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Niagara News OCTOBER 18, 2013 • vOl. 45 issuE 3
MUD, SWEAT AND TEARS
Feeling depressed? It’s Good2Talk A hotline for post-secondary students that provides support in times of stress By JEssE COlE Staff Writer
From left, Lindsay Ceko, Kyla Ceko, Alana Ferguson, Dillon Erwin, Valarie Ceko, Brittany Erwin, pose for a photo after completing the Dirty Ballerina. PHOTO BY JENNIFER CEKO
Sweet deal for bitter beer By NiCK FEARNs Staff Writer
If you have a thirst for the Niagara College Teaching Brewery’s award-winning beer, Butler’s Bitter, but can’t make it to the Niagaraon-the-Lake campus, you are in luck. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) will now be offering Butler’s Bitter at 99 locations throughout Ontario including Port Colborne, St. Catharines,
Fonthill and Niagara Falls. “We are pleased to support the good work that is being done at Niagara Teaching Brewery,” says James Hume, product manager of beer and cider at the LCBO. “This year’s inclusion of Butler’s Bitter is the second time that an excellent product from the brewery is on our shelves.” Last year, the First Draught Ale and Lager six-pack bottles were also available at select LCBO
locations. The beer, which has won awards in Canada, the United States and Ireland, is a more modern take on a traditional bitters style of beer. Butler’s Bitter, made with caramel malts and English hops, has been described as a palate pleaser in the competitive arena on a number of occasions. It will retail for $5.95 per 650ml bottle. Continued on page 2
It’s midterm season, and with that comes all the stresses of studying for exams, scrambling to meet deadlines and just generally trying to keep ourselves sane. If Ontario students are feeling the mid-semester blues they now have a new outlet thanks to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities and its partnership with Kids Help Phone, Brock University and Niagara College. Mental health is a rising concern on the campuses of Ontario and within Canada with rates rising substantially over the last decade, according to Statistics Canada. In response to these rising problems and the deaths of Amanda Todd and Reteah Parsons, two Canadian teens who took their lives last year after school-related bullying and harassment, the ministry has teamed with Kids Help Phone, among other contributors, to create the Good2Talk initiative, a part of Ontario’s Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy. Targeted at post-second-
ary students, Ontario has poured some $2 million into funding, aiming to provide a free 24-hour, seven-days a week, 365-days a year hotline. Students can get advice, find support and on-campus resources in addition to counselling during times of stress and vent about day-to-day pressures of post-secondary education. Operating in a trial run since June 2013, Good2Talk has since expanded its availability to all Ontario students regardless of their school of choice, as of Oct. 4. Vice-president of Kids Help Phone, Alisa Simon, says, “Students at this stage in life face many new pressures ... an economic recession that has hit young people the hardest, rising tuition and student debt levels to name a few ... harassment, stress over grades, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. The difference today is that Good2Talk is here to provide students with counselling and information and referral to help so that they can feel a sense of control and hope assisting them to be successful in school and setting themselves up for a successful future.” Continued on page 2
Women’s inequality, still an issue in today’s society By JAslEEN KAuR KAlRA Staff Writer
Before Oct. 18, 1929, women were not persons, as no one really paid attention to the fact the word woman includes man. The battle began in 1916 with mily Murphy’s first day as a judge. Lawyers
had challenged her rulings because she was not a “person” under Canadian law. However, by 1927 the women gathered support across Canada. They petitioned the Supreme Court, and on Friday, Oct. 18, it was officially declared a woman could be considered a person. The historic victory was
due to the efforts of the Famous Five — Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards. Before this, everyone followed the patriarchy system — a social system in which the father is the head of the family and men have authority over women and children.
