The Plant: Students for Sustainability

As part of the Canadian Federation’s students for sustainability tour Dawson promoted environmental awareness in an event called sustainable day in Conrods on October 7th.

The Canadian Federation of students launched a campaign called students for sustainability last year. As part of this campaign a campus to campus sustainability tour for all the school’s who are part of the Canadian Federation of Students was kicked off in Newfoundland on Sept 30th 2008.

Dawson is the 5th campus to be visited on this tour.

“The goal of this tour is to showcase what’s happening with the environment and to get more students involved in the sustainable movement and to get politicians to pay attention and take action in climate change,” said Katherine Giroux-Bougard, National chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students.

Conrods was filled with booths all promoting environmentally friendly products and sustainable ways of living. In total there were 10 booths including the Green Earth Club, Ten Thousand Villages Fair Trade Store, the David Suzuki Foundation, The Thrive Diet and Yoga booth, The DSU, The Canadian Federation of Students, Nutripur, Dawson health services, Council of Canadians, and Joytoyz, a sex shop.




“A lot of people are laughing at the Joytoyz booth but I called them up because a lot of sex toys are really bad for the environment and for your body, “said Mathieu Perron, DSU Staff.

Joytoyz which is located on St Laurent Street is a “woman friendly sex shop” that sells environmentally friendly products.

“We concentrate on silicone and glass toys which are environmentally friendly and re-usable,” sad Phuong, owner of Joytoyz.

One of the reasons they concentrate on glass is because it’s a non porous substance which means it won’t let any bacteria in and it also warms up nicely to the body.

“Our products are artisan made, not mass produced so the artist takes time to make sure each toy can take a lot of pressure which means it won’t break,” said Phuong.

Along with the glass toys and all natural lubes are rechargeable vibrators.

“Our fun factory vibrator is 100% silicone and comes in a case which is also the charger. This is good for people who don’t want to use a lot of batteries.”

Next to Joytoyz was Dawson’s very own nurse manning the health services booth and giving out free condoms, mini toothpastes and information on what health services can do for students.

“I think sustainable day is important because it makes the kids aware that the environment is not forever,” said Diem Truong, Dawson’s nurse.

Carly a first semester continuing education student was helping to man the David Suzuki Foundation booth.

“We’re promoting the David Suzuki Foundation which is essentially sustainability for the new generation,” said Carly.

The David Suzuki Foundation is trying to obtain sustainability through various challenges and campaigns.

One of the ways the foundation is trying to attain sustainability is through there campaign called Powervote.

“Powervote is about taking into consideration the environment when you vote,” said Carly.

According to the pamphlet the David Suzuki Foundation is “seeking 10,000 young voters who will make climate the priority when casting their vote.” To get involved you can sign the pledge at ourclimate.ca.



Another way to obtain sustainability is through the Campus Climate Challenge, which according to the pamphlet is making sustainable campuses “through changing institutional operations, improving curriculua and mobilizing campus community members support.”

“It’s incredible how many ways you can change a school and make it sustainable,” said Leila Roloff, a member of Dawson’s Green Earth Club.

Along with sustainable campuses the Green earth club was talking about composting and the damage water bottles are causing the environment. There were also samples of vegan brownies and raw food macaroons that students could buy.

“We have vegan and raw foods so people can come and try it and see what’s out there and expand their minds,” said Roloff.

In answer to the water bottle crisis was the Nutripur booth run by Kenny Bartczak, a first semester business administration student.

His parents own the Nutripur Company which sells 100% stainless steal, reusable water bottles.

“These are one of the safest water bottles on the market because there’s no leeching of anything into the water, there are no cracks for bacteria to get into and there are no chemicals,” said Bartczak.

Sustainable day proved to be an informative event with a variety of booths and information.

“I think student unions in general have been doing a lot of work around sustainability. It’s become a dire issue and students feel its important to get politicians to take action,” said Giroux-Bougard.

Sustainability isn’t just about the environment it’s about your health, economic health and bringing all sorts of social groups together,” said Perron.

