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Grande theft StarbucksEmployee injured in robbery of Ivey location

Richard RaycraftNEWS EDITOR

The Starbucks location in the Richard Ivey Building was robbed last Thursday evening, as two assail-ants made off with a box of cash after assaulting a university hospitality employee, who was closing up shop.

A London Police Service investi-gation is ongoing, and the LPS told The Gazette more information on the incident will be available in the coming days.

John Carson, director of the Campus Community Police Service, elaborated on the theft.

“Our officers were the first to arrive, and they met with the staff person, and it was then that we had an initial report,” he confirmed. “All we do know is that one of the staff that’s working for hospitality in the

Starbucks store was closing for the evening, putting the cash away — securing it for the evening, when she was accosted and the money was taken away from her.”

Both suspects had fled the scene prior to police arrival. Carson pointed out that because money was taken and a staff member was assaulted, it is classified as a rob-bery and the London Police were therefore called in. When contacted by The Gazette, employees at the Starbucks declined to comment.

Keith Marnoch, director of com-munications at Western, confirmed that operations resumed the follow-ing day despite the scare.

“That location and locations in the basement are back to nor-mal operations and they were Friday morning […] and it is being dealt with directly with the person

involved to make sure that all is well,” he said.

Carson ensured that following the LPS investigation, Campus Police would look at the findings and use them to work with hospi-tality to see if there is any room for improvement.

“Of course we always look at what practices are in place so we can work with hospitality to ensure that if there is anything we can do to improve, any deterrent for those kind of things, that we addressed them to the best of our ability,” he said. “Anytime staff are handling cash, you always have to be mind-ful of who’s around in the area and to make sure they’re cognizant of the environment that they’re in.”

London Police urges anyone with information on the incident to con-tact them immediately.

Bill Wang GAZETTE

VENI VIDI VENTI. The Starbucks at the Richard Ivey School of Business on Western Road was robbed last Thursday, as a staff transported the cash box at the end of the day. The investigation is ongoing.

University credit transfers made easy

Christine BonkGAZETTE STAFF

The Ontario government has launched a new online database that eases the notoriously difficult task of transferring credits between post-secondary institutions.

Students struggling with pro-gram equivalencies can now visit ONTransfer.ca to learn how their courses are recognized under the standards of other Ontario univer-sities and colleges.

This project complements the recent establishment of the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer, an organization dedi-cated to aiding the transfer of credits across Ontario institutions.

Using this application, students can bypass the straining research process involved in transfer-ring schools. With this simplified approach, students will hopefully avoid unnecessarily repeating courses, allowing them to finish their degree sooner.

“The new Course-to-Course Transfer Guide highlights the com-mitment of colleges and univer-sities to create positive change,” said Dominic Giroux, co-chair of ONCAT’s board of directors, in a press release.

“As a sector, we are developing a truly comprehensive credit transfer system in Ontario, one that will pro-vide maximum benefit to students.”

With about 21,500 students transferring within Ontario univer-sities and colleges each year, this course-to-course database aims to reduce costs for students, the gov-ernment, taxpayers and institutions. For example, using this method, the Ontario government predicts that transferring business majors can expect to save an average of $11,000 in tuition.

“It honestly is a win-win-win-win,” said Amir Eftekarpour, University Students’ Council vice-president external and Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance

president.Eftekarpour said OUSA played an

active role in Ontario’s facilitation of course transferring, participating in round-tables on credit transfer, and making recommendations to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities on the implemen-tation of the database as a part of the ONCAT student advisory board.

While Eftekarpour admits that credit transfer is inherently diffi-cult due to the differences between unique programs and faculties, such as Western’s Faculty of Information and Media Studies, he has been an advocate for overcoming the “per-ceived prestige differences between universities.”

“There are a number of schools — the University of Toronto is an example of this — that have essen-tially stated that their courses and their students are more rigorous than certain institutions.”

A continuing goal for Eftekarpour and the government is to overcome these barriers in order for the major-ity of first- and second-year courses to be directly transferable between schools.

ONTransfer.ca represents the government’s continued effort to facilitate the transferring of courses between post-secondary institu-tions. Other endeavours include increasing the pathways of credit transfer between colleges and uni-versities from 300 to over 600, and establishing ONCAT.

