For the fifth year in a row, the DSU was unable to meet quorum, the minimum number of people required to pass new business, at its Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was held virtually through Microsoft Teams on Oct. 1.
Quorum rules
The quorum requirement is one per cent of the student population, which according to Dalhousie University’s 2019 enrolment statistics is about 205 students. Twelve people were present at the 2020 AGM, including a member of the Dalhousie Gazette who was live-tweeting the event.
The quorum requirement was increased from 75 students to one per cent of the student population in 2016. That was the last meeting to hit quorum and also when bylaws were voted into effect, meaning the DSU is still operating on the 2016 bylaws.
DSU President Maddie Stinson would like to see the bylaws updated this year. She knew the DSU might face issues reaching quorum during the AGM, so bylaw amendments were never on the agenda for the Oct. 1 meeting. Instead, the DSU will be hosting a spring AGM, and they’ll spend the year working to increase student turnout after low numbers the first time around.
“We’re hoping to roll it into some kind of an event or contest, something that will encourage students to come out, but is still also neutral. Of course, we want students to come for the right reasons and in an unbiased manner,” Stinson said in an interview with the Gazette.
Prior to the 2016 quorum requirement change, DSU AGMs met quorum relatively consistently. When asked if she has considered reducing the quorum requirement, Stinson said significant student representation is important for voting on DSU business. In an attempt to make it easier for students to be involved in the voting, the DSU is planning to adopt voting by proxy, something used by other student unions, according to Stinson.
“[A student] could vote on behalf of all of these students as one person, which makes it easier for quorum to be matched, because not that many physical bodies have to be in the space or logged on,” she said.
Contention at AGM
Due to the inability to cast motions or votes, the 2020 AGM became more of an information session and updated DSU members on the activities of the executive. The meeting ended with a question and answer period.
During this period Mitchell Archibald, a Dal graduate student who will be running for board of governor’s representative on DSU council in the upcoming byelection, brought up an issue that plagued the term of the 2018-2019 DSU executive: the union’s relationship with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).
Mitchell asked a variety of questions, one of which was this: Of the current DSU senior staff, council and executive, how many hold or have held formal positions with CFS at the provincial or national level?
“It was a test,” Archibald said in an interview with the Gazette. “I wanted to give them the opportunity to be forthright, which they weren’t.”
In response to Mitchell’s question, Stinson said, “None of our current senior staff, executive, or council, to the best of my knowledge; and I can say this for certain with our staff and executives, that there are no currently held positions with the CFS and there are no affiliations that would constitute as a conflict of interest between CFS, our executive, and our staff.”
While no DSU senior staffers, councillors or executive members are currently holding positions at the CFS, many have in the past.
The CFS national executive report, released in November 2019, lists DSU Vice-President (Finance and Operations) Isa Wright as the national women’s representative. Trina James, DSU director of research and outreach, is also listed as national treasurer.
In an email to the Gazette, Stinson said she chose to answer the question selectively because she “assumed it was common knowledge that some of our exec and staff have past working relationships with CFS. Since CFS became a conversation on our campus, these affiliations have been widely discussed.” Stinson continued to say that she did not want to bring up specific professional experiences of members of the DSU team and seemingly target those experiences.
Caption: Cover Me Halifax is making glow in the dark masks in preparation for Halloween. (Photo by Cover Me Halifax)
Halloween marks the first holiday on the calendar in the Halifax Regional Municipality where masks are mandatory. For local mask makers like Lorelei Dwyer, taking advantage of Halloween and other seasonal mask opportunities is important for her small business.
Dwyer runs Cover Me Halifax, an online mask store, with her two daughters. Their masks feature spooky teeth, glow-in-the-dark skeletons and Ouija boards.
“Seasonal masks are going to help with the sales,” Dwyer says.
The mask boom
In July, Halifax made non-medical masks mandatory in indoor public spaces. For a couple months, Dwyer and her daughters sewed for 20 hours a day.
“We had seven or eight weeks of no sleep, eating from Uber Eats every day. It was insane,” Dwyer says.
When the race for masks in Halifax started to calm down, Dwyer was still busy shipping her masks to Newfoundland. Things are quieting down now, but Dwyer isn’t discouraged.
“I don’t believe masks are going to go away any time soon,” Dwyer says.
Cover Me Halifax wanted to hit the market with the best possible product. Dwyer uses Egyptian cotton sheets on the inside of the mask to achieve a high thread count since studies have shown a higher thread count can improve protection against the virus. Instead of elastic around the ears, her masks go around the head “so it doesn’t feel like it’s tearing your ears off,” Dwyer explains. She also adds floral wire inside to prevent glasses from fogging up.
The design was largely influenced by her job as an educational program assistant at Citadel High School where she works with children with special needs. She asked herself, “Are they going to be able to wear my masks?”
Cover Me Halifax also sells other accessories, including hair bows, dog leashes and collars (so you can match with your pet). During a video chat interview with the Dalhousie Gazette, Dwyer displayed a matching beanie and face mask made with a Black Lives Matter print.
Fundraising through seasonal masks
Maritime Tartan Company, another Halifax-based business making face masks, decided to skip Halloween this year (although they do sell one mask with a pumpkin spice print).
After suffering from a stroke, Sherrie sews as a way to work from home. She has made thousands of masks. (Photo by Maritime Tartan Company)
Sherrie Kearney owns the company. After suffering a stroke, Sherrie sews as a way to work from home. Dale Kearney, her husband and media person, says, “A lot of our neighbours aren’t even doing anything for Halloween. We’re not giving anything out. We’ve been told the next big thing is Remembrance Day.”
Sherrie sews poppy masks and donates 20 per cent of each mask sold to local branches of the Royal Canadian Legion. Sherrie and Dale are hoping to raise $5,000 in total. So far, they have raised and donated $3,000 to the legion. During the summer, the Kearneys donated more than $10,000 to local organizations by selling masks.
