Volume 48 - Issue 18February 25, 2015

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Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015 NEWS 3

Shenanigan-heavy election finally endsAfter one of the most memorable RSU elections in recent years, The Eyeopener looks back on the craziness of election night

By Keith Capstick and Jackie Hong

Transform RU swept all five ex-ecutive positions in this years Ryerson Students Union (RSU) election, but election night was anything but smooth for the first opposition slate since 2011.

While Transform RU support-ers cheered, drank and watched the lopsided voting results pour in at the Ram in the Rye on Feb. 11, Trans-form scrutineers whose job it was to make sure the votes were counted fairly said they were yelled at, temporarily restricted from watch-ing the counting take place and told they werent allowed to accompany the ballots to the counting area by RSU election officials.

Second-year computer science student Matthew Smith was a scru-tineer for current vice-president op-erations-elect Obaid Ullah. Smith said that the Deputy Returning Officer (DRO) and Chief Return-ing Officer (CRO) initially refused to let anyone into 111 Gerrard St. East, where votes were counted, and had security block the doors. The DRO, Abiola Agunbiade, and CRO, Fatima Sajan, are respon-sible for managing the election. They did not respond to requests for comment.

Smith said that all the current

RSU executives were already in-side when Transform scrutineers were finally let into the building and taken to the room where bal-lots were being counted.

That seems incredibly sketchy to me, knowing they were basical-ly there with the ballots with little to no supervision, Smith said.

Smith said that the unofficial vote counts published on the RSUs Facebook page had 108 fewer votes for Ullah than what he saw count-ed. He also added that one ballot box appeared to be sealed with masking tape instead of the stan-dard foil sticker. Scrutineers didnt take photos because their phones were confiscated, Smith said.

Cormac McGee, Transforms candidate for vice-president educa-tion, also expressed concerns with the electoral process on the night of elections. McGee said when he went to cast his vote he was denied and was told he had already voted. McGee also said that he had heard of other students who had the same thing happen to them.

Throughout the night, candi-dates contacted Eyeopener staff with concerns that ballot counting was not being done properly.

Eyeopener staff faced several is-sues while reporting.

News editor Jackie Hong at-

tempted to take photos of the ballot boxes as they were being moved from storage in SCC 202 on to carts. Sajan said no photos of the ballot boxes were allowed.

No such rule exists in the RSU election bylaws. When told that, Sajan said that she was allowed to make up rules if she felt like it. Two Ryerson security guards blocked the doorway of SCC 202 and the reflection of the ballot boxes in a window across the hallway.

Hong then asked the DRO who monitors the feed from the security camera installed outside SCC 202. The DRO said, This is not your concern, and that The Eyeopener

had no business asking ques-tions about election security.

The exchange was witnessed by several Transform and Unite Ryer-son candidates.

Two news editors tried to verify claims that Transform scrutineers were not being allowed into the building where the ballots were counted. They were let into the building by another student but upon arriving on the third floor, were confronted by a woman who refused to identify herself and promptly called security to tell them to leave.

After election night, RSU presi-dent-elect Andrea Bartlett was still

apprehensive about the outcome, saying that it wouldnt set in un-til all the votes were ratified and nothing else could go wrong.

Bartlett initially said that there would be a two week period where a re-count could take place. That period is now over but the directors meeting to ratify the voting ended abruptly on Monday afternoon af-ter a loss of quorum. The meeting is reschedueled for next Monday.

All of this prompted the Ryer-son Commerce Society (RCS) to file a lawsuit asking the school and the RSU to change election regula-tions in future years.

The lawsuit, according to RCS President Ashisha Persaud, is backed by a petition with more than 1,000 student signatures. Per-saud did not respond to interview requests to elaborate on the lawsuit.

Bartlett said her role in the lawsuit was to give insight internally as a candidate but maintains that if the lawsuit continues the results are that no student has to go through this many issues [in the future].

Bartlett also insisted she plans to make changes to the election pro-cess after results are ratified, such as hiring election staff and inform-ing candidates about rules earlier whether or not the voting is done in person or online next year.

Although results were lopsided, election night was filled with complications.

What the kids really want

PHOTOS: FARNIA FEKRIStudents have a lot of expections for the incoming student government.

By Farnia Fekri

Buthaina Ahmed, Kreeshma Aliar, Cesar Membreno, Justin Pinho and Kahn Rafsanjani (last four pictured couter-clockwise from bottom left) have one thing in common: they dont know much about their stu-dent union.

They say they dont spend a lot of time thinking about the hun-dreds of dollars they pay to the group. They dont attend almost any events. Sure, they could tell you that RSU stands for Ryerson Stu-dents Union, but thats about it.With an opposing slate winning

the overwhelming majority of posi-tions in the RSU elections this year, for the first time since 2011, stu-dents have a lot of expectations of the incoming Transform Ryerson government. The Eyeopener asked Transform executive-elects about the students conerns.

Lowering tuition feesThe only RSU event second-year

civil engineering students Mem-breno and Rafsanjani recall is the Freeze the Fees campaign. They thought it was useless.

On Nov. 17, 2014, after a rally condemning high tuition fees, sev-

eral RSU members set up tents in front of Jorgenson Hall. The tent city, which paralleled Occupy movements that used the same tac-tic, was disassembled after the uni-versity agreed to meet with the RSU.

