Vol 86 Issue 3
The Definitive Source for Osgoode News
September 30, 2013
Dear Jessica White:
KYLIE THOMAS
Contributor
I intend to be as polite as possible in responding to your incredibly discourteous email you
felt the need to forward to the entire class.
Rest assured I will not negate this courtesy by
including the considerably ruder thoughts currently circulating in my brain, as you saw fit to
do in your email.
The fact that you saw it fit to accuse the majority of our class of having eating disorders in
such a casual and sarcastic way suggests to me
that you have not been educated in the seriousness of these conditions. I intend to rectify
this. Eating disorders are mental illnesses. In
fact, they are the most deadly of all mental disorders and the second leading cause of death
in adolescent and young women. For those
who do not die, it is still an incredibly painful and difficult disorder for those who experience them and the associated behaviours are
often compulsive and deeply shameful for those
who engage in them. They are not something
that someone could simply choose to opt-out
of in order to prevent inconveniencing one of
their classmates. If you would like more information, please feel free to contact the National
Eating Disorder Information Centre. In the
future, many of us would prefer if you do not
use eating disorders in jest because it is in no
way funny.
In addition to mental disorders, there are
numerous members of the law school who
suffer from physical conditions, including but
not limited to, diabetes, hypoglycemia and
low blood pressure which require them to
eat frequently, including in class, in order to
regulate important nutrients. Otherwise they
actually might pass out, and the “help” you
have suggested they obtain will often consist
of a prescribed meal plan which may cut into
class time. While I acknowledge there is a ten
minute break, I’m sure you can recognize that
by the time the person has been through the
line in the Bistro that ten minutes will likely be
up. I’m sure you can appreciate that many law
students have extremely busy lives between
various classes, co-curricular activities, families and other commitments and that this time
during Administrative Law might be the only
time they are able to squeeze in a meal.
I would also suggest that if you are to become
“an actual lawyer” that you work on raising the
threshold of what annoys you as you are likely
to face this dilemma on a daily basis. It seems
as though you could benefit from additional
coping skills to deal with this annoyance without detrimentally affecting those around you. I
gather you have not attended many firm events
or open houses, or you would be aware by now
that many meetings take place over breakfast
or lunch which will require you to develop the
skill of blocking out other people’s chewing in
order to listen to the person who is speaking.
In my experience most of the firms did serve
crunchy food. The same will apply to meetings
with clients, which are often conducted over
» continued on page 19
In this issue...
New column: Jurisfoodence
page 6
Pineapple madness
cover and pages 3, 4, and 19
Syrian refugee crisis
page 7
Goodbye to Mariano Rivera
page 16