THE COMMUNITY PAPER OF NIAGARA COLLEGE Funding to create … · THE COMMUNITY PAPER OF NIAGARA COLLEGE FREE October 21, 2011 Vol 42 • Issue 3 Funding to create internships By DAVID

T H E C O M M U N I T Y P A P E R O F N I A G A R A C O L L E G EFREE October21,2011 Vol42•Issue3

Funding to create internships

By DAVID W. KEENStaff Writer

On Oct. 14, Justice Minister and Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson came to Niagara College, once again bearing gifts. Nicholson was on hand to deliver the promise of $2.2 million in federal funding to create up to 200 six-month student internships.

Nicholson visited the Welland campus alongside Acting President Steve Hudson and Vice-President Academic Sean Kennedy to an-nounce the contribution to the college on behalf of the Federal Economic Development Agency of Southern Ontario (FedDev).

FedDev’s Graduate Enterprise Internship initiative, according to a statement released by the agency, aims to help recent graduates gain

real-world experience by helping to cover some of the wage costs employers incur by taking on paid interns.

“Our government is commit-ted to creating and supporting economic growth in southern Ontario,” said Nicholson. “If an employer takes on an intern and that intern works well for them, there’s a huge likelihood that they will then employ that individual.”

The college plans to offer intern-ships with structured mentoring opportunities in 12 programs including Broadcasting – Radio, Television and Film; Game Devel-opment; Graphic Design; Photon-ics Engineering; and Ecosystem Restoration.

Continued on page 2

By JARIN HARVEY Staff Writer

Doing well in school doesn’t come easily for everyone. In fact, for some students it can be a real struggle.

Just last year at Niagara College, 870 students signed up for peer tutoring services, and this year, students were applying for the

services earlier than ever.Josie Tremonte, director of Peer

Services at the Welland campus, said despite the strike happening at the beginning of the school year, she was matching students right away. “Repeat learners know how to get a tutor as early as possible to get ahead, and first-year students who are returning to college or in

college straight from high school often realize after the first few classes that they are struggling and will need extra help,” said Trem-onte.

Timothy Norton, 33, in his second year of the Electrical Engineering Technology Program received tu-toring in a course last year and has the same tutor again this semester.

“The teachers sometimes talk over your head, and putting everything together can be really hard,” said Norton.

“Tutors know the stuff inside out but can sometimes explain it to a student better than industry professionals [can].”

Norton said he saw an “imme-diate” change in his schoolwork

after tutoring sessions last year, and the best part was watching his mark go up because of it. “It gives you confidence when writing tests. I feel like I know what I’m doing when I’m going into it,” said Norton “It’s not just passing; it’s succeeding.”

Continued on page 2

Government chips in $2.2 million

Peer tutoring helps students achieve their goals

50/50

Music for the right reasons

Odds are good for a laugh

The spray on display

Women’s Volleyball DEAD

AND DIVINE

nIagaRa-nEws.cOm

Team stays positive

WE’rE oN thE NEt:

Thewallsandalleyindowntownst.catharinesbecameblankcanvasesforgraffitiartistsduringtheninthannualgraffitiartJam.seestoryandphotosonpages8-9.

Photo by Dennis Faucher

NEWSPage 2 NIAGARA NEWS Oct. 21, 2011

By SYED ALIStaff Writer

Many students don’t know about the graduate certificate pro-grams at the college.

Niagara College offers 10 graduate certificate programs. Three more are being added for the 2012 fall term: Advanced Law Enforcement and Investiga-tions, Behavioural Science, and Exercise Science for Health and Performance.

Krista Woodhouse, recruitment co-ordinator for graduate and de-gree programs, said, “These pro-grams are designed for students who really want to focus on one area of study and I always like to compare it to three years of learn-ing jammed into one year.”

The admission requirements for these programs are different from those for any other programs here. A student needs a minimum of a post-secondary diploma or a bach-elor degree to be able to apply for these programs.

Woodhouse said these programs are great for the students who “can’t find a job” after earning a degree or diploma or for “students who feel that more education is always better.”

At the university level, regular four-year programs usually don’t offer a placement component.

Robynne Smith, chair of the community services and studies division, said, “If you don’t have a placement component and haven’t practiced your craft, it might be hard to find a job.”

Smith said graduate certificate programs have placement com-ponents designed for practice and experience.

“We [community colleges] are really the institutions that give you the supervised practice, and that’s the beauty of taking these grad certificates,” Smith said.

Judy Halaiko is the co-ordinator of the Heath and Fitness program. She will also co-ordinate the Exercise Science for Health and

Performance Graduate Certificate program. She said it is designed for students graduating from kine-siology or related programs.

She said, “In university, [stu-dents] don’t take a lot of the practical work that we take here, but in order to become a certified exercise physiologist they need all of the assessment skills.”

Halaiko said she is excited because students entering the programs will be mature and ex-perienced.

Erin Sargent, a professor in the Fitness and Health Promotion program, will be teaching in the Exercise for Health and Perfor-mance program. She said, “This speed-month program is all about getting them hands-on skills.”

She also said, It’s really a step above what our diploma students are able to do.

“The ultimate goal of the pro-gram is to help prepare them to become certified exercise physi-ologists.”

Rob Nicholson, federal minister of justice and MP for Niagara Falls, was at the Welland campus to announce the FedDev investment.

Photo by David W. Keen

MONDAY TUESDAY7pm-InTheTheatre 7pm-InTheTheatre

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WEDNESDAY SUNDAY5pm-70’sShow 12pm-TheFeelGoodShow

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Three new grad programs coming

Grads, employers benefitContinued from page 1

“Thank you so much to Mr. Nicholson. This investment on be-half of the government of Canada is truly amazing news for not only the college, but for the region and in particular our students,” said Kennedy.

“This federal investment will provide benefits for both our graduates and local employers,” said Hudson. “The program is, I think, a very successful program that ties together our businesses, our students, our graduates and our economic prosperity.”

According to its website, Fed-Dev Ontario was created as part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan to support businesses and communi-ties in southern Ontario. Now in the third year of its five-year mandate, the agency has launched a number of initiatives to create a “Southern Ontario Advantage and place the region in a strong position to com-pete in the global economy.”

Earlier in the day, Nicholson was in nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake to announce Niagara has been named a Canadian Cultural Centre for 2012, partly to celebrate the bi-centennial of the War of 1812.

Continued from page 1Alexis Higginbotham, 29, in

the Graduate Certificate Public Relations program at the Welland campus, said she applied for a tutor in her computer class because she “did not have a lot of experience with Macs.”

“It’s nice to have someone to ask questions to so you don’t have to stop class 50 times,” said Hig-ginbotham, adding that after her first session she “already felt more confident.”

“I had a test this morning and if I had met with [my tutor] before, I know I would have done a lot better.”

Compared to the 870 learners who applied for services last year, 401 students applied to be tutors, but, Tremonte said, she is always able to find a match.

“Most tutors have more than one learner,” said Tremonte. Tutors can work for up to 12 hours a week and a learner is allowed to have two hours of tutoring per week for one course and up to four hours for two more courses.

“Occasionally a tutor may not be available for a course, but we try our hardest to recruit one if the student has filled out an application requesting a peer tutor.”

The technique is also used for new programs that have no prior year of students to be tutors or for courses running in the final year of a program. When this happens Tremonte tries to find someone in the class who is performing well and gets the professor to ask if that student would like the position.

For online courses, Tremonte will try to find an equivalent for the program or, if it is also offered

on campus, will find a tutor from a class.

Students can also find support on Blackboard where they have email access to others taking the online course, as well as the teacher, to discuss and ask questions about

material. Students who want to be tutors

are paid anywhere from $10.50 for first-year tutors, to $12.50 for third-year tutors. Funding comes from Jobs Niagara, Ontario Work/Study and International On Cam-pus Job Fund, who cover 75 per cent of wages. The other 25 per cent comes from the annual $55 student activity fee each student pays to the Student Administrative Council.

Lillian Malton-Bradley, 40, in her second year of the Social Service Worker program, is a tutor for her second year in a row. She “absolutely loves it.”

“They get so excited [when their marks go up], it’s awesome to watch,” said Malton-Bradley, add-

ing that the experience will help her in the future and has currently helped her strengthen her skills in her program.

“I’m in social service work, so I like working with people to start. It looks good on my resumé, especially since right now I have no work experience,” said Malton-Bradley. “It also helps me with working with people one on one and builds my teaching skills.”

Malton-Bradley said the “frus-trating” part of tutoring is schedul-ing and finding a quiet area at the college to study in.

“It was easy in the summer because I did tutoring from my house,” said Bradley.

Tremonte said many students seem to need help in English and math courses. COMM1333, the general English course for most programs at the college, has frequent requests for tutors, but, Tremonte said, because it’s a required course for most pro-grams it’s “easy” to find a tutor. “Someone in the educational as-sistant program can be tutoring someone in a technical program,” said Tremonte, adding it’s more difficult to match students in math courses because each is different depending on the program.

