SPOKEMonday, March 30, 2015 conestoga college, Kitchener, ont. www.sPoKeonline.coM 46th year — no. 11

new programteaches design and development.Page 2

Create your own games

a l e a r n i n g n e w s r o o M f o r j o u r n a l i s M s t u d e n t s

country singer hits all the right notes. Page 9

Winner crowned

By NATALEIGH MCCALLUM

A is for Autism. A is for Asperger’s. A is for the A-team.

No, not the A-team from the famous TV show Pretty Little Liars but rather, our very own group of Conestoga students who are affected by autism spectrum disorder, also known as ASD. These students have created their own support group to help others who find themselves on the spectrum.

The autistic spectrum is a

range of conditions classified as neurodevelopmental disor-ders, ranging from autism to Asperger’s syndrome. One in 68 people are affected by it.

“If you have met one person on the autism spectrum, you have met only one person on the spectrum,” said Charlie Matjanec, the co-facilitator of the A-team awareness group as he tried to explain how dif-ferent each person is when it comes to autism.

ASD is a range of complex neurodevelopment disor-ders, characterized by social

impairments, communication problems and repetitive pat-terns of behaviour. Autistic disorder is the most severe form of ASD while Asperger’s syndrome is a milder form.

“Autism is a developmen-tal issue where processing of information, being able to maintain good eye contact and communication is very awkward,” Matjanec said.

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day across the world – also known as “Light It Up Blue” – a day in which the world illuminates to show

support. Adopted by the United Nations in 2007, it has shone a bright light on autism.

This year will mark Conestoga’s third annual Awesome Awareness event, where students who are part of the A-team will host inter-active games, show videos, tell their stories, talk about every day struggles and give information on what exactly ASD is and how they can help if you find yourself on the spectrum. This will take place at the Doon campus near Door

5 by Tim Hortons. “Let’s bring some knowl-

edge and understanding to the neurotypical world as to what the condition is and how we can work together to avoid discrimination and make life easier for everyone,” Matjanec said.

April 2 is not a day that rep-resents a disease that needs a cure. April 2 marks a day in which everyday people stand together to support others who find themselves on the autism spectrum and live day to day like everyone else.

By ALEx RIESE

It’s an ordinary fence, its wood weathered after expo-sure to the elements. To most, restoring that fence would be a nagging task on a honey-do list. To Kitchener artist Dave Whitley, it’s an opportunity to add some colour to his neigh-bourhood.

At the beginning of the year, Whitley decided to heed his wife’s advice to paint some-thing on the long stretch of worn-out fence that has sur-rounded his family’s home for 10 years. After purchasing several large pieces of pres-sure-treated plywood, Whitley began the arduous process of painting a 25-panel mural of images that he associates with dreams he had as a child. So far, he’s completed seven of the panels, with an eighth panel currently being produced.

“To have this project finished by July, I’m a bit behind,” he said. “I hope to have one panel a week done, so I’ve got a lot of painting ahead of me.”

Even from the sidewalk, those walking on Wren Court in Kitchener can easily spot Whitley’s workplace. In a sub-division of mostly grey and white houses, the caricature of Nintendo’s most famous heroes, the Mario Brothers, hangs on a detached garage on a fairly large lot. A screen door on the front left side of the garage looks curiously modern beside the aged wood of the garage. If you were to venture inside, you would see an oil-paint portrait of a young boy, a table with acrylic paints laid

out, waiting to be applied to the already stunning mural and a bespectacled man in a newsboy cap and an apron covered in the accidental graf-fiti of acrylic paints, applying delicate brush strokes to a car-toonish rendition of a masked Bigfoot wearing vibrant red Converse shoes. This garage is where Whitley spends 15 to 16 hours on a good work day, where he blasts the

music of classic blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf and Stevie Ray Vaughan to keep himself awake, and where he slaves over the same sketch for hours on end until the end result is nothing short of perfection. And yet, most of the work he does in this garage is work that nobody will see.

“I thought, well, I work in here a lot, and nobody ever sees what I do, so why not

put it out there for everybody to see?”

The mural itself is one of the largest undertakings Whitley has ever dreamed up. When completed, it will span 100 feet by eight feet tall, and will be clearly visible from the sidewalk on River Road, where people can drive by and admire it, take pictures beside it, even walk up and touch it if they want. It began

as a series of fairy tale scenes, but that idea was scrapped for his current theme to provide greater expression of individu-ality. Whitley began furiously painting dreamlike depictions of sea serpents, a dinosaur roll-er-coaster, a caricature of the fairy tale The Tortoise and the Hare, and a sly reptilian crea-ture wearing a wizard’s hat.

Coming through with flying coloursKitchener artist’s mural will make neighbourhood dreamy

PHOTO By ALEx RIESEDave Whitley of Kitchener is painting a 25-panel mural of images that he associates with dreams he had as a child. The panels will be put on a fence that surrounds his family’s home.

wear blue and illuminate during world autism awareness daycontinued on Page 2

Page 2 s SPOKE Monday, March 30, 2015NEWs

Now deep thoughts... with Conestoga College

Random question answered by random students , If you could only eat one food for

the rest of your life, what would it be?

“Cheesecake, because it’s so good and there’s so many different kinds.”

Mary Feeny,first-year

design foundations

“Mushrooms! I love mush-rooms and when I’m flat broke and can only afford one thing, it’s always mush-rooms.”

Ashley Nequest,first-year

journalism print

“Avocado, because you can make it into multiple things like drinks and dips, and you can always grow more because of the seed.”

Jennifer Araujo,second-year

social services

“Chicken, because you can do so much with it like stuffed chicken, chicken in chicken.”

steve sa second-year

radio broadcast

“Pizza, because I never get sick of it and I could eat it forever.”

Trevor Visee,second-year

radio broadcast

“Chips, because I’m basi-cally married to them at this point and there’s so much variety.”

