The Green Living Show

The Green Living show returned to Toronto last weekend for its sixth year to educate the public about easy solutions for a sustainable lifestyle.

The three-day event at the Exhibition Place is North America’s largest green consumer show that showcases more than 400 exhibitors including automotive, food, fashion, health and energy.

New this year at the show was Samsung’s Passion for Fresh Cooking Challenge that featured the new Samsung Induction Flex Duo oven, which cooks two dishes at different temperatures at the same time, without mixing tastes and odors.

Four of Toronto’s chefs with four chef students from George Brown College each made two meals in the new oven using local, sustainable Ontario ingredients, with the hope of winning the $1,000 grand prize and a Samsung 10.1 galaxy tablet.

Chef Alberto Ponzo from Le Select Bistro, and student Simon Wong cooked Moroccan lamb meatballs with roasted peppers and ricotta saffron tarts on Saturday afternoon. Samples were given out to the audience and Chef Massimo Capra unveiled the oven at the show and judged the contest.

One exhibitor at the show was Earth’s Berries, a company that sells berries that fall off a tree in the Himalayas and can be used to wash you clothes or to clean your house. Also known as a soap nut, the sap dries in the shell once fallen and once you add that shell back to water it creates a low sudsing solution. Leftover shells can be placed in your compost bin.

“With your laundry you would put four to five berries in a wash bag, put that wash bag right in with your clothes and that will do four to five loads of laundry. There is no processing manufacturing that goes into it, so it’s eco-friendly from start to finish and economical. Our largest bag (1 kg) is thirty dollars and that will do 300 to 400 loads of laundry. It’s a natural softener as well, so if your using vinegar or softener now you can stop,” said Josh James, sales manager at Earth’s Berries.

Another exhibitor at the show was El Naturalista, an eco-friendly shoe company that uses natural materials and dyes, promotes traditional craft skills and uses substances that are biodegradable and recyclable. El Naturalista is based in Spain, but their shoes are available in stores all across Canada as well as online. One thing that makes them unique is the rubber they use for the outsoles, which comes from a rubber tree.

“What makes them eco-friendly also makes them durable. It’s a totally renewable resource, but natural rubber is far more durable and also far more comfortable than regular synthetic rubber. Also the quality of the rubber makes it so it so that it lasts a very long time,” said Stephanie Bellehumeur, from Keating Sales Agency representing El Naturalista at the show.

Prices for shoes and boots range from $159 to over $400 depending on style.

Environmental Art

Although unknown by most who are not immersed in the culture, environmental art has been a fast growing form of expression for more than four decades.

Artists from all over the world create art in their own unique style in an environmentally friendly way. Many artists are inspired by the beauty of nature and create their art by using natural materials such as rocks and trees, and New Zealand sculptor Chris Booth is no exception.

He always gets his inspiration from nature. “Well initially from nature, but then as my work developed, I got inspired by nature and the social history of people in that area,” says Booth. “Whichever culture I work with, I try to research their particular area where I’m living at the time or where they want me to do a work. I research their social history, I research the geomorphology of the land, how the land was formed, and I research the flora and the fauna.”

Booth has been travelling all over the world to create his sculptures in places such as France, Netherlands, Germany and Canada for more than 40 years. And he doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.

“I’m only 63, and I feel as if I’m only just starting to do the work that I really want to do,” says Booth.

He has worked on some major land artwork such as the Wurrungwuri (which means this side of the water in Eora, a Sydney aboriginal language) from 2008-2011. The sculpture is at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Australia, and was a gift from Ronald Thomas Johnston who died in 2003 and left a substantial amount of money for the sculpture to be built.

“I was really given full respect, in other words I was given enough money, and enough time, and enough love if you like, to do a job better than I was normally able to do,” says Booth.

But not all of his projects are funded so graciously.

