The Horseshoe - Spring 2023/24

The Music of Western Tech: Interviews with Just July and Man Is Five An Interview with Principal Koczij The Online Harms Act

Spring 2024

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Preface

Letter From the Editor

Masthead Leadership Team Editors-In-Chief Kai Smolin Theodore Boyce Managing Editors Ciel Nduka Mae Lai Copy Editor Rhys Backus Arts & Culture Editors Anna Gordon Oliver Principe-Beer School Culture Editor Aiden Hunter Sports Editor Quinn Oliver Comics & Illustrations Editors Benny Gyorke-Wong Liz Cowan Advice Column & Polls Julia Story Puzzlemasters Olivia Figueiredo Ramona McCoy-Cooke Promotions Leads Brody Rapkowski Cody Parise-Davis Junior Editors Cas Dallas Eli Lin

Design Team Design Leads Henry Hagens Zophine Saitua-Rippell Junior Designer Ava Malik

Dear Readers,

Kai Smolin

I wrote my first “Letter From the Editor'' over Christmas break while on vacation in London, on the red couch of an AirBNB whose floorplan could have been a random screenshot from Agar.io. I wanted to convey my sheer excitement for The Horseshoe and what it could become: the incredible potential of a schoolwide voice—student-led and student-focused.

It’s been two years of The Horseshoe now, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve accomplished in that time. We’ve soared past anything I thought possible on that couch, and I’d like to share a few highlights that stick out to me from the last two years.

Elevating art from our school community, both with our art showcase pages in every issue, and our incredible cover artists. Each of our (four!) main issues came with a different artist, each bringing their own style, something I’m looking forward to watching continue even after I leave.

Diversity of student voice. Each issue we publish, every author is unique, so whether it's Grade 9 perspectives or senior woes, we’ve always pushed to include as many different authors as we could.

The Writer's Craft issue! Creative writing is something that’s very close to my heart, so being able to publish an issue solely dedicated to showcasing the incredible talent of the Grade 12 Writer's Craft students is something I’m very happy we got to do.

We’ve also made a ton of mistakes (sorry Liam). These all sucked when they happened, and a few of them maybe I’m not quite over, but I’m confident in saying that The Horseshoe is in a stronger place now because of them. We’ve had to adapt and change our processes, and each issue is stronger than the last.

For this issue, I’d like to thank Mr. Wang, Mr. Levin, Mr. Tremblay, Amy Reeve, Ms. Novak, Mr. Koczij, Mr. MacRae, Ms. Richards, Kate Curtis, Mr. Snyders, Mr. Santos, Mr. Hoff, Ms. McKinnon, Ms. Szoldra, as well as Vera and Petra in the office, and of course our incredible staff supervisor Mr. Berube, ever patient and ever forgiving.

I’m graduating, but The Horseshoe has a permanent place in Western’s tangled web of clubs and student organizations. That place is ever-changing, but I couldn’t be more confident in the team I’m leaving behind, or more excited to find out what’s next for The Horseshoe.

Kai Smolin, Co-Editor in Chief

Please send submissions to: westerntechhorseshoe@gmail.com

Spring 2024

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Opinion

Understanding the Online Harms Act Zophine Saitua-Rippell

Whether for communication, education, or entertainment, the Internet is a valuable tool and an integral part of our society.

Although there are a multitude of advantages to these technical advancements, there are serious risks associated with the internet, especially for vulnerable populations such as children and marginalized communities. Online spaces have become increasingly dangerous spaces, and to address these issues, Canada has taken long overdue action in the introduction of the Online Harms Act. This legislation seeks to safeguard people from harmful online behaviour, hold online platforms responsible for the content they host, and advance a safer online environment for all Canadians.

Justin Trudeau

The Online Harms Act was motivated by a variety of factors, primarily a deep concern for people's safety, particularly children, who are increasingly exposed to dangers online. I spoke to Minister of Justice Arif Virani, who said that the Act seeks to address a range of online harms, from child exploitation to revenge porn, that have inflicted profound suffering on victims like Carol and Amanda Todd.

These tragic cases highlight the urgent need for regulatory action to stop these kinds of crimes from happening again.

"The whole idea is to ensure that platforms are responsible for the content that they're hosting. Companies would have the ‘duty to protect children, a duty

to act responsibly and a duty to remove certain content’”, Virani said. The Act's severe penalties for platforms that neglect to protect their users—8% global revenue or $25 million, whichever is higher—send a strong message that protecting vulnerable people is important, and those who take advantage of them will pay a heavy price.

The creation of a duty of care for online platforms, mandating them to take proactive steps to prevent harm to their users, is one of the main provisions of the Online Harms Act. MP Arif Virani underlined the significance of this obligation, especially in view of the rise in online predators who prey on gullible people, including children, for financial gain. The goal of the Act is to establish a safer online environment where people can interact without fear of exploitation or harm by making platforms responsible for the content they host and the actions of their users.

In addition, by tackling hate speech and other types of damaging content, the Act aims to redraw the lines around what constitutes appropriate online conduct.

Arif Virani emphasized that while freedom of speech is a fundamental right, “freedom of speech does not include hate speech. That's the law right now in terms of our physical environment.” The Act, which ensures that only the most heinous forms of expression are subject to regulation, draws strong guidelines for

“...freedom of speech does not include hate speech.” what constitutes hate speech from the legal precedent established by the Supreme Court of Canada. The Act offers a framework for dealing with online hate speech in a fair and equitable way by striking a balance between the right to free speech and the need to keep people safe.

The Online Harms Act prioritizes individual safety while addressing broader societal issues such as disinformation spreading and public discourse manipulation. Virani drew attention to the negative effects of social media on mental health, especially for young people who are frequently exposed to offensive material. The Act aims to foster an inclusive and courteous online community by enabling people to engage in online conversation without fear of intimidation or harassment.

Arif Virani

The Online Harms Act's implementation is a major project that calls for close cooperation and coordination between law enforcement, government organizations, and online platforms. Arif Virani described the measures that will be taken to implement the Act, such as creating a Digital Safety Commission to monitor adherence to the law and handle grievances. To guarantee that decisions about online content are just and open, the Act also contains provisions for judicial review.

In the end, the Online Harms Act's effectiveness rests on everyone's dedication to promoting online safety and discouraging harmful behaviour. Arif Virani underlined the value of cooperation between the public sector, business community, and civil society in addressing online hazards and advancing an accountability and responsibilitydriven culture. Together, Canadians can make the internet a safer and more welcoming place for both present and future generations.

Spring 2024

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Opinion

I Am Not My Cancer Elizabeth Rivero

My name is Elizabeth Rivero, and when I was 13, I was diagnosed with a bone and soft tissue cancer called Ewing Sarcoma. I went through 14 cycles of chemotherapy and surgery. When I would go to the hospital for chemo or blood work, I would always be told the same thing: “It’s not your fault”. I tried my best to remain optimistic, but sometimes my mind would get the best of me. I would constantly think about how my peers got to hangout and have fun while I was stuck at the hospital. I hated how unfair it was for me to have to go through this. It wasn’t until I met a nurse named Marlie, who treated me differently, that I was able to change my entire outlook.

It was during my 9th cycle of chemotherapy that I met Marlie. She took my height and weight as normal and got us situated. After a few hours and having just gotten chemo started, I put a movie on the TV. In the afternoon my dad left to get my lunch. While he was gone, Marlie came in to hang my second bag of chemo and started talking to me. She told me she worked at the hospital across the street helping adults deal with cancer. She asked about my interests and if anyone had treated me differently now. This was the first time I was able to put everything into words: I told her how some people had treated me poorly and that I didn’t know what I wanted to do anymore.

