Janice Yeung reports from John Laforet’s election night HQ in Ward 43 | Centennial onDemand

UTSC's Annual Largest Arts Event: ArtSIdeOut

Oil Painting - Emma Baron  (Photo courtesy: Janice Yeung)

The event is held annually on the first Thursday of October and runs from noon to midnight. This year it was held on Oct. 7.

Students of different backgrounds and disciplines were given opportunities to showcase their work in 30 projects spread across the entire campus.

This year’s theme of ‘engagement’ brought together the works of over 40 artists, 20 performers, 12 student clubs and about 30 student volunteers.

“The fact that a lot of people came out is a good sign,” said Jakub Wasikiewicz, a first-year student volunteer.

He explained to a crowd the artistic significance of Emma Baron’s interactive sculpture, “Oil Painting.”  Situated at the Cherry Blossom Grove, the black bucket had holes pierced on the side so that the water it contains kept leaking from it.

“It is a metaphor for the limited resources of fossil fuels on earth,” Wasikiewicz said.  “This work hopes to inspire ideas on how we could reconstruct and repair our damaged planet.”

In front of Tim Hortons stood a wooden triangle with yarn knitted over it in a rainbow spectrum of colour.  This interactive piece is created by SC: OUT, a student club that pushes forth positive initiatives for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-sexual and queer students.  Passers-by were invited to add yarn to decorate the triangle, which symbolized a revitalization of the originally dead piece of wood.

“Students this year are very excited about ArtSideOut,” said Nazia Habiba, a third-year student volunteer sitting at an ArtSideOut information desk in the ARC. “They are a bit more enthusiastic than before,” she said.

Hanging There (Polaroid Gallery) by UTSC Shutterbugs  (Photo Courtesy: Janice Yeung)

One of the projects that got participants’ attention was a Polaroid gallery titled “Hanging There” by the UTSC Shutterbugs.  Images were printed in classic Polaroid frames and hung on a clothesline.  Many students spent their time up close to the photos to look at them individually.

Other highlights of the night included a non-stop Post-It note motion video “Stick It” by Shutterbugs and a mixed media and sound installation “Trapped by Medusa” by fifth-year arts management student, Melanie Wu.

There was also a Projector Max Light Adventure Dome Amazer-Stage live music and light show at Rex’s Den, a UTSC Drama Society musical “The UTSC Follies of 2010”and “Loud Silence” by Adelaide Lo where participants were blindfolded and made to put on headphones playing sounds of footsteps from behind while walking through the Bladen Wing’s secret stairs.

(from left to right)  Volunteer Coordinator Jordan Dewit, Performer Steph Dudek, Singer Mary Bowden, Marketing Director Patricia Njovu and Music Director Chrisine Bernier  (Photo courtesy: Janice Yeung)


This article was originally published in the Underground (University of Toronto Scarborough Campus's official student news magazine) on Oct. 28, 2010.

John Laforet loses to Ward 43 Incumbent Paul Ainslie Second Time in a Row

John Laforet delivering his speech after learning about his loss at the Fossil & Haggis Pub in Scarborough.  (Photo Courtesy: Janice Yeung)

John Laforet lost to incumbent Paul Ainslie by a margin of 32 per cent in Ward 43 during the municipal election on Monday.

Laforet has been campaigning for this ward’s city councillor position since January 2010. He admitted that he was disappointed by the results, which showed Ainslie obtaining over 60% of the 8,600 votes that were cast.

Laforet spent election night at the Fossil & Haggis Pub in Scarborough with two tables of supporters and volunteers. He had booked the venue for what was originally going to be a victory party.

“We did a lot and we did it without a lot to work with,” said Laforet in a speech after his defeat.

“Everybody in this room should look forward and I am proud to continue the friendships I developed with everyone who participated in this campaign.”

The atmosphere at Laforet’s camp was quiet and peaceful. After hearing about his defeat, the candidate remained calm and composed. He stayed at the pub for an hour chatting to campaign volunteers who encouraged him and expressed their ongoing support after his loss.

