The Community Edition: January 2016

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 • JANUARY 2016

A YEAR IN REVIEW PAGES 8-10

GET THEE TO A BAKERY PAGE 13

IF ‘BURBS COULD TALK PAGE 6

DOWNWARD APPROPRIATION

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ANOTHER LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Volume 4, Issue 4 Next issue: February 3, 2016 75 University Ave. W Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5 519-884-0710 x3564 Advertising All advertising inquiries should be directed to Care Schummer at 519-884-0710 x3560 care.schummer@wlusp.com THE COMMUNITY EDITION TEAM Editor in Chief Jesse Bauman jesse.bauman@wlusp.com

Distribution Manager & Senior Briefs Editor Alistair MacLellan

Publisher Lakyn Barton lakyn.barton@wlusp.com

Social Media Manager Megan Nourse

Photo Editor Matt Smith CONTRIBUTORS Alexandra Bissley Jessica Dik Emma Dines Christopher Emery-Moore Carolyn Gray Kerri Hutchinson Stacey Jacobs Jon Johnson Darren Kropf Cathy MacLellan Elise Marion WLUSP ADMINISTRATION President Executive Director Advertising Manager Treasurer Vice-Chair Director Director Director Director Director Corporate Secretary

Hannah Marie Elizabeth McFaul Erin McLean-Purdon Christina Proctor Seth Ratzlaff John Roche David Siebert Dave Thomas Kurtis Thomas Marc Xuereb

Bryan Stephens Lakyn Barton Care Schummer John Pehar Abdiasis Issa Thomas Lillo Rafey Sattar Fred Kuntz Angela Foster Gary Doyle Emily Crump

The Community Edition is an alternative monthly intended to engage and inform the community.

Started in 2012, the Community Edition is an editorially independent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors.

Opinions expressed within the Community Edition are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board, The Cord, WLUSP, WLU or Canweb Printing. All content appearing in the Community Edition bears the copyright expressly of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent.

The Community Edition is created using Macintosh computers running Mac OS X Yosemite using Adobe Creative Cloud. Canon cameras are used for principal photography.

The Community Edition’s flag font is Lobster, an open source font created by HVD Fonts. We also use Brandon Grotesque and Petrona.

The Community Edition is a member of the Ontario Press Council, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns. For additional information or to file a complaint, contact info@ontpress.com or call 416-340-1981.

The Community Edition circulates monthly. Normal circulation is 6,000. The Community Edition subscription rates are $20.00 per term for addresses within Canada.

Preamble to the Community Edition Constitution The Community Edition will keep faith with its readers by presenting news and expressions of opinions comprehensively, accurately and fairly. The Community Edition believes in a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report, and of all substantial opinions in a matter of controversy.

The staff of the Community Edition shall uphold all commonly held ethical conventions of journalism. When an error of omission or of commission has occurred, that error shall be acknowledged promptly. When statements are made that are critical of an individual, or an organization, we shall give those affected the opportunity to reply at the earliest time possible. Ethical journalism requires impartiality, and consequently conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest will be avoided by all staff. The only limits of any newspaper are those of the world around it, and so the Community Edition will attempt to cover its world with a special focus on the community of Waterloo Region. Ultimately, the Community Edition will be bound by neither philosophy nor geography in its mandate.

The Community Edition has an obligation to foster freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This obligation is best fulfilled when debate and dissent are encouraged, both in the internal workings of the paper, and through the Community Edition’s contact with the community. The Community Edition will always attempt to do what is right, with fear of neither repercussions, nor retaliation. The purpose of community press is to act as an agent of social awareness, and so shall conduct the affairs of our magazine.

Go skating for free in 2016. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

FEATURE

8-9 2015 IN PHOTOS

TCE LOOKS BACK, THROUGH MATT SMITH’S LENS, TO REVISIT IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN 2015. AND BECAUSE HIS PHOTOGRAPHS ARE REALLY PRETTY.

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IN BRIEF ISLAMOPHOBIA IN WR (MIS)APPROPRIATING YOGA? BUILDING SOBER SPACES REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT ISCT: TREMAINE PARK ‘ARTIN AROUND WITH JANICE LEE SELF-IMPROVEMENT MAKES US SAD SEEKER’S CORNER: WR’S BUDDHISM THE BOATHOUSE VS. PUBLIC SPACE THIS IDEA MUST DIE BYE BYE, BUDDS START-UP WATCH ON STRIKE AT LAURIER? UNBUILT WR SEXPLANATIONS: CONSENT & KIDS TO PIE OR NOT TO PIE? BUILDING RESILIENCE: BRAINS! WEAR OUT THERE: DRESS FOR 2016 ADVERTISING ENTERTAINMENT NEW CAFES IN K-W BRFC ON BEER (AND COMMUNITY)

I am a bit of a navel-gazer, and so I tend to look back during New Year’s celebrations, to reflect on what was, as I sketch a course towards what will be. Because I try to keep my own history close, I am often skeptical when we talk about “new beginnings,” especially this time of year. I am skeptical because a lot of people make a lot of money from our annual resolutions (and employ questionable methods to shape and to give weight to those resolutions), and because we are historical beings, with pasts that extend far beyond the first of January.

And yet, one of 2015’s most important stories is all about new beginnings. Many thousands of refugees from Syria have already arrived in Canada, and some of that group in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Much has been made, for better or worse, of this community’s large hearted welcoming of these folks. I say better, because of course it is impressive and inspiring. I say worse, because we seem not to be talking about how we are implicated in conflict in the Middle East. And we are not talking about the violent circumstances in which our ancestors arrived in southern Ontario.

My dad pushed me to consider this latter point while we discussed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is the other major news item I’ll discuss here. He pushed me to see the connection, to ask whether we are being “good hosts and bad guests” in southern Ontario. My nuclear family spent three years living in an Innu community when I was a kid, but my extended family’s first contact was with Mississauga and Neutral peoples in 1786, when they arrived with names like Sherks and Bricker. These Mennonite settlers were just that: settlers, on land that in some cases they thought they’d purchased fairly, and in other cases surely knew they hadn’t. More recently, relatives of mine taught in residential schools. According to the TRC, “these residential schools were created for the purpose of separating Aboriginal children from their families, in order to minimize and weaken family ties and cultural linkages, and to indoctrinate children into a new culture.”

More refugees from Syria (and elsewhere) will arrive in 2016.

They will need our support—we will need to be good hosts. It will be hard, because living together is hard, because life is hard. While we do the hard work of supporting their new beginnings, which are necessary because of conflict and violence and displacement, we should remember that many of our new beginnings in K-W began in similar circumstances, through the violence of colonization, opposed by many indigenous peoples and welcomed by others.

So we’ll be good hosts in 2016.

How can we be better guests?

Here again I’ll defer to my dad, who suggests that “for those of us who found ourselves in what we thought was a “new world,” [we] might start with learning the story of our being welcomed.”

New beginnings, indeed.

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IN BRIEF

NEWS

ARTS

BEER AVAILABLE IN CEI SHUTTING GROCERY STORES DOWN

On December 3, leaders of unions at WLU and beyond declared their solidarity for CUPE 926 members and promised to support the custodians in their fight against contracting out. See page 12 for full story. JESSICA DIK PHOTO

Jawad and Asem Ghabra are sponsoring a Syrian family. Much resettlement work is done by new Canadian—see page five for full story. CAROLYN GRAY PHOTO

URBAN HYDRO RATES AND REBATES

As of December, 58 stores across Ontario are selling beer, in an effort to promote “fair competition and distribution” in the province.

Locally, residents can purchase beer at Zehrs, on Conestoga Boulevard in Cambridge, and the Highland Hills Real Canadian Superstore. Take that, multi-national corporations!

Creative Enterprise Initiative will have one more year to transition its work to other organizations, after Region of Waterloo politicians voted to fund CEI for one final year. Originally tasked with supporting and developing local artists and culture groups, the organization is struggling to prove its effectiveness.

The Ontario Energy Board has approved rate decreases that should save the average household relying on natural gas around $48 a year. The debt retirement charge of about $70 a year is also being eliminated from hydro bills, but so is a 10 per cent discount program. Put on a sweater, baby.

IS THERE A DR. IN THE HOUSE?

DANCE AND DINE LIKE ITS 1759

WHEN FUNERAL HOMES DIE

Kitchener is still looking for more doctors, for the 10,000 to 12,000 residents currently going without.

The Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce has asked Kitchener for continued funding to aid in the recruitment process.

The City has been trying to close the gap between patients and access to doctors since 1998, when more then 40,000 people were without one.

The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society is holding their 35th Annual Burns Supper January 23 in celebration of Burns Nicht at the St. Jacobs Community Centre. Burns Nicht commemorates the birthday of Robert Burns, author of many Scottish poems. Tickets for the event are $45 and include a traditional Scottish meal. Come for the haggis, and stay for the dancing.

The end of the year marked the closing of Ratz-Bechtel Funeral Home, and on January 4, its sale to the Zehr Group. The Victorian mansion was originally built in 1892 and is listed on the City of Kitchener’s heritage registry. Zehr Group CEO Don Zehr is jazzed, because the site is “right next to the light transit rail line, the region’s new multi-modal hub and other major tech companies.”