The New Germany Legion, Branch 102, received a donation of $1,000 from Maritime Tartan Company. Howard Gibson, president of the New Germany branch, says the legion is able to break even when it’s open on Friday nights. All liquor sales are being used to pay expenses.
“We’re not making any money, but we’re not any losing money,” Gibson says. The donation from Maritime Tartan Company will go toward their oil and power bills. It means the legion can keep their doors open.
“A lot of people buy from us because we donate back,” Dale says.
Since April 8, 2020, Maritime Tartan Company has made 14,000 masks. They ship worldwide with orders going to Japan, England and France. Their Nova Scotia tartan mask is on display in Toronto at the Royal Ontario Museum, a story featured on CBC’s The National.
Like Dwyer’s Cover Me Halifax, Maritime Tartan Company will keep making masks as long as there is a need. Right now, their focus is poppy masks and orders can be placed up until Oct. 25. After that, there are lots of patterns to look forward to.
“We even have some fabric coming in for Hanukkah,” Dale says.
Editor’s note: This story was completed prior to U Sports, RSEQ and AUS announcements about the season on Oct. 15*
There will be a season.
That’s what Dalhousie University’s athletic department told the Tigers men’s volleyball team, said co-captain Jeff Walton. The question remains on what exactly that season looks like.
“That’s what we’re working toward. We’re setting goals right now in the first semester for a second semester season,” Walton said. “With the outbreak in Quebec, we assume it willimpact us, but we haven’t heard anything yet.”
The Tigers men’s volleyball team, along with the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Varsity Reds, play in Réseau du sport étudiant du Quebec (RSEQ), Quebec’s U Sports conference. Atlantic University Sport (AUS) doesn’t have a men’s volleyball league. Dal, UNB, the Université Laval Rouge et Or, the Université de Montreal Carabins and the Université de Sherbrooke Vert et Or make up the five-team league.
In a regular year, each team would take a number of trips to the other region to play two or three weekend games against their host. Now COVID-19 and the Atlantic bubble are in the way.
Decisions lie beyond the bubble
Even if the Atlantic bubble were to open, who’s to say universities will allow their teams to travel to high-risk areas, said Dan Ota, Tigers men’s volleyball head coach.
“Clearly there’s a discrepancy right now in COVID cases between Atlantic Canada and Quebec. Who knows what that looks like in three months?” Ota said.
“It’s a matter of when Dal feels safe to send us out [to play]. We’re confident in them that the decision will be made properly,” Walton said.
Two Dal men’s volleyball players jump to block an opposing spike. (Photo by Kit Moran)
U Sports is expected to make decisions soon on the status of national championships for the winter semester, an announcement that could influence whether U Sports conferences want to start a season in the winter. Stéphane Boudreau, RSEQ’s deputy CEO, said making such decisions are difficult in the COVID-19 climate.
“The situation changes now so fast. It’s not every day anymore, it’s every hour,” Boudreau said. “One day we’ll decide something, then the next day it’s back to the drawing board.”
Will the RSEQ try to get UNB and Dal to take part in a season if they decide to have one?
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Boudreau said. “So many things, so many people, are involved in these decisions.”
The ability to travel and play as a university team in the COVID-19 era is hard, and expectations are compared unreasonably to arrangements and bubbles seen in professional sports, Ota said.
“We’re not in that world where we have a lot of resources. We can’t constantly test our players [for COVID-19], have bubbles, or stay in hotels for a long time,” he said. “Our reality looks very different.”
Possibilities within Atlantic Canada
With the limited resources available and a good chance the Atlantic bubble stays closed into January, Dal’s men’s volleyball team is preparing for all options, especially options inside the bubble.
“UNB, being the only other Maritime team in the league, would hopefully show interest in playing soon. But with just us two, I don’t know if we’d really even call it a season,” said Walton.
Ota said a lot remains up in the air, even after any U Sports announcements regarding national championships.
“If there’s no national championship, will there be regional play or playoffs?” Ota asked. Even if RSEQ suspends the winter season, athletic departments and organizations could organize games or even schedules between one another.
That, of course, is a whole different issue, depending on each organization’s comfort level with playing at their own risk or playing without AUS benefits like insurance.
“Finances have been lost too through the pandemic. It’s not an ideal situation,” Ota said.“There’s a lot of moving parts but we’re trying to make the best of it.”
The 2019 Dal men’s volleyball team. (Photo by Dan Ota)
Off the ice, Base and Noordijk are classmates and roomates. (Photo by Troy Ryan)
Four seasons of hockey, two Dalhousie University acceptance letters and one global pandemic after meeting in eighth grade, Gabby Noordijk and Mattie Base find themselves grinding away at schoolwork in a small Halifax Starbucks. The two women’s hockey rookies had a training session later that afternoon, so homework was the morning’s priority.
Time management is one of their many adjustments into university life, a life that’s even stranger than usual with online classes and COVID-19 still in the air.
Having one another for support benefited their transitions from their Oakville, Ont. high school to Dal.
“It made easier going so far away from home with someone from home. Together, westill have a piece of home,” Base said about having a friend along for this journey
Longtime friends
Noordijk and Base said they have a lot in common. Along with sharing the same hometown, school and hockey teams for years, both play defence in hockey and study commerce. Naturally, they are roommates.
“We’ve been together a lot. We’ve had the same friend group, high school and hockey teams, so we get along well,” Noordijk said.
Their commitments to Dal were announced in June. Base and Noordijk have similar academic interests and Dal’s hockey program made the move from Oakville to Halifax that much more attractive.
The move included the dreaded two-week quarantine.
“Our moms quarantined with us,” Base said with a laugh. “Having Gabby there too was good. It’s nice always having someone like her there.”
Their coach Troy Ryan, a first-year head coach himself, said it was unique to have friends with so much in common join the team.
