The Silhouette - July 5

Clear skies ahead for Phoenix migration?

Senior Sports Editor Brandon Meawasige makes his pitch for a pro-league team in the Steel City. See page 7

With a court appeal process out of the way, the Phoenix is on track to complete its move to the Refectory by late-July to mid-August. Read more on 3

The Silhouette

MCMASTER UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

www.thesil.ca

Thursday, July 5, 2012

EST. 1930

Nil Carborundum Illegitimi.

Vol. 83, No. 2

Optometrist to claim MUSC vacancy Grocery store possibility deemed not feasible due to limited size of available space Sam Colbert Executive Editor

An optometrist’s office has been selected to replace Travel Cuts in the student centre, between Union Market and the pharmacy.

The decision comes after considerable effort by the McMaster Students Union over the past year to gather student input on what kind of business should get the main-floor space in MUSC. A proposal for the MSU to push for a grocery store, which was the most popular choice of a poll on the Students Union’s website, was brought to the MSU’s General Assembly in March, though there was not quorum at the Assembly at the time of the vote.

The decision was made by the student centre’s Board of Management, which includes representatives of both the MSU and the University.

The optometrist was one of four businesses that responded the call for expressions of interest by the Board of Management in December. Each of the others were expansions or relocations of services already existing on campus. Proposals were received from the McMaster Credit Union, the Athletics and Recreation department and Compass Information Centre.

The same group that owns the dentist’s

INSIDE THE SIL THIS MONTH

4 5 9 12

Optometrist in MUSC a missed opportunity On the death of journalism A sweet-sounding tinnitus treatment A brief guide for the Hamilton movie-goer

YOSEIF HADDAD SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

The optometrist’s space, formerly held by Travel Cuts, will sit between Union Market and the pharmacy on the first floor of MUSC.

office behind the Travel Cuts space will own and operate the optometrist. The two offices will likely share the storefront that faces the main seating area in the student centre.

Despite having received proposals only from McMaster and MSU organizations, MUSC director Lori Diamond said that a request for expressions of interest was sent to current vendors, vendors who have previ-

ously expressed interest, the Westdale Business Improvement Area office and other schools that might have interested vendors.

Although a grocery store was not among those businesses that responded to the Board of Management’s call for expressions of interests, Grocery Checkout Fresh Market was brought in informally to discuss the possibility. Grocery Checkout has loca-

tions in the student centres of both Queen’s University in Kingston and Western University in London.

Representatives explained that Grocery Checkout’s operation would require the space of both Travel Cuts and the University Centre Pharmacy next door.

SEE GROCERY STORE, 3

Senate passes new undergrad programs Justice, Political Philosophy and Law; Professional Communications majors await final approval Andrew Terefenko Production Editor

Two new Honours B.A. programs are nearing fruition, as the University Senate approved the establishment of the Justice, Political Philosophy and Law (JPPL) and Professional Communication (BPC) majors in a meeting last month.

The new majors have already been passed through both the Undergraduate Council and the University Planning Committee in April and May, respectively.

Peter Smith, McMaster’s Associate Vice-President (Academic), is optimistic on the trajectory of this proposal, as it undergoes additional scrutiny in the near future.

“We still have to get an external review of the proposal, so two outside committees will assess it, and then it will go to the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance for final review,” said Smith.

The programs’ aims are to “foster a sophisticated understanding of the law and legal institutions,” in the case of JPPL, and to “develop leaders in the practice of professional communication” in the latter.

The BPC major will be delivered as a joint initiative with Mohawk College, granting graduating students with additional certification in the form of a Mohawk Diploma in Digital Communication.

“It’s a long process. The hope is that these approvals will be in place and the programs will be ready for September 2013,” said Smith.

The BPC program is expected to admit only 50 students annually, and JPPL will accept no more than 60 in it’s inaugural academic year. These limits will rise in subsequent program years.

2 • News

The Silhouette • Thursday, July 5, 2012

Briefs Pension deficit, tuition increases remain parts of University budget The Board of Governors passed McMaster’s 2012/13 Consolidated Budget last month, and the major points of concern cited by its authors remain largely unchanged from the previous few years.

Following the economic downturn of 2008, the University’s pension investments suffered, moving it to take money from its operating budget to support pension commitments. McMaster has been receiving solvency relief through programs by the Ontario government.

The budget also stipulated that the University “has limited fee-setting ability,” but that “McMaster’s policy is to maximize tuition fees within [provincial] regulations.” It is counting on a three per cent increase for domestic students and a six per cent increase for international students in both 2013/14 and 2014/15.

Occupy Glen

Access Copyright deal reached

A group of Ontario students, including a few from McMaster, spent June 22 occupying the office of Glen Murray, Ontario’s Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, to protest tuition fees.

The occupation was an initiative of Ontario’s chapter of the Canadian Federation of Students, a lobbying group to which the McMaster Students Union does not belong. About 20 students had gathered inside Murray’s office and another 20 were outside, handing out information to passers-by.

The students were there to express concerns over tuition increases outlined in the recent Ontario budget. The occupation was also a show of solidarity with Quebec students, who have been taking to the streets in the thousands over the last number of months to oppose a proposed five-year increase to tuition caps in the province.

Read more at www.thesil.ca.

Despite concerns expressed by student representatives, McMaster University signed a deal with Access Copyright that will increase a per-student fee from $3.38 to $26. Along with the deal, Access Copyright removed the $0.10 per-page fee on courseware it charged to universities, though it is unclear if this will mean a decrease in courseware prices charged by the University.

Other universities have taken different directions, either choosing not to download the cost of the fee onto students or working around Access Copyright to establish cheaper copyright deals directly with publishers.

