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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014 WESTERN UNIVERSITY • CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906 VOLUME 108, ISSUE 43

Breaking pens in rage since 1906

The long road ahead Sports editor Nathan Kanter takes a look at how the Mustangs men’s hockey team might fare with six straight road games ahead>> Pg. 8

Katie LearNEWS EDITOR@KatieAtGazette

Two thirds of post-secondary stu-dents admitted to not voting in their most recent municipal elec-tions, according to a poll released by Academica on November 18.

The results detailed that the most prominent reasons for not voting had to do with com-munication and engagement. Forgetting to vote, not knowing how to vote and not being on the voters list made up 12 per cent of respondents, while 18 per cent said they were disengaged due to either being uninterested in pol-itics or unable to find a candidate that they felt represented them.

While student engagement isn’t a new concern, Ward 13 councillor Judy Bryant is opti-mistic about the efforts city hall has been making to connect with young voters.

“The general turnout has been a lot better particularly this last election and I do think people are trying much harder to stay engaged – they know what’s going on,” Bryant said.

“It’s a lot easier now. We have a good website for the city … you end up finding a lot … that would pique your curiosity and get you engaged,” she said.

The voter turnout in London’s most recent municipal elections was the highest since 1994 at 42.2 per cent, and the advance polls saw a 40.5 per cent increase in attend-ance from the 2010 elections.

But the news isn’t all good – only 378 of 16,180 votes were cast at the advance polling locations on campus.

To try and increase voter turn-out among Western students this fall, the University Students’ Council launched a campaign titled Western Votes that focused on making students aware they were able to vote.

“We set up booths, we did media campaigns: social media, physical media, literature [and] also the physical presence there,” USC president Matt Helfand said.

“We also tried to bring the issues to students, so letting them know that it was import-ant [to vote], focusing a lot on transit, and then the facilitation of registration,” he said.

Students hard to get to the polls

Kevin HurrenNEWS EDITOR-AT-LARGE

@KevinAtGazette

There’s been some fuss about the bus recently – specifically the Mustang Express.

The late-night shuttle service, created by the University Students’ Council, runs after 12:15 a.m. and carries students from downtown stops to popular student residen-tial zones.

With a rotation schedule of one bus every 10 minutes, a number of shuttles pass before the final bus at 2:30 a.m.

One student, however, sees this schedule as a waste.

Sending a number of emails to the USC executive and The Gazette, the student – who wishes to remain anonymous – claims the buses are a waste of student resources.

“Personally, I’ve witnessed way more empty or very near empty buses than ones actually carrying passengers,” he said.

Currently, every full-time and part-time student pays $12.93 towards the service. This fee, passed through a student referendum in 2011, goes towards an external contract with the transportation provider Voyageur.

Andrew Lalka, USC vice-presi-dent finance, assures students that the service isn’t a waste.

“Part of our contract actually does track ridership, so we do have data on that,” he said.

The reservations depart-ment, in which Lalka sits as a member, receives reports from Voyageur every month. According to these reports, the Mustang Express sees about 16–17,000 students every year.

Lalka expressed the potential for that number to even surpass 18,000 this year.

There will be times, he admit-ted, when the bus is almost or completely empty. For instance, Thanksgiving weekend is a time when many students go home

instead of frequenting the down-town bar scene – leaving every bus barren.

While altering the schedule to accommodate for these low-use times may seem like a solution, it ultimately becomes an issue of lia-bility for the USC.

“There’s a certain obligation that we have to make sure it’s run-ning consistently. Part of providing transit is that you’ve got to make sure the service is available,” Lalka explained, pointing out the inability to effectively communicate sched-ule changes.

“Our students need a way to get from downtown to home through a quick, reliable method regardless of the weekend or how busy it is.”

But the cost of student fees wasn’t the only concern raised in these

messages to the USC. The author, who identifies as an environmentalist, also writes of the damage bus emissions can cause.

“There are very real dangers of diesel emissions,

bus exhaust included, not to mention the carbon emis-sions and the countless other

dangerous chemicals being spewed out over major ped-

estrian routes,” one email read.These environmental issues,

said Lalka, are also being regulated through the contract.

“[The USC’s] strategic plan does actually say that everything we do has to be in line with social, environ-mental and ethical implications.

When we went to tender for the contract the environmental impact and environmental practices of the company was a concern.”

According to Lalka, Voyaguer has received awards for meeting and exceeding industry standards of environmental impact. Scheduled maintenance, for instance, is con-ducted through the transportation service at a frequency above what’s dictated by Ontario regulations.

Still, Lalka encourages con-tinued feedback about the service. Although mid-term contract chan-ges are difficult to facilitate, there’s no reason aspects of the routes, schedules or overall agreement can’t be amended.

“We do revaluate. We always look at the value we get for the service, so if students simply aren’t satisfied we’ll look at the terms of the con-tract,” he said.

USC refutes criticism of ‘empty’ Mustang Express buses

Bus service criticized for being underused; USC says it may, in fact, see increased ridership this year

>> see VOTING pg.3

OUR STUDENTS NEED A WAY TO GET FROM

DOWNTOWN TO HOME THROUGH A QUICK, RELIABLE METHOD REGARDLESS OF THE WEEKEND OR HOW BUSY IT IS.

