october 12th, 2015 issue of interrobang

8/20/2019 October 12th, 2015 issue of Interrobang

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Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.ca


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2 Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.caINTERACTIVE

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CONTRIBUTORSChris Baker, Ranjini Chakravorty,Victor De Jong, Pam-Marie Guzzo,Bobby Foley, Cody Howe, Jessica Klaver,Angela McInnes, Amanda Michalik,Karen Nixon-Carroll, Joel Luxford,Nick Reyno, Kirsten Rosenkrantz, Jerrold Rundle, Chris Russell,Emily Stewart, Dan Todd

COLUMNISTSNauman Farooq, Michael Veenema,Andrew Vidler, Joshua Waller

GRAPHIC DESIGNCandis Bross, Alicia Mak

COMICS

Ad Astra Comix, Laura Billson, AnthonyLabonte, Chris Miszczak, Matt Rowe,Andres Silva

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: [email protected]

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in thisnewspaper reect the views of the writer and arenot those of the Interrobang or the FanshaweStudent Union. All photographs are copyright 2015by Fanshawe Student Union. All rights reserved. TheInterrobang is printed by ThuroWeb, 201 Elm St.,Durham, Ontario, N0G 1R0 and published weeklyby the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe

College Blvd., Room SC1012, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributedthrough the Fanshawe College community.

Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing andshould be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information.

Letters can also be submitted online at theinterrobang.ca by following theInterrobang links.

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Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.ca

COVER CREDIT:

Alicia Mak


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Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.ca 3NEWS 3

KERRA SEAYINTERROBANG


Three of the five candidates run-ning for Parliament for the Lon-don-Fanshawe riding met in For-well Hall for a formal Q&A sessionas a way to inform students aboutthe election.

Khalil Ramal from the LiberalParty, Matthew Peloza from theGreen Party and Irene Mathyssenfrom the NDP met on Oct. 5 andspoke on a range of topics from thelegalization of marijuana to the Syr-ian refugee crisis. Fanshawe Stu-dent Union (FSU) president AlanBushell moderated the Q&A.

Conservative candidate SuzannaDielman did not appear at the event,nor did Independent candidate AliHamadi.

Rebuttals were not allowed at theevent as it was not an actual debate.It was an opportunity for Fanshawe

students and staff to learn aboutwhat the candidates have to offer tothe London-Fanshawe riding.

NDP candidate Irene Mathyssen

has held the seat since being electedinto office in 2006. Mathyssen saidher goal has been to “pull down bu-reaucratic barriers”, something shesaid she has done for residents ofthe London-Fanshawe riding.

“I’ve listened carefully. If youwrite to me I’ll write back,” Ma-thyssen said.

Mathyssen also said if re-electedthat she would focus on repealingBill-24 and Bill-51 and decriminal-izing marijuana among other things.

When asked about the changeshe would make to post-secondaryeducation Liberal candidate KhalilRamal said a national strategy isnecessary to ensure an educationfor all Canadians who want it, andthat there should be more of a focuson students.

“You cannot build a future with-out students, without young people,” Ramal said.

Ramal said he is passionate

about the area, saying he learned alot about the community by going“street by street, house by house”,to understand the riding he wishes

to represent.Green Party candidate Matthew

Peloza was honest about his levelof political experience compared to

his competition.“I’m probably not the most qual-

ified,” Peloza said, pointing out thathe has never sat in the House of

Commons.Peloza said what he lacks in prac-

tical experience he makes up for by being honest, educated and hard

working. Peloza calls himself “anunderdog putting up a good fight”.

Peloza is in favour of both de-criminalizing and legalizing mari-

juana and removing the burden ofstudent debt.

The turnout for the event waslow, with only a few dozen staff

and students scattered around thehall and students were not given theopportunity to ask the candidatestheir own questions.

CREDIT: KERRA SEAY

Conservative candidate Suzanna Dielman is conspicuously absent at a Q&A with Green Party candidate Matthew Peloza, NDPcandidate Irene Mathyssen and Liberal candidate Khalil Ramal.

Fanshawe hosts Q&A with London-Fanshawe riding candidates

Oct. 19 marks the 42nd FederalElection of Canada. Fanshawe col-lege prepared by inviting the candi-dates of the London-Fanshawe rid-ing to come speak to us about their platforms in a Q&A, which washeld on Monday, Oct. 5.

Every Canadian citizen has theright to vote in elections once theyturn 18. Unfortunately, the majori-ty of people aged 18 to 24 do notvote. And for those who do, theFair Elections Act has made it morechallenging for you to do so byeliminating vouching and the use of

Voter Identification Cards.Here is a breakdown of what you

will need to bring with you to votein the Federal Election on Oct. 19.Fanshawe will also be having anAdvance Poll located in Oasis onOct.16.

If you have a Driver’s License orProvincial ID card with your cur-rent London address on it, then youare set and do not require any fur-ther identification.

If you are like most studentsthough, and still have your parent’saddress as your own, you will haveto bring more documentation. You

will need to have two secondaryidentification items with you andone of these must have your cur-rent address on it, which cannot behandwritten. You can view the fulllist at elections.ca. Some examplesof supplementary pieces of identifi-cation are:• Student card• Canadian passport• Credit card• Birth certificate• Health card• Utility bill (internet, cable,

electricity, etc.)• Bank/credit card statement• Residential lease (will accept

photo of lease)• Correspondence issued by

Fanshawe (or another college/university)

• Letter of confirmation of

residence for student residencesIf you still do not meet the re-

quirements because of a lack ofresidential proof, Elections Canadawill allow you and one other per-son to take a written oath attestingto your current address. To be ableto do this, you must still bring two pieces of ID to verify your identity.

Democracy is one of the beauti-ful things about Canada. It meansthat you can make your voice heard,which is something that most of ustake for granted. On Oct.19 makesure to vote.

Voting in the upcoming election

CREDIT: JESSICA THOMPSON

On Oct. 19 the 42nd Federal Election of Canada will be held. Allow your opinion tobe heard by casting a ballot.

JESSICA KLAVERINTERROBANG

A new user-friendly smartphoneapplication is making informationabout the 2015 Federal election ac-cessible and easy to understand forall voters.

Pollenize provides voters with allthe information they need to makean informed decision, and consider-ing how the Canadian voter turnoutrate in the last election was only

61.4 per cent according to StatisticsCanada, anything that gets morevoters to the polls is a good thing.

“We wanted to make it easier for people to access all of the informa-tion necessary to make an informeddecision in an election,” said Pol-lenize co-founder and Fanshawegraduate Trevor Blades. Pollenizelead product designer Marvin San-chez studied Interactive Media atFanshawe as well.

Blades said the team identified a problem when it came to informingCanadians about candidate stances.The main problem came from the

fact that important information wassometimes hidden in the middle orscattered across dozens of news ar-ticles or were loaded with political jargon. Pollenize collects all theinformation and puts it together inone easy-to-use app.

“We cut out all of the useless stuffand find what the point of the articleactually is and get it to people in aclean and really easy to understandmanner,” Blades said.

The main page shows colourful

illustrations of six main federalcandidates: Stephen Harper, TomMulcair, Justin Trudeau, ElizabethMay, Gilles Duceppe and even In-dependent candidate Tim Moen.

By clicking on each illustrationusers can find out each candidate’sstance on important issues includ-ing the economy, the environment,immigration and healthcare.

Each segment is followed by a“read more” option where users canlearn about the specifics of the can-didate’s stance as well as a “showsources” option. This way usersknow the app is not playing favour-

ites with any candidate.“We tell our people what our

sources are so if they want to go andfact check, they have all the neces-sary tools to do so,” Blades said.

Blades said design was a huge fo-cus for the team because it doesn’tmatter how useful your app is; if noone can use it it’s rendered useless.

“You could have the best, mostconcise information in the world, but if it’s not presented in a waythat’s easy to use and people can

understand right away then it’s allfor naught,” Blades said.

Pollenize statistics show that theapp has been installed over 7,400times and has reached over 100,000unique users.

The most relevant statistic showsthat users spend an average of overnine minutes per session when us-ing the app. This proves that usersare actually taking the time to readthe information provided.

Pollenize is a free app availablefor both Android and iOS and on-line at pollenize.org. The 2015 Fed-eral Election is on Oct. 19.

CREDIT: MIGUEL BARBOSA

Pollenize provides information about six main candidates running in the Canadian election. All users have to do is click on one oftheir faces and are instantly provided crucial information to help them vote.

Pollenize helps votersmake informed decisions


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4 Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.caNEWS

Streaming from online sourceslike Netflix is the new way to watchtelevision and movies at home. Thiscan certainly be a more cost effec-tive option rather than purchasinga home cable package, but what’seven better, is when it’s free.

The London Public Library hasnow introduced its very own ver-sion of Netflix called hoopla digi-tal, which is free to anyone with alibrary card.