Tyson Longfield,second-year

radio broadcast

Smile Conestoga, you could be our next respondent!

FILBERT CARTOONS

New gaming program launchedby cArMEN poNciANo

Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College have joined forces to offer a game design and development pro-gram this fall as part of a bach-elor of fine and applied arts degree at Laurier’s Brantford campus.

During the four years, stu-dents will take courses at Laurier with some Conestoga faculty doing the teaching. Courses include analog gam-ing and interactivity, game design foundations, 2D and 3D design (Conestoga) and sound design for games (Conestoga).

“Brantford is known for their video game development and I wanted to provide a program with the resources we already have here,” said Kathryn Carter, associate dean of academic co-ordina-tion at Laurier.

The new program will help the students to develop vari-ous skills including in game design, storytelling and entre-preneurship. In their fourth year students will create their

own video game and, by using Laurier’s Launchpad pro-gram, which gives students the opportunity to build their own business with help from mentors and resources, they will be able to develop their game as a possible design for outside corporations.

Conestoga College plays a significant role as its cours-es will focus on teaching the video game aspect of it, deliv-ering six courses throughout the four-year program.

“At the university, we didn’t have the expertise to handle the video game side of teach-ing. I really felt like I wanted this to be more of a hands-on program,” Carter said. “Once Conestoga decided it was going to do more with Brantford, it seemed like an obvious choice and it has worked out extremely well.”

At the Brantford campus a games lab is being built which Carter is looking forward to. She says it will be called the world’s best rec room as it will have areas for game consoles, board games and designated

spaces where students can test games.

“The fact that we can have a games lab where there will be couches so the students can hang out and be emerged in the world of games, I think will be the best thing in September,” Carter said.

Since the birth of the idea, Carter has faced a long journey to get the program approved as she said it is a long process to get a university course in place. Because of the many layers of approval she needed to get – from the universi-ty, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities as well as having two provincial bodies oversee the project – it took Carter seven years to launch the program.

But her timing couldn’t be more perfect. Not only is it a unique program in the prov-ince but over the last couple of years video gaming has become a rapidly growing industry in entertainment, training, corpo-rations and education. Despite the long haul Carter said it was worth the wait.

Whitley designed these imag-es to recreate the fascinations of youth and stimulate the end-less imaginations of children.

“When kids talk about the dreams they have, they may frighten them, they may ask ‘why is this happening,’ but for me, it was always kind of a cool thing,” he said. “But we all have really odd dreams and bizarre things that happen in our minds.”

Before he could even prime a single board, Whitley had to get approval from the City of Kitchener to display the fin-ished work on his fence. City bylaws require all street art to be displayed without signatures or any indication of the name of the artist or the work would be considered an advertisement.

The city approved Whitley’s plan and provided him with some money to get the project up and rolling. The rest will be raised via a Kickstarter cam-paign, which Whitley hopes

will fund the remaining boards and supplies for the mural. So far, he has raised over $3,800 of $6,500 needed to complete the project. Because he does not want to profit off the work, he will donate any leftover money to the Canadian Cancer Society, as a tribute to his late brother-in-law who recently passed away after a battle with cancer. The campaign ends on April 1, and he’s holding his breath.

“Kickstarters are an all or nothing kind of thing,” he said. “If you don’t get what you want and you don’t get enough pledg-es, you don’t get anything.”

Though he spends most of his time working in his garage, Whitley is a devout family man. He stayed at home to raise his kids for 12 years, and says that time was the most fun he’s ever had.

“When you go somewhere, kids always have a million questions and opinions about everything,” he said. “It was a fun time, and I was really hop-

ing to revisit that through this work.”

The word has spread quickly about Whitley’s artistic ability, and he has had to turn down several offers from people who want things painted for them. For now, this project remains his primary focus until its anticipated completion in July.

Through his 48 years on this planet, Whitley has not lost that youthful spirit and imagi-nation, and he dedicates each brush stroke to helping the people around him maintain or recover theirs.

“It’s OK to be silly, it’s OK to do something different,” he said. “And I hope to inspire children to know they can take their box of crayons or their paints and just play, and nobody can really tell them what the rules are.”

To help fund the purchase of supplies for the mural, go to www.kickstarter.com/proj-ects/262051472/the-cats-paja-mas-community-mural-by-david-whitley/description.

CONTINUED FrOM PAgE 1

Mural will showcase dreams

Monday, March 30, 2015 SPOKE s Page 3NEWS

BY JACK PARKINSON

The storefront for J&J Cards and Collectibles is a bit stereotypical for a store devot-ed to traditional gaming: the grey brick of the building is covered by a solid blue facade that has crenellations and a mock castle tower on the top. The outside of the store speaks volumes about what rests inside it: a wide selec-tion of merchandise and staff who know how to have fun.

J&J Cards was founded about 24 years ago by Jason Schill (vice-president of busi-ness), and his brother Jim (president of business). Walk inside and you’ll find a whim-sical gumball machine that sometimes speaks. Walk a lit-tle farther and you’ll find four aisles of floor-to-ceiling gam-ing essentials. Board games, fantasy miniatures, trading card games, plushies, and more cram the shop. Some of them are quite common-place even for the average person, like Settlers of Catan or Dungeons and Dragons. Others are less mundane, like the My Little Pony trad-ing card game or 15-year-old Magic: The Gathering cards.

I spoke to Jason a couple of months ago about how the store got started. Jason tells me that he and his broth-er started collecting sports cards in the ’90s, which led to a greater interest in tra-ditional games. Jim started the J&J business while his brother was finishing high school, with the initial loca-tion on King and Columbia – a brisk walk from the cur-rent storefront at University and Weber. The first location only lasted two years before the business moved, and the current building has had two expansions.

“Diversity was the key to continuing our success,” Jason tells me over the coun-tertop during our interview. The traditional gaming mar-ket had a lot of choice in the ’90s, and the Schills had a lot of it on offer in their store. They sold sports cards, Magic: The Gathering cards, board games and even flash-in-the-pan products like Pogs.