“It’s quite rare. I mean often, over the years I’ve had to partially fund my projects or be prepared to get practically no money at all. Sometimes I accept a project and find that it costs a lot more to make, so occasionally I lose a lot of money on my sculptures too. But it’s just the way of an artist, isn’t it? Sometimes the flow is dried up and sometimes the flow is bursting.”

Although funding can sometimes restrict his ability to create a project, Booth says, “it’s a bit like having children, I love them all.”

Booths artwork can be found on such sites as Greenmuseum.org, an online environmental art museum, which features artists from all over the world.

According to Greenmuseum, most environmental art is ephemeral, which is made to disappear or transform, or is designed for a particular place and can’t be moved. It can also be created to inform us of nature and its processes, educate us about environmental issues, and restore ecosystems in an artistic way. 

Winnie Kiiru presentation in Toronto

Zoocheck Canada held an informative presentation in Toronto about the struggles of African Elephants.

The Elephants of Africa: Giants of the Wild, was held at the 519 Church Street Community Centre March 23. Winnie Kiiru, a wildlife biologist from Kenya, Africa, talked about the challenges that elephants face, not only in Africa, but in Canada as well.

In a small room of about 27 people, Kiiru began by describing how three elephants from the Toronto Zoo are going to be transported to the Performing Animals Welfare Society (PAWS) animal sanctuary, in California.

“It’s a great time for people in Toronto. It may look like a small victory, but to be able to move those three elephants to PAWS is going to be great,” said Kiiru at the presentation.

Moving the elephants will not only benefit those three, but will give more room for the other elephants left at the zoo, although the conditions still won’t be anything near what they should be.

“This is just the beginning. It’s a difficult battle, and we really haven’t done enough yet, there’s so much to do. There are some very unhappy elephants all around Canada, some that I have seen myself. And you need to really have a role to remove every single elephant from the zoos around Canada. So the struggle continues,” added Kiiru.

In 2006, Zoocheck Canada had worked with Kiiru travelling all around Canada to the different zoos, to see the elephants in their captive environments. Now, six years later, Kiiru returned to raise more awareness about elephant issues.

“Over the years, we’ve had involvement in supporting causes. Sometimes it’s as simple as writing a letter, other times funding. What you find in this field is that there are a lot of interconnections between people, individuals, as well as the organizations, and we all help each other out. So we’re not now directly involved in field conservation in Kenya, but if we can assist by helping Winnie get her message out about what she’s doing in the fight of elephants in the wild, than we see that as something that we should be doing. So there was an opportunity to do a talk here in Toronto, and a talk in London, to use that to generate wider awareness through social media, so why not,” said Rob Laidlaw, Executive Director of Zoocheck Canada.

Elephants in the wild can live up to 70 years. On average, elephants in captivity only live to 30 or 40 years. Foot problems are the leading cause of death in captive elephants.

“Elephants feet are basically made with a pad at the bottom which wares as they walk. Elephants walk a minimum of 10 km a day, just eating. They are on their feet for 18 hours, and they only sleep for about, if at all, six hours. So their feet are actually made for walking. So the reason why you have your elephants dying of feet problems is because they develop arthritis, and other problems of the feet, because they are not using them for what they were made to,” said Kiiru.

With all the negative impacts of having elephants in zoos, the only reason to have them there is for human purposes. But people aren’t benefiting anything either.

“They are trying to convince zoo visitors that their very purpose for being is education and conservation and yet what are you seeing? You’re seeing elephants behaving in a way that you would never see them in the wild, so you’re not learning anything about elephant behaviour. And number two, that they’re not actually benefiting conservation in the wild, what they are really doing is breeding animals to replenish the zoo populations to keep visitors coming through the door,” said Julie Woodyer, campaigns director for Zoocheck Canada.

Another major issue Kiiru touched on is human-elephant conflict in Africa. Wild elephants will sometimes eat and destroy farmers’ crops and livestock. In response to this, the farmers will kill the elephants. In order to avoid this, Conservation Kenya can reimburse the people so that they will have no need to harm the elephants. But they need money to accomplish this, something that is in short supply from the zoos in Canada.

