Ah, the boozepaper… Scheduled to go to print on Thursday, and yet – near as I can tell – nothing has been done. However I’m actually contributing something more than just a crossword to it this year. Tomorrow I’ll be driving out of the city with a few others to visit the Forty Creek distillery in Grimsby. We’re hopefully going to be meeting and chatting with head Whisky Maker John Hall, and with lots of pretty pictures (artfully taken by someone who isn’t me) I’ll have a feature on Canadian Whisky sorted by Wednesday.

But before that, here are the two pieces I wrote for the last issue. The piece on Olympic athletes (in the previous post) was hammered out in about an hour immediately after the event on Wednesday night. It was actually quite interesting, if I’m honest. More than that, it’s probably the first bit of sports content we’ve had in more than two years.

The piece below is my side of a debate in support of euthanasia. This took about 30 minutes to write, and actually served as something of a study break while I was writing my final essay on Terentian characterization and comedy. For the first time, writing served as a break from writing. Thanks Christ the semester is essentially over…

Should euthanasia be legalized?

Why the subject of euthanasia would ever cause such moral quandaries is a mystery. Surely a procedure that literally means “good death” and is available only to the hopelessly sick and endlessly suffering is something to be embraced. It is a last recourse for the final moments of an agonizing existence: the choice to die peacefully.

Cleverly billed as “appropriate end-of-life care” by Parti Québécois MNA Véronique Hivon (and thereby deftly avoiding the ugly connotations of “assisted suicide”), Dying With Dignity marks an admirable evolution in the treatment of the terminally ill. A well-informed adult undergoing excruciating pain and suffering from a terminal disease with no hope of improvement can submit a written request for euthanasia to their doctor. If the patient’s doctor and a second independent physician approve the petition, the patient can end his life with legal medical assistance in the province of Quebec, despite the illegal status of euthanasia under our federal criminal code.

Set aside such nebulous phrases as “well-informed” and “excruciating pain and suffering”—as well as the other obvious grey areas (what if a patient is unable to submit their request in writing?)—to find Quebec’s proposal ethically sound. These procedures respect the patient’s autonomy, his right to live, and, as a result, his right to die.

The necessary act of acquiring a second opinion prevents doctors from impulsively pulling plugs, and that only the patient may sign his life away (read: no aggrieved relatives can impede euthanizing a patient who chooses it or alternatively euthanize a patient who is unwilling) should sufficiently quell the complaints of legalized murder.

Regardless, euthanasia is a delicate issue for most people, and the care and consideration Quebec took in crafting its Dying With Dignity report demonstrates the Province’s commitment to exploring both morally and ethically acceptable ways of ending a medically tortured existence. In fact its most remarkable achievement is respecting both sides of the discussion without making value judgments.

A person is entitled to a good death just as much as they’re entitled to a good life. Legalizing euthanasia is long overdue.

“We’re going to meet at the liquor store and we’re going to buy some booze.” These are words no athlete ever expects to hear from his coach. But Milt Ottey, two time Canadian Olympic high jump athlete, proved to be a difficult case. He refused to practice claiming that he “didn’t have to.” His coach, current head of the U of T Varsity Blues track and field program Carl Georgevski, resorted to coaxing Ottey with the promise of exquisite champagne. “This made Ottey jump, and it made him jump well,” Georgevski explained. On that day, he sailed over 230 cm effortlessly before retiring with his reward. “I told you I didn’t have to jump,” he quipped. Recalling the event during the final instalment of the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education Speaker Series, Georgevski noted, “you really have to listen to your athletes – they know what they’re talking about.”

On Wednesday April 4, a crowd ranging from weekend warriors to Olympic hopefuls gathered at the Isabel Bader Theatre to hear a discussion on what it takes to be an Olympian. Georgevski was joined by high performance athletics correspondent Greg Wells, U of T Kinesiology & Physical Education Professor Gretchen Kerr, and Canadian rhythmic gymnastics Olympian Alexandra Orlando.