Jeff Jankowski, owner andfounder of hoopla digital said, “[It]is a category creating service thatenables library patrons to instantly borrow, download and stream thou-sands of movies, music, eBooksand more from their public libraryfor free, 24/7 with a library card.”

Patrons can experience, exploreand enjoy free content from their public library in a new way that ismobile, free, easy-to-use and alwaysavailable. This service providesover 7000 movies and over 12,000

television shows to choose from.In addition Jankowski said,

“Hoopla digital gives cardholdersonline and mobile access to morethan 380,000 popular titles frommajor Hollywood studios, publish-ers and record companies such asUniversal Pictures, Warner Music,DC Comics, MGM and NationalGeographic, just to name a few.They can also gain access to nichecontent such as educational videosand documentaries, foreign films,SAT prep materials, children andfitness videos.”

Once you are done with any of

the materials that you have checkedout, they will automatically be re-turned so you won’t have to worryabout late fees.

The London Public Library cur-rently offers some digital materials, but there is a limit on how manycopies of something can be bor-rowed at a time.

“Patrons can use hoopla digital toinstantly access popular titles rightaway – a dynamic change from the‘one user, one copy’ library model,”Jankowski said.

Thus far, this service has beenreceiving positive feedback from itsusers.

“Our library customers lovehoopla digital because the serviceenables them to instantly expandtheir content offering with thou-sands of titles; always availablefor library cardholders,” Jankowskisaid.

This service can be accessed byan app called hoopla digital, whichcan be found at the app stores foriPhones, Androids, Kindles andalso by computer.

To access this service you willneed a library card and to obtainone you can sign up by going toyour local library. Cards are free forresidents of London as well as Fan-shawe students.

In order to be able to attain a library card, bring in two pieces of personal identification as well assomething to prove your address.

If you are not from London, besure to bring in your Fanshawe stu-dent card. Once that is set up youwill have free access to thousands ofgreat products from hoopla digital.

KORI FREDERICKINTERROBANG

CREDIT: KERRA SEAY

Using a smartphone, or any device with access to the apple store, people candownload hoopla digital, London Public Library’s free version of Netix, all peopleneed is a library card.

What’s with all the hoopla?

Abe Oudshoorn is a professor inthe School of Nursing at WesternUniversity and also the chair of theLondon Homeless Coalition.

He comes from a backgroundof working as a nurse with peoplewho have experienced poverty andhomelessness. The mission of thecoalition is to advise and coordi-nate a response to homelessness inLondon, and as the chair Oudshoo-rn tries to bring all of their collab-orative partners in the communitytogether in order to address the problem and facilitate a dialogue tocome up with goals.

On Oct. 8, the coalition hosted asoup and bread day and what wasdifferent about this one was that itlined up with international efforts.

The coalition’s soup and breadday is a chance for the communityto talk to people who have experi-enced or are experiencing home-lessness to get a better understand-ing of what it’s like day-to-day. It

gives an opportunity for communityleaders to get into agencies that arealso working on the issue. Around3100 people access homeless shel-ters every year in London.

“We host our soup and breadevent a couple times a year, everyyear, and what’s exciting [about thisone] is that we [combined] it withWorld Homeless Action Day, whichis an international day to respond toissues of homelessness in our com-munity.”

He said that the community re-sponse has been great so far, andthat whenever there is an event

there is a big turnout.“We’re very excited by the re-

sponse from federal, provincial andmunicipal politicians and commu-nity leaders, and business people.So many individuals have respond-ed to our call to kind of get on theground and see what the issue is.”

He also said he hopes that with

the federal election coming up, politicians will put more focus ondealing with poverty and housingshortages.

Homelesshub.ca is a website withan election resource that takes aparteach party’s platform and looks atstrengths and weaknesses, and Oud-shoorn pointed out that Canada isthe only country in the Organizationfor Economic Co-operation and De-velopment that does not have a na-tional housing plan, something thatdisappoints him. He said any partythat will step up with a national planis one that he will support.

“So the municipal government isa key partner with us in solving the problem of homelessness becausethe municipal level is where the is-sue sits in terms of government re-sponsibility. They get the resourcesfrom the federal and the provincialgovernment, and from our municipal dollars, and combine those re-

sources into actionable strategies.”He also said that the dialogue be-

tween the community and govern-ment is constant, and he’s excitedthat London mayor Matt Brown haslocalized the issue with an advisory panel on poverty. Provincially, Lib-eral MPP for London North CentreDeb Matthews has a poverty fundthrough her office.

“We’re constantly bringing theissues forward to our politicians,and making sure that at least locally,that we can focus on this issue, evenif it’s not getting the kind of timefederally that we hope it would.”

DAN TODDINTERROBANG

London Homeless Coalition combines theirsoup and bread day with international efforts

CREDIT: MICHELLE LYNNE GOODFELLOW

The London Homeless Coalition combines their soup and bread day with WorldHomeless Action Day to respond to issues of homelessness in the London community.

New Democratic Party (NDP)leader Tom Mulcair held a rallyat the London Convention Centrewhile on a six city SouthwesternOntario campaign trail called the“Whistle-Stop Harper Tour”.

He delivered a charismatic andimpassioned speech to a large crowdon Sunday, Oct. 4 who chanted insupport of the party while flauntingorange stop signs that read “STOPHARPER”. The speech focused onMulcair’s plan to create jobs as wellas the failure of other parties to doso, featuring frank criticisms of Ste- phen Harper and Justin Trudeau.

London NDP candidate Ger-man Gutierrez as well as DebbieMulcair, one of Tom Mulcair’s sixsisters, opened the ceremony with brief, but enthusiastic endorsementsfor the NDP leader before welcom-ing him to the stage as “the nextPrime Minister of Canada” to anexplosion of applause.

A beaming Mulcair made hisway through the audience, stoppingoften to shake hands until finallyopening his speech with a warm“good afternoon London”.

Tom Mulcair began criticizingStephen Harper and the Conser-vative Party of Canada’s “poli-tics of fear and division” almostimmediately.

“Do you want to help me get ridof Stephen Harper?” Mulcair asked,assuring that his party has “the planto start repairing the damage Ste- phen Harper has been doing for the past decade”.

Mulcair asserted that Harper wasresponsible for the termination of400,000 manufacturing jobs by giv-ing $5 million in taxpayer’s mon-ey to the company Electro-MotiveDiesel, which subsequently movedits operations to the United States.

He accused Harper of outrightselfishness when he said, “Hedoesn’t seem to care…what he’shoping to do right in the middle ofan election campaign [is] come upwith something that will help his

fortunes.”He also criticized Harper for cut-

ting funding for home mail deliv-ery and the Canadian BroadcastingCorporation (CBC), and for caus-ing Canada to be “the only countryin the world to withdraw from theKyoto Protocol”. The Kyoto Proto-col is an international treaty to low-er greenhouse gases emissions in anattempt to fight global warming.

Even the Liberal Party of Canadawas not safe from the condemna-tion of Mulcair, who accused Liber-al leader Justin Trudeau of practic-ing “Harperism” and declared thatLiberals “master the art of dividingCanadians one against the other”.

He criticized Trudeau’s support

of Harper’s trade deal, Bill C-51,several of Harper’s budgets and hisdecision to give corporations $50 billion in tax breaks.

“For the first time in Canadi-an history, there’s hope,” Mulcairsaid. He pledged to establish the“quality affordable childcare” ser-vices that Trudeau and Harper have been resisting.

Mulcair appealed to “hundreds ofdairy farms in the greater Londonarea” by promising to maintain asupply management system allow-ing farm owners to stay employedduring an economic downturn.

He also vowed to bring backhome mail delivery, to restore theage of retirement from 67 back to

65, to raise the minimum wage to$15 an hour, to help families, firstnations people and seniors in pov-erty and to “champion manufac-turing and innovation” in order togenerate jobs.

At the end of his speech, Mul-cair left the London ConventionCentre in the same fashion he en-tered: wading through a crowdof impassioned supporters with awarm-hearted smile while some-how still managing to shake hands,make eye contact and share a fewwords with rally attendees. Mulcairdelivered a convincing speech Oct.4, which successfully inspired anatmosphere of triumph and compas-sion in his London supporters.

Mulcair slams Harper and Trudeau while in London

CHRIS RUSSELLINTERROBANG


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Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.ca 5NEWS


The Canadian Institute of Plumb-ing and Heating (CIPH) is hopingto inspire creativity and ingenuityin students with a competition de-signed to raise student awarenessabout water conservation.

The “Canada’s Most Water WiseSchool” competition is asking stu-dents to come up with ways to re-duce the water-use footprint ontheir campuses.

Two entrance dates run fromOct. 15 to Dec. 15 and again fromJan. 1 to Feb. 28 to correspondwith semesters. Winners will be an-nounced on World Plumbing Dayon March 11.

Matt Wiesenfeld, program man-ager at CIPH, said the idea for thecompetition came from the fact that

young people are just not interest-ed or knowledgeable about theirindustry.

