With the release of films like Top Gun and its sequel Top Gun: Maverick, air combat has never seemed cooler. 

Game developers have leapt on this, creating a host of combat flight games to scratch that itch for players. Three developers, Shockfront Studios, Boundless Dynamics, and Eagle Dynamics, have sought to take this area of the market with their respective games trying to provide a different experience for the player. 

Shockfront Studios’s Nuclear Option puts players into advanced futuristic jets as they take part in a total war between peer factions. Boundless Dynamics’s VTOL VR seeks to provide an accessibly realistic flight sim, while providing players a taste of what combat looks like between fifth-gen fighter jets. Eagle Dynamics seeks to provide the most realistic depiction of jets and helicopters available. 

Nuclear Option

Nuclear Option is a multiplayer air combat game set in the near future, where stealth aircraft and advanced sensors rule the skies. The game allows players to jump into the cockpits of aircraft; from transport helicopters, to Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS), to jet fighters and supersonic bombers.

The premier game mode is “Escalation,” where two armed forces fight over a country, placing players into their respective air forces, assigning them to shoot down enemy aircraft, interdict enemy convoys, and bomb strategic targets like factories. 

True to the title, the war escalates from using conventional weapons to tactical nuclear weapons—to vaporize factory complexes and convoys—finally, to strategic nuclear weapons meant to annihilate cities. 

The game ends when one side lacks the infrastructure to wage war.Nuclear Option also features a series of competitive, cooperative and single player game modes to varying scales. From dogfighting to ground ‘policing’ operations in contested territory, Nuclear Option has something for everyone. 

One of the unique aspects of this game is that the battlefield is transparent. Every vehicle within the game can share the location of anything it detects to every other vehicle on its team. If another player detects an enemy plane on radar, anyone else on their team can launch a missile at them. This cuts both ways, creating a uniquely tense experience. There is nowhere to hide, and flying low and using the terrain to block enemy radar does not guarantee safety. Nuclear Option is an easy game to play, even without flight sim experience. Controls are standardized across each airframe, allowing players to pick whichever one they feel like using. Additionally, many of the planes’ unique features are automated. For example, the FS-20 Vortex can angle its engine to shorten its takeoff and landing run. 

A keyboard and mouse is enough to play the game, but an ideal setup would include a controller for a smoother playing experience For players really looking for immersion, an entry-level Hands On Throttle And Stick (HOTAS) setup such as the Logitech X52 and the free OpenTrack head-tracking software would be a significant upgrade over a controller.  Nuclear Option is a great game for those looking to dip their toes into combat flight games, with a simple control scheme and a variety of multiplayer and single player game modes. It’s worth a look for players who want to try dogfighting—or for those who like seeing mushroom clouds in the distance.

VTOL VR

VTOL VR, developed by Boundless Dynamics, seeks to create an immersive flight sim experience using virtual reality as a platform. Instead of using external controls, VTOL VR only requires a virtual reality headset—though not a particularly expensive one—and its included controllers to manipulate every control in the plane. 

Unlike Nuclear Option, each plane in VTOL VR has a different cockpit layout, requiring players to get accustomed to their plane of choice before getting into the cockpit and soaring into the air. 

The base game comes with three airframes: the F/A-26B Wasp, which is largely based on the real F-15E Strike Eagle; the AV-42C Kestrel, a hybrid between the V-22 Osprey and the A-10 Warthog; and the F-45A Ghost, which is based on the F-35B. 

Additional planes for in-game purchase are worth a look. They introduce new aspects to the simulation, such as electronic warfare or the ability for more experienced players to instruct less experienced ones. There are also a large variety of community created planes to try out.VTOL VR comes with a series of short conduct missions, such as striking strategic targets, interdicting bombers and sweeping mines. The game also has a host of multiplayer modes, from player-versus-player (PvP) dogfighting to playing cooperative missions against AI opponents. For those looking for more, VTOL VR has a vibrant modding scene, allowing players to open the Steam Workshop and download any mission that they find interesting.

Digital Combat Simulator World

Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS World), developed by Eagle Dynamics, is the premier combat flight simulator available on PC. It provides players with extremely high-fidelity versions of aircraft, from warbirds that served in WWII, to cutting-edge fighter jets that are still in service. 

The game’s unique selling point is that each button in the cockpit can be clicked, and each performs their real-world function within the jet. DCS World requires significantly more dedication than VTOL VR or Nuclear Option, requiring players to learn the workflow of each jet and their respective idiosyncrasies. These can be learned with provided manuals or by following a series of Youtube tutorials created by the simulator’s dedicated community. 

Each plane comes with a host of single-player content, from instant-action missions to narrative campaigns. Instant-action missions provide players with a way to immediately get into a fight, while campaigns are a series of missions following a narrative thread. Further missions and campaigns can be downloaded from the Eagle Dynamics forums or purchased through the Eagle Dynamics store. 

Beyond single-player content, DCS World has a host of multiplayer servers that run the gamut from simple dogfighting servers to complex dynamic campaigns; for example, players can join one side of a war and influence its outcome over the course of weeks. From WWII to contemporary aircraft, there is something for almost every player.

DCS can be experienced on a flat screen or in virtual reality. The former is the most accessible way to play, especially with a headtracking solution allowing the player to look around the cockpit and use the more advanced helmet mounted systems found on modern planesThough the base game is available for free, it does not provide players with the complete experience. Further modules are available for purchase; high-fidelity modules allow for significant realism and can be considered games in and of themselves. Good options for full-fidelity modules are the F/A-18C Hornet and the F-16C Viper, which are capable of almost all missions without the analogue complexity of other modules. DCS is the highest fidelity combat flight simulator available on the civilian market, with a learning curve to match. Players with the time and dedication to climb that curve will find a rewarding experience as they push real jets to their limits.

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Canadian author Liz Johnston pairs the emotional acuity of contemporary fiction with climate-induced desperation in her debut novel, The Fall-Down Effect, set to release Apr. 21. Stretching across three decades and the Cascadia bioregion, Johnston examines the fallout from dedication to environmental activism that sends a family into disrepair.

in three parts

The Fall-Down Effect is split into three parts, delineated by time and geography. Readers are first introduced to siblings Sylvia, Fern and River during their childhood in the late 80s. Their mother, Lynn, feels trapped by the demands of motherhood and desperate to return to the action-filled protests of her youth. Soon, Lynn makes the decision to leave her partner, Tom, and dedicate her life to the environmental cause, far away from the small town her family calls home. 

Later, teenage Fern is determined to make her own radical stand against the town’s logging industry. Her act of protest, deemed ecoterrorism by the authorities, drives her underground and leaves her parents and siblings deciphering her actions while needing to cover up her absence. 

