Halloween Fun!Photos by Gurbir Dhandwar

LASS staff and students were in the Halloween spirit on Thursday, Oct. 31 as many dressed up to mark the occasion. Among the events throughout the day included Ms. Catalano’s dance students, above, performing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, at lunch time in the hall-way, library and cafeteria. As well, homeforms competed for best pumpkin and various depart-ments participated in a contest for best dressed with the math department taking the title for dressing as minions from the fi lm Despicable Me. For more photos see page 12.

Terry Fox Run ............................................... Page 2Eco Squad ..................................................... Page 3Principal’s Message ...................................... Page 4World Freedom Day .. ................................... Page 5Creative Writing ........................................... Page 6

En Français ................................................... Page 8Social Justice Club ....................................... Page 9Eagle Sports ................................................. Page 10Entertainment ............................................... Page 11Halloween Photos ......................................... Page 12

What’s Inside:

The

Advocate N o v e m b e r 2 6 2 0 1 3Monday, November 25, 2013

LASS students and staff re-cently put their best foot forward in support of the Terry Fox Foun-dation. Many classes had the oppor-tunity to participate in the annual Terry Fox Run throughout the day

as the school’s track was trans-formed into a tribute for one of Canada’s greatest heroes. Students were encouraged to sign a poster as part of the event. Teachers in the Phys. Ed department helped champion the

event, which even saw some male teachers agree to have their legs shaved as one of many fundrais-ing drives. Overall, the school success-fully reached its fundraising total with more than $1,500 collected.

TERRY FOX RUN

Photo by Mr. ShurrieAs part of their participation in this year’s Terry Fox Run, students signed a massive banner in support of the cause. Th anks to the help of the Phys. Ed. department the school surpassed its fundraising goal of $1,500.

Students, staff rally for Terry

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Ms. Catalano’s Dance students in grades 11 and 12 are selling pizza every Tuesday in front of the cafeteria at lunch. All proceeds from the sales

will support an upcoming trip for PULSE.

Pizza for PULSE

By Victoria SuEcoSquad

Communications Offi cer

This year, the Louise Arbour S.S. Eco Squad has started out strong! With many new members joining us, it seems we will be having another very busy year. On Oct. 28, we baked organic goods to raise money for envi-ronmental charities. In previous years, the earned money has been used to adopt the endangered spe-cies of snowy owl and orca. In addition, Eco Squad is cur-rently planning to be involved in the Green Streams program, organized by the Credit Valley Conservation Authority. This al-lows us to adopt a nearby park or trail for a period of two years and maintain it regularly through such things as gardening, native spe-cies planting, and bird/duck box building. On Oct. 25–27, Mariam Ad-dow from the Eco Squad attended the Beyond Green Environment Summit at the University of To-ronto. Through this event, Mariam was able to contribute ideas as well as hear ideas from other peers across Canada. Eco Squad’s vermicomposting (worm composting) will con-tinue this year. Vermicomposting involves preparing chopped fruits and vegetables to add to our school’s vermicomposting box. The compost produced will be

used for our future greenhouse seedlings and the current native species garden at the front of our school. Members of the Eco Squad enjoyed a hiking trip on Satur-day, Nov. 9. Through this event, we were inspired by our outdoor neighbourhood and come up with new ideas to better our school and community environment. We thank the Bruce Trail volunteer Ted Iseman for leading our 7 km hike! During late October and early

November, we will be tallying ourschool’s energy, waste and recy-cling audits. These audits monitor how well our school does in sav-ing energy. Such programs help us to see how well our school is able to recycle materials properly on a daily basis. Stay tuned to hear about our Waste Reduction Games on Nov. 29th. New members are always wel-come in room 320 every Tuesday after school!

ECO SQUAD

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Energy audit a big saver for all

Submitted photoEco Squad members participate in vermicomposting (worm composting). Th e process will continue all year.

