When students start regularly applying for financial aid or awards, it's important to remember being denied is the worst thing that can truly happen
It is now the time of year when many many awards and bursaries have opened up not only on AwardSpring, but outside of the university as well.
With this annual cycle open to all McMaster students, it can seem daunting or pointless to apply to all the scholarships available on your dashboard on AwardSpring.
You may be wondering, why apply to all of these opportunities if you only really qualify for a few at the moment?
But did you know that yearly over 10 million dollars of scholarship money goes unclaimed in Canada solely because students aren’t applying to them?
Students should apply for all scholarships that appear within their dashboard tiles because although they may not seem eligible at the moment, their eligibility for these aids and awards can change as the semester continues.
Students should apply for all scholarships that appear within their dashboard tiles because although they may not seem eligible at the moment, their eligibility for these aids and awards can change as the semester continues
For example, for many scholarships and bursaries, students must obtain a 9.5 seasonal GPA to qualify. However, if your fall semester GPA is below 9.5, that does not necessarily mean you cannot obtain an overall seasonal GPA of 9.5 after the winter semester.
Waiting on your GPA to change at the end of the winter semester can often cause students to forget to apply for these aids and awards in the first place due to the fast pace environment of university.
We get caught up with exams, assignments, and projects leading us to forget about the outstanding items we have waiting on awardspring until it is too late.
We are sent reminders via about applying to these scholarships; however, sometimes, this is not enough to motivate us to apply to these opportunities after a semester-long of academics.
Did you know that yearly over 10 million dollars of scholarship money goes unclaimed in Canada solely because students aren’t applying to them?
If we do remember to complete the application forms, they often can be rushed due to the fast-approaching deadlines at the end of the semester.
Following this cycle causes us to hinder our opportunities due to the passive nature of waiting. Yet, applying for all opportunities at the beginning of the semester, regardless if we qualify at that moment, provides students with a chance to receive financial aid. This is because they are not excluding themselves from the start when the applications are released.
Thus, if a student’s seasonal GPA were to increase to 9.5 at the end of the winter semester, they have already applied for the aid or award with a well-thought-out application.
This acts as a safeguard because applying for these opportunities well in advance, although not qualified at the moment, is placed first. This increases the chances of being qualified for the scholarship because you have already applied for it, decreasing stress closer to the due date.
Although it can seem overwhelming and unreliable to apply for scholarships you may not qualify for, the benefits are unveiled in the long run.
Applying for as many aids and awards as possible increases your chances of obtaining some financial aid through these methods.
There is no harm in applying for everything presented to you; the worst possible outcome is being denied the scholarship or bursary you applied for.
Public fatigue and diminished monitoring are just some of the reasons the virus isn’t making its way to the headlines, but are we letting our guards down too soon?
For many of us, the return to in-person learning and the rolling back of public health measures, including mask mandates, signaled light at the end of the tunnel. However, with our newfound optimism, we’ve entered a period of social neglect, and the decline in COVID-19 media coverage has only made it easier to forget about the ongoing pandemic.
Decreased engagement with content and information concerning COVID-19 is forcing news outlets to shift their focus on other, more profitable stories, ultimately, challenging journalists as they try to communicate critical news about the virus.
Dr. Katie Moisse, assistant professor in the school of interdisciplinary science and an experienced science journalist, spoke about the current challenges of delivering COVID-19 news to the public.
“It is difficult to reach people . . . People [are] done hearing about the pandemic despite it not being done. So, journalists are finding new [ways] to bring us this information [and] are having to fight for this coverage,” said Moisse.
Limited amplification of these stories in the media combined with public disinterest continues to hinder meaningful engagement with these news stories, which could hold serious implications for public health.
As we head into a particularly daunting flu season, with the triple threat of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, there is a growing need for journalists to actively report on the progression and spread of these viruses.
It is difficult to reach people . . . People [are] done hearing about the pandemic despite it not being done. So, journalists are finding new [ways] to bring us this information [and] are having to fight for this coverage,
Dr. Katie Moisse, assistant professor
“It’s important that we not drop the ball on this story, it’s such a big part of our lives,” explained Moisse.
