Andrew Mrozowski interviews MSU Presidential Candidate Krystina Koc. Watch the video for some hot wings and hot takes:
[Video Description: Andrew Mrozowski sits down with MSU Presidential Candidate Krystina Koc at Twelve Eighty for an interview. Andrew asked Krystina four questions as they ate wings of increasing heat and spice intensity]
With the slogan “Earth Toned Prezidante for a Toned Earth,” Jackson Tarlin presents a four pillar platform full of unorthodox proposals that aim to improve student life and enhance campus. Where Tarlin may score a ten in humour, he scores a zero in feasibility.
Tarlin’s plan to divide McMaster’s campus into five zones, with each zone corresponding to different levels of permitted expression, is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The harms largely outweigh any possible benefit, and it would be impossible for Tarlin to overcome legal obstacles to achieve his first platform point.
Another one of Tarlin’s proposals to improve student life is to publicly shame unsatisfactory water fountains. Unfortunately for Tarlin, however, water fountains do not have feelings. His suggestion to publicly shame water fountains will not result in water fountains learning to “toe the line — or else”. Merriam Webster defines water fountains as machines and devices, structures that have one function and can neither change nor adapt. These structures cannot make their water warmer, increase their own water pressure or change their taste, which Tarlin highlights as problems that need fixing. In addition, Facility Services have already installed signs above most water fountains on campus with a phone number that students may call if they encounter problems.
As part of his plan to enhance clubs and services, Tarlin aims to hire enough staff for The Silhouette to release issues daily. He plans to secure funding for this by raising the tuition of a select 20 students by thousands of dollars each. It is unclear how Tarlin would select these lucky few. Furthermore, Tarlin neglected to consult The Silhouette about the feasibility of this proposal.
As the old saying goes, solar panels don’t grow on trees. While McMaster would benefit from an energy retrofit, purchasing and installing solar panels would require large investments from the university. Although solar energy may become cheaper in the future, Tarlin has shown neither research nor consultation to back up his plan to install solar panels on trees around campus. Furthermore, Tarlin does not consider the ecological damage that may result from putting solar panels on trees. This is particularly surprising given that Tarlin has an entire platform point dedicated to protecting animal species on campus.
If there was one action point that could sum up Tarlin’s whole platform, it would be his plan to fund and build a stationary campus monorail in the roughly three metre passageway between MUSC and Mills. The magnitude of this cost is not even worth investigating. Other than functioning as a high-tech tunnel, the monorail would provide no benefit to students.
Climate change and affordability are two themes that could be important for students. While Tarlin names these issues, he neglects to provide actionable steps towards addressing them.
From random ideas, such as taking down a tree near Togo Salmon Hall, to training McMaster geese to be more violent, Tarlin has a lot going on in his platform. Unfortunately, none of it is useful.
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With the slogan “Here to stay,” Giancarlo Da-Ré’s overarching themes are sustainability and accessibility. While he states that 100 consultations informed his platform, some key ones are missing. Da-Ré does not explain how many of his points will be achieved.
Da-Ré did not outline a specific strategy to ban the sale of plastic water bottles on campus. He also does not acknowledge that a similar initiative was attempted previously. In 2017, Justin Monaco-Barnes, the MSU President at the time, implemented a ban on plastic water bottle sales at Union Market. UM then reversed the ban after Monaco-Barnes’s term as President, citing a slump in sales. Da-Ré has not contacted Monaco-Barnes about this issue. Overall, Da-Ré does not explain why he will succeed in implementing a ban when it has failed in the past.
While other Canadian universities have phased out water bottle sales, Da-Ré does not specify tangible steps towards achieving this initiative at McMaster. According to his platform, he plans to work with the Sustainability Council and the University to facilitate the ban. However, he does not clarify what this partnership will entail, or how he plans to pressure the university to implement the change.
Da-Ré’s aims to reduce the cost of select hot beverages at Union Market from $1.40 to $1.00 on the first Monday of each month, provided that students bring reusable mugs. While this could help incentivize environmentally friendly habits, Da-Ré failed to consult Union Market Manager Lilia Olejarz about its feasibility.
“If any presidential candidates have points about Union Market in their platform, I would encourage people to take them with a grain of salt . . . It’s relatively common for presidential candidates to make promises or have platform points about the Union Market, [but] sometimes they’re not properly educated on how Union Market is run and what is feasible,” said Olejarz.
