SUMMER / 2013
EMERGE
What’s next for the >overindulged underpaid PLUGGED-IN d
i s c o n n e c t e d
mainstream hipster
CONTR ADICTORY
Millennial Babies?
*LANG AMANDA on
success, failure & curiosity
Letter from the Editors January was an optimistic time. We built our teams and started getting a feel for the bureaucracy that was student self-governing. It was in our first all-students meeting when we learned that some of the biggest challenges would be interpersonal ones. For the magazine, website, app, conference and social media campaign all to work, we needed to organize over 160 Media Studies students in four unique streams of specialization into working parts, and figure out ways to bridge the gaps in communication and geography to create what you now hold in your hands. It was also in that first month that our executive team hammered out our magazine's goal, mandate, and theme; providing a framework for everyone to pitch stories. We were overwhelmed with enthusiastic and interesting ideas from journalism students. Although not all of those ideas could make it into the magazine, we're really proud of those that did.
February was all about the pitches – and not just the ones on page. The story ideas came f looding in, and as execs we were thrilled to see the level of creativity put forth by our peers. We dug through almost 100 story ideas, added a few of our own, and glued a few together to create a line-up that best reflects the magazine’s goals and our unique generation. Then came the assigning. In our February class, we handpicked our writers. This choice was based partly on their writing style, but mostly on their interests. We wanted this magazine to be loaded with passion, so writers were assigned topics they care about. Our sports stories have been written by our obsessed Toronto sports fans. Our hip-hop story is written by our music experts. Our pet story is written by our biggest animal lover–you get the idea! With our writers unleashed, the work of art and style also began. Each story was paired with an image arts student to create awesome visuals that enhance the stories. By March final drafts began rolling in. Deadlines that loomed a few shorts weeks before had finally hit. It was editing time. This was what would make a difference between a story and an epic, a jump and a leap, a point in time and an unforgettable experience. It meant long hours at the computer screen, inputting suggestions, and weaving ideas. This was the moment for Emerge contributors to shine more than glisten and to open the realms of limitless possibility. This was our Emerge Magazine, Spring 2013.
Before we knew it, April was upon us and the hot air spewing from the mouths of optimistic students in January had brought the newsroom temperature to a sweltering heat. We chatted less frequently, drank more coffee, and wore the same outfit on consecutive days. Some guys even sported neck beards like they were fashion statements. The pressure of living up to promises first made in January was significant, but so too was our commitment to produce a magazine we could be proud of and that our audience would want to read. In your hands (or on your screen) is the culmination of those efforts. Pride is a feeling that permeates our newsroom now that our work is done and we hope that you extract the same level of satisfaction from reading Emerge as we did in making it. We knew from the start that this would be the most ambitious issue of Emerge to date. Combining four media streams would be no walk in the park. But this effort would take us from a class putting out a post-secondary magazine to one that launched a multi-media start-up. Adventure doesn’t begin to describe the whirlwind of a journey producing this magazine has been. We invite you to peruse the pages within and compare today’s hipster to one from the 50s [p10-11], continue the much-needed debate on virginity in the modern age [p32], and feast your eyes on a fashionable treat with styles from the street [p36]. George Pereira, Grant Tabler, Sarah Voigt, Stephanie Young
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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> contents > FEAtures
TORONTO
8 what’s at your ttc stop?
A tool for finding the interesting and unexpected.
10 defining the hipster Hipsters don’t like to be classified. We give it a shot anyway.
11 hipster evolution From the 50’s to now, hipsters of yesteryear.
12 VINTAGE TORONTO
The city’s coolest historical hot spots.
16 Trending Tea in T.O. I scream, you scream, we all scream for... tea? What’s all the buzz about?
18 The Naked truth Do you have proper strip club etiquette?
20 Amanda Lang
Talking success with CBC’s Amanda Lang of the Lang & O’ Leary Exchange.
23 Grad School
You’ve graduated. Now what? Emerge examines the options.
24 Culture of Free
Unpaid internships: economic exploitation of Millennial desperation.
28 surviVor stories
Two young people triumph over fear – and cancer.
c over photo illustration nicole medeiros
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30 INside the
bubblewrap It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a helicopter parent!
32 V-Card.
Have you Lost it? Defining virginity is more complex than you think.
34 Eco-Fashion DESIGNERS
Do you know any eco-friendly designers in Toronto? We do.
36 Street Style
Emerge hits the streets of Toronto to see what fashion accessories will never go out of style.
entertainment & tech
Health & fitness 44 NO sweat
Our Q&A with athlete-turnedmotivational speaker Martin Reader.
46 Toronto Sports Curse The Leafs, Raptors, Jays, and TFC. Why is there such a losing professional sports culture in Toronto?
49 floorball
Like hockey. Only faster.
50 Hospital of the future Women’s College rebuilds Toronto health care from the ground up.
.
52 No Artificial Ingredients
Aspirin isn’t the only solution to pain.
56 Toronto’s Urban
Radio: An Obituary
Hip-Hip’s not dead. So what killed its voice in T.O?
58
The player character
Of Marios and Men.
Living 64 three exotic getaways
Beyond the Caribbean.
67 travelling for dummies 5 essential tips for stress-free flying.
60 The test of time
69 pick of the litter
62 No Social Media
70 5 to 9
Games come and go. Which ones do you remember?
Experiment
How long could you last?
Thinking of owning a pet? Here’s what you should know. Make the most out of free time. Tackle it like your work day.
72 The NEXT GENERATION Back to the Future: In its own words.
74 GRANT’S RANT
54 Rendezvous with madness
Youth mental health: the sound of silence – and solutions.
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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M AG A Z I N E
EMERGE Executive Editor
Editor-in-Chief
Managing Editors
Grant Tabler
George Pereira
Sarah Voigt Stephanie Young
ART & PRODUCTION
photo
Art Directors Alyssa Mahadeo Photography Coordinators Tiia Dodge Julian Mensah Magdalena Kapela Demi Yang-Osmond Photo Assistants Meaghan Declerq Daniela Mitrovic Assistant Art Director Kharrissa Oosthuyzen Alex Moretto Designers Lauren Choi Jessica Raymond Meghan Filicetti Nicholas Fernandes (TTC Project) Lili Niu video Production Rudy Persaud Alexia Reid Coordinator Noah Lipsyc Section & Story Editors Leanne Benn, Shakiyl Cox, Patrick Dennis, Jessica Elliott, Brittnee Fleming, Meghan Foley, Colin Hegarty, Brittany Johnston, Kaaleen Joseph, Jill Kwasniak, Dellia Rismay Editor-at-Large
Jessica Ingold Copy and research Copy Coordinator Copy Assistants
Daria Semionova Paulina Abad Nadine Skinner
Research Coordinators Peter Baracchini
Kerone McWhinney Research Assistant Eunice Wu
editing and fact-checking Staff Himat Jutla Jovana Mitrovic Kaaleen Joseph Alex Moretto Jill Kwasniak Krystal Seecharan Amaury Loranca Shaganaa Sivaloganathan Assistant Editor (Fashion) Monica Purba EMERGE Conference Event Planning & Coverage Coordinators Paulina Abad
Krystal Seecharan
Reporters Megan Lindsay
Branka Veselinovic
mobile development Faculty digital and social media Coordinators Assistant Editor Video
Brandon Graham Marie Mulowayi Demi Yang-Osmond Meghan Foley Jovana Mitrovic
Team
Adriana Cellucci Mike Di Bratto Alborz Jesmi Kevin Sanabria Marlon Wallace
Publisher Jerry Chomyn Faculty Advisors Jasmine Kabiling Kimberley Noble Design Consultant John Bullock
Emerge Magazine • University of Guelph-Humber • 207 Humber College Blvd. • Toronto, Ontario M9W 5L7 6
emerge | summer 2013
8 10 12 16 18
TTC Map Defining the Hipster Vintage Toronto Tea Boom The Naked Truth
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WHAT’S AT YOUR Bathurst
Snakes and lattes 600 Bloor Street West (647) 342-9229 www.snakesandlattes.com Snakes and Lattes customers pay $5 and choose from more than 2,000 board, card, dice and other games. The business, on the Koreatown strip west of Bathurst, hosts regular events including tournaments, fundraisers and testing sessions for prospective game designers. Founder Ben Castanie is expanding the space to accommodate group reservations, and launching a new ‘Snakes on the Go’ program to allow customers to sign out games and play in a venue of their choice.
To see what’s at YOUR TTC stop, go online to: emergemagazine.ca
Runnymede Fresh and Wild
2294 Bloor Street West (416) 769-2857 www.freshandwild.ca Looking for a different grocery shopping experience? Fresh and Wild is for you. This store harkens back to traditional grocery stores from the mid-20th century, offering fresh produce, organic foods, and specialty and gourmet ingredients.
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R TTC STOP?
by NICK FERNANDES photography by NICK FERNANDES AND TIIA DODGE illustration by adriana cellucci
additional reporting
TIIA DODGE, KAALEEN JOSEPH AND NADINE SKINNER
Coxwell
Danforth bowl 1554 Danforth Avenue (416) 463-3000 www.danforthbowl.ca Nestled into a basement under the Danforth, this bowling alley includes everything that you need for great bowling: snacks, a fully-stocked bar and six lanes. Because Danforth Bowl is such a small venue, booking ahead is necessary, especially if you are having a party. Weekends feature ‘rock and bowl’ nights when the lights are dimmed and the lanes are filled with colour.
Dundas
Silver snail 329 Yonge Street (416) 593-0889 www.silversnail.com The Silver Snail has one of the biggest selections of comic books and collectibles in the city: new issues, vintage copies, omnibuses and graphic novels, plus action figures, models, busts and games. Its branch of The Black Canary Espresso Bar, a hipster café, features a full range of coffee and pastries as well as a signature Nutellaflavoured espresso and cappucino.
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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Toronto
*DefininG theHipster
y
ou’ve seen them lurking just about
everywhere, from thrift stores to boutiques. Their choice of style is second to none, and their bold fashion sense is eye-grabbing, as much as they’d like to go unnoticed. The hipster trend is one of the fastest growing subcultures today. It is also very much underground. It’s rare for hipsters to even admit to being part of it. “I think a hipster is somebody who goes against the grain in terms of what they wear, like hippies back in the day,” says Toronto stand-up comedy host Marc-Anthony Sinagoga. “I think, ironically, hipsters are becoming mainstream in terms of style.” With media promoting this underground lifestyle on songs like “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore, it becomes hard for mainstream culture to avoid. The rising popularity of boutiques and thrift shops means certain fashion elements from the subculture have made their way into the wardrobes of non-hipster people. Yet hipsters thrive on the obscure or unknown. They will follow a band and love their music to the core, but the second the artist starts making money, signs to a major label or gains a bit of notoriety, they are no longer considered obscure, or exclusive enough in the eyes of a hipster. “I think mainstream is unattractive for hipsters because they want to be a part of something that they can call their own,” says MTV Showtown’s Paul Lemieux. “I think the subculture is fine. Let them do their own thing. They’re not hurting
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anyone. They’re just smoking a J in the park,” Lemieux says, referring to the hipster drug du jour –marijuana. The hipster style is very easy to pick out, especially on downtown Toronto’s Queen Street. Sinagoga describes a typical outfit from the feet up: “Some sort of chalk-blue moccasins with striped socks that my grandfather gave me, some skinny jeans that are a pale purple, a faded Rolling Stones shirt with a tan vest, a fedora and those box Ray Ban glasses. I would have the biggest comb over out there. But it’s kind of one of those comb-overs that’s ‘wild and free,’ one of those big Johnny Bravo comb-overs.” Urban Outfitters, Topman, as well as various boutique stores downtown are places to go if you are trying to dress like this. Karmaloop.com is also a safe bet with a variety of popular hipster brands that aren’t technically mainstream. Thrift stores like Value Village and the Salvation Army are places to go if you don’t want to pay retail price for clothing. There is plenty of authentically retro clothing at secondhand stores, which are often a gold mine for jean jackets, retro crewneck sweaters and more. For all its easily discernible style, the hipster is an elusive beast. Hipsters don’t hang out any place the average person knows about, because that would be mainstream. Lemieux has it all figured out. “On a Friday night you would find them at a health store because I don’t think they go out on Friday nights, really. If they do, they
by SHAKIYL COX photos DANNIKA MOSES would go to a bar, but then there’s a bar underneath and then they would be drinking Blue Ribbon [beer] because they go on sale Friday nights.” What’s interesting about a lot of hipsters is that they don’t like to be categorized as such, because they value their individuality so much. Don’t believe it? Try and approach a suspected hipster on the street and you’ll get shut down. Hipsters pride themselves on being unknown, mysterious and unlike the norm. For this breed, categorization equals predictability – the cardinal sin of hipsterdom and its doctrine of fashionable obscurity. To be accused of being predictable is to be accused of being mainstream, an inexcusable offense. They don’t like to blend in. “A hipster during Movember must hate life because you can’t tell between someone who’s supporting research for cancer and someone who’s a hipster,” says Lemieux. “Hipsters don’t appreciate that, they need that little thing [for] themselves.” Ironically, this subculture has become extremely popular and mainstream, which is exactly what hipsters want to avoid at all costs. Even celebrities are seen in skinny jeans with big-framed glasses. So: if hipsters who want to remain different are becoming more popular and prevalent, what’s next for them? “The hipster we know and love today only has a couple more years,” Lemieux says. “When everyone becomes a hipster, the hipsters are going to hate that and [are] going to move on to something else.”
Hipsters Throughout The Ages Every era has its own version of a hipster: edgy, ‘too cool for school’ attitude, and an intentional ‘effortless’ look (oh the irony!) See if you can spot the hipster in these different time periods. Rewinding back to the early 50’s all the way through the 20th century, these dated subcultures are looking awfully familiar against our modern-day hipster.
1950’s Beatniks/ Rockers They may not be hanging out in a coffee shop, but these guys are the ‘cool cats’ of their shacks. Dressed in soiled jackets, shapeless sweaters over mini skirts or dirt stained pants, these intolerably ‘square’ teens band together in their escapist hideouts listening to rock music and having sophisticated discussions of social protest; all the while skipping class.
1980’s Punks There isn’t a more appropriate time to be rebellious punk than one of recent history’s most conservative decades. While reviving the 50’s and adding retro elements, the punks also fostered a DIY movement; collage images and graphic design aesthetics were hardcore and authentic. It’s no wonder Pinterest users have a high volume of hipsters looking to make their own rock-studded knick-knacks.
by LAUREN CHOI illustrations MEGAN LUNN
1960’s Flower Power Hippies Growing influence from the U.S. and increased corruption of conformity gave rise to a whole breed of bearded men and braless women. Both genders shared bell-bottomed jeans, headbands and second-hand garments washed in tie-dyed colours. Coming together for jam sessions, one would typically pull out a guitar, perhaps strum a Janis Joplin tune and talk ‘peace and love’ going against government violence and politics.
1990’s Grunge Look to Nirvana and you’ll see the common trend in low-riding tattered jeans, rarely-buttoned up flannel shirts and loose t-shirts. Taking punk to new heights, these heavy jammers were inspired by metal and lyrics full of teenage angst. Nothing describes hipsters better than ‘teen spirit’.
2000’s Indies The indie film industry began to emerge, and people consequently identify with the hipster’s social functions. It’s all about being counter-hegemonic and alternative. In the same way indie cinema possessed these qualities, so did hipster music and fashion. Sporting a mod/rocker look (as if their tight pants would even allow for them play a sport), these indies consider themselves intellectual, artistic and avantgarde. Not much of a stretch from hipsters today.
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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Toronto
Vintage TORONTO by eunice wu photos daniela mitrovic
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st. james cathedral Originally built of wood in 1807 as the �church at York�, this Gothic Revival cathedral is the fourth Anglican Church on the same site. The church contains an extensive collection of documents relating to the early history of the city. Each Sunday, The Guild of Change Ringers operates Canada’s only full set of 12 change-ringing bells. When the sun shines through the stain glass of the cathedral, the beautifully-designed images not only reveal themselves, but also tell stories of the encounter of God and humanity.
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DISTILLERY DISTRICT The Distillery District, once The Gooderham & Worts Distillery, was founded in 1832 by brothersin-law William Gooderham and James Worts. It was the biggest distillery in the British Empire and for a time, the world. After the founders died Gooderham’s son ran the distillery. More than a decade after it closed in 1990, a commercial development company restored the distillery and its more than 40 Victorian buildings. The distillery has been transformed into a well-preserved National Historic Site that’s home to art galleries, studios, shops, restaurants and cafés.
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DOMINION HOTEL On the northwest corner of Queen Street East and Sumach Street sits one of the oldest hotels in Downtown Toronto. The Dominion Hotel, built in 1889, stands while others around it have been demolished or replaced with modern skyscrapers. Rober t T. Davies, a relative of Thomas Davies who founded the nearby Don Brewery, was the first owner of the hotel. It was declared a heritage proper t y in 1973 and is protected from alterations or demolition.
ENOCH turner SCHOOL HOUSE The schoolhouse, one of the oldest buildings in Toronto, represents the history of the evolution of education in the city. Built in 1848 by local brewer Enoch Turner, it was the first free school in Toronto. Turner wanted to provide free education to children in the neighbourhood whose families couldn’t afford tuition fees. Between 1859 and 1960, the building was used as a Sunday school and served as a military recruitment centre and home for service men. In the 1960s, the dilapidated schoolhouse was threatened with demolition. It was saved and restored by concerned citizens and architect Eric Ar thur. The schoolhouse is now a National Historic Site and a museum that contains records relating to its history.