Throughout the pandemic, journalists have played an important role in influencing the public’s response to COVID-19 through the dissemination of accurate and reliable information. However, I believe journalists have played an even greater role in exposing the cracks in our systems to inform government action and policies.
Without effective coverage or data on COVID-19, and amid the emerging threat of influenza and RSV, we are heading into the winter with a false sense of security.
Dr. Ana Tomljenovic-Berube, assistant professor teaching global human health and disease in the school of interdisciplinary science, shared that COVID-19-related public health monitoring has also begun to fade away without preventative measures in place. Currently, Public Health Ontario offers weekly updates on case counts as province-wide testing has ramped down. Still, the reported numbers paint a grim picture.
“The things that have been protecting us all of this time will continue to protect us if we are diligent about their usage . . . We all need to take responsibility as a society to protect each other,”
Dr. Ana Tomljenovic-Berube, assistant professor
On the week of Oct. 23 alone, a staggering 9,797 COVID-19 cases were recorded and this number does not include positive cases identified through independent rapid antigen testing. Yet these alarming case counts and the increasing number of hospitalizations are not always making their way to front-page news.
Influenza and RSV, compounded with the absence of public health restrictions only continue threaten an already compromised healthcare system.
“We are beginning to see a rapid rise in [influenza and RSV] infections likely due to lack of preventative measures. However, having the [triple threat], which we haven’t dealt with before, will lead to much more dire circumstances and this is what we’re starting to see in pediatric wards,” explained Tomljenovic-Berube.
The McMaster Children’s Hospital, which recently reached maximum capacity, presents an example of the overwhelming burden being experienced by healthcare facilities across the province as they grapple with the combined spread of COVID-19, flu and RSV.
Some institutions are already acting on scientific evidence from the flu season forecasts to implement protective measures. For instance, the University of Waterloo reinstated its mask mandate on Nov. 9 to enhance the health and safety of students and staff.
Regardless of mandated measures or dwindling media coverage, it is important to remember that we can take personal precautions to keep ourselves and those around us safe as we continue to learn in-person in closed and congregate settings.
“The things that have been protecting us all of this time will continue to protect us if we are diligent about their usage . . . We all need to take responsibility as a society to protect each other,” said Tomljenovic-Berube.
We need to recognize the pandemic is not over yet, even if the headlines fail to emphasize the current infectious disease crisis. And recklessly ignoring these escalating public health threats at our own discretion poses a risk to not only ourselves, but to all the vulnerable individuals around us.
Jargon and other poor narrative skills are among the problematic elements of scientific writing hindering communication and trust between the scientists and the community
Science has its own language, best understood by individuals who have spent countless years within academic and clinical environments. While this language can be helpful to describe, understand and then communicate phenomenon within a discipline, the rigid practices of science communication do not make it easy for the larger community to begin decoding this complex language.
Elements such as jargon, poor writing skills and a bland style of communication all contribute to making scientific writing inaccessible to the public. Terms such as double-blind experiment, null hypothesis and mRNA are classified as jargon terms and individuals who lack a postsecondary science education background will have a challenging time understanding these words and their implications, hindering their overall understanding of scientific ideas.
Elements such as jargon, poor writing skills and a bland style of communication all contribute to making scientific writing inaccessible to the public. Terms such as double-blind experiment, null hypothesis and mRNA are classified as jargon terms and individuals who lack a postsecondary science education background will have a challenging time understanding these words and their implications, hindering their overall understanding of scientific ideas.
Like journalistic writing, scientific writing should also be straightforward and adhere to basic grammar rules. Audiences should not struggle to read a scientific paper due to complexly worded sentences or the use of the passive voice.
Even undergraduate science students often find it difficult to understand research papers. But as students of the discipline, we are expected to automatically understand the contents of a research paper and provide insightful analysis.
It is exceedingly difficult for students to learn how to comprehend these papers on our own. We are given inadequate training in understanding scientific writings and the jargon used within them. As a result of this, we must learn based on the resources available to us: prior research papers, which are also lacking public accessibility. While self-learning has challenges of its own—it places a barrier requiring us to overcome the huge learning curve to be accepted in the academic world—this also allows the cycle of inaccessible science to continue.
