Feb. 13, 2013

A guide to the Oscars Arts, page 14

THE The tie that binds Wilfrid Laurier University since 1926 Volume 53, Issue 22

PCs lay out PSE plans

thecord.ca

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Gearing up

Inside Breaking down the hockey Hawks’ first round playoff matchups Sports, page 20

Opposition challenges postsecondary practises

Alumni honoured Two Laurier grads receive the Medal of Bravery from Governor General David Johnston

JUSTIN SMIRLIES NEWS DIRECTOR

Campus, page 5

The Progressive Conservative (PC) Party of Ontario has some concerns about the state of post-secondary education in the province and, as a result, they are recommending a series of dramatic changes.

Released on Tuesday, the PC’s white paper recommends that student financial assistance be linked to grades, that many prospective students should seek college degrees instead and the level of university funding be determined by the number of students who get jobs post-graduation.

This paper was released just one day after Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced her new cabinet, which included the move of Brad Duguid from minister of energy to heading up the ministry of training, colleges and universities.

The possibility of an election in Ontario has dominated political commentary since Dalton McGuinty announced his decision to step down as premier in October.

PC leader Tim Hudak, along with Cambridge MPP Rob Leone — the training, colleges and universities critic — urged the Ontario government to rethink the way it funds and monitors post-secondary education for students.

Personal info stolen Students at the University of Guelph recently learned some of their information may be at risk News, page 3

Cary Grant ruined men Opinion Editor Devon Butler laments a lost era of chivalrous men Life, page 12

National, page 8 NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

WADE THOMPSON VISUAL DIRECTOR

Board ruling puts a hitch in plans Region may have to re-think urban sprawl strategy after OMB sides with developers “The decision is quite frankly baffling.”

—Gillian McEachern, campaigns director at Environmental Defence

LAURA BUCK STAFF WRITER

The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is under fire from the Region of Waterloo over recent and controversial urban development plans.

The OMB sided with developers in the region in a decision over the amount of land that will be opened up for development in the areas surrounding Waterloo. The region is currently at its capacity for urban sprawl; however, in the development plans passed by the OMB, up to 1,053 hectares of land could be developed. This is ten times the amount regional councilors had originally planned.

“The decision is quite frankly baffling,” said Gillian McEachern, campaigns director at Environmental Defence. “The province set objectives, the Region of Waterloo met them and then you have the Ontario Municipal Board, a provincial body, overturning that in favour of a handful of developers who wanted more land opened up for sprawl. It doesn’t make any sense”.

Environmental Defence is an action group that works on various environmental issues across Canada, including protecting green space.

The organization, which coordinates the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance, spoke out in support of the appeal after the initial finding was issued.

Karen Kotzen, communications consultant for the OMB, was reluctant to comment on the board’s decision. “The decision speaks for itself,” she said. “Our role is to hear appeals and make decisions”.

Ken Seiling, chair for the Region of Waterloo, expressed his own frustration with the board’s decision, explaining that it is contrary to the region’s plans concerning urban sprawl. “Our plan of restricted urban sprawl put an increased focus on intensification and this hearing decision in fact opens the door to far greater sprawl than we had Local, page 6

A visit from the MPP K-W member of provincial parliament Catherine Fife discusses tuition at WLU News, page 3

2 •

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Editor-in-Chief Justin Fauteux jfauteux@thecord.ca

Editor’s choice WLU alumni honoured for bravery

Editor’s choice online Photos: This Week Around Laurier

Campus, page 5

thecord.ca

Inside News ………………………3 Campus ……………… 4 Local ………………… 6 National ……………… 8 Classifieds …………… 9 In Depth ……………… 10 Life ……………………… 12 Arts ……………………… 14 Editorial ……………… 16 Opinion ……………… 17 Sports ………………… 19

Photo of the week

Vocal Cord presented by

How did you spend last Friday’s snow day?

CORRECTIONS

The fourth paragraph of the Feb. 6 article “Dark side of K-W exposed” has been altered online to more accurately reflect the story’s confirmed facts. An up-to-date version can be found on thecord.ca.

In the Feb. 6 article “12 new directors elected,” The Cord stated that there would be just three returning members on the WLUSU board of directors, when there are in fact four. The article failed to mention returning director Scott Fleming.

This also means the headline was incorrect, as there are 11 new directors on the board, not 12.

“I walked my dog, shovelled snow and studied. I also got my new iPhone.”

–Alex Kupchak second-year, business NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

Young dancers perform at the Waterloo Classical Dance Conservatory. Check out this month’s Cord: Community Edition for a story on three local dancers who are off to the National Ballet School.

Our next paper’s not until Feb. 27. But visit thecord.ca for new stories over reading week

From the archives 25 years

Tuffy back in town Tuffy Knight is back on University Avenue, but he’s a bird of another feather. The longtime coach of the Waterloo Lutheran and Wilfrid Laurier football Hawks was appointed head coach of the ailing Waterloo Warriors by UW Athletic Director Carl Totzke at a press conference on Monday.

Knight takes over a team that has 23 straight losses to their credit (or detriment), but he gave the assembled media no doubts as to the direction of the program.

“You just tell the other teams they better fasten their chinstraps when they play us,” said the flamboyant 51 year old. “We may not beat you but we’ll bruise you so that next week you’ll know you were in a football game.”

Knight compiled a 109-47-5 record as coach of the Golden Hawks from 1966-83, leading WLU to seven postseason bowl games and five Ontario titles. He was twice named Canadian Coach-of-the-Year, in 1972 and 1979. Upon leaving Laurier in 1984, Knight accepted a post with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League as Director of Flayer Personnel. The West Virginia native did not lose contact with either university football or the Kitchener-Waterloo area, however.

Knight was chosen over 26 other candidates, including WLU assistant coaches Tom Arnott and Gary Jeffries.

Printed: Feb. 11, 1988

The tie that binds Wilfrid Laurier University since 1926

Editorial Board

Senior Staff

Colophon

Editor-in-Chief. ............................. Justin Fauteux

Lead Reporter ............................... Katelyn Cullum Lead Reporter ..................................Marissa Evans Lead Reporter .................................... Alanna Fairey Lead Videographer ........................... Jeremy Enns Lead Photographer ................. Cristina Rucchetta Copy Editing Manager .....................Gillian Lopes

The Cord is the official student newspaper of the Wilfrid Laurier University community.

jfauteux@thecord.ca

News Director............................... Justin Smirlies

75 University Ave. W Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5 519-884-0710 x3564 FEBRUARY 13, 2013 Volume 53, Issue 22 Next issue: Feb. 27, 2013

Advertising All advertising inquiries should be directed to Angela Endicott at 519-884-0710 x3560 angela.taylor@wlusp.com In 2011 the Canadian Community Newspaper Association awarded The Cord second place in the CANADIAN campus community newspaper COMMUNITY category.

NEWSPAPER AWARD 2011

jsmirlies@thecord.ca Visual Director ....................... Wade Thompson wthompson@thecord.ca Campus News Editor............ Elizabeth DiCesare edicesare@thecord.ca Local and National Editor ....... Lindsay Purchase lpurchase@thecord.ca In Depth Editor. .............................................Vacant editor@thecord.ca Features Editor ........................ Colleen Connolly cconnolly@thecord.ca Life Editor..............................................Carly Basch cbasch@thecord.ca Arts Editor ...............................Cristina Almudevar calmudevar@thecord.ca Opinion Editor...................................Devon Butler dbutler@thecord.ca Sports Editor .................................Shelby Blackley sblackley@thecord.ca Graphics Editor ........................Stephanie Truong struong@thecord.ca Photography Manager .................Nick Lachance nlachance@thecord.ca Photography Manager ........................ Kate Turner kturner@thecord.ca Web Editor.....................................................Vacant editor@thecord.ca

Started in 1926 as the College Cord, The Cord is an editorially independent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors.

Brad Kleinstuber Kostadin Kolev Jon Marsellus Sarah McBain Bethany Meunier Kaitlyn Oosterink Adele Palmquist Jonathan Peres da Silva James Popkie Michael Porfirio Andrew Savory Janelle Scheifele

Erin Sheehan Autumn Smith Becca Silver Katie Strong Vanessa Tharen Eric Thompson Ali Urosevic Jody Waardenburg HG Watson Matthew Weir Chadwick Wheeler Lena Yang

WLUSP administration President and Publisher.................................................. Emily Frost Executive Director ....................................................Bryn Ossington Advertising Manager .............................................. Angela Endicott Treasurer..................................................................... Tom Paddock Vice-Chair .........................................................................Jon Pryce Director...................................................................... Kayla Darrach Director.................................................... Joseph McNinch-Pazzano Corporate Secretary ...................................................... Allie Hincks Distribution Manager ............................................. Angela Endicott Web Manager .......................................................... Adam Lazzarato

“Watched Life of Pi and made French toast, went for a walk in the snow and attempted to study.”

–David King second-year, business

“I shovelled my neighbour’s driveway and helped them get their cars out. Then I celebrated having a midterm cancelled with a pyjama day.”

–Jessica Dubeau second-year, business

Preamble to The Cord constitution The Cord will keep faith with its readers by presenting news and expressions of opinions comprehensively, accurately and fairly. The Cord believes in a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report, and of all substantial opinions in a matter of controversy.

The staff of The Cord shall uphold all commonly held ethical conventions of journalism. When an error of omission or of commission has occurred, that error shall be acknowledged promptly.

When statements are made that are critical of an individual, or an organization, we shall give those affected the opportunity to reply at the earliest time possible. Ethical journalism requires impartiality, and consequently conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest will be avoided by all staff.

Contributors Ally Bongard Brad Bowen Laura Buck Kelly Burwash Kylie Conner Lizzy Cook Heather Davidson Ashely Denuzzo Danielle Dmytraszko Spencer Dunn Dana Francoeur Scott Glaysher Kaylee Grootjen

“I waited for an hour and a half at the bus terminal for a delayed bus.”

–Courtney Tran second-year, communication studies

Opinions expressed within The Cord are those of the author and do not necessarily refl ect those of the editorial board, The Cord, WLUSP, WLU or CanWeb Printing Inc. All content appearing in The Cord bears the copyright expressly of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent.

The Cord is created using Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.5 using Adobe Creative Suite 4. Canon cameras are used for principal photography.

The Cord has been a proud member of the Ontario Press Council since 2006. Any unsatisfied complaints can be sent to the council at info@ontpress.com.

The Cord’s circulation for a normal Wednesday issue is 8,000 copies and enjoys a readership of over 10,000. Cord subscription rates are $20.00 per term for addresses within Canada.

The Cord has been a proud member of the Canadian University Press (CUP)since 2004.

Campus Plus is The Cord’s national advertising agency.

The only limits of any newspaper are those of the world around it, and so The Cord will attempt to cover its world with a special focus on Wilfrid Laurier University, and the community of KitchenerWaterloo, and with a special ear to the concerns of the students of Wilfrid Laurier University. Ultimately, The Cord will be bound by neither philosophy nor geography in its mandate.

The Cord has an obligation to foster freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This obligation is best fulfi lled when debate and dissent are encouraged, both in the internal workings of the paper, and through The Cord’s contact with the student body.

The Cord will always attempt to do what is right, with fear of neither repercussions, nor retaliation. The purpose of the student press is to act as an agent of social awareness, and so shall conduct the affairs of our newspaper.

Quote of the week: “Devon porn. That’s the best kind of porn.”

–Opinion Editor Devon Butler after asking what to get a man for Valentine’s Day.

• 3

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

NEWS

News Director Justin Smirlies jsmirlies@thecord.ca

More news inside:

Is it back?

“It’s not to dumb it down or take it out, there is always room for improvement.”

—Catherine Fife, MPP Kitchener-Waterloo;, on the 30 per cent tuition grant

CONTRIBUTED

Local community reacts to the release of BlackBerry’s new device Local, page 6

Round two

KOSTADIN KOLEV CORD PHOTOGRAPHY

Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Catherine Fifes spoke to students about university tuition fees on Feb. 11 in the Paul Martin Centre.

Hearing it from the students Local MPP Catherine Fife hosts talk about tuition costs in the province of Ontario KATELYN CULLUM LEAD REPORTER

KATE TURNER PHOTO MANAGER

Tracey Weiler plans on running for the PCs if an election is called Local, page 7

Catherine Fife, the New Democrat MPP for Kitchener-Waterloo, met with students from both Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo on Monday night to discuss the financial barriers facing students and the types of solutions students would like to see advocated at Queen’s Park.

Roughly a dozen students gathered at the Paul Martin Centre on the Laurier campus to meet with Fife and express their concerns about the annual five per cent tuition increase, as well as other financial measures effecting students such as the limitations of the 30 per cent Ontario Tuition Grant.

“The aim was to engage students in a conversation about post-secondary education and about jobs and the future,” Fife explained. “I certainly received some good feedback around ideas.”

The one-hour discussion

consisted of the students and Fife having a dialogue about the increasing concern of debt hovering over the majority of students, as well as the frustrations that students have with regards to increasing tuition rates.

Fife explained that there is a disconnect between the rise of tuition and what people can afford. She also mentioned the youth job strategy that would aim to help recent graduates gain employment, which would essentially be an extension of a coop placement.

“I’m a new politician, so I’m trying to do politics differently,” expressed Fife.

Additionally, students were able to discuss the obstacles facing the Ontario Tuition Grant, which offers selected students a 30 per cent bursary to help with tuition payments.

The major flaw found in this grant, as explained by Fife, is that it does not include all students, such as graduate students, who have parents that earn more than $160, 000

a year and students who don’t meet the necessary citizenship and residency requirements.