“Once you’re done and continue on with your future, you’ll look back at it as just something that happened. Another one of life’s challenges you persevered through,” she told me.

This changed my perspective on life completely. It took me a few hours to let Marlie’s words fully sink in, but then I realized what she had said was true.

Thinking this way helped me keep a positive mindset through the whole process. It helped me remain optimistic and gave me the mentality that I wasn’t going to let this take over my life.

Elizabeth ringing the bell

Marlie also said, “What you are going through is something not many people have to deal with. It’s not fair, and you didn’t deserve it, but it’s just what happened. I know you are stronger than this, and you will overcome it no matter how hard it will be.” For the first time it felt like what someone was saying was actually directed at and specifically for me. It made me realize I am my own person—cancer doesn’t define who I am or who I become. I refuse to let this experience swallow me whole, to be known as “The Cancer Girl” or “The Disabled One” rather than me, someone who just happened to have cancer, someone who just happens to have crutches.

“‘Once you’re done and continue on with your future you’ll look back at it as just something that happened. Another one of life’s challenges you persevered through’”

Now I’m back to my normal life (for the most part). I go to school, hang out with friends, focus on my grades, and just feel like a normal person again. I try to stay away from the hospital as much as possible, except for when I have followups or scans. In the summer I plan to use my Wish to go to Portugal at the same time my friend is going. I’m excited for my future, and I’m currently focusing on school and learning more about future career paths. I want to be a nurse and help people the way that Marlie helped me. But I want to raise awareness about my experience too. I spent so long being insecure about my hair and about everything, but now that it’s done, I want nothing more than to tell people. I want to be who I am and do what I do without this weight following me around like a shadow, because at the end of the day, I’m me, not cancer. I have my hopes and dreams set out for me too, such as traveling, learning new things, and writing. Cancer doesn't define me; I define myself.

Spring 2024

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Opinion

The Psychology of Comfort Movies Grace Ceriz

No matter what mood I’m in, I will always be willing to watch the 1987 romance film Dirty Dancing. Even though I know what’s going to happen and there are countless other films out there, why do I resort back to one I’ve already seen? The answer to this has to do with the psychology of comfort movies.

Comfort movies evoke a strong sense of emotional attachment in the viewer that allows them to watch them repeatedly without getting bored or fed up. Many people like comfort movies because they are familiar with the storyline, which takes away the risk of surprise. This is a way of having emotional control as you already know how the movie is going to make you feel which can relieve

Are Designer Perfumes Worth It? Huy Phan Nguyen

From deodorant to body sprays, people have always wanted to impress others and stand out from the crowd. While dressing nicely is one side of the goal, others take it to the next level and buy fragrances, used to project their inner self in a pleasant scent. Varying in prices, designer fragrances offer the best quality—but are they worth it? Price-wise, designer perfumes are the most luxurious but expensive fragrances on the market. They are typically made with high-quality ingredients, both natural and lab-made.

photo

Club de nuit Fragrance

unpleasant emotions or help you escape from reality for a while. They are most commonly used as a coping mechanism when the viewer is dealing with a difficult situation such as relationship problems or troubles at home.

The process of acquiring a comfort movie is not one that someone usually goes through on purpose. After watching a movie for the first time, you might find that you can’t stop thinking about it. You loved the movie and the way it made you feel. So when you want to feel that way again, you return to that movie. Often people's comfort movies are light-hearted and cozy, like romcoms or comedies, but of course, they can be whatever makes you feel good.

Courtney Cope, a therapist and manager of clinical operations at BetterHelp, states that Christmas movies raise your dopamine levels, which makes you feel happier and undisturbed.

photo

Creed Fragrance

However, natural ingredients are more pricey and do not necessarily mean better, as products from Jo Malone’s line typically lack longevity and sillage (how long a scent may linger before fading), otherwise smelling inoffensive and pleasing (floral, sweet, fruity, woody and more). They are 150 dollars on average for 50ml. Ingredients-wise, nearly all brands use some synthetic ingredients and though they are not any worse, they may smell harsh or offensive to some. Sillage, projection, and longevity are important factors when buying designer fragrances.

For example, Jo Malone is known for its fresh-smelling lineup of perfumes that most would enjoy, as they are balanced and not powerful.

However, this comes at the cost of its

photo

Illustration by Liz Cowan

Other comfort movies are from the viewer's childhood and make them feel like a little kid again, watching it for the first time. This could be because as a kid they had little stress or bad emotions, and watching the movie is a way to resort back to that time.

No matter the circumstances, a comfort movie is a great tool to calm yourself down that’s used by many people in the world. So what’s your comfort movie? longevity, a deficit fresh perfumes usually suffer. They are cologne-type fragrances and are not made to last long, which can be a deterrent aside from the price. Other brands such as Creed or Burberry have dupes (cheaper fragrances bearing similar characteristics). However, they too have cons, as they cannot capture the same quality of the original, sometimes smelling harsh, artificial, and different altogether. This is the case for Burberry Hero and Old Spice’s Swagger, Club de Nuit, and Davidoff Coolwater, dupes of the more luxurious Creed fragrances. So, are designer perfumes worth it? Suppose you are looking for affordable scents replicating more expensive counterparts and are okay with a slightly lower scent quality. In that case, designer perfumes are NOT worth it, and the cheaper alternatives are for you. However, suppose you have the money to spare and fragrance plays a notable role in your life.

In that case, designer perfumes will be worth it because they are superior in every characteristic, with some exceptions to longevity and projection.

Spring 2024

School Culture

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An Interview With Mr. Koczij Kai Smolin

Last December, Western Tech finally got its new permanent principal, and we had the chance for an exclusive interview.

You’ve seen his Instagram stories, heard him on the announcements, and probably seen him in the halls, but for a deep look into Mr. Koczij’s background, opinions, and master-plan for Western, read below.

This interview has been edited and heavily condensed for clarity. If you’re interested in reading the full interview, including Mr. Koczij’s controversial take on generative AI, you can check out our online edition by scanning the QR Code on the back page of this issue.

Q: Let's begin with the obvious one. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

A: So my pronouns are he/him. I am a father of two teenage boys. I've been married for 22 years. I live in South Etobicoke. I went to Western University, got a degree in philosophy and psychology, went on to do a master's degree in philosophy at York University, at which point I didn't know what to do with my life, and in those days, you didn't need any sort of qualifications to work as a graphic designer, so I did that for like eight years. But along the way in that eight-year time period, I realized I really wasn't very good at it--I was okay but I wasn't loving it--but by that point I was 28, and I started volunteering at Lakeshore C.I. just to see if I would like it. So while I was still working, I was volunteering at Lakeshore and I realized I liked it, and looking back on it, I had always been drawn to stuff like that. I was also in the military for a while; I was involved with the Armored Corps, the tanks and stuff, but really the stuff I loved was doing the courses: the basic training and the trades training courses where I was teaching new recruits.

And so I realized in my late twenties that I've been involved with teaching for a long time and I've enjoyed that.

So then I went to Teachers College and I ended up getting a job, eventually, at Lakeshore. And worked. That's the value of volunteering. Volunteering really does get you connections and experiences that can help. So when a job came up, they knew me. Then after ten years of teaching I began thinking that I'd like to be more involved in helping to organize the whole school. I shifted into the Admin track and I was at West Humber for just under five years, starting in February of 2019, and I realized, for lack of a better way of putting it, that I had ideas about how to run a school. And I really advocated for myself and did a lot of the work needed to learn more about the job and then applied to be a principal. And here we are in that place, unbelievably, as a brand new principal with one of the biggest, most complex, most interesting, coolest schools in the entire board.

“So while I was still working, I was volunteering at Lakeshore and I realized I kind of liked it...and looking back on it I had always been drawn to stuff like that.”