Wells, a PhD in physiology himself, spoke of the benefits of relaxation and the hindrances of stress on athletic performance. “Take three deep breaths,” he explained. “Calm yourself down, and regain control.” Joannie Rochette, who figure skated at Vancouver in 2010 even though her mother had recently passed away, did this in the 60 seconds before her routine. She won Olympic bronze.

Kerr, meanwhile, had much to say on the on the psychological aspect of high performance competition. After momentarily lamenting the “artificial separation of mind and body” – the compartmentalization of physiology from psychology despite their fundamental connections – she explained the critical importance of emotional well being for successful athletes. She said that the performance levels of Olympians are so uniform that oftentimes “it is the psychological state that determines the minute differences [of performance].”

Orlando, world record holder and five-time national rhythmic gymnastics champion, served as keynote speaker for the event. She recounted both the failure of being one-tenth of a point short of qualifying for Athens in 2004 and the pride of representing Canada at Beijing four years later. “For every athlete that makes it to the Olympics, there are hundreds and hundreds of people behind them,” she explained. At Beijing, she placed 18th in her event after competing at “60-70 per cent” ability with ruined ankles and ligaments. “You can’t doubt your ability and your strength – not only when you’re at the top, but also when you’re at the bottom.”

The symposium ended with CBC national news and sports issues reporter Teddy Katz mediating a brief Q&A session. When asked whether or not the creation of Olympians and the Olympic Games themselves are ultimately worth all of the blood, sweat, and tears, each speaker agreed that it was. “[The Olympic Games are] where 200 plus countries will come together under the same set of rules to compete peacefully,” Wells affirmed. “The positives, overall, far outweigh the negatives.”

• Friday February 17 – Last day of class before break / Attempt to set up Minecraft server with useful plugins and mods.
• Saturday February 18 – Went to a party with friends from another era. Won a game of beer pong, which I suppose is some sort of achievement.
• Sunday February 19 – Potluck dinner and drinking with folks from the newspaper. Drove home at sunrise.
• Monday February 20 - Watched the first series of Sherlock, followed by futile fiddling with the Minecraft server while impatiently waiting for the second series of Sherlock to download.
• Tuesday February 21 – Watched the first episode of the second series of Sherlock. Played Minecraft while catching up on podcasts. Drank scotch while listening to Frank Sinatra.
• Wednesday February 22 – A classy evening out at Roy Thomson Hall for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Brahms’ Symphony No. 4).
• Thursday February 23- Finished watching the second series of Sherlock. Became saddened by the fact that Sherlock and all of its brilliance will never be new to me again, so went to a tequila tasting to take my mind off of it. The first and final time I’ve ever consumed tequila.
• Friday February 24 – Day one of cottage weekend with the newspaper crew. Drove 300km north of the city for activities not at all exclusive to a frigid Canadian wilderness (i.e. urban debauchery).
• Saturday February 25 – Day two of cottage weekend with the newspaper crew. A day of gambling followed by a night of drinking. A blistering headache struck at 2AM which could only be remedied by Stephen Fry’s soothing voice in Qi.
• Sunday February 26 – Day three of cottage weekend with the newspaper crew. Drove 300km south back to the city. Arrived home at 9PM, realizing that nothing was done this week and that I’m not at all prepared for the coming two months.
• Monday February 27 – It’s a little bit past midnight, and I’m frittering away the time with this entry. Currently considering cutting the morning’s classes.

A good friend of mine told me that I’m more likely to have regretted missing the cottage trip as an experience than I am to have regretted any event or activity that occurred during. Normally I would agree (and that I went to the cottage at all surely indicated that I did, in fact, agree), but reading week was most definitely not the best timing for this happening. This squandered week has put me at a steep disadvantage for the rest of the semester, and the work and worry I went to the cottage to escape has just amplified whatever difficulties I’ll be facing when I return to my regularly scheduled existence in fewer than nine hours. That the cottage wasn’t even that much fun for me just exacerbates the sting of having lost so much time.