“You need to question zoos. When you say you are putting money into conservation where is it going? Are you putting the money into human-elephant conflict, real money, solving real problems? For every million dollars that your’e spending building a prison what percentage of that do you really send to the elephants that are roaming free in the wild? These are the questions that you need to keep asking your zoos, because they are selling their agenda, using Africa, and really nothing of what they are doing is affecting real conservation,” said Kiiru.

A Day in the life of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner’s life is anything but simple.

While most of us are still soundly asleep in bed, Wagner has been going at it since before the wee hours of dawn.

Although the self-employed businessman has no set schedule, it is not unlikely for him to start his day as early as 4 a.m.

Wagner starts out regularly enough; turns on his laptop and coffee maker, checks his emails, drinks his coffee and watches CHCH to check weather forecasts for the week.

But going from here is anything but regular. No day is the same except for the fact that they are all complete chaos. And today was no different.

After a short breakfast break, he’s right back at it.

At 10 a.m. Wagner heads to CRS (Contractors Rental Supply) to look for a pressure washer or grinder to get oil off the floor of his new soon to be brewery in downtown Brantford.

At 10:15 a.m. he goes to Lowe’s and then Home Depot to find a match for a new countertop piece for his Sir Wilfrid Laurier student house, also in downtown Brantford. In the same hour he heads to his property, first stopping at his barn to talk to Pete Cirka, his handy man and warehouse manager. Or so he says. While talking to Cirka, he is also answering and making calls, placing orders, responding to emails and figuring out how to make the sign for his new brewery.

He then heads to his house to answer more calls and more emails.

All of this is in only one short hour of his day. And the chaos continues all the way up until dinnertime, around 5 p.m.

Doing this day in and day out would be tiring for any average person.

Upon first glance, average is exactly what Wagner looks like. With greyish-brown hair, blue-grey eyes and a clean-shaven face, he looks like your typical 47-year-old. Add that to his strong presence and you would never have any idea that this man has been struggling with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) for the last 12 years.

Wagner established his company, Kegclub, in 1990. Kegclub is a manufacturer and distributor of beverage dispensing equipment, mainly kegs. One of the highlights of his company is the custom drink dispensing backpacks that can dispense various beverages on the go including draught beer, tea and wine.

Education was never a strong attribute for Wagner, dropping out of high school in grade nine, but that never hindered him from achieving his dream.

“What I’ve been able to create out of nothing is truly amazing,” says Wagner. “I play the game. I would sleep in my car, shower at a trucker stop and then show up in a suit and tie to a conference. I think that’s why I’m so successful, because I can play all parts, whether it’s talking to a man on the street or a business owner.”

Although he has been building up his business for the last 20 years, Wagner says that it’s only been the last 6 or 7 years that it really got going and became successful.

But no matter how busy he is day to day, the MS is always in the back of his mind.

“It hangs over all of us all the time, because I know if I was to go down, my business would never be the same. One thing I’ve learned, no one is me. To find an employee with the same people skills, ideas or drive, is really rare,” says Wagner.

This realization is one of the many reasons Wagner flew to Frankfurt, Germany, in July of 2010 for a controversial procedure to treat CCSVI (Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency). According to the National MS Society, CCSVI is a reported abnormality in blood drainage from the brain and spinal cord that may contribute to nervous system damage in MS.

Wagner was awake during the whole procedure. The doctors went through his groin with a balloon that opened up his right jugular. Testing before the procedure showed that his jugular was restricted 90 per cent.

“It was really instantaneous the difference I felt. My head was clearer and colours were brighter,” said Wagner. “There was a really big difference right away. Everyone noticed when I came back.”

Wagner said that before the procedure he was generally a lot more tired. “You know when you’re hung-over and you’re all groggy, that’s how I was all the time, and to do what I do everyday was really hard.”