I mean, with Freeze the Fees theyve done the same thing over and over again, said Rafsanjani. Theyve seriously got to change up their tactics.

Newly elected Vice-President Ed-ucation Cormac McGee couldnt agree more.

We saw them camping outside this year. Last year they had death of affordable education, said the fourth-year journalism student. It looks like theyre doing a lot but theyre not really doing much.

McGees platform, like his pre-decessor and current Vice-President Education Jesse Root, includes lob-bying for lower tuition fees. How-ever, McGee promises that his first step wont be aggressive tactics, but finding out what students want, followed by mending relation-ships between the RSU, university administration and the province, which he considers stretched at the moment.

Ive seen the aggressive tactics

that dont work, he said. You will not see me outside banging a drum unless its literally the last option that I have. And I dont think thats going to happen.

More events on campusWhile rising tuition fees is a

concern at Ryerson, second-year urban and regional planning stu-dent Justin Pinho says the RSU should concentrate more on events that unify the campus.

The events and some of the clubs I dont know too much about, he said. I feel like the words not out about a lot of events.

Ahmed, Membreno and Rafsan-jani think so, too. We need some-thing really big, to really send out an image, Rafsanjani said.

Andrea Bartlett, Transforms president-elect, says her teams strategy for these events is to start planning now.

So that when students come back in September we already know what events the student union will be doing, she said. And then hopefully have some sort of, like, tentative plan with what kind of groups we can col-laborate with as well.

Cooperating with faculty unions

Bartletts most important part-ners will be faculty societies that are part and parcel of Transform, with Tyler Webb (president of the Ry-erson Communication and Design Society, RCDS) and Urooj Siddiqui (president of the Ryerson Engineer-ing Student Society, RESS) having been elected as faculty directors un-der the Transform slate.

For McGee, this means an op-portunity to have societies focus on students professional develop-ment while the RSU handles com-munity and student rights.

We could have a really good working relationship where its like RESS doesnt have to worry about throwing a pub night be-

cause were going to throw a pub night, he said. They can throw a networking night, and students can have the best of both worlds.

Communication with studentsAt the very top of Bartletts pri-

ority list, above even these collab-orations and early plans, is com-munication or, as she refers to it, engaging the 20,000 unengaged students who dont know the first thing about the RSU.

Bartlett plans on reaching out to these students through an in-creased social media presence and an open-door policy.

They cant care about some-thing they dont know really exists on campus, she said.

PHOTO: JACKIE HONG

4 EDITORIAL Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015

Editor-in-ChiefMohamed Fat Bastard Omar

NewsJackie Bribed Hong

Jake The Chronic 2001 ScottKeith Disease Machine Capstick

FeaturesCharles Bald Polar Bear Vanegas

Biz & TechLaura QWEEECH Woodward

Arts and LifeAlex QWEEECHY Downham

SportsJosh Pageless In Seattle Beneteau

CommunitiesDylan I Am The Walrus Maga-

zine Freeman-Grist

PhotoRob Silly Stringer Foreman

Sierra SALAD QUEEN BeinStephen Stokography Armstrong

FunEmma TuGuac Shakur Cosgrove

MediaBadri FILM IT ALL Murali

OnlineFarnia Chipotle Rebel FekriBehdad HARK! A FORK IN

THE ROAD! Mahichi

Web DeveloperKerry TEAR DOWN THIS Wall

General ManagerLiane Cans Of Tuna McLarty

Advertising ManagerChris ADhesive Roberts

Design DirectorJ.D. Havana Nights Mowat

Circulation ManagerMegan La (Circ) Carte Higgins

ContributorsEunice Stargazer Kim Jake Galaxy Kivanc

Brennan Jar Jar DohertyMatthew Stargate OuelletAidan Hal 9000 Macnab

Noella Ocampa OvidNoushin Zabrak Ziafati

Natalia In Asia BalcerzakKaroun Callineans Chahinian

Annie Ellen Ripley ArnoneChris Cpt. Kirk BlanchetteTagwa Mace Windu Moyo

Jonah 3000 Brunet

Matthew Big Bang RobertsonDavid Martian Lao

Cherileigh Cosmo CoMansoor Milky Way Tanweer

Julia Spock KnopeRobert Kepler-186F Mackenzie

Jordan I LIKE SPACE MadyDevin Saturn Jones

Luke Galaxy Quest GalatiAdena Neptune Ali

Bahoz Rocket Saleswoman DaraEmma ReJETction Kimmerly

Desiree Space Fund AmaniBronte Vacuum Tea CampbellEmily Space Jam Craig-Evans

Caterina Zathura Amaral

Super Awesome InternsAnika M.I.A. Syeda

Hayley Streeterz AdamMohamud SPROTS Ismail

Playing the part of the Annoying Talking Coffee Mug this week is the mystery tunnel it was just my man cave!

The Eyeopener is Ryersons larg-est and only independent student newspaper. It is owned and oper-ated by Rye Eye Publishing Inc., a non-profi t corporation owned by the students of Ryerson. Our offi ces are on the second fl oor of the Student Campus Centre.

You can reach us at 416-979-5262, at theeyeopener.com or on Twitter at @theeyeopener.

More than ever, the RSU is yoursByMohamedOmar

In total shock but with utter de-light, I am relieved to say that this campus system of democracy isnt completely ass backwards.