“Most of our member’s productsare below the ground or in the wallsof your home or office, that youwould never see,” Wiesenfeld said.He said that since most of the prod-ucts “never see the light of day” itmakes it difficult for the organiza-tion to get the word out about whatthey do.

CIPH is offering some great in-centives for students to enter thecompetition. The top prize for thecompetition is $3,000 and $1500for second place. Visa gift cardsworth $50 are awarded to the first100 students to deliver their final

presentation.This is the third year CIPH ishosting the competition. Last year’swinner was a team from the Uni-versity of Waterloo who developeda plan to reduce water consumptionin residences by replacing toilets,faucets and shower fixtures withwater-saving models.

The competition is not exclusiveto students in engineering; it is opento all disciplines including econom-ics, communications, business andmarketing.

Wiesenfeld said Canadians oftendo not think about the importanceof conserving water, especially dueto the abundance of fresh water re-

sources in the country.“Water conservation has always

been an important part of what wedo, helping businesses manufacture products that reduce their water-usefootprint,” Wiesenfeld said. “Themessage is consistent, there’s allsorts of things we can do and shoulddo to use less water. The only waythat these resources can survivelong term is if we all respect them.”

Wiesenfeld said the competitionis a great opportunity for studentsto get real world experience as wellas feedback. Submissions are eval-uated by a small judging panel con-sisting of industry professionals.This feature was the number onetake away for students from the

competition.“You can see and test your in-

stincts against what some peoplewho are looking at the same kindsof problems everyday are chal-lenged with,” Wiesenfeld said.

CIPH is also looking to add amentorship aspect to the competi-tion, where students are in contactwith a CIPH Young Executive whocan assist them in the developmentof their presentation.

Wiesenfeld said that studentsshould not be afraid to enter thecompetition, especially if they arenot studying a trade because WaterWise isn’t just for engineering stu-dents.

“We’re waiting for people from

multidisciplinary fields,” said Wi-esenfeld. “It doesn’t always haveto be about a product. Someonecould come up with a marketingapproach. We’d love to see someunique approaches.”

Wiesenfeld urges Fanshawe stu-dents to give the competition a shotand make their college experienceas productive as possible.

Students who are interested inentering with Water Wise competi-tion can enter at ciph.com/en/water-wiseschool.

Water Wise competition opento creative Fanshawe students

Minimum wage increase means(a little) more money in your pocket

CREDIT: PHOTODISC / THINKSTOCK

Students often work minimum wage jobs, and with the high cost o f post-secondary education every little bit helps.


Effective Oct. 1, the Ontariominimum wage rate was raised to$11.25 per hour.

The 25 cent increase has madeOntario’s minimum wage rate thesecond highest in the country, beat-en out only by the Northwest Ter-ritories with a minimum wage rateof $12.50 per hour. New Brunswick

has the lowest minimum wage inthe country at only $10.30 per hour.Student minimum wage increased

25 cents as well to $10.55 per hour.According to the 2014 StatisticsCanada Labour Force Survey 40.3 per cent of minimum wage earnersare under the age of 20, and only 13 per cent of low income earners, orthose who make less than $15 perhour, are students in post-secondaryeducation.

Liquor servers’ minimum wageincreased to $9.80 per hour follow-ing a 35 cent increase.

The international average forminimum wage is $15.

The Ontario provincial govern-ment led by Kathleen Wynne tiedminimum wage to inflation. EveryApril the rate of inflation in the province is assessed and a newminimum wage rate is announced,then put into effect the followingOctober. The change was made af-ter considering recommendationsmade by the Minimum Wage Advi-sory Panel in a report last year.

“Our government has taken poli-tics out of minimum wage increaseswhile ensuring wages for Ontarioworkers keep pace with inflationand businesses have time to preparefor payroll changes,” said Ministerof Labour Kevin Flynn in a pressrelease. “This puts more money in people’s pockets, gives our busi-nesses predictability and helps builda more prosperous economy, while

ensuring a fair society for all.”Darren Chapman from the Law-

rence Kinlin School of Business atFanshawe said even a small increaseto minimum wage is positive.

“While 25 cents doesn’t seemlike a lot, it does add up,” Chap-man said. “Five dollars to them isa much larger percentage of theirincome than mine.”

Compared to the rest of Canadaand Ontario, London has a higherrate of poverty than other cities.The most recent study looking at poverty in London was released in2011 by the Social Research and

Planning Unit. According to thestudy, one in seven households inLondon, or 14 per cent, are unableto afford adequate, suitable and af-fordable housing.

Chapman said this is becauseminimum wage is not actually alivable wage, and many familiesstruggle to make ends meet whenliving on this pay rate. He said$15 per hour better reflects what alivable minimum wage in Canada

should be.Some believe that raising theminimum wage has a negativeimpact on the economy. ThoughChapman does point out some neg-ative factors such as a burden on businesses, increasing minimumwage puts more money into the pockets of consumers and thereforemore money into the economy.

“We’re paying those costs any-ways, we’re just not paying themdirectly. We tend to pay it in high-er social costs or when people goto the hospital for medical care,”Chapman said.

According to a Statistics Canadasurvey that looked at the Low In-come Cut Off, or the best measurewe have to study the poverty line inCanada, in 2013 in order to supporta family of four a family must earna total income of at least $38,185 before taxes. One person workingfull-time at $11.25 per hour wouldonly make $23,400. Keeping inmind that most minimum wage jobs do not offer workers full-

time hours, this can be extremely problematic.Chapman said he supports a $15

minimum wage if that’s what ittakes for everyone to earn a livingwage.

“When they don’t have the mon-ey they’re not spending. If they ar-en’t spending they’re not buying, so producers aren’t producing as muchas they could,” Chapman said. “Butif you increase the minimum wagea little bit it, it allows them to buy alittle bit more.”

The minimum wage is set to in-crease again in October 2016.

2015-2016 ELECTION RESULTS

School of DesignRintjema, Melanie Yes...........................................35No ............................................13Spoiled: 0

Lawrence Kinlin School of BusinessSampson, Morganna ..........75Roberts, Charisse .....................67Beilar, Andrew .........................29Talwar, Nitin .............................25Spoiled: 1

School of Health Sciences andNursingCleveland, Allison Yes...........................................89No ............................................25Spoiled: 0

School of Human Servicesand School of Public SafetySmith, Jahmoyia Yes........................................ 127No ............................................26Spoiled: 0

School of Language andLiberal ArtsHenderson, Jasmine ...........37Lippett, Joey ............................13Dreise, Darian ..........................12Spoiled: 0

School of Information Technology Lee, Christopher Mark Yes...........................................76No ............................................20Spoiled: 0

School of Transportationand Aviation Technology Yousuf, Abdirashed .............31Ticco, Julian .............................12Spoiled: 0

www.fsu.ca

Due to a tie at the end of the voting period (4 p.m. on Oct. 7), the Schoolof Contemporary Media election wasextended past press time. To viewthe results of that election, visitFSU.ca/elections after 4 p.m. on Oct. 8


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6 Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.caNEWS

Kitchener-Waterloo’s iconic Ba-varian festival comes to London theweekend of Oct. 9 and 15.

This is the first time the festivalhas expanded beyond Kitchen-er-Waterloo in its 41-year history.

“Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfesthas an average of 750,000 peoplegoing to their event, it is the largestoutside of Germany in the world, sowe are really excited to be a part ofOktoberfest,” said Rob Lumsden,facility services manager at West-ern Fair District.

The Western Fair District has been working with Kitchener-Wa-terloo Oktoberfest for two years ac-cording to Lumsden and throughoutthat time, there was some conversa-tion of partnering with the event.

“[We have] the same values, same beliefs and it was a natural partner-ship for us to get into, we are excitedto be part of their family and be ableto bring Oktoberfest to the people ofLondon,” Lumsden said.

And due to the exciting news ofthe partnership, Lumsden promisesthe event to be everything peoplewould expect at the Kitchener Wa-

terloo Oktoberfest.“We are going to have our staff

dressed up in authentic Germanoutfits…we are going to be bring-ing the German menu, the food anda lot of interesting entertainment aswell,” Lumsden said.

There will be different tradition-al games to try out and on Oct. 16there will be a mechanical bull. Allof the games provided will be freeto play.

“You will see ceremonial kegtaps as you see in Kitchener-Wa-terloo where we really will get the party started and have people par-ticipate in the different cheers andtoasts,” Lumsden said.

One of the big events that will beoccurring on Oct. 15 is the Rock theFesthalle event where Colin Jamesand Kim Mitchell will be perform-ing, Mitchell at 8 p.m. and James at10:30 p.m.

“It’s going to be a great time toget out with family and friends,”Lumsden said. “Dance and enjoyall the sights and sounds of Okto- berfest.”

Tickets to Oktoberfest are$15 in advance and $20 at thedoors. For more information visitwesternfairdistrict.com.

