March 6, 2013

THE

T he tie that binds Wilfrid Laurier University since 1926

Inside

Chow in K-W

Olivia Chow visits THEMUSEUM in Kitchener to discuss the importance of art to a city

Local, page 6

Exploited for experience

Unpaid internships have become common for recent grads, but are they always legal?

In Depth, page 10

Taking on a classic

Opera Laurier delivers stellar performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

Arts, page 14

Students’ Union considers next move

Costly capital expenditures add up to put WLUSU in deep hole; Union seeks solution with Laurier

Various capital projects in recent years have contributed to the rea-soning as to why the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union has in-curred a debt load of $4,250,156 in loans and a line of credit from the university. In addition, WLUSU has another $2,415,051 in loans from ex-ternal institutions that are guaran-teed by the university.

In total, as of April 30, 2012, WLUSU has a net debt of $6,567,498.

Including the guarantee given by

the university, there is a cap of $5 million that the university placed on the Students’ Union, which Jim Butler, the vice president of fi nance at Laurier confi rmed WLUSU has exceeded.

“We take on capital projects and the capital projects we fi nance them through debt fi nancing,” explained Michael Onabolu, the president and CEO of WLUSU. “Things like the Terrace expansion… like club space, the foot patrol space, the 2-4 Lounge, and renovations to space and study space to students.”

“Every project that we do is to benefi t students obviously,” he

added. In 2010, the Students’ Union an-

nounced that the Terrace expan-sion that was occurring that year was over budget and resulted in a $1,480,541 price tag. In that same year, the WLUSU board approved a bailout for the ailing William’s café on the Brantford campus, which in-curred a defi cit of $655,398 at the time of the decision.

Furthermore, the construction of the new Foot Patrol offi ce — which saw the price triple than what was originally projected — and reno-vations to the 2-4 Lounge were made in the 2011-12 academic year.

During that same year, WLUSU made a decision to drop the man-agement of the Terrace food court and the C-Spot, which became In-ternational News.

“It just comes down to the presi-dents, right? If there is a president that has a capital project they would like to see go through, there’s dif-ferent funds that they can access for that project,” continued Onabolu. “I would guess, because it’s not some-thing that I have done, that’s the mindset that these past presidents have had.”

According to the WLUSU fi nan-cial statements from 2009 to 2012,

WLUSU has, in addition to pay-ing off some other loans, taken on more loans and debt as the years progressed.

In 2011, however, the fi nancial statement noted that WLU for-gave WLUSU $243,104 on a previ-ous loan, effective Aug. 1, 2011. That same year, WLUSU took out another $2-million loan from the university.

WLUSU makes monthly pay-ments on whatever debt they incur each year.

“It’s just the line of credit that’s put them over the $5 million,” said

JUSTIN SMIRLIESNEWS DIRECTOR

Campus, page 4

Hawks cap worst season since ‘03-’04

Bylaw impacts audit processAfter the 2012 auditor’s report on the Wilfrid Laurier University Stu-dents’ Union was released, it was revealed that WLUSU now owes over $5 million dollars in debt, which lead many students to begin questioning how this situation was able to occur.

According to Jon Pryce, the chair and chief governance offi cer at WLUSU, without having a treasurer sit on the current board of directors, the entire group is held responsible for ensuring that WLUSU’s fi nances are kept intact.

However, this responsibility has

recently been removed from view of students, as it is now solely up to the board to review and approve WLU-SU’s annual audit.

Chris Walker, the vice president of university affairs, explained that a new bylaw was voted on and ap-proved by students in the WLUSU election in January 2012 that al-lowed the board to have sole power over whether or not the audit would be approved. At the time, Walker was the chair and CGO.

“It was never really explicit within our constitution or within our by-laws that we have to present it [the audit] to the membership,” said

ELIZABETH DICESARECAMPUS NEWS EDITOR

Campus, page 4

PHOTO BY NICK LACHANCE PHOTO MANIPULATION BY WADE THOMPSON

Net total debt 2008 Net total debt 2009 Net total debt 2010

Net total debt 2011 Net total debt 2012

* Figures include WLUSU’s clearing house agreements with Laurier, loans and lines of credit from the universi� and external loans guaranteed and not guaranteed. All totals as of April 30 of given year.

Sports, page 20

Volume 53, Issue 24 Wednesday, March 6, 2013 thecord.ca

Editor-in-ChiefJustin Fauteux [email protected]

2 • THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013

In Depth, page 10

Would you be willing to work an unpaid in-ternship after gradua-tion?

Vocal Cord

“Depends on where the internship is. If it is something in my fi eld I might be interested because the experience would be benefi cial to my career.”–Brian Reitzelsecond-year, business

“Probably not. Making money would be better after graduation.”–Alanah Grantsecond-year, psychology

“Yes, it depends on what it is and where. I would be interested in going overseas. I volunteer in the K-W area and it would be nice to try out somewhere di� erent.”–Tashinga Chaumathird-year, sociology

“I don’t think so. I’m not interested in it.”–Garrett Schliwinskysecond-year psychology

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Quote of the week:“It’s like are you tasting it, or is it tasting you?”–Graphics Editor Stephanie Truong re: eating tongue

The tie that binds Wilfrid Laurier Universi� since 1926

Rebecca Allison Heather Barnes

Laura Buck Kelly Burwash

Alexandra Flack Heather Davidson

Ashley Denuzzo Leah De Jong

Dana Francoeur Scott Glaysher

Kaylee Grootjen Ryan Hueglin

Brad Kleinstuber Kostadin Kolev Beth Meunier Tom Paddock Julia Pollock

Michael Porfi rio Alex Reinhart

Andrew Savory

Erin Sheehan Autumn Smith Wesley Taylor

Jody Waardenburg HG Watson

Stephanie White Lena Yang

C A N A D I A NCOMMUNITYNEWSPAPERAWARD 2011

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In Depth ……………… 10Life ……………………… 12Classifi eds …………… 13Arts ……………………… 14Editorial ……………… 16Opinion ……………… 17 Sports ………………… 19

Inside

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“Let’s not beat around the bush, our fi nancial situation isn’t great, and our auditor has highlighted a lot of that and it’s been a massive wake-up call as to how much or how closely we have to pay attention to our fi nances moving forward.” –WLUSU VP: universi� affairs Chris Walker re: the Students’ Union’s fi nan-cial situation

“Here’s a dude who’s shy and has certain social anxieties and doesn’t like to make eye contact and he fi nds ways to focus his energy like holding a cup of coffee and clutching. It was interesting because here’s a fellow who’s one of the top directors in the world affecting popular culture on a global stage and is still a shy, partially insecure, socially awkward person.”–Kurt Norton, co-director of “These Amazing Shadows,” re: famed “Batman” director Christopher Nolan

“I just come off really awkward over technology. [Laughs]. I like to communicate with people in person more because I feel like I am only adorable in person.” –Laurier student Sarah Mielke re: the role of technology in dating

The Cord’s new ‘chiefCongratulations to Justin Smirlies for being hired as The Cord’s Editor-in-Chief for the 2013-14 term. Smirlies, a fourth-year history student, has been with The Cord for the past three years, starting as a writer in 2010-11 before moving up to Campus News Editor in 2011-12 and News Director this year. Smirlies will offi cially take over May 1, 2013 and is currently hiring for positions on next year’s editorial board, applications for which are available on wlusp.com. The rest of the recently hired WLU Student Publications depart-ment heads for 2013-14 are: James Blake (Radio Laurier Station Man-ager), Vanessa Frey (Keystone EIC), Mavis Liu (Keystone Managing Edi-tor) Fiorella Morzi (Blueprint EIC) and Layla Parker-Bozich (Sputnik EIC). WLUSP is still looking for an HR Manager, Brantford Manager of Op-erations and Canegie EIC. Appli-cations for the vacant department head positions can be found on wlusp.com. For more information, e-mail 2013-14 WLUSP president Allison Leonard at [email protected]. For more information on editor or staff positions with The Cord, e-mail [email protected]

“Don’t worry, I was

going to spend the last

couple minutes congrat-

ulating myself anyway.”

—Sean Madden, WLUSU ACRO for February’s election after president Mi-chael Onabolu and chair Jon Pryce both wanted to offer congratulations







ulating myself anyway.”

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Editor’s choiceGetting exposure or getting exploited?

News DirectorJustin [email protected]

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013 • 3

Locals gathered at the WLU Kitchener campus to share their stories for International Women’s Day. Lindsay Purchase loCAl AND NAtioNAl EDitoR

After the Ontario provincial govern-ment released a plan to build three new university satellite campuses almost four years ago, Wilfrid Lau-rier University’s plan to begin ex-panding into Milton still halted.

Laurier still hopes to take on an-other campus and expand into Mil-ton with their proposed campus in what will become the Milton Educa-tion Village.

Laurier still believes that Milton would make a great location for a new campus due its growing popu-lation and need for a post-second-ary institution of its own.

Despite the plan being released earlier this year, the provincial gov-ernment has not yet released its pol-icy on governing the creation of new satellite campuses for universities.

However, Brian Rosborough, di-rector for government relations, spoke to the possibility of opening a new Laurier campus.

“As we understand the province’s commitment, the new policy would define what types of expansion are to be regulated by the policy,” he explained.

“It is expected that the policy would set out criteria related to the province’s post-secondary educa-tion priorities as well as its over-all growth planning and economic development goals. It is also ex-pected to outline a process for seek-ing approval and funding for new campuses.”

Despite many aspects of the new campus still being up in the air, Lau-rier has been working with the city of Milton to plan for the possibil-ity of expanding there in the near future.

“We have been working with the Town of Milton and they have ac-quired land intended for our campus in anticipation that the government will approve a Laurier campus in Milton,” Rosoborough said.

He added, “The land will be do-nated to Laurier once provincial

approval and funding for the cam-pus has been provided.”

However, the expected start date for this process has yet to be deter-mined, as the province has still not announced which post-secondary schools will be allowed to open new satellite campuses.

So, for now Laurier continues to wait, but is still continuing to work with both officials in the town of Milton as well as the Regional Mu-nicipality of Halton to secure pro-vincial support for a new campus in Milton.

Laurier and Milton are still opti-mistic that proposals will succeed and that a new campus will advance in excellence and education, in com-munity building and economic de-velopment and will reflect the prov-ince’s sustainable growth and plan-ning goals and policies.

Along with continuing to advo-cate for provincial approval, Laurier is also looking for support from the province for funding for the campus.

However, in an interview with Jim Butler, vice president of finance and administration at Laurier he explained that the school is not cur-rently making any decisions.

“We’re not making any financial commitments until the province gives its approval of a Laurier cam-pus in Milton,” he explained.

“The Town of Milton, though, has donated a beautiful plot of land.”

In regards to proposed program-ming at the potential campus, Ros-borough said that plans will not be-gin until the province has confirmed the support of a new campus.

He also explained that poten-tial programming there would need to be guided by Laurier’s academic plan and multi-campus frame-work and be complementary to the programming in Waterloo and Brantford.

Rosborough also hopes that once the new provincial cabinet gets settled into its responsibilities that progress can soon be made and that a resolution is not too far off.

WLU waits for Milton campus

stePhanie white CoRD NEWS

“By the time you get to the place where you’re supposed to get out, it’s too late. You’re no longer you,” reflected Vanessa Kee on her strug-gle against domestic violence. “It was such a gradual descent into hell that I never saw it happen.”

Kee shared her story of domestic abuse at an event held to commem-orate International Women’s Day on March 5 at the Wilfrid Laurier Uni-versity faculty of social work cam-pus in Kitchener.

In spite of being educated on do-mestic abuse, Kee explained that when she began seeing red flags in her relationship with her ex-partner, she was able to rationalize them. Al-though he had formerly shown signs of being controlling, it was after Kee became pregnant and the two moved bought a house together that he began to show signs of violence. After an injury left her wheelchair bound during the last months of her pregnancy, the situation escalated further.

“He abused that power he had over me nearly every day. Some-times the abuse was sexual, on most days there were violations to my ba-sic rights,” she recalled. “And then on other days he acted like he was my knight and gave me the best of care.”

After giving birth to her daugh-ter, Kee had a breaking moment

and barricaded the house, prevent-ing him from entering, which led to him calling the police. It was Kee, however, who was taken away by police after admitting she had both hit and pushed her ex-partner in different incidences for self-defense purposes.

“The injustice was so explicit. They were treating my actions of self-defense that were a part of each incident in which he was charged with being the aggressor as equal to his many charges that were much more serious,” she asserted.

Charges were later laid against her ex-partner as well, but in order to have her own charges dropped, Kee had to concede to having his dropped as well, to agree to anger management counselling and to en-ter into peace bonds for a year.

Stories like this helped to moti-vate the development of the event, which was put on by master’s candi-dates at the faculty of social work.

“On one side we wanted to in-vite groups to show how their cul-tures celebrate women, and on the other side we wanted to bring out an inequality that women still face, which is domestic violence and the criminalization of being a victim of domestic violence,” explained co-organizer Kayla Follett. Show-ing both sides of the issues allowed the event to “challenge” this year’s International Women’s Day theme, “The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum.”

Contributing research to change the pattern of dual arrest in reports of domestic violence has been part of the work done by students such as Follett as part of a course on so-cial action.

In addition to Kee’s presentation, a number of information booths were set up from support organi-zations, as well as local cultural groups. A video from the United Na-tions about International Women’s Day was shown and the audience engaged in a group chant and drum-ming circle. The event generated a positive response from attendees.

“It was awesome. I’m so glad I was able to be here and listen to these amazing women and individ-uals talk about their experiences,” expressed Amy Power, a representa-tive from the K—W Sexual Assault Support Centre.

Power emphasized that the Sup-port Centre focuses on the empow-erment of women, and does not force victims to report crimes, but rather provides the factual informa-tion and supports them in whatever course of action they choose to take.

Another student at the faculty of social work, Adria Joel, added, “I think it went really well, I learned a lot.”

When asked why she choose to tell her story, Kee told The Cord, “It’s the only way that we are going to see a change, is that we marry together all the research … and that we put a personal face on it.”

Lindsay PurchaseloCAl AND NAtioNAl EDitoR

Two years ago, Wilfrid Laurier Uni-versity began offering courses that have a volunteering component to the its content with the goal to sup-plement class material with real-world experiences.

Multiple disciplines make use of community outreach programs and require volunteer hours, but most of them are within the arts department.

The classes not only give students the opportunity to gain real-world experience, but they also give them an opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom to dy-namic situations.

Julia Saric, an English professor, is currently teaching a children’s lit-erature course which requires vol-unteer hours to be completed.