“You see recruiting like this happen with good teams,” Ryan said. “You recruit a player that comes from a good program and other players follow. The good thing about getting two players that are familiar with each other is the transition is a lot smoother.”
Fitting into new school and hockey environments
The smooth transition can be seen in their day-to-day lives, on and off the ice.
“We have the same courses, so we help each other and keep one another on top of everything,” said Base.
“We’ll watch lectures together on one of our computers,” Noordijk said.“It’s easier with these things living with someone else in the same situation as me.”
How about the hockey side of university?
Mattie Base (left) and Gabby Noordijk joined Dalhousie’s women’s hockey team after playing on the same team the last four years in Oakville, Ont. (Photo by Troy Ryan)
“Everyone on the team is really inclusive, especially since we have a lot of first years, its been really good,” said Noordijk. They make up two of 10 rookie players on the women’s team.
“The team is really nice. Troy, too. He’s an amazing coach,” Base said.
Ryan said the similarities between Base and Noordijk aren’t limited to off the ice. He described both as responsible, defensive-minded defenders. Not to mention Base shoots left and Noordijk right, a combination that gives them the chance to play on the same defence pairing once the season begins.
“They fit right in,” Ryan said. “Although this isn’t the ideal situation, we’re at a point in the year where people wish games were being played, it hasn’t been a big negative. It’s still a great environment they are in, where they can practice and train.”
Noordijk and Base said they look to soak up what opportunities are there now with the team, even with the lack of games.
“A development year is what our program needs. Having no games isn’t ideal, but we can practice and grow as players,” said Base.
“We’re still on the ice a lot, we’re getting a lot of practice,” Noordijk added. “We’re developing individually and as a team. We’re pushing each other to become better.”
Several players, mostly rookies, live in residence like Noordijk and Base do. They said it helps their comfort level around teammates, having been able to meet them early and share the school-hockey balance that the life of a university student athlete commands.
“Even if there is no season, seeing how we improve from this year to next is exciting,” Noordijk said. “What’s going to happen with our program and team is exciting.”
Editor’s note and trigger warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault. Additionally, the Dalhousie Gazette has honoured the request to withhold the last name of one source to protect their privacy and well-being.
Four months after Jad Ghiz was accused in a Change.org petition of committing sexual assault, he has been reinstated as the Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) vice-president (student life). He was found “more likely than not” innocent by a third-party investigator hired by the DSU, as stated in an investigation summary President Maddie Stinson announced at a July 30, 2020 council meeting.
Jad Ghiz, the current DSU vice president (student life), was temporarily removed from his position in the spring due to sexual assault allegations. (Photo provided by Jad Ghiz)
The now widely shared Change.org petition was posted on April 29, 2020, two nights before the current DSU executive officially started their term. The author of the petition writes Ghiz invited them to his “‘Jadfest’ campaign frat party” on the weekend of March 6, 2020.
The DSU’s third-party investigation, conducted by lawyer Kelly McMillan, concluded Ghiz likely did not drug or sexually assault the author of the petition at Jadfest. This finding was based on witness interviews, “hundreds of photographs,” emails and other online communications, according to the DSU’s published summary of the investigation.
McMillan also concluded the person who posted the petition is likely not who they claim to be. The author of the petition did provide a B00 student number to the DSU, which did match with a recent Dalhousie University alumna with the same name the author of the petition used: Olivia M. The Gazette contacted this alumna and she said she was not the person who wrote the petition.
The petition
In the petition, the author writes Ghiz gave them a drink in a cup at the March 6 party. About 10 minutes later, they began to feel dizzy and off balance. They were then guided to a bedroom by Ghiz.
“Next thing I remember is me laying on the bed fully naked with him undressing his pants in front of me. He notices that I weakly come to and starts shhhing me, telling me to relax and that it’ll be OK and that I shouldn’t resist,” the petition reads. The author continues to say Ghiz attempted to physically overpower them. They kicked and bit Ghiz until he relented and let them leave, they write.
The petition also claims Ghiz, who worked at The Dome nightclub prior to the fall term, told people at Jadfest he could get them free drinks at the club in exchange for votes and offered to sneak underage students in.
The petition ends with the author stating if Ghiz is not impeached from the DSU executive, the author and five of their friends will transfer to another university. This statement contradicts the fact the B00 number the author provided to the DSU belonged to a student who already graduated from Dal.
Initial responses
“This is not the way I wanted to start the year,” said DSU President Maddie Stinson in an interview with the Dalhousie Gazette. Stinson was alerted of the petition the night it was posted and called Ghiz to inform him of it.
After Stinson explained to Ghiz what was written in the petition, Ghiz said he was “absolutely in shock.”
Ghiz released a statement responding to the petition on May 2 through his personal Twitter account. He denied all allegations of sexual assault and said he reached out to the Halifax Regional Police (HRP), Dal administration and Dal Human Rights and Equity Services (HRES) with the hopes of initiating an investigation.
The DSU released their first statement on May 5, which outlined their initial steps in responding to the petition. Similar to Ghiz, the DSU reached out to HRES, who told the DSU they would be unable to initiate an investigation. The DSU then contacted the Halifax Regional Police (HRP), but did not receive a response until after the statement was published.
The statement also announced the DSU was calling an extraordinary council meeting for May 7 to update councillors on the situation and determine what to do next.
The extraordinary council meeting
At the May 7 meeting, Stinson explained to DSU councillors that HRES only begins an investigation if asked by the survivor of the alleged assault. She also announced the HRP had responded to the DSU. The DSU had been contacted by the survivor, but would not share the survivor’s information with the HRP unless the survivor requested it.
Next, Stinson motioned to suspend Ghiz for seven days with pay, a non-disciplinary measure to allow for any investigative proceedings to be carried out. Black Students Community representative Claudia Castillo-Prentt questioned the motion, citing concerns from membership about student fees being used to pay a potential perpetrator of sexual assault.
