OPEN FORUM: une majorité de candidats élus avant les élections

Student life  |  Magalie Masson

Le mercredi 19 avril dernier avait lieu la présentation publique des candidats se présentant aux élections pour constituer la future association étudiante du collège Champlain (CSA). Ainsi, durant la pause commune, 10 candidats de première et de deuxième année ont osé prendre la parole devant une population étudiante contestataire, au lendemain de la Champlain Civil War.

La présentation des candidats

En première partie du forum se sont présentés les 10 candidats en course pour les 7 postes disponibles au sein de l’association étudiante. Deux minutes étaient allouées à chacun d’eux pour vanter leur candidature et rapidement mentionner les objectifs de leur mandat individuel. À ce moment, nul parti n’était mentionné. Ariane Dusablon, présidente actuelle du CSA, animait la séance. Ainsi, pour chacune des positions administratives, le ou les candidat(e)(s) se présentant au poste complétai(en)t leur elevator pitch et répondaient ensuite à une question posée par l’étudiant(e) qui avait occupé ce même poste cette année.

La première position annoncée fut celle d'Internal Coordinator. Tristan Scandar, étudiant de première année en sciences humaines générales brisa la glace. Dans sa présentation, ce dernier se concentra sur l’importance d’avoir un réseau de communication efficace de sorte à ce que les informations soient reçues par tous et chacun. Le droit à l’information et la transparence étaient au cœur de ses préoccupations. Tristan, seul candidat à être en lice pour le poste, s’est vu proclamé élu.

Le second rôle, celui de Community Involvement Ambassador fut disputé entre deux candidates. La première, Amy Benfeito, aussi une étudiante de première année, a toujours été une étudiante engagée et impliquée socialement. Elle travaille présentement dans une organisation de dons de nourriture et a un grand désir de s’impliquer dans la vie étudiante de Champlain. La seconde candidate, Léah Pagliarulo-Fréchette osa aborder sa propre expérience en tant que nouvelle étudiante au CÉGEP en août dernier, pour ensuite apporter ses deux idées de projet. D’abord, elle aimerait incorporer un programme de textos avec codes pour faciliter les communications et diffuser rapidement des événements, par exemple. Elle conçoit aussi créer un réseau social destiné à partager des opportunités d’implications étudiantes. Lors du forum, Léah a mentionné s’être déjà informée auprès d’organisations par rapport à la mise sur pied de ses idées.

Le poste d’Activities Coordinator est le second poste pour lequel des élections ne seront pas nécessaires. En effet, Kaisha Ferres-Oxime, la seule candidate se présentant pour cette position, n’avait aucun adversaire. Kaisha est très ouverte aux idées et propositions d’élèves concernant les activités. Elle serait prête à tenir un forum pour demander aux étudiants ce qu’ils désirent réellement.

David Morin, futur Vice-President of Financial Affairs se retrouva lui aussi élu par acclamation. Lorsqu’il s’est présenté, il mentionna sa grande implication au sein de son école secondaire, notamment pour l’implantation d’une petite entreprise à l’intérieur de l’établissement. Pour son mandat de l’an prochain, il désire réduire les frais de transport aux élèves et publier les rapports financiers du CSA par l’entremise du journal étudiant The Blue Ink, par exemple.

Le quatrième et dernier candidat à être élu sans opposition est Yassine Assameur, à titre de Vice-President of External Affairs. Ce dernier est un étudiant de deuxième année en sciences santé. Il se décrit comme étant quelqu’un qui n’a pas peur de sortir de sa zone de confort, particulièrement lorsque la situation implique les étudiants. Il a directement été impliqué dans le CSA cette année et a fait partie des groupes Model United Nations ainsi que de Jeunes Démocrates. En tant que délégué représentant le collège Champlain, Yassine désire réaffirmer le positionnement et le rayonnement du collège, notamment avec la promotion des projets accomplis à l’interne.

La sixième position annoncée fut celle du Vice-President of Internal Affairs. Pour celle-ci, Sidra Mughal et Brianna Scoon se présentèrent. Premièrement, Sidra mentionna ses nombreuses heures de bénévolat accomplies avec son programme d’étude à l’école secondaire. Elle mentionna que les clubs de Champlain n’étaient pas assez reconnus. Par conséquent, elle proposa de travailler plus ardemment la publicité, les levées de fonds ainsi que l’établissement d’une gestion mensuelle des acquis des clubs. Deuxièmement, la présentation de Brianna se déroula en deux temps. D’abord, elle dénonça les problèmes observés, puis proposa des idées de solutions pour les régler. Cela dit, elle jugea la publicité pour les clubs insuffisante et aimerait donc instaurer une page Facebook publique qui regrouperait l’ensemble de ces groupes. Ensuite, elle aimerait accorder davantage d’indépendance aux clubs en publiant les comptes de chacun d’eux en ligne. De cette façon, ceux-ci pourraient accéder eux-mêmes à leur rapport financier et vérifier leur budget, entrées et sorties d’argent, par exemple.