During negotiations, the University published a Q&A document “to provide the students, staff and faculty with responses to some concerns raised to date.” University of Toronto law professor Ariel Katz published a detailed critique of the document, pointing out flaws in both the facts presented in the Q&A and the arguments made.

The Q&A document has since been removed from McMaster Daily News.

Carleton, Guelph, Memorial, Queen’s and Trent are the latest in a sizeable group of universities that have turned down an Access Copyright deal.

NEWS

Thursday, July 5, 2012 • The Silhouette •

News Editors: Aissa Boodhoo-Leegsma, Julia Redmond and Anqi Shen news@thesil.ca

Phoenix wins in liquor license appeal Relocation date pushed back to August; liberal arts building to replace Wentworth House

Executive Editor

Executive Editor

YOSEIF HADDAD SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Construction of the new Phoenix’s interior in the Refectory building above Bridges Cafe is in its final stages.

fire, building and health inspections, followed by a liquor inspection from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, are the remaining steps before the move can take place.

The news follows an an-

nouncement that the site of Wentworth House, which is set to be demolished, will be the home of the new liberal arts building, to be called L.R. Wilson Hall.

While the Graduate Students Association offices will move along

YOSEIF HADDAD SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

The seating arrangement begins to take shape on the new patio, built on the former patio space of Bridges.

with the Phoenix, other tenants of Wentworth House, including the Muslim Students Association, the McMaster Children’s Centre and MacCycle, will need to find new locations.

The building was announced last year following funding commitments from the Ontario government, McMaster’s Chancellor Lynton (Red) Wilson and the McMaster Association of Part-time Students (MAPS).

According to Sue Blythe, General Manager of the bar, the administrative work for the Phoenix license should be finished up in the next few weeks. She estimated that the relocation will happen between late-July and mid-August, “but certainly before September.”

The Phoenix will remain in its current location, on the upper floor of Wentworth House, until then.

Construction, according to Blythe, was the larger factor in the delays, which have pushed plans well beyond an initial January end date. The final stages of the liquor license process will only add a couple of weeks, she said.

Grocery store would have needed pharmacy’s space FROM 1 At the time, the Pharmacy and MUSC were in negotiations over a lease renewal. With the Shoppers Drug Mart going in across Main Street and the Pharmacy’s place in MUSC somewhat up in the air, the possibility of using both spaces for a grocery store was open.

Last December, the Pharmacy was asked to suggest a rental

New MSU website to cost students another $100K Sam Colbert

Sam Colbert After several months of delay, the Phoenix bar and restaurant has cleared a major hurdle in its move over to the Refectory building, above Bridges Café.

The liquor license application by McMaster’s Graduate Students Association, which owns the bar, was held up by an objection from members of Parents Against Drunk Students (PADS), a Westdale residents’ association led by lawyer Lou Ferro. The new license was required for the move.

PADS took out an advertisement in the Hamilton Spectator in May, which attempted to rally residents against the bar’s move, warning of “the volume of drunk Animal House students spilling into our west campus streets.”

Phoenix management was informed on June 29 that they had won in their appeal of the objection, and that they could continue their pursuit of the license. Only

3

price for a new deal. The Board of Management countered with a different number. The counter-offer remained on the table for the few months that followed.

At around the same time as the March 25 General Assembly, then-MSU president Matthew Dillon-Leitch talked with Diamond about the possibility of a grocery store using both the Travel Cuts and Pharmacy space. It was

between that discussion and the April meeting of the MUSC Board of Management that Diamond informed the MSU that the Pharmacy planned to accept the Board’s counter-offer.

“I don’t think it’s in good faith in terms of projecting a good business environment that it really would have been all that moral or ethical to pull [the contract offer to the Pharmacy] back because we

had potentially another offer for that space,” said Diamond.

There were a couple of key reasons behind the choice to go with an optometrist, said Diamond. Bringing in a third-party vendor, rather than a business or service of the MSU or University, guarantees revenue for MUSC. An optometrist also does not duplicate a product or service already offered in the building.

After spending roughly a hundred thousand dollars on their website over the last few years, the McMaster Students Union is dropping another hundred thousand on a brand new one.

Orbis Communications, who created and hosts the current website, informed the MSU that they would not be renewing their contract, as they would no longer be working with students unions overall. When the current deal expires on Aug. 31, Orbis will be taking their product with them, forcing the MSU to start from scratch.

“We have fairly unique needs,” said Jeff Wygaarden, the MSU’s Vice-President (Finance).

“Other than student unions, I can’t think of anyone with the complexity and depth of the website we’ve got. We’ve got subpages upon subpages upon subpages of information.”

The site includes a jobs application portal, the ability to process online payments, individual clubs pages, MACID integration, connection to social media and an interactive calendar.

The new company, Factor[e] Design Initiative, will be trying to re-create the many modules provided by Orbis over the next few months. But unlike Orbis, Factor[e] will be handing over the intellectual property with the site so that if the relationship is severed, the MSU will not be left in a similar situation.

Ryan Moran, who served as the MSU’s president during 20072008, is currently working as the Marketing Communications Specialist for Factor[e]. He has been a point of contact between the two organizations.

“It was a point of concern for us originally ... But having him on board is a huge bonus to us,” said Wyngaarden. “A lot of other companies came in and had no idea what we were talking about; they don’t know how student unions run, they didn’t understand our approval process.”

Although the costs seem steep, Wyngaarden was confident that the MSU had gone through the proper process finding a vendor and reasonable price.

“The consensus across the board has been that it’s worth the money that we’re paying,” he said, adding that costs are justifiable, “given what we’re getting out of it and given that it’s going to be much more sustainable long-term because we’re going to own it.”

