Photo by Matty Flader / Photo Reporter

By: Elisa Do, Contributor

Cw: Indigenous genocide

For 140 years and counting, July 1, also known as Canada Day, has been a day where Canadians celebrate their homeland. This is a day where every Instagram story and Facebook newsfeed is flooded with people in red and white, tattoos of the maple leaf flag on their faces and booming fireworks lighting up the sky. But how many of us truly know what we are celebrating? What would we say to someone who asks the question, “What do you love about Canada?” or “What does it mean to be Canadian?”.

For decades, this nation has been plastered with a reputation of being welcoming, loving and even more so polite and righteous. Personally, I have my doubts about what is underneath this mask.

When the topic of Indigenous communities arise in conversations of history, do you picture communities of vibrant colours and peace or do you picture mass genocides and the robbery of land, many of which still continue today? Canada Day is a day to celebrate Canadian identity. But there would be no “Canada” if Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, had not approved residential schools and implemented policies to use starvation as a method of clearing way for Western expansion. We, quite literally, live on the brutality of the past.

A quick search for Canada Day history on the web will give you a refined version of the holiday from Canadian government websites.

One such website is the Canadian Encyclopedia, which proudly states: “Locally organized events sometimes provided opportunities for members of marginalized communities to demonstrate their belonging to Canada … and [on Canada Day] members of ​Indigenous communities​ participated in sporting events and musical performances.” 

This quote makes me question whether such communities should have to find a sense of “belonging” to a colonized Canada at all.

The same article further proclaims, “Indian agents in some regions allowed members of ​First Nations​ communities to be part of local Dominion Day pageants wearing traditional costumes, while others sought to emphasize messages of assimilation and conversion.” 

In this one sentence alone, the Canadian Encyclopedia has shown the dominance of the Canadian government, their lack of understanding on Indigenous communities, and the obvious acknowledgment of assimilation. When something as simple as clothing requires permission, when outfits of culture and heritage are deemed as “costumes” and ideas of assimilation are so blatantly stated, how can we continue to glorify our disfigurement of history?

In Daniel Heath Justice’s ​Why Indigenous Literatures Matter,​ Justice expands on the significance that colonialism has had on the reduction of Indigenous presence in history: “Colonialism is as much about the symbolic diminishment of Indigenous peoples as the displacement of our physical presence. If there are no more people there can be no more stories; without our stories, we’re reduced as peoples and as individuals.” 

In diminishing Indigenous stories, Canada is robbing future generations of a true understanding of Canadian identity. I believe that ignorance of Indigenous stories due to diminishing Indigenous presence is far more terrifying than ignorance of Indigenous stories due to lack of effort put into educating yourself.

Colonialism is a deadly thing. It sits in our roots and lies deep below in the grounds we walk on. We can’t see it. And sometimes, you might not even feel it.

But just because you don’t see or feel it, doesn’t mean it’s not there; and it certainly doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something about it. In choosing to write this piece I had many doubts, including doubts about myself. I do not identify as a member of any Indigenous communities and so I was worried for my lack of understanding and my ignorance about a community that is not my own. 

But I am Canadian. And I do live on land that is not mine to claim. So, with all that I appreciate in Canada, I truly believe it is possible to become prouder Canadians if we first learn to accept and take appropriate actions to mend relationships we cannot afford to lose. So Canada, on July 1 of every year, don’t just celebrate for the sake of celebrating. Identify, recall, and challenge the assumptions laid out in history today. 

 

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Photos C/O Yvonne Lu, James Ramlal

By: Andrew Mrozowski

Stop. Take a second and look up from this article. You’ll most likely see everyone around you on some form of technology, be it on their phones, tablets or computers. We now live in a world where we are so heavily dependent on technology. According to Yvonne Lu, people should be more conscious about how technology affects their identity.

Originally starting off her undergraduate career in commerce, Lu realized her passion laid in a different faculty. Lu began working in marketing and communications but felt like something was missing. She decided to take on a double major between multimedia and theatre and film.

Now in her final year at McMaster, Lu decided to combine her two disciplines into one overall thesis, taking the form of an interactive multimedia installation and a physical performance called interFACE, as part of the School of the Arts Honours Performance Series.

