Chronicle 14 15 issue 10

See page 15, dLAB

See pages 6-7, Diversity in Durham

Volume XLII, Issue 10

February 10, 2015

Students key to Oshawa’s new downtown core

Frank Thickett The Chronicle

Walking through downtown Oshawa is not something some people look forward to. People generally don’t stop to talk, they aren’t usually there to socialize or shop around. People get in to do their business and get out as soon as it’s done.

Oshawa’s downtown has a reputation – and not a good one. Albert Street with its “red light” reputation, the lines outside the soup kitchen, the drugs that trade hands in the back alleys, and the homeless who

wander the streets looking for what they may find or be given.

It wasn’t always like this. Oshawa’s downtown core used to be booming.

It was everything a city wants its downtown core to be. Somewhere along the line it was forgotten, left behind, but now people are trying to fix that. People are trying to revitalize downtown Oshawa, and UOIT is helping to drive that change.

According to the archivist of the Oshawa Historical Society, Jennifer Weymark, downtown Oshawa began to develop in the 1830s when a man named

Edward Skae opened a general store at the four corners, at the intersection of Simcoe and King. Since then it has grown and changed.

Weymark says it became an entertainment hub when the Regent Theatre was constructed in 1921.

“Downtown Oshawa continued to flourish and in 1929 when the Genosha hotel was built Oshawa became a place where visiting dignitaries would stay,” Weymark said.

David Tuley is Oshawa’s downtown development officer and it’s his job to attract business and events to Oshawa. He

says the downtown really began to fall behind when big box stores such as Wal-Mart moved into town. Small businesses couldn’t compete with prices and slowly downtown windows were boarded up.

For Tuley, the expansion of UOIT represented a golden opportunity. One of his goals is to draw people back into the downtown core and he says students are the best way to do that.

“We wanted an educational presence,” Tuley said. “Colleges and universities are growth oriented administrations. We pushed for Durham College

and Trent to join in as well.”

To draw arts, entertainment, and business back there has to be a market and students are the best demographic for Tuley’s vision.

“Students will visit these new restaurants, they’ll fill coffee shops, and they’ll go to arts events,” said Tuley. “Art, culture, business, and events won’t come on their own.”

Beyond the business there is the issue of outer beauty. They may go unrecognized, thin and half dead at their best, but there are trees downtown.

See Revitalizing page 2

Generally speaking:

(Left to right) Kevin Dougherty, Elaine Garnett, Doreen Sacchet, Mich Thomson and Brad Calderone enjoy a beer at the Oshawa Generals game on January 30 at the General Motors Centre. Durham College’s Alumni Office hosted the night with discounted tickets and prizes for alumni.

Emma Nicholls

University’s $100,000 bursary honours late Jim Flaherty Jennifer Lavery The Chronicle

The memory of the late Jim Flaherty is living on at UOIT after the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters group (CME) donated an ever-growing bur-

sary of $100,000 to the university.

Jim Flaherty was the Minister of Finance of Canada until he resigned in March 2014.

He died from a heart attack on April 14, 2014. Flaherty was a founding member of UOIT. “When Jim passed away the

CME recognized everything he had done and the care he had taken in the manufacturing sector,” said Susan McGovern, in a phone interview.

McGovern is the Vice President of External Relations and Advancement at UOIT. CME approached the univer-

sity with the idea of the bursary in early 2014, not long after Flaherty passed. Flaherty was the one who put money in the 2001 provincial budget hoping there would be a creation of a new university in Durham.

“Not only did that happen,” said McGovern, “but the uni-

versity was a place that he held near and dear to him.”

CME has more than 10,000 members across Canada, as well as representatives in America, Europe, and Asia.

See UOIT page 2

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The Chronicle

February 10, 2015

Campus

Revitalizing downtown Oshawa Cont. from page 1

Dan Carter, executive producer of Channel 12, is part of a program to replace them.

“We’re looking for ways to help improve foot traffic downtown,” Carter said, adding that nicer trees will encourage people to spend more time around them and help with the outward appearance of King street.

This plan involves increasing the soil urban trees grow in.

Currently the trees downtown have very limited growth space.

According to Casey Trees, the company helping to design this tree plan, compacted soil causes roots to grow too tightly, which can result in cracked and broken pavement.

To make the trees healthier, the plan involves incorporating root paths below the sidewalk, which will allow them to grow outwards rather than up through the sidewalk. But tree beautification isn’t cheap.

“Money is always a big challenge,” Carter said. “The cost to replace the trees is $250,000.”

This is all part of Plan one of them. He worked as an concern in urban development, 20Twenty, a plan put together insurance broker for 45 years but one Tuley feels is a necesby a group of people invested and now that he’s retired he’s sary evil. in the downtown core. The converting his insurance build“The intent is to gentrify,” ing into student housing. he said. “For something to group is made up of 20 city of “Students are the only hope progress there has to be disOshawa staff members and 25 for downtown,” Worden said. placement.

I’m not a fan of the stakeholders, land and busi“They’re what inspired me to system but some would argue ness owners. invest my retirement fund into there has been too much afIn the group’s 2014 – 2015 renovating my building into fordability downtown.

Oshawa Visions, Goals and Actions apartments.” needs more people to attend package, they outline how events and use they plan to move ahead with reour facilities. It’s vitalizing downa part of the plan.”

Colleges and universities are growth-oriented Worden extown. Everything administrations. We pushed for Durham College pressed frustrafrom a restaurant and Trent to join in as well. tion with the idea recruitment goal of displacement to reducing or reas his business moving marketDavid Tuley is right on King ing costs for busistreet. He says sonesses is included.

Subheadings in the document Not everything is ideal about cial services do good work and involve business development, this development, however. are valuable but for downtown residential growth, the physical Tuley said rent downtown is on to make progress it requires environment, and the social ex- the rise as people renovate. a certain level of synergy beperience and each has its own With essential services such tween businesses. goals. as St. Vincent’s Kitchen and the “If you’re going to rehab Student housing is an emerg- Salvation Army within the core, your city core it’s the wrong ing market as well. With UOIT’s there are people at risk of being place for social services,” Wordowntown expansion, people displaced by this development den said. “It can deter businesses. Investors don’t want to are preparing to meet the need due to higher rents. of students. Keith Worden is Gentrification is always a be next to soup kitchens. The

‘

’

Salvation Army doesn’t belong on the main drag. It’s a matter of real estate.”

Worden has lost potential tenants in the past due to bad real estate. The night club currently across the street from his building used to be a strip club. A few years ago a dance company decided against renting the space above Worden’s insurance business because of that. The group said having a strip club across the street from a dance studio for young girls wasn’t ideal.

Displacement is inevitable.

It isn’t obvious yet, but changes will come. Some might bemoan the displacement of already disadvantaged people but others, such as Tuley, look for the silver lining.

“As apartment prices increase so does the quality of the living space,” Tuley said. “If that means a crack dealer has to move out to make room for a student then I’m happy. I want to increase foot traffic downtown. I want seniors to feel safe there, especially at night.”

UOIT receives $100,000 bursary Cont. from page 1

UOIT is a STEM-based university, standing for science, technology, engineering and math. The university has just approved a new multi-disciplinary program called Engineering Machatronics, which students who have enrolled in will be eligible for the bursary.

Flaherty was not only involved with founding a new university, but he was also the brains behind the Abilities Centre in Whitby.

The bursary hasn’t reached its goal of $100,000 just yet, but McGovern says that the call is still out for people to donate.

The first $2,000 bursary will flow to a student during the 2014-2015 academic year, although the student has yet to be announced. The university says it will take the funds and invest it.

“As it creates more and more interest we can help more students,” said McGovern.

McGovern attended a small, private ceremony on Jan. 23 with UOIT president Tim McTiernan and MPP Christine Elliott, Jim Flaherty’s’ wife, and the CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, Jayson Myers.

According to McGovern, Myers also said that the donors are willing to help recipients of the award with finding place-

Jennifer Lavery

MONEY IN MEMORIAM: Susan McGovern, VP of External Relations and Advancement at UOIT, was in attendance when UOIT received the bursary from the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters group. ment and co-op opportunities in their programs. If they do a good job at their internship, that becomes their permanent job after they graduate.

“We’d like to thank our donors,” said McGovern. “Jim had great respect for the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters because he under-

stood that that strength contributed to building Canada’s economy.”

“With that respect for that association, being a founder of

UOIT plus his whole life being dedicated to people with special needs, those three together, this bursary would have made him extremely happy.”

Campus

The Chronicle

New sexual assault policy on campus Emily Saxby The Chronicle

All Ontario colleges, including Durham, are in the late stages of drafting a stand-alone sexual assault policy that aims at unifying the schools’ appraoch to dealing with sexual violence.

DC, like many other postsecondary schools in Canada, referred to a general code of conduct to handle sexual assault in the past. This change comes at the heels of a threemonth investigation led by the Toronto Star that criticized higher learning institutions for lacking a formal policy to adequately address the issue.

