Unpaid internships: a boon or a bane?

Student Association passes new $25 fee

Disability Pride march &accessibility issues at GBC

Regent Park Film Festival shows a ‘hood in flux

Nov. 2 - 15, 2012

Many people don’t bother to vote, let alone lobby their elected representa-tives, sit in public galleries, or attend protests.

It’s not that people are apathetic or dumb. On the contrary, many people know that their votes and their voic-es really don’t count for much in our system. Once you cast your ballot you no longer have a say in repre-sentative democracy, you don’t get to speak at government meetings or cast a vote on the issues. That is left to the politicians who consult, not with their constituents, but rather with elite sections of the ruling class. When Dalton McGuinty wanted the provincial budget overhauled did he set up thousands of community council meetings where we could collectively discuss our priorities as the people of Ontario? No, he called in the former vice president and chief economist of the Toronto Dominion Bank, Don Drummond, to head up a commission. Nothing could be a clearer indica-tion about which class politicians get their marching orders from. When McGunity prorogued the Ontario legislature this month, there were many columnists, pundits and opposition politicians who thumped their chests with righteous indigna-tion saying it was the death of de-mocracy in Ontario.

The average Ontarian, howev-er, didn’t rise up against it. There weren’t even the modest-sized pro-tests that Stephen Harper saw when he prorogued parliament in 2008 and 2009 to avoid a Liberal-NDP coali-tion government and to shut down investigations into the treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan respective-ly. McGuinty’s decision to prorogue is no less controversial as it likewise closed an investigation into why controversial gas-fired power plants were moved out of Liberal ridings, costing the people of Ontario hun-dreds of millions of dollars. No, far from a democratic uprising, most Ontarians gave a collective shrug to the shuttering of Ontario’s political system. On campuses it can be even harder to achieve even the limited form of democracy that the “big leagues” have. Participation in student elec-tions is generally abysmal. Take the fact that only five per cent of students at George Brown Col-lege (GBC) need to vote in order for a candidate to be elected to the Student Association’s board of di-rectors. In the 2012 spring elections only 1200 students cast ballots out of a total membership of over 24,000 students. The representative structure of stu-dent government is no more partici-patory than the other levels of par-liamentary politics that disdainfully ignore working-class people after an election. This is the structure that allows the

SA board of directors to propose a new $25 student levy to the college’s board of governors and afterwards be wined and dined by the GBC Foundation at an exclusive $500-a-ticket black-tie gala. This is the structure that doesn’t need to consult students about a levy that could see almost $6 million of their money spent filling the gap left by a chronic under-funding of post-secondary education by the provin-cial and federal governments. The feds contributed only one per cent of funds according to GBC’s latest annual report, compare that to the 45 per cent paid by the province and the whopping 47 per cent GBC students pay out of thier own pocket. Will students in Ontario protest when their tuition, already the high-est in the country, is increased again by guidelines set in the next provin-cial budget?

Recently students Quebec won a major victory, rolling back a steep tuition increase, by going on strike for a record 207 days, defying a re-pressive “special law”, building a popular movement and helping force an early election that defeated the Liberal government. One of they key reasons they were able to mobilize hundreds of thou-sands of students was that student unionism in Quebec has a radical-ly different model than the rest of Canada. Consisting of general as-semblies at the more manageable de-partmental levels, students in these general assemblies can participate directly in the discussions and then vote directly on proposals. The question is will students work to build similar bodies of direct de-mocracy in Ontario? Or will they just give the whole thing a collective shrug?

Managing Editor: Mick SweetmanSA Publications and Communications Coordinator: Mick SweetmanDialog Published by: Student Association of George Brown College

r

Contact in person or mail:Room E122 - Casa Loma142 Kendal AvenueToronto, ON M5R 1M3

www.dialog.studentassociation.caTel: 416-415-5000 ext. 2764Fax: 416-415-2491sapccoord@georgebrown.ca

The Dialog newspaper is published by the Dialog Col-lective under the auspices of the Student Association of George Brown College. The collective is comprised of student editors and reporters and is responsible for the overall vision and direction of the Dialog newspaper, as it coincides with the larger vision of mission of the Student Association. The cost of producing a monthly newspaper is in part defrayed by advertising revenue and largely subsi-dized by the Student Association. Occasionally, some advertisers, products and services do not reflect the policies of the SA.

Opinions expressed in the Dialog are not necessarily those of the Dialog Collective, the Student Association of George Brown College, or its editorial staff. The Dialog will not publish any material that attempts to incite violence or hatred against individuals or groups, particularly based on race, national origin, ethnicity, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability.Contributions to the Dialog are always gratefully ac-cepted. We request that articles be submitted as digital copies in plain-text (TXT) or rich-text (RTF) format. Letters to the editor can be sent in an email mes-sage to sapccoord@georgebrown.ca. Images should be in EPS format as vector images or TIF format (Mac or PC). We request that you submit a hard copy of your work. Originals only please.