Hell, Id be so bold to say that it sort of works. Before you left to Medicine Hat or Oshawa or wher-ever the hell you like to go during reading week, the Ryerson Stu-dents Union election wrapped up and it only took seven goddamn hours to count the votes.

Transform RU, the opposition group comprised of members from the three major student soci-eties on campus, won every single executive position completely defeating Unite Ryerson, the in-cumbent slate led by current Vice-President Equity Pascale Diverlus.

If that sentence made no sense or even better did not pro-voke you to give a third of a turd, heres why it should: your campus has a totally new stu-dent government, one that has nothing to do with the system of governance that has been in place for the longest time.

That does not mean the exiting government was malicious, nor does it imply that the incoming government will be Gods gift to

the students of this campus. For all we know, they could de-

velop an opposition even larger than the one Unite Ryerson had during this election.

What Transforms victory actual-ly means is that students now have, at their mercy, a government that has no track record, no good or bad deeds only a responsibility to answer to the students that voted its people in.

Transforms candidates found a bunch of irregularities and bylaw discrepancies during this election. If these issues arise next year, call them out. In the student media, at general meetings and in per-son at their offi ces. As part of its platform posted on its website, Transform said that if elected it would share the minutes of its board of director meetings a very important promise and stick to a 48-hour communica-tion response time requirement. If you dont see this happening, call them out.

Finally, if Transform RU or any variation of it is still the reigning slate a few years from now and you think they have stopped earning the trust of the student body, remember that all it took to obliterate the status quo on this campus was an orga-nized, cohesive group of students who gave a damn or two.

hai

Now that we have your complete attention:Nominations for TheEyeopener Fall 2015 mast-head positions are now open. Come to our offi ce at SCC (Student Campus Cen-tre) offi ce 207, or email edi-tor@theeyeopener.com for more info. Do it for the cat.

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015 NEWS 5

Seed fund starts to sprout

News Briefs

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced on Feb. 19 to the Eco-nomic Club of Canada that Ryerson will receive $500,000 from the provincial government.

The contribution is part of the Social Enterprise Demonstration Fund (SEDF) that will invest a total of $4 million in 11 socially conscious enterprise organizations in Ontario.

Ryerson will be using the money for the Social Enterprise Seed Fund which aims to develop social enterprises in the GTA that address socio-economic issues focusing on under-represented groups.

Wynne praised Ryerson President Sheldon Levy for his contribution to Ryerson and Toronto during the announcement along with everyone else. Innovation is his middle name was most certainly uttered. Levy used his time on stage to praise his students.

Hits from the Hunger ReportThe Good Food Centre at Ryerson has just released its inaugural Hunger Report, a 19-page document containing statistics on who used their ser-vices from 2013 to 2014.

According to the report, the Good Food Centre operated 912 total hours and served 422 Ryerson community members during the academic year. There were 2,528 calls for emergency food relief.

Fifty-two per cent of people using the service were female, 47.5 per cent were male and 0.5 per cent were trans. The two largest age groups that utilized the Good Food Centre were 17 to 21 and 21 to 28 years old.

The report also mentions that 92 per cent of members were full-time students and six per cent were part-time students. Staff and non-student community members made up the final two per cent.

The faculty with the highest usage of the Good Food Centre was the Faculty of Architectural Engineering and Science.

From the mayoral race to RyeOlivia Chow will be joining Ryer-son as a distinguished visiting pro-fessor. Reporter Brennan Doherty spoke with her about her decision.

Q: I understand that Ryerson approached you about the offer to be a distinguished visiting pro-fessor over the Christmas break. What was the first thing that went through your mind when you first got the email, or the phone call?

I was travelling at the time and I thought Oh, this would be in-teresting. I thought about it and I met with the faculty of arts dean and also because I worked with Sheldon Levy when he was the vice-president over at the Univer-sity of Toronto. So Ive both got-

ten to know Sheldon very well and Ryerson quite well. So thats why I picked Ryerson.

Q: Was it a difficult decision?No. I mean there were two rea-

sons. Number one, Ryerson is re-ally wonderful in bringing people together for the intellectual chal-lenges, but also for practical skills that are very applicable. Also, its the heart of the city, working to make an impact not just in Toronto, of course, but across Canada. And also I have a senti-mental reason. My late husband Jack Layton taught here as a ten-ured professor for at least 10 years quite a long time ago. So for me to come back to Ryerson is very fitting.

Q: Did any other universities approach you about an offer? Did you approach other institutions and ask to teach with them?

I had two universities that ap-proached me around the same time as Ryerson and I thought, I like Ryerson. You know Ryerson has very committed, very passion-ate faculty members. [Its] a place that is growing and young people here are so engaged in the city, which is the top reason why Im here.

Q: Do you know what your duties may entail? Who youll be working with, or what sort of classes youll be teaching?

Its a combination of things. I may or may not actually deliver a full curriculum course. Im setting up mentorship programs. [Teach-ing] people, students and commu-nity members that want to learn how to organize, how to have an impact in their community, how to get engaged whether its fruit-ful from the community and po-litically. I have a bit of experience with that front, so Im pulling to-gether whether its lectures or programs, sessions, workshops, all of those things would be part of my task.

For the full Q&A go to theeyeopener.com

Olivia Chow came to our office and you werent invited. PHOTO: ROB FOREMAN

The Student Learning Centre finally opened its doors. Check out theeyeopener.com to see The Eyeopener staff going hard at the soft-launch.