On the drive back into the city, my passengers were discussing all the good times they had, how the trip exceeded their wildest expectations, and how the experience was the crowning moment of their lives so far. I felt none of that. Instead, I thought about how dispirited the weekend made me, about how I had no expectations for anything good to come from it, and how it was a sort of nadir for my relationships with those people so far.

There are so many things about the present social landscape of twenty-something existence that I do not understand. I shall now add this topic to the mental vault of subjects I’d like to discuss but will probably never write about; right next to new news writing tenets and letters from the editor.

addendum: Come to think of it, I did start playing the piano again. Surely that must count for something, right?

Also the headline and subhead will likely change. I’m not very good at writing those things, so I mostly give up and let someone else do it. My submitted offerings were “TA rally at Boredom Dull / Protestors gonna protest.” A running theme has been my belief that my writing is dull and the subjects are boring, so I doubly express that in the titles I offer (“The Spy Who Bored Me,” “JSNORE,” etc).

I’m on reading week now, so I’m hopefully going to get on top of some of my leisure projects and studies for the final stretch of the academic year. If I’m really prudent, I might even knock out one of my two essays. There’s also no issue on Thursday due to the break, so hopefully I’ll finish the final batch of crosswords and sudokus as well.

Hundreds rally outside Governing Council meeting in support of CUPE 3902

President Naylor says administration will not lock out TAs if they strike

This past Thursday, hundreds of U of T students and campus contract workers braved dreary weather to rally behind CUPE 3902′s fight for better working conditions for teaching assistants and stronger support for graduate students. The demonstration, which took place in front of Simcoe Hall for approximately two hours during the afternoon’s Governing Council meeting, is the most recent expression of the frustration that U of T’s TAs have endured over the course of their lengthy bargaining process.

“We’ve been trying to negotiate a fair contract for eight months,” said James Nugent, Chief Spokesperson for the bargaining team. “Our goal, shared by all of the education workers, students and faculty who have come out here today, is simply to improve the learning and teaching conditions here at the university.”

Amidst their incessant chanting interspersed with brief speeches from concerned undergraduate students and troubled TAs, members of the crowd held high various banners sporting passionate pleas of “defending our education.” The innovative centrepiece of the demonstration, a helium powered kite of protest, could often be seen bobbing back and forth in front of the windows of the Governing Council chamber. “When you’re at an undemocratic university, you’re forced to use balloon banners,” remarked Ashleigh Ingle, an event coordinator and member of CUPE’s bargaining team.

Even though the rally was mainly in support of CUPE 3902 and U of T’s TAs in the face of treatment they perceived as grossly unfair by the administration, the outrage of the crowd was also directed towards the allegedly shady procedures of Governing Council meetings. News that the majority of the council members overseeing the university is comprised of sharply dressed CEOs incited the crowd to shout “Shame!” repeatedly.

In addition to raising awareness for the plight of graduate student existence at U of T, five undergraduates offered to deliver copies of a letter in support of CUPE signed by over 1000 of their fellow students into the council meeting. Katie Mazer, Internal Liaison Officer for CUPE 3902, read aloud the letter, explaining that “[we] got 1000 signatures not for lack of support, but for lack of labour.” Such support was solicited only at Sidney Smith Hall in the few hours before the rally. Soon thereafter, more signatures arrived from UTSC.

Several campus police officers guarding the doors to Simcoe Hall repeatedly denied access to the undergraduates. When the undergraduates were finally admitted some time later, it was soon reported that they were blocked from entering the council chamber, and the crowd roared again.

Attendance figures for the demonstration vary. CUPE’s official press release claims that over 1000 students, faculty, and U of T contract workers were present, while Ingle estimates a more modest turnout of approximately 400.

One of the notoriously large lecture groups exiting nearby Convocation Hall — an embodiment of the declining quality of undergraduate education from unwieldy class and tutorial sizes and one of the reasons for which the crowd had gathered — offered the opportunity to swell the numbers of the crowd, yet nearly every passerby fell silent. Regardless, pledges of solidarity by Canadian Federation of Students Ontario President Sandy Hudson and other union representatives kept spirits high, and CUPE will return to the bargaining table early next week to continue their negotiations with the U of T administration.