Additionally, Da-Ré’s plan for The Grind to offer reusable ‘For Here’ mugs is already being carried out. Richard Haja, the food and beverage manager for The Grind, verified that mugs have already been ordered for this purpose and that they will be used in the future. Haja also confirmed that Da-Ré did not consult him on the feasibility of reusable mug discounts.
As part of his plan to enhance student life, Da-Ré plans to update all MSU Operating Policies and other MSU Workplace Documents. While he accurately points out that operating policies and other documents are in urgent need of updating, AVP Internal Governance Graeme Noble has already kickstarted the process of updating MSU Operating Policies and Bylaws within the next five years. With a plan already in place, it is unclear what role Da-Ré would play in this process.
There is evidence that Da-Ré did his due diligence while researching some of his platform points. For example, he accurately states that McMaster will accumulate up to $100,000 in daily fines if the MSU website is not AODA-compliant by January 2021. However, vice president (Finance) Alexandrea Johnston recently released a report claiming that the website will likely be completed by the end of her term. Furthermore, the role of the MSU President in the transition to an AODA-compliant website is not clear, as this year the project was spearheaded by the VP (finance), not the MSU president.
Da-Ré’s claims that the McMaster University Student Centre is physically inaccessible. According to MUSC Director Lori Diamond, the building was AODA compliant in 2002, at the time that it was built. However, Diamond admits that there is still room to improve the building’s accessibility. She also states that there has not been a full-scale audit of MUSC since it was built.
While Da-Ré did not consult Maccess to inform his platform, Maccess Coordinator Brittany Allan is supportive of a full-scale environmental audit of MUSC.
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With the slogan “Time to Be Heard,” Krystina Koc focuses on advocacy and student life enhancement. While her platform is broad-reaching in scope, it lacks specificity and relies on existing McMaster Students Union plans.
For example, as a part of her advocacy pillar, Koc plans to make the MSU’s internal processes, such as conflict management and MSU service reviews, more efficient. By her own admission, this would be a continuation of current MSU President Josh Marando’s work. Regardless, Koc does not lay out a strategy for how she would build on Marando’s work or add to it.
Koc’s proposals to improve transparency have potential, but they fall short due to a lack of detail. She proposes publishing bi-annual reports with updates on work being done by the MSU. The Board of directors currently uses several communication strategies, which include office hours, the President’s Page in The Silhouette and updates during SRA meetings. Koc also did not clarify exactly what the bi-annual reports would contain, nor did she explain how their content would differ from other reports that the board releases.
Another one of Koc’s goals is to improve student safety. She plans to achieve this by increasing lighting in student neighbourhoods, facilitating safety measures with landlords and creating video modules with instructions intended to help students manage potentially unsafe situations. Her platform does not clarify how consultations with landlords would help improve student safety, nor does it outline exactly what safety measures she would strive to implement through consultation with landlords. Furthermore, this platform point does not account for health and safety concerns in student housing that arise due to neglectful landlords, who may be unwilling to engage in this type of consultation.
Marando’s municipal affairs team has conducted an off-campus lighting survey and, recently, conducted a lighting audit with Ward 1 City Councillor Maureen Wilson. It is unclear how Koc would use Marando’s initiatives to inform her proposal.
Koc also wants to re-open discussions on McMaster’s Department of Athletics and Recreation’s tank top ban at the Pulse. However, the policy is already being reviewed by the department’s Fitness Coordinator Lee-Ann Wilson and other senior management staff, in response to a student who put forward an inquiry earlier in the academic year. It is unclear how Koc’s platform point would factor into these existing discussions.
All four of Koc’s platform points regarding student life enhancement also lack specificity and consultation.
Koc aims to review all McMaster clubs in order to discern those that have been inactive for six months or have overlapping purposes. Regulating clubs based on inactivity would involve a change in the MSU Clubs Operating policy. Section 8.1.15 states that clubs need to hold only one general meeting per year, in addition to completing other responsibilities, to maintain their MSU clubs status.
Furthermore, Koc’s plan to combine clubs that have the same mission and values is already reflected the Clubs Operating Policy. Section 4.4 of the policy states that, if multiple clubs are found to have the same purpose, the Clubs Administrator will try to find different niches for them, or otherwise merge or disband the clubs. Unless Koc plans to update the Operating Policy to refine the criteria for duplicate clubs, this platform point is redundant. Furthermore, Clubs Administrator Aditi Sharma, who is responsible for ratifying and monitoring clubs, stated that she was not formally consulted about this platform point.
