Question of the week Students admit past resolutions didn’t last long. Page 2 TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2018
SPOKE
Fun and games Give our sudoku puzzle a try. Page 7
A LEARNING NEWSROOM FOR JOURNALISM STUDENTS
CONESTOGA COLLEGE, KITCHENER, ONT.
WWW.SPOKEONLINE.COM
49TH YEAR — NO. 1
One month left to apply for winter awards BY PETER SWART
Conestoga College’s general awards application opened on Dec. 15 and there is officially one month left to get your name in the running for some financial assistance. The application puts students into a system that automatically searches for awards that they qualify for and then submits their name and details for consideration. There are over 500 awards, bursaries and scholarships that the college offers to students who meet the qualifications. Alice Pelkman, the associate registrar of student financial services, encourages students to submit the application because they never know what they qualify for.
“Scholarships are based on merit, they are based on marks; awards are usually a blend, they could be based on merit, they could be based on need or they could be based on both,” she said. “A bursary is always based on need. Students who believe they would not be awarded any money because their marks are too low should not be discouraged. If they are in need of financial assistance it is likely that they will be considered for an award or a bursary. As timeconsuming as it may seem for students at this time of year, the application is an important one. Students who are working their way through school can only benefit from it. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
PHOTO BY JOSH PEDERSON
Members of the Guelph Guild of Storytellers, from left, Bryan Holstein, Mike Dougherty, Jenny Higgins and Sya Van Gheest, gathered last month at the Guelph Civic Museum for an evening of storytelling.
The art of storytelling
BY JOSH PEDERSON
PHOTO BY PETER SWART
Are you in need of money? If so, apply for some of Conestoga College’s awards, bursaries and scholarships.
While listening to a captivating story, whether it be a fictitious old wives’ tale from grandma or remembering that hysterical Dr. Seuss book that was read to us before bedtime, our imaginations propel us into the universe of what we’re hearing, taking us on an entertaining extravaganza. To truly dazzle a listener, one must project oneself in such a way that not only grabs a person’s attention, but gives him a sense of presence, as if he is in the same realm as the stories’ characters. This art form is not an easy one to master. There is a group that has members who are polishing this ancient craft and attracting people from all over to their engaging, riveting performances. If you’re from Guelph, you will know the name Robert Munsch. A beloved author, he gave the world some of the most classic and iconic children’s books, such as Mortimer, Purple Green and Yellow and Aaron’s Hair. “It was Munsch who helped found the Guelph Guild of Storytellers,” said Bryan Holstein, a member.
They are a small clan of excellent storytellers who have all rightly earned their place. Although Munsch moved on to further his writing career, the guild remained and so does their work of encouraging and promoting storytelling.
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It’s like sitting on grandma’s knee. — Tim MacDonell
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The group has five main storytellers – Beve Matson, Bryan Holstein, Jenny Higgins, Michael “Rusty” Dougherty and Sya Van Gheest. All are unique in their approach to storytelling, yet all are able to capture their audience in an entertaining fashion. Their latest meeting was held at the Guelph Civic Museum last month and included bewildering tales on the theme of Christmas. To give a sense of just how capturing the members of the guild are, one tale told by Dougherty described a reallife Christmas Day during the height of the Second World War at No Man’s Land in France.
The story was about how sporadic kindness ruled that day, when allied forces and German foes laid down their arms for one night and instead, sang Christmas carols, exchanged gifts and even played a game of soccer. The sensation in the room was bone chilling for a few minutes, as Dougherty had listeners immersed into the minds of the soldiers who, for one moment, got to leave the whizzing of bullets and the whirl of mortar fire behind. “It’s like sitting on grandma’s knee,” said Tim MacDonell, a frequent attendee. After the storytelling there were scrumptious baked gingerbread cookies and succulent warm apple cider for guests to enjoy. The storytelling sessions are free, however, donations are appreciated. Proceeds from the night were matched by the guild and donated to Sister Christines, a Guelph walk-in-centre which helps impoverished members of the community, by providing clothes, food and guidance. If you wish to become an avid storyteller and try this memorable craft, the guild offers free, open-mic nights on the first Wednesday of every month.
NEWS
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Now deep thoughts ... with Conestoga College
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
FILBERT CARTOONS
Random questions answered by random students
What’s the longest you’ve been able to keep a New Year’s resolution? What was the resolution? “Two months, I was trying to improve my diet.”
IN THE RUNNING FOR NEW MULTIPLEX
Anne Walsh, first-year business admin and management
“A week, maybe two. I always forget my resolutions. That’s why I can’t do them.” Evan Oullett, second-year business administration
“Two months. I tried to work out.”