And while the ’90s had a lot of choice, the sports card mar-ket was an inflating bubble.

“If we had stayed with sports cards, we wouldn’t have sur-vived the downtown,” Jason said.

The popularity of sports cards led to their plummet in the ’90s, specifically around 1995 and 1996. Companies overproduced the cards, which led to a sharp downturn in

card value as the supply of rare cards increased. There are some sports card stores that exist in Waterloo Region today, but they are a minority compared to the other gaming stores.

The trend of overproduction and mismanagement of a busi-ness sector was not unique to sports card companies, Jason said. Games Workshop, the company responsible for the wildly popular Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer: 40,000 brands has been steadily increasing the price of their models and rule books over the past decade, which has allowed other companies and their less expensive prod-ucts to get their feet into a market that would have oth-erwise remained closed.

The Schills have seen all of it and more, and it has instilled a healthy business sense into them – diversity is king.

“We have more than 3,000 different board games alone in stock,” Jason said.

“I don’t know the exact num-ber, it’s been quite a while since I counted.”

The strategy has been work-ing well for them.

When the Schills started out, they never considered moving to another city, as they are Waterloo natives. Now, cus-tomers regularly drive in from London, Ont. and Toronto to see what new stock J&J Cards has in – and there is a lot of stock to be seen.

“We have new product com-ing in virtually every day,” Jason said.

It would be easy to think that traditional games are dying out, given the preva-lence of other forms of enter-tainment like video games, but the Schills say that is not the case. While video games did have an industry spike in the ’90s, traditional games have been making a come-back since the early aughts.

I asked Jason about this, and he told me that he thinks “society realized the impor-tance of the social aspect of games.”

“(Traditional games) became this drive to get kids off of consoles.”

According to Jason, tra-ditional games encourage socializing as part of the play experience, which helps kids to develop their speaking and storytelling skills. Schill is also optimistic about the future of traditional gaming – he thinks the industry will continue to maintain its cur-rent growth due to an influx of new customers and new, good games.

A similar, smaller story takes place at Just By Chance Games on Phillip Street in Waterloo.

While J&Js has been oper-ating for over two decades, JBC Games started in 2011. The storefront layout is much smaller, but features more open space as well as tables for players to use. JBC also has a lower ceiling and less shelf space, which means they rely more on Magic: The Gathering sales for their busi-ness.

This might sound like a bad idea according to the Schills’ line of thinking, but it has worked out well for JBC so far.

“Basically, we just ignored the naysayers,” said Alicia Loomes, co-owner of JBC Games along with her hus-band Justin Loomes and sis-ter Larissa Loomes.

“We’re huge nerds – stick with what you know.”

The three Loomes started looking for store space in Trenton, Ont. before they settled on Waterloo. Since Waterloo was a large city with several universities and col-leges and no large competitors (Magic is a minority at J&J’s compared to general tabletop games), it was a great can-didate. The store was funded initially using money Justin had saved up while working three jobs in the territories. The unit they currently rent was a laundromat previously, which allowed JBC Games to have open space to grow into.

While the trio faced skep-ticism from their friends about the potential success of a card and game store, Justin’s money allowed them to stay in the black for the first eight months. After that, JBC Games started making enough money to cover itself, and revenue has only gone up since.

“You can’t be paying your own rent in the first six months,” Alicia said.

In terms of community engagement, JBC Games hosts many events each week – five for Magic, plus Warhammer and Yu-Gi-Oh, another trad-ing card game. Any game can have a store-supported tour-nament or event, as long as there are enough people will-ing to attend.

The Loomes are also very positive about the future of traditional gaming. According to them, the lack of social stig-ma is the main contributor to the health of the traditional games market.

“It used to be a shame 20 years ago, but now it’s not and that’s great,” Alicia said.

All in all, traditional gaming is alive and well in Waterloo.

Tabletop gamingmore popular than ever

purple is no laughing matter

PHOTO BY CARSON DESCHEvY-RENOufJessica Bernard (left), vice-president of the Waterloo interprofessional health & Community student Collaborative, and the Collaborative’s head of communication, sharmila srinithiananthasing, have been working tirelessly, preparing for april 7’s Crisis simulation: Project Purple. For video story go to www.spokeonline.com.

this soup fest isn’t Watered doWn

PHOTO BY IAN MCBRIDEPeter gray, co-ordinator of the Waterloo-Wellington Children’s groundwater Festival, is shown at the sixth annual soup Fest at the Waterloo region museum on march 20. the event was a fun-draiser for the festival and its 20th anniversary celebrations that will take place this year. For video, go to www.spokeonline.com.

In the March 23 issue of Spoke, the last name of a student was incorrect. In the Page 2 question feature, Ryan Lamont, a second-year broadcast television student, was incorrectly identified as Ryan Watt.

Spoke apologizes for the error.

CORRECTION

Page 4 s SPOKE Monday, March 30, 2015COMMENTARY

Children are taught that if they are being bullied, the best way to make it stop is to tell someone. But this doesn’t work, as adults don’t know how to deal with bullies.

As a victim myself, I have first-hand knowledge. Once, when I was in the eighth grade, I told my teacher about a boy who bashed my head against a chalkboard and all he did was ask me, “What do you want me to do about it?”

This was the main theme in the documentary, Bully, which centred on a number of stories about different chil-dren who were being bullied. One young boy was harassed on his school bus. The other children would punch him, throw stuff at him and one older boy even threatened to slit the boy’s throat. The boy’s parents found out and went to the school’s principal, but she said there was nothing she could do about it.

Adults need to think of ways to stop bullying because some children cannot handle the pressure of being picked on and have been driven to suicide. A study at Yale University found victims are between two and nine per cent more likely to consider

suicide than non-victims. Another recent study found that at least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying, with girls 10 to 14 years of age having the highest risk.

