vol 42 issue 20

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The Medium Talks to students Cupcake icing sculptures Print journalism in an online world Learning news from comedians Networking with sports leaders News, page 3 Arts, page 5 Features, page 8 Opinion, page 4 Sports, page 11 Historic UTMSU election underway Four slates and three independent candidates are vying to be elected to UTMSU’s executive team UTMSU request denied, fee increases prevail Fee increases were passed at Campus Council on Thursday as UTMSU voices opposition to changes OLIVIA ADAMCZYK/THE MEDIUM Voting for the UTMSU election will begin on Tuesday. ALICIA BOATTO ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR NICOLE DANESI NEWS EDITOR ALICIA BOATTO ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR KASSANDRA HANGDAAN ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR JEANLOUIS REBELLO/THE MEDIUM Fee increases were passed at Campus Council on Thursday. UTM Campus Council moved ahead with student service fee increases de- spite UTMSU’s attempts to defer the motion last ursday. As previously reported in The Medium, the Campus Affairs Com- mittee had passed a motion last month to raise fees for various stu- dent services, such as student fees at the RAWC. Once the motion had been passed at Campus Affairs, it was then moved to the next highest governing body, Campus Council, for approval. The chairman of the coun- cil called this item “trickier than usual”, due to legal concerns raised by UTMSU. Representatives from UTMSU have taken issue with the processes applied by the Qual- ity Services to Students commit- tee. This committee is designed to make suggestions regarding the operation of UTM’s student servic- es, including the budgets and fees involved in those services. In a letter to members of QSS, Campus Council, and Campus Af- fairs Committee sent half an hour prior to the February 11 campus affairs meeting, UTMSU said that their voice as the student body was not being valued or heard and they would not participate in any fur- ther meetings with the QSS. In or- der for QSS to reach quorum at its meetings, UTMSU is required to be present. UTMSU’s decision to boycott QSS prevented the meetings from being held and prevented any fur- ther discussion regarding fee in- creases. “In the current cycle, after much debate, student representatives opted to not participate in a pro- cess where the quality of consul- tation was inadequate and most importantly the recommendations made by student’s representatives are not respected,” reads the let- ter. UTMSU alleged that the QSS and Campus Council have violated terms of the university’s protocol. The protocol is a memorandum that is used to explain “the proce- dures and limitations associated with the establishment of and in- creases to compulsory non-aca- demic incidental fees charged for university-operated student ser- vices,” according to the Campus Council agenda. The fees in question, for example the shuttle bus and Career Centre fee, were originally presented as individual fees, but are now being presented as a combined fee re- ferred to as the student service fee. “This amalgamation of fees vio- lated past practices where the Uni- versity Affairs Board of Governing Council received advice on those services from QSS as separate fees,” wrote UTMSU president Ebi Ag- beyegbe in his letter to the Campus Council. “The impact of the amal- gamation violates the protocol and the QSS terms of reference, in our opinion.” UTMSU also argued that a new fee was introduced without con- sultation. This fee is called the Stu- dent Life Initiative. Fees continued on page 3 For the first time in at least seven years, four full slates and three inde- pendent candidates are vying for stu- dent votes with hopes to be elected to the UTMSU executive committee for the 2016/17 academic year. Beginning last Tuesday in antici- pation of polls opening this Tuesday through ursday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in CCT, Deerfield, Davis, IB, and the Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex, the campaign pe- riod immediately followed changes to election rules this year. ELECTION CHANGES According to a notice posted on UT- MSU’s “Wall of Transparency” locat- ed in Davis, a notice board primarily used to list demerit points racked up by candidates during the election, changes were made to rules involving the number of non-UTM volunteers that candidates are able to use to cam- paign. Not listed in the official UTM- SU election procedural code, the new rule was posted on the wall barring candidates from using non-UTM vol- unteers to campaign on their behalf unless the volunteers were used “in a supporting role”. As of Friday, however, the rule was crossed out and a notice was posted on the Wall of Transparency explain- ing that the Election and Referenda Committee approved a change on February 29 that now allows each independent candidate or slate to use five non-UTM volunteers to campaign. Candidates running for a spot on the board of directors are now permitted to use two non-UTM campaign volunteers following the changes. As previously reported by e Medium, last year’s election between UTM Rise and UTM Reform saw ten- sions arise between the two slates vy- ing for election as outside volunteers were used to campaign. Among other changes posted on the Wall of Transparency, current executive committee members “can- not play an active role within the Spring Elections and have no part in the elections process” while execu- tive members are also barred from “support[ing] any team/individual candidates and campaign on their behalf”. UTMSU continued on page 2

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The Medium Talks to students

Cupcake icing sculptures

Print journalism in an online world

Learning news from comedians

Networking with sports leaders

News, page 3 Arts, page 5 Features, page 8Opinion, page 4 Sports, page 11

Historic UTMSU election underwayFour slates and three independent candidates are vying to be elected to UTMSU’s executive team

UTMSU request denied, fee increases prevailFee increases were passed at Campus Council on Thursday as UTMSU voices opposition to changes

OLIVIA ADAMCZYK/THE MEDIUMVoting for the UTMSU election will begin on Tuesday.

ALICIA BOATTOASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

NICOLE DANESINEWS EDITORALICIA BOATTOASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORKASSANDRA HANGDAANASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

JEANLOUIS REBELLO/THE MEDIUMFee increases were passed at Campus Council on Thursday.

UTM Campus Council moved ahead with student service fee increases de-spite UTMSU’s attempts to defer the motion last Thursday.

As previously reported in The Medium, the Campus Affairs Com-mittee had passed a motion last month to raise fees for various stu-dent services, such as student fees at the RAWC. Once the motion had been passed at Campus Affairs, it was then moved to the next highest governing body, Campus Council, for approval.

The chairman of the coun-cil called this item “trickier than usual”, due to legal concerns raised by UTMSU. Representatives from UTMSU have taken issue with the processes applied by the Qual-ity Services to Students commit-tee. This committee is designed to make suggestions regarding the operation of UTM’s student servic-es, including the budgets and fees involved in those services.

In a letter to members of QSS, Campus Council, and Campus Af-fairs Committee sent half an hour

prior to the February 11 campus affairs meeting, UTMSU said that their voice as the student body was not being valued or heard and they would not participate in any fur-ther meetings with the QSS. In or-der for QSS to reach quorum at its meetings, UTMSU is required to be

present.UTMSU’s decision to boycott

QSS prevented the meetings from being held and prevented any fur-ther discussion regarding fee in-creases.

“In the current cycle, after much debate, student representatives

opted to not participate in a pro-cess where the quality of consul-tation was inadequate and most importantly the recommendations made by student’s representatives are not respected,” reads the let-ter. UTMSU alleged that the QSS and Campus Council have violated

terms of the university’s protocol.The protocol is a memorandum

that is used to explain “the proce-dures and limitations associated with the establishment of and in-creases to compulsory non-aca-demic incidental fees charged for university-operated student ser-vices,” according to the Campus Council agenda.

The fees in question, for example the shuttle bus and Career Centre fee, were originally presented as individual fees, but are now being presented as a combined fee re-ferred to as the student service fee.

“This amalgamation of fees vio-lated past practices where the Uni-versity Affairs Board of Governing Council received advice on those services from QSS as separate fees,” wrote UTMSU president Ebi Ag-beyegbe in his letter to the Campus Council. “The impact of the amal-gamation violates the protocol and the QSS terms of reference, in our opinion.”

UTMSU also argued that a new fee was introduced without con-sultation. This fee is called the Stu-dent Life Initiative.

Fees continued on page 3

For the first time in at least seven years, four full slates and three inde-pendent candidates are vying for stu-dent votes with hopes to be elected to the UTMSU executive committee for the 2016/17 academic year.

Beginning last Tuesday in antici-pation of polls opening this Tuesday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in CCT, Deerfield, Davis, IB, and the Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex, the campaign pe-riod immediately followed changes to election rules this year.

ELECTION CHANGESAccording to a notice posted on UT-MSU’s “Wall of Transparency” locat-ed in Davis, a notice board primarily used to list demerit points racked up

by candidates during the election, changes were made to rules involving the number of non-UTM volunteers that candidates are able to use to cam-paign. Not listed in the official UTM-

SU election procedural code, the new rule was posted on the wall barring candidates from using non-UTM vol-unteers to campaign on their behalf unless the volunteers were used “in a

supporting role”.As of Friday, however, the rule was

crossed out and a notice was posted on the Wall of Transparency explain-ing that the Election and Referenda

Committee approved a change on February 29 that now allows each independent candidate or slate to use five non-UTM volunteers to campaign. Candidates running for a spot on the board of directors are now permitted to use two non-UTM campaign volunteers following the changes.

As previously reported by The Medium, last year’s election between UTM Rise and UTM Reform saw ten-sions arise between the two slates vy-ing for election as outside volunteers were used to campaign.

Among other changes posted on the Wall of Transparency, current executive committee members “can-not play an active role within the Spring Elections and have no part in the elections process” while execu-tive members are also barred from “support[ing] any team/individual candidates and campaign on their behalf ”.

UTMSU continued on page 2

2 «NEWS THE MEDIUM 03.07.2016

February 25, 4:50 a.m.Property DamageWhile on patrol, Campus Police observed a car on the grass area at MaGrath Valley Residence and the Collegeway. The car had lost control while turning a corner and slid onto the grass. No one was injured in the accident.

February 29, 11:00 a.m.MischiefPosters in the Recreation and Well-ness Centre promoting sexual and gender diversity inclusion were vandalized. Subsequent investiga-tion resulted in the arrest of a male, who was charged with Mischief Un-

der $5,000. He was released from custody pending his appearance in court.

February 29, 4:10 p.m.Motor Vehicle AccidentTwo vehicles collided at the Col-legeway entrance. A car entering the campus had missed the turn, mounted the curb, and collided with a vehicle leaving the campus. One driver was transported to hos-pital, where he was treated and re-leased. Campus Police would like to remind all drivers to always adjust their speed according to the weath-er and road conditions.

