I had never met Matthieu prior to this interview. One of his photos had shown up while I was browsing the Sweets From The Earth (a North York-based vegan bakery) tag, @sftebakery, on Instagram. Other hashtags beneath the photo read #vegan and #YorkU. Both of those hashtags applied to me too. And my intrigue eventually led me here.
Q: What are you studying?
A: Philosophy, with a focus on ethics and human nature. “And how they don’t work together,” he adds.
Q: Which year are you in?
A: Only counting the active years at York, fifth or sixth year.
Q: Based on your Instagram, you clearly have a passion for fitness. Have you always?
A: I love food and have a horrible sweet tooth and I was told by my doctor a few year ago that I’m at risk for early onset diabetes. And my dad has diabetes. If it wasn’t for my Jiu Jitsu classes in high school, I would have absolutely been overweight.” He says that he used to eat a 4-serving box of KD for lunch. “I’m finding that the older I get, the more into fitness I’m becoming.” Matthieu has been working for York Security for 8 years. “I didn’t have an interest in policing until I did this job for a few years… I always wanted to be that guy at the gym getting strong.”
Q: How do you feel about York?
A: “For me York has just been everything–it’s my home, it’s my school, it’s my gym, it’s my Second Cup, it’s my pubs I go to… but at the same time, it doesn’t feel like home. [I’ve] never been completely comfortable here.” He says in terms of both work and as a student, he can’t help but feel unimportant. “As a student, the moments of disrespect that I have felt have been the most intense at this institution.” During his first year, Matthieu’s cousin was assaulted, his girlfriend dumped him, and a severe allergic reaction landed him in the hospital. His grade point average dropped and he was put on academic probation. By explaining his situation and bringing in examples of work which he had excelled in, he tried to challenge it. “I’d clearly demonstrated my qualifications… they said no, you can’t come back.” He was told that he had to earn his way back. His internal reaction to the situation was, “time is a resource and you’re wasting mine. York is just so cold with their relationship with their students… [it] has felt that way for a long time.”
Q: Do you have any advice for other people who are dealing with a poor university experience?
A: “Find one thing outside of here. If you have an interest in something, even if the availability is right here, I feel like York is a bit of a trap… there’s so much out there beyond this huge school. Pick something [and] do it off campus.”
His elementary and high school rings
Q: How do you spend your free time?
A: Working, working out, and studying. This is because he had time-management issues when he first got to York, so now he’s trying to just focus as much as he can. “After having gotten out of an almost 4-year relationship, I tried dating for the last month and I think I hated it. I think it’s terrible. Between being super busy and on a night schedule for two weeks out of the month and being vegan, I don’t think it’s gonna work. I think it’s pretty much impossible.”
Q: What is your favourite place to hang out on campus?
A: “Second cup hands down. [It’s] my favourite place for coffee and the only place I like to go regularly. I spend way too much time at Dynamacs. When I found out they had a sauna– a workout will happily take 3 hours on a day off.”
Q: There are others gyms? I thought it was just Tate.
A: There are 4 gyms on campus: 1. Tate, which is packed; 2. The Track and Field Centre, which has the worst hours and constant track meets for an outside of York institution just renting our property; 3. Seneca, which is gorgeous and Matthieu loves it; 4. Dynamacs, which is cheap and unofficially open 24 hours.
Q: Do you feel like there are enough vegan food options on campus?
A: “God no… I pretty much cook for myself as much as I possibly can.”
“So after this [interview], I’m going to go to work, I just had 3 hours of lecture, had 5 hours of sleep… I’ve had no time to cook today. So my breakfast was a smoothie, my lunch was another smoothie, coffee just to keep me going, and then after that I’ll probably end up going to like Z-Teca and getting a tofu burrito bowl. But that’ll be like my 3rd or 4th one this week because there’s nothing else.” I confirm for him that Hero Burger is vegan.
Q: How long have you been vegan?
A: “I’ve only been vegan for 2 years. [I realized] I can’t change the world, [but] I’m gonna change myself.” He used to be the guy that would eat two steaks just because he could, and count bones on a plate as a measure of masculinity.
“The day that I told my coworkers that I had decided to make this change, [one guy] asked how I would feel about the fact that, that weekend he had gone to a farm and killed his own goat.” Matthieu asked how the co-worker killed the goat. “‘Well I shot it in the face.’ Even if you don’t agree with me, you know that what you’re doing is inherently cruel. How does that then become this acceptable thing?… [a] Jewish fiction-writer wrote a book about eating animals [and] one point he makes is that if someone claims to love animals and eats meat, give them this recipe for dog soup.” It’s essentially telling someone to make their soup with their pet dog because it’s basically the same as them cooking another animal. “You start to realize barriers that we put up arbitrarily [and that] distinction isn’t just there other than because we decided so.”
He adds that “the hardest thing about being vegan isn’t food, it’s the people—dealing with that constant never-ending critique.”
Q: Is there a particular way you want to be portrayed in the article?
A: “I don’t know, as the humble philosopher warrior? I don’t know.”