Unsafe working conditions, invalidation, and heavy workload cited for Zara Rizwan’s resignation

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUMZara Rizwan resigned as OUT@UTM’s executive director on November 24.

OUT@UTM executive director resigns

OLIVIA ADAMCZYK/THE MEDIUMThe panel discussion was hosted last Wednesday.

NICOLE DANESINEWS EDITOR

After Paris attacks, “Where do we go?”Students and faculty gather to discuss the Paris attacks and Canada’s responseAMANDA BORTHWICK

Following the terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month, the Political Science and Pre-law Association col-laborated with the political science department to ask, “Where do we go from here?”

The panel, held last Wednesday, discussed the acts of terrorism and their effects on Canada.

Political science professor Spyri-don Kotsovilis provided a brief over-view of the Syrian conflict, the vari-ous actors involved, and the complex and conflicting agendas fueling alle-giances for and against the Assad re-gime in the Syrian government.

“The configuration of this kind of conflict is unlike what we have seen before,” said Kotsovilis. “The over-all level of complexity here makes it even more important to thoroughly

discuss the series of events that have led us to our current state of affairs.”

Kotsovilis spoke about the Syrian conflict as a “chaotic mess” that be-gan when anti-governmental dem-

onstrations in 2011, part of the Arab Spring uprising, violently escalated when protestors were met with bru-tal government retaliation. Divisions between secular and Islamic rebels

and between ethnic groups further complicated the fight against the re-gime.

Paris continued on page 2

OUT@UTM’s executive director, Zara Rizwan, has resigned follow-ing claims of an unsafe working en-vironment and an intense workload, among other claims.

In Rizwan’s resignation letter posted on the OUT@UTM Facebook group last Tuesday and also sent to The Medium by email, Rizwan cited a “variety of reasons” such as “the ways [she has] been treated by others, an overwhelming […] workload, and repeated instances of invalidation” as the basis for her resignation.

“I no longer feel safe in this envi-ronment,” said Rizwan in the letter. “I understand fully that no space can be entirely safe but I hope that OUT@UTM will become a safer en-vironment in the future.”

In an interview with The Medium, Rizwan mentioned issues such as shadism and discrimination direct-ed at her, specifically when Rizwan would make suggestions or contri-butions to other executives.

“If another exec who was white-passing was to say the exact same thing, suddenly everyone was on board,” said Rizwan about her con-tributions to the group. “This hap-pened numerous times and I spoke with that exec and they were aware of it as well but there was this very

strange shadism that was going on because I am the darkest skinned member.”

According to Rizwan, a “non-South Asian” executive member told her she was not allowed to host a yoga session as part of club activities due to fears of cultural appropria-

tion. Rizwan, however, claimed yoga “is [part of her] own culture”.

Rizwan declined to disclose the names of specific executive members involved in any of her claims.

In a statement issued by OUT@UTM to The Medium on Saturday, the executive team addressed the

claims from Rizwan’s resignation let-ter.

“We want to acknowledge that our executive director has left due to multiple issues; there are a multi-tude of factors not limited to shad-ism, workloads, accessibility, and so on,” reads the statement. “These have been largely exacerbated by a lack of communication within our team.”

According to the statement, OUT@UTM has faced many dis-crimination issues within the group.

“OUT@UTM has within its mem-bership and executive team presently and historically a number of issues including but not limited to shad-ism, classism, transmisogyny, fat-phobia, disableism, racism, sexism, cissexism and all forms of oppres-sion,” it says. “This is something we have been working on since the start of our year, and past executives have been trying to address these issues.”

According both OUT@UTM and Rizwan, both parties have agreed to meet and discuss the issues raised by Rizwan.

Get this show on the roadDiaspora Dialogues hosts The 905 Road Show, bringing together po-etry, fiction, and song.Medium Arts, page 5

Common misconceptionsThree Muslim UTM students dis-cuss their thoughts and personal ex-periences regarding Islamophobia. Medium Features, page 8

Varsity Blues all-starVarsity Blues punter TJ Morton was recognized as first-team all-star for the first time in 25 years. Medium Sports, page 11

Investigating VP equityUTMSU launched a review of its VP equity following complaints by union staff and general members.Medium News, page 2

Why do we fear Islam?Let’s take a look at the way Islamic terms are used in mainstream me-dia and think about its impact. Medium Opinion, page 4

2 «NEWS THE MEDIUM 11.30.2015

November 20, 3:15 a.m.Liquor License ActA male was escorted out of the Blind Duck Pub due to his intoxi-cated state.

November 21, 9:45 p.m.Bylaw OffencesCampus Police were called to attend a noise complaint in the MaGrath Val-ley residence. Campus Police spoke with the resident and the party was shut down.

38 U of T students were in

Paris during the recent attacks

OLIVIA ADAMCZYK/THE MEDIUMOn November 13, 130 people were killed in Paris during the orchestrated terrorist attacks.

Since 2011, casualties of the civil war have risen to over 220,000—approximately 30,000 of which have been civilians.

“It was and continues to be trau-matic and dramatic for the thou-sands of people who have been dis-placed as a result of this conflict,” said Kotsovilis.

A key player that has emerged from the Syrian genocide and con-flict is the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Kotsovilis ex-plained that ISIS seeks to form an Islamic State and uses terrorism as a tool to spread its ideologies and principles—a tactic seen on No-vember 13 in Paris when a series of planned attacks left 130 people dead before ISIS claimed responsi-bility.

According to Holly Luffman, interim director of Safety Abroad at U of T’s Centre for Interna-tional Experience, at the time of

the attack, 38 U of T students were studying in Paris.

Aslan Amani, a political sci-ence professor, brought the discus-sion back to Canada and its role in the combat mission, specifically as a peacekeeping country. Am-ani drew on a recent Ipsos survey conducted after the Paris attacks, which reported that 75 percent of Canadians view the threat of a ter-rorist attack as very real. However, the survey also indicated that Ca-nadians are divided when it comes to Trudeau’s decision to remove six Canadian CF-18 jets from the air strike mission against ISIS.

Amani, however, believes that disengagement may not be the ap-propriate response.

“If ISIS represents a genuine threat to civilization and human security, which I believe it is, there is an international responsibility to collectively deal with it,” said Am-ani.

Instead, Amani suggested that

Canada should respond with “re-sponsible military engagement” and demonstrate its multicultural-ism in response to the 25,000 refu-gees Canada has pledged to accept.

“The correct response to these events should not be to move away from multiculturalism,” said Am-ani. “In fact, we will do much good internationally by promoting and expanding our multicultural mod-el”.

Ramzi Thabit, Political Sci-ence and Pre-law Association VP, commented on how he intended for students to gain a holistic un-derstanding of the complexities of the conflict, which has affected the lives of many and can be seen in the backlash towards members of the local Muslim community.

“I wanted the event to give peo-ple an understanding and a back-ground of what happened, what exactly is happening, and how col-lectively as a society we can learn and go forward.”

Paris continued from Cover

Addressing plagiarism

HIBA TRABOULSI

UTM’s Academic Affairs Committee was recently briefed on the challeng-es related to preventing academic of-fences at UTM.

In a presentation on November 18, UTMSU VP university affairs and academics Nour Alideeb, along with staff from the dean’s office and the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, collaborated to discuss new ways of combating academic dishon-esty.

According to Alideeb, her port-folio has dealt with approximately 20 academic offence–related cases since she was elected earlier this year; many of the cases UTMSU has

come across are related to incorrect referencing or students not properly paraphrasing sources.

“The challenges we are facing alongside the dean’s office are the new online platforms available to students that make it easier to com-mit offences,” said Alideeb in an email to The Medium, adding that UTM students come from a broad variety of backgrounds and arrive with various expectations for their education.

According to Alideeb, this causes academic standards to be “inconsis-tent” in the minds of students.

“[This] affects how seriously stu-dents take academic integrity in postsecondary education,” she said.

The presentation recommended better education for students, staff, and faculty about preventing aca-demic offences. UTMSU also listed forthcoming plans the union hopes to roll out, which include “help[ing] students understand legal language of [the academic code]” and “collab-orate with RGASC to ensure students are provided with adequate training”.

“We need to have more discus-sions about what academic offences look like—most students know that copying and pasting is an academic offence, but more students do not know that it is possible to plagiarize yourself,” said Alideeb.

Integrity continued on page 3

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUMZehra Ramsha was elected VP equity in March.

NICOLE DANESINEWS EDITOR

Academic Affairs Committee talks academic integrity

Investigation launched

against UTMSU exec

Information has surfaced re-vealing that an investigation was launched against UTMSU VP eq-uity Zehra Ramsha due to “multiple complaints” made against the ex-ecutive member.

According to UTMSU division three director Abdulla Omari, the chair of the UTMSU executive re-view committee, an investigation was launched following complaints from UTMSU staff and general members.

“There were multiple com-plaints,” said Omari in reference to Ramsha. “When you worked it all down, it was just really one; it was one umbrella complaint.”

In an interview with The Medi-um, Omari declined to disclose in-formation pertaining to the nature of the complaints.

The executive review committee is responsible for overseeing “the performance of the executives” in addition to “investigat[ing] charges of misconduct or derelict of duty of an executive committee member and recommend[ing] disciplinary action to the board”.

It was also revealed to The Me-dium that Ramsha took a leave of absence from her position as VP

equity.“I was given the opportunity to

take a leave of absence to focus on some training that could help me better perform my responsibilities,” said Ramsha in an email, who also mentioned personal reasons behind her leave of absence. “Due to rea-sons related to my personal health and mental wellbeing, it was sug-gested to me to take time off.”