“I think we have to look at ways it can help more students, because what we’ve heard is that the terms and conditions to access that grant are really prescriptive so students are being left out,” Fife explained.

“It’s not to dumb it down or take it out, there is always room for improvement.”

David Clement, a fourth-year political science major at Laurier, expressed his satisfaction with the discussion. “I think it went really well, I think that it is very honourable of her to put herself out there, basically in an open setting where you can ask any questions on any issue,” said Clement.

The dialogue swayed from student finances into a discussion about labour, and students challenged Fife on possible problems that an NDP government would face and received amicable and constructive feedback from Fife.

“It’s good to be challenged,” Fife said.

“As you develop policy, it’s the lived experience of students that should inform public policy.”

Clement added that Fife is “obviously looking to restore the actual representative nature of being a member of provincial parliament, and I really respect that.”

Sean Hunt, a third year math major as well as a member of the senate at the University of Waterloo, expressed how he felt the discussion went. “I think it went reasonably well, I wish more people were participating,” he told The Cord.

Hunt, along with Clement, was among the few students who engaged in conversation with Fife.

“I really admire that she’s willing to come and talk about anything, sometimes it is hard,” Hunt said.

Fife concluded by saying that she learned something from the discussion and explained that this is her responsibility to learn as a politician.

Student info compromised at U of G LINDSAY PURCHASE LOCAL AND NATIONAL EDITOR

University of Guelph students opened their e-mail inboxes last Wednesday to learn of a situation no one ever wants to deal with — personal information held by their school may have been compromised.

A break and enter at an office in the University Centre resulted in 15 electronic devices being stolen, including a mix of laptops, desktop computers, a handheld device and a portable hard drive. The theft occurred at around 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 27 and was discovered later the same day by university staff.

While the loss of most of the devices does not pose a threat to students, Chuck Cunningham, the assistant vice president for the communications and public affairs department at the University of Guelph, specified that one in particular may be problematic.

“The one question that gives us

concern was a device used to move information from one computer to another computer,” he explained.

“Information on it was deleted regularly, my understanding is that people who know what they’re doing with sophisticated equipment could still drill down to access information that may be on the device somewhere.”

The information may include names, addresses, social insurance numbers, dates of birth and university identification numbers. Difficulty in determining exactly what information may have been accessible through the device and which students were impacted were part of the reason behind the delay in contacting students.

Cunningham clarified, “There was so much information that was passed through that device that it took as long as it did to get a sense of who might have lost data and who to contact. They weren’t actually able to specify everything that might have been on the device when

it went missing, but given the lack of information, the university decided to cast the net pretty widely and contact as many people as possible that could have been affected.”

Additionally, the offices where the theft took place were inaccessible for the first couple days as police investigated and university staff attempted to determine what had been stolen.

An e-mail was sent to 19, 000 students explaining the situation and identified the steps that had been taken by the university in response to the break and enter. Cunningham confirmed that the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has also been contacted.

Mariam Javed, a third-year environmental engineering student at the University of Guelph, got the news on Thursday.

“I was really upset, because I didn’t really understand what was going on,” she said. “How can our personal information be on a computer that’s so easily accessible?”

Javed hasn’t heard from the university since and said that based on the e-mail, “It didn’t seem like they were doing enough.” She intends to contact the school to find out more information about what actions the school is taking and what steps she can take.

No students have reported identity theft as a result of the lost information at this time.

Meanwhile, staff in the computing and communications departments are determining steps to be taken to better protect students for the future.

“The university is reviewing what happened. It was a result of a break and enter, so the information wasn’t left lying in a public spot or anything like that,” said Cunningham.

“But that said, we’re taking steps to mitigate the risk of this happening again and that all possible precautions are in place to secure personal information.”

Cunningham was unaware of any suspects being identified thus far.

“I was really upset, because I didn’t really understand what was going on.”

—Mariam Javed, third-year environmental engineering student at the University of Guelph

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THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

CAMPUS First-year arts GPAs consistent this year Campus News Editor Elizabeth DiCesare edicesare@thecord.ca

While the arts faculty is tracking the progress of students, science and business are waiting on grades MARISSA EVANS LEAD REPORTER

STEPHANIE TRUONG GRAPHICS EDITOR

While it is common knowledge for upper-year students at Wilfrid Laurier University to check their Grade Point Averages (GPAs) online after each term, this practice may be less obvious to first-year students, who are use to high school, where report cards are distributed periodically throughout the year. The different system used at university can be problematic.

Julie Pong, an academic advisor for the faculty of arts, explained that she first noticed the problem three years ago.

She explained that every Laurier student’s GPA is assessed every four credits. This means that a firstyear student’s GPA usually won’t be looked at until late April or early May. “I just realized that a lot of students were coming in May, because they’d been assessed, that had no idea what their fall term grades were,” she continued.

“So there was always this surprise if they were required to withdraw from the institution if their GPA was less than a 2.0.”

With this realization, Pong implemented a system to send first-year art students letters at the end of the fall term to notify them of their progress.

“We sort of look at it as a bit of a report card,” she said. “Just to reach out to them to let them know where they’re at after fall term.”

University approves new sustainability course This 100-level interdisciplinary class will be open to all students ELIZABETH DICESARE CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR

Next year, Wilfrid Laurier University students will be able to take a newly created, interdisciplinary course focusing on sustainability. The course, which has been in the making for roughly one year, will be offered at the first-year level and will be taught by multiple professors in order to offer diverse perspectives regarding the importance of sustainability across all disciplines.

Manuel Riemer, a psychology professor at WLU, contacted Claire Bennett, the sustainability coordinator at WLU, one year ago with his idea for the course.

After contacting faculty members they thought would be interested, a working-group was created, and at a WLU Senate meeting last week the course syllabus was proposed and passed.

“What was important with this course was that we wanted to have a course that is truly interdisciplinary [and] really communicated that sustainability is an issue that cuts across all kinds of areas, and that all students should concern themselves with sustainability,” explained Riemer.

“The course really teaches you how you can think about sustainability in whatever field you’re in, whether you’re a business student, a geography student or a psychology student, it doesn’t matter; everybody can take the course.”

In order to meet these goals, the course, while being offered as a 100-level class, will be offered to all WLU students despite their year of

“The course really teaches you how you can think about sustainability in whatever field you’re in.”

—Manuel Riemer, psychology professor

study or major.

“Our way of thinking in why we wanted it to be interdisciplinary [is] we’re not just going to target one audience, so say geography or environmental studies, because the purpose of it is to have everyone involved in sustainability,” said Bennett.

While there are many courses offered at WLU that deal with sustainability, this is the only interdisciplinary course, so the hope is that it will attract new students from various faculties.

The idea for this type of course, as Bennett explained, is also very unique in that it will be unlike most sustainability courses in Canada.

“It’s quite new, which is nice because we wanted to see at least one or two examples done so we know that it makes sense, but we still want to be sort of paving the way and being progressive as a university,” she

continued.

“We only saw not even a handful of examples in North America, so we’re pretty excited. Interdisciplinary studies is one thing, and that is happening, but an interdisciplinary course in sustainability specifically is what I’m referring to.”

Riemer also explained that the way in which the course is counted towards a student’s degree will be dependant on their major.

While the majority of departments will simply count it as an elective, he said that the geography and environmental studies departments might count it differently for their students.

This is, however, still being determined.

But the overall goal will be to educate students on what sustainability actually means, and how they can incorporate it in their everyday lives.

“Most people don’t know what sustainability actually means, and it’s much more than just the environmental side ... this course shows us that it’s every part of our studies and our life, in our history and theology,” said Bennett.

“If we’re not preparing students to work in a world where these issues are [present], then we’re not preparing because I don’t think it really matters what your job is if you can’t respond to the market challenges in sustainability.”

While both Riemer and Bennett said that they have received positive feedback from students, the course will most likely be offered during the winter 2014 semester so it can be advertised in the fall to both new and existing students.

Since then, each January, Pong has been running the data to compare first-year first-term GPAs to the prior year. Her study looking at Fall 2012 compared to Fall 2011 found GPAs were largely unchanged.

Most surprising, according to Pong, was that those who had GPAs of 4.0 and lower in the fall term remained at 24 per cent, the same percentage as last year.

“I didn’t know whether or not it would look a bit different because we had a higher entrance average,” she said. “The hope would definitely have been that there be less in the ‘less than 4.0’ range.”

The entrance average this year went up from 72 to 74 per cent.

Commenting on her reaction to the data, Pong said.

“This has just raised new questions for me that I didn’t have last year ... I need to do some more investigating.”

Pong hopes that the assessment in May will help shed more light on the matter.

While Pong stressed the importance of assessing the fall term GPAs of first-year students in January, neither the faculty of science nor the faculty of business and economics have conducted comparisons as of yet.

Pam Bryden, associate dean of student services for the science faculty, commented that they currently do not have the data, but they are “in the throes of trying to do that.”

“The only thing I would say is that

we probably do have a few more students that actively chose to withdraw in the fall term than we did last year,” she said.

Bryden specified that this was in the tens rather than hundreds and that most attributed their withdrawal to their feeling that the program wasn’t right for them.

“At this point I’m not too concerned with it,” she said. “I do think we need to continually look at our efforts of what we’re saying to high school students when we’re out there, but I think the university has taken a pretty proactive approach to ... all the ways they approach students.”

Speaking from the business perspective, Lisa Keeping, the undergraduate business programs director, and Anne Ellis, the undergraduate business program advisor, also lacked data on fall term GPAs. “I don’t know exactly how students have fared,” said Keeping.

“Because honestly we don’t tend to find out from a program perspective until it comes to the point where we’re seeing if they’re meeting requirements to get into second year.

It’s just too soon to know that.”

In accordance with the other faculties, GPAs will be looked at in April; however, they are not compared to previous years. In August, GPAs will be assessed to see who is going into second year.

“I think they’re doing as well as last year’s,” said Ellis. “It’s hard for us to see ... but it seems very similar.”

Laurier in brief Service Laurier to see improvements

Last month, Service Laurier sent out a survey to Wilfrid Laurier University students on both the Waterloo and Brantford campuses in order to analyze their satisfaction levels while using the resources provided to them.

The students who had received the survey commented on their experiences between July 2012 and December 2012. 67 per cent of their responses saying that

Service Laurier had exceeded their exceptions.

From the survey, Service Laurier also received feedback on further improvements that could be made in order to better help students.

Some of the improvements that are set to be made in the future include: improving the web-presence of Service Laurier so students can find what they need from home rather than physically going into the office.

–Compiled by Elizabeth DiCesare

Blouw awarded medal

CRISTINA RUCHETTA LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER

Laurier president Max Blouw received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal from Kitchener-Centre MPP John Milloy on Feb. 5

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

CAMPUS

• 5

WLU alumni honoured for bravery Kyle Walker and Matthew Crombeen recognized for their efforts in saving a student in 2009 JUSTIN SMIRLIES NEWS DIRECTOR

Kyle Walker and Matthew Crombeen, two alumni from Wilfrid Laurier University, received the Medal of Bravery from Governor General David Johnston on Feb. 8 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa for their efforts in trying to save a student from a fire at Waterloo College Hall (WCH) in April of 2009.

While the two Laurier grads were humbled to be given the award, they both noted that it only came due to a loss — and one they won’t easily forget.

“I was definitely surprised [about getting the award], it’s something that happened way back in 2009, so to get a phone call late 2012, you don’t really prepare for that, it’s been quite awhile,” explained Walker, who, as the floor’s don, shared a bathroom with the student who passed away in the WCH fire.

“It’s not lost on me how few of these medals they give out each year and how high in regard they hold them with the Canadian government.”

“But that was a result of someone losing their life, so that makes it tough, right?” he added.

Both Walker and Crombeen were dons in WCH when the fire occurred.

According to the citation for the medal, it was noted that Walker and Crombeen noticed smoke coming from a room in WCH and upon entering the room they found the victim on fire.

They put out the flames and brought the student outside to wait for emergency services. The victim, first-year student Dave LaForest, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.

“It’s not lost on me how few of these medals they give out each year and how high in regard they hold them with the Canadian government.”

—Kyle Walker, Laurier alum

“It’s something that’s never going to leave you, it’s always in the back of your mind, you come to terms with it. What happened, happened, there’s nothing we can change about it now,” explained Crombeen.

Months following the fire, the Waterloo Regional Police Services determined that the fire was started by the victim.

For Walker, this has a sparked a movement towards mental health initiatives, some of which he has done through his job as director of member services at the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union.

“Being in the role that I’m in now, to be able to work on some great support programs for students, is kind of for me in a way with how I’ve dealt with it the best because I’m looking forward to find a solution and not getting caught with what happened in the past,” continued Walker.

“The one thing that we know and acknowledge is that we can’t assume all students are ready for university when they get here.”

Crombeen, who is now a graduate student at the University of British

COURTESY OF KYLE WALKER

Kyle Walker (left) and Matthew Crombeen (right) with Governor General David Johnson (centre).

Columbia, echoed Walker’s remarks, “It just brings to light that there are people out there who may be fighting with something. You have to be very attentive to what everyone is doing and what everyone is going through.”

Walker and Crombeen were able to reconnect over the weekend in Ottawa and go over the events that happened.

“The thing that Matthew and I talked about this weekend is that it’s also not lost on us that any don in that situation would’ve done the exact same thing,” he explained.

“The fact that we received this medal and that we were there at the time, it really just comes down that we were there at the time.”

In addition to receiving the award, Walker added that it was an

honour to hear Johnston speak and to be able to talk with him following the ceremony. Kitchener-Waterloo MP Peter Braid was also in attendance.

