The McMaster cross country team had an exceptional run during the fall and they’ve shown no signs of slowing down during their track season. At the Eastern Michigan Can-Am meet on Jan. 25, the top six athletes were McMaster Marauders.
Yes. You read that right. At the top of the podium was none other than Alex Drover. Drover finished the three-kilometre race within eight minutes, 14 seconds and 60 milliseconds, four whole seconds ahead of second-place finisher Sergio Raez-Villanueva. Drover achieved the second-fastest time this season of any runner for a three-kilometre race, and his performance earned him the title of the male Pink’s athlete of the week.
In preparing for a race, not only does Drover have to focus on the physical aspects of competing such as training and eating well, but he also has to prepare mentally.
“Preparing for a race long term is about consistent training. Doing everything you can, sleeping, hydrating, eating properly. [. . .] Just getting your mind in the right place, going into a race with a lot of confidence is important and knowing you can race with a lot of the top guys who are there has been one of the biggest changes to my mental preparation,” Drover said.
Alex Drover - Cross Country/Distance Track
Alex Drover
Diet and what you eat can be huge makes a big difference in sports, as it influences not only for health, and performance and endurance but it can also help increase your longevity. Drover has some particularly interesting insight on his diet and why it helps him. While Drover pays attention to his eating habits, he does not restrict himself too heavily.
“More than specific eating habits it’s more than just eating a generally healthy diet throughout and not deviating too much from it. Not to say I won’t have a dessert, I think it’s worse for you than anything to restrict your diet too much to the point where you’re obsessing over it. A specific thing I eat before races, beets are a good one, the nitrates help open up the blood vessels supposedly. So yea, there’s your fun fact,” Drover laughs.
Whatever Drover’s doing has clearly been working for him, as he has consistently been one of the team’s top performers. Drover finished fifth at the U Sports cross country national championship earlier in the year, which put a huge test on his mental game.
“At the U sports championships in cross country this past year, I fell twice during the race. Once on the first two and a half kilometre lap and once on the last lap. The first lap I fell we were probably 800 meters in the race and at that point, there’s still a bunch of people around so falling can put you twenty or thirty spots back,” said Drover.
The ability to stand back up and continue to push through adversity has long been a defining characteristic of top athletes. Drover’s ability to pick himself back up during that race, and then finish within the top five, is part of why he’s one of Mac’s absolute best runners.
Although he placed first at the Can-Am meet, Drover is setting his sights even further. The David Hemery Valentine Invite, taking place in Boston on Feb. 8 and 9, is renowned for its extremely high level of competition. Drover noted that all of the Marauders on the track team have been preparing for a long time and are looking to set some personal bests at the meet.
The cross country/track team has been outstanding this year, and there is no indication that they’re slowing down. Nabbing the top six spots at their most recent meet is the type of dominance that is almost out of a fairytale. They’ll be facing their top competition yet at the David Hemery Valentine Invite in early February, but it wouldn’t be a long shot to expect to see at least one of our Marauders repping on the podium.
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By Elisa Do, Contributor
“How many of you are thinking of pursuing a career in health care?”
Since my first day at McMaster, I have — on several occasions — been asked this same question by various professors.
Every time, the classroom flooded with hands in the air. And it was safe to say that none of us were surprised.
Health care encompasses a growing range of professions that have become increasingly popular in our world today. This popularity arises from various circumstances, but it is especially due to the growing number of aged “baby boomers.” As folks of that generation age, the number of individuals seeking healthcare also increases. Thus, leading to greater needs for healthcare professionals, and further emphasis on the field’s importance. Considering this, many children are being taught the benefits of building a career within health care, and more specifically, the benefits of becoming a physician. Physicians are known to have high paying salaries, receive a high level of respect, and face considerable job demands.
However, working in health care is meant to be attractive beyond these practical values. To work in healthcare means providing for others; it means caring for complete strangers. And that, to me, is something meaningful.
Unfortunately, when thinking about the opportunities that healthcare can offer, folks tend to brush aside other crucial professions within the field. One of which include the profession of nursing. Nurses are often viewed as inferior to physicians and portrayed as mere subordinates within the media. They are thought to hold fewer skills, when in truth, they simply hold an extremely valuable set of different skills.
When I think about the time I spent in the hospital with my family, I think about the warm smiles of the nurses. I remember their patience, and their acts of kindness that brought my family comfort. That is not to say that the doctors were not helpful during our difficult times, but the level of intimacy was not the same. I remember the way they cheered my family on, and I remember thinking to myself, “I have to give back to this community someday. I have to bring kindness to other families the way that they did for me today.” In the short amount of time that the hospital became my home, those nurses touched me and my family in a way that will last a lifetime.
