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Thursday, March 14, 2013 Canada’s only daily student newspaper • founded 1906 VoluMe 106, Issue 84

thegazette

www.westerngazette.ca • @uwogazette

Who the hell wrote Saskatoon? since 1906

todayhigh0low-6

tomorrowhigh3low-7

Sugar rushMaple syrup boom hits southwestern Ontario.

>> pg. 4

Fleming riot nears first anniversary

megan devlinGazette Staff

With St. Patrick’s Day fast approach-ing, the London community is tak-ing preventative measures following last year’s Fleming Drive riot, which garnered international attention on the city.

This week, Fanshawe College is releasing a publication for its students from President Howard Rundle and Fanshawe Student Union President Zack Dodge.

“The piece is going to touch on making wise choices, being safe and being respectful of the community over this coming weekend,” Devin Robinson, recruitment supervisor for Fanshawe College, said.

“Even though this was an off-campus situation, our on-campus safety and security is always a prior-ity. We’re going to have on-campus security throughout the weekend, and also we are coordinating with our various partners, including the [FSU,] which has run articles on awareness about the subject in the student paper,” Robinson continued.

“[The FSU] will also be going around door-to-door in the area with a handout and speaking to stu-dents about being safe and respect-ful in the community.”

London community members

are also taking matters into their own hands. One group of property holders, McIver Holdings, has spe-cifically forbidden students from partying outdoors on their property.

“St. Patrick’s Day is fast approach-ing, and we expect there will be a party or two. We would like to remind you to please be respon-sible and respectful of our proper-ties. Due to past events, the police

will be out in full force, focused on students and parties. Please note there are to be absolutely no outside gatherings at any of our buildings. Should any sort of damage to McIver Holdings properties occur, you, our tenants, will be held responsible,” the company said in an email sent to tenants.

This anxiety comes as a result of the riot occurring in a Fanshawe student enclave.

The riot started the night of St. Patrick’s Day when hundreds of drunken revelers began lighting objects on fire and attacking police and fire crews when they arrived on the scene. A CTV news vehicle was overturned and set on fire while the rioters cheered. London Police Chief Brad Duncan was quoted describ-ing the riot as a war zone. The dam-age the drunken crowd inflicted on the neighbourhood cost taxpayers roughly $500,000.

After the incident, eight students were suspended from Fanshawe College, with the school’s academic code of conduct stating students can receive academic penalties if their off-campus actions affect the health and safety of others in the community.

The riot was also one of the first instances where police used social media to track down perpetrators. Students who had tweeted or posted videos about participating in the riot were tracked down long after the crowd had dissipated.

Though last year’s was the worst riot the city has ever seen, it was far from the first. Community mem-bers, as well as Fanshawe admin-istration, have a vested interest in making sure this trend does not continue.

London Police were not available for comment at time of publication.

even though this was an off-campus situation, our on-campus safety and security is always a priority.

—Devin RobinsonRecruitment supervisor for fanshawe College

Mike Laine Gazette

Youtube

CCPA tackles fed. budget

Iain BoekhoffGazette Staff

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a non-partisan think tank, has proposed a new alter-native federal budget that would lower tuition for post-secondary education to pre-1992 levels, adjusted for inflation, and increase funding for needs-based programs and research at universities.

David Macdonald, coordina-tor of the alternative budget, explained the cost of tuition has risen dramatically since the cuts of the 1990s, and this cost has been passed on to students and their families.

“There has been a significant rise, and this is particularly true in Ontario of tuition rates since the mid-1990s. They are rising at five per cent a year, and infla-tion is about two per cent a year,” Macdonald said. “There’s this huge gap for students where tuition is rising much faster than inflation. One of the big measures we would do is drive tuition rates back down to their 1992 levels adjusted for inflation.”

The lowered tuition rates would also be supplemented with educa-tional tax changes from the federal government.

“Currently, there is about $1.5 billion worth of what are called tax expenditures, which are basically […] a variety of education-related tax credits,” Macdonald said. “The argument is that because these are tax credits, they disproportionately go to higher income families. The [alternative budget] would cancel all those tax credits and convert them into upfront grants so it would fund students via needs-based programs.”

The budget focuses on increas-ing spending to boost economic growth, not the austerity the fed-eral government has been pushing for, and it looks to reduce poverty across Canada and in First Nations communities.

Solution to puzzle on page 7

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2 • thegazette • Thursday, March 14, 2013

Crossword By Eugene sheffer

The Cryptoquip is a substitution cipher in which one letter stands for another. If you think that X equals O, it will equal O throughout the puzzle. Single letters, short words and words using an apostrophe give you clues to locating vowels. Solution is by trial and error.© 2002 by Kings Features Syndicate, Inc.

Caught on Camera

News Brief

Cancer research targets immune system

James Koropatnick, director of the Cancer Research Laboratory Program at the London Regional Cancer Program, and Wei-Ping Min, a Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry professor, have been testing cancer treatments which may revolutionize the way cancer is treated.

While most treatments aim to

target cancer cells through exter-nal measures, the treatment being tested by Koropatnick and Min would assist the immune system in suppressing the cancer itself.

A strong, healthy immune system should be able to fight off cancer cells, but some cells are able to mask themselves and avoid being targeted by releasing immunosuppressive molecules, one of which is indole-amine 2,3-deoxygenase, or IDO.

Releasing IDO prevents the immune system from identifying cancer cells as invading foreign bod-ies, so they go unnoticed.

Koropatnick and Min have come up with a way to target and destroy the IDO molecules, thus allowing the immune system to do its job.

“[IDO] is like a shield they hide behind so the immune system can’t see them and can’t kill them,” Koropatnick said. “You knock the shield out of their hands and they become more vulnerable.”

