It’s also a time for self-examination in order to find our place and ensure we are still in fact heading down the right path. This is not always easy to do and comes more readily to some rather than others.

That moment of self-reflection often comes with outside pressures from a variety of different avenues – friends, family, maybe financial concerns. It makes our choices that much more difficult to settle upon. But they should be weighed carefully because there’s a lot riding on these decisions. It’s not necessarily an issue of what your loved ones feel you should do but rather the joy you’ll find in doing something you love to do.

One only needs to look to the Harbourfront Centre, which had become the hub for an a cappella music festival this past weekend, to find an example of the benefits of doing what you love in the face of external pressures. Though it might be considered a rather abstract style of music, it was hard to tell it lacks mainstream appeal judging by those in attendance.

Harbourfront was the stage for the inaugural SING! Toronto Vocal Music Festival, with 50 concerts and various workshops ranging from traditional singing to beat boxing, from making a voice sound like an instrument to performance singing. More than 500 vocal artists, who made up more than 60 vocal music groups, descended on the downtown shores of Lake Ontario to sing, teach, and celebrate a musical style they had dedicated themselves to perfect.

The concerts saw some of the biggest names in vocal music, from local group The Nylons to the Grammy-winning New York Voices to the outfit acclaimed as the best a cappella group in the world, The Swingle Singers, who flew in from the United Kingdom.

Local groups such as Countermeasure and Cadence, who have received acclaim of their own, joined international counterparts and even local school choirs.

For many, none of these group names are likely recognizable. If pressed, some of the older crowd, possibly familiar with the ‘90s PBS game show Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?, may be able to name Rockapella as a vocal music group. Even then, however, how many others can they name? A cappella groups aren’t exactly put in the limelight. Even when they are, such as at this festival where they make us exclaim over their talent, the impression made upon us is rarely strong enough for many to subscribe to this subculture and start following groups or scooping up CDs.

At SING!, however, these groups were both lauded and admired by all in attendance. The groups and singers were bona fide stars. Even though a cappella fails to show up most nights in the major concert venues downtown, it reigned as king at Harbourfront.

This niche market of the music industry demonstrated the common passion of hundreds of people despite their music genre rarely being the focus of attention.

In life, no matter what you want to do or what you choose to do, no matter how broad or how obscure it may be, it has a home – so long as you let it in.

If you are passionate about something, pursue it, even if it leads to a dead end. If you are talented at something, hone your craft, even if something takes you in a direction you never would have imagined finding yourself. The bottom line is, if there is something you’re good at or something you enjoy doing, it is worth doing.

As the summer approaches, tough questions arise. Questions of summer jobs, of continuing in your program of choice or transferring to another, of choosing the time and place to make your entry point into the career you have trained for now for years.

In this moment, do not hesitate and second-guess something you know feels right. There is a place for everyone, somewhere.

On Sunday night, The Swingle Singers were incredible enough that a standing ovation after each song could have occurred if it would not have seemed overzealous. The crowd was just that energized, mesmerized. The group had no worries and lacked no self-esteem on the stage. They were in their element and they were beloved by the hundreds who paid to pack the Harbourfront’s Enwave Theatre.

They most certainly outdrew some of the smaller, up-and-coming rock or alternative bands one might find at the Horseshoe Tavern, Lee’s Palace or even the Sound Academy on most nights.

This summer, when looking into making your road map to continue your education, or start your career, outside factors might come into play. If they do, just remember how well an a capella festival sold out in downtown Toronto. Always remember that there is a spot for everyone to succeed at what they love, and a group of people cheering you on along the way.

According to Statistics Canada, youth unemployment sits at a staggering 13.9 per cent – nearly double the national average. Though that is almost a one per cent improvement over the previous month, the jobless rate for young Canadians has remained more-or-less stagnant for almost two years.

In the interest of fairness, part of the onus falls on the youth community. Stay-at-home kids are a documented phenomenon, with the current generation of 18- to 24-year-olds demonstrating a spectacular propensity to live off of their parents’ means. But the responsibility isn’t theirs alone.

The simple fact is, with so many young people out of and seeking work, it’s an employer’s market – and that means applicants need to have a polished and extensive resume, reflecting a laundry list of life experience and achievements that can only be gleaned from previous employment, education and volunteerism.

Unfortunately for most young job seekers, those opportunities are quickly drying up, primarily because of aggressive cuts to youth services in the austerity budgets of the provincial McGuinty and federal Harper administrations.

Perhaps the most publicized of recent cuts is the elimination of the Katimavik program – a $15-million-a-year endeavour that has run for the better part of the past 35 years, and enabled youth volunteers to assist those in need across the country.