Science students are perhaps the most aware of the inaccessible nature of the discipline, but they are unable to resolve issues of inaccessibility because there is no guidance or adequate influence with science communication to correct this imbalance.
Given the clear disconnect between the science community and society, how are science students expected to enter the scientific field when the language of science is not inclusive?
McMaster University undergraduate student, Juliana Wadie, recently published a research manuscript exploring the accessibility and potential for reader engagement of lay summaries. She discovered many scientific journals scored low for accessibility and engagement in terms of public use, offering further examples that although there may be are elements within a research paper dedicated to making scientific findings accessible to the general public, these efforts are clearly not being executed correctly.
While 90 per cent of individuals trust science and 52 per cent of individuals believe science is important to their everyday life, 44 per cent are more likely to trust social media for scientific facts. If the public cannot decode scientific information, there is bound to be widespread misinformation circulating.
While 90 per cent of individuals trust science and 52 per cent of individuals believe science is important to their everyday life, 44 per cent are more likely to trust social media for scientific facts. If the public cannot decode scientific information, there is bound to be widespread misinformation circulating.
As a result, there has been seen to be a 61 per cent increase in public health crises and a 57 per cent increase in the societal division between those who trust science and those who do not.
When it comes to conveying crucial information to society, scientific communication must adopt the storytelling element; readers must stay engaged in the material for scientific writing to be deemed accessible.
Initiatives taken by McMaster University are helping to correct scientific communication allowing the public to better understand scientific writing. The school of interdisciplinary science at McMaster has research dedicated to science communication and within the faculty of science, there have been numerous courses created to combat the inaccessibility of scientific. Improving the language of science allows for a better translation of scientific knowledge to the community
C/O Jeswin Thomas
First-years at McMaster share the academic and social impacts of “missing out” on high school
By: Zara Khan, Contributor
Exams. That’s quite the scary word when it comes to first-year students who went through online school and “quadmesters.” Although this might not apply to every first-year student, the education of more than 1.5 billion students were affected by school closures worldwide. The majority of university freshmen entered after completing two grades online, where exams and standard testing were not mandated during this time period.
So now, when freshmen are faced with double the amount of courses in addition to exams they feel at a loss as to how to study and prepare for their assessments. We all knew that post-secondary education was not supposed to be easy but because of the pandemic, university has become increasingly difficult for some students to handle.
In Ontario high schools, having a course that was supposed to be learnt over four months was cut in half, but had students attending each course for double the amount of time in one sitting. This not only made students lose interest in the subject, but also left students not retaining much information either. A study conducted by Per Engzell reveals that this style of learning throughout the pandemic is equivalent to a learning loss of one-fifth of a school year. This left many seniors going into post-secondary education without retaining much from their last high school year.
First-years on campus at McMaster were asked about their thoughts regarding how online high school prepared them for post-secondary. Many felt it had hindered their learning.
“Online schooling caused me to learn everything faster, that way I was learning to pass and not just for the sake of learning, which is really important to be successful in university,” explained Sandra Eldho, a first-year life sciences student.
The idea of learning in order to get through the school year and not necessarily to understand the concepts being taught impacted first years greatly this year. They now have to study, understand more difficult concepts and handle double the course load with a flawed strategy to study effectively.
Exams are also a major source of stress for many students.
“I’m nervous because all of [the exams] are close to [worth] 50%,” explained Kirsten Espe, a first-year integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences student.
With COVID-19 leading to the cancellation of in-person exams in most high schools last year, new university students are struggling with being thrown into exams worth almost half of their entire grade.
“We don’t feel well prepared and don’t want to [write] it,” said Leanne Chen, a first-year integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences student.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Hima Patel, a student in engineering.
“I believe from my high school experience, I don’t feel as prepared as other kids may feel. I grew up in a small town and our political standings, which were conservative for 20 years, had a lot of impact on what we learned. One of the big things is that we never learned how to be responsible in settings which include partying, intimacy and drinking” said Patel.