One of The Fall-Down Effect’s standout stylistic choices is Johnston’s decision to write from each family member’s perspective. Consider the novel’s keystone passage, for example, as Lynn reverses out of the family’s driveway—a single page holds five perspectives, five different understandings of what’s happening. While at first glance this approach seems cluttered, it proves effective, giving the reader an opportunity to examine the scaffolding hidden within each character’s choices. 

“I had always set out to write the three siblings’ points of view,” Johnston said. Each perspective is an “access point” to the novel. She included the parents’ perspectives later. “I’m sure there’s a version of this book that could have been written with just the children, but I really liked what Lynn and Tom brought to the story, once we were seeing through their eyes.”

Natural Influences

Johnston is located in Toronto but was born and raised in Revelstoke, B.C., which bears a striking resemblance to the place where Sylvia, Fern and River grew up, “but is not that place,” Johnston writes in the book’s acknowledgements. 

Still, the dense, old-growth forests of the B.C. interior and coast plainly inspired The Fall-Down Effect. At the time she started writing this book, Johnston “hadn’t been home, back to Revelstoke, in about a decade,” she said. “You just sort of realize the hold a place has on your imagination, and obviously the place you grow up in is going to stay with you.”

The Fall-Down Effect is named after the logging term describing the volume reduction in timber harvested from second-growth trees. Like the forests that Fern and Lynn felt so driven to protect, their family experiences an irreparable fracture, leaving their relationships unable to meet the potential they would have before. 

When it came time to write her debut novel, Johnston was well-equipped, mainly due to her time as an editor at the literary journal Brick, from 2012 to 2019. She described that “having that opportunity to learn and understand my own taste, and my own ideas of literary excellence in terms of the kind of work we got,” was responsible for widening her reading. “I think, in turn, [that] makes me a better writer,” Johnston said. 
In terms of novels, Johnston’s influences range from family sagas—Madeline Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing and Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie—to other works of environmental fiction, like Michael Christie’s Greenwood. She also admires The Narwhal’s reporting on forests in B.C. and the 2004 documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. Johnston’s pages are layered with generational love, longing and environmental knowledge.

not quite fiction

Although many works of climate fiction or “cli-fi” arc towards the speculative, Johnston’s is ultra-realistic. For instance, when the town’s logging mill is forced to close, workers and their families must move to find new jobs, impacting the town’s isolated economy and creating friction between friends. 

While the protagonists of Johnston’s novel are environmentalists, her understanding for the “other side,” particularly loggers and their families, is something she channeled from her childhood in Revelstoke. Many people Johnston knew from her hometown were, at one time or another, involved in the logging industry. She remembers bumper stickers from that time proclaiming, “Hug a logger…you’ll never go back to the trees!” 

Since normal people depend on extractive industries for their livelihoods, the “right” way to pursue environmentalism is not clear-cut. That’s why the environmental movement calls for a “just transition.” A systems-level framework that ensures the path to a net-zero, sustainable economy that won’t leave people behind. Unfortunately, in many countries, that transition is taking place far slower than necessary to mitigate the worst outcomes of our rapidly warming climate. This deficiency of systemic change has led to some activists putting their bodies on the line.

“There’s no one right way” to act or feel, Johnston said, but she agrees that “these are things we should feel rather urgently about.”By illuminating the collapse of natural ecosystems alongside characters’ personal ones, The Fall-Down Effect doesn’t tell readers what path they should take. Johnston simply asks that we weigh the costs and hopefully consider working in community, rather than alone.

The post Busy Reading: The Fall-Down Effect’s fractured family and fractured forests appeared first on The Ontarion.

The archetypal Hobbit character comes in various forms. Often it’s the timid side character, the sweet but ultimately useless friend, the enthusiast character, or that one character who exists but never speaks. But they all have one fundamental characteristic in common: they are completely off the grid and surprisingly, at peace. 

See yourself as a Hobbit for a moment and think of the internet as an evil villain. Being offline wouldn’t simply keep you off the villain’s radar The villain would lose power over you entirely. 

Celebrities, influencers, scary-macho podcasters and wellness coaches have all told us to stay off the internet while sharing their message via the internet. Without meaning to, these figures become the evil villain’s little minions, keeping us in a loop of inspiration but personal responsibility for the harm of being chronically online. I was a target of this evil villain for a long time, until I asked myself these questions: do I really need more knowledge and wisdom? Is there anything of value left to be known? 

The answer—unfortunately—was yes. 

It was a long time before I realized that to stop seeking value and entertainment from the external world I had to find and develop it within myself. I had to learn how to be still, quiet and calm with myself, without the anxiety of reaching for my phone, turning on the television, playing music in the background or re-downloading social media apps to occupy my free time. This became an effortless process when I figured out my Hobbit persona. 

As exams come to an end, I am no longer filled by hope to have a perfect summer. I do not aspire to be a hero. This summer, I wish to be my calmest, most boring and simple self. I wish to embrace the parts of me that I abandoned when I began to treat myself as a project to be fixed. 

This summer, I will spend my days buried in fictional novels that give me neither truth nor knowledge, in colouring books where I colour outside the lines and let the marker bleed through, in sketchbooks with unfinished portraits and failed attempts at watercolour painting, in baking recipes that I burn many times; and in board games that result in fights with my friends and family. 

Being a Hobbit is not something that requires much effort from me—not because I am short—but because I understand that my world is so much bigger than my online presence, my outputs, earnings and achievements. 

I will be returning to my “hole” at the end of the month, and I hope you will too.

The post Have yourself a Hobbit holiday appeared first on The Ontarion.

The Guelph Civic Museum has unveiled their newest exhibition, Maawnjidyang Maa, which means “we come together here” in Anishinaabemowin. It is the work of the Decolonizing Place Narratives Research Collective. The Ontarion interviewed four members of the Collective: Kim Anderson, faculty member in the Family and Applied Nutrition Department of the University of Guelph; Brooklyn Willcocks, the Indigenous community relations coordinator of the museum; Samantha Scott, a student in the Master of Arts in Public Issues Anthropology at the University of Guelph, and Curator Dawn Owen.

The exhibit’s focus is telling the story of Guelph from the perspective of Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee theory of knowledge with acknowledgement of colonialism’s violence. The pieces highlight the relationship between the land, its plants and those living within it, with a focus on the Eramosa River, Speed River and the Grand River Watershed.

The museum is undergoing a decolonization process as the exhibit seeks to correct the narrative of Guelph’s story. The exhibit’s featured pieces were by artists invited “to co-create with the curatorial team,” Owen said. It is in acknowledgement of how “a colonial museum collection was [not] likely [to] hold the objects that would carry that story well.” 

