCSA Members! My name is Kelsi Dalton and I think you should vote for me as Vice President of University and College Affairs. If elected I will commit myself to improving student life by working with the resources of the TCSA and partnering with student groups and departments on

Pippa O’Brien I am running for Vice President of University and College Affairs, and am going into my fourth year as an Anthropology major with minors in Economics and Biology.

I am currently serving on LEC cabinet as Senior Minister of Finance. Beyond my duties as Senior Minister of Finance, I or-

campus. I have worked for the TCSA as the benefits assistant and the Events and Campaigns Coordinator. I feel my experience organizing the Freshman 5K Colour Run, Wipe Out Volleyball Tournament, Student Activist Assembly, Wicked Trip, Battle of the Bands and other events for students, has prepared me for the responsibilities of the VPUC. As VPUC I will advocate and support students in whatever way I can. I love talking to students and getting to know how myself and the TCSA can use its resources and services to assist in bettering student life. My experience planning and attending events and working the front desk at the TCSA has taught me that students’ needs are changing and that shorter events and more resources are of greater value to students. I plan to work with the TCSA staff to coordinate more frequent giveaways and

activities in high traffic areas of the school.

This would be an opportunity to meet the members of the association, hear what they like and what they think needs to be improved on campus or through the TCSA. As Vice President I would like to improve the skills and opportunities of Clubs and Groups. I am knowledgeable about the current responsibilities that clubs have.

I also have experience coordinating with room bookings, risk management, PRD, IT and other important departments that clubs and groups can (and should) utilize.

I want to see clubs and groups be successful in their ventures and am committed to being a resource and supporter.

The TCSA has supported students in many ways but I am prepared to build on their success. I will work with colleges and departments to create resources, seminars and events for students. If I elected I will

organize a “Beat the Winter Blues” campaign that would run for the duration of the second semester of 2015-2016. This campaign would be a series of events, workshops and contests to help combat the effects of the winter semester. I would like to work with all colleges, and those departments and clubs and groups who share an interest in mental health, fitness and skill training.

We have knowledgeable and passionate people here at Trent University and I would like to bring them together to optimize the student experience. I want to be your Vice President of University and College affairs because I want you to feel supported by your student association and by your school. I strongly believe that I am the best person for this position and if you elect me I will work everyday to ensure that the TCSA is improving your student life!

ganized the first LEC Cabinet ‘LECture’ series and was part of the taskforce responsible for the ‘Your Trent’ Student Symposium. I currently sit on committees for the Career Centre, and Student Policies and Charter. A result of my involvement across campus, I am well prepared for position of Vice President of University and College Affairs. I have experience interacting with Clubs & Groups, including organizing LEC Cabinet funding. I have also organized or assisted with events at college and campus levels, both by myself and in cooperation with the TCSA and other student groups.

LEC Cabinet and my own research have kept me up-to-date on the major challenges facing Trent. I have a strong understanding of how the college system functions and the perspective of College Cabinets, and as VP University and College Affairs I will aim to increase collaboration with College

Cabinets. I will attend Cabinet meetings at each college at least once a semester to open channels of communication. It has been 20 years since the TCSA was created from the Trent Student Union, partly due to conflicts with the Cabinets, and it is time to put these tensions to rest and increase the accountability of student government.

I would like to ensure that students are well informed about the decision-making processes of the Senate and the Colleges and Student Services Committee (CASSC), focusing on policies that have a direct impact on students, such as the creation of new academic departments and food service issues. By making this information available in an accessible and clear format, I hope to engage students with these processes and gather student concerns.

I would like to also spend the year collecting student experiences, particularly

in reference to the role of the Colleges and TCSA, academic and curriculum concerns, campus life, and Clubs & Groups. As Trent continues to evolve and adapt itself to both its financial reality and the changing state of undergraduate education, I believe it would be helpful to create a record of current student opinions as a point of comparison for future students, and to direct the priorities of the VP University and College Affairs. I believe it is the job of student leaders to encourage student reflection and gather opinions about the university. To expand on this cause I hope to work with the College Cabinets to organize a second ‘Your Trent’ Student Symposium and establish it as a lasting tradition.

I hope you will consider me for the position of Vice President of University and College Affairs, and vote in the upcoming election.

International Students Commissioner

Boykin Smith Hello, My name is Boykin Gerald Smith and I am a third year international student from The Bahamas studying Politics and Economics.

As a current director of the TCSA, I would be honored to serve my final year of study at Trent University as your next International Students Equity Commissioner.

For the duration of my studies, I have gained a lot of experience through various student positions including but not limited to the Membership Officer for UNICEF 2013/2014, Trent International Students Commissioner 2013/2014, and Vice President Campaigns & Equity 2014/2015.

I have also enjoyed volunteering for other groups to better my networking and socializing skills. I have participated in many TISA events throughout the year and I believe that being a student at any univer-

8

www.trentarthur.ca

sity provides one the opportunity to learn from other students in such international oriented groups.

I have learnt so much from the student body as an elected director for the past two years and I am proud of the all the equity initiatives, such as Accountable Language, We’re A Culture Not A Costume, and Africa is Not A Country, that we have organized together as students.

But I know that you know that there is still a lot of work to be done under the union for the next year.

With that said, I believe that there is a lot of knowledge and skill that I can offer to the position this year and I very confident that with the help of the student body and your vote we can continue advocating for the betterment of international students at Trent University.

I aim to accomplish the following during my term of office: Continue working to educate the student body on international students’ related campaigns.

Advocate for international students under the Canadian Federation of Students.

Conduct two anti-oppression trainings on behalf of TCSA throughout the year.

Work alongside allies within the international community such as TISA, TIP etc. to better the overall international student experience.

So once you receive your online ballot in your trentu email… Remember for the best results vote Boykin.

Anti-Racism Commissioner

Tinotenda Makosa My name is Tinotenda Makosa, I am currently in my second year studying International Development Studies and I am currently running for Anti-Racist commissioner for the year 2015-2016. The reason I am running for this position is because I belief that racism is still a critical issue in our Peterborough and Trent Community.

If elected as Anti-Racist commissioner, I wish to create a Trent University legacy that says NO to racial discrimination and inequality, and YES to a community that is pro Anti-Racist. I wish to create awareness that exposes how racism is still present in our community and how it affects those of racial minority. I wish to create an atmosphere of a Trent family, where we see each other as brothers and sisters and not as racially different. As a racialized minority myself, I have experienced certain inequalities and discrimination that have made me fear to have the freedom of speech. Hence I wish to address these issues, because racial discrimination still exists in our community. As Anti-Racist commissioner, I wish to fight for the basic human rights of equality, liberty and fraternity for all man-kind

despite their race, or their ethnicity. As commissioner, I would like to spread the awareness around the Trent and Peterborough community. Since Peterborough is a University based community, I would wish to spread awareness of different racial impacts towards students and the community. I hope to create awareness of racial discrimination in the Peterborough and Trent community by collaborating with organizations such as Ontario Public Interest Research Group and the Race Relations Committee of Peterborough. I would also like to create workshops during the school year 2015-2016, where people of different ethnicity and races get to interact and give their views on racism in the community and what actions to take to fight racism. By these workshops, I wish to spread the legacy of a family as well, as people get to share their different thoughts and exchange different cultures. I also wish to work with 1st years during the ISW week by educating 1st years about racism and hear their opinions about what racism is, and what to do when they feel they are being racially discriminated as Trent University continues to become a diverse community. In these campaigns I hope to create a community that acts against racism and tries to reveal how racism is continues to penetrate in the Peterborough and Trent University community. Through these campaigns I hope to raise awareness of racial discrimination and act against racial discrimination.

The only way to we can eliminate racism in our Trent and Peterborough community is when we decide to act against racial discrimination together as a community. Vote for me, to fight racism in our community.

“Say no to racial to discrimination.”

TCSA Spring Election Candidates

Ethical Standards Commissioner

Alexander McKee The position of ethical standards commissioner position on the Trent University Central Student Association has many responsibilities from ensuring compliance with policies on purchasing to acting as liaison between the University administration and the Association to ensure fair procurement of goods and services. As commissioner I plan to run an ethically conscience awareness campaign next year

and represent your concerns and interests.

Last fall I was a part of the Otonabee college ISW team and helped students join the Trent community. Working with students from different backgrounds to welcome students to Trent. As Ethical Standards commissioner, I will work to ensure that the ethics of the University are held to the highest standards.

While at Trent University, I have worked with Trent Model United Nations and ran varsity Cross Country the past four years here. I had to privilege of MCing the athletic banquet last year and taking part in the Trent Fashion show in support of charity. I have had the experience of learning to work alongside students from Trent and many other universities through Model United Nations. This experience has forced me to represent views that are not my own, through these opportunities I have learnt how to remove my personal bias. Because of this I will be an ethical, ethical standards commissioner.

Referenda Questions

Students with Disabilities Commissioner

Calla Durose-Moya My name is Calla Durose-Moya, and I’m currently in my second year of majoring in Cultural Studies and Philosophy. I am running for the position of Students With Disabilities Commissioner.

I am running for this position because

Queer Students Commissioner

Benefits Referendum Question:

The current TCSA Student Benefits fee of $262 has historically been comprised of two amounts; $150 representing the health portion and $112 representing the dental portion. The charges on your student accounts, as well as opt out refunds, are demonstrated as one amount of $262. Do you support the official amalgamation of these two separate fees ($150 and $112) into one ($262) thereby eliminating redundant administrative work?

Transit Referendum Question: The City of Peterborough is implementing a 10% increase to our transit fee beginning September 2015. Do you support a 10% increase to the current TCSA transit fee ($252.35 increased to $277.59) in order to maintain a similar level of service?

I’d like to see more of a voice for disabled students at Trent and I would also like to see an awareness of what disability means.

If elected, I would advocate for holding Trent to their promise of an accessible living, working, and academic environment.

As a disabled student, ableism colours my daily living and academic experience, and thus I am confident in promising to disabled students at Trent that I would provide a critical and active voice in TCSA governance.

If elected, I would also work with other campus organizations such as Student Accessibility Services (SAS) and Active Minds at Trent to plan events or create accessible materials for disabled students. In representing students with disabilities at Trent, I think I would provide insightful and knowledgeable input as part of the TCSA.

Andrew Clark Hello, my name is Andrew Clark. I am taking English and History. And I am running for the queer commissioner position.

My goal for my position is to get queer

issues brought forth and have more of a voice from the TCSA. I would also be continuing the TCSA’s self-love week that the Gender and Queer commissioner created this year. I would also be striving to strengthen these events.

As a queer student I feel strongly about these issues and want to see a more accepting place for other queer students who are coming to this school. I would like to help in creating more safe places for people to come out and be themselves without fear of judgment.

If elected I would work with the TQC and other organization within Peterborough in order to improve upon the safe places at Trent for queer students.

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Society

Trent Valley Fencing

Trent Students for Literacy

Although a relatively new student group, the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Society (SAFSS) has already strived to engage students on a number of food system related issues. Whether it be through fun, multi-stakeholder events like the Local Food Days, or community building partnerships like the TEDxManhattan viewing party, we want to share our passion with the larger Trent student body population. What better way to facilitate this then by securing funds to expand upon these initiatives, and encourage student-driven projects?

One of the projects that would benefit from SAFSS being granted a $2 refundable levy is the Trent Market Garden. This plot of land, located on Trent’s Experimental Farm has been designated to grow produce that would then be purchased and served by Chartwells in their cafeterias, and potentially local businesses. Students are already hard at work creating marketing materials, business proposals and garden plans. Levy status and funding could lead to employment of students during the summer using holistic, agro-ecological practices. Other projects we are hoping to support include the creation of a SAFSS resource library, a fund to subsidize costs for students to attend foodrelated conferences, and a documentary screening series.

If you are interested in learning more about the goals and future plans of SAFSS, you can check out our website (http://safssocietyattrent.weebly.com/), add us on Twitter (@SAFSsociety) or email us (safssociety@trentu.ca) to sign up for our mailing list.

Students will also be given an opportunity to discuss our levy campaign with key members the following dates and times: - Monday March 16th from 1-3pm in OC Caf. - Tuesday March 17th from 9-11AM in the Great Hall. Free fair trade, organic hot chocolate samples from Dan Ledandan Foods available!

- Wednesday March 18th at Local Food Day. Visit the Ceilie, the Planet North, the Seasoned Spoon, and Chartwells LEC between 11AM-1PM and grab a free sample of an apple based dish, and a handout!

- Thursday March 19th from 1-3PM outside Gzowski.

Free fair trade, organic hot chocolate samples from Dan Ledandan Foods available!

Thank you in advance for supporting this levy, and for participating in the democratic process!

The Trent Valley Fencing Club was founded in 2013 to continue to legacy of fencing at Trent University after the Varsity program was cut.

Fencing has existed at Trent since the 70s. The Trent Fencing Club functions as a competitive OUA team attending tournaments from October to March. 2015 was our first year back at OUAs after a two year break. We were thrilled to have a 4th and 5th place finish as well as a female fencer as the 2nd highest ranked novice.

The club runs as both a competitive team and a club for those wishing to pursue the joys of fencing without competition. Fencing is one of the original five modern Olympic sports and combines mental and athletic abilities. We run and inclusive, fun and interactive club that encourages healthy living, sportsmanship, healthy competition and teamwork. Most of our members have not fenced before coming to Trent. They are able to try a new skill, meet new people, form new friendships and join a unique and exciting sport.

The Trent Valley Fencing Club is campaigning for a $2 refundable levy. This money would be use for the betterment of the club. We would purchase equipment and replace equipment as needed in order to run a safe training environment. This year unfortunately we had several problems with our electronic equipment which is costly to replace. It would also be used to expand our team and send more people to tournaments across Ontario. The past two years we’ve had to restrict the number of fencers who could attend due to budget constraints. We hope to allow more fencers to try fencing competitively. A levy would also allow us the flexibility to continue to grow our team and club.

Trent Students for Literacy (previously known as Frontier College) is a student run program that helps promote the development of literacy in the community of Peterborough. We work with children, seniors and new immigrants to Canada through 6 different programs. These include, the reading circle, one-on-one tutoring, homework club, comic book club, ESL tutoring, and senior’s outreach. This year we worked with over 200 people in the community with the help of over 50 student volunteers! Trent Students for Literacy has been a group at Trent for the last 15 years, but we have recently went through a name change that requires our levy of $2.15 to be voted on in the spring ballot. Our organization is committed to developing partnerships in the community through student volunteering. Please vote yes for Trent Students for Literacy on the spring ballot so we can continue providing literacy programs in our community!