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The concept for interFACE came to Lu over this past summer when she was employed by a music video company to be their social media coordinator. Although typically not very active on social media in her own life, Lu found herself getting jealous from the various platforms that she managed as there was an overall feeling that everyone was doing better than her.

“Although there definitely were positive and negative experiences, always being on social media and seeing that people younger than me were doing cooler things than I was, working with huge producers, big companies and getting more responsibility than I was… a lot of the times I felt jealous. It’s why I felt I was a step back, I understood why others were successful and a lot of it was trying to catch up with people,” explained Lu.

interFACE examines how young women interact with technology and how this oversaturation impacts their identity as they grow up. Stemming from a vignette of experiences, the multi-disciplinary art experience allows attendees to delve into the development of identity to look at similarities and differences between how we portray ourselves online versus in person.

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“The question to consider is whether or not social media and digital technology enables us to do more things, or if it consumes us and we are at the whim of the mass media,” explained Lu.

This form of installation is experimental as it features two parts. Viewers will first embark through an audio-visual capsule, which is an audio-sensory experience that saturates the audience in a world that Lu and her team have designed to convey the importance of why we should pay more attention to our own identities. Next viewers will be seated to enjoy the physical portion which expands on what they have observed in the audio-visual capsule.

“This is not something that you would see in traditional theatre. It’s not a narrative or linear piece. We are creating a visceral experience for both our collaborators and audience. We want them to feel that they are in the belly of the beast,” said Lu.

For the thesis student, what the audience takes away from the experience is the primary objective of this piece.

“There isn’t a specific message I want people to walk away with. It’s live theatre and it’s all about interpretation. For us, that’s kind of what I want audiences to walk away with. Questions of what they felt. It’s an emotional journey rather than a narrative,” said Lu.

Show times for interFACE will run on March 28 at 12:30 and 8 p.m. and on March 29 and March 30 at 12:30 and 7 p.m. at the Black Box Theatre in L.R. Wilson Hall. Admission is free.

 

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Graphic by Sukaina Imam

By: Julia Healy

“Sexually active” is an awkward phrase that many of us only hear in the doctor’s office. It is used in an attempt to bridge the intimate world of sex with the clinical and professional world of medicine, which is not an inherently harmful goal.

What is harmful is that whether or not one is sexually active is often the only question concerning sexual health that is asked during a doctor’s visit. And more often than not the answer is confined to heteronormative, penis-in-vagina penetrative sex between a cis man and a cis woman.

I recently had a negative experience that sums up how the use of this clinical language can lead to misunderstandings and humiliating experiences for LGBTQ2S+ individuals like myself. After having a bizarre 25-day period, I decided to go to the doctor.  He told me that a wide variety of problems could have caused this problem. He then referred me to an ultrasound clinic for testing.

At the clinic, I filled out my paperwork and waivers. One form asked if I was sexually active and left no space to elaborate.  I had to think about how to answer; I had had sex before, but it was with another woman, so what was this form actually asking about? Possibility of pregnancy? Exposure to STIs?

I decided to check ‘yes’ since I do consider myself to be sexually active and my doctor had mentioned that an STI could be a contributor to my problem.

Once I was inside the ultrasound room, lying on a table in a hospital gown, the technician noted that I was sexually active.  She then muttered under her breath that I would need to be to to get a transvaginal ultrasound, while picking up a large internal ultrasound wand.

Not having known that being sexually active in a heteronormative sense was a prerequisite to the procedure, I decided that now was a good time to clarify. I tried to phrase my predicament as delicately as possible, so I emphasised that I had never had penetrative sex before.

The technician became very frustrated and started to interrogate me, demanding me to explain.

I thought that a medical professional who specialized in sexual healthcare would understand my phrasing. I thought that she would at least consider that different people have different types of sex.

Instead I was there, lying half-naked on a table, being yelled at by somebody who did not seem to consider sexual differences. Humiliated, I said in a very small voice, “well… I’m a lesbian.”