EDITORIAL The Silhouette

McMaster University’s Student Newspaper

Thursday, July 5, 2012 • The Silhouette •

4

Executive Editor: Sam Colbert (905) 525-9140, extension 22052 thesil@thesil.ca

TRAVEL CUTS SPACE

TheSil.ca

Editorial Board Sam Colbert Executive Editor Jemma Wolfe Managing Editor Andrew Terefenko Production Editor Aissa Boodhoo-Leegsma Senior News Editor Julia Redmond Assistant News Editor Anqi Shen Online News Editor Kacper Niburski Opinions Editor Brandon Meawasige Senior Sports Editor Scott Hastie Assistant Sports Editor Sam Godfrey Senior InsideOut Editor Amanda Watkins Assistant InsideOut Editor Nolan Matthews Senior ANDY Editor Bahar Orang Assistant ANDY Editor Yoseif Haddad Senior Photo Editor Jessie Lu Assistant Photo Editor Javier Caicedo Multimedia Editor Karen Wang Graphics Editor Sandro Giordano Ad Manager

Legal The Silhouette welcomes letters to the editor in person at MUSC B110, or by email at thesil@thesil.ca. Please include name, address and telephone number for verification only. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters and opinion articles. Opinions expressed in The Silhouette are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board, the publishers or university officials. The Silhouette is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the McMaster Students Union. The Silhouette board of publications acts as an intermediary between the editorial board, the McMaster community and the McMaster Students Union. Grievances regarding The Silhouette may be forwarded in writing to: McMaster Students Union, McMaster University Student Centre, Room 201, L8S 4S4, Attn: The Silhouette Board of Publications. The board will consider all submissions and make recommendations accordingly.

to the westdale green grocer.

to optometrist glasses being half-empty.

Fewer optometrists, more vision

to 1867. you did it, big guy.

to 1866, for giving credibility to a universally-stupid metric system.

Say what you will about my looks or my personality, but my eyesight is perfect.

And even if I did need to visit an optometrist from time to time, I wouldn’t need to go far. There’s one on King Street, just across from the Metro in Westdale.

So what gives, MUSC? After all the talk about what would replace the vacant storefront in the student centre between Union Market and the University Centre Pharmacy, the McMaster University Student Centre (MUSC) Board of Management has given the space to an optometrist.

The decision was a big missed opportunity.

Other schools are doing some really cool things with their student spaces, and, from what I’ve heard, there was no shortage of ideas on what we could do with the open space next to the pharmacy. There was talk of coffee shops, restaurants, lounge spaces, student services and, of course, a grocery store.

But instead, we’re getting an eye doctor – someone students might visit only from time to time, and that’s if they don’t continue seeing their previous optometrists during their visits home.

In other words, we’ll be left with that lonely and lacklustre stretch of hallway between La Piazza and Union Market.

I understand the financial argument; it’s true that sending an in-house service into MUSC’s potential retail space is a risk. But why sign a third-party business for the sake of bringing in revenue if we’re just going to sink that revenue into underexposed services?

The House of Games, SWHAT, SHEC, SCSN, Avtek, Maroons, Campus Events and Underground Media & Design (and, for that matter, the Silhouette) are among the MSU services pushed out of sight into the upper or lower floors of MUSC, not to mention organizations like SOCS, the Off-Campus Resource Centre and the Centre for Student Development.

Even TwelvEighty, our should-be-‘place-to-be’ student-run bar couldn’t make it into a decent location. (I never did like the idea of getting a beer just down the hall from my calculus tutorial.) It’s no wonder that it hasn’t been able to make the MSU money like the Rathskeller and the Downstairs John used to.

But if it’s going to be a third-party vendor that gets the spot, at least it should have been something of wider and more regular use. For the record, I would have loved to see a fresh produce seller like Grocery Checkout pop up.

There are student representatives on MUSC’s management board for a reason. McMaster’s full-time students, through their MSU fees, have paid a lot of money for the construction of the student centre. Whether it’s a service of the University or the MSU, or an outside vendor, decisions on who gets to set up shop in our student space should be purposeful and in our best interests.

So rather than allowing dentists and eye doctors and photo studios to populate the prime real estate, let’s make this building work for us.

• Sam Colbert

to huey lewis’ birthday. keep bringing us the real news.

to ecstatic spaniards. to gay, straight, animal, alien and accidental pride.

to irritated italians. to shakespearean pride. that stuff will get you killed. to extinct turtles.

to sunlight powerful enough to bake cookies. yum.

to sunlight powerful enough to bake cookies. ouch.

to crisp, fresh pears.

to the seventeen people who insist on getting coffee at the same time i do.

to crisp, fresh comebacks. to woody allen’s love of european cities. to billie holiday. guess i’m only 80 years or so behind on that wave. to jazz musicians playing hip-hop standards.

to the late-night coffee runs. and i don’t mean the trips to the store. to when my parents told me that santa claus, the easter bunny and fantasy football weren’t real. to close-to-deadline steve nash signings.

to air conditioners.

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OPINIONS

Thursday, July 5, 2012 • The Silhouette • 5 Opinions Editor: Kacper Niburski opinions@thesil.ca

A farewell to journalism as we knew it Kacper Niburski

about it exclusively.

Maybe that’s a bit overdramatic, but at a Opinions Editor sacrifice of their sanity and sleep, they tried Consider this an epitaph. to change the world one column at a time.