Victims of the crime are unlikely to report incidences without a formal sexual assault policy in place at their school, according to a report published in October by Metrac, a Toronto-based agency specializing in violence against women and youth.

Tom Lynch, director of campus safety for DC and UOIT, and a provincially-accredited sexual assault investigator with 30 years experience on the Toronto police force, said the college’s current policy is disciplinary-based while the new policy focuses on support for victims.

“Quite often I think we as a society assume, and not necessarily correctly, that an individual who was the survivor of sexual assault stands up and screams ‘I’ve just been sexually assaulted’ and runs to our security desk or calls 9-1-1,” Lynch said.

Unfortunately, he said, cases of sexual assault don’t often work that way. In fact, it’s estimated only about one in 10 victims may come forward.

“It’s heinous. It’s disgusting, and there’s no place for it anywhere in society,” Lynch said.

“Especially here on our campus.”

The 20-plus pages of the new policy will include clearer outlines of what constitutes sexual assault since the crime has more nuances than most, as well as procedures that will make navigating resources on campus and in the community simpler for victims, Lynch explained.

“We want to have a policy here on campus that allows the survivor to step into the beginnings of their healing, and at the pace they want with the decisions they want,” he said.

Guidelines for supporting victims and reporting sexual assaults will be included, and the school’s responsibility towards handling reported cases will also be given more clarity.

Less than 10 per cent of colleges and universities across Canada have a distinct policy to address sexual assault. None

of which are Ontario colleges, according to the three-month media investigation late last year.

These findings sparked debate within the Council of Ontario Universities and Colleges Ontario, on whether post-secondary schools need a streamlined provincial-wide policy to specifically tackle sexual assault.

Colleges Ontario, an advocacy organization that represents 24 colleges across the province, including Durham College, announced Feb. 1 there would be such a policy in two months time.

The committee of presidents made the decision to develop the policy as a system, Durham College President Don Lovisa explained. The committee put together a group of experts, Lynch included, from different organizations across the province to set the framework.

“Students can go to any of our institutions and know that they have these policies in place,” Lovisa said. “They’ll be very open policies… We (DC) did have policies on sexual assault and we did have policies on harassment, but they weren’t as obvious as this one will be.”

Lovisa said Colleges Ontario is consulting with provincial student groups, as well as faculty and support unions.

On campus, the policy will be taken to the Student Association, academic council representatives, and other stakeholders to examine and share input.

The challenge is also ensuring the new policy still aligns with current policies in place, he said.

The next Board of Governors meeting is Feb. 13. Lovisa said he hopes the college will have an approved document, and be ready to instate it by the end of this month. The goal for all Ontario colleges is to have the policy implemented by March 31.

“We don’t have the number of incidents like you hear at the larger schools,” Lovisa said, adding, “That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen.”

In the past three years since Lynch has been director of campus safety, three sexual assault cases at Durham College have been brought forth, and four reports from UOIT. Lynch said there are no trends in the reported cases, which includes where and when the incidents occurred, what type of assault was committed, and the gender of individuals who reported them.

However, he said women have reported the majority.

There’s been no announcement from the Council of Ontario Universities similar to College Ontario’s declaration of a provincewide policy.

February 10, 2015

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DC Student Appreciation Day

Derek Dolstra

I HEART DC: (Left to right) Tara Blackburn, Echo Aliu, Shannon Bracken, Beth Smith hand out cookies and coupons for free hot drinks from Aramark for Student Appreciation Day.

One college, two faculties, three new programs Christian Coulombe The Chronicle

Durham College will allow students to keep their eyes on the money with two new programs offered through the School of Business, IT and Management.

The two programs are Accounting and Payroll, and Insurance and both are two year diplomas .

Another new program being offered is Media Fundamentals which is in the School of Media, Art and Design.

Programs in insurance aren’t offered in many colleges according to Judy Spring, dean of School of Business, IT and Management.

“It was strongly encouraged to create an insurance program after meeting with insurance companies,” she says.

The insurance program offers eight out of the ten credits needed to become a Certified Insurance Practitioner (CIP), says Spring.

Becoming a CIP allows someone to work in general insurance, says Spring and careers in insurance are increasing.

General insurance includes house and car but doesn’t include life. The Accounting and Payroll program, according to Spring, is linked to the Canadian Payroll Association and the Canadian Institute of Bookkeeping.

She says this program will give a student the academic

requirements by the Canadian Payroll Association to get a payroll designation to become a payroll compliance practitioner.

It also gives the student advanced standing to become a payroll manager.

The student will still need to acquire work experience with an accountant, but after completing this program the academic requirements are met.

The minimum admission requirements, according to Spring, are a high school diploma with grade 12 math and english.

Spring says the creation of the courses took about two years.

“It’s an intense process while it’s being developed,” says Traci Ellis, senior marketing planner, who was included in developing the programs.

The process involves meeting with industry experts, the program advisory board, the board of governors and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, says Ellis.

“We will find contact the industry to find out information,” says Ellis. “We do research to see if there will be jobs available and if it warrants graduates.”

According to Spring, the School of Business, IT and Management offers a new program almost every year.

“Not every dean will introduce new programs,” she says.

The third program offered

is Media Fundamentals.

Charlotte Hale, associate dean of School of Media, Art and Design, says this program has been offered for many years as Pre-Media, but the name and curriculum has changed.

According to Hale, the program is a one year certificate that has courses from all of the media programs.

“The program is designed to give students who aren’t entirely sure what media sector they want to work in experience in all areas,” says Hale.

Sometimes this program gets overlooked, according to Hale.

“Students jump right into a three year diploma and realize it isn’t what they want to do,” she says.

The certificate allows a student to gain credits to use in other programs.

“This is good, especially coming right from high school,” says Hale. “First year can be overwhelming jumping from high school to college.”

If a student completes the certificate, they can apply to transfer courses taken into future programs if they decide to continue in the media programs.

About 30 students are expected to be admitted into the new programs offered by the School of Business, IT and Management, according to Spring. Applications for Media Fundamentals will only be accepted for a September start date.

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The Chronicle

February 10, 2015

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Big Harper is always watching

Those in favour of free speech better start to tighten up their lips.

Expressing an opinion may soon land you in a courtroom.

Stephen Harper’s new anti-terror bill intends to crack down on terrorist activity in Canada.

But how far is he willing to go to keep the country safe?

Bill C-51 was introduced to protect Canadians from potential terrorist attacks and extremism.

The proposed law will give more power to Canadian law enforcement and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to prevent any terrorist-like activity from occurring.

It has yet to be determined how far CSIS will be allowed to go when it comes keeping the country safe.

Although, the bill suggests agents can interrupt mobile phones and electronic messaging if terrorism is suspected.

They will be able to access and give this information to whomever they feel necessary.

CSIS needs to stay out of Canadian’s bedrooms.

Along with many other Canadians, this approach does not sit well with Sukanya Pillay of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

“What we have is this conversation taking place where warrants are being issued presumably on the basis of intelligence, not evidence.

And there’s some concern there,” she told the Toronto Star.

She believes the additional police power, combined with a blurring of the lines between intelligence and evidence, raises red flags.

According to Harper, the bill is a direct response to the attacks that occurred last fall that took the lives of

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Cartoon by Raechel Bonomo

two Canadian soldiers in Ottawa and Quebec.

But when asked if this bill could have prevented them, he said he wasn’t sure.

If the government is so uncertain of the threshold of the bill, why propose it in the first place?

In school we are encouraged to have healthy debates amongst our peers, but Canadian students may have to start holding their tongues.

In light of the Charlie Hebdo incident and the issue of free speech, France has recently amped up its terrorism precautions.

They’ve even begun searching in elementary schools for potential terrorists.

Police recently questioned

ditors: Brittany Bonaparte, Raechel Bonomo, Amy Bridges, Kyle Brown, Sarah Chan, Christian Coulombe, Olivia Da Silva, Derek Dolstra, Karen Edwards, Hazel Ejerecito, Kelsey Fran, Jennifer Gordon, Miranda Green, Darryl Jennings, Jennifer Lavery, Shannon Liverpool, Eva Matys-Wright, Jessica Maxwell, Emma Nicholls, Connor Pringle, Brittany Rout, Emily Saxby, Sean Sutcliffe, Frank Thickett, Venessa Whitelock.

Publisher: Greg Murphy

an eight-year-old boy after he told his teacher the terrorists were right to be upset

by Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon.

It’s hard to say whether or not this type of enforcement may become a standard procedure in Canada.

If so, Canadians will soon be yelling “God save the Queen” for fear of being beheaded for high treason.

If the House of Commons passes the bill, it could allow a judge to sentence someone to up to a year of house arrest, even though they may have no previous criminal record or charges, solely on the premise of satisfactory evidence of terrorist activity.

This could be anything from an email correspondence from a jihadist terror-

ist support group or a Facebook post saying how much the government screwed you over on your taxes.