When I think about the time I spent in the hospital with my family, I think about the warm smiles of the nurses. I remember their patience, and their acts of kindness that brought my family comfort. That is not to say that the doctors were not helpful during our difficult times, but the level of intimacy was not the same. I remember the way they cheered my family on, and I remember thinking to myself, “I have to give back to this community someday. I have to bring kindness to other families the way that they did for me today.” In the short amount of time that the hospital became my home, those nurses touched me and my family in a way that will last a lifetime.
Nurses are not only caregivers, but they can also be involved in treating injuries, administering and managing medications and performing basic life support. Many of their responsibilities are those typically associated with the roles of doctors.
But even with all the responsibilities that nurses carry, many still regard nurses as “assistants” to physicians. Nurses are often thought to be less significant in the hospital as many forget that health care requires a team effort. If you want to provide care for strangers, and wish to have those strangers put faith in you, it takes a lot more than diagnosing conditions or performing surgery. It requires providing emotional and psychological support for patients and their families, maintaining a safe environment for everyone, and taking unique approaches when providing care for each individual.
In an integrative review done by several members of the Department of Nursing Science at the University of Turku, the perceptions of nursing that young people carry were found to inaccurately reflect the profession’s actual responsibilities. In fact, these perceptions have not changed in the last ten years. Nursing was described with poor working conditions, difficult shift work, and low social status. Along with the many stereotypes regarding nurses — such as gender roles and sexualization — found in the media today, many folks fail to further consider the educational requirements and intellectual demands that nurses face.
Before coming to McMaster, I had intended on applying for the undergraduate nursing program. Although I eventually changed my application choices as I discovered more regarding my interests, the nursing program still stands to me as an exceptional pathway into doing amazing work.
However, when I had initially introduced my family and friends to the idea of me becoming a nurse, I was presented with questions such as: “Why would you want to be a nurse? Why wouldn’t you want to be a doctor?” Hearing these questions not only felt insulting to my values, but more so insulting to the professions themselves, as if all there was to a career was the monetary benefit, or the accepted social status.
And I know doctors and nurses are not the only jobs being misconstrued. Understanding the responsibilities behind any profession takes more than a simple Google search or hearing salary ranges from friends.
Whether to choose medicine, nursing or any other health care pathway for that matter, should be a decision made based on what the individual seeks for their future. There are many wonderful reasons to become a physician, but I believe the spotlight of health care has been too concentrated on the title of ‘doctor’ rather than what the job really entails. It’s time we shift this spotlight and highlight the importance of other contributing members of the healthcare team; it’s time we take a closer look at what it really means to “pursue a career in health care.”
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Keep an eye out in next week's print issue for a feature on Hamilton's LRT project. For now, here are the updates:
[Video descripton: Andrew Mrozowski, A&C Editor at the Sil, walks around campus to discuss updates on Hamilton's LRT project.]
Top 5 things to look forward to in the new year in McMaster Athletics
1. Nordic Skiing
Possibly one of the more interesting stories of the year is the addition of the Nordic Skiing Program to McMaster Athletics’ arsenal of contenders for the Ontario University Athletics championship. This will be the 37th program brought to competition by McMaster and nordic skiing will have a new provincial championship introduced in February 2020. With the introduction of this program, McMaster Athletics is looking to the future and the expansion of its trophy case. It was a bold move to introduce a new sport while the David Braley Athletic centre is undergoing expansion, but McMaster Athletics has shown that they are not letting any physical barriers in facilities, or lack of snow this year, to stop them from progressing.
The Men’s Volleyball team is coming off a busy winter break. They faced top-notch competition from several teams in the United States including Ohio State University, Long Beach State University and Lewis State University. Even though they lost to their American competitors, squaring off against fierce competition will help them improve their game as they enter 2020. On the Northern side of things, McMaster took down National Championship contender Trinity Western University two days in a row. These two wins against a Canadian powerhouse is great news for the Marauders and casts the rest of the season in a bright light.