Sure, I’m not exactly six feet under. With each article, they hoped to get the facts And sure, I’m not slowly eroding away, un- out. They assumed that by offering objective less old age counts for anything. Luckily or criticism of society, they’d be highlighting not, I’m still among the living, grunting and its faults, all the while celebrating society’s gurgling and grumbling my way along as if mechanism that allows recognition of them. no day were different than the last. Yet these Most of all, they just wanted people to care. words, fickle as they may be, are indeed my But after tirelessly combing newspaper last. Believe it. For these are the last words of archives and looking at the names of people a dying art. past and present, people who dreamt that This used to be special. All of it. From the words etched into paper were instead news to opinions to sports, journalism used carved into stone, people who aren’t rememto be the hub where bered today, they – like creative minds met I – realize that opti“Journalism is riddled with and coalesced. People, mism got the better of clichés, cheap tricks and tactless with little more than them. graphics to gain attention ... the an insatiable yearnPerhaps that’s the graphic on this page is evidence ing to write, flocked to problem: people exof that enough.” poorly lit basements in pect too much. Jouran attempt to answer nalists, like the people journalism’s call. With who read their articles, cold coffee replacing are crushed under the gravity of this actualthe blood in their arity. For not only do the readers expect enteries and teeth-shattering, stale bagels com- tertainment, they expect the truth, and often prising their only form of sustenance, they times there is little overlap between the two. wrote not simply for themselves, but for othIn this world, there is a reality of life, ers as well. with its unforgiving disappointments and In its truest form, journalism was a unparalleled radiance mixed together so eecharacterization of the world, and the jour- rily, and then there’s the reality of journalnalists were its chroniclers. They penned ism. history rather than making it themselves.

Don’t let the columns fool you. The two They played with fonts and the infinite are not the same. Unlike the font on this breathlessness of white space when others page, the world isn’t black or white. It’s gray. wouldn’t. They were the Dostoevskys, the And often times, you can’t tell the heroes Kafkas and all the other literary juggernauts from the villains. And when you can, you are sandwiched into newsprint. In a sentence, imposing your own judgments on a scenario they defined their time because they wrote you weren’t meant to judge.

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

Rather than stay true to unbiased reporting, rather than write the story, you become the story.

SEE NEWS INTEGRITY, 6

Journalism’s decline can be seen in the wide-eyed gaze of every disappointed child who dreamed of conquering the literary world and came six billion words short.

When it comes to good governance, it’s all relative Why our apathy toward the Quebec student protests is a problem Waleed Ahmed The Silhouette

“They’re a bunch of whiners,” a friend remarked as we had a discussion about the student protesters in Quebec.

“Their tuition is less than a third of what everyone else pays – what are they complaining about?” he continued. The sentiments he expressed echo the general opinion held by most people I’ve spoken to outside Quebec.

I too viewed these protesters as privileged ingrates who are complaining about a tuition hike that is peanuts compared to what everyone else pays. However, after visiting Quebec and witnessing these protests, I’ve been forced to reconsider my opinions; I strongly believe that other Canadians should too.

Imagine the following. Due to financial constraints, our govern-

ment has had to take some desperate measures. Starting next week, every Canadian will now have to pay a flat fee of $10 for every consultation with a doctor and about $ 200 for surgeries. It’s a small affordable fee that would help offset the financial strain on the government.

Yes, our much cherished healthcare system is no longer free.

As one can imagine, there will be uproar in our society at the announcement of such news. How dare the government charge us for healthcare? We will go out into the streets and will protest all night long. We will not stop until our demands are met. No way am I paying 10 bucks to visit a doctor.

And as we lead mass rallies to protest these unjust measures, the Americans will look to us and say, “What a bunch of whiners! What are they complaining about? They pay nothing compared to what we

have to pay.”

That analogy might have a few shortcomings, but it’s the same idea. You see, it’s not just the small fee and potential future hikes that we would be protesting. It’s the principle. We expect our government to provide universal healthcare, much like childhood education, library services and access to highways. Failure to do so results in uproar. We’ve worked hard to get our society to a point where we can enjoy these benefits; any attempt to jeopardize our access to these services is unacceptable.

Quebeckers view post-secondary education in the same light as these services. Yes, it’s not free, but it was pretty close to it. For years, the student movement has been working towards achieving universal access to post-secondary education and Quebec was perhaps the only hope of that dream being realized. As Rick Salutin pointed

out in a Toronto Star article, when society has a whole recognizes a service as a fundamental priority, the excuses go out the door and the money gets found. A tuition hike of any sort, let alone one that increases tuition almost twofold, is a step backwards and squashes any chances of ever achieving fully publicly funded universities.

We need to make it clear to our governments that higher education should be made accessible to all and not just the privileged few. It must be voiced that tuition hikes are not an acceptable of way dealing with budgetary restraints.

This is the exact message Quebecois students are sending to our government. We need to stand along with them and join hands in giving our support to this message.

Our collective silence is a tacit approval to tuition hikes – we are saying that we are okay with such measures. Our indifference to the

issue serves as support for tuition increases in other provinces and gives politicians the impression that they can simply get away with it.

Protesting every single night for weeks on end demonstrates a level of commitment unheard of in recent Canadian history. As I walked through the streets of Quebec City, I realized these protests were much more than just some students complaining. I saw old women in their 70s cheering on the sidewalks; I saw a five-year-old girl marching with her mother; I saw people in their balconies clanging their pots and pans to express support.

While apathy and heedlessness are often used to describe young people, these students defy any such categorization. They are young, they are mad, and they are fighting for what they believe in.

And we should be too.

6 • Opinions

The Silhouette • Thursday, July 5, 2012

Forget all of your #firstworldproblems David Laing The Silhouette

I’m glad that you realize how lucky you probably are. You probably slept in a comfortable bed last night, securely protected by a roof and at least four walls. You probably

woke up this morning and decided to eat breakfast. You probably have no reason to beg, steal, fight or hide today. The only thing you have to run from is your love handles. This is life in a ‘first-world’ country.