So far, testing the treatment in mice has been successful. The immune systems of cancerous mice which had their cancer cells treated to prevent the release of IDO mol-ecules were better able to recognize and kill the cancer cells.

As with most new treatments, however, there are potential draw-backs. IDO molecules are released not just by cancer cells, but also by cells in the human body. More significantly, embryos rely on the release of IDO to disguise them-selves from a mother’s immune system, which would otherwise identify them as foreign tissue and potentially destroy them.

Koropatnick and Min must develop a method of suppressing IDO production in cancer cells, whilst not affecting other cells in the body. As of now, further testing is required to ensure the treatment is safe and effective.

—Aleks Dalek

Caroline Wang Gazette

UGGS AND LULULEMON GALORE. a volunteer for the Peer Support Centre accepts garments as part of Clothes Swap. for each piece of clothing checked, students will receive a token to cash in for new used clothing. Leftover clothing will be donated to Safe Space London.

St. Paddy’s day holds swayIain BoekhoffGazette Staff

An Irish teetotaller will drink on St. Patrick’s Day, even though they might not celebrate Valentine’s or Mother’s Day, according to research from Northumbia University in Newcastle, England.

Matthew Kearney, a doctoral researcher of consumer behav-iour at Northumbia, conducted the study and found every single one of the 70 Irish participants in the study celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, and many maxed out their credit cards, or borrowed from friends, to fund their celebrations. Even those that identified as teetotal-lers felt compelled to have a pint of Guinness just for St. Paddy’s Day.

“I think that the teetotallers who discussed drinking on St. Patrick’s day did so because they didn’t perceive it as ‘drinking’ in the tra-ditional sense, but rather they saw it as a means to an end—the price of admission, if you will, for cel-ebrating with their friends who do drink,” Kearney said.

Curiously, there was also no dif-ference between genders in drinking participation on St. Patrick’s Day.

“I was, perhaps, a little surprised

that there wasn’t a gender differ-ence presented in the findings. I expected to find a deviation between the two genders, if for no other reason than the fact that ‘lad culture’ appears to excuse and often promote drinking, particularly amongst Generation Y consum-ers,” Kearney said. “I do believe this speaks volumes about the cel-ebration, however, as there was a marked difference between the two genders of the participants in terms of their drinking habits, in almost all other instances—St. Patrick’s Day appeared to be the exception.”

Drinking alcohol is often roman-ticized in Irish culture, and it feeds

into the hype surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, which is seen as the quintessential Irish celebration.

“Given that only two of the non-Irish participants celebrated the event, and that not every partici-pant with a partner did something for St. Valentine’s day—nor Mother’s Day, for that matter— showed a certain loyalty or patriotism to the event that I wasn’t expecting,” Kearney said. “This was cemented by the fact that, when pressed, many of the participants weren’t quite sure why they celebrated it, only becoming aware of some of the underlying reasons upon fur-ther questioning.”

Andrei Calinescu Gazette

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thegazette • Thursday, March 14, 2013 • 3

Gaining ad cents

aaron ZaltzmanNeWS eDitoR

Ian Greaves has been manager of The Gazette’s composing depart-ment long enough to see the rise and, more recently, the fall, of the newspaper business.

While the rise was productive, the fall has been steep, with adver-tisement revenue slipping from comprising 63 per cent of The Gazette’s budget in 2007 to just 36 per cent this year. The result has been a 68 per cent increase in stu-dent fees.

“The goal, in the past, was always to bring in additional revenue from advertising to cover whatever costs weren’t covered by the student fee,” Greaves says. “But it’s getting more and more difficult to attain that.”

However, while advertising in papers has dropped nationally, Greaves said part of The Gazette’s struggles can be traced back to campus-wide restrictions on advertising.

“In the past, breweries and dis-tilleries advertised in The Gazette, and when that went away, it obvi-ously took money with it,” Greaves says.

The Western campus alcohol policy, first passed in 1991 and last updated in 2008, imposes a number of restrictions on advertisements on campus, or in campus media,

including those for alcohol.“We’ve agreed, through a pol-

icy, to put limits on what we want to promote at Western,” Susan Grindrod, the university’s liquor license coordinator, says. “Part of it’s about reputation, part of it’s about what we’re promoting here at Western.”

According to Tony Ayala, vice-president finance for the University Students’ Council, the USC, which collects The Gazette’s student fee, passed a similar policy in 2009 to fall in line with the University.

“Everything in the policy is on the recommendation of [the University],” Ayala said. “We have some concerns about it, […] but at the end of the day, they hold our liquor license. They hold a tight rope on the liquor policy and we don’t have our own, so we follow theirs.”

However, the policy has been thrust into the spotlight by The Gazette Strategic Review commit-tee, which presented a report to the USC at last night’s council meeting. Among the recommendations is the loosening of advertisement restric-tions—including those on alcohol.

It is yet unknown what steps the USC will take with the report, if any, but some council members have already expressed support for the recommendation.

Connor Lyons, HBAA president, thinks the repeal of the alcohol

advertisement restrictions is a “no-brainer.”

“The harm derived from adver-tising alcohol appears to be mis-placed—most students are of age [and] many students drink,” Lyons said. “The assertion that drink-ing would increase due to an ad in The Gazette is not supported by any data, and the likelihood is that this assertion is a stretch of the imagination.”

While the USC’s hands are fairly tied, Matt Helfand, social science president, said that shouldn’t stop them from advocating for change.

“Considering the fact that there is currently much discussion revolv-ing around ways to increase reve-nues, and ways to lower tuition and student fees, this sort of endeavour strikes me as one which the USC should be pursuing,” Helfand said.

