Durham College - The Chronicle

I say without any reservation that everyone put in a tremendous amount of effort to make each course as relevant online as we possibly could.

Volume XLVI, Issue 3

chronicle.durhamcollege.ca

– See page 11

February, 2021

Teaching, learning in a pandemic How are DC, Ontario Tech adapting their programs?

See pages 2-13.

Photo courtesy of Ontario Tech Kinesiology program

Canadian Black history goes beyond February

page 24

DCSI supporting students, virtually page 9

Photograph by Jenna Peace

Outdoor rink in Oshawa by 2024?

Photograph by Allaya Sue

page 21 Photograph by Shaun McLeod

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February, 2021

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Learning hands-off in a hands-on program Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19.

Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Andrew Clarke The Chronicle

Ontario Tech University’s Kinesiology program has been forced to think of new ways of teaching its students about concepts typically done in a lab.

Like other practical hands-on programs in the field of science and health, COVID-19 has forced staff and students to adapt to this new learning environment.

Kinesiology, the study of human or non-human body movement, has faced a particular challenge in that many of the labs completed for study in the program involve human participants, an obvious 'no' during the pandemic.

Students in the program have had to use data collected by staff who were busy in the summer preparing video recordings of labs for students to view during the virtual school year.

These labs and data given to the students has been the best possible option during the pandemic, says Dr. Bernadette Murphy, professor and director of the Kinesiology program.

Although the lack of hands-on

Photograph by Ontario Tech Kinesiology program

Ontario Tech University's Kinesiology program has had to find new ways of teaching labs during COVID-19. experience is a definite concern in determining whether students fully grasp a concept, Murphy says the implementation of lab recordings into courses once in-person classes return may be beneficial for students in retaining key information.

“Online kind of forces everybody to be engaged, and they've all got to engage with the data set,” says Murphy.

“One of the upper year students that was helping with filming, she was like, 'you know, I didn't fully understand this lab when I did it, but I really understand it now'. And

it was kind of cool to realize.”

With lectures being held on platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, there has been debate about whether classes should be recorded (asynchronous), or live at a specific time (synchronous).

Murphy says the majority of senior students prefer synchronous learning, however, the ability to combine both methods by having students attend a class and also have the option to re-watch a recording has been favoured by students in the classes Murphy teaches.

“My students like it when I record my lectures. So even though it's synchronous, they also have the recorded version to go back to and I think, because they were there at the face-to-face it helps it sink in, which I found really fascinating,” says Murphy, “and I think there's some good lessons moving forward for us on how to best meet the learner where their needs are.”

Murphy, who has given fundamentally a similar exam to students the past 20 years, says with exams now online changes needed to be made.

Photograph by Ontario Tech Kinesiology program

Ontario Tech Kinesiology staff preparing tape shipments to students living away from campus.

"One difference is I had to take the essay questions like short answer off, because it's all online," says Murphy.

"But I had got the exact same average on this exam that I have got for the past 20 years."

She says staff have tried to make midterms and exams worth less, while implementing more assignments which gives more time for students to 'perfect' their work.

"A lot of them [students] would get, you know, nine or 10 out of 10 on an assignment. Whereas if that was part of the test, maybe they would have got seven out of 10."

Danny Callaghan, a fourth-year student in the program, says a majority of his classes are asynchronous recorded lectures. He says although there are some benefits to asynchronous learning, it lacks in providing the same learning experience as in-person and synchronous classes.

“There's pros and cons, right?

Because like asynchronous, I understand people are working right now.

It's a tough time. So, there's the pro, you can do this whenever you want to, like if the evening is when you're free, that's when you can do it,” says Callaghan.

“So, in terms of convenience, asynchronous is good, but in terms of like, actually the content you're learning, and the learning experience, I think it takes away from it.”

Many senior students have also been forced to make changes to their field placements due to the pandemic.

“I have friends that are in the A.T. stream, like Athletic Therapy, and they would have been working with a team…but the teams aren't running right now,” says Callaghan.

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Online learning for nursing students Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19. Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Andrea Eymann The Chronicle

Durham College and Ontario Tech switched to online classes at the start of the pandemic and for both nursing professors and students, it brought a big change.

Leslie Graham started teaching at Durham College in 2007 in the critical care program online.

Graham said her interest in education and nursing education is in simulation experiences.

“We create scenarios and it’s not just scenarios, it’s really creating a whole learning environment so it’s safe for the students to learn,” Graham said.

Even though the practical nursing students at Durham College still get to work in the lab on campus, the Bachelor of Science (BScN) nursing students at Ontario Tech and Durham College do their lab work online from home.

Surayya Macci, a nursing student at Ontario Tech, lives at home with her family.

When Ontario Tech and Durham College went to online classes the last March, the switch was difficult for Macci.

She said she learns better in person through her clinical labs and

Photographs courtesy of MacKenzie Ostrowski and Surayya Macci

Ontairo Tech BScN nursing students MacKenzie Ostrowski (left) and Surayya Macci.

hands-on experience.

When the switch happened, Arlene De La Rocha, BScN professor at Durham College said, online learning "was probably more of a shock than really trying to really get their heads wrapped around it… It was just being stunned into a different way of learning" for the students.

Macci said switching to online learning has been challenging.

“I do have mental health issues so finding motivation to sit through hours of lectures and complete hours of work but not feeling like I’m benefiting through the skills and feeling like I’m missing out on the experience,” she said.

Even now, she said it still is diffi-

cult for her to find the motivation to study, but the professors have done a pretty good job to set up the simulations virtually for the students.

Virtual simulations were developed by the Canadian Association of Nurses (CAN STEM) for the students. The virtual simulations have up to 47 different scenarios for the students to develop their skills.

Graham said these simulations help the nursing students develop their critical thinking and challenges they may face in clinical placements.

Students aren’t just learning through simulation, they are also provided medical equipment to pick up at the school. Macci said

professors have improvised lectures if the students do not have all the equipment they need for a new skill.

Even though online classes have been a big change, professors have been trying to adapt the learning as much as possible, Macci said.

Switching to online classes has helped Ontario Tech nursing student MacKenzie Ostrowski strengthen and readjust her strategies to improve her time management.

“Now everything is asynchronous so it’s on your time you do it when you feel like it, so now I am time-managing when I should do each class, when it would be the best for me and when I should do my studies and when I should

watch my lectures,” said Ostrowski.

Online classes have given her an opportunity to figure out different things she is interested in by applying to two different minors, one in business and one in psychology.

“Family and friends, they’re such a big support system for all of us.

They are helping to make meals or they’re helping clean or something that takes a lot of pressure and stress off of you as a student to learn,” said Ostrowski.

Macci said her family didn't initially recognize the challenges she was facing through online learning.

But now they have supported her decision to seek assistance, including getting an emotional support cat, named Leo.

Photographs by Durham College

Durham College nursing students practice skills on a mannequin in the Durham College's SIM lab in 2015 at the Oshawa campus.

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Photograph courtesy of Durham College Database

Firefighting students learning tricks of the trade pre-pandemic.

COVID-19 has doused parts of DC's firefighting program Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic

I did have a feeling that things would be restricted.

Editor's Note: Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19. Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Liam McConnell The Chronicle

The COVID-19 pandemic has extinguished Durham College’s firefighting students' ability to practise their life-saving techniques.

All practical training in the program has been stopped by Ontario’s stay at home order.

While students can continue their theoretical learning online, it is unknown when they will continue learning skills such as suiting up and physically fighting fire.

This delay has happened before, says Firefighter - Pre-service, Education and Training program co-ordinator Daniel Campbell.

Last year’s class was also delayed.

They transitioned to a fully online environment in March, 2020.

The students weren’t able to meet their requirements until the end of September.

The course normally concludes in June.

Campbell describes this as, “a big hurdle.” He says learning the different aspects of firefighting, “is a unique process. It’s very handson."

“It’s using all the equipment, firehoses, going into live fire, extricating from vehicles,” he explains.

“We were doing it in small groups when we were allowed to, but because of health unit restric-

Photograph courtesy of Daniel Campbell

Firefighter - Pre-service Education and Training program co-ordinator Daniel Campbell.

tions we’re not allowed to.”

In a typical year, the course has roughly a day-and-a-half per week of practical learning, according to Campbell.

After they were cleared to return, students had to work several days a week on those skills to expedite the process.

“Now we’re very much in the same situation,” Campbell says.

He is not currently working on campus, as he teaches the practical elements, but continues his career as a firefighter.

Ontario colleges rograms with a medical focus have been allowed to continue in an in-person setting, Campbell says.

However, firefighters were not included, despite their status as first-responders.

Danielle Ristuccia, a current student, decided to become a firefighter because, she says, “I’ve always felt a drive to help people.”

Ristuccia expected the program to be altered when she signed up for the course during the first lockdown.

“I did have a feeling that things would be a little bit restricted. That we wouldn’t be fully immersed into

the college life, but I did not expect to be completely out of the [practical] class.”

She’s concerned about the delay in her graduation.

“It puts a little bit of a damper on my plans,” she said.

Ristuccia and her classmates were able to study the practical elements outside during warmer months.

However, they were still spread out between platoons.

“The team environment was a little bit more challenging,” she says.

As much as the practical training prepares students for life as a firefighter, Ristuccia says she isn’t concerned about not getting the practice right now.

“They explain that once you get onto a service they’re going to teach you everything you need to know,” she says.

“This is just the foundation. I’m not thinking I’m getting a job tomorrow and being thrown into the field, so I’m not too worried.”

While Ristuccia has been through school before and knows the ins and outs of online learning, some of her fellow students have struggled with the virtual elements.

“Some of my classmates have expressed that they do not like the online learning environment,” she says.

“They find it difficult. I know from others' experiences it’s been a real challenge.”

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February, 2021

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Hunter the Ridgeback posing before the inaugural Ontario Tech Ridgebacks basketball home game, in October, 2019.

Photograph by Shaun McLeod

Ridgebacks search for normalcy Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic Editor's note: Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19.

Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Shaun McLeod The Chronicle

COVID-19 has forced the shutdown of university athletics provincewide, and for the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, it’s been all about trying to find ways to stay active and prepare for next year with athletic budgets being slashed.

“I think that we are positioned in a better spot than some schools out there, just by the way that our programs are set up from a financial standpoint,” said Ontario Tech athletic director, Scott Barker.

A lot of the expenses the Ridgebacks would have been paying ¬– like home games and travel – went away when Ontario University Athletics (OUA) cancelled winter semester athletics on Oct. 15.

The athletic department gets revenue by collecting fees from students. However, with fewer students going to school this year,

Photograph courtesy of Ontario Tech Ridgebacks

Matthieu Gomercic handles the puck against the Windsor Lancers.

revenues are down. The money that is coming from the fees is still going towards paying staff and all scholarships are still being honoured by the school, according to Barker.

“It really was a matter of trying to keep the year as normal as possible to student-athletes, moreso from a mental health and physical well-being standpoint,” said Barker.

“Once everyone realized there wasn’t going to be any competitions…our focus immediately

pivoted to ‘we still need to provide an experience, we still need to support the student-athletes’.”

The OUA allowed winter sports to host exhibition games when it cancelled the season, and the Ridgebacks looked to take advantage of that, according to Barker. They were in discussions to play the Durham Lords in basketball and looked into the option of road games, but avoiding COVID-19 hotspots like Toronto and Ottawa, but with Durham Region becoming a hotspot as

well in late December, the games never came to be.

“We were having conversations with Durham about what that might look like,” said Barker.