[pjc_slideshow slide_type="vollyball-jan-16-2020"]
The Women’s volleyball squad is looking for another shot at a playoffs run. After falling short in the 2018-2019 season and missing the playoffs, the Marauders are looking for redemption. Currently ranked fourth in the Western division of the OUA, the race to make playoffs will come down to the wire as three teams have already clinched their berths, leaving only one spot available. On a positive note to start the second half of the season was the two blow out wins the Marauders pulled off against the Lakehead University Thunderwolves. This is a great start to January as the Women’s team gears up to play the Ryerson University Rams, who are ranked first in the OUA east, and the Brock University Badgers, ranked third in the OUA west, later this month.
[pjc_slideshow slide_type="basketball-jan-16-2020"]
The Women’s team is looking to defend their National Championship as they gear up for a tough second half of the season. They just lost to the fifth overall team in the nation according to U sports, in the Ryerson University Rams, the Marauders look to take down other strong contender in the Western University Mustangs and Windsor University Lancers. These games will test the Marauders during this cold January streak.
The Rams have a sharpshooting starting lineup, and they averaged 46.5 per cent from the field in the matchup against the Marauders. The Rams’ recruiting program has led to a decade of success, where exceptional shooting has consistently remained one of the team’s strengths. That being said, the main issues for McMaster was that they were outrebounded 51 to 30 and had five more turnovers than the Rams. Cleaning up these two areas could lead to far fewer issues in the future.
U Sports ranks the McMaster Men’s Basketball team eighth overall in the country. Currently sitting in playoff contention with a record of nine wins and three losses, they look to stay strong and head to the playoffs again this year. That being said, they have a hard January in front of them, where they will be playing many top schools including the Windsor University Lancers, Western University Mustangs, Queens University Gaels and the Ryerson University Rams, with one easier matchup against Ontario Tech. Queens, Windsor, Western and Ryerson are top teams in the OUA who are looking for something to prove. In order to get by these opponents, the Marauders will have to stay consistent throughout every quarter, something they were not able to do in the last matchup against Ryerson. While the Marauders are staying strong with low turnover rates combined with a high number of takeaways, they need to clean up shot selection to make sure they stay on the high scoring streaks they are known for.
In case you haven’t noticed, David Braley Athletic Centre is under expansion! The renovations mark just one of many additions to accommodate for the ever-growing student body of McMaster. DBAC’s expansion is set to create more exercise space and athletic opportunities in order to allow a greater number of students to use the facilities. If you have travelled into the depths of DBAC and the Ivor Wynne Center, then you are familiar with the out-of-date, overrun and sometimes run-down squash, basketball and Pop-up Pulse. The construction, which started this year, meant to create a happier, healthier and more active campus.
The athletic year is only halfway through, and surely you remember the Yates Cup stunner, but there are so many tournaments left in the year for you to enjoy! The OUA is a vast and expansive association covering more sports than you can probably name, which means there is no shortage of exciting championships to come in 2020. Some of my favourites that you should keep an eye out for include the Critelli and Wilson Cup, both taking place on Feb. 29. The Critelli Cup, the women’s basketball championship, is looking like it will be another exciting year with many top programs performing at a high level. The path to the Wilson Cup, which is awarded to the OUA men’s basketball championship winner, is looking like it could be exciting. With several underdog contenders putting up a fight in the regular season, the cup is up for grabs to whoever wants it most. Get ready for the madness of Cup season — who knows who will be the Cinderella story this year.
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If you’ve been following the men’s basketball team this year, you’ll know they’ve been on a hot streak so far with a winning percentage of .750. This can in large part be attributed to Jordan Henry’s monstrous season so far.
Henry’s second-year leap resembles that of Luka Dončić’s, the latter going from All-Rookie player in the National Basketball Association and the former going from All-Rookie in the country, to doing it all and scoring at will on the court in their sophomore seasons. Henry is averaging 21.7 points per game, achieving the fourth-most PPG in the province. Even more astonishing is that Henry is only 0.2 points away from being third for PPG in the OUA. Usually, veteran players hold the top spots for PPG in the OUA. Henry is one of two players in the top five in PPG that is in their second year or below.
He may play for U sports in Canada at the moment, but Henry also has loose ties to the NBA. He played on the same team as RJ Barrett during the 2017 U19 Fédération internationale de basket World Cup, where Canada took home the gold medal.
Henry also ranks first among the Marauders in points, assists, steals and minutes played, while also ranking in the top five for the maroon and grey in rebounds, three-point percentage, free throw percentage and field goal percentage with players who have attempted over 10 field goals.
The Marauders have nearly matched their win total from the previous season — and it’s not even halfway through the year yet. Mcmaster currently has nine wins and three losses while last year they had a sub .500 win percentage with 12 wins and 14 losses by the end of the season.