“Students are offered place-ments in a wide variety of settings working with a range of ages,” she said. “Some students are working in preschools, others in after-school programs; some are working as assistants in elementary class-rooms, while others are working in established reading programs,

like Kitchener-Waterloo’s Strong Start program.”

The classes are organized through the CSL department, which helps to connect parts of the community with Laurier to allow for these vol-unteer opportunities for students. It also works to further help enrich the education which students receive with real world experiences.

Megan Conway, the director of CSL, could not be reached for an interview.

Saric, however, explained more about how these courses are ben-efitting students, specifically in re-gards to her course.

“The CSL program gives students an opportunity to test and apply the ideas about children’s literature that we discuss in the classroom, some-thing that is very rare in university children’s literature courses,” she said.

Saric placed importance on the volunteering aspects of her course, as students receive a portion of their grade based off of reflec-tive journals, which are a required component.

“In these journals I expect to see how students have incorporated or at least watched for the concepts

we have discussed in class,” she explained.

The class is also a valuable expe-rience for students who wish to go into teaching.

“Many of the students are plan-ning on becoming teachers, so any chance they have to be in an educa-tional setting working with children will be great experience for them,” Saric said.

“For those who are planning on becoming elementary teachers, they will generally have to handle lan-guage arts instruction and encour-age reading.”

HI346J — a public history course — also requires a volunteer compo-nent to the class.

Dan Graziotto, a third-year his-tory major who is currently enroled in the class, spoke positively about his experience with the class.

“I really enjoy it, it gives a whole hands on approach to the idea of public history,” he told The Cord. “Everyone is assigned 20 hours overall and it is suggested that one does two hours a week.”

In total, Laurier has offered nine classes which have included a CSL component to help supplement classroom experiences.

heather barnes StAff WRitER

Out of the classroom and into the community

University expecting the go-ahead from provincial government on expansion

stePhanie truong gRApHiCS EDitoR

sharing their stories


Campus News EditorElizabeth [email protected]

Board responsible for approving auditor’s report

WLUSU working to mitigate long-term debt

2010

Some of WLUSU’s capital and operational expenses in

recent years

Walker. “It said in the bylaws that it had to

be presented but it never said it had to be approved at the AGM, so we looked into it legally … and it wasn’t legally incumbent on us to send the auditor’s report to the AGM for approval.”

“What we did was we changed the constitution to simply state that the auditor’s statements had to be made available,” he continued.

According to Walker, 2011- 12 was the fi rst year in which the audit was not formally presented to students at the AGM.

Pryce, however, told The Cord that he was unsure if the auditor’s report was ever presented to stu-dents at the AGM.

He was aware, however, that the most recent reports have always

been made available online. “We could put them all online, I

just don’t want to confuse people,” he said.

“I don’t want people to see [and] go back and look at this trend or look at these problems because the way it works is that 2012 and 2013 can be completely different, but you need to fi ll in the blanks, and those fi lling in the blanks is understand-ing what the board is up to and what the strategy is up to.”

Walker said that all students who voted in favour of the referendum questions in last year’s WLUSU elections should be aware of this change.

“We have to present all constitu-tional changes to the electorate to be voted on, so students voted yes in favour of that change, and thus it was put through,” he explained.

Walker also emphasized the

importance of the auditor’s report, as it allows the board to see whether or not they have been holding the president accountable for WLUSU’s fi nances.

“Let’s not beat around the bush, our fi nancial situation isn’t great, and our auditor has highlighted a lot of that and it’s been a massive wake-up call as to how much or how closely we have to pay attention to our fi nances moving forward,” Walker continued.

“Not only have we decided to critically re-evaluate how much we spend on capital expenses, but also we’re looking at our operating bud-get and trying to be more account-able for the money we are spending.”

He explained that much of WLU-SU’s debt was incurred due to capi-tal expenses, such as the Terrace expansion in 2010-11 and space and resources given to campus clubs in

the summer of 2011. While projects like these yield high revenue costs, they don’t necessarily make any sort of profi t.

Pryce echoed some of Walker’s sentiments regarding this spend-ing, and explained that the board is looking to implement a new system so previous and ongoing projects will be reviewed before any new ideas or spending are approved.

“That hadn’t been done in an ef-fective way in the past [and] we’re now becoming much more trans-parent with that,” he said.

Despite this, both Walker and Pryce agreed that it is important for all students to know where their money is going, and what it is being spent on.

“We always support students wanting to become informed, and if they are interested in the fi nancials of the organization, or if they want

to ensure that their fi nances or stu-dent fees are being used.” appropri-ately, they should go online and take a look at the auditor’s report,” Walk-er concluded.

—cover

Butler, noting that WLUSU has been consistent with their monthly payments on their loans and notes payable.

“All of those three things [loans, the line of credit and the univer-sity’s guarantee on external loans] can’t exceed $5 million and that’s what has gotten them in trouble,” he explained.

Butler confi rmed Tuesday that the university and Students’ Union are in a discussion to address this debt situation.

“We’re working with WLUSU on a means by which they would pay it all back,” he said, adding that one of the

things they are working on is a time-line for WLUSU to do so.

“That’s what’s being worked out and we need to brief our board [of governors] about that, but we’re get-ting into some specifi c stuff which I can’t talk about,” Butler added. “To be clear about that we’re not talking about reducing it to zero, we’re talk-ing about reducing it back down to $5 million.”

While the situation has been heavily discussed, Butler asserted that the situation is “not severe like some other universities.”

“They’re taking it very seriously which is giving me some comfort,” he said. “But there is an agreement, in terms of these loans, in terms of

discipline around it — that’s what we’re exercising.”

Unlike previous years, the 2012 fi nancial statements were not re-leased and approved by the WLUSU board until second semester. While the report was made public at the time of the annual general meet-ing, or the WLUSU election night, WLUSU director Matt Casselman noted there “weren’t any surprises.”

“The fi nal report was meant to come out last semester,” he shared. “That made things a little bit diffi -cult, but upon receiving that infor-mation, there weren’t any surprises. We were told of the situation prior to that report being released. It’s not like we were unaware of what was

happening.” Onabolu noted that because of

this situation there is a going to be a different attitude the Students’ Union is going to take in terms of capital projects.

Instead, advocacy will contin-ue to be large aspect of WLUSU’s mandate.

“The mindset of ‘if the university is not going to do, we’ll do it,’ that has to change,” asserted Onabolu. “If the university isn’t creating more study space for students on cam-pus, it’s our job to advocate for more study space rather than trying to create it ourselves.”

While Onabolu couldn’t speak to any of the specifi cs of what WLUSU

plans on doing to decrease this debt. He did note that from his perspec-tive increasing student fees is not an option.

“That information is confi den-tial, but what is happening is that we have a number of different plans to mitigate that debt and ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again in the future,” he said.

When asked if WLUSU is con-cerned about this situation, Onabo-lu replied by saying, “No, we’re not concerned … it really just means that we need to tighten our belts a bit, we need to do better in terms of effi ciency, in terms of ‘where can we make trims,’ just a leaner operation.”

—cover

“Let’s not beat around

the bush, our fi nancial

situation isn’t great, and

our auditor has high-

lighted a lot of that.”

—Chris Walker, vice-president: univer-si affairs









lighted a lot of that.”

March 2010:

- Wilf’s projected to lose $97,000 over the course of that year. - As of March 2010, Williams in Brantford lost $251,000.

Oct. 2010: -The terrace expansion project totals $1,480,541 , which was $430,541 over budget.

March 2011:

- Williams in Brantford ac-cumulates defi cit of $655,398, board has to reallocate funds to help out with it.

Summer 2011:

- Plans to renovate 2-4 Lounge space, a nearly $600,000 project with help of SLL. - U-Desk is constructed, a nearly $100,000 project.

Sept.-Nov. 2011: - The new Foot Patrol offi ce gets delayed, cost triples to $53,500.

Oct. 2011- Jan. 2012: - Wilf’s sustains water damage from a storm, around $10,000 is covered by insurance. Large impact on revenue.

2011

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013 CAMPUS • 5

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Nicole Cohen spoke about fi nding work in precarious fi elds. NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

Students were able to walk through the simulated wall to experience what life in Palestine is like. NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

Awareness for Palestine

Precarious work a growing issue

ELIZABETH DICESARECAMPUS NEWS EDITOR

H.G. WATSONCCE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

This week, Laurier 4 Palestine (L4P), one of Wilfrid Laurier Uni-versity’s working groups within the Laurier Students’ Public Interest Research Group (LSPIRG), is advo-cating on behalf of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).

IAW began in 2005 in Toronto as a way to shed light on the struggle that Palestinians have been experi-encing. Isra Al-Thibeh, one of the co-presidents of L4P, explained that Palestinians have been struggling for the past 65 years.

“Palestinian people are de-prived of basic human rights in the West Bank and in Gaza,” she said. “There’s little if any aid that goes in and out ... so our purpose is to in-form people of this.”

L4P has been, and will continue to, host a series of events this week for students at Laurier in order to spread awareness and educate stu-dents on the current issues within Palestine.

“The goal for Israel Apartheid Week, for L4P, is to reach the stu-dents who don’t really know about the confl ict,” said Fatima Attia, the second co-president of L4P. “We aim to shed light on the humanitar-ian crisis more than anything, so that’s our main goal.”

Attia also noted that it is

important to spread awareness of this situation on university campuses.

“University is one of the plac-es where we build our characters more than anywhere else, and we have that freedom to do so,” she ex-plained. “Every individual has their own passion, and if you bring that passion to where people are won-dering and learning, and are open to new ideas, then it really creates a bigger global awareness and that’s how we change the world, from heart to heart.”

On Tuesday, L4P had built a sim-ulation of the apartheid wall that ex-ists along the West Bank.

The wall, which was covered in graffi ti and artwork that appears on

the actual wall, also expelled sounds of gunfi re and bombs going off.

The wall was meant to symbolize both the hope and fear that civilians there experience on a daily basis.

“There’s a lot of symbolism be-hind it all, and it’s a real thing -- it segregates, and it’s important for people to know that this wall isn’t a good thing, it needs to come down,” explained Al-Thibeh.

According to Attia, L4P’s goals with the wall, and other events they hosted, were to educate students at Laurier about the crisis that is still occurring.

“Our goal this week is to kind of shed light on to those truths, on our truths about why this is such a passionate issue for ourselves, and why this is an issue that our society should take notice of, and that we should work together to do some-thing,” she said.

Al-Thibeh echoed Attia’s com-ments about the importance of rais-ing awareness and educating stu-dents in order to eventually bring about positive change.

“Not many people know about it and there hasn’t been a lot of activ-ism, especially in this community,” she said.

“There’s parallels between this and other past atrocities [and] this isn’t any less important than them and this is our opportunity to shed light on it.”

“The goal for Israeli

Apartheid Week, for L4P,

is to reach the students

who don’t really know

about the confl ict.”

—Fatima Attia, co-president of Laurier 4 Palestine









about the confl ict.”

With an increasing amount of stu-dents about to graduate into the precarious and rapidly changing job market, one class at Wilfrid Laurier University is prepping them to face the challenge.

In “Work and Cultural Indus-tries” on Friday afternoon, com-munications professor Greig de Peuter brought Nicole Cohen to talk to his seminar students about her research. The founder of Shame-less Magazine, and an instructor of journalism at Laurier Brantford, Co-hen was there to talk about the in-creased reliance on freelance work in journalism and other creative industries.

“We’re trying provide students with a picture of what they might expect while also developing their critical perspective on the power re-lations that are at play in the world of labour,” de Peuter said.

Bringing speakers like Cohen to Waterloo is part of de Peuter’s plan to ready students for a career that could be far more precarious than that of the generation before. “There’s a rapid level of growth of non-standard type jobs,” he add-ed. “They don’t come with the kind of benefi ts and security that many people enjoyed in the past.”

Cohen may be one of the most qualifi ed people at Laurier to talk about the challenges young people face. After her undergrad she em-barked on a freelance career, hop-ing to produce work she believed in. While she was able to get by, she

eventually went back to grad school where the pay was slightly better.

“[Precarious work] is spread-ing into occupations that don’t tra-ditionally have that kind of work arrangement,” she said after her speech when asked whether pre-carious work is just an issue faced by those going into creative industries.

Some professionals have faced a series of short-term contracts in-stead of permanent employment.

Dana*, a fourth-year communi-cations studies student decided to take this seminar after enjoying one of de Peuter’s previous classes.

“The seminar itself is a bit scary,” she laughed, noting it’s a pessimis-tic, though realistic view of the job market. However, Dana’s not de-terred from pursuing a career in me-dia. The class also taught her that she could use social media tools to sell her personal brand online.

Cohen doesn’t see the future as all doom and gloom; in fact, she sees a lot of reasons to remain positive about the state of media production.

“Derek Finkle’s [literary] agency is producing ebooks and cutting out publishers entirely,” she said. She thinks that online fundraising tools like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo may allow creators to gain further con-trol over their work.

De Peuter also wants his students to understand the value of their own work.

“[I want them to take away] a commitment to not sell themselves short,” he said. “I hope they don’t devalue their own contribution.”

*Last name withheld at Dana’s request.


Local EditorLindsay Purchase [email protected]

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April 29, 2013May 9, 2013

New Democrat MP Olivia Chow was in downtown Kitchener last weekend to explore exhibits current-ly showcased at THEMUSEUM and to discuss the importance of culture and arts in a budding city.

Chow’s main goal with her visit to THEMUSEUM was to address the importance that museums have in a community.

“Art creates a new sense of iden-tity, you can learn about the history and the culture of a people through its art,” she said.

“Cultural institutions are im-portant to the economic life and, of course, to the civic life of our cities. To the quality of life, and a vibrant economy in a vibrant city,”

Chow was born in Hong Kong and came to Toronto to study phi-losophy and art prior to her intro-duction to politics. She emphasized the signifi cance that museums and art galleries played in her un-derstanding of Canada as a new immigrant.

“I didn’t know a whole lot of peo-ple,” Chow explained, regarding her move to Toronto as a student. “I had this wonderful opportunity to be able to walk to the Royal Ontario Museum, to the Art Gallery, where I was able to learn and enjoy so much about art and history and culture.”

“These museums became my life long friends, and I was very privi-leged to be able to represent them.”

Chow stressed the fact that the fi nancial needs for museums are

growing. “At the end of this month [in the

upcoming budget] we want to make sure that we have all the funding in place,” she said.

“We recognize the important role of museums in the cultural light of Canada, of Canadians, and we be-lieve that they should receive stable, long-term funding from the federal government and of course from the provincial and city government too.”

Chow was given a guided tour of “The Treasures of China” exhibit, which houses a collection of an-cient Chinese Sculptures, as well as a collection of contemporary paint-ings. She also visited the Bob Mar-ley exhibition and the Justin Bieber display.