“Ending funding for Katimavik is one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made,” Heritage Minister James Moore boasted in an address to the House of Commons last Thursday. According to Moore, the decision was justified by its cost per participant ($28,000) and high dropout rate (one in three).

Many of the program’s 30,000 alumni – including NDP MP and former leadership candidate Nathan Cullen and Liberal MP Justin Trudeau – are singing a different tune, contending that the program helped shape them into more responsible and civic-minded citizens and gave them valuable life experience they might not have acquired otherwise.

“At a time when civic engagement and voter turnout are at an all-time low, when youth unemployment rates are double the national average, this is clearly the worst time to cut Katimavik,” a release from the organization said. This couldn’t be any more correct.

But there have been other cuts that are just as likely to harm the job prospects of Ontario’s youth. Also on the federal government’s hack-and-slash agenda were its Service Canada Centres, which operated from May to August each year and helped teenagers find jobs.

The centres were closed because of a decline in use, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said, but the government will continue to offer an online-only service in their place, saving the government $6.5 million a year.

The logic behind the cut seems sound, but many of those who used the centres were disadvantaged and disabled youth who wouldn’t otherwise have access to the service, hampering their ability to find meaningful employment.

“Resourceful students that are not at risk… can help themselves online,” Matt Wood, executive director of First Work, an association of Ontario youth employment centres, told Et Cetera reporter Russell Piffer last month.

“Students who have no idea how to search online, or face other barriers like disabilities, these are the ones that need other help.”

The closure of job centres is disadvantageous, but there are other issues in play for youth in Ontario: the feds’ decision to bump up the retirement age will increase competition for employment even while they slash 19,000 public service jobs; meanwhile, much ado has been made about the province’s decision to axe long-standing post-secondary grants in favour of a tuition rebate for which thousands of students don’t even qualify.

Furthermore, the province’s decision to limit the ‘victory lap’ to four extra secondary school credits will give teenagers less time to decide what they want to do with themselves when they graduate, potentially driving them toward college or university programs they wouldn’t otherwise choose and putting them thousands of dollars in debt in the pursuit of a degree they may never complete or that, ultimately, could hold little value.

To sum up, it’s not easy being a young Canadian in a time when unemployment is high, support is low, volunteer opportunities are being unceremoniously scrapped, and more people are staying in the labour market longer – and all at the behest of a pair of administrations that are concerned about balancing their bottom lines.

To force a young Canadian to deal with any one of these issues is unreasonable; expecting them to deal with all issues simultaneously is unrealistic. Unless young Canadians opt to flex their political muscle, unrealistic could very easily become status quo.

English Canada does not have a fire in its belly to affect social and political change. There is nothing eruptive there.

At best, there may be some mild indigestion resulting from unpopular decisions by our government. We are more likely to let it roll off our collective backs than take to the streets in outrage. For better or worse, we really are ‘nice.’.

It could be said it is hard to find any indication that Canada cares that much about its own interests – at least in comparison to other nations.

This is not to say that public demonstrations, wreaking havoc, and shutting down big cities is mandatory behaviour, not by any means. Violence is not an answer. There are times when cooler heads should and that is an area where we (more or less) succeed – notwithstanding such incidents as the presence of some outside agitators that turned Toronto’s G20 gathering into a scene of mayhem. No, this is more about searching for a pulse within English Canada.

Every once in a while, something comes along to highlight this fact, and the recent announcement of the federal budget is one of those moments.

In last Thursday’s budget speech, minister of finance Jim Flaherty decreed that pension reform is coming, with the government moving the point at which one can obtain Old Age Security from 65 to 67. In 2010, the French people, facing the exact same proposal, staged protests nationwide for two months in opposition to this very notion. Some of the organized rallies in protest reached upwards of 25,000 people, based on news reports. People of all ages built barriers, both physical and human, around schools, museums, and other public institutions and tourist destinations to show their disapproval and disrupt French society.

Over two years of pension reform they made more of a stand than Canadians have in decades.

Here in Canada, the response to the budget in our public discourse is pining over the demise of the penny. The loss of the penny will be a big change – no pun intended – but we are not even the first nation to make this decision. Also, it’s just not as important as something being introduced to ensure our pension will still be there by the time we are ready to use it. Just the fact it might not be there is worth some discussion.

Where have we shown dedication to hold our government accountable? Yes, people in Canadian cities piggybacked on the Occupy movement last year – it became an international movement, an uprising from the lesser classes, so even if Canada was not as badly off as its neighbours to the south it still served a purpose here as well. But there are enough decisions and controversies to react to here on Canadian soil.