There was a big price to pay for the procedure, at least where money is concerned. Not including airfare to Germany, Wagner paid about $7,500. His response to this was, “Although the procedure was expensive, I can’t put a price on my life. You only live once.”

Whether it’s rushing around running his own business, or tackling MS, Wagner is up to the challenge. And at the end of the day he gets to go home to his wife, two kids and Golden Doodle, all waiting for him at his 45 rolling acre estate on the outskirts of Brantford, and take a look back at everything he has created. 

Hamilton aggravated assault case finally at an end

After more than three years, two mistrials and six days of trial, a young Hamilton man finally got his verdict for an aggravated assault charge.

But not before waiting another 12 hours for the jury to come to an agreement.

At 9:55 p.m., Nayef Al-Khaldi, 24, received the verdict of not guilty of aggravated assault, but guilty of assault. This decision was a long time coming.

It all started at midnight on Jan. 7^th, 2009. Al-Khaldi and his co-worker were delivering a pizza to the McMaster University Student Centre in his SUV.

The two Pizza Pizza delivery boys were sitting in the SUV when Sean Dukers and two of his friends drunkenly approached the vehicle, asking for a ride to somewhere near by. An agreement of $10 for the ride was made.

McCrorey approached the passenger door window, where Al-Khaldi was sitting, and raised his hand in a threatening gesture. Al-Khaldi claims to have been scared and didn’t know if McCrorey had a knife or not. The accused threw a punch that led to a brawl between all five men.

As a result, Dukers jaw was broken.

When the incident went to trial, Al-Khaldi pleaded self-defense.

The first day of trial after three years and two months was on Feb. 21^st, 2012. The accused and his brother, Noah Al-Khaldi, 25, patiently waited for the jury’s decision six business days later. The trial began again at 10 a.m. on Feb. 28^th at the John Sopinka Hamilton Courthouse.

It began with Justice James A. Ramsay outlining the jury’s duties. The jury, which consisted of four women and eight men, had to determine whether Al-Khaldi was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Court was back in session at 12 p.m., after an hour break. The jury did not have a verdict, but had questions regarding the case.

Justice Ramsay explained that the issue at hand was the amount of force used against the victim, and whether or not the accused had intent to cause serious bodily harm.

After a lunch break, court was to resume at 2 p.m., given that the jury had reached a verdict. However they had not.

Hours went by and still nothing. The jury took their dinner at 5:50 p.m. until 7 p.m. Two more hours went by and still not a peep from anyone.

Just before 9 p.m. Al-Khaldi’s defense attorney, Michael H O’Brien, came out to the waiting room outside the courtroom. He informed the accused that at nine o’clock the court would resume, most likely only to tell him to go home.

But that was not the case.

At 9 p.m. the court did in fact resume, however not for the long day to end. Justice Ramsay was going to send the jury to their hotel for the night and resume the trial the next morning, but the jury explained that they had almost reached a verdict, they just needed an answer to one more question first.

One of the jurors, a man with short greyish-brown hair, a goatee and glasses, posed the question on the jury’s behalf. He inquired what constitutes self-defense yet guilty of assault.

“If he didn’t intend to inflict serious harm intentionally, then he’s not guilty, end of story,” said Justice Ramsay. “But if he did mean to then he is guilty, unless his reasons were reasonable.”

Court was adjourned yet again, until 9:40 p.m. when O’Brien came out with the news that the jury had reached a verdict.

“Hallelujah,” Al-Khaldi exclaimed. “Thank God!”

Suspense was in the air. Everyone in the courtroom was on edge, tired, and frustrated.

The jury announced their verdict of not guilty of aggravated assault, but guilty of assault.

Justice Ramsay then had to decide the punishment. He decided on an absolute discharge, after weighing in the fact that Al-Khaldi was mature, and not a loose member of society.

Outside the courtroom, when asked how he felt, Al-Khaldi replied, “I’m so happy, so much weight is off of my shoulders.”