These reports are those that have been released to TheMedium and do not necessarily constitute an exhaustive list.

Students can contact the UTM Campus Police at 905 828 5200, Peel Regional Police at 905 453 3311, or Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222 8477.

Also reported by The Medium, last year’s election between UTM Rise and UTM Reform saw then UTMSU president Hassan Havili and UTMSU VP equity Melissa Theodore support UTM Rise, the victorious slate. It was also confirmed that Havili had taken a two week leave of absence from of-fice during the elections.

ELECTION PAUSEDOn Friday, candidates took the day

off from campaigning to show soli-darity with UTM Focus as the broth-er of presidential candidate Ridwan Olow had passed away. In a Facebook post published on Friday morning, UTM Focus thanked fellow candi-dates for putting their campaigns on hold in light of the news.

“Thank you to folks who have shown their support for our brother

Ridwan,” said the statement. “We would also like to thank all teams for taking a day of silence in solidarity with Ridwan.”

Hosted earlier on Thursday in the Blind Duck, the candidate forum of-fered candidates the opportunity to share their platforms. Candidates then joined The Medium for one-on-one interviews on Friday to discuss their ideas and promises to students if elected.

Election paused in solidarity

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

FACEBOOK.COM/UTM-FOCUS/PHOTO

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES:

SLATES:

UTMSU continued from Cover

UTM AWAKENJason SelvanayagamPRESIDENT

Tamam KhalafVP INTERNAL & SERVICES

Ryan PersaudVP UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS & ACADEMICS

Emerson CalcadaVP EXTERNAL

Priyanka SahajpalVP EQUITY

ENVISION UTMGenny LawenPRESIDENT

Adil Isaac AbrahimVP INTERNAL & SERVICES

Abdulla OmariVP UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS & ACADEMICS

Amanee NassereddineVP EXTERNAL

Falhad MohamoudVP EQUITY

UTM FOCUSRidwan OlowPRESIDENT

Hoda KhanVP INTERNAL & SERVICES

Menna ElnakaVP UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS & ACADEMICS

Kamal AliVP EXTERNAL

Farishta AmanullahVP EQUITY

UNITE UTMNour AlideebPRESIDENT

Jackie ZhaoVP INTERNAL & SERVICES

Vanessa DemelloVP UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS & ACADEMICS

Marise HopkinsVP EXTERNAL

Maleeha BaigVP EQUITY

Ibrahim Boutera Daniel Lyght Andrew Williams

03.07.2016 THE MEDIUM NEWS» 3

More than 40 students took part in last week’s panel talk hosted by The Medium discussing the past, present, and future of journalism.

Moderated last Monday by The Me-dium’s former editor-in-chief and cur-rent UTM Professional Writing and Communications instructor Robert Price, “The Medium Talks” featured panelists Karlene Nation, Justin Rob-ertson, H. G. Watson, and Nick Ko-zak, who discussed the concept of journalism.

“Journalism is moving constantly and shifting how we see the news,” said Nation, a UTM alumna who has worked on-air with CTV News, when asked how a journalist is defined. “We have the shifting landscape where we have to broaden that definition to in-

clude this emerging new group that is coming up. Whether we call them journalists or citizen journalists, it will be up to people to define that, but it is shifting definitely.”

“The second you pick up a phone or send an email to check a fact or [when] you decide, ‘I want to look one step beyond,’ ” is when a person becomes a journalist, said Watson, who has previously reported for The Grid and the Daily Xtra and is cur-rently the associate editor of J-Source.

Justin Robertson, a freelance jour-nalist who has previously written for The Globe and Mail and The Walrus among others, added the importance of telling stories across varying plat-forms.

Kozak, a freelance photojournalist, provided his thoughts on what differ-entiates citizens from journalists.

“Fact-checking and making sure

you’re getting to the truth to whatever degree possible is the real focus for the people working as journalists and photojournalists,” said Kozak, who also explained that getting the photo is just as important as fully engaging with the story.

When asked how students can en-ter the field, panelists provided their advice.

“It’s something that you’re always working on and hopefully getting better at,” said Watson, who described journalism as a craft needing to be de-veloped. “I’m now on to my third job as a professional journalist and I still feel like I’m learning something new every day”.

The panel discussion, hosted in partnership with the Career Centre, UTM/TV, ICCIT Council, and UTM Scribes, was followed by a social re-ception in The Medium’s office.

WARD SUROUR

UTMSU voice concerns at Campus Council

Students engage in discussion on the future of journalism

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUMMore than 40 students attended the panel discussion hosted last Monday.

Prophesying our future

Nancy Reagan, former first lady, dead at age 94

Former first lady Nancy Reagan died in her home on Sunday at age 94. The cause of death was identified as heart failure. Reagan was married to for-mer American president Ronald Rea-gan, who served from 1981 to 1989. It was announced on Sunday that Nancy will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Source:CNN

CN Tower lit blue to celebrate Toronto’s 182nd birthday

The City of Toronto celebrated its 182nd birthday on Sunday with vari-ous festivities occurring throughout the city. Incorporated on March 6, 1834, the CN Tower was lit blue in celebration of the milestone.

Source: Toronto Star

Astronaut claims trip to Mars is possible following space trip

Astronaut Scott Kelly has returned from a 340-day trip to space and is claiming that humans would be suc-cessful in making a trip to Mars. Kel-ly’s trip to space is the longest space expedition ever made by a human. Kelly is now undergoing medical test-ing to examine the effects that the trip had on his body.

Source: CBC

Trudeau calls for the U.S. to be more vigilant of global happenings

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has called on the United States to be more vigilant of the world in an interview with 60 Minutes, which aired Sunday. “We sometimes like to think that, you know, Ameri-cans will pay attention to us from time to time, too,” said Trudeau.

Source: Toronto Star

Mississauga stabbing on Webb Drive leaves 19-year-old dead

A 19-year-old man is dead in an ap-parent homicide following a stabbing on Webb Drive on Saturday after-noon. Peel Regional Police are seek-ing a suspect and the victim’s name has yet to be released.

Source: CBC

Marium Hussain4th year, math and English

Tori Flores1st year, English

Eric Hewitson4th year, English and PWC

Dimitri Thompson1st year, commerce

No, I don’t use Uber. I have a car.

Yes, I use Uber. It’s cheap and accessible. I don’t have any safety concerns.

Yes, I do. I spent $60 on Uber just last week.

I do use Uber because it is faster than everything else.

»DO YOU USE UBER?

“This is a new portion of the consoli-dated student service fee, resulting in a new fee of (full-time) $4.38 and (part-time) $0.88 for activities that were re-jected for implementation at previous meetings of QSS,” reads the UTMSU letter. “Please note that NO referen-dum or meeting of QSS has endorsed the new fee or activities. This proposal violates the protocol and will be chal-lenged by the UTM Students’ Union at all levels of governance and through

other means.”UTMSU’s presence at Thursday’s

meeting was to advocate for the defer-ral of fee approval until further consul-tation had been arranged.

Mark Overton, the dean of student affairs, and Meredith Strong, who oversees the Office of the Vice-pro-vost, explained that since the student union did not attend QSS meetings, the council could still vote for approval without the advice of QSS. Overton ex-plained that moving forward without advice from the QSS puts a cap on the

amount of fee increases that can be ap-plied. Overton said that for two of the increases, the amounts were actually under the maximum allowed. These increases include the Physical Health and Wellness Fee, which will change from $171.76 per session for full-time students to $175.20 per session.

Principal Deep Saini also revealed that since his return from India with the Wynne delegation, he has con-sulted with the UTMSU president and they have discussed the union’s per-spective.

“Among the concerns expressed in meetings with the acting principal and dean of student affairs was UTMSU’s call for a change in QSS’s role, from providing advice to governance on fees under the protocol to instead re-quiring QSS’s approval of fee increases before being sought through gover-nance,” reads the agenda from the council meeting. “As explained, this would contradict the terms of the pro-tocol, although procedural advice was offered on how changes to the protocol could be explored.”

UTMSU reaffirmed that their con-cern was the implementation of cer-tain fees without the union having been represented.

UTMSU asked the council that the motion be deferred until outside legal advice had been sought. The motion for deferral failed and the motion for fee approval passed.

UTMSU was also seeking an in-crease in funding for services such as WUSC, the student refugee program, and the U-Pass. The increases were passed.

Fees continued from Cover

4 « 03.07.2016

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A healthy amount of comedyTurning to political comedy for the news has some serious benefits to it

When it comes to politics, I consid-ered myself to be one of those igno-rant millenials who didn’t really know too much about what was going on. Growing up, I was somehow con-vinced that my vote didn’t matter and that if I didn’t know enough about each candidate, then why should I vote? And as opposed to educating myself, like I try to do now, I just sat back and told myself what I had heard my whole life: they’re all crooks. None of them will deliver on their promises. What’s the point in voting if office will burn to the ground regardless of who gets chosen?

Now, when it came to understand-ing candidates, I had no idea what was going on. I had been out of the game too long and I overwhelmed myself with all the knowledge I thought I needed to get caught up. I quickly became discouraged through the countless articles, press confer-ences, and opinions that were being hurled my way.

Enter late night television. Again, this is something else I missed out on because I’m a 90-year-old woman at heart who passes out before 10:00 p.m. on weekdays. So I never wound up catching anything. I was constant-ly (and still am) met with the age-old question from those who actually stay up long enough to see the moon: “Did you catch John Oliver last night?” If not him, then what about Colbert? Surely I must have watched someone. But the answer was always a slightly

ashamed “no”. Before Trudeau was voted into of-

fice, I wasn’t as caught up as I wanted to be with the slates and which side of the fence I fell on. Then my brother posted a link to John Oliver’s video on the Canadian election. After 15 min-utes, I felt that I had a basic gist of the candidates on top of the knowledge I had already gained through newspa-pers and the news. Fifteen minutes was all it took to sum up what pages of material were trying to say. And with a little added humour into the mix, I retained more information from John Oliver than I did from anyone else leading up to his video.