According to Ramsha, her re-sponsibilities “were passed on to the president and VP internal” dur-ing her leave and she has received the recommendations from the ex-ecutive review committee’s investi-gation. It is unknown what recom-mendations the committee made.

It is currently unknown when Ramsha’s leave of absence took place, although Omari informed The Medium that to his knowledge, the leave of absence spanned one month.

“Due to reasons related to my personal health

and mental wellbeing, it was suggested to me to

take time off.”— Zehra Ramsha

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.

11.30.2015 THE MEDIUM NEWS» 3

Patrick Gil1st year, accounting

Lisa Lobo2nd year, commerce

Sara Hamza1st year, English

Brittany Veljkovic4th year, history

No, it’s a non-issue.

Yes, because people doing yoga don’t usually know the background behind it.

Sort of. It’s appropriation when you treat it as a lifestyle instead of exercise.

Yes, because it started as a version of Hindu prayer.

»DO YOU THINK YOGA IS A FORM OF CULTURAL APPROPRIATION?

Three dead following shooting at Planned Parenthood clinic

Three are dead and nine are wounded after a shooting at a Planned Parent-hood clinic in Colorado on Friday. Fifty-seven-year-old Robert Dear surrendered to police after a five-hour hold-up in the clinic. According to an anonymous official at the scene, Dear was heard saying “no more baby parts”. Planned Parenthood is a orga-nization that provides abortions.

Source: Toronto Star

Trudeau visits Bataclan memorial ahead of Paris climate summit

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visit-ed the Bataclan memorial on Sunday morning to pay his respects to the 90 victims killed at the concert hall on November 13, one of seven places where attacks were carried out, kill-ing a total of 130. Trudeau is in Paris to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference beginning today and running until December 11.

Source: Toronto Star

Three U of T students off to Oxford as Rhodes Scholars

James Flynn, Kaleem Hawa, and Jes-sica Phillips from U of T have each been awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship from the University of Oxford. The trio who all study within the university’s Faculty of Arts and Science are off to Oxford next Octo-ber.

Source: U of T News

Muslim women learn self-defence following attacks

Following several attacks directed at Muslim women in the Toronto area subsequent to the November 13 Paris terrorist attacks, some Toronto Mus-lim women have decided to enrol in self-defence classes to learn how to protect themselves.

Source: CBC News Toronto

City to designate affordable housing along Hurontario LRT

Mississauga City Council has re-quested staff to determine an appro-priate percentage of affordable hous-ing to be reserved along the planned Hurontario LRT line. A percentage deemed appropriate will be presented to the council in January.

Source: Toronto Star

Cuban activist Mariela Castro vis-ited UTM to speak about trans-gender rights in Latin America on November 19, an event that sparked controversy amongst trans students on campus.

Organized by UTM Student Af-fairs and the UTM Equity and Di-versity Office, the event took place the day before the Trans Day of Remembrance, a date designated to mourn the murders and sui-cides of transgender individuals.

According to the UTM Trans Emergency Caucus, an activist group comprised of transgender, non-binary, intersex, and gen-der diverse individuals and their allies, the administration had planned the talk without consult-ing or including any transgender students or individuals, resulting in backlash from the trans com-munity on campus.

The Medium was unable to in-dependently verify the caucus’ claims.

Attendees of the event were giv-en a leaflet published by the cau-cus highlighting what the group identified as issues regarding the event, asserting that “[the trans

and intersex] community was barred from even having a voice [in the organization of the event]”.

The leaflet referred to an open letter published by the group and written to UTM’s equity and di-versity officer, Nythalah Baker, and dean of student affairs Mark Overton, that expressed the group’s concerns.

Rosa Hernandez and Jasbina Sekhon, founders of the UTM Trans Emergency Caucus, spoke during the first 20 minutes of the event about trans struggles. They noted that they were only able to speak at the event by advocating to UTM for the opportunity to do so.

“We were pleased to include the Trans Emergency Caucus speak-ers once they let us know of their interest in addressing trans issues at the Mariela Castro event,” said Jane Stirling, UTM’s director of marketing and communications.

The students also listed a num-ber of recommendations for UTM, including permanent drop-in space for trans students, trans-specific resources for sexual as-sault survivors and sex workers, and an increase in gender neutral washrooms on campus.

“The university looks forward

to working together with the Trans Emergency Caucus about the sub-mitted requests through in-person meetings,” said Stirling in an email when asked if the university will be implementing any of the rec-ommendations made by the cau-cus.

Following the opening remarks, Castro spoke about the relation-ship between Cuba and gender diversity, describing ties between colonialism and transphobia, and saying that multiple indigenous societies accepted trans individu-als prior to the impact of Europe-an colonizers.

Castro, the niece of former Cu-ban president Fidel Castro and daughter of current Cuban presi-dent Raúl Castro, discussed her involvement with Cuban trans individuals and how they brought to her attention the struggles of being a trans person in Cuba. Her conversations with the communi-ty sparked her desire to work as a trans rights activist in Cuba.

Disclosure: Zara Rizwan is a for-mer executive of OUT@UTM who resigned from the position on November 24.

Students demand trans support at Castro event

SAMUEL KAN/THE MEDIUMMariela Castro spoke at UTM on November 19 in IB 110.

ZARA RIZWAN

An academic offence on an assign-ment worth 10 percent or more can result in a variety of consequences, including a zero on the assignment or a reduction of the final grade in the course.

“We recognize that stress is a huge contributor to students com-mitting academic offences,” said Alideeb. “One of our goals this year was to create fun and educational campaigns about our academic policies.

“The policies can be inaccessible in materials generated by the uni-versity,” said Alideeb.

UTMSU held its first academic advocacy week in September.

“The consequences of these aca-demic offences are heartbreaking

and as students in postsecondary education, we have to take it upon ourselves to learn our rights and responsibilities,” Alideeb.

Integrity continued from page 2

Stress a cause of academic offences

“Stress is a huge contributor to students committing academic

offences.”—Nour Alideeb

4 « 11.30.2015

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We are all “jihadists”Last week, I talked about building character and used the interna-tional response to the Paris attacks as an example of us looking out for one another in times of crisis. I also talked about some of the attacks on local Muslims that took place in the wake of the Paris attacks and men-tioned that while they showed there is a great deal of ignorance in our country, there is still a lot of good that exists in people, like those who stepped forward to help the affected communities.

Afterward, I was asked why it was that some Canadians responded to the Paris attacks by attacking Mus-lims and the mosques in our own country. What do people have to fear in Canada?

I’m not sure there’s a simple an-swer to that question, but there are a couple of factors that have come to mind this past week.

While flipping through The To-ronto Star a few days ago, I noticed a headline that read “France mourns victims of jihadists”. The story was, of course, about the victims of the Paris attacks.

Just from reading the headline, I felt uncomfortable. The word “ji-hadist” brought about a fear of some monstrous entity that I knew was a dangerous mass, even willing to kill innocent people to get what they want. And maybe it wouldn’t have seemed so frightening if their at-

tacks were limited to far away coun-tries where crimes like this took place more frequently.

But no—they attacked Paris. And that’s what’s scary: if they could do that to France where there are laws and people to enforce them, what’s stopping them from doing the same thing here?

And this is all from a quick glance at the headline.

When I got past my instinctive reaction and really thought about it though, it came to mind that “jihad-ist” is a total buzzword in the media today, far removed of its original meaning. Simply the use of the word in our society is enough to evoke fearsome images of foreign bombers without even having to think about what the word means.

Jihad is a complex term. As you will read in the article on Islamo-phobia this week, it refers to a “struggle”. And the biggest struggle in the life of a Muslim—indeed, in the lives of many people in gen-eral—is the struggle to overcome

one’s own weaknesses and become a better human being. Obviously, if ISIS were real jihadists, their actions would be the opposite that they are now.

But the fact that terrorists—when executing their attacks in the name of Islam—are so often referred to as jihadist, Islamist, even sometimes Islamic, in the media makes it easy for people to associate their actions with Islam. Heck, even I felt uncom-fortable reading the headline—and I’m Muslim.

And that fear, when it spreads across society as a whole, also im-pacts the Muslims living in Western countries.

Take, for example, a second re-cent feature in The Toronto Star about Muslim women who at some point or another decided to stop wearing the hijab, even if temporar-ily. The timing of the piece was in-teresting to say the least, consider-ing how some hijab-wearing women were assaulted in Canada in the af-termath of the Paris attacks.

Sure enough, at least one of the reasons cited for a woman’s deci-sion to stop wearing the hijab was because of safety reasons.

A second Muslim woman fea-tured in the piece was from our very own campus. The third-year stu-dent explained that while wearing the hijab, she felt judged by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

And yet another woman said she decided to stop wearing the hijab because she felt that people as-sumed everything she said or did was related to her faith.

In other words, living in a western country where your faith is often misunderstood, it’s not always easy to do things knowing that they’ll seem strange, offensive, or even op-pressive in the eyes of others. It’s an-other great example of jihad.

So then, what do we do about all the fear?

Well, let’s start with understand-ing that beneath the headcoverings are people who fear the same things you do. The difference is that our jihad is often about keeping up our faith in spite of the fear and miscon-ceptions of those around us. Per-haps society’s jihad is to learn more about it.

YOURS,

MARIA IQBALCORRECTION NOTICE

In multiple articles regarding UTSU’s board structure, such as “Deadline looms for UTSU board”, (Oct. 5), “UTSU fails to ratify new structure” (Oct. 19), and “UTSU to hold Special General Meeting” (Oct. 26), the stated deadline for passing the structure was incor-rect. The deadline was actually October 14, 2014.