The technician’s demeanor instantly changed. She became less aggressive and seemed embarrassed. She left and brought back new paperwork for me and indicated that I should write that I was not sexually active and that I did not consent to the tests that I had previously consented to.

I went home frustrated about being yelled at and ultimately denied the testing that was recommended by my doctor. I decided to follow up with the clinic and while the receptionist was sympathetic and said that they would follow up with the technician, they also defended the clinic’s position by saying, that I was technically a virgin and that I shouldn’t have indicated otherwise.

This entire situation was incredibly uncomfortable for me and it could have been avoided if only the original paperwork had been clear in its questions. If I had space to elaborate on my sexual experiences in the paperwork, I would have and would have spared myself from the frustration of the technician. If I had known that penetrative sex was a prerequisite to the test, I would not have signed the consent form.

However, even with these language changes, the clinic’s penetrative sex requirement is an inappropriate policy. Everyone with a vagina should have access to reliable ultrasound tests regardless of sexual activity.  Smaller ultrasound probes that can be used with less discomfort do exist, but unfortunately, not many ultrasound clinics use them. In my city of 600,000 people, you can only gain access to a smaller probe by going to the hospital.

When discussing barriers that lie between the LGBTQ2S+ community and healthcare, it’s not just about blatantly bigoted “bad apples” who refuse to treat queer patients.  Barriers are deeply ingrained in the language that is used and assumptions that are made about a patient’s experience.

Barriers include failing to take LGBTQ2S+ experiences into account when designing medical procedures and failing to provide access medical equipment that works for all bodies, regardless of previous sexual activity.  Barriers also arise when medical staff are ill-informed about the language that groups use to describe themselves and their experiences, and when this language is challenged in a hostile way.

Sexual health is incredibly important. However, encouraging people to  take control of their sexual health only does so much if one’s identity and experiences are not incorporated into our healthcare systems.

 

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Photos by Catherine Goce

By: Nicolas Belliveau

The news in November 2018 that Doug Ford and his provincial government were ceasing the project to build a French-language university in Toronto and eliminating the position of the provincial commissioner for French language affairs was met with backlash.

However, situations like these aren’t novel. French education and culture have been the target of marginalization for hundreds of years. Ford adds to this long list of discriminatory acts, as his decision to cut services and protections to Franco-Ontarians has underlying anti-francophone sentiment and is a violation of minority language rights in Canada.

But why should we care about this? After all, with just over 620,000 people, the French-speaking community in Ontario makes up just 4.5 per cent of its total population.

Growing up French-Canadian in Ontario, practicing and maintaining the language my ancestors tirelessly fought to preserve has proven difficult. Additionally, the limited number of French secondary schools meant that I had to enroll at an English secondary school — adding to the challenge of keeping my mother tongue.

However, Francophones are still Canada’s largest minority with Ontario home to the most populous French-speaking community outside of Quebec. But most importantly, the French language is a right that is protected by the Constitution and language laws.

This didn’t come easily. Throughout all of Canada’s history, francophones have fought for the right to French education and with Ford’s new agenda, the battle appears to be ongoing.

Merely a century ago, the provincial government passed and enforced Regulation 17 throughout Ontario, which restricted the teachings in French beyond grade 2 and limited French teachings to one hour per day in primary schools. After 15 years of enforcement and prohibiting a whole generation from learning French, the law was finally repealed in 1927.

By ending the project for the development of a French university, Ford is reopening a door into the past that most French-Canadians thought was over. The ideology that once disregarded Franco-Ontarians’ identity and equality is now resurfacing, under the new disguise of Ford’s policies.

And what is Ford’s reasoning behind these radical changes? Although Ford has yet to comment on the matter, government officials have cited the province’s $15 billion deficit as being the motivation for these cost-cutting actions.

However, the cost for the French Language Services Commissioner and the university tally up to a total of just $15 million per year. And as of now, Ford’s government has yet to meet the targeted amount of savings, leaving experts to question whether a thorough program review was carried out.

When looking at these realities, it is hard to believe the government’s narrative of the provincial deficit being the sole incentive for premier Ford’s changes, and not worry about an anti-francophone sentiment underlying Ford’s fiscal agenda.