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

9

CAmpus: Academics

Trent University students study hares

By Zachary Cox

This summer, two Trent students will be returning to the Yukon to continue their research on arctic hares.

Melanie Boudreau, a student in the second year of her PhD, and Jacob Seguin, currently in his fourth year of his undergraduate degree, will be spending six months in the Kluane region, analysing the ways in which predation stress impacts the hares and their population cycle.

An additional research project focused on the effect of stresses passed onto offspring will be conducted as well. Both projects are operating under the supervision of Canada Research Chair in Terrestrial Ecology and Associate Professor Dennis Murray.

“I’m looking at how snowshoe hares respond behaviourally, physiologically and energetically to perceived predation risk,” said Boudreau. “It’s not just an effect of predation either, this study is wholly based on perceived predation risks, so avoiding predators. How do animals do that and how does it associate with the cycles we’re seeing?”

“What we’re testing is stressed hares versus hares just experiencing normal risk from predators in the area. In order to increase stress levels or maybe exhibit some sort of response in a treatment hare, we would expose them to a predator on a regular basis. For us that means exposing them to our analogue coyote, which would be a dog.”

Seguin happened to have an Australian cattle dog, who happened to fit the part perfectly. The analogue coyote is introduced as a predatory threat to a selection of hares, 25 control hares and 25 hares that will be introduced to a predator, each fitted with tracking collars, and the results are catalogued.

In order to analyse the presence of predation stress, the hares are trapped and fecal samples are analyzed. “Stress hormones will actually come out in poop, so that’s how we measure that,” said Boudreau, adding that in order to get accurate readings on stress caused by predatory threats, she and Seguin are looking for ways to minimize other sources of stress.

The goal of it all is to examine the implications of what Seguin called the “sublethal effect” of predators; behavioural changes that result from encounters with a dangerous predator, such as a tendency to stick to areas with more undergrowth to act as cover. Such a change in behaviour could have an effect on the quality of food that the hare consumes, potentially changing the likelihood of its survival.

10

www.trentarthur.ca

“There’s two things a predator can do to a prey,” he explained. “It can kill it, so there’s the direct lethal effect. That prey is obviously affected because it is dead. Alternatively, if that prey escapes, is stressed and changes its behaviour.”

This summer will also mark the beginning of a second project, Seguin’s Master’s project that will be focusing on the offspring of the hares observed in Boudreau’s study. This is an examination of maternal effects, which Sequin described as “any effect that the mother has on her offspring’s ability to survive and reproduce. […] Behaviour or morphology or survival differences in the offspring that are not caused by the mother’s genetics.”

“If we take a mother that has had that hormonal stress response and we take her babies but we don’t actually let her babies be directly exposed to a predator, we want to see if her stress carries over to her offspring.”

The studies are an attempt to replicate lab results in a field setting, a process that is far from easy due to the unpredictability and lack of variable control in the field.

“It’s kind of difficult because what we’re trying to do is take lab results that have been shown in snowshoe hares and see if they apply ecologically in the real world,” said Seguin. “That’s essentially what it boils down to. We take ideas and theories that have shown that a snowshoe hare’s body can respond in a certain way to a predator being near but what matters is if it does that in the wild and if this system actually responds in real time.”

Referring to the region as “the wild” is by no means an understatement. “We do all of our work in the Kluane region, it’s about two hours West of Whitehorse, in the Yukon,” said Boudreau.

The base for their research is known as Squirrel Camp, and it is located about 20 kilometers from a research station operated by the Arctic Institute of North America. There are usually between 10 and 15 researches are at Squirrel Camp, most of whom are studying the squirrel population in the region, hence the name.

This summer will be the second the two have spent researching snowshoe hares in the region, with Boudreau’s study slated to finish after a final trip to the region next year. Last year’s segment was a three month text period for working out the details of the operation.

“Last summer was a preliminary trial for my study,” said Boudreau. “Really it was a test of what I wanted to do and we’ve adjusted for this coming year based on the results from last year.”

Last year’s results also included an ar-

ray of memorable experiences for the two.

Both Boudreau and Seguin noted the experience of seeing a grizzly bear. “In the month of June we saw a grizzly bear every day. […] It was crazy. Really, really cool,” said Seguin.

Boudreau also felt that the beautiful mountain region itself was a highlight, as well as the experience of living at a research camp. “For me just the challenge of living up there was really exciting,” she said. “We live in a place that has solar panels for electricity and no running showers.”

The two will be leaving to fly out to the region on April 20, and will be spending twice the amount of time there this year compared to the last, staying for six months. “The reason we’re there longer this time is some of the testing that I want to do has to occur past the breeding season. They breed until September and we have to stay there later,” explained Boudreau.

Additionally, this year presents a special opportunity for studying the snowshoe hares, as it is a peak year in the population cycle. Peaks in population only happen once every seven to 10 years.

During their six months in the Yukon,

their days will be divided into two types: Trapping days and treatment days. “A trapping day is really a trapping night,” said Boudreau. “Hares are most active at night, so we try to trap when they’re most active and we trap in order to minimize the time that they’re in traps.”

Boudreau explained that in order to keep the stressful experience of being trapped from interfering with the samples, a special effort is made to ensure that the animals are not in the traps for more than eight hours. Trapping is usually done in five-day stretches, approximately once a month.

“On those nights we start trapping at around 11 o’clock at night. We set all our traps and then we’ll check them at six o’clock in the morning,” said Boudreau.

Treatment, or telemetry days, involve taking the radio and tracking equipment along with a checklist of the hares that need treatment for that day. Once located using the tracking collars, the analogue coyote would be used to create a sense of predatory risk.

The trick for treatment days is to actually find the hares, a process that involves lots of hiking, for as Seguin explains, “the [hares] that are being treated have to be very separate, they cannot be nearby to the hares that we’re using as our controls. You have to make sure you have your groups of hares far enough away from each other that you don’t accidentally run the dog near one that’s not supposed to get it.”

Both Seguin and Boudreau are honoured to participate in a field of study that has such a history in the area. “I feel privileged to be a part of this ongoing study.

There’s a legacy there,” said Boudreau.

“There’s been 30 years of renowned biologists working in the place that we get to go and continue the work that they’ve done,” added Seguin.

“Ultimately is what is cool is that we get to take these theories and all the hard work that has been going for 30 years and relate it back to understanding how Canada’s boreal forest actually works. It’s like one of the trademarks of our country, this huge boreal forest, and we get to contribute to how we understand how it works.”

LocalNews Column: Booklover’s guide to Peterborough bookstores

By Brian Hough

Knotaknew: (Corner of George St. and Sherbrooke) The collections of paperbacks near the till always provide a wealth of affordable books, and now is no different. Ray Bradbury’s seminal Farenheit 451 sits for ($4.50), as does legendary Canadian poet/singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s novel Beautiful Losers.

For more Canadiana, two of the recently passed Alistair Macleod’s collections of Nova Scotian short fiction Bring Forth The Sun and Lost Salt Gift Of Blood.

Mark Jokinen’s: (George St. between King and Sherbrooke) J.K Rowling’s ‘non-Harry’ novel Casual Vacancies is sitting near the window (although not quite upright).

Also in the window is a collection of writings from the Marquis De Sade, the depraved libertinage introduced the world to what we might call ‘BDSM’ (although DeSade goes way beyond what the BDSM community would find accept-

able).

Speaking of libertinage, also sitting in the window is a Dover Thrift edition Thomas De Quincey’s 1821 autobiography Confessions Of An English Opium Eater.

Scholar’s Bookstore: (Water St. between Simcoe and Hunter) Scholar’s also gives us some highly recommendable window-shopping this week, with Iris Chang’s The Rape Of Nanking, a historical account of Japanese imperial atrocities committed during WW2. Japanese denialism surrounding these events and others in its own colonial history is a major sticking point in contemporary East Asian diplomacy, and Chang’s account is an excellent starter.

You will also find Vincent Lam’s award-winning Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures which poignantly and often humourously explores the lives of four young students as they go through medical school and on to professional practices.

Finally look for Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, coauthored by Trent’s own Chancellor Don

Tapscott and Anthony D.Williams.

Books And Things: (Water St. between Simcoe and Hunter) Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet is hovering in the general fiction carousel, while right beside that carousel is another containing pocket-sized paperbacks- look near the top for ($5) editions of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Deadeye Dick.

Thea’s Books and Violins (Water St. between Simcoe and Hunter) Thea’s science fiction and fantasy section has an almost exhaustive selection of Michael Moorcock, making it an excellent place to start your collection of the famed, anarchic English SF’s writer’s works.

Dixon’s Bookstore: (Water St. between Simcoe and Hunter) Feminist magical realist, Angela Carter’s fairy-tale based The Bloody Chamber is available in the general fiction section for ($4.95).

In that same section you’ll find Andre Brink’s Rumors Of Rain for ($3.95). Brink, alongside fellow South African writers Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee, is one of a triumverate of white South African writers famed for their terse, uncompromising opposition to the Appartheid regime and Brink’s Rumors is clear demonstration of why.

Although it should be in the Canlit section, Canadian author Sandra Birdsell’s short fiction collection The Chrome Suite is sitting in the fiction section for ($3.95).

Local café review: Nata’s

By Carmen Meyette

If you’ve been to downtown Peterborough there’s a good chance you’ve seen Nata’s Café, just around the corner from the bus terminal.

This little café embodies so much of what I love about Peterborough’s local culture. I can count on Nata’s for fresh baked goodies that are perfect for grab and go (their sugar cookies are my favorite), delectable cakes, and of course, a perfectly made tea latte.

Now, in writing this my intention is to talk about tea, specifically, and share how I get my fix, locally. Nata’s seemed like a good place to start though in part because it is so much more than tea.

If tea isn’t your thing, then I want you to know I’ve heard some pretty good things about the coffee there as well.

Not to mention that if you’re anything like me, you’re also swamped with essays and other school assignments right now.

A big part of why I need tea so much these days is just to cope with the stress of all

that.

Nata’s also happens to have free wifi and what is, in my opinion, a soothing atmosphere. It’s everything I need to get through the stress, right at the source of the tea.

I hinted earlier in this piece that I hit up Nata’s for lattes. They have a respectable selection to choose from across multiple kinds of tea (green, black, white, etc.) and featuring flavor notes from a traditional English Breakfast to rich berry flavors.

Perhaps best of all, though, is that they’ve perfected the art of steaming their milk for the perfect latte. I can always make a good cup of tea at home, but a perfect latte is a whole other challenge.

In conclusion, this is an easy start to the tea articles because Nata’s pulls me in for a latte but keeps me there with a great work space and delicious snacks.

Whether I’m in the middle of a busy day, having a meeting with someone or even for date night, I head to Nata’s, and I recommend it to anyone else looking for a good local latte.

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

11

Local

Local lessons learned from Ferguson tragedy

By Jordan Porter

Many of us are familiar with the controversial case based out of Ferguson Missouri regarding the shooting and death of Michael Brown. On November 24, 2014 Officer Darren Wilson, the responding officer on August 9, 2014, was not indicted of the shooting and killing of Michael Brown, by the decision of a grand jury.

This court decision has created a stunning and passionate response from minority communities not only in Ferguson Missouri, but across the nation. There have also been further repercussions within the judicial and police systems.

Shortly after the verdict was announced to the public, Brown’s parents were quoted in saying, “While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen.”

I spoke with a representative of Trent University’s own Community Race Relations Committee regarding this issue.

“This is one such case in a greater issue of

12

www.trentarthur.ca

police brutality, specifically against people of colour,” said Cáitlín Currie of the CRRC, when asked to voice her initial thoughts on the matter.

Currie went on to say, “It was a complete injustice, and a tragedy. The profile of ‘young black man’ is a term that is constantly being mobilized to police young black men, in black communities.”

When asked how the police could have better reacted to this situation by way of not immediately resorting to lethal force Currie said, “If any force was needed, let alone the extreme of killing [Michael Brown], and shooting at him with a total of twelve shots, what is this young black man doing that requires the police to respond in any way?”

Currie further expressed her opinion and made it clear that this was an injustice that happens far too often, relating this incident to that of Trayvon Martin’s death in February 2012, as well as the shooting of Sammy Yatim whom was shot and killed on the TTC in Toronto mid 2014.

To get a discordant point of view, Peter Williams, the Community Development Coordinator for the Peterborough Police,

was interviewed on the subject, to which he stated, “We don’t generally comment on other services’ performance, however, I can say that we provide all the training we can to ensure the safety for all of those involved.”

Williams also provided some documentation that was distributed at a meeting of the international association of Chiefs of Police, which took place in the US shortly after the decision of the grand jury in Ferguson. The documents outlined revised practices on, “how to better respond to community and engage with community.”

When asked if he believed the protests in the United States and backlash that has surfaced due to this issue may leak across the border, Williams responded with, “Although I don’t have enough of an understanding of the social climate in Ferguson or the way in which they conduct themselves in creating policy changes, I do know that if we don’t acknowledge and consider the patriarchal, homophobic, misogynistic history that we have, we can’t really create change and engage community in an authentic way.”

Although there aren’t any immedi-

ate repercussions from this event here in Canada as of yet, one would hope that, as a recognized global peacekeeping nation, with strong grass root practices put in place such as the inception of the Multiculturalism act in 1971, and bilingualism, Canada can take the tragedy in Ferguson and learn from it.

Williams points out that the Peterborough Police have a good reputation when it comes to community policing, and do collaborate with a number of different external resources such as working with mental health officials. They also participate in efforts to help end homelessness, as well as drug strategy programs.

When it comes to the alleged discrimination of minority groups in the community by police, Williams puts it very eloquently when he states, “the public are the police and the police are the public,” we can all rally together and echo Michael’s parents in saying that we hope that this incident is not in vain, but also does not bring unnecessary harm to anyone else.

We must all work together, and we cannot let the actions of a few dictate the perception of the masses.