6 Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015FEATURES

Let fools laugh; wise men dare and win.

With those words, in 1925, Swiss writer Aim Tschiffely set out alone on horseback to ride the 16,000 kilometres between Bue-nos Aires and New York City.

It was a story Filipe Masetti Leite had heard from his father a hundred times, whod heard it in turn from his own father long before. A group of horsemen spend the night at a small bar in the grassy Argentinian lowlands, drinking and arguing to pass the time. How long to ride from here to New York? One hazards a guess the others take it as a boast. They call it impossible, ab-surd. They drink and drink. The stakes get higher and higher, and the next morning one clops off with two short, stout Argentinian Criollo horses to prove himself.

It was one of the most epic long rides of all time, says Leite. I fell in love with the story. I nev-er managed to shake it from my imagination.

Raised into a long line of Bra-zilian horsemen, he had learnt to ride before he could walk. He read reverently from the autobiograph-ical Tschiffelys Ride and dreamt of embarking on an epic, cross-continental journey of his own.

But after graduating from Ryer-son in 2010, nothing seemed less possible. He was a broke journal-ism grad without connections or equipment. And living in down-

town Toronto, it had been five years since he last rode a horse.

Everything was against me, says Leite.

He made a pilot video pitching his plan and sent it to as many pro-duction companies across North America as he could. He called it Journey America and it was go-ing to take him home, over the 12 countries and 16,000 kilometres between Calgary and his familys ranch in So Paulo, Brazil.

Living a nomadic life and re-porting it as he went, Leite would tell his story and the stories of those he met in real-time, online. It would be about more than physi-cal endurance or equine prow-ess his story would tell of the similarities between people of all nations, of the common thread of humanity.

But nobody bought it. No one took him seriously and for two years all he heard was no.

He then sent a single tweet to in-fluential video-journalist (VJ) Mi-chael Rosenblum, who had trained reporters for the New York Times and popularized the role of VJ as a one-person camera crew. Rosen-blum was in the process of starting a new channel called OutWildTV, and saw in Journey America a star for his show. Before Leite knew it, he was flown out to Nashville, en-rolled in Rosenblums video boot camp and suddenly had much of the funding he would need.

Copper Spring Ranch in Alberta

donated two Quarter Horses Frenchie and Bruiser. Sponsor-ship started to snowball and two months later, thanks to a miracle tweet and the kindness of strang-ers, Leite set out on the longest ride of his life.

A Long Ride, as specified by the Long Riders Guild, spans a mini-mum of 1,000 consecutive miles (1609.34 km). Leites journey qual-ifies ten times over. It started on July 8, 2012 the hundredth an-niversary of the Calgary Stampede. With a procession of four RCMP musical riders to see him out, Leite begins his journey atop Bruiser, the calmer chestnut horse, while the wild and fair-haired Frenchie follows in tow, saddled with all of Leites possessions beneath a bright blue tarp. Leite estimates the total weight of his gear at between 40 and 50 kilograms lighter than he is and plans to live off only this and whatever hes provided by those he meets along the road. He says this frightened him, at first.

I cried a lot, he says. I was scared to death. I had no idea where I was going to sleep that night never mind the next two years ahead. And at the same time I was very happy to be taking the first step on my dream journey. It was a mix of emotions. I was leav-ing my girlfriend behind. It was very hard, but it was beautiful.

After a flurry of fanfare and media interviews, Leite rides from the stadium, kisses his girlfriend,

fellow Ryerson journalism grad Emma Brazier who will later support him from her van for stretches of the trip and contin-ues down the road.

Most people expected me to be shocked or worried [about the trip], but I really wasnt, says Brazier. I knew he was just that type of guy who wanted to do something different in life ... and I believed in him.

The RCMP accompany him for a few more kilometres then dou-ble back to the stampede park and Leite goes on alone although he never truly is. Deeply charismatic, disarmingly friendly, smiling, jok-ing and laughing often with bright eyes under the brim of his white cowboy hat, Leite makes friends wherever he goes.

And on innumerable occasions during the long ride South, his new friends keep him going. Though equipped with a small tent and sin-gle-burner stove, there are things he simply cant do alone. He needs to feed the horses he affection-ately refers to them as his chil-dren which can consume up to 40 kilograms of food each per day. For this and much else he is depen-dent on strangers, which he says gave him new faith in people.

You really get to see how nice and kind and loving people are, in all countries, he says. Even the most dangerous countries in the Americas today.

He receives a number of gifts

on the road through autumn of 2012. In Craig, Colo., after spend-ing two days at the house of a man named Peter Lisker, Leite is given a container and a request: to carry with him the ashes of Liskers sis-ter, Naomi, who had died months before. I feel like youve come to my doorstep for a reason, Peter said. I feel like youve come to take Naomi for one last ride.

It made the hair on my arms stand up, Leite says. He showed me pictures of her riding and of course I said yes.

In Montana, approaching Yel-lowstone Park, hes given a small canister of pepper spray. Yellow-stones Specimen Ridge has one of the highest concentrations of griz-zly bears in North America and Leite has no choice but to cross it. While passing through, in a terrify-ing blur, a huge, dark grizzly bar-rels across the road in front of him.