George Brown College student newspaper

Dialog Reporters:Preeteesh Peetabh SinghDaneille Feraday

Dialog Contributors:Karen NickelJason Miller

Cover photo by Preeteesh Peetabh Singh of GBC student and former intern Christopher Daniels.

The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012

The problem with democracy is that it represents us2 Opinion

By Mick SweetmanManaging Editor

Re: International Students pay ‘absurd’ tution. Oct. 19 Not only the tuition fee but in-ternational students dont get any bursaries for lodging, books or other school supplies whereas OSAP cov-ers most of them for all domestic students. International students fees are a big contributor to the Canadi-an economy and government should introduce more programs to support their stay in Canada. -Anu on www.dialog.studentassociation.ca

Re: There are countless stories like Amanda Todd’s. Oct. 19 Bullying as with any control-ling or agressive behavior is an outward manifestation of internal issues gone wrong. In other words, what did an individual see when they were a child? Problem solv-ing? Communication? How were they treated? Then, layer upon layer depending on their relationships, life circumstances and inward pain, it is externalized. Mental illness is not always seen until it is acted out. -Catherine Barrow on Facebook

Letters to the editor

News 3The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012

DAILY

UP

M O N D AY T U E S D AY W E D N E S D AY T H U R S D AY F R I D AY

Nov. 5Voting day for Aboriginal Constituency 10 a.m. - 6 p.m St. James, room 165B 10 a.m. - 3 p.m Casa Loma, room E130

Nov. 12Student Association fall byelections. Vote 10 a.m - 6 p.m. at St. James, Wa-terfront and Casa Loma & until 3 p.m. at Ryerson

Flu shot clinic 9:30 a.m - 7 p.m. Main Lobby at Waterfront campus

Nov. 6Voting day for ASL Con-stituency 10 a.m. - 6 p.m St. James, room 165B 10 a.m. - 3 p.m Casa Loma, room E130

The Carbon Rush film screening with director Amy Miller. Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 506 Bloor West 6:46 p.m

Nov. 13Student Association fall byelections. Vote 10 a.m - 6 p.m. at St. James, Wa-terfront and Casa Loma & until 3 p.m. at Ryerson

Flu shot clinic 9:30 a.m - 5 p.m. Main Lobby at Waterfront campus

Nov. 8Voting for Student As-sociation fall byelections starts 10 a.m - 6 p.m. at all campuses.

Voting day for LGBTQ Constituency 10 a.m. - 6 p.m St. James, room 165B 10 a.m. - 3 p.m Casa Loma, room E130

Nov. 15Voting for Student Asso-ciation fall byelections 10 a.m - 6 p.m. at all cam-puses.

Flu shot clinic 9:30 a.m - 6 p.m. Main Lobby, Building E at Casa Loma campus

Nov. 7Voting day for Internation-al Students / ESL Constituency 10 a.m. - 6 p.m St. James, room 165B 10 a.m. - 3 p.m Casa Loma, room E130

Opening night of the Regent Park Film Festival. www.regentparkfilmfesti-val.com

Nov. 14Student Association fall byelections. Vote 10 a.m - 6 p.m. at St. James, Wa-terfront and Casa Loma & until 3 p.m. at Ryerson

Flu shot clinic 9:30 a.m - 7 p.m. Main West Lobby, Building A at St. James campus

Nov. 2Deaf World: What would it feel like if hearing people lived in a Deaf world? 2 p.m. - 6 p.m. Room 165B at St. James Fall byelections meet & greet. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Room B175 St. James

Nov. 9Student Association fall byelections. Vote 10 a.m - 6 p.m. at St. James, Wa-terfront and Casa Loma & until 3 p.m. at Ryerson Voting day for CWTP Constituency 10 a.m. - 6 p.m St. James, room 165B 10 a.m. - 3 p.m Casa Loma, room E130

George Brown performing arts stu-dents are preparing to open the Young Centre’s stage with five great plays. The first, Saturday Sunday Monday, is set to open Nov. 7 and run until Nov. 17. It’s about an Italian family and their friends preparing to have their tradi-tional Sunday dinner together. Peppino, the patriarch, suspects his wife Rosa of cheating. When you add a mix of colorful family in, this dinner is just asking for disaster. - George Brown Theatre School

