Tidings Winter 2010

T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F K I N G ’ S CO L L E G E A LU M N I M AG A Z I N E | w inter 2 0 1 0

TIDI NGS

This King’s journalist is taking care of Business

TIDINGS Summer 2010 Edito r

Alison Lang (BJ ’07) Editoria l Co m m i t t ee

Tim Currie (BJ ’92) Alex Boutilier (BAH ’09) Kyle Shaw (BSc ’91, BJ ’92) Design

Co. & Co. www.coandco.ca P ostal Add r e ss

Tidings c/o Alumni Association University of King’s College 6350 Coburg Road Halifax, NS, B3H 2A1 (902) 422-1271 King’s we bsi t e

www.ukings.ca Ema il

tidings@ukings.ns.ca * * * * Stories in this issue of Tidings were written by students and alumni of the School of Journalism. Submissions were also provided by faculty members.

Tidings is produced on behalf of the University of King’s College Alumni Association.

We welcome and encourage your feedback on each issue. Letters to the Editor should be signed. We reserve the right to edit all submissions.

The views expressed in Tidings are those of the individual contributors or sources.

Mailed under Publications Mail Sales Agreement # 40062749

on the cov e r

Photo by Trevor Haldenby

Table of contents Letters from the Alumni Association President & Editor

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Letters to the Editor and Corrections

2

Contributors

3

King’s News

4

Cover Story The Rise and Rise of Steve Maich

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Alumni Golf Tournament

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Alumni Profile Mordecai Walfish

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KTS 80th Anniversary “Rough Theatre is What We Do”

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Lives Lived C. Denne Burchell

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FYP Texts A Privileged Dedication

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Happening on Campus Introducing the King’s Chorus and Orchestra

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Dr. Saul Green Memorial Lecture

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Smashing Pumpkins with HOST

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Wardroom Renovations and Redesign Launch

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Music I’m Listening to Mary-Beth Carty

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Books I’m Reading FYP Tutor Edition

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Book Review Memoir Project

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Postcards from the Edge The Polar Bear’s Tooth

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You’ve Identified Yourself

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University of King’s College Alumni Association 2010-11

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Rich Aucoin at the Wardroom

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Branch Briefs

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In Memorium

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New Faces on Campus

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Alumnotes

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Parting Shot

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L E T T ER F R O M T H E a l u m n i P RESIDEN T

New Alumni Association President Greg Guy (BJH ’89) (third from left) poses with (from left) outgoing President David Jones (BA ’68, HF ’98), Branch President Chris MacNeil (BA ’94) and committee member Stuart Wood (BAH ’93)

Fellow Alumni, It is with great pleasure and excitement that I look upon the next two years as the University of King’s College Alumni Association president.

There was a great turnout for the Annual General Meeting on Sept. 23 and I am looking forward to reaching out to as many of you as possible during my term. We have a wonderful group of alumni on the national executive from across the country and around the globe, as well as a good cross-section of years represented. Our branches are fully staffed and reconnecting with alumni worldwide.

King’s has always held a special place in my world since graduating with a journalism degree in 1987. I have kept in touch with many of my classmates from the 1980s, and have worked beside journalism grads for many years at The Chronicle Herald and now at the CBC.

Many media organizations, public relations and communications firms are filled with King’s J-school grads.

Our full alumni community is numbered at about 8,650, with about 8,000 here in Canada.

One of my goals is to try and find those “lost sheep” among us and bring them back into the King’s fold.

The executive is looking forward to many events throughout the year as we try to build on our past successes.

One recent event I must applaud took place on November 6, when Dan de Munnik (BScH ’02) and Chris Elson (BAH ’86) organized the unveiling of the Wardroom renovation plan. Glenn McMinn of the Halifax-based design firm Breakhouse presented a spiffy new look for the Wardroom, while keeping King’s ties to the Canadian navy in mind and much of the atmosphere intact, as we all remember it.

I’m looking forward to the completion of the Wardroom renovations, developing a plan for King’s 225th anniversary in 2014 and continuing to build the oldest alumni association in Canada.

I would also like the thank past president David Jones (BA ’68, HF ’98), for his undying devotion to the university, and for being the “out-of-town” alumni president for the past two years. And a heartfelt thank you as well to Dan de Munnik and Laurelle Levert (BAH ’89) for giving of their time the past few years to the national alumni executive.

If you are interested in getting involved and giving back to the King’s community please let us know. Volunteering is gratifying, especially when it is at the very place that helped to shape our career paths in life.

Again, I am looking forward to my two-year term. If you want to reach me feel free to email me at gguy@ns.sympatico.ca. It’s always great to reunite with former King’s men and women.

Sincerely, Greg Guy (BJH ’87)

L E T T ER F R O M T H E e d i to r In the eight months since I’ve begun working at King’s, my greatest challenge has been deciding on a theme for each issue of Tidings. Although this probably speaks more to my inexperience as a relatively new-ish addition to the King’s community, I’ve also found that the longer I’m here, the more the varied cultures of the College unfold and shift before my eyes. So I guess this issue of Tidings represents the smorgasbord of personalities that swirled around me like a

maelstrom during my first year at work during King’s extremely busy fall semester. In another attempt to grapple with a theme, the stories we’ve worked on could read like portions of a pulp novel: You’ve got The Suit (cover star Steve Maich, page 6) the Brain (Alumni Profile: Mordecai Walfish, page 9) the Ingénue (Johanna Skibsrud, King’s News, page 4) and so on. Then again, this could all be the product of an exhausted editor’s brain prone to romanticism at the best of times. At any rate, I hope that the images and stories churned out by a talented team of writers, photographers and illustrators give you some notion (real, romanticized or otherwise) of how our students are fuelled by the buzz of a King’s fall and eventually adopt this vital, kinetic energy as their own.

Alison Lang, BJ ’07 alison.lang@ukings.ns.ca Tidings | winter 2010

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l e tt e r s to th e e d i to r Dear Ms. Lang, I read with customary interest the most recent issue of Tidings centered on the theme of “Weirdos and Wanderers.” There is truth in the characterization of King’s you built, with its wonderful diversity and unexpected careers; however, I think the issue was slightly singular in its perspective.

I must believe that there are fewer King’s graduates who become doctors (at an Ivy League school [that happens to be the source of our own alma mater]) than those who travel about and enter into a non-traditional vocation.

It is my opinion that while a major facet of the King’s identity is a certain bohemianism, it remains that the liberal arts it champions are still the foundation of those who belong to the traditional professional class.

My main concern is that while the quirkiness of the student body deserves to be lauded (as I will fully admit I am not without some of those quirks), some more emphasis could be placed upon the strong traditions of the school. After all, the prevailing wisdom is “the Harvard of the North,” not the Berkeley of the North (although that also would be a gracious comparison).

Overall though, I liked the issue, enjoy the magazine for the most part, and appreciate the work done by the staff. Keep up the good work,

Evan Corey, BAH ’08 We welcome feedback regarding the current issue of Tidings. Please send comments to alison.lang@ukings.ns.ca.

correcti on

On page 34 of the Alumnotes section of the Summer 2010 issue of Tidings, King’s alumnus Dana Schmidt (BA ’92, HC ’92) was identified as female when he is, in fact, male.

The Tidings editor extends her thanks to Mr. Schmidt for his gracious good humor in pointing out this error.

Bill Strautman (BSc ’86, BJ ’87) soaks up Olympic atmosphere with wife Teresa, son Alex and daughter Hannah. TSN announcer Glen Suitor is in centre.

To the Editor, I read with interest the Olympic experiences of two fellow classmates in the latest issue of Tidings—Greg Guy and Steve Forest. I too was at the Olympics, with my family, as spectators.

The photo is of my family—wife Teresa, son Alex, myself and daughter Hannah, along with Glen Suitor, TSN announcer and former Sask Roughrider football player—at the Saskatchewan Pavilion. Our family volunteered at the Saskatchewan Pavilion for two days to get our Olympic experience started. We were there for ten days, took in three women’s hockey games, three men’s hockey games, long track speed skating and two awards nights, plus all the fun and pavilion tours we could fit in. Highlights include meeting the Finnish women’s goalie—Noora Raty—who held the Canadian women’s team to five goals on 3,000 shots, and having Alexander Ovechkin talk to my daughter. Those were just two in a daily assortment of highlights that our family continues to talk about months afterwards.

Bill Strautman (BSc ’86, BJ ’87) bill.strautman@sasktel.net

Ca l ling All KTS Alum ni Have you ever acted for the KTS? Can you for whatever reason recall what you performed? ...Do you wanna do it again?

For the KTS’s 80th anniversary, we’re hosting what we’re pretty sure is the first-ever KTS Alumni Dinner Theatre! To celebrate 80 years of this nerve-wracking-at-the-best-of-times society, we’re hosting a revue-style evening of retro KTS moments, with alumni re-staging monologues or songs that made them pseudo-stars however many years ago.

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We will need both performers and audience members, so if you have any interest in this event, give us a shout! It’s going down on February 12, 2011.

Please email kingstheatricalsociety@gmail.com if you’re interested. Because the KTS is like a rabid dog—even after it lets you go, you’re still tainted, and foaming at the mouth.

Michael Fraiman KTS President, 2010/2011

T i d i n g s C o n t r i b u to r s

Jordan Parker (BJH’12) (Lives Lived: C. Denne Burchell) is a third-year Journalism student from Moncton. He’s also minoring in Film Studies, and has plans to become a film critic when he gets out of school.

Geoff Bird (BJ’11) (Cover Story: Steve Maich) was born in Halifax and spent his high school and university years in Ottawa.

He’s also spent time vagabonding around the globe with a surf board and a backpack, financed by a few seasons of back-breaking work as a tree planter in northern B.C. and Alberta. He’s hoping to leave King’s in the spring and get a ‘real’ job as a journalist whatever that means.

Lelani Graham-Laidlaw (BJH ’12) (King’s Chorus and Orchestra) is a caffeine addict who writes an opinions column for the Dalhousie Gazette in addition to stories for the Watch and Antler. She has too many CSP essays to write right now, but still finds time to stress-bake and read silly books on physics and/or Bardot.

Lynette MacLeod (BJH ‘11) (Alumni Profile: Mordecai Walfish) is finishing her final year of journalism with a combined degree in international development. She is interested in broadcast journalism and projects that allow her to be creative. She hopes that whatever the future holds it includes lots of travel, challenges and most important, fun!

Lauren Naish (BJH ’11) (KTS Anniversary) grew up in New Brunswick, but hopes to pursue her many interests through print and radio broadcast journalism all over the world.

Trevor Haldenby (cover story: Steve Maich) is a photographer and artist based in Toronto. You can see more of his work at trevorhaldenby.ca.

Rachel Wallace (BAH’ 14) and Josh Apostolopoulos (BAH ’14) took many of the photos in this magazine. Josh is a design and photography nerd, with a passion for writing. After finishing FYP at King’s, he plans to head back home to Toronto and attend OCAD for Graphic Design. Rachel is simply rad.

Hey King’s Alumni! Do you have a story idea, experience or life update that you want to share with Tidings? We would love to hear from you. Please email alison.lang@ ukings.ns.ca or call (902) 422-1271 ext. 136 to reach editor Alison Lang. The Editorial Committee will take all contributions into consideration.

Tidings | winter 2010

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king’s news King’s Repres ents at CBC Sunday Edit i o n

Giller Prize winner Johanna Skibsrud (’98). Photo courtesy of the author.

k i n g ’s g rad win s g i l l e r p ri ze In early November, newspapers all over Canada carried images of Johanna Skibsrud (’98) wearing an expression of stunned gratitude as she accepted the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her debut novel, The Sentimentalists. Skibsrud, who lives in Montreal but is originally from Scotsburn, Nova Scotia, drew upon her late father’s experiences in the Vietnam War while exploring larger themes of family and loss, and created a story that is beautiful, heartbreaking and finely-wrought. The Sentimentalists edged out four other books for the $50,000 prize.