DEALING WITH DEATH

WELCOME TO THE FIFTH WORLD

CHURCH FOR SALE IN DTK

The Ontario government is engaging citizens across the province, seeking input to develop a national strategy on access to physician-assisted dying. Public town halls will take place in various communities throughout January. If you can’t make it to one of the locations listed online you can also provide input via online survey which is available until January 22.

Are you experiencing a new form of consciousness? The Fifth World art exhibit, opening this month at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, might help you better understand those feelings.

Curated by Wanda Nanibush to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Tribe Inc., a Saskatoon-based centre for evolving Aboriginal media, visual and performing arts. Check the KWAG website for more info.

Trinity United Church in Downtown Kitchener is for sale. The 250 person congregation is looking for a partner to redevelop the site into a combination of affordable housing, condos and community space where the Church could also continue offering services and administration. The building was originally constructed in 1905 and sits on one hectare of land.

HOME IS WHERE YOUR OFFICE IS

NEW ROAD RULES IN EFFECT

LADIES SPREAD THE LAUGHS

Waterloo residents will hopefully soon have more access to their provincial and federal representatives in the new year, with MPP Catherine Fife and MP Bardish Chagger setting up shop locally.

Fife has moved into City Hall and Chagger is set to open her local office, after winning the Waterloo riding this fall. She will occupy former MP Peter Braid’s office.

The allowance of self-driving cars on the Province’s roads is just one of many new road rules coming into effect starting this month. All private insurance companies must offer discounts to drivers who buy and install winter tires. Drivers must also now yield the entire road to pedestrians crossing the road at a crossover. Before, vehicles were allowed to proceed once pedestrians were out of their path.

Jess Beaulieu, Aisha Brown, Natalie Norman and Ashley Moffat are bringing the laughs to the Princess Cafe this January 14, for Feminist Comedy Night. The event is all ages, and pay what you can. All four women are based in Toronto, but make waves across the country with their smart and innovative work on television, in print, on the radio, and all kinds of comedy clubs.

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“WE JUST HAVE TO SHOW THEM OUR HEARTS” THREE LOCAL WOMEN DESCRIBE THEIR RECENT ISLAMOPHOBIC EXPERIENCES AROUND KITCHENER-WATERLOO

JESSE BAUMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF Noor* describes November 16 as an unseasonably warm day—a high of 15 degrees Celsius according to Environment Canada—and, pointedly, “the first Monday after Paris.” On that Monday her car windows were rolled down as she sat waiting for the lights to change at the intersection of King and Weber Streets. “When the arrow opened for the cars beside me to go left, I didn’t see the man’s face, I only heard him yell ‘you are a terrorist!’ and go, he was gone,” Noor, who is Syrian, said. “And then the light opened for us to go straight, but I hear a beep! beep! because really I was shocked, and in shock,” she continued, explaining the disorienting moments that followed.

Like Noor, Aisha is Muslim and wears hijab. She is a gregarious college student and lives in north Waterloo with her mother, Amal, who came alone from Somalia twenty years ago. As she recently explained to me, “during my shift at the dollar store I was serving a customer who was Muslim and had a full veil on, only showing her eyes. Behind

her was a man who was mumbling to himself, but audibly… When it was the man’s turn he continued mumbling to himself, but in a way that I could obviously hear. And he was saying ‘you terrorist, go back to your country... and he was swearing, and then he had the audacity to say it to me,” says Aisha. She eventually confronted the man, who claimed he did not realize she too was Muslim.

Aisha shared this experience with her district manager, who was sympathetic and recommended she transfer to a different store. But, as she explained, “it wasn’t safe… they wanted me to end my shifts at 10 p.m. downtown, and there’s no parking, and with these hate crimes happening I don’t want to put myself in that position.” She was promised in early November that the company would look into finding her safe work, but never heard back from her supervisor. A friend of Aisha’s who still works at the location “hears racist comments all the time,” she says.

On December 14, Amal was grocery shopping, and couldn’t find any green onions. “I asked the lady, I can’t see any green onions, do you have any more in the back?” She wouldn’t even talk to me, she just shut the door in my face,” she says.

A few weeks earlier she cut her hand cleaning her back door window,

which according to the police had been shot out with a BB gun. She doesn’t know why, though was visibly, if retroactively, shaken by the incident.

Each of these women bracketed their stories with reassurances that most Canadians are not like this, and that these were new experiences.

“These people, now they are scared [of Muslim people], and now that makes us scared,” said Amal. Before Paris, Aisha said, “I guess we didn’t pay mind to it. But now it sticks out more, now it feels like we’re targeted… we are afraid.”

The plural of anecdote, as the saying goes, is not data. And yet, in 2009 Kitchener-Waterloo had the most police-reported hate crimes in Canada. Diverse reporting policies across the country make it hard to assign meaning to that result, and the number has decreased since.

In a two year study ending in 2014, the Coalition of Muslim Women of K-W documented 40 incidents targeting Muslim women, including racial slurs and physical assault. The Coalition’s report also states that only one in 10 such incidents are reported to the police.

According to Ingrid Mattson, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Western Ontario, it’s essential “to understand that there

is racism in Canada.” She was the first female president of the Islamic Society of North America, converted to Islam in 1987, and describes “Islamophobia as a branch off the tree of racism.” Mattson points to the recently released Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report as evidence “that white superiority is part of the Canadian story.”

As Mattson explained by phone, the TRC makes it “clear that we haven’t dealt with that issue. So when you have a certain pattern or history or culture of racism or cultural superiority I think it’s easily transferred to other communities as well… And so the more we confront our own history of racism, the better it will be for everyone, including Muslims. We [Muslims] should understand that it’s always been a struggle for equality and fairness, and should learn about that struggle, and contribute to it, but we should not see ourselves as exceptional.”

Mattson’s words echo Aisha’s, and Noor’s, and Amal’s, who all agreed on the importance of education about Islam. Through that education, non-Muslims will “learn how we love together, and how our Qur’an promotes peace,” Aisha said. Mattson suggested organizing interfaith community events, carrying out simple acts of kindness on the street,

and keeping ready to hand positive examples of accomplished Muslim people.

Nearer to the end of our conversation, while she discussed her frustration with the media’s portrayal of Islam, and tendency to conflate the religion with violence and extremism, Noor shared a story about her eldest son, who is 12 years old. He came home from school one day, and said to her, “I did a good job at school today, mommy. I convinced my classmates that I’m not a terrorist, even though I’m Muslim.”

In the coming months, over 1,000 Syrians will settle in K-W, as refugees forced from home by horrific violence so regularly described in the media. They will need housing, and translators, and good schools. They will also, surely, hope for peace in their new community, and to have left violence behind.

Amal closed our interview with conviction, stating that to build relationships in K-W and abroad, “we [Muslims] just have to show them our hearts.” We must, then, be willing to look and to listen.

*Names (Noor, Aisha, Amal) and identifying details changed.

Yogis and yogis-to-be practice their poses in downtown Kitchener. COURTESY OF QUEEN STREET YOGA

ON YOGA, AND TEACHING WHAT WASN’T OURS YOGA TEACHER REFLECTS ON APPROPRIATELY ENGAGING WITH AND SHARING DIFFERENT CULTURAL TRADITIONS

EMMA DINES CONTRIBUTOR In the last several years, Queen Street Yoga has looked deeply into questions of privilege, oppression and cultural (mis)appropriation, and how they show up in the teaching of yoga, and in the experience of yoga studios. We have examinined how yoga was taught to us by mostly white, cis-gendered teachers, and thought carefully about what it means to be North American born practitioners of a tradition that has its origins in India.

Cultural (mis)appropriation occurs when members of a dominant culture take elements of a minoritized culture and use them outside of their original cultural context.

This often reduces or commodifies those cultural aspects, turning them into “exotic” or meaningless fashion accessories or activities.

Cultural appropriation is a complex subject, and people often get defensive when it is mentioned. The

Ottawa Sun recently published an article about a yoga class at the University of Ottawa that was purportedly cancelled due to fears that it could be considered cultural appropriation.

The Sun later printed a retraction and reported that the class was cancelled due to low attendance, but that did not stop the media-storm in which many white columnists and writers derided the whole idea that yoga could be considered cultural (mis)appropriation.

Nonetheless, thinking about the issue of cultural appropriation in the last few years has changed the way that I teach yoga and create studio programming.

I was originally trained in the Anusara Yoga method, which described itself as a Tantric or Neo-Tantric school. (Tantra is a philosophical school of thought that arose in India between the 4th and 13th Centuries.) My teacher training included the singing of mantras (devotional chanting) and the mythological stories of various Hindu deities. These aspects of Indian spiritual and religious culture were presented to me by white North American teachers, some of whom I believe were quite earnestly devoted

to Hindu practice, and had studied with Indian teachers.

When I first began teaching yoga six years ago, I was excited about the philosophical content I was learning and eagerly shared my interpretations and/or understandings of Tantra with my yoga students. I taught my students to sing mantras, and told them stories of Hindu deities.

Looking back, I feel embarrassed.

I would describe my early teaching as uninformed cultural misappropriation. Whatever cultural aspects of yoga I was sharing, they had been taught to me by white teachers. Some of those teachers were also scholars, but nevertheless, I was taking aspects of Hindu religious culture and teaching them as if they were mine.

I did not see what kinds of impacts that might have, particularly on the experience of people of South Asian descent in North America. I didn’t consider how it might feel for people of South Asian descent to experience racism and discrimination on a daily basis, and then see aspects of Indian culture watered down and commodified to sell yoga mats, stretchy pants and yoga classes.