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toronto
Trending Tea
In T.O.
by JILL KWASNIAK photos JEReMAINE EBANKS
V
ibrant leaves are plucked off lively bushes and gathered in foreign lands. These leaves are then dried, sometimes crushed and steeped into billions of cups around the world. The aroma and taste of these leaves deliver our senses into places unknown. Tea has been transformed over the past centuries becoming one of the common drinks of choice. Today, tea is not only considered for its many health benefits; it’s also acclaimed for its social properties as well as hundreds of unique f lavours. According to the Tea Association of Canada, Canadians drink around nine billion cups of tea each year. Additionally, the organization has found that specialty tea has gained a notable increase and has acquired 60 per cent of the market share today. In Toronto, there are many teashops and cafes catering to a wide variety of cultures. With more than 25 years in the business, Marisha Golla runs one of Toronto’s teashops, House of Tea, located on Yonge Street. Being Sri Lankan, Golla has grown
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I thought this was “ something different that people could do for a celebration or an event. Grace Ursini
”
with the tea industry. Her profession includes being a tea taster, someone who has been trained in the ability to grade specific teas. Golla has seen a wide array of people from different origins and ages come into her shop. She explains the important difference between loose and bagged teas. “Tea comes from different countries and they are accordingly graded and then sold,” says Golla. “When they manufacture this amount of tea there is some remaining which is called sweepings and that is what goes into tea bags.” Grace Ursini has been in the tea industry since 2009. Instead of specializing in a teashop, Ursini developed a catering business in the GTA. “I love tea and I love social gatherings so I thought this was something different that people could do for a celebration or an event,” says Ursini. Ursini’s business, Totally Tea, has catered to all sorts of occasions such as bridal showers, anniversaries, birthday parties and even graduations. Ursini explains that the typical tea party would last around
two hours, which includes a buffet complete with fine china and silverware. She adds that the main reason for planning a modern tea party is to be able to engage with your company. “Not only are you the host but you can also be a part of the party without having to worry about running in and out or setting up tables. You can enjoy your guests.” Ursini has seen first-hand the rapid growth in the tea industry because of how fast her business has boomed.” The tea trend is hot now, judging by my business and it’s not just for women.” She hopes to branch out into the corporate world and has even seen an increase in younger crowds tired of going to bars, asking for birthday tea parties.” Young people are really enjoying it. It’s not just restricted to showers anymore,” she said. According to the Canadian Food Trends of 2020, tea is expected to grow in the food and drink industry over the next decade due to its added health benefits as a hot beverage. Alyssa Garrison, head of marketing at Tealish in Toronto, highlighted the several different types of tea and their added health benefits. “At Tealish, there are seven different types of tea including oolong, white, green and black that all come from the Camellia Sinensis plant grown in different places and processed in different ways,” says Garrison. “Black tea is fermented with the least amount of health benefits, but it’s good for coffee drinkers.”
Garrison adds that green tea is high in anti-oxidants while white tea is the least processed of teas, giving it the highest number of health benefits.” Every single tea has different health benefits,” says Garrison. Raspberry leaf tea is high in iron. The African red tea bush has no caffeine in it. It’s a natural antiinflammatory and it also a good hydrator, which is really good if you’re hung over or have cramps.” She believes that tea is particularly popular today because of an overall sense of health concerns. She explains that the increase in more modern teashops in Toronto has led to more of an exciting atmosphere. “Now, with lots of exciting blends, there’s something for everybody. There’s a whole world of tea to explore.”
History of Tea Anna, The Seventh Duchess of Bedford, is credited with the invention of high afternoon tea, after she asked maids to bring her tea and sandwiches in between meals for her and her friends.
The Japanese tea ceremony involves the art of preparation and presentation of Matcha, a powdered green tea and is still practiced today.
According to the Tea Association of Canada, Chinese Emperor Shen Nung discovered tea in 2737 B.C., when a leaf fell into the bowl of hot water he was drinking.
In India, tea has been used for medicinal properties dating back to 500 BCE.
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Toronto
The naked truth Strip clubs and burlesque shows are two social settings where an exposed body is to be expected. But remember: nudity – whether full or partial – is no excuse for bad manners
by magdalena kapela photos dannika moses
Burlesque There is a fine but distinct line between the
performances at a burlesque show and what happens at a strip club. “Burlesque is a striptease,” says Fionna Flauntit, burlesque performer and co-founder of the Great Canadian Burlesque. “It’s about the art of tease not the art of a full nude reveal.” Adds Charlie Quinn, a freelance burlesque dancer in Toronto: “There should never be exposed nipples or full frontal nudity during a performance.” People attending a burlesque show should expect fantastic, elaborate costumes as well as fun and empowering performances by women of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities, Flauntit explains. Because the show consists of performers peeling off their clothes, sometimes a few articles of clothing end up in the audience. If a performer asks you to remove a glove for her, or throws a piece of clothing at you, it’s expected that the item will be returned to her. “We’ve had pieces go missing, and some of these pieces are encrusted with Swarovski crystals,” says Quinn. “A lot of the costumes are expensive, and many of the performers make their own costumes.” The general rule for most theatre audiences is to stay quiet and show their appreciation at
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the end of the act. This custom does not hold true for burlesque, where the performers feed off the audience. Hooting, hollering, clapping and whistling are all acceptable methods of encouragement during a performance. “You can hoot and holler. The louder you are the more she’s going to take off,” says Flauntit. “We really react and connect with the audience when they are expressive.” Vulgar words and swearing, on the other hand, are not accepted. “Saying something like ‘show me your tits’ is inappropriate. Like, we’re getting there,” says Dolly Berlin, who has been performing for four years.. Tipping is not customary in the Toronto burlesque scene. If you are pleased with the performance and want to show your appreciation to the performer, Flauntit says there is no better compliment than a standing ovation.
Strip clubs Tim Lambrinos is the executive director of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada, which ensures entertainers understand the limitations of their acts, as well as the laws they must adhere to. “The rules are put in place by the service providers, and they are the ones that are best in line to ensure conformity with laws. The service providers in this case are the entertainers and they’re aware of the rules,” says Lambrinos. “Customers will find out in a hurry what the rules are.” Recently, the no-touch rule was amended. “When providing services at an adult entertainment club, an entertainer is not permitted to touch, sit, rest on, or make any physical contact with the covered, partially covered, or uncovered breasts, buttocks, genital, pubic, anal and perineal areas of a patron or any other person,” says Lambrinos.
The only physical contact permitted in a strip club is a sexy handshake or a shoulder rub. The reality of the industry, however, can be different. “As much as it might say there’s no touching, there’s never no touching,” says Red Herring, an international burlesque performer who has worked as an exotic dancer. “But if a girl says no touching, you are not allowed to touch.” Torontonians aren’t as open-handed as our neighbours to the south, who tip generously during stage shows. Lambrinos says tipping at Ontario strip clubs happens infrequently, and isn’t an expectation. But if you are going to tip, he suggests you make it rain—not hail. Some provinces, such as Alberta, allow loonies and toonies to be tossed on stage during a performance. The “toonie toss,” however, is not an accepted method of tipping in this province. “I think you’d be thrown out if you attempted that in Ontario,” says Lambrinos. At strip shows, if you sit at the stage, you need to remember to control your mouth. “Don’t do that open-mouth tongue-wagging thing because it’s not attractive, says Red Herring. “Nowhere in nature is that attractive. I grew up on a farm and it makes me think of cow tongue.” As a final rule, exotic dancers aren’t keen on female customers who try to outstrip them. “If you are a female in the strip club and you are not a stripper, don’t get on stage and start dancing,” says Herring. “Don’t get on stage and take off your top. And just don’t get on stage.”
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Amanda Lang Grad School Unpaid Internships Cancer Survivors Helicopter Parents Defining Virginity Toronto Designers Street Style
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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feature
AmandaLang J
CBC’s Amanda Lang talks about life, her book, and the importance of failure ournalist, broadcaster, author, mother,
fashionista, businesswoman and dragon tamer. Amanda Lang is a woman with shoes that are hard to fill. Some attribute her many accomplishments to confidence and charisma. Others may argue that her formidable reputation owes something to her signature stylish stilettos, click-clacking everywhere she goes, earning her the nickname “Thumper” in the CBC newsroom. Growing up in Winnipeg, Lang says she could not have imagined her life today: filling in for Peter Mansbridge’s as news anchor at Canada’s public broadcaster, and sparring with the country’s most controversial dragon, businessman broadcaster Kevin O’Leary. Lang delivers more than business, brains and beauty to Canadian audiences. As a mother and newly-published author, she is determined to communicate a message of individual innovation to the younger generation in her best-selling book The Power of Why. The book weaves Lang’s personal experiences and professional insights into a sparkling read that explores the importance of curiosity and the effectiveness of asking questions—which, she maintains, is a more important quality and skill for young people than any other career advice. Lang, who originally studied architecture, says she
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by JESSICA ELLIOTT photos IVY LIN
never thought about journalism as a career—let alone as her chance to make an impact on the world of business, media and innovation. “It had literally never occurred to me as a profession,” she says. Her first job was a paper route in Winnipeg, where at the age of 12 she began her first steps down her eventual career path. She describes her second job, at fast food restaurant Dairy Queen, as one of the most memorable of her life. That’s where she learned teenagers rarely take work ethic seriously. “When me and my friend weren’t raiding the toppings in the back, we would hide,” she recalls. “ When the bell rang that a customer had arrived, we would race to the back of the lot and the one who lost would have to serve the customer.” Lang says this job was an important moment in her life. It was also the first time she got fired. Evidently, Dairy Queen doesn’t like when its employees send their twin sister to work for them. “I was busted for that, and at the time I was 14 and didn’t think about the business owner and what it meant to them,” she says. “The point of the story is when you are not engaged and you don’t understand that what you do matters. You do goof off and you don’t give it your all, and so many people do this as adults.” Journalism came to Lang by chance. After getting a job
One of the “ great things about being young is we learn for a living.�
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amandad lang // continued from P21
working for the Globe and Mail as a receptionist, she began pitching stories and realized she was doing something she loved. “I became interested in journalism because of the romance of it,” she says. “They ran the printing press every day at the Globe then, with this giant five-storey room and this huge machine would rumble to life every night at seven. And the newsroom seemed so romantic. It was the stuff out of movies.” Doing what she loved led to business journalism, first as a reporter for The Financial Post, and next as a broadcaster for the Globe and Mail’s business news networks. This turned into her current position as a senior business correspondent at CBC News—and her now-famous pairing with Kevin O’Leary from CBC’s Dragon’s Den. On their daytime show, The Lang & O’Leary Exchange, the two are known for being blunt, honest and entertaining. Despite their on-air arguments, Lang thinks highly of O’Leary. “Kevin is very smart,” Lang says. “He is someone who has a first-class mind and he is also very unpredictable, and that makes him fun.” Adds Lang: “The most-asked question I get about Kevin is, ‘Is he really such an insert nasty word here?’” she says. “ The thing I always say is he may come across that way, but there is not a mean bone in his body. He makes me laugh.” Even with a family and a fast-paced career
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keeping her busy, Lang says she wanted to pursue something else. After decades in the media industry, Lang had many thoughts about productivity in Canada. Those thoughts became a series of stories about real people and how individual innovation and curiosity gave them success and gratification in work and life. In the end, Lang says, it is that self-confident approach and the power of curiosity that she wanted to convey in her book, one of four finalists for the 2012 National Book Award.
“if you’re not happy doing what you’re doing, you’re probably not going to be good at it.” “People seemed interested in the approach I was taking, and it all sort of came together in a serendipitous way. It was an amazing experience.” Lang knew that she wanted the book to “help people see their life in a new way. The level of workplace engagement is terrifyingly low, and when you’re not engaged and not connecting, your brain isn’t working the way it’s supposed to work. Let your brain be as curious as it wants to be. It’s a powerful thing.” Lang is proof that her approach works.
She clearly enjoys the pleasures of her daily routine, which usually consists of a morning workout, taking her son to school and starting her workday with astory meeting for the Lang & O’Leary Exchange. Dressed in a form-fitting bright emerald dress, black stilettos, tousled hair and barely-tinted lips, Lang looks effortlessly put together. But she radiates energy, bringing a burst of light and laughter to the morning story meeting, where all eyes are on her. Lang—whose on-air poise and skill have made her Mansbridge’s heir apparent—says there are many talented people who could fill that position. She says that while she appreciates this compliment, she views this prediction primarily as flattery. She prefers to focus on daily challenges, and to take advantage of the opportunities they present to her. A fierce believer in overcoming rejection to get what you want, whatever path life takes, Lang encourages young people to be perseverent, and to keep asking questions. “One of the great things about being young is we learn for a living,” Lang says. “Everything should be treated as an opportunity to learn something. So even when we fail or screw up or it doesn’t go how we wanted, look at it and say ‘How could I do it differently?’” Above all, she says, young people learn, and focus on, what makes you happy. “There is no point on beating yourself up about anything.”
feature
Mastering your masters Is it necessary? And are you doing it for the right reasons?
by kerone mcwhinney illustration alborz jesmi
d
yl an Defreitas , 20 years old, sits at the table with his parents discussing his recent acceptance into Humber College for a twoyear photography program. For years, photography has been his passion and he is excited to finally be on track to finish school.Eventually, Defreitas wants to own a photography studio. When the topic of what he will be doing after his program comes up, Defreitas brushes it off, confident that he will have the knowledge and experience to be able to get into his field very early. But what about a master’s degree? “Absolutely not,” he replies without skipping a beat. To Defreitas, earning a master’s means a person “has worked extremely hard and put in endless time to better themselves and their knowledge in the field of their choice”.” But he also believes that people can get the same level of understanding and knowledge by working in a job or profession. However, according to Service Canada, a master’s degree or higher is now becoming an requirement for many types of employment. Job seekers in fields such as social work,
not a guarantee “ it’s of financial success.”
journalism and economics will find that opportunities will be few and far between unless they an MA or MSc under their belts. In fact, some people see today’s master’s degree, or its equivalent, as the new undergraduate degree. “In a day and age where more people are going to university and companies are looking for more qualifications on a person’s resume, graduating high school is almost never enough to find a good career,” says Jessica Alexander, a student completing her second degree. “Now getting an undergraduate degree is barely any better.” Alexander is working at PetSmart. “I am not employed in my chosen career, which is teaching. However, I do go to an all-boys’ Catholic high school once a week and teach History, Civics and Law.” Alexander enjoys her placement and hopes that new opportunities will develop as she furthers her academic career. Damon Davis has worked in many jobs: doing market research and sales, hosting a radio program, as a guidance and private counsellor, lecturing psychology at a university, and as a school psychological consultant. After completing his master’s degree in counselling psychology, Davis went continued on to a postgraduate degree in education. He is currently working toward a PhD in clinical psychology. “I see a master’s degree as an
indication of my knowledge or mastery over a discreet set of information pertaining to the topic of study,” says Davis. “ I also recognize it as an indication of ability to learn, innovate and apply knowledge and skills along with demonstrating good executive functioning “ including the ability to organize, solve problem and plan. According to Davis, people should want to complete a master’s degree not for the name or status but because of personal drive. “You will never know what you can accomplish until you stretch yourself. It is also a joy to meet people from different backgrounds and like mindedness during your studies,” he says. “Often a higher degree will weed out students who are just along for the ride and gives an indication of an individual with vision and determination. These are traits that cannot be taught by teachers but can be infected from your peers.” Looking at the value of a master’s degree from a purely financial perspective, Davis says that wanting a higher status should not be the basis for getting an MA. He goes on to state that, while status can be acquired from many things, and even though those with a master’s have a higher median income, “it is not a guarantee of financial success”. Defreitas believes that job opportunities would be the key factor for many people teetering on the edge of deciding whether or not to further their education–acknowleging that employers would rather have someone with a master’s degree over someone who doesn’t. But for now, Defreitas is comfortable with his decision to head into the work force rather than not to pursue his master’s degree. “I’m already here, working in a photography studio,” he says. “ I’m very happy and I already feel very successful.” summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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feature
Culture Of
free
Unpaid internships and the Marxian worth of experience by daria semionova photo paul seymand research Jessica Ingold
a
ndre, a one-time animator who asked that I use a pseu-
donym instead of his real name (like a spy), was hired to do some unpaid 3D modelling at Toronto’s CORE Digital Pictures in 2008. During his tenure as an intern, Andre asked his employers if he could complete a model that they were planning to outsource to another company. Initially, they were interested in the idea, while they were still under the impression he would be working for free. “Once I mentioned them paying me instead of some other company, that’s when their attitude changed,” he says. “They were suddenly no longer interested in having me do it,” he explains, leaning back in his computer chair and thoughtfully scratching behind the ears of a skinny cat that had leapt onto his chest and curled up there. Andre was hired on at another animation company after completing an unpaid, part-time, six-month internship at CORE. CORE put his name under “Special Thanks To” in the credits of the animation film he had worked on and does not wish to disclose the name of, after he’d spent six months working on it as a 3D modeller. Compensation in capital-E Experience panned out for Andre, but this has been far from the truth for a lot of other interns. A growing number of journalists are decrying the problem of a dwindling entry-level job market in creative industries, as a result of a culture built on intangible currency; the mythical and elusive compensation of ‘experience.’ Apparently, experience is no longer enough to keep body and soul together – because experience and a paying job are not synonymous, as proponents of these types of internships seem to suggest. The two are only loosely connected. As a result, an arts
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degree, time and again, is the butt of every grim joke about a lack of job prospects. I’ve spoken to past interns in creative fields, with Kyle Wyatt, a major magazine editor, and with Paul Knox, a veteran of an industry that is notorious for intern abuse. Curiously, most of our sources sound uncertain about the exact effects of unpaid internships. The Ontario Ministry of Labour has bounced us around between various people, none of whom could answer any questions – only direct us to a 2011 factsheet on the vague and inconclusive legislation loophole that is supposed to govern internship law. It is telling though, that no one wants to go on the record with what seems to be empirically true given the basic principles of economics – if entry-level labour is devalued, this drives the value of all labour down as well. The University of Toronto Students’ Union argues in a letter to the Ontario Minister of Labour that “these programs drive down wages, lead to the replacement of paid employees with unpaid ones, increase the youth unemployment rate and heightens the amount of debt students incur.” The youth unemployment rate is 16.5 per cent for workers under 24 – almost three times the 6.3 per cent for those 24 and older, according to Statistics Canada. What results is that the culture of unpaid labour fosters a kind of embarrassment surrounding the demand to be paid for one’s work. “I have heard owners of studios complain that all of their highly talented interns seem to want to make money,” Andre says, and lets the statement hang in the air. He continues: “That is the attitude I have discovered: the employee, the supplicant, should be grateful to work at this job.” Employers benefit from the embarrassment of disenfranchised
interns, while those with the nerve to expect equal treatment for interns and employees are directed to a factsheet of Ministry of Labour guidelines, and told to finish their internship lest they don’t graduate. It is also telling, then, that most of the interns we interviewed asked that their identities be protected. We decided that it was time to find out what could be done. An unpaid internship does not guarantee employment, or even a better chance thereof. Carol Goar, a writer for the Toronto Star, states in a column that “there are no statistics on how many [unpaid interns] there are. There are no employment standards for these workers. There are no penalties for exploiting them. There is no way of measuring whether unpaid internships really open doors.” In an article for the Ubyssey, the University of British Columbia’s student newspaper, Andrew Langille, a Toronto lawyer, unofficially estimates the number of unpaid interns to be in the ballpark of 300,000 people a year in Canada, alone. Whether or not that number is exaggerated, the reality is that there are not enough paid internships to support a for-credit university program in Toronto, let alone the untold numbers of independent interns. Knox, a
The University of “Regina has a policy of not allowing unpaid internships, even for course credit
”
professor at Ryerson University, veteran reporter and editor for the Globe and Mail, and the administrator tasked with running Ryerson’s internship program this year, says that paid internships are increasingly hard to find. “The University of Regina has a policy of not allowing unpaid internships, even for course credit,” Knox says. He insists he be called ‘Paul’ instead of ‘Professor,’ which intuitively seems wrong, seeing as he looks a little like Einstein. “I’d love to know how they get enough of them,” he continues. “If we had that policy here it would be disastrous in terms of the internship program; the course.” Wyatt, the managing editor at The Walrus, a Canadian magazine that is home to one of the most prestigious unpaid internships programs in the country, explains that in his experience, large organizations will normally pay their interns. While this may be true for some established magazines, companies like