We haven’t lacked for examples from elsewhere. People worldwide have been floored by the Arab Spring, with one North African nation after the next standing up against oppressive regimes. The Iranian and more recently the Russian people rose up in a show of force against electoral fraud perpetrated by their respective governments. The British people rose up last year over the racially charged killing of a black youth by a police officer.

The world beyond Canada was also taken back by the rioting that took place after the Vancouver Canucks lost the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals last year.

Canada has had incidents worthy of a mass public outcry yet for the most part the scandals are media driven, the average person quick to lose interest.

Whoever stands behind the current robocall scandal, for example, may have subverted to some unknown extent the Canadian electoral system. It was recently announced that a Vancouver police officer will not be charged for shooting a mentally challenged man five years ago to death.

In the Bev Oda affair, Oda or someone close to the situation, was facing claims of doctoring official documents and possibly lying to Parliament about it. Vic Toews recently came out and said Canadians can either stand with an intrusive Internet anti-piracy bill that closely monitors our Internet use and accesses our personal information or with child pornographers. And on Tuesday the government was scolded by the auditor general over misleading the F-35 fighter jets tendering process.

Protests formed in Canada of a couple hundred people here and there for these incidents, but nothing widespread.

The current Canadian uprising is found in Quebec. The news of Quebec students protesting a potential tuition hike has been widely broadcast for months. Students flocked out of schools, shutting down institutions in Montreal, blocking the downtown cores of cities.

But even then the reaction from their English brethren appears to be one of ‘count your blessings.’ The reason for this is that even after the increase, Quebec students will still have the cheapest tuition: $3,793 per year for full-time students. Even though any tuition increase is a bad thing, the rest of Canada is not showing much support at all.

Canada just isn’t a hotbed of unrest. We have it good here and it seems we all know it. There is a deep brewing passion, however, and there are bound to be times when that can be brought forth. With our apathetic tendencies, any action that takes place would be resounding and dramatic.

Who knows, maybe that’s been the plan all along, to lull the government to sleep until something comes along that really grinds our gears. But who knows how large that provocation will have to be to generate that reaction. It’s quite possible that nobody knows.

Trayvon Martin is one of those cases, thanks to television personality Geraldo Rivera.

Scores of people across the United States have united in their support for justice in the death of the 17-year-old Martin, who was shot to death in his family’s Florida neighbourhood last month by the area’s Neighbourhood Watch volunteer, George Zimmerman.

The issue has triggered accusations of racial profiling in the U.S. as a black teenager was fatally shot and killed by a white-Hispanic citizen of the community.

Zimmerman claimed Martin attacked him but the family of the slain teen said Martin had posed no threat, with a bag of skittles and an iced tea in his hands and the hood of his sweater up over his head. A CNN/ORC international poll released on Monday said 73 per cent of the American public believes Zimmerman should be arrested for his role in Martin’s death.

There have been various tributes to Martin recently. The NBA’s Miami Heat posted a photo through LeBron James’ Twitter account of the team dressed in identical hoodies with their hands in their pockets and their heads down.

Last Thursday in New York City, nearly a thousand people gathered – many donning hooded sweatshirts themselves – to participate in The Million Hoodie March. In Washington, D.C., two pastors conducted their sermons wearing hoodies. All gestures were to commemorate Martin and to shed light on the underlying issue.

For many participants of the tributes, it was a way of standing united against the alleged racism surrounding the incident. Many believe profiling is the only thing that led to the tragedy.

It’s purported that racism also led journalist and talk show host, Geraldo Rivera, to Tweet that Martin likely wouldn’t have been shot if it weren’t for the fact he was wearing a hoodie.

“His hoodie killed Trayvon Martin as surely as George Zimmerman,” Rivera tweeted, essentially placing at least part of the blame on Martin. He reiterated the opinion on the Fox News talk show, Fox & Friends.

“I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies,” Rivera further said on the daytime show.

The comments raised the ire of many on Twitter and caused a massive backlash.

What Rivera is ostensibly saying is people of a certain profile, who dress in a certain way, are simply asking for trouble.

The comments also highlight the folly of placing blame in all the wrong places.

Some might say that a girl was asking to be raped by walking at night wearing revealing clothing, or that any person should have known they would be mugged because they decided to walk down a dark alley. In this case, some believe that Martin would still be alive were he not a black kid wearing a hooded sweatshirt because so much of the criminal element fits that very description.

Rivera called the negative racial association with the hoodie “repugnant,” but said it was “reality.”

While it is true the U.S. is a different beast altogether when it comes to law enforcement, especially with the right to bear arms and the differences in policing, that mindset transcends our southern border. Canadians can also share the same biases and improper judgments.

