It's easy being green in Whitby - Digilog at UOIT and DC - Durham ...

Legendary Canadian rock band. See 54/40 Page 38 20th annual Parents as Partners. See Kielburger Page 38 

Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8 November 29, 2011 

It’s easy being green in Whitby 

Cameron McDonald 

The Chronicle 

Durham College’s Whitby 

campus has certainly set a high 

bar for other businesses and 

educational buildings within 

the Durham Region, and perhaps 

even all of Ontario when it 

comes to going green. 

Over the past couple years 

the campus has completed 

phase one and phase two of its 

three-phase construction plan, 

which has involved major environmentally 

conscious renovations. 

Darrin Caron, the dean of 

the Whitby campus, has overseen 

the construction to the 

campus over the past year since 

he took over the job, and he is 

pleased with the results so far. 

“After finishing Phase 2, we 

have accomplished something 

I think few other schools -and 

large facilities for that matterhave 

around the Durham Region. 

We have started a project 


RENEWABLE ENERGY: The six wind turbines sitting atop the main building at 

Whitby Campus. 

that, I hope, will continue years 

into the future until we have an 

entirely self-sufficient building.” 

The first two phases of the 

construction added many environmentally 

friendly features, 

such as waterless urinals, rainwater 

and storm water collection 

ponds, skylights, and 

windows with sensors that can 

detect sunlight levels to remain 

at their highest efficiency. Sue 

Moore, the manager of academic 

operations, pointed out 

how different the new phase 

areas on campus are from the 

old area. “You can tell instantly 

that you are walking into one of 

the new phases. It gets so much 

brighter and more welcoming, 

thanks to those big skylights 

everywhere.” 

These are just a few of the 

many additions to the campus, 

but this brief list of additions 

shows why the the building 

now enjoys more energy efficiency 

as a result. 

“The entire Phase 2 area is 

an energy-neutral zone, meaning 

it is completely self-sufficient 

and creates all of its own 

required energy,” said Ralph 

Aprile, the vice-president of facilities 

and ancillary service. 

See Turbines Page 3 

DC fall convocation 

goes off without a hitch 

407 extension 

hits Durham 

Kim Moreau 

The Chronicle 

The bagpipes played, the 

tears were cried, and the laughter 

faded into the cool fall evening. 

Durham College graduates 

eagerly piled into the Campus 

Recreation and Wellness Centre 

gymnasium on Nov. 17. The 

students arrived in groups following 

a flag representing their 

school: Applied Sciences; Apprenticeship; 

Skilled Trades 

and Technology; Business, 

IT, and Management; Career 

Development and Continuing 

Education; Health and Community 

Services; Justice and 

Emergency Services; and Media, 

Art and Design. 

Students and guests were 

greeted by a gymnasium decorated 

with Durham College 

Kim Moreau 

SENDING OFF: Durham College alumnus Dan Quinn 

gives his keynote address to the graduating class at the fall 

convocation. 

flags, a huge turquoise banner and white accents. 

with the words “Convocation, 

Class of 2011” and a full stage See Convocation Page 2 

of dignitaries dressed in long 

black robes with green, yellow 

Tyler Richards 

The Chronicle 

The 407 is coming to town, 

and it will change the face of 

north Oshawa and Whitby 

forever. Being built at Simcoe 

street and Winchester road is 

a shopping complex that will 

house Canada’s largest retail 

outlet store. There are also 

plans to develop restaurants 

and housing in the area, 

providing part-time jobs for 

many students from UOIT 

and Durham College. 

Durham and UOIT are by 

far the largest institutions 

that will be immediately impacted 

by the 407 extension. 

Both of these institutions 

will see increased population 

once the extension to Harmony 

road is completed and 

opened by late 2015. 

The president of Durham 

College, Don Lovisa, knows 

that with the increase in population 

comes an increase in 

problems, some of which are 

minor now, such as parking 

and traffic on campus, but 

could become very problematic 

with an increased population. 

“There is a number of 

ways it could affect us,” 

Lovisa said. “We will probably 

see increased traffic flow 

initially off Simcoe street, it 

may cause more traffic and 

congestion for a campus that 

is already congested.” 

It’s not all bad, though, according 

to Lovisa. 

See 407 Page 6

2 The Chronicle November 29, 2011 Campus 

Riot held up but not held down 

Austin Rogers 

The Chronicle 

The Riot Radio was set to begin 

in October. However, with 

technical and co-ordination 

difficulties their launch date 

has continuously been set back. 

But the staff at the Riot won’t 

be giving in any time soon and 

needs to start before the year 

end. 

More has changed since last 

year than the station’s logo. 

Last year the Riot was in the 

hands of a trained professor 

and students who were not 

trained in radio. The operation 

area was a very small room and 

their equipment was less than 

stellar. 

This year the Student Association 

has taken the reins and 

added more organization and 

funding to the station’s operation 

and the station is also set 

to run as more than an audio 

station. 

“It’s now a visual radio station, 

one of the first in North 

America,” said station co-ordinator 

Laura Ferr. 

The station will broadcast 

over the Internet with audio 

and visual aids and will now 

comply with all CRTC standards. 

No pirated music will be 

played on the air, only music 

purchased legally. 

Various obstacles have 

caused significant delays to the 

station’s start date. “We (Riot 

Staff and the SA) discovered 

that what we want to do is more 

complicated than we thought 

and more people have more 

ideas and we try to implement 

them as well,” said technical director 

Mat Keselman. 

Now the Riot faces a serious 

technical problem. “We have to 

do a heart transplant first,” said 

Ferr. 


GETTING READY TO RIOT: Mat Keselman, technical director, and Laura Ferr, 

station co-ordinator, inside the new location of Riot Radio. 

They have to replace a piece 

of equipment called a tricaster, 

a hardware/software combination 

that digitalizes audio and 

visual information and sends it 

via Ethernet. 

The tricaster they currently 

have is a simple model that 

doesn’t suit their needs. Their 

start date now depends on how 

long the more advanced model 

takes to arrive. 

Other delays include staffing 

the station. Last year’s 

co-ordinator Iain McPherson 

resigned to focus on his teaching 

and Ferr wasn’t hired as his 

permanent replacement in the 

revamped station until August. 

In the new station the DJs 

won’t have to worry about handling 

the technical operation of 

their shows. A technical operator 

will always be in the booth 

to run that aspect. “They get to 

focus on being personalities,” 

said Ferr. 

In their new DJs the Riot 

is looking for people who can 

produce quality content and 

sensible direction on the air. 

“Whatever you say, know that 

you have to stand behind that,” 

said Ferr. 

The DJs will also be learning 

while volunteering for the 

station. “You’ll never get this 

much hands-on training and 

prep work from a co-ordinator 

or a tech person or a news 

and media director,” Ferr said. 

DJs will also have the opportunity 

to learn how to operate 

the technical equipment if they 

want. 

Graduates greet future with excitement 

Continued from Page 1 

Standing out among the 

people on stage was Don Lovisa, 

Durham College president, 

who spent most of the evening 

with a smile of pride stretching 

from one ear to the other. 

After a playing of the national 

anthem, Lovisa introduced 

the people behind him, 

including new UOIT president 

Tim McTiernan, president of 

the Alumni Association Lillian 

Jacoby, president of the Student 

Association Amy LaRue, 

and special guest Dan Quinn. 

He also shared his enthusiasm 

and excitement for reaching 

this point with students before 

handing off the microphone. 

LaRue, during her turn at 

the microphone, talked to students 

about their time at Durham 

College beyond just education 

and told them to hold onto 

the memories from their social 

lives as well. Whether it be a 

get-together at E.P. Taylors, 

attending a sporting event, or 

getting to know a new friend, 

Durham College graduates 

were leaving with an abundance 

of memories. 

Quinn, a Durham College 

graduate from 1984, wished 

students the best in the future 

and offered his words of wisdom 

as a former Durham College 

student. 

Quinn had students and 

guests laughing as he started 

his speech talking of the growth 

PROUD PRESIDENT: Durham College president Don Lovisa wished graduates the best in the future. 

of technology and social media 

and his plans, jokingly, to create 

the greatest social media 

site possible, Youtwitface. 

Once Quinn had won over 

the crowd with his social media 

plans, he began offering his advice 

to students. 

“You don’t come to Durham 

College to learn to do something,” 

said Quinn, “You come 

to Durham College to be something.” 

Quinn has been the managing 

director of the NFL Canada, 

established sports clubs for 

physically disabled children 

and adults, established the Canadian 

Sport Awards program, 

and serves as chair of the Durham 

College Sports Management 

advisory committee. 

Quinn told students that 

success doesn’t come easy but 

to never be afraid to dream big. 

He wished the fall graduates 

excitement as they walk out of 

Durham College doors to either 

pursue further education or 

start their careers, and to not 

be intimidated. 

After the speakers finished 

and students became antsy 

in their seats, shifting their 

weight, tapping their feet, and 

looking about the stage, they 

were finally given their recognition. 

Students of all ages and 

backgrounds walked across the 

platform shaking hands and accepting 

their papers on school 

at a time, some students laughing 

and others crying with excitement. 

Some students received additional 

recognition as Durham 

College leaders with president’s 

honour roll acknowledging students 

with a cumulative grade 

point average of 4.0 or higher, 

student leadership award for 

students who enhance life on 

campus, and recognition for 

the highest-ranking graduates 

in programs. 

When they were returning to 

their seats they were greeted by 

a mob of excited fans. Spouses, 

children, parents, grandparents, 

aunts, uncles, cousins, 

Kim Moreau 

friends, and many more were 

shouting, clapping, cheering, 

taking pictures and smiling to 

show their pride. 

“Love you mom,” shouted 

one person in the crowd. 

“That’s my boy,” “You go!”, 

“I love you baby,” shouted others 

as they raced to the front 

barrier in an attempt to capture 

a quick picture. The excitement 

radiated off the crowd for the 

entire 90-minute ceremony. 

When the ceremony closed, 

students waved their hands 

and papers in the air, smiling 

and laughing as they followed 

the bagpiper out of the gymnasium 

and through the doors to 

the rest of their lives.

Campus 

The Chronicle November 29, 2011 3 

Students learning efficiently 


The Chronicle 

What better way to learn 

home maintenance than working 

on a real home? That’s exactly 

what Durham College has 

provided for its students. The 

school of skilled trades and apprenticeship 

is planning to unveil 

its mock homes on campus 

starting in January of this year. 

One of the homes is a “newbuild” 

house, which is currently 

being built by Durham Custom 

Homes and their affiliate suppliers, 

is set to be ready for 

use by the 2012 fall semester. 

Ralph Aprile, the vice president 

of Facilities and Ancillary 

Services, has been overseeing 

the new-build project and is 

confident in Durham Custom 

Homes’ ability to deliver a topnotch 

building. 

“They build all of these cutting-edge 

energy features into 

all of their homes, so they are 

perfect for this job, because we 

want the most energy-efficient 

home possible for students to 

learn in.” 

The other home was already 

fully constructed and was 

moved onto campus earlier last 

year. The house is a 1970s model 

and is built up to standards 

at that time. 

“We actually had quite a 

hard time getting the permits 

to move this house here. It was 

hard to pass this as a learning 


HOME BUILDING: Energy-efficient construction site awaiting Whitby students. 

facility rather than a standard 

home,” said Darrin Caron, the 

dean of Whitby campus. 

The older home, although already 

fully built, has had to be 

overhauled to be deemed safe 

for students to learn in. This 

has included the installation of 

extra supports and additional 

fire alarms to make the building 

safer. 

The newer home will act as a 

contrast and comparison to the 

older home, which is directly 

beside it, so that students can 

see the difference in energy efficiency 

techniques. 

Allan Martin, the program 

co-ordinator of Apprenticeship 

and Renewable Technology, is 

confident the contrast between 

the two homes will be useful for 

many skilled trades programs. 

“The old home would be best 

used for energy audits to see 

where improvements can be 

made, and the new home can be 

used to compare the standards 

and learn how to maintain the 

current ones. Electricians, carpenters, 

auditors and plumbers 

can work on these homes, just 

to name a few.” 

The goal is for both homes 

to be ready for full use in time 

for the start of the 2012 fall semester. 

Graduate students offer 

free conflict resolution 

Whitby campus 

growing greener 

Nicole Patton 

The Chronicle 


RESOLUTION: Valerie Lepik, Virginia Harwood, Bettina 

Marly, Melissa Hauke, Deena Misale, and Tim Dailley. 

“Life can be full of conflict – 

we can help.” That is the pledge 

of the Campus Conflict Resolution 

Service. 

The service is run by the Mediation 

– Alternative Dispute 

Resolution (MADR) graduate 

program students and provides 

free, confidential conflict resolution 

services for both Durham 

College and UOIT. 

“We provide an outreach 

service on campus where we 

will provide presentations to 

various classrooms across the 

campus to present on what is 

conflict, tips on dealing with 

conflict and also provide students 

with knowledge about 

our service,” said Virginia Harwood, 

MADR co-ordinator and 

supervisor of the CCRS. “We 

work with students to create 

group work contracts. We do 

some pre-conflict negotiations 

and we do mediations for students.” 

The service was built up in 

late 2010 to give MADR students 

some learning experiences 

and to help the campus community 

with certain situations. 

The CCRS started operating at 

the beginning of this year. 

“It provides the students, 

our mediation students, with 

real world learning,” said Harwood. 

“They really run a business 

and provide the service. They 

do all the marketing, the tracking 

of documentation and we 

also support our campus community. 

So it’s really a win-win 

that our students are getting 

experience and the campus 

community can benefit from 

the services that we offer.” 

Conflicts the service can help 

resolve can be between friends, 

groups, classmates, relationships 

and teams. Sessions can 

take anywhere between half 

an hour to two hours and mediators 

work with students to 

schedule a meeting at a mutually 

convenient time and 

place. 

“The participants want a 

very quiet location, a very confidential 

location,” said Harwood. 

Places such as boardrooms 

on campus or places in 

the student’s residence building 

can be used for the sessions. 

Speaking with the students 

involved, these third party mediators 

can help devise an acceptable 

solution to the conflict 

that everyone is happy with. 

“It’s popular and it’s becoming 

very popular,” said Harwood. 

“The mediations that we do 

certainly have a very high rate 

of success in terms of resolving, 

in helping students resolve, 

their conflict.” 

If you need help with a conflict 

on campus appointments 

can be booked with a mediator 

at CCRS@durhamcollege.ca. 

Continued from Page 1 

This energy neutral zone 

is due to the over 350 solar 

panels scattered around 

campus, the 35 wells that are 

350 feet deep, and six wind 

turbines which all combine 

to make up the majority of 

the energy output for the new 

areas of campus. Martin explained 

that the solar panels 

and geothermal wells are the 

biggest contributors to actual 

energy output on campus, 

with the panels generating an 

average of 78 kilowatts per 

hour and the wells producing 

enough heat and cooling 

for the entire main building. 

The solar panels also heat the 

water for the majority of the 

facilities around campus. 

On top of these heavy lifters, 

there are still the small 

additions, that also contribute 

such as skylights, which 

use a mirror system to provide 

natural light for most of 

the day, and waterless urinals, 

reducing the amount of 

water needed to be pumped 

through the building. 

Aprile is adamant about 

the fact that the environmental 

additions have been just 

as useful to the students as 

they have been to the building’s 

costs and maintenance. 

“We have created a living 

lab environment for students 

to work on every day.” 

Allan Martin, the program 

coordinator for the Renewable 

Energy Programs at Durham 

College Whitby campus 

elaborated on Aprile’s observations, 

by adding that the 

students actually get to work 

on the panels, turbines, and 

wells to see first hand how 

they operate and how they 

can be maintained. 

There are maintenance 

rooms for the wind turbines 

and the geothermal wells, 

where students of the Energy 

Auditing program can study 

and regulate energy outputs, 

and the solar panels have a 

website devoted to past and 

real-time statistics for similar 

student purposes. 

“This gives students 

real-time feedback on the 

equipment they are learning 

about. Instead of reading 

about altering energy levels, 

for example, they actually get 

to alter them.” 

With Phase 3 of the construction 

plan set to break 

ground in a couple weeks, 

and all of the positive results 

of the first two phases, 

the future seems bright for 

the Whitby campus, with 

more environmental additions 

slated for the new facility 

which will house an additional 

900 students. 

As vice president Aprile 

aptly said, “We need to focus 

on green sustainability, now 

and, more importantly, into 

the future.”

4 The Chronicle November 29, 2011 

To contact us 

Publisher: Greg Murphy 

Editor-in-Chief: Gerald Rose 

Ad Manager: Dawn Salter 

Editorial Page 

Newsroom: Room L-223; Ext. 3068 

E-mail: Chronicle.News@dc-uoit.ca 

Advertising: Room L-223; Ext. 3069 

E-mail: dawn.salter@durhamcollege.ca 

Ontario students, take a stand 

Post-secondary executives are 

paid too much at student expense 

A spirit of protest goes viral 

amongst college and university 

goers in Quebec, emphasizing 

the quiet voices of Ontario students. 

Quebec students have been 

holding various day-long 

strikes for several months, in 

opposition to a tuition increase 

over the course of the next five 

years. 

It would bring the average 

rate of universities and private 

colleges in Quebec from $2,168 

to $3,793. 

Public colleges remain tuition 

free zones. 

In contrast, Ontario students 

pay the most for post-secondary 

education in Canada – an 

average annual cost of $3,300 

in college and $7,100 in university, 

both including tuition and 

ancillary fees. 

Colossal fees have the potential 

to establish a type of class 

system where the wealthier 

continue to reap the benefits of 

post-secondary education and 

the low-income population is 

sometimes stuck on the shoreline, 

terrified to swim in the 

vastness of overwhelming debt. 

Yet Don Lovisa, president 

of Durham College, made 

$270,000 last year and president 

Jon Davies of Humber 

College in Toronto earned 

$403,000. 

Ontario’s top paid university 

president Mamdouh Shoukri 

of York University made 

$480,000 in 2010. 

In two and a half years, 

Shoukri makes the same as a 

Cash For Life winner. 

Over in Quebec, Heather 

Munroe-Blum principal of 

McGill University (which is 

the equivalent to a president) 

is the highest paid university 

principal in Quebec, reaping 

$356,000 a year. 

Clearly, though salaries are 

lower in Quebec, they are not in 

a different ballpark from those 

in Ontario. 

Staff salaries aren’t as 

strongly reflected in Quebec 

tuition rates, because higher 

taxes cover the costs, and some 

courses are not as developed 

(therefore less expensive) in 

Quebec as they are in Ontario. 

But with Quebec’s struggle 

to support post-secondary 

education and the subsequent 

massive tuition hikes, it may be 

a signal to pull university and 

college administrators closer 

toward the middle class. 

On Nov. 10, 200,000 students 

in Quebec took to the 

streets or blockaded their 

school to preserve the province’s 

17-year-old provincial 

tuition freeze. Even the faculty 

at some campuses refused to 

cross the student picket lines. 

And while Quebecers 

screamed for financial accessibility, 

students in Ontario accepted 

their suffocating debt, 

and went on with their academic 

routines. 

Attitudes are more tolerant 

and civil disobedience is small 

and seldom in the land with 

the highest tuition rates in the 

country. 

A popular reason for not taking 

part in challenging the government 

is that people say they 

feel powerless in taking action 

as individuals. 

There is nothing on earth 

much more fragile than a snowflake. 

But when stuck together, 

just look at their power. 

They cave in roofs, shut 

down cities and wreak havoc on 

humans and nature. 

Amy LaRue, president of the 

Student Association does not 

find student protests appealing. 

She said that the Student 

Association would not stand 

behind any student strike or 

walkout for any reason, because 

they take attention away 

from education. 

It’s true, but in Quebec they 

seem to feel that striking for the 

benefit of future students is as 

productive as receiving an education. 

There is no denying that 

running colleges and universities 

along with their SA services, 

is an expensive task for 

the government and individual 

schools. 

But paying school presidents 

and politicians a quarter of a 

million to over three quarters 

of a million dollars a year, creating 

expensive buildings and 

paying so many college and 

university staff across the province 

over $100,000 a year jacks 

up education costs for aspiring 

students, harming the middle 

and lower classes. 

Students in Ontario are not 

able to organize as in Quebec. 

Quebecers are given academic 

immunity during a student 

strike. 

This means that professors 

have to give extensions on tests 

and assignments to students 

who choose not to show up to 

class while a legitimate strike is 

on. 

That type of student empowerment 

doesn’t exist in most 

provinces. But it doesn’t leave 

our voices muffled either. 

There are different ways to 

pressure schools and governments 

into lightening our financial 

burdens. 

Taking a page from the Occupy 

movement’s handbook, 

Queen’s Park in front of the 

provincial legislature in Toronto 

could act as a public forum 

and possibly campground for 

dedicated activists. 

If radicalism isn’t Ontario’s 

style, then that’s the way it is. 

Heavily utilizing Your Student 

Association or the lobby 

group Colleges Student Alliance 

(CSA) could create change 

– perhaps slower – but with 

less interruption to students’ 

academics. 

But if an unjust system is 

continually tolerated, the government, 

and especially the 

Ministry of Colleges, Education 

and Training is going to forget 

that they work for the people. 

Bobby Perritt 

E 

ditors: 

Ashley Anthony, Ashley Bain, Natasha 

Cohen, Kristian Cuaresma, Amanda Darrock, 

Patricia DeBres, Hillary Di Menna, Angeline Doucett, 

Mahmoud El Bayrakdar, Nancy Ellis, Tracey Fidler, Larissa 

Frankevych, Robynne Henry, Kamesha Horne-Simmons, 

Chealse Howell, Sarah Hyatt, DJ Johnson, Justin Knaggs, 

Sarah Labatt, Omar Laing, Sarah LePage, Brandan Loney, 

Lori Marks, Cameron Mcdonald, Zachary Mclachlan, Ray 

McNeil, Matt Mcphee, Kimberly Moreau, Derek Morton, Aaron 

O’toole, Tara Oades, Nicole Patton, Bobby Perritt, Philip 

Petrovski, Mike Pickford, Tyler Richards, Austin Rogers, 

Mike Ryckman, Brad Snape, Kaitlyn Tarrant, Denis Umpleby, 

Amy Valm, Meghan Wels, Emily Wood. 

The Chronicle is published by the Durham College School of Media, 

Art and Design, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario 

L1H 7L7, 721-2000 Ext. 3068, as a training vehicle for students 

enrolled in Journalism and Advertising courses and as a campus news medium. 

Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the college administration 

or the board of governors. The Chronicle is a member of the Ontario 

Community Newspapers Association. 

A 

dvertising 

sales: Mark Antaya, Lesley 

Bell, Kelly Bounds, Michael Chiadika, Gabriela 

Corvera, Matthew Henlein, Melissa Mahon, Shawn 

Managhan, Melissa Matheson Joey Meawasige, Amanda 

Micks, Sarah Mills, Kimberly Mohns, Kate (Kat) Moore, Vanessa 

Oishi, Brittany Philp, Kathleen Roach, Tyson Ruck, 

Lauren Shiels, Mathew Wilson, Ashante Wright, Sherry 

Zwetsloot 

A 

dvertising 

design: Rene Benjamin, 

Sarah Blastorah, Brittney Brenner, Tara Fergusson, 

Braedon Jasper, Landon Johnston, Rachel Junker, 

Robert Lewis, Ashley Mainguy, Rebecca Mark, Josh Martin, 

Melissa Matheson, Nicole McCormack, Katie McHugh, David 

McQuad, Tyler O’meara, Martin Plumley, Stacy Salaoras, 

Paige Sipidias, Katherine Smith, Myles Wiltshire 

Publisher: Greg Murphy Editor-In-Chief: Gerald Rose Feature Editor: Ginny Colling Ad Manager: Dawn Salter 

Advertising Production Manager: Kevan F. Drinkwalter Photography Editor: Al Fournier Technical Production: Darren Fisher

Opinion 


Flu shot? Not for me, thanks 

It’s been instilled in most 

people since childhood: get 

vaccinated. We are fortunate 

enough to live in a country 

that has free immunizations 

to protect us from ailments 

that prove lethal in other 

parts of the world. But is 

getting the flu shot really 

necessary? 

A get-out-of-flu-seasonfree 

card may seem tempting, 

but there are a lot of cons 

piled up against getting the 

controversial shot. 

Most striking is the fact that 

there are many different strains 

of flu, and no one knows what 

strain will be coming each year. 

According to a CNN medical 

report, every February scientists 

make educated guesses 

as to what type of influenza will 

Amy 

Valm 

be plaguing us in flu season and 

then concoct an injection based 

on that guess. That needle being 

plunged into your arm is 

only a gamble. 

Allegedly the flu shot doesn’t 

make you sick. Each batch of 

vaccinations is tested to make 

sure no live flu viruses are living 

in it, but having dead flu 

particles inserted into your 

body isn’t appealing either. 

The flu shot, like anything, 

comes in an array of brands, 

with each manufacturer using 

slightly different ingredients. 

An ingredient list from the 

Centre for Disease Control and 

Prevention finds thimerosal 

and formaldehyde in most of 

the vaccines. 

To rephrase that, flu shot ingredients 

include mercury and 

the same substance used in embalming 

fluid- albeit in small 

amounts. Decide for yourself 

how comfortable you are with 

it. 

People with allergies need 

to be cautious because eggs are 

used in the manufacturing of 

the vaccine. 

The Ontario government 

puts the flu shot on a pedestal 

hailing it as an amazing gift to 

you and hyping it with quaint 

little phrases like, “The flu shot. 

Helping your body help itself.” 

The human body has plenty 

of ways to help itself, naturally, 

thanks. 

Health clinics stand on 

soapboxes preaching about the 

benefits of getting the flu shot. 

They distribute pamphlets 

with statistics that are helpful 

to their cause leaving out the 

icky details, and debunking any 

“naysay” about the flu shot. 

Of course the flu shot serves 

a purpose for some people, such 

as the elderly, people suffering 

from cancer or kidney disease, 

people with weakened immune 

systems, and the people they 

come into constant contact 

with. But the flu shot is not for 

everyone, and there are natural 

ways of protecting yourself. 

Stress can make you sick, 

but stress management and 

a healthy diet are key ways to 

prevent getting the flu. Take 10 

minutes a day to meditate, or 

write in a journal to relieve the 

stress in your life. Eat a lot of 

garlic too-it boosts the immune 

system, suggests a local nutritionist. 

Be your own ambassador. 

Research and find out for yourself 

what the best option for 

you is. At the end of the day it’s 

your body and your decision on 

whether or not to be injected 

with a questionable substance. 

Health professionals say 

that the flu shot is for everyone. 

You’re not everyone. Be 

an individual, and make an informed 

decision based on what 

is right for you. You only get 

one body, treat it well. 

Servers should have equal wages 

Last month, a Seattle waitress received 

a less than flattering ‘tip’ on a 

$30 bill. 

Her customer’s tip read, “P.S. You 

could stand to loose a few pounds.” 

That comment outraged a lot of people 

in the service industry. Canadians in 

the service industry get paid a server’s 

wage, which is less than minimum 

wage. Minimum wage is $10.25 per 

hour, while the service wage is $9.69 

an hour. 