“So we [Walker and Crombeen] had some good chances to reflect on that this weekend, but it’s also, we were treating this past weekend as finally closing the books on this and moving on,” said Walker.

Accessibility in the classroom MARISSA EVANS LEAD REPORTER

University students encounter barriers that may inhibit their learning in the classroom every day, whether it may be that their professor speaks with their back to the class or that they fail to post slides prior to lecture. Many students believe these small annoyances are things they have to deal with; however, change is in the making at Wilfrid Laurier University as the university takes steps to create more accessible classrooms.

In accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), students will hopefully notice a difference over the course of the next year as faculty training incites.

The larger aim of the AODA is to create a barrier free Ontario by 2025. The legislation took effect in Ontario in 2005 and the university has been complying with requirements since then. This year, the Integrated Accessibility Standard Regulation (IASR) is requiring that all broader public sector organizations — which include the university — have to provide training to their educators on creating accessible classrooms.

“This year faculty will start to see a lot more training offered to them,” explained Lynn Kane, employment equity and AODA officer.

One aspect of this training is a video project that Kane is spearheading.

“The idea behind that is to get faculty who are already doing a really good job of teaching with accessibility principles in mind, and

profile them to see what they’re doing,” she explained. “Then use those videos in different training materials as needed.”

Kane postulated that they may be used in training sessions or on a website for faculty to access.

The Accessible Learning Centre (ALC) is working in partnership with Kane to assist in the project by recommending professors as well as students who are registered with them and will be featured in video profiles as well.

Gwen Page, associate director of the ALC, articulated that the new integrated standards “really help to move [the ALC’s] work forward” as the centre’s mandate is to ensure students who have disabilities, needs or accommodations receive the assistance they require.

“It really does support our mandate,” said Page. “It can continue to benefit students that are registered with us, but it can also benefit all students.”

Page went on to express her hope that these requirements will be embraced to “create a solid community practice around these issues.”

Kane reiterated this, saying that her hope is that accessibility in the classroom will be discussed more openly. She commented on an entry in the Dear Life section of The Cord’s last issue in which a student expressed their frustration that their professor didn’t believe they had a mental health issue.

“I’m hoping that the disbelief or lack of awareness towards mental health issues will no longer be a problem,” concluded Kane. “That professors will be more aware of what is out there.”

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6 •

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

LOCAL

Local Editor Lindsay Purchase lpurchase@thecord.ca

Locals support Z10 release ASHLEY DENUZZO STAFF WRITER

STEPHANIE TRUONG GRAPHICS EDITOR

Pushing back —cover

anticipated, or would want, or what the community wants,” he said.

The regional councilors voted unanimously to request an appeal on the decision.

Seiling explained that OMB’s decision “flies in the face of legislation.”

He stated, “The Places to Grow legislation sort of sets the framework for growth in South Central Ontario. This decision actually doesn’t follow the way that we feel the legislation is set out. As we see it, this opens up South Central Ontario to a far higher degree of urban sprawl than the plan legislated. We think it’s really important from a provincial point of view and from a local point of view that the plan reflect the legislation and curb urban sprawl.”

McEachern asserted that Waterloo Region has been quite diligent in

meeting the objectives of the Places to Grow Act, setting high density targets, planning to contain development within the existing urban boundary.

The Places to Grow Act was established by the Ontario government in 2005 to help coordinate growth in the province.

“It’s inexplicable that you have a provincial body basically siding against goals and objectives set out in provincial legislation, something in that needs to change,” she continued. “Our fear with the Region of Waterloo decision is that the message that could be sent to the municipalities is that, if you try to do the right thing you get your wrists slapped.”

According to McEachern, the OMB has a tendency to “side with industries.”

The Region will simply have to wait and see how the Divisional Court rules in respect to the request for appeal.

After six quarters of declining sales, BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion (RIM) is showing a promising new platform that the locally based company is hoping will put them back in the global race.

Their marketing campaign for the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone, reads: “reinvented, redesigned, reengineered.”

And that is exactly what they did.

Following the release of their new smartphone, the telecommunication company announced that it would be changing its public brand name from ‘RIM’ to ‘BlackBerry’.

The name change was made to centralize the company’s priorities and accommodate consumers who were already referring to the business as ‘BlackBerry’.

“I think it’s a brilliant move,” said Karen Scian, a Waterloo city councillor. “It was a smart decision to really identify with who the company is.”

Scian, who is a self-proclaimed BlackBerry enthusiast, agreed that the relabeling of the company was a step forward in turning BlackBerry around.

The Z10 smartphone was launched at the end of January and has been generally received well by the public.

“I am thrilled with the advancements that have been made,” Scian said. “I’m excited about what the future is for BlackBerry and Waterloo.”

Headquartered only mere minutes away from the Wilfrid Laurier University campus, BlackBerry has long been supported by the Kitchener-Waterloo community.

In fact, many local businesses are

having promotions to advocate the newly launched phone. Second Cup is offering ten per cent off for any customers who show their BlackBerry phone.

Other local companies are simply offering their congratulations on the successful launch.

“It just shows that this community is behind BlackBerry all the way,” Scian said.

Hoping the Z10 will make BlackBerry a serious competitor again between Google’s Android phone and Apple’s iPhone, BlackBerry has been mainly promoting their entirely new software.

Developed by QNX, the device offers a multi-function operating system, which includes a swipe-based interface, an updated browser, stock keyboard and screen sharing.

Avigael Sampson, a second-year communications student at WLU, was one of the first members of the public to get her hands on the new Z10.

She had won a Twitter contest hosted by BlackBerry, where she was awarded access to the Toronto launch party and received a free phone before it was available to the public.

“Basically you had to tweet what feature you were looking forward to the most,” Sampson explained.

“I sent in four entries and then got a text from BlackBerry and I knew right then.”

The Toronto launch offered an exclusive preview of the phone where attendees could get a first glance at the new Z10.

“There was an entire room with sample BlackBerries,” she explained.

“You could go and just check it out, play on it, look at the features and learn new stuff.”

“I am thrilled with the advancements that have been made.”

—Karen Scian, Waterloo city councillor

Sampson added that the new software makes a large difference with the phone.

“It’s like a few steps ahead,” Sampson said. “ Literally a new software, new platform, new technologies.”

For now, the sales of the Z10 are still a bit rocky. Although the phone has been quite popular in the U.K and some parts of Canada, the stock market is showing fluctuation.

On Feb. 11, BlackBerry’s stock dropped five per cent after The Home Depot announced they were switching their executive employees to iPhones.

The future may be ambiguous for the revamped BlackBerry, but hopes are still soaring high in the community.

Optimistic, Scian shared her final thoughts on the BlackBerry initiative.

“I think it’s a great product and they have done amazing things”, she said. “The people at BlackBerry have gone the extra mile … and it’s here to make this company competitive.”

K-W’s Chinese New Year KYLIE CONNER STAFF WRITER

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“It’s fun. It’s lots of work,” said Stephanie Hong, communication and public relation coordinator for the Fo Guang Shan Temple.

On Feb.9 the newly established Fo Guang Shan Buddha’s Light Temple hosted events throughout the day to celebrate traditional Chinese New Year for the first time with the local Chinese community. The events led up to midnight, when the calendar entered the year of the snake.

Over the years the people affiliated with the Fo Guang Shan Buddha’s Light Temple have had to travel all the way to the temple in Mississauga to practice their spiritual rituals and take part in the Chinese New Year’s festivities.

Kim, a 14-year-old volunteer who did not give her last name, recalled that she had been attending the Fo Guang Shan temple in Mississauga since she was a little girl. “Now this centre opened up and it’s closer to Guelph where I live, so it’s easier to come here and meet new people,” she said.

The New Year’s celebrations differ greatly from how it is in China to Waterloo. In places like Hong Kong people receive vacation time during the Chinese New Year, but this doesn’t happen in western culture.

The few days when everyone gathers together are extremely important to the people involved.

“I had that kind of home feeling.

It was so happy, but when I was in Hong Kong I didn’t get that feeling,” Hong recollected.

“Chinese New Year is very important. Just like the Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years to

HEATHER DAVIDSON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Chinese New Year festivities took place at a Kitchener temple.

westerners,” explained Venerable Jue Qian of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple of Greater Toronto.

“The events that we have for these two days [are] this main shrine here where people can come to do the offering of the incense. They can offer the fruits, flowers and they can pick the wishing words to see what message the Buddhist gave to them.”

After the New Year’s Eve events are concluded the New Years Day maintains its own traditions. At the temple in Kitchener, visitors chanted during the morning and burned incense, which is the most significant tradition held in the Fo Guang Shan temple. Qian said that, “People squeeze in to make their first

offering.”

Another tradition on New Year’s Day is for people to gather with their families and eat a vegetarian meal together. It is vegetarian because it is believed that abstaining from meat will show compassion and welcome the New Year properly.

When discussing how the temple is handling their first year of hosting such an important event Hong said, “I enjoy it. In the past few days I’ve been working 12 to 14 hour days.

Last night I was talking to another volunteer and said ‘you know what, I don’t feel tired. I don’t know why.

Perhaps [it’s] that kind of faith or maybe the happiness. I am so energetic; I don’t want to go home.”

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

LOCAL

• 7

Investing in the ‘cutting edge’ UW Quantum-Nano Centre purchases GEN10, state of the art technology KATELYN CULLUM LEAD REPORTER

KATE TURNER FILE PHOTO

Weiler ran in the last provincial election as the Conservative candidate and came in second place.

Weiler announces early ALANNA FAIREY LEAD REPORTER

Kitchener Waterloo’s Progressive Conservative (PC) Party of Ontario candidate, Tracey Weiler, announced that she would be running in the next provincial election.

However, the possibility of an election remains to be announced.

Weiler, who is currently selfemployed with her own consulting business, lost the K-W byelection in Sept. 2012 to NDP MPP Catherine Fife.

Coming in second place, there was an approximate 3, 700 difference in votes between Fife and Weiler.

Despite this loss, Weiler decided to look ahead and declared that she will be representing the Conservatives in the next provincial election.

“I’ve decided that I am not somebody who gives up. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done,” Weiler said.

“Locally and provincially, our province is not doing very well and we need to start creating jobs for

young people, we need to focus on the economy so we can invest in healthcare and education like we should be doing and for that I decided that I wasn’t ready to give up.”

Her decision to prematurely announce her candidacy is viewed

by Weiler as an opportunity for her to familiarize herself with the locals before an election date is determined.

“When you know what you want to do, you don’t need to wait. For me, I get a chance to listen to people, I get a chance to work in the community in that capacity as a PC candidate,” Weiler explained.

“When an election is called, it’s a pretty quick period of time. And it’s really hard to get the time that you need to hear and listen from the people that are around you. For me, this is a huge opportunity.”

The key issues that are addressed in the PC platform are very heavily focused on creating jobs and the economy and dealing with unemployment.

A key area that the platform will also focus on is the issue of mental

health, which Weiler is a personal advocate for.

The legislature will resume on Feb. 19 and Weiler confirmed that the Conservatives would be there to ask a series of questions to newly instated Premier Kathleen Wynne regarding an upcoming election and decisions that will be made on that.

In the meantime, Weiler is taking her experiences from the byelection and using it to help her formulate an ideal platform if an election is called. When that time comes, Weiler believes that she will be prepared.

“The byelection assured me that I was in the right place, doing the right thing and trying to be honoured with the opportunity to represent this community,” Weiler said.

“I’m a mom with two young kids, so I face the same challenges that many families do so I think that I have a good understanding of those challenges that families face on a daily basis. I think all of that put together really does make me a good candidate to represent KitchenerWaterloo in the future.”

The new Quantum-Nano Centre at the University of Waterloo has begun to fill its centre with the “machines of tomorrow.”

UW has purchased the GEN10 Molecular Beam Epitaxy system from Veeco Instruments Inc., a company that develops process equipment solutions for LED, solar, data storage and other advanced manufacturers.

The system will be installed in July and requires a couple months of preparation until it will be in full commission.

The GEN10 system is an economical, state of the art system that beat out several other contending venders to reside in the Canadian hub of technology at the University of Waterloo.

“Veeco had won the competition,” expressed Zbigniew Washilewski, a professor at the University of Waterloo, as well as the Endowed Technology Chair at the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.

Washilewski explained that they explored many venders with the particular material system needed, but Veeco offers “some of the world’s best systems,” so the GEN10 system was the appropriate choice.

The system will establish an epitaxial facility, which is of crucial importance to the Quantum-Nano centre. The GEN10 system is a cluster MBE system that permits at most three configurable, materialspecific growth modules that will enable high system utilization, while allowing numerous researchers to

perform unattended calibrations and growths in unison.

“It’s quite an investment and we hope to build quite a few cuttingedge programs,” Washilewski stated.

This new system will be the first one in the recently opened Quantum-Nano Centre and will be accessed by graduates and researchers.

Washilewski explained that it is not a training kind of machine and therefore won’t be available to undergraduate students.

The hope with the installation of this system will be to attract and retain first-class researchers, graduate students and collaborators, and greatly accelerate the progress of nanotechnology, as well as the field of quantum devices and quantum information.

This system will contribute to the research roadmap of the university and fuel various student and research aspirations.

Washilewski is an expert in this kind of technology,and is of vital importance to this establishment.

He has worked with Veeco Instruments in a previous job on a research council in Ottawa and therefore is familiar with the equipment.

The funds for this system will be provided by the Canadian Foundation of Innovation (CFI), which set up a leading edge fund in 2006 for this system grant. The first phase of this project is estimated to cost $1.4 million.