As I started to realize this, I began to change my teaching from using

metaphors of Hindu deities and Tantric philosophical concepts to more secular themes that drew on research in psychology, neuroscience and natural movement. I taught the same physical poses of yoga, but changed my thematic presentation.

I looked for ways to frame the physical practice of yoga as movement meditation, as an opportunity to practice mindful awareness. I tried to offer my students context about the history of yoga and to be clear that how I was teaching yoga was my North American adaptation and not “an ancient practice.”

So why did I change my philosophical presentation of yoga, but still continue teaching the poses?

The answer is complex. I have a deep, embodied relationship with the physical poses, one which I developed from my own personal investigation. I believe that movement practices are vital for our well-being, and I have seen many students derive great physical and emotional benefit from practicing yoga. It made sense to me to continue to offer my own embodied understanding of the physical practice of yoga to people, but share themes and metaphors that were from my own cultural

background. However, I am also aware that this could be considered another, subtler form of cultural appropriation, one where the origins of a cultural practice are changed and/or erased.

Cultural appropriation in the case of yoga in North America is complex. There are aspects of yoga in the West that may be disrespectful and appropriative, and there are aspects of yoga in the West that can be deeply healing and thoughtful, and could be considered an aspect of cultural exchange, appreciation and evolution. I hope to continue to be in conversation and dialogue about this, and keep reaching for more context, understanding, and perspectives from people who I may be affecting without realizing it. We hope to continue this important conversation as part of our attempt to make yoga more accessible, inclusive and anti-oppressive.

Emma is the Creative Director, and the Co-Director of the Teacher Training Program at Queen Street Yoga, in Kitchener.

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NEW DRY HOUSE HAS DEEP ROOTS IN REGION

COMMUNITY MEMBERS DISCUSS THEIR WORK BUILDING AND SUSTAINING FIRST DRY HOUSES IN K-W

ALEXANDRA BISSLEY CONTRIBUTOR When Emmanuel United Church announced in November their plans to open the Region’s first dry house for women, media outlets included House of Friendship in much of their coverage. Supporting women as they transition from treatment back into the community will be a new venture for the social service agency. However, they are already part of a network of community organizations supporting three dry houses for men in Kitchener-Waterloo. What started in 2013 as a three-person house is now a three house operation with thrice the capacity; 20 men have received support in the past two and a half years.

Dry houses are, as the name suggests, spaces free from alcohol and most other addicting substances, for people trying to maintain sobriety.

They are typically an intermediate step between traditional “rehab” programs and a return home.

Dry houses are also places where “people can pour energy into getting better,” Chip Bender says, speaking to their unique place, and need, in the community. Bender is an outreach worker with The Working Centre. He coordinates and supports the houses and their residents with Clarence Cachagee, shelter to housing stability worker with House of Friendship.

“Just because we stumble and fall doesn’t mean we’re lost forever,” says Cachagee; and “sometimes we need a little help.” A driving philosophy behind the project is supporting people who have found the strength within themselves to ask for help.

While residential treatment programs provide a foundation for individuals in recovery, sobriety can be like “living on a different planet,” says Bender. Dry houses offer stability, a safe place and the support to put tools from residential treatment programs into practice once back in the community, where familiar faces and spaces can make it easy to fall back into substance use.

In 2012, as a community member with lived experience of addiction and treatment, Cachagee noticed a gap in

the system. Coming out of treatment there was limited support available for individuals working to stay sober, especially when it came to housing.

“It’s hard asking for help, especially as a man,” he says. “I was lucky enough to find an apartment and create a sanctuary,” Cachagee continued. But he had a vision of a safe place for men to receive support in their transition from treatment back into the community.

Cachagee spent time connecting with various community members and stakeholders to suss out interest and support for such a space. He found both, and a committee was eventually formed, bringing together people who had experience supporting individuals in addiction, which is where Bender became involved. The group, which included folks from Stirling Mennonite Church, met for several months before one of Stirling’s community houses became vacant and was offered as a space for a pilot project. The dry house project fit well with the Church’s mission for the houses, Suzanne Dyck, a member of Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church, told me. “We want to be a vital part of our neighbourhood. If there is a need that isn’t being met then if we

can use the houses to meet that need, that’s what we want to do,” she said.

The doors opened on July 1, 2013.

Cachagee, Bender and Dyck all admit that the dry house project got off to a shaky start when one resident relapsed shortly before he was due to move in, and another, fatally, shortly after beginning his residency. With no funding for the project, all coordination and support was being provided on a volunteer-basis—an added challenge in developing a sustainable transitional housing project. But, by the end of the first year, feedback from the residents spoke to the positive impact of the space, Dyck reports. When another of Stirling’s five community houses became available in the summer of July 2014, the church offered it to the dry house program. (Earlier this year, a third Stirling house was committed to the dry house program.)

At the same time, The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation received an anonymous donation, earmarked for housing, which was made available to House of Friendship. The organization put that money towards the dry house program, which allowed them to pay rent for the property and

to pay for Bender to work one full day a week with the houses.

Beyond Bender’s one day a week, however, the program remains volunteer-driven. Individuals awaiting treatment need more support than those coming out of treatment, Cachagee and Bender explain, but there is currently no funding. Securing permanent funding for both pre- and post-treatment support remains an ongoing challenge for the project.

In weaving together the evolution of the houses, both Cachagee and Bender stress the collaborative nature of the project; it, as the saying goes, has taken a village. The fruits of those efforts belong to the community, too. Cachagee and Bender share stories of where their “walking with” has led, from hearing men’s heartfelt speeches at their residential treatment graduations, to witnessing one dry house resident stand before the Stirling congregation to share his gratitude for the program.

“Everything had changed,” Cachagee marvels, “his language, his outlook on life.” “The biggest treat,” Bender concurs, “is watching people transform before your eyes.”

After a few residents at Bread and Roses Co-Operative Homes shared these welcoming words, the Co-Op decided to reserve an empty apartment for a refugee family in 2016. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

IT TAKES A CITY: REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT IN WR NEW CANADIANS ARE ALREADY DOING A LOT OF THE HEAVY LIFTING TO SETTLE REFUGEES AROUND K-W CAROLYN GRAY CONTRIBUTOR “I love Kitchener-Waterloo,” Jawad Ghabra says with a smile, while we chat in his restaurant, Shawerma Plus. Ghabra came to Canada to help his Syrian family run their now award-winning restaurant, and as the aroma of falafel wafts around us, he explains that “once you love a place, you want to give back.” So when a friend came into the restaurant one day with the idea to sponsor a refugee family, Ghabra immediately agreed.

“I’m in, 100 per cent,” he said.

Media coverage of the arrival of Syrian refugees reflects our collective excitement, along with fear and uncertainty and anticipation. Yet the history of local refugee resettlement can ground us. Instead of asking, “how will we do it?” we can consider, instead, “how have we been doing it?”

People fled to Canada long before the label “refugee” became a legal way

of categorizing those in need. Unless you are indigenous, you or your family arrived and had to integrate in some way. Often, this resettlement work is informally shouldered by those who once made a similar transition. Many of those unofficial settlement workers assisted others simply by being members of a community: by stepping in to translate because they knew the language, by helping find employment, by explaining the bus system, or where to find the best injera.

Shamrose for Syrian Culture has been doing this work for years.

“We try to build bridges here,” says co-founder Tamer Jabbour, who immigrated in 2005. Shamrose raises awareness about the Syrian conflict and culture, while helping establish newcomers. They run a children’s Arabic language school at Trinity United Church, and fundraise to support the relief work of Mennonite Central Committee, a partner of theirs since the group’s beginning in 2012.

Helen Ala Rashi, co-founder of Shamrose, also supports refugees through The Working Centre and Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support. She estimates that volunteer

interest tripled after the photo of Alayn Kurdi made international headlines. “It seemed overnight everybody wanted to get involved,” she said.

Ala Rashi knows from her own experiences that competent translators are a key element in the settlement process, and says the language barrier negatively affected her mental health and ability to integrate. She did not speak English and had no translation support when she arrived 11 years ago, during the last few weeks of her pregnancy. She couldn’t go to English school until her newborn was 18 months old, and isolation during the transition quickly led to depression.

“But I was lucky,” she recalls, “I was connected with the Early Years Centre where I could volunteer five days a week with my baby. I was always thankful for this place to allow me to volunteer without English.”

Shamrose provides translation training sessions for Arabic speakers.

“We train for confidentiality,” Ala Rashi explains, emphasizing that it is important for translators to know “how to control yourself, especially when providing sensitive health information, and expressing beliefs.”

The organization also has a match-

ing program for anyone wanting to get involved. Young families are matched with other young families, with whom they periodically meet to shop at the market, play soccer in the park, cook dinner, or study.

Many new refugee families will also need help getting around the city. Accessible transit currently comes in the form of subsidized bus passes, for which many wait six to 18 months. “You have all these services existing in the community: food hamper programs, employment services, housing. [But] if I don’t have transportation, how do I access them?” Ala Rashi asked rhetorically, reiterating that “the best thing would be for the Region of Waterloo to give a bus pass for the first three months at least.”

Access to subsidized transportation is a problem for many people living on a low income—refugee or not—and there are other challenges relating to resettlement that are not exclusively resettlement problems.