“This Act would seemingly allow departments and agencies to share the personal information of all individuals, including ordinary Canadians who may not be suspected of terrorist activities, for the purpose of detecting and identifying new security threats,” said privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien at the Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee in regards to the bill.

“It is not clear that this would be a proportional measure that respects the privacy rights of Canadians.”

And he’s right.

A

Harper promises to keep Canadians safe but there is a fragile line between safety and privacy, and this bill crosses it.

There is only so much the government can do to protect Canadians.

Stephen Harper has become that over-protective parent who puts children on a leash in a busy mall so they don’t run away.

It’s not that he doesn’t trust Canadians.

He just doesn’t trust the strangers, or in this case jihadists, who may offer us candy.

Raechel Bonomo

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The Chronicle

Opinion

February 10, 2015

5

Technology is taking over Jessica

Maxwell Today’s society is a hurryup-and-get-it-done-now place.

We no longer have to write out letters, stamp them and mail them out. Now we email, Facebook or use any other social media platform of your choice.

We’ve become dependent on these technologies and, therefore, become less productive as a society.

Factory workers, who once did everything by hand, now stand on a line doing the same thing over and over again. They could become less likely to care whether it is done right and more about when their shift ends.

People also no longer feel the need to communicate with each other face-to-face.

We are in a time of technological bells and whistles. Send a photo with Snapchat, text them a short form message, send a link through Facebook and tweet them an interesting read.

All this ‘conversation’ but you haven’t seen each other face-to-face in who knows how

Jessica Maxwell

TECH LOVE: The written word isn’t popular anymore with technology taking over.

Aaron Nadon is done with paper and moves to a laptop instead. long.

The problem with the automation of society is that people are starting to stray away from the very things that made us so strong.

Our ancestors years ago were successful hunter and gatherers to survive. They were productive and led a more satisfying, healthy lifestyle.

They set tasks and accomplished them, which helped

their self-worth climb. This allowed them to lead a happy life with their family and friends working towards common goals.

Nowadays, society for the most part takes advantage of the fast food industry, overeating out of boredom. We substitute chemical-ridden food for the sake of immediacy.

We are in an instant gratification society where if you have

to put hard work, sweat and tears into something, it’s not worth doing.

This is a cause for worry because it will only get worse as each generation.

We are creating drones that deliver mail, cars that drive on their own and even cars that have sensors on to tell you what to do, everything from telling you directions to parking cameras.

What would our society do if we were to suddenly lose the technology we rely on so much?

We would crumble as a civilization.

People who grew up with Google wouldn’t know how to access information, people who relied on fast food wouldn’t know how to cook or find food, people who use strictly social media to talk wouldn’t know how to send a written letter.

But we can fix this. We can have technology and still be successful as a society.

We just need to keep ourselves aware of where we came from. We need to remember to log off, power off and enjoy life without technology. You could start by setting limits. Only allow yourself an hour of ‘social media’ time.

We need to make sure we accomplish a few things per day that don’t require us to plug in so that we can save our society from making itself useless.

Go for a coffee with your friends, reorganize your house or pick up a book you have been meaning to read.

The future looks dim for humans if we let technology takeover.

Then we will be left doing nothing but reacting to the robots who do all the work.

We don’t need consumerism to find happiness in our lives

Football fans may have noticed a different tone in this year’s Super Bowl advertising.

Commercials shifted away from the slapstick or sexed-up status quo, and into an emerging genre of living better and spreading love.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, McDonald’s advertised free burgers to randomly-selected customers who ‘pay’ for their order with acts of kindness instead. Coca-Cola debuted its new “Make It Happy” campaign in a commercial that tackled cyberbullying.

As inspiring as the messages may be, we don’t need consumerism to be happy.

Students have limited disposable income, if any, when you account for loans and debt, yet the majority of us still find ways to participate in consumer culture. It’s not our fault— it’s the human condition, and it’s making us miserable.

We intuit money and possessions for success, and we intuit that success for happiness. In fact, the opposite is likely true, but many people continue to live above their means.

More than 60 per cent of Ontarians are living in three or

Emily Saxby four-bedroom homes. Yet only about 40 per cent of households in Ontario have three or more people, according to Statistics Canada.

The majority of us students don’t have the means to invest in a three-bedroom home, but we do consume insane amounts of coffee all day.

We spend part of our student loans on a new pair of boots during a midterm slump. We wanted that two-person suite instead of sharing a space with four other roommates. And we definitely can admit to the occasional LCBO visit that looks like the company turned wholesale.

Almost 30 per cent of Ontarian’s food expenses go to dining out, StatsCan reported.

Portions at restaurants and fast-food chains are normally twice the size of a recommended meal, or on the extreme side, a three-pound burger loaded with condiments exploding with every bite (free if

you finish though).

You’re not a gluttonous pig—you’re just a human being living in a consumer-centric society, and it’s hard to push past the only societal boundaries we know.

Go ahead. Box up your stuff and donate it to charity. It’s hard. Even that never-worn golf shirt that you bought three years ago—with the hanger’s wiry edges digging a permanent crease into the shoulders—is hard to give away.

You’ve literally never played golf. You bought it on a whim.

An impulse to shop every once in awhile may not hurt your psyche, but the constant collection or obsession of material goods will not only begin to take up an overwhelming amount of physical space, but also mental space. We’ll all be on Ritalin if we don’t learn how to control our material desires.

This isn’t a new discovery, but studies into positive psychology have increased greatly in the past several years. The Canadian Positive Psychology Association (CPPA) launched in 2012 to represent those working in the field. Durham College added the Quest for

Happiness (Positive Psychology) general elective last school year.

The connection between income and happiness is widely disproven in multiple studies.

Findings suggest there is no correlation between a person’s affluence and self-determined level of happiness. However, a more recent (U.S.) study found a $75,000 yearly income could actually be the magic number.

Not necessarily the key to happiness, but the key to feeling content and less stressed.

About one quarter of Ontarians stack up to that income figure, or higher. The median yearly income in this province is approximately $31,000, according to StatsCan. Twice the amount of money spent on education is spent on clothes and accessories. Personal care products account for half of what we spend on education.

These misguided spending habits stem from the desire to find social acceptance, one of the biggest links to happiness. This is what marketers are exploiting in their positivevibe campaigns—that sense of community or “We’re all in this together” manifesto.

In reality, they’re selling the

viewer yet another product.

While it’s a more pleasing message to see compared to the age-old “sex sells” strategy, it’s not actually helping society build better communities. In fact, many studies show that absolute income is less important than relative income. As long as you have more than your neighbours, co-workers and friends, you think you’ll feel happy.

But desire is a fickle beast, never content. Once you fulfill one desire, two more crop up and they’re nearly impossible to control.

It’s also impossible to avoid advertisements with their omnipresence in our daily lives, but we can watch less television and read less trashy magazines. Donating clothes, books and random household items we don’t use or need is a good place to start simplifying our lifestyles—with the bonus of altruism, which is actually proven to increase levels of happiness. The bottom line is to consume less and downgrade your lifestyle.

And you don’t need a free Big Mac to make you pick up the phone and tell your mother that you love her.

6

The Chronicle

February 10, 2015

Diversity

in Durham

Campus

Durham Region is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. The population, around 650,000, is expected to reach one million by 2031. Most of those new residents will come from elsewhere – from other countries, cultures, and communities. The Chronicle is exploring the changing face of this region in a special series, Diversity in Durham.

Scot hops across pond to Durham Lee proud to live in our region after also spending time in U.S., Indonesia Rachel Bonomo The Chronicle

A range of mountains whose height far surpasses a foggy skyline frames the town of Paisley, Scotland.

On a clear day, these mountains can be seen from anywhere in the humid, rainy town, an hour’s drive west from the Scottish capital of Edinburgh.

A textile town named for the pattern it is famous for creating, its high peaks are just one of the many characteristics of the Scottish countryside Catherine Lee calls home.

Lee grew up with her parents and two sisters in a small house cascaded by shrubbery and trees near the edge of Paisley.

Her summers consisted of leaving the house in the morning and not returning until the sun went down.

“When I was growing up it was another day and another time,” says Lee. “I seem to remember this childhood of absolute freedom. We were safe as we could be.”

Lee took the adventurous mindset she developed during her days of exploration and let it be her guiding light into adulthood.

“This is the dangerous thing isn’t it?”

She laughs as she recalls her departure from her hometown.

“I had a wonderful teaching job at a wonderful school and I thought to myself, ‘If I don’t do something dramatic, I’m going to be here for the next 30 years.’”

After leaving Paisley, Lee began the climb of her life.

She heard about a six-month to yearlong teaching opportunity at a university in Indonesia and decided to pack her bags and move across the world.

Then six months turned into eight years.

Lee’s desire to further her education led her to the United States where she completed grad school.

Once she was finished, she found herself back in the United Kingdom working in England.

Her global adventure wasn’t over. It has since brought her to a place that has been her home for the last six years. Lee and her husband, whose retirement was a catalyst for the move, immigrated to the Durham Region in the summer of 2008.