Const. Michael Sanguinetti followed the same rhetorical line when he made the comment to a group of York University law students that women dressing provocatively – or as he said it, “dressing like sluts” – risk triggering sexual assault. That remark led to the formation of the Slut Walk in Toronto, a movement that eventually led to Slut Walks being hosted in cities worldwide in an effort to generate a sense of awareness and respect about sexual assault and victims’ rights.

There are always people who will try and find another reason or excuse for why things occurred rather than placing blame appropriately. In every case, it is not right. In no reality should we accept racial profiling and condone the killing of a 17-year-old boy because he had black skin and a hooded sweater, just like a pretty girl shouldn’t be accused of provoking sexual assault if she wears a short skirt and a pair of heels.

It may be hard to fathom a horrific act such as the senseless death of a 17-year-old, however it is something we as a society have to approach and take responsibility for, not thoughtlessly place the blame elsewhere.

In the final moments before her death, 20-year-old Emy Brochu from Montreal had been texting her boyfriend while driving. Distracted by her cell phone, she slammed into the back of a transport truck and died instantly. Her boyfriend, Mathieu Fortin, recently released the final exchange of romantic messages, once again stirring up the media’s interest in this Jan. 18 incident and causing comment boards to flood with posts offering condolences and lectures alike.

Fortin is using the heart-wrenching messages as part of his public warning for people not to use cell phones while driving. “I hope that every time you look at your cell when you’re driving, you will think of Emy,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

But this is isn’t the first time an accident like this has occurred or a message such as this has been imparted to the public. For 30 years, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been fighting against those who drive intoxicated, encouraging people to stay off the road if they’ve been drinking. For longer still, campaigns have risen to promote awareness of the negative health effects of smoking. And over the years, various funds and organizations have been created in the memory of loved ones who died in tragic car accidents for the purpose of raising awareness to the dangers of distracted driving.

Yet the messages delivered by these people often seem to fall on deaf ears.

Accidents caused by distracted driving are constantly popping up – drivers who were using their phones, putting on makeup, eating, reaching for something in the back seat, and drinking. Eight out of 10 accidents are caused by distracted driving according to a report conducted by Leger Marketing for Allstate Canada.

Regardless of the large amount of messages being put out by the loved ones of victims of such tragedies, for some people, the cost of distraction just won’t sink in until it’s too late and they become directly involved.

Akin to smoking, where the packaging’s hideous warnings of the health risks don’t dissuade the people who have the addiction, driving while distracted is regarded with a certain level of flippancy; it’s a bridge they’ll cross should they get to it.

Despite the fact that nearly all Canadians disapprove of distracted driving, as the report stated, nearly 75 per cent of our population does it.

After all, beyond years of public teachings and awareness, driving under the influence continues to be an issue. MADD Canada reported that in 2009, 1,074 Canadians were killed in an alcohol or drug-impaired related crash, nearly half that year’s total of traffic fatalities, while over 63,000 people were injured in such collisions.

People are aware of the high stakes but choose to ignore them, only taking them seriously when they’re diagnosed with lung cancer or involved in a car collision.

Among Canadians, the two most common forms of distracted driving are eating and adjusting the radio or an mp3 player. The poll stated as few as 19 per cent regard tuning the radio or iPod as a distraction. This may be because the use of radios in vehicles has been around for decades and has become so commonplace in our driving habits, but normative behaviour doesn’t mean these actions aren’t distractions.

If not for their own safety, people should be concerned for the safety of others and recognize how their actions could injure or kill someone.

Fortin will likely be wrought with guilt for the rest of his life, knowing that his girlfriend was paying more attention to his text messages that day than she was the road.

The report stated that drivers travelling at 90 km/h, who take their eyes off the road for even five seconds, are effectively driving the length of a football field while blindfolded.

Most would probably never consider driving blind down a football field, but since the time it takes to respond to an incoming text message feels brief in the moment, many don’t give it a second thought.

Twenty-five per cent of Canadians reported knowing someone who was in an accident caused by a distracted driver.

For years, society’s acknowledged and understood the dangers of these behaviours, and in many cases people have known or heard of somebody who’s been in a distracted driving collision. Many have probably even had a few close calls themselves, though probably not enough to rid them of their inattentive behaviour.

As if desensitized, people seemingly delude themselves into believing these types of horrible events won’t happen to them, even though the statistics are there to show how often it happens.

We’re always told to learn from the mistakes of others, but often we don’t. Perhaps that’s okay when talking about relationships or how not to behave at a job interview. But when it comes to our longevity, we should heed the warnings others. We should exercise a little more discipline and respect.

