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thegazette

WWW.WESTERNGAZETTE.CA • @UWOGAZETTE

Avoiding the lava since 1906

TODAYhigh-3low-9

TOMORROWhigh-3low-8

Mustangs continue losing skidWomen’s hockey team loses to Guelph and Brock this past weekend.

>> pg. 7

CASA reform uncertain

Lily RobinsonGAZETTE STAFF

After bringing reform proposals to last week’s meeting of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, Western’s student representatives are still waiting for a reply.

Following last week’s CASA meet-ing in Ottawa, Amir Eftekarpour, the USC’s vice-president external, explained that though concerns were discussed at length and the CASA board of directors was recep-tive to USC concerns, no decisions have been made by the national lobby group at this time as to how they will respond to and proceed with proposed changes.

“What we’re going to be doing is composing a letter to the board detailing our concerns, and then we’re going to ask for a formal reply in January. This reply is part of a broader review of CASA. That review will [lead to] a recommen-dation, and then council has to make a decision,” Eftekarpour said.

Specific concerns presented to CASA’s board ultimately call for CASA’s increased effectiveness. This included requests by the USC and other Ontario universities for improved structure, more mem-bership engagement, and better policy.

The decision to be made by council will ultimately determine whether or not the USC elects to remain with CASA. As previously reported in The Gazette, failure to reform could cause the USC to discontinue their membership with CASA.

At a meeting of the USC’s pro-vincial and federal affairs stand-ing committee earlier this month, Eftekarpour drew attention to the USC’s general concerns regarding

>> see CASA pg.2

$122,247 fundraised this year for cystic fibrosis and cancer

Rain doesn’t dampen O-Week charity events

Iain BoekhoffNEWS EDITOR

This year’s charity orientation team unveiled their fundraising grand total this week and Western has again proved to be a leader when it comes to giving back.

The culmination of the University Students’ Council Orientation Week for the past few years has been Shinerama, where first-year students go out into the London community and ask for donations from residents and businesses. This is followed a week later by the Terry Fox Run. Shinerama raises money for cystic fibrosis research and the Terry Fox Run donations go towards cancer research.

Between the two events, the Western community and London residents donated a total of $122,247.

On Shinerama Day each year, all the first-year students gather in Talbot Bowl where speakers and those affected by cystic fibro-sis share their stories and also do some cheers and get pumped up for the day. After, students go out into London residential communi-ties and businesses to canvass for donations. It has become a tradition that Londoners expect and prepare for as the city is flooded with purple clad students.

The Terry Fox Run is a five-kilo-metre run through campus where donations are asked for, but not required from participants.

Brady Burke, the charity orienta-tion commissioner, was impressed with the enthusiastic turnout this year at both major events despite the rain that fell both days.

“The level of enthusiasm the general Western campus was show-ing towards the campaigns was amazing to see,” Burke said. “Both Shine Day and [the Terry Fox Run] was rainy but everyone still came and was pumped up and the sophs did an incredible job keeping every-one pumped and focused on what

we were here for.”Burke said the charity team

focused more of their efforts on neighbourhoods that have been receptive to Shinerama in the past and also at businesses, instead of going into neighbourhoods that were not as enthusiastic in sup-porting Shinerama.

Adam Smith, vice-president student events for the USC, said Western runs some of the largest charity campaigns in the country and has had strong ties with Cystic Fibrosis Canada for a number of years.

“It adds another aspect to Orientation Week, to show that we can give back to the community,” Smith said.

While slightly less money was raised this year, Smith said there was a changing culture towards fundraising on campus and it is

hit and miss every year as to the amount of donations received. He said promoting awareness is just as important as raising money and the high turnouts to Shinerama and the Terry Fox Run were encourag-ing signs.

New initiatives this year included “Western Trains for Terry,” a website where users could post their kilo-metres ran or biked, “Shinefest,” a sports day for the community in Victoria Park — which included an appearance from a llama — and “The Great Canadian Hairdo,” where about 15 sophs cut their hair onstage for Terry Fox donations.

“We had a great team, a great campaign,” Burke said. “Hopefully they keep it up next year and build on some of the things we did this year. [I] can’t wait to see what goes on next year when they have the have the new team picked out.”

Courtesy of Cody McFarland

WHAT DO I DO WITH MY HANDS? . A soph pumps up the crowd at O-Week earlier this year. The University Students’ Counil has announced that this year’s Shinerama and Terry Fox Run raised $122,247 for cystic fibrosis and cancer research.

The level of enthusiasm the general Western campus was showing towards the campaigns was amazing to see. Both Shine Day and [the Terry Fox Run] were rainy but everyone still came and was pumped up, and the sophs did an incredible job keeping everyone pumped and focused on what we were here for.