Chow was accompanied by David Marskell, the CEO of THEMUSE-UM, along with Carl Zehr, Mayor of Kitchener and Kitchener city coun-cillor Berry Vrbanovic.

Catherine Fife, in the MPP for Kitchener-Waterloo expressed her satisfaction at Chow’s discus-sion.

“The message that the economy and the creative knowledge econo-my are connected needs to be a part of our strategy in moving forward,” she said.

In response to Chow’s request of audience members to generate ideas for how to represent art and culture through exhibits and museums, Fife explained that she would “love to

see a history of our industrial past and see a connection to the modern conversation.”

Chow also expressed her admira-tion for THEMUSEUM and its abil-ity to think in a creative way.

“The fact that you can have these kinds of high quality, international exhibits right here tells me that you are thinking outside the box.”

Chow discussed the opportunity Canadian museums have to learn from the cultural initiatives that European countries have taken to

ensure the support of the arts. Many European countries combine cultur-al and museum passes with transit passes, making the arts more acces-sible to the community.

“We are a country with a lot of di-versity,” Chow said.

“We are able, therefore, to have people from different parts of the world all becoming Canadian citi-zens. That makes our culture that much more unique and that much more rich and that much more Canadian.”

KATELYN CULLUMLEAD REPORTER

After a successful grand opening on Feb. 27, the 3D Printing Centre at the University of Waterloo (UW) is revolutionizing technology for stu-dents and faculty members.

The 3D Print Centre is a facility where students, staff and faculty at UW can access the services of a pro-fessional-grade 3D printer. Starting with a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) fi le, a fi nal component can be printed using a variety of materials, colours and surface fi nishes.

“3D printing is not a new tech-nology, but with reduced cost and increased fi nal part quality, it has become much more accessible and useful to a wider segment of soci-ety,” explained Peter Teertstra, di-rector of the Student Design Centre at UW.

“We are seeing many non-engi-neering applications of 3D printing and hope to grow our customer base beyond engineering into science, math, art and other faculties.”

The Denso North America Foun-dation provided the grant money to purchase the 3D machine, while Cimetrix Solutions and Stratasys provided continued support as the centre began to take fl ight.

“Having access to an affordable, easy to use 3D printing service will be a huge benefi t to our student teams, such as the Midnight Sun, Formula SAE and Robotics teams, along with all students working on class or personal projects,” he said.

“Being able to verify that a design works, that it fi ts where it is sup-posed to, doesn’t interfere with any other parts, within a day or two al-lows the designer to go through sev-eral iterations until the part is right.”

He added that many of the past projects had been missing that de-sign due to the time required to ma-chine parts in metal. Now, the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printer helps to create well-designed parts that are as well-built and sturdy as parts made using inoculation molding and other manufacturing techniques.

The 3D Print Centre is covering material costs, with no labour or machine replacement and mainte-nance costs.

In addition, the Centre has a trained machine operator who is an expert in 3D printing. Teertstra explained that the benefi t of this is rather than an individual emailing in a CAD fi le with the uncertainty of receiving proper results, a student or faculty member can work with

someone who is knowledgeable in 3D printing and has the capacity to help improve the overall design and the fi nished product.

While he is uncertain about how users will revolutionize this technol-ogy in the future, Teertstra and his team are looking forward to the fu-ture of the print centre and all it has to offer the Waterloo community.

“3D printing is an exciting new technology, and the Student Design Centre and the faculty of engineer-ing are so pleased to be able to pro-vide this service to our students, faculty and staff,” Teertstra said.

“I am looking forward to the fu-ture when we can add more ma-chines and more capabilities to serve what I believe will be a grow-ing demand for 3D printing.”

ALANNA FAIREYLEAD REPORTER

Jacob Matos, a fi rst year, is an operator at the 3D Printing Centre.NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

“Art creates a new sense

of identity. You can

learn about the history

and culture of a people

through its art.”

—Olivia Chow, MP for the riding of Trini� -Spadina









through its art.”

Chow explores vibrancy in arts

3D printing comes to K-W

Olivia Chow visited THEMUSEUM in in Kitchener this past weekend to discuss arts and culture.NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013 LOCAL • 7

With a recent grant from the federal government, local technology in-novation centre, the Communitech Hub, is reaching up and out.

Up to $6.5 million has been given from the FedDev fund to Commu-nitech to facilitate the launching of two small satellites into space – one approximately the size of a milk carton and other the size of a milk crate – in conjunction with other partners and developers, includ-ing Cambridge-based company ex-actEarth Ltd. and the University of Toronto.

“It’s been an ongoing conversa-tion with exactEarth and folks here at Communitech over the last couple of years, with FedDev as well,” said Glenn Smith, who is the director, project management, digital media at Communitech. “ExactEarth had many of the partnerships, they were engaged in conversation already and the idea was to formalize and use

the FedDev funding as a catalyst.”Smith added, “There’s money

fl owing to us from FedDev, but we are providing partnerships, industry partnerships and academic part-nerships, that are delivering cash in kind at a same-dollar value to the project.”

The satellites will be used to track the movements of ships from space.

Explained exactEarth VP opera-tions and engineering Philip Miller, “We can tell you where all the ships are at any given time. We have maps that we can produce, we provide data in any number of ways in which consumers of our data can know where ships are.”

The satellites will contribute to the data set that exactEarth provides to customers.

“Our role will be to defi ne the re-quirements of the spacecraft to de-termine that they get built and we’ll be able to detect the ships as the business needs and the users of the world need for knowing where ships are,” Miller continued.

Both Stephen Woodworth, the MP for Kitchener Centre, and Peter Braid, MP for Kitchener-Waterloo, were present last Thursday at the Tannery building in Kitchener to an-nounce the funding contribution. Businesses TribeHR, Djero Labs and exactEarth also received smaller, re-payable contributions.

Funding such as this given through the technology develop-ment program, “is designed to ad-dress a funding gap between re-search and commercialization,” ac-cording to Woordworth.

“We have a lot of good research out there but we want to be able to bring it to market in a way that can be traded around the world globally.”

The funding was also driven by a focus on increasing jobs and build-ing the economy. The impact of these projects will directly create 166 skilled, full-time jobs in Water-loo Region, Woodworth established.

“Communitech has an excellent reputation,” he said on why Com-munitech was selected as a funding

recipient. “They have a proven re-cord of delivering, so we’re very ex-cited about it.”

The satellites themselves are be-ing designed and made at the Uni-versity of Toronto.

Smith explained that some areas that the satellites could be used to explore are carbon monitoring and security and defense.

On why Communitech chose to become invested in this satellite creation project, Smith said, “One of the goals of the hub was to be help-ing business as they drove commer-cialization initiatives. It was a good fi t for our team and our resources here to be able to assist in this busi-ness-driven commercialization project.”

“We are doing our best in Water-loo Region to promote ourselves as the Silicon Valley of the North and certainly Communitech is right at the center of that,” Woodworth add-ed on the value of the investment lo-cally. “I think we can all be very, very proud of that.”

Funds support satellite developmentCommunitech is located at the Tannery building in Kitchener and is one of four businesses locally that received government funding.

MIKE LAKUSIAK FILE PHOTO

Communitech received $6.5 million for two satellites that will monitor ship activity

K–W in brief

First local drive-thru Beer Store opens in KitchenerThe Beer Store located at 250 Bleams Rd. in Kitchener is now accessible to customers through a drive-thru option, which was opened at the beginning of Febru-ary. This is the third of its kind in Ontario, with the other two drive-thrus located in Hamilton and London. Sales are still accepted through the storefront. This location was fa-voured for a drive-thru based on the heavy amount of traffi c it receives, with 25, 000 hectolitres per year. The drive-thru provides all normal sale services, but does not accept empties. The next Beer Store drive-thru is expected to open next year in Wood-stock, Ontario.

Clocks set to ‘spring ahead’ this weekendWaterloo Fire Rescue is reminding residents to put their clocks ahead this weekend. They also recommend that people use this time as an op-portunity to check the batteries in smoke detectors and carbon mon-oxide alarms.

Man charged after stabbingA domestic violence incident that occurred last Thursday has led to a man being charged. The inci-dent took place between a man and a woman on Madison Ave. S. in Kitchener. Rescue crews were called to the scene at 4:18 a.m., where both the man and woman, who police claim were known to each other, were found injured. The woman had been stabbed. Both individuals remain in hospital. Neither the man’s nor the wom-an’s name is being released in order to protect the identity of the victim.

LINDSAY PURCHASELOCAL AND NATIONAL EDITOR

Come work for this

guy


National EditorLindsay Purchase [email protected]

Goingtothewashroominacom-fortableandsafeenvironmentshouldbearightnotaprivilege.However,forthosewhodonotnecessarilyfitintogenderbinarynorms,thisisnotalwaysthecase.

Formanytransgenderorinter-sexindividuals,usingthewash-roomcanpotentiallyleadtodis-criminationorharassment.Havingmoregender-neutralwashrooms,althoughcontroversial,isapoten-tialsolutiontothisproblem–onewhichisbeingexploredonuniver-sitycampusesacrossCanada.

MarieLittle,chairoftheTransAllianceSociety,anorganizationthatoperatesinBritishColumbia,discussedthepotentialdangerthattransindividualsfacewhenusingthewashroom.

“Generallytheworstyoucanexpectinthewomen’sispossiblysomeinsults,oracalltosecurity,buttherehavebeencaseswherepeoplehavegonetothemalewash-roomandgotbeatenup,”Littleexplained.

Littledescribedhowhavingthreewashrooms;male,femaleandgen-der-neutralcanbeagoodoptiontocombatthisharassmentatuniversi-ties,althoughitisanextraexpense.

Manyuniversitieshavebeenmakingthemoveandimplementinggender-neutralwashrooms.

TheUniversityofRegina,McGillUniversity,DalhousieUniverityandWesternUniversityhaveallimple-mentedgender-neutralbathrooms.Westerncurrentlyhassixtygender-neutralwashrooms,allofwhicharesingleoccupantandmarkedbyasignthatsimplyreads“washroom.”

Westernhasreceivedpositivefeedbacksinceimplementingthesewashrooms.

“ThetransfolksIhavetalkedtofeelalittlemorecomfortablethattheyatleasthavetheoption,”saidSteffArmstrong,thePrideWesternco-coordinator.

Western’swashroomsare,how-ever,single-stall,asmulti-stallgen-der-neutralwashroomsaremoredifficulttoimplement.

“Rightnowifyougointoasin-gle-stallgender-neutralwashroomyou’relabelinganddifferentiatingyourself,”Armstrongexplained.Shehopesthateventuallyschoolswillmaketheswitchtomulti-stallgen-der-neutralfacilities.

Littlealsotookthisintoconsid-eration,asmanytransindividualsdonotwanttobelabeledas“other”andusingthesewashroomsmayhavetheeffectofdifferentiatingtranspeoplefromtheirpeers.She

hasfoundthatthetranscommunityisdividedontheissue.

“Themainobjectionfromthetranscommunityisfromthosewhohavemadethetransitionanddon’twanttobesegregatedanymore,”Littleexplained.

Althoughshebelievesthatthereisdefiniteneedforgender-neutralwashroomsfortransindividualswhoareintransition,shealsoas-sertedtheimportanceofconsider-ingthatsometransgenderpeoplewhohavemadeafulltransitionwouldprefertouseagender-speci-fiedwashroom.

“Ipersonallydidn’tfeeltheneedforthem,”recalledLittle.“WhenIfirststartedpresentingasfemaleIwentstraighttothewomen’sandneverhadanyproblems.”

Sheacknowledged,however,thatothershaveexperiencedharassmentinthatsituation.

Gender-neutralwashroomscanserveavarietyofneeds,how-ever,andarenotstrictlylimitedtotrangenderindividuals.

“It’snolongerjustfortranspeo-pleorpeoplewhodon’tfeelcom-fortableinbinarygenderwash-rooms.It’sforwomenwhobreast-feed,ifyouwantalittlemorepri-vacyorifyouhavetowashyour-selfbeforeprayers,”Armstrongexplained.

BismaBhatti,astudentatWil-fridLaurierUniversity,feelsposi-tivelyaboutthesingle-stallgender-neutralwashrooms.“Youcanhaveboth,maleandfemaleandgender-neutral.I’mgoingtogotowhateverone’smoreconvenient.Ifthat’sagender-neutraloneI’mgoingtogotothat,”Bhattisaid.

Bhattiadmittedthatwhileshe’sinsupportofsingle-stallimplementa-tion,shefeelsthatthemulti-stallsaremorecontroversialduetobothsafetyandreligiousconcerns.

“WhenIgointothebathroom,andI’mfixingmyHijabortakingitofftofixmyhair,inthatkindofsit-uationIcan’thaveguyscomingintothebathroom,”Bhattiexplained.

Althoughthereisnosimpleso-lutiontothisissue,Armstrongob-servedthatatransitionperiodmayhelpwiththeadjustmenttomulti-stallbathrooms.

“Societymovesslowly.Wecanstartoffwithsingle-stallsandgotomulti-stalls.Itwoulddefinitelycre-atealotofcontroversyandIdon’tthinksocietyasawholeisreadyforthatyet,”explainedArmstrong.

“Itreallyneedstobeaboutso-cietygrowingasaplacewherewedon’tneedtodivideandconquer,orharassandbeviolenttowardsany-oneelse.It’saboutabiggersocietalshift.”

alexandra flackStAff WRitER

Last year, Canada opened up itsborderstoarecordnumberofinter-nationalstudents–over100,000,tobeexact.

AccordingtotheGovernmentofCanadaDepartmentofCitizen-shipandImmigration,whoissuedapressreleaselastweek,thisisthefirsttimeinCanadianhistorythatanumberthishighhasbeenreached.

ThenumberofforeignstudentscomingtoCanadahasincreasedby60percentsince2004.

“It’saninterestingdiscoverythatwe’relookingat,”saidZachDayler,thenationaldirectorfortheCana-dianAllianceofStudentAssocia-tions(CASA).“Thegovernmenthashookedthisideaofcreatinganinternationalstudentstudyinthehopesthattheywillfilllabourmar-ketshortages.”

Withinthenextfivetotenyears,therewillbeanestimatedlabourshortagewithinCanadaasbabyboomersnearretirement.Thecoun-tryisalsoexperiencingfallingfertil-ityrates.

“WeneedtolookatwhataretheprimarymarketsforCanadatoin-vestin–marketingandresourcestogetpeoplehere,”addedDayler.

“ObviouslythatconnectstowhereCanadawouldliketogroweconomically.”

AreportreleasedbytheDepart-mentofForeignAffairsandInter-nationalTradeCanadafoundthatinternationalstudentscontributedmorethan$8billiontotheCanadi-aneconomyin2010.

