Connect with us

Education

RDC student wins prestigious cinematography scholarship at TIFF

Published

2 minute read

In the above photo, Everett Sokol is presented a check for ,000 at the Bell Lightbox Theatre

Red Deer, September 21, 2017 – Red Deer College is proud to announce that 4th year Motion Picture Arts student Everett Sokol has won the national William F. White/Vilmos Zsigmond Cinematography Scholarship. The award of $3,000 was presented to Everett earlier this month at the Bell Lightbox Theatre during the annual industry reception hosted by William F. White International Inc. as part of the Toronto International Film Festival.

The scholarship is designed to provide a new generation of Canadian cinematographers with access to post-secondary hard skills training and development.

The William F. White/Vilmos Zsigmond Cinematography Scholarship is awarded to a full-time post- secondary Canadian student who is currently enrolled in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year of studies at an accredited College or University Cinematography program. Applicants are adjudicated by a scholarship committee which chooses the successful candidate by taking into account academic achievement, extra-curricular activities and interests, community involvement and awards.

Along with practical application requirements including proof of enrollment and copies of the student’s latest transcripts, an essay or review of any Vilmos Zsigmond film is also required for submission. This essay could be a review on how the cinematography enhances the storytelling or it could focus on the technical aspects of the piece’s photography, such as lighting techniques, camera angles and colouring.

William F. White International Inc. (Whites) is Canada’s oldest and largest provider of professional motion picture, television, digital media and theatrical production equipment. Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) was a close collaborator and business partner with Whites for over 25 years. He passed away in 2016.

Alberta

Alberta poll shows strong resistance to pornographic material in school libraries

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

A government survey revealed strong public support, particularly among parents, for restricting or banning sexually explicit books.

Albertans are largely opposed to their children viewing pornography in school libraries, according to government polling.

In a June 20Ā press release, the Government of Alberta announced that their public engagement survey, launched after the discovery of sexually explicit books in school libraries, found that Albertans strongly support removing or limiting such content.

ā€œParents, educators and Albertans in general want action to ensure children don’t have access to age-inappropriate materials in school libraries,ā€ Demetrios Nicolaides, Minister of Education and Childcare, said.

ā€œWe will use this valuable input to guide the creation of a province-wide standard to ensure the policy reflects the priorities and values of Albertans,ā€ he continued.

READ:Ā Support for traditional family values surges in Alberta

TheĀ survey, conducted between May 28 to June 6, received nearly 80,000 responses, revealing a widespread interest in the issue.

While 61 percent of respondents said that they had never previously been concerned about children viewing sexually explicit content in libraries, most were opposed to young children viewing it. 34 percent said children should never be able to access sexually explicit content in school libraries, while 23 percent believed it should be restricted to those aged 15 and up.

Similarly, 44 percent of parents of school-aged children were supportive of government regulations to control content in school libraries. Additionally, 62 percent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that ā€œparents and guardians should play a role in reporting or challenging the availability of materials with sexually explicit content in school libraries.ā€

READ:Ā Alberta Conservatives seeking to ban sexually graphic books from school libraries

At the time, Nicolaides revealed that it was ā€œextremely concerningā€ to discover that sexually explicit books were available in school libraries.

The books in question, found at multiple school locations, areĀ Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe;Ā Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato;Ā Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; andĀ Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.

 

Continue Reading

David Clinton

Why Are Ontario’s Public Schools So Violent?

Published on

The AuditĀ David Clinton's avatarĀ David Clinton

Ontario’s Auditor General just released aĀ performance audit on the Toronto District School Board. I’m sure it’ll surprise exactly no one that ā€œfinancial and capital resources are not consistently allocated in the most cost-effective or efficient wayā€ or that ā€œThe effective management of operations was not always being measured and assessed for internal decision-makingā€.