Arthur presents:

In the State of In-Between %FF] 7TEVPMRK

Arts@Trent Feature

%FF] 7TEVPMRK MW E WIPJ TVSGPEMQIH EVXMWX LEMPMRK JVSQ ,EQMPXSR 32 7LI [SVOW TVIHSQMREXIP] MR EGV]PMGW FYX EPWS IRNS]W XLI GLEPPIRKI SJ MRGSV TSVEXMRK YRI\TIGXIH IPIQIRXW XLEX TVSZMHI MRXIVIWXMRK XI\XYVIW 7LI MW MRWTMVIH F] TISTPI´W WXSVMIW ERH WXVMZIW XS GETXYVI XLI IWWIRGI SJ XLIMV untold chapters in her work.

(Acrylic and mixed media)

Hiding In Plain Sight Colleen Armstrong Eyes Closed.

What is that feeling?

The one when the lights go out.

Kneeling To the side of you Not recognized, Unredeemed, 3RI KVIEXP] TEXVSRM^IH Darkness, Taking over, (E]W ½PPIH [MXL JIIPMRKW Actions designed to cover Who this side is, &IGEYWI KSH JSVFMH You have to face the stigma of a mental illness.

Untitled Will Willis This piece was created to accompany Nicky Varma’s article on wrongful convicitions MR XLI ½VWX IHMXMSR SJ 34-6+ 4IXIVFSVSYKL´W zine Subversion.

(Digital drawing)

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

13

Arts@Trent A Wise Man Once Said Mary Williams I settled down at the desk, pencil poised in hand, and thought for a moment. Then I exhaled a deep breath and began to write. I knew a wise man once. Not old, mind you, but wise. Very wise, for all his strangeness. He told me a story. % WXSV] XLEX LEW WXYGO [MXL QI IZIV WMRGI -X [EW E WXSV] SJ E KMVP % KMVP [LS [EW ¾MKLX] ERH JYPP SJ IRIVK] ERH GSYPH never sit still.

The doctors diagnosed her with a disorder and wanted to put her on medication – on drugs. But her mother said no.

She didn’t want that for her daughter. So instead she took her daughter to a therapist. The therapist spoke to the girl for a while, then simply turned on the radio and left the room. He watched the girl for a while, joined by the mother.

Eventually he turned to the mother and said, “there’s nothing wrong with your daughter. She’s a dancer.” %JXIV XLEX XLI QSXLIV IRVSPPIH XLI KMVP MR GPEWWIW *VSQ XLEX HE] JSVXL XLI KMVP [EW ½RI =IEVW PEXIV [LIR XLI KMVP [EW all grown up, she went on to be famous in the world of dance. It would never have happened had the therapist not recognized the girl’s element, as it was put. The wise man went on to say that everyone had an element. Something they were good. Something that came to them as naturally as breathing and put them at ease. Most people go their whole lives without knowing what their element is. They do something else, and never discover what gift they have. &YX XLI TISTPI [LS HS ½RH MX SYX# 8LI JI[ [LS ORS[ [LEX XLIMV IPIQIRX MW# 8LI] PMZI LETT] 8LI]´VI XLI PYGO] SRIW he said.

I suppose I’m luckier than most, sitting here, thinking, and realizing that I’m one of the few who’ve found their element. I never realized it, until he told me that story. It was always there though. In every little thing I did, in the choices I made, in my behaviour. I never knew. I feel sorry for those who don’t know their element. I’ve found mine.

Most never do. And for that, I’m thankful, to everyone and to myself. But most of all, I’m thankful to the wise man for opening my eyes.

My Smile is Not the Truth Abby Sparling (Acrylic)

14

www.trentarthur.ca

Arts@Trent

History Project Matthew Hayes History Project explores the concept of historical authority and objectivity by playing with the conventions of the presentation of facts. It addresses the questions of how historical facts are produced, by what forms of authority, and how they are spread among publics once they are established – through means traditional or otherwise - as true.

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

15

Arts@Trent

Ram II Alexander Walsh This piece depicts a Canadian Ram II tank and its crew in the snow during the Second World War. Painted as a tribute to Canada's war veterans.

(Digital painting)

Muse IX

Muse III Muse III, IX, and X Valentina Scartapenna

Note: Prints of Muses I-X and an original art piece from this collection will be donated to the Trent University Relay for Life Art Auction.

18

www.trentarthur.ca

1YGL PMOI +YWXEZ /PMQX¯SRI SJ XLI QSWX MR¾YIRXMEP I\TSnents of Art Nouveau–this artist strongly believes in the IUYEPMX] SJ ½RI EVX ERH HIGSVEXMZI EVX Muse III, IX, and X exhibit an allusive approach to symbolism. The symbolic themes are delicate and veiled, providing full expression of Muse X sentiments, such as sorrow.

(Graphite, gold leaf, india ink, colour pencil)

Arts@Trent The Pupil Erin McLaughlin

In the tenth grade I began My brief love affair with Galileo A relationship relying on books, the Internet Objectivity Galileo embodied the way in which I wished to think So I tucked myself inside of him Watched the world from behind his eyes Found safety in facts and numbers Soon enough I exiled Galileo From my catalogue of popular thoughts, daydreams And you quickly replaced him And suddenly your religion contaminated me Your words became my bible And I was your faithful disciple You burned all my books and their truths You replaced them with fairy tales and poetry Tried to convince me that the truth lay beneath their covers Tried to tell me that the beasts prowling in your cavities Could crawl out of your mouth and swallow me whole Simply because you decided that was how the world worked.

Inwards and Upwards Michael Barrett (Watercolour and permanent marker)

But, you know what Galileo said?

Sturdy, grounded Galileo?

He said that the Sun has changing sets That the moon has mountains Well, you must have had the entire universe Wrapped up in your skin Because I saw the light disappear from your eyes Because I could have climbed the mountains That your sound waves produced Because your sweat and saliva tastes the same As the oceans I have swam in I’ve come close to drowning in both Like the universe I knew You were safe and quiet and beautiful But like the universe I knew You were dangerous and ugly and screaming Only the difference is that I was born into this world Grew up mastering its mechanisms; You came later You crawled into the world I had grown so accustomed to And made it terrifying and cunning But, you made it brilliant You gave me the choice of living In a place inside of me and you Living on the island we built, Or living in reality And so I chose reality, I chose objectivity I just needed something to hold onto But when my home feels a little bit colder When my eyes are bruised I wish I could crawl back into my head And promise myself happiness, And to give myself a world - GER ½REPP] JIIP WXIEH] MR

Untitled Sabrina Calogeracos “I’ve never thought to name my work, I always thought that was sort of weird.”

This world is not enough for me The numbers do not burst like you did &YX - GER´X ½RH Q] [E] MRXS [LEX MW HIPYWMSREP When I am entirely and desperately sane

(Watercolour)

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

19

Arts@Trent

A.

A. Untitled Sabrina Calogeracos (Acrylic)

B.

C. E.

B. Caribou Roam, Caribou Wander Abby Sparling (Acrylic) C. Tree Clinger Ryan Lamoureux (Watercolour) D. .IPP]½WL ;SYPH 7XVSRKP] (MWGSYVEKI 7TEGI 8VEZIP Chelsea Lyver (Acrylic) E. (IIV Michael Barrett (Permanent Marker)

20

www.trentarthur.ca

D.

Arts&Culture Being human: Examining the value of community theatre

By Simon Semchuck

“Theatre brings to the community as a whole a sense of something larger than yourself,” said Amy Cummings, cofounder of the motley collective.

But why spend money and get out of your pj’s when you can stay home and watch Netflix?

Anyone who knows theatre well knows that theatre is not the same as TV or a movie. It’s not the same experience, it’s not the same medium. But both involve actors and many of the same jobs, so what is the difference?

Ryan Kerr, the Artistic Director of The Theatre On King, cited an immediacy to theatre due to its natural spontaneity and existence in the present: “It is a unique experience every [performance]. In the not-theatre world it’s homogenized. With theatre you never know what it’s going to be.”

“You’ll never get the same performance again,” Cummings said. “Everyone is coming in with something different from what happened that day.”

She spoke of the “symbiotic relationship” between performers and the audience and how the energy of the audience feeds the actors.

“You are there,” said writer and performer Kate Story, “You are in the present, in the moment, having an experience. I think we need that as human beings and I can’t think of many things that provide it.

“Film and TV are records of things that happened in the past. The way the brain takes in visual information is very credulous. Something you hear or read goes through a more critical part of the brain.

There is a way our visual field is saturated by TV and film. Theatre engages you more critically.”

“The intimacy of theatre to me is what really differs from film and TV,” said Cummings.

English professor Stephen Brown spoke similarly: “One of the crucial things [about theatre] is someone is in the room with you. The voice is alive, its present.” He added, “Theatre affects your body first.”

Brown argued that you can’t deny the feelings a performance (including slam poetry and other live performances) evoke. Theatre is a medium for “challenging the community’s identity by reminding them of their identity.” “[Local productions are] done by local people for local people,” said Kerr. “We live in a culture that is very isolating...

There is an awful lot of expectations.”

“It’s crucial to be able to say everyone involved are your neighbours,” Brown

said, “It should be the community recognizing itself.” If a show comes in from out of town, Brown stated “it’s just a travelling salesman.”

Peterborough’s history of community theatre is long and vibrant, and deserves its own article to be fully explored.

But, said Cultural Studies professor Ian McLachlan, a few decades ago “Jan McIntyre from the Ontario Arts Council said ‘There’s more original theatre happening in Peterborough than in Toronto.’”

The Union Theatre saw a new show every week, and with decisions made collectively, was “the closest I’ve known to a community theatre because it was out of a genuine theatre community,” said McLachlan.

Through trial and error, Peterborough’s theatre scene has gained a lot of force, and McLachlan forced the point that “the brilliant [productions] happened because the terrible ones happened.”

As Kerr said, “Let artists experiment and fail, the better they’ll get.”

A thriving theatre community also feeds the wider artistic endeavours of the city as well as the community as a whole.

“If there wasn’t art being created locally the artists would have left,” said Kerr.

Commented Story, “There’s no way I would have come back here if it wasn’t for the performance community.”

“For every $1 you put into sports, you get $2 back. For every $1 you put into arts, you get $5 back,” added Kerr, pointing out that theatregoers will eat at local restaurants, get drinks at local bars, and generally support the downtown; thus “the more artists you have the more vibrant the downtown becomes.

“The money stays in the community. I

don’t see how that can get any better.”

Kerr also spoke on the importance of the the after-show banter where audience members can talk with the actors and crew. “They also talk about what they just saw, what they’d like to see, they imagine themselves doing something.

“It creates a dialogue between the theatre artists and the public. Theatre isn’t magic ... it’s hard work. But if it’s done right it looks like magic.”

As for those interested in theatre but afraid to start without any experience, Kerr said, “It’s never too late to start. Everyone has to start sometime. I started my career as a dancer at 24. … Now I have my own company.

“Art can be made anywhere and at any time and at any age.”

“In a place like Peterborough, Script Club is a perfect place to start [in theatre],” said Story. Script Club is run by Mysterious Entity on the first Thursday of every month. “You’ll find out pretty quickly what you like to do, what you want to do, how to start.”

Kerr suggested to “go see theatre and talk to people afterwards, take as many workshops as possible, see as much theatre as possible and maybe you’ll be inspired.”

Cummings said to simply go to auditions. “And if you don’t want to be on stage there’s a lot of things to do creatively. … I think there’s a role for everyone [in theatre].

“If you see a production or group that you like, contact them! Just try. Just go out. The worst thing they can say is no and it’s usually ‘no, but …’”

And if you don’t enjoy theatre after all, Cummings said, “you can take it as a

learning experience no matter what.”

She believes theatre is “really cathartic.

You can work through a lot of shit.”

So, theatre helps you, helps the local economy, and broadens the culture of the community.

“It’s important to have a venue where people speak in different voices,” said Brown.

“Ultimately, it’s all about art,” Kerr said, “Theatre is an art and I think it’s important for the community to have as many artistic outlets as possible.”

Founder of 4th Line Theatre Professor Rob Winslow talked about the importance of the social community fostered by theatre, and how “people do [theatre productions] as much out of a social need as anything.”

“I would consider myself outside of the norm, but with theatre I always feel I have a place,” said Cummings. “Theatre brings unity to the community. … Community theatre matters here like the rivers matter here and the trees: it’s what unites us.”

“It’s an antidote to our lives in a corporate, capitalist society,” Story said.

McLachlan spoke of current discussions on reshaping the theatre programs at Trent to be increasingly relevant to the community. In fact, a theatre degree is in the works between Cultural Studies and Indigenous Studies which would pull material from a variety of different departments.

Story encourages “students to go out and experience. It’s also good to know that there’s a critical discourse happening outside the academy.”

Added Winslow, “And I guess all theatre is community theatre, as it’s all about being human.”

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

21

arts

“Backroom Cabaret: Performing Stories of Love” in photos

Photos by Keila MacPherson

A look at which bands made TUMS’ 2015 Battle of the Bands

By Brian Hough

Trent University Music Society (TUMS) will be hosting its annual Battle of the Bands (BOTB) this Saturday at Sadleir House.

The event starts at 8pm and will feature eight bands competing for a first place prize of $500 and eight hours of recording time. The second place band will win $300. $200 is awarded to the third place act.

With the line-up finalized and the audition process finally over, here’s a run-down of who will be competing this year: Folk/roots rock band ‘I, The Mountain’ will be back this year as defending champions against an eclectic field.

‘Liquid Larry And The Afterburners’ draw from an extensive catalogue of blues and rock as do ‘5 Shots To Ragtown’ (a band that I’ve only ever seen do covers before, so I’m interested to see what their original stuff sounds like).

Putting a punctuation mark on TUMS commitment to eclecticism is the facemelting punk band ‘Piss Locusts’.

‘Television Road’’s EP Character Splatters have earned them critical praise and even a shout-out on CBC 2, and will bringing some groove to their contention for the top spot at this year’s BOTB. The White Crowleys have really left a mark on Peterborough lately with hybrid psychedelic and surf all slathered up in re-

22

www.trentarthur.ca

verb and unexpected tangents.

Both they and Television Road have competed in BOTB’s before but both bands are bringing a lot more experience, presence and a more tightly-honed sound to bare on this year’s competition.

‘The Beef Boys’ were featured in Arthur earlier this year when they want on an East Coast tour with Lonely Parade. Their unpredictable, yet catchy garage rock, bring a lot of energy to this year’s edition of the TUMS BOTB and should make for an exciting event.