“InternationalstudentsarevitaltotheglobalexperienceofferedonUniversitycampusesacrossCana-da,”saidPaulDavidson,presidentoftheAssociationofUniversitiesandCollegesinCanada(AUCC).

“Theyenrichourinstitutionswiththeirculture,languagesanduniqueperspective,andhaveapositiveeco-nomicimpactoncommunitiescoasttocoast.”

SomeCanadianUniversitieshavealreadyestablishedreputableinter-nationalexchangeprograms.

However,withtheriseofforeignstudentscomingtoCanada,sometensionsmayexistbetweendomes-ticandinternationalstudentpopu-lationsduetojobcompetition.

“AsaCanadian,Imightsuspectthatweneedtoinvestinmorere-sourcesforourowndomesticorAboriginalpopulations,”Daylerex-plained.“Becausewehavetheskillsheretofindpeopletodothesejobs,whyarewebringinginpeoplefromtheoutsidetofillthosepositions?”

ThegovernmentofCanadahasestablishedthatimmigrationdoesnotdeterminenoraffectadmissionsatCanadianuniversitiesandcolleg-es.Eachschooldecideshowmanydomesticandinternationalstudentstheyaccepteachyear.

However,withregardtothefuturejobmarket,thegovernmentofCan-adahasexpressedtheirprioritiesinemploymentstability,economicgrowthandlong-termprosperity.

PaulNorthcottofCitizenshipandImmigrationCanadasaid,inanemail,thatinordertocompeteandprosperinaglobal,knowledge-basedworld,Canadaneedsinno-vatorswith“aninternationalout-look,aswellasrequisiteskillsand

experience.”Healsosaidthatinternational

studentsarea“potentialsourceofskilledlabour.”

“TheirexperienceinCanadamakesthemidealimmigrantsbe-causetheyhaveobtainedCanadiancredentials,arecomfortableinourlanguagesandoftenhaveCanadianworkexperience,”headded.

However,domesticCanadiansneedtoknowthatjobcompetitive-nesswilldependonthemarkettheychoosetoenter.

“Competitionisimportanttoacertaindegree,”Daylerexplained.“Weshouldn’texpecttograduateandgetajob.Weshouldexpecttograduateandformourinvestmentwiththeskillswegained…togooutandgetajob.”

Withthat,alargereturnonin-vestingininternationalstudentswillbetheculturalmixing,exchang-ingofideasandintegrationofnewphilosophies.

Bringinginvolumesofinterna-tionalstudentsis“reallyembracingthisideathatwe’renotaloneinstu-denteducation,”saidDayler.

“Itwillbeinterestingtoseehowwegrowasacountry.”

ashley denuzzoStAff WRitER

Int’l student total up

stephanie truong gRAPHiCS EDitoR

It’s something many people takeforgranted,butit’salsosomethingthousandsofwomenthroughoutCanadastrugglewithout:theshelterandprotectionofahome.

YWCACanadaaspirestobringanendtowomen’shomelessnesswiththerecentlaunchingoftheHomesforWomencampaign.Thecam-paignwasstartedoutofconcernforthegrowingnumberofwomenwhoareeitherlivinginseverepovertyorwhoarehomeless.

“Itisunacceptablethatacoun-tryasrichasCanadahastheextentandamountofhomelessnessandpovertythatwehave,andwomenarebearingthebruntofthis,”saidLeilaniFarha,executivedirectorofCanadaWithoutPoverty.“Thehopeisthatthecampaignwillignitedis-cussionanddebateandthatwillin-fluencepublicpolicy.”

TheYWCAhaspartneredwithCanadaWithoutPoverty-AdvocacyNetworkandtheCanadianAssocia-tionofElizabethFrySocietiesforthecampaignandisalsosupportedbytheCanadianLabourCongress.

ThekeystrategiesofHomesforWomenincludeimprovingacces-sibilitytojobsandtosafe,afford-ablehousing.Throughimprovedandmoreeffectivesocialassistance

programs,thecampaignmemberswishtoaddressandtakepreventa-tivemeasurestothesystemicis-suesattherootofwomen’spoverty,whicharetypicallydomesticvio-lence,discriminationandabuse.

Farhaexplainedthatmanywom-enwhohaveescapedviolenthomeshavenowheretoturn,seekingref-ugeinwomen’ssheltersoronthestreet.

“Therearerapidlyincreasingnumbersofwomeninstreetcountsforhomelessness,”saidFarha.

ElizabethClarke,CEOofYWCAKitchener-Waterloocommentedonthenationalcampaignandthegrowingneedforpublicawareness,saying,“Peopletendtodismisshomelessness,tendtothinkthatit’sbecausepeoplearementallyill,orit’sbecausepeopleareaddictedtodrugs,andalthoughthosethingscertainlydooccur,it’snotthemainreasonthatpeoplearehomeless.Themainreasonissimplypoverty.”

Canada’sFederalParliamentvot-edlastweekonBillC-400,anActtoensuresecureandadequatehous-ingforallCanadians.Thebillwasdismissed.BarbaraByers,executivevicepresidentoftheCanadianLa-bourCongress,commentedonthequickdismissalofthebillsaying,“Ithinkit’sshamefulthattheConser-vativeswoulddothis.Absolutelyshameful.Theycannottalkabout

familyvaluesandthentakeactionagainstfamilieshavingreasonablehousing.”

“Anationalhousingstrategywouldhaveincludedprovisionsforwomenescapingviolence,soit’sarealblowtothosewomenwhoareinthosecircumstancesforthegovern-menttoflatoutsaythattheydidn’tsupportthebill,”addedFarha.

ThedefeatofBillC-400,ex-plainedByers,isdiscouraging,al-thoughtheHomesforWomencam-paignwascertainlynotdependentonitspassing.“Itmeansthatwehavetogettougheranddoubleourefforts,makingsurethathousingisontheagendaforpoliticiansatalllevels,”saidByers.

Farhaemphasizedthatthecam-paign’sdrivingforcewillbebe-hindthepublic.Theirgreatesttoolisthroughspreadingaware-nesstoCanadiansandaddress-ingtherootcausesofpovertyandhomelessness.

“Thisisarealsocialproblem,”saidFarha.“Butitisaproblemthatcanbesolved.Ithinkthatifevery-daypeopleinCanadaknewthatourgovernmentsandpolicymakersaren’tdoinganythingtoaddressthisproblem,Ithinktheywouldbemoreoutragedthantheyarerightnow.AndIthinkthatoutragegoessomedistanceinchanginggovernmentattitudes.”

laura buckStAff WRitER

Breaking down gender divisions

stephanie truong gRAPHiCS EDitoR

Struggling without shelterYMCA starts campaign to address women’s homelessness


To learn more or to sign up for our upcoming information session in Toronto:Thursday, March 21 at 6:00 p.m. Visit johnmolson.concordia.ca/msc.

Become an EXPERT in a specialized field of business. The MSc in Administration at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business is a research-based program that trains students from all undergraduate backgrounds for a professional career in:• Finance•Management•Marketing

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T13-12904-JMSB-WilfredLaurierUniversity-Cord Size: 10 in x 15.5 in Insertion Date: 27 February 2013

10 • In Depth Editor • Vacant • [email protected] IN DEPTH

In a crowded conference room in a downtown Toron-to hotel, the atmosphere is tense. It’s the 75th annual Canadian University Press Conference and it is fi lled with eager young student journalists, all of whom are intently listening to a panel speak on a rather touchy topic: internships.

The panel is fi lled with esteemed members of the journalistic and legal communities, includ-ing employment lawyer Andrew Langille, Edward Keenan, a Senior Editor at The Grid and Shameless Magazine founder Nicole Cohen. But it’s the one in-tern on the panel — Chris Berube, who interned with Radio Lab in New York City — who hits it home. “In the end,” he laughed, “someone is getting fucked.”

Generation Y — or Generation Meh depending on whom you’re asking — is a generation faced with in-creasingly grim career prospects. A recent New York Times article claimed that one employer was look-ing for “22-22-22”; a 22-year-old who would work 22 hours a day for $22,000 a year. For some, even the hint of payment is better than nothing while looking at posting after posting for interns who will work for free, or next to free.

Articles appear almost weekly trying to sort out why “Millenials” can’t make money, have to move back in with their parents, are too lazy to do good work and work too much for free. As a generation, we’re just full of contradictory problems.

Unpaid internships have become the fl ashpoint of much of this discussion. It’s now the norm that a re-cent university or college graduate will spend a few months working in their chosen fi eld for free in the hopes of building the connections and portfolio that will lead to gainful employment.

The new normalInterning is actually the new normal. 100 years

ago, interns were limited to the medical fi eld, fi lling the roll that is today better known as residents. Agata Zieba, a graduate of the masters program of commu-nications at Wilfrid Laurier, traced the rise of intern-ships over the last 50 years as part of her fi nal thesis research. It wasn’t until the 1980s that internships saw a boom, primarily in media.

“For individuals … what I think is that being able to say ‘I worked at a magazine,’ people think you’re cool,” she said. “You’re proud to say you’re working at a magazine even though you’re working there for free or for very little pay.” The social cachet of working at Vogue, for instance, is worth taking a drop in income.

The Ministry of Labour does not track internships numbers. Complicating the matter is that fact that often people will do multiple internships at once, which means the same person may account for sev-eral positions.

“Up to seven or eight [internships for one person] is not unheard of,” Langille said, a few months prior to speaking before the Canadian University Press Conference.

Langille, in addition to his employment law prac-tice, is writing his masters thesis on the legal regu-lation of internships. He blogs about the issue at youthandwork.ca.

Langille estimates that 100,000 internships can be found in Toronto alone, and between 300,000 and 100,000 in Canada. “Where you could get up to a 1,000 or 1,500 unpaid internships a year [at a sin-gle employer], it’s pretty easy to get there.” This certainly contradicts the popular myth that Generation Y is lazy or isn’t working. Generation Y is working a lot; they’re just not getting paid for it.

But before you can even deter-mine how many interns there are, you have to ask: What is an intern? “The word intern or internship doesn’t have any legal mean-ing,” said Claire Seaborn, one of the founders of the Cana-dian Intern Association, an organization created to ad-vocate for interns’ rights. It’s hard sometimes to pin down exactly what an intern is or does.

At best we can describe interns as existing in the nebulous space between paid employee and volunteer. Yet because they’ve become so common, Seaborn

Resources:

www.internassociation.ca

www.youthandwork.ca/p/about-me.html

Lawyer referral service: www.lsuc.on.ca

Ministry of Labour: www.labour.gov.on.ca

Workers Action Centre www.workersactioncentre.org

Carrotworkers Collective carrotworkers.wordpress.com

What makes an intern an intern?

• The training is similar to that which is given in a vocational school • The training is for the benefi t

of the individual • The person providing the training derives little, if any, benefi t from the activity of the individual while he or

she is being trained • The individual does not displace employees of the

person providing the training • The individual is not accorded a right to become an employe of the

person providing the training • The individual is advised that he or she will receive no remuneration for the time that he or she spends in training

An intern should properly fall under these categories — remember, there is no legal defi nition of what an intern is!

Getting exposure or getting exploited?CCE Editor-in-Chief HG Watson explores the controversial topic of unpaid internships

IN DEPTH THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6,2013 • 11

play either. Zieba contends that internships represent a new glass ceiling — you don’t get to pass unless you can afford to work for free. For those who leave school with signifi cant debt, that means their options are limited. “Young people are thought of as not hav-ing pressing fi nancial obligations,” said de Peuter.

This is particularly ironic given that many of these jobs — particu-larly journalism — were once very real career options for the work-ing class, deemed unworthy by the elite. Fans of Downton Abbey will remember how horrifi ed the aristocratic Grantham family was when middle daughter Edith con-sidered writing a weekly column for a London newspaper. These days, she’d probably be honoured to be picked for unpaid editorial internship at a magazine.

At the Canadian University Press Conference, Keenan — who ran the internship program at Eye Weekly before it was transformed into The Grid — notes that to intern at Eye, he had to borrow $3,000 to survive. Berube lived at home and considered tak-ing a job as a gravedigger as the hours wouldn’t im-pact on his internship. “Ultimately,” said Keenan. “It will depend on your situation.”

Sarah Murphy is another former intern who was lucky to have support. Now a masters of journalism student at Ryerson, she is emphatic in how much she loved interning at Exclaim!, a monthly Canadian music magazine that she still freelances for.

“I was living at home,” she said. “That was a huge relief that I know a lot of people don’t have the luxury of having.” She also worked two part-time jobs dur-ing the latter part of her back to back internships. Murphy — like Keenan and Berube - didn’t regret doing the internships because in her case the work did lead to opportunity.

For women, avoiding unpaid internships is much harder. “I think unpaid internships have a dispro-portionate affect on young females,” said Langille. Science and tech companies — two traditionally male dominated fi elds — offer many more paid in-ternships compared to those in creative industries. “There’s an equality angle in terms of who’s going to school and in terms of which programs predomi-nantly have paid internships,” Langille added.

Studies in the U.S. have found that people who completed paid internships are much more likely to fi nd a job whereas those who complete unpaid in-ternships don’t fare any better than those who didn’t bother to do one at all. Given the gender inequality that exists between majors, it means that more males are successful at fi nding gainful employment post-university or college.

But the times are changing. Remember when your mom encouraged you to go

get that law degree so you could fi nally make a steady income? Apparently a lot of other people’s mom’s had the same thought. Law school numbers are in-creasing and articling positions — a requirement to practice in Ontario — aren’t rising to meet the new numbers.

This change led the Law Society of Upper Canada to institute new rules last year that allowed would-be lawyers to pass the bar if they completed additional courses and an unpaid term working at a law offi ce or legal clinic. It’s not quite the same as an unpaid internship at a fashion magazine, but it is another example of the precarious work situation Gen. Y is facing as a whole.

“Ultimately, entry level jobs are being jeopardized because interns are being hired for that position,” says Zieba. A decent paying job that’s attainable to recent graduates seems to be going extinct.

Interns uniteDiana Wang was just one of the thousands of in-

terns behind the scenes at a fashion magazine until she became the story. Wang launched a class action lawsuit against the Hearst Corporation, the owner of Harpers Bazaar where she worked. 3,000 other Hearst interns joined her.

Wang’s action is just one prong of resistance against this precarious form of labour. “We’re seeing

the politicization of young people,” says de Peuter, using the recent ex-amples of Occupy and Idle No More as mass mobilizations of a younger generation. Following these protests, there’s been a wave of organizations focusing on improving economic conditions for the “Millenials” including the Carrotworkers Collec-tive in England and the Geneva Interns Association, a group focused on improving working conditions for the army of interns who staff the United Nations General Secretariat.