However, Tremonte said, fac-ulty offer daily hour-long tutorial sessions for students in English and math in the library resource rooms. Times vary, but schedules are posted in the Peer Services of-fice.

Although some courses seem to have more tutor requests, Tremon-te said it’s “hard to predict” which courses are going to have the most struggling students.

Peer Tutoring Services: A student’s way to better grades and education

‘Tutors know the stuff inside out but can sometimes explain it to a student better than industry profes-sionals [can].’

— Timothy Norton

By KENDRA PAPE-GREENSpecial to Niagara News

As St. James Park filled up with protesters ready to set up camp, Spencer Walla started the Toronto Open Library.

With more than 2,500 protestors marching down Adelaide Street and flowing into the park, the li-brary was one of three long-term facilities for the protestors to use that was created at the beginning of the Occupy Toronto protest on Oct. 15.

After hearing about a similar li-brary set up at Occupy Wall Street, Walla says he wanted to make sure there was access to books at the To-ronto Occupation for the protesters committing themselves to long hours in the park.

Laid out on top of a tarp were 50 books and a sign-out binder was placed on the top of the box.

Over the course of the day, the library changed locations twice,

finally settling next to the tents of the occupiers that plan to stay indefinitely.

With a large tarp on the ground and another tied to the trees, the books are sheltered from the ele-ments.

The library is being operated by volunteers.

Walla, 22, of Maple, Ont., was the first volunteer. When the pro-testers first arrived, Walla has 20 books of his own and a box of books donated by a friend, who owns a bookstore.

His friend promised to donate

more books in the coming days.By the end of Saturday, the number of books had swollen to more than 100, with many protesters taking books out.

The books are largely on eco-nomics, politics and philosophy, but poetry books, short stories and biographies were present as well.

Asked why he joined the protest, Walla said, “I can see how I want to live my life and there are many roadblocks that don’t really seem necessary for me to live this life. And you see a lot of unnecessary suffering, a lot of unnecessary in-equality.

I’m hoping that this will help spread awareness for people to at least start talking about the issues. This gives me a better sense of satisfaction (than contacting an un-responsive MP), helping someone pick up a book.

“Knowledge is never a bad thing,” added Walla.

NEWSOct. 21, 2011 NIAGARA NEWS Page 3

By RICHARD LARABIEStaff Writer

The anniversary of General Isaac Brock’s death on Oct. 14 kicked off the upcoming War of 1812 events around the Niagara region.

Brock University, named for the honoured General Brock, com-memorated his death, which oc-curred Oct. 13, 1812, at the battle of Queenston Heights.

Lieutenant Colonel Bernard L. Nehring, former commanding officer of the Lincoln Welland Regiment, said, “It’s only proper that we recognize the importance of General Brock.”

Nehring said Brock’s prepara-tion made the defence of Canada possible with his success of cap-turing Detroit.

That victory inspired the British army, along with Canada’s native and rebel allies.

Rudy Kroeker, chair of the board of trustees of Brock Univer-sity and president and chief execu-tive officer of Whiting Equipment Canada Inc., said in his speech about Brock he thinks Brock’s last word began with “s” as in surgite, Latin for ‘push on.’

“As a result of the war, seeds were sewn for a sovereign Cana-da,” he said, adding after the war “we became Canadians.”

Mike Jansen, a re-enactor for about nine years, acted as a soldier of the second Lincoln militia.

The war is incredible to Cana-dian history, said Jansen.

“It’s about time we started com-memorating.”

His comment when asked about the bicentennial was bring it on.

The federal government an-

nounced it will invest $28 mil-lion in the Niagara region at Fort George on Oct. 11 to be used for the upcoming bicentennial of the War of 1812 and its surrounding events over the next four years.

Dr. Renee Lafferty, assistant professor of history at the univer-sity and Master of Ceremonies

at the commemoration, says the university will host more War of 1812 events.

She says she hopes the univer-sity receives some money from the federal government so it can host more and better events.

Lafferty said the 26th annual Two Days of Canada hosted by

Brock’s Centre for Canadian Studies in November 2012 will have an 1812 theme, but details on other events are still being worked on.

Jeff Cairns, former lieutenant colonel of the Lincoln Welland regiment and member of the advi-sory panel, said there was a great

turnout for the commemoration. Cairns said the upcoming bicen-

tennial will include many events with a new museum being built in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

He said Niagara citizens are “so focused on 2012, [that] people forget [the war] went on [after then].”

Re-enactors line up to honour General Isaac Brock in a ceremony at Brock University.Photo by Richard Larabie

Protester spreads awareness through books

BROCK ON:

Spencer Walla, 22, points to some of his books at the library at the Occupy Toronto on Oct. 15.

Photo by Kendra Pape-Green

Time to remember our war hero

‘I do feel the inequalities of society.’

–Spencer Walla

EDITORIALPage 4 NIAGARA NEWS Oct. 21, 2011

Occupy? Why?

A group of protesters listen to a speaker during the Occupy Toronto demonstrations in Toronto’s St. James Park.

Submitted photo

When the Occupy Wall Street movement began on Sept. 17, it was made up of only 16 people.

After a month of protest, the crowds have swelled with some 200 people sleeping nightly in Zuccotti Park (they aren’t allowed to literally “occupy” Wall Street) and about 15,000 people marching in Occupy marches.

Offshoot protests have sprouted all over the world, including in Canada with Occupy Toronto. Unlike many of the frivolous riots we’ve seen recently, like the G20 and the Vancouver debacle, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) move-ment seems to have an honest and organic reason for existing.

But can we say the same for Oc-cupy Toronto?

In New York, the movement was meant to be about protesting the ever-growing gap between rich and poor and the overwhelming

political power the elitist one per cent have. It was not intended to be anti-capitalist, pro-socialist or pro-anarchist movement.

In Toronto, however, thousands of people took to the streets to protest just about anything and everything they had probably been protesting anyway. Subsequently, the protest came off as merely imitative. It seemed that many just needed another excuse to get out-side and vent about whatever cause they happened to believe in.

Something many protesters seemed to forget was that because of Canada’s more stringent finan-cial regulations, Bay Street’s banks acted far more responsibly than their cousins on Wall Street and weren’t bailed out by our federal government.

Lately, the debate has been about whether the Occupy move-ment needs leadership or whether

its lack of leadership is its greatest strength. We hope the offshoot protests will have convinced the real Occupy Wall Streeters that leadership is indeed required at this point. Without it, the move-ment will be far more susceptible to being co-opted by other groups, thereby shifting focus away from why the protests started in the first place. A similar phenomenon took place with the more right-wing tea party that had its concerns ab-sorbed by the Republicans.

After all, if you allow your cause to be lumped in with those protest-ing for native rights, shamanism, socialism, anarchy, not building a hydro plant in their hometown, en-vironmentalists and everyone else who has an axe to grind, you’re diluting your own point and mak-ing it easier for those in power to dismiss you.

DAVID W. KEEN

Lack of leadership dilutes the Occupy movement’s message

An all-time lowHow today’s public makes a politician’s job far too easy

Another election passes in On-tario, and voter turnout has hit a brand-new low.

Over the past eight years of a Liberal government, Ontarians have seen an unusual amount of turmoil.

The economy fell, causing high unemployment rates, with Stelco and other major companies closing their doors.

In the face of this adversity, our elected officials plowed through and made the tough calls that we neither wanted, nor cared, to make. That’s the job they were elected to perform and, regardless of the consequences, they were going to do it.

However, there don’t seem to be consequences anymore. People griped and complained Ontario’s Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty did a horrible job while, in power but when the time to bring change came around, apathy took hold of the masses. Suddenly those with an opinion decided they would rather sit at home than spend an hour actually caring about what happens to their province.

This same attitude can be seen on the campus of Niagara College.

In September, a new bus sched-ule was set in place. The new scheduling caused many students to miss classes and lag behind on campus while buses crammed with people teetered onto the road too full to accept any more passengers. This occurred regularly and people were quite outspoken about their discontent – so outspoken that a forum was organized to give all who had been left behind a voice.

The forum was attended by a

representative from the Region, the manager of Welland Transit, the president of the Student Ad-ministrative Council, a handful of people from the area and about 10 students.

Where was the ire? Where were the sufferers of a broken system who were being ignored and abandoned at bus stops? It seems the curse of apathy is a strong one. What will motivate people? If someone who has been forced to wedge into unsafe conditions and travel needless hours can’t be bothered to speak up when given the chance, what hope is there that person will vote for any govern-ment at any point?

Some say the politicians are to blame. They are blamed for purposefully complicating matters until people no longer understand or care what the problem was in the first place. Can anyone place all the blame on them, or is there another place to point your finger?

During time in the public school system was anyone ever once en-couraged to follow politics? Were teachers content that their students knew the name of the prime min-ister? Now when students are out trying to follow the political world it can feel overwhelming. They have never been made to have any knowledge of Canadian policies or politicians.

Maybe politicians are need-lessly vague or confusing, but we make it pretty easy on them when we never encourage any interest in politics in schools.