According to the Statistics Canada, more than 9,000 immigrants moved to Canada from the U.K. in 2008. That year, the United Kingdom had the fifth highest immigration rate to Canada with China topping the list with close to 30,000.

In a report from the Community Development Council Durham published in 2008, 77 per cent of the population in the Durham Region identify as Brit-

ish. The study also showed the United Kingdom is the primary place of birth for immigrants who arrived to Durham prior to 2001.

The adjustment of living in a new country was more difficult than Lee had anticipated.

“It’s that routine of knowing how everything works and knowing where to go and who to contact if I need anything done,” she says. “Coming to a new country you have to start to amass that information all over again.”

‘

We didn’t have a snowblower because in the United Kingdom we don’t really need one.

Catherine Lee

’

Lee says her first winter in Canada was one of the worst she has experienced since arriving here. According to Environment Canada, the winter of 2008 was considered to be a “neverending winter” with Ontario and Quebec enduring the heaviest snowfall in 70 years.

“We didn’t have a snowblower because in the United Kingdom we don’t really need one,” says Lee. “All the local stores were sold out so we had to shovel by hand, sometimes up to three times in a day.”

Winter may come as second nature to Canadians, but as an immigrant Lee is still learning to cope with the weather.

“The hard aspect to it, which I still experience, is that it determines your lifestyle. You have to learn to live your life in a different way during winter in Canada.”

Unlike the unpleasant weather, Lee believes Canadians are quite the opposite. On a societal level, she finds Canadians interact and converse in a similar manner as people in the United Kingdom.

“Coming to Canada, I presumed [the culture] would be the same,” says Lee. “I think the United Kingdom are a friendly, polite people, but here it’s very much part of life to start off by saying ‘Hi, how are you?’ then move onto a conversation. In United Kingdom we don’t do that.”

To ease her transition, Lee, a selfproclaimed bookworm, joined a local book club.

This helped her to feed her love of reading and to learn more about Canadian history and culture.

Soon after Lee joined the club, they began reading a book by a Canadian authour focused on Canada’s involvement

Rachel Bonomo

ACROSS THE POND: Catherine Lee poses with her favourite knickknacks from back home. in the Second World War. In a setting where opinions and discussions are often encouraged, Lee raised a point about the novel that was misinterpreted by a new member of the group.

According to Lee, an elderly man looked at her with his finger pointed forward and said, “The problem with you is that you’re not Canadian. You’ll never learn to appreciate Canadian books.”

Instead of letting this discourage her, Lee teasingly compares her admiration to Canadian literature to Canadians reading British literature.

“I had to be a little tight-lipped. I remember thinking, ‘I could use that argument with you and tell you you’ll never appreciate Shakespeare because you’re Canadian.’”

She believes she faced this criticism because she was a new immigrant trying to understand a new culture.

This is an experience she hopes to use to help international students at UOIT. “Having gone through so many

changes myself I realise what they’re going through too,” says Lee, who is an ESL writing specialist at the university.

Lee uses her experience living in Indonesia as an exemplar for students.

According to her, not many people in Indonesia spoke English, so to communicate she had to learn the native language.

“I still remember that phase of lack of language would hold me back from interacting with people,” says Lee. “I would get something drastically wrong and people would laugh at what I said.

So I have a lot of understanding for students who are still grasping oral English when they come here.”

Lee and her husband plan on calling Canada and the Durham Region home for a while and have no travel plans. For now.

“I enjoy contact with people from other cultures and living in different countries,” says Lee as she reaches into her cookie tin, a red double-decker bus she brought back from England. “Even if I still get a little home sick.”

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Diversity

The Chronicle

February 10, 2015

in Durham

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Durham Region is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. The population, around 650,000, is expected to reach one million by 2031. Most of those new residents will come from elsewhere – from other countries, cultures, and communities. The Chronicle is exploring the changing face of this region in a special series, Diversity in Durham.

Russian to a new home in Canada Usenko isn’t finished with her travelling just yet

ten years,” says Usenko.

The trip made her realize the place she originally didn’t want to come to was now her home.

“As soon as I stepped back into Russia, I said, ‘I want to go back,’” she laughs.

Besides her Canadian family, Usenko jokes that one of her favourite things about Oshawa is the little traffic compared to being in the city of Toronto.

Usenko’s mother, Olga, now lives in Canada as well. She immigrated to Alberta in 2006 but the rest of Usenko’s family, including her brothers and sisters, still live in Russia.

Karen Edwards The Chronicle

‘

It was almost twelve years ago that 29-year-old Ksenia Usenko came to Canada from a country just as cold, without knowing a word of English.

At the time, Usenko was 17 and her goal was to learn English to better her future and educational opportunities.

She left behind her family, friends and everything she had in Irkutsk, Russia to come to Canada.

But she almost didn’t do it.

Right before she left, Usenko had a change of heart and wanted to stay home.

“Honestly,” she laughs, “I didn’t want to go.”

People are colder there, and here you come, and people are always polite and smile at you.

Ksenia Usenko

‘

I was excited and nervous. The hardest part was keeping up with the translation.

Ksenia Usenko

’

Before looking at schools in Canada, Usenko had applied for a biochemistry program at Irkutsk State Technical University.

But her parents had other plans for her before she could accept any offers, and Usenko came to Canada in 2003.

Her life in Irkutsk quickly became a thing of the past, and Canada became her new home faster than she had planned on.

She studied English at a private school in downtown Toronto for international students and then later went to George Brown to study a few other courses.

At the time she lived with a Canadian family to help with adjusting to the new lifestyle.

The woman she lived with was the great aunt of her future husband. They met each other at Usenko’s second

Karen Edwards

COZY CAT CUDDLES IN CANADA: Ksenia Usenko and her cat Ninja pose in their home in Oshawa.

Christmas dinner in Canada.

Now, happily married to her husband, Kevin, Usenko encourages everyone to travel and step out of their comfort zone whenever possible.

“Even if you do go back, you get to travel to a different country and learn a different language,” she says.

The couple was married in Cuba two years ago, where both she and her husband’s families met for the first time.

“I was excited and nervous.

The hardest part was keeping up with the translation,” she says.

Usenko is now a nurse at

Lakeridge Health Oshawa and has lived in the city for almost ten years.

She laughs at herself when she remembers the doubt she felt coming to Canada.

“I was given the opportunity to come back (to Russia) and I didn’t want to come back,” she says.

Usenko says the biggest culture shock from Russia to Canada was the mentality of people.

“I first moved to Scarborough, I didn’t know a word of English, and I was waiting for the bus, and a man said, ‘Hello, how are you?’ and was smil-

ing,” she recalls. “He was just walking by with his dog, and I thought ‘Wow, people actually smile and say hello on the streets.”

Usenko says it’s different in Russia.

“It’s probably like one in a million that would smile at you.

People are colder there, and here you come, and people are always polite and smile at you,” she says.

Last fall, Usenko and her husband went on a two-month trip to Russia to visit her family.

“The best part was seeing my grandma. I hadn’t seen her in

’

She says it’s difficult to compare the lifestyle of Canada and Russia, because she was so young when she left her home country.

However, Usenko feels she has more opportunities as a nurse in Canada than she would have back at home, especially because she is now back in school.

She is taking courses to move up in her career, something that she says wouldn’t happen in Russia.

“It is easier to leave work here and you can still make decent money,” she says referring to working and going to school at the same time.

Usenko, a nurse for the past seven years, says she still thinks about her dream job from her childhood, becoming a teacher.

“I still think of it sometimes, maybe later on in life, I’ll teach nurses,” she says.

Currently, Usenko is studying at Centennial College, to be a medical esthetic practitioner.

It’s been over a decade since Usenko became an Oshawa resident.

She has married her Canadian husband and speaks fluent English, something her 17-year-old self wouldn’t have been able to predict.

Usenko says she hopes to expand her family with Kevin and continue to travel.

Her top two places? India and Ireland. But Durham Region will always be her home.

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February 10, 2015

Campus

DC student awake during her own brain surgery Brittany Rout The Chronicle

At the age of 23, Cyla Daniels was faced with news that had the potential to change her life forever. She would be having brain surgery, and would remain awake for the procedure.

For three years, Daniels had experienced seizures that continued to disrupt her day to day life. She recalls times when the sharp numbing pain made it impossible to complete her shifts at Tim Hortons, where she is currently a manager.

“As the years went on, they were happening a lot,” says Daniels, adding that she was forced to withdraw from the Law Clerk program at Durham College. The seizures made it impossible for her to continue her studie As they increased in occurrence and severity, she began to seek medical attention.

What was first believed to be multiple sclerosis, proved to be a tumor, the size of a small speck.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Sunit Das decided not to take immediate action, due to the size of the tumor as well as its location deep within Daniels’ brain.

“I was scared and nervous and I wanted it out more than anything,” says Daniels, “but they didn’t want to remove it at the time because it was so small and it wasn’t really affecting me.”

In May of this year, Daniels was hospitalized for five days, due to an overwhelming number of seizures that occurred within a 24-hour period. This called for a re-evaluation of the situation.