ANDREW LALKAUSC VICE-PRESIDENT FINANCE

•••InsideNew app connects students to share taxis • P3

Fontana speaks out • P3

Blind Date with a Book • P4

Western Theatre puts on Play It Again, Sam • P5

Holding the USC accountable • P6

Men’s basketball split weekend • P7

Courtesy of Voyageur Transportation Services

Taylor Lasota • GAZETTE

Undergraduate students use a sticker on their bus pass to use the Mustang Express.

Solution to puzzle on page 7

2 • thegazette • Thursday, November 20, 2014

CROSSWORD By Eugene Sheffer

The Cryptoquip is a substitution cipher in which one letter stands for another. If you think that X equals O, it will equal O throughout the puzzle. Single letters, short words and words using an apostrophe give you clues to locating vowels. Solution is by trial and error.© 2002 by Kings Features Syndicate, Inc.

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News Briefs

Smoking ban changes edge Western closer to

smoke-free campus

Recent changes to the Smoke-Free Ontario Act will eliminate smoking in many public places throughout the province, including certain areas of university campuses.

The act will ban smoking within 20 metres of university playing fields and stadiums and on all res-taurant patios. Ann Hutchinson, senior human resources advisor at Western, said “it’s not a big change” for Western, because there is already a smoking ban in place in Western stadiums.

Hutchinson could not confirm that the Grad Club, the on-cam-pus bar run owned by the Society of Graduate Students, allowed smoking on its patio, but said that no other businesses on Western’s campus will be affected.

Although changes to the act will not provoke significant modifica-tions to Western’s smoking policy, the changes have “raised the pub-lic interest among students and faculty about smoking at Western,” Hutchinson said.

“Perhaps down the road Western may be smoke free and maybe all campuses will be smoke free, but I think we’re a long way from there yet,” Hutchinson said.

• Abby McGivney

Survey seeks to find out students’ understanding of Indigenous people

A Queen’s University professor is looking to understand why Canadian students know so little about issues that affect Indigenous people.

By surveying first-year students from 10 different universities, Professor Anne Godlewska is look-ing to determine why post-second-ary students are ignorant to the issues affecting Indigenous people.

Despite education, many Canadians know little — if any-thing — about Indigenous people. According to Godlewska, this suggests a downfall in the social structure of society that promotes unawareness.

“Does knowing more necessarily mean that people will have empathy, that people will reach out and try and understand more, that they will take more responsible position?” Godlewska said. Not necessarily.

“I can know a lot of facts and have no empathy,” Godlewska said.

Although she believes education is an important part of reducing racism toward Indigenous people, the study’s purpose is to determine what factors are limiting student’s knowledge of Indigenous issues.

Family knowledge, social atti-tudes and geographical regions are all potential causes for this lack of knowledge among Canadian students.

“The universities should be pro-viding quite a bit more understand-ing and information and insight,” Godlewska said. “If the professoriate is part of the problem, if they don’t know very much themselves and there’s a lot of evidence that that’s the case, then how are the students going to learn this material.”

Godlewska stated that the best way to fight this ignorance is a two-pronged attack using both trad-itional and non-traditional means of education.

First Nations, Metis and Inuit people are trying to educate the rest of the population through dif-ferent media such as literature, com-edy, the arts and music. This allows people to know and learn more about Indigenous people and makes them feel like have a connection with people of that ethnic group.

Godlewska plans to re-survey the same students in their fourth-year of university and is hopeful that it will yield better results. Although this is the first study of its kind, she sensed that students are taught the same thing today as they have been in the past.

With this in mind, students should take an active approach to solve the issue at hand.

“They’re maybe going to learn it by their own initiative, by com-ing into contact with people who know more, but the universities, I think, are going to find that they really need to put a lot of effort in to make this situation a lot better,” said Godlewska.

• Albert Van Santvoort

Study shows earnings increase with level of

educationA new report published by Statistics Canada has shown trends in employment, student debt and earning potentials among Canadian universities’ graduates.

The National Graduate Survey report is representative of all Canadian post-secondary institutions, which make up to approximately 300 universities and colleges.

According to Sarah Jane Ferguson, a co-author of the report, the results of the surveys conducted showed that earnings of university graduates increased with each edu-cation level.

“The median annual earnings among those who were working full time in 2013 were lowest for college graduates at $41,600. This increased to $53,000 for bachelor graduates, $70,000 for master’s graduates and $75,000 for doctorate graduates,” she said.

The results of the study also showed that women were earning two per cent or $1,800 less than their male counterparts at the doctorate level.

“One reason for differences in earnings can be in the hours of work in a week or number of weeks in a year,” Ferguson said. “However, the NGS did not measure reasons that women might be earning less than men.”

• Hamza Tariq

Kelly Samuel • GAZETTE

THE SMARTEST MAN ON CAMPUS. We have searched this campus far and wide for the smartest person that attends this institution. The competition has always been stiff, but there’s no masking the truth on this one — this is the face of a genius. It’s mid-November, midtermosis is approaching and students are in panic mode everywhere. Allow me to start a slow-clap for this man who found the squishy-fireplace-room (a.k.a. The Room of Requirement) and brought a sleeping mask. Snoring loudly, unaware you are a God amongst men.