According to DSU bylaws, withholding Ghiz’s pay constitutes a disciplinary action, said Vice-President (Finance and Operations) Isa Wright. Without any evidence of wrongdoing, the DSU could be vulnerable to a lawsuit if they withheld pay and Ghiz was later proven innocent, according to Wright. Stinson then called the DSU’s legal counsel who confirmed Wright’s claim to the rest of the council.
The motion to suspend Ghiz for seven days with pay then passed.
DSU bylaws stipulate a motion to discipline a councillor must be submitted to council at least 14 days before it is voted on. Before the meeting ended, Castillo-Prentt introduced a motion for the next meeting (scheduled for 14 days later) to suspend Ghiz without pay, with reimbursement of his missed pay at a later date pending the results of an investigation.
The account of the petition’s author
Prior to the May 7 DSU council meeting, the Gazette contacted the petition’s author through a Reddit account. When the Gazette requested a phone call interview, the account responded, “if I am honest I’d rather have this interview on email rather than on call. Just because last time I talked about this and even when I was writing the petition I kept breaking down.”
The Gazette then agreed to conduct the interview by email. On May 8, the account, which was not a Dal.ca email, responded:
This DalCard photo was sent to the Dalhousie Gazette by the Olivia M. Gmail account. The sender had crossed out the face and B00 number on the card. The Gazette additionally covered the last name on the card to protect the identity of the Dal alumna with the same name who did not write the petition. (Photo provided by Olivia M. email account)
“I get memories or flashbacks sometimes remembering things he might have done to me. I have been going therapy for a few weeks now trying to work through it. . . I don’t remember feeling a lot of pain I just remember shock, confusion and fear when I came to,” they said in one of their responses.
The petition states Ghiz’s history as a racist, homophobe and sexual predator can be “further verified by multiple people that have had similar interactions with him.” The Gazette asked to be put in contact with these alleged victims to corroborate stories about Ghiz.
“Feel free to send me questions directed at them and I can forward it to them and send you the responses,” the account responded and later said their stories could be shared anonymously since, “unfortunately none of them were willing to share their name.”
These stories were sent to the DSU by email and forwarded to the Gazette by the petition author. It included the petition, all of its comments and two screenshots – one from an email and the other a Reddit direct message. Both have the senders’ name removed.
In the email screenshot, someone who claims to be a former friend of Ghiz’s alleges they went with Ghiz and other friends to concerts. Ghiz allegedly once molested them while standing in the large crowd by forcibly placing his hand under their clothes. Ghiz says he has only been to one large outdoor concert where patrons stood: the 2017 Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montreal, which he attended with a group of people he met there.
The Reddit message is from someone who says they met Ghiz at a University of Prince Edward Island University party in 2017. At the party, Ghiz allegedly bragged about having found a woman to “hook up” with and said he was in the process of getting her “too drunk to refuse,” the message reads. Ghiz attended high school in Prince Edward Island and graduated in 2017. Ghiz denies the allegation in the Reddit message. He says he was celibate until 2018 for religious reasons, influenced by his father who is a pastor.
“There was a strictness in the house. I grew up holding sex as like a very intimate and precious thing,” Ghiz said.
One comment on the petition, posted by a user named Fairs Raed, read, “This guy wouldn’t let my friend into his party because she was wearing a hijab (a Muslim headscarf) he legit told her take it off or fuck off,” it reads. The Gazette was unable to find or contact Fairs Raed.
Ghiz, who was born in Lebanon, denies this incident taking place. “I’m a minority. I’m not against minorities,” he said.
On May 14, Ghiz uploaded his second statement on the allegations to his Twitter page.
“This Olivia [M.] does not exist,” he wrote. He believes the accusations were fabricated by someone pretending to be Olivia M. in an attempt to damage his reputation and remove him from the DSU executive, the statement read.
The Gazette emailed the Olivia M. account and asked if they could share their DalCard to prove they were a Dal student. On May 15, the Gazette received an image of a DalCard with the B00 student number digitally blocked. However when the image was compared to another DalCard, there were some noticeable differences, including the font used and image placement.
This was the last communication the Gazette received from the Olivia M. email address.
May 21 council meeting
On May 21, council held their second meeting in response to the petition. Stinson began by saying disciplinary action would be considered unusual at this point and the DSU is still vulnerable to a lawsuit should they discipline Ghiz. She then provided a timeline of the DSU’s communications with the creator of the petition.
Between May 6 and 15, the DSU received emails from the sender showing interest in aiding an investigation and removing Ghiz from office. They also included questions concerning investigative options, consent for an investigation run by Dal and agreement to meet with the DSU executive. On May 15, the sender also requested the DSU immediately post a statement confirming their identity was accurate.
No statement was posted as the DSU could not confirm the person they were in contact with was named Olivia M. The person would not email the DSU using a Dal email address.
The DSU and the person behind the email address had scheduled a meeting for May 20, which the person cancelled. It was rescheduled for May 21 prior to the council meeting and was again cancelled by the person.
Stinson then shared the DSU’s investigative options. Because HRES wouldn’t conduct the investigation, according to DSU legal counsel, the best path forward was to hire an experienced third-party investigator.
The person behind the petition had given their written consent through email to the DSU for a third-party investigation to take place, Stinson said.
According to the Stinson’s report at the May 21 meeting, Dal administration verbally agreed to support the DSU to get the matter resolved as quickly as possible. When asked about this support, Dal spokesperson Janet Bryson said in an email to the Gazette that the DSU is an independent organization and should be consulted for information on their investigative process.
At the end of meeting, Castillo-Prentt rescinded her motion from the last council meeting to suspend Ghiz without pay. She asked that the meeting minutes reflect she did this solely to protect the survivor from potential legal action.
Investigation and results
The third-party investigation was conducted by Kelly McMillan, a lawyer from Nijhawan McMillan Petrunia Barristers.