JEREMY MEYERINK

B2, 300 Woodlawn Rd., Welland, Ont. L3C 7L3

Telephone: (905) 735-2211 Fax: (905) 736-6003

Editorial email: [email protected] email: [email protected]

Editor: David W. KeenAssociate Editor: Jeremy Meyerink

Assistant Editor: Shelby WallPhoto Editor: Dennis Faucher

Publisher: Ben CecilProgram Co-ordinator: Paul Dayboll

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T H E C O M M U N I T Y P A P E R O F N I A G A R A C O L L E G E

OPINIONOct., 21, 2011 NIAGARA NEWS Page 5

MERIEMYOUSFI

Columnist

JAREDANDERSON

Columnist

CHRISFUNSTON

Columnist

With depression and anxiety affecting over three million Cana-dians, there’s no reason to feel as if you’re the only one dealing with the issue.

I’ve been in that position many times over the past five or six years. After numerous prescriptions, group sessions and therapists, I never thought that I would be able to shake the sickness that seemed to follow me everywhere.

All of this changed for the better with one simple email.

My mother read an article writ-ten about Michael Landsberg, the host of TSN’s Off the Record, and his battle with depression and anxi-ety, the same thing I and millions of other Canadians have been at war with.

Unbeknownst to me, she emailed him, explained my scenario to him and extended her thanks to him for his honesty about his own depres-sion and anxiety problems.

Within hours, Landsberg re-sponded, saying he wanted to speak to me.

When my mother told me this, needless to say, I was both con-fused and excited.

“Why would he want to talk to me? Shouldn’t he be on TV or something?” I thought to myself.

I didn’t know what to expect when I first spoke to him and I didn’t expect the first thing for him to say to me to be: “This is never

your fault.”For some reason the sentiment

felt much different coming from him, someone who’s been through what I’ve been through and is not a friend who is just saying what you want to hear nor a parent who just wants to see you be happy. Rather, he understood what it’s like.

He offered to teach me a few things he had learned throughout his battle, so I would have been stupid to have refused.

He told me to expect to feel good, to demand it even, and if you don’t, then push for help.

He told me to share my story because sharing is crucial.

“I shared with as many people as I could and it made me stronger,” he told me.

Lastly, he told me to fight for my happiness because if you don’t, who can? Who will?

In fact, he told me to embrace those words: “Fight for your hap-piness.”

Though everyone is different, everyone should embrace some-thing and it should stick with you.

All it took was to have this one conversation and to apply the

things he told me to change my outlook on what I had been going through.

Although the battle against depression and anxiety never completely goes away, there’s no reason to just be another statistic. Make a change and fight for your happiness.

He told me not to thank him. “What are you really thanking me for? Being decent? Being nice? People should be both and don’t merit praise for being normal,” he explained to me, but I’ll do it any-way. Thank you, Michael.

Religion is always a sensitive subject.

Many questions come to mind when someone tells you he is Mus-lim, Christian or Jewish, because people tend to relate religion to what happens in political life.

While some people relate Islam to 9/11, Christianity to pedophile priests and Judaism to the Palestin-ian issue, others make a great ef-fort to overlook issues to make the religion appear free from fault.

Many wonder how we can change these ideas and start to look at religion more positively. Why do we blame a whole community for what a minority has perpetrated?

Every member in one of the ostracized minorities explains his religion in his own way and makes

everything forbidden lawful and permissible. Without any doubt, killing 3,000 people in 9/11, raping children or killing a whole nation in the name of religion is unforgiv-able. Religions are a spiritual rela-tionship between God and people. He never encourages people to commit crimes.

Islam, Christianity and Judaism are monotheistic religions, so the three have one God, and it is im-possible to believe that God pushes every religion to do something dif-ferent from the others.

The beliefs of the three religions are the same, but the ways of prac-ticing vary.

In Islam, for example, there is Zakat, which is giving a fixed por-tion of one’s wealth to charity, or generally to the poor and needy people.

“It is an honour for us to give people that amount of money, food and clothes. People always wait for this time of the year just to please the poor people,” says Yahya Alra-jhi, a Manufacturing Engineering student at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa.

In Christianity, the word of God contains a treasure trove of lovely Bible verses. You’ll find passages that speak of romantic love, broth-erly love and divine love. Also, Christians are reminded to love even their enemies.

“Christianity is my life. I learned from Christianity about unity, tolerance, helping one another and love,” says Emmanuel Havyari-mana, an Electrical Engineering Technology program student here.

In Judaism, the practice of re-ligion is sacred, indicating that a practice should be followed not because Biblical law requires it, but because it helps to avoid social chaos.

“My parents stressed core Jewish values from a young age too: giv-ing charity to those less fortunate, doing good unto others, having respect for elders and parents, also the value of education and learn-ing,” says Fanny Dolansky, assis-tant professor at Brock University. “As an adult, I think it is the combi-nation of those two aspects — the rituals that have religious, cultural and social dimensions to them and

the values — that really inform my life. Being Jewish is not only about practice and beliefs, but it is also about human interactions, about the way you treat people and want others to treat you in return.”

Religions are the organizers of people’s lives. How can a religion command people to do something wrong? How can a religion call for forgiveness, mercy and love and also call at the same time for murder, rape and violence?

This is a paradox should be solved.

We need PR.Proportional representation, that

is. The recent Ontario election re-sults prove that.

How democratic is it to continue to use a system in which one elec-toral district elects one representa-tive simply by winning the most votes?

Under our current system, all that matters is how many seats you win, not how many votes.

Any party can gain absolute power as long as they win a major-ity of the seats. It doesn’t matter if you win a minority of the votes.

This happened in the federal election in May, when the Conser-vatives won an absolute majority of 166 seats despite 25 per cent of eligible Canadian voters voted Conservative.

In fact, only four governments since the 1910s have won more than 50 per cent of the popular vote. In all cases, the opposition parties did not win the number of seats as they should have won, which is also exactly why there is so much hostility to proportional representation.

In a system of proportional representation, parties would be awarded seats by how many actual votes they receive.

For example, if a party wins 46 per cent of the popular vote, it would roughly receive 46 per cent of the seats.

This would promote the growth of other parties, as it would be eas-ier for them to win seats. Instead of having a few major parties, we would have many.

Different political preferences would truly be represented.

This would increase voter turn-out because more people would think that their vote counted.

Proportional representation could be achieved in many ways.

We could have half of the leg-islature elected in single member districts and the other half elected on party lists, or we could have large electoral districts of two to nine representatives elected by party lists.

Seats would be distributed through quotas. A party would only win a majority if it received a majority of the popular vote.

There would be no false ma-jorities as at the federal level last election, no false near majorities in Ontario, and no opposition parties getting more or fewer seats than they are entitled to.

It would be more democratic.

Many Canadians feel alone in the world due to anxiety and depression, but if you don’t fight for yourself, who will? Submitted photo

Majorityshould rule

‘It is an honour for us to give people that amount of money, food and clothes...’

— Yahya Alrajhi

Beliefs may be similar but ways of practice differ

TSN’s Landsberg advises: ‘Fight for your happiness’Depression is ‘never your fault’

Back in 2006, a documentary called An Inconvenient Truth was released and garnered sizeable no-tice from the North American pub-lic. The documentary was headed by Al Gore, former vice president of the United States turned environ-mentalist, who based it on his book of the same name. Gore wanted to shed light on current environmental issues, particularly global warming, in the hopes that the world would take heed of his warnings and take the necessary steps towards building a future safe from the catastrophic possibilities that seem to be setting into motion all around us.

The question that needs to be asked today is this: to this date, what real progress has been made, if any? This is a question not so easily answered, mostly because of the expectations the individual has for society, and in turn the expecta-tions society has for the individual.

It would be easy for someone to sit back and point fingers at dif-ferent parts of the world or even different parts of their country and come up with the reasons we are still having problems with the changing climate and environment. What has that specific person done to change his or her ecologic foot-print since watching An Inconve-nient Truth back in 2006?

Chances are that person has recently been able to afford a new Ferrari or a 52-inch flat-screen for the living room. There is also the possibility that that person doesn’t believe global warming is a sci-entifically sound cause for panic. That attitude shouldn’t be looked at as arrogant, seeing as how science is constantly changing “facts” and

the way we see our world.If you don’t believe in global

warming, believe in the melting ice caps and fluctuating temperatures worldwide. Believe in all the ani-mals that are endangered, extinct or fighting daily to overcome hurdles we have put in their natural routine of life.

If that is still too strenuous, be-lieve in how disgusting the beach in Port Dalhousie is. The fact is we are still tossing the world about in a proverbial frying pan. Conve-nience might seem like the flavour of the day, but in time the planet will become this charred black thing that won’t naturally support

wildlife, let alone human beings. For all this doom and gloom,

there have been increases in the number of green alternatives. The economy in general seems to be more persistent with proper re-cycling methods and promotion, while sales of hybrid cars have skyrocketed since the start of the 21st century. More independent companies and entrepreneurs are using green methods as promotion for an evolving and savvy business.

Locally, things have been hap-pening too, such as the Project Eve A2B, a new electric car that was brought to Niagara-on-the-Lake’s town hall for a sneak peek on Oct. 3

of this month. The Niagara Region Wind Corporation selected ENER-CON, a wind turbine manufacturer, to supply a turbine farm of 77 tur-bines, which will supply natural power to the Niagara region.