TWO DAYS ONLY

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thegazette • Thursday, November 20, 2014 • 3

The Gazette

on stands tomorrow

Kelly Samuel • GAZETTE

WANT TO HITCH A RIDE? Shehan Wijeyagoonewardan (left) is a second-year BMOS student and the co-founder of Cab Share Canada, a taxicab car-pooling app for students. Syed Rizvi (right), a Western first-year MIT student, interns for the start-up.

Share a cab with new appAdrienne Danson

CONTRIBUTOR@uwogazette

A group of Western University stu-dents have launched Cab Share Canada, an app designed to facili-tate taxicab sharing between users. The idea was born from co-founder, second-year BMOS student Shehan Wijeyagoonewardane’s residence experience in Saugeen Maitland Hall.

“I’d look out the window and I’d see at least 15 cabs out there, just lined up. And the thing is – they were all going to the same place, which I realized was a huge waste.”

The app generates user matches based on destination, time and date. Using smartphone GPS functions, Cab Share users can view the profile of nearby users before committing to a match. From there, Cab Share enables private chatting between matches wherein details of pay-ment, pickup and route can be finalized.

The app, available on the Apple App Store as of Wednesday, is access-ible to iPhone users free of charge, with plans to expand to Androids.

“For students we’re always going to keep it free. Even if

there is a payment scheme in the future, it will be free for students always, Wijeyagoonewardane said. “Students are always on a budget. So what better way to promote use from students than to keep it free and accessible?”

The app appeals to financially conscious students looking to save money on taxi rides while reducing their environmental footprint.

The app seeks to create environ-mental change beyond reducing carbon emissions. Cab Share demonstrates a dedication to environmental protection through a partnership with the World Wildlife Foundation: Of any profits that are generated, they are donating 10 per cent to the WWF.

In addressing potential safety concerns, the co-founders have spent a considerable time develop-ing features to promote the safety of their users.

“We’ve done a few things. So number one, we have a safety list on our website and in the app as well,” Wijeyagoonewardane said. “We’ve advertised it on the app store as well — in the description …. and strongly recommend that [users] read it.”

The safety tips include before the ride precautions and basic

suggestions for during and after the drive. The app also ensures legitimacy through its call taxi function. Users can call their cab directly through the app, alerting their match of the order.

While the app is optimized to function nation-wide across Canada, Cab Share appeals to tech-nology-oriented students, market-ing primarily within the university campus. While similar versions of the app have seen success in other markets, it has never been suc-cessfully implemented in North America.

“The key success factor for this app is being able to gain critical mass — gaining a huge user base so people can consistently find matches with each other.”

The quality of service relies on traffic to the app; a growing user base of potential matches enhances the application’s value.

“Once we saturate that student market through universities in Ontario and BC … we hope that will cause a spill over effect to the cities they represent — UBC for Vancouver, Western for London.”

Students interested in the app can find more information online at cabsharecanada.ca.

Fontana speaks outAmy O’Kruk

NEWS EDITOR@AmyAtGazette

Former London mayor Joe Fontana is finally speaking up as he gave his first interview post-house arrest over the weekend.

Fontana’s house arrest spanned from mid-July to November, con-cluding last Saturday. The house arrest was the result of the ex-may-or’s sentencing for forging a receipt of $1,700 back in 2005 while he was a federal Cabinet Minister.

He still has to complete 18 months of probation, as well as 150 hours of community service.

In his interview with Metro London, Fontana maintains his innocence, but said he will be permanently stepping away from the public eye.

He acknowledged his scandal’s effect on London in a letter that will be read to city council.

“As this council term closes I want to make it clear I recognize my legal issues and the final court outcome did negatively impact the

city,” Fontana said. “I apologize. This was never my intention.”

Fontana gave praise to the out-going council and staff for their professionalism and dedication throughout his legal troubles. He also wished the new council well.

Paul Hubert, returning city coun-cillor for Ward 9, said in an inter-view that while Fontana’s political career ended unfortunately, over the course of it, he accomplished some good things.

“Fontana was the longest serv-ing political figure in London’s his-tory,” Hubert said. “I think whether you like Joe or not, his heart was in the right place but he made some critical mistakes.”

Hubert elaborated that the London Plan, a city growth and invest-ment proposal, was developed under Fontana. But Hubert also added the former mayor failed to lead the city council towards being a unified and cohesive voice for the city.

“My hope for him is that he finds a way to make a valuable contribu-tion to his community and country as he has in the past.”

Students shy away from voting

“So that was really the big crux of it, setting up the Western Votes web-site so they could have a legitimate proof of address that they could take right to the polls.”

One of the most common sug-gestions to increasingly get students to the polls is to implement online voting, a strategy that city council hopes to see come to London in the future.

“[Online voting] is a little bit complicated and it was found [in] the analysis [done] by our clerks that there were a few too many things to be ironed out in order to be able to do it for this election, but it is def-initely on the mind of councillors to do it,” Bryant commented.