Q: Tell us about a social issue that you're passionate about.

A: Well, I was raised by a single mother.

So I didn't live with my father. My mother's Jewish, my father's Catholic.

My mother was in Poland at the time that she found out she was pregnant with me. She grew up in Poland. It was a very anti-Semitic country at the time. She had lived in that anti-Semitism and did not want her child to live in that.

Photo Credit: @principalkoczij

As a Jew in Poland, she was not a Polish citizen. That's how deep the antiSemitism was. Jews had it on their citizenship documents that their nationality was Jewish, not Polish. So Jews were always allowed to leave Poland. “You're very welcome to leave.”

So my mother took the opportunity with, obviously, my father's blessing, to leave, understanding that she was not going to have me in Poland so that I would not have to deal with all of that. So she left as a pregnant woman. But my father, being Catholic, was not allowed to leave, so they separated at that point, and I was raised by my mother right up until the Berlin Wall came down. So I grew up very much raised by a feminist in action.

My mother's an electrical engineer, marathon runner, raised two children on her own.

And so if there's been any single social issue that has followed throughout my life, I would say feminism, women's issues, and women's rights. But then that sort of fans out.

Spring 2024

Reproductive rights issues are also something I have strong opinions about.

Gender issues is also something that I feel very strongly about. And then of course that bleeds into LGBTQ issues, and I've been active in that as well. But I would say the origins of all of that really comes from being raised by a feminist.

My goal for this year is to make sure that through the growth that we're experiencing right now, I have a solid handle on our processes, our procedures, our relationships, making sure that our budgets are well handled; I am right now operationally focused and relationally focused.

Q: What's your vision for Western tech?

“Less than ten years ago, the school was almost half the size in terms of student population. So you folks, you are part of a huge, dizzying growth phase for this school and for this community.”

A: It's really, really hard to express a vision when you don't have the foundation, and I'm starting to build that.

It's been just under two weeks that I've been here. What I understand from the data, is that there has been immense growth in this school. Less than ten years ago, the school was almost half the size in terms of student population. Wow. So you folks are part of a huge, dizzying growth phase for this school and for this community: the school community in general, the physical building, the programs, the football program, you know, the robotics program, the academic programs, co-op. In the last couple of years there's just been massive, huge increase in interest in the arts.

“And so if there's been any single social issue that has followed throughout, I would say feminism”

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School Culture

But honestly, I think the school already has a vision. Leaders in academics, technology, and design. That is the vision! My job right now is to feed that vision and to support it and to help it grow and do everything I can so that we do win this city championship next year in football, that we win a world championship in robotics, that we continue to grow our co-op, that we have more OYAP students, that our design studio has the best technology possible and can continue to expand that. That our culinary arts program is as well supported as we can possibly make it,

and we can integrate into the school as much as possible. All of these things, everything that we're already doing, I just need to do everything I can to make that better.

Q: What’s your favorite book of all time?

A: Well, you know, as you get older, you start to look back on your childhood, and those childhood things become much more impactful. Sherlock Holmes really had a huge impact on me. I fell in love with Victorian literature. I became an Anglophile, and I'm an immigrant to Canada. It was a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant province as we were growing up. So as a kid in the eighties going to school, British culture was a big thing.

And reading Sherlock Holmes felt like it gave me access to that. And plus, I loved the mystery aspect of it, the puzzle aspect of it. And then later on in my life, I read Moby-Dick, and I don't recommend it for a young person—I think it's terrifically dry for a young person. But it has that Victorian language that I loved so much as a younger guy, and it also has a lot of nonfiction aspects to it because it's like an encyclopedia on whaling, really. So I loved Moby-Dick.

So all of that is to say, that if I had to have a vision for the school, I am not interested in putting my stamp on the school. What I am interested in is doing everything in my power to support what is already happening here in terms of programs, opportunities for students, opportunities for staff, engagement with the community, and all that stuff that's already been on the upswing. And we have things that can threaten that growth because as you get bigger, new problems emerge. And so that’s my job right now.

Mr. Koczij with a sign that says his name on it.

Spring 2024

School Culture

Page 7B

A: What's your take on generative A.I. and calculator. And our job as educators is figuring out how to use this as a tool, and its role in education, if it even has one? understanding that a lot of the skills that I Q: I have very strong thoughts on this. So grew up valuing have no value anymore when the pocket calculator was being because there's a machine that can do it developed and it started to be able to for me, and I need to develop new skills manage things in a digital way and keep that I can't even fully imagine yet. This is track of information, there was this just another step in our development as a understandable anxiety from a previous species. And of course, there are dangers. generation who had learned math in a way Of course there are going to be problems where you write everything down and that come from it. But in my mind, A.I. is you've got to keep track of five different a very sophisticated, very powerful numbers at the same time. And they said, calculator, and we need to look at it that we're going to have these calculators, way and try to embrace the opportunities they're going to use them and we're going that it's creating for us while at the same to lose these basic math skills. This is a time being really mindful that A.I. lies tragedy. Society is going to fall apart. But about its sources. Using critical thinking and having the skills to prove the A.I. wrong, that's good. And that's going to “I think the school already get hard. So what skills do we need to has a vision. Leaders in develop to be able to harness A.I.? The academics, technology, and bottom line is that A.I. developers don't design. That is the vision! My fully understand how A.I. works. It's a job right now is to feed that black box. We've got to start developing vision and to support it and skills to be able to maximally harness it and keep it from doing harm. to help it grow”

Q: We went ludicrously over budget last year. Will Western Tech students feel the ramifications of that? And if so, how?

Q: So you would say, not now, but in the future, that generative A.I. has a place in the classroom?

“The bottom line is A.I. developers don't fully understand how A.I. works.

It's a black box. We've got to start developing skills to be able to maximally harness it and keep it from doing harm.”

what it turns out happened is because we didn't have to spend our time keeping track of all of the numbers and because we didn't have to spend our time doing the rote work of all of the calculations, it freed us up to be able to do more powerful things. And we hit this point after World War Two where the acceleration of computing technology allows us to calculate things that we can't even see out in the far reaches of space. We can predict things that are happening that we're not even sure are real. And now as computers have gotten more powerful, this is just continuing.

A.I. is just another tool and it's scary for those of us who didn't grow up with it, who grew up reading science fiction where the robots take over and we lose our agency. I understand where it comes from, but I think A.I. is not everything. It's not the be-all and end-all. It's another

A: It has a place in the classroom right now. It absolutely does. It should be there to help you. Don't ask ChatGPT to solve the equation, ask it to help you with how to solve the equation. And then it becomes a tutor, not a cheap tool. And so if you are genuinely interested in becoming better at something, use A.I. to help you get better at something. It's generative, it's responsive, it's intelligent.

It's going to be able to help you. It can be a partner in your education or you can cheat and try to get away with it. There are teachers who are embracing it, and that's going to happen more and more.

“A.I. is not everything. It's not the be-all and end-all. It's another calculator”

A: Will students feel the impact? Yes. There is no way to avoid that. How will students feel the impact? I don't know yet. We had our first leadership team meeting this week. I made it clear that the budget is the top operational issue that I need to deal with. Amazing office staff are working really closely with me and we are getting control of it. But it's conceivable that there are going to be things that the school used to be able to pay for completely that we are going to need to charge for. It will not mean that you have to buy textbooks or pay for things that are central to your education.

We are going to be working much harder to collect student fees. Transportation costs for field trips historically have been pretty much covered by the school, so the costs for field trips might be going up.

But I don't want to commit to anything because it's not a decision I'm going to make just on my own.

