Raptors host open practice for fans to kick-off NBA season

By Kirsten Parucha

Christmas came early for Raptors fans when the city’s NBA team held an exclusive open practice in Scarborough Dec. 16.

The team of ballers, accompanied by their mascot and cheerleaders, entertained a group of 300 guests for a night of interaction, integration and introduction.

The level of excitement inside the Variety Village was tangible as fans of all ages had the chance to gain one-on-one time with their favourite players who posed for pictures, signed autographs and played a little ball with ardent fans.

Andrea Bargnani (top, left), James Johnson (top, centre) and Jamaal Magloire pose with fan and members of the Raptors Dance Pak.

The event also gave guests the opportunity to be introduced to new head coach, Dwane Casey, as well as the newcomers to the team, such as forward Rasual Butler and guard Anthony Carter.

But the most anticipated introduction of all was of hometown hero, Jamaal Magloire.

Jamaal Magloire  speaks to Raptors fans about new season in Toronto.

A roar of applause and a standing ovation greeted the Scarborough native as he ran onto the court and addressed the fans.

“This season we’re going to pack the energy and enthusiasm of 82 games into 66,” said the 11-season veteran. “In order to do that we need your support. It’s going to be a great season and we thank you all for sticking by us and being patient with the lock out. We love you guys.”

Following the presentation of each teammate was a show-and-tell of what goes down during a regular practice for the dinos. Team trainers and assistants demonstrated the drills and exercises the team does together to warm-up and prepare for games.

To end off the night, the boys played a pick-up game, showing the crowd a preview of what’s to come for the season.

Linas Kleiza (left) and Jose Calderon (right) share a laugh with fans.

Since the five-month long lockout cancelled 16 regular season games, the 2011-2012 NBA season will consist of only 66 regular season games. Pre-season for the Raptors began Dec. 18 at the Air Canada Centre, where they’ll be facing off against the Boston Celtics. The regular season tips off on Boxing Day against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Kirsten Parucha is a Toronto Star intern. She works in the radio room.

Star interns deliver Christmas cheer for the Santa Claus Fund

By Tim Alamenciak

She had us figured out from the get-go.

"I know who you are," said the girl, who was around 7 years old. "You're Santa's little helpers!"

And so it was that a little girl unmasked me and Josh Tapper as we dropped off her gift box from the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund.

She politely said “thank you” after outing us.

Tapper's signature elf ears and the present in his arms may have tipped her off.

The second round of deliveries for the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund on Dec. 10 was much like the first (which Jennifer Pagliaro wrote about here) but with a few twists.

For starters, we were working out of a new depot on Wellington Street under the command of Gene Domagala.

Domagala ran the depot with a general's discipline. A 53-year veteran of the Santa Claus fund, Domagala keeps the coffee fresh, the boxes sorted into their proper neighbourhoods and volunteers on their toes.

Tapper and I grabbed the nearest pile first thing in the morning and started loading it into the tiny Volkswagen City sedan that we had use of. Little did we know that the pile contained a strange bit of Christmas coincidence — maybe even magic.

Radio room intern Tim Alamenciak with a fully packed sleigh.

Thanks to a youth wasted playing Tetris, packing the car was a breeze and, with map in hand, we were off to our territory.

The pile of presents was to be delivered to houses in the area of Caledonia Road and St. Clair Avenue W. Just like the previous week, many groggy — but happy — faces greeted us at the door.

One house was a little different than all the rest.

We didn’t suspect anything when we pulled up to a squat, brown house near the end of our delivery run.

Tapper rang the doorbell and glanced at the names on the two boxes.

The presents were for Joshua and Tim.

It was a Christmas miracle.

Okay — on the scale of Christmas miracles, this is pretty far below Tiny Tim shedding his crutches, but the kids were thrilled. Once their mom realized we weren't joking, she was thrilled too.

Left-to-right: Little Tim, big Tim, little Josh, intern reporter Josh Tapper.

So little Josh, 4, and Tim, 6, welcomed big Josh and Tim into their home, showed off their tree and excitedly eyed the red boxes we carried.