By the time Dr. Das changed his plan of action and decided to remove the tumor it had grown to the size of a date, which was concerning.

Shortly after learning that she would undergo surgery, Daniels was approached by The Globe and Mail. They proposed that she take part in a project titled ‘Saving Cyla’ that would document before, during and after her surgery.

Cyla Daniels But why were they so interested in Daniels’ brain surgery? The operation would take place while she was conscious, known as awake brain surgery or ‘awake craniotomy.’

The procedure would consist of multiple steps including an initial sedation, allowing doctors to make an incision and access Daniels’ brain, followed by a period in which she would be awake and undergo various neurological tests.

These tests would prove to be crucial as they allowed the surgeon to map a safe pathway in which he would remove the tumor.

During the awake portion of her operation, Daniels was asked to complete simple tasks such as counting to ten and spelling simple words. She was emotional during this part of the procedure, but she was assured that everything was going as planned.

Daniels was once again sedated and within an hour the tumor was safely located. Pathology tests later concluded that the likelihood of a persisting problem was minimal.

The surgery took longer than expected, which caused concern for friends and family.

“They initially said three hours, and then they came out and said it would be five hours,” says Daniels’ boyfriend, Patrick Ellis. He adds that the extra time made him nervous and he became worried for his girlfriend’s well-being. He was

not alone.

“I was nervous, anxious and scared, but I was trying to keep myself distracted,” says Daniels’ mother Nelly, as she reflects on the hours spent waiting for her daughters surgery to conclude.

“With the help of friends and family members and having confidence in Dr. Das, I knew deep down in my heart that everything would turn out for the best,” she says, adding that the overwhelming amount of supportive text messages were helping her to keep her composure.

“There was a part of me that knew that the reason why it was taking so long was because

I knew that Dr. Das was doing everything possible to remove the whole tumor and not just parts of it.”

Family and friends describe Daniels as a strong and confident young woman with an infinite amount of love and support from those around her.

“I was ready to help her with anything she needed help with,” says Ellis. He and Daniels’ family played an active role in her road to recovery.

“We were all there to take turns to go to her house and make sure she was eating and taking her meds” says Daniels’ mother, adding “that’s what family and friends are there for, to help you pull through.”

Fast forward to today, three months post surgery and Daniels is seizure free. “I feel great and I feel back to normal,” she says. “I am so grateful for Dr. Das and his team. I was never worried or scared when I was with him, I knew I was going to be ok.”

For others that may one day face similar circumstances, Daniels suggests staying positive and to avoid negativity.

She will return to Durham College in September of next year to take part in the Paralegal program, hoping to one day become a lawyer.

With her surgery in the past, this strong-minded woman isnt letting anything get in her way.

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Is big brother watching the police?

DRPS studies the use of body cams on uniforms Kyle Brown

The Chronicle Jason Vassell, a part-time professor at Durham College in the School of Justice & Emergency Services, knows you’re watching him.

As a constable in the RCMP, Vassell is well aware that in the modern day cameras are everywhere, even police are starting to wear them.

“If I had a camera on I don’t see any of those situation coming out any differently,” Vassell said.

“I try to make sure I’m speaking to the public respectfully and that I’m being safe.”

Vassell points to incidents in recent months where communities lost trust in police in the U.S., most notably the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Erin Garner in Brooklyn, N.Y. The heavy use of police force and grand jury verdicts afterwards that resulted in no charges being laid against police officers involved ina those incidents, Vassell said, are causing police departments across North America to look into the use of body-worn cameras, including Durham Region Police Service.

It will be studying the possibility of cameras in 2015, with the idea of doing a pilot project at the end of year.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge conducted a study in Rialto, Calif, in 2012 to test the effect body-worn cameras have on policing.

The 12-month experiment equipped a thousand of the city’s officers with body cameras, and found that unnecessary force used by officers fell by 59 per cent, while the number of complaints dropped by 87 per cent from the year before.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure on police to be more open about what they’re doing on a daily basis,” said Christopher O’Connor, an assistant professor from the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at UOIT. “There’s still very little published information about cameras so we’re still trying to get a handle on it.”

O’Connor said body cameras are intended deter bad behaviour by police by having their activities constantly recorded, and can be used as tools to provide evidence in court.

“We’ve seen cameras in police cars and they’ve been very effective in recording what’s going on,” O’Connor said.

“But, you have to be standing right in front of them. You move that to the body and it can record wherever it goes.”

O’Connor, however, is concerned about the high cost of the new cameras, saying the money might be better put into to hiring or to better train officers who could work more cases.

“Unfortunately there isn’t necessarily one technology that is better to invest in than another,” O’Connor says.

“Different departments will have different needs.”

But, according to Abby Deshman, the director of the public safety program for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, cost is not the only concern.

“They carry with them significant privacy concerns that need to be addressed,” she says.

“The police are interacting with members of the public in very sensitive situations.”

‘

I think there’s a lot of pressure on police to be more open on what they’re doing on a daily basis.

Christopher O’Connor

’

Deshman says body cameras have the potential to act as a tool for better oversight, but she adds that police interrogate suspects, go into people’s homes, and are involved in medical emergencies, all of which are personal and private

situations that people don’t want filmed.

She says knowing who has access to that video footage, what is going to happen to it, what uses it will be put to, are issues that need to be tackled.

“Police officers, as well, may have legitimate privacy concerns of how much of their day should legitimately be put on video tape,” Deshman says.

“The other thing that needs to happen is to put in place policies that ensure that these cameras function as accountability tools for everyone.”

Deshman says that officers will have ability to decide when the cameras are on or off, which she says would defeat the accountability goals the cameras are meant to provide.

She says all these aspects need to be carefully thought over and addressed in detail,

before departments begin to deploy the cameras. But O’Connor says body cameras are not the sole solution to establishing trust between police and the general public.

“It’s about getting officers out and into the community and building relationships with them,” he said.

More than anything, he says police need to reach out to communities who feel they’ve been wronged to improve oversight and to improve trust.

“If we can make sure police officers are video taping what’s going on then it makes the public feel safer,” Vassell said.

“We are having issues where police officers are being accused of things and where officers are using too much force, but if they’re wearing a camera that solves it all because a picture tells a thousand words.”

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As big as GM? dLAB might be Derek Dolstra The Chronicle

It’s an idea so grand that some academics are comparing it to the creation of GM in Oshawa.

The Durham Learning and Business District, or dLAB, is the 150-acre area just north of Highway 401 and it’s gaining its foothold at the border of Oshawa and Whitby.

“This is as bold an idea and maybe as significant as the creation of GM,” says Greg Murphy, dean school of media, art and design at Durham College.

“So GM compelled Durham Region for 100 years, the next 100 years is likely to be compelled by dLAB.” Murphy is currently consulting on one of the possible buildings for dLAB. The Durham Region Works Committee has officially set the completion date for the expansion of Consumers Drive connecting Thickson Road to Thornton Road for 2017.

The completion of this road is what determines the timeline for construction on what’s known as dLAB West by the landowner, River Oaks Group.

“What’s coming and when it’s coming is all very much tied into that road because we can’t actually build without it,” says Marvin Green, president of River Oaks Group. dLAB is a partnership between Durham College, UOIT, Trent University, the land developers, and Durham Region.

When the GM Oshawa plant was most successful it employed about 40,000 people.

Green hopes with the combined population of students, staff, and faculty between the threepartnered schools there will be a market of roughly the same size. Green plans for dLAB West to have up to 12 buildings ranging from 60,000 to 80,000 square feet. Half are devoted to retail and office space and the other half are likely to be academic institutions.

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Green says he wants to help develop what Durham Region already offers. He believes Durham has always had strong agriculture and manufacturing industries.

“We want to help grow things that are already there, where the talent is already there,” he says.

The idea is to have all these different buildings close to each other and have a large variety of businesses and institutes so they can work together and grow together. DTZ, a global property services company, is in charge of leasing the future buildings and are looking for companies interested in working with the college and university partners.

“This is a deliberate attempt to create something called middensity,” says Green. “It’s close to the street where the buildings and streets are designed to encourage people to get together.”

The institutions are currently under discussion and are being geared toward the partnership with DC, UOIT, and Trent. Some of the ideas for the institutions under discussion are healthcare, media, food, advanced manufacturing, and a new entity called the Ontario Rave Bootcamp

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Beverage Institute (OBI).

“The concept is that you’ve got five or six different disciplines that allow for serendipitous innovation,” says Murphy.

The most developed idea, however, is the OBI. This institute would be a place to study

and brew beers and ciders. The building would have areas dedicated to research and innovation and could possibly have a brewpub. The other institutes will be designed in a similar fashion featuring ways to study a certain discipline.

“What we’re looking for is places where opportunities for learning and training and employment can all happen in one place and it happens because all these different things are together in the same building,” says Green.