GBC theatre season starts with 5 plays

CFS asks feds for funding

GBC runners advance

GBC Fiction workshop

Students from all across Canada met in Ottawa to present Members of Parliament and Senators with their vision for improving the quality and accessibility of public post-second-ary education. Their vision focused on reducing the student debt across Canada by half, making education more afford-able and adopting a federal post-sec-ondary education act that outlines a national standard for higher educa-tion. Public education for public good, the student recommendations docu-ment is available at www.cfs-fcee.ca. - Canadian Federaion of Stu-dents

Sean Sweeney and Liz Seguin will be advancing to their respective men’s and women’s Canadian Col-leges Athletic Association individu-al cross country championships on Nov. 10 at Parc Michel-Chartrand in Longueuil, Quebec, a regional park with over 400 acres of nature paths, ponds, plants and wildlife. Sweeney, who won the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association men’s individual race last year as a rookie at George Brown, recovered from a nasty leg injury and finished with a bronze medal. Seguin, a rookie at George Brown with three medals in four preliminary invitational races, finished seventh. Seguin posted a personal best time of 18:46.8. This was also Seguin’s first year of competitive racing since Grade nine.- George Brown Athletics and Rec-reation.

Over the course of a three-session workshop, author Ava Homa discuss-es crafting a piece of fiction: How to create characters who breathe on the page; The art of writing dialogue; Plot is the thing: Suspense and con-flict; Point of View and Setting. Short stories are distributed to the participants prior to the beginning of the workshop. During each session, participants are encouraged to read the text and analyze one element. After that, members will be asked to read their own work out loud and get construc-tive feedback from peers. This way the workshops help the writers build skills from session to session. Workshops run Fridays, Nov. 2, 9 & 16 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in room 237E, at St. James campus. – George Brown College

The Student Association’s (SA) board of directors took 17 min-utes to discuss if their office walls should have group photographs or individual shots, but approved a potential $5.98 million student levy in far less time at the Oct. 15 board meeting. Natraj Ramachandran from the GBC foundation was at the meet-ing to present the proposed student levy of $25 per year starting in Sep-tember 2013. Supposedly 75 per cent will be used towards student scholarships and bursaries and 25 per cent will fund capital projects. The proposed student levy, which was unanimously approved by the board, estimates an annual student contribution of $598,000 totaling $5.98 million over 10 years. Ac-cording to Julia Mackenzie, the SA’s director of Internal Affairs, the accumulated funds will be in-vested constantly and gain interest. All funds will be managed by the GBC foundation. The criteria and qualifications re-quired for getting the scholarships and bursaries, types of awards, amounts and other specific details have not been decided yet. Mo-hammad Ali Aumeer, director of Education and Equity for the SA, said board members will be work-

ing to create a transparent process which is free of mar-ginalization. An estimated $149,600 col-lected from students every year would be used to sup-port capital projects such as expansion and renovation at the Waterfront, St. James and Casa Loma campuses. “It will allow for a stronger student voice in the planning stages of facilities expansion and renovations that will al-low the SA to advocate for student issues such as in-creased multi-faith space and women’s only gym time.” said Mackenzie. However, the powerpoint presentation at the board meeting only mentions that there would be a “Variety of naming recognition opportu-nities within the Waterfront campus and future expansion projects.” The new ancillary fee will be in addition to a variety of current fees such as the application fee, mate-rial fee, administration fee, student activity fee, Canadian Federation of Students fee and health insur-ance fee. Note that the existing stu-dent activity fee collected goes to capital projects, renovations, pho-tocopying, services, paying staff salaries, organizing events and run-

ning campaigns. Aumeer said, “I do not support any back-door tuition fee hikes through an ancillary fee. But, in terms of positives, It was great opportunity for SA to provide more student sup-port in forms of scholarships, bur-saries, equity fo-cused capital proj-ects, and capital

investments.” The GBC foun-dation already

has a $1 million endowment fund and got a $50,000 donation from the SA in past years. The interest accumulated from the fund is used to provide student scholarships and awards each year. What happens to this donation with the arrival of student levy? While Aumeer said that it would continue, Mackenzie said that it would no longer exist once the levy comes into effect. “On an average it produced less than two dozen awards of $1000 in a year,” said Aumeer about the cur-rent bursaries by the SA. The new levy will see available SA awards increase dramatically. According to Aumeer, opting out of the levy will not mean that those students will not be eligible for scholarships, or they do not get access to the athlet-ic center. They will have the same privilege as the students who par-ticipate. The SA is hoping to create a flex-ible model that will take into ac-count the potential for a lower than expected participation rate. Similar levies in Canada have seen volun-tary participation from students.