As a sector, we are developing a truly comprehensive credit transfer system in Ontario, one that will provide maximum benefit to students.

—Dominic GirouxCo-chair of ONCAT’s board of directors

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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

USC speechless on Whelan’s self-eval

Forget student engagement, the University Students’ Council is fight-ing an uphill battle just trying to get their own councillors engaged.

Last week, the USC released a progress report that laid out a checklist of what president Pat Whelan’s executive has done this past year and reactions are mixed. The Whelan administration hoped that the 19-page report would bol-ster its transparency, but their efforts may have been in vain.

The Gazette reached out for com-ment from various councillors and council presidents, but the request fell on deaf ears with the majority not responding to the e-mailed request. Out of 21 councillors con-tacted by The Gazette, Jen Carter, president of the King’s University

College Students’ Council, and Emily Soti, a KUCSC councillor, were the only councillors to reply. Both said they appreciated the spirit of the report.

Speaking off the record, one councillor felt that although the report was appreciated it was just a rundown on what most councillors already knew. The issue was con-veying council’s accomplishments or missteps to the general student body.

If you’re one of the three oth-ers on campus who are inter-ested, the full report can be found at www.usc.uwo.ca/westernusc/TeamWhelanReportCard.pdf

—Jeremiah Rodriguez

Broccoli byproduct mitigates mites

An international research effort led by Western has discovered that a plant byproduct acts as a natural pest control agent against spider mites and agricultural pests that cause up to $1-billion worth of dam-age every year.

The substance is harmless to humans and may even have prop-erties that work against cancer.

According to team researcher Vladimir Zhurov, the consumer-friendly, environmentally-safe substance could replace contro-versial products currently employed against the pests.

“It could prove a great substitute to chemical pesticides,” Zhurov said.

The multinational team found that indole glucosinolates, a natu-ral byproduct of the flowering plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, are toxic to spider mites. The substance is found in plants such as broccoli and cabbage as well.

The team also conducted research in the interactions between plant and spider mite genomes. Zhurov concluded by mentioning that some lines of plants could be manipulated to be completely resis-tant to the mites.

—Hasan Seede

Spencer Fairweather GAZETTE

JAMAICAN ME CULTURALLY INFORMED. Members from the Caribbean Students’Organization, an organization that aims to bring back the Caribbean vibe to Western students, showcased cultural traditions in the University Community Centre atrium yesterday.

Like us on Facebook!

facebook.com /westerngazette

Residence Life Staff

Applications are invited from full-time undergraduate students for the (live-in) positions of:

● Residence Dons

for the 2014–2015 academic year.

Members of the Residence Life Staff are responsible for ensuring the overall aims of residence life are achieved, and that these aims are in keeping with the mission of Huron University College.

For more information about the positions and the application process, please contact Ms. Sharon McKillop at 519-438-7224 , ext. 202. Don applications are due by 4pm on Feb 3, 2014.

Applications are available at www.huronuc.ca/applytobeadon

Sharon McKillop Director of Housing & Student Life Huron University College 1349 Western Rd. London, ON N6G 1H3

thegazette • Tuesday, January 21, 2014 • 3

Canada to double international studentsHamza Tariq

GAZETTE STAFF

Canada is looking to double the amount of international students at its universities.

The federal government recently announced the International Education Strategy, which aims to increase international involvement in higher education by increasing the number of international stu-dents and researchers in Canada.

“The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Ontario is working with our postsecond-ary institutions to make Ontario a global destination of choice for postsecondary education,” said Tanya Blazina, spokesperson for the ministry.

The goals of the announced strategy include increasing the number of international students

in Canada to 450,000 by 2022. The current international student population countrywide stands at 265,000 as of 2012.

“Our role is to ensure that the bar is set high for postsecondary education in Ontario through the implementation of a policy frame-work that protects our shared, earned global reputation for qual-ity programs, student protection and a positive student experience,” Blazina said.

Western has met its current goal of having an international student body of 10 per cent, and now looks forward to increasing it to 15 per cent by 2018, according to Carolyn Ford, manager of interna-tional undergraduate recruitment at Western.