It's really important that we have student voice in this. I'm speaking to the Student Activities Council about these issues. I'm going to be having regular meetings with them. My goal is that we will be in surplus by the end of next school year. I want to be in a 25% surplus. It's an ambitious goal. I don't want to prevent programs from being able to continue to grow—we're going to have to find other ways to do it, find cheaper ways to do some things. But I cannot overemphasize that my fundamental big picture goal is to see growth happen.

Spring 2024

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Opinion

Scarborough: Toronto’s Transit Tragedy Tunir Maity and Daniel To

The Scarborough RT was on a constant, planned downfall, that led to its demise. TTC has constantly overlooked Scarborough, becoming Toronto’s transit tragedy.

The story of Line 3 begins in the 1970s, as part of a TTC streetcar network upgrade, with the brand-new CLRV model, but this changed under pressure from the provincial government. The province wanted to test its ICTS light rail technology, and threatened to cut funding for the project unless the TTC acquiesced to its demands. The new Scarborough RT (SRT) line opened in 1985, a beacon of hope for the rapidly developing City of Scarborough. However, it was only expected to be operational for about 25 years, with an extension expected later.

In 2006, policymakers would reexamine the state of the SRT. A report was commissioned on the future of Scarborough transit, giving three options: replacing the trains on the SRT with newer models and upgrading infrastructure, extending Line 2 into Scarborough and closing the SRT, or converting the SRT into an LRT line, a newer and cheaper technology for urban transit that could run along roads. In the end, City Council approved a plan to convert the SRT into a seven-stop LRT line as part of former mayor David Miller’s Transit City plan. It was thought at the time that replacing the SRT trains and upgrading the infrastructure or extending Line 2 was too costly to justify any value that it would bring and that the cheaper LRT technology would bring more value. Under this plan, the SRT would’ve closed in 2015 for the LRT in 2020.

Then in 2010 came the infamous mayor Rob Ford, running on a pledge to cancel Transit City and replace the SRT with a Line 2 extension. It was assumed that the SRT plan would remain, so construction continued. But then in 2012, TTC Chair Karen Stintz and Scarborough

The Derailment

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker brought forward a new proposal that would scrap the LRT conversion for a Line 2 extension to Sheppard.

Ultimately, City Council would approve Stintz’s Line 2 extension plan. In the end, Doug Ford was elected Premier, and in 2019, he reinstated the three station extension and committed the province to fully fund the $5.5 billion project.

Finally, there was a definitive solution for Scarborough’s future, slated to open in 2030. But then, the derailment. The SRT had been on life support since 2015.

By 2021, it became clear that continuing the line service would mean another overhaul costing $522 million.

The decision was made to close the line in 2023 and replace it with a bus service costing $350-$375 million. Officials recommended using Line 3’s path to build a dedicated busway which could nearly halve travel times compared to onstreet bus service.

“But then, the derailment.

The SRT had been on life support since 2015.”

In the meantime, work was done to install bus-only lanes on the replacement bus route, meant to be finished for the closure of Line 3 in November 2023.

Line 3 was in operation for a long time, so let’s take a look at the line’s quality. Most of the stations were old and could have used a facelift, however, their original ideas were unique, and their execution was great—especially Scarborough Town Centre station’s interior. The same can’t be said for its speed, or lack thereof. Often, wait times were over minutes—much slower than lines 1 and 2, and service was unreliable.

Line 3 does have some redeeming factors, namely a unique train design. We rate the line as a 5/10, for its scenery, cleanliness, and overall station design, which puts it well above the average train/RT system.

The Line 3 bus replacements came to help out Scarborough after the derailment, but many looked down on the buses for neglecting the original route and the temporary “stations” being simple bus stops. The buses are also limited by lower capacity, so more buses are needed to supply the rising demand of Scarborough passengers. Even with the added buses, their frequency is pretty low. Overall, the bus replacements should receive a 5/10 for their speed and inaccuracy to the original route but also for having reliable and clean buses.

Spring 2024

AI Upscaling in Film Theodore Boyce

It’s an almost universal habit of filmmakers to mess with their movies years after they’re released. From the little digital eyesores George Lucas impulsively drops into the original Star Wars trilogy to Frances Ford Coppola’s endless recuts of Apocalypse Now, it is frowned upon. Directors will do this under the guise of correction, preserving the original vision they didn't have the resources or studio approval to put out, but it usually outs itself as something else. Does an extra hour of Zach Snyder’s Watchmen really make the movie any better, or is Snyder just excited to show off?

A common way that this retroactive meddling has appeared recently is in the form of using AI to upscale movies.

Upscaling is the act of taking an image (or video) and using an algorithm to make it a higher resolution. It’s most often applied to historical footage alongside colourization, and can be applied seamlessly (Peter Jackson’s work on Get Back) or be completely ruinous (Peter Jackson’s work on the music video for “Now and Then”). It begs the question: is higher resolution inherently better? I’d say it almost never is. Take a look at David Lynch’s Inland Empire, an absolutely horrific example of the abuse of AI upscaling.

A shot from Inland Empire

Inland Empire was shot on DV tape by Lynch himself in 2005 and looks, by most professional definitions, very bad.

It’s dark, washed out, low-res, and noisy.

Now, by an artistic definition, it’s perfect.

Opinion

The look, although technically cruddy, gives the movie an insane atmosphere that no one has ever really achieved since. Lynch chose to use it because it let him pick up the camera and shoot with little to no external help, which was important because he shot the movie essentially without a script. Plus, because of the cyclical nature of our culture, the early digital look has never been more in.

The problem that arises from this, though, is that unlike celluloid film, there is no more visual information to be found, no master to be rescanned.

There’s so much wrong with the 4k version of Inland Empire that it’s hard to know where one should start. The upscaling algorithm creates artificial detail where there really isn't any, but smooths areas of actual detail into amorphous blobs. Every frame looks like a smeared mess, with jittery clumps of imagined textures and over-sharpened edges all over the place. It’s unreal.

Certain nuances in movement are completely removed, which for a movie that relies so heavily on performance that usually takes place in extreme closeup, is ruinous. In addition, all of the colours were re-graded to near monochrome, removing the strange beauty of the colours produced by the DV camera by slapping a strong desaturation filter over the whole thing.

“And, as if none of that was enough, faux film grain was imposed on top of the whole movie. It’s a visual sin. ” A recent manifestation of upscaling in a less clear-cut manner is James Cameron’s new recut and remaster of his oft-forgotten deep sea thriller The Abyss.

Cameron not only extended the film to nearly three hours long (a change which, abnormally, has been rewarded with widespread praise) but gave it a complete visual makeover. Like a normal remaster, the film’s 35mm master was re-scanned at 4k, the highest resolution most televisions and movie theaters will

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support, but with one major change: the use of AI. Unlike Inland Empire, the Abyss remaster doesn't use AI to create something, but to remove it. Cameron uses it as a selective tool to get rid of all the grain from the raw film scan.

“This makes it look hyperclean, like it was shot on a digital camera in the past couple years. ” Some have panned this decision for painting over what made the original beautiful, but I think those people don’t understand that shooting a film on celluloid is more than grain. In every way, I see the 4k version of The Abyss as a triumph. It preserves the vibrancy and depth of colour that the original 35mm had, and the grain removal doesn’t make it look off-putting. If I thought the grain was an essential element to the visual aesthetic of the film like in Inland Empire, I’d say otherwise. James Cameron is a freak, and he will push the boundaries of technical filmmaking to mixed results (see: his last big digital remaster, Terminator 2) whenever he can, but here it absolutely works.

Between these two examples there’s a clear conclusion: algorithmic upscaling is a tool, elevating the material while respecting the look of the original.

There’s a difference between dropping Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat into Gigapixel AI and calling it a remaster, and carefully considering how to use AI tools sparingly to preserve artistic intent.