After a quick photo, which little Tim seemed to enjoy much more than little Josh, we said our goodbyes and ventured back into the cold, our hearts a little warmer.

There's still time to donate to the Santa Claus Fund: click here.

Tim Alamenciak is a radio room intern with the Toronto Star.

Journalism in a dangerous time

Toronto Star one-year interns share a table at the 14th annual gala hosted by the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Clockwise from front-left: Liam Casey, Jennifer Pagliaro, Anita Li, Alyshah Hasham, Niamh Scallan, Laura Stone, Michael Woods, Stephanie Findlay, Josh Tapper.

By Vidya Kauri

The recent assaults on Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy at the hands of Egyptian police brings home to all of us that journalism can be, and is, a dangerous profession. On November 24 at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression met for its 14th annual gala to honour journalists around the world facing repression and abuse for practicing their profession.

The event included a stirring presentation of Canadian photojournalists' coverage of the Arab Spring featuring photographs from Toronto Star journalists Michelle Shephard and Jim Rankin, and New York Times freelancer Ed Ou. We observed a minute's silence to honour fellow journalists killed for doing their job. During this minute, names of journalists who had been killed in various countries appeared on a screen. The list of journalists who had died in Mexico was particularly long and elicited a collective gasp from the hundreds of people in attendance.

The CJFE recognized Integrity Award winners, scientists Dr. Shiv Chopra, Dr. Margaret Haydon and Dr. Gerard Lambert who had been whistleblowers at Health Canada. Just like journalists, government whistleblowers need legal protection against reprisals.

The Vox Libera award was given posthumously to legendary Canadian journalist Ron Haggart (May 11, 1927 - Aug. 27, 2011). Haggart was a long-time champion of investigative journalism, press freedom, and government transparency, throughout his career at the Toronto Telegram and at the CBC where he collaborated on the Fifth Estate, Face Off and counterSpin. His award was picked up by his daughter, Kelly.

Finally, the CJFE honoured Mohamed Abdelfattah of Egypt for his heroic coverage of the historic events in Cairo's Tahrir Square and Khaled Al-Hammadi of Yemen who still continues to risk harassment and state kidnapping for his work covering the pro-democracy movement in his country.

Host Anna Maria Tremonti of CBC's The Current told the gathering that by recognizing the important work being done by Abdelfattah and Al-Hammadi, we are letting the world know we are watching these two journalists closely and that "we've got their backs." We were, in effect, giving "the despots and tyrants yet another bad day," said Tremonti. International awards and international recognition for heroic journalists make it difficult for authoritarian governments to suppress and disappear them.

At times, it seemed a little unreal sitting in the comfortable surroundings of the Fairmont Royal York, enjoying wine and conversation with fellow journalists while discussing the arrest, torture and execution of other journalists around the world. I recalled the experiences of the 'Free Press 4' group of journalists during the G20 summit in Toronto last year. Amy Miller, Daniel McIsaac, Jesse Rosenfeld and Lisa Walter filed complaints with the Office of Independent Police Review Director, Ontario’s police watchdog. The four reporters said, at the time, that they did not break any laws and that police knew they were journalists. 

I also remembered how journalists were trapped behind a razor wire fence erected by the Canadian Armed Forces during the Oka Crisis of 1990, a land dispute between the Mohawks and the town of Oka, Que. Not only did police bar the supply of notebooks, tapes and batteries into the perimeter, but they also limited the flow of food and other essential supplies thereby endangering the journalists’ health. The Canadian Association of Journalists described the censorship as “one of the worst attacks ever on the Canadian public’s right to know."

Tremonti brought up the case of Tara Singh Hayer, a journalist murdered in 1998 in his B.C. home for his work in connection with the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182. His killers have not yet been caught.

Working conditions for journalists in Canada are nowhere near as violent and dangerous as they are in many other parts of the world, but our country is not without its share of problems. Canadian journalists and whistleblowers have taken major personal and professional risks to expose truths. Just a few years before his death, Haggart said,

"It's not time to worry, but it is time to watch what is happening in this country to journalism. It's time to watch, and it's time to watch out.”