For example, the influx of refugees has seemingly prioritized public conversations about our significant lack of safe affordable housing. As groups press for short-term housing for refugees, they could make our cities

healthier in the long-term.

Our community commitment to settlement has brought other, less material, incidental benefits. “We all have different networks, backgrounds and viewpoints to contribute. And we were able to put these together for a common cause that we all believe in,” says Laura VanderGriendt, who with her husband organized a sponsorship group. “We intentionally wanted to bring together people from different aspects of our lives,” says her partner, Curtis. “It forced us to think intentionally through values and motivations as a group,” she added. Ghabra’s sponsoring group includes local academics, businesspeople, and the mayors of Kitchener and Waterloo.

“It’s an awesome group,” he says.

“Unfortunately Syria can’t be home today. It’s only in our hearts and memories. But we don’t give up,” says Ghabra. Indeed, home is worth working towards. “You can’t do everything.

But you can do something,” he says.

Perhaps the new year will open a new chapter, where diverse, active, and engaged communities foster a home where all are welcome.

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PHOTOS BY JAMIE MCCORMICK AND MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

IF STREETS COULD TALK: TREMAINE PARK

TCE CONTINUES PROFILING THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNDERAPPRECIATED ‘HOODS IN THE REGION

DARREN KROPF CONTRIBUTOR There are Kitchener neighbourhoods rich in history, and then there’s Tremaine Park.

With the first residents moving in less than 10 years ago, the neighbourhood loosely bounded by Fairway Road, Sims Estate Drive, Janine Street and Tremaine Drive is one of the youngest in Kitchener. Despite its newness, the neighbourhood has quickly developed a community spirit and strong sense of identity.

That identity starts and ends with the park. At first glance, the park is nothing special. A couple pathways, open grass, a basketball court and a playground are its main features. Yet it’s so well loved the entire neighbourhood has adopted the park as its neighbourhood identifier, even though “Edgewater Estates” is the

name posted on street signs.

The park’s vibrancy grows from the variety of community gatherings and events hosted on its lawn, including Earth Day cleanups, Easter egg hunts, charity barbecues, tree trimmings, and Halloween parties. While these have become annual traditions, resident Julie Nicholls is most proud of the informal gatherings. She fondly recalls the time she sent out a last-minute email inviting all the neighbourhood kids to build snow forts when school was cancelled for the day. Twenty-five kids showed up.

From a planning perspective, it’s no surprise that the park has been so strongly embraced by its local residents. The park is central to the neighbourhood, there is frontage on multiple streets, and links to a nearby parkette and trails. Indeed, Tremaine Park was a catalyst for how new park spaces and neighbourhoods are to be designed. According to Brandon Sloan, Manager of Long Range and Policy Planning with the City of Kitchener, the new planning model requires building parks in new subdivisions

in the early stages, when people first start moving in.

Of course, the neighbourhood is not without its challenges. With new houses popping up all the time, the school boundaries shift constantly.

Kids in the neighbourhood attend six different schools, with some of them bussed all the way downtown to Sheppard Public School. The City’s planning policies call for a new school and more commercial amenities in the Fairway and Lackner area to address this challenge.

Residents are also aware of the need for recreational activities for youth, as children grow older, and understand that many of their neighbourhood events will need to develop a youth focus.

These are decidedly suburban challenges, to be sure. But the suburban stereotypes end there.

“I’m a pro-LRT person... Someday I’m going to have teenage boys in my house and they’re going to want to go to God knows where and I’m just going to drop them off at the mall and tell them to get on the LRT and go places,”

explains Stephanie Sawyer, a resident of the neighbourhood for six years and firm supporter of investing in public transit.

Residents also scoff at the stereotype that suburbs lack community or a sense of place. To them, the lack of history in their neighbourhood is actually its biggest strength.

“If you’re the new family moving into an established neighbourhood it’s very overwhelming to introduce yourself to everybody. When you move into a new neighbourhood you’re very well aware that everyone feels the same as you, everybody’s in the same boat,” explained resident Brooke Robinson.

Robinson’s desire to connect with neighbours was a common trait among the Tremaine Park residents with whom I spoke. And, as a volunteer with the Neighbourhood Strategy Project Team, Robinson continues to enthusiastically share her self-starting attitude as Kitchener develops its first-ever Neighbourhood Strategy.

The strategy will help people connect and work together to do great things in their neighbourhood and will gath-

er input from every neighbourhood through one of the largest and most inclusive community engagement processes in the City’s history.

Robinson believes all neighbourhoods have the capacity to make their neighbourhood even better. Drawing on her experience, she encourages other neighbourhoods with this advice: “What I think is sort of neat is everything we’ve done here has been done by families who are just looking to make their neighbourhood better.

And it’s not a daunting task to put an egg hunt together or a Halloween picnic. We haven’t followed a rule book.

And there’s nothing formal about what we do. Everything’s been built from the ground up and is just done out of the good-hearted nature of the folks who live here.”

It remains to be seen how the neighbourhood will evolve as children grow and families move in and out. But the residents aren’t worried its tightknit community will fade. As Sawyer confidently expresses, “the park will always continue. It’s the heart of the community.”

JANUARY 2016 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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BETTER, FASTER & MUCH LESS HAPPY

HOW SELF-IMPROVEMENT MAY RUIN US

JOHN ROCHE CONTRIBUTOR The new year has arrived, and it’s time to be a better you!

Every January, we’re fed the same line by advertisements for gyms, beauty products, clothes and self-help books. The underlying message is something like this: you are unhappy now, and that is because you are not good enough, but if you acquire or achieve this or that, you will become good enough and therefore, finally, you will be happy. This logic is great for business, but bad for mental health. Fortunately, it’s also total bullshit.

In fact, not only does the idea of self-improvement as a means to happiness fail to deliver on its promises, it’s actually a large part of what keeps us miserable.

To understand why, let’s take a quick look at the root of unhappiness, and, for that matter, mental illness. As Freud observed, there are aspects of the self that we unconsciously deem to be too painful or anxiety-producing to acknowledge: a traumatic memory, a profound insecurity, a debilitating fear. Maybe some part of us feels ugly, stupid or weak no matter what we achieve or become. And maybe we think that the fact that we feel that way represents some shameful failure on our part. Understandably, then, we want to get rid of these painful aspects of ourselves, and so we repress, avoid, bury, project, whatever. As long as the shame is gone and not hurting us anymore.

This is a very understandable response to the immense pain of being human. “If only I can eliminate what is weak, vulnerable, and fragile in myself,” we imagine, “then I will be okay.”

According to this logic, happiness is attained by changing inner or outer circumstances: if the problem is that you think you’re ugly, get a better haircut and go to the gym more regularly; if you fear abandonment and act like a doormat for the people you love, go see a counsellor and become confident like Beyoncé or Ryan Gosling; and if you feel stupid or incompetent, then go to graduate school and change careers. Your fears and insecurities will disappear like a tumour deftly removed by a surgeon, and you will finally be happy. Quite easily done.

The only problem is that it doesn’t work. Why? The root of unhappiness lies not in the fact that there are aspects of our-

selves that are vulnerable and painful, but in our very tendency to judge and disown these aspects of ourselves. In other words, the problem is not the content of our psyche (the insecurity about the number on the scale, the fear of abandonment, or whatever), but the underlying psychological process of judging, rejecting, and dis-integrating certain aspects of our psyche. As long as that underlying psychological process is in place, then becoming a supermodel or a CEO isn’t going to change much. The best we can hope for is to climb to the top of the ladder only to find that it’s against the wrong wall. Some people live their whole lives like that, caught in a game of psychological whack-a-mole, except instead of it being a fun 45 second game, this version saps you of all joy and keeps going until one day you just die.

So if judging and trying to eliminate the vulnerable, painful and shameful aspects of ourselves is the problem, then the solution is acceptance and integration of the self. As Carl Jung said, “acceptance of one’s self is the essence of the moral problem and the acid test of one’s whole outlook on life.”

And if you start looking at the world’s enduring psychological and spiritual teachings, you’ll notice the same theme popping up again and again with different metaphors: Jung called it integrating the shadow; Thich Nhat Hanh calls it mindfulness and likens the process to a mother embracing a wounded child; and contemporary, evidence-based psychotherapies like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction begin and end with acceptance.

In every approach, the underlying theory is the same: judgment and avoidance lead to unhappiness and mental illness, while acceptance and integration of the most painful aspects of the self lead paradoxically to wholeness and joy.

So if the quest for self-improvement is the psychological equivalent of whack-a-mole, then self-acceptance is the equivalent of walking away from the game and living your life. In other words, self-acceptance is the change that changes everything. It is the key to a happiness that is deep enough to contain the imperfections of yourself and the world.

Maybe this January it’s time to stop playing the game; maybe it’s time for a truly happy new year.

John Roche is a psychotherapist who practices in Waterloo.

WE HAVE EVEN MORE CONTENT ONLINE. COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

Janice Lee poses for the art for her new album, Sing Hey, out this month . PHOTO COURTESY HANNAH MARIE

ME AND TCE AND JANICE LEE

ON THE KW ART SCENE, A NEW ALBUM AND BURNING OUT

ERIN MCLEAN-PURDON CONTRIBUTOR From the outside, Janice Lee has had a successful year. She received the “Leading Women, Building Communities” award from the Ontario Women’s Directorate, was the 2015 Oktoberfest Woman of the Year in Arts and Culture, and as the City of Kitchener’s 2015 Artist in Residence, just wrapped up her Folk Myths of Kitchener project.