To enhance services within student life, Koc focuses on the Union Market. Koc claims that Union Market’s shelves are often left empty as shipments needed to refill them come in too late. According to Union Market Manager Lilia Olejarz, this is untrue.
“I wouldn't say we have a delay in restocking . . . a risk with when you’re dealing with fresh food is if you place a really large order, there’s the potential you will have some food waste. We’re trying to best serve the community by making sure our products are high quality but also making sure we’re not contributing to food waste on campus,” said Olejarz.
Koc did not consult the Union Market Manager to inform her platform point. In fact, her plan to advocate for Union Market to accept student cards may lead to more expensive products.
“It’s definitely possible to get meal plan accepted in Union Market but that might mean we have to increase our prices,” said Olejarz.
Despite dedicating entire platform points to food security and mental health services, Koc consulted neither Food Collective Centre nor Maccess, the MSU services that oversee these respective areas. A lack of consultation casts into question the feasibility of many of Koc’s platform points.
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By Donna Nadeem, Contributor
As part of a year-long residency at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, artist Reinhard Reitzenstein is exploring ideas of the natural world and technology through sculpture and drawing in collaboration with the Hamilton community. While an established artist, Reitzenstein’s residency has been an opportunity to reintroduce himself and his artistic identity to the public sphere.
Reitzenstein graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1971. His work explores the relationship between nature, cultural science and technology while utilizing installation, sculptures, drawings, photography and sound as his medium of choice. Over the course of his career, Reitzenstein has been described as an environmental artist with focuses on land and ecology, and an allegorical minimalist after creating his own art movement combining allegory and minimalism.
Allegory refers to abstract ideas and principles in forms of storytelling, figures and events, while minimalism is a style that focuses on the simplest of forms and techniques. A seemingly contradictory combination of these two concepts allow Reitzenstein to create visual pieces that are meant to change and unsettle the viewers' perceptions.
Entering the AGH exhibition, you’re greeted by a quote from the artist depicting what he understands his movement to be. “Allegorical minimalism: paradoxical synthesis of the material and natural world, challenging the perceptions of the spectator (as critic) while denying not only a fixed interpretation but the very possibility of interpretation itself.”
Reitzenstein began his residency with the intention of developing at least one or two projects and the capacity to focus on them for a duration of year. This allowed him to engage in a gradual creation process. The space itself was another dimension Reitzenstein had to take into consideration. High and vaulted ceilings along with windows bringing in natural lighting from every direction allowed Reitzenstein to push his sculptures and drawings further to produce larger work that force observation and interaction.
[pjc_slideshow slide_type="reitzenstein-agh"]
The exhibition features two communal projects that have created an opportunity for community members to contribute through various workshops and interactive tours.
The first piece, the Erable Project, is composed of an array of discs suspended in the middle of the room. The discs are individually cut sections of a tree and hung horizontally next to each other. Reitzenstein created some of the discs, while community members contributed to others, creating a diversity of unique colour choices and designs. Each piece is covered in an assortment of wet felt. The soft material requires constant repetitive motions to achieve a desired outcome.
“Some of the kids who were here working on the wet felting got really into it and it was incredible. There's something about the tactility [of felting] that connects to people and allows them to focus and concentrate. It seems to have a therapeutic effect,” said Reitzenstein.
The second piece is a large communal tree drawing done with white gel pens on a black wall. After reflecting on the diversity of languages practiced in the Hamilton area, Reitzenstein decided to ask community participants to add to the drawing by writing the words ‘tree’ or ‘maple’ in their own languages.
The piece includes approximately 58 different languages and counting. As more and more words in different languages get added to the drawing, the tree visually reflects on the cultural diversity of the Hamilton community.
“I wanted to make it a community project where, again, we do workshops with community groups. I thought it would be great too because of the multicultural aspect of our region now, and to make sure everybody has a voice here,” said Reitzenstein.
The David Braley and Nancy Gordon Sculpture Atrium is also filled with Reitzenstein’s bronze sculptures and other art pieces from the museum’s permanent collections. Reitzenstein chose the pieces to coincide with his exploration of allegorical minimalism throughout his residency at the AGH.