Perhaps what is most remarkable is Henry has accounted for nearly 25 per cent of the maroon and grey’s points so far, having scored 260 points out of the team’s total of 1038. After making not only the OUA first-team All-Rookie but also the U sports first-team All-Rookie last year, it would surprise no one if our star guard made the overall U sports first team this year.
However, RJ Barrett’s former teammate is definitely not the only thing this team has going for it. Head coach Patrick Tatham and his staff have assembled a team that is not only performing at the moment, but will also blow the competition away for years to come. Looking at the roster, it’s hard not to notice that eight out of the 17 players on the team are in their second year and four are in their first year, leaving years of greatness ahead for the team.
This could be the year the Marauders finally take home the W.P. McGee trophy. First introduced in 1963, the trophy is awarded to the top ball team across Canada’s ten provinces and three territories. However, even though it’s been around for nearly 60 years, McMaster has never been able to bring it home, even though they’ve come second five times. Our last appearance in the final game of the season was in 1998.
Will this year be the first time in school history we take the W.P. McGee trophy? Who knows. But it’s definitely possible. Catch the team at their next game against the Western University Mustangs on Jan. 18, right at home in Burridge.
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By Ember, Contributor
cw: fatphobia, disordered eating
Food is what fuels our bodies. So why is it that there is an ever increasing rise of popularity in dieting and diet culture? A movement that encourages us to deprive ourselves; to aspire to be thin. To put it plainly? A hatred for fat bodies that results in widespread disordered eating.
The way we frame different topics and discussions is very important. This especially applies to the way we talk about food, our bodies and other people’s bodies.
Caloric science is based on outdated Western scientific methods from the nineteenth century by Wilbur Atwater. It is the estimate of how much energy is contained in a portion of food by burning it in a tank submerged in water, and measuring how much burning the food increased the temperature of the surrounding water.
However, it is hard to accurately predict the energy stored in food; our bodies do not work as simply as a furnace burning fuel. There are many factors that influence the calories of the foods we eat, like how the food is prepared, if cellulose is present and how much energy it takes to digest the food.
Not to mention, there are additional factors that affect digestion, such as metabolism, age, gut bacteria and physical activity. Labels on food do not accurately represent what we’re putting into our body nor what we’re getting out of it.
Ever since Canada enforced the Healthy Menu Choices Act back in 2016, which requires food establishments to list the amount of calories in their products, there has also been an increasing number of discussions surrounding the negative impact of the addition of calories to menus.
Another measurement that is often used to determine how healthy we are is body mass index, even though it is an inaccurate measurement of “health” for multiple reasons. It was meant to analyze the weight of populations, not individuals, and doesn’t take into account whether mass is fat or muscle. As a result, BMI is a biased and harmful method to gauge health.
Along with measurements like calories and BMI, language surrounding food can also be dangerous. You may hear things like “carbs are bad”, or you may hear discourse on “healthy” versus “unhealthy” foods, “cheat days” and “clean eating”, to name some examples. This language can contribute to the notion that we should feel bad for eating food, when it simply is a way to nourish ourselves and additionally, something to enjoy.
Diet culture is so pervasive and present in society. It is encouraged by menus listing calorie amounts, peers, elders and healthcare professionals in various ways. Thoughts like “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” stem from conflating “health” and “weight”, which has roots in racism, classism and fatphobia.
Diet culture is so pervasive and present in society. It is encouraged by menus listing calorie amounts, peers, elders and healthcare professionals in various ways. Thoughts like “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” stem from conflating “health” and “weight”, which has roots in racism, classism and fatphobia.
Hannah Meier, a dietitian who contributed to a project tackling women’s health, writes about how society glorifies dieting. In Meier’s article titled A Dietitian’s Truth: Diet Culture Leads to Disordered Eating she writes, “I was half-functioning. I remember filling pages of journals with promises to myself that I wouldn’t eat. I planned out my week of arbitrary calorie restrictions that were shockingly low and wrote them all over my planner, my whiteboard, the foggy mirror in the bathroom.”
For many of us, the mindset of diet culture swallows you whole, consumes your every thought and waking moment, then spits you out like rotten food.
Oftentimes, people aren’t advocating for diets because they want to be “healthy”. Instead, they often feel passionate about dieting because of their hate and disdain for fat people since they associate being “fat” with “unhealthy”, “unhappy” or “unlovable”.
It’s also important to note that views on fatness and fat bodies change depending on the time period and culture; renaissance paintings often depict fat women in angelic and celestial aesthetics. As well, certain cultures, both past and present, value fatness as a symbol of privilege, power, wealth and fertility.
