Two editors reflect on their experiences
Editing for Ultra Vires is a curious experience. Yes, once a month, you have to sit in the unbelievably hot, dungeon-like room in Falconer’s basement. However, you get to eat a lot of sushi while you do it. You also get nearly unrivaled exposure to what is happening around the law school.
But the real draw is the energy. There is nothing quite like an editing meeting—a great group of people, working together on something worthwhile, cracking jokes, and sharing gossip. We are going to miss the lively debates about recruitment stats, correct comma placement, and potential liability.
As we prepare to graduate, we look back on our time with the Faculty of Law’s independent student newspaper.
Tom
About a decade ago, Stephen Colbert proclaimed, on his old show, that “opinions are like assholes in that I have more than most.” That still makes me laugh. It rings true.
I took over the position of Opinions Editor from SuJung Lee (JD ’19), after serving as the “Editor-at-Large” last year—a position that I suspect our former Co-Editor-in-Chief invented when he realized that he had hired me without having any open positions. The position of Opinions Editor appealed to me, because I feel that the Opinions section of the paper is the most flexible in terms of content. I wanted to provide a forum for people to share their thoughts, whatever they were and however they might want to express them.
In my brief tenure as Opinions Editor, I have had the pleasure of editing some truly pithy articles—articles that made me think about more than just how I might make this or that sentence clearer. Two examples appeared in this February’s issue. Avnee Paranjape’s (2L) article, “Twisting in the Wind”, provided a frank assessment and critique of the Faculty of Law’s current struggles with providing mental health resources; it touched me personally. Olivia Hodson (3L), Angela Hou (3L), Leslie Anne St. Amour (3L), and Rory Smith (3L) also wrote a thoroughly thought-provoking and timely piece on how the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Delgamuukw supports the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs’ claims to the land through which the Coastal GasLink Pipeline is slated to run.
I also had the joy of writing a few opinions. One of my favourites was published in the October 2018 issue. That was the first issue of Ultra Vires published after the Trudeau government legalized cannabis (17/10 blaze it!) I celebrated with “In Cannabis Veritas”, a play on the monthly wine-review column I write for In Vino Veritas, the law school’s wine club. In my article, some friends and I reviewed some choice weed, which was obviously a great time. It was also a well-received article.
In November 2018, I wrote another one of my favourites. In “Reconsidering the Jackman Building”, I put my art history degree to work. I assessed the architectural merits of our law school in the wake of another student’s satirical criticism. I am sure that this article was nowhere near as popular as the brief “In Cannabis Veritas” series, but it was still fun to write; it was reassuring to know that I have not forgotten my pre-law learning.
Of course, there were other articles I loved, from other sections. Lord Denning’s first instalment of “Dear Denning”, in the September 2019 issue made me howl with laughter. So did my girlfriend, Alina Yu’s (2L) piece, “U of T Law is Full of Snakes”, which appeared in that same issue. The Diversions section has been a reliable source of levity in dark times.
And then there were the articles that I hoped to write, but which simply did not materialize. I wanted to write about the experience of dating within the law school, but this seemed simultaneously too personal and not sufficiently insightful. I wanted to write about avoiding burning out in one’s first summer of legal employment, but I am still looking for the answer to that question. I also wanted to write more editions of “In Cannabis Veritas”, but it was too expensive and time-consuming. Finally, I wanted to write something that truly encapsulated my law school experience.
It has been wonderful, and working for Ultra Vires is a major reason for that.
Rory
As Tim Minchin said in an address to the University of Western Australia “opinions are like assholes in that everyone has one, but opinions differ significantly from assholes in that they should be constantly and thoroughly examined”.
I was not the Opinions Editor, but as Diversions Editor it felt only appropriate to open with a joke. And, even more appropriately, someone else’s joke.
Editing Diversions is unlike editing any of the other sections of the paper. My official role mostly amounted to stealing ideas from the Follies cutting room floor and repurposing them for UV. Occasionally, jokes were trimmed, but, by and large, I edited only grammar. As a result, I, likely more so than the other senior editors, got to edit widely across the other sections and assist with editorial decisions more generally. Across two sets of Editors-in-Chief, I frequently was called on to assist with the (thankfully few) ethical quandaries that arose. Their trusting me with these matters was profoundly affirming. So, thank you, Honghu Wang, Chloe Magee, Melody Chan, and James Flynn.
With the twin roles of Diversions Editor and Follies Head Writer (later Creative Director) I have been the school’s de facto humour czar for the past two years. In this time, I have gotten to see a lot of people write some very funny things. Some of my favourite Diversions articles were Gabrielle McLaughlin’s running piece of fake 1L exams (Oct 2018 – Mar 2019), Angela Hou’s “Vancouver Recruit Guide” (Oct 2018), and Madeline Torrie’s “Excellent Barriers” (Nov 2018. I still laugh at the idea of the school having wellness sharks.)
I have also deeply enjoyed doing the statistics for the past two year’s Recruit Specials. I was very touched that so many students were willing to trust me with extensive personal data (much more comfortable than I am with having it, which is why I took such care to make sure it was suitably anonymized before I even did any analysis with it). Hopefully the numbers help students with the Recruit in future years, and at worst, it helps bulk out the paper with some pretty graphs.
I will miss many things about law school. Working for UV is one of them.