Students in Action

When we think about the future, most of see ourselves with jobs, a house and maybe even a family. But what many of us don’t envision is a worldwide crisis where Glacier National Park will have no glaciers left and 15-37% of plant and animal species could be wiped out.

Thankfully there are some people who are aware of what global warming and pollution can do. Among them is Action Conservation, an organization that was created when Environment Canada and the Earthvalues Institute (a non-profit charity specializing in environmental education) partnered up.

Action Conservation is an organization that is working to effectively reduce energy use, conserve water, and minimize waste production.

This organization is based in Dawson College and is run by Cindy Elliott, the Project Coordinator.

Action Conservation has many objectives they are hoping to obtain this year.

“One of the goals this year is to record 2008 environmental actions taken by college students, staff and teachers,” said Elliott.

According to the Action Conservation website Dawson used 40 metric tons of paper in 2005 and 138 metric tons of wood. That is the equivalent of 1,000 trees!

To stop this, Brian McFarlane, in the print shop, negotiated a price for 100% post-consumer paper.

“Our goal was to reduce paper consumption by 450,000 sheets. In actual fact we reduced paper use by 1.4 million sheets,” said Elliot.

To continue these positive changes and to raise awareness of environmental problems among the school Action Conservation plans many activities and campaigns.

“In February of 2007 we implemented a recycling campaign blitz to educate the Dawson community on the proper methods of recycling within the college,” Elliot said.

Action Conservation also partnered up with the Interior design students to create an eco corner right across from the information desk on the second floor.

“This is the place to bring your used eyeglasses, ink cartridges, batteries and cell phones for recycling, reuse or rebuilding,” Elliott said.

Action Conservation has created an environmental policy for Dawson College.

“Ian Mackenzie, from the English Department worked on this policy with us. Our goal was to have this completed by the end of March 2008,” Elliott said.

Just as there are many things to be changed at school there are many environmentally friendly things that can be done at home.

“You can turn down thermostats at night and when the home is unoccupied, take short showers (less than 10 minutes) and use warm or cold water washes for clothes.”

Mixed Martial Arts

Imagine two people in a no holds barred fight combining kicks, knees and punches with submission holds, sweeps and takedowns. Hardly anything is considered illegal and every form of martial art is used.

This popular sport is called Mixed Martial Arts and it emerged in 1993 with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“Mixed martial arts is basically all the best parts of all the other martial arts put together,” said Jesse Monette, a student at JKS Martial arts school in the West Island.

When he says all the other martial arts he means Karate, Ju Jitsu, Grappling, Boxing and more.

“I’ve been doing martial arts since I was five although I did take a few years off in high school.”

Right now, Monette is taking the street wise class which is a form of mixed martial arts but with street rules.

“Street rules mean there are no rules, it’s like you’re on the street so you can do what you want.”

Although this may sound scary or barbaric the class is very controlled and safe.
First you pair up with a partner and do drills, once you’ve done the drills at least a hundred times each you do the same drills but with resistance. Once you’re used to the resistance you and your partner can start to spar.

“I started stand up sparring last week but I’ve been sparring in grappling and boxing for about a month,” said Monette.

When asked about his favorite part of the street wise class Monette said “The best part about JKS is being able to fight and to fight with someone knowing you’re not going to actually get hurt.”

He also adds that what he likes about the street wise class is being 100% prepared for what life throws at you on the street.

JKS is host to a variety of classes including MMA grappling, judo, kick boxing, boxing and of course the street wise mixed martial arts class.

“It has a little something for everyone; from people who are looking to fight, to do cardio or to just get into shape.”

But whatever you chose to do you’re going to have to be willing to give it your all and to practice, practice, practice.

“My sensei always says you need to practice a move 20,000 times on each side because that’s really the only way you’re going to get really good at it and be ready to use it in real life.”

And JKS’s street wise class is all about being prepared for real life.

“It’s nice knowing that what your learning in this class is going to help you outside, if someone mugs you you’re going to know what to do. If you play baseball, for example, that’s not really going to help.”

