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They are starving, they are often injured<br />
they freeze to death in winter<br />
and they need help.<br />
Volume XLIV, <strong>Issue</strong> 9 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018<br />
- See page 10<br />
Human trafficking<br />
rising in Durham<br />
page 9<br />
Photograph by Shanelle Somers<br />
Music Week<br />
takes over Oshawa<br />
page 23<br />
Photograph by Michael Bromby<br />
'Privilege'<br />
controversy<br />
page 3<br />
<strong>Chronicle</strong> alum<br />
talks success<br />
page 15<br />
Photograph by Tracy Wright<br />
Photograph by Heather Snowdon<br />
See Land Where We Stand stories, <strong>pages</strong> 17-22<br />
Illistration by William McGinn
2 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus<br />
BACK<br />
of the<br />
FRONT<br />
DC journalism students look at Durham College and UOIT,<br />
and beyond, by the numbers and with their cameras<br />
Photograph by Alex Clelland<br />
DC students celebrate women<br />
Women from the Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion and Transitions make International Women's Day<br />
come alive on campus.<br />
Hard to handle<br />
Photograph by Shana Fillatrau<br />
\<br />
Key shot<br />
Photograph by Angela Lav<strong>all</strong>ee<br />
Students were so excited for class they pulled off the handle near the Media,<br />
Art, and Design office.<br />
Advanced film students try their camera techniques in The Pit on Wednesday,<br />
Mar. 7, 2018.
Campus chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 3<br />
Meet DCSI's new president<br />
John Cook,<br />
Cassidy McMullen<br />
and Conner McTague<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
DC Student Inc.’s (DCSI) new<br />
president is Jaylan Hayles.<br />
Hayles defeated Naqi Hyder,<br />
Brad Short and Gurpreet Singh<br />
for the president’s job when results<br />
were announced March 8. Official<br />
results were not released (as of<br />
production of the <strong>Chronicle</strong>) but<br />
approximately 1,900 votes were<br />
cast, much higher than expected,<br />
says DCSI general manager, Jennifer<br />
McHugh.<br />
Hayles is a student in the fire<br />
and life safety system technician<br />
program and is also a graduate<br />
from DC’s business marketing and<br />
pre-service firefighting programs.<br />
“I felt amazing, like <strong>all</strong> the hard<br />
work we put in and how to see<br />
everything pay off…it was overwhelming,”<br />
Hayles says. “Now<br />
I feel it’s ‘go’ time. I got to make<br />
sure the school is ready to go.”<br />
Hayles’ campaign slogan was:<br />
“I am a man of the people, not<br />
above the equal.”<br />
His campaign focused on<br />
“money, excitement and bring<br />
back (the) student experience.” He<br />
says he wants to “heighten student<br />
experience” by adding more<br />
events, creating more job opportunities<br />
for students and improving<br />
mental health services.<br />
Toosaa Bush, a graphic design<br />
student, is the new Vice-President<br />
(VP) of Internal Affairs and Geoffrey<br />
Olara, a fire and life safety<br />
system technician student, is VP<br />
of External Affairs.<br />
Hayles, Bush and Olara ran as<br />
an unofficial combined ticket.<br />
“To be able to work with Geoffrey<br />
and Toosaa and we also have<br />
great executives… it’s going to<br />
be a mind blowing year,” Hayles<br />
says.<br />
DC Student Inc.'s new president Jaylan Hayles.<br />
Adds Bush:“We could definitely<br />
collaborate a lot more to bring<br />
the school much better and give<br />
more entertainment to the school<br />
but also up lift the student experience.”<br />
The first issue the new DCSI<br />
wants to face when they enter office<br />
is DC social life.<br />
“Trying to bring more social<br />
events to the school, some more<br />
social awareness,” Bush says. “We<br />
as students want to be sociable but<br />
we don’t re<strong>all</strong>y have anything to,<br />
like, bring us together to socialize.”<br />
Adds Hayles: “We need to execute,<br />
we’re there for one year, we<br />
got to make sure things are going<br />
and there happening.”<br />
Bush also wants to have students<br />
participate in the operation<br />
of the school as well.<br />
Not only does it give them<br />
experience, it brings a stronger<br />
student voice to the campus, says<br />
Bush.<br />
“To get fresh and new ideas, it’s<br />
us students,” Bush says. “We know<br />
what we want, students know what<br />
students want, so might as well get<br />
a few of the students to work for<br />
the school.”<br />
Bush wants to enhance the<br />
student experience at DC, not<br />
only just soci<strong>all</strong>y, but by bringing<br />
more awareness to the services the<br />
school has like study spaces and<br />
bring back services students have<br />
lost like daycare.<br />
“College is not just about us<br />
going to school, getting an education<br />
we need,” Bush says. “It’s<br />
something more than that, it’s<br />
Photograph by John Cook<br />
something that’s re<strong>all</strong>y impactful,<br />
something that will last us the rest<br />
of our lives, something that creates<br />
certain memories that we <strong>all</strong><br />
want.”<br />
The main goal for this administration<br />
is to improve DC’s student<br />
life reputation that’s suffered<br />
since the joint DC, UOIT student<br />
association split.<br />
“I want to see people smile and<br />
feel proud to come to Durham<br />
College,” Hayles says.<br />
Durham College has not had<br />
an elected student association<br />
since 2016 after the joint DC,<br />
UOIT student association decided<br />
to separate, leading to the creation<br />
of separate student associations at<br />
the two schools.<br />
While UOIT had its elections<br />
completed without issue in March<br />
of last year, DC’s was cancelled on<br />
March 14, 2017, following threats<br />
of violence against candidates,<br />
accusations of corruption and disagreements<br />
between executives<br />
and staff.<br />
In order to split the student association,<br />
the two sides had to go<br />
to court.<br />
Ontario’s Superior Court appointed<br />
Bill Aziz to oversee the<br />
creation of the separate student<br />
unions. After the failure of DC’s<br />
election, a new order was made,<br />
giving Aziz the power to restructure<br />
and appoint members for<br />
DC’s new student association,<br />
DCSI. There were no elected<br />
officials as DCSI ran a shortterm<br />
operation for F<strong>all</strong> 2017 until<br />
March this year.<br />
Bush beat Shannaanth Rajachandrakumar<br />
and Ferwa Imam<br />
to win VP Internal Affairs.<br />
Olara defeated Haley<br />
Ostapovich, Lindsay Trudell and<br />
Parastoo Sadeghein to win VP<br />
External Affairs.<br />
Kathryn Fraser ran unopposed<br />
for the position of Director -<br />
Media, Art and Design which was<br />
a trend in the Board of Directors<br />
races.<br />
Colleen Anderson is the new<br />
Director – Justice and Emergency<br />
Services and Andrew Nunez-Alvarez<br />
Director – Centre for Food.<br />
Corrina Collette defeated Kirk<br />
Tyler McLean in the Director –<br />
Science and Engineering race.<br />
Director positions for the<br />
School of Skilled Trades, Apprenticeship<br />
and Renewable Technology,<br />
School of Business, IT<br />
and Management and School of<br />
Health and Community Services,<br />
and School of Interdisciplinary<br />
Studies were left vacant.<br />
Hayles and the new DCSI is<br />
receiving training now untl they<br />
take office May 1. Their term will<br />
conclude April 30, 2019.<br />
Privilege posters at UOIT cause controversy<br />
William McGinn<br />
and Heather Snowdon<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
A poster about privileged Canadians<br />
has ignited controversy on<br />
the campus of University of Ontario<br />
Institute of Technology and<br />
Durham College.<br />
The poster, put up in late February,<br />
asked people on campus to<br />
‘Check Your Privilege’ and indicates<br />
it, was presented by UOIT<br />
Equity Ambassadors.<br />
According to the poster, the<br />
definition of ‘privilege’ is: ‘Unearned<br />
access to social power<br />
based on a membership in a dominant<br />
social group’, and the university<br />
printed nine social groups<br />
seen as privileged. They range<br />
from white, male and Christian<br />
to heterosexual, able-bodied physic<strong>all</strong>y<br />
and ment<strong>all</strong>y, and a Canadian<br />
citizen at birth.<br />
The poster prompted response<br />
from students around what privilege<br />
means to them and garnered<br />
reaction from people on and off<br />
campus.<br />
On a conversation forum online<br />
discussing this poster, one<br />
commenter said: “I’ve got two<br />
words for the people who put up<br />
the posters and they’re not ‘good<br />
work’. Another said, “I can’t believe<br />
any university would <strong>all</strong>ow<br />
this.”<br />
The posters have prompted response<br />
beyond campus, including<br />
articles in the Toronto Sun and<br />
National Post.<br />
According to Sarah Rasile, director<br />
of Student Success at UOIT,<br />
the equity ambassadors put up the<br />
poster, not intending to offend students<br />
who f<strong>all</strong> under the categories,<br />
but to add to the conversation<br />
around privilege.<br />
"[Formulating an opinion] is<br />
exactly what we want students to<br />
do, is to see something like this<br />
and think about their own lives<br />
and their own context and re<strong>all</strong>y<br />
take some time to think about<br />
what [privilege] means for them<br />
in their lives," said Rasile.<br />
“We’ve heard from lots of institutions<br />
around the country where<br />
they’re having similar situations<br />
about this topic. It’s something<br />
our students brought forward as<br />
Engineering students at UOIT holding up a photocopy of the privilege posters.<br />
something they felt was a necessary<br />
conversation to have at this<br />
community,” said Rasile.<br />
Although it appeared some<br />
posters had been taken down<br />
around campus, Rasile said the<br />
Equity Ambassadors did not remove<br />
them from the w<strong>all</strong>s.<br />
Rasile said a meeting is being<br />
planned at UOIT to discuss the<br />
reaction and meaning of the poster.<br />
The exact date of that meeting<br />
is not known (at the <strong>Chronicle</strong>’s<br />
deadline), but according to Rasile,<br />
it will be announced on UOIT’s<br />
social media <strong>pages</strong>.<br />
Photograph by Heather Snowdon<br />
The privilege poster sparked<br />
some anger within the community,<br />
but according to Rasile that<br />
wasn’t the intent. Its intent was<br />
to spark conversation about privilege,<br />
discrimination and unfairness,<br />
and it has gotten the job<br />
done.
4 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca<br />
PUBLISHER: Greg Murphy<br />
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Brian Legree<br />
AD MANAGER: Dawn Salter<br />
Editorial<br />
CONTACT US<br />
NEWSROOM: brian.legree@durhamcollege.ca<br />
ADVERTISING: dawn.salter@durhamcollege.ca<br />
Cartoon by Cassidy McMullen<br />
'Privilege' posters handled poorly<br />
‘Check your privilege’<br />
Seems kind of sassy right?<br />
That’s how students and some<br />
media felt after posters asking<br />
students to check their privilege<br />
popped up around UOIT campus<br />
end of Feb.<br />
The student-led campaign was<br />
handled poorly. They should have<br />
designed the poster better, should<br />
have held a discussion and guided<br />
the conversation.<br />
There’s the context: what many<br />
students didn’t see was the corresponding<br />
poster beside it. This poster<br />
made the following statement:<br />
“Becoming aware of privilege<br />
should not be viewed as a burden<br />
or source of guilty, but rather, an<br />
opportunity to learn and be responsible<br />
so that we may work toward<br />
a more just and inclusive world.”<br />
The poster was the centre of the<br />
Equity Ambassadors’ intentions.<br />
Equity Ambassadors at UOIT are<br />
students who have applied for the<br />
position and are interested in a<br />
broad range of human rights issues<br />
and provoke student conversation<br />
through student led initiatives.<br />
Within an average UOIT student<br />
class, it is common to discuss<br />
privilege, globalization, sexism,<br />
governmental structure and rhetoric.<br />
University professors have laid<br />
the groundwork for many of these<br />
conversations and as result UOIT<br />
Equity Ambassadors had a platform<br />
to start their student-led privilege<br />
initiative.<br />
The UOIT Student Life Centre<br />
released a statement about the poster<br />
on their Facebook page:<br />
“Our recent poster campaign<br />
draws attention to the presence<br />
of privilege in our society, and to<br />
help each of us reflect on how these<br />
pieces of our identity might play out<br />
in our daily lives.<br />
We designed these posters with<br />
a group of our students to raise<br />
awareness and encourage the campus<br />
community to help us build and<br />
work toward community of respect<br />
and inclusion.”<br />
Unfortunately, students and<br />
media took offense.<br />
Publications like the Toronto<br />
Sun, Durham Region news, The<br />
Post Millennial, The National<br />
Post and Reddit have <strong>all</strong> picked<br />
up the story and have voiced their<br />
opinions either for or against the<br />
posters.<br />
UOIT says the intention of the<br />
posters was to start conversation.<br />
Although the conversation exploded<br />
among the campus community,<br />
UOIT Student Life and Equity<br />
Ambassadors failed to control the<br />
message.<br />
UOIT should have owned its<br />
poster campaign against the negative<br />
feedback it received. Here’s<br />
what they should have done.<br />
UOIT should have presented<br />
their posters with a better design.<br />
Two separate posters were a terrible<br />
idea. Everyone paid attention<br />
to the first poster which they took<br />
offense to, but ignored the second<br />
that had the real message they were<br />
trying to get across.<br />
It was an easy solution, make a<br />
tabloid sized poster to include the<br />
information from both posters and<br />
invite students to a formal event.<br />
The event could have been placed<br />
where students could discuss the<br />
meaning of the poster and have a<br />
proper conversation surrounding<br />
privilege.<br />
Instead the conversation has<br />
taken place exclusively on social<br />
media. Here has been some of the<br />
reactions of students online:<br />
Steve Hill: “More like Institute<br />
of Bigotry. If you are White, male,<br />
Christian or heterosexual, don't<br />
bother.”<br />
Rochelle Aliyah Montague: “I<br />
as a woman of colour have my own<br />
battles ahead of me HOWEVER!<br />
that doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge<br />
my own privileges.<br />
I check off many of those boxes<br />
but I’m not going to cry about it. No<br />
one is saying I didn’t work hard, it’s<br />
just saying that some may have it<br />
harder and to be aware of it.”<br />
UOIT should have gone offline<br />
and had an event for students to<br />
discuss their opinions.<br />
UOIT Student Life says they are<br />
planning an event but they haven’t<br />
named a date, place or time. They<br />
only thing they’ve done is ask students<br />
to leave their email with them<br />
so they can be informed when they<br />
do decide something. It’s already<br />
been a few weeks.<br />
UOIT should have owned the<br />
conversation they were trying to<br />
start.The university, UOIT Student<br />
Life and the Equity Ambassadors<br />
need to not only spark the conversation<br />
but guide it.<br />
They should be controlling and<br />
supporting the conversation. They<br />
have neglected to comment to local<br />
media and the DC/UOIT newspaper<br />
in search of answers.<br />
Although privilege is an important<br />
conversation to have, the student-run<br />
initiative was just a flop.<br />
They did not present or engage<br />
in the conversation they should<br />
have.<br />
They just pinned up a poster, ran<br />
off and are hiding, waiting for the<br />
conversation to simmer down.<br />
Cassidy McMullen<br />
EDITORS: Austin Andru, Allison Beach, Cameron<br />
Black-Araujo, Michael Bromby, Emily Brooks, Alex<br />
Clelland, John Cook, Tiago De Oliveira, Shana Fillatrau,<br />
Kaatje Henrick, Kirsten Jerry, Claudia Latino,<br />
William McGinn, Cassidy McMullen, Conner Mc-<br />
Tague, Pierre Sanz, Heather Snowdon, Shanelle<br />
Somers,Kayano Waite, Tracy Wright<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong> is published by the Durham College School of Media, Art<br />
and Design, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario L1H 7L7, 721-<br />
2000 Ext. 3068, as a training vehicle for students enrolled in Journalism and<br />
Advertising courses and as a campus news medium. Opinions expressed<br />
are not necessarily those of the college administration or the board of governors.<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong> is a member of the Ontario Community Newspapers<br />
Association.<br />
MEDIA REPS: Madison Anger, Kevin Baybayan,<br />
Erin Bourne, Hayden Briltz, Rachel Budd, Brendan<br />
Cane, Shannon Gill, Matthew Hiscock, Nathaniel<br />
Houseley, Samuel Huard, Emily Johnston, Sawyer<br />
Kemp, Reema Khoury, Desirea Lewis, Rob<br />
Macdoug<strong>all</strong>, Adam Mayhew, Kathleen Menheere,<br />
Tayler Michaelson, Thomas Pecker, Hailey Russo,<br />
Lady Supa, Jalisa Sterling-Flemmings, Tamara<br />
Talhouk, Alex Thompson, Chris Traianovski<br />
PRODUCTION ARTISTS: Swarnika Ahuja, Bailey<br />
Ashton, Elliott Bradshaw, James Critch-Heyes,<br />
Elisabeth Dugas, Melinda Ernst, Kurtis Grant, Chad<br />
Macdonald, Matthew Meraw, Kaitlyn Millard,<br />
Sofia Mingram, Mary Richardson, Singh Sandhu,<br />
Greg Varty<br />
Publisher: Greg Murphy Editor-In-Chief: Brian Legree Features editor: Teresa Goff Ad Manager: Dawn Salter<br />
Advertising Production Manager: Kevan F. Drinkwalter Photography Editor: Al Fournier Technical Production: Jim Ferr
chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 5<br />
Opinion<br />
It is foolish for a pet to have an expensive funeral<br />
Kirsten<br />
Jerry<br />
The following piece is the opinion of<br />
the Durham College journalism student<br />
whose name and picture accompanies this<br />
column.<br />
Paying thousands of dollars on pet<br />
funerals is foolish.<br />
Having lost four pets, I know it is<br />
difficult and painful, but there is no<br />
reason to spend large amounts of<br />
money, a tasteful backyard burial<br />
is <strong>all</strong> that is required.<br />
That’s how it used to be. So how<br />
did pet funerals begin? It’s <strong>all</strong> part<br />
of the fur baby craze.<br />
Dogs, for example, went from<br />
being working animals to being<br />
stuffed into purses and paraded<br />
down the street in strollers around<br />
2011. Dogs too big for purses are<br />
dressed up with jackets and accessories.<br />
Animals are treated like<br />
children. Ridiculous. But explainable.<br />
Dogs affect us through hormones.<br />
When a human looks into<br />
the eyes of their dog, a hormone<br />
is released. It is c<strong>all</strong>ed oxytocin,<br />
sometimes known as the love hormone,.<br />
This same hormone is released<br />
when a mother looks at their<br />
child as well, thus the confusion.<br />
No matter how we feel about<br />
them, animals are animals and<br />
children are children. Yes, we love<br />
pets, but a pet is not a baby.<br />
If your baby died, would it re<strong>all</strong>y<br />
be the same as losing, say, a parrot?<br />
No. It would not.<br />
People are willing to spend a lot<br />
of money on their pets. According<br />
to Statistics Canada, we went from<br />
annu<strong>all</strong>y spending an average of<br />
$124.50 on pets in 2008, to spending<br />
an average of $590 by 2015.<br />
Pet funerals are a cash grab. The<br />
pet funeral homes and services<br />
know people are willing to spend<br />
extravagant amounts of money on<br />
their pet, even if the pet is dead.<br />
They use our love for our pets to<br />
get our hard-earned money.<br />
A pet casket can cost up to<br />
$616.93 on Amazon. An urn can<br />
cost up to $182.25, and an ashes<br />
keepsake can cost up to $193.51. A<br />
casket and burial can cost $1,116.93<br />
for a sm<strong>all</strong> pet and $1,236.93 for a<br />
large pet, or more. A private cremation<br />
with a service and ash keepsake<br />
can cost $743.51 for a sm<strong>all</strong><br />
pet, and $768.51 for large pets, or<br />
more.<br />
Do we re<strong>all</strong>y need to spend so<br />
much to show our love? What is<br />
wrong with a sm<strong>all</strong>, sentimental<br />
backyard burial?<br />
Burials behind the garden,<br />
marked by transplanted wildflowers<br />
are tasteful. The pet is close<br />
and the process, dignified.<br />
Spending thousands will not<br />
bring your pet back, but it will<br />
empty your bank account.<br />
A burial, at least, is needed to<br />
bring closure after any pet death<br />
but there is no need to spend thousands<br />
on a lavish pet funeral.<br />
Yes, the burial should be respectful.<br />
Yes, the pet, be it dog, cat, fish,<br />
bird or rodent, will be missed and is<br />
irreplaceable. No two animals are<br />
the same. No, they will not mind if<br />
you spend $0 on their funeral. All<br />
a pet needs is love.<br />
Stop this nonsense and go back<br />
to treating beloved pets as what<br />
they truly are. Pets.<br />
Oshawa could benefit from more defensive design downtown<br />
Austin<br />
Andru<br />
The following piece is the opinion of<br />
the Durham College journalism student<br />
whose name and picture accompanies this<br />
column.<br />
Cities like Oshawa need defensive<br />
design tactics to control behaviour<br />
and misconduct.<br />
Defensive design can be seen<br />
at almost every bus stop in Oshawa,<br />
just take a look at the narrow<br />
benches and armrests that make it<br />
impossible for people to sleep on<br />
them. We need more of it.<br />
According to Homelesshub.ca,<br />
there are 0 chronic<strong>all</strong>y homeless<br />
people in the Durham Region, with<br />
1,391 households accessing emergency<br />
shelter. Since we don’t have<br />
any chronic<strong>all</strong>y homeless, design<br />
should be used to prevent people<br />
from spending long periods of time<br />
in public places.<br />
Design is an effective and subtle<br />
way to control loitering in public<br />
environments. Park benches, spiked<br />
surfaces and rocks under bridges <strong>all</strong><br />
discourage loitering.<br />
These barriers have been met<br />
with a large amount of criticism,<br />
but it is an important thing to have<br />
in cities because design should discourage<br />
loitering and prevent drug<br />
stashing.<br />
A homeless person should not be<br />
sleeping under bridges when there<br />
are options. Housing options in<br />
the Durham Region are available<br />
at places such as the Cornerstone<br />
Community Association, Durham<br />
Youth Housing and Support Services.<br />
Homelesshub.ca indicates in<br />
2014, there were <strong>28</strong> transitional<br />
housing beds, 93 emergency beds<br />
and 13 domiciliary hostel beds<br />
in the Durham Region. At a rate<br />
of 5.7 per cent unemployment, it<br />
is safe to say that homelessness is<br />
relatively controlled.<br />
There are eight food banks<br />
in Oshawa: Knox Presbyterian<br />
Church, New Life Neighbourhood<br />