Given these accolades, you might be surprised by a recent post on Lee’s blog, entitled “I feel like giving up.” In this post, Lee describes being exhausted by the token support she receives for her art, her role as the go-to champion of K-W’s spoken word scene, and the systemic oppression she experiences as a woman of colour.

In addition, Lee’s art is literally not paying off. While working as an artist in K-W, Lee’s income has always been below the poverty line. She shared this fact at a recent Kitchener council meeting, and concluded that the challenges of living as an artist in K-W have prompted her to consider leaving the region—and her artistic practice.

Amid the uncertainties in Lee’s life, she continues to care for her art and for K-W. The interview below is a testament to Lee’s will. Despite hardships she still believes in her art, her fight against social injustices, and that K-W is a place where the arts can flourish. In the new year, Lee will release her sophomore album, Sing Hey. TCE sat down with Lee to ask about the album’s genesis and intent, and to gather her reflections on the arts community in K-W. TCE: Last month, we published an interview with the Canadian musician Owen Pallett, where he talked about art and community. You’ve read the interview, any thoughts?

JL: I totally understand what he’s saying, [that] if you say there’s no art scene then there is no art scene. But what is an art scene? Is it audiences that come to shows or is it a community of people who actually have conversations with each other and know

each other and have relationships... I do agree [with Pallett] that you have to build it. You can’t complain that it doesn’t exist and do nothing… I definitely feel what he’s saying, that the [art] community can only exist if everybody contributes to it and believes [in it].

TCE: Your new music is unrelentingly feminist and anti-racist. Do you want to talk about what it was like writing this material, where it came from?

JL: I actually felt, this time around, pressure on myself to please my audience. I had to fight that and just write and record the album the way I wanted. As a performer you can feel when the audience freezes to you and the audience doesn’t give you the warmth, because now I’ve talked about the responsibility men have to feminism and the men feel alienated… I want my audiences to like my performance but this year it’s really become clear that the content and the conversations that I want to forward are more important than people liking me or liking my Facebook page.

TCE: So what do you hope the listener will take away from your new album?

JL: I want the album to affirm experiences of sadness and struggle. That that’s not embarrassing, it’s human, it’s normal. The song “All The Times You Were Silent,” the opening track, is a reminder for myself that I have power and can take responsibility in making change. Hopefully that will also empower others. As the album progresses you’ll also hear sometimes it doesn’t have to be you. Sometimes you are too tired and that’s okay.

TCE: As a white, heterosexual, male, settler what can I be doing in my everyday life to make the world a less oppressive place?

JL: I think that’s great that you asked that question, what can I do? If I could just catalyze that question I’m happy. I don’t have all the answers. The album is not a solution book [and so] if the album made you ask that question I’m happy. I’m an artist... I want to light sparks and then other people can fan the flames and do their own thing with it.

TCE: In “Oh I Owe” [from Lee’s new album Sing Hey] the refrain is “I want to be free.” What would make you feel

more free?

JL: That’s a huge question! I want white people, including my white friends, to think critically and self-reflect on how white supremacy manifests in our relationships. Those are hard journeys to go through together but if you really love somebody and you want them in your life for a long time you got to do the work.

We’ve grown up in this generation that thinks racism isn’t really a thing anymore because we grew up in such multiracial classrooms but that doesn’t mean we addressed colonialism. Love me if you want me to be free, and love is a verb right?

TCE: I’ve read on your blog that you’ve been feeling like the pressure really lies on your shoulders to reinvigorate the K-W art scene. But who else is involved in moving the arts forward?

JL: There are a lot of house shows now. There’s The Neighborhood, The Fireplace, and The Branches was the key one that ignited a lot of this local folk community and social justice art.

Open Sesame is a new space that just opened, we just had our first [poetry] slam there this weekend. … It was great and the people there really want to animate their space with art and they’re really supportive. So I don’t feel hopeless about the scene, there’s lots of awesome things happening. It’s just this year I’ve been feeling burnt out. I’ve been giving a lot and people aren’t realizing that they also have to reciprocate. You can’t just take from the arts community, you also have to participate and give to it, right?

Whether that’s just as a listener or buying the art.

So, can Kitchener care better for artists like Janice Lee? If so, who should care and how? Should the market decide who can afford to do art in K-W? I don’t know the answers to these questions. I do know that an artist should not receive empty thanks for hard work. People can show their real and sincere thanks for Lee by attending the album release party for her new record Sing Hey, on January 21, at the Boathouse.

a year in

THE COMMUNITY EDITION’S

n review

S FAVOURITE SCENES FROM 2015. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

JANUARY 2016 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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DIE, BAD SCIENCE DAVID SIEBERT CONTRIBUTOR Science, as you well know, has accomplished some pretty great things.

Humans have walked on the moon, discovered vaccines, and now regularly perform surgery without killing the patient. The history of science, though, reveals we haven’t always got it right.

There are some ideas in the history books so incredibly wrong, so laughably bad, so obviously false that it’s hard to believe anyone ever considered them right.

On December 14, professors, students and members of the public packed into a classroom at the University of Waterloo for an event called “This Idea Must Die Day,” to discuss the question: “What concepts and theories are blocking progress in understanding mind, brain, and intelligence?” Their mission was to discuss why certain ideas must die.

The ideas were abstract, deeply theoretical, and resplendent with jargon. It was clear that the speakers were deeply imbedded in their fields, but also that bad ideas have real world consequences.

Dr. Brian Cozzarin of the Faculty of Management Science spoke about one idea that has a direct impact on his life.

Dr. Cozzarin wants us to kill off the idea of “Autism as Disability.” Cozzarin, you see, has autism. Or rather, as he poetically said, he “travels” with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). “Those with autism see the world differently,” he said, and “they spend a lot of time trying to figure out patterns, they tend to be very creative, they work tirelessly to figure things out, they will ask the questions nobody has ever thought to ask before, and they will find the most nitpicky teeny little mistakes.”

Cozzarin expressed a desire for a change in language that could in turn change the ways that researchers, media and teachers understand ASD. Cozzarin acknowledged that some people with autism are affected by intellectual impairments, but argued that just as many do not. Instead of putting all our resources into preventing, curing or treating ASD, Cozzarin asks researchers to look at the positive side of autism as well. Challenging the audience he asked, “how can an autistic person be so terrible at some things and brilliant at others?”

Even after Cozzarin spoke, members of the audience still qualified their questions with phrases like “sufferers of ASD” and “people dealing with ASD.” Ideas, it would seem, are not easily or quickly killed off.

This Idea Must Die focused solely on cognitive science, but we would do well to question ourselves, our ideas, and generally to practice a bit of intellectual humility. In five, 50, or 150 years what notions will be considered horribly out of date? Maybe our labelling of mental illnesses will bite the dust?

Perhaps our obsession with fossil fuels will shuffle off this mortal coil? It’s difficult, if not impossible, to say definitively which modern ideas should die.

But that is no reason not to try.

The most recent iteration of the Boathouse formally opened in Victoria Park, Kitchener, in January 2015. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

IS THE BOATHOUSE UNDEMOCRATIC?

AS CITIZENS, WE HAVE A RIGHT TO PUBLIC SPACES FREE FROM CONSUMERISM WR OPINION

SETH RATZLAFF CONTRIBUTOR Victoria Park is one of the most idyllic public places in Waterloo Region, a waterfront sanctuary in an Ontario city uncharacteristically far from the Great Lakes. In the middle of the park sits a restaurant called The Boathouse.

It features a cozy interior and an exterior patio complete with Muskoka chairs and shaded picnic tables, where patrons enjoy fancy food and specialty beverages, and a fine view of the park.

Yet, all of this shouldn’t be. As citizens in a democratic society, we have a right to true public spaces.

Full disclosure: I have, on plenty of occasions, enjoyed the privilege of drinking cold craft beer while sitting in those laid-back chairs. And what a privilege it is! Delightful. But this past summer, on my many strolls through the park, I gazed upon the revellers in that demarcated space and couldn’t help but feel a certain uneasiness.

One of the defining characteristics of a public space is that it is open to any demographic, a place where anyone can go to relax, to spend time with others, or even to protest. Unlike private spaces, where our presence requires an explanation or a purchase, we can feel free to spend a day in public spaces—like parks—without fear of being bothered to move along.

Further, public spaces are those rare spaces where one finds refuge from the consumerist messages that saturate day-to-day life. These messages try to convince us to keep buying new things and new services, lest we miss out on living a meaningful and up-todate life. One of consumerism’s most persuasive tools is the promise of social status, artificial as it may be, for those who can afford it. Many aim to escape this bombardment of information in public spaces like Victoria Park, which offer some reprieve from the cacophony of voices trying to sustain the endless cycle of production and consumption.

Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, restricting private enterprise in public space helps make genuine political concern—the actual opinions of individuals and groups—distinguishable from the interests of private

enterprise, which can usually be boiled down to profit.

All this political theory leads to the main problem with The Boathouse: its location, smack dab in the middle of Victoria Park. Not at the edge of the Park, but within the public realm itself, sits this upper middle class restaurant where those who can afford it enjoy the privilege of fancy chairs, fancy food, and most surprisingly, fancy alcohol.