McMillan declined an interview request from the Gazette to speak about the investigation, citing confidentiality obligations.
The DSU executive signed a contract with McMillan on June 2 and gave her a deadline of June 11. At the June 18 council meeting, it was announced McMillan had failed to meet this deadline and requested a month-long extension. The executive declined and instead offered a two-week extension. The DSU judicial board then had until July 30 to present their recommendations to council.
At the July 30 council meeting, Ghiz was reinstated as vice-president (student life) of the DSU after Stinson announced that McMillan completed her investigation on June 26 and concluded it was likely Ghiz did not drug or sexually assault the creator of the petition at Jadfest.
The investigation did find Ghiz broke DSU bylaws and code of conduct through breaching his loyalty to the DSU by criticizing the union in his statements.
“The DSU are not participating in [an investigation with the HRP] because they have decided to obey the wishes of a phantom masquerading as a survivor,” Ghiz wrote in his May 14 statement.
While presenting the results of the investigation, Stinson said Ghiz’s statement was not made with ill will and he was not disciplined for it.
The investigation summary continues to explain the parameters of the investigation to outline things that were not investigated in relation to these allegations.
The investigation did not address any additional allegations of sexualized violence against Ghiz that arose online during this period or alleged campaign violations in respect to the 2020 DSU election. There was no investigation into potential misuse of Dal property, which is in reference to complaints posted on Reddit in the days following the creation of the petition. Multiple Dalhousie students and alumni said they received an email saying they signed the petition when they never had. No information on this aspect of the issue has since been revealed.
When asked if Ghiz thinks he’s ever committed sexual assault, he said “I, without a shadow of a doubt, have never assaulted anybody.”
Ghiz’s account
“Within the first weekend, we had compiled enough evidence to clear my name,” Ghiz said in an interview with the Gazette.
Ghiz and his roommates created a party timeline (shown). According to Ghiz, crown, coronation and recognition ceremony, mentioned between 11:40 p.m. and 11:54 p.m., reference a tradition among his friends where they crown someone the “Quinpool Queen.” (Photo provided by Jad Ghiz)
He and his roommates created a timeline of the night in question to track Ghiz’s location every few minutes with a timestamp accompanied by an image including Ghiz or the names of partygoers who could confirm his whereabouts. Ghiz says he showed this timeline to the investigator. He provided a version of the timeline to the Gazette with redacted names.
There are a few inaccuracies in the petition about the circumstances of the party, mainly because it refers to Jadfest as a campaign and frat party.
According to Ghiz’s roommate, Joshua Langston, the party was planned in Ghiz’s honour. Langston and another roommate, Patrick Mackay, had recently hosted parties for their respective birthdays but Ghiz missed both due to work commitments at The Dome. After his roommates realized they hadn’t celebrated Ghiz’s 2019 birthday, they decided to throw him a party, Langston said.
“I never invited anybody. I never did any advertising for that party. I had nothing to do with it,” Ghiz said.
“It was just kind of a coincidence that it coincided with his campaign,” said Langston.
Ghiz is a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Dalhousie, which according to Ghiz and his friends has a reputation contrary to the stereotypical frat image.
“I mean, they don’t even drink at the fraternity,” said Samantha Chu, a friend of Ghiz’s. “They like to shovel people’s driveways, you know.”
“We’re a strictly non-drinking fraternity,” said Langston, who’s the fraternity president.
According to Langston, the fraternity generally doesn’t hold events at the fraternity house. When they do host events involving alcohol, they take place at the Grawood or University Club. Jadfest was held in Ghiz’s house, not the Phi Delta Theta frat house. Additionally, the frat house is on Seymour Street and Ghiz lives on the second floor of a house on Quinpool Road, about a 15-minute walk away, making it difficult to confuse the two locations.
Ghiz holding his mason jar of orange soda and alcohol at Jadfest, a party his roommates threw on the weekend of March 6, 2020. This was the party where the alleged assault took place. Ghiz denies he ever assaulted anyone in his life. (Photo provided by Jad Ghiz)
The petition implies the assault was possible because Ghiz drugged the author’s drink.
“First of all, if I was going to make people drinks, I would at least make myself a good one,” Ghiz said. Photos from the night confirmed he was drinking from a mason jar filled with orange soda and alcohol.
The Gazette spoke with Ghiz’s roommates, friends and party attendees, including Chu, Kheira Morellon and Marike Pinsonneault. They all said Ghiz and his roommates could not afford to supply drinks to the party, everyone brought their own alcohol and no drinks were handed out in cups.
The Halifax Regional Police
Ghiz said he contacted the Halifax Regional Police (HRP) in May to attempt to launch an investigation into the assault and prove his innocence. The HRP were unable to start an investigation into the assault because neither Ghiz nor the DSU was the survivor of the assault, according to Stinson. But once it became clear the author of the petition was likely not former student Olivia M., the HRP began investigating a case of identity theft, according to the DSU and Ghiz.
In September 2020, the HRP shifted their investigation away from a case of identity fraud, according to Stinson. However the investigation is continuing, as the HRP recently court ordered the DSU to produce any and all documents or data related to Jad Ghiz and/or Olivia M., and the online post in question, including but not limited to: emails and council meeting minutes dated between April 27, 2020 and June 24, 2020, according to Stinson. Most recently, the HRP have considered pursuing a charge under Section 312 of the Canadian Criminal Code, meaning libel and defamation, but this is the most recent update the DSU has received from the HRP.
The Gazette reached out to the HRP to try and confirm the investigation was happening. The HRP said they could not confirm the names of individuals involved in an ongoing investigation, with the exception of the name of the accused in a case where charges have been sworn before the courts. No charges have yet been laid.