“We still have a community here,” said Laforet’s campaign manager in a toast. “We know what our vision is and we will extend it even after this election.”

Laforet came second among the five candidates who were running in Scarborough East Ward 43. He gained 28.8 per cent of the votes, 4894 votes fewer than incumbent Ainslie, who secured a majority of 60.6 per cent of the voters' support. Other candidates running in this ward included Bhaskar Sharma, Benjamin Mbaegbu and Samuel Getachew.

As Ainslie's closest rival, Laforet heads the provincial coalition Wind Concerns Ontario, which opposes to industrial wind power facilities. One of the major issues of Ward 43 candidates includes a wind turbine project off the coast of the Scarborough Bluffs. With a background of fighting wind turbines for more than two years, Laforet has focused his platform on this area, claiming that the installation of wind turbines would be detrimental to the health of nearby residents and also to the natural environment of the Bluffs.

Laforet supported Rob Ford as a mayoral candidate in this election. “Since Rob Ford is from the suburban area of Etobicoke,  I believe he better understands the issues facing Scarborough residents,” he said in an interview with InsideTorontoVotes before the election.

John Laforet talking to residents in Scarborough East at a Ward 43 Candidate Meet and Greet session on Oct. 14, 2010.  (Photo Courtesy: Janice Yeung)

Like Rob Ford, he also referred to voters as taxpayers and delivered a platform pledging that he would not waste voters' taxes if he became councillor. He referred to Scarborough as an ignored community and believed that Ward 43 should enjoy the same quality of city services as Vaughan and Richmond Hill does. “Scarborough can't allow the city of Toronto to continue to treat us like the poor cousin, we are actually a part of Toronto,” he said in an interview before the election.

“We have a bigger population density and more importantly, we pay our taxes to the city of Toronto.”

Laforet also ran for city councillor in 2006. He came in fourth among seven candidates and lost to Paul Ainslie by 3744 votes. In a speech he gave after this year's defeat, he mentioned that at first he had a hard time deciding whether he should run for city councillor.

“In the end we ran an excellent campaign and I have no regrets,” he said in an interview after the speech. “I am very proud of the people who helped and the people who voted. I am at peace because I know we did everything possible.”

Having been elected three times as the President of the Scarborough Guildwood Federal Liberal Association, he thanked the residents of Guildwood for their generous support and volunteering throughout his campaign.

“I would never have made a run for city council without your [Guildwood residents'] support,” he said after the election results were released.

He “has no idea” what his focus would be for the next four years, however he also promised that he would find other ways to stay involved and help residents in Ward 43.

When asked about whether he would run for city councillor again in four years, he said, “I am not eager to find myself on a ballot anytime soon.”

Sexual Hypnosis Makes for a Hilarious Night Out

Hypnotist Tony Lee giving directions on hypnotist tricks with students at Centennial's Progress Campus.  (Photo Courtesy: Janice Yeung)

XXX-rated hypnotist Tony Lee performed a mind-blowing show with student participants at Centennial College's Progress Campus on October 22.

Yes, you heard right, he is a triple X-rated hypnotist. What this means is that his shows are often uncensored and involves rich sexual innuendo or even explicit sexual hints in how he leads hypnotized volunteers into behaving how they normally only would in private.

The Comic and MMA Cage fighter hypnotist Tony Lee performed a spellbinding hypnotist show at Progress Campus's Student Centre – Main Events Hall. This is the third year that the school campus has demanded for his return performance. His past appearances at Centennial has been great successes where there were large numbers of students attending the shows.

The multi-time winner of Canadian School Campus Awards in the category of Entertainer of the Year warmed the audience up with dirty jokes and bold humour. The audience was first told to stick their hands together while being hypnotised. Lee rallied his first few volunteers by offering to unstick their hands which were weirdly inseparable from each other afterwards.

Tony Lee explained to the audience that he has never believed in hypnotism before. He started out with this mysterious act by “accidentally getting [his] girlfriend hypnotised”. He asked her to do things she never would have normally done, which worked in the end. This was twenty-one years ago, now he is a renowned professional hypnotist performance artist.