“Our training protocols are the same, our athletic therapy processes are the same…so it was a possibility for sure in the second semester, I hope that it still might be, but obviously in the situation we’re in now it’s not something we’re able to entertain.”

Matthieu Gomercic, a thirdyear hockey player for the Ridge-

backs, stayed at home in Winnipeg during the fall semester because COVID-19 wasn’t hitting Manitoba as hard at the time and allowed for gyms and rinks to be open.

He had planned to come back to Oshawa in October, but when the OUA cancelled winter sports, Gomercic decided to continue to study remotely.

“It was disheartening hearing the whole season was going to be cancelled,” said Gomercic. “It’s the first time that a lot of varsity athletes went a whole year without playing their sport.”

Losing the entire year of athletics to COVID-19 has meant that some student-athletes, like fourth-year Ridgebacks women’s soccer midfielder Alyssa Nikkel, may have played their final game at Ontario Tech.

Barker hopes for games being played on campus next year, and what that will look like will be influenced by the OUA’s Recovery Plan which is attempting to make a 2021-22 season a reality.

Some of the proposed changes that could happen on a sport-bysport basis, according to the OUA, are game caps on exhibition play, semester start dates, a reduction in scheduled league play and an emphasis on regional competition.

But for student-athletes like Gomercic, they just can’t wait to be able to play in front of their home crowd again.

“Our fans are great, the atmosphere (at the Campus Ice Centre) is pretty cool…playing games in front of our fans again will be amazing. Being able to see the support, and the school's support behind us will mean a lot,” said Gomercic.

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Forensic Science students PPE friendly Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic Editor’s note: Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19. Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Allaya Sue

The Chronicle It didn’t take the pandemic for forensic science students at Ontario Tech University to know understand the abbreviation – PPE. Students in the program are introduced to personal protective equipment (PPE) in the second year of the program to do the work required of forensic scientists.

Forensic Science is a four-year honours undergraduate program, covering the natural sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics to help solve crimes, and it’s being taught remotely this semester.

However, unlike many programs at Ontario Tech and Durham College, students and faculty in Forensic Science actually had access to campus in the first semester.

Students had the opportunity to use the forensic lab at the campus, and solve mock investigations at the crime house lab, located on Windfields Farms, just north of campus.

Due to the pandemic, Professor Kimberly Nugent says this has been her most difficult year of teaching but she implemented plans for labs to run smoothly for the program before the stay-at-home order.

“You’re not afforded time to deal with every element of transitioning to blended learning,” says Nugent.

During this most recent stay-athome order by the government, students are unable to access campus to learn the essential skills face-toface.

“What we’re doing is kind of back-ending it in the semester hoping that after reading week things open a little bit up,” says Nugent.

“We can offer limited amount of labs, but we’re doing online learn-

Photograph by Jackie Graves

Kimberly Nugent, professor in Ontario Tech’s Forensic Science program.

ing up until that point.”

Brayden Vale is completing his third year in the program and says not being able to see his friends at school is most difficult for him.

“This semester, it’s a little bit different, there were some classes that were supposed to be online [and some] in-person, but they’ve had to switch to fully online,” says Vale.

“It’s not the same thing as actually being in the lab and doing that.”

Vale says he’s lucky to be able to have had lab classes in the previous semester.

Vale has about 30 classmates and says they’re all close with each other and faculty.

Prior to COVID-19, students were required to take four hours of laboratory learning for each course, but that has been reduced.

“I would also have to run the

You're not afforded time to deal with every element of transitioning to blended learning.

same lab over multiple weeks, just to accommodate this social distancing so I couldn’t have 15 students in a lab anymore I had to have five,” explains Nugent.

There also needs to be a teaching assistant, a technician, and an instructor present in the labs.

Nugent says one of the biggest challenges she faced was to maintain the student learning with hands-on experience.

“Having our own facility like the crime scene house made it a little easier for scheduling and sharing purposes because it was just us there,” explains Nugent.

“Another element to our advantage [in the fall semester] was that we could do more outside, and not have to worry about the PPE…and social distancing as much.”

As for the upcoming semester in fall of 2021, Nugent says she hopes to have a blend of in-person and remote labs but is prepared for the worst.

“We’ve been afforded a little bit more time now to develop online material,” says Nugent.

“But at the end of the day, I don’t want to replace the face-to-face learning with online content.”

Vale also hopes to be back on campus for his last year in the program this fall.

“Fingers crossed everything will be going back in or at least mostly to normal…but honestly, who knows at this point?,” says Vale.

Photograph courtesy of Brayden Vale

Brayden Vale, third-year student in Forensic Science program.

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Photographs by Jennifer Kellett

(Left) A student in full PPE providing a contactless screening for one of their clinics. Hygienist students are required to wear masks, gloves, face shields, and level two gowns. (Right) Inside of the clinic has been modified appropriately and spread out, to allow for social distancing at a reduced capacity. Some students are only attending two in-clinic labs as scheduled a week.

DC's Dental Hygiene students back on campus Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic

I just take it one clinic at a time and try to keep my chair filled.

Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19. Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Stephanie Lacarte The Chronicle

Durham College’s (DC) Dental Hygiene program is slowing down its curriculum during the pandemic.

But that's a good thing.

It is necessary so students can catch up on their outstanding clinical hours while ensuring all public health protocols are being followed, said Jennifer Kellett, DC Dental Hygiene Program Coordinator.

The program moved to online learning in March, 2020 when COVID-19 broke out, but returned to campus for labs and pre-clinic activities in July.

Students were able to return to client care in August but at a reduced capacity of people, following new and additional screenings and precautions.

“We needed to overhaul our processes and change the way that we were doing things,” she said. The program needed to add additional screening processes for students and clients and had to stop doing any aerosol-generating procedures, such

Photograph by Jennifer Kellett

Durham College's Dental Clinic has been open and operating at a limited capacity and differently than before the pandemic to ensure the safety of clients, students and faculty.

New and additional screenings are necessary before, during and after attending a clinic.

as polishing and ultrasonic use.

There are two faculty in the clinic overseeing the students and clients. The new and additional COVID-19 screenings, sanitizing, and wearing constant PPE are now consistent and familiar parts of the day, Kellett said.

Pre-COVID-19, the clinic was open five days a week with 24 dental chairs. Clients were greeted by a receptionist, took a seat in the waiting area, and then had dental checkups, with instructors overseeing student treatment.

Now, to help students make up for the lost time, the clinic is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but with a further reduction for the in-clinic capacity due to the recent lockdown restrictions, Kellett said.

The layout has been expanded to a designated, roped off classroom made noticeable with COVID-19 signs.

With COVID-19 capacity restrictions, some students may be getting half of the in-clinic experience they would have pre-COVID.

However, all the clinical hours are being recovered which is why graduation dates are being delayed, Kellett said.

Some students expected to graduate in December, 2020, but it was necessary to extend their studies to meet all the clinical requirements.

Naomi Nash is one of those senior students who did not get to finish all the necessary clinics to graduate in December.

One of the challenges for the students is they rely on the general public to come to the clinic to re-

ceive various treatments, Nash said.

“Two of my friends had texted me that their clients just didn't show up today, which emphasizes my point on how difficult it has been trying to get people to come in during this pandemic.”

She added: “I have been so fortunate with the individuals who have come in for me and who continue to come in.”

Nash said it has been frustrating because she and other students are relying on clients to come in, more than once, so they can get enough experience in-clinic, to graduate.

“I just take it one clinic at a time and try to keep my chair filled,” she said.

Recently the program started doing aerosol work at a limited capacity. Four enclosed rooms were constructed to provide aerosol-generating procedures safely.

“So, we're able to start using those, which we're very excited about,” Kellett said. “We may be a little while before we’re at full capacity, that's why we’re doing what we can to operate seven days a week to get the students the clinical hours they require.”

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Photograph by Justin Christie

Peter Lee (left),Durham College Culinary Skills program coordinator, says enrolment has dropped this academic year, mostly due to fewer international students.

Culinary Skills program modifies recipe for success Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic Editor’s note: Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19.

Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Musthafa Azeez The Chronicle

The pandemic prompted many people to pick up cooking as a hobby. But what about those for whom culinary skills are a professional requirement and not just a passing fancy?

Peter Lee, the Culinary Skills program coordinator at Durham College (DC), got his answer sooner than most.

“We started our in-person classes in the spring/summer semester,” says Lee. “We were one of the four colleges allowed to have in-person training. So, we were kind of a pilot project for Ontario.”

Last summer, Ross Romano, Ontario’s minister of colleges and universities, told reporters the pilot project was aimed at helping “academically stranded students” who require hands-on experience in order to graduate.

Students in the culinary skills pro-

gram were one of the first to return to campus, albeit in smaller batches.

Lee says it was easy to adapt, because “we have a naturally clean environment,” thanks to the hygiene standards already in place in labs.

However, the pandemic did prompt the faculty comprising of Lee, Tanya Heck and David Hawey to try new methods of teaching at DC’s Whitby campus.

In order to reduce the time students spent in labs, they made instructional videos to explain different aspects of the course.

“The pandemic was kind of a good thing,” explains Lee, “because we’d never made these videos before. Now they’re a pretty good learning tool.”

Though they could have up to 24 students in a lab at one time, Lee says they capped the number at 18 “just to be a little safer and ensure social distancing.”

The culinary skills program is a one-year course, with students having the option of returning the following year for culinary management. Lee says he normally has around 90 students in the first year, but enrolment has dropped for the new academic year that began last fall, largely due to fewer international students.

“About 40 per cent of our program is made up of international students,” says Lee, adding most are from India.

However, the drop in enrolment is mitigated by the fact that shifting to a hybrid form of learning hasn’t increased costs for the program.

“Our biggest expense is in the labs, and if they’re coming to lab and actually cooking food, the cost is the same,” explains Lee. “There is no real cost for theory classes, be-

cause [students] are still taking them online.”

In addition to instructional videos, another change is that tests for theory classes have shifted online.

Rather than complete them over the weekend as was the norm before the pandemic, students now work on them during online class time.

Glesy Panaga, a student in the program, says while online learning offers her flexibility in terms of work, she worries “the learning outcomes may not be the same.

“I can watch the chef instructor doing the process virtually,” she says, referring to the videos that have been made available. However, while earlier she would have been following such instructions solely in the lab, Panaga says she has to practise at home now. “I may probably not retain all the steps because I have no experience doing it myself.”

The new learning environment isn’t ideal, Lee admits.

“If I was a student, I’d probably

not like learning online,” he concedes. The faculty aims to improve student engagement by increasing discussion posts and putting out more content on social media.

Even though the Durham College campus continues to report cases of COVID-19, Lee says his students have moved past their initial wariness of coming to lab.

“I find the students actually like coming to class,” says Lee with a chuckle, “because they get a reason to leave their house!”

Photograph by Justin Christie

In-person lab sizes have been capped at 18 to "ensure social distancing," says Peter Lee.

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Photo by Jenna Peace

Jenna Peace and other DCSI members during their weekly Zoom meeting.

DCSI's virtual transition Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic

Editors note: Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19. Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Aidan Cowling-McDonnell The Chronicle

Durham College Students Inc. (DCSI) says it's still providing students with support and opportunities to respond to their post-secondary experience, especially during this pandemic.

DCSI’s purpose has always been to provide academic and emotional support to students and be their voice for any issues on campus. This remains true today as DCSI has done things like hosting virtual movie nights and Play Station 5 giveaways, to creating the Emergency Student Benefit for students in need of financial help.