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February 10, 2015

Campus

Building confidence for the gym

Karen Edwards The Chronicle

Approaching a new gym can be both nerve wrecking and exciting, but for Tonya Pye, a second year medical office administration student from the Whitby campus, she has no interest in using it.

Durham College’s Whitby location recently opened a fitness centre for students and faculty.

Since then, fitness monitor, Jamie Baker, says the gym has seen “great numbers.”

He says in the first week coming back from winter break, the gym saw more than 300 users, most of them male.

But for Pye, she has yet to step foot into the new fitness centre because she feels uncomfortable being one of the few females at the new gym.

Baker says the Whitby campus has an 8 to 2 male to female ratio at the Whitby campus.

However, Pye says she started feeling uncomfortable from her first year attending the Whitby campus.

“My first year at the college was the first year they brought the administration course to the campus. It was like men had never seen a female. We couldn’t walk anywhere without being stared at, or whistled

Karen Edwards

WE CAN WORK IT OUT: Jamie Baker, a fitness monitor at the Whitby campus. at,” says Pye. “It makes it very uncomfortable, now with the gym being put in the middle of the trades area, it makes it even more uncomfortable to work out.”

Pye’s concerns are things personal trainer, Tahne Burens, hears all the time. Burens works at the Oshawa Flex Centre.

“Most of the people who come to the Flex and want personal trainer services are usual-

ly female, because they are usually less familiar with the gym,” says Burens. “A big concern I get from girls who come in are, ‘I feel like everyone is watching me’ and it’s really not the case when you’re in the gym.”

Burens says the Oshawa Flex centre hosted two events called “girls night” last semester for the first time to encourage more females to attend the gym. The classes were taught by a personal trainer and gave

Your ‘yes’ may be different

Emma Nicholls The Chronicle

Silence is not consent, especially when it comes to sex.

That is one of the many messages the ‘yes means yes’ campaign is trying to convey to Durham College and UOIT students.

Allison Hector-Alexander, diversity officer for Durham College and UOIT, says she hopes to create a safe space to encourage new conversations for students at the school to talk about safe sex and what that means to each individual.

“The yes means yes campaign is an initiative that came out of some feedback we’d gotten that there wasn’t a lot of information or conversation and dialogue about healthy sexual practices ... consent and what that means and the whole framework of sexual assault,” she said.

Hector-Alexander recruited a number of student ambassadors or ‘champions’. There hasn’t been a lot of talk at Durham College or UOIT about safe sex or knowing what consent really means to each individual, she said, and that’s going to change with this campaign.

“We don’t want students, or anybody, to feel that they’re going to be judged based on their decisions,” said HectorAlexander.

Dalhousie University students who posted inappropriate comments on Facebook have spurred a social media movement to take ownership for personal sexual experiences and preferences.

According to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), more than 80 per cent of rape cases on college or university campuses happen when the vic-

tim knows the aggressor.

Hector-Alexander says the campaign is designed around an individual’s personal ownership and responsibility.

“When we’re making these decisions how safe are we being?” said HectorAlexander.

Information and statistics about sexual assault can be potentially inaccurate. According to Statistics Canada, fewer than one in ten occurrences are actually reported to the police.

Sexual crimes do not only victimize women but 70 per cent of self-reported sexual assaults occur against them, according to Statistics Canada.

Imbyr Montgomery, a yes means yes champion with Durham College and UOIT, says that campaign is an obvious step the school needed to take.

“Colleges are a culture and colleges do exist within kind of itself (sic), there needs to be consequences for people who don’t respect boundaries,” Montgomery said. “You can see with all the stuff with Dalhousie, they’re protecting the people who were assaulting people and they’re ignoring the people who were assaulted and just making concessions like they have different classrooms... That’s not a consequence for crossing someone’s boundaries.”

Montgomery says it’s hard to gauge student reaction to the campaign since its inception, but is optimistic.

“Our posters keep disappearing so I’m assuming people like the posters,” Montgomery said. “We’re going to focus on advertising our discussions and trying to get people to come into that.

That’s better than reading a poster or reading a button because you’re actually receiving real information and having real discussions.”

basic introduction on weight lifting, proper form and proper use of machines.

Gabriella Lupi, a fitness monitor from the Oshawa Flex Centre says women are constantly approaching her saying they are nervous to approach the weight-area.

But Lupi says it shouldn’t matter who’s at the gym while you are working out.

“You have to go and make a place for yourself, and when

you do that people respect you,” she says.

Burens says one of the main reasons why women feel intimidated at the gym comes from not knowing how to use a machine or do an exercise.

“A lot of people are nervous to look bad or look stupid,” says Burens. “I see guys who think they know what they know what they’re doing and they will have the wrong form.”

Burens says attending classes is one way to feel more confident at the gym.

“It helps you meet people who go to the gym,” says Burens.

As for Pye, she says moving the location of the fitness centre would help, but she knows that won’t happen.

“I guess maybe if they put up blinds so that we can pull them down while working out if we chose, or even frosted glass so that people walking by, more so men, wouldn’t find it necessary to stop and stare at us while we are working out,” says Baker, adding he is open for requests from students and faculty at the Whitby campus to encourage more female students to attend the gym.

“The gym is here for the students and we want to make sure they know about it and are using it,” he says.

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February 10, 2015

Saluting Oshawa in The Great War Raechel Bonomo The Chronicle

In a trench filled with rain and rats laid the body of 19-year-old Horace Victor Burgess, a Canadian soldier from Oshawa.

Burgess was one of many soldiers discussed in a lecture about Oshawa’s involvement in the First World War held at Trent University in Oshawa on Jan. 27.

The First World War began more than 100 years ago in 1914 when the British Empire, allied with France, Serbia, and Russia, declared war on Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empires. Referred to as “The Great War”, the bloody warfare lasted for four years until Nov. 11, 1918.

“There was this air of romance,” said historian and Trent Peterborough professor Dimitry Anastakis, who led the lecture. “There hadn’t been any need for Canadian involvement before. There was a rush to war.”

According to Anastakis, Oshawa was an average, smallsized Canadian town in 1914.

It had a population of approximately 8,000 people, one high school, and a street railway. In 1909, a Carnegie library was built and in 1910 a general hospital.

The largest employer at the time was Sam McLaughlin of McLaughlin Carriages Compa-

Photo courtesy of the Thomas Bouckley Collection

OFF TO WAR: Oshawa soldiers line up at the Grand Trunk Railway Station in 1915. ny, employing more than 2,000 Oshawa citizens. During the First World War, the company donated several ambulances to the Canadian army.

Since Oshawa was such a small town, many are unaware of how much they contributed during the war, said Anastakis.

In 1914, the Oshawa Armouries was built and it soon became the hub for men and sister nurses from surrounding areas to enlist.

According to Anastakis, during the war 1,538 men and women enlisted from Oshawa, 630 came home injured and

Arrest made after lockdown Connor Pringle The Chronicle

Durham Regional Police released the name of a suspect arrested after Durham College and UOIT went into lockdown recently. Brian Akibo-Betts, 35, of Woodgate Court in Oshawa is charged with possession of weapons dangerous.

On Thursday, Feb. 5 around 2 p.m., police were called to Durham College and UOIT af-

ter witnesses saw a man carrying a weapon in a hallway in the college’s south wing.

Durham College and UOIT went into lockdown for about an hour as a result. Following the arrest, police remained on scene to search for a weapon.

Police say the weapon, a large, hand-held submachine gun with an orange tip, was not recovered. The weapon was believed to be an imitation, police say.

approximately 140 died.

“Everyone knew someone that was going off to war,” said Anastakis.

Some of these soldiers were a part of the 116th battalion, the largest battalion of Oshawa militaries. According to a soldier from the battalion’s diary, they entered the war during a stalemate period. It was not until much later that they experienced warfare with the Germans.

“For about 30 minutes the situation was critical, and fraught with the greatest difficulties; the darkness, the gas,

the flares, the irregularities of the ground, wire entanglements, ruins, shell-holes, all combined to make the assembling of the troops slow and difficult… only the courage and determination of all ranks saved the situation.”

Oshawa soldiers began to realize this would not be “a glorious trip across sea,” said Anastakis.

The 116th battalion also fought at The Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. According to Veterans Affairs Canada, this battle is considered to be one of Canada’s pivotal contributions

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to the war.

“It was devastating for towns like Oshawa because so much death occurred,” said Anastakis.

Recruitment began to decline after the first roaring wave of enlistment in Oshawa and across Canada. The government’s solution was to introduce conscription.

According to the Canadian War Museum, conscription forced Canadian men aged 2045 to fight in the war. In the election of 1917, Canada voted in favour of conscription with 66 per cent of Oshawa soldiers on the front line voting for the movement, said Anastakis.

With the battle raging on across the sea and more men forced to join, war efforts were made on the Oshawa home front.

Many Oshawa women were working in factories or volunteering with Oshawa Red Cross. Oshawa’s branch of the charity made approximately 100,000 sewing items such as socks shipped overseas to Canadian soldiers.