—Brady BurkeCharity orientation commissioner

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Caught on Camera

News Briefs

The Gazette welcomes Wells

Western alumnus Paul Wells will be returning to campus tomorrow for a signing event for his recently pub-lished book, The Longer I’m Prime Minister, written on prime minister Stephen Harper.

Wells graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science in from Western back in 1989, and pursued an active role at The Gazette as a news editor. He went on to work for papers such as the Montreal Gazette and National Post, and now has a weekly column as political editor for Maclean’s magazine.

The eagerly anticipated event is free to attend and will be held tomorrow at noon in room 1320 of the Richard Ivey Building, hosted by The Gazette and Political Science Association.

While writing his blog, , Wells’ collection of published politi-cal books also include: Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper’s New Conservatism and The Harper Decade.

Julian Uzielli, editor-in-chief of The Gazette, named Wells as one of The Gazette’s most distinguished alumni.

Uzielli described the excitement shared by The Gazette at having Wells return to the university.

“We’re all really excited to wel-come him back to Western. Working at places like Maclean’s and The National Post and writing books about politicians are the kind of things that a lot of people in this office aspire to do, so he’s kind of an inspirational figure for us,” he said.

—Tiffany Shepherd

Winnie Lu GAZETTE

LIBRARY BOOKS SOLD FOR A GOOD CAUSE. All books were sold for $2 at the book sale for Western’s United Way campaign held at Taylor Library in the Kellogg room yesterday. There were great finds ranging from Never Let Me Go to The Kite Runner.

USC’s CASA reform stalls

CASA policy.“We’re really looking at due dili-

gence to do some effective reform because we think it is important to be lobbying federally, and CASA right now is the best place to do

that, but if it’s not an effective body, we need to start exploring alternatives,” Eftekarpour said at the meeting.

“One of the founding principles of CASA […] is that its an orga-nization that is easy to join and easy to leave,” said CASA national director Jonathan Champagne, in response to the possibility of USC withdrawal. “We will continue to advocate for students and explain the value of federal advocacy and how a school like Western truly benefits.”

Several Ontario student gov-ernment bodies joined the USC in Ottawa last week at the CASA conference, held to address pro-posed policy changes. Western’s University Students’ Council met at the nation’s capital along side the University of Waterloo’s

Federation of Students, the Brock University Students’ Union and the McMaster Students’ Union to pres-ent their concerns to CASA’s board of directors.

The meeting, part of a broader review process, allowed for several Ontario institutions to express their concerns and proposals for reform. CASA undergoes frequent review by various members, a process that Champagne deems an important component of the organization’s successful operation.

“Student unions and student associations have a duty to ensure that any organization they’re a part of effectively represents them,” Champagne said. “It keeps [CASA] accountable and ensures that we continue to effectively support students.”

—With files from Iain Boekhoff

>> CASA continued from pg.1

thegazette • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • 3

High costs for snow banks

Stephanie GrellaGAZETTE STAFF

While some are frolicking in this recent winter wonderland, the City of London is feeling the pressures of efficient snow removal and its effect on the city budget.

Since last weekend’s snow-storm, some parts of London were left with 70 centimetres of snow, leaving the cleanup effort costing between $500,000 and $600,000. The storm has particularly caused many setbacks for snow removal teams, including many road acci-dents and maneuvering vehicles stuck in the middle of snow-filled streets.

“From November until April, snow removal first responders are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said John Parsons, division manager of transportation and roadside operations for the City of London. “When we get more than 15 centimetres, 62 road plows man-age snow control of main streets,

applying salt and sand to roads.”And it’s not over just yet. On

Wednesday morning, Environment Canada issued a snow squall warn-ing for the London-Middlesex, Sarnia-Lambton, Huron-Perth, and Elgin areas, adding more pressures and costs to the city’s snow-clear-ing budget.

According to Parsons, London’s average snowfall per winter season is 220 centimetres — but London saw one-third of this amount this past weekend alone.

“It becomes challenging because we deploy all the snow removal equipment to the city’s east end and then we have to deploy them all to the west end,” Parsons said. “It does take a few days to clear.”

In 2010, city council provided an additional $400,000 to improve general snow removal in London, which includes more frequent sanding, sidewalk clearing and snow removal at intersections.

According to the City of

London’s winter maintenance program, streets are divided into 62 areas with each street designated to a certain level of priority. High priority roads carry a larger volume of traffic, including roads used to get to business areas and hospitals as well as all bus routes.

“Making sure that city’s main streets are clear and routes are open for buses and emergency vehicles has always been our goal,” Parsons said. “Once we have taken care of the main routes, then our focus is on local streets.”