 

Vidya Kauri is an intern at the Toronto Star. She works in the Radio Room.

 

Michelle Lang's memory shines a light on women's prisons

By Zoe McKnight

When Toronto Star reporter Laura Stone first heard about Ashley Smith, the teen who in 2007 asphyxiated herself in a segregation cell in a Kitchener jail, she had no idea where that story would take her.

It turned out she would travel from her hometown Ottawa, where she was an intern at Postmedia, to Calgary and back many times as winner of the inaugural Michelle Lang Fellowship in journalism, trying to make sense of the hidden world, the untold story, of incarcerated women: one very different from the men's prisons that often appear in media reports.

"I hadn't really thought much about prisons before I heard about Ashley. The idea of a 19-year-old dying in a prison cell -- after being incarcerated in the youth system for throwing crab apples of all things -- was inconceivable," Stone says. "Maybe it resonated so much because it was so difficult to understand why it happened."

Stone, 27, applied for the 2010 Postmedia-sponsored fellowship with women's incarceration in mind. Once accepted, and armed with a $10,000 travel grant, she spent a year at newspapers in Ottawa and Calgary, doing general assignment reporting (the Stampede, politics) and chipping away at her project.

The guidelines were clear: the fellowship was created "in honour of slain reporter Michelle Lang (to) inspire young writers to strive for the same excellence pursued by the award-winning Calgary Herald journalist." Lang was killed in Afghanistan in December 2009 by a roadside bomb.

Stone says she felt a duty to honour Lang and her journalism. "This was especially pronounced at the Herald, because I was working with Michelle's colleagues and best friends. I wanted to do good work," she says.

The series, Women Behind Bars , takes an in-depth, multi-faceted look at how female prisoners live in Canadian jails, a side of the prison system rarely reported since a government inquiry led to system changes more than a decade ago. A media rep told Stone that no tour had been organized in two years.

One story touches on women raising babies in jail; another, three generations –- grandmother, mother and baby -- living in the same U.S. prison cottage; another, violent gang members in women's jails; one on dangerous overcrowding; another on rehabilitation in an aboriginal healing lodge. Prison conditions vary, but in most cases the threat of violence is present. The series examines factors leading to women's incarceration: abuse, substance use, self-harm, and mental health problems, but also takes a hard look at women as offenders as well as victims in their own right.

Given extensive creative freedom from the Calgary Herald, Stone organized prison visits through Correctional Service of Canada and got valuable documents from FOI requests -- documents that were key to assessing the progress of the system since the closure of Kingston's Prison for Women in 2000.

"As my editor always said, you can't argue with numbers," Stone says. Working with a project advisor, she pitched the stories, organized the trips, found the sources and set up the interviews, including one with Renee Acoby, Canada’s only female dangerous offender.

Stone determined the topics and the angle, also working on photos, video, sidebars and graphics. The series is a large body of work, and a weighty contribution from a young journalist.

Stone joined the Toronto Star in September as one of 12 journalists in the Star's one-year intern program.

Her work has been published by the the Vancouver Province and Postmedia group. She has a B.A. from Dalhousie and an M.J. from Carleton.

Zoe McKnight is a Toronto Star reporting intern. She works in the radio room. You can find her on Twitter.

One cowbell and a lot of Newzapalooza soul

                                                                                                        Photos by Michael Gregory

Toronto Star reporter Robyn Doolittle (centre) and 'golden girls' perform at Newzapalooza.

By Michael Gregory

A cow bell solo, some hard-rocking classics, and a parliamentry duo who have a way with the guitar - the 7th annual Newzapalooza was the hottest ticket in town Friday night

The battle of the bands fundraiser puts Toronto media in competition to determine which musically talented newsroom reigns supreme. This year, more than $8,000 was raised or the Children's Aid Foundation through ticket and raffle sales.

A few interns happily volunteered to help at the front door for the night. Michelle Shephard and Jim Rankin graciously kept us stocked with beverages all night and insisted we take leave to see the entertainment at any time.