What’s more unsettling is that Ford’s new policy changes cuts into Canada’s Constitution and the protections and rights of French-Canadians.

The functions of a language commissioner prove to be essential in promoting and protecting a language. Not only do they monitor the government for any infringements upon minority language rights, the French language commissioner acts as a liaison between the provincial government and Franco-Ontarians.

By getting rid of the French Language Services Commissioner, Ford is destabilizing the rights and protections of minority francophones and undermining the institutions that promote one of the ‘supposed’ official languages of this country.

I acknowledge that Ontario is already home to three bilingual universities and that the francophone minorities account for just 4.5 per cent of Ontario’s population. Additionally, I acknowledged that the Ford government has created the position of senior policy adviser on francophone affairs following the elimination of the French Language Services Commissioner.

The realities of the mistreatment of francophones throughout history along with the benefits of the French services and protections that Ford is eliminating would make it illogical for one to not consider this as anti-francophone sentiment. To be idle while the government carelessly partakes in these divisive political tactics is a disservice to our ancestors and to all minorities.

 

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Photos by Razan Samara

Salma Hindy likes to think that she was at her peak creativity and performance level while making her childhood friends laugh. Lunch times at the Islamic elementary and secondary schools she attended turned into a comedy sketch hour filled with extravagant storytelling and ridiculous imitations of her teachers and friends.

The up-and-coming comedian recently returned from the 12 city Super Muslim Comedy Tour in the United Kingdom, and finished in second place in the Toronto Comedy Brawl competition against over 400 comedians. Hindy also spent her autumn performing at comedy festivals in Boston, Dallas, Chicago and New York.

As Hindy prepares to open for American comedian and actor Ken Jeong on Jan. 11 for the Life After Mac performance on campus, it’s fair to say storytelling and making people laugh have followed her into adulthood.

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Despite growing up being the funniest person in the room and even getting encouragement from Zarqa Nawaz, creator of CBC’s popular sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie, Hindy held back on making a move into the comedy industry as she came to grips with how her family and community would react.

Growing up in a conservative Muslim household meant that her parents have a rigid understanding of what comedy and performance is, which made it difficult for them to understand what their daughter wanted to pursue.

While their ideas of comedy were often tainted with negative connotations and misconceptions, Hindy wanted to show her family and Muslim community that clean comedy can be approached in a way that is mindful of the values and boundaries she has set for herself. Her career, identity and spirituality are part of her own personal journey and comedy just so happens to play an important part as well.   

Despite her parents’ reluctance to attend her shows, Hindy’s mother found herself attending an event her daughter just so happened to be performing at for International Women’s Day this past March. It may have been seeing her daughter perform stand-up for the first time, the fact that Hindy removed all her parent jokes from her set, or the constant boasting on part of her mother’s friends, but the laughter seemed to ease her concerns.

The comedy industry was in for a shock too. Most audiences aren’t used to seeing a visibly Muslim woman take center stage at a comedy bar. Hindy will skip out on free drink tickets and get ecstatic at the availability of halal food at her events, but the industry is ready to embrace her and the diversity she brings.    

I fit in pretty well as someone who doesn't fit in, if that makes any sense. They want to see people with different identities… different stories and different perspectives. Somebody who can teach them something that they didn't know before while obviously still being entertaining and funny,” explained Hindy.

While Hindy’s faith and stereotypes around her identity do seep into her act, she isn’t explicitly written for a Muslim audience. Her witty remarks and hilarious stories about her life, which are all based on true events, humanize her as a Muslim Canadian; an identity that is often informed by the media rather than real life interactions.

Comedy became a breakthrough for fostering understanding. From jokes about struggling to have a crush reciprocate feelings to witnessing anti-Muslim protestors outside of a mosque and thinking ‘wow, these people go to the mosque more than me, like damn I wish I had your consistency’, Hindy utilizes storytelling to reach out to her audience and build a relationship.  

“[I]t doesn't even necessarily have to be specifically or explicitly about Muslim issues or Muslim struggles, obviously those are really enlightening and they're great informational pieces for the audience, but even just you ranting about the same thing that somebody else would rant about which is just very mundane, just shows how relatable you are and how much of a connection that we all have,” explained Hindy.