Graduating from Ryerson in 2010, Filipe Leite was broke and unsure of his next move. After two years of searching for an outlet, a single tweet allowed him to pursue the greatest endeavour of his life a 16,000 km journey on horseback from Calgary to So Paulo, Brazil

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015 7FEATURESWhen I saw the size of the bear

and the little [spray] can I was like, what the fuck am I going to do with this? he says.

Come sundown, he finds him-self with no water in the middle of a dense forest, forced to push forward until he and the horses can drink. He can barely see the ground in front of him as he ma-noeuvres his horses around the tall shadowed tree trunks.

Then he hears noises crunch-ing twigs and branches brushed by creatures moving all around him. He cant see anything in the dark. He rides on yelling, continually, as loudly as he can. The fear is running into them and startling them, he explains. Thats when they kill you.

In Presidio, Texas the last American city before the border Leite receives his greatest gift thus far: the chance to ride alongside his father. My dad inspired this trip, he says. He read [Tschiffe-lys Ride] to me as a kid. He loved the story. It was his dream to do this trip as a young boy, but he never had the opportunity.

But realizing a shared dream is not the only reason Leites father comes along. The drug trade con-trols northern Mexico and the car-tels ominous presence hangs like a cloud over areas the pair will have to ride through. Leites father says he and his wife worried about this section of the journey in particu-lar, and having two people is al-ways better than one.

The pair ride together through the spring of 2013, over three months and more than 1,000 miles enough to qualify Leites father as a long rider in the eyes of the guild. They cross the Chihuahuan Desert, camp out under the stars and eat beans baked over an open fire. They end their journey to-gether at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, and both describe their time together as if it was a religious experience.

Its something Ill never forget if I live another hundred years. Ill never forget that ride with my dad, Leite says.

There are many parts of his two-year journey Leite wont for-get, some for the beauty and oth-ers for the fear.

Such was the case in the fall of

2013. After staying with a new friend in Guatemala, he then trav-elled south through the mountains into Honduras. With the highest murder rate in the world, Leite considers it the most dangerous country hell have to cross. The mountains themselves are a prob-lem, muddy and washed-out from rain, but more concerning is that the whole border region is con-trolled by the cartel.

Luckily for Leite, his friend has a friend a powerful drug lord on the Guatemalan side of the traf-ficking operation. And this friend has another friend a neighbour-ing drug lord who agrees to meet Leite in a village on the Honduran side of the mountain pass.

The climb is steep, slick and lit-tered with loose rocks. Sundown only makes things worse and for long stretches Leite must walk the horses up one-by-one, continually doubling back. Finally, well into the night, he and the horses make it to the small village on the other side and there is the drug lord, beer-in-hand, standing between a hole-in-the-wall bar and his own white horse.

He threw me a beer and said, Welcome to Honduras, Leite recalls. And I chugged it back I was so nervous. We just started drinking profusely.

Ten kilometres away is the com-pound where hell be staying, and he rides there through the dead of night, jittery from beer and flanked by cartel gunmen, some as young as nine years old, pistols slung on their backs.

When they arrive at last, Leite is amazed. Within massive cement walls the Honduran drug lord has built himself a personal paradise. A massive table, carved from a sin-gle slab of a once-mighty tree an exact replica from Da Vincis The Last Supper sits in one of the mansions many rooms. Above it dangles an ornate chandelier, one of six throughout the house. Plasma screens hang like paint-ings, one on every wall. Theres even a petting zoo.

During his two days in the com-pound, Leite gets to know his host, who will visit him periodi-cally throughout Honduras ensur-ing his safe passage. Despite the gun-toting children, the violence

and the drugs, Leite says he soft-ened toward the man.

I saw the humanity in him, he says. He loved his children. He loved his wife. He came from a very poor family and started run-ning drugs up to Guatemala when he was young he travelled the same route I had travelled to go into the country. Its hard to judge a man. When youre born with no opportunity, what do you do? Do you pick up the gun ... or do you live like a slave?

Later, in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, hes startled by gunshots from the street below the window of his tiny hotel room. The hotel owner, in a drunken rage, fires six shots at his wife, who screams desperately.

I could smell the gunpowder, Leite says. I could taste it. I just felt so helpless, not knowing what to do for the woman as she yelled.

The fear drags on throughout the night. He imagines the man climb-ing the stairs to his room and mur-dering him the hotels only guest, the only witness, who couldnt have helped but heard the whole thing. He sits on the bed and stares at the door. He doesnt fall asleep. Fortu-nately, the hotel owner was a bad shot and his wife was unharmed. In the morning, he saddles the horses and rides off, relieved to be leaving his hotel in Honduras.

In spite of everything, from griz-zly bears to cartel kids to drunk husbands with guns, Leite consid-ers the worst part of his journey down through the Americas to be the bureaucracy. Distrustful to the point of paranoia, border authori-ties stop him for days at a time, going over paperwork, medical re-cords for the horses, seals, stamps and signatures.

His longest border crossing is his last, in the humid South American summer of 2014, east from Boliv-ia into Brazil. He and Brazier are stopped and the horses unsympa-thetically quarantined for 30 days.

I was at the end and I had arrived on nothing, Leite says. I was dy-ing. My pants were ripped [and] my boots had holes. I was a mess.

Its hard to stay motivated two years into the trip, Brazier adds. Youre just exhausted.

The cold sterility of quarantine weighs heavily on their spirits.

