“but we aren’t doctors, we aren’t engineers, we’re not curing cancer, we’re not making F-35 fighter jets. So our funding is cut. Our education is undermined.”

- Elise Milani, a Humanities Student Representative on the McMaster Student Union

Dima Matar

Growing up, I was under the impression that one goes to school, from kindergarten until university, and then gets a job. No stress – simply a series of events that occur one after the other in a natural manner and then you die. I genuinely believed in that – until it was my time to apply for universities. I have always been interested in the arts and it only made sense that I would choose to enroll in an arts department, regardless of where it would be.

My major of choice was Multimedia. I was very excited to get started; my university was supposed to be one of the best in the country, and it did not matter to me that multimedia is is lumped with the humanities – I just wanted to design! Instead, I have had to spend two years being talked at about hands-on topics without actually being shown how to do any of them (I apologize, but one hour tutorials per week are a joke), under the excuse that “this is university, not college. In university we only teach you theory, if you wanted hands-on experience you should have gone to college.” I could go on another rant regarding the fact that multimedia is a hands-on major and had I been Chemistry major I would be getting hands-on lab experience. So, yes, it appears I should have gone to college and I plan on doing so after finishing my university education; because as it is now, I would not even hire me.

Do not get me wrong, I never thought university was going to be easy nor do I think it should be. I still prefer being in the humanities to, say, engineering (I could write a whole other article on this one) but I do not enjoy being in the humanities within a university that does not seem to give much of a damn about the humanities. My peers and I are exhausted and worried. Jessica Marshal, a humanities student currently enrolled in multimedia and theatre and film, echoes these worries: “humanities is left underfunded and in the end we are paying over $6000 for classes that to me feel equivalent to the ones I took in high school…I would feel more confident in my line of work if I had just gone to college.”

What next? Do we stand up and fight for our right to proper education and lower tuition fees like the students in Montreal, only to be snarked at for being a bunch of hippies destined for a career at McDonald’s anyway? Or do we continue on with an education that only offers us, as humanity student Ameet Kang angrily states, ”criticism that curbs our creativity rather than helping us create projects that we are happy with”? Of course, we could just go to graduate school but, as Elise Milani says and many already know, “even MAs are becoming a norm, we need viable work experience.” I know many humanities graduates who have had to work for free because even the firms they were working on did not have sufficient funds. How is that fair, but more importantly, how is that legal? Humanities students are very hard workers and are some of the smartest people I have ever met, so why must we keep fighting to be taken seriously as students and later as professionals?

The optimist in me wants to believe that the system will soon come to the realization that not everybody is supposed to become a doctor, lawyer, or an engineer and maybe then we will have a voice that gets the attention it deserves. For now, I will close by saying that I love my program, but I do not think it reciprocates that sentiment.

Agriculture Minister ted McMeekin was on the hot seat in Question Period today  after Tory MPP Ernie Hardeman, quizzed him about a $7.49 million grant awarded to the Municipality of Bluewater even though, he charged,  they didn’t apply.

 “Taxpayers deserve to know why the McGuinty government gave out money with no application, no public announcement and forced the municipality to sign a confidentiality agreement,” said Hardeman.”

Since 2003, the ministry has invested more than $167 million for 418 Rural Economic Development projects, and generated more than $1.2 billion in new economic activity supporting the creation/retention of more than 35,000 jobs in municipalities across the province.

Following is an excerpt from the exchange in Question Period at the Legislature”

Ms. Lisa M. Thompson: … My question is for the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. I want to read a quote from a local newspaper, attributed to the mayor of the municipality of Bluewater upon receiving $7.5 million: “‘I still wake up at night, wondering if this is going to happen,’ he said.” The March 22 article goes on to say that, “Unlike most funding, the municipality didn’t apply through a grant application but was approached by the province.”

Minister, is this standard practice?