Survivors of sexual assault, racism and other forms of violence looking for support can contact the following resources: DSU Survivor Support, phone: 902-425-1066, email: survivorsupport@dal.ca; Dal Student Health and Wellness Centre, phone: 902-494-2171; Dal Human Rights and Equity Services, phone: 902-494-6672, email: hres@dal.ca; Dal Security, phone: 902-494-4109, email: security@dal.ca; Avalon Sexual Assault Centre, phone: 902-422-4240; and South House Sexual and Gender Resource Centre, phone: 902-494-2432.
Deciding on a Halloween costume can be tough, especially when your friends have taken all the good ideas already. How many more Harley Quinn costumes can a party have?
In 2018, researcher Janelle Shane released a machine learning experiment to solve this very issue. She trained a computer neural network to generate Halloween costume ideas.
AI costume generator
Artificial neural networks are a facet of artificial intelligence (AI). They are machine learning algorithms that extract meaning from large data collections, or datasets, to make decisions. Results vary depending on the complexity of the task. Neural networks (NNs) are used in a wide range of technology from rideshare apps to YouTube suggestions. So if NNs can get you an Uber, surely it can pick a Halloween costume, right?
In 2016, Janelle Shane released an AI costume generator. Sexy Michael Cera was of one the many surprising yet wonderful results. (Graphic by Geoffrey Howard)
Shane puts this question to the test. Through 4,500 Reddit submissions, she created a dataset of numerous Halloween costume ideas like witches, vampires and hundreds of costumes with the word sexy in it. (Sexy poop emoji, sexy Cookie Monster and so much more.) Some suggestions were more bizarre, like Fungus Fairy Princess and Deadpool on a unicorn. The range of the dataset is random and creative, making the task of creating a costume quite tricky for an NN. To make the results as weird as possible, Shane decided to use an NN that learns words letter by letter with no knowledge of the word’s meaning.
The results were magnificent. Costume suggestions ranged from Shark Cow to Professional Panda to Vampire Big Bird. Other notable ones were Professional Panda and Sexy Michael Cera. These predictions were churned out of a two-step process: first, the NN predicts which letters should be used lexicographically to make the costume suggestion. Then it compares its prediction with the dataset it was fed. Every time there is a failed match, it refines the steps to make more accurate predictions.
The limitations of AI
Shane is the author of You Look Like A Thing And I Love You, where she writes about the funny, weird and spooky ways machine learning algorithms make incorrect decisions. Shane’s Halloween costume AI gives us an interesting insight into the limits of AI generally.
One constraint of AI-generated Halloween costumes is the lack of creativity. While Shark Cow might be the best idea you’ve heard in a while, the NN cannot work outside the scope of its training data. It can’t generate a suggestion from the latest news, trending topic or Netflix show. Also, the suggestions aren’t built off the meaning of words, but from the most compatible match within its dataset. This is what makes algorithms so limited and yet so eerie: It is very difficult to tell how they can come up with Lady Garbage without knowing what either word means. This grey area of unexplainable AI systems and decisions is called a black box, and for the most part, making predictions without trying to understand the reasoning is strangely accepted.
AI isn’t just used for funny Halloween costume generators. NNs are used in decision-making across all spectrums from convenience-based apps to loan eligibility to examinations and job hiring. The AI Ofqual scandal in the United Kingdom, where thousands of students were scored lower than their predicted grades for A-levels thus losing out on university offers, is just one harrowing consequence of the way algorithms work.
We should be wary of trusting decisions we can’t explain ourselves. NNs learn from the training data humans collect. What happens when those who collect the data, or the dataset itself, is biased? YouTube suggestions can sometimes be a maze of random videos and nothing like the videos in our history. If NNs can mess up something as simple as that, how can we trust a decision for loan eligibility, job qualifications or exam results? As Shane writes in her New York Times (NYT) article, “when we are using machine-learning algorithms, we get exactly what we ask for — for better or worse.”
Over the past few years, rapid development in AI has led to several ethical consequences. One example is with applicant tracking systems (ATS): an automated resume AI that reads thousands of resumes against a dataset of job requirements and internal business hiring patterns. What happens when every employee hired for one position is white or has an English name? Those who don’t match the data profile (i.e. white with English names) get immediately pushed aside and told someone better qualified has been selected.
“Neural networks are no more intelligent than humans — the algorithm will simply imitate the bias of its human controller.”
Shane also writes in her NYT article that, “we didn’t ask those algorithms what the best decisions would have been. We only asked them to predict which decisions the human in its training data would have made.” In other words, NNs will simply imitate the bias of its human controller.
The future of costumes
As digital transformation becomes reality, holiday costumes may be just another thing getting an automation makeover. Maybe the lesson of Shane’s Halloween AI isn’t that you should dress up as Vampire Big Bird for Halloween. Maybe the lesson is not to expect what we create with AI to be any better than what we create on our own.
We cannot hold artificial intelligence to a moral standard that we ourselves do not uphold. We also can’t expect it to be impartial when we aren’t. It is too soon to tell whether Sexy Michael Cera will become a cult classic, but going forward, we should be mindful of the elusive algorithms that are making decisions, and whether those decisions are the best possible outcome.
More than 90 per cent of members who cast a ballot in the Dalhousie University Faculty Association (DFA) strike vote said yes to strike action. According to the Oct. 6 DFA press release, this sends a clear message to the Dalhousie board of governors that the DFA “will not accept their demands for unreasonable economic concessions on pensions and wages.”
The vote comes after the DFA filed for a conciliator on Sept. 22 to help bring the two sides closer together on the negotiations for a new collective agreement. The DFA is the certified bargaining agent for more than 950 professors, instructors, librarians and professional counsellors at Dal. In total, 86.7 per cent of their members took part in the vote.
“The employer needs to know that these issues are not acceptable to our members, and they’re prepared to strike over it if necessary,” DFA President David Westwood said in an interview with the Dalhousie Gazette.