For now, however, the University appears unmoved on any change.

“The logic behind the policy is to control […] the kinds of commer-cial activity and advertising that’s on campus,” Grindrod said. “We have a right and an obligation to do that.”

She added advertisements for alcohol could be perceived as “harmful” to Western’s image.

However, Ayala maintains no change is out of the question in the future.

“Is it something that should be considered for the future? Definitely—there’s no way you could ignore that,” he said. “If it’s something that students and council feels is unfair, then I will definitely be at the next commercial policies meeting asking for more answers.”

advertising is one the main streams of revenue for the University Students’ Council, but university policies often place limits on the market. News Editor Aaron Zaltzman investigates.

Andrei Calinescu Gazette

Andrei Calinescu Gazette

Malawi to give peas a chance

Herb richardsonGazette Staff

A Western professor will soon be embarking on a five-year project to collaborate with farmers in Malawi to diversify the country’s crops and create a farmer-to-farmer community initiative.

“The real focus of the project is a farmer-to-farmer education type of project,” Isaac Luginaah, a geography professor at Western and Canada Research Chair in health geography, said. “[The farmers] are going to be teaching their counterparts […] how they have improved their own food security with what they have left over.”

Some of the crops to be used to diversify the country’s farming include legumes high in protein, such as black-eyed peas. Luginaah mentioned many of the plants were indigenous to Malawi, but were removed from farms due to

increased production of maize.“Some of them are old crops

that were left aside, but because of the nutritious values of [those crops], we are encouraging [their return],” Luginaah said. “These are all old, traditional crops. Most people had concentrated on production of maize, so we are encouraging them [to diver-sify crops]”

Luginaah also elaborated on some of the benefits of diversify-ing Malawi crops.

“The main benefit is food secu-rity in households, and improving nutrition in children. Then, obvi-ously, when you have food secu-rity there, you improve Malawi’s economy,” he said.

The diversification of crops helps farmers in Malawi in other ways, too, according to Rachel Bezner Kerr, an adjunct geogra-phy professor at Western.

“If one crop doesn’t do well, then others might do well—this is

especially important in light of cli-mate change which is anticipated to increase droughts in Malawi,” Bezner Kerr said.

The project in question builds on Kerr’s previous collaborations with Malawi organizations and farmers over the years.

According to Bezner Kerr, other benefits of crop diversifi-cation include producing a more balanced diet, providing other options for income and helping maintain the soil.

“We will be directly assisting 6,500 farming households, includ-ing 200 youth,” she explained. “Through our farmer-to-farmer approach, we hope to reach out to 30,000 farming households, since many farmers share the knowledge and seeds with oth-ers in their community.”

Western’s project is sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency, which pro-vided $2.5 million for the project.

4 • thegazette • Thursday, March 14, 2013

foodtipif making a creamy dressing, substitute half the mayo with Greek-style yogurt. this will make your dressing healthier, while maintaining a rich texture.Food&Drink

A popular Indian dish, this spicy meal will make your taste buds sizzle, and your tummy full. Served on a bed of rice, and the main ingre-dients being chickpeas and diced tomatoes, this dish is 100 per cent vegetarian—not to mention the array of spices included provide a sharp flavour and a variety of health benefits.

Ingredients:

• 1 can tomatoes• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed• olive oil• Rice• 1 large sweet onion, or 3 small shallots• 2 cloves garlic• 1 tsp. cardamom• 1 tsp. cumin• 1 tsp. curry• 1 tsp. turmeric• 1tsp. garam masala• 1 tsp. indian spice (optional)• Salt and pepper• fresh coriander (optional)• Chili flakes (optional)

directions:

1. open cans and rinse the chickpeas.2. Chop the onions and garlic, sauté in olive oil until translucent (medium-heat) for 3 minutes.3. add all the spices and con-tinue to sauté to allow spices to cook with the onions for 5 to 7 minutes.4. Slowly add the liquid from the tomatoes to form a broth (about half the can of liquid).5. then, add the rest of the toma-toes and a pinch of salt and pep-per. Bring to a medium simmer, and add the chickpeas.6. Cook for about 20 minutes on low-medium heat—while rice is cooking (follow package instructions).7. add the fresh coriander just before serving.

*to add some heat, add chili flakes after you add the tomatoes.

enjoy with some naan bread!—Nicole Gibillini

>> Gazette-tested > Homemade chana masala

Ritchie Sham Gazette

What comes to mind when you think of Irish beer? Why, Guinness stout of course! The world’s most popular stout, Guinness is an Irish institution. I personally adore it. However, while this mythologi-cal beverage may have the most notoriety, it’s far from the only Irish beer. With its heavy mouth-feel, and dark roasted malt, it may be difficult to drink for hours on St. Paddy’s Day—not to mention it doesn’t dye green particularly well. Instead, try one of the fol-lowing tasty, straightforward, Irish beers.

Smithwick’s Ale: Brewed in Ireland’s oldest operating brewery, this beer is steeped in Irish tradi-tion. A classic red ale, this beer has a pleasant ruby-amber colour and distinct roasted malt flavour, with a hint of some bittersweet choco-late. Overall, Smithwick’s is a well-balanced, simple ale. It manages to be highly drinkable without being boring—a rare quality in many ales. It’s very lightly hopped with fairly soft carbonation mak-ing it an ideal session beer for a saturated St. Paddy’s.

Kilkenny Cream Ale: Brewed by Guinness, Kilkenny bears one of the classic Guinness hallmarks of nitrogenation. This gives this cream ale—that same soft milk-shake mouth feel that Guinness stout is so famous for. If you grab a can of this beer, don’t be sur-prised if you hear a rattle—that’s from the Guinness patented ‘beer widget’ that maintains the nitro-gen in the beer. However, unlike the stout, Kilkenny roasts the malt considerably less, giving it a more caramel malty flavour and making it less arduous on the palate over the long term.