Steve Paikin (centre) was front row for a performance by MPs Andrew Cash and Charlie Angus (L-R).

After a homage to Celine Dion by judge Laura Landauer, the Globe and Mail-Canadian Press and Reuters bands opened the show with a few hard-hitting rock numbers.

I thought lead singer from CP, Joe Sintzel, was one of the show's highlights. With a stage presence that would have made the Blues Brothers proud, Sintzel bounced around the stage funked out in black shades.

Making my way back and forth from the stage to my duties at the front door, I missed a lot of the hilarious bantering by judges MP Tony Clement, CTV reporter Paul Bliss, musician Jacob Hiebert, and Lander, as they playfully critiqued each performance.

Clement had a few hilarious digs at us media throughout the evening.  After a great duet by former journalists,and current New Democratic Party MPs Charlie Angus and Andrew Cash, Clement had a cheeky suggestion.
"You guys would be better with John Baird as a front man."

Toronto Star reporter Brendan Kennedy centre stage during "Play That Funky Music."

There were eight bands including acts from the Toronto Sun, and CityTV.

The second to last act was the Star's Holy Joe & The Principles 2.0 -- an ensemble that included woodwinds, a polished dance routine, and a lot of soul.  

Reporter Robyn Doolittle, backed by 'golden girls' nailed a brilliant version of Tina Turner's 'Proud Mary.' The talents of Wendy Gillis, Michael Woods, and a suit snazzy Rob Cribb then threw down an untouchable Herbie Hancock number.

The set finished with "Play That Funky Music" with Brendan Kennedy -- who took no style tips from Will Farrell - ripping into the cow bell at centre stage.  

Toronto Star one-year interns Wendy Gillis and Michael Woods.

Maclean's tried to retain its title of Toronto's best media band by capping off the show with hits by The Killers and Ce Lo Green, but in the end it wasn't enough.

But the Star won over the crowd and judges, and good news, we may have found this year's Christmas party entertainment.

 

Holy Joe & The Principles 2.0 are all smiles after winning the 7th Annual Newzapalooza.

Michael Gregory is a Toronto Star intern who works in the radio room. You can find him on Twitter.

 

 

 

How to get warm and fuzzy on International radio

By Josh Tapper

One of the beauties of journalism is that even the most innocuous story can catch a wave and resonate with people hundreds of kilometres away from the city newspaper in which it was first published. And so when another media outlet asks you to talk about one of those stories, you can't help but get a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Thursday morning I received a call from a producer at Public Radio International’s news program “The World” – it’s jointly produced with the BBC World Service and receives airplay on most American public radio stations and CBC Radio One. They wanted to interview me about a story I wrote for the Star's Living section earlier in the week: the Occupy Toronto movement was recently donated three Mongolian gers, which are now sitting among hundreds of tents in St. James Park.

                                                                                                (Photo by Josh Tapper/Toronto Star)

The gers, wood-and-canvas huts used by nomads on the Mongolian steppe, are an unusual sight in downtown Toronto. And at a cost of over $20,000, they don’t seem to jive with the protesters MO. But hey, the temperature is dropping and these gers have felt insulation.

My interview was slotted between a segment on the relationship between the size of your social network and the size of your brain and a report on Peru’s new minister of culture, near the end of the hour-long program. Lisa Mullins, longtime anchor of “The World,” asked the questions. What are the gers used for? Library, medical tent, general meeting place. What do they look like? Circular, colourful, ornate. How do they differ from yurts, a Central Asian cousin? Don't get me started.

                                                                                                (Photo by Josh Tapper/Toronto Star)

The interview happened at St. James Park, inside one of the gers, and captured a really on-the-ground vibe. I tend to run my mouth when I'm given an outlet, so it was a relief to hear I was reasonably coherent and professional.

Still, my tape starts out with a laid-back "Yeah ... hey!"

Listen to the interview here. But read the article first.

 

Josh Tapper is a reporter in the Star's one-year program and has occupied yurts in Kyrgyzstan and Russia's Buryatia province. You can find him on Twitter.