If the news is telling us that the world is going green, why is it also telling us all the relevant issues are still looming over us? As it has been said from the beginning, saving our planet will not happen overnight. We seem to be taking steps towards properly decreasing our detrimental impact on the envi-ronment, but citizens have to show businesses and governments that we are willing to put our backs into

the effort and participate in what should be a global effort.

It’s nice that we now have light bulbs that save us loads of energy, but they won’t do a damn thing sit-ting in the back of a Home Depot warehouse.

Even if all you can do is make sure you recycle properly every time you get the chance, then do it.

We need to show that we’re willing to make personal sacri-fices in order to form a healthy economy for the future, a not only one that benefits our modern needs as humans, but also one that benefits the ecological longevity of the planet Earth.

It’s official. The Ontario election results are in. Maybe your party won or maybe lost. It’s more likely you chose to watch the To-ronto Maple Leafs hockey game or the New York Yankees baseball game on Oct. 6 and couldn’t have cared less. Feeling guilty yet? Don’t!

For the first time since Ontario

took to the polls in 1867, the ma-jority of eligible voters of this province took apathy to record breaking levels. You might think I’m about to prattle on about how we, as a province, need to ban to-gether and get out and vote.

I could write paragraphs sham-ing you all for not casting your ballot and having your voice heard. Instead, however, I would like to take this space to congratulate On-tarians on the lowest voter turnout in over a century. Way to go, guys!

In all honesty, it would be great to see every man, woman and teen (of legal voting age) take to the polls with thoughts and visions on how to better ourselves as a province, with hearts full of hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow.

There is one problem with this: Most people don’t care.

That’s fine. It might be a sign of trust or possibly of despair and the belief that all political parties are crooked and that it makes no dif-ference either way. The important thing is, in our great nation, you’re allowed not to care.

Frankly, it’s cheaper not to care. We could reduce the number of votes that need to be counted and concentrate solely on those that matter.

With that being said, let’s take a quick look at ourselves. Take a walk down your nearest populated street and stop 10 people at ran-dom. Ask them about their position on any platform issues and which candidate best suited their ideol-

ogy. I bet you’ll not find five from the 10 who can name the three to seven representatives in their riding and list each one’s take on the issue.

This is where we are at. It’s not to say voting should be elitist, but why not reserve the act for those best educated on the matter decide?

Let’s not pressure those who don’t care to choose a side.

Furthermore, let’s not con-tinue to encourage the act of voters turning out and sheepishly voting for the party of their parents or spouse, or the candidate whom we might think is attractive in a sexy-librarian kinda way (Google Lori Halloway, Liberal representative for Dufferin-Caledon and Swing-cast Production’s sexiest candidate

of Ontario 2011). There are many reasons people

vote and it seems more and more the issues don’t matter. Candidates try new tactics to win votes from the uneducated.

The last time I watched televi-sion, a commercial told me that nine out of 10 dentists recommend Sensodyne. I thought this was pretty reasonable, as polls go.

Had the commercial told me that two plumbers, a couple of students, a mechanic and three dentists rec-ommend it, I may have questioned their logic.

In Ontario, as in Canada, quite few of us are interested in politics. Equally few should vote.

Here’s hoping for a 35 per cent in 2015.

OPINIONPage 6 NIAGARA NEWS Oct. 21, 2011

MATTNOWELL

Columnist

DENNISFAUCHER

Columnist

The Earth won’t save itself

Voting: maybe only the educated should participate

File photo

But progress has been made on environmental issues

NEWSOct. 21, 2011 NIAGARA NEWS Page 7

By MATT MCNEVINStaff Writer

“A guitar is in my hands prob-ably 40 hours a week.”

Robert Rolston, the guitar teach-er at Niagara College, says guitars are a weakness for him.

“When I get a new guitar, noth-ing gets done around my house for a little while.”

Rolston, who’s been playing guitar for over 30 years, says he has seven “main guitars,” includ-ing a Gibson Les Paul, a Dobro, a Supro lap steel guitar and a Fender Stratocaster.

“Each guitar has its own person-ality … maybe that’s why I have so many.”

Rolston, 44, bought the Fender Stratocaster for $900 when he was 18, and says the purchase was his first accomplishment because it was the first thing he paid for with his own money.

“I couldn’t get home and plug it in soon enough… I was like a kid in a candy store.”

He says the Stratocaster, which he calls “Ivan the Terrible,” is the only guitar he’s paid full price for, and the guitar means a great deal to him.

“I put it away to retire, but I keep taking it out … it’s like an old buddy.”

Rolston, who says he wants to become a full-time faculty member at the college someday, teaches two courses here: Six Strings and a Pick, which covers the basics of playing a guitar, and Rhythm and Solo Guitar, which covers more advanced playing methods.

Rolston says he had a lot of exposure to music when he was younger because of his parents.

“Music was always around when I was a kid … it was something I always seemed to get.”

After studying music and art at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Rolston says he moved from job to job.

He says it was hard for him to find a good-paying job, so one day he decided to make a change.

“I looked in the mirror and said that I didn’t want to do this the rest of my life.”

Rolston says he gave himself a timeline to accomplish what he wanted.

“I gave myself a five-year plan.

If I could be where I wanted to be [musically], I’d continue.”

He says his goal, after five years, was to be making $40,000 a year, which he did, so he continued.

Through playing shows and studio sessions and through his teaching sessions, Rolston says, “the word got out, and more doors opened.”

One of those doors led to Ni-agara College.

Theresa Anzovino, a sociology professor and former co-ordinator of General Arts and Science, says the guitar course was added be-cause the college was “a little light in the arts department for electives, and music is important in young people’s lives.”

Anzovino says Rolston was hired in part because of the work he’d done at career fairs and be-cause she had seen first hand the kind of teacher he was.

Anzovino’s son Daniel has taken guitar lessons from Rolston for six years, and she says she has seen what he can do.

“I saw that Rob could take people from zero knowledge of guitar to where they could play professionally.”

She says Rolston “brings a very creative dimension to our faculty.”

“He is a totally laid-back person who really cares about his stu-dents,” Anzovino says.

Her son Daniel, 19, says Rolston is a “very positive guy” and a student-oriented teacher.

“He’s not like a classical teacher … he teaches you what you want to learn,” Daniel says.

Rolston and wife Tracy, who’ve been married for 10 years, have two daughters: Olivia, 8, and Sa-mantha, 18.

He laughs about the 10-year age gap between his kids, saying, “We wanted a grandchild, so we just cut out the middleman.”

He says Olivia is “very into mu-sic” and has been playing the piano since she was four, whereas Sa-mantha tried music, but it “wasn’t her thing.”

Rolston, who’s in his fourth year teaching at the college, says whether it be five years or 20 years from now, he doesn’t see himself doing anything but playing music.

“A career outside of music would be an unhappy one.”

Guitar teacher totally rocks with experience

By DAVID W. KEENStaff Writer

On Oct. 11, Niagara College an-nounced that TD Bank Group (TD) has committed $150,000 to the col-lege’s Wine Visitor and Education Centre (WVEC) at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus.

The donation will also establish the TD Scholarship, which will be endowed and matched by the provincial government’s Ontario Trust for Student Support program.

The scholarship will be awarded to students in the college’s Wine and Viticulture Studies program, which boasts the only commercial teach-ing winery in the country.

In a statement released by TD last week, David Kissick, the Niagara district vice-president of commercial banking, said, “We are thrilled to partner with Niagara College … and to support special-ized studies like this is beneficial to the future of our youth and the

industry in Niagara.”These announcements are part of

the college’s continued fund-rais-ing efforts but, according to Sean Kennedy, the college’s acting vice-president academic, where donors decide to commit the money to is up to them.

“The way our fund-raising proc-ess works is we first put together a list of possible donors, people or companies we think would be interested in donating. Then,

based on feedback we’ve received from them, we try to match their interests to areas at the college that incorporate those interests,” said Kennedy.

In TD’s case, it was the idea of helping Canada’s only commercial teaching winery and, in turn, Nia-gara’s wine industry, that appealed most.

The donation is the second of three high-profile funding an-nouncements in the last three

weeks. On Sept. 30, Canadian Justice Minister and MP for Nia-gara Falls Rob Nicholson visited the college’s Niagara-on-the-Lake campus to announce a $750,000 federal government investment to boost the college’s research capac-ity.

Nicholson returned Oct. 14, this time to the college’s Welland cam-pus, to announce an investment of up to $2.2 million, again from the FedDev Ontario.

Bank boosts scholarship funding of wineryRobert Rolston, Niagara College guitar teacher, sits in his basement surrounded by his main guitars.

Photo by Dennis Faucher

Robert Rolston shares his craft

TD Bank Group donates $150,000 to Wine Visitor and Education Centre

Page 8 Niagara News -Oct. 21, 2011 Page 9

By DENNIS FAUCHERStaff Writer

John Fulton says he loves giving artists an outlet to express themselves. He's owner of Fulton Fitness and organizer of the Fulton Graffiti Art jam.