Harp Lager: Initially brewed to meet the growing European demand for lagers, Harp remains distinct from its boring, bland and utterly wretched North American counterparts—I’m looking at you Molson. Undoubtedly the lightest beer on this list, Harp is refresh-ing with a touch of citrus, crisp acidity and a bit of hop character. Like most lagers, it has a very mild taste, which might be just the thing a malt-inundated palate will need after a vigourous St. Paddy’s Day.

—Cam Smith

Local sugar shack welcomes the syrup season

Canada’s sweetest treat

Gloria dickieeDitoR-iN-CHief

It’s a Sunday morning in Ilderton, Ontario, and if the dozens of cars crowding the roadway are any indi-cator, the Robson family has tapped into something special—and sweet.

Rolling Ridge Maple Products, located 20 minutes outside of London on Vanneck Road, has been in business for a quarter of a century.

Each season, the sugar shanty sees thousands of visitors wander through its blue-lined maple trees, chasing the winter treat’s Native American roots.

According to Jamie Robson, co-owner of Rolling Ridge, the 2013 season has been typical, thanks to a benign forecast.

“Last year, we were done the 13th of March because it was so warm. This year, we’re probably

30 to 35 per cent of a normal crop, which is where we should be—it just depends what the weather does from now on.”

In order to maintain current production levels, Robson says that would require a temperature range of minus five at night to plus five in the daytime, high pressure, lots of sun and no wind.

But it’s not only the weather dic-tating the maple syrup market.

With decades of experience in this seasonal industry, Robson has seen product demand experience some “interesting” changes.

“I think people are more aware of what they’re eating than 25 years ago—they like a natural product.”

Dark syrup, too, has taken off in popularity compared to its medium counterpart.

“The real interesting thing is the dark syrup we make at the end of the season, people look for it now

to cook with, whereas 25 years ago, there was very little demand,” Robson observes.

Fortunately, there’s enough syrup at Rolling Ridge to suit all tastes. With 16,000 taps scattered throughout their plot of southwestern Ontario forest, the Robsons are frequently able to produce 16,000 litres every syrup season—or, a litre per tap.

“We’ve had years where we’ve made 0.6 [litres], and other years we’ve made a litre and a quarter. We very seldom make much past the first week in April, regardless. Usually, by that time, it’s warmed up, the buds are out and the sea-son’s done.”

Rolling Ridge Maple Products is located at 22681 Vanneck Road, in Ilderton, Ontario. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The store will remain open until April 7.

rollingridgemapleproducts.ca

Healthy beTeas now at Quotes

Quality tea, please

Nicole GibilliniDePUtY eDitoR

Love your cup.That’s the tagline of Michelle

Pierce Hamilton’s new online tea business, beTeas, which she launched in December.

Pierce Hamilton started her career off in the corporate financial world, but after losing some spe-cial people in her life to cancer, she became more serious about health. She decided to enroll in a nutrition program and quickly became fasci-nated with tea and its health benefits.

“It’s really hard to say what hap-pened with me first, whether it was nutrition or tea—it all really hap-pened at the same time,” she recalls.

After leaving the corporate world after 20 years, Pierce Hamilton took classes through the Tea Association of Canada at George Brown College and quickly realized a huge gap existed in the tea industry.

“A lot of the questions people have about tea are health-related,” Pierce Hamilton notes. “But the most common questions are which teas are the healthiest […] and I thought that was something I could really

offer with my nutrition training.”In mid-January, Pierce Hamilton

brought beTeas to Western—more specifically, Quotes Café. They’ve picked up 10 different blends, includ-ing “50 Shades of Earl Grey Organic,” “Milk Oolong” and “Jasmine Gold Dragon Organic,” to name a few.

“What I try to focus on are teas that have the healthiest ingredients as possible in those blends,” she says.

If there’s positive feedback from students, Western’s Hospitality Services plans to distribute the prod-ucts to other cafés across campus, according to Pierce Hamilton.

All of Pierce Hamilton’s loose leaf teas sold at Quotes are high quality, natural and have little sugar added to them. Each cup costs about $2.75—which is slightly lower than the standard at specialty teashops, like David’s Tea, which charges three dollars for a cup.

“[I’m] trying to keep [the tea] very reasonably priced for the students and the faculty so it’s accessible to them—and so they can have an excellent product,” Pierce Hamilton explains.

The tea sold at Quotes is poured into a brew basket, which is inserted

into a to-go cup. This allows the cus-tomer to control how long the tea is steeped for, and to re-steep the tea later. Due to the high quality of the tea leaves, it’s possible to make a new cup with already-used leaves.

On top of starting beTeas, Pierce Hamilton also teaches the Tea Association of Canada program at Fanshawe College—an open night class for those interested in learn-ing more about tea.

“As part of my passion, one of my goals was to bring more tea educa-tion to southwestern Ontario,” Pierce Hamilton explains. “There’s so much information out there—there’s so much great information, but there’s so much bogus information. And unless you know how to sift through it, it’s difficult to tell who believe.”

While loose leaf tea is known for a number of health benefits, such as increased blood circulation, speed-ing up the process of stroke recov-ery and stimulating clear thinking, Pierce Hamilton stresses the main reason you should drink tea is for enjoyment.

“The number one reason anyone should drink a tea is because [he or she] likes it,” she concludes.

thegazette • Thursday, March 14, 2013 • 5

Arts&Life thespianthursdayi don’t even like to sleep—i feel as if there’s too much to do.