Oktoberfestcomes to London JESSICA THOMPSONINTERROBANG

Project Play is a charitable orga-nization that hosts a one-day gam-ing event in order to raise money tosupport community organizationsin London, and for the first timesince the company was founded in2012 they are teaming up with For-est City Comicon to bring a bigger,more involved event to London.Co-founder of Project Play GregPicken says that the people at For-est City and Project Play are allvery community-minded.

“Our motto from the get-go has been about building community,whether it’s through the charitableside, or just getting people together

to play games. And they’re defi-nitely a group of people that havehad the same mentality, so it’s a perfect fit.”

The company itself is a team offive people, but everyone who helpsout on the event day is a volunteer.Picken says that makes it so that alot of money can go back into thecommunity. The money goes intogaming bundles, which includeconsoles, TVs, videogames and board games that they donate to or-ganizations that work with families

and children.“We see it as a great opportunity

to support organizations and groupsin the city that are doing fantasticthings.”

Organizations that they havegiven to include Merrymount Chil-dren’s Center, Women’s Commu-nity House, the Women’s RuralResource Center of Strathroy, andthe Northwest London CommunityResource Center. This year Pickensaid they want to focus on a themeof inclusiveness; one confirmed or-ganization is the London chapter ofAutism Ontario, who work in thecommunity with youth and adultswith autism.

Project Play’s event day includes board games, card games androle-playing games, as well as tour-naments. There will also be videog-ames from local companies, as wellas smaller developers.

“It’s really neat to see people dis-cover games that are being made intheir own community, and gamesthat they may even play and noteven realize that they’re made inLondon.”

Digital Extremes, Big Blue Bub- ble and Big Viking Games will all be involved, as well as a number ofsmaller companies including SkyOrchard Games, Halfbot and some people who just develop games forfun. It’s a good way for indie de-velopers to get feedback on their

games, even if it’s only a prototype.The first two years of Project Play

were hosted in Fanshawe’s StudentUnion Building, which gave them agood connection with the game de-velopment program here.

“If you come out here and checkout a game, and it kind of inspires

you to say ‘I’d like to be able tomake a game’, then Fanshawe isright there that we can point peopleto… that’s always been key for us,is just having as many opportunitiesas possible to support the commu-nity all under one roof. We get the players together in supporting that

side of things; it’s all for a goodcause in the community.”

Forest City Comicon is Oct. 18and with Project Play in partnershipthere will be a lot of extra content tolook forward to.

For more information, visit projectplay.ca

Project Play teams up with Forest City ComiconDAN TODDINTERROBANG

CREDIT: JAMIESON ROBERTS / PROJECT PLAY

The rst two years of Project Play were hosted here on campus. They’ve now outgrown the space and are teaming up with ForestCity Comicon for the largest event of it ’s kind on October 18 at the London Convention Centre.

With the rise of Uber in manylarge cities across the country, taxiservices, as well as some municipalgovernments, have been fighting back.

The main strife Uber has gener-ated comes from the fact that Uberdrivers avoid paying registrationfees that can be costly. Uber avoidsthese fees and other regulations byclassifying themselves as a ride

share service as opposed to a taxiservice.

Bob Barker, the dispatch super-visor for London Yellow Taxi ser-vice, said he has seen the numberof people calling for taxis go down, but that is to be expected anytime anew business comes to town.

“We’re still servicing the city ofLondon to the best of our abilities,”Barker said. “Whenever there’s newcompetition in town there’s alwaysa concern, everybody wants to trythe new guy. Ultimately our goal isto keep our customer base as happyas we can.”

The city’s battle with Uber madeheadlines again recently when citycouncil rejected creating a third cat-egory or transportation for “transportation network companies”. Thiswould mean that Uber is legally al-lowed to run in London and wouldnot break any bylaws by doing so.

Uber drivers were ticketed ina spree near the end of Augustand charged with $500 tickets for breaking the taxi/limousine drivers bylaw.

Considering how the penalty for

a first time offence of this law can be up to $25,000, the city let themoff fairly easily.

Under normal conditions Uberis a great option, especially forstudents. With the easy-to-use ap- plication, all you have to do is putin your credit card information andthen call for an Uber driver whenyou need one. London taxi serviceslike Yellow London Taxi offers thesame services on their app.

Uber rates typically cost less thana cab ride, one of the main reasonswhy taxi drivers oppose Uber. The base rate is $3 plus 25 cents per

minute and an additional $1.10 perkilometer. Uber ride prices go muchhigher during busy times and caninflate as much as three times theregular price.

Fare estimates for both Uber andYellow London Taxi showed thatthere is not much of a differencein prices between the two services.UberX estimated a five-kilometerride would be $12 to $16 and Yel-low London Taxi estimated that thesame trip would cost $14.

Barker said he does not under-

stand how Uber can continue torun when it is breaking city bylaws,laws that were put in place for Lon-doner’s safety.

“Uber comes in and sets up shop,with or without the approval of thecity of London,” Barker said. “Idon’t understand why different mu-nicipal governments feel like theyhave to conform to Uber’s way of business when they’re not even at-tempting to conform to the munici- pality’s requests.”

The Interrobang reached out toUber but they did not reply before printing.

Uber versus taxi battle comes to LondonKERRA SEAYINTERROBANG

CREDIT: SCANRAIL / THINKSTOCK

Uber has shaken up the taxi service industry in Canada, but the city of London isn’t quite ready to give them full reign over the city.


A panel of police ofcers, campus security, Fanshawe staff from accessibility andcounselling and London rape crisis centre staff members came together to discussthe growing epidemic of sexual assault on campuses following the screening of TheHunting Ground .


7/24

Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.ca 7COMMENTS

HAVE AN OPINION? SUBMIT YOUR STORY!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: [email protected]

ROSE CORA PERRY FORK IN THE ROAD

VICTOR DE JONGINTERROBANG

I’m someone who wants to do everything,new opportunities, new learning experiences,new travel destinations, new skill acquisi-tions, I don’t want to miss any of it.

With every year that passes, the urge to trynew things only strengthens. I’m a seeker ofnew enterprises and instead of taking a timeout during my lunch breaks, I’d often rath-er read or take up an online course in a newsubject.

My spare time is frequently occupied withvolunteer endeavours or researching newways I can get closer to achieving my goals.

Because of my unquenchable thirst fornovel ideas, concepts, skills and knowledge, I

have an unfortunate tendency to bite off morethan I can chew.

Inevitably, I sign up for too much and I findmyself lying awake at night having difficultyrelaxing enough to fall asleep, thinking aboutall of my to-do lists and wondering how onearth I’m going to accomplish it all.

The mounting pile of work to be done combined with the increasing lack of sleep placesmy body in a state of stress. It isn’t beforelong that I fall ill, rendering me useless, burntout and far worse off than I would have beenhad I simply been more selective in the tasksI set out to conquer.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not shamingambition. I admire those who make the mostof their day. I admire those who continuallystrive to better their lives and I encourage youall to aspire to be the best versions of your-

selves.But doing so should never be to the detri-ment of your health, sanity nor relationships.The last point, in particular, is worth empha-sizing because in the end, it doesn’t matterhow great you are or how great you have be-come if you have no one to share it with.

We often forget that some of the bestlearning we acquire doesn’t come throughthe completion of tasks or goals; instead, itcomes through our interactions. Whetheryou’re speaking with a friend, a co-worker,superior or stranger, there’s something to

be learned from each and every one of ourunique experiences.

We all engage with the world in our ownway. We all have individual sensibilities and perceptions about events, feelings and theirmeanings. Having deep and thoughtful con-versations with others not only reveals a lotabout them, but also reveals a lot about your-self and often makes you question the verythings that you cling to as truths.

As we discussed last month, we seem tohave gotten wrapped up in a mentality ofmaking everything short and sweet. In thiscrazy rat race, we force ourselves to engagein everything with less: less time, less detailand less attention.

While it’s difficult to not get sucked intothis whirlwind when your boss or professorhands out deadline upon deadline, I harkenyou all not to let this mentality seep into yourinterpersonal life and relationships. Though

multi-tasking in the working world may al-low you to seemingly accomplish more,sucking time away from those who matterwill only suck them out of your life.

Relationships, like learning, require con-stant and deliberate effort and thoughtfulness.But the energy you expend is surely worth thereward.

You are defined in life not by the thingsyou’ve done, but the ways in which you’veaffected others. So find the “time” for yourfriends because it’s also “time” throughwhich you enrich yourself.

I want it all


In life, multitasking is inevitable, but it is importantto not bite off more than you can chew because youdo not want your busy schedule to deteriorate yourrelationships.

Imagine going out for sushi with a dozenfriends. A bunch of people want plain whiterice, it’s nothing special but they know what

they’re getting and they’d prefer not to trysomething new. The rest of the group is tryingto decide between either getting the tempuraor the rolls. After a show of hands, four peoplechoose tempura, four choose rolls and the re-maining five all cast their vote for white rice.