With such a focus on the academic aspect of university, we often forget about how social university can be too. Some students from smaller towns, such as Patel, were already underprepared to handle the new social settings that come with university. With the pandemic, we can only imagine how isolation may have contributed to a decline in the social skills that come with high school. With all this said, the loss of first years’ last two years of high school negatively impacted the majority of first-years within both their academic and social environments.
I would imagine that regardless of your high school background, all students were startled (at least slightly) by the pandemic and this impacted their academic and/or social skills in some way or another. As mentioned by numerous first-years at Mac, the pandemic and the loss of a traditional end to high school has set up the steep learning curve they must face now.
When it comes to pre-exam stress, we must accept that our study techniques from high school are destined to evolve. Planning ahead, giving yourself more time to practice the material and fully understanding the concepts will help in lessening academic stress. Taking time for yourself periodically is also critical to the mind and we must explore methods to prevent burnout. In the end, whether high school prepared us well or not for post-secondary, we can always try and put our best foot forward when it comes to preparing for our future.
C/O Dulcey Lima
Being aware of Canada’s historical atrocities helps one understand why Indigenous people can’t just “get over it”
By: Kimia Tahaei, Contributor
cw: suicide, abuse, violence, drug use
Time after time, we hear non-Indigenous individuals criticize the Indigenous community with demands to get over it and move on. Although it is seemingly perspicuous why the community cannot simply move past the decades of cultural erasure, mass genocide and racial discrimination, I will provide an even deeper insight in this article in hopes of educating the few.
Imagine being discriminated against on your land and then being forced to absorb the colonizer's culture. Not only was the land of Indigenous peoples strategically stripped away from them, but so was their culture, language and children. Since land confiscation was seemingly not enough, they are racially profiled and systemically discriminated against up to the present time. Taking into further consideration barbaric acts such as forcefully seizing children into the residential school system and coercing adults into working for plantations, it is naive to assume that long-term trauma doesn't form as a result.
Fred Kelly, a citizen of the Ojibways of Onigaming of the Anishinaabe Nation and an IRS survivor, described his experience as “agonizing”. In his writings in The Confessions of a Born Again Pagan, Kelly describes how the residential school system would brainwash young Indigenous children into shame and guilt because of their language, traditions and cultural practices. Kelly was taken away from his parents at a young and vulnerable age, had his hair cut as a symbol of cultural confiscation and faced physical abuse in numerous encounters. I wonder if colonizers ever saw the irony of committing these merciless acts against defenceless children and yet convincing them that they were the savage ones and in need of civilization.
Experiencing such intense traumatization at an impressionable age can lead to psychological issues such as an inferiority complex, post-traumatic stress disorder, crippling depression and future violent behaviour.
Taking a deeper psychological dive, after centuries of exploitation and experiencing European standards of right and wrong, it’s unsurprising that some Indigenous individuals questioned whether the Europeans were truly superior and how this societal hierarchy has remained constant through time. It is wholly unacceptable how the colonizers set themselves as a standard of success and have judged everything by that standard to this day.
Not only does this haunt Indigenous individuals who directly experienced this trauma in their lifetime, but it can also be passed on to subsequent generations. The transmission of this type of trauma caused by oppressive historical events is defined as intergenerational trauma. Although the mechanisms of transmission of intergenerational trauma are still unclear to scientists, the data is definite. According to the Aboriginal Peoples Survey, children and grandchildren of those who attended the residential schools were more likely to report signs of psychological distress, attempt suicide, experience learning difficulties and participate in drug use. Furthermore, with many Indigenous people living in rural and isolated areas, individuals have minimum access to mental health resources. Therefore, since the Indigenous community cannot approach their grief easily, historical traumatization and cultural dislocation, it becomes increasingly difficult to simply get over it.
I strongly believe that through historical education, the stigmatization of the Indigenous community can be altered if non-Indigenous individuals truly understand the depths of trauma that they have faced in all stages of life.