Published through Kentville, N.S. company Gaspereau Press, it is widely considered one of the most obscure books to ever win the prestigious prize. Skibsrud told the Globe and Mail that she plans to use the money to pay off her student loans and travel the Trans Siberian Railway.

Ki ng ’s R ugby News The King’s Men’s Rugby Team wrapped up their season on October 31st in the ACAA championship game against Mount Allison in Sackville, New Brunswick. The Blue Devils fell 48-0 in a physical bout that saw them play some of their best rugby of the whole season.

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In the first 20 minutes of the game, the Blue Devils played perfect defense, knocking the dazed Mounties onto their back-heels.

After countless goal-line stances, the Mounties’ relentless attack however proved too much for the battered King’s side.

“We were more talented than them, but playing against guys that are much older and stronger is tough”, said Coach John Choptiany.

Although they didn’t bring home a championship banner, Choptiany considers the 2010 season far from a failure. This was a rebuilding year for the team that lost many key starters after last year’s season Liam Hollett (’10), the team’s first year fly-half was named ACAA Rookie of the Year and players Matthew Baker (BA ’11), Justis Danto-Clancy (BA ’11), James Hutt (BA ’09), Ryan Macintosh (BA ’11) and William Robinson (BA ’12) were all named ACAA all-stars.

The team went 2-2 in regular season league games this year. The Blue Devils lost to Mount Allison in both of their league games, but convincingly beat the St. Thomas side twice.

The team will be traveling to Cuba in February to play local club sides on a tour that will lengthen their eight-week season, as well as contributing to the local community through volunteer work. This trip is also open to rugby team alumni. Interested former players should contact John Choptiany at jchoptiany@gmail.com.

—Alex Robinson (BA ’10)

On September 21, the CBC Sunday Edition and host Michael Enright hosted a panel discussion and open forum at Dalhousie University.

FYP Director Peggy Heller and King’s professor and author Laura Penny (BAH ’96) both participated in the panel, along with Ray Ivany of Acadia University, Jim Turk of the Canadian Association of University Teachers and Roxanne Dubois, Treasurer of the Canadian Federation of Students.

A number of King’s students were also in attendance and participated actively in the question and answer period that followed.

Attendees and panelists discussed the rising cost of a university education, to students, families and society and whether or not it pays off. You can listen to the complete broadcast at cbc.ca/thesundayedition/archives.html.

Recap : E ighth An n ua l Jose ph How e Sym p o s i u m On Friday, October 22, King’s hosted the Eighth Annual Joseph Howe Symposium, an annual event that encourages public interest in the issues surrounding writing, reporting and democracy. This year’s guests were award-winning novelist David Adams Richards and host of the fifth estate and a novelist in his own right, Linden MacIntyre. The two writers spent the weekend at King’s discussing the notion of truth-telling and how it applies to their craft. Friday night’s events included a question-and-answer session with the two writers hosted by CBC Mainstreet host Stephanie Domet. On Saturday the writers participated in a series of workshops hosted by Dean Jobb, Sue Newhook, David Swick and Sally Reardon. More photos of the event are available at the King’s Flickr feed at flickr.com/photos/ukings.

DID WE MISS SOMETHING?

We’re always looking for tips and stories about King’s grads, faculty and students in the news and across the world. Feel free to send us a tip at alison.lang@ ukings.ns.ca.

king’s news K i n g ’s L au nches a New M ast e rs o f Journali s m P r o g r a m wi th Da l King’s expects to welcome its first class of graduate students in June, 2011. King’s Faculty, King’s Board of Governors and the Dalhousie Senate recently approved a new Master of Journalism degree to be offered by the Dalhousie Faculty of Graduate Studies and the King’s School of Journalism. The historic degree is not only the first of its kind in the Maritimes, but the first in Canada to specialize in entrepreneurial, investigative and digital journalism.

King’s Director of Journalism Kelly Toughill consulted with King’s journalism grads and industry leaders in designing the program. “This degree is designed for students who know how to research, write and think like journalists, but who want to take their craft to the next level,” she says. “We believe this degree will help create the next generation of leaders in journalism.”

The MJ program will offer two streams of study. The New Ventures stream will focus on media entrepreneurship, teaching students how to strengthen their freelancing skills or develop new ventures in journalism.

Delivered partly in tandem with Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management, the program will conclude with a final project in which students present a viability study or a full business plan for a new venture.

The Investigative stream has been crafted to help students expand their investigative skills, and will feature a number of new deepresearch methods such as data scraping and data visualization techniques. Studies will

culminate in a professional investigative project, guided by an expert in the field.

The Master of Journalism program will be one year in length and is designed for people who already possess either a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, or extensive professional experience. Applications will open in January of 2011, with placements to be determined in March (pending the approval of the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission). Students are expected to arrive in June, 2011.

For more information, check out http://mj.ukings.info. You can also follow program updates on Twitter by following @kingsjournalism.

Ki n g ’s St ude nt He ads to UN Clim at e Confe re nces

Emilie Novaczek (BSc ’12) was in the King’s library working on a chemistry assignment when she learned she’d been chosen as one of 29 Canadian Youth Delegates who would be representing Canada at the http://cc2010.mx/en/about/ COP 16 United Nations Climate Change Meetings in Cancun, Mexico.

A longtime advocate for climate change awareness, Novaczek had already been designated as a member of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition’s Home Team, working as a liason between the Cancun meetings and Halifax. Through the encouragement of one of her sustainability professors, Novaczek submitted a Youtube video to the Coalition this past June in which she presented an impassioned plea for community involvement in green initiatives, along with an application that outlined her qualifications and skills.

She was selected for the Home Team in September and found out she was going to Cancun less than a month later.

Novaczek has been involved in environmental awareness since she was a young child growing up on Prince EdStudents in Sue Newhook’s television workshop prepare to do their ward Island. “I was first “stand ups.” Photo by Kelly Clark

going to fish kill protests with my parents when I was just a kid,” she says. Buoyed by a supportive family, Novaczek came to Halifax to pursue her passions through study.

And after COP 16? Novaczek says she isn’t sure if she’ll delve deeper into policy and negotiating as a career. She says she loves what she’s doing, and that’s enough for now.“If I’m involved now in the things I love, that will take me somewhere,” she says.

Emilie Novaczek attended COP 16 from November 29 to December 10. She updated her blog daily with photos and observations.

Check out http://emilienovaczek.ca.

King’s profs dissec t science fiction f i l ms i n Sit uSci film ser i es In October, while most film buffs were boning up on a Nightmare on Elm Street or The Exorcist, a group of professors and thinkers from Halifax universities fell deep into sci-fi.

The Sci Fi Movie and Panel Discussion Series was held each Tuesday in October in the Dalhousie Architecture and Planning Building on Spring Garden Road. There, the audience and panelists watched one of four science fiction films released in the last year and unpacked the meaning behind them afterwards.

The films screened were Surrogates, Moon, District 9 and Star Trek (the remake.)

The series was presented as part of the Situating Science Atlantic Node and primarily organized by Dalhouse Novel Tech Ethics postdoctoral fellow Andrew Fenton and Dalhousie philosophy professor Letitia Meynell.

The panelists came from a broad variety of disciplines and backgrounds—philosophy, science, computer technology and English —and included King’s HOST professors Melanie Frappier and Stephen Snobelen.

Snobelen says the screenings were well attended, with some screenings boasting over 80 people, and featured lively and highly intelligent discussion from both panelists and participants. From the suggestion of time paradoxes in Star Trek to notions of Platonic visual perfection in Surrogates, each week’s screening presented thoughtful and surprising ideas from a variety of disciplines.

“It was a really nice collaboration,” Snobelen says. “Hollywood films aren’t always intelligent, but these films showed there’s actually quite a lot going on under the surface.”

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The Rise and Rise of Steve Maich King’s BJ grad Steve Maich has navigated small-town politics, exposed fraud in Native communities and ticked off Conrad Black. Geoffrey Bird (BJ ’10) catches up with

Canadian Business’ newest editor and learns how his perseverance and devotion to ethics continue to keep him ahead of the pack.

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n the 12 years since Steve Maich (BJ ’98) graduated from King’s, he’s gone from being a reporter at a small weekly in Digby, Nova Scotia to editor-in-chief of Canada’s premier business magazine. Since the summer of 2009, he’s been at the helm of Canadian Business magazine, an influential publication that’s been around since 1928 and has a readership of 1.1 million. Maich’s career has always been marked by hard work and a persistence to dig deeper for the facts.

Maich developed a taste for hard news while reporting at King’s via The North End News, the predecessor to The Commoner.

Early on, he distinguished himself with an ability to peel back the layers of a story to find a new perspective.

His first story profiled the new CEO of the Halifax Public Libraries, Judith Hare, who wanted to improve operations by cut-

ting costs and laying off staff. Maich put the spotlight on the staff members that were affected.

“It was the first story that I did that felt like real reporting, and I was hooked,” Maich says. “It was also the first story where I realized that sometimes, doing the job means people will get angry with you.”

After graduation, Maich wanted to quickly get out and be a real journalist. Interning in Toronto and living with his parents didn’t sound attractive, so he sent off resumes to every reporting job that popped up. That’s how he ended up at The Digby Courier, a weekly community paper that covers a small town on the Bay of Fundy.

“I hired Steve fresh out of King’s knowing he was overqualified for the job of small town reporter—but he wanted to start his career at a community newspaper and it was great

having him here,” says John DeMings, editor of the Courier. “He handled news and feature stories with ease and quickly learned what lessons I might offer. I’ve worked with some talented reporters on daily and weekly newspapers, and Steve stands out in my mind.”

Maich said the experience was like something out of the novel The Shipping News, a story about an outsider’s challenges as a reporter in a small Newfoundland fishing community with a strong regional identity.

He says that the experience taught him valuable lessons.

“You quickly realize it’s a small world and this is an even smaller corner of it. What I write, people are going to read and I’m going to have to look my subjects in the eye every single day,” says Maich. “And when you write a story that the mayor likes or doesn’t like, he’s going to be in your office the next day

talking to you about it.”

He stayed in Digby for around five months before he was hired as a stringer for The Chronicle Herald’s valley bureau, getting paid for each story he filed.

He got the knack for quickly pounding off the story he was assigned in the morning— $45 if was published with a picture—so he could write a couple of news briefs, which would double his daily earnings.

Maich was hired on as staff less than a year later to work at the Herald’s Truro bureau, where he made a name for himself with a series of award-winning stories that exposed financial mismanagement on several First Nations reserves, including Eskasoni, Indian Brook and Acadia.

“I started to dig into some of the finances of those communities—who was getting money and who wasn’t,” Maich says. He had Tidings | winter 2010

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to earn their trust because First Nations financial statements were not subject to the Freedom of Information act at the time. The stories were “all reliant on members of the community leaking me financial documents,” he says.

Other members of the Halifax journalistic community agree that this story represented a significant for Maich as a reporter. “He was let into the native community at a time when they weren’t letting many outsiders in,” says Stephen Kimber, a longtime journalism professor at King’s.

Maich’s stories led to some band chiefs getting voted out, with at least one charged with fraud. “I wanted to show people something that I thought was important that nobody else could see,” he says.

He was then moved to Halifax to cover city hall. He wasn’t there long before he got a call out the blue from Doug MacKay, a former editor at The Daily News who was working with Bloomberg in Toronto. He asked Maich if he’d ever thought of being a business reporter.

“I said no, I’m not really interested but thanks for calling,” he laughs.

MacKay convinced him to take the job as a business columnist. It’s a decision that led to one opportunity after another. He moved from Bloomberg to The National Post, from

there to Maclean’s.

Throughout the years, Maich has always sought to challenge accepted truths and perceptions, regardless of what people might think. While working at The Post, he wrote a column that was among the first to detail the charges and allegations made against Conrad Black. Black didn’t own The Post at the time, but served on the board and was close to the Asper family who controlled the paper.