Finalement, pour le poste de président(e) à la tête de l’association étudiante se présentèrent Jack Alarie ainsi que Florence Beaudoin. En premier lieu, Jack, étudiant de première année en sciences humaines, mentionna son implication au sein du CSA cette année (membre du Constitution Committee) ainsi que de ses présences dans l’équipe de football du collège et du groupe Model United Nations. Dans cette dernière organisation, Jack a cumulé de l’expérience dans la modération de débats. Parmi ses propositions se retrouvent l’aide financière apportée aux étudiants et la restructure des clubs. Il se dit facile d’approche et à l’écoute des étudiants qu’il représente. En second lieu, Florence, étudiante de première année en science santé fut Activities Coordinator Assistant cette année. Elle aussi fut donc impliquée dans l’association. Dans sa présentation, elle dressa un bon nombre de ses idées pour l’an prochain, telles que l’augmentation du volume d’activités organisées, l’augmentation du nombre de publicités faites à ce dernier égard, l’implantation d’un calendrier mensuel des événements et activités organisées, qui serait publié sur Facebook et Omnivox, et l’implantation d’un système qui permettrait aux étudiants de donner leurs suggestions en ligne sur Omnivox. Elle termina son discours en affirmant que son réel mandat était de faire vivre aux étudiants une belle expérience au temps de leur passage au cégep.

La période de questions

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Every Day Should Be Earth Day

Environment  |  Tian Ren Chu

On April 22, 1970, 20 million American citizens gathered in streets, parks, and auditoriums as a way to show their desire and hope for a clean and sustainable future. This was eight years after environmental pioneer Rachel Carson had published Silent Spring, and a sense of environmental awareness was beginning to emerge among people living in industrialized countries all over the world.

This demonstration marked the birth of Earth Day, an annual celebration of the environment and natural heritage which has sustained us for countless generations. For the next decades, April 22 would become an opportunity for environmental groups and political leaders to gather and search for solutions to pressing issues such as air pollution, degradation of forests and lands, climate change, and many more. Earth Day also remained an occasion for governments to raise awareness among citizens in order to inspire change and encourage more sustainable lifestyles.  

While establishing Earth Day was a crucial beginning towards a globalized effort for environmental protection, a problem remains: to single out one day in a year might lead some to believe that only on this particular day should we keep in mind the impact our actions have on land, air, and water. That we only have one planet Earth, with finite resources. And that we, humans, are sharing it with over 8.7 million other living species, all of them fascinating and contributing to an incredibly rich biodiversity.

But a single day of increased environmental awareness is not merely enough. Sustainability should not be the object of annual celebration; in fact, in order to have a chance of curbing global warming, reducing marine pollution, or regenerating forests before an irrevocable point is reached, the idea of an ecologically-responsible living should become ordinary and universal - a concept so common that it would be engraved in every citizen's mindset, every single day.

So, while Earth Day remains a great opportunity for people to gather, whether to seek solutions for the future or to appreciate the beauty of nature, environmental consciousness should in no way be limited or tied to that particular event if we are to leave a healthy planet as legacy to future generations.   

Here are a few actions everyone can take to reduce their environmental footprint - on any day!

1- Use refillable water bottles (the same goes for coffee and other drinks!)

42 billion plastic bottles are sold annually in America, and 80% of these are dumped into landfills. Millions end up in the ocean every year, adding up to the "Trash Vortex" in the Pacific Ocean, which is an island of plastic junk the size of Texas. Plastic caps are often ingested by mammals and fish who mistake them for food and remain in their stomach.

It might take a few minutes to empty one bottle, but it can take up to 1000 years for plastic to degrade. To put this in perspective, if a plastic bottle had drifted into the ocean during the Middle Ages, it would still be around today, eroded into small particles dispersed across the sea.

2- Think before buying

Mindless consumerism is what drives the system of production in industrialized countries, which results in incredible amounts of waste. Fast and cheap fashion is a leader in this pattern of overconsumption: over ten million tons of clothing end up in landfills annually in the U.S. alone.

In order to reduce the amount of resources consumed and the amount of trash produced, buying should become the last resort - after borrowing, re-using, making, and thrift shops have been considered.