Also, a band called ‘Waterford’ who don’t seem to have any links or social media presence, but apparently are a thing nonetheless.

Who knows, maybe this mystery entrant will turn out to be the most mindblowing performance in the history of the event, and therefore also the winners.

Admission is completely free and the bar is fully licensed, so come and support a night of great music and sample some of the best up-and-coming musicians Peterborough—and Trent University—has to offer.

Arts

The exhausted artifact: Why museums make us tired short-term sense of time: Did we see that lion at the watering hole yesterday? Will he appear today? What we cannot easily do is conceptualize geological or historical time.

Yet museums must do this, often resorting to logarithmic scales. The main display at the Peterborough Museum moves us through 12,000 years in six footsteps, then takes us through the last two hundred years, to our doorstep, in fifty paces—all on a logarithmic path.

Grasping these timelines, where equal distances on the same scale represent increasingly large or small quantities—like the decibel or Richter scale—is a form of work that we resist when we can do it at all.

By Tom Hurley

Climb the steps past the waterfall and the pine tree inside Peterborough’s Canadian Canoe Museum and you will find yourself standing in front of this map for a long time.

Nine by fourteen feet, in earth tones and chalk blue, devoid of labels, it shows only the lakes and rivers of a vast, empty North America.

“This is the only uninterpreted artifact here,” says curator Jeremy Ward, a Trent graduate. Maybe because Jeremy writes interpretive labels as part of his job, he relishes its wordlessness. “It’s the most eloquent text panel in the museum.”

I return to this map over and over for its evocative power, but also to postpone the inevitable — the phenomenon universally known as museum fatigue, the feeling of unexpected depletion that arrives at any museum, especially the best, usually within a half-hour.

The question Why do museums make us so tired? worries museum curators and exhibit designers, who try to fix the problem through gallery planning and research into the cognitive demands that arise from crowding many old and interesting things into a small, well-lit space.

They know there is more at play here than hard floors, low blood-sugar, and feeble attention spans, and like to talk about ‘information overload,’ but that white-light phrase calls out for a prism to spread its constituent colours.

The Great Overload The existential plight of information overload has been with us since the Pleistocene, when brains learned to model reality internally and, with increasing vacation time, warehouse our memorabilia. Museums do overload us, but not so much with ‘information’.

By their nature and ambitions they start conversations they cannot finish, inducing a weariness that has more to do with depressive denial—a healthy defence against fascinating but unresolvable conflicts generated by the space and the objects themselves.

Some visitors experience the weariness as boredom but, as Neil Stephenson says, “Boredom is a mask frustration wears”. This rapid siphoning off of our energy has abundant causes for its effects. It is, in fact, hugely overdetermined—a term I had hoped to get through life without using.

In spite of its Apollonian orderliness and path-marking, the museum exhibit is a disorientating world, a platform of horizontal vertigo where the first sensation is the competition among objects.

A Luminol scan would reveal blood on the floor from the museum version of the fight for retail shelf space. These artifacts exert a hard-won gravitational pull, and each makes us burn fuel to reach escape velocity before we figure out where to go next.

We enter willing to be led, then find there is no one to lead us. Psychology experiments are revealing the extent to which over-choice and decision-making tax the brain’s executive function, a function we might have preferred to leave at home.

Bidding War The pure pleasure of irreplaceable artifacts can only lead to thoughts about the concept of value itself. At last year’s Royal Ontario Museum exhibit, “Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World,” a throwaway lump of clay incised with cuneiform notes on a Sumerian

Death by Water

wheat harvest sits inside a display case with glass panes the thickness of an Airbus cockpit windshield. Nearby, a copy of the Hammurabi law code stele raises a side-question of commercial jurisprudence: How much less is this copy worth than the original in the Louvre? Should I recalibrate my excitement?

Questions of object value lead to questions of ownership, with their open-ended invitation to post-colonial guilt. Ownership is the abortion debate of the museum world; no museum is completely free of the legacy of Napoleon in Egypt, Lord Elgin on the Acropolis, the Nazis across Europe, or our own trek onto aboriginal burial grounds.

Objects speak to us through the glass as orphans kept away from their biological parents and the terse artifact label that reads, “On loan,” is grateful to escape elaboration.

Ram in a Thicket These unexpected conversations about value and ownership play a part in museum fatigue, but they are minor compared to the background radiation of deeper issues linked to the question, Where does our energy go?

Art versus pedagogy is one of these, emerging from the conflicting goals that are usually obscured by the refined rhetoric of posted mission statements. Museum exhibits, so often drenched in beauty, are also required to teach us about the past. In any display that combines artworks with the utilitarian, this pedagogical task can set off a kind of bicameral brain distress.

Teaching aids tend to be linear, timebound, verbal, rational, ethical and disciplined. The aesthetic experience, distanced from the ends of teaching, is another modality entirely—holistic, time-stopped, nonrational, amoral. The appreciation of art is fundamentally a swoon, a daydream, a complex emotion inaccessible to words.

A gold, copper, and lapis lazuli goat reaches for the tastiest branches on a bush.

Here, in front of me, is the 4,500-year-old Ram in a Thicket from Ur in southern Iraq (see photo). I melt when I see it, in a way I rarely melt during an archeology lecture.

The refined craft object, on the other hand, combining beauty and practical design, adds its own undertones to this basic split between art and utility. Moving between these modalities takes energy we would prefer to spend on the objects themselves.

“I don’t read text panels when I visit other museums,” says Jeremy Ward. “I’m torn between this desire to look at the object and soak it up, and the desire to find the information that helps me understand it.”

Nostalgic Haze Museums don’t just set up a conflict between art and non-art. By freezing and framing, and through sheer institutional power, the process of display itself changes our perceptions. Exhibitions aestheticize and romanticize the humblest object. A Babylonian paperweight on a pedestal is a thing of unusual beauty, as is a canoe paddle, first settler Adam Scott’s adze, or an archival photo of men pouring concrete for the Lift Lock.

Our instinctive effort to capture any one of these artifacts moves from initial strangeness, through a series of psychic filters, to a final state that would be unrecognizable to the first perception. We spend large amounts of energy drawing the object through our own unique sensibility—abstracting it out of nostalgia, making it real, then taking it away in a form that preserves its pleasurable thrum.

Logarithmic Time During the whole process, we are furnishing our personal historical imagination, which lives in the mind as a bustling diorama where no tale is lost and the entire past is perpetually alive. The display label for a 4,000-year-old cosmetics dish tells multiple stories: the historical period of the piece, facts about use, its discovery, provenance, and loan status.

Curators weep over the lack of space to tell these stories—often their life’s work—in detail. To convey both the stretch and the nearness of this romance, museums have to communicate impossible timelines to brains that are adapted for the hunter-gatherer’s

The conversations for which we came to the museum are often not the ones we end up having. Tensions over value, ownership, the aesthetic experience, the consumption of the artifact, and ungraspable timelines, all contribute to our overdetermined experience, but there is one other, in its literal way the coup de grâce. Museums pull us back and forth between a sentimental view of history—the nostalgia of framing—and a recognition of hard social realities, including the randomness of pain and fate.

Death stalks the museum, a fact that exhibit designers treat with glee. One snowy day in February of 1838, Adam Scott “was walking home when he fell through the ice in a pond and subsequently froze to death.”

Subsequently? We may want to push the ache of this hypothermic adverb to the margin during our Sunday divertissement at the Peterborough Museum.

Death, meanwhile, being no respecter of temperature, also has a fondness for gunpowder. The field surgeon’s amputation kit shows up with distressing frequency in military museums around the world. Frozen ponds will always be cold, but there was a time before anaesthetics.

For many, fatigue is the self-protecting anaesthetic of choice. Jeremy Ward prefers a more life-affirming analogy. “Perhaps exhausting you, Tom, is the best thing I can do, because then it has actually worked!

Museum fatigue is a sign of success, just like the body’s fatigue after a workout. But hopefully you’re flooded with endorphins too.”

Those endorphins do arrive, and I keep going back to this national treasure for more, but the chemical rush may be delayed.

Professor Yves Thomas, Acting Head of Trent’s Cultural Studies Department, has spent a lifetime visiting museums around the world. I asked him whether he could recall a personal episode of museum fatigue.

He thought for a moment, then described his reaction to a recent Art Gallery of Ontario show which brought together selected masterpieces from the Guggenheim Collection in New York.

“Although I knew these artists, there was so much—such a degree of saturation, including the way the rooms were organized, that I felt completely bewildered. It was like a state of zombie-ism. I tried to focus on certain paintings, but it had a zonking effect on me. I know what you’re talking about, and that was it.”

This AGO exhibit displayed only paintings and sculpture, from a brief, 28-year period. How might a more unprepared visitor respond to the ROM’s Mesopotamia blockbuster, covering 2,500 years of a civilization which, while going about its daily business, was also, absentmindedly, “Inventing Our World”?

Museums don’t need ear-bud audio tours.

Museums need trauma counsellors.

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

23

arts

Five Feminist Minutes captivates audience and showcases the many nuances of contemporary feminism

By Renzo Costa

Last Tuesday March 10, in the LEC senior common room, the Social Work Society, the Trent Feminist Society, and Lady Eaton College organized an event featuring outstanding performances.

The event was called “Five Feminist Minutes” and was organized in light of Social Work Week and International Women’s Day with the objective of promoting equality and justice.

The coffee house style event featured a series of performances about issues related to feminism and its fight for justice.

Each performer had a five-minute slot.

There were a diverse number of acts such as spoken word, poems, and songs.

The dimly lit room provided a cozy and

24

www.trentarthur.ca

relaxed environment that welcomed all.

The passion with which the performers delivered their message was powerful and the audience was extremely engaged.

One of the performers presented a song about how a woman is not just a pretty face. It was a well-delivered song that had a lasting impact in the audience’s mind. The guitar was smooth and served as a good accompaniment to her amusing voice.

There were other acts such as a spoken word piece about the power words have to hurt, which was also perfectly delivered and extremely well received. The speaker explained how words have the power to hurt as much as physical violence.

Another spoken word act numbered the infinite reasons why the performer

was a feminist, which made a plethora of different points defending the fight for justice that feminism is pursuing. It was a very compelling act, which enabled the audience to identify with the fight.

There were light refreshments, which allowed the audience to feel at home and allowed them to better connect to the performers. After the performances were finished, people stayed to mingle and share their opinions.

The event also encouraged people to bring a small monetary donation, a canned good, or some item for the local women’s shelter.

These types of events are much needed in a time when the fight for equality and social justice is gathering momentum.

There are many structural and overt ways

in which society characterizes and classifies different people into boxes. These need to be challenged, and feminism provides tools to do it.

Even though there are different types of feminism, they all share a common fundamental belief in the need to challenge those structural forces that marginalize and stigmatize members of our society.

These types of events are necessary to help vanish the misleading existing stereotypes about feminism itself. The performers did a great job of showcasing the nuances that feminism offers in analyzing gender inequalities and injustices.

The organizers did a magnificent job in putting together the performances and it is without any doubt that more events of this nature should take place at Trent.

Arts

Play Review - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

By Caleigh Boyle

Is your hair getting too long? Are you in need of a close shave? Then you should go and see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!

Put on by The Anne Shirley Theatre Company, Sweeney Todd tells the story of a man convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.

Set in England in the 19th century, Sweeney Todd has returned to London seeking vengeance on the man who sentenced him to fifteen years in prison. While setting up his barbershop above Mrs. Lovett’s bakery, Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Todd become partners in a crime of passion. This musical also tells the story of the pure love between Anthony and Johanna, who will fight for their love until there is no fight left.

Lucas DeLuca, playing the role of Sweeney Todd, filled Market Hall with his booming voice from the moment he walked onto the stage, and remained consistent until the end of the show. DeLuca captures the extreme despair and suffering that Sweeney is forced to live through, making his performance powerful and passionate.

Sweeney Todd’s daughter, played by Sophie Robinson, is forced to live in the grasp of Judge Turpin, played by Karsten Skeries, who takes her into his care after sending her father away. Robinson’s vocals were one of the strongest in the show. The strength behind her voice mirrored the strength in Johanna as a woman fighting to be with the man she loves, Anthony Hope, played by Erik Feldcamp.

For a musical that has such demanding musical numbers, each and every cast

member deserves recognition. There was not a weak moment in the entire show and each musical number had me on the edge of my seat. However, there are two characters that stood out among the rest.

Toby Ragg, a simpleton who is taken in by Mrs. Lovett but does not trust Mr. Todd, is played chillingly by Taylor Beatty.

Toby is the very first person people see as they are walking into the theatre. Sitting on stage as people get seated, Beatty in his small movements and mannerisms sets the stage for the entire show. Though Toby may be a simpleton, he makes it clear to Mrs. Lovett that he is not stupid, and as the plot unwinds we see how the events drive Toby mad. Beatty’s brilliant performance peaked during his final solos, “Nothing’s Gonna Harm You” and “Patty Cake” which sent chills throughout the theatre and shivers up my spine.

Matching the energy and performance of Toby was Mrs. Lovett who stole the show, and was played radiantly by Katrina Hounam. Hounam owned the stage every time she was on it, having completely become Mrs. Lovett. The extreme amount of character development was obvious as each and every move and gesture was Mrs. Lovett’s. Hounam was able to get the audience to forget that she was an actor playing a role as she distorted the line between actor and character. And while her acting was marvelous, it was even more so strengthened by her incredible vocals.

Each time she opened her mouth to sing, passion came out.

Other members of the cast included Kyla Piccin who plays the beggar woman, Beadle Bamford, played by Josh Butcher, and Christina Pidgeon, playing Adolfo Pirelli. Each actor played their roles won-

derfully, truly pulling the audience in.

The ensemble also must not go unmentioned. Playing mental hospital ward patients, the ensemble set the mood in every scene. Sweeney Todd is an extraordinary musical that is dark, creepy, and gruesome and the way in which the ensemble carried the cast epitomized these features.