“We are looking internally, what’s the optimal size for Western’s facilities, staff, faculty, students

and so that’s based on our analysis of what’s the right size for us,” Ford said. “We determined that the right size for us at undergraduate level is 4,900 students.”

Western’s current population of over 35,000 students includes 2,600 international students from over 100 countries.

“When we say that international students are going to go up to 15 per cent of the first-year class, this number is a conscious decision on our part to be able to serve our domestic Canadian community and at the same time have capacity to welcome international students from 117 different countries onto our campus,” Ford said.

According to Blazina, each international student contributes over $33,000 to the Ontario econ-omy. This meant that international students contributed $2.2-billion

to Ontario for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

“With approximately 66,500 international students enrolled in Ontario postsecondary educa-tion institutions in 2013-14, we are pleased that Ontario has exceeded the government’s commitment,” Blazina said.

According to the education strategy, the government seeks to double the number of international students by 2022, without displac-ing local students.

“The province of Ontario has experienced unprecedented growth in the past and we believe we’ll be able to accommodate

growth in the future, without impacting our local students,” Blazina said.

Ford said internationalization was a tough task that would require a lot of effort.

“Internationalization is not easy — it is a challenging, complex task and it calls upon each and every one of us,” Ford said. “But the end result of having gone through that process where you have a deeper sense of appreciation of the per-spective of others is going to make you a global ready graduate, who makes a contributions to the com-munity and organization you’re working in world wide.”

Memorial for Huron student held today

Dorothy KesslerGAZETTE STAFF

A memorial service will take place today following the sudden death last week of Huron University College student Francis Fondoh at the age of 24.

“It has been a difficult week for the Huron community and espe-cially for the friends and family of Francis Fondoh. Francis touched so many of our lives and had wide-spread connections across both the Huron and Western campus,” wrote Huron Principal Dr. Stephen McClatchie in an open letter to campus.

The service will be led by Huron’s Chaplain Father Bill Cliff and will take place at 2:00 p.m. at Huron’s Chapel. Prior to the memorial service, there will be a visitation that will take place in the chapel from 11:00 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

An overflow room with a video feed will be set up next door in the Great Hall during the service. A reception in the Great Hall will follow the chapel service.

“I will be reading a passage of Scripture at the memorial service,” McClatchie said in an e-mail. “[The memorial service] will include family and friends

speaking about Francis.”An online appeal has been

started by Fondoh’s sister, Sharon, to raise money for the expensive repatriation process to transport his body back to his home coun-try of Cameroon for the funeral.

“The fundraiser was started because we need to raise some funds for the repatriation of my brother and also his burial in Cameroon,” said Sharon Fondoh. “We are all students, and also he did not have life insurance because he was not expected to pass away so young. It is a lot of financial strain on us.”

“The goal is $15,000, but if more than $15,000 is raised then it will help us a lot. We will need more than this amount for his funeral in Cameroon. We need all the help we can get,” Fondoh said.

The funeral is expected to take place on February 15 in Cameroon.

“Francis Fondoh was a very loved and loving brother, son, grandson and friend,” his sister said on the fundraiser page.

If you would like to donate, Sharon Fondoh’s online appeal can be found at gofundme.com under the title “Help Raise Money For Francis Fondoh.”

Naira Ahmed GAZETTE

4 • thegazette • Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Arts&Life tuesdaytweet“There should be nap stations on campus #uwoproblems”

@UWOproblems

A Tribe Called Red brings wow to pow wowSara Mai ChittyGAZETTE STAFF

After an explosive and energetic 2013, electric pow wow trio A Tribe Called Red are set to make 2014 their best year yet. With the release of their second album in May, Nation II Nation, the electronic group has toured nonstop across North America, plus two trips to Europe, only relaxing for the holidays before they hit the studio to record. DJ Bear Witness looks back on 2013 as a year of growth and inspiration to carry on what began as a club night in Ottawa.

“It definitely was a fun experi-ence,” Bear says. “We saw a lot of changes over the past year in the types of shows we were playing. The shows got bigger and bigger — a lot of club gigs as well — but we’ve defi-nitely played to some of our largest over this past tour.

I think the best part was watch-ing our show change and watching our show get tighter and tighter over the last 10 months.”