“I wanted to show people something that I thought was important that no one else could see.”

The article set off fireworks. Publisher David Asper ran a story a few days later that rebuked everything Maich had reported.

Shortly afterwards, the repercussions landed from an even loftier place.

“Conrad contacted me to make it clear in no uncertain terms that he thought I was an idiot,” says Maich.

More recently, Maich wrote a column for Maclean’s that was more sympathetic towards Black, arguing the former media

mogul had served his time and should be let out because he was convicted on narrow charges for an essentially victimless crime.

“I looked at (the case) and thought, ‘Ok, point made,’” Maich says. “He lost control of his company, he’s lost a huge chunk of his fortune, there’s absolutely no point in having this man sit in a correctional institution for the next six years.” The article was followed with fresh attacks where people accused him of cronyism with Black.

Since Maich took over Canadian Business in 2009, the magazine has been completely redesigned. He’s also kept busy in other realms, teaming up with Lianne George, a colleague from Maclean’s, to write Ego Boom: Why the World Really Does Revolve Around You. The book, released last year, examines some hard truths about Western society, revealing the flaws within the notion of selfactualization in consumer culture.

But even at what some might argue is the peak of his journalistic career, Maich says the path ahead will never be perfectly clear.

“I’ve been very fortunate in regards to the places and people I’ve worked with,” he says.

“If you go into journalism with a really rigid idea of where you’re going to end up, fate is just going to mock you.” ∂

a l u m n i g olf to u r n a m e n t This year’s Annual Alumni Golf Tournament—held August 13th, 2010—was the most successful yet. The final revenues have been calculated and thanks to the generousity of participants, sponsors and the Homburg Charitable Foundation, who donated the Sherwood Golf Course and Country Club for the day, the tournament raised $19,000 in total. This amount will fund 19 $1,000 student entrance awards. A special tip of the hat goes to Golf Committee Chair Larry Holman (’69) for his extraordinary work.

One team takes their frustration out on its weakest link, perhaps?

Photo by Alison Lang (BJ ’07)

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a l u m n i p r of i l e

Mordecai Walfish

Brains Beyond Books

By Lynette MacLeod (BJH ’11)

w

hen King’s professor Dr. Dorota Glowacka first encountered Mordecai Walfish (BAH ’07), he struck her as shy. He didn’t speak much.

“I felt he was quiet, and definitely not a confident public speaker,” she remembers.

However, once he did participate, she found herself rendered speechless.

“When he asked a question I’d either be stunned and not have an answer or I’d think about it for the next two weeks,” she recalls.

In some ways Mordecai Walfish is the embodiment of the typical King’s student.

There are photos of him lying exhausted and frustrated on his apartment floor in a bright red FYP hoodie. Dozens of research papers are scattered around him. His big floppy curly hair suggests he’s the type of person who has no time to bother with a haircut.

However, as a student, Walfish was exceptional. His achievements in CSP still ring through the faculty and students who graduated after him. Glowacka is one of many who can attest to Walfish’s special nature as a student.

“He taught me to really not judge a student by how they strike you at the first sight,” she says.

Glowacka says his work was also thoughtful and mature enough to make him stand out from his peers.

“That’s important, especially at King’s where there are a lot of students who have a high degree of self confidence which may not have that quality behind it,” she says.

Glowacka eventually hired Walfish as her research assistant as an undergrad when that position would usually be filled by a doctoral student. “I had more confidence in Mordecai than a graduate student. I really knew he would deliver and he delivered way better than I even thought,” she says.

When Walfish graduated from King’s, he found himself once again diverging from the pack.

He was initially enrolled in a five-year

PhD program at Northwestern University.

He completed one year of studies where he filled his Master’s requirements and left with his MA in comparative literature.

His change of heart came from a sudden realization that he wanted more than books could offer. To Walfish, Northwestern really lacked the passion, excitement and engagement of the world he had felt at King’s.

“It sort of made me think—do I really want to be spending the rest of my life in the library researching this stuff if I have no one to really talk to about it?” he says. “And I realized I don’t care that much about the material in and of itself. It was more about the community and the people, and that’s what I loved about academia.”

This sense of community colored each aspect of Walfish’s time in Halifax; his threepage resume boasts achievements such as starting a Holocaust education society and helping to bring the CSP society back to life.

He was also co-founder and co-chair of the Halifax Holocaust education week for three years, an initiative that’s now in its seventh year. He also edited the CSP journal and The Watch, stage-managed KTS productions and was President of the King’s Jewish Student’s Society.

Glowacka remembers Walfish’s ability to get his peers at King’s involved in whatever he was doing. “I really think he was so respected and just genuinely liked by people. He could draw people in to his projects and everyone would volunteer,” says Glowacka.

Outside of King’s, Walfish also worked as a research assistant, was a Canadian Jewish News columnist and landed his first big job in third year as the Director of Holocaust Education for the Atlantic Jewish Council.

On top of this, he received the Volunteer Recognition Award from the office of the mayor for tutoring at St. Agnes Junior High.

His close friend and fellow King’s grad, Shani Hamilton-Greenlaw (BAH ’07) says Walfish’s humility in light of all these accomplishments is rare. “FYP tends to breed a little bit of arrogance and in a certain respect rightly so,” she says.

Walfish in New York City. Photo courtesy of Mordecai Walfish

“But at no point would he flaunt the fact that he was pulling A’s all the time. He does get stressed out, but not in a way that is toxic to anyone—which is a skill and not something that most people can manage.”

Walfish is now at NYU and is a full-time student in a master’s program for public administration with a focus on non-profit management. He is set to graduate this May. He also works full-time as the Assistant Director of the Jewish Policy Archive at NYU. His job at the archive relates “very tangentially” to his education at King’s. Day to day he supervises graduate students and does budgeting.

Still, he says his time at King’s brought a great deal of confidence that allows him to thrive. “King’s taught me how to think and how to read and write. It is definitely with me every day,” he says.

At 26, Walfish’s hair is clipped and professional. Last year, he received the Wexner Graduate Fellowship from the Wexner Foundation that trains future professional Jewish leaders. However, he says he’s still unsure about his future plans. He simply hopes to continue engaging with the world around him.

“I’m confident that I’ll find different opportunities that are exciting, interesting and useful to the world,” he says. “But I don’t know exactly what form that will take yet.” ∂

Tidings | winter 2010

9

“rough theatre is what we do” As the King’s Theatrical Society celebrates its 80th year, alumni share tales of the experiments, failures, triumphs, dead rats and chaos that formed the wild, mad and lovely world of King’s theatre.

Compiled by Alison Lang (BJ ’07) With files from Griffin McInnes (BAH ’11) and Lauren Naish (BAH ’11)

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Tidings | winter 2010

2010 marks the 80th Anniversary of the King’s Theatrical Society. Of course, even that point is up for debate; according to some archival records, theatre at King’s dates all the way back to 1880, when the Record printed skits written in parodies of Shakespearean English. With this point in mind, we would like to warn that the following rough “timeline” is in no way comprehensive. The bloodline of the King’s theatre tradition goes far deeper than the following string of anecdotes, culled from a series of interviews and a dip into the King’s archives. We do hope that these accounts offer a brief glimpse of some of the Society’s liveliest eras and moments.

1968: King’s Studio Theatre (later to be re-named the Pit) is unveiled.

DeWolf: The King’s dances were happening and there was money lying around. So the Studio Theatre under the Chapel was built. It was originally called the Cultural Complex … it was supposed to be for concerts, plays and other performances. The place was cleaned out, scoured and never made waterproof. The floors were stained and there were blue fiberglass curtains. Very colourful and attractive.

1951: A much-celebrated production of T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the

Cathedral is presented at the Cathedral Church of All Saints in Halifax. For his performance as Thomas Beckett, student Clive Rippon received the award for best individual player of the year.

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1930: The King’s College Dramatic Society was founded. The first play, according to the archival notes of King’s student David Hugill (BAH ’04), was The Pot Boiler, directed by Professor Bennet.

Mark De Wolf (BAH ’68): “King’s students have always put on plays, even if it was in front of a bedsheet or something. My father was in plays at King’s in the 1930s. In one of them, I believe he played a girl.”

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1964: Theatre at King’s is distilled into three different areas: Theatre in Three-Quarters— (an evening of one-act plays performed in the Haliburton Room—and later in the King’s gym—with the audience seated around three sides of stage), The Bay Plays and one big production in spring.

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1970-71: High school English teacher Tony Johnstone begins using Studio The-

atre for summer productions. He also directs King’s Dramatic and Choral Society productions of Othello and the Duchess of Malfi.

DeWolf: In The Duchess of Malfi, staged in the “Cultural Complex” (CC) in 1970, I believe, Kathleen Soares, who was playing the Duchess, was nearly strangled on stage by “cords” that had been arranged to not harm her, but somehow they didn’t work the way they were supposed to, and Kathleen had a few very bad moments.

Sometime in the early ’70s: The Studio Theatre is painted black and dubbed “The Pit.”

DeWolf: So they painted it black—all studio theatres are painted black. People started calling it The Pit. I’m not sure where the name came from. Previously, there had been a room in the basement of Alex Hall where people would go to make out, and it was called the “Passion Pit.” So that might have had something to do with it.

Tidings | winter 2010

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Throughout the 1970’s and 80’s, the Society averages around two productions per year. Sometime in the 80s, the name changes to the King’s Theatrical Society. By the mid-80s, the group had shrunk.

John Stiles (BA ’89): The KTS was very loosely organized in 1986. It featured an annual series of one-act plays in October.

There were a few committed Dal Theatre and King’s Journalism students who kept it going. I was at a party in the Wardroom during frosh week and somebody said there was a spot in a play in the King’s Pit and would I like to audition for it? It was so easy to get to. I remember the heated corridors and the banging pipes of the environment … I liked the girl who suggested this to me, Jill.

I think she was related to Anne Murray, so I took her advice and got the part too. The play was called Flowers. It was about a grieving couple who had lost their daughter in a terrible accident. The female lead was a journalism student, and for some reason we didn’t get along, which was funny because the role was supposed to be “supportive husband.” So I must have been a good actor.

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The KTS began to move into more student-written territory, spearheaded by Michael Melski in the early ’90s.

“Workshop” performances became common, with one or two “mainstage” productions happening at the same time.

Alex MacLean (BAH ’96): One of the reasons I went to King’s was because of the KTS. I was debating between going to FYP or McGill. I knew a guy who was in his second or third year of Dal theatre who told me and my high school friends that we should see this show at King’s called Heroes and Villains. I was really excited by it and I definitely wanted to be a part of what was happening.

The first time I auditioned for a show, I was nervous. There was always kind of an unpretentious feeling around the KTS but I was nervous anyway. The show I was in didn’t have a name for the longest time. I loved that DIY aesthetic—if you wanted to do a play, you could do one, and as a result all these crazy half-formed plays got staged. It was very welcoming.

Sometimes it was frustrating too. It used to be that literally one show would finish and the other would move in. I remember one night, this elaborate musical was happening, and the show I was in was moving into the Pit the next day. I went in and the set hadn’t been dismantled yet. It was a musical revue, Oklahoma or something, and I remember picking up an Oklahoma wagon and just hurtling it against the wall in a fit of rage (laughs.) Other than that, it was great. Things got done.

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Tidings | winter 2010

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1990-1991: The Society goes through a resurgence of sorts, with

writers producing plays at prolific rates. A newsletter in 1991 notes that there were 8 productions in the 1990-1991 academic year. A number of sellouts were reported. “The KTS are definitely doing something right,” the newsletter’s writer concludes.

Michelle Horaczek (BA ’91): In my first year there was too much work with FYP and also I think I was still a bit shy to plunge into performing intensely. I know I wanted to do it, but I hadn’t really had any big experiences yet as an actress. But between my first and second year at King’s I received an award to attend RADA in London for the summer training program. This was an intensive experience that changed me.