My point is, bouncing off one of our articles this week, “Check your source: comedians broadcast”, I think these political comedies have a great, important place in our culture to-day. Quoting the 2013 study “What about those interviews? The Impact of Exposure to Political Comedy and Cable News on Factual Recall and Anticipated Political Expression”, I am absolutely one of those people who remembers political information from one of these late night shows. I mean, I would understand it coming from the news, but John Oliver whip-ping out 5,000 Canadian dollars and Mike Myers dressed as a Mountie as encouragement for people to vote against Stephen Harper is something that sticks out in my memory way more.

The coverage of the American elec-

tion is something I’ve been keeping a close eye on as well. And while I don’t get all my information from late night talk show hosts, I do get a hefty amount of important info from them. Do I enjoy hearing about Trump’s failures from John Oliver? Absolute-ly I do. Did I send out a tweet with the hashtag #MakeDonaldDrumpf-Again? You bet I did. And I did it be-cause I learned something vital about a candidate while also being given a healthy dose of comedy to make things more appealing to me. The comedy makes things more appealing to a lot of people, I think.

That being said, these shows are capable of covering heavier topics as well. Last year, when the Charleston church shooting took place, Jon Stew-art opened his monologue with the fact that he wrote no jokes because of what happened in South Carolina. He went on to call the crime an act of terrorism before closing with, “The Confederate flag flies over South Carolina and the roads are named for Confederate generals—and the white guy’s the one who feels like his coun-try is being taken away from him.” When I see these hosts take a mo-ment from their regular comedic skits to talk about something seriously, it packs even more of a punch. It’s not like they’re shying away from topics outside the spectrum of politics. But when they do, they’re perfectly ca-pable of talking about them in a pro-fessional manner outside of humour,

which is something I can appreciate from them.

Now, I’m not saying that news has no benefits. That’s insane to me. Proper news coverage from journal-ists who are dedicated in their field and care about the work will always be valuable to a lot of people. We shouldn’t cancel the six o’clock news to air Colbert. But, when it comes to certain things, I would much rather listen to the late night guys over any-one else.

CORRECTION NOTICE

The Feb. 8 article “The abortion divide: pro-life or choice?” de-scribed Alissa Golob as the youth coordinator for the Campaign for Life Coalition. She was no longer in that role at the time of publica-tion and is instead with a start-up pro-life organization called Right Now. The Feb. 29 article “UTM’s dancing queen” misstated the name, language, and meaning of the UTM Dance Club’s routine Avozinho, which means “grand-father” in Portuguese. Morgan Biss’s name was also misspelled. Rhythm’s Global Flare perfor-mance did not recreate the addi-tional choreography of two songs, but featured the traditional Lavani and Pinga dances.

YOURS,

MARIA CRUZ

The highs and lows of free tuitionFree tuition is coming soon to low-income households—but at what cost?

About a week ago, Kathleen Wynne and her liberal government an-nounced that within her budget plan, tuition and postsecondary education costs will be free to those who are considered to be of low-income sta-tus. Taken at face value, this policy will enable aspiring students who previously required financial aid from OSAP and needed to scrimp and save as much as they could to enter col-lege or university—something that can be celebrated among a percentage of people—to receive postsecondary education at the cost of nothing.

However, taken altogether in the context of new policies and actions being taken by the Ontario liberal government, this new policy is noth-ing more than smoke and mirrors, a distraction to worrying costs and mounting debt. I believe that this policy may benefit a percentage of low-income students while coming at the expense and anguish of a large percentage of taxpayers, specifically the middle class and seniors, who de-

pend on services that are being gutted or drastically affected.

According to an article published by The Financial Post, Ontario is the most indebted borrower sub-sover-eign state in the world, with a debt of over $307 billion. Yikes! A problem

arises: is the Ontario liberal govern-ment able to afford complete grants and tuition costs to all low-income students? The (surprising) answer is yes. According to Patrick Brown, the leader of the Ontario PC party, Ontario taxpayers can expect to pay a $387 increase in their energy bill, with a $2 rebate to even things out.

Additionally, $2 billion was wasted on the Smart Metre expense, which did not indicate how Ontarians can save energy, and instead hydro rates will be expected to increase over 42 percent from 2013 to 2018. This will not be enough to counter misman-agement and offset the free tuition, Patrick Brown also notes that in the last year, healthcare in Ontario was severely cut, of which there contin-ues to be an assault. As he has said in multiple question periods between the premier and the opposition, over 1,200 nurses were cut all across On-tario. One of the most affected areas was the Windsor Regional Hospital, with 120 nurses being cut. Eight hun-dred thousand residents are without a family doctor due to private prac-tices closing their offices and services because it has become too costly for them to operate. In addition to the cuts to front-line healthcare practi-tioners and nurses, over $815 million was cut to physician services, which certainly has an overlap with the se-

vere cuts in nurses and doctors, but to advancements and technologists in medicine as well, leaving 23,000 se-niors in Ontario on a long-term care list, as Brown and his associates cite and calculate. Clearly, there needs to be serious reform and adjustments implemented to repair Ontario’s en-ergy and healthcare policies; how-ever, until then, the middle class and honest taxpayers will be the ones to bear the costs of the recent generous tuition grants to the lower class.

As Patrick Brown claims the On-tario liberal government is doing, “Why is this premier robbing Peter to pay Paul?” I believe that the current government has a lot of issues to ad-dress in their dwindling time to do so and that reforms to crucial sectors will only come at the expense of other important sectors.

Joseph Corazza2nd yearPhilosophy

Is the Ontario liberal government able to

afford complete grants and tuition costs to all low-income students?

The answer is yes.

03.07.2016 » 5

Tastes like paint: how to ice a canvasArt Gallery of Mississauga opens three new exhibits that are both unique and connected

White oil paint sculpted into cloud-like masses, a hidden-away gallery, eclectic blend of paintings, draw-ings, and sculptures, and a fusion of Aboriginal and Western cultures are among the forms of art you’ll encoun-ter if you venture into the Art Gallery of Mississauga’s current exhibits.

The AGM is currently holding three exhibitions, each unique unto itself and completely different from any art I’ve seen before. The first exhi-bition on display is Fiona Kinsella’s oil paint exhibit, entitled Pushing Paint.

Have you ever slathered icing onto a cupcake to the point where there’s more icing than cupcake? Kinsella’s sculptures, crafted entirely from white oil paint, resemble that exact image. However, Kinsella’s sculptures are far more artistic than your average cupcake topping.

Considering herself a mixed-me-dia artist, Kinsella blends painting, sculpting, and performance into her work. From Kinsella’s perspective, oil paint has artistic potential beyond the flatness of a canvas. Equipped with nothing more than a palette knife, she manipulates large masses of oil paint in a performative manner to craft her sculptures.

The process of creating these sculp-tures is a physical one. Kinsella must work both with and against the paint, particularly its weight and viscosity, to craft her work. After morphing her sculptures, Kinsella often returns to finished products months later to re-invent their compositions.

When applied thinly to a canvas, oil paint can take weeks to dry. When

used in the vast quantities that Kin-sella requires for her sculptures, the paint can take years to completely harden. Keeping that in mind while walking through the dozens of pieces in the gallery, I was amazed by the amount of time invested in the series.

When I first entered Kinsella’s exhi-bition, my immediate response was to touch the sculptures. But considering

there was a class of children also tour-ing the gallery, I kept my hands in my pockets. The dried paint appears slick on the surface, yet it also gives the ap-pearance of having a spongy texture. The display includes some sculptures that are morphed into smooth, tidy shapes, and others that are also erupt-ing with texture.

The pieces rest on small podiums

or hang in frames on the walls. The white frames are a creative touch, as they give the sculptures an appear-ance of popping from the walls in an uncontrolled, foamy rage. Some of the sculptures are nearly indistin-guishable from icing on a cupcake, whipped cream, or the foam on a fresh latte.

Stepping further into the gallery, you’ll find Claire Scherzinger’s cross-disciplinary compilation of paintings, drawings, and sculptures entitled The Zenith of My Understanding is Like Water in a Thimble. This exhibition is tucked away in the gallery’s XIT-RM Project Space—a small room off the main gallery—so it’s easy to miss if you’re just passing through.

The title plays on Scherzinger’s quest to “know everything about ev-erything” in the realm of painting and drawing. Yet as the title suggests, this quest is futile. Nonetheless, with this exhibition Scherzinger explores the relevance of painting, drawing, and sculpting and how these three artis-tic mediums exchange information when in the presence of the other.

I’ll be honest: this is one of those exhibitions that require a deep appre-ciation and understanding of visual art in order to fully grasp its signifi-cance.

HAILEY MASONASSOCIATE A&E EDITIOR

Charity event factors in students’ talentUTM’s very own X Factor raises money for Free the Children while also raising roofs on campus

The first ever UTM X Factor was held last Friday as a collaborative effort between Free the Children at UTM and UTM Rotaract. It was a great way to creatively fundraise and showcase the vocal talents of UTM students. There were six per-formers over the course of the night and the fate of the winner was de-cided by audience members who donated funds.

The first performer was Aseel Aoun, who performed a beautiful cover of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”.

Following her performance was the energetic Pamela Adjei with Peggy Lee’s “Fever”. Runner-up Nicolas Ngheim had everyone’s at-tention as soon as he began singing Nsync’s “This I Promise You”.

Shaz Rashid switched up the mood of the evening with his spo-ken word piece, and Alice Li’s vi-brant performance included a med-ley of popular, upbeat songs coupled with engaging, rhythmic dancing. First place was awarded to Malika Ganguli, who proved her talent with

her smooth performance of Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” and “Someone Like You”.

“It was a great experience and something that I would definitely do again,” said Ganguli, a second-

year student in comparative physi-ology. “I mean, all the money goes to charity. So that’s a really good thing. I wish I had had more time to prepare, because this whole week I had so many midterms, I literally

only had today, but it was really good and really fun!”

The whole show was meticulous-ly organized and the performances of the night were very well received by the audience. Though most of

the songs throughout the event were covers, every singer’s personal touch was reflected in the pieces they chose.