 

How to talk to grieving families

 

By Dylan C. Roberston

If you look at the northeast corner of Spadina Ave. and King St. W., a longboard’s been mounted on one of the lampposts. It’s a tribute to a 25-year-old musician who was killed last week in a tragic accident.

I pass this lamppost on the streetcar to work. It reminds me of speaking with the victim’s bandmates for our article about him.

We write a lot about crime and tragedy in the radio room. An inevitable part of the job is reaching out to family and friends of those who have died.

It’s not easy. In our training manual, a single paragraph gives general instructions on  how to speak with those in mourning. It’s intimidating to bother people at a sensitive time. If I was grieving, the last thing I would want to do is speak to some nosy reporter.

A few things help. I close the door so nothing distracts me. I introduce myself as a Star reporter and tell them that I will be writing an article – not thinking, writing – about their loved one. I tell them I want to know about their friend as a person, not just their death. Two questions I find open people up are “How do you want your friend to be remembered?” and “What are you most proud of?”

I speak in a calm but removed voice. Over-sympathizing makes people break down and become too emotional to talk. But I allow for a slow conversation; there’s often a lot of long silences. Even if I’m on a tight deadline and see my editor walking over, I give the person I’m speaking with time to open up. We often leave a number if people want to speak with us at a later time.

Good journalism means getting more than basic facts; it’s about capturing someone’s character and how they touch others. As a colleague put it, we want to create as real and thorough of a memory as possible.

Besides, those who suffer or die in our city often speak to broader issues in our society.

Journalists cover a lot of tragedy and injustice, whether its fatal accidents at home or war and genocide abroad. Working in the radio room is not a glamorous job, but it teaches you a lot, including how to get the story from people at their most vulnerable moments.

It's by reaching out to people in grief that we keep an accurate, meaningful record of lives touched by tragedy, in the same way that longboard captures a victim's memory. It’s one of the most valuable things journalists do.

Dylan C. Robertson is a Toronto Star intern. He works in the radio room. You can find him on Twitter.

Star summer internships no day at the beach — but they're quite the journey

By Wendy Gillis

You might not lounge all day at the beach or spend weeks at the cabin, but a summer at the Toronto Star will take you places.

Past Star summer interns have covered the trial of fallen media baron Conrad Black in Chicago and tracked down one of the jurors, delved into the depths of a bitter custody battle over a whale at Niagara Falls' Marineland or poked fun at the picturesque city's anti-Toronto marketing campaign, and covered the abrupt layoffs of over a thousand workers at an Oshawa call centre. 

They've gone to Korea Town to see if World Cup fans will cheer for North Korea, sniffed that new train smell when the TTC unveiled its rocket, and attempted to get the most bang-for-golden-buck as prices soared to new heights. Last summer — during the first week of our internship — Star reporter Amy Dempsey and I went undercover with protesters in the days leading up to Toronto's G20 summit.

Summer interns have asked why Toronto beach bums won't dare set foot in the lake (okay, so maybe you will go to the beach), why Mayor Rob Ford allegedly flipped the bird while driving, why Toronto doesn't have a public bed beg registry and why police fired into crowds at the Caribbean Carnival.

If you haven't figured it out already, a summer internship at the Star will send you somewhere unexpected, interesting, fun and important, even on the days when you've only left your desk for a coffee refill. 

What's more, the on-the-ground experience — including reporting and writing, shooting photos and videos, tweeting and live-blogging, and more — in a competitive but supportive newsroom will take your journalism career further in 12 weeks than you ever thought possible. Just be prepared to learn, adapt and be ready for anything. 

That, and work hard. Summer interns replace staff journalists on vacation, and editors rely on them to fill these reporters' shoes, wherever those shoes are taking you.

Sound good? Applications for the a summer at the Star are due November 18, 2011.

Oh — and don't just take my word for it. Read what three former summer interns had to say about the program.