Rogers Communications and Bell Media (as well as their many subsidiaries) will still hire on unpaid interns habitually. Aside from the experiential value of internships, their educational value is also often cited as a benefit. Owen, a Toronto-based intern who asked we don’t use his last name, admitted that his internship didn’t yield much. “I always felt like I was underfoot and not being used in any useful ways,” he says. “I didn’t feel like I learned much of anything.” Owen was studying broadcast television at Seneca College when he completed a month-long internship at Mijo, a media production house, in 2011. “I would always ask if there was anything to do and the answer was, ‘It’s kind of a slow day, sorry,’” Owen says. “I don’t think I was trained so much… I was allowed to watch what was being done and told about it.” Knox explains that, either way, without the assigned value of a salary, the intern is “not a full member of the team, and therefore getting the experience of being a full member of the team.” This begs the question: how can this continue? Internships occupy
a legal gray area
>>
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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culture of free // continued from P25
that the Ontario labour ministry attempts to address in its 2011 factsheet. The ministry stipulates that all of the following conditions must be met in order for an intern not to be considered an employee, and exempted from the Employment Standards Act (which includes mandatory minimum wage):
1 The intern’s training is similar to vocational school training. 2 The training is for the benefit of the intern. 3 The person hiring the intern gets “little, if any, benefit” from the intern’s work. 4 The intern isn’t displacing other employees by doing their work for free. 5 The intern is not promised a job at the end of this training. 6 The intern is specifically told they will not be paid. ontario ministry of labour Knox says that not many internships fall within these guidelines. “One of them is ‘the person providing the training derives little, if any, benefit from the activity the individual as he or she is being trained,’” he says. “I just don’t know how that would survive any kind of meaningful investigation in most of these relationships.” In the spirit of Marxian labour theory, Knox also adds that the value of someone as an employee lies not in what they produce during the time they are working, but in their availability for that length of time. “In other words, you are no longer buying their production of two-hundred horse shoes in eight hours, you’re buying their availability for eight hours, regardless of whether they produce two-hundred horseshoes, fifty horseshoes, or no horseshoes – they can’t go to somebody else and produce horseshoes during those eight hours,” he explains. We asked Wyatt about the internship at The Walrus and the kind of work that the interns do. He assures me over the phone that the interns are “not replicating the work of employees, they’re basically doing work that is very much so training”. He later elaborates that the interns’ primary task is fact-checking. This is the core issue with the law as the ministry outlines it – it becomes a complicated exercise to evaluate the conditions of an internship against the six standards to determine if 26
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the circumstances are indeed fair. Take the example of The Walrus–an employer known for integrity and high standards. Magazines once hired paid fact-checkers. The practice is now being phased out at some, but not all, publications. Can intern fact-checking be considered a significant benefit to either party? Enough to either violate–or be exempt from–the labour ministry rule that Knox finds most objectionable? There is no clear asnwer to that question. The 2011 factsheet provides no legal definition as to what constitutes a benefit. It appears that this is being left to industry conditions and context–i.e., what, at any given time, an employer can present as work that an organization values, in contrast to work that is valuable primarily to the worker. Meanwhile, an internship can, in most other capacities, provide an excellent atmosphere for growth and experience – so asking these uncomfortable questions of the ministry becomes inconvenient for the intern, at best. Students risk jeopardizing their academic credit. Independent interns risk losing the experience they worked for free to get. Either way, the intern’s position is ends up being more, rather than less, precarious. The question of whether The Walrus delivers on the promise of capital-E Experience or Education is not the concern here – interns, after a stint at the The Walrus have gotten jobs at the New Yorker and Toronto Life. Occasionally, The Walrus is even able to provide interns with a modest stipend, and the company is always looking for ways to compensate interns in tangible ways, Wyatt says. He explains that no The Walrus intern runs coffee for higher-ups, that the atmosphere is nurturing and that the program is very much an apprenticeship-style one. Applicants vying for this opportunity have to survive a threestage application process against world-wide competition, followed by six full-time months of unpaid training. “It’s not every day that you can shadow-edit a 6,000-word profile with John Macfarlane that’s been written by a Pulitzer prize winner, right?” says Wyatt. Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” is playing a touch too loudly at the Dark Horse Espresso Bar on Queen St., when Simon Lewsen, a
You are no longer “buying their production of two-hundred horse shoes in eight hours, you’re buying their availability for eight hours
”
one-time The Walrus intern, sits down to talk to me. “I have very lovely, supportive parents who let me live with them in Toronto for free, and whom I get along with really well, so in that respect I was extremely lucky – I’m not sure how I would have managed otherwise,” he says. Unfortunately, this means that intern opportunities at The Walrus are limited only to those who can afford them. Nonetheless, Lewsen makes the case that one unpaid internship for someone like him, who lacks a degree in this field (but has two others, in a relevant one), is cheaper than getting an MA in journalism. Another condition clouding the already vague regulations is that if the intern is a college or university student, the labour ministry’s rules don’t apply. “The notion of on-the-job training is rapidly disappearing,” says Andre, his cat still curled up on his chest. “They’re pushing it back on to schools.” Schools, especially in creative industries such as animation that require a lot of on-thejob training, cannot make students 100-percent job-ready by graduation time. And this, Andre argues, creates the need for internships. “If universities and colleges are glorified vocational institutions, part of the value of those vocational institutions is their ability to put you into a job. It’s to get you from being a student to being an employee, and so long as that’s the case, everyone on all sides will clamor for internships. The second that you say you want to put any kind of regulation towards internships you will have… the very same people who were being victimized by the system, fighting tooth and claw to maintain it, because without those internships… it makes it very difficult to get the job, which sadly, is the point of the education in the first place.”
Old typewriters line the perimeter of the office, one wall of which is almost entirely book shelves. They range from machines that look inspired by the 1980s conception of modernity, and end with one that resembles an awkward, unwieldy laptop. This is Knox’s Ryerson office. Knox says that waning union presence in the workplace has been the culprit in the proliferation of unpaid internships, and not the decline of the traditional news revenue format. “It’s only in the last 10 years or so that business models were really threatened,” Knox says, “and this is something that’s been going on for longer than that. So, I think the decline in the strength of the labour movement has a lot to do with it.” He cites bygone times when shop stewards and other union protections were a more common occurrence in the workplace. “If you look at the figures now, particularly in the private sector, the percentage of the workforce that’s unionized has shrunk rather dramatically over the last 30 years,” he says. “You don’t have the people to welcome the newcomers and say ‘what rate are they paying you at?’ ‘Oh? They’re not paying you anything? We’re going to have to do something about that.’ ” Andre argues that the nature of creative industry itself, namely animation, is highly conducive for abuse of employees, never mind interns. “It’s a creative industry – you get to wear jeans to work; you hang out with creative people; you have beer on Fridays at your office meetings – it doesn’t happen at every job. This gives the studio, and the industry as a whole, the ability to get people to do 40 hours a week and unpaid overtime.” He pauses for emphasis; “because you’re living the dream.” The problem, according to Knox, lies in not asking directed questions. “I don’t see a sustained campaign of asking the Ministry of Labour ‘Hello?’ and I don’t see a sustained campaign of asking the major employer organizations ‘Hello?’ and I don’t see, on the journalistic side, people actually doing real investigations,” Knox says. Before any kind of organizing happens, he adds, there needs to be hard data on the number of people in unfair internship positions. He says this is the best way to generate policy change at the provincial level.
There are good internships and bad internships. It’s hard for a new intern to tell what her or his experience will turn out to be until it’s over. What’s the value of an unpaid internship? We asked 10 University of GuelphHumber students, each of whom completed an internship to graduate, to assess their own experiences.
9 were not offered jobs at the end of their placements. 6 said they learned new skills. 5 said they gained important knowledge. 3 said they developed relationships with their supervisors. 2 said the internships did not teach them anything significant. 1 was offered a job at the end of the placement. Jessica Ingold
Whereas K nox argu es for a resurgence of the labour movement, Andre insists the onus lies with university and college administrators. “Schools should negotiate on the students’ behalf as a collective organization to ensure that their students are not being exploited.” He says there should be a system that protects students who do internships while in college or university, and who are thus excluded from the ministry’s six guidelines. Either way, it seems, some sort of collective organizing is the answer to the quandary that unpaid internship culture poses. The Canadian Intern Association (very fittingly, the CIA), an advocacy group started by B.C. native Claire Seaborn, represents the beginning of this kind of organizing. “I think internships can be a fantastic experience,” she explains in an interview with the British Columbia Institute of Technology radio station. “If they are generating some value for
the company, then that intern should be paid, and it’s essentially the same as a short term contract position.” Since its inception in May, 2012, the CIA has pursued a number of companies about their unpaid internship positions. HootSuite, a B.C.-based social networking company, has been the CIA’s most notable success after having agreed to retroactively compensate some of its unpaid interns and pay all interns in the future. If this is any indication of what is possible, then perhaps, the CIA is onto something? Back at Dark Horse, Lewsen maintains that “resistance can come in a lot of forms. It can come in the form of people demonstrating, but it can also come in the form of people just being more selective, demanding more from the places they’re getting internships.” Lewsen says that if you’re going to work for free, you should be careful where you apply. While, as a general rule, this is a useful strategy for anyone looking for this kind of precarious work, this leaves the responsibility, and by extension, the fault, with the intern. The underlying fear, according to Knox, is that if people refuse to work for free, employers will not be able to sustain internship programs, and there will be no experience, good or bad, for anyone looking to get the proverbial foot in the door. “I’d like to call their bluff,” he says, “because I want to see what would happen if there was an intern strike, and all of a sudden you wake up tomorrow and no unpaid interns went into work.” Andre lef t animation in 2011 – he now works in customer service at a financial brokerage. He says it pays the bills. Olive, the skinny cat, has to eat; presumably, so does Andre. Owen’s part-time month at Mijo yielded a $25 Bestbuy gift card, which, he speculates, could also potentially be used at Futureshop. He now works as a medical receptionist. Lewsen is freelancing successfully, and is working on his second article for The Walrus. “What is that saying? Power gives of nothing without a demand,” Andre says, misquoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Olive, the domestic shorthair, had long since disappeared into the depths of his apartment. summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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“cancer is a part of me– it’s not who i am.”
by DELLIA RISMAY photos JENN WEILER
page slug section title
jenn weiler
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Adrian Sarracini and Jenn Weiler fought the battle of their lives, and won.
igh school, senior year: for
most students, this is the year of college and university applications, prom, and saying bittersweet goodbyes to friends made during the previous four years. But for 21-year-olds Adrian Sarracini and Jenn Weiler, it ended up becoming the year they each fought Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Weiler was on Christmas vacation when she noticed her body was starting to ache. Because it was flu season, she assumed she had caught a bug that was going around. Suddenly, her collarbone swelled up, and when it went down, there were three golfball sized lumps on it. Within two weeks of having a biopsy, Weiler was diagnosed with an immune system cancer known as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. After her first round of chemotherapy, Weiler went from the hospital to her home, and then straight to her senior semi-formal. She also went to her prom while she was receiving treatment. “I went to prom in a wig,
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and then I had a back-up in my clutch,” Weiler recalls. “That was this bright purple bob that I switched halfway though because I couldn’t stand how hot it was. It was gross.” Weiler tried to make her life as normal as possible by attending major school events, but says dealing with the effects of treatment— physical, mental, and emotional—was definitely not easy. While the physical effects of cancer treatment were hard, she says, the thing that affected her the most was losing her long hair. “My hair was down to my hips at that point. It was my favourite feature about myself, it’s who I am. So it was really hard to lose that. I insisted on having a wig that looked exactly like it, which was completely ridiculous, because having this,” Weiler gestures at her hair, “as a wig, having that on top of your head
in the summer, it gets really hot.” After going through what felt like countless rounds of treatment that year, Weiler is now in her fourth year of being cancer-free. Slowly but surely, her life is getting back to the way it was before her diagnosis. She recently got the green light to exercise normally, “which is something really big,” she says. Weiler survived an ordeal that is the most difficult thing most people imagine they will deal with in their lives. But these days, she is like any other university student trying to carve out a path to her future. She is currently in her fourth year of Media Studies, specializing in photography, at the University of Guelph-Humber. Even though she has begun a new chapter in her life since her battle with with cancer, she hasn’t turned her back on the cause. In addition to wanting to contribute
My hair was down to my hips at that point. It was my “ favourite feature So it was really hard to lose that.” jenn weiler
to cancer diagnosis and treatment, she’s also working to raise awareness among her university classmates by using cancer as a subject in her photographic portfolios. Each photograph tells a story about cancer. “I had in black paint, written the name of the person they knew who had been affected by cancer” on her subject’s bodies, Weiler says. “I had a couple mothers, a grandma, a grandpa.” In addition, “I had people volunteer and just painted ribbons on them.” Finally, she adds, “I also did myself.” Weiler’s work calls attention to a painful statistic: one in three people will be affected by cancer in their lifetimes, whether they are diagnosed with a form of it themselves, or have a friend or family member who is. Yet Weiler also wants young people to know that being told you have cancer doesn’t mean that you should lose hope. “Every situation is really different,” Weiler says. “I think it’s just something you have to go through, and it definitely made me a better person. I’m not the person I would have been if I hadn’t gone through the experience. I feel like I’m way more mature because of it, but as long as you do get through it, it will be okay. Your hair always grows back.”
W
hen Sarr acini noticed a golf-ball sized lump under his right armpit, he told his mother. She scheduled an appointment to see a doctor. He had several tests to find out what was causing the lump, and all came back negative. Eventually, Sarracini had a biopsy, and was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. As a result, Sarracini received chemotherapy once every two weeks for 12 months. This added up to six months of treatment, followed by three months of recovery time. “The chemicals caused me to throw up, have insomnia, and hallucinations,” Sarracini now says. “They also caused me to have no energy to do anything, meaning that I even got tired from talking on the phone.” He was also unprepared for the nausea. “When they started the first session of chemotherapy, I was hungry,’ he recalls. “ I wanted to eat something. I had no idea what the side effects of chemo were at that time. So I ate something and right after I ate it, I threw it up, because of the chemicals.
WHAT IS HODGKIN’S LYMPHOMA? • Hodgkin’s Lymphoma starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes • Lymphoma begins in the lymph nodes, then spreads to other parts of the body • Lymph nodes are found in parts of the body such as the armpit, groin, abd men and neck • The causes of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma are unknown • Lymphoma is the third-most common cancer found in children • Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is considered one of the most curable types of cancer They do a lot of crazy things to you.” Despite the difficulty of his treatment, Sarracini says he drew strength from his desire to share his story with others. “That really motivated me to keep going, and to really not worry about the side effects,” he says. “It was crazy, but after I realized that, the side effects really started fading away. Once I cleared my head, my body was clear too.” Was it his mental state, the miracle of modern medicine, divine intervention, or a mixture of all three that helped Sarracini’s cancer go into remission? Whatever it was, he remembers with great clarity the day his doctor told him he was cancer-free. “As soon as I did finish my final treatment, I just thought, ‘I finished it, I’m done, I don’t ever have to do it again.’ ” Fast-forward four years. Sarracini is now a healthy York University Kinesiology student who has not forgotten what it was that enabled him to survive his ordeal. Along with delivering a speech to fellow students about his experiences fighting cancer and what this taught him during high school, he donates his time and raises money for the Canadian Cancer Society. This past spring, he was a speaker at the Richmond Hill and Vaughan launch parties for the Relay for Life events. At these launch parties, Sarracini spoke to people
adrian sarracini
interested in raising pledges to participate in a 12-hour event, which included running or walking around a racetrack for much of that time. Sarracini says it does hurt to re-tell his story, but that he overcomes this difficulty in the same way he battled his illness—by remembering that this can help other people. “Something always gets me,” he says. “I always start crying. But I find that when I re-tell it, and people see the emotion that I have, it hits them that much harder. That’s what really makes them understand what I went through. Because when you attach emotion to words, that’s what really sticks in a person’s mind and a person’s soul.” That doesn’t mean he has forgotten–or that he tries to forget–the pain of his own experiences. “It still hurts me when I do have to go back to that time,” he says. But Sarracini’s mission is to help erase the stigma of cancer being a death sentence. “I don’t want people to think negatively when they think of cancer, because people go through it, and they think it’s a death sentence, especially young people. They think that their lives are over. But as far as I’m concerned, I was diagnosed when I was 17, and I’m still here. I want people to know that you can be diagnosed when you’re young, you can go through it, and you can make it through with flying colours.”
As soon as I did finish my final treatment, I thought “ ‘I finished it, I’m done, I don’t ever have to do it again.’” adrian sarracini summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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Helicopter
parents
by KHARRISSA OOSTHUYZEN photos CAITLIN OVEREND
Bursting the bubble on bubble-wrapped kids
S
ome days when Ritchea Hodge gets home, her clothes are neatly folded and her bed is made. Although this may sound like the life, the 22-year-old university student gets frustrated. “My parents are very protective of me,” Hodge says. That can be reassuring but it can also mean that Hodge, who lives at home, ends up feeling like she has no space. When she does leave home to go to school, travelling from Scarborough, Ont., to her school’s Etobicoke campus, her parents worry so much that they expect her to call during the day, and check in with her if she does not phone. Sound excessive? How about familiar? If you think Hodge’s parents sound a lot like your own, you are not alone. You belong to the bubble-wrapped generation, brought up by helicopter—also known as hovering— parents. They are the parents who begin to worry about their children’s grades and performance from an early age, and who are still looking after them when they are young adults. Some parents go so far as to call professors to complain when their kid gets a bad mark on a university assignment. The concept of helicopter parents has been around for a while: articles and books about what U.S. magazines started calling “hyper parenting” have been around since the 1990s. In recent years, the topic has been a favourite theme for the news and entertainment media. Helicopter parenting and bubble-wrapped kids have caught the attention of media outlets from Time magazine and Psychology Today
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to ever y major daily newspaper and television station. On one end, serious broadcasters like the CBC discuss the relationship between helicopter parents and education. On the other, shows like MTV’s, “My Super Sweet Sixteen”, a reality program about the outrageous gifts wealthy parents are willing to give their spoiled offspring, or W Network’s, “My House, Your Money,” which features stories of what happens when people buy houses for their adult children. In these parents’ defence, it’s only fair to say that even the worst of the helicopters or the hoverers believe they are acting in their children’s best interests. But this behaviour raises questions about the reasons why this generation is so clingy and protective, as well as the ramifications of such close involvement in children’s lives. It’s one thing to have parents who offer advice, and something else when they expect to have a say in everything you do. How involved is too involved and why is this happening? What will be the real cost of parents who have such a hard time letting go, even after their children leave home? One reason why the helicopter parent has emerged is simple: advances in technology. Danielle Bergeron, a Wilfred Laurier University journalism student, admits that while she is at school her parents are always keeping tabs. “My mom emails me all the time, basically
every day,” says Bergeron, 21. If she does not reply to the email, her mother uses other forms of technology. “My mom will get my sister to text me to call home if she wants to talk to me.” The kind of access that technology provides also makes it easier for parents to keep track of exam schedules and posted grades, so they can make sure their kids are keeping up with the pressures of the academic playground. “Technological advances have enabled perpetual connectivity and instantaneous communication, granting parents an unprecedented level of access into their children’s lives,” says social science student Lili Zhao in a 2012 paper entitled “The Hymn of the Helicopter Parent,” written for Northwestern University in Chicago. Communications technology makes this kind of hovering possible. A bigger question is why these parents feel compelled to use it. “A lot of it is motivated by fear,” says Ann Wainwright, a psychology professor from the University of Guelph-Humber. “I think that parents want the best for their children and it does seem like average isn’t good enough,” she says. “They are worried that if [their kids] don’t have the best, they won’t have anything.” With the state of the economy and the fierce competition in the job world, helicopter parents feel pressure to push their children—and their children feel that pressure. “Education is very important to my family,” says Hodge, a Media Studies student at Guelph-Humber. “There was no debate…I WAS going to go to university.” Bergeron also acknowledges that her parents would be disappointed if she chose not to attend university.