Going forward, Helfand hopes to see more candidates helping to get students involved with the voting process.

“I really strongly believe it is up to the candidates to try and get students engaged in the issues … There’s a lot of onus that needs to be put on the candidates and we didn’t necessarily see that.”

>> VOTING continued from pg.1

4 • thegazette • Thursday, November 20, 2014

arts&life saywhat?“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”

• Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones

AHSC gets books flying off shelves

Conrad Floryan • GAZETTE

GETTING HOOKED ON A BOOK. Arts and Humanities Students’ Council vice-president events Haley Everitt and philanthropy representative Brie Berry led a Blind Date with a Book fair this week. While the fair was intended to run the entire week, the event was such a success that they ran out of books in one day.

Where to get itThe Coat:This bright red peacoat is Brittany James’ favourite piece in the whole ensemble. “It’s classic, always in style,” she said. Le Chateau has a number of peacoat options, but Lands End can also be a great place to find this colourful staple.

The Dress:A simple, a-line dress is a ter-rific piece in any woman’s closet. Forever 21 sells this basic cotton dress in a variety of colours, and it really can be used as a basic piece in any outfit in a range of occasions.

The Socks and Ballet Flats:Pairing ballet flats with high tights is a great way to transition this summer shoe to the colder weather of fall. James found these items at Forever 21, however, American Ap-parel also carries both these items in a large range of colours.

The Infinity Scarf:This scarf is a neutral take on the ubiquitous circle scarf that has dominated the accessory world over the last few years, which James borrowed from a friend to keep her warm. Although this scarf was orig-inally from Aldo, it can be found at several retailers such as Dynamite.

Brittany James, a first-year BMOS student, had one pri-ority when getting dressed

on the first truly cold November day, and it wasn’t staying warm. One of her sorority’s chapter colours — red, green or buff — needed to be front and centre for an event. With that in mind, James built neutral accessories around her bright red peacoat and red dress.

“Red’s my favourite colour,” she says. “And I just love peacoats, they’re very classic.”

James’ peacoat stands out be-cause of its bright colour and

asymmetrical collar. By matching her bright red dress to it, James also plays on the monochrome trend.

The ballet flats paired with knee-highs conjure a hint of the 60s schoolgirl, who has been rein-carnated on many runways this fall. James’ a-line dress silhouette also hints towards this. By opting for black on black instead of the schoolgirl white socks with black shoes, James can evoke elements of the trend but steer clear of a ‘costume-y’ look.

By including a piece like the infin-ity scarf in this outfit, James has

added a touch of the 21st cen-tury to the classic look to give it a fresh update, while staying true to her style by choosing a classic grey. The blazer is a very classic piece given an update by it’s slim-ming cut. It also serves to balance out the fuller skirt on bottom.

“They’re classic — very Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” says James.

Asked what advice she could give to Western students, James says “your clothes show your person-ality, so you might as well dress who you are.”

• Jessica MacDonald

Kelly Samuel • GAZETTE

Kelly Samuel • GAZETTE

Samah AliCONTRIBUTOR

It’s a Monday night in London. Some students can be found relaxing with pals over dollar-beers at Jack’s while others may be preparing for finals at the library. But this past Monday brought a new wave of entertain-ment to students as the Arts and Humanities Students’ Council set up and sold out their inaugural Blind Date with a Book fair.

“My favourite part about it is that it’s not going to be a creepy, blind Tinder date. It’s going to be a really cool night with a book,” AHSC President Liz Nash stated.

The Blind Date with a Book fair revolved around pre-packaged books with a minimal description that students could purchase for $3 with proceeds going to Arts 4 All Kids in London. The charity provides unprivileged kids access to the arts.

The event started as a unique idea AHSC Philanthropy Representative Brie Berry brought forward to the Council and fast-tracked. With pre-vious involvement with Arts 4 All Kids, Berry believed the fair would be a great way to branch Western with the London community and cultivate local arts culture.

“I approached them this year saying, ‘I’d like to do something to help Arts 4 All Kids because I know the coordinator, I see the kids and I see where the money goes,’ ” Berry commented.

Receiving all books by donation, the Council made sure to yield max-imum profit for the charity.

“We took everything by dona-tion,” Berry added. “A lot of them were classics or murder mysteries.”

The blind book selection gen-erated quite a buzz throughout

campus. The opportunity to shed the superficial aspects of selecting a book appealed to many people and created a new approach to buying books.

“I think the book thing is kind of cool because it goes against the whole ‘don’t judge a book by its cover,’ ” AHSC vice-president events Haley Everitt said.

Although the event was slated to run for a week, it attracted hundreds of attendees on Facebook and had a major turnout within the first few hours. Blind Date with a Book sold out before the end of its first day, shocking the Council and students.

“They were just setting up the table and while we were setting up people were like vultures,” Nash said.

Based on the popularity of the fair, the executives decided they would bring back the event next semester with some new twists. Blind Date with a Book has plans on expanding and branching into new mediums in February to capitalize on Valentine’s Day.