This allowed for the exhibit to feature contemporary Indigenous artists that live within and around Guelph. Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee voices were included in the planning and making of the exhibit. This inclusivity practice is one that museums are beginning to incorporate more often to heal their relationships with local Indigenous communities. 

At the centre of the exhibit is a circular theatre that details the stories of three maple trees. Writings explain one maple tree that fell down from a storm, one was cut down by John Galt as a symbol of a new settlement in 1827, and the third maple tree, which is standing by the hilltop of Guelph, to the left of the museum itself. The tree cut by Galt is featured twice for its symbolism of colonial violence, including an excerpt from one of his writings describing the incident. There’s also a photograph of the plaque commemorating Galt’s act in the centre of town.

The story was found by a team of researchers looking to add a wooden table to the Nokom’s House Research Centre at the University of Guelph. The maple is seen as a leader to the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee. The maple tree “provides nourishment (sap) when it is most needed. Here, in this exhibition and in the place we call Guelph, the Maple is both storyteller and witness, bridging past, present and future,” read the exhibit.

There are wooden poles that conceptualize a forest in a way that invites the visitor to take care as they walk around the space. The interaction represents how humans relate to plants, making visitors reflect on their relationship with the land, based on Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee ways of knowing. 

Calming music continually plays in the background featuring notes of water streams and wind, emulating the sounds of a forest. On the other side of the theatre, a projector plays the film Pathways of the Forest by Santee Smith, the footage looping and accompanied with three clay sculptures titled Turtle Rock, Trout Rock and River Rock respectively. There is a nearby sofa to sit, view the film, examine the sculptures and reflect on the room overall. With added soft, yellow spotlights and green walls, the exhibit creates a feeling of immersion in nature, as if on a hike. 

Anishinaabe artist Emily Kewageshig’s piece Between Wind and Sky features a stark yellow background with tree branches and three birds looking opposite of each other. The exhibit’s spotlights are arranged so that they cast a stark shadow on Kewageshig’s work. This is just one example of the team’s incredible light work that brings the exhibit to life. There are many other artists exhibited, including the late steampunk-inspired Rene Meshake. 

The museum made sure to attract young voices, which Anderson said was to “understand their vision of Guelph as it goes to the future.” Hanging by the entrance are pieces created by six Indigenous high school students as part of a workshop led by Alex Jacobs Blum. The pieces highlight how the students experience their relations to the Grand River Watershed, particularly the Eramosa and Speed rivers. The personal artist statements add a breadth of life to the voices the museum includes in its exhibit. These are featured as a bundle of papers one can take from a hook to read individually. 

Finally, a Moon plaque is updated with the Moon’s phase each lunar month. It reflects how the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee honour the Moon phases each month for what it brings to the land; that is, its plants and occupants. This is also displayed near a digital piece featuring the Mohawk Creation Story.

Visitors also have a chance to be added to the exhibit. Part of the museum’s effort to challenge its colonial past is collaboration. The museum will share details in May about a workshop they’ll host for guests. Participants will reflect on their relationship with plants by looking at plants near the museum and along the Grand River. Then, participants will sketch the plant they feel the most connected to, and those pieces will be added to a cabinet near the exhibit. Owen said the idea is based on a “cabinet of curiosities,” which typically held items stolen from colonies for the scientific gaze. The piece challenges this history by asking, “What happens when the [scientific] gaze is turned the other way?” Anderson said. It further tells the story of Guelph from the perspective of the land and its non-human occupants.

Editor’s note: This story is a corrected version of the original print story. 

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Wild Ontario

Based out of the University of Guelph, Wild Ontario is an environmental education program that teaches people about native species and conservation. They care for 12 non-releasable raptors who are either physically injured or rely on humans to survive.

Co-op student Amanda Ayres described Wild Ontario as a “final destination” for birds in need of rehabilitation.

“Usually, someone finds a bird that’s either injured, or they’re doing something that a wild bird shouldn’t be doing, and they call their local rehabilitation centre and those people will go out and they’ll check it out,” Ayres said. “They’ll bring the bird in…if they’re able to heal in a way that doesn’t cause them pain, but they still have an injury that won’t allow them to live out in the wild, that’s when they become a candidate for our program.”

For example, the tiny northern saw-whet owl Atwood was found with a wing injury, presumed to be caused by a collision or an attack by an outdoor cat. She was unable to fly and came into Wild Ontario’s care. Now, she’s a “program star,” Ayres said.

Another reason birds come to Wild Ontario is because they are human-imprinted, like their turkey vulture Grimsby. Turkey vultures are normally nervous around people, but Grimsby was caught flying at people in their backyard.

“We think that someone was leaving food out for her, or maybe took her from the wild as a young bird,” Ayres said. “So she associates herself with humans, she expects to get food from humans…she doesn’t know how to find food on her own.”

Wild Ontario specifically focuses on raptors, which are birds of prey that hunt with their strong talons. Ayres described that they have eight different species of falcons, owls and hawks, as well as the turkey vulture Grimsby, an “honorary raptor.” 

“They eat things that are already dead, like carrion, so they don’t have to hunt their food,” Ayres said.

Ayres considers turkey vultures especially interesting as their stomachs are strong enough to eat meat containing botulism, E.coli, salmonella and other dangerous pathogens, completely removing them from the environment.

Apart from these birds, Wild Ontario’s team currently consists of Ayes, program director Jenn Bock, and education coordinator Sally Cheung. With such a small staff, Wild Ontario is almost entirely run by volunteers, approximately 40 U of G students in a range of programs from wildlife biology to zoology. 

Part of Wild Ontario’s educational programming is on human-bird interaction—namely, teaching people how to prevent harm. For example, raptors like red-tailed hawks have adapted to urban spaces and hang out by taller grass near highways, where they are sometimes hit by cars.

“Roadsides are a perfect area: they have taller grass sometimes and there’s a lot of garbage,” Ayres said. “Mice, voles and squirrels go to both sides, and obviously, predators follow those.”

Ayres described that as a kid, she’d throw apple cores out the car window, believing that they’d just decompose. Later, she realized that when rodents are drawn to the fruit, raptors follow them.

“We always say that they’re not smart enough to look both ways, so they’ll just fly right across the road,” she said. “And then they’re pretty fast, so a car will just hit them, which is really unfortunate. It’s really common, and usually, it’s immediately fatal.”

She advised people to keep their garbage in the car and compost it when they get home. 