Diet culture, eating disorders, and fatphobia are so tightly knit together that they are like an ill-fitting sweater woven by your grandmother that you didn’t want or ask for. Sometimes you think about wearing it, to make things easier or simpler. But it won’t. You will only become a shell of your former self; a husk that is barely scraping by.
Any joy derived from depriving yourself is temporary. A scale will weigh how much of you is there, but it won’t weigh how much of you has been lost to an eating disorder. It is a mental illness, a distortion of reality and external factors that influence how you think. You can’t just stop having an eating disorder on a whim.
Calorie counting isn’t healthy, demonizing certain foods isn’t healthy and having preconceived notions about someone’s health based on how their body looks isn’t “just caring about their health.” Stop calling food “unhealthy” or “healthy”, start calling it “nourishing” or “not/less nourishing. Eat food that makes you happy and makes you feel good. Bodies are so many things, including wonderful and complex. You only have one — so treat it with kindness.
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McMaster's Department of Athletics and Recreation is making strides towards accessible programming
McMaster’s Department of Athletics and Recreation oversees gym memberships, personal training, intramurals, programming (such as first aid, backpacking and dance classes) and court and facility bookings. They even offer backpacking and canoe trips. Students may seek these services with the hope of continuing to play sports after high school, or with the goal of investing in their physical health for the first time.
Disabled students face obstacles in remaining physically active in university. They must verify that a facility is accessible; ideally, they would be able to use machines and be able to do so independently.
“Some of us may need to find out where the accessible entrance is in advance … Some of us are never able to access athletic facilities if there is no accessible or all-gender washrooms … Some people may need [instructions for gym equipment] explained verbally, in plain language, or in a different way, but there is not always staff around that can do this for us,” Calvin Prowse, a past Maccess executive explained.
“Some of us may need to find out where the accessible entrance is in advance … Some of us are never able to access athletic facilities if there is no accessible or all-gender washrooms … Some people may need [instructions for gym equipment] explained verbally, in plain language, or in a different way, but there is not always staff around that can do this for us,” Calvin Prowse, a past Maccess executive explained.
Wayne Terryberry, the outdoor recreation coordinator for McMaster Athletics and Recreation, said that his team aimed to make services as accessible as possible.
It may be difficult to understand how a building or a certain activity could be made more accessible without the lived experience of a disability. The athletics and recreation department has made positive strides in this regard, such as through the Alpine Tower.
“We chose to purchase [the Alpine Tower] 15 years ago or so. It was purchased primarily for the reason that it’s accessible,” Terryberry said. “We’ve provided accessible climbing with different equipment and mechanism such as ropes and harnesses, plus the [climbing wall] is [accessible] as well.”
In addition to the Alpine Tower, McMaster Athletics and Recreation also offers a Hippocampe all-terrain wheelchair for use on trails. This wheelchair allows users to independently navigate hiking trails off campus. In addition, the department is in the process of creating a wheelchair-accessible trail in McMaster Forest, located in Dundas Valley. The trail will be approximately 750 metres long and will be located around the front of the forest.
If anyone is interested in getting involved with outdoor recreation, but is hesitant about whether they have the ability to do a certain activity, Terryberry would be able to help. Activities such as accessible canoeing have been done before, and Terryberry claims that there are discussions being held on buying more adaptable equipment for outdoor recreation.
In terms of indoor recreation, the Special Needs Assistance Program provides a one-on-one opportunity for individuals to work with a trained volunteer to help accommodate their needs. Debbie Marinoff Shupe, the manager of recreation services, emphasized the value of such programs for members with both physical and mental disabilities.
In terms of indoor recreation, the Special Needs Assistance Program provides a one-on-one opportunity for individuals to work with a trained volunteer to help accommodate their needs. Debbie Marinoff Shupe, the manager of recreation services, emphasized the value of such programs for members with both physical and mental disabilities.
“So it could be somebody who feels really anxious in the facility due to a mental health issue and we would connect them to a volunteer,” Shupe explains. “Could be somebody with hearing or seeing disabilities, and we’ll connect [them] to a volunteer so that they can participate in activities in the Pulse.”
If working out in the Pulse isn’t your cup of tea, there are also intramural teams. Intramural programs are adaptable; in the past, ice hockey was adapted to a combination of ice hockey and sled hockey to accommodate the use of a sled. There are also wheelchair basketball and wheelchair European handball tournaments in the fall semester, and parasport as well as unified basketball tournaments in the winter semester.