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Hindy has become a familiar face in the Toronto comedy scene. She was sought out for her talent but her hard work and reputation among producers keeps her busy performing an average of two shows a week. Impressively, that’s only about 10 per cent of what she spends her days doing.

Hindy completed her bachelor of engineering at McMaster and a masters in clinical engineering at the University of Toronto. She recently started her first full time job as a biomedical research engineer at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health so it’s only a matter of time before this milestone in her life inspires the newest additions to her comedy set.  

In conversation, Hindy can’t help crack a joke or two — or every five minutes— often followed by a ‘you know what I’m saying?’ and her contagious laughter. Comedy is her superpower, she uses it to spread awareness, break down stereotypes and share herself unapologetically with the world.

 

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Photo C/O MSU Pride Community Centre

By Miranda Clayton

I recently took a trip to the Canadian Museum of History. In the Modern Canada section there was a display on human rights progress where I found myself confronted by how recent the past is. LGBTQ+ rights became included in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1995. Same sex marriage became legalized in 2005. I would say most Canadians see these rights as a obvious and integral part of society now but the truth is I will die with rights I was not born with despite only being 25 years old.

Society is safer but not safe. Society is more accepting but LGBTQ+ people are not accepted. You can buy pride themed decorations at Party City but to love and exist as an LGBTQ+ person is still to risk marginalization, abandonment and death at the hands of a society that was never built to include you. We have come so far and we still have far to go. These are sobering thoughts but do not despair. We as LGBTQ+ people are still here and still fighting. Our fight became MSU sanctioned with the GLBT Centre in 1997 but the fight has transformed and so have we. We spent the past decade as the QSCC but again, things changed. Recent history has blessed the student body with identity-based peer support services so we are no longer alone in our struggle to provide space for marginalized students. With this change we critically evaluated our place in peer support and what we could do to be better. This is how we became the Pride Community Centre.

Last year we asked what we could to improve and 111 of you responded. You want a space where the diversity of our community is valued and appreciated. You want a space where your identity is seen and recognized. You want a place to relax, a place to learn, a place to meet and a place to grow. We heard you and we are adjusting to be this place. As a service we are older but here on out we will be bolder. A space renovation, support groups, more community events, updated volunteer training, more off campus connections, and intersection focused programming are all in various stages of happening.

We're open in MUSC 219/221! Pop by between 9:30 and 4:30 Monday to Friday to access our LGBTQ2SI+ safe(r) space. Grab some stickers, meet some new people, access support, and generally chill. We can't wait to meet you! #McSU pic.twitter.com/l3EAS2xhOm

— MSU Pride Community Centre (@msu_pride) September 17, 2018

This is a new era for the service and thankfully it is happening now and not a minute later. These are trying times for a lot of community members in the current political climate. Hate crimes haven’t gone anywhere and pride crosswalks will only get us so far. Remember you have a voice and can use it. Remember your voice is stronger with many others. Remember you are not alone in this and you have friends in MUSC 219-221 waiting for you.

We hope to see you there.

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I think it is time to admit that I don’t know as much as I should about gender identity. According to gender taxonomy and from what I have learned about gender identity, I am a cisgender, heterosexual female whose preferred gender pronouns are she and her.

However, just because I am a practicing Muslim woman who wears a hijab, does not mean that I align myself with heteronormative ideals and beliefs. I believe in being able to practice and define personal identity on an individualistic level manner as a human right and an obligement to personal freedom.

But with that being said, I should disclose that, before attending McMaster, I was unconsciously ignorant to gay pride and gender identity. The sexual taxonomy I knew was what I learned in my Grade 11 biology class, and it wasn’t until my second year at McMaster, when I entered an office of open-minded and gender-conscious individuals that I began to do my research.

After walking into the middle of a discussion on Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble and having no idea what anyone was talking about and feeling like I was a tourist in a foreign country, I felt the need to educate myself. I googled, I read, and I studied. But even then, as someone who came from a pretty binary-minded small town, I was still lost. I am now realizing that I can’t be the only one that is nervous about being in the midst of a discussion on gender identity.