When behaviour imperils something as fragile as a human life, there might not be a next time to prove the mistake’s been learned.

However, where large awareness campaigns capture the attention of everyone from the mass media to the average person, caution must be exercised. The Kony campaign is a test of social media awareness in a world that hasn’t always proven to be aware in that regard.

Like most viral videos, Kony seemed to come out of nowhere – suddenly landing on the Facebook profiles of friends and rapidly being Tweeted about. But unlike most, awareness of Kony laid dormant for 26 years without many making a peep. Questions have been raised about where the money donated to Invisible Children is really going, as last year only 32 per cent of its roughly $8.6-million went to direct services, with much of the balance going toward staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. There is always hidden information to all controversial subjects, so reading up on the background history is the best way to truly focus a viewpoint rather than simply assuming a position.

Years ago, MuchMusic began running ads to encourage their viewers to consider what they were watching. One of the spots involved a clip from Christina Aguilera’s music video for the song “Dirrty,” pausing the sexually provocative video into a still image and posing the question to the viewer of whether the singer was a bad role model or a liberating female figure.

It did not answer this question but rather encouraged viewers to give it some thought – to not just engage in mass consumption of the medium, but to contemplate what it means.

MuchMusic has done its part to hold honest discussions with its viewers, many of whom are younger; around high school age. In the 90s, the late night panel show Too much 4 Much discussed the most controversial music videos at the time. Recently the network has started running its Much Talks series, with discussions on pressing societal issues – especially those facing kids in high school.

It was, and still is, a service MuchMusic provides to encourage careful consideration of media. It is in place to promote critical thought.

Those lessons, however, are still being learned on the fly in the new world of social media.

When people started facing employment difficulties due to incriminating pictures from keg parties or a sodden Reading Week trip to Cancun posted on Facebook, a movement was made to protect privacy. When news reporters started calling up teens who posted their phone numbers online, social media users further began to realize the consequences of using the platform.

For some reason, information that few would ever share publicly suddenly became perfectly acceptable to broadcast online for the masses.

The obvious question is why this medium is inexplicably free of the same critical thought process and media awareness that developed about the music, movie and television industries. Media is media, even if controlled by the users themselves. It is like the media-savvy youth hit the reset button with the online realm and have been catching up ever since.

That awareness is being tested once more with the Kony campaign. Even though some trusted friends might have posted a link to the Kony video online, it does not mean it can be ingested without careful consideration of one’s own. It does not mean it should be treated in a manner free of critical thought.

If this was simply a case of the infamous and despised ‘slacktivism’ – the act of jumping on a trendy online cause to fit in with the rest or stating one’s outrage with no intention of lifting a finger – it still merits people being aware of what they are promoting. Not only friends, but the rest of the world, will see this video aligned with your beliefs.

Not everyone has the time or money to put in the work that many of these activist groups do, which is fine. But just blindly throwing your support in a direction isn’t the answer.

The half-hour Kony documentary certainly tried to stir its audience, and it seemed to elicit the desired response. The campaign exploded within a couple of days and it did so entirely thanks to Facebook and Twitter.

But as Invisible Children have had to start answering questions about the campaign with more information surfacing, more people are wondering if all the enthusiasm seen last week was really justified.

Many people want to help and that is a fantastic trait to possess. The world needs those people who help those in need or to help make the world a better place. But that desire to assist others should come with an internal set of checks and balances to safeguard and to question what they’re supporting.

The world will most definitely be a better place with less Konys in it, but there are many other figures that deserve attention for all the terrible things they do. Many groups will surely emerge to stop them. Even if these groups stand to do good, it does not mean they should get a free pass.

So before you post on your Facebook wall about this thing you just found out about that is suddenly sucking up all of your attention, Google it. Find out a little about the situation and the campaign. Take control of youronline persona and just be aware.

It’s an apathy that not only spreads across campuses nationwide, but is also seen in our federal politics. After the last federal election in 2011, which included a charged viral video campaign of vote mobs from campuses nationwide, the turnout of voters aged 18-24 was less than 37 per cent according to Statistics Canada.

The 64 per cent of non-voters reported variying reasons such as disinterest in voting, being too busy or being out of town, for their lack of participation. However, these excuses don’t seem justified when you consider what is at stake.

Here at Humber, the HSF operates an $8.7-million budget – hiked up $1.5-million from last year’s $7.2-million budget. This a budget that the HSF has been notoriously tight-lipped about, seemingly disregarding the fact that every full-time student will contribute $319.58 to the federation for the 2012-2013 school year.

The position of HSF president also comes with an annual salary of $35,000 and, until recently, only required 24 hours of work per week to earn that pay grade. That student council position your friend held back in high school is a far cry from this – an actual organization with an actual budget and a real impact on the campus and its community as a whole.