In 2007, DJ Bear Witness, along-side DJ NDN, saw an opportunity in their hometown of Ottawa to marry the traditional aboriginal social gathering — the pow wow — with an urban social gathering — the club.

“It was really just this simple idea

to throw a party directed toward the aboriginal community in Ottawa as well to showcase ourselves as aborginal DJs in the city. It was a huge success right from our first show — it sold out,” Bear explains.

The premise was to sample tra-ditional aboriginal drumming and music with electronic sounds to cre-ate a fusion that represents aborigi-nal music in an urban setting. When

DJ Shub joined in on the party in 2009, he inspired Bear and NDN to start creating their own beats and music, rather than strictly sampling. An already established Canadian producer, Shub saw what NDN and Bear had going was unique and important to their culture and to the Canadian electronic music scene.

As a result, A Tribe Called Red has achieved rapid success in the

EDM scene, and the group is still surprised by their reception not only from aboriginal communities, but electronic music fans as well.

“Our main goal, our number one thing was to create really great club music, and the thrill of a really great party. That was our initial intention. To know that we can have this suc-cess on the level of representing our community, and having an

opportunity to talk about indig-enous issues and then also have the success of just being electronic artists. That has been equally as awesome,” Bear says.

Not only does the trio make excellent dance music, but they also have an incredibly unique perfor-mance that inspires on two levels — the retrieval of control of the aboriginal image in the media, and being a representation for indige-nous peoples in an urban setting.

“We throw a really great party. It’s not your average DJ show — it’s not one guy up there on turntables playing tracks,” Bear says. “We’re all up there, we play together, we interact with each other, with the audience, it’s a real show in the more traditional ‘band’ sense of a concert. There’s also a chance to learn some-thing as well. We’re up there repre-senting our culture in a very up front and unapologetic way.”

“If you want to experience some-thing different as far as a concert experience or an EDM show, we’re definitely bringing something that you’re not gonna get from any other performance.”

A Tribe Called Red will be playing on February 6 at Hideaway Records and Bar (545 Richmond St.) The show starts at 10:00 p.m. and tick-ets are $10.

A surfeit of silly selfies

Courtesy of Pat Bolduc

Jacqueline BakerGAZETTE STAFF

From Instagram to Twitter to upload-ing a new Facebook profile picture, social media has given rise to a new phenomenon known as the “selfie,” which has become a cultural staple of our Internet-saturated generation.

“A selfie is a staged photograph of the self taken by the individual using any digital device for the purpose of distribution online,” says Kane Faucher, a professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western.

The definition seems simple. That said, Faucher reveals that there is more meaning behind why the selfie is so ingrained in society’s online habits, and why it has become such a popular trend.

“Selfies can be understood according to different types or purposes, such as using what is called hexis — a term by Bourdieu — whereby the habitus of life is

inscribed and embodied, usually in the form of taking a selfie in a uni-form to denote one’s job, or a selfie in front of a landmark like the Eiffel Tower, to communicate to an audi-ence that ‘I, so-and-so, am in Paris, and here is me in front of a symbol as proof of that event,” says Faucher.

Selfies have become the perfect pastime, indicating a new frontier in the evolution in social media.

“Depending on whether the selfie is constructed for the purpose of winning approbation, or status, we can call it a conspicuous practice,” says Faucher.

Is the selfie really something that new? While the self-portrait might appear as a norm from decades ago, it is a timeless pleasure many have taken part in. Even if you’re not tak-ing them, you’re probably looking at them while lurking through our social networking sites.

“If I had to say what the earliest selfie was, think of someone like Rembrandt, who painted quite a few

self-portraits,” Faucher says. “Today, the self-portrait can be done quickly through digital mediation.”

Selfies also allow people to be in control of producing their online image, and raise all sorts of ques-tions about vanity, narcissism, and obsession with self-discovery.

“When used for status purposes, it is certainly more narcissistic,” says Faucher. “I would say that the very nature of the selfie, as linked to van-ity, is the opposite of self-exploration as discovery, for unlike Lacanian mirror stage, one does not gain any new knowledge about one’s subjec-tivity,” he says.

It is human nature to want to show off proud achievements. When feeling good about yourself, and looking good, it has become an easy task to reach for cell phones and document it all through a selfie.