The GEN10 system is aimed to promote the importance of innovative Quantum-Nano research and will aid students, collaborators and researchers in their research.

8 •

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

NATIONAL

National Editor Lindsay Purchase lpurchase@thecord.ca

PCs aim for education overhaul —cover

An inflated number of unemployed graduates and struggling job returns on degrees are factors.

“The key will be incenting excellence, harnessing market forces, encouraging specialization and being honest,” stated the paper in its introduction. “We cannot ignore the fact that increasingly, university students end up in colleges after accumulating significant student debt. We need a culture shift in our system.”

The paper calls for the adoption of three-year applied college degrees so some students seek college education as opposed to university once they complete high school. It claims that these degrees will aid the technology, construction and other trades industries.

Since its release, the paper has received some criticism from student groups, such as the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA).

“Our initial thoughts are that there are a couple of things in there that we also have concerns with,” explained Rylan Kinnon, the executive director at OUSA. “But we also have some concerns with some of the recommendations in the paper and some of the issues that it brings up as well.”

Kinnon noted that the most concerning element of the paper was the emphasis on linking financial assistance to grades.

Essentially, if a student has better grades they will receive better returns on loans.

The focus of education, according to the paper, should be on “merit” when it comes to student financial aid.

“We also have some concerns with some of the recommendations in the paper.”

—Rylan Kinnon, executive director at OUSA

PHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

MPP Rob Leone is the training, colleges and universities critic.

“If you’re saying to these students, ‘Well, your academic performance is poor so you’re going to have less financial assistance,’ the end result may be that these students have to work even longer hours and their academic performance may suffer even more,” said Kinnon.

The paper also recommends the removal of the 30 per cent tuition grant that was released last April,

if the PCs were to be elected into power.

Another suggestion from the paper is to pose higher tuition fees for “elite programs” and focusing primarily on teaching as opposed to research for university professors.

The recommendation stated, “Universities should embrace teaching-only faculty as a means of

improving learning quality and the student experience.”

“We like the emphasis on improving the quality of teaching,” Kinnon said.

He added, however, that OUSA’s recommendation is just increasing teaching time instead of removing the research component of university teaching.

Furthermore, funding for universities, according to the paper, would be determined by the number of jobs a particular university’s graduates get.

The PCs also want student unions and associations to be held accountable and to allow students the ability to opt out of their fees on the basis of political advocacy.

“We would be hesitant to recommend the government to fund institutions based on graduate labour market outcomes,” added Kinnon.

Ontario legislature is expected to return on Feb. 19. Leone was unavailable for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Canada in brief Wynne unveils new cabinet

Kathleen Wynne was officially sworn in as Ontario’s new premier on Monday and subsequently released her 27 member cabinet.

This is an increase of five cabinet ministers from the McGuinty government.

Among the change in ministers is the instatement of Brad Duguid, the MPP for Scarborough Centre, as minister of training, colleges and universities. He replaces Kitchner-Centre MPP John Milloy, who will remain as government house leader.

Many of the new appointees are considered rookies, with nine never having held positions as cabinet ministers prior to this. Wynne’s first cabinet meeting is set to take place on Feb. 13.

Anti-gay remarks prompt government response

A humanitarian organization funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was found to be making anti-gay statements on its website.

The organization, called Christian Crossroads Communication Inc., is working to improve water and sanitation access in Uganda. The web page referred to homosexuality and transvestism as perversions.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has since denounced the statements. The organization is receiving $544, 813 over a three year period from CIDA and has been funded since 1999. The government is currently reviewing its funding.

–Compiled by Lindsay Purchase

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• 9

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

CLASSIFIEDS DearLIFE Dear Life is your opportunity to write a letter to your life, allowing you to vent your anger with life’s little frustrations in a completely public forum.

All submissions to Dear Life are anonymous, should be no longer than 100 words and must be addressed to your life.

Submissions can be sent to dearlife@ thecord.ca no later than Monday at noon each week.

Advertising Manager Angela Endicott angela.taylor@wlusp.com

Dear Life, Today the Starbucks line was faster than the Hub line.

Sincerely, I’d much rather wait for coffee than photocopies

Dear Life, I’m starting to believe that PhD actually stand for “Pretty Huge Dick”.

Sincerely, Your arrogance is not welcomed here

Dear Life, If I hear the “Gangnam Style” song one more time in the Concourse, I may have to bust a — move and kill myself at the same time.

Sincerely, The girl who is about to embarrass herself infront of at least 100 people

Dear Life, To the lovely ladies of Laurier: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! It honestly baffles me how some girls are incapable of keeping the toilet seats clean in the washrooms. And even if you are afraid of germs and decide to use the old hover method … at least have the courtesy and

respect to the rest of the university to clean up before you leave. Come on ladies, if you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be sweet and wipe the seat, it’s not rocket science here, we all have to use those washrooms!

Sincerely, Thoroughly Disgusted Dear Life, Foonerisms aren’t spunny anymore.

Stop using them nad auseum.

Sincerely, Mob Barley Dear Life, My roommate has loud sex on purpose to annoy me. May 1 cannot come soon enough.

Sincerely, Seriously, grow up Dear Life, New rule for the seventh floor of the library: If you are too noisy, other patrons have the right to fart at your desk.

Sincerely, Shut up or else Dear Life, Wanting to give a cheesy shoutout to my super smart and pretty girlfriend. Happy Valentines day Googlie Bear!

Sincerely, Mike Wazowski Dear Life, It’s really difficult to take pictures of dancing lions when everybody is crowding in front of you. Please make the crowd disperse so we might take excellent photos and enjoy coffee and cheesecake together sooner.

Sincerely,

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312.

Sincerely, Free Starbucks to the winner Dear Life, My faith in humanity has been restored as Friday’s snow storm saw dozens upon DOZENS of Waterloo civilians to lend a helping hand!

I saw tons of people help push stranded cars along their way, people assisting the elderly and neighbours shovelling each other’s drive ways. Basically, big shout out to everyone!

Sincerely, Spread love, not snow Dear Life, This dude my roommate is bangin’ is ALWAYS over. He’s like some sort of terrible houseguest.

Sincerely, Like Sinbad Dear Life, If a million people do it, it’s not funny anymore. Seriously, you’re not fucking original, or clever, or anything.

Sincerely, Am I talking about this “Harlem Shake stuff”? Am I?

10 •

In Depth Editor

•

Vacant

•

IN DE

editor@thecord.ca

IS THERE ENOUGH RO

Cord Community Edition Editor-in-Chief HG Watson investigates how s

King Street and University Avenue, based on traffic alone, is the most dynamic crossroad in Waterloo Region.

An average of more than 40,000 cars, busses, pedestrians and cyclists make their way through the intersection on a daily basis.

The number seven and iXpress busses, amongst other routes, pass through frequently as they ferry students and residents from one end of the city to another.

Along University Ave., you’ll find one of the region’s major bike lanes, taking cyclists west towards the Iron Horse trail, the main local artery for riders. It may not be the busiest place in the city, but it’s where you’ll find every form of transportation available.

While other municipalities squabble about the best options for transit, Waterloo has committed to an aggressive plan that includes putting Light Rail Transit on our streets by 2017.

The way we get around is changing quickly.

Waterloo Region likes to boast that it’s attracting a new population of professionals who run the start-ups and incubators that get us noticed by The New York Times, amongst others.

Are these people changing how people move around the region?

It seems in many ways that Waterloo is a car city. Some estimate that over 80 per cent of residents are still consistently using their car to commute.

But a small but increasingly vocal group of people are championing mass transit, cycling and walking as alternatives for our growing city. One of the key issues for them is prevening accidents that have become too commonplace.

Duncan Clemens is the executive director of TriTAG, a citizen advocacy group for alternative forms of transportation in the region. He says that when it comes to placing the blame on someone, we’ve become used to the idea that a pedestrian or cyclist could be hit and might be at fault.

“Cycling in and of itself is not inherently dangerous activity,” said Clemens. “It’s dangerous because people and infrastructure make it dangerous. The way roads are designed, the

speed of vehicles that are surrounding it; that’s the only reason it’s dangerous.”

Clemens, who does continue cycling during the winter, knows that people believe that it’s too risky to be on the road. With the right maintenance he thinks it would still be safe for anyone to go biking at any time of year.

Still, he admits that hopping on his bike in Waterloo takes a certain amount of intestinal fortitude. “It’s the same risk-taking attitude people take towards extreme sports.”

But there’s little chance a less confident biker would feel at home on the roads.

Cycling and walking are only two parts of the transit puzzle. The other is mass transit.

Mike Boos is also an advocate with TriTAG. He’s done his own statistical analysis on the number of times GRT busses service certain areas. Some parts of Cambridge and south Waterloo get almost no service on Sundays.

“It’s difficult to justify that transit market when you have a system where if you’re living in that part of town, nine times out of ten you own a car,” he said.

“You’re not going to get a revenue return from the ridership.“ For Clemens, transit users and drivers can be divided by social class.

“Take a look at the ridership on transit now,” he said. “It’s primarily low income and students; people that don’t have a choice. They take transit because they have to take transit.“ Clemens wants people to shift to thinking that they don’t have to drive, even if they can.

“Trying to achieve that in smaller municipalities is key.”

While services like GRT or the Region may rationalize a lack of bus service or crosswalks with a lack of demand, Boos points out that sometimes you simply have to create it.

“People don’t walk there now because it’s simply dangerous,” he said, referring to Weber and Wilhelm Streets, where Waterloo city council recently voted to install a crossing signal.

“Traffic [analysts] look at their models and say its not warranted because we don’t have the pedestrians here. [But] you don’t have the pedestrians here because the models have led

you to build these roads in such a way that pedestrians don’t go there.”

Boos points to the King St. revitalization as an example where pedestrian traffic increased due to a redesign of the area.

The Region is aware of the demand for more options. Bob Henderson, manager of transportation engineering for the Region, is in charge of planning some of these changes. The Region seriously looks at intersections where a high amount of collisions occur and try to make the intersections better.

“For example, Ottawa and Homer Watson was a regular high ranking intersection in the region,” Henderson said. “So a project team was put together to review those collisions in detail and ultimately recommended a roundabout to improve collision history and reduce injuries.”

The roundabout, still in the design stages, will tentatively be in place by 2015.

However, the city does not publicize which intersections are the worst for pedestrian or cyclist injuries.

The annual collision reports do account for how many personal injuries take place at each intersection. Where the number is high, Henderson said, the Region looks at the collisions on a case-by-case basis and makes recommendations.When a cyclist or pedestrian is struck, it’s hard not to wade into the political ramifications of their injury.

In Toronto, where cycling is hot bed issue, ghost bikes sprang up to remember those cyclists killed on Toronto streets. Deaths of both pedestrians and cyclists triggered coroners inquests released in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Both inquests recommended that municipalities adopt a “complete streets” approach; widened sidewalks, pedestrian countdowns, bike lane networks and separated lanes for cyclists.

Most telling: both inquests determined that a vast majority of cycling and pedestrian deaths are preventable.

Henderson is aware of these recommendations.

“We’re putting together a cycling network for a number of reasons,” he said. “One to improve safety for cyclists, but also to encourage

mode shift — getting people out of their car and onto their bike to get to work or wherever they’re going.” The plan has the backing of regional council.

The Region of Waterloo is also in the middle of a serious study to encourage alternative forms of transportation.

Walk Cycle Waterloo submitted the first draft of the Active Transit Master Plan last November. Although it still awaits final approval, the plan advocates for better access to transit all around. This, coupled with plans for the LRT, may provide the answer to the transit woes faced by the region.

But for people wanting to make the switch away from cars now, they may be put off by systems that are overburdened.

“That can limit people from making that choice if they have an unpleasant experience,” said Boos of the crowded GRT. “From what I’ve read, the main cause of people trying to make the choice and then rejecting it is unreliability.”

These discussions have extremely serious implications, especially if you’re amongst the people commuting without a car.

Take King and University. It’s the place in Waterloo you’re the most likely to get hit if your primary mode of transportation is your own two feet. Over the last five years, 28 collisions causing injury took place at King and University. Of those, at least nine involved pedestrians.

Every year or so, it seems another story pops up about a major accident at that intersection.

In 2011, six pedestrians were struck after two cars collided as one made a left turn. At the time, one of the witnesses, Richard Gonzales, called the accident “pure negligence.”

Just a few months prior, another pedestrian was struck at the same intersection and sent to hospital with critical injuries.

When 52-year-old Barrie Conrod was hit by an SUV while biking on a rural road outside of Waterloo last May, 600 cyclists — including his wife who was with him when he was struck — turned out for a memorial ride in his honour.

They too placed a ghost bike at the spot where he passed, a reminder that pedestrian and cyclist is ever more important.

Left: the intersections with the highest number of overall collisions (the bigger the car, the more collisions). Right: the intersections with the highest number of collisions involving pedestrians. King and University ranks No. 1 in pedestrian collisions and No. 6 overall. For more detailed data visit thecord.ca.

EPTH

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013 • 11

OOM FOR EVERYONE?

safe it is for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists to share the road in Waterloo

LENA YANG GRAPHICS ARTIST

12 •

Life

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEbruArY 13, 2013 Life Editor Carly basch cbasch@thecord.ca

Old Hollywood and dead chilvary Why Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and Cary Grant are better than any modern man devon butler opiNioN EDitor

On Friday nights I become a cliché.

Sipping pinot grigio and lustfully losing myself in Jimmy Stewart’s endearing stammer, Cary Grant’s suave compliments and Gene Kelly’s sensual dance moves.