Here in heaven, most of our problems are self-invented. It’s not as if people here are more happy than they are anywhere else. After all, humans evolved to suffer.

Blessed and doomed by our ability to envision the past and the future, we are often either depressed about the former or anxious about the latter. Wherever humans exist, they will create problems for themselves.

They will create reasons to be dissatisfied.

Yet most of us

are generally aware of our good fortune. On some level, there is a vague recognition that we’re ‘better off ’ than the people facing the atrocities of the ‘third world’. It’s good that we can appreciate the pettiness of most of our struggles, but I’m a bit disconcerted when I hear the phrase “first-world problems.”

It began as a light-hearted mockery of our trivialities, and in this sense it was a fairly harmless trend, maybe even a useful one.

But now it has turned into a running joke, and I can’t keep up any more. I think it goes beyond the fact that it’s now just the standard tagline for a whine.

What most people mean when they say it is that “less privileged people wouldn’t be bothered by this,” but all I hear is “only someone as privileged as me could ever be bothered by this.” I think that’s unfair. Can we assume that we’re the only people who are bothered by things like a slow Internet connection or being late for work?

Have we been to these ‘thirdworld’ places, spoken to the people there, and observed this for ourselves? I’m not saying that I have.

I’ve barely ventured out of Ontario.

But I don’t use this phrase, because to me, it feels presumptuous and disrespectful.

I see it as being roughly analogous to the idea of heteronormativity. For the most part, there is no malice involved. There is no real purpose to it. It’s just an attitude that’s ingrained into a culture

where some can relate and some cannot. Now, on a worldwide scale, people who live in developing countries are hardly a minority, but here in North America, it would be difficult to hear them if they spoke up. We are totally separated and have no real reasons to keep our ears perked.

But that doesn’t mean that they can’t hear us. Especially with the advent of Internet memes, our in-jokes trickle out into the ears of the people that we’re casually referencing when we use a phrase like “first-world problems.” Like heteronormativity, it is an attitude that some might assume is harmless, but by which others are probably quite offended.

We should stop claiming petty issues for our own. We shouldn’t have to categorize problems just to appreciate the fact that things could be worse. Let’s stop trying to arrange our issues on a sliding scale of misery, and just accept that sometimes life is challenging.

Maybe the one good thing about the phrase “first-world problems” is that it has made it fashionable to keep our lives in perspective, which is a difficult task made easier. I try to give myself a good slap whenever I begrudge the effort it takes to walk across the street to buy groceries. I just wish the phrase would be used more sparingly, if only because all jokes get old eventually.

Anyways, my fingers are tired from all this typing. #firstworld… wait, never mind.

News integrity is six feet under FROM 5 You flash verbal pyrotechnics here, a joke there. Then you forget why you even started writing in the first place and so you begin to write about something cheap, something easy, all the while forgetting about the hardhitting articles that you spent days on, wondering if you should insert a comma here, or here, or even here.

This is the progression of the death of journalism. Look at any magazine, tabloid or newsprint, and you’ll see the same. Stories of petty crimes, celebrity news, and advertisements – all of it pour over on the front page like flies to a carcass.

Perhaps it’s because of the ebb of eventuality. Perhaps even more truthfully, without the ability to discern between that which is ambiguous and that which is true, journalism was always meant to fail. In absence of clairvoyance, people rush to something concrete, something they can hold, taste and feel. They do not like being confused. They like something they can root for – something easy on the eyes and minds. We are simpleminded creatures, and despite the four billion years of evolution, we fail to act the part.

So in our search for simplicity, we decide the complex is really too complex and sometimes it’s better not to ask why, but how instead. And even then, that may be too much. That is why, in the ugly aftermath of journalism’s decline, when the smoke has settled and the fires abate, journalism reduces itself into this. It is everything below and everything above. It is riddled with clichés, cheap tricks and tactless graphics to gain attention. The graphic on the previous page for this article is evidence of that enough. So is the article itself. For if you need any evidence of the death of journalism, look no further than this sentence.

SPORTS

Thursday, July 5, 2012 • The Silhouette •

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Sports Editors: Brandon Meawasige and Scott Hastie sports@thesil.ca

EDITORIAL

Why Steve Nash would have looked good in Raptor red Scott Hastie

Assistant Sports Editor

Toronto has always been known as a hockey town. The wide-reaching brand of the Toronto Maple Leafs consumes nearly every sports bar, home television and water cooler discussion during peak sports season.

But had two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash signed with the Toronto Raptors, and not the L.A. Lakers, the popularity of basketball could have taken a significant step towards becoming as meaningful as the Maple Leafs to the Toronto sports identity.

The Raptors have been a team stuck in insignificance since the departure of Vince Carter. With two trips to the playoffs since 2004, Toronto fans have had little to be excited about.

But the future looked bright for Canada’s team, as Raptor brass appeared to be pulling out all the stops to coax Steve Nash towards signing a new contract with them. Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo had been pitching the Raptors unique ability to cement Nash’s legacy in Canadian basketball. Colangelo even recruited Wayne Greztky to help in persuade Nash to sign with Toronto, with Gretzky likening what his time with the Los Angeles Kings meant to U.S. hockey to the impact Steve Nash could have on Canadian basketball.