Despite the fact that eight people didn’t ac-tually want white rice, all 13 end up having tospend the next four years under a white ricegovernment. That’s vote splitting in a nutshell.

The issue is one of the eternal shortcom-ings of our electoral system. It’s hard to feellike your vote counted if you didn’t vote forthe person who actually took office.

The distinction between democracy andthe concept of majority wins is lost on many because of our first-past-the-post system.Other electoral systems allow voters to rankthe candidates so that if your first choice is

eliminated, it’s still possible to support analternate party.Several organizations have been created in

the past few months with the express purposeof removing Prime Minister Stephen Harperfrom office by preventing a split in the vote.

From anyonebutharper.net to votetogether.ca, they offer advice on how to strategically pick a candidate who will have the best shotat unseating a Conservative Member of Par-liament.

In the riding of London North Centre, cur-rently held by Conservative Member of Par-

liament Susan Truppe, the candidate with the best chance of defeating her is Liberal candi-date Peter Fragiskatos.

They’re close enough in the polls that a smallshift either way would affect the outcome ofthe election. The website strategicvoting.ca isdedicated to removing the Conservative Partyfrom office by offering a statistical analysis onwho, other than the Conservative candidate,has the best chance of winning in swing rid-

ings. At risk of explaining the obvious, swingridings are ones in which the outcome of theelection depends on a relatively small numberof people voting differently.

Swing ridings are typically the subject ofmore campaigning than ridings in which theincumbent had a wide margin over their clos-est opponent in the previous election.

In the 2011 federal election, the margin inLondon North Centre was a relatively smallthree per cent or roughly 1,600 votes. In theLondon-Fanshawe riding, which FanshaweCollege is located in, the New DemocraticParty (NDP) won by a much larger marginof approximately 7,500 votes. As a result, parties will distribute their resources ac-cording to their odds of victory. The LiberalParty will put far more effort into winningthe London North Centre riding than the

London-Fanshawe riding because they werea close second in 2011, compared with a dis-tant third.

Regardless of whom you choose to votefor, being informed about all of the candi-dates in your riding is just as important asknowing which candidate you’d like to see inoffice. Four years of white rice is a long time.

Correction: The Sept. 21 article “Meet theContestants” incorrectly stated that FanshaweCollege is located in the riding of London North Centre. The campus actually resides inthe riding of London-Fanshawe.

The politics of dinner

CREDIT: MONKEY BUSINESS IMAGES / THINKSTOCK

Just like a bowl of white rice is not for everyone. But even if you voted against it for a meal, if the majorityof people vote for white rice, you can be stuck with it, this is the denition of vote splitting.

MICHAEL VEENEMARUMOURS OF GRACE

The Bible opens with a story called Gene-sis. The word Genesis comes from the Greekword for beginning, think generations or ge-netics. And Genesis itself begins with chap-ter one, which describes the beginning of theworld. If you read it with a little care, you willsee that it is highly structured like a poem. Soit should not come as too great a surprise thatmany scholars of the Bible see it as more of asymbolic or metaphorical work.

Genesis One begins with a scene of stormy,wet, dark chaos. The writer probably had inmind a storm at sea. Not a very hospitable place for us to live. However, promisingly, the

“Spirit of God hovered over the waters”. WithGod present, something just might happen.

And something does happen; God speakswords of power and order begins to replacethe chaotic, deadly waterworld. Light invadesthe dark and both have their domains. Water

is relegated to the region below the earth andthe region above the sky dome. Sun, moonand stars are placed in the day and nightskies. Creatures are placed in the waters, inthe skies and on the land.

Finally, when all is in readiness, God cre-ates human beings. He blesses them and in-vites them to have children and fill the earth.He thus encourages them to build cultures ofall kinds. Those cultures can include thingssuch as grass huts, cafes and colleges.

God created this world as our home. It isthe living, breathing environment that pro-vides humans with all we need to live andthrive. That is, among other things, one of thetruths set forth in Genesis one.

This home is the only one we will everhave. If we burn this one up there will be noticket to another. I don’t say this so much be-cause Genesis One prevents me from suggest-ing that there are other inhabitable planets in

the universe, I say it only because the neareststar to ours, Proxima Centauri, is 4.24 lightyears away, or about 25 trillion miles. Andthe chances that around it there is a planet onwhich we could live as we do here are slim.

This incredible planet has an amazing past

that goes back about four billion years. Andup until very recent times it was cloaked inlife: oceans were brimming with fish, enor-mous flocks of birds frequently darkenedthe skies and old growth forest covered vaststretches of North America, including all ofsouthern Ontario.

The planet is still a rich home for humans, but that is not likely to be the case for muchlonger. From recent postings and news items,it appears that only about half the animal lifethat once existed in the oceans exists today.We are doing a lot of killing out there and ex-treme weather events, such as the flooding inSouth Carolina and the droughts on the westcoast, are becoming more common.

It is these extreme weather events thatshould be a real source of worry for us be-cause they are what scientists have been say-ing for a long time now would be among theearly results of climate change.

As is well known now, climate changeis linked to the increase of carbon dioxide(CO2) in the atmosphere, which is the resultof our burning fossil fuels. And, as humanskeep using fossil fuels, the temperature of theatmosphere increases. There is already too

much CO2 in the air at this point that signif-icant climate change is no longer avoidable.

Ocean levels are climbing, the tempera-tures in the Arctic are rising quickly, Africandeserts are expanding and Canadian forestsare drying out, turning into tinderboxes.

Alarmingly, if you look at any graphs that project the rise of atmospheric temperature inthe decades most of us will live to see, whatyou find is, no pun intended, chilling.

The obvious way to address this problemwould be to cease the use of fossil fuels.However, even though it has been knownfor decades that we should do this, we hav-en’t; we drive more, consume more products, build bigger homes, fly more frequently andso forth.

Countries that sit on impressive oil re-serves like Canada want to use those reservesto get richer. If all the 1.5 or so trillion barrelsof oil that are estimated to exist in the ground

were burned, our planet would be toast. Weare changing, but it may be too late, the glob-al economy is still very much a fossil fuel based economy. We may well be headed for asemi-apocalyptic future. However, we shouldnot give up.

From waterworld, to home, to wasteland?


8/24

8 Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.caLIFESTYLES

What is art? Ask a passer-by thisquestion and you will likely hearthe same recycled answers. Art isa painting, music, a poem, or film;even the dictionary definition sug-gests what the ‘typical’ art mediumsshould be. Others will tell you that

art is wholly subjective, that it can be found in anything, as long as it provokes an emotional response.

Regardless of an individual opin-ion, art is widely regarded to existwithin all common forms of enter-tainment, yet for video games theconcept is often dismissed out ofhand despite advocates arguing forthe contrary.

In 2005, the argument would beforever changed with the release ofShadow of the Colossus, a PlaySta-tion 2 title from the mind of FumitoUeda, whose directorial experienceat that point consisted of a singlegame.

All of a sudden, gamers hadsomething to show off to the world,something to toss into the face ofindustry critics and dare them tocritique it using their preconceivednotions of gaming. In the decadesince its release, the title’s legacyhas grown, and it is now regardedas one of the most important titlesin the history of gaming.

Shadow puts players in the roleof a young man named Wander ona quest to save the woman he loves.In order to do so he must slay 16monsters, the Colossi, at the behestof a mysterious entity who possess-es the power to raise the dead. Asthe journey progresses, it is dis-covered that the entity is an ancientevil that had been sealed away andhas been manipulating Wander to be set free.

While the plot sounds like noth-ing special, even boring, the beautyof Shadow of the Colossus is foundin the execution of that journey.Very few games give players anopportunity to think about what just happened because they’re too busy thinking about what is cur-rently happening. The moments ofquiet contemplation provided inShadow are something rare, and a perfect example of the game’s ad-herence to minimalism. It can befound everywhere, from the lack ofdialogue, to the blasted desolationof the landscape.

The world is empty, a flat ex- panse broken only by the oddmountain or lake and dotted withancient ruins. There are no enemies,no NPCs, nothing. Just Wander andhis trusty horse Agro off to kill 16monsters. While riding to a fight thegame is silent except for the soundof Agro’s hooves.

The Colossi themselves are a tri-umph of creature designs. Rangingfrom the size of an elephant to thesize of a skyscraper, these beastsare all unique looking and unique

acting. They express themselvesthrough movement and animalisticroars, yet somehow you can tellwhat they are thinking, and that iswhere the true beauty of Shadow comes into play.

The prospect of climbing a building-sized monster and takingit down with a tiny sword soundslike the most epic thing you coulddo in a game, but when you’re do-ing it something just seems wrong.Slaying a savage beast to save yourlove seems like an admirable taskfor any video game protagonist, butthe biggest issue with the Colossiis that they are completely passive.Most don’t attack unless provokedand some don’t attack at all, merelyaim to defend themselves, trying toshake Wander off before he can hurtthem again.