C/O Marcus Spiske
Imagine contributing the least to climate change, but being affected by it the most
By: Hadeeqa Aziz, Contributor
The climate crisis: you’ve heard about it, you see it everywhere in the news and maybe sometimes you just can’t escape its widespread acknowledgment – that’s a good thing. Yet, despite the media’s best efforts to spread information about it, the climate crisis continues to get buried under other, seemingly larger and more “urgent” issues such as the pandemic.
What most individuals fail to understand is that global climate change is perhaps the most time-sensitive issue that we’re facing. At the moment, you and I may not be directly experiencing the effects of climate change, but I promise you that others are. In particular, marginalized groups such as Indigenous communities are often the first to face consequences of climate change due to their close relationship with the environment.
Indigenous communities are generally the most affected by events such as extreme weather conditions, depletion of natural resources and water contamination. Direct consequences have resulted in restricted access to traditional areas for resources like medicine and food and forced relocation or displacement.
If that wasn’t enough, climate change effectively exacerbates the pre-existing issues Indigenous peoples face, such as economic and political marginalization, discrimination, unemployment and human rights violations.
This is ironic, to say the least. Although Indigenous communities face the greatest threats from climate change, they contribute the least to greenhouse gas emissions.
The larger issue is that, although we know climate change does not affect everyone to the same degree, many proposed solutions seem to assume exactly that. We’re advised to ditch the cheeseburgers, receive passive death glares upon requesting a straw at Starbucks and penalized if we don’t use compostable coffee cups. Though changing small habits like these can definitely have an impact when done on a larger scale, it’s rather unfair to single out individuals, especially Indigenous peoples, for not complying.
Veganism is not feasible when it may be a struggle to put food on the table, conserving water would be difficult when there’s limited access to it and contemplating the purchase of a metal straw seems silly when there’s no cup to stick it into. See the pattern? Developing eurocentric solutions for an intersectional problem is simply classist, racist and will not get the job done.
What’s more is that most of these short-sighted solutions may not be applicable to Indigenous groups to begin with. Asking a community that has relied on animal husbandry for thousands of years without depleting wildlife populations or inflicting permanent harm to the earth to suddenly go vegan is a questionable approach. Meanwhile, industrial agriculture and capitalism’s insistence on competitive factory farming is slowly but surely demolishing our planet.
Want to know who popularized the idea of individual carbon footprints in the first place? It was none other than British Petroleum, which is currently the sixth largest polluter in the world. Go figure.
All this being said, some Indigenous communities may very well be capable of and have the means to apply these changes to their lives. Better yet, let’s pretend for a second that these changes are feasible for everyone and executed on a sizable scale. According to the International Energy Agency, in one of the biggest pandemics, carbon emissions have only dropped by eight per cent. What does this tell us? When the world supposedly shut down and individual impacts significantly decreased, the effects of climate change didn’t follow very far. We continue to promote individual contributions without looking at the bigger picture.
So what exactly does this bigger picture look like?
Let’s take a young start-up located on the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation reserve just south of Hamilton, for example. They work in proximity with local Indigenous partners to develop projects such as wind farms, sustainable fishing for companies and sustainable forest management programs through which they’ve created carbon offsets. These offsets can then be used to help large businesses reduce their environmental impacts.
It’s funny how, despite facing the harsh consequences of issues created by multinational corporations, Indigenous community leaders are at the forefront in designing innovative solutions to combat climate change. Indigenous communities protect and nurture 80 per cent of the earth’s biodiversity but instead of giving them a seat at the table, we'd rather focus on metal straws.
C/O Ainsley Thurgood
McMaster’s potentially surprising welcome to the return of in-person learning this winter
By: Bianca Perreault, Contributor
Despite the excitement of a movement back to in-person functions, the return to pre-pandemic life could be a hindrance for many people. We’ve just been through over 15 months of change, with people developing new habits and experiencing a time of instability. At McMaster University, the school is looking forward to a Back-to-Mac plan for the upcoming semester. Through scares, stress and excitement, what should we expect for January 2022? Will it be welcomed? A disaster or a debate? McMaster might have to prepare for a variety of perspectives on the return of in-person learning this winter.