“We’re hoping to bring it back around Valentine’s Day with DVDs so you can actually buy a Blind Date with a DVD and go on a date with it with your significant other,” Berry enthused.

Recognizing the success, the idea was a hit with students and generated enough money to make this a biannual event. Donating all proceeds to benefit children, AHSC is excited to start building their new collection of books and DVDs for the next fair in the New Year.

“I am so proud of this council, who has done so much for this event and every other event,” commented Nash. “It’s been an incredible jour-ney going along with it. Rock on AHSC.”

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thegazette • Thursday, November 20, 2014 • 5

Here’s looking at you, BogartRichard JosephGAZETTE STAFF

@uwogazette

It’s one of those pedantic pieces of trivia you can recite to show every-one you’re a film major: Bogart never really said “play it again, Sam” in Casablanca.

Nevertheless, this famous mis-quote is the title of Woody Allen’s 1969 Broadway play. Theatre Western is presenting Play it Again, Sam at the Grand Theater, the story of a wannabe womanizer.

Director Emma Boynton, a fourth-year honors specialization student in English and creative writing, takes on her first director-ial role. Bonyton has played a part in four other shows during her time at Western.

The play, Bonyton explains, revolves around a “slightly neurotic and newly divorced film magazine writer, Allan Felix, navigating the waters of romance.”

Felix, inspired by the man’s-man film-noir superstar Humphrey Bogart, goes on a twisted and hil-arious journey towards love.

Damien River Ewing, a second-year science student, stars as Felix.

“He’s terribly inept when it comes to normal social interactions,” he says. “Awkward both physically and socially, bespectacled … a lot of comedy comes from those traits.”

Of course, the play has to fea-ture Felix’s alter ego and imaginary friend, Bogart himself. Second-year English major Jack Copeland plays Bogie.

“He’s an American icon,” says Copeland. “[He has] a lot of funny lines, and I’m interested to see if they get picked up and [laughed] at.”

Woody Allen’s film version of Play It Again, Sam features a gentle, even passive Diane Keaton in the role of Linda, the neglected wife of Allan’s best friend Dick. But Helen Heikkila, a first-year MIT student, plays a very “confident and self-reliant” Linda.

“It definitely gives the character more depth, and I’m having a lot of fun portraying her,” Heikkila says.

“I think my favourite part of the production was working with these great people,” muses Ewing. He describes the excitement of seeing a finished product emerge, “wicked fast-paced” and without “a single dull moment.”

Boynton describes the play as “quick and funny,” featuring

“physical comedy as well as some witty humor.” The play explores and deconstructs the idealized notions of romance as portrayed in Bogart’s great films — in real life, for example, sustained misogyny and sarcasm rarely attracts a Lauren Bacall.

Woody Allen was famous for pla-cing himself in his work, and Play it Again, Sam, is no exception.

“We’re trying to stay away from the classic ‘impersonation’ of Woody Allen as a bit of a scapegoat,” Bonyton explains. “River has his own interpretation of the character and what results is a more three-di-mensional, realistic portrayal of an awkward, mixed-up neurotic.”

But Bogart fan or not, the play has the universal appeal of a light-hearted comedy.

“Finally, it just explores the comedy that can be found in the ridiculousness of every people and everyday conventions,” says Boynton.

Play it Again, Sam will be per-formed at the McManus Theater at the Grand from Nov. 20–22 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 and can be bought at tickets.grandtheatre.com.

I really want to be able to pay for things for my SO when we go out places or on dates, but I’m not financially able to do so. I get really nervous whenever it’s time to pay. What should I do?

Sincerely,Strapped for cash

Dear Strapped,It’s necessary to sometimes take a step back from the situation and recognize that at the end of the day, we are actually students with student budgets. While it’s really easy to feel like we’ve become adults with adult responsibilities, we’re also slowly easing into these roles. Don’t feel pressured by the overly clichéd and romanticized ideas that come with paying for your SO. If you feel uncom-fortable about this topic, more often than not the best way to overcome it is communication — have a con-versation about it. While communi-cation seems cliché, it’s brought up so many times as an ingredient for a healthy relationship, because of how important it actually is.

My girlfriend read your just ask Jenny Ask Jenny column, and I think it’s why she broke up with me. Um???

Sincerely,Single

Dear Single,You probably had it coming. Also, what are you doing Friday night? I think I might be gay. How do I tell my boyfriend?

From,Closeted

Dear Closeted,The event of coming out, whether to family, friends or SO’s can definitely be a tough one. If you feel like you’re confused and at a point where you

need to determine your sexuality and that you might be with the wrong sex, that’s a conversation you most defin-itely should have with your partner. Right now, it sounds like you need to be with yourself and figure out your-self as a person — and that’s com-pletely okay; it means showing respect to the person that you’re currently dat-ing. When you do tell him, however, I suggest telling some close friends or people that you can go to for support, before you tackle this conversation. While it may be difficult, being able to have people that you trust to fall back on to afterwards will really help make the process smoother and less emotionally taxing. My boyfriend breathes really loudly when we go to sleep and it’s one of my very irrational pet peeves. It irks me, but I can’t exactly to tell him to stop breathing and I do really like him. Help.