“ My Mom emails me all the time. MY Mom will get my sister to text me to call home if she wants to talk.” “If I was going to college, or had a full time job, I think they’d be fine,” she says. “If I was just sitting around doing nothing, I don’t think they would be happy. In today’s society, you kind of have to have a degree.” The problem arises when parents act as if they are going to university, too. Many turn up at information sessions, asking all the questions while their children remain silent. What is worse, some parents are so anxious about their children’s performance in school and the impact it will have on their futures that they find it hard to stop monitoring their marks. Another Guelph-Humber student, who asked to remain anonymous, says his dad thinks that he “should just be striving to get really good marks and nothing else really matters to him.” Taken to its extreme, this fear of children’s failure results in the now-common expectation that parents can call university professors to complain when their kids don’t deliver top grades. Another reason why it is taking parents of young adults longer to let go of their offspring is the fact that people are living longer. Phases of psychological development are being stretched, Wainwright says. “What used to happen in high-school was that people figured out what they wanted and then just started their lives,” she says. “Now it goes on till people are 30,” and parents continue to help them. This raises the ultimate question: What’s wrong with seeing nurturing parents making a few decisions for their grown kids? The bubble-wrapped generation said the biggest problem is that they don’t grow up as quickly as they would like. “I feel like I was set back,” says Hodge, adding that she is not “as independent as I could have [been] if my parents let me experience some things on my own”. The experts agree, saying that children need to be given room to make their own mistakes. People who have hovering
parents “don’t develop a sense of being capable of dealing with problems on their own,” Guelph-Humber psychology professor Wainwright says. This puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to problem-solving and decision-making skills. Adds Denise Mauro, an elementary school teacher who sees pressure on kids at early ages: “Parents don’t seem to understand that if you do not allow them to scrape their knees to get that C-, to get that fail, they’re never going to progress to a place where they can trust themselves to overcome whatever life throws their way.” Mauro also sees an inevitable fallout from the way that parents march into school on a daily basis to complain that they are unsatisfied with the grades or performances of their kids as young as six. If parents continue to speak for their kids until after college or university graduation, a sense of entitlement develops. But so does anxiety. These young adults end up with a fear of failing when they actually have to make decisions. “Parents are taking that ability away from their kids,” Mauro says, “and then they wonder why their kids are getting to this place where they can’t decide left from right over little things, let alone over careers and finances.” She wonders what the bubble-wrapped generation is going to be like when it comes time to make serious decisions about relationships and marriage. The bubble-wrapped also worry that they will end up being emotionally and developmentally hindered. The student who asked to remain anonymous said that although his father pushed him academically, “he never pushed me socially. I always felt that I was playing catch up,” he says. “Still, to this day, I feel a little bit behind.” There may be light at the end of this tunnel. The bubble-wrapped generation seems determined to combat the impact of its helicopter parents by doing the opposite. We want to be aware of the consequences of holding on too tightly, and hope we are able to look past
the chaotic state of our current economic and social surroundings. We will understand the importance of fostering emotional and mental growth among children, and do our best not to end up with a world full of anxiety-ridden, timid, indecisive beings. We should remember the words of people like Mauro: “If you coddle them and don’t let them grow, then you’re going to be a parent the rest of your life,” she says. As a teacher, she says, “my goal is to put the reigns in their hands because I don’t want it in mine. I would rather be a mentor.” As for today’s parents, the ones who are still hovering: your bubble-wrapped kids ask that you remember that they are people, too. They have voices, but you have to listen to them. “I think, ultimately, it comes down to the fact that they care about my future so they just want what’s best for me,” says Bergeron. “However, sometimes, they forget that what they think is best might not actually be what’s right for me.”
“ IT IS MOTIVATED BY FEAR. PARENTS WORRY THAT IF THEIR KIDS DON’T HAVE THE BEST, THEY WON’T HAVE ANYTHING.” summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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V-Card.
HAVE YOU LOST IT?
Everybody thinks they know what it means to be a virgin, but do you? by STEPHANIE YOUNG illustrations MEGAN LUNN
THE CONVERSATION
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE VIRGINITY? “Sex is a two part thing, doesn’t matter if you give or receive. Once you’ve engaged in it, you cannot classify as a virgin. You cannot claim the v-card.” Rushel Briscoe, 23
“I would sum it up in one word, innocence. [It’s] still retaining one’s own innocence about sexuality and the world and a broader sense when it comes to people and relationships.” Marco Bernardi, 24
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It started as just another conversation with a Toronto taxi driver. But the typical ‘how was your day?’ type questions soon led to a surprisingly intimate tale of his life as a newlywed. Before the marriage, he said, he had only met his wife once, while his mother and aunt were present. The next time they were together was their wedding day. Until it came time to consummate the union, the man and his bride had never been alone together. In fact, they had never even touched. In Pakistan, where he had been born and raised, this was customary, the driver explained. It was, he said, the only way to ensure he was marrying a pure and wholesome woman. After telling his story, the driver turned his attention to one of his young female passengers. “Are you married?” he asked. “No,” she laughed. “I’m only 21.” “So,” he probed, “you’re a virgin?” Unsure of where this was heading his passenger tried diverting the conversation, and intimate question, with a joke. The driver grew persistent. “So you’re not married? So you’re a virgin.”
THE questions The taxi driver was drawing a conclusion from a simple yes or no response. If the passenger was unmarried, she must be a virgin. If she was not a virgin, she must be married. At the time, to those of us in the taxi, this interrogation felt like the classic ‘us’ versus ‘them’, Western ideologies versus Eastern scenario. His questions were those of a traditional society. But they bring to light a real and compelling question: at what point can we draw a line between the kind of romantic and marital customs the driver was discussing, and the sexual rules we, as young savvy products of western politics and culture, see ourselves as defying? What for that matter, does it mean to be a virgin? To the taxi driver, it is defined by marital status. To others, the line is drawn when one person puts a penis in another’s vagina, or, in the words of Toronto hetero-flexible performance artist Meryle, “anything below the belt”. Yet it turns out that there is no easy answer.
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The definition of sex seems black and white. But this simple description doesn’t mesh with the shades-of-grey world we live in. With far more than missionary as a sex position and couples consisting of two males or two females, how can you ever determine when you’ve lost your virginity? What if the penetrative tool used are fingers or a tongue and not a penis? Does anal sex, in which an object penetrates the external sphincter, count? Can you lose your virginity twice?
THE ACTION The concept of a woman losing her virginity goes back to classical definitions of anatomy, and the breaking of the tissue barrier called the hymen. But even that immediately gets complicated: this cannot completely constitute the loss of virginity, because simple things like riding a horse or using a tampon can do the same thing. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary, virginity is “the state of never having had sexual intercourse” or someone who is naïve and inexperienced. But that definition begs the question: what is sexual intercourse? It is described as “sexual contact between individuals involving penetration, especially the insertion of a man’s erect penis into a woman’s vagina”. But that definition is limited to heterosexual couples. Meryle, 30, (who goes by her first name; she jokes that this is like Cher and Madonna) questions the modern day validity
of the narrow dictionary definition, as well as the idea that penile penetration is what establishes the loss of virginity. “Is a girl no longer a virgin if she buys a dildo?” she asks. “If she’s straight is she still a virgin? ’Cause if she’s lesbian, she’s not a virgin because she’s engaged in a penetrative act with it.” On the other hand, Meryle explains, penetration is not the defining act in a lesbian relationship. “I have a lot of—many—and I say this in the neutral terminology and not in the judgemental terminology,” she adds, “many slutty lesbian friends, but they’ve never had a penis inside them. But they are not virgins, oh my god, they are not virgins!” David Robert, 27, is quick to offer another view. Well-known in the online world, the former cast member of MTV’s hit show 1 Girl 5 Gays says his definition of sex was shaped by his surroundings. “I’m maybe programmed to think that [sex] means penis in vagina,” Robert says. “But at least in my experience, being a gay person that means anal sex.” But Robert says that although he is no stranger to sex, he does not find pleasure in pain. Because of that, anal sex isn’t something he does regularly. Yet he describes himself as having an active sex life. “We are like totally intimate and have sex,” Robert says of his relationship with his fiancé. “That’s like passionate kissing and all the other stuff in between.” For Robert, fellatio is sex. But the entrancing, deep connection with his fiancé and excitement of the moment is what makes his sexual experiences most pleasurable. “I would never just say ‘we just had oral sex.’ That wouldn’t encapsulate what it is. So when I say ‘sex’ I just mean the passion there.”
THE BEHAVIOUR Defining virginity, however, becomes trickier. Pointing to a 1997 Playboy magazine featuring naked Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, Robert talks about how views on virginity don’t necessarily have to do with the act of sex. He says that after seeing those photographs, most people wouldn’t consider Halliwell to be virginal, even if she had never had sexual intercourse. “I think the degree of ‘virgin’ isn’t totally tied to what the words in the dictionary may mean,” he says, “because what they deem virgin-like behaviour can vary.” Behaviour emerges as a key concept. According to Meryle, it’s that “virgin-like
behaviour” that continues to blur the line between someone who is a virgin and someone who isn’t. “I think it’s kind of ridiculous when people say, ‘oh well I take it in the butt but I still haven’t had it in the vagina, so I’m still a virgin.’ I think that’s bullshit.” She criticizes the traditional definition of virginity for its limited terminology. From her viewpoint, anything that denotes sexual activity signifies the loss of virginity: “Two people using anything below the belt: fingers, oral, toys. In this day and age, anytime you go below the belt,” she says, pausing to find the right words to describe the difference. A person is no longer a virgin, she says, when “the secret of adulthood has been opened up to you.” She continues: “You come to a developmental point where things are very confusing and very complex, which is orgasmic response and what not.” Meryle ties the loss of virginity to the knowledge of sexuality. “Virginity has always been defined as a state of innocence,” she says. “I don’t want to be religious about it, but it’s kind of a metaphor of eating the apple in Eden. You have a forbidden knowledge once you engage in carnal activity.”
...they’ve “ never had a
penis inside them. But they are not virgins, oh my god, they are not virgins!
”
THE CHANGES Definitions and descriptions of virginity and sex vary, says Ayesha Adhami, administrative coordinator of the Women’s Health Centre in downtown Toronto. For example, she says, “we know that for some young women, and even older women, they don’t consider oral sex, they don’t consider even anal sex, to be sex.” To many women, Adhami explains, sex is in fact defined as vaginal intercourse. Because of this, the clinic finds it imperative that sexual activity and not the loss of virginity remains the topic at hand, she says. Questions about engaging in oral, anal or vaginal intercourse, using sex toys, or having multi partners, are common. “Here at the clinic we try to stay away from any kind of moral language. We like to keep it really very simple and non-judgemental for the women so we really talk about sexual activity.” Despite the many definitions, the attempt to define virginity did turn up a common thread: virginity is a self-imposed term that has many facets. The meaning of the term has evolved over time, and the conventional descriptions are being challenged. But it also varies from person to person, situation to situation, and ultimately ends up being a personal definition. Someone who is too young or inexperienced to know how to draw boundaries, or is in any way victimized, should be able to have control over how they wish to be labelled. “My idea of someone who is a virgin is someone who has decided to have sex on their own terms,” Robert says. Meryle agrees, but takes sex to a more connective level. “We need to find some new word or new idea that’s different than what we currently use,” she says. “I still think that it’s very important for people to not take sexuality lightly because engaging sexually with someone is actually a way to engage spiritually with someone.” summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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eco-fashion
designers >
by marie mulowayi photos christine psaila
Recycling isn’t only for the blue bin, paper and pop cans. Being environmentally conscious is a trend many Toronto designers are picking up on. Emma Paige Burchell, Will Fung, and Melanie Ferrara are just three designers who have that in common, along with their love for European style, of course. This year we’ll see more classic, simple and yet glamorous men’s and women’s collections from our designers. These Torontonian fashion mavens become more environmentally conscious by using fabrics that won’t add to the pollution in our city. With the extreme change of seasons in Canada, exciting new colours and fabrics have been the lust of Toronto’s designers.
Will Fung: LOFT604 trendy meets adventurous. His goal is to keep Relaxation is key, with Will Fung his customers looking sharp, sophisticated
Four years ago, Will Fung and his wife trav-
elled to Europe and were enticed by the European fashion and lifestyle. He soon created his own menswear brand, LOFT 604, inspired by the lifestyle as well as architecture, paintings and museums in Toronto. For Fung, men have become trendier and more willing to try new styles. He took the opportunity to introduce his creative mind to the men of Toronto by keeping his clothes very contemporary but still adding a hip edge. By adding colours such as burgundy, sky blue, orange and assorted fluorescents to his pieces, his collection has the right amount of 34
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and classic without having to try too hard. “I understand that men, they like to dress up but they don’t want to do it too outstanding,” says Fung. By using environmentally friendly materials in his collection, Fung is educating his consumers about the importance of recycling, even with clothes. “We don’t want to add more pollution to the environment so we strongly encourage looking for natural fabrics,” he says. He uses soft fabrics from the best natural yarns from around the world, such as the Australian Merino wool and the luxurious pure cashmere from Italy. Fung wants his target market to
feel comfortable while looking luxurious and unique. “It’s not just a simple sweater that they are buying but they are wearing something that is 100 per cent made. It’s not plastic.” His clothes are turning heads in Toronto, not only because of how comfortable they are or how luxurious they look, but also for their unique detailing. If you buy one of his sweaters or pants, you will be the only person wearing that design. “If you look at our past several seasons…every season we have the same type of feel but every piece is different,” Fung says. Word of advice: “Always try your best. Everything can be successful if you try your best.”
<< Emma Paige Burchell: Forget Me Not You may not fit in, but you’ll STAND OUT, with Emma Paige Feist and Jill Barber are just two of the
Melanie Ferrara: Device Stay glamorous and be eco-friendly, with Melanie Ferrara Ecoholic Body, a new book by Adria Vasil,
identifies Melanie Ferrara as one of Canada’s Top 15 Eco Designers. Device, Ferrara’s line of women’s apparel, is made from fabrics such as organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, modal, tencel, recycled fibers, and locally-sourced bolt ends. Although being eco-friendly has a huge impact on the environment, Ferrara says that “a lot of eco-designers are pretty limited when it comes to fabrics.” That said, being eco-friendly differentiates her from many other designers in Toronto. She designs pieces for professional women in their 30s and 40s. Coming from an Italian heritage, Ferrara’s cultural inspirations are mainly rooted in Italy, but she also keeps an eye on other cultures,
especially ones in Europe. Device is vintageinspired and helps woman in their 30s and 40s feel beautiful and fashionable while also being modern and classic. “I’m really trying to focus on clothing that has a timeless appeal,” says Ferrara. She looks for unique prints that are romantic, soft, feminine and versatile. She usually goes for neutral tones since they can be paired with anything in your closet. “I’m really loving the saturated orange-red, a little bit of choral, yellow sort of citrus-lemon colours this fall,” she says. Today’s stores are more dedicated towards a younger demographic but Ferrara wants to keep the women in their 30s and 40s refined and polished regardless of their age. Word of advice: “You have to be really persistent and determined.”
musicians who keep this 24-year-old fashion designer motivated within her vintage vibe. Emma Paige Burchell’s style is feminine, romantic, classy and timeless, and her music playlist supports this theme. Burchell has been collecting vintage clothes for her latest collection called “Forget Me Not”. Her goal is to take vintage clothes from the 1920’s to 1960’s, add a bit of the 70’s and 80’s, and rework them with a modern twist or use them as inspiration for brand new pieces. “I’m trying to encourage women not to wear an outfit a couple times and then toss it,” Burchell says. “So you’ll be able to wear it the next year.” She doesn’t have a specific process when designing her clothes, but unlike most designers who will first sketch their ideas down and then search for fabric, Burchell does it the other way around. “I let the fabric inspire me,” she says. Her ideas usually come to her in her sleep or when she takes a walk outside in the city of Toronto. Her surroundings are not the only inspiration to her designs. She’s also inspired by European culture from Paris and Milan. She loves the class and richness Europeans bring to their clothes. Burchell looks at past designs from the ’20s through to the ’60s because that is where she believes fashion began. “That’s the challenge, using these past designs, tweaking them in your own personal way that’s never been done yet,” she says. She also mentions that floral is her favourite pattern to work with because it’s “feminine and romantic” and that’s what she wants to portray in her clothes. Sometimes she’ll be walking with her friends and family and they’ll see a dress or skirt and it’ll remind them of her. “They’ll be like ‘oh that looks like you’. It’s kind of that flirty girl, fun, very feminine and classic…that’s what I go for regardless of what I’m designing,” Burchell says. Word of advice: “Follow your dreams and do not let anyone smash them down.” summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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STREET STYLE
Borrowing from grandmothers’ closets and runway trends, Toronto’s street-style darlings are layering this season’s vibrant palette. Bare legs were few, but city slickers flirted with spring, exposing ankles in cropped pants. Sunglasses have replaced last year’s scarves. In anticipation of warmer weather, the fashion savvy say they’re looking forward to denim shirts, wearing flower headpieces and buying more sunglasses.
editor meghan foley | photos daniela mitrovic | research Monica Purba
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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everybody has their own comfort zone. This is my comfort zone. I never dress in skirts or highheeled shoes.â&#x20AC;? Anna
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“My friends like to call me a hipster and I don’t totally agree with that. I mix up a couple urban things and some business casual on a daily basis.” Anthony
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“I like to try and find one interesting thing. Usually I just wear black. I do like this little sweater. I got it from my grandmother’s closet.” Alexandra
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“My style is very makeshift. It’s a lot of pieces I’ve either made myself or they are some rattyass thing I bought in grade nine or whatever. It’s very thrown together but consciously so.” Julian
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“Go-to piece: a good pair of shoes. Or sunglasses. A good pair of sunglasses.” Michael
“I always have bright red lips, and when it gets springy I’m always wearing headbands, I go with the floral look.” julie
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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Eclectic, sometimes put together. Anything that catches my fancy.â&#x20AC;? Dana
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No Sweat Torontoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sports Curse Floorball Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College Hospital Natural Remedies Rendezvous with Madness summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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health & fitness
No Sweat
Our Q&A with Canadian professional athlete turned motivational speaker—Martin Reader by JOVANA MITROVIC photo cassandra d’onofrio
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What was most rewarding point in your life? Representing Canada at the Olympics, winning a gold medal and having my parents there to see me and support me through the process.