Hon. Ted McMeekin: We’re very proud of our rural economic development program and the funds that we’ve been able to provide to municipalities. My understanding is that this project will support economic development in the Bluewater area, and that’s good. If the member opposite is anxious to not see that money extended to that municipality, perhaps she could get the council to say that they don’t want it, but I doubt very much that’s going to happen.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary? The member from Leeds–Grenville.

Mr. Steve Clark: Thank you. Minister, four years ago, right before an election, the Minister of Citizenship was caught shovelling money out the door, like the million-dollar cricket club grant, without bothering with things like applications or accountability.

The reckless use of taxpayers’ money doesn’t stop there. The previous Minister of Agriculture signed the formal agreement with the municipality of Bluewater and you amended it less than two months later to rush the cash out the door, and took reporting and accountability measures out of the agreement. Minister, something isn’t right. The ministry never announced this money and reportedly had the municipality sign a confidentiality agreement. Will you ask the auditor to look into this, or, if you have details of the grant, share them with the people in the Legislature?

Hon. Ted McMeekin: I’m a little confused. This is the party opposite that wanted to stop the uploading to the province. This is the party opposite that, in the election campaign, wouldn’t stand in their place and make a commitment to municipalities like Bluewater. Our government is proud of the strategic investments that we’ve made in the municipality of Bluewater in support of the economic development in that region.

The future direction of Hamilton’s beleaguered Hamilton Entertainment and Convention Facilities remained very much up in the air following council’s decision to reject advice from consultant KPMG to narrow the list of private sector proponents to two—Global/Live Nation and SMG/Forum.  Instead the consultant will now negotiate with three players who were left off the short list—AEG/Katz, Carmens and Sonic Unyon, the latter two both local bidders.  Only the two finalists in the RPMG ranking submitted proposals to operate all  three HECFI facilities namely, Copps Coliseum, Hamilton Place and the Hamilton Convention Centre; the other bidders were only interested in single facilities.

Hamilton Place Theatre

The bids were as follows:

Global Spectrum / Live Nation – Operation of all facilities

SMG / Forum Equity – Operation of all facilities

AEG/Katz Group – Operation of Copps Coliseum only

Carmens – Operation of Convention Centre only

Vrancor – Operation of Convention Centre only

Sonic Unyon – Operation of Hamilton Place only

At the end of an exhaustive  KPMG presentation to council it was clear that the mood around the table was decidedly against the shortlist presented. Councillor Terry Whitehead led off by making it clear he wanted to see a hybrid model explored that would have the effect of bringing  AEG/ Katz back into contention by combining its bid with the local bidders. Indeed, the only possibly “hybrid” combination other than something involving the two major players that were recommended,  would be a consortium of AEG/Katz managing Copps, Carmen’s operating the Convention Centre and Sonic  Unyon  controlling Hamilton Place.

Katz, which scored third in the KPMG ranking,  is seen by observers of the process to be favoured by some councillors because of its two year involvement with some members of Hamilton Council. Katz was brought into the limelight two years ago during the deadlocked  stadium debate. It was suggested that Katz might be prepared to take over the Ticats and agree to a new stadium in the west harbour. This angered Ticat owner Bob Young who blamed Councillor Lloyd Ferguson for introducing Katz into the debate and interfering with his business. At that time Katz also expressed an interest in managing Copps Coliseum, but rumours also swirled that Katz, owners of the Edmonton Oilers, might assist Hamilton with its long held dream of an NHL franchise. Those dreams have persisted as evidenced by the fact that Oilers President  Pat Laforge met with a group of councillors in January of 2011—a meeting that triggered complaints to the integrity commissioner and the Provincial Ombudsman that the meeting constituted a secret meeting of the NHL Subcommittee of city council. Those charges were dismissed by  Ombudsman Andre Marin although he cautioned councillors to be careful about “attracting speculation and suspicion.” Interestingly those present at the meeting , while denying any substantive discussion of the NHL, said they did discuss the upcoming RFP regarding HECFI. Asked whether he thought Katz had an advantage over other bidders by virtue of its past relationship with councillors Councillor Lloyd Ferguson replied, “The only thing that will make a bidder successful is to provide the best proposal to reduce or eliminate the annual grant, improving entertainment and reduce dark nights.”