Of course, disabilities are not limited to physical ones. Mental disabilities are often overlooked when it comes to making athletics accessible, but Terryberry and Shupe assure that there are many programs for those with mental illnesses.
The Nature at McMaster program provides opportunities to go out on a walk, hike, or practice mindfulness — McMaster Athletics and Recreation worked very closely with Student Accessibility Services to help provide this program. The program hopes to encourage going out in nature to help promote good mental health. More information can be found on their website.
Shupe also acknowledged that a lot of the David Braley Athletic Centre is currently inaccessible and that they have plans to improve that in the near future. With the expansion of DBAC, the department hopes to purchase more equipment specific for wheelchair users and to remove other structural issues with the building.
“If you want to get to the second floor of the Pulse right now if you’re using a wheelchair, you’d have to leave the Pulse, take the elevator that’s on the other side and go up and then [back into the Pulse]. So you can get to it but it’s not very easy,” Shupe said. “[In the renovation] the actual elevator and bathrooms would be in the Pulse you wouldn’t have to actually leave the Pulse.”
Signage is also something they’re working on. New signage packages were created for the expansion of DBAC and for the Student Activity Building to improve accessibility for those who need braille to read.
Anybody interested in offering feedback for any programs or starting an accessible program through the athletics and recreation department can contact Shupe at marinof@mcmaster.ca.
“We’re always open to new ideas for sure,” Shupe said. “If folks have any kind of sport interest in terms of making it more accessible or accommodating, it’s me that you contact and then depending on what the program is, we will work with the individual forwards.”
Anyone interested in checking out any athletics and recreation programs or activities or learning more about accessibility in the department can check out the app McMaster Recreation. Getting involved in athletics may seem like an impossible feat when you’re disabled, but there are a lot of opportunities to get active.
cw: References to sexual assault
If you were near Hamilton City Hall at around 6 p.m. on Sept. 19, you would have heard throngs of people yelling “revolution!”. If you had taken a closer look, you would have seen Danielle Boissoneau, the coordinator for Take Back The Night, standing behind a microphone on a makeshift stage and prompting each shout from the crowd with an exuberant “joyful!”
Together, they formed a chorus — a call honouring this year’s Take Back The Night theme: Joyful Revolution Always.
Take Back The Night is an annual event organized in Hamilton by the Sexual Assault Centre (Hamilton), a non-profit organization that supports survivors of sexual assault. Traditionally, Take Back The Night has been an opportunity for women and gender non-conforming folks in the community to speak out against sexual violence and to advocate on behalf of survivors. It has also celebrated with music, performances, art and tables for local organizations that support women and non-binary folks.
The first instance of Take Back The Night in Hamilton dates back to 1981. This year marks the event’s 38th year in the city and its first year in recent history without a march.
The Take Back The Night march began as a symbolic protest to the violence that women experienced when walking alone at night. Since then, it has grown into a method of raising awareness of all forms of violence in the community as well as a way to show support for survivors.
On Sept. 12, however, SACHA released a statement on their blog to announce that they decided not to march this time. The organization cited safety as a main concern, though the matter swiftly became a discussion of not only safety, but also about relationships with the Hamilton city police.
“On Sept. 4, 2019, the Take Back the Night (TBTN)Committee hosted a ‘TBTN Community Townhall on Safety’ — we wanted to hear right from the community what safety looks like for them … What was interesting was that no one mentioned the police as a place of safety,” wrote a representative from SACHA in their official statement.
The situation snowballed into a series of meetings. In consideration of the feedback and turnout from previous Take Back The Night events, SACHA attended a meeting with Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann, intending to ask for four street lanes to be closed instead of the one lane that Take Back The Night attendees used in previous marches. They were surprised to find out they were not allowed to follow the usual route used in previous Take Back The Night events.
In an effort to reach a compromise, an alternate route for the march was proposed. However, this second option required the inclusion of five paid duty officers, an unexpected fee that SACHA was unable to pay. In a prior Take Back The Night event, the city had provided SACHA with funding for three officers. There had been no such offer this year.
“We took it upon ourselves to revisit the table with the city and the police. We tried to work out an agreement … and then the agreement started to fall into bad faith negotiations, because they started trying to sneak in things at the last minute that were not acceptable,” said Boissoneau.
In the end, SACHA decided it was best to cancel the march.