Coming from an educational background that did not speak about topics of gender identity and sexuality, university was a whole new ground for me. People seemed far more educated on these topics than I am and amongst this huge congregation of identities, I found myself feeling like I was significantly less informed than those around me.

All it took for me was to put my fear aside, and, when appropriate, modestly ask those around me to help me learn how to define their identities and tell me how I can respect their gender identity. 

I was lucky to be placed in the middle of a discussion about gender expression and surrounded by people who are from the LGBTQ community. If I hadn’t been, I may not have taken the initiative to do my research and inform myself on a topic I have never looked into about before.

Gender identity is one’s personal choice and experience of one’s own gender, and from what I have learned, it does not have to be binary. Yes, gender identity can correlate with an individual’s assigned sex at birth, but it can also differ completely from that based on one’s persona choice and experience. This is something I now understand, but admittedly, never did before.

Today, different societies have a different set of categories to define gender that can serve as the basis of the formation of a person’s social identity in relation to other members of society. Along with this definition, Google also taught me the meaning of terms like cisgender, transphobia, gender normative, queer, bisexual, cissexism, pansexual, gender fluidity and two-spirited. As you can tell by me needing to define the word queer, I really did not know much.

What I learned from my mission to understand gender identity was that experience is the best way to learn. All I took for me was to put my fear aside, and, when appropriate, modestly ask those around me to help me learn how to define their identities and tell me how I can respect their gender identity.

Though I am a cisgender, heterosexual female whose preferred gender pronouns are she and her, I am trying and I am learning.

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It’s clear that the year old MSU Women & Gender Equity Network is settling comfortably into the fabrics of the campus. From November 16 to 20 WGEN ran a weeklong campaign for Trans Visibility Week. Events revolved around awareness, acceptance and the promotion of open discussion.

Hayley Regis, WGEN coordinator, is enthusiastic about the support.

“Last year we ran a little event on trans visibility, trans programs and trans rights, but that was only a pilot. This year we wanted to do something on a larger scale,” she said.

The week opened with events like Trans Archive and mini information sessions geared towards teaching people how to be better allies.

“I want people to know what trans is,” explained Regis. “I did Welcome Week training and a lot of people didn’t know that being trans is not a sexuality. We want to be able to explain things to people who have never been exposed to this kind of stuff before, making it accessible while still doing advocacy.”

Monday ended with a screening of the Marsha P. Johnson documentary ‘Pay It No Mind.’ This is not the only movie made in the name of revolutionary trans activist Johnson; The 2015 film Stonewall has been critiqued for promoting cis-whitewashing, a topic of conversation that came up in the discussion period after the viewing. “A lot of people who came out were already engaged in conversations about trans identity,” gearing the event more to those already immersed and familiar with the community.

Wednesday’s activities largely revolved around self-care, with activities such as yoga and a storytelling circle. Friday featured a talk with a talk from keynote speaker Dr. Carys Masserella. Dr. Masserella leads the team of physicians at the Quest Community Health Centre, a care clinic specifically for transfolk located in St. Catherine’s.

“I think people from a lot of different areas of McMaster would be interested in seeing a talk by someone that works as a doctor but works as a doctor that runs one of the only specialized clinics in Canada.”

The week ended with a vigil for those who have passed in acts of hate and anti-trans violence. Candles were decorated in the WGEN office before hand, sparkles and markers strewn about by those who walked in to show their support.

Moving forward, Regis hopes to have similar events sprinkled throughout the year.

“While we have the underying rhetoric of supporting survivors and transfolk and anyone really, we are working towards showing that more outwardly.”

Downsizing to a single day or hour of events instead of a whole week would allow for more frequent events as well as the potential for repetition of the events that garnered the most support. For Regis, she would love to see have another viewing of ‘Pay It Forward,” her favourite event in what was a successful week of advocacy by WGEN.

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This week, McMaster unveiled its latest project — a university flag.

The university already has a logo, slogan, colours, but was always lacking the presence of a waving banner. In response to this missing element, President Deane arranged for his office to draft a design of the flag and pass it through a few university groups including media personnel from his office and the Board of Governors.