—James franco, american actor.

western entrepreneur develops snooze app

Sumedha aryaaRtS & Life eDitoR

Unlock Alarm, the brainchild of Western graduate Edward Yu, is a free app offered by Apple that pre-vents people from oversleeping.

The alarm features a type test when it goes off in the morning, asking the user to copy a funny or themed message to shut the alarm off. According to Yu, the central function “prevents users from snoozing so that they can get up on time.”

Additional features of the alarm include local weather display, a “lifeline” system to alert users of typos and a choice of individual-ized songs to play in the morn-ing. The alarm also works when the screen is off and the app is closed—essentially, a user has no choice but to face the impending morning. As of now, the application has gotten downloads in 60 coun-tries and an average rating of 4.82 on 18 reviews.

Yu’s main motivation for

developing an app was to gain learn-ing experience after graduating as part of Ivey’s HBA class of 2012. Upon moving back to his home-town of Vancouver, Yu reconnected with his engineer friends Patrick Yao and Tim Lee. Together, they started brainstorming for Unlock Alarm.

“The three of us went into it mainly looking to meet unfore-seen challenge and gain a learning experience,” Yu says of the initial brainstorming sessions.

During the execution process, Yu, Lee and Yao fronted the money to create the app. The developers then decided to make the app free,

hoping to make it available and accessible to potential users— however, they included add-ons that users could pay for. While Yu notes the development cost was not high—it cost his team around $100 to start a developer account with Apple—he hopes the add-ons will offset some of the costs he incurred.

In making these decisions, Yu found his Ivey education suddenly became applicable.

“Strategy and communication skills are very valuable when trying to start a business,” Yu shares of his personal experience. “Additionally, Ivey’s case study method helped

me think of my own app as a case. I drew on Ivey’s teachings when we were deciding what direction the app was going to take.”

What sets Yu’s app apart from other sleep apps that prevent snoozing?

Yu states there are two things that make his app unique. Firstly, the app requires the user to do work but does not make the task too difficult. Secondly, Yu and his colleagues incorporate user input into their app to improve it.

“[Unlike other sleep apps], it doesn’t use math equations, which we found angers and annoys

people,” Yu says. “Also, we’ve already made several changes that originated from different users.”

While Yu continually tries to uti-lize what he learned at school, he still finds himself reminiscing—and missing—his time at Western. His highlights of the Western experi-ence include living in residence, sophing in Saugeen and being pres-ident of the Mustang Paintball Club.

While Yu isn’t quite certain what’s next for him, he hopes to continue experimenting in entre-preneurship to develop his busi-ness skills and find a career path that is right for him.

Andrei Calinescu GazetteStrategy and communication skills are very valuable when trying to start a business. ivey’s case study method helped me think of my own app as a case. i drew on ivey’s teachings when we were deciding what direction the app would take.

—edward YuWestern graduate.

Over 30-year-old food labels necessitate a closer look

Health Canada in need of new label maker

Bradley metlinGazette Staff

The year was 1983. Michael Jackson first did the moonwalk, the last Star Wars movie was dominating the box office and McDonalds intro-duced the McNugget. It was also the year in which Health Canada last performed a nutritional eval-uation for their food labels. The daily values listed on food labels in Canada are older than virtually all the students at Western.

While this might seem alarming and worrisome to some, Len Piché, a professor of nutritional sciences at Brescia University College, says it’s not necessarily something to sound the alarm about.

“They don’t put per cent daily values for everything,” he says.

This lack of complete label-ling makes it near impossible to compare daily values in hopes of forming the perfect diet—unless of course, you want to do the math yourself. Instead, Health Canada recommends a different strategy, one that doesn’t require tedious calculations, for those looking to form a healthy diet.

Piché explains Health Canada’s strategy.

“They have a campaign—is this a little or is there a lot?” He then expands on the details. “Daily values [are used] to determine if there’s a little bit of something—which means five per cent or less of

the nutrient you’re interested in or is there a lot—which would mean 15 per cent or more of the nutrient you’re looking at.”

He says there are a number of resources to make Canadians more aware of their nutritional intake. While Health Canada has a page on their site that details daily values, Brescia also has a website. Developed by Piché and graduate student, Yolanda Fung, the site, called Ontario Local Foods Nutrition Database, is a catalogue of food and their nutri-tional values. It includes foods that cannot be labelled, like fruits and

vegetables.Websites like these help navi-

gate the world of ever confusing food labels. The grocery store now has items with slogans like “60% less salt” “low in sodium,” or “lightly salted.” All of these labels mean different things so suffice to say, it can become baffling to the common grocer.

A barrage of slogans aside, the outdated food labelling can still cause some problems.

“It could be a false sense of security,” says Piché, who notes the main problem with the old label-ling is they undervalue nutrients,

like folic acid. The recommended daily intake is currently 400 milli-grams—Health Canada recognizes slightly over half of that as the rec-ommended daily value, 220 milli-grams. This may cause Canadians to be getting fewer nutrients than they need while believing they’re alright. While concerning, Piché still says comparison is the best practice for people to take.

“To those people who say, ‘I’m not going to look at food labels any-more,’ well sure you can. Compare foods, for heaven’s sakes, if you’re looking for less fat, compare the fat in your foods.”

fiLe PHoto

READ THE FINE PRINT. older food labels use many of the outdated measuring methods, such as undervalued nutrients.

Mike Laine Gazette

thegazetteVolume 106, Issue 84www.westerngazette.ca

Contact:www.westerngazette.caUniversity Community Centre Rm. 263The University of Western OntarioLondon, ON, CANADAN6A 3K7Editorial Offices: (519) 661-3580Advertising Dept.: (519) 661-3579

Gloria DickieEditor-In-Chief

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The Gazette is owned and published by the University Students’ Council.