It’s important to understand that

Muslims are people who fear the same

things you do.

Misuse of Islamic terms in the media does more to scare than inform

11.30.2015 » 5

GTA artists get in on the conversationAGM hosts Diaspora Dialogues, promoting artists across multiple disciplines and forms

Diaspora Dialogues, a non-profit Toronto-based arts organization, teamed up with the Art Gallery of Mississauga last Thursday to produce a night of vibrant per-formances by local artists. Music, spoken word poetry, and short fic-tion were among the powerful acts presented at The 905 Road Show: A Creativity Cabaret. The host of the event, UTM’s Wali Shah, spent the evening engaging the audience with thoughtful reflections on the performances and personal anec-dotes to spark laughter between acts.

Diaspora Dialogues Charitable Society is an organization that fosters the talents of both emerg-ing and established artists in the realms of new fiction, poetry, and drama. They seek to develop To-ronto’s artistic culture and redefine the notion of “mainstream” art.

The 905 Road Show was coor-dinated by Diaspora Dialogues as part of its Event Series. Events within the series occur in neigh-bourhoods throughout the city and

feature artists of different cultures, ages, and disciplines. Thursday’s event at the AGM offered a blend of song, poetry, and fiction. Each artist discussed the inspiration and origins of their pieces and how their meanings reflect society

on a larger scale. Important issues such as racism, discrimination, im-migration, egotism, politics, and cancer added depth to the artists’ work and provided an opportunity to educate the audience and raise awareness.

The Real Sun, a singer, song-writer, and performer, gave the first performance of the night. She walked through the gallery’s makeshift auditorium with an aura of confidence and positivity. She spoke passionately about issues of

discrimination towards minority races—issues that were reflected in her songs.

Her first song was an adapta-tion of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”. The lyrics shed light on rac-ist behaviour and actions with lines such as, “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”, and it was sung a cappella. Her voice was passionate and haunting. Her vocals inspired a power I’d never felt in a live performance before.

The Real Sun also discussed is-sues of the human condition. She encouraged the idea that no mat-ter how difficult life becomes, we always have a choice. Instead of letting the negatives aspects of life hold us back, we can use them as motivation to carry ourselves for-ward. The Real Sun’s optimism was contagious. She infused these ideas into her original piece entitled “Brand New Day”, which she sang while playing guitar. She also per-formed another piece, “Learn from Your Mistakes”, on the piano with vocals.

Girls can go to law school too, you knowUC Follies’ production of Legally Blonde confronts hair colour stereotypes with musical talent

SAMUEL KAN/THE MEDIUM

Diaspora Dialogues engages local artists and provides space for them to share new work.

HAILEY MASONASSOCIATE A&E EDITOR

The biggest problem I had with Le-gally Blonde as a story was that I knew how it was going to end before it even began. It has nothing to do with hav-ing seen the movie eons ago; it’s just a predictable plot. Also, the script doesn’t give actors much to work with. Nearly all the characters seem to operate on a surface-only level—you’re either a ditzy girl, a suit-and-tie lawyer, or a prep school genius. None of this, though, is the fault of the performers, who are an impres-sive group.

The UC Follies took on Legally Blonde as a musical as of Friday, fol-lowing the story of Elle Woods (Ol-ivia Lewis), a golden-haired girl from California who spent her undergrad on the beach. When her boyfriend breaks up with her to study law at Harvard, she decides to follow him, only to find out that to pass law school at Harvard, she’ll have to buckle down and read a book or two. And she does. And she succeeds. And catches a (dif-ferent, but ultimately better) man in the process.

I’m trying really hard to make this a feminist piece of theatre. And, in keeping with the UC Follies’ season

theme, I suppose it is. Girl strikes out on her own, wades through a sea of stereotypes, and makes it to the top without sleeping around. In doing so, she even puts a spin on her love of pink, proving that it can be a serious colour for smart people.

There were a number of impressive performers in the cast. Special men-

tions go to Emmett (Tyler Cheese) for his grounded performance and great vocals, and Paulette (Victoria McEwan) for blowing the biggest character role in the play right out of the water.

The set worked well enough, pro-viding a staircase for levels and a door for entrances and exits, but overall

there was too much on-and-off of non-permanent set pieces. This leads to long blackouts between scenes and a lot of people carrying chairs, which is unfortunately exactly what it looks like. The use of the Hart House cy-clorama was very effective, providing a whole palette of lighting combina-tions, which was highly appropriate

given all the positive energy this mu-sical pours into the world.

Right when Elle decides to start studying, Emmett cracks a joke about all the Red Bull on her desk. But Elle isn’t the only one bubbling over with energy—the whole cast really sells it right from the start and never falters. In fact, I’d even say that things pick up in Act II. Maybe everyone downs a Red Bull during the intermission. Since musicals are not my go-to when I watch live theatre, I’d forgotten how much energy it takes to do musi-cal theatre. Not that straight theatre doesn’t, but there is a different energy required for simultaneous singing and dancing. And Legally Blonde re-quires a lot of choreography.

I am not a dance critic. However, I thought the choreography was a good compromise of entertaining and ac-cessible. It didn’t require every person in the cast to be a professional dancer, but still looked good and showcased those who do have training. So if you’re looking for a pick-me-up dur-ing this stressful season of exams and final assignments, this is your show.

If you wanted something to match the somber mood you’re in after that chemistry final, you’re in the wrong place. Legally Blonde runs until Satur-day, December 5.

UC FOLLIES/PHOTOLegally Blonde offers lighthearted, energetic fare.

KATE CATTELL-DANIELSA&E EDITOR

Dialogues continued on page 6

6 «ARTS THE MEDIUM 11.30.2015

REWINDWarning: this review contains graphic content.

A glass of milk, Beethoven, and a little bit of the old ultraviolence—A Clockwork Orange (1971) is the per-fect film for those with sick minds and a love for visual art.

Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange is a dis-turbing classic. It stars a troubled teen named Alex (Malcolm McDowell), who commits countless acts of brutal violence on the innocent. A Clock-work Orange, although unsettling, is a cinematic masterpiece.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this visionary film can, for the most part, be disturbing to watch—but is unde-niably a classic. Kubrick brings Bur-gess’ ideals of an Orwellian society to life through Alex’s eyes. Alex exer-cises his free will by toying with order in society.

Young Alex gallivants around Britain and partakes in illegal acts with his mates, or, as he calls them, “droogs”. With swinging batons, jock straps, and bowler hats, Alex and his droogs spend their days in their own uniforms disturbing the peace rather than keeping it.

As in the novel, Kubrick incorpo-rates made-up words with Anglo-Russian slang, giving the movie its own language. He brings the visual aspect of vocabulary to life through both the script and set. For exam-ple, the opening scene features Alex and his droogs stoically sipping on their glasses of milk while the words “Moloko Sythemesc, Drencrom and Vellocet” scream on the walls be-

hind them. Kubrick also injects the film with music, providing it with a dramatic soundtrack that features Beethoven’s “Symphony 9”. This plays at the best and worst times through-out the film, including during Alex and his droogs’ brutal escapades.

After raping a writer’s wife, Alex is sent to jail. He is then subjected to multiple forms of cognitive con-ditioning called the “Ludivico Treat-ment” in an attempt to clear his mind of evil. Once Alex is in jail, he ma-nipulates the authorities in attempts to get out. He claims he is cured and will not partake in any more ultravio-lent acts.

The film’s use of colour, aesthetic, dramatic cinematography, slow zoom ins and outs, Beethoven’s soundtrack, and iconic costumes paints a pic-ture that cannot be mistaken for any other film. Kubrick’s cinematic talent compliments Alex’s loveable yet cruel personality and Burgess’ authentic writing technique. The film’s famous “Singing in the Rain” scene is enough to make anyone cringe, but that makes the film what it is.

Like other Kubrick movies, his genius and directional abilities come forth in this film in multiple forms. As in his other masterpiece, The Shining, Kubrick’s ability to bring forth men-tal illness and madness comes to life through his characters. Both films feature psychology of environment, but in different yet ingenious ways. Alex creates a sense of likeable mad-ness that one cannot look away from, doing Burgess’ novel justice. So grab a glass of Knifey Moloko and watch as murder meets madness.

MMMM

ADELAIDE ATTARD

Another artist, Pratap Reddy, per-formed three short stories detail-ing the experience of immigrating to Canada from India. Reddy im-migrated to Canada in 2002 with the dream of becoming a writer. His stories shared the perspective of new immigrants, stressing the word “new”. Reddy explained that he preferred to write about Indians who have recently immigrated to Canada versus Indians who have had time to adjust to Canadian culture. He wished to capture the experience of immigration the mo-ment it occurs. Reddy’s stories pro-gressed in a series of three install-ments: the first involved an Indian man similar to Reddy who plans his immigration to Canada to pur-sue a career in writing. The second occurred at Pearson Airport im-mediately after the same character had arrived in Canada for the first time. The final story was a quirky piece about an Indian woman’s interaction with a Canadian man

after he untangles her scarf from a vending machine. Overall, Reddy’s pieces were a fresh perspective on the widely discussed topic of im-migration. He did an excellent job capturing the immigrant experi-ence through the lens of his char-acters.

The 905 Road Show was cer-tainly a night to remember. Each performance was a unique and captivating experience. I left the AGM with a feeling of inspiration that lingered long after the final act. The multitude of disciplines and cultures involved in this event offered a well-rounded portrayal of Toronto’s artistic community.

Dialogue continued from page 5

Reddy’s pieces were a fresh perspective

on the widely discussed topic of immigration.