Sincerely,In a conundrum

Dear In a conundrum,Earplugs just became your new best friend. While it might sound irrational it’s common for people to have very specific pet peeves, just like not being able to sleep with a clock ticking in the room — so don’t feel embarrassed by it. You should definitely mention to your partner that the earplugs are so that you can actually sleep and isn’t to be disre-spectful to him. Your significant other might take offence, if you don’t have a conversation about it. Once you’ve established a mutual under-standing of your pet peeve, get nice and friendly with those earplugs — just make sure you set those alarms extra loud if you actually need to wake up the next morning.

Send your questions for Jenny to jennyjay@westerngazette.ca

6 • thegazette • Thursday, November 20, 2014

opinions

thegazetteVolume 108, Issue 43www.westerngazette.ca

Contact:www.westerngazette.caUniversity Community Centre Rm. 263The University of Western OntarioLondon, ON, CANADAN6A 3K7Editorial Offices: (519) 661-3580Advertising Dept.: (519) 661-3579

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The Gazette is owned and published by the University Students’ Council.

Editorials are decided by a majority of the editorial board and are written by a member of the editorial board but are not necessarily the expressed opinion of each editorial board member. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the USC, The Gazette, its editors or staff.

To submit a letter, go to westerngazette.ca and click on “Contact.”

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News Amy O’Kruk Hamza Tariq Katie Lear Olivia Zollino

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Diana Watson

• Please recycle this newspaper •

Dear Life

You can make the case that slacktivism is important because it makes people feel affiliated to a movement and be part of it, and talk about it.

• Ethan Zuckerman

Iain BoekhoffEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

@IainAtGazette

One of the more unfamiliar terms occasionally thrown around at USC meetings is “in-camera.” In fact, at the last University Students’ Council meeting, on Oct. 22., there was an in-camera portion. Basically, it means only voting members can be in attendance and they usually discuss sensitive issues affecting the corporation. Media and the public are excluded from knowing what is discussed at in-camera sessions.

However, this in-camera session was different. The usual process for requesting an in-camera session was not fol-lowed because it was a last minute addition to the agenda. And, people at the meeting talked about it rather openly afterwards.

So what happened behind closed doors on Oct. 22? The USC debated a motion to endorse Ward 6 candidate Amir Farahi for city council. The debate was, by all accounts — including Tweets from councillors — intense. Which would pretty much be a first for this year’s council. They ended up voting against endorsing Farahi by one vote.

Among the problems with this secret session of council is that it seems this was not an issue worth going in-camera for. The USC council is a political body and it should be able to debate politics openly, even if it means they have to take a position publicly. If they had eventually endorsed a candi-date, they would have been taking a strong public position anyways, so why not let the public know how they got to it?

Another problem is that the motion was to endorse a specific Ward 6 candidate rather than have a debate on endorsing any of the Ward 6 candidates. .

Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad, except this Ward 6 can-didate has several close ties to the USC.

Farahi’s campaign manager was former USC president Adam Fearnall, someone who knows how the USC works and still has connections within the USC. His campaign team consisted of several current USC councillors. On top of that, several councillors and executives donated to his campaign.

Sources told me nobody declared a potential conflict of interest in debating this motion, yet members of his cam-paign team were presumably involved in the debate.

The problem isn’t the USC wanted to take a political stand and endorse a candidate. That’s perfectly fine — in fact, I encourage them to do so.

I also understand the desire for student representatives to endorse a young political candidate and current under-graduate student. However, it seems that in their eagerness to support one of their own, they violated the trust placed in them by students.

In-camera sessions aren’t anything new or unheard of. There are very legitimate reasons to have a confidential meeting.

However, we have to trust our political leaders to be using them only when necessary and to trust them to fulfill their duties as elected representatives.

In this case, everything seems very fishy and the USC should make their in-camera meeting minutes public or at least acknowledge that this debate happened. In this case, I believe students deserve to know what happened behind close doors.

Students deserve to know about USC endorsement debate

Katie LearNEWS EDITOR@KatieAtGazette

With students facing the busiest month of the first semester, it makes sense that whatever doesn’t have a direct impact on grades stops being a priority. But, ironically, November is also one of the months most associated with activism, as “Movember” and “Shine the Light” campaigns take centre stage.

But while these campaigns may have been envisioned as star vehicles for change, they fall into the trap of primar-ily encouraging slacktivism.

Simply put, slacktivism is putting in the least amount of effort or time pos-sible into a cause that also sees the least amount of concrete impact. Commonly seen on social media platforms, the trend has also expanded into offline move-ments, where these small pieces of effort not only become the most popular aspect of campaigns but also the entire point.

According to Movember Canada’s website, their movement challenges ‘Mo Bros’ to grow moustaches to raise aware-ness on men’s health issues.

“With the sprouting of a new mous-tache, Mo Bros effectively become walk-ing, talking billboards for the month, and like a run or walk for charity they use their hairy ribbon to spark conver-sations around the often ignored issue of men’s health and seek funds to support the work of the Movember Foundation.”