It’s something special when agame can make you empathizewith your target in such a way andeven more special when it activelymakes you question your actions asyou take them.

Wounding a Colossus, hearingits pained cry and watching it des- perately attempt to throw you off isdisturbing, creating a sense of cog-nitive dissonance. When felled, therousing orchestral music stops, re- placed by a far more sombre themethat is at odds with the momentof triumph the player should befeeling at the time. Killing a giantshould make players excited, but

the game treats each victory as thetragedy that it truly is.

Shadow of the Colossus is art byall definitions of the word, created by humans and provoking emotion-al responses. The open-ended char-acteristics of the story allow playersto take from it what they will. Thecombination of music, design and premise created something that theindustry had never seen before, andsomething that hasn’t been seensince. It is indisputably one of themost important titles ever releasedand as it approaches its 10th anni-versary, finds its legacy forever safe.

A decade of the colossus

ANDREW VIDLERG33K LYFE

CREDIT: SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT

Shadow of the Colossus is a PlayStation 2 game that illustrates how videogames can

exemplify true art.

Clarence Street in downtownLondon is known as a hub for lo-cal music with Call The Office, theAPK, Grooves and the VibraFusionLab sitting side by side.

Vibrafusion is the newest ofthese music venues and is a placewhere film, art and music collide. Ifyou’ve been there, you’ve probablymet Davita Guslits and didn’t evenknow it.

The London native has been put-ting on shows and even her ownmusic festivals at the venue since

its creation last year. She beganwith Radiorama and continued this past summer with Collateral Jam-age, which ended up becoming aweb series featuring local bands.

Currently playing drums for Pos-ers and Never Betters, Guslits isalso classically trained, which is be-ginning to take it’s own form of art.

“I compose music under thename Oubliette… it’s kind of experimental classical so I’m takinga bunch of private music lessons to better my techniques with violin, piano and voice,” Guslits said.

Music has always been part ofGuslits’ life ever since being givena guitar when she was six-years-old.

“[I] would sit there playing the

strings until my family told me to

shut up.”Though playing and running

shows at the Whippet Lounge andgoing to Bealart, the push to focuson music happened after Guslitsmet Olenka Krakus, a singer, song-writer and guitarist for the popularfolk band Olenka and the AutumnLovers.

“I was lucky enough to be in-volved with the open house artscollective because of Olenka, shereally took me under her wing.”

Guslits saw Krakus perform atLola Fest one year and said after afive-minute conversation she wasinvited to go to an open mike withKrakus while she was on tour.

Being part of the Forest City’s

music scene for a few years, Guslits

has seen and heard a variety ofthings.

“My friends decided they want-ed to put on [an event] called Rad-ish Fest earlier in the summer [in2014], and [during the show] a pipe burst.” The room was flooded, andGuslits said they had to carry all thegear upstairs down the street.

Guslits said that they then contin-ued the show there.

“Two minutes before our set I was[still] bailing the basement out with pots and pans…my mom came witha shop vac to suck the water out.”

As for Guslits’ favourite venue to play at, she was quick to answer.

“I really like playing Call TheOffice because I think the sound is

great.”

Local artist Davita Guslits shareswhere her inspiration comes from

JERROLD RUNDLEINTERROBANG

CREDIT: LIA LEPRE

Local artists Davita Guslits jams out on the drums July 13.


9/24

Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.ca 9LIFESTYLES

Drake and Future have had anincredibly successful year. Each ofthe artists have had solo albums de- but at number one on the Billboardtop 200 and their latest collabora-tive release has followed suit. TheWhat A Time To Be Alive mix tapedropped on Sept. 29, reaching number one on Canadian, American andEuropean charts.

Naturally I was pretty excitedabout a collaborative mix tape bytwo heavyweights like this, but that

enthusiasm disappeared within thefirst six seconds of listening. Thealbum opener, “Digital Dash” be-gins with a quirky, albeit chaotic,synth line that makes your head bob… until the bass comes in. At this point it sounds like Drake and Fu-ture are blending together two verydifferent songs.

I hoped that the lyrics woulddistract from the off-kilter backingtrack, but as Future slurred out hisfirst verse, my disappointment gaveway to fear. I’m not surprised thatthe instrumental errors went un-noticed, considering their featuretalent rapped the first few verses inhis sleep. Honestly it takes about aminute for Future to say anything

remotely articulate on this track.The second song “Big Rings”doesn’t have much to live up to, butDrake actually manages to set the bar even lower. Take the chorus forexample, “I got a really big team, Igot a really big team, and they needsome really big rings, they needsome really nice things.” Did Drakehire a preschooler for a ghostwrit-er or did he finally start writing hisown lyrics here?

What A Time To Be Alive was the

result of six days in the studio, andunfortunately, it really does soundlike that. Sure, The Beatles record-ed Please Me Please Me in just ninehours, but I’m afraid that these tworappers aren’t quite at that level yet.Many of the lyrics miss their mark,and if the hooks weren’t repeated15 times a song, I wouldn’t be sureif there were any at all.

Mix tapes are supposed to berougher than studio albums, butafter the carefully crafted solo re-leases by Drake and Future thisyear, this latest release sounds likeamateur hour.

The fact that this was billed asa collaborative album baffles me.This mix tape is just a collection ofsongs that didn’t make the cut forFuture’s Dirty Sprite 2 album. Theonly reason Drake is even a part ofthis project is because Future must

have needed a reputable artist tocreate more hype. What A Time To Be Alive puts Future in the spotlightwhile Drake stands on the sidelineslike a supportive girlfriend, chim-ing in when the bae needs to catchhis breath.

With the momentum that thesetwo have gained from their latestreleases, there’s really no reason

to be putting out a mix tape likethis. Sure it sounds like they hadfun making it, but the two rappershave next to nothing in terms ofmusical chemistry. None of the punch lines sit right and Drakeseems incredibly out of his element.Drake and Future do incrediblework on their own, and I’ll be hold-ing my breath for their next release.If that release happens to be anothercollaboration however, I’m going toneed a much stronger drink.

NICK REYNOINTERROBANG

There are some stories that seemto be universal. These are stories ofgrief, isolation and loneliness. Allof us, at some point, have felt loss,have felt the painful reality of beingdifferent, have felt the eyes of oth-ers staring and judging.

In his novel Winkie, CliffordChase addresses these dark univer-sal stories. Shifting between darkcomedy and existentialism, Chasetells the story of a little bear thatcame to life and was arrested forterrorism in the United States. Per-haps the saddest part of the tale ishow relevant it still is, almost 10years after it was written.

For the most part, Winkie followsthe thoughts and memories of thetitular bear as he sits in jail, staringat a ceiling light that never goes out.Sleep deprivation is a common tor-ture tactic used against those arrest-ed for terrorism and one can see theeffect it has on Winkie’s psyche.

As the novel continues, Winkie

explores darker and darker recess-es of his mind, often with a skewed perspective that can only comefrom obsessing in this way. This in-trospection does occasionally cause problems, however.

There are times when the novelsounds almost pretentious or con-descending, almost demanding thatthe reader acknowledge their ownflaws while exploring those of thecharacters. This is especially no-ticeable when Winkie reflects onthe childhood of Clifford Chase,who has inserted himself into thestory as a child who owned the bear

and character witness during thetrial.

Despite these problems, Winkie does manage to keep the reader’sattention, mixing in charming mo-ments of surprising innocence rightwhen they feel the most needed.Even in his too-bright prison cell,Winkie manages to find a strangetype of friendship and compassion.There is a background of supportand kindness that gives the readerhope for a happy ending even inthe darkest moments, although this background is often far from the bear’s sight.

There are also a lot of momentsthat do make the reader pause andtake note, although they aren’t al-ways the heavy-handed ones sug-gested by the author. Instead, it’sthe violent outburst of a policeman, barely acknowledged, or an obvi-ously false name given by one ofthe many witnesses for the prose-cution.

To just briefly touch on the trial,it has to be said that a more subtleapproach might have been betterfor achieving the goals of the work.There are a lot of moments duringthe admittedly interesting trialwhere it feels the writer has gone a

bit too far on the side of nonsenseto prove his point about the stateof justice in the United States. Thisexaggeration takes away from theserious nature of the social issuesChase wants the reader to focus on.

Overall, Winkie is definitely anovel designed to make the readerthink about how we define normaland the very nature of humanity.Too often, it’s easy to view thosethat look or act different than usas the “other”. Being a teddy bear,Winkie embodies this notion per-fectly while remaining incrediblyhuman in many ways.

When Toy Story meets Hurricane

PAM-MARIEGUZZOINTERROBANG

CREDIT: CLIFFORD CHASE (2006)

“He was a strange bear, but I think he was a good bear.”