In Residence: Reitzenstein is still a work-in-progress at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King St. West). It will be exhibiting until March 29 and is free to all McMaster students with a valid student card.
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Giancarlo Da-Ré is a Level V chemical biology student at McMaster.
Da-Ré has held several positions within the McMaster Students Union, including Creating Leadership Amongst Youth part-time manager, Spark sessions coordinator and Horizons leadership developer. He is currently the residence orientation advisor for the Peter George Centre for Living and Learning.
Da-Ré’s platform highlights three areas that serve as umbrellas for 14 actionable points: accessibility, climate action and student experience.
Accessibility
To address accessibility concerns at McMaster, Da-Ré proposes six points.
The first point proposes a new MSU website that is both easier to navigate and in line with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
His second point aims to increase the number of McMaster courses that use Echo360, a system that records lecture audio and visuals and stores them online for students to access. The MacPherson institute is one of the partners that Da-Ré would work with to fulfill this initiative.
Da-Ré’s third point calls for an environmental audit of the McMaster University Student Centre. His platform states that the building is currently physically inaccessible and that an audit could be used by future years to inform MUSC improvements.
Citing mental health difficulties as one of the largest concerns for students, Da-Ré’s fourth point plans to advocate for additional Student Wellness Centre counsellors. He would also raise awareness of the Student Assistance Plan, a free online platform that offers psychological counselling to McMaster students among other services.
Da-Ré also aims to address financial barriers to being a Welcome Week Representative by introducing a voluntary “Welcome Week Rep Suit rental program”. Currently, rep suits cost approximately $60, with additional costs for extra decorating supplies. Through this program, Welcome Week Representatives could pay a deposit for a rep suit, which would be reimbursed upon the return of a clean rep suit.
Along with advocating for Ontario Student Assistance Program, Da-Ré plans to simplify McMaster’s scholarship and grant application process by transitioning to a fully online system. This would include collaborating with the Financial Aid office to provide workshops and advice on students’ applications.
Climate Action
Da-Ré’s platform has four points based on climate action.
He plans to collaborate with the McMaster Sustainability Council to work on phasing out the sale of plastic water bottles on campus. He cites 14 other Canadian universities that have banned the sale of plastic water bottles on their campuses.
Da-Ré would introduce a self-serve cleaning station for reusable mugs at The Grind. He would also increase storage space “for-here” mugs, plates and cutlery. The Grind currently uses single-use counterparts, which Da-Ré calls costly and unsustainable.
With his third point, Da-Ré plans to reduce cross-contamination of waste products by developing consistent waste signage and increasing the number of green bins on campus. He claims that cross-contamination of waste streams is one of the largest problems for Facility Services and increases waste sent to landfills.
Da-Ré’s fourth point aims to reduce the use of single-use coffee cups on campus. He suggests a program that would allow students to buy select hot beverages at The Grind or Union Market for $1 on the first Monday of every month, provided they bring a reusable mug.
Student Experience
Da-Ré dedicates five points in his platform to improving the student experience at McMaster.
The first of these points aims to support international students by increasing communication between MSU cultural clubs and the Student Success Centre. Da-Ré also plans to introduce an international student support and resource committee.
Da-Ré aims to create a teaching module about consent culture that outlines services, policies and supports on campus related to sexual violence. He would make this new consent culture module mandatory for all Welcome Week Representatives.
Da-Ré plans to update all MSU Operating Policies and MSU Workplace Documents on his new MSU website to ensure that none of them are outdated.
He also aims to release a survey in Summer 2020 to gauge how students would like to interact with the MSU’s Board of Directors. The BoD currently uses the “President’s Page” in The Silhouette to address the student population; Da-Ré claims that this is not regular enough. He would include more frequent captioned video updates on social media and have the BoD hold “office hours”.
Da-Ré intends to follow the recommendations of third-party consultants hired by the current BoD to create a long-term financial plan for the MSU.
More information can be found on his website gc-2020.com.
Although the women’s hockey team has been struggling these past few years, they’ve been making efforts to concentrate on the future. Their main focus for the rest of the season is to finish with a positive win total and perform well at the upcoming tournaments. While not being an official McMaster Varsity team, they play in the ever-competitive senior “A” level Golden Horseshoe Women’s Hockey League.