The Chinese Canadian hypnotist then proceeded to invite other members of the audience to go on stage and sit in a circle to be mesmerized by a hypnotizing spell he cast on all of them. The show then went on an exhilirating journey which took the hypnotized participants and the audience from a Jurassic Park trip where a raptor approaches to a situation where the participants took the chairs they were sitting on as mating partners.

Allowing your favorite sexual position or scenes of yourself going homo to be presented in public might not be the best thing to have happened to you. After leaving the stage as a hypnotized participant, International Exchange Student Dominik Landberg said, “I don't really know how the show went, I haven't seen Tony Lee anywhere.” As Lee instructed, he “felt a huge orgasm” whenever someone shaked his left hand that night.

“I couldn't get out of it the last time I volunteered to be hypnotised by Tony Lee,” said Eric, an Environmental Protection student at the Morningside campus. He could not remember if he was involved in the filming of a Hollywood porn video as some male participants in the show was instructed to.

“I loved it, it was great how Tony Lee interacted with the audience, I will definitely come again next year,” said Monica Gautheir, a first year Graphic Design student. Looks like it is time for the CCSAI (Centennial College Student Association Inc.) to look into inviting Tony Lee to come perform at Centennial for his fourth year in a row.

This article was originally published in The Courier (published by the Centennial College Student Association Inc.)  on Oct. 28, 2010.

Destress After Class at the Spa

Massage therapy clinic at Centennial College  (Photo courtesy: Janice Yeung)

“Are you stressed?” might have already become a rhetorical question for college students. Endless deadlines, mounds of textbooks to read, pages and pages of papers to write are only a few examples of how stressful college life can be. But don't sweat, there is an alternative to watching television, going on Facebook or shopping when you need to 'de-stress' after school. There is a Massage Therapy Public Clinic situated right on Centennial College's Morningside campus in Room 224 at the Centennial Science and Technology Centre. It is managed by students yet provides high quality professional massage therapy services without the costly price tags.

According to Lori Copeland, Massage Therapy programme instructor, this discipline of study has been established at Centennial College since 1995. Students learn to treat sports injuries, back pains, stress related symptoms and other physical conditions with medical and clinical knowledge. The Public Clinic on campus allows students in this programme to perform their field placement terms which is included in the package of their course requirements. Students also participate in other programmes such as the annual free massage therapy sessions provided to infants and expectant mothers. On October 17, they will also be volunteering at the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon to provide therapy services to runners after the race. “These outreach events allow our students to gain experiences of on-site therapy while also promoting Centennial's Massage Therapy Programme,' said Copeland.

The Massage Therapy Public Clinic provides services to both students on campus and visitors from outside. Student therapists are supervised by Registered Massage Therapists while they ask customers questions about their health conditions and design individualized treatments that focus on the person's specific needs. Different types of massage therapy are practiced at the clinic, including hot stone massage, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy massage, shiatsu and more. Other services such as manicures, pedicures and facials are also provided to offer a complete pampering experience for the customer. The price of a 70 minute massage therapy session is $7 for Massage Therapy students and $35 for Centennial students from other programmes and visitors from outside.

Third year Massage Therapy student Micheala Williams attends to customers at the receptionist desk of the Massage Therapy Public Clinic as part of her field placement. She describes the course as being “challenging, with a lot of critical thinking”, yet also feels that the practice she recieves is valuable and would aid her in becoming a Registered Massage Therapist in the future. She also says that it is by “word of mouth that students come to this Clinic”. Hopefully with this article, these 'words in print' may be able to lure you to try out this convenient facility on campus. Spare an hour after class and allow on-site student therapists to massage your tension and worries away.

This article was originally published in The Courier (published by the Centennial College Student Association Inc.)  on Sept. 30, 2010.