Employees in the service industry 

get paid a lower wage because the government 

says their tips supplement 

their income. 

This lower wage law contradicts itself 

when it comes to other jobs where 

Canadians get paid standard minimum 

wage, and accumulate tips. These jobs 

include bus boys, hair dressers, doormen, 

and delivery drivers to name a 

few. 

What’s the difference between these 

jobs and hospitality jobs? 

The standard for tipping in the service 

industry is 15 per cent of the bill 

amount after taxes. Do Canadians tip 

15 per cent or do they use their own 

method on tipping? 

I once had an elderly woman tell me 

she started a server’s tip at $ 5 and for 

every ‘mistake’ the server made, she 

would take a dollar off. 

“Almost everyone who tips never 

tips 15 per cent, it’s like five to seven 

per cent,” said Heather Gray. Gray is 

a server at a local pasta eatery, serving 

just over a year now. 

There is no way to ensure that customers 

tip 15 per cent of their bill every 

time. Sometimes there is no tip based 

on the circumstances, and the service 

that the customer receives. The problem 

with “tip out”- a portion of the 

server’s tips that is given out to cooks 

and other wait staff- is if a server made 

poor tips on a high sales day, they still 

have to pay the tips out based on the 

amount they sold, rather than how 

much they made. 

So how do 

tips supplement 

their income 

if they’re 

Larissa 

required by 

their employer 

to give a portion 

of their 

tips away? 

Here is an example, if a server made 

$40 in tips, and they sold $600 of 

food and alcohol they need to payout 

$13 based on their sales. So the server 

leaves with $27. If a hairdresser makes 

$40 in tips they don’t have pay out any 

of it. Some hair salons do require that 

their stylists ‘rent’ a chair, but they pay 

monthly. 

Frankevych 

A server’s income is affected by 

whether or not they’re required by 

the employer to tip out, the tip rates 

they’ve received and the lower minimum 

wage. So how can tips supplement 

an income equivalent 

to being paid a standard 

minimum wage if there are 

so many variables that determine 

how much they make at 

the end of the day? 

It’s hard to understand the 

plight of being a server unless 

you are one. An option could be to raise 

the server wage to the minimum wage 

to ensure that servers are treated the 

same. With the up and down attitudes 

of customers who are being served, fair 

compensation is often as predictable as 

a hurricane. 

For the employees who rely on that 

money for their livelihood, it becomes 

a guessing game some just can’t afford. 

The end of black gold is near 

Hate to break it to you, but 

the party’s almost over. 

Pretty soon, we’re all going 

to have to find a way to adjust 

to our changing planet, a planet 

without fossil fuel. On Nov. 8 

classes from around the world 

came together for a two-hour 

discussion as part of Durham 

College’s end-of-semester lecture, 

called The Global Class. 

Students had the opportunity 

to speak with filmmaker 

Adolfo Doring about; political 

corruption, the failure of the 

mainstream media, and most 

importantly, peak oil and the 

end of fossil fuel, the subject 

of Doring’s documentary Blind 

Spot. 

Peak oil is, or should I say 

was, the moment in time when 

humans reached peak oil production, 

which was somewhere 

around the early 1970s. 

This is something I have 

been keeping at least one eye 

on for a couple years now, and 

the truth is peak oil is very real. 

Average people probably 

don’t even realize that oil is not 

just used to fill your gas tank. 

Most paints, plastics, pesticides, 

clothing, makeup, cleaning 

products and building materials 

have some oil in them. 

But all of this is meaningless 

when it comes to getting 

the public to actually address 

the problem, because unfortunately 

over the years, our society 

has created an environment 

that demands infinite growth, 

in a finite world. The best way 

to wake people up is to use basic 

logic and math, and if you’re 

one of those people, who always 

believed oil would be around 

forever, pay close attention to 

the next few sentences. 

The Organization of Petroleum 

Exporting Countries 

(OPEC) states that current 

proven crude oil reserves in 

the world are at over 1.4 trillion 

barrels. Now that’s a lot of oil, 

why am I even 

writing this 

opinion piece? 

Oh yeah, 

now I remember, 

because 

the world consumes 

around 

85 million barrels 

a day. Some simple math 

shows the grim truth, that those 

1.4 trillion barrels will only last 

for the next 45 years. There is 

no energy source on this planet 

that can provide a comparable 

energy return set by oil. 

Pretty scary huh? Not to 

mention that there is a major 

flaw in the equation. It assumes 

no one will be born for the next 

four decades. A few weeks ago 

the seven billionth person on 

the planet was born, and as the 

population rises, oil demand 

will as well. 

The United Nations predicts 

the world 

population 

will increase 

by about halfa-billion 

in 

the next decade, 

and will 

Ray 

McNeil 

remain fairly 

consistent, 

meaning the end of oil will arrive 

closer to 35-40 years. 

Thankfully, this revelation 

finally vindicates M. King Hubbert, 

who first predicted that 

peak oil would occur around 

1970. Seeing as how oil production 

kicked into high gear 

around the turn of the 20 th century, 

the math is pretty solid 

that the end of oil is right on 

schedule. 

When that day comes, the 

human species will once again 

need to have balance with our 

natural world. 

In some places, this has 

already begun. Tokyo burns 

charcoal for energy, and back 

in North America people are 

experimenting with using algae 

for our power needs. And while 

four decades is not much on a 

broad scale, humans managed 

to orbit the Earth, land on the 

moon and Mars, and build the 

International Space Station 

in that time. So the possibility 

that we can avoid a major human 

catastrophe is still there. 

Those who still insist the 

human race is not powerful 

enough to cause such a shift in 

planetary properties, like global 

warming, and species eradication, 

I’d say sucking dry our 

precious black gold in less than 

two centuries is an impressive 

one.


407 extension to generate jobs 

Continued fom page 1 

It’s not all bad, though, according 

to Lovisa. 

“There is a lot of plans to 

develop retail and housing and 

restaurants between us and 

the 407, so hopefully that will 

provide some student housing 

and part-time jobs for our students,” 

Lovisa said. 

With the increased ease of 

access, to not only Toronto, but 

also the province and country, 

Oshawa mayor John Henry has 

high hopes for the city’s two 

post-secondary institutions. 

Henry said both of those 

school’s will be directly impacted 

and will be the first schools 

that will be national schools. 

“More people from the northern 

parts of Toronto will be able 

to commute quicker to Durham 

and UOIT than to schools like 

Ryerson, George Brown and 

the University of Toronto that 

are downtown.” 

On Simcoe street you can 

see the beginning stages of 

construction on the 407 extensions. 

The construction will extend 

the highway from Brock 

road in Pickering to Harmony 

road in Oshawa by 2015 and 

highway 35/115 by 2020. 

According Henry, the largest 

retail outlet mall in the country 

will built at Simcoe street 

and Winchester road. “What’s 

important for Oshawa is the 

first stage of the commercial 

development that you will see 

happening at Simcoe and Winchester, 

one of the largest retail 

outlet malls in Canada is being 

built there,” Henry said. 

On any given day 380,000 

vehicles pass between Mississauga 

and Pickering. 

According to the latest press 

release on the government of 

Ontario’s newsroom website, 

the McGuinty government will 

be creating 13,000 jobs with 

the construction, but also the 

building plans have been extended 

until 2020 and the 

highway is to be built in two 

stages. 

This is a fact that is unacceptable 

to many residents in 

the northern parts of Oshawa, 

Whitby and Clarington, including 

Durham MPP John 

O’Toole, Whitby-Oshawa MPP 

Christine Elliott and Oshawa 

mayor John Henry. 

“It will have a very positive 

influence long-term,” O’Toole 

said. “It’s the number one priority 

for the region of Durham 

and the municipality of Clarington 

to be completed as soon 

as possible.” 

In 2009 the provincial government 

announced the expansion 

of the 407 and stated that 

it would reach the 35/115 by 

2013. 

“The biggest disappointment 

is the government promised it 

twice in two separate elections 

and has failed to deliver. As 

such, I and my constituents feel 

like they are be treated poorly,” 

O’Toole said. 

It was a major issue in last 

year’s municipal elections in 

Oshawa and Clarington, as well 

as a major issue in this year’s 

provincial election, which saw 

the McGuinty government lose 

its majority status in Queen’s 

Park. 

With the minority government 

now in parliament MPP 

Christine Elliott believes that 

the voices of communities like 

Raglan, Columbus and Brooklin 

and those who represent 

them will be heard more. 

“I think the voices of individual 

members, as they represent 

their constituents, will be heard 

more,” Elliott said. “Everyone 

has an equal vote now. Because 

there is a minority parliament 

we are hoping that there will 

be greater co-operation and 

discussion on issues that are 

important to people across Ontario.” 

The 407 will be an improvement 

on the Ontario-Quebec 

corridor that runs from Quebec 

City to Windsor and handles 

74 per cent of Canada’s international 

trade and contributed 

$560 billion to Canada’s economy 

in 2009. However, the corridor 

is plagued with the massive 

traffic problem that is the 

401. 

“I try and take GO Transit as 

much as I can, but some days I 

need my car,” Elliott said. “The 

other day it took me 2 ½ hours 

to get home from Queen’s Park 

and I think that people don’t 

want that. They want to go to 

their children’s sporting events 

and be there to help them with 

school work.” 

Mayor Henry believes that 

the 407 will not only affect Oshawa 

and the Durham Region, 

but Toronto and Ontario as 

well. 

“This isn’t about improving 

Oshawa and the Durham Region’s 

standing on the world 


BRIDGING THE GAP: The extension will be built between 

Simcoe Street and Winchester Road, linking Oshawa and 

Whitby. It will also employ 13,000 people during its construction. 

stage,” said Henry. “This is 

about moving goods and services 

in out of Toronto. Toronto 

is the only major city in the 

world that doesn’t have a ring 

road around the city.” 

For the people who live in 

north Oshawa and north Whitby 

the extension couldn’t be 

built soon enough, but good 

things come to those who wait. 

Picking up the pieces: facing addiction 

Hillary Di Menna 

The Chronicle 

As a member of Renascent 

House in Toronto, he was told 

the majority would fail. 

Yet the man -- over six feet 

tall at the time weighing 100 

pounds -- has been sober for 

over five years. 

Adam Cyncora, a former 

Durham College student, said 

he had no idea how he beat the 

odds. 

“Something just changed in 

me.” 

Cyncora said his drug and 

alcohol dependency started 

easily enough. He began drinking 

and smoking marijuana at 

13. When a close friend of his 

died when he was 19, dabbling 

in Ecstasy, Ketamine, Acid and 

Cocaine in addition to drinking 

turned into heavier usage. He 

doesn’t lay the entire reason 

on the loss of a loved one but 

he said, “That’s how I chose to 

deal with it.” 

Travelling with his band, 

Closet Monster, became another 

reason to over indulge. 

“You’re thinking you’re a 

rock star, but you’re not,” Cyncora 

laughed. 

By the time he was 24 he and 

a fellow band member were not 

on good terms. He returned to 

live with his parents in their 

Ajax home and enrolled in 

school. 

He attended few classes and 

instead could be found in the 

bathroom or in a friend’s home 

in residence doing lines of cocaine. 

Whether it was the alcohol 

or cocaine, “One hand claps 

the other,” his life began to fall 

apart. 

He lost his job working in 

the kitchen of Kelsey’s, where 

he would at times be coughing 

up blood, and would stay awake 

for days. 

“It’s terrible, there’s something 

dictating everything you 

do,” he said describing his dependency. 

He turned to friends in Toronto 

for help. They called the 

hospital and after taking his 

pulse as instructed were told, 

“Sounds like he’s going to die.” 

Cyncora was on the verge of 

having a fatal heart attack. 

He stayed in hospital overnight, 

disoriented and not 

knowing who he was. In retrospect 

Cyncora thinks it may 

have been a scare tactic but he 

remembers the hospital being 

unwelcoming and being made 

to feel as though his presence 

was a waste of a bed. After leaving 

the hospital he stayed with 

his friends. Unable to afford a 

stay at a rehabilitation centre, 

he had to wait for an OHIP bed. 

Though he had been sober 

for two months before leaving, 

he said he still had the mentality 

of a drug addict, making bad 

decisions. He ended up losing a 

friend. 

Though it has been years 

since and Cyncora has tried to 

make amends the friendship is 

still lost. He is not surprised, 

however. 

After years of addiction he 

understands he made hurtful 

mistakes and he does not feel 

entitled to forgiveness. 

“You can’t expect everything 

to be roses.” 

Renascent House provided 

three weeks of healthy routine. 

Cyncora had to follow a strict 

schedule that included chores, 

meetings and set meal times. 

“It was a different life than 

doing what I wanted when I 

wanted.” 

He remembers looking at 

others in the facility, “Looking 

at the disease within everybody.” 

“It was surprisingly not as 

hard as it could have been,” he 

said of living clean. Not to say it 

was easy. 

“Nothing is. Can you remember 

a day when you had an 

easy day?” 

He was determined to become 

a new person in every 

aspect, even giving up his vegetarian 

diet. 

After three weeks Renascent 

gave Cyncora a sobriety chip 

and suggested living in a sober 

house. 

Eager to begin his new life, 

he did not go to a sober house 

but began to attend AA as well 

as Narcotics Anonymous (NA). 

He began a Cocaine Anonymous 

(CA) group in Pickering 

that still meets today. 

There, people could share 

stories from their day, good or 

bad. These meetings helped 

Cyncora see his situation was 

not unique and he was not 

alone 

“I saw myself as the victim, 

always the victim.” 

He credits these programs 

and the 12 Steps in getting him 

through. He no longer attends 

meetings because he decided 

he wanted to cut ties with his 

past of addictions. 

“It was time to live life” 

Within a year of beginning to 

date his new girlfriend, Lindsay 

Culkin, the two were married. 

He saw stability in her that he 

wanted to be a part of. 

“Would I be here without 

her,” he trailed off. 

“Who knows?” 

They have a home in Courtice 

where their son, born Dec. 

31 in 2009, plays with their 

many cats and an empty room 

awaits the arrival of their new 

child come May. 

He works hard as a pipe fitter 

and focuses his attention on 

his family rather than planning 

how he will get high. 

He doesn’t play music anymore, 

though he doesn’t mind. 

And this is not due to his sobriety. 

“Drugs didn’t help my creativity 

at all.” 

“He’s such a nice guy,” Cyncora 

says of son Liam, “He just 

says ‘Hi Daddy’ and,” Cyncora 

ends the sentence with a smile. 

He fought and won a tumultuous 

battle and has found a 

happy life he could not attain 

with drugs. 

“I thought I was going to be 

dead. I almost was.”

Campus 


Take the time to save a life 

Sarah Hyatt 

The Chronicle 

Every 40 seconds someone’s 

life flashes before their eyes, 

then they’re gone, forever. And 

it was their choice. 

It’s a local issue, it’s a global 

issue, and today it remains as 

one of Canada’s most serious 

public health concerns. 

No one is immune. 

“Almost everyone knows 

someone who at least knows 

someone that’s committed suicide,” 

said David Clarke, coordinator 

of communications 

and training at Durham Mental 

Health Services. “At any given 

moment five to seven per cent 

of people are experiencing 

suicidal thoughts. So a pool of 

five to seven per cent equals 

out to millions of Canadians 

at one time, so the number’s 

much larger than people like to 

think.” 

Around the globe someone 

commits suicide every 40 seconds, 

according to the World 

Health Organization. It’s also 

the fourth leading cause of disability 

for people aged 15 to 44. 

Nearly 4,000 Canadians die 

by suicide annually, according 

to Statistics Canada. On 

average that’s about 10 suicides 

daily. Ontario accounts 

for more than 1,000 of those 

deaths. For every suicide, there 

are about 100 suicide attempts. 

More than 23,000 Canadians 

are hospitalized yearly due to 

attempted suicides. Of that 

23,000, nearly 10,000 Ontarians 

are hospitalized. One in 

seven Canadians consider it, 

and one in 10 adolescents think 

about it. For every person who 

commits suicide, at least 10 

family members, friends or coworkers 

are affected. Suicide 

is the second leading cause of 

death for youth aged 10 to 24. 

What’s more, some studies suggest 

that as many as 20 per cent 

of suicides aren’t reported. 

In 2009, 47 people in Durham 

Region committed suicide. 

And more recently, maybe 

you’ve heard of Jamie Hubley, 

or Mitchell Wilson. Both were 

only children who made the decision 

to take their own lives. 

Hubley was 15 and openly 

gay. He killed himself on Oct. 

15. He had been suffering from 

depression, and was bullied 

for years because of his sexual 

orientation. He, like Wilson, 

dreaded returning to school, 

and facing the bullying. Wilson, 

an 11-year-old Pickering 

boy, suffocated himself just a 

couple of months ago, before 

having to return to school. He 

suffered from muscular dystrophy. 

A year prior, he had been 

attacked by another boy at 

school; his face and teeth were 

smashed into the pavement. 

Doctors told Wilson walking 

could help with his muscular 

dystrophy, but he was too 

scared to go outside alone after 

the attack, his father told the 

National Post. 

About 90 per cent of people 

who commit suicide are suffering 

from depression, or some 

other type of mental illness, 

or a substance abuse disorder, 

according to the Institute of 

Marriage and Family Canada 

(IMFC). 

“The problem is the reluctance 

to ask for help because 

of the stigma people attach 

to mental health issues,” said 

Clarke. “Over a lifetime, becoming 

depressed at one time 

or another is a relatively normal 

thing. I want to emphasize 

how depression is highly treatable.” 

According to the Canadian 

Mental Health Association, 

mental illness at minimum indirectly 

affects everyone at one 

point or another throughout a 

lifetime. Furthermore, nearly 

20 per cent of Canadians will 

personally experience a mental 

illness in their lifetime. 

“Unfortunately that’s just 

not the way most people see 

it,” said Samantha Haines, a 

former GTA resident, someone 

who’s attempted suicide, and 

has been battling depression, 

and the addiction of self-mutilation 

for years. 

What causes or triggers 

a person to have suicidal 

thoughts can vary. 

“It starts with something 

minor that sets you off one day 

- could be money problems, 

family problems - and for me 

it feels like I can’t stop it,” said 

Haines. “It feels like it’s going 

to last forever.” 

Often someone who’s suicidal 

feels as though there is 

no other option. Sometimes it 

seems death is the only way to 

escape the pain, she said. 

Haines was just a child when 

she lost both her mother and 

father. At age nine her sole provider, 

her grandmother, died. 

At 12 she attempted to harm 

herself for the first time when 

she entered foster care. 

She admits, afterwards she’d 

often think about how there 

were other options. 

“But I was always afraid to 

ask for help,” said Haines. “And 

the thought of being on medication 

scared me.” 

Recently Haines has sought 

out help, and is getting counselling. 

For the first time in a 

long time, she has hope. 

“It may seem like an easier 

option sometimes to kill yourself, 

but life is worth living,” 

said Haines. “Sometimes you 

just have to be patient, and wait 

for that moment of clarity.” 

Everything is basically trial 

and error, she said. Sometimes 

it takes several tries with a 

counsellour or medications. 

“And know that it’s okay to 

be sad. But it’s not okay to act 

out on it and hurt yourself. 

That’s the time to ask for help. 

I have a lot of pride, and for the 

longest time I had too much 

pride… it’s ok to ask for help.” 

And there is help out there. 

Durham Mental Health Services, 

The Durham Distress Centre, 

and Aspiria are a few closer 

to home that can help. 

Durham Mental Health 

Services offers a 24-hour 

helpline, one-on-one counselling 

through their case management 

program, short-term 

stays in crisis beds, as well as 

family and court support. 

“We’re a really good first 

contact if anyone is having suicidal 

thoughts,” said Clarke. 

“No one has to go it alone.” 

People can call in anytime of 

day, everyday of the year too, 

even on Christmas. 

“One of the major advantages 

is there are no waiting lists,” 

said Clarke. “Workers can help 

people step outside of the box, 

gain insight, plan steps with 

them, and also just be supportive 

and talk to clients.” 

The Durham Distress Centre 

also offers a 24-hour helpline, 

call-out program, LGBT prideline, 

and suicide survivor support. 

“We can help people connect 

with the good again,” said Erica 

Simpson, LGBT program director. 

Helplines are available for 

anyone in need of support. 

“The call-out program lets 

people know at some point 

during the day or week help is 

coming,” said Simpson. 

The new student assistance 

program, Aspiria, also offers 

counselling services that can 

help people dealing with depression, 

and anxiety, or experiencing 

suicidal thoughts. 

“Students can call in, or 

come in if they’re in need of 

emotional or psychological 

counselling, or in need of support 

for any other issue,” said 

Eric Rubel, clinical director at 

Aspiria. “We can set up a set 

of sessions for students, and 

if issues aren’t being resolved, 

there’s always community referrals 

available.” 


SUICIDE: IT’S EVERYONE’S FIGHT: At one point or another suicide affects us 

all throughout our lifetimes. 

For students at Durham 

College the services are free of 

charge. 

Everyday people can make a 

difference too. 

“You can always start the 

conversation, and then find an 

expert to help afterwards,” said 

Clarke. It could be something 

as simple as saying or asking, 

‘you’re not seeming like yourself 

lately, or today, are you doing 

okay?’” 

Talking about suicide may 

be a tough conversation to 

have, but it could life changing 

for someone else. 

“It’s not up to a 15 - year - old 

to save another 15 – year - old, 

but they can help,” said Simpson. 

“It’s a tough conversation 

to have, yes, but as a society we 

need to become more comfortable 

talking about it to promote 

change.” 

Suicide is irreversible. Take 

the time to save a life. 

“Just keep fighting,” said 

Haines. “You’re not weak, 

you’re strong.”


Organizing medical equipment 

Tracey Fidler 

The Chronicle 

For years, Durham College 

Professor Richard Tidman has 

had a vision: to revolutionize 

the Ontario healthcare system. 

He wanted to create a system 

that would address the 

serious issues within hospitals 

concerning biomedical equipment 

use and location. 

Tidman has teamed up with 

the Office of Research Services 

and Innovation, along with 

students and outside companies, 

to create the Biomedical 

Knowledge Portal. 

The brainchild of Tidman, 

this portal is essentially a database 

where information regarding 

biomedical equipment, 

such as IV pumps, defibrillators 

and incubators, is stored. 

Each piece of mobile equipment 

within a hospital will be 

tagged with a tracking device, 

allowing a staff member to key 

the item into the system and 

locate the device in real time. 

“It addresses systemic issues in 

healthcare that have not been 

addressed before,” says Tidman. 

Currently, there is no standards-based 

system that allows 

hospital staff to track and locate 

devices. Some hospitals do 

have tracking devices on specific 

equipment, but many of the 

systems are disorganized and 

unreliable. 

There is also no way to exchange 

information from one 

hospital to another, as asset 

information is confined within 

each institution. So, if one hospital 

required a particular piece 

of equipment, there would be 

no way to find out what other 

hospital carried it. 

A great deal of money has 

been spent repurchasing duplicate 

items, as many hospitals 

are unaware of their inventory. 

During their shifts, nurses 

are forced to waste precious 

time searching for needed 

equipment. If they could quickly 

locate and find what they are 

looking for, they would be able 

to spend more time tending to 

patients, who will in turn spend 

less time waiting. 

Infectious outbreaks, such 

as SARS, could be better contained, 

as infected equipment 

can be easily traced. Each device’s 

life cycle will be tracked 

and monitored. Staff will know 

where an item has been, whom 

it has come into contact with 

and if it is clean. 

The project began in the fall 

of 2009. Tidman approached 

June MacDonald-Jenkins, a 

project manager in the Office of 

Research Services and Innovation, 

for assistance in securing 

funding. MacDonald-Jenkins 

is also the industry liaison for 

Colleges Ontario Network for 

Industry Innovation (CONII), 

a government-funded program 

that provides financial assistance 

to applied research projects 

between Ontario businesses 

and colleges. 

As a former nurse, MacDonald-Jenkins 

could comprehend 

the scope of the project, and 

knew the impact such a system 

could have on healthcare as a 

whole. 

“June understood,” says Tidman. 

“That was huge for me.” 

She was quickly able to connect 

Tidman with IT healthcare professionals 

Infonaut and software 

company Dapasoft for assistance 

with tagging the devices 

and creating the infrastructure. 

She also secured funding 

through CONII and the Federal 

Economic Development Agency 

for Southern Ontario (Fed- 

Dev), which was launched in 

2009 to help boost economic 

activity and contribute to the 

success of businesses and postsecondary 

institutions. 

“The portal is especially important 

to me as a healthcare 

practitioner,” says MacDonald- 

Jenkins. “No longer will nurses 

waste valuable time hunting 

for equipment. They can find 

and locate the resources within 

minutes, ensuring they have 

more time to spend at [patients’] 

bedsides.” 

Earlier this year, Tidman 

asked second-year students 

from the Biomedical Engineering 

Technology program if any 

of them would be interested in 

assisting with the project. Dianna 

Hau, Jeff Rich and Richard 

Madill volunteered. 

Hau, who is hoping to become 

a biomedical engineering 

technologist, says she got 

involved because she wanted 

the experience of working in a 

hospital setting. “Learning how 

to communicate with different 

healthcare professionals and 

patients will be very beneficial 

to my future in healthcare,” she 

says. 

Once the team was assembled, 

two hospitals were approached 

to be part of the pilot 

project: Lakeridge Health Oshawa 

and Ross Memorial Hospital 

in Lindsay. 

Varouj Eskedjian, Ross Memorial 

Hospital’s vice-president, 

diagnostics and support, 

has been involved with the 

project firsthand, and knows 

the problems hospitals face 

without an organized system. 

“Frontline clinicians have 

difficulty locating equipment 

that they require across the 

hospital,” he says. “It consumes 

their time and effort. We can’t 

have nurses looking around for 

equipment when they should 

be dedicating their time toward 

direct patient care.” 

This past summer, Tidman 

and his students began speaking 

to hospital staff at Lakeridge 

and Ross to determine 

common problems and complaints, 

creating a database 

prototype and assessing inventory 

at the hospitals. 

Through this process, 

Eskedjian said the team was 

able to identify equipment that 

was in poor shape, or should 

have been decommissioned 

entirely. They also discovered 

what items the hospital lacked. 

“We really didn’t have a good 

sense of the life cycle of equipment, 

so having a database that 

identifies when equipment was 

bought, the repair history and 

expenses going toward repairing 

items is going to be very 

helpful,” he adds. 

“I think the largest benefit 

will be to frontline staff that 

will be able to locate equipment 

readily across the organization 

and, if need be, across different 

organizations if we don’t 

have a piece of equipment,” 

says Eskedjian. “Having that 

capability to locate equipment 

and find out what kind of shape 

its in gives us confidence in the 

equipment they are utilizing, 

and will ultimately have a beneficial 

effect on patient care.” 

During this initial phase of 

Tracy Fidler 

BIOMEDICAL KNOWLEDGE PORTAL: Professor Richard Tidman, along with 

the Office of Research Services and Innovation, students and outside companies, 

plans to revolutionize the Ontario healthcare system. 

the project, MacDonald-Jenkins 

began the difficult process 

of securing additional provincial 

funding to build the portal 

and any infrastructure needed 

to support it. 