KPMG in its report noted that “while AEG/Katz has the potential to be a “game changer” and has the experience and resource capabilities, its preference is to only operate one facility. Such a “hybrid” option may not provide for as large an opportunity to identify savings due to having different

operators for the three facilities.” KPMG’s recommendation to go with the two largest players was

“ based upon the depth of the professional venue management programs and expertise of these parties, combined with their ability to operate all three facilities.” Whitehead said bidders should have been made aware in the RFP that heavy weighting would be applied in favour of bidders willing to take on all 3 venues.

Another of the bidders has some history with Hamilton council as well. Forum Equity Partners is  teamed with  SMG—a worldwide manager of entertainment and convention facilities.  Forum Equity partnered with the City of Hamilton in 2006 to form the Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation—currently managed  by  city employee Glen Norton. Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation’s mandate is to invest in and refurbish core-area properties that are too risky for conventional financing. Forum refers to the Hamilton Realty Capital Corporation on its website as a “subsidiary.”

Adding to the confused mix of possibilities there is another bidder—the City itself through HECFI. HECFI has submitted a revised business plan which will be evaluated against the privatization bidders. It is possible that HECFI could retain operation of one or more of the facilities and then form a partnership with one or more of the private bidders.

Through the recent decade, economists and policy makers have warned of an imminent skills shortage as the aging baby boomer generation nears retirement. This abrupt transition was expected to place strain on labour markets and consequently, to disaffect the economy.

“This is not the case” explains Dr. David Foot, co-author of the best-selling book Boom, Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift. In an interview at the Hamilton Economic Summit, Foot described how the majority of Boomers will not be reaching the average retirement until well beyond 2015.

The post-war boomer generation, born between 1947 and 1966 are currently between 65 and 46 years old. At an average retirement age of 62, the early boomers would have begun retiring in 2009, and the remainder of the generation will retire over the next 20 years.

Dr. Foot explains that Boomers are likely to work longer into their life, postponing retirement into later years. Improved medical technologies have extended average lifespan by two years every decade, resulting in a likely increase to the average retirement age.

Additional converging factors are further increasing the expected retirement age. The 2008 financial crisis has significantly dissolved the value of pension portfolios and retirement investments. Despite a rebound, Canadian and U.S. markets have only recently managed to flirt with pre-recession levels.

This combination of social and financial factors will likely delay the retirement age for many Boomers.This has a number of implications for the children of the Boomers— the Echo generation.

The oldest Echoes are now in their late 20s and early 30s and steadily climbing through the ranks of their profession. Those in the middle range of this generation are entering the workforce or nearing completion of college or university.  Many in this range are finding it tough to start their careers and find meaningful work.

“It’s always been difficult to get your first job” explains Dr. Foot. With Boomers now expected to work later into life, there will be fewer positions freed up lower in the ranks than originally expected. It will not be until later in the decade that the bulk of the Boomers drift into retirement.

What does Dr. Foot recommend for the Echo generation entering the workforce in the meantime? “Build up your resume, whether it’s internships or volunteering… and make sure to build your networks—that’s how you get introduced to opportunities that come along.”

You know you’ve all been there, sitting over the top of your wheel, eyes popping out of your head in utter disbelief of what you’re witnessing in front, beside or behind you as you drive.

Is it that person whose elbow is almost touching the roof of the car as they hang on to their ever precious cell phone?  Maybe it’s the person driving in front of you who swerves from the centre line to the sidewalk, and back again over and over driving in a never-ending “S” bend

Ok so I have to come clean, I am one of the biggest culprits out there – well used to be.  I never realized the extent of my bad driving , until I was speaking with one of my closest friends.  The conversation had nothing to do with driving whatsoever.   We were discussing the best option for me for a first date.  To my surprise, his advice to me for the first date was – anything that didn’t include me driving.