But the end result is always the same: the credits roll as I let out a heavy sigh and think, why can’t real men be like this?

Ironically, at that very moment I’m sure most men are not wondering what happened to the chivalric code but are now benefiting from its demise by going to clubs and using pick-up lines that would make Clark Gable face palm in his grave.

Yes, this subject has been beat to death. Chivalry is dead and men suck. But before we go blaming science or men’s “innate” visual nature that apparently makes them need to visit strip clubs and watch pornography, I have to question the merits of this macho-man image and the representations of masculinity that are resisting a much needed transformation.

In a world that has become overrun by concerns of femininity and the representation of women in the media, the concern for men’s selfesteem has been overlooked.

The naturalized standards of masculinity depicted in contemporary movies often sends the message that if you aren’t bedding

ali urosevic grAphiCS ArtiSt

attractive women every night and ignoring their phone calls all day, you’re not a real man. It’s better to be a cold sociopath than show any inkling of true emotion.

It’s difficult to understand how cinema has so drastically shifted from depicting men who seek marriage and finding “the one” to a stream of films about friends with benefits.

Similarly, modern day chick flicks like Made of Honour show promiscuous men choosing to settle down

only after they’ve completed their womanizing phase.

Are we really supposed to be happy that Barney Stinson is finally getting married after years of treating women so disgustingly?

Even Humphrey Bogart, who rarely gets a happy ending in his films, makes selfless choices for the benefits of the women he loves, proving that men of old Hollywood are not only perfectly romantic but treat women with respect.

I always thought that getting into

a serious relationship would make me less bitter about the modern day man and to some extent it did.

Yet, I still found myself struggling when my boyfriend didn’t respond to things the way I wanted or eloquently expressed his love like Katherine Hepburn’s various suitors in The Philadelphia Story.

While there is something inexplicably alluring about the elegance of a black and white love affair it sets a trap for imaginative girls who tend to romanticize what love should be.

As Rosie O’Donell’s character in Sleepless in Seattle so profoundly states: “You don’t want to be in love, you want to be in love in a movie.”

So while you don’t need to lower your standards — in fact some girls need to do the opposite — at some point you have to become more realistic about how men express their emotions. So today’s young girls can go ahead and obsess over Ryan Gosling or Reynolds.

I will be glued to TCM hoping someday soon both men and women will learn to appreciate the artful finesse of wooing.

Maybe men will never wear cravats or express their love with the sophistication of Cary Grant but if you can find somebody who will dress up as Jimmy Stewart for Halloween and treat you like his leading lady, he’s probably worth giving a chance.

After all, there is nothing better than the real thing.

Singles awareness ally bongard StAFF WritEr

kate turner photogrAphY mANAgEr

What is love? michael porfirio StAFF WritEr

The weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day deserve more credit than they get.

Sure it’s responsible for uncomfortable anticipation, anxiety and making you realize the loneliness that dwells inside you but don’t let all that smog prevent you from seeing the true beauty.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, we are forced to stop and analyze the love that exists in our lives and more importantly, be thankful for it. Although this is a warm thought, there is still something missing.

Through my research of Facebook statuses and tweets, the problem is clear: “love sucks.” It isn’t fair that we can generate so much stress over a word no one seems to fully understand.

As of now, the only answer we have to the question “what is love” is unfortunately, “baby don’t hurt me!”

Let’s go back to Grade 10 science class and instead of dissecting a frog, we are going to dissect love.

The definition of love, coming from the Oxford Dictionary is “an intense feeling of deep affection.”

Right away there’s a roadblock: I have an intense deep affection for chocolate cupcakes, but do I love them? No. Would I cry over them? No. Would I have sex with them?

That’s not important.

Now let’s specify that love can only be felt for a living being, usually humans but in some cases animals.

Perhaps this task will be easier if we

clarify some of the things we know love isn’t.

For example, we know love is not restricted to sexual chemistry because we love our friends and families. We know love isn’t exclusively associated with intelligence because Snooki is engaged. We also know that love does not solely depend on beauty (once again, Snooki is engaged).

But are we any closer to knowing the true meaning of the word “love”?

Most of the time we have this mysterious feeling pulsing within us, so vividly present and yet we consciously avoid explaining it to ourselves, let alone others.

Instead, we buy each other clothes, chocolates and fancy necklaces. We would rather spend $200 on a gift than even begin to try and articulate our affections.

We throw around the word “love” when we don’t mean it like it is a stuffed animal. Yet the second it should be appropriately used the word love becomes fragile. Perhaps we delude ourselves in believing love exists to maintain hope.

Regardless, there are certain emotions we know are real. Love may not exist but feeling lost and broken when you’re not with someone does.

Losing the ability to concentrate in the presence of someone else does exist. Doing absolutely anything in your power to ensure another person’s happiness does exists.

If we can’t classify these feelings under “love”, I urge you to find a more appropriate word.

Let’s call it as it is, ladies. Is Valentine’s Day a day full of engaging in the showering of flowers, gifts, romantic cards and chocolate delicacies? Or is it just another day to remind us that yes, we are single.

Well, of course. It’s what I acknowledge as “Single Awareness Day.” A day where the feeling of loneliness consumes our minds as we watch what seems to be the entire general population of couples engage in romantic gestures while gorging on chocolates and sweets.

It’s a day where you feel like the only single woman on the planet Earth without anyone to celebrate this day with.

But what is a girl with the blues to do on such a day that dedicates itself to romance that singles are excluded from? Shoot ourselves with cupid’s arrow? Or buy all the candy and chocolates that go on sale afterwards? Perhaps both?

But this so-called exclusion that many singles feel doesn’t have to happen on this day. Let’s look at the positive aspects to it. You could get together with a group of your single friends and buy small gifts and

treats for one another. This provides you with the opportunity to engage in some of the practices that couples do on this day minus the relationship part.

Reading magazines and watching movies with the hottest celebrities can and will distract you from what is going on during this day. Most importantly, think of all the money you are saving on this day with not having to purchase some cheesy gift for your significant other. Spend it on yourself from sweets to clothing, or even pampering.

If that doesn’t do it for you, go out. Get the girls together, take out a fresh bottle of wine and hit up the bar scene for a night of dancing, laughter and moments you will never forget.

But above all, it is critical to remember: do not — I repeat, do not — listen to the saddest song ever invented in the history of depressing songs on Valentine’s Day. This is not a day for tears, but rather happiness because our wallets don’t take a beating like other’s do.

We don’t need a significant other to enjoy this day. Celebrate your singlehood and enjoy it while it lasts.

lizzy cook grAphiCS ArtiSt

matt weir grAphiCS ArtiSt

The Moment erin sheehan CorD LiFE

As my best friend and I were gabbing over coffee, talking about her new relationship, she asked me how my dating life was going. I responded by saying that my last date undid his pants in the middle of the bar, so it was just peachy.

She then asked me about a guy from a few months ago. I immiedately started talking, in a spastic manner about the “bowtie man”: the man who made me feel what Carrie Bradshaw called the Za-Za-Zou. I stopped myself because I felt annoying as I did not know him that long. I felt like that until the moment my friend took my hand and said that time doesn’t define a relationship.

She was right because in just one moment, one person can change your life.

In Les Miserables, Marius sings “How strange/ This feeling that life has begun/ This change,/ Can people fall in love so fast?”.

When I first saw the bowtie man in a bar amongst all the dirt and drunk people who could not dance to the blasting dubstep I felt that extraordinary feeling and asked myself: Can you feel this way about someone in a second?

However, let me make something clear, this was not love. I mean this is not Les Miserables, or Romeo and Juliet or Blossom.

As Mindy Kaling once said, “I do not believe in first sight, but I believe in crush at first sight”.

What happened between the bowtie man and myself was a momentary connection; a fleeting instant of passion and understanding that would only last two weeks, but would change my life. This is because he set me free.

Now when I think of him I am not mad or sad. Rather, I am calm, which is how he had made me feel during the time I knew him.

It was miraculous in that when he was there I was confident and comfortable with both him and myself because I knew that, in that moment, I was where I was meant to be. It was something I had never felt before, which made me uneasy, but it is something I enjoyed.

With the Za-Za-Zou you only remember the feeling. Like Carrie Bradshaw when she met Burger, when I think of the bow tie man I cannot see his distinct features.

Even though he did not know my last name, he knew more about me than even my friends. These moments changed my life because he undid me, not only physically, but also emotionally and mentally.

Through this experience I have also come to know that this moment will happen again.

Do not fear about moving on, readers, because there will be another moment where you will say: “This is it.”

Sometimes it won’t be it for a long time, but someday, with someone, that moment will turn into many.

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, fEbruArY 13, 2013

life

• 13

Gifts to avoid for Valentine’s Picking out gifts will always be difficult but these gifts are the top ones to avoid vanessa tharen StAff WritEr

When it comes to picking out a gift, most girls squeal at the idea of receiving jewellery, chocolates or an adorable stuffed animal. However with boys, it’s hard to draw the line between “cute” and lame.

Although I have justified Valentine’s Day as a “girl’s holiday” because of the Hallmark marketing scheme, it is blatantly rude to expect an amazing gift without giving something remotely thoughtful back.

Here are a few don’ts when it comes to Valentine’s Day gifts for your boyfriend.

The Teddy Bear

If you’re one of those people that thinks your boyfriend is truly going to get any actual enjoyment out of a stuffed bear well then maybe there’s no hope for you.

Realistically they’re probably going to smile, thank you and tuck it away somewhere where none of their friends or roommates can call them out for owning such a thing.

Instead of a useless bear, consider getting your boyfriend a pillow or blanket with their favourite sports team’s logo on it. This is something that they won’t be embarrassed to keep on their bed and will definitely score you some points for knowing what sports team they’re interested in.

The Picture Frame

Another gift to avoid is the classic framed picture. Framing a picture of the two of you making out because you thought that this is cute

and romantic will backfire. If your boyfriend felt like staring at pictures of you he’d probably creep you on Facebook.

A gift that’s more practical and delicious are edible arrangements: the boy-friendly version of flowers.

These arrangements can get pretty costly depending on the type you chose so if it’s not in your budget make your own.

Get a red basket from the dollar store and some red plastic bags and fill them with candy/chocolate/chips and all your boyfriend’s favourite snacks.

Lingerie

Ah yes, the most thoughtless and selfish present you really can go for.

Not only does this say “I bought you a present but it’s clearly a present for myself,” but it’s tacky and overdone.

Guys aren’t going to be stoked that you spent $80 at Victoria’s Secret on a lace bra that they’re realistically going to see for about 2.5 seconds.

If you’re set on getting your boyfriend underwear then maybe it’s best to get him underwear he can actually wear.

Fun heart-printed boxers are usually a hit for two reasons: everyone can use more underwear, and no one but you can see them; therefore he won’t be embarrassed to wear them if he doesn’t like them.

Basically your boyfriend doesn’t really care all that much what you get him for Valentine’s Day. But if you’re going to spend your money on something other than alcohol for yourself then it might as well be something your boyfriend is actually going to like or get use out of.

cristina rucchetta lEAD photogrAphEr

It’s time to think forward

Planning your next steps for the future is easier than you think autumn smith corD lifE

Too often in life we are faced with times of disappointment. This can be the result of a goal that wasn’t accomplished or a plan that didn’t work out in your favour.

It’s moments like these where it is all too easy to feel defeated and want to give up. But there’s nothing more important than to keep your head up and look forward.

In the famous words of Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist, “When you have a personal journey, the whole world conspires to help you reach that goal.”

As cliché as it sounds, everything does happen for a reason.

While we may not understand why our plan didn’t succeed or all the hard work we put into something didn’t pay off, there is a reason for it.

As university students, we are

encouraged to always think about our future in order to establish who we are and what we do today.

While it’s easier said than done, a simple way to start is to explore your interests and dedicating yourself to discovering how to maximize these.

Whether that means joining a club on campus or exploring your options at the Career Centre, it can mark a significant step in determining where you want to be.

Forward thinking is another key factor in mastering the art of healthy active living.

Exercising on a daily basis may not make us feel great in the moment; the benefits will be evident in the long term. You slowly start to feel more energized or find yourself reaching your goal while establishing a good workout schedule.

In the same light, making the effort to “eat healthy” can be a vague goal but is easily accomplished with

a lot of dedication. This involves some serious forward thinking in order to establish a pattern.

While some of our young bodies don’t feel the effects of the McDonald’s you ate last week or the sweets and junk food you have every week, it will catch up to you.

Thinking forward may be a bit daunting but it can help us get through some pretty tough times.

How else are you going to be able to see the silver lining?

Autumn Smith runs her own radio show, The Healthy Hawk on Radio Laurier. A show dedicated to promoting quality of life among the Laurier community.

It airs every Monday at 7:00 p.m. where she discusses ways to eat healthy on a student budget, fun and easy ways to fit exercise into the student schedule, tips concerning academics and studying and matters concerning personal well-being and relationships.

Plan for it.

As a potential employer, I would be extremely interested in candidates who have a Loyalist post-graduate certificate in Fundraising and development. Practical experience and exposure to the latest best practices is a definite edge over the competition.

There is a real void of qualified candidates who truly understand the complexities of fundraising—Loyalist’s graduates will be well served and better positioned for the competitive job market.

Rhonda Cunningham Fellow of Association of Healthcare Philanthropy (FAHP) Executive Director of Northumberland Hills Hospital Foundation

What’s your plan?

For information, contact Professor Kerry Ramsay, kramsay@loyalistc.on.ca 1-888-LOYALIST ext. 2127 • TTY: (613) 962-0633 Learn about additional Loyalist post-graduate opportunities—visit loyalistcollege.com/postgrad

great careers don’t just happen— they’re planned.