Centre, Salvation Army, Seventh<br />
Day Adventist Community Centre,<br />
Simcoe H<strong>all</strong> Settlement House,<br />
St. Peter’s Food Bank and two St.<br />
Vincent de Paul Society locations.<br />
In February, the Simcoe Street<br />
United Church inst<strong>all</strong>ed 12 lockers<br />
for homeless people to store their<br />
belongings.<br />
Design prevents people from<br />
occupying certain areas for long<br />
periods of time. This encourages<br />
the use of shelter services.<br />
When Montreal inst<strong>all</strong>ed anti<br />
homeless spikes at a book store<br />
it was met with largely negative<br />
comments on twitter, and even the<br />
mayor of Montreal c<strong>all</strong>ed it “unacceptable”.<br />
It is fair to say that this design is<br />
a bit aggressive and that it pushes<br />
social norms. However, it is not safe<br />
for homeless people to be in densely<br />
populated areas.<br />
It creates an unsafe environment<br />
for the homeless person and the<br />
people in the area.<br />
Design should not be encouraging<br />
people to sleep in the street,<br />
it should be preventing people from<br />
doing so: the same way studs on escalators<br />
prevent kids from sliding<br />
down them.<br />
Homeless shelters may not be the<br />
best dwellings, and there is a case<br />
to be made that there is a lot that<br />
needs to be done to improve them,<br />
but it is certainly better than the<br />
streets.<br />
Defensive design needs to be<br />
done with care though. For instance,<br />
eliminating benches and<br />
places to sit entirely is especi<strong>all</strong>y<br />
unfair for the public. The idea is<br />
to have a design that <strong>all</strong>ows someone<br />
to rest temporarily but not long<br />
term.<br />
Having nowhere to sit is unfair<br />
for homeless people, elderly, and<br />
disabled people who could benefit<br />
from sitting somewhere for a short<br />
period of time. The design needs to<br />
prevent behaviours (such as sleeping)<br />
without punishing people who<br />
may benefit.<br />
Benches still provide a place for<br />
people to sit, but the armrests prevent<br />
people from staying long for<br />
periods of time.<br />
Public spaces can be enjoyed<br />
even with defensive elements.<br />
Most people don’t even notice the<br />
defensive design around them and<br />
Oshawa could benefit from more<br />
in the city’s centre.<br />
The Ontario government should get rid of public Catholic schools<br />
Cassidy<br />
McMullen<br />
The following piece is the opinion of<br />
the Durham College journalism student<br />
whose name and picture accompanies this<br />
column.<br />
While Canada has always had<br />
Catholic schools, they became publicly<br />
funded in the 19th-century<br />
when government-funded schools<br />
were created.<br />
Catholics feared public schools<br />
would convert their children to the<br />
dominant Protestant religion at the<br />
time so they created public Catholic<br />
schools.<br />
Lots of changes have been made<br />
to both the school system and Canada<br />
since then.<br />
As a result, it’s time for Ontario<br />
to make a change to the school<br />
board system.<br />
Ontario needs to get rid of publicly<br />
funded Catholic schools.<br />
Being Catholic is fine. Canada<br />
is a wonderful country.<br />
Citizens have the right to practice<br />
any religion but public schools<br />
are funded through tax money to<br />
provide <strong>all</strong> students with an academic<br />
education.<br />
Tax money shouldn’t go towards<br />
your child’s religious education, especi<strong>all</strong>y<br />
not one that doesn’t even<br />
uphold Canadian values.<br />
In Canada, marriage, whether<br />
it’s to a female or male, is legal and<br />
accepted.<br />
The Catholic Church still stands<br />
that a marriage is between a man<br />
and a woman.<br />
Being homosexual is fine, but<br />
having a relationship with another<br />
homosexual is sinful, says the Vatican.<br />
Some people might praise Pope<br />
Francis, the head of the Catholic<br />
Church, for having a softer, more<br />
inclusive stance on core concerns<br />
of the church but he is still against<br />
Canadian values.<br />
Pope Francis says he opposes<br />
gender theory: the idea that gender<br />
is separated from your biological<br />
sex. He opposes the idea of schools<br />
teaching students about the LG-<br />
BTQ+ community because that<br />
would be promoting or endorsing<br />
such “tendencies” the Catholic<br />
church has deemed sinful.<br />
Tendencies that Canada have<br />
found worth protecting in our<br />
Charter of Humans Rights. Section<br />
15 in the charter protects Canadians<br />
from discrimination based<br />
off identities that the Church deems<br />
sinful.<br />
Or, maybe we should touch on<br />
the fact of the pain and devastation<br />
the Catholic Church has caused<br />
our country and our citizens.<br />
Out of the 130 residential schools<br />
run in Canada, three quarters were<br />
run by the Catholic Church.<br />
While the church has participated<br />
in the $1.9 billion compensation<br />
plan for the victims, they<br />
still haven’t form<strong>all</strong>y apologized<br />
for their role.<br />
The Anglican Church, the Presbyterian<br />
Church and the United<br />
Church <strong>all</strong> apologized in the 90’s<br />
for their role. The Catholic Church<br />
holds on to the fact it was individual<br />
diocesan bishops’ decision to<br />
run the schools, so they don’t have<br />
anything to apologize for.<br />
An estimated 150,000 First Nation,<br />
Inuit and Metis children were<br />
forced to attend these schools where<br />
they were neglected, abused, cut off<br />
from their families and murder in<br />
an attempt to wipe out their culture,<br />
and effectively, them.<br />
And the Catholic Church is still<br />
<strong>all</strong>owed to have a publicly funded<br />
school board in Canada.<br />
The Church did apologize for<br />
the hundreds of suspected victims<br />
of sexual abuse committed by<br />
their clergy in their churches and<br />
schools, but they never backed it<br />
with effective change, according<br />
to Barbara Blaine, the president of<br />
Survivors Network of those abused<br />
by Priests.<br />
Instead, Pope Francis defends<br />
paedophiles.<br />
Recently, he defended Juan<br />
Barros, a Bishop in Chile that was<br />
accused of sexual assault. A judge<br />
found the victims to be truthful in a<br />
case against Rev Fernando Karadima,<br />
where it was said that Barros<br />
was in the room during the abuse.<br />
Pope Francis followed up with<br />
a statement saying we shouldn’t<br />
believe the victims, because their<br />
word isn’t good enough and accused<br />
them of slander.<br />
A photo of Pope Francis, a man<br />
who <strong>all</strong>ows the abuse of children<br />
and protects these predators, hangs<br />
in our public schools; a man who<br />
doesn’t believe in our right to decide<br />
our gender or who we have<br />
relationships with; a man who<br />
doesn’t think the systematic abuse<br />
of 150, 000 children is something<br />
to apologize for.<br />
That is the person students in<br />
Canadian public schools are asked<br />
to look up to.<br />
If the Catholic church is not<br />
going to uphold Canadian values,<br />
then they have no place in our public-school<br />
system. It is time for Ontario<br />
to get rid of publicly funded<br />
Catholic schools.
6 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus<br />
Plans for geothermal ‘heat up’<br />
John Cook<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Durham College is set to get a<br />
little greener next year as the<br />
aging Simcoe Building is demolished<br />
and a renewable energy centre<br />
is set up in its place.<br />
Durham MPP Granville Anderson<br />
was on campus March 12<br />
to announce the provincial government<br />
will give $14.7 million<br />
toward upgrades to DC’s existing<br />
green technology and to begin the<br />
first phase of the construction of a<br />
geothermal energy centre.<br />
Geothermal energy is a form<br />
of renewable energy that deals<br />
mainly with heating and cooling<br />
of buildings. This type of green<br />
energy originates deep underground<br />
and is tapped into by way<br />
of drilling.<br />
Doug Crossman, manager of<br />
Mechanical Systems and Energy<br />
for DC, says the college’s plans for<br />
a geothermal system are known as<br />
a borehole thermal energy storage<br />
system (BTESS).<br />
The system involves drilling<br />
deep “boreholes” into the earth<br />
and inst<strong>all</strong>ing piping through the<br />
holes.<br />
“Once we bore about 500 feet<br />
into the ground the temperature<br />
remains fairly constant,” says<br />
Crossman. “We pull some of that<br />
temperature out of the ground [in<br />
colder months] and through refrigerant<br />
we use it to heat buildings.”<br />
Crossman says during the<br />
summer months the centre will<br />
pump heat underground through<br />
the same holes for storage until<br />
the warm weather ends.<br />
Geothermal energy does not<br />
produce greenhouse gasses, but<br />
the heat pumps and refrigerant<br />
systems use external power. This<br />
means geothermal, when used<br />
alongside other renewable forms<br />
of electricity generation, is a zero-emission<br />
system.<br />
Photograph by John Cook<br />
Durham College president Don Lovisa speaking at the geothermal field project announcement.<br />
“Ide<strong>all</strong>y you are able to obtain<br />
the maximum amount of emission<br />
reduction through a combination<br />
of emissions-free generating systems<br />
and geothermal BTESStype<br />
systems,” says Crossman.<br />
“Those are the most effective<br />
types of systems.”<br />
The geothermal field will be<br />
located on the current site of the<br />
Simcoe Building, which is scheduled<br />
for closure and demolition<br />
later this year. The project will be<br />
completed in several phases, with<br />
the first phase to be completed<br />
over the course of this year and<br />
next.<br />
Durham College president<br />
Don Lovisa says the field will provide<br />
more benefits to the school<br />
beyond emissions reduction. He<br />
says the site will be used as a<br />
“working classroom” space for<br />
students.<br />
“The Simcoe Geothermal<br />
Field, along with a connected<br />
heat-pump plant will become a<br />
living lab on-campus that will be<br />
incorporated into the curricula of<br />
numerous programs to address<br />
new green energy technologies<br />
and careers,” says Lovisa.<br />
The bulk of the investment,<br />
more than $9 million, will be used<br />
for the construction of the BTESS<br />
system. The remainder will be <strong>all</strong>ocated<br />
to upgrading DC’s “green<br />
technology,” such as automated<br />
lights, as well as an interest-free<br />
loan to fund projects which are<br />
yet-to-be-determined.<br />
In his announcement, Anderson<br />
c<strong>all</strong>ed the geothermal project<br />
“exciting and wonderful.”<br />
“I am extremely proud that<br />
[geothermal energy production]<br />
will be implemented in our community,”<br />
he said.<br />
Global Class<br />
discusses racial<br />
discrimination<br />
Cassidy McMullen<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
“What can we do as one great<br />
human civilization…to eliminate<br />
racial discrimination?”<br />
That’s the question Lon Appleby<br />
asked of students in the Global<br />
Class on March 14.<br />
The global class is a general<br />
education course (GNED) available<br />
at DC. Using advanced<br />
technology, the class can video<br />
chat with people from around the<br />
world <strong>all</strong>owing students to discuss<br />
international issues and hear different<br />
perspectives.<br />
DC’s Global Class hosted Centennial<br />
College, a group from<br />
Luskia, Zambia and two Israel<br />
colleges for a discussion on racial<br />
discrimination just ahead of<br />
the United Nations (UN) International<br />
Day of Elimination of<br />
Racial Discrimination.<br />
The International Day for the<br />
Elimination of Racial Discrimination<br />
is observed March 21 annu<strong>all</strong>y.<br />
The day was proclaimed<br />
in 1966, six years after 69 people<br />
were shot by police after a peaceful<br />
demonstration against racist<br />
laws in Sharpeville, South Africa.<br />
In the class, students shared<br />
struggles their countries are facing<br />
with racial discrimination<br />
and personal experiences.<br />
In Luskia, Zambia, racial discrimination<br />
branches into economic<br />
inequality.<br />
Ireen Silweya, who organizes<br />
groups of people in her community<br />
to join in on Global Class discussions,<br />
explained how since a<br />
lot of property is owned by white<br />
Zambians, it’s hard to buy land.<br />
“White sells to white,” Silweya<br />
said.<br />
A student of hers explained<br />
how his family was denied the<br />
opportunity to buy land from a<br />
white land owner who wouldn’t<br />
sell it, preferring to let a white<br />
Zambian to buy the land instead.<br />
“It was a black-white issue,”<br />
Silweya said. “And it ended like<br />
that.”<br />
Derrick Reinsma, a nursing<br />
student in his last semester, was<br />
looking for another GNED to take<br />
when he stumbled upon the global<br />
class. Based on the video Appleby<br />
made, he thought the course<br />
looked interesting so he signed up.<br />
Now taking the course, Reinsma<br />
especi<strong>all</strong>y likes how they touch<br />
on “big picture thinking” rather<br />
than “everyday sm<strong>all</strong> stuff.”<br />
“It just connects us to different<br />
world perspectives that we<br />
wouldn’t experience in our everyday<br />
lives,” Reinsma said.<br />
Reinsma suggested in the<br />
global class racial discrimination<br />
comes from intolerance and a fundamental<br />
hatred of not only other<br />
people but yourself.<br />
“Today’s class gave us a new<br />
perspective to see how people felt<br />
racism in different cultures and it<br />
helped us get down to the fundamentals<br />
of what we should change<br />
in our lives to change racism on a<br />
global scale,” Reinsma said.<br />
Appleby guided the conversation,<br />
focusing on the world’s development<br />
and failure since the<br />
UN’s creation of the Universal<br />
Declaration of Human Rights<br />
70 years ago after World War II,<br />
which Appleby described as “the<br />
worst war in human kind.”<br />
Section one of the Declaration<br />
of Human rights was specific<strong>all</strong>y<br />
discussed:<br />
“All human beings are born<br />
free and equal in dignity and<br />
rights. They are endowed with<br />
reason and conscience and should<br />
act towards one another in a spirit<br />
Photograph by Cassidy McMullen<br />
The Global Class, led by Lon Appleby (centre), participates in an international discussion about<br />
racial discrimination over video chat.<br />
of brotherhood.”<br />
“It shouldn’t be a day of celebration,”<br />
Silweya said.<br />
It should be a day to look at<br />
implementing change and finding<br />
ways to make it sustainable, he<br />
said.<br />
The theme for this year’s International<br />
Day of Elimination of<br />
Racial Discrimination is tolerance,<br />
inclusion, unity and respect<br />
for diversity in the context of combating<br />
racial discrimination with<br />
a focus on migrants and people of<br />
African descent.
Community chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 7<br />
Girls will take flight in Oshawa<br />
Aly Beach<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Women and girls have a chance<br />
to take to the skies at Girls Take<br />
Flight Oshawa, a free aviation<br />
event meant to encourage girls and<br />
women to go into aviation.<br />
Presented by The First Canadian<br />
99s and Durham Flight Centre, the<br />
event will feature information and<br />
education sessions, aviation and<br />
aerospace professionals, aircraft<br />
displays and discussion panels.<br />
There will be booths and exhibitioners<br />
including air cadets, and<br />
representatives from Seneca College<br />
and Georgian College, which<br />
both offer aviation programs.<br />
Girls Take Flight Oshawa will<br />
be hosting female guest speakers<br />
including an airline pilot, a mechanic<br />
and a military pilot.<br />
“We have speakers and they’re<br />
going to be able to inspire the girls<br />
by sharing their stories and telling<br />
them a little bit about what it’s like<br />
in their particular career,” says Lesley<br />
Page, pilot, event founder and<br />
main organizer.<br />
Girls and women are being offered<br />
200 free flights at this year’s<br />
event, which takes place April 21<br />
at the Oshawa airport.<br />
Last year, Girls Take Flight was<br />
able to provide 188 free flights.<br />
Registration starts April 1 at girlstakeflight.ca.<br />
“We have usu<strong>all</strong>y 12 to 15 pilots<br />
who fly and they fly their own aircraft<br />
and they donate their time,<br />
fuel and aircraft to make sure we<br />
fly as many women and girls as<br />
possible,” says Page.<br />
Page says it’s important to introduce<br />
more women to aviation for<br />
two reasons:<br />
Only six per cent of pilots are<br />
women and that number is even<br />
lower among airline pilots.<br />
Photograph courtesy of Girls Take Flight Oshawa<br />
A young girl participating in one of the free flights offered at 2017's Girls Take Flight Oshawa<br />
Page thinks everybody does better<br />
when there are more women<br />
involved.<br />
The second reason is the untapped<br />
demographic that can help<br />
with the current pilot shortage,<br />
something that has become more<br />
apparent recently.<br />
“An obvious way to combat the<br />
pilot shortage is to target women to<br />
fit in the industry,” she says.<br />
Page is a private pilot who got<br />
her licence in 2007 at the age of 52.<br />
She was inspired when her husband<br />
took her on her first sm<strong>all</strong> airplane<br />
flight in 2005.<br />
“It was love at first flight, so I<br />
decided life was too short to be a<br />
passenger so I quit my job to learn<br />
how to fly,” says Page.<br />
She is also a member of the Canadian<br />
99s, the largest chapter of<br />
the largest organization of female<br />
aviators.<br />
It was founded in 1929, and according<br />
to Page, Amelia Earhart<br />
was the organization’s first president.<br />
Page describes flying as a freeing,<br />
empowering experience.<br />
She says there is a sense of pride<br />
in becoming a pilot.<br />
“There is a sense of accomplishment<br />
once you’ve obtained that licence,<br />
that is not everybody in the<br />
world has the capacity and the…<br />
dexterity to become a pilot,” says<br />
Page.<br />
Page says the event is about<br />
breaking perceptions and stereotypes.<br />
“We want them to spark an interest<br />
and we want them to know<br />
aviation and aerospace are an option<br />
for girls. There’s a perception<br />
that aviation and aerospace is for<br />
boys, for men,” says Page.<br />
Girls Inc.:<br />
Helping build<br />
confidence<br />
Tracy Wright<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Self-harming, low self-esteem, poor<br />
body image -these are just a few<br />
examples of issues girls who attend<br />
Girls Inc. might have.<br />
Brianna Thorne, 18, is an alumnus<br />
of the Girls Inc. program. She<br />
started out when it was suggested<br />
by her principal and teacher at<br />
Gandatsetiagon Public School<br />
Pickering in Grade 8. She was<br />
hesitant to join the group as she<br />
was a tomboy and did not hang<br />
out with girls.<br />
“I was scared to be in a room<br />
with other girls,” she says, adding,<br />
“I eventu<strong>all</strong>y warmed up.”<br />
“Before Girls Inc. I was very<br />
self-conscious. I didn’t have any<br />
friends and I had low self-esteem.”<br />
She says she learned to accept<br />
herself for who she is.<br />
Thorne went on to become a<br />
volunteer and then later a camp<br />
counsellor at Girls Inc. She currently<br />
attends York University and<br />
is studying psychology.<br />
Girls Inc. is a non-profit U.S.-<br />
based organization which started<br />
in 1864. Its mission is to empower<br />
girls and their motto encourages<br />
girls to be strong, smart and bold.<br />
The group was origin<strong>all</strong>y part of<br />
the Big Sister movement, which<br />
was a program pairing women in<br />
a mentor-style relationship with<br />
younger girls.<br />
After operating as a program<br />
within Big Sisters, Girls Inc. Durham<br />
was created in 2002 following<br />
the amalgamation of Big Sisters<br />
with Big Brothers. The plan was<br />
to continue programming specific<strong>all</strong>y<br />
for girls. A grant was received<br />
from Ontario Trillium Foundation<br />
in 2004. Girls Inc. used that funding<br />
to open two other locations<br />
in Durham – south Oshawa and<br />
Pickering.<br />
They also put additional programs<br />
in place, such as the Girls<br />
Inc. Operation SMART program.<br />
In 2005, they started the Canada<br />
Prenatal Nutrition Program<br />
(CPNP) otherwise known as Food<br />
4 Thought. Then in 2006, Girls<br />
Inc. day camp was initiated for girls<br />
aged six to 12. This camp covers <strong>all</strong><br />
eight programs provided by Girls<br />
Inc.<br />
Tracey McCanell, director of<br />
programming says, “everyday,<br />
Young girls and women who participate with Girls Inc., a non-profit organization.<br />
Girls Inc. puts our mission into<br />
practice through the Girls Inc.<br />
Experience, which equips girls to<br />
navigate gender, economic, and social<br />
barriers and grow into healthy,<br />
educated, and independent adults.”<br />
Girls Inc. was one of the first<br />
affiliates in Canada to receive the<br />
Standard of Excellence Award.<br />
This international award recognizes<br />
an organization that goes beyond<br />
standard practices and achieves<br />
excellence in programming, marketing,<br />
governance, advocacy and<br />
fund development.<br />
“We want our girls to have a<br />
positive experience,” says Emma<br />
Conner, former Girls Inc. community<br />
development manager.<br />
“Learn and grow. And become the<br />
best version of themselves.”<br />
They cater to a lot of girls and<br />
young women from age six to 18.<br />
“We are trying to empower our<br />
girls and help to change society so<br />
when girls go out into the world<br />
they’re met with opportunities instead<br />
of barriers. Also, met with<br />
support instead of judgment, there’s<br />
a lot of work left to be done,” says<br />
Conner.<br />
Not <strong>all</strong> girls who come to Girls<br />
Inc. want to hear what is being<br />
said. Some come at their parents’<br />
suggestion.<br />
However, they do provide mentor<br />
role models to work with them.<br />
“We genuinely believe that if you<br />
Photograph by Tracy Wright<br />
have someone is in your corner telling<br />
you that you are worth it. You<br />
deserve to be heard. You are smart,<br />
you’re strong and you are bold. You<br />
deserve opportunities. Then you’re<br />
going to start to believe it yourself,”<br />
says Conner.<br />
“The essential elements and the<br />
foundational Girls Inc. Experience<br />
have been developed to impact<br />
girls, their families and society,”<br />
says McCannell.<br />
Thorne says the encounter has<br />
helped her build herself up and<br />
have healthier relationships. “[Girls<br />
Inc.] had a re<strong>all</strong>y, re<strong>all</strong>y big impact<br />
on my life” says Thorne.<br />
“It will change you and help you<br />
grow in so many ways.”