Editorials are decided by a majority of the editorial board and are written by a member of the editorial board but are not necessarily the expressed opinion of each editorial board member. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the USC, The Gazette, its editors or staff.

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News Alex CarmonaJesica HurstCam SmithAaron ZaltzmanArts & Life Sumedha AryaBrent HolmesKevin HurrenSports Richard RaycraftJason SinukoffRyan SternOpinions Ryan HurlbutAssociate Kaitlyn McGrath

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• Please recycle this newspaper •

6 • thegazette • Thursday, March 14, 2013

Opinions

Kaitlyn mcGrathaSSoCiate eDitoR

Nothing in life is free. Except, appar-ently, the going rate to solicit a jour-nalist’s work.

Recently, Nate Thayer, a freelance journalist, stirred up controversy when he published his email exchange with an editor at The Atlantic. The Coles Notes version is The Atlantic website wanted to repurpose his piece, asked him to cut it down and, most notewor-thy, do it free of charge. He rejected the offer, citing he had bills to pay and chil-dren to feed.

It’s a completely rational response. No employer would be granted the right to withhold pay from an employee who clocked in eight hours, so a magazine—even a prestigious one—shouldn’t pub-lish work without compensation.

However, it’s exactly that prestige that awards The Atlantic the oppor-tunity to solicit work for free. In the Thayer scenario, they claimed he would benefit from exposure he’d receive with a byline on their website.

Thayer is a fairly well-known jour-nalist, so being refused reimbursement would, I think, be a tad insulting.

But most budding journalists—I’ll put myself in that category—do not have that luxury. The possibility of exposure is actually far more entic-ing than a $200 paycheck. Obviously, it’s not a sentiment I can hold forever, because, well, I also enjoy eating and shelter.

Had I been Thayer though, and The Atlantic came knocking at my inbox, I would have accepted the pro bono offer, thanked them for their interest, and shared the crap out of my article.

But they’re in the category of repu-table publications that could offer a young journalist the gateway to a last-ing career. It’s an exception, and not the rule.

But working for free isn’t in any way a new phenomenon in other industries.

An aspiring actor is lucky if he or she gets paid for a gig. Many begin with community theatre and don’t earn a cent, but gain valuable expo-sure or contacts. However, acting—like music, painting or design—is an artistic endeavour and has the stigma of being a tough, if not impossible, way to make a living unless luck and talent collide.

However, journalism is a profession. It’s public service, not entertainment, and therefore should be paid, right?

But in a world with shrinking pay-rolls, a publication may not have any-thing to offer but their name, at least to a new, unproven writer. It’s difficult to pass up an unpaid internship or oppor-tunity when it exposes your name and, more importantly, your work across Canada or the world.

And because of that incentive, someone will take up the publication’s offer. And because someone will take up the offer, the cycle will continue. And unpaid will be the norm, at least to get a foot in the door. It’s a decision no one wants to make, but if one must, it’s about weighing the pros and cons. Will a single, unpaid internship lead to financial security quicker than living from freelance paycheck to freelance paycheck?

It’s a dilemma that stretches beyond the media industry—many young pro-fessionals are faced with the possibility of working for free, at first.

Many journalists will say never give away work for free. And I appreciate the advice and wholeheartedly agree—there is a value to writing and it should be respected.

However, in an industry revolving around circulation, sales and web hits, the sad truth is the right offer of high exposure just might be too costly to turn down, even if it means I have to do it for no cost at all.

Valuable exposure is priceless

We’re approaching the one-year anniversary of the St. Patrick’s Day Fleming Drive riots and the city of London is anxiously holding its breath, hoping this year doesn’t produce a sequel.

But after flaming cars and countless arrests, the London Police have prepared diligently for any occurrences of unruly behavior, in hopes to detract any individuals hoping to copycat last year’s events.

And a riot is an unwanted incident at any time of the year—with the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in town, London is especially conscious of its image and reputation.

But the Fleming riots were only a single, concentrated event and certainly shouldn’t define London as a whole, regardless. However, it did make international headlines, therefore, when some hear “Fleming Drive,” “Fanshawe College” or “London, Ontario,” they might immediately associate it with the riots.

Likely, in order to shed this tarnished image, Fleming Drive needs to stay out of the headlines this year, and for many years to come. And, eventually, the riots will only be a thing of the past, an exception, not the rule, a mere blip in the long history of London.

And, more than that, London needs to continue to grow and enhance its image.

Through the Worlds, London has worked hard to promote the diversity of the city—Canada’s London, they call it—and running a smooth event could actually greatly benefit the city’s reputation.

Undoubtedly, the police will be on the ready to quell any attempts of rioting. As well, an organized event like Budweiser’s St. Patty’s Day Party, a tent party downtown, has been planned and will hopefully discourage people from wandering into the streets with nothing much to do.

It’s true the riots were not London or Fanshawe’s best hour. However, it’s important to not dwell on the negatives of the event, but instead learn from it. Hopefully, with a strict no tolerance policy coming from Fanshawe College, as well as an increased police presence, London will not see a reoccurrence of riots.

—The Gazette Editorial Board

Keep calm and don’t riot

every day is President’s Day when you have an intern!

—David Letterman, host of the Late Show with David Letterman

wrath of mcGrath

Letters to the Editor

University a time to learn and broTo the Editor:Re: Admissions: How many is too many?, March 12, 2013 Like Richard Raycraft, I once thought university should be for the dedicated and the brilliant. But then I realized that if this were so, I would not be a Mustang.