When I returned from the summer holidays at the beginning of my second year it seems I ran into Mike Melski almost immediately in the entrance hall of the college. He approached me to audition for The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard, and before I knew it I was deep into rehearsals, playing “Moon.”

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In 2001, a new group of theatre-mad students arrived at King’s, and a

group of them would form the KTS Executive that would re-write the constitution, install new equipment and eventually shape the Society’s future path.

Jessie Fraser (former Pit manager, BAH ’06): I learned an indescribable amount during my time in that wonderfully dank hallway below the Chapel. When I became an exec member, we were inspired by the group before us, who made a concerted effort to make the society an inclusive group. I think beforehand it was more like a group of people who wanted to do their own shows rather than facilitate an environment where anyone could do a show.

We acted (we thought) like a “real company”—we had weekly meetings with agendas and arguments about policy and budgets, and we chose a season each semester with the intention of including as wide a variety of shows and students as possible. There was an infamous 24-hour meeting, where we decided we wouldn’t quit until all seven of us were in total agreement of the project selections for that season.

We bought new lights and a new LED light board, and had enough surplus over the next two years to build new risers, buy new chairs and create a new lighting and tool storage room below the booth.

Matthew Hunt Gardner (BA ’06): We got the executives to bring Classics in the Quad to the library steps. We had to postpone the performance one year because of Hurricane Juan. It was a little colder doing classic Greek theatre in togas.

Jessica Davey-Quantick (BJH ’07): I remember coming into the Pit after Hurricane Juan had flooded it, to encounter an impeccably dressed KTS’er, heels, hair, makeup, done to the nines in theatrical way, holding a shovel with several dead rats in it.

2010: The 2010-2011 KTS season features seven plays, plus a dance show and the Frynje Festival. Shows frequently sell out. The Society has maintained the same constitution for the past decade and productions involve a huge cross-spectrum of the King’s community. Theatre culture at King’s is clearly alive and well and continues to thrive.

Horacek: My fondest memory of the KTS is ANY given rehearsal. I made some deep friends. And I learned an enormous amount. But at some point I realized that I needed really solid training. We were all running on instinct and intuition.

At King’s we were all at the same level of experience, and none of us had any real training in “craft” yet. But King’s is where I made my first experiments. And it was those first experiments that gave me the courage

to keep experimenting, for the rest of my life.

Davey-Quantick: There was a joke that when your grades tanked it meant you were in a play, and that was pretty true— (the KTS) sucked your life, in a nice way.

Maclean: It was really hard then to do a student production at Dal —there were all these forms and charts to submit—so it was amazing that the most theatre on the campus was happening at King’s. It wasn’t necessarily the best theatre, but I think it’s where a lot of people learned their chops.

Fraser: I think the best thing about the KTS is its transiency—it can be one thing one year and something completely different the next—but always it is about students coming together in a space to tell stories, to play. ∂ Accidental Death of an Anarchist

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2001: The Perils of Professor Plexiglass

about the play as it was being developed

Gardner: My fondest memory would be the Perils of Professor Plexiglass. It was the very first KTS production that I was part of and this was before I came to realize what was safe and not safe to do in the pit.

There were a lot of things that happened in that show, and it’s a good thing they don’t happen again. Like fire.

Fraser: We set it in a coffee shop. I wore a wedding dress from Value Village and I gave birth, onstage, to a California raisin in a polyester blue suit—this was because I refused to birth a bowl of porridge. A 40 of Kahlua was thrown into the audience. I think I remember some glass being broken and some bloody feet.

Fraser: That was my first play in the pit. A lot of people didn’t know how to deal with the script when we first got it—it was very soon after September 11 and the original concept was pretty provocative. I think the cast size dropped by half after our first meeting.

Bent: Closing night was a whole other level. One cast member smashed a 40 oz bottle of Kahlua on the stage. Then one of the actors threw a pie. There was pie all over chairs and an audience member.

Then Nate decided, during his big musical number, to begin dancing on the broken glass from the forty—he sliced his feet up pretty badly, but continued doing the show. Now there is pie, tomato, fake afterbirth, blood and beer on the stage (and on the walls). Audience confusedly applauses and leaves at the end, and Nate goes to clean up his cut feet.

Elliot Bent (BA ’06): The main character actor, writer and director (some would say mastermind) was Nate Woolaver. He played Professor Plexiglass, who never wore shoes, just shopping bags on his feet.

Fraser: I remember cutting and dying Nate’s hair in my Alexandra Hall room.

John Duncan (former King’s EMSP professor): Nate Woolaver had asked me to be faculty sponsor for the Perils of Professor Plexiglass. I did not know anything

Fraser: Almost no one came to see the show. I remember John Duncan standing up clapping at the end of one night.

Bent: John Duncan said it was the best piece of theatre he had ever seen.

John Duncan: I thought it was a brilliant

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piece of theatre. What emerged in waves of seemingly unchoreographed activity was a total poetry of being. At rhythmic intervals, complex nodes of sound, language, action, movement and light were directed through the whole theatrical space.

Fraser: I suppose I could tell you that it was based on a King’s professor and it made a lot of people angry. Our KTS budget was revoked.

Gardner: It was sort of a little messy-type situation, but nobody that got involved in it was actually banned. But the KTS sort of took its name off the show.

Fraser: I think there was something that kept the rest of us there, an anger we related to, a sense of humor and satire that didn’t care about what you might think.

The show—and the group I met because of it—changed my life. I cannot stop thinking that it was something incredibly special and that I was surrounded by some fantastically beautiful people—even and especially the ones that got us in trouble.

Gardner: It was a fun and crazy show, and it was a learning experience of things not to do.

Tidings | winter 2010

13

L I V ES L I V ED

C. Denne Burchell

He’s Got the Jazz

by Jordan Parker (BJH ’12)

Denne Burchell (BA ’49) at play (on clarinet) and during graduation. Photos: King’s College Record 1949

j

ustice Charles Denne Burchell (BA ’49) graduated with a degree in law from Dalhousie University, but it was the saxophone he truly loved to practice.

Burchell graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from King’s in 1949, and later practiced law for years, retiring from the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 1989.

He passed away in Cape Breton Regional Hospital on June 17th, 2010, and former bandmate Jack Wilcox (BA ’49) remembers his days playing jazz with Burchell fondly.

“We started as a trio, and Denne had friends on Oxford Street who let us use their recreation room to practice. Denne came a few practices in, and said he found stand-up bassist and trumpet player,” Wilcox said.

This was how the trio became the Denne Burchell Five. Wilcox says the band was well received.

“It was hard to move drums and the bass to gigs far away, but Denne used to talk his way into getting us transportation. We were getting $100 for every gig,” says Wilcox.

The group wore King’s gowns onstage, and travelled as far as Mount Allison University for gigs. However, there was one gig that stood out from all the rest.

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Tidings | winter 2010

“One night we played a gig at the Brightwood Golf Club on New Years Eve. We got double our usual fee, and we played until 3am. We got showered with dollar bills while we were onstage,” says Wilcox.

He remembers Burchell as an enthusiastic band leader.

“If the band had ever missed a note, he was quick to pass it with a smile, and then we’d have a gentle corrective discussion at its conclusion,” says Wilcox.

“His favorite phrase was ‘way to go’. It was a Cape Breton expression at the time, sort of the equivalent to thumbs up. It applied to Cape Breton in spades at the time, and Denny came out with that phrase often,” says Wilcox.

Denne’s daughter Susan Burchell says her father’s love for music was clear throughout her childhood.

“He loved his music. It touched his soul, it was an emotional and spiritual thing for him. It resonated in him,” she says.

“He talked more about other people than his own abilities. He talked about different gigs. He would be pretty humble about it all, but he certainly loved it.”

As for the Denne Burchell Five, the band ended once Wilcox and bandmate Ron Ripley finished school at King’s.

“I think it dissolved quite naturally when we broke apart,” says Wilcox Eventually the time came for Burchell to choose between further studies in law or music. The Dean pulled him in, and said, ‘Look, you gotta choose, what’re you gonna do?’ He was playing music in university, but was told to choose between musician and lawyer. So he went to law school,” says Burchell.

Still, music and the arts were always pivotal elements in Burchell’s life.

“He would write plays, and his friends would gather, and they’d all have parts,” his daughter recalls. “They’d have jazz weekends, and people would put on the plays. You never knew what was next with my dad. It was a constant barrage of activity.”

Burchell recalls one night her dad was struck by a bolt of creativity and made a mermaid out of clay he had dug out of the bands of the family’s cottage. “He painted it gold so it shone in the light by our cottage,” she says.

“Boaters would see it flickering, and come to see what the heck it was.”

“Life was good to him,” his daughter says.

“And he was constantly trying to make it a better place.”

“It was an honour and a privilege to have him as my father.” ∂

FYP Texts A Privileged Dedication

By Dr. Thomas Curran, Assistant Professor, Foundation Year Programme

Dr. Thomas Curran. Photo by Alison Lang

i

am sure many readers have wondered about the title page of T.S. Eliot’s epic poem of 1922, The Waste Land.

The title page, which contains any number of mysteries, acts as a kind of preamble to the poem as a whole. And not least of the puzzles this opening salvo presents is that readers are expected to cope with three additional languages (Greek, Latin, Italian) even before this supposedly English-language poem begins.

Of exceptional significance is the dedication of the poem to Ezra Pound, who we are informed—by a quotation from Dante’s Comedy—is il miglior fabbro [the better craftsman]. This is an allusion to Canto xxvi of Dante’s Purgatorio and has been appended to every edition of the poem since 1925. Pound famously required Eliot to reduce the size of the manuscript version of The Waste Land from nearly 1,000 lines to a final, very trim 434 lines of verse. The operative poetic principle here is Pound’s conviction that “dichten [the art of composing poetry] = condensare” —a definition he discovered serendipitously in a German-Latin dictionary. I am sure that I am not alone in thinking that, if Pound had not exercised this act of compression upon

Eliot’s manuscript, The Waste Land might not be a contender for the most important English-language poem of the 20th Century.

The (wholly deserved) honour offered by this dedication to Ezra Pound is deeper than one might think. Exactly a century ago, in 1910, Pound published a book about the European literary tradition, entitled The Spirit of Romance. Part of this endeavour was to evaluate the expression of “romance” in the troubadour tradition—so essential for Dante’s Comedy. The second chapter of Pound’s study is actually entitled il miglior fabbro, and this chapter’s central concern is the verse of the Provençal troubadour, Arnaut Daniel (or Arnaldo Daniello), who flourished between 1180 and 1200. In Canto xxvi of Purgatorio, he is the original recipient of the epithet: “the better craftsman”.

The person offering this lavish praise in Canto xxvii is the Italian poet Guido Guinizelli, who died while Dante was still a child, but whom Dante describes as his “father” in the poetic style which he himself adopted. In fact, Dante informs Guinizelli during this encounter: “Your sweet poems... will make precious their very ink” (tr. by Robert Durling). Guinizelli’s response, however, is only to point from himself, so as to heap the very greatest praise upon this Provençal troubadour of the previous century.

However compressed and obscure readers may find this potted history of Romance poetry and song, it does provide a profound and moving insight into the mechanics of poetic inheritance. I have not yet indicated that Canto xxvi in Dante’s Purgatorio concerns the terrace reserved for those consumed by lustful passion, the final expiation of the socalled seven deadly sins.