Despite several daily medical tests the horses are required to endure, nothing is provided for them. Leite and Brazier have to hire an expensive veterinarian, as well as purchase netting and cleaning sup-plies for the horses stalls. Before long, the expensive quarantine ru-ins them and, literally penniless, they grow increasingly desperate as the horses face starvation.

Its like a mother not having food to give her child, Leite says. It just kills you.

Turning back to social media as his last hope, Leite posted to Facebook about the ordeal, plead-ing for help from anyone who follows Journey America online. Within minutes, a Brazilian farm-er offered to donate a truckload of hay. Another offered to drive it to the border. Others offer money for gas. Comment after comment comes in from people all over the continent, some whove never met Leite in person, offering whatever they can and, above all else, their sincerest support.

Its the power of social media, Leite says. Its very telling of our times.

Not only did it help Leite throughout Journey America from securing funding in the first place to keeping his mother in-formed that he was, in fact, alive it also allowed him to improve the lives of countless others. Through Facebook, he was able to get secure a $3,000 sponsorship for a Mexi-can youth baseball team, as well as $500 for two boys with osteo-genesis imperfectica, also known as glass-bone syndrome.

Its amazing what you can ac-complish through this medium

that some people like to trash, say-ing its separating us, he says, be-lieving nothing to be farther from the truth.

At last, on Oct. 10, 2014, af-ter 803 days on the road over mountains and marshes, deserts and snow Leite arrived in his hometown of Espirito Santo do Pinhal in the state of So Paulo, Brazil. He rides into town joined by more than 500 others a slow, happy stampede. He looks into the welcoming crowd and sees familiar faces: family friends and childhood pals all grown up. He greets the mayor and is show-ered with gifts. That night, the town throws a welcoming party.

After his glorious homecoming, in a quiet moment Leite takes the container with Naomis ashes out to the pasture where the horses laze, basking in their well-deserved retirement. He removes the lid and thinks of Naomi, of everything theyve been though together since Craig, Colo.

As I got farther on the trip, he says. I started to feel like Naomi was a guardian angel.

He then spread the ashes on the pasture, throwing them from the container up out into the air.

I thought they would just drop, he says. But they rose like a cloud and went up to the sky un-til they disappeared. It was a really beautiful moment.

Now settling down to life on his family farm, Leite will soon have his journey told in a Rosen-blum-produced documentary. Hes also 160,000 words into the first draft of a book his very own Tschiffelys Ride to be published later this year.

PHOTOS COURTESY FILIPE LEITES INSTAGRAM: @FILIPEMASETTI

8 BIZ & TECH Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015

From Ryerson to MarsRadio and television arts alumna is a finalist for the Mars One mission

A mission by a not-for-profit orgainization, Mars One, plans to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. One hun-dred candidates, 50 men and 50 women, have been chosen out of 200,000 applicants around the world to move onto the third phase. Of the current chosen 100 candidates, 24 will be selected for one-way trips to Mars beginning in 2024 with groups of four de-parting every two years. To determine who will be sent

in these groups, the finalists will be tested emotionally and physi-cally. This selection process will be filmed and made into a reality show The Mars 100 that will rely on the help of the audi-ence to select the candidates in the final rounds. Karen Cumming is one of the 100 candidates. Cum-ming, 53, from Burlington, Ont., is a journalist, teacher and Ryer-son radio and television arts grad-uate of 84. Eyeopener reporter Mansoor Tanweer spoke with the could-be Mars settler.

Q: Why do you want to go to Mars?A: I want to go to Mars because as a journalist I see this as an in-credible opportunity. It is the story of the century and the assignment of a lifetime to be the person who documents this for the rest of hu-manity here on Earth. It speaks to me on so many levels, it appeals to my sense of adventure, it ap-peals to me as a writer and a jour-nalist and it appeals to me as an educator, as someone who wants to teach people of all ages about space from space, so as far as I am concerned this mission fits me like a glove.

Q: Why not look for adventure on Earth?A: Im 53 years old. I have done a heck of a lot ... Have I seen every-thing? Of course not. Would I like to see more? Who wouldnt? But if I had to leave for Mars tomorrow, I think that I would feel satisfied that I had explored a pretty big percentage of planet Earth and I would feel good about leaving.

Q: Are you going to be blogging while you are on Mars?A: Well that will be part of my job. To be communicat-ing about everything that is go-ing on up there with everyone that is down here on Earth.

Q: What do you expect the training will be like?A: All I can tell you is that we look forward to eight years of train-ing. There have been no specifics

This woman might be one of the first humans on Mars.

PhoTo CourTEsy KarEn CuMMInG

revealed to us but I think it is safe to say at least part of the training is going to be medical training, dental training and learning how to grow our own food hydroponi-cally. I am expecting some sort of training in mechanics to be able to make repairs and to maintain equipment. All those things are things that we are going to have to know. We get sick, were going to have to know how to pull your ap-pendix out. We have a toothache? We will have to pull it out. There is going to be a lot to learn and we are going to learn to be self-reliant because there are four people. You have to be able to rely on yourself.

Q: How are you going to combat boredom?A: Nobodys saying we are liv-ing in a tin can up there. Once we construct the pod community it will be like living in an apart-ment. There will be living quar-ters where we will be able to re-lax, we will be connected with satellite link with Earth so we will have access to movies and inter-net. We might be a long way away but it is not as isolated as people might imagine.