First world media crisesDocumentary sheds light on who gets media coverage

Syria. You have most likely heard the name in the media over the last few years. For many people, it might be a tragic tale happening some-where far overseas. But for me, it is a totally different story. It is my homeland, my beautiful childhood, my cherished memories, my grand-parents, my uncles and aunts, and a part of me that will never fade away.

Earlier in November, I had the honour of watching 50 Feet from Syria at the first annual Syrian Film Festival. SYFF, a non-profit organi-zation, held the event in Toronto on November 13 to 15 and screened a variety of short films and documen-taries to show the struggle of Syr-ians.

I felt like it was my duty to enrich my knowledge about a country so rich in history and culture and ex-pand my perspective on the matter. And so did hundreds of others who attended the film festival, with the event being sold out the day before it opened.

Directed by Skye Fitzgerald, the Oscar-shortlisted 50 Feet from Syria follows the journey of Dr. Hisham Bismar, a Syrian-American hand surgeon who left his comfortable lifestyle behind and flew to Turkey to provide medical help for victims of the Syrian civil war.

The film takes us through Bis-mar’s experiences in Amal Hospital located on the Turkish border, as he takes in one wounded child after the other. And to say that the children are simply “wounded” is an under-statement. Some of the children, as young as age six, are shown gasping for air and fighting for their lives, suffering from severe burns and other ailments.

The Medium spoke to Bismar in a phone interview.

Asked why he embarked on the journey, Bismar said that he was frustrated by lack of the attention given towards Syria in mainstream media. Bismar wrote to President Barack Obama and other politi-cians, as well as to newspapers and

editors, urging them to pay atten-tion to the conflict—but he never heard back.

“One big thing for me is that I thought that if I stayed in Syria, I could’ve been in the same situation. I could’ve been one of the people who got arrested. I would’ve liked somebody to provide some help,” Bismar says.

The large number of wounded children and the severity of their in-juries took Bismar by surprise.

“Nobody really came in with a simple wrist fracture. Everybody had complex injuries involving multiple medical systems,” he said. “It mainly involved injuries related to the joint where the joint is com-pletely destroyed and in young pa-tients, you really cannot offer them a joint replacement.”

In many instances, Bismar was forced to combine two joints into one when an elbow joint was com-pletely destroyed. The result is that the patient will never be able to move their elbows again. In these instances, patients are caught in a difficult situation: to maintain the use of their arm but live through se-vere pain, or to fuse it and never be able to move it again.

Once, when Bismar offered to fuse a young man’s elbow, the man refused because as a laborer, he wouldn’t be able to function with-out his arm.

Bismar also shared the story of a 10-year-old girl who was not able to get a diagnosis of the tumour grow-ing in her finger due to the limited facilities available.

“I told her dad that I can remove the tumour but I don’t know what it is, because based on what the tu-mour is, she might need to have an-other surgery, maybe even a bigger surgery if the tumour is aggressive,” he said.

After a 40-minute drive to Anta-lya, one of the largest cities in Tur-key, the parents still had no luck. They were not able to find anyone to actually analyze the tumour.

“I wanted people to know what’s happening over there because I was alarmed with the level of violence

and how the situation has deterio-rated in Syria,” Bismar said about his hopes for the film.

“I wanted people to understand that this is a big problem. If you do not handle it, it’ll start affecting us, even here in the western countries, and basically, that’s what’s hap-pened.”

He adds, “The other more specif-ic reason is that I really thought that we should have done something in terms of preventing the use of paral-lel bombs. Those caused the highest amount of casualt[ies] during the conflict and there’s no reason why we couldn’t have done something, such as a no-fly zone, to try to re-duce civilian casualty.”

Bismar plans to go back to Turkey or even Jordan in the late spring or summer, seeing that the situation has deteriorated since he left.

“Well, how can we help?” I ask.Bismar believes that one of the

biggest ways to help is to talk to people. “Try to write [to] politi-cians. Educate the people around you. Canada allows private sponsor-ships, which is a really big avenue for Canadians to do helpful work,” he said.

“When you have a private spon-sorship for the refugees, it’s dif-ferent from having governmental sponsorships,” Bismar said. “They can get integrated faster into the so-ciety through the relationships that they build.”

He added that private sponsor-ships are “a great avenue for people to come together and work together to educate other people about the problem”.

“Unless we solve the problem in Syria, we’re going to continue hav-ing an influx of refugees and the sit-uation will continue to deteriorate,” he said.

50 Feet from Syria will inspire you to make a change. Whether you plan to educate the people around you, write to newspapers, or volunteer locally, do something, because this conflict is not only a Syrian problem or an Arab problem, but definitely a human one.

HIBA TRIBOULSI

KPTV.COM/PHOTOBismar took his knowledge and medical practice to Syria.

Keep on talking; I’m listening

11.30.2015 THE MEDIUM ARTS» 7

The answer is in the inkCalligraphy offers a time portal to the roots of communication

Ink Movement, a national nonprofit organization led by youth to help emerging artists in showcasing their creativity, hosted an “Intro to Callig-raphy” workshop as part of their “Fall Into Art” series.

Throughout November, Ink Move-ment presented three free workshops: Flipbook Creation, Smartphone Pho-tography/Videography, and Intro to Calligraphy, which took place in the Glass Pavilion at the Mississauga Cen-tral Library.

I walked in with the assumption that I will be one of a few attendees at the event. Does calligraphy interest youth nowadays, anyway? To my sur-prise, it was a full house.

The workshop coordinators pre-sented facilitator Steve Cjazka, who has been practicing calligraphy since 1980 and digital arts and design since the mid-1990s. Czajka is a Missis-sauga local, but he teaches calligraphy around the world. His artwork has been showcased on TV and in books, magazines, galleries, and on murals.

Cjazka took the stage to share a story about his beginnings with cal-ligraphy.

“My father performed calligraphy his entire life. He ran his own business

in calligraphy, and he inspired me to take a calligraphy course, which I did. I was probably [in] grade school at the time,” said Cjazka. “Calligraphy is something that can live with you for the rest of your life.”

Cjazka explained that it’s difficult to teach an introduction course in two hours, since normal introductory cal-ligraphy courses are around six weeks. And so Cjazka opted to show us how it’s done instead.

The audience faced a 8’ x 4’ board on which Cjazka wrote the first stanza of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Ra-ven”.

After the demonstration, the event organizers provided the audience with an easel to practice on.

I was slightly disappointed with the lack of interaction between Cjazka and the audience.

In a room of about 40 people, only a handful walked up to the easel and attempted a letter or two. The rest of us stayed in our seats and watched as Cjazka created his piece. I learned that if there’s one thing that you do not pick up and learn by sight, it is calligraphy.

After completing two verses, Cjazka informed the audience about the his-tory of calligraphy.

Caligraphy has many forms, in-cluding unicial calligraphy and other forms that primarily focus on other

parts of the world, such as Middle Eastern calligraphy.

There’s a particular methodology to gothic calligraphy.

“The way calligraphy works is that it’s based on the width of the letter in relation to its x-height,” Cjazka said as he took to the easel to display the typography of calligraphy. X-height show us how the lowercase letters are spaced in comparison to uppercase letters.

“The gothic system uses strokes, which forms the basis of pretty much all gothic letters,” he continued, add-ing that gothic calligraphy was previ-ously used mainly for religious texts.

Cjazka ended his talk with the de-mise of calligraphy, blaming it on the rise of the printing press.

Curious to learn more, I ap-proached Cjazka, asking what callig-raphy means to him.

“Think of everything we have to-day in our society,” he said. “Every-thing we have today is based on our ability to communicate with one an-other. Calligraphy marked the first form of communication that allowed one generation to pass down ideas to the next, and so on.

“If it weren’t for calligraphy, we wouldn’t have a civilized society today because we would have never been able to communicate.”

HIBA TRIBOULSI

Ironically enough, indie rock has pro-gressively become more and more mainstream. The growing popularity of the genre challenges upcoming art-ists to push the envelope and establish an independent sound that stands out against the endless number of other aspiring artists. This is easier said than done, of course, but Toronto-based band AfterpartY accepts this challenge with the 2011 release of their first album, The Army You Got.

Lead singer Kristina Bergeron is by far the highlight of the album. Bergeron shows off her vocal range as she transitions from sultry to ag-gressive between verses in “Tokyo Blonde”.

The tempo increases with the harshness of her voice; you can practically feel the bitterness oozing through.

AfterpartY struggles with creat-ing great hooks; tracks like “Love Lasts Six Years” and “Strength in Magazines” start strong with a steady drum beat and assertive guitar riffs, yet as the hook appears, the appeal dissolves. Throughout the album, Bergeron’s vocals repeatedly become muddled underneath the overpower-ing instrumentals. The guitar, drums, and synthesizer mash together in a battle for dominance, which does much more harm than good.

“Soft City” is the first single of the album, though it appears halfway down the track list. I really wish it appeared earlier because the strength in the song could have set the tone

for the entire album. The previous problems aren’t present here—the track begins with a catchy guitar riff before the singer’s voice hits hard. The drums and synths complement her vocals with particular care to not overpower her. “Soft City” is also one of the few tracks that had a hook that really got to me. The refrain is harmo-nious, a refreshing change from the previous tracks.

The heavy drums and guitar take precedence over Bergeron’s voice in “Hesitation Wounds”. Her words are rendered unintelligible, particularly in the hook. The synths shine in the

song’s refrain, but at the expense of all the other sounds.

The album’s ending is weak, finish-ing with the track “Scratches in the Sky”. The song switches every verse from gentle and melodic to loud and vigorous. The song seems to attempt two different sounds, but it only seems like it can’t make up its mind on what it wants to be.