Currently sitting with six wins, eight losses and two ties with another 11 games remaining on the schedule, a winning season is still well within their reach. The team is quite competitive with several high point players creating opportunities at every end of the ice. Some of the top scorers being Tiffany Negata, who leads the team with ten goals scored across the season while Katie Wilkinson leads the team in assists with five.
Even though the Marauders show promise, the other teams in the GHWHL are also well built. No matter the competition, Sara Valentini noted that the team is setting their sights to gold in the GHWHL year-end tournament as well as placing within the Ontario Women’s Hockey League Provincials tournament. The Marauders set these goals to show a fighting spirit and a relentless thirst for success, these traits indicate that they will not go down without a fight.
The schedule going forward will have its challenges as the women’s hockey team faces hard opponents and make it a priority to end the season with more wins, earning them a greater shot at the final tournament. With momentum on the Marauders side, having just crushed the Ancaster Avalanche four to nothing, they hope to ride the wave of this dominant performance into their next matchup against the St. Catharines Jets.
They will be playing their hardest opponents, the St. Catherine’s Jets, on Friday Jan. 24. The team is firing on all cylinders to prepare for this crucial matchup. Having only lost their last matchup by one goal, for a final score of three to two, Valentini is confident they will be able to pull off the win as long as they stick to the game plan and shut down key attackers on the Jets.
Given the Jets placed first overall in the GHWHL, largely due to their offensive prowess, the game plan is to have a strong defensive line. If the Marauders can cool down the Jets’ league-leading hot offence with solid defensive positional hockey, Valentini says, this will shut down attacking opportunities for the Jets. On the offensive side of the puck, the Marauders are looking to take an aggressive approach utilizing key team leaders, such as Negata, Wilkinson and Miller, to create scoring opportunities. Valentini was quite confident in the team's ability to come out on top of this matchup and if the game script is effectively employed they should have no problem in doing so.
One of the most important things in sports is a strong mentality and positive outlook, something co-president and team member Sara Valentini clearly embodies. With sights set on the horizon, the women’s hockey team has a tall peak to climb. The journey to the top is always a long and difficult trip. With the right team attitude, a clear competence in goal scoring and the opportunity making assist leaders, this trip may play out a little more in their favour.
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By Esra Rakab, Contributor
“University is a learning experience, it’s okay to fail.”
These words that are intended to comfort me echo through my mind at every instance of academic hardship. University is often advertised as a place for learning and self-discovery, but this narrative often only applies to privileged, higher-income students. As an immigrant student from a low-income background and challenges with mental health, I’ve always been perplexed as to how this wasn’t just a privileged oversimplification of the emotional, physical, and financial burdens that often accompany enrollment in university for students of lower income. After all, when students who are well-off fail courses or decide to pursue additional years of education, their families can often support that decision financially. On the contrary, a student struggling similarly with their education would not have that support to fall back on. With little support, low-income students must navigate an education system designed for students without such pressures and financial difficulties, and are thrown into a cycle where there is seemingly no escape.
Even with the Ontario Student Assistance Plan, numerous low-income families struggle to meet the yearly cost of university to invest in their future. OSAP is unforgiving of students who, often for valid reason, fall below their academic standing requirements. OSAP-assisted students often face familial, personal or financial challenges, which can manifest as academic hardship, since students lose the capacity or time to devote to their studies. Rather than supporting students in such extenuating circumstances, the institution punishes them through academic probation and OSAP reductions or cuts. What implication does this have on the well-being of low-income students, who are pressured to excel in university and graduate as soon as possible, only to be thrown into an increasingly competitive job market? While their debt accumulates and while finding employment post-undergraduate becomes increasingly difficult, the pressure to graduate quickly heightens.
As much as I desperately want to advocate that it’s okay to fail and learn from our mistakes, I have experienced whirlwinds of anxiety in thinking that my mental health might set me back a year to prolong my education or increase my loans and costs.
As a result, any effort to keep my grades sufficiently “competitive” came at the cost of my well-being. Despite this, I could not succumb to the exhaustion and anxiety because the consequences of performing poorly in school would be too great to bear. Institutionally, we are thrown into a cycle where we fall thousands of dollars in debt in hopes of finding a job, yet our education may become jeopardized while we try to stay afloat. Low-income students often also work part-time to help pay fees, but the time commitment comes at the cost of their education; students are locked into positions where their ability to meet standards of academic performance is hindered. Paradoxically, we may come out of university even more financially burdened than when we started, and must find a way out. This is a challenge that higher income students usually do not have to consider seriously, often allowing many of them to enjoy and excel in their education with little financial burden.