However, this part of their campaign has failed. While there’s no doubt that Movember does put the money they raise to good use, most students I’ve talked to who are participating aren’t always aware of the other causes they’re supporting and a large number of them are simply growing facial hair “in support” of the cause without raising money.

Shine the Light doesn’t escape this problem either. The London Abused Women’s Centre’s website explains

their goal with Shine the Light in part as “to raise awareness of men’s violence against women by turning cities, regions and counties purple for the month of November.” Western’s own Alumni Hall lights their exterior purple in support, but to an unaware passerby, the message is lost.

And that’s part of the problem. The messages behind the campaigns are lost in the medium in which they are com-municated to the public for the sake of viral popularity.

To be clear, I’m not trying to belittle the efforts of campaigns, or say that they’re not worthy of attention. I just ask that those who have decided that these causes are worth their time take a moment to examine whether or not they are truly engaging with the issues in a way that will bring about tangible change.

The problems I have with slacktivism are simple: the movements are often communicated too subtly to encourage dialogue about the issues; it encourages those who may have been interested in contributing in a larger capacity to get away with doing less while still able to claim that they’re making a difference; and it commoditizes activism in a way that allows for the spread of half-hearted awareness campaigns at the expense of tangible change.

In order for awareness campaigns to work, they can’t be subtle. Doing some-thing as simple as decorating with purple may be accessible, but it’s not communi-cating the point of the movement. While raising awareness may be important, entire movements suffer when those who may be inspired enough to take on a more impactful role in contributing to important causes settle on popularized slacktivism.

When we participate in slacktivism, we allow ourselves to escape the larger implications of these causes and give ourselves permission to feel good about acting for the world without examining the issues in the long run. We are not inspired to significantly change our patterns of behaviour, and as a result, we fundamentally miss the point of what charity campaigns should be all about. Essentially, slacktivism is really doing no more than wasting time.

Putting the “lack” in charity slacktivism

Your anonymous letters to life

Dear Life,If WSN had any gumption,

they would have protested

at Western’s Fall Preview

Day.

Dear Life,Western Solidarity Network

really needs to get its

priorities straight. There

are so many better things

to protest than joining the

Forces.

Dear Life,Way to represent the

respectfulness of Western

students by LYING DIRECTLY

IN FRONT OF THE FORCES

BO0TH. Nice job showing

your respect, especially right

after Remembrance Day.

Dear Life,The swim team can

continue to “swim upstream

gloriously.” Upstream right

now of the pool and back

to Thames Hall, so that the

pool isn’t constantly off-

limits to students actually

paying for it.

Dear Life,Please cancel the class

tomorrow, I don’t want to do

the presentation.

Dear Life,Do the Gazette editors

secretly judge and try to

guess who wrote these Dear

Life’s?

[Editor’s note: Absolutely.]

wgaz.ca/dearlife

KingLear

Cool Story Broekhoff

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thegazette • Thursday, November 20, 2014 • 7

sportsRundown >> Mustangs women’s hockey, and men and women’s swimming have been placed in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Top 10 at sixth, sixth and ninth respectively • Track and field athlete Caroline Ehrhardt was named a CIS Top eight Academic All-Canadian.

today’stweet“I would watch the Pan Am Games next year if Leafs jersey throwing was an event. Like Chuck-a-Puck — closest to centre ice.”

• @RyanatLFPress, regarding a fan throwing a Leafs jersey onto the ice with four minutes left of the 9–2 game.

Mustangs come back after big defeat Robert Nanni

SPORTS EDITOR@SportsAtGazette

After beating the Guelph Gryphons for their first win of the season, the Western Mustangs men’s basketball team took on the Ryerson Rams last Wednesday night in hopes of con-tinuing the streak.

Despite a strong first quarter where the Mustangs outscored the Rams 15–4, Western suffered throughout the remainder of the game to suffer a devastating loss of 81–47.

Mustangs forward Greg Morrow led the team with 17 points, nearly tying Jordan Gauthier of the Ryerson Rams, who was the game’s top scorer with 19 points.

“Ryerson is currently third in the country and a very senior team with a lot of talent,” Brad Campbell, Mustangs coach, said.

The Mustangs improved their defence in the second half in an attempt to make up for a dis-appointing second quarter, decreas-ing Ryerson’s shooting percentage from 58.6 per cent to 48.5 per cent, but this was hardly enough for the Mustangs to take the win.

While the Ryerson game proved difficult for the Mustangs, Toronto allowed the team some revenge as they walked away with a close 75–68 victory.

Morrow also shined in this game, scoring a game-high 26 points, 20 of which were in the last two quarters.

This trumped the next highest scorer, Toronto Varsity Blues Devin Johnson with 18 points.

Although the Mustangs lost the first half 32–28, Morrow’s excep-tional performance in the second half gave the Mustangs the win they desired.

“Greg is a very tough match up for teams,” coach Campbell said. “He has the ability to play both on the outside and inside.”

“Greg is our leader in many ways — usually how he goes, we go.”

The final 10 minutes of the game saw the score tied twice, leading to a great deal of uncertainty surround-ing the final verdict of the game.