I had always thought of myself as a defensive driver rather than an aggressive one.  I notice other driver’s mistakes and point them out to my passengers.  I am the type of driver who systematically attends to my side and rear view mirrors constantly.

I started racking my brain for past incidences that I could think of, to my surprise I quickly realized there was no shortage of material.  One instance that really stood out in my mind was a couple of years back I was heading South on Hwy six in Mt Hope, driving around 90 km/hr in the passing lane I was alone and minding my business.  All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see a red blur speed by my right side, quickly followed by a yellow blur both of which ended up quickly cutting in front of my path.

“These guys are driving like total idiots” I thought to myself and I was going to show them that this was not allowed in my area.

"Have you made this face before?"

I have been told countless times in the past few years since aquiring my gas-guzzler that I look like a cop, so sometimes I would act the part.  Driving a Jeep it took me a kilometer or two but I caught up now nearing the bumper of the yellow blur.   He tapped his breaks as I neared and took a quick exit off the highway.  That got me going, here this guy was racing with another person putting my safety at risk and then when I object to his behavior he goes one step further and slams his breaks to get me off his rear end!

I kept my path down the road letting the red blur speed away, taking the next turn off the hwy I started to let the rest of my day take it’s course.   Not 5 minutes later I found myself driving directly behind a very familiar yellow car on a totally different road.  Still not totally recovered from the past events that I took as personal insults I was most likely driving a little closer than usual.  Then it came, those oh-so familiar break lights almost on my dashboard now.

That was it for me, as we came to a traffic circle I followed the yellow car into a subdivision, it turned right at the first street and I continued straight deciding I was going to let the situation diffuse.  I pulled a “U” turn and went to drive back out the traffic circle when I noticed a yellow car speeding up behind me.

Tires screeched on the pavement as I slammed on my breaks, I didn’t even have the vehicle in park before I had one leg out my door,  I quickly got out and started back towards the yellow car – I’m not quite sure what I thought this was going to accomplish as I sure didn’t plan on gaining a criminal record for starting anything physical- I was about 10 ft from the driver’s side window when I saw it starting to roll down.

In that split second I realized I was making a big mistake, I didn’t know this person, what they were capable of or what that small black object was that this guy was advancing out his window. Oops – as I neared the car I thankfully realized this was in fact not a gun however it was something much worse – the sun caught the shiny metal of the little star and I realized I was staring straight at an OPP badge.

I quickly explained to this man why I was angry.  It was then he explained to me that he was trying to get a picture with his phone of the red car’s license plate.  I patted him on the shoulder and went back to my vehicle – as quickly as possible – wishing him a nice day.  Yikes that was a big Oops.

After recollecting this story with my friend it was then I first realized I had a little road rager inside of me.  I needed to change this immediately so I wrote down list of things that upset me when driving around others.  These are guidelines I now follow which have helped immensely.

"Grid-lock can bring out the 'rager' in all of us"

Leave extra allotted time for travel – tight schedules are common and keeping everything on time and on track daily is enough of a stressor, so don’t plan on making up minutes on the road this is always a recipe for disaster.

Use cruise control and use the right lane – its amazing how much more relaxed of a drive one can have when letting cruise maintain your speed,

Travel with music that soothes you rather than gets your blood pumping- driving with high intensity angry music will put you in a high intensity angry mood –

Last but not least do not drive when under stress.

We all have a little road rage inside of us at times, but in the end the law will police our roadways and we should all learn to try and be a little more friendly and peaceful with each other on our commutes.  Drive with caution, take a little extra time and take a look in the mirror next time you get upset on the road- are they the culprit or are you driving around looking subconsciously looking for things to set you off.£

A rapidly expanding student volunteering initiative has seen its latest installment provide close to 10,000 hours of local volunteer efforts from teenagers across Hamilton in a matter of weeks.