Anyone who’s used a TV with motion smoothing knows that higher frame rates (especially using AI generated frames) aren't always better by default, and accordingly, those in charge of film restoration and remastering need to understand that higher resolution doesn’t automatically mean a better looking film.

Maybe we need to enforce a ban on directors touching their movies after release, but for now we’re stuck with the changes they make, for better and for worse.

Spring 2024

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School Culture

The Music of Western Tech: Interviews with Just July and Man Is Five Xia James

With events like Spirit Week, February’s Black History Month assembly, and three Drama Club productions in the past school year, it’s becoming clear that school culture is making a comeback at Western Tech. `````Grade 10 student Xia James conducted interviews with two bands from last semester's Battle of the Bands to provide an insider's view of the local scene: Man Is Five, who took first place, and Just July, who performed their final show last month. Here’s what they had to say about musical influence, advice, shows, and more.

Just July performing

Original interviews conducted by Xia are edited for brevity. Check them out in full in their Toronto Scene Zine and O: Alvvays is a big influence. This guy follow its Instagram, @torontoscenezine. told me that I played like the drummer from Cap’n Jazz, who would go on to form American Football so I guess that’s Just July an influence. I didn’t really mean for that to happen, but now that I’ve listened to Xia: Who are you? more American Football and more Cap’n Jasper: We’re Just July, that’s Aidan. Jazz, I think that’s an influence.

J: Yeah, they really influenced one of the (points to Aidan) songs, like big time.

Aidan: I’m Aidan, I play guitar.

Oliver: I’m Oliver, I play drums, and sometimes I sing.

J: I’m Jasper. I play bass and sang a few times.

Liam: I’m Liam, I play guitar and also sang a few times.

X: What advice do you have for writing songs?

L: Do it a lot.

O: Do it to do it.

A: I find personally, if I go into X: What are musical influences y’all something and I’m like, ”Oh, this has to have? be like, perfect,” I just end up mulling over the wrong things.

L: I like Slowdive, a lot. I like their J: Oh, and listen to your friends. music, that’s probably the big one for me.

J: Car Seat Headrest is a big one I think. “...try things to try things. If L: Yeah, those are the two that I think are you’re just starting from important. scratch, I would say just do L: I should mention Last Waltzon.

J: Oh yeah. Last Waltzon is really what feels natural and what feels like it’s the most true to inspiring.

L: We have to mention that. Last your perspective and the Waltzon is like, the best band ever. point you’re trying to make.”

J: Oh- I’d say Alvvays is a big influence.

O: Listen to your friends, yeah. As a band, I feel like it’s really important to just have an ear for the other person’s perspective and just, you know, try things to try things. If you’re just starting from scratch, I would say just do what feels natural and what feels like it’s the most true to your perspective and the point you’re trying to make.

L: Yeah, be fine with writing things that like, suck. There’s a lot of bad songs.

O: Yeah! Enjoy the bad ones. And just, like I said, do it to do it. Do it because it’s fun.

Just July

X: Where can people find you?

O: Uh, everywhere.

J: Peloton.

A: Oh yeah! We are on Peloton.

L: Napster. (laughs) A: Yeah, Peloton, Napster.

O: We’ll find you.

A: Yeah (laughs) that’s a threat.

Spring 2024

School Culture

Man is Five

“Dude! That was so sick,” and I was like, “Hoho! That makes me happy.”

Xia: Who are you?

Sebastian: I’m Sebastian.

Chris: I’m Chris.

X: What’s your band?

C: Man is Five.

S: Yeah that’s us.

X: What’s the origin of your band name?

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X: What are some influences you have on the music?

S: I like Pixies, I like Nirvana, I like Nine Inch Nails, I like Tool, I like The Beatles…

Those are probably my tops.

C: I like Polyphia… definitely Nirvana is an influence, I’m not even gonna try to say they’re not, they’re a huge influence.

Definitely Vypers, The Jins…

S: Ooh, it’s from a Pixies song. We were trying to figure out band names and I was listening to the Pixies and “Monkey Gone to Heaven” came on and I was like, “Oh, ‘man is five!’ That’s a cool band name.”

X: What is the story of the first show you’ve played?

S: Supermarket! We played with I rememberC: Just July and Kingdom of Birds, best bands in Toronto.

S: That was the first time we played with Just July. I’ve been friends with them since Grade 9. And they started their band about a year before we did, and then I finally heard that they were like, “Oh, do you wanna play a show with us?” and I was like, “Yeeeah!” I mean, that’s a great opportunity, they already have a year of experience. And Kingdom of Birds as well, they’re really super cool.

C: They’re the best, man.

S: Yeah they’re great. Overall it was a great time, a lot of people showed up, and I think we did pretty good for our debut show. I think it got people excited, they were happy and ready to hear the next bands. I remember Oliver from Just July, he came up to us after our set, immediately after. I remember him racing up to us and being like,

hoto

Man is Five performing

X: Where can people find you?

C: On our instagram, @manisfiveofficial.

S: We’re there most frequently,

Nirvana

S: When I do write the vocal melodies and whatever, I try to sound like Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. Just because his way of singing, like, his melodies and everything that he does has such an impact on the way I write.

C: Yeah and uh, at shows when we play them. That’s kinda self-explanatory… (both laugh) S: Yeah, you can find us playing music when we play music.

“You can find us playing music when we play music.”

hoto

A mosh pit at a Man Is Five show

Spring 2024

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Arts and Culture

SEASON: A Letter to the Future and Remembering the End Mae Lai

SEASON: A Letter to the Future is a game about facing the end of the world.

It’s a game about the weight of memories and the cost of forgetting. The story begins with a prophetic dream that heralds the shifting of ‘seasons’, a world-defining change into a new era. You take the role of a young woman leaving her small mountaintop village for the first time, equipped with a camera and a bike, with the goal of recording as much of the current season as possible before it is lost.

SEASON is a game that revels in the mundane. With the apocalypse looming, everything is imbued with significance and gravity. It's a quiet game: a solitary bike ride punctuated by pockets of humanity. Your only objective is to witness the world and record it in the journal that you plan to bring to the Museum Vault at the end of your journey.

There are a thousand tiny decisions: what to record in the limited space of your journal, what to take or leave behind, what to forget. It’s a simple gameplay loop that relies on a personal investment in the story--if you don’t connect with SEASON, the game will bore you. There are no

Promotional art for SEASON

real challenges and no real tension, and the game does little to direct you in any which way. What there is is a series of vignettes: an abandoned shrine to a god of sleep, the secluded home of an artist disillusioned with her legacy, an old tourist checkpoint. They come together to paint a picture of a surprisingly strange world in which the themes of the game are made manifest: there is a ‘memory sickness’, there is a crystal that grows on objects of nostalgia.

Western Tech Polled

SEASON has great art direction, unfortunately compromised by its poor optimization that required me to play the game at its lowest graphic settings and made the cutscenes freeze and stutter.

Luckily, the premise interested me enough that I pushed through these technical issues. SEASON is a great game for a certain kind of person at a certain time. It is slow, contemplative, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It isn’t perfect, but it is unique.

I chose Minecraft because of its banger soundtrack.

I spend more time playing Roblox, it’s free, and it has a wide assortment of games.

Roblox feels like an E-Transfer half the time.

I’ve been a diehard Roblox kid since 2015!!! #robloxianforlife.

Spring 2024

Arts and Culture

Monkey Man Review Oliver Principe-Beer

Dev Patel and Jordan Peele (left to right)

From the swashbuckling adventure films of the silent era to its zenith in the 1980s, maybe no genre of film has created so much value for shareholders as the action movie. In an era of John Wick and Mission: Impossible, what one expects from an action movie is more fights on top of trains and exploding skyscrapers than quality writing or acting. So when I sat down to watch Monkey Man, actordirector Dev Patel’s latest Jordan Peeleproduced film, I was subconsciously expecting to be at least somewhat disappointed.