“It’s a legal alternative to what people know as graffiti,” he saJs. The event gives local artists a space in which to showcase their art.

“It takes away from the adrenalin a little bit, but these artists are very re-spectful.”

The ninth annual Graffiti Art Jam was held last Saturday in downtown St. Catharines. The art will be displayed in the alleyway between James Street and Garden Park Boulevard all year until the next event covers them up.

Artist Chad Macdonald says he’s heard mixed reviews. “Some people drive by and say they hate it or they don’t get what we’re

doing, but there are probably more positive comments than negative.”Macdonald says he believes these legal, organized events deter tagging and

other forms of destructive graffiti. Tagging is a form of graffiti in which artists can sign their name anno-mously.

“No one is going to go over this stuff.”The event started nine years ago with

an organized basketball tournament that later became more focused on the art of graffiti. Fulton says he thinks the art

brings colour and a look to the neighbourhood that people enjoy. With the St. Catharines Centre for the Arts being built across the street, graf-

fiti artists say this is just another form of art that should be on display. “It’s expensive. This is all out of our own pocket,” says an artist who would

not give his full name, but offered his artist name, Spin. Traditional canvas artists Trevor Blewett and Wayne Corlis will also have

their works for display and sale at the Fulton Fitness Centre and Mahtay Café and Lounge at 241 St. Paul St. alongside other graffiti arts on canvas. Part of the sale proceeds will go to the Pathstone Foundation, which supports Pathstone Mental Health, the regional provider of mental health services for children and youth. “These events aren’t going to stop illegal graffiti, No one is going to stop that,” Spin says, though he adds he believes these events give more credibility to real artists.

Tisha Polocko, executive director of the St. Catharines Downtown Associa-tion, says the event seems to have eased the issues of graffiti in the downtown area. "We've seen a significant decline on that amount we've had to clean up.”

“When we approached the downtown association, they weren’t on board right away,” says Fulton. “Once they saw the art on display, they eventu-

ally came around.” Today, the Niagara Regional Police Service has shown support

for the organized event and the City of St. Catharines mentions the alleyway on its website describing it as a “prominent outdoor art display.”

Graffiti on display Artists express themselves

Organizer John Fulton and graffiti from various artists. The work can be seen between James Street and Garden Park Boulevard in St. Catharines.

ENTERTAINMENTPage 10 NIAGARA NEWS Oct. 21, 2011

By TODD MARRIOTTStaff Writer

Several guys are stuffed into a small bedroom overflowing with music gear.

The amps are just quiet enough so the cops won’t be called.

A sound you can feel in your gut. This is Creationist.

Formed in 2010, Creationist is bringing a scene to the area that many aren’t familiar with.

Trevor Dupuis, vocals, went to high school with drummer Graham Paradis. Former guitarist from The Author Andrew Grierson and guitarist Michael Bieuz are the rest of the band.

Since their formation, Creation-ist has brought bands like Memo-ries of an Old Man, from Quebec, and Thou, from Louisiana, to the Niagara region.

“Their sound isn’t something you might hear every day,” Bieuz says.

“We’re post-doom sludge, mostly intense and dimensional rhythm, taking influence from ambient, post-rock.” Dupuis adds, “We also like crust punk and bands from Sweden.”

Dupuis says, “It’s hard to put a genre on it. We’re influenced by Doom metal, Electric Wizard, Sleep, but not so bludgeoningly heavy that you can’t hear it.”

He adds, “Call us post-apocalyp-tic metal. The first time we wrote The Swell, it was hypnotic. We

want people to get caught in a pat-tern and then we want to pull them out. We want to drag their heads through the song.”

“We’re also influenced by marijuana,” says Dupuis, laugh-ing. “It started as a joke. We were gonna sell weed shirts and merchandise but it got to be over-board.”

One band Creationist loved opening for was Thou, which, Paradis says, is the “best band to play with.”

“We got so much joy by playing with a band like that. We never hear a band play our type of music like that.”

When asked about the future, Grierson says, “We have a huge catalogue of songs. We’re heading to start recording soon. We have a couple rough recordings that were done in a bedroom.”

Dupuis agreed saying, “We used a Rockband mic, just plugged it into a laptop.

“It’s rock band. It’s meant for drunk guys.” Paradis jumped in, saying, “The singer from Memo-ries of an Old Man was really cool.He wanted to give us money to record.”

“We want to be something worth something,” says Grierson. “The first time coming together as a unit we wrote a song. In a year we missed maybe five practices, but when we do, we try to double up the next week.”

Creationist band members, from left to right: Andrew Grierson, Michael Bieuz at their band practice.

Photo by Todd Marriott

By JOSH ERBStaff Writer

On Oct. 4, the Comickazi Com-edy show came to The Core at the Welland campus. It was free for students. Alex Kazam, 19, was the deadliner and last performer, com-bining comedy with magic.

Jules Pesci hosted the show and put it all together with help from Menaka Iyer, Student Administra-tive Council’s director of social programming at the Welland cam-pus.

David Green, Graham Davidson, Craig Watkins, Zachary Kvas, and Phil Watkins, were some of the other comedians who also per-formed.

“It was a great show, a really good crowd,” said Kazam.

He said he got into magic when he was six years old. He got a magic set for his birthday. Since then he’s always been passionate about it. He has been doing magic

for 13 years and comedy for the previous four.

“I went through other phases, but it was always magic.”

Kazam said “being an original act” is the most important thing.

The magic tricks he per-formed were comical and entertaining.

Kazam cut up Iyer’s $20-bill when she volunteered herself and her money to take part in the magic trick. First her $20-bill was ripped up. Then he had her put a towel over her head and gave her a lemon to hold.

Kazam had a knife and acted as if he was going to throw it at the lemon Iyer held. He was kidding about throwing the knife and he then used it to cut open the lemon, which had the $20-bill hidden in-side it.

Iyer said, “I was just like, ‘oh my God!’ when he was acting as if he was going to throw the knife at

the lemon.“It was cool to be up on stage

with him,” said Iyer, “I was ner-vous when he ripped up my $20.”

Craig Cockburn, 22, of Welland, volunteered to partici-pate in an improv performance by Alana Perri, president of the Improv club at Brock University.

Perri said she loves involving the crowd and the true moment of not knowing what to expect with the improv scenes.

“I thought the show was awe-some,” said Cockburn.

He says he loved being involved with the performance. “I just put up my hand and ran up on stage.”

Five student volunteers partici-pated in the improv scenes.

Comedian David Green was one of the participants in the show.

“Keep your ears open. There’s another show next month,” Pesci told the crowd at the end of the show.

Creationist brings new genre

to Niagara region

Comickazi comedy rocks The Core

Alex Kazam entertains the crowd at Buskerfest 2011 in St. Catharines. Photo by Dennis Faucher

Alex Kazam headlines NC event with combo comedy/magic act

NEWSOct. 21, 2011 NIAGARA NEWS Page 11

By MELISSA SMITHStaff Writer

Not only did the band The Pro-claimers sing I Would Walk 500 Miles on the radio, but the local men of St. Catharines and area walked too.

Men gathered Oct. 1 at the St. Catharines Pen Centre for Gillian’s Place’s Walk a Mile in HER Shoes.

The event took off at noon when males of all ages strapped on high-heeled shoes in awareness of women’s abuse issues.

Walk a Mile in HER Shoes raised about $75,000 for Gillian’s Place, a shelter provided to women and children to end violence and abuse. The shelter is at 15 Gibson Place, St. Catharines.

“I’ve walked in police boots, but I never imagined walking in high heels,” said Sergeant Richard Cis-zek, who co-ordinates Niagara Re-gional Police’s domestic violence and victims’ services unit.

“The 893 criminal domestic charges include assault, breaches and threats; 22 per cent of domestic violences are reported. The stats go hand-in-hand with Gillian’s Place and its domestic service where people need to know that you are not alone.”

Doug Chreptyk, of Niagara-on-the-Lake, surpassed his goal of raising $20,000 with a final tally of $22,100.

Being one of many events he attends, he “really likes the idea to help the women’s shelter.”

“It gets bigger and bigger every year,” said Chreptyk.

Nicole Young, the community development manager for Gillian’s Place, was brought to tears as she thanked everyone for supporting Gillian’s Place.

“A total of $20,000 with one man. He [Chreptyk] is an unbe-lievably great ambassador for the cause. He’s truly an inspiration. An event like today shows women they are not alone, and, as in any experience, everyone has their own personal reason for coming. Maybe they know someone or they have really big hearts for coming out.”

“With 15 teams entered this year, they were entered into categories under individual, team or youth under 18. There is also individual youth, youth team, and added this year is the father-son team,” said Young.

Young said that the new father-son team this year will “show kids from a young age that abuse is

unacceptable.”After a performance by the

Laura Secord Secondary School’s Junk Band, St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra stepped out to give “good luck through the blisters, broken ankles and pictures people may use against you. Trust me, ha ha. Thanks a lot, guys!”