Patriarchy is a system of male dominance created to control women, private property and war. The famous and interesting argument in support of it is based on the word “person”, which means “per son” or “son of”. As no female could be the “son of” anyone, the lawyers argued, it was impossible for women
to be “persons” legally. Wendee Kubik, a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Brock University, in St. Catharines, says, “Probably why I am a woman studies professor is because I see inequality between women and men, and I want to help raise awareness so [that in] the next generation there is
more equality.” “As the woman myself, I am very privileged. I feel privilege because I am living in Canada. … I had never thought that I would become a professor, that I had this opportunity throughout my lifetime to be where I am now.” Continued on page 2
Page 8
By BRITTANY ERWIN Staff Writer
They conquered Everest. They scaled the Berlin Walls. They walked the plank. And were shocked with 10,000 volts of electricity, twice. They ran probably the toughest race on the planet. Sept. 28 is a day that team Mud, Sweat, and Beers, consisting mostly of Niagara College students, will never forget. Valarie Ceko, Lindsay Ceko, Dillon Erwin, I and Alana Ferguson and Kyla Ceko, all gathered that day and made our way to Coldwater, ON, outside Barrie at 6 a.m. After a two-hour drive to Burl’s Creek Family Event Park, they boarded busses and headed to Mount St. Louis Moonstone Ski Resort. The team checked bags and headed to the start line at 11:45 a.m. Tough Mudder is designed to test your overall strength. With over one million participants to date, it is the probably one of the toughest races a person can run. British Special Forces designed it to test operatives’ mental and physical strength. The obstacles test human fears of fire, water, heights and electricity. Almost all of the events are impossible to complete by yourself. Help from other participants, if not your own team, is crucial. Without that, it can’t be completed. The first Tough Mudder course, in the United States in May 2010, was co-founded by Will Dean and Guy Livingstone. Held at Bear Creek Ski Resort in Allentown, PA., it had 4,500 participants. Today, Tough Mudder is held in
NIAGARA NEWS • Oct. 18, 2013
10,000 volts of electricity, zap you as you crawl through water and as you cross the finish line. The Funky Monkey is a set of inclining bars crossing a cold-water pit, and the Berlin Wall presents a daunting 12-foot high wall, which you help your teammates scale. Ceko says her favourite part was the Dirty Ballerina, a series of mud hills you climb over. “I enjoyed being able to get messy. It was so much VALARIE CEKO fun, and that was the obstacle that I found that the U.S., Australia, Canada everyone was just smiling and Germany among and laughing through.” many other places; it She added she trained costs from $80 to $160 to for three months by takparticipate. ing cardio classes and Tough Mudder has cross fit training circuits. raised over $6 million for Despite that, she says, the Wounded Warrior “I wish I had done a lot Project, raising awareness more cardio though, since of the needs of injured tough hills killed me.” service members, and Ferguson says, “The providing unique procourse would have been grams for them. better if there were less At the start line you hills and better showers scale a wall into a mud at the finish line.” pit, sing the Canadian anWith the physical chalthem, and take the Tough lenges, also came the Mudder Pledge. In the pit emotional ones. Ceko you take a knee for all of says, “When I completed the soldiers who have lost Tough Mudder, I have their lives in battle and never been more happy in recite, “As a tough mudder my life. I was so proud of I pledge that I understand myself and everyone else, that Tough Mudder is not I actually cried.” a race, but a challenge. “It was an amazing I put teamwork before experience that I wouldn’t my course time. I do not have changed for the whine, kids whine. I will world! If you are looking help my fellow Mudders. I for something to chalovercome all fears.” Count lenge yourself, do Tough to 10 and begin the race Mudder and train hard. up the mountain. Crossing that finish line The 17-kilometre gave me the best feeling course took the team six of accomplishment I’ve and a half hours to comever had.” plete. Among the survivAt the finish line a able events are the Arctic Mudder volunteer crowns Enema in which particiyou with a Tough Mudder pants dive into a dumpheadband, only presented ster filled with ice water, to those who complete Electroshock Therapy in the race, a T-shirt and an which live wires, carrying ice-cold beer.
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I enjoyed being able to get messy. It was so much fun, and that was the obstacle that I found that everyone was just smiling and laughing through.
From left, Kyla Ceko, Alana Ferguson, Lindsay Ceko, Brittany Erwin, Dillon Erwin, and Valarie Ceko pose before starting Tough Mudder, in Toronto in September.
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Funky Monkey - participants climb money bars that incline and decline over cold water.
Mudder intersection - pits of mud that mudders have to go through while avoiding other participants.
PHOTOS BY JENNIFER CEKO
Runners in the pit taking the Tough Mudder pledge before starting the race. PHOTO BY BRITTANY ERWIN
Participants leaving a hydration station and running up the hill to the next obstacle.
Lindsay Ceko and Kyla Ceko prepare to head to the start line.
Berlin Walls - 12-foot high walls that participants have to climb over and they have to help other participants climb over.
Electroshock Therapy - mudders run through hanging wires that carry 10 thousand volts of electricity.