One person who’s had a major influence on DCSI’s operations is Jenna Peace. Peace, 25, is DCSI's executive chairperson and is also in her third and final year of the Public Relations program at Durham College.

She won the student election

Photo courtesy of Durham College Students Inc.

A student holding DCSI merchandise during a Durham Lords' basketball game, pre-pandemic.

for this position in March, 2020 and her first day on the job was also the day the campus closed, due to COVID-19.

Since being elected, Peace has helped organize things like mental health therapy sessions and virtual paint nights for students over Zoom.

While these aren’t the circumstances Peace thought she’d be in when she ran for election, she says she’s trying to make the most of this experience.

“A part of my mission in my campaign was to be really able to connect with all of our students and I'm sad that I don't get to do that because of our circumstance.

However, I get to go to these sessions, as many as I can that are

not during my class,” says Peace.

DCSI has also provided virtual content for student parents at Durham College. Peace and other DCSI members organized a virtual tour of the Toronto Zoo for students and their children as part of their DC Little Lords series.

Another way DCSI has supported students during this school year is ensuring there would be no formal assessments during the first week of the winter semester.

Peace says there were a lot of negotiations between DCSI and Durham College administration to make this happen, but she’s thinks students benefited from this request.

“A lot of students I connected with are tech tired and needed

more time,” says Peace. “So, with that, we said, well, at least give it the freedom of no grades, no assignments and grading be done in the first week.

One member who joined DCSI before the COVID-19 pandemic is Eduardo Akeson.

The 27-year-old is the deputy chairperson for DCSI and is a third year Mechanical Engineering Technology student.

He’s in his second and final year as a DCSI member and the memory that sticks with him the most is how much DC’s orientation week improved while he was helping put it together.

“In my first year, there was no orientation week. My first and second year at Durham College

are like night and day. In 2019, there was participation, we had a ferris wheel people knew what was going on and it was a fun week,” says Akeson.

This year’s orientation week was virtual, like all things DCSI has hosted, but Akeson says he’s been blown away with how successful DCSI has been at producing virtual content.

“I think we’ve done very well.

We have content put out almost every day for students to be a part of and given the circumstances, I don’t know any other school that’s done better,” says Akeson.

Despite DCSI’s success, Akeson says he’d much rather be organizing events and helping students on campus.

“I miss so many things. It’s the small talk, it’s seeing a different face through the halls. Those little things and wandering around the campus are definitely things I took for granted before everything shut down,” says Akeson.

According to Akeson and Peace, DCSI has posted more than 9,000 minutes of video to its website since March and were the first college student organization to convert to strictly online content in Ontario.

As for the future of DCSI, members will continue to meet and organize events for students on Zoom and they’re currently in the process of rebranding their website.

With advisement from Durham College’s financial aid office, DCSI has created a new, low-restriction bursary worth upwards of $100,000 for both domestic and international students.

To check out some of DCSI’s virtual content, visit http://dcstudentsinc.ca .

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Photograph courtesy of Tricia Wiseman

Tricia Wiseman is a professor in Durham College's hospitality program.

DC's hospitality is looking ahead Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic Editor’s note: Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19.

Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Adriel Thomas The Chronicle

The restrictions put in place over the months of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused many industries to suffer. Many businesses are closing down. From March to September of last year, there was a decline of just under 29,000 active businesses in Canada, according to Stats Canada.

Some industries are being affected more than others.

The hospitality and tourism industry has been the face of the

crumbling industries over the last year.

Reduced international and local travel, stay at home lockdowns and less customers due to social distancing laws are some of the main factors why the industry has been suffering.

Throughout this though, despite the current situation, there’s still students across Canada who are planning to enter the hospitality field.

Some were already in the middle of their studies when the pandemic hit and some have taken up hospitality and tourism programs during the pandemic.

Why? Tricia Wiseman is the program coordinator and a professor of the Hospitality – Hotel and Restaurant Operations Management at Durham College. She believes the dark clouds of this pandemic hold a silver lining for the near future.

Her two-year program shifted to online for the first semester of this school year and the second semester is being delivered in a hybrid method.

Wiseman didn’t see a decline in enrolment in September. In fact, she says the enrolment was on par with other years and the program has been able to transition online

They’re happy that we’re still delivering, they still can take their program, they can still study…but also a little bit more stressed out. successfully.

Wiseman describes the changes to the previous in-person classes as “a unique delivery.”

The hands-on elements of the program such as tasting beverages, have turned into students taking work home.

Wiseman sees students are dealing with the new format of learning with mixed emotions.

“They’re happy that we’re still delivering, they still can take their program, they can still study… but also a little bit more stressed out,” says Wiseman.

Time management has been a skill the students have had to adopt in their routine because of the different ways work is assigned.

Some classes are live, readings are available and planning because more important than ever before, she says. One of the other struggles of the online format comes down to personality.

“We’re hospitality, we’re 'people, people'. We thrive on meeting people face-to-face and being interactive and being in a classroom and having that social side of the class,” says Wiseman.

The lack of job opportunities in the industry at the moment has made finding a placement for the end of the program a challenge for some, she says.

Students have had to find ways to reach learning outcomes by using the skills they learned even if it isn’t directly in the industry.

Customer service and communication skills have been used in retail where there are still

I think overall I feel grateful. opportunities for the students.

Wiseman believes there will be high demand for the hospitality industry when we emerge from COVID-19.

“What’s the first thing you want to do when you’re out of quarantine or out of having these COVID restrictions? I want to go for a good meal, I want to hug my friends, I want to go and travel,” says Wiseman.

Wiseman has chosen an optimistic look throughout the times of the pandemic and is looking ahead towards a bright future for her students.

“I think overall I feel grateful,” says Wiseman. “My program can still run, we can still learn, I can still teach them and there’s still going to be opportunity for them when they graduate.”

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February, 2021

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Photograph courtesy of Nadine Lamarche

Nadine Lamarche, and students, offer a cheque to Durham Outlook after a Hockey Helps the Homeless event in 2017.

The business of sports at DC amid pandemic Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19. Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Taylor Gilbert The Chronicle

This fall marks the 50th year for the Sport Administration and Sports Management programs at Durham College, but this past year of virtual learning as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic was certainly a first.

The Sport Administration program is two-years and offers students a third year which focuses on sports management and finishes with a full semester of field placement.

The program is specifically focused on the business side of sports, so if you’re looking to learn how to play a sport or coach a team this may not be the course for you.

Instead, the program teaches students about marketing strategies, partnerships, event management, non-profit industry, accounting and finance, and the business of sporting goods, all on both the amateur and professional side of the game.

“We consider ourselves generalists in the type of sport program that we offer as opposed to some of the colleges that offer, say sports event marketing as their program, that’s what they focus on, where we are more generalist,” said program coordinator Nadine Lamarche.

However, like all college and university programs across the country and the world, this past year has presented challenges due

to COVID-19.

Lamarche said the program normally gives the students first hand face-to face experience.

“We do pride ourselves on experiential learning. We send our students out for interviews, we get them to do live fundraisers, we run events, we do a lot of networking opportunities, a lot of field trips.

So, we haven’t been able to do any of those in person,” she said.

But that hasn’t stopped Lamarche and program faculty from getting creative.

In person interviews are now done remotely, fundraisers are now online campaigns and the events course has shifted focus to online events such as eSports.

At the start of this school year Lamarche was concerned about how COVID-19 would affect placement but she has been pleasantly surprised by the response from the sports management community.

By the beginning of this semester only a handful of students had not found placement, she said.

Photograph courtesy of Nadine Lamarche

Teaching all abilites to golf event held by DC Sport Admin/Management students in 2017.

Photograph courtesy of Tyler Neverson-Maloney

Second-year student Tyler Neverson-Maloney.

Lamarche said organizations are helping them out, tasking students with special projects and embracing the fact there are still students who want to learn and are willing to work remotely.

“I say without any reservation that everyone put in a tremendous amount of effort to make each course as relevant online as we possibly could,” Lamarche said.

She said the different methodologies have allowed for a new style of learning and a new style of teaching.

“There are some aspects of this remote learning that we will keep,” Lamarche said.

Tyler Neverson-Maloney, a second-year student of the program, said it has been a lot more difficult going from face-to-face learning in first year to online, than it would have been starting online.

“I kind of want to say there’s pros and cons but it’s how you react to it—how you adapt to it,” he said.

Still, Neverson-Maloney feels he is gaining the knowledge and experience to begin a career in the

field, but there is something missing from the online environment that you can only gain in person.

“It’s just something and I can’t really say for sure what it is, but you can kind of just tell that there’s something missing,” he said.

Neverson-Maloney said there has been a learning curve for students and professors, and both have done very well adapting.

There are some aspects of this remote learning that we will keep.

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February, 2021

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Campus

DC's Esthetician – Spa Management program aims to give students the same experience they expect working in a spa environment, without clients. Photo was taken pre-pandemic.

Photograph courtsey of Durham College

DC Spa is open, but not to the public Editor's note: Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19.

Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Julia Sandy The Chronicle

How does a spa run with no clients?

It's a question the Durham College (DC) Esthetician – Spa Management Program had to consider in March, 2020 when lockdown restrictions hit Ontario.

Since then, the DC spa that’s normally open to the public by appointment has been temporarily closed.

In a typical semester, students in the program work on outside clients who come into the spa for services such as pedicures, manicures and waxing.

Photo courtsey of Leslie Morris

Many changes needed to be made inside of the spa to ensure everyone can work safely.

Now students are put in pairs and work on each other, according to Leslie Morris, Spa Manager and Program Coordinator.

“When the students come in, they have to act like they don’t know their peers, you have to treat it like a real appointment,” Morris said.

Second-year student Janella Panchamsingh, 39, said working in partners is not comparable to dealing with different clients every day.

“The two are completely different,” Panchamsingh said.

Panchamsingh said because students are in partners and working on the same person during labs they are not exposed to work on a variety of different skin types.

The students also don’t get any formal training in booking or regularly dealing with new and varied clintele in-person.

According to Morris, despite not being able to have handson learning experience booking in-person clients, professors are expected to replicate the procedure with students.

“The faculty are putting together schedules and creating appointment scenarios with their peers,” Morris said.

For Panchamsingh, the change has been an adjustment.

“Due to the regulations put in place we can’t roam freely to different stations,” Panchamsingh said.

“Now it’s a lot of making sure we follow the lines and where we can walk at which time.”

Because of the restrictions from COVID-19, while in the spa students are expected to wear a facemask and shield that’s provided by the college and they must fill out a brief questionnaire prior to entering the campus.

When students come in they have to act like they don't know their peers.

“We have to fill out the questionnaire every time we go on campus,” Panchamsingh said.

After the form is filled out students receive a confirmation email, which is shown to the security guard. Students are then asked to sanitize their hands before they proceed inside the campus.

The spa itself has also been modified to ensure students are able to follow safety protocols when walking around.

“We have social distancing markers throughout the lab, we have directional arrows,” Morris said. “Normally, in a normal lab, they would just be going whichever way they need to go.”

Morris believes this change is actually beneficial to students because they can learn to “manage themselves” in an atmosphere that is open.

Enhanced cleaning protocols have also been implemented in the spa. Students are expected to clean and sanitize their own workplace at the end of each lab.

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DC men's baseball adapts to pandemic Postsecondary programs pivot during pandemic Editor's note: Chronicle reporters are examining how select programs at Durham College and Ontario Tech University have responded to the teaching and learning process during COVID-19. Most programs have moved online, but some classes are being conducted on campus.