In first year I failed exams, skipped lecture and tutorials, came dressed in sweats that I occasionally wore as sleep attire and really didn’t care about Western or my grades. If Mr. Raycraft ran things, I would surely have been forced to withdraw.

But what Mr. Raycraft may be missing is that these four years give people the opportunity to turn themselves around. I am now enrolled in a program I love, am involved in extra-curriculars and am on track to make the Dean’s List.

These people with their backwards hats, “brospeak” and sweatpants may seem like they don’t belong, and that they are tarnishing the once prestigious bachelor’s degree, but university serves a higher purpose than just to get you a degree. It allows you to grow into a per-son who can admit they were wrong, and can learn from their misuse of the word “bro.”

—Demetri PananosApplied Math III

review lacks substantial claimsTo the Editor:Re: Hollerado album review, March 12, 2013 Beyond the review’s overwhelmingly negative tone and making inane state-ments, like suggesting a mellower beat, the author fails to substantiate any of her claims.

After lambasting the album for how juvenile and repetitive it is, we never hear anything more than empty metaphors and name-dropping Sum 41.

Describing the band as “extreme indie-rock-verging-on-screamo” indi-cates the author has a very loose under-standing of genre and perhaps isn’t qualified to question the band’s very existence, as in the final line of the review.

As an occasional music writer, I’m fine with a negative review, but music criti-cism necessitates more than a baseless attack piece.

—Kevin KaniaBiochemistry PhD III

affiliates part of the greater wholeTo the Editor:Re: Affiliate agreement hurts everyone, March 12, 2013To say the 2011–12 University Students’ Council was unaware of the costs associ-ated with the affiliate agreement is sim-ply wrong. The $450,000 budgetary loss was made perfectly clear during negotia-tions last year.

What upsets me is the suggestion affiliate councils took advantage of a USC oversight to cheat the organization out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is unfair to affiliate student councillors who worked to achieve the best fee structure for their constituents.

The Gazette suggests this was done due to an “us versus them” mentality sup-posedly held by affiliate students toward main campus students. Your unfounded accusation is the only evidence I’ve seen of an adversarial relationship. I also don’t believe affiliate students aspire to refer to themselves as simply “Western.” The nature of the affiliates is the existence of distinct ideas within Western, as a whole.

If The Gazette wishes affiliate students to be a greater part of the whole campus experience, maybe it shouldn’t devote editorials to bashing them.

—Tom VennerHuron II

westerngazette.ca /opinion

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thegazette • Thursday, March 14, 2013 • 7

of Toronto also having some of Canada’s best female players and Olympians from London 2012,” Adrianna Giuffre said.

The final day of competition was a nail-biter for the purple and white. Martin Giuffre kicked things off on a good note, defeat-ing Nathan Lee of the Waterloo Warriors to retain his men’s sin-gles crown. He and teammate Ross Golding then won their final match to take the men’s doubles crown and help contribute to the Mustangs’ final score of 59. This score was good enough to tie the Varisty Blues, who reigned supreme when the dust settled, because their 12 wins edged out the seven of the Mustangs for the tiebreaker win.

Besides maintaining his stran-glehold over the men’s singles division, Martin Giuffre was also named the tournament’s MVP for the fourth consecutive year. Giuffre was humbled by the hon-our and was quick to praise his coach, Rob Fowler, for helping him

achieve this feat.“I’m really honoured and happy

to have received the MVP award again this season. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by great team-

mates and to have such an amaz-ing coach,” Giuffre said. “With Rob being such an amazing coach and our team having great depth, rewards such as this give you a great feeling and make you proud to be a part of the team and repre-sent the Western Mustangs.”

Christopher Miszczak Gazette

Defending Mustangs fall just short of repeat in Toronto

Mike Laine Gazette

>> continued from pg.8

Without an actual season now and just having the oUa championships, most of the preparation just comes from our scheduled practices during the week.

—Martin GiuffreMustangs player

8 • thegazette • Thursday, March 14, 2013

Sportsrundown >> track athletes alicia Brown of the University of toronto Varsity Blues and anthony Romaniw of the Guelph Gryphons are the oUa athletes of the week > Both athletes impressed at the CiS championships in edmonton, with Brown capturing three gold medals and Romaniw two golds and a silver.

tweet of the weekfor my future in San francisco, i will leave that in God’s hands.

San Francisco 49ers newest acquisition Anquan Boldin (@anquanBoldin) shares his thoughts on being traded.

Badminton provincials come down to smallest of margins

Blues edge out mustangs in tiebreak result

Jason SinukoffSPoRtS eDitoR

The Mustangs badminton team had their chance to shine this past week-end when teams from all around Ontario converged at Ryerson University for the Ontario University Athletics badminton champion-ships. And the defending champi-ons did not disappoint—earning the silver medal for the second-best overall team performance with 59 points.

Despite looking to repeat as champions, it was hard for the Mustangs to gauge how they would do at the tournament of tourna-ments, as there was no regular sea-son—just preparing for OUAs.

“Without an actual season now and just having the OUA champion-ships, most of the preparation just

comes from our scheduled practices during the week,” Martin Giuffre, men’s tournament MVP, said.

“Some of our top players on the team are competing all year round in the Canadian National Circuit, so they’re getting lots of tourna-ment play. However, for others on the team, it’s trying to create tour-nament and game situations in practice to prepare for the OUAs,” he continued.

On day one of the champion-ships, the Mustangs showed the uni-versities of Ontario why they were reigning champions—dominating both singles and doubles competi-tion. On the men’s side, Giuffre went undefeated in his two match-ups, Avery Lee went 1–1 and Clayton Law went 2–1. On the women’s side of things, Allison Pastewka, Adrianna Giuffre and Margaret Cameron

all went undefeated to qualify for day two. The Mustangs also went undefeated in doubles action to qualify for the next round in the championships.