Sometimes victims take mat-ters into their own hands and take drastic measures to make the tormenting stop. This was one of the reasons for the Columbine High School mas-sacre, where in 1999, two stu-dents who were bullied, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went to the school with guns and murdered 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.

Sometimes it’s not the victim who tries to get revenge, but the victim’s parents. In 2008, a mother in Oshawa attacked a 15-year-old girl after hear-ing that she had been bullying her 13-year-old daughter. The mother went to the bully’s home, grabbed her by the

hair and started punching and kicking her before pull-ing out a knife and stabbing her in the abdomen. The bully was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries while the mother was charged with aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon.

There are ways to stop bul-lying without resorting to vio-lence. According to WebMD, a parent can tell when their child is bullying someone else by the following signs: their child comes home from school with extra money or new toys, books or clothes, they are cruel or mean when talk-ing about other children and they exclude other children from activities. This situation must be discussed as soon as possible before the behaviour becomes routine. It may be that the child is being bullied themselves and is taking it out on others or they may not yet know the importance of understanding other’s feelings.

Bullying is a serious situa-tion and it has to be stopped before others get hurt. In 2012, Ontario became the third province in Canada to implement anti-bullying leg-islation. It is time other prov-inces stepped up too.

Bullying must be exterminated

Police earn their payBY JUSTIN FORD

Our police officers attempt to protect and serve every time they put their uniforms on and literally step into the line of fire. But now, with reports of the average Toronto cop making $100,000 a year, society seems to be saying that kind of salary doesn’t match the service and protection they provide

Brad Pitt reportedly made $14 million for acting in World War Z in 2013, and we’re up in arms over the faceless police officers who took to the streets to fight crime – in real life – for $100,000?

Police officers deserve salaries in the upper echelons. It’s a job that requires them to risk their lives almost every day, and while they’re out on the streets protect-ing society, the public is constantly scrutinizing them for simply trying to doing their job. If you have an office job, does someone start filming you when it’s crunch time and your report is due in an hour? Do you have to sit in front of your superiors and explain yourself every time you use the stapler or the fax machine?

Police officers also often face death in the line of duty. And they see the absolute worst human behaviour imaginable. While officers do not top salary lists, they are prime candidates for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide.

According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the highest rate of on-the-job suicides occurred amongst people in “protective service occupations,” exclud-ing military personnel. In 2014, an Ottawa police officer killed himself on duty using his firearm, two Toronto police officers hanged themselves, a retired RCMP corpo-ral took his life after a battle with PTSD and a 25-year veteran of the Hamilton Police Service shot himself in his station’s locker room. Those are just some of the higher profile police suicides that occurred last year.

Those who vow to serve and protect put their life on the line every day, and even if they make it through each day safely, their sanity is still at risk long after they bow out of the line of duty. Mental illness is the main contrib-uting factor to suicide, so if an officer is diagnosed with PTSD, their life becomes at risk all over again.

Police officers seem to always be literally and meta-phorically under fire, be it with bullets or constant public scrutiny. They have taken an oath to uphold the law and to protect the taxpayers who pay their salaries, and the least we can do is also pay them our respect and compen-sate them fairly. They’re doing a job that takes a tremen-dous amount of valour, and ultimately, they more than deserve the salaries they are currently making.

The views herein represent the position of the newspa-per, not necessarily the author.

JoshKennedy Opinion

Spoke welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be signed and include the name and telephone number of the writer. Writers will be contact-ed for verification.No unsigned letters will be published.Letters should be no longer

than 500 words.Spoke reserves the right to edit

any letter for publication.Address correspondence to: The Editor, Spoke, 299

Doon Valley Dr., Room 1C30, Kitchener, Ont., N2G 4M4

Letters are welcome

SpOkEi S P u B L i S h E D A N D P R O D u C E D W E E K L y B y T h E J O u R N A L i S M S T u D E N T S O f C O N E S T O G A C O L L E G E

The views and opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of Conestoga College. Spoke shall not be liable for any damages arising out of errors in advertising beyond the amount paid for the space. Letters to the editor are subject to acceptance or rejection and should be clearly written or typed; a MS Word file would be helpful. Letters must not contain any libellous statements.

Spring is a tease.

Editor: Nataleigh McCallumAssignment Editors: Kali Caudle, Jordan JohnstoneAdvertising Managers: Beth Crouse, Justin fordSpoke Online Editors: Matt howell, Nicole

Nemeth, Nathan Brownproduction Managers: Alex Riese, Maryssa Mcfaddenphoto Editors (print): Cassie Tulecki, Carmen Ponciano, ian McBridephoto Editors (online): Rachel Roy, Jack

Parkinson, Josh KennedySocial Media Editor: Carson Deshevy-Renouf, Cody MudgeCirculation Manager: heather StanleyFaculty Supervisor and Adviser: Christina Jonas

Spoke’s address is 299 Doon Valley Dr., Room 1C30, Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 4M4. Phone: 519-748-5220, ext. 3691, 3692, 3693, 3694fax: 519-748-3534Email: spoke@conestogac.on.caWebsite: www.spokeonline.com

Monday, March 30, 2015 SPOKE s Page 5NEWS

The customer isn’t always rightBY BETH CROUSE

The sun is shining, and for a Saturday morning work-ing in a minimum wage retail job, it’s a pretty easy morning. Then, a couple enters the sec-tion of store you’re responsible for. There are already a few families wandering around, but nothing out of the ordinary. You approach them, smile, and offer the standard greeting of “Welcome to the store, my name is … Is there anything I can help you find today?” Suddenly, the seemingly relaxed couple turn into vicious attackers bent on destruction, or at least ren-dering you to tears.

This is something too many people experience when they work in retail. The level of abuse employees are not only forced to take, but are expected to take on a daily basis is astronomi-cal. It’s virtually impossible for these employees to stand up for themselves because showing any backbone to these verbally-abusive tyrants only works to spur them on.