There’s such a diverse set of perspectives and those determine how the movement back to in-person classes will be received. Let’s look at the parents as an example, for whom it is essential that their students get a high-quality education. Many parents believe in-personal learning is highly valuable, the method by which the majority of the post-secondary studies have been delivered before March 2019.
But what about teachers? Since the pandemic affected our academics, we must always consider the opposite party and their perspectives. It would be a lie to say that I have never heard a teacher saying that they would rather work from home for their safety. Post-secondary education hasn't stopped through this global experience, so people like professors have learned to work with it throughout eLearning and found comfort in this way of teaching. For teachers who may not want the vaccine, made mandatory at McMaster, would either have to work from home or not at all.
We must also consider the perspective of students who feel that they work better and learn more efficiently in-person. Prior to the pandemic, very few educational institutions were offering online or hybrid options. However, online learning was always there through programs such as Cégep à distance and even online programs through McMaster Continuing Education. Countless people may have assumed that online learning would be straightforward as they would have less effort to do "physically." However, it has proven to be challenging for so many others mentally. Despite considerable rise in student enrolment in entirely online courses over the last two years, given the circumstances of the pandemic, most students have still said they would prefer continuing with in-person classes if they had the option.
Despite considerable rise in student enrolment in entirely online courses over the last two years, given the circumstances of the pandemic, most students have still said they would prefer continuing with in-person classes if they had the option.
As an out-of-province student coming from Quebec, it was less trouble for me to move to Hamilton, take a COVID-19 test and show my proof of vaccination while living in the same country where McMaster is located. However, numerous online students, including one of my roommates, haven’t been able to arrive in time for the start of the school year due to the rules and restrictions for international students. How are these students handling the challenge of being in a completely different country while only wishing to be in Hamilton? Is it naive of us to assume such restrictions won’t hinder the success of international students before the winter semester?
With all these questions and perspectives in mind, it’s difficult to fully understand the impact that the move to in-person learning may have.
Sometimes the most important relationships in your life aren’t your own
One of our favourite family movies is White Christmas. Every year since we were little, my sister and I would attempt to emulate the singing sister duo from the film (sadly without their spectacular outfits) by belting out their song, “Sisters”: “[L]ord help the Mister who comes between me and my sister and Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!”.
With me being three and her five at the time, the notion of a “man” coming between us seemed completely absurd; our sisterhood was ironclad and eternal.
Fast forward 14 years and the “mister” had arrived in the ominous shape of my sister’s first boyfriend. I met him for the first time when he and my sister came to pick me up — a power imbalance I found deeply frustrating (after all, how could I put him in his place when he was my ride home?).
Completely unprepared for what felt like the most important interview of my life, I interrogated him for a full half-hour. Needless to say, when the car ride was over, I didn’t know what to think of him.
But I knew one thing for sure: this boy had come to take my sister away from me. She could only love one of us best and he was vying for the top spot. This was a state-of-emergency, DEFCON-1 level crisis. I began wartime preparations.
But I knew one thing for sure: this boy had come to take my sister away from me. She could only love one of us best and he was vying for the top spot. This was a state-of-emergency, DEFCON-1 level crisis. I began wartime preparations.
People who say big brothers are protective have clearly never met a little sister. Over the following months, I turned into an amateur private investigator (more Clouseau than Sherlock, I must admit).
Every time we met, I would theatrically narrow my eyes and badger him with questions, certain that I would finally uncover a fact to prove his complete and irrefutable unsuitability for my sister. I was deeply unsuccessful, to put it mildly.
To my horror, I found out that he was actually kind of funny. Well, that wasn’t going to work for me — I was the funny one in our sisterhood. If she was busy laughing at his jokes, she wouldn’t have any time for mine.
He also turned out to be rather hard working and was really nice to her. But aside from stealing her clothes and periodically destroying all her makeup (trivial concerns, really), so was I!
However, the more I talked to him, the more I realized that I just couldn’t reconcile the picture I had of him in my head as a rude, good-for-nothing interloper who would do nothing but cause my sister pain with the reality that he was actually a nice, upstanding guy. In matters of the heart, though, reason counts for very little.