Ward 43 Profile

Ward 43 (Scarborough East) is a vibrant and diverse area that runs between Markham Road and Morningside Avenue from the east to the west and from Highway 401 to Lake Ontario shoreline. In the previous census period, the population of this area has dropped 4.3%. 60% of the area's residents are identified as visible minorities, higher than the city's average percentage. A few of the key issues in this area include transit expansion, social housing units for low-income families and controversies on building wind farms in Guildwood Village. The voter turnout in the 2006 municipal election was 36%. Candidates running for councillor in this area include Paul Ainslie (incumbent), Samuel Getachew, John Laforet, Benjamin Mbaegbu and Bhaskar Sharma. John Laforet, member of the Toronto Party for a Better City is said to have a good chance of taking Ainslie's seat. Meanwhile, Bhaskar Sharma has also gained media's attention by reputedly growing his giant squash plant to six feet tall by serenading it.

The Journalist Who Had a Dream

Martin Luther King said “I have a dream” in 1963, Steve Kowch who grew up in the 1960s also had a dream. Chasing it to a forty year long career as a reporter was his way of bringing to reality what a journalist wants to achieve.

“I will tell you all kinds of terrible things that your professors here won’t tell you about,” said Steve Kowch, in a speech to journalism students at Centennial College Tuesday.

The seasoned radio and newspaper journalist was invited to speak to budding young journalists about working in the media and how to achieve their dreams in the harsh realities of budget cuts in newspapers and mass lay-offs in news companies.

Steve Kowch is the author of ’99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Making It Big in Media’. The book is a step-by-step guideline to succeeding in the highly competitive field of journalism. Brimming with anecdotes and inspirational quotes, Steve Kowch’s speech was not that different from a read of the book itself.

Using an analogy of Ccomparing journalists to chefs, Steve Kowch illustrated how the chef’s preparation of a sumptuous meal is similar to a journalist putting together a well-researched story.

“Chefs all work on the same recipe in a restaurant,” Kowch said. “The difference is what you do with the ingredients of the meal you are putting together.”

Just like how Kowch started off his best-selling book, Kowch explained how this “difference” comes down to having both talent and a positive attitude.

“ He told third-year journalism students that “Bbroadcasters are born, they are not taught, but it takes a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication and it takes a dream,.” he told third-year journalism students.

Having spent over forty years in the media, Kowch proves to Centennial students that it is possible to maintain the same passion a journalist has when he first enters the job.

Using his own success stories, Kowch encourages the audience to be brave enough to prove to employers even on their first job that they have what it takes to excel in assignments.

Telling a story of how he refused to be called “office-boy” two weeks after starting work as an intern at a newspaper company in 1968, he illustrated how he overturned a negative office culture at seventeen years of age.

Kowch started a “club” amongst other interns to begin a campaign of refusing to answer to commands from the boss unless he started calling them by their real names. His name was always the first to be picked when the boss resorted to pulling out their name cards on the walls. “You are the big shot,” Kowch was told at the time,

Kowch achieved his dream of being a reporter by never believing in “No” or “You can’t do it”.

“I believed in I will do it and I will prove you wrong that I can’t,” he said.

To rise up in an environment where 15,000 newspaper reporters were laid off from a pool of 56,000 in the States in the past few years is hard.

However, Kowch has a remedy to this. He reminds the audience to take on a positive approach and to always be reminded of why they got into the job in the first place.

To be great every day at what we do is Kowch’s way of beating the competition and standing above the crowd.

“All you have to do is chase your dream and do your job,” he said.

Being a reporter who up to this day is “only interested in writing page one stories”, Kowch is living proof of the myth that dreams never die.

In forty years he has risen up from being an office boy who fetched newspaper editors coffees to being the national director of the news talk format for Canada’s largest private broadcaster.

He made a difference by having a dream, and he told students, they could too.

UTSC Dances to Beat of a New Drum

Photo courtesy: Jessica Lee

With the various dance classes offered at the UTSC Athletics and Recreation Centre, it may be hard to settle on just one.  One option is Zumba, a high-energy workout combined with Latin and international music. UTSC’s Zumba instructor, Andrina Stan, is a fourth-year psychology specialist, who uses her spare time after school to infect other students with her passion for Zumba. The Underground had the opportunity to catch up with Stan and find out what this specific exercise has to offer to UTSC students.