It’s impossible to tell who will be the next aggressor; verbal abusers don’t come with an easy-to-distinguish warning tag. Employees are frequently reduced to tears because of the unrelenting tactics of customers.

“At the place where I used to work, the cashiers were frequently reminded by our managers to, in laymen’s terms, do everything in our power to make the customer happy,” said Kirsten Jensen, a victim of retail abuse.

“I worked the customer ser-vice desk so I had to deal with the worst of the worst, how-ever, the one that I will always remember happened when I was working the returns desk along with another girl when this guy came in to return a chainsaw that he said didn’t work.

“He took the chainsaw out of the box, which wasn’t a brand we even carried, and it looked to be well over 10 years old. There was rust and visible damage from extensive cutting time. He then told us that he had bought the chainsaw here last week and it came like this in the box.

“We tried to tell him that wasn’t possible because we

don’t carry that line of chain-saws, but a competitor did, but he started raising his voice, swearing, referring to us as stu-pid cows, stupid bitches and other extremely profane names. He started screaming at the top of his lungs that he wanted his money back.

“Other customers around the area came over toward where we were to see what was going on. This guy then looks at me and says, “I see you don’t have a ring on your finger and it’s no wonder, a fat sack of crap like you is completely incompetent.

“After about 10 minutes of this, my manager came over, talked to the customer and gave him his money for this product we didn’t even sell just to shut him up,” Jensen said.

Another example of verbal abuse comes in the form of bla-tant sexism.

“I was working a day shift at Blockbuster so it was just me and my supervisor, Jon, in the store,” said Katie Stevens, a for-mer minimum wage employee who was left to deal with a rather prickly situation.

“A man came into the store and asked me to look up a movie so he could order it in. The movie was called Dale and it was about Dale Earnhardt, a NASCAR driver. The search system at Blockbuster was very basic, so all I had to do was type in ‘Dale’ and it would say whether or not we had it in the system.

“It wasn’t there, and I told the guy this but he kept tell-ing me more and more details about the movie and about Dale Earnhardt like I was supposed to use those to find the movie. I kept telling him that no, sorry, we don’t carry

that movie at all so I can’t order it in for you.

“He asked if he could ask my supervisor about it. I said sure even though I knew Jon would tell the guy the same thing that I had already said.

“Then he said, ‘It’s just that men generally know more about NASCAR than women. I don’t mean anything bad by that, I mean I wouldn’t be interested in learning to knit or how to wash a dish. So why don’t you run along back to the kitchen where you belong and let someone who is quali-fied to deal with men come out here.”’

Oftentimes customers for-get that the person standing behind the cash register or wearing the name tag is a human being. Customers dis-regard that these people have any feelings whatsoever and begin to verbally tear these poor souls apart.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve been reduced to tears,” said Sam Mitchell, an employee at a big name book retailer.

“I’m not an emotional per-son, but working here, I’ve been called names that I don’t want to repeat,” Mitchell said.

“One of the worst times was around Christmas. The store was packed to begin with and we were short-staffed. I was doing my best to get through a 15-person lineup single-handedly at cash when this crazed-looking woman bypasses the people waiting in the marked line and jumps in front of the customer I was ringing though. She threw a bag at me, and said, “I need to return this now.”

“I stopped, and I can only

imagine how I must have looked, almost like a deer in the headlights. This woman completely cut off the entire line and the customer I was ringing through was just star-ing at me, waiting for me to do something.

“I told her, in a very calm voice, that she would have to go to the back of the line and then I’d be happy to help her out. But that wasn’t good enough.

“This woman looked at me, snarled, and pounded her clenched fist on the counter. She bellowed at me, ‘I want this returned now! It’s broken and I won’t give my kid a bro-ken gift! You have to return it! I’m the customer so you have to do what I say!’

“So I said if she could step to the side I would be with her in just one second.

“After I finished cashing out my original customer, apologiz-ing the entire time because I was so embarrassed, the crazy lady came back to my till.

“I pulled the supposedly bro-ken toy from the bag and it was one of the Disney Frozen dolls we had sold out of last week. There was nothing wrong with it though, everything was still sealed and in the original pack-aging.

“I asked her if she had her receipt so I could start the return, which she didn’t have, so I could only process it if we exchanged the item or gave her a store credit.

“I asked her why she was returning the doll and she looked at me and said, ‘Are you retarded or just stupid? Look at it! It’s broken! The picture on the back is a com-pletely different dress than

the one in the box! Seriously, how did you even get a job? I’m surprised you can even func-tion if you’re this retarded!’

“By this point I was so angry I was shaking and I could feel my eyes starting to water.

‘I looked at the woman and said, Ma’am the doll has a water-changing dress meaning that it doesn’t show the pattern until you put it in cold water.’

“The woman then went on a rant about how stupid I was, how I didn’t deserve to have a job, that it’s people like me who are ruining the country, and so on.”

“By this point, other cashiers were able to come and help with the line and my manager had been called up to the front by one of the other employ-ees. My manager was walking over to see what was going on, and as soon as she got to the register, this woman started blaming me saying I was doing things wrong and that I should be fired.

“I ended up walking away in the middle of the transac-tion and going home early that day,” Mitchell said.

Those who work in retail have very little control in how they must deal with irritated, irate or irrational custom-ers. However, a website has popped up where employees from all areas of retail are able to voice their story about “that one crazy customer.”

The website, NotAlwaysRight.com, is full of first-hand accounts from the frontlines of the retail battlefield. Stories of crazy antics, outrageous tem-pers and poor choices made by adults offer a cathartic release for all those who continue to deal with customer tantrums.

What people need to remem-ber is that behind the name tag and uniform is a human being who is doing his or her best to keep the customer happy. Throwing a temper tantrum that rivals an unruly toddler doesn’t solve any problems, and treating salespeople like verbal punching bags until they have tears in their eyes won’t fix the issue, either.