Drake has no Future

CREDIT: DRAKE AND FUTURE

What A Time to Be Ali ve, a collaborative mix tape by Drake and Future missed themark of a good album, rather lacks lyrical prowess and puts two artists together wholack musical chemistry.

LAUREN PAULSENTHE OTHER PRESS

NEW WESTMINISTER (CUP) – Fall is probably my favouriteseason when it comes to television.Most of my favourite televisionseries come out with new seasonsduring this time, and it’s also a trea-sure trove of new series. Sometimesthe new shows don’t turn out to beall that great, but other times theyare gold.

Limitless is a new show based onthe movie that came out in 2011,starring Bradley Cooper. It tookabout half of the pilot episode for

me to realize it wasn’t a remake ofthe movie, but instead occurs after-wards in the timeline.

The movie’s protagonist, Eddie,isn’t the star in this series, thoughhe does make an appearance in thepilot. Instead we have Brian Finch(Jake McDorman), who’s prettymuch a good-for-nothing going no-where in life. His father becomesill, but none of the doctors can fig-ure out why. Brian is afraid he is go-ing to lose his father, until one dayhe comes across an old buddy whohas become really successful. Heoffers Brian a drug to help give him

a “boost”. Thinking he has nothingto lose, Brian takes the pill. Unfor-tunately, his buddy turns up dead,and Brian becomes the prime sus-pect. Now he has to save his fatherand clear his name.

I really enjoyed this show. I didn’tremember a lot about the movie, butthat didn’t matter because the pilotepisode gave a good explanation ofwhat the drug, NZT, was and what itcould do. The action was great, and

I loved how they portrayed Brianworking out problems, such as theexact moment to run across a busystreet without being hit by a car.Brian is a very likeable character.He’s a great guy, who doesn’t eventake the NZT for selfish reasons.

This show is definitely a must-watch. I’m really looking forwardto seeing more of Brian’s charac-ter development and what happensnext.

Limitless TV pilot review

CREDIT: CBS TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION

CBS’s new show, Limitless is based off of t he same premise as the movie, but it takesplace after the movie was lmed. It is denitively a must-watch for anyone who lovesaction and likeable characters.


10/24

10 Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.caLIFESTYLES

I write about random things a lot.I write a lot about random things.I haven’t made much of a secret

of my fondness for subscriptionstreaming music services over thelast couple of years, and in that timethe number of such on–demand platforms has increased as consum-ers embrace the streaming model.As a fan, I find that an exciting premise, and with the news recent-ly that streaming services generatemore income than traditional albumsales, it looks as though that modelis here to stay.

However there is no better indica-tor of the success of such a servicethan to see it being embraced by art-ists as a means to deliver their work,as outlaw–country crooner LindiOrtega did this past summer to teaseher latest record, Faded Gloryville.

The Nashville–based Canadiansinger–songwriter released a spe-cial playlist on Rdio in July thatfeatured snippets of interview com-mentary along with select albumtracks to preview the record.

It’s this album she celebrateswhile on tour this month, whichincludes a stop in London on Oct.20 where Ortega will be performingat Aeolian Hall with support of SamCash. Tickets for her performanceare $26 at the door, but cost $20 forstudents.

Released by The Grand Tour Re-cords on Aug. 7, Faded Gloryville represents a state of mind, a placewhere you’d find the downtroddenand the broken–hearted.

“It’s about anything that brings

you down, whether it’s dreams notcoming true or relationships notworking out,” Ortega explained to Rolling Stone Country earlier thisyear. “And its message is this: youcan go to a place where you’re feel-ing really down about things, butit’s what you do afterwards — doyou decide to reside there forever ordo you leave and make the situation better — that matters. You have totravel through Faded Gloryville toget to Paradise.”

The album harkens back to a pre “Achy Breaky Heart” era incountry music, at times casting its

instrumentation in ways more akinto Motown or vintage jazz than tra-ditional country.

Largely recorded live in threesessions with different producers,Dave Cobb, Colin Linden and theduo of Ben Tanner of AlabamaShakes and the Civil Wars’ JohnPaul White. Though Ortega’s integ-rity throughout makes it difficult to

guess with accuracy which songsemerged from each.The idea was to craft a record as

broad as her tastes in music and byrecording live Ortega not only im- peccably captures her raw, smokyvocals, but also offers a glimpse intoa promising concert performance.

Ortega previewed Faded Glo-ryville bit by bit as 2015 unfold-ed. The tracks “Tell It Like It Is”and her striking cover of The BeeGees’ “To Love Somebody” firstappeared in the spring, while “Ash-es” and “I Ain’t The Girl” debutedin July in advance of an in–depthinterview on The Strombo Showfor CBC Radio. Together, it paint-ed a picture of an album that foundits influences in ’70s country andclassic soul records, informed bymasterful production.

The rest of the album revealsmore of the picture, songs that takeinspiration from Elvis–era rhythmand blues, shimmering surf guitartones and smooth, soulful harmo-nies throughout.

Running a mere 36 minutes, Faded Gloryville leaves fans want-ing more and perhaps all the moreinclined to repeat the album as itfinishes.

For more on Lindi Ortega, heralbum Faded Gloryville or hercurrent tour, visit lindiortega.ca orfollow her on Twitter @lindiortega.She is currently en route back toCanada through gigs in the States,

wrapping up October in Ontarioand Quebec. If you can’t make hershow in London, you have chancesto see Ortega in Waterloo, Hamiltonand Toronto before the week is out.

And for more of the latest mu-sic news, album streams andgigs coming to London, add@fsu_bobbyisms to your timeline.Stay tuned to fsu.ca for great eventson campus, and don’t miss Rock-tober this week in Forwell Hall —when are you going to see The Flat-liners, Heart Attack Kids and FullYear ever again for free? Never. I’mout of words.

Based on a novel by Andy Weir,The Martian is the story of one mantrapped on Mars after being left fordead by his crew. As those on Earthdiscover his survival and struggle tofind ways to bring him home, MarkWatney – played by Matt Damon –must find a way to stay alive in ahostile environment.

A great deal of time and effortwas put into researching this mov-

ie, and, although the science isn’t

always accurate, the few discrep-ancies can be forgiven in light ofeverything The Martian gets right.It is very easy to forgive a too-se-vere windstorm, overly difficultwater extraction and lack of bounc-ing steps in a movie that managesto show the slow damage of mal-nutrition and accurate mathematicsregarding space travel.

Not only is the movie well re-searched, it is also well directed.This may be the best movie on Rid-ley Scott’s resume – a resume thatincludes Alien, Hannibal and Black Hawk Down. Every song is perfect-ly timed and every scene is framed

with intention. Scott’s attention

to detail is incredible and the onlyreal complaint may be that the filmfeels, at times, a bit too optimistic.

A great deal of credit also has togo to the actors. Matt Damon may be the star of the show, but he is farfrom alone in talent and dedicationto his role. Jessica Chastain in par-ticular is supreme in her role as themission commander Melissa Lewis,struggling under the weight of irre-vocable choices.

This isn’t to say the rest of thecast was poor; the problem is thateach performance was really be-yond reproach. From Jeff Daniels, playing the cold bureaucrat, toChiwetel Ejiofor, playing the over-ly honest scientist, every castingchoice was well made. The only performance that seemed a bit offwas that of Donald Glover, but thisis more due to him being cast in anodd, awkward role than anything hehas actual control over.

While the entire movie has greatqualities, perhaps its greatest quali-ty is the message of hope and won-der it gives. The Martian representsall of the best of humanity: cooper-ation, exploration, endurance andinnovation. Every person in thefilm is portrayed as being intelli-gent and capable, as being the bestthe world has to offer, and there’ssomething incredibly refreshing ina movie that shows these ideals.

So often the world seems jadedand cynical, and so many movies

lately have reflected this.In The Martian, we get a great

change of pace. Instead of anothersad story of hate and fear, the au-dience gets treated to somethingthat holds out hope that we can bemore; that we can conquer whatev-er the universe throws at us if we ig-nore the impossible and work hardenough.

Overall, this is a movie that’shard to criticize. With incredibledirection, amazing acting and NA-SA-approved science, The Martian does a great job of keeping the au-dience entertained.

CREDIT: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION (2015)

The Martian is worth the watch with believable acting, strong directing and a well-researched plot line.

One small step for movies…

Lindi Ortega at Aeolian Hall

CREDIT: JULIE MOE

Linda Ortega’s Faded Gloryville represents a state of mind, a place where you aredowntrodden or broken-hearted; it is a country album that combines differentgenres of music into a unique so und..

BOBBYISMSBOBBY FOLEY

PAM-MARIEGUZZOINTERROBANG


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Emily Stewart| Interrobang

Election day is getting closerand many people are wonderinghow they should cast their ballot.Often, it’s just a matter of decid-ing which issues are important toa voter. One of the major issuespeople will think about duringand after this election season isthe environment.

A London Environment Net-work survey pointed to VoteCompass, the online voter en-gagement survey for the CBC,which revealed the environmentis the second most important is-sue to Canadians.