28-Year-old vancouverite Martin Reader has participated in Olympic lifting and volleyball. He has been playing professional sports since he was 21, and now works as a trainer, public speaker, and philanthropist. What got you started? I was a professional swimmer and training to go to nationals. I found out that I was allergic to chlorine and couldn’t participate in the sport any more, even if I was amazing at it. I accidentally went and watched a volleyball tournament they were holding near my house and knew this was the sport for me. A special beach volleyball demonstration took place in a local ice rink featuring the top international athletes of 1993. Already a beach boy at heart, I was mystified by this entertaining sport with neon colours and outrageous sporting characters—I was hooked. Where Do your get your inspiration? My family is my biggest inspiration. With an adoration for competition and a gentle push from my parents, I have achieved everything I have dreamed of and more. what keeps you motivated? I stay motivated by having heart. I put my passion and heart into everything I do or I won’t do it. I constantly challenge myself and push my mind and body to new limits. I always strive to understand every angle of not only what I do but what my clients want and need. I’m a motivational role model and speaker as well, and I thrive off of helping people achieve their personal goals and pushing people to new limits.
growing up, Who was your role model? I never had a role model growing up. I actually idolized the idea of wanting to be a role model for others. So, I guess it’s always been a life calling to be a role model for others. what were your biggest challenges and how did you face them? Finances. Canadian athletes are not well supported by Canada and I had to sacrifice a lot to make my dreams happen. I had to buy a lot of things I needed and hold events and fundraisers for other. You always find a way. Also, people saying you couldn’t do it by trying to bring you down was a challenge, but, I pushed through by believing myself. What do you want to teach people? The biggest message I want to get out there is that we are far more powerful than we believe we are. I want to show everyone that we can achieve greatness if we just believe in ourselves and work together as a community to do it. We create the boundaries of our lives in our minds. Imagine if we eradicate that and truly believe in ourselves.
What are your plans right now? I love working with top-quality athletes and pushing people to go beyond what they think they are able to achieve. I aspire to use my experience as a world-class athlete and Olympian to advance other athletes on their quest to the top of the podium. I also aspire to bring back the Canadian Beach Volleyball tour and manage sponsorships for marketable Canadian athletes. I am opening my own studio and working on other big projects and ventures, which will help engage kids into making the right decisions for a healthy lifestyle. How do you plan to achieve this? By following my heart and passion for what I do. I have many events planned in the near future that will help motivate and engage the younger generation into making the right choices. I also do motivational speaking at schools and hospitals for children, this has helped me spread the message and hopefully provoke positive choices. What advice would you give students about following their dreams? The biggest advice I can give is in a form of a question: How are you going to define yourself and set yourself apart from everyone else? You need to pave your own path in life and have your own signature with it. When you figure out what will set you apart, go for it with all your passion and heart.
What quote do you live by?
“Be just and fear not” summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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health & fitness
Toronto sports curse by peter baracchini patrick dennis brandon graham alex moretto p hotos jessica raymond
The Toronto Argonauts and Toronto Rock both have championship titles under their belt, yet they don’t receive the credit they deserve. On the other hand, the fans of the four major sports teams in T.O. – the Toronto Raptors, Maple Leafs, Blue Jays and TFC – show continuous support but with limited success in recent years. Most fans have begun to wonder if the four major teams are “cursed.” The teams have made improvements to their roster this year, but will it be enough to end the curse down the line?
Maple Leafs last playoff appearance: 2003-04 last championship title: 1967
While interning with The Hockey News, I
sat high above the Air Canada Centre taking in the Battle of Ontario. The Leafs are up 1-0 in the third period and are taking a relentless offensive attack from the Ottawa Senators. A scrum ensues after Mika Zibanejad interfered with Leafs goalie, Ben Scrivens. While the melee was getting out of hand, the thunderous roar of ‘GO LEAFS GO!’ was echoed throughout the arena. The last time fans were this anxious about a team that could compete dates back to the 2000-01 to 2003-04 seasons when Mats Sundin and company were always in contention for the Stanley Cup.
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The intense and electric fan support of the Maple Leafs has had its ups and downs, which is understandable. After not seeing any postseason action for many years, fans have the right to be upset. They expect their team to win and the team knows this. “People live and die with the Leafs,” says The Hockey News senior writer Ken Campbell. “People should have high hopes and high expectations, that’s what you’re supposed to do.” After the 2004/05 lockout, the Leafs have had a tumultuous time getting back to being successful. To make matters worse, they haven’t hoisted the Stanley cup in 46 years. since Johnny Bower, George Armstrong and Dave Keon reigned the ice. For years now, management has always been a question for Leafs fans. The Leafs front office has had its issues, acquiring players that were suppose to have an impact on the team, but ended up with a miserable performance. Fans and critics have said Toronto kills players careers and that management wasn’t in it ‘for the win,’ only for making a profit. “I have never ever thought that media scrutiny, the high expectations, the rabid fan base; I have never bought
that as any reason why this team struggles,” says Campbell. “People always say that the Leafs don’t want to win, that all they want to do is make money and that’s all they care about. They want to win, they just don’t have a clue how to do it sometimes.” “If the team wants to increase sales, losing is definitely not the answer,” says die-hard Leafs fan Ryan McGregor. “Fans have been aching to watch playoff hockey and the people upstairs know that.” McGregor, 20, has been a Leafs fan since the young age of two. He remembers sitting on the floor, gazing up at the TV in his Leafs jersey watching Hockey Night in Canada. While many fans are fed up with the Leafs constantly “falling short of the playoffs,” McGregor remains optimistic. “The 04-05 lockout ruined that team because they got a year older and slower. Now they’re one of the youngest, building from within and trading old players for young ones.” Management has been blamed for handing out bad contracts. Players; such as Jeff Finger (four-year $14 mil), Mike Komisarek (fiveyear $22.5 mil), and Jason Blake (five-year $20 mil), were added to improve the team with a veteran presence, but came up with sub-standard performances. While bad transactions were made, the
future is starting to look bright, drafting good players and being on the right side of trades. Players like, Nazem Kadri, Matt Frattin and Jake Gardiner are just a few names that are starting to turn things around for the club. Not to mention James Reimer and Ben Scrivens in net. Gardiner, along with Joffrey Lupul, came in a trade from Anaheim with Francois Beauchemin going the other way. Cody Franson is earning his play-time after coming over from Nashville with Matthew Lombardi for Brett Lebda and Robert Slaney. While Franson is exceling, Lombardi (who was later traded to Phoenix before the start of the 2013 season) had a less than stellar performance with the Leafs. Some are still wary of the Phil Kessel trade. Yes, we lost two first round picks (Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton). But for the first time since Mats Sundin and Alex Mogilny, the Leafs have a legitimate 30-goal scorer. Lupul was having a career year last season with 67 points in 66 games and would’ve been a 30-goal scorer had it not been for a separated shoulder. Kessel almost hit the 40-goal mark and posted 82 points, good for sixth overall in the league in points last year. He’s starting to play a more complete game, back-checking and playing a team-first oriented game. instead of just using his quick snap-shot to his advantage. “If they’re good enough players,” says Campbell, “and good enough at what they do, then that won’t be as big a factor as I think people make out it to be.” Another acquisition starting to fit in is James van Riemsdyk. He is finally having the success he wanted in Toronto. “There’s a reason why he’s here,” says Campbell. “He was a very very high draft pick, of whom a lot was expected and he didn’t pounce.”
Throughout his four years with the Philadelphia Flyers, van Riemsdyk has battled many injuries and never played with any consistency. But that’s all changing this year by starting to post the offensive numbers he should’ve had with the Flyers and becoming the power-forward the Leafs were desperately looking for. But that’s all changing. Both McGregor and Campbell feel that the Leafs need to start playing more consistently and to not let the highs or lows take over their game. Poor team play, bad coaching and the high points; got the best of them last year, slipping down the standings from a playoff spot to 13th in the Eastern Conference. But this year’s Leafs squad is different. We’re not seeing the 7-0 or 8-0 blowouts like previous years (let’s hope it stays that way). In a shortened season, the Leafs are 15-90, good for fourth in the Eastern Conference. Strong defense, goaltending and offensive output from all four lines have contributed to their success so far. The team has more speed and skill to keep up with the Beasts in the East. Should the Leafs fail to make the postseason, it’s not the end of the world. The pieces are in place for success down the line. Not to mention the prospects in the junior system; such as Tyler Biggs, Matt Finn and Morgan Rielly to add to this current success. As for Ryan McGregor? “They’re my team and I’ll continue to watch them. Win or lose.” McGregor says. “It’s frustrating, rage- inducing even, but either way I’ll still watch.” It will be interesting to see if the Leafs could become champions during the 2016-17 season. It will be 50 years since the Leafs last won the Cup. Could that be the year in which the “curse” is broken? Time will only tell. PB
Blue Jays
Established: 1977 last championship title: 1992 & 1993 last world series: 1993 The early ‘90s were a glorious time for
the city of Toronto. The Maple Leafs, Toronto Argonauts football club and Blue Jays baseball team were all playing at a high level. The Argos and Blue Jays won championships between 1991 to 1993. Toronto was recognized as a world-class sports city, and athletes wanted to be here. The dream ended as fast as it had begun. The mid ‘90s brought tough times for the city. It seemed none of the teams could get back to the promised land. This was particularly tough for the Blue Jays, who after dominating much of the 80’s, found themselves struggling just to stay relevant.
Why? Major League Baseball had gone through a work stoppage in the middle of the 1994 season that lasted seven months. Many fans would argue that it took the sport a full decade to recover, and that some teams are still feeling the effects of that strike. “It was the eighth work stoppage, so it had been building up for a long time,” MLB commissioner Bud Selig was quoted as saying in an article by ESPN in 2004, a decade after the strike. “The sport came to a crashing halt.” Fans turned their back to the game as attendance dropped 20 per cent the following year, from a record average of 31,612 in 1994, to 25,260 10 years later. For a team like the Blue Jays, the strike was the worst thing that could happen. The momentum of winning back-to-back World Series was gone. The team came back from
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toronto sports curse blue jays the strike a mere shadow of what it once was. It dropped from the top of the baseball totem pole and became a team without an identity. Management tried to win back fan interest with promotions such as Toonie Tuesdays, Jr. Day Saturdays and free giveaways. There was also the signing of big name players–including Roger Clemens and José Canseco during the 1997-98 seasons. But these measures were never enough. During the mid-to-late ‘90s, the Yankees replaced the Jays as the dominant force in baseball, winning the World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays went through a tumultuous era. Under new owners Rogers Communications, it seemed like management wanted to develop the team into a contender. This has been a long process. Fast-forward 10 years and not much had changed–except that by 2010, an entire generation of baseball fans had grown up with a team that has not won anything since before they were born. Recent years have seen the team struggle through financial and personnel changes. But after cutting back the team payroll, Rogers dramatically increased player salaries this past off-season. With big name signings this year of players like R.A. Dickey, Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, the Jays’ payroll jumped nearly $40 million. With the addition of all that talent combined with the mixture of young and veteran players, the Blue Jays at last seem to be the front runners of their division.
Fans are wary. After all, Toronto has been here before. (In 1998, when the team roster was packed with big contracts and big names and it brought the city zero glory.) Yet it’s possible that the fans’ long years of suffering may finally be over. The 2013 season is off to s strong start: Las Vegas has stated that the Jays are 7-to-1 favourites to win the World Series. The players are excited and so is the city, as tickets for the Jays first two home series sold out in minutes of being on sale. Jays’ pitcher Dustin McGowan, for one, was thrilled to hear the news. “I’d like to see the attendance get back up to the way it used to be,” he told the Canadian Press. “Hopefully this team will be the team that gets it back like that.” Experts like Sportsnet’s Andrew Nie predict this new team will bring fans into the stadium. Toronto hasn’t had a team with this much talent in years, Nie says–but warns fans there remains a lot of work to do. “I wouldn’t want too many people to think they’re going to win just like that,” Nie says. “They are going to be more entertaining and should be competing for a playoff spot, but until they start playing you just never know.” PD
R aptors
Established: 1995 last championship title: never last playoff spot: 2001
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There’s no emotion Toronto Raptors’
fans haven’t experienced. The pain of losing close-knit contests; the joy of earning free Pizza Pizza benefits after a 100-point performance; these fans have felt it all. But there’s one thing that Raptors’ fans have yearned for, and never felt: what it’s like to win an NBA championship.
Back in May, 1995, it seemed fitting that the NBA would grant Toronto its own team. James Naismith, the inventor of the game was Canadian. The Raptors ignited a new flame of hope in every Toronto basketball supporter’s heart. But in their 18-year history, the Toronto Raptors have failed to feed that fire. Instead, they have led fans up and down the aforementioned emotional rollercoaster. But, truth be told, that sense of hope kindled in Raptors’ fans has yet to leave the souls of many, as the search for a premier team and championship is still on the horizon. It’s been a gruelling process. Over the years, fingers have been pointed in every direction: the egos of star players, general managers that make ill-advised decisions, or simply the location of the team on the NBA landscape. One problem is “the stigma of playing with the only Canadian team in the world,” says Raptors fanatic Kevin Cummings. Every player (except Vince Carter) believes “that they waste their time here not being able to get the American exposure on the ESPN and TNT.” In exchange for all their disappointment in the team’s lows, Raptors fans have been rewarded with the occasional high–primarily because of Carter, the man who singlehandedly revitalized basketball culture in Toronto. He went by the name of Air Canada, Vinsanity, and Half-Man Half-Amazing. To many, he is synonymous with the high point, as well as the demise of, the team. For toronto sports curse continued p71
health & fitness
floorball
Like Hockey, just
Faster & Lighter by himat jutla photos jessica raymond
C
anada is often stereotyped as a nation
of igloo-residing inhabitants with a great love of hockey. One of these stereotypes actually bears some reality: hockey and everything affiliated with it is extremely popular in this beautiful country. The success that f loorball, a European variation of the sport, has had in Canada pays testament to this statement. So, what exactly is floorball? “It’s a sport comparable to floor hockey with two main differences,” explains Juha Mikkola, the co-founder of the Ontario Floorball Federation. “Firstly, the equipment is all lighter weight and designed in a way that optimizes skill and handling while allowing players to easily shoot the ball at 200 kilometres an hour. Secondly, the rules allow for players to play a very fast-paced game without having to wear bulky hockey gear. It’s just a really fun and easy to play game that teaches skill, a fact proven since Hockey Canada is using it in 150 of their skill academies across the country and a lot of the NHL guys from Europe play it,” says Mikkola. The game, which is played on either a standard gym floor or a rubber mat, consists of two teams with forwards, defensemen and goalies. Each player is equipped with light and hollow sticks, allowing for maximum optimization of strategic ball handling and shooting. A light wiffle ball is used instead of a standard
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LEAFS WON 11 STANLEY “THECUPS IN THE VERY ARENA WHICH WE WILL BE PLAYING.” hockey ball or a puck. Games span three periods, each lasting 15 or 20 minutes, depending on the league in which the game is being played. Mikkola, along with many others, began the Provincial Floorball Federation in 2002 as a small club in the University of Toronto. These humble beginnings laid the groundwork and provided a solid foundation for growth. The fast-paced sport has expanded exponentially in the last 11 years. Floorball now has a national federation and is being played in recreational leagues across Canada. It has been implemented in over 500 schools, allowing thousands of students to enjoy it. But perhaps the most dramatic growth in the last decade has been provided by the Canada Cup, an annual tournament hosted in Toronto that attracts teams from all around the world. This tournament, which was started by Mikkola and other members of what is now known as Floorball Ontario, is the largest International floorball competition outside of Europe. This year, the Canada Cup will be held in historic Toronto hockey venues such as the
prestigious Maple Leaf Gardens amongst a myriad of other arenas. It will span from Friday, May 17 until Monday, May 20. “This year’s Canada Cup will have between 60 to 70 teams from all around the world, including an elite first division team from Gothemburg,” says Mikkola.“There will be between 600 and 1000 players participating.” The event has a lot to offer spectators. For an admission fee of only $10, attendees will have unlimited access to all games during the four days and immerse themselves in floorball -related activities such as skill contests. There will also be vendors selling everything from floorball gear to electronics. Besides attending the Canada Cup, there are many ways to get involved with this beautiful sport. There are f loorball leagues all across Canada that allow individuals to sign up and play for a relatively low cost. Signing up is easy: interested athletes can visit playfloorball.com and register online in a location close their homes in order to begin their floorball experiences. Floorball is a sport that is rapidly on the rise. It emerged from a small university club and has transitioned into a large national organization. Mikkola, who says he has put his heart and soul in bringing the popular European sport over to Canada, is proud of the growth and success the sport has had and is excited to see where it will go as it continues to expand. “We started out so small and come so far. To go from a small club to an international organization that boasts a massive tournament in a historic venue like the Maple Leaf Gardens is an amazing feeling,” says Mikkola. “The Leafs have won 11 Stanley Cups in the very arena in which we will be playing. It’s time for floorball to leave its mark, and make some history of its own.”