All in all, I’m left with mixed feel-ings. AfterpartY has a lot of potential, but the lack of a harmonious blend of sounds and the music’s overpowering of the singer’s voice hindered what could have been a great album.

ZARA RIZWAN

Have a jolly month off with no assignmentsKATE CATTELL-DANIELSA&E EDITOR

Exams are over, papers are in, and suddenly UTM students have nearly a month of freedom on their hands. As with everything, there are choices. You could get ahead on your readings for January, or you could crack open the Christmas chocolates, or you could ditch the books (come on, it was a rough first semester) and head out into the world for some holiday cheer in the GTA.

THE NUTCRACKERI spent many a childhood Christmas watching some version or other of The Nutcracker. Catch this holiday tradition either in downtown Toron-to (Four Seasons Centre for the Per-forming Arts) or Mississauga (Liv-ing Arts Centre) or pretty much any other major urban center. Performed annually and a great family favourite, The Nutcracker tells the story of the adventures of a young boy and girl and their Christmas nutcracker who comes to life and whisks them off on a magical adventure.

SOULPEPPER THEATREThe theatre company based in the Distillery District brings some new items and old favourites to their Christmas roster. Enjoy productions of A Christmas Carol, Parfumerie, and A Very Soulpepper Christmas concert series to boost the Christmas spirit. For the kids, there’s Alligator Pie and a magic show. If Christmas just isn’t your thing and Krampus didn’t cut it, try Kim’s Convenience. Then head over to one of the Distillery’s many pubs for an after-show drink.

KRAMPUSIf you’re feeling a little disenchanted with the holiday season, take a trip to a local movie theatre and catch the PG-13 horror movie. Maybe you’ll be terrified into believing in Santa and the reindeer, lest the holiday demons come sneaking down your chimney. Also useful for terrifying your young-er siblings, cousins, or anyone else who needs to step up their Christ-mas cheer game. Personally, the main reason I’ll be watching Krampus is to watch Toni Collette act.

OUTDOOR SKATINGBetween 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., try some skating at Mississauga’s Cel-ebration Square ice rink. Skate rent-als are available. Enjoy the Missis-sauga nightlife and suburban skyline, but remember to read the ice rink rules that are available on the web-site and call for ice rink conditions beforehand—especially if December weather continues as if winter wasn’t a thing. If you’re from Toronto, save yourself the commute and skate at Nathan Phillips Square, where they also have a snack bar.

Bergeron shows off her vocal range as she

transitions from sultry to aggressive

between verses.

CHRISTY TAM/THE MEDIUMFree calligraphy classes fuse beauty and communication.

8 « 11.30.2015

Discussing the rise of IslamophobiaThree UTM Muslim students share their thoughts and personal experiences on the matter

A tale of intellectual rights and GoliathThe Medium explores students’ intellectual rights while using Turnitin and alternate options

As a student at U of T, it’s very likely that that at least one of your courses requires you to submit some sort of paper—whether it’s a lab report, essay, or a short assignment. The chances are even higher that this sub-mission is expected to be carried out through the anti-plagiarism website Turnitin.com.

Turnitin, managed by the com-mercial company iParadigms LLC, offers services focused primarily on originality checks, with additional tools such as online grading and con-ducting peer reviews.

U of T is one of the 10,000 annual-ly licensed institutions spread across 135 countries that uses Turnitin, re-quiring students to set up an account and submit their assignments via a file upload or cut and paste.

When checking originality, Turni-tin crosschecks the submission with over 45 billion pages of digital con-tent. Along with being regularly up-dated, the software currently claims to hold 337 million submissions in the student archive and over 130,000 professional, academic, and com-

mercial journals.The software flags word sequences

that match other word sequences in their database. Instructors logging into the website determine at their own discretion if a flagged match counts as plagiarism or qualifies as a properly-cited quote.

The numbers do portray Turnitin as being incredibly useful and widely used across the world, but there are certain suspicious aspects to the anti-plagiarism website. Submissions to Turnitin continuously instigate senti-ments of being presumed “guilty un-til proven innocent” among students,

leading students to perceive their in-structors as distrusting antagonists.

Additionally, there is an important question left for students to ponder: now that I’ve submitted my ideas to an online database, what happens to them?

Well, as part of their ownership

policy, Turnitin describes that they use the content of submitted papers to only provide their services. Tur-nitin further claims to facilitate stu-dents’ submissions by including an option where students can store their work in an institution-only private zone.

However, in the same policy, un-der “Your license to us”, the website states, “We are free to use any ideas, concepts, techniques, know-how in your Communications for any pur-pose, including, but not limited to, the development and use of products and services based on the Communi-cations.”

U of T’s policy requires relevant course syllabi to include the follow-ing statement: “Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual similarity and de-tection of possible plagiarism. In do-ing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference data-base, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagia-rism.”

After the recent terror attacks on Paris, the world was left reeling, ag-grieved, and confused. In their dis-tress and confusion as to why events like the Syrian Civil War and Bos-ton Marathon Bombings occurred, people become prone to making rash conclusions.

In the case of all three events, mo-tivations of terrorism—particularly carried out by terrorist groups who identify with Islam—are present, and this leads some people to rashly conclude that there is a link between Islam and terror. As a result, Islamo-phobia is on the rise.

According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the term “Is-lamophobia” has its origins in a 1997 British Runnymede Trust report. The term is defined as “the dread, hatred, hostility towards Islam and Muslims perpetrated by a series of closed views that imply and attribute nega-tive and derogatory stereotypes and beliefs to Muslims”.

A 2009 survey conducted by An-gus Reid, shows that 54 percent of Canadians held unfavourable views

toward Islam. The Medium asked three UTM

Muslim students to share their thoughts and personal experiences regarding islamophobia. The in-terviewees were Marium Faisal, a second-year sociology student, Yu-suf Kapoor, a first-year criminology student, and Amena Baalbaki, a sec-

ond-year philosophy and criminol-ogy student. When questioned about the degree of their faith, two of the three interviewees identified strongly with Islam, while the other identified moderately.

Thankfully, the interviewees said that they have never faced discrimi-nation on campus. They addressed

some common misconceptions about Islam.

ISLAM AND TERRORISMIt is important to note that several unjustified wars and other heinous crimes have been committed in the name of religion. However, just be-cause extremist groups use religion

to justify their actions, it does not follow that their actions accurately exemplify the teachings of that reli-gion.

If we take a look at the teachings of all three Abrahamic religions—Juda-ism, Christianity, and Islam—none of the religions condones the murder of another human being. In Chris-tianity and Judaism, for instance, “Thou shalt not kill” is one of the Ten Commandments. In Islam, the verse 5:53 of the Qur’an says, “Whoso kills a soul, unless it be for murder or for wreaking corruption in the land, it shall be as if he had killed all man-kind.”

On the subject of Islamic terrorism specifically, Faisal says, “ISIS and ter-rorist organizations use Islam’s name, but it is against what they truly stand for.” Extremist groups either twist the words of the scriptures or blatantly ignore them. Every religion has such extremist groups: the Ku Klux Klan and Westboro Baptist Church for Christianity, ISIS and Boko Haram for Islam, Khindranwale Tigers Force of Khalistan for Sikhism, and the Jewish Defense League for Judaism.

MAHNOOR AYUBASSOCIATE FEATURES EDITOR

MAHMOUD SAROUJI AND SARAH YASSINE/THE MEDIUMAfter the recent terror attacks on Paris, there has been a rise in Islamophobia.

TURNITIN.COM/EN_US/PHOTOTurnitin currently claims to hold 337 million submissions in its student archive.

Turnitin continued on page 10

KASSANDRA HANGDAANSTAFF WRITER

Islam continued on page 10

11.30.2015 THE MEDIUM FEATURES» 9

TEDxMississauga returns “limitless”

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUMThe speakers were Shelli Varela, Mississauga’s first female firefighter; UTM’s Patrick Gunning; Mary Ellen Bench, the city solicitor; and McMaster’s Joseph Gabriele.

SHELLI VARELAShelli Varela is Mississauga’s first female firefighter and fire captain, author of Peanut Meets the Pigtailed Firefighter, and a travelling mem-ber of Firefighters Without Borders. Varela was named Firefighter of the Year in 2010, where the award recog-nised her 10 years of charity work and community service. Today, Varela is writing her second book and contin-ues to inspire both men and women with her journey and her success in a male-dominated profession.

“My first test as a firefighter had nothing to do with fire,” said Varela. Instead, as the first female firefighter, she faced scepticism. Varela’s col-leagues believed that as a 5’2” female, she would “not be able to pull her weight” in a crisis.

While Varela felt disheartened, her district chief offered her the following piece of advice: “Shelli, firefighters are like tools in a toolbox. You don’t need eight hammers—you might need a hammer, [but] you also need a screw-driver, a ratchet, [and] a wrench.”

Soon afterwards, Varela and her team were called to the site of a cap-sized car containing an injured driver. Due to her petite build, Varela was able to climb into the car and help get the driver to safety. At this point, Varela earned the respect of her col-leagues and, more importantly, un-derstood her chief ’s advice.

“I had made the mistake of think-ing that because I was a girl in a boy’s job, and because I’m only 5’2’’, that what made me different made me less. But in this instance, it made me valuable, because the belief in a limi-tation is more powerful than the limi-

tation itself,” recounted Varela.For the remainder of her talk, Va-

rela shared three important lessons with the audience. The first was that “bravery builds backbone […] when you’re brave enough to stand out on your own, you’re able to achieve ex-cellence”.