8 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus<br />
Photograph by Conner McTague<br />
Shish Tawook and Muhammara, two Middle Eastern dishes made by student John Cook.<br />
A feast from the Middle East<br />
The perfect<br />
food for<br />
a night in<br />
with you<br />
and yours<br />
In many ways, the Middle East<br />
might just be the polar opposite of<br />
Canada.<br />
Canada is known for its frigid<br />
temperatures in the winter<br />
months, while most of the Middle<br />
East is swelteringly hot yearround.<br />
The Middle East is an area<br />
steeped in rich tradition and history.<br />
Canada has long suffered from<br />
an identity crisis, brought on by<br />
the historic<strong>all</strong>y conflicting French<br />
and English Canadian customs,<br />
as well as the ch<strong>all</strong>enges of being<br />
the one of the most multicultural<br />
countries in the world.<br />
But we both love good, hearty<br />
food.<br />
For many Canadians, the<br />
phrase “Middle Eastern food”<br />
might conjure up mental pictures<br />
of fragrant, unbearably spicy food<br />
made using unfamiliar ingredients.<br />
In reality, the cuisine of countries<br />
like Syria, Iraq and Lebanon<br />
can be made with varying levels of<br />
Prep time: 8 hours – 24 hours (depending<br />
on how tender you like it)<br />
Serves: 4 people<br />
Ingredients: 2 or 3 skinless, boneless<br />
chicken breasts (about 1kg)<br />
• ½ cup plain yogurt (use 2 per cent for a<br />
creamier flavour)<br />
• ¼ cup lemon juice (or the juice of 1<br />
whole fresh lemon)<br />
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder (or use two cloves<br />
of fresh garlic)<br />
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste<br />
• 1 tsp. ground cumin<br />
• 1 tsp. dried red chili flakes<br />
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon<br />
• ½ tsp. ground ginger<br />
• ½ tsp. black pepper<br />
• ¼ tsp. cardamom<br />
• Salt to taste<br />
• One or two whole bell peppers (any<br />
colour)<br />
• One whole onion (preferably white)<br />
John<br />
Cook<br />
Shish Tawook<br />
• Olive oil (use as much or as little as you<br />
like)<br />
• Parsley (optional)<br />
Steps:<br />
1) Cut chicken breasts into approx. 2<br />
inch chunks, set aside.<br />
2) Mix together the yogurt, tomato paste,<br />
lemon juice, spices and olive oil in a sm<strong>all</strong><br />
container until smooth.<br />
3) Place the chicken and marinade in a<br />
bag, making sure the chicken is coated. Refrigerate<br />
for at least 8 hours.<br />
4) Preheat oven to 375∞F.<br />
5) Chop bell peppers and onion into<br />
rough chunks, remove chicken from<br />
fridge. Assemble kebabs on wooden (or<br />
metal if you’re fancy) skewers.<br />
6) Place in a lightly greased baking<br />
tray, and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until<br />
chicken is fully cooked and no longer pink.<br />
7) Serve over rice, salad or pita,<br />
garnish with parsley and/or hot sauceseems<br />
to taste best).<br />
Prep time:
Community chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 9<br />
Human trafficking 'prevalent' in Durham<br />
This is part one of a two-part series on<br />
human trafficking in Durham. Part two<br />
will appear in <strong>Issue</strong> 10.<br />
Shanelle Somers<br />
and Shana Fillatrau<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Durham Region is on the 401,<br />
making it a hot-bed for human<br />
trafficking because victims are<br />
easily and quickly moved around<br />
from city to city. Hotels along the<br />
highway make it easy for pimps to<br />
hide these women in plain sight.<br />
Jason Price, detective constable<br />
in the Durham Regional Police<br />
Services human-trafficking unit,<br />
says many of the hotel owners and<br />
staff have been educated on the<br />
warning signs. He says one of their<br />
most recent investigations started<br />
with a tip from a hotel staffer.<br />
Hotels and motels along Kingston<br />
Road are known to be temporary<br />
housing to pimps, victims and<br />
their clients. Toronto Police have<br />
a project focusing on these hotels<br />
named Hotel Tango 2.<br />
They are living “very transient”<br />
lifestyles, according to Price. They<br />
are forced to service (a professional<br />
term used by traffickers to describe<br />
a woman engaging in forced sexual<br />
activity), fed minimal and/or poor<br />
food and are sometimes denied<br />
feminine hygiene products.<br />
“People would be surprised to<br />
know how prevalent it is in the hotels<br />
within the region,” says Price.<br />
“The members of the public would<br />
be baffled at how active it is, the<br />
ages of the girls that are involved<br />
and the amount of money that’s<br />
being spent on it.”<br />
What can you do to keep your<br />
loved ones from ending up in these<br />
hotels? Pay attention, says Price.<br />
Young women with low self-esteem<br />
are especi<strong>all</strong>y vulnerable. There<br />
are many red flags, according to<br />
Price.<br />
These include unexplained gifts<br />
or money, long absences, change in<br />
mental health, multiple cellphones<br />
and new friends or boyfriend.<br />
Jeff Tucker, another detective<br />
constable in the human-trafficking<br />
unit of seven, says, “I think that<br />
would re<strong>all</strong>y shock the public to see<br />
that these are the girls next door.”<br />
In Durham, Tucker says their<br />
youngest victim was 13-years-old.<br />
She was first trafficked at the age<br />
of nine.<br />
Within the last few months,<br />
Tucker says they’re seeing girls 14<br />
and 15-years-old being victimized<br />
the most.<br />
The most common tactic is<br />
c<strong>all</strong>ed the “boyfriend trafficker.”<br />
A younger pimp is used to lure in<br />
the girls with affection, romance<br />
and gifts. The relationship usu<strong>all</strong>y<br />
moves quickly and the boyfriend<br />
makes a lot of promises he can’t<br />
keep, like marriage or moving in<br />
together.<br />
This makes the girl feel loved<br />
and secure, especi<strong>all</strong>y if she has<br />
low self-esteem. Then the boyfriend<br />
comes into trouble. He needs<br />
money and the girl is expected to<br />
help. It usu<strong>all</strong>y starts when he asks<br />
her to do one explicit activity -<br />
stripping, or service a client just<br />
one time. If she does, she’s trapped.<br />
This is also c<strong>all</strong>ed the “Romeo<br />
Pimp.”<br />
Durham Regional Police Services human trafficking unit officers Jason Price (left) and Jeff Tucker.<br />
These girls also need to be wary<br />
of female lures as well. These traffickers<br />
are c<strong>all</strong>ed the “Bottom<br />
B**ch.” This is when the main<br />
pimp picks his “best girl” to recruit<br />
for him. She is busy, therefore services<br />
less so it motivates her to do<br />
his dirty work.<br />
The police officers also feel social<br />
media has made things harder.<br />
Price says, “It’s certainly has grown<br />
because of social media.”<br />
Another unforeseen effect of social<br />
media, as well as pop culture,<br />
according to Tucker, is girls are<br />
being desensitized.<br />
The elaborate and expensive<br />
lives they see on TV and in movies,<br />
“that’s the lifestyle that these guys<br />
are selling. Bottom line, it’s an easy<br />
sell.” Price says, “The younger they<br />
are, the easier it is for them to do.”<br />
These are some of the reasons<br />
why Tucker and Price feel it’s important<br />
to raise awareness about<br />
the issue.<br />
“This is Canada, this is not<br />
something that should be <strong>all</strong>owed<br />
or tolerated. We need to make sure<br />
those folks who do this are punished<br />
to the true extent of the law,”<br />
says John Henry, Oshawa mayor.<br />
Police give presentations about<br />
the warning signs to young girls.<br />
The presentation is only given to<br />
females because they don’t want to<br />
give males tools on how to traffic<br />
girls.<br />
This educates teachers on the red<br />
I think that would shock the public<br />
to see that these are the<br />
girls next door.<br />
flags, as well.<br />
Teachers within the Durham<br />
Region have played a key role in<br />
successfully identifying students<br />
who may be a victim of human<br />
trafficking. Tucker says, “To date,<br />
any teacher or VP has been correct.”<br />
Price says the unit gets their<br />
leads from teachers, parents or<br />
Crime Stoppers.<br />
Tucker’s his main concern is<br />
getting through to the victim.<br />
“They’ve been brainwashed by the<br />
person who’s controlling them,” he<br />
says.<br />
But these traffickers can sometimes<br />
be difficult to track, partly<br />
due to technology. Texting apps<br />
make it difficult to keep track of<br />
phone records and pre-paid credit<br />
cards can make it almost impossible<br />
to keep record of the pimp’s<br />
purchases.<br />
Project Protect is an initiative<br />
working to support police to combat<br />
this.<br />
The initiative started in 2016 and<br />
was introduced in partnership with<br />
Financial Transactions and Reports<br />
Analysis Centre of Canada,<br />
known as FinTrac.<br />
FinTrac works with Canada’s<br />
five major banks to follow the<br />
transactions of traffickers. They<br />
monitor suspicious purchases such<br />
as multiple hotel stays, motel bookings,<br />
pharmacy purchases, latenight<br />
ATM deposits and Uber or<br />
taxi payments.<br />
Once a suspicious transaction is<br />
found, FinTrac will notify law enforcement.<br />
FinTrac has been a successful aid<br />
in providing tips to police across<br />
Canada and gathering evidence<br />
against <strong>all</strong>eged human traffickers.<br />
BMO banker and coordinator<br />
of Project Protect, Peter Warrack,<br />
says one of the main ways they are<br />
able to flag suspicious activity is<br />
through advertisement purchases.<br />
However, they are not tracking<br />
ordinary advertisement purchases<br />
you typic<strong>all</strong>y see online. These ads<br />
are specific<strong>all</strong>y made, purchased<br />
and marketed for escort service<br />
websites like back<strong>pages</strong>.com, a<br />
website many men visit to purchase<br />
young trafficked girls and/<br />
or women.<br />
Warrack says BMO cross-references<br />
transaction systems and flags<br />
people or companies who are making<br />
payments towards those types<br />
of ads.<br />
“We have noticed that almost 99<br />
per cent of these ads are on back<strong>pages</strong>.com,”<br />
says Warrack.<br />
To date, Durham Regional<br />
Police have not received any tips<br />
from FinTrac but they do rely on<br />
the similar strategies when gathering<br />
evidence against a human<br />
trafficker.<br />
“I can tell you that I’m proud of<br />
the work they do each and every<br />
day and you know you can see the<br />
difference that they make in communities.<br />
But it’s only through<br />
help through the community that<br />
we can fix things. So if you know<br />
something that’s wrong please take<br />
the opportunity to contact the<br />
regional police,” says mayor Henry.<br />
Ontario’s Ministry of Community<br />
and Social Services is also developing<br />
strategies to stop human<br />
trafficking.<br />
Jennifer Richardson, Director of<br />
the Provincial Anti-Human Trafficking<br />
Coordination Office, says,<br />
“Two out of three police reported<br />
Photograph by Shana Fillatrau<br />
cases of human trafficking in Canada<br />
are in Ontario.” Recognizing<br />
how vigorous human trafficking is<br />
within Ontario despite the sparsity<br />
of data available, the provincial<br />
government has invested 72 million<br />
dollars towards holding human<br />
traffickers accountable, educating<br />
communities, and developing Indigenous-led<br />
approaches to stop<br />
trafficking.<br />
“We are the third province in<br />
Canada to have a strategy to fight<br />
human trafficking … and as far as<br />
I am aware, it is one of the largest<br />
financial investments in North<br />
America,” says Richardson, who<br />
was recently on a panel as part of a<br />
human trafficking prevention event<br />
held at the University of Ontario<br />
Institute of Technology.<br />
The provincial government also<br />
realizes the importance of working<br />
with people who have been involved<br />
in trafficking and affected<br />
by trafficking. Richardson says<br />
they work with a lot of people who<br />
are experienced and who have been<br />
involved in trafficking. “One of my<br />
bosses comes from lived experience,”<br />
says Richardson.<br />
These professionals believe it is<br />
important to be passionate about<br />
stopping human trafficking. Tucker<br />
says, “You can’t help but be emotion<strong>all</strong>y<br />
invested.”<br />
Human trafficking is happening<br />
in Durham but knowing the red<br />
flags can make a difference in a<br />
potential victim’s life.<br />
Mayor Henry says the public<br />
needs to be part of the solution in<br />
ending human trafficking.<br />
“You have a voice. Our democracy<br />
is a democracy that demands<br />
participation. So if you see something<br />
that’s wrong take the time,<br />
make the c<strong>all</strong>, send the email, let’s<br />
work together to make Canada the<br />
greatest place to live. We can do<br />
this if we work together. You know<br />
being silent doesn’t help the issue,”<br />
says mayor Henry.
10 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus<br />
Dining differently in Brooklin<br />
Claudia Latino<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
The Copper Branch restaurant in<br />
Brooklin is doing things differently<br />
these days. It has improved its menu<br />
to become more viewer-friendly,<br />
including easy-to-read text, fewer<br />
pictures, and short descriptions of<br />
their food.<br />
The plant-based restaurant made<br />
the changes to improve the quality<br />
of its business by becoming certified<br />
by the Blue Umbrella program<br />
last year.<br />
The Blue Umbrella program is<br />
designed for businesses that want<br />
their service to be dementia-friendly.<br />
According to the Alzheimer Society<br />
of Durham Region, 10,000<br />
people loc<strong>all</strong>y have been diagnosed<br />
with a dementia-related illness.<br />
The Blue Umbrella symbol, often<br />
displayed on a door or window,<br />
lets customers know the staff are<br />
qualified to help those who have<br />
memory loss of other symptoms of<br />
dementia.<br />
More than 50 businesses in<br />
Whitby and Ajax are certified by<br />
the program. Businesses receive a<br />
one-hour training session from a<br />
trainer, who works alongside volunteers<br />
and a person with dementia<br />
to educate staff.<br />
The training includes a plan to<br />
be implemented by staff to cater to<br />
this group of customers.<br />
Trevor Paterson, general manager<br />
at Copper Branch, helped two<br />
customers with a dementia-related<br />
illness last summer.<br />
“One time, there was this older<br />
lady with her three daughters. One<br />
of the daughters was very familiar<br />
with the program since she saw the<br />
sticker on our front door,” he said.<br />
“She approached us about it and<br />
she wasn’t only excited but very<br />
appreciative when we gave her the<br />
menu right away and knew what<br />
she was talking about.”<br />
After training, someone from the<br />
organization acts as a customer to<br />
see how knowledgeable the business<br />
is about the Blue Umbrella<br />
program.<br />
“Once they pass, and once we<br />
know those changes have been<br />
made, the business can now say<br />
they are ‘dementia-friendly’,” said<br />
Christie May, director of philanthropy<br />
at Alzheimer Society of<br />
Durham Region. “We then give<br />
them a blue umbrella emblem to<br />
display in their store.”<br />
Photograph by Claudia Latino<br />
Christie May, focuses on fundraising programs through the Alzheimer's society in Brooklin.<br />
Paterson once had a customer<br />
ask him about the symbol.<br />
“I was working outside on the<br />
patio and this lady asked, ‘I see you<br />
have the blue umbrella sticker on<br />
your window. Do you mind telling<br />
me what that’s about?’” he said.<br />
A member from the Alzheimer<br />
Society of Durham Region emailed<br />
the restaurant a month later impressed<br />
with how much knowledge<br />
Paterson had about the program.<br />
May is thankful her community<br />
believes in this program.<br />
“We were so fortunate to have<br />
the support of the Town of Whitby<br />
who gave us $25,000 to ignite this<br />
Blue Umbrella movement in Whitby,”<br />
said May.<br />
“We also received $10,000 from<br />
the Town of Ajax to ignite the<br />
movement in Ajax.”<br />
May said dementia is an issue for<br />
many people.<br />
“Dementia is on the rise and it<br />
has been declared a ‘world epidemic’.<br />
Many would say if they haven’t<br />
had a situation first hand with Alzheimer’s<br />
‘Oh I don’t know anybody<br />
or that doesn’t affect me,” she said.<br />
“It does affect you. It would be<br />
hard-pressed to have a job or a role<br />
and not come cross that.”<br />
Paterson would like to see more<br />
businesses become part of the program<br />
to improve customer service<br />
skills and equality in his community.<br />
The Alzheimer Society of Durham<br />
Region’s goal is to expand the<br />
program beyond Whitby and Ajax.<br />
“It’s a simple thing we take for<br />
granted, as easy as going into a<br />
restaurant or reading off a menu<br />
that some people can’t do,” said<br />
Paterson.<br />
“This program is very unique<br />
and it does cater to a group that<br />
people don’t usu<strong>all</strong>y think about.<br />
I think people who have relatives<br />
who experience it re<strong>all</strong>y appreciate<br />
there’s a society out there who are<br />
dedicated to helping them.”<br />
Cleaning out<br />
the litter box<br />
Michael Bromby<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
If you live in Oshawa, you may<br />
have complained about feral cats<br />
running through your backyard.<br />
Linda Power is an animal activist<br />
in Oshawa who wants people to<br />
understand the homeless cats that<br />
may cause you grief are just trying<br />
to make it through the day.<br />
Power has lived in Oshawa for<br />
the past 12 years but grew up in<br />
Bancroft. As a child, she grew up<br />
with animals in her family home.<br />
The first animal she rescued was a<br />
cat named Fluffy.<br />
“As a kid, I rescued everything,”<br />
says Power with a smile.<br />
When she lived in Bancroft, she<br />
ran a dog rescue with her husband<br />
Jack. Over time, they slowly integrated<br />
cats. When she moved<br />
to Oshawa she began to focus on<br />
cats and how they were living in<br />
the city.<br />
“When we came to Oshawa we<br />
were very involved in cat rescue.<br />
Part of cat rescue is the trap, neuter,<br />
return, and manage program<br />
(TNRM),” says Power.<br />
In November, city council voted<br />
on a motion put forward by Oshawa<br />
Animal Services to have a<br />
TNRM program in Oshawa. The<br />
city approved a two-year pilot program<br />
which <strong>all</strong>ows animal services<br />
to trap and spay or neuter the cat.<br />
This local feral cat in Oshawa is part of a cat colony.<br />
The cats are then returned to a<br />
colony and volunteers from Action<br />
Volunteers for Animals (AVA)<br />
manage the colony providing food<br />
and water. Under the TNRM, a<br />
feral cat is defined as unsocial and<br />
possibly aggressive, while avoiding<br />
humans. The goal of the program<br />
is to reduce the number of feral<br />
cats. In 2016, Oshawa Animal<br />
Services received 16 complaints<br />
about feral cats and in 2015 it was<br />
30. AVA was running sm<strong>all</strong> cat<br />
colonies in the city.<br />
Each feral cat brought into Oshawa<br />
Animal Services from these<br />
complaints were spade, neutered<br />
and returned to the colony. The<br />
city gave $4,500 toward the pilot<br />
project for funding of volunteers.<br />
Mayor John Henry says the community<br />
volunteers are what keep<br />
the program running successfully.<br />
“The program has been working<br />
very well in Oshawa. It wouldn’t<br />
work if we didn’t have community<br />
participation,” he says.<br />
Henry says part of the feral cat<br />
problem comes from students at<br />
Durham College and UOIT. He<br />
says they get cats during the school<br />
year as pets, then release them before<br />
they go home.<br />
“If you had a cat don’t just release<br />
it and go back home, make<br />
sure that it’s properly looked after,”<br />
says Henry.<br />
Power says she has been advocating<br />
for the TNRM program to be<br />
implemented in Oshawa for years.<br />
She says it is needed because the<br />
public does not understand these<br />
cats are suffering.<br />
“They are starving, they are<br />
often injured, they freeze to death<br />
in the winter and they need help,”<br />
she says.<br />
Power has sent in letters to city<br />
council and has also attended city<br />
council meetings to voice her opinion.<br />
“At first, when I would go to<br />
council meetings or have a letter on<br />
the agenda they re<strong>all</strong>y didn’t like<br />
me too much,” says Power. “But<br />
they’ve changed a lot and they’re<br />
willing to recognize that volunteers<br />
have been solving a huge and expensive<br />
problem for them and those<br />
volunteers need support.”<br />
Power used to volunteer with<br />
AVA by fostering cats while attending<br />
to colonies. She doesn’t<br />
work with them anymore but she<br />
still visits three times a week to feed<br />
the cats with food she buys. She<br />
says it is expensive but with new<br />
funding the food should be donated<br />
to the colonies by the city or the<br />
people in the community.<br />
“Everybody wants to feed their<br />
cats but it’s usu<strong>all</strong>y a financial concern,”<br />
she says.<br />
Power visits the colonies every<br />
week to provide food for the feral<br />
cats, and clean up garbage around<br />
Photograph by Michael Bromby<br />
the shelters.<br />
She says the public is not always<br />
receptive towards her actions.<br />
“I have had my life threatened<br />
if I came back to feed the cats. I<br />
had people fight with me on the<br />
street because I was putting down<br />
cat food,” she says.<br />
Power has worked hard to keep<br />
the cats safe.<br />
She says the city will not disclose<br />
the locations of cat colonies<br />
to the public because of potential<br />
vandalism.<br />
“There are a lot of people who do<br />
not like cat colonies. If they know<br />
where they are often they will go<br />
and take the food away and destroy<br />
the shelters,” she says.