Another aspect of the show that was done brilliantly was the staging and lighting. Directors Dylan Billings and Lauren Bromberg made great use of the Market Hall theatre, breaking the fourth wall and using every inch of space they had. There were moments when music and singing was coming from all around the audience, forcing them to be a part of the show. The directors made very creative and possibly very risky decisions in terms of staging and it could not have worked out better. The perfect compliment to the staging was the lighting, which was done so in a way that made the audience feel that someone was in the shadows. For a show that is as sinister and dark as this, the lighting further created this atmosphere. At moments the eyes of the actors were not visible as shadows were cast over them. It was evident that the directors knew that the lighting could be used to their advantage to further emphasize the utter eeriness of the script, and it did.

Overall the cast and crew of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street put on a strong show. Be sure not to miss the student showing on Saturday March 21 at 9pm. Tickets are only $10. Made up of a wonderfully talented cast and crew I can assure you, you won’t be eating pies any time soon!

Run All Night Review: Stop messing with Liam Neeson’s fictional children

By Brian Lukaszewicz

Run All Night is an action movie. It knows that. It knows we know that. For those of you who want to watch Liam Neeson running around uttering threats, and then subsequently following through on those threats, you won’t be disappointed.

But for an action first movie, Run All Night takes a lot more care filling in the blanks than it has to—a lot more than most in the genre feel they need to. That extra bit of thought goes a long way, turning what on paper seems like a largely forgettable premise into a tense action thriller with a surprising amount of depth.

Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) is an aging hitman haunted by his past deeds. He’s not what anyone would call a success story, flat broke and prone to sleeping in bars.

His son Mike (Joel Kinnaman)—who we’re quickly shown is an upstanding citizen, mentoring at risk youth and caring for his young and growing family—wants nothing to do with him. He knows what his father is and resents him for leaving his mom when he was a kid.

Luckily for Jimmy, he still has a friend in his old boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Shawn’s done a lot better for himself than Jimmy, but he hasn’t forgotten his old friend, routinely lending him money and looking out for him whenever he can.

Unfortunately, Shawn’s son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) is a bit of a loose cannon. One night, after a business deal falls through, he kills two drug smugglers.

Mike, a limo driver, witnesses the crime, but before Danny can kill him Jimmy intervenes. Danny is killed and Shawn sets out to avenge his son. Jimmy and Mike are sent running … all night (that’s how they got the title!).

Now read those last three paragraphs

and tell me you haven’t seen pretty much all of that before. The wise old mob boss, the screw up son, the aging hitman who’s only good at one thing (spoiler alert: it’s killing). There’s a father-son redemption story thrown in there. And you’d better believe there’s a scene planted somewhere in the middle of all of it where the hero and villain sit down and have a calm and yet largely threatening conversation.

Run All Night is basically a collection of mob and action movie clichés. It’s unabashedly formulaic. Even if you hadn’t seen a preview you could probably figure out what’s going to happen here within a few minutes.

But the script has a way of sneaking in a surprising amount of nuance into that rigid framework, taking a few of these stock characters and flipping them on their heads. Ed Harris’ mob boss Shawn is played with a surprising amount of com-

passion. And Jimmy doesn’t need a close call with his son to wake him up to his dubious past. He’s already bothered by all the people he’s killed. You almost feel like he just might turn himself in out of guilt.

It’s not The Godfather or anything, but it’s these small touches that gives the story enough heft to make the action feel meaningful.

Some of the credit for that nuance should go to the actors. Ed Harris delivers such a great performance it’ll have you questioning why you don’t see Ed Harris in more things. He skillfully avoids turning Shawn into a rage filled sociopath, adding just enough pathos to make you actually feel bad for the film’s villain.

Liam Neeson admittedly takes this sort of role a lot more often—How many Taken movies have there been now? Just leave that guy’s daughter alone, it is clearly not working out for anyone to keep kidnap-

ping her!—but here he once again manages to artfully convey the deep singeing regret of Jimmy with a few mournful looks and some short mumbled dialogue.

As for the action, well it’s the meat of the movie and it’s all executed quite skillfully, capturing a sort of cat and mouse style that keeps the tension high while still feeling relatively grounded. Smartly, it avoids too many over the top moments of eye rolling extravagance.

Run All Night doesn’t exactly stray too far from the genre’s conventions, but add together solid performances from Neeson and Harris, a script that avoids turning its characters into walking clichés, and some well-choreographed set pieces and you’ve got a movie that knows what it wants to be and does a pretty good job of finishing.

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

25

Arthurelection Arthur’s spring elections are happening soon!

Elect the editor(s) and board for Volume 50 Arthur Spring Elections are coming up!

That means that it is time to elect the editor(s) and three Staff Collective Board directors for the upcoming academic year.

For more information about these positions, please consult the Arthur Policies and Procedures.

You can also contact the Arthur board at board@trentarthur.ca.

Time and Place The election will take place at 7pm on

Who can vote Only those who are on the staff collective at

the time of the election can vote (the list so far is to the right). Voting is done by secret ballot. Everyone on the staff collective is entitled to a single ballot.

Who’s on the Staff Collective?

You are considered part of the staff

Thursday, March 26, 2015 in the Lecture Hall of Sadleir House (room 106 wheelchair accessible). Refreshments, likely sushi, will be provided.

collective if you have contributed to the production of at least 15% of the issues of Arthur released before the election. For our purposes that means you must have contributed to at least three. (Again, see right.)

Agenda The Adgenda is usually as follows:

Proxy Votes In accordance with section 6e of the

1. Editor(s) Remarks 2. Presentations of candidates for editor(s) platforms (10 minute limit per set of candidates) 3. Question Period 4. Election of Editor(s) 5. Election of three Board directors by the Staff Collective 6. Adjournment

Arthur bylaws, staff collective members may participate in the election through means of proxy vote. They may appoint, in writing, a proxy holder to vote for them in the election. The proxy holder does not need to be a member of the staff collective.

Proxies must bring: - The name and signature of the Staff Collective member - The date the proxy is signed

- Who the proxy is giving voting powers to - Who the Staff Collective member is voting for (or the Staff Collective member can allow the proxy holder to choose who to vote for).

Who can run for editor?

Candidates for the position of editor(s)

must be members of the Staff Collective at the time of the election. Two Staff Collective members may choose to run as co-editors. They must have been running together to fill the positions of co-editors together.

Who can run for the Board?

Anyone who is a member of the Staff Collective at the time of the election.

Deadlines The deadline for nominations for editorial

candidates is Wednesday March 18, 2015 at Noon. All sets of editorial candidates must submit a position platform (800 word limit) and photograph by this time. These will be published online and in Issue 22.

Those wanting to run as Staff Collective directors on the board can be nominated at the Spring Election meeting.

Volume 49 Staff Collective as of Issue 21 Pat Reddick Matt Rappolt Jesse Woods Renzo Costa Simon Turner Quinn Ferentzy Lindsay Thackeray Emma Cullen Adriana Sierra Calvin Beauchesne James Kerr Steve Snow Pei Hsu Keila MacPherson Ayesha Barmania

26

Ugyen Wangmo Caleigh Boyle George Peregudov Jack Smye Nathan Prendergast Jade Willington-Watson Jenny Fisher Brian Lukaszewicz Brian Hough Kristina Dergacheva Patrick Assink Daniel Martin Zachary Cox Michael Eamon Sara Desmaris

www.trentarthur.ca

Hannah Collins Reba Harrison Zara Syed Crystal Peckford-McGrath Danielle Bimmer Will Willis Yumna Leghari Matthew Davidson Corey LeBlanc Elizabeth Thipphawong David Tough Leighton Schubert Sarah McDonald

One contribution needed: Betty Wondimu Andrew Tan Thomas Willington Melissa Zubrickas Allie Dafoe Matt Douglas

“

David Foster Wallace

There is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote.”

Olga Kuznietsova Jeffrey Stewart Stelios Pappas Nick Ferrio Chelsea Desrochers Helen McCarthy Hayley Raymond Boykin Smith

Bakhtawar Riaz Matthew Seaby Caitlin Coe Jasmine Harrison Carmen Meyette Michael Barrett Erin Mclaughlin Tom Hurley

Should you be on this list?

Email editors@trentarthur.ca Want to be on this list?

Just contriubte to Arthur!

Please note: the list of people who need two contributions is available on trentarthur.ca

Opinionpages

Editorial: Informative debates Editorial: The TCSA is not a student government

By Pat Reddick

If you weren’t at the TCSA debates last Thursday, then I hope you got a chance to listen to them on Trent Radio. The event made it very clear to me who I ought to be supporting, and I’d find it hard to believe that anyone could have left feeling differently.

Let’s start with the moderation. The questions Moderator and Chief Electoral Officer Stephanie Laing-McKay posed to candidates were tough but fair. They succeeded in pulling out crucial information about each candidates platform, ideas, biases, and vision for the TCSA. Furthermore, when it seemed like the Presidential debates might devolve into a shouting match, Laing-McKay intervened, and somehow managed to ensure the rest of the debate was civil, and relatively peaceful.

The audience’s questions were also thoughtful and interesting. They largely dealt with important issues, and I think both the candidates and other audience members appreciated them. I certainly did.

When it comes to the debaters themselves, I was impressed by the civility of the Vice Presidential candidates especially.

While both candidates for VP University and College Affairs—Kelsi Dalton and Pippa O’Brien—share a few ideas, they disagree on a number of crucial points. They expressed these differences in a way that clearly articulated their own vision and its merits.

As for VP Campaigns and Equity, that debate also saw a round of excellent, civil discussion. Those candidates ended up having a lot in common in terms of vision, but key differences in approach and priorities were made visible.

Despite about three questions on the topic, none of the candidates—Asgiga Corriveau, Betty Wondimu, or Hilary Staf-

Letter to the editors

We’ve surrendured, the terrorists have won.

Terrorism is an act, or acts, designed to frighten and stun a civilian community, to make the community quake at the spectre of an omnipresent, unspecific “other”. Yet as is always the case, while such acts committed on our native soil shock us out of our complacent laxity, it is rarely the acts themselves which create terror in the populace.

Instead it is what happens after an attack that proves far more pernicious. Canada’s response, our democratically elected government’s response, to the acts committed on our own soil nearly half a year ago are not the actions of a country declaring war, but of surrendering to our attackers.

On a scale that hasn’t been seen since “The Red Scare” an external enemy has been crafted and their vilification justified allowing for the use of repressive measures within our own nation to root out the fifth columnists lurking amongst us.

Straight out of Orwell’s 1984, Canadians are being told by the Harper government that they can’t trust anyone but them; not their neighbours, parents, friends, or children, let alone other political parties.

Only Big Brother can be trusted, only Big Brother can keep us safe here in this part of Oceania!

All those “others” are on the side of the pedophiles/terrorists/Nazis/Germans/Japanese/Reds! Take your pick, for a century those words have been interchangeable here.

Big Brother Harper, after a decade in power, is finally stepping up to make the nation more secure from such threats with Bill C-51.

Although the RCMP, CSIS, and the po-

ford—would take an explicitly pro- or anti-Canadian Federation of Students stance.

They seemed to agree that wasn’t the role of the VP to make that decision—it is the students’. Furthermore, regardless of students’ choice, they would work with it.

No doubt a vocal minority wanted to make CFS defederation a wedge issue, but these candidates had no interest in that. The focus was where it ought to have been: on specific questions regarding campaigns and equity.

The Presidential debates—featuring Jeff Campbell, Chris Mckinnon, Brendan Edge, and Alaine Spiwak— took up half of the evening. While they were more contentious and more personal than either of the VP debates, they too were successful at making each candidate’s position and opinions clear as day.

As mentioned, at several points the debate nearly devolved into yelling matches.

At times it resembled the 2014 Ontario election debate, in which candidates were more interested in providing a clever quip to use as a takeaway soundbyte than they were in discussion about the issues.

But, the candidates who kept their cool and stuck to their plan did themselves a favour. Not just by presenting themselves as calm and level-headed, but also by addressing the cacophonous concerns raised.

They demonstrated a willingness to work with even the most difficult, and still take them seriously, despite their outbursts. Given the current political context at Trent, that’s a good skill to have, regardless of your viewpoint.

Matt and I have a policy against making public endorsements, and as such I’ll be keeping my wishlist for the 2015-16 TCSA executive a secret.

One thing is certain though—after Thursday’s debates, I clearly know who those candidates are.

By Matthew Rappolt

Discussing the results of the Trent Central Student Association’s annual presidential debate with my Arthur colleagues late last Thursday night, we all concluded that this was undoubtedly the most interesting and substantial debates of the past few TCSA election cycles.

However, as I listened to the candidates outline their presidential platforms and respond to each of the many questions from the audience, I could not escape the uneasy feeling that the TCSA has become a microcosm for the broader administrative and political environment of uncertainty here at Trent.

For a number of years now, Trent’s largest student union, mirroring our university administration, has been rapidly transitioning away from its roots as a decentralized and collegiate-based political advocacy organization towards a new identity as a highly centralized campus bureaucracy.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a pan-campus student union such as the TCSA wanting to act as centralized institution. After all, the association’s mandate is to represent the its entire full-time undergraduate student body at Trent to the best of its abilities.

However, the union’s rapid expansion over the past four years—beginning with its takeover of the Trent Express bus service and continuing through its campaign for the new multi-million student centre—has led to some marked confusion over its role within the student body and the Trent community.

This was apparent throughout the debates as the candidates clashed not only over TCSA policy but over the very identity of the union itself.

Is the TCSA primarily a student service pro-

vider, as some candidates alleged, given the fact that the it runs an increasing number of important programs like transit, health benefits, and will soon be breaking ground on the student centre?

Or, as others argued, should the union return to its more traditional role as an organ of political advocacy, one whose fundamental purpose is to challenge the many financial, societal, and academic barriers facing contemporary university students?

There are certainly no clear answers to these questions and perhaps these the kinds of existential debates are healthy in an organization as broad and diverse as the TCSA. However, what is troubling is that from this uncertainty has emerged the clearly pervasive, but fundamentally fallacious view that the union is somehow all of these things and more: a form overarching campus government, one that has the jurisdictional control over the independent clubs and groups that operate within the Trent student community.

The TCSA is not Trent’s student government. It is one of three (soon to be two?) unions serving the student body supported by student levies. In fact, contrary to its current centralized reality the TCSA was actually born out of Trent’s college system, a fact exemplified in the union’s first corporate seal depicting a tree with five leaves, one for each of Trent’s five residential colleges.