For Varela’s second lesson (“cer-tainty creates character”), she re-counted the painful memory of watching her father’s health dete-riorate over the years. But one thing remained the same: her father’s love for the musician Stevie Ray Vaughan. “[My father] was certain about what he loved. What do you love? Because when you are lucky enough to know what you love, don’t apologise for that—and let it light you up,” she said.

Varela’s final lesson was about the power of perception. “Perception creates reality […] when you choose the perception that supports your dreams, ‘I can’t,’ becomes ‘How can I?’ ‘It hasn’t been done before,’ becomes ‘Yet,’ ” she said.

MARY ELLEN BENCHThe City of Mississauga solicitor, Mary Ellen Bench, leads the city’s legal and risk management division, where she and her team provide legal and risk and insurance support to the City Council, the city manager, and city staff. Bench was recently awarded the 2015 Tom Marshall Award of Ex-cellence for Public Sector Lawyers in recognition of approximately 15 years of legal counsel and guidance for the city.

“Our vision is to be a city where people choose to live,” said Bench as she began her talk reflecting on Mis-sissauga’s progress.

When Bench first came to Mis-sissauga, it was a “bunch of farmer

fields” and considered to be nothing more than a “city hall attached to a shopping mall”. At first, Bench viewed Mississauga as a stepping stone, but chose to stay once she discovered and appreciated Mississauga’s culture and atmosphere.

“I’m lucky to say that I’ve been practising law for 29 years and I can count on one hand the number of days that I did not want to go into work,” said Bench.

Bench was the eldest of six chil-dren raised in a single parent family. In her final year of high school, she was passed over for a scholarship opportunity because the teacher be-lieved that the other student would “make something more of her life than [Bench] [would]”.

“I hope I have lived up to prov-ing that teacher wrong in the grand scheme of things,” said Bench.

PATRICK GUNNINGPatrick Gunning, an associate chem-istry professor at UTM, is well known among the student population for his ongoing cancer research. What many may not know is that prior to teach-ing chemistry, Gunning completed his Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow and postdoctoral work at Yale Uni-versity before transitioning to Missis-sauga.

For the last 10 years, Gunning has

been focused on the STAT3 protein. Gunning poked fun at his obsession, saying that he and STAT3 go back a lot further.

“I’m from a little island on the west coast of Scotland called Bute. And if you look at the shape of Bute, it looks almost identical to STAT3, so maybe it was fate that I was meant to target this protein,” he joked.

The STAT3 protein has been called “a master regulator”—it expresses genes that “lead to division, growth, preventing cell death, and tumour growth”. In cancer cells, this protein is permanently switched on.

Gunning and his team have been using medicinal chemistry to develop drugs that target STAT3 in cancer cells—specifically, a molecule that acts as an inhibitor for the STAT3 protein.

“We do this with organic chem-istry, which is everyone’s favourite subject at university,” says Gunning. “Biologists don’t like us. They call us cooks and chefs, and Breaking Bad has propagated that idea.”

Gunning’s molecule has to over-come several obstacles, such as being able to bind effectively to the STAT3 protein, withstand human metabo-lism, and affect only its intended tar-gets (i.e. not healthy human cells) in order to be a viable treatment.

Because Gunning’s work is patent-protected, he referred to the molecule his team is working on as “compound X”.

“We started off with a molecule that [has lots] of different targets, and wasn’t particularly a good drug, but we optimised it in a rational way to-wards compound X, which we believe is on target,” said Gunning. “We’re really excited by the preliminary re-search data.”

JOSEPH GABRIELEFollowing his BSc from U of T, Jo-seph Gabriele went on to complete his Master’s and Ph.D. in the field of molecular neuroscience at McMaster. Today, Gabriele is an assistant profes-sor within McMaster’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuro-science.

Gabriele began his talk by recount-ing the tale of his wife being diag-nosed with a rare bone tumour. Fol-lowing multiple surgeries, Gabriele’s wife recovered but still suffered con-stant chronic pain. What made mat-ters worse was that she could not take oral pain relief medications. During these difficult times, Gabriele took on the role of a caretaker, felt depressed, and turned to alcoholism.

“Did you know that over 55 million people in North America suffer from some sort of pain? It costs the health care system an astronomical 300 bil-lion dollars a year,” said Gabriele.

At this point, Gabriele began work-ing with fellow researchers to produce Delivra™, a topical compound that can transport agents (in Gabriele’s wife’s case, pain medication) and al-low for localized action and enhanced recovery.

The compound only reduced Ga-briele’s wife’s pain by 10 percent, but it was a start. Using an integrative approach, Gabriele’s wife slowly im-proved her quality of life using De-livra™, yoga, acupuncture, and semi-competitive salsa dancing.

“She uses these different modalities to just to get through the day—that’s the new normality,” said Gabriele. “[…] This integrative approach—it can help millions of people with pain.”

FARAH QAISERFEATURES EDITOR

Last Saturday evening, the Living Arts Centre hosted Mississauga’s third TEDxMississauga con-ference with Dr. Patrick Gunning, Dr. Joseph Gabriele, Mary Ellen Bench, and Shelli Varela as speakers. The event’s theme was “Limitless” and celebrated the potential of the Mississauga

community. The event included performances from the UTM Dance Team and UTM Music Club.The Medium rounded up highlights from the TEDxMississauga conference.

“When you are lucky enough to know what

you love, don’t apologise for that—and let it light

you up.” — Shelli Varela

10 «FEATURES THE MEDIUM 11.30.2015

It’s here, folks—the end of the fall semes-

ter. It’s now time to dot the i’s and cross

the t’s on your final assignments, attend the

last of your lectures, and, on my end, write

up the last weekly Blackboard Special for

this year.

As exam season approaches, many of

us turn to junk food and desserts for com-

fort as we attempt to memorize notes and

make last-ditch attempts to understand

foreign concepts. My favourites include

chocolate, pizza, and cinnamon rolls.

Generally, I would buy a box of cinnamon

rolls—making the dessert is a thought that

I’ve never entertained or even dreamed

about. So it came as a shock to me when

my younger sister invited me to join her as

she made the rolls from scratch, filled them

up with cinnamon goodness, and poured

syrup over the baked rolls.

This recipe certainly isn’t easy; kneading

dough and rolling it into perfect rolls takes

skill. But in the end, there are homemade

cinnamon rolls that are indistinguishable

from the ones at a local Cinnabon—that’s

more than worth it.

Cinnamon Rolls

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

• 1 egg, beaten

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp of vanilla essence

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tbsp ghee (Indian clarified butter)

• ¾ tsp yeast

• ¼ cup of milk powder

• ¼ cup of milk

• ¼ cup of oil

• 2 cups of maida flour

• 1 cup of water

Filling:

• ½ tsp ghee

• ¼ of a butter stick

• 2 tbsp sugar

• 3 tbsp milk

• ½ tbsp cinnamon powder

• Cumin powder to taste

Syrup:

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 6 tbsp milk

Icing:

• 5–6 tbsp butter

• ¼ cup of sugar

• 1 tbsp milk

• ¼ tsp vanilla

METHOD

1.Mix together the ingredients for the

dough. Knead thoroughly.

2.Place the dough in the freezer for about

5 minutes.

3.Whip the filling mixture together.

4.Grease a pan and the rolling board used

for rolling the dough.

5.Preheat the oven to 350 F.

6.Remove the dough from the freezer. Roll

the dough flat.

7.Spread the filling mixture on top of the

dough. Sprinkle cumin powder on top.

8.Separate the dough (without disturbing

the filling mixture) into strips.

9.Roll each strip of dough into a compact

roll shape with the filling inside. (It may

be useful to look up typical shapes for a

cinnamon roll as a guide.)

10.Place the cinnamon rolls in the pan and

bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.

11.Remove the cinnamon rolls from the

oven and allow to cool.

12.For the syrup, combine the sugar and

milk in a kettle or pot and boil until the

mixture is diluted. Cool the syrup.

14.Brush the cinnamon rolls with the

syrup.

15.Combine the icing ingredients together

and mix thoroughly.

16.Ice the cinnamon rolls.

17.Serve immediately.

SERVES 8–12

This begs the question: does Turnitin own your intellectual property now that you have submitted it?

On the one hand, while the soft-ware is commercial, Turnitin does not report any profit being made from student-submitted theses. Addition-ally, Turnitin also provides a defini-tion for the word “Communications” in their usage policy as “questions, comments, suggestions, and other data and information” submitted on the site, but they specifically exclude “any papers submitted to the site”.

On the other hand, the Office of Teaching Support and Innovation at U of T states that the use of Turnitin by instructors is entirely voluntary.

Students are provided with the right to refuse the use of Turnitin, in which case, according to the Office of Teaching Advancement at U of T, a reasonable offline alternative must be offered.

The Office of Teaching Advance-ment describes the availability of a wide variety of non-electronic meth-ods that can be used to deter and de-tect plagiarism. For example, instruc-tors can request students to hand in

all related rough work along with the paper, or that the student include an annotated bibliography with the pa-per. The office recommends instruc-tors to consult with the Office of Teaching Advancement when estab-lishing these alternatives.

However, I find myself agreeing with Kiran Siddiqui, a third-year bio-technology specialist, who says that “the alternative seems too time con-suming”.

“Instead of preparing drafts and notes to hand in additionally, I’d rath-er get it over with online and spend those three hours completing the oth-er three essays I have due at the same time,” she adds.

While Turnitin’s policy on intellec-tual property may be ambiguous due to a lack of clarity in the wording, stu-dents do have alternative routes they can pursue.