Chris Bobko, 22, and Eric Hol-lands, 28, security guards at the Pen Centre, led the walk in colour-ful heels, event banner in hand.

Golden Shoe awards were given out to participants who raised the largest amount of money for Gil-lian’s Place, including Chreptyk, Southridge Community Church, the St. Catharines Falcons and many more.

Adding his thanks to partici-pants, Ciszek said, “This is a great cause and is fun, but let’s not forget about what happens behind closed doors or why we are here.”

Gillian’s Place has a 24/7 sup-port line that can be contacted at 905-684-8331 or online at www.gilliansplace.ca.

On the site, a calendar with lo-cal men in women’s shoes, shot in different environmental locations, can still be purchased in support of Gillian’s Place.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUTHANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUTHANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUTHANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUTHANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUTHANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

For many years Avondale stores have generously distributed

2,400 copies of each Niagara News issue across the Niagara Region.

Avondale demonstrates how good corporate citizens support

student learning.

The staff of the Niagara News wish to thank Avondale for its

past, current and future assistance.

supporting your Niagara College

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Please support Avondale Food Stores.For additional sale items, please check:

www.avondalestores.com

Walk a Mile in HER Shoes Planning Committee (left to right): Cathy Wise, Donna Genge, Tina Dienesch, Alley Vanden-Bogert, Nicole Young, Deb Visser, Linda Bowden, Samantha Craggs, Sophie Lakis, Anne Dean and Joanne Doyley (in front).

Photo by Melissa Smith

Men lend a helping heel

By SYED ALIStaff Writer

“With another year of record en-rolments, things are very exciting and it feels great to be able to help more students achieve their career and educational goals,” said Bob Hann, director of enrolments and registrations.

There are about 9,200 student’s expected for 2011/2012 and also Niagara College started five new programs this year: Renewable En-ergies Technician, Art and Design Foundation, Culinary Innovation and Food Technology, Game De-velopment and Retail Pharmacy Assistant.

According to Bob Hann, Niagara

College has enrolled about 35 stu-dents in Renewable Energies Tech-nician, about 37 in Art and Design Foundation, about 48 in Game Development, about eight students in Culinary Innovation and Food Technology and about 11 students in Retail Pharmacy Assistant.

Alexander Scott, a student in the Game Development program, from Barrie, Ont., said he “really likes” his program. He didn’t know that it is a brand-new program at the col-lege until he started it.

“I am really satisfied with my program so far. It’s a lot of knowl-edge. If you miss even one day you will fall really behind.”

On the down side, a few pro-

grams are being suspended this year. Sean Kennedy, acting vice-president academic, says, “These decisions are made by the college based on a number of factors in-cluding low student or employer demand, as well as accreditation and regulation changes by profes-sional bodies or government.”

Niagara College is one of the top and fastest growing colleges in Canada, Hann said. “While we have experienced growth in most program areas, the fastest growing programs and the ones for which demand is strongest are those pro-grams connected to the health care field.”

More on niagara-news.com

New programs boost enrolment

By DAVE SCHWARTZStaff Writer

It is Thanksgiving Sunday. Do you know where your Bret “Hit-man” Hart costume is? Blake Prince does.

Unfortunately, it isn’t where he wants it to be.

“I was going to dress up like that tonight,” says Prince, the lead singer of Ontario’s Modern Minia-tures, “but I forgot my tights in my friend’s car. I was so pissed.”

Prince, who first made his name as the vocalist of Straight Reads The Line, is known for his spectac-ular live performances, for which he often dresses up.

In addition to Hart, a Canadian pro wrestling legend, Prince says he’s dressed up as Iron Man and Spider-Man.

He’s also played shows stripped down to his underwear.

On this October night, he sang from the top of a ladder he placed in the middle of the floor in the L3 Nightclub in St. Catharines, where Modern Miniatures stopped as part of Dead and Divine’s North Ameri-can Antimacy tour.

“I love being the frontman of a band,” says Prince. “I love talking to the crowd. I love everything about it.”

“Maybe it’s an attention thing, and if it is so be it, but I think I pull it off OK sometimes.”

Believe it or not, there was a time when Prince says he thought he was done with music.

After Straight Reads The Line broke up, Prince moved to Toronto from Stoney Creek, attended culi-nary school and worked as a cook, figuring he didn’t want to be in another band.

“Straight Reads The Line was like my baby,” says Prince. “I loved it to death.”

“I just kind of wanted to try something like, I guess, real life, you know?”

A series of events led Prince back to the music business. First, he broke up with the girl he was living with in Toronto and returned to Stoney Creek. At the same time,

Donny Levasseur, who played guitar in Straight Reads The Line, had started Modern Miniatures with Marco Bressette, formerly of Threat Signal.

The new band combined rock, metal and hardcore punk.

Modern Miniatures parted ways with their first vocalist and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I realized there’s not really a better place for me to work other than being onstage,” says Prince.

Since Prince took over the mi-crophone, Modern Miniatures has gained fans and recognition in a hurry.

Prince speculates being able to namedrop the band members as

being involved in previous bands has helped.

“We don’t really like to be known as ex-Straight Reads The Line, or whatever,” says Prince, “[but] if it helps, it helps.”

As soon as Prince joined Modern Miniatures, he recorded two quick demos with the band to “give the kids something with me on it.”

The two songs, Mouth Piece and Mansuit Business, which can be found on the band’s MySpace page, have since been re-recorded as part of the upcoming full-length record, The Feelers.

This will be the first release for Modern Miniatures, and Prince says they’re hoping to have a re-

lease date by the end of October.“We’re in the process of getting

it mastered right now,” says Prince. “We wanted to release it a while ago.”

Prince says he’s very excited about The Feelers.

“I love it,” says Prince. Modern Miniatures recorded with Julius “Juice” Butty, a good friend of Bressette’s, who has recorded bands such as Alexisonfire and Protest The Hero in the past.

Prince says Butty is now taking a breaking from recording, making The Feelers his last recording at the moment.

Mouth Piece and Mansuit Busi-ness were in the band’s repertoire

before Prince, but he says he re-wrote all of the lyrics.

“I don’t like singing other peo-ple’s lyrics,” says Prince. “I figured if I was joining the band, I’d make it my own.”

Prince wrote a song that refers to the ex-girlfriend he lived with in Toronto.

“[It’s] about heartbreak and love and stuff,” he says.

“I had some loose ends I wanted to tie up, so I figured I’d scream my ass off on a song about her. It’s therapy.”

Among the other lyrics Prince has written for Modern Miniatures includes a song based on The Kill-ing Joke, a Batman graphic novel.

Prince refers to himself as “kind of a Batman nerd,” explaining the song is through the Joker’s eyes.

“It turned out really, really well,” he says. “I’m really proud of [the lyrics].”

“I’m kind of a little bit of a kid and a nerd at heart. It’s part of my life, so I figured, ‘Why not write about something that’s a part of my life?’”

Prince says Modern Miniatures will probably do weekend dates around Southern Ontario during the winter, but has nothing major lined up – for now.

“If some amazing tour pops up,” he says, “I’m sure we’ll hop on it and go out.”

With everyone in the band’s resume sprinkled with past bands, Prince says Modern Miniatures is aiming to stick together.

“There were a few problems in our old bands,” he says.

“Clearly there were, because we’re not in them anymore.”

“So I think we’re looking to take this as far as we possibly can.

It’s clearly what we love doing because we keep coming back try-ing to do it.”

To that end, the ultimate goal of Modern Miniatures, according to Prince, is to make a career out of music.

“If I can do this for the rest of my life and get by,” says Prince, “then I did a good job.

By DAVE SCHWARTZStaff Writer

In the middle of Asphyxia Fiend, Dead and Divine’s first song of the evening, vocalist Matt Tobin takes a break from singing to survey the crowd, a group of people who are mostly standing still, singing the band’s lyrics back at them.

Evidently, Tobin isn’t pleased.He leaves the stage and begins

pushing the crowd, creating a mosh pit in the middle of the floor. Finally satisfied with the crowd, Tobin returns to the stage and be-gins singing again.

Dead and Divine visited L3 in St. Catharines Oct. 9 as part of the Antimacy Tour, celebrating the

release of the band’s new record, Antimacy.

They were joined by tourmates Modern Miniatures and A Sight For Sewn Eyes, as well as local bands Bury The Artifact and The After Chapter.

“I love St. Catharines,” says Tobin. “It’s one of my favourite cities.”

“We’ve definitely had some of our more memorable shows here.”

Koryna Del Duca, 22, attended the show and says she loved it.

“It was incredible!” says Del Duca. “Best show I’ve been to yet.

Blake Price, vocalist of Modern Miniatures, says the tour has been “amazing.”

“I’ve known the Dead and Di-

vine guys for a really long time,” says Price, who used to sing for Straight Reads The Line, a band that often toured with Dead and Divine.

“The tour’s been fun, like old times spending some time with the boys.”

“The Sight For Sewn Eyes guys are the best guys in the world, too.”

Tobin says he’s known Price and Donny Levasseur, another member of Modern Miniatures who also used to play in Straight Reads The Line, for nearly 10 years.