“If it says anything, it is most likely of a broader significance, such as a desperate need to prove existence in a digital milieu,” Faucher says.

Haida Liu GAZETTE

New Sony tech allows cross-platform gaming

Josh TeixeiraGAZETTE STAFF

Earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show held annually in Las Vegas, Sony made an announce-ment that would soon become one of the most discussed topics at the event: PlayStation Now. This game-streaming service will be able to play games released for Sony systems up to the PS3 on smartphones, tablets, game consoles, and certain TV sets. Only a controller — not a console — will be required to use the service.

Similar to Valve’s recently announced Steam Machines, PlayStation Now offers the first ever-streaming game service on consoles and is powered by Sony’s exclusive advanced cloud-based technology. The service will also allow users to stream a selection of PS1 and PS2 games to both the PS3 and PS4, both of which will be the devices the ser-vice starts with.

The service will run at 720p and

users will still be able to earn tro-phies as they would on current Sony gaming devices. Sony has confirmed that subscriptions will be similar to that of streaming giant Netflix. Overall performance of the service will depend on your own bandwidth limitations, although Sony has said you’ll need at least a 5Mbps Internet connection in order to get a “good experience” with the service.

It’s possible that this announce-ment is Sony’s answer to the PlayStation 4’s lack of backwards compatibility and also a way to get video games into the households of people that don’t purchase consoles.

A company as savvy and formi-dable as Sony clearly wouldn’t be launching the service if they didn’t truly believe they were onto some-thing. The service will enter closed beta by the end of January and an official launch is slated for the sum-mer months of 2014. No price point has yet been revealed.

Courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment

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DEADLINE: Friday, January 24, 2014 at 4:00 pm

Please note that due to the number of applicants only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

thegazette • Tuesday, January 21, 2014 • 5

GGGGHJames Vincent McMorrowPost TropicalDine Alone Records

This is what R&B means in the 21st century: James Vincent McMorrow’s Post Tropical combines the soulful, gospel style harmonies one might find in a Bon Iver song with an electronic backbeat comparable to hip hop soul artists such as Frank Ocean.

A follow up to his 2010 album Early in the Morning, Post Tropical is a result of collected sound clips and lyric fragments he devised while on his latest tour. Given its fragmented beginnings, the album is stunningly and distinctly congruous, offering a disturbingly personal account of McMorrow’s attempts to make sense of his past, present and future. The personal nature of Post Tropical is warmly echoed in McMorrow’s fal-setto voice, a shrill and haunting cry which evokes a certain ingenuity

and soul that reminds the listener his words are straight from the heart.

The timbre of his vocal perfor-mance is established right away in the album opener and single “Cavalier,” a sparse and ominous tune whose hip hop beat and gospel vocals set the tone for this album.

This is followed by “The Lakes,” a clash of various instrument sounds eventually given order by a strong off-beat. Although musically mod-ern in nature, “The Lakes” lyrically evokes the pastoral, and situates the listener in McMorrow’s native rural Ireland, establishing a deep inti-macy with the listener. While these two songs focus on the past, “Gold” appears to evaluate the present and future. By far the most melodic and reminiscent of his previous album, “Gold” expresses an affirmation of life in the face of death, a sense of glory and beauty in the world gra-ciously carried by a simple yet dis-tinguishable beat. The sentiment of the song is repeated in the outro: “Time isn’t the only power now.”

The final track “Outside, Digging” ends the album right where it started, except this time McMorrow’s pas-sion brings his voice above a falsetto to a stronger, more amplified shriek which reminds the listener just how personal this album is. McMorrow’s Post Tropical may not be the most radio-friendly album, but its skillful synthesis of genre will prove to be influential in formulating a distinct style of R&B for this decade.

— Shane Rodak

On Disc

Looking“Looking for Now”

Some have labeled Looking as “the gay version of Girls.” While the similarities and commonalities are present — low key story telling of a group of friends in an urban centre — to label this series a “gay show” seems quite shallow. This is merely a series about the awkward tribu-lations of a group of friends; their sexual orientations seem periphery.