Parsons also added that 38 sidewalk plows are tasked to clear over 2,000 bus stops and all public sidewalks.

“We know that the next two weeks will be fairly cold, so we will be seeing snow squall warnings,” Parsons said. “But snow squalls are unpredictable — we’ve known that for years.”

The squalls are expected to start to weaken and drift eastward by this evening.

Logan Ly GAZETTE

OUSA surveys for demographic data

Aaron Zaltzman ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The University Students’ Council’s latest iPad giveaway is finally here! Also there appears to be some sort of survey involved.

Once again the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance is conducting its biennial survey of its member students to gather data on student information and opinion.

“This study aims to collect infor-mation about undergraduate and college students in Ontario,” said the letter of information about the sur-vey. “[It looks at] debt, area of study, use of services etc. so that we can better communicate to the govern-ment the experiences and needs of students like you.”

The survey is also collecting demographic information about its constituents.

“The whole point is to obtain demographic information, such what year of study students are in, what program, students’ back-grounds, and then it also gets stu-dent opinion on a variety of issues,” Amir Eftakarpour, vice-president external for the USC, explained. “One of the questions this year is how do students feel as a member of their municipality? Do they feel like residents there? In academics, were looking at opinions on things like teaching quality and academic counseling.”

The survey is being conducted on behalf of OUSA by CCI Research, an Ontario survey corporation.

“They conduct the research, and we use it to back up things like advo-cacy,” Eftakarpour said. “So if we go to the government, and we say for example that students should not have to pay for evaluations on top of their tuition — like a test in an

online course. We back that up by saying that 50 per cent of students across the province said they had been asked to pay for an online test at some point during that year.”

The information also allows spe-cific university student governments to advocate for their students.

“The survey breaks the informa-tion up across schools, so internally at Western we used that statistic that 58 per cent of students had been asked to pay extra for evaluations,” he said.

“It serves purposes like data mea-suring, opinion gathering, demo-graphic information, and then CCI will analyze it for us,” Eftakarpour said. “It’s also likely that this year the information will be broken down not only between main campus and affiliate college students, but also by faculty.”

And of course, the survey will also offer students a chance to win one of two iPads. Students have until December 6, 2013 to complete the survey and be entered into the draw. The survey can be found either on the USC’s website or social media, or at cci-research.ca/ousa2013/.

Caught on Camera

Logan Ly GAZETTE

A WHITE CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY. As Western gets hit by more snow, students find creative ways to release their frustrations during midterms out in the snow, giving a whole new meaning to “frosty the snowman.”

The whole point is to obtain demographic information, such what year of study students are in, what program, students’ backgrounds, and then it also gets student opinion on a variety of issues.

—Amir EftakarpourVice-president external for the USC

4 • thegazette • Thursday, November 28, 2013

Arts&Life saywhat?“Everybody looks at their poop.”

—Oprah Winfrey

Valery Giroux to speak about veganism

All animals are equal

Mary Ann CioskARTS & LIFE EDITOR

Valéry Giroux, who has dedicated her life to the legal protection of ani-mals through veganism and public advocacy for their fair treatment, will be speaking at Western tonight.

Giroux completed her master’s of law followed by doctorial stud-ies in philosophy, writing her the-sis on the moral reasoning behind the ethical treatment of animals. She is currently the coordinator at the Centre for Research Ethics at the Université de Montreal and has published numerous articles advo-cating for animal rights.

“Growing up, I didn’t share my life with pets. I used to like eating steaks and ice cream — I’m ashamed to say that I never cared too much for animals until college,” Giroux admits.

However, while completing her undergrad in law at the Université de Montreal, Giroux was exposed to arguments which broadened her perspective, causing her to recon-sider her animal ethics beliefs.

“I had a philosophy class on human nature, and a psychology class on intelligence. In both cases, my teachers had students realize that there were no clear and impor-tant distinctions between humans and other animals. Thinking about how we consider and treat non-human animals, I was shocked to understand that there were no foundations for our countless acts of discrimination between humans and nonhuman sentient beings,” says Giroux.

Having her academic foundation in law, Giroux was more convinced

by the necessity for animal rights through reasoning than emotional persuasion.

“I knew that the strong empathy I had for my fellow human beings had to encompass all my fellow sen-tient beings. It was a question of fair-ness. Since then, my empathy has developed seriously and crossed the frontiers of my own species. I care for all sentient animals. Still, I inter-pret the question of our moral duties towards nonhuman sentient beings mainly as one of justice, rather than one of empathy,” Giroux says.