By Ms. Galen Now that we’ve got the prog-ress and mid-term reports behind us the reality of what we set out to accomplish sets in. There is one very important question you should all be ask-ing yourselves: Will I achieve the goals I set for myself at the beginning of September when it all seemed possible? If you are already getting there then all is good and you can pat yourself on the back, take the weekend off and stop reading now. But, if you’re not you need to reassess your goals in light of your skills, your strategies and your motivation. Two critically important skills are time management and organi-zational skills. Both are essential for success. To quote from one of our board’s tip sheets, “Time management is the ability to pro-duce and follow a schedule, meet deadlines, prioritize, and mini-mize distractions and unimportant tasks.” And this is not just a skill for school. “Time management is crucial because of the busy world in which we live.” (For more infor-mation visit www.peelschools.org).Organization is the family cousin to time management. It is all about having a routine and a plan to get it all done. When we’re organized we can work through almost anything in life and for sure all the homework

and assignments. But without organization we become overly stressed, don’t know where to start, and consequently don’t get it done. Here’s a few questions to ask yourself:

• Do you plan each day with a to-do list? • Do you set priorities to en-sure you spend time on important things? • Do you block out time on your calendar for big projects? • Do you spend a bit of time each day on those big projects? • Do you set limits on your time for social media and stick to it? • Do you say no to things that get in the way of your doing a great job on those things that are important to your goals?

If you can’t say yes to all or most of these questions, try this strategy - keep a diary of every-thing you do for three days. That way you will see how you’re spending your time. Be sure to include the time of day you do everything. Doing certain things, like homework and studying, at the same time each day can help you establish those routines that will help keep you organized. This three-day diary will also give you something that can help you re-evaluate your motivation. If you’re not spending time on what’s important then maybe it’s not important to you anymore and

you may want to think more about the pathway you’ve chosen for yourself.Recently, I heard a high school counsellor say this, “If you want to know where your heart is, look where your mind goes when it wanders.” That really rings true to me. The man behind Apple success, Steve Jobs, said “I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to fi nd what you love. Your work is going to fi ll a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfi ed is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” If you are looking for where your heart is, talk to someone who can help you with the right ques-tions for you. Your guidance counsellor is an excellent person to start with – and any of your teachers, your teaching assistants, your vice-principal or me. We’re all here to help you. Please remember that your success is very important to all of us here at LASS. When you give some atten-tion to these types of skills and strategies and critically question your motivation you will soar to success. My wish for you is that your fi nal report card is everything you want it to be and that it is in line with your goals and the future you want for yourself. That’s my goal, too!

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

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Soaring to Success: Some friendly advice

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By Mr. Shurrie

With his feet planted fi rmly on the ground, Colonel Chris Hadfi eld encouraged a gathering of students to reach for the stars during the recent World Freedom Day celebration in Toronto. “There are amazing things that can happen in your life,” Hadfi eld told a packed audience at Yonge-Dundas Square. “We live in a country that gives us opportunities that are so rare around the planet.” Hadfi eld, who recently served as commander of the International Space Station, was the keynote speaker for World Freedom Day, an event sponsored by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for

Holocaust Studies. LASS students from Ms. Dhaliwal and Mr. Shurrie’s Grade 10 English classes were on hand for the event. The experience was intended to help inspire them while pursuing their own Social Action Projects. “The world has been a place full of great capability and pos-sibility, but it’s also been a world full of great hatred,” Hadfi eld said. “What we did to ourselves at the time of the Holocaust is unbe-lievably sad ... And yet there are examples of people doing won-derful things to each other around the world. You just have to look for them.” Hadfi eld pointed to the Inter-

national Space Station, a joint venture of the U.S., Russia, Can-ada, Japan and European space agencies, as an example of what can happen when countries come together for a common goal. “The space station is a hu-man creation that allows magic to occur. It’s a wonderful perspec-tive on the world that we created internationally,” said Hadfi eld, the fi rst Canadian to ever walk in space. “The beauty of the abso-lutely outweighs the ugliness and the optimism that comes with it completely drowns the despair and the evil that lives. “The world is a beautiful place of hope and tremendous capability within it.”

WORLD FREEDOM DAY

Photo by Mr. ShurrieColonel Chris Hadfi eld (retired) was the keynote speaker at World Freedom Day recently held in Toronto.