Campus chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 11<br />
Is porn the new drug?<br />
Kaatje Henrick<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
There are many different types of<br />
addiction: drugs, television, technology<br />
- and potenti<strong>all</strong>y, porn.<br />
Clay Olsen, the founder of Fight<br />
the New Drug, recently spoke to<br />
about a hundred students and<br />
guests at Durham College about<br />
porn addiction.<br />
“Porn is not a light topic and<br />
for some it is very difficult to talk<br />
about,” he says. “We want the topic<br />
to become something that people<br />
can have a conversation over without<br />
feeling judged.”<br />
Fight the New Drug is an organization<br />
started by Olsen, who<br />
is from Salt Lake City, Utah, and<br />
some of his colleagues from college.<br />
His cousin struggled with porn addiction<br />
which Olsen says led him to<br />
act out in violent ways.<br />
Olsen says his cousin was arrested<br />
and put in jail for a crime<br />
he committed due to his addiction.<br />
After his cousin was released, Olsen<br />
was curious about the research on<br />
this subject. “I saw him in a rough<br />
place.<br />
He didn’t know who to speak to<br />
and cut everybody off. He started<br />
to act out in violent ways by solving<br />
his problems with physical abuse,”<br />
says Olsen. “That’s when I knew<br />
something had to change.”<br />
His organization creates awareness<br />
among the public about pornography,<br />
and how it can have a<br />
Campus Church crew with Clay Olsen (centre) founder of Fight the New Drug.<br />
negative impact on society and a<br />
person’s over<strong>all</strong> health.<br />
According to Olsen, addiction to<br />
pornography harms in three ways:<br />
through the brain, the heart and<br />
everyday life.<br />
The brain is constantly gathering<br />
new information and molding. Addiction<br />
happens when people absorb<br />
information on a daily basis,<br />
and it becomes addictive because of<br />
the repetition, according to Olsen.<br />
“It’s a reward centre in our<br />
brain, the chemicals like dopamine<br />
are released and they make<br />
you feel good, they make you want<br />
to do it again,” says Olsen. Some<br />
people become physic<strong>all</strong>y or emotion<strong>all</strong>y<br />
dependent on the source of<br />
their addiction, says Carl Legault,<br />
a psychotherapist and professor at<br />
Durham College.<br />
“It may affect your life negatively,<br />
but it’s become such a compulsive<br />
action that you now depend on<br />
it. Your brain can no longer control<br />
its cravings to the source you’re addicted<br />
too,” says Legault.<br />
Often when people have an addiction<br />
it ruins relationships with<br />
friends and family. It can also take<br />
a toll on self-esteem and self-worth,<br />
according to Legault.<br />
He says the biggest impact is<br />
when someone lets the addiction<br />
consume them and they’re now<br />
dependant on it.<br />
When an addict becomes addicted<br />
to a certain thing, they may live<br />
their life according to their addiction.“Addicts<br />
need the substance<br />
that they’re addicted to in order<br />
to feel good, or able to live,” says<br />
Legault.<br />
Addiction to porn has been proven<br />
to often disrupt and ruin relationships,<br />
according to Olsen.<br />
He says the relationship’s intimacy<br />
is no longer satisfactory because<br />
the addict is now looking for<br />
something that sparks their interest<br />
Photograph by Kaatje Henrick<br />
more than pornography.<br />
He says in some cases, this may<br />
lead to acts of violence on the partner,<br />
or others.<br />
Nick Doyle is a pastor at Calvary<br />
Baptist Church in Oshawa<br />
who attended the event.<br />
“I have seen it ruin many lives, and<br />
I hate seeing people’s life consumed<br />
by it,” he says.<br />
Easy access to porn online is part<br />
of the ch<strong>all</strong>enge.<br />
“With porn being on the internet<br />
and the internet being so accessible,<br />
it almost exponenti<strong>all</strong>y increases<br />
the views of porn within people,”<br />
says Legault.<br />
UOIT's long night against procrastination<br />
Annual<br />
event helps<br />
to ease<br />
stress<br />
during<br />
mid-terms<br />
Alex Clelland<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Midterm season is here and students<br />
at UOIT are beginning to<br />
feel the stress and pressures of succeeding<br />
in school.<br />
During one of the busiest times of<br />
the school year, the Student Learning<br />
Centre in the library aims to<br />
help <strong>all</strong>eviate stress by putting on<br />
their third annual Long Night<br />
Against Procrastination (LNAP)<br />
event.<br />
The event took place on March 8<br />
in The Den of the campus library.<br />
It featured sessions on writing tips,<br />
offered food and prizes, yoga and<br />
meditation, and a chance to sit<br />
down with research librarians to<br />
go over assignments one-on-one.<br />
Many universities across Ontario<br />
also host the event, including the<br />
Waterloo, Laurentian, Trent, and<br />
Ryerson.<br />
The session also had tips for students<br />
who frequently pull <strong>all</strong>-nighters<br />
to complete school work, giving<br />
tips on how to effectively work into<br />
Students help out at the annual Long Night Against Procrastination.<br />
the late hours of the night.<br />
Krista Elliott is manager of the<br />
Student Learning Centre and says<br />
every student procrastinates.<br />
“A lot of us have a hard time sitting<br />
down and actu<strong>all</strong>y starting the<br />
work,” she says. When you have to<br />
write a paper, it’s easy to come up<br />
with any excuse to put it off.<br />
But to get yourself started, if you<br />
can commit to two minutes of work,<br />
it can be enough time to stay there<br />
and keep working.”<br />
Lindsay Smith was the event coordinator.<br />
When helping students fight<br />
procrastination, she says the worst<br />
distraction is social media.<br />
“We <strong>all</strong> have our favourite websites<br />
we like to visit when we’re<br />
bored,” Smith says.<br />
“Most students have a phone,<br />
and it’s so easy to pick it up and surf<br />
through social media like Facebook<br />
and Twitter.<br />
It’s a great idea to turn off your<br />
phone or the notifications when<br />
you’re trying to get work done.”<br />
Smith says her favourite tip came<br />
from a student she spoke with at<br />
the event about getting rid of his<br />
biggest distraction – his phone.<br />
“A student told me the best tip<br />
he ever discovered was locking his<br />
phone up in his car,” Smith says.<br />
“He would come to the library to<br />
do work, but would leave his phone<br />
behind so he didn’t have the temptation<br />
to go on it and get distracted,<br />
and I think that’s a great tip for students<br />
who find themselves on social<br />
media a lot.”<br />
Photograph by Alex Clelland<br />
Although the event focused on<br />
helping students to take initiative to<br />
get their assignments done, it was<br />
also a relaxing environment where<br />
students could take a break from<br />
the stressful library.<br />
Free food and coffee were offered<br />
to students and faculty, and<br />
there was a chance to sit down and<br />
chat with peers about how to fight<br />
putting off work. There will be another<br />
event held on March 26 at the<br />
UOIT downtown campus from 1<br />
p.m. until 6 p.m.
12 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Community<br />
Carving up<br />
fun in Whitby<br />
Crafts-people meet for<br />
annual woodcarving event<br />
John Cook<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
The meticulously crafted, highly<br />
detailed works on display in Whitby’s<br />
Heydenshore Pavilion last<br />
weekend <strong>all</strong> had one thing in common—they<br />
<strong>all</strong> started as hunks of<br />
ordinary wood.<br />
The Brooklin Woodcarvers hosted<br />
their <strong>28</strong>th annual woodcarving<br />
show and competition on March<br />
10, drawing a large crowd.<br />
Craftspeople from across Ontario,<br />
most belonging to a local<br />
association, gathered to show off<br />
their sculpting and share tips with<br />
fellow carvers.<br />
Visitors could check out a wide<br />
range of carving styles and techniques<br />
and chat with the artists.<br />
There were also tables selling tools<br />
and materials for woodworking.<br />
Pieces ranged from traditional<br />
bird carvings to intricate designs<br />
carved into bark and even<br />
crank-operated moving scenes<br />
involving colourful wooden caricatures.<br />
Calvin Perry, director at large of<br />
the Durham Woodworking Club,<br />
says he would encourage anyone to<br />
try woodworking, no matter what<br />
skill they possess.<br />
“It’s amazing,” says Perry. “Once<br />
you start carving you drive down<br />
the street and you see a tree trunk<br />
and right away you think of what<br />
you could make it into.”<br />
Perry has been carving since he<br />
was a teenager. He says it’s a skill<br />
that should be passed on from generation<br />
to generation, so he’d like<br />
to see more young people take up<br />
the craft.<br />
“We meet every Monday and<br />
we do some training for new members,”<br />
says Perry. “You can come<br />
out and try it out for free, and if you<br />
like it you can become a member.”<br />
Mark Sheridan, president of the<br />
Ontario Woodcarvers Association,<br />
says in Ontario there are about six<br />
shows each year. He was pleased<br />
with the turnout at the event this<br />
year.<br />
“We get some re<strong>all</strong>y good attendance<br />
at our shows,” says Sheridan.<br />
“The carvers move from show<br />
to show. We don’t mind moving<br />
across Ontario. You develop some<br />
nice friendships along the way.”<br />
For some, the highlight of the<br />
event was the competition where<br />
visitors vote on their favourite<br />
piece in novice, intermediate, and<br />
advanced skill groups.<br />
Sheridan’s says his preferred style<br />
of carving is caricature carving,<br />
which he describes as, “somewhat<br />
like a Norman Rockwell painting.”<br />
He pointed out a carving at<br />
the competition table of a drunken<br />
gambler cowboy as one of his favourite<br />
entrants.<br />
He and many others also took<br />
interest in an incredibly detailed<br />
carving into cotton bark, which<br />
reached a height close to that of a<br />
sm<strong>all</strong> child.<br />
The piece, which won first place<br />
in the bark carving category, was a<br />
representation of an eerie-looking<br />
church that contained many miniscule<br />
windows, doors and staircases.<br />
Ray Traynor, a member of the<br />
Brooklin Woodcarvers, says he uses<br />
woodcarving to relax and occupy<br />
his time after a motorcycle accident.<br />
Although he’s fairly new to<br />
the craft, he was showing off some<br />
of his pieces which combine metal<br />
and woodworking.<br />
“My dad was a carpenter by<br />
trade but I wasn’t much of a carpenter<br />
myself,” he said. “But I was<br />
always fascinated by Native art and<br />
carvings so I decided to try it out.<br />
And it’s been great.”<br />
The next show for woodcarving<br />
will be held March 16-18 in Waterloo.<br />
Sheridan says the shows are<br />
a great way for amateur carvers to<br />
get outside perspectives on their<br />
pieces by showing them off to the<br />
public.<br />
“It’s not just about getting your<br />
stuff out of the living room and<br />
showing it,” says Sheridan. “People<br />
see in your carvings things you<br />
wouldn’t have seen in them before.<br />
That’s the best part of these<br />
sessions.”<br />
Photographs by John Cook<br />
Carvings on display at the <strong>28</strong>th annual woodcarving show and competition by various artists.<br />
Refugee family expected to arrive in Stouffville<br />
Iraqi family<br />
close to<br />
passing<br />
immigration<br />
Kirsten Jerry<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
After two years, members of two<br />
Stouffvile churches think they are<br />
getting closer to bringing a refugee<br />
family of six from Iraq to York<br />
Region.<br />
The family from Mosul, Iraq,<br />
whose name cannot be used for security<br />
reasons, is expected to arrive<br />
in Canada this summer. Eastridge<br />
Evangelical Missionary Church<br />
and Springvale Baptist Church decided<br />
to sponsor the family through<br />
their Stouffville Help and Awareness<br />
for Refugees and the Exiled<br />
(SHARE) program. The family is<br />
currently in Jordan.<br />
Eastridge volunteer Conny<br />
Chubbuck, 37, is on a committee<br />
in charge of looking for leisure activities<br />
that the family would enjoy<br />
and find cultur<strong>all</strong>y acceptable.<br />
“The best part is that after many<br />
ups and downs… we are still expecting<br />
the same family,” says<br />
Chubbuck. “We’ve got to know a<br />
little bit about them and we care<br />
about them.”<br />
The family has a father, a<br />
mother, two older sons, a younger<br />
daughter and an aunt.<br />
“A lot of times when you sponsor<br />
a family you can’t help them<br />
until they actu<strong>all</strong>y arrive here,”<br />
Chubbuck says. The churches are<br />
able to help the family financi<strong>all</strong>y<br />
while they’re in Jordan, which is<br />
fortunate because the adults in the<br />
family are unable to work because<br />
they don’t have work visas.<br />
Before applying to be sponsors,<br />
Eastridge and Springvale each held<br />
Children were drowning in the<br />
Mediterranean.<br />
fundraisers because they needed<br />
to have the funds to support the<br />
family for a year, once they arrive,<br />
before the churches could apply to<br />
be community sponsors. Collectively,<br />
they raised about $67,000,<br />
Chubbuck says.<br />
Then, the family had to apply<br />
for refugee status, go through interviews<br />
with Canadian visa officers<br />
and will have to pass their security<br />
checks and health exams.<br />
However, there is no guarantee<br />
or firm date for when the family<br />
will be approved. She says the<br />
churches could get news of the<br />
family’s approval “anywhere from<br />
four weeks from now to who knows<br />
when.”<br />
Roughly 25 people from the two<br />
churches are involved in the process,<br />
says Chubbuck.<br />
Each person who will interact<br />
with the family has to complete an<br />
online Plan to Protect course by the<br />
end of March.<br />
Plan to Protect is an online company<br />
that provides organizations,<br />
like churches, with training courses<br />
that outline what to do and what<br />
not to do around vulnerable people,<br />
such as refugees.<br />
Chubbuck says she decided to<br />
volunteer two years ago as she followed<br />
the news during the Syrian<br />
refugee crisis. She rec<strong>all</strong>ed learning<br />
about refugees taking boats across<br />
the Mediterranean Sea to escape<br />
to Europe.<br />
“You would see that they were<br />
drowning, that children were<br />
drowning in the Mediteranean<br />
because they were just running for<br />
their lives,” Chubbuck says.<br />
“So, to me that’s just so horrific.<br />
Having young children myself, like,<br />
it’s just unimaginable that families<br />
have to go through that kind of<br />
life and have no place to go. So, it<br />
was very, very clear to my husband<br />
and me that we wanted to be a part<br />
of [the SHARE program] and do<br />
what we can.”
Campus chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 13<br />
DC business students reach finals<br />
Aly Beach<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
For the first time in history, Durham<br />
College made it to the finals<br />
of the Business Development Company<br />
(BDC) Case Ch<strong>all</strong>enge hosted<br />
at Vanier College in Montreal.<br />
Business admin and marketing<br />
program students Imina Edebiri,<br />
25, Justin Pantaleo, 21, Joel<br />
Budhl<strong>all</strong>, 21, Peter Abolarin, 23,<br />
made the top six in the first round<br />
of the competition of 24 post-secondary<br />
schools from across the<br />
country Feb. 10-11, with the help<br />
of their coaches and professors Sara<br />
Mercier and Sam Plati.<br />
The group placed fourth in the<br />
final round.<br />
“It was a very proud moment,”<br />
says Pantaleo.<br />
The competition was set up on a<br />
case-by-case basis per team. Each<br />
team was given a ‘case’, in which<br />
they must analyze the information,<br />
find the problem and come up with<br />
a recommendation, based on the<br />
company’s goals or objectives, on<br />
how to solve their business problem.<br />
The groups had three hours to<br />
analyze and solve the problem and<br />
put together a 20-minute presentation<br />
for the panel of judges.<br />
They did it without internet or<br />
smartphones.<br />
Due to the college faculty strike<br />
in first semester, the Durham group<br />
had less time to prepare. According<br />
to the group some students at other<br />
We wanted<br />
to bring the<br />
community of<br />
cross fitters<br />
together.<br />
schools said they had been practising<br />
for up to 10 months, while the<br />
DC group only had two weeks to<br />
prepare due to the delay in organizing<br />
because of the strike.<br />
“With the strike and everything,<br />
we re<strong>all</strong>y didn’t have time to prepare<br />
for this and schools from other<br />
provinces had been prepping since<br />
the start of the school year,” says<br />
Pantaleo.<br />
The first case they dealt with was<br />
a CrossFit gym that needed to attract<br />
more members. The DC team<br />
focused on digital innovation as the<br />
target audience was considered<br />
tech-savvy, according to Pantaleo.<br />
“We re<strong>all</strong>y wanted to target our<br />
advertisements more towards the<br />
digital side of things…so we did<br />
a social media campaign,” says<br />
Pantaleo.<br />
The group also wanted to create<br />
an annual event for cross fitters to<br />
attract attention.<br />
“We wanted to bring the community<br />
of cross fitters together.<br />
And to do that we wanted to hold<br />
like an annual competition that<br />
everyone could come to and participate<br />
in,” says Pantaleo.<br />
The group made it to the finals<br />
because they found a unique angle:<br />
the owner of the cross fit company.<br />
According to Budhl<strong>all</strong>, not many<br />
other teams focused on that.<br />
“What we were told what re<strong>all</strong>y<br />
set us apart and <strong>all</strong>owed us to go<br />
on to the finals was the fact that<br />
most teams were focusing strictly<br />
on the business side of marketing<br />
…but what we did differently from<br />
everyone else was we re<strong>all</strong>y highlighted<br />
the gym owner and his philanthropic<br />
messages,” says Budhl<strong>all</strong>.<br />
The second and final case they<br />
worked on in the competition involved<br />
an ‘emergency daycare’<br />
company that would go to companies<br />
and offer childcare services.<br />
Edebiri says in this case, the financial<br />
consideration of the case<br />
was their downf<strong>all</strong>.<br />
“The most important aspect of<br />
why we didn’t place top three was<br />
the financial aspect. We just did<br />
a little bit of budgeting… but we<br />
didn’t go in-depth on how we were<br />
going to utilize the money. They<br />
wanted more of the financial aspect,”<br />
says Edebiri.<br />
The team was disappointed that<br />
they didn’t finish in the top three,<br />
not just for themselves but for their<br />
coaches as well.<br />
“I won’t lie… after they c<strong>all</strong>ed the<br />
top three, I was re<strong>all</strong>y disappointed<br />
because like, ‘we are there, like,<br />
why can’t we just grab that’, and<br />
I wanted that so much for Sam,”<br />
says Edebiri.<br />
While the team was disappointed<br />
Courtesy of Sara Mercier<br />
Business admin and marketing program students (from left)<br />
Joel Budhl<strong>all</strong>, Justin Pantaleo, Imina Edebiri and Peter Abolarin<br />
at the Business Development Company Case Ch<strong>all</strong>enge.<br />
they didn’t place in the top three,<br />
they were happy for the opportunity<br />
to travel to Montreal and have<br />
the experience.<br />
“We’re very thankful to the<br />
school for providing the opportunity.<br />
They didn’t have to invite<br />
us…and we hope we did everyone<br />
proud,” says Pantaleo.