There are three moments of very great interest here: i) Arnaut Daniel was associated with a style of poetry designated as trobar clus, which literally meant a “closed” form of poetry, opaque, obscure and complex, and one standing in immediate contrast with trobar clar, which, as the name obviously suggests, preferred clarity of expression to the gnomic style now linked to Arnaut Daniel. If Eliot’s dedication to Pound is considered in this

light, then we can certainly agree that Pound is “the better craftsman”: even a passing acquaintance with Pound’s poetry, prose, and correspondence must acknowledge him as a Modernist “master” of trobar clus. ii) In Dante’s Comedy (Canto xxvi), Arnaut Daniel is given the unique privilege of reciting his own poetry in his own native Occitan tongue—some hymns are cited in Latin, and Nimrod is also allowed to spout some gibberish in the pit of Hell (Canto xxxi) in order to remind us of his role in the destruction of our common language at Babel—but otherwise this is an unparalleled tribute. iii) Arnaut Daniel’s recitation of eight lines of his (untranslated) verse is followed immediately by a single line of Dante’s Italian; this is how Canto xxvi then definitively concludes. It is worth reproducing this concluding verse (line 148) to Canto xxvi, because it is cited without alteration as Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina and appears seven lines before the end of Eliot’s epic poem. Eliot does nothing to help the reader understand this beyond pointing us towards Canto xxvi, and also reproducing (in his notes) the last three lines of the Provençal troubadour’s poetry. This concluding line may be translated (following Durling): “Then he hid himself in the fire that refines them.” This is the purifying fire that burns out all the last vestiges of lust, as the penitents prepare to enter Paradise.

Here is a poetic device wonderful beyond description. First, it highlights Eliot’s determination, in The Waste Land, to discover how “in my end is my beginning” (East Coker), since we have references to the genius of Arnaut Daniel both on the title page and in the conclusion of the poem, so many pages later.

Secondly, the fire into which Arnaut Daniel jumps is an annealing fire, by which the amor which is the basis of Dante’s Comedy is, in him, purified, strengthened and hardened. The impurities are all burnt off, if we may speak this way. Here is surely the highest possible tribute to Ezra Pound: as Eliot said later in his career, Pound’s annealing, purifying fire had succeeded in transforming The Waste Land “from a jumble of good and bad passages into a poem”.∂ Tidings | winter 2010

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Ha ppe ning on Campus

Introducing the King’s Chorus and Orchestra Two brand-new ensembles bring an inclusive approach to music

by Lelani Graham-Laidlaw (BJH ’12)

Photos: Rachel Wallace (BAH ’14)

m

onday nights at King’s are noisy. There’s a DJ blasting music from the Wardroom, but back in the chapel, everything is quiet and heavy. Chaplain Gary Thorne is the only one here, puttering about at the end of a long day. As members of the King’s Chorus drift in for rehearsal Thorne greets everyone with a smile and most by name.

The King’s Chorus is one of two new musical ensembles formed at King’s in the past year. Along with the King’s Orchestra, which came into being this past September, the Chorus is open to a wide spectrum of musicians in and around the King’s community. Both ensembles aim to be inclusive and help musicians and singers grow in a fun and lively atmosphere.

The chairs at the back of the chapel collect backpacks, sweaters, a few bikes, and there’s lots of chatter in the air. “It smells like Christmas in here, not like fake Christmas—like real home Christmas,” says one chorister, and at least four people nearby smile and nod. There are a few scattered professors and staff members—auditions for the King’s Chorus are open to all alumni, staff, and faculty as well as students.

Eventually the choristers wander through the thin dark wood columns and into the pews near the front of the chapel, where Nick Halley, the Chorus’ director, has set up a keyboard. With 44 choristers tonight, the Chorus fills up two thirds of the chapel’s pews.

Halley starts the choir through a series of scales, “oohs”, and “aahs” to warm up, teaching intervals and a lesson on blending voices as he goes. When the voices blend properly, they resonate like a giant bell.

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Tidings | winter 2010

There is an issue with finding a fourth interval now, however, and no one’s voice is on the same note as anyone else’s. Halley stops the choir to demonstrate. “Ma-ri-a!” He sings a few lines from the musical West Side Story. “Now, whenever anyone asks you to find a fourth, just think, Ma-ri-a!” Everyone laughs at his antics, before he has them quiet down to try it again.

His father, King’s Chapel Music Director Paul Halley, brought Nick to Halifax to take up a Musician-in-Residence apprenticeship at King’s, two years ago (He is now Assistant Music Director at King’s.). Last year, Nick and a soft-spoken chorister seated in the back row, Ted Williams (BAH ’11), were the ones who drove the formation of the chorus. “All these people just had nowhere else to go, so Ted and I decided to start this,” says Halley.

“We thought if 30 people show up for auditions, then we know we should do it,” Halley says. “Then 80 people showed up.”

Williams is a fifth-year King’s student who was president of the King’s Concert Collective (now the King’s Musical Society) last year. He teamed up with Halley to form the Chorus as an offshoot of his work with the King’s Concert Collective to make music more accessible at King’s.

“The Chorus is part of that, to create more opportunities and just create an impetus for music,” says Williams. “It’s not so much an alternative as it is meeting the demands of students.”

Seated a few bodies away from Williams, Heather Ross (BJH ’12) auditioned for the Chapel Choir in first year but did not get in because she couldn’t read music. She’s been singing since she was

14 but never in a choir, and the Chorus offered her an opportunity to learn. “It’s just a great little experience, learning how to sing,” she says, “It’s nice to get involved in something that I never really got a chance to do.”

In rehearsal there are many laughs and few yawns. This is a week filled with midterms for most students, but the energy stays all through rehearsal. By 8pm, Halley calls it a night and pews dissolve into talk once more as everyone leaves slowly.

Over in Prince Hall, at the same time of night, the yawn count is even lower. Under the gaze of past King’s Presidents and plastic pumpkins, the Strings section of the King’s Orchestra is sight reading the last section of Beethoven’s First Symphony.

Orchestra secretary Fay Bontje, seated near the Prince Hall doors, beams with pleasure. “You should see them (all) play the romantics!” she says, waving her hands to mime an explosion.

Bontje is described by her co-founder, the Orchestra’s Music Director and Conductor John Bogardus, as an “antichrist of a secretary” for the Orchestra. She organizes and drives the whole show.

Her laptop is open to a design for the Orchestra’s inaugural concerts tickets, set to go on sale the next day in the King’s Bookstore.

Bontje and Bogardus met in the King’s Chapel choir last summer, and talked about starting an orchestra. They had their work cut out for them—Bogardus points out that most orchestras have a staff, a board of directors, and volunteers to do the background work these two took on themselves. “This is not something for the faint of heart,” he says.

“Luckily enough, that’s not something that occurred to us until we’d already started,” says Bontje. “We should write a blog on how to start an orchestra in 20 days.”

That’s how long it took for them to set up an amateur orchestra with nearly 40 musicians and a scholarship program that aims to

prepare anyone for the level of music that the orchestra plays. Bontje and Bogardus pair prospective musicians with teachers willing to offer lessons at a rate that’s affordable on a student budget. There is some funding for musicians who need it, provided in part by the King’s Students’ Union. Through that funding Bontje has been able to provide 15 music stands, though she talks wistfully about being able to provide more—more lessons, more stands, maybe instruments. In the meantime though, they’ve got some help—Food Services manager Celine Beland has given them free reign of Prince Hall, while EMSP Director Neil Robertson donated a cello from his basement.

“The support (from everyone at King’s) has been overwhelming... I just don’t think this would happen in another school,” says Bontje.

There will be more auditions in January, and people are still streaming in from everywhere—not just King’s but NSCC, NSCAD, Mount Allison, and beyond.

Leslie Smith is one example of someone just joining the King’s community through music. She is a music teacher who moved to Halifax for her husband’s job at Dalhousie. A slight lady with greying hair who plays the bassoon part on her clarinet, she says at first she found rehearsals intimidating. “I haven’t auditioned for something in many, many years,” she says. This is “getting me right back into it now... I love it.”

Bogardus says that the new music ensembles at King’s encourage quality training that’s also accessible to anyone who is interested.

“Paul Halley likes to say that kids coming to King’s get one of those high ‘Ox-Bridge’ educations with all the opportunities as far as music goes,” he says.

Near the end of rehearsal Bontje leans over to whisper, “I’m crazy to do this, but look at this—this is why I do it!” As she sits and watches the Orchestra laugh, her face is split by a giant grin. ∂

D r . S a u l g r e e n m e mo r i a l l e ct u r e This year’s Dr. Saul Green Memorial Lecture was hosted in Ondaatje Hall on Tuesday, October 19. This year’s lecture was presented by the Right Honorable Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and was titled “The Challenge of Mental Illness in the Justice System.” The Chief Justice’s lecture was characterized by a compassionate approach to mental illness and the adjustments and paradigms the justice system needs to bridge in order to ensure the mentally ill are tried fairly and treated with understanding. Many thanks to the Green family, Shaar Shalom Synagogue and all who attended this enlightening discussion.

The Green family with Chief Justice MacLachlin (in print jacket, centre) Photo by Josh Apostolopoulos (BAH ’14)

Tidings | winter 2010

17

S M AS H ING P U M pKINS WI T H H O S T

On a crisp October afternoon, Associate Professor of Humanities Stephen Snobelen took his Scientific Revolution class out to the fire escapes of the quad and conducted a pumpkin dropping experiment to test velocity—with messy results.

Photos by Alison Lang (BJ ’07)

wa r d r oom r e n ovat i o n s a n d r e d e s i g n l au n ch On November 6, members of the King’s community gathered in the Wardroom to check out a series of renovations that took place in the Wardroom over this past summer thanks to the Wardroom Renovation Fund, including a new fridge, cold room and six new tap lines. The Halifax design firm Breakhouse then made a presentation of a proposed redesign for the Wardroom based off of suggestions made by King’s students, staff, faculty and alumni.

King’s alumni Premier Darrell Dexter (BJ ’83) and Daniel de Munnik (BSc ’02) pose with a King’s Karnival mug from 1980.

Photo by Alison Lang (BJ ’07)

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Tidings | winter 2010

a r t s a n d c u lt u r e artists did you find particularly compelling or inspirational?

Halifax had an international reputation for its’ independent music scene, and I soaked it all in. Before turning 19 I frequented the Pavilion and saw some amazing acts, like Moneen, Piggy, Slight Return, A/V and Al Tuck (BA ’88). Al’s humour, laid-back stage presence, and beautiful songs inspired me a great deal.

He was a hero who became a friend.

Front: Mary-Beth Carty (BAH ’03) and songwriting partner “Wallet” (Gabriel F. Ouelette).

Photo courtesy of bette-wallet.com

m u s i c I ’ m l i sten i n g to Mary-Beth Carty BAH ’03

Mary-Beth Carty (BAH ’03) started her music career playing open-mic nights in the King’s Wardroom. She’s now an accomplished singer-songwriter and performs as one half of the folk duo Bette and Wallet (Gabriel F. Ouellette is the “Wallet” of the pair.) Their 2008 debut album Voici…Bette and Wallet was nominated for an ECMA in the Roots and Traditional Recording category. Their music is a multicultural kaleidoscope, drawing from a wide array of influences, and the pair have adopted the concept of “recycled music,” adding new lyrics to traditional melodies., Mary-Beth shared some of her favorite musical influences with us while at home in Quebec City in between tours.

You grew up in Antigonish—how did your surroundings and upbringing influence your musical development?

My mother is an operatic-choir singer, my

father a Glaswegian philosopher who plays the blues, and my cousins are either famous Maritime fiddlers or Americans with extensive pop-culture knowledge. And Antigonish has an amazing performing arts scene, with professional summer theatre and a university curated music series. I grew up in the county and there were ceilidhs in our neighborhood every summer. Perhaps all this explains why I appreciate and practice so many different styles.

How did your musical horizons broaden when you moved to Halifax? Which

In your biography it mentions that you played in a Brazilian folk band in Quebec.

How did this come to pass? How important is “culture”—both the general idea of culture and the amalgamation of different cultures—in your music?