While many Canadian interns still prefer the cloak of anonymity to preserve their reputations, they’re able to fi nd support with organizations like the Ca-nadian Intern Association. Seaborn, herself a law student at the University of Ottawa, started CIA be-cause she had heard one too many stories from her friends about the exploitative internships they expe-rienced. The organization is still growing — Seaborn hopes to create a guide for interns about their legal rights and start fi lling the gaps in what we know.

For her, the issue of interns’ rights comes down in part to a responsibility on the part of the employer to ensure fair working conditions. “[Unpaid intern-ships] shouldn’t be culturally acceptable which is why we want to raise awareness about this issue,” she said. “It’s a corporate social responsibility issue.”

Langille believes that the tools we need to protect interns already exist; right in the Employment Stan-dards Act. “The problem is enforcement,” he said. “Essentially the model that we have in Ontario cur-rently is a reactive enforcement model so someone has to call up and complain about the employer and then there might be an investigation.”

Kyle Iannuzzi is one of the few interns known to have successfully made a Employment Standards claim. While interning for an event planner, he found himself with increasingly important duties. When he fi nally approached his employer and asked for either the terms of his internship to be changed or compen-sation for his work, the relationship soured. Iannuzzi fi led his claim and was successful; he received all the pay he was owed at the minimum wage rate.

“I think I burnt a bridge,” said Iannuzzi. “But to be honest … these industries are big enough, especially in Toronto, that you want to align yourself with the people you work well with.” Fighting for his rights under the Employment Standards Act was worth any fallout he might encounter down the road. However, Iannuzzi does know that there are people who aren’t able, because of money or other reasons, to make claims against illegal internships. “I think that there’s a lot of people in a very vulnerable state.”

Change won’t happen tomorrow however. Murphy recommends that those who are still willing to do an unpaid internship ask lots of questions to ensure they’re actually going to get what they want our of the experience.

“Don’t expect to get a full time job out of it,” she said. “You’re going to have to work to build your con-nections. That’s the harsh reality of the industry.”

The internship debate boils down to one impor-tant issue for Langille. “Essentially, it comes down to the point that labour should be paid for,” he said. “That is something that has been forgotten.”

In a crowded conference room in a downtown Toron-to hotel, the atmosphere is tense. It’s the 75th annual Canadian University Press Conference and it is fi lled with eager young student journalists, all of whom are intently listening to a panel speak on a rather touchy topic: internships.

The panel is fi lled with esteemed members of the journalistic and legal communities, includ-ing employment lawyer Andrew Langille, Edward Keenan, a Senior Editor at The Grid and Shameless Magazine founder Nicole Cohen. But it’s the one in-tern on the panel — Chris Berube, who interned with Radio Lab in New York City — who hits it home. “In the end,” he laughed, “someone is getting fucked.”

Generation Y — or Generation Meh depending on whom you’re asking — is a generation faced with in-creasingly grim career prospects. A recent New York Times article claimed that one employer was look-ing for “22-22-22”; a 22-year-old who would work 22 hours a day for $22,000 a year. For some, even the hint of payment is better than nothing while looking at posting after posting for interns who will work for free, or next to free.

Articles appear almost weekly trying to sort out why “Millenials” can’t make money, have to move back in with their parents, are too lazy to do good work and work too much for free. As a generation, we’re just full of contradictory problems.

Unpaid internships have become the fl ashpoint of much of this discussion. It’s now the norm that a re-cent university or college graduate will spend a few months working in their chosen fi eld for free in the hopes of building the connections and portfolio that will lead to gainful employment.

The new normalInterning is actually the new normal. 100 years

ago, interns were limited to the medical fi eld, fi lling the roll that is today better known as residents. Agata Zieba, a graduate of the masters program of commu-nications at Wilfrid Laurier, traced the rise of intern-ships over the last 50 years as part of her fi nal thesis research. It wasn’t until the 1980s that internships saw a boom, primarily in media.

“For individuals … what I think is that being able to say ‘I worked at a magazine,’ people think you’re cool,” she said. “You’re proud to say you’re working at a magazine even though you’re working there for free or for very little pay.” The social cachet of working at Vogue, for instance, is worth taking a drop in income.

The Ministry of Labour does not track internships numbers. Complicating the matter is that fact that often people will do multiple internships at once, which means the same person may account for sev-eral positions.

“Up to seven or eight [internships for one person] is not unheard of,” Langille said, a few months prior to speaking before the Canadian University Press Conference.

Langille, in addition to his employment law prac-tice, is writing his masters thesis on the legal regu-lation of internships. He blogs about the issue at youthandwork.ca.

Langille estimates that 100,000 internships can be found in Toronto alone, and between 300,000 and 100,000 in Canada. “Where you could get up to a 1,000 or 1,500 unpaid internships a year [at a sin-gle employer], it’s pretty easy to get there.” This certainly contradicts the popular myth that Generation Y is lazy or isn’t working. Generation Y is working a lot; they’re just not getting paid for it.

But before you can even deter-mine how many interns there are, you have to ask: What is an intern? “The word intern or internship doesn’t have any legal mean-ing,” said Claire Seaborn, one of the founders of the Cana-dian Intern Association, an organization created to ad-vocate for interns’ rights. It’s hard sometimes to pin down exactly what an intern is or does.

At best we can describe interns as existing in the nebulous space between paid employee and volunteer. Yet because they’ve become so common, Seaborn

said we assume there is a set defi nition. People as-sociate interns with tasks ranging from the mundane - fetching coffee, making copies - to tasks that would normally be fi lled by entry-level employees.

In Ontario, the Employment Standards Act does provide some protection for interns. If you’re doing work that provides a benefi t for your employer — such as increased profi ts — or replacing the position of a paid employee, under the Act you have to be paid for your work.

But both Langille and Seaborn point out that many unpaid interns are in fact doing work that they should be paid for under the law. “If they just had fewer unpaid internships and redirected resources to more paid positions, or at least contract positions … young people can at least make an income,” said Seaborn.

Langille noted that part of the problem is that the criteria found in the Employment Standards Act puts the responsibility on the intern to prove that the company is in breach. So if you’re a lowly 23-year-old intern who wants to start a claim against a major telecommunications company, it falls on your shoul-ders to prove they are in the wrong.

Aside from the costs associated with bringing a claim against a company or suing them, interns will avoid it simply to save face. People don’t become in-terns for the fi nancial security; they do it with the hopes of meeting that magic person who will give them the break they need to get into the industry.

“They want a reference letter,” said Greig de Peu-ter, an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier who studies precarious work in culture industries (he also supervised Zieba’s thesis research). “The carrot is moving into full-time work.”

The fear of being branded “diffi cult to work with” or a whistleblower has led to reluctance on the part of interns to speak out. “I found it intriguing that even the interns I spoke with found internships ex-ploitative that they still were willing to work at them,” said Zieba. Quitting isn’t an option when your repu-tation is on the line.

Profi le over profi tYou can’t have unpaid internships without having

people who are willing to work for nothing. Luckily, for many industries, those who are willing to sacri-fi ce pay for exposure are numerous. In particular cre-ative industries - journalism, arts, fashion, public re-lations - see higher rates of unpaid internships than those who take internships in, for example, science and technology.

“They [interns] might think it’s a glamourous task when it may not necessarily be one,” said Zieba. She points to shows like The Hills as examples of media making life as an intern seem much more comfort-able and fun than the reality. Lauren Conrad, star of The Hills, actually appeared on the cover of the very magazine she was interning for, Teen Vogue — not a likely scenario for most people who are planning on taking unpaid internships.

Of course not all interns want to be reality TV stars. Some are passionate about the work and want a job that’s rewarding. “There’s a promise of op-portunity of expressing yourself,” said de Peuter, re-ferring to those who pursue freelance careers. This

promise is attractive to a certain demo-graphic of young adults. It’s certainly

why this very article appears in the newspaper you are now reading.

It’s produced, almost entirely, by dedicated volunteers who do it for lots of their own personal reasons. The same applies in many ways to internships.

But when it comes to this precarious employment, crit-

ics contend that employers have created a zero sum game where

people are willing to work for nothing without any

guarantees that the con-nections they need will

come through at the right time. The only people who win are

the companies that profi t off the interns’ work.

It’s not a game that everyone can afford to

GRAPHICS BY WADE THOMPSON GRAPHICS EDITOR


Life EditorCarly Basch [email protected]

Pat Benatar once sang “Love is a battlefi eld.” With juggling work, school, and a social life, along with an under-standing subjective rules and deci-phering unreadable texts, dating at university appears to be a war zone we work through. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert, especially since over the weekend I walked around the gro-cery store getting up the courage to talk to a cute guy and just ended up looking like a stalker. To gain more insight, I enlisted the help of 25 students. With a series of questions in dif-ferent categories we tackled the many different factors that go alongside with dating while being in university.

Do you date?From this pool of students there was a mixture of people who dated and didn’t, who were single and who were in a relationship, who provided their own understanding.

Kyle Main, second-year archaeology:“I am currently in a relationship. A

long-distance relationship.” Laura Staley, third-year environmen-tal studies: “Inconsistently.” Dylan Clarke, fi rst-year BBA: “Yeah. I go on dates. But no, I don’t have a girlfriend, no.” Brandon Itware, second-year biology and chemistry: “Umm…I’m not really too sure about dating right now. I’m not opposed to it, but I couldn’t re-ally care less if I’m dating someone right now or not. I feel school takes priority in my life right now.”

Holding books instead of handsWhen asked why those who don’t date made that decision responses were either that it just hasn’t hap-pened or they just didn’t have the time.

Philip Warner, fi rst-year BBA and fi -nancial math: “I don’t have the time.” Sarah McRea, third-year English: “I really haven’t met anyone and I don’t think I would be in the place. I don’t think I could handle the stress of dating and the stress of school at the same time.”

Time managementWe are not living in an episode of Saved by the Bell: College Years, so school is actually a very important part of university life. This was the biggest problem, for most of the stu-dents as studies affect dating. Hosanna Asistio, second-year practi-cal nursing at George Brown: “I think the hardest thing about dating at university these days is the un-derstanding and commitment to create a balance between school,

relationships, friends, and family between two people.” Chrissy Elizabeth, fourth-year com-munications: “You have to be consid-erate of your partner and be under-standing if they go: ‘Hey I’m going to be in the library for a week, don’t disturb me’.”

Where do you meet people? Mark Pezzetta second-year biology:“Oh, who knows!? Bars, clubs, cof-fee shops, you know wherever. It’s always easier to meet someone in a more public place like a coffee shop as opposed to a club or a bar. “ Ishaan Kukreja second-year commu-nications: “It’s meeting in the same class or a club you’re involved in.” Ria Lynch, fourth-year psychology: “Circle of friends for sure. I feel like your friends know kind of what you’re looking for.”

Barney Stinson or Ted Mosbey? What I found in this process is that dating is an individual approach, which is seen in what we want from and what we see in relationships at university.What the students were personally looking for:

Mark Pezzetta: “I’m always looking for a serious relationship. But every now and then with a casual is not so bad.” Ishaan Kukreja: “More serious.”

Is University more casual or serious?Laura Curk, four-year communication studies: “I think it depends on the individual and what they’re look-ing for.”

Bisma Bhatti, graduated with business degree and fourth-year communication studies: “For university I say more ca-sual dating, just in terms of people’s schedules and where they are in their life. The good about that is that a lot of those people end up turning into friends. So it’s not like you’re totally cutting off ties.”

The Pros and Cons of our new dating coun-sellor: the cell phoneThere is pressure to talk to people. Texting was seen as a benefi t for long distance relationships and for little things, but these students found that if they cared about some-one, they picked up the phone or saw them in person.

Pros: Laura Staley: “It kind of breaks the nervousness.”Chris Ackie: “It’s easier to talk over text. So I don’t know. I guess you fi nd out a lot more about people when you text them rather than in person because some people are shy.”Laura Curk: “It sort of like keeps the communication going and you are reminding each other that you’re thinking of each other even when you’re not together.”

Cons: Kimberly Delisle: “I think it can cause a lot of problems. Words get twisted.” Sarah Mielke: “I just come off really awkward over technology. [Laughs]. I like to communicate with people in person more be-cause I feel like I am only adorable in person.”

ERIN SHEEHANSTAFF WRITER

Life panel: love and dating at university

Need to control

“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” Sound familiar? If you or some-one you know says this then there is a good chance they are a controller. Controllers are often perfection-ists who insist on completing things themselves to ensure they are done right. While most controllers think of themselves as being right, instead of controlling, there are some of us out there that are fully aware of what we’re doing; and let me tell you, that can be worse. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of coming to terms with the harsh re-ality that I am a controller and now that I know, I realize it is the source of stress and exhaustion. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, I always have to be in control. I must know what is hap-pening, where I’m going and why. Yet most infuriating part about it all is realizing that I can’t stop. The irony is that controllers can’t control the fact that they are controlling. Judith Orloff, an assistant clini-cal professor of psychiatry at UCLA explained in Psychology Today that controllers are often afraid of fall-ing apart, so they micromanage in

order to reduce anxiety. Most often, controllers will attempt to control other’s lives through incessantly of-fering advice or insisting they know what is best for people. Orloff outlines a few questions to ask yourself to determine wheth-er you are in a relationship with a controller: Does this person keep claim-ing to know what is best for you? Do you typically have to do this his/her way? Is he or she so domineer-ing you feel suffocated? Do you feel you’re held prisoner to this per-son’s rigid sense of order? Is this relationship no fun because it lack spontaneity? One of the ways Orloff suggests to deal with a controller is to be as-sertive in a healthy way. Don’t try to control the controller but stay confi -dent and refuse to play victim. Most often, the controller does not realize they are monopolizing a situation, so sensitively remind them that you want your opinions heard too and they’ll likely change. It’s important not to think of con-trollers as conniving people who are intentionally trying to manipu-late your life. Nine times out of ten us controllers have no idea the ef-fect we’re having over other people. Through our constant interruptions and non-stop advice and sugges-tions, we’re truly trying to help. Our downfall comes in when we think we know best and get upset when people don’t take our advice, but we get over it and move on. The good news is there are ways to combat this kind of person; don’t just sit back and let us take over.

Heineken? Mill Street? Budweiser? When it comes to selecting the perfect beer for a night out, people often are stumped with the choices that they have to make. It all comes down to the price, the taste and overall mood that one is willing to invest when carefully selecting their beers for the night. With the recent opening of Beer-town in Uptown Waterloo, the art of selecting beers has become an ex-plorative experiencee. Located in the Uptown Pub-lic Square, Beertown has about 30 unique beers on tap and over 100 different bottles that are sure to switch up your rudimentary beer drinking habits. Consulting the ‘Beer Bible’ and the selection of draught beers, these four different categories offered the best beer tips that can help channel towards going out and trying new beers.