I left the theater wholeheartedly believing that Monkey Man is the greatest action film released in recent memory.

The concept of an actor-director usually merits at least a couple accusations of egocentrism. And when the most prominent actor-director in Hollywood today is Bradley Cooper, some of them are warranted. But Dev Patel proves that a character piece done by an actor-director can, in fact, be done tastefully. First, the story is couched as a modern retelling of the myth of the Ramayana. Within the myth, Hanuman, whose name directly translates to Monkey Man, fights the demon king Ravana in a spiritual battle so epic it is commemorated yearly in the greatest Hindu holiday, Diwali. However, the modern version of the ancient myth has Hanuman as an underground boxer from the slums and Ravan as a grifting guru in cahoots with the far-right. The film is so tied to this narrative that the main character, played

by Patel, is nameless.

But despite subsuming itself into a greater story millennia old, Monkey Man feels like a personal indictment of Hindu Nationalism, capitalism, and the action movie genre itself.

In every way, Monkey Man feels like a response to RRR. RRR was a wonderful film about the struggle for Indian independence that will be known for breaking the barrier between Hollywood and Bollywood. It is also widely regarded as supportive of Hindu Nationalism. While RRR was a fantastical period piece depicting plucky rebels against the British Empire, Monkey Man holds up the realities of modern Hindu Nationalism to the light.

The villain is a man named Baba Shabti, a prominent Hindu priest who backs the reactionary Sovereign Party (a nearly one-to-one stand-in for India’s real life BJP, the right-wing nationalists currently in power) for political and personal gain.

He’s no zealot; he’s not even religiously inclined. It’s clear that all he wants is to accrue as much power as possible by any means necessary. Monkey Man does not shy away from the reality that the most dangerous people are not ideological zealots, but those who simply want power.

In any action film, the crux of the narrative is the violence. Men come at the protagonist, he shoots or hits them, they die. Monkey Man is entirely different. There is no grandiosity to its action. The first act is dedicated to an assassination plot against the Chief of Police, a lackey of Baba Shabti and the

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man who killed the protagonist’s mother.

He gets a job at the brothel he frequents, trains a stray dog to bring him a gun, spikes the chief’s cocaine with powdered bleach, and corners him in the washroom.

The plan doesn’t work. For the rest of the film, he is on the run from the police, who deem him a terrorist. The actual fights are few and far between--the film knows that it can stand on its own without the constant hinting of violence, but when it comes, it is bloody, realistic, and painful. No pun intended: it pulls no punches. The highlight of the film comes in the third act when our protagonist, rested and ready, makes a triumphant return to the brothel along with a squad of transgender priestesses ready to kick some bigot ass. But while the violence is both entertaining and powerful, it also speaks to the deeper themes of the film.

At the end of the movie, the protagonist has proverbially reached heaven through violence. After fighting through the brothel and killing the chief of police, he stands on one end of a penthouse floor. Baba Shabti is on the other. Between them is a depiction of the Ramayana, lit up in red. Outside are the fireworks of Diwali. Baba Shabti walks towards Patel’s character and asks him one question: “Why not end the cycle of violence?” This moment is my favourite ten seconds of the film, and my favourite moment in any recent movie. It shows that Patel knows exactly what he’s talking about when it comes to violence inflicted by state and religious authorities. The people in power will inflict suffering on the lower classes, and when they fight back, they will be called terrorists. They will be implored to make peace with their oppressors. And the protagonist does the only thing one should in that situation: he stabs Baba Shabti in the head. This film languished in development hell for five years before Jordan Peele persuaded Universal Pictures to acquire and publish it. Thank you. Mr. Peele. Without you, I don’t believe we would have been able to see the best action film of the 21st Century.

Spring 2024

Arts and Culture

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Anna’s Book Picks Anna Gordon

In 2018, Emily Wilson was the first woman to ever translate Homer’s Odyssey into English, something which has been done at least 60 times since 1615. Her edition treated the ancient story with a careful eye for gendered language and power dynamics, and is a commendable accomplishment that took years. But if something can be told in 60 different ways, is it not safe to assume that some editions are more accurate than others? Is accuracy even possible to measure?

Questions like these are crucial when considering how to translate text from one language to the next, especially when considering the many subjective interpretations of a work of fiction. As R. F. Kuang puts it in her novel Babel, “Language was just a difference… a thousand worlds within one. And translation, a necessary endeavor, however futile, to move between them.”

It’s very easy for us to take English for granted, considering how globally accessible it is, but it takes a great deal of problem solving to translate something into a language like ours. If you can, read literature as it was originally meant to be read. If you can’t, these translations are the next best thing.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-ju, translation

by Jamie Chang Kim Jiyoung is going insane. All her life growing up in South Korea, she has been second to men, down to the number two on her and every other woman’s national registry. As an adult, Jiyoung is starting to act out in ways that disturb her husband so much he sets her up with a psychiatrist. But is it really her that needs fixing? This book is surprisingly more informative than anything, with an array of cited sources from studies to censuses that put into perspective how ingrained sexism is within Korean society, even

Albert Camus, Mikhail Bulgakov, Cho Nam-Ju, Jacqueline Harpman (left to right)

today.

Cho Nam-ju based the protagonist's life off of her own, saying she is meant to be “a vessel that contains experiences and emotions that are common to every Korean woman,” and that the purpose of the novel is not so much to entertain, but to spark discussion. Jiyoung’s rebellions are small ones, but the book itself has been a large source of empowerment and inspiration for the present-day Korean feminist movement. Kim Jiyoung is going insane, but by the end of this book, you’ll understand why.

The Outsider by Albert Camus, translation by Joseph Laredo No matter how you phrase it, The Outsider (or The Stranger in American English) has one of the most iconic first lines in fiction: Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. The novel itself is similarly succinct, clear-cut, and jarring. Our protagonist, Meursault, is not someone you’re meant to sympathize with, even upon the death of his mother. In fact, he appears completely indifferent to that fact as well as the rest of the world around him. The Outsider primarily follows Meursault’s murder of a man through the court proceedings that soon follow.

Camus creates a world in little over 100 pages that feels so real you can practically feel the glare of the hot sun

beating down on the beach and through the windows of that stuffy courtroom.

Better yet is the rapidly increasing sense of doom, like sand through an hourglass, as the book progresses and hope for poor Meursault seems less and less attainable.

The Outsider is an absurd, existentialist classic.

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, translation by Ros Schwartz With similarities both in original language and themes, I Who Have Never Known Men progresses in a sort of backwards manner from The Outsider, from imprisonment to freedom. An unnamed young girl is trapped in a bunker along with 39 other women with no idea how she got there, and no memory of the outside world. She can only speculate why they are being kept in captivity and what the guards patrolling their cell really want with them. Everything changes when a siren goes off and the guards flee, leaving a key behind in the bunker door.

Aboveground, in a new and unfamiliar landscape, the women must relearn how to live, and our protagonist must grapple with the knowledge that being the youngest can only mean she will be the last one standing. If you’re coming into this book looking for answers, you won’t find any. That’s the beauty of it though,

Spring 2024

because finding the answer isn’t really the point. This novel instead questions what humans do when their humanity is taken from them, and who we become when knowledge and intimacy are lost. Do we keep searching for these things, or do we settle down and make do with what we still have? I loved the open-endedness of this book, especially the last couple of pages. I Who Have Never Known Men is dystopia at its finest.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, translation by Mirra Ginsburg If the devil himself took up residence in 1930s Moscow, what kind of trouble would ensue? And what does any of it have to do with the Roman emperor Pontius Pilate? Born in Ukraine in 1891, Mikhail Bulgakov wrote during a time of creative suppression. The installment of Five Year Plans and the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers resulted in great pressure being placed on artists of the era, mostly in the form of publication bans. But Bulgakov refused to be silenced.