I met Flavia Nascimento, this amazing Brazilian singer-percussionist-clown, at a party and we started practicing together the following week. I also joined her Maracatou band and became the cowbell player! Playing Brazilian folk music brought me to become more interested in my own roots music and I began jamming with Quebecois musicians.

Quebec City has an amazing community of Celtic musicians—we are all best friends.

Our imaginations are bombarded and colonized by mass-media from the time we are born. As an artist, I am dedicated to the liberation of imagination, in my own little musical way. The new album we are working on is a commentary on American mass-culture.

It’s a collection of songs and instrumentals played on electric guitar and bass, the original 20th century instruments of cultural imperialism. Rockband meets Irish rebel fiddler. Amalgamating music from different cultures allows me to express who I am, what I’ve seen and done, who I’ve met, and who I hope to meet! When you start discovering the intricacies of old music, you see how all humanity is interconnected. ∂

MARY-BETH CARTY ’S FI VE FAVORITE SONGS (artist, album and genre)

Alla Fagra — Vata Pussar (Nordic Tradition) Crowfoot — As the Crow Flies (Independent) Khevrisa European Klezmer Music (Smithsonian) Howie, Dave, & Mac Live — West Mabou Hall (Independent) Michel Faubert — La fin du monde (La Tribu)

Tidings | winter 2010

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a r t s a n d c u lt u r e

books i’m rea d ing FYP tutor edition

Matt Furlong

Martin Sastri

Lisa Moore February (2009) Lisa Moore, like me, hails from St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her work stands out for me in part because it tells St. John’s stories in the now, not in the mythologized nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which have occupied a lot of Newfoundland literature: her stories could happen anywhere, which allows their locality to enjoy a kind of freedom in the plot. Her style, though, may be even more important: it’s robust, polyphonous, even violent. I deeply admire her skill at showing how fleeting events synthetically produce familiar percepts which we often take for granted: “Every puddle reflected cloud and a white burning sun the size of a quarter. As Helen walked past the streaks of water on the asphalt, the white quarters slid along the length of the puddles until traffic sent a shiver through and broke the reflection apart in concentric rings so that the water became, for an instant, transparent and she could see the mud and cigarette butts and brown leaves beneath” (February, 36). Moore renders this perceptual complex explicit and makes it available in a new, objective yet singular way.

RZA The Tao of Wu I spend my hardwon leisure turning the pages of The Tao of Wu, a book written by pioneering hiphop DJ and WuTang Clan member the RZA. Equal parts autobiography and spiritual reflection, the book offers a much closer view into one of the greatest musical minds of the last two decades. I particularly enjoy how the RZA explains how his music, which is too often misunderstood as violent and aggressive, contains at its core a reflection on the state of peace.

Gilles Deleuze Difference and Repetition (1968) I’ve been thinking along with Deleuze for about eight years now, and Difference and Repetition, which he referred to as his first book of really “doing” philosophy, continues to have a very strong pull on me. It’s truly a thinking-book, a problem-book, a livingbook: five chapters, four that work through problems of ontology and epistemology, and which frame an astonishing third chapter entitled “The Image of Thought”. That chapter articulates philosophy as a way of life, or at least as a possibility for life, with many different “ways”. It’s a work of confidence, sobriety, rigor, and humorous warmth.

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Tidings | winter 2010

N.M. Haring, ed.

Commentaries on Boethius As one of the primary sources for my doctoral thesis, I am currently reading the Commentaries on Boethius by Thierry of Chartres and His School, ed. N.M. Haring. The volume contains reflections from the spheres of theology, cosmology, and mathematics, all of which depend on an emanationist metaphysics. It is an exciting testament to the intellectual adventurousness of the twelfth century, as well as to the general, medieval tendency to amplify the confines of a given text from within, in the form of commentary.

Victoria Goddard Russell Page Education of a Gardener In the winter, when I despair of apartment gardening, and out of pure interest, I read gardening books.

Education of a Gardener is more of a retrospective

memoir, but contains a wealth of practical landscape and garden design advice. The author, a noted English garden designer, describes the gardens he has made and the lessons he has learned along the way, and as there are many of both, the book is engrossing. It is not where I would suggest starting if one is new to garden writing; there are relatively few photographs and the author assumes a moderate knowledge of botanical names and gardening terms. However, it evokes time and place well—great gardens of England and Europe during the nineteen thirties and fifties—and I found much fodder for my garden dreaming over the coming winter.

Madeleine L’Engle The Summer of the Great Grandmother I rediscovered several books while packing to move this summer, among which were Madeleine L’Engle’s children’s novels, and was led on by circuitous paths to her adult nonfiction and poetry. The Summer of the Great Grandmother is the second volume of three in the “Crosswicks Journal,” named after L’Engle’s house in the country. All three books are musings on writing, life, faith, and family, and the relationship of these to each other. This book deals particularly with memory and loss, describing the summer the author spent nursing her dying mother at home. The book is arranged in three parts: the stories of the current summer, the period where her mother descends into senility and death and L’Engle herself is forced to take on what had been her mother’s role in the family; and finally, around the history of their relationship as mother and daughter and the wider history of her family and her mother’s life. The book is moving and beautifully written; L’Engle is unflinching in her readiness to address difficult questions with no easy answers.

Laura Zebhur Cabinet A friend recently told me about the magazine Cabinet, which I just love. It’s modeled on the historical “cabinet of curiosities” of the Renaissance, which essentially collected objects

a r t s a n d c u lt u r e

books i’m rea d ing FYP tutor edition

that didn’t know how to be collected—things that had yet to be categorized. Each issue of Cabinet takes a topic and treats it through several genres and disciplines. The topics range from philosophically tricky concepts like “evil” and “friendship,” to seemingly marginal material phenomena like “dust,” “bubbles,” and “bones.” The magazine addresses each topic through poetry, visual art, scientific reports, political manifestos, recipes and interviews, among other approaches.

J.M. Coetzee Summertime I’m also starting J.M.Coetzee’s latest book, Summertime, which is the third volume of his fictionalized memoirs. Coetzee lived much of his life in South Africa and he is my

favorite living author. Certain lines and scenes from his books have tormented me for years. This is not because they are disturbing (which they can be), but because they are so condensed and ambiguous that they elude any easy or satisfying interpretation. His books have always helped me think through philosophical questions and literary problems, and I recommend them without hesitation. ∂

Book Re vie w

Anthology: A King’s Memoir Project Last year a group of community-minded King’s students sought to capture the lives of 17 residents of a Halifax retirement community. The final project is a fitting and compassionate tribute to ‘small histories’ and memory.

In the winter of 2009 and early spring of 2010, a group of King’s students organized interviews with selected residents living in the Berkeley retirement communities in Halifax.

Each resident shared his or her life story and these were recorded and transcribed by the students. The resulting publication, Anthol-

ogy: The King’s Memoir Project, is a lovely and reflective testament not only to the stories that form the backbone of a certain period of Nova Scotian history, but also to the creative and compassionate lengths taken by the writers to tell these stories properly.

Each story was acquired through a range of techniques, with writers provided a few prompts to encourage their subjects to talk.

Some of the stories linger on a particular memory, while others focus on the broader trajectory of the subject’s entire life.

The stories range widely in scope. The book begins with the story of the late Anne Welsh, otherwise known as “Ashpan Annie”, an infant survivor of the Halifax Explosion.

Writer Mark Dance (BAH ’10) presents her story in a straightforward fashion, allowing Welsh’s turns of phrase and speech patterns to come through so we get a sense of what their conversation was like. One highlight comes when then 94-year-old describes the joy she still gets from shoveling snow from her walkway (!!) and being shushed by her neighbors. Meanwhile, writer Ella Bedard (’06) profiles her subjects, former King’s bursar Donald Fry and his wife Pauline,

in the first person, and explains and how their stories are inexorably linked: “Because Donald is deaf, even their mode of communication is a collaborative project,” she writes.

The story is told simply, but certain details— Pauline’s pale pink wedding dress, or the image of a young Donald smoking furtive cigarettes in the shed of his home—make the story come to life and show the care that Bedard has taken in getting to truly know her subjects.

In the book’s foreword, editors Christina Turner (BAH ’10) and Emma Hanes (BAH ’10) explain that they wanted to draw these “small histories” out of obscurity while also pulling King’s students out of the campus bubble. Clearly, this purpose was fulfilled – and it’s resulted in a beautifully-written and lovingly presented document that serves as a time capsule, a collection of oral histories and a stirring rumination on the possibilities of memory.

To read an excerpt from the King’s memoir project, visit http://ukings.ca/anthologykings-memoir-project.

–Alison Lang

Tidings | winter 2010

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P o s tc a r d f r om th e E d g e The Polar Bear’s Tooth

By Peter Sheldon, BJ ’07

Peter Sheldon is a CBC reporter based in Iqaluit, Nunavut,

t

where apparently, the art of the hustle is alive and well.

he polar bear tooth was presented to me on a platter covered with red bar napkins.

I think the desired effect was to make the tooth seem ‘extra special.’

That’s important for salesmen selling a product they know is worthless.

I read the situation a bit differently, however: in front of me was an authentic raw treasure of the arctic, far more affordable than the walrus skull which had circulated the bar last week, and certainly more easy to transport, which was important, because I wouldn’t be here all night.

The tooth was surprisingly smooth, glassy, and just a few shades off white—a reminder that it had once torn through live flesh. Most surprising was its size. It crossed my palm from the base of my thumb to the base of my pinky finger. Most of that was root. I closed my hand. I didn’t want to let go.

“What’ll it cost?” I asked the man with the tray. He too was missing a tooth. “$120,” he offered. “$50,” I countered.

He threatened to walk away.

I called him back.

Bartering was a dance I’d learned in Mexico.

We settled on eighty and I held the tooth up to my friend Stephanie, who had lived in Iqaluit almost three years. She assured me that I had got the better deal. Then off we went to the Legion for dancing and more canned beer. The cab ride cost $6—it always does. I fingered the tooth the entire way. The polar bear is one of the world’s premiere predators, and I held its sword.

My triumph lasted all of four hours. My feet were weak from dancing and canned beer and I was walking home when I reached back into my pocket. A sharp ridge was where my smooth tooth should have been. I held it up to a street lamp and saw the crack, which traveled the length of the tooth and was slowly widening.

For reasons I can’t explain, I stuffed it inside the hood of my parka and held the tooth to my nose. The putrid stench of a thousand rotten harp seals washed in to my

brain, temporarily paralyzing me in one of those cold winter nights that demands one’s full attention. I coughed and peered inside the cracked tooth. Inside was a dark flaky residue. I smelled again and choked on the horrific odor in my mouth before spitting into to a snow bank.

“The tooth is too fresh,” my coworker Kowisa told me the following day. “It cracked once before. You can see where he put the Superglue.”

“Too fresh?” I asked.

“Probably only a couple of weeks old,” Kowisa added. “The bear was shot recently.

You’re supposed to let it sit a few months.

Three months. It’s better. You got ripped off.”

“I haven’t even told you how much I paid for it,” I said.

I asked Kowisa to keep the amount to himself, but such wonderful bits of news are

Illustration by Brent Braaten 22

Tidings | winter 2010

to be shared. It’s our job, and it’s a job he does it too well. The rest of the day I heard him delightedly retelling the tale, in Inuktitut to my Inuit coworkers, only switching to English for that unmistakable punch line: “80 dollars!!!” It brought laughter every single time.

Weeks later I was back in the bar drinking canned beer, and a man with a platter approached. It may have been the same man, but I wasn’t concerned with such things.

My polar bear tooth, now in three pieces, had been relegated to a Ziploc bag on my bookshelf. It would make a nice belt buckle ornament one day. On the fresh red napkin lay a broach, with a plume of light blue fur made from what was advertised as “the coat of the flying blue rabbit and the skin of the great Arctic snake.”

This was a story worth every dollar.

