Checkmate, a computer dating service, launched a personality survey at the university populace in the `60s in The Varsity’s pages. In its advert, the organization talked to religious leaders, psychologists, and social workers to refine a system of computer match-ups that left nothing to chance.
“With Checkmate’s highly refined mathematical system and the high-speed computer, it’s just a matter of days until you are matched with your first ideal date,” boasted the organization. The system was touted as “more scientific” than conventional “hit and miss dating” university students often resorted to.
Source: September 26, 1966
Ten years later, The Varsity reported on a protest against the closing of a free clinic that treated venereal diseases and assisted with family planning. The Hassle-Free Clinic treated 4,000 cases of venereal disease a year on a budget of $50,000. The health issue of the day was “swine flue,” a disease that received 8 million of the provincial government’s dollars and affected 200 people by that time. The demonstration criticized the government’s focus on “politically sexy issues” like swine flu rather than issues of the “here and now.”
Source: September 13, 1976
By the 80s, Depo Provera, a new contraceptive, was being hotly debated among health experts and women’s groups throughout Canada. Discussions in Toronto surrounding the impending approval of the drug were described as “closed-door” and a “sham.” The Varsity, like many other organizations, described the contraceptive “as good or better than the Pill.” Depo Provera was used in 80 different countries as a contraceptive, and in Canada, had been approved for treatment for other conditions, like cancer, since the `60s. It wasn’t until 2004 that the detrimental effects of Depo Provera-bone density losses and breast cancer risks, to name a few-were recognized and a black box warning was attached to Depo Provera.
Source: September 22, 1986
-Sandy Huen