14 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus<br />
DC's fight against fake news<br />
How do we<br />
know it's<br />
not real?<br />
Aly Beach<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Fake news: it’s everywhere and it’s<br />
become an epidemic. So much so,<br />
Durham College (DC) has a general<br />
education course dedicated to<br />
fighting it.<br />
Valerie Lapp, professor in the<br />
School of Interdisciplinary Studies,<br />
teaches “The Real Truth About<br />
Fake News” a course dedicated to<br />
teaching students how to detect<br />
fake news. “With the advent of social<br />
media, with the fact that people<br />
are not just getting their news from<br />
a few trusted sources, that are just<br />
getting flooded with news, advertising,<br />
fake news, satire, opinion<br />
in just a big w<strong>all</strong> on the internet,<br />
that people are no longer are no<br />
longer able to decide what’s real<br />
and what’s fake,” says Lapp. The<br />
hybrid course specific<strong>all</strong>y focuses<br />
on how to spot fake news, stop the<br />
Valerie Lapp's top tips for finding fake news<br />
• Think critic<strong>all</strong>y<br />
• Ask yourself who is the author? What is their motive for writing the story?<br />
Have they written anything previously? What are their credentials?<br />
• Ask yourself is the website credible? Have they presented fake news before?<br />
• Do some research and double check any unclear information<br />
spread of it, find media bias while<br />
comparing bias to fake news, the<br />
role of personal bias in fake news<br />
detecting, how to find trustworthy<br />
sources and how fake news affects<br />
democracy. A hybrid course is a<br />
course divided between online and<br />
in-class.<br />
Lapp says she got the idea last<br />
year after she saw “<strong>all</strong> the crazy<br />
stuff happening after the 2016<br />
(U.S.) election,” She sat down<br />
with DC Journalism - Mass Media<br />
professor Teresa Goff to discuss<br />
possible course content. Goff and<br />
Journalism - Mass Media Program<br />
coordinator Brian Legree have also<br />
been guest speakers in the class.<br />
They educate students on the importance<br />
of local news.<br />
“For many of them, it’s quite an<br />
eye-opener,” says Lapp, “What<br />
Brian and Teresa did…. Was<br />
basic<strong>all</strong>y point out how you need<br />
to know what’s going on…around<br />
you loc<strong>all</strong>y and how could you find<br />
that out here at Durham College.”<br />
Lapp described the current news<br />
cycle pattern as a “fire hose of information.”<br />
The sheer amount of<br />
information people see every day<br />
can make it difficult to determine<br />
what is true and what is not, according<br />
to Lapp. She says a lot of<br />
people are simply not prepared to<br />
do the work to determine if they are<br />
reading fake news.<br />
“The consequences of not doing<br />
that work and not knowing what’s<br />
fake and what’s true are devastating,”<br />
says Lapp, “What I see, even<br />
in my students, is that I’ll show<br />
them two stories, one is from CBC<br />
the other is fake news and they’ll<br />
just say ‘it’s <strong>all</strong> crap.’ There is a tendency<br />
to just dismiss everything.”<br />
Lapp says this disengagement<br />
and fake news both have “devastating”<br />
effects on democracy, which<br />
is why she says everyone needs to<br />
fight the fake news epidemic. She<br />
says by dismissing <strong>all</strong> sources of<br />
information, people are not being<br />
informed on government activities<br />
or people in power.<br />
“The more people who feel they<br />
can’t trust the information, the<br />
more they disengage. And when<br />
you have disengaged people, you<br />
don’t have a functioning democracy,”<br />
says Lapp.<br />
Lapp says one of the main causes<br />
of fake news is mistakes made<br />
by news organizations in events of<br />
breaking news. Other causes are<br />
satire being taken seriously and<br />
true fake news containing a grain<br />
of truth. "Sometimes though, I do<br />
think that even the very best journalism<br />
outlets, the best journalists<br />
are under such terrible pressure<br />
with the 24/7 news cycle that they<br />
rush to get something out, and particularly<br />
when we see…breaking<br />
news of any kind, then <strong>all</strong> kinds<br />
of messes happen,” says Lapp. On<br />
April 19, Lapp will be hosting a<br />
“Fake News Summit” in the Global<br />
Classroom. Confirmed guests include<br />
Canada-based Buzzfeed<br />
media editor Craig Silverman.<br />
“He’s sort of made it his mission,<br />
and Buzzfeed has kind of given him<br />
this responsibility of uncovering<br />
fake news… he finds it and follows<br />
stories that expose rings of fake<br />
news propagators,” says Lapp.<br />
Lapp says even with spreading<br />
misinformation and distrust<br />
in the media, there is still a need<br />
for journalists. “The world needs<br />
well-trained, ethical journalists<br />
more than ever, and ones that are<br />
willing and able to report on the<br />
local news - that’s so important,”<br />
says Lapp.<br />
Simple or complex, any problem can be solved<br />
Campus<br />
service<br />
helps solve<br />
conflicts<br />
Cam Black-Araujo<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Someone not pulling their weight<br />
in a group project? Your roommate<br />
won’t clean up after himself? That’s<br />
where Campus Conflict Resolution<br />
Services (CCRS) comes in.<br />
CCRS provides free and confidential<br />
resolution services on<br />
campus, and will also try to help<br />
resolve conflicts. But some CCRS<br />
mediators say more people could<br />
take advantage of their services.<br />
Mediation student Charlotte<br />
Hand-Ross says their services are<br />
valuable but two things sometimes<br />
make it difficult for them to reach<br />
more students.<br />
She says not everyone knows<br />
CCRS exists because there are<br />
so many students on campus, and<br />
often times with a program like<br />
this, some people may worry about<br />
being judged.<br />
“I think it’s re<strong>all</strong>y beneficial to<br />
take advantage of our services because<br />
we are so willing to help,”<br />
says Hand-Ross. “Aside from what<br />
we can help you with at that specific<br />
time, we do provide you with<br />
great transferable skills moving<br />
forward.”<br />
These services are provided to<br />
anyone on campus who needs help<br />
with conflict, whether it’s group<br />
work, teammates and even relationship<br />
advice. In a session, the<br />
mediator helps identify key issues<br />
and assists with negotiating a mutu<strong>all</strong>y<br />
acceptable agreement, as<br />
well discussing how to implement<br />
that agreement.<br />
CCRS is a mandatory class as<br />
part of the Mediation-ADR course.<br />
Students meet each week to discuss<br />
and go over any conflicts they’ve<br />
dealt with or presentations they’ve<br />
given.<br />
The students discuss what went<br />
well and what strategies they used<br />
to help going forward in other situations.<br />
“It’s important for us do this, so<br />
we are staying consistent in our<br />
work and ensuring what we do is<br />
relevant and effective,” says Hand-<br />
Ross<br />
The mediation students provide<br />
help through mediation, but if both<br />
parties don’t want to take part, they<br />
will provide coaching and give advice<br />
to help with the situation for<br />
those willing to listen. They can<br />
provide services to students at<br />
either school on campus but cannot<br />
help with conflict between a<br />
student and professor. This is a<br />
grad-certificate program so many<br />
of the student mediators have already<br />
experienced these conflicts<br />
in college.<br />
Take advantage<br />
because we are<br />
so willing to<br />
help.<br />
CCRS supervisor and Mediation-ADR<br />
program coordinator,<br />
Dale Burt, says the program not<br />
only helps those looking for conflict<br />
resolution services, but also helps<br />
the students providing the service.<br />
“The program gives students real<br />
life, hands-on experience that will<br />
help them once they get into the<br />
field,” says Burt.<br />
People looking for assistance can<br />
get in touch with CCRS by e-mail<br />
on their Durham College website<br />
page. Burt then passes the inquiry<br />
on to the students who would volunteer<br />
to take on the task at hand.<br />
Hand-Ross says working alongside<br />
students to help solve conflicts,<br />
or even just giving them advice, has<br />
re<strong>all</strong>y helped her as a person and<br />
provided her with important experience<br />
heading forward.<br />
“I’ve developed a leadership role<br />
that I didn’t re<strong>all</strong>y know I had before,”<br />
explains Hand-Ross. “I’ve<br />
been able to express my creativity<br />
differently in this program.”
Campus chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 15<br />
'Do fabulous work' at school<br />
Tracy Wright<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
“Treat your days at school as if<br />
you are already at your job. The<br />
first day at school was your first job<br />
interview. Be punctual, sit upright<br />
and meet deadlines. Do fabulous<br />
work because it is in you. Be ready<br />
to embrace opportunities.” These<br />
words of advice were given by<br />
Durham College alumnus Manjula<br />
Selvarajah while speaking here<br />
for an Alumni in the Pit event Feb.<br />
6.<br />
Selvarajah is a graduate from<br />
Journalism - Print and Broadcast<br />
program in 2014.<br />
She was in technology before<br />
she became a journalist. She currently<br />
works at CBC Radio, often<br />
on Metro Morning with Matt G<strong>all</strong>oway.<br />
It was a c<strong>all</strong> to action which<br />
had her make the change to journalism.<br />
She rec<strong>all</strong>ed watching the<br />
news several years ago and seeing<br />
a cargo boat that had pulled into a<br />
B.C. harbour with Tamil refugees.<br />
“It was a strange moment for<br />
me. I remember thinking, what is<br />
going on? We have tons of people<br />
who show up on our borders every<br />
day and we give them the benefit<br />
of the doubt. I felt at that point<br />
the question of the benefit of the<br />
doubt happened because of racism.<br />
The coverage in the news made<br />
her realize that the newsrooms<br />
Photograph by Tracy Wright<br />
Manjula Selvarajah, a former journalism student at DC who enrolled in the program as a wife<br />
and mother, unsure of herself going in and is now a reporter for CBC Radio.<br />
across the country needed more<br />
representation.<br />
“The face of Canada is changing.<br />
It helps to have diversity,” says<br />
Selvarajah.<br />
When starting the journalism<br />
program, she did not know what<br />
to expect. She said she gave herself<br />
three months to determine if<br />
program was right for her.<br />
As a mature student mother<br />
and wife, she found the balance a<br />
little bit tough.<br />
But she said “the day-to-day<br />
pace prepares you for your regular<br />
day at work.”<br />
Selvarajah added she was grateful<br />
to her professors as they were<br />
instrumental instructors, preparing<br />
her for interviews with sources<br />
and ultimately, job interviews. She<br />
praised the late Gerry Rose who<br />
was the editor for <strong>Chronicle</strong> as he<br />
would sit down and give her different<br />
suggestions on stories..<br />
She had some great advice for<br />
journalism students.<br />
Selvarajah said reporters will<br />
talk to people at the worst and best<br />
moments of their lives. But she<br />
added she loves her work.<br />
Selvarajah, founder of Tamil<br />
Women Rising, an organization<br />
that empowers Tamil women to<br />
meet their goals and have a better<br />
future, concluded by saying “life is<br />
not fair to a lot of people. There<br />
will always be one with more money,<br />
more connections. The system<br />
has to change to fix the inequalities.<br />
The only solution to unfairness<br />
is grit and hard work.”
16 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus<br />
The future of<br />
captioning at DC<br />
DC's AI<br />
Hub is on<br />
the map<br />
Aly Beach<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Two Durham College students<br />
have developed a way to make<br />
closed caption services quicker and<br />
cheaper.<br />
Matthew Wierzbicki and Dillon<br />
Regimbal, both 20 and students in<br />
the computer programming analyst<br />
program, unveiled their project<br />
based in artificial intelligence<br />
(AI) at the Colleges and Institutes<br />
of Canada (CICan), ‘Accelerating<br />
Innovation Through Applied Research’<br />
showcase on Feb. 12-13 in<br />
Ottawa. CICan which acts a voice<br />
for publicly funded colleges.<br />
“It was a great way to show Durham<br />
College has the capabilities<br />
of using AI to make real-world effects,”<br />
says Wierzbicki.<br />
Artificial intelligence is defined<br />
as being intelligence demonstrated<br />
by machines, as opposed to intelligence<br />
shown by humans or animals.<br />
The software idea was conceived<br />
when it was identified that the college<br />
pays a third party for captioning<br />
services.<br />
“For the college, it <strong>all</strong>ows the<br />
professors to take a video and have<br />
it captioned much quicker than it<br />
currently is, which currently takes<br />
many months because it is done by<br />
a third party. So having that done<br />
in-house is better,” says Regimbal.<br />
The projected started with automatic<br />
word generation and Long<br />
Short Term Memory (LSTM). The<br />
two students essenti<strong>all</strong>y trained the<br />
program on a piece of work, so it<br />
could determine sentence structures,<br />
grammar and punctuation.<br />
They chose to train it with Shakespeare.<br />
“We were kind of teaching it how<br />
to make words and sentences and<br />
making it learn how to talk,” says<br />
Regimbal adding, “we fed it books<br />
and had it write <strong>pages</strong>.”<br />
The program works by taking<br />
the words people are saying, and it<br />
will train on certain words so it can<br />
“recognize the intonations and the<br />
sound files.”<br />
It will then recognize what certain<br />
words look like. From there, it<br />
will make an educated guess based<br />
on what it has heard before and output<br />
the words said.<br />
The project was presented at a<br />
showcase put on by CICan.<br />
At the showcase, colleges came<br />
and presented applied research<br />
projects.<br />
Policy updates and funding that<br />
would affect applied research was<br />
also discussed.<br />
Wierzbicki and Regimbal got to<br />
meet MPPS, other college students<br />
and Bardish Chagger, the Ontario<br />
Minister of Sm<strong>all</strong> Businesses.<br />
“It was pretty cool meeting <strong>all</strong> of<br />
these important people. It was a fun<br />
time,” says Wierzbicki.<br />
“Getting to talk to the students<br />
from <strong>all</strong> the other colleges and<br />
seeing how their projects are going.<br />
That was re<strong>all</strong>y good,” added<br />
Regimbal.<br />
The captioning project is part<br />
of DC’s AI Hub which works with<br />
ministry partners on research projects<br />
and works on internal projects<br />
for the school. The hub will be<br />
introducing workshops and seminars<br />
that teach about AI from the<br />
ground up.<br />
“The AI Hub is sort of a term the<br />
we coined here at Durham College<br />
that oversees or the umbrella term<br />
that goes over everything AI- related<br />
that is happening in the college,”<br />
says Amit Maraj, professor<br />
who oversees the AI Hub projects.<br />
According to Maraj, there are<br />
currently more than 60 students<br />
who are working or involved with<br />
AI Hub projects and around 12 researchers.<br />
“It was kind of like an intro. We<br />
were kind of like a test to see if AI<br />
would be feasible and it seems to be<br />
successful,” says Regimbal.<br />
Photograph by Aly Beach<br />
(Left to right) Computer programming analyst students Dillon Regimbal and Matthew<br />
Wierzbicki, both 20, participated in the CICan applied research showcase.
Community chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 17<br />
The historical terminal<br />
The land where we stand is the traditional<br />
territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island<br />
First Nation. Uncovering the hidden<br />
stories about the land our community is<br />
built on is what the <strong>Chronicle</strong>'s new feature<br />
series, the Land Where We Stand,<br />
is about.<br />
William McGinn<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
“People were used to shopping at<br />
areas where you had three checkout<br />
counters and here you’d have 30,”<br />
says Jim Olson, a former Oshawa<br />
high school principal. The meat<br />
counters of the Knob Hill Farms<br />
supermarkets were one of the most<br />
notable details. “On this counter<br />
that was the length of a footb<strong>all</strong><br />
field, you’d find full rabbits or the<br />
head of a pig.” Oshawa’s store had,<br />
according to Mary Bull of Oshawa<br />
Express, a 330-foot meat counter<br />
and 46 checkout registers.<br />
Steve Stavro created Knob<br />
Hill Farms, a former grocery store<br />
chain that used to be the biggest in<br />
Ontario, his ten warehouse chains<br />
each taking up tens of thousands<br />
of feet. It was the creation of the<br />
term “food terminal”, according<br />
to Nicolaas Van Rijn’s article on<br />
Knob Hill Farms from The Record.<br />
Oshawa’s Knob Hill Farms<br />
was located between Simcoe Street<br />
and Ritson Road. The abandoned<br />
building proves that even the businesses<br />
thousands of square feet big<br />
and thousands of customers are<br />
vulnerable to failing.<br />
Many Ontario residents still remember<br />
Knob Hill Farms: the lineups<br />
to get into the parking lot, the<br />
gigantic piles of produce and the<br />
mile-long set of registers. If it were<br />
still in business, its size would be<br />
comparable to Cost Co. The Oshawa<br />
store was 21,000 square feet. “It<br />
would draw people in from Bowmanville,<br />
Newcastle, Port Hope,<br />
even Peterborough,” said Keith<br />
Jones, a retired Geography high<br />
school teacher. “A grocery store<br />
could do that because they could<br />
stock up on these huge quantities.”<br />
Stavro, his brother Chris, and<br />
his father managed to open the first<br />
store under the name in 1953. By<br />
this time, Stavro had been working<br />
with his father in the retail business<br />
after dropping out of high school<br />
to do so. It was a sm<strong>all</strong> fruit store<br />
in Markham. By 1954, Stavro was<br />
operating the first Knob Hill Farms<br />
supermarket on Danforth Avenue.<br />
By the late 50’s, he had nine stores<br />
across Toronto. Then he put the<br />
sm<strong>all</strong>er stores to rest in 1962 to<br />
build the first Knob Hill Farms<br />
food terminal at Woodbine Avenue<br />
and Highway 7 in Markham, the<br />
biggest grocery store in the country.<br />
He basic<strong>all</strong>y<br />
invented the<br />
warehouse<br />
store format in<br />
Canada and for<br />
a long time had<br />
the market to<br />
himself, but he<br />
got stuck, frozen<br />
in time.<br />
As the years went by, he expanded<br />
it to nine more “food terminals” in<br />
total.<br />
It was an unconventional business.<br />
Stavro wanted to cut down on<br />
frills as much as possible, like packaging<br />
and selling several different<br />
brands of the same food. He also<br />
did his best to buy produce straight<br />
from the farmers. The result was<br />
a store that, in Oshawa’s branch<br />
alone, would ship 2,500 watermelons<br />
and have them <strong>all</strong> bought in<br />
three days.<br />
According to Keith Jones, an Oshawa<br />
resident who brought a group<br />
of Indigenous youth to Knob Hills<br />
on a field trip, Steve Stavro had a<br />
motto of “Bulk Buying, Bulk Selling”.<br />
Jones says it was “like warehouse<br />
distribution, like the Costco<br />
model, buying in quantities, selling<br />
in quantities.”<br />
Knob Hill didn’t use today’s<br />
plastic bags in checkout. Portions<br />
made them too impractical. Knob<br />
Hill used reusable and take-home<br />
cardboard and plastic baskets,<br />
which had eco-friendly limited-tono<br />
packaging, and were beneficial<br />
to the quantities.<br />
“Knob Hill introduced basket<br />
shopping, so you’d put <strong>all</strong> your<br />
items in baskets and then when you<br />
went to the checkout, they’d take it<br />
out of the basket, transfer, and then<br />
take the basket home. Basic<strong>all</strong>y, that<br />
was the start of reusable shopping,”<br />
said Olson, who was at Oshawa’s<br />
Knob Hill Farms opening in 1983.<br />
Before its closure, there were a<br />
total of ten warehouse-style stores<br />
employing about 800 people. That’s<br />
80 employees per store. In 1991,<br />
Stavro’s chain was at the peak of<br />
its success, sharing more than 3 per<br />
cent of the Ontario market. But it<br />
had to close.<br />
Its closure stemmed from Stavro’s<br />
other line of work. He became<br />
the owner of the Toronto Maple<br />
Leafs hockey team themselves in<br />
1990.<br />
During that time, grocery stores<br />
were beginning to catch up to the<br />
large scale of shopping Knob Hill<br />
Farms put in place, such as Cost<br />
Co and Loblaws, but Stavro was<br />
unable to keep the required attention<br />
on his enterprise, remaining<br />
CEO while working closely with<br />
the hockey team.<br />
Not only that, but Stavro did not<br />
want to be subject to change. These<br />
stores had, during an age where<br />
power shopping and supermarkets<br />
were supersizing, no scanners at the<br />
check-outs. Not only that, but competitors<br />
added bar code reachers<br />
and scales at cash registers.<br />
“We don't need a computer log<br />
to tell us when to order goods from<br />
a central depot,” said Stavro in<br />
1983. “Everything's on the floor. All<br />
we have to do is look at the shelves<br />
to determine how much new stock<br />
we need.”<br />
Combined, those two problems<br />
presented a gradual decline in customers,<br />
from $500,000,000 annu<strong>all</strong>y<br />
to half that, and it ended up<br />
earning less money compared to its<br />
new competitors.<br />
"He basic<strong>all</strong>y invented the warehouse<br />
store format in Canada and<br />
for a long time had the market to<br />
Photograph by William McGinn<br />
To the left is Oshawa's Knob Hill Farms terminal, abandoned since 2001. To the right is before<br />
the building opened to the grocery store in 1983, when it was an iron foundry.<br />
himself," says Richard Talbot, a<br />
retail consultant, according to an<br />
article from the National Post. "But<br />
he got stuck, frozen in time and unable<br />
to change when change was <strong>all</strong><br />
around in an incredibly competitive<br />
sector." As a result, Stavro decided<br />
to close the properties.<br />
He did not take the closing of<br />
his business with dismissal. His business<br />
began on his own terms and<br />
was a part of most of his life. “This<br />
is a very difficult personal and business<br />
decision,” Stavro wrote to his<br />
employees, suppliers and customers<br />
in 2000. “Knob Hill Farms has<br />
been a large part of my life. It is the<br />
foundation of everything for my<br />
family. But times have changed. I<br />
have decided, regretfully, this is the<br />
right time to close the doors at our<br />
grocery outlets.”<br />
Stavro closed the stores on Sept<br />
30. He passed away six years later.<br />
What makes Oshawa’s 21,000<br />
square-metre store different from<br />
the other nine is that since its closure,<br />
the building itself has remained<br />
standing empty.<br />
The others have turned into appliance<br />
stores and grocery stores.<br />
In 2000, a liquidation centre and a<br />
flea market opened in the Oshawa<br />
terminal, which didn’t account for<br />
the entire building, and a year later,<br />
both businesses left the building.<br />
This is the only building of the<br />
ten to remain waiting for a new occupant.<br />
Today the building is fenced off,<br />
but not fenced off tight enough to<br />
keep out vandals. There are weeds<br />
and trees growing around the fences<br />
and through cracks in a parking<br />
lot that used to be able to hold<br />
hundreds of cars. The windows are<br />
boarded up with wood and there’s a<br />
lot of chipped paint. However, the<br />
individual letters spelling “TER-<br />
MINAL” for the delivery trucks<br />
and the main logo are still held up.<br />
The logo even looks still in mint<br />
condition.<br />
It is also expected to fin<strong>all</strong>y have<br />
another business under its roof. In<br />
2014, Metrolinx was able to earn<br />
the rights to utilize the property. It<br />
is expected to be constructed into<br />
one of four new Oshawa GO train<br />
stations by at least 2024.<br />
“You’re gonna see a cycle track,<br />
and those paths, one of which goes<br />
up near Durham College, those<br />
paths are gonna be very significant<br />
movers of people, like students in<br />
multi-transportation. That whole<br />
area is going to change very soon,”<br />
said Jones.<br />
Knob Hill Farms was known<br />
as the biggest grocery store in Ontario,<br />
one of which was “the largest<br />
in the world” and yet the company<br />
met a downf<strong>all</strong>. Message: Pay attention<br />
to your company, and in<br />
the economy, anything can end up<br />
bankrupt. “As I end this chapter of<br />
my life,” Stavro’s letter concluded<br />
with, “I would also like to thank<br />
a wonderful country that made it<br />
possible for an immigrant kid from<br />
the east end of Toronto to realize<br />
his dreams.”<br />
Follow us @DCUOIT<strong>Chronicle</strong> and<br />
use #landwherewestand to join the conversation,<br />
ask questions or send us more<br />
information.