It took 14 months, but Mac- 

Donald-Jenkins was recently 

able to gain funding and move 

forward with the project. 

The funding also provided 

resources for a third hospital, 

Southlake Regional Health 

Centre in Newmarket, to be 

part of the pilot. 

Tidman is optimistic there 

will be a basic system in place 

at Lakeridge Health Oshawa 

and Ross Memorial Hospital 

by April or May 2012, and at 

Southlake by the end of June 

2012. 

After that, the plan is to expand 

to other hospitals within 

the Central East Local Health 

Integration Network, which 

includes Durham, Kawartha 

Lakes, Haliburton and parts of 

Northumberland County and 

the city of Toronto. 

Eventually, Tidman hopes 

that the Biomedical Knowledge 

Portal will be a standard system 

in every hospital in Ontario, ultimately 

saving time, money 

and lives. 

Internships offer practical experience 


The Chronicle 

It is an experience that may 

make or break your future career. 

Internships or field placements 

are a chance for students 

to gain practical experience in 

their field of study before stepping 

out into the real world of 

work. 

Internships and field placements/practicum 

at Durham 

College are slightly different 

from one another. 

Field placements are mandatory 

for graduation. Students 

are marked on their performance 

with the company 

and/or organization and most 

placements begin in the spring 

lasting a few weeks so that students 

can get the real world experience 

they need. 

Some placements are paid 

while others are on a volunteer 

basis. 

An optional internship 

through Durham is paid employment 

for full-time students 

who look to gain longer-term 

experience. 

Internships are optional in 

most three-year programs and 

can last anywhere between four 

to 16 months prior to the student’s 

last year of study. However, 

the internship is not a 

field placement. 

“For students that do (an internship), 

it is invaluable,” said 

Louise Stiles, outreach co-ordinator 

for the Durham College 

career services. “It is like yearlong 

job interview.” 

According to the Durham 

Hired Portal website, students 

should consider an internship 

for many different reasons, 

including gaining realworld 

experience, applying 

skills learned in their program, 

building employability skills, 

earning income, networking 

and assessing a company for 

future employment. 

Even though the internships 

are not graded, the participation 

is noted on the student’s 

transcript. 

Applying for an internship 

is free, but accepting a position 

will incur a $400 administration 

fee that will go towards the 

running of the internship program. 

Students are also required to 

attend an internship preparation 

for success session. 

To apply for an internship, 

students should check out the 

Hired Portal to look through 

the jobs already posted and fill 

out an application form. 

Students can also book an 

appointment to speak with an 

internship co-ordinator at Career 

Services who will critique 

their resume and help them in 

their search for the perfect job. 

For more information on 

the Durham College Optional 

Internship Program, visit the 

Hired Portal.

Campus 


He’s not a real boy, he’s a medical toy 

Mike Ryckman 

The Chronicle 

“Am I going to die?” Students 

in the nursing and paramedic 

program hear these 

words on a regular basis when 

working in the simulation lab. 

According to the clinical 

simulation program adviser 

Marie McEwan, the simulation 

dummies that nursing 

and paramedic students work 

on interact and speak back to 

them like a real patient. 

Students learn how to deal 

with real-life situations and get 

hands-on experience before being 

thrown into their field of 

work. 

By using simulation dummies 

that can be programmed 

to show symptoms like a real 

person, students are able to 

put themselves in real-life 

situations with patients that 

are close to a real person, said 

McEwan. 

“When we create a patient 

they come with a social background, 

we create a whole life 

for them, “ said McEwan. “For 

example we have a patient we 

deal with all the time. She has 

breast cancer, she’s young with 

two small children and she’s 

married.” 

When students enter the 

simulation patient’s room, 

McEwan explained that they 

don’t see a mannequin, but 

an actual patient they need to 

treat. 

There will be pictures drawn 

by her simulated children and 

flowers from the husband to 

make the room more authentic 

and realistic. 

“Even though you know it 

isn’t real, it feels much more 

real than any other situation 

I’ve been put in,” said Durham 

College nursing student Rachel 

Daize. 

“Having to check blood pressure 

and listen for irregularities 

Mike Ryckman 

“SAY AH”: One of the simulation dummies at Durham College waits patiently for a student 

to apply a feeding tube for practice. 

in the heart is much more interesting 

than just reading what to 

do out of a textbook.” 

McEwan explained that the 

goal is to create a safe learning 

environment where students 

can experience situations that 

will help them transition from 

the educational stage into clinical 

placement while staying 

confident and competent. 

Getting students to deal 

with death and situations that 

could affect them mentally is 

a big part of the SIM lab said 

McEwan. On rare occasions 

professors will set a simulated 

dummy to die even if the student 

treats it properly and does 

everything correctly. 

Because many of the professors 

have been in these kinds 

of situations in reality they are 

able to talk to students after 

and debrief them on how they 

are mentally and how they feel 

about the patient dying, explained 

McEwan. 

According to primary care 

paramedic for the Durham Region 

Andrew Jenkins, participating 

in the SIM program at 

Durham was a huge part of the 

type of paramedic he is now. 

“As a graduate of the Durham 

College Paramedic program 

I was fortunate enough 

to get to practice clinical skills 

on the SimMan patient simulator,” 

said Jenkins. 

“Taking blood pressures, 

checking for lung sounds such 

as wheezes and crackles on the 

patient simulators played a key 

roll in preparing me to be the 

paramedic I am today.” 

Dr. Berg writes book 

on the finite planet 

Matt McPhee 

The Chronicle 

How long can the earth sustain 

with limited resources? 

Dr. Peter Berg, UOIT’s Associate 

Professor of Physics, 

examines this and other related 

subjects in his new selfpublished 

book The Finite 

Planet: How Resource Scarcity 

will affect our Environment, 

Economy and Energy Supply. 

In the preface of The Finite 

Planet, Berg explains that the 

book is about the limits of our 

planet and how physical constraints 

are increasingly setting 

boundaries for the future 

development of the human 

race. 

He describes in his book 

how energy supply and consumption 

are the driving factors 

of human development, 

standard of living and economic 

growth. 

“As the rule of thumb, the 

more energy consumed, the 

higher your standard of living. 

If energy became scarce, then 

the question would be would 

we still be an advanced civilized 

society,” said Berg. 

His inspiration for writing 

the book stemmed from when 

the financial crisis started. 

“About three years ago, I 

was thinking is it really just 

the financial crisis? And then I 

came to the conclusion that it 

may be more than that,” Berg 

said. “One indication that got 

me thinking was extremely 

high oil prices.” 

When Berg came to Canada 

10 years ago, he had read in 

the Vancouver Sun that the average 

household income was 

somewhere around $54,000. 

He had also noticed that the 

majority were driving in new 

cars and living in extremely 

expensive homes. 

“I couldn’t make sense of 

this. I just thought ‘how is this 

possible?’ My natural conclusion 

was that it is all based on 

debt, everything is financed. 

You finance your house and 

your car. Debt is the only way 

to support that kind of grand 

old lifestyle. On a grand scale, 

almost everyone is in debt.” 

said Berg. 

“There has been a major 

concern on climate change for 

the past 20 years and lots of 

money has flown into research 

and development. One thing 

I am saying in this book is 

maybe this isn’t the only thing 

we should focus on, that the 

sustainability or the survival 

of our species just depends on 

planet change,” said Berg 

Having taught at UOIT for 

seven years, Berg is also the director 

of the Energy and Environment 

program. It is part of 

the physics curriculum where 

a student takes a set of specialized 

courses learning about 

environmental issues from a 

scientific or physics perspective 

while still developing an 

honours degree in physics. 

Berg said students learn 

about how energy is being 

used in this world and what 

the sources of energy are, what 

the technologies are and what 

the latest trends are in technology, 

including batteries 

and fuels cells. 

“While you teach all these 

classes you become aware of 

issues that you wouldn’t be 

aware of if you just followed 

the mass media,” he said. “I 

don’t know many physicists 

who would write on such a 

topic, which is a bit outside. I 

guess it’s not purely scientific 

issues. 

“It’s not that I was just concerned 

about the environmental 

issues. It made me wonder: 

How does this whole thing 

work? All these good manufacturing 

jobs are being outsourced. 

Who’s actually still 

working and who is still making 

stuff? And if no one does it, 

how can we all live this well? 

Many of us can live so well 

without actually manufacturing 

anything, it’s actually an 

amazing thing, isn’t it? So all 

of these things sort of came together. 

And I thought, one day 

I have to sit down and make 

sense of it all, and I wrote a 

book,” 

If there was a particular 

group the book is written for, 

Berg said it’s written mainly 

for the younger generation 

because the world will change 

dramatically in their lifetime. 

But it’s also targeted to stakeholders 

who make decisions 

that affect where money flows 

in our society and where it is 

being invested. 

Matt McPhee 

BOOKS BY BERG: Dr. Peter Berg stands by the library 

holding his new book The Finite Planet. 

Berg’s main goal is not that 

he is trying to teach a lesson, 

but to make the readers think 

about issues they have never 

thought about before. He encourages 

the reader to think 

critically about the subjects 

explored in his book. 

As critical as the subject 

matter of the book is, Berg 

managed to make the reading 

enjoyable for readers in a colloquial 

and amusing manner. 

Berg’s The Finite Planet is 

available at the Durham College/UOIT 

Library on campus, 

the Oshawa Public Library 

branches and the e-book 

is available on Amazon.

10 The Chronicle November 29, 2011

The Chronicle November 29, 2011 11


Communities 

share with 

Freecycle.org 

By Ray McNeil 

The Chronicle 

The Global Class is in session 

at Durham. 

In an age of technological 

breakthrough, the class connects 

students with activists 

trying to make a difference. 

“It gives them the opportunity 

to speak to the next generation 

of problem-solvers,” 

said founder Lon Appleby. 

“Twenty years from now, 

when you’re in a position of 

real responsibility, and you’re 

higher up in your career, 

you’ll be the decision-maker.” 

On Nov. 8, students from 

Durham took part in an endof-the-semester 

discussion, 

spanning four countries 

around the world. 

Classrooms from Seoul, 

South Korea and Mumbai, India 

joined the Skype feed for 

an opportunity to speak with 

filmmaker Adolfo Doring, 

streaming from Brooklyn, 

New York. 

Doring is the director of 

the documentary Blind Spot, 

about the current oil and energy 

crisis, specifically peak 

oil, and the impending end of 

our fossil fuel supply. 

Appleby was present to 

start the class off, but he does 

not consider himself a moderator. 

“I’m just participating 

in this, I find it very stimulating,” 

he said. 

Despite some technical difficulties 

with the Indian classes’ 

bandwidth connection, the 

class gained momentum as it 

went. 

With his film, Doring hopes 

to wake people up and attempt 

to get them to address 

the problems ahead. “My intention 

was to make people 

uncomfortable.” 

He added that our evolutionary 

path has its disadvantages 

to accomplish this. “Our 

wiring is to respond strongly 

to things that have to do with 

the short-term. 

If it’s shopping for something 

right now, or saving 

the money for 20 years from 

now, 99.9 per cent of the people 

would go shopping right 

now.” 

Appleby added that, even 

when it comes to history, humans 

still tend to be focused 

on the immediate. 

“It’s remarkable. Generally 

these days I’ve learned from 

my students, (history teaching) 

often consists of just 

studying the First World War, 

the Second World War, and 

maybe go back and do a bit of 

the Industrial Revolution.” 

The governments of the 

world must do what they can 

to increase awareness in order 

to “raise new generations 

with the right frame of mind,” 

said Doring. 

He also added that real 

answers need to be explored, 

and real change needs to 

come about. “Changing your 

light bulbs ain’t going to save 

the world,” said Doring. 

While the energy crisis 

was the jump-off point, the 

discussion quickly evolved 

into talks about political corruption, 

the recent Occupy 

Movement, and the failure of 

the mainstream media’s responsibility 

to the public. 

Ray McNeil 

THE GLOBAL CLASS: Durham College teacher Lon Appleby andhis 

Short History of the World students conducted a discussion, “The Global 

Class” Students from Seoul and Mumbai participated through Skype. 

Global class thinks 

positive world change 

“There should be more independent 

media out there; 

passing along information 

(and) making films,” said 

Doring, who feels that independent 

documentaries are 

one of the last bastions to 

communicate real information. 

The Global Class is part of 

Appleby’s Short History of the 

World elective. 

Along with the classes, 

there is also a website where 

students can upload their videos 

and writings. 

Started two years ago by 

the Durham College teacher, 

The Global Class has held a 

discussion at the end of each 

semester since. 

Past guests include Manufactured 

Landscapes’ Ed Burtynsky 

and Jenifer Baichwal, 

journalist Richard Heinberg, 

and Freedom House activist 

Robert Guerra. 

Appleby said that finding 

people to speak during the 

classes has been as easy as 

sending an e-mail or making 

a phone call. 

“I am finding that there are 

a lot of people out there who 

want to engage young people 

in big ideas,” said Appleby. 

“They welcome the opportunity 

to speak to people 

about important issues that 

are not privy, but matter to all 

of us.” 

Appleby says that’s the 

whole point to The Global 

Class, to kick-start this kind 

of communication and to give 

students a forum to express 

their ideas, and along the way 

“exchanging and creating new 

ones.” 


The Chronicle 

May 1, 2003 a used but still 

useable bed was declared garbage 

after thrift shops refused 

it out of store policy. What happened 

after kept not just the 

bed out of the landfill but over 

a million more tons as well. 

“I started The Freecycle 

Network while working at another 

local recycling nonprofit 

called RISE,” said Deron Beal, 

Freecycle founder, in an interview 

with The Chronicle. 

“It provided transitional employment 

to Tucsonans in need 

while providing valet recycling 

to local shops, store fronts, etc. 

who didn’t have room for recycle 

bins from the city out front. 

These businesses began giving 

us other still good stuff that 

was unfortunately not recyclable 

and I couldn’t give stuff 

away quickly enough and our 

warehouse filled up. So, I set up 

Freecycle.org. And, it took right 

off. We’re a nonprofit org with 

10,000 volunteers and two 

staff members. It’s the beauty 

of working at a grassroots and 

globally local level.” 

The group that began with 

30 members now has nine million. 

The non-profit group released 

a press release earlier 

this month declaring it is now 

the world’s largest web community. 

Freecycle.org allows people 

to sign up to a group close 

to where they live. They can 

search message boards or receive 

e-mails about items being 

offered or needed in the area. 

Items can be something big 

like a bed, something small like 

a tennis racket or something as 

useful as a bag full of toddler 

clothes. Freecycle members 

will find posts for items like 

these as well as bicycles, hockey 

memorabilia, kitchen supplies 

as well as countless others. 

The moderators of the Oshawa/Whitby 

Freecycle group 

have few rules. 

“Keep It Free, Legal and Appropriate 

For All Ages,” they 

said. 

The group currently has 

4903 members. 

Members may fill out a request 

form. They must specify 

if the post is an offer or request 

for an item, as well as a general 

location. Other members then 

reply, whether it is that they 

would like a posted item, or 

have the item another is looking 

for. 

Items may be delivered to 

the recipient or left on a front 

porch for a pick up. Members 

refer to giving items away as 

gifting. Everything is free; no 

one is to use the group to make 

profit. 

Money for site maintenance 

is raised through donations 

and the group has two sponsors; 

Nokia and Kramer Levin, 

a law firm that does pro bono 

work for the organization. 

The group’s mission statement 

is found on their website. 

“Our mission is to build a 

worldwide gifting movement 

that reduces waste, saves precious 

resources & eases the 

burden on our landfills while 

enabling our members to benefit 

from the strength of a larger 

community.”

Campus 


Building bridges in Pickering 

Tracey Fidler 

The Chronicle 

A bridge to the future. At 

least that’s what the City of 

Pickering hopes it will be. 

The new pedestrian bridge 

under construction just east of 

Liverpool Road and spanning 

14 lanes of the 401, will link 

the Pickering GO station on 

the south side of the 401 to the 

newly constructed office tower 

on the north side. 

Durham and Centennial 

Colleges are also a part of the 

project, with a joint learning 

centre at the foot of the bridge 

scheduled to open in the fall of 

2012. 

The two-storey structure 

will feature classrooms, student 

space, a computer lab and 

offices, and will offer eight programs, 

four from each college, 

as well as continuing education 

courses. 

“It will be Pickering’s first 

post-secondary presence,” says 

Mark Guinto, the public affairs 

co-ordinator for the City of 

Pickering. 

The $23 million bridge is 

scheduled for completion in 

the spring of 2012, however pedestrians 

and cyclists will have 

access as early as the end of this 

year. 

“There will be a soft opening 

late this year or early next year, 

but not all the features will be 

installed yet,” says Guinto. 

Those “features” will include 

a mesh covering, enveloping 

the entire bridge, and LED 

lights, which will illuminate the 

bridge at night. 

The bridge will also provide 

access to much needed additional 

parking for the GO station. 

The newly constructed parking 

garage attached to the office 

building on the north side 

will create 500 more parking 

spaces. 

For over 15 years, the idea 

of this bridge has been tossed 

back and forth. 

Guinto says there was “difficulty 

gaining the political support 

to get the [project] off the 

ground.” 

However, in 2006, the Municipal 

Property Assessment 

Corporation (MPAC), which 

occupied a building on the 

northeast corner of Liverpool 

Road and the 401, outgrew its 

space. 

When MPAC considered 

moving their office out of Pickering, 

officials knew they had to 

take the steps to keep the business. 

So, in 2009, Pickering mayor 

Dave Ryan announced the 

construction of a 10-storey office 

building in part of the Pickering 

Town Centre’s parking 

lot, with MPAC as the anchor 

tenant. 

Several months after this announcement, 

the decision was 

swiftly made to also begin construction 

on the bridge. 

“When the office tower was 

secured, it gave the City of Pickering 

a window of opportunity 

to lobby the government,” says 

Guinto. 

The provincial and federal 

governments have given $10 

million toward the project, and 

Metrolinx, the company behind 

GO Transit, has provided $13 

million. 

But the bridge is only the beginning. 

Tracey Fidler 

BUILDING A BRIDGE: A pedestrian bridge is being built east of Liverpool Road. 

Guinto says it is a “catalyst” 

for further development, with 

talks of a hotel or convention 

centre down the road. 

He also hopes it will attract 

people from outside of Pickering, 

and make the city stand 

out. 

“Driving down the 401, communities 

tend to blend together,” 

says Guinto. “This will be 

our landmark.” 

Archiving our 

local history 

Nancy Ellis 

The Chronicle 

What’s just around the corner, 

has three houses, and is 

full of knowledge? —The Oshawa 

Community Museum and 

Archives. 

The Henry House, the Robinson 

House and the Guy 

House are all part of the museum 

at Lakeview Park. 

The three buildings are used 

to bring history to life. 

The Henry House is decorated 

as a fully functioning Victorian 

home and dates back to 

1849. 

The Guy House dates back 

to 1835 and hosts the administration 

part of the museum, 

gift shop and Verna Conant 

Galley—a section devoted to 

Oshawa’s industrial roots. 

Robinson House dates back 

to 1846, and houses the semipermanent 

exhibits including a 

19th century one-room schoolhouse 

and local archeological 

findings. 

“What’s unique about our 

buildings is that they are standing 

on their original foundations,” 

said Melissa Cole, museum 

curator. 

Cole has worked as curator 

for 11 years and designed the 

popular exhibit Mourning After 

about the Victorian customs of 

life after death. 

The exhibit ran from May to 

November 2009 and exceeded 

expectations. 

When the constructors widened 

Harmony Road in the 

1950s they discovered graves 

from a pioneer gravesite underneath 

where they were digging, 

Cole said. The “coffin jewelry” 

found in the graves was used in 

the Mourning After display. 

“I’ve always had a particular 

interest in gravestones,” executive 

director Laura Suchan said. 

She has worked at the museum 

for 22 years and cites Mourning 

After as one of her favourite 

exhibits. 

The museum recently received 

a collection of artifacts 

from the mortuary program at 

Humber College that included 

Victorian era items used in Canadian 

morgues. 

Suchan said these pieces and 

new information will be included 

in the next Victorian exhibit 

hopefully on display in 2013. 

The museum also offers programs 

for children, using archeology, 

wizards and pirates 

to entice learning. 

The programs incorporate 

crafts, activities and sharing. 

The museum even offers 

birthday parties with programs, 

loot bags and dress up clothes, 

available by request. 

Lisa Terech has been the 

visitor experience co-ordinator 

for a year but a volunteer since 

2007 and she encourages students 

to involve themselves in 

their town’s history. 

“If you’re not from the Oshawa 

area, it’s nice to learn 

about where you live,” Terech 

said. She explains that a lot of 

people end up settling in the 

town or city where they attended 

school. 

And if you’re curious about 

what happened to your family, 

long lost relative or friend, you 

can explore the archives. 

The archives include local 

history and Oshawa’s newspapers 

up until 1965, anything 

more recent can be found at the 

library. 

Jennifer Weymark has been 

the archivist since 2000 and if 

you’re looking for information 

on local archival history she 

is the one to talk to. Although 

“sometimes you just can’t find 

an answer,” she said. 

She cares for the collection, 

researches and makes sure 

the museum’s facts are correct. 

“I enjoy the research, digging 

thorough and finding new 

things,” Weymark said. 

Currently she is working on 

the museum’s online exhibits, 

both new and already existing 

exhibits. 

The online exhibits are used 

Nancy Ellis 

LEFT TO RIGHT: Laura Suchan (executive director), Melissa Cole (curator), Jennifer 

Weymark (archivist), Lisa Terech (visitor experience co-ordinator). 

to attract viewers and encourage 

people to visit; they can 

also be used as a research tool. 

The archives cost $5 to view. 

Printout and photocopies are 

available from 50 cents to $2. 

Archival assistance is $25. 

Next year is the 200th anniversary 

of the War of 1812 and 

Weymark is designing an online 

exhibit about the war and 

its impact on Durham Region. 

Currently Milk Stories, an 

exhibit detailing the history of 

dairy farmers, occupies part 

of the Robinson House, and 

next year a new exhibit will 

open about Oshawa’s shipping 

industry, which the staff is excited 

about because of the museum’s 

location on the harbor.


Helping Aboriginal students 


The Chronicle 

Elder Cliff Standingready 

lives up to his name by being 

ready to help Aboriginal students 

in need of direction. 

The UOIT Aboriginal Student 

Centre recently invited 

Standingready to visit the 

school at certain times and 

speak one-on-one with students 

who are looking for guidance. 

“I see a lot of frustration in 

the kids,” said Standingready, 

a Lakota author now living in 

Oshawa. “I mostly give them 

information and contact from 

a native prospective.” Standingready 

says students should 

know that their identity is first. 

“You are a Mohawk first,” he 

said, using the identity as an 

example. “University is just 

training. You would be a Mohawk 

engineer, not an engineer 

who is a Mohawk.” 

Standingready, whose spiritual 

name is Standing Buffalo 

Warrior, survived the Canadian 

residential school system 

during his youth. Residential 

schools, which began in the 

early 19 th century, were created 

to force Native Canadians to 

integrate into European-Canadian 

society. About 150,000 

children were removed from 

their communities and forced 

to adopt Christianity and speak 

either English or French. At 

the schools many children 

were subjected to physical and 

emotional abuse. They became 

detached from their families 

and began to feel ashamed of 

their native heritage. Others 

went missing or never returned 

home. 

One such child who spent 

years away from home was 

13-year-old Charlie Hunter, 

Standingready said. In 1974, 

while trying to save another 

student who fell through the 

ice, Charlie drowned and was 

buried far from his family without 

their permission. Authorities 

refused to move the child’s 

remains until the story showed 

up in the newspaper and the 

people noticed. “It took two 

weeks,” said Standingready. 

Two weeks to raise the $20,000 

needed to move the boy’s remains 

home. 

Standingready, who became 

an Elder after his community 

chose him, released a book 

about his time in the residential 

schools, how it affected 

his life afterwards and how he 

healed from his past. The book, 

Children of the Creator, was 

published last year after he returned 

from a trip to South Dakota. 

He spoke of how his spiritual 

ancestors wrote the book 

for him. “I’m only the one with 

the pen,” he said. “They wrote 

the book.” 

Reactions to his book revealed 

how much it had affected 

people. “I had a woman 

who came up to me and told me 

that two months after she read 

the book she stopped drinking,” 

said Standingready. He 

also mentioned meeting with 

a teacher from a school he was 

visiting whose father had been 

greatly affected by the residential 

schools. “She couldn’t reach 

him (her father),” he said. “He 

put up a wall between them, 

and she’d been blaming herself 

for all those years. I told her to 

find him right now, hug him 

and tell him it’s okay.” He is in 

the process of writing another 

book, with the working title of 

Speak for Us, about the missing 

children of the residential 

schools. The idea came to him 

while he was up north with his 

wife. Standing at the lake in the 

Can he build it? Yes he can 

early morning, he noticed children’s 

spirits running around 

and playing with one another. 

They told him to write again. 

“I made an agreement,” said 

Standingready, who has two 

sons and a granddaughter himself. 

“You (the spirits) must tell 

me what to write.” A traditional 

pipe carrier and powwow dancer, 

Standingready will continue 


HELPING HAND: Elder Cliff Standingready is known for 

helping Aboriginal students in need of guidance. 

to write and speak about his 

past, hoping to help the aboriginal 

students and people of the 

present day. “I think I’m growing 

deeper and deeper into 

the spirit world,” he said. “I’ve 

spent the last seven years living 

life. I want to project that freedom 

to other people. You are 

a sacred human being and the 

Creator needs you.” 


The Chronicle 

From tearing apart toddlers 

toys to building new fancy toys, 

technology was always his passion. 

Paul Ravindran was destined 

to be an engineer. 

When he was younger his 

parents use to complain how 

toys never lasted him. He 

wouldn’t intentionally smash 

them to pieces. But he felt compelled 

to pull them apart, and 

see how they worked. 

“I’ve always been fascinated 

by technology and electronics, 

even at a very young age,” said 

Ravindran. 

Ravindran is currently in his 

fourth year of study in Electrical 

Engineering and Management 

at UOIT. He was also recently 

named vice-president of 

the student branch of The Institute 

of Electrical and Electronics 

Engineers Inc. (IEEE). 

The IEEE is the world’s largest 

association for the advancement 

of technology, with nearly 

400,000 members. With roots 

dating back to the 1800s, the 

association has been dedicated 

to developing technology in the 

best interests of society for over 

100 years. 

The association is no stranger 

to UOIT and DC either, and 

thrived on campus years ago. 

Currently, the IEEE is looking 

to reignite that spark that once 

existed, and get people more 

excited and involved in engineering. 

In the next year and a half 

as VP, Ravindran is looking 

forward to playing a key role in 

revamping the association. 

“I want to do as much as I 

can with, and for the association 

before I graduate,” he said. 

“I want to lay a good foundation 

for current and future students, 

and for the association. 

It’s given me a lot, a great technical 

foundation, and I would 

like to return the favour.” 

His lifelong passion for engineering 

and electronics, along 

with his work ethic is contributed 

to Ravindran becoming 

VP of the IEEE. 