The Plant: Creations is Back

If you are an aspiring writer, poet or artist and are looking to have your work published then check out Creations, Dawson College’s literary magazine, which is back again this year.

This magazine is a literary journal where students can get their poems, essays, short stories and drawings published. Although Creations magazine was not running last year due to a lack of interest Kathleen Carter, a second year literature student has decided to run it this time.

“Creations was introduced to me during the welcome day for the literature program. I thought that someone would continue the project during my first year, but when I heard nothing about it, I decided to try to start it back up the next year,” said Carter.

With the help of Paul Serralheiro, Kris Woofter and Anne Lambert, Carter has done just that.

“They’ve all been incredibly resourceful and encouraging; without their help, Creations wouldn't be at all possible,” said Carter.

In the past Creations has focused mostly on short fiction and poetry but this year Carter wants to expand Creations horizons a bit “by including more artwork, photographs and creative essays.”

“I found that although the journal was a wonderful expression for some, I think that by including those new categories for entries we would receive a lot more incredibly creative works,” said Carter.

Creations usually coincides with the Creative Arts festival, which is typically held in April. This means that the magazine should be ready to print a few weeks before then. In order to meet this deadline Carter and her team which consists of Amanda Triassi, Tara Gurudata, Claudia Alexander and Brian Lolly are still looking for people to be on staff.

“As a team, we're looking for people who are serious about literature and other artistic pursuits to be editors and to help us judge the works we receive to decide whether or not they're fit for publication.”

Carter has decided that there will be no specific positions and everyone on staff is considered equal.

“Right now, all our positions are kind of loose. I think the best thing to do to avoid any conflict would be if the group were all treated as equals, and allotted with the same responsibilities as judges, editors, typists, representatives, fundraisers, etc,” said Carter.

Of course another way to be part of Creations is to submit your works to DawsonCreations@hotmail.com, or writing to the same address to set up an appointment with Kathleen Carter.

“Should anyone be interested we still need a front and back cover as well.”

The Plant: Live N Dirty

The lights are low, the music’s loud and the smell of sweat, beer and cigarettes is in the air. Welcome to LiveNDirty’s battle of the bands finals, hosted at Plaza Theater on St Hubert Street. After playing three rounds the final seven bands battle it out for a chance to record at Piccolo Studios.

Each of the seven bands had a unique sound which made this show all the more interesting.

“Our sound is some kind of Blues with lots of rock. The main name is rock and boom,” said David, Alex and Frank, the members of the band The In and Outs.

“We’d describe ourselves as rock mixed with punk with some pop aspects, a bit of everything,” said Brendan Lucas the lead singer of Wake Up Call.

Plaza Theater can hold 400 people according to their website. There were probably only about 150 people there which is usually the case with these type of shows.

The crowd was mostly people between the ages of 25-50 who are friends and family members of the band.

“I’m here because my boyfriend is playing in the band Back On Earth,” said Sandra.

“Mark is my boy,” said Mitch Brown referring to the bassist in Wake Up Call.

It’s nice to see so much support from family and friends however this kind of audience is the kind that rather sit on a stool and sip their beer then start a mosh pit and dance like crazy.

This makes for a relaxing environment but one that can get some what boring for the younger members of the audience. However the saving grace here is the talent was unbelievable.

Some shows that involve young up and coming bands leave you wondering if the singers ever sung before and if the band even knows what there doing.

But at this show every band nailed it and they know it.

“As a musician you know when you do a good show and we feel like we nailed it,” said Dre Barone the drummer for the band Juliette.

Its no wonder that tonight’s show proves to be one of the best.

“Obviously this show was great because of the venue,” said David of The In and Outs.

“This [show] right here, this one was amazing. Our best so far,” said Nick Gervasi, the guitarist of Juliette.

Even the audience seems to agree.

“This is definitely one of the best shows I’ve seen. The sound quality was really good,” said Jesse Monette.

Alex, one of the organizers has been with LiveNDirty for two years.

“I’ve organized about 50-60 shows,” said Alex.