Dalhousie Student Union President Maddie Stinson hopes the two sides can come to an agreement. She said a situation where students “potentially have to go to school for longer to get their credits is really not what we want to see this year.”
“We will be attempting to convey that concern to both parties and really just urge them to think about the consequences of these actions should a strike occur,” Stinson said.
Why the sides are so far apart
Westwood said the contention began when the board of governors made their first set of demands in June. They proposed a five per cent wage decrease for the first year of the three-year contract, followed by a two-year freeze of regular wage increases and wage adjustments for inflation. The final request, which Westwood said was most upsetting for DFA members, was to alter the pension plan meaning professors would receive less money when they retire.
The university presented these demands in the context of an estimate made in June that enrolment would decrease by 29 per cent due to COVID-19, which would leave the university with an $18 million deficit in their operating budget, requiring faculty to make large concessions on pay. Dal and the DFA have since learned enrolment actually increased by around three per cent.
“The entire financial reality was nothing like what the university proposed initially. So we said, ‘Well obviously they’re going to pull back on all these crazy demands they want from us,’ and they didn’t,” Westwood said. The demands have changed only marginally, “even though this doom and gloom scenario is nothing like reality anymore,” said Westwood.
Dal’s latest offer
In the most current offer, Dal has removed the five per cent wage decrease and two-year freeze of regularly scheduled wage increases. Instead, they propose a three-year freeze of inflation increases on faculty salary. However, no changes were made to the pension adjustment.
The DFA has a defined benefit pension plan, meaning when a DFA member retires they are given a lump sum of money. The plan has an indexing provision to ensure the sum increases relative to inflation. This is what Dal wants to adjust. According to Westwood, the board of governors believes the indexing plan is too generous.
“So what they say is, ‘We need to reduce the likelihood of paying that indexing to retirees because it’s costing us too much money, and we want to use money for other things,’ presumably hiring more administrators and building more buildings,” Westwood said. According to him, the board of governors has been trying to adjust this aspect of the pension for many years.
The negotiations have only exacerbated the stress of professors struggling to teach virtual courses, said Westwood.
“They are burned out already, and we’re not even through September. These people are just giving their lifeblood to this job,” Westwood said. “Meanwhile, the employer is at the table saying, ‘Oh, thanks for all the work, but we’re going to need some money back.’”
A chronology of the negotiations
The previous agreement between Dal and the DFA expired on June 30. In preparation for that date, the DFA spent the year consulting with its members and developing bargaining priorities. Then, three days before the DFA planned to present their marketing packets to members for this year’s negotiations, Dal campus was shut down due to COVID-19.
When it became apparent COVID-19 would affect the fall term, the DFA was open to delaying negotiations.
“We said to the [board of governors], ‘Listen, if you’re uncertain about the numbers and the finances, let’s not bargain in that context because nobody is going to have a good outcome,” said Westwood. “So we said, ‘We will agree to not start arguing until a year from now. Let’s kind of let COVID happen. . . and let’s come back in two years’ time.”
Instead of postponing negotiations, the board of governor’s summoned Westwood and other teaching unions into a meeting to explain the university’s “financial reality,” Westwood said. This is when the board of governors presented their predicted enrolment decrease of 29 per cent.
After this was proven false and the board of governors updated their demands, which were presented to the DFA on Sept. 18, the DFA made their decision to file for conciliation on Sept. 22.
“They’re still coming at us, this time asking for unacceptable changes to long-term retirement benefits and wages that will have a lifetime impact on people,” Westwood said. “At that point, we said we need to file for conciliation.”
Appointed by the provincial government, the conciliator is Peter Lloyd. Lloyd was previously appointed as the conciliator between the DFA and Dal in 2018, which Westwood says is advantageous.
“He’s aware of some of the issues that were at the table last time, including versions of this pension change. So, I think that maybe allows him to step in and sort of come up to speed a little quicker than somebody else might,” Westwood said.
Dalhousie declined to provide the Gazette with an interview on this issue, but university spokesperson Janet Bryson said in email that a strike vote is a common step leading into conciliation and the university is “optimistic that an agreement can be reached that satisfies everyone.”
Verity Turpin, Dal’s acting vice-provost of student affairs, sent an email out to students on Oct. 14 saying the university is taking DFA negotiations seriously and is “committed to working with all [its] employee groups.”
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover should be on everyone’s reading list during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this young adult novel, Hoover draws from her personal life experiences to craft a story about the complex reality of loving your abuser.
The plot
It Ends with Us is the story of Lily Bloom, a smart, empathetic and driven young woman, who wishes only to save others from their pain. Lily is the daughter of an abuser and although her father has never been abusive toward her directly, she has grown up bearing witness to the pain her mother has gone through. Lily resents her mother for refusing to leave the situation. When Lily falls in love with an intelligent, seemingly perfect neurosurgeon from Boston, she finds herself in the same abusive situation she always wished her mother had run from.
It Ends with Us captures some of Hoover’s genius for entertaining, wrapping readers in a love triangle between Lily, her husband, Ryle and Atlas, the boy she once saved from the dangers of homelessness as a teenager.
Hoover weaves the story around prevalent issues and messages: The love story is entwined with a central message of the complexities of domestic violence. Although there is no end to the important takeaways in this book, the central point is that blame should never be placed on the victim of abuse for not leaving a situation. Rather, we need to place all of the blame on the abuser.
Lily learns this lesson the hard way. Through being in an abusive situation herself, she learns when you love someone, it is incredibly easy to justify their actions to yourself. Although Lily eventually does the right thing for her life, she comes to understand the complexities around her mother’s situation and forgives her mother for being unable to leave her father so many years ago.
Relevance in 2020
This story is exceptionally relevant in the context of the current pandemic. During the lockdown, living situations were compromised for many people. Even now, many people are living in unusual environments. Students are working from home rather than being on campus. Some children are at home more often than at school. Many jobs have moved from the office to online. All this change is rendering many former safe spaces unavailable.