Other ways to avoid harming raptors include using natural alternatives to rodenticide (as raptors eat rodents, over 60 per cent of raptors worldwide have tested positive for rodenticide in their system), and managing outdoor cats, who kill an estimated 2.5 billion birds every year, according to U of G’s One Health Institute.

Guelph has been certified by Nature Canada as a Bird-Friendly City, the criteria for which include restoring nature, mitigating key threats to birds, organizing events and municipal policies to protect birds and having residents actively engaged in admiring and monitoring local bird populations.

When asked how best to enjoy the company of birds, Ayres encouraged people to spend more time in nature.

“That leads into seeing other species and being more aware of what’s around you,” she said. “Get outside more, go to the local park or use the trails, and get more familiar with the birds that are in your area.”

The Honey Bee Research Centre

Fresh off of a move to an all-new facility, the Honey Bee Research Centre is located at 460 Stone Rd. E. Paul Kelly, the research and apiary manager, described that the centre has “a lot of things rolled into one,” including a farm, a research centre, an education centre and a retail business, as well as 300 beehives. 

Roughly 800 students a year learn apiculture on campus, more than any other agricultural institute in the world. The research centre also offers public tours every day through spring, summer and early fall. For those abroad, the centre has a YouTube channel breaking beekeeping down into skills like dividing beehives or finding a queen bee.

“Our 77 videos have now been translated into 14 different languages and viewed approximately 30 million times throughout the world,” Kelly said.

As for the centre’s primary research interests, Kelly described that in the last 15 to 20 years, parasites have caused health problems for honeybees.

After they experienced much higher losses of colonies over the winter of 2007, the centre did a study tracking 413 colonies over a year and a half. They found that a parasitic mite called the Varroa destructor pokes a hole in the bees, causing a deadly virus.

“For us, it looks kind of small, like the size of a pin. But on a bee, it’s huge,” Kelly said. “They feed on their hemolymph, which is their blood and their protein reserves, and they also prevent that hole from being healed over, which shuts down the bee’s immune system.”

The centre’s efforts to control these mites are twofold: in the short-term, finding natural chemicals to repel the Varroa destructor while protecting the honeybees, and in the long-term, breeding for resistance.

Studying and protecting bees is imperative as they are incredibly important to our diets.

“A third of the food that we eat as humans benefits from bee pollination,” Kelly said. “80 per cent of that pollination is accomplished by honeybees, which are largely a managed species.” 

Honeybees are not actually native to Canada—they evolved overseas and arrived in the 1600s. They pollinate many major crops including fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and forage crops like alfalfa and clover, which are used to feed livestock.

Different bees pollinate different plants. Kelly said that native bees “stick close to home,” preferring native plants like goldenrod, aster and sumac, while honeybees will “cover a foraging range of 7000 acres.”

Furthermore, after the Ontario Agricultural College invented the pollen trap, pollen collected from honeybees has been used to feed bumblebees.

“Those bumblebees are put into greenhouses used to grow cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes,” Kelly said. “Honeybees don’t do well in greenhouses, and they can’t even pollinate a tomato plant. Bumblebees grab the tomato flower and they shake it, it’s called buzz pollinating, and that releases the pollen.”

Before that, people pollinated plants by hand, which was much less efficient.

When asked what people can do to make a bee’s life easier, Kelly mentioned several conservation efforts, including getting involved in horticultural groups. A variety of plants is important: Pollinator gardens look nice and benefit native bees, whereas trees like maple trees bloom every year for 150 to 200 years, providing longevity balanced with low maintenance. Additionally, not spraying herbicides on lawns lets plants like clovers sprout up voluntarily.

“Our campus is just a bee paradise,” Kelly said. “We no longer spray for weeds growing in common areas.” 

Kelly also encouraged people to support beekeepers by purchasing local honey. The Honey Bee Research Centre offers both raw and liquid honey (raw honey offers extra health benefits, like wound healing), as well as honeys from different places, producing different flavours depending on which plants were pollinated. They also have goods made from beeswax, like lip balms, food wraps and candles. 

A tour of the new centre revealed a research lab, a packaging room, a beeswax station, incubators and a workshop to build specialized beekeeping equipment. A peek out of the large, sunny windows shows linden and maple trees, since the site is on a former tree nursery.

“The bees will work in the flowers and the trees, and a lot of them just happen to be beneficial trees for pollinators,” he said. “We got lucky.”

The post Learning about the birds and the bees appeared first on The Ontarion.

Katie Mal has been writing music her entire life, but she didn’t bring her indie rock sound to the stage until two years ago.

Mal attended the Etobicoke School of the Arts before heading to Halifax for postsecondary. After graduating from Dalhousie with a bachelor of arts, Mal spent some time enjoying a snowy Whistler ski season, then traded the cold to teach English in Spain. By the end of her nine months abroad, Mal felt directionless and as far from home as ever. Her twenty-something quarter-life crisis brought her back home, to her roots in the Toronto music scene. 

“Music had always been in the back of my mind,” Mal said. It was like a voice telling her, “‘you should come back to this.’”

Mal’s father immigrated to Canada from India when he was a child, living in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia before relocating to Toronto in his early 20s. He was part of a garage band, Between the Lines, selling out shows weekly at the city’s iconic venues like Lee’s Palace and Rivoli. 

It’s from her dad that Mal discovered her inclination for gritty tunes paired with romantic lyricism. Mal owes much of her stylistic influence to Canadian artists, particularly Alanis Morissette; the Jagged Little Pill album is displayed prominently on her wall amidst other famous covers. On a first listen, Mal’s singles have a distinct 2000s punk vibe that could be attributed to her fondness for Avril Lavigne. She also loves The Beaches, the all-woman Toronto rock band who took home Group of the Year at this year’s Juno Awards. 

It’s fitting that her emergence on the scene is bolstered by Cancon initiatives. She performed at last year’s North by Northeast music festival, where world-famous artists like The Weeknd and Daniel Caesar played early in their careers. Mal also received an artist development grant from The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR). FACTOR grants are vital to the Canadian music industry, especially for independent artists who need support to record, tour, produce and market their work. With the support of FACTOR and her experienced team, Mal has been able to navigate the release and promotion of her debut EP.

Time Heals Most Wounds is suited to restless young adults living in the gap between where they want to be and where they are. Her relatability is “almost inevitable,” she said, because “the experiences we go through in our early 20s are all so similar.” 

“Can’t Say It Wasn’t Fun” is a bouncy anthem for girls looking back on their chaotic dating mistakes. The chorus, “I want your unstable / Not long lasting / Bad qualities aren’t always a bad thing,” makes the song perfect for blasting in the car with the windows down. Her favourite song from the EP, “It Just Kills Me,” puts toxic relationship woes front and centre: “Sometimes I get a sliver of hope / Pulled from the pile of the nothing / That you give me.” But “Crickets” is melancholic and earnest. She asks, “Does everything fun / Get painted over by 21 / And you become a sadder version of yourself?” 