Sheridan's going green

Have you ever read The President’s Creative Challenge For Sustainability around Sheridan's campus and wondered what it was all about?

The challenge was launched in September to give Sheridan Students from all campuses the opportunity to pitch their ideas on how to help make our school more sustainable. The winner of the contest has a chance to receive up to $5000 to see their ideas come to life.

The slogan is written on all the new recycle bins around Sheridan to raise awareness about the challenge. The five finalists were announced on March 2.

Synthia Truong and Navi Samra worked together to pitch a paper waste reduction program, and Dani Giles came up with a sustainable connections program. Water filtration and art supply disposal was Kelly Kornet’s idea, and Noly Lomingo brought to the table a bottled water shelter and awareness program. Gabriela Rank, Amy Luong and Sunita Haridas were another finalist group, coming up with the idea of a stormwater management program.

“We received quite a few applications and a tonne of interest, and it really built up the momentum for the challenge internally, from all the various faculties,” said Elaine Hanson, coordinator for Sheridan’s Office of Sustainability.

This is the first year of the challenge at Sheridan, with potentially many more to come, thanks to the new Office of Sustainability, established in 2010.

“In its first year, we really wanted the challenge to be well supported, and there has probably been a little bit more hand holding this year because it is brand new to the institution. So fostering up ideas and spending time with students has been great on both sides,” said Hanson.

“It has been an amazing thing meeting with all these students because we really have a need internally for all these projects. So it’s almost like the institution needs to do a better job, and move forward on sustainability,” Hanson explained. “We are being presented with ideas that are hugely creative, and it’s an opportunity for us to actually use those project ideas to make us more sustainable as a college.”

“As an institution we should feel very, very proud at what we have accomplished, and I am very proud of the students that have gone this far,” said Hanson.

In May, the Office of Sustainability will launch their website with hopes to get more students involved.

“My phone’s been ringing off the hook with people wanting to become engaged,” said Hanson. “The website is going to be a great way for people to go there, tell us who you are what you are interested in, and we will get you career experience that is absolutely cutting edge and leading the way in a lot of businesses today.”

Zero Waste Committee at Sheridan College

The Zero Waste Committee at Sheridan College believes the college can be waste free by 2020. The group discussed ways to make that happen at a meeting March 14 at Trafalgar Campus.

The meeting was a result of the committee realizing they need to focus on specific areas to research and achieve their goals. Compost, binning and communications are the three group branch offs.

“Each group is focusing on waste, like garbage, recycling, organics, that type of thing. There are other initiatives that the college wants to take on, like zero waste in regards to water, or carbon footprint energy, but we are starting with waste because I think that (the committee) felt it was a good place to start, and I agree,” said Pamela Shaw, a committee member and an academic database specialist at Sheridan’s Trafalgar campus.

The meeting was a stepping stone of what’s to come and was focused on raising general awareness of waste production, cross contamination and organics.

The end goal is for Sheridan to be 100 per cent waste free.

“So what if it takes until 2020, the point is getting there, and progressing along the way. I say we shoot for the moon,” said Clair Ironside, one of 14 members at the meeting.

Students are encouraged to become involved in this project. Currently, the committee is made up of just faculty.

“We are a design school, we should utilize our students to design,” William Farkas added at the meeting.

Posters, maps and other printed material designs are one way students can do their part. Bins and environmental graphics (signage), and web, video and game designing are other ideas on how to help as well.

“We want it to be a positive thing, saying that we can make a difference,” said Angela Iarocci at the meeting.

One message that the communications group wants to covey is the idea that if you make it beautiful, you make it positive.

“We could show people landfills, and say look at what we are doing to the world. And we can show people negative images, and make them feel guilty. But is that going to motivate them to action? Or is that going to make them close their eyes and move on? So if we make it positive, then people feel good about what they just did, and maybe people are more likely to respond, as opposed to something negative. So foster positivity, and hopefully motivate action,” said Shaw.