The first prize winner received a $100 cash prize, while the sec-ond place winner received a $50 prize courtesy of UTM Residence Council. To top off the night, food and drinks were provided for both the audience and performers. Of course, the night would not have been complete without lip-sync battles, karaoke, and the famous Ghostbusters dance-off amongst the winners and all the executives.

“Our goal is to raise funds to-wards global education through UTM events that are fun and enjoy-able for students,” said Li, a fourth-year commerce student and presi-dent of Free the Children at UTM and UTM Residence Council. “X Factor UTM is a new idea this year and it was great to be able to collab-orate with UTM Residence Council and UTM Rotaract. We thought this would be a creative way to raise do-nations for Free the Children while showcasing some of our amazing students’ talents.”

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUMStudent talent never goes to waste.

FACEBOOK.COM/ARTGALLERYOFMISSISSAUGA/PHOTOAGM show explores work by multiple artists.

Paint continued on page 6

FATIMA ALVI

6 «ARTS THE MEDIUM 03.07.2016

It’s really quite sad how those with immeasurable talent become most known for their fatal flaws. Men-tion the name “Sylvia Plath” and wait hardly 10 seconds before someone in-terjects by mentioning her infamous suicide: headfirst into a gas oven.

It’s because it’s hard to separate Plath’s poetry from her battle with mental illness. Her depression was the wood that fueled the fire of her poetry. Plath’s writing primarily deals with themes of pain and death, and “Lady Lazarus” is no exception.

I was first introduced to the poem in Professor Brent Wood’s class ENG201: Reading Poetry. Written from the perspective of the titular protagonist (often read as an alter ego of Plath’s), the poem tells the story of Lady Lazarus’s numerous suicide at-tempts—and constant revivals.

“The first time it happened I was ten / It was an accident,” she says. And yet she returns from the dead to tell the tale, and she does it again, and again. Lady Lazarus describes herself as a cat: “I have nine times to die.”

She suffers a death once in a decade and has now approached the age of 30. Her repeated deaths and revivals have attracted the attention of crowds who view her tragedy as a spectacle. With allusions ranging from the Jew-ish people grotesquely abused and

skinned into lampshades in World War II to a circus where her death is the main act, Lady Lazarus dehuman-izes herself. She is nothing more than a sideshow or a creepy art exhibition created for the amusement of others.

And yet Lady Lazarus is proud of dying: “Dying / Is an art, like every-thing else / I do it exceptionally well.” We all have skills of some sort, wheth-er they are practical or unconvention-al, so why should Lady Lazarus be embarrassed of her cycle of death and revival when that’s what defines her? Sure, she’s not great at dying if she can’t stay dead, but maybe the true art lies in her repeated resurrections.

Even her name—a reference to the Biblical figure who was brought back to life by Jesus—raises up her power as comparable to Christ’s. Forget the doctor who feigns concern for her wellbeing and probes at her body in efforts to bring her back. Forget the powers of God himself. Lady Lazarus is the hero of her own story.

In the final stanza, Lady Lazarus shows off her true strength: “Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.” She is not a female Jesus—she is the phoenix who rises from the ashes of its predecessor. She is powerful in ways that those around her could never comprehend. Like the phoenix, Lady Lazarus will again die, and again rise.

ZARA RIZWAN

Soothing with stand-up

CHRISTY TAM/THE MEDIUMTCMHI partnered with Stand Up for Mental Health to host the event.

The Trinity College Mental Health Institute has a goal of reducing the stigma surrounding mental illness. As a U of T organization working towards this goal, TCMHI strives to increase awareness of mental health issues and develop a dialogue with students in a safe and trustworthy en-vironment.

In partnership with Stand Up for Mental Health, a society of perform-ers who use comedy as an outlet for their personal experiences with men-tal illness, TCMHI furthered their-cause with a stand-up comedy show last Wednesday night. The show was an opportunity to discuss mental ill-ness in a relaxed environment.

The show featured performances by Stand Up For Mental Health, where comedians bravely satirized their in-securities with the purpose of raising awareness and inspiring laughter. At the start of the show, one comedian explained that performing stand-up comedy allows them to rise above their setbacks and gain positive feed-back through laughter. The strength and positivity in each performance

was undeniably an inspiration.The evening was led by Allan

Strong, a team leader for the Self Help Alliance in Guelph, Kitchener, and Cambridge. Right away, Strong informed the audience of his bipolar II diagnosis, followed by several jokes at his own expense. He enthusiasti-cally mediated the performances with his own short stand-up routines and engaged the audience by prompting them to clap and holler at his jokes. Strong’s sharp and lively stage pres-ence was perfect to uplift the atmo-sphere of the show.

Acts discussed topics of depres-sion, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizo-phrenia, and Asperger’s syndrome. Performers varied from young to old, but each conveyed a unique per-spective on the way mental health influences their lives. One performer spoke about her experience raising children with mental illnesses. Her act offered a point of view that often goes unrecognized when discussing mental health. Throughout her come-dic routine, she shared a glimpse into her role supporting and loving her children regardless of their internal struggles.

Comedy behaves as an icebreaker

that crumbles the barriers of social stigma and opens the floor to discus-sion. With humour, topics become approachable, regardless of their seri-ousness. TCMHI’s show fulfilled their initiative to start a dialogue about mental health. The show sparked a discourse about serious topics and re-sulted in an audience that supported the performers’ struggles through shared laughter.

“By doing comedy we can open the doors to a different kind of conversa-tion,” Strong commented at the end of the show. “I want to applaud Trinity College for expanding this conversa-tion tonight.”

TCMHI hit the mark with their decision to use comedy as an outlet for raising awareness. Laughing off our insecurities helps us grow beyond them and ultimately diminishes the stigma surrounding mental illness. Comedy is a unique form of enter-tainment because it engages the audi-ence in a shared joke that makes the process of absorbing and understand-ing a topic much easier. With all the workshops and lectures targeted to raising awareness on mental illness, none are able to address the issue quite like collective laughter.

AGM celebrates diversity in multiple disciplines

HAILEY MASONASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR

Judging from the cover art alone, Headfirst by Goldfrapp looks like an adventure in cotton-candy land. I fig-ure that might be ironic. I could be dealing with a heavy metal album and not even know it.

Almost to my disappointment, Headfirst is not even remotely heavy metal. The genre, which iTunes clas-sifies as electronica, is in my opinion much more pop-oriented. Because I love these analogies, Headfirst is Pu-rity Ring meets Madonna. It’s also the most optimistic album I think I’ve ever heard. And I don’t mean that specifically regarding the lyrics. I mean that Goldfrapp sets the lis-tener up for toe-tapping right off the top and a general happy-dance-party feeling throughout.

If there’s one thing that drives me up the wall with some music, it’s when an artist does fade-outs at the end of every track. It feels like a cop-out to me. “Oh, we didn’t know how to end the song, so we just, you know, like, faded it out.” This isn’t true all the time. But generally speaking, I would rather a song had a real ending. Gold-frapp is really good at real endings. Their first song, “Rocket”, appropri-

ately ends somewhat abruptly with a whooshing rocket sound. I was sur-prised, but also intrigued. Sound ef-fects are hard to pull off.

If you’re looking for easy listening essay-writing tunes, I’ve found your album. The trade-off, though, is that all the songs do kind of blur together after a while. I’m not bored exactly, but I am listening in a bit of a cotton-candy haze. It’s sweet and wonderful, but my judgement has been affected by dyed sugar crystals.

There are, however, a couple of songs that stand out. “Dreaming” (also appropriately) paints a picture that is not entirely of this world. I find myself transported, and I’m not wor-ried about anything but the song I’m listening to.

“Hunt” sticks with me because of how creepy it is compared to the oth-er tracks. The lyrics in the chorus go: “Tell us nothing, tell us lies / Revela-tions no surprise / Tonight they hunt for you”. I like it. There is no darkness without light; you know what I mean?

My biggest complaint with Head-first is the lack of conflict. I don’t feel like there’s a story to this album—it just exists. And that’s great. Existing is great. But it’s not enough to make me listen to Headfirst nonstop for days.

MMM

KATE CATTELL-DANIELSA&E EDITOR

Paint continued from page 5

Comedy combats the stigma surrounding mental health

The walls of the small room are speck-led with several paintings and draw-ings. In the centre of the room is a collection of sculptures—some paint-ed silver, others smeared with Pleis-tocene, and one dusted with a black powdery substance—displayed on a multilevel beam structure. At a glance, the room appears sparse with artifacts. Yet when you examine the sculptures and canvases up close, you can view their intricacy on a deeper level.

Scherzinger’s idea of melding ar-tistic mediums into a single display creates a dialogue with Kinsella’s mul-tidisciplinary sculpture-painting exhi-bition in the adjacent room. Concep-tually, the two displays complement each other.

The final exhibition, Change Mak-ers, interestingly combines elements of Western and Aboriginal cultures in an attempt to re-evaluate the relationship

between the two groups. The display includes work by Shuvinai Ashoona, Wally Dion, Melissa General, Amy Malbeuf, Outi Pieski, Wendy Red Star, and Nicotye Samayualie.

The first piece you’ll encounter in this exhibition is Dion’s large, moth-erboard-looking sculpture hanging against the wall. Dion crafted this piece, “Icosahedron”, from recycled circuit boards, enamel paint, and wire. Although “Icosahedron” resembles a large circuit board from afar, the sur-face betrays an elaborate pattern when examined closely.

Dion’s modern sculpture faces the exhibition’s next piece: a life-sized Ab-original tent titled “Hideaway”. Crafted by Pieski, this rectangular tent hangs in the centre of the room. Pieski com-posed this design with colourful ma-terials such as quilts, yarn, wool, and more. If you move close, you’ll notice detailed patterning on the outer walls of the tent. One side has two holes cut from the quilt, the edges stitched and the holes filled with cotton and other material. From the mouths of each hole, tassels of thread hang against the quilted wall and extend to the floor.