Mal thinks her next project will be less “naive” and represent the “frontal lobe development” that happens in your late 20s. Artists can’t rely on the bedroom-written lyrics and scrappy garage production that might have gotten them discovered in the 90s. Today, hard work and talent isn’t enough, as virality is the golden ticket for emerging artists. Mal said she has to post TikToks daily because social media is “quite literally the most important part of it, which is kind of shitty.”

She’s currently working on a new EP and plans to debut the first single this May. Her lyrics are more poetic, thanks to a collaborative songwriting process that’s allowed her to expand her creative horizons. Even if Mal matures as a songwriter, she’ll never abandon her angsty, Alanis-esque sound, nor the Stevie Nicks-style leather jackets that she bought with her teaching money in Spain. After all, the Toronto indie rocker scene will forever be imprinted in Mal’s musical DNA.

The post Put this Toronto indie rockstar on your radar appeared first on The Ontarion.

I’m Also Here is a new comedy anthology show that explores everyday life in rural Ontario. The series highlights an exclusively female and non-binary cast and crew, while showcasing the creative accomplishments of University of Guelph alumni.

Set in Kawartha Lakes, the show features six independent episodes, each set in a different town. Naomi Snieckus and Liesl Lafferty created the show with the current climate crisis in mind. 

Lafferty explained to The Ontarion, “It was six episodes…but it had the through line which followed the lifespan of the plastic bag. It started off in the factory, and then you see it being used, and then in the end…your immediate image goes to a landfill site. But I wanted it to be a comedy, so it became art.” 

Lafferty graduated from the University of Guelph with a bachelor’s degree in theatre studies before gaining a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. She first developed her love of theatrics at a young age, putting on performances for her family in their living room. After a career directing performances in Vancouver, she transitioned to writing due to a sensitivity to artificial light. 

“I started transitioning more to writing and as soon as I did, I could see that it was going to be my outlet,” Lafferty said. “I didn’t have to wait for a whole production or somebody else’s play to be written, I was going to be able to do it myself.” 

Lafferty and Snieckus joined forces after they both attended the same online reading during the COVID-19 lockdown. Shortly after, Lafferty became involved in Snieckus’s project, “The Firecracker Department.” What started as a podcast quickly became a large-scale network and collaborative group exclusively for female and non-binary actors and comedians. Their dedication to fostering a supportive and empowering environment for their peers is evident throughout the show. 

Lafferty described the experience, saying: “My favourite moment on the set of I’m Also Here was seeing an exclusively female and non-binary cast and crew. This idea that Naomi and I developed was now a canvas for all of these other folks to explore their art. There were 22 lunches made that day, [and] 22 female and nonbinary artists able to flourish.” 

Among the cast is fellow University of Guelph alum, Paloma Nuñez. Nuñez starred in the Lindsay-based episode of I’m Also Here, in which she plays an indecisive bride-to-be grappling with the decision of picking her maid of honour.

Nuñez graduated from Guelph with a degree in theatre studies before taking her formal training with her to Toronto, where she performed and taught with Second City. She is a recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in the 2016 Best Picture-winning film, Spotlight. 

Nuñez described her experience on the set of I’m Also Here to The Ontarion: “It was incredible. The crew was really, really game. It was a scorching hot day. I think we had one of those 30 [to] 32 degree days, and we were shooting out in a field in Lindsay for a cornhole tournament.” 

She continued, “The crew works so hard. Always, in almost anything, the crew are the hardest working people…Everyone was in such a good mood.” Nuñez can also be seen in season two of the drama Sisters, streaming on Crave, while Lafferty’s upcoming short film Does Anybody Hear?, based on the Bruce Cockburn song “If a Tree Falls,” is set for release soon.

The post I’m Also Here: Guelph alumni featured in new comedy series  appeared first on The Ontarion.

After three years of planning, prototypes and commitment, Guelph’s Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) has wrapped up their fully functional, student-built hydroponics system that will provide lettuce for the University of Guelph’s Hospitality Services. Feed the Future is one of ESW’s numerous initiatives working towards a sustainable future.

Hydroponics is a technique for growing plants in a water and nutrient-based solution rather than soil; ideal for locations with limited space and for research in controlled environment agriculture.

At the U of G, ESW is a group of students using their technical skills and education to plan, construct and implement sustainability-focused projects for the community.

Members of ESW met with The Ontarion to discuss the project’s evolution and how its goals were accomplished. 

“When we started thinking about hydroponics, ESW wasn’t really a fully functioning club,” said Co-President Alexa Bates. “It’s been really great to see how our whole team has been dedicated to this project for so many years.”

“We found out that Hospitality Services is currently trucking all of their lettuce in from [out of town],” said Co-President Henry Tait. As the ESW team searched for space to begin their project, they were connected with Rodger Tschanz, a greenhouse technician at the Bovey Greenhouse. Tschanz suggested a collaboration with ESW, the Bovey Greenhouse and Hospitality Services to start growing lettuce for on-site dining.

After experimenting with a small-scale  hydroponics system, the group was determined to construct their own model. They were granted space in the Bovey Greenhouse to begin their work, which is also where they developed the foundational purpose the project serves today. Their work began with a prototype made from recycled materials that was able to grow 200 heads of lettuce, which were donated to the Guelph Food Bank. 

“That was the start of our proof of concept, showing Hospitality Services that we could actually build something, we could grow lettuce, and then go into the process of taking it up a level to [what we have today],” Tait said, while pointing to one of their five-tiered systems. The completed model can grow over 750 heads of lettuce.

Supported by greenhouse staff, university faculty and grant contributors, among others, the team built a system from scratch. Gage Gonsalves, the hydroponics project manager, explained how observing many compounding problems in the beginning gave them insight into how precise the system really was. 

“[It was] almost just like building a big Lego sculpture, where you’re putting in piece by piece and gradually building it to how it’s supposed to look,” Gonsalves said.

Adrian Nowaskey, one of the project’s designers, noted that the two biggest milestones of the project was the completion of the frames and the addition of the plumbing system to recirculate and drain water from each layer. He emphasized how much they were able to learn about fluid mechanics from their hands-on experience during the start-up.

“With so many stages, it was the little milestones that got us through and kept us going,” Nowaskey said.

ESW reaches beyond U of G. The club originated at Cornell University and now has 50 chapters across Canada and the United States. The organization connects students, professionals and faculty who believe in the power of youth innovation and collaboration to combat the world’s most pressing environmental issues.