“How much?” ∂

Yo u ’ v e I d e n t i f i e d Yo u r s e lv e s …

From right to left: Marian Huggard (BA ’63), Donald “Duke” MacLeod (’58), Elizabeth Sodero (nee Bayne) (BA ’63), Roland “Rollie” Lines (BScH ’61), Heather Shipley (’61), Donald Stevenson (BA ’62), David Morris (BA ’64, LTh ’65), Nancy Leefe (nee Morrison) (BA ’65).

Thanks to John Leefe (BA ’66, DCL ’01) and Don Stevenson (BA ’62)

…C a n Yo u I d e n t i fy T h e s e Al u m n i ?

If you know who these alumni are, please contact us at alison.lang@ukings.ns.ca

Do you have photographs from your time at King’s that you would like us to have? Please send them to the Advancement Office at King’s, 6350 Coburg Rd., Halifax, NS, B3H 2A1. We’ll appreciate your contribution.

Tidings | winter 2010

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University of King’s College Alumni Association 2010–11 E x ec u ti v e M embers

Branch Le ade rs

President: Greg Guy (BJH ’89) 2010-12

Halifax: Peter Dawson (BAH ’85)

Vice-President: Bob Mann (BA ’01) 2010-12

Moncton: Brian Cormier (BJH ’86)

Treasurer: Graham McGillivray (BSc ’07) 2010-12

Toronto: Gordon Cameron (BA ’99)

Past President: David Jones (BA ’68) 2008-10

Ottawa: Wendy Hepburn (BA ’05)

Secretary: Claire Campbell (BAH ’95) 2010-12

Montreal: Matt Aronson (BAH ’01)

Board of Governor Members: Andrew Laing (BAH ’86) 2009-11, Sheryl Grant (BJH ’80) 2010-12

Boston: Will English (BAH ’07)

Committee Members: Terra Bruhm (BJH ’06), Elizabeth Ryan (BA ’69), Chris MacNeil (BA ’84), Matt Aronson (BAH ’02), Stuart Wood (BAH ’93), Andrea Nemetz (BJ ’88) 2009-11; Allen McAvoy (BJ ’02) 2008-10; Gordon Cameron (BA ’99, BJ ’00), Peter Evans (BAH ’96, BJ ’97) 2010-12

Calgary: Nick Twyman (BA ’88) Europe: Chris MacNeil (BA ’94) Australia: Johanna MacMinn (BA ’89)

Advancement Director (Ex-Officio): Adriane Abbott University President (Ex-Officio): William Barker Student Union President (Ex-Officio): Kiki Wood For contact information and to find out which branch leader represents your area, please go to ukings.ca/branches.

Interested in starting up a branch in your area? We’d love to hear from you—please contact the Advancement Office at kingsalumni@ukings.ns.ca. You can also sign up for our e-newsletter by emailing the same address.

r i ch a u co i n at wa r d r oom King’s alumnus and musicianon-the-rise Rich Aucoin (BAH ’06) took a break from his busy touring schedule on November 1 and quite literally “raised the roof” during a typically creative and high-energy show at the Wardroom.

Photo by Josh Apostolopoulos (BAH ’14)

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Tidings | winter 2010

b r a n ch b r i e f s H a l i fa x Bra n ch Since the release of the Summer edition of Tidings, the Halifax branch has been wrapped up in the bustle of the back-to-school season.

This year’s Alumni Golf Tournament—held on August 13—was a rousing success. Thanks to the generosity of participants, sponsors and the Homburg Charitable Foundation, who donated the Sherwood Golf Course and Country Club for the day, the tournament raised $19,000 in total. This amount will fund 19 $1,000 student entrance awards.

King’s Frosh Week in early September brought the annual Alumni BBQ, where members of the Halifax chapter (some wearing hairnets) flipped burgers, roasted hot dogs and chatted with the newest members of the King’s community.

The Alumni Association’s Annual General Meeting came up quickly on September 23.

The King’s Alumni Association welcomed three new executive members to its ranks and ushered a returning member to a new position. Greg Guy (BAH ’87) has assumed the position of Alumni Assocation President.

Meanwhile returning member Bob Mann (BA ’01) will now be holding the position of Vice President while Claire Campbell (BAH ’95) will be taking over as Secretary, and Peter Evans (BAH ’96, BJ ’97) has assumed the role of Member-At-Large. The executive thanked departing president David Jones (BA ’68) for flying in from Ottawa for executive meetings and continually demonstrating committment and leadership during his twoyear tenure. The association looks forward to the coming year with its new executive.

The ongoing Fantastic First Friday events at the Wardroom have boasted a small but devoted turnout, and the hope is that these afternoons will continue as an excuse to mingle and catch up.

Speaking of the Wardroom, many members of the alumni community (and the King’s community at large) came out to on Saturday November 6 to the Wardroom to check out a series of renovations that took place over this past summer thanks to the Wardroom Renovation Fund, including a new fridge, cold room and six new tap lines.

The Halifax design firm Breakhouse then made a presentation of a proposed redesign for the Wardroom based off of suggestions made by King’s students, staff, faculty and

alumni. You can see a photo of the event below, and there are more photos of all of our Alumni events on the King’s Flickr feed at flickr.com/photos/ukings.

Europe an Branch

2010: Farewell to the Noughties As this year draws to a close, so does the first decade of the 21st century.

Obviously, the sci-fi writers of the 1950s got it wrong—we haven’t met any alien life forms in the “noughties” (although they were pretty darn close with the likes of the iPad that, like a late-night FYP paper, seems to have slipped in under the wire...!)

But those same authors couldn’t predict the amazing efforts of the European Alumni this decade. From a dream started by Malia Mitchell (BA ’99) and Lindsay Broadhead (BA ’99) in 2002, the Branch has grown its numbers, held eight annual Christmas events, opened the first and only Haliburton club branch outside of Halifax and has kept up with the times on Facebook.

Momentum was not lost during the final year of the decade. We’ve celebrated the success of Karen Morash’s play “9.21 to Shrub Hill”. Catherine Novis (BAH ’93) and Katherine Stanley (BA ’85), were instrumental in winning the 10th Annual Network Canada Alumni Cup for Atlantic Canada (a second-time win for the East coast!)

The Christmas party was again warmly attended by other Atlantic Canadian University alumni in London and UKC’s very own Dr Barker and Adriane Abbott, in a special visit to London. Held at the new Vagabond Wines in Fulham, London we enjoyed our own Golden Glow and sample after sample of

Katherine Stanley (BA ’85) (L) and Catherine Novis (BA ’93) (R) celebrating the Atlantic Canadian Pub Quiz Challenge win at Canada House with Chris MacNeil (BA ’94) Photo: Iceman Photography (www.IcemanPhotography.co.uk)

red, white and sparkling wines from around the world.

2011—and the new decade—brings more exciting news. As the KTS celebrates its 80th anniversary in February, we too will join in the festivities in London’s West End—the heart of European theatre. The 4th (somewhat) annual Haliburton event is in the works in East London for May. If you want to plan or participate in these events (or are running something in your corner of Europe) please let us know.

Happy holidays, and best wishes for a new year... and a new decade!

Chris MacNeil (BA ’94) & John Stiles (BA ’89) http://bit.ly/EuroUKC

In Memoriam

Robert Barry (’50) passed away August 12, 2009 in Saint John, NB.

John Dickinson (’68) passed away August 6, 2010 in Richmond Hill, ON.

Kathleen (Gosnell) Chidley (’55) passed away December 22, 2009 in Deep River, ON.

Linda (Cruikshank) Fowler (BA ’59)

Hugh Christie (’34) passed away January 8, 2010 in Upper Nappan, NS. Danielle Derks (BA ’06) passed away September 22, 2010 in Coburg, ON.

Molly Harris (’07) Ian Henderson (BSc ’49) James Tupper (’50) Ronald Zinck (’88)

Tidings | winter 2010

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n e w fac e s o n c a mp u s Jo u r n a l i sm

FYP

Dale Leckie graduated from NSCC’s Radio and Television Arts program in 2006 with a focus on television in his second year. He then spent five years in Aylesford with EastLink TV, traveling from Yarmouth, to Sydney to Quebec City and as far as the United Kingdom. He became a jack of all trades, serving time as a camera operator, editor, audio tech, writer, fundraiser, ELTV community rep and other positions. While at King’s, Leckie hopes to tighten up his experience and pass on his love of the industry to students. “Coming to work everyday does not feel like work in the least,” he says. “Sorry for the cliché, but it’s true.”

Matthew Furlong (BAH ’03)

Other new additions to the School of Journalism include David Swick (now a fulltime instructor) and part-time instructors include: Steve Proctor (Business Reporting) Maureen Googoo (Intro to Online) Tim Krochak (Photojournalism) Sherri Borden Colley (BJH ’97) (News Media and the Courts in Canada) Terra Tailleur (BJ ’97) (Online Workshop).

HOST Nahyan Fancy

Visiting lecturer Dr. Nahyan Fancy received his Masters from the University of Toronto and his PhD from Notre Dame University, both in History and Philosophy of Science.

He is teaching a course in the winter term titled “Science and Medicine in Islamic Societies (700-1500).” Fancy says he wants students to examine fundamental philosophical and scientific questions through a possibly unfamiliar, but equally valid framework.

“This course will basically give students a sense about the kind of scientific culture that existed at the time, how people engaged with it, and the way science and religion was dealt with,” says Fancy. “The Latin and Western canon cannot be formed unless one takes into account the Islamic engagement with Greek texts. And it’s about giving the students a dose of both theoretical approaches and the actual practice of science and medicine in these societies.”

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Tidings | winter 2010

Matthew Furlong graduated from King’s in 2003 with a BAH in Contemporary Studies and Philosophy and received his Master’s. His dissertation is on the concept of freedom in Michel Foucault’s thinking.

His master’s thesis at Concordia dealt with the relationship between proper names and ethical subjectivity in the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein and of Jacques Derrida. Currently, he’s completing his doctorate at the University of Guelph and plans to defend his dissertation in early 2011. “I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to come back and contribute to such a unique community and outstanding educational institution,” says Furlong. “I really believe in what the Foundation Year Programme has to offer to young people.”

Victoria Goddard

Victoria Goddard studied in the College of the Humanities at Carleton University for her undergraduate degree. She then completed her M.A. in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, where she also studied for her Ph.D. Her dissertation is on the relationship between philosophy and poetry in the works of Boethius, Bernard Silvestris, and Dante. “I’m enjoying being a tutor in FYP tremendously,” says Goddard. “As someone new to the faculty side of academics, it is a great experience for me to be surrounded by such dedicated and enthusiastic scholars drawing on many disciplines.”

Laura Zebuhr

Laura Zebuhr recently completed her PhD in English at the University of Minnesota. Her research looks at changing conceptions of friendship in

political thought and literature. “King’s makes me nostalgic for my own experiences at a small liberal arts school,” says Zebuhr.

“I went to huge universities for graduate school, and it has been awesome to be a part of such an intimate academic community again. The themes of justice and friendship that the FYP readings emphasize are a big part of my own research, and I love how the curriculum builds on itself. These texts were meant to be talked about and obsessed over with others, and it really seems like we’re all working toward something together.”

Martin Sastri

Martin Sastri holds a Master’s degree in Classics from Dalhousie University, and is currently completing a doctorate in Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His dissertation is on the revival of Eriugenian metaphysics in the philosophical schools of 12th century France. Says Sastri: “The motivations behind my role in FYP are completely selfish. I spend most of my time in the company of texts that I would most want to read anyway. I find these same texts to be expertly illuminated by my colleagues in lecture. Most satisfying of all, I have the opportunity to work through these texts, in light of problems that I had never considered before, with my students in tutorial. It is the students who ensure that the ancient remains so new.”