Hadfi eld delivers message of hope

By Japjeet Dhaliwal

Startled, I picked up the steel glass that was rolling on the fl oor making a sound that only my mom would fi nd annoying. She stared me down while I picked up the glass making me feel ridiculously uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure my clumsy hands have become her pet peeve, but there’s nothing I can do about it. There was already enough ten-sion in the house and I just made it worse. As I fi nished washing the rest of the dishes, my prune-like fi ngertips tried tuning the radio in the corner that was making fuzzy sounds with the faint voice of a man describing the horrifi c events. It was the month of November, 1984. Delhi was not a safe place to be, nor was my Punjab. It bothers me to know that my own country is against my people. My country – the one where I have been living for the past 20 years is being racist against Sikhs. Taking the lives of my people because of their race and the way they look. Men are being targeted because of their majestic turbans wrapped around their heads hiding the beautiful dark hair, which was always left uncut; along with the iron ring around their wrist or even

the Kirpan around the waist, which was an article of faith. Women and children are being raped in the streets of Delhi. It hurts me inside to know that this world was full of such cruel people without morals, running around with batons and guns, kill-ing and injuring others without a second thought of sense. What were they thinking? Sikhs are still hiding, hoping not to get caught. Being born and raised a Sikh girl, I was devastated to hear about this news and wanted to do something but couldn’t. No one was safe. As these thoughts fl ooded my brain for the past few months, I had to act like it was all normal. I stood there doing the dishes. I felt my black, curly hair stick against my forehead because of the hot sun piercing through the net win-

A Regular Day

Over the past few weeks people have been marking the 29th anniversary of the 1984 Sikh massacre that occured from Oct. 31-Nov. 4. Reports indicate this alleged premeditated massacre was planned and executed by the Indian Government in an attempt

to eliminate Sikhs. During this tragic period, thousands were killed - men were burned alive, women were raped and children beheaded. Almost three decades later, justice has not been served. Lest we forget.

dows. I wiped the sweat off of my soft milk-like skin with my forearm, trying to get rid of the little tingly itch that bothered me. I noticed my mom forgot to put the bucket of fl our back into the pantry, so I thought to take the initiative to do so since she was busy preparing dinner for the family. My two younger sisters began to get the fi re pit ready to start making rotis outside behind our home. My older brother was gone to the crops around this time to make sure everything was okay. As I picked up the heavy two foot big bucket, I heard the front doors smack wide open. I quick-ly dropped the bucket and ran towards the door of the kitchen.

See TRAGIC on next page

CREATIVE WRITING

Remembering a dark period in India’s history

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1984 Sikh massacre: A brief history

Tragic event remains fresh for manyContinued from previous page

Before I twisted the door knob, I peeked through the little crack on the left side of the door. I focused my eyes and my heart dropped. Five Punjab policemen stood there with brown uniforms, their hands clenched holding guns with full barrels. They started to roam around our house. Two of them went upstairs while the others started throwing furniture around. I started panicking. My mom and sisters walked in through the back kitchen door to fi nd me crouched behind the door. They all stood there con-fused as to what was going on. I put my fi nger against my lips to warn them not to make a sound. I told them what happened and the blood in my mother’s face fl ushed. “H-Hardeep is in the room next door sleeping!” she whis-pered with a tremble. I saw the tears in her eyes forming. My eyes widened. My little brother was in danger and there was nothing I could do about it. They kicked open the door. I couldn’t see what was going on. I heard a loud scream. I heard the sound of an object hitting the surface of skin. Suddenly more screaming and yelling. My two sisters were in the corner hugging each other crying. I felt the tears run down my face as I heard my brother

EPILOGUE

Hardeep Singh, the youngest son of the family, was retrieved from the Punjab Police Depart-ment shortly aft er being brutally harmed, without a just reason. He now resides in the city of Brampton with his head held high and is the leader of many Sikh groups.

‘I saw the tears in her eyes forming. My eyes widened.’