I cannot advocate that our grades don’t define us without acknowledging my hypocrisy when I criticize myself for falling short. We’re given little guidance on what to do with failure and how to succeed despite it; The only students who share their marks are “straight A” students; the only students who share their work experience share what positions accepted them, rather than what rejected them. The perspective skews towards one of communal success, while students who are struggling are left on the sidelines.
While individuals can seek support services, like by taking loans or seeking therapy (which is also paradoxically expensive), the solution needs to target the system. Changes in the university structure, financial aid, student support and a greater focus on permitting work-life balance may provide us with stepping stones, but these inherent inequities that lead to disparities in students’ well-being and success need to be addressed by institutions, the Ontario Student Assistance Plan and students benefiting from this systemic privilege.
I’m sick of falling prey to this system. For once, I want to be able to say, “It’s okay if we fail, we can learn from this,” and truly, genuinely mean it.
On Dec. 16, 2019, Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney informed Fred Eisenberger, the mayor of Hamilton, that the provincial government had decided to cancel plans for Hamilton’s light-rail transit system, which was set to begin construction in 2020. After Mulroney called for a press conference to deliver the cancellation news in Hamilton, she cancelled it due to safety concerns linked to the large crowd that had gathered for her announcement. Instead, Mulroney issued a statement and cited impractical costs as the reason for the LRT’s cancellation.
“. . . The [LRT] project will actually cost five times more than the previous [provincial] government led us all to believe,” said Mulroney in her statement.
The proposed corridor was set to extend from McMaster to Eastgate Square, amounting to a new 14 km system.
THE MEETING
Prior to this termination, Eisenberger says that the provincial government had given no indication that the project would be cancelled or that a press conference was to be called [on Dec. 16, 2019]. He also claims that on April 10, 2019, Premier Doug Ford had sent Jeff Yurek, the previous Minister of Transportation, to Hamilton to confirm that the provincial government would support the LRT’s construction.
Eisenberger considers Ford’s failure to follow through a betrayal.
“You said Nov. 28, 2018: ‘When people democratically elect someone, if he wants an LRT, he’s gonna get an LRT,’ adding ‘that’s democracy,’” said Eisenberger in an open letter to the office of the Premier.
THE COST
In May 2015, Premier Wynne promised the city of Hamilton $1 billion to fund capital costs of the LRT project. In September 2019, a meeting between the Ministry of Transportation and Hamilton revealed that the preliminary project budget for the LRT, including both capital and non-capital costs, ranged from $4.6 billion to $6.5 billion. The provincial government sent a new estimate to Eisenberger days before the Dec. 16 press conference; this new estimate puts project costs at $5.5 billion.
Eisenberger and his team had questions regarding the new Dec. 12 estimate, which they never had a chance to raise.
According to Mulroney’s Dec. 16 statement, the $5.5 billion estimate came from a report by an “expert third party”.
Kris Jacobson, director of the LRT project office, broke down the difference between capital and non-capital costs. Hamilton has a memorandum of agreement with the provincial agency Metrolinx, where the province is responsible for upfront capital costs. This includes lifecycle costs for the LRT system, such as from construction, purchasing trains and replacing tracks. On the other hand, Hamilton would have been responsible for non-capital costs, such as day-to-day operations and general maintenance of the corridor and stations.
Jacobson noted that without any context, the provincial government’s $5.5 billion estimate is impossible to interpret and verify.
“There’s a lot of options and methodology that are used to develop these numbers that we don’t know . . . so to us, they’re just numbers,” said Jacobson.
THE REACTION
Andrea Horwath, the Member of Provincial Parliament for Hamilton-Centre and leader of the official opposition, held a press conference at Redchurch Café + Gallery, a business along the proposed LRT route. She called on Premier Ford to come forward with the third-party’s detailed cost estimate.
“The bottom line is Mr. Ford’s making up the numbers to justify this cut. So, show us the numbers, show us the report and give us an apples to apples comparison with the other projects that are ongoing right now in our province,” said Horwath.