What everyone needs to remember is there are times when the customer isn’t right. And it happens more often then most people think.

PHOTO BY BETH CROUSEAbbey Ruggio and Matt Close re-enact angry customers they’ve encountered while working at a mini-mum wage retail job. Both have experienced extremely irate customers and say they are constantly verbally abused.

“This woman looked at me, snarled, and

pounded her fist on the counter. She bellowed at me, ‘I want this returned

now!’” — Sam Mitchell

“Why don’t you run along back to the kitchen where you belong and let someone who is qualified

to deal with men come out here.”

— Katie Stevens

Page 6 s SPOKE Monday, March 30, 2015NEWS

which is real and which is fake?

PHOTO BY maTT HOWEllThe city of waterloo Museum in conestoga Mall is hosting a fakes & forgeries – Yesterday and Today exhibit. it features 115 arti-facts, collectibles and brands such as licensed merchandise, and asks visitors to see if they can distinguish between what’s real and what’s fake. The exhibit runs until april 24. for a video story, go to www.spokeonline.com

rip a strip! sTop The sTigMa

PHOTO BY kali caudlEa Rip a strip off stigma fundraising event was held March 20 at the doon campus and featured a leg waxing challenge, raffle draw, silent auction, high heel obstacle course, an elvis impersonator and much more. They event was held so students could show their support of the LgBTQ community and raise money for various charities including the patrice Butts fund, acckwa and conestoga college’s gsa. above, having fun at the event were event co-ordinator, wanda Landry (front right) and social service worker students (left to right) James Boppre, kerrylou dickson, Rob hoffman and Rachel atkinson. for video, go to www.spokeonline.com.

Monday, March 30, 2015 SPOKE s Page 7NEWs

Liv Gains and her father held a “busk-in” protest on March 18 in response to her recent run-in with local authorities.

The inspiration behind this musical protest happened on March 11 when the 19-year-old was placed in handcuffs and charged $65 for singing and playing her guitar on city streets. It happened out front of the Giant Tiger store in the Galt core of Cambridge. Because of the widely pub-licized street performance,

Cambridge politicians are now working on a new street performance bylaw.

As of right now, there are no laws against busk-ing in Cambridge, with the exception of the Cambridge

Farmers’ Market which requires performers to obtain a permit. Gains was not ticketed for busking, but was cited for solicitation of a cap-tive audience in a prohibited area where there is a taxi stand or public transit stop. However, there is no bus stop in front of Giant Tiger, and no official taxi stand.

Gains, who feels she was hassled by the officer, and her father held the event in protest of the ticket and to garner support. During the

busk-in multiple musicians entertained a large crowd which cheered them on, and spilled off of the sidewalk and onto the street. Police officers were nearby but did not intervene.

With the recent warmer temperatures, downtown has been bustling with people of all kinds, including busk-ers. Their music adds a nice touch to our downtown atmo-sphere, which has always been full of art and festivals. I find it appalling that busk-

ers in Cambridge have to deal with being hassled by police officers, especially because there are no laws in place that give them that right.

I hope that any new laws the city creates around busk-ing in Cambridge are benefi-cial to everyone involved. A bylaw will help make it clear to buskers and police officers what is allowed and what isn’t, without that grey area that seems to have confused people in the past.

conestoga graduate releases picture book

PHOTO BY CarsON DEsHEvY-rENOufandrew kold, a conestoga graduate and current part-time instructor in the college’s graphic design program, recently released a picture book: Edmund Unravels. His book highlights the adventures of an ambitious and adorable ball of yarn. For video story, go to www.spokeonline.com.

PHOTO BY NiCOlE NEmETHabove, chad casarin plays percussion along with other musicians.

sexual assault a growing problem

PHOTO BY marYssa mCfaDDENreports of sexual assault continue to increase on college cam-puses. nicole goddard, a protection/security and investigation stu-dent, explains the unique efforts conestoga is going to do in order to help stop these crimes in a video on www.spokeonline.com

Busker bylaw would be beneficial

PHOTO BY NiCOlE NEmETHon march 18 a lively “busk-in” event took place in front of giant tiger in the galt section of cambridge. it was inspired by a young busker who was fined $65 one week earlier.

Nicole Nemeth Opinion

Page 8 s SPOKE Monday, March 30, 2015

Monday, March 30, 2015 SPOKE s Page 9entertainment

BY raCHeL rOY

Students in Waterloo Region had the chance to give it their best shot at The Shot.

The singing competition was open to post-secondary students at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College.

The Shot is a week-long event where individual students or groups perform in front of four music industry professionals. It’s like America’s Got Talent mixed with American Idol.

The Shot just wrapped up its second season on March 21 at the Conrad Centre of the Performing Arts. People auditioned their best songs and then the judges, Juneyt Yetkiner, Stacy Zegers, Joni Nehrita and C.J. Allen, picked the top eight competitors. The competition was so good that they chose a ninth singer for the March 21 finals.

They were Jessica Bell, Emily Cortolezzis, James Downham, Matt Giblin, and Pam Olayemi, all from Wilfrid Laurier, and Sarah Russo, Tausha Hanna, Chelsea Marr and Vincenzo

Romualdi, all from the University of Waterloo.

After hearing the finalists sing the judges decided Cortolezzis, Olayemi, Hanna and Downham would move on to the final round.

The winner of the competition received a full day of recording with a professional engineer and a mastered demo courtesy of Metal Works Studio, limousine transportation provided by Brentwood Livery, the opportunity to perform at KOI fest 2015, a performance and development contract with Circus Music Co., a new acoustic guitar courtesy of Brickhouse Guitars, a professional photo shoot courtesy of Sylvia Pond Photography, and a professionally produced music video courtesy of Esteemedia.

“I can’t even think of words to use to describe how proud I am of the nine who performed tonight,” said Allen, who is also the A&R executive of Circus Music Company, the company producing The Shot. “I am overwhelmed at the talent that we saw. I’m proud

that they came, I’m proud that they took the stage, it’s a really great feeling.”

