Chronicle Issue 09 all-pages-1-28

chronicle.durhamcollege.ca March 20 - 26, 2018 The Chronicle 5
Opinion
It is foolish for a pet to have an expensive funeral
Kirsten
Jerry
The following piece is the opinion of
the Durham College journalism student
whose name and picture accompanies this
column.
Paying thousands of dollars on pet
funerals is foolish.
Having lost four pets, I know it is
difficult and painful, but there is no
reason to spend large amounts of
money, a tasteful backyard burial
is all that is required.
That’s how it used to be. So how
did pet funerals begin? It’s all part
of the fur baby craze.
Dogs, for example, went from
being working animals to being
stuffed into purses and paraded
down the street in strollers around
2011. Dogs too big for purses are
dressed up with jackets and accessories.
Animals are treated like
children. Ridiculous. But explainable.
Dogs affect us through hormones.
When a human looks into
the eyes of their dog, a hormone
is released. It is called oxytocin,
sometimes known as the love hormone,.
This same hormone is released
when a mother looks at their
child as well, thus the confusion.
No matter how we feel about
them, animals are animals and
children are children. Yes, we love
pets, but a pet is not a baby.
If your baby died, would it really
be the same as losing, say, a parrot?
No. It would not.
People are willing to spend a lot
of money on their pets. According
to Statistics Canada, we went from
annually spending an average of
$124.50 on pets in 2008, to spending
an average of $590 by 2015.
Pet funerals are a cash grab. The
pet funeral homes and services
know people are willing to spend
extravagant amounts of money on
their pet, even if the pet is dead.
They use our love for our pets to
get our hard-earned money.
A pet casket can cost up to
$616.93 on Amazon. An urn can
cost up to $182.25, and an ashes
keepsake can cost up to $193.51. A
casket and burial can cost $1,116.93
for a small pet and $1,236.93 for a
large pet, or more. A private cremation
with a service and ash keepsake
can cost $743.51 for a small
pet, and $768.51 for large pets, or
more.
Do we really need to spend so
much to show our love? What is
wrong with a small, sentimental
backyard burial?
Burials behind the garden,
marked by transplanted wildflowers
are tasteful. The pet is close
and the process, dignified.
Spending thousands will not
bring your pet back, but it will
empty your bank account.
A burial, at least, is needed to
bring closure after any pet death
but there is no need to spend thousands
on a lavish pet funeral.
Yes, the burial should be respectful.
Yes, the pet, be it dog, cat, fish,
bird or rodent, will be missed and is
irreplaceable. No two animals are
the same. No, they will not mind if
you spend $0 on their funeral. All
a pet needs is love.
Stop this nonsense and go back
to treating beloved pets as what
they truly are. Pets.
Oshawa could benefit from more defensive design downtown
Austin
Andru
The following piece is the opinion of
the Durham College journalism student
whose name and picture accompanies this
column.
Cities like Oshawa need defensive
design tactics to control behaviour
and misconduct.
Defensive design can be seen
at almost every bus stop in Oshawa,
just take a look at the narrow
benches and armrests that make it
impossible for people to sleep on
them. We need more of it.
According to Homelesshub.ca,
there are 0 chronically homeless
people in the Durham Region, with
1,391 households accessing emergency
shelter. Since we don’t have
any chronically homeless, design
should be used to prevent people
from spending long periods of time
in public places.
Design is an effective and subtle
way to control loitering in public
environments. Park benches, spiked
surfaces and rocks under bridges all
discourage loitering.
These barriers have been met
with a large amount of criticism,
but it is an important thing to have
in cities because design should discourage
loitering and prevent drug
stashing.
A homeless person should not be
sleeping under bridges when there
are options. Housing options in
the Durham Region are available
at places such as the Cornerstone
Community Association, Durham
Youth Housing and Support Services.
Homelesshub.ca indicates in
2014, there were 28 transitional
housing beds, 93 emergency beds
and 13 domiciliary hostel beds
in the Durham Region. At a rate
of 5.7 per cent unemployment, it
is safe to say that homelessness is
relatively controlled.
There are eight food banks
in Oshawa: Knox Presbyterian
Church, New Life Neighbourhood
Centre, Salvation Army, Seventh
Day Adventist Community Centre,
Simcoe Hall Settlement House,
St. Peter’s Food Bank and two St.
Vincent de Paul Society locations.
In February, the Simcoe Street
United Church installed 12 lockers
for homeless people to store their
belongings.
Design prevents people from
occupying certain areas for long
periods of time. This encourages
the use of shelter services.
When Montreal installed anti
homeless spikes at a book store
it was met with largely negative
comments on twitter, and even the
mayor of Montreal called it “unacceptable”.