18 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> Community<br />
The long<br />
battle of the<br />
Pickering<br />
Lands<br />
The land where we stand is the traditional<br />
territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog<br />
Island First Nation. Uncovering the hidden<br />
stories about the land our community<br />
is built on is what the <strong>Chronicle</strong>'s new<br />
feature series, the Land Where We Stand,<br />
is about.<br />
Kirsten Jerry<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
“We’ve lived here on the federal<br />
lands since 1980,” said Mary<br />
Delaney, describing how she came<br />
to be involved with advocacy group<br />
Land over Landings (LOL), which<br />
she chairs, “so I raised my family<br />
here and we turned what was a<br />
rundown farmhouse into a lovely<br />
home.”<br />
Delany is one of many people living<br />
on what is commonly known as<br />
the airport lands, or simply The<br />
Lands.<br />
Feeling the need to build an<br />
airport to relieve congestion in<br />
Toronto, the government did a<br />
survey of the Pickering area lands<br />
over a seventy-two-hour period in<br />
Jan. 1972, according to The Paper<br />
Juggernaut: Big Government Gone Mad<br />
by Walter Stewart.<br />
On Feb. 1, the Cabinet Committee<br />
of Government Operations<br />
accepted the proposal to build in<br />
Pickering. By Feb. 7, the whole<br />
Cabinet accepted.<br />
The Lands were expropriated by<br />
the government on March 2, 1972<br />
for the airport. On the same day,<br />
a protest group, People Or Planes<br />
(POP), was created.<br />
A note made by POP secretary<br />
Pat McClennan on page 37 of The<br />
Paper Juggernaut recounts the effects<br />
of the expropriation on people living<br />
on the lands: “… Another time<br />
a woman c<strong>all</strong>ed and said, ‘Well,<br />
they’ve won; my husband had a<br />
heart attack today.’ ”<br />
According to the book The Village<br />
of Brougham: Past! Present! Future?<br />
by Robert A. Miller, the people of<br />
A sign in a field protesting the building of an airport on the Pickering Lands.<br />
Brougham, a community in the<br />
northern part of Pickering, reacted<br />
by holding a protest meeting, which<br />
turned into POP.<br />
The Lands are located in the<br />
“ideal” position for a new Toronto<br />
airport, according to page 203 of<br />
The Paper Juggernaut, which is why<br />
they were chosen but not everyone<br />
wants an airport built.<br />
Those against the airport are<br />
fighting for food production, soil<br />
and conservation of The Lands.<br />
All of the goods produced in<br />
the Lands before expropriation<br />
included 4 million g<strong>all</strong>ons of milk,<br />
200,000 eggs, more than 1 million<br />
pounds of beef, 375,000 pounds of<br />
pork, 30,000 chickens, and 45,000<br />
bushels of wheat, according to page<br />
9 of The Paper Juggernaut.<br />
The Lands are also full of class<br />
one soil. Class one soil, when managed<br />
well, has almost no limitations<br />
for the number of crops that can<br />
be grown in it. The soil holds in<br />
moisture well, and can be used to<br />
grow many types of crops.<br />
For these reasons, Land over<br />
Landings fights to protect The<br />
Lands.<br />
“We changed the name of the<br />
advocacy group from People or<br />
Planes, which was very much a protest<br />
group, to Land Over Landings,<br />
which is <strong>all</strong> about advocating for<br />
something,” Delaney said.<br />
LOL has 12 people in unpaid<br />
executive positions, some of which<br />
are held by original members of<br />
POP, and its many supporters include<br />
up to 14,000 supporters on its<br />
mailing list and 2.6 thousand likes<br />
and followers on Facebook.<br />
In an interview at her home,<br />
Delaney said Brougham Recreation<br />
society, Voters Organized<br />
to Cancel the Airport Lands<br />
(VOCAL), and what was left of<br />
People Or Planes gathered in 2005.<br />
“We realized we needed to work<br />
together… so we got together.”<br />
Land Over Landings got a sizable<br />
push in membership in 2013<br />
after the creation of the Rouge National<br />
Urban Park was announced<br />
by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty<br />
and the Harper government. The<br />
government had every intention<br />
to actu<strong>all</strong>y build the Pickering<br />
airport.<br />
Over half of the original Lands<br />
are now part of the Rouge National<br />
Urban Park, which covers roughly<br />
79.1 square kilometers.<br />
“That’s when our new executive<br />
was formed and that’s when we<br />
realized we needed to be a much<br />
more official body,” according to<br />
Delaney, who went on to say the<br />
city council often seems to fight<br />
against them.<br />
“The leading economic driver<br />
is agriculture in Ontario and yet<br />
they [city council] keep advocating<br />
for an airport that in almost half<br />
a century has never been proven<br />
to be needed. If it were needed, it<br />
would be here.”<br />
Since expropriation, Transport<br />
Canada became the landlord of<br />
the airport lands. This does not<br />
include the sections of land now in<br />
the Urban Park.<br />
Media Relations Advisor, Julie<br />
Leroux, for Transport Canada,<br />
wrote in an email correspondence,<br />
“The Government of Canada is<br />
taking a balanced approach to<br />
the management of the Pickering<br />
Lands, ensuring environmental,<br />
community and economic demands<br />
are being met.”<br />
Lands were handed over by<br />
Transport Canada to the Rouge<br />
National Urban Park twice. Once<br />
in 2015, then in 2017.<br />
Parks Canada is the landlord of<br />
<strong>all</strong> of Rouge Urban National Park.<br />
Parks Canada works closely with<br />
10 Indigenous peoples, including<br />
the Mississaugas of Scugog Island<br />
First Nations. The land has a diverse<br />
Indigenous history.<br />
Parks Canada’s Communications<br />
and Public Relations Officer, Jeffrey<br />
Sinibaldi, wrote in an email,<br />
“This partnership was formalized<br />
in 2012 with the creation of the<br />
Rouge National Urban Park First<br />
Nations Advisory Circle, which is<br />
comprised of representatives from<br />
these 10 First Nations with an expressed<br />
interest, and historic and<br />
cultural connection to the area of<br />
the national urban park.”<br />
The email continues to list Markham,<br />
Pickering, Toronto, and Uxbridge<br />
as housing Park land and<br />
says “these lands will be protected<br />
forever.”<br />
Julie Leroux is Transport Canada’s<br />
Media Relations Advisor.<br />
Transport Canada is still looking<br />
into the possibility of building the<br />
airport.<br />
In a recent email, Leroux wrote,<br />
“A study based on 2010 data predicted<br />
that an airport would be<br />
needed between 2027 and 2037.<br />
That data needs to be updated.”<br />
To update the information, Leroux<br />
says, “Transport Canada has<br />
initiated an aviation sector analysis<br />
to obtain updated data on aviation<br />
demand and capacity.”<br />
The analysis would look into<br />
information on the future needs<br />
of Southern Ontario’s air traffic,<br />
Photograph by Kirsten Jerry<br />
including passengers, and cargo,<br />
which type of airport would be best<br />
for the area, how the airport would<br />
affect the environment and how it<br />
would make money.<br />
This analysis is expected to be<br />
completed sometime next year.<br />
Transport Canada currently<br />
holds 8,700 acres, while about<br />
10,000 acres are in the Rouge National<br />
Urban Park.<br />
While some of The Lands have<br />
been moved into the Park, the rest<br />
are still being debated over.<br />
Some say an airport is the better<br />
choice, while others, like LOL, say<br />
the lands should be left for farming<br />
use.<br />
“Re<strong>all</strong>y,” Delaney said about<br />
LOL, “what we’re advocating for<br />
is the protection of the land itself,<br />
because these are class one soils,<br />
the best in the world, next to the<br />
largest market in Canada, and now<br />
the Rouge National Urban Park.”<br />
On the other hand, Leroux<br />
wrote, “The Government of Canada<br />
will continue to engage directly<br />
with business, community and government<br />
stakeholders on the Pickering<br />
Lands as work progresses to<br />
determine the need and business<br />
case for the development of the<br />
Pickering Lands.”<br />
The 46-year-old story of The<br />
Pickering Lands is not over. The<br />
debate between farming and development<br />
continues to this day.<br />
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information.
Community chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 19<br />
55 rooms of history at Parkwood Estate<br />
The land where we stand is the traditional<br />
territory of the Mississauga's of<br />
Scugog Island First Nation. Uncovering<br />
the hidden stories about the land our community<br />
is built on is what the <strong>Chronicle</strong>'s<br />
new feature stories, the Land Where We<br />
Stand, is about.<br />
Kaatje Henrick<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
“Our morning routine would be<br />
to go to the garden and pick the<br />
strawberries for Mr. McLaughlin’s<br />
breakfast,” says Brian Keys, 73,<br />
the kitchen gardener who worked<br />
at Parkwood in the 1960’s.<br />
Parkwood Estate has been a National<br />
Historic Site since 1989. The<br />
55-room mansion was built on 12<br />
acres in 1917. Col. Sam McLaughlin<br />
and his wife, Adelaide Mowbray<br />
bought Prospect park which used to<br />
exist where the estate now stands.<br />
Parkwood Estate was not just a<br />
home for the McLaughlin’s and<br />
their five daughters, it also contributed<br />
to the Second World War.<br />
Tours of the McLaughlin home are<br />
open to the public.<br />
“Mr. McLaughlin would usu<strong>all</strong>y<br />
take the stairs down in the morning,<br />
but being 90 at the time, he would<br />
take the elevator,” says Samantha<br />
George, curator of Parkwood, National<br />
Historic Site.<br />
The McLaughlin home tour starts<br />
with the self-supporting staircase in<br />
the front h<strong>all</strong> which was made from<br />
steel in 1917. The carpet on the old<br />
squeaky wood floor is a one of a kind<br />
from Scotland.<br />
“The elevator in the main h<strong>all</strong><br />
was used up until Col. McLaughlin’s<br />
death in 1972,” says tour guide,<br />
Elizabeth Glenney. She is one of the<br />
150 volunteers who take the public<br />
on tours.<br />
“One of the most famous rooms<br />
used in the McLaughlin’s home is<br />
the billiard room,” says Glenney,<br />
who has volunteered for seven years.<br />
The billiard room has paintings<br />
of <strong>all</strong> sports McLaughlin took part<br />
in including, swimming, croquet,<br />
snow shoeing, canoeing, soccer and<br />
horse racing. The billiard room is<br />
also famous for gatherings of the<br />
officers from Camp X.<br />
Camp X was created in 1941,<br />
it was a special training school for<br />
agents who were involved in the<br />
Second World War. Before the war<br />
began, supplies and recourses needed<br />
to be collected for the military.<br />
The war effort was a way of raising<br />
those things needed.<br />
In 1939, Elizabeth and father<br />
King George were on their royal<br />
tour of Canada and the United<br />
States to bring attention to the war<br />
effort.<br />
Col. McLaughlin’s is also known<br />
for the McLaughlin Car Company,<br />
a family business of creating vehicles.<br />
The company also supported the<br />
war effort by making a car specific<strong>all</strong>y<br />
for the royal family’s arrival<br />
and tour, as well as giving families<br />
a place to stay.<br />
Many other guests frequented<br />
Parkwood. One person was Col.<br />
William Eric Phillips who later<br />
married one of the McLaughlin’s<br />
daughters.<br />
Col. William Phillips also started<br />
Research Enterprises Ltd, which<br />
was a building in Toronto that made<br />
espionage tools for the war.<br />
“Lipstick cameras, lipstick knives,<br />
and even bicycles that turned into<br />
suitcases,” says George, who has<br />
now spent 17 years learning about<br />
the history of Parkwood.<br />
One of the McLaughlin’s neighbours<br />
was William Stevenson, the<br />
creator of Camp X.<br />
Every Sunday night, the officers<br />
of Camp X would come to Parkwood<br />
to discuss future plans and<br />
play some pool.<br />
“If only the pool cues could come<br />
alive and tell me what was discussed<br />
over brandy and pool,” says George.<br />
“Col. McLaughlin was doing<br />
everything he could before the war<br />
started,” says George, who dedicates<br />
her life to Parkwood.<br />
Col. McLaughlin’s company also<br />
supplied the war with mosquito<br />
bombers, which is an aircraft that<br />
sits a pilot and passenger, often used<br />
in World War 2. Adelaide, Col.<br />
McLaughlins wife, loved to throw<br />
parties and fundraisers for the war<br />
effort at Parkwood.<br />
“The McLaughlin’s would have<br />
an annual tea fundraiser where a<br />
hat or shoe would be passed around<br />
and people would give money for<br />
the sailors who went to war,” says<br />
George.<br />
Six men who served Col. Mc-<br />
Laughlin and his family from<br />
1930-1940 were sent off to fight<br />
in the Second World War. All six<br />
men returned and were greeted with<br />
thanks.<br />
“Sam McLaughlin gave <strong>all</strong><br />
six men that returned, a key to a<br />
brand-new house for them and their<br />
families which to this day are still<br />
standing,” says George.<br />
Col. McLaughlin was also involved<br />
in the Ontario Regiment<br />
located in Oshawa. In 1921, Col.<br />
McLaughlin became the president<br />
of the Ontario Regiment. Which<br />
helped him become the producer<br />
of a film. Produced in 1941, There<br />
Too Go I is about the support from<br />
women and children in Canada<br />
during the war time. The film was<br />
played loc<strong>all</strong>y in late 1941 in Oshawa<br />
and <strong>all</strong> earnings were put towards<br />
the war effort.<br />
After the war ended in 1945.<br />
Shortly after, Adelaide, the wife of<br />
Col. McLaughlin fell ill and passed<br />
in 1958.<br />
“After the death of his wife, Col.<br />
McLaughlin had then realized he<br />
was getting old and decided to write<br />
a will,” says George.<br />
She says the hospital contributed<br />
to Parkwood and helped Adelaide<br />
quite a bit in the end, and in return,<br />
Sam left Parkwood Estate to the<br />
hospital.<br />
In 1960, the hospital had plans to<br />
turn Parkwood into the new Cancer<br />
centre, but Col. McLaughlin<br />
out lived his will. Col. McLaughlin<br />
passed in 1972 at the age of 101.<br />
The hospital was still trying to<br />
turn Parkwood into a Cancer centre<br />
but was unsuccessful because of<br />
Heritage Oshawa.<br />
Heritage Oshawa owned Parkwood<br />
until the late 1980’s.<br />
The National Historic Site company<br />
then bought it and made it<br />
official. Marking Parkwood with<br />
the title of National Historic Site,<br />
it became a place where the public<br />
could come tour the 55-room mansion,<br />
home to Col. McLaughlin who<br />
created General Motors.<br />
“We’re not owned by Parks Canada,<br />
so we don’t have a big boss we<br />
can go to and ask for money, so we<br />
have to earn it <strong>all</strong> ourselves by fundraising<br />
and throwing events,” says<br />
Photograph by Kaatje Henrick<br />
Parkwood is a mansion in Oshawa. Built in 1917, it is still open today and offers tours to those<br />
who are interested in Oshawa's history.<br />
George.<br />
To this day, Parkwood is still being<br />
used for film making.<br />
“Since 1980, I bet there’s been<br />
over 500 different films, not just<br />
movies but TV shows as well,” says<br />
George.<br />
Popular films like X-men and<br />
Billy Madison and TV shows like<br />
Bomb girls and Anne of Green<br />
Gables have been filmed at Parkwood.<br />
Actress Anna Kendrick stars in<br />
the new role as ‘Anne’ in Anne of<br />
Green Gables, filming took place<br />
this past summer at Parkwood.<br />
The tours that take place in Parkwood<br />
are another way the Estate<br />
earns money.<br />
With 11 gardens, an indoor pool,<br />
along with a bowling <strong>all</strong>ey is just a<br />
couple of things that make Parkwood<br />
special.<br />
The smell of antiques and dust<br />
will tickle your senses. The original<br />
furniture was from the 1930’s.<br />
The carpet flown in from Scotland<br />
is also an original.<br />
Tourists like Jane Elliot and her<br />
husband Tom who are from Edmonton,<br />
Alberta are one reason<br />
Parkwood is still functioning today.<br />
“We came here to visit my sister<br />
who’s always lived in Oshawa, she<br />
told us about this place and how old<br />
it was and we were so intrigued we<br />
just had to come see it for ourselves,"<br />
says Elliot.<br />
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20 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Community<br />
The history<br />
of the water:<br />
Lake Scugog<br />
The land where we stand is the traditional<br />
territory of the Mississaugas of<br />
Scugog Island First Nation. Uncovering<br />
the hidden stories about the land<br />
our community is built on is what the<br />
<strong>Chronicle</strong>'s new feature series, the Land<br />
Where We Stand, is about.<br />
Cassidy McMullen<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Scugog Island is located 20 minutes<br />
away from Durham College’s<br />
Oshawa campus, but while we can<br />
drink the water that comes out of<br />
our taps, the Mississaugas of Scugog<br />
Island First Nation, cannot.<br />
“There shouldn’t be more than<br />
one standard of water for people to<br />
drinking,” Desmond Versammy,<br />
Over<strong>all</strong> Responsible Operator<br />
(ORO) for the Water Supply System<br />
on the reserve, says. “People<br />
are people.”<br />
There are 81 long-term water<br />
advisories in Canada currently<br />
according to the Indigenous<br />
and Northern Affairs Canada<br />
(INAC- which is being renamed<br />
to Indigenous Services Canada).<br />
Others quote this number higher<br />
at 153 water advisories, keeping<br />
in mind that many of these places<br />
have multiple advisories and<br />
short-term advisories.<br />
Scugog has 4 long-term drinking<br />
water advisories.<br />
The federal government is investing<br />
$4.3 million dollars to end<br />
the years of drinking water advisories.<br />
With this money, along<br />
$2.3 million being contributed by<br />
the Mississaugas of Scugog Island<br />
First Nation and an additional<br />
$4.6 million from the Sm<strong>all</strong> Communities<br />
Funds, the Scugog Island<br />
reserve will be getting a water<br />
treatment plant.<br />
In total, the water treatment<br />
plant is an $11.2 million project.<br />
“They require a significant<br />
amount of money,” Versammy<br />
says. Went to school for engineering<br />
and has spent his career consulting<br />
on similar water management<br />
projects including water<br />
treatment, distribution and waste<br />
removal. He has more than 30<br />
years of experience in his field.<br />
Versammy was brought on in<br />
2014 as ORO for the water supply<br />
system on the reserve to help<br />
resolve the water issues on the reserve.<br />
For ten years, the reserve has<br />
been gripped by a drinking water<br />
advisories. Most of the homes are<br />
on well water with 15 homes on<br />
sm<strong>all</strong>er water treatment sheds.<br />
Even houses on the water treatment<br />
sheds are on the drinking<br />
water advisory.<br />
To better understand the issues<br />
surrounding the water around<br />
Scugog, it’s essential to look back<br />
in time.<br />
Back in the 1700’s, The Mississauga’s<br />
First Nations lived on the<br />
shores of Scugog Island. There<br />
were two rivers that branched off<br />
around the island and a sm<strong>all</strong>,<br />
sh<strong>all</strong>ow lake. The lake was so<br />
sm<strong>all</strong> and sh<strong>all</strong>ow that on early<br />
maps of the area it was left out<br />
complete.<br />
From the sh<strong>all</strong>ow waters, the<br />
Mississaugas harvested wild rice<br />
and the land around was good for<br />
living. Along with the wild rice,<br />
there was a cranberry patch and<br />
lots of wetland vegetation. There<br />
is evidence that large number of<br />
deer populated the area making it<br />
ideal for hunting.<br />
It wasn’t until the 1800’s that<br />
those things changed.<br />
Settlers came and drove the<br />
Mississaugas off to turn the land<br />