Was making that extra push to sign Steve Nash the right basketball decision for the Raptors? That’s a tough question to answer. With the current roster, the Raptors have the talent to possibly compete for a low-seeded playoff spot, but more than likely end up with a lottery draft pick. But with Nash, the Raptors would have gotten a boost on offense (an area of concern from last season) and likely made the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

But bringing in Steve Nash meant more than just winning and losing. It meant beginning a new chapter in Toronto Raptors history. It would have been one of the first times a major free agent chose to play for the Raptors. Bringing in Nash would have created a larger fan base, giving management more money to spend on further improvements to the team. A more prominent fan base could turn Toronto into a free agent destination, with the city already praised by players around the league for its culture, entertainment and nightlife, as well as it’s winning attitude, demonstrated by the pursuit of the former MVP. No one is saying that Steve Nash was the final piece to a Toronto Raptors an NBA championship. But he offered something else vitally important to the franchise’s future: relevancy in the Toronto sports market.

Time for plan B, Raptors.

Hamilton poised for a big-league sports team Brandon Meawasige Senior Sports Editor

For the better part of the last ten years, the city of Toronto has made leaps and bounds towards becoming a big market for major professional sports. The introduction of the

Toronto FC to the growing Major League Soccer and the continuing initiative to bring an NFL team north of the 49th parallel are encouraging, at least within the greater Toronto area. However, for Canadian sports fans that don’t live in the 416, the picture is not as colourful.

There are a variety of questions being asked, and the answers seem simple enough to nullify most excuses for non-existent franchises. What exactly does it take to become an attractive destination for North America’s professional sports leagues? If the argument is strictly fiscal, Fort McMurray in

Alberta could support a team or two on its own.

If the argument is based on population, then any city of comparable size to Winnipeg should be able to sell out an arena, no problem. Though, if that were the case, a city like Hamilton would be a great fit for a big pro franchise.

Not to take away from the loveable Tabbies, who have a new stadium on the way as they play out their final days at Ivor Wynne this season, but a new professional franchise could do wonders for the rejuvenation of Canada’s Steel City.

Let us be real for a second; if not for the green-eyed leadership of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the Hamilton ‘insert name here’ could be playing at the newly renovated RIM Centre. Furthermore, a new Ti-Cats complex could double as a home for the MLS – just to throw some ideas out there.

The city of Hamilton definitely has the heart and soul of any faithful fan base; after all, McMaster’s Ron Joyce Stadium sells out each home-game Saturday to the tune of some six thousand fans.

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

SEE CANADA, 8

Through the efforts of Research In Motion’s ex-CEO Jim Balsillie, Copps Coliseum nearly became home to an NHL franchise.

8 • Sports

The Silhouette • Thursday, July 5, 2012

Canada needs more pro teams FROM 7 Even aside from the 700,000 people in Hamilton’s metro area, there are millions of people west of the Hammer whose only taste of pro sport requires either a pricey trip to the nation’s financial capital or a decent wait at the border just to catch a glimpse of the beautiful city that is Buffalo, New York.

It seems almost shameful that one of the most prosperous countries in the world is home to a disproportionate amount of teams. Some cities are far from ready, but have potential. Others, like Hamilton, lie waiting for their chance to shine.

Not to be forgotten are the abysmal

attempts of the NBA’s Vancouver Grizzlies and MLB’s Montreal Expos to endure. The departure of those franchises left Toronto as Canada’s sole representation in both leagues.

Should one city really be the only representation of an entire country? The fact that Canada, geographically speaking, is the world’s second largest country makes this even more embarrassing.

Though there is great risk involved, professional sports should be a focal point of municipalities from coast to coast. And, yes, logistics can be argued tooth and nail, but there isn’t a person in Hamilton that wouldn’t be proud to join the ranks of bigleague sports in North America.

INSIDEOUT

Thursday, July 5, 2012 • The Silhouette • 9 InsideOut Editors: Sam Godfrey and Amanda Watkins insideout@thesil.ca

When the alarm won’t turn off Mac med student’s AudioNotch service is making tinnitus therapy more accessible Sam Godfrey

Senior InsideOut Editor

Y

ou’re at a rock concert, listening to your favourite musician rip a guitar solo, or at a crowded nightclub, fist pumping to a blaring techno pop song. When you eventually leave, on top of fun memories (or lack thereof), you still have that ringing in your ears.

For Peter Phua, a medical student here at McMaster, this is exactly what happened.

Except the ringing didn’t go away.

Tinnitus is a condition characterized by a persistent ringing in the ears, most often a single tone (mono-frequency). “It’s like having a fire alarm go off in your head, all the time. It never stops,” said Phua.

In the beginning, the condition can cause chronic anxiety because, as it sounds like an alarm, tinnitus sets off the fear centre in the brain. Phua found it hard to listen in lectures and was unable to sleep properly.

The condition is caused when loud and constant exposure to noise kills sound-detection cells. As a result, your brain can no longer receive input from those cells. The neurons attempt to fill the absence by reconnecting and firing elsewhere, which causes the persistent ringing.

Although there is no cure for tinnitus, there are some fairly effective treatments.

Phua was introduced to one such treatment, notched sound therapy, when speaking with a professor about his condition.

Invented independently by both Muenster University Hospital’s Wolfgang Stoll and Westfalian Wilhelms-University’s Henning Stracke and Christo Pantev, notched sound-therapy has proven quite successful, reducing perceived volume in some cases by 75 per cent in just a month.

Phua found that the treatment was not easily accessible, but is endeavouring to change this. Along with Adrian Green, a talented coder and high-school friend of Phua’s, Phua founded AudioNotch.

AudioNotch is a not-for-profit enterprise that offers tailored notched soundtherapy online at AudioNotch.com for it’s users.