A typical day includes, work, 

work, and more work. From 

early morning hours into the 

evenings, days are jammed 

pack. 

“Classes wean out towards 

the evenings, and then it’s all 

about homework, and getting 

caught up on studies,” said Ravindran. 

“I’m at school working, 

in the library working, and 

at home working. I try devoting 

at least an hour every day to 

something co- curricular too, 

like for the IEEE for example. 

And, that’s pretty much my 

whole day, everyday. Or, I’m 

working on my own small design 

projects like power amplifiers, 

or wiring systems for vehicles, 

that aren’t even school 

related. It’s just something I 

love doing.” 

Even as a kid and teen anything 

electric orientated was 

always Ravindran’s greatest 

joy. From tearing apart toys, to 

fixing lights, to wiring up a new 

furnace in the house, he did it 

all growing up, and loved it. 

“I was always the handyman 

of the house,” said Ravindran. 

“Any of my friends, they ever 

had a problem in the house, 

they’d say ‘oh call Paul.’ And, 

the only difference between 

back than and now, is back 

than I couldn’t put those toys 

back together, and now I can, 

and they still work.” 

As for the future, Ravindran 

has big plans. 

“My ultimate goal is to get 

into the electric design of the 

automotive sector,” he said. 

But he’s not limiting himself, 

admitting there are several lucrative 

industries out there of 

interest. “I want to get working 

right away after graduation…I 

honestly wouldn’t mind getting 

into any job I can, building 

some experience, and eventually 

go on to get my masters.” 

In five to 10 years he pictures 

himself as an engineer consultant, 

or part of a design engineering 

company. 

“I would love to have my 

own business one day too,” said 

Ravindran. 

But until then, his main focus 

is school and the IEEE.



Helping students legally is what he does 

Bobby Perritt 

The Chronicle 

The Bill of Rights grants Canadians 

the right to legal counsel 

without delay. But given the 

cost of a lawyer, your budget 

as a student may object to that 

right. 

That is why the Student Association 

offers free legal services 

through an on-campus 

lawyer for all students of the 

college and university. 

Attorney Bill Reid is available 

to meet with students 

for up to half an hour each 

Wednesday between 8:15 a.m. 

and 12:45 p.m. in the SA office 

above E.P. Taylor’s. 

On some occasions where 

anonymity was a priority, students 

have met with Reid off 

campus. 

Whether it be labour violations, 

slips and falls, issues with 

Immigration Canada, or a child 

custody nightmare, Reid can 

offer 30 minutes of his time in 

person a week and advise students 

via email to educate them 

in approaching legal matters 

confidently. 

Reid, who has an MBA and 

studied law at the University of 

Western Ontario, has done the 

same for students at York, Ryerson, 

Mohawk, George Brown 

Bobby Perritt 

The Chronicle 

‘You can’t evict an idea’ 

read a large sign, displayed in 

St. James Park on the night of 

Nov. 21. 

On Nov. 22, the crowd of occupiers 

in Toronto evaded eviction 

for one day, after Justice 

David Brown ruled that protesters 

were not exempt from 

bylaws which don’t allow people 

in parks between 12:01 a.m. 

and 5:30 a.m. and prohibit unpermitted 

tents and structures 

from being erected. 

It wasn’t until around 6 a.m. 

on Nov. 23 that city police enforced 

the eviction by throwing 

out tents and dismantling 

structures, but allowing lawabiding 

protesters to stay, in 

compliance with city regulations. 

Even the section of the park 

that is owned by neighbouring 

St. James Cathedral was subject 

to the same rules, after the 

church declared that it wanted 

to fully co-operate with the 

city’s wishes. 

Nov. 21 was filled with 

anxiety and anticipation in 

St. James Park as protesters 

packed up their tents and possessions 

(much of which had 

been there since Oct. 15) in anticipation 

of a police raid some 

time in the early hours of the 

next morning. 

A small sign was placed at 

the front entrance of St. James 

Cathedral, which read ‘What 

would Jesus do?’ 

Dick Johnson, 27, was at 

A MAN OF LAW: Bill Reid in his office working hard to help all students. 

home sleeping off a case of 

pneumonia he had developed 

after 36 days of sleeping in the 

park, when he woke up to the 

news of eviction on the TV, 

prompting him to return. 

“Everyone here believes in 

non-violence,” he said. 

Johnson said he was disgusted 

by the decision to shut down 

a movement that authorities 

hadn’t come to understand. 

At a general assembly 

around 6 p.m. a marshal (a 

committee position within the 

park) announced a phone number 

for a pro bono lawyer, and 

and Sheridan colleges and universities 

for 17 years. 

The College Student Alliance 

(CSA), a provincial student lobby 

group, referred him to the 

SA, bringing him to the campus 

last year. 

Reid calls himself a “generalist” 

in terms of knowledge, 

because of the vast range of 

cases that he works on. “But my 

expertise…is being a generalist 

in this context,” he says. 

He considers it a developed 

skill to work with the SA and 

the CSA and deal with student 

issues. Campus clientele are 

different from what most lawyers 

are used to, he said. 

The most common types 

of cases Reid addresses at the 

campus are problems concerning 

social assistance and personal 

injury, along with provincial 

infractions and minor 

criminal offences such as minor 

assaults, mischief and driving 

violations. 

Family law is a common issue 

on all campuses. 

Reid also sometimes offers 

mediation. Mediators, who are 

not always lawyers, intervene 

in a conflict as a knowledgeable 

voice of reason, looking to find 

common ground. 

encouraged the exchange of 

personal information, in an attempt 

to ensure that no occupiers 

would be forgotten about if 

they were arrested. 

“I believe tonight should be 

an artful revolution. Life is artful. 

Be creative in your expression,” 

one speaker said to motivate 

the crowd. 

Occupiers were encouraged 

to create “break-out groups” 

which were three colour coordinated 

groups to categorize 

what they would do in the event 

of an eviction. 

The red break-out group 

And while Reid doesn’t represent 

students in court or 

outside of the legal services 

program, referrals are readily 

available to attorneys with expertise 

to handle the particular 

type of case. 

If matters do extend to a 

courtroom, students can find 

out if they are eligible for financial 

assistance at legalaid.on.ca. 

Reid only offers his expertise 

to students and doesn’t work 

for clients in court. 

But he said that even if he 

did, “I would never see a student 

privately who I had seen 

(on campus) because there 

Protesters upset at being 

Bobby Perritt 

forced out of Occupy camps 

Bobby Perritt 

IN THE NAME OF PROTEST: People hold their signs to promote their protest. 

was committed to protecting 

the library, the media/medical 

yurt and standing ground in the 

park despite the threat of being 

arrested or harmed. 

The yellow group were people 

who would consider being 

arrested, and the green group 

was for people who could not 

afford to risk arrest. 

“Greens” were encouraged 

to stay on the outskirts of the 

park during an eviction and 

bear witness to the events, capturing 

photos and videos if possible. 

Two “reds,” one being Jor 

would be a potential for a conflict 

of interest there,” explaining 

he wished to avoid having 

two different types of student 

clients – paying and non-paying. 

Donna Judson, SA office coordinator 

and administrative 

assistant for Reid, said the legal 

services program grew quickly 

when it was introduced to the 

campus two years ago. 

“We hit the ground running 

(last year),” as Reid remembers. 

Judson has seen the program 

grow in the second 

through word of mouth and the 

SA website. 

The next step is for legal 

services to be extended to the 

Whitby and downtown Oshawa 

campuses on a rotating basis. 

Students can find out more 

under “services” at www.yoursa.ca 

and make appointments 

by emailing www.sa@dc-uoit. 

ca. 

Or stop by the SA office 

across from the Tuck Shop on 

the second floor of the student 

centre. 

Confidentiality is a priority. 

Details of students’ cases do 

not have to be disclosed with 

administration, and legal and 

personal documents are not 

saved or observed by anybody 

other than Reid. 

don Walsh, 20 of Newcastle, 

nailed together a makeshift 

barrier of skids and scrap wood 

around them and chained 

themselves to each other and 

the structure. 

Walsh chose to protect the library 

because of the thousands 

of books that were burned 

when the Occupy movement 

in New York City was broken 

up. “I refuse to let that happen 

(here),” said Walsh. 

The St. James Cathedral 

clock tower chimed as midnight 

came and went, but marked police 

officers made no appearance 

at the park and only monitored 

the surrounding area in 

modest numbers. 

Numbers began to dwindle 

around 2 a.m. but the park 

stirred for hours after that, 

with people staying up in the 

event that police were waiting 

for campers to go to their tents, 

before moving in. 

“I just hope everyone realizes 

this is about our freedom 

of speech, which we can’t lose,” 

said Robin Luona, 34, of Barrie. 

Luona had visited the camp 

several times before and was 

pulling an all-nighter to oppose 

the eviction. 

Occupiers had already publicized 

a peaceful rally in Nathan 

Phillips Square planned 

for Nov. 26, to decide on a new 

location to occupy. 

Toronto is following suit 

with other cities, which have 

cracked down on occupy camps 

across the country, since the 

movement launched globally 

on Oct. 15.

Campus 


Teaching by example 

Kim Moreau 

The Chronicle 

Kim Moreau 

THANKS TO GRANNY: Dan attributes his patience and 

demeanour to his grandmother, who taught him many life 

lessons through music and food. 

As a boy, it’s unlikely that 

Dan Walters, practicum coordinator 

for UOIT’s Faculty of 

Social Science and Humanities 

would have understood impact 

a heaping spoonful of tuna salad 

would have on his life. 

His grandmother’s lesson 

taught him you can have too 

much of a good thing. 

A sociology graduate from 

McMaster University, Walters 

embraces the knowledge and 

life experience he has acquired 

since graduating in his teachings, 

refusing to use irrelevant 

material with no real-life counterpart. 

“I love teaching,” said Walters, 

who recently won the 

2011-2012 Cupples Cup Award 

for his ‘energy, enthusiasm, 

and high social involvement’ 

in the Canadian Association of 

Career Educators and Employees 

for this year. 

Walters career allows him 

to blend roles within the educational 

field with roles within 

the community, which he enjoys. 

He has always been an active 

member of the community and 

a huge fan of volunteerism, and 

promotes the same engagement 

for students. 

“I think if students simply 

focus on academics, they are 

really short changing themselves,” 

said Walters, recalling 

later the challenges he faced 

when exiting university and realizing 

that the piece of paper 

in his hand wasn’t a “guarantee 

to great things in life.” 

It was Walters involvement 

in the UOIT community and his 

extra curricular involvements 

through his humanitarian activities 

that led him to the winning 

of the 2011-2012 Cupples 

Cup Award. 

Walters was the host of the 

2009 Songs Revealed competition 

for Durham College where 

he now serves as a Music Business 

Management professor, 

was the chair of UOIT’s Accessibility 

Committee and continues 

to be an advocate for accessibility 

within the community, 

worked with the Let Them Be 

Kids Coalition to build a playground 

at Oshawa’s Radio 

Park, works with people who 

have special needs, and works 

hard on his music career as 

well. 

“I get to be amphibious,” 

said Walters who loves that 

rather than being stuck in a 

classroom all the time he is able 

to network in the community 

and promote the integration of 

UOIT in downtown Oshawa. 

His accomplishments and 

involvement go back to his 

Granny, who he said was the 

most influential person in his 

life. 

Walters, who was enthusiastic 

about music as a child with 

his “stinky, old records,” spent 

much of his time playing the 

organ with his grandmother. 

He recalls that while others 

were puzzled by his eccentric, 

troublesome days as a hyper, 

young boy, his grandmother 

embraced it. 

She taught him to play songs 

by Buddy Holly, one of his heroes. 

At first, when he had a 

turn to play the keys he would 

smash all the keys at once as 

many children do – open fisted 

and eager rather than patient 

and careful. 

It was when his grandmother 

shoved a pile of tuna salad in 

her mouth that he learnt pushing 

all of the keys at once wasn’t 

appropriate. 

He remembers her shoving 

the unmanageable forkful of 

salad into her mouth and realizing 

that she was teaching him 

that too much was not necessarily 

a good thing. 

Walters says that he keeps 

going back to that day with his 

grandmother who has since 

passed, and adds that his education 

has had the same lasting 

effect. 

Whitby 

campus 

Phase 3 

begins 

Cameron 

McDonald 

The Chronicle 

Phase 3 of Durham 

College’s Whitby campus 

is breaking ground in a 

little over two weeks from 

now. The new phase will 

add a facility for the new 

Hospitality and Culinary 

programs, and will bring 

roughly 950 more students 

to the campus. 

On top of this it will 

provide a full-service restaurant 

and lounge and 

offer meeting space for 

students studying culinary 

arts, food sciences, safety, 

design and other tourismrelated 

topics. It will be located 

on the southern end 

of campus. 

One of the biggest 

changes that the new phase 

will bring to the campus is 

a more equal gender ratio, 

which has been dominantly 

male up until now. 

Darrin Caron, the Dean 

of the Whitby campus, is 

hopeful that the gender ratio 

will even out and make 

the campus more diverse. 

“With a more even split 

between men and women, 

the campus will certainly 

feel more diverse and welcoming 

for our female students.” 

The construction should 

be complete by the fall semester 

of 2012. 

Crash course on student insurance 

A need to 

know for 

students 

Larissa Frankevych 

The Chronicle 

Insurance can be hard to understand 

especially for young 

students trying to figure out 

their coverage for medical expenses 

like glasses, prescriptions 

and the pill. There is a 

website called wespeakstudent. 

com designed to help explain 

DC’s and UOIT’s insurance 

coverage to students. 

Wespeakstudent.com provides 

students with the knowledge 

of their insurance policy, 

access to the proper insurance 

forums. Students can also create 

a profile to track the status 

of their insurance claims, find 

a local medical or dental practitioner 

and online assistance 

from a live agent. 

Full-time students who 

chose not to opt out from the 

insurance plan are covered 

from the start of the year, Sept. 

1 until Aug. 31. The policy is 

one year, for every year the student 

is enrolled in the school 

year. Students who graduate 

this year in June are still covered 

until the end of August. 

Students are covered up to a 

maximum $3,000 for prescription 

drugs. The policy covers 

80 per cent of most prescriptions, 

insulin injectables, and 

insulin supplies up to a maximum 

of $200. 

Contraceptives like the patch 

or oral medication is covered 

up to a maximum of $175. Allergy 

medication, acne medication 

and the Nuva vaginal ring 

are also covered. 

The policy also offers dental 

coverage, and if students 

use a dentist from the dentist 

network on the site they can 

receive up to 100 per cent of 

coverage depending on what is 

being done. 

For example, if a student is 

receiving “basic and preventative” 

work like one examination 

and consultation, that includes 

any X-ray, and or one cleaning 

and one unit of polishing, the 

student is fully covered. 

Students who go to their 

own dentist not a part of the insurance 

policy dental network 

will be covered up to 80 per 

cent for a maximum of $500 

per year. 

Extractions and oral surgery 

is covered for 60 per cent, 

which includes a limit of two 

wisdom teeth per policy year. 

Other oral surgery is covered 

up to 10 per cent for endodontics, 

periodontics, and major 

restorative surgery. 

Students can get a higher 

percentage of coverage for extractions 

and oral surgery if 

they use a dentist from the dental 

network. 

Orthodontics like braces or 

Invisalign is not covered by the 

insurance policy. 

Students are also covered for 

vision care up to a maximum of 

$60 for one eye examination 

every two years. Students who 

are prescribed glasses or contact 

lenses are covered up to a 

maximum of $80 for every two 

years. 

Accidental death & dismemberment 

coverage is also included. 

A student who dies, the 

beneficiary will receive $7,500 

from life insurance. Coverage 

also includes ambulance rides, 

transportation of the deceased 

up to $2,000 and medical coverage. 

Dismemberment coverage 

includes any home or vehicle 

modification up to a maximum 

of $10,000, rehabilitation 

coverage up to a maximum 

of $5,000, hearing aids up to 

$3,000 and accidental dental 

coverage up to a maximum of 

$2,000, to name a few. 

Travel insurance and extended 

health care options are 

also covered under the policy. 

For more detailed information 

that students can easily understand, 

visit wespeakstudent. 

com.


Campus 



MEDIATION: Alternative Dispute Resolution program co-ordinator Virginia Harwood (left) and her class discuss the best ways to deal with 

conflict. 

Mediation settles disputes 

Students: 

Solve your 

problems 


The Chronicle 

Disagreements between 

people are an unfortunate part 

of life. Disputes, at times, need 

an impartial third party to resolve 

the issue. Those mediators 

need education on how to 

deal with certain situations. 

This is where the Mediation – 

Alternative Dispute Resolution 

graduate program comes into 

play. 

“I was involved with the mediation 

program before it was 

a program,” said Virginia Harwood, 

MADR co-ordinator. “I 

was called upon to sit on the 

focus group to determine if we 

should even have a new mediation 

ADR program.” 

The graduate certificate program 

began in September of 

2010, accepting students from 

many different educational 

backgrounds such as criminology, 

paralegal, human resources 

and health programs. Many 

students are post-secondary 

graduates looking to add on to 

an existing degree or diploma 

and to obtain ADR skills, which 

many employers are looking 

for. 

An almost equal number of 

mature students are seeking 

mediation training to perhaps 

start their own business. 

“Our first year, it (MADR 

program) was very popular,” 

said Harwood. “We actually 

took in more students than we 

had initially planned for. The 

students we have in the program 

are very invested and 

dedicated.” 

“We enjoy it,” said Deena 

Misale, a MADR student. “It’s 

not just a sitting down lecture. 

It’s interactive, which I like.” 

Recently the program was 

approved by the Alternative 

Dispute Resolution Institute of 

Ontario (ADRIO), a non-profit 

organization that shares information 

and promotes ideas for 

continuous improvement in 

ADR. 

This approval provides students 

and graduates with the 

opportunity to become members 

of the ADR Institute, enhancing 

their portfolios and 

creating networking opportunities. 

“There was a lot of work that 

went into that (ADR Institute 

approval),” said Harwood. “It 

confirms that our curriculum 

is at the national standard for 

dispute resolution professionals 

and it provides our program 

with integrity. So I was delighted.” 

“They were very pleased to 

know that our program has 

been approved and that we 

have received the recognition 

of that professional organization,” 

said Harwood. 

Misale agrees. “It speaks to 

the dedication of the co-ordinators. 

The approval by ADRIO 

ensures my success.” 

Stay healthy during exam time 

Lori Marks 

The Chronicle 

Santa has already arrived in 

many malls around the region, 

which can only mean one thing 

for students. The end is near. 

The end of a long and draining 

semester and the beginning of 

the relaxation and joyous time 

of Christmas break. The next 

couple of weeks are one of the 

busiest times in a student’s semester 

in school, stress levels 

are high and cramming for assignments, 

tests and exams is 

the name of the game. Those 

last minute assignments and 

final examinations become a 

student’s top priority kicking 

health and all that important 

stuff to the side. 

“You should start studying 

now and developing a study 

guide for each subject,” said 

Mary-Alice Harvey, Mental 

Health Nurse at the Campus 

Health Centre in mid-November. 

“The best way to start 

studying is to prepare a study 

checklist. Using your notes, 

texts, and syllabus, make an 

outline of the major topics that 

were covered in the course. 

Then divide each heading into 

sub topics.” 

Many students are guilty 

of procrastination and tend 

to leave everything to the last 

minute, which results in pulling 

all-nighters. And they are 

also unaware of the affects that 

lack of sleep can have on their 

performance and try to stay 

awake by consuming caffeine 

or energy drinks. 

“All-nighters do not work,” 

said Harvey. “Going against 

the natural circadian rhythms 

(a cyclical alteration in the 

sleep/wake state) of the body 

is not good. You need sleep to 

help you think and process and 

problem solve. Sleep is vital to 

the body along with eating.” 

According to Sylvia Emmorey, 

nutritionist at the Campus 

Health Centre, food and water 

have a huge impact on the 

brain. The brain needs energy 

that comes from food to operate; 

carbohydrates (healthy 

complex carbs like whole 

grains, fruits and vegetables) 

are the brain’s first choice for 

energy but protein and fats may 

also be used when carbs are 

not available. Emmorey also 

explained that 70 per cent of 

your brain is water. Your brain 

cells need the proper balance 

between water and nutrients in 

order to properly function. 

“Drinking water will increase 

energy and also help to 

wake you up, so if you’re tired 

it may also be from dehydration,” 

said Emmorey. “Memory 

loss, lack of concentration, and 

cognitive skills will be affected. 

You can experience headaches 

and anxiety as well from not 

enough water.” 

Instead of water students 

also have an eye for those dangerous 

little drinks known as 

energy drinks. Due to their severity, 

energy drinks will possibly 

be sold behind counters 

in the future due to the many 

health risks that accompany 

them, Emmorey said. 

Abdul Premji, Pharmacist 

at the Bayridges Pharmacy 

in Pickering, says caffeine is 

a diuretic; it causes dehydration 

and can cause emotional 

fatigue as well as an increased 

pulse rate and a nervous stomach. 

Premji also said panic attacks 

and addiction can accompany 

too much caffeine intake. 

“Your body craves it because 

of the boost it gives you but 

after you come down from the 

high you become irritable, tired 

and depressed,” said Premji. 

“It is much better to get natural 

sleep as your mind will be 

cleared and more able to absorb 

what you are trying to remember.” 

According to an article by 

Student Health 101, neuroscientists 

believe sleep is not only 

crucial to the brain development, 

but is also necessary in 

converting memory into more 

permanent and or enhanced 

forms. Everyone loves a good 

power nap. Naps that are even 

20 minutes can improve the 

performance level of the brain. 

The end of a semester sometimes 

means there is no getting 

around the stress. However, 

Harvey, Premji and Emmorey 

all believe energy drinks are 

not the way to go. Sleep is a 

necessity. If your body is sleep 

deprived you can experience 

nausea, hallucinations, confusion 

and even increased stress 

levels. Emmorey suggests if you 

have to pull an all-nighter, regulated 

eating which includes 

three small meals and two 

snacks, proper water intake, 

exercising and fresh air will 

work best.


Miles 

Faber 

and the 

art of 

dance 

Durham College 

and UOIT 

prepare to 

welcome celebrity 

choreographer 

Tara Oades 

FEED THE NEED: Danielle Rocque and Scott Ryall show off some of the food collected during the Trick or 

Eat event. Ninety per cent of the food goes to food banks across Durham Region to help those in need. 

It’s time to Feed the Need 

Tara Oades 

The Chronicle 

Christmas is just around 

the corner. A joyous time, but 

with the added stress of shopping 

for loved ones, planning 

a party, and hoping that there 

is a perfect tree out there ready 

to be decorated, it can be hectic 

for most. 

Unfortunately, for many 

people residing in Durham Region, 

Christmas isn’t all presents, 

parties, and trees, but 

a discouraging time of year 

where the financially challenged 

worry about being able 

to afford enough food to feed 

themselves and their family, 

finding warm clothes, and even 

having a place to stay warm to 

survive the cold. 

According to the 2011 provincial 

hunger count, around 

400,000 people across Ontario 

accessed a food bank at least 

once during the last year, and 

50,000 of that total resided in 

the Durham Region. 

Luckily, there are options 

that can help those individuals 

who don’t have the means to 

live independently. 

In Oshawa alone there are 

many reputable organizations 

with the primary goal of serving 

the people of Oshawa and 

Durham Region who need extra 

assistance. Feed the Need Durham, 

and St. Vincent’s Kitchen 

are two of them. 

Feed the Need Durham is a 

non-profit organization with a 

distribution warehouse located 

at Townline Road and King 

Street. 

Every month this warehouse 

collects about 150,000 pounds 

of food from various companies, 

communities, and grocery 

stores, and distributes it to 

food banks and soup kitchens 

across Durham Region, said 

Fred Borg, a long-term Feed 

the Need volunteer. 

“Thousands of people in 

Durham Region rely on food 

banks and soup kitchens for the 

necessities,” said Borg. “Feed 

the Need is run mainly by volunteers, 

and we are always 

looking for new volunteers…every 

day is a busy time, not just 

the holidays.” 

Feed the Need Durham volunteers 

sort through the food, 

drive trucks to pick up and 

drop off food, and can even run 

individual food drives. 

The distribution warehouse 

is capable of accepting all 

types of food, including frozen, 

canned, boxed, etc. in any 

amount. Individual monetary 

and food donations are always 

welcomed, but people are encouraged 

to visit the Feed the 

Need Durham website at www. 

ftnd.ca for a list of the most 

needed items. 

“We get a lot of canned food 

items,” said Nadine Abdallah, a 

Feed the Need volunteer. “But 

we also accept things like ice 

cream, juice, and any kind of 

hygienic necessities.” 

Feed the Need Durham distributes 

food to over 40 food 

banks, and soup kitchens in 

Durham Region. One of the 

most important in Oshawa is 

St. Vincent’s Kitchen, located 

downtown at 51 King. 

St. Vincent’s is open seven 

days a week and provides lowcost 

nutritional meals to individuals 

and families who can’t 

afford food. 

“We serve about 200 people 

every day, around one-third of 

them are children under the 

age of 18,” said Kristin Raymond, 

a 63-year-old volunteer 

at St. Vincent’s. “Each meal 

costs $1.25, but many organizations 

and churches buy tickets 

and will distribute them for 

free to people who can’t afford 

to pay for the meal.” 

The kitchen is open Monday 

to Friday from 3:30 p.m. 

to 5:30 p.m., Saturday from 

3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 

from noon to 2 p.m. 

“It’s a good environment, 

and everyone who works there 

is understanding, and they 

don’t look down at you,” explained 

a regular guest at St. 

Vincent’s. “I have been going 

to the kitchen for around two 

years now, ever since I lost my 

job… It’s hard sometimes but at 

least there are places to go.” 

St. Vincent’s Kitchen receives 

no funding from the government 

and relies on donations 

from companies, individuals, 

and various institutions 

across Durham Region. 

St. Vincent’s also runs a discount 

clothing store where donated 

clothing items are sold at 

a low price to people who can’t 

afford new clothing. At times 

clothing is given out for free 

to people who are extremely 

needy. All proceeds go directly 

to the soup kitchen, explains 

Julie Ursini, a volunteer at St. 

Vincent’s. 

Aside from Feed the Need 

Durham and St. Vincent’s 

Kitchen, many companies, institutions 

and individuals put 

on food and gift drives to help 

out the community during the 

holiday season. 

Some examples include 

the secret Santa campaign at 

Zellers, which gives elderly 

people with no family a chance 

to receive a gift on Christmas, 

and the Seguin family gift drive, 

which has been going on for the 

past five years. 

“Every member of the family 

gives a monetary donation, 

and collects perishable food 

items, and searches through 

their homes for used toys still 

in good condition,” said Cathy 

Seguin. “Then we wrap them, 

tag them as a secret Santa, and 

deliver everything anonymously 

to a family who needs it.” 

Most of the time the Seguins 

know the family personally, or 

that they could use a little help 

to get through the holiday season. 

“Everyone deserves to have 

a good Christmas,” said Jessica 

Seguin, Cathy’s youngest 

daughter. “I feel good knowing 

that I helped someone out.” 