“We actually did our first tour across Canada together back in 2006,” says Tobin, who notes they met in the early part of the 2000s.

“Then they flipped their van,” says Chris LeMasters, who plays guitar in Dead and Divine, “and then we didn’t do the rest of the tour with them.”

Price joined Tobin onstage during Dead and Divine’s set to sing Mechanical Orchestra, from 2009’s The Machines We Are.

Earlier in the evening, Price dragged a ladder from a storage room and placed it in the middle of the floor before climbing and screaming from the top rungs.

Even during Modern Miniatures’ set, Price told the crowd how he felt about Tobin and crew.

“Those guys are some of my very best friends in the whole world.”

‘Then they flipped their van, and then we didn’t do the rest of the tour with them.’

Chris LeMasters

ENTERTAINMENTPage 12 NIAGARA NEWS Oct. 21, 2011

Blake Prince says he “loves everything about being the frontman” of Modern Miniatures.Photos by Dave Schwartz

‘I figured ... I’d make it my own’

Dead and Divine tears down the house at L3

SPORTSOct. 21, 2011 NIAGARA NEWS Page 13

By DANIELLE FLEWELLINGStaff Writer

Niagara College athletics is kicking off the school year with a new intramurals website. The site is hosted by an American company called Athleague and works as an online social network for Niagara College’s intramural department. It allows the school to have all the intramural information online and provides easy access for all students.

The Niagara College intramurals site allows students to register online, provides information on when registration is closed and when the activity begins and ends and includes a description of the activity, equipment and clothing requirements and the basic rules of the sport.

Kerby Bentley, athletics and recreation assistant at the Welland campus, wanted the intramurals site to be part of the “more modern times” and to be more mainstream and safe for staff.

“I did some research and I knew I wanted something online,” says Bentley. “I always had a lot of cash in the office and I wanted some-thing a little more secure.” Bentley says he found Athleague on the University of Western Ontario in-tramurals’ website.

Bentley also created the intra-murals site for the Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) campus. It is kept on track by the NOTL athletic assistant, Mike Hurley.

Bentley says 168 students have already signed up for intramurals this year, and he is pleased by this good turnout. “There are a lot more males than females who signed

up, so I’m going to have to work on that.”

The new website is very orga-nized and easy to use. It supplies all the necessary tools for any stu-dent to create a team, join a team or even be a “free agent” athlete. This designation allows any team to be able to request that you join its team just by using the social networking aspects of the site.

The site is easy to ac-cess and allows students to register using Facebook. It saves students from having to worry about picking up schedules from the athletic department, handing in registration forms and going through the trouble of try-ing to contact their team, which they can do just by using the website.

After a student registers and joins a team, the site allows the option of receiving group text messages from the team when games are cancelled or for any other important issues regarding intramurals.

Bentley says the only issue he’s experienced so far is having students enter the wrong email address when they’re registering. Students tend to put their Hotmail address or forget to add “students” to the ‘@students.niagaracollege.ca’ part of their email, a problem that disallows that student from joining.

The site is designed to al-low only students with stu-dent emails to sign up for intramurals.

To join intramurals or for more-information, students can access the new website at www.niagara-college.athleague.com/leagues.

By CALI-ANNE SIMPSONStaff Writer

Congratulations are in order for the Niagara Knights men’s golf team for winning the Niagara Col-lege annual Fall Golf Classic on Sept. 28 at the Lochness Links golf course in Welland.

Chris Hargest (Owen Sound, Ont), Ryan Curran (Thorton, Ont.), Chad Currie (Owen Sound, Ont.), and Cody Connor (Niagara Falls, Ont.) combined for a win-ning score of 292, two strokes

better than the defending 2010 CCAA Champions and five-time defending OCAA champions, the Humber Hawks.

The Knights were back at it this past week, coming in fifth of 15 teams at the Ontario Colleges Ath-letic Association (OCAA) Cham-pionships at the Cornwall Golf and Country Club in Cornwall, Ont.

With a round of even par 72, Hargest was the Knights’ best golfer on the final day of the tour-nament. Hargest finished in a three-

way tie for 10th place in a field of 86 golfers.

“There were three of us returning from last year’s team, and we were fully expecting to, at worst, finish top three at provincials, move on to nationals, and then contend at nationals as well,” says Hargest, the 2009 CCAA Champion. “We finished fifth and our season is over just like that. Pretty brutal.”

Currie says it was great to finally beat Humber College of Toronto, in the Fall Classic, but that he

played his worst golf tournament at the OCAA Championships.

“We could have easily placed a lot higher than we did,” he says. “It would have been nice going to PEI [Prince Edward Island] for the CCAA Championship.”

Connor says, “It was good to finally beat Humber and win the tournament, but we were more focused on playing well at provincials.”

Conner is also not happy about finishing fifth at the OCAA Cham-

pionships. “We have more talent than a fifth place finish. It just wasn’t our week,” he said.

Coach Jim Briggs, who has been coaching the team for three years, says he has confidence in all the team members.

“It’s great to see the camaraderie amongst the team,” says Briggs.

The team will be training in the off-season.

To register for the golf team, go online to www.niagaraknights.ca/sports/golf.htm.

By JORDAN AUBERTINStaff Writer

The Niagara Knights women’s volleyball team lost its game at Daemen College on Oct. 12 against the Wildcats.

The Knights played their first exhibition game against the 2009 Wildcats, in Amherst, N.Y. The game went all five sets instead of the normal best of five. The Knights lost all five.

“We have to keep things relative with our team. We played a very experienced team that is doing very well in their respective league,” said head coach Joey Martins. “Us playing our first game together as a team, we didn’t do too poorly.”

Lindsay Murray, co-captain and outside hitter for the Knights, said, “It’s not the greatest game we will ever have. It’s one of those things that’s going to be in the past very soon.”

The team played better as the game went on, said Martins, calling the improvement “a good sign.”

The team lacked experience and coaching staff because Cheryl Silva, assistant coach, was not at the game.

“I toned my coaching down be-cause our assistant coach was not able to be there, so I needed to be both good cop and bad cop as one coach,” said Martins.

The team went in with some “jit-

ters,” said Martins, and the players weren’t totally comfortable play-ing next to one another.

“We practice a lot. However, [we] won’t know what we have until we step on the court.”

Marieka Ouimette, co-captain and middle, said, “I thought we

would do a lot better since I know we can do better.”

Martins agreed.“We just have to get them to believe in themselves, each other and us as coaches. When we do this, we will be on the right path to reaching our goal of mak-ing provincial championships.”

Sports registration made easy onlineAll it takes is an email address

Daemen Wildcats’ Joanna Fretthold (No. 11) spikes a ball past Niagara Knights’ Ava Sarkis (No. 1) and Krista Douwes (No. 6).

Photo by Jordan Aubertin

‘We just have to get them to believe in themselves’

Bittersweet ending leads to off-season training

Women’s volleyball team stays positive

NEWSPage 14 NIAGARA NEWS Oct. 21, 2011

By JARED ANDERSONStaff Writer

It’s pipeline season.The Keystone Pipeline system is

a system of oil pipelines that trans-ports crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands to American oil refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma. A proposed expansion to the pipeline system is known as the Keystone XL pipeline. If approved, the Keystone pipeline system will be expanded to the U.S. gulf coast.

“The $13 billion (US) Keystone pipeline system will play an im-portant role in linking a secure and growing supply of Canadian crude oil with the largest refining mar-kets in the United States, signifi-cantly improving North American security supply,” according to the TransCanada Corporation website, the corporation that owns the Key-stone Oil pipeline.

TransCanada also claims that “when completed, the Keystone

Pipeline System is expected to pro-vide five per cent of current U.S. petroleum-consumption needs and represent nine per cent of U.S. pe-troleum imports.

Once permitted and completed, the Keystone Gulf Coast Expan-sion project will supply roughly half the amount of oil the U.S. currently imports from the Middle East or Venezuela.”

Not everyone is happy with the Keystone XL oil pipeline, however.

Fiona McMurran, of the South Niagara chapter of the Council of Canadians, is opposed to the Key-stone oil pipeline.

“I’m opposed to anything that’s going to increase the development of the tar sands,” McMurran said. She also mentioned the environ-mental dangers with the pipeline, noting the safety of water supplies (a major concern for the Council of Canadians), the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year and the threat of

another similar disaster, as well as the safety of tar sands workers.

“Canadians working in the oil sands are exposed to carcinogenic substances,” she said.

McMurran is also opposed to the pipeline for economic reasons, op-posing the export of Canadian oil to the United States to be refined by American corporations and sold back to Canada.

“I think that Canada, as usual, is being shortchanged,” she added.

By JONATHAN VAN EKELENBURG

Staff WriterYou may not know who Collin

Stachura is, but he plans on getting to know you.

You may have seen him around campus: a guy in a casual white button-up with the sleeves rolled up to reveal tattoos crawling up his arms, camera in hand.