“Our goal is to take research that was already out there and get it to the people,” explained Phua, who was joined enthusiastically by Green when he casually mentioned then-embryonic AudioNotch. Excited to provide much-needed easy-access treatment

for tinnitus sufferers, they realized decidedly: “There’s no reason to wait – let’s use the power of the Internet.”

AudioNotch.com has been live for about two months now.

The program takes advantage of the fact that tinnitus rings at a single frequency.

Notched sound therapy is engineered to play all but the frequencies surrounding that frequency. As a result, those neurons become active, and in turn inhibit the tinnitus neurons in a process called “lateral inhibition.”

When a user signs up for an account, they first use a sliding frequency scale from 0 Hz to 23,000 Hz to match what they’re hearing. Phua finds he gets a more accurate reading from this test than even professional testing he’s received.

Step two involves the construction of personalized notched sound. AudioNotch offers online notched white noise for free, and for a subscription fee, downloadable

C/O PETER PHUA

notched white noise, as well as the ability to convert your music collection into notched music.

The final step, which Phua stresses is the most important stage, is for the user to listen to their notched sound for several hours a day. “Beginning as early as a week to a month, they should see a reduction in their tinnitus volume,” he said.

“Our goal is to make people’s tinnitus quieter, and in that way help them,” said Phua, who knows first-hand just how distressing the condition can be.

The website is very user-friendly, and it works, according to its creators, exactly the way it was intended. Any unsatisfied user is entitled to a full refund.

Phua says the current challenge is making people aware of this new resource available to them.

“We believe in helping people,” said Phua.

Relaxed attitude, tight budget: summer fun on the cheap Amanda Watkins Assistant InsideOut Editor

With a school year consisting of a downpour of tests, assignments and a growing pressure to accomplish looming goals, the summer months are dreamily dedicated to taking in each passing sea breeze and heat wave as they come.

But acquiring the resources for a four-month break is easier said than done.

And although late nights at work and a stricter financial plan may make summer seem more chaotic than comfortable, it is still possible to make this summer more memorable and relaxed than the last. I present to you a few economical alternatives to help satisfy that adventure itch and prevent your weeks from being swallowed by the mundane grind in which student life always seems entangled.

THRIFTY TRAVELS If you’re looking to see the world but are having some troubles booking a flight, instead, why not make the most of public transit and travel the city? It may sound like a dull and grey excuse for an adventurous afternoon, but try challenging yourself to see just how far you can get on a single bus transfer.

Not only will you find yourself discovering hidden gems in your city of residence, but making friends with the transit regulars will definitely provide for some memorable stories. I mean, really, when was the last time you encountered a boring person on public transit?

Get even more involved in this challenge and adopt a new character. Sing to yourself and see how many people will move away from you, or fall asleep and wake up to a surprising new destination; the possibilities are endless.

DINNER ON A DIME If you’re looking for a night out on the town, complete with an international dinner and panoramic view of the city, look no further than the happening destination of IKEA. This lovely big-box furniture store boasts both delicious and affordable meals consisting mostly of Swedish meatballs and soft-serve ice cream. Can’t go wrong with that, right?

In addition to wallet-friendly meals, IKEA provides for a very interesting atmosphere. With most locations featuring multi-level displays of pseudo apartments, spend some time meandering through the halls as you imagine your future.

Trust me when I say that there is nothing more humbling and adorable than enjoying a meal with friends surrounded

by Norwegian wood and well-organized furniture displays.

SEE BOXED WINE, 10

10 • InsideOut

The Silhouette • Thursday, July 5, 2012

Boxed wine and good deeds FROM 9 FRUGAL FRIDAY NIGHTS Let’s face the facts. Alcohol is expensive, especially if you plan on drinking copious amounts of it on a semi-regular basis.

Instead, on those occasionally dry and boring Friday nights, try popping open a box of wine. Not only is boxed wine affordable, it’s a conversation starter. Also, its compact size will help control your intake of alcohol, which prevents embarrassing moments that may or may not involve touching people inappropriately or falling down in front of large crowds.

Reap the benefits of red wine’s antioxidants and enjoy a box or two with friends.

Please drink responsibly.

INEXPENSIVE KINDNESS If you’re looking to put a smile on someone’s face, try pulling some positive pranks. Be it placing a complimentary note on a neighbour’s doorstep or surprising a friend with flowers from a “secret admirer,” get creative and do something spontaneous that will bring joy to those around you. Random acts of kindness excite everyone and require only the amount of cash you personally are willing to shell out.

11 • The Silhouette • Thursday, July 5, 2012 ANDY Editors: Nolan Matthews and Bahar Orang andy@thesil.ca

Ready to go home During her stop at Burlington’s Sound of Music festival, songstress Julie Doiron reflected on the role her place of residence has played in her career Julie Doiron’s music is very honest and, according to contemporary musician Basia Bulat, “makes you feel like you’re home.”

Late on a Friday night, inside of Burlington’s City Hall, I met with the singer-songwriter after her performance at the Sound of Music Festival.

She had a very casual manner about her, both in personality and appearance. She was a modernday bohemian, with shoulder-length tousled brown hair, long bangs and a loose-printed dress along with cowboy boots.

Like most things she does, her June 15 performance was largely based on improvisation.

That night was the first time she had ever played with drummer Ian Romano, and although she had worked with his brother, Daniel Romano, before, he moved from his usual position behind the drum set to the guitar.

“The way we played tonight, I had never done it before,” she admits. During her set, she took suggestions from the audience. “I don’t usually make a set list because I kind of like to gauge how I’m feeling … and I think maybe that’s part of the thing where I have a really hard time with commitment”.

Her difficulty with commitment may explain why she moves around so much. Julie grew up in New Brunswick, first in Moncton and then in Sacksville for a while. She bounced between the cities before relocating to Toronto two years ago.