The Hamilton LRT was estimated to cost $5.5 billion for the 14 kilometre corridor. Similar projects in other jurisdictions include the Hurontario LRT in Mississauga, which is estimated to cost $1.6 billion for an 18 kilometer corridor; the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which is estimated to cost $12 billion for a 19 kilometre corridor, 10 kilometres of which are underground; and the ION LRT expansion in Cambridge, which is estimated to cost $1.4 billion with an 18 kilometre corridor. All of these projects have gone over their original cost estimates. Yet they continue to receive provincial funding.
Horwath highlighted that Metrolinx has spent taxpayer money buying land and creating documents necessary for the procurement process. Metrolinx is now in possession of the stretch of land that would have been the LRT.
Horwath also publicly criticized Donna Skelly, the Member of Provincial Parliament for Flamborough-Glanbrook and the only Progressive Conservative elected in Hamilton.
“There’s no doubt [Skelly] didn’t support [the LRT] as a city councillor, but as I said that’s not the will of the people of [Hamilton]. They voted for a pro-LRT mayor and Ms. Skelly . . . Mr. Ford should respect the right of our municipality to plan its own future and to determine what transportation infrastructure is the best for Hamilton,” said Horwath.
On. Dec. 18, Horwath sent a letter to the Auditor General of Ontario, Bonnie Lysyk requesting the office investigates the rationale behind the LRT cost estimates provided to the public under the Liberal and Provincial Conservative governments.
“The public deserves to receive honest and reasonable cost estimates when assessing the value of public transit projects that cost billions of dollars,” wrote Horwath.
In her reply, Lysyk stated that, as part of an ongoing audit, her office is currently examining Metrolinx. She also declared that she would examine cost estimates for projects such as the LRT.
According to Skelly, the Auditor General’s report will likely be released by the end of 2020.
THE REASONING
For Skelly and her government, the cost was too prohibitive, not only for the province but also for municipal taxpayers. Evidence for this claim is limited to Mulroney’s Dec. 16 statement, in which she claims that, over the 30 year lifespan of the LRT project, taxpayers would have paid $1 billion.
According to Skelly, the provincial government believes the previous Wynne Liberal government was aware that the LRT could not be built for the $1 billion promise, but had informed neither the mayor nor city council.
“I see it as a smart and responsible decision because my priority, and the priority of our government, is to ensure that we respect taxpayers and their hard earned dollars, and money was being spent on a project that should never ever have seen the light of day,” said Skelly in response to the Mayor calling the LRT cancellation a “personal betrayal.”
THE OUTLOOK
The provincial government’s initial $1 billion commitment to the LRT project will be diverted towards Hamilton’s transportation infrastructure.
Skelly believes the commitment provides an incredible opportunity towards the city, specifically when examining the Hamilton Street Railway bus system.
While $1 billion is not enough to finish the LRT, it will be up to the Hamilton Transportation Task Force to determine where this funding should be allocated.
This task force will be comprised of five non-politically affiliated community members, four of which will be decided by the province and one by the city of Hamilton. Their primary role will be to create a list of transportation projects for the Ministry to consider as viable alternatives to the LRT, due by the end of February 2020.
It has been suggested that the Laborers International Union of North America, a pro-LRT labour union, will be involved in some capacity.
Mayor Eisenberger remains committed to the LRT and continues to urge the provincial government to reconsider their decision.
“I’m hopeful but not confident that [the project will be reinstated], but we’ll do everything we can to try to set that kind of change,” said Eisenberger.
Jacobson and his team leading the LRT project also do not see this as the end.
“Who knows what the future holds for LRT in Hamilton . . . here is a commitment to funding transportation and transit improvements in Hamilton, which is a positive. So there is something that’s going to come from this. What is it? That still needs to be determined,” said Jacobson.
The state of transportation in Hamilton will remain in the air until the task force reports to the Minister of Transportation.
The Silhouette reached out to Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney for an interview about the Hamilton LRT project being cancelled, but the Minister declined our request.
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It's no secret that Canada has a long history of systemic racism and injustice. However, much of that history has been buried deep, locked away in old filing cabinets in disused archives. Deanna Bowen's exhibit, A Harlem Nocturne, seeks to break open those cabinets and reveal that history to the world.
Deanna Bowen is an interdisciplinary artist based out of Toronto. Her work explores race, migration, historical writing and authorship. In creating A Harlem Nocturne, she spent three years combing through public and personal archives to uncover the truths of institutionalized racism that have been long forgotten or ignored.