Here is the marketing of consumerism in one of the few places that it’s not supposed to be: public space. And, naturally, its presence is busy creating class distinctions. When we stroll past the patio we realize that certain park visitors can afford luxury, and others cannot. We are not equal, and suddenly we feel as if we’re missing out, as if our visit to the park is somehow incomplete without spending money.

The consumption of alcohol in this privileged patio is especially concerning because, as we all know, alcohol is strictly forbidden or regulated in public spaces. Considering that the patio is separated by a mere three-foot high ornamental fence, and that tipsy patrons exit essentially into the park, it is a contradiction to say that one is allowed to consume alcohol here but

not there.

Victoria Park could be an oasis of public space in a city that, by and large, doesn’t have much of it. Yet, it presents an unusual contradiction, one that may not seem so nefarious at first glance—it is, after all, just a restaurant. But, considering its profit-interested mandate, and its capacity to create class distinctions, I propose sober thinking about the whole enterprise. What is good public space?

What makes a park special? Because of its location, when we gaze upon The Boathouse, we encounter more than just another restaurant. Rather, we encounter yet another opportunity for consumption, demanding our time and money, offering a forbidden fruit in the park. All it takes is a little cash, then, to have a special seat with the pretty view. Need another drink?

TCE welcomes letters and opinion pieces from all community members, but does not endorse all expressed views. Let us know what you think and weigh in with your own letter, or online @theCommunityEd.

SEEKER’S CORNER: DEITY’S PLENTY

TCE SURVEYS OUR REGION’S SPIRITUAL LANDSCAPE. THIS MONTH: BUDDHISM

CHRISTOPHER EMERY-MOORE COLUMNIST Reading “Take Me To Church” in the Community Edition’s November issue left me feeling in full agreement with the title. Alistair MacLellan’s finely crafted historical portrait of two Kitchener-Waterloo churches also left me curious whether their congregations worship as differently as they house themselves. What goes down on Knox Presbyterian’s royal blue pew cushions on a given Sunday morning?

And before the creamy pink altar of St. Paul’s Lutheran?

Anthropologist Melford Spiro thought he had a pretty good idea when he defined a religion as “an institution consisting of culturally patterned interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings.” If so, Dr. Spiro, then maybe there is nothing short of magic transpiring all around us in our neighbourhood places of worship. Maybe you don’t believe in

magic. In the very least, isn’t a group of human beings convening to communicate with superhuman beings a noteworthy community event?

An appetite for deities led me to K-W three years ago to the WLUUW joint PhD in North American religious diversity, where I’ve been marvelling at faith’s many faces ever since. In my first class I led a seminar discussion of William Closson James’s award-winning 2011 book, God’s Plenty: Religious Diversity in Kingston, described by the author as “a study of the entire religious landscape of one medium-sized Canadian city.”

In the inspired wake of MacLellan’s tale of two churches, I wondered, if James filled 500 pages with Kingston’s religious goings-on, what yarn could be spun of K-W’s religiosity?

It’s clear from the outset that tri-cities religion extends well beyond God’s plenty. The nontheistic religion of Buddhism, for example, has a variety of institutional forms in Waterloo region.

Uptown’s Waterloo Riverview Dharma Centre is a “non-sectarian centre for meditative practice in the Buddhist

tradition,” offering English-language meditation courses, silent retreats, and an annual Buddhist film festival. A branch of the global Chinese Buddhist movement Fo Guang Shan, Buddha’s Light Centre Waterloo, also uptown, offers English- and Chinese-language Dharma study, mindfulness, chanting, and vegetarian cooking courses, as well as wedding and funeral services.

Vien Quang Vietnamese Buddhist Temple in Kitchener’s Northward and Wat Lao Dhammaram in Blair, Cambridge provide respectively Vietnamese- and Lao-speaking Theravada Buddhist services. Finally, two Tibetan-inspired global Buddhist movements offer evening English-language meditation classes at unaffiliated Kitchener venues: Shambhala International at Grand River Unitarian Congregation, and New Kadampa Tradition at Kitchener Public Library.

Local Buddhist sympathizers, meet Buddha’s local plenty.

Christianity’s ubiquity has been steadily curtailed in Canadian public life over the past 50 years, as part of a secularization process that some would say is far from complete. Since

the surest way to privilege no particular religion(s) is to represent no religion at all, a politically pragmatic secularism keeps Waterloo Public Square at once peaceable and unspiritual.

Absent from our social institutions, Waterloo region’s gods, buddhas, spirits, and other superhuman beings tend to live between the walls of private religious institutions and individuals’ homes where they can be comfortably postulated and interacted with by the spiritual subcultures that comprise our region’s religious diversity.

But there’s an aspect of religion’s modern privatization that strikes me as easy to overlook and undervalue: as competitors in a spiritual marketplace, most of these religious communities are in fact eager to welcome visitors and to share their spiritual resources.

Existentially lost or just Netflix exhausted, why not leave your phone at home some sleepy Sunday morning and knock on a deity’s door? Chances are it will already be open, and if the superhuman conversations don’t strike a chord, the human ones just might.

JANUARY 2016 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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WHILE PARTS OF DTK BLOOM, BUDDS CLOSES

HISTORIC CLOTHING RETAILER WRAPS UP BUSINESS IN DOWNTOWN KITCHENER, 90 YEARS AFTER OPENING

DAVE THOMAS CONTRIBUTOR Downtown Kitchener continues to evolve. Budds, one of the city’s oldest retail institutions, closes its doors this January, after almost 90 years of business.

Brothers Howie and Stan Budd, who run the store with Howie’s son Jeff, are planning to retire after more than five decades of service. “It’s a bittersweet decision,” says Stan.

Since announcing the closure in October, there has been “an overwhelming” outpouring of affection and respect from customers, says Howie.

Their father Nat, along with his three brothers, opened the first store on King Street in 1926. The company’s two additional stores, in Guelph and Simcoe, are also scheduled to close.

Through the rise of suburban malls, big box stores and online shopping, Budds succeeded by winning the loyalty of customers. Jeff says it’s because of the company’s emphasis on excellent customer service and value for money.

“Our father instilled in us certain

values,” says Stan. “One of the main ones was, as simple as it may sound, that the real boss of our business is the customers. If you continue to treat them with respect, and kindness, and give them the best value you can, they’ll keep coming back. That’s why we’re hands-on, and have been all these years, because we do treat them with respect. [Customers] know when they walk in the store that we’re not just here to sell to them, we’re here to take care of them,” he says.

What will the loss of Budds mean for downtown retail?

Anita Petsche owns Petsche Shoes, in business for more than 60 years, just down the street. She says that

Budds has been an anchor in the downtown, and that the closure will be a real loss. Yet she’s also cautiously optimistic about the outlook for commerce in the core. Given the focus on revitalization, “there is hope that more people [living and working in the area] will also want to shop and dine and be entertained in the downtown core,” she says.

Jordan Dolson is also excited about the downtown evolution. She started Legacy Greens, a fresh produce outlet, on King Street, in 2015. “The idea of having way more people downtown, living a walkable lifestyle, makes the idea of having a green grocer downtown more sustainable and more

profitable,” she says.

Though the closing of their store is tinged with sadness, the Budd family are also optimistic about the future.

“We’ve walked King Street every day for 50 years,” says Howie. “We’ve seen the best, and we’ve seen the worst.

We’re leaving at a time when King Street is on an upswing, [with] the new condos, high-tech, the LRT. It’s all going to form a new, vibrant King Street which will be the heart and soul of our community. People will be proud of it.

No question.”

Budds started selling goods to “men, women, ladies and children” in 1926. After 90 years, they will close up shop this month. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

START UP WATCH: GROBO, RIDECO & VOLTERA

KURTIS THOMAS CONTRIBUTOR GROBO You’d be hard pressed to find a person who doesn’t prefer delicious home grown vegetables over those from the grocery store. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles to success: the Canadian climate, busy schedules, and our own lacking green thumbs. The team at Grobo is working to eliminate these variables. With their app-con-

trolled pods, all you have to do is plant a seed and tell the app what’s growing.

The Grobo will take care of the rest. It automatically provides the plant with the perfect amount of water and light to ensure you’ll have delicious home grown food without fail.

to other ride hailing services, plus all the convenience of knowing exactly when and where you’ll be picked up and delivered. A Milton pilot test is currently underway, offering door to transit hub services for less than two dollars a trip.

RIDECO RideCo is a ride sharing service designed with convenience and your wallet in mind. When booking a ride with the service, their logistics technology finds more riders travelling at a similar time and in a similar direction, and matches you with them. According to RideCo, this can create a cost savings of up to 80 per cent compared

VOLTERA Recent winner of the 2015 James Dyson award, Voltera is making a name for itself. Circuit board printing is traditionally a time consuming and costly process, involving set-up costs and shipping fees. Voltera has embraced the additive manufacturing revolution and made a printer that will print a circuit board right at your desk.

Their technology eliminates a huge infrastructure barrier and drastically reduces the time from concept to completion, saving companies of all sizes time and money. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the group is now shipping printers and accepting orders.

JANUARY 2015 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

12

UNION FIGHTS WLU SUB-CONTRACTING

NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN CUPE LOCAL 926 AND WLU FALTER ON FIRST DAY SEXPLANATIONS

MARC XUEREB CONTRIBUTOR A union representing custodians, groundskeepers and tradespeople at Wilfrid Laurier University is drawing a line in the sand over the University’s attempts to contract out their work to companies that pay poverty wages.