According to Anastakis, Oshawa was used as a base for army pilots training to fly warplanes before going overseas.

“It was a great opportunity to think about Oshawa in the war,” said Anastakis after the lecture. “For a small town, it played such a significant role in war efforts, both away and at home.”

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Campus

Eva Matys-Wright

GOODBYE: Target gets more like a ghost town and less like a department store after it announced its departure from Canada.

Confessions of a soon to be ex-Target employee Eva Matys-Wright The Chronicle

A first year Durham College student helped open the Whitby Target location, but never anticipated she would be closing it as well.

Target Canada is closing all 133 of its stores, leaving 17,600 employees jobless. Target is an American retailer that first opened its doors in Canada on March 5th, 2013 and had all 133 locations open by Oct 22, 2014.

It provided great potential

for employability.

A Durham College student took this opportunity with eagerness and excitement.

This student spoke to the Chronicle on the condition of anonymity.

Her managers at Target told her not talk to the media or press, or she would risk losing her severance pay.

“I heard the day it happened that the headquarters in Mississauga had cut off their phone lines and they didn’t want to talk to any media and they didn’t want us to talk to any media,” she said. “They

didn’t want us to even tell our family members just in case the information was wrong.”

The Target employee was saddened by the news of Target closing since she had assisted in the setting up of the Whitby store.

“Most of my friends are still working at Target and I’ve bonded with them and it was very sad when I heard about it,” said the employee.

“All the original people were all coming together and talking about how much it sucks and that we aren’t going to see each other much anymore.”

Target is providing a 16 week severance pay period that began on Jan 25th.

“I’ve been told recently there are a lot of employees who have just bought a car or just bought a house,” she said.

According to the Target employee, some Target workers have already left in search of other employment opportunities and are still receiving the rest of their severance pay.

Target may be giving its employees 16 weeks pay but their former Canadian CEO Greg Stienhafel is being paid $70 million as severance pay af-

ter leaving the company last spring. This severance pay is more than all 17,600 Canadian employees payments combined.

“When I was first told we were closing it was stressful,” said the employee. “I didn’t know we were going to be open until May, I thought we were only going to be open until February so I was freaking out thinking I was going to lose my job.”

The Target employee plans to find a job in Animal Care after her store closes and plans to stick with Target until the end of her 16-week pay period.

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Entertainment

February 10, 2015

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Ontario Philharmonic is far from flat Amy Bridges The Chronicle

The Regent Theatre didn’t disappoint with the third installment of the Ontario Philharmonic. As the snow fell and the sidewalks got slippery, the Regent offered a warm inviting atmosphere.

People gathered in the doorway as they trampled in the snow and salt from outside onto the deep red and gold patterned carpets. The entrance got louder as more people gathered inside waiting to see Program 3 – The Power of Beethoven – Triple Concerto.

Through the audience ran a beautiful little girl in a sparkling black dress, her short brunette hair adorned with a sparkling little bow.She ran to family waiting in the doorway with her cherry wood violin.

The doors opened and people flooded to their seats. When most people were seated, a string of 14 people all dressed in black carrying varying instruments walked towards the stage. They all looked way too young to be a part of the Ontario Philharmonic but they found their seats on stage right.

The Ontario Philharmonic wasn’t the only orchestra to play on Jan. 24. They were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Durham Youth Orchestra.

The lights in the theatre lowered and the entire room qui-

eted in unison, the people, the instruments, everything.

Then the night began.

The night started with half the stage being the Durham Youth Orchestra and the other half Ontario Philharmonic as they were lead by conductor Marco Parisotto.

Together they played Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.

Parisotto’s movements were so fluid it looked like he was almost dancing to the light airy sounds.

After the beautiful sounds of Mozart and the thunderous applause, Parisotto and the Durham Youth Orchestra left the stage, leaving behind 10 musicians. Anticipation in the crowd rose as stagehands moved a jet black, shiny grand piano onto the stage.

“To be here and relax, and just enjoy the concert, it’s a different experience,” said former executive director, Monica Anguiano who was watching the orchestra in the crowd for the first time. “I finally enjoy the music and I find that the Ontario Philharmonic continues to be a fine orchestra.”

Jihyun Ahn, a cellist from South Korea, an Ontario pianist, Benjamin Smith and the internationally known violinist Jacques Israelievitch performed the second act.Ahn was adorned in a long elegant black dress with a striking sleeveless silver shrug that sparkled in the

Amy Bridges

PITCH PERFECT: Ontario Philharmonic and the Durham Youth Orchestra, conducted by Marco Parisotto, play at the Regent Theatre in Oshawa. light. Smith and Israelievitch were dressed in black to match the rest of the orchestra.

This act was darker than the first. The string section started it off and the playful piano brought more life to the piece.

The sounds of the cello echoed its beauty, forcing the audience to get lost in its sound.

Parisotto, the conductor, was the only other person as animated as the trio.Parisotto bounced and almost thrusted himself into the brass section with every dramatic moment.

The rest of the orchestra swayed with the music in unison. Only the audience was still, in awe of the beautiful sounds they were experiencing.

“I close my eyes, I like that I can listen,” said Mark Andralojc, a frequent concertgoer. “It

was a delight.”

As the piece ended, thunderous applause brought the audience back from wherever the music took them to inside the royal blue and gold adorned Regent. As the trio attempted to leave the stage, they received a standing ovation and came back for an encore they had prepared. After the intermission the crowd was delighted and treated with the deeper sounds of both orchestras.

The Durham Youth Orchestra came back for the last act.

With the added sounds of both orchestras, the sound was deep.

The audience couldn’t hear the difference between the two orchestras but the audience could see them.

At the end of a row of vio-

las sat a young boy with short brown hair and a black suit who was at least one-third of the size of everyone in the row.

But his talent matched theirs in size. The crowd was so lost in the sound between pieces there was no applause, no sound, just complete silence.

The only thing that broke the silence was an elderly gentleman rustling with a candy wrapper.

At the end of the entire performance a resonating applause echoed the hall as if there were thousands of people in the theatre.

The performers received their last standing ovation of the night. The crowd was left a sense of awe and anticipation for the next program to be performed on Feb 28.

RMG showcases Canadian artist’s talent Raechel Bonomo The Chronicle

Rolling Canadian hills dominate the walls of Robert McLaughlin Gallery’s (RMG) main gallery space. In a corner, tiny fish can be seen swimming through space while totem poles hang on the opposite side of the room.

As part of the gallery’s Talk and Tour series, curator Linda Jansma took the public through a look into the career and life of one of Canadian’s prominent painters Jock Macdonald in Jock Macdonald: Evolving Form on Feb.1.

Jansma said the exhibit came together through a long process that began in spring 2011.

“This exhibit traces the artistic transition [Macdonald] underwent,” said Jansma. “His career as an artist journeys in a perpetual state of evolution.”

In 2012, Jansma was in the process of writing a grant to receive funding from the Department of Heritage for the exhibit when she received a strange email. The sender was Jock’s nephew, Alistair Macdonald.

He asked Jansma about the collection of Macdonald pieces

Courtesy of the Collection of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery

EVOLVING FORM: Jock Macdonald, Nature’s Pattern, 1954. at the RMG for an exhibit he was curating at the Edinburgh Gallery in Scotland. During their correspondence, he notified Jansma about 40 letters written by his uncle stored in the Scottish gallery’s archives.

This was the missing piece to Jansma’s puzzle, she said. That fall, she took a five-day trip to Scotland to view the letters.

The content of the letters led her to uncover the lost work of Macdonald.

She explored the various styles and periods of Macdonald and brought back with her paintings, drawings and meth-

ods unseen before by Canadian audiences.

Macdonald was born in 1897 in Thurso, Scotland. After his time in the army, he studied design at the Edinburgh College of Art. Macdonald immigrated to Canada in 1926 to take up a teaching job as head of design at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts.

One of his greatest contributions is as a founding member of Toronto-based abstract group, Painters 11 formed in 1953.

In the early stages of his career, Canadian Group of Seven

member Lawren Harris’s work inspired Macdonald to paint abstract landscapes. This influence is visible in his work In the White Forest, 1932. This piece, among 92 other original works, is currently up in the RMG. “Intuitively artists create within the structural forms of nature,” is a quote from Macdonald posted above his landscape works in the exhibit.

There is a notable predominance of nature as his main influencer in the majority of his work, Jansma said.

“Jock always painted the fourth dimension of nature,” said Jansma. “It is how we’re suppose to feel about it, not how we see it.”

In the 1940s, Macdonald met British surrealist artists Dr. Grace W. Pailthorpe and Ruben Mednikoff. According to Jansma, they taught Macdonald surrealist painting methods such as automatics.

This technique involves painting in quick-paced series, and dating work down to the very time it was created.

Macdonald was diverting away from his traditional landscape work and producing surrealist-style paintings such as Fish Family, 1943 included in the

RMG exhibit.

Many art historians credit 1957 – 1960 as Macdonald’s pre-eminent years as a painter.