Sexuality, however, is a theme Looking is definitely unafraid to tackle. The first scene finds pro-tagonist Patrick (Jonathan Groff) in a wooded area. At first, it’s mysteri-ous what’s happening but it quickly becomes apparent he’s engaging in “cruising” (which, for those who don’t know, is essentially anony-mous sex in a park. It’s also an activ-ity that is quite antiquated — it does not hold the cultural significance

in the gay community it used to). The scene is uncomfortable and it’s clear this is not commonplace for Patrick.

It does a marvelous job of estab-lishing the friendship between Patrick, Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez), and Dom (Murray Bartlett) — a friendship which has intricacies, but the audience is still uncertain of where each fits in.

Agustín makes the decision to move in with his boyfriend Frank which immediately seems prob-lematic. Agustín, who works at an art gallery, receives the assistance of a nice young guy when installing an art piece — whoomp there it is!

Meanwhile, Dom is not getting laid like he used to. He’s used to just getting what he wants but as he approaches 40, he finds that things aren’t as easy. This role could fall into the trap of being a stereotype, yet so far Dom seems so real and

true to real life.What Looking does success-

fully is capture the awkwardness of day-to-day life. In particular, Patrick decides to wade the waters of online dating and go on a date with someone from OKCupid. The formula is familiar in that online dates captured on film and televi-sion are generally failures but this series manages to capture a great level of discomfort.

After taking the train home from this horrendous date, Patrick meets an aspiring barber who is not his usual type. The scene shines as Patrick is adorably awkward.

Looking understands that life is ridiculously strange no matter who you’re dating, and that’s what makes the series so genius. It’s not about them being gay, it’s about them being people people who live ordinary but fascinating lives.

— Bradley Metlin

Courtesy of HBO

6 • thegazette • Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Opinions

thegazetteVolume 107, Issue 57www.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

Julian UzielliEditor-In-Chief

Cameron M. SmithDeputy Editor

Jason SinukoffManaging Editor

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.”

All articles, letters, photographs, graphics, illustrations and cartoons published in The Gazette, both in the newspaper and online versions, are the property of The Gazette. By submitting any such material to The Gazette for publication, you grant to The Gazette a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to publish such material in perpetuity in any media, including but not limited to, The Gazette‘s hard copy and online archives.

News Richard Raycraft Megan Devlin Iain Boekhoff Jeremiah Rodriguez

Arts & Life Brent Holmes Mary Ann Ciosk Bradley Metlin

Sports Daniel Weryha Nusaiba Al-Azem Caitlin Martin Newnham

Opinions Kevin Hurren

Associate Kaitlyn McGrath Aaron Zaltzman

Photography Bill Wang Kelly Samuel Taylor Lasota

Graphics Naira Ahmed

Illustrations Christopher Miszczak John Prata

Online Jesica Hurst

Graphics/Video Mike Laine

Gazette Composing & Gazette Advertising

Gazette Staff 2013-2014Christine Bonk, Jonathan Dunn, Spencer

Fairweather, Sam Frankel, Stephanie Grella,

Dorothy Kessler, Kevin Heslop, Jenny Jay, Nathan

Kanter, Taylor Lasota, Katie Lear, Emory Liu, Cheryl

Madliger, Sara Mai Chitty, Soheil Milani, Vidhant

Pal, Lily Robinson, Alex Seger, Tiffany Shepherd,

Hamza Tariq, Josh Teixera, Anne Wozney

Ian Greaves, ManagerRobert Armstrong

Diana Watson

• Please recycle this newspaper •

“It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home.”

— Carl T. Rowan

Accommodation not a threat

Nusaiba Al-AzemSPORTS EDITOR

The recent episode of religious accom-modation at York University has given way to a series of articles debating the merits of accommodating. From praying in Wal-Mart fitting rooms to requesting not to train with women in mixed mar-tial arts classes, people are hotly debat-ing whether or not religious minorities should be given so much flexibility.

Many arguing against such accom-modation cite secularism as a defence of protecting “Canadian policy.” If life were the card game, this would be the point where I call “bullshit.”

Let me clear this up now: We do not live in a secular society, and it’s foolish and ignorant to believe that we do. Our laws, customs, and policies are all deeply informed by Judeo-Christian belief. Just the small, simple fact that Saturday and Sunday are designated “weekends” is testament to that. Weekends were cre-ated so that citizens could observe the

Sabbath or attend mass. This system does not take into consideration days that may be considered holy by other faiths; it is constructed for the conve-nience — for the accommodation — of particular faiths. Unless people want to abolish all religiously based customs (and I don’t see any “No weekends!” picket signs), any argument against religious accommodation on the basis of secularism holds no ground.