Before graduating from U of G, the members look forward to passing down their hard work and knowledge to fellow club members.

“That’s what’s rare about an ESW project, it’s not just for fun with the team, but it’s actually done with a greater purpose,” Bates said.

The post Feed the Future: An agricultural and sustainability win for U of G appeared first on The Ontarion.

Looking for something to do this summer, but don’t want to go all the way to Toronto and Mississauga to visit multicultural environments? Check out the Guelph and District Multicultural Festival happening this year from June 12 to 14. 

Festival head Cinthuja Leon spoke with The Ontarion about why University of Guelph students should attend the festival’s 40th anniversary.

“You get to experience a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t unless you travel,” Leon said. “Nothing beats travelling, but we do bring that experience right here.” 

The festival will host around 29 food vendors each day. There will also be vendors for clothing, jewelry and arts, and live performances. Leon said that about 70 per cent of the vendors and performers are local to Guelph, while the rest come from neighbouring cities.

The festival “is extremely family friendly, which is why we want to keep it free as there are people with multiple kids that can’t afford to keep coming over and over again,” Leon added.

In 2022, the festival introduced a youth and family activities tent. Leon described it as an outdoor game tent that is given to a different cultural group every two hours so each can have the chance to teach their traditional games, crafts and activities. 

“The Chinese cultural groups would do tai chi and mahjong, and Indian groups will get someone [to] teach you to play cricket,” Leon said. Leon encourages any diverse groups of students at U of G to contact the festival’s organizers if they would like to sign up for a two-hour timeslot in the tent. 

The fashion show is an older tradition and a highlight of the Guelph and District Multicultural Festival. Leon relates to people’s love for the fashion show, and said, “I’ve been in Canada only for the past 17 to 18 years, and we do crave showing our cultural customs sometimes. So when we get the chance, I’m dressing up!”

The festival’s committee is always looking for volunteers, including U of G students, Leon said. “One time, a couple of masters degree students from the university came [to volunteer] and that was the year we got the highest donations! They were great talkers. Never in the history of our festival have we made so [many] donations,” Leon shared. 

“The festival will be very reflective of the diversity of Guelph,” Leon said. “I think people locally are waiting to showcase their talent to the world and we give [them] that stage.”

The post Guelph and District Multicultural Festival turns 40 this summer appeared first on The Ontarion.

On March 10, the Government of Ontario announced they will consolidate the province’s 36 conservation authorities into nine regional authorities overseen by a single entity, the Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency.

These changes were proposed as amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act under the conservatives’ omnibus budget Bill 97, Plan to Protect Ontario Act. The bill was passed by the legislative assembly on April 23. Now the province plans to transition watershed governance from the former agencies to the new, regional authorities in early 2027.

A collection of over 74 individuals, elected officials and civil society representatives known as the Watershed Conservation Coalition has called for the province to stop this merger, citing concerns that it will undermine local, science-based watershed management. 

What are conservation authorities?

The Conservation Authorities Act was established in 1946, at the request of municipalities, to enable collective management of watershed systems. Conservation authorities ensure local decision-making over natural hazards like flooding and erosion. They also regulate development on hazardous land (like floodplains) and conduct surface water and groundwater monitoring, amongst other responsibilities. 

Under the Clean Water Act, conservation authorities are designated source protection authorities and carry out the policies outlined in Ontario’s 38 source protection plans. Source protection plans are part of Ontario’s drinking water framework; they aim to monitor and ensure the safety of municipalities’ drinking water beginning at its source. 

Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities own and protect a total of 150,000 hectares and 95 per cent of the province lives in a watershed managed by these bodies, according to Conservation Ontario. That makes conservation authorities the province’s second-largest landholder, with the ability to sell off surplus land, due to changes in Bill 23, the Build More Homes Faster Act, 2022. 

What is the reasoning for consolidating Ontario’s conservation authorities?

By consolidating conservation authorities, the province aims to improve planning and administrative processes, thus reducing “fragmentation” and “administrative duplication,” according to a March 10 news release from the Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks, Todd McCarthy. 

With nine conservation authorities overseen by a centralized, provincial agency, the government hopes to speed housing development and planning approvals. The Ontario government claims that organizational inefficiencies are responsible for “uncertainty and delays for builders, landowners and farmers,” while also making it harder for authorities to effectively carry out their role in protecting communities from natural hazards. 

According to McCarthy, centralizing leadership with independent oversight from the OPCA would “better position conservation authorities to support the building of new homes and infrastructure while continuing to protect communities from flooding and other natural hazards.” 

But critics are confused as to why conservation authorities are being slated as an impediment to housing development. The provincial government’s own report—the 2022 Report of the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force—listed 55 actionable recommendations to improve access to housing, and not a single one mentioned conservation authorities as a hindrance. 

While the province hopes this overhaul will cut “red tape,” conservation authorities issued 96 per cent of planning and development permits within established timelines, according to Conservation Ontario’s 2024 annual report. 

How would Guelph be affected by these changes?

Guelph is located within the Grand River watershed, along with other major population centres Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Brantford. The Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) currently manages all 6,800 square kms of the Grand River watershed, including all the land drained by the Grand River and its tributaries. This watershed is also home to the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. 

The GRCA will be merged with Catfish Creek Conservation Authority, Kettle Creek Conservation Authority, and Long Point Region Conservation Authority to form the new Eastern Lake Erie Regional Conservation Authority. 

GRCA Chair John Challinor II is confident that the GRCA is well-equipped to handle the amalgamation without any disruptions to the authority’s service delivery. 

“We believe we can make it work. We don’t believe for a minute that our constituency will be impacted, whether that’s individual residents who use our facilities, or the 38 municipalities that make up the GRCA today,” Challinor said. 

However, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner has been vocal in his opposition to these amendments.

“I think [the consolidation] is devastating to Ontario because it’s going to undermine local decision-making and the history of effective watershed management. And by doing that, it’s going to put people’s homes, property, businesses, and our community’s infrastructure at risk,” Schreiner said. 

Leaders from Ontario’s conservation authorities and municipal officials expect to learn more about the consolidation in the coming weeks and months. 

The post Government of Ontario consolidating 36 conservation authorities into just nine appeared first on The Ontarion.

The former Ontario Reformatory site is “the most complicated piece of land ever,” said Mayor Cam Guthrie in a council planning meeting on Feb. 10, during which the lands were officially designated as a Heritage Conservation District (HCD). 

Here’s everything you need to know about the district—and advocacy for it to become a future national urban park in the heart of Guelph. 