The flag went through a few stages before being finalized, and after some debate, the final product is a maroon background with the school crest and “McMaster” written beneath it in a serif font.

It’s not bad, but it isn’t great. As a university with close to 30,000 students and access to a variety of design-related resources, the flag is disappointing — even more so when you think about the time and effort that went into its creation.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as big a fan of Microsoft Paint as the next person, but when you have a student body filled with talented individuals who could create something iconic and timeless, yet you choose to work internally and mostly independent of the students to create a lackluster product, it seems like a very myopic decision.

This new flag came about as a way to meet a certain university standard. One that many other schools live up to with a prominent and noticeable brand. McMaster has the ability to create an image for itself that entices students and represents its creative and innovative population. Instead, it chose to work without students and create an image that falls behind the progress of the school.

And while we’re on the topic of Mac’s branding not mirroring the student population, I think now is also a great time to bring up our slogan.

McMaster’s Greek motto reads, “Ta panta en Christoi synesteken,” or in English, “All things cohere in Christ.” While McMaster’s Baptist history is important, it is no longer relevant. I mean no disrespect to our Christian students and staff, but a motto that essentially translates to “Jesus powers this school” is not the most representative of our student — or staff — population. It’s another element of the university brand that could be changed, but isn’t being addressed the right way.

It’s exciting to see that the president and the university want to revamp the school’s branding to reach its full potential, but it would be nice if our potential-reeking student body could be included as part of these decisions when it could be of use.

By: Ben Robinson

The news of the Tim Hortons and Burger King merger spread quickly after it was announced two weeks ago. Canadians reacted with both joy and outrage as their beloved Tim Hortons was once again in the hands of an international company, after previously being owned by American company Wendy's from 1995 until 2006.

Since the announcement, media outlets have run wild with speculation about the success of a Tim Hortons’ expansion worldwide and how the merger will affect service domestically. There is no doubt that any time two multinational companies conglomerate it is a story of great economic importance. What is most notable about the coverage of this story, though, is that it has often been reported as a story about Canadian identity rather than the merging of two fast food giants.

For a long time, the lore of Tim Hortons has been integrated into the realm of Canadiana. The company has made a concerted effort to make their products synonymous with what it is to be Canadian in the minds of consumers. Past campaigns have capitalized on "Canadian imagery," including images of parents lovingly watching their child’s six a.m. hockey practice while sipping a double-double, or the more recent image of a husband bringing Tim Hortons to meet his newly immigrated family at the airport.

Is it not still “Canadian” if the onlooking father holds Second Cup while he watches his son run drills? Or if a husband greets his newly arrived family with Starbucks? Early morning hockey practices and welcoming newcomers were "Canadian" long before Tim Hortons was established. Why then have we let a corporation co-opt Canadian identity?

Herein lies the problem: Tim Hortons does not define what it means to be Canadian. It's true that their summer camps and support of minor league sports help many Canadians stay active, but its half-rate coffee and doughnuts are not at the heart of what it means to call this country home. In fact, no product should ever define a person, let alone 35 million people.

Canadian identity becomes corporatized when we associate it with nothing more than which fast-food restaurant our loyalty lies with. And Tim Hortons realizes this. They are taking the pride Canadians have in their country and attaching themselves to it to try and make a profit.

We know this even more intimately in Hamilton, a city that boasts the first ever Tim Hortons store and a newly renamed Tim Hortons field. For decades, the Tiger Cats played out of Ivor Wynne Stadium, named after a local sporting legend, and as with many aging stadiums, the rights to the name were sold when it was time to rebuild (ironically to a company bearing the name of another local sporting legend, except Ivor Wynne isn’t trying to sell you Timbits from the grave.)

Rather than allowing Tim Hortons to define our country, I think it’s important that we define ourselves by the way we as Canadians stand on issues of greater importance than coffee and Timbits. Let's continue to develop great recreational sports programs for our kids so that they can be active and healthy. Let's strive to be a place where newcomers are welcomed, whether or not Tim's coffee is involved. Let's be bigger than a brand.

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