Stephanie Samson, third-year business marketing
“I tried to exercise for five months.”
PHOTO BY REBECCA SOARES
The Cambridge Centre is a front-runner for a new sports multiplex. City council is in favour of the location but it is not a sure thing just yet. For video story, visit www.spokeonline.com.
Bilal Qauderi, first-year animation
“Two months going to the gym. It was to get healthier but the gym was part of that.” Blerim Lecaj, second-year accounting
“Six months, it was to journal every day.” Gabriele Schulz, second-year marketing
Smile Conestoga, you could be our next respondent!
NEWS
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
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Church ‘was like a second home’ Trinity closes its doors; moves to temporary location BY MIKE TURCOTTE
It was a sad time for some, and an exciting time for others at the end of November, as the congregation of Trinity United Church in Kitchener bid their current location farewell, and moved into a temporary home rented from St. Matthews Lutheran Church, due to a struggle to maintain the aging building. During an interview with The Record, Katherine Bitzer, chair of the church’s board, said, “This building has been a burden for our congregation for quite a number of years. We don’t want to spend our time talking about boilers and plumbing and roofs. We want to talk about mission and community and service.” Trinity United Church has been a part of the downtown Kitchener community for over a century, being founded in 1906, and has played an important part in many people’s lives. On top of the usual church proceedings, Trinity has also played host numerous times over the years to dinners for the less fortunate, usually around Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, such is not the case this year, with no Christmas dinner scheduled on their website calendar. In the past, the church has also participated in the Out of the Cold program, in which multiple churches and other buildings in multiple locations across the region
open their doors at night to the homeless, giving them a warm and safe place to sleep. Dan Kelly, 28, is a Kitchener resident who was saddened to hear about the church’s decision to sell and move. When asked what his thoughts were on the move, Kelly seemed to lower in spirits, and said somberly, “It sucks, you know? I know to myself and quite a few other people, that place was like a second home. From the dinners to the Out of the Cold program, we really appreciated them.”
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From the dinners to the Out of the Cold program, we really appreciated them. — Dan Kelly
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Kelly has struggled with housing, food and health concerns for years, and said he hopes the church will continue to play a major role in assisting the homeless and less fortunate in the future. He added, with a tremble in his voice, “My memory isn’t very good at all, it’s really hard to remember many parts of my life ... But I remember Trinity, and so I guess I’ll just cherish those memories until they are gone too.” More information about Trinity United Church can be found at www. trinityunitedkw.ca
Application deadline Feb. 2 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Joanne Buchholzer is a student awards officer and she wants students to use every form of help they can to make the best of their education. “If students have support from the school, that will allow them to be more successful in their studies,” she said. If students have questions about the general awards application or any specific awards, they can meet with an officer in the financial aid department, located in the Welcome Centre, or email financial aid at awards@conestogac.on.ca from their student email. “We notice that a lot of students email us from Hotmail or Gmail accounts but for security we will only answer emails from your Conestoga email account,” Pelkman said. With 31 days left it is important that students get their awards application in and monitor their student email accounts for any information regarding any other awards they qualify for.
PHOTO BY MIKE TURCOTTE
Trinity United Church in Kitchener sits empty after the congregation moved due to the building’s age, which resulted in costly repairs and upkeep. .
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NEWS
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
OHIP+ a prescription plus for students BY MELISSA HORTON
If you’re under the age of 25 and have prescriptions, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan+ (OHIP+) may have you covered. As of Jan 1, more than 4,400 prescription drugs will be free to Ontarians under the age of 25. Children and young adults will no longer have to rely on their parents’ coverage or private insurance to pay for their prescriptions. Now, it can all be done through OHIP+ regardless of family income or an insurance plan. According to the Ontario government website, some of the prescriptions covered include antibiotics, medications for mental health conditions and birth control pills as well as some childhood cancertreating drugs. The system is virtually stressfree. All you have to do is present a prescription from your doctor and your OHIP+ card at the pharmacy to receive your free prescription. There are no co-payments or deductibles of any kind, meaning no cash will ever exchange hands. It is entirely free. The idea was proposed in April 2017 during the province’s budget meeting. The move was designed to encourage
other provinces to follow in Ontario’s footsteps toward helping relieve some of the financial stress on young people and parents through broader pharmacare coverage. Zach Mumford, a second-year broadcast television student at Conestoga College, said, “I think it would be a good thing to have access to those drugs as long as it won’t have any long-term repercussions. But if it shows the government is leaning towards more subsidization of health benefits then I’m all for it.” Students and their parents alike will now have the constant fees of prescription medication off of their shoulders with this new plan. Even though not all prescriptions are covered, the coverage is fairly broad. Students are not only relieved about the coverage but also about the benefits for their parents. “I think it’s pretty good. Now parents don’t have to pay for their children’s prescriptions,” said Jason Aissa, a second-year journalism broadcast student. For more information on what medications are covered, go to the government website at www.ontario. ca.