The score was finally settled when guard Elliot Dooley sunk a three-pointer to finalize the Mustang lead over the Varsity Blues.

Coach Campbell maintains the team “did a great job overall defen-sively” by keeping the Blues under control in the extremely close match.

The Mustangs move on to Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie to face the Thunderbirds tomorrow night and again on Saturday night. Campbell hopes to “continue to improve on both ends of the floor and […] get two wins.”

Algoma currently sits at the bot-tom of the West division, having lost all three of their games so far. This weekend allows the Mustangs to up their 2–2 standing which currently has them sitting in third place of the division.

Women’s VolleyballThe Mustangs women’s volley-ball team failed to overcome the Lakehead Thunderwolves this past Saturday, losing in five sets.

Western completely dominated the first set, leading consistently throughout and finishing seven points ahead. The wide margin was achieved despite the Thunderwolves using timeouts attempting to stifle the Mustangs’ momentum.

Western pounded the Thunderwolves with relentless attacks throughout the beginning of the second set. Lakehead had problems defending their side of the court but managed to group their defence together holding Western back. The set ended 25–22 for Western.

Lakehead used this momen-tum as leverage for the rest of the match. They pummeled Western in the third and fourth sets. During the fifth set, both teams traded points and both teams clearly had a win in their crosshairs. In the end, the Mustangs committed a service error, which the Thunderwolves capital-ized on, ending the set 15–13.

The next day, Western hoped to find redemption against the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Unfortunately, a pattern began to emerge.

Throughout the first set, the Gee-Gees led until the 20th point. After that, the Mustangs managed to launch powerful attacks and finish five points ahead, 25–20.

Western continued the energy into the second set, taking an early lead. They managed to hold Ottawa off for the rest of the set and finished it identically to the first set.

The Gee-Gees failed to allow the Mustangs an easy win and responded by swift attacks that surprised Western’s defence. They opened up wide leads in the final three sets and finished the match on top.

WrestlingAlumni Hall played host to the Harry Gerris Memorial Dual Meet this past weekend where the men and women’s teams were well represented.

The Mustangs women’s team finished in first place overall, breez-ing past Guelph and Laurentian in second and third respectively. Valerie Ouellette delivered a strong individual performance, using her experience to catch opponents off guard.

On the men’s side, the Mustangs finished third behind McMaster and Guelph. Wrestlers Kyle Bonk and Steven Takahashi gave strong per-formances throughout the meet. Notably, Takahashi was able to come back after taking injury time and with a match against Laurentian’s Majok Deng.

The Mustangs are prepar-ing for the Ontario Senior Open Championships in Hamilton this weekend.

• Bradley Metlin

Sports Briefs

Martin Bazyl • GAZETTE

8 • thegazette • Thursday, November 20, 2014

Six straight road games to test MustangsNathan KanterSPORTS EDITOR@NathanAtGazette

The men’s hockey team went through an overhaul this off-sea-son, losing their three top scorers from last year. They lost their start-ing goalie from the past four years after Josh Unice graduated.

And yet, more than a third of the way through the 2014–15 season, they sit comfortably in third place in the Ontario University Athletics west division. They are 8–3–0, and have allowed the least amount of goals in the entire OUA – just 23. Their powerplay is first in the OUA as well, working at a rate of 28.3 per cent. Their penalty killing has also been impressive, tied for second at 88.2 per cent.

But they haven’t really been tested yet.

They beat McGill 3–0 not long ago in a very well executed game but other than that contest and two against Ryerson, the ‘Stangs haven’t had to face stiff competition.

The combined record of their opponents this season is 60–53–9. That’s not a bad record, but when you remove McGill and Ryerson from that equation, the record becomes 43–47–8.

Western has yet to play Windsor, who tops the west division with an 11–1–0 record, and they have yet to play the top two east division teams — the UQTR Patriotes and Carleton Ravens.

But that’s all about to change as the Mustangs will hit the road for six straight games between November 21 and December 3, during which

they will have to take on UQTR and Windsor. They also have to play back-to-back games in Thunder Bay against Lakehead. They will also make stops in Montreal to take on Concordia, and in Waterloo, to take on Laurier.

It’s certainly an odd way to choose to schedule games, seeing as Western won’t return home to Thompson Arena until January 9 next year.

But this is exactly what the Mustangs need – a test.

They haven’t been dominating games this season, but facing some of the league’s top teams — and on the road — will give Western a glimpse of what it will take to win come playoff time. The past two years Western has been blessed with a plenty of goals, but it hasn’t exactly translated to results — they failed to make the OUA finals both years despite finish-ing first in the regular season.

This season, they’re not exactly blessed with the same level of raw talent. That’s not to take away from this year’s roster, but not having all the offensive weapons as in year’s past will hopefully lead to a better long-term work ethic.

The Mustangs will be without Kyle DeCoste for four of the games following his five game suspension last Friday. This means others will have to step up, and the coaches will have to make adjustments to see what works. They did so last Saturday and came away with a win against Nipissing.

Western is perfect at home this season, at 7–0, so a long road trip against tough teams is exactly what the doctor ordered. Euahae Chung • GAZETTE

Mike Laine • GAZETTE