The HSF helps bring new amenities to campus such as the new pharmacy and travel agency that arrived this year. They negotiate deals such as discounted transit passes, health benefits and other measures that affect students directly. They also bring a variety of performances and events to campus. But only a minimal amount of these decisions are based on student surveys conducted throughout the year.

The student body has the greatest opportunity once a year to dictate who goes in to call the shots and to decide who is in charge of the few hundred dollars they take from each of us each year. It should be worth knowing where your hard-earned money is spent.

It’s true that a sunken cost paid with tuition will cause few to lose any sleep at night considering it’s seen as an inflexible reality rather than something to complain about.

Yet even something as simple as a student government affects your life. If not through campus events, then simply through your wallet.

If there is something every student needs to keep track of, it’s their money. Certainly one would be hard pressed to say students are free of financial concerns and can just throw away a few hundred dollars without a care.

Yet, for the past two years, just 21 per cent of the student body across all three of Humber’s campuses turned out to cast their ballot over the week-long voting period.

As mentioned earlier, it’s true that the worst voting demographics in any election is annually this very age group, as the 18-35 demographic consistently shows very little interest in the political system.

It is very Canadian, in general, to find political complacency ruling the masses and campus elections target the age group least likely to vote.

So, in many regards, a fifth of Humber’s students turning out over the voting week may actually seem somewhat impressive.

Once again, though, what happens elsewhere does not make this, or any other form of voter indifference, right. To the two out of ten of you who voted in last year’s student elections: congratulations! To the other eight: you have some explaining to do.

There is no doubt that over the years you have seen ad campaigns and promotional materials encouraging you especially, Mr. and Ms. Youth Voter, to get out, make your voice heard and vote. Maybe that’s not everyone’s style, as some find politics pointless, tiring, or downright nonsensical. Everyone has their own prerogatives that they will stand by.

So, at the very least, if you won’t do it to be part of the action or to make your voice heard in choosing the leader of the future – which in any postsecondary institute, with annual turnover, is a very hard sell – do it for the money. Do it for the $300-plus you sent off at the beginning of the year.

Generally, when someone on a student budget spends anywhere near that amount of money, it’s to make a pretty significant purchase and is not a decision taken lightly and is usually made certain to be thoroughly beneficial.

So make sure you get your benefits out of it. Help decide where your money is going. At the very least, make sure you pay attention to where your money is going.

You don’t have to like the fact that a student government exists, but you should have a handle over where those hard-earned dollars go.

Since they’re the ones who are going to be spending it, you might as well pipe up while you can.

A tentative government report obtained by the Toronto Star suggests that Ontario universities compress all four-year undergraduate degrees into three years, offering year-round classes to make up the time difference. It also recommends allowing students to achieve more than half their credits online.  College diplomas would be completed in a maximum of two years.

The recommendations follow a model found in Europe, where students already engage in year-round classes. They also incorporate the Internet as a method of connecting with more people, although with recent surging enrolments, that does not seem to be a problem.

Compressing program lengths has been touted as a cost-saving measure. But while at a quick glance this offer may seem appealing to some – given the chance to spend a little less time in school and get into the workforce faster – a second sober thought suggests otherwise. This change would largely work in favour of the provincial government and not the students.

Rushing people through the system may bring in more money for the government, but graduates will be churned out and pushed into a still-unstable economy. In fact, the report states that a shorter completion time doesn’t equal a less expensive education since it’s going to take money to redesign the courses and programs.

Though the proposal says it would be a cheaper way for students to get through school, there is no mention of tuition fees or how to cover the cost of students in school during the summer months. One is also left questioning how much of a toll will be placed on the student loan system.

Hacking four months of valuable work-time will surely put more of a financial strain on students, who would typically use those months working to pay for the upcoming school year.

In the 2001-2002 school year, Statistics Canada reported that overall, personal savings was the most common source of school funding, followed by income from employment. In that year, 40 per cent of students were enrolled in “more expensive programs,” those costing $5,000 and up. Of that group, 85 per cent reported personal savings as a source of funding.

While there are many sources that can contribute to “personal savings,” it’s not unreasonable to presume that at least a portion is from employment earnings. This denotes the importance of having time off between academic years in order to work and earn money.

Another thing maybe not taken into account by the government is the importance of a holiday. The summer months provide an opportunity for students to mentally decompress.

Attending school may be likened to working a full-time job, but often students are doing double-duty by not only attending regular classes, but also coming home to complete their studies around a part-time job in order to address their living costs.