Brooks Armstrong The Chronicle\

Darryl Reid has been the new head coach of the Durham College men’s baseball team as of 2020, but is still waiting to coach his first game with the team due to pandemic disruptions.

“Obviously its not the ideal situation," says Reid adding team members are still participating in training sessions.

"We’ve put out our throwing program, and the athletic therapy staff have done a great job with putting together the strength and conditioning, putting together their weekly workouts still via Zoom.”

Reid is the General Manager for the Toronto Mets and head coach of their 16U team.

Reid was an assistant coach for the Durham College men’s baseball team for three years from 2010-2012. He was assistant coach to Sam Dempster, who recently retired after winning the National College Baseball Championship in 2019.

In addition coaching the Lords, Reid is currently the General Manager for the Toronto Mets and head coach of their 16U team.

The Durham job comes with many challenges for Reid. Gathering a full team, building chemistry

Photograph courtesy of Griffin Oliver

Griffin Oliver has played two full seasons for the Durham Lords. with those players and coaches, maintaining physical and mental strength within the program - and doing it all during the heart of a pandemic.

Reid is hopeful there will be some type of baseball season for college baseball and the Durham Lords going into the fall.

“We can’t control what’s happening right now, so we can plan for what we hope will be the normal and adjust accordingly,” he

says.

Reid acknowledges COVID-19 is presenting obstacles for the Durham College men's baseball team.

Those obstacles include inconsistent access to facilities like the field house and fitness room at Durham College due to pandemic disruptions.

As a result, one of the main resources Reid is supplying to the team is conditioning training meetings over Zoom.

Infielder Griffin Oliver, who has played two full seasons for the Lords, is experiencing the difficulties of being a college athlete during a pandemic.

“It is really tough to stay in shape from an athletic standpoint, and when you don’t have consistent access to a gym,” says Oliver.

Oliver was a member of the Lords team that won the National College Baseball Championship in 2019.

Photograph courtesy of Darryl Reid

Darryl Reid is the head coach of the Durham College men's baseball team.

“That was a great experience.

That was crazy. We started 2-6 that year and I honestly couldn’t have seen that coming. We were pretty much winning every game all the way out from there on. To win it in extra innings in the final, that was a pretty cool experience,” says Oliver.

Durham beat Thompson River 2-1 in the final.

Oliver has played baseball with many of the Durham College players on summer teams. He plays for the Oshawa Junior Legionaires, and continues to develop chemistry with teammates outside of college baseball.

But when 2020 hit, COVID-19 took over baseball - and all athletics at Durham College - and cancellations were required to prevent the spread of the virus.

For Oliver and his college teammates, strength and conditioning is one of the only outlets in preparation for the baseball season right now.

We can’t control what’s happening right now.

The Chronicle

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February, 2021

Campus

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Photograph courtesy of Danielle Harder

Durham College journalism students involved in a remote FLCA@Home podcasting workshop with students in Guatemala (holding the iPad). FLCA@Home has been an innovative way to continue global learning virtually.

DC continues globally during pandemic 'To hear what the students accomplished in the little time we had to show them the ropes and the motivation they had to get it done, inspires me every day to push forward.'

Stephanie Lacarte The Chronicle

The pandemic is not preventing Durham College (DC) from continuing its work with students around the world.

DC is launching a series of virtual workshops in March aimed at helping students in Guatemala tell stories through podcasts, articles and videos.

The workshops are part of what DC calls its Faculty-Led Classroom Abroad, known as FLCA@Home – Storytelling.

The FLCA@Home project is led by Journalism – Mass Media Professor, Danielle Harder, and is available to students in DC’s School of Media, Art and Design (MAD) who have applied to participate.

MAD students will work in collaboration with students aged 14-20 in Guatemala.

Working with the non-profit

organization, ‘Students Offering Support’ (SOS), and a translator, DC students will work with those in Guatemala to teach and create stories virtually about the challenges faced in their communities based on the United Nations 17 interlinked Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Outbound Student Mobility Pilot Program, designed and administered by Colleges and Institutes Canada.

Due to COVID-19, FLCA work has had to transition to a virtual environment.

Prior to the pandemic, FLCAs have seen DC students travel to Guatemala, South Africa, Peru, and Ireland.

Janine Knight-Grofe, DC’s Manager of International Education, said FLCA@Home is an innovative way to continue global learning opportunities without the

requirement of students leaving their homes, not only during the pandemic but once COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, as well.

Knight-Grofe said since 2018 DC has provided eight Faculty-Led Classrooms Abroad, including two FLCAs@Home, during the pandemic.

The projects have involved 79 students, she added. In February of 2020, just before the pandemic shut down most of the world, students from DC’s Journalism – Mass Media program travelled to Guatemala to participate in a digital storytelling FLCA workshop.

The digital storytelling FLCA was designed for journalism students to teach students in Guatemala how to film, create and tell stories within their communities through videos based on the SDGs, such as poverty and equality for education.

Meagan Secord, now a DC journalism grad, said her group’ helped

Las Arrugas students create a video to highlight the importance for parents in Guatemala to invest in their daughter’s education.

In October and November, 2020, Durham College journalism students worked with students in Guatemala virtually, to help them create podcasts about their community.

“Some of the SDG’s covered in the podcasting were poverty, gender equality, and water management,” said Laura Barbosa, a coordinator for SOS. “Everyone involved had fun and learned more about self-confidence, commitment and teamwork while developing technology skills.”

The podcast storytelling FLCA@ Home workshops allowed DC students to gain cultural and global perspectives all while utilizing the skills they are learning in their program, added Barbosa.

Simran Kaur, a second-year

journalism student who participated in the podcasting FLCA@ Home workshop, said “the students inspired me. They were just kids with big dreams and hearing their stories inspired me to want to do more.”

Another journalism student, Andrea Eymann, said, “to hear what the students accomplished in the little time we had to show them the ropes, and the motivation they had to get it done, it inspires me every day to always push forward.”

Knight-Grofe said she is pleased the global connections are working but DC would like to see students continue to travel to other countries in a post-COVID-19 world.

“Global learning doesn’t only take place in the country, it takes place by working together in groups, it takes place by listening to other people, how they communicate and watching their cultural cues,” she said.

Community

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February, 2021

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Artist grows to a million Tik Tok fans Andrea Eymann The Chronicle

What started as one friend trying to help another in Ajax, Ont. has grown into a Tik Tok phenomenon.

Jake Stevens, 31, was looking for a new activity for his old high school friend, Jeff Mitsuo, 33, who has cerebral palsy.

Stevens, a visual art teacher in Oshawa, thought painting was a good activity for Mitsuo. Stevens felt Mitsuo could paint by himself and wouldn't need anyone’s help.

Stevens wanted a way to share Mitsuo's paintings with friends and family and his students at R.S. McLaughlin secondary school told him about Tik Tok and now the account @paintwithjeff has 1.2 million followers.

In addtion to cerberal palsy, Mitsuo also deals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety.

Stevens said he was not sure if painting was the best activity for Mitsuo because Mitsuo is limited in his fine motor abilities. However, Stevens said when they work on an activity together, usually his friend can only focus on it for 30 minutes but with painting, he is locked in on it for five hours.

Mitsuo is happy, content and his OCD and anxiety is pretty much gone when they are painting.

"We've hit the jackpot here," Stevens said.

Painting hasn’t improved Mitsuo’s fine motor ability, but Stevens said he has seen little improvements in his art skills from reputation and practising new skills.

Photo courtesy of Jake Stevens

(Left) Jeff Mitsuo smiles after he completed another one of his paintings. (Right) Jake Stevens and Mitsuo when they reached one million followers on Tik Tok.

Stevens added: “He tends to be afraid to have the brush go off the canvas. So, I'm just working on that it's OK you can push the paint off the canvas."

Knowing Mitsuo's abilities, Stevens created tools and techniques his friend can use to make art more accessible and easier. For example, Mitsuo can’t use a palette knife - instead they use a credit card to get the same effect.

The Tik Tok account led them

to create an online shop on Esty to sell copies of the paintings and they have donated money to the Ontario Federation for Cerebral Palsy.When they started selling paintings, Stevens thought they would have limited success and only getting $200 in sales. However, the shop has generated $90,000 in sales from customers from as far away as Spain, Scotland, England, United States and Malaysia.

They also created a bursary program at their old secondary school, Pickering High School, for students who have special needs and they can win a $150 award at graduation.

Stevens said the idea to sell the artwork came from one of their followers who reached out to them around March, to purchase a piece of artwork.

They will not sell originals, only prints because Stevens said

his friend has become very attached and proud of his paintings.

Parents with children with special needs have told Stevens the Tik Tok videos have helped their kids.

“I have kind of taken my personal responsibility now, this isn’t just about Jeff anymore, what can I do now to make art accessible to anybody and everyone who watches our videos?,” said Stevens.

Oshawa Farmers Market delays opening Aidan Cowling-McDonnell The Chronicle

The latest Ontario lockdown has caused the Oshawa Farmers Market to delay its opening day, yet again. After originally rescheduling the opening from last fall to Feb. 14 of this year, the market will now officially open its doors April 5.

The indoor market at 27 Simcoe St. N. is being put together by Brockhedge Investment Group (BIG).

Alexis Kofman, BIG owner and CEO, says she made the decision to delay the opening.

“We chose to move the market’s opening date back until April for public enjoyment. We wanted to be able to welcome larger numbers of people at a time,” she says.

“We want to have somewhat of a grand opening, so it made much more sense to push that opening date back.“ Kofman, 45, says the market is deemed an essential service by the Ontario government and the Feb. 14 opening was approved. Both BIG and the City of Oshawa have been in constant communication and there’s a sense that pushing

the opening day back would benefit the city and the market.

Oshawa city councillor Rick Kerr says COVID-19 has also delayed the construction of the market and it would’ve been a challenge to open in February, regardless of the lockdown.

Kerr say’s he’s excited for the market to open in April, and he thinks it will solve multiple problems for people in the downtown area.

“There is a need for fresh produce and related food services in our downtown core,” says Kerr.

“Right now, the only place for groceries for downtown residents is Costco which is just outside the eastern boundary of downtown.”

He says the partnership between Oshawa and BIG will benefit both parties, especially the city.

“People need food choices in addition to fast-food and restaurant operations. This is a symbiotic relationship. As one factor grows, so does the other,” says Kerr.

Kofman says there’s some confusion from the public as to what the market will look like and how it will function. By opening in April, she thinks it allows BIG to

properly promote the market and what people should expect.

“In my business, those who rush and feel pressure are generally not successful in this business.

You have to make the decisions that are necessary for the project, regardless of the popular opinion,” says Kofman.

The market building is three stories and nearly 15,000 square feet. It will feature a lower-level shopping area, as well as an upstairs seating area and café/wine bar called The Rook.

The co-owner of The Rook is Kyle Kornic, who also operates Brew Wizards, a café in downtown Oshawa.

As for other vendors, Kofman did not provide a concrete number but says the market is 80 per cent leased. Vendors will be able sell their products on shelving units throughout the market, there will be no individual booths for a specific vendor, she says.

Kofman says delaying opening was also done – in part – to make sure vendors will have enough inventory to sell their product yearround.

She thinks the public will enjoy the market concept.

Photograph by Aidan Cowling-Mcdonnell

Oshawa Farmers Market will feature weekly live entertainment.

The building, at 27 Simcoe St. N., was originally home to an RBC bank branch.

“During the day, the market is very much an indoor farmers’ market. After dark, when the market closes on Friday and Saturday evening, it will turn into a live entertainment venue,” says Kofman.