‘Sweets and Wheats’ These beers have a lighter and sweeter fi nish but still pack a punch when it comes to fl avour. One of Beertown’s best sellers is Fruli Pre-mium Strawberry Beer.

It has a very unique strawberry tang that is perfect for starting the evening or fi nishing with dessert. Another honourable mention was Erdinger Weissbeir. This German brew is pleasantly smooth with a neutral bouquet. It is fl avourful enough for any meal and mellow enough for a round of fl ip cup.

‘Light and Crisp’ The perfect summer beers, offer-ing refreshing taste and are easy to drink. Ontario craft brew Mill Street Organic stands out as the top beer for this category. Not only is it re-freshing, but it offers a light taste for those who don’t like a strong aftertaste. If gluten doesn’t work with your diet, Mongozo Premium Pilsner is another option. It’s the fi rst lager in the world that is certifi ed gluten free. Keep in mind it does have a slightly bitter aftertaste, but is still easy to drink.

‘Smooth’Considered the most well rounded

beer category ten different brews are considered ‘smooth’ at Beertown. Barking Squirrel Lager is one of the most full-bodied beers out there. It’s a distinct burnt orange in colour with a delicate hop aroma. Yet the Palm Ale stands out the most for those looking for a smooth drink. This Belgian beer has a honey-like tenderness and includes a bit-ingly refreshing fi nish. It is the best pick for any hearty meal or leisurely drinking evening.

‘Robust’ This category includes the heaviest of beers that are made for extremely casual drinking and should be en-joyed at a moderate pace. Innis & Gunn’s Original Scotch Ale is con-sidered the heaviest amongst them all. It’s aged in oak scotch casks, which gives this ale some vanilla and honey tones. At fi rst taste it may seem like you are taking a shot of the darkest li-quor known to man, but once you ease into it, it can be a very fl avour-ful experience. Drink this one with caution.

Visitthecord.ca to continue reading the

conversation

LENA YANG GRAPHICS ARTIST

Picking the right brewPHOTO COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

AUTUMN SMITHCORD LIFE

Sta� Writer Scott Glaysher breaks down di� erent beer options

Advertising ManagerAngela [email protected]


ALISSA YORK &ANDREW WESTOLL

TWO AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION

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Dear Life,An ode to whiskey dick:Whiskey dick, whiskey dickThou art so bittersweet,Whiskey dick, whiskey dickI’d beat ya meat.Whiskey dick, whiskey dickYou troublesome foe,Whiskey dick, whiskey dickSaves me from actin’ a hoeSincerely,I’LL TAKE YA DICK

Dear Life,When I go to do a survey that prom-ises entrance to some sort of prize draw, I prefer not having to scroll through your scary Terms and Agreements page that tells me that you can use me for promotional purposes if I win. Thanks WLU Food Services, you just lost the carrot of a prize in the stick of legalities and advertising.Sincerely,Keep it Simple, Stupid

Dear Life,I just wanted to give a shoutout to the four members of the Laurier swim team who competed at CIS over reading week in Calgary, you guys are amazing and sure made Laurier proud!Sincerely,Swimming needs more fans

Dear Life,This school isn’t what I thought it’d be. The amount of hate that ev-eryone harbours here is somewhat disheartening. Just because you’re anonymous doesn’t mean you should spread hate. Do something more creative with your time.Sincerely,Where’s the love?

Dear Life,Please stop letting Laurier accept so many new students. With our spotty wireless and lack of housing let’s deal with what got.Sincerely,The amount of students is too damn high

Dear Life,Still loving Survivor 26 seasons lat-er. Out of all the ridiculous reality shows out there, Survivor brings the

classic game.Sincerely,Never Missed an Episode

Dear Life,I want a t-shirt that says “I sur-vived the GRT.” Those cool people I waited over an hour for an iExpress bus with on Tuesday, you deserve one too.Sincerely,One does not simply ride the bus

Dear Life,I was e-mailing Just for Laughs the other day a question I had for them, and this is the automatically gener-ated response I got. Hope it makes you laugh. “Thanks for your mes-sage! Who knows, someone here might actually read it. They may even reply. You could end up dat-ing them. Maybe you’ll get married and live on some remote tropical island. And all because of your silly message. We sure do live in strange times!”Sincerly, Wa y too funny for life

Dear Life,I don’t think anything has hurt me more than watching someone liter-ally count down the days until I’m out of their life. On a public forum no less. I get it, you hate me. But just know that I would never do this to you.Sincerely,The Quiet Roommate

Dear Life,Last Thursday was Self Injury Awareness and the fi rst time I seri-ously considered hurting myself in months. My mood disorder is kill-ing me and despite the “awareness” that tries to remove the stigma sur-rounding those who suffer from mental health, I still fi nd it to be a very judgemental world that pre-tends that my problems don’t mat-ter. When I’m gone, I hope Laurier learns to better serve its students and stop patronizing us so there is less suffering in silence.Sincerely,I’m trying to talk to you, are you even listening?

Dear Life,To the guy who is doing something BIG in about 7 months. Maybe you wanna think about it a little longer? A few months...a year even? Hear-ing this news was pretty much like a pigeon suggesting a screen play about aliens to a dog.Sincerely,You know what I’m talking about

Dear Life, Please explain what we do now that we are naked. Sincerely,I’m Englebert

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Arts EditorCristina Almudevar [email protected]

Saturday March 2 saw Austrian electro-house duo Global Dee-jays travel to Beta where a sold-out crowd pushed the Uptown Waterloo club to capacity until closing time. The duo, composed of “Deejay Taylor” and “Deejay Mikkel,” was working a one-man show for the night as Taylor took the reins for the performance. Regardless, the crowd was treated to something different than what a lot of other DJs have to offer. Global Deejays broke onto the scene in 2004 with their song titled “The Sound of Francisco”, which applied the vocal edit from Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco” com-bined with “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and the Papas. This song was an international sensation as it rocketed to the top of the charts worldwide, eclipsing the mark of holding a spot among several top ten charts. Since then, Global Deejays haven’t reached mainstream recognition and have embraced more of a “euro” sound with the music that they have produced. The duo has been around since house music began gaining mo-mentum and now stand as a fond memory of where the well-known techno music that we know and love began in the early 2000s. There were a mass of people looking to be a part of the first big

show at Beta after reading week, and Global Deejays didn’t disap-point. The audience cheered all night long as Taylor mixed drawn-out buildups with expertise to-wards an emphatic drop where he mashed a rhythmic bass line com-bined with a synthesized melody to keep the song in harmony. Halfway through Taylor’s set the power cut-out temporarily and people were unsure of what to do next. With years of experience un-der his belt, Taylor was unfazed and simply raised his arms to the audience in a pump-up motion to maintain everyone’s enthusiasm. Almost like clockwork the music blared back to life and the raving continued as lasers shot across the room from corner to corner. The fun continued throughout the rest of the evening, but every-one was well aware of the fact that Global Deejays debut song, The Sound of San Francisco,” had not played yet. Just as it seemed as if the song wouldn’t be played, Tay-lor announced his appreciation for the crowd and declared his last song of the night, which was none other than what the crowd had been waiting for. Although no longer as prominent as some other mainstream DJs, Global Deejays reminded electronic music lovers of the grassroots by paying homage to a few classics while also incorporating modern progressions into their set.

Over 150 people gathered in the Theatre Auditorium this past Sun-day to experience Opera Laurier’s production of the Mozart classic, The Marriage of Figaro. The Marriage of Figaro, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is based on the stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais. In short, Figaro is engaged to be married to Susan-na; both characters are among the Count’s staff in his home. However the Count has grown bored with his marriage to the Countess Almaviva and is taking notice of Susanna. The Count looks to steal her away for himself, in which he would complete the mar-riage with the bride-to-be prior to Figaro’s honeymoon. The performance started with a small yet powerful musical interlude by the ambient orchestra. This set the tone for the entire production and got the audience ready for what was about to come. As the curtains opened and the two leads graced the stage, it was evident to see the level of commit-ment and talent that Opera Lau-rier had put in. Figaro (played by Andrew Rethazi) was consistent throughout the show and carried the often times confusing, plot line. His counterpart and love interest, Su-sanna (played by Melody Thomas) was also extremely well received. As the performance continued, some even more remarkable roles came to the stage. The Countess Almaviva (played by Samantha Pickett) was a true standout per-formance. Her vocal skills were jaw dropping as she displayed an array of octaves from start to finish.

The trouser role—when a male character is played by a woman—of Cherubino (played by Emma Man-sell) was another notable perfor-mance as she seamlessly embodied the role of mischievous young male servant. Along with the strong perfor-mances from the ensemble cast, the 35-piece orchestra was what really tied the production together. With direction from musical director Les-lie De’Ath, the orchestra gave the performance a much more dynamic and sonically stimulating setting. From the strong lead violin to the fluttering harpsichord, every instru-ment was on point in turn compli-menting the simultaneous acting. Not only was the skill level from the actors and orchestra top notch, but the overall story was pretty hu-morous, this production was a true opera buffa. The comedic nature of the plot allowed for the actors to have a little fun with their recitative and delivery. Stage director, Rob Herriot stated in his director note that “there is of course the drama, but more impor-tantly there is the comedy.” He also goes onto say that “Mozart was one composer who really got comedy.” This understanding of comedy coupled with the dramatic elements of the performance was definitely appreciated and greatly absorbed by the audience. From beginning to end, Opera Laurier’s presentation of The Mar-riage of Figaro constantly delivered a skillful, exciting and humorous op-era. The transcendent acting and perfectly executed musical accom-paniment contributed to the aura of drama and comedy that kept the au-dience laughing out loud and totally engaged. Bravo!

Opera Laurier does ‘Figaro’ justice

andrew savoryStAff WRitER

House music gets to its roots

The various vocal sounds of Lau-rier Idol’s eight final contestants filled the Concourse last Wednes-day, turning many a head as stu-dents made their way to and from late classes.

Presented by A-Team and Radio Laurier, the event called upon stu-dents to audition throughout Feb-ruary in order to compete against a select few for a shot at Campus Idol which will take place at the Univer-sity of Waterloo Friday March 8.

When inquired about the unique collaboration between Radio Lau-rier and A-Team, MC Scott Glaysher responded, “Originally, A-Team reached out to Radio Laurier to cov-er the event and live broadcast the whole thing.” “As plans moved forward, the two parties really brought their ideas together and made it a joint project.”

Each contestant was permit-ted to perform two songs of their choosing to be judged by a panel of made up of: the current Student Union president Michael Onobolu, WLUSU president-elect Annie Con-stantinescu, Student Publications president Emily Frost, Radio Laurier

Station Manager Lainey Dalrym-ple and A-Team Coordinator Katie Fernandes. The judges really got into their roles, especially Onobolu who de-livered an impersonation of Simon Cowell and MC Glaysher who chan-neled his inner Ryan Seacrest. Each judge made a statement about what they wanted to see, ranging from Frost’s request for “fierceness” and Dalrymple’s desire for original tal-ent, before the first performer was ushered onto stage. Contestant Danielle Robert gave a rendition of “Blue Jeans” by Lana Del Ray and her own composition titled “Beautiful Genius” on the key-board which the judges praised for its unique beat boxing segment. Ryan Fernandes followed with a soulful but pitchy performance of “In the Arms of the Angels” by Sarah McLaughlin and “So Sick” by Ne-Yo. It was noted that he had an impres-sive falsetto. Isabel Lopes gave an impeccable performance of “Shark in the Water” by VV Brown and “If I Ain’t Got You Babe” by Alicia Keys but expressed some stage nerves common in a few of the contestants. The least nervous appeared to be Natalie Roth, who confidently belted Katy Perry’s “Thinking of You” and

Carrie Underwood’s “Blown Away” to the accompaniment of Brandon Kuepfer on guitar. Lindsay Tribble followed with the jazzy sounds of Etta James and Norah Jones singing “At Last” and “Don’t Know Why.” Then Jeremy Enns, in close second to Roth on the confidence scale, entertained the crowd with a dynamic and, at times satirical, cover of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” on keyboard and Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” on the drums. The last two performers were singer-songwriters on guitar. An-drew Dolson sweetly sang a cover of One Direction’s “Little Things” and his own motivational “Sing It Out” followed by Tori Sutherland with “Hometown Glory” by Adele and one of her own as well, both full of feeling. In the end, Dolson achieved third place, Lopes landed second and Tribble finished first to the applause of a seated audience and many gath-ered around. “The event was a major suc-cess,” said Glaysher, shedding his Seacrest. “All the contestants did a great job, the judges were more than impressed and even the students passing by enjoyed the musical celebration.”

Beta goes global with the electro group Global Deejays to sold-out crowd

colleen connollyfEAtuRES EDitoR

Do you have what it takes?

Kate turner pHotogRApHY MANAgER

HeatHer davidson StAff pHotogRAHER

scott glaysHerStAff WRitER

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013 ARTS • 15

Does the experience of watching a fi lm barely move beyond the pe-rimeters of your couch? Or has it become an experience so great and mesmerizing that it has proven to be a culturally signifi cant moment that must be acknowledged? That’s exactly the mantra of the National Film Registry (NFR). Cre-ated to select 25 fi lms to go into the Library of Congress, each year since 1989, each fi lm chosen has proven to be works of art that are either “cul-turally, historically or aesthetically signifi cant fi lms”. But the NFR has often gone large-ly unnoticed to the public and stays within the board. Wanting to break the silence and bring enlightenment to the pub-lic eye, directors Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton made their documen-tary These Amazing Shadows to tell the story of the NFR and American fi lm preservation. “Sometimes it takes an outsider for you to understand your own self, your own history or your own orga-nization because sometimes you’re not really aware of what you’re doing. What is the registry? What is our public perception? What did we fi nd?,” Norton noted when asked about the reception of the fi lm which was entered into the Sun-dance Film Festival in 2011. “I think our fi lm has really served

this role of wanting to bring the public’s involvement in this process because it can be pretty powerful.” Hosted by Wilfrid Laurier’s Film Society, Mariano and Nolan were on campus March 4 to participate in a screening and discussion of their fi lm amongst Laurier’s cinephiles. Laurier Film Society co-presidents Hilary Hulsey and Katie McNarma-ra had gotten in contact with both directors who found each other on social media through shared inter-est of classical fi lms and fi lm his-tory and after a series of exchanges brought them to WLU. These Amazing Shadows brings light to the history of fi lm and the process of fi lm preservation. The fi lm takes the audience on a journey on a behind-the-scenes ex-perience of how fi lm preservation is maintained and what types of fi lms are considered to be entered each year. The list includes some of the most canonical works such as Citizen Kaneand The Wizard of Oz, but also has unlikely gems such as The Rocky Hor-ror Picture Show and Michael Jack-son’s Thriller music video. “No one had ever talked about it before,” said Mariano when asked about the Library of Congress’ reac-tion to the idea for the fi lm. “Because we were ‘the fi rst’ they were very open and cooperative and gave us access. In 2009, we went to the Film Preservation board meet-ing; no one was allowed in before. They introduced us to people on the

board. It was a snowball effect.” But the process of putting togeth-er the fi lm had some complications. “We started this fi lm in 2008 just at a time where the stock market had collapsed.” Norton explained. “Fundraising was tough, we didn’t have a name. We weren’t Errol Mor-ris or Michael Moore where we could go to the public. It was dif-fi cult fi nding funds from organiza-tions.” Mariano added. Yet These Amazing Shadows man-aged to bring in some of the most culturally signifi cant fi gures in the fi lm. Film heavyweights Christopher Nolan, Barbara Kopple, Rob Reiner and Tim Roth are among the many who chimed in wanting to express their love and importance that fi lms have on social history. After the experience of putting the fi lm together—Mariano and Norton’s fi rst documentary fea-ture—they shared some valuable words of wisdom with the students interested in fi lmmaking. “It’s such a public thing you’re putting your ideas out and you want people to see and it’s kind of risky,” said Norton. “You just need to decide, ‘That’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to tell stories’. It’s not naiveté or blind hope, it’s just the act of wanting to do it.” And that’s exactly how the fi lms and NFR who were deep within the shadows, had come out into the light of the public eye.