And there was plenty of institutional chaos:

“Between 2017/18 and 2022/23…about 38% of TDSB schools did not report conducting the minimum number of fire drills required by the Ontario Fire Code annually, and about 31% of TDSB schools did not report conducting the minimum number of lockdown drills required by TDSB policy annually. The TDSB does not have an effective process to ensure the required number of drills are performed by each school, each year, or that they are performed in accordance with TDSB policy when performed.”

What else would you expect from a massive government bureaucracy that employs 40,000 people, spends $3.6 billion annually and – based on many of the highlighted itemsĀ on their websiteĀ – is laser-focused on pretty much anything besides education?

What you might not have seen coming was that around half of the report centered on in-school violence. To be sure, we’re told that there were only 407 violent events reported to the board during the 2022/2023 school year – which is a rate of around 17 events for every 10,000 students. 17:10,000 doesn’t exactly sound like an environment that’s spiraling out of control.

There was a caveat:

“Due to input errors by principals, the TDSB underreported the number of violent incidents that occurred between 2017/18 to 2021/22 to the Ministry by about 9%.”

Ok. But we’re still nowhere near Mad Max levels of violence. So what’s attracting so much of the auditor’s attention? Perhaps it’s got something to do with a couple of recent surveys whose results don’t quite match the board’s own records. Here’s how the audit describes the first of those:

“The 2022/23 TDSB Student and Parent Census was responded to by over 138,000 students, parents, guardians and caregivers. It showed that 23% of students in Grades 4 to 12 that responded to the survey said they were physically bullied (e.g., grabbed, shoved, punched, kicked, tripped, spat at), and about 71% stated they were verbally bullied (e.g., sworn at, threatened, insulted, teased, put down, called names, made fun of). Further, about 14% of student respondents indicated they had been cyberbullied. TDSB’s central tracking of all bullying incidents is much lower than this, suggesting that they are not centrally capturing a large number of bullying incidents that are occurring.”

“23% of students in Grades 4 to 12 that responded to the survey said they were physically bullied”. That’s not a great fit with that 17:10,000 ratio, even if you add the 9 percent of underreported incidents. And bear in mind that these students and their families were willing to discuss their experiences in a survey run by the school board itself, so it’s not like they’re hard to find.

But that’s not the worst of it. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) ran their own survey in 2023. They wanted to hear about their members’ experiences with workplace violence. Here, quoting from the audit report, is what TDSB respondents told them:

  • 42% had experienced physical force against themselves in 2022/23;
  • 18% had experienced more than 10 of these physical force incidents in 2022/23;
  • 81% indicated the number of violent incidents increased since they started working;
  • about 77% responded that violence was a growing problem at their school;
  • about 29% indicated they had suffered a physical injury;
  • 57% had suffered a psychological injury/illness (such as mental stress, psychological or emotional harm) as a result of workplace violence against them; and
  • about 85% indicated that violence at their school made teaching and working with students more difficult.

29 percent of teachers suffered a physical injury due to workplace violence. That’sĀ elementary school teachersĀ we’re talking about.

For perspective, even accounting for the 9 percent underreporting, the TDSB was aware of events impacting less than a quarter of a percentage point of their students (and apparently didn’t report any violence against teachers). But by their own accounts, 23 percent of all students and 42 percent of elementary teachers have suffered attacks. Are board officials willfully ignoring this stuff?

And if only there was some way to address violence and other criminal activities on school property. Perhaps – and I’m just spitballing here – there could even be people working in schools whose job it would be to (what’s the word I’m looking for?)Ā policeĀ crime.

On a completely unrelated note, back in November, 2017, theĀ Toronto District School Board voted 18-3 to permanently end their School Resource Officer (SRO) program. Since then, police officers have been unwelcome on board property.

To be sure, the TDSB has ā€œacceptedā€ all 18 of the report’s recommendations. But talk is cheap. Who’s to say that commitment won’t play out the same way we’ve seen with their fire drill compliance.

Can you spell ā€œclass action lawsuitā€?

Continue Reading

Trending

X