While BIG made the decision to delay the opening, once the market starts it will follow all required COVID-19 safety protocols regarding things like capacity,

sanitization and social distancing.

Kofman says she’s excited for the opening of the market and thinks it will bring joy to people who’re living in uncertain times.

“This project is huge for the community, it’s huge for the shopping local initiative, for the change that’s happening in the downtown core and for Oshawa itself,” says Kofman.

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February, 2021

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Entertainment

Photograph courtesy of Klinsvin Gilbert

Klinsvin Gilbert performing at a sold out college campus event in Karnataka, India.

Music industry devastated - not dead Karandeep Singh Oberoi ager of culture and centralized was a partnership with all of Dur- from the government. “There is no The Chronicle

The year is 2016, Klinsvin Gilbert is performing at a college campus in Karnataka, India. As soon as his band starts to play, the crowd rushes towards the stage. He can see people lined up cheering for him and his band, waiting to take photos. Gilbert describes the moment as intense happiness, magical and very rewarding for him.

Gilbert is a local musician who has been turning heads in the Durham music scene. Having graduated from the Music Business Management course from Durham College, work was never scarce for him.

He says the emotions that run through him while he is on stage are beyond comparison and some of the best memories he has are of him performing. “To be honest, I really miss it. I miss it so much,” says Gilbert.

Ever since the pandemic hit, the economic repercussions have been growing at a rapid rate. Musicians have been left to fend for themselves.

Some are struggling to stay afloat, while others are migrating to other fields of work to make ends meet and using the time off to get their creative juices flowing.

Recent data from Statistics Canada reports that performing arts, festivals and events sectors contributed almost $3 million to the economy and over 70,000 jobs in 2019, most of which were lost to the pandemic.

The City of Oshawa, along with performance venues, have taken some initiatives to aid local artists.

Catherine Richards is the man-

recreation services for the City of ham Region’s municipalities saw money available at the entertainOshawa. Her role focuses on the us engage local talent to create the ment industry. So as a whole, it’s implementation of the city’s cul- Canada Day virtual experience,” really hurting,” says Arbor. tural plans. she says. “We’re also right now in The Regent Theatre is making a Her focus right now is to find the process of developing our Osh- return in the new year with shows ways to help local artists find work. awa Celebrates event, which is a lined up all through 2021, which Richards says, “We obviously New Year’s Eve event, and it will be will help local artists bounce back want to assist with their perform- virtual this year. We’ve been able and find work. ances being continued and to ex- to work with some local talent for Gilbert says in the meanwhile, pose their great talents and abilities that as well.” musicians must stay optimistic if to the wider community. And it is Kevin Arbor, General Manager they want to survive the pandemic. difficult, this year has been very at the Regent Theatre, says live “I’ve seen musicians who have been difficult.” venues shutting down was tough sucked into negativity because of Gilbert says, “You’d never expect for local artists. this whole thing,” he says. that such a thing would happen in “Technicians and artists, there’s According to Gilbert, musicians life, that you can’t do shows any- no work, you know, for people in need to maintain a positive outlook more. It breaks the concept of being theatre it’s been rough,” he says. and try to branch out towards other talented.”

He explains that artists are in- avenues of the music business and Before Durham Region went into dependent contractors and not em- try to stay busy. the red zone of COVID control, ployees and thus, have been going “I’ve seen some musicians who Gilbert could still manage to find through challenges getting grants teach music now, online. They’re a show here and there but not now.

“It’s technically against the law,” he says.

Gilbert was not short of work before the pandemic hit.

“I used to do at least six, seven shows a month,” he says, “even the big-time artists can’t do shows.

That’s one of the weirdest feeling in the world.”

According to Richards, the city has had to make choices on which events can be moved online and which can not. The events that can not be moved online. “We unfortunately have had to forego,” says Richards.

One of their main summer events, Concerts in the Park Series, where the city hires multiple local artists to perform was cancelled.

Photograph courtesy of Klinsvin Gilbert “That saddens us,” says Richards who says the city has done initiatives over the past 10 months that Klinsvin Gilbert performing at The Music Hall Concert Theatre. have engaged local talent.

“Our Canada Day event, which

trying their best to keep up,” says Gilbert.

For musicians who have ‘made it,’ life is a vacation right now.

“They don’t need to do another job because they already have millions of dollars,” says Gilbert.

But for musicians like him, who are working hard to make a name for themselves, branching out to other avenues to earn a living is inevitable.

Gilbert had been teaching music in the Durham Region. He visited his students’ houses and gave oneon-one music lessons while taking all the necessary precautions. He even tested negative before he started the lessons.

Gilbert says he enjoys helping others learn to play their first tunes but is taking a break, using this free time to create.

“I’m working on new music, you know, post-production and stuff, working on new materials, releasing videos and all that. So that’s been going pretty good.”

To help local artists like Gilbert, The Regent Theatre has been renting their space to individuals for their personal shoots. “[There have been] a couple of private video shoots where the doors are locked and there is just a camera man and a couple of performers where they can prerecord something,” says Arbor. “So later, if they do a live stream, they could incorporate stuff from the shoot instead of just broadcasting from their living room.”

Gilbert says these are trying times and musicians should keep their head up.

“I think the most important thing is that you keep making music,” says Gilbert.

Entertainment

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February, 2021

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17

Photo credit: Slashgear.com

Community is an American sitcom created by Dan Harmon that ran on NBC from 2009 to 2013, and on Yahoo! Screen for an additional year.

Why 'Community' is the ultimate sitcom Musthafa Azeez The Chronicle

Fans of pop culture often ask each other variations of a question involving an island, complete isolation and the availability of a single piece of creative expression.

Though such questions are posed in order to glean opinions regarding the merit or appeal of a certain song, movie or TV show, they’re not avenues for objective considerations.

If they were, perhaps none would be better qualified in the category of television sitcoms than Community.

Casual fans of television might find such a claim surprising.

After all, Community struggled in ratings during its six-season run, prompting cancellation by NBC before being resurrected on Yahoo!

Screen for its final year.

The show, created by Dan Harmon, focuses on the exploits of a group of friends who study in a fictional community college.

Unlike its sitcom predecessors such as Seinfeld, Frasier and Friends who became rating juggernauts and global sensations, Community does not have a laugh track or multiple cameras.

Some of its contemporaries have harnessed such setups to either reap countless awards (example: Modern Family) or establish itself as the most-watched show among millennials (The Office).

Community, however, remains unremarkable in terms of such metrics.

It would be easy then, to seek refuge behind the notion Community was misunderstood and far ahead

of its time.

However, that would be inaccurate, for the truth is more complicated.

Community wasn’t misunderstood, it was just appreciated by far too few, and not because it came to our screens too early but because not all of us have spent enough time in front of screens.

Community is one of the best examples of a “meta-comedy”, a relatively small subgenre of situational comedy.

Harmon, who would go on to make the acclaimed Rick and Morty, described it as making the audience aware they were watching a TV show and not a story anchored by reality.

This kind of self-awareness isn’t unique to Community.

Fans of the hit TV show Friends would have chuckled when Brad Pitt appeared on screen as Rachel’s high school “friend” who hates her.

Not because of a hilarious inshow visual gag, but because they knew Jennifer Aniston, who plays Rachel, was in fact married to Brad Pitt at the time.

Community takes such winks at the audience and expands on it until it has dissected, explored, critiqued, countered and ultimately celebrated not just sitcoms, but pop culture as a whole.

To understand how the show pulls this off requires multiple viewings of specific episode.

For example, in the first minute of the episode “Basic RV Repair and Palmistry,” the character Abed Nadir (who is the heart of the show) shuts his eyes and announces out loud: “Three weeks ago!”

It’s a meta-joke about how TV

Community is written in such a way that there are countless layers to be peeled back. episodes often start in the middle of the story and then lean upon flashbacks to further the narrative.

However, while most shows would pat themselves on the back for such a reference and then move on, Community commits.

So over the course of the next 20 minutes, we are not just viewing a well written episode about certain characters on the TV show. We’re also viewing a commentary on a narrative technique.

To top it all off, through the characters and story, the episode’s writers end up providing a critique of the narrative technique as well.

Abed remarks how the episode made sense even without a backstory, highlighting the overuse of such techniques in television.

We laugh, we learn and we reflect.

However, Community doesn’t

cover just narrative techniques, storytelling devices and overused television tropes.

It combines that yearning for deconstruction with the desire to celebrate the best of pop culture.

As a result, over the course of 110 episodes Community pulls off incredible narratives that draw upon established genres, conventions and visual aesthetics.

The adventures of seven friends who are part of a study group should never have spawned episodes such as “Modern Warfare” or “App Development and Condiments”.

In the former, an innocent paintball competition turns into a pastiche of action films such as Die Hard and The Matrix, while the latter is a parody of dystopian movies that holds its own against anything Black Mirror has to offer.

If the terms pastiche and parody seem confusing, there’s no need to be alarmed.

Not all viewers will be aware of the intertextuality that’s everpresent within the episodes of Community.

They may not realize the episode where the characters start an illegal chicken delivery service in the college cafeteria is an homage to the classic gangster movies of Scorsese.

Or when these students have to find out who “killed” the yam they were growing in biology class, the investigation that unfolds is a pitch-perfect parody (as well as a celebration) of Dick Wolf’s iconic TV show Law and Order.

Community reminds us there’s more to the sitcom genre and television in general than just laughter.

It shows us the true potential

of sitcoms. It assures us even the most imaginative or absurd comedy shows can have genuine heart and emotions.

It allows us to celebrate all the tropes in television we love, and perhaps more importantly, provides us much-required catharsis by mocking those genre conventions that’ve soured our viewing experiences in the past.

Community may or may not appeal to new television viewers.

But it’s designed to resonate with veteran ones.

Such a statement might sound exclusionary, but it isn’t.

Community is written in such a way that there are countless layers to be peeled back.

So viewers are rewarded every time they rewatch the whole show, because as their knowledge of pop culture increases, so does their ability to appreciate all the allusions contained within.

That is also why the show struggled in the first place.

Airing on television with far too little support from the network meant Community was lauded only by critics and a niche group of fans.

Thankfully, in May 2020, the show finally debuted on Netflix and has begun attracting a new generation of fans.

Many of them will go on to watch the whole show several times over.

Not because it’ll provide a sense of comfort or because it’s bland enough to play in the background.

But because with each new viewing, they would have understood something new about comedy or television or life.

Or all three.

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Entertainment

Photograph by Kerde Severin

Digital edition of the PS5 with the all-new dual sense controller.

Sony's PlayStation 5 is worth buying Karandeep Singh Oberoi The Chronicle Sony’s PlayStation 5 was one of 2020s most anticipated releases and it sure lived up to the hype.

The next-gen console was released on November 12, 2020.

Most of the units were sold out through pre-ordering even before the product was released and the remaining units were out of stock

by November 20. Big companies like Walmart, BestBuy and Amazon have not been able to restock the product to date.

People who were able to get their hands on the console are making a quick buck by listing it on sites like eBay for double or triple the retail price.

So why the buzz around this new console? Is it any better than the previous model? For starters, the specs of the PS5 make the PS4 look like it was developed by Neanderthals in 2013 BC: Before COVID. The next-gen console is powered by an AMD chip with eight Zen 2 central processing units (CPU) and an RDNA 2 graphics processing unit (GPU) which is eight times more powerful than its predecessor.