The judges listened to the nine competitors and judged who would move on to the

finals, then, after the four finalists sang their final song, the audience voted on the winner.

After an anxious 15 minutes the results came in and the four finalists took the stage, holding each other’s hands tightly.

The crowd went silent as everyone waited in the tense room as the host finally announced the winner.

“James Downham!” Downham had won the

crowd over with his song Skydiving by Tim McGraw. At the announcement the crowd erupted in excited screams as the four finalists hugged each other and Downham lifted his fist in victory.

“I feel awesome,” Downham said. “I can’t believe that this actually happened. There were so many absolutely fantastic singers in this competition. It was amazing to be with everybody for this week, it’s been unbelievable. I never had the confidence before to do something like this. People encouraged me in the past and I was like too nervous. I just had to get to a point where it didn’t matter.”

Would you have had a shot?

Matt Giblin was the first of the nine finalists to sing.

Vincenzo Romualdi took the house down with his rock ’n’ roll number.

Tausha Hanna sang her song second, trying to win the judges over.

Displaying the right amount of attitude, Jessica Bell took to the stage as the seventh per-former.

As the eighth performer, Sarah Russo sang a heart-filled song for the judges.

Third to perform was Emily Cortolezzis, who sang with atti-tude.

Wearing a beautiful white dress, Pam Olayemi sang her heart out.

James Downham was the fifth to sing in front of the judges.

James Downham, winner of The Shot, won the crowd over with his final song Skydiving by Tim McGraw.

Photos by rachel roy

Chelsea Marr performed her song sixth and showed what she’s got.

Gold star image courtesy of Dorling Kindersley / Universal Images Group

Page 10 s SPOKE Monday, March 30, 2015

Monday, March 30, 2015 SPOKE s Page 11

Spring Thaw and flooded basements

PHOTO BY COdY Mudge spring means rain and melting snow; all of that water has to go somewhere and for many that means their basement. linda bradley, an insurance claims expert, explains the common way that water invades homes in a video story at www.spoke-online.com.

ConCerTS for KidS a great success

PHOTO BY Cassie TuleCki alex, Jen and anna markovic enjoyed a nice afternoon at the Waterloo regional museum which featured a kinder concert series for kids called: toot, bang, swish! the event was held march 21 and was a great success.

Page 12 s SPOKE Monday, March 30, 2015NeWs

Monday, March 30, 2015 SPOKE s Page 13NEWs

Finding off-campus housing isn’t as hard as it seemsBy NATHAN BROWN

As the school year draws to a close, many students are starting to panic about where they will live in September. They often wonder where they should start and what resources are at their dis-posal?

The battle for student hous-ing in the Doon area, espe-cially for those who want to live closer to Conestoga, begins early. Those who want to beat the rush usually start viewing houses as early as January. The search for a first house is one of the most stressful things students can go through, especially if it’s the end of a student’s first year.

“Search sooner than later,” said Jeff Scherer, the presi-dent of Conestoga Students Inc. (CSI). “Housing, espe-cially in the Doon area, fills up quick and if you are look-ing for something specific it

becomes more difficult the longer you wait. It’s not some-thing you want to stress about as a student during the latter part of the semester.”

CSI advises students to check places4students.com, a simple, off-campus third-party housing website. The rental site provides off-cam-pus housing for over 125 cam-puses across North America, helping around 80,000 land-lords rent to students.

“The service is complete-ly free for students to use, whether you are searching for a rental unit or if you current-ly rent and are looking to sub-let your room, or have rooms available,” Scherer said.

Places4students.com isn’t the only resource students have for finding off-campus housing. A simple Google search will provide students with a multitude of online advertisements for housing opportunities, including on Kijiji.

“I find Kijiji’s the easiest way to get my available units out as fast as possible,” said Ian Wilson, a landlord pro-viding off-campus housing for students for almost 10 years. “Kijiji’s so popular now that it’s the first place everyone initially thinks to go to.”

Wilson said, when showing his units, he does his best to provide as many details about the house as possible, includ-ing details viewers may not even think to ask.

“It’s easy to tell when a viewer is a first timer,” Wilson said. “It’s important for land-lords to point out every main detail that any potential ten-ant needs to know.”

The majority of rooms in off-campus houses range from $400 to $800 per month. Prices vary depending on room size, utilities if the unit isn’t all-inclusive and what is included in the house itself.

What seems to be the most stressful part for most stu-dents is signing the lease. There’s a lot of detail put into one, and a lot of information that most people wouldn’t think about.

“Finding a suitable rent-al unit and signing a lease shouldn’t be something that you fly through,” Scherer said. “It’s important to under-stand what you are signing for, what you are responsible for and any responsibilities that you may not already be aware of.”

Wilson said, “I think physi-cally signing the lease is the scariest part for students. It’s something they’ve never done before. It’s an imposing and extremely long legal docu-

ment that anyone would be threatened by.”

If it comes down to the wire, and no off-campus housing is appealing to you, there’s always the Conestoga Residence. Generally a first choice for first-year students, the residence is still an afford-able option for students, even providing three different pay-ment options. The residence offers two different styles of rooms for the fall and win-ter semesters. Open concept, more commonly called “tra-ditional,” is more of the true dorm room experience for $5,900 for the entire school year, while the two-bedroom suite style is more like a miniaturized apartment for $7,000.

“Landlords are understand-ing around this time of the year,” Wilson said. “We know that students have plenty on their plate, so the majority of us try to make it a simple and easy experience for everyone.”

conestoga students offer free hearing screenings

PHOTO By jusTiN fORdfirst-year hearing instrument specialist students samantha Benacquista (right to left), Meaghan Lawley and raquel Wilkinson help promote health and Wellness Week at conestoga on March 16, by conducting free hearing screenings.

maple syrup starts to fLoW

spring, which officially began on March 20, got off to a sweet start thanks to some warmer temperatures and the first runs of sap and maple syrup produc-tion.