Along with many other well crafted art forms in the exhibition, Change Makers nicely harmonizes the values of a modern Western culture with the natural and traditional aspects of In-digenous lifestyle.

Pushing Paint, The Zenith of My Un-derstanding is Like Water in a Thimble, and Change Makers are all on display at the AGM until April 10.

Have you ever slathered icing onto a cupcake to the point where there’s more icing than cupcake?

03.07.2016 THE MEDIUM ARTS» 7

Check your source: comedians broadcast

Does Suits City suit your capitalist taste?There’s no escaping the CEO in this close-to-home RPG—get ready for war against your boss

One of my favourite things to do is search the Steam store for games un-der $6. Some say you can’t get quality cheap, but sometimes I come across real gems for only a dollar or two. Suits: A Business RPG is one of them.

Suits: A Business RPG is a short in-die video game developed by Tech-nomancy Studios. The game takes you inside Suits City, a greyscale world where corporations reign and control the entire government. You play as “The Guy”, a regular worker who travels through the five districts (Office, Law, Financial, Food, Media) and becomes caught up in the battle between those in favour of and those against capitalism. And I mean “bat-tle” literally: you have to kill your co-workers, who have transformed into monsters from overworking.

The battle screen is like most RPGs, with the option to physi-cally fight, use a special skill, or use an item to heal yourself or a party member. There is one particular skill not often seen in other games, but it fits perfectly here: Bribe. If an enemy is too tough, or you don’t feel up to fighting, you have the option

to pay off your enemies to leave you alone. This can get pretty expensive, though. After all, sandwiches in this game cost $100 each.

There is so much strange humour in this game that I can’t figure out if it’s meant to be funny or not—but that’s the point. From hearing your coworker tell you they can’t see their

family anymore because they have to live at their job to the courthouse having a designated room to play basketball in, you are meant to real-ize with every minute of gameplay that these corporations do not care about anything—besides themselves.

You even fight King Ramsey in the kitchen and Bustin Jiebers in the

media district. Everything is inter-twined in Suits City, from the tele-marketers we hate to the pop culture we eat up. They all serve as one cog to keep the world functioning under the CEO.

Even the graphics serve as sym-bolism. The game maintains a simple pixelated style, yet you’re the only

worker who has a face. Everything around you, from the land to the people you speak with, are all in black, white, or grey. But so are you.

And towards the end of the game, that’s what is made most prominent: you, the protagonist, are just one person who has conformed to the system his whole life. Can one per-son really lead an uprising? Can the corporations be overthrown? Will you just defeat the CEO and take his place to control society? Or will you find the developers inside the game, kill them, and stop the game from ever being finished? You’ll have to play to find out.

My primary concern about the game was that it was too short, and the screenshot feature wasn’t work-ing. There were a few bugs here and there, but nothing that would stop the game from running.

All in all, whether you’re pro- or anti-capitalism, Suits: A Business RPG is a quirky game that’ll have you snickering at the bad jokes and missing some sleep to get to the next district. Just like the workers them-selves.

ZARA RIZWAN

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The Daily Show. The Colbert Report. The Nightly Show.

Aside from all of these being late-night shows that specialise in po-litical comedy, what do they have in common?

Well, for one thing, these shows seem to report news better than news channels themselves.

Before you dismiss my statement as an over-inflated opinion, let’s take a look at the statistics and the research, shall we? Interestingly, a 2008 study called “Political comedy shows and knowledge about pri-mary campaigns: the moderating ef-fects of age and education” says that during the 2004 U.S. election pe-riod, exposure to late-night political comedy, especially among younger and educated viewers, resulted in significant knowledge gain about candidates and issues.

In fact, let’s go a step further: according to a 2013 study (“What about those interviews? The Impact of Exposure to Political Comedy and Cable News on Factual Recall and Anticipated Political Expression”), individuals who watch political comedy are more likely to remem-ber political information rather than those watching a similar interview on a traditional news channel.

Why though? Why is it that, at least on the surface, comedians seem to be doing a better job than shows dedicated to delivering news?

In a previous interview on Red-dit, Larry Wilmore, the host of

The Nightly Show, believes that the younger generation is turning to comedy programs instead of the news because “a lot of it has to do with authenticity. I think sometimes they feel like they don’t know if they can trust the actual news anymore”.

This may be fuelled by the way that news networks are not always seen as providing fair and balanced news coverage. For example, FOX is known for its anti-Muslim inflam-matory rhetoric, while MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosts were recently caught on tape agreeing to Donald Trump’s request to “take it easy on him” with questions and to avoid discussing deportation. It’s events such as these that cause viewers to question the objectivity of news

channels.On the other hand, comedians

have greater freedom, as they are not bound to the limitations of a news channel. They are free to make light of every political event and decision. For example, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver has “full creative freedom” and has criticised countless corporations in the past, such as FIFA.

Political comedy shows aren’t lim-ited to just poking fun at politicians. As expected of any self-respecting news channel, they also carry out investigative journalism. Let’s take Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as an example. There are several great investigative segments, but I’ll settle with the televangelists seg-

ment, which aired on August 16, 2015.

Oliver’s show created a legiti-mate church, titled “Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption”, asking view-ers for “seed” (i.e. monetary dona-tions) simply to demonstrate how easy it was to set up a religious or-ganization in the U.S., and then be entitled to broad tax exemptions and little to no scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service. These actions mimicked those of pastors that prey on their vulnerable fol-lowers, asking for donations as a form of “seed faith”. While followers may believe that they are following their scripture, some organizations exploit these beliefs, promising un-told riches, magical cures, and even

removing credit card debt, when in reality, this is an extra source of rev-enue for themselves.

Following unsavoury donations (such as semen), Oliver chose to close down the church. While all of the proceeds (described by Oli-ver as “thousands of envelopes with thousands of dollars”) went to Doc-tors Without Borders, it goes to show that there are several unregu-lated and rarely audited predatory churches that prey on the vulnerable masses for their own monetary gain.

Was this just one lucky segment by one show? No, there are several more examples. The Colbert Report launched a political action commit-tee titled “Americans for a Better To-morrow, Tomorrow” that raised over $1 million, releasing ad campaigns in the U.S. (including a very anti–Mitt Romney ad) and even funded Colbert’s plan (legally) to run for “President of the United States of South Carolina”. The purpose of the segment was to demonstrate the fact that corporations have the right to spend unlimited amounts in politi-cal ads to support or slander candi-dates running in elections—and boy, did they demonstrate that clearly.

Now, I’m not saying that news channels are utterly worthless. I still turn to BBC and Al Jazeera when I need to hear the latest on an unfold-ing event—I won’t be waiting for a comedian to water it down.

But at the same time, just to make sure that I’m getting the entire pic-ture, I’ll also be taking my news with a strong dose of comedy, thank you very much.

FARAH QAISERFEATURES EDITOR

SARAH YASSINE/THEMEDIUMSuits is as much about social commentary as gameplay.

When comedians offer rich performances in news as well as jokes, who do viewers turn to?

POP-BREAK.COM/PHOTOWhat sources do you trust?

8 « 03.07.2016

Conference: Black History Month styleThe tri-campus Black History Month Conference featured keynote speakers and workshops

On February 27, the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union hosted the Resilience and Resistance Black History Month Conference at Sid-ney Smith Hall downtown. The conference featured workshops on self-care, privatization of punish-ment, and present-day blacktiv-ism. Closing remarks and keynote speeches were given by Nompen-dulo Mkhatshwa and Yusra Khogali Ali.

A similar Black History Month conference was organized by the SCSU in 2014, on the Scarborough campus.

“Rather than solely organizing Black History Month initiatives with Black Student Associations at the Scarborough campus, we reached out to black student orga-nizers and organizations across all three campuses to create this space collectively,” says Jessica Kirk, VP equity at SCSU.

The conference aimed to provide a space so that members of the com-munity could engage in important

conversations about topics such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and power and highlight the resources that exist to support the black com-munity. Through workshops and discussions, Kirk hopes that the con-ference will provide attendees with

the necessary tools and resources to be able to take these conversations back to their communities.

The Medium rounded up the highlights of workshops at the con-ference.

SELF-CAREKayla Carter, a U of T graduate, held a workshop that provided a space of healing for those who identify as black. She discussed the ways in which internalized anti-blackness manifests within individuals’ lives

and how they can address that.Carter posed the question that

if you wouldn’t allow someone to come up to you on the street and say the negative things you say to your-self, then why do you allow your-self to? With this question, Carter emphasized the lack of respect that we sometimes have for ourselves. Carter mentioned examples such as not eating all day due to work or not giving oneself a break from work.

When one student commented on her nonstop studying (even over the summer) and her plans to take a semester off, Carter stressed the im-portance of taking a break. She said that the people who overwork will eventually find themselves burned out, and that we need breaks from work, studies, and relationships to rejuvenate—we owe that to our-selves.

Carter also touched on the ways to unify the various communities that are of the African diaspora, and how they can work to support one another.

History continued on page 10

OSM.UTORONTO.CA/PHOTOThe Resilience and Resistance Black History Conference was hosted at Sidney Smith Hall.

Counting down the final days of print?Print or online? Dilemma continues at several campus newspapers, with some making changes

Within Canada’s Digital Divides (a Poynter Institute report written by Ken Goldstein) lies an ominous statement: “In 2025, it is likely that there will be few, if any, printed daily newspapers in Canada.”

The report also says, “A small number of traditional media might be able to make the transition to becoming national or international online news ‘brands’. ”

But just like Goldstein, we are left wondering: what will happen to local journalism? More specifically, what will happen to print journal-ism?

“The state of print media is prob-ably on every editor’s mind at this point in history,” says Ross Vernon Dias, editor-in-chief at The Under-ground, the student-run monthly magazine at UTSC.

The topic was also raised at The Medium’s journalism panel last week, entitled “The Medium Talks”. Karlene Nation, a media specialist at OneNation Media Group who was a panelist at the event, says, “The news and journalism indus-try is changing—it’s shrinking somewhat.” Nation explained that a large part of it is due to the decline

in advertising and the increasing number of news organizations.