This allows the PS5 to push out mesmerizing 4k graphics at 120 FPS and 8k at 60 FPS. For those who might not be familiar with gaming jargon, FPS stands for frames per second, an upgrade that gamers have been longing for as the

PS4 was only capable of pushing out 60 FPS. Better frames equals more responsive gaming, more responsive gaming equals happier gamers.

The PS5 boasts an 825GB SSD internal storage. That’s a 65 per cent increase from the original PS4’s 500 GB HDD internal storage. This allows users to save more games and game files on the console and reduce load up time for a smoother experience.

People upgrading from the PS4 to the PS5 do not need to throw out their old game CDs.

More than 99 per cent of the 4000+ games available on the PS4 will be playable on the PS5.

The next-gen console is capable of backward compatibility, allowing PS4 games to be run on the PS5. Hideaki Nishino, the senior vice president of platform planning at Sony said in a blog post that, “more than 99 percent of the 4000+ games available on PS4 will be playable on PS5,” with shorter load-up time than the old console.

The PlayStation 5 comes with an all-new controller titled DualSense, an upgrade from its predecessor DualShock. The new controller boasts a better battery life, haptic feedback and the brand-new adaptive trigger feature.

Adaptive trigger is a concept wherein the user will feel varying resistance when pushing down the trigger buttons. Pressing the trigger to pedal a bicycle in game will feel very different from pressing the trigger to accelerate a race car. Similarly, firing a pistol will require its own unique resistance while firing a shotgun will feel like you are firing a 12 gauge.

This is the first time Sony is selling two models of the same console at launch – the standard PS5 which retails at $629 and the digital edition for $499, which as the name suggests can support games bought from the online PlayStation store and not actual disks. The next-gen machine is a huge leap from its predecessor and is a must-buy for avid console gamers, well, if you can find one available.

Photograph by Martin Katler

The standard PlayStation 5 with the all-new DualSense controller.

Entertainment

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February, 2021

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19

Photo credit: Stephanie Lacarte

The Social Dilemma, a documentary-drama directed by Jeff Orlowski, released on Netflix on January 26, 2020.

Watching 'The Social Dilemma': A no-brainer for online approval that, “starts to dig deeper down into the brain stem and take over kids’ sense of self-worth and identity,” according to Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology.

Stephanie Lacarte The Chronicle

Some things are ‘so 2020’ but the memorable American docudrama film on Netflix, The Social Dilemma, directed by Jeff Orlowski, released Jan. 26, 2020, is still the film to watch this year.

The Social Dilemma is worth watching in 2021 because it explains the link between social media and mental health, as well as the link between social media and the decline of democracy; the film consequentially reveals society’s increasing addiction to social media, and as a result, will make people want to take back control of their lives.

The biggest reveal though is that life should be complemented by social media and our online presence, not replaced by it.

However, because of COVID-19 and lockdowns, the world is facing uncertain times. People have had no other choice but to adapt to an online approach to continue with everyday necessities such as social lives, school and work.

With social distancing, now a global normality, there is a need to stay mindful of the message The Social Dilemma is telling us all in 2021.

Mental Health and Social Media While our online activity increases in lockdown, The Social Dilemma explains the decline in mental health and the devastating link it has to what’s going on behind our screens by breaking down how strong the link is between social

Come to Terms with Addiction

Photo credit: Netflix

Poster for 'The Social Dilemma'.

media and society’s decline in mental health.

Engineers and executives who have worked for Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Google, Apple, and other social networking companies, but who have now decided for ethical and other reasons, to talk about their feelings of guilt and the harm they inflicted on society while they worked for these networking companies.

The Social Dilemma dives in on topics such as youth mental health highlighting fake popularity, and Snapchat/filter and body dysmorphia in teens, especially girls – all in response to the unrealistic standards of beauty portrayed by social media.

The film further explains the link between social media and degrading mental health by explaining the never-ending search

Some people may think they aren’t addicted to social media or are able to control themselves but The Social Dilemma highlights what some experts have said about social media forcing viewers to reassess the possibility.

“Do you check your smartphone before you pee in the morning or while you’re peeing in the morning? Because those are the only two options,” asks Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook.

As Edward R Tufte, a computer scientist and a professor emeritus of computer science, political science, and statistics at Yale University said, “There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.”

From the colour of the chat screen to how much a notification shows on the home screen, everything has been designed for a purpose to keep our attention on the screen – for as long as possible.

We are being programmed by these platforms to scroll down our newsfeeds and scroll away our lives, health and confidence.

The film portrays how addicted a teen boy has become to social media through a fictional reenactment of his everyday life, which is a necessary way to visualize and explain how social networking

industries treat their users like lab rats.

Every choice and action made

by Ben on his cellphone is rewarded by each of the three lab experimenters controlling his phone in the reenactment. In Ben’s case, it’s dopamine highs every time he gets a like, a thumbs up, or if he is tagged or notified, all of which benefits the lab experimenters because they get his undivided attention.

Everyone is guilty of picking their phones up and getting sucked into social media’s quicksand, losing track of the time spent scrolling.

The Social Dilemma may be alarming but it will also help many people come to terms with their increasing addiction to social media in 2021.

Take Control

After watching The Social Dilemma, there’s a possibility many may want to reassess their entire lives.

Some will want to be more present offline and maybe even lessen the number of accounts and apps.

Through expert interviews, The Social Dilemma proved social media is designed in a way that is not ethical and harmful to its users proving social media should be controlled to complement rather than replace our social lives.

Social media can be a wonderful tool helping to reunite family, or chat with a friend in another country.

But after watching The Social Dilemma, it becomes clear how critical it is to become mindful of social networking technology and the impact it can have.

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Sports

Ridgebacks see academic success School smashes previous record

It’s always a big deal when you see the success of the studentathletes.

Shaun McLeod The Chronicle

Ontario Tech has set a school record with 72 student-athletes named academic award winners for the 2019-20 year.

Thirty-nine awards are from Ontario University Athletics, 24 from U SPORTS. The previous high was 40 in 2018-2019.

“It’s always a big deal when you see the success of the studentathletes, specifically academically because they’re student-athletes first,” said Ontario Tech athletic director, Scott Barker. ”It really does show the time and effort that the students put into their studies knowing that they have such a robust training and competition schedule.”

The Bob and Sallie Baun Varsity Scholarship was awarded to six athletes this year, up from four in previous years. The award is given to returning student-athletes who have a GPA of 3.7 (out of 4.3) or higher in the past year and are strong leaders in their locker room.

The award is split evenly between women’s and men’s sports.

Alyssa Nikkel, Kierstyn Hawke, and Sophia Christopherson took home the award for women. Matthieu Gomercic, Elijah LorencClarke and Justin Posteraro for the men.

This is the second time Nikkel has won the scholarship and it came at just the right time. Due to COVID-19, she had lost her parttime job as a soccer coach for rep and league teams which helped her pay for school.

“It’s less stress for sure,” said Nikkel with a laugh. “Looking at my second-semester tuition, I was like, ‘I’m not sure how I’m going to pay for this’.”

Although some students have struggled with the switch to online learning, Ridgebacks men’s hockey player, Gomercic says he was prepared for the new learn-

One hundred per cent, it’s a big recruiting piece.

Photograph courtesy of Ontario Tech Ridgebacks

Ontario Tech's Matthieu Gomercic celebrates after scoring a goal against the Windsor Lancers. ing environment because he took online courses while playing junior hockey with the Steinbach Pistons and Humboldt Broncos.

Gomercic has been studying remotely in Winnipeg, Man. during

the pandemic.

“I was really fortunate to be able to stay home have the support of my family and be able to spend extra time with them, which I haven’t really been able to do in

the winters since high school,” said Gomercic.

Academic success has been something the Ridgebacks have been striving to improve in recent years. They’re working with On-

tario Tech Student Life to offer writing workshops, tutors, seminars and study halls to their athletes. Athletics program advisor, Craig Fisher also works directly with student-athletes to support them through their academic journey. “(Fisher) has a critical role in transitioning new students to the university and what it means to study and be a varsity athlete,” said Barker. “He also works very closely with them to make sure no one is falling through the cracks.”

Barker also sees this success as something he’ll be able to pitch to student-athletes considering Ontario Tech.

“One hundred per cent, it’s a big recruiting piece, with athletes and athletes’ parents,” said Barker.

“I think for the student-athlete and the parent it’s very reassuring that the academic piece is so important.”

For a full list of winners visit goridgebacks.com.

Photograph courtesy of Ontario Tech Ridgebacks

Ontario Tech's Alyssa Nikkel on the attack against the Nipissing Lakers at Vaso’s Field.

Sports

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February, 2021

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Oshawa eyes outdoor rink

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A project years in the making Shaun McLeod The Chronicle

It may not be long before Oshawa has its own Nathan Phillips Square.

The ice sheet in Toronto has been a popular spot for skaters for years and there’s growing support for an outdoor ice rink in Oshawa, and Coun. Rosemary McConkey says she hopes it will be ready for Oshawa’s centennial celebration in 2024.

“My hope is to have it ready to go for Jan. 1, 2024,” says McConkey.

An outdoor rink was brought up in the first city council meeting of the year, with the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the lack of outdoor activities in Oshawa.

Indoor rinks are currently closed as part of the province wide lockdown.

“As we’ve learned from COVID, more and more people are going to be looking for activities outdoors, because don’t know the predictability of another pandemic or this pandemic,” says Dan Carter, Mayor of Oshawa.

Winter seasons in Oshawa are increasingly unpredictable, with weather fluctuating +5 to -16 in the last two weeks of January.

Keeping a rink open from December until March means it will require refrigeration, according to Carter.

Photograph by Shaun McLeod

A father and son playing hockey on a pond by Coldstream Drive in Oshawa.

“The way that we used to do it, especially when I was a kid, putting the boards up, flooding it with a hose and off you go, it’s good for five months, is no longer

realistic,” says Carter.

The pipes to keep the rink frozen would cost approximately $1 million, with seating, construction costs and lighting adding more to

It has to be accessible for all of our residents and all of our citizens.

the budget, according to McConkey.

Carter is hopeful that they’ll be able to utilize provincial and federal grants to cover some of the cost, and McConkey says with the city’s Centennial Committee fundraising and possible sponsorships, it will be “financially feasible” for Oshawa.

While no location has been nailed down for the rink yet ­– and there won't be until a report from the Centennial Committee comes back in the spring.– Carter points to Rotary Park in the downtown core and the potential Ed Broadbent Waterfront Park on the lake

as potential places for skaters to get excited about.

“It has to be accessible for all of our residents and all of our citizens, it can’t be a barrier where only some get to use it. It has to be open for everybody,” says Carter.

The issue will be back in front of the city council sometime in April, May or June of this year, and it will require support from six members of the council to move forward as a project, but if residents want to continue to support the idea of an outdoor rink, McConkey and Carter both suggest writing into city council to have their voices heard.

An Olympic-sized disaster for Canadian basketball Shaun McLeod The Chronicle

For the last decade, Canada Basketball has been building to the 2020, now 2021 Olympics.

But with more than 80 per cent of Japanese citizens polled by news agencies Kyodo and TBS saying they want the Olympics cancelled, and The Times of London reporting that Japanese officials have quietly stated that the 2021 Olympics will not happen, it’s unclear when we’ll see Canada have another shot at Olympic basketball glory.

The Olympics was supposed to be the big coming-out party for men’s basketball in Canada. The women’s teams have been consistently qualifying for the Olympics and winning major tournaments for years but the last time the men qualified for the Olympics was two decades ago with Steve Nash at the helm.