Current research has shown domestic abuse has increased around the world since the beginning of the pandemic. Although domestic violence is an issue that should be given attention at any time, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrust it into mainstream discussions due to the recent difficulty of seeking shelter outside the home. More than ever before, greater awareness should be given to the issue of domestic violence. The pandemic has prevented people everywhere from being able to freely leave their homes, creating unsafe situations for people who may be in abusive relationships.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, or a suspected victim, here are some online resources: Nova Scotia Domestic Violence Resource Centre (nsdomesticviolence.ca) and for a list of phone numbers and services for domestic abuse victims in Nova Scotia, see novascotia.ca/just/victim_Services/family_violence.asp.
March 7: The 2020 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women’s World Hockey Championships, due to be played in Halifax and Truro, were cancelled. Both cities were then awarded the 2021 edition.
March 13: The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and the rest of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) suspended their seasons. U Sports cancelled its national hockey and volleyball championships, the final championships of the 2019/2020 season. The hockey championships, including the men’s in Halifax and women’s in Charlottetown, had been underway for one day before cancellations. Dalhousie University was set to play in the women’s volleyball championships. PGA announced certain events, like the PGA Championship and the Masters, were postponed.
Aug. 4: Phase two of Dal Athletics’ facility reopening plan began. The Dalplex fitness hall and studios reopened on a limited, reservation-only basis. The Studley Gym also opened for youth programs and appointments.
The Dal women’s soccer Tigers take part in a scrimmage during a recent training session. COVID-19 may have taken away their season but not their ability to reunite at Dal. (Photo by Luke Dyment)
Soccer leagues in Atlantic University Sport (AUS) will not attempt a regular season this year. Nevertheless, the Dalhousie University Tigers men’s and women’s soccer teams are back on campus to train.
The AUS has yet to determine whether winter competition for the other sports will go ahead. In a regular year, soccer and cross-country are the only two AUS sports that hold competitions in the fall.
In what could end up being around a 20-month-long AUS soccer off-season, both of Dal’s teams have fully reunited with an emphasis on team building.
“Practices are fun. We’re still working super hard, maybe a bit harder than we do in a regular pre-season, which is a little surprising, but it’s been good,” said Cat Guevin, a fourth-year student with the women’s Tigers.
“[The team] is enthusiastic. You can tell they’re really happy to be here training and seeing one another,” men’s head coach Alan Jazic said. “There are pretty tight restrictions, which make it challenging to deliver training sessions, but we’re making the most of it. Dal is doing their best to make sure that students are still getting a positive experience.”
Playing within restrictions
At the time of writing, training sessions were limited to 10 players at a time, meaning the teams trained in separate groups in separate areas or times. Nova Scotia set Oct. 1 as the date when up to 50 people could take part in a sports session or game. This could potentially open the door for exhibition games against other schools soon.
The men’s Tigers play keep-away at a recent training session. Men’s coach Alan Jazic said his team is looking to focus on the positives despite the loss of their season. (Photo by Luke Dyment)
“I’m hoping for [games] in late fall. I’m optimistic it can happen. We could get a few games in before it’s too cold,” Jazic said. “In the winter months, hopefully we can rent facilities and have games. I, too, wish I knew how soon.”
Women’s player Riley Donovan said she’s excited to be back and potentially play some games. She mentioned how Nova Scotia allowed a return to play in soccer over the summer, unlike at her home in Ontario.
“That was tough, since I lean on soccer and play it every day in the summer. But I could still complete fitness training,” Donovan said. “With the return, we just have to keep adapting and, with the restrictions, see what we can do.”
The suspension of fall sports announced in June had a more profound impact on the soccer teams. Their season wasn’t officially cancelled at the time, but the uncertainty around how the year would pan out was a concern. The women’s team learned of the fall cancellations during a team meeting on Zoom.
“A lot of the girls got emotional. It’s huge to be training for so long [from the end of the previous season in November] and we were so fired up for this season,” Guevin said. “For it to be thrown away was a letdown.”
Two players drive soccer balls down Wickwire Field. Players and coaches from both teams said practices have been fun, even with the extra stress this year brought. (Photo by Luke Dyment)
Jazic said the school has stepped to the plate to support student athletes impacted by cancellations. Dal has offered mental health services to the teams, along with their efforts to reopen facilities while maintaining safety protocols.
“It’s been a great effort from the athletic department and the university to support student athletes the best they can. Also, Dal did a fantastic job [dealing with] students coming from outside the [Atlantic] bubble to isolate. It was impressive to see the guidelines followed by everyone,” Jazic said. “It’s nice that we’re part of a university that gives our student athletes the opportunity to make the most of this situation.
A prep year
Donovan said there is a lot to be gained this year despite the loss of the season, especially the chance to get stronger as a team.
“We’ve been doing so well in training so far. The talent on our team will come back next year even better,” she said. “We have a ton of incoming players and fourth years like me are looking into a fifth year so we can play. We’ll have a bunch of returning players too.”
Jazic said his team is looking at the positives of losing their season.
The ball slips away from two opposing players in a drill. Both soccer teams have all of their players back, but continued to train in seperate groups of up to 10 in September, a COVID-19 protocol. (Photo by Luke Dyment)
“Rookies undergo a big transition from high school to university, especially when moving here from away. They can adjust to the academic side of university, and transition to living here and meeting new people. Throughout the year, they will grow physically and mentally, and will be a year more mature. That will be a big advantage for them moving forward,” Jazic said. “The team is still practicing four times a week and next year, everybody will know what to expect. It’s prep year.”
Despite the challenges, Guevin said her team has pulled together to work through any difficulties together.
“The motivational aspect has been more difficult. It’s hard to not have something to look forward to with no season,” she said. “Staying together as a team is super important right now. We’re going practice-by-practice.”