The survey, which included 10questions about the environment,was sent to all MP candidates run-ning in four London area ridings:London North Centre, LondonWest, London Fanshawe and El-gin-Middlesex-London.

The results revealed that whileall four Conservative candidateswere asked to ll out the survey,none of them answered. In con-trast, all Liberal and NDP candi-dates replied, while two of thethree Green party candidates re-sponded.

Since the environment is suchan important issue to Canadianvoters, why aren’t some candi-dates responding to a surveyabout it?

Matt Farrell, a politics profes-sor in the School of Languageand Liberal Studies at FanshaweCollege, explained it is part of re-vealed preferences for any gov-ernment.

“They might say something is apriority, but when you look at thethings people actually do, that’swhat their priorities are,” he said.

CAMPAIGN PROMISES

Farrell added that, for example,the Liberals and the NDP say theenvironment is a top priority, andthey try to depict Prime MinisterStephen Harper and his Conser-vative government as one who

doesn’t care about it.“For the Prime Minister, he justsays that everything, whether it’sthe environment and what haveyou, falls under the umbrella ofeconomic development.”

In the Environment and theEconomy, a class he teaches atFanshawe, Farrell emphasizesthat actions benetting the econ-omy don’t usually help the envi-ronment and vice versa. He saidwhile the Harper government“gives lip service to the environ-ment”, most of their promises fo-cus on economic development.

Looking over all of the cam-paign promises from the top fourparties, most of Harper’s pledges

support the economy, includingpledges for $20 million in thelobster industry, and 1.3 millionnet new jobs by 2020. However,he had one sustainable prom-ise to put $5 million a year forhabitat sustainability that wouldprotect turkey, moose and birdpopulations.

With that said other partiesalso focus on the economy. NDPleader Tom Mulcair promised$10 million dollars to help theforestry industry grow by pro-moting Canadian wood productsoverseas.

On the other hand, Liberal

leader Justin Trudeau has a mix ofboth environmental and econom-ic pledges, including bringing incleaner forestry, shery, farming,energy and mining technologies,and a $500 million skilled tradeboost across Canada.

Although Green Party leaderElizabeth May has not made asmany promises in comparison tothe other three front running par-ties, she vowed to legislate a banfor super tankers on the coast ofBritish Columbia, and freeze drill-ing gas and oil in the Gulf of St.Lawrence.

Farrell said only time will tellif these leaders will actually acton their promises. He explainedCanada has a reputation for ad-vocating for the environment,such as signing the Kyoto Proto-col, and working with other gov-ernments around the world tocombat climate change, but thathasn’t been seen in a decade,despite it being a priority for Ca-nadians.

“I don’t think you’re going tosee very many parties do that,”Farrell said. “For them, the envi-ronment is almost a secondary ortertiary issue. They want to focuson the economy because theythink that’s what voters are mainlymotivated by.”

However, Farrell said the GreenParty strongly advocates for theenvironment, which is at the coreof their platform. “They criticizeall parties [for] not putting the en-vironment at the forefront of theirdecision making,” he explained.“The Green Party candidates arevery good at spinning everythingback to the environment.”

PUTTING LIMITS ON GLOBAL

WARMING RESEARCH

Climate change and globalwarming is of an utmost concern,as seen through scientic re-search. However, some research-ers and scientists feel like they

are being muzzled by the gov-ernment on the topic.Tree Alerts, a communications

hub about climate change, saidthat Mike De Souza, a journalist,wrote in an email to EnvironmentCanada that weather forecastersare prohibited from discussingclimate change in public andare banned from connecting ex-treme weather events to globalwarming.

A report from 630 CHED saidthat when the Conservativeswere rst elected in 2006, a newpolicy was created to forbid sci-entists from talking to the mediawithout government permission.

Farrell explained, “The govern-

ment wants its policies and prior-ities to be reected in what thegovernment does. That can be aproblem sometimes because youhave scientists that work for thegovernment, and sometimes thethings that they nd don’t alwaysalign with what the governmentwants them to say.”

Farrell said that that could beseen with closed down libraries,including the ones run by theDepartment of Oceans and Fish-eries.

“There’s an experimental lakearea that was also shut down,and these are great sources of

research for scientists,” he said.“Research scientists who workfor the government, work for theministry, they are always access-ing this material.”

He added even the generalpopulation are disadvantagedbecause everyday people don’thave access to these libraries.

“When the government runsits efciency analytics, it sees thatwe’ve got these multiple librar-ies, which are very expensive tomaintain, which are only beingused maybe by ve people ayear. What they don’t see is the

thousands of scientists who usethem every day electronically.”

Hilary Beaumont, a writer forVice News noted environmen-tal rights groups are more quietthan usual during this electioncampaign. She explained, “Ca-nadian charities can spend upto 10 per cent of their time onpolitical activities, but they mustbe non-partisan. Running afoulof these rules could lead them tolose their charitable status.”

Beaumont added the only onespeaking their mind is renownedenvironmental activist David Su-zuki. Looking at his recent tweetsand blog posts on the David Su-zuki Foundation website, Suzukiis raising his voice on environ-mental issues as always.

On his website, he spoke outabout the already present effectsof greenhouse gases, tying it tothe upcoming UN Climate Sum-mit in December.

“The consequences are al-ready severe and will get worse ifwe don’t act. Increasing extremeweather, including heat waves,oods, droughts and storms putlives, agriculture and economiesat risk,” Suzuki said.

Suzuki added the resourceconicts decrease global securityand stem problems for refugeesand cause respiratory illnesses,

such as asthma and heart diseasebecause of pollution. The envi-ronmental activist later called foran alternative, sustainable visionfor the economy.

“A better economic visionwould support the right of allCanadians to live in a healthy en-vironment, with access to cleanwater and air and healthy food,”Suzuki said.

“The alternative economywould connect people to family,friends and communities, focuson social capital investments overgross domestic product gainsand distribute wealth throughtaxes, social programs and mini-mum guaranteed incomes.”

However, Farrell said speakingout on climate change is rare foranyone who works in the publicservice industry, such as scien-tists, because the governmenthas ordered them to stay unbi-ased.

“They don’t want them to takepolitical stances, they want themto stay neutral, and that hascaused a lot of political prob-lems, because they are peopletoo, with political beliefs. Theywant to post on their Facebookpage, they want to make publicstatements, and the governmentis asking that they don’t do that.”

Heat waveEnvironmental censorship concerns rise as vote day approaches

CREDIT: CANDIS BROSS


13/24

Volume 48 Issue No. 7 October 12, 2015 theinterrobang.ca 13LIFESTYLES

As the ever-growing globalwarming issue looms over society,new and more effective methods ofenergy conservation have moved tothe forefront of architectural design.

Spearheading the energy conser-vation efforts at Fanshawe Collegeis the Centre for Applied Transpor-tation Technologies (the Z build-ing), which features a multitude ofenergy saving features.

The largest – as well as the mostvisually pleasing of these featuresis the green roof – a total of 43,000square feet above the building’sauto shops.

The plant life is specificallychosen for their low-maintenancecharacteristics and ability to absorbwater on the flat roof, there are alsosome modern energy saving fea-tures to compliment the roof.

The chief feature among the en-ergy saving techniques is a set ofGPS powered skylights. What theskylights do is constantly adjust tothe sun’s position in order to funnel

the maximum amount of naturallight into the shop areas.

The skylights are highly effectiveand a quick walk through the areademonstrates just how little artifi-cial light is needed even when deal-ing with as large of a space as therepair shop.

Another feature on the roof is astorm water collection system. Thesystem repurposes fallen rainwaterin order to recycle it, primarily forthe purpose of site irrigation, but itis also used to flush the majority ofthe building’s toilets.

“It’s a fantastic system, though

some people find it a little strangewhen their toilet water is grey,” saidMary-Lee Townsend, sustainabilityco-ordinator at Fanshawe.

Despite its specific, low-mainte-nance design, the roof does requireregular check-ups and in the caseof the skylights, the occasional re- pair or replacement of the computercomponents.

Fortunately the building is hometo the Horticultural Technology program, providing eager and in-terested students to keep the roof’s plant life in top shape.

They also maintain the sur-rounding grounds, which they have planted fully with native plants andtreated with as little chemicals as possible.

In addition to the more visiblefeatures, every fan, light switch andheating vent within the Z buildingis controlled and monitored via acentral system.

Each classroom is equipped withan occupancy detecting motion sen-sor to ensure that energy burningsystems are not running in an emp-ty room and negating the chance ofthe last person out simply forgettingto turn things off.

Even the overhang on the build-ing’s front was designed to min-

imize sun exposure, helping toregulate the use of air conditioningsystems in the summer months.

A number of these features will be slowly integrated into other areasof the college in the coming years, but the age of the buildings and thecost of a full upgrade prohibit therest of

october 12th, 2015 issue of interrobang

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