The SA will also look to make the registration process very simple and clear. “We do not want students to say later that they did not know they could opt-out.” said Aumeer. “I think the split was really fair. I believe that we as students have to be a part of the college infra-structure.” said Chris Bourque, the SA’s Liberal Arts And Preparatory Studies education centre represen-tative, “GBC Foundation first came with a 50-50 split, but SA was not in agreement with it, so we settled for 75 per cent of the amount col-lected going towards scholarships and rest 25 per cent towards capital projects in the college.” A lot of questions remain still un-answered, which is a concern; it is students’ money that is being lev-ied. The board’s approval of the proposal without seeing any legal document at the meeting was also a bit muddling. Is the concept of students paying for their own scholarships viable? Why did a multi-million dollar proposal not go to a referendum?

The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15 2012 4 NewsStudent Association passes new $25 levy

Getting slapped stings. Paying an additional $25 fee can leave a mark. Cartoon by Joseph Destua

By Preeteesh Peetabh Singh Dialog Reporter

Aumeer, Mackenzie, GBC foundation president / CEO Graeme Page and SA business rep. Jason Monaghan at a gala at Waterfront campus on Oct. 25

The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15 2012 News 5The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012

George Brown College’s Disability & Deaf Services office is located on the fifth floor of St. James campus in room 582C; a fact I thought was peculiar given accessibility, but I af-ter I went there I realized it was a matter of space. It could be my per-ception but there seems to be more space as each floor you go up. Disability & Deaf Services provide students with disabilities the tools and skills to achieve success in their studies. They provide accommoda-tions for students such as: note tak-ers; sign language interpretation; tutoring; adaptive technologies like recorders for lectures; they work with instructors so the course load is more manageable for the student; provide online textbooks to make them more readable. They also as-sist students in developing strate-gies for learning and they can step in and speak with instructors. I have a condition that affects my ability to study from time to time, but I have never gone to ask for as-sistance so my knowledge of how services work is lacking. To learn more I went to my classmate Liz MacDougall, a woman with cere-bral palsy, who uses the college’s services. She was incredibly gra-cious in giving me her time and an-swering my questions.

Karen Nickel: What is your big-gest obstacle regarding disability issues here at George Brown?

Liz MacDougall: Often one elevator is not working. With the small size of them and so many students using them they are often overcrowded. As a result, people with disabilities can not get in. This is also a result of students who are “able bodies” often pushing their way past people with disabilities.

KN: What is George Brown doing right about disability issues?

LM: They have a Disability Servic-es office, with staff who are fairly knowledgeable about various dis-

abilities, although some of them need to be more competent in their jobs. They do provide services with staff to help people. It is good that they have staff that are knowledge-able in a variety of areas such as intake coordinators, consultants, learning strategists, and adaptive technologists. Although I do not use the Deaf and hard-of-hearing services, it is good that they provide these services.

KN: Are you in-volved with the Disability Pride movement? If so, how?

LM: I am involved in various groups that promote pro-gressiveness for people with dis-abilities, and ones that lobby the gov-ernment for change. When it comes to the Pride march. No. Not in the “Pride march” which is in it second year. My partner and I in-tended to go, as we are both passionate about the Disabil-ity Pride movement, however on the day of the march each of us had something that came up.

I have not seen or heard anything re-garding George Brown’s involve-ment in this. For example, neither from Disability Ser-vices or postings around the college, saying they support this and encourag-ing people to be-come involved.

KN: Would you go to future Disability

Pride Marches?

LM: Well, considering I have not been to the two ones that have taken place, yes, I will.

KN:What is one thing you would like people to know about your disability and your studies here?

LM: Although I have cerebral palsy and attention deficit disorder, I do

not think I am “disabled” in regards that I am incompetent, or not apt and able in regards to my studies here. Also, I do not think of myself as a victim, or that I should get “special privileges”.

MacDougall is in her last year of part time studies in the assaulted women and children counsellor/ ad-vocate program.

Lack of accessibility a big problem at GBCBy Karen NickelSpecial to the Dialog

business.humber.ca/scholarship

TURN YOUR DIPLOMA INTO A BUSINESS DEGREE WITH A $2,500* SCHOLARSHIP!

It is easy to use Humber’s pathways

to turn your diploma into a degree.

Apply for advanced standing by

transferring your college credits into any

one of our 12 business degree programs.

Your diploma does not have to be

degree-related to VIP your way into

our degree programs.

* Those who qualify will receive a one-time scholarship of $2,500; the only one of its kind in Canada.