Q: Is there going to be some level of comfort in Mars?A: Once we get there, part of our job is to work together with rovers that will be there to construct the actual pod community. Those will be our living quarters and that will be where we grow our food.

Q: This is a one-way trip; your friends and family are obviously going to miss you. Were there any objections based on that alone?A: You tend not to want someone you love to leave the planet for-ever. In this case the [Mars One organizers] have promoted it as, what they call, a permanent settle-ment which in space talk it means you are not coming home. They have to make sure that everyone who is involved is okay with never coming home. They have made it clear that, money and technol-ogy permitting, down the road if it is possible to be able to make a return trip, that could be in the cards.

Q: Are you holding out hope that you will come home some day and tell the story in person?A: Im not going to say I have been holding out hope. I really am okay with not coming home. If I were given the opportunity to make a return trip and then go back again, absolutely. I mean, who wouldnt want to see their friends and their family again.

As it stands now, I am fine with never coming back.

Q: What do you expect life will be like once you get up there?A: I dont really have any precon-ceived notions about what its go-ing to be like. My assumption is it is going to be extremely cold, extremely desolate, extremely red and an extreme challenge.

Q: How are you going to combat the isolation and loneliness that comes with an extraterrestrial life?A: I honestly cannot tell you. Once we get up there, sure there are go-ing to be three other people that we will be spending our days and nights with. Im assuming that those people are going to become our family. They are going to have our back in every situation and if you have committed yourself to living life in that way on an-other planet that is not Earth, any sense of loneliness that you feel is nothing that will beat you down. Thats what youve signed up for. Anybody that has signed up for military duty, for example, serv-ing in remote and desolate places. Im sure there is some loneliness involved in that too. But you have to have the motivation to do the job and you are willing to put up with it.

Q: What would the pay off of a mission to Mars be?A: Youre pretty much guarantee-ing yourself a place in the history books ... The payoff for humanity is that you got a group of people who are willing to put their lives on the line in order to help ad-vance the evolution of humanity.

InFoGraPhIC: sTEPhEn arMsTronG

Tweed Marijuana Inc. fiscal resultsTweed Marijuana, the first pub-licly traded producer of medical marijuana in Canada which is working with a Ryerson re-

search team has released its fourth quarter summary. To read the full story by David Lao go to theeyeopener.com.

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Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015 arts & life 9

Underground dance group branches out By Noushin Ziafati

A group of Ryerson students and alumni are providing Toronto danc-ers and other artists with a place to practice and express themselves.

Short Dances in Small Spaces (SDSS) is an intimate monthly event providing dancers, musicians and more with studio space to share ideas with a small crowd of students, professionals and every-day artists.

Founded in April 2013 by To-ronto-based dancer and choreog-rapher Alvin Collantes, the show is gradually drawing more artists from a diverse range of talents.

Combining various types of art is in a way a dance on itself, said Collantes.

The events Facebook page reads that the club was meant to introduce 10 dancers and present ideas, personal stories, movement exploration tasks through forms of improvised movement, chore-

ography or physical theatre. The monthly dance club started

small and through word of mouth. Event locations, often subject to change, were purposely kept in se-cret to make attendees put effort into finding where shows would occur. Through this method, an intimate, enthusiastic audience of about 20 appeared for the show.

If there is an emotion you would like to explore or a person-al story you would like to share, SDSS is a perfect space for you to explore it, Collantes said.

The event has grown and is now featuring members of Musicians@Ryerson as well.

Maricris Rivera a Ryerson arts and contemporary studies student, stage manager for SDSS and Musicians@Ryerson execu-tive board member intends to bring in more musicians to play. Musicians play both cover songs and originals. At a show, Rivera played a piano recording of Vien-

na by Billy Joel and sang while a dancer improvised a performance.

There was some sort of con-nection that built there. That was really fun. We fed off each others energy, Rivera said.

To Alysa Pires, a 2012 Ryerson dance alumni, SDSS events make her work instinctively.

As a choreographer, I am fasci-nated by the creative process and am almost more interested in that exploration and discovery than I am in seeing a finished prod-uct. The club offers a rare chance to see someones process in real time, Pires said.

For Collantes, Rivera and other members, SDSS is a place where competitiveness of the art industry disappears.

[SDSS] is one of the few places Ive found where all that [com-petitiveness] goes out the window, where you forget how tough of an industry it is, where youre all just people, Rivera said.

Symphony CEO comes to RU

PHOTO COURTESY KEN DOBB

Dancers Victoria Di Carlo and James Abrazado at a Short Dances in Small Spaces event.

By Aidan Macnab

The CEO and president of the Toronto Symphony Orches-tra, Jeff Melanson, is now a distinguished visiting professor (DVP) at Ryerson for the Fac-ulty of Communication and De-signs (FCAD) school of Creative Industries.

His appointment was effec-tive January 1, and in his role as DVP, Melanson will give lec-tures, put on workshops, and collaborate with and advise stu-dents on the creative and cultural industries.

I look forward to working with students, said Melanson, to talk about some of the pro-fessional challenges we face, but more importantly how we see the world and how we see the creative industries reshaping our cities and provinces and countries.

Brittany Wong, vice-president of academics for the creative in-dustries course union, said her faculty is absolutely delighted with their new addition.