Who owns your essay?Turnitin continued from page 8

My humbug for winter

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUMWhile many may rejoice at the sight of snowflakes, winter is not everyone’s favourite season.

Some say there are only two seasons in Canada: winter and construction season. Personally, I hate the former. Last year, the first snowfall came in late December and lasted until late May—a little too long for my taste.

Don’t get me wrong—I play the Michael Bublé Christmas album on repeat from December 1 to Decem-ber 31—I just despise everything that takes place outside of my whim-sical Christmas mood. That includes the six months of snow, public trans-portation difficulties, wind chill, salt, and slush that I have to endure.

Snow might be beautiful and fun to play with, but it’s huge trouble if you’re trying to do something pro-ductive.

“The snow is beautiful but cities only look like wonderlands for five minutes before becoming covered in slush and dirty water. The salt and sand sprinkled on the ground gets

onto your shoes and ruins them, then ends up being dragged into your house,” says Karina Babeiko, a second-year professional writing and communications student.

The transit schedule essentially has no meaning after the first big snowfall. Traffic spans multiple in-tersections and everyone’s schedule is set back a few hours. But for those of us who work and have school, we need to get up earlier and leave ear-lier and live on the edge of the min-ute hand.

“It hinders mobility,” says Dario Delgado, a second-year philosophy major. “But I’d rather freeze than melt; therefore, the cold is some-thing I prefer.” Though that is a le-gitimate reason for liking the cold, freezing is more likely than melting when 10 C weather becomes -30 C with wind chill.

Personally, I’m a cautious optimist when it comes to winter weather. That is to say, I wear light jackets

when I think it might be relatively nice out, but I also wear four pairs of socks just in case. Others live more dangerously than I. “I like wearing sweaters and stuff too, so that’s even more reason to like it,” says Delgado.

Unfortunately, most of the time it takes two sweaters and a jacket to not freeze during a Canadian winter. And there’s no guarantee that you won’t be taking one of those three things off during a bus ride.

“Rush-hour buses and trams are bad enough without everyone in bulky jackets sweating and breath-ing heavily onto everyone else,” says Babeiko.

I may sound cynical, but I do have a special place in my heart for home-cooked cider, the smell of pine trees, and warm sweaters—but not when I’m sweating for 40 minutes in sub-zero weather hoping I can be lucky enough to be home before 2:00 p.m., when it gets dark.

ANTON MYKYTENKO

We must move beyond prejudice

There is a saying in the western world that actions speak louder than words. If this were true, then taking a look at the actions of ex-tremist groups shows that merely vocalizing an affiliation with a re-ligion is not the same as actually practicing the genuine teachings of that religion.

HIJAB AND NIQABSWhen Baalbaki chose to wear the hijab, she was in grade six. She says that for her, the hijab represents “liberation and empowerment”. For Faisal, wearing the niqab represent-ed an “educated choice”. By wearing such garments, both women vehe-mently deny being “forced to wear it”. On the contrary, they feel as if they were exercising their freedom of choice based on their study of the Qur’an.

When asked to comment on cases where women are forced to wear the hijab and niqab, all three interview-ees showed a strong response.

“My parents were worried about me [wearing the niqab] especially in

Canada. I chose to wear it [...] and just because some people are forced, it doesn’t mean all Muslim women are forced,” said Faisal.

Kapoor provided an analogy that parents generally have their chil-dren dress or behave a certain way as part of their upbringing, and that “the niqab is no exception”.

WHAT “JIHAD” REALLY MEANSThere is a misconception on

what the term jihad truly means. The most common definition is “a Muslim war or struggle against un-believers”. In the media, the term is thrown around lightly to refer to the actions of Islamic extremists, who some argue are not true follow-ers of Islam, and the connection of these extremists to a religion sheds

a negative light on the religion itself. According to Faisal and Kapoor,

the mainstream definition of jihad is a very “western” definition of the term and the term actually has a more sacred meaning. Jihad liter-ally translates to “to struggle”. The Qur’an defines it as cases where Muslims exert an effort in the way of God. It is also described as a struggle against personal weakness-es. Examples of jihad include acts of charity or abstaining from lying (Qur’an 9:79, 29:68-69).

FINAL THOUGHTSWe may have developed certain prejudices unintentionally, but once we begin to recognize them, we have a duty to respect each other—and this respect entails educating ourselves about the truth. Islamo-phobia is one of the prejudices that we must aim to eliminate.

“If people actually took the time to learn about Islam on their own, instead of [listening to the media] as a source of information, they [may be surprised to learn] how different Islam really is from how it’s por-trayed,” says Kapoor.

Islam continued from page 8

Does Turnitin own your intellectual property now that you have submitted it to its

database?

“[People may be sur-prised to learn] how

different Islam really is from how it’s portrayed.”

— Yusuf Kapoor

11.30.2015 » 11

Dominating both sides of the borderTJ Morton was an all-American punter before he was recognized as an OUA all-star

TJ Morton, the first-year Varsity Blues punter for the 2015 season, was recognized as an OUA first-team all-star earlier this month. The honor is an impressive feat for the Elkton, Maryland, U.S. native, who is new to the Canadian version of football and adjusted himself this August to the style of play. The last time a Varsity Blues special teams player received this award was in 1990—Andrew Astrom (punter).

Morton led the OUA with a 40.2 yards per punt average, with 17 of his 68 kicks landing inside the 20-yard line.

However, this wasn’t Morton’s first year playing university football; he spent two years prior playing for Susquehanna University—an NCAA Division III University—where he accomplished phenomenal feats. “In the States, I was a two-time all-conference selection and All-Amer-ican,” says Morton.

Morton began playing football at the age of six; he was initially in-terested in becoming a quarterback and punting was something else he was good at. “I grew a passion for kicking after I was cut in my fresh-

man year of high school and real-ized that punting was my ultimate talent,” he says.

In the Canadian rules of football, the punter and kicker have more op-portunities to kick during a game because of the three-down rule, compared to the four-down rule in America. If the offence doesn’t get within field goal range or score a touchdown, Morton will be given the tall task of kicking the ball as

hard, high, and accurately as pos-sible.

“In Canada, my role is highlighted more than in America. Football is football at the end of the day; how-ever, Canadian football is a much more fun game to play,” says Mor-ton. This past season he punted 68 times in seven games, but in Susque-hanna he punted only 50 times in 10 games.

A career in executive recruiting or

hotel management also enticed Mor-ton to take the trip over the border. “The University of Toronto was the best educational opportunity that I could obtain; it was an opportunity I could not turn down,” he says.

Unfortunately, Morton and the Varsity Blues finished with a 3-5 record, one game shy of making the playoffs. Regardless, Morton is ecstatic with the relationships he’s built and places he’s seen over the

past few months. “I love the city of Toronto and the guys on the team, there’s no team I’d rather play for,” says Morton. “It’s a family and one of the best teams to be a part of.”

Morton has an unusual punt form that is more typically seen in Ameri-ca. Most CIS punters control the ball around their hip and drop it a foot before making contact and swing-ing their leg. Morton holds the ball chest-high, allowing the ball to fall a few feet. Morton didn’t change his kicking form because he was already good at what he was doing before. “It is easy to maintain something that you enjoy doing and are good at,” he says.

With two years of eligibility left, Morton looks to refine his craft even more for a hopeful professional football career. “I am working hard to pursue a professional career—this year will be a huge year for me. [Training] with the team will help me achieve that goal this offseason, along with a few elite camps in the offseason,” he said. Over the winter months, he can punt in the inflatable dome that covers Varsity Field.

Morton will train with his Var-sity Blues squad this offseason with hopes of beginning 2016 on the same foot he left off this year.

Combating the stressful time of yearHelp yourself destress during exams by working out and participating in athletic events at UTM

University students are ignoring a significant stress release: exercise. December signals the start of an es-calating workload, beginning with essays and ending with exams. Stu-dents are under pressure to complete all of their assignments, leading to an increase in stress and an emphasis on time management. A simple solution is exercise, but it is not a priority.

Louise Vanderwees, the UTM ath-letic program coordinator, says that the students she talks to “often work out less because they find themselves busy”. The priority is to study and ex-ercise gets pushed to the side.

“Students who have a consistent exercise plan are more likely to ex-ercise, but the hope is for more stu-dents to exercise to reduce stress,” she says.

UTM fitness program assistant and personal trainer Cindy Mac-Donald and UTMAC president Belal Raifai echo the same sentiment.

MacDonald says, “Attendance [in the gym] drops off, and this shouldn’t happen because exercise is a good stress relief.”

“During the first two weeks, the gym is packed, but during December you can see it’s practically empty,” says Raifai. “Students are extremely busy with courses—a lot of exams are happening at the same time—so students tend to work out less, which is bad because working out and exer-cise is one of the best ways to destress both physically and mentally.”

Regular studying habits are crucial to success, but exercise improves the overall quality of life.

“Physical activity helps man-ages stress because it helps reduce stress hormones (e.g., cortisol) and promotes the production of endor-phins that help elevate mood,” says health education coordinator Chad Jankowski, adding that physical ex-

ercise also helps “clear the mind so you can return to your studies fresh”.

“During stressful periods like ex-ams, it’s tempting for students to cut out physical activity to create more time for studying, but that studying isn’t as efficient and can lead to burn-out and overall poorer performance,” he says.

“Exercise helps reduce stress lev-

els, but students get busy doing as-signments [and] they are too tired for physical activity. Students create their schedule and decide what can go and that is exercise, but it should be a priority,” says MacDonald.

There are alternatives for students who are interested in exercise other than going to the gym.