CARLY BASCHLIFE EDITOR

‘The movies that made America’

Igniting the passion for fashionCONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Who needs to watch Tyra Banks have a meltdown on poor models on America’s Next Top Model when Laurier has its own, less crazy, equivalent? On Feb. 28, the Wilfs stage was transformed into a catwalk as hope-ful models competed for the coveted spot in Fashion ‘n’ Motion’s (FnM) fashion show during their perfor-mance. FnM combines a dance re-cital with a fashion show during its interludes. The male and female winner will be the featured models during the fashion show. Hosted by Fashion ‘n’ Motion, the event was simultaneously promo-tion for their upcoming show and a chance to raise even more money for their chosen charity Sick Kids. “[Laurier’s Next Top Model] started three years ago as a charity event … we have a bunch of char-ity events through the year to raise more money,” said FnM president Noelle Antkowiak. “We decided to have this event where we ask the Laurier students to compete to be Laurier’s next top model … they get to be in all three scenes.” Laurier’s Next Top Model, how-ever, is not just your typical model-ing competition. While there were the typical categories of “casual wear,” “formal wear” and “model’s choice,” the models’ interpreta-tion of these categories was what made this event stand out. During “model’s choice,” contestants’outfi ts ranged from studying swag, to an everyday out-fi t, to a Sylvester the Cat costume. On top of the categories fo-cusing solely on their looks, FnM

also ensured that there were brains behind the obvious beauty. A ques-tion and answer period, hosted by MCs Allison Dlugokecki and Wes Phillips, was short and sweet with the models each being asked two to three questions. Picking a winner was not an easy decision. While Alisha Suggit was chosen as a winner with ease, there were many strong male contenders. However it came down to a walk-off between Scott Pires, dressed as Sylvester the Cat, and Dayo Ade-bowale, dressed as Urkel. After three rounds of impressive walking and careful consideration from judges Antkowiak, Maria Ka-lintsis, the coordinator of Charity Ball; Michael Onabolu, Students’ Union president; Erin Neal, liaison coordinator for Campus Clubs and Ian Watson, creative director of FnM the winners chosen were Suggit and Pires. However, it was recently dis-covered that Scott Pires will not be walking in the FnM show. FnM is celebrating its twentieth year on campus and its second year as a campus club.“I’ve been

trying to some research on who started [FnM] and why … From what I gathered, a group at Lau-rier wanted to dance and put on a show. It started as fashion and then it became more into dance,” said Antkowiak. Later, once the original members realized that their shows were draw-ing large crowds, they started to choose charities to donate to. There are three shows on March 15 at 7 p.m. and March 16 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at U-Desk or online.

CRISTINA ALMUDEVARARTS EDITOR

One of the models at Thursday’s Laurier’s Next Top ModelKOSTADIN KOLEV STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

These unsigned editorials are based off informal discussions and then agreed upon by the majority of The Cord’s editorial board, including the Editor-in-Chief and Opinion Editor. The arguments made may reference any facts that have been made available through interviews, documents or other sources. The views presented do not necessarily reflect those of The Cord’s volunteers, staff or WLUSP.

The Cord is published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications.

Contact Emily Frost, WLUSP President and Publisher 75 University Ave.W, Waterloo ON N2L 3C5


Opinion EditorDevon Butler [email protected]

Québec society crumbling

Devon butlerOPINION COLUMNIST

...at some point our nation

needs to stop concentrat-

ing on past issues.

Community Service Learning still has a long way to goSince its inception in 2006, Laurier’s Community Ser-vice Learning (CSL) program has attempted to inte-grate community service within an academic class-room context.

With over 47 newly re-designed CSL courses at both the Waterloo and Brantford campuses combined, it is evident that Laurier is making a significant effort to shift the traditional university focus from in-class aca-demics to more hands-on opportunities.

While not restricted to arts students alone, the pri-mary number of CSL courses fall under the arts um-brella, which has the potential to make arts students feel relevant in a post-secondary environment that too often tells them how unimportant they are.

Since the primary goal of CSL is to give students ex-perience in real world situations that will prepare them for their future careers, there is a significant attempt to introduce practical aspects to help benefit the thou-sands of unemployed arts students nationwide.

Certainly there are enormous benefits to CSL, es-pecially for those in sociology and psychology classes who want experience working with children, those with special needs or who simply want useful experience in a communal setting.

However, there appears to be a strategic effort on Laurier’s behalf, to integrate community aspects into courses that have little relevance.

Certain English or global studies courses may bene-fit from relatable fields, more closely relatable to co-op positions, but placements in daycares or schools can often become more of a hassle than benefit to students with no desire to become teachers.

CSL claims your volunteer time will be two hours a week, it can often extend beyond 15. For students al-ready overwhelmed with school and working part-time to pay for their education, it can be difficult to make time to travel to a placement and then fulfill your role.

While the CSL program has obvious positives, es-pecially for students who seek practical alternatives to their university education, the university should avoid adding it to courses it’s not relevant to.

The program could be successful and add practi-cal experience to most degrees, however, the program needs significant work before it can be truly valuable.

For the relatively young countries of North America, the province of Qué-bec provides a unique and exotic es-cape from our traditional, modern surroundings.

With a European sensibility, Québec often gains extensive tourism, but their increasingly damaging policies, laws and behaviour is garnering them wide-spread international criticism.

Québec’s newly proposed language law, Bill 101, which seeks to legislate the French language by ensuring it is pro-tected from outside influences, is a per-fectly understandable initiative.

Naturally, Québec would feel inclined to protect their language and the culture it flourishes in. What the government of Québec seems oblivious to however, is the complete state of turmoil these attempts to protect their culture has ignited.

Some of the bill’s unjustified restric-tions include minimizing how many English-speakers can work at a business and punishing any bilingual municipali-ties if their Anglophones out number their Francophones.

The bill also takes aim at Québec’s youth as it will restrict stationed Cana-dian soldiers from educating their chil-dren in English while also having the right to withhold a student’s high school or college diploma if the student isn’t deemed fit enough to actively participate in Québec’s society.

This seems highly unnecessary as a

place like Montreal is by nature, a duel-language city. With tensions surround-ing the government’s series of bills in-tended to protect the French language, it seems by doing so, they are consequent-ly only working to restrict English.

Thousands of English-speaking Qué-bec residents have spoken out against the bill for its infringement on their rights as Canadian citizens.

Similarly, many English protestors feel they are subject to an unfair preju-dice from Premier Pauline Marois of the Parti Québecois government (PQ).

With criticism over Bill 101, other-wise known as Québec’s Charter of the French Language (QCFL), it should be apparent to the PQ that they are not only upsetting English-Speaking Canadians, but their very own residents who now feel unwelcome in their native prov-ince.

Despite the controversy of the bill, it is apparent that the primary origin of Québec’s deteriorating social and

political system rests in the hands of the PQ, who are narrowly focused on “pro-tecting” French culture until the point of complete and utter ridiculousness. Significant media attention has been given to what is now being called “Pas-ta-gate” in which an Italian restaurant in Québec was investigated, and later rep-rimanded for not having enough French dishes and names on its menu.

Apparently, the word “pasta” violated several language laws. It is almost com-pletely impossible to defend such absurd actions.

It is one thing to carry an agenda with meaning, but something completely dif-ferent to do so until the point of interna-tional ridicule.

With education related riots, deterio-rating infrastructure, government cor-ruption and now, communist-like poli-tics, it is apparent that Québec is crum-bling.

English speaking Canadians have long been taught to feel not only guilty, but responsible for what their ancestors did to restrict French culture.

I understand there is a legacy of bias or injustice, but at some point our nation needs to stop concentrating on past is-sues.

It is our ancestral shame that provides this kind of opportunity which takes ad-vantage of non-francophone citizens. With a province that has been inves-tigated for the mafia influence in the Montreal government as well as danger-ously subpar infrastructure, it is a re-lief to see a more critical eye now being placed on the state of Québec.

If Québec wants to protect the integ-rity of their French culture, perhaps it’s time to focus their energy on fixing their infrastructure and political structure be-fore worrying about what types of words are used to describe Italian cuisine. [email protected]

International women’s Day still crucial

Biased language laws creating turmoil in an already delicate provinceOn March 8 countries across the globe will celebrate and appreciate women for International Women’s Day (IWD).

Observed since the turn of the 20th century, IWD seeks to connect women from around the world through local activities, networking events, perfor-mances and showcases as well as public lectures and political rallies.

While it is used to inspire women by acknowledging their accomplishments IWD is also a platform to bring attention to domestic violence and gender-bias sexism that still exits worldwide.

While many in our culture tend to regard sexism as an irrelevant issue in our contemporary society where these may seem like unlikely issues, the truth is that women in all social strata are still impacted by patriar-chal ideology.

Defending yourself in domestic assault incidents often results with being charged for your simple act of self-defense and victims of domestic violence are dis-criminated to the point of extreme poverty.

There are very few services that assist struggling do-mestic abuse victims to seek shelter, employment and safety. This is why a large portion of Canada’s home-less population is female.

Internationally, women are subject to discrimination where they are not given access to health care, educa-tion or basic human rights.

While it is easy to dismiss IWD in developed coun-tries that appear to have bypassed sexism in society, there are still issues surrounding rape, reproductive rights, unbalanced employment and violence.

So this International Women’s Day, pay respect to the billions of women worldwide still struggling for equal rights. —The Cord Editorial Board

stephanie truong gRAPHICS EDITOR


OPINION Opinion EditorDevon Butler [email protected]

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CONTRIBUTED IMAGE

Zero Dark Thirty’s origins

The recent Oscar-nominated fi lm Zero Dark Thir� has gotten a bad rap, one that it doesn’t deserve.

It has been criticized for being too pro-American, glorifying the war on terror and propagandizing for the Pentagon. These accusations are without basis.

Zero Dark Thir� is a modern mili-tary thriller about the hunt for Osa-ma bin Laden.

Covering years of intelligence work by a CIA agent to fi nd and kill bin Laden, the fi lm has won well-deserved accolades, however some have criticized the fi lm for support-ing partisan politics and playing up the role of torture in the hunt for bin Laden.

Those who have criticized the fi lm as being American propaganda glo-rifying or justifying the War on Ter-ror don’t know the fi lm’s history.

The fi lm was originally intended to end with the failed attempt on bin Laden’s life in the Battle of Tora Bora, a distinctly downbeat ending.

However, Bin Laden’s death came as the fi lm was entering produc-tion and thus, the screenplay had

to be radically altered. The origi-nal screenplay was going to feature America failing, and dramatically so. It was likely to be deeply criti-cal, and the fi nished product retains much of that tone.

Too many have criticized the fi lm for making torture seem necessary, but the fi rst clue that this criticism is off-base should be the darkness and horror with which the torture is presented.

The fi lm does misrepresent how torture was used as it is well docu-mented that torture played little to no role in capturing bin Laden.

But the fi lm doesn’t seriously jus-tify torture, as it leads very indirectly to a piece of information, uncovered by pure intelligence work which the CIA already possessed.

The fi lm’s scenes of torture don’t say that torture is absolutely neces-sary, only that it happened.

Others have accused the fi lm of justifying the American war on ter-ror and supporting its thoroughly questionable policies.

For a fi lm that according to some, glorifi es the CIA, America and the war on terror, the Americans are presented very negatively. Most of the time the CIA is reacting to events beyond their control.

There’s a pervasive sense of des-peration in most American char-acters, trying to fi nd any way to strike a blow against international terrorism.

Most of the senior offi cers and

bureaucrats are incompetent, obtru-sive or foolish.

The fi lm’s fi nal minutes showing the raid on Osama bin Laden, are its most powerful, and they coun-ter most of the claims made by the fi lm’s detractors.

We are meant to focus on the raid, and the violence. When the Navy SEALs fi nally reach bin Laden, the audience doesn’t even get to see his face.

We spend more time on the crying women and children in the room.

The fi nal scenes aren’t jubilant. Nobody but the commando team says so much as a “congratulations.”

In the last scene, Maya, the CIA agent sits alone and cries on a plane; clearly emotionally distraught.

There’s no celebratory “we did it!” in the fi lm, there’s only a lingering “what did we do?”

Had the raid scenes been removed from the fi lm and placed on their own, they would have made great anti-war short fi lm.

Zero Dark Thir� isn’t an apo-litical movie — its subject matter would never allow it. But its greatest strength is its neutrality.

The events are presented without slant, factually, in an almost docu-mentary way.

Accusations of pro-American bias, the endorsement of torture and a glorifi cation of the War on Terror are fundamentally fl awed.

[email protected]

BRAD KLEINSTUBER OPINION COLUMNIST

The truth behind the fi lm’s alleged pro-American propaganda

Senate getting tough to support

While I have always perceived the Canadian Senate as a relatively use-ful component of government, the current senate is making it diffi cult to justify its continuation.

For those of you who are un-aware, the Senate is to act as a “so-ber second thought” within the Ca-nadian legislative process. A large percentage of Canadians however, view the senate as a redundant body, which is a drain on government resources.

Until recently, I was a fi rm be-liever in the “sober second thought” perspective, however, I fi nd it vir-tually impossible to continue sup-porting the senate. I have never had a problem calling Conservatives incompetent, Stephen Harper’s ap-pointments to the senate aid them-selves quite well in making this case.

