Chronicle 14 15 issue 08

Page 1

See Hair, pg. 5

See Lego pg. 6

Volume XLII, Issue 8

January 27, 2015

CBC legend says those with power stay silent too often MacIntyre speaks about the public’s ‘right to know’ Sarah Chan The Chronicle Jennifer Lavery

A CLASH WITH TITANS: A Moira Trojans player rejects his oponent in a matchup at the Holy Trinity Titans Classic held at Durham College recently.

Carpool app for students starts off in the slow lane

Kyle Brown The Chronicle

A UOIT professor has designed a new mobile application to make organizing carpooling easier, though students are slow to fully embrace the technology. The carpooling app, known as Blancride, launched its first pilot program in November and has enrolled 725 staff and students, available for download to the Durham College and UOIT community. According to the founder of Blancride, Dr. Hamid Akbari, an Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business and Information Technology, the app works on iPhones and Androids. As rides are requested, the application determines suitable matches and informs the matched users. Despite the application’s current 725 enrolees, Dr. Akbari says very few carpooling rides have happened so far he says it’s due to the lack of awareness and trust about the application within the campus community. “Most students are still con-

Andrew McCarthy

DRIVING NEW IDEAS: (Left) Dr. Hamid Akbari, developer of a new UOIT, DC app promoting carpooling, chats about it with Dalton Stewart (centre) and Noah Murphy (right). cerned about inputting their credit card,” Dr. Akbari says in an email. “Even though we are using “Stripe” which is even more secure than PayPal, and we don’t even get access to their credit cards.” Dr. Akbari says when new innovative technology is created, there are very few early adopters willing to go out and use, as well as promote, the technology, preferring to be

followers instead. “Once those innovators start to use it and talk about the benefits, then through word of mouth others will follow,” Dr. Akbari says. Dr. Akbari says he founded Blancride to deal with the large amounts of traffic and the pollution it creates. See CARPOOLING on pg. 2

Information which should be readily made available to the public should be much easier to access than it is. That’s the message awardwinning journalist Linden MacIntyre delivered when he stopped by Durham College to share some of his invaluable expertise, which he has garnered over the course of his 50-year-long career working as a journalist, broadcaster and novelist. 38 of those years have been spent working for Canada’s biggest public broadcaster, CBC. MacIntyre addressed the issue faced by not only journalists, but the general public, when it comes to access to controversial information, particularly from court authorities. “What we encounter over and over again…is this attitude that ‘we don’t have to tell you anything.’ There’s an attitude out there that says you people as journalists have no right to squat,” he said. MacIntyre emphasized the importance of pushing for access to information, no matter the obstacles standing between the answers and the person seeking them. “If you get people thinking, ‘I have a right to know this,’ that’s when you’ve done a good job,” he said. MacIntyre went as far as taking a case where he was denied access to information surrounding a search warrant to the Supreme Court of Canada. His efforts resulted in a milestone win, easing public access to information and asserting freedom of the press as well as increased openness of the Canadian court system. However, despite his efforts MacIntyre acknowledges

Sarah Chan

WISE WORDS: Linden MacIntyre visits Durham College to talk to students. there’s still work to be done. MacIntyre has written dozens of segments for the Fifth Estate, covering high profile criminal cases and other issues at the forefront of the media. One topic he has focused on throughout his career is the abuse of power by those in authoritative positions around the country. “If they’re not watched carefully, they abuse this power,” said MacIntyre. MacIntyre, who has won an array of awards including eight Gemini awards and an International Emmy, was more than pleased to address the crowd of first, second and third year journalism and broadcast journalism students. “I see a room full of people just waiting to crack into the business, wondering ‘where is the door? Where is the door knob?’” he said. He was not shy to criticize CBC’s flaws, even critiquing the amount of time it took for the network to fire Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC radio show “The Q,” who was charged on multiple counts of sexual assault. “The guy was delusional,” he said. MacIntyre stuck around and he signed autographs and took pictures.


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Chronicle 14 15 issue 08 by City Media - Issuu