Jasmeet Sidhu, Summer 2010:

More than any technical journalism experience, the summer internship at the Toronto Star really taught me to step outside my comfort zone: to learn how to drive on the Gardiner Expressway, to speak with mothers of fallen Canadian soldiers, and to be on the ground during a hostage-taking at a Swiss Chalet. But most of all, it was wonderful to spend a few months with some of the greatest reporters and writers in all of Canadian journalism right there in the Toronto Star newsroom.

 

Gilbert Ndikubwayezu, Summer 2011:

 I enjoyed my summer at the Star first, because it challenged me: I would always come with a terrifying feeling that  I was working for this big paper and that if I ever screwed up, it would be such a disappointment to t heir esteemed readers. Thus, the idea of fact-checking was huge. Second, because of the schedules: some weeks I would work day shifts, which normally mean you're bound to doing stories that are assigned to you; and other weeks I would work evening shifts which are normally super slow and thus you get a chance to develop your own feature ideas.

Amy Dempsey, Summer 2010:

Most people will tell you that life as a journalist or life in general is a marathon, not a sprint. Life as a summer intern is unquestionably a sprint. It's also a lot like living in a reality TV show. Exciting, dramatic and often bizarre. 

 

 

 

 

Wendy Gillis is currently in the one-year program at the Star, and was a summer intern in 2010 and 2011.

Toronto Star interns bank on interesting walks

                                                                                                                   Photo by Roger Gillespie
                        
Toronto Star interns crane their necks and snap pictures as Toronto Star columnist Chris Hume expounds on the evolution of bank buildings in Toronto.  (Left to right) Radio roomer Dylan Roberston, one-year intern Alyshah Hasham, Chris Hume, Massey Fellow Elizabeth Bowie, one-year intern Stephanie Findlay, one-year intern Emily Jackson, one-year intern Niahm Scallan, one-year intern Josh Tapper and one-year intern Chantaie Allick.

 By Vidya Kauri

Most people get a tour of their workplace when they land a new job. Toronto Star interns get to tour the city’s financial district with famed architecture critic and Star columnist Christopher Hume.

What’s to see in Toronto’s financial district? There are many tall buildings -- some quite unattractive -- with chilly wind tunnels, and bland, privately owned expanses of concrete sidewalk. Are they worth rolling out of bed to see and discuss on a chilly Saturday morning in October? With Hume for a tour guide, yes!

If you have seen Hume’s videos on thestar.com, you will be familiar with how animated he is as he talks about his five best and five ugliest buildings in Toronto. With the same level of passion, Hume delivered a fascinating history lesson that outlined the evolution of bank buildings since 1885. Bank buildings are interesting because financial institutions don’t actually create any products. The image they portray is an important part of how they sell themselves, said Hume.

With nine intrepid interns in tow and a Massey Journalism Fellow, Hume’s first stop for us was the former Bank of Montreal, now the Hockey Hall of Fame. The building, built in 1885, has an opulent façade with many hand-made ornate carvings and an inviting corner entrance. This kind of showiness was more important than creating tall buildings during that era, said Hume.

View Hume's tour in a larger map

We saw the Commerce Court North Tower built in 1930. Clearly, height was gaining prominence by this time, but the ornate carvings were also an important part of a bank’s image. The arched entrance is adorned with carved symbols of hard work like a bee and a beaver.  For about three decades, this limestone-clad building, on King St. W., was the tallest in Toronto and had an observation deck which is now closed.

Another building we looked at in the Commerce Court was the West Tower designed by the famous Chinese-American architect, Ming Pei in 1972. The building is the headquarters for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Hume said people have always been resistant to tall buildings. He said it’s irrelevant how tall a building is though -- it’s what happens at ground level that really matters.

He contrasted these two buildings with the Toronto Dominion Centre on the south-west corner of King and Bay sts. The pavilion was designed by modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe circa 1967. The opulence of the previous era was replaced with a very “formal” and consistent look. Three dark towers with bronze-tinted glass all look identical and there is nothing flashy about them – just tall rectangular towers. Moreover, the pavilion’s entrance is removed from the sidewalk by a considerable distance. This is unlike the entrances of the former Bank of Montreal and Commerce Court whose entrances spill out onto the sidewalk. The difference may be seen as an attempt by financial institutions to distance themselves from the community surrounding them. However, the nondescript exterior suggests that banks were trying to identify themselves with the common man who didn’t have the wealth indicated by gaudy facades, said Hume.