Christopher Daniels knows about internships. Daniels, 41, is a red-seal certified chef, who worked as an intern in Toronto’s food industry and is still unsettled in terms of his career. Sometimes interns are paid. More often they work for free, hoping the internship will turn into a “real” job or at least give them work experi-ence and a beefed-up resume. But in an a economy still trying to drag itself out of a recession, today’s university and college graduates have it tough. “I was paid a minimum wage, less than the dishwashers, despite being educated in my field and having five years of directly related ex-perience,” says Daniels, “It is not a proud moment when it comes to discuss one’s wage, after volunteer-ing, educating myself, paying thou-sands to do so, then find out I am still working for minimum wage.” Even so, according to research conducted by Agata Zeiba, an MA

student at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Uni-versity, a staggering 59 per cent of internships in Canada remain un-paid. Unpaid or not, these days reject-ing an internship offer is not an option for most students. An esti-mated 86 per cent of graduates are willing to work for free. With high unemployment it often seems the only gateway into the job market. To economists, the new world of internships, job casualization and unemployment are combining to create a new and worrisome feature of the modern job market — pre-cariousness. After the economic crash of 2008, many companies viewed intern-ships as a survival tactic which pro-vided them free labour. It has now turned into a long-term business strategy and it won’t be surprising if it becomes a permanent one. Daniels, who dreamt of becoming a successful, high quality chef in a French restaurant, says Canadian employers have gotten used to free labour and so has he.

“Many leave empty-handed, un-paid: time wasted. Yes we gain ex-perience, but we all still have to pay the bills.” said Daniels. In a large city like Toronto, the competition is fierce, and employers know this. Despite the fact that internships seem to be the new normal for uni-versity and college graduates there are few statistics about how wide-spread the practice is. “We do not know what exactly is happening in the labour market” says Toronto-based lawyer, An-drew Langille. “Specific actions can only be taken when we have enough data on unpaid internships in the province or country. Surveys and research needs to be conducted on a large scale.” Talks have been going on in the unions for 15 years but no concrete steps have been taken on this issue yet. LiseLareau, vice president of the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) says that it is tough to strike a bal-ance in providing people with in-ternship opportunities and at the same time not abusing them with-

out com-pensation. “Unions in gener-al, do not s u p p o r t unpaid in-ternships” s a y s C a r m e l S m y t h , n a t i o n a l p r e s i -dent of the CMG. “We help in spon-s o r i n g , r a i s i n g awareness, speak ing publically, educating people and p u s h i n g the gov-

ernment to

do something about it. We are very committed to work on the social justice front but if you talk about individual work place, we cannot do anything with a company which we do not represent or that is non-unionized.” The lack of statistics raises several unanswered questions. How many internships translate into paid em-ployment? What is the length and duration of internships? How does it translate into actual applicable work experience required by the employer for a desired position? Internships and precarious em-ployment is prominent in cultural sectors too. In many ways that is how it’s always been for artists, writers, actors, musicians, or pho-tographers, most of whom do not get a chance to work full time. Not that it makes life any easier. They are seasonal or temporary workers with few benefits, lack of collective representation and little or no job security. Bryn McAuley, an actor and ACTRA member for 17 years, mentions how her life swings due to the precarious nature of her work, from making $48,000 in good times to $8,000 per year in bad times. The iconic children’s show voiceactress has to work in a restaurant to sustain herself at times. For Daniels, internships turned out to be an unsatisfactory path.He’s come back to school at GBC to retrain and look for a second ca-reer in finance. “It’s time to work towards a fu-ture that will allow me to support a family. I do not see things chang-ing rapidly and I think that people will have to prepare for a long battle with poverty before making it to the big leagues. It’s my belief that we need to constantly adapt and evolve, the world is constantly changing. By staying current and even creating a market for a service or product that exists or we create, we will have a future and we will make it ourselves.”

The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012 6 NewsAre unpaid internships the new normal?

“Many leave empty-handed, unpaid: time wasted. Yes we gain experience, but we all still have to pay the bills.” says Christopher Daniels who interned a a chef and is now taking finance at GBC Photo: Preeteesh Peetabh Singh / The Dialog

By Preeteesh Peetabh Singh Dialog Reporter

In 2011 the Disability Pride move-ment sprang out of the momentum of the Occupy movement, focused on how austerity, cuts and the lack of police training protocols adversely affecting their community. A main point was that persons with dis-abilities were the “lowest 1% of the 99%” and persons with disabilities need to be included as active move-ment leaders and participants. This year’s Disability Pride rally and march on Oct. 13 continued de-manding these issues be addressed. Don Weitz spoke up for psychiatric survivors calling for “an end to dis-abling policies that disempower and violate the rights of our brothers and sisters”. “Ableism,” he went on to say, “was the hidden belief that per-sons with disabilities were ‘inferi-or’,” and “mentalism was the belief that disabled persons were incapable of making their own decisions.” Weitz said, “mentalism and ableism work hand-in-hand to institutional-