into farmland. Farming was good<br />
on the shore until a dam was built.<br />
The Purdy dam, named after<br />
the brothers who had it built, had<br />
no lock gates so there was no way<br />
to control the water flow which<br />
raised the water level to four feet.<br />
William Purdy described the<br />
area before the dam in Scugog<br />
and its Environs.<br />
“It was a mass of marsh and<br />
grass, the only clear water being<br />
that in the channel followed by the<br />
scow.”<br />
A scow is a type of boat they<br />
would have used as transportation<br />
on Lake Scugog.<br />
While this was perfect for the<br />
people in Lindsay where the dam<br />
was built, it caused havoc on the<br />
local eco-system.<br />
In 1927, F. G. Weir, the author<br />
of Scugog and its Environs,<br />
wrote, “The large tamarac forest<br />
that stood at the south of Scugog<br />
Island, said to have been at one<br />
time, a place of frequented by<br />
herds of deer, was killed off, exposing<br />
the marshy swamp as it<br />
appears today.”.<br />
Unfortunately, for the people<br />
living around the lake, that meant<br />
Lake Scugog from the Scugog causeway.<br />
their properties were submerged<br />
and the stagnant water caused illness.<br />
A North American version of<br />
malaria spread by the mosquitoes<br />
that thrived on change in water<br />
and typhoid fever, caused by<br />
drinking contaminated water, was<br />
ripping through households.<br />
In 1934, Samuel Farmer, the<br />
author of On the Shores of Scugog,<br />
wrote, “There was scarcely a<br />
home that did not have its case of<br />
typhoid fever, malarial fever and<br />
argue.”<br />
Fin<strong>all</strong>y, enough was enough<br />
for the locals. In 1841, A group of<br />
young men decided to head over<br />
to Lindsay and take down the<br />
dam themselves after petitioning<br />
the government was getting them<br />
nowhere.<br />
“Needless to say it was not the<br />
Lindsay delegation that lowered<br />
the dam,” Farmer wrote, “that<br />
was the work of the government.”<br />
The people in Lindsay caught<br />
word of this and held a meeting.<br />
For them, the dam was an economic<br />
advantage so to take that<br />
away would have devastated them.<br />
After a militia was formed to greet<br />
them, they resolved the situation<br />
peacefully and agreed due to the<br />
intervention of the government, to<br />
lowered the water by two feet.<br />
Even that didn’t please everyone<br />
in Scugog. In 1882, the editor<br />
of the Observer wrote, “Lower it,<br />
by <strong>all</strong> means lower it. Demolish<br />
the dam. How long are we to have<br />
thousands of acres of land submerged<br />
so that a mill in Lindsay<br />
might be kept running?”<br />
In 1844 the Purdy was replaced<br />
with a newer dam that had<br />
a lock system to better control the<br />
water. It’s the dam that stands in<br />
Lindsay today.<br />
In 1847, the Mississaugas came<br />
back to a different land. Forced to<br />
farm on the rocky shores, they no<br />
longer thrived like they once had.<br />
They stuck it out making a living<br />
off hunting and eventu<strong>all</strong>y by getting<br />
city jobs. Along the way, they<br />
were threatened by extinction due<br />
to residential schools, under funding,<br />
the 60’s scoop and other obstacles<br />
put in the way by the Canadian<br />
government.<br />
In the 1930’s, Scugog became<br />
a tourist spot thanks to it being a<br />
good fishing spot and the beautiful<br />
lakeshore. The towns around<br />
started to thrive from the economic<br />
boast tourists brought.<br />
Port Perry and Scugog Island<br />
are doing better financi<strong>all</strong>y, the<br />
lake itself is facing issues.<br />
Lake Scugog has always been<br />
sh<strong>all</strong>ow but with the years of run<br />
off and the fact that it’s a eutrophic<br />
lake. A eutrophic lake is sh<strong>all</strong>ow<br />
and will eventu<strong>all</strong>y fill in. Its<br />
aquatic life is a hot bed for plants,<br />
fish and algae. Lake Scugog is<br />
currently facing problems with<br />
run-off and sediment which is<br />
quickly filling in the lake.<br />
With the run-off that’s filling<br />
in the lake only brings in fertilizer.<br />
Fertilizer helps plants grow, including<br />
aqua marine plant life like<br />
the plant that growing in abundance<br />
and suffocating the lake.<br />
Most of the island is on septic<br />
tanks and wells since the lake<br />
water is not viable for drinking.<br />
Because of the large amount of<br />
run-off and the septic tanks that<br />
could possible leak, it was better<br />
to go with ground water residents<br />
were already pulling from.<br />
The same ground water that<br />
has kept the Mississauga’s First<br />
Nations on a drinking water advisory<br />
since 2008.<br />
The water itself is currently<br />
safe to drink, it’s the fear that the<br />
water will become contaminated<br />
that it’s been put in place.<br />
“One of the first things we did,<br />
Photograph by Cassidy McMullen<br />
one of the first projects I took on<br />
was a feasibility study,” Versammy<br />
says. “Basic<strong>all</strong>y, we identify where<br />
we are, we characterise the water,<br />
we characterise the quality of the<br />
water, and we come up with a plan<br />
on how to do that.”<br />
The process took six to seven<br />
months to complete as they got<br />
INAC and Health Canada for reviews<br />
and feedback.<br />
“The recommendation, obviously<br />
was to design and construct<br />
a community water treatment<br />
plant and build it and put<br />
a distribution system… to service<br />
the community,” Versammy says.<br />
“It’s easier said than done.”<br />
By the end of the project, the<br />
goal is to not only have a water<br />
treatment plant up and running,<br />
but to hook residents up to the<br />
waste management system that<br />
the Great Blue Heron Casino is<br />
on.<br />
Right now, they’re in the process<br />
of designing the facility and<br />
by the end of January they want to<br />
hand off to INAC for review.<br />
In the spring of 2018, they are<br />
expecting to be able to start construction.<br />
“Our plant, likely, most likely,<br />
will come on probably January,<br />
February of 2019.” Versammy<br />
says.<br />
That will be one of the 81<br />
long-term water advisories on reserves<br />
taken off the list.<br />
Justin Trudeau made a commitment<br />
to eliminate drinking<br />
water advisories in March of 2021<br />
in 2015 and has so far taken 24 off<br />
the list.<br />
That number is expected to be<br />
68 by the end of the year.<br />
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Community chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 21<br />
Ajax: A city of history<br />
The land where we stand is the<br />
traditional territory of the Mississaugas<br />
of Scugog Island First Nation.<br />
Uncovering the hidden stories about<br />
the land our community is built on is<br />
what the <strong>Chronicle</strong>'s new feature series,<br />
the Land Where We Stand, is about.<br />
Kayano Waite<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Lincoln Estridge has lived in North<br />
Ajax <strong>all</strong> his life. While attending<br />
Pickering High School, he was recommended<br />
by Ajax’s Community<br />
Recreation Supervisor Ashley<br />
McWhirther to apply for the first<br />
Black Excellence Scholarship.<br />
While applying for the first Black<br />
Excellence Scholarship, which he<br />
won, he found himself questioned<br />
about his varying interests and<br />
what he expected of his future.<br />
While being active in sports as a<br />
youth, he was also dedicated with<br />
his studies.<br />
“I wanted to show that I was academic<strong>all</strong>y<br />
inclined as well,” he said.<br />
Estridge currently goes to the<br />
University of Ontario. He is studying<br />
to be a mechanical engineer,<br />
currently one of the highest in demand<br />
jobs in Canada.<br />
Estridge, whose parents came to<br />
Canada from Jamaica and Saint<br />
Kitts in the early 1980s, is one of<br />
many visible minorities, including<br />
first-generation Canadians and recent<br />
immigrants, who are part of<br />
the changing face of the Durham<br />
community and Canada at large.<br />
According to Stats Canada 2016<br />
census, more than one in five Canadians<br />
are from other countries.<br />
In Ajax, compared to other areas<br />
in Durham Region, there is a rise<br />
in population growth and diversity.<br />
The number of visible minorities<br />
in Ajax, many of them new citizens,<br />
has steadily grown over the years.<br />
As more people emigrate to Canada,<br />
sm<strong>all</strong>er communities will grow<br />
to reflect the face of the country.<br />
This is already happening here<br />
in Durham.<br />
One of the areas in Ajax that reflects<br />
this is Imagination, a housing<br />
community in North Ajax, near<br />
Audley Road.<br />
While Ajax has grown recently<br />
in population, it has always been an<br />
area which has seen newcomers to<br />
Canada come to.<br />
According to Snapshots of Ajax:<br />
A Pictorial History, the first settler<br />
of the area, origin<strong>all</strong>y known<br />
as Brown’s Corner, was Alexander<br />
Dunlop of Scotland in 1835.<br />
Known then as a gathering area<br />
for entertainment, it eventu<strong>all</strong>y became<br />
an enclosed community with<br />
many residents’ descendants still<br />
living in the area.<br />
According to A Town C<strong>all</strong>ed<br />
Ajax, most of these newcomers<br />
were from European countries such<br />
as Ireland, England, and Scotland,<br />
like Dunlop.<br />
Similar to those times, the community<br />
is made up of many families,<br />
with several houses still in<br />
development.<br />
According to Statistics Canada,<br />
the majority of these new residents<br />
in Ajax immigrated from Asian,<br />
South American, and West Indian<br />
countries.According to the Town of<br />
Ajax website, 46 per cent of citizens<br />
identify as a visible minority.<br />
Several of these minorities are<br />
in fact new Canadians, looking<br />
for jobs in their field and learning<br />
about their new community.<br />
One of several places that helps<br />
to find jobs for newcomers in Ajax<br />
is the Welcome Centre Immigration<br />
Services.<br />
The Centre acts as a hub for<br />
those new to Canada since 2013.<br />
The welcome Centre offers free<br />
job workshops, English language<br />
assessments, and a mentorship<br />
program.<br />
Hermia Corbette is the Manager<br />
of the Welcome Centre Immigration<br />
Services in Ajax.<br />
Corbette said the Welcome Centre<br />
work alongside the Local Diversity<br />
& Immigration Partnership<br />
Council (LDIPC) to find what is<br />
most needed.<br />
According to the Durham Immigration<br />
website, in 2005. The<br />
Canadian Ontario Immigration<br />
Agreement was put into place.<br />
This meant the federal and local<br />
government were made to help immigrants<br />
integrate into their new<br />
communities.<br />
The LDICP, composed of business<br />
groups, school boards and<br />
other sectors, work with local employers<br />
to keep workplaces diverse.<br />
“They work to make it a place of<br />
promise for people to want to live<br />
in,” Corbette said.<br />
Robert Gruber, the Community<br />
and Cultural Development Manager<br />
for the town of Ajax,<br />
says that together with the<br />
Welcome Centre, the town hosts<br />
bi-annual newcomers bus tours.<br />
“We take them to community centres,<br />
some of our libraries, the get<br />
to meet the mayor or a member of<br />
council.” he said.<br />
Ajax is dedicated not only to the<br />
immediate integration, but to long<br />
term engagement and acceptance<br />
of newcomers.<br />
The Town of Ajax is currently in<br />
Phase 2 of its Diversity and Community<br />
Engagement Plan, which is<br />
divided into four segments:<br />
The Town as an Employer, Programs<br />
& Services, Community &<br />
Civic Engagement, and Youth Engagement.<br />
Last year, Ajax launched the<br />
#AjaxforAll initiative an educational,<br />
focusing on issues such as<br />
stereotyping and xenophobia.<br />
Similar to Toronto’s #TorontoforAll,<br />
#AjaxforAll will display<br />
posters throughout the town with<br />
eight local “ambassadors”.<br />
Left: An Irish immigrant family. Many families immigrated to Ajax from Ireland in the 1800's.<br />
Right: Robert Gruber, the community and cultural development manager for the town of Ajax.<br />
Lincoln Estridge, north Ajax resident.<br />
Photograph by Kayano Waite<br />
Photograph by Kayano Waite<br />
Estridge was nominated to be a<br />
part of the initiative and says he has<br />
found it to be a great success so far.<br />
“I feel that the diversity in Ajax<br />
is so powerful now,” Estridge said.<br />
“[People] tend to automatic<strong>all</strong>y<br />
put people in boxes, it’s been great<br />
to see people break out of those<br />
boxes.”<br />
According to Global News, the<br />
federal government if planning one<br />
increasing the number of new immigrants<br />
in Canada starting this<br />
year. The number is set to start at<br />
310, 000 this until reaches 340, 000<br />
in 2020.<br />
This will be the largest number<br />
of new citizens <strong>all</strong>owed into the<br />
country since 1913.<br />
Gruber says the increased immigration<br />
is important for the country.<br />
“You need to be able to have<br />
immigrants coming in and have<br />
them be part of the economy,” he<br />
said. “It’s a smart move to re<strong>all</strong>y<br />
have a robust and good immigration<br />
policy to get people to come.”<br />
Estridge also agrees. “I think if<br />
we accept these people and accept<br />
their cultures, I think we could increase<br />
our over<strong>all</strong> knowledge.”<br />
This would benefit Canadians<br />
as a whole. And with new citizens<br />
coming in, this helps to balance<br />
out the aging demographic we<br />
have now.<br />
With the average life expectancy<br />
growing longer, we now have more<br />
senior citizens to take care of and<br />
according to Stats Can, nearly 17<br />
per cent of our citizens are 65 years<br />
or older.<br />
There are also fewer children being<br />
born to bridge the gap. Compared<br />
to generations past when<br />
families would be larger, women<br />
are now averaging 1.6 children<br />
during their lifetime.<br />
The land of Ajax is changing and<br />
the face that represent it are as well.<br />
Estridge has been selected<br />
for the second year for the<br />
#AjaxforAll initiative. And while<br />
plans are still being made, Estridge<br />
says that it will focus on youth<br />
and how they will bring change to<br />
the community.<br />
Follow us @DCUOIT<strong>Chronicle</strong> and<br />
use #landwherewestand to join the conversation,<br />
ask questions or send us more<br />
information.
22 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Community<br />
Photograph courtesy of Oshawa.ca/Photo illustration by Cameron Black-Araujo<br />
Here is how the Civic Auditorium looked in the 1970s (left) and how it looks today, now c<strong>all</strong>ed the Civic Recreation Centre..<br />
Built for the people by the people<br />
The land where we stand is the traditional territory<br />
of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.<br />
Uncovering the hidden stories about the land our<br />
community is built on is what the <strong>Chronicle</strong>'s new<br />
feature series, the Land Where We Stand, is about<br />
Cameron Black-Araujo<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
The city of Oshawa began building the Oshawa<br />
Civic Auditorium in February 1964. It<br />
was completed just ten months later in December<br />
1964. If Hambly Arena, also known<br />
as the Oshawa Arena, had never burned<br />
down in 1953,<br />
The Civic Auditorium would have never have<br />
been built and the Generals would have never<br />
played one game there.<br />
Hambly arena burned down one week before<br />
the hockey season was to begin. Lost in<br />
the fire was the equipment of the Oshawa<br />
Generals as well as other local hockey teams<br />
according to the Oshawa Express.<br />
The Oshawa Daily Times says the total<br />
loss in the fire came out to around $500,000.<br />
With no equipment or arena and not much<br />
more money coming in, other than donations,<br />
the team could no longer continue and players<br />
were forced to find a new team.<br />
Just nine years later the Oshawa Civic<br />
Auditorium was resurrected and the Generals<br />
returned to Oshawa.<br />
But the Auditorium and complex turned<br />
out to be so much more than the community<br />
could have ever asked for. “Built for the<br />
people, by the people,” was the slogan that<br />
went along with the facility after it was built<br />
because it was paid for by volunteer fundraising,<br />
including going door-to-door as well<br />
payroll deductions from General Motors employees.<br />
The community raised $1.25 million towards<br />
the building according to The Civic.<br />
While the arena was the main attraction,<br />
the facility also offered swimming, a games<br />
room, a fitness centre, a footb<strong>all</strong> field and<br />
could host circuses, dinners or shows.<br />
The Generals were very well what brought<br />
the biggest crowd to the Oshawa Civic Auditorium.<br />
Jill Passmore, who grew up across the<br />
street from The Civic, would go to games with<br />
her family like so many others in Oshawa.<br />
Memories of these games go well beyond<br />
the players just passing a puck around the ice.<br />
“There was always the 50/50 draw at the<br />
games.<br />
One time my Dad won and I remember<br />
him taking home a brown lunch bag of<br />
change,” says Passmore.<br />
Passmore also remembers going for public<br />
skates on the ice surface in the auditorium<br />
but her favourite times on the ice were for the<br />
“Skate with the Generals.”<br />
While Passmore grew up just across the<br />
street from the building, the mayor of Oshawa,<br />
John Henry, says he’s been around it <strong>all</strong><br />
his life as well.<br />
“When I was a kid at The Civic, I don’t<br />
think I was older than ten when I went to<br />
watch the Buffalo Sabres play the California<br />
Golden Seals in an exhibition game at The<br />
Civic,” explains mayor Henry.<br />
While the Generals were the main hockey<br />
team in town, the NHL’s California Golden<br />
Wishing my kids end up having memories of<br />
a place like this to look back on.<br />
Seals took advantage of the Oshawa Civic<br />
Auditorium in the 70s for training camps<br />
and as the mayor had the privilege to watch,<br />
preseason NHL hockey as well.<br />
The connection between the Oshawa Civic<br />
Auditorium and the Oshawa Generals peaked<br />
in the 1990’s as the Gens made it to the finals<br />
three times, brought home the Memorial Cup<br />
in 1990 and only had one losing season.<br />
They closed out their time at the Auditorium<br />
with only three winning seasons in the<br />
final seven and only a dismal 33 wins (136<br />
games played) in their final two seasons in<br />
the building.<br />
While Passmore has attended many Generals<br />
games, this one was a little different for<br />
her. It’s the 1993 season and while Passmore<br />
has attended many games before, none without<br />
her parents.<br />
The puck drop is coming up at 7:30 at the<br />
Civic Auditorium as the Generals host the<br />
Peterborough Petes.<br />
Passmore and her friends scramble to their<br />
seats in “their” section, where they typic<strong>all</strong>y<br />
sit, and are on the lookout for a friend’s cousin<br />
playing with the Petes.<br />
While the girls giggle and enjoy their first<br />
night out at The Civic alone, the furthest<br />
thing from her mind was what the facility<br />
might look when she has kids.<br />
She may not have the ability to bring her<br />
kids to Generals games at the Civic Auditorium<br />
but Passmore is proud to bring her kids<br />
to such a beautiful, community driven facility<br />
that she was so blessed to grow up with in her<br />
very own backyard.<br />
“I could go on forever, but I’ll finish by<br />
wishing that my kids end up having memories<br />
of a place like this to look back on as<br />
I do when I think about The Civic,” says<br />
Passmore.<br />
Whether it’s 1990 or 2018, or whether it’s<br />
c<strong>all</strong>ed the Civic Recreation Centre, The<br />
Civic is still serving its purpose over 60 years<br />
later.<br />
Follow us @DCUOIT<strong>Chronicle</strong> and use<br />
#landwherewestand to join the conversation, ask<br />
questions or send us more information.