Our new staff members include Alyssa Feir (Advancement) Josh Bragg (Registrar’s Office) Safia Haq (BAH ’10) (Registrar’s Office) Justis Danto-Clancy (BA ’11) (Registrar’s Office) Lia Milito (BAH ’10) (Registrar’s Office) and our new Residence Dons are Tiffany Robertson, Christopher Rice (BAH ’07), Natasha Condé-Jahnel (BAH ’06), Philip Taber (BAH ’09), Bryce Swerhun, Christa Moore, Safia Haq and Lara Killian.

a l u m n ot e s THE 6 0’s

Bill Strautman (BSc ’86, BJ ’87) is currently editor of The Advance Journal For Growing Innovations, doing articles on production and business management for western Canadian farmers. He and his family—wife Teresa, son Alex and daughter Hannah —live on a farm in Dalmeny, Saskatchewan. He can be reached at bill.strautman@ sasktel.net.

Malcolm Kirk (BJH ’89) was named Vice President of Digital Media of Postmedia (former Canwest papers) in July 2010.

THE 90’s

Mary Barker presents 60 Years, 60 Milestones to King’s Vice President Kim Kierans. The book is now available at the King’s Library.

Mary Barker (BA ’67, HF ’97) is pleased to announce the publishing of 60 years, 60 milestones, the first national history of organized public relations in Canada. As National Chair of the 60th Anniversary Committee of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS), Barker was the major contributor to the research, writing and editing of this book, published by CPRS. A copy of the book was presented to the King’s Library and School of Journalism.

Jock Mackay (BAH ’68) has completed a Ph.D in Folkore at Memorial University of Newfoundland and teaches Sociology and Humanities at Vanier College (CEGEP) in Montreal. He is this year’s winner of the college’s Teaching Excellence Award. He can be reached at jock3@ videotron.ca.

THE 8 0’s Brad Sweet (BA ’82), was awarded a PhD in Theology at the Universiteit van die Vrystaat in Bloemfontein, South Africa on 15 September 2010. In 2009 he completed both a Canonical Bachelor of Theology from the Lateran Pontifical Erin Steuter (BJ ’85) is a Professor of Sociology at Mount Allison University and coauthor of a new book: Pop Culture Goes to War: Enlisting and Resisting Militarism in the War on Terror. Her daughter Charlotte is now attending King’s.

Henry Howard (BA ’90) was inducted into the Alberta Association of Architects in March. He is currently working at an architecture firm in Edmonton. He and Kimberley Howard (nee Veinot) (BA ’91) can be reached at khhoward@telus.net.

After seven years in the Advancement Department at Saint Francis Xavier University, Kevin MacDonell (BJH ’91) is working with Dalhousie University’s External Relations Department as an Annual Giving Officer.

He and his wife Leslie Smith moved to Bedford this past summer. You may reach him at kevin.macdonell@gmail.com.

Tara Erskine (BA ’92) and her husband Brent Culligan welcomed the birth of twin girls Anya and Maeve on St. Patrick’s Day, 2009. Tara is a partner in the law firm McInnes Cooper and practices labour and employment law.

Greg Booth (BA ’93) recently began working as a Senior Advisor for SNV (the Netherlands Development Organization) based in the Hague, the Netherlands. The focus is to support the localization of development aid through the creation of local capacity development investment partnerships and market meeting places. SNV is active in over 30 countries globally Steven Spears (BSc ’94) has left his position at the NSLFFPA to work again on his own at his company SPS Forestry & Environmental Consulting Inc. NS. Steven is now branching out into Certification and is looking at Small Woodlot Management. He can be reached at sspears@nb.sympatico.ca.

In October 2010, Paul Hollingsworth (BJ ’95) published a new book, Sidney Crosby: The Story of A Champion through Nimbus Publishing. Paul is currently a news and

sports reporter at CTV Atlantic and is the Atlantic correspondent for TSN’s Sportscentre.

Gregor Wilson (BA ’96) recently launched a Canadian adventure news, information, and entertainment website. SomeGoodAdventure.com offers a wide arrange of articles, research, links, and news stories on human propelled adventure sports from every region of Canada and beyond. It features sports such as skiing, mountain biking, surfing, climbing, kayaking, hiking, canoeing and and topics such as news, competitions, books, interviews, safety, trip reports, videos, photos and more. Gregor and his wife Jenny live in North Vancouver, BC.

THE 00’s Martell Thompson (BJ ’00) was promoted to the rank of Major and appointed the Media Issues Manager for the Canadian Army in August of 2010.

On Victoria Day 2010, Howard Krongold (BA ’01) and Aden Seaton (FYP ’97) welcomed their son, Ivan Seaton Krongold, into the world. Howard, Aden and Ivan live in Chelsea, Quebec. Howard practices criminal law in Ottawa. Aden works at Amnesty International Canada. Ivan is still weighing his options.

After five years working first as Features Writer and later as Assistant Editor for Hello! Middle East Magazine and Hello! Canada Magazine, Jennifer Evans (BJ ’02) has launched a freelance career, creating Jennifer Evans Media. She plans to continue covering the best in travel, entertainment, luxury and lifestyle writing, both internationally and closer to home in Canada. Her website is www.jenniferevans.ca.

Glenn (BAH ’03) and Karen (Cordes) (BScH ’03) Woods are happy to announce the birth of their daughter, Emma Lily, on June 7, 2010 in Toronto, ON. Jonathon R Driscoll (BA ’03), is now Prince Edward Island’s first Certified Canadian Immigration Consultant. His company ‘Island Immigration Consulting’ aims to provide professional assistance with immigration applications, recruitment of foreign workers, and family reunification.

He can be reached at jonathondriscoll@ islandimmigration.ca.

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a l u m n ot e s Amy Goldlist (BSc ’03) and Warren Code welcomed twin boys, Charles Joseph Code and Samuel Arthur Code on June 11, 2010.

Amy recieved her MSc in Math from UBC in ’06 and is on leave from teaching at BCIT in Vancouver.

John MacLean (BJH ’03) has re-located to Iqaluit, NU, where he is Legal Counsel in the Legal and Constitutional Law Division of the Nunavut Department of Justice.

Eleanor Beaton (BJ ’03) has teamed up with Nimbus Publishing to release her book Offshore Dream: Building Nova Scotia’s Oil and Gas Industry, co-authored with Jim Meek. The book is available across the Maritimes and can be ordered at chapters.ca.

Ingrid Deon (BJH ’04) and Jesse Luke Deveau welcomed a new baby son, Orson Luke Deveau, on December 3, 2009.

David Hugill (BAH ’04) recently published his first book, Missing Women, Missing News —an examination of the newspaper coverage of the Robert Pickton trial. It’s available at fernwoodpublishing.ca.

This past summer Anne-Marie McElroy (’05) and Michael de la Mothe (’05) tied the knot in a wedding ceremony at St. Joseph’s Church in Ottawa, ON. Anne-Marie and Michael were pleased to have friends, family and King’s alumni in attendance.

Anne-Marie is currently embarking on her career practicing criminal law with Hale Criminal Law Office in Ottawa and Michael is working as a trade economist with the Canadian pork industry.

Jennifer Otto (BA ’06) has had an eventful year. In fall ’09 she received her MA in Church History from McGill University and began PhD studies in the same field, also at McGill. In April 2010 she was awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Fellowship for her current research project, “The rhetorical roles of Philo the Jew in Early Christian self-definition”. She joyfully married Gregory Rabus of Hartford, CT on May 22nd in Montreal. As of September 2010, they will be primarily based in Tuebingen, Germany, where Jennifer will continue her PhD research and Gregory will begin a Master’s.

She can be reached at jennifer.otto@mail. mcgill.ca.

Brendan Morrison (BA ’06) was hired as head writer for the Steven and Chris show on CBC. 28

Tidings | winter 2010

Michael Kimber (BA ’06, BJ ’09) signed with literary agent Anne McDermid and Associates in November of 2010. His blog, Colony of Losers (colony-of-losers.com/ wordpress) recently reached the 10,000 hitsa-day mark and has been listed on Opensalon.com.

Ottawa-based journalist Laura Stone (BAH ’07) is this year’s inaugural recipient of the Michelle Lang Fellowship. Michelle Lang was an award-winning journalist and reporter for the Calgary Herald who was killed while on assignment in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Michelle Lang Fellowship in Journalism is an award granted to a recent Canadian university student to apply his or her passion for writing and interest in current events. During the fellowship, Stone will split her time between Postmedia News (formerly Canwest News Service) in Ottawa and will join the Calgary Herald staff in early March 2011.

After two years of producing witty sports commentary for the blog Some Canadian Guys Writing About Soccer, bloggers Jamie Doyle, Daniel Squizzato and Grant Surridge (all BJ ’07) are now writing for canadiansoccernews.ca.

Deidre Moore (BAH ’06) joined former King’s HOST students Lisa Crystal (BAH ’07) and Stephanie Dick (BAH ’07) at Harvard this past fall when she was accepted into the school’s PhD program.

Jessica Davey-Quantick (BJH ’07) recently took over as the Editor of Time Out Doha magazine in Doha, Qatar.

Jill Mader (BJH ’08) is Constituency Assistant to Halifax-Clayton Park MLA Diana Whalen. She also keeps a TV blog called Couch Time With Jill that was recently featured on Haligonia.ca. You can check out her writing at couchtimewithjill.blogspot.com.

Lev Bubis (BAH ’08) began studies at Columbia Medical School this past September.

Ruth Spencer (BA ’08) received a departmental fellowship at the NYU School of Journalism to pursue a Masters Degree in Jay Rosen’s Studio 20 Programme.

Erica Rayment (BAH ’08) is currently an intern at the Ontario Legislature as part of the Ontario Legislature Internship Programme (OLIP).

Michael Da Silva (BAH ‘09) recently coauthored a chapter in Wiley-Blackwell’s

30 Rock and Philosophy book entitled ‘One City’s Cheese Curl Addict is Another City’s Model: A Question of Taste.’

Lisa Weighton (BJH ’09) moved to Nairobi, Kenya in July of 2010 to work for the Nation Media Group, the largest media organization in East Africa. She was selected through the Aga Khan Foundation of Canada’s Young Professionals in Media Fellowship. The fellowship is eight months long and has a focus on gender, development and human rights issues.

After a stint at the local paper, Elizabeth MacMillan (BJ ’09) has crossed the street to a full-time gig at CBC Radio in Yellowknife.

Aethne Hinchliffe (BJ ’10) is now working for the Gulf News in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

For Andrew Miller (BAH ’11) the last two years have been a blur of travel, new people, and new experiences. He’s currently studying at McGill University, majoring in History with a minor in Spanish and in Political Science. He spent the previous semester studying in La Rioja, Spain. He invites fellow alumni to get in touch at andrew.miller4@ mail.mcgill.ca.

Dani Pacey (BAH ’10) received the JosephArmand Bombardier Scholarship this past May and continues to pursue her Masters in Science and Technology Studies at York University.

FACULTY Along with former King’s professors Mark Blacknell and John Duncan, Simon Kow (Associate Professor of Humanities, Early Modern Studies Programme and Contemporary Studies Programme) recently co-edited and released a book of essays titled Rousseau and Desire. The book is currently available through University of Toronto Press.

Georgy Levit, Assistant Professor in the History of Science and Technology Programme and Contemporary Studies Programme, coauthored a paper entitled “Evolutionary Developmental Biology: Its Concepts and History with a Focus on Russian and German Contributions,” accepted for publication in the scientific journal Naturwissenschaften.

The paper appears in the November edition, which can be read online at springerlink. com.

PAR T ING S H OT

Classics in the Quad, Agamemnon, Wednesday October 6, 6pm. Photo by Josh Apostolopoulos (BAH ’14)

Tidings | winter 2010

29

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Honda is a trade-mark of Honda Canada Inc., which is not a participant in or a sponsor of this promotion.

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Projet : Annonce MMI 2010

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Client : Meloche Monnex

Publication : 4IDINGS

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Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Tidings c/o Alumni Association University of King’s College 6350 Coburg Road Halifax, NS B3H 2A1