health & fitness
question
How do you build the hospital of the future? answer
Change the definition of the hospital This spring, a new structure unlike any other will rise in the downtown core. It is the new home of Women’s College Hospital by Krystal Seecharan
W
alking down Grenville Stree t in
Toronto, a cloud of brown dust rises up forcing me to cough into my sleeve with one arm and protect my eyes with the other. The noise of construction pollutes the air as men yell across the street to one another in order to be heard above the rumbling, drilling, sawing and clash of machinery. Suddenly a loud noise pierces my ears. BEEP... BEEP... BEEP... I turned to see a crane slowly backing up, adding yet another piece to the debris that makes the landscape here. Glancing back at the rubble behind me, I make it to the other side of the street and think: it is here, in the midst of all this chaos, that the lives of millions will be changed. With a design unlike any other in Ontario, the new home of Women’s College Hospital will not be built around in-patient beds like traditional hospitals, but rather around specialized clinics and surgical suites that combine treatments, care and education. This new facility will help treat and prevent women’s diseases and ailments. There will be advanced health care for women and improved health care options for all. The focus of the new hospital will be on ambulatory care. Ambulatory care means treating patients without having them stay over night, allowing them to recover in the comfort of their own homes. “Patients are often admitted to hospitals for a simple surgery and have to stay overnight,” says Jennifer Dockery, director of primary care. “Here, they can get the treatment they need and be discharged within a few hours.” Ambulatory care is not the only innovative way that WCH is
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delivering health care. The new facility will be built around a flexible shared space so the needs of patients are the number one focus. “Our current model, like most hospitals, has floors designated to specialized clinics or services,” says Lori Wilson, project manager in charge of capital redevelopment. “In our new hospital, clinics will be shared among these services and clinics to maximize the overall space in the building and enhance quality of patient care,” Wilson says. The model is designed so that a multidisciplinary team treats patients in one setting, eliminating the need for patients to travel from clinic to clinic. A prime example is the hospital’s breast centre. “In our breast centre, patients can see the team, the health providers and specialists of the program–all in the same spot –and can have their mammography, ultrasound, diagnostic tests and assessments in the same area,” says Heather McPherson, vice-president of patient care. For patients, this one-stop-shop model ensures their care is coordinated. WCH also offers a unique patient flow system that allows staff to monitor how long their patients are waiting via tablet devices. These changes and many others emerged from a study done by WCH’s research institute in 2010. The researchers asked 1,000 women what they wanted from a hospital and health care. The study was called A Thousand Voices. It surveyed a diverse group of women, aged 15 to 65, to address women’s health care needs. The study’s findings were implemented into the design of the new building. “It was important to find out what women wanted, what they needed in health care, and what were they struggling with in the current healthcare system,” says Dockery. “It was everything from finding out about the practitioners, to finding out about the space, and using that information as a foundation for our design.” For the past 100 years ,WCH has attempted to revolutionize health
care. Entering its second century, the hospital continues with the same spirit and perseverance that characterized the first. “The history of the organization is what makes it different and interesting and unique,” says Dockery. “It was built at a time when women’s rights were not on the map. Women couldn’t get into medical school, and when they finally could, none of the hospitals would hire them.” As WCH continues to grow, the need for a new building was the natural next step. “The existing Women’s College Hospital was built a century ago, but now, with WCH’s focus on developing new models of care and delivering much-needed health system solutions, we needed a facility that will better accommodate that innovative work,” says Lili Shalev Shawn, chief of communications and marketing. “The new building will integrate clinical care, treatment, research and education, and be a truly patient-centred environment– a place that delivers superior patient care and inspires the most innovative and collaborative thinking,” says Shawn. WCH has partnerships with the other acute care hospitals in Toronto, but provides the care and services that they can’t. It is filling gaps in the health system that the other hospitals are not structured to deliver. For example, there was a need in the health care system, for an ambulatory setting, that WCH stepped up to provide. “Wouldn’t it be nice to take care of people before they got sick?” asks Dockery. “And provide care for people in such a way that they can recover in the comfort of their home?” She adds: “So ambulatory care is the future of health care.” When this new 600,000-square-ft. building opens its doors in 2015, it will be physically organized and structured in a unique way. The L-shape design represents “open arms”, containing a glass exhibition area between the two arms.
Leading the way The new Woman’s College Hospital. Phase one is scheduled to open on Grenville Street in downtown Toronto in May, 2013. The new facility will double the hospital’s ability to handle urgent care cases and increase its ambulatory surgery capacity by 40 per cent. images courtesy of Women’s College Hospital.
“When people enter, they will find themselves in a bright, welcoming environment,” she says. “The focal point of the marquee will be an iconic magenta-coloured glass cube that will serve as WCH’s conference centre. “ This, she says, will be “a place to share ideas, discuss new research and educate the physicians of the future.” Walking into the existing WCH building, I can’t help but feel a sense of empowerment, being in the only building in Canada that has changed women’s lives by fighting for their right to practice medicine, as well as women’s essential health care needs. At WCH, they are literally and figuratively rebuilding health care from the ground up.
WCH Milestones in the Past Century • Opened the first cancer detection clinic in Ontario to screen healthy women for early signs of cancer. • First hospital in Ontario to use mammography. • Launched Ontario’s first regional Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Care Centre and delivered the nation’s first test-tube quintuplets. • Established North America’s first cardiac prevention and rehabilitation program designed exclusively for women.
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health & fitness
No artificial ingredients
by meghan foley photos meaghan declerq
W
hen we have a headache , we reach for Tylenol. When we have a cold, Neocitran becomes our very best friend. Without question, we pop pills, whether prescribed or not, to rid us of our immediate pain. What we don’t usually think about is why we have a headache or why our stomach hurts. “We’re brought up in a society where western medicine is implemented since birth,” says Ryan Shepherd, a medical herbalist at the Optimal Health Centre in Toronto. “There’s always a pill for this, a pill for that. That’s the way we’ve been brought up, it’s ingrained in us.” Immediate pain relief is something we all crave, but there are alternative methods to care for our well-being instead of through these instant highs. While many of the drugs we consume today are made using herbal extracts, we rarely turn to the drug’s purest form. Nor do we think of using herbs to cure
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our common ailments. Herbalism, a form of medicine that relies on the medicinal properties of plants, can cure everything from runny noses to chronic pains. By practicing herbal medicine, herbalists say, you can be in control of what’s going into your body while becoming more connected with nature and the living world around you. Perhaps natural medicine isn’t our go-to solution because most people are simply uninformed or unaware of its healing properties, even though it’s the original form of medicine and dates back thousands of years. Even veteran medical herbalist John Redden, who owns Viriditas Herbal Clinic in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood, had to overcome his preconceptions when he was first introduced to natural medicine. “I had studied anthropology and ethnobotany, so I thought herbalists were half-naked savages, taking hallucinogens, running around in the jungles,” he says. “Not people with white lab coats, sitting in offices and seeing patients.” Contrary to common assumptions, herbalists do see patients and some even own white lab coats. What sets herbalism apart from
other medicine, however, is that its goal is to get to the root of a problem. “Here’s the biggest difference: pharmaceuticals almost never treat the cause, almost never,” says Chris Pickrell, a traditional western herbalist at The Herbal Clinic and Dispensary on Roncesvalles Avenue. “They are very effective at treating what they’re supposed to do, but they rarely touch the actual underlying cause.” As a person goes off balance, Redden says, herbs gently push them to a natural and healthy state, whereas drugs are like a hard punch forcing someone to become healthy again. Upon consultation with a patient, a herbalist can create a remedy that is specific to that person’s needs. Most herbalists make tinctures, which Redden describes as “liquid extracts of different herbs combined to make whatever formula you want, for whatever condition you have.” With the ability to combine a variety of herbs for each patient’s problem, herbalists create unique formulations for each patient. This is something Redden says is impossible with conventional medicine. “The kind of medicine that I practice and teach requires a
bodies recognize “our the properties that are in herbs, we’ve been eating them for millions of years
”
whole person treating a whole person,” he says. “With science it becomes only a portion of a person, treating a portion of a person.” Shepherd says that if people with headaches go to their general practitioner, it’s likely they will all be given the same prescription. If they go to a herbalist, however, each patient will receive a different medicine based on their history, symptoms and what the practitioner concludes is causing the problem. Herbalists like Pickrell and Shepherd would like to see conventional and natural medicine practiced together. While Pickrell was interning at a hospital in Vietnam he saw the doctors using traditional Asian medicine and Western medicine in conjunction. “Let’s say someone came in and needed immediate medical treatment, they would start them on the pharmaceutical drugs but they would also start them on therapeutic doses of herbs,” Pickrell says. “They could use less pharmaceutical drugs and as soon as it was possible, actually bring someone off of pharmaceutical drugs.” For now, conventional and herbal medicine aren’t used in collaboration, although herbalists believe they should be. Aside from health benefits, Pickrell says that if herbalism played a larger role in health care, millions of dollars could be saved. Herbalism is also sustainable, because herbs can be regrown. Danielle Squires, a traditional western herbalist from Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood, harvests all of the herbs she uses herself. “You just find [the plants] in the wild, as long as it’s not a protected or a conservation area,” she says. “You harvest in an ecological way, [because] if you take too much away from one area, it won’t reproduce the next year.” Redden says he plants additional seeds in places where he is harvesting, so he leaves an area in better condition than when he arrived. “We have evolved side by side with all the herbs and plants in the world,” he says. “So our bodies recognize the properties that are in herbs, we’ve been eating them for millions
of years.” He says it’s more natural to consume herbs in the same way we consume food, which is why harvesting in an ecologically conscious way matters. Pickrell also says herbal medicine reconnects people with nature. “There is a whole element of that. That’s what draws me to herbal medicine,” Pickrell says. “I like the idea of: the plants of a place are useful to care, cure, [and] treat the people of a place.” Adopting this lifestyle at home can be easy too. “A lot of people don’t realize they already have a medicine cabinet in their kitchen,” says clinical herbal therapist Celina Ainsworth, owner of The Herbal Dispensary Clinic on Roncesvalles. Culinary herbs have a variety of medicinal properties and were traditionally used for more than just flavour. These days, we usually just use herbs because we like the taste, most of us are unaware of their healing properties. But many other herbs, some uncommon outside of a herbalist’s dispensary, have valuable medicinal qualities. Redden says you can easily adapt this natural medicine into your lifestyle using herbs as both a preventive and curing form of medicine, but to be effective it requires a lifestyle change. With the right knowledge of the remedial properties of herbs, herbalists say, people can improve their health by using them in a variety of ways, including in their cooking. Curing common ailments and achieving a herbinduced preventive lifestyle can be done without the skill required to make classic herbal tinctures. Essential oils are one method that can be learned and adopted at home. Shepherd describes them as the extracted volatile oils from one constituent of a plant. Another method non-herbalists can use to explore the benefits of herbal medicine is by making their own teas, using either dry or fresh herbs. See the adjacent sidebar for what herbalists’ suggest are easy-to-find ingredients and beginner-proof methods.
TEA REMEDIES For an average adult, add one teaspoon of herbs for each cup of boiling water, steep for five minutes and strain. Most teas are taken three times daily, in between meals. • Sore Throat: slippery elm bark, marshmallow leaf and licorice root • Headache: willow bark, skullcap or passion flower • Menstrual Cramps: crampbark, rue, meadowsweet, willow and yarrow • Hangover: milk thistle seeds • Runny nose: akinesia, eyebright, goldenrod, boneset or yarrow. • Cold: eucalyptus, peppermint, akinesia, elderflower, lemon balm or cinnamon. • Trouble Sleeping: lemon balm, chamomile, wild lettuce, lavender and skullcap.
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health & fitness
Rendezvous with Madness
by meghan fillicetti photo nicole medeiros Twenty-five years ago, when Lisa Brown, started Workman Arts, mental health was a painful subject. Brown wanted to support emerging and established artists with mental illness and addiction, as well as to use art to educate the public about subject, but found the taboo topic confusing to public audiences. Fortunately, she met Kathleen Fagen, an employee in the University of Ottawa’s audio/visual department. Fagen told Brown that she had amassed over 4000 films that dealt with mental illness. This encounter provided Brown with the motivation she needed to launch Toronto’s Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival, and to to reach out to an audience through a new outlet. “I really wanted to explore mental illness through film,” says Brown. The film festival, which takes place in Toronto each November, is an opportunity for people experiencing mental health issues to portray their story through the art of film. Mental health has evolved into a prevalent issue among Canadians. According to the Canadian Institute of Health Research, one in five Canadians–many of them young people–will suffer a form of mental illness at some point in their lives. An increasing number of Canadians are beginning to involve themselves with organizations that promote awareness of this serious issue. The Mental Health Commission of Canada was founded in 2007 as a catalyst for change in the mental health system on a national level. In February, Canadians participated in the third annual Bell Let’s Talk Day, which is dedicated to the promotion and support of mental health in Canada. Bell raised more than $4.8 million through Tweets, Facebook shares, texts and long distance calls made on Bell networks. This is not the only effort that has recently attracted the attention
of Canadians. Sandra Hanington and her husband, Eric Windeler, knew they wanted to become active in spreading the word after losing their son Jack, a first-year university student who died unexpectedly by suicide in March, 2010. “He was our oldest and he was in his first year at Queen’s University,” Hanington recalls. “I had been talking to him and texting with him right up until the day we lost him. He hid from us the suffering that he was in.” As a result, “my husband, Eric, had started doing a lot of research and we were trying to understand if there were signs for Jack, and if there were signs, how had we missed them? How had his university classmates missed them? How had his professor missed them?” Hanington asks.The bereaved parents’ research revealed two shocking statistics. The first was that the vast majority of mental health challenges surface in the late teens and early twenties. The second was the fact that, at the time, suicide was the second-leading cause of death for people in this age group, following accidents. These startling statistics led Hanington and her husband to launch The Jack Project, an initiative through which they are working alongisde Queen’s University to raise money, increase awareness, and provide some solutions to the problems of mental illness in youth. To date, The Jack Project has raised more than $1-million, which has funded workships and presentations in high schools as well as funding new technology for Kid’’s Help Phone, a non-profit agency that provides support for frightened or distressed children. This work has provded significant enough to attract the participation of a lengthy list of well-known sponsors for its next phrase, which will take the form of Canada’s first stduent mental health summit, scheduled to take place in Toronto’s MaRS research centre in February, 2014.
To find out more about the Jack Project, visit www.thejackproject.org. For Workman Arts and Rendezvous with Madness visit www.rendezvouswithmadness.com 54
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Toronto Hip-Hop The Player Character The Test of Time Social Media Experiment summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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entertainment & tech
toronto’s urban radio an obituary Do media corporations spell the end of this once thriving Toronto culture?
M
uch like Jackie Robinson broke into baseball’s major leagues in the late 40’s, the story of Toronto radio station Flow 93.5 is about overcoming obstacles and breaking barriers. Flow, started more than a decade ago by media entrepreneur Denham Jolly, was for the decade it operated under his leadership, a shining example of Black Canadians banding together and supporting their own talent. The story of its rise and demise is a story of radio trends. Jolly, the owner of a broadcasting company called Milestone Radio, had spent almost a decade working to obtain a coveted license from the Canadian Radiotelevision Telecommunications Commission, the governing body that regulates broadcasts within Canada. In 2000, he won CRTC approval and Canada’s first ever urban music station was launched – the now historic Flow 93.5. The station played all kinds of hiphop and R&B music and was heralded as the voice of urban Toronto. Being Canada’s first urban station meant that Flow 93.5 was key in supporting up-and-coming talent from Toronto. Toronto had established itself as a hip-hop market ever since Maestro Fresh-Wes’ 1989 hit “Let Your Backbone Slide,” cracked into the U.S. Billboard charts. Flow was also the first station in the world to play music from Grammy award-winning musicians such as singer Melanie Fiona and Billboard chart topping rapper Drake.
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by rudy persaud illustration alborz jesmi
Flow was pivotal in the Canadian hiphop scene because it gave hip-hop culture in Canada what it needed the most which was exposure. In those days, the station also featured programming and focused on local artists and hip-hop culture as the shows The Real Frequency and the informative and groundbreaking OTA Live, showcased the best in Toronto’s hip-hop culture. Those two shows gave homegrown Toronto-based acts a radio platform. OTA Live is remembered as the first show to interview child TV starturned-aspiring rap artist Drake as a musician. June 2010 was the beginning of the end. When Flow was sold to Toronto broadcast giant CTV, owned by Bell Media, it was the first sign that a change was on the horizon – one that would alter the landscape of the Toronto hip-hop scene. At the time of the sale, Paul Jones – better known to Flow listeners as DJ Jester – said, he knew what was going to happen. “It was inevitable,” Jones said recently whe asked to help tell the short history of Toronto urban media. “They weren’t going to keep everybody.” The event in question was the massive lay-off that took place. Ninetyfive per cent of station employees, including on-air talent, sales and marketing staff, were told they no longer had a job. February 2, 2011: a dark day and the end of an era. The last remnants of the first-ever radio station in Canada to be owned by an Afro-Canadian was gone. The little station that could, the one that went up against radio stations in Toronto that were owned
by media giants such as Bell, Chum, Rogers and Astral Media, would never be the same. Flow continued to play Hip-Hop and R&B music as a rhythmic Top 40 station. Next, the station, whose previous slogan was “Toronto’s Hip-Hop & R&B”, underwent a rebranding in December, 2012, and began calling itself “The Beat of Toronto.” This change coincided with a shift in program direction because hip-hop music was no longer the main focus. Instead, the line-up featured more rhythmic forms of music such as dance and electronic. The roots of this loss can be traced to a combination of business economics and Canadian broadcasting policy. The radio industry is a business; mainstream stations usually format their programming according to what attracts the most advertisers and what the largest number of listeners want to hear. To maintain listenership, many radio stations in the United States and Canada employ the services of media research companies. These companies go out and collect data to find out which songs test well with listeners. Program directors use this information to program the music on their stations accordingly. Aside from recent successes such as Drake, singer The Weeknd and Canadian reggae-hiphop mainstay Kardinal Offishall, most Canadian records do not test well among audiences. “We test our music all the time and CanCon never tests at the top,” Flow assistant music-director Mastermind
“No radio just means artists will have to push their exposure in other directions.” said during an interview with HipHopCanada.com about the matter of music research. With the exception of Drake and the odd record here or there, Mastermind said, everything from Canada that is tested this way sinks to the bottom. “And it’s not like you say, ‘this is the Canadian record.’ ’’ he said. “The audience listens to it, unbiased and gives us their feedback. The majority of the records are sitting at the bottom of testing and that’s the nature of it.” That said, all radio and television broadcasters in Canada must air a certain percentage of content that is in part written, produced, presented or contributed by a Canadian. The specific percentage depends on the CRTC mandate for each individual broadcaster. The rules are complicated: A typical commercial station in Canada has to play at least 35 per cent Canadian content, but many community stations, including college and university campus stations, are not required to play any Canadian content at all. Flow 93.5 fell through the cracks. Urban music in Canada has not performed as well as Canadian pop or Canadian rock songs on Canadian Billboard Charts. This makes playing Canadian urban music a gamble for a station because industry research shows that the music tests low for a mainstream audience. This means that an artist such as Toronto’s Melanie Fiona – who is one of
Canada’s most decorated artists with two Grammys, in two R&B categories for her duet with American singer Cee-Lo Green titled, “Fool For You” – still does not receive much radio play in Canada despite her accomplishments. Ironically, Fiona, like many other Canadian artists, have received more radio play in the U.S. simply because there is an widely-established market for urban music in that country. A-Game and The Airplane Boys are additional examples of Canadian urban artists who have lost the exposure of having a outlet for airplay in Canada. As a result, they have been finding new avenues, such as blogs and social media to gain exposure in the absence of radio. They’ve taken the digital route and have found success. The Airplane Boys, a duo that consists of Scarborough emcees, Beck Motely and Bon Voyage, has found ways to garner a worldwide reputation. Together, they’ve combined an experimental blend of rapid-fire delivery and hypnotizing melodies to their music and have performed all over the world. Motely and Voyage have even performed at Coachella, an annual music festival held in California that has seen some of the biggest musicians in the world take the stage – including Jay-Z, Radiohead and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A-Game is another duo from Toronto that has found a way to break into the music industry
with very little radio play. The Toronto-based pair consists of twin brothers Nova and Chase, who also co-produce their own songs. To date they have released one album that has made a big splash in the global hip-hop community. Urban radio has come and gone. In its two decades of existence, it established a Toronto hip-hop culture that has bred some of the biggest stars in urban music today. Yet without radio the future is still bright for Canadian acts as new paths such are constantly being taken. The global hip-hop community grows each day and Canada has some of the biggest stars to its name. Looking forward, the city has to proud knowing that this is potentially just the beginning. “Radio is often the last piece of the puzzle,” says David McTeague, a former segment writer for OTA Live, now promotions manager at another Toronto radio station. “Local hip-hop will always have a home in Toronto due to its strong roots. No radio just means artists will have to push their exposure in other directions.” The late Jackie Robinson opened the door for every coloured athlete in the major leagues. Flow, much like Robinson opened the door for an entire culture. Canadian media barriers were broken and the labour pains that Denham Jolly and others went are finally paying their dues. Sadly, though, this breakthrough comes in an era when the original inception of Flow is now only a memory to listeners.