During this time, he painted an average of 50 paintings per year until he died suddenly from a heart attack on Dec. 3, 1960.

Jansma described Macdonald as the “pioneer of post-war abstraction in Canada.” According to her, he had a substantial influence on Canadian painters then and in future generations.

Bowmanville painter Pete Smith credits Jock Macdonald as one of his biggest influences and the catalyst to his current exhibit Postscript in Gallery A, located in the lower half of the RMG. Smith told the RMG his exhibit is “an aesthetic research project into the work and life of Jock Macdonald. In this sense, it will function as a postscript: a sprawling, artistic labyrinth of additional information and my idiosyncratic response to the concurrently held exhibition, Jock Macdonald: Evolving Form.”

Evolving Form is the first major retrospect of Macdonald’s work in more than 30 years and can be viewed at the RMG until May 24.

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February 10, 2015

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Sports

February 10, 2015

21

Alyssa Bugg

BATTLE OF THE GOALIES: (Left photo) UOIT’s goalie Tori Campbell stops the puck as team captain, Melissa Berney bats away the rebound. (Right photo) Ridgebacks’ goaltender Cassie Charette defends all sides of the net during the 5-2 loss to the Gaels on Jan. 29.

Ridgebacks pleased despite loss to Gaels Alyssa Bugg The Chronicle

A recent snowstorm in Oshawa didn’t stop the women of the Queen’s Gaels as they defeated the UOIT Ridgebacks 5-2 at the Campus Ice Centre.

From the first puck drop both teams fought aggressively to keep control. UOIT found some positives despite losing to the Gaels, who hold down second place in the Ontario Universities Athletics women’s hockey standings.

“The team was relentless and I’m really happy, not with the outcome, but this team didn’t give up. They didn’t roll over, they kept battling,” said UOIT head coach Karen Nystrom following the game.

Though UOIT doubled Queen’s shots-on-goal (126) in the first period, the Gaels managed to start off the scoring early against Ridgeback’s goalie Cassie Charette with a goal by Chelsey Verbeek, followed by

LORDS UPCOMING HOME GAMES Thurs. Feb. 12 Volleyball vs. Fleming Women play at 6 p.m.

Men play at 8 p.m. in the CRWC

Fri. Feb. 13 Basketball vs. Algonquin Women play at 6 p.m.

Men play at 8 p.m. in the CRWC

Sat. Feb. 14 Mens Basketball vs. La Cite 6 p.m. in the CRWC

Mar. 6-8 OCAA Men’s Basketball Championships hosted

by Durham in the CRWC

another goal just under four minutes later during a power play by Addi Halladay. The period ended with a third goal by Queen’s Michele Knecht.

UOIT came back in the second period with Tori Campbell in net, determined to break the goal deficit.

The Ridgebacks fought hard to keep the puck out of their zone, but Queen’s scored two goals in two minutes, both by Shawna Griffin during two separate power plays.

Fighting hard, 47 seconds later UOIT’s captain, Melissa Berney, scored the team’s first goal of the night, assisted by Nicole LoPresti. It was Berney’s first of the season. Fans breathed a sigh of relief as UOIT got on the board and were back in the game.

Morale picked up in the third, and the Ridgebacks banged their sticks against the boards to encourage their teammates on the ice. Both, Queen’s —eager to keep its lead, and UOIT eager to break it — were focused on dominating.

It was only with just over a minute left in the third that UOIT’s Chelsea Ball, assisted by Mikaeli Cavell, scored the team’s second goal during a power play, the only goal of the period.

It was the Ridgebacks second straight loss after breaking a nine-game losing streak last weekend.

Nystrom says many people see this season as a rebuilding year for the team, but she sees it as something else.

“We lost five quality players last year. Those quality players, grads, contributed greatly from an offensive standpoint and from a defensive standpoint. So, when you lose those players, I’m not calling it a rebuilding year, I think that this year is a transition year,” Nystrom said.

UOIT is 11th in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) standings and no longer vying for a playoff spot. With four games left in the season Nystrom says the next couple of games will be a challenge, but she hopes to finish the season on a strong note.

Durham athletics top OCAA leaderboard Durham College teams have carried their success into 2015 as the Lords basketball and volleyball programs are rolling heading into post season play.

The men’s basketball team is hosting the provincial championship from March 6-8. They were recently named the OCAA team of the week. The Lords sit in first place in the OCAA east region with a 14-2 record, having won seven straight games.

The team has also been recognized by the OCAA, as they announced the Lords are 12th in the national polls. Despite an almost undefeated record, the Lords fell to the St. Lawrence Vikings 70-88 on Feb. 4.

Also moving up the OCAA rankings is the men’s volleyball team, who are at a season-high fourth in the national polls.

Durham has steamrolled the competition this season, sporting a perfect 16-0 record heading into the final weeks of the regular season. The Lords have clinched the OCAA east region title and a bye to the provincial championship hosted by St. Clair. The last time Durham finished with an undefeated conference record was back in 2006 when the Lords won an OCAA silver medal.

On the women’s side of the court, the basketball team has won three of their last four games and is currently sitting fourth in the OCAA east region, four points ahead

of the Loyalist Lancers. Lindsay Panchan, from Ajax, who has just returned from a shoulder injury, is leading the nation in scoring, averaging 25.2 points per game.

If the sport management major bumps up her average over 26 points per game by season’s end, she will have had the most productive season in OCAA history. The current record is 26.0 points per game, held by Danielle D’Ettorre from Algoma in 2007.

In women’s volleyball, the Lords have won 10 of their 12 past games and are among the league leaders atop of the OCAA east region standings. With two games remaining in their regular season, the Lords will look clinch a home playoff game and possibly leapfrog Seneca and Canadore for a bye directly to the OCAA championship.

After a 0-3 start, head coach Tony Clarke has turned the team’s fortunes around which was highlighted this past week with a 3-0 sweep of the first place Georgian Grizzlies.

Most recently, the four programs have fallen short at the championship, not having won a medal since 2006. With the OCAA championships for all four teams around the corner, the Lords will look to continue their winning ways and earn a spot back on the podium.

Courtesy of Durham Athletics

WELCOME BACK: Lindsay Panchan returns to the court for the Lords following a shoulder injury. Panchan currently leads the nation in scoring averaging 25.2 points per game.

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February 10, 2015

VIP night for alumni Emma Nicholls The Chronicle

Finger foods, VIP area seating and a sold-out Oshawa Generals game made a great evening for about one hundred Durham College (DC) graduates and staff.

The DC Alumni Office sponsored the matchup between the Peterborough Petes and Oshawa Generals on January 30, with a VIP booth set up for students and staff to catch up and watch the drama on the ice.

“I’m not a huge hockey fan but I support my local sports,” said Mich Thomson, a returning graduate currently enrolled in Court Support Services.

Thomson sat in the VIP area and watched the game with fellow graduates and staff, and decided to attend because it was an alumni event.

The Alumni Office also had a table set up near the front entrance with a chance to win some prizes including Maple Leafs tickets, a hockey stick signed by many of the Leafs players, and some Durham College swag.

Students and alumni fill out forms for prizes, and even a few curious individuals looking to start their college career with questions about Durham’s programs.

Courtesy of Durham Athletics

FINGERS CROSSED: The UOIT Ridgebacks are hoping to advance to round two of the playoffs this season.

Emma Nicholls

VIP TREATMENT: Durham College alumni stop by the table to fill out ballots for prizes and college swag.

“I’m a lifelong Oshawa Generals fan,” said Chris Gill, structures engineering manager for Bell Canada for southwestern Ontario.

“I used to have season tickets from the time I was eight years old until I was about 18.”

Gill graduated from the electrical engineering program in 1988 with about 15 other students, he said.

Gill is also a member of the Alumni Board for Durham College.

“I’m seeing the student body

grow from when I went to college, roughly around 1,200 students to what, 20,000 (including UOIT) now so the growth has been amazing,” he said.

“The college is in good hands, our workforce is in good hands.”

It was a close game, with the Peterborough Petes tying the score in the last few minutes of the third period, bringing the game into overtime.

The Petes won 5-4, ending the Generals’ seven-game winning streak.

Playoff hopeful

The UOIT men’s hockey team knows when and where the opening game of their first round playoff series will be taking place, they just don’t know who they will be facing (at the Chronicle deadline).

The Ridgebacks will host game one of their opening round playoff series on Wed. Feb. 11 at the Campus Ice Centre after closing out the regular season with a 4-3 victory over the Concordia Stingers.

With a 10-15-1-conference record, the Ridgebacks finished in seventh place in the OUA eastern conference

and will match up against the number two seed in the opening round of the postseason.

UOIT is no stranger to the playoffs, having qualified in four of the last five seasons.

Although the Ridgebacks have never advanced to round two, there is a lot of optimism heading into this series with a new energy brought to the team by firstyear head coach Craig Fisher.

There are a lot of incentives to head to the arena on Wednesday night to support the Ridgebacks with plenty of great prizes and promotions.

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February 10, 2015

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February 10, 2015