A Harlem Nocturne takes its name from the nightclub that Bowen’s family owned and operated in Vancouver in the 1950s and 60s. It was the only Black-owned nightclub in Vancouver at the time and was subjected to repeated police raids and violence. The exhibit explores the institutionalized racism of the Canadian entertainment industry — and the country as a whole — through the stories of her family members, and others in the industry, from the 1940s through to the 1970s.
Kimberly Phillips, a curator at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, where A Harlem Nocturne was first exhibited, curated the exhibition for the McMaster Museum of Art. Phillips describes Bowen’s work as an effort to expose the past by transforming it into something that’s impossible to ignore or overlook.
“[Bowen] starts with the archival material itself, and so each [artwork] will find its own form, a new form in the world that’s very much through a process of extraction from the archive, a kind of translation, often an enlargement and kind of bringing it forward in a different form than you would’ve encountered it originally,” said Phillips.
One of the more literal ways that this is done is through the physical enlargement of a newspaper ad for the nightclub, Harlem Nocturne. The ad was originally the size of a postage stamp, but is now larger-than-life, taking up much of the gallery wall. By sizing up the ad, Bowen is calling attention to the club, inviting the audience to interact with the document and the history behind it that might have otherwise been overlooked.
“[T]here's no point in having these documents around unless you do something with them … the document existing in and of itself is not is not meaningful. It's like we have to take them up, and in order to take them up, we need to make them visible,” said Phillips.
Several of the pieces in the exhibit are hidden or obscured by black fabric, or are set up to be viewed at a distance. Phillips says that these varying levels of visibility reflect the difficulties that Bowen experienced while compiling her research.
“Deanna and I talked a little bit about how those registers of blackness does a number of things. One, which is speaking towards a kind of sense of opacity, or the kind of difficulty in … actually reaching some of this material, not because it doesn't exist or it's hard to find, but because of the blockages that [Bowen] experienced in the form of archivists and trauma, and other things that you know, different members of the community gatekeeping who gets to tell what story. But it's also a measure of protection as well of not over exposing bodies who have been subjected to discrimination and hyper visibility in certain ways,” said Phillips.
Each aspect of the show is intentional and purposeful, even choosing where to exhibit the show. When choosing where A Harlem Nocturne would be shown, both Phillips and Bowen emphasized the importance of working with other women curators. The McMaster Museum of Art’s Senior Curator is Pamela Edmonds, which is part of the reason why the show is being exhibited there.
[pjc_slideshow slide_type="harlem-nocturne"]
“The word that I used to define all the people that we're working with is that they're all co-conspirators, feminist co-conspirators. And that's something that I think is super important. I liked the idea that we could generate something, a project that could span over many years and many institutions and all of it being done with women. It maybe speaks to an unspoken reality that more often than not, it is women doing this hard labour,” said Bowen.
A Harlem Nocturne blends the personal with the public. One of the pieces is a transcription of an interview between Bowen and her mother, and the exhibit itself is named after a building that was integral to her family. She says that A Harlem Nocturne is a homecoming for her, and in some ways a form of healing.
“[G]rowing up in Vancouver, my family was not always well regarded. And so if anything, I hope that people come away and feel the compassion and love that I have for these people, my family, especially for the hard edges that they have and the rough and tumble-ness of their story. These are beautiful people that have persevered over generations of resistance and discrimination and I hope that people really come to see and value their strength and importance,” said Bowen.
Bowen’s work also applies more broadly, underscoring the realities of life for Black Canadians and the injustices they continue to face today. She emphasizes the idea of perseverance in the face of adversity, and the refusal to be silenced.
“The project also helps to push against... Vancouver's old narrative about [how] 'they used to have a Black community and now it's gone.' This show for me is about affirming 'there used to be a Black community, and we're still here,' and really trying to undermine this notion of again, the demise of a Black community, locally, and then of course, nationally,” said Bowen.
Bowen hopes that viewers will leave the exhibit with new curiosity, and a desire to explore their own family history.
“I would encourage people to see themselves in what I'm doing. There's so much rich history in our own family histories. And I think it's important to emphasize that everybody's family story has some impact on the making of a nation … You know, it's about recognizing that the power to create our history and our personal and our national narrative really does kind of boil down to people like you and I,” said Bowen.
A Harlem Nocturne will be exhibiting for free at the McMaster Museum of Art from Jan.16 - May 9, 2020.
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