entertainment & tech
the player character The power of narrative in video games by GEORGE PEREIRA photos ALEXANDER FRID
O
n the opening screen of World 1-1 in the original Super Mario Bros., you assume control of a mustached little man in red overalls. He stands idle on a brick road bordered by a grassy hill, an over-sized bush, and a single cloud. It’s a picturesque landscape that demonstrates the level of freedom to be found in the 1985 game from Nintendo. Freedom, insofar as you can only advance the game by moving to the right, and actions are limited to running and jumping. But this game gets credit for establishing the playing style for all games to come. After players took those first few steps to the right, the game presented its first set of obstacles. From that point on, it was up to each player, as Mario, to decide how to approach the game. Would you go for the coin confined in the ‘?’ box? Perhaps get rid of the pesky goomba that has taken countless lives of first-time players? Or would you run past the whole situation,
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make a dash for the finish, and forgo all the magical mushrooms that grant an extra two feet of height and the ability to throw fireballs? Gamers went about this their own way, each Mario guided by distinct skillsets and personalities, says Ricky Lima, a writer for Toronto
Thumbs, a videogame news website based in the downtown core. Developers “think it’s necessary to explain every single detail about their game, lest we hate them for making a terrible game,” Lima says. Yet in doing so, he adds, developers miss the most important point. “Exploration of game mechanics is at the heart of every great game.” Videogames have come a long way since
1985. The moral quandaries of today’s gamer are far greater in scope than the ‘coin or jump’ dilemmas faced by Mario enthusiasts of yore. The decisions we make have far-reaching consequences that can weigh on us more than any fictional narrative should. Why, if games are just a carefully assembled collection of computer code, do we find ourselves staring at the screen, unable to make a decision when a game asks us to sacrifice a virtual ally to save a village, planet, or universe? Kevin VanOrd, a senior editor for Gamespot.com, says that the difficulty in making these choices is what draws him closer to a game’s story. “Making choices that don’t reflect what I think I would choose if I were
“There are so many different ways to teach a player how to play without telling them. Famously Super Mario Bros. 1-1 does this perfectly.”
in the same circumstance make[s] me feel as though I am ‘gaming’ the game,” VanOrd says. “If I am making choices that I don’t believe in just for the sake of playing with the game’s mechanics, I am distancing myself from the narrative.” The more contemporary Mass Effect trilogy of games has popularized the mechanic of choice in videogames and critics lauded the series for the significant implications that resulted from decisions made by the player. It wouldn’t be ludicrous to suggest that its success as a franchise can be accredited to the sheer level of customization that the game offers upon selecting ‘New Game.’ The first step in engaging Mass Effect’s vast universe is the simple task of naming your player character, whose existence carries over through each game. This mechanic is one of the first methods of personalizing a gamer’s experience. In all likelihood, we were introduced to this through old arcade machines asking for our three initials and inscribing them on an illustrious list of top scores. Games haven’t stopped asking us for our names, but the game experience can change as a result. Recognized franchises that feature a recurring protagonist feel inauthentic when players attempt to squeeze themselves into a plot built on decades of lore. “The Zelda hero is so traditionally known as Link that trying to shoehorn my name in there would actually break the connection to the game’s world,” says Michael Brown, a former contributor to gaming website 1up.com, and now a gaming columnist for Toronto’s Metro News. Transference of a gamer’s personality onto a character in a game is made easier when the game doesn’t decide what kind of person the character is. Of course, there must exist a ‘core’ plot through which a player progresses until the credits roll; the player can’t write the whole story. But the path the player-character takes in reaching the end can be entirely different from another person’s experience. In Mass Effect, the goal is to save the universe. This objective is eventually achieved regardless of the decisions the player makes throughout the series. Mass Effect received heavy criticism for its arguably nonsensical ending but is stilly fondly remembered for giving gamers the opportunity to be the star space cowboy in a romp that felt legitimately impacted by their choices. As ‘Commander (Insert Name Here) Shepherd’, you had to
choose one of two close friends to save from a planet-shattering bomb. You could enact or prevent genocide on more than one species. You could even fall in love one of the several distinct characters, irrespective of their sex. The possibilities weren’t endless, but they were vast enough in number to make feasible the idea that your mission was unlike that of any other Commander Shepherd. This level of interactivity in storytelling is unique to videogames. The Choose Your Own Adventure series of books, popular in the 1980s and 1990s, attempted to engage readers through the power of choice. Hawaii Five-O recently allowed viewers to select the murderer of an episode through a fan poll. Yet it would take millions of pages for a novel to emulate the variables of which a game is capable, and the TV audience reaction proved largely indifferent to the Five-O gimmick. The difference with videogames is that the role you play is no gimmick. The game’s hero can share your name, you make the character’s decisions, and, at the end of the game, any triumph or failure is a player’s own. It appears, moreover, that this is the direction of narrative in videogames. There is a strong push for non-linear stories, in which a player is allowed to take her or his time to cultivate an identity within the construct of the videogame. We continue to see innovations in game immersion: Assassin’s Creed’s control scheme replicates the layout of the human body, and Dark Souls exemplifies how an ‘always-enabled’ multiplayer can add a terrifying human element to the horrors found around the next virtually real corner. This is not just a passing trend. Games, which have been trying to integrate us since their dawn, are growing more captivating with each new and exciting innovation. It is the nature of this industry to push the boundaries of immersion. As the technology continues to evolve, so too will the ability of the game developer to tell a good story featuring… well, anyone, really. And whether it’s a plumber in red overalls or a straightlaced marine trekking through space, you, as player, will be the one who steers their course.
“Whenever I play Pokémon, I always give the character my name because they’re anonymous and it’s easy to transfer your own personality onto them.” summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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entertainment & tech
The Test Of Time
by DEMI YANG-OSMOND
R
emember when we had to blow on game cartridges to make them work? Decades past the 8-bit era, we are now in the eighth generation of videogames. Here we will showcase the highlights, notable years and iconic releases dating back from...
1972
1ST Generation
The first videogame console; the Magnavox Odyssey was born. In the same year, PONG was released by Atari.
1976
2nd Generation Apple CEO, Steve Jobs co-created Break Out, published by Atari.
1983
3rd Generation 1984 Russian game, Tetris, came out and still retains worldwide popularity.
1977 The Atari 2600 popularized ROM cartridges, allowing people to buy individual games.
1978 Space Invaders shoots into the gaming industry.
1980 PacMan by Namco, chomps its way into arcades.
1981 Donkey Kong became the first game to allow the jumping feature. It was also the first appearance of Mario, as the “jump man.”
1985 Originally called the “Family Computer Console,” the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released. Success of Super Mario Bros. rebrands the “jump man” as the Italian plumber, Mario.
1986 The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Dragon Quest series all started.
1987
4th Generation
The Final Fantasy, Mega Man and Castlevania series all began.
1989 The Sega Genesis is released.
1990 Originally called the “Super Famicon,” the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) is released. Neo Geo series of consoles also began.
1991 Sonic the Hedgehog speeds into the competition.
1992 Pioneering racing game, Virtua Racing popularized polygonal graphics.
1982 Arcade version of Tron released the same year as the movie created by Disney. Q*bert, the big-nosed gibberish-speaking creature hopped into arcades.
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Best Selling Consoles: (in Millions) Playstation 2: 155 Nintendo DS: 153.87 Gameboy: 118.69 Playstation: 102.49 Wii: 99.84 Gameboy Advance: 81.51 Xbox 360: 77.2
1993
1998
2004
5th Generation
6th Generation
7th Generation
1994
1999
2005
The Sony PlayStation is released.
The Sega Dreamcast had its North American release.
Microsoft released its second console, Xbox 360.
1996
2000
2006
The Nintendo 64 console launched along with the smash hit, Super Mario 64.
Sony released the PlayStation 2, which remains the bestselling console to date.
Sony launched the PlayStation 3.
2001 Microsoft released its first videogaming console, the Xbox. The GameCube is also released this year, by Nintendo.
Eight days later, Nintendo releases the Wii, thus reigniting this three brand console war for another generation.
2011-
present 8 Generation th
2012 Nintendo’s Wii U kicks off a new era of gaming consoles!
2013 Sony’s PlayStation 4 Microsoft’s Xbox One
2007 Assassin’s Creed murders the gaming scene with its first release.
2002 The Kingdom Hearts and Splinter Cell series began.
64-Bit Era Notable Hits 1995
• Chrono Trigger
1996
• Mario Kart 64 • Tomb Raider
1997
• Final Fantasy VII • Fallout • GoldenEye • Gran Turismo • Grand Theft Auto • Star Fox 64
Hand-Held Rivals 1989 Nintendo GameBoy vs. Atari Lynx
2004 Nintendo DS vs. Sony PlayStation Portable
1998 • Ocarina of Time • Pokemon Red and Pokeman Blue
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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entertainment & tech
No // Social Media Experiment Share:
Status || Photo || Link || Video || Question
Goodbye Facebook – at least for a while, anyway.
by Alexia Reid
Networks
University of Guelph-Humber Current City
Toronto, Canada facebook
Wall: 0 Messages: 6 Friends: 872 Photos: 586
Experiment Diary Day One • 8:30 a.m. Deleted P. from Friends list. • 8:43 p.m. Deactivated Facebook. • Kept re-reading old text messages hoping to understand why the relationship ended. • Fought temptation to log back on and see if P. had updated his account. Day Two • 9:17 a.m. Relapse. Reactivated Facebook account. •Found no updates. Became upset at myself. • 11:20 a.m. Deactivated account for the second time.
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In all honesty, what do you actually do
on social networking sites? You look at the profiles of people on your network. On a daily basis, you may go back to some of those pages several times. Whether it’s out of boredom or because something about their lives fascinates you, you’re ompletely captivated. Essentially, Facebook has turned us into stalkers. It has made it okay for us to monitor, track and become spectators of one another’s lives. This means that if you’ve just ended a relationship, Facebook is a dangerous place to be– especially if you still have your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend on your Friends list. Take me, for example, and my recently ex-boyfriend, to whom I’ll refer to as P., We had been dating for almost five months before we broke up. Everything seemed to be going all right for a while; then we started to drift. There were long periods of silence between each phone call and text. He didn’t even call me for Valentine’s Day. The post that ended our relationship was a photo he had recently
taken with an ex-girlfriend. Confronted about it, he lied and said it was old. From that point on, he became even more deceitful, going so far as to deactivate his account temporarily to remove the incriminating pictures. When P. and I ended things, I became moody and took to “creeping” his Facebook profile to reminisce on the good times we had. This became increasingly addictive. I often found myself checking his page several times a day to see whether he was moving on and if he was talking to any other girls. It got to the point where my detective work distracted me from school assignments or time with my friends. I decided that enough was enough. What I needed to do was break-up with Facebook. That’s when I decided to go on a no social media experiment. Rather than thinking you’ve been using Facebook for all the wrong reasons, read my No Social Media Diary (below) and my longer article online at emergemagazine.ca. Then try your own No Social Media Experiment to see how long you can stay disconnected.
• Did other things (reading; school work) to keep my mind off my No Facebook Experiment.
see his Facebook page. • Did not think of P. as much today.
Day Three • 12:40 p.m. Relapsed again. Used my friend’s iPhone to check P.’s profile. • Decided to add an extra day to the experiment to compensate.
Day Five • 12:00 a.m. No Social Media Experiment ends. • Outcome: Went two days out of five without Facebook. • Conclusion: If I try again, I might manage to do this for a full five days. Or maybe not.
Day Four • Success! Kept busy by working on school assignments. • Gave myself a manicure and pedicure. • Made no attempt at trying to
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Exotic Getaways Travelling for Dummies Pick of the Litter After Hours Words from the Next Generation Grantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rant
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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living
three
exotic
getaways Bored with all-inclusive? Adventurous travellers can discover themselves and the world in Peru, Prague and Thailand by shaganaa sivaloganathan
T
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Photo courtesy of nogueiranielles | dreamstime.com
ravelling is what most of us aim to do at least a few times in our lives. Being able to take on the world with no worries or woes makes you feel free and liberated. But travel isn’t cheap, and so most people in their twenties can go a very long time without stepping into an airplane. Although f lying to Europe or taking a swim at an all-inclusive Caribbean resort can really put a dent in your wallet, travel doesn’t have to. When planning a vacation there are some tips and tricks to follow that can help you save a bundle. It all starts with smart thinking and research. As the economic downturn hit the world’s nations, their cost of living has gone down. Developing nations thrive and rely on their tourism industry. By travelling to places that have less robust economies, you’ll be able to go a lot further on your budget. A good rule of thumb to remember when choosing travel destinations is to look for a location where the Canadian dollar is worth more than the currency in the place you want to visit. Here are three such destinations you should think about when planning your next trip. Offering history, art, culture and a whirlwind of experiences, these places will provide you with a trip you’ll never forget.
Peru Located in northwestern South America,
Photo by Taylor James
Peru has the perfect climate for those looking to soak in some sun. With one-of-a-kind beaches like Mancora, it’s a tourist’s dream. Be sure to check out the legendary Machu Picchu. This mountain stands 2,420 metres above sea level. Located in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, this unique setting is home to spectacular scenery of tall luscious plantations and foggy skies. With mountain terrain peeking through the clouds, it provides climbers with an unforgettable view. If you’re more into the history and artifacts of this nation, then Inca ruins is what you are looking for. These ancient ruins can be found all over the country. Admission to the Inca Museum in Cusco is a bargain, working out
to less than $5 Canadian. To show you how much money you’ll be saving, here are some additional sample costs for a day’s worth of adventure: The price of transportation in Peru is very low when comparing it to that of other countries. Less than $10 will get you bus ride of more than 200 kilometres. A traditional meal for two, such as Causa Rellena con Pollo (yellow potatoes with chicken salad), generally costs around $6. And there is no need to stay in student hostels. There are many different hostel options available in Peru. Single rooms or hotels can range under $20 a night. With the money you save, you can buy handmade Peruvian souvenirs.
czech republic
Photo by tarah K. hoag Photos courtesy of hendrik andersen | dreamstime.com
Budget travellers may fear travelling to Europe. But finding a place to visit in Europe doesn’t have to cost a lot. It’s all about researching the most cost-efficient places. You can have a European experience without going to the most expensive cities or staying in five-star hotels. It’s all about smart choices and research. Finding lower rates in Eastern European countries like Czech Republic is easy. Cobblestone streets full of rich culture, scenic views and a welcoming crowd, the Czech Republic is a European nation that is affordable and remarkable. You can find great deals in Prague, the country’s capital. But this mountainous European state is home to lush countryside and luscious terrain and their are bargains to be found in smaller towns and cities. Travel within the Czech Republic is extremely affordable. A monthly student pass costs less than $15. With these prices, you will be more motivated to get out there and explore, as you take in the beautiful views and local spots. If you’re not looking for a monthly pass, day passes are offered for less than $6. The Czech Republic has wonderful dining options for all foodies. Lunch in a sandwich bar will rack up no more than $5. If you’re looking to explore more of a high-class meal option, then dinner for two at a mid-range
left: Love locks – a symbol of love throughout Europe. bottom: Prague rooftops.
restaurant will cost less than $30. Want to chow down with a cold beer? Local beers tend to cost less than $4, and lunch for one at a local pub will cost you about $10. With these great dining options, there is no reason anyone visiting this country ever has to go hungry. If you’re looking for a place to spend the night, make sure to check out the vast options available to you. If you shop around, you can find dormitory beds going for less than the cost of a meal in Canada. Even staying at some four-star hotels in the off-season can be within reach of a budget traveller. There are other housing options to choose from: a studio flat in some Czech cities can cost around $600 a month. With low prices like this, you might just want to pack your bags for good.
>> summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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exotic getaways // continued from P65
Top: Monkey Temple in Lopburi. middle: View from a mountain on Ko Nang Yuan. Bottom: Ancient remains from Ayuthaya, the former capital when Thailand was called Siam.
Thailand
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Photos courtesy of patrick justin silverio
Located in southeastern Asia, and bordering the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, Thailand is home to spectacular beaches, sceneries, and friendly locals. Although it remains one of the wrold’s most popular tourist destination, Thailand has also been hit by the international economic downturn. The cost of airfare and accommodation are substantially lower than five or six years ago. With research and planning, a budget traveller can take advantage of this opportunity to see Thailand and its exotic islands. The cost of living in Thailand is low, so transportation is available without a hefty price. Thailand’s well-functioning transportation infrastructure enables visitors to explore local hot spots, historic ruins, ancient Buddhist temples, and lush beaches. Just remember: make sure that you understand where you will be taken–and what exactly you will be charged–before you get into a bus, taxi or other kind of private conveyance. Thailand offers many different dining options for all. Whether you prefer more local dining at smaller places or if you prefer a little more luxury, Thailand has many options to choose from. Authentic Asian food costs a fraction of what you are used to paying in Canada. A plate of Thai food, some rice and a soft drink at a stand or small restaurant will cost less than $5. If you are looking for a little more luxury, a meal for two at a nice restaurant will still set you back no more than $20. Finally, there are plenty of housing and hostels to choose from, meaning it isn’t hard to find cheap places to spend the night . There are plenty of different options—varying with the location you visit, but all for less than vacations in less interesting, and especially allinclusive, vacation locations.
by AMAURY LORANCA photos ivy lin
Travelling for dummies Travelling can be exciting and fulfilling if done right. If not, that vacation you looked forward to becomes the vacation you want to forget. According to Monique Janeiro, an Air Transat operations check-in agent and flight editor, travellers seem to toss out their brains when they book their flights. It’s not until later–that moment when vacationers think: “Whoa, this is really happening”–that people start asking serious questions about trip preparation. If you are one such last-minute planner, have no fear: this concise five-step guide will tell you what you need to know and expect when travelling by air.