3- Practice Meatless Monday

It doesn't have to be Monday. Committing to not eat meat on any day of the week is a step towards adopting a more environmentally and ethically conscious lifestyle. Producing one pound of beef requires around 1800 gallons of water, while producing one pound of tofu only takes 300!

4- Bike instead of driving

Did you know that in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, 50% of citizens bike to school or to work every day? The harsh weather in winter might make it difficult to do so in Quebec, but during other seasons, using bikes to get around significantly reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere (as well as the amount of traffic in cities and on highways). It's also a great way to get some exercise after sitting for a day and to save money on gasoline.

5- Pass on the message

It might be true that one person's actions alone cannot make a significant difference. But if we collectively gain awareness as to how our actions threaten our own well-being and that of the Earth's fragile ecosystem, things are bound to improve!

Sources:

http://denmark.dk/en/green-living/bicycle-culture/copenhageners-love-their-bikes/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/transforming-the-fashion-industry_us_57ceee96e4b0a48094a58d39

http://www.earthday.org/about/the-history-of-earth-day/

Trains and Thoughts

Creative Writing  |  Enya Mirena Jaime Alba

“How are things?”

Milo was awoken from his sleepwalking state by Mr. Sandusky’s high-pitched voice.

“Things are good,” he said in his most artificially cheerful tone, as he walked through the door and into the classroom.

Things were not good. In fact, Milo thought that things were especially not good in Mr. Sandusky’s calculus class, where he had received the very underwhelming grade of fifty-four percent for his last exam.

The truth is he tried hard to study and get good grades, but his first semester of Health Science at Champlain Regional College had turned out to be, up until that point, a complete disappointment. He was failing his calculus class, and what once used to be scores worthy of the Governor’s Medal were slowly turning into a seventy percent average.

When he first noticed that his grades were skiing on what appeared to be a very slippery slope, he tried everything he could think of to save his R-score. He bought a new planner, hired two tutors, changed his sleeping schedule, and even started learning the material ahead of time, but nothing seemed to help. If CEGEP was a metaphor, it was that of a train. And the train had left the station. And Milo had been left behind. 

The ticking sound from the large clock at the front of the room resonated in Milo’s ears, an irritating reminder that there were still forty-five minutes left to the lecture.  That meant four times ten minutes, plus one time five minutes. Or nine times five minutes. That seemed shorter. Either way, he could live through that or, at least, he could sleep through that.

Just as he was about to close his eyes, he noticed on the corner of his desk a poorly executed drawing of a shrimp holding a cane. It seemed odd to him, but he did not give it much thought. He fell asleep, his head filled with images of the delicious shrimp he had eaten on the previous night at the Asian buffet.

“Mr. Senall!”

Milo jumped in his seat. Once again, Mr. Sandusky’s voice had woken him up.

“Mr. Senall, I’m afraid class is over. I’m sure you had a delightful sleep though, with your current grade, I would rather have you actually listen in class.”

“Sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”

He left the classroom feeling rather sick, as one does after eating too much. He had dreamed of fried shrimp and soy sauce, a mix he enjoyed since he was just a kid.

Upon opening his locker, he felt the smell of gym clothes invading him and thought that maybe – just maybe – it was time for him to wash those. He kneeled to gather his books and saw a piece of red paper folded into a plane sitting right inside his running shoe. On the left wing, the words “Great minds think alike” were scribbled in blue ink.

He had not given much of his attention to the shrimp drawing earlier, but this odd piece of paper just seemed so out of place that Milo could not help thinking that something was up. He was now under the impression that he was being targeted, but he did not know why or by whom.

Milo considered looking into the matter, but he had class in seven minutes. He had already fallen asleep in calculus, and being late for Vision of Art was not a very good idea. 

As he walked into the room where his second class of the day would take place, he saw the green board had been entirely covered with white chalk. He got closer, and he could tell that someone had wiped out parts of the board, leaving visible but hardly legible words.

“Intrigued? A-214 – Noon.”

Like her students, Mrs. Truman had been surprised to find the green chalkboard in such state, but after five minutes, everyone had been too absorbed by her speech on Artemisia Gentileschi to remember the incident. However, Milo was unable to forget. The words echoed in his head as he tried to concentrate on Mrs. Truman’s lecture.

After twenty-three times five minutes, Milo found himself knocking on the door of room A-214.

“Come in!”

The thick Quebec accent resonated from the other side of the door. As he walked inside, Milo saw a teenager with a grey shirt and ripped jeans sitting at a desk, absorbed in a black notebook in which he appeared to be drawing.

“Ah! Milo Senall, we finally meet!” said the shabby-looking boy, looking up at him.