ChangeTheWorld: Ontario Youth Volunteer Challenge is an annual three-week campaign with one goal: “to get local high school students to volunteer in their community.” The challenge is a mutually beneficial initiative: communities profit from an abundance of volunteer efforts by local high schoolers, while the students themselves receive a portion of the community involvement hours they require to graduate.

ChangeTheWorld has come a long way. Four years ago, few would have guessed that a test project expecting to attract 300 participants would, by 2011, swell to include 15,000 participants contributing 70,000 volunteer hours with the help of 21 volunteer centres organizing events in more than 250 communities across the province.

The organizers of the 2012 edition set out to continue the trend, targeting a mark of 25,000 students volunteering in 450 communities across Ontario. While the results are still being tallied and will be made public within a fortnight, the challenge’s encouraging advancement looks set to continue.

Bishop Tonnos students display their ChangeTheWorld participation certificates

On 15 May at an afterschool presentation celebrating students’ participation with ChangeTheWorld at Ancaster’s Bishop Tonnos Catholic Secondary School, Kim Dunlop, the youth challenge coordinator at Volunteer Hamilton revealed the figures for Hamilton’s participation in the 2012 campaign. “The target for Hamilton this year was to achieve 3,000 volunteer hours,” announced Dunlop, “but right now we’re over 9,000 hours, so we’ve actually tripled our goal for the city already.” Hamilton, it would appear, is at the forefront of ChangeTheWorld’s expansion across Ontario.

And while many students might view the opportunity as merely a chance to get their compulsory volunteer hours out of the way, guest speaker Alex Ramirez outlined the initiative as much more than that, insisting that these kinds of volunteering challenges offer students the opportunity to “pursue and explore passions that you have or don’t even know about yet.” He should know: the guest speaker credits his own experiences in volunteering with leading him to his own passions for community involvement. Currently, he serves as a member of the volunteer groups on the city’s Food & Shelter as well as Youth Advisory committees. Just this year, Ramirez also launched a volunteering project in partnership with Volunteer Hamilton, McMaster University, and several local high schools.

Relating to the difficulties of choosing a career path at a young age, Ramirez encouraged the students to embrace the Ontario Youth Volunteer Challenge as an arena in which they can “discover interests” and learn to “immediately interact with people, build networks and anticipate obstacles” associated with those interests. The guest speaker also emphasized the initiative’s potential to provide genuine engagements for students via firsthand involvement, remarking that “it’s often through lived experience that we really learn the most.” For Ramirez, this proved to be the case.

“You’ll be really astonished,” enthused Ramirez “at how just simply starting small programs and ideas that you’re passionate about will go such a long way, not only for your community but the networks that you establish.”

A poll by Environics Research concluded in 2007 that nearly a full quarter of Canadians are clinically sleep deprived and are prone to drifting off in various situations throughout the day – while sitting, reading, or while in a theatre or a car, for example.

Medical research has linked clinical sleep deprivation to a litany of adverse health effects including diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, certain forms of cancer, a weakening of the immune system, difficulties with concentration, learning, and focusing, and a loss of alertness resulting in injuries and accidents.

Almost 25% of all Canadians are clinically sleep deprived

Several years ago Dr. Peter Powles, Professor Emeritus of the Division of Respirology at McMaster University’s Department of Medicine and a specialist in sleep medicine and disorders took part in a research project that looked at the effects of sleep levels on the academic performance of high school students. The study looked at the reported sleep patterns of high school students from Hamilton and Brantford. “We were able to show that there was a correlation between the hours of sleep the students had on a regular basis and how they did academically. The fewer numbers of hours of sleep they had, the worse their performance in school was.”

The study also found that extracurricular programs like recreational sports and public arena events often had kids playing late at night and getting up very early in the morning and that, says Dr. Powles, “was certainly causing sleep deprivation.”

Later this month, 40 sleep scientists from across Canada and the United States are meeting to discuss how to translate sleep medicine research, specifically pediatric sleep, into policies that would bring an end to events that interfere with a healthy nighttime schedule for students.