PHOTO BY MELISSA HORTON
A customer fills a prescription at the On The Spot pharmacy at Conestoga College’s Doon campus. Youth now have more prescriptions covered, thanks to OHIP+.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
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Year in review
COMMENTARY
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
BY TAYLOR PACE
The new year has begun, putting 2017 in our rear view – a hard year to forget, but one many will happily leave behind. In the United States, President Donald Trump made it through his first year of presidency, wreaking domestic and global havoc by implementing the travel ban on Muslim countries, pulling out of the Paris Agreement, cancelling the Trans-Pacific partnership and naming Jerusalem the capital of Israel, which, like everything else, caused outrage and controversy. There were a total of 1,077 terrorist attacks worldwide with 7,396 fatalities, according to Esri Story Maps, an interactive website that tabulates terrorist attacks through crowd sourced data. These included the mass church shooting in Texas, the mass shooting in Las Vegas, the attack in Edmonton and the Quebec City mosque attack. We saw Alberta, B.C. and California devastated by wildfires that displaced tens of thousands of people. The world said goodbye to beloved musicians such as Gord Downie, Chris Cornell, Malcolm Young, Chester Bennington, Tom Petty and countless others. Locally, there was seemingly endless construction on what felt like every corner of Waterloo Region. The region’s paramedics responded to over 500 overdose calls, and the streets became increasingly littered with syringes. But it hasn’t been entirely bad, and everything that happened this past year has sparked change that will hopefully shape this 2018. The construction on Uptown Waterloo’s King Street has ended, giving local business owners and residents something to celebrate. After a rally at the Cambridge City Hall, the region is addressing the opioid problem and is working to clean up the streets. In the meantime, safe injection sites are being considered for a more immediate solution. Even the Toronto Maple Leafs, who haven’t won a championship since 1967, are finally doing well. Canada passed a bill last year that bans airlines from removing passengers from overbooked flights, to prevent fiascoes like the man who was dragged off a United Airlines flight. And in response to the sexual allegations involving men such as Trump and Harvey Weinstein, movements like the women’s march and #metoo have taken the world by storm, putting cracks in patriarchy and misogyny. Time magazine even named their “person of the year” the “silence breakers,” the women who were involved with the #metoo movement and who took a stand against sexual assault and harassment. Let’s make this year better than the last. From all of us at Spoke, we hope you have a happy and healthy 2018. The views herein represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the author.
Letters are welcome Spoke welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be signed and include the name and telephone number of the writer. Writers will be contacted for verification. No unsigned letters will be published. Letters should be no longer
than 500 words. Spoke reserves the right to edit any letter for publication. Address correspondence to: The Editor, Spoke, 299 Doon Valley Dr., Kitchener, Ont., N2G 4M4
“New Year’s Eve is definitely a time for reflection ... and it’s usually my face in the punch bowl!”
Net neutrality is necessary The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially killed net neutrality. Last month, the five-member panel voted three to two to repeal the laws enacted just two years ago that ensured a free and open Internet. The rollback of net neutrality will affect every American, but few are aware of it, or if they are, they don’t fully grasp the situation. Net neutrality is the principle and idea that every Internet service provider must treat all data on the Internet equally. Providers cannot charge different prices by user, content, application, method of communication, attached equipment, website, platform or user. Basically, Americans and Canadians pay a set price for Internet access and can then go anywhere we want. What the FCC has done is repeal that in the U.S. As a result, Americans will be paying more for services they already receive. In fact, Internet service providers could bundle popular websites and applications, just like cable TV does. Also, providers could throttle or even block sites not in your bundle. A good example of what this could look like is in Portugal – a country without
Lucas Hutteri
Opinion net neutrality. Portugal offers different packages featuring websites and applications that are always available to residents, but the usage of any other website or application uses up some of their monthly data allowance. Once that allowance is used up, you can no longer access anything outside the featured apps and websites on your plan without paying extra. For instance, there is a social media package that allows usage of apps such as Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram without cutting into your monthly data. You can use these websites and applications after you reach your data limit, but you cannot use anything else. Now that the FCC has repealed net neutrality, Americans could be facing a similar situation. It’s just another way for companies to squeeze more money out of the average citizen. How does this affect Canadian
citizens? Services like Netflix and Spotify may have to pay fees to ensure they are in packages within the U.S., which could drive up prices everywhere else. And it may affect the entertainment industry, which uses the Internet to showcase content. For the time being, it looks as though Canada is relatively safe. In November of this year, Trudeau expressed concern regarding the FCC’s attacks on net neutrality, and claimed he will “fight tooth and nail” to defend it. In his statement he also recognized that net neutrality is essential to small businesses, consumers and for the freedom of the Internet overall. The repealing of net neutrality won’t affect me personally, but it affects the American entertainers and service providers I use every day. I want them to continue to succeed. Nearly all of them depend on the Internet and net neutrality to make a living. Since the U.S. is one of the largest powers on the planet, other countries might think they should follow suit. However, net neutrality should be supported, and everyone should be rallying against any repeals, American or not.