When Andrew Wiggins burst into the consciousness of Canadian basketball fans in 2013, it felt like Canada had that Nashlevel player they had been waiting for; it was a question of if Canada Basketball would ever have the talent to build around him to get to the next level.

Photograph by Shaun McLeod

Phil Scrubb drives to the rim against the Dominican Republic in Feb. 2020, in Oshawa.

Now, Wiggins isn’t even the best player in the country.

While Wiggins never lived up to the “Maple Jordan” nickname, he’s carved out a nice role for himself as the “Poutine Pippen” on the Golden State Warriors.

Jamal Murray has taken the lead as the undisputed king of Canadian basketball and a host of promising young players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dortz and RJ Barrett look like they’ll be carrying the torch for

the country going forward but it’s been hard to get them all on the same team for any major international tournaments.

The FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Victoria, B.C., which was originally scheduled to

start in June 2020, represented the only time where Team Canada had commitments from almost every major player in the country.

With Canadian NBA players being major contributors to playoff teams, it’s hard to imagine a world where the best players unite for Canada consistently.

Representing Canada just hasn’t been a priority for their players.

Although the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee has denied that the report that they’re cancelling the games, it’s a familiar tune.

Before delaying the Olympics last year, International Olympic Committee (IOC) representative Mark Adams had stated that they would go ahead as planned despite the on-going pandemic.

With IOC President Thomas Bach now saying that it’s going forward again, it’s hard to put any weight in those words.

If Canada’s men’s basketball team can’t prove they’ve arrived on a global stage this year, it may be a long wait for another chance to do so – unless there is a culture shift within the best players in the country.

It’s going to be a long three years if the Olympics are put off again.

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Sports

Photograph by Christopher Cameron

Head coach Curtis Hodgins (centre) behind the bench at an Ontario Tech Ridgebacks' hockey game.

Ridgebacks recruiting talent despite pandemic Taylor Gilbert The Chronicle

Absent any hockey to scout live, Ontario Tech Ridgebacks men’s head coach Curtis Hodgins is still busy trying to convince junior players from across Canada that Oshawa is the right place to lace up their skates, drop the puck and get a solid education.

The Ridgebacks are not playing due to COVID-19, but are still recruiting for next season.

While Hodgins acknowledges Ontario Tech’s 13-season history may not carry the same clout as a school like McGill which has been around for more than 100 years, it hasn’t prevented him from putting together a competitive team.

The Ridgebacks finished the 20192020 season with a 13-15-2 record, their first sub.-500 season since 2014-2015.

Hodgins has tried to adapt the university’s scouting program in order to compete with teams like McGill.

Hodgins said he and other Ontario Tech recruiters Sean Meyers and Brad Gauld have to work a little harder to find players; they’re always on the lookout for potential late bloomers or players who perhaps Major Junior (Ontario Hockey League, Western Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) gave up on early.

“We try to build our program a little bit different,” he added. “I’m more focused on guys that want to be here, guys that care and guys

We try to build our program a little bit different.

I’m more focused on guys that want to be here, guys that care and guys that are willing to fit into a team environment. that are willing to fit into a team environment.”

The recruiting process involves many meetings with coaches, general managers, scouts or advisors and the players.

“In a perfect world, for me as a coach, I’m getting my eyes on a recruit and I’m actually standing across from a recruit, getting a feel for him, maybe taking him out for

a meal, getting to know him in person, that is the best-case scenario,” said Hodgins.

That person-to-person contact is one of the biggest missed opportunities of the recruiting process in this new COVID world, according to Hodgins.

Instead of travelling to meet players and breaking down their games in real-time, Hodgins is resorting to popping in old VHS tapes of a player’s 2019 highlight reel. OK, maybe its not VHS tapes, but they have been reduced to watching a player’s highlights on video.

A recruiter may spend weeks or even months building a relationship with an athlete and the process can become quite personal, said Hodgins, adding it’s difficult when it doesn’t pay dividends.

“You invest so much time and you get to know the potential athlete, you really develop a bond or friendship, and you can see that player being a big-time asset to your program and you get down to the end of it and you get the call and he says ‘I love what you got going on but unfortunately I’m going to another school’.”

Hodgins said when a player rejects the Ridgebacks it stings for a bit but the next day he gets up and is back on the recruiting trail.

Along the way, Hodgins has made many friends and contacts in the hockey community.

He was in Saskatchewan recruiting players from the Humboldt Broncos in 2018, just two

Photograph by Christopher Cameron

Ontario Tech men's hockey coach Curtis Hodgins.

weeks before the tragic bus crash that killed 16 players, coaches and staff.

“Emotionally that was tough,” said Hodgins, adding Broncos’ head coach Darcy Haugan, who was killed in the crash, left a lasting impression on him.

Two survivors of the crash,

Matthieu Gomercic and Bryce Fiske, were successfully recruited and have been members of the Ridgebacks since 2018.

While Hodgins still heads west occasionally for scouting, he has yet to return to Humboldt, but it is something he said he definitely plans on doing.

Sports

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February, 2021

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23

Photograph courtesy of Tony Sharpe

Andre De Grasse’s silver medal win for 100 metres at his first Canadian Nationals with coach Tony Sharpe.

Sharpe scores scholarships for track stars Allaya Sue

The Chronicle As a former employee of Bell Canada, perhaps it's not surprising track and field coach Tony Sharpe has been able to ring up plenty of scholarships and success for his athletes.

Sharpe, the former Canadian Olympian, runs the Speed Academy, a developmental track and field club in Pickering, which has helped dozens of athletes get NCAA scholarships.

The club was founded in 2006 and Sharpe left his corporate account manager's job at Bell to track athletes full-time a few years later.

“I’m a full-time coach, you know, not something people do often in Canada,” says Sharpe, 59, adding about 50 Speed Academy athletes have received scholarships.

“When I left Bell Canada in 2009, I decided that I had enough of a suit and tie and wanted to wear a tracksuit.”

The first and most notable scholarship earned by a Speed Academy athlete came in 2013 - sprinter Andre De Grasse, who went on to earn three medals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

Ethan Bennett, 17, from Pickering High, grew up in Toronto and is a current member at the Speed Academy who has been running since he was 12. He runs 100-metre, 200-metre and 400-metre races and was inspired to join the club after learning De Grasse was there years before.

Bennett is in Grade 12 and wrote his U.S. college admission test in October. He is still waiting for the results.

“Getting ready for the whole thing was pretty stressful and definitely the day of was stressful,” says Bennett, who is keeping his options for next year.

Due to COVID-19 he’s unable to run in track and field at school or for any meets with the club, but he’s staying in shape at home.

Bennett says he looks at Sharpe

as family, more than a coach.

“He's always there whether it's with track or with personal life,” says Bennett. “He's always had my back and I know he's definitely someone I could always count on.”

Sharpe was a sprinter who won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100-metre relay at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and ended his career in 1988 after suffering an Achilles tendon injury.

Sharpe says he hasn’t had another student who went onto the Olympics since De Grasse, but there have been some who went on to the Canadian National Team and others who’ve ventured into different career paths like accounting

and engineering.

“The real exciting part is watching the kids, progress in what I call the real world,” says Sharpe.

Shaquan Williams was one of the students at the club who trained with Sharpe for seven years. Williams was one of De Grasse’s teammates for a short time and currently works as an accountant.

“Our team wasn’t as big as it is now… no more than 30 people at most at a time,” says Williams, who attended school on a scholarship in New Jersey and still works there.

“It was a really tight, family-oriented environment and even up until I went to college, I would always come back and train with

Tony.

“Tony always made sure our grades were right as well, his training was obviously amazing,” says Williams. “Tony always made sure that we’re focused on the main goal which was getting our free education.”

Williams was also the first to graduate from college in his family.

“I'm grateful for where I am you know,” says Williams. “I don't think I'd be there if I had if I didn't have that type of support, because I surely didn't know what I was doing.”

Duan Asemota joined the club when he was in Grade 10 in 2012 and attended a junior college before

Photograph courtesy of Tony Sharpe

Tony Sharpe coaching at the Speed Academy’s outdoor location based at St. Mary Secondary High School in Pickering, Ont.

attending Ohio State University.

“Almost like every athlete [Tony] has came in contact with, he’s able to get some scholarship to some type of school, whether it be in the States or Canada,” says Asemota.

"He’s done that at a higher rate than anyone I seen do it for any sport.”

Asemota credits Sharpe with ensuring his athletes finish their education so they can get careers.

“So even if you want to finish track after, you can do it… you can continue knowing something’s in your back pocket.”

Asemota participated in the World University Games in Italy last year and came in fourth place for the indoor 60 metres.

“If it wasn’t for Tony, taking the chance on me and believing in me,” says Asemota. "A lot of stuff could be different for me, I’m always appreciative for the fact that he stuck around and still sticks around.”

The Speed Academy athletes are grateful to have a coach like Sharpe. “[I] learned how to be a man, learning from like a role model, especially as a black person, to be an example in your community,” says Asemota.

“He just taught me a lot of self-respect a lot of ways how to navigate through life and how to achieve success and also remain humble when you do so.”

Sharpe also married his high school sweetheart, Colene, who also ran track at the professional level and is one of the coaches at the club. They have 24-year-old twin daughters Summer and Taylor and a son, Mitchell, 25.

Sharpe has had 11 students on Canadian track teams from the Speed Academy and is hoping that number will grow, noting some will "be bidding for a spot for (the) Tokyo (Olympics, in 2021).”

His goal is to influence youth.

Track has given him the chance to do so and he is understandably proud of his club's success.

"We are actually changing lives on a daily basis."

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chronicle.durhamcollege.ca

Opinion

Black history beyond the month of February Allaya Sue

The Chronicle Anti-racism organizations like BC Community Alliance (BCCA) and Anti-Racism Coalition (ARC) are working toward implementing anti-racism education in Vancouver schools, which is a step in the right direction.

Many corporations in Ontario are also rolling out anti-racism programs this year for their staff but more needs to be done to educate youth on Canadian Black history on a regular basis.

Canadian Black history must be taught in elementary and high school. This doesn’t mean only teaching Black history in the month of February.

Black history is Canadian history and it needs to be taught in its entirety, whether good or bad, not glossed over in history books.

There are several moments in Canadian history when systemic racism is a part of the narrative. Stu-

dents deserve to be educated on this.

Blacks in Canada did not have any rights due to being enslaved until August of 1834, in the British colony. They weren’t considered as people and didn’t have access to rights or freedom until abolition.

Despite having freedom, Black Canadians still experienced racism due to the colour of their skin.

According to the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Black people were deported for not being “stable” as Canadian citizens based on their appearance, in 1910’s Immigration Act. The following year, a proposed ban on Black Immigration to Canada was in place for one year by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

The proposed ban said: “The Negro race is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada.”

Thankfully, the ban never became legalized.

Learning about past mistakes like

this can help bring awareness to promote change, and this information should be taught in schools.

This information is just as relevant as a multicultural day in schools and would inspire youth to be respectful of others.

Another historical component is the multiple Black communities

across Canada, including Africville, Nova Scotia: a community that rose together to fight against racism and segregation in the province.

The village of Africville, north of Halifax, was founded in the 18th century. Residents were either freed American slaves, Maroons (Africans in the Americas who formed settlements to distance themselves from slavery) or Black refugees (African Americans who left to be freed from enslavement).

In 1848, Black settlers William Arnold and William Brown bought Africville’s land, and other community members followed. However, this did not stop the Regional Municipality of Halifax from demolishing the community in 1964.