“There are increased efforts by many on campus to minimize stress around exam time in other ways, such as instructors, departments, and services participating in the Exam Jam by offering review ses-sions, relaxation workshops, and fun activities, and things like student union ‘destressor’ events,” says dean of student affairs Mark Overton.

Earlier this week, UTMAC hosted a FIFA tournament with prizes and free food. Raifai says that about 40 to 50 students came to the event. For him, these events allow students to “disconnect from academics and so-cialize”. He hopes to make this a sta-ple for students and says more activi-ties will occur in the second semester during midterms and exams.

ERIC HEWITSONSPORTS EDITOR

MARTIN BAZYL/PHOTOIn seven games, Morton punted 68 times, averaging 40.2 yards per punt.

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

Taking the stairs or parking far away are found to improve study and sleep habits.

Stress continued on page 12

SAMINA SULTANA

12 «SPORTS THE MEDIUM 11.30.2015

Destress this December

According to Raifai, the best way to get students involved is to reach out and learn about what events they want to see and create an open door policy for students to express themselves.

If you start exercising more of-ten, hopefully regularly, you feel less stressed. Exercise improves your mood and helps you sleep better.

Vanderwees believes things get out of balance very quickly for some students during exams.

“Everything is good in bal-ance—eating a good healthy meal, getting lots of sleep before an exam, and getting a quick work-out before an exam if you can,” she recommends.

For students interested in going to the gym, Raifai says they should review their schedule and make the time, but remember to have reasonable goals. The purpose of the exercise is to be more active, to have more energy, and it doesn’t have to involve going straight to the gym.

An alternative Vanderwees provides is “taking the stairs to your exam; anything to get your body moving”. She is aware that students don’t always have time. “Take a break and go for a brisk walk, go to the gym, or go swim-

ming, and come back and focus. You have to [do] something, and this helps you concentrate more,” she suggests.

According to her, some benefits of exercise are “circulation im-provement, you focus better, and you manage your time better. Your body is more efficient, and your mind thinks better”.

MacDonald suggests “incorpo-rating a little exercise into daily life; for instance, taking the stairs and parking far away so the walk on campus is longer”. Another suggestion is to “find a friend that holds you accountable”.

And for students who might not come to the gym, there are fitness classes such as yoga, the mind-body program with a drop-in schedule, and the option of a per-sonal trainer. For a quieter setting, there is yogilates, and for the more energetic, there are boot camp classes in the athletic facilities.

Students looking for opportuni-ties to destress can join the MoveU Sneaker Squad, who are going on their final walks this week. On Thursday, SOC100 lecturer Na-than Innocente will join them. Hot chocolate will be offered for students on the walk. The MoveU Crew will also participate in Exam Jam and run a physical activity auction to promote healthy, active living during the exam period. Sneaker Squad will also lead short walks as study breaks.

The best result of exercise is brain stimulation. You are more relaxed, less anxious, and the ex-ercise gives you a break to sharpen your mind, strengthening focus for studying. Take advantage of the opportunities on campus of-fered this December.

Eagles soar to the top

The UTM Eagles remain on top of the standings with another win last Wednesday against the St. George Red hockey team. For the second game in a row, the Eagles made a final-minute comeback to keep their record at an impressive 4-0-1 over the first half of the season. With four wins and only one tie, the Eagles remain at the top over all other U of T campuses.

Defenceman Shawn Flynn scored an important first period goal—he squeezed into the front of the net past St. George defenders, putting the puck past their goaltender.

Third-year criminology and socio-legal studies student Vic Geborski also shined that evening.

With time winding down in the third period, Geborski received a pass through the neutral zone and man-aged to find the back of the net, mak-ing the score 3-3 and giving hope for another Eagles win. With less than a minute to go in the game, Geborski received another pass from linemate German Pozdnyakov up centre ice, where he again put it past the UTSG Red goaltender and gave the Eagles the lead—it also gave Geborski a hat trick.

“Scoring a hat trick in the final game of the year felt pretty nice, thinking back to it,” Geborski said.

“But at the moment I was just happy that the team was able to come back from being down most of the game and winning 4-3.”

The Eagles over the last two weeks have been a dominating third-period team, making two comebacks in a row by scoring three goals in the third period against UTSG Black last week to tie the game. The final goal against UTSG Black came with 12 seconds left on the clock, then, against UTSG Red, there were two goals in the final five minutes.

Of course, it wasn’t only Geborski who generated these goals. “The big-gest help would be the players who made the play happen for me to get the shot off,” said Geborski.

All the players know that they need the team behind one another—plays are never made by only one individual. “I wouldn’t have gotten those chances if the goalie wasn’t making the saves and the defence weren’t making the right plays and getting the puck up to the forwards,” said Geborski.

“We hadn’t had our best games against the St. George teams, but be-ing able to come back, and squeak out a win and a tie while being down with two minutes to go really shows how talented we are, how much the guys want it, and how we have come together,” said coach Mike Keaveney.

As a third-period team over the last two games, all the players are pushing

to make the final moments happen, and in two weeks, they have. When Geborski scored the game-winning goal the benches exploded with cheer-ing. “Those are the moments that make this fun.”

Of course, as with any team, the players have gelled with each other over the last few months, and that too can be part of why the team is playing so well together.

“What I love most about playing with the Eagles is how easygoing ev-eryone is,” Geborski said. “It’s always a fun time for games and practices. We come out hard in games and are focused, but there is always space for laughter and jokes.”

As the Eagles store away their gear for the Christmas break, they end this half of the season with nine points and 25 goals, leading the standings.

“I know the guys, and I’m sure they will be eating a lot, studying a lot, and not playing too much hockey,” Keav-eney said about the upcoming break. “I anticipate a few of them to be out of shape. We’re going to have to wallop the ice in the New Year to prepare for the second half.”

In five games, the Eagles have made more progress, shocked more play-ers, and had more fun than any of the players expected. Whether it is the players, the coaching, or a combina-tion of the two, the team is having a fantastic year.

DANIEL BILYKASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR

You began the school year with the res-olution that you’d hit the weight room multiple times a week, you’ve worked tremendously hard to get where you are today, and thankfully you’ve no-ticed some pretty impressive results—like you don’t even feel sorry for check-ing yourself out because “damn”. Every week, you’ve been adding weight to your lifts and every week you’ve gotten stronger, but for some reason, in recent weeks you haven’t been able to push through—what gives? Well, you’ve hit a plateau, and it’s your responsibility to get out of it. Here’s what has happened and what you can do to get through it.

DIETYou were 180 pounds eating 2,600 calories a day at the beginning of the year. You added 10 pounds of active, healthy muscle from September to No-vember—good job—but since the be-ginning of November you still see 190 pounds on your scale, or you’ve pos-sibly even lost weight? This is because you’re still eating 2,600 calories a day.

You’re eating enough to maintain that body weight but not enough to grow any more. If you weigh 200 pounds today—hypothetical situation—and you want to work out, multiply 200 by 15, which equals 3,000 (math genius over here). That number is how many calories you should aim to eat today—you’ll always get enough energy to build muscle. Next week if you’re 202 pounds, your caloric intake will be 3,030.

To maintain a healthy diet, make protein 40 percent of your daily caloric intake, carbohydrates 40 percent, and fats 20 percent. Both protein and carbs are four calories per gram, while fat is nine calories per gram. Someone who is 200 pounds should eat 300 grams of protein, 300 grams of carbs, and 67 grams of fats. Obviously, mom’s cook-ing is the best and completely irresist-ible, but try this and watch your work-outs explode.

SAME ROUTINE EVERY DAYIf you’re doing the same thing every day, there isn’t anything shocking your system anymore. There’s no more of the intensity that you once had. Aim to do

things that make you think, “Damn, that looks hard; I wonder if I can do that?” not, “I know I can do that, so that’s just what I’ll do.” Increase the intensity and explosiveness of the ex-ercise.Another trick is to change the repeti-tion count every day. For example, on Monday, do 12 reps per set, Wednesday 6 reps, then on Friday, do your exercise until failure—that’s a shock to the sys-tem. Also, change rest time between sets; on Monday, wait 30 seconds be-tween sets, but on Wednesday, hold for a minute. Lastly, change the repetition tempo. For example, play with a pull-up repetition count, do 4, 3, 2, 1 on Monday, then 5, 2, 2, 2 on Wednesday.

SLEEPSince your body recovers when you sleep, your body needs sleep (again, ge-nius). If you aren’t getting seven to nine hours a night, you’re neither physically nor mentally resting, contributing to overtraining and injuries. If you’re hav-ing trouble getting into a better sleep-ing pattern, try melatonin or valarian root a little while before your desired sleep time.

Stress continued from page 11

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUMYour body needs seven to nine hours of sleep to recover mentally and physically.

ERIC HEWITSONSPORTS EDITOR

THE MEDIUM WEEKLY SCOREBOARD

UPCOMING GAMES

Toronto - 5 Lakehead - 4

Varsity Blues Men’s HockeyToronto - 6 Lakehead - 5

Toronto - 2 Nipissing - 3

Varsity Blues Women’s HockeyToronto - 3 Laurentian - 1

Varsity Blues Men’s VolleyballToronto - 3 Western - 0

Varsity Blues Women’s BasketballToronto - 74 Ryerson - 87

Varsity Blues Women’s BasketballToronto vs. WesternToronto vs. Wilfrid LaurierToronto vs. VictoriaToronto vs. York

12/28/201512/29/201512/30/201501/08/2016

Varsity Blues Women’s HockeyToronto vs. YorkToronto vs. McGill

01/02/201601/03/2016

“Physical activity helps manage stress

hormones and promotes the production of

endorphins, which help elevate mood.”