In what is shaping up to become a battle emblematic of the broader fight for good jobs and against precarious work in this province, the members of Local 926 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) may end up on strike or locked out by the University over an issue that would also affect the next generation of workers at Wilfrid Laurier.

In a November 27 news release, WLU stated its interest in making its custodial services more “cost-effective” and “sustainable,” citing absenteeism, lack of shift flexibility, premium pay and overtime as barriers to achieving their plan.

CUPE staff representative Jill Smyth calls these statements insulting and demeaning. She suspects that the University’s refusal to respond to the union’s request for actual absentee

statistics reveals little substance to the employer’s claims.

CUPE 926 has a typical collective agreement, by union standards.

Custodians earn $21.31 per hour, get extended health and dental benefits, and pay pension plan premiums that are matched by the university. By contrast, employees of companies currently contracted to do the same custodial work receive $13 per hour, with no benefits or pensions. Living Wage Waterloo Region estimates that a decent standard of living in Waterloo Region requires an hourly wage of $16.05.

Another typical–and essential–clause in CUPE 926’s collective agreement with the university is the job security clause, which prevents the employer from eliminating union jobs as a result of contracting out work.

The intent of this clause is obvious, as it prevents employers from circumventing commitments made to their unions in the collective bargaining process by simply hiring other people to do the same work.

WLU has already been playing fast and loose with this clause. As it closes buildings for renovations, it lays off the custodians assigned to those buildings, and when the building re-opens with a new name, contracts the work out to cheaper workers. The union claims this already is a violation

of the collective agreement, and is taking several related grievances to arbitration, where a judge versed in labour law will decide on its legality.

The most recent collective agreement between WLU and CUPE 926 expired on June 30. On the first day the two sides sat down to negotiate changes to the agreement, WLU’s negotiators announced that the union should expect a “new regime” on the employer’s side of the table, and took the unusual and aggressive move of filing for conciliation on the first day.

Typically, one party files for conciliation only after an impasse is reached, often after days or weeks of negotiations. Conciliation is a required step before a union can go on strike or an employer can lock out its unionized employees.

To punctuate its point, the University’s first set of proposals demanded the removal of the job security clause, essentially permitting it to contract out the union’s work at will. The union is left with little choice other than to stand firm at the bargaining table against this proposal: to give in to this demand would negate much of the strength of the union, and would mean an end to being able to earn a living wage doing custodial work at WLU. At a rally attended by hundreds in the WLU “quad” on December 3,

leaders of unions at the university and beyond declared their solidarity for CUPE 926 members and promised to support the custodians in their fight.

The presidents of the two largest unions at WLU, Niru Phillip of OSSTF 35 and Michele Kramer of the WLU Faculty Association, spoke at the rally.

Phillip recalled the bitter strike he and his members went through in 2002, and criticized the University for seemingly forgetting how long it took to resume cordial relations afterwards. Kramer noted the irony of the University continually referring to the WLU community as a “family” in its external communications while treating its employees so terribly behind closed doors.

Two other WLU unions attended the rally, along with several activists from the Waterloo Regional Labour Council, all pledging their support for the custodians.

The stand-off at WLU seems destined for a strike or lockout early in the new year. CUPE 926 members will need support and solidarity over the coming months to maintain decent wages and work conditions.

Marc is president of the Waterloo Regional Labour Council.

UNBUILT WR: WALKIN’ ON KING STREET

The rise of the indoor mall in the 1960s signaled a shift from high street shopping downtown to one-stop trips to climate controlled suburban malls. Business and political leaders recognized this trend and tried to replicate the mall experience in downtowns across North America, including building two such malls downtown Kitchener. Even with two of these red brick behemoths, the core struggled with urban decay, and politicians in the late 1970s decided to up the ante. First they drafted plans to install covered sidewalks to protect pedestrians from the elements, which evolved into a glass arcade that would completely cover King Street, from Market Square to Water Street. Essentially they wanted to put a roof on the street and create a mega pedestrian mall. Pedestrianizing the street was a sound concept, but putting a roof over a street was odd. Other plans for urban rejuvenation included the creation of more Market Square style skywalks and a ring road that would circle the core and allow pedestrians free reign, much like a university campus. We can commend the thinkers of the time on their bold ideas, and also be thankful they never followed through on the King Street Arcade. MATT SMITH WORDS AND PHOTO, ALISTAIR MACLELLAN ILLUSTRATION

STACEY JACOBS COLUMNIST A new year, a fresh start, and an opportunity to teach your children important facts and skills that will keep them healthy and safe. To do this, you must be open, and respect their privacy and bodies, as you respect your own. As parents and adults we often have double standards when it comes to children, which gives them potentially harmful and mixed messages.

Children should be taught that their body belongs to them and that they always get to decide what happens to it. This can begin at a very young age.

Think back to when you were young and a relative came to visit. Were you told to hug aunt Grace hello, or kiss grandma goodbye? Did you want to? Did you try to say no, but were told to anyways?

We often force young children to touch adults in ways they do not wish to, even adults they barely know. This teaches children that they do not have autonomy over their own bodies. This could also be teaching them that they cannot say no to adults, even an adult who is trying to harm or abuse them.

We all someone I’ll call a “hugger.”

Someone who touches and squeezes without your consent and without noticing how uncomfortable it makes you feel. Wouldn’t it be amazing if this person asked if they could touch you?

And wouldn’t it be fantastic if they respected your answer: no, you cannot!

If we teach children that they must ask before they touch someone, and respect the answer they receive, we could have a world without “huggers,” where we all feel comfortable and respected.

We should also teach children that if someone touches them and they do not want to be touched, they should tell that person that they do not wish to be touched and to please stop. Let your child know that if someone is touching them without their permission they can tell you, even if this person says it is a secret. Be clear that parents and children do not have secrets.

Most of us are understandably fearful of rejection. That is why it is so important to teach children to accept, without taking personally, that people may reject their request for a hug, a kiss or a hand hold. If they have the option of saying no, so do others, and it often does not mean that the person does not like you.

Communication is always important and sometimes a person is simply having a bad day or is not in the mood to be touched. Some people are never in the mood to be touched and this is okay.

By giving children the choice of whether or not to be touched, and teaching them to respect their body and the bodies of others, we are teaching and normalizing respect and consent in the next generation of adults. And this is a good thing.

JANUARY 2016 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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When thee question is, “to pie or not to pie?” at Shakespeare Pies, thee answer, of course, is “to pie.” Inside the bakery on Park Street, in Waterloo. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

TRIP TO SHAKESPEARE PIES WORTH THE DOUGH STARTING IN A GARAGE, THEN A COUNTRY STORE, NEW BAKERY SET TO PLEASE UPTOWN’S SWEET TOOTH ALISTAIR MACLELLAN CONTRIBUTOR When it comes to pie, nothing beats that one special recipe passed down from generation to generation.

For me, it’s grandma’s apple pie, so skillfully made in her absence by my mother. Sitting down to this pie, the hungry dessert seeker encounters whole apple slices surrounded by a

light fluffy crust that is somehow still doughy on the inside.

But it’s the 21st century, and few of us have the time or the skill to pinch and fill crust like grandma.

So when you want a pie that tastes like you stole it, still-hot, off a window-sill, a good place to look is Shakespeare Pies. The shop, and its founder Susie Wagler, has roots in the small town of Shakespeare, about 25 minutes due west of Kitchener-Waterloo. Wagler started baking pies for a family garage sale, which grew into a pie-stand, and then, with the health

Are “sunny ways” a form of resilience? MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

BUILDING RESILIENCE

CATHY MACLELLAN COLUMNIST Our new Prime Minister is promoting “sunny ways,” and this is exactly the right approach to many of the challenges we face individually and collectively. So, resolve to be positive in 2016.

Despite Mr. Trudeau’s attitude, research indicates that it’s much easier for us to think negatively about our lives. Why? According to the social psychology professor Dr. Roy F. Baumeister, our evolutionary past required attention to many possibly life threatening dangers. We don’t face those threats today, but our brains still prioritize negative stimuli. The fightor-flight response that kept us safe while berry picking is not necessary to deal with the threat of job loss, or severe illness or lost love.

Since our brains naturally think the worst, first, research shows that it takes more brain activity and more effort to overcome our tendency to be negative, and to see threats everywhere. We succumb to and express negative thoughts because that is our

brain’s default position. This must be the reason we need five positives for every negative in our lives. In this respect the old adage “put on a happy face” beats “keep calm and carry on” to build our resilience and not be overwhelmed by life’s stressors.

How can we do this? In their book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, Steven Southwick and Dennis Charney suggest different strategies to stimulate brain change and to build resiliency.

For example, be actively optimistic.

This doesn’t mean being goofy happy about everything, and it will take some work to find the positive. Another suggestion they make is to stay connected by giving and receiving support from others, and to resist the urge to avoid people and to hibernate. No mention was made of the power of laughter, but I’ll add it. I recommend episodes of the very entertaining mid 90s television show Pinky and the Brain.

No doubt 2016 will require us all to face periods of disorganization and disruption. But, by adopting strategies to build our brain resiliency, we will more quickly adapt and return to living well again, and find ourselves more resilient and able to enjoy more “sunny ways.”

inspector’s encouragement, the original Shakespeare Pies bakery and shop.