A passionate member of Amnesty International, Giroux knew that she wanted to make the world a better place. Although becoming a human rights lawyer was her initial goal, Giroux soon realized that her time and energy would be best utilized in the defence of animals.

“It hit me that while so many

were interested in human justice, nobody cared about animal justice. The animal issue is one of the most pressing ones not only because of all the horrors the animals go through today and not only because they are victims of serious and profound injustices, but because most people are still largely indifferent to their fate,” Giroux says.

Giroux’s background in law and philosophy enabled her to form a logical and evidence-based position regarding animal rights, founded on moral sensibilities.

“The main reason I wanted to do a thesis in animal ethics was to be 100 per cent sure of the validity of these arguments in favor of ani-mal equality. It led me to an even more radical position,” she says. “I am now more convinced than ever that the best arguments are the ones in favor of the attribution of rights to all sentient nonhumans.”

Upon coming to this conclusion, Giroux subsequently decided that veganism must be a required con-dition in order to eliminate animal suffering.

“Veganism is necessary to avoid cruelty or, at least, unjustifiable pain for nonhumans. Granting the status of persons to animals implies attrib-uting them the fundamental rights that would protect them against being tortured, killed and domi-nated,” she says. “Theoretically, if veganism was perfectly embraced by everyone, animal cruelty would indeed be largely eliminated.”

Dr. Valéry Giroux is speaking at Conron Hall (University College Rm. 224) at 7 p.m. tonight. The event is free and open to the public.

The animal issue is one of the most pressing not only because of all the horrors the animals go through today and not only because they are victims of serious and profound injustices, but because most people are still largely indifferent to their fate

—Valéry GirouxCoordinator at the Centre for Research Ethics

at the Universite de Montreal

Editor’s Picks > The essentials for your week

ON TV

Lady Gaga and the Muppets Thanksgiving Special

Being a fly on the wall for the conversation between network executives when they discussed, for an American holiday where everyone gathers together happily, having Lady Gaga and the Muppets hang out for an hour would be very interesting. Will she be singing? Will the Muppets be singing? A duet? I think anybody would logically conclude that this will be a full blown hot mess (but hella enjoyable!) Who thought this would be a good idea, though? Seriously?! The Muppets are understandable but wholesome family holiday and Lady Gaga? Um...

ON DISC

Midnight Memories — One Direction

The irony here lies in the title of One Direction’s third studio album. There will be limited memory of any of these songs that lives on in anyone’s mind, as the style of this album is a radical departure from the usual of One Direction. What’s interesting and frankly, almost hilarious, is the songs on this album and the amount of emotional depth. There’s a lot of it, but for a group whose target audience is mostly still waiting for their monthly surprises — is this sensible? Regardless, it’s 1D so expect a lot of attention.

ON DVD

Jobs

What was that large, uncomfortable sounding splash? Ah yes! The sound of a complete flop. While Jobs might not have been the most well attended or critically acclaimed, watching Ashton Kutcher struggle through a Steve Jobs impersonation is pretty rewarding. Jobs will likely stand out as the most recent film in the $3.99 bin at your local carwash and that surely makes it significant. When looking at what to check out in terms of new DVDs, this film surely needs to be seen.

IN THEATRES

Black Nativity

This musical centres on an inspirational drama based on a play by Langston Hughes. Angela Bassett! Yes, she is gracing the big screen again and in a big role! After ripping it up and tearing scenery every week on this season’s American Horror Story, it’s fantastic she’s in a movie. Also, there’s no no no no way Jennifer Hudson is living without you. She’s in Black Nativity as well and promises to bring her vocal prowess. Bassett and Hudson — what more do you need?

ON THE CHARTS

“Sweater Weather” — Neighborhood

“Sweater Weather” is pretty important for this time of the year because now is the time when the weather would dictate that you wear a sweater. Indeed, when it gets colder and people need more than a mere t-shirt to keep them warm, they turn to the part of their closet that houses the sweaters. While jackets may be donned outside, most take them off indoors and thus, reveal sweaters that fit with the weather. “Sweater Weather” is a song all about wearing a sweater during the winter. Deep, The Neighborhood. Deep.

Sniffing out an interesting gift

Poo-PourriGGGHFWith an ad opening with a prim-and-proper woman on a toilet promising, “You won’t believe the motherlode I just dropped,” Poo-pourri is at least successful with its viral advertising campaign.

Poo-Pourri is a before-you-go bathroom spray that promises to cover the smell of any embarrass-ing odours with natural essential oils and it works just as advertised. Upon evacuating one’s bowels, the smells of Poo-Pourri will saturate the bathroom covering up any less pleasant smells.