Similarly, H. G. Watson, also present at the panel, illustrated the breadth of these news sources by referring to a study on media concentration in Canada, say-ing, “Facebook, right now, is the fourth largest media company in Canada.” She explained this phe-nomenon, saying, “Humans like

to hear stories—what is Facebook if not people sharing stories with each other?”

While describing traditional forms of media such as newspa-pers and television, Watson says, “I don’t want to say that they will be obsolete, but we have new forms of media that are moving in that have very little competition.” An exam-ple mentioned by Watson was that

Google is now hiring more editors and reporters.

Similarly, many writers ques-tion how far arguments about “the good old days”, or the “permanence in print”, can keep the tide of con-stantly-updated digital media at bay.

“Employers are looking to reach an audience, and you get that through the Internet,” says Jasmine

Anthony. She was the managing editor of The Sheridan Sun at the time of its last print publication, before transitioning to an online-only format.

“We did already have an online publication, so we were well pre-pared for the transition,” says An-thony, who is in her last year of the print journalism program at Sheri-dan.

She mentions that this is the last year the program will run, after which it will be merged with the broadcast journalism program, which contributes largely to why the faculty decided to concentrate the curriculum on online-only content.

“The Sheridan Sun is like our baby,” says Anthony, and while she describes the move to online-only as bittersweet, she says, “We all agree with the decision and under-stand the reasons for it.”

The Sheridan Sun is run by stu-dents from the print journalism program and Anthony mentions how almost all their stories have been student oriented. The paper has been around since 1971 and has featured stories from Missis-sauga, Oakville, and Toronto.

MAHNOOR AYUBASSOCIATE FEATURES EDITOR

JEANLOUIS REBELLO/THE MEDIUMFollowing a last issue in December 2015, The Sheridan Sun transitioned to an online-only format.

ZAHRA SINA

Print continued on page 10

03.07.2016 THE MEDIUM FEATURES» 9

Casting votes: a history of electionsThe Medium rewinds and takes a look at the history of UTMSU executive elections

It’s that time of the year again: elec-tions. Practically every UTM club, society, and committee (including The Medium) is electing students to fill roles for the next academic year. Last week, campaigning for the UTMSU executive positions began, and what may have surprised many students is the number of slates and individuals running for the roles.

In the past, this has not been the case.

In 2014, UTM Inspire ran as the sole slate under Hassan Havili (then VP part-time affairs), for the UTM-SU executive team. There were three students who ran independently: Farishta Amanullah for VP equity, Amir Moazzami for VP part-time af-fairs, and Erik Hernandez-Oberding for VP internal and services. UTM Inspire won, and so did Moazzami, as no one else was running for the VP part-time affairs position.

In 2013, UTM Connect, headed by then VP internal and services Raymond Noronha, ran for all the available UTMSU executive posi-tions. There were no independent

candidates or opposing slates. The winners? Unsurprisingly, it was UTM Connect.

In 2012, UTM Engage, a slate headed by Chris Thompson, then VP campus life, ran as the sole slate. The opposition consisted solely of Thomas Kristan, a returning inde-pendent candidate from 2011, who was running for VP equity. With ap-proximately 17 percent of the UTM student population casting ballots for the election, UTM Engage won all of the available positions.

In 2011, the elections consisted of UTM Students First, headed by Gil-bert Cassar, then VP internal, versus independent candidate Kristan, run-ning for VP university affairs. UTM Students First won the elections.

Two years earlier, in 2009, the UTM Movement slate ran, headed by then VP internal Joey Santiago, and won. There had been an in-dependent candidate running for the VP equity position, who later dropped out. Spoiler alert: the UTM Movement slate won.

Do you notice the trend or must I go on?

Generally, slates have been run-ning unopposed for the UTMSU executive positions. Another ob-

servable trend is that these slates tend to include incumbent UTMSU members, i.e. individuals who are currently holding a position in the union. There have been a few scat-tered independent candidates now and then, and, even rarer, they may win the position they are running for—but they remain the minority.

Excluding 2010 and 2015.In 2010, there were two slates: the

Yellow team (also known as Students United), headed by Vickita Bhatt, and the Blue team (also called UTM Renew), headed by Henry Ssali. Fol-lowing an election rife with contro-versies, the Yellow team won. There was a 30 percent voter turnout.

In 2015, two slates ran: UTM Rise, led by then VP external Ebi Agbeyegbe, and UTM Reform, led by then Division 3 director Maaham Malik. With a 25 percent voter turn-out, UTM Rise won every position on the UTMSU executive.

While UTM Rise won the elec-tions, Maaham Malik, who was run-ning for UTMSU president in the UTM Reform slate, does not regret her loss. In fact, one of her campaign slogans had been to “break the ‘wall that exists between the students and the student union’ ”, and she believes

that she achieved just that.“Last year—I guess our team

name gives it away—was about re-form,” says Malik, a fifth-year biolo-gy and psychology student. “I guess the main point of our platform was to reach out to students and to let them know that there is not only one team that will run every year—you should have a choice and there should be more than one name on that ballot.

Looking at the number of candi-dates running this year, Malik says, “Even though we had a loss in the sense that we did not win the actual seats, considering that there are four full slates running in this election, I consider it a win, not only for us, but for any student on this campus who does not feel like they’re being rep-resented properly.”

As for the trend that it is generally incumbents who tend to run unop-posed, fourth-year accounting spe-cialist Muhammad Talha Mahmood says, “People used to be surprised that no one else was interested in running—but that’s not true. It’s just the fact that even if someone wants to run, they’re discouraged from running. That happened to me and [Malik] when we started running

[last year].”Mahmood had run for VP inter-

nal as a part of the UTM Reform slate last year.

This form of discouragement and other controversies seem to be a fea-ture in several past UTMSU execu-tive elections.

For example, back in 2010, where two slates were running (the Yellow and Blue teams), there were several controversies, a key one being the gross reduction of demerit points.

If a candidate violates the Elec-tions and Procedural Code, they will be issued demerit points. According to the electoral code, violations in-clude infractions such as unsolicited campaigning, displaying campaign materials in unauthorized areas and “unsanctioned use of union resourc-es”. This year, if a candidate receives 40 demerit points, they will be dis-qualified.

However, demerit points can be altered by the following three indi-viduals/committees: the Chief Re-turning Officer, the Elections and Referenda Committee, and the Elec-tions and Referenda Appeals Com-mittee.

FARAH QAISERFEATURES EDITOR

Election continued on page 10

10 «FEATURES THE MEDIUM 03.07.2016

It’s official: I may have uncovered the

perfect recipe for us lazy and slightly cu-

linarily challenged individuals. The recipe

is simple, student-friendly, and could even

be considered fancy—and no, I’m not

talking about nachos or baked potatoes.

This week’s Blackboard Special has been

contributed by Stephanie Vega, a student

development officer at the Office of Stu-

dent Transition, who has offered a recipe

passed down from her mother: a “no-bake”

cheesecake.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “But

Farah, how on earth will this cheesecake

rival those found in the Cheesecake Fac-

tory?” Well, dear reader, it certainly will not

be a Cheesecake Factory masterpiece. But

have no fear, as Vega herself describes the

recipe as a “short and simple food formula

[that] is a fantastic solution for a speedy,

delectable treat”.

Speedy and simple? This recipe already

sounds like something that I want to try—

and can achieve.

“No-Bake” Cheesecake

INGREDIENTS

• 480 g package of medium-sized honey

graham squares

• 500 ml package of Nutriwhip Dessert

Topping

• 450 g of regular cream cheese (in bar or

container form)

• 595 g can of cherry pie filling (or alterna-

tive fruit filling)

METHOD

1. Combine Nutriwhip Dessert Topping

and cream cheese in a large bowl. Blend

until smooth.

2. Lay one layer of honey graham squares

along the bottom of a 9” x 13” rectangu-

lar pan, covering the entire surface area.

3. Spread ½ of the blended Nutriwhip

Dessert Topping and cream cheese

mixture on top of the layer of honey

graham squares, covering the entire

surface area.

4. Lay another layer of honey graham

squares on top of the blended mixture,

covering the entire surface area.

5. Repeat step 3 with the remaining ½ of

the blended mixture.

6. Spread the cherry pie filling evenly on

top of the blended mixture.

7. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for

at least 1 hour.

8. Serve. Refrigerate remaining portions

of cheesecake—if there are any left.

SERVES 10–12

Shifting to online

Anthony describes how student in-volvement in the paper was further encouraged by including their pic-tures and comments and maintain-ing live blogs. However, she men-tions how the online version has always received several hits, and “the money being paid, instead of going to a print publication, can now be directed to something more useful”.

The significantly shorter delay be-tween an incident occurring and an online update appearing, as Antho-ny describes, is another factor when considering the divide between on-line and print. “I’ve always loved the paper in my hand, but I do believe I check my phone more,” she says.

Although Anthony feels that print will never truly die, she mentions how the shift towards digital media is rapid, and for students in the print journalism program to be competi-tive candidates in the job market, these skills are essential to develop.

The Underground also shifted to a monthly publication from a bi-weekly one, albeit for different rea-sons.

“The recent format change was a little selfish; we knew we needed more space to be as creative as we possibly could. We felt a little inhib-ited by the 24-page bi-weekly issue both temporally and spatially,” says Dias. He mentions how the paper has evolved towards the monthly format over the years since its incep-tion in 1982.

Dias also describes how each arti-cle has increased from 600 words to 800–1,000 words, “which is a signifi-cant increase in what the writers are able to say within the articles”.

The print edition, however, is not the only thing changing at The Underground. Dias mentions that earlier, the entire magazine used to be posted to the website as it was. The website transition began this

year with an online editor to curate website-specific content and a better social media presence.

“Digital lets us be up-to-date, fast, and brief. Print lets us be expressive, dynamic, and distinctive. Why not use both to a publication’s advan-tage?” says Dias.

The new Underground website has introduced podcasts, videos, and a newsletter. Dias mentions how next year, The Underground will intro-duce a website editor-in-chief and a creative team to really push for digi-tal content.