Durham College, and UOIT 

also do their part in ensuring 

that people in need receive the 

necessities to survive. 

For example, the Trick or 

Eat food drive, which was put 

on by the Campus Food Centre 

on Oct. 31, collected over 2,000 

pounds of food, for food banks 

and soup kitchens around Oshawa. 

“Ten per cent of the food 

collected was put towards the 

Campus Food Centre to help 

students on campus, who can’t 

afford to buy food,” said Barb 

Bryan co-ordinator of outreach 

services. “Around 70 students 

visit the Campus Food 

Centre every month for toiletries 

and food that they can’t afford. 

We are always looking for 

volunteers” 

Low-income families, students, 

and even children need 

help this holiday season, and 

throughout the year, which is 

why food banks, soup kitchens, 

and even the Campus Food 

Centre all need volunteers and 

donations to help run the services 

that many Durham Region 

residence rely on to survive. 

‘ 

Just having Miles 

there, teaching us his 

style and culture is a 

huge blessing. 

Wayane Carrasco 

’ 

Chealse Howell 

The Chronicle 

Have you ever wanted 

to take a hip hop dance 

class? Well now is your 

chance. H.E.R. along with 

O.U.C.H. is holding a free 

dance workshop for all 

Durham College and UOIT 

students. 

The workshop will be 

held Wednesday, Nov. 23, 

from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. 

at the Durham College – 

UOIT’s gym. 

There will be a special 

guest, professional dancer 

Miles Faber. Faber’s success 

has had led him to 

work with many celebrities, 

such as Shawn Desman, 

Ludacris, 2 Live 

Crew, Dirty Vegas, Blake 

McGrath, MC Hammer 

and many more. 

Faber has choreographed 

and also been 

featured in many films and 

television shows, including 

MTV’s Turn the Beat 

Around, Disney’s Frenemies, 

Score and A Hockey 

Musical. 

Although it is a free 

event, they will be taking 

money donations all night 

to go towards O.U.C.H. 

Wayane Carrasco, 

member of H.E.R., is very 

excited and honoured to 

have Faber teaching at the 

workshop. 

“Just having Miles 

there, teaching us his style 

and culture is a huge blessing, 

I’ve been a fan for 

years and so have all of us. 

So its an awesome opportunity 

to collaborate,” said 

Carrasco.

Campus 



The Chronicle 

The birth control pill has 

transformed since its creation 

over 50 years ago. Birth control 

is now available in different 

forms: an oral contraceptive, 

the Patch and, most recently, a 

vaginal ring. 

Birth control is a hormonal 

medication that contains progestin 

and estrogen. These 

hormones prevent pregnancy, 

mainly by preventing ovulation 

during a menstrual cycle. 

They also increase the thickness 

of vaginal fluids to make it 

harder for the sperm to reach 

an egg in the case where ovulation 

does occur. 

“These hormones create 

a hostile environment in the 

uterus so that pregnancy is prevented,” 

said Eaine Dias, owner 

of the Courtice Pharmasave, 

and a pharmacist with 27 years 

of experience. 

“A few reasons why women 

take the pill are to regulate 

their cycle, control acne and 

prevent pregnancy,” Dias advises. 

“Women need to be responsible 

when they take the 

pill, and make sure it’s taken 

every day at the same time.” 

A single packet of the pill 

contains 21-24 hormone pills 

depending on the brand, and 

four to seven placebo pills. Clients 

are instructed to take one 

pill a day, at the same time each 

day. When taking the placebo, 

within three to five days the client 

should experience “a simulated 

period.” 

“Women who are on the pill 

are not ovulating, but the hormones 

still simulate a menstrual 

cycle. By simulating a 

menstrual cycle the body is not 

regulating the menstrual cycle. 

The hormones are regulating 

the cycle, which why it’s called 

a simulated period,” said Dias. 

Birth control is a medication, 

and with any medication 

there are side effects. Common 

side effects can be nausea, 


LOCAL PHARMACIST: Elaine Dias, the owner of the Courtice Pharmasave, and a pharmacist with 27 years 

of experience 

Birth control safety and you 

‘ 

A few reasons why women take the pill are to 

regulate their cycle, control acne and prevent pregnancy. 

Women need to be responsible when they 

take the pill and make sure it’s taken every day 

Elaine Dias 

’ 

vomiting, headache, stomach 

cramping, bloating, and breast 

enlargement. The pill can also 

cause weight gain, sensitivity to 

the sun and an increased risk 

of blood clots, says Dias. Blood 

clots can cause a series of health 

issues including, stroke, heart 

attack or a pulmonary embolism. 

“There is an increased 

risk for smokers to develop a 

blood clot, which is why smokers 

may be advised against taking 

the pill.” 

Advil and Tylenol are name 

brands, but there are generic 

brands available for consumers. 

The pill has generic brands 

as well. The reason? To cut 

costs. 

“The generic brands are not 

better. We have clients who experience 

side effects like breakthrough 

bleeding because of 

the slight different in the hormone 

levels,” says Dias. Health 

Canada advises that women 

who have diabetes, or a history 

of blood vessel disease, heart 

disease or cancer, consult with 

a physician before taking the 

medication. 

Health Canada also recommends 

using condoms to prevent 

sexually transmitted disease, 

because the pill does not 

protect against STDs. 

“Certain antibiotics, and anti-epileptics 

do interfere with 

the hormone levels for women 

who are taking birth control,” 

says Dias. She advises to use 

a back-up contraceptives 

when on these medications and 

tell your doctor. 

We are 

what we 

eat! 

Ashley Anthony 

Chronicle Staff 

We are what we eat. 

Most college and university 

students fall victim 

to the in-your-face promotion 

of fast food on campus, 

but do we ever stop to 

think about what is in that 

food? 

A suggested intake of 

calories is between 1,200 

and 1,400 and sodium intake 

is recommended at 

1,500 mg a day to maintain 

a healthy lifestyle. When 

divided up into about four 

or five small meals a day it 

doesn’t pan out to much. 

What is your favourite 

fast food? A Big Mac and 

fries? The burger alone has 

540 calories and 1,020 mg 

of sodium, now add fries 

and wash it all down with 

a pop. You’re looking at 

1,090 calories and 1,290 

mg of sodium in one sitting, 

and that’s only because 

the pop is watered 

down and sodium-free. 

But McD’s looks healthy 

next to it competitor Burger 

King. The Whopper has 

a whopping 760 calories! 

Or do you fancy a Baconator 

from Wendy’s and the 

950 calories that go hand 

in hand with it? Oh, and 

don’t forget the 1,960 mg 

of sodium. 

Most people don’t realize 

that a single meal at a 

fast food restaurant contains 

more calories and 

soduim than a person 

seeking a healthy lifestyle 

should ingest. 

“Everything that you eat 

or drink leaves a metabolic 

ash in your system that’s 

either acid or alkaline,” 

said Audrey Morgan, nutritionist 

at Health Plus 

Nutrition Centre in Ajax. 

“You become acidic, not 

like stomach acid, but your 

cellular PH. This lowers 

your immune system and 

causes you to get sicker 

faster. Bacteria cells thrive 

in acidic bodies.”So what 

are we supposed to eat? 

“In a nutshell, too much 

sodium and trans fats and 

not enough fibre and nutrients, 

like vegetables and 

healthy meats,” said Morgan. 

“Tea or coffee first 

thing in the morning is the 

worst thing you can do to 

your body.” 

Surprisingly Tim Hortons 

food is a fairly healthy 

choice. A toasted chicken 

club sandwich is only 370 

calories, just skip the coffee. 

But when you’re craving 

for some quick cheap 

food and still want to keep 

your figure the best place 

with a fraction of the calorie 

count is no surprise. 

Subway, or other sub 

shops like Mr. Sub or Pita 

Express offer large meals 

that are packed with vegetables.


Campus 


Zellers on Target list 

Zellers 

employees 

get the 

boot as 

franchise 

giant 

Target 

takes over 

Robynne Henry 

The Chronicle 

When the announcement 

was made that Target bought 

the leases of Zellers, local employees 

of Zellers panicked at 

the thought of losing their jobs 

and wanted answers. The public 

and employees were told in 

January which stores Target 

would be choosing, being able 

to pick up to 200. 

Target chose 189 Zellers 

locations to change into Targets, 

with the Five Points mall 

Zellers being one of the stores 

named that will be converted. 

Target was given 240 days 

to choose which Zellers they 

wanted to purchase. The deal 

was worth $1.8 million. 

The Target chain has more 

than 1,700 stores in 49 states, 

and has been wanting to branch 

over to Canada for over a decade. 

Target made their move to 

purchase some of Zellers leases 

when it was obvious that HBC 

was looking to sell, and other 

chains were aiming to buy the 

leases. 

The openings of the new Target 

stores are expected to create 

20,000 new jobs in Canada. 

Target did not purchase all 

of the Zellers in Canada; there 

is approximately 220 Zellers 

across the country. 

“84 stores will remain 

opened as Zellers,” said external 

communications manager 

Tiffany Bourr. “We are prepared 

for a strong holiday season 

coming up.” 

Target provides six to nine 

months notice to Zellers stores 

that will be closing. 

With 42 stores being told 

they will closed to the public 

June 2nd of this year. 

There is an estimation of $1 

billion to be spent, updating 

and renovating Zellers locations 

into Targets. 

Out of the stores Target purchased, 

39 of them were sold to 

Walmart. 

“Target has not announced 

what will happen to the stores 

sold to Walmart,” Bourr said. 

Zellers is the weakest link 

for HBC. The selling of Zellers 

it allows the company to focus 

on the Bay brand. 

Zellers has been struggling 

since the 1990s, and it relieves 

the HBC of a burden. Zellers 

was considered a tired retail 

chain, which had lost ground to 

bigger U.S. competitors such as 

Walmart. 

With the announcement of 

certain Zellers closing, employees 

lost the job security that 

they had felt comfortable with. 

The Zellers on Townline, 

one of four Zellers in Oshawa 

and one of the three leases 

Facts on Target coming to Canada 

• Target did not buy Zellers; they bought the 

leases that Zellers had. 

• There are 220 Zellers in Canada: Target 

purchased 180 leases. 

• Target could have selected up to 200 leases: they 

chose 189. 

• On June 2 42 Zellers stores will be closed to the 

public, and employees were given notice. 

• 39 leases were sold to Walmart 

• 84 Zellers will remain open as Zellers, Target did 

not choose to pick those. 

that were sold, recently found 

out that their store lease was 

sold to Walmart and will be 

closed June 2.The employees at 

Townline have been given their 

termination letter, and eight 

months notice. 

“We were told our store 

would be closed to the public 

June 2nd of 2012,” said doorto-floor 

team leader Nicky 

Marsh. 

“And Zellers will be completely 

out of that building on 

the 20th, and Walmart will 

have taken over the building.” 

All of the information Marsh 

and her co-workers have received 

is public knowledge, 

with the workers receiving information 

in spurts. 

“The information we get is in 

stages,” Marsh said. “I just got 

a package giving me information 

about how to apply for E.I. 

and who I can call if I can’t get a 

job after Zellers closes.” 

Marsh went on to say that 

she hoped that Walmart would 

give her as well as her co-workers 

an opportunity to apply, 

and hoped that everyone would 

get a job.Marsh has been at that 

location for three years, but has 

been with Zellers for 10 years. 

Some stores, such as the 

Zellers in the Five Points mall, 

have not been told when their 

store will be closed, but have 

been told that they are on the 

list for their store to be turned 

into a Target. 

“At this time we do not know 

when this Zellers will be turned 

into a Target,” assistant manager 

of the Five Points Zellers 

Cheryl Parks said. “But, we do 

know that we are on the Target 

list.” 

No one at the Zellers in the 

Five points mall are sure when 

their store will be turned into 

a Target, but some employees 

have found other employment. 

“Some associates are finding 

other employment, and 

that is their choice,” Park said. 

Employees have done some research 

regarding Target, just 

wondering what type of store it 

will be. 

“Target is a lot like us 

(Zellers),” jewelry sales associate 

Connie Caton said. “They 

are supposed to have lowerpriced 

good-quality merchandise, 

supposed to be a good 

store to shop at.” 

Caton has worked at Zellers 

for 15 years, and is scared of 

losing her job. 

“It is scary, and a little sad. 

It’s a little hard to think that 

I am going to have to start all 

over at the bottom again, that’s 

my concern,” Caton said. 

Caton went on to say it is basically 

starting at square one, 

but she knows she is not alone. 

“There are some people here 

who have been here for 20-30 

years, so I know I am not the 

only one in this boat,” Caton 

said. 

“I really don’t know anything 

about it!” men’s sales associate 

Jessica Coleman said, 

ducking away from being asked 

many other questions. 

The associates at the Zellers 

in the Five Points surprisingly 

know very little about what will 

happen to the store and themselves. 

Most of the associates 

are hopeful to get jobs with 

Target, and only hope for the 

best for themselves and their 

fellow employees. 

With Target coming into the 

Five Points Mall, other stores 

are hopeful it will bring more 

foot traffic to the mall. 

“We’re hoping Target will 

bring more people to the mall,” 

said manager of Whitfields Virginia 

Harris. “We are keeping 

our fingers crossed!” 

Harris went on to say that 

she is sorry to see Zellers go, 

and she is hoping Target can 

provide equal service that 

Zellers does. 

Carol MacDonald, manager 

of Northern Reflections, believes 

Target moving into the 

mall will be positive for the 

other stores in the mall. 

“I think it will be positive, 

because it will bring more customers 

into the mall,” Mac- 

Donald said. 

Santa at 

the OC 

Larissa 

Frankevych 

The Chronicle 

Santa has arrived at the 

Oshawa Centre. 

Kids get their picture 

taken with Santa, a video, 

candy cane and coupons. 

The video and picture with 

Santa are free and are then 

emailed to the clients. Parents 

are asked to make a 

small donation to charities 

that Santa’s Castle is supporting 

this holiday season. 

Santa will be at the Oshawa 

Centre from the middle 

of November to Christmas 

Eve. Hours are posted 

at www.oshawacentre. 

com/events.






Campus 


DC grad animating his future 

Amy Valm 

The Chronicle 

The corners of his eyes crinkle when 

he smiles, illuminating his features and 

animating his face. His personality is 

quirky, and full of wit. Corey Stokes reflects 

what he loves- animation. 

A 2006 graduate of Durham College’s 

Animation program, Stokes is working 

in Toronto on big time animation 

projects. He has such animated heavy 

weights as Dex Hamilton and Ugly 

Americans under his belt, and has used 

his skills and talent in 2D flash animation 

and 3D animation. 

Stokes took a short hiatus to explore 

northern Ontario before landing a job 

with Cuppa Coffee Animation in Toronto. 

Cuppa Coffee is where he worked on 

the Comedy Central show, Ugly Americans. 

The show, which is developed by 

former Simpon’s writer David M. Stern, 

follows the life of a social worker in an 

alternate reality version of New York 

City, which happens to be filled with 

monsters. Stokes started out as an animator 

for the first season and as animating 

supervisor for the second season. He 

is currently animating a children’s show 

called Almost Naked Animals. 

“One day you might be working 

on something and think, “Hey, this 

feels a lot like the story that hilarious 

drunk Swedish guy told me years 

ago,” said Stokes on developing characters. 

“Remembering what he sounded 

like, moved like, how 

he laughed. A lot of stuff 

‘ 

like that might not seem 

to immediately influence 

what you do in animation, 

but it will creep into some 

of your work and make it 

more interesting.” 

The Port Perry native 

found refuge in drawing 

and writing stories as a 

child. His interest turned 

to animation as a way to 

translate those two activities. 

“I figured making a living out of 

animation would be rewarding,” said 

Stokes. “And it has been.” 

Upon graduation Stokes wanted to 

travel rather than dive right into the 

working world. He paid a visit to his 

sister in England, worked at a hostel in 

Holland and visited Switzerland. When 

he returned to Canada finding a job in 

his field proved difficult. 

“I had been away for awhile and 

hadn’t been animating a whole lot,” said 

Stokes. “It took me a while and I had to 

work a lot of other jobs in the meantime 

but ended up getting a job at March 

Entertainment in Sudbury.” 

March Entertainment, 

an award-winning 

entertainment 

company, churns out 

such shows as Chilly 

Beach and Pet Squad. 

Stokes landed the job 

at the recommendation 

’ 

of a friend and teacher. 

He stayed at March for 

10 months, working on 

Dex Hamilton: Alien 

Entomologist, a show 

about the adventures of a young entomologist 

in the year 3000 who saves the 

planet from a villain trying to destroy it 

with super bugs. When he’s not animating 

or developing characters Stokes enjoys 

playing darts and fishing. 

“Be patient and persistent,” said 

Stokes, to people trying to get into the 

One day you might 

be working on something 

and think, hey, 

this feels a lot like the 

story that hilarious 

drunk Swedish guy 

told me years ago 

Corey Stokes 

industry. “Don’t stress out. Be honest all 

the time. Work hard and always be willing 

to learn how to be better. And watch 

cartoons.” He also encourages people to 

stay in touch with friends and teachers 

about the industry. In the eyes of some, 

Stokes would be considered a successful 

animator. But he said success is different 

for everyone. 

“I honestly feel successful if I’m happy,” 

said Stokes. “Staying curious and 

being inspired are important to me too.” 

He credits the people in his life who 

have inspired and encouraged him 

along the way, saying because of their 

support he feels successful, adding that 

you need your family and friends in life, 

so to be nice to them. 

The seasoned traveller, who returned 

from a trip to India and B.C. this year 

enjoys the lenience in his schedule that 

animation has to offer. Stokes said he’s 

enjoyed a lot of opportunity in animation, 

but still sees exciting avenues to 

explore. 

“It’s very fulfilling to hear people talk 

about shows I work on,” said Stokes. 

“A guy came to my Halloween party 

dressed as Leonard from Ugly Americans. 

That’s a great feeling.” 

Health benefits of veganism 

Region nutrition counsellor 

and fitness instructor, has 

weaned. 

Vegans 

‘ 

“Are you trying to tell me 

been a vegan for the last decade. 

She grew up in a meat 

You have to sort of plan. You can’t wake up one an elephant which is a vegan 

morning and be like, I’m a vegan, now what? 

will get osteoporosis?” Asked 

enjoy 

and potatoes kind of family 

’ 

Vallbacka. “You won’t see in 

but never enjoyed the taste of 

the news anything about animals 

having osteoporosis and 

steak, and realized as an adult 

healthy life that her diet wasn’t agreeing 

Trina Vallbacka 

they don’t drink cows milk. 

with her life. 

Her transformation to vegan 

lifestyle can be linked to more bag of frozen vegetables, a bag 

The cow gets the calcium from 

the grass, which is a dark leafy 

was a slow process. knowledge of where food of rice and a can of chickpeas vegetable Get calcium from 

Amy Valm 

“When I got out on my own comes from. In the last 10 seasoned with spice or bbq nuts, seeds, dark leafy vegetables, 

exactly the same place 

The Chronicle 

I realized I didn’t feel well,” years Mad Cow Disease and sauce create a fast easy meal. 

said Vallbacka. “I went to the the bird flu have made people Saying that vegan meals really where all the other animals get 

In ancient Greece, a philosopher 

named Pythagoras be- 

you’re lactose intolerant.’ I are eating. Research, like that food. To make stew, substitute Vallbacka encourages any- 

doctor and they said, ‘maybe more conscious of what they aren’t far off from “normal” it from.” 

lieved in reincarnation. Stemming 

from that he felt eating diet and felt so much better.” Dr. Colin Campbell, finds that and ground green lentils to re- 

vegan to research and find out 

took out all dairy from my in The China Study, a book by a chicken broth for vegetable, one interested in becoming 

animals could mean potentially 

eating a human soul. He her diet, and only ate chicken ly reduce the risk of diabetes, is a lot like ground meat. In as substitutes before commit- 

She then took red meat out of changing diet can dramaticalplace 

meat, their consistency what they like and can enjoy 

preached that animals should and fish, and discovered she heart disease, and cancer. baking substituting a banana ting. Protein can come from 

be treated in the same regard felt physically lighter, and had “I can’t think of something or flaxseed for an egg, or hemp nuts and seeds, any nut can 

as humans - entities with souls more energy. She did more that’s not a benefit,” said and rice milk for a liquid be made into a butter. Peanut 

not to be eaten or used for research on being vegan and Vallbacka on living a vegan doesn’t up the cost by much. butter comes most readily to 

consumption. 

decided she’d give it a try. lifestyle. “One of the biggest “Vegetables are vegetables, mind, but almond, cashew, 

This is one of the first references 

to veganism, which now family are practising vegans, urated fat almost instantly. said Vallbacka. “Rice is rice great sources of protein. Most 

Vallbacka, whose entire things is you reduce your sat- 

whether you’re vegan or not,” and pumpkin seed butters are 

seems to be a growing trend receives compliments about You’re not going to go eat a whether you’re vegan or not. people can’t become a vegan 

with famous followers such as her five-year-old twins, and Twix because it’s made with If you’re having meat and vegetables, 

lentils and vegetables done. 

overnight, but it has been 

Bill Clinton and Ellen DeGeneres. 

Vegan, a term coined and look so healthy and radi- 

by not eating meat you lower is cheaper. It’s cheaper to take “You have to sort of plan,” 

how they have a glow to them milk chocolate.” She adds that 

in 1944, represents the beginning 

and end of the word veg- 

She points out that there disease prevention skyrockets. dairy.” 

wake up one morning and be 

ant. 

your protein intake and your out the meat and a lot of the said Vallbacka. “You can’t 

etarian. 

are many benefits to being She attributes lower cholesterol, 

and blood pressure, they like vegan food, Vallbacka That’s when you get into veg- 

For those who don’t think like, I’m a vegan, now what? 

A vegan can be defined as a vegan, both internally and 

vegetarian who chooses not to externally. She illustrates an weight loss, lower cancer risk gives the example of how not an junk food, like soy burgers 

consume animals or their byproducts, 

and can be put into store once and someone came and arthritis as benefits to liv- 

time they try it. She admits she with sodium. It’s vegan but it 

example, saying she was in a and risk of getting cataracts everyone likes beer the first and hotdogs, which are loaded 

different categories. 

up to her and asked if she was ing a vegan lifestyle. 

didn’t enjoy chickpeas the first isn’t good for you.” 

Ethical vegans won’t use a vegan. Confused by the comment, 

Vallbacka looked down vegans don’t get bad breath, you try something a few times can be purchased at grocery 

Another interesting fact, time she had them, but after Vegan and organic foods 

any form of animal or animal 

byproduct in food or in life to make sure she wasn’t wearing 

a vegan shirt, replying that their bodies. 

it. Some people may have con- 

or in health food stores. On- 

because of the lack of toxins in you sometimes come to enjoy stores in the natural section, 

primarily because of cruelty 

to animals, while strict and dietary 

vegans will refrain from how he knew. The stranger ing vegan is expensive or diffi- 

calcium if they were to cut out a $2 a year membership, and 

she was vegan and inquired Often, people think that becerns 

about not getting enough tario Natural Food Co-op, has 

eating animals or byproducts replied that she just looked cult. Vallbacka gives examples dairy. Vallbacka explains that gets you direct deals via a buyers 

club in your area. 

such as eggs or milk for their so healthy he knew right away of easy vegan meals. She said humans are the only species 

own well-being. 

she must be vegan. 

that sometimes in her house on the planet that drinks another 

species milk after being 

Visit www.onfc.ca for more 

Trina Vallbacka, a Durham The current rise of vegan if they are rushed for time a 

information.


Clean, filtered Brita water 

Lori Marks 

The Chronicle 

Construction on the new Energy 

Research Centre Building 

(ERC) was completed on Aug. 

5 and Brita hydration stations 

were set up in the same spot on 

floors one through four of the 

building. 

“We retrofitted one water 

fountain, so it has a regular 

fountain and within that we 

put a hydration station so you 

could fill your water bottles,” 

said Suzanne Chasse manager, 

facilities services. 

The Brita hydration stations 

were a decision made by the 

architect of the building. The 

ERC building is the only building 

on campus to have hydration 

stations, other than the 

Whitby campus. 

According to an article on 

the Brita hydration website, in 

2008, over 39 billion singleuse 

bottles of water were consumed. 

Of those 39 billion bottles, 

reports show that only 32 

per cent were actually recycled, 

which left 26 billion bottles 

possibly ending up in landfills. 

“We wanted to encourage 

students to bring bottles from 

home to fill up rather than using 

plastic bottles,” said Sharman 

Perera, radiation and 

nuclear laboratory specialist at 

UOIT. 

The Brita hydration station 

is a touch-free and environmentally 

friendly substitute 

for bottled water. Just place a 

bottle in front of the sensor and 

the water will pour from the 

nozzle. Chasse said that with 

the ongoing construction to the 

college, Brita stations might be 

an option if it can structurally 

be done and if it is cost effective. 

For now students should 

Lori Marks 

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY: Bashar Alhayek, Automotive Engineering student at UOIT, fills up his water 

bottle at the Brita hydration station in the Energy Research Building. 

think environmentally friendly, 

head to the ERC building, and 

fill up their personal water bottles. 

It’s fun to go to the 

Durham YMCA 

Philip Petrovski 

The Chronicle 

The YMCA is an organization 

that has been helping people 

for over 150 years, but the 

organization’s goals of community 

and charity have never 

changed. 

The YMCA has established 

over 50 locations in Canada 

and caters to almost two million 

Canadians. 

Strengthening communities 

by setting examples of inclusiveness 

and leadership, each 

of these locations share a common 

goal. 

The YMCA has many aspects 

as an organization and 

promotes health in body and 

mind. With the many components 

that unite the YMCA, 

there are programs and centres 

spread out around the country. 

The YMCA’s fitness and recreation 

centre is much like a 

standard gym, with much more 

going on. 

Sherry Perez of the Durham 

YMCA fitness and recreation 

says, “We’re a full fitness facility. 

So we offer a pool, a full 

sized gymnasium, a conditioning 

room and fitness studios, as 

well as several sports and recreation 

programs and fitness 

classes.” 

Whatever activity you’re 

looking for, or even if you’re not 

sure, the Durham YMCA fitness 

and recreation centre has 

the program. “We have anything 

you would expect from a 

traditional fitness centre, and 

more,” says Perez. 

The YMCA focuses on inclusiveness 

and community, and 

is limited to no one. The YMCA 

also runs childcare program 

in Oshawa. Denise Borkwood 

of the Oshawa YMCA Child 

Care Centre says, “It’s a childcare 

centre, it’s for anybody, 

and available to the public.” 

There are several of these 

child care centres all organized 

under the YMCA. “We 

have several YMCA child 

care centres and they’re basically 

serving the community. 

So a lot of the centres are 

in schools,” Borkwood said. 

“We are part of the YMCA, and 

we share all of the same core values 

of all the other YMCA programs 

of greater Toronto,” says 

Borkwood. “And we do offer 

financial assistance to families 

as other YMCA programs do. 

We share the same philosophy 

that nobody is turned away.” 

Samantha Teney of the YMCA 

Durham Employment and 

Community Services says, “For 

the community we have a youth 

gambling program, which is 

geared to ages eight to 19 and 

it helps youth become aware of 

the potential dangers of gambling.” 

This specific part of the 

YMCA helps with employment 

of people who may face barriers 

or are new to the workforce. 

“We have an employment resource 

centre where people 

can come in and do their own 

job search with minimal assistance, 

and we also have services 

for individuals who need 

more assistance services.” 

To assist young people in 

finding summer jobs, the centre 

has a specific program for that 

age group, “We have a summer 

job program, so we assist 

youth ages 16 to 24 with their 

summer jobs and we work with 

employers in the community 

who are looking to hire a student. 

And we connect the two.”



Campus 


Kielburger 

inspires youth 

of Durham 


The Chronicle 

The sudden quiet in Sinclair 

Secondary School’s cafeteria 

was noted immediately when a 

Janet Edwards, superintendant 

of the Durham District School 

Board, approached the microphone. 

Craig Kielburger, the speaker 

of the 20 th annual Parents as 

Partners conference, had arrived. 

This year was the first in 

the event’s history where children 

aged 12 and over could attend. 

“A special thank you to the 

students who woke up early on 

a Saturday,” Kielburger said 

with a smile. 

He commanded the stage 

with animated movement and 

exaggerated enunciation, a 

long way from his youth where 

he struggled to overcome a 

speech impediment. 

Before sharing his thoughts 

on raising socially responsible 

children, echoing much of what 

was said in a book he co-wrote 

with his brother, The World 

Needs Your Kid: Raising Children 

Who Care, he made sure 

to thank “those providing our 

children with an education.” 

He noted both his parents, both 

sets of aunts and uncles and all 

his cousins but one is a teacher. 

The one cousin pursued a career 

in IT. 

Having founded Free the 

Children at the age of 12, Kielburger 

knows first hand that a 

child can make a positive impact. 

“Don’t believe kids turn 

18 and magically develop a social 

conscience,” he warned. 

Instead of forcing our children 

to complete 40 hours of 

mandatory community service 

or create CVs for junior kindergarten, 

he suggested encouraging 

the talents in children, be 

they the ability to make people 

laugh or being computer savvy. 

In fact, he said, a 10-year-old 

co-op student who had been 

kicked out of previous placements 

due to reported behavioural 

problems does computer 

programming for Free the Children. 

Kielburger encourages 

what he calls the three Cs: compassion, 

courage and community. 

These are referenced in his 

books The World Needs Your 

Kid, and Me to We. He spoke of 

seeing bumper stickers saying, 

“My kid is on the honour role” 

but none saying, “My child is 

happy” or “My child is a concerned 

citizen.” 

The 14 th Dalai Lama told 

Kielburger, “We’re raising a 

generation of passive bystanders.” 

He asked the audience, 

“How do you expose [children] 

to the violence and suffering of 

the world? How do you start 

the conversation?” In a world 

where adults experience donor 

fatigue, he shared these concerns 

with Archbishop Desmond 

Tutu. “College boy,” Tutu 

said, “what do they teach you?” 

He went on that God’s to-do 

list arrives at our doors in the 

form of the daily newspaper. It 

was when flipping through the 

pages of the newspaper, looking 

for the comics when Kielburger 

stopped to read about a 

12-year-old boy, the same age 

has him, who was murdered 

after speaking out against child 

labour, having gone through 

the horrific ordeal himself. This 

is what inspired Kielburger to 

found Free the Children with 11 

classmates. The original group 

name was The Group of 12 12 

year Olds, until one member 

turned 13 weeks later. 

Through research he learned 

children want to be famous in 

order to help issues such as 

poverty and environmental 

change. He put photos of the 

Parliament building, Barack 


CRAIG KIELBURGER: Kielburger spoke at the 20th annual 

Parents as Partners conference in Whitby 

Obama, Brad Pitt and Angelina 

Jolie and Bill Gates on an overhead 

behind him as said people 

think they need to be wealthy to 

make a difference. This is not 

so, he reassured. 

What adults can do is lead 

by example, he said. They can 

go through the paper with their 

children, discuss issues they 

encountered over family dinner. 

He shared memories of 

his childhood, when he and his 

brother would go to Toronto 

with their mother. Though they 

were excited to visit the Eaton 

Centre, far from their Thornhill 

home, their mother would stop 

to spare some change for the 

homeless. If they grew impatient 

or tried to rush her along, 

she would bring them in to a 

small conversation with the individual. 

She would ask a simple 

question like, “May I have 

your name?” 

The brothers later learned 

she did this half out of kindness, 

having experienced being 

homeless herself as a child, 

sharing a tent with her family, 

and half to guide her children. 

They later realized she made a 

point of bringing extra change 

on such excursions. 

“We [as Canadians] are 

more than Timbits, hockey and 

beer,” he said to the audience. 

Later in an interview with The 

Chronicle, he said, “There is a 

great sense of idealism in young 

people.” He remembers as a 

child in school being pushed 

into lockers, because saving the 

world, along with glee clubs, 

was the lamest thing. Nowadays, 

he joked, “the coolest 

thing is to change the world, 

and glee clubs.” 

“There will always be the 

voice of cynics,” Kielburger acknowledged 

but he encouraged 

young people to gain credibility 

through experience and 

research. He himself went to 

South Asia to witness child labour 

conditions in order to gain 

first-hand knowledge. 

The packed ACC for We Day 

illustrate the compassion and 

solidarity in today’s youth. 

“The only place you will find 

Justin Bieber and the Dalai 

Lama talking social issues.” His 

advice, “Knowledge is power.” 

This sentence was reiterated 

many times throughout the interview. 

He wants children to 

not only see an issue, but to respond 

to it. 

UOIT 

loss of 

staff no 

issue 

Angie Doucett 

The Chronicle 

UOIT has begun the 

search for professors in the 

faculty of Business and Information 

Technology. 

After losing four professors 

to other institutions 

worldwide, the university 

remains optimistic about 

the change and assures 

students that they will still 

receive the same high standard 

of education. 

Professors Raymond 

Cox, Tripat Gill, Jill Lei and 

Suhaib Riaz each left UOIT 

within the last two years to 

work at other institutions, 

including UNBC, Wilfrid 

Laurier, University of Melbourne 

and the University 

of Massachusetts. 

Pamela Ritchie, dean of 

the Business and IT faculty 

of which the professors 

were a part, says UOIT 

has always been about its 

people. 

“We all reaped benefits 

while they were here but 

life’s reality is that family 

comes first,” Ritchie said. 

“Being as mobile as they 

are in their fields, you’re 

going to have people moving 

around. We encourage 

them and help them 

and make sure everything 

works as best it can for everybody.” 

With the exception of 

Tripat Gill, who was selected 

to be a tier one Canada 

research chair, professors 

Cox, Lei and Riaz left to be 

with their spouses or families 

pursuing their own 

academic careers. 

“Finance faculty are 

incredibly mobile. There 

are few of them around so 

there’s always a position 

open for a good finance 

person,” Ritchie said. 

The faculty of Business 

and IT remains optimistic 

about its potential new 

staff and each candidate 

must go through a meticulous 

hiring process that includes 

a formal interview 

along with a presentation 

on course material in front 

of students. 

This process is repeated 

for each course. 

“That process is an indicator 

of the quality of our 

faculty and of the quality 

we go out to look for,” 

Ritchie said.


Campus 


Electronic 

sports are 

on the rise 

Brandan Loney 

Chronicle Staff 

There’s a new sport on the 

rise. It’s not table tennis; it’s 

not foosball. It’s electronic 

sports. Coming from underground, 

electronic sports are 

beginning to take the world by 

storm. 

Electronic sports, or e- 

sports, involve the competitive 

playing of video games. It’s also 

known as competitive gaming, 

professional gaming and 

cybersports. The most popular 

genres of E-sports are real-time 

strategy, fighting, first-person 

shooter, racing, sports and 

massively multiplayer online 

games. Each genre has amateur, 

semi-professional and 

professional levels of play that 

include leagues and tournaments. 

E-sport matches can either 

be played online over the Internet 

or over a local area network 

(LAN). During 

professional 

events, there 

are administrators 

or referees 

to monitor for 

cheating. Matches 

played on LAN 

have numerous 

advantages over 

playing via Internet. 

The LAN has 

less lag, higher 

‘ 

quality, and 

competitors can 

be monitored 

directly in case 

they try to cheat. 

However, Internet 

matches are 

still common and 

are also used for fun and exhibition 

matches. 

Video games were played 

competitively as early as 1987. 

This is when Guinness World 

Records held the Video Game 

Masters Tournament. Nintendo 

held a world championship 

of video games in 1990, and 

again in 1994 called Nintendo 

Powerfest ’94. 

Early online and competitive 

gaming continued through 

its youth with games such as 

Xtrek, Netrek, Doom, Doom 

II, and Quake. In 1993 Wired 

Magazine considered Netrek 

as the first online sports game, 

and it is the oldest Internet 

game still actively played. 

Some of the major E-sports 

games are Starcraft, Starcraft 

2, Counter-Strike, Warcraft 

3, Fifa, Halo, Quake 4, Street 

Fighter, and King of Fighters. 

E-sports gets its main coverage 

from the Internet. E-sports 

websites focus on professional 

tournaments and high-level 

amateur games. 

Along side E-sports, grow 

communities of fans and enthusiasts. 

One such community 

is Toronto-based E-sports 

Canada. 

Founded this past February 

E-sports Canada (ESC) is a notfor-profit 

organization hoping 

to bring E-sports into the open. 

ESC has hosted a few minor 

events that they call “viewing 

events,” in cities around the 

GTA. The next viewing event 

will show the finals from MLG 

Providence. 

If someone asks “What are 

E-sports?” Spokesperson for E- 

sports Canada, Adam Wawrzkiewicz 

tells them, “Electronic 

Sports, professional gaming, 

and the best way to know what 

it is, is to be at an event. Games 

have evolved to a point where 

the skills required to play come 

together as a sport.” 

Wawrzkiewicz believes the 

future of E-Sports lies in looking 

at other countries where 

professional gaming is massively 

popular. 

E-sports? Electronic 

Sports, professional 

gaming, and the best 

way to know what 

is it, is to be at an 

event. Games have 

evolved to a point 

where the skills required 

to play come 

together as a sport. 

“Canada has 

a lot of catching 

up to do before 

E-Sports are enjoyed 

and celebrated 

at the level 

that we see in 

Asian countries 

like Korea, China 

and Japan. 

A quick look 

at these countries 

can give us a good 

idea of what the 

future is moving 

towards in Canada 

and Ontario,” 

’ 

said Warwzkiewicz. 

He also believes 

Canada 

will play host to 

more major events and says 

Canada already contributes a 

high number of professional 

gamers to the E-Sports scene. 

Adam 

Wawrzkiewicz 

Warwzkiewicz emphasizes 

the best way for E-sports to 

grow is for the fans to come out 

to social events. 

He said, “This enables people 

to build relationships within 

the fan community that can 

benefit them even outside of 

E-sports and it increases the 

visibility and legitimacy of E- 

sports to those who know little 

about it.” To become mainstream, 

Warzwkiewicz says the 

stigma associated with video 

games, that sees gamers as lazy 

escapists, must be overcome. 

ESC and its members intend 

to operate even when E-sports 

is not at its peak, and plans to 

be the organization that will 

help further E-sports as an industry 

not just as events. 

Even with the help of community 

organizations like E- 

sports Canada, and a large fan 

base, E-Sports has a long way 

to go before it gains popularity 

similar to hockey or football, 

but it’s well on its way. 

Movember is a great 

success at E.P. Taylor’s 

By Ray McNeil 

The Chronicle 

Movember is almost over, 

and as of last week, the campus 

has raised about $6,500 

in funds for men’s health, 

specifically prostate cancer. 

However, out of all the teams 

raising money, E.P. Taylor’s 

has shone above the rest, raising 

around $2,000. 

“Overall we’ve done a lot of 

events and it seems like we’ve 

got some great feedback,” 

said vice-president of campus 

life Derek Fullerton. 

The folks at the pub has 

been busy, raising as much 

money and awareness as they 

can. 

We’ve definitely done better 

this year than we did last 

year,“ said bartender Sian 

Combrink. Combrink, who 

has been working at E.P. Taylor’s 

for four years, was there 

when there was no Movember, 

and when Movember was 

everywhere. 

“Last year I think we only 

had about four or five teams 

on that board, now we have 

eight.” 

The events are in no short 

supply either. There was a 

shave-off at the beginning of 

the month, where willing men 

had their hair shaved off to 

support Movember. 

At the Movember silent 

auction, students had the 

chance to bid on some nice 

Ray McNeil 

E.P. TAYLOR’S: Sian Combrink shows the money raised for Movember. 

items, including a Toronto 

Maple Leafs hockey jersey, 

tickets to a Leafs game, Movember 

computer and Ipad 

cases, and a date night movie 

package. 

There has also been a bake 

sale, a ‘stache party and a 

dirty bingo night, with adultthemed 

prizes. “We had a lot 

of people in here (for dirty 

bingo), it was one of our busiest 

Wednesdays,” said Combrink. 

The teams around 

campus will be honoured on 

Nov. 30 at the “Moscars,” and 

Fullerton thinks it will be a 

great close to a great month. 

“You walk around campus, 

it’s nice to see all the moustaches,” 

said Fullerton.


Cupcakes made with love 

Nancy Ellis 

The Chronicle 

Madeleine Kassinger, 

21, is in love with baking cupcakes. 

That’s why she opened 

the Mad café in downtown Oshawa. 

Kassinger is creating a home 

away from home, with her delicious 

cupcakes and her café’s 

soothing atmosphere. 

“It’s like we are the house 

of kids and people come to call 

on them here,” Kassinger said 

about her café, which is populated 

with students from day to 

day. 

She explains that students 

come into the café and ask if 

their friends are around or if 

she has seen them that day. 

This impresses her, she said 

smiling and taking another sip 

of her red eye. 

She spoke with energy and 

excitement despite admitting 

she was drinking a red eye with 

cream and sugar because she 

was “extra tired”. 

The café, which opened 

in June, has long been in the 

works. 

Kassinger, who studied what 

the city needed before writing 

her business plan, discovered 

that sometimes things take a 

bit longer to get organized. 

Originally she wanted to 

open a “cupcakery” but later 

changed her mind to include a 

café, finding the café a better fit 

for Oshawa. 

Her café promotes locally 

grown and organic foods—even 

some vegan foods—and coffee. 

Of the nine sandwiches available 

right now the chicken avocado 

is their signature offering, 

Kassinger said. There are also 

a couple of soups that change 

regularly, ready for consumption 

and made out-of house but 

with organic vegetables. 

Kassinger feels strongly 

about keeping things local and 

always improving. Her mother 

Gabi Kassinger does the homemade 

cooking in the kitchen 

behind the counter and the staff 

works hard to keep the place 

CUPCAKES: Baker Madeleine Kassinger, 21, opened the Mad Cafe, located in downtown Oshawa. 

clean, efficient and relaxed. 

“I want to capture the crowd 

that is more relaxed about living,” 

she said. She wants them 

to enjoy their space and company.Her 

education helped her 

when it came time put together 

a business plan. She completed 

Fashion Management at 

George Brown College. In that 

two-year program she was required 

to write a lot of business 

plans, which helped her apply 

for a bank loan. 

Facts about baking 

The café has a warm feeling 

with a brown ceiling and white 

walls. Populated with original 

photography and travel posters. 

Tables and chairs, a vintage 

• Madeleine uses 100 per cent butter for her buttercream 

icing—no shortening 

• She boils pods of vanilla bean to use for her baking 

• She is always actively searching for more local 

and organic products 

• The chicken and roast beef is cooked in-house 

every morning 

sofa and a white leather couch 

are inviting and comforting. 

The large front window of 

Mad Café looks out onto King 

Street near the UOIT Regent 

Theatre. 

As a former student herself, 

she offers a 10 per cent discount 

to all students knowing full 

well people want to buy organic 

products but a lot of decisions 

come down to money. UOIT, 

Durham College and even hair 

styling school students can get 

the discount by showing their 

student ID. 

While going to school she got 

a job at the local Starbucks. Intrigued 

by coffee and its exquisite 

art, Kassinger began what 

she describes as her “yellowbrick 

road” towards the ownership 

of her café. She doesn’t 

attribute where she is today to 

anything she specifically did. 

She admits, “It just happened 

that way.” 

Two other experiences she 

deems important in her life 

journey this far, are working for 

Mark McEwan at his upscale 

grocery store and studying in 

Germany for five months. 

Working at Mark McEwan’s 

grocery store in Toronto she 

met his executive chef, who 

was only 24 years old herself. 

She was inspired by this young 

woman’s vision and started to 

think things were possible. 

Nancy Ellis 

“I actually ended up doing 

some of the things I learned,” 

she said. “I learned this (skill) 

but it’s in a different field… 

maybe I can do something 

with this.” Kassinger explained 

about her education and inspirations. 

“I liked food (the industry) 

so much better because 

everyone eats food,” she said. 

While in Germany studying 

at the Goethe Institute, learning 

the language and meeting 

international people, she got to 

cook. 

She baked cakes for everyone 

she knew who celebrated a 

birthday. This is where she figured 

out “okay this is what I’m 

going to do.” 

Kassinger’s inspirations 

took hold after she baked a ton 

of cupcakes in the summer of 

2010 at her cottage. After that 

she was prompted by friends to 

do something with her talent. 

Worried about not having 

any training, she made her 

move— not to attend more 

school, but to embrace learning 

as she went. 

For Christmas snow is no more 

Ashley Bain 

The Chronicle 

With the Christmas break quickly approaching 

the thought of a vacation is 

on most people’s mind. 

“This time of the month is our busiest,” 

says Neil Cruickshank, a travel 

consultant at Durham Travel in Courtice. 

“A lot of people are taking advantage 

of the fact that the kids are off.” 

With the main objective of escaping 

the cold, people are hoping to trade the 

ice and snow for a more tropical climate. 

“We get a lot of requests for Cuba, 

Mexico and the Dominican,” said 

Cruickshank. “Jamaica is a popular one 

as well.” 

But don’t get sucked into a cheap 

price tag because you’re desperate to get 

out of here. 

According to Cruickshank, many resorts’ 

prices may look good but because 

they are only say three stars, they will 

leave you with bad food, bad rooms and 

a bad vacation. 

“There are parts of places, say Cuba, 

where people think, ‘Wow, what a good 

price, I can’t pass that up’ but when they 

get there they realize why it was such a 

good price,” said Criuckshank. 

“If you’re paying $300 to go to Cuba 

for a week and a half, you have to realize 

you’re going to get the real Cuba, not the 

tourist Cuba that everyone wants.” 

When vacationing there are a few 

things you should look for when picking 

a resort. 

“You want to find a resort that offers 

activities that you can do on the resort, 

like karaoke or different shows that 

you can go see at night,” according to 

Cruickshank. 

“The number one most important 

thing you want on your vacation is a 

good room and great food, and of course 

an overall great experience. Don’t settle 

on something because the price is 

cheap.” 

But when it comes down to it, the one 

thing every traveller worries about is 

money. 

“To get everything that will have 

you saying ‘Remember when we went 

to Cuba that one Christmas? Wasn’t 

that a great trip’ you should be prepared 

to pay anywhere around $800 

to $1,000. Now remember, depending 

on where and what dates you go, 

prices will change,” said Cruickshank. 

“Book through a travel agent, “says 

Cruickshank. “They can look out for 

deals for you and suggest things you 

would never have thought of on your 

own.”


Entertainment 

Full 

show for 

Whitby 

venue 

Amanda Darrock 

The Chronicle 


NO FEAR FOR THE DYING: The Dying Arts founders Mike Portoghese and Joe Torchina express their playful 

personalities both on and off the stage. 

The Christmas spirit 

gets a musical touch as 

Hollowick prepares to rock 

the Wrokstarz Club and 

Venue in Whitby on Dec. 

16. “It’s going to be a great 

time,” says lead singer Nathan 

Peyton. 

The show, which also 

features the musical talents 

of Patrick Dorie and 

The Honest Thieves and 

The Bootleg Glory, starts 

at 8:30p.m and is hosted 

by Matt Diamond of 94.9 

The Rock. 

Tickets are available 

through the bands, Isabellas 

café, or at the door. 

Dying Arts visit DC 


The Chronicle 

Struggle is an experience 

that can make or break a person. 

For Toronto Indie band, 

The Dying Arts, struggle has 

forced them to strive for their 

goals. 

With an upcoming show at 

E.P. Taylor’s on Nov. 29, an 

album that will hopefully be 

released next February, and 

all after going public with their 

music in September of this 

year, the four-piece band has 

much to look forward to. 

“A lot of things aligned for us 

to meet up,” said Joe Torchina, 

drummer for the band, about 

how he met singer/guitarist 

Mike Portoghese and started 

the band. “We were on two different 

ends of the spectrum, 

didn’t know of each other‘s existence.” 

Torchina was introduced to 

Portoghese through his drum 

teacher. 

Torchina had been seeing a 

drum teacher to help with his 

application to Humber College 

for the jazz music program. 

Portoghese was looking for a 

drummer, which would hopefully 

lead to a band. 

It was through this meeting 

that the Dying Arts gained 

its foundation. They jammed 

together a couple times before 

Torchina went back to school. 

They parted ways, but call it 

destiny, they met up again a 

year and a half later, and this 

meeting was the determining 

factor as it helped Portoghese 

as a musician. 

“Joe waited around for me to 

catch up. I’d never really played 

in a band before. I’d played with 

guys but he was like my training 

wheels,” says Portoghese. 

Working on songs as a duo, 

the song added an additional 

guitar play, Daniel Scuglia, and 

a bassist, Simon Poole. Using 

the five or six songs that Portoghese 

had written previous 

to starting The Dying Arts, 

they have collaborated with the 

songs that Torchina and Portoghese 

had originally worked 

on to create musical masterpieces. 

It was Scuglia who came up 

for the name of the band. It was 

while he was creating a guitar 

riff he made the comment “this 

is a dying art.” Everyone in the 

band loved it. 

“It’s intelligently crafted garage 

punk with a growly, dirty 

sound to it,” says Torchina. 

Influenced by bands such as 

The Stooges and Radiohead, 

the band aspires to create only 

raw, power sounds. “I like 

music with real passion, not 

fake bloated music,” said Portoghese. 

When the band is not working 

on their own music, they focus 

on their other aspirations. 

Poole is a musical composer, 

Scuglia works as a Fed-ex delivery 

man, Portoghese works 

in video as a director and FX 

specialist, whose recent accomplishment 

was winning an 

MMVA award for his work on 

the Danny Fernandez ft. Belly 

video entitled Automatic. 

“We try to keep it separate, 

even though people may give 

a second look at the band and 

say, “oh, the singer won an 

MMVA”, but I don’t want people 

to give attention because of 

that. We want them to focus on 

the music,” said Portoghese. 

Torchina focuses his life on 

drumming. After being misdiagnosed 

with HIV during 

a routine checkup, Torchina 

went through a very dark period 

where nothing mattered. 

This misdiagnosis made him 

reconsider his life, which included 

a four-year relationship, 

a job in the chemistry field, 

which he had acquired a degree 

in, and plans to buy a house. 

Six weeks after his first diagnosis 

he was told that he did 

not have HIV. His next move 

was to break up with his girlfriend, 

quit his job, and use the 

money he had saved for a house 

to spend the next six months 

drumming. 

“After that, life is pointless 

if you’re not doing what you 

love,” said Torchina. 

“Music to me means struggle,” 

said Portoghese. His 

songs, which have a hint of 

angst, come from a 10-year let 

down in his video career. After 

graduation he was getting 

known for low-quality rap videos 

which were hindering his 

hopes to make better videos 

and make it in his career. Portoghese 

kept getting stepped on 

by others in the industry until 

last year, as he worked on the 

FX for videos, he would make 

directors videos huge and never 

get credit. 

He would write songs based 

on this feeling of letdown and 

disappointment. 

Through their music, they 

have gained notice in the industry, 

including John Wozniak 

from Marcy’s Playground, 

who heard the band and has 

been helping them by allowing 

them to record in his milliondollar 

studio. 

This studio is where Led 

Zepplin recorded Whole Lotta 

Love. 

They are looking to have 

their album out by February of 

next year. 

After their unveiling show 

at Silver Dollar, the band looks 

forward to performing at E.P. 

Taylor’s on Tuesday, Nov. 29 

for students. 

“We are excited to get out to 

the public and perform,”says 

Portoghese. 

A new 

Occupy 

event 

for 

Oshawa 


The Chronicle 

Bola, at 20 Simcoe St. 

N. is hosting an art event 

Dec. 3: Occupy Wall Space. 

The event will take place 

in the evening from 6 p.m. 

to 10 p.m. 

The first floor of the 

downtown store will show 

artwork, including pieces 

done by shop owner Monique 

Brent. The second 

floor will be celebrating 

the SlowCity Magazine 3 

launch party. There will be 

music and performances 

by Durham Shoestring 

Performers and poet Allison 

Worne. 

“This is an event not to 

be missed!” said Brent. 

Art on display will be for sale.

38 The Chronicle November 29, 2011 Entertainment 

54-40 rock out in Oshawa 

Angie Doucett 

The Chronicle 

On a rainy weekend in November, 

Oshawa’s Regent Theatre 

was dazzled by Canadian 

legends 54-40. 

After 30 years in the music 

industry producing albums and 

a number of popular hits such 

as Ocean Pearl, She La and I Go 

Blind, the band made a stop in 

Oshawa to promote their new 

album Lost in the City. 

The recently restored Regent 

theatre welcomed a full house 

of screaming fans. A crescendo 

of “Yeah Neil!” sent tremors of 

excitement through the crowd 

as Neil Osborne, Brad Merrit, 

Dave Genn and Matt Johnson 

filled the stage. 

It was an intimate show 

full of nostalgic 54-40 classics 

and a tribute to fallen soldiers 

with an acoustic song opening 

for their 1987 hit, One Gun. 

Alongside their classics, 54- 

40 slipped in a few new songs 

from Lost in the City including 

a song of the same title. 

Brad Merritt, who co-founded 

the group in 1981, said the 

new album is more present and 

emotive than previous albums. 

Lost in the City takes much 

of its influence from classic 

blues songs and references old 

lyrics, applying them to the 

world today where other albums 

often reflected an alternative 

post-punk style. 

Frontman Neil Osborne and 

his daughter Kandle came up 

with the concept of the new album 

and video, which follows 

a mime on his way through the 

city. 

“We’re not lost in the city, 

we’re lost in the future,” Osborne 

said to the crowd during 

the show. 

Unlike many bands who 

often play and promote their 

new songs while touring, 54-40 

played many classic tunes with 

a variety of instruments beyond 

the basic two-guitar, drum and 

bass setup, that brought the 

crowd dancing to its feet at the 

front of the stage. 

On Oct. 23, 54-40 was 

awarded the Hall of Fame 

award at the Western Canadian 

Music awards. 

“It was an honour to be a 

part of something like that,” 

Bassist and founder Brad Merritt 

said in an interview before 

the show. “It started because 

we were passionate about music 

and to be honoured by our 

peers felt good.” 

But success rarely comes 

without hardship. Ranging 

from 18 to 20 years old when 

the group started, Merrit said 

they faced challenges when it 

came to getting along. 

“You’re trying to define your 

Angie Doucett 

54-40: Neil Osborne, lead singer of the Canadian legends 54-40, rocks on stage 

at Oshawa’s Regent Theatre. 

place in the band while keeping 

your own ego in check for 

the good of the group,” Merritt 

said. “But we were all very process 

oriented and still are. We 

keep putting things in front of 

us and just do it.” 

It wasn’t the first time 54-40 

has rocked Oshawa. Performing 

In previous years at Durham 

College and formerly Le 

Skratch in 2006, 54-40 is no 

stranger to the ‘Shwa. 

Broken 

Arts 

host new 

event 


The Chronicle 

Broken Arts will be presenting 

‘Soundtracked 22: 

… And the Night’ Nov. 26 

and ‘Soundtracked 23: A 

Very Broken Arts Christmas’ 

Dec. 10. Both will 

take place in Mad Café, a 

downtown Oshawa business 

at 38 King St E. 

Soundtracked 22 will 

have musical performances 

by Moon King, Odonis 

Odonis and The Undrummer. 

The evening event 

from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. will 

have a moon theme. 

“Where will you be when 

the world ends next year? 

How will you face the last 

days of this dying planet? 

Some turn to the bible. 

Some turn to the bottle. 

We turn to the moon,” the 

Facebook event page says 

hauntingly. 

Soundtracked 23 is 

a daytime event, also at 

Mad Café from 10 a.m. to 

4 p.m. Twenty-three will 

be another musical event 

with bands Alley Kat and 

the Boozehounds, Bloody 

Boy Blue, Chris and Cassy, 

Darling Meadow, Katrina 

James, Nick Reynolds and 

Watershed Hour. 

Admission is free. “But 

we’ll be accepting donations 

of money, food, beds, 

toys, or anything else petrelated 

for the Cat Town 

animal shelter.” 

Carrasco dances his way to the top 


The Chronicle 

With his parents and 

grandma pushing Moto music 

on him at age 3, Wayne 

Carrasco found not only his 

love, but passion for hip hop 

dance. 

Although he never took part 

in any formal dance lessons, 

Carrasco’s determination and 

ambition has led him to have 

success in the dance industry. 

From meeting Drake, Peter 

Jackson and Karl Wolf at the 

MMVA’s (Much More Music 

Video Awards), to performing 

before Classified at Campusfest, 

Carrasco’s list of celebrity 

encounters keeps growing. 

He has also met, Lady 

Gaga, T Pain, Jabbawockeez 

and Busta Rhymes 

at various dance events. 

On campus the Digital Video 

student is known as the founder 

and manager of The Geek- 

Freaks, a competitive hip hop 

dance group. 

Taking part in many competitions, 

the GeekFreaks have 

won several awards, with their 

most recent being O.U.C.H. 

(Ontario University College 

Competition of Hip Hop). In 

the past they have also won 

Dance Champions 2010 as 

well as Summer Jam 2010 in 

Toronto.The GeekFreaks are 

extremely youth orientated, 

participating in Youth Day in 

2010-2011. They also had the 

privilege of dancing at Z103’s 

Summer Rush 2007-2008, 

and Campusfest 2010-2011. 

Some titles Carrasco has 

obtained himself are first 

place overall duet at Humber 

Hype 2010, the Choreography 

Scholarship Award of $1,000 

for the GeekFreaks routine at 

Humber Hype 2011 and first 

place Hip-Hop Award at BAM 

2010 also taking place in Toronto. 

In 2008 Carrasco enrolled 

at Durham Collage and also 

started The GeekFreaks that 

same year. Original GeekFreaks 

group came together in 

2006 when Carrasco and his 

friends would get-together to 

share their dance skills such 

as popping, locking, bobbing, 

freestyle and hip hop. 

While managing and choreographing 

routines for the 

GeekFreaks, in 2009 Carrasco 

also created H.E.R. (Hip Hop 

in its Essence and Realness), a 

club on campus that introduces 

members to the elements of 

hip hop. 

His love for hip hop dance 

is extremely strong. “ I bleed 

H.E.R. and GeekFreaks,” said 

Carrasco. “ I never had something 

mean so much to me and 

Wayne Carasco 

WAYNE CARRASCO: Creator of Durham’s GeekFreaks 

and H.E.R. 

to have something that can 

make a positive difference in 

peoples lives, it’s a cool feeling.” 

His favourite part about being 

in The GeekFreaks is the 

time they spend together both 

on and off the dance floor. 

“It really is just one big family.”


Miles Faber helps 

H.E.R. host workshop 


A hellish new 

sequel to an 

Kamesha Horne-Simmons 

The Chronicle 

Everyone ready? One and two and three and 

four! 

H.E.R. hosted a free dance workshop here on 

campus Nov. 23 featuring special guest Miles Faber! 

All Durham College and UOIT students were 

welcome to come and learn some choreography 

from Faber. 

Faber was third runner-up on season one of 

So You Think You Can Dance Canada. 

He will also be one of the judges at OUCH 

Nov. 26. “We cover jazz, hip-hop, popping, b- 

boy, funk, soul, a little bit of salsa, all the urban 

stuff,” said Faber “We travel all over Canada to 

doing dances workshops.” 

Alexandra Crenian, Faber’s assistant said, 

“With the workshops sometimes we help each 

other out if we’re available, and it kind of happened 

we fell into doing a dual teaching together.” 

Wayne Carrasco has known Faber for a couple 

years now. He’s met him at dance competitions 

and they have become good friends. 

“When I heard that we were hosting OUCH 

I knew he was the perfect fit, so I was, ‘like we 

need to bring him out.’ And for OUCH week I 

wanted to do a whole prep thing for OUCH to get 

people hyped up, so one of the things we decided 

Disney Live! 

at GM Centre 


The Chronicle 

Disney Live! A special stage event featuring 

three classic Disney fairy tales is coming 

to the General Motors Centre on Jan 12. 

The event features familiar faces such as 

Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy, Snow 

White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, 

Beauty and the Beast and much more. 

The story centres on Mickey and the gang 

as they bring classic fairy tale adventures to 

life through the pages of a magical storybook 

they find in Mickey’s attic. 

There will be a morning show at 10:30 and 

an evening show at 6:30 with tickets ranging 

from $27 to $67. 

to do was the workshop with Miles.” 

The workshop started off with meeting Faber 

and his assistant Crenian, who was also a So You 

Think You Can Dance Canada contestant for season 

three. 

He started off with some simple moves to get 

the class warmed up and a little history lesson on 

hip-hop dancing. After 45 minutes, the class was 

pumped to start choreography to Neyo’s song, 

One in a Million. 

A lot of the students started to pick up the 

choreography fairly quickly and the class was 

excited and eager to continue on with the rest of 

the routine. 

The class was split up into two groups, and 

during the routine Faber would give out some 

pointers. 

By the end of the workshop the class was able 

to go through the whole routine with no mistakes. 

“I found it really interesting. It was different 

for me, out of my element because I’m a b-boy 

and I didn’t really know much about hip-hop or 

choreography in general,” said Roberto Lloren, a 

dancer from H.E.R.“I’m more of a freestyler but 

a few of my friends… convinced me to go here, 

and it was really worth it.” 

“I thought it was really good, it was really informative,” 

said Christian Julal, executive member 

and freestyle dancer from H.E.R. 

Another 

Cirque tour 

for a new year 


The Chronicle 

The internationally acclaimed Cirque du Soleil 

show Quidam is coming to the General Motors 

Centre from Jan 4 to 8. 

The tour has performed on five different continents 

since it’s debut show in Montreal in 1996. 

The cast, which features 52 musicians, acrobats, 

singers and characters, began their North 

American tour in December 2010. 

Adult tickets range from $38-$104.50, child 

tickets from $31-$85.50 and senior and student 

tickets from $34.50-89.75. 

old nightmare 

Cooper’s 

19th studio 

album 

renews the 

chills 


The Chronicle 

American rock star Alice 

Cooper released his 19th album 

in October. 

Intended to be a sequel to 

his first solo album Welcome 

to My Nightmare, it’s aptly 

titled Welcome 2 my Nightmare. 

Despite the 

unimaginative 

title, the 

first track, I am 

Made of You, is 

a hauntingly serene 

song that 

takes the listener 

back to Cooper’s 

early days, but 

adds a modern 

flare with vocal 

effects and synthesizers. 

‘ 

The album incorporates 

bits and pieces 

of Cooper’s different 

styles throughout the 

years 

’ 

It’s also one of the few 

tracks on the album that 

could be considered a single. 

One of the more interesting 

songs is What Baby 

Wants, a song that Cooper 

recorded with pop artist 

Ke$ha. The song has all the 

makings of a great dance 

track if enhanced more by a 

DJ. 

Writing about the macabre 

has always been a strong 

suit for Cooper and Disco 

Bloodbath Boogie Fever fits 

that theme as probably the 

weirdest song on the album. 

The lyrics talk about a massacre 

at a disco club. 

The album itself does indeed 

pick up where the first 

album left off. 

In Welcome to my nightmare 

Cooper tells a story of 

a child proceeding through 

what seems like a nightmare. 

In Welcome 2 My Nightmare 

it is revealed that this 

child, now a grown man, is 

actually dead and in hell. 

The album incorporates 

bits and pieces of Cooper’s 

different styles throughout 

the years. 

Songs like I am Made of 

You, will remind you of the 

opening track of his first album, 

Welcome to my Nightmare. 

And songs 

like When 

Hell Comes 

Home are 

reminiscent 

of his 

late eighties 

works such 

as Feed my 

Frankenstein 

and Freedom. 

Cooper 

ends the album 

with an underture, a 

skillfully arranged instrumental 

bit that spans both 

the first album and the sequel. 

For anyone who is an Alice 

Cooper fan this album is a 

definite buy, but if you aren’t 

used to Cooper’s lyrics and 

his way of playing, you might 

consider listening to some 

of his other albums before 

weighing in on this one.




Record show brings the music 

Derek Morton 

The Chronicle 

From Abba to Zappa, the 17 th 

Oshawa CD/record show had it 

all. The event, held at the Oshawa 

Royal Canadian Legion on 

Sunday, Nov. 20, had vendors 

and fans of music looking to 

sell or expand their music collection. 

The show has been running 

on and off since 1988. Vendors 

from all over the GTA came 

to sell their selection of CDs, 

DVDs, posters, band T-shirts 

and vinyl records. 

“The event normally gets 

around 200 to 300 people at 

one of our shows, not including 

the vendors,” said Sonia Lanzillotti, 

the event organizer. 

“I helped my friend run the 

show when it was in Whitby. 

We then moved to Oshawa and 

have been here for a while.” 

Many of the vendors at the 

event are owners of record 

stores who take the products to 

record shows like this all over 

the GTA. 

“We normally get a lot of 

business during these shows,” 

said Matt Crawford, the owner 

of the Vinyl Alibi in downtown 

Bowmanville. 

“It’s cool to see all these 

people in one area. We can 

sometimes get a weeks worth of 

customers in a few hours doing 

one of these shows.” 

Some like Allan VanDeBogart 

work at flea markets on 

weekends and come to these 

shows to get different customers. 

“I do flea markets and some 

wholesales to stores in the area. 

Coming to these events is a 

good way of selling my collection.” 

Others like John Ritson 

owned their own music stores 

but had to sell due to the turn 

in the economy and the music 

business. 

“I’ve been selling off what’s 

left of our stock at these shows 

for a while. I also try to find 

things that vendors at these 

shows don’t normally get, like 

picture discs or foreign imports.” 

Some of the other vendors 

are collectors looking to sell off 

their large collections to make 

more room in their houses. 

“It’s a hobby,” Gregg Daniell 

said while looking through another 

vendor display. “I’ve been 

in this business for a number 

off and on. 

I like the smell of the vinyl 

and love coming to these 

shows. I can sell some of my 

collection and maybe find a few 

new items. ” 

For music collectors and audiophiles, 

vinyl records are the 

only way to listen to music. 

“It’s the look and the feel 

of the records that I like the 

most,” Rob Gale said. “With 

records you get the pops and 

crackles that add some character 

to the song. You don’t get 

that with an mp3.” 

For others the large size 

of the albums makes the music 

into an overall piece of art. 

“The art work with some of 

these records is amazing,” said 

Ryan Rutherford, an employee 

at the Vinyl Alibi and a collector. 

“You don’t get that with 

CDs.” 

While the vendors come 

from different parts of the GTA, 

many of them travel and do all 

of the record shows in the area. 

“We normally do about 12 of 

these shows a year,” Crawford 

explained. “We go all over the 

Toronto area, you just never 

know what you’re going to find 

at one of these shows. We always 

try and go to the Oshawa 

Derek Morton 

Collectors and Audiophiles: Matt Crawford and Ryan Rutherford, owners of the 

Vinyl Alibi in Bowmanville, at the Oshawa CD/vinyl show. 

shows.” 

The Oshawa event normally 

runs two shows in the year. 

“We like to do them in November 

and February. Not too 

many run in the summer,” Lanzillotti 

said. 

The event ran from 10 a.m. 

to 4 p.m. At times the small 

hall seemed to be filled with 

fans and collectors of music. 

The Ewanuiks: strong acting duo 

Jacob and Sophia bring their talents to TV 

Kait Tarrant 

The Chronicle 

Think back to when 

you were in kindergarten, 

sitting 

on the carpet in a 

circle at your teacher’s feet. 

“What do you want to be 

when you grow up?” was possibly 

the most frequent question 

asked throughout your 

elementary school career. 

An astronaut? A veterinarian? 

A teacher? A nascar driver? 

Did this childhood dream 

career of come true? Most 

would answer no. For Jacob 

and Sophia Ewaniuk, it is a 

completely different story 

Before the age of 12 not 

many kids can say they have 

appeared in a wide variety of 

television shows and countless 

commercials, but to the 

Ewanuik duo it is just another 

day at the office. 

Born and raised in Whitby, 

this brother and sister combo 

have been taking the acting 

world by storm. 

Jacob, 11, got his first start 

on the television show Murdoch 

Mysteries in 2008 at the 

tender age of 8. 

Since then he has appeared 

in countless shows such as 

Rookie Blue, Little Mosque on 

the Prairie and is known best 

for his voice as Nick on The 

Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot 

About That. 

“I would have to say my favourite 

is The Cat in the Hat. 

I’ve been doing it for two or 

three years now. It’s been a 

great journey and I love it,” 

said Jacob. 

Jacob found his passion for 

acting through a family friend, 

and his mother Frances got 

him involved in the acting 

world. 

“I was really bored of school 

and one of my mom’s friends 

told her about acting and she 

said ‘oh you know what, this is 

a good thing and I think you’ll 

like it’ and I ended up liking it 

a lot and I ended up liking it 

on stage,” explains Jacob. 

Sophia, 9, was inspired by 

her older brother to pursue 

her career in acting as well. 

“When I saw him do it [acting] 

I liked it a lot, I wanted to 

‘ 

We are busy bees, 

but we are still being 

kids, definitely. I find 

our lives fast-paced, 

but fun, 

Jacob Ewaniuk 

’ 

be an actress so bad,” she said. 

Sophia has also appeared 

in hit television shows like 

Flashpoint, Covert Affairs and 

most recently in a Wal-Mart 

commercial for the Halloween 

season. 

It doesn’t stop at acting either; 

this modern day Sharpay 

and Ryan also have an exceptional 

signing talent. 

Often competing in local 

talent shows as well as televised 

events to display their 

singing chops, this duo is a 

force to be reckoned with. 

For the last year Jacob and 

Sophia have been taking vocal 

lessons with Roberta Quilico, 

who has sung with the likes of 

Celine Dion. 

Most recently the two competed 

in the Brooklin Mini 

Idol and Jacob walked away 

with the top prize. 

With every competition 

comes a new lesson for the 

Ewaniuks. 

“Everything is a learning 

process for them. In competitions 

[with older kids] they get 

to see where they can progress,” 

explains their mother. 

With such a busy and demanding 

schedule Jacob and 

Sophia still find the time in 

their busy day to be your average 

kids. 

“We like to play with our 

friends and go to school and 

have people say ‘hey are you 

that girl in the commercial?’ 

It’s so cool. But I think we still 

have time to hang out and play 

with friends and family,” said 

Sophia who is set to appear 

in the television movie Gretl 

this fall as Young Gretl. 

“We are busy bees, but we 

are still being kids, definitely. 

I find our lives fast-paced, but 

fun,” adds Jacob. 

Jacob appears in the up 

coming film Servitude, which 

has already premiered in 

Montreal and Waterloo, and 

he couldn’t be more thrilled 

about the experience. 

“It was a lot of fun being on 

set. It was a comedy, which I 

love;It was a lot of fun and it 

was another experience. My 

character was a bratty kid so 

I got to spill water and throw 

candy at the waiter. It is something 

I would never do but I 

got the chance to in the movie. 

That’s another thing I like 

about acting,” explains Jacob.

42 The Chronicle November 29, 2011 Entertainment 

Harold and Kumar for the holidays 

Emily Wood 

The Chronicle 

The movie opened with the 

cheery tinkling of Christmas 

bells and music, and the familiar 

bustle of a shopping mall 

during the wonderful holiday 

season. Enter Kumar. 

Directed by Todd Strauss- 

Schulson, what followed was 

a ridiculous medley of a monstrous 

father-in-law, a druggedup 

toddler, claymation hallucinations, 

a run-in with the mafia 

and of course, a classic appearance 

by one Neil Patrick Harris. 

In the third of the Harold 

and Kumar series, A Very Harold 

and Kumar 3D Christmas 

begins under the premise that 

the two friends have grown 

apart. But with the delivery of a 

giant joint, their journey to reunite 

begins. 

Having matured more 

quickly than Kumar, played by 

Kal Penn, Harold, played by 

John Cho, is drawn back into 

his old ways on Christmas eve, 

during a quest for the perfect 

tree. With this, he hopes to win 

the approval of his father-inlaw, 

played by the terrifyingly 

hilarious Danny Trejo. 

Though it induced eye rolling 

from time to time, the plot was 

not overly predictable. Writers 

Jon Hurwitz and Hayden 

Schlossberg had the events escalating 

from scene to scene 

to a colossal crescendo which, 

although far from realistic, was 

entertaining nonetheless. 

The 3D aspect of the movie 

was not so impressive. Yes, of 

course, certain parts were undeniably 

cool, but catering to 

3D simply for the sake of catering 

to 3D hype is unnecessary. 

It would have been just as 

entertaining without Kumar 

blowing smoke rings directly 

into my face. 

In fairness, it was mocking 

3D to a certain extent with 

added slow-motion during an 

egging on Wall Street, but the 

amount of 3D effects was tiresome. 

For a group of 18-yearold 

guys however, it might not 

be. 

The maturity level of these 

films doesn’t seem to age with 

its audience, but instead continues 

to cater to the teenage 

(and primarily male) psyche. 

The humour is undeniably 

there, it just fails to reach a variety 

of demographics. 

For a night of silly fun and 

mindless laughs, this movie 

delivers. Harold and Kumar is 

rated 18 A. 

Breaking barriers with Hello Beautiful 


The Chronicle 

A unique blend of hip-hop, 

alternative and rock is the factor 

that sets Hello Beautiful 

apart from the rest. 

This local band from Whitby 

started out in 2006 as a trio. As 

time passed the trio attracted 

the attention of bassist Dan 

Bradimore. 

After the release of their first 

EP, self-titled Hello Beautiful, 

in 2006 they gained even more 

attention, this time from Charlie 

Royal, a local M.C. who, after 

hearing the band’s unique 

sound, contacted them and 

helped them fully enter into 

their hip-hop, rock and alternative 

sound. 

With their creative mixture 

of diverse genres setting them 

apart from others in the Durham 

Region scene, they have 

accomplished what they set out 

to do. 

“We set out to not sound like 

anyone, “said Cole Kidd, lead 

vocalist and rhythm guitarist. 

“When we started out a lot 

of our friends were doing rock 

music and rock bands, and we 

were kind of thinking that for 

us to start a rock band. 

We would have to battle it 

through all the other bands that 

were out there. 

We just created our own 

kind of thing, so that we didn’t 

have to compete. We created 

our own genre, try to make our 

own scene with it.” 

Their unique sound helped 

them gain much success in 

2007. 

Not only did they realize 

their full-length album entitled 

Soundtrack for Scenario, they 

also had the ability to share the 

stage with bands and artists 

such as Hedley, Swollen Members, 

Mariannas Trench, Juelz 

Santana and Hot Hot Heat. 

2007 also brought about opportunities 

such as winning the 

Ernie Ball Battle, playing at the 

13 th Annual Vans Warped Tour, 

through The Durham Music 

Society, and winning best rock 

album of the year for 2007 

were only a few of their accomplishments. 

“My defining moment in our 

music careers were when we 

were able to pay a few of our 

bills by rocking out,” said Kidd. 

Not only did the album allow 

doors to open for the band, 

but it allowed them to project 

themselves through their music 

and share intimate experiences 

with listeners. 

“In our first album, we focused 

a lot on every song, and 

it had a specific topic we were 

talking about, which was pretty 

cool. We also just have fun with 

it.” 

Their song Toxic in the City 

meant the most to lead guitarist/vocalist 

Cole, as their former 

guitar player at the time 

was battling cancer and going 

through chemo, while working 

on the recording of the song 

they received a phone call that 

their guitarist was doing really 

poorly and was possibly going 

to die that night. 

“Now the song has a trippy 

meaning to it after going 

through that experience.” 

The band, which includes 

Cole Kidd on lead vocals and 

guitar, Kit Walsh on drums/ 

backing vocals, Dan Bradimore 

on bass, keys, and backing vocals, 

Charlie Royal on lead vocals 

and Darrell Wallace on 

lead guitar, will being playing 

in Southern Ontario till the new 

year. 

Their next show will be at 

Hamilton’s Pour House on Dec. 

3. 

As well as performing they 

are buckling down and recording 

for their third album. 

Come the new year, Hello 

Beautiful will be working on a 

college tour and performing for 

students.



Down With Webster returns 

Kait Tarrant 

The Chronicle 

It had been two years since 

Toronto-based band Down 

With Webster released an album, 

and fans have been patiently 

waiting for their new 

music to hit the airwaves. 

With tracks She’s Dope and 

Big Wheels gracing the radio 

and music TV stations, fans had 

something to taste before Time 

to Win Volume II officially hit 

the shelves November, 1st. 

And It was well worth the 

two-year wait. 

The album was originally 

set to be the second of two 

seven-track mini albums, as 

an attempt to get as much of 

their music as possible out in a 

shorter time frame. 

But with the surprise great 

success of Time to Win Volume 

I, the bands original idea was 

put on the back burner due to 

multiple video shoots and upcoming 

tours. 

After the physical release of 

the band’s sophomore album, 

it became the sixth most purchased 

album at HMVs Canada-wide 

by the end of its first 

week, and since then jumped 

to #9 on the Canadian album 

charts. 

And for good reason. With 

bigger beats, stronger guitar 

riffs and drums, the band has 

carefully crafted their best album 

yet. 

Collaborations with hip-hop 

guru Boi-1da on tracks Professional 

and I Want it All, have 

helped Down With Webster 

establish a new sound. Both 

songs are guitar driven with excellent 

beats and vocals. 

A sound that one could hope 

will continue to stay with the 

band. 

Also, a noticeable collaboration 

on the album is that with 

electro hop quartet, Far East 

Movement on the track Work. 

The two bands mesh well lyrically 

and musically on the hit 

song. 

The album shows great 

maturity and growth from 

the Juno-nominated group, 

with heavy hitting tracks like 

White Flags and Staring at the 

Beat boxing lives in Toronto 

Sun you can feel the emotion 

through the lyrics. 

Sure, there are classic Down 

With Webster songs about girls 

with a pop sound, but their 

growth is evident, both sound 

and lyrically. 

The band has clearly spent 

more time incorporating guitar 

and keys on this album compared 

to their last. 

All songs are extremely well 

written and executed for their 

first full-length album. 

It’s an album I honestly can 

say I can’t get enough of. 

Mike Ryckman 

The Chronicle 

The second annual Canadian 

beat boxing championships 

were held at the Mod Club in 

Toronto Saturday, Nov. 12. 

Many battle rappers, including 

former Durham College advertising 

student Rich PoRich 

Moss from King of the Dot were 

there to support their fellow 

Canadian artists. 

“I was going buck wild,” said 

PoRich. “ There was so much 

Canadian talent in the building 

that night.” 

Last year’s beat boxing 

champion from Toronto, KRN- 

FX (pronounced Korean FX) 

was competing again as a heavy 

favourite to win the tournament, 

explained PoRich. 

His opponent in the finals 

was another crowd favourite, 

Scott Jackson. Both of these 

beat boxers have received international 

praise for their own 

TV commercials, according to a 

fan in the crowd, Kevy Loe. 

With KRNFX in a Taco Bell 

commercial and Scott Jackson 

in the beat boxing owl commercial 

for Telus wireless, PoRich 

said there was no wonder why 

these two were the favourites to 

win. 

“The heavy favourites going 

into the finals that night 

were last year’s winner KRN- 

FX, and finalist Scott Jackson, 

both known from Toronto’s hip 

hop scene as phenoms,” said 

PoRich. 

In a rematch from last year’s 

beat boxing championship, 

KRNFX and Scott Jackson put 

on quite a show for the crowd, 

according to PoRich. He said 

the crowd seemed to be focused 

solely on the two artists. 

At the end of the night it was 

KRNFX who won top honours 

and again walked away as the 

Canadian beat boxing champion 

for the second year in a row 

even though some people from 

the crowd, including PoRich, 

thought that Scott Jackson had 

bested his Canadian opponent. 

“I felt like Scott Jackson 

should have been the victor,” 

said PoRich. “ Better performance 

and it also seemed like I 

had seen KRNFX’s third round 

before. 

It seemed that Scott had as 

well as he was mimicking every 

movement KRNFX was making 

throughout his final round.”




The Chronicle 

She’s captain of the rowing 

team, participates in numerous 

events throughout the year 

including orientation week at 

the beginning of each year, 

holds down a part-time job 

and despite the fact that the 

rowing team practices twice a 

day six times a week Christie 

Attwood maintains an honour 

roll standing. 

Over the years since, the kinesiology 

student joined the 

rowing team, shes has done 

her best to promote the team’s 

presence in not only UOIT, 

but Durham College as well. 

This year the rowing team set a 

UOIT record for being the first 

sports team from the school to 

compete at the national level. 

“I’ve always been into 

sports. In high school I played 

volleyball and soccer for all 

four years. When I came to 

school it wasn’t the first thing 

on my mind, but about halfway 

through my first year one 

of my friends introduced me to 

rowing at the school and I have 

been hooked ever since,” said 

Attwood who is captain of the 

rowing team. 

She participated in her first 

national championship this 

month when the UOIT rowing 

team competed in the Canadian 

University Rowing Association 

finals in Welland. 

“You know it was a really 

good experience, something I 

am definitely going to remember 

forever, not just for placing 

fourth, but for just being 

there,” she said. 

Ken Babcock, the Athletic 

Director for both UOIT and 

Durham, has nothing but good 

things to say about Attwood. 

“Not only is she a varsity 

athlete here at the school, she 

is also a student at the university 

and a valued member of 

our part-time staff here at the 

athletic centre. 

“She’s involved in every aspect 

of our rowing team. She 

is in the rowing executive, she 

Sports 

Last season for chief rower 

UOIT 

rowing 

captain 

Christie 

Attwood 

moving on 

Al Fournier 

THE IDEAL STUDENT: In 2010 Christie Attwood won the UOIT leadership award, 

maintained an honour roll average throughout the entire school year, held down a 

part-time job and took part in numerous other activities throughout the year. 

Durham College coach wins 

ECBA achievement award 

Big Picky 

The Chronicle 

Following another fantastic 

season with the men’s 

baseball team Durham College, 

Sam Dempster has been 

awarded the European Baseball 

Coaches Association Career 

Achievement Award. 

Dempster is also head 

coach of the Great Britain 

baseball team, and is being 

recognized for his work both 

with Team Great Britain and 

the Durham Lords. 

Leading Great Britain to an 

8-6 victory over Israel July 27, 

Dempster helped secure their 

place as the 2012 European 

championships, Dempster returned 

to Canada to coach the 

men’s baseball program at the 

college. 

In 19 years with the Lords, 

Dempster has only had one 

losing season, racking up 

seven CIBA Ontario championships, 

including this year’s 

winning effort. In addition to 

his work with the college and 

Team Great Britain, Dempster 

is an associate scout for 

the Milwaukee Brewers in 

Major League Baseball. 

Dempster hopes he will be 

arriving back at the college 

next fall with another European 

Championships medal and 

another CIBA winning team. 

does a lot of behind-the-scenes 

stuff relating to rowing and 

she is very active in promoting 

the rowing program. Christie’s 

contributions on all of those 

levels have been very impressive, 

she’s always there at every 

event willing to help out, 

she’s at other events that aren’t 

her own events willing to help 

out and she’s a real pleasure to 

have working for us as a student,” 

said Babcock. 

Once rowing is over Attwood 

does get to have a little fun. 

“During the rowing season we 

(the team) don’t get to go out to 

bars and party and we’re very, 

very focused. To me I think 

you gotta do a little bit of everything. 

If you go 100 per cent 

rowing you don’t really focus 

on school and if you go 100 per 

cent school you lose a little of 

the fun part of university. You 

need to prioritize --- school 

comes first, rowing comes second 

and then if I have time to 

go out on a Thursday night awesome, 

and if I don’t, I don’t.” 

Attwood has also maintained 

a part-time job as a front 

desk clerk at the campus recreation 

centre on campus for the 

last four years. 

“Luckily for me the rec centre 

is an easy place to work. My 

bosses are great, they understand 

that I row and let me pick 

my shifts so I can work it into 


The Chronicle 

Lords volleyball player Dave 

McMann became the team’s 

all-time scoring leader on 

Nov .19 as the Lords won 3-0 

against Boreal. 

McMann recorded six points 

and five blocks in the game, 

bringing his career totals to 610 

and 148 respectively. 

“Dave is an outstanding 

player,” said Lords coach Andrew 

Hinchey. “Middles in this 

my schedule,” she said. “Work 

for me has never been a priority. 

Obviously I need to work because 

I need to pay for school, 

but it ends up fitting into my 

schedule really well. If I had 

any other job I don’t know if I 

would be able to do it.” 

Michelle Roberts is one of 

Attwood’s bosses at the CRWC. 

“She’s awesome! She takes on a 

leadership role, she’s very confident 

in what she does, she’ll 

go the extra mile for the client 

and she takes time to ask questions 

and find out the information 

she needs to do her job effectively.” 

What isn’t lost on Attwood is 

school; it has always been her 

number one. “In my first and 

second year I wasn’t an honour 

roll student, but I did get good 

grades, high 70s. It was really 

later on in my program when I 

started to push my grades higher, 

for a post-graduate degree 

in my program you need really 

high grades to get into the programs. 

“At this point I’m not going 

to pursue a graduate (degree), 

you know I have been in school 

for so long it will just be nice to 

take a break from it all,” said 

Attwood. 

But Attwood, who has been 

in post-secondary school for 

the last five years, says coming 

back to school isn’t off the 

table. 

She was supposed to graduate 

last year, but decided to 

take more classes and further 

her education. 

She said one of the proudest 

moments of her academic 

career was carrying the banner 

for her faculty last year when 

she was supposed to graduate. 

“It’s really special because 

usually only people who are 

graduating carry the banner, 

but the fact that they chose me, 

someone who wasn’t graduating 

really stuck to me,” Attwood 

said. 

But for now she wants to get 

a job and maybe work in sports, 

an area she is quite familiar 

with. 

McMann spikes his 

way to the leaderboard 

game do not get enough recognition 

because their position 

is the hardest position to play. 

Dave works hard every practice 

and his hard work really started 

to pay off last year.” 

McMann was not the leading 

scorer in the game, however; 

Jeremy Hoekstra and Jordan 

McFarlane scored 9 points 

each. 

The Lords returned home 

on Thursday, Nov. 24 against 

Trent.

46 The Chronicle November 29, 2011 Sports 

Cheerleaders going for the 

gold in national competition 

DC 

Lords 


The Chronicle 

With her great attitude and kind 

heart the captain of the DC-UOIT Fierce 

cheerleading team, Kaitlyn Degroote, 

is kicking this year off like no other. 

Going on their second year as a team, Degroote 

was chosen to take over as captain 

by the team’s coach Travis Stirrat, after the 

original captain departed. 

Excited and honoured, Degroote is more 

than ready to take on being captain. 

With competition close, Degroote is 

practising every chance she can. Practising 

three nights a week as a team and then any 

time she can on her own, she still manages 

to balance school as well as a part time job. 

“It can be a struggle balancing everything 

I am involved with, but I make it work 

because I love what I do,” said Degroote 

Although team Fierce is participating 

in three major competitions this year, Degroote 

is extremely excited for PCA (Power. 

Cheerleading. Athletics.). PCA is a national 

cheerleading championship that is 

open to universities across Canada. 

This year PCA is being held in Brampton 

on Dec. 2, 3, 4. 

“My thought on PCA is that it is the best 

overall Canadian collegiate cheerleading 

experience and I can’t wait to go,” she said. 

As captain, some of her responsibilities 

include collecting payments, organizing 

dates, basically making sure everything 

runs smoothly, while helping the team 

come together by always staying positive. 

Degroote is enrolled at UOIT for Business 

Commerce. She is currently in her 

second year of a four-year program and 

always finds time to squeeze in not only 

cheerleading but also her part - time job, at 

Park Road Physiotherapy. 

Being an athlete, smart and beautiful, 

aren’t the only things she is known for, but 

also for her kind heart. Recently joining 

the Human Resource Association at UOIT 

as the second year representative, she says 

she loves to help others. 

Degroote has always had a busy lifestyle. 

As a child she played all kinds of sports and 

loved to sing at events and ceremonies. In 

her spare time she would hang out with 

friends and family, and of course, study. 

Her love for cheering started in Calgary 

at the end of Grade 9, when she was asked 

to try out by a friend who didn’t want to 

go alone. Degroote had played sports her 

whole life so she thought she would try 

something new. Falling in love with cheerleading, 

she has continued since. 

Being on team Fierce means a lot to Degroote. 

Her favourite part about being on 

the team is being able to make so many 

great friends. She says it is just one big 

family. 

Already proud of how far the team has 

excelled in the last year, by moving up from 

a level 4 to a level 6, she hopes they’ll keep 

rising up. 

Cheering is much more then good exercise 

to Degroote, it is her life. She cheers 

not just because she loves it, but also because 

it gives her a sense of accomplishment 

and keeps her motivated. 

She hopes to continue cheering after 


DC-UOIT CHEERLEADERS: Captain 

of the DC-UOIT Fierce cheerleading 

team, Kaitlyn Degroote. 

university, but if she can’t, she plans on 

helping out and making sure team Fierce 

stays alive. 

winter 

toy 

drive 

Mike Pickford 

The Chronicle 

The Durham Lords 

women’s basketball team 

is asking students who 

turn out for their remaining 

home games to bring 

something with them: 

toys! 

The annual toy drive 

in support of the SickKids 

Foundation has started, 

and the women are hoping 

to receive lots of donations 

from generous fans 

attending their last two 

home games. 

The Lords will face the 

George Brown Huskies 

Dec. 2, and Loyalist Lancers 

Dec. 6. Both games will 

be played at the Campus 

Recreation and Wellness 

Centre. 

Wrestling slams its way back into Oshawa 

Back in the 

squared 

circle 

By Ray McNeil 

The Chronicle 

Them’s fightin’ words. 

This Halloween, after 

months of searching, blood and 

sweat poured once again as local 

wrestling promotion Great 

Canadian Wrestling (GCW) 

made its long-awaited homecoming. 

“We’re happy to be back,” 

said Commissioner Jessy 

Jones. “Oshawa’s a great place, 

we’ve been in Oshawa now for 

at least six years, and it’s a good 

little place to be.” 

The show, GCW Genesis, 

took place on Oct. 29 at The 

Green Bottle. 

Ring announcer Gentleman 

Geoff began the show right on 

time. “Once again, Great Canadian 

Wrestling has returned to 

Oshawa!” he said to loud applause. 

It was a return that may have 

never come. 

GCW problems began during 

the past summer, when 

their original venue in Oshawa, 

the Royal Canadian Legion 

Hall, decided not to allow the 

promotion to use their hall anymore. 

First vice-president of the 

Legion, Bill Summers, said that 

after nearly $150,000 in renovations 

done this past year, the 

Legion decided it was moving 

away from GCW. 

“We’ve had a great relationship 

with them,” said Summers. 

“Strategically it’s not where 

we’re going with this hall.” 

“I did hear that they were 

kind of sad that wrestling 

wasn’t there (anymore),” said 

Jones, “cause they’re not making 

as much money as they 

used to.” 

Thus began the nearly sixmonth 

journey to find GCW 

another home, and thanks 

to former GCW owner Dave 

Wyldstar, The Green Bottle was 

found. 

The bar had been transformed 

into an all-out smash 

and brawl arena, yet while the 

fans were glad to have GCW 

back, the venue had its limitations. 

The low ceiling meant 

that two of the four turnbuckles 

could not be used. 

“The building setup is difficult,” 

said long-time fan and 

Durham grad Frank Bruno. 

“A lot of the guys couldn’t do 

what they normally would do 

because you can’t jump off the 

top rope.” 

The show itself was an important 

one; an eight-man singles 

tournament was scheduled 

to crown the new GCW Ontario 

Independent Championship. 

The first match saw 

Markham native Sebastian 

Suave defeating Mexico’s Sombra 

to advance to the semifinals, 

while the next saw Buck 

The Entertainer scoring a pinfall, 

with assistance from the 

ropes, on real-life superhero 

Swoosh. 

After that, it was time for 

former WWE superstar Highlander 

Robbie to take on former 

champion Hayden Avery. 

Unfortunately for Robbie, he 

spent too much time working 

Avery’s left arm, and was disqualified, 

advancing Avery to 

the next round with an injury. 

The last quarter-final match 

included Philadelphia-born 

Anthony Darko, with his manager 

Jamie Virtue, taking on 

WWE legend Bushwhacker 

Luke. 

“Bushwhacker Luke’s a class 

act,” said Jones. “It’s always 

good to see the legends come 

out there and do what they do.” 

In the end, Virtue came in 

handy. Distracting the referee 

was all it took for Virtue’s client 

to score a not-so-clean victory. 

Luke had the last laugh though, 

tossing Darko and Virtue out of 

the ring and celebrating with 

the fans. 

Gabriella Vanderpool then 

successfully defended her 

W.I.L.D. Championship against 

Felicia Farce. 

It was then time for the 

semi-finals. Darko and Suave 

were up first, with Darko once 

again using his manager to his 

advantage. 

The question of who would 

face Darko in the final was soon 

answered. Avery, still in pain, 

and Buck both fought as hard 

as they could, taking the fight 

all over the bar. In the midst of 

this, the two forgot to get back 

to the ring before the referee 

counted to 10, and the match 

was ruled a double count-out. 

It looked as though Darko 

would be crowned the champion 

by default, until Psycho 

Mike made his return, demanding 

a match with Darko. 

Commissioner Jones then 

made his way to the ring to announce 

that Mike would have 

to face someone in order to advance 

to Darko, and that someone 

was Canadian National 

Champion RJ City. Though 

even City could not tame the 

Psycho, who came out of the 

match the victor, and with a 

chance to face Anthony Darko 

for the title. 

Despite the venue, the fans 

went away satisfied with the 

event. 

“You got the guys that are 

just starting out, and the guys 

that have been doing it for a 

number of years,” said Bruno. 

“The crowd seemed to enjoy 

themselves, that’s one of the 

major reasons for it all,” said 

Jones. “As long as they’re out 

having a good time it doesn’t 

really matter where we’re at.” 

The next GCW show in 

Oshawa will be Season Beatings 

at Harmony Hall on Dec. 

27. The show will be a charity 

event, with a toy and food drive 

to benefit Sick Kids Hospital. 

Tickets are for sale at Wyldstar 

Comics in downtown Oshawa. 

Jones remains confident the 

wrestling promotion will find a 

permanent venue. “Hopefully 

we can find a place to make 

home again.”

Sports 


UOIT beats Guelph 3-2 

Zak McLachlan 

The Chronicle 

The Ridgebacks men’s hockey 

team picked up their third 

win of the season against the 

Guelph Gryphons on Nov. 18 

and 19 after a tough loss to 

the nationally ranked Western 

Mustangs. 

The Ridgebacks took on the 

red-hot Mustangs at the Campus 

Ice Centre on Nov. 18 in a 

quick-skating, physical battle. 

The Ridgebacks kept up with 

Ontario’s top team, but couldn’t 

pull out a win in the end. 

Western struck early with a 

goal 46 seconds into the first, 

but Luke VanMoerkerke netted 

a shorthanded goal six minutes 

later to tie it up. Western added 

points late in the first and early 

in the second to take a commanding 

3-1 lead before Ryan 

Oliver scored his first goal of 

the year. 

Jeremy Whelan scored in the 

third to cut the Western lead to 

one, but it wasn’t enough as the 

Mustangs added another late 

in the frame to seal the win and 

continue their winning streak 

to 11 games. 

VanMoerkerke’s shorthanded 

goal was his first marker of 

the season and the team’s first 

shorthanded goal on the year. 

The Ridgebacks then travelled 

to Guelph to take on the 

Gryphons for the second time 

this year. The first game resulted 

in an 8-1 pounding on the 

Ridgebacks by the Gryphons. 

Ridgebacks head coach 

Marlin Muylaert spent 11 seasons 

behind the bench for Gryphons, 

winning the University 

Cup back in 1997. 

Guelph came out of the gate 

strong with a goal less than 

two minutes into the first and 

a powerplay marker late in the 

frame. But then the Ridgebacks 

Zak McLachlan 

ON THE ROCKS: Ridgebacks defenceman Andrew Randazzo 

skates around Western captain Adam Nemith. 

hit their stride and took control 

of the game. 

Ridgebacks leading scorer 

Tony Rizzi capitalized on the 

powerplay just 18 seconds into 

the second to get UOIT on the 

board. Ryan Oliver continued 

his solid weekend, adding his 

second goal in as many nights 

in the third to tie the game. 

With six minutes left in the 

game, defenceman Andrew 

Randazzo scored his first ever 

goal as a Ridgeback, giving 

UOIT the lead and eventually 

the win. 

Tough loss for Lords 

as Gagliardi nets 38 

Durham falls 

91-88 to Algonquin 

Mike Pickford 

The Chronicle 

The Durham Lords men’s 

basketball team had a mixed 

weekend Nov. 18-19 as they 

tasted both victory and defeat, 

in the most dramatic of 

fashions. 

On Friday, the Lords came 

up against the undefeated Algonquin 

Thunder. 

The gulf in class couldn’t 

have been more obvious after 

the first quarter as the Thunder 

stormed to a 24-8 lead. 

The Lords, however, 

fought back through points 

leader Rob Gagliardi as he 

scored 38 points, including a 

half court buzzer beater to tie 

the game up. 

Veteran Tyler McGarrity, 

in his fifth year with the 

team, was in top form also, 

racking up a season-high 22 

points to help the Lords get 

back into the game. 

Ultimately, it wasn’t 

enough for the Lords as Algonquin 

scraped through 91- 

88. 

They had Chris Mooney 

and Romaine Lawrence to 

thank for scoring over half of 

their points. 

So the Lords went into 

their game the following afternoon 

against La Cite disappointed 

not to have gotten 

anything from the game the 

night before. But it didn’t 

show. 

The Lords led the game 

from start to finish, cruising 

to a 31-16 lead after the first 

quarter. 

At that point, the end result 

was foregone a conclusion 

as the Lords continued 

to rack up the points, with 

Rob Gagliardi once again 

at the top of the points list, 

scoring 30 points in consecutive 

games. 

The Lords sit in fourth 

place in the OCAA East Region 

with an overall record of 

3-3, a sign of their inconsistency 

thus far this season. 

After playing Fleming late 

last week the Lord’s will welcome 

the George Brown Huskies 

to the CRWC on Dec. 2. 

and loyalist on Dec. 6.

48 The Chronicle November 29, 2011 Sports 

Sweet sixteen for Durham coach 

Mike Pickford 

The Chronicle 

To some, their sport is more 

than a hobby. It’s a way of life. 

To Stan Bombino, it’s even 

more than that. It is his life. 

Having been involved with 

soccer for almost all of his life, 

Bombino, the head coach of the 

men’s indoor and outdoor soccer 

team at Durham College, is 

in no hurry to slow down. 

“I’m looking to perhaps stay 

in the game well into my 70s,” 

Bombino said. “I like being able 

to help people in the game, being 

able to influence younger 

players and make them realize 

their potential.” 

And help people Bombino 

has. Since retiring as a player 

at the age of 38 he has gone on 

to become one of the most recognized 

coaches in Canadian 

soccer. 

After spells coaching both 

professionally and semi-professionally 

around Canada, 

Bombino landed the role of 

head coach of men’s team at 

Durham College. He has enjoyed 

a largely successful 16- 

year stint with the men’s soccer 

team at Durham College, 

reaching several OCAA playoffs 

with that elusive provincial title 

still evading him and his team. 

Bombino though says he’s 

had some of his most memorable 

moments as coach of the 

team. 

“I have to say, winning the 

OCAA scoring championships 

has to be up there with my 

achievements as it really rewarded 

the way the team played 

that year,” Bombino said. 

This year’s team unfortunately 

did not perform as well 

as Bombino had hoped, ending 

the season with an overall 

record of 1-5-1, finishing sixth 

in the division and missing out 

on the provincial playoff. It was 

the first time a Durham team 

under Bombino’s stewardship 

had finished with a below .500 

record. 

The team however still acknowledged 

the important role 

he played in their season and 

the progression made in their 

careers. 

Derek Money, in his third 

season with the team, feels his 

game has improved by leaps 

and bounds since he started 

playing under Bombino. 

“Coach Bombino and his 

staff are great,” Money said. 

“I’ve really improved as a player 

since coming here. He has a 

great set up and wealth of experience 

which has benefitted the 

entire team.” 

Another player, forward 

Jossi Rodriguez, feels the two 

years he has spent under Bombino 

have been invaluable. 

“I’m one of those players 

that believes you have to play to 

improve,” Rodriguez said. “And 

I think Coach Bombino get’s 

that too. I’ve played here for 

two years now and know I’m a 

much better player than I was 

before. I’ve matured, honed my 

skills and now I’m reaping the 

benefits.” 

Bombino does believe that 

attitude plays as much a part 

as skill does when deciding if a 

player will make the grade. 

“We can offer all the advice, 

point a player in the right direction 

and we may think yeah, he 

has the quality, but if he has a 

bad attitude and isn’t mature 

enough, he quite simply won’t 

make it.” 

Before coaching, Bombino 

played 20 years. It all started 

for him in the North American 

Soccer League, where he played 

for the Toronto Blizzard. It was 

there that he came up against 

some of the top names in soccer 

history as the star-studded 

New York Cosmos also played 

in the NASL. Bombino said it 

was here that he was truly exposed 

to soccer at the highest 

level. 

“I was stood alongside some 

of the greatest names around 

at that time, even playing with 

Brazilian forward Ivaear who 

was the right winger for Pele in 

the national team,” Bombino 

said. “There were kids coming 

up at the end of games asking 

for my autograph. It really was 

a special experience.” 

However, the NASL and it’s 

franchises were having major 

financial problems in the early 

‘80s and Bombino moved on 

to represent such clubs as the 

Oshawa Kicks and Monte Leone 

before retiring in 1990. But 

Bombino wasn’t happy to just 

sit back and accept his time in 

the game had come to a close. 

“After I retired I sat at home 

for a few weeks and didn’t like 

it. I decided I had to do something,” 

Bombino said. “Believe 

me, coaching was the last 

thing on my mind when I was 

a player, but once I’d retired it 

made sense. It was my way of 

contributing and giving back to 

the sport.” 

So Bombino took the necessary 

steps to become a coach, 

taking an initial three-year 

course that got him started, 

since then insists he’ll never 

stop learning. 

“I’m learning as a coach every 

day,” Bombino said. “I’m 

still taking courses today, as the 

sport evolves us coaches have 

to keep up.” 

‘ 

And it doesn’t stop at coaching 

players for Bombino. He 

has been instructing for his 

fellow coaches for around 15 

years, firmly cementing his legacy 

in Canadian soccer. 

But Bombino had to learn 

from somewhere and after travelling 

with the German national 

team to the 1994 World Cup 

in the United States, Bombino 

came across another coach that 

he sees as his mentor. 

“Craig Brown, the former 

I see kids today that I coached perhaps in the 

past and they don’t shout ‘Hey Stan’. It’s always 

‘Hey coach’. There’s a respect there. 

Stan Bombino 

manager of the Scottish national 

team, helped me a lot as I was 

learning the trade,” Bombino 

said. “The best piece of advice 

I have ever gotten came from 

Craig in fact. He told me that 

regardless of a player’s quality, 

unless they are having fun they 

won’t be in the game or playing 

to their maximum potential 

and I have to say, he’s right.” 

One person Bombino hasn’t 

met that he wishes he had is Sir 

Alex Ferguson, who recently 

celebrated his 25 th anniversary 

with Manchester United in the 

Premier League. 

“Sir Alex isn’t necessarily 

somebody that I can say I like,” 

Bombino said. “But you have to 

respect what he’s done there. 

He keeps all the players in 

check and is successful year after 

year. He’s done a good job.” 

Bombino does believe that 

attitude plays as much a part 

as skill does when deciding if a 

player will make the grade. 

“We can offer all the advice, 

point a player in the right direction 

and we may think yeah, he 

has the quality but if he has a 

bad attitude and isn’t mature 

File Photo 

MEN’S SOCCER COACH: Stan Bombino played on the Lords men’s soccer 

team before coaching the team for the last 16 years. This past year was the first 

time in his 16-year coaching career that the team didn’t finish above .500. 

’ 

enough, he quite simply won’t 

make it.” 

Some may wonder how 

Bombino motivates himself to 

coach year after year, trying to 

get the best from a bunch of 

kids at a college in the GTA, but 

Bombino quite simply says it’s 

the satisfaction of knowing he’s 

making a difference. 

“I see kids today that I 

coached perhaps in the past 

and they don’t shout ‘Hey Stan’. 

It’s always ‘Hey coach’. There’s 

a respect there. A respect that’s 

earned when they appreciate 

what someone has done 

for them,” Bombino said. “So 

that’s the motivation, knowing 

I can have an influence on 

a player, not only in terms of 

how he does in the future with 

soccer, but how they become as 

human beings too.”

Sports 


Lacrosse for the young and old 

Mahmoud El Bayrakdar 

The Chronicle 

Thursday nights are big nights for 

the Durham Masters Lacrosse League 

(DMLL). The DMLL is a recreational, 

five on five-field non-contact lacrosse 

league with players from ages 15 and up. 

In addition to registering new players 

for the winter season, the DMLL 

fall program wrapped up its fall season 

Thursday, Nov. 10 and held two of the 

three playoff games last week. The fall 

ball championship night will be held the 

eighth of December, a week after the 

last playoff game. 

Founder of the league, John Scanga 

had been a competitive lacrosse player 

for 15 years before creating and co-ordinating 

the DMLL. “It’s a way for me to 

give opportunities for kids 15 years and 

up, as well as senior players.” 

DMLL held its final registration for 

their winter season on the last Thursday 

of November. The winter registration 

ran from 7 to 9 p.m. while fall games 

kept running from 8 to 10 p.m. 

Anyone interested in learning more 

about the Durham Masters Lacrosse 

League can visit their homepage at 

http://dmlllax.ca/. 

DMLL: Jason Richards winds up for a shot during a DMLL game. 

Mahmoud El Bayrakdar 

Last year of ball for DC’s pitcher Galea 

Robynne Henry 

The Chronicle 

She has been named the 

recipient of the Ethel Boyce 

memorial award, and was recognized 

this past season as a 

Provincial Women’s softball 

Association scholarship award 

winner, those are just two in 

a long list of awards Shannon 

Galea has won. 

“To be receiving these 

awards is an absolute honour,” 

said the Lady Lords pitcher. 

“But there are so many other 

deserving athletes that are out 

there, that work just as hard as 

me.” 

Galea said that she doesn’t 

play the game to get the 

awards. 

“The awards aren’t something 

I strive for. Continuously 

playing hard is what I strive 

for,” Galea said. “It’s great to 

be noticed along the way, but 

at the same time I always try 

to maintain my focus and put 

things in perspective.” 

From the age of 4, Galea 

started playing in park league. 

Every player gets a chance to 

play every position, and she 

was drawn the most to the 

pitcher’s position. 

“Every year I have been 

called up by a team for Nationals, 

so I have done double nationals 

for the last five years,” 

Galea said. That means that 

she went to her regular age 

group Nationals, and then 

went to the age group above 

hers to pitch for them. Of the 

times that she has been called 

up, the team has won Nationals 

three times. 

Galea spent years perfecting 

her pitching talent by going 

to clinics and working closely 

with certain coaches over the 

years. She also has helped out 

at pitching clinics in recent 

years, teaching young pitchers 

what she has learned. 

“Throughout my midget 

years, they were some of my 

biggest years competing, in 

terms of learning more about 

the game, and developing a lot 

better,” Galea said. 

Galea really enjoyed her 

year with the Durham fastball 

team, but she is sad that she is 

only able to play for one year 

because the course she is taking 

is only a one-year course. 

With a degree from UOIT in 

teaching, Galea came back to 

school for Durham’s post-grad 

sports management program 

to help round out her experience 

with teaching and coaching.

It's easy being green in Whitby - Digilog at UOIT and DC - Durham ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?