From the questionable appoint-ment of Jacques Demers, an illiter-ate—by his own admission —hock-ey coach, to the current scandal amongst Conservative Senators, each of them are complete and utter fools. Senator Patrick Brazeau’s cur-rent charges of assault and sexual assault demonstrate the irrespon-sible nature of these senators.

The fact that anyone would com-mit such crimes is despicable to begin with, however, as a senator, Brazeau’s actions are even more ap-palling. Holding a position within the Canadian Government, Brazeau has few responsibilities; surely it is not asking much for him to not commit criminal acts. His actions refl ect poorly on not only himself,

but all Canadians. Likewise, the current scandal

involving Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin further suggest that Con-servative senators do not deserve our trust. For those of you who are unaware, Duffy and Wallins are currently being investigated for ex-pense claims.

The two Senators have allegedly been living in Ontario, outside of the provinces they represent—Duffy represents Prince Edward Island, Wallin represents Saskatchewan.

As if sexual assault was not enough, Brazeau is also a part of this said investigation.

While I am not so naïve as to believe that only Conservative Senators partake in this, the afore-mentioned cases demonstrate the rash nature of the Conservatives and Harper’s willingness to ap-point anyone with a Conservative Party membership, competence be damned.

Despite branding themselves as responsible and honest, it is clear that they are actually the opposite. This leads me to the discussion of senate reform. With such appoint-ments to the senate as Brazeau, Duffy and Wallin, one cannot help but question if such incompetent individuals could possibly offer any-thing to the political system.

The senate costs Canadians about $100 million every year. At this cost, I question how we can jus-tify employing 105 Canadians in this capacity. Senators are gener-ally washed up political allies who have simply been put out to pasture; after serving their purpose for the party, they receive a senate seat as a reward.

Personally, I do not feel the need to have my tax dollars spent on Harper’s cronies and having to pay the salary of Brazeau, Duffy and Wallin only adds insult to injury. [email protected]

ALEX REINHARTOPINION COLUMNIST

18 • OPINION THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013

You know what yanks my cord...…People who don’t know how to walk on campus. I’m serious, it is an infectious problem all over campus and we need to be aware of it.

The slow trudging that occurs in the hallways as people walk makes it impossible for students who are keen on getting to class at a decent hour.

The biggest contributor to this terrible walking trend is the consis-tent need of walkers pressing their noses against their smartphones causing them to be unaware of any surroundings and walk and a mod-erately slower pace, occasionally being stunned and shocked when bumping into people.

Hallway traffi c jams can also be created by two people taking up space in the hallway, making it im-possible for people coming from the opposite to walk by, and all of a sudden decide to stop right in the middle of the hall, causing others to either awkwardly bump into them or squeeze through another path of bodies.

Don’t bother trying to say “ex-cuse me” or manoeuvre your way through the crowd, it’s a lost cause with the growing rate of inconsis-tent walkers.

If I have ever been motivated to break the rules of school spirit to walk on the hawk, it’s because of this. Maybe this is a good time to invest in a shield and plow my way through to make sure I get to class on time. –Carly Basch

Bringing games to the real worldConfi dence, organization and innovation are just some of the skills gamers develop

What if life were a video game? A world where the path was clearly marked, ‘leveling up’ resulted in fi reworks, respawning was an op-tion and bonuses could be unlocked.

The allure of a video game world isn’t hard to see and three billion hours are spent globally each week enjoying the thrill of meeting goals and unlocking the next level.

But video games are coming to the real world and have brought with them a new lifestyle, business mod-el and outlook.

This, regardless of the bad rap games and gamers receive, is a posi-tive thing. This new style is simply called gamifi cation.

It is the act of integrating game aspects into traditionally non-game contexts to engage people in prob-lem solving.

The level of commitment ranges. Some people have created entire systems that hold their task list and award, for example, a plus one pub-lic speaking bonus after the big pre-sentation.

Others are more low key, instead choosing to integrate game aspects into real life without any virtual counterpart.

From casual workplaces fi lled with fun and foosball tables to ex-ecutive who lay out assignments as quests, gamifi cation is catching on not only in “innovative” sectors like technology but in more convention-al business settings.

Bringing games to the real world

takes the skills learned in-game and makes them valuable assets to soci-ety that would otherwise be under-utilized. Make no mistake, there is value in games and important les-sons learned.

Gamers are motivated to start and fi nish quests because they be-lieve in their eventual success. Even seemingly unsolvable puzzles are worked at for hours with nothing more than the vague promise of a solution.

The world could always use more

motivated hope. Gamers understand teamwork.

Many games are based on work-ing in teams, creating a sense of comradery.

These skills are the result of com-mitted, hard work being second na-ture to a gamer.

Finally, and perhaps most criti-cally, gamers believe in the ‘epic meaning’ of life. That is they’re per-fectly comfortable being handed an epic quest in which the fate of the world rests on their shoulders and

running with it. What does this culminate in?

Gamers believe that they have the ability to save the world. They are willing to defeat Bowser, save Hy-rule or perform any quest they can get their hands on.

Certainly the planet could use more people willing to save the world. There are potentially 500 million of them sitting around the globe unknowingly waiting for the opportunity to unplug and play the game for real but we haven’t given them a world in which they feel comfortable to do so.

An intrinsic part of video game quests is the atmosphere and pa-rameters of the game world itself. Characters in the game trust the player to accomplish the mission; they believe in the hero’s success.

They encourage them along the way and provide rewards upon ac-complishment.

That’s the key to gamifi cation, creating an environment where ev-eryone, gamers and non-gamers feel safe enough to try.

Where embarking on a quest is a team event and everyone wants to save the princess together. What does it matter if the princess is in another castle if there’s a person for each one?

Our society needs games. We need the fun they bring, the skills they teach and the mentality they create. But we really shouldn’t need them.

What we should have is a world that doesn’t drive its people into a virtual universe to feel confi dent, competent and trusted.

Gamifi cation is one step closer to making games comes to life. And one step closer to bringing world change out of the console and into our reality.

[email protected]

LEAH DEJONGOPINION COLUMNIST

STEPHANIE TRUONG GRAPHICS EDITOR

Sports EditorShelby Blackley [email protected]


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Despite a 3-5 regular season record and a first-round playoff exit in the 2012 season, the Laurier men’s foot-ball program will be represented by three players at the annual Canadi-an Interuniversity Sport (CIS) East West Bowl in London, Ont.

Third-year players Jeremy De-neau, Mike Massel and Tyrrel Wil-son have been selected from WLU and will play for the West team on May 11.

The three Golden Hawks are among over 90 selections from coast-to-coast, chosen by the Ca-nadian University Football Coaches Association (CUFCA).

The East West Bowl includes se-lections from 26 universities across Canada entering their fourth year of CIS experience and has reached

eligibility for the 2014 CFL draft. Participants will have the op-portunity to be evaluated by pro-fessional personnel and potentially touted as prospects by CFL scouts. Deneau, a 6’5”, 260-pound offen-sive lineman, became a starter this season and made seven appearances for the Golden Hawks. “In such a competitive league, it is an honour to be talked about among the top third years in the CIS,” said Deneau. “The East West Bowl should be a goal in any player’s university career.” Deneau attributes his perfor-mance in the 2012 season to his physical and mental preparations during the off-season. 6’5”, 265-pound Massel found a full-time spot on Laurier’s offensive line this season, after transitioning from a blocking and receiving tight

end role. “[Being evaluated by CFL per-sonnel] is an honour and privilege,” Massel said. “I had to adapt and learn new techniques against faster and stronger opponents and this se-lection is the product of all my hard work.” Massel said he plans to provide leadership to his younger team-mates en route to a successful up-coming season in 2013. “Our team needs to work harder collectively to bring Laurier back to where we know we can be [in the OUA],” said Massel. Wilson, a 5’11”, 185-pound run-ning back, was in the top five on Laurier in rushing yards and re-ceiving yards last season with 165 yards on the ground and 121 on six receptions. “I was a lot more focused and de-termined to make an impact for the

team [this off-season],” said Wilson. According to Wilson, strength and conditioning coach Tyson Sta-ples has developed a training regi-men for the pro-style combine and Wilson hopes to represent his team and league well. “It has always been a goal of mine to play and be recognized in the East West Bowl,” he said. Laurier’s new head coach Michael Faulds is no stranger to the East West Bowl, making three appear-ances in his tenure as a quarterback with the Western Mustangs and two as a coach with the York Lions. “This is an exciting time for Jere-my, Michael and Tyrrel,” Faulds said. “The East West Bowl is an opportu-nity for these three players to show-case their abilities in front of many CFL scouts before their fourth year. It also gives them extra motivation to train harder in the off-season.”

Hawks invited to East West Bowl

Sports in brief

WESLEY TAYLORCORD SPORTS

Left to right: Mike Massel, Tyrrel Wilson and Jeremy Deneau will repesent Laurier at this year’s East West Bowl on May 11 in London, Ont. NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

Daniels named OUA West MVPStar Laurier netminder Ryan Dan-iels was honoured with the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West MVP award, the top goaltender award and was named an OUA first-team all-star last week. This is his third all-star award and second time on the first team — he was named a second-team all-star last year. Lau-rier head coach Greg Puhalski was also named OUA West Coach of the Year.

Allin, Chesson honoured by OUALast week a pair of Laurier men’s basketball players were recognized by the OUA as the conference an-nounced the West division all-stars for the year. Veteran Max Allin was named an OUA first team all-star while first-year Matt Chesson was named to the OUA all-rookie team. This is Allin’s first OUA first-team honour after being named a second-team all-star in 2010-11 and 2011-12 and all-rookie in 2009-10. Ches-son is the eighth consecutive player from WLU to be named to the rookie team.

Dance Team to start com-petitive seasonWLU’s Competitive Dance Team is gearing up for their three competi-tions this season. They will start March 9 in Guelph at the Terpsi-chore University Challenge before heading to Brantford on March 16 for the Strive Dance Challenge. On March 23, the team will be back in Brantford to compete at the Rhythm Dance Competition.

20 • sports THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013

The 1999-00 season was the last time the Wil-frid Laurier Golden Hawks didn’t win a single Ontario University Athletics (OUA) banner.

That year, the program had a combined 83 wins, 95 losses and a 49.9 per cent win per-centage. Since then, Laurier has been able to win at least one provincial championship, including multiple national championships along the way.

Until this year. WLU’s 2012-13 varsity season came to a

halt last week after the women’s hockey team lost a stunning semifinal series 2-1 to the Western Mustangs.

This was the conclusion to a week-long span that also featured the women’s and men’s curling teams being eliminated from the OUA championships, the men’s and women’s bas-ketball teams bounced in the first round of the playoffs and the men’s hockey team defeated in game three of the OUA West quarterfinal.

“We play the game. And when you play the game, there’s a winner and a loser and it didn’t go our way,” said Peter Baxter, director of ath-letics and recreation at WLU.

“But I don’t think that’s from the effort of our teams.”

Since the beginning of the season, Lau-rier has experienced one of their most un-successful years in recent history. In 225 to-tal games, the Golden Hawks varsity squads

only accumulated 122 wins, the fewest since 2003-04. “I think this is an anomaly year, and I think that’s going to be there,” Baxter said. “To the credit of our competitors now, we’ve set a standard. And we’ve had a target on our backs for a long time. And now they’re doing the same.” At the beginning of the season, the men’s football team had a 3-5 record before backing into the playoffs, only to be embarrassed by the Queen’s Gaels 34-0. “The other thing I think is important is that since it starts off in the fall, football has to be strong,” Baxter said. “I think when football is strong, it affects the whole campus, in at-titude, in commitment to training and a lot of other sites. “Unfortunately, we probably had one of the worst seasons in 40 years. When Wilfrid Lau-rier has a strong football program, that breeds success.” As the fall sports went on, some of Laurier’s perennial contenders like women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse also fell short of where they usually finish. “Once you set that excellence standard, the expectations become higher,” Baxter said. “Which is fine. Bring it on. But at the same time, it’s tougher when you’ve been that suc-cessful because the tendency is to become

complacent.” The winter term didn’t bring any further hope of a championship, as the closest any Laurier team came was the women’s hockey team’s OUA semifinal loss. Only two teams qualified for nationals over the entire year. Women’s soccer qualified, however, they finished 0-2 at the champion-ship. Swimming had four swimmers qualify, with Renee Dijk scoring all 26 points accumu-lated for WLU. In 2010, the athletics department intro-duced a new funding model, which became controversial, largely because it brought on the elimination of Laurier’s volleyball pro-gram. The model proposed a tier hierarchy, where more money is directed to the football, basketball, soccer and hockey programs and since then, Baxter said there has been “bench-marking” done. However, since the model’s implementa-tion, there has been little visible improvement on the field, the court or the ice. “There’s less than a $17,000 gap between us and the team that won the Yates Cup this year. So it’s not money,” Baxter said. “Everything comes down to people, not money. Even in the days when we didn’t have money, we still competed.” Baxter explained that much of the new funding model has helped the intramural

program, where more students are able to participate and more teams have been imple-mented. According to Baxter, the revenue from the intramurals has helped fund the in-tercollegiate program. Within the years following the last time Laurier did not win any championships, Bax-ter contested that many programs began to blossom. “I told [past women’s basketball head coach] Stu Julius, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day,’” Baxter said. Baxter was only a year into his tenure at WLU in 1999-00. Since then, the program has seen inconsistent progress, peaking in 2005 with a Vanier Cup in football and a national championship in women’s hockey. Baxter insists that this year was irregular and that Laurier continues to be competitive. He said that next season, the school will see a lot of progress. “This year you’ll see we’ve invested in a great coach in [football head coach] Michael Faulds,” he said. “[Men’s hockey head coach] Greg Puhalski is only in his second recruiting cycle. There are going to be some years where we’re going to win 10 championships. Any of those games could have gone either way. “We’ll be competitive. And mind you, we have been competitive.”

Bannerless year for Laurier sportsAfter an early ending to the 2012-13 athletic season, Sports Editor shelby Blackley looks at theperformance of this year’s varsity teams and what will need to change in the upcoming years

1999-00 2012-13

First year since 1999-00 without a provincial title

57.6% 14-19 1222012-13 win percentage,

thelowestsince2003-04

(whenitwas54.1%)

The combined playoff re-

cordofvarsityteamsin

2012-13

Fewest number of com-

binedwinssince2003-04

(whenvarsityteams

had113)

0 0

Laurier did not win a provincial championship this year, marking the first time since 1999-00 without a banner. only swimming and women’s soccer competed at nationals.FILE PHOTOS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: NICK LACHANCE, MATT TONKIN, CRISTINA RUCCHETTA, NICK LACHANCE, NICK LACHANCE

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March 6, 2013