Under all the layers of insanity and satire in this novel lies an artful criticism of the Soviet Union. Two plotlines alternate between Jerusalum at the time of Christ’s execution and modern Russia, with a cast of characters all subject to Satan’s mind games and trickery. It’s a story of corruption and lies, but at the same time one about the

Commemorating the Covid Year Liam Staig

Symptom screening apps, wiping down the desk with Clorox, double masking, distance, no distance, those two months I didn’t leave the house, that one time I heard 12s blasting Drain Gang only to never see them again. We had four hour

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Arts and Culture

perseverance of love, as a troubled writer referred to as the Master and his beloved Margarita take center stage in the latter half of the novel. Bulgakov had to rewrite the entirety of The Master and Margarita from memory after burning its draft because he couldn’t possibly see himself writing in a time like his. The Russian language now has a common saying: “Manuscripts don’t burn.”

“The fact that it’s possible to translate the same lines a hundred different times and all of them are defensible in entirely different ways?

That tells you something… I want to be saying, after multiple different revisions: This is the best I can get toward the truth,” Emily Wilson said in a 2017 interview. A translation is no more than an interpretation, she believes, meaning we can’t deem one better or more accurate than another. Yet there remains a responsibility to maintain a text and come out with something true to its purpose something that, although not an exact reproduction, will reach as many people as possible. Maybe there’s something to be said for translating something 60 times if, in the end, language is really only what we make of it. So if you’re looking for an accessible translation that preserves the original author’s voice, whether it be French, Russian, or Korean, these four picks are some great ones.

math class but don’t worry, Ms. Changoor let us play Among Us during break time!

It was the thing, it was hip, AOC was playing Among Us! I met no one, how could I? I didn’t see faces ‘til halfway through tenth grade! What a shocker. Did not expect people to look like that.

I remember nothing else about the Covid year. I took no photos. I went to school and I went home. I listened to Slowdive and played Minecraft on the weekends. Nothing else. I do not miss it and I wouldn’t go back if you paid me to.

The Thoughts of Another Bruno Kaul

He experienced yesterday, what was truly a most peculiar and most inexplicable experience. It took place around lunch time. He had gone to purchase envelopes from the stationery shop on the corner and entered the shop just as a woman was exiting. His hand brushed against hers. And suddenly, to his astonishment, he began to think her thoughts, to feel her feelings. Two streams of consciousness running parallel within his head, one his, the other this stranger’s. These two minds coexisting within his skull, vying for his attention.

Stunned, understanding that he was experiencing something fundamentally wrong, he staggered out of the shop. It wasn’t until he reached his front door that the woman’s thoughts left him. At first, he had tried to shut them out, but soon his curiosity overcame his unease. It was shocking the difference between his own thoughts and those of this woman.

The completely different reactions the two had to such similar phenomena. The total inconsonance of their perspectives.

The rest of the day he spent contemplating the strange occurrence, wondering whether it was a delusion, a hallucination. The whole incident had produced in him a strong feeling of disorientation. He reasoned that any such occurrence would be bound to engender feelings of self-doubt, of confusion. That to feel one has experienced the impossible will necessarily lead one to question all of one’s beliefs. He dwelt on how odd it is that we spend our whole lives never knowing the thoughts of another. How all we think we understand about others is merely conjecture, based on that small portion of consciousness which they choose to express either through speech or through text. It was not only disorientation he felt but also a profound melancholy, a feeling of deep loneliness.

Spring 2024

Sports

From Western’s Halls to the Hall of Fame Quinn Oliver

photo

blowout. After his breakout 1939 season, Bill was recruited by Major Junior clubs in Toronto, and his high school career came to an end. His accomplishments are immortalized in the Toronto Star archives, and in the banners hanging in our gym.

Bill’s class at Western Tech

If you peruse Western Tech’s Wikipedia article, there’s a section on famous alumni that’s altogether not too impressive. Funnily enough, our most famous alumnus is a high school dropout: Gwendolyn MacEwen, the awardwinning poet. It’s a shame, really: a huge, storied school that hasn’t produced many people of note throughout history.

Just a place to churn out perfectly average university students. Except, I lied. While Wikipedia says we only produce dropout poets and minor-league hockey players (hi, J.P. Anderson), our most famous alumni is actually the Hall of Fame hockey defenceman Bill Quackenbush.

Hubert George “Bill” Quackenbush was born March 2nd, 1922 in Toronto, Ontario. Growing up, he split time between houses at 222 Medland St in the Junction and 78 Harvie Ave in the Earlscourt neighbourhood. He was named after two uncles, Herbert Mullin and George Quackenbush, both of whom died during the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. He attended Western Tech for 4 years, from 1936 to 1940, and he completed Grade 13 at Brantford Collegiate.

At Western, Bill was a four-sport athlete, playing soccer, football, hockey, and baseball in his time. He was a star on the hockey team, leading the Junior Colts to an undefeated 13-0 season and the city title in 1939. His best game of the season came in the semi-finals versus Jarvis CI, where he notched 4 goals in a 13-1

Bill in his Western Tech hockey equipment

Bill played two years of Junior hockey before he signed with the Detroit Red Wings at age 20. He played 43 games for the Red Wings’ AHL affiliate across the regular season and playoffs, and he never looked back. Across a 14-year career, he played 775 NHL games for the Red Wings and the Boston Bruins. He made the all-star team five times, and he became the first defenceman to win the Lady Byng Trophy (hockey’s award for most sportsmanlike player) in 1948-49.

He was famous for being one of the cleanest players to ever play hockey, logging only 95 penalty minutes in his whole NHL career.

Don’t mistake clean play for a lack of toughness, though. When I spoke to Bill’s son Bruce, he told me a story that had been passed down from his uncle Max, who also played in the NHL. It was 1949, their first year with the Boston Bruins. Bill and Max were paired on defence, and they surrendered a goal. It happens. The opposing centreman in the scrimmage made a nifty deke down the centre of the ice, split them (a big no-no, if you’re a defenceman) and potted a

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goal, before showing them up with a big celebration. A “big whoopee-doo celebration,” according to Bruce. As Max tells it, they came off the ice and all he could see was steam coming out of Bill’s ears. The next shift, the centreman took the puck into the zone again, and Bill steered him into the corner before landing a huge hit, leaving the man with a broken arm and two missing teeth.

Bill was famous among his contemporaries for logging tons of minutes while being one of the toughest man-on-man defenders. In game one of the 1948-49 Playoff Semi-Finals, the Red Wings faced the Montreal Canadiens, and the game went to three overtimes, lasting 105 minutes in total.

In that game, Bill played 75 minutes (according to Bruce, as the NHL did not track time on ice until 1997), which for all the math whizzes out there, is 71% of game time. Bill was hugely respected by other players in the league at the time.

Bill was a mentor to Red Kelly when he was just entering the league, as the Red Wings’ injury situation forced a rookie Red to play with Bill on the top defence pairing. Bill’s influence is pretty clear, as Red went on to win four Lady Byng trophies of his own. Bruce also told me that Rocket Richard held Bill in high esteem. As he said, “We chatted for a minute, and [Richard] pulled me aside, and he said, ‘I just want you to know: your father was the toughest defenceman for me to get around when I was playing in the NHL’.” If Rocket Richard thinks you’re a good player, then you ought to be.