Failing to discover incriminating information, I turned to less sophisticated methods to scare him off: I became really, really mean.
I would call him nicknames to our family friends, I made rude faces whenever he was brought up in conversation and I even made a (losing) bet with my parents about how long he was going to last (the shameful reminder of which lives on in my Google Calendar forever).
I snidely informed my sister one day, “I can’t understand what you see in him”.
“That’s because you’re immature,” she replied.
I had become so cruel, angry and resentful that I barely recognized myself. Understandably, my sister became upset over why I was treating her boyfriend so badly; what had he ever done to me? My mom told her I was just jealous.
The truth is that she was right. But I wasn’t jealous of her, I was jealous of him.
Growing up, my sister was my idol. She was the prettiest, smartest and most confident person I knew and in my mind, I held her atop a pedestal.
Her attention and affection were necessary for my personal validation and I worried that he would take that from me. Was I really so replaceable to her?
Was I really so replaceable to her?
One day I walked into my sister’s room and I saw dozens of pictures of her and her boyfriend on the wall. She was beaming in every one of them. In that moment I realized my incredible selfishness.
I thought he was the one damaging our sisterhood, but in reality, I was the one who had inflicted the harm by denying her the right to affection beyond my own. It was a tight fit, but there could be room for three peas in this pod after all.
In case you thought this was a Hallmark movie ending, I’ll tell you that I haven’t fully gotten over my sisterly identity crisis quite yet. Just the other day I had a rather traumatizing “dream” (it was definitely a nightmare) that they got married — clearly, I still need some time before I can consider taking our relationship to the next level.
My sister and her boyfriend are still going strong and seeing them now makes me thankful that my meanspirited meddling didn’t ruin a good thing.
Even more importantly, I learned that sometimes the most difficult, life-changing relationships you will experience aren’t even your own. The “mister” wasn’t the villain in our sister-saga. I was — and we all know the bad guy never wins.
By Ouss Badran, Contributor
cw: mentions of homophobia, transphobia, ableism
A concerning trend that I’ve noticed — especially in more socially aware places such as university — is people adopting the label of “ally” and not actually doing anything about being one. In other words, they’re reaping the positive status of the word without actively being an ally.
What do I mean by this? There seems to be a misunderstanding when it comes to what being an ally actually entails. I can tell you that it isn’t like an article of clothing you can put on or take off at your convenience. Those who are actually marginalized can’t shed their identity at a moment’s notice, so neither should you.
So what actually is an ally? Well, for one, allies are people who are not part of the marginalized group for which they are advocating for. You don’t have to necessarily know what it feels like to be oppressed or experience the difficulties that marginalized groups go through. All being an ally means is that you are taking on and understanding their struggle with them.
If you’re new to the concept of allyship, being an advocate is a great start! This means, for example, not just claiming the title of ally because you watch RuPaul’s Drag Race, but actually fighting for better LGBTQ+ representation in the media.
Additionally, this also includes defending said marginalized groups when they’re not in the room, and especially when they are. What do I mean by this? On a more subtle scale, calling out bigoted comments such as “that’s so gay” or the use of the r-word publicly challenges the status quo and reinforces that these sorts of comments are not okay in any shape or form.
On the more extreme end, if you see a marginalized person disparaged in public or even private spaces, it’s your responsibility as an ally to stand up for them. Yes, that includes your racist grandparents and it also includes your parents who “just don’t understand all that transgender nonsense”.
While I don’t want to get too much into the intricacies of intersectionality (as it deserves its own article), I do want to touch on privilege. Most of us have it in some way, shape or form. Nowadays, the very word sets people on edge, and some people may even get defensive. Don’t worry straight, white dudes, I’m not going to attack you. For the sake of this article, privilege is an aspect of society or reality that you don’t have to worry about, but something that another marginalized group does.
For example, I’m speaking mainly from my experiences as a gay, able-bodied and cisgender man of colour. I face certain issues that are relevant to me and other people of my background, but I also lack knowledge and perspective on what it’s like to be a woman, a person under the trans umbrella or someone who has a physical disability. Being aware of your own privilege as an ally can potentially help you understand the struggles of the groups you’re advocating for.