FIVE pre check-in tips
1
Documentation:
>> 2
While you should listen to the nurturing voice in your head asking you if you packed your underwear and sunblock, remind yourself also to double-check all your documentation. Every country has its own rules and regulations. Far too often, passengers are prevented from boarding their flights or entering a country because of some sort of document-related issue. For instance, you can’t travel to Costa Rica unless your passport is valid for three months after the date of your scheduled return. Always verify that your passport is valid for the country you are travelling to. Just because it’s not expired doesn’t mean it’s valid; some countries require that visitors carry a visa. A simple Google search can help you figure out what you will need to get into each country. In case there’s any doubt, ask your travel agent to check Timatic, an application that gives travel and tourism professionals details about the latest documentation restrictions for countries around the world. On a side note, if your travel agent doesn’t use Timatic, suggest that they start–or find another agent.
Check what airline and what terminal you’re departing from:
Many people waste precious time and money by being in the wrong place and missing their f lights. Janeiro’s favourite example is when passengers line up at the Air Transat departure gate only to discover that they’re actually travelling with Canjet. This can be a serious problem if a passenger ends up waiting a long time in line. Some times the passenger actually misses a flight; but it can be almost as bad to start your vacation in the worst seat on the plane, next to the crying baby or the toilet. In defense of those who make this mistake, the issue occurs because Air Transat Holidays is a ticket sales agency, and sell tickets for flights on a number of competing airlines. Air Transat Holidays doesn’t clearly print on the e-ticket that the flight is not with Transat. The name of the carrier is usually written somewhere on the second page of the fine print. To avoid this common but frustrating error, take 10 minutes and read your e-ticket, It will save you time by ensuring you are in the right terminal and the right line-up, and more importantly, it saves you money by potentially preventing you from missing your flight entirely. summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
>>
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more
useful tips & things to look for
* * * *
Give yourself enough time before a flight to board comfortably. Boarding for international flights closes an hour before departure, for example, so you need to be at the airport at least two, and up to three hours, before your flight time. Book your connecting flights with at least three hours between arrival and departure. Not all airlines will protect you if you’ve given yourself an hour of layover time and are now stranded halfway to your destination. If your luggage hasn’t arrived with you, don’t panic. Luggage is very rarely “lost” in the traditional sense. Keep your cool and talk to a baggage agent. Explain your situation, what your luggage looks like and make sure to leave a tag with your name and phone number on all your bags in the future. Matthew Chau, a traveller whose bag was misplaced on a flight to Varadero, says: “There were other people who also had their bags lost and they were yelling at the airline guy. I don’t think they understood it wasn’t his fault. I was the last to talk to the guy and he was actually quite helpful. “They tracked the bag down to another airport in Cuba and got me the bag within 24 hours. Chau’s advice? “Don’t bark at the only person that could help you.”
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3
No liquids and gels over 100 ml and no sharp objects in your carry-on:
While the rules pertaining to prohibited items may seem like common sense to frequent travellers, those with little or no flying experience – or who have not flown for a few months – should make time to brush up on these prohibitions. Security will not allow any liquid or gel in a container that holds more than 100 millilitres. This means that if your container holds 105 ml, it’s not going to be allowed. Even if your bottle is empty and its capacity is more than 100 ml, it will not clear security. Scissors, nail clippers, nail files and Swiss army knives are all considered sharp. They aren’t allowed in a carryon, either. If you have the need for scissors, more than 100 ml of hair gel, and a jar of peanut butter on the plane, you should rethink your flying strategy. Otherwise, place them all in your checked luggage.
4
Pay for your seat, check in online or show up early:
This particular tip is for those travelling in groups, with small children, or anyone who simply wants a good seat. Every international flight requires that passengers to show up a minimum of three hours early. Customer service agents say that one of their least-favourite scenarios is arguing with a family of six (four of them being children under seven years old) when they show up late without having preselected their seats and are now scattered all over the plane. “They expect to all sit together but don’t realize they’re passengers 314 to 321 of 349,” says Air Transat’s Joselyn Dulnuan. “It just doesn’t work”–for the flight staff , for other travellers, or for you, if you are part of one such family. To avoid this scenario, passengers can either arrive three hours early, or check in online for free ahead of time. They can also pay a nominal fee to select seats at the time of booking or well in advance. Most airlines offer this service, but double check by going to their website. While there, the self-check-in systems tend to be very user friendly.
5
Check flight status:
This piece of advice could also fall under the category of passenger misconceptions, but is worthy of mention. If an airline has a delay and is aware of it 48 hours before departure, it will inform passengers via email or phone. However, if the delay occurs within the 48-hour time frame, you may not be contacted. Checking the airline’s website or telephoning a day before departure can ensure that you have the most up-to-date information about the status of your flight. A final word: this, like other tips and advice, also apply to your trip home.
living
Pick of the Litter by BRITTNEE FLEMING photos Kaiylnn Fife Commitment
Start Up Cost Monthly Cost
Goldfish
30 mins – 20 years
$20 – $35
60 cents – $1.20
Hamster
2 – 3 years
$80 – $148
$10 – $20
Gerbil
2 – 4 years
$65 – $120
$15 – $30
Guinea Pigs
5 – 8 years
$150 – $180
$25 – $35
Mice & Rats
1 – 3 years
$65 – $100
$15 – $20
Small Dog Large Dog
10 – 18 years 10 – 20 years
$750 – $2600 $1,450 – $2,800
$20 – $100 $120 – $200
Cat
15 – 20 years
$560 – $1170 (with declawing)
$20 – $55
Rabbit
10 – 15 years
$300 – $600
$10 – $40
Pets are a challenge. This reference guide can help you evaluate yourself and choose the animal that best suits your lifestyle and budget.
Thinking of becoming a pet-parent? While animal companionship can improve your life, it’s a big responsibility!
Maintenance • Feed once a day • Clean the bowl once a week • Feed and change water once a day • Clean the cage once a week • 15-30 minutes of daily social interaction or exploration • Fill food dish when empty. Occasionally give f resh produce, sunf lower seeds or peanuts • Tidy cage daily and clean cage once a week • Replace food and water daily • 1-3 hours of “out of cage” exercise • Trim nails every 6 – 8 weeks • Feed daily and occasionally vary their diet with f ruits and vegetables • Clean cage and toys weekly • Feed at the same time every day • Clean bowls daily • Walk twice daily • Needs constant attention. Cannot be alone for long periods of time • Bathe, clip and groom when needed • Feed daily • Change water daily • Brush every few days • Clean litter box daily • Wash bowls once a week • Feed daily • Change water daily • Clean litter box daily • Tidy cage daily • Up to 4 hours of “out of cage” exercise daily • Clean cage and accessories weekly • Clip nails 2 – 3 times a month
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5 to 9
A
fter a long day at work,
we deserve time to unwind. But remember: there are more interesting and healthier ways to relax than to sit on the couch and watch TV.
by COLIN HEGARTY photos VIVIAN MAK We all know how it feels: some days you are so rattled that you have to lie down and decom-
press. Nothing feels better than cracking open a beer and channel surfing. Yet, after a few months of doing this, I found my energy at work starting to fade. Most days, I looked like a zombie. I decided it was time for a change. Here’s what I did to motivate myself to improve my physical fitness and social life.
TUESDAY
MONDAY It is no secret that everybody hates Monday. Why not make it the most exciting day of the week by planning something that makes you look forward to the days that follow! At my job, they organize a pickup basketball game after the day is over at the local recreational centre. These games usually last about an hour, but they are a lot of fun while keeping employees active.
WEDNESDAY Like the title of the hit song by Passion Pit says: use Wednesday to take a walk. Walking is the easiest physical activity that a person can perform and it’s also one of the healthier workouts. Barring a natural disaster, you can walk whenever and wherever you want. You can walk with a group of friends or dust off your MP3 player and explore the neighbourhood by yourself. Use this day to get back into a physical activity; it will build energy and process the nutrients from last night’s dinner.
After surviving Monday madness, Tuesday can leave you completely exhausted. The weekend still seems light-years away. If you want one day to relax inside after a long, taxing day at work, Tuesday is the best day to stay home. Take this time to cook yourself a nice dinner. Start up that grill, cook up a juicy T-bone steak with sautéed mushrooms and blue cheese. Grill some potatoes and throw on fresh garlic. Or go the vegetarian route and make yourself a nice salad with bruschetta and stuffed peppers. These are just two examples from a plethora of recipes that you can try out. Explore your taste buds and try out a different fancy recipe each Tuesday.
THURSDAY These days, there is a new reason to have fun on Thursday. People are jumping on the ‘Throwback Thursday’ bandwagon by posting Instagram photos of their favourite items from the past. Why not step it up a notch and play the real games you used to play as a child. Set up a game of tag, capture the flag, kickball or ultimate frisbee in a local park. If the weather is bad, dust off that old Nintendo 64 and invite some friends over for an old-school game of Mario Kart, Monkey Ball or Super Smash Bros.
FRIDAY
Party!!!
SATURDAY-SUNDAY The weekend is yours to discover. Do what your heart desires. Here is a list of some things you could do: • Go to a show downtown • Go to a bar and catch a sporting event • Go to a sporting event • Go to a fancy restaurant • Stay in and catch up on reading OR • Make your own list!
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toronto sports curse raptors Continued from P48
three consecutive seasons during his tenure in Toronto, Carter quickly became the face of the franchise. Coming out of the University of North Carolina, he drew comparisons to fellow NC alum, Michael Jordan. Dazzling crowds with his dunks and hangtime ability, Carter took the league by storm– but not for long. After leading the Raptors to their first-ever playoff berth in his sophomore season, he boosted the franchise’s notoriety and his legacy as a whole, setting a franchise record in 2001—which still stands—of 47 wins while bringing the team to its first-andonly Eastern Conference Semi Finals. But in the dying seconds of game seven against the Philadelphia 76ers, Carter missed a potential series-winning shot. Had he made that shot, Raptors’ history could have been changed forever. Carter also missed the AllStar game, and the rest of the season with a
major knee injury. In his absence, the squad made the playoffs but was bounced in the first round to the Detroit Pistons. This marked the beginning of the end of the ‘Vince Carter Era’ in Toronto. When he requested a trade in 2004, the dark days for Raptors nation had begun. Of course, Carter’s not entirely to blame. Since he left, other players have underperformed and management has failed to build the team. Also, fans and analysts point out that the franchise remains one of the youngest in the league. Says NBA TV Canada analyst Sherman Hamilton: “Problems with tracking big name free agents ever since Vince Carter came have been a never-ending issue.” The team is young but the future looks brighter than ever. The team has now put their weight on the shoulders of Rudy Gay and coach Dwane Casey, who have failed to make the playoffs since 2008, but who, to Raptors fans, nonetheless feel like they could be only steps away from making a big splash in the league and contending for something big. bg
EMERGING: BIG TIME
“Quality over quantity.”
This is what actor-producer Adrien Grenier said was his key piece of advice for participants who attended the inaugural Emerge conference at the University of Guelph-Humber on April 24.
Toronto FC
Rudi Schuller , editor of Goal.com Canada, has covered the Toronto FC soccer team since its inaugural 2007 season. Schuller insists that any talk of a curse is “a deflection from the real issue.” This, he says, is corporate owner/operator Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. “As some of the Toronto pro teams are starting to turn things around with new strategies, it just brings to light the terrible way these teams have been run in recent history.” Schuller’s solution? New president and GM Kevin Payne. “An MLS-proven chief executive has been given the keys to the franchise,” Schuller says, “and a clear plan seems to have been laid out to get the team steered in the right direction.” For the complete interview and Alex Moretto’s analysis of the TFC’s history and prospects, see emergemagazine.ca.
The conference, organized by fourth-year media students to explore the role of the emerging global generation in a transformed networking culture, succeeded in delivering a bit of both—drawing upwards of 350 guests and notable 12 guest speakers to the UGH campus, as well as trending nationwide on Twitter that afternoon. Branka VeselinoVic
Interviews, articles, transcripts, photographs and links to all Emerge Conference videos can be found at www.emergemagazine.ca and www.emergeconference.ca
photo: christine psaila
EmergeCon.indd 1
photo: kailynn fife
7/10/13 4:08 PM
summer 2013 | emergemagazine.ca
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the NEXT GENERATION IN QUOTES by PAULINA ABAD & BUSHRA LAYEQ
The Millennial generation – those of us born between the mid-1980s and early 1990s – have grown up in a world transformed by technology. We have watched global political events bring terror and war and wreak economic havoc. We want to fight pollution, save energy and water, and stop global warming. As young adults, we face competition for jobs. We are still tethered to our parents, but we long to be completely independent. We may also be the first generation that does not expect life to be easier for the people who follow. We know kids and teens born
On social issues “If there are two countries and one has gold and the other one has silver, then they fight them to get the gold. I would tell them if they can just borrow their gold or silver, or just share, like my friend,” Maya, 10
“Once I start working, I will have this financial thing to plan out. I would probably have money stashed for donations.” Melanie, 14
“Maybe this guy will come and say can the war please stop? I didn’t think of his name yet.” Carlos, 8
On moving out of your parents’ house “When you are out of school and you have a job and you can pay for yourself, you can pay bills for yourself. I think it’s late 20s early 30s, if I finish school later.” Disha, 13
in the late 1990s and early 2000s are like us in some respects: they are tech savvy and socially responsible. But they are very different in others: they look forward to f lying cars, teleportation and consumer space travel. Moreover, they are already worrying about how they are going to manage information overload. How do we know? Simple: we asked them. Here is a sample of what members of the next generation have to say about their expectations for technological and social change, jobs, success and happiness.
“You need to know how to read, how to add, how to do those stuff, and you need to know your ABC’s, then you can ask your parents about cooking because I don’t think they teach cooking at school. And then you have to learn how to drive, because if you don’t learn how to drive you are doomed, unless you take the bus or taxi, but then you just waste your money.” Carlos, 8
“Ask for your parents’ money and buy your house. I don’t want to pay for my own money, because my mom gives me $7 and my dad gives me $2 each week until I’m 43.” Afeef, 7
On employment prospects and strategies
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“I will find that job, they will give me that job or I’ll sue them.” Airaj, 10
“Kids right now are on their computers more often so I believe that there will be more job opportunities with computers. A lot of children our age will know how to work them and know how to work things with them.” Disha 13
“Volunteer work. If you can’t find a job definitely find ways to get a job. Go to a place, a job fair, look at what you want to do, take your time to see what you want to do, not necessarily for the rest of your life. For example I want to be a police officer, but I love art, so I want to be a police officer but parttime I want to paint.” Pooja, 13
On success “I think being truly successful is following the right path and making good choices and say you want to pursue a specific career go through all those steps that you need to.” Abby, 14
“Truly successful means being happy and having a good job, and it can also mean, being happy with your job.” Airaj, 10 “To have something, a 3DS that can turn into a car, and a car that goes to 1000 speed and has my name on it.” Afeef, 7
illustrations by maya alentejeiro
“Wait until a company needs someone and then you can go to that company, and if not then you can just build this place at his house and he can build a company at your house and you can invite people who don’t have a job.” Carlos, 8
“War is really bad. But in Canada we are war free. We have freedom because of Ghandi and Martin Luther King. You need a lot of people not just one person, one person can’t make a huge difference, well, yes they can.” Airaj, 10
“I want a pretty nice girl, good nice not bad nice, with short hair.” Afeef, 7, on relationships
“It’s just going to happen. Look for someone but let fate do it’s job and it will happen.” Pooja, 13, on relationships
“I was thinking that I’d like to see other people go to space, but in an affordable price and not only the billion dollar people can go.” Melanie, 14, on technology
“Wireless electricity. I was told this and I think it will happen, that you will only find wires in a museum.” Fauzan, 10, on technology
“Flying cars, that would be pretty cool. Maybe the flying cars could also go on the ground, but if there is a lot of traffic in the sky you can just go under the cars or on the road and then you will be safe.” Carlos, 8, on technology
“Millions of people keep on dying and dying. You see on TV that you can help them and give them water. I will give them water every single day, I don’t care how long it takes I’ll just give them it.” Afeef, 7, on social issues
living
The Future, or So They Tell Me Do you remember The Jetsons? The Jetsons is a
cartoon series originally airing in the early 1960s and set 100 years later in the early 2060s. The main character works one hour a day, two days a week. His wife is a homemaker, despite having a robot maid who takes care of everything that isn’t already automated. Their two kids go to elementary and high schools. Everything in their world is automated and everyone still complains relentlessly about the ‘hard labour’ and inconveniences. The Jetsons is the standard of what has been thought of as “the future” in an idealistic utopian sense, circa 1960s. What’s perhaps most remarkable about this series is that it’s retained a permanence for 50 years. Most people, save for the youngest of our educated youth, have seen or are at least familiar with the Jetsons. It’s still our template for the future. Flying cars, total life automation, low work hours, talking dogs, robots that do things for us, we haven’t reached this standard yet and many of us still look back at the Jetsons to figure out what “the future” is. Who, then, are our Jetsons? What piece of media creation do we now hold that is recognised across all generations as definitively “the future”? And if I’ve missed it, and it exists somewhere, will it continue to exist and still be revelant and aspirational to future generations 50 years hence? We cling to an idealized version of what’s to come despite no longer holding onto the ideals and social conditions that spawned them. The most famous works of Science Fiction focusing on the future, are works from our past. It’s commonplace to cite something as “Orwellian” or mentioning “A Brave New World” – despite that being from Shakespeare’s The Tempest originally. We even fulfill the dreams of sci fi writers past, like with turning Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot into a movie. The noted science fiction writer worked to make it into a screenplay in the 1970s saying it would be, “the first really adult, complex, worthwhile science fiction movie ever made.” However, the screenplays were all rejected and Asimov’s dream wasn’t brought to fruition until 2004. As a society we are constantly looking backwards for explanation, guidelines, and ideas. Marshall Mcluhan, a Canadian media scholar, would probably have referred to this with his oft quoted line about society “driving into the future using only the rear view mirror”. I would argue that we do indeed seem to have this “rear-view mirror view of our world.” We do not live in 1960s America. The activities 74
emerge | summer 2013
grant’s rant by grant tabler photo jeremaine ebanks
and structure that the characters’ lives are based around don’t define us at all, and yet we still cling to this prophetic vision of our technology. If we to look at this from a more psychological perspective, then perhaps it is more inherent to our human goal structure. Could we be forever trying to accomplish the dreams and visions of the generations before us? Just like so many that strive their whole lives to gain the approval of their parents, so too could we be trying to succeed where previous generations had only dreamed. Have we lost our dreamers? I don’t think so. But what we create and imagine today is based on our past, just as the 20th century did with their own. We are all standing on the shoulders of giants. I sometimes wonder which of our generation’s dreams the next generation will attempt to realize as their future instead.
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