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IS PUBLISHED AND PRODUCED WEEKLY BY THE JOURNALISM STUDENTS OF CONESTOGA COLLEGE Editor: Taylor Pace Assignment Editor: Austin Wells Advertising Manager: Christina Jonas Spoke Online Editors: Mike Turcotte-McCusker, Josh Pederson Production Manager: Christina Jonas
Photo Editors (print): Lucas Hutteri, Tyler Medeiros Photo Editors (online): Veronica Reiner, Peter Swart Social Media Editor: Melissa Horton Circulation Manager: Becky Soares
Faculty Supervisor and Adviser: Christina Jonas Spoke’s address is 299 Doon Valley Dr., Room 1B230, Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 4M4.
Phone: 519-748-5220, ext. 3691, 3692, 3693, 3694 Email: spoke@conestogac.on.ca Website: www.spokeonline.com
The views and opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of Conestoga College. Spoke shall not be liable for any damages arising out of errors in advertising beyond the amount paid for the space. Letters to the editor are subject to acceptance or rejection and should be clearly written or typed; a MS Word file would be helpful. Letters must not contain any libellous statements.
FUN & GAMES
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
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Useless Facts
Oh Cliff!
Horoscope Week of January 2, 2018
Aries
March 21 April 19 What you need to know is soon you will uncover a truth that was once considered false, and it will give you pause to how you live your life.
Taurus April 20 May 20
It’s OK to let go of the past in favour of a new, better future. Just spend time with the people that mean the most to you.
Gemini May 21 June 21
Today you can turn a new page in the book of your life. You can do it by looking at a situation from all sides of the equation, and appreciating each moment for what it is.
Cancer June 22 July 22
This week you will come to realize an item that was lost had significance to you. Hopefully you will find it soon.
Leo
July 23 August 22 Seek the advice of someone you normally wouldn’t. He or she will provide some new insight.
Virgo
August 23 September 22 Are you going to be making a big change in your life? This week will become a turning point for you and even though it was hard, you did it.
There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous:” tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous.
Libra
September 23 October 22
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Now is the time to make a change for the better. You can start by being aware of your health, and appreciating each moment for what it is.
Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
Scorpio
October 23 November 21 Dream big dreams. You can be anything you want, so don’t wait any longer.
A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
Sudoku Puzzle
Sagittarius November 22 December 21
Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1-9, without repeating any.
You have a chance to do something truly meaningful. It happens by letting go of your earthly desires and never looking back. There’s nothing you can’t do.
Capricorn December 22 January 19
If you feel you have time to spare, then maybe take some time to meditate. Also, the good in the world will become more obvious.
Aquarius January 20 February 18
If you wonder what your future holds, then come to a decision and see it through. Hesitate if you must, but know that life is not a destination, but a journey.
Pisces
February 19 March 20 Are you wondering about rekindling an old flame? Whether you like it or not, in the coming week you will have to make a decision.
Diodonna Winona dabbles in forces beyond mortal comprehension. She also enjoys people watching and coffee.
Word Search
Tuesday, January 2, 2018 NEWS BRIDGE BACK ON TRACK AFTER SEVERAL DELAYS CHURCH COMMUNITY STRONGER AFTER VANDALISM
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PHOTO BY TAYLOR PACE
After experiencing delays, the $1.4-million pedestrian bridge that goes from the west bank to the east bank in the downtown Galt area of Cambridge, was expected to open on Jan. 1. The bridge was supposed to be ready Dec. 7, in time for an Unsilent Night Christmas event, but was delayed due to lighting not being done and glass for the lookout not arriving on time.
PHOTO BY AUSTIN WELLS
The Emmanuel United Church, an affirming congregation located at 22 Bridgeport Rd. W. in Waterloo, was vandalized with anti-LGBTQ scripture on Nov. 30. The paint covers the 110-year-old limestone, wood frame and stained glass, forcing the church to work with the city to remove it. For video story, go to www.spokeonline. com.