UG: First of all, how did you become a Zumba fitness instructor?

AS: It was an accident for me.  A year ago, I stepped into Heidi Calder, the Athletics and Recreation Interim Co-director’s office to propose a women’s-only dance club. She then asked me if I have ever tried a Zumba class. I had never heard of Zumba at the time, so I tried one class and completely fell in love with it. From then on, I went for my certification and started teaching Zumba.

UG: Where and when are you classes held?

AS: Classes are held every Monday at the UTSC Athletics and Recreation Centre from 6-7 p.m.  It’s for free!

UG: Does Zumba promote a healthy lifestyle for students?

AS: Zumba is a very fun sport. Students who are thinking about starting a healthy lifestyle should try Zumba because it is very easy to fall in love with it. The music is very inspiring and upbeat. Fitness programs like Zumba also benefit the brain much more than students realize.

UG: What type of music does Zumba involve?

AS: It is a variation of Latin rhythms. People often have a misconception that Zumba is a salsa class, in fact, it is more like a clashing together of different Latin music styles. Some rhythms that we play include merengue, salsa, belly dance and African beats.

UG: Do you need to have a good musical sense to take this class?

AS: No, most of the steps in Zumba are very basic. It is a workout for everybody, regardless of your age, race or ethnicity.

UG: How have students been responding to this class?  Do they come back for more?

AS: Yes, a lot of them do. Since the energy of the class is often extremely high, students enjoy themselves a lot and carry a happy mood with them throughout the day.

This article was originally published in the Underground (University of Toronto Scarborough Campus's official student news magazine) on Oct. 7, 2010.

Steer Clear of the Winter Blues

Photo Courtesy: angel sea.

Summer is over. With all the beach volleyball matches, late night parties and outdoor concerts, it is understandable that many students would cringe when they think of the beginning of school and chilly weather after four months in the sun. Endless assignments, morning classes and piles of readings to be done might sound bad already, but added to this stressful schedule is the upcoming winter chill. Cloudy days, dry weather and gusts of wind do not make it any better to get to classes or go home after school. Forget about having fun. But do students really have to stay grounded throughout the school term because of dropping temperatures? Are there alternatives to watching television at home or stalking people on Facebook when we want a break from studying in the winter?

Don't worry, your peers on campus have suggestions for ways to combat the cold weather blues. Ramona Seupersad, the Fitness Program Assistant in the Athletics and Recreation Department mentions tons of programmes available at UTSC's Recreation Centre. “There's dancing, pilates, yoga, karate and a brand new class called Women on Weights. There is definitely something for everyone,” she says. She encourages students to make good use of the school's facilities and apply for these classes. She explains how “summer times are nice where you could walk around in the sun, but winter isn't that bad either, where you could go skating or skiing.”

First year student John D. agrees with Seupersad, he is determined to use the gym facilities and athletic services on campus during his first fall and winter semesters at UTSC. He has also been checking out different student club booths at the meeting place and is looking forward to joining their events which will be held throughout the school year.

Fourth year Psychology and English student Sahar Montazeri gives us two words for getting through this winter season, “Be positive.” For her, even going to the mall could turn out to be a fun and exciting day. Sometimes the best way to overcome something you dread is to change your perspective of looking at it. “I try to make the best out of winter times,” says first year student Luzianne Reid. “It is always interesting to see what is going on in the university itself.”

In the chilly weather, the coffee shop is first year English major Arianna Hussaini's favorite place to hang out. “If you're not really an outdoor person, the best thing to do is to go somewhere indoors with a bunch of friends,” she says. “Coffee shops are the most comfortable places where you could sit with your classmates and talk. Nobody likes being alone in the winter.”

Fourth year Economics student Peter Lin agrees that we have to hang out with friends even more when the weather gets cold. “I don't suffer from cold weather blues,” he says determinedly. This is probably the attitude we should all have when the leaves start falling from trees and the birds are migrating to the south. Let's face it. It is going to get colder whether we like it or not. So why not embrace it and rediscover the joys of fireplaces, hot winter meals, woolen mittens and oh did I mention Christmas. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

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