BeLLevILLe, ON

LoyaList my college • my future

thecord.ca

14 •

ARTS

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013 Arts Editor Cristina Almudevar calmudevar@thecord.ca

O S C A R

preview

The Cord Arts staff got together and reviewed all nine Best Picture nominatees so you don’t even have to see them

STEPH TRUONG

WADE THOMPSON

WADE THOMPSON

ALI UROSEVIC

The French-foreign film Amour, written and directed by Michael Haneke tells the tale of two retired music teachers, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant)and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva).

The couple, who are in their 80s, start out the film with passion and an enduring love only to be reduced to the inevitable loneliness of suffering and loss by the end.

When Anne suffers a stroke, Georges takes it upon himself to care for her with only a part-time nurse. He makes her a promise never to take her back to the hospital and consequently forces his patience and tolerance to be severely tested.

Amour is about much more than love as it explores themes of euthanasia, loss, illness and family. While the pace can be slow-moving and mundane, the realistic depiction of the daily routine necessary in caring for an ill relative creates an emotionally tragic reaction.

The beauty of Amour is its rejection of its own cinematic form in which the setting never extends beyond the couple’s apartment and there is no soundtrack or musical accompaniment to foreshadow dramatic events. The lack of traditional movie elements contribute to its realness and the ever-present silence artfully functions as a metaphor for the lonely life Georges is forced to live.

With its vivid realness and superb acting it is no wonder Amour is nominated for five Academy Awards.

The only negative for me was the onslaught of depression which left me to question, what is the point of life?

Argo has quickly become the film to beat this year, and it doesn’t look like it will be slowing down in the final stretch either.

Based on real events, the movie is about a covert CIA operative that attempted to evacuate a group of American diplomatic personnel from revolutionary Iran in 1980.

Director/actor Ben Affleck demonstrates that his comeback in the last few years has been no fluke. His direction is solid, moving seamlessly between the light heartedness of the Hollywood sections of the story (the ultimate plan to get the Americans out is to create a fake movie, filmed on location) and the intensity of the Iranian protests.

His supporting cast of character actors puts the film over the top.

While Alan Arkin picked up the only Best Supporting Actor nod this year, his cohort, John Goodman, could just as easily filled his place. The two work so well together and create a one-two punch that really brings the film off the level of your typical historical thriller.

There are aspects of the movie that are slightly bothersome though.

The film’s prologue and epilogue seem tacked on, and do not fit with the tone of the rest of the film. I also would have liked to have seen more screen time for Kyle Chandler and Chris Messina, which makes the bookends of the film even more frustrating.

Overall though, Argo is quite an entertaining picture. It’s not perfect by any means, and I’m not sure it’s as good as Affleck’s directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, but it’s well worth watching. It’s just a damn fine story to be told.

Directed by Benh Zeitlin, this film is one of the most imaginative and spectacular of the year.

Set in a fictional Louisiana bayou that ia cut-off from the rest of the world by a levee, this community nicknamed “The Bathtub” is at risk of flooding from melting polar ice caps and prehistoric creatures called “Aurochs.”

The story is focused around young Hushpuppy and her father Wink, as they endure powerful storms and survive the flooding of their home.

Quvenzhané Wallis, who plays Hushpuppy does a phenomenal job of touching our hearts with this innocent and wonderful combination of fortitude and optimism.

The audience would hardly recognize that this is her first feature film, as she demonstrates skill and wisdom beyond her years.

This is also a first feature for director Zeitlin. He made the film beautiful and fantastical, but also realistic with various disasters.

The narration from Wallis’ Hushpuppy, harkens back to past young narrators such as Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. This film is for anyone who really enjoys a sense of imagination, it’s definitely worth a viewing this Oscar season.

As for its many nominations in this year’s award ceremonies, though it may not be a top contender in its categories such as Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, it sure wins your heart.

Quentin Tarantino is back on the Oscar scene with his second Best Picture nomination in a row for Django Unchained.

Christoph Waltz brings his sweet accent and acting brilliance to the screen once again, but this time as a good guy. Waltz plays Dr. King Schultz who frees Django (Jamie Foxx) from slavery, promising to help him seek revenge on the man that keeps his wife as a slave. Schultz helps Django transition from chained-up slave to the powerful hero of the story.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays the villainous Calvin Candie, plantation owner and overall horrible human being, and is absolutely incredible in this role.

At the climax of the film Candie smacks his hand on a table in anger, shattering a glass and cutting his hand, and continues on with the scene without flinching. He is the definition of a character you hate, but whose performance is so amazing you have to love him.

The soundtrack is all over the place, albeit, in a good way. The film is a hybrid of genres so it would only make sense for the soundtrack to be the same. Borrowing from rap, soul, folk and classic western soundtracks, Django’s music works perfectly with the film and is memorable to say the least.

While certainly not one of Tarantino’s best films, Django Unchained is a refreshing revival to the Western genre while still offering us something new. With hilarious dark humour and typical Tarantino gore, Django certainly has earned its spot on the best picture list.

RATING: ★

RATING:

–Devon Butler

★★★

★★★★

–Wade Thompson

RATING: ★

★★★★

–Sarah McBain

RATING: ★ –Kate Turner

★★★

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

ARTS

• 15

LENA YANG

LENA YANG

STEPH TRUONG

LENA YANG

STEPH TRUONG

Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables tells the captivating tale of Jean Valjean— played by Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman—and his path to redemption. The film features standout performances from not only Jackman but also one-time Disney Princess Anne Hathaway.

The film took the non-traditional route of having its cast sing live instead of singing along to a pre-recorded track. This allowed the actors to better convey the emotions their characters are feeling, not only visually but also audibly, reminiscent of the story’s 27 years spent as a stage production.

However this also meant that, unfortunately, some performances appeared to fall flat. Russell Crowe is one to have fallen victim to this.

While Crowe’s vocals are passable, standout performances from the rest of the cast further weaken his performance in comparison.

Also worth noting for pre-established fans of Victor Hugo’s story are performances by many veterans of the musical’s stage productions, namely Colm Wilkinson, Frances Ruffelle and perhaps most notably Samantha Barks and Alistair Brammer, who are both reprising their roles from the 25th Anniversary Concert of Eponine and Prouvaire respectively.

While the film has been captivating audiences all over the world and steadily gaining awards recognition in the lead up to Feb. 24’s Academy Awards, Les Misérables is understandably not everyone’s cup of tea.

Those that are not fans of musicals, particularly those wherein approximately 95 per cent of the dialogue is performed through song, are likely to be among the first to voice their distaste. However, there is arguably something for almost everyone else within the film.

It was once thought that Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, was impossible to adapt to film, yet never one to shy away from a challenge, Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) produced and directed the film to great success.

Announced earlier this year, Life of Pi earned an impressive 11 Oscar nominations, most notably in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

In terms of sheer awe for spectacle, the movie feels a lot like Avatar, whisking the viewer away to an unfathomable world at sea with colourful visuals that make the film viscerally astonishing.

The story revolves around Pi Patel, whose family is immigrating to Canada in order to find a more profitable market for their family zoo that they used to operate in India.

Unfortunately, disaster strikes when a storm at sea capsizes their ship and Pi is left stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a lifeboat and a few animals that survived the storm.

Woven through a series of flashbacks that occur during a conversation between an older Pi and a writer looking for new source material. Life of Pi tells a tale of finding yourself and faith in a circumstance where no such thing exists.

Not only does the film connect on a visual level, but on an emotional level as Pi proves to be a highly relatable character that struggles to understand who he is at a difficult point in his life.

Look for Life of Pi to collect a few pieces of hardware when the Academy Awards finally arrive, it is not a movie to be missed.

Clocking in at around 150 minutes, Steven Spielberg’s historical drama Lincoln is much more than a simple biopic about one of America’s most beloved presidents.

The film follows President Abraham Lincoln in the last four months of his life, as he tirelessly tries to abolish slavery before the Civil War ends.

The film includes an excellent ensemble cast including Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tommy Lee Jones. These complimenting actors provide a very strong support system for the movie’s standout performer Daniel Day-Lewis.

Day-Lewis brilliantly captures a soft-spoken, battle-hardened president who, at the brink of victory in his war against slavery, seems too exhausted to appreciate its significance.

He embodies the essence of the late president to a “T” and his physical resemblance to honest Abe is terrifyingly close.

However, the movie is dense and difficult to sit through. There were a few too many dialogue-laden scenes that seemed to drag on and slow down the film’s overall momentum.

At times it felt as if the audience was stuck in a classroom, trying to digest extremely dry history.

Apart from this minor pace problem, the film delivers an impactful meaning which is felt from start to finish. What we can take away after watching Lincoln is how morally devoted he was to terminating slavery and ensuring equality for all.

It’s far from an easy watch, but it’s an important story and the flawless main performance demands that you make time to go out and see it.

Very rarely do you come across a romantic comedy that is touching, accessible to all viewers and filled with great acting. Most Rom-Coms boast bad acting with schmoozy plot lines and tearjerker moments.

Silver Linings Playbook certainly breaks this cinematic mould. The story follows Pat Jr. (Bradley Cooper) on his road to recovery after being put in a mental institution for assaulting the man who was having an affair with his wife.

He finds solace in Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) a recently widowed woman who challenges him to compete with her in a dance competition in exchange for a chance to rekindle his marriage with his now ex-wife.

The on-screen talent in Playbook is outstanding, being the first movie to be nominated for all four acting awards since Reds in 1981. Cooper and Lawrence are both incredible at portraying characters with mental illnesses, honestly showing bipolar disorder without parodying it.

Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver are also both nominated for their performances as Pat Jr.’s parents.

Broadening the spectrum of mental illness portrayed, De Niro’s character shows signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and is an avid Baltimore Ravens fan and gambler.

When these passions clash with Pat Jr. dance competition, there is tension.

Cooper is the surprise talent in this film with this being his first Oscar nomination (that’s right, he wasn’t nominated for The Hangover).

With eight Oscar nominations, this film promises to be a contender for the top spot.

On a final note, Chris Tucker is in this movie. This is his first appearance since Rush Hour 3 and I’ve got to say, thank God for that.

Zero Dark Thirty is the infamous film documenting the hunt and eventual killing of Osama bin Laden and it has been attracting a lot of controversy from the U.S. government over its portrayal of torture.

While politics seems to be halting a lot of the Oscar buzz it received in its December limited release, the film is still one of the powerhouses of 2012 with nominations for Best Actress, Screenplay, Sound Editing and Film Editing to go along with its Best Picture nod.

Jessica Chastain plays fresh-offthe-boat CIA analyst, Maya, who has been assigned to the U.S. embassy in Pakistan to “interrogate” al-Qaeda members and sift through CIA intel in the search for bin Laden.

The film immediately throws you into the thick of Bush-era “advanced-interrogation” and these scenes are not for the weak of heart.

Director Kathryn Bigelow gives a clinical examination of this period with a distinctly inhumane feeling to match the atrocity on screen.

The story then spans almost ten years until the famous raid goes down on a compound in northeast Pakistan.

The fact that everyone in the world knows exactly how this story ends made it a challenge for the film makers to create an intense and thrilling account.

They succeeded by giving us many of the details we would not have been privy to and creating suspense around the smaller victories that eventually led to the death of the most wanted man of the new millennium.

RATING: ★

–Scott Glaysher

RATING: ★

★★★★

–Katie Strong

★★★

RATING: ★

★★★

–Andrew Savory

RATING:

★★★★★

–Spencer Dunn

Learning about the Oscars Now that you know about this year’s nominees, why not learn about the history?

• This year’s eldest and youngest nominees are, respectively, Emmanuelle Riva (aged 85) and Quvenzhané Wallis (aged nine) who are both nominated this year for Best Actress.

• The Oscars will take place on Sunday, Feb. 24, which coincidentally is Riva’s birthday. What could be a better birthday present than winning an Oscar?

• The first Academy Awards was

held on May 16, 1929 in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The tickets cost $5.00 and the entire ceremony took 15 minutes.

• The Academy Awards are presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

• The origin of the nickname “Os-

car” has long been disputed. Bette Davis claims that she named her statuette after her late husband Harmon Oscar Nelson. Another story claims that the Executive Secretary of the Academy Awards saw the

statue and said that it reminded her of her Uncle Oscar.

1940 winning Best Supporting Actress for Gone with the Wind.

• The earliest mention of the nickname Oscar was in 1932 when Walt Disney thanked the Academy for his Oscar in his acceptance speech.

• The first black actor to win an Oscar was Sidney Poitier with Lilies of the Field in 1963.

• Meryl Streep has been nominated

nated for both Best Film and Best Foreign film along with 1969’s Z, 1971’s The Emigrants, 1998’s Life is Beautiful and 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

17 times, mostly for Best Actress, and has won three times.

• If Wallis wins she will be the youngest Oscar winner, beating out Tatum O’Neal who won in 1973 for Best Supporting Actress at age ten.

• Only two silent films have ever won Best Picture: Wings in 1929 and The Artist in 2011.

• Walt Disney has won the most Os-

cars with a grand total of 32 wins out of 59 nominations.

• It takes about a month to create all the statuettes to hand out.

• The first black actress to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in

• Amour is the fifth film to be nomi-

• Adele’s song “Skyfall” is the first Best Original Song nominee in ten years to be on the Billboard Hot 100.

–Compiled

by Cristina Almudevar

RATING:★

★★★★

–Jon Marsellus

16 •

Editorial

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013 Opinion Editor Devon Butler dbutler@thecord.ca

disconnect between students and PC party With the release of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party of Ontario’s recommendations on the state of post secondary education in the province, it is clear there is a serious disconnect between the PC party and university students.