During an overnight flight from Toronto to Zurich early last year, an Air Canada co-pilot awoke from a long nap as a result of prior sleep deprivation and misidentified the planet Venus as an approaching aircraft. He piloted the airliner into a sharp dive to avoid impact, forcing the captain to take control of the Boeing 767. The abrupt plummet caused injuries to 16 crew and passengers. Incidents like these are not isolated: according to recent studies, as many as 20% of all car accidents are connected to the mistakes of drowsy drivers.

The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine determined that sleep deprivation can also negatively impact the economy by means of lost productivity. The journal determined that the performance of workers with sleeping problems significantly trails that of their more well-rested counterparts, and this costs companies between $2,500 and $3,156 annually per employee amounting to billions of dollars every year. Measured on the long term, a case of the sleepy Mondays might not be as harmless as previously thought.

Sleep deprived workers are costing the economy billions of dollars a year

Since it is clear that losing sleep is a real problem, how should we manage our sleep schedules? According to specialists like Dr. Powles, regularity is key: “Giving yourself the opportunity to have a regular and appropriate time for sleep each night is important. You should be going to bed at the same time, you should be getting up at the same time, and you should be giving yourself at least eight hours in bed every night.”

Many Canadians, it seems, could well afford to take the doctor’s advice.

To those interested in further information on the topic, Dr. Powles recommended the books Sleep Thieves by Stanley Coren and The Twenty Four Hour Society by Martin Moore-Ede. In the second book, a strong case is made for the influence of sleep deprivation as a major role in both the Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez disasters.

On 19 May Chelsea shocked Bayern Munich in a penalty shootout at the Allianz Arena, the German team’s home ground, to become European champions for the first time in the London club’s history.

Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena lit up in UEFA colours

Midfielder Thomas Mueller appeared to have won it for Bayern with a header seven minutes from full time, but five minutes later Blues striker Didier Drogba equalized at the death with a header from Frank Lampard’s corner to send the game into extra time. With no goals in the added 30 minutes, the game had to be decided on penalties – a dramatic shootout concluded as Drogba, who has now scored nine cup final goals for the Blues, converted the conclusive spot-kick.

Chelsea lost the tournament on penalties to Manchester United four years ago in Moscow, and their interim manager Roberto Di Matteo has now achieved what can be regarded as the most important victory in their 107-year history. Bayern Munich are no strangers to the agony of cup final defeat themselves – their last appearance in the prestigious competition’s showpiece event two years ago ended in a 2-0 defeat to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan.

Chelsea’s first penalty taken by Juan Mata was saved but David Luiz, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole were all on target. Philipp Lahm, Mario Gomez and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer were also successful for Bayern Munich.

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech’s denial of Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger’s penalties proved to be decisive moments, leaving Chelsea on the brink of Champions League glory and allowing Didier Drogba the opportunity to convert the deciding penalty kick.

Chelsea players pose for the cameras after their dramatic penalty shootout win

Drogba’s level-headed penalty sparked wild celebrations from the London team’s players, staff and fans, while the Bayern Munich’s supporters – who have now endured two defeats in their last two Champions League finals – were stunned into silence.

Defeat came in the cruellest of fashions for Bayern Munich, as their wastefulness in front of goal was punished by Chelsea’s efficiency. Bayern had 34 shots on goal to Chelsea’s 9, 20 corners to the Londoner’s one, and also had more possession.

The inquest will now begin over the future of interim manager Roberto Di Matteo, who has provided Chelsea’s billionaire owner Roman Abramovich with the coveted prize he has desperately sought ever since his acquisition of the club in 2003.

Questions will also be asked about a replacement for Didier Drogba, who has now confirmed he will be leaving Chelsea after 8 years with the Blues. Considering the striker’s impact throughout the years and the void his departure will leave in the Chelsea squad, it is safe to assume that Abramovich’s search for a new Chelsea hero has already begun.

Key player Didier Drogba, 34, will be leaving Chelsea this summer after 8 years with the club