ize and take away rights in a way that was not acceptable and not tol-erable; but by working together we will strike a blow and win!” Melissa Graham, co-organizer and emcee for the rally, began the event with a condemnation of all oppres-sion against persons with disabilities through ableism and acknowledged that for some this can be experienced concurrently with classism, racism, sexism, homophobia and transpho-bia. She rallied the roughly 40 enthu-siastic attendees to be loud, visible and proud during the march. There were a couple of things that were unique to Disability Pride march that showed the reality of the challenges faced and made plain the reasons why there is a huge need for change. There was the blown tire of a mobility chair requiring a van pick up; someone to watch for potholes; during the march people realized some chants were inappropriate if they referred to “standing up” and were quickly changed to “sit down” or “speak up”; there was the need to explain to bicycle cops why say-

ing “keep walking” and “keep moving, people” was offen-sive while hurry-ing us forward but making us stop at lights. Something I haven’t experienced in other marches. One person who wanted to attend the march was unable to because when they arrived at their lo-cal subway station the elevator was out of order. There was no way they could make it to the rally. Plans were undone because of one bro-ken elevator. It’s impossible to guess how many people would like to attend the march, but for various reasons like this, were unable to.

The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012 News 7Disability Pride becomes annual march

By Karen Nickel Special to The Dialog

A couple at the Disability Pride march on Oct. 13Photo: Karen Nickel / The Dialog

The second annual Disability Pride march took place Oct. 13 in Toronto.

Photos: Karen Nickel / The Dialog

THE STUDENT ASSOCIATION OF GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE IS DEDICATED TO PROVIDING QUALITY SERVICES AND SUPPORT TO GBC STUDENTS. THOUGH WE FREQUENTLY WORK WITH THE COLLEGE,

THE SA IS A SEPARATELY INCORPORATED NOT-FOR-PROFIT — RUN BY STUDENTS, FOR STUDENTS.

APPROXIMATELY 22,000 FULL-TIME GBC STUDENTS ARE PART OF THE SA, AND WE ENCOURAGE ALL STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE. FROM PROVIDING HEALTH INSURANCE TO THROWING PARTIES, THE SA WANTS TO ENSURE EVERY STUDENT HAS AN ENRICHING AND MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE AT COLLEGE.

MORE THAN JUST YOUR STUDENT UNION - WE ARE YOUR TEAM!

CLUBS LEGAL COUNSEL TTC SALES FACILITIES TAX CLINIC SAFEWALK LIFEWORKS CAMPAIGNS FOOD BANKBURSARIES

JOBSTHE DIALOG

EVENTSTHE SOURCELGBTQ CENTRE MEMBER SERVICES ACADEMIC ADVOCACY ASL COMMUNITY CENTRE

ABORIGINAL STUDENT COMMUNITY CENTRE INTERNATIONAL STUDENT COMMUNITY CENTRE CENTRE FOR WOMEN AND TRANS PEOPLE

The Regent Park area in Toronto, lo-cated at the corner of Parliament and Gerrard, is known as Canada’s old-est and largest social housing proj-ect. With people from all different walks of life, the community is as di-verse as the city itself. When the new renovations started by Toronto Com-munity Housing their mission was “to provide affordable housing, con-nect tenants to services and oppor-tunities, and work together to build healthy communities”. Yet when the renovations and demolition of the old housing began it brought with it a reign of terror to the Regent Park community. People were uprooted and moved into placement homes while their old houses were demolished leaving some houses empty. According to a 2010 article in The Globe and Mail by Anna Mehler Paperny with these new empty spaces came increased crime and violence in the area. Fami-lies were afraid to let their children outside.

The most important time to keep a community together is when it feels like it’s being ripped apart. For the past 10 years the Regent Park com-munity has come together to cel-ebrate a program that was dedicated

to keeping a community connect-ed - the Regent Park Film Festival (RPFF), Toronto’s only free multi-cultural film festival. “We believe firmly in making high quality films and relevant stories ac-cessible to people from all walks of life” says Ananya Ohri , executive

director of the festival. “We are very pleased to hold this year’s festival in our new home at Daniels Spectrum,” which is located at 585 Dundas Street East, “where we have our own screening room,

s p a c e for pro-d u c t i o n suites, and the oppor-tunity to work ad-mits other w o n d e r -ful cre-ative and e n g a g e d c o m m u -nity orga-nizations in Regent

Park.” Richard Fung, RPFF’s program di-rector says, “It’s nice to finally be back in the community, before Dan-iels Spectrum was available the film festival committee was working out of 41 Richmond Street West.” Daniels Spectrum has its own

theater downstairs in the building with seats for monthly community screenings and a childcare centre for free childcare while the festival is in production. There are also three edit suites upstairs that Fung hopes will be used for free youth film work-shops in the near future. “Film is a medium to articulate ex-perience, to give it a voice and chan-nel a viewpoint. All over the world, where and how we start out in life holds sway over the filmmakers choice of subject,” says Gail Picco who is the chair of the board of di-rectors, “The purpose of the Regent Park film festival is to be a vehicle for Regent Park and inner-city com-munities around the world to express their viewpoint; to offer film as a means to be understood, to tell sto-ries and share life. As we struggle with the problems of crime, poverty, and disenfranchisement in our city, the festival showcases a prospective we don’t usually see.” RPFF is screening folks from Nov. 7 to 17. For more information see:www.regentparkfilmfestival.com