Not only did the PCs call for the removal of the 30 per cent tuition grant, but also stated that if they were elected to power they would link student financial assistance to grades.

This notion is entirely unrealistic, as students who require financial aid will most likely seek part-time employment to assist with funding their education. As a result, their marks may suffer.

On the flip side, people with financial peace of mind are able to fully devote themselves to their studies.

Ultimately, while education should focus on the intelligence and commitment of students to their schooling, grades are not always entirely encompassing of their academic abilities.

An equally problematic recommendation from the PCs is to fund post secondary institutions based on the number of jobs the university’s alumni get.

This will only lead to institutions reducing their offerings, eliminating their arts programs and expanding their business departments in order to fund degrees that will have immediate pay off.

It is apparent that the PC Party has not only problematic ideas but an unfortunate lack of understanding or respect for universities.

One area of the PCs’plan that deserves praise is their intention to add an increased focus on college programs.

While university education is certainly still valuable, it is not for everyone and there are no doubt people much better suited for college are sitting in university lecture halls.

However, based on the overall contradictory nature of their position paper, obviously the PC Party is only interested in contributing to the survival of an unstable economy and has no interest in preserving the value of a quality education.

Chris Brown needs to be held accountable Anybody who watched the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday evening most likely watched it to critique what the celebrities were wearing; witness amazing performances and see who would take home the top awards.

What the majority of people did not want to see, however, was a smug looking Chris Brown canoodling with Rihanna in the front row.

For most of us, this evoked images from another Grammy Awards show four years prior, shortly after it was exposed that Brown savagely beat Rihanna.

Naturally, the ‘TMZs’ of the world have been in a frenzy reporting on their on-and-off, tumultuous relationship and Brown’s latest criminal antics.

It’s a fine line between discussing the problematic message this sends to young girls and victims of domestic abuse and giving Brown the publicity and attention he obviously does not deserve.

What is so frustrating about this highly public situation is the fact that such an abusive, repulsive man is not only welcomed into the Grammys, but was actually nominated for an award. Similarly, at the 2012 Grammys, Brown performed on stage twice.

Beyond the Grammys acceptance of Brown it is incredibly worrisome that fans continue to support him and his music career. It is horrifying to see the number of girls and women who come to his defence on a regular basis.

With the One Billion Rising campaign taking place Thursday, Feb. 14 it is significant that we scrutinize violence against women on a global scale.

Kitchener-Waterloo will be advocating to end women’s suffering by holding a flash mob event outside Kitchener City Hall on Thursday at noon.

With over one-billion women facing rape and physical assault annually, it is essential that we do not let pathetic people like Brown continue to promote the acceptance of abuse.

—The Cord Editorial Board These unsigned editorials are based off informal discussions and then agreed upon by the majority of The Cord’s editorial board, including the Editor-in-Chief and Opinion Editor. The arguments made may reference any facts that have been made available through interviews, documents or other sources. The views presented do not necessarily reflect those of The Cord’s volunteers, staff or WLUSP. The Cord is published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications.

Contact Emily Frost, WLUSP President and Publisher 75 University Ave.W, Waterloo ON N2L 3C5

stephanie trUong gRAPhIcS EDITOR

Valentine’s Day should celebrate all types of love Instead of resenting the holiday, celebrate with those you love most

Katelyn CUllUM LEAD REPORTER

These days, Valentine’s Day has a more negative meaning than a positive one.

It seems like more and more people dislike this holiday, complaining about the obscene amount of red and pink that shows up and dismiss the fact that it is no longer a day of love, but a day where guys spend too much money on girls.

You’re depressed if you don’t have a valentine, and the consumer world uses it to their advantage.

But when it comes down to it, it is a day about love, regardless of the kind of love it is.

Yes, stores make obscene amounts of money from other people’s desire to please their partner.

Girls get too worked up about what their boyfriends should buy for them and if you’re single, you automatically become a pathetic person with no one to share the day with.

However, it shouldn’t be about money, products or whether or not you’re in a relationship.

It should be about what the day represents.

It’s the one day of the year where any type of wild action or bold declaration of love is acceptable.

When it comes down to it, it is a day about love, regardless of the kind of love that is.

It’s the one day of the year where you can tell that girl in your math class that you’ve had a crush on her forever, or you can tell your ex-boyfriend that you still love him. It’s a day about courage.

If you’ve seen the movie We Bought a Zoo, you not only made a good decision to watch a handsome Matt Damon and a hot Scarlett Johansson on the big screen, but you got the perfection definition of courage.

Damon’s character advises his son on the importance of expressing the truth, on telling the girl he likes how he feels.

He says, “You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally 20 seconds of just embarrassing bravery and I promise you, something great will come of it.”

This is what Valentine’s Day is about.

It’s about mustering up 20 seconds of courage you can’t find in yourself on any other day, and telling someone you like them, you love them, you think they’re pretty — or whatever it is you’re feeling.

It shouldn’t be about gifts or where you go for dinner. It shouldn’t be about roses and chocolate. It should be about love. It doesn’t even have to be about romantic love.

If you are single, it’s not because you’re pathetic. For whatever reason, the universe has decided that it’s your time to be alone, or you have decided that for yourself.

So call your mom or dad or siblings and declare your love for them. Platonic love is just as important as romantic love.

While there are obviously different ways of showing it—and for the sake of your sanity, don’t mix these ways up—it all comes back to the four letter word.

So, on this Valentine’s Day, forget about the heart balloons in the mall and the overstocked shelves of cheesy two dollar valentines in Wal-Mart.

Forget about the expensive roses that are just going to die soon and about the Belgian chocolate you spent an entire pay check on.

Get back to the roots of the holiday, back to hand written cards and the fact that this day originated from a saint named Valentine who was imprisoned for marrying soldiers that were forbidden to wed.

This Valentine’s Day, remember to celebrate love. letters@thecord.ca

• 17

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

OPINION

Opinion Editor Devon Butler dbutler@thecord.ca

Automation a threat to employees Replacing humans with machines may seem more efficient, but what about its long term implications?

CHADWICK WHEELER OPINION COLUMNIST

“Where there’s money to be saved, there’s money to be made.” Many inventors and entrepreneurs have kept this statement in mind when considering their next product .

One way to save money is to design a technological machine which can replace human workers. Machines can be initially expensive, but their purchase price and maintenance costs can sometimes be cheaper than a human’s hourly rate or salary.

This in turn leads employers to choose the machine over the human to reduce costs and increase their bottom line. Although I am optimistic that technological advancements can improve the human condition in areas such as education and healthcare, we should be cautious of converting to automation too hastily in workplaces.

With constant concern around Canadian and international unemployment rates, it only makes sense to avoid replacing human jobs with machines.

Not only does automation replace jobs, but it also widens the gap between the rich and the poor. When business owners employ workers,

they allow profits to be spread to their staff. When they opt to use machines instead, they end this process and increase their own margins instead.As individuals of a consumer society, we have the power to slow down the transition to automation by opting to be served by humans rather than machines.

Most students who no longer live with their parents find themselves making weekly or bi-weekly trips to a grocery store. After finding all the items on their lists, shoppers are left with a significant decision: to pay at self-checkout or with a human cashier.

Sometimes the human cashier may take longer than the selfcheckout process, but I try my best to avoid the automated technology to contribute to the demand for cashiers.

If all customers were willing to use the self-checkout, the number of waged jobs available at grocery stores would decrease significantly.

When self-checkout stations are set up in grocery and department stores, they are designed to have four to eight machines supervised by a single employee.

This setup cuts out three to seven jobs that would have previously existed before the creation of this technology. If more consumers opt to use human cashiers, business owners will be discouraged from ordering additional machines since the ones they own are not being utilized. Closer to home for all of us, another worrisome example

You know what yanks my cord... ...clichés.

Honestly, we’ve become so lazy when we put words together that nearly everything we say is some type of phrase that has been overused to its deathbed.

Daily, I hear hockey players make generic comments about how they’re putting “110 per cent” into their game or professors use lame phrases to make it through already boring lectures.

If you’re trying to keep my attention, don’t continue to use the same quote or phrase that every other damn person has made a million times before you. Especially athletes.

This is why I love the Elizabethan

era so much. Their language was authentic and genuine and not filled with stupid lines like falling head over heels, the calm before the storm and in the nick of time.

I’m all for figurative expressions, but fuck, get original. I’m not saying go back to saying incredibly profound lines but, you know, make more of an effort than leaning on someone else’s words.

It’s not hard to go back to the routes of language and find something genuine to say about someone or something that isn’t taken over by a stupid, overused, empty line.

No wonder people suck. At the end of the day, go fuck yourself.

—Shelby Blackley

Letters to the Editor Re: Gun Control Needed

Dear Editor, While I am not a member of the “Obama caused the Sandy Hook massacre” club and will likely never own a gun in my life, I would consider myself an anti-gun control advocate, at least, that I’m against the complete banning of firearms.

As such, I did not enjoy being called “dumb,” “stupid” and “crazy” by columnist Alex Reinhart.

Just because one is for the Second Ammendment doesn’t mean one agrees wholeheartedly with the NRA. I wish our world didn’t have guns, but they unfortunately exist.

Consequently, banning them will result only in removing them from law-abiding citizens. Criminals do not follow laws.

Contraband will always be available by illegal means unless some magical event causes all firearms on the face of the Earth (as well as the technology to manufacture them) to disappear.

How’s that ban on Marijuanna going?

I don’t wish to own weapons even for self-defense, but I do think that the option should be there for those who wish to defend themselves and their families from criminals.

Stronger measures in my mind would include superior background checks on potential owners and cracking down on illegal distribution. Too bad that according to the columnist, I’m so crazy that my opinion doesn’t matter anyway.

This is a very serious issue for which most of us have strong emotions, but let’s keep the name-calling and sweeping generalizations to a minimum, shall we?

—Daniel Lantz Letter policy: Letters must not exceed 250 words. Include your full name and telephone number. They must be received

by Monday via e-mail to letters@thecord. ca. The Cord reserves the right to edit for length and clarity or to reject any letter.

can be drawn from our own Laurier Library.

At the beginning of this semester I was waiting at the Circulation Desk to checkout some books when I was approached by one of the librarians. He politely asked if I would be willing to accept a quick tutorial on the self-checkout device situated near the reserve book return. To avoid being rude, I accepted knowing that I would never use the machine again.

After showing me the process of using the machine, he explained that the university was trying to raise awareness of this option and get students to checkout their own books.

I am glad students prefer to use the Circulation Desk because it maintains the demand for our librarians. If students decided to use the machine instead of the librarians, their workload would be reduced but this might result in less positions being required. This would allow the university to save on expenditures, but I highly doubt these saving would be passed on to students through reduced tuition.

Although I am cautious about our hasty transition to the use of automation presently, I believe that these technologies will prove more useful in the future. If our working population ever begins to decline, we can replace missing workers with machines, but we should not undergo this process to simply improve the bottom line. letters@thecord.ca

CARLY BASCH LIFE EDITOR

Prison rape needs to be acknolwedged as a crime

OPINION COLUMNIST

What makes prison rape important to be focused on is its institutionalized nature.

In the United States, according to official statistics from 2008, over 216,000 prisoners were raped in one year.

Similarly, over 9.6 per cent of the prison population will be raped during the duration of their stay.

These figures are likely far lower than the actual numbers due to the multitude of unreported incidents, with unofficial estimates putting it between 14 and 23 per cent of prison victims at least.

In Canada, there is less of a perception of prison rape as common and statistics are harder to find, but it is still a prevalent issue.

Prison rape is something that is often joked about and depicted in movies and television as a simple fact of life in the penal system.

While some shows like Oz and Prison Break have depicted this topic with the appropriate level of darkness that it deserves, many other shows and movies use it as a source of comedy.

While I would never advocate censorship and I don’t believe any topic should be off limits for jokes.

In this particular case however, the sheer amount of jokes regarding rape in prison are highly indicative of society’s attitudes toward it: that it is a laughing matter.

The idea largely stems from the notion that it’s a form of karmic

justice or an ironic twist of fate that dishes out punishment in an unofficial form, on top of the official form of punishment that prison itself embodies.

While all sexual assault should be condemned, what makes prison the attacks in jail important to focus on is that it is sometimes defended along the lines that it is the justly deserved punishment of prisoners.

While the tolerance of rape culture in society is also an important issue, rape in prison needs to be focused on within its own specific context.

There are many who would never defend rape in any other circumstance, but regard the same act against prisoners as a type of just desserts.

Through this mentality, prison rape is part of a package deal of sentencing.

You do the time, and you go through the trials and tribulations necessary to drive in the

JAMES POPKIE

punishment, including potentially being raped by other prisoners.

This mentality is barbaric and has no place in the modern era.

Regardless of who a prisoner is, whether they’re in jail for something minor or as major as murder or even for sexual assault, prison rape should never be tolerated by the prison officials, nor by society at large.

In addition to the fact that prison rape is defended by many who would not tolerate sexual assault in any other circumstance, what makes prison rape important to be focused on is its institutionalized nature.

It occurs at rampant rates within the confines of a government-run facility.

It is tolerated and ignored by prison officials to the point where it could almost be considered an officially sanctioned part of going to prison.

While it would be impossible to eliminate prison rape completely, short of absurdly totalitarian measures, the sheer prevalence of these instances shows that there is a tolerance of prison violence that exists amongst many of the guards.

Similarly, it exists among prison officials and more indirectly, across society at large.