The association does not govern anything outside of itself and nor should it. It exists simply to further the interests of Trent students and to work in partnership with the many other student initiatives on Symons campus and throughout Peterborough.

lice seem to be doing a great deal of surveillance and security work without Bill C-51 already, they too have awoken from their slumber along with the rest of us.

Now that we are awake we are force fed rhetoric, told what to think and assured that while we are safe, we need to be safer. More than mere helicopter parenting, we’ve been thrown out of our false sense of security and are being enveloped into a cocoon of perpetual anxiety without any hope of assistance.

Scholars Marcus and Whitaker (according to my Global Canada professor) said that “The security state is actually an insecurity state.” Not that we aren’t physically sound, but our government, in endeavouring to make us “safe”, has made us insecure, has made us afraid of whatever “other” is out there!

So afraid are we, we’re ready in both heart and soul give up our fundamental rights and freedoms, and view our friends and neighbours with suspicion.

When we are attacked this is what the Terrorists want, for us to be made afraid.

Only it isn’t their actions, but our government’s response and rhetoric, which is designed to fan the embers of fear into an inferno of anxiety and mistrust. If Bill C-51 passes, the terrorists will have won and our government has let them.

ISIS has not created the atmosphere of fear, our government has. By responding to the terrorists in this manner, it has surrendered to them. They got what they wanted, not through their attack but through the infighting and attacks upon ourselves since then.

How many high school students reading Orwell thought they’d see the first stirring of The Revolution? I know I didn’t.

Brendan Edge

Letters cont’d on next pg.

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

27

Opinion Letters continued...

Setting the record straight (Re: “Emotions of the silenced,” Issue 20, pg 6)

A recent article in Arthur, written by a paid OPIRG staff member, has accused the Trent Central Student Association (TCSA) and the student group Trent4Israel of corruption and intimidation. It is sad to know this staff member – paid through student fees (obtained through a student levy) – is grasping at straws throughout this article, in order to continue propagating their (OPIRG Peterborough) unpopular BDS campaign.

Let’s set the record straight: There was never a backroom deal between the TCSA and Trent4Israel. We did not force the TCSA membership to rescind the student council’s policy that supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Students did this on their own accord, as they understand BDS against Israel for what it is; an unfair policy of intolerance towards a specific segment of our student population.

We did not hatch a diabolic scheme to ensure other student groups were not advised of the meeting. In fact, our group advertised the AGM significantly, as we were encouraging students to attend and vote against BDS. If Mr. Alotaibi feels as if there was not sufficient publicity regarding the AGM, I would encourage him to follow the TCSA on any one of their many social media accounts, or periodically take a glance at one of the many postering boards around campus.

We did not threaten the staff member, nor do we know of anyone who did. We hope they contacted the police after receiving the threats and certainly hope that Arthur did not simply take their word without conducting their own research into the allegations.

If anything, the purpose of their article had two functions: First, it was a weak attempt for OPIRG to save face after the failure of their Divestment Week debacle. Second, it was an example of their continued demonization of Israel.

The sole purpose of BDS is to enhance anti-Israeli sentiment, creating an unsafe environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students. BDS against Israel, in no way, directly benefits Palestine or the Palestinian cause.

It is simply another way to further the false notion of Israel – the only democracy in the Middle East – as an apartheid state. That’s why it was rescinded by the TCSA membership.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complex, made worse by those who throw around erroneous terms like ‘apartheid’ and ‘pink-washing.’ The best way to understand the conflict is not through protests and motions that threaten those who support the ‘other side’; it is through the discourse of debate and discussion, done in a peaceful and respectful matter. It is quite hypocritical, that OPIRG claims to be an organization based on anti-oppression yet seeks to oppress an entire nation of people.

Furthermore, we challenge the notion that any of our information was false or untrue. We are willing to provide anyone, at any time, sources for any of the facts we presented at the TCSA AGM. Additionally, as the writer pointed out LGBT rights in their article, we ask that interested individuals do their own research into the current condition of LGBT rights in the Palestinian controlled Gaza Strip and West Bank.

We also challenge the assertion by Mr. Alotaibi that all conflict in Israel is caused solely by Israelis, and that Palestinians are simply defending themselves. The past three wars he is referring to, in respects to the Gaza Strip, were all caused by, and continued by, the terrorist government in the Gaza Strip, (Hamas), and their indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israel and Israeli

28

www.trentarthur.ca

civilians. The reason civilian casualties are so high in the Gaza Strip are due to the inhumane use of human shields by Hamas – a tactic which they have used time and time again.

Finally, it appeared the writer was interested in having a discussion when they sent an e-mail to student groups, asking for their thoughts on the BDS rescindment. A Trent4Israel representative was included in that list and happily offered to meet with her.

Unfortunately, the offer was declined.

Clearly, the writer was not open to discussion – and instead wanted to find anyone upset about the BDS rescindment, that they could use as a pawn, to tarnish the decisive and overwhelming student vote against this disgusting BDS policy which their organization supports.

Isn’t it about time OPIRG Peterborough, and their paid staff members, begin to represent the student body (who funds them)?

Shame.

Cory LeBlanc, Trent4Israel

Article was oppressive to Jewish students (Re: “Emotions of the silenced,” Issue 20, pg 6)

Last week, Arthur published a piece by Reba Harrison that discussed the events of the TCSA AGM on January 29, 2015. While Harrison condemns the TCSA for favoring one side of the issue – which was inaccurate, as there were three students that spoke out against the rescinding the policy – Harrison has failed to contact any of the members of Trent4Israel, nor any Jewish students on campus, to give their perspective in her article. That’s ironic, isn’t it?

So being as I, a Jewish student and an active Trent4Israel member, was not given a voice alongside the students of the TMSA and TSSA, I will now respond to every claim Harrison has made against me and my fellow pro-Israel members: 1. “According to [Alotaibi, former president of the TMAS and TSSA], neither the TMSA nor the TSSA were made aware of the meeting beforehand.” – Trent 4 Israel and the Trent Conservatives had been busy for the weeks leading up to the AGM distributing flyers on campus and sharing them on Facebook.

So, if the TMSA and TSSA were unaware of the meeting, it was not due to lack of publicity but a lack of observation on the part of these associations. Since there were over 200 students at the meeting, it was clearly a well-known and well-attended event.

2. “The minutes from the AGM do not include the Trent4Israel presentation and therefore specific instances of false facts cannot be confirmed.” – While I do not personally possess the prezi that Rebecca Hubble and Corey LeBlanc used in their presentation, Rebecca has provided Arthur with a separate email that contains all the sources that were used to back up their facts.

3. “However, during the presentation Trent4Israel did argue that Israel is a state that supports the rights of LGBTQ individuals which, according to Ryerson University professor Alan Sears is problematic.”- What exactly are these problems? a. “[T]o take this approach is to invisibilize the Palestinian people by distracting from the other things going on in the apartheid state of Israel.” – I believe LGBTQ rights are a separate issue from Palestinian rights. However, one does not negate the other. The reality is that in Israel, the LGBTQ community does posses rights that are not available to them under Hamas rule in Gaza. It isn’t a wonder why “we do not have access to LGBTQ Palestinians to ask them if these processes feel like freedom to them,”

because they do not exist in their region, they have been exterminated by Hamas. b. “The Association for Civil Rights in Israel states that ‘in Israel, the LGBT community still faces various forms of discrimination by government authorities and in the private sector. LGBT men and women, and particularly transgender persons, also experience discrimination in employment and health services, and are often the target of verbal and physical violence.’” – Wait…I think I’ve heard this one before… Oh yeah, it’s the same issue of intolerance we face in Canada and the US today. Why is this common Western issue of equality – which we are still trying to fully integrate into society – posed as unique to Israel?

4. “At the meeting, Trent4Israel also argued that to boycott against the Israeli state is to boycott against Judaism.” – Yes, yes it is.

To single out Israel as the only state that has equality problems and demonize it for its actions, which are significantly less severe than its surrounding states, towards Gaza and the Palestinians, is inherently anti-Semitic.

5. “As a Jewish person, Neumann says that he thinks that it is especially important for him to voice his concern about the Israeli apartheid. He explains that ‘to oppose the state of Israel’s government and policies is not even to be anti-Israeli, let alone antiJewish… To oppose a government and its policies is not to oppose the people it governs.’” – We agree with this statement. We believe in the right to critique a government for its faults. What we do not believe in is at the heart of the BDS policy: that Israel, as a Jewish state, does not have a right to exist and placing a “cultural” boycott on all academic and economic interactions with anything associated with the state.

To say that this kind of boycott is “A great way to stand up for social justice” completely ignores the horrifying reality of such a policy on a university campus. When you target a state, a religion, or any specific group – you are performing organized discrimination. As a Jewish student on this campus, I personally felt discriminated against with this kind of policy in place.

Which is why Trent 4 Israel is so proud of our student body for voting to rescind this policy. As the first university in Canada to renounce it from our bylaws, we are making a statement to the academic community to stand up for equality, and not to demonize one group in favor of the other.

Atolaibi comments at the end that “It is the right of the Palestinians to defend themselves.” And guess what: it’s Israel’s right to exist that is on the line here as well. We, an institution that believes in democracy, human rights, and morality, have an obligation to defend it.

Laurenne Mandel

Non-territorial Canada is described as a democratic constitutional monarchy with a sovereign as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. The state, embodied in the sovereign and often referred to simply as “the Crown”, claims ownership of all the land within its geopolitical boundaries and claims sovereignty over the population within its territory. The capital and shares of the Bank of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mint are also held on behalf of Elizabeth Windsor, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.

National currency is not a benign medium of exchange or a reliable store of value. It demands economic growth but is systemically scarce, which keeps us in a collective state of perpetual debt, restrains economic activity, and leads to a shortage of paid employment.

Every dollar is “borrowed” or credited into existence as interest-bearing debt, and

the interest has to be obtained from money that is also created as interest-bearing debt.

Total aggregate debt, including principal and interest, is always more than the total amount of money in circulation.

Money, in the form of credit and “loans”, is created by the financial institutions. Government obtains credit from the financial institutions and then passes its debt to taxpayers, but taxes must also be paid with money that is created as interest-bearing debt. The central bank manipulates the price of credit by influencing interest rates, which influences decisions to “borrow” and spend and affects demand for goods and services.

Legal tender notes and coins, which represent only a very small portion of the money circulating in the economy at any one time, are distributed to the financial institutions as tangible tokens of credit.

When new money is brought into circulation it adds more money to the economy without necessarily bringing more goods and services to the market. This can lead to currency inflation and price inflation, which erodes the value of savings.

There does seem to be an increasing level of dissatisfaction with the political and monetary systems, but there isn’t a consensus in defining or solving the problem. This poses a challenge if we expect everyone to follow the same route, but maybe a wide range of choices is part of the solution.

There are already many options available.

As consumers we can select from an everexpanding array of goods and services that are available from a variety of producers and providers, and we can customize some of our purchases. Buyers and sellers can use alternative methods and media of exchange, including mutual credit clearing, community currencies, cryptocurrencies and commodity money, and different arrangements can operate concurrently in any location to facilitate trade. We can also seek membership in different organizations and associations with diverse social, economic and political interests, and various groups can coexist in the same geographical area, often intermingling and overlapping.

Different businesses and groups could compete or collaborate to attract new customers and members, based on the quality and price of any products or services offered, including instruction, health care, protection, and dispute resolution. Autonomous groups could make their own decisions about governance. Organized communities do not need to be defined by contiguous properties, restrictive geopolitical boundaries, or exclusive territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction.

Decisions about group affiliation and the exchange or distribution of goods and services can be made without imposing one’s preferences on anyone else or forcing anyone to relocate, and without any coercive monopolies, mandatory membership, compulsory production, or imposed monetary systems. This would certainly give us more control over our activities and interactions.

Various communities, arrangements and systems can exist simultaneously in any locality for the mutual benefit of all voluntary participants, at their own risk and expense.

James Clayton

You have thoughts.

We have a page.

Send your letters to editors@trentarthur.ca

Opinion

An open letter to fellow geeks: Tune in, turn on, keep thinking!

By Nikolay Afonin

Hello my dear fellow nomads of the mind!

All you oddball eccentrics, apollonian introverts, linguistic mystics, messianic fantaseers. All you book worms, thought junkies, encyclopediacs and star blazers.

All you freaks lost in the glare, manic philosophers, wild-eyed shamans and restless explorers of inner worlds.

Have you always been the “weird kid” in the group, looking in utter bewilderment at everyone as though it were all an absurdist piece of improvisational theatre? Have people often laughed at you for being lost in your “fantasy world of abstractions”? Have you been sternly reprimanded for floating somewhere in a galaxy far, far away from the “real” world?

Oh how sure they are of the realness of their reality!

But do not despair ye! The ideas, visions and memes you might one day pass on to humanity might long outlive the realness of your own reality, your children’s (if you make the mistake of making any) and anyone else alive today.

Keep in mind too that anti-intellectualism is one of the most consistent and universal characteristics of all totalitarian regimes. In his essay titled “Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt”, the semiotician and novelist Umberto Eco writes: “Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action’s sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism (Eternal Fascism), from Hermann Goering’s fondness for a phrase from a Hanns Johst play (“When I hear the word ‘culture’ I reach for my gun”) to the frequent use of such expressions as “degenerate intellectuals,” “eggheads,” “effete snobs,” and “universities are nests of reds.” The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.”

So yes, when someone – friend or foe – tells you that you’re being too intellectual/critical/abstract-minded, or simply not engaging in enough “action”, feel free to call them a Nazi. We young earnest undergrads, regardless of our political orientation, love calling anyone who doesn’t agree with us a Nazi, don’t we?

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizkek further elaborates on this point of action for action’s sake in an interview with Big Think: “My advice would be, because I don’t have simple answers, two things. First, precisely to start thinking. Don’t get caught into this pseudo-activist pressure, ‘do something, let’s do it’ and so on. No, the time is to think. I even provoked some of my leftist friends when I told that if the famous Marxist formula – ‘philosophers have only interpreted the world, the time is to change it’, thesis eleven on Feuerbach – that maybe today we should say in 20th century we tried to change the world too quickly. The time is to interpret it again, to start thinking. Second thing, I’m not saying that if people are suffering and enduring horrible things that we should just sit and think. But we have to be very careful what we do… I always discern in this call to ‘do something’ a more ominous injunction: do it and don’t think too much. Today we need thinking.”