Regent Park Film Fest builds community By Dani Feraday Dialog Reporter

8 Arts & Entertainment The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012

REGENT PARKFILMFESTIVAL

It started off as a conversation be-tween friends in a bar. Randy Orien-stien, Michael Todd and Fernando Restituto had a conversation about how there should be a place for peo-ple in the game design field to come together and help each other out, skill wise. In an industry where you need to continuously be learning and pick-ing up new ideas and skills to even compete for jobs, the Toronto skill swap was an idea waiting to happen and became a reality in May 2011.

Toronto Skill Swap is growing big-ger each day; right now their Face-book page has 430 likes and is grow-ing. George Brown College offered labs in the St. James campus to house these weekly events. It has grown to hold a blend of industry profession-als, students, a good chunk who are from George Brown, and indie de-velopers. Though the size of the audience var-ies depending on the speakers and subject, promotion also determines what the turnout will be. The Skill Swap on Friday Oct. 26 was about “Introduction to Low

Poly Modeling, Optimization and Edgeloops”. It had about six people in the audience and was quite short notice being announced only a half a week before the date. Another more publicized skill swap happened Friday, Oct. 12. Tim Miller; design director at Rocket 5 Studios was running a swap about making a 2-D sprite-based game with unity and had about 50 people - some people were even sitting on the floor - who came out for this three-hour lecture. According to Randy Orienstien this was their biggest turn out yet. Unfor-tunately they were only able to get

through half of the project before time ran out. If you want to know more about this system you can read about it at www.rocket5studios.com under the section Skillswap: Making a 2 player 2D game with unity. Orienstien says this is an extra op-portunity to learn. If you stop becom-ing involved in this industry your ca-reer will die before it even begun. If you wish to become involved in the Toronto Skill Swap you can contact Randy through his twitter @RandyOrenstein or become a mem-ber of the Facebook group Toronto SkillSwap!

Technology 9

Video game design skill swap at hit at GBCBy Dani Feraday Dialog Reporter

The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012

Take our quiz online for a chance at a home entertainment system.

When it comes to gambling, taking precautions just makes sense.safeorsorry.ca

file name: RGBR12136-BW-04_v1docket#: RGBR12136 date: 2012-05-25 colours: 1 media:

description: Campus Ad ad size: 10” x 7.5”

k

market/city:

publication:

insertion date:

shipping date:

ad #: RGBR12136-BW-04

client: RGC

built size: 100%

# of sides: 1

d&s signoffs copywriter: creative: account:

client final approval via e-mail from: date:

243 college st. suite 300 toronto ontario canada m5t 1r5 t 416 203 3470 Laser output may not be to size.

RGBR12136-BW-04_v1.indd 1 8/7/12 9:47 AM

10 Sports The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012

WOLFPACKTICKER

www.athletics.georgebrown.ca

BADMINTON . BASEBALL . BASKETBALL . CROSS COUNTRYOUTDOOR SOCCER . INDOOR SOCCER .VOLLEYBALL

By Jason Miller GBC Athletics

Men’s Soccer:OCAA East All-StarsKyle TaittMassimilliano D’Arcangelo

Cross Country:OCAA Provincial Championship:Algoma UniversitySault St. Marie On.Hiawatha Highlands Conservation Area

Women’s 5 KMLiz Seguin 7th – 18.46Sarah Fournier 51st – 23.10

Men’s 8 KMSean Sweeney 3rd – 25.31Adam Czuchnicki 16th – 27.01Theodore Tam 31st – 28.06Sangau Ahmed 39th – 29.17Edgar Malchic 52nd – 30.04Oliver Kladnik 67th – 31.03James Perico 71st – 31.32

Men’s team came fourthThey are off to the CCAA national championship taking place in Quebec

Men’s Basketball: St. Lawrence Basketball InvitationalHuskies 77 – Champlain 91(Dejazmatch James, 23, Bruno Silves-trin, 13)Huskies 79 – St. Lawrence 55(Dejazmatch James, 13, Ted Johnson

13)Huskies 72 – Fleming 49(Bruno Silvestrin 22) Bruno Silvestrin named tournament all-star

Huskies win Bronze Medal at the St. Lawrence Tournament

Huskies 80 – St. Clair 73(Dejazmatch James, 19, Bruno Silves-trin, 16)Huskies beat Lambton

Women’s Basketball:Huskies 51 – Sheridan 64(Kalya Higgins 16, Shan Wilson 10)Huskies lose to LambtonHuskies lose to St. Clair

Men’s Volleyball:Huskies 0 – Mohawk 3Huskies 3 – Georgian 1(Stephen Duong 10 kills, Sean Ben-nett 8 kills)Huskies 3 – Conestoga 0(Edwin Sheon 10 kills, Theo Gordon 9 kills)

Men’s Volleyball are 9 – 1 in pre-season.