However, the recommendation for four to six sprays are a wee bit over zealous, as one’s bathroom will continue to smell long after the foul deed has been done. Those with sensitive noses may find they are running the fan in the bathroom for longer than if they were dropping one of the fieriest bowel movements

put in porcelain.Of course, using Poo-Pourri is a

matter of remembering — in dire emergencies, one is not likely to recall that they need to spritz the bowl before they go, making the product a bit of a hassle to use. Furthermore, unless company is over, it really seems a waste of time to use the spray unless the rest of one’s bathroom is in pristine condition.

At close to $20 a bottle, Poo-Pourri is quite a dent in one’s wallet for a product that may or may not be necessary. It would be worth it for the appeal of being so absolutely bizarre, but on a student budget, it is neither necessary, nor particularly useful. What Poo-Pourii does offer is a hilarious joke Christmas gift, espe-cially if one were scrambling to find something at the last minute — but it would probably be a bad idea to buy for your girlfriend.

—Brent Holmes

Bill Wang GAZETTE

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thegazette • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • 5

Can’t light a fire without a spark

Chris MiszczakILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

The Hunger Games: Catching FireGGGFFDirected by: Francis Lawrence Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Mensworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Donald Sutherland

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the sequel to the first movie and book of the same title by Suzanne Collins. The previous cast returns in this post-apocalyptic world, fol-lowing the adventures of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence ) as she attempts to return to her former life in District 12.

However Katniss’ actions from the first film, which involved fak-ing a relationship with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), have instigated a rev-olutionary mindset in the peoples of all of the other districts aggra-vating the leader of the tyrannical capital, President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Forced back into the Games when Snow declares a Quarter Quell, which will reap trib-utes from past victors, Katniss and Peeta must now survive an All-Star Hunger Games with revolutionary consequences.

Catching Fire isn’t a bad entry in the series. Sutherland’s perfor-mance was superb, and the other actors struggled to match up to his standard. Of course this could just be based on his abundance of act-ing experience. Lawrence’s perfor-mance was believable and decent, but unfortunately, Hutcherson’s performance is on par with being a robot. Scenes such as when Peeta

volunteers as tribute for Haymitch play out with minimal emotion.

While the love triangle between characters is an appropriate theme for a romantic film, it does not mesh well with a revolutionary or post apocalyptic themed series. It simply contrasts too much with the story and at worst, it is extremely annoying. Does a dying world and a fascist society really bring to mind a romantic setting? Maybe some swing that way, but these contrast-ing themes are more distracting than heartwarming.

In this film it is a welcome change of pace to the story to see these aspects downplayed and finally focusing on the growing revolution of the different districts. This reveals more about this very fascinating world and really just how much of a role our lead has in this upcoming series of events. The story undoubt-edly will make viewers excited for the next entry but the contrasting and often confusing themes of the first film and book takes too much of a toll on the audience for a full appreciation of the film.

It was pleasing to see certain romantic elements downplayed and more focus on the world’s set-ting. This is what makes this film superior to its predecessor. Katniss becomes less of a cookie-cutter character, instead becoming much more complex and well-developed, which makes for an engaging film.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has interesting revolutionary themes that make it entertaining and informative, but unfortunately it gets bogged down by a focus on the dueling abdominal muscles of Peeta and Gale, and who Katniss should romantically choose.

Courtesy of Lionsgate

6 • thegazette • Thursday, November 28, 2013

Opinions

thegazetteVolume 107, Issue 46www.westerngazette.ca

Contact:www.westerngazette.caUniversity Community Centre Rm. 263The University of Western OntarioLondon, ON, CANADAN6A 3K7Editorial Offices: (519) 661-3580Advertising Dept.: (519) 661-3579

The Gazette is owned and published by the University Students’ Council.

Editorials are decided by a majority of the editorial board and are written by a member of the editorial board but are not necessarily the expressed opinion of each editorial board member. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the USC, The Gazette, its editors or staff.

To submit a letter, go to westerngazette.ca and click on “Contact.”

All articles, letters, photographs, graphics, illustrations and cartoons published in The Gazette, both in the newspaper and online versions, are the property of The Gazette. By submitting any such material to The Gazette for publication, you grant to The Gazette a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to publish such material in perpetuity in any media, including but not limited to, The Gazette‘s hard copy and online archives.