“The one piece of advice I’d give to up coming bands is it’s about the image.”

Although each band has a great reason for why they deserve to win only one band can reign supreme

“We’re the youngest band in this competition so it would be a great underdog story,” said Mark Chung from Wake Up Call.

“We deserve to win because we’ve got soul, we’re a small band with big soul,” said Gervasi.

At around 1:30am the last band was finished and the three organizers were about to announce the winner.

Even though the crowd had thinned by then everyone who was there cheered as loud as they could for the band they wanted to win.

The energy in the room was really intense and after thanking everyone who participated and making a few jokes, the three organizers announced that Back on Earth is the winner of this years LiveNDirty competition.

It’s not hard to tell why. They’re rock/metal music was performed flawlessly and the singers deep voice compliments this kind of sound. They put on a great show and they have a lot of fans.

After the band collected the prize and gets off the stage many of the audience members swarmed the band congratulating them with cheers and hugs.

“It feels very good to win,” said Mathieu Lalande, the drummer.

It’s unbelievable it’s happening too fast I didn’t expect to be here. It’s a dream come true, a little dream but still,” said Yan Laramé the lead singer.


For more information on LiveNDirty shows visit http://www.myspace.com/livendirty

Opus is here

The STM released the new Opus transit cards in August. These cards are now replacing the old bus/metro/train passes and claim to be more efficient due to the fact that it reduces waste because the card is good for 2 years and because you can “charge [the] card with various transit fares, according to [your] needs. For example, [one] could charge it with six STM tickets, eight STL bus tickets and an AMT zone 3 TRAM pass.”

However just getting the basic information about this card is practically impossible. Even though The STM website has a fact sheet about this new card it’s very confusing and hard to find what it is exactly you want to know.

After clicking on the large opus icon in the middle of the STM homepage a page with a bunch of headers pops up. Under the students’ link it says that if “You are between 18 and 25 years old (STM and RTL only) and are a Montréal island resident or an RTL client; Are over the age of 17 and under the age of 26 at October 31 of current year” you qualify for reduced fare. If you are between 18 and 21 years old and study full-time at an institution recognized by the MELS; are over the age of 17 and under the age of 22 at October 31 of current year you qualify for STL and AMT intermediate fares.”

With the change of cards there has also been a change in fares. All fares have gone up in price. For example student Zone 2 train pass costs 72.00 a month. That’s up from 54.00. Also for anyone over 18 six tickets cost 15.00 instead of 12.00 and one bus ticket is now 3.25. That’s a one dollar and fifty cent increase.

The STM has also changed the wording of everything. Now TRAM 2 is what we call the old ZONE 2 and a transfer is now called a "Support Conforme."

Some other problems were encountered when people tried to add fares onto their Opus cards. Teenaged kids who work at pharmacies and depaneurs don’t know how to load the card because there just teenaged kids not technical support people.
Here are some testimonies from people who have purchased the new opus card (or, well, tired too)

“I got a lot of problems today with [the opus card] and it cost me 2 x 3,50$ = 7$ because the card that they sell me was virgin (uninitialized) so wait a few month until those bugs are fixed before buying the Opus Card.”

“First attempt to re-load my opus with a July monthly RTL pass was a failure. The owner of the depanneur was apparently given the terminal with a French only set up manual, and had set it up incorrectly (The dep was in an area of Brossard where the population is mainly Hong Kong diaspora)... I gave up and left after he waited 10 minutes for technical support to answer . Bilingual manuals would have been a really good thought.”
-Mike

“It is not a language barrier, it a knowledge barrier! I have also got problem within depanneur, pharmacies and other type of convenient store and they speaks French, so trust me it is not a matter of language its a matter of proper training of the cashiers that makes the system so unreliable.”

”The Opus card works great with bus and metro reader. But the recharge system is a pain in the a%&. I think is worst when you try to buy them outside of a transit company like RTL, STL-Laval, STM or AMT.”

To read more testimonies and facts about OPUS:

http://www.cptdb.ca/index.php?showtopic=3637&st=280

www.stcum.qc.ca