The former correctional facility opened in 1910 and its lands comprised the entire block within Stone Road, Watson Road, York Road and Victoria Road. The reformatory buildings, ponds and lands were entirely built, dug and planted by prisoners. They also erected ornamental gardens, arable fields, orchards and greenhouses on the grounds. 

In the name of rehabilitation, inmates were taught employable skills like masonry, machinery, farming and butchery. The reformatory became largely self-sufficient and inmate labour produced textiles, food and even cedar picnic tables for other Ontario prisons. Still, conditions at the facility were harsh, leading to a historic prison riot in 1952.

The reformatory was decommissioned in 2001, and parts of the property that had not been sold became the Guelph Correctional Centre. In 2016, Infrastructure Ontario indicated it intended to sell the property. It is no longer actively listed for sale and the province remains the owner and manager of the property. 

Ontario Heritage Act designations

Ontario Heritage Act designations

Heritage designation is critical for the protection of sites like the Ontario Reformatory. 

In 2018, Infrastructure Ontario recognized the property at 785 York Road (formerly the Guelph Correctional Centre) as a Provincial Heritage Property of Provincial Significance under Part III of the Ontario Heritage Act. Part III offers heritage protection to provincially-owned lands and thus would not apply if the province sold the property.

In 2021, the province requested that the municipality of Guelph designate 785 York Road under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, which would ensure the long-term protection of specific heritage attributes on the property. 

Council passed the motion to do so in June 2021 and unanimously moved to initiate a Part V HCD study for the lands to assess the property’s heritage, cultural and natural value and create a plan for conservation. 

Under Part V designation, the entire land area within an HCD boundary is protected and conserved according to a district plan. This designation offers broader protection for the lands surrounding heritage buildings and features, rather than protecting only specific attributes, as in Part IV.

Heritage Conservation District updates 

Heritage Conservation District updates 

On Feb. 10, 2026, the revised district plan was presented to council with recommendations to designate the Ontario Reformatory HCD boundary and adopt the planning guidelines as by-law. 

Section 5.1 of the plan included guidelines and parameters for development “so that City staff have the ability to contemplate and control residential use if it were to arise.” 

“We know this is controversial,” said senior heritage planner Stephen Robinson, who stated this section was added due to federal, provincial and local attention to residential housing pressures. 

“Staff feel it is important to have in the [Ontario Reformatory HCD plan] policies that address residential, if it were to occur, versus having no policies related to housing, and thus the HCD not being applicable,” Robinson said. 

This addition was made despite multiple public comments objecting to residential land use within the district’s boundary. It is also contradictory to the City’s official and secondary plans which do not permit residential development on the land. 

Following city staff’s presentation of the HCD plan were two hours of delegations and deliberation from community members and councillors.

Staff were clear this provision was added in the eventuality of the province selling the land to a developer and changing the zoning. If that were to happen, the HCD plan would already include guidelines to control residential development. 

But delegates were concerned that adding residential development provisions would be a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” in the words of Brian Skerrett, president of Urban Park Guelph. 

Councillor Erin Caton set forward a motion to amend the HCD plan to remove any reference to residential housing, and that staff should bring the amended plan back to a future council plan for approval. That motion passed with Busuttil, Richardson, Chew and Guthrie voting against. 

The motion was then to designate the Ontario Reformatory HCD boundary, remove mentions and provisions for residential housing from the plan and bring the plan back to council for final approval. It passed unanimously and the amended plan is expected to be at council for approval in the second quarter of 2026.

Could there be a national urban park in Guelph?

Could there be a national urban park in Guelph?

Parks Canada has committed to creating 15 new national urban parks by 2030, with six sites currently in the pre-feasibility or planning stages. A staggering number of local, provincial and national organizations believe there is potential for a national urban park—connected by a constellation of greenspaces and trails—right in the heart of Guelph. 

Their advocacy is led by Urban Park Guelph, which began as a coalition of local groups and has since become a registered not-for-profit organization, with Skerrett as president. 

Although the HCD designation protects the land under provincial ownership, it does not guarantee the land will always be free and accessible to the community—especially in the case of a private sale. Establishing a national park with the same boundaries as the HCD would ensure the property remains free to access and offers better protection for natural elements, alongside cultural and heritage preservation. 

Potential national urban park sites must meet three objectives: conserve nature, connect people with nature and advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. The site has already been identified as a valuable location for environmental conservation and is beloved by community members who frequent the space to walk their dogs, explore trails, ski, ride bikes and fly kites. 

As Skerrett and collaborators researched the reformatory’s history, they “came across something that had really not been well documented.” That would be the Native Sons, a group formed in 1975 to provide spiritual practice and education to Indigenous inmates. Skerrett has done significant work to learn the story of the Native Sons, connect with former members and share his findings with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations, who are the land’s treaty holders, and the Six Nations of the Grand River. 

“This is not about covering up the past in what was at times a brutal institution,” Skerrett said. “This is about acknowledging it.” 

The Mississaugas of the Credit and the Six Nations were the first governments to support the national urban park proposal. The Mississaugas of the Credit expressed that they “look forward to being one of the governments developing, guiding and managing this future National Urban Park,” in their letter of support to Urban Park Guelph.

The park has conditional support from Guelph’s elected officials 

The park has conditional support from Guelph’s elected officials 

In January 2024, former Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield introduced a petition with over 3,100 signatures to the House of Commons, proposing the former Ontario Reformatory lands should be considered as one of Parks Canada’s candidate sites. The federal government responded that “Parks Canada has noted the interest in the proposed Ontario Reformatory Heritage Conservation District in Guelph as a site for a national urban park.”

When the district plan was first considered by council in late 2024, they indicated support for the creation of a national urban park within the Ontario Reformatory HCD boundary “in principle,” but were firm that the creation of such park would be led by the federal government. 

MP Dominique O’Rourke and MPP Mike Schreiner both affirmed their conditional support for the urban park in emails to The Ontarion. 

As former Ward 6 City Councillor, O’Rourke helped move the motion to support the park in principle. She holds the position that conversation about the reformatory lands’ future use is “largely hypothetical” since it is under provincial ownership. However, she said, “The Old Reformatory lands will benefit from significant natural heritage protections—for the land and key features… [as] it is a special place.” 

When asked if she would still support the urban park proposal, O’Rourke said, “If the land is not suitable for another public purpose, for instance as the site of a future hospital, then yes, I support an urban park.” 

Schreiner’s office provided this message to The Ontarion: “I support a National Urban Park on the Ontario Reformatory Lands if Guelph General Hospital determines that this location is not appropriate for a new hospital. I cannot endorse the urban park until Guelph General Hospital has received approval and completed its site selection process for a new hospital.”