Lisa Colbert of the Woman Abuse Working Group said she had not been sure at first about SACHA’s decision. As she prepared her organization’s table for the event, she admitted that the march was something she enjoyed. However, although the energy might feel different this time, she recognized that to march despite the predicament with the police would be to do the opposite of empowering those who were marching.
Similarly, Kat Williams of the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre said that a successful partnership with the police and all public servants would not be possible while those in power continued not to listen.
“In order to serve the people who are in the margins, the people who are suffering — those are the people we need to elevate. It’s especially important for the police industry to listen to those people, and I don’t think that has happened at many gatherings recently,” she added, taking care to emphasize that her views do not necessarily represent that of her organization.
In the same regard, Gachi Issa of the McMaster Womanists expressed support for SACHA’s decision. Taking into account Canada’s history with the police, she believed SACHA did the right thing by prioritizing the needs of the most marginalized communities.
With this in mind, Issa said that the presence of the police was always something that should be contested.
“The police had never been safe for the most marginalized communities and have been created and set up in a way to marginalize us further and to kill us. My hesitation is to always critique the involvement of police and police presence,” Issa said.
For Boissoneau, the change in this year’s Take Back The Night event was a reminder for community members to hold institutions accountable. Institutions like the police and SACHA, she said, must focus on their responsibilities to the people.
When asked whether she believed the cancellation of the march had a profound effect on Take Back The Night this year, Boissoneau stated that it had. She admitted the people were disappointed about not having a march — but this disappointment, at the same time, was causing them to re-evaluate how they defined reclamation.
“A lot of people are like, we must march to be able to be powerful. I don’t necessarily think that that’s true. I think that people have the ability to reclaim their autonomy … There’s so many different ways to do it. Marching is only one of those ways,” said Boissoneau.
Jessica Bonilla-Damptey, SACHA’s director, did not agree that there was a palpable difference. She acknowledged that the march had always been a big component of Take Back The Night but that despite its absence, joy was the dominant feeling in this year’s event.
“I am seeing lots of folks — folks from everywhere, all different nationalities, all different walks of life, all different languages. Everyone is smiling, everybody’s participating. Everybody’s around the tables, looking at what kind of resources are available in our community and everybody’s celebrating … I see joy and I hear joy around me,” she explained.
For Bonilla-Damptey, the priority was to embody this year’s theme of joyful revolution. The importance was in the community coming together to celebrate each other and show support for survivors, regardless of the role that the police played in the event-planning process and regardless of what might have been different this year.
Issa felt that the same sentiment was applicable to the idea of community care.
“We are safe because of each other. Not because of police or because of security. We make each other safe. In order to get to a revolution, we have to be able to sustain each other and to find joy within each other,” she said.
On Sept. 19, there were no buses waiting to accommodate people who could not march alongside the assemblage and, as the sun set over Hamilton City hall, there was no crowd following SACHA’s usual route.
There was, however, music and spoken word. There were tables that belonged to groups that supported women-identifying and non-binary folks. There were t-shirts and there were signs that said We Believe You and Empower Others.
Despite the aftermath of SACHA’s nuanced relationship with the police, Bonilla-Damptey stressed that one facet left unchanged in this year’s Take Back The Night was its ability to facilitate connections within the community.
Attendees lined up for food. They took buttons and pens as they stopped at each table to speak to the person running it. They gathered to hear the story of Lucy, an elderly survivor for whom the crowd chanted, “We believe Lucy!”
People tend to believe, according to Boissoneau, that revolution began at an individual level. She argued, however, that when individuals get together and collectively reclaim their space, as hundreds of people did on Take Back The Night — that was revolution.
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By Andrew Fayed, Contributor
After falling to the Western Mustangs, last year’s Vanier Cup finalists, 17-34 two weeks ago, the
McMaster Marauders’ men’s football team appears ready to move on and build off of the
momentum of their strong opening weeks into the rest of the season. With several lower
ranked teams ahead on their schedule, the Marauders are favoured to be at a record of seven
wins and one loss by Oct. 19.
While their game versus Western can be seen as a slight bump in the road for the Marauders,
starting quarterback Andre Dueck sees it as fuel for the rest of their season.
“Western is always a fun game. You get to really test yourself against what the benchmark is for
a championship team in this league and see how you matchup,” said Dueck.
The deeper stats for their game against Western show that the Marauders ran into penalty
trouble, in the form of 15 penalties resulting in 130 yards lost. The Mustangs finished the
contest with 6 penalties, losing only 37 yards. When questioned on the impact that these
penalties played in the end-result of the game, Dueck recalled some words of wisdom from
Head Coach Stef Ptaszek.
