Getting High: A Hiker's Haven

(Photo by Kelly Linehan)

A trip up to a train trestle on Vancouver Island can be the ultimate high.

Getting there is half the fun when it comes to an abandoned train trestle outside Victoria, B.C.

After driving an hour north of Victoria, you must somehow whip an U-Turn on a windy strech of mountain highway. The parking lot looks more like a highway shoulder.

Depending on what route you take from the parking lot, a hiker can either end up at the bottom of a steep waterfall in a shallow riverbed and try to clamor up an equally steep adjacent hillside. Or you may bypass this road-less-travelled for a designated route complete with steps and fencing.

While you are close to the highway, once entering into a darkened tree-canopy of mammoth old-growth that smell of dampness and moss, you are worlds away from civilization. Other hikers are few and far between, with a bigger and better known park right across the road.

(Photo by Kelly Linehan)

After trekking straight-up for half and hour, you are rewarded with an unlikely sight. A black iron train bridge hovers over a steep valley in the middle of a vast forest.

Graffiti mars the underside of the bridge, but apart from that conteporary reminder, the bridge is a beacon of the past in its unlikely resting place. Its tracks extend into deeper forest on either end, but few hikers bother to leave its extrodinary height.

This is where you will spot other hikers. You may see one woman sitting on an outcropping of the trestle, dangling her legs over the vertigo-inducing drop. More likely however, you'll find a younger couple lighting up a joint after offering you a toke.

Weed is the last thing you'll need. You already feel naturally stoned.

Shopping Tips for Students

(Jennifer Costanzo with her shopping bags. Photo by Kelly Linehan.)

Even if you are a student, there are ways to spend without going further into debt.

Students are known to have tight budgets but even the most broke deserve some indulgences.

Now students can find fashion without breaking the bank at a wide variety of stores that offer affordable but stylish clothes.

Caillie Thomson, a sales representative for Redline Clothing, advices perusing racks at Walmart,

Superstore and Winners for those cheap finds.

“(Those stores) are a goldmine for students,” says Thomson. “Because they have really cute stuff.”

Other retailers known for their prices are H&M, Forever 21, Urban Planet and Old Navy. This is where Ryerson fashion student, Jennifer Costanzo advices starting the style search.

“These stores will always be trendy,” says Costanzo who also adds that students need to start with a foundation of basics.

Costanzo’s closet staples are a nice pair of jeans, a blazer, white and black t-shirts and a button-down.

Knowing where to shop is the first stop for broke students, but there are other ways to save money in the mall.

Ryerson University student, Brianna Cangiotti knows that when to shop can be more important than where to shop.

Cangiotti says that after Christmas and summer are the best times for look for deals as retailers are trying to get rid of products to make room for the new season.

Thomson agrees but adds that because of the economy, retailers will be clearing out stock as early as June to prepare for the back-to-school sales in July.

“It’s not when you think it’s the end of the season,” says Thomson. “Go a month before that.”

Privacy Face-Off for Facebook

New Facebook settings may prompt its users into unwittingly over-sharing.


In an open letter to nearly 350 million Facebook users, Mark Zuckerburg, the social networking site's founder, laid out the terms for the new privacy settings this past December.

In his letter he said that the new settings would protect the users' privacy and Facebook will "suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy."

However, the recommended settings on Facebook actually reveal much more information than a user might intend.

"The privacy "transition tool" that guides users through the configuration will "recommend" — preselect by default — the setting to share the content they post to Facebook…with everyone on the Internet, even though the default privacy level that those users had accepted previously was limited to 'Your Networks and Friends,'" says Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

According to the website TechCrunch this setting will allow Facebook to compete with Twitter for real time content searches but may create a privacy meltdown when its users unwittingly over-share their information.

On a positive note for its users, Facebook has started a drop-down menu that allows users to easily choose who they want to see a certain picture or status update on a per-post basis according to EFF.

A Guide Goes Online

After 30 years in print, TV Guide Canada had to make a change.





(University of Wisconsin Photo)


In a world where consumers are increasingly internet-savvy, TV Guide Canada made the decision in 2006 to end its print magazine in favour of a web-only medium.

According to Anna-Christina Di Liberto, Assistant Listings Manager for TV Guide Canada, their subscriptions were fleeting and going web-based became a financial issue.

"From a cost perspective, it made sense to go online," says Di Liberto.
The online medium also gave the magazine flexibility to post late-breaking news and timely show reviews and previews.

TV Guide has been one of many magazines and newspapers that have had to pull out of the print world in favour of the online one.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Ann Arbor News and the Christian Science Monitor to name a few are former print dailies that have adapted to an online-only format.
But Di Liberto thinks there is room for print and online, and that people are still willing to pay for print.

“I think there are still people that will read print products,” says Di Liberto who adds that balance of both print and online mediums is necessary to keep both young and old readers happy.

“It’s kind of nice to balance the two generations,” says Di Liberto.

Locked Down in Toronto

Visible minorities are more likely to be held without bail in Ontario than their white counterparts.








Toronto Star reporter Jim Rankin (Photo by Emilie Bourque)


After two and half years, Jim Rankin finally got what he was after.


The Toronto Star reporter put in a freedom of information request for criminal records in Canada only to be told that it would cost him 1.6 million dollars to access this information.

Rankin didn’t pay a dime in the end but found what he had been suspecting all along; disproportionate numbers of those in lock down in Toronto and even the country.

An example of Rankin’s findings is the fact that aboriginals in Canada make up only 3.8 per cent of the population, yet they constitute 19 per cent of those in Canadian prisons.

The Canadian Police Information Centre, as cited by the Star, records race as either white or non-white.

Non-whites were 53 per cent more likely not to be convicted, only because they had credits for “time served” according to the Star’s analysis of conviction rates.

What that really means is those who are a visible minority are often held without bail, according to the 1995 Report of Systematic Racism. They are also more likely to have DNA taken than their white counterparts.

A couple of years and one website later, Rankin has recorded this information and more about the Canadian Justice System on the Toronto Star’s website, Crime & Punishment.

Go Fish!

GeoStock/Photodisc/Getty Images

Toronto may not be the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of ice- fishing. However, peace and quiet can be found within the bounds Canada’s largest city.

For those urbanites looking for a relief from the city’s hectic pace, the GTA offers two lakes for ice-fishing; Frenchman’s Bay in Pickering and Wilcox Lake in Richmond Hill.

Frenchman’s Bay is only 50 km from downtown Toronto. Ice begins to coat the lake’s surface in early December, making way for those hoping to carve out their own little hole of tranquility. The lake has some of the world’s best Carp waters and there are no season restrictions.

Another alternative for ice-fishing is Wilcox Lake. Fishermen here are likely to pull out large Northern Pikes in the wintertime. The season opened on New Year’s day for Northern Pike but Large Mouth Bass and Brown Bullheads also swim beneath the ice. The lake is well-suited to ice- fishing as almost all the shoreline is claimed by private residences.

The sport is not without its dangers. It is reccomended that the ice be 15 centemetres thick and according to comingbackalive.com, four or five ice fishing deaths occur each year in North America.

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