On day two of competition, the Mustangs hit a bit of a speed bump—with Adrianna Giuffre los-ing in her quarter-final match to reigning female champion Michelle Li of the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. This would be a trend from then on, as the Varsity Blues would prove to be a thorn in the Mustangs’ side throughout the rest of the championships.

“We knew going into the tour-nament that University of Toronto, as well as Waterloo, would be the two toughest teams. Both teams have good depth, with University

>> see RePeat pg.7 Mike Laine Gazette

Eight years of happiness gone thanks only to title searchUpset fans should appreciate Howard’s magic

ryan SternSPoRtS eDitoR

The rain in Spain may stay mainly in the plain, but the rain in Amway Arena in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday night was comprised mainly of boos and directed straight at their former love.

Dwight Howard’s return was the most noteworthy event to occur at the talent-barren Amway Arena. Obviously, they were going to boo

him—it’s in the nature of a sports fan. The ‘you’re either for us or against us’ attitude is what makes sports fans great, it’s what makes the love so deep and the pain hurt so much.

I am on record in saying that Magic fans were wrong. They were wrong in booing their only signifi-cant all-star calibre talent of the past decade. They are wrong for booing the man to put their team back on the map following the departure of Tracy McGrady.

Now, if you are an Orlando Magic fan—if those even exist outside of Orlando—you’re probably thinking that I don’t understand. Your gut is still recoiling after the multiple punches that it has taken over the

last few tumultuous years, but I get it. It’s a unique pain, but a pain that often leads to anger. I get it.

When Brett Favre, my boy-hood idol, left my beloved Green Bay Packers and resurfaced only a year later on the hated Minnesota Vikings, it was a punch to the gut. It hurt every Sunday when Brett—with more grey than not—trotted out on the field wearing that putrid purple.

To this day I still own not one, but two Brett Favre Packers jer-seys—one green and one white for superstition reasons. I often get questions to the tune of “don’t you hate Brett Favre?” and “how are you wearing that jersey?” and I field them all with similar answers.

I don’t hate Favre, and Orlando fans shouldn’t hate Howard.

It is a stretch to compare the sit-uations, but if as a fan, you learn to appreciate the contributions that a former player gave to your respec-tive city, booing does not feel so appropriate.

Howard was never involved in any criminal cases, he never pro-claimed that Orlando was the worst city and he brought Orlando to the NBA Finals.

Howard gave his all to the city of Orlando for the majority of his eight-year career, and Orlando should realize that regardless of how messy the breakup was.

In the end, Howard just wanted to win a ring. Sports fans want to

watch athletes that will do any-thing for the glory of winning and Howard did just that. He left Orlando because he had lost faith in Orlando’s front office to pro-vide him with the pieces to win a championship.

He went to the Lakers to win a ring. He didn’t go to the Lakers to spite that 45-year-old electrician who just bought a Howard jersey, he went because he wanted to pur-sue his dream of standing atop the NBA podium.

Realistically, Orlando fans will never forgive him for leaving, but maybe one day they will dig deep down and take a second to appre-ciate the time they had with their baby behemoth.

the tablesHave Sterned

Former franchise player is a treacherous villain, not a heromagic fans booing of Howard is deserved

richard raycraftSPoRtS eDitoR

Returning to Orlando to face some serious booing and jeering, the Lakers’ Dwight Howard responded to his tens of thousands of crit-ics by scoring a season-high 39 points Tuesday night. Howard was instrumental in the Lakers’ 106–97 victory over the Magic, angering those bitter about his departure from Orlando in the summer of

last year.But a question remains—did

Howard deserve the cold recep-tion from the Magic fans who once worshipped him as their hero?

I, for one, miss the days of team loyalty. It’s true that Howard basi-cally was the franchise during his eight seasons with the Magic, so one could make the argument Magic fans should simply be grate-ful for what he gave them during that time. This is true, but consid-ering the way in which Howard departed from the team, I have no quarrel with the showering of boos he received.

Part of being a true team player is sticking with the team, through thick and thin. I have no respect

for players who abandon a fran-chise the minute things start to go wrong. It just seems so selfish to me. Then again, these are pro athletes we’re talking about.

Regardless, Howard’s constant demands for a trade from the Magic during his last two seasons with them exposed him as nothing more than an opportunist, and a whiny one at that. There can be no doubt he gave the Magic a lot, but he took it all away the second stay-ing became inconvenient for him. On paper this might look smart, but in my view its dishonourable and nothing more.

Howard’s relocation to Los Angeles is a microcosm of the death of the franchise player. If

you’re a diehard fan of the Magic, over those eight seasons you prob-ably developed a connection and sense of trust with Howard, who single-handedly carried your team. That trust, I think it’s fair to say, was betrayed. Let the bitter-ness reign.

It’s not only that Howard left the team, it’s also that he made sure that he completely screwed it over before he did. The Magic fired coach Stan Van Gundy almost exclusively to please Howard, and he still felt the need to depart. Howard even went as far as to say that he would become a free agent if he wasn’t traded. That’s a whole new level of narcissism that eight seasons of dedication can’t erase.

I also really hate this notion of leaving a team for another one to win a championship. This philosophy seems to be running rampant in basketball, and I think in the long run the fans are the los-ers. Who knows when a franchise player may take the first train out of town for their own selfish reasons?

Howard has become a prod-uct of this movement, so there’s no reason that the fans shouldn’t be upset about it. He gave them the middle finger the worst way one can—destroying the team and then ditching it. Then again, if this is who he really is, they’re probably are better off without him.

world of raycraft