Despite his relative anonymity afterwards, Bill Quackenbush was one of the most respected defencemen in the league during his career. Five all-star appearances, a Lady Byng trophy, and his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1976 makes that clear. When compared to other Western Tech alumni, he has one of the most impressive resumés, which is why I believe he’s the most famous person to ever attend Western Tech.

Spring 2024

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Sports

What a Year to be a Colt: A Year in Review for Western Sports Noah Pearen

Needless to say, it’s been an exciting year for Western Tech Athletics.

In the fall, the biggest story was the Junior Boys Volleyball team, coached by Mr. Wang. Coming off of a Tier 2 championship last year, the team was focused on maximizing their potential.

Evidently, they didn’t fail. The team dominated their way through Tier 1 competition, going undefeated throughout the season and cruising their way to a city championship. Of the 11 matches they played, their opponents mustered a single set only three times (said opponents being Martin Grove, Richview, and York Mills).

Junior Boys Volleyball Team

However, volleyball wasn’t the only sport Westerners showed their prowess in during the first semester. Both the Girls Varsity Basketball and Varsity Ultimate teams (coached by Kate Curtis and Ms. Smith, and Mr. Brohman, respectively) managed to win the West Region. Neither team won their divisions during the regular season, but showed up massively when it mattered. The basketball team

Meet The Blue Jays Erik Herrmann

Fresh off a disappointing playoff loss, the Toronto Blue Jays were looking to make a big splash in free agency. While they missed out on the two-way star Shohei Ohtani, who signed with the L.A. Dodgers, the Blue Jays added some muchneeded veteran depth. They signed Canadian slugger Joey Votto to a minor league contract, added corner infielder

was able to edge out Weston CI in the finals, taking a nail-biting 54-49 victory, while Girls Ultimate showed no mercy to Runnymede CI, blowing them out 14-6 in the championship game.

Of course, you can’t talk about Western sports without mentioning the amazing seasons of both the Junior and Senior football teams.The Junior team (coached by Mr. Kelly, Mr. Jalhan and Mr. Tremblay) made the playoffs for the first time in 39 years, a major accomplishment. When I asked him about his keys to success, Coach Tremblay said he pushed the team to keep a play-to-play mindset, which clearly worked. The Senior Boys, on the other hand, made it all the way to the city championship at Varsity Stadium, unfortunately losing in a tough 19-11 final. Western’s new era as an athletic school is well-represented in its football teams.

As the semester turned over and the season became spring, the Senior Boys Hockey team cruised their way through league play. The team went an astounding 6-0, one of the most dominant seasons in recent memory. Their total point differential leading up to the finals was +37, beating their opponents by an average of almost 5 goals a game. Sadly, they fell in the city championship to CTA, losing a nail-biter 3-2.

In February, the Athletes of the Year for the 2022-23 season were revealed to be Kinnon Ringler for his achievements in track and field and Jasmine Collins for her achievements in tennis. The two athletes excelled in their respective sports, and as is tradition, received posters of their accomplishments, placed in the display case near the foyer.

Many stand-alone tournaments and competitions also took place throughout the year, most notably in swimming and frisbee. The Co-Ed Ultimate team went undefeated at the Monarch Park Ultimate Tournament, while swimmers Mia, Jasper and Mason competed at the OFSAA provincial championships in March.

This year, Western proved that it should be respected as a strong competitor in Toronto’s school sports scene. Better yet, the Colts played excellently against the Humberside Huskies in several sports, adding to the historic rivalry and setting up more tense competition between the two schools in the future. If this year’s athletic performances are anything to go off of, Western is sure not to disappoint.

Justin Turner, a seasoned veteran with World Series experience, and also signed both Hawaiian infielder Isiah KinerFalefa and Cuban pitcher Yariel Rodriguez.

Votto, who attended Richview CI as a kid, is a fan favourite around the league, and hit a homer in his first at-bat in Spring Training. Turner, best known for his time with the Dodgers, is a two-time all-star who has appeared in three World Series, winning one in 2020. He is 39

years old, so he’s the oldest player on the active roster. Kiner-Falefa, known by the initials IKF, is a defensively-minded utilityman. Rodriguez was a top international free agent this off-season thanks to his stellar performance for Cuba at the World Baseball Classic. The Jays are certainly hoping these players can take them to the next level and get them their first postseason win since 2016.

Congrats to all the athletes and coaches on a great year so far. Go Colts!

Spring 2024

Page 18

Hot Takes & Dear Colton

Hot Takes! With Brody Rapkowski DISCLAIMER: The views expressed herein are those of the author and in no way reflect the opinions of The Horseshoe, its editorial team, the staff and administration of Western Technical-Commercial School, or anyone, really.

Read on at your own discretion.

Bald and Bold I’ll admit, this is a difficult take for me to write. I have spent many a moment chuckling at the bareness of bald heads, mocking them at the expense of the person they are attached to, but I would not advocate for them if I didn’t feel strongly about it. The benefits that the balderly have are unparalleled by any other hairstyle. For one, it is easy to manage. For showers, no shampoo necessary, just regular body wash and a little bit of post-shower wax to make the head really sparkle. Hair doesn’t get in your eyes, and people get to see more of you--you know what they say, the scalp is the window into the soul. Additionally, and in my opinion most importantly, you become much more aerodynamic. The drag of one’s hair in the wind is a thing of the past for the bald: just look at Usain Bolt! His baldness is the reason he’s so fast. Plus, it's an easy weight loss technique. Suggesting we buzz our hair off isn’t balderdash, but rather a reason to be dashingly bald.

Metal: EUGHHHH RATATA Music is a tough topic to change people’s minds on, especially because everyone has this ‘my-music-is-better’ and ‘your-music-taste-sucks’ mentality, but I will try my best. So anyway, here’s why your music taste sucks and why metal is better. Metal brings the energy to music, the unbridled anger and cacophonous cackles of doom. It brings the screaming, the thrashing, the moshing. The genre is huge, with tons of sub-genres within itself. If you’re looking for goblins screaming into a mic, then metal has your fix. Check out Necrogoblikon. Maybe you’d rather have some environmentally friendly music. Metal’s got you covered: check out Gojira. And hey, if you don’t like screaming, that’s totally okay, Metal might not be for you.

You would just be corny, uncool, and boring (no, you’re an ad-hominem). Give it a go, and if you really hate it, then you can harass me in the halls. I just might not be able to hear you over my ear damage.

Teacher Edition! do I get more students to hand in their work on Q: How time?

I know a teacher who gives out snacks to A: Incentivize! students who hand in their work on time. Alternatively,

you could offer them a boosted mark on their assignment.

there a way to teach a book without making it Q: Istorture?

you should let the class know how passionate you A: Iarethink about the book you’re teaching. If they can tell you’re really excited about something, they’ll want to find that excitement in it, too.

can I get students to stop me calling me “Berubes” Q: How (pronounced like “tubes”)? Asking for a friend.

A: Try to ignore them, Berubes. It’ll die out. do I ensure that kids show up for the extra help Q: How that they asked for?

this as a forgetful person: remind them! Remind A: Saying your students before class ends, send emails, write them a

sticky note, anything to ensure they don’t forget or neglect what they asked for.

Edited by Julia Story

Scan here to ask Colton

Spring 2024

Page 19

Artist Spotlight

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Zion Walters

Aste Buznytska

Amberly Huang

Aretre Prathana

Spring 2024

Page 19B

Artist Spotlight

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Anonymous

Zion Walters

Erik Bliacher

Julia Story

Spring 2024

Page 19C

Artist Spotlight

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Erik Bliacher

Ciel Nduka

Ethan Nguyen

Mae Lai

Spring 2024

Page 20

Puzzles

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Spring 2024

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Puzzles

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