Women’s VolleyballHuskies 0 – Mohawk 3Huskies 0 – Georgian 3(Iris Su Wong had 7 digs, Brianna Perry 5 aces)Huskies 1 – Conestoga 3

(Iris Su Wong 10 kills, Vanetta Mar-tens 9 kills)Extramural Dodgeball:Recently the dodge ball team repre-sented the huskies and competed in a regional meet. They came third after some strong throws and dodges. I you would like to join an extramural team go to any GBC Athletic Centre and inquire.

Upcoming Home Games:Men’s/ Women’s Basketball:Nov. 2 Huskies vs. Centennial 6/8 PMNov. 3 Huskies vs Fleming 2/4 PMNov. 16 Huskies vs La Cite 7 PMNov. 17 Huskies vs Algonquin 1/3 PMAll Games held in Alex Barbier Gym-nasium

Men’s/ Women’s Volleyball:Nov. 14 Huskies vs Seneca 6/8 PMAll Games held in Alex Barbier Gym-nasium

Movember:A few games throughout the month of November the Huskies will be accept-ing donations to go toward prostate cancer research. Stay tuned for more information and check out some of the GBC Huskies sporting a mustache.

Twitter: Tweeting about GBC Athlet-ics? Use the hastag #huskienation and follow us @GBC_Huskies for all the latest news and scores.

Puzzles 11The Dialog Nov. 2 - 15, 2012

Sudoku

Join the Dialog team! Journalists play a key role in our student community. They gather in-formation and prepare stories for our student publications and inform us about newsworthy events and happenings in our community. They present factual information on current issues and report on the ac-tions of public officials, board members, corporations and others who exercise power. We are currently looking for motivated students with a passion for storytelling to join our team. Please send a cover letter, resume and a sample of your writing to us at: sapccoord@georgebrown.ca or call 416-415-5000 ext. 2764 for more information.

Harry Potter reveals an ugly side of realityThe release of J.K.Rowling’s adult fiction novel titled The Casual Va-cancy was surrounded by much hype. The author steps out of Hogwarts to write about a dark, sarcastic and realistic story revolving around the sudden death of a council member in a tiny village, Pagford, in Eng-land. The novel revolves around the fascinating characters of the village, their everyday lives with a tinge of satire and tragedy. For all Harry Potter fans, it is not a book with comical characters and magic wands; it’s a book which will surprise with an engrossing and captivating story which reveals the ugly side of social reality. - The Concordian, Canadian Uni-versity Press

Incentive for students working for charityStudents working or volunteering in a registered not-for-profit organiza-tion for at least 30 hours in a week will be eligible for an extended grace period of one year for the repayment of their OSAP loans. The Ontario government announced this incentive for the students reel-ing under OSAP loans, encouraging them to work in this important sector which will help the government to boost economy, create new jobs, and attract investments in the province.- The Lance, Canadian University Press

B.C. government announces free online textbooks

The B.C. Ministry of Advanced Ed-ucation has promised to make some university textbooks available online for free. The proposal is to commis-sion textbook authors or develop-ers to compose online textbooks for the most sought-after undergradu-ate courses. They will be available through a Creative Commons license which will allow free use. BCcampus, a non-profit organiza-tion will store the textbooks online. The free textbooks will save hun-dreds of dollars for about 200,000 students per year, but it also might cut into bookstore sales. - The Ubyssey, Canadian University Press

First ever folk innova-tor award Folk Music Canada, will hand over its first ever Innovator Award at the 2012 Canadian Folk Music Awards to be held in November at Saint John, N.B. The recognition will be given to a pioneer of the folk com-munity. The first of its kind music inno-vator award is not centered on mu-sician’s recordings or plain folk music. Instead it is focused on the development of the folk commu-nity as a whole. - The Fulcrum, Canadian Univer-sity Press

THE STUDENT ASSOCIATION OF GEORGE BROWNCOLLEGE (THE SA) INVITES YOU – THE SA MEMBERSTO OUR ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2111:30 P.M. – 3 P.M.GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE - CASA LOMACAMPUS E112 (STUDENT CENTRE)142 KENDAL AVE. - TORONTO, ON M5R 1M3LUNCH PROVIDED AT 3 P.M.