It is fair to say that this design is
a bit aggressive and that it pushes
social norms. However, it is not safe
for homeless people to be in densely
populated areas.
It creates an unsafe environment
for the homeless person and the
people in the area.
Design should not be encouraging
people to sleep in the street,
it should be preventing people from
doing so: the same way studs on escalators
prevent kids from sliding
down them.
Homeless shelters may not be the
best dwellings, and there is a case
to be made that there is a lot that
needs to be done to improve them,
but it is certainly better than the
streets.
Defensive design needs to be
done with care though. For instance,
eliminating benches and
places to sit entirely is especially
unfair for the public. The idea is
to have a design that allows someone
to rest temporarily but not long
term.
Having nowhere to sit is unfair
for homeless people, elderly, and
disabled people who could benefit
from sitting somewhere for a short
period of time. The design needs to
prevent behaviours (such as sleeping)
without punishing people who
may benefit.
Benches still provide a place for
people to sit, but the armrests prevent
people from staying long for
periods of time.
Public spaces can be enjoyed
even with defensive elements.
Most people don’t even notice the
defensive design around them and
Oshawa could benefit from more
in the city’s centre.
The Ontario government should get rid of public Catholic schools
Cassidy
McMullen
The following piece is the opinion of
the Durham College journalism student
whose name and picture accompanies this
column.
While Canada has always had
Catholic schools, they became publicly
funded in the 19th-century
when government-funded schools
were created.
Catholics feared public schools
would convert their children to the
dominant Protestant religion at the
time so they created public Catholic
schools.
Lots of changes have been made
to both the school system and Canada
since then.
As a result, it’s time for Ontario
to make a change to the school
board system.
Ontario needs to get rid of publicly
funded Catholic schools.
Being Catholic is fine. Canada
is a wonderful country.
Citizens have the right to practice
any religion but public schools
are funded through tax money to
provide all students with an academic
education.
Tax money shouldn’t go towards
your child’s religious education, especially
not one that doesn’t even
uphold Canadian values.
In Canada, marriage, whether
it’s to a female or male, is legal and
accepted.
The Catholic Church still stands
that a marriage is between a man
and a woman.
Being homosexual is fine, but
having a relationship with another
homosexual is sinful, says the Vatican.
Some people might praise Pope
Francis, the head of the Catholic
Church, for having a softer, more
inclusive stance on core concerns
of the church but he is still against
Canadian values.
Pope Francis says he opposes
gender theory: the idea that gender
is separated from your biological
sex. He opposes the idea of schools
teaching students about the LG-
BTQ+ community because that
would be promoting or endorsing
such “tendencies” the Catholic
church has deemed sinful.
Tendencies that Canada have
found worth protecting in our
Charter of Humans Rights. Section
15 in the charter protects Canadians
from discrimination based
off identities that the Church deems
sinful.
Or, maybe we should touch on
the fact of the pain and devastation
the Catholic Church has caused
our country and our citizens.
Out of the 130 residential schools
run in Canada, three quarters were
run by the Catholic Church.
While the church has participated
in the $1.9 billion compensation
plan for the victims, they
still haven’t formally apologized
for their role.
The Anglican Church, the Presbyterian
Church and the United
Church all apologized in the 90’s
for their role. The Catholic Church
holds on to the fact it was individual
diocesan bishops’ decision to
run the schools, so they don’t have
anything to apologize for.
An estimated 150,000 First Nation,
Inuit and Metis children were
forced to attend these schools where
they were neglected, abused, cut off
from their families and murder in
an attempt to wipe out their culture,
and effectively, them.
And the Catholic Church is still
allowed to have a publicly funded
school board in Canada.
The Church did apologize for
the hundreds of suspected victims
of sexual abuse committed by
their clergy in their churches and
schools, but they never backed it
with effective change, according
to Barbara Blaine, the president of
Survivors Network of those abused
by Priests.
Instead, Pope Francis defends
paedophiles.
Recently, he defended Juan
Barros, a Bishop in Chile that was
accused of sexual assault. A judge
found the victims to be truthful in a
case against Rev Fernando Karadima,
where it was said that Barros
was in the room during the abuse.
Pope Francis followed up with
a statement saying we shouldn’t
believe the victims, because their
word isn’t good enough and accused
them of slander.
A photo of Pope Francis, a man
who allows the abuse of children
and protects these predators, hangs
in our public schools; a man who
doesn’t believe in our right to decide
our gender or who we have
relationships with; a man who
doesn’t think the systematic abuse
of 150, 000 children is something
to apologize for.
That is the person students in
Canadian public schools are asked
to look up to.
If the Catholic church is not
going to uphold Canadian values,
then they have no place in our public-school
system. It is time for Ontario
to get rid of publicly funded
Catholic schools.