“Since we are a student publica-tion, advertising really isn’t of much concern,” says Dias, also noting how a social media presence, while not only generating direct revenue, builds a connection with the reader.

In terms of financing, Dias men-tions that The Underground is doing well by a student-paid levy, but their main problem remains pushing for increased space. Dias explains that the office is small for their team of 15 and restricts their creative growth. “These goals [for increased space] cannot be met on our current bud-get, so The Underground is planning for an increased levy in the 2017/18 academic year,” he says.

Investments toward online con-tent development may be made for a variety of reasons, but writers seem to agree upon the dwindling, but permanent, presence of print media.

“[Print media] definitely will al-ways have an audience,” says Dias.

While both mediums offer differ-ent experiences, Dias mentions that the entire digital publication indus-try is built on the format of print, which, as much as they try, can’t be shaken off.

Dias suggests the possibility of a reduction in issues printed, or a re-calibration of audiences, but, as he summarizes, “Print won’t die—it’s impossible.”

Print continued from page 8

In 2010, disqualification was upon receipt of 35 demerit points. Bhatt, who was running for the UTMSU president position, had 62 demerit points, while her counterpart, Ssali, the UTM Renew presidential candi-date, had 36 demerit points.

Following an appeal, Bhatt’s de-merit points were reduced to 30 de-merit points, while Ssali was reduced to 26 demerit points. Aside from the convenient demerit point reduction, what remains controversial is that a member of the Appeals Committee, Hiba Amin, had been openly sup-porting Bhatt’s slate (Students Unit-ed).

Similarly, conflicts of interest can be observed in last year’s elections.

By the third day of campaign-ing during the 2015 elections, both teams had been disqualified by ac-cumulating too many demerit points.

“Hassan Havilli was president that year—and he ended up being the campaign manager [for UTM Rise]. How is that unbiased? And not only that, but three other executives left their positions—took a leave—and supported their entire campaign. Three executives—that’s a lot of con-nections that you build throughout the year. As an executive, you liter-ally know the students who are go-ing out to vote because you’re talking to them throughout the year,” says

Mahmood. “I feel like the game that seems to

be played by the incumbent—or the team that runs that is often support-ed by the slate in office—is the tactic to not actually democratically run against the opponent, but to elimi-nate them, so that they don’t have an opponent,” says Malik.

“That’s not the way an election should run—if you want to earn a seat, you should win the seat by ap-pealing to a voter, not eliminating your competition and ensuring that you will win by default,” says Malik.

“I thought that I would see this kind of stuff happening in elections outside university—not university elections to be this intense and have this many problems,” says Mahmood.

Malik also pointed out that cam-paigning was occasionally being done by members of other universi-ties, such as York and Ryerson.

However, following last year’s elec-tions, Malik raised issues in the last UTMSU board meeting (such as current executives campaigning for a slate, and that campaigning was done by non-UTM individuals too), resulting in a few changes in the elec-toral procedure this year.

According to an update last Wednesday by the Elections and Referenda Committee, any volun-teers who are campaigning for slates must be UTM students. Non-UTM students are allowed to play support-

ing roles. However, the same ruling states that independent candidates are allowed to have a maximum of five non-UTM students act as cam-paigners, in order to provide “fair ground to independent candidates and slate candidates”.

Additionally, a notice on the Wall of Transparency (in the Davis Build-ing) states that current UTMSU ex-ecutive members are not allowed to “play an active role within the Spring Elections and [must] have no part in the elections process”.

So it’s clear that there have been changes—changes in both the elec-toral code and the number of people running this year.

For the 2016 elections, there are a total of four slates and three indepen-dent candidates running.

Mahmood’s advice for the slates running this year is, “They shouldn’t be discouraged by anything that the opposing slate does […] I would sug-gest just staying strong.”

Malik advises slates to “not get caught up in the dirty politics”.

“Elections are not about friend-ship—they’re about what you believe in, what you can bring to the table, and what your platform is […] They are hiring you for a job—you are be-ing paid for a position. So this is not a popularity contest. It is about appeal-ing to the students and letting them know what you bring to the table,” says Malik.

Demerits and conflicts of interestElection continued from page 9

PRIVATIZATION OF PUNISHMENTRunako Gregg, a legal advisor from the African Canadian Legal Clinic, talked about the prison industrial complex, structural violence on low income black communities, corporate exploitation of prisons, and carding in his workshop.

He began his talk with a video ex-ploring the prison system in the U.S.

Gregg said that America has five percent of the world’s population, but houses 25 percent of the world’s pris-oners.

Referring to criticalresistance.org, Gregg explained that the prison industrial complex is a term used to describe “the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprison-ment as solutions to economic, social, and political problems”. He then men-tioned that there are private prisons in the U.S. that are owned by corpo-rations, and that there is an incentive to keep these prisons full of prisoners, since it would cost them to have an empty bed.

Several of the workshop attendees argued that when prisoners are finally released, they still don’t have a way to integrate into society, as a charge and even an arrest will remain on their permanent record forever, making prisons a part of the bigger problem.

Attendees also discussed how black people lack access to resources and face issues in employment, housing, and education. “Education tends to be that conduit to social mobility, but if you’re receiving poor education in a poor community, you won’t be able to climb up the socioeconomic ladder,” said Gregg.

As a result, Gregg said that there is a cyclic occurrence of crime in these communities, which lack resources—especially among youth.

As an example of how bad the situation can get for children, Gregg mentioned a phone call that he once received from a mother seeking help because her three-year-old was ex-pelled from school. Gregg’s anecdote was meant to demonstrate that even the education system does not know how to effectively deal with these is-sues and during the process of ad-dressing them, the system can actu-ally create more problems.

Gregg also commented on how the media pushes images and ideas of criminality among the black com-munity and create fear. There is a recurring stereotype in media that represents people of colour to have a direct association with “blackness” and criminality. According to Gregg, people of African descent who see the media’s portrayal of black people think that this is the way they should act, this is their role in society, and makes it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Near the end of the discussion, Gregg talked about carding. Carding, in brief, he said, is when a police of-ficer stops someone and takes a pro-file, even when the person has done nothing wrong. Through the efforts of individuals exposing the injustices involved in the practice, the practice is slowly dwindling.

BLACKTIVISMAlexandra Williams, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Toronto, hosted a workshop on Afrofuturism, where she traced various black move-ments of activism and resistance from the motherland to the slave ship and

in Western society.According to Williams, BLMTO

“connects to all parts of the commu-nity who live within various margins and works to tap into the creation of sociopolitical revolutionary actions, without causing discomfort and se-clusion”.

Today, there are multiple organiza-tions fighting for black people. Wil-liams stressed that it is important to understand that we are standing on the shoulders of people who already did this work in the past. The protests and movements in the present day are different from movements in the past as today we have social media to con-nect us.

Williams discussed Afrofuturism and said that at the base of Afrofu-turism is resistance and revolution. “Political action is performative,” she said. “This form of action is not only meant to catch the eye of the inatten-tive state (police officers, politicians, government, etc.), but also to com-municate among ourselves.”

Forms of action that the BLMTO engages in include spray painting “I can’t breathe” in Dundas Square; chalking stories at Nathan Philip Square; reciting slogans, hymns, songs, and poetry; making banners and posters; and dancing, to name a few. The death of Andrew Loku, a Su-danese refugee who was killed by To-ronto Police, is one issue that BLMTO brought light to by protesting on the streets.

The black history month confer-ence partners included UTMSU, U of T Black Students’ Association, the Racialized Students’ Collective, the UTSC African Students’ Association, and the Association of Part-Time Un-dergraduate Students.

History continued from page 8

Conference was first of its kind

03.07.2016 » 11

#SIC2016 breaks the Twitter-sphereOver 350 undergraduate students from across North America attended the prestigious event

At the fifth annual Sports Industry Conference, held last Friday at U of T Rotman School of Management, students and speakers tweeted out #SIC2016, and, over the course of the 10-hour event, the hashtag went viral, becoming the most trending topic in Canada.

The conference gave over 350 undergraduate students from all across North America the opportu-nity to listen and network with the most renowned sports leaders from prestigious sports organizations such as the NBA, NHL, MLSE, Toronto Raptors, TSN, Sportsnet, Wasserman Media Group, Right to Play, and You Can Play. Through-out the event, students were en-couraged to take photos in their formal business attire and sports leaders and speakers who were present tweeted about the event. Their names generated a lot of at-tention throughout the Twitter-

sphere.The theme for SIC2016 was “Be-

hind the Game: Building the Play-book”. The event consisted of four panels: groups of speakers who tackle certain topics and aspects of sports such as analytics, partner-

ships, mentorship, and high per-formance athletes. Panel discus-sions lasted for approximately 50 minutes with 15-minute breaks in between for students to network with their favourite speaker. The conversations and teaching points

were engaging and brought out the enthusiasm and sharp-minded questions from a young knowl-edge-hungry crowd.

The first panel, Mentorship and Development, included Trevor Georgie (president of the Saint

John Sea Dogs of the CHL); Rachel Bonnetta (on-air host at MLS); and Tyler Currie (director of internal affairs at NHLPA). The panelists discussed their humble beginnings and where they are now. They all agreed that extensive networking and a little bit of luck could take you a long way during the trials and tribulations of a sports enthu-siast seeking a career in his or her desired field.

The second panel, Community and Partnerships, saw Morgan Campbell (sports reporter at The Toronto Star); Jillian Svensson (VP of You Can Play); Preben Ganzhorn (VP brands at Wasserman Media Group); and Stephen Brooks (busi-ness operations for the Toronto Blue Jays) tackle issues such as how to make it into a world dominated by gender and ethnic preference and how to use the community, market, and leverage partners into creating a top-tier product.

Squashing it at UTMUTM’s squash club grows in numbers, finding success

ONGELLE-LISE BURNETT/THE MEDIUMThe Squash Club poses for a photo in one of UTM’s squash courts.