As a Canadian woman who belongs to a religious minority, an offensive part of the conversation surrounding reli-gious accommodation is the entitlement of those who believe it’s up to them to decide. Even if that’s not the intent or explicitly stated as such, the message that’s sent when people pit “religious rights” against “Canadian rights” is a dichotomy in which to be Canadian means to comply with the mainstream value system — a dichotomy in which I’m automatically an outsider by vir-tue of having to ask for permission to practice what I believe. Not only is this dichotomy simplistic and wrong, it’s dangerous.

The mainstream population is hardly affected by religious accommodations. In fact, they almost never are. The sad reality, however, is that people of reli-gious minorities make concessions all

the time. Religious requests are few and far between, but the ensuing debates they create lead to poisoned environ-ments where religious minorities don’t feel comfortable asking, lest they cause more outrage. That’s not fair, especially because many of these people are Canadian citizens like you or I — they shouldn’t have to “ask” at all.

Also, there is the question of sex-ism. Often, religious requests will deal with gender mixing, and a convenient way to oppose this kind of accommo-dation is to play the sexism card. That argument is cheap and wrong because it assumes these requests are based on an ideology that holds that the oppo-site sex is inferior. How about instead of automatically assuming the reason behind these requests, we employ a novel concept called asking for clarifica-tion? More often than not, you’ll find the answer lies not in matters of inferiority, but personal comfort and adherence to religious principles (founded in respect).

So to those who cry secularism or sexism, stop trying to create problems that don’t exist. If you’re unhappy that somebody else gets religious accom-modation that affects you in absolutely no way, perhaps that’s something you should unpack on your own time — that’s your own cross to bear.

AbracadabraAl-Azem

Letters to the Editor

Western too focused on research funds

Whelan takes good look at his progress

More emphasis on mental health needed

Re: “Campaign to raise research aware-ness,” Thursday, January 16, 2014.To the Editor:The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations’ research awareness campaign claims to represent Western at large, but neglects the financial strain other faculties have felt over the past few years.

In an effort to maximize university revenue, special attention has been given to Western’s research-based faculties. To supplement decreasing government aid, President Chakma funnels money into sciences while financially choking faculties like Social Science, Arts and Humanities, and FIMS. What OCUFA describes as a “partnership” within the university has only divided our school. While the research awareness campaign seeks to “rebalance government priori-ties,” Western itself must re-evaluate its priorities as an educational institution: financial gain or the open exchange of knowledge? Non-research faculties must not be forgotten in the quest to make a profit.

—Madison OliverFIMS III

Re: “Team Whelan releases self-evaluation,” Tuesday, January 14, 2014. To the Editor:As a Western student, it is reassuring to see my student leaders taking accountability for their actions, as was reported in The Gazette’s story regarding Team Whelan.

A hallmark of good leadership is recognizing one’s own strengths and weaknesses, which is exactly what Team Whelan has done with their self-evalua-tion. I applaud the USC executive for the transparency on their progress, and it is commendable that they have made it a priority to have that information acces-sible to the students they represent.

The annual rollover of positions makes it difficult for the USC to create change. However, Team Whelan’s commitment to accomplishing the platform points on which they were elected and their effort to plan for their successors makes me hope-ful for some much-needed continuity in the USC. As elections approach, I hope Western will elect leaders who — like Team Whelan — are serious about their platforms and not just their campaign videos.

—Susan CollingwoodFIMS III

Re: “Campus heath program gears up,” Friday, January 17, 2014. To the Editor:Campus Recreation and Student Health Services’ (SHS) new student program, Healthy Body Healthy Mind, which teaches students “stress management skills,” is a step in the right direction —but it’s not enough.

As a fourth-year student, I suffer from minor bouts of depression and anxiety due to school related stress. While I had positive experience at SHS during preliminary evaluations, SHS fell short when I needed follow up help.

I found out there is a three-month waiting list for a counsellor on campus. This forced me to look off campus for therapy. Fortunately, I am covered by my family’s healthcare plan or else I would be paying $150 out of pocket since OHIP does not cover mental health.