“Coach said after the game that you have to be at least 14 points better than the other team if
you want to have the refs not be a factor in winning,” Dueck says with a chuckle before
continuing, “It’s always tough when you get into penalty trouble but it’s part of the game of
course, so you have to play around it as much as possible and overcome it when it happens.”
Beyond penalties, the larger disparity between the teams arrived in the form of their rushing
games. Western appeared to dominate for 232 yards rushed to the Marauders 43. Dueck had
nothing but praise for Western’s rushing game.
“It was huge. They got to control the clock, the tempo of the game and hurt us on the
scoreboard. The bottom line is we have to get the job done and they did it better,” Dueck
added.
With that being said, the marauders run game came back in an emphatic fashion during their
game against the York University Lions this past weekend on Sep. 14. Veteran running back
Jordan Lyons averaged 5.5 yards per carry, totalling 94 yards on the ground and two
touchdowns.
With the dust settled on the Western loss, the Marauders are setting their sights on a schedule
that favours them heavily. With their hardest game behind them, the Marauders will face five
teams that are ranked outside of the U Sports football Top 10 rankings.
“It’s definitely been a strong start to our season, but we have some long-term goals that [are]
important not to lose sight of, so we’re only looking to build from here.”
Dueck fills the role of the motivated leader of the Marauders’ men’s football team, ensuring
that both he and the team are honest and accountable. When questioned on why he chose to
play for the Marauders team, Dueck stated it was his love of the game that brought him to
Hamilton.
“Football is such a team game. It’s a chess match. Everyone has to do their job on every single
play for the play to work. It’s a true team game, there’s so much intelligence that goes into
playing.” Dueck said.
The pressure of being a starting quarterback for a top-five ranked school might be enough to
cause other students to panic; but Dueck, a third-year commerce student, seems to perform at
his best under pressure.
“I enjoy the business. I’m definitely never bored, and I have a great support network here. I
really love it,” stated Dueck.
You can catch Dueck and the Marauders’ men’s football team in action at their next game on
Sep. 21 against the Windsor Lancers at McMaster’s Ron Joyce Stadium.
Tyler Gagne is a fourth-year centre on the McMaster men’s rugby team. He plays an instrumental role on the team, not only through his strong defensive presence, but also through his role on the team leadership group with five other players. This group includes veteran players Tyler Gagne, Clay Pendakis, Ryan Matthews, Jack McRogers, Cole Brown and club captain Megh Rathod.
In their season opener, Gagne had a pair of tries which led to him having one of the top performances that game. Even with his success, Gagne remained humble and highlighted key performances from the rest of the team.
“I just go out there and do what I can for the team,” Gagne said. “It always feels good to have a game like that, but a couple of other guys had great games in that game too it wasn’t just me. Our whole team played really well, it’s hard to pick one performance out.”
This year will be one where the men’s rugby team plays their heart out. They have an outstanding team and are determined to leave an impression on Ontario University Athletics rugby.
“We believe we can medal. We believe we should go five-one based on the season [and] hopefully we can win all six. Other than that play the best rugby we can, enjoy it and have a great year,” Gagne said.
One of the defining contributions to the success of the team is team culture. The maroon and grey challenge the idea of a traditional team in the sense that they are more than a group of highly-skilled individuals who play a sport together. Of course, they do fit that mold, but they are also a family.
“The team we have is one of the best I’ve ever played on. All the guys are super close. There are no disputes on the team, no conflicts, everyone just loves each other and we go out there and play the best rugby we can. Which really helps on the field obviously,” Gagne added.
Growing together and knowing when to put the team ahead of their own needs has been instrumental to their success.
“I’m one of the older guys on the team, I’m in fourth year. There are a couple of other fourth years on the team, not too many but we’ve been together all four years and all the guys we’ve been coming up with have bought into the system and we’ve all come together to be a great team. It’s easy when guys come into the team and buy right in right away,” Gagne said, “It’s super easy to get along with everybody. Nobody has too big of an ego which is nice and we all get along really well and it’s a great culture.”
One of the main things that sets apart the men’s rugby team is their unique but effective approach to leadership. Having multiple people share the load of guidance brings along many advantages. For example, communication on and off the field can be more coordinated. Simply put, it is a strategy that seems to be working wonders for the marauders. For their next game they will take on Trent University on Sep. 21 where they look to improve their record to two wins and one loss.
Tyler Gagne - Men's Rugby
Tyler GagneCentre
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