People suspicious of ideas like these, such as blogger Sotiris Triantis, rightly

point out that this could be interpreted as an “anti-revolutionary thesis” which could lead to isolation from action, and that it is only through collective action that historical change has ever been made. He suggests the formula ‘First Think, Then Act’.

With that in mind, and as someone who much like Zizek was born into a country of failed revolutions, my reading of the 20th century and really of all empire building human history is this: It has been a perpetual nightmare of human hyperactivity.

That proverbial nightmare from which we cannot awaken.

Invade, Colonize, Multiply! Build deadlier weapons, bigger armies, taller pyramids! Leave more progeny, amass more slaves, erect bigger monuments to celebrate our Glory, our Grandeur, our Power! … as the indifferent cosmos watches our ant colonies wither to dust under the silent sun.

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that some aboriginal peoples of Australia believed their existential duty to be the keepers of the land upon which they lived. To leave it unperturbed once they passed through it. I’m suspicious of new agey Avatar-esque tendencies to idealize pre-civilizational societies as some sort of primordial Garden of Eden. I think such depictions are largely a projection of modernity’s anxiety onto the blank canvas of the “exotic other”. That said however, and if it is indeed true, maybe they were onto something there.

My utopia is not one where people made everything right, but rather where people simply aren’t. And if I must concede to some human presence in this vision of timeless silence, well, there they are, a few still figures in the distant background of the vast red desert, looking together mutely upon the infinite expanse of the universe.

The problem is this however: If peaceful, egalitarian, partnership-based cultures were once common, as many scholars such as Riane Eisler have claimed, a hyperactive dominator neighbour would eventually show up, brutally kill most of you off and force the rest of you into building their goddamn pyramids.

This is the irresolvable problem of every matrist make-love-not-war pacifist. Either we perish under the sword of the dominator, or we become like them in order to fight them. It is the tragedy of militarization and counter-militarization, which also in biology seems to parallel what is known as the Red Queen Effect. If you want to survive the other beasts, evolve bigger claws. And so on and on and on the rivers of blood and tears flow.

… as the indifferent cosmos watches on. It can wait till these rivers run dry some distant aeon. It has all of eternity at its disposal.

It seems to me that predation of this kind is built into the very essence of life and its evolution. Creation itself is a theatre of violence and destruction. Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Dominate or be dominated. But if such predation is ubiquitous, so is cooperation, as Kropotkin eloquently demonstrated already well over a century ago. And so is empathy and care for one another.

We humans are the social “thinking” animal, trapped somewhere between killer, sadist, predator and the angel of affection and compassion. Half chimp, half bonobo, with a mind that can contemplate itself contemplating its origins and destiny. Maybe somewhere in this inner and outer struggle of conflicting modes of un/ consciousness we can make a choice?

We think, therefore we (can) choose?

“Dream on, hippie bum!” I hear the hawks shriek up above from their gunpowder sky, “We were born of war, and through war we shall persevere!” I’m afraid to think it, but what if they’re right?

Or even worse, what if they’re wrong, but humanity continues to run business as though they’re right until its last days?

But I digress.

What does any of this fetish for cerebrality have to do with our world today and all of its ongoing and looming catastrophes? I say “our world” and not “our country/culture/society” because I believe that we no longer can afford to think only locally and parochially, we’re all in each other’s backyards now.

With so many of us on the planet and in a time of technologies with more destructive power than ever, thorough thinking is indeed what we need most. It seems to me that our power to “do” has far outstripped our ability to contemplate and understand what it is we are doing. Even more so, it has outstripped our ability to empathize with those affected by our doing who are beyond the horizon of our immediate experience.

And here is my key point: To understand the consequences of our collective actions and to empathize with those affected by them, we have to be able to conceptualize the experiences of those out of view, and on a mass scale. This requires a high level of abstract mentation. Or in simpler terms, thinking.

We evolved into being highly social creatures that have the ability to imagine the mental states of others. This is known by cognitive scientists as Theory of Mind, meaning simply the ability to theorize about others’ minds. We are not unique in that regard. Non-human apes, elephants, dolphins and corvids (aka the crow family) can do it too, scientists tell us, among possible others. But what seems to differentiate us from them is the extent to which we are able to do it.

As far as we know today, humans are the only animals capable of imagining the feelings, thoughts and intentions of not only our own kind in our vicinity, but of sentient beings from entirely different species across time and space, far removed from us. We can even imagine the experiences of other beings in altogether different worlds, different modes and dimensions of existence, by staring into a book or at an abstract painting. Religion and superstition are probably a side effect of this ability. An unfortunate one, some may add.

Peter Singer, the Australian philosopher perhaps most famous for his pioneering

work on animal rights, describes this as the expansion of our empathy circles. It is the process of including into our empathizing awareness more and more sentient beings of less and less similarity to us. And to do that, we have to develop our capacities to think and imagine to their maximum and beyond.

It is such considerations, among others, that bring me to the conclusion that more than ever today we need to think on an increasingly broad and far-reaching scale. Our actions, both as individuals and as societies, have increasingly potent impacts on our world and those who live in it. It is our unconsciousness, our blind unthinking, that propels entire nations into genocidal wars and other atrocities. We are a creature torn between reflexive fightor-flight instincts and our equally evolved abilities to reason, to be universally compassionate; even dare I say it to love.

And it is I believe today and in the foreseeable future that our Nietzschean rope – the rope that holds us over the abyss between cruelty and love – is becoming more and more strained.

So what is the concrete role of the intellectual in all this? How can we nerds with all our grandiose ideas actually have an impact on this seemingly insurmountable tide of horror and suffering (and above all stupidity) on our beleaguered earth?

Before you throw yourself under a tank in some presumably noble but probably futile act of heroism (leave it to professional martyrs), remember that ideas, if they can take root, can radically transform the world. For good or ill, hence the tremendous responsibility to create and promote good ideas while subverting toxic ones.

Whatever form these ideas take, be they anything from scientific breakthroughs to portrayals of fictional universes, ideas steer the course of our journey now as much as geological forces. Paleontologist Tielhard de Chardin, along with his colleagues, went so far as to propose a theory about the emergence of a whole new planetary layer. He called it the “noosphere”, the sphere of thought, which much like the biosphere has now enveloped the earth as a higher order of evolutionary complexity.

“We are moving from unconscious evolution through natural selection to conscious evolution through choice,” futurist Barbara Max Hubbard once said. Ideas are the seeds of this choice. Like invisible strings they tie our messy chaotic realities into coherent meaningful wholes. And our work as imagineers, I believe, is to play these strings as though they were part of The Great Harp that reverberates across our planet the music of new possibilities.

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

29

Clubs&Groups

Catch the big one with Peterborough Carping Guides

By Will Muschett

In the mid 19th century, the Common Carp Cynprinus Carpio was introduced into North America by European colonists.

Originally intended to be a food source for the growing populations of North America, the Common Carp slowly became undesirable as a food source, as the bodies of water that it inhabited were greatly polluted, and in consequence of their eating habits, they themselves took on a particularly bad flavour. In result of this lack of consumption, the Common Carp spread quickly through the many tributaries and rivers that span North America, and became what many might call an invasive species.

Moving into the early and mid 20th century, efforts were being made to exterminate the Common Carp from the waters of North America. In some places extreme measures were being taken, including poisoning an entire body of water with a chemical known as Rotenone, killing all life for many years, then simply restocking it with “desirable” species of plant and fish.

Open season was placed on Common Carp and it could be fished through any means: by bow, by spear, by net, and such; any means necessary to cull the numbers.

All the while however, the Common Carp

was becoming an exulted species in Europe. Commercial Lakes were being set up with breeding programs designed specifically to grow large coarse fish (Carp, Catfish, etc.) for European anglers. It didn’t take long before this view of the Common Carp began to find its way overseas and into North America.

Today, although still a controversial and often despised species, the common carp is the fastest growing sport fish in the world.

They are often overlooked as a sport fish, and as a result when one does find its way on to

Trent Radio: Elevator Pitch

By James Kerr

I was out recording the TCSA election speeches for later broadcast, and as the night was done and people were heading out, a fellow came up to me and asked about Trent Radio. I didn’t give him a very good elevator pitch. I’d like to do a better one now—I’ll just have to imagine the elevator.

Come out and do radio. Do you have an interest? Do it on radio; explore it through radio. I don’t care what it is: jazz, cats, sex, kickboxing, herbal teas, or aeroplanes. Everything makes good radio. And you are more than in your power to do it all yourself.

If you are mildly passionate, on pretty vague or better terms, about something you think you probably like, and think radio is also pretty neat—ACES. That’s all we need.

If you are staying in Peterborough this summer, become a part of our summer season. It’s brand new; there are no shows until we assemble them after the programme

30

www.trentarthur.ca

proposal deadline Sunday April 12 at noon.

Do a show about your cat, or your best kickboxing match, or your favourite model aeroplane. To get a programme proposal visit trentradio.ca or stop by Trent Radio House, 715 George Street North, just get off at the Sadlier House bus stop and walk 10 steps South.

Not going to be around for the summer?

Reconnect with us in the fall, where we’ll have a whole new season all over again, with all new opportunities to do a show about your favourite teas, fine jazz, or your sex life. Or, just stop in and say hi—there’s always coffee.

Also, if you’re in another club or group—use us. All the time. We’ll get your announcements on the air, and we’ll interview you on the air to talk all about what your club or group is doing. This can be to promote an event of yours, or just to increase awareness. We generally want to do whatever we can to connect you to the rest of the Trent University community, and the whole of the Peterborough community.

Okay, so I imagined a long elevator.

an unsuspecting angler’s line, it gives them quite a shock. Common carp put up an incredibly entertaining fight, and are a great deal of fun to catch. With the right tackle, rod, and bait it is not unheard of to land a forty-plus-pounder right here in Ontario!

So allow me to introduce myself, my name is William Muschett, and I am a fisha-holic. Since I was able to walk and carry a fishing rod in my hand I have been fishing. After nearly 20 years of fishing I finally found my favourite species, the Common Carp, and this discovery was made right

By Nathan Prendergast

Loosely based on the writer Jon Ronson’s experience with the quirky enigmatic English musician Frank Sidebottom, this movie explores the complexity of the world of music and what it means to be an artist. Join us Wednesday, March 25, for Lenny Abrahamson’s 2014 film Frank, a film for anyone who has ever been a fan of experimental music, quirky comedy, and the drama that comes from being in a band.

Frank follows the unexpected musical adventures of an aspiring songwriter, Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), as he is suddenly made a member of the experimental band, The Soronprfbs, when they find themselves in need of a keyboard player. Jon is taken aback by the band’s lead singer, Frank (Michael Fassbender), who chooses to always wear a paper maché mask, as well as the band’s confrontational Theremin player, Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who opposes Jon joining the band.

Jon, wanting nothing more than to become a talented and successful musician, becomes fast friends with Frank. Jon recognizes the band’s talent and the driving force behind it: Frank’s unmatched musical creativity. But will this be enough to help the band make it big?

Does Jon have what it takes to direct the band towards greatness?

Frank also explores themes related to music and dispels some misconceptions about them, such as depression and mental illness among artists, trauma and its association to creativity, artistic ability and personality disorders.

Rather than working off cliché, Jon Ronson’s

here in Peterborough! I quickly learned the methods, landed many fish and was invited to join a Pro-Staff team.

With this I decided to take my love for fishing and combine it with my love for teaching, and thus last year Peterborough Carping Guides was born, and this year I intend to keep it going. I will teach you everything I know, and I promise results!

I believe strongly in catch and release and believe in ethical fishing intending the safety of the fish from hook up, to landing, to release to ensure the best survival rates possible. (I land these fish on a padded surface and handle them in the safest way possible, and so far my catch and release rates are 100%).

I run my guide service in Little Lake, and the Otonabee River, and I have even landed 20+ lb fish right here at Trent University! (See picture above). Come on out this spring, summer, or fall and land one of the biggest fish Ontario has to offer.

For more information and photos, check out my Facebook Page: facebook.com/peterboroughcarping Normal Rates $15/hour/person *All inclusive* For Trent and Fleming Students $10/hour/person!

Frank

screenplay works to deal with these issues based off of the experience of real musicians rather than trying to exaggerate them to add to the film’s intrigue and catharsis.

Some of you may remember Trent Film Society’s screening of Steve McQueen’s 2012 Shame with Michael Fassbender as the lead role. Though in Frank he plays a supporting role and spends most of his screen time wearing a mask, he is able to bring life to a strange and loveable character with his performance.

He is also quite a gifted singer!

The actual Frank Sidebottom was very different from the Frank that Michael Fassbender portrays in the movie, though they both share an aura of mystery with their peculiar personality (as well as with the mask they wear). The film is able to capture much of Frank Sidebottom’s playful nature, while also drawing on some other personalities like Daniel Johnston and Captain Beefheart, whose stories this movie borrows from as well.

The real Frank brought joy to many with his comical musical mashups of British pop hits from artists like Queen and The Smiths, bringing a childlike energy and charm to his music performances with his small concerts and appearances on local television networks throughout the late 80’s and 90’s.

All of our screenings are absolutely free.

They are also open to everyone, not just Trent students.

The screening will be held at Artspace, your local artist-run centre, located at 378 Alymer Street, just past the Greyhound terminal on Simcoe Street. The screening starts at 8pm.

Hope to see you there!

SportsPage Trent Men’s Hockey team looking towards the Challenge Cup

By Leighton Schubert

“This has been the best season in terms of success for the team.” These are the words of Trevor Green, one of the goalies for the Trent hockey team, which has done outstanding this season and shown that they can contend with the best in Ontario.

They have evolved from a team that was obsolete in regards to championships, and will now be a top contender in the Challenge Cup. The hard work put in by both players and coaches continues to pay off with their success on the ice, and officially being ranked number one in the province.

On Thursday, March 5, they attended a tournament in Alliston, winning three of four of their games. They beat Lakehead 3-1, Humber-Lakeshore 4-2, and Fleming 5-1. They lost in the semi-finals against Georgian-Owen Sound. Georgian-Owen Sound went on to win the tournament against Fanshawe.

This was Trent’s first regular season loss, which is an incredible accomplishment.

The Trent hockey team has in previous years been less than outstanding. They have always been a decent contender, but never a top contender like they are this year. Out of five tournaments that they have attended this year, they won three. In

the other two tournaments they made it to at least the semi-finals.