Because of the fact that he has a background in arts admin-istration, which many of us in the program are looking to get into, I think his sheer experience and depth of knowledge of these creative industries and creative industries in general, will be a perfect match for our students, she said.

Melanson has a long resume be-fore his time at the Toronto Sym-phony Orchestra and Ryerson.

He was executive director of the National Ballet School, a dean at the Royal Conservatory of Musics community school, and president of the Banff Centre, the largest arts and creativity incubator on the planet, according to its site.

Melansons career also includes a brief foray into politics. In 2010, he was appointed as former May-or Rob Fords arts and culture ad-visor. His taking on the position was contingent on an agreement with the former mayor not to cut the citys art budget.

Being supportive of public arts funding is something that Wong said is important to her faculty.

As students and as creative professionals, who are going to be entering these industries, we need that support, she said.

FCAD Dean Gerd Hauck said Melanson is extremely well con-nected politically, to all types of people in Canada involved in the arts, making him, in my mind, a very strong candidate for this po-sition as DVP.

Hauck said Melansons award record will also allow students access to an extensive array of internship and employment op-portunities.

In 2009, Melanson was award-ed the Queens diamond jubilee medal and is the first fine arts ad-ministrator to be named in Can-adas top 40 under 40 that same year.

As the Toronto arts administra-tor begins his work at Ryerson, Melanson views it as another learning experience in his career.

It sounds trite to say, Melan-son said, but I think I will gain as much from the interactions with students and faculty at Ryerson, as they will gain from me.

MAR 1TORONTO

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Mayor John Tory paces slowly through Holt Renfrew Men. His fi ngers dance over rows of silk ties and wool suit jackets, drink-ing in each luxurious texture.

A glimmer in his peripheral vi-sion catches his eye its an as-tonishing set of brass cuffl inks.

These will look delightful with my brass knuckles, he mutters, jerking his head around to make sure no one has heard him. He turns the corner to pay for them

and lets out a high-pitched shriek. Douglas Couplands Gum-

head looms before him. The black resin head is completely covered in wads of chewed gum.

Sweet mother of Des-tinys Child, Tory croaks, nearly fainting. Oh, the hor-ror! Who did this to you? He rushes to the Gumhead, pick-ing off pieces and eating them.

Sir, please stop! Staff run to-ward him, waving frantically.

Toronto has a serious gum problem! I vow to fi x it, starting

NOW! he shouts, rapidly load-ing gum into his mouth.

Ugh. Its a crowd-sourced in-teractive self-portrait sculpture, a voice says. Its Douglas, he has emerged from a small door in the Gumhead. He looks pissed. Do you even understand art?

Tory spits out the mound of gum onto the carpet, pulls out his brass knuckles and affi xes his cuf-fl inks. GUM IS A SNACK, NOT ART.

Douglas yawns. Stick it to the man.

PHOTO: FLICKR/MIKE McHOLM

By Emma Cosgrove

It was a sunny January morning when I fi rst met Pat Sajak. The Wheel of Fortune host entered the room in his purple plaid suit surrounded by three bodyguards. Over his 68 years, Sajak had never agreed to an interview. I knew he had something weighing on his conscience that needed to get out. The following interview reveals unimaginable secrets that will shape the way we look at history. As unbelievable as the answers in this interview are, I promise that it has been transcribed word for word. This is the true story of a

man whos been hiding his secrets from the spotlight for more than 40 years.Mackenzie: You got started in the entertainment industry as a game show host, is that right?Sajak: Yes thats correct. Ive been hosting Wheel of Fortune since 1981. It was a much more violent game back then, the wheel was never properly anchored and it used to fl y around the room wildly.M: What was it like growing up in Chicago?S: There were lots of horses.M: Do you like horses?S: I prefer giraffes.M: There were giraffes in Chicago?

S: More than youd expect.M: Tell me about the time you lost a bet to Elton John.S: I had no idea he was such a good ventriloquist. I lost a lot of money. M: Did you know anyone when you fi rst moved to Hollywood?S: Well I didnt move there alone. My friend Regis Philbin always dreamed of making it big as a dramatic reenactment actor, so he trekked out there with me.M: Tell me more about Regis.S: We met back in Chicago. When we fi rst moved out to L.A. he was always dragging me down to his apartment

where we would never mind.M: What?S: This is none of your business, next question.M: OK... Is it true that you are the father of Steve Harvey, the Family Feud host?S: How did you fi nd that out?! M: Why did you choose to give him up for adoption?S: You dont understand, kid. Game shows are my life. I cant let anything get in the way of it.M: Do you think you passed on any talent to him?S: Ill tell you what, that Steve is a real talented kid. He certainly got my gift of gab. Im proud of what

hes made of himself; Family Feud is arguably one of the greatest television series of all time. Sadly theres no way Id get in contact with him at this point.

At this point in the interview Sajak had to get up and leave the room. After 10 minutes he came back with tear stains streaking down his face. I could tell that talking about Harvey got him very emotional, but I couldnt help feeling that there was something else on his mind. After a sniffl e and a pause he looked up at me.S: Its time I tell you the true story of Regis Philbin.

To be continued next week

Torys gum conundrum

By Robert Mackenzie

Giraffes and secret children: Pat Sajak tells all

Master of Education Info NightApply now for fall MEd programs.Learn more March 3, 2015. OISE, 252 Bloor St. West, TorontoInformation and RSVP: www.uoft.me/oisemed

12 Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015

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