“Hi. I was told to come here. Well, I – I think you wanted me here, actually.”

He had never sounded so insecure, not even during his English oral presentations back in high school, and he dreaded those. They always turned him into a sweaty, stuttering mess. Standing there, in front of this stranger who Milo could swear he had seen before, he was exactly that.

“Yeah! I’m Sid by the way. So, you got all the clues? Are you ready for the mission?”

Milo had no idea what the mission was, and the clues he had gotten still made little to no sense to him, but he relaxed when it hit him that the stranger was in his French class. The whole situation was all too weird, but he had two hours to spare, and he did not feel like doing his calculus homework.

The two talked for a good while, and Sid explained to Milo that he needed help with an illegal plan. He wanted to paint a distorted version of the periodic table, making the elements that were currently endangered due to human usage smaller, and those that were being released by men’s polluting habits bigger.

Sid needed a science nerd who could be discreet, and thought that Milo was the perfect candidate, for he did not stand out, and was studying science. Milo tried to explain that he was barely in Health Science, but Sid did not care. “A scientist is a scientist,” he retorted.

In all honesty, Milo thought the whole thing was unnecessary. In Sid’s words, it was “a grand plan to protest the careless usage of natural resources.” In Milo’s words, it was stupid. He only agreed to do it because he had no better plans for the weekend, and getting caught and thrown in jail, at this point, seemed more appealing than CEGEP. He knew the police would only give him a fine, but the idea of spending a year in a calculus-free building pleased the angry student in him. Of course, he cared a little about the environment, but calculus was his main motivation.

The next weekend, the pair painted the giant graffiti over the wall of a train station in Montreal. Milo did not know where exactly it was, nor did he care. He hated trains, they were loud, and he never understood the need to have rails all over a country when planes had been invented ages ago. He saw the act of vandalism as a personal revenge against trains, and that soothed his somewhat guilty conscience. 

To his surprise, the graffiti soon became a national sensation. In just a week, it was all everyone talked about at the dinner table. Sid was proud of his idea, but Milo started to be afraid. He did not want his parents to know it was him and his new friend who had been named “The Chem Vandals” by the local newspaper. He did not want anyone to know he was quietly rebelling.

“Hey, look! The pres is talking about us!”

As he said that, Sid pointed to the television in the corner of the cafeteria. Indeed, Milo saw that a live transmission of Justin Trudeau giving a tear-filled speech was being filmed right in front of their graffiti. He knew that Canada did not have a president, but hearing Sid refer to the suspiciously prince-charming looking man that was in power as “the pres” was too funny, so he did not correct his friend.

“This is blowing out of proportion. It’s completely absurd. People put their crap drawings all over Montreal and no one cares. Why are we suddenly so important?”

Milo’s annoyance did not bother Sid, who was ecstatic ever since the night of their escapade.

“We’re like, the Banksy of Quebec! We’ve started a revolution. The company that runs the train station is one of the biggest polluters in Quebec, and people are not having it. Who knew the pres would love it, though?”

Sid’s voice was filled with excitement as he spoke, but Milo was confused by all the attention their work was getting.

That night, he looked up the story behind the train station. He was infuriated to find out that the company was the epitome of corruption, and that it was indeed the most polluting company in the province, with affairs in a number of suspicious businesses. For Milo, what had started as a plan to distract him from his hatred towards calculus had become something he really cared about. He wanted their work to mean something, and the publicity it was getting was only superficial.  People were talking, but no one was seeing the real problem.

He picked up the phone and dialled Sid’s number.

“Let’s go back,” said Milo in his most serious tone. “We’re not finished.”

Milo had brought red paint, and he used it to write a statement he hoped would reach the people of Montreal. Sid, who thought the plan was absolute genius, agreed to hold a flashlight while Milo worked.

“STOP TALKING. DO SOMETHING.”

The red letters were marked in Milo’s mind and on the wall, as the two teenagers sat on the sidewalk, looking up at the dirty bricks they had just vandalized for the second time in less than two weeks.

Milo had no idea what Banksy felt like, back in London, when he started his career as a protest artist, but he hoped it was similar to what he was feeling at that moment. It was a mixture of thrill and tension. He had not felt this way on his first night at the station, but this time was different. This time, he actually cared.

Lost in his thoughts, he remembered that he hated trains. He found it ironic, for he could see now that he had been trying to catch a train that kept running full speed since the beginning of the schoolyear. Naturally, he knew he would return to Champlain Regional College the next morning, but he also knew that something had changed within him.

Milo hated trains, but maybe he didn’t have to catch one. Maybe he could ride on a plane. Or maybe he could just walk instead.