Africville served many historical purposes in Canadian cultures. For example, Seaview African United Baptist Church was referred to as “the beating heart of Africville”.

The residents of Africville paid taxes and had no access to water, electricity or good roads. It was

called a slum because there was no access to essential resources. Factories, sewage pits and a prison were built instead.

Over four decades after demolishing the village, the Halifax Regional Municipality apologized for destroying Africville and opened a museum church in 2012.

Summer reunions still take place at Africville Park and Christmas services have been held at the museum church.

If the facts about Africville, or the Immigrant Act, and Black people’s rights are analyzed over the years in schools, there would be less ignorance and more empathy and understanding.

Last year, protests served as a powerful message about anti-racism worldwide but Canada has a long way to go. Mandating elementary and high school students are taught about the importance of Black history in Canada is essential to dismantling racism in this country.

Knowledge is power.

Media experts have long understood the inherent power contained within specific words. David Mastracci, the managing editor of Passage, an online publication that offers left-wing perspectives from Canadian writers, cites the example of “regime” vs. “government.”

Since there is no standardized definition for “regime”, it can be used for any government that is in political opposition to Canada. So when Canadian media referred to Venezuela as a regime, Mastracci writes that journalists were, in essence, prepping the public “to accept [the government’s] attempts to force out democratically elected leaders.”

While such analyses are invaluable to both journalism students and keen followers of the news, they’ve remained academic and intellectual exercises until now, often carried out with the benefit of many years of hindsight.

What would happen if newspapers published a front-page story regarding terminology right after the Capitol attack, summarizing the essence of the heated discussions and arguments that took place within their organizations?

For starters, it would cut through the noise and lay bare facts that are often drowned out by social media.

Since definitions are succinct explanations, listing the ones for “domestic terrorists” or “insurrectionists” above the fold will allow the readers to gain much-required information before succumbing to their own biases.

It’ll stop readers from dismissing the magnitude of the event by clinging to the palatable idea of it being “ just a protest”. Moreover, it deprives them of the chance to equate what happened in the U.S. Capitol with the Black Lives Matter protests last summer.

A front-page story containing

definitions compared and contrasted through the use of infographics is not just an exercise in accuracy. It is also a powerful attempt at transparency.

The very person who instigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol is also the one most responsible for tarnishing the reputation of newspapers for the past five years, both within America and across the world. Donald Trump has convinced millions of people they’re being served “fake news”.

It’s ironic his last act of demagoguery might perhaps help rehabilitate the chief victim of his regime.

By presenting all the facts and engaging the opinion of the public in this discussion about the right descriptors for Trump’s minions, newspapers would be defying expectations. For years, members of the public have decried instances of perceived prejudices amongst

members of the media.

For the first time in a long time, the media would be asking and not just telling. Enlightening, rather than just informing.

Instead of being members of the fourth estate who over the years somehow got confined to their own socioeconomic and political bubbles, journalists would be reconnecting with the general public.

In some ways, newspapers are like restaurants that have been criticized for their work ethic and final product. So a front-page story inviting the public to examine the importance of terminology would be akin to throwing open the doors to the kitchen.

It’ll give a whole profession of wordsmiths the chance to show the public how important words can be, as well as begin the process of shedding the word that’s most often been used to describe them over the past five years.

A tactic usually reserved for “shithole countries”, this time the walls of the American people were scaled in an attempt to turn Capitol Hill into Hamburger Hill.

Thankfully the display of insurrection was more reminiscent of Hamburger Helper: disgusting and unconstitutional.

The stampede in the Capitol was not without its causalities however, for where the buffalo roam so to do the hunters.

Ashli Babbitt, 35, from San Diego, died that day for something she believed in. Whether it was a cause worth dying for is up to you, but what led her there we may never know for sure.

What drives one to follow the buffalo? Is it Hunger? Desperation?

Loneliness?

According to Rachel Bernstein, a therapist who specializes in the treatment of cult survivors, those who fall victim to cults are often looking to better themselves personally or professionally, are searching for a sense of community, or are in an extreme state of vulnerability.

Cults require a high level of commitment from their members.

Babbitt, who was shot while climbing through a window in an attempt to reach deeper into the Capitol, often re-shared videos on social media from right-wing and conservative figures and was an outspoken supporter of Trump, according to her husband.

On Tuesday, Jan. 5, Babbitt tweeted, “Nothing will stop us….

they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours…. dark to light!”

24 hours later she was dead.

Through misinformation, social media, and an all too complicit political hierarchy, Trump has cultivated and convinced an alarming number of people that only he and those inside his circle can be trusted.

Perhaps Babbitt felt she could one day be a part of that circle or was doing her part as a member of that circle, and that her devotion and relentless commitment to Trump’s cause would not go unnoticed by her leader.

Trump has alienated his followers from reality and in turn creat-

ed an alternate existence in which his alternative facts are his bond, and only he holds the answers to life’s biggest questions, like was the election really stolen, and is Joseph R. Biden really a secret pedophile controlled by lizard people?

In the reality Babbitt was living in, she was acting as a patriot, a freedom fighter, a true American to the end. But what happened on Jan. 6, was the Sitting President’s attempt at a Jones Town massacre.

With any luck, the idea that conjured the “Buffalo bill”, the fastest bill to ever get past Congress, also died on that day, and while its stench still lingers, it is only a matter of time before Capitol Hill, the White house, and America is mercifully aired out.

Photograph by Allaya Sue

Queen St. W., Toronto, 2020.

Insurrection by any other name wouldn't smell as foul Musthafa Azeez The Chronicle

Even veteran journalists were lost for words on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol. Once the initial shock subsided, they, along with the rest of the fourth estate, realized there was still one word that required thorough examination.

Present and future members of journalism within newsrooms and colleges began debating whether the Confederate flag wielding, racially homogenous mob that acted with remarkable impunity should be categorized as mere “supporters”, an aberrant strain of “protestors”, or a fatal concoction of “terrorists” and “insurrectionists”.

It’s time to stop confining such debates to editors’ offices or classrooms.

It’s time to involve the readers.

The buffalo bill and what drives him Taylor Gilbert The Chronicle

"It overthrows the election or else it gets the hose again." - Donald J. Trump, probably.

To be a cult leader one must have followers, but what convinces an individual to dawn buffalo horns and storm the Capitol in the name of their fearless leader?

The “Buffalo bill” hit the desks of Congress on Jan. 6, shirtless, brainless, and QAnonymous.

Forged by an idea, his lust for blood was sparked by conspiracy perpetuated by arch-villain Sitting President and his untrustworthy sidekick the Melting Attorney.

His purpose?

A good old-fashioned coup d’état.

chronicle.durhamcollege.ca

The Chronicle

February, 2021

25

Opinion

Shein is affordable and fashionable Morssal Azimian The Chronicle

It's easy to be bored at home during a mandatory stay-at-home order, so for many people shopping or browsing online is a way to spend time.

Many people on a budget turn to affordable online stores such as Shein, Romwe, Oasap and Choies.

Shein is an online store and app. The international fast-fashion brand, owned by Chris Xu, and founded in Oct. 2008, features products from China.

The website itself stands out because the colours change with the months. As we approach Valentine's Day, for example, the site is red and pink. At Christmas, it was red and green. On the top nav bar, a flashing icon alerts shoppers to sales; a pop-up as soon as you enter the website shows sales and reveals discount codes.

Sometimes you happen to get lost just scrolling and adding items into your cart.

The website has multiple tabs from women's, plus size, men's, kids, makeup, shoes, bags, and even home decor. The page currently has a Valentine's Day sale up to 20 per cent off - from there the shopping begins.

When adding items to your shopping cart, the total usually adds up fast. Many people add reviews with images provided on how the clothing or shoes fit,

When adding items to your cart, the total adds up fast.

Photograph by Morssal Azimian

A screenshot of the Shein website.

mostly all reviews say how much they love the product and the fit of the item they purchased. These reviews appear directly on the website.

Usually, Shein will have a promotion on free shipping if you spend over $100, which will grab

the customer's attention even more, and they will find enough to purchase for the free shipping.

Receiving your order will take around two weeks in total as it is coming from China, and it depends on how many of their items you have ordered.

the winter. She recommends using extra moisturizer after cleansing and doing regular facials to keep your skin hydrated.

A skincare routine looks different depending on who you ask.

After all, like snowflakes, everyone’s skin is uniquely their own.

Often people looking to start a new skincare routine might find themselves discouraged after what worked for someone else didn’t work for them.

It’s all about finding out what your skin wants.A simple five step skin care routine looks like this: Cleanse – The first step to any good skincare routine is washing your face. This removes dirt, excess oils and/or makeup from the skin – skip the face wipe (it’s to drying) and opt for a cleansing oil, it will cleanse without stripping.

Tone – Next, the toner, which can be gentle and hydrating or exfoliating and acne fighting.

Despite which one you choose, a toner is primes the face allowing for better absorption.

Serum – Step three…serum… what is it? Essentially, it’s a shot of super concentrated skin food

filled with nutrients, hydrators and antioxidants. This simple step is the heavy lifter in any skin care routine.

Eye cream – An eye cream is lighter and thinner than most facial moisturizers – always apply using your middle and ring finger, they are the weakest fingers and this will prevent excess tugging on your delicate under eyes.

Moisturizer – This is key! Always apply moisturizer, no matter what. Not only does it hydrate the face but it also acts as a barrier keeping all the products you just lathered onto your skin trapped and absorbing.

Sunscreen – Sunscreen is always last for one simple reason: it’s not meant to penetrate the skin but rather lay on top of it as a protective layer. Unless you don’t mind premature wrinkles and an increased risk of skin cancer then skip this step.

It’s time to stop neglecting our skin and pretending we won’t get wrinkles…

Indulging in a twice daily skChronicle columnist Julia Sandy. incare routine will be a trend that lives on – unlike low-rise jeans.

When you receive your package, the carrier will leave it at your front door and ring the doorbell.

Each item you purchase always come inside a bag neatly folded.

Some items come with a tag that says Shein premium, and others don't. The material of the

clothing usually is thick and does not feel cheap. Although sometimes, the things in white tend to be see-through. Be careful!

In the reviews online, shoppers often put down how much they weigh and how tall they are as well as waist size. It is easy to compare your size to theirs before purchasing. When you buy the correct size, it should fit the way you want it to.

Something to keep in mind before your purchases are to read reviews to buy your proper size, and sometimes you may need a larger size than what your size is, depending on how the item is made.

Stores like these are made for people who are on a budget and can only afford fast fashion. Shein makes it possible to be trendy on budget.

Shein has an app and website where you can create a free account and go crazy.

Everyone in their 20s should have a skincare routine Julia Sandy The Chronicle

At some point in 2020 having a skincare routine became more trendy than low-rise jeans in 2001.

TikTok played a big part by allowing “skincare experts” to share their tips and tricks worldwide.

Hyram Yarbro, 24, is one of many self-proclaimed skincare icons on the app. He gained popularity in the early days of quarantine when people let go of makeup and embraced a bare face.

In a way, the “stay-at-home” policy encouraged the “self-care” movement. People of all genders were inspired to start a skincare routine of their own.

Aside from feeling rejuvenated and refreshed, there are many benefits to taking care of your skin.

The skin is a reactive organ and things like Ontario’s cold and dry winters make it extra important to start a skin care routine – even if it’s just cleanser and moisturizer.

According to Toronto-based medical esthetician, Victoria Radford, our skin ages faster in

Photograph by Cassy Robertson