However, she’s planning on moving back to Sacksville this summer, which she sees as her true home.

“I was really lucky. I was living in Montreal where rent was really cheap so I could live no problem off touring,” she said. Toronto, though, was tougher.

“Living in Toronto was really hard for that, so it will be a lot easier when I move back to New Brunswick, but it’s frustrating to not be able to live off of what you do.”

When asked about the challenges of living as an independent artist, Julie explained, “When I have enough shows booked, it’s okay. But now that nobody buys records anymore, you just have to play more shows”.

At one point in 2003, she was thinking of quitting the music business but found that she couldn’t escape from it.

“My sort of compromise for that was that I stopped thinking of it as a music business and thinking of it as something you do, that you need to do, and that’s why I’m still doing it.”

And Julie doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.

“I used to joke that I’ll probably be doing it into my 80s, which is probably what will end up happening.”

• Janine Wong

Documenting the sounds of a city Cody Lanktree’s film is a product of Hamilton’s tight-knit music scene “A couple of years ago, there was a situation where a busker got arrested downtown, for busking,” recalled Cody Lanktree, director of HamiltonSeen, a promotional company that seems to involve itself in all things media creation, marketing and design.

“The musicians of Hamilton were all, ‘Oh, we can’t have this here. This is a place where music happens and artists are loved. How could this happen here, of all places?’” said Lanktree about the public response to the busker’s arrest.

Lanktree, like many others looking to set injustices right, created a Facebook group, which he called “Busker Crawl.” More than 80 musicians performed on James Street, he said. The City ultimately changed its bylaws to allow busking.

The public reaction to the busker’s arrest seem to show that music is a (perhaps surprisingly) significant part of Hamilton’s identity – significant enough that Lanktree has decided to make a documentary about the city’s music scene.

Lanktree’s film, Seen – A Document(ary) of the Hamilton Music Scene, almost didn’t happen.

“I was considering leaving Hamilton,” said Lanktree.

“A relationship had ended, and I was thinking maybe this is my time to take a step out into something else, and I was thinking about making travel documentaries,” he recalled. “I was looking at prices to fly to the Philippines. I’d gotten that far, and it was way too expensive, which was part of my decision not to leave yet.

“I realized that I’d spent the last three and a half years here in Hamilton making a lot of really great friends in the music scene, and I was like, ‘I should do something with that before I go,’ and this is me doing something with that before I go,” said Lanktree, who was quick to modesty.

C/O STEVE PORTER

Local group Canadian Winter is a favourite of Cody Lanktree. Their music is featured in a trailer for Lankree’s film.

“I don’t want to say that I’m giving something back or anything like that. That would be kind of silly.”

Today, it seems like the Internet has made the idea of a local music scene seem outdated; will we really have another Seattle grunge explosion?

Lanktree believes that local scenes will always be important.

“In Hamilton, if you go to any show, half the audience is musicians, so what could more directly influence you than the people that you’re seeing every Saturday night?” he said.

“There’s an immediacy related to how direct your relationship is to something. If the woman that you love writes a beautiful song for you, that’s the greatest song you’ve ever

heard.”

There’s been big support of Lanktree’s film from Hamiltonians, and on June 30, a group of the city’s musicians played a fundraiser show at the Casbah for Lanktree’s documentary.

“There was just a certain point last Saturday night at the fundraiser I looked around the room and I recognized half the people there, and just thought that the rest of these people are here because they believe in what the music of Hamilton is. Very rarely in life do you get opportunities to be filled with hope about what it is that you want to accomplish.”

• Nolan Matthews, Senior ANDY Editor

12 • ANDY

The Silhouette • Thursday, July 5, 2012

INFO IS INTENDED FOR HAMILTON AUDIENCES

THE FOLLOWING

BY ANDY AND THE SILHOUETTE ASSOCIATION

The Standing Short Festival

For an entrance fee of $10 at Club Absinthe (38 King William Street), you can check out Hamilton’s half-stand up comedy, halfcomedic short festival on Aug. 4.

Barbecue on the patio all day and after party to follow. Burgers, music and lols? Worth it.

Starlite Drive-in

There comes a moment every summer (usually halfway through my hundredth Godfather marathon) that the reality of my laziness finally hits me and I realize I need to stop watching movies on my lap-

top in bed. But I don’t exactly feel up to blowing 15+ bucks on a movie I may or may not like. Piling into a car with my friends and going to a drive-in is always fun.

It must also be a perfect date spot – not that I would know (that’s a longer list for another time). If you’re in the area, Stoney Creek’s Starlite Drive-In sounds like a great spot.

Westdale Movie Theatre

If you aren’t feeling especially adventurous and you’re in the mood for a limited-release film in an old-school theatre, Westdale is

the place to go.

Now playing: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

FYI

Youngblood, X-men, How to Deal, Against the Ropes, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Cinderella Man, Four Brothers, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Silent Hill, Away from Her, American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile, Hairspray and The Time Traveler’s Wife were all filmed in Hamilton, at least in part. Who Knew?

(Wikipedia, apparently.)

Reviews in 50 words or less

I have yet to see The Avengers,

but judging by the number of box office records it’s broken and the billions of dollars it represents, I’m sure I’ll feel “mind = blown” afterwards and able to quickly shake off the nagging knowledge that it’s based almost solely on commercial interests.

The most important character in Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love is Rome itself, and we can forgive the lackluster dialogue and familiar storyline thanks to the loveliness of the Eternal City.

• Bahar Orang, Assistant ANDY Editor

LET US FEED YOU! 1579 MAIN ST. WEST (AT RIFLE RANGE RD.)