The amount of tournaments they have won just this year matches the amount of tournaments they have won in the previous three years. This goes to show the drastic transformation that this team has gone through and the success of not only the players and the team, but of the coaches as well.

The Trent hockey team has attended the Kawartha Cup final game three times in their history, and won it for the first time this year, clearly showing that this team is the best team throughout their past seasons.

Though hockey is easily the most popular sport in Canada, hockey has not often been the top sport throughout Trent. The students around the campuses in previous years have not heard much about the team or had not known the university had a team at all.

However, that is all changing as Trent hockey is becoming more and more successful, gaining the attention of students.

Trent now has a team playing Canada’s most loved sport that they can rally behind and be excited for.

When asked what the hockey team means to Trent, assistant coach Jack Barry

had this to say: “Over the years the team has had different meanings to Trent. I think at one point when the team was originally founded around 2010 it represented an experiment to see if it would actually work. Since then we have had a lot of really dedicated players and coaches who have been able to demonstrate through our success that this team is here to stay.”

He continued, “The Trent hockey community is alive and thriving and interested in supporting our team as evidenced by the success of the Kawartha Cup events. The team represents a real opportunity for the university to be able to grow athletic programs, boost university pride, and increase Trent’s profile through high-level competition with colleges and universities across the province.”

Jack Barry especially knows what he is talking about, having been on both sides of the bench. Before he became the assistant coach to head coach Gavin McKnight, he was a player for the Trent hockey team for two years. Having been a player as well as a student (he is a current student) he knows the effect of the hockey team on the Trent community and the importance of the hockey team to Trent students and vice versa.

The team is more than just a hockey team for the players. A lot of them have been on the team for the past four years and have been through the tough years and endured the hardships to achieve their most successful year yet.

However, for the team, all of their success means nothing if they cannot win the championship. Trevor Green is one of the players that have been on the team for the past four years and knows first-hand what it means to have come as far as they have this season, but knows the importance of continuing their hard work, “I don’t want to say the season was a success until we ultimately win the championship.” This goes to show the dedication the players have to the team and the importance of the team to them as students and players.

The Trent hockey team plays in the championship tournament for the Challenge Cup on March 19 in Cornwall.

Though the players will not define their season as successful without the championship, the school and the students, regardless of the outcome in Cornwall, see this year’s hockey team as incredibly successful and awakens the love of Trent and the love of hockey in all of us.

Volume 49 | Issue 21 | March 17, 2015

31

listings Clubs & Groups Society for Ecological Restoration AGM. The SER is a new group on campus that works to provide educational and volunteer opportunities to our members in their preferred field of restoration ecology.

The SER is having its first Annual General Meeting this Thursday March 19, from 6-8 at The Trend in Traill College. Come and find out what SER is all about and get some free food from The Trend!

Trent Fashion Show 2015 is happening March 20 at the Venue. Doors open at 6pm. The Trent Fashion Show is a Trent University student group that hosts many events during the year, including our huge annual Runway Event. We connect Trent University with the Peterborough and Toronto community. This year we’re raising money for Peterborough’s YES Shelter for Youth and Families on Brock St. Come see this fiercely fun fashion show and enjoy exploring the art of your newly favourite designers and stores. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Advanced: Selling in front of Wenjack Theatre on March 18 and 19. Gently used clothing donations at the door are welcomed! All ages event - bring your ID for bar service. For more information see www.TrentFashionShow.com, or you can check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube! “Trent Cafeteria Waste Challenge 2015�

(Week of March 16) Be a Waste Warrior: put resources in their place! This competition between colleges will put Trent’s Environmental Awareness to the test! Lets see who can reduce their waste and recycle the most effectively! Goal: Compost into Green bins and Recycling into Blue bins. This reduces amount of contaminated recycling ending up in landfills. Winning college will receive: 1. “No Trash Bash� hosted

by Chartwells to celebrate= FREE snacks/ drinks, 2. Eco-certificate to be displayed by their college, 3. Bragging rights for the year ... at least until the next annual challenge where the winner will have to defend their title!

All dressed up and nowhere to go? The Trent Student Psychology Society is pleased to announce our Parisian CafĂŠ themed semiformal taking place on March 28th in the LEC dining hall at 7:00p.m. Tickets will be $10 for Trent students and $12 for guests.

There are several fun psychology themed door prizes and a lots of raffle ticket prizes. Raffle tickets will be 1 for $3, or 3 for $5. All raffle proceeds will go to Five Counties Children Centre. Please RSVPpsycsociety.trentu@gmail.com to reserve a seat! Let’s celebrate the finale to another amazing year together!

Seed Starting Workshop Wed March 18 from 5-7pm. Meet at the Spoon and we’ll head over to the Greenhouse. $5 or pwyc. Everything you need to know about how to start your own seeds. Learn about seeds, growing mediums, timing and tips for growing healthy seedlings. We will also seed the Trent Vegetable Garden’s onions & Leeks together!

SUDOKU

Come Cook with Us - Latin American Cuisine Mon March 23 from 4:30-6:30pm @the Spoon. $8 or pwyc. Long time Spoon partners, the

send yours to listings@trentarthur.ca

Organization for Latin Awareness (HOLA) will be taking the lead for our final Come Cook With Us workshop. Prepare for your taste buds to be sizzling for these sensational Honduran dishes. Email spoonvolunteers@gmail.com for more info

recitations, trivia about our collection, music and more! As with all Sadleir House library events, this pub night is FREE for all. Donations to the library will also be accepted. Trent students, community members, and everyone welcome!

Beekeeping 101. Wed March 25 from 5-7pm. $5 or pwyc. Learn all about the Trent Apiary Club and what you need to know about becoming a beekeeper. There will also be beehive painting and blindfolded honey tasting as part of this fun workshop! Email spoonvolunteers@gmail.com for more info

Knitting with Bonnie Jull. Tuesday, March 24, 6:30pm in the Lecture Hall (room 106, wheelchair accessible). For one and all: Learn to Knit. Refresh your skills. Learn a new technique. Bring your own supplies and a mug! Transition Skills Forum. Join us for this session; everyone is welcome. $5 or pay what you can, preferably in Kawartha Loons. Pre-registration is requested.

Contact Patricia 705 876 -6873 or patremy@ bluewin.ch The Transition Skills Forum is an all-volunteer initiative of Transition Town Peterborough and is Sponsored by Sustainable Trent. The TSF is a member of the Kawartha Loon Exchange

Learn to Fence! Practices are Thursday 6:30-8:15pm and Sunday 7-9pm in the Main Gym. No experience required. You need to arrive in workout gear with athletic shoes, all other equipment is provided.

It is $20 for the semester. For more information go to trentu.ca/fencing or email courtneypeeters@outlook.com Weekly Open Mics EVERY Thursday evening at 8pm at the Trend pub in Traill college!

Hosted by the Trent University Music Society. Bring your instruments or just come to listen for a night of good music and good company. Free admission, all welcome! More info: trentumusic@gmail.com.

Come learn basic to advanced Arabic! Our classes cover reading, writing and speaking. Weekly Arabic classes every Tuesday from 5-6pm at GCS 108. Absolutely free!

research Girls Talk About Gardasil Research Study.

Attention Girls! How did you decide about the Gardasil Vaccine? We are nurse researchers who want to interview you if the GPMMPXJOH BQQMJFT t * HPU UIF WBDDJOBUJPO PS t * EJE OPU HFU UIF WBDDJOBUJPO t * MJWF JO 0OUBSJP t * XBT PGGFSFE (BSEBTJM XIFO * XBT CFUXFFO UIF BHFT PG t * XBOU UP IFMQ PUIFS HJSMT GBDJOH UIF TBNF EFDJTJPO t I am interested in talking to you (by phone or in-person) LIKE us on Facebook to find out more information about the study and check out our website www.girlstalkaboutgardasil.com to sign up a date and time!

Participation is voluntary.

Sadleir House All events in this section take place at 751 George St N in Peterborough.

Come visit the Sadleir House Library Open Mondays 11am-4pm, 6-9pm, Tuesday 1-9pm, Wednesday 12-9pm, Thursday 1-6pm, Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday 11am-4pm in Room 107 (wheelchair accessible). The Sadleir House Library is a free lending library open to all students and community members. With over 4000 books covering general academic interest and 2000 films focusing on international titles, documentaries, art house, and LGBT interest.

Sadleir House Library presents a Jolly Hangman Pub Night. Thurs. March 19 from 9pm-12am in the Dining Hall (Rm 209) - unfortunately this space is not wheelchair accessible. Join Sadleir House Library folk for a night of merriment, literature

Trent Centre for Human Rights, Equity, and Accessibility (CHREA): MV-1 Services. The MV-1 Vehicle provides shuttle services for Trent students, staff, and faculty with a wide range of disabilities. Passengers are individuals experiencing challenges in negotiating distances, topography and pitch that are inherent in the physical landscape of Trent’s campus. The MV-1 service is free-of-charge and can take you anywhere you need to go on any Trent campus (Symons, Traill, or Water St. Residence); rides can be booked online through http:// www.trentu.ca/ohrea/mv1.php. If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact Trent’s Andrea Walsh (Accessibility Advisor) at 705-748-1011 Ext. 6002.

Walkhome—Trent’s safe walk service. Late class? Working in the lab? Call us for a walk; 25 minutes from Symons or Traill (downtown) Hours of operation: Monday to Friday: 7pm to 1am, Saturday & Sunday: 9pm to 1am 705-748-1748 Walkhome—Pre-book your safe walk. Do you regularly have practice Monday night, work in the Library Tuesday night or go downtown Friday night? Our team of volunteers walkers can meet you, on campus or downtown. Monday to Friday: 7pm to 1am, Saturday & Sunday: 9pm to 1am. Call us 705- 748-1748 or email walkhome@tretnu.ca to Prebook a walk.

Worried about a course this semester? We want to help! Register for the Academic Mentoring Program to request an upper-year student mentor. Mentors meet regularly with students to discuss course concepts and build an understanding of course material. To request a mentor, or to volunteer, visit trentu.ca/academicskills/ peermentoring.php.

It’s paper season! Do you need helping organizing your essay, developing a thesis or doing citations properly? Come visit us as the Academic Skills Centre for all the help you need! Our services are always free! Suite 206, Champlain College. Phone: 705-748-1720. Call to book your appointment or book online through your Student Experience Portal at trentu.ca/sep. Click on “Book Appointments� and select “Academic Skills�.

Thursday

Local Development Drinks (hosted by Jamaican Self-Help) at St. Veronus from 7-9PM on March 31st, 2015.

The Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough welcomes you to: An Evening of Stories of Our Land with Doug Williams, Elder of Curve Lake. Friday, April 17, 2015, 7:30 – 9:30 pm. At the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough 775 Weller Street (at Medical Drive) $5-10 donation or pay what you can. Free parking.

ESLHelp & Editing.

Contact: worldeslschool@sympatico.ca

St. John’s Ambulance Standard First Aid Our Standard Certificate is valid for 3 years! Includes CPR and AED training! This course provides a certificate in Standard First Aid & a CPR/AED certificate. 13 to 14.5 hours of instructional time (2 days); includes 435-page First Aid/CPR/AED book. **This course is required by the WSIB if your place of work employs more than 5 employees per shift.** Upcoming sessions: Weekdays(8:30-4) March 19-20, 25-26, or Combo Course SFA/Level-C CPR (8:30-5:00) Mar 19-20, 21-22, 25-26, 28-29, Contact: sjapeterborough@bellnet.ca, 705-745-0331, sja.ca St. John’s Ambulance CPR Recertification (Weekdays at 6:30 pm, or Saturdays at 1:00) Mar 21. Call for additional dates, or organize your own group at a convenient time at any location--discounts for groups! sjapeterborough@bellnet.ca, 705-745-0331, sja.ca

Arts The Peterborough Storytellers usually meet on the third Wednesday of the month, from 7 to 9 at the Peterborough Public Library.

Our next meeting will be on March 18 (World storytelling day. Theme “Wishes�).

5Rhythms Waves Classes and Weekend Workshops. Rock yourself right down into your hips, out of your head and into your heart!

Come put your body into motion and re-awaken to your soulful self. Gabriel Roth’s dynamic movement meditation practice, www.5rhythms.com, is offered every Monday night in Peterborough 7-8:30pm, $15, at All Saints Anglican Church Hall 235 Rubidge St. Peterborough K9J 3N9. Weekend workshop in the 5Rhythms Fri. March 27 7-9pm & Sat. March 28 11am-5pm. Contact katehuband@ gmail.com 705.304 6186 www.5rhythms.com/ teachers/Kate+Huband Kawartha Youth Orchestra presents “Stories and Music� on March 21. Share the magic of stories through music with your little ones as we tell the tales of Babar the little Elephant and more! A great afternoon treat for the young and young at heart. Celebrity Guest Narrator Melody Thomas joins the Peterborough Symphony on stage again at Market Hall Theater for both 2pm and 3:30pm. Tickets are $30 for adults, $10 for youth. Call the box office at (705) 7491146 or visit them online to buy tickets!

Send your listings to: listings@trentarthur.ca

Friday

t TUMS Open Mic @ The t Community Living BenTrend (8pm) efit with James Higgins & Wayne Kennedy and more t The Muddy Hack, Balls @ The Spill (7pm) & Jane, Honey Davidson, and DJ Waxwinder @ The t Clear Stone Radio Spill (9pm) Release Celebration @ Sadleir House (8pm) t Ben Rough, Benjamin Reines and The t Russell deCarle @ Coachlites @ The Garnet Showplace (8pm) (10pm) t Bastard Son CD Release Party w/ Blastomycosis and Bloodless Child @ The Red Dog (9pm)

This Weekend in Live Music: presented by ElectricCityLive.ca

one-

Saturday t TUMS Annual Battle of the Bands @ Sadleir House (8pm) t While The Night Is Young Presents: Andria Simone @ The Spill (8pm) t 24 Hour Music Project @ The Red Dog (9pm) t The Lohrwoods and Brendt Thomas Diabo @ Pig’s Ear Tavern (9pm)

t Thieves!

Thieves! with Ian Kelly @ The t The Holy Gasp with Garnet (10pm) Sun Rarara, Beef Boys, Television Rd @ The Garnet (10pm)