Another interesting highlight of the tour was the glittery Royal Bank towers at the south-west corner of Bay and Front sts. Hume said the gold buildings were a way of attracting attention especially because the Royal Bank missed out on being at the very heart of Toronto’s financial district at King and Bay. For the second time during the tour, Hume bemoaned the stretches of privately owned empty spaces that connect sidewalks to the bank entrances. He wished the open spaces could be put to better use, similar to how the Merrill Lynch building at 200 King St. W. houses a restaurant at sidewalk level.

When asked what his inspiration for giving us this tour was, Hume merely said that "Roger made me do it."

Roger Gillespie is AME visuals and also responsible for recruiting interns at the Star. He said he asked Hume to give the tour because Hume “can make anything sound good.” He added that Hume had been giving tours long before Gillespie joined the Star four years ago.

Gillespie, who took the tour, is right. Hume is a master story-teller who has changed the way I look at bank buildings. I can look at them with a more critical and appreciative eye knowing that their architectural evolution is an integral part of Toronto’s history, and I wonder if people working in the financial district know as much about the history of their buildings as we learned. Despite the ache from craning my neck up to see tall buildings for almost an hour, I highly recommend future interns go on Hume’s tour for his educational and insightful commentary.

The tour ended with a stop at the World Press Photo 2011 exhibit in Brookfield Place at 181 Bay St. What a treat!

                                                                                                          Photo by Roger Gillespie

Interns (left to right) Alysha Hasham, Gustavo Vieira, Stephanie Findlay and Vidya Kauri listen attentively to Chris Hume's discourse on bank building architecture.

Vidya Kauri is a Toronto Star intern. She works in the radio room. You can find her on twitter.

Two siblings and two perspectives on one digital era

         By Jessica Vitullo

I recently had an epiphany: my intelligent, web-savvy 13-year-old sister has never lived in a world without Google. She doesn’t remember having to use the phone line to connect to the internet, has never used the once-popular search engine AskJeeves.com and grew up using USB sticks instead of floppy disks. Remember when we thought these technological inventions were actually good?

The extent that technology has changed over the years got me thinking about how people today have the capability to do much more and it wouldn’t have happened without the internet. With Skype and emailing, we can remain in touch with family and friends from around the world; we can buy clothes, vacations and even groceries online! Forget the weekly trip to the bank; you can pay your household bills online.

Not only has the internet made our daily lives much easier, but it’s also changed the way we get our information. With social media websites and web browsing on our cell phones, information is literally in our hands in any given second. People used to wait for the daily newspaper or wait for the nightly news broadcast. So why wouldn’t the way we hear about news change?

Online newspapers and magazines allow readers to browse stories, skim headlines and read up on everything going on around the world without waiting for breaking news stories to be - well - old news. We can access news, videos and documents about anything with the click on a mouse or a tap on a cell phone. People can be made aware of news the moment it happens, giving journalists an edge in providing readers with the most up-to-date information. This way, you will be in the know about whatever it is you should know about.

The Telegraph published an interesting article in February explaining exactly how much information we are exposed to on any given day. Check out these stats:

- We receive five times as much information every day than people in 1986.
- Between emails, text message and other methods of digital communicating, one person produces an average of six newspapers worth of information in comparison to two and a half pages in 1986.
- The equivalent of 600,000 books is the amount of information that can be stored in computers and microchips.

This is a huge feat. What’s fascinating is this is the digital era that my younger sister, along with millions of other kids, are growing up in. The nine-year age gap between the two of us illustrates how people today will be very used to this constant access of information, something I only began to learn about when the .com boom first happened. It hasn’t always been like this, yet it feels like we’ve been living in this era forever.

Jessica Vitullo is an intern at the Toronto Star. She works in the radio room. You can follow her on twitter.