He’s one of the executive vice-presidents of the Student Adminis-trative Council (SAC), the student representative on the Niagara College Board of Governors and a full-time student in the Digital Photography program. With all that to do, plus a wife and two children at home, the 29-year-old might be one of the busiest people at the Welland campus.

“He’s been very busy,” says Kim Monfette, SAC’s office adminis-trator in Welland. “In September, every day [at SAC] is chaos, and he’s been very attentive to what everyone’s doing.”

It certainly seems Stachura’s been keeping track of everything going on here. He is eager to show off SAC’s new social initiative this year, CLiK, which is an online social network “a lot like what Facebook used to be.” It allows students and SAC to communicate with each other about social events on- and off-campus and build an “online community.”

“I’m always talking to students non-stop,” he says. “Now we hear the voices of students online with-out having to be face-to-face. We can reach all the students instead of just one at a time.”

Stachura served on SAC last year as social director, a job for which Brian Costantini, SAC president, says he was well-suited.

“He’d get right out in front of the crowd [at social events] and engage the students.”

Now Stachura is in a manage-ment role, serving as vice-presi-dent and Board representative, but Costantini says the skills that made him a good social director will help him better represent the student body in his new roles. “He’s shown a lot of initiative and has a ton of drive.”

Kim Rose, executive assistant to the president and Board of Governors, also says she thinks Stachura will “make the students proud” as their representative. “I think he’s awesome. He appears to be very engaged with student life and is mature, responsible and respectful.”

Stachura says he wants to be able to give every student at the college the chance to make the most of their time here, and he hopes he can take what students tell him they want and work to make that happen as their voice.

“I want to give back as much as I possibly can to the school. I’ve taken so much in, which has changed my life dra-matically, and I’d love to give that back.”

Stachura says while it’s primar-ily for his fellow students that he serves on SAC and the Board, he’s also aware of the opportunities doing so pres-ents him. The first m e e t i n g of the B o a r d

of Governors was on Sept. 29, and Stachura says he is looking forward to working with “people of such high distinction and calibre from across the Niagara region.”

“It’s a great way to introduce yourself to the working world,” he says of serving on the Board, “to talk to these influential people who can guide you.”

He has high hopes to put those connections he makes this year to use. Stachura says he plans to open his own photography studio after graduating. He had initially planned to go into the radio busi-ness and continue DJing, as he

still finds time

to do every so often now, but says he “fell in love with a lady, and it was Lady Photography.”

“[I want] the opportunity to be able to capture precious moments in life forever, whether they be emotional, historical or monumen-tal, to be able to capture all that and have it be your own image.”

Between going to meetings of the Board, responding to students in his position at SAC, taking pictures for homework a n d spinning a f e w

tunes on the side, Stachura still finds time to devote to a life at home. He and his wife, Lisa Lane, have two children, Damon, 6, and Ava, 4, and are expecting a third child in January.

“There’s a lot to do, but for me, I look at it as the opportunity of a lifetime,” he says with a smile. “The only way to look at it for me is to steal a quote from [Young Forever by] Jay-Z, ‘Let the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows.’”

Photo by Jonathan van Ekelenburg

‘I’ve taken in so much’

— Collin Stachura

Niagara student does it allCollin Stachura is an executive vice-president of SAC, student representative to the Board of Governors, full-time student, father and photographer, but it’s not slowing him down

Pipeline expansion would send Canadian oil to gulf coast

NEWSOct. 21, 2011 NIAGARA NEWS Page 15

By SYED ALIStaff Writer

Are we ready to impress high school students and make them come to Niagara College for fur-ther education?

Niagara College’s Information Fair 2011 was held yesterday in the Athletic Centre at the Welland campus and evening sessions were held.

Niagara College provided the bus service for all the students.

According to Shauna Tuyp, on-campus recruitment co-ordina-tor, about 36 high schools signed up to attend the Information Fair. Students came from Niagara, Hamilton and Grand Erie school boards.

“We [were] expecting anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 students that day,” says Tuyp.

There were about 12 booths from the various academic schools of Niagara College and also one booth from each of the other 23 colleges in Ontario.

“If you are a student in this area and you are unsure what you want to take and are looking into college or if you think you know what Niagara College is about but you haven’t been here in a while, come check it out. We just had $90 million of renovation … The school has changed a lot and we have wonderful new programs and there are some great things happening here,” Tuyp says.

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Niagara College showcased some of its programs at this year’s Info FairCome for the information, stay for the education

Amanda Scavo second-year Broadcasting- Radio Television and Film program with B1N1(Benny) from Mechanical Engineering Technology. Photo by Jordan Aubertin

NEWSPage 16 NIAGARA NEWS Oct. 21, 2011

By HEATHER BAIANOStaff Writer

Determination is an international quality.

Twelve international students set their sights on running in the Rob’s Run for Rotary on Oct. 16, but rain and wind forced them to cancel their plans.

The International Community Links team stayed determined and decided to donate money to the Rotary Club of Welland anyway.

The team made time between classes to create candygrams to raise money. They raised $200 for the local club.

The Community Links team is a group of international students who want to see aspects of Canada they wouldn’t usually experience. They want to get involved and help out local groups. Nikita Shcheglov, 17, from Russia, said he enjoys the Community Links team.

“I want to do something good with my life. It will help me grow up.”

International students are not used to fundraising. They often ask why the government doesn’t pay for things.

“It’s a cultural thing,” said Shauna Gupta, an English as a Second Language teacher at the Welland campus when asked about fundraising. “It’s a very North American way of doing things.”

That fact doesn’t slow students down. Jihyun Cheon, 20, from Korea, says she wants to travel around Canada. The Commu-

nity Links group will help her with more than her English. She will learn about Canadians and their country.

“I wish I could be a lucky person to get one,” said Cheon about the candygrams.

Days like Halloween and Thanksgiving don’t exist in coun-tries like Russia and Argentina. There are national holidays special to each country.

Students on the team are from

China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Ar-gentina, Palestine and Mexico.

Rotary is a charity organization providing humanitarian services and ethical standards, working in communities locally and inter-nationally to create harmony and peace. An example of the work done by Rotary is the building of a library in Ethiopia.

The Rotary Club has been good to Gupta, she says. Because of her work with the club, she will be

studying in England next year. She was awarded an international Am-bassadorial Scholarship through the club. This requires the student to represent his or her country and school while studying.

Gupta will do presentations about Welland and Niagara Col-lege. By doing fundrasing with the international students and donating the proceeds to the Rotary Club, she is giving back to the group that gave her the chance of a lifetime.

Shauna encourages students to study abroad and recommends approaching the Rotary Club for assistance, especially with yearly scholarships.

Upcoming events for the Com-munity Links team include a Halloween party on Oct. 23, a TV Auction by the Rotary Club at the Pen Centre in St. Catharines on Nov. 25 and Niagara College’s first-ever International Gala, the date to be announced.

By ATOM GAUTHIERStaff Writer

Christmas will come a little late for the students who frequent Black Walnut, but it will be a well-deserved gift.

Ever since Niagara College’s master renovation plan started, one aim has been to get rid of the Mackenzie and Black Walnut buildings. With Mackenzie demol-ished during the summer, it will soon be time for Black Walnut.

For the few programs in Black Walnut, the demolition will be a much needed change. Art and Design Foundation, Graphic De-sign, New Media Web Design, Journalism and the new Game Development program will have more space when they are moved to the top floor of Simcoe.

“These programs will be inte-

grated back into the environment of the main building,” says Teresa Quinlin, vice president of Corpo-rate Services.

Construction on the third floor of Simcoe has been going on since before the start of school in Sept- ember and should be finished over Christmas break, says Quinlin.

“Moving these programs to the third floor of Simcoe will give stu-dents lots of open space.” She says these areas will be for a student lounge and also a section for art students to show off their work.

Quinlin says the faculty of Black Walnut had lots of input to make the learning spaces “efficient for all the students.”

“Lockers and faculty offices will be close to classrooms to provide easier working environments.”

She says at the start of the winter

term students will have “new class-rooms, labs and furniture to look forward to.”

“Students won’t feel isolated anymore,” says Quinlin. She says the renovation cost is $1.4 million, part of a $90-million master plan.

Black Walnut students have good feelings about the move.

“I knew about the move when I overheard my teachers talking about it,” says Elsje Ormel, 20, a first-year Art and Design Founda-tion student. “We’ll no longer have to deal with all the trekking around outside between classes to get food at the cafeteria or just relax in the commons.”

Ormel says she and her fellow students spend a lot of time going back and forth to the “crummy bathrooms” to clean supplies, so better facilities will be “amazing.”

Front row left: Rada Darawish, Belen Viglione, Maria Sizova, Isabel Hernandez. Back row left: Kie Someda, Jihyun Cheon, Sunyoung Kim, Clara Guo, Nikita Shcheglov, Harry Gong.

Photo by Heather Baiano

Social awareness through the magic of candyInternational

students explore Canadian

culture and raise money with candygrams

Impending building demolition signals welcome change for Black Walnut programs

Senior Communications Officer, Michael Wales and Acting Director of Facilities Management Services, John Gitting, look over plans in the future home of the School of Media Studies.

Photo by Dennis Faucher