That shop opened its doors almost exactly ten years before the new uptown location opened in December.

Shakespeare Pies sells a wide variety of meat and fruit pies as well as other local grocery goods. I was fortunate to try a sampling with some of the Community Edition crew. Given the company, this meant the steak and kidney pie was pretty much all mine.

After thinking long and hard, I could think of no complaints. While store bought meat pies are often too

salty for my tastes, Shakespeare Pie’s offering was well seasoned without requiring me to reach for my water glass. Across the street from Sun Life Financial on Park Street in Waterloo, it’s likely to become the lunch destination for employees wishing to take a break from Paul in accounting’s emails.

Owner Ken Plett shared about the stores offerings and where they procure their ingredients. “We try to follow the fruit when we can,” he said.

Fruit pies are made from local ingredients as they come into season. For ex-

ample, strawberry pies are a best seller as summer weather rolls into southern Ontario. They also happen to be Plett’s favourite. Raspberry custard is the year round best seller at Shakespeare Pies, and after two pieces, it was easy to tell why—each bite is a nice balance of tart and sweet.

All the usual suspects are present in the display by the cash register, from cherry to pecan to wild blueberry. We surprised Wagler, Plett’s mother-inlaw, with a call asking for her favourite. After some debate, and considerable suspense: bumbleberry.

JANUARY 2016 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

WEAR OUT THERE

CHRISTINA PROCTOR COLUMNIST It’s a new year, fresh, untouched and full of opportunities. With unlimited ways to make your mark in 2016, you may be setting goals to hone your direction. While exploring your personal style may not have made the list, now is the perfect time to reflect on your current wardrobe and needs.

There is no better tool to help yourself attain your goals than a polished appearance that truly reflects who you want to be.

Whether you want to succeed at work, develop a new relationship, or pursue your passion, the right clothes can help others view you in a positive and favourable way. So dream big, and use fashion as your ally to take charge of your direction. This is your year, Waterloo Region, so make it count!

How you look, and more importantly, how you feel about yourself often has a direct impact on action.

The more self-assured you feel, the more likely you are to reach for that promotion, ask someone on a date, or try something new. While confidence does come from within, attractive clothes, a stylish haircut and natural makeup can help set you on a path for success, each and every day. As

celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe says, “style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.”

The first step in finding a style that will work for you is to determine your style personality. Are you the romantic type? Do you prefer classic pieces, creative elements, or natural fabrics?

Take a quiz online or enlist the help of a professional style coach to help you quickly identify which pieces you most respond to. This is a necessary step in developing a style that reflects your unique being.

Next, identify what your style must say to help you achieve your goals. For example, if you want a promotion in 2016, how must you walk, talk, look and act to make this happen? You may want a look that is authoritative, sophisticated, professional and polished. Perhaps there are other positive attributes more important to your profession. Jot down what your ideal image is and get to work. Take stock of your current wardrobe and fill any holes with pieces you adore.

By combining these exercises, you will develop a style you love, and that speaks to others. This becomes your personal brand, an important tool in helping you to attain your goals.

There is a lot of power in how you dress, so make it work for you this year. Prepare for changes, both big and small, and be confident in your abilities. Your style means something, and I can’t wait to see you thrive.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

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JANUARY 2016 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

NEW ROASTS IN WR CONNECTIONS THROUGH CAFFEINE

KERRI HUTCHINSON CONTRIBUTOR Self-described as an eatery, a meeting place and a coffee roaster, Settlement Co. wants you to know that they are not just a coffee shop.

This is the second new business in as many years for Rob Theodosiou, who opened Abe Erb in the fall of 2014.

It’s a new venture for partners Ben Schabner and Nicholas Hollier who, combined, have nearly 25 years of experience in the coffee business.

According to the owners, the emphasis at Settlement Co. is on quality.

Quality food. Quality coffee. Quality experience. “If you feel the same way when you come to Settlement as you do at Tim Horton’s, we’ve done something wrong,” said Theodosiou.

The highly stylized and thoughtful design at Settlement Co. was important from the outset. From the herringbone wood floors to the signature blue mugs from Hollier’s hometown of Wellington, New Zealand, the look and feel of the space is essential to the overall experience.

The back half of the space, also known as the “Coffice,” is available for rent and can accommodate small groups of up to 50 people. Plans for an alleyway patio in warmer weather will add more seats and bring people in from Dominion Lane as well as King Street.

By foot or by bicycle, you can take the Iron Horse Trail into Kitchener to

visit another new coffee place.

Part coffee shop, part bike shop, the Berlin Bicycle Café is a mash-up of two established cultures in Waterloo Region, and is close to opening.

The initial idea started as a bike shop but the owners Kerri Krawec and Graham Roe were drawn to the community aspect of coffee. Their vision is a full service café, where you can have a coffee while someone fixes your flat tire.

There’s also an advocacy piece at the Bicycle Café. They specialize in lifestyle cycling and are actively encouraging the community to embrace cycling not just for recreation or as a hobby but as a serious means of transportation—a tool for people to access and participate in their community.

“We had looked at other places [but] a location that’s great for bikes might not be great for a coffee shop,” Krawec said. She and Roe found their ideal location to celebrate both cycling and coffee just steps away from the Iron Horse Trail, in Belmont Village. And even before their doors opened, Krawec and Roe were enthusiastic about the support they had received from the Belmont Village community. “We’re very fortunate to have a location where the community really supports local independent businesses,” said Krawec.

There is no shortage of coffee shops in the Region, but Settlement Co. and the Berlin Bicycle Café appeal to a sense of place and vibrancy that is key to a community’s vitality. Neither are typical coffee shops.

Inside Settlement Co., a new cafe in Waterloo. MATT SMITH PHOTO EDITOR

FILM REVIEW

ELISE MARION CONTRIBUTOR Advertisements are part of our day-to-day lives, even though we don’t typically give them much thought. But, giving an advertisement a new platform for expression can transform it into something extraordinary.

Similar to how Andy Warhol gave Campbell’s soup a new level of fame and consideration, the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity presents advertisements from around the world on the proverbial silver screen.

Despite the growing use of Netflix, television recording devices and online streaming, through which commercials can be completely bypassed, people still actively seek advertisements out.

Perhaps what appeals is the freedom to choose which advertisements to view. In our age of YouTube, advertisements have become a form of entertainment, an evolution that speaks to our current state of mind.

We have more things to do and less time to do them, and the Internet is a readily available escape.

Advertisements continue to evolve, and many of those screened at Cannes don’t reveal the brand until the final second. These ads move the viewer, and tell a story to purposefully evoke emotions.

Indeed, it’s amazing how quickly we can be moved. But, unlike many other stories, advertisements are, no matter how emotionally compelling or resonant, still trying to sell us something. Aren’t we being manipulated to connect the feelings stirred in us to the brand in question? Even if the idea seems to stand on its own, even if we are moved to laughter or tears, the ad is still an ad, and still trying to sell us something.

I suspect this matters more and less to different people. Sometimes the story loses its impact when the brand is revealed, and even where the meaning is compelling, when an advertisement tugs on your emotions it can make you skeptical of what the company is selling.

And yet, this doesn’t necessarily make an advertisement’s story any less provocative.

Just like films, advertisements can amuse, inspire, shock and motivate.

They can connect you to people around the world, and they can transport you to another time, another place, or even another age.

The Festival of Creativity plays this January at the Princess Cinema.

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JANUARY 2016 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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BRFC ON BEER

JON JOHNSON COLUMNIST At a recent “Homebrew Hangout,” a gathering of home brewers, I found myself talking to a British expat. He shared with me about the drinking culture in his home town, describing nights spent drinking pint after pint of boring beer, watching football and then his friends try to pick fights in the parking lot. Since he’s moved to Ontario and found our craft beer scene, he described his nights out as mostly trying and discussing new beers.

The best part of the current Ontario craft beer movement is obviously all of the great beer, but second to that is the community that has sprouted up around it. From the beer drinking enthusiasts to the home brewers to those employed by the breweries, the scene is full of people who love to drink local and support local. That’s a great thing to see.

The British fellow I described earlier is someone I only met that night, but is someone I have known online for a while, who has commented on my beer check-ins on UnTappd, and who I felt comfortable with instantly because of our shared interest in craft beer.

No matter our other interests, our mutual passion gave us something to bond over, and eventually a reason to become friends in real life.

Making new friends can be hard as an adult, but a mutual interest is a good start. Mutual interests tie together the breweries as well. With the craft beer industry paling in size compared to the macro beer industry, it would be easy to assume that existing breweries would view new brewery openings as unwanted competition. But this does not seem to be the case, with most established breweries welcoming new breweries to the fold, and sometimes even helping them out when needed.

In fact, many small breweries get started by purchasing equipment that established breweries have outgrown.

Just recently, when Guelph’s Royal City Brewing’s grain mill broke down, Wellington Brewery stepped up to mill for them to make sure they could keep producing.

When the local breweries band together they can grow the whole industry, and everyone benefits. In Ottawa, every new Beau’s customer won over from Molson is a potential new Dominion City, or Tooth and Nail customer, too. Every enthusiast who turns another enthusiast, or casual drinker, onto a great new beer may have just made a great new friend. Every home brewer who shares with another home brewer their secret technique now has to up their own game to win the next home brew competition.

The Ontario craft beer scene makes it clear that when everyone comes together, everyone wins.

YO. WRITE FOR US.

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