News Richard Raycraft Megan Devlin Iain Boekhoff Jeremiah Rodriguez

Arts & Life Brent Holmes Mary Ann Ciosk Bradley Metlin

Sports Daniel Weryha Nusaiba Al-Azem Caitlin Martin Newnham

Opinions Kevin Hurren

Associate Kaitlyn McGrath Aaron Zaltzman

Photography Logan Ly Bill Wang Kelly Samuel

Graphics Naira Ahmed

Illustrations Christopher Miszczak John Prata

Online Jesica Hurst

Graphics/Video Mike Laine

Gazette Composing & Gazette Advertising

Gazette Staff 2013-2014

Ian Greaves, ManagerRobert Armstrong

Diana Watson

• Please recycle this newspaper •

Christine Bonk, Jonathan Dunn, Sam Frankel,

Stephanie Grella, Kevin Heslop, Jenny Jay, Nathan

Kanter, Taylor Lasota, Katie Lear, Emory Liu, Cheryl

Madliger, Sara Mai Chitty, Soheil Milani, Vidhant

Pal, Lily Robinson, Tiffany Shepherd, Hamza Tariq,

Josh Teixera, Anne Wozney

Julian UzielliEditor-In-Chief

Cameron M. SmithDeputy Editor

Jason SinukoffSecretary

“I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.”

–Tony Hayward, CEO of BP on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest spill in the history of the industry.

Iain BoekhoffNEWS EDITOR

I want to say that I was shocked when I found out Western actively invests in oil companies — except I wasn’t, and I don’t think anyone else can be shocked by this either.

Oil companies are probably among the worst entities in the world, committing and covering up environmental atroci-ties every day. That’s aside from the fact burning fossil fuels is literally killing my grandchildren. And penguins. And, you know, the Arctic.

So personally, I wouldn’t invest in any of the several major oil companies Western does. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t advise other people to invest in them. From a purely financial perspective, they consistently offer returns that other compa-nies and sectors simply cannot match.

Students complain every day about the rising cost of tuition. The university faces a lack of government funding, and it’s caught in the middle. For better or worse, Western is looking at rising costs with government funding which is not keeping up.

There are basically three ways to make up for this short-fall: charge more to students, get money from corporations — essentially sponsors — or to invest the money it has to make more money. I really don’t want to give more money to Western than I have to, and I especially oppose corporations sponsor-ing higher education.

So that leaves investing money, something which every per-son and corporation does. Western has to invest its money to get the highest return, and one of the best places for making money is the stock market. In fact, if you do it properly it is the best possible place. Investing principles hold that the bigger the company, the more stable it is and the more likely it is that its stock price will rise. So by investing in large companies, Western is mitigating some of the risk of the stock market while increasing the likelihood of earning money.

The thing is, there probably isn’t a “good” corporation to invest in. Wal-Mart, Google, Apple, McDonald’s, Nestle and Nike are examples of massive, ubiquitous companies, but have serious shortcomings when it comes to their workers, their effect on the environment and host of other issues.

But an investor simply cannot force a company to do good things unless they are a majority stakeholder, something Western is far from in these cases. It is up to the government and the people at large to decide on the morality of corporate practices, forcing change and upholding current laws. These companies would not make money, nor would their stock prices rise, if consumers did not buy the products they sell.

And yes, it is completely hypocritical to promote itself as having a “green” campus and going “green” when it invests in the quintessential un-green thing. I really don’t think, however, that the university can be perfect — nor can we expect it to be. I, for one, like the Western hybrid cars I see on campus, so Western is clearly not the greatest promoter of the companies whose stock it owns.

I would also point out that it most probably isn’t any one person in the administration making investing decisions. I expect — rather, hope — the university has hired financial advisors and investment specialists who invest purely based on financial reasons, which is good for you and me.

No one is perfect, let alone a giant corporation like Western. Investing in oil companies is lessening the increase of my tuition without splashing their logos in my face every day. And I am all for that.

Julian UzielliEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Oil is in everything we do. The bus or car you take to school every day burns fossil fuels; the products you buy are trans-ported via oil-burning trucks, ships and planes; even most plastics are made with petroleum byproducts. Oil is a drug, and the world is desperately addicted to the stuff.

Western has over $10-million of its pension fund invested in oil companies, and financially speaking, that is a sound invest-ment. But that doesn’t make it right.

Like most addictions, our dependence on oil has led us down a pretty dark path. It used to be cheap, and we could buy as much as we wanted. But the more we used, the more it started to cost. For this reason, oil is a great investment; in the long run, the price will pretty much always go up, and as long as humanity is hooked on oil, there will always be companies willing to supply it to us.

But there are other side-effects, beyond the ever-increasing cost to users: Through our addiction, we are slowly killing our-selves. Since the industrial revolution, when we began burn-ing fossil fuels in earnest, the carbon-dioxide content of our atmosphere has increased exponentially. According to NASA, atmospheric CO2 levels have gone from 280 parts per million to 379 parts per million in the last 150 years. That level went up by 30 parts per million in the past 20 years alone, according to the American Chemical Society. The upshot is the planet’s average temperature is slowly increasing, which will eventually cause a catastrophic chain reaction affecting everything from sea levels to wildlife.