Mayor Cam Guthrie’s office did not respond to The Ontarion’s request for comment. 

If and when Guelph is approved for a second hospital is at the discretion of the Ministry of Health. Officials at Guelph General Hospital (GGH) have noted interest in the OR site for a potential hospital, according to a 2024 letter from GGH to city council that was shared with GuelphToday. Critically, no preferred hospital site has been identified and other potential sites exist. 

What the future with a national urban park could look like

What the future with a national urban park could look like

It’s difficult to comprehend the breadth of educational, cultural and recreational activities that can—and already do—take place within the Ontario Reformatory HCD. Establishing a national urban park would offer stronger environmental and heritage protection, increase programming and bring federal investment to the city. 

For example, the portion of the district on Stone Road along the Eramosa River is the main location for The Guelph Outdoor School who provides “accessible, nature-based education” to children. Nearby, the quarries offer stellar outdoor concert venues. Guelph band SHEBAD even filmed the music video for their 2024 single “Black Walnut” there.

Skerrett is having conversations with University of Guelph administrators about the possibility of the university backing the project, although they have not confirmed their stance on the proposal. He thinks programs like landscape architecture, history, chemistry and biology could all find curricular inspiration at the site. 

The biggest innovation of all would be the national urban park becoming the focal point of a constellation of existing parks, including the Arboretum. 

The concept is inspired by the Emerald Necklace park system in Boston designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 1800s. It covers 1,100 acres and consists of parks connected by trails, roadways and transit stations. 

Some of the parks in Guelph are already connected by trails and rivers, and others have large swaths of greenspace between them that could be transformed into ecological corridors. The potential system would cover a 7 km radius and connect areas like Guelph Lake, Rockwood Conservation Area and the Speed River Trail. 

Although it would take years to officially establish the Ontario Reformatory lands as a national urban park, you can start enjoying the site today. 

Take a self-guided hike on the Guelph Hiking Trail Club’s 2.49 km Ontario Reformatory trail, or explore a virtual walk hosted by Yorklands Green Hub to learn about the reformatory’s history of production. Paint a portrait of the ornamental landscape, bird watch for one of more than 40 bird species recorded on the grounds and relax with quiet meditation next to the flowing Eramosa River. 

“It’s accessible now,” Skerrett said about his hope that students and residents will explore the natural wonder hiding in their backyard. “I think the more [that] people see it and use it and appreciate it, the more they’ll care about it.”

The post Is a national urban park possible in guelph? appeared first on The Ontarion.

A group of McMaster students performed at Guelph’s Hillside festival in 2009. In 2012, they played Hillside again. The next year, they played a sold-out show in Peter Clark Hall, a venue on campus with a capacity of 400.

Ten years later, thousands of fans put on their leather jackets and headed down to a sold out show at Sleeman Centre to dance the night away with the group that went on to become one of the biggest bands in Canadian music: Arkells.

The band started their U.S. leg of the At Your Service Tour in late September this year, including stops in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. The Canadian portion of their tour kicked off in Guelph on Nov. 9. The royal city has a special place in the band’s heart as it is guitarist Mike DeAngelis’ hometown.

“The best part about playing in Guelph is seeing Mike’s family,” said Max Kerman, frontman of the band, in an email. “Mike grew up in town and went to GCVI. His folks made us a big Italian dinner the night before we played The Sleeman Centre.”

Opening act K. Flay warmed up the crowd with radio hits like Zen and Blood in the Cut. Her onstage presence and unhinged performance set the tone for a night of great music and showmanship.

After much anticipation, Arkells started their set with Past Life and quickly went into fan-favourite Leather Jacket. The electricity was heightened when the band brought out their horns ensemble, the Northern Soul Horns, for the energetic protest anthem People’s Champ. Here, the band highlighted the Northern Soul Horns with staged choreography and paid an homage to Jay-Z and Rick James by referencing James’ song Give it To Me Baby.

“We’re constantly inspired by going to shows and seeing other artists perform,” Kerman said.

Mid-show, Kerman recalled the band’s early beginnings at Hillside Festival, where they wrote Never Thought That This Would Happen. When the band continued their set, the crowd didn’t miss a beat as they sang along to Reckoning and 11:11.

In order to capture the fans’ smiles, Kerman handed his phone to the audience. The videos, which are posted on Arkell’s Instagram account, are a collection of the evening’s happy memories.

The band then slowed it down with a few songs from their latest album, “Laundry Pile”. To match the album, the band hung up t-shirts with “ARKELLS” adorning the front. When it came to choosing the songs for the setlist, it was methodical.

“We have made four records since 2019 so we have a lot of new tunes to choose from,” Kerman said. “There are a lot of new fans who’ve never seen the band, but we always have the repeat customers in the back of our mind when we are conceiving a setlist. We want to work extra hard to impress them.”

Then, the band recalled their beginnings with a medley of songs from their debut album “Jackson Square.” The Arkells later described on social media that it was symbolic of them having to play smaller shows when they were first starting out, and they wanted to recreate the feeling of playing in a crammed venue.

“We try to build on our skills, and it comes from a desire to not repeat ourselves,” Kerman said. “We’re still a rock’n’roll band at our core, but every year we add a few new tricks up our sleeves.”

A unique inclusion to the At Your Service Tour was a phone line that was available for concert-goers who wanted to request specific songs. When the phone was picked up, a voicemail was played requesting the song Strong as an homage to a loved ones’ fight with cancer. This inspirational track united the crowd with a sense of compassion and community.

After, the mood lightened as Kerman danced throughout the sold-out arena, linked arms with a fan, and chugged a beer during Dance With You. Fans flocked to wherever he was in order to get a glimpse of the frontman.

The show finished up with electric songs like Years in the Making, Knocking at the Door, and a cover of Dolly Parton’s country classic, 9 to 5 – or so fans thought.

After an enthusiastic crowd chant, Arkells came out for an encore, performing My Heart’s Always Yours and Skin. During the final song of the night, You Can Get It, opening act K. Flay came out to sing her featured verse on the track.

From a group of university students at McMaster, to playing a sold out show at Sleeman Centre, the band has come a long way. Kerman offered The Ontarion advice for anyone in post-secondary who is thinking of starting a band and becoming the next Arkells.

“The great thing about being in a band is that you get to share the load,” he said in the email. “I’d recommend looking for people who have specific skills and interests that you don’t have. Everybody can offer something different to the group. Discipline and focus is important, but that will come if you’re doing something you enjoy. So try to find ways to enjoy every part of it.”

The post Arkells take over Sleeman Centre appeared first on The Ontarion.