Often when one hears of a squash club, the most frequent questions asked are, “Do you sit around and eat squash?” or, “Do you meet and swap recipes on how to cook dif-ferent types of squash?” Although these are interesting suggestions for a postgame snack—butternut squash soup with a grilled cheese sandwich—I jump at the opportu-nity and secretly take great pride in the invitation to give my research-based presentation on squash, the game that stole my heart.

Normally, I explain squash as be-ing tennis in a room, a fast-paced

sport that gives an adrenaline rush like no other. As presented by Squash Canada, squash is a rac-quet sport played in an enclosed room that challenges two players (or, in the case of doubles, four players) mentally and physically in strength, strategy, skill, and endur-ance. The objective is that players take turns hitting a ball against the front wall, allowing that ball to bounce once on the floor within the restricted area of play—above the tin and below the outermost lines, where the ball may strike the side or back walls at any time.

In keeping with the principles of squash, the UTM and UTSG squash clubs fully embrace pro-

moting a space for interested U of T staff, faculty, and students to learn and compete in squash. Both clubs’ purpose is to provide an al-ternative environment for people who are looking for more comfort-able and casual approaches to play-ing squash.During St. George’s Clubs’ Week this past fall, I had the privilege of meeting Hinny Lam (presi-dent) and Aadil Randeree (VP) of UTSG’s Squash Club. Soon, emails began back and forth between Lam and me as we worked with our teams to arrange a collaboration tournament by the end of the term.

Getting to know dietary differences

These days, it seems like there’s a new diet every time you open the fridge. And choosing one that fits your life-style, body type, dietary restrictions, fit-ness goals, religion, culture, and ethical considerations can leave you scratching your head in confusion.

Well, scratch away, because if choos-ing one wasn’t hard enough, adhering to specific diets themselves can be even more confusing. If you’ve heard of the “calorie confusion” diet, then I need not say more.

But amidst the claims of longevity, weight loss, boosts in energy, metabo-lism, and other health benefits, some di-ets aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be, while others deserve a little more attention.

VEGETARIANISMPopeye might have been on to some-thing when he said, “Strong to the finish when you eat your spinach.” Although downing a tin of spinach most likely won’t make you suddenly sprout bulg-ing biceps, it has been proven to im-prove your cardiovascular health.

In fact, vegetarians, who avoid eat-ing meat and fish, also generally have a lower risk of developing high blood pressure, several forms of cancer, diabe-tes, and obesity because these diets are usually lower in fat and higher in fibre.

These diets provide adequate overall nutrient intake for endurance activities such as track and field and competi-tive swimming. Recognized as one of the best triathletes in the world, David Scott, an avid vegetarian for many years, has attributed his endurance, speed, and strength to his high-fibre vegetarian diet.Noel Miller is an exercise special-ist and has been vegetarian for over 10 years. He’s been working in the fitness industry for about that long as well. He has an in-depth sports background and continues to enjoy a healthy active lifestyle. He collabo-rates with multiple health practitio-ners and approaches fitness from a holistic perspective.

Miller claims that the biggest ben-efit of becoming a vegetarian is that you can slow down and pay attention to what you’re putting in your body. When you eat, you start to realize the impact of the choice of foods you eat, which begins to have a direct re-lationship with how you feel. Instead of eating something and feeling, “Oh man, I shouldn’t have eaten that, but it tastes good,” it turns into, “I shouldn’t have eaten that; it’s not worth it.” When it comes to training, the biggest change with vegetarianism is that you will increase your lean muscle mass and reduce your body fat percentage.

ERIC HEWITSONSPORTS EDITOR

ERIC HEWITSON/THE MEDIUMMany renowned sports leaders attended the event to motivate students to succeed.

SIC2016 continued on page 12

ONGELLE-LISE BURNETT

AMANDA BORTHWICKSTAFF WRITER

Diet continued on page 12Squash continued on page 12

12 «SPORTS THE MEDIUM 03.07.2016

The third panel, Data and Analytics, consisted of Meghan Chayka (co-founder of Stathletes); Dean Oliver (VP data science at True Media Net-works); Sean Lahman (data projects manager at SABR); and Jason Rosen-feld (director of basketball analytics for the NBA). These high-quality data experts all have one thing in common, which is staying ahead of the curve. It’s these individuals’ responsibility to provide analysis and data to players and teams, giv-ing them the highest percentages to maintain a high level of success in their field.

The fourth panel included high

profile names like Tim Bezbatchen-ko (GM of Toronto FC) and Johann Olav Koss (Olympic silver medal-ist and founder of Right to Play). Bezbatchenko dealt with the major-ity of the questions from the crowd, discussing problems that arise while working as a general manager of a major Toronto sports franchise.

There were a handful of keynote speakers, who were the highlights of the event. Jack Armstrong, Toronto Raptors broadcaster, opened up his monologue with his famous “Hello!” regularly heard after a big play in a Raptors game. Michele O’Keefe, president and CEO of Canada Bas-ketball, had an interesting view on how to handle the future of Canadi-

an basketball. She claimed that if she had her way, like Argentina and Italy do, Canadians would have a license to play basketball. Bryan Colangelo, former GM of the Toronto Raptors, and Bill Daly, deputy commissioner of the NHL, were favourites among the student delegates.

Students had plenty of refresh-ments and food to keep them go-ing throughout the day. There were fridges’ worth of Red Bull refresh-ments and lunch was something bet-ter than you’d expect even at a four-star wedding reception. For the $40 that the event costs, it is surely worth your while. Next year, take advan-tage of what SIC2017 has to offer.

SIC2016 continued from page 11

Dressed to the ninesat Rotman College

Causing a “racquet” atUTM squash courts

Last fall, the UTM and UTSG squash players met for the first time to play in a friendly intercam-pus tournament. Players of various skill levels came together to rep-resent their campus and compete. The night ended with the tourna-ment hosting some 20 players, re-sulting in Alicia Jarosz of UTSG winning the women’s category, Ashfaq Butt of UTM winning the men’s category, and each receiving a Sport Chek gift card.

“The number of times I’ve been told that people were thankful for the event was incredibly impres-sive,” said Lam.

With the positive feedback and the number of requests for another

tournament, both clubs’ executives went back to the drawing board to have a second intercampus tourna-ment.

On February 26, UTM Squash Club members travelled downtown once again to meet UTSG Squash Club members to have a fun-filled night of squash while competing. This time, the tournament ran

much more smoothly, with more players and concluding with new friendships. Returning champion Jarosz won in the women’s category again, while new victor Sultan Akif of UTM won in the men’s category.

“Next year, I would like to have more women come out to the Squash Club and participate in this tournament [and other competitive activities],” said Samira Salim, VP of the UTM Squash Club.

This is one wish of both leaving presidents and organizers of the intercampus tournament—to have more players, especially women, come out to learn and compete in squash.

Disclosure: The author of this ar-ticle is president of the UTM Squash Club.

Squash continued from page 11

You will start to feel when your body does not have enough protein or carbs. It makes you conscious of how food affects your body. You will most likely increase the diversity of foods you eat from different cultures. These days, the variety of options for veg-etarians are pretty equal to the meat options.

“Vegetarians enjoy a healthier lifestyle and get sick less often,” says Miller. “It is easier to maintain your weight and you find that you have more energy. This is especially ben-eficial when playing in sports or other physical activities. Your chance of illness and disease are drastically reduced. You may also feel your body has a hard time switching back to meat once you begin a vegetarian lifestyle.”

As for restrictions, they are mostly social. You may need to bring food when visiting friends or relatives or know that your options may be limit-ed when eating out. If you don’t cook already, it’s an awesome time to learn.

VEGANISMA stricter diet than vegetarianism, this plant-based diet excludes meat and all food produced by animals, including eggs, fish, dairy products, and honey.

Not too long ago, the word “vegan” may have prompted images of ane-mic-looking, animal rights activist, sandal-wearing hippies. But today you can replace those images with ones of David Carter, Serena Wil-liams, and Carl Lewis, because as this diet gains popularity, more athletes are turning to it to build strength and boost energy.

Contrary to popular belief, vegans don’t have to sacrifice on their pro-tein intake, because protein is in all types of food, just generally in lower quantities than in meat. There are a variety of options in a vegan diet, such as rice, beans, quinoa, hemp, and tofu, that will suffice for protein intake.

Look at former heavyweight

champion Mike Tyson, who after los-ing over 100 pounds credits his vegan diet with not only helping to lower his blood pressure, but also eliminat-ing his arthritis and joint pain.

GLUTEN-FREEGluten is a protein found in all forms of wheat. As an athlete, your diet relies on an adequate intake of car-bohydrates, which is usually derived from the gluten in grains.

However, many people have celiac disease, a type of gluten intolerance where these vital nutrients are mal-absorbed in the small intestine. So while some athletes follow gluten-free diets to ease unpleasant digestive symptoms during competitions, oth-ers do so because they may experi-ence symptoms of celiac disease.

Celebrity athletes like Saints quar-terback Drew Brees and top tennis player Novak Djokovic have advo-cated for the benefits of a gluten-free diet, claiming that it has improved digestion and sleep patterns and re-duced the occurrence of illnesses.

PALEOHave you ever seen an obese cave-man? The answer to that question is the premise underlying this pre-history-based diet. Based on eating food in its most basic form to rep-licate what and how we ate during the hunter-gatherer days of the Pa-leolithic Era, the paleo diet requires you to give up dairy, processed foods, refined sugars, alcohol, and fun.

Essentially, if it was available thou-sands of years ago, it is a part of this meal plan, which includes fish, meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and oils in moderation. The good news is that this diet is rich in low-fat proteins and healthy fats and nutrients and is going to control your blood sugar levels, which moderate food cravings and fatigue and decrease the likeli-hood of diabetes.

The bad news is that because mod-ern grains weren’t available yet, the paleo diet lacks carbohydrates and restricts intake of wheat, rice, and corn.

Diet continued from page 11

Get healthy orgo home

“Next year, I would like to have more women

come out to the Squash Club and participate in

this tournament.”- Samira Salim