Getting a post-secondary education is a process that can be emotionally and mentally draining over a prolonged period of time. If this new proposal were implemented, a heavier and more compressed workload would take form. A degree or diploma done in fewer years – but what exactly would be the quality of those years?

Potentially the most important question is whether or not a three-year undergrad from Ontario will measure upon paper to someone with a four-year degree from another province. Some critics doubt that they will.

Sandy Hudson from the Canadian Federation of Students told the Toronto Star that Ontario’s four-year degrees are currently recognized nationally and internationally, but three-year degrees may not hold the same weight – especially in the U.S. This would be putting many graduates at a disadvantage when looking for jobs.

Not only does three years not look quite as impressive as four on a resume, the red flag is whether students are actually getting the same quality of education they would in four, especially given that over half of the required credits can be obtained online.

While online courses are valuable, anyone who’s taken an online course  knows the difference in experience – and employers do, too.

As Hudson said, “If students are taking three of five [courses] online, if that’s the norm in Ontario, employers are going to know that students are not getting real class time, real lab time, real teaching assistance and research assistance to help them actually develop skills. There’s so much left out of learning if it just happens online.”

A compressed education isn’t something the majority of university students want either, according to a n education Ministry study released on Feb. 21. The general consensus among Ontario university students is that four-year degrees are more valuable than three-year degrees, and therefore the shortened version is less desirable.

Most students in a four-year program take longer than four years to complete their degree, according to the study. Currently, 94 per cent of Ontario university students graduate with a four-year honours bachelor degree, but only 45 per cent actually finish in that length of time.

In a recent survey of Ontario students, when asked about the appeal of the condensed degree, only 41 per cent said the three-year degree sounds enticing; 59 per cent said they weren’t interested, declaring the heavier workload as a deterrent.

There are  many warning signs to not see this as anything but an ill-advised government proposal. Even though some might not agree, students are better off sticking around for an “extra” year in school.

While there is nothing to say against mourning anyone’s death, the fact that it is a celebrity should not change the way their legacy is viewed. The mourning has to be done in some context. There’s a natural inclination to honour these stars’ accomplishments and put them on the proverbial pedestal – even if we had enjoyed tearing them down over years prior.

When performers who travel a similar path of substance abuse and also succumb to an untimely fate, but are not of the superstar status of a Houston, there’s a sober second thought that comes with their passing.

That perspective should not be lost due to the level of a person’s celebrity status upon their death. The best way to respect a fallen celebrity’s life should be by honouring their accomplishments, while also acknowledging their faults.

Without denying any of their talents, somewhere in the commotion of shock and sadness we tend to forget the parts of theim that reminded us they were as vulnerable to the same vices and pressures as any non-celebrity.

Many stars cope with depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, abusive behaviour and other problems that also afflict the common person. At times they fall victim even more easily than the ordinary person, thanks to the intense pressure of public scrutiny in the form of the media and paparazzi.

During these vulnerable moments in their lives, it’s easy for the media and society as a whole to cast judgment. People point fingers and rub celebrity noses in celebrity faults by criticizing, shaming and publicizing their every move. The gossip rags dig up dirt on Lindsay Lohan with every new court appearance she makes, and deride Britney Spears for everything she does.

It’s actually quite similar to the way media treasured the opportunity to lambaste Houston for every fall from grace, including her stints of addiction.

Yet in the wake of a celebrity’s death, especially a premature one, some superstars are able to evade the disparaging reputation they left behind. Their faults are all but ignored, their talented accomplishments alone taking centre stage. Maybe to make ourselves feel better, these blemishes we laughed about are glossed over as if they never existed.

Michael Jackson was virtually beatified following his sudden death, given saintly status by many of the same who decried the King of Pop for all the unproven allegations that had come his way. People were not allowed to make mention of the years of his downfall because it was suddenly not acceptable to remember what had become of the man who once ran the Pop world.

As Benjamin Boles in Now Magazine put it: “This is pretty much the entertainment industry in a nutshell. While you’re alive, they will ignore and enable your very serious problems, and then when you succumb to those issues, they’ll mount lovely musical tributes and act like no one saw the inevitable coming (and certainly couldn’t have done anything to stop it).”

Media outlets of all types dive into memorials and tributes. Social media platforms are flooded with pining individuals lamenting the “tragic” loss of someone who, under a circumstance such as death, can now rightfully be touted as nothing short of amazing. Sweeping statements alluding to their remarkable impact on the entertainment industry are usually made while their unflattering behavior gets swept under the rug.

Houston, for instance, was known to have struggled with drug and alcohol abuse over the past decade. Between the drugs and her volatile relationship with R&B singer Bobby Brown, good-girl status became tarnished as the tabloids had a heyday smearing her reputation.