PHOTO By jOsH kENNEdy

“Search sooner rather than later.” — Jeff Scherer

Page 14 s SPOKE Monday, March 30, 2015fun & games

AriesMarch 21 -

April 19

AquariusJanuary 20 - February 18

TaurusApril 20 - May 20

LibraSeptember 23 -

October 22

GeminiMay 21 - June 21

ScorpioOctober 23 - November 21

CapricornDecember 22 -

January 19

SagittariusNovember 22 - December 21

CancerJune 22 - July 22

LeoJuly 23 -

August 22

VirgoAugust 23 -

September 22

PiscesFebruary 19 -

March 20

Your upbeat attitude is helping your friends and family. Keep it up, it is greatly appreciated.

Your negative attitude is bringing those around you down. Change your perspec-tive on things and you’ll see it’s worth it.

Keep an open mind when it comes to trying new things. You might make some new friends in the process.

Don’t panic about your current situation. A new opportunity is right around the corner. This week be optimistic.

Don’t test those with author-ity; you may need their help this week. Their services may also be required in the future.

Make sacrifices for others. In time they will return the favour and you shall receive good fortune.

You have certain obligations to fulfill in the near future. Those around you depend on your determination.

The Stars have spoken.

Horoscope Week of March 30, 2015

You’ve recently experienced some bad days. Don’t take things too personally, they may not understand how their tone is viewed.

Stubborn is not the way to play this week. Be more flex-ible with those that you may not agree with and good for-tune will come your way.

Those around you want what’s best for you. Keep an open mind and accept their advice.

Your hard work will pay off. Keep your chin up, you’re almost there. This week keep a positive attitude.

Cancer, don’t dwell on the past. Keep focused on the present and look forward to what the future may hold for you.

Useless FactsOh Cliff!

Sudoku Puzzle

Word Search

Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommo-dates the digits 1-9, with-out repeating any.

Cuba is the only island in the Caribbean to have a railroad.

People say “bless you” when you sneeze because your heart stops for a millisecond.

The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult but-terflies: nine to 10 months.

If you yelled for eight years, seven months and six days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.

Monday, March 30, 2015 SPOKE s Page 15

NEWS

By HEATHER STANLEy

The spring season is now underway, resulting in the arrival of Canada’s favourite sweet and sticky delicacy — maple syrup.

Canada is the largest producer of maple syrup, with 85 per cent of the world’s supply. Holding that title, it’s only fitting that Canada also holds the world’s largest maple syrup festival.

The Elmira Maple Syrup Festival kicked off its 51st year on March 28. It first began on April 10, 1965 with 2,500 coming out to enjoy the festivities. Since then it has grown into a world famous festival with approximately 70,000 people attend-ing every year. It attracts visitors from all over the world including people from Europe and the U.S. and even all the way from the North Pole.

The event was held from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. this year and featured a variety of booths and attractions. Food-wise, apple fritters, legs of meat and deep fried foods covered the half-mile-long stretch called the “outdoor mall.” Of course, maple syrup products were in abundance with hundreds of litres being consumed throughout the one-day festival.

“I think we buy over 100 gallons a year and that’s just for the pan-cake tent,” said chairperson Drew McGovern. “However, someone asked

me how much is sold and we were reckoning about $50,000 worth of syrup is actually sold on the day of the festival.”

The weather greatly affects the qual-ity and quantity of maple syrup. The best conditions for syrup is when there is warm days accompanied by freez-ing nights. According to the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association (OMSPA), about 40 litres of sap is required to make one litre of syrup.

Only 10 per cent of sap is collected from maple trees to avoid damaging them. Trees can only be tapped three times a season. Ninety-seven per cent of sap is water.

“The sap, which comes out of the tree with a sugar content of approximately two per cent, is boiled until it reaches between 66 per cent and 67.5 per cent sugar content,” the OMSPA website said. The flavour and colour of syrup develops as it boils in the evaporator.

There are five colour classes of syrup that are made: extra light, light, medi-um, amber and dark. The darker the colour, the stronger the taste. Besides liquid syrup, other items that are made from sap are maple butter, maple taffy, sugar candies and granu-lated sugar.

Attractions at the festival were numerous. Patrons could visit Old McDonald’s Farm, watch blacksmiths, go to craft shows and even venture out to a local sugar bush on the edge of

town where they could see the process of making maple syrup.

“It’s sort of a day where the town-ship can showcase what we’re good at and what we’re known for,” said Devin Petteplace, the communication co-ordinator for Woolwich. Two new events were added this year. One of them was called the Pancake Mile and was organized by Waterloo Running Series.

“What you do is you eat a pancake, run a quarter of a mile, eat a pan-cake, and run another quarter mile,” McGovern said. “No throwing up is allowed.” The person who runs for the longest time is put into the Guinness Book of World Records.

In 2000 the festival was recog-nized by Guinness World Records for holding the largest festival with 66,529 attendees. That same year they gained the record of having the world’s largest syrup bucket which measured three feet in height, three feet and two inches in diameter, and had a capacity of 133 gallons.

The other new event was called “It’s An Honour” which was run by the Governor General’s office. Patrons could walk into a full-sized trailer and see a collection of medals. These awards went to those in the military and those who did heroic deeds.

“The festival is always a success,” Petteplace said. “It’s just a fantastic event and we hope that people come

out to visit.”Two thousand volunteers help out

with the festival every year. At least $40,000 of the profits go back to the community through various not-for-profit organizations. Since it began in 1965, over $1 million has been donated.

PHOTO By HEATHER STANLEyElmira chairperson Drew McGovern stands in front of the very first poster for the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival and its Guiness World Records awards inside of City Hall.

Elmira Maple Syrup Festival celebrates 51st yearPage 16 s SPOKE Monday, March 30, 2015