In English: Our planet is changing for the worse, and it’s our fault. But at least we’re making money off it, right?

Our past mistakes cannot be undone, but the fatal trajec-tory we have set for our planet can be curbed. If we accept that climate change is real, and is caused by human activity, and presents a grave threat to the future of our civilization — which is more or less universally acknowledged among academics — then logically it must be wrong to support the companies who are directly responsible for this threat.

By investing in oil, Western is supporting companies who are willfully engaging in a process that is demonstrably harmful to our planet. What amount of money is that worth? How can a university — which is ostensibly a place of higher learning, where experts conduct research and teach their students about the threat presented by climate change — support such activity?

I’m not a hardcore environmentalist — just like you, I use petroleum products in one way or another pretty much every day. But anyone can see the hypocrisy in funding research on climate change one hand, and supporting oil companies through massive investments on the other.

There are two parties at fault here: The world’s big oil com-panies — Shell, Exxon, BP and the like, whose business models directly lead to the destruction of wildlife, habitats and our very climate — and us, the people who support them.

We are all addicted to oil, and Western — and anyone else who invests in oil companies — is an enabler. If we don’t wean ourselves off soon, we’re going to regret it. And as an institution that purports to encourage higher learning for the ultimate improvement of our world, Western has a moral responsibility to divest itself from oil.

Uze Your BrainCool Story Broekoff

thegazette • Thursday, November 28, 2013 • 7

SportsRundown >> In a motion passed earlier this week, Canadian Interuniversity Sport has decided that players competing in the NCAA can return to Canada and compete in the CIS without having to wait a full year as part of the new eligibility repatriation rule.

tweetoftheweekIn meantime, can only speak for myself, but losing rights changes nothing for me. SportsCentre, That’s Hockey, tsn.ca, Twitter, new shows…

>> Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) on TSN losing broadcasting rights for the NHL

Caitlin Martin NewnhamSPORTS EDITOR

The Western Mustangs women’s hockey team faced the Guelph Gryphons and the Brock Badgers this past Friday and Saturday, respectively. Unfortunately, both of the games resulted in defeat for the Mustangs leading to their current 7–6–1 record. Their score in the game against Guelph was a disappointing 1–6 loss for Western, followed by a close 3–4 loss to the Badgers the next day.

“We are struggling a bit right now. Nothing that can’t be cor-rected,” Mustangs’ head coach Chris Higgins commented. “Friday we played our best period of the year [versus] Guelph and were win-ning 1–0. In the second we played our worst period of the year and gave up [six] goals.”

Mustangs’ forward Marlowe Pecora put the purple and white’s single point of the game against Guelph on the board halfway through the first period. Western fought hard in the first, but the Gryphons took over in the second and dominated the rest of the game scoring six points to win the game. The 39–15 shots on goal favoured the Gryphons, reminding the Mustangs of Guelph’s third-place ranking in the Ontario University Athletics rankings.

“We’ve never beaten Guelph during my time on the team, so to lose to them again was also dis-appointing, especially by such a large score as well,” Stacey Scott, Mustangs forward, said.

Despite Guelph’s victory over Western, Gryphons’ head coach Rachel Flanagan holds the Mustangs in high regard.

“We always expect a tough game

against Western. We knew that they would come out hard and fast and that’s exactly what we got. If not for a couple of posts, they would have been up 3–0 at the end of the first. We made a few adjustments heading into the [second] period and took advantage of our oppor-tunities,” Flanagan said.

Despite their loss the night before, the Mustangs headed into their Saturday game against Brock. Considering Western’s OUA sixth

place ranking compared to Brock’s 13th place ranking, victory statis-tically should have gone to the Mustangs. Instead, Brock raked in four points for a 4–3 win.

“We have been in a bit of a slump lately so we couldn’t assume they would be an easy game,” Mustangs’ defenceman Michelle Saunders explained. “I’m not really too sure what led to our losses, but once November hit we seemed to go on a bit of a [losing] streak, which is

not like us at all.”Scott scored two of the three

points for the Mustangs in Saturday’s tilt. However, the two points were not enough to give Western the edge.

“We just didn’t capitalize when we had the chances. We had enough shots — they just weren’t effective shots. We lost [forward] Cass Gosling near the end of the second to a body-checking pen-alty, which was a big loss as she

had two assists at that point,” Scott explained.

The loss was unfortunate and unexpected, but the team will continue to train for their last game of the first half of the regular sea-son against the Queen’s Gaels on December 1, who are ranked first in the OUA standings.