But if this is society’s track record, if these are our actions and they will never change, at least the mourning can be done appropriately. Such was the case with singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse, who was guilty of pushing the limit with substance abuse. Winehouse was a terrible tragedy, an amazing talent gone far and far too soon. And that is how she was portrayed.

Heath Ledger was another tragic ending. While The Dark Knight may have received slightly more praise than the already impressive movie deserved, it was done to honour the memory of the young man. But all this was done within reason, and without trying to mask that this was a tragedy brought about by some personal demons.

This is mourning with some rational perspective, not denying the slights and jokes made at these stars’ expense.  The celebrity may have made an impact on your life through a song you share with a loved one, or an acting role that takes one back to days gone by, but that does not mean the reasons for their fall are untouchable. They are as unfortunate as they are educational, a life lesson of just how far things can go out of control. Out of respect we should acknowledge these shortcomings, not hide them away.

Whitney Houston will surely be missed. Her talents were nothing short of incredible. But it is a sad story, and that is also worth remembering.

While broadening the effort to aid anyone subjected to bullying, including creating a place for gay students to take refuge, what’s glaringly ironic about this attempt to shield these teens from being taunted for their differences is that the group name serves as a billboard to highlight the fact that they’re in some way “different” from those not in the clubs. This reference to “differences” further alienates and isolates specific students, the exact opposite of what it’s intended to do. Those hoping to escape from being bullied are being welcomed and nurtured while being called different, a perspective stated right in the title of the group itself.

The Respecting Differences initiative is a way around the issue of having identifiable homosexual groups in Catholic schools, whose foundation is a faith still bent against expressed homosexuality. In November 2010, Ontario’s entire separate school system received a lot of heat when the Halton Catholic School board banned the formation of any gay-straight clubs within its system. This move to create “Respecting Differences” clubs is a way to ostensibly acknowledge gay, lesbian and bisexual students, without actually doing so in a forthright and honest manner.

The decision for these groups should certainly not offend devout Catholics, and it should not offend the Church either, given that homosexuality is neither embraced nor condoned in the clubs. Nobody at the OCSTA will be receiving any calls from Rome condemning their decisions here, or at least we would hope. But it’s disappointing for many within the province of Ontario, a place that could be considered on the more progressive side of the spectrum, to see a very conservative and still exclusionary stance taken regarding sexual orientation,even when school officials say they are just trying to make people feel safe.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, OCSTA president Nancy Kirby said, “This is about helping kids feel safe against bullying, not as advocacy for a lifestyle…we have nothing against homosexuals, but it’s the (homosexual) act that is in contradiction of the teachings of the church.”

So this is not really a victory for gay youth within Catholic high schools, who shall remain outcasts within their own hallways, their lifestyles remaining a sin. They are merely being allowed to join a club that was established to be inclusionary, but that continues to label them as different. At least if somewhere in the group name appeared the words lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, students could make their own decisions on the matter. Instead, these club members are just “different.” One can only imagine how long the lines will be to sign up for such clubs.

According to the OCSTA’s report, the groups’ provisions dictate each club be led by a staff adviser who is committed to the Catholic faith and that it not allow for any sort of activism, protest or advocacy that is not in accordance with “the Catholic faith foundation of the school,” meaning the club can do little more than sit around and swap stories about being bullied.

That it took the OCSTA eight months to propose this scheme is nothing short of astonishing. All it did was pick the nicest-sounding term they felt they could find to keep that portion of the student population marginalized within their own community.

Racism still exists in certain areas and among groups of people, though it’s finally been widely condemned. But homophobia is far from reaching even that type of condemnation within many reaches of our society. Some believe that homophobia is still most prevalent in the older generations and while it does exist within some youth, it is becoming less of an issue with each passing year. Even if that is true, carefully selecting the word “different” and ascribing it to groups of teen homosexuals is of no help to those kids who are striving for inclusivity and to avoid bullying.

The Ontario government passed a ruling in 2011 that said there must be an inclusive environment present in schools and that bullying based on sexual orientation must come to an end. This act will come into force Sept. 1, 2012.

It’s worth asking whether or not any rulings in favour of acknowledging gay students in Catholic schools would have been passed were it not mandated by law. While public schools can have gay-straight alliances, Catholic schools refuse to make that commitment.

It appears Catholic schools will acknowledge that those students are being bullied, but will only go so far to bring them back into the flock. They still stand opposed to the root for which they are bullied and the very nature of who these students are.

One day, with any luck, the more progressive younger generations will gain control of the schools and change this backwards decision.

Here’s hoping that day comes sooner rather than later.