While prison is meant to be punishment, rape should never be a part of that punishment.

A prison sentence involves doing time for a crime, time away from society, away from one’s family and friends, confined in one building, lacking many of the freedoms that normal life involves.

What a prison sentence should not involve is being raped. letters@thecord.ca

18 •

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

OPINION

Gaming is about more than cheap thrills Video games may not be seen as high art, but they are certainly more than simple forms of entertainment

BRAD KLEINSTUBER OPINION COLUMNIST

Nerd culture is almost inescapable today. The spread of gaming, precipitated by television and films has come suddenly and shockingly, so it’s worth a little reflection.

There’s nothing wrong with the spread of gaming to a larger and more diverse audience.

There was controversy not long ago over Fake Gamer Girls, a rather transparent hissy-fit over the spread of gamer culture to those traditionally excluded.

Ultimately, the spread of a culture is natural and organic, and to declare it a museum piece of one’s own is just dishonest. Despite its popularity, there are still a number of problems which persist in the perception and portrayal of gaming in culture.

The most pervasive and most wrong, is that gaming, traditional, video or other, is just entertainment.

Roger Ebert wrote a controversial piece in 2005 in which he opined that video games can never be art.

In 2010, he revised his statements somewhat, but the damage was done. Though the response from the Internet masses was fast and furious, Ebert certainly raised some valid points.

Video games may not be art, but they’re certainly more than just entertainment. At its core, gaming

WADE THOMPSON FILE PHOTO

A couple of cosplayers at the San Diego Comi-Conference in 2011, embracing their ‘nerd’ culture.

is about experiencing something.

The desire to game is a desire to experience something otherwise unavailable.

Often this is a rather basic experience; that of being an unstoppable soldier, a tactical genius, a hero or a villain. It’s a simple thrill based on the desire to be something greater than an average person, or to be in a different time or place, often radically so.

But the best in gaming goes beyond just being what one is not. In

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video games, the current fascination is with Spec Ops: The Line.

It’s a subversive game about why the popular gritty shooter genre is really a dirty, nasty thing. Games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honour are deeply problematic, and they tell simple, black and white, often nationalistic, even racialized, stories.

Spec Ops breaks all of that over its knee. The game embraces the genre’s tropes and cranks them as far as possible. The protagonist,

fully identified as you, the player, is a savage killer and the game makes it clear that the kind of game, even the kind of worldview, that embraces that is a twisted one indeed.

The line is beautifully crafted, brilliantly designed and a true experience. You come out of the game worn down and tired, almost sick.

It’s a superb example of games that are more than just entertainment. It’s a piece of alternative art, video gaming’s Apocalypse Now. There are other examples, and the

list keeps growing. The frankly disturbing Silent Hill 2, the grey and grim Walking Dead, the pure action ride of Half-Life 2, and many others, all show the potential of the gaming medium. There are some truly legendary tales about exceptional gaming experiences, form the emotional to the purely badass.

The ultimate advantage to penand-paper gaming is customization. The game runner, whatever his or her title, can build whatever they want, sticking as close to established rules and canon as they and the group desire.

Gaming is not just about passing the time, it’s an experience and a challenge. From video games to Dungeons and Dragons, gaming can force us to use our imaginations in a world that can often seem bland.

It’s a personal experience, but it can also be deeply collective. Playing games and the culture surrounding them can allow us to realize things we never thought possible, consider parts of ourselves and remake the world as we see fit.

For all the elements of nerd culture that have gone ‘mainstream,’ gaming is perhaps the least appreciated.

It’s a universal culture; all people, no matter their era, have had games that can bring people together in truly innovative ways.

Sure, there are plenty of Minecrafters, Call of Duty players and Skyrim fans, but there is always more out there.

Above all, we need to give gaming a chance as a real medium. It might not be art, but it’s much more than simple entertainment. letters@thecord.ca

• 19

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

SPORTS

Sports Editor Shelby Blackley sblackley@thecord.ca

Basketball teams head for the home stretch SHELBY BLACKLEY SPORTS EDITOR

ROSALIE EID FILE PHOTO

With two crucial games remaining for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks set their sights on the playoff route.

“We want to be playing great basketball going into the playoffs,” women’s head coach Paul Falco said. “The playoff games are single elimination so whatever teams are playing the best and carrying the momentum are the ones that are going to do the best.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams will finish off their regular seasons this week with games Wednesday against the Guelph Gryphons in Guelph before returning home to host the Western Mustangs on Saturday.

For both teams, these match-ups could make or break their playoff positioning.

“Tomorrow’s the big one,” said men’s head coach Peter Campbell of his team’s Wednesday night date with the Gryphons. “We have the potential, if everything goes our way, to move up as high as fourth, and we also have the ability to finish as low as sixth.

“So somewhere in there is where we’re going to be.”

Laurier’s men’s team currently sits fifth in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West division with a 6-13 record. The women’s team sits with a 9-10 record, also good

enough for fifth place in the OUA West.

“I think we can get third, fourth or fifth and the top six get in,” Falco said. “I think we did have control of our own destiny, but I think we lost that with our game on Saturday against Western.”

Falco complimented his team after their efforts against the No. 8 Brock Badgers last Wednesday. The Hawks were able to muster up 49 points in the first half, however were unable to keep the offence up in the second, losing 79-74 in overtime.

Falco said his team’s focus has now shifted to strengthening the offence and keeping the consistency in the rebounding and defensive side of the ball.

“It’s partly the nature of our team that our defence has to be good for us to be successful because we are not going to usually outscore teams by just running and gunning,” Falco said.

Campbell’s game plan includes focusing on Guelph’s physicality in tomorrow’s game.

After that, Campbell looks for consistency in his young team.

“For us, I think it’s trying to get a little more out of our post players and get our freshmen to keep continuing to step up and play better,” he said.

“I think those are the keys for us.”

For the most part, the men’s team is healthy and ready for their final two games.

However the women’s team

“We don’t need any bad luck in the next two games.”

—Peter Campbell, men’s basketball head coach

suffered a potential blow as thirdyear Doreen Bonsu suffered a concussion last weekend and is listed as day-to-day going into the game Wednesday night.

But both coaches insist they are ready for the road ahead.

“I think we are [ready],” Campbell said. “[We have] two games to kind of fine-tune a couple things and then as long as everybody’s healthy, we’re ready for the playoffs. We don’t need any bad luck in the next two games.” ”Hopefully we can put four quarters together consistently this weekend and carry that into the playoffs,” Falco said.

CRISTINA RUCCHETTA FILE PHOTO

Weather delays PowderPuff start ASHLEY DENUZZO STAFF WRITER

There has come a day where even PowderPuff can’t handle the snow.

After last weekend’s snowstorm, the annual charity women’s flagfootball tournament was cancelled.

The storm brought approximately 25 centimetres of precipitation and forced WLU facilities to close Friday.

Laurier had already hosted its local tournament two weeks prior, and was hoping to accommodate a larger Ontario-wide tournament this past weekend.

“I saw the news reports but I didn’t really believe it,” said Andrew Barbati, president of Laurier Lettermen. “We thought it was just blown out of proportion, just like most [weather warnings] are.”

Laurier Lettermen, the organization that coordinates the PowderPuff tournament, was not expecting the severe weather conditions. They admitted to taking a “gamble” when considering the amount of snow Waterloo would get.

The tournament was scheduled to run from Feb. 7 to Feb. 9. It would have included 28 flag football teams from universities in the province.

“I woke up around 6:30 a.m. with my phone ringing to Ryan Lannan,” Barbati explained, walking through Friday’s events.

Lannan, the coordinator of Laurier’s athletic facilities, told Barbati that the school had made the decision to close all facilities. This included the University Stadium, which was the only venue for the PowderPuff tournament.

“He called me and said: ‘time to figure out what you’re going to do,’” Barbati laughed.

Barbati met with Drew Galpin, another executive coordinator and a veteran of the football team. The two were hoping to move the tournament to Alumni Field, but due to insurance liabilities, this option was out of the question.

“At that point we said, ‘there’s no use for anybody getting hurt,’” Barbati said. “We might as well call it off before anyone gets on the road.”

A team from Ottawa had already been on the road since 5 a.m. trying to make their 7 p.m. game time.

Other teams coming from Kingston and Sault Ste. Marie were unable to travel.

“We got the worst amount of snow,” Barbati said. “No matter how bad it was or where people were, it was just going to get worse by the time they got here.”

According to Lettermen, most out-of-town teams understood the decision to postpone the tournament.

However, some teams ran into issues regarding hotel deposits and cancellations.

A team from Nippissing ended up losing their deposit on their hotel, which was almost half the money they had raised.

“I felt really bad about that,” Barbati said.

“We’re going to try and figure out something to help them out. That is something we hoped wouldn’t happen.”

Depending on the availability of the University Stadium, the tournament will resume either the March 1 or March 8 weekend.

Teams who have already played a Thursday night game will get to keep their record going into the rescheduled tournament.

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20 •

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013

SPORTS

Prepping for the ‘real season’ Women’s

Men’s

Record: 21-2-3

Record: First half 5-9-2

For the Laurier women’s hockey team, repeating as Ontario University Athletics (OUA) champions is just a stepping stone towards their ultimate goal of a national title.

The Hawks faced a more competitive conference this year, needing a win in the final regular season game over the Queen’s Gaels to clinch home ice advantage. Head coach Rick Osborne believes the extra grind of this season was helpful for the team’s focus moving forward.

“The whole season this year was based on putting as much adversity and putting as much pressure on this team as I possibly could do, throughout the season, right from training camp on,” he said. “[This year] they’ve had it harder than any of the teams have had it the last two or three years because I just felt that we just didn’t get the job done at nationals two years in a row. I felt that we underachieved and that mentally we were fragile.”

Captain Fiona Lester agreed the adversity of this season should help the team.

“This year we are more used to comeback situations. In other years we sort of dominated in our league play, and then in the playoffs when we got down, we would get stressed out. This year’s team doesn’t get as stressed in those situations,” she said.

With all season to evaluate his team, Osborne thinks he has found the right combinations to run with just three lines.

The number-one unit throughout the playoffs for Laurier will likely feature three graduating players as Brittany Crago centres a line with Caitlin Muirhead and Paula Lagamba. Osborne expects a hard, driving, power-forward game from the trio.

The line of Devon Skeats, Laura Brooker and Robyn Degagne will look to use their speed and skill to create scoring, while Emily Kekewich, Tammy Freiberger and Jessie Hurrell will run the third line.

The first test for the Hawks comes from cross town rivals the Waterloo Warriors, a team that Laurier shut out in the regular season. Lester noted that this is not the same team they dominated back in November.

“In their last few games they kept it close with some teams that gave us trouble [Guelph and Queen’s] so we are not taking them lightly,” Lester said.

–Eric Thompson

Since then

9-3

Finishing the first half of the season with a 5-9-2 record, being outscored 59-43, and posting a lackluster -13 plus/minus rating, doesn’t exactly paint a picture of your ideal playoff team.

Despite the flat start from WLU men’s hockey team, the Hawks posted a remarkable 9-3 record in the second half of the season starting after the winter break. The incredible turnaround shot Laurier up the standings at the end of the regular season, good enough for the fifth seed in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West standings heading into the post-season.

The Golden Hawks appear to be optimistic and excited for the challenges that lie ahead of them as they face the fourth-seeded Guelph Gryphons in a best of three series to start the post-season.

The Hawks managed to get a least one win against every team in their division. “It’s nice to beat everyone in the league now and prove that we can play against anyone,” said fourth-year goaltender Ryan Daniels. “It’ll help give our team that confidence going forward.”

“We feel good about ourselves and about the way we have been playing, so we are geared up to go,” Puhalski said. “[Guelph is] a quality team with skill and speed. Key for us is to nullify their team speed and have some puck possession in their zone.”

Keeping at the aggressive play and keeping it simple will be a prevalent factor in the Golden Hawks’ success. Forward Brett Vandenberg chimed in stating that the team has been working hard on getting better before the post season begins.

“We’ve been working on a lot of little things, just simple plays, chipping pucks off walls, getting the puck deep, pretty standard ... But we feel pretty confident.”

Vandenberg echoed Daniels’ thoughts on how beating every team so far this season will help the team’s confidence. “Having beat[en] all the teams in the league now we know we can compete with anyone. It feels really good.”

The Golden Hawks lost the regular season series the Gryphon’s 2-1 this year, with Guelph outscoring Laurier 8-5 in those games.

However, the Hawks did manage to muster a demanding 3-0 shutout against them last Thursday.

–Brad Bowen

The Stats

First round:

First round:

vs.

vs.

1st in OUA/No. 4 in CIS

8th in OUA

4th in OUA

5th in OUA

GAME 1

GAME 2

GAME 3

GAME 1

GAME 2

GAME 3

Wednesday Feb. 13 7:30pm Laurier

Saturday Feb. 16 2:00pm @Waterloo

Sunday Feb. 17 7:30pm Laurier

Thursday Feb. 14 7:30pm @Guelph

Saturday Feb. 16 8:00pm Laurier

Sunday Feb. 17 7:30pm @Guelph

(if necessary)

(if necessary)

Laurier took season series 3-0

Goals

(during season, vs. each other)

Scoring Leader

Guelph took season series 2-1

Goals

(during season, vs. each other)

Tyler Stothers 26 pts

Brittany Crago 25 pts

WLU

UW

Waterloo: Kelly MacLean 15 pts

Scoring Leader

UofG

WLU

Guelph: Andy Bathgate 32 pts

For full coverage of both series, check out thecord.ca throughout reading week