Tiago de Oliveira<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 23<br />
Entertainment<br />
Oshawa<br />
gets its own<br />
Music Week<br />
A celebration of Oshawa’s music<br />
culture is on the way as the Music<br />
Business Management program of<br />
Durham College is preparing for<br />
Oshawa Music Week, a week-long<br />
music festival debuting April 5 and<br />
running until April 12.<br />
The events will take place over<br />
a variety of venues including The<br />
Moustache Club, and both Durham<br />
College and UOIT’s Oshawa<br />
campus.<br />
“Oshawa has a rich music culture,”<br />
said MBM program professor<br />
Tony Sutherland. “Hence our<br />
new brand: Oshawa Music Week,<br />
with the focus on Oshawa and its<br />
music scene.”<br />
Oshawa Music Week has been<br />
a staple in the community in one<br />
form or another, most recently<br />
known as Oshawa’s Reel Music<br />
Festival, for the past 18 years.<br />
Through the years it has been run<br />
and organized by the MBM program.<br />
This year the MBM program<br />
made the choice to change<br />
the name and rebrand itself.<br />
“It’s definitely a good move on<br />
our part,” said Jennifer Archibald,<br />
a second year MBM student and<br />
director of marketing and advertising<br />
for Oshawa Music Week.<br />
“We chose to go with Oshawa<br />
Music Week in order to re<strong>all</strong>y represent<br />
the community.”<br />
Archibald said it used to be<br />
c<strong>all</strong>ed the Reel Music Festival because<br />
the event had a film component.<br />
She said the new brand more<br />
properly represents the community,<br />
better reflecting the goal of<br />
the event as it showcases local<br />
talent.<br />
New to this year’s music festival<br />
is the OMW Award Show. The<br />
award show covers five categories<br />
to be given to local artists, industry<br />
personnel, and businesses in the<br />
region. While the nomination period<br />
is now over, the voting process<br />
started March 9 and the public still<br />
has time to vote for their favourite<br />
local artists.<br />
Archibald said the event provides<br />
a unique opportunity for local<br />
musicians to attend and benefit<br />
from the show, as there will be industry<br />
professionals at the panels<br />
and conferences who will be able<br />
to provide advice, criticism, and<br />
insight.<br />
“If you’re a musician, if you’re<br />
an artist of any kind, you can<br />
come and learn about opportunities<br />
that are available to you in<br />
the community,” said Archibald.<br />
“For example, skill development or<br />
funding, or they can just come by<br />
and watch the show.”<br />
Oshawa Music Week’s first<br />
event, World Music Festival, will<br />
run Thursday, April 5 on Durham<br />
College’s Oshawa campus.<br />
Performers are yet to be announced<br />
but World Music Festival<br />
is free for the public to attend, Archibald<br />
said.<br />
Love, Simon familiar story, but bucking movie trend<br />
Kayano<br />
Waite<br />
Movies with queer stories tend to<br />
be released in a limited number<br />
of theatres. Many also tend to be<br />
pitched as strong Oscar contenders<br />
(Carol, Moonlight, C<strong>all</strong> Me by<br />
Your Name). The idea that stories<br />
with LGBT characters will attract<br />
only niche audiences prevents<br />
many major studios from releasing<br />
them.<br />
Love, Simon is one of a few<br />
major studio releases to buck this<br />
trend.<br />
Adapted from the 2015 youth<br />
novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens<br />
Agenda, the movie gives queer<br />
youth a story they’ve probably already<br />
seen, but with them as the<br />
focus. Not as the sidekick.<br />
Simon Spier (played by Nick<br />
Robinson) describes himself as the<br />
average teenager. With a nuclear<br />
family living in the suburbs and<br />
lifelong friends, nothing about<br />
Simon separates him much from<br />
others – except that he’s gay.<br />
Simon finds out about Blue, an<br />
anonymous closeted gay student at<br />
his school through social media.<br />
Simon reaches out to Blue to connect<br />
with one of the few other gay<br />
students at his school.<br />
Simon’s interactions with Blue<br />
lead him to be on high alert at<br />
school, using any clue from their<br />
conversations to figure out who he<br />
is.<br />
Simon’s interaction with Blue<br />
helps him to express his frustrations<br />
with being closeted.<br />
“Why is it that gay people are<br />
the only ones that have to come<br />
out?” Simon asks Blue one night.<br />
While Blue admits he’s not<br />
ready to come out, Simon pictures<br />
himself free to be out after his life<br />
in high school.<br />
In his dream scenario, he lives<br />
in New York with a Pride-coloured<br />
dorm room doing stylized choreography<br />
to Whitney Houston.<br />
“Okay fine, maybe not this<br />
gay,” Simon eventu<strong>all</strong>y says before<br />
walking off-screen.<br />
Simon is eventu<strong>all</strong>y found out<br />
Source from Fox 2000 Pictures<br />
Simon Spier, played by Nick Robinson, where high school students are staring curiously from<br />
behind him.<br />
by his classmate Martin (played by<br />
Logan Miller). Martin blackmails<br />
Simon into setting him up with<br />
Simon’s friend Abby (played by Alexandra<br />
Shipp). This leads Simon<br />
to gaslight his friends to appease<br />
his classmate.<br />
Despite knowing his two friends<br />
Abby and Nick (played by Jorge<br />
Lendeborg Jr.) have feelings for<br />
each other, he misleads both of<br />
them to appease Martin.<br />
Photograph by Tiago de Oliveira<br />
Jennifer Archibald, a student in Durham College's Music Business Management program and<br />
director of marketing and advertising for Oshawa Music Week.<br />
Like many movies based on<br />
hiding a major secret, Simon is<br />
eventu<strong>all</strong>y outed and abandoned<br />
by the third act.<br />
Not because of who he is, but<br />
because of his actions.The film is<br />
ultimately nothing if not a crowd<br />
pleaser, and Simon’s parents<br />
(played by Jennifer Garner and<br />
Josh Duhamel) show that.<br />
With many stories about LG-<br />
BTQ teens facing rejection from<br />
their family and friends, Simon’s<br />
parents are simply surprised, but<br />
not bitter. They seem to be more<br />
upset that he wouldn’t reach out to<br />
them as opposed to him being gay.<br />
“When you were younger you<br />
were so carefree,” Simon’s mom<br />
says. “But for the past few years, it<br />
seems you closed in on yourself.”<br />
“You deserve everything you<br />
want,” she says, a sentiment his father<br />
later shares in a similar scene<br />
soon after.<br />
Love, Simon’s tagline is “everyone<br />
deserves a great love story.”<br />
This is not quite that. '<br />
Aside from its queer narrative,<br />
it’s just like any other teen dramedy<br />
in structure and appeal, past<br />
and present. But that may be the<br />
point; if the basic queer love story<br />
can be successful, maybe more<br />
complex stories will be greenlit by<br />
Hollywood in the future. Love, Simon<br />
was released across Canada<br />
on March 16, 2018.
24 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Entertainment<br />
Diving into the Dragons' Den<br />
Conner McTague<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
Canadians with entrepreneurial aspirations<br />
may have a goal of landing a deal with the<br />
dragons from CBC's Dragons’ Den to kickstart<br />
their business ideas.<br />
Durham Region residents had their opportunity<br />
to audition for the show and pitch<br />
their products when producers of the program<br />
came to Durham College Feb. <strong>28</strong>.<br />
Entering its 13th season in late September,<br />
the show and the Dragons, continue to<br />
look for the next big Canadian product and<br />
entrepreneur to hit the market.<br />
Around 40 people showed up with their<br />
products and pitched them to the producers.<br />
Stephanie Quilligan, one of the producers<br />
of the show, says "the number one thing<br />
we're looking for is passion. If you're not passionate<br />
about your business then why would<br />
a dragon or anybody be interested in investing?"<br />
She says producers want to see new and<br />
innovative products as well, while also keeping<br />
in mind it's a show for entertainment, so<br />
the entrepreneur needs to have character<br />
and come across well on television.<br />
The audition process moves quickly, as<br />
Quilligan says they travel to more than 30<br />
Canadian cities in six weeks to find entrepreneurs<br />
to pitch their ideas to the dragons.<br />
There are about four participants per episode,<br />
in past seasons there have been around<br />
20 episodes per, so there are around 80 participants<br />
per season.<br />
Participants are reached by phone or<br />
email if they make the final cut.<br />
Jeremy Hannan, of Whitby, was one of<br />
the many entrepreneurs who showed up to<br />
pitch a product.<br />
His product is the Cobra mask, a full<br />
face snorkeling mask which he says provides<br />
Photograph by Conner McTague<br />
Jeremy Hannan, a Whitby entrepreneur who auditioned for his snorkeling gear to be pitched to the CBC reality show<br />
Dragons' Den.<br />
more comfort than normal snorkeling gear.<br />
All of which he designs himself.<br />
He retails the masks for about $75 and<br />
they come in 13 different colours.<br />
He has owned his business for about three<br />
years and says it has become the biggest selling<br />
snorkeling mask in Canada, though he<br />
says he does face competition from European<br />
and American companies. He says<br />
his product had around $150,000 in sales in<br />
2017, with the expectation of doubling it this<br />
year.<br />
He says he wants a dragon deal to "increase<br />
production and quality of the masks",<br />
as he can't currently mass produce the item,<br />
leaving him to retail them in sm<strong>all</strong>er stores.<br />
Hannan says the audition was "more formal<br />
and professional than I expected it to be.<br />
It felt like I was pitching in front of the real<br />
dragons." He also says even if he doesn't get<br />
a deal with the dragons "it's still great exposure<br />
for the product to make it on TV."<br />
Although, if he does earn a spot on the<br />
show at the studio in Toronto and lands a<br />
deal with a Dragon he hopes it's Arlene<br />
Dickinson because "she has the business<br />
sense and the connections."<br />
The Shape of Water deserving of Best Picture<br />
Alex<br />
Clelland<br />
The Shape of Water, directed by<br />
Guillermo del Toro, is a strange<br />
monster-fantasy film that won<br />
four awards at the Oscars, including<br />
Best Picture and Best Director.<br />
The film is another one of del<br />
Toro’s monster movie masterpieces,<br />
following the tale of a young<br />
woman who f<strong>all</strong>s in love with an<br />
amphibious fish-man. The Shape<br />
of Water is arguably one of the<br />
best feature films of 2017.<br />
Elisa Esposito (S<strong>all</strong>y Hawkins)<br />
is a young woman in Baltimore<br />
during the Cold War, who lives her<br />
entire life as a mute and works as<br />
a janitor in a government laboratory.<br />
One day on the job, a mysterious<br />
water tank is delivered, harbouring<br />
a creature found in South<br />
America. Elisa discovers the tank<br />
contains a large amphibious creature<br />
bearing close resemblance to<br />
man. She and the fish-man f<strong>all</strong> in<br />
love, she saves him from experimental<br />
torture, and the two defy<br />
the odds of romance by running<br />
away together.<br />
What makes The Shape of<br />
Water so special is the genre itself.<br />
Fantasy films very rarely make it<br />
into the Best Picture category, let<br />
alone win the coveted prize of the<br />
year.<br />
The only other true fantasy<br />
film to win Best Picture was The<br />
Lord of the Rings: The Return of<br />
the King in 2003. Instead, these<br />
films typic<strong>all</strong>y f<strong>all</strong> under Best Production<br />
Design, or Best Costume<br />
Design for their whimsical artistic<br />
vibe and extraordinary makeup<br />
work. However, The Shape of Water<br />
broke through the glass ceiling<br />
as a monster fantasy film, picking<br />
up four of the biggest awards of<br />
the night.<br />
The character of Elisa feels<br />
incomplete throughout the film<br />
because of her disability, but after<br />
f<strong>all</strong>ing in love with the amphibious<br />
fish-man, she finds herself feeling<br />
whole once again because neither<br />
of them can speak. Many people<br />
who watched the movie only saw<br />
as far as the first layer of the film;<br />
a girl f<strong>all</strong>s in love with a fish-man<br />
and a weird romantic and sexual<br />
relationship ensues.<br />
Copyright by TSG Entertainment<br />
Octavia Spencer (left) as Zelda Delilah Fuller, the interpreter of the mute Elisa Esposito played<br />
by S<strong>all</strong>y Hawkins (right) in The Shape of Water.<br />
The Shape of Water is so much<br />
more than that.<br />
The film touches on The American<br />
Dream during the 1960’s<br />
Cold War, with the American and<br />
Russian governments both trying<br />
to best each other with advanced<br />
research.<br />
It’s also one of few films to simultaneously<br />
explore female sexuality,<br />
disabilities, and depict a homosexual<br />
man in the unaccepting<br />
time of 1960. To top it <strong>all</strong> off, del<br />
Toro is a man of colour who took<br />
home the prize of Best Director<br />
and Best Picture <strong>all</strong> in one night.<br />
The film keeps up a beautiful<br />
balance between a murky, green<br />
film-noir vibe and that of a gaudy,<br />
cheesy 1950’s musical. This<br />
awarded the film with Best Production<br />
Design.<br />
The Shape of Water is a beautifully<br />
artistic film and subtly explores<br />
many deep subthemes of<br />
human nature, including race and<br />
morality.<br />
Appearing as a strange monster<br />
romance film on the surface,<br />
it has many deep and complicated<br />
themes underneath.<br />
This makes The Shape of Water<br />
the best choice for Best Picture<br />
at the 90th Academy Awards, and<br />
it deservingly won.<br />
Del Toro’s work did not go unnoticed<br />
this year, and The Shape<br />
of Water is the one of the best<br />
films of 2017.
chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 25
26 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca<br />
Sports<br />
Durham enjoys sports success<br />
Lords<br />
win three<br />
provincial<br />
titles in<br />
2017-18<br />
season<br />
Shanelle Somers,<br />
Tracy Wright and<br />
Cameron Black-Araujo<br />
The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />
It was a year of success on <strong>all</strong> fields<br />
of play for Durham College’s varsity<br />
sports teams.<br />
“We had a tremendous year. It<br />
was an amazing year,” says Ken<br />
Babcock, Durham College athletic<br />
director.<br />
The DC Lords athletic program<br />
is wrapping up a school year which<br />
has seen its teams win three provincial<br />
championships and leave their<br />
mark at the national level.<br />
Babcock says <strong>all</strong> of the teams at<br />
the college made their respective<br />
playoffs which he says is an exceptional<br />
level of success.<br />
The men’s soccer team made history,<br />
winning its first Ontario Colleges<br />
Athletic Association (OCAA)<br />
gold in 20 years, beating Algonquin<br />
2-1.<br />
Kevin Thibodeau scored the<br />
winning goal in the 90th minute<br />
of the game.<br />
Scott Dennis, DC sports information<br />
and marketing coordinator,<br />
says “they went into the playoffs<br />
on a hot streak and then rolled<br />
through the OCAA championships<br />
and then qualified for nationals.”<br />
At the Canadian men’s national<br />
championships in Nanaimo, B.C.<br />
the Lords made progress finishing<br />
fifth in the competition, their best<br />
finish since 1999.<br />
The men’s soccer team ended<br />
its season with an over<strong>all</strong> record<br />
of 12-5-1.<br />
The women’s softb<strong>all</strong> team had<br />
a similar success story after taking<br />
gold at the OCAA championships.<br />
This is their third straight<br />
OCAA title and their 19th since<br />
the OCAA softb<strong>all</strong> championships<br />
started in 1981.<br />
A standout player on the women’s<br />
softb<strong>all</strong> team was Emily Glendinning.<br />
Early in the women’s softb<strong>all</strong><br />
season she threw a perfect game.<br />
Dennis says she was one of the top<br />
rookies in the league and is a twosport<br />
athlete, also playing basketb<strong>all</strong><br />
at Durham.<br />
Over<strong>all</strong> the women’s softb<strong>all</strong><br />
team ended the season 20-8.<br />
The men’s golf team continued<br />
its tradition at the OCAA championships<br />
making it to the podium.<br />
“Our men’s golf team is made<br />
The Durham Lords men's soccer team won gold at the Provincials this season.<br />
up of young team members that<br />
represented Durham College at<br />
the national level re<strong>all</strong>y well,” says<br />
Babcock.<br />
Durham College also proudly<br />
hosted the Canadian championships<br />
at the Royal Ashburn Golf<br />
Club in Whitby, Ont. where then<br />
men’s team placed sixth.<br />
“It’s an exceptional year for athletics<br />
this year,” says Babcock.<br />
Meantime, the women’s indoor<br />
soccer team have qualified for the<br />
provincial championships. Dennis<br />
says “women’s soccer continues to<br />
make strides forward.”<br />
Advancing to the provincial<br />
championships with one win, one<br />
loss, and one tied game, the DC<br />
Lords hope to capture gold.<br />
They will be traveling to Redeemer<br />
University to compete in<br />
the OCAA championship March<br />
22-24.<br />
The men’s and women’s basketb<strong>all</strong><br />
teams successfully made it to<br />
compete on the provincial level but<br />
in the end did not win a medal. But,<br />
the team is made up of strong players<br />
and some team members from<br />
both men’s and women’s teams<br />
were named OCAA championship<br />
<strong>all</strong>-stars.<br />
Brandon H<strong>all</strong>iburton and Funsho<br />
Dimeji were OCAA’s first team<br />
player <strong>all</strong>-stars for the second year<br />
in a row.<br />
Maddie Dender and Dekota<br />
Kirby were OCAA’s second team<br />
player <strong>all</strong>-stars and rookie Emily<br />
Glendinning now has a spot on the<br />
OCAA <strong>all</strong>-rookie team.<br />
Over<strong>all</strong> the men’s basketb<strong>all</strong><br />
team finished the season with 15-6<br />
and the women’s basketb<strong>all</strong> team<br />
finished 10-10.<br />
The men’s and women’s volleyb<strong>all</strong><br />
teams also had a strong season<br />
and competed at the provincial<br />
competition.<br />
Unfortunately they did not make<br />
it to the podium but the women’s<br />
volleyb<strong>all</strong> team had a remarkable<br />
season with one of the youngest<br />
lineups in the OCAA.<br />
The men’s volleyb<strong>all</strong> team had<br />
many standout players this season.<br />
For example, in the Lords last game<br />
of the season against the Niagara<br />
Knights, Erik Janssen, was the<br />
top scorer with eight kills and one<br />
block.<br />
Over<strong>all</strong> the women’s volleyb<strong>all</strong><br />
team ended the season 12-7. The<br />
men’s volleyb<strong>all</strong> team ended the<br />
season 9-10.<br />
Photograph courtesy of DC Athletics<br />
Photograph courtesy of DC Athletics<br />
The women's softb<strong>all</strong> team took gold at the OCAA championships, its third straight.<br />
The DC Lords hope to continue<br />
building strong teams for the 2018-<br />
19 athletic season.<br />
The recruiting process is currently<br />
in its peak. The Lords will<br />
receive confirmations and signed<br />
scholarship letters of intent from<br />
prospective athletes by June 1.<br />
“We’ve had significant success<br />
in <strong>all</strong> of our programs and<br />
we are quite proud of that,” says<br />
Babcock.
chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 27
<strong>28</strong> The <strong>Chronicle</strong> March 20 - 26, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca