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I came here for a vacation for a visit my<br />

family and see Canada, and I didn't go back.<br />

- See page 11<br />

Volume XLIV, Issue 7 <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong><br />

Give sex<br />

assault<br />

victims<br />

a voice pages 6-7<br />

Durham's silent crisis<br />

page 25<br />

Photo illustration by Noor Ibrahim<br />

Learning to<br />

love yourself page 13<br />

Photograph by Toby VanWeston<br />

Photograph by Brandi Washington<br />

UOIT celebrates the hardware page 37<br />

Photograph by Joshua Nelson


2 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca<br />

BACK<br />

of the<br />

FRONT<br />

DC journalism students look at Durham College and UOIT,<br />

and beyond, by the numbers and with their cameras<br />

Photograph by Travis Fortnum<br />

Welcome to Canada, Somayeh!<br />

Canada boasts a population of more than 35 million, and now Somayeh Yarahmadi (holding the poster) joins the ranks. Yarahmadi recently obtained her Canadian<br />

citizenship after living here for nearly six years. The day after her test, she brought in a box of Timbits to share her excitement and to thank her Durham College<br />

classmates for welcoming her. To further the celebration, her friend Karen Albin got their Communicatons for Design class to sign a print.<br />

No ordinary hole in the wall<br />

Art is popping up all over campus. Especially in the C wing at<br />

Durham College, where one clever artist has installed a piece<br />

that makes it seem like the wall is breaking away to reveal<br />

outer space.<br />

Photograph by Travis Fortnum<br />

The power of the Chronicle<br />

Follow the Chronicle on Twitter @DCUOITChronicle<br />

Photograph by Tyler Hodgkinson<br />

Reaching new heights at the SSB<br />

Ever wondered how they wash the windows that are a little<br />

higher up? All it takes is a long hose and a squeegee attached to<br />

a very tall pole!


The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca 3<br />

PUBLISHER: Greg Murphy<br />

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Brian Legree<br />

AD MANAGER: Dawn Salter<br />

Editorial<br />

CONTACT US<br />

NEWSROOM: brian.legree@<strong>durham</strong>college.ca<br />

ADVERTISING: dawn.salter@<strong>durham</strong>college.ca<br />

Cartoon by Toby VanWeston<br />

It's time for the SA to split<br />

Durham College (DC) and the<br />

University of Ontario Institute of<br />

Technology (UOIT), share a gymnasium,<br />

a library, residence buildings<br />

and a student association. The<br />

Student Association (SA) is an association<br />

of students who represent<br />

and serve the interests of full-time<br />

students at both the college and the<br />

university.<br />

DC was established in 1967 and<br />

had its own SA. After some time<br />

Trent University starting offering<br />

classes at DC, although DC<br />

still ran the SA until 2003 when<br />

UOIT was established it meant all<br />

three schools were under the same<br />

SA until Trent moved to its own<br />

campus in 2010 and established its<br />

own SA.<br />

But UOIT remains both on campus<br />

and as part of the SA shared<br />

with the college.<br />

Currently, there are too many<br />

controversies in the SA causing<br />

both schools to suffer for the action<br />

of one SA.<br />

Not only is the SA is serving<br />

too many students, there are not<br />

enough DC representatives.<br />

It is time for DC and UOIT to<br />

separate the SA and create one SA<br />

for the college and one SA for the<br />

university.<br />

Since the last election in May,<br />

the SA has had two presidents. According<br />

to Vianney Nengue, the<br />

vice president and interim president,<br />

the elected president Reem<br />

Dabbuous sent alleged emails to<br />

the athletic department promising<br />

a new soccer field.<br />

This resulted in her disqualification<br />

as president. Another controversy<br />

is two SA members under investigation<br />

for harassment. One of<br />

the SA members involved was the<br />

replacement president, Cerise Wilson,<br />

while the other was another SA<br />

member. The investigation has left<br />

the SA with some vacant seats, including<br />

the presidential seat, leaving<br />

Nengue to take the position.<br />

The controversies solely reside with<br />

UOIT students and if there was a<br />

split, DC would no longer suffer for<br />

their actions.<br />

The SA has not had enough representation<br />

from DC since the two<br />

associations merged in 2003. In the<br />

past 14 years, the SA has had one<br />

elected president on the executive<br />

team from DC.<br />

DC has 2,000 more students<br />

than UOIT, which should be reflected<br />

in the SA membership. Yet<br />

only two out of six representatives<br />

are from DC.<br />

According to Ryan LePage,<br />

a former president of the SA,<br />

the majority of votes come from<br />

UOIT students each year. With<br />

few DC students representing the<br />

two schools, DC students feel less<br />

involved and therefore not inspired<br />

to vote. If the two schools split SAs,<br />

then DC students would be able to<br />

represent their own school. This<br />

will encourage more voters to participate<br />

in the SA elections.<br />

DC has more than 12,000 students<br />

while UOIT has more than<br />

10,000 students. The SA is now<br />

serving a community of more than<br />

20,000. It’s too many students for<br />

the SA to handle.<br />

Both Trent University’s Durham<br />

campus and UOIT did not have<br />

this many students back in 2003<br />

so it made sense for them all to<br />

share one SA. UOIT and DC are<br />

separate schools serving separate<br />

communities and the SA should<br />

reflect that. Trent University in<br />

Durham has its own SA and has<br />

nearly 1,000 students, DC has 12<br />

times that and shares an SA with<br />

UOIT.<br />

With the controversies,<br />

the lack of DC representatives and<br />

the number of full-time students, it<br />

is clear the time has come for DC<br />

and UOIT to part ways and have<br />

their own SAs. This will help limit<br />

the number of controversies and<br />

inspire students to vote leading to<br />

a fair number of representatives<br />

to adequately hear then voice the<br />

concerns of students. It would split<br />

the population of students the SA<br />

has to serve nearly in half.<br />

This divide is the best option. It<br />

is time to make this change.<br />

Students should attend the SA’s<br />

next meeting in January and voice<br />

their opinion for a separation of the<br />

two SAs.<br />

Dean Daley and<br />

Jenn Amaro<br />

EDITORS: Jenn Amaro, James Bauman, Rebecca<br />

Calzavara, Nathan Chow, Sharena Clendening,<br />

Dean Daley, Alexander Debets, Travis Fortnum,<br />

Tyler Hodgkinson, Barbara Howe, Noor Ibrahim,<br />

James Jackson, Christopher Jones, Frank Katradis,<br />

Daniel Koehler, Angela Lavallee, Chelsea Mc-<br />

Cormick, Tyler Mcmurter, Laura Metcalfe, Tommy<br />

Morais, Joshua Nelson, Nicole O'Brien, Samuel<br />

Odrowski, Devarsh Oza, Trusha Patel, Matthew<br />

Pellerin, Asim Pervez, Emily Saxby, Tyler Searle,<br />

Jessica Stoiku, Euvilla Thomas, Toby VanWeston,<br />

Kayano Waite, Brandi Washington, Michael Welsh,<br />

Jared Williams, Erin Williams.<br />

The Chronicle is published by the Durham College School of Media, Art<br />

and Design, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario L1H 7L7, 721-<br />

2000 Ext. 3068, as a training vehicle for students enrolled in Journalism and<br />

Advertising courses and as a campus news medium. Opinions expressed<br />

are not necessarily those of the college administration or the board of governors.<br />

The Chronicle is a member of the Ontario Community Newspapers<br />

Association.<br />

MEDIA REPS: Brandon Agnew, Justin Bates, Zach<br />

Beauparlant, Kayla Cook, Nathalie Desrochers,<br />

Charlotte Edwards, Yannick Green, Madeline Grixti,<br />

Stephanie Hanna, Lijo Joseph, Sarah Judge, Shannon<br />

Lazo, Megan Mcdonald, Ashley Mcgregor, Josh<br />

Mcgurk, Katie Miskelly, Louisa Molloy, Jasmine Ohprecio,<br />

Alex Powdar, Olivia Randall-Norris, Kaela<br />

Richardson, Madeleine Riley, Alex Royer, Spencer<br />

Stevens, Rachel Thompson, Geroge Tsalavoutas,<br />

Alexandra Weekes, Cameron Westlake.<br />

PRODUCTION ARTISTS: Rachel Alexander, Angela<br />

Bahnesli, Sarah Bhatti, Anokhi Bhavsar, Steven<br />

Brundage, Chanel Castella, Brandon Clark, Scott<br />

Cowling, Leanne Howorth, Bryce Isaacs, Erin Jones,<br />

Natasha Kowo, Samantha Mallia, Alyssa Matthew,<br />

Alexandra Rich, Bethany Seaton, Kristian Seepersad,<br />

Georgina Tsoutsos, Marisa Turpin, Rachel<br />

Wendt, Travis Yule.<br />

Publisher: Greg Murphy Editor-In-Chief: Brian Legree Features editor: Teresa Goff Ad Manager: Dawn Salter<br />

Advertising Production Manager: Kevan F. Drinkwalter Photography Editor: Al Fournier Technical Production: Keir Broadfoot


4 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca<br />

Reptiles are<br />

great pets<br />

for owners<br />

Opinion<br />

Reptiles are not as scary as people<br />

think<br />

In August 2013 an African rock<br />

python escaped from its enclosure<br />

at a pet store in New Brunswick<br />

and tragically killed two young<br />

boys.<br />

This even brought international<br />

attention to reptile keeping and<br />

portrayed reptile owners, zoos, and<br />

the reptile community as a whole,<br />

in a negative way.<br />

Although this horrific event involved<br />

a snake killing two young<br />

kids, it happened because of irresponsible<br />

pet ownership, not because<br />

of the pet.<br />

Jean-Claude Savoie, owner of the<br />

pet store and loft where the attack<br />

happened, was recently found not<br />

guilty of criminal negligence causing<br />

death.<br />

He had removed the vent in the<br />

snake’s enclosure without replacing<br />

it which allowed the snake to escape<br />

into the loft above where the<br />

two boys were sleeping. The snake<br />

also had no sort of stimulation in its<br />

enclosure which can lead to stress<br />

and aggression, according to an<br />

article by the National Post.<br />

If Savoie had taken proper care<br />

of the snake and given it a proper<br />

living space, this tragic event would<br />

Dan<br />

Koehler<br />

have never taken place.<br />

According to the Humane Society<br />

of the United States, there have<br />

been <strong>17</strong> constrictor snake related<br />

deaths in the US since 1978.<br />

Although this can seem like a<br />

high number, according to the<br />

Centre for Disease Control there<br />

are an average of 20-30 dog attack<br />

deaths in the US every year.<br />

Even with more dogs in the US<br />

than pet reptiles, these numbers<br />

clearly show that dogs are the<br />

more dangerous pet, yet they are<br />

feared less than reptiles which are<br />

portrayed as cold-blooded killers.<br />

In recent years there have been<br />

laws put in place that restrict responsible<br />

reptile ownership.<br />

The Lacey Act in the United<br />

States, which was put in place by<br />

the Fish and Wildlife Services after<br />

the Burmese python issue in the<br />

everglades, restricts the shipping<br />

of certain species over state lines.<br />

This has put a huge strain on<br />

Dudley living happily in his well-kept habitat.<br />

businesses and has taken away<br />

rights of pet owners.<br />

In May 2015 the United States<br />

Association of Reptile Keepers<br />

was successful in their fight in suspending<br />

the ban of some species<br />

in the Lacey Act, but the fight still<br />

continues for USARK.<br />

Canada’s own version of<br />

USARK, CanHerp, fights for<br />

responsible reptile ownership in<br />

Canada, and is working with municipalities<br />

across Canada to ensure<br />

fair laws and bylaws for reptile<br />

owners.<br />

With groups like USARK,<br />

CanHerp, and radio shows such<br />

as Urban Jungles Radio fighting<br />

Photograph by Dan Koehler<br />

the negative stigma around reptiles,<br />

there is a huge future for responsible<br />

reptile ownership and exotic<br />

animal ownership all together.<br />

When we educate ourselves<br />

about these unique creatures, then<br />

take care of them accordingly, they<br />

can be harmless and make wonderful<br />

pets.<br />

Job cuts in newsrooms leaves industry in jeopardy<br />

Readers<br />

aren’t<br />

getting the<br />

right facts<br />

from social<br />

media<br />

Canadians need information to<br />

make important decisions. Democracy<br />

depends on people knowing<br />

what they are voting for or<br />

protesting against.<br />

There are many newsrooms in<br />

Canada facing job cuts and fewer<br />

journalists reporting the news.<br />

According to Torstar chair John<br />

Honderich, this means democracy<br />

is at risk due to the lack of information<br />

reaching Canadians.<br />

South of the border, both newsroom<br />

cuts and an abundance of<br />

Laura<br />

Metcalfe<br />

misinformation spread over social<br />

media played a part in the election<br />

of Donald Trump.<br />

People need to get their news<br />

from sites that are fact checked by<br />

trained journalists. This is the key<br />

to democracy.<br />

The key to good news writing is<br />

getting to the heart of the issues,<br />

being fair, balanced and accurate.<br />

Journalists need to dig deep in order<br />

to find out the facts.<br />

Fewer journalists in the newsroom<br />

means there isn’t enough<br />

investigative journalism being<br />

done. If there are fewer journalists,<br />

newsrooms might not get the<br />

information to the people who are<br />

directly affected.<br />

Political and community news<br />

suffer as a result of downsized<br />

newsrooms. With fewer reporters,<br />

there are not enough feet on the<br />

ground to cover everything and get<br />

multiple perspectives.<br />

In a recent article published on<br />

the Toronto Star website, Honderich<br />

says fewer journalists in the<br />

newsroom means not enough investigative<br />

journalism is being done.<br />

Newsrooms rely on reporters<br />

to provide a wide variety of stories<br />

and features, but as more newspapers<br />

build content online, print<br />

subscribers are forced to adjust to<br />

news both online and in mobile<br />

form.<br />

This might be natural for a generation<br />

raised on technology, but<br />

for the readers who like to hold<br />

and flip through the news over the<br />

breakfast table, this is an adjustment.<br />

The more people cross over<br />

to digital, the more papers lose<br />

revenue because the news revenue<br />

model has been based on print advertising.<br />

Those advertising dollars have<br />

moved to online platforms like<br />

Facebook, sucking revenue from<br />

newspapers.<br />

This has led news organizations<br />

to close down.<br />

Maclean’s has changed from<br />

a weekly publication to monthly.<br />

According to the Huffington Post,<br />

more than 40 staff members have<br />

been laid off due to the decline in<br />

print advertising.<br />

This results in more journalists<br />

losing jobs and less coverage on the<br />

ground. During the U.S election<br />

there were many posts made on Facebook<br />

that included misinformation<br />

or were fake news in general.<br />

People see these posts and ‘like’<br />

or ‘share’ and the fake news is<br />

spread to more people without filters.<br />

News outlets are constantly updating<br />

their online and mobile platforms,<br />

leading print newspapers to<br />

become obsolete over time.<br />

Newspapers need to accept the<br />

changing world of fast-paced news.<br />

By the time papers are printed and<br />

distributed, the stories are no longer<br />

considered ‘fresh’ news. Advertisement<br />

is being invested online<br />

where there is more traffic.<br />

Print is now struggling to keep<br />

afloat with what little ad and subscription<br />

revenue they have. This<br />

would not be a big issue if the industry<br />

could come up with new<br />

revenue models to compensate for<br />

the loss, but they have not yet.<br />

Citizens need real news after it<br />

has been fact checked and verified<br />

for its validity.<br />

People can’t always believe what<br />

they see on the Internet and this is<br />

the case for news.<br />

Democracy depends on people<br />

finding reliable, fair, balanced, accurate<br />

information and basing their<br />

decisions on those facts.


Opinion <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 5<br />

Why couldn’t it be Clinton?<br />

How is it<br />

Donald Trump<br />

is president?<br />

The morning after the election, the<br />

world changed. Not for the better.<br />

Americans were speechless with<br />

the results of the 20<strong>16</strong> presidential<br />

election.<br />

On that historical evening, America<br />

voted a former reality star to be<br />

the leader of their country.<br />

President-elect Donald J. Trump<br />

is one of the most well-recognized<br />

billionaires in the world, but by no<br />

means has the experience to be<br />

the leader of the free world. And<br />

although his business savvy has<br />

earned him his notorious reputation,<br />

it doesn’t secure the prosperity<br />

of an entire nation.<br />

Jared<br />

Williams<br />

Named one of the most powerful<br />

women on the planet, former first<br />

lady of America, and Secretary<br />

of the State for Barack Obama –<br />

Hillary Clinton should have been<br />

the clear winner of the 20<strong>16</strong> American<br />

presidential election.<br />

When comparing Clinton to<br />

Trump, it is apparent she is welcoming<br />

to immigrants in America,<br />

swept Trump in the popular vote,<br />

and represents equality for women<br />

around the world.<br />

If Clinton won, she would have<br />

gone down in history as the first female<br />

President of the United States<br />

of America.<br />

In order for a candidate to win<br />

the election, they need to win 270<br />

of the electoral vote. Each state<br />

has a certain number of electoral<br />

vote based on the population of<br />

the state.<br />

Because of the American Electoral<br />

College, dictated by the<br />

American constitution, the result<br />

of the vote can be different to who<br />

actually ends up as president.<br />

Trump won the presidency due<br />

to winning the majority of the electoral<br />

college.<br />

However, Clinton won the popular<br />

vote by over 1.2 million vote.<br />

Throughout his campaign,<br />

Trump was accused been proven<br />

of making, racist, sexist and bias<br />

comments directed towards people<br />

of the Muslim faith and Latinos.<br />

In an interview with CNN’s Jake<br />

Tapper, Trump says as president he<br />

plans to build a wall on the border<br />

of Mexico and America, and plans<br />

to send Mexico the bill in the name<br />

of ‘Making America Great Again’.<br />

Trump said too many people<br />

coming into America from the lower<br />

border and he used terms like<br />

“killers and rapists” to describe the<br />

Mexican and Latino community.<br />

As Secretary of State, senator<br />

of New York, and former first<br />

lady, Clinton’s political knowledge<br />

and experience surpasses Trump<br />

in areas like foreign policies and<br />

world climate change.Similar to<br />

President Barack Obama, Clinton<br />

could have represented how far forward<br />

thinking America has come.<br />

From fighting for women’s rights<br />

and equal pay, supporting low income<br />

family by giving them free<br />

college enrollment, even to increase<br />

minimum wages to $15/hr, Clinton<br />

was fighting to earn more for the<br />

everyday middle class American.<br />

With health care being so expensive<br />

in the America, Clinton<br />

spoke of keeping ObamaCare for<br />

the those who can’t afford regular<br />

healthcare, whereas Trump spoke<br />

of tearing down the only healthcare<br />

millions of Americans depend on.<br />

Hillary Clinton once led her<br />

country as first lady and always<br />

aspired to become more. American<br />

seemed to have just began to<br />

taking a liking to President Obama,<br />

and she planned take that similar<br />

course a step further.<br />

In the event of Clinton winning<br />

the election, she would have giving<br />

the similar hope to the nation that<br />

President Obama did becoming the<br />

first black president.<br />

By popular vote Hillary Clinton<br />

should have rightful been winner<br />

of the 20<strong>16</strong> presidential election.<br />

Donald Trump has no experience<br />

in leading a nation. And although<br />

he did not win by popular<br />

vote, Donald Trump earned the<br />

opportunity to prove to the world<br />

he can run the nation.<br />

Fat shaming needs<br />

to be a thing of the<br />

Mac will take the<br />

prize over PCs<br />

past in today’s society<br />

Bullying<br />

someone<br />

about their<br />

weight<br />

can lead<br />

to serious<br />

consequences<br />

Weight discrimination is a<br />

never-ending topic. But this is not<br />

surprising since well-known people<br />

like president-elect Donald Trump<br />

fat shame people on national television.<br />

Trump publicly fat shamed former<br />

Miss Universe during a Republican<br />

debate on September 27th, by<br />

referring to her as “Miss Piggy” and<br />

“Miss Housekeeping.”<br />

Fat shaming is not a form of<br />

encouragement for people to lose<br />

weight, it is bullying.<br />

Telling overweight people to exercise<br />

in order to lose weight is not<br />

positive advice; in fact it can have<br />

a negative impact.<br />

Taunting or making fun of<br />

people’s weight can lead to depression<br />

and other health issues.<br />

Just because a person is overweight,<br />

it does not give anyone the<br />

right to interpret how and why a<br />

body is the way it is.<br />

Trusha<br />

Patel<br />

Statistics Canada reports 54 per<br />

cent of the Canadian population<br />

has self-reported as overweight and<br />

obese.<br />

Obesity is a complicated issue,<br />

which cannot be resolved with some<br />

type of weight loss pill or temporary<br />

fix with surgery.<br />

Steven Nissen, MD, a cardiologist<br />

at the Cleveland Clinic, says<br />

simplified methods of weight loss,<br />

such as the weight loss pill, may not<br />

be safe since the elements used to<br />

make the pill are unknown.<br />

According to PLOS One journal<br />

on Perceived Weight Discrimination<br />

and Obesity, fat shaming actually<br />

leads to people withdrawing<br />

from social and physical activities,<br />

and engaging in behaviours that<br />

encourage obesity.<br />

According to the PLOS One<br />

journal, fat shaming leads to both<br />

psychological and physical harm.<br />

Depression, eating disorders, reduced<br />

self-esteem, and other chronic<br />

diseases are effects that go beyond<br />

weight gain.<br />

A research journal on obesity<br />

found people who are discriminated<br />

against because of their weight<br />

are 2.7 times likely to go into depression.<br />

An outcome of depression is<br />

suicide.<br />

An analysis done by the Centre<br />

for Advancing Health reveals fat<br />

shaming is a leading cause to attempted<br />

suicides.<br />

Prison Break star Wentworth<br />

Miller was a target for a fat shaming<br />

meme, which featured an image<br />

of him when he was in the<br />

lowest point of his adult life.<br />

Miller later went on Facebook<br />

to announce he was suicidal and<br />

suffered from depression.<br />

Another common misinterpretation<br />

about people who are overweight<br />

is that they eat whatever<br />

they want.<br />

Although unusual dietary habits<br />

are a factor, National Heart, Lung,<br />

and Blood Institute (NHLBI) says<br />

health conditions such as underactive<br />

thyroid, hormone problems,<br />

and Cushing’s syndrome lead to<br />

obesity.<br />

Other causes include gene/<br />

family history, environment, inactive<br />

lifestyle, lack of energy<br />

balance, medicine, smoking, age,<br />

pregnancy, lack of sleep, and emotional<br />

factors such as eating when<br />

bored.<br />

Fat shaming needs to come to<br />

end, but until high profiled people<br />

like Trump filter their thoughts,<br />

the end seems to be far into the<br />

distance.<br />

The battle<br />

between<br />

the best<br />

operating<br />

system<br />

continues<br />

There is always a debate about<br />

what is the best car, best musician,<br />

best smart phone, best athlete and<br />

… best computer. Is it Mac or PC?<br />

PC is the more common laptop<br />

because they are more affordable.<br />

But that extra money you’re spending<br />

on a Mac is worth every dollar.<br />

Even though Apple sold 4 to 8 per<br />

cent fewer computers in the second<br />

quarter of 20<strong>16</strong>, there is no doubt<br />

Macs are the best laptops on the<br />

market right now.<br />

Mac laptops can run everything<br />

a PC can. For instance, Macs can<br />

run the same operating system as<br />

PC Windows legally.<br />

The main operating system on<br />

a Mac is OS X.<br />

Boot Camp is a parallel OS<br />

which allows you to run other<br />

operating systems rather than<br />

the main Mac OS X. With Boot<br />

Camp, you are able to download<br />

and use Windows on a Mac.<br />

After Boot Camp is installed,<br />

you are given an option to start it<br />

up with OS X or Windows.<br />

It’s basically like owning two<br />

laptops put into one. On the other<br />

hand on PC, you can only run one<br />

operating system.<br />

Macs also have a much more<br />

organized looking desktop. The<br />

Asim<br />

Pervez<br />

average PC user has many icons.<br />

On a Mac, apps you frequently use<br />

can be found in the dock, the dock<br />

gives a Mac a simple, yet clean and<br />

organized look.<br />

Finding a file with Mac’s Finder<br />

tool is much faster than looking for<br />

a file on a PC.<br />

Transferring files to a USB is also<br />

much faster on a Mac than on a<br />

PC. On a PC, transferring files may<br />

take several minutes.<br />

Macs have more of a reputation<br />

for not crashing.<br />

Macs also have Retina Display,<br />

which makes the resolution on the<br />

screen much higher.<br />

The Retina Display gives the<br />

Mac desktop a rich and classy look.<br />

To top it all off, Macs are more<br />

durable. Macs are usually thinner<br />

with a sleek design, which makes<br />

them lighter and makes them easy<br />

to carry around in your backpack.<br />

The MacBook weighs a little more<br />

than 2 pounds.<br />

The MacBook Air weighs almost<br />

3 pounds and the MacBook Pro<br />

weighs the most at about 3 and a<br />

half pounds.<br />

Macs have really organized layouts,<br />

and it is easy to locate an app<br />

you regularly use because they appear<br />

in your dock.<br />

The Mac laptop is also less likely<br />

to crash, and has an extremely high<br />

quality screen display. Sorry PC,<br />

looks like Macs are the kings of the<br />

computer world.


6 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Campus<br />

Do we need a<br />

BROCK<br />

every time<br />

one of our<br />

TURNER<br />

rape victims wants to be heard?<br />

Stanford case shines<br />

light on sexual assault<br />

Noor Ibrahim<br />

The Chronicle<br />

There it is again, that churning<br />

feeling in the pit of your stomach<br />

when you see the name Brock<br />

Turner in the news.<br />

When Brock Turner began making<br />

rounds in the news back in<br />

May, every article reeked of white<br />

privilege. Male athlete. Stanford<br />

student. Excellent swimmer.<br />

The middle-class suburban teen<br />

raped a 22-year-old unconscious<br />

woman after a frat party in 2015.<br />

He got off with three months in jail<br />

and a three year probation.<br />

Articles from CNN, Time,<br />

Washington Post, USA Today, and<br />

Associated Press detailed Turner’s<br />

crimes but also included his swim<br />

records. He was not referred to as<br />

a ‘criminal’ by Time magazine, but<br />

rather a ‘star swimmer’. News outlets<br />

such as CNN, Sports Illustrated<br />

and USA Today called Turner<br />

the ‘former Stanford student’. Not<br />

perpetrator. Not pervert. Not rapist.<br />

Turner’s coverage in the media<br />

had all the factors that scare victims<br />

away from reporting a crime.<br />

Mary Joe’s case isn’t any different.<br />

Mary Joe was a Durham College<br />

student. She was working on her<br />

diploma in Environmental Technology,<br />

nursing a baby and volunteering<br />

at the on-campus women’s<br />

centre. But most importantly, she<br />

was enduring physical, verbal, and<br />

sexual assault by an abusive partner.<br />

The abuse lasted nine years.<br />

After Joe decided to pull the<br />

plug on her relationship in 2012,<br />

she pressed charges. Her perpetrator’s<br />

punishment? House arrest and<br />

probation.<br />

Just like Turner’s victim, Emily<br />

Doe, Joe was ready for this minimal<br />

sentence.<br />

“I was prepped by the counselors<br />

I was seeing and through victim-witness<br />

services at the courthouse<br />

that these kind of cases very<br />

often are dropped or there’s no conviction.<br />

So I was prepared for him<br />

to get off with nothing else… I was<br />

prepared for my case to be let go.”<br />

Joe’s story is one of many.<br />

There are 460,000 sexual assaults<br />

per year. According to a 2012<br />

report by Sexual Assault Centre<br />

Hamilton (SACHA), out of every<br />

1,000 sexual assaults in Canada, 33<br />

are reported every year, and only 3<br />

lead to a conviction.<br />

But these reports don’t get public<br />

interest the same way Turner’s<br />

story did. Statistics don’t spread<br />

on social media. They don’t gain<br />

sympathy. The victims behind<br />

these numbers become just that:<br />

numbers. Maybe they will show<br />

up in student research papers or<br />

newspaper articles. Maybe they<br />

won’t.<br />

But something about Turner’s<br />

case was compelling. Even people<br />

who don’t watch the news pulled up<br />

page after page of his statements,<br />

his trial dates, and his sentencing.<br />

Maybe it was his, as the victim<br />

Emily Doe, called it, “poorly written<br />

young adult novel” version<br />

of events. Maybe it was his dad’s<br />

letter to the judge begging to lessen<br />

Brock’s sentence because he<br />

couldn’t enjoy steak for dinner anymore.<br />

Maybe it was his mother’s<br />

plea to the judge saying she couldn’t<br />

decorate her new house because of<br />

how sad she was. Maybe it was his<br />

Judge Aaron Persky who was lenient<br />

on yet another student athlete,<br />

Keenan Smith, after battering his<br />

girlfriend. Or maybe it was Brock’s<br />

plans to start university tours to<br />

educate students on “drinking and<br />

promiscuity.”<br />

But perhaps the most compelling<br />

part of Turner’s case was the<br />

12-page victim impact statement<br />

penned by the now 23-year-old<br />

woman Turner raped behind a<br />

dumpster.<br />

Her statement, posted on Buzzfeed,<br />

has been viewed 1.11 million<br />

times. The statement addresses<br />

Brock Turner directly, and details<br />

Doe’s memories the night of her assault,<br />

the following morning, and<br />

the agonizing months after.<br />

She describes how she found out<br />

about the details of her assault from<br />

a news article, one that included<br />

Turner’s swim times. She recounts<br />

how Turner didn’t just strip her of<br />

her clothes that night, but of her<br />

worth, her privacy, her intimacy,<br />

her safety, her energy, her time, her<br />

confidence and her voice.<br />

Doe’s statement was raw. It was<br />

real. Just like a good narrative, it<br />

transported the reader to the scene<br />

of the crime: to that dumpster she<br />

was assaulted behind, to the hospital<br />

room she woke up in, to the<br />

courtroom where she faced her<br />

Photograph by Noor Ibrahim<br />

Posters from the "Yes Means Yes" campaign remind students<br />

about the meaning of consent.<br />

rapist. But Doe’s statement is not<br />

a work of fiction.<br />

Neither is Mary Joe’s story. But<br />

her statements remain unheard.<br />

Like many survivors, her words<br />

are not plastered in capital letters<br />

on social media. She is just trying<br />

to get by. Despite the nine-year<br />

abusive relationship, Joe was able<br />

to find strength at Durham College<br />

during her ordeal.<br />

“I think my time at school was<br />

how I survived,” said Joe. “I excelled<br />

at my studies. I had scholarships.<br />

It gave me a life that existed<br />

outside of my home, which helped<br />

me persevere.”<br />

Joe cannot imagine what women<br />

who have endured on-campus rape<br />

have to go through. “If the person<br />

who had assaulted me was actually<br />

a student on campus and I had to<br />

know that they were going to be<br />

there, that would be completely different.<br />

If something like that happens<br />

[to me], like a sexual assault<br />

on campus, I’d maybe like drop out.<br />

Because I couldn’t imagine having<br />

to look back if something like that<br />

happened at school.”<br />

Joe was right. According to the<br />

American College Health Association,<br />

1.3 per cent of students reported<br />

sexual assault negatively impacted<br />

or disrupted their academic<br />

performance at college. But that<br />

number is the tip of the iceberg.<br />

Sometimes staying quiet is better<br />

than having your story dismissed<br />

and your perpetrator applauded.<br />

Michelle Moody is the chair of<br />

the Social Action Committee of<br />

Durham and part of the executive<br />

committee of the annual Shine the<br />

Light campaign for Women Abuse<br />

Prevention month in Durham Region.<br />

Moody says there’s a lot of anger<br />

and distrust by victims. Nonetheless,<br />

on average, the Durham<br />

Region Police responded to 13 domestic<br />

calls per day in 2015. That<br />

amounts to almost 5,000 domestic<br />

abuse calls last year. But Moody<br />

says mistrust means many women<br />

do not report abuse or assault.<br />

“An incident like the Brock<br />

Turner one,” says Moody, “is going<br />

to reinforce women’s perception<br />

that there’s no point in reporting,<br />

because they’re only going to<br />

be re-victimized by the media, the<br />

social media, and the justice system.”<br />

According to the 2012 Sexual<br />

Assault Centre Hamilton (SA-<br />

CHA) report, 53 per cent of survivors<br />

did not report their sexual<br />

assault because they were not confident<br />

in the police.<br />

According to a 2014 CBC article,<br />

two out of three survivors<br />

said they were not confident in the<br />

criminal justice and court system<br />

in general.<br />

This lack of confidence stems<br />

from the process victims go<br />

Continued on page 7


Campus <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 7<br />

More than 444,000 sexual assault victims remain silent every single year.<br />

Photograph illustration by Noor Ibrahim<br />

From page 6<br />

through after they report an<br />

assault. Victims report inquiries<br />

about their outfit at the time of<br />

the attack, their sexual history,<br />

their relationship status, and their<br />

alcohol consumption. Reliving the<br />

experience just isn’t worth it.<br />

Rape court cases often become<br />

a version of he said, she said. Brock<br />

Turner’s was not. He was caught<br />

at the scene. There were witnesses.<br />

They testified. His victim’s DNA<br />

was on found his fingers. Yet Turner<br />

walks free. He lives at his parents'<br />

house. He makes plans to do<br />

speaking tours.<br />

It makes sense women on college<br />

campuses are scared. In a<br />

Canadian study conducted by the<br />

American College Health Association<br />

(ACHA), only 37.3 per cent of<br />

college students reported feeling<br />

very safe on their college campuses<br />

at night, 27 per cent of those surveyed<br />

were women.<br />

According to the Canadian<br />

Federation of Students (CFS), one<br />

in five women experience sexual<br />

assault at college. Let that sink in<br />

for a minute. There are 5,035 female<br />

students currently enrolled<br />

at Durham College. If one in five<br />

experiences sexual assault, that<br />

means by the end of the year over<br />

1,000 women will experience sexual<br />

assault right here on campus.<br />

At his trial, Turner’s childhood<br />

friend Leslie Rasmussen wrote a<br />

letter to Judge Aaron Persky urging<br />

him to spare Turner because,<br />

according to the letter, rapists<br />

are people who kidnap and rape<br />

women in parking lots as they<br />

walk to their cars, not intoxicated<br />

teenagers who sexually assault unconscious<br />

women at parties. Even<br />

though Rasmussen is from the<br />

States, her statement underscores<br />

the fact that, like Rasmussen, only<br />

one in three Canadians understand<br />

what sexual consent means.<br />

The fear of rape<br />

The lack of understanding<br />

about sexual consent is why rapists<br />

like Brock Turner continue to<br />

deny their crimes in court. Despite<br />

the posters stapled around campus<br />

that say “My dress is not a yes”, the<br />

Brock Turners of the world do not<br />

realize that a lack of a ‘yes’ constitutes<br />

rape. Brock Turner is a reminder<br />

that rape culture exists on<br />

campus and in society.<br />

According to a 2015 Globe<br />

and Mail article, less than 10 per<br />

cent of sexual assault complaints<br />

on campus are resolved through a<br />

formal investigation. At some institutions,<br />

that number is less than<br />

one per cent. The article was one<br />

of many responding to harassment<br />

and assault cases at Brock University,<br />

the University of Victoria,<br />

Dalhousie University and the University<br />

of British Columbia. These<br />

cases, along with Brock Turner’s<br />

case, shone a light on the fear of<br />

sexual assault felt on campus.<br />

“[The fear of sexual assault]<br />

may not stop you from going to<br />

college or university,” says Alison<br />

E. King, a UOIT expert in<br />

the Faculty of Social Science and<br />

Humanities, “but it may impact<br />

where you go.”<br />

King conducts research in<br />

women’s history and the student<br />

experience. She says students from<br />

small towns or communities might<br />

choose not to go to colleges whose<br />

campuses are somewhat bigger or<br />

secluded because of fear for safety.<br />

Students, says King, might choose<br />

a more private campus close to<br />

home.<br />

“In general, students do better<br />

when they feel like they are part of<br />

a community. And being part of a<br />

community is that you feel safe,”<br />

says King. “So if you’re not feeling<br />

safe, that undermines that sense of<br />

community and the sense that you<br />

can be on campus and take part in<br />

activities and walk around campus<br />

safely. "<br />

King also says that if a sexual<br />

assault victim’s perpetrator were<br />

on campus, the victim would<br />

feel like campus was a dangerous<br />

place. Because of that fear, the<br />

student would be suspicious of the<br />

people around them.<br />

I think it's<br />

a very<br />

real fear.<br />

That is exactly was Joe thinks.<br />

“I think [the fear of sexual assault]<br />

is so ingrained in our society<br />

that women don’t really know<br />

it on a conscious level,” said Joe.<br />

“But I think there’s a lot of anxiety.<br />

I think there’s a lot of awareness,<br />

even on campuses or walking<br />

around at night anywhere. I think<br />

it’s a very real fear.”<br />

That fear is not going unnoticed.<br />

In 2015, Kathleen Wynne's<br />

government announced a provincial<br />

action plan to deal with sexual<br />

violence. Over $40 million dollars<br />

will go into the three year plan,<br />

which defines sexual violence as<br />

“any sexual act or act targeting a<br />

person’s sexuality, gender identity<br />

or gender expression, whether the<br />

act is physical or psychological in<br />

nature, that is committed, threatened<br />

or attempted against a person<br />

without the person’s consent,<br />

and includes sexual assault, sexual<br />

harassment, stalking, indecent exposure,<br />

voyeurism and sexual exploitation.”<br />

With the introduction of Bill<br />

132, the Sexual Violence and<br />

Harassment Action Plan Act, in<br />

March this year, faculty at Durham<br />

College and UOIT are required<br />

to take online sexual violence<br />

modules. These modules are<br />

designed to help recognize sexual<br />

violence and create a safe space.<br />

All employees must complete the<br />

modules by Dec. 1. The modules<br />

provide precise definitions of sexual<br />

assault and violence, set clear<br />

standards for reporting and responding<br />

to disclosures of sexual<br />

violence, and provide resources<br />

both on campus and within the<br />

community to support individuals<br />

affected by sexual violence.<br />

DC and UOIT also provide oncampus<br />

support services through<br />

the Office of Campus Safety,<br />

Campus Health Centre, Access<br />

and Support Centre, Good2Talk,<br />

and the Outreach Services run<br />

by the Student Association. The<br />

institutions also provide connections<br />

to off-campus services, such<br />

as Durham Rape Crisis Centre<br />

and Sexual Assault Care Centre at<br />

Lakeridge Health.<br />

Stanford offers similar services<br />

requiring faculty and staff to complete<br />

training that addresses sexual<br />

harassment and sexual misconduct.<br />

This raises the question: for<br />

Turner, what change did faculty<br />

training make?<br />

But Brock Turner’s case itself<br />

made a change. It ripped off the<br />

veil of rape culture.<br />

The details of Brock Turner’s<br />

story fascinated yet enraged many.<br />

Facebook posts emerged with a<br />

picture of Turner in a suit captioned:<br />

“here is the guy you don’t<br />

want in the bathroom with your<br />

daughter.” #BrockTurner garnered<br />

more than half a million<br />

tweets.<br />

Tweets, Facebook posts and<br />

memes leave a digital trail all over<br />

the web as a reminder that rape<br />

culture exists, and continues to be<br />

ignored by many on campus and<br />

in society.<br />

Brock Turner is a reminder that<br />

we still teach people to avoid getting<br />

raped, not to avoid raping. He<br />

is reminder of how we don’t want<br />

men in our Canadian society to be.<br />

He is a reminder that every year<br />

college students could be walking<br />

away from the college of their<br />

dreams for fear of meeting a Brock<br />

Turner on campus. He is a reminder<br />

that rapists are not always<br />

perverts lurking in the corners of<br />

dingy alleyways waiting for the<br />

next miniskirt to pass by. Sometimes,<br />

they are men like Brock<br />

Turner: educated, privileged, and<br />

as we’re reminded in every media<br />

report, good at swimming.<br />

Brock may have stolen Emily<br />

Doe’s integrity, but he gave her,<br />

and thousands of others, a voice.<br />

Mary Joe is one voice at Durham<br />

College. She is not the first<br />

and will not be the last victim of<br />

sexual assault on campus. Brock<br />

Turner is not and will not be the<br />

last rapist to attend a college or<br />

university.<br />

But hopefully a dialogue has<br />

started, one that will replace the<br />

churning feeling in the pit of your<br />

stomach when you see the name<br />

Brock Turner in the news.


8 <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle Campus<br />

'Tis the season for giving<br />

Organizers<br />

urge campus<br />

community<br />

to donate to<br />

the holiday<br />

food drive<br />

Sam Odrowski<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The annual Holiday Food Drive at<br />

Durham College and UOIT says<br />

it needs support from the campus<br />

now more than ever. There has<br />

been a 60 per cent increase in need<br />

from students for the food bank last<br />

year.<br />

In 2015, the food drive helped<br />

274 DC and UOIT students as well<br />

as about three hundred of their<br />

children.<br />

Last year, the drive raised<br />

$45,000 but due to increased need<br />

it fell a little short in donations, according<br />

to the dean of Interdisciplinary<br />

Studies, Kevin Dougherty.<br />

“It is growing exponentially,” he<br />

says. “We really don’t know how<br />

many students are going to access<br />

it.”<br />

Dougherty says non-perishable<br />

food items are great but cash donations<br />

can make an even bigger<br />

impact.<br />

“If we can get a dozen cans of<br />

soup that’s terrific. But if we can get<br />

the money that bought those dozen<br />

cans of soup that’s great because we<br />

can probably get <strong>16</strong>,” he says.<br />

Organizers have partnered with<br />

a local Kinsmen Club that has a<br />

connection to a grocery retailer so<br />

food can be bought at lower prices.<br />

Dougherty has helped organize<br />

the past 12 food drives and has seen<br />

firsthand the impact it has on students<br />

this time of the year.<br />

According to Dougherty, many<br />

A family of volunteers help pack hampers for the less fortunate.<br />

students find the cupboards are<br />

bare by the end of the semester and<br />

the food drive offers the support<br />

they need to help them through the<br />

holidays.<br />

“We get a fair number of notes<br />

and letters back from students,<br />

notes of appreciation just being<br />

dumbfounded at the support we’ve<br />

provided,” says Dougherty.<br />

Lori Russell, who works in the<br />

financial aid office, also sees the<br />

impact on students. She has helped<br />

with the food drive for the past 10<br />

years. Russell says Christmas could<br />

have been pretty bleak for many<br />

families if these supports did not<br />

exist.<br />

She can relate to students who<br />

need a little extra financial support<br />

while in school.<br />

“At one point I was a single mom<br />

in school as well, and I remember<br />

reaching out to a program and<br />

thinking maybe there is other<br />

people that deserve it more, maybe<br />

this isn’t something I should be doing,”<br />

she says, “and the women who<br />

I met with said at one point in our<br />

lives we always need help and one<br />

day you will be able to provide help<br />

to other people.”<br />

Russell says people shouldn’t be<br />

hesitant about accessing the food<br />

bank because it is a great resource<br />

that was created for the students.<br />

“It is a great assistance that<br />

people should want to be able to<br />

receive and not feel stigmatized<br />

because they're getting help,” she<br />

says.<br />

Poinsettias, Christmas cacti, and<br />

Photograph courtesy of the Campus Food Bank<br />

cyclamen are being sold for $5 each<br />

until Dec.<strong>16</strong>. Candy Canes are also<br />

being sold to raise money.<br />

Hamper packing day is Dec. 18.<br />

Volunteers are welcome to help<br />

sort, pack, and deliver the hampers.<br />

Donating non-perishable food<br />

items is great but Russell says the<br />

food drive does not receive many<br />

diapers, baby food, and toiletries,<br />

which are also much needed for<br />

students with young families.<br />

The food drive’s goal for this year<br />

is to raise $50,000.<br />

Local charities helping over the holiday season<br />

Charities<br />

need young<br />

volunteers<br />

and funding<br />

Alex Debets<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The holiday season is quickly approaching.<br />

With the semester<br />

ending and the snow beginning to<br />

fall, it’s almost time to kick back<br />

and take a break from school.<br />

Not everyone has a relaxing holiday<br />

season though. While numbers<br />

for the Durham Region are<br />

hard to locate, Covenant House,<br />

Canada’s largest homeless youth<br />

agency, estimates up to 2,000<br />

youth are homeless in Toronto on<br />

any given night.<br />

That number jumps up to 7,000<br />

when including the entire country.<br />

Youth shelters such as Joanne’s<br />

House in Ajax specialize in finding<br />

housing options for young<br />

people who are homeless. A resident<br />

can stay up to 30 days in<br />

the shelter. During their stay the<br />

youth, who are between the ages<br />

of <strong>16</strong> and 24, are pushed to find<br />

jobs and full-time housing.<br />

The difficulty is that the shelter,<br />

and others like it, are often full.<br />

Joanne’s House can host up to<br />

13people at one time, which<br />

meant they turned away more<br />

than 30 kids in October.<br />

Still, the holiday season is a special<br />

time for most people, and Joanne’s<br />

House is no different.<br />

Community organizations, such<br />

as churches and charities, help<br />

make the holidays a special time<br />

by organizing special dinners and<br />

creating gifts for the residents.<br />

“We try to make the holidays as<br />

important for these kids as it would<br />

be for anybody else,” says shelter<br />

manager Adrianna Vanderneut.<br />

Just down the street from<br />

Joanne’s House another organization<br />

is also trying to make the<br />

holidays better for everyone.<br />

The Salvation Army is at the<br />

corner of Exeter Road and King<br />

Crescent, which is only a tenminute<br />

walk from Joanne’s House.<br />

While the Salvation Army doesn’t<br />

specifically target youth, it does<br />

work with young people in multiple<br />

ways.<br />

In turn, their captain, Jason Sabourin,<br />

says they are in they are<br />

trying to turn hopelessness into<br />

hopefulness.<br />

“The goal is basically to relieve<br />

suffering for people, and help<br />

people through the difficult times<br />

they’re finding themselves in,”<br />

says Sabourin.<br />

The small bungalow next to the<br />

headquarters is also owned by the<br />

Salvation Army.<br />

On the main floor, hot meals<br />

are served and people can use the<br />

food bank. The amount is based<br />

on income, but Sabourin ensures<br />

that no one leaves without at least<br />

one item.<br />

The basement has been converted<br />

into their food bank for<br />

the area. It is a small, unfinished<br />

area lined with shelves full of food<br />

ready to go out for the holiday season.<br />

Around this time of year, the<br />

food bank is filled with donations<br />

mostly from food drives around<br />

the province.<br />

The food bank is mostly operated<br />

by older people, many of whom<br />

are starting to have troubles lifting<br />

boxes and moving things around.<br />

The deposit area is a small basement<br />

window covered by a piece<br />

of plywood, with a wooden ramp<br />

leading down into the deposit<br />

room.<br />

The basement is cold, and<br />

cramped, with every employee<br />

hard at work in their own area of<br />

the basement. Both organizations<br />

face challenges: lack of finances<br />

to pay for employees and simply<br />

not enough volunteers. There is<br />

also an awareness issue. Above all,<br />

Vanderneut wants people to know<br />

that Joanne’s House exists.<br />

“I think the biggest thing for us<br />

is just raising the awareness that<br />

Joanne’s House is here,” she says.<br />

“Despite the fact that we are full<br />

often, there are a lot of people who<br />

don’t necessarily know that we are<br />

here and what we do.”<br />

Sabourin needs people’s time.<br />

With aging volunteers, the Salvation<br />

Army needs new workers,<br />

and stronger funding.<br />

“Monetary resources is our<br />

number one priority, to operate,<br />

to heat the place, to keep the lights<br />

on, also to pay salaries is very expensive,”<br />

says Sabourin.<br />

“To have specialized help, the<br />

cost of that is rising very, very<br />

much.”


Community <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 9<br />

Fiscal doubt for young GM workers<br />

Today’s<br />

generation<br />

of workers<br />

face<br />

financial<br />

uncertainty<br />

due to weak<br />

job security<br />

Nicole O’Brien<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Chris Matthews, an assembly<br />

line worker at General Motors in<br />

Oshawa, checked the “yes” box<br />

when he voted on the deal struck<br />

between the Canadian union<br />

Unifor and the automotive giant<br />

last month, though he admits he<br />

doesn’t feel it will change how he<br />

feels about his job security.<br />

“There’s talk about (the job) being<br />

long term, but the reality of it in<br />

this industry, you could be pulled<br />

out tomorrow,” says Matthews who<br />

at 21 has been working at the GM<br />

Oshawa plant since 2014.<br />

Matthews’ job security was tested<br />

in mid-September during GM’s<br />

negotiations with the Canadian<br />

union Unifor. Both had to agree<br />

on a new contract for its workers.<br />

His assembly line partner, Samantha<br />

Francis, thought the plant<br />

was on its way out of Oshawa.<br />

“I thought it was going down to<br />

be honest,” says Francis, who left<br />

the retail industry for GM after<br />

yearning for a better hourly pay<br />

than minimum wage.<br />

Francis says the worst part was<br />

not knowing right up until the very<br />

last minute.<br />

Unifor, which represents around<br />

4,000 workers at GM plants in Ontario,<br />

struck a new four-year deal<br />

with GM just after the midnight<br />

deadline on Sept., 19.<br />

Positive changes to the deal include<br />

a commitment for Oshawa’s<br />

flex line with a $400 million investment,<br />

increased wages for employees,<br />

and better pension security<br />

for long time employees. This<br />

is great news for Oshawa, as GM<br />

has been the city’s largest employer<br />

since it opened in 1907.<br />

“From all the small jobs its provides,<br />

all the imports. It brings all<br />

kinds of things into Oshawa,” says<br />

Matthews.<br />

But not everyone will be happy<br />

with the new contract, especially<br />

those just hired and those looking<br />

to apply.<br />

The deal is indicative of what<br />

millennials have to look forward<br />

too: a future with little job security.<br />

This is the future of the millennial<br />

generation, a term used to describe<br />

those born between the early 1980s<br />

and to the early 2000s.<br />

“In the older generations, you<br />

know if you started at General<br />

Motors, there was always this car,<br />

and this car, and that wasn’t going<br />

anywhere,” Matthews, a Durham<br />

College Electrical Techniques<br />

graduate, explains.<br />

Chris Matthews (left) and Sam Francis (right) are both assembly line workers at Oshawa’s General Motors.<br />

“The place used to have 20, 000<br />

workers, and now it’s down to too<br />

3,000,” says Matthews.<br />

This leaves a growing pool of<br />

well-qualified twenty-somethings<br />

scrapping it out for a limited number<br />

of positions.<br />

GM announced all new employees<br />

will be switched to a defined<br />

contribution pension plan while<br />

longtime workers, those who have<br />

been there for 11 years or more,<br />

will remain under the defined<br />

benefit pension plan.<br />

Jenn Cowie has been an assembly<br />

line worker at GM in Oshawa<br />

for 14 years. She says the deal has<br />

caused a split between the hires<br />

and the long-time workers.<br />

“It’s created another division,”<br />

says Cowie. “Maybe not with<br />

status but with wage.”<br />

“The pension is what stands out<br />

to me,” says Francis, who at 23 has<br />

just passed her one-year mark at<br />

the plant in April.<br />

This may be because General<br />

Motors has become like many employers<br />

in Canada.<br />

By cutting back pension benefits<br />

to compete with the globalized<br />

markets, new employees face shriveling<br />

pensions.<br />

While pension plans for long<br />

time workers and new hires may<br />

sound the same, they couldn’t be<br />

more different.<br />

These pensions are considered<br />

Ontario’s two main occupational<br />

pension plans.<br />

From the perspective of an employee,<br />

the defined contribution<br />

plan is superior. This plan promises<br />

to pay a certain annual retirement<br />

income for life and is based<br />

on a formula that usually considers<br />

earnings and years of service with<br />

the employer.<br />

Both the employer and employee<br />

contribute to the plan and if there<br />

is a shortfall in the money needed,<br />

the employer would be the one to<br />

pay up.<br />

Cowie falls under the defined<br />

contribution plan and was not personally<br />

affected by the deal. She<br />

says General Motors doesn’t care<br />

about its workers. They just know<br />

workers need to make money.<br />

“Unfortunately it is hard to find<br />

work,” says Cowie, who has also<br />

worked for Chrysler and Ford.<br />

“It’s not people’s dream job. But<br />

it’s a money trap, that is what keeps<br />

people there.”<br />

But new hires at GM will not<br />

have the luxury of a defined contribution<br />

pension plan.<br />

In this plan, contributions are<br />

still guaranteed, but retirement income<br />

is not. Like an RRSP, the employee<br />

is responsible for investing<br />

all contributions to grow savings.<br />

Unfortunately for new employees<br />

at GM, the amount available at<br />

retirement depends completely on<br />

the total contributions made to the<br />

account and the investment returns<br />

the money earned.<br />

It’s not people’s<br />

dream job. But<br />

it’s a money<br />

trap, that is what<br />

keeps people<br />

there.<br />

While new hires will see a slight<br />

increase in wages on their pay<br />

cheques, they will have to work a<br />

lot longer than they thought in order<br />

for their wage levels to increase<br />

to what the long-term employees<br />

are getting.<br />

This directly affects young workers<br />

like Matthews and Francis.<br />

“It went in one direction for<br />

new hires, new people within the<br />

last two, three years where we are<br />

starting at zero. One direction for<br />

someone who has ten years and<br />

now they’re working another ten<br />

years to be able to get where they<br />

want. And for people with like fifteen<br />

years it’s pretty much stayed<br />

the same for them,” says Matthews.<br />

According to the new deal, Matthews<br />

will have to work another<br />

eleven years to be able to get on<br />

the same level as those receiving<br />

the defined benefits plan and he<br />

will have to work a total of thirteen<br />

years before he finishes his probationary<br />

period.<br />

While some say the deal is completely<br />

screwing over the young<br />

workers just starting out, others,<br />

like Clair Cornish, program coordinator<br />

of both the Trades<br />

Fundamental program and the<br />

Mechanical Technician program<br />

at Durham College, believe millennials<br />

shouldn’t give up on the<br />

trades.<br />

“The trades are a wonderful<br />

opportunity for our Ontario youth<br />

to find rewarding careers that are<br />

good paying jobs and have a lot<br />

of self-satisfaction,” says Cornish,<br />

who also teaches in both the programs<br />

he coordinates.<br />

According to the Ontario Youth<br />

Apprenticeship Program, 40 per<br />

cent of all occupations by 2025 will<br />

be skilled trades in fields such as<br />

construction, mechanics, engineering,<br />

and more.<br />

Along with Matthews, Francis<br />

also voted yes at the ratification<br />

held the weekend after the contract<br />

was agreed upon. One thing they<br />

didn’t vote on: job security.<br />

“I think it’s better than working<br />

at other places,” says Matthews.<br />

Francis looks at her friend reluctantly<br />

and says, “But do you feel<br />

secure though?”<br />

Almost at the exact same time,<br />

both reply, “No.”<br />

According to a 20<strong>16</strong> report<br />

from the Royal Bank of Canada,<br />

millennials are doing better than<br />

ever. Canadian millennials have<br />

“inherited a labour environment<br />

in many ways better than that of<br />

their parents.”<br />

More millennial women are participating<br />

in the workforce compared<br />

to previous generations, and<br />

they hold a majority of degrees in<br />

science and technology, according<br />

to the report written by RBC<br />

economist Laura Cooper.<br />

And while that is great news,<br />

the report left out other information<br />

which suggests the economy is<br />

much tougher on millennials than<br />

it was on their parents. The report<br />

Photograph by Nicole O’Brien<br />

skimmed over important issues<br />

such as weak job security and the<br />

cost of housing.<br />

According to Statistics Canada,<br />

millennials are facing an unemployment<br />

rate of 13.3 per cent.<br />

Not only are their fewer jobs for<br />

young people, but job security is<br />

very weak.<br />

Cooper also suggests that in<br />

2015 there was a rise in contract<br />

employment for millennials, which<br />

accounted for 12.8 per cent of all<br />

youth employment. But growing<br />

contract employment is just another<br />

way of saying job security<br />

for the younger generation is very<br />

weak in Canada.<br />

The report shows contracts are<br />

often all that is offered. General<br />

Motors proves this, as they only<br />

negotiate contracts lasting for a<br />

four-year period.<br />

In 2013, 42 per cent of Canadians<br />

aged 20 to 29 reported they<br />

were still living at home. Housing<br />

prices in Canada has caused a<br />

major struggle for millennials who<br />

want to leave the house and put<br />

down their roots.<br />

“The cost of living keeps rising<br />

and wages don’t,” says Cowie.<br />

The average price of a detached<br />

home in Toronto is nearly $1.2<br />

million, and semi-detached costs<br />

more than $800 000. About 71.4<br />

per cent of household is needed to<br />

cover the cost of the average family<br />

in the GTA. And that doesn’t stop<br />

when it comes to housing in Durham<br />

Region.<br />

According to the Durham Region<br />

Association of Realtors, prices<br />

were up in Durham by 15.8 per<br />

cent compared to last year.<br />

The strong combination of the<br />

lack of jobs and rising housing<br />

prices is discouraging millions of<br />

prospects from the millennial generation<br />

across Canada.<br />

In early October, the Oshawa<br />

GM plant announced they will be<br />

hiring over 100 new employees for<br />

early 20<strong>17</strong>. But Matthews says he<br />

wouldn’t recommend anyone he<br />

knows to apply any time soon.<br />

“I wouldn’t tell someone who<br />

has a decent job to leave that job<br />

to come here, not a chance,” says<br />

Matthews.


10 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Campus<br />

Easing the burden of student debt<br />

Travis Fortnum<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The Canadian government recently<br />

announced a new rule that will<br />

make student debt repayment a<br />

little easier.<br />

But Celina Caesar-Chavannes,<br />

Parliamentary Secretary to Prime<br />

Minister Justin Trudeau and Whitby<br />

MP, thinks her Liberal government<br />

can do more.<br />

This new rule means graduates<br />

won’t have to start repaying their<br />

student loans until they are earning<br />

at least $25,000 a year.<br />

“I think anybody who is making<br />

$25,000 a year is living in poverty,”<br />

Caesar-Chavannes says.<br />

I think<br />

anybody who<br />

is making<br />

$25,000 a year<br />

is living in<br />

poverty.<br />

“I think it’s great that you don’t<br />

have to pay it until you’re making<br />

over that, because honestly if you’re<br />

making less than that the last thing<br />

you want to do is pay back your<br />

student loans.”<br />

It used to be that individuals<br />

had to begin repaying their loans<br />

once they were making more than<br />

$20,000, so this small change could<br />

be significant to many graduates<br />

struggling to balance their daily<br />

finances and debt repayment.<br />

Chris Rocha, director of financial<br />

aid and awards at Durham<br />

College, believes the change will<br />

benefit students who will soon be<br />

heading off in to the working world.<br />

“Increasing the income threshold<br />

for student loan repayment<br />

will assist recent graduates when it<br />

comes time to start repaying their<br />

loan debt,” he says. “It is just one<br />

of the many measures being put<br />

in place by the government to improve<br />

financial aid in Ontario and<br />

Canada.”<br />

According to Statistics Canada,<br />

tuition in Canada today is 45 per<br />

cent higher than it was 10 years<br />

ago.<br />

In 2013, StatsCan also noted that<br />

43 per cent of graduating college<br />

students relied on student loans,<br />

owing an average of about $15,000.<br />

University students graduating<br />

with either a bachelor or master’s<br />

degree claimed an average debt<br />

of more than $26,000 and those<br />

graduating with a doctorate owed<br />

about $41,000.<br />

According to the Government<br />

of Canada Student Loans website,<br />

students who are struggling to<br />

make their monthly student loan<br />

payments have the option to apply<br />

for help through the Repayment<br />

Assistance Plan.<br />

To qualify, you must live in Canada,<br />

meet income requirements<br />

and also re-apply for the plan every<br />

six months.<br />

In recent years, there has been<br />

an outcry amongst millennials<br />

against the high price of tuition.<br />

Earlier this month in Halifax, the<br />

Canadian Federation of Students,<br />

a network of student governments<br />

with four chapters across the GTA<br />

alone, organized a protest of the<br />

country’s rising cost of education.<br />

Members of the federation say<br />

Canada can afford to cover the cost<br />

of tuition for students.<br />

Caesar-Chavannes knows that<br />

the repayment revisions are a start<br />

but also notes that millennials, in<br />

addition to this debt, will have to<br />

overcome challenges created by<br />

baby boomers.<br />

“I think that we’ve taken a<br />

nice first step for students,” says<br />

Caesar-Chavannes, “but you guys<br />

are a generation that are real superheroes.<br />

My generation has done a<br />

really good job messing things up.”<br />

In the meantime, the ease of the<br />

burden of debt granted to low-income<br />

graduates is a welcome<br />

change and has many Canadians<br />

feeling hopeful for what the future<br />

might hold when it comes to government<br />

relief of student debt.In<br />

the meantime, many alternative<br />

options remain available to students<br />

in the country.<br />

“I think the government should<br />

always be looking at ways to make<br />

post-secondary school affordable<br />

and accessible for all students,” Rocha<br />

says. “Your financial aid office<br />

is here to assist you in developing<br />

the financial skills you need, as well<br />

as provide you with options to fund<br />

your education.”<br />

Photograph by Travis Fortnum<br />

Whitby MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes says her Liberal<br />

government can do more for graduates with debt.


Campus <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 11<br />

It's a small world after all<br />

Whether you're in Canada or abroad,<br />

college life is pretty similar<br />

Travis Fortnum<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The morning sunrise peeks over<br />

the horizon, its glow waking the<br />

world with the indication of a new<br />

day. Yobert Montillo Guzmán has<br />

just arrived home from his parttime<br />

job but must wake and begin<br />

preparing for another day of school.<br />

Guzmán is studying cooking while<br />

living away from home. He rents<br />

a room in the city and in order to<br />

afford rent, he spends his evenings<br />

working into the wee hours.<br />

A familiar story, perhaps? Chances<br />

are you can relate. Statistics<br />

Canada says just under half of<br />

postsecondary students have jobs.<br />

But the city Guzmán is living and<br />

studying in is Trujillo, Peru, nearly<br />

6,000 km away from Oshawa.<br />

One might not think someone<br />

who lives on a different continent<br />

could live a lifestyle comparable to<br />

theirs, as cultural and geographical<br />

borders separate us. However,<br />

it’s true what they say: it’s a small<br />

world, and given advancements in<br />

technology and communication, it<br />

gets smaller every day. Thanks to<br />

cellphones, Facebook, Skype and<br />

countless other tools, globalization<br />

is more prominent than ever before.<br />

Globalization is an important<br />

part of Durham College’s plans<br />

moving forward. Elaine Popp, the<br />

school’s Vice-President of Academic,<br />

has been working to forge<br />

mutually-beneficial partnerships,<br />

including one with Centro Experimental<br />

de Formación Profesional<br />

(CEFOP) in Trujillo, where<br />

Guzmán studies.<br />

“I’m so glad that we are in a<br />

position where we’re able to share<br />

what we’ve learned as an institution<br />

here in Canada,” says Popp,<br />

“to help them strengthen their programs<br />

and create better opportunities,<br />

and then that improves their<br />

economy.”<br />

Popp believes Durham College’s<br />

experience can affect their students<br />

and their economy. “The social<br />

conditions even,” says Popp, “because<br />

if you get an education, stats<br />

Photograph by Travis Fortnum<br />

Claudia Cubas Quiroz says<br />

the biggest difference since<br />

moving from Peru to Whitby<br />

has been the flow of traffic.<br />

show, you’re likely to be healthier,<br />

more socially and financially affluent.”<br />

Financial affluence is not something<br />

that immediately comes<br />

second nature to most college students,<br />

which is why so many have<br />

jobs.<br />

Aside from working exhausting<br />

hours to make some extra cash,<br />

Guzmán deals with countless<br />

other factors students across the<br />

globe can relate to, such as parental<br />

pressure.<br />

Originally, Guzmán’s parents<br />

were not supportive of him studying<br />

the culinary arts.<br />

“They really encouraged me to<br />

do a different career and to go into<br />

medicine,” Guzmán says, “I didn’t<br />

really like that. I left and decided<br />

to go for what I’ve always been so<br />

passionate about and what I loved.”<br />

Don’t be surprised if this hits<br />

close to home. According to the<br />

John Hopkins Center for Talented<br />

Youth, over 85 per cent of parents<br />

report being very involved or somewhat<br />

involved in their children’s<br />

education.<br />

Although his parents were not<br />

supportive at first, Guzmán’s passion<br />

was ingrained in him at a<br />

young age.<br />

“Really it was my grandmother<br />

that motivated me,” says Guzmán.<br />

“When I was younger I would always<br />

see her cooking. I could tell<br />

she had a love for what she was doing<br />

so I would ask her to show me.<br />

She would walk me through step by<br />

step and allow me to taste things.”<br />

Guzmán was praised for his skill<br />

in the kitchen and pushed to pursue<br />

it by friends: similar to how the<br />

lucky ones among us are lead to a<br />

postsecondary program that teaches<br />

us how to turn our passions into<br />

a career.<br />

It’s circumstances like these that<br />

confirm the student experience is<br />

fundamentally universal.<br />

Student life in today’s world leaps<br />

across borders and oceans. The experience<br />

isn’t the only thing shared<br />

with those in foreign countries; it’s<br />

possible we share classmates as<br />

well.<br />

Claudia Cubas Quiroz is a<br />

second-year student in the Human<br />

Resources Management program<br />

at Durham College. She too<br />

is Peruvian, from a small mountainous<br />

city northwest of Trujillo,<br />

where Guzmán lives.<br />

Like Guzmán, Quiroz’s parents<br />

wanted her to study medicine close<br />

to home.<br />

“My mom always wanted a doctor,”<br />

says Quiroz, “I always wanted<br />

to leave but my parents were like,<br />

‘are you sure you want to? You’re<br />

our only daughter’. So I started university<br />

in Peru but I came here for<br />

a vacation to visit my family and<br />

see Canada, and I didn’t go back.”<br />

Quiroz now lives with her aunt,<br />

uncle and cousin in Whitby. She<br />

says the biggest change she had to<br />

adapt to in Canada was the flow<br />

of traffic.<br />

In Peru, drivers zip in and out of<br />

lanes at high speeds, slamming on<br />

the brakes when a stop is necessary.<br />

The sound of car horns fills the air.<br />

In Peru, the horn is used differently<br />

than in Canada, becoming white<br />

noise to locals.<br />

“When I was coming to Whitby<br />

from the airport,” says Quiroz,<br />

“all the people were respecting the<br />

traffic signs. I was like… okay, this<br />

is a very different country.”<br />

For the past 14 years, the United<br />

Nations has named Canada one of<br />

the top ten countries in which to<br />

live. Durham College alone has 627<br />

international students enrolled this<br />

semester from 54 different countries.<br />

This is up from 523 students<br />

last year from 48 countries.<br />

Katie Boone is the project coordinator<br />

with the college’s international<br />

office. She travels to<br />

countries around the world to visit<br />

the school’s international partners<br />

and oversee progress on foreign<br />

campuses. Recently, Boone visited<br />

CEFOP in Trujillo to touch base<br />

on progress made through their<br />

partnership with Durham College.<br />

“There are four projects that I<br />

manage,” Boone says. “There’s<br />

Peru, a project in Guyana that focuses<br />

on automotive and electronics,<br />

a project in Vietnam which is<br />

focusing on food and pharmaceuticals,<br />

and then there’s a project in<br />

Barbados which is [focused on]<br />

leadership and change management.”<br />

While working in the international<br />

office at Durham College,<br />

Boone crosses paths with much of<br />

the international student population.<br />

She also works with Durham<br />

students abroad. She has seen firsthand<br />

the progress the world has<br />

made towards globalization, and<br />

believes this is a great advancement<br />

for future generations.<br />

“The best experience I’ve had<br />

was watching [Durham students]<br />

engage with the Peruvian students,”<br />

says Boone.<br />

“I think that it allows you to<br />

build skills that are critical to personal<br />

and professional life, that are<br />

good stepping stones to build on,<br />

regardless of whether your career<br />

brings you to another international<br />

setting or not.”<br />

Elaine Popp recently joined<br />

Boone in Trujillo, and has experienced<br />

the evolution of academics<br />

through globalization.<br />

“Internationalization is embedded<br />

in our culture now,” Popp says,<br />

“and not only have we grown the<br />

numbers of international students<br />

coming to campus, but we’ve also<br />

grown our efforts to embrace internationalization<br />

in its full capacity.”<br />

“The world is a lot more interconnected<br />

now and the chance that<br />

our graduates are going to interact<br />

with individuals that don’t just live<br />

in Canada or were born in Canada<br />

is much greater than it used to be.”<br />

Popp has recently spoken to 11<br />

international students as part of a<br />

process to renew the college’s strategic<br />

plan. She says similarities<br />

between students from around the<br />

world are undeniable. Perhaps most<br />

prominent is the question of what<br />

comes next.<br />

“That almost anxiety or the fear<br />

of the unknown, that is something<br />

that I think you see in all students<br />

regardless of where they’re from.”<br />

Mark Herringer, Dean of International<br />

Education at Durham<br />

College, hopes the adaptation to<br />

internationalization can see no student<br />

left behind.<br />

“What we’re working on with<br />

our institutional team,” Herringer<br />

says, “is to determine how can<br />

we figure out how to get students<br />

Photograph by Travis Fortnum<br />

Yobert Montillo Guzmán speaks to DC's Katie Boone during her recent trip to Trujillo, Peru.<br />

The world is a lot more<br />

interconnected now.<br />

who aren’t able to travel an international<br />

experience while they’re<br />

at Durham College.”<br />

This goal has seen the increase in<br />

the use of a global classroom, which<br />

uses technology to link students at<br />

the Oshawa campus to experts and<br />

guests from around the world.<br />

Globalization has entered a new<br />

phase. The Internet is credited with<br />

the breaking of borders, with more<br />

than 900 million people making<br />

international connections through<br />

social media.<br />

Facebook alone boasts 1.79 billion<br />

active users in a month, according<br />

to Statista. A study by staff<br />

at Kent State University says 82 per<br />

cent of international students use<br />

it to keep in touch while abroad.<br />

Facebook has become so ubiquitous<br />

we seem to take for granted<br />

the connections it facilitates.<br />

For Quiroz, traveling abroad has<br />

led to the discovery of a new home.<br />

“I miss Canada when I’m in<br />

Peru,” she says. After graduating<br />

from Durham College in the spring<br />

she hopes to further her human resources<br />

education at UOIT.<br />

Back in Peru, Guzmán looks forward<br />

to the opportunities presented<br />

by this globalized world.<br />

“My dream job would be working<br />

on a cruise ship,” he says.<br />

“When I graduate I want to focus<br />

on studying some English so I can<br />

achieve that.”<br />

Whether traveling to another<br />

continent or just another city, the<br />

changing face of interaction and<br />

integration between people around<br />

the world means never having to be<br />

far from home.<br />

Despite location, the student<br />

experience is a common one. No<br />

matter where your campus is, the<br />

experience includes the desire to<br />

turn a passion into a career, the<br />

uncertainty of where your studies<br />

will take you and the fear of what<br />

your future will entail.<br />

The world can be a scary place<br />

when you think about your place<br />

in it. But with advancements in<br />

technology coupled with personal<br />

experience and education, we grow.<br />

And the world gets smaller.


12 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Campus<br />

Dude, where’s my electric car?<br />

Travis Fortnum<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The electric car community on<br />

campus is in shock after learning<br />

that access to their usual park and<br />

charge spots would be lost – at least<br />

temporarily.<br />

It used to be that Johnny Paty<br />

could drive his 2012 Chevy Volt<br />

onto campus and park in one of<br />

two specialized electric vehicle<br />

spots in the Student Services Building<br />

(SSB) lot.<br />

Those two spots featured charging<br />

podiums which supplied<br />

free power to the vehicles as their<br />

drivers attended class or whatever<br />

business brought them to campus.<br />

Paty is a student studying in<br />

Durham College’s one-year Project<br />

Management grad certificate<br />

program.<br />

Recently, he and others who<br />

park in the SSB lot were notified<br />

that it would be closed off due to<br />

construction of the Centre for Collaborative<br />

Education (to replace<br />

the Simcoe building), leaving him<br />

and other electric car owners without<br />

access to the power their vehicles<br />

require.<br />

“I initially contacted the parking<br />

office to find out if they had<br />

any plans in place to extend their<br />

amount of electric vehicle parking<br />

spots on campus,” Paty says.<br />

“[They] got back to me saying ‘Bad<br />

news, Johnny! Actually we’re getting<br />

rid of all of the spots altogether.’<br />

So instead of providing access<br />

to more electric vehicles, they’re<br />

completely taking them away.”<br />

Paty says there are at least five<br />

drivers on campus with electric vehicles.<br />

Given that there were only<br />

two spots, the arrangement was<br />

already tight.<br />

“There [was] kind of an unspoken<br />

thing where we’ll park to<br />

the outside of the left and right<br />

spots and a third vehicle can park<br />

in the middle,” says Paty. “If you’re<br />

there after those three people<br />

you’re kind of too late.”<br />

Paty feels if he hadn’t reached<br />

out to parking employees about this<br />

matter, he would have been even<br />

more caught off guard by the closing<br />

of the SSB lot, as the others in<br />

the community were shocked when<br />

Paty relayed this information.<br />

“None of them had any idea this<br />

was going on,” says Paty. “After [I<br />

talked to them] one of the parking<br />

officials came up to each of the<br />

cars that pulled in to the parking<br />

lot and gave them a little slip of<br />

paper that said ‘this lot is going to<br />

be closed.’ And that’s the extent of<br />

the information.”<br />

School officials began notifying<br />

those who utilize the lot two weeks<br />

before finally closing it Nov. 21.<br />

When Paty began his search<br />

for answers, he was put in contact<br />

with Ross Carnwith, manager of<br />

ancillary services on campus, who<br />

indicated work was being done to<br />

relocate the spots and charging podiums<br />

to the pay and display area<br />

of the Commencement One lot.<br />

“I have a quote out now to move<br />

the units physically,” Carnwith<br />

says. “So right now the spots are<br />

painted out and we’re physically<br />

going to move them as quickly as<br />

possible.”<br />

Carnwith hopes to have the spots<br />

up and running by the end of the<br />

month.<br />

Paty says that this means he’ll<br />

have to buy a parking pass for the<br />

same annual fee of $650 other<br />

drivers pay, something he believed<br />

wasn’t necessary for electric vehicle<br />

owners.<br />

“Upon researching this college<br />

and my choice of vehicle I was<br />

under the impression that I was<br />

going to have access to free parking<br />

as well as electrical utilities,”<br />

Paty says.<br />

Free parking on a college campus?<br />

It’s something that Carnwith<br />

says was never official.<br />

“I did check with other campuses,”<br />

Carnwith says, “what they do<br />

is charge standard parking rates,<br />

but the electricity is free. And that’s<br />

where we’re headed. Standard<br />

parking rates but the electricity is<br />

free.”<br />

“I don’t mind the changes over a<br />

course of time if we still have access<br />

to charging and designated parking<br />

spots,” Paty says. “I get that.<br />

But to spring this on someone who’s<br />

a 29-year-old student who’s got a<br />

baby on the way and to take it away<br />

with less than a week’s warning…<br />

go through the process of change.<br />

I researched this. I was told that I<br />

was going to get free parking, now<br />

that’s being ripped from me.”<br />

Photograph by Travis Fortnum<br />

Clinton Sharpe (left) and Andrew Walker of Space Age Electric<br />

work to install the power podiums for the newly relocated<br />

electric car parking.


Community <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 13<br />

More support needed for LGBTQ community<br />

Brandi Washington<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Pickering couple Hailee Gallaher and Jessica Vanderhyden are all smiles.<br />

The sun was heating up the pavement<br />

of Church Street the afternoon<br />

of June 30 th in 2014. Flags and<br />

floats from countries like Jamaica,<br />

Georgia, Argentina, and the Philippines<br />

came down the street. The<br />

flags ruffled for hours but one dominated:<br />

Pride parade’s symbolic<br />

red, orange, yellow, green, blue,<br />

and purple.<br />

Red trucks roared past onlookers<br />

pressed up against steel fences.<br />

Signs saying “I AM LGBTQ AND<br />

GOD LOVES ME” could be seen<br />

from several feet away. According<br />

to the Toronto Star, an estimated<br />

12,000 people attended Toronto<br />

Pride festival in 2014.<br />

Jessica Vanderhyden was one of<br />

12,000 people shuffling through<br />

rainbow banners, sparkly floats,<br />

and dancers in latex underwear.<br />

For the first time in her life, Jessica<br />

was able to witness the yearly event.<br />

But something else about that day<br />

was special to Vanderhyden. As she<br />

squeezed past the screaming onlookers,<br />

she met her current partner,<br />

Hailee Gallaher.<br />

Vanderhyden remembers that<br />

day in 2014. Seeing Gallaher for<br />

the first time and noticing her upper<br />

arm. She saw an Alexisonfire<br />

fire tattoo. Vanderhyden said this<br />

is one of her favorite bands.<br />

So she knew Gallaher had good<br />

taste in music which is one quality<br />

she loves in a significant other.<br />

“She looked a little intimidating<br />

but not in a bad way,” said Vanderhyden.<br />

“She had this dark straight<br />

hair, she was very nice, she was<br />

very polite.”<br />

According to Stats Canada, there<br />

are over 60,000 same-sex couples<br />

across Canada. That is 27,380 families<br />

more than there were in 2006.<br />

Homosexuality was decriminalized<br />

in Canada just 47 years ago.<br />

In 1967, Pierre Trudeau introduced<br />

the Criminal Law Amendment<br />

Act which liberalized law on<br />

issues such as homosexuality. His<br />

statement “no place for the state in<br />

the bedrooms of the nation” went<br />

down in history.<br />

With the growing numbers of<br />

LGBTQ families, and growing<br />

acceptance of same sex couples you<br />

would think coming out would be a<br />

lot easier than it was fifty years ago.<br />

But this is not the case. According<br />

to Pickering lesbian couple Hailee<br />

Gallaher and Jessica Vanderhyden,<br />

agree there is still work to be done<br />

with the acceptance of the gay<br />

community in 20<strong>16</strong>.<br />

Gallaher says, “I eventually want<br />

to see society where there is not a<br />

divide. You wouldn’t give a second<br />

look to a heterosexual couple, don’t<br />

give a second look to a gay couple.”<br />

In 2015, 1.7 per cent of Canadians<br />

ages 18 to 59 considered<br />

themselves to be homosexual. But<br />

12 per cent of gay women and 5 per<br />

cent of gay men still feel the need<br />

to keep their identities a secret. According<br />

to Stats Canada, in 2013,<br />

there were 186 police-reported hate<br />

crime incidents motivated by sexual<br />

orientation. Canadian police<br />

services reported 1,<strong>16</strong>7 hate crimes<br />

in 2013.<br />

This statistic may just be a number<br />

for some but it represents a moment<br />

in Vanderhyden’s life.<br />

“I was minding my own business<br />

one day, just walking in my neighbourhood,<br />

when someone attacked<br />

me verbally,” says Vanderhyden.<br />

What she heard shocked her. A<br />

group of guys spotted her and one<br />

of them called her a ‘nigger faggot.’<br />

“I kept walking, no point in<br />

engaging with stupidity,” she says.<br />

Taking aim at race or ethnicity is<br />

a big issue not just in the Durham<br />

region, but all across Canada.<br />

According to a 2013 article in<br />

The National Post, the three main<br />

motivations for hate-related crimes<br />

are race or ethnicity, religion and<br />

sexual orientation.<br />

Race or ethnicity accounts for<br />

51 per cent of hate-related crimes,<br />

followed by religion at 28 per cent,<br />

and sexual orientation at <strong>16</strong> per<br />

cent.<br />

Add to this an increase in bullying<br />

and there is a recipe for hate-related<br />

bullying. According to a<br />

2009 report by Statistics Canada,<br />

Ontario has the second highest rate<br />

of bullying in Canada. And 20 per<br />

cent of bullies are a friend to the<br />

victim.<br />

Over Christmas break in Grade<br />

10, Gallaher’s female friend bullied<br />

her on social media. Two more<br />

people joined in via Twitter. Vanderhyden<br />

wants bullies to know<br />

the how much harder they make<br />

people’s lives.<br />

“If they really did give it a<br />

chance they would see that we’re<br />

just like everybody else, we’re just<br />

people trying to make it through<br />

life. It’s made a little bit harder<br />

when people can’t just accept us<br />

for who we are,” says Vanderhyden.<br />

The first step, according to<br />

Vanderhyden, is to accept yourself.<br />

“When you’re not out, you’re<br />

isolated and you’re scared to tell<br />

anyone,” says Vanderhyden. “You<br />

have to find yourself and talk to<br />

someone. Once you finally figure<br />

it out it is so much better.”<br />

Two years after Vanderhyden<br />

and Gallaher first met at Pride in<br />

Toronto, Vanderhyden ended up<br />

at a local Pickering bar called The<br />

Bear for a friend’s birthday. To her<br />

surprise, Gallaher was there. The<br />

girls hit it off.<br />

Hailee Gallaher is 20-years-old<br />

and an Assistant Manager at Mc-<br />

Donald’s. Her mother is from Newfoundland<br />

and her father is from<br />

Ontario. She moved to Pickering<br />

when she was three years old and<br />

has been in Durham ever since.<br />

Jessica Vanderhyden just turned<br />

25-years-old. Her mother is of Jamaican<br />

descent and her father is<br />

Guyanese. She moved to Pickering<br />

when she was four years old, and<br />

also still lives in the region.<br />

Ever since she was 13, Gallaher<br />

says she knew she was bisexual. She<br />

came out to her friends and then<br />

in Grade 10, she came out to both<br />

friends and family as a lesbian.<br />

When you’re<br />

not out, you’re<br />

isolated.<br />

But her father already knew. He<br />

had no problem with her sexuality.<br />

Her mom was a different story.<br />

While she never had an actual<br />

problem with her daughter’s sexuality,<br />

she told Gallaher it was just<br />

a phase.<br />

Now, Gallaher says her mother<br />

is supportive. She admits she is<br />

fortunate because not very many<br />

people have a supportive family<br />

when coming out.<br />

Vanderhyden’s story is similar.<br />

She said she always knew there was<br />

something different about her. Her<br />

family is Anglican, and she went to<br />

Sunday school and attended church<br />

all the time.<br />

Grade 4 was the year Vanderhyden<br />

realized there was something<br />

different about her. That<br />

year, she met an older girl in her<br />

Photograph by Brandi Washington<br />

church and liked her more than<br />

“she liked anything else.” At that<br />

time however, she didn’t know it<br />

was a crush.<br />

Since Vanderhyden was raised<br />

Christian everything around her<br />

was telling her she was supposed<br />

to be with a man. She tried. She<br />

dated men, but it didn’t feel right.<br />

Then in high school, she had her<br />

first kiss with a girl. Vanderhyden<br />

said that kiss was unexpected and<br />

felt different… but different in a<br />

good way. A little while after, she<br />

came out as bisexual.<br />

Vanderhyden said she thinks<br />

most gay people first come out as<br />

bisexual because they’re not sure<br />

what they are. They don’t know<br />

if they’re completely into men or<br />

women, which is what she wasn’t<br />

sure of at the time too.<br />

She then started dating more<br />

girls than guys in high school. After<br />

that, she realized she probably was<br />

not into guys at all. Vanderhyden<br />

said near the end of high school she<br />

finally realized, “Okay, I’m definitely<br />

gay.”<br />

But Vanderhyden still needed a<br />

push.<br />

When she was 19-years-old, she<br />

dated a girl from Toronto who was<br />

in the process of coming out to her<br />

friends and family. That girl gave<br />

her courage to do the same.<br />

Vanderhyden told her dad first.<br />

But just like Gallaher, Vanderhyden’s<br />

dad knew there was always<br />

something different about her. Her<br />

dad accepted her. Vanderhyden’s<br />

mother didn’t.<br />

In the beginning, Vanderhyden<br />

said her mother needed time to<br />

think the situation through and to<br />

come to terms with it.<br />

Over the years, Vanderhyden<br />

admits her mother has taken time<br />

to learn different gay terminologies<br />

and even attended her first Toronto<br />

Pride festival this year.<br />

“It means so much to me,” she<br />

said. “She asks about Hailee all<br />

the time.”<br />

Gallaher said the same thing: her<br />

mother asks about Vanderhyden<br />

all the time.<br />

Vanderhyden said her first gay<br />

relationship was her “testing the<br />

waters” when she was not fully<br />

out as gay. It was an online relationship.<br />

She never met the girl in<br />

person.<br />

Her first real relationship with a<br />

female did not go well, but she said<br />

it felt right. After that, she experimented<br />

with women and thought<br />

one day she would find the right<br />

girl.<br />

Just like Vanderhyden, Gallaher’s<br />

first relationship was terrible. Gallaher’s<br />

girlfriend was very unsure of<br />

herself. The relationship was very<br />

bad, according to Gallaher, and<br />

she doesn’t even consider it as her<br />

official first relationship.<br />

But she admits it was a good<br />

learning experience because it<br />

showed her what it was like to date<br />

a girl.<br />

Gallaher says her first real relationship<br />

was with a girl in the<br />

United States. She took a plane<br />

all alone for the first time to meet<br />

her. She thought she was in love at<br />

the time, and as a result, they got<br />

matching tattoos.<br />

From being in these messy relationships,<br />

the girls are now a happy<br />

couple.<br />

Vanderhyden says, “I hope a lot<br />

of people become a lot more open<br />

and optimistic about just letting<br />

people be who they want to be.”<br />

But how?<br />

Vanderhyden said places like<br />

coffee shops, and other places in<br />

Durham Region can help out by<br />

showing their support. A little sticker<br />

saying “they support or they’re<br />

proud of the LGBTQ” community<br />

on the wall would be nice to see,<br />

she says.<br />

The girls both remember looking<br />

through high school textbooks and<br />

names like James and Kelly. Gallaher<br />

said she would love to see high<br />

school textbooks with same sex<br />

couple names. It does not always<br />

have to be a man and a woman to<br />

use for a math equation example.<br />

Gallaher says she saw an Ikea<br />

commercial with a same sex couple.<br />

She loved how this commercial was<br />

different than other ones. Same sex<br />

couples are what people need to see,<br />

says Gallaher. It helps people feel<br />

safe to see themselves represented<br />

in the media.<br />

In January 2014, Disney premiered<br />

their first lesbian couple in<br />

a TV series called Good Luck Charlie.<br />

Gallaher said she remembers this<br />

was a very controversial topic in<br />

the media.<br />

The girls agree they would love<br />

to see the first Disney princess lesbian<br />

couple. Gallaher added she<br />

wants to see “Elsa be gay” in the<br />

Disney movie Frozen 2.<br />

“I think at the end of the day<br />

we really need to become a community.<br />

Just one community. Not<br />

the straight community and the<br />

LGBTQ community. That unity<br />

is what people really need. We can<br />

support it, but why still create that<br />

divide?” said Gallaher. “We’re all<br />

just people at the end of the day. I<br />

think people are just really focused<br />

on finding an answer and they need<br />

a label.”<br />

The girls can’t wait until pride<br />

20<strong>17</strong>, to celebrate who they have<br />

become.


14 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Campus<br />

Students meet with elder<br />

Asim Pervez<br />

The Chronicle<br />

An elder plays an important role in<br />

the First Nations community. The<br />

elder is someone can speak to for<br />

advice and guidance.<br />

Shirley Williams is the elder<br />

here at Durham College. She<br />

often makes visits to the Aboriginal<br />

Student Centre, located in<br />

the Simcoe Building. Williams<br />

was born in and raised in Wikwemikong.<br />

She is a part of the<br />

Birdclan Clan of the Ojibway and<br />

Odawa First Nations.<br />

She was a Native Studies professor<br />

at Trent University. She is<br />

now retired and lives in Peterborough<br />

but makes time for students at<br />

Durham College. She says students<br />

come and talk to her about their<br />

troubles going on in their everyday<br />

lives.<br />

Students may speak to an elder<br />

for “many different things,” she<br />

says, including counselling, school<br />

work, problems with the school, or<br />

cultural things. Sometimes they<br />

also want “to find the different<br />

meanings of things in the room<br />

here.” She points out a dreamcatcher<br />

on the purple wall before her.<br />

“Dreamcatchers are used to<br />

dream for the babies. When they<br />

are born, you put up the dreamcatcher.<br />

(They) are used when the<br />

children have nightmares,” she<br />

said.“The holes in the (dreamcatcher)<br />

are where the good dreams<br />

come through for the babies.<br />

Dreamcatchers have significance,<br />

other than dream.<br />

You might set what your career<br />

is, what you want to become and<br />

you will always have that spirit to<br />

walk with you. The spirit is the one<br />

who guards your life that helps you<br />

and gives directions.”<br />

James Guajie is a student worker<br />

at the Aboriginal Student Centre.<br />

He says anyone can gain knowledge<br />

by speaking to an elder.<br />

An elder can share advice or experience<br />

that guides people to deal<br />

with their problems.<br />

“They seem to have a practice<br />

of being non-judgmental and they<br />

are very open to discussing almost<br />

anything, so it’s often quite a pleasure<br />

to talk with them,” Guajie says.<br />

Elder Shirley Williams’ next<br />

scheduled visit to the Aboriginal<br />

Student Centre will be on Nov. 30<br />

from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.<br />

Campus Paralegal Student Assistance<br />

We provide legal advice and information for all DC & UOIT students.<br />

FREE and CONFIDENTIAL legal advice.<br />

Includes referrals, commissioning, and notarizing of documents.<br />

Open every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. until November 29, 20<strong>16</strong>.<br />

2000 Simcoe Street North, Simcoe Building J-1<strong>17</strong>, Oshawa, Ontario<br />

905.721.2000 Ext. 3670<br />

CPSADurham<br />

cpsa@<strong>durham</strong>college.ca<br />

Campus Paralegal Student Assistance<br />

Campus Paralegal Student Assistance (CPSA) is funded by Legal Aid Ontario.


Campus <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 15<br />

This cat has<br />

a story to tell<br />

Dan Koehler<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The cat came back, just not the<br />

very next day.<br />

This was the case for the Mc-<br />

Donald family, who lost their<br />

family cat only to have it returned<br />

to them four years later.<br />

The cat Puff, renamed to Waffles<br />

upon being returned, went missing<br />

from the family’s Chatsworth Crescent<br />

home in Whitby one night in<br />

2012.<br />

“She was an outside cat, and very<br />

tough, so we didn’t worry too much<br />

in the beginning,” said Donna Mc-<br />

Donald, Waffles’ owner.<br />

As time went by she realized that<br />

Waffles might not be coming back.<br />

With coyotes in the area, a common<br />

predator to stray cats, the<br />

family feared the worst but put up<br />

signs around the neighbourhood<br />

and posted an ad online.<br />

“We just assumed she was eaten<br />

by a larger animal,” said McDonald.<br />

“We played it down with the<br />

kids until she had been gone a few<br />

weeks.”<br />

It wasn’t until over four years<br />

later they were contacted by someone<br />

who thought they might have<br />

found Waffles.<br />

“We were contacted online by<br />

someone who saw her face on a lost<br />

and found website for pets,” said<br />

McDonald. “We were all pretty<br />

excited.”<br />

The McDonald family wasn’t<br />

alone in their struggle to find their<br />

missing cat and even though Waffles<br />

was returned home, this is not<br />

the case for many unfortunate pet<br />

owners.<br />

According the Canadian Federation<br />

of Humane Societies, in 2014<br />

over 80,000 cats were brought in<br />

to shelters across the country, and<br />

53 per cent of them were strays.<br />

Out of the 40,000 strays that were<br />

brought in, only 4.5 per cent actually<br />

returned to their guardians.<br />

The United States shares a similar<br />

scenario with 70 million stray<br />

cats living in the country.<br />

When a cat goes missing in the<br />

Durham Region, they sometimes<br />

end up at the Whitby Animal Services<br />

Centre. The centre posts<br />

photos of all the animals brought<br />

into their care on their website. To<br />

retrieve a lost pet the owner must<br />

have proof of ownership, pay the<br />

pick-up fees and any pound fees,<br />

and must verify proof of an I.D. tag<br />

and up-to-date rabies vaccination.<br />

For the McDonald family, they<br />

are just happy to have their beloved<br />

pet home.<br />

“She is very affectionate so it is<br />

nice, said McDonald. “Bentley<br />

(the family’s other cat) does his own<br />

thing and doesn’t really require any<br />

attention, it’s a nice change.”<br />

McDonald also said Waffles days<br />

of freedom outside are now ‘totally<br />

over’.<br />

Photograph by Dan Koehler<br />

Rachel Switalski, daughter of Donna McDonald, holding the family cat Waffles in the kitcken of<br />

their home.<br />

Gamers unite at DC, UOIT’s LANWAR X<br />

Dean Daley<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Posters of all kinds can be found in<br />

the hallways of UOIT and Durham<br />

College.<br />

But of all the posters, one stands<br />

out to any gamer: LANWAR X.<br />

The poster has pictures of all sorts<br />

of characters from games such<br />

as: Super Mario, World of Warcraft,<br />

Hearthstone and more. LANWAR X<br />

took place Nov. 25-27, but the question<br />

remains: What exactly, is it?<br />

UOIT’s Local Area Network<br />

(LAN) WAR X is a gaming event<br />

that has occurred biannually<br />

since 2011. It’s where students and<br />

alumni can get together and play<br />

all sorts of games for fun, or competitively.<br />

Hundreds of fans come<br />

to watch and play in several tournaments<br />

which started Friday night<br />

around midnight steadily until<br />

Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. The<br />

event was held in the UA Science<br />

building at UOIT.<br />

According to Tyler Messenger–<br />

Lehmann, a second year UOIT<br />

student in the Computer Science<br />

program, an organizer and ticket<br />

seller for the event, LANWAR<br />

started after Tony Tran, dubbed<br />

as one of the founders of LAN-<br />

WAR and some friends wanted<br />

to play games and hang out after<br />

mid-terms.<br />

This was the fifth time Kyle<br />

Beckmann, an UOIT mechatronics<br />

engineering student, attended<br />

the LANWAR event. He says<br />

the event has a board game area,<br />

vendors to visit, plenty of people<br />

to play with, and raffles to be won<br />

throughout the weekend.<br />

“I keep going to LANWAR<br />

events because it’s a great way to<br />

socialize with other gamers and<br />

have a fun, de-stressing weekend<br />

in time for exams,” Beckmann says.<br />

This was the 12th LANWAR<br />

event UOIT hosted and offered<br />

six major gaming events, six side<br />

tournaments and one tournament<br />

held by Duelist, one of the sponsors<br />

of the event. The six major tournaments<br />

are from iconic games such<br />

as Counter Strike Global Offensive (CS<br />

GO), StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and<br />

Super Smash Brothers for Wii U.<br />

Prizes for the major tournaments<br />

ranged from $500 to $1,500. The<br />

prize money comes from a mixture<br />

of sponsors, ticket sales and the Student<br />

Association.<br />

Messenger–Lehmann is not only<br />

an organizer and ticket seller for<br />

LANWAR X, but has also been a<br />

competitor.<br />

Messenger-Lehmann says last<br />

year he competed in Hearthstone<br />

and Magic The Gathering. He says<br />

he made it to the semifinal round<br />

of Hearthstone before becoming too<br />

Photograph by Dean Daley<br />

Tyler Messenger-Lehmann, a second-year UOIT student in the Computer Science program, an<br />

organizer and ticket seller, selling tickets for the LANWAR event.<br />

sick to play. Messenger–Lehmann<br />

calls himself a hardcore gamer with<br />

more than 4,000 hours in League of<br />

Legends and 1,000 hours in CS GO.<br />

However, even with that many<br />

hours under his belt he says he still<br />

wouldn’t compete in those games.<br />

According to Messenger–Lehmann,<br />

professional players, who<br />

regularly compete for money, attend<br />

LANWAR X to play games<br />

like CS GO and League of Legends.<br />

Messenger–Lehmann said he<br />

thought he would have more of a<br />

chance with Hearthstone.<br />

Beckmann says he usually only<br />

plays in the smaller tournaments,<br />

in games such as Mario Kart, League<br />

of Legends and King of Games. King<br />

of Games is a round-by-round<br />

tournament where each round has<br />

different games such as Super Smash<br />

Brothers, Donkey Kong and even indie<br />

games such as Nidhogg.<br />

According to Beckmann, within<br />

the few weeks leading up to<br />

LANWAR he starts playing a few<br />

rounds in the games he competes in<br />

“for the purpose of regaining memory<br />

of the controls and the game<br />

mechanics.”<br />

Messenger–Lehmann takes a<br />

different approach. Last year when<br />

competing for Hearthstone, he did<br />

a lot of research into the game.<br />

He found out about the meta, the<br />

current strongest strategies used in<br />

the game and researched ways to<br />

challenge and defeat it.<br />

Although Beckmann doesn’t<br />

compete in the major tournaments,<br />

he says he enjoys being a spectator.<br />

“A lot of games are fun to spectate.<br />

Especially when the players<br />

involved are invested in the game<br />

and are well matched against each<br />

other,” Beckmann says. “I can see<br />

things getting pretty tense and<br />

it’ll definitely be entertaining to<br />

watch.”<br />

Beckmann was most interested<br />

this year in watching Overwatch,<br />

as it’s the game he’s most actively<br />

playing.<br />

Messenger-Lehmann was also<br />

the organizer for the tournament<br />

for Hearthstone and was excited for<br />

the King of Games tournament.


<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Campus<br />

Blood, it’s in you to give<br />

Canadian<br />

Blood<br />

Services<br />

comes to DC<br />

and UOIT<br />

Noor Ibrahim<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The gym at Durham College and<br />

UOIT is usually bustling with students<br />

playing basketball. However,<br />

recently it was home to the Canadian<br />

Blood Services donor clinic.<br />

Canadian Blood Services comes<br />

to campus twice a year, with one<br />

donor clinic per semester. The most<br />

recent clinic was held on Nov. 8 th .<br />

The clinics give the students a<br />

chance to donate blood without<br />

leaving campus. They receive about<br />

60 donations per campus clinic.<br />

According to event coordinator,<br />

Laura Ashton, almost half of the<br />

donors on campus were first timers.<br />

While that is a high number of new<br />

donors, Ashton says it is not unusual<br />

for a college campus.<br />

“Most students don’t get the<br />

opportunity to donate blood until<br />

they’re in college,” said Ashton.<br />

“The legal age to donate blood is<br />

<strong>17</strong>, so that is why many students<br />

come out.”<br />

The campus clinics are one of<br />

14,000 across Canada every year.<br />

They collect blood for a wide range<br />

of uses – from people who require<br />

blood transfusions following car accidents<br />

to those who require blood<br />

as part of cancer treatment. They<br />

also aid in organ transplants. Last<br />

year, Canadian Blood Services received<br />

more than 850,000 donations.<br />

Donors go through a five-step<br />

process. First, they register and<br />

present ID. Then they answer a<br />

confidential questionnaire about<br />

their physical and sexual health.<br />

Next, they get interviewed by<br />

staff for follow up questions. Then<br />

finally, students can donate blood.<br />

The last step? Sitting back for<br />

snacks and refreshments.<br />

Gerry Lynch is a member of the<br />

Knights of Columbus, a fraternal<br />

organization that focuses on charity.<br />

He volunteers at the campus<br />

clinic twice a year.<br />

“We really enjoy it,” says Lynch,<br />

“because having the young crowd<br />

come out and give blood, it’s always<br />

an interesting scenario.”<br />

The blood collected has a journey<br />

of its own. At the clinic, it is packaged<br />

in special trays to maintain its<br />

temperature.<br />

The blood is then shipped to<br />

Brampton, where it is tested for diseases,<br />

sorted into blood types, and<br />

distributed to different hospitals.<br />

The blood is separated into red<br />

blood cells, plasma, and platelets,<br />

which is a blood component that<br />

helps blood to clot.<br />

Students can also donate stem<br />

cells at the clinic if they are between<br />

ages <strong>17</strong> to 35. Stem cells are<br />

immature cells that, with time, can<br />

develop to any cell in the blood<br />

stream.<br />

Students sign up for a form and<br />

a swab is inserted into their mouth.<br />

The swabs are then packaged and<br />

sent to Ottawa where they are processed.<br />

According to CBS customer<br />

service representative, Melanie<br />

McEachrem, the blood type in<br />

most demand is O negative, since<br />

it’s a universal donor. It is used in<br />

emergencies when there’s no time<br />

to check for blood type. Highly demanded<br />

blood types also include O<br />

positive and A positive.<br />

McEachrem says blood is in most<br />

demand during holiday weekends<br />

and Christmas due to high traffic<br />

and possible accidents. Donors are<br />

also needed in summer, when most<br />

people are out of town and cannot<br />

donate.<br />

Canadian Blood Services will<br />

host another blood donor clinic on<br />

campus next semester. They also<br />

have plans to host a stem cell-only<br />

clinic.<br />

James Skelton giving blood at Durham College and UOIT.<br />

Photograph by Noor Ibrahim


Campus <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle <strong>17</strong><br />

Innovation<br />

motivation<br />

at Durham<br />

Rebecca Calzavara<br />

The Chronicle<br />

It’s time to congratulate Durham<br />

College (DC). It has been ranked<br />

one of Canada’s top 50 research<br />

colleges for the fourth consecutive<br />

year.<br />

According to Research Infosource<br />

Inc. Durham College is<br />

ranked 45 th this year. Last year it<br />

was ranked 36 th and the previous<br />

two years it was 25 th .<br />

The annual list is determined by<br />

data on research income, research<br />

intensity and research partnerships<br />

and projects at colleges across the<br />

country.<br />

The top college this year was<br />

CEGEP de Saint-Hyacinthe College<br />

in Quebec.<br />

Debbie McKee Demczyk, dean,<br />

Office of Research Services, Innovation<br />

and Entrepreneurship (ORS-<br />

IE) at Durham College, said being<br />

in the top 50 is good for Durham<br />

College, given that there are more<br />

institutions being ranked each year.<br />

“Being apart of the top 50 is an<br />

honour,” McKee Demczyk said,<br />

“the point is to celebrate college<br />

applied research every year.”<br />

According to McKee Demczyk,<br />

applied research is doing small<br />

projects which are incremental in<br />

nature.<br />

“We take our very practical skills<br />

that we learn in programs and we<br />

are applying them to industry,”<br />

McKee Demczyk explained. “Getting<br />

involved with applied research<br />

is a great way to enhance skills.<br />

Things that you learn in the class<br />

help solve real problems. It’s a great<br />

opportunity to develop teamwork<br />

skills and problem solving skills.”<br />

Durham College continues to<br />

initiate and support a variety of<br />

research projects. Some of these<br />

projects include:<br />

Gaming Suit Control System<br />

Imagine a wearable suit that<br />

totally immerses users into the reality<br />

of their virtual game.<br />

There are sensors all over the suit<br />

so that there are realistic impacts<br />

in the video games and has all surround<br />

sound.<br />

According to DC, Inventing Future<br />

Technology Inc. (IFTech) is a<br />

high-tech company with a focus on<br />

Immersive Wearable Technologies<br />

and its product ‘As Real As It Gets’<br />

(ARAIG) can change your game<br />

experience completely.<br />

IFTech worked with DC to improve<br />

the controller with a wireless<br />

communications protocol.<br />

According to McKee Demczyk,<br />

father and son games, came up<br />

with the idea and approached DC<br />

for help with a proto type they built<br />

and “didn’t know how to get where<br />

he wanted to go with it.”<br />

Photograph by Rebecca Calzavara<br />

Debbie McKee Demczyk, dean, Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship<br />

(ORSIE) at Durham College.<br />

“They were sitting on the couch<br />

one day playing a video game and<br />

they felt like they were missing out<br />

on something and they thought the<br />

market needed something to make<br />

this more an immersive experience,”<br />

McKee Demczyk explained.<br />

The Drone Project<br />

McKee Demczyk explained that<br />

DC is trying to do more research to<br />

do more for the agricultural community.<br />

Woodleigh Farms Ltd. an agricultural<br />

crop producer, approached<br />

DC to get help with software that<br />

allows the drones to give farmers<br />

them high resolution images of<br />

their crops.<br />

“The drones go over farm land<br />

and takes pictures. By taking pictures<br />

they can start to see from the<br />

sky where areas of the crops aren’t<br />

growing as well,” McKee Demczyk<br />

explained.<br />

McKee Demczyk said the farmer<br />

who has the drones now has a<br />

competitive advantage over other<br />

farmers because the software can<br />

show where crops are failing to<br />

grow and show if there there are<br />

pests causing problems.<br />

Health App<br />

Imagine an app that is able to<br />

connect someone with their doctor<br />

at any given time of the day.<br />

According to DC, ForaHealthyMe.com,<br />

a clinically-validated<br />

web and mobile platform approached<br />

DC for help with getting<br />

its app up and running.<br />

McKee Demczyk explained it is<br />

an interface between patients and<br />

their caregivers and doctors.<br />

The app gives people the ability<br />

to communicate and share information<br />

with doctors.<br />

The app is now ‘live’ and has<br />

helped health care institutions<br />

improve quality of care while enhancing<br />

the capacity for remote<br />

monitoring she said.According to<br />

McKee Demczyk, projects done<br />

with Durham College’s ORSIE<br />

program are novel and creative.<br />

Many students get hired by the<br />

companies that approach Durham<br />

College’s ORSIE program for help<br />

and come back for a second time to<br />

work on another project.<br />

“Some of the projects we do are<br />

fun and cool,” McKee Demczyk<br />

said.<br />

Students, get your visas to enter the U.S.<br />

Rebecca Calzavara<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Each year tens of thousands of foreign<br />

student studying in Ontario<br />

visit the United States (U.S.) for vacations,<br />

to shop, or to visit friends<br />

and family.<br />

Frankie Day from the U.S. Consulate<br />

General in Toronto and Althea<br />

Brathwaite, supervisory visa<br />

specialist, talked to Durham College<br />

and UOIT international students<br />

about the process of getting<br />

a visa recently.<br />

This is not the first time the presentation<br />

had been done at Durham<br />

College and UOIT, they have held<br />

similar events in past years. There<br />

were about 20 people who attended<br />

the U.S. visa presentation.<br />

Day said a visa is good for 10<br />

years but that doesn’t mean you<br />

can stay in the U.S. for that long,<br />

it depends on the purpose of the<br />

trip and tourist visitors could stay<br />

for as little as a few hours up to several<br />

months.<br />

Day explained that having a visa<br />

does not guarantee entry into the<br />

United States.<br />

Once at the border with a visa,<br />

customs and border control get<br />

to say ‘yes you can come in’ and<br />

Photograph by Rebecca Calzavara<br />

Frankie Day (right) with students at the U.S. visa presentation<br />

at Durham College and UOIT.<br />

will determine the length of time<br />

for entry and stamp the passport,<br />

Day explained.<br />

According to Day, the main<br />

reason of the presentation is to get<br />

citizens from a foreign country<br />

aware of what they need to do if<br />

they want to have a temporary or<br />

extended visit or live permanently<br />

in the United States.<br />

The students were given advice<br />

and information on getting a visa<br />

from Day.<br />

Day explained that many visa<br />

applicants each year are seeking<br />

to study or participate in exchange<br />

programs in the U.S.<br />

Generally, students applying for<br />

visas are going for short trips to the<br />

United States for vacation, to shop,<br />

or to visit friends and family Day<br />

added.<br />

Divyam Makker, a fitness and<br />

health promotion student at Durham<br />

College, who attended the<br />

meeting and said it was very informative.<br />

“I have my brother in the U.S.<br />

so I was planning on visiting him<br />

maybe in December for Christmas<br />

so that’s why I came to this today,”<br />

Makker said.<br />

Day explained that an application<br />

form must be filled out online<br />

only, accurately and completely.<br />

“No matter what kind of visa you<br />

are applying for you want to make<br />

sure you fill out the application<br />

completely,” Day said.<br />

According to Day, always plan<br />

ahead and apply early for a visa so<br />

that there are no complications.<br />

After the application is filled<br />

out, a fee must be paid of $<strong>16</strong>0 to<br />

$200, depending on the visa, and<br />

an interview must be scheduled.<br />

Day explained you must have a<br />

valid passport before you decide<br />

to fill out an application or go on<br />

vacation.<br />

“A passport valid six months after<br />

travel date is a big one,” Day<br />

explained, “you want to make sure<br />

your passport has a proper validity<br />

before you even go for your interview.”<br />

According to Day, supporting<br />

documentations, like a resume,<br />

should be brought to the interview,<br />

but it is better to be over prepared<br />

then under prepared.<br />

“I might ask you for your resume<br />

or your transcript, if you are<br />

a student,” Day said “Sometimes<br />

people don’t even get asked for any<br />

documents.” Every interview is face<br />

to face.<br />

According to Day there are<br />

many types of visas that are available,<br />

including petition-based visas.<br />

“Somebody in the United States<br />

has to say ‘hey I want this person to<br />

come over and work for me’,” Day<br />

explained.<br />

According to the U.S. Department<br />

of State – Bureau of Consular<br />

Affairs, travellers going to<br />

the United States for tourism or<br />

business for less than 90 days may<br />

be eligible to travel without a visa<br />

if they meet the Visa Waiver Program<br />

(VWP) requirements.<br />

Day said there are visitor’s visas<br />

that most people get for vacations<br />

or to visit their family. There is a<br />

student visa which allows you to go<br />

to the United States to study and<br />

go to school.<br />

There is also an internship<br />

visa for any student that receives<br />

an internship opportunity in the<br />

United States.<br />

“Every applicant situation is<br />

unique. That’s really important<br />

because one of you may go and get<br />

it in five days and one of you may<br />

go and get it in two weeks,” Day<br />

explained.


18 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Campus<br />

Power outage plagues campus<br />

A blown<br />

transformer<br />

caused the<br />

outage,<br />

which<br />

affected<br />

more than<br />

18,000<br />

people in<br />

Oshawa<br />

cupational therapy appointments<br />

when the power was gone. There<br />

was a big flash of light and then<br />

completely dark. It was hard to get<br />

out from here and then we found<br />

the appointment was cancelled,”<br />

says Hence.<br />

For many it was an inconvenience.<br />

For Durham College photography<br />

students it was a great chance<br />

to shoot the giant “supermoon” on<br />

a dark evening.<br />

Lavaljeet Singh he didn’t care<br />

about the power outage. For him,<br />

it was an opportunity to shoot the<br />

giant moon.<br />

Devarsh Oza<br />

The Chronicle<br />

A supermoon evening turned into<br />

the darkest evening of the year for<br />

people in Oshawa.<br />

A power outage affecting most of<br />

the city’s north end left everything<br />

dark and stopped activity for several<br />

hours Nov. 14.<br />

Durham College and UOIT<br />

cancelled classes and events. UOIT<br />

student Rohan Katara said it was<br />

frustrating.<br />

“It is really a worst thing to have.<br />

We were hosting an event and we<br />

were almost done and the power<br />

was gone. So we had to miss many<br />

things,” said Katara.<br />

A transformer blew at Taunton<br />

Road and Mary Street, according<br />

to Oshawa PUC Networks, the<br />

utility that provides power to the<br />

city.<br />

The company says “defective<br />

equipment” was to blame.<br />

Live wires fell down onto the<br />

road. No one was injured.<br />

The police and fire department<br />

responded to the incident in North<br />

Oshawa.<br />

There was<br />

a big flash of<br />

light and then<br />

completely dark.<br />

The transformer affected more<br />

than 18,500 people. Power was restored<br />

to the final customers late in<br />

the evening.<br />

Many people at Durham College<br />

and UOIT left the campus.<br />

This caused a traffic jam on Simcoe<br />

Street North from the campus<br />

to Taunton Road. The result was<br />

also visible in Durham Region. All<br />

buses leaving campus were packed.<br />

Durham College and UOIT<br />

also cancelled every event, including<br />

medical appointments. Laura<br />

Hence, a mother of two, came to<br />

the campus for her son’s appointment.<br />

“We were on our way for oc-


<strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 19


20 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Community<br />

Students ride in honour of André Boothe<br />

Barbara Howe<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Provided by Sinclair Secondary School<br />

André Boothe<br />

Students at Sinclair Secondary<br />

School in Whitby raised more<br />

than $23,000 in honour of former<br />

Durham College (DC) student and<br />

one of their own. They held an ‘Inside-Ride’<br />

for their second Coast to<br />

Coast Against Cancer Foundation<br />

(CTCACF) fundraising event.<br />

The money raised was dedicated<br />

to André Boothe, a three-time<br />

cancer survivor and former student,<br />

who died Sept. 22 of medical<br />

complications following cancer<br />

treatment.<br />

Almost 250 students and teachers<br />

participated at the event. The<br />

high school gym was filled with<br />

stationary bikes, and teams of<br />

six, all dressed in fancy costumes.<br />

Each team took 10-minute turns<br />

to ride the bikes in a friendly competition<br />

and team-building atmosphere.<br />

Boothe had battled with neuroblastoma,<br />

a cancer which attacks<br />

the nervous system, since the age<br />

of six. He later developed leukemia,<br />

a cancer of the blood and<br />

the bone marrow, which required<br />

a bone marrow transplant. This<br />

procedure was unsuccessful and<br />

Boothe needed a double lung<br />

transplant.<br />

Boothe, who was 24, was one<br />

of the children who CTCACF<br />

helped transition to higher education<br />

by supporting the Pediatric<br />

Oncology Group of Ontario<br />

(POGO) Special Academic and<br />

Vocational Training Initiative<br />

(SAVTI).<br />

This program supports teens<br />

who have to leave school for cancer<br />

treatment and facilitates a<br />

smoother transition from high<br />

school to college.<br />

Boothe was registered in the<br />

Community Services and Child<br />

Studies Foundations program at<br />

DC in September of 2013.<br />

“This is an amazing event,<br />

very inspirational,” said Marlene<br />

Boothe, André’s mother. She and<br />

André’s aunt, Malvia Davis, said<br />

they were honoured to be there.<br />

In a moving video on the<br />

POGO Facebook page, Boothe<br />

said his life goals were “to do<br />

something with kids who have<br />

experienced a serious illness like<br />

me. I feel I have an experience to<br />

share, something that could benefit<br />

them.”<br />

Unfortunately, Boothe did<br />

not live long enough to fulfill his<br />

dream but he did inspire students,<br />

teachers and volunteers to get back<br />

in the saddle and raise awareness<br />

and money for the cause.<br />

The indoor cycling ‘party with<br />

a purpose’ required the participants<br />

to raise a minimum of $50<br />

to attend. Forty-one road bikes<br />

were mounted and mileage and<br />

speed were measured on odometers.<br />

“André was extremely brave,<br />

he never complained and always<br />

thought of others,” said Nicole<br />

Hardy, a teacher at Sinclair Secondary<br />

School. “He worked hard<br />

Photograph by Barbara Howe<br />

Sinclair Secondary School Grade 11 students (from left) Khushi Pandey, Claire Koch, Rochelle<br />

Bernal, Alex Rudkins and Jasmine Kurtz team up to raise funds for CTCACF.<br />

to reach his goals. He wanted to<br />

help inspire other young people<br />

with critical illnesses to maintain<br />

hope.”<br />

CTCACF is Canada’s leading<br />

charity for fighting childhood<br />

cancer. Their objective, according<br />

to their website, is to direct 100 per<br />

cent of the funds they raise to programs<br />

and charities that improve<br />

the survival rates and quality of<br />

life of children and their families<br />

living with and beyond cancer.


Campus <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 21<br />

Bullying still happens at college<br />

It can be<br />

online,<br />

physical<br />

or verbal<br />

in nature<br />

Asim Pervez<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Bullying is something you may<br />

hear less about at the college or university<br />

level.<br />

There are many forms of bullying:<br />

online, physical or verbal.<br />

Allison Hector-Alexander, director<br />

of the office of Student Diversity,<br />

doesn’t take bullying lightly.<br />

“When these concerns come to<br />

us, we take them very seriously,”<br />

she says. “We respond to both the<br />

person who feels like they are being<br />

treated different, bullied and we<br />

do (respond) to the person who is<br />

perpetrating the behavior.<br />

“It could be somebody in class, it<br />

could be a fellow student, it could be<br />

staff, it could be faculty, whoever it<br />

is, we have measures that we put in<br />

place to respond to it.”<br />

On campus, the mental health<br />

hotline Aspiria is open 24 hours,<br />

seven days a week for students who<br />

want to speak with a counsellor<br />

confidentially.<br />

According to Aspiria’s clinical<br />

director, Eric Rubel, post-secondary<br />

schools have paid more attention<br />

to bullying awareness in recent<br />

years.<br />

He says bullying isn’t something<br />

that should go unaddressed, as a<br />

victim can be hurt emotionally and<br />

physically.<br />

“It can be traumatizing depending<br />

on the type of bullying. It<br />

can certainly affect ones emotional<br />

mental health well-being,” he says.<br />

“It can certainly impact someone<br />

later on in life as well if you don’t<br />

address the issues sooner. Bullying<br />

can effect one’s well-being, mentally<br />

and physically.<br />

Shannon Podehl, is a Social Services<br />

student. She says that post-secondary<br />

schools should do a better<br />

job of promoting bullying issues, or<br />

should have anti-bullying awareness<br />

days and weeks.<br />

“Just putting more awareness<br />

around the school, poster and stuff,<br />

maybe having, just like you would<br />

in high school, days where there is<br />

bullying awareness days, or an anti<br />

bullying week,” she said.<br />

Derrick Peterson, a Business<br />

Operations Management student,<br />

says bullying awareness received<br />

a lot more attention in elementary<br />

school and high school.<br />

“I think we should treat it the<br />

same as we did in public school(s)<br />

and high school, people need to be<br />

safe here,” he said.<br />

Students can visit the Mental<br />

Health Services if they would like<br />

to speak to someone confidentially.<br />

If they prefer not to speak face to<br />

face, they are free to call Aspiria at<br />

1-877-234-5327.<br />

I think we should treat it the same<br />

way we did in public school.<br />

Mental health education is available on campus.<br />

Photograph by Asim Pervez


22 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Campus<br />

Durham opens<br />

its doors to<br />

future students<br />

Laura Metcalfe<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Durham College opened its doors<br />

to prospective students and their<br />

families earlier this month. Future<br />

students and their families had a<br />

chance to see the programs offered<br />

by Durham College as well<br />

as academic supports available on<br />

campus.<br />

Labs and classrooms were open<br />

for future students to see the different<br />

experiential learning environments<br />

the college offers. Faculty,<br />

staff, current and former students<br />

were also available to give advice<br />

and answer questions.<br />

“If you don’t procrastinate and<br />

have really good dedication, you<br />

will achieve and excel in this program,”<br />

said Hailey Boumhour, a<br />

first year dental hygiene student.<br />

The public also had a chance to<br />

see inside labs such as the dental<br />

clinic, as well as paramedic simulations<br />

and broadcasting equipment.<br />

Staff members from the Student<br />

Academic Learning Services<br />

(SALS) were available to talk about<br />

academic concerns.<br />

Kathy Bryers, a receptionist with<br />

SALS, says she spoke with many<br />

students who are worried about<br />

workload and time management.<br />

She assured the students they are<br />

capable of doing the work and there<br />

will be people to help. According to<br />

Bryers, the key to success is getting<br />

help early on to avoid feeling overwhelmed<br />

and frustrated.<br />

“I had a student who her second<br />

week of college came in and said<br />

‘that’s it I’m quitting, I’ve had<br />

enough, I can’t do this.’ I spoke<br />

to her, got her calmed down. She<br />

got the support she needed from<br />

SALS and at convocation she was<br />

the highest ranking grad in her program.<br />

That is my biggest achievement<br />

I feel,” said Bryers<br />

Durham College president Don<br />

Lovisa also met with future students<br />

and offered his advice for applying<br />

to college.<br />

“Narrow it down to a couple or<br />

three programs, then go on a tour.<br />

Go look at the labs. Look at the<br />

learning environment,” Lovisa said.<br />

The Open House attracted hundreds<br />

of people. A new feature this<br />

year was a camera booth where students<br />

could have their picture taken<br />

with the Durham College logo.


Campus <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 23<br />

Take a bite<br />

into bliss<br />

Taste what Dalise Bernett is<br />

cooking and take a bite into<br />

her Caribbean background<br />

Jared Williams<br />

The Chronicle<br />

While roommates in university,<br />

Melissa Maestre, remembers Dalise<br />

Bernett’s corn soup filling the<br />

hallways with its delicious aroma.<br />

Much different from the western<br />

cream corn, Caribbean corn soup<br />

is a savory beef or vegetable broth<br />

based soup. Friends and fellow classmates<br />

who also lived in residence<br />

would follow their nose and knock<br />

on Bernett’s door to find out what<br />

was cooking.<br />

“When she cooked, she would<br />

make enough for everyone,” Maestre<br />

says.<br />

Corn soup is often made for<br />

Caribbean parties or functions.<br />

“Everybody goes crazy for it –<br />

my friends tell me it’s better than<br />

the corn soup man at the Soca or<br />

Die fetes,” Bernett says.<br />

Bernett’s cooking draws from<br />

her Jamaican and Trinidadian<br />

background and her well-rounded<br />

knowledge of traditional Caribbean<br />

flavours.<br />

With the population of ethnic<br />

cultures increasing in Durham Region,<br />

cities like Oshawa have an<br />

opportunity to try many types of<br />

foods, including West Indian cuisine.<br />

Stew chicken, curry goat, rice<br />

and peas, salt fish and fried bakes<br />

have found an audience with a<br />

growing appetite for foods from<br />

all over the world.<br />

Bernett says she has always been<br />

fascinated with what goes on in the<br />

kitchen. Growing up, she says her<br />

house was filled with smells from<br />

corn soup, jerk chicken, and on Sundays,<br />

traditional West Indian meals<br />

like ackee and salt fish.<br />

“In the back of my mind I always<br />

wanted to do something with food,”<br />

says Bernett.<br />

Bernett founded Blxssful Bites, a<br />

made-to-order catering company,<br />

in 2014.<br />

Through familiar and foreign<br />

flavours, packaged in miniature<br />

portions, Bernett sells both north<br />

American and Caribbean-inspired<br />

meals to her community.<br />

From spaghetti and meatballs to<br />

jerk pork and of course dessert favourites<br />

like black cake and current<br />

rolls, Bernett’s unique touch is in the<br />

bite-sized variations of traditional<br />

western and Trinidadian food.<br />

“I like to do bite size – take something<br />

and make it smaller. It’s kind<br />

of a craft thing of mine,” Bernett<br />

says.<br />

“I like appetizers. I’m more into<br />

small meals than big meals. I’m trying<br />

to work on spaghetti and meatball<br />

cups. It’s been trial and error<br />

so far.”<br />

As for desserts, Bernett says<br />

cheesecake is her weakness. “I love<br />

doing cheesecake.”<br />

But cheesecake isn’t the only type<br />

of cake Bernett is familiar experimenting<br />

with. Recently she has<br />

been taking a traditional Caribbean<br />

dessert called black cake, and<br />

rolling it up into cake pops.<br />

“Black cake a is a dark spiced,<br />

fruit cake made with rum or wine.<br />

My granny uses port wine, it makes<br />

it look black essentially,” says Bernett.<br />

Traditional cake pops call for<br />

fondant and cake crumbles rolled<br />

into a ball. The ingredients are<br />

then dipped in chocolate. Bernett<br />

says she had to find a way to make<br />

the cake light enough to hold on the<br />

stick. Black cake is so dense Bernett<br />

says she didn’t know how it was going<br />

to hold. “I made the batter, I<br />

put it in the cake pop machine, and<br />

then I used liquid fondant. That’s<br />

how I got it to stick,” she explains.<br />

The black cake pops were a hit.<br />

Bernett says she is an avid user of<br />

social media to help spread word of<br />

her business in the local community<br />

of Bowmanville, where she is set up.<br />

On the business side of things,<br />

Leshaun Bernett, Dalise’s younger<br />

brother, lends a helping hand.<br />

Photograph courtesy of Dalise Bernett<br />

Mouth-watering Trinidadian pepper shrimp served with fried rice on a rice noodle basket.<br />

When asked if he thought if there<br />

was a market for West Indian flavours<br />

in Durham Region he says,<br />

yes.<br />

“People are always looking for<br />

something new – something different<br />

to try,” Leshaun says.<br />

So one blissful bite at a time<br />

Dalise Bernett shares her culture’s<br />

favourite foods in hopes to show<br />

people how big flavour can come<br />

in all shapes and sizes.<br />

“I just want people to bite into<br />

something that’s out of the norm–<br />

think outside of the box,” says Dalise.“Small<br />

meals can be fun.”<br />

Backyard veggies grow close to campus<br />

Laura Metcalfe<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Jennifer Whyte loves the feeling of<br />

earth beneath her feet as she walks<br />

through her backyard garden, the<br />

garden that is her livelihood. Her<br />

business is Barefoot Veggies.<br />

Durham College helped her<br />

start the company when she was a<br />

student in the Small Business and<br />

Entrepreneurship Program at Durham<br />

College. She used FastStart,<br />

an on-campus resource that helps<br />

students start up their businesses.<br />

“Through FastStart they helped<br />

me with things like my logos, marketing<br />

materials, figuring out all<br />

the little details involved with getting<br />

a business going,” says Whyte,<br />

who already had the idea but wasn’t<br />

sure where to start.<br />

Whyte is sensitive to the chemicals<br />

used by farms to keep pests<br />

from destroying crops. She likes<br />

her vegetables to be grown in a<br />

“pure” environment, meaning no<br />

pesticides or other harmful chemicals<br />

used in the growth process.<br />

“You can’t beat the freshness<br />

‘cause you literally pick it out of<br />

the ground when you’re here,”<br />

says Whyte. Her garden consists<br />

Jennifer Whyte checking the progress of her hanging herbs in her drying shed.<br />

of boxes of dirt and compost, which<br />

includes coffee grinds, as well as a<br />

shed where she hang dries herbs.<br />

Jay Fisher, a professor with<br />

the school of Business, IT and<br />

Management, taught Whyte for<br />

two years and helped develop her<br />

branding and networking skills.<br />

Fisher spends part of his time with<br />

the FastStart program. Through<br />

FastStart, he has helped develop<br />

all types of business ideas.<br />

Photograph by Laura Metcalfe<br />

Whyte says he wouldn’t just give<br />

her the answers she wanted, he<br />

made her work for it. She appreciates<br />

this approach now because it<br />

gave her the skills to find solutions<br />

after she graduated.<br />

Whyte has created a Facebook<br />

page for her business and posts<br />

regularly about the progress of her<br />

crop. She also has a website in development,<br />

which she hopes to have<br />

running by the end of winter.<br />

This is the first year Whyte has<br />

not been in school since starting<br />

her business, so this winter she will<br />

focus on expanding her business<br />

so she can have a reliable income.<br />

“I’ve been doing a lot of canning<br />

and stuff so a lot of my herbs I save,”<br />

says Whyte, who is learning how to<br />

make jams so she can sell them to<br />

caterers or other businesses.<br />

“I dry (herbs) and I’m jarring<br />

them all and bag them and divvy<br />

them up and sell them that way<br />

cause a lot of people want the<br />

herbs still,” says Whyte. She is<br />

also thinking about making candles<br />

and essential oils from her herbs but<br />

admits it takes a lot of product to<br />

make the oils.<br />

She says this year is about expanding<br />

her customer base, creating<br />

networking opportunities, and<br />

thinking of new products she can<br />

make with surplus product. She<br />

hopes to add candles, potpourri,<br />

and jams to her brand. Clients<br />

have asked her to create gardens<br />

for their backyards too.


24 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Community<br />

First Nations vote on new education system<br />

Indigenous<br />

students are<br />

top priority<br />

Angela Lavallee<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Thirty-nine Ontario First Nation<br />

communities are voting on putting<br />

their own education system in<br />

place. The vote, which ends Dec.<br />

2, is the final step in a lengthy<br />

process.<br />

Negotiations with the federal<br />

government began in 1995 and<br />

a deal was reached in July, 2015.<br />

Since the creation of the Indian<br />

Act in 1887, the government<br />

has controlled the education of<br />

Indigenous students and Grand<br />

Council Chief Patrick Madahbee<br />

said in a public statement that the<br />

Union of Ontario Indians (UOI),<br />

which governs the 39 First Nations<br />

in Ontario, couldn’t allow<br />

the Indian Act to determine the<br />

success of children any longer.<br />

“Right now as it stands, our First<br />

Nation children are not very successful<br />

in the provincial school<br />

system and we have a plan to fix<br />

that and give our children the<br />

same advantage as other students<br />

in Ontario,” said Madahbee.<br />

‘Say Yes to AES’ (Anishnabek<br />

Education System) is the slogan<br />

supporters are using to get the<br />

message out to the voting communities.<br />

Kinoomaadzwin Education<br />

Body (KEB) will be the<br />

governing board to which the<br />

federal government will distribute<br />

$110 million. The KEB will<br />

then distribute funds to each First<br />

Nation community which ratifies<br />

the vote, according to the UOI.<br />

Madahbee says the new system<br />

is for the future success of Ontario<br />

First Nation students from junior<br />

kindergarten to Grade 12 and<br />

onto post-secondary education.<br />

The UOI agrees there will be<br />

learning curves and it will take<br />

time for the new education system<br />

to take full setting in Ontario, but<br />

according to the Grand Chief the<br />

children will be better off and will<br />

get top notch education in traditional<br />

learning such as language<br />

and cultural teachings.<br />

Currently there are about<br />

27,000 students under the UOI<br />

umbrella - roughly 22,000 of these<br />

live in urban areas.<br />

Another 2,400 live on the reserve,<br />

but attend schools off reserve<br />

and 2,100 attend schools on<br />

the reserve.<br />

Each of the 39 First Nations are<br />

holding a vote which started Nov.<br />

28 and ends Dec. 2, with results to<br />

be announced early in 20<strong>17</strong>.<br />

Twelve First Nations must ratify<br />

in order for the new education<br />

system to be implemented. The<br />

UOI says they want the new education<br />

system implemented by<br />

April, 2018.<br />

In a live stream of the fall assembly<br />

in Rama First Nation,<br />

Chief Mahadbee announced that<br />

30 communities have indicated<br />

an interest in the new education<br />

system. He also stated that any<br />

First Nation which is not ready<br />

can come on board at a later date.<br />

“This is a no-brainer people,”<br />

said Mahadbee. “We cannot fear<br />

change, remember our people are<br />

reislient and smart.”<br />

Dave Shawana, who is part of<br />

the education working group at<br />

the UOI, said the new education<br />

system was a collaborative effort.<br />

“We are moving in the right<br />

direction with this and our children<br />

are worth it,” said Shawana.<br />

Mahadbee added, “let’s be<br />

champions in our children’s<br />

educational future, this is one<br />

of the most important things we<br />

will ever do for our children.”<br />

Julie Pigeon, aboriginal student<br />

advisor at Durham College,<br />

respects the enormous amount of<br />

time and effort to develop such<br />

a system, but says the AES will<br />

only help those who are under<br />

the UOI umbrella.<br />

“My band Cape Croker is not<br />

part of the UOI, and I’ve only<br />

read parts of the new system and<br />

therefore I cannot comment on<br />

what the new system is about,”<br />

said Pigeon.


Community <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 25<br />

Needles are often used to inject fentanyl and other illicit opioids.<br />

Photograph by Toby Van Weston<br />

Fentanyl: A silent epidemic<br />

Tommy Morais<br />

Toby Van Weston<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Recreational drug users in Durham<br />

have something new to worry<br />

about. Durham Regional Police<br />

Services warn users the drugs they<br />

are consuming may now contain<br />

traces of the deadly opioid fentanyl.<br />

The drug has slowly tightened its<br />

grasp on the region and is beginning<br />

to garner attention and raise<br />

eyebrows. It is the same drug that<br />

took the life of pop legend Prince<br />

earlier this year.<br />

The American National Institute<br />

on Drug Abuse defines the drug<br />

as a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic<br />

that is similar to morphine<br />

but is 50 to 100 times more potent.<br />

It is typically used to treat patients<br />

with severe pain or to manage pain<br />

after surgery.<br />

Fentanyl takes multiple forms.<br />

Lozenges, dissolving tablets, spray<br />

and patches are just a few them.<br />

It can be smoked, eaten and taken<br />

intravenously among other methods<br />

of consumption.<br />

Max—not his real name— an<br />

Oshawa resident, witnessed his<br />

friend’s near-death experience in<br />

his own home. Max’s friend started<br />

using Percocet he obtained on<br />

the black market recreationally. He<br />

progressively experimented and<br />

moved up to harder drugs until<br />

he used heroin that was laced with<br />

fentanyl.<br />

An evening of recreational drug<br />

use took a drastic turn. Max’s<br />

friend almost didn’t survive the<br />

night.<br />

“It was an extremely traumatic<br />

experience seeing someone you love<br />

whose lips are literally blue not responding<br />

to anything,” says Max.<br />

“I’ll never forget the sound of air<br />

leaving his lungs as my friend was<br />

trying to revive him. It was a horrible<br />

sound. I’m traumatized by<br />

that and I have dreams about it.<br />

I’m very cautious about spending<br />

time with this person who was once<br />

historically close to me.”<br />

Stories like these are becoming<br />

increasingly common. The Durham<br />

Region Police Service (DRPS)<br />

has taken notice of fentanyl’s growing<br />

prominence in the recreational<br />

drug scene.<br />

I’m traumatized<br />

by that and I have<br />

dreams about it.<br />

“We’re certainly seeing fentanyl<br />

appear on our streets. We started<br />

to see incidences of it in 2014 in<br />

connection to other drugs,” says<br />

David Selby, director of corporate<br />

communications for the DRPS.<br />

Recreational users are often unaware<br />

the drugs they are using are<br />

laced with fentanyl, says Selby. In<br />

some cases, it’s a mix that can prove<br />

fatal.<br />

“There’s a trend continuing<br />

today where you’ll have fentanyl<br />

sprinkled into some others drugs<br />

and the user doesn’t know. They<br />

think it’s heroin or some OxyContin.<br />

What they realize afterwards is<br />

that fentanyl was laced,” explains<br />

Selby. “It’s an incredibly powerful<br />

drug, one that can certainly kill<br />

you.”<br />

A fentanyl overdose can be difficult<br />

to differentiate from other drug<br />

overdoses. It takes time and testing<br />

before conclusions can be drawn.<br />

“We’ve had numerous deaths<br />

and overdoses in Durham Region.<br />

We later find out after the laboratory<br />

tests are done and screened<br />

that fentanyl was found in the<br />

heroin, oxy pills or misused patches<br />

even,” Selby says.<br />

Despite the efforts of DRPS,<br />

users are still finding ways of getting<br />

their high in Durham.<br />

The Pinewood Centre of Lakeridge<br />

Health in Oshawa is responsible<br />

for the treatment of those<br />

trying to kick their fentanyl habits.<br />

According to Cindy Kwok, clinical<br />

coordinator at the Pinewood<br />

Centre, there is no 12-step program<br />

when addicts try to quit fentanyl<br />

and opioids. Kwok describes<br />

fentanyl as “euphoric.”<br />

Lakeridge Health encourages its<br />

patients not to try to quit cold turkey<br />

to overcome addiction.<br />

“That is the worst thing to do,”<br />

stresses Kwok. “Unless they taper<br />

it, with support and the proper<br />

medication.”<br />

Kwok says a growing number of<br />

the population is becoming<br />

addicted because they are being<br />

prescribed fentanyl for pain relief.<br />

For some, prescription is where the<br />

addiction takes root.<br />

But as with Max’s story, the dangers<br />

are not just limited to those<br />

who take the drug. It also affects<br />

the user’s environment, including<br />

friends and family.<br />

Although help is available, Max<br />

is still worried about his friend and<br />

the relapses are real.<br />

“My one friend has stepped in<br />

to get clean on multiple occasions.<br />

It works for a period of time but he<br />

eventually makes his way back to<br />

it,” says Max.<br />

The road to recovery sometimes<br />

requires multiple attempts.<br />

“Addiction happens on all walks<br />

of life. They were on substances<br />

and they decide to change their<br />

lifestyle”, says Cindy Kwok. “They<br />

want to have a regular life, keep<br />

their job, not have to steal money<br />

to buy drugs and families to take<br />

care of.”<br />

If you or someone you know is<br />

affected by fentanyl help is available<br />

at each of Pinewood’s five locations:<br />

300 Centre St.<br />

Oshawa<br />

905-723-8195 ext. 221<br />

419 King St. W.<br />

Oshawa<br />

905-571-3344 ext. 110<br />

200 King St. E.<br />

Bowmanville<br />

905-697-2746<br />

180 Mary St.<br />

Port Perry<br />

905-985-4721<br />

95 Bayly St.<br />

Ajax<br />

905-683-5950 ext. 224<br />

For general inquiries:<br />

905-723-8195<br />

1-888-881-8878<br />

Source: Durham Region Health


26 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca


Community <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 6, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle27<br />

Oshawa’s spy camp and secret agent<br />

Erin Williams<br />

The Chronicle<br />

When she was only three years<br />

old, Jacqueline Bieler’s father,<br />

Gustave (Guy) Bieler, went off to<br />

war and never returned home. It<br />

was September 1, 1939, when Hitler<br />

invaded Poland and started the<br />

war against Germany. Two days<br />

later, France and Britain declared<br />

war on Germany. On September<br />

10, 1939, Canada agreed to join<br />

and support Britain’s declaration<br />

of war. Many Canadian soldiers<br />

fought in the war, and by the time it<br />

was over in 1945, over 45,000 Canadians<br />

had died.<br />

Major Bieler was sent to France<br />

to become part of the French Resistance.<br />

He organized bombings<br />

of Nazi railroads and factories.<br />

In 1944, he was caught, severely<br />

tortured, and eventually sent to a<br />

concentration camp in Germany,<br />

where he was executed.<br />

By the time it was<br />

over in 1945, over<br />

45,000 Canadians<br />

had died.<br />

Jacqueline Bieler lives in Ottawa.<br />

She wanted to learn about<br />

the father she never knew. In 1957,<br />

seventeen years after her father had<br />

left home, she went looking for answers.<br />

She was twenty years old and<br />

it had only been twelve years since<br />

the war had ended.<br />

“I talked to soldiers he had<br />

The Camp X war memorial in Whitby.<br />

trained with and wrote notes and<br />

notes of what I had learned,” says<br />

Bieler. “I had never intended to<br />

write. I had made many notes over<br />

the years and just put them together<br />

to tell my father’s story … I have<br />

grandkids, it’s important for them<br />

to know about their history also.”<br />

Bieler wrote the book, Out of Night<br />

and Fog: The Story of Guy Bieler, Special<br />

Operations Executive Published by<br />

Cef Books in January 2008.<br />

Like Major Guy Bieler, many<br />

other Canadians were trained to<br />

be secret agents during the war.<br />

Many trained at Camp X on the<br />

border between the city of Oshawa<br />

and Whitby.<br />

Major Bieler was one of 25 Canadians<br />

recruited into the Special<br />

Operations Executive (SOE). He<br />

was trained for high-risk situations<br />

and secret operations on the shores<br />

of Lake Ontario. His training included<br />

weapon handling, unarmed<br />

combat, silent killing, sabotage,<br />

explosives, and Morse Code.<br />

Bieler is considered one the greatest<br />

and bravest heroes out of the<br />

Canadian agents, according to<br />

Lynn Philip Hodgson, author of<br />

the book Inside Camp X. Hodgson<br />

says Bieler’s effective strategies<br />

and personality gave him an advantage.<br />

Even after several, brutal<br />

torture sessions Bieler never released<br />

any information to the<br />

enemy, not even his real name.<br />

Hodgson has been researching<br />

Camp X for more than four decades.<br />

“I could talk about Camp X<br />

for hours and hours and hours,”<br />

says Hodgson. “The training<br />

that happened here was so intense<br />

… the agents selected were<br />

warned they only had about a<br />

50 per cent chance of making<br />

it through their missions alive.”<br />

Hodgson gives tours of Camp X<br />

for the annual Doors Open Oshawa<br />

event. Every year for the past ten<br />

years, history buffs, families, locals,<br />

and out-of-towners join Hodgson<br />

on a tour of the area where Camp<br />

X was situated before it was bulldozed<br />

into Lake Ontario in 1969.<br />

Photograph by Erin Williams<br />

Jacqueline Bieler holding a photograph of her father, Gustave Bieler, who was a secret agent.<br />

Photograph by Erin Williams<br />

The only thing that remains on the<br />

site is a red stone poking up from<br />

the ground.<br />

The entire area has been leveled,<br />

leaving no indication the spy camp<br />

ever existed. All that remains is Intrepid<br />

Park on the border of Whitby-Oshawa<br />

and a monument that<br />

reads, “On this site British Security<br />

Co-ordination operated Special<br />

Training School No. 103 and<br />

Hydra. S.T.S. 103 trained allied<br />

agents in the techniques of secret<br />

warfare for the Special Operations<br />

Executive (S.O.E.) Branch of the<br />

British Intelligence Service.”<br />

Joseph Bouchard is an Oshawa<br />

resident who took the Doors<br />

Open tour for the first time this<br />

year. He liked hearing the details<br />

of the camp from Hodgson, leading<br />

the tour. “It’s crazy how so many<br />

people just don’t know about it,”<br />

Bouchard says.<br />

“I wish I had a chance to take<br />

this tour during high school and<br />

learn this history about the town<br />

I live in before today. It’s a part<br />

of our history. Kids today might<br />

take a stronger interest in history<br />

if they knew this camp was here.”<br />

According to Inside Camp X,<br />

the Camp’s location was chosen<br />

for many reasons but mainly because<br />

the shoreline was thirty<br />

miles straight across the lake<br />

from the United States: ideal for<br />

bouncing radio signals from Europe<br />

and South American headquarters.<br />

During World War II,<br />

HAM radios or amateur radios<br />

were used to communicate wirelessly<br />

around the world. HAM<br />

Operators at were stationed in<br />

the communications facility at<br />

Camp X and used transmitters to<br />

send and receive coded messages<br />

from Britain behind enemy lines.<br />

The trainees at Camp X were<br />

unaware of the missions that were<br />

heading their way until after their<br />

training was complete. After ten<br />

weeks of training, many ‘special<br />

agents’ were sent over to Britain<br />

and France to become a part of the<br />

SOE, just like Major Bieler.<br />

Back in Ottawa, Bieler’s daughter<br />

Jacqueline has just returned<br />

from Paris, France where she gave<br />

a speech in honour of her father.<br />

This year, 23 Canadians were recognized<br />

for their bravery, including<br />

her father. Bieler says she was<br />

happy to see friends and grandchildren<br />

of the soldiers were present to<br />

learn about their family members.<br />

“It was great to see people come to<br />

honour and remember that group.<br />

May it be their parent, friend, or<br />

distant family, a lot of Canadians<br />

were there and recognized for being<br />

a big part of our history,” says<br />

Bieler. “I was honoured and more<br />

than happy to write and read my<br />

speech for them.” Bieler continues<br />

to share the story of her father to<br />

her grandchildren, and to anyone<br />

who interested in learning about<br />

the special agents of World War II.<br />

“They are secret agents,”<br />

says Bieler. “They don’t like to<br />

be called spies but they were<br />

skilled and trained to kill at a moment’s<br />

notice.”


28 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Campus<br />

New group for autistic students<br />

Students<br />

who join<br />

are given<br />

the chance<br />

to socialize<br />

while<br />

developing<br />

life skills<br />

Tyler Searle<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Students on the autism spectrum<br />

looking for an excuse to socialize<br />

might enjoy a new program provided<br />

by the Access and Support<br />

Centre at Durham College.<br />

The Autism Spectrum Disorder<br />

(ASD) Living Learning Community<br />

was established at the beginning<br />

of the fall semester.<br />

It was formed as another way to<br />

accommodate the growing ASD<br />

community at Durham College<br />

and UOIT over the last several<br />

years.<br />

“I think it’s important to let students<br />

on the spectrum know that<br />

they are not alone, especially first<br />

year students.” said Ashley Ludlow,<br />

head of the ASD Living Learning<br />

Community, and accessibility<br />

coach at the Access and Support<br />

Centre.<br />

In 2009, Ludlow said there were<br />

fewer than 20 students on the<br />

autism spectrum who registered<br />

with the support centre. By 2015,<br />

that number had grown to more<br />

than 100 members.<br />

The Living Learning Community<br />

meets every Wednesday evening<br />

from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. The overall<br />

purpose of the group is to help<br />

develop social networking skills,<br />

baking skills in the South Village<br />

residence kitchen, and general<br />

wellness through stress relief and<br />

social interactions in a patient and<br />

reassuring environment.<br />

Student Academic Learning Services<br />

(SALS) also works with any<br />

group members who wish to develop<br />

college-related skills, such as<br />

time management and academics.<br />

“I think a lot of students need to<br />

know when to ask for help,” said<br />

Ludlow. “It doesn’t make you a bad<br />

student... be prepared and be proactive,<br />

know when to ask for help<br />

and know how to access it.”<br />

Currently six students regularly<br />

attend every group meeting,<br />

though there are others who attend<br />

if the subject matter interests them.<br />

“I look for a lot of feedback from<br />

the group to see what they want,”<br />

said Ludlow. “If they want stress<br />

relief then we’ll make activities<br />

around stress relief. If they want<br />

social interaction, we’ll play games<br />

and watch Netflix.”<br />

Ludlow explained that people<br />

with autism can suffer from a<br />

number of social issues, including<br />

repetitive behaviour and impacted<br />

behaviour skills.<br />

Because of this, it can be a stressful<br />

time for them to complete their<br />

school work and socialize with<br />

others.<br />

“Some of us have a specific area<br />

or topic we are most comfortable<br />

talking about, but often have<br />

trouble knowing when to stop talking<br />

about it, or if the other people<br />

aren’t interested,” said a student<br />

who attends the ASD group, who<br />

requested anonymity. “Also approaching<br />

people - even just for<br />

school-related stuff at times - can<br />

be hard, and this group helps, as<br />

we are doing things together and<br />

can talk at our own paces on top<br />

of learning skills.”<br />

Because the Living Learning<br />

Community is open to any ASD<br />

student, it can serve as both a transitional<br />

environment for new students<br />

jumping into post-secondary,<br />

and a networking platform where<br />

students from different programs<br />

can congregate.<br />

Many of the skills developed<br />

through the group are also geared<br />

to helping students live on their<br />

own, regardless if they are currently<br />

in residence or living with<br />

their families.<br />

In the end, Ludlow encourages<br />

her attendees to use the group however<br />

they see fit and at their own<br />

pace.<br />

“The important thing is to work<br />

with each student,” said Ludlow.<br />

“Not every student on the spectrum<br />

has the same needs.”<br />

Any students interested in joining<br />

must register through the Access<br />

and Support Centre for Durham<br />

College, or the Student Accessibility<br />

Services for UOIT.<br />

WILDLIFE ADOPTIONS<br />

When you symbolically adopt your favorite wildlife species,<br />

you’re giving an extraordinary gift while while supporting<br />

WWF-Canada’s efforts to protect wildlife and their habitats.<br />

Photograph by Tyler Searle<br />

Ashley Ludlow has more than two years of experience as an<br />

accessibility coach.<br />

Visit http://www.wwf.ca/donate/adoptions/ to pick up your very own adoption kit!


Campus <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 29<br />

Fire drills a new concept for some<br />

For international students at Durham<br />

College, fire drills were unexpected<br />

Devarsh Oza<br />

The Chronicle<br />

It was very surprising to have a<br />

fire drill for Dhiren Tandel, an<br />

international student from India.<br />

Tandel thought his first fire drill<br />

was a fake fire alarm.<br />

“ Well, this is something I have<br />

never had back in my country. It<br />

was more shocking and weird to<br />

me,” said Tandel.<br />

According to Rick Bowler, a fire<br />

fighter professor at Durham College,<br />

fire drills are very important<br />

for every school. Bowler says fire<br />

drills prepare students and faculty<br />

for real fires.<br />

“ Fire drills provide training for<br />

staff, who are required to activate<br />

an alarm. They also train fire<br />

fighters to know where the faculty<br />

and students are to be located,”<br />

said Bowler.<br />

This fire drill was not only<br />

surprising for Tandel but also for<br />

many international students at<br />

Durham College who have never<br />

experienced a fire drill in their<br />

home country. The majority of DC<br />

international students come from<br />

India followed by China, Pakistan<br />

and Nigeria.<br />

Durham, DCDSB<br />

sign international<br />

education agreement<br />

James Bauman<br />

The Chronice<br />

Helping international students studying in<br />

Canada make a seamless transition from<br />

high school to college is the premise behind<br />

a new deal between Durham College (DC)<br />

and the Durham Catholic District School<br />

Board (DCDSB).<br />

The two sides signed a five-year deal on<br />

Nov. 2 which creates and strengthens educational<br />

and professional opportunities for<br />

international students.<br />

Current and future DCDSB international<br />

students now have assistance in transferring<br />

from one of the local Catholic high schools to<br />

DC. This agreement serves many purposes<br />

including, providing transfer opportunities,<br />

strengthening cultural ties, and the possible<br />

creation of a peer mentoring program exclusive<br />

to international students, according<br />

to Michael Gray, a DCDSB superintendent.<br />

The peer mentoring program would see<br />

a current DC international student paired<br />

with an international student from the<br />

DCDSB, giving insight to those secondary<br />

school students about what life as an<br />

international student is like at the college. It<br />

would also ideally continue once the international<br />

student reaches DC, acting as a<br />

buffer for the transition to post-secondary<br />

student life.<br />

“Durham College prides itself on offering<br />

international students a high quality college<br />

education and we’re proud to be working<br />

with the Durham Catholic District School<br />

Board to offer international high school students<br />

the opportunity to further their studies<br />

in Canada, and with Durham College in<br />

particular,” DC president Don Lovisa said<br />

in a news release.<br />

Gray believes the agreement has the potential<br />

to benefit the 24 current international<br />

students at their schools, but he also thinks<br />

the agreement adds another reason for parents<br />

of potential international students to<br />

send their sons and daughters to a DCDSB<br />

school. Aiming to boost international student<br />

enrolment numbers at DCDSB schools<br />

is just one outcome the school board would<br />

like to see from the agreement.<br />

According to Gray, the agreement came<br />

about unanimously and without any difficulties.<br />

“I have to say in all sincerity that is was a<br />

very collaborative, collegial process. Where<br />

there were issues both parties were able to<br />

speak freely. When there were any concerns<br />

or areas of need we worked through them<br />

in a very collaborative manner. I honestly<br />

couldn’t have asked for a better process,”<br />

said Gray.<br />

In a press release Anne O’Brien, DCDSB<br />

director of education said, “we are pleased<br />

to partner with Durham College as we encourage<br />

international students to discover<br />

the numerous pathways that are available<br />

through our Durham Catholic secondary<br />

schools into our local college programs.”<br />

DC is already home to nearly 11,000 fulltime<br />

post-secondary students, including<br />

600 international students. Through this<br />

agreement the college hopes to bolster those<br />

numbers further by co-operating with the<br />

DCDSB using the newly-signed deal as a<br />

platform for recruiting international students<br />

and as a springboard for further things<br />

to come.<br />

There are several reasons for not<br />

having fire drills in these countries.<br />

This includes lack of funds<br />

in schools, lack of awareness about<br />

fires and fewer cases of fires.<br />

According to the Canadian Bureau<br />

of International Education,<br />

most international students are<br />

from developing countries such as<br />

India, Brazil, Nigeria and Mexico.<br />

In most of these nations, schools<br />

as well as people lack basic needs.<br />

People don’t have enough food,<br />

education and even water. Schools<br />

don’t have electricity, teachers and<br />

sometimes even buildings.<br />

“No, for my school in India it is<br />

really expensive to have fire alarms<br />

and fire drills,” said Aju Jojo, an<br />

international student from Kerala<br />

in India.<br />

Lack of basic education is also a<br />

big problem. Many students from<br />

Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh<br />

study in Canada, according to<br />

The Canadian Bureau of International<br />

Education. According to<br />

UNESCO, literacy rates in those<br />

countries are under 65 per cent.<br />

Most of the international students<br />

in Canada are from China, followed<br />

by India and South Korea.<br />

According to UNESCO, the literacy<br />

rate in India is only 71.4 per<br />

cent, which means almost 30 per<br />

cent of the population in India cannot<br />

read and write. That is almost<br />

290 million people.<br />

It is hard to find people who are<br />

aware of fire safety in developing<br />

countries such as India, Pakistan<br />

and Bangladesh. Fire stations in<br />

villages are very unusual. Increasing<br />

the literacy rate is quite challenging<br />

and as a result, fire drills<br />

are rarely discussed.<br />

Schools as well<br />

as people lack<br />

basic needs.<br />

The situation is almost the same<br />

in South America. According to<br />

2013 article in the Washington<br />

Times, Peruvian fire departments<br />

are ill-equipped. This means fire<br />

departments in Peru don’t even<br />

have the latest equipment, such as<br />

fire alarms and smoke detectors.<br />

At the same time, most of the<br />

people in South America have<br />

not attended college, according<br />

to UNESCO. For example, only<br />

about 2 million people in Peru attended<br />

high school, which is less<br />

than half of the total population<br />

of Peru.<br />

“In Peru, people don’t care<br />

about the fire,” said Claudia Cubas<br />

Quiroz, an international student<br />

from Peru at Durham College.<br />

According to a report of International<br />

Association of Fire and<br />

Rescue Service India, Pakistan and<br />

China do not have a lot of fires per<br />

year.<br />

The raw material used to build<br />

houses in India, Pakistan and Nigeria<br />

is different from the materials<br />

used in Canada. The houses and<br />

buildings in most of those countries<br />

are made of cement and concrete,<br />

while most of the houses in North<br />

America are made of wood. Concrete<br />

does not capture or spread<br />

fire as fast as wood does.<br />

For many international students,<br />

houses made of wood are something<br />

they had never seen before<br />

coming to Canada.<br />

“In India, our houses are made<br />

of bricks … and in Canada they<br />

put wood in the houses, and wood<br />

catches the fire faster than the<br />

bricks,” said Saju Sam, an international<br />

student from Kerala,<br />

India.<br />

That is one of the reasons why<br />

fire drills and fire alarms are not<br />

discussed a lot in India as well as<br />

Pakistan, China and Nigeria.<br />

Durham College makes special<br />

arrangements to inform international<br />

students about Canadian<br />

house fires.<br />

“For international students we<br />

have the local fire department in<br />

orientation to speak about how to<br />

live safe in Canadian houses,” said<br />

Larissa Strong, the international<br />

adviser at Durham College.<br />

Houses made<br />

of wood are<br />

something they<br />

had never seen.<br />

Due to lack of education,<br />

awareness and fewer cases of fires,<br />

many international students such<br />

as Dhiren Tandel feel surprised<br />

when they hear fire drills in North<br />

American colleges.


30 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca


<strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 31<br />

Entertainment<br />

Photograph by Tyler Hodgkinson<br />

Nintendo’s latest products, the NES Classic Edition and NES Controller, have been sold out across North America.<br />

NES shortage angers consumers<br />

Tyler Hodgkinson<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Gamers’ frustration with Nintendo<br />

continues to build as the company<br />

struggles to keep up with consumer<br />

demand for its latest product.<br />

The NES Classic Edition, a<br />

miniature version of Nintendo’s<br />

first home console which comes<br />

with 30 built-in games, sold out<br />

at every store in Durham Region<br />

within minutes.<br />

The lack of stock is forcing gamers<br />

to travel between sellers in the<br />

area, with hopes of snagging the<br />

$80 throwback item.<br />

Lucas Ristoff, a second-year<br />

business student at Durham College<br />

and avid video game fan, spent<br />

an entire morning looking for the<br />

NES Classic Edition and controller,<br />

but ended the day empty-handed.<br />

Nintendo is synonymous with positive<br />

childhood memories, family<br />

connectivity, and wholesome fun.<br />

But despite its mainstream image,<br />

it’s also known to some diehard fans<br />

as a disrespectful money machine.<br />

The poor performance of the Wii<br />

U, which is the company’s biggest<br />

console failure with only 13 million<br />

units sold worldwide, was a direct<br />

result of its lack of respect for consumers;<br />

misleading information,<br />

bastardization of beloved series,<br />

and withholding stock are reasons<br />

why some may look to cut ties with<br />

the Japanese-based company. For<br />

its next product, the Nintendo<br />

Switch, to succeed, Nintendo must<br />

develop and demonstrate a heightened<br />

level of respect for fans.<br />

In an industry with many moving<br />

parts, unmet release dates for<br />

games are a common outcome.<br />

Finishing projects is a strenuous<br />

process, and leeway is often given<br />

“I went to six different places but<br />

couldn’t find one,” he said.<br />

The closest Ristoff got was at the<br />

first store he visited.<br />

“The third person in front of me<br />

was the last person to get it,” Ristoff<br />

for both major and independent developers.<br />

However, Nintendo has<br />

abused the compassion of gamers<br />

and mislead them with false release<br />

dates to extend the “consumer contract.”<br />

The “Big-N” revealed The Legend<br />

of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (then untitled)<br />

in January 2013 with the<br />

project scheduled to arrive on Wii<br />

U two years later. Those who purchased<br />

the console specifically for<br />

the game have yet to be rewarded.<br />

Many have hit forums and social<br />

media to express their anger with<br />

not only the unreleased game, but<br />

with the revealed upgraded version<br />

set to arrive on their next console<br />

said. “I was so close, yet so far.”<br />

He expressed frustration with<br />

that location, which was the<br />

Walmart on Harmony Road in<br />

Oshawa, because it was allowing<br />

those in line to purchase multiple<br />

less than a year after – whenever<br />

that may be. Although there<br />

was never an official date given,<br />

Nintendo must earn back consumers’<br />

trust if they want elevate the<br />

sales of the Nintendo Switch.<br />

For years, fans of the company<br />

have expressed a deep desire for<br />

certain franchises to return, but<br />

historically, Nintendo’s response<br />

has been to take a half-measure<br />

approach. This is most evident with<br />

the community’s desire for Metroid<br />

on Wii U. Instead, Nintendo released<br />

Metroid Prime: Federation Force<br />

on 3DS. Nintendo of America<br />

President Reggie Fils-Amié told<br />

online news outlet Game Rant the<br />

spinoff title was something gamers<br />

would be pleasantly surprised with,<br />

however, the audience did the talking<br />

with under 4,000 copies sold<br />

after its initial Japanese launch in<br />

August. If Nintendo expects those<br />

gamers to make the jump to its next<br />

units. This is unlike the policy of<br />

one per person at every other seller<br />

in the region.<br />

According to a series of tweets<br />

from Nintendo of Canada, the<br />

company is trying to restock stores<br />

before Christmas.<br />

Dylan Morgan, an employee<br />

at EB Games on Baldwin Street<br />

in Whitby, says they expect to<br />

get a shipment three to five units<br />

per week, but receive more than<br />

40 inquiries about stock per day.<br />

Additionally, it’s unclear how many<br />

they and other stores will actually<br />

get, as Nintendo isn’t telling them<br />

“anything at all.”<br />

Retailers across the continent<br />

have been sold out since day one.<br />

This includes online stores such as<br />

Amazon, Target.com, and Bestbuy.<br />

com.<br />

Second-hand sellers have<br />

console, they must begin listening<br />

to fan outcry.<br />

Games aside, Nintendo supporters<br />

are on low battery after trying<br />

to find their systems in stores. A<br />

lack of production and distribution<br />

of its products has been a<br />

trend for the company, with many<br />

capitalized on the hysteria, with<br />

some units being offered for sale<br />

on eBay for up to $3,000. However,<br />

it’s not confirmed if any have been<br />

sold at that price.<br />

Many believe Nintendo understocks<br />

to create hype and buzz<br />

about its products. Although<br />

the company has never confirmed<br />

this marketing strategy,<br />

Nintendo of America president<br />

Reggie Fils-Aimé has implied the<br />

goal is to make releases as glamourous<br />

as possible.<br />

Nintendo’s slow manufacturing<br />

and distribution process has affected<br />

the launch of the Wii, Wii U,<br />

amiibo, and now NES Classic Edition,<br />

which leaves some consumers<br />

pessimistic about the availability<br />

of the company’s upcoming hybrid-console,<br />

the Nintendo Switch,<br />

in March, 20<strong>17</strong>.<br />

Nintendo must listen to fans for Switch to succeed<br />

Tyler<br />

Hodgkinson<br />

Nintendo must<br />

learn from the<br />

commercial failure<br />

of the Wii U.<br />

consumers left to wonder if the<br />

shortages of the Wii in 2006, Wii<br />

U in 2013, as well as amiibo and<br />

NES Classic Edition this past year<br />

are schemes to manufacture hype.<br />

Nintendo has not confirmed the<br />

validity of these claims, but whether<br />

the lack of product is deliberate<br />

or coincidental, consumers are now<br />

pessimistic about the launch and<br />

availability of the Nintendo Switch.<br />

Nintendo must learn from the<br />

commercial failure of the Wii U.<br />

The company mislead its audience<br />

with false information about the release<br />

of highly-anticipated games,<br />

refused to develop desired projects,<br />

and could not keep up with retail<br />

demand.<br />

If Nintendo continues to show a<br />

lack of respect for its loyal supporters,<br />

it risks further alienating consumers<br />

who decide if the Nintendo<br />

Switch will be a com mercia l<br />

failure.


32 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Entertainment<br />

From animation at Durham to Disney<br />

DC grads<br />

proud of<br />

work on<br />

new movie<br />

‘Moana’<br />

and build for the animators to actually<br />

pose, move the characters<br />

to bring them to life. I work closely<br />

with the look department and<br />

modelling and animations. So we<br />

work together to create this character.<br />

We have team meetings often<br />

- we get together and touch base<br />

to make sure everything is going<br />

smoothly.<br />

Jessica Stoiku<br />

The Chronicle<br />

They’ve made the leap from Durham<br />

College to Disney.<br />

Husband and wife Celeste and<br />

Chris Pedersen graduated from<br />

Durham’s animation pro-gram a<br />

year apart in 2007 and 2008. Although<br />

they’ve been working on<br />

different time-lines, the couple<br />

found their way from Durham Region<br />

to California, and have been<br />

work-ing for Walt Disney Studios<br />

since 2013. Their passion and dedication<br />

has led them to working on<br />

Disney’s latest film, Moana, which<br />

opened in theatres Nov. 23.<br />

The Chronicle conducted a<br />

phone interview with the Pedersens<br />

about their journey.<br />

What is the day in the life<br />

like for you at the studio?<br />

Celeste: I guess it starts the<br />

same. We live pretty close to the<br />

studio so we drive in the morning or<br />

sometimes we walk, which is great<br />

because California is beautiful<br />

and sunny. My work is shot-based,<br />

so we’ll have meetings with my<br />

department. We’ll have shots assigned<br />

to us. So again reviewing<br />

the work that we’ve done.<br />

Chris: While Celeste is more<br />

of the shot side of production, I’m<br />

more of the character side. So I’m<br />

more rigorous. I create the controls<br />

What has been your favourite<br />

part about working on the<br />

film?<br />

Celeste: Just working at Disney<br />

for me has been like a dream since<br />

I was little. Being here and working<br />

with some of the people I’ve looked<br />

up to is just incredible. To see the<br />

stuff you’ve been working on actually<br />

on screen is incredible.<br />

Chris: I second that. It’s pretty<br />

incredible working with the people<br />

that have been working at the<br />

studio for as long as I remember<br />

watching movies growing up. A<br />

lot of those people are still working<br />

here. It’s pretty incredible. I like being<br />

challenged a lot. They’re always<br />

pushing the envelope here to make<br />

the best quality films. I love just the<br />

challenge of that.<br />

Have you ever had something<br />

you were working on go<br />

completely wrong?<br />

Chris: There are always<br />

little challenges here and there. I<br />

wouldn’t say there was any-thing<br />

that went sort of completely wrong.<br />

Story changes. Sometimes characters<br />

come and go, so we adapt to<br />

those changes. We do our best to<br />

foresee those things…and work<br />

to-gether to troubleshoot them.<br />

Celeste: We’re [in] a very collaborative<br />

environment. People<br />

come together really quick to try<br />

and work through it.<br />

How has Durham College<br />

helped you get to where you<br />

are today?<br />

Celeste: I’ve always wanted to<br />

work for Disney. Going to school at<br />

Durham helped prepare me to get<br />

into this field.<br />

Chris: Growing up I always<br />

loved watching the Disney movies,<br />

but animation was never something<br />

as a child I kind of thought myself<br />

getting into. I always found myself<br />

leaning toward engineering. I loved<br />

Lego and building and creating<br />

things. That’s similar to what I<br />

do now. My job is very technical.<br />

There’s a lot of building, inventing<br />

and coming up creative solutions,<br />

which I really like.<br />

Birth of a Nation a powerful film<br />

Chris Jones<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The Birth of a Nation is a film<br />

that can be summed up in a single<br />

word: anger. It’s a film entirely<br />

built around emotion and it has a<br />

powerful message. While the cinematography<br />

is well done, this is not<br />

a film about style, but substance.<br />

It’s about the story of Nat Turner<br />

and his rebellion, igniting the raw<br />

emotion of the fight for equality.<br />

While watching the story of Nat<br />

Turner and his rebellion, it is hard<br />

to not feel the anger the film wishes<br />

to convey. There are several scenes<br />

in the film that stand out. The<br />

moment when Nat’s wife, Cherry<br />

Turner, is beaten by a group of<br />

white men for leaving her owner’s<br />

property without a pass, despite<br />

only being on the edge of the premises,<br />

is one such moment.<br />

However, the film feels like a<br />

series of moments meant to convey<br />

emotion. These moments don’t necessarily<br />

add to the film itself. Moments<br />

such as Nat’s dream sequences,<br />

while symbolic of his struggle,<br />

don’t contribute to the film’s message,<br />

but take away from it instead.<br />

The film stars Aja Naomi King<br />

as Cherry Turner, Nate Parker as<br />

Nat Turner and Armie Hammer<br />

as Samuel Turner, the man who<br />

owns Nat. Hammer has a powerful<br />

performance as the conflicted<br />

slave owner who doesn’t like what<br />

he does or what he sees but stands<br />

by and does nothing. This results in<br />

his character’s death at the hands<br />

of his own slave, Nat.<br />

The message Hammer tried to<br />

send with the character of Samuel<br />

Turner is that you can’t just stand<br />

by when others are being hurt. This<br />

film is about the anger that black<br />

men and women felt in 1831. That<br />

anger still resonates today in the<br />

Black Lives Matter movement.<br />

Photograph by Alex Kang<br />

DC alumni Christoffer Pedersen (left) and wife Celeste work at Walt Disney Animation Studios.<br />

However, on top of the anger<br />

that Parker, who also directed the<br />

film, wishes to convey, it is a welldirected,<br />

well-acted and well-written<br />

film about the fight for equality<br />

and the anger and resentment that<br />

motivates it.<br />

Every shot in the film shows<br />

the struggles of slaves of that time.<br />

Often this leaves the viewer feeling<br />

as though the film were trying too<br />

hard to be artistic. But the conviction<br />

the film shows more than<br />

makes up for any narrative flaws.<br />

The Birth of a Nation is a film<br />

built the anger of a repressed group<br />

of people. With whispers of an Oscar<br />

nomination before the film was even<br />

released, it’s clear the message of this<br />

film was being heard. As Chris Rock<br />

said at last year’s Academy Awards<br />

when no black men or women won<br />

an Oscar, “people went mad.” The<br />

Birth of a Nation looks to change<br />

that this awards season.<br />

Alex Debets<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Music is unavoidable.<br />

We hear music everywhere,<br />

whether it is Shawn Mendes at the<br />

grocery store or Passion Pit on a<br />

Taco Bell Commercial.<br />

Music is a soundtrack to our lives<br />

but who are these musicians?<br />

They are all around us, your<br />

neighbour, your family members.<br />

They are not necessarily the ones<br />

you hear on the radio and see on<br />

the cover of music magazines.<br />

They are just like you or I, humans,<br />

with emotions, feelings, and<br />

bills to pay.<br />

Being a musician is definitely not<br />

Who inspired you along the<br />

way during your time when<br />

you were a student at Durham<br />

College?<br />

Celeste: All the teachers were<br />

incredible at Durham. They were<br />

all very supportive, very encouraging.<br />

I always doubt myself. Am<br />

I good enough to do that? You<br />

get discouraged sometimes, but<br />

the teachers are always there to<br />

support you and tell you, ‘you can<br />

do it.’ They’re the ones that got me<br />

my first job outside of school, and I<br />

was very appreciative of that.<br />

Chris: They’re always so super<br />

supportive. One moment though<br />

that sort of stood out for me was<br />

in third year animation class. I remember<br />

working on an animation<br />

shot. I just re-member something<br />

clicking for me with animation<br />

and all of a sudden I understood<br />

it and that was sort of a milestone<br />

point for me with my student career.<br />

I feel that sort of launched<br />

me into feeling confident with<br />

animation. Getting my first job<br />

was really dependant on Durham<br />

and the teachers. The fact that the<br />

course was so well rounded it allowed<br />

me personally going into a<br />

more technical path.<br />

It also gave me the base knowledge<br />

to pursue that.<br />

This story was edited for style, length<br />

and clarity.<br />

Check out Oshawa band<br />

Crown Lands - in this<br />

Chronicle audio feature<br />

cheap. There’s the cost of instruments,<br />

equipment, tour vans, studio<br />

time … the list goes on and on.<br />

Most musicians start out independent,<br />

meaning they pay for<br />

themselves. They book shows by<br />

themselves, and work by themselves.<br />

This is true for the working class<br />

duo, Crown Lands, an Oshawa<br />

band - Fronted by Kevin Comeau<br />

and Cody Bowles.Both members<br />

work hard, balancing school and<br />

jobs, to keep their musical dream<br />

alive.<br />

LISTEN to the audio feature:<br />

https://soundcloud.<br />

com/ajdebets/workingclassmusicianfinal/comment-3<strong>16</strong>248405


Entertainment <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 33<br />

The Girl on the Train novel cover (left) written by Paula Hawkins and the movie poster directed by Tate Taylor based on Hawkins’ story.<br />

Photograph by Jenn Amaro<br />

Movie meets the expectations of thriller book<br />

Jenn Amaro<br />

The Chronicle<br />

When a reader picks up a book and<br />

can’t put it down, the movie adaptation<br />

needs to meet high expectations.<br />

In the case of The Girl on the<br />

Train, written by Paula Hawkins,<br />

the film was released under two<br />

years after the book came out.<br />

When contrasting the book and<br />

the movie, it is apparent the director<br />

of the movie, Tate Taylor, wanted<br />

to stay close to the novel and<br />

bring the author’s ideas to screen.<br />

By analyzing the storyline, the<br />

narration, the characters and the<br />

setting, it becomes apparent Taylor<br />

captured every aspect the novel<br />

offers.<br />

The most important thing the<br />

movie does is stay true to the storyline.<br />

The novel is about Rachel, a<br />

downward spiralling alcoholic reliving<br />

her former life with her adulterous<br />

ex-husband, Tom.<br />

Rachel yearns to go back to the<br />

days before she found out about<br />

his affair. She fantasizes about a<br />

‘perfect’ couple she views from the<br />

train. They live in a house near<br />

Rachel’s former home.<br />

The woman in the couple is one<br />

of the other narrators in the novel,<br />

Megan. The Girl on the Train is narrated<br />

by three women: Rachel,<br />

Anna and Megan.<br />

The narration jumps between<br />

these three women, and from past<br />

to present time. While reading the<br />

novel, it takes a few transitions between<br />

the characters and the time<br />

frame to get used to what Hawkins<br />

is trying to portray.<br />

But the reader adapts to the flow,<br />

and while the switches become the<br />

norm, they slow the pace of the<br />

book.<br />

In contrast, Taylor captured<br />

these transitions in his film without<br />

confusing the viewer.<br />

Seeing physical characters on<br />

screen, it is easy to follow the swapping<br />

around between narrators as<br />

well as time.<br />

The viewer needs to pay attention<br />

to the dates on screen, but it<br />

is not confusing. With these transitions,<br />

the two-hour movie is fast<br />

paced.<br />

In contrast, the book albeit is<br />

gripping, feels like a long read.<br />

The plot accelerates when Rachel<br />

sees Megan with a man other than<br />

her husband. The torture Rachel<br />

felt when her husband cheated on<br />

her stirs within her. The story follows<br />

Rachel who becomes tied in<br />

with the murder of Megan.<br />

Rachel knows she was in Megan’s<br />

neighbourhood that night, angry<br />

with Megan for cheating on her<br />

husband.<br />

But Rachel, suffering from her<br />

drinking blackouts, tries to figure<br />

out exactly what happened the<br />

night of Megan’s death, and whether<br />

or not Rachel was involved.<br />

The movie followed the book’s<br />

story line essentially scene by scene.<br />

The only major difference is the<br />

scene when Rachel begins to figure<br />

out the psychological twist of<br />

the story.<br />

In the book, a psychiatrist tells<br />

Rachel to use her senses, such as<br />

touch and smells, that would help<br />

her recall what happens on the<br />

nights she can’t remember.<br />

When Rachel narrates the novel,<br />

she tells the reader everything she<br />

is thinking. This would have been<br />

difficult to display in the movie, so<br />

the scene is altered.<br />

In the movie, another character<br />

reveals a hint to Rachel, which<br />

helps Rachel piece together the<br />

missing parts of her blackouts.<br />

The movie then recreates previous<br />

scenes to show the audience<br />

what Rachel recalls from her blackouts.<br />

Taylor also adds one extra scene<br />

to the movie. Reading the novel,<br />

Rachel’s thoughts make it clear she<br />

is nearing a psychological breaking<br />

point. In the movie, a scene showing<br />

Rachel’s violent breakdown in<br />

a bathroom is added.<br />

In the movie, Rachel, Anna and<br />

Megan are similar to their description<br />

in the novel.<br />

The main difference is Rachel’s<br />

appearance. In the book, she is described<br />

as a woman who has put on<br />

weight since her divorce.<br />

In the movie, Rachel is played<br />

by Emily Blunt, a very thin actress.<br />

According to an interview with<br />

IMDb, Blunt did a great deal of<br />

research into addiction to get into<br />

the character of Rachel. Taylor<br />

said during an interview with Entertainment<br />

Tonight, there were<br />

other ways to display a woman who<br />

has let herself go, and that does not<br />

necessarily have to do with weight.<br />

Instead of Blunt needing to gain<br />

weight for the role, Blunt had swollen,<br />

red eyes, untamed hair and old<br />

clothing, to reflect a woman who no<br />

longer cares about her appearance.<br />

For an attractive woman, Blunt<br />

looked run down and unattractive<br />

for the scenes which portrayed<br />

Rachel’s lowest point.<br />

Anna, played by Rebecca Ferguson,<br />

is Rachel’s ex-husband’s<br />

mistress. Rachel’s ex later marries<br />

Anna and they have a baby. Anna’s<br />

character is also close to w<br />

hat is portrayed in the book.<br />

From the novel’s description Anna<br />

is a beautiful blond. In the movie,<br />

Ferguson fits the book’s description<br />

of a blond mistress.<br />

Megan, the woman Rachel<br />

daydreams about, is supposed<br />

to look similar to<br />

Anna.<br />

This is vital to the storyline.<br />

Haley Bennet, plays Megan and<br />

Ferguson, who plays Anna, have<br />

similar features. This makes it easy<br />

for the viewer to mistake one for<br />

the other. Both actresses capture<br />

the characters Hawkins described<br />

in the novel.<br />

One difference between the movie<br />

and book is the setting.<br />

The book is set in London, England,<br />

where it is cloudy and rainy.<br />

The location mirrors Rachel’s<br />

gloomy, downward spiral.<br />

However, Taylor decided to<br />

shoot the movie in Manhattan.<br />

While this does not change the<br />

storyline, it is a bit of a shock.<br />

Rainy scenes in New York illustrate<br />

Rachel’s depression and do not take<br />

anything away from the film.<br />

A dark and gripping story can be<br />

difficult to capture on screen. But<br />

through Hawkins’ detailed description<br />

in the novel,<br />

Taylor was able to bring her<br />

thoughts of the storyline, narration,<br />

characters and setting into physical<br />

form.<br />

The novel has readers turning<br />

pages and the movie has viewers<br />

feeling anxious from the first page<br />

of the book to the last minute of<br />

the film.


34 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca


Entertainment <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 35<br />

Not open to more open worlds<br />

James Jackson<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The video game industry has become<br />

fascinated with open-world<br />

games. An open-world game has<br />

large open spaces the player can explore.<br />

The player has the freedom to<br />

do what they want, when they want<br />

to in open-world games.<br />

But the video game industry is<br />

currently too invested in the concept<br />

of the open-world game.<br />

Making the open-world can take<br />

away from story and gameplay.<br />

Open-worlds are not very innovative<br />

and the market is flooded with<br />

them. The industry is in danger of<br />

killing of the genre completely.<br />

There have been many openworld<br />

games released in the past few<br />

years. Ubisoft’s Farcry and Assassins<br />

Creed series and Bethesda’s Skyrim and<br />

Fallout are some example of openworld<br />

games which haven’t benefited<br />

from the open-world concept.<br />

The increased focus on openworlds<br />

has led to a lack of focus on<br />

story and gameplay. To make things<br />

even worse, most of the open-world<br />

aspects of the games are the same<br />

in every game and included only to<br />

pad the runtime of the game.<br />

Making a fully fleshed-out openworld<br />

requires a lot of work and<br />

sometimes, to get the open-world<br />

the developers envisioned, cutbacks<br />

have to be made.<br />

An example of this is the game<br />

Homefront: The Revolution, the sequel<br />

to a linear military shooter. In the<br />

Fallout 4 is a perfect example of an ‘open world’.<br />

sequel, the game changed to an<br />

open-world game and ended up<br />

completely ignoring the first game.<br />

The sequel even tells a completely<br />

different story.<br />

There is a large number of openworld<br />

games released every month.<br />

For example, 12 open-world games<br />

were released on Steam between<br />

November 1st and 15th. Almost<br />

every role-playing game is an<br />

open-world game, which is where<br />

the open-world genre got its start.<br />

One of the reasons why openworld<br />

games became more prevalent<br />

is Minecraft. Minecraft is an<br />

open-world sandbox where the<br />

player is free to do what they want<br />

with the world.<br />

Since its beta release in late 2010,<br />

many people have tried to emulate<br />

the feeling of Minecraft. The<br />

games that come from Minecraft<br />

rarely try to innovate.<br />

The worst thing with open-world<br />

games is the activities are repetitive<br />

and is done in many other games.<br />

This is so prevalent that an entire<br />

genre called “Grand Theft Auto<br />

Clone” or “GTA Clone” has been<br />

created because of it.<br />

“GTA Clone” games revolve<br />

around driving a car, usually illegally,<br />

and performing criminal actions.<br />

One of the biggest offenders of being<br />

a “GTA Clone” is Mafia 3.<br />

In Mafia 2, the “open-world” was<br />

there to set the scene for missions<br />

that required a lot of driving.<br />

Mafia 3, however, has so much<br />

to do in the open-world, like robbing<br />

stores, killing random gang<br />

members for money, and gathering<br />

near-useless collectables.<br />

Another one of these “GTA<br />

Clones” was the first two Saints Row<br />

games, which copied the formula<br />

almost exactly. However, Saints Row<br />

had a more unrealistic story.<br />

Developer Volition decided to<br />

take their game away from “GTA<br />

Euvilla Thomas<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The Moustache Club may not be<br />

the Air Canada Centre or any other<br />

global arena. But for the HIGHS<br />

band, performing at small clubs in<br />

different cities means building an<br />

audience one show at a time.<br />

The band performed to a welcoming<br />

crowd at the Oshawa club<br />

in early November.<br />

“We are at a point right now<br />

where we will play and it will be<br />

our show, others are opening up<br />

for us,” says Doug Haynes, the lead<br />

singer of the band.<br />

The band came together at<br />

Queen’s University in Kingston.<br />

They consider themselves a small<br />

family, much like another, more<br />

famous Kingston band, the Tragically<br />

Hip.<br />

The band consists of five members<br />

who have been performing<br />

Clone” territory by turning the<br />

game series into a parody of itself.<br />

The main character even becomes<br />

president of the United States<br />

(changed saints) and a galactic<br />

conqueror.<br />

Too many games are using the<br />

concept of an open-world. The result?<br />

The games become procedural<br />

and it becomes difficult to tell<br />

together for three years.<br />

Karrie Douglas, the only female<br />

member of the band, had the idea<br />

to get the band together. From an<br />

early age, she always wanted to be<br />

part of a band.<br />

Eventually, she was able to bring<br />

different musicians together and<br />

HIGHS was started.<br />

“We didn’t start the band until<br />

we all graduated and left Kingston.<br />

We were all in different cities and<br />

had to travel to practice and travel<br />

back home. It was a big ordeal,”<br />

says Haynes.<br />

Haynes, who grew up in Whitby,<br />

says he has played in Oshawa a few<br />

times and managed to create a fan<br />

base there.<br />

“It’s nice that we are at that point<br />

in Oshawa,” he says.<br />

Being in the music industry<br />

today always comes with a challenge,<br />

and HIGHS is no exception.<br />

Though they are performing and<br />

Photograph by James Jackson<br />

one game from another.<br />

The game industry needs to take<br />

a rest from the open-world, and go<br />

back to more linear story-driven<br />

games.<br />

The open-world can’t replace<br />

gameplay or story development or<br />

the industry is in danger over-saturating<br />

the market and ruining the<br />

genre for years.<br />

The HIGHS building a following one gig at a time<br />

Photograph by Euvilla Thomas<br />

Whitby born Doug Haynes and his band performing.<br />

Allison Beach<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Hundreds of fans flocked to<br />

Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre<br />

to enjoy a concert experience<br />

given by one of the biggest names<br />

in pop-punk, The Wonder Years,<br />

with some coming from as far as<br />

Thunder Bay.<br />

“It’s hard to keep track of how<br />

many times we’ve circled the world,<br />

how many times we’ve crossed the<br />

border and been to Toronto. But<br />

I’ll tell you what,” yelled lead singer<br />

Dan “Soupy” Campbell, “we’re going<br />

to remember this, because you<br />

guys are f-----g killing it, Toronto!”<br />

The lineup included Toronto<br />

band Seaway, Moose Blood,<br />

Knuckle Puck, Real Friends and<br />

the Philadelphia-based headliners,<br />

The Wonder Years.<br />

They’re on tour to promote the<br />

band’s latest album, No Closer to<br />

Heaven. The Wonder Years played<br />

19 songs. They opened with title<br />

track and closed with “Came Out<br />

Swinging,” off of 2011’s, Suburbia,<br />

I’ve Given You All and Now I’m<br />

Nothing. They played several songs<br />

off of their older albums, as well as<br />

new ones.<br />

The energy level was palpable.<br />

Roughly a thousand people sang<br />

the words and jumped until the<br />

floor bounced with them. Some<br />

people even crowd-surfed. Campbell<br />

hyped up the crowd and<br />

brought out the energy in people.<br />

Emotions ran high as the band<br />

sung some of their heavier songs<br />

such as “Cigarettes & Saints.”<br />

Many in the audience had tears<br />

running down faces, with their<br />

voices breaking. Feelings showed.<br />

“They’ve always been there for<br />

me in the rough times, so seeing<br />

touring, band members also have<br />

regular jobs. Being away from<br />

family and friends can sometimes<br />

be a bit stressful, though they say<br />

they can always lean on each other<br />

for support.<br />

Despite the difficulties, the band<br />

has overcome these challenges and<br />

is proud of where they are at right<br />

now.<br />

HIGHS recently released its first<br />

full album, Dazzled Camouflage, and<br />

is doing a cross-Canadian tour to<br />

promote the album.<br />

A European tour is also in the<br />

works.<br />

“We will never leave, we are here<br />

for good,” says Haynes.<br />

Even though the band is having<br />

some success and intends to get<br />

bigger and better, members intend<br />

to remember their humble beginnings.<br />

“We will never be too big for<br />

Oshawa,” says Haynes.<br />

The Wonder Years bring pop, punk to the Phoenix<br />

them live is amazing,” said one fan.<br />

The six-member band was created<br />

in 2005. They are currently<br />

signed to Hopeless Records and<br />

have released five albums and<br />

several EPs. Their Albums The<br />

Upsides, Suburbia, I’ve Given You<br />

All and Now I’m Nothing, and The<br />

Greatest Generation are a trilogy.<br />

They deal with issues such as<br />

anxiety, depression and self-doubt,<br />

while their latest album examines<br />

personal loss and social justice<br />

issues such as prescription drug<br />

problems, corruption and shootings<br />

– issues that resonate with Millennials<br />

today.<br />

The group has a solid following<br />

and some of those fans were lucky<br />

enough to get VIP tickets.<br />

That gave them an intimate concert<br />

experience with The Wonder<br />

Years as they played fan-requested<br />

songs such as “The Living Room<br />

Song.” The band also signed autographs<br />

and took a group photo.<br />

“I feel like we’re all kind of outcasts<br />

in our own way, and I feel like<br />

we can all fit in here and bond over<br />

our mutual love of music,” said one<br />

fan after the performance of “My<br />

Last Semester.”


36 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca


<strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 37<br />

Sports<br />

From DC to the Hall of Fame<br />

Tommy Morais<br />

The Chronicle<br />

If you see the Stanley Cup somewhere,<br />

chances are Philip Pritchard<br />

is close by. Countless hockey greats<br />

have raised the Stanley Cup over<br />

their head, but only the man with<br />

the white gloves has the privilege<br />

of taking the trophy home night<br />

after night.<br />

For more than 28 years Pritchard<br />

has been an integral part of the<br />

Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto<br />

serving as both curator and keeper<br />

of the Stanley Cup. A Durham College<br />

alumnus, Pritchard graduated<br />

from DC’s Sports Management<br />

program in 1985.<br />

Pritchard takes great joy in<br />

pointing just how many hockey fans<br />

there are, including the Queen of<br />

England.<br />

“I’m always thrilled that everyone’s<br />

a hockey fan, it makes it<br />

special,” he says. “I got the opportunity<br />

to meet Queen Elizabeth<br />

and Prince Philip. The Queen is a<br />

hockey fan. She has a huge collection.<br />

When she comes to Canada<br />

she gets many pucks and souvenirs<br />

that she keeps.”<br />

He began his journey to the cup<br />

with a diploma in administration<br />

before crossing over to sports.<br />

“I started by taking accounting<br />

at Sheridan College in Oakville.<br />

From then I took the accounting<br />

over to the sports side of things and<br />

went to Durham College,” says the<br />

Oakville native.<br />

It was the placements opportunities<br />

provided by Durham College<br />

that allowed Pritchard to work his<br />

way up to a job at the Hockey Hall<br />

of Fame.<br />

“The great thing about Durham<br />

is the co-op program that<br />

they offer placement. It gives students<br />

a chance to gain practical<br />

experience,” he explains. “My<br />

placement was with the Ontario<br />

Hockey League. I then ended up<br />

working at the Canadian Hockey<br />

League and from there I went to<br />

the Hockey Hall of Fame where<br />

I’ve been since ‘88.”<br />

Pritchard managed to land what<br />

many would acknowledge is a<br />

dream job by building his network<br />

and creating connections, a skill he<br />

deems essential.<br />

“You can never stress it enough<br />

but in the sports world it’s a small<br />

community. Everybody knows<br />

everybody. The more people you<br />

know and respect, the better it<br />

works out,” he says.<br />

A little bit of luck and good timing<br />

also helps.<br />

'I'm ... thrilled<br />

that everyone's a<br />

hockey fan.'<br />

“If you talk to my wife she would<br />

say I was in a wrong place at the<br />

wrong time, I would say I was at<br />

the right place at the right time,”<br />

says Pritchard with a laugh.<br />

A typical week for Pritchard involves<br />

promoting hockey, eIther on<br />

the road or at the Hall of Fame in<br />

Toronto.<br />

“Being the curator, I look after<br />

all things hockey at the hall; the<br />

displays, artifacts, archives and trophies<br />

including the Stanley Cup.<br />

Amazingly hockey seems to run 12<br />

months a year now. The focus is<br />

always on promoting and preserving<br />

the sport,” he says.<br />

Lord Stanley’s trophy is on the<br />

road most of the year, as such, the<br />

keeper of the cup spends a good<br />

chunk of the year travelling.<br />

“This past year we’ve travelled<br />

in five countries. [The cup] is on<br />

the road close to 300 days a year.<br />

We get probably 700-800 requests<br />

for the cup in a year, from charities<br />

to peewee teams. There’s always<br />

somebody on the road with<br />

the cup. We understand that not<br />

everyone can come to the hall,<br />

sometimes we go to them.”<br />

What does that mean for the<br />

team that wins the cup each year?<br />

“The winning team gets the<br />

cup for 100 days during the summer<br />

from the day they win the<br />

cup to the beginning of the next<br />

season in October.<br />

During that time each player<br />

and staff gets to take it to their<br />

hometown, families and friends,”<br />

he says.<br />

Outrageous tales of NHLers<br />

spending a day with the cup are<br />

plenty, but players tend to be respectful<br />

of the trophy’s history<br />

and tradition, says the keeper of<br />

the cup.<br />

“Once you hear what they<br />

want to do with it… It all has<br />

something to do with their culture.<br />

They all have such respect<br />

for it. They’re all different but it<br />

all means so much to the guys,”<br />

he says.<br />

Other than taking a sip from<br />

the cup once at the conclusion<br />

of the 1997 Stanley Cup finals,<br />

Pritchard has always treated handling<br />

the trophy with respect.<br />

“I don’t want to get involved<br />

with a conflict of interest. Sure, I<br />

have friends and family that have<br />

seen it, but at the end of the day it<br />

is one of Canada’s greatest icons,”<br />

says Pritchard.<br />

Pritchard offers final advice to<br />

students and sports fans.<br />

“If you love your job you never<br />

work a day in your life. I’m one of<br />

those people.”<br />

Photograph courtesy of the Hockey Hall of Fame<br />

Philip Pritchard (right) and a Hockey Hall of Fame official present the Stanley Cup.<br />

Photograph courtesy of the Hockey Hall of Fame<br />

Philip Pritchard has been synonymous with the Stanley Cup for almost 30 years.<br />

UOIT<br />

celebrates<br />

Joshua Nelson<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Players, students, and coaches<br />

gathered to celebrate the UOIT<br />

women’s soccer team on its first<br />

Ontario championship victory<br />

and its first medal in U Sports<br />

(formerly Canadian Intercollegiate<br />

Athletics) national competition.<br />

After UOIT’s historic run in<br />

the Ontario Universities Athletics<br />

(OUA) final four, beating the<br />

Windsor Lancers 3-1 and the<br />

Queen’s Golden Gaels 1-0 in the<br />

OUA championship, the team<br />

advanced to the national championship<br />

in Wolfville, Nova Scotia<br />

Nov. 10-13.<br />

The Ridgebacks played three<br />

games, beating the Trinity Western<br />

Spartans 1-0, losing to Laval<br />

Rouge 2-1, and then winning their<br />

first medal in school history on the<br />

national stage, beating the Golden<br />

Gaels once again in the bronze<br />

medal game 1-0.<br />

The team celebrated its OUA<br />

championship in the UA Atrium<br />

Nov. 23 with an opening speech<br />

conducted by UOIT President<br />

Tim McTiernan and afterwards<br />

students took pictures and celebrated<br />

with refreshments and<br />

teammates.<br />

The banner commemorating<br />

the OUA championship wins will<br />

be raised at the Campus Recreation<br />

and Wellness Centre.


38 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca Sports<br />

A true DC leader and all-star<br />

Brown named to Ontario<br />

Colleges Athletics Association<br />

all-star team as a pitcher<br />

Christopher Jones<br />

The Chronicle<br />

Often baseball players sitting on<br />

the bench quietly joke around with<br />

teammates and do not really pay<br />

too much attention to the game.<br />

However, there are also players like<br />

Alec Brown who move from player<br />

to player joking or giving advice<br />

to other players on the team and<br />

making sure the team remains focused.<br />

These players are leaders,<br />

and that’s exactly what Alec Brown<br />

is: a leader.<br />

Coming off of an injury to his<br />

arm last season, Alec Brown was<br />

recently named an Ontario Colleges<br />

Athletics Association (OCAA)<br />

all-star as a pitcher. Over the 20<strong>16</strong>-<br />

20<strong>17</strong> baseball season, Brown maintained<br />

a 1.42 earned run average<br />

(ERA) over 29.2 innings pitched.<br />

He allowed a total of six earned<br />

runs and had 21 strikeouts.<br />

On top of his accomplishments<br />

as a pitcher, Brown was also successful<br />

at the plate with a .474 batting<br />

average.<br />

Brown says he started playing<br />

baseball when he was around four<br />

or five years-old with his dad in<br />

their front yard. Brown said his<br />

biggest influence in the game of<br />

baseball would have to be his dad.<br />

On being named an all-star,<br />

Brown said, “It’s pretty awesome.<br />

Every game I go out there with<br />

my team they’ve given me a lead<br />

to work with, and just having the<br />

opportunity to go out into a game<br />

with a lead is just fantastic.”<br />

Brown was quick to give the<br />

credit to his teammates. “Our<br />

defense was playing incredible behind<br />

me all year. I’m not a strikeout<br />

pitcher, I need my defense.”<br />

Head coach and Durham Lords<br />

OCAA baseball coach-of-the-year<br />

Sam Dempster said that Brown is<br />

both a talented player as well as a<br />

leader on and off the field.<br />

It’s his job to<br />

make sure his<br />

teammates are<br />

focused...<br />

Fellow all-star Michael Chilvers<br />

said, “Alec is a player that brings<br />

a number of different qualities.<br />

He is a five tool player, which is<br />

something you don’t see often from<br />

players.”<br />

Chilvers also said, “as a teammate,<br />

Alec is an all-around great<br />

guy, and an even better teammate.<br />

Alec Brown was an all-star for the Durham Lords during the baseball season.<br />

He always leaves it all out on the<br />

field, which is something that you<br />

will always appreciate out of a<br />

teammate.”<br />

Chilvers and Brown have actually<br />

known each other since<br />

they were children playing on the<br />

same team together. Since they<br />

were kids, Chilvers says Brown<br />

has changed a lot. “He’s grown as a<br />

player and changed himself from a<br />

young kid to a man,” says Chilvers.<br />

“It helped him become the exciting<br />

player that he is today.”<br />

Brown says as a leader on the<br />

baseball team, he feels it’s his job<br />

to make sure his teammates are<br />

focused and in the game.<br />

Aside from baseball, Alec is in<br />

the Sports Administration program<br />

Games in your backyard<br />

Photograph by Christopher Jones<br />

and hopes to get into an athletics<br />

business, referencing companies<br />

such as Nike and Under Armour.<br />

Although they lost in the semifinal<br />

round of the Canadian Colleges<br />

National Baseball Invitational<br />

to end their season, Brown remains<br />

positive and is looking to next season<br />

when he hopes to maintain the<br />

success of this past season.<br />

Women’s soccer team has very serious changes ahead<br />

Soccer season<br />

wraps up on<br />

high note<br />

Joshua Nelson<br />

The Chronicle<br />

The Durham Lords women’s soccer<br />

team finished the season with<br />

a 5-7 record, but don’t let numbers<br />

fool you.<br />

A sub-.500 record may not seem<br />

successful, but considering their<br />

position at the beginning of the<br />

year, it’s an impressive feat.<br />

The Lords’ pre-season - scoring<br />

just one goal in six games - was<br />

an indication of the struggles that<br />

would plague the Lords throughout<br />

the conference season.<br />

Alex Bianchi, head coach, believes<br />

that the Lords have what it<br />

takes to be a champion in 20<strong>17</strong>.<br />

“There is a lot of talent on this<br />

girls’ team, we just have to get it to<br />

the top,” he said.<br />

The Lords continued their<br />

pre-season troubles heading into<br />

the conference season, losing backto-back<br />

games against the St. Lawrence<br />

Vikings 7-1, and the Algonquin<br />

Thunder 3-0.<br />

After posting a 1-0 win over the<br />

Loyalist Lancers, Durham went on<br />

to lose three more straight games.<br />

Durham forward Taylor Ford<br />

believes that communication was<br />

lacking at critical times.<br />

“We have a lot of communication<br />

off the field but when we come<br />

on the field there’s nothing…we<br />

need to come together more on<br />

the field and talk to each other,”<br />

she said.<br />

The Lords looked poised for another<br />

disappointing season, until a<br />

coaching change in early October.<br />

Bianchi, assistant coach for the<br />

Durham men’s soccer team, was<br />

named head coach of the women’s<br />

side, replacing Ramon McIntosh,<br />

Men’s Basketball: Dec. 2, Durham vs.<br />

Fleming, 7:30 p.m., Campus Recreation<br />

and Wellness Centre (CRWC)<br />

Men’s Volleyball: Dec. 1, Durham vs.<br />

Centennial, 8 p.m., CRWC<br />

who had been the head coach since<br />

2013.<br />

“Whenever you’re taking a team<br />

over like that just kind of partway<br />

through, you’re like, ‘well what<br />

kind of changes can I make’, to<br />

make a difference. I saw a group<br />

that maybe their passion was just<br />

a little down…we changed the<br />

formation, told them what we expected<br />

from them, and you know<br />

what, I was excited about the<br />

opportunity,” said Bianchi.<br />

With Bianchi as head coach the<br />

Lords won three out of their four<br />

last games to qualify for the playoffs.<br />

Energy and hard work are essential<br />

for a winning team, he said.<br />

“I think a level of energy (is<br />

important), people who know me<br />

know that I’m passionate, I think<br />

the girls saw that because…when<br />

you’re practising all the time,<br />

there I am with the boys, and if we<br />

weren’t doing what we’re supposed<br />

to do…then we’re going to work<br />

hard to get it right,” said Bianchi.<br />

Bianchi is focused on improving<br />

the team throughout this winter<br />

and recruiting more players due<br />

to the nature of college program<br />

lengths and sports.<br />

“We will recruit extremely<br />

Photograph courtesy of Scott Dennis<br />

Durham’s women’s soccer players pose for a team shot.<br />

Women’s Volleyball: Dec. 1, Durham<br />

vs. Centennial, 6 p.m., CRWC<br />

Men’s Hockey: Dec. 2, UOIT vs.<br />

Concordia, 7:30 p.m., Campus Ice<br />

Centre<br />

Dec. 3, UOIT vs. RMC, 7:30 p.m.,<br />

Campus Ice Centre<br />

heavy this winter, that’s one of my<br />

strengths, I know the coaches in the<br />

area I know the teams in the area…<br />

will we be bringing in players? Yes,<br />

but we’ll be making the existing<br />

players better over the winter program<br />

and they will play a part<br />

moving forward,” said Bianchi.


<strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> The Chronicle 39


40 The Chronicle November 29 - December 5, 20<strong>16</strong> <strong>chronicle</strong>.<strong>durham</strong>college.ca

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