“We are not panicking. This is a great team and we will come out of our fog,” Higgins said.

Western fought hard but opponents fought harder‘Stangs add two losses to November slump

Jonathan Dunn GAZETTE

ROLL, ROLL, ROLL THE PUCK GENTLY IN THE NET. The Mustangs competed against the Brock Badgers this past Saturday, resulting in an unfortunate 3–4 loss for Western. Because of the loss, the Mustangs now fall to sixth place in the OUA with a 7–6–1 record.

Tao Feng GAZETTE

SPIN-O-RAMA! Mustangs’ forward Cassidy Gosling battles a Badger for the puck as they skirt Brock’s net. The Mustangs put up a valiant effort, but ultimately fell 4–3 to the Brock Badgers — the last place team in the OUA. Naira Ahmed GAZETTE

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8 • thegazette • Thursday, November 28, 2013

Mustangs take home gold and silver in SudburyWrestling medals on the provincial stage

Nusaiba Al-AzemSPORTS EDITOR

The Mustangs wrestling teams con-tinued their impressive run at the Ontario Senior Open tournament in Sudbury, Ontario this past Saturday.

The women’s team, who earned a total of 36 points, claimed a col-lective gold. The men’s team trailed slightly behind Brock to earn silver with 32 points. The tournament was open to varsity and non-varsity ath-letes alike of any age range, adding a significant level of difficulty to the competition.

“From the team perspective it was a good result,” Mustangs’ head coach Ray Takahashi said of the meet. “It shows that we’re one of the top teams in Ontario.”

Individually, the Mustangs received 13 medals, which consisted of six golds, six bronzes and a single silver.

The gold medalists were Madi Parks in the 48 kg weight class, Brianne Barry in the 55 kg class, Steven Takahashi in the 55 kg class, Christine Schmidt in the 72 kg class, Michelle Szilagyi in the 82 kg class and Riley Otto in the 96 kg class.

Mustangs’ wrestler Siobhan Smith was the sole recipient of a sil-ver medal in the 48 kg weight class.

The six Mustangs who took home bronze medals were Alyssa Medeiros of the 51 kg weight class, Anne McKee of the 55 kg weight class, Larissa D’Alleva of the 63 kg class, Alec Bauer of the 74 kg class and Emma Tedball of the 82 kg class.

While the women’s team has been consistently producing top results, the men’s team has had a little bit more of a lag. Coach Takahashi explained that the men’s weight classes are not secure at this point.

“It’s all about having a solid team in all the weight classes and that’s not a given yet because some people

might change weights — we have to do some juggling,” Takahashi said, explaining the incongruence in male and female team performances. “It depends on the other teams as well. In some weight classes we’re pretty solid — others we’re not real deep so we’re going to have to get some of the other team members to bring it up another level.”

The team still has time to adjust these weight classes before the Ontario University Athletics cham-pionships in mid-February, but as for that challenge, Takahashi cannot predict the outcome.

“Brock has a really solid program. They’ve always had a good team; they’re pretty deep in men. But every university has some good people

and unlike a strict team sport, there’s individuals. Like there’s individual weight classes in our sport, so every team might have one or two good people and those are the situations where they’re going to become a factor in the overall team title,” Takahashi said.

“So it’s not just going to be a duel between us and Brock — Guelph is going to have good people, Lakehead is going to have good peo-ple, [McMaster] is strong. It’s really uncertain at this point; we can’t just target one team so it’s going to be challenging for us,” he continued.

In the meantime, Western will be competing on the international stage. Wrestlers Riley Otto and Steven Takahashi departed to Nice, France on Tuesday to represent Team Canada in the Henri Deglane International, led by the national men’s coach Gia Sissaouri. They compete tomorrow.

Takahashi explained the unique perspective international competi-tions give varsity wrestlers.

“In wrestling the competition is not seeded so it’s kind of [a] random draw, so you just don’t know who you’re going to meet. It’s so com-petitive that you’re hoping for a good draw but at the same time there’s not a lot of weak opponents when you get out in the international wres-tling scene, it’s just really tough,” Takahashi said. “That’s why these events are so valuable for Riley and Steven, because they’ll get people that they don’t usually meet and they’re at just a higher level.”

Courtesy of Ray Takahashi

BREAK A LEG (NOT LITERALLY). Mustangs’ wrestler Riley Otto (left) takes down his opponent at the Ontario Senior Open in Sudbury on Saturday. Otto received a gold medal in the 96 kg weight class. He is currently in Nice, France representing Team Canada at the Henri Deglane International with his teammate Steven Takahashi.

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