Also, I mean this with all due respect, but if you are an ally, it isn’t about you. Bragging about how you support the Black Lives Matter movement, or about how you “only volunteer at camps for kids with special needs” makes you come off in a not-so-positive light. Specifically, it makes you look like you’re using these groups for your own social gain. Rein in the saviour complex and instead have some respect for those around you who fight for social justice out of a need to survive, not because it looks good on a resume.
So, if I’ve successfully convinced you to change your ways, there’s just one more thing for me to address with you. It’s that making mistakes is completely okay. Everyone has to learn somehow! Acknowledge it, accept responsibility, learn from it and move on equipped with the knowledge you have now.
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On Feb. 20, the McMaster Muslims for Peace and Justice and the McMaster Muslim Students Association sent a letter to Canadian ministers Chrystia Freeland and Ralph Goodalech, asking the government to investigate the Chinese government’s role in directing students to silence human rights activists on campus.
The letter follows an event organized by MMPJ and McMaster MSA on Feb. 11 where Rukiye Turdush, a Uighur Muslim activist, spoke about the Chinese internment of Uighur Muslims.
According to the Washington Post, a group of students created a WeChat group chat to oppose the event.
During the event, a student filmed Turdush and cursed at her. After the talk, the students say that they contacted the Chinese Embassy in Canada, which directed them to investigate whether university officials or Chinese students attended the event.
https://twitter.com/BethanyAllenEbr/status/1096159156061589504
A few days later, five Chinese student groups, including the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, released a statement condemning the event and stating they contacted the Chinese consulate in Toronto.
https://twitter.com/BethanyAllenEbr/status/1096090275666108416
The internment of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region of China has been confirmed by multiple news outlets and the international community.
Approximately one million Uighur Muslims have been detained by the Chinese government, according to the British government.
The Chinese government has denied any wrongdoing, suggesting the camps are constructed for counter-terrorism purposes.
On Feb 16, the Chinese Embassy released a statement defending the actions of the Chinese students on the principle of free speech and dismissing any accusations of misconduct as ‘groundless accusations’ and ‘anti-China sentiment.’
Representatives from McMaster MSA and MMPJ say this is not a free speech issue.
“I do not think this was ever a conversation about freedom of speech. I think it always has been a conversation about human rights violation and speaking up against that,” said representatives from the McMaster MSA and MMPJ. “It’s blatantly obvious that the government is supporting these attempts to quell discussion about these human rights violations.”
The CSSA did not respond to multiple emails from The Silhouette about the situation.
McMaster MSA and MMPJ said the government acknowledged their letter but has yet to engage in any formal action on the matter.
“It’s important that we help people understand the university’s commitment to free speech and to the sharing of views and opinions, even those that might be controversial,” said Gord Arbeau, McMaster’s director of communications.
It is worth noting that these events come amid growing concerns about Chinese government involvement in Canadian universities to oppose any criticism against the Chinese Communist Party.
Following the protest at Turdush’s talk, an unnamed McMaster student created a Change.org petition in hopes of removing the CSSA from the MSU. As of March 2, the petition has amassed 461 signatures.
McMaster MSA and MMPJ said they did not start the petition.
“We definitely have mixed feelings about this petition simply because I think we somewhat recognize that these students these Chinese students are also victims of surveillance and they are victims of a form of control,” McMaster MSA and MMPJ representatives said. “It has never been a priority for either of our organizations to go and attack them, to take revenge.”
The MSU clubs department is aware of the situation but will not take any action without instruction from the government and/or university administration.
"As the clubs department is not a formal investigative body, its governing policies state clearly that any punitive action taken towards a club or individuals inside a club are done so after federal, provincial, municipal and/or University judicial bodies (as appropriate) render opinion and/or action. Therefore, the Department would certainly act on the advice of investigative professionals in this matter," said Josephine Liauw, the MSU clubs department administrator.
This article was clarified on March 12, 2019 to include a direct quotation from Liauw.
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