Mental health is as important as physical health. It should be a priority within the structure of the SHS by meet-ing the demands for mental counseling.

—Madeline MarmorFIMS IV

thegazette • Tuesday, January 21, 2014 • 7

SportsRundown >> The Western Mustangs track and field team performed brilliantly at the Don Wright team challenge at Thompson Arena on Saturday > The team finished with 60 top-three performances including a gold medal finish by Western’s Robin Bone, who set the arena record with a 4.03 meter pole vault.

factattackThe last six National Football Conference teams to rank first in scoring defence also won the Superbowl. The Seahawks are currently number one in scoring defence and could be the seventh team in a row to win the Superbowl with this statistic.

Fencers gather for on-campus trainingFirst ever coaching clinic helps tune fencing skills

Nusaiba Al-AzemSPORTS EDITOR

Local fencing coaches and students alike gathered on campus this weekend to sharpen their skills at Western’s first ever coaching clinic and training camp combination. Attendees included varsity fencers, local club fencers, as well as a few special guests.

Fencing masters Rob Handelman and Connie Louie travelled from San Francisco for their first inter-national clinic, and luckily for Western’s varsity fencing team, this camp comes just before the Ontario University Athletics championships in two weeks’ time.

“I really think it is an honour, a privilege to be asked to come,” Louie said.

She was not the only party happy with the arrangement.

“It’s been a great experience. We’ve really enjoyed having Rob and Connie here,” Brad Winder, Mustangs’ head coach, said. “They’ve passed on so much infor-mation. They’ve worked the fenc-ers really, really hard, which is great. The fencers, our fencers, have really been good hosts to the visiting club fencers from the others areas.”

Handelman and Louie are well established in the fencing

community. The husband and wife fencing duo have written two books on the discipline.

“We wrote a book on training young athletes, and it’s the only book that exists that’s actually a guidebook for sport medicine, fit-ness, technique, sports psychology, and so on, for training young ath-letes,” Handelman explained.

“And [Western fencing] read our book, and after reading our book, they started coming to some of the clinics that we ran in San Francisco [...] and so then they finally were

able to invite us here to do a train-ing camp with them,” he continued.

The masters reflected on the benefits of combining both a coach-ing clinic, in which masters teach effective pedagogical techniques with the three competitive fenc-ing weapons — the foil, the sabre and the épée — as well as a train-ing camp, meant for the fencers themselves.

“Oftentimes, generally, it’s just the coaches,” Louie said. “But the fact that there’s both, it makes it convenient for the coaches to

practice now because there’s so many students in all three weapons so they can actually practice what they’ve learned. So it’s actually a good combination.”

Winder saw the merit in the new coupling as well.

“Here we’ve got fencers of all kinds — first years, second years, third years, some really good ones, some youth fencers, so it gives [the coaches] a chance to try a lot of dif-ferent drills and their coaching tech-niques on fencers right away, and they get immediate feedback from

not only Rob and Connie, but the fencers themselves,” Winder said.

The two-day intensive camp, in which the fencers focused on per-fecting footwork and drills, comes just before the varsity team travels to Detroit for a tournament this weekend, followed by the OUA championships.

“We feel [the team’s] technique is really improving,” Winder said. “Now next weekend they’ll have a chance to practice it, and then I think we’re going to peak at the right time.”

Spencer Fairweather GAZETTE

EN GUARD! Fencers gathered on campus this weekend to train with masters of fencing. Both varsity and club fencers worked on various skill sets in the first coaching clinic hosted by Western. The camp happened at just the right time as the Western Mustangs fencers prepare to compete in the Ontario University Athletics championships in two weeks’ time.

Spencer Fairweather GAZETTE

PSYCH OUT. Sports psychologist Dr. Connie Louie shared her extensive knowledge about the mental aspect of competitive fencing with local fencers. She pointed out that each fencer is their own biggest competition.

We wrote a book on training young athletes, and it’s the only book that exists that’s actually a guide book for sport medicine, fitness, technique, sports psychology, and so on, for training young athletes.

— Rob Handelman Fencing Master

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8 • thegazette • Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Naira Ahmed GAZETTE