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wailing and crying. I couldn’t bare to hear him like this. What could I do? I had to help him. My mom couldn’t take it any-more. She slammed the kitchen door open and ran towards my brother, screaming at the top of her lungs. I heard a slap – my mom’s voice suddenly disappeared. I was frustrated. I was mad. I needed to do something. I heard footsteps and laugh-ter coming out of the room and looked through the crack again. My brother was being dragged out by the police, clenching his teeth in pain, faint, yelling, his head naked, clothes ripped and stained with blood. I caught myself not being able to breathe. The police continued to drag him out of the house.

Where were they going? Then, everything was quiet. The only noise I heard was weeping behind me and in the other room. I got up and wiped the tears off of my face. I opened the door slowly hearing it creak. I walked out of the kitchen and into the room. I saw my mom sit-ting there against the wall with a black eye and the side of her face entirely swollen. I ran over and hugged her lis-tening to her sobbing.

EN FRANÇAIS

Par Stephon Chester

Première Étape:

J’ai vu les lignes lisses et très gracieuses. Ces lignes ont été fi nes aussi. Dans la peinture, il y avait des carrées, des courbes et des angles qui étaient tendres. La texture de la peinture étaient lisse et douce. Krieghoff a utilisé un mélange des couleurs sombres et claires qu’illustre un image fort. Il y avait des couleurs chaudes mais la plu-part des couleurs froides comme le bleu. J’ai vu quelques jeunes gens et des vieilles personnes dans le tableau. Il y avait un ciel clair et les pins immenses.

Deuxième Étape:

Le peintre semble d’utiliser un style peu asymétrique. Il y avait des zones claires sur le côté gauche de l’image et en bas. Lorsque je regarde la peinture, la première chose que je vois c’est la famille dans le traîneau rouge. Le peintre a utilisé un espace peu profond. Des zones foncées étaient sur le côté droit et au mi-lieu de l’image.

Troisième Étape:

L’artiste a imité la nature, Il y avait beaucoup des gens dans la peinture. L’artiste veut avant tout exprimer ses sentiments. L’artiste semble être concerné avant tout

par les formes et las composition. Je pense que le titre du tableau est le nom de la ville où ces gens habitent. Cette image représente la beauté, la solitude, la guerre, le mystère et la folie.

Quatrième Étape: Cette peinture est un excel-lent exemple d’imitation de l’être humain et la complexité de ses émotions. J’aime cette peinture parce-qu’elle représente le confl it dans une petite ville. Il y avait beaucoup d’émotions quand j’ai vu ce tableau. La puissance d’une famille qui quittent leur ville. Cette famille cherche une nouvelle vie. Krieghoff a peint une belle histoire, d’une triste événement.

LASS students visit AGO

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Students in Grade 11 French attended the AGO on Oct. 18 to visit the Ai WeiWei exhibit and a general gallery tour in French.

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By Vanie ChahalSJC Vice President

A little circle of passionate individuals leading tangible change… Who are we? The Social Justice Club. Do you remember the last time you had to miss school because you had to collect water for your family from the nearest pond? Or the last time you didn’t eat for days? Sounds pretty bizarre and almost impossible, right? The truth is that more than 1 billion people lack adequate access to clean drinking water and an estimated 870 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat. The list could go on and on, but LASSers, we ought to change that. The Social Justice Club works in partnership with Free the Children, an international social enterprise working tirelessly to break the cycle of poverty across the globe. Their sustainable development model, ‘Adopt a Village’ removes barriers to prosperity, by providing 5 basic pillars, namely Clean Water & Sanitation, Health, Education, Alternative Income & livelihood and Agriculture & Food Security. With our fundraising goal for the year being $5,000, we aim to complete all 5 pillars, with 3 of them completed in the past year. Stop complaining about ‘Quadratic Functions’ in Math class or essays in English, tackle some “real-world” problems. Together we can change the world. Join the movement.

Today.

SOCIAL JUSTICE CLUB

Social Justice sets sights on $5,000

fundraising target

ICE CREAM SOCIAL

Photos by Mr. ShurrieGrade 9 students were recently treated to an Ice Cream Social by members of the SAC. Th e event was held as a way of welcoming students to high school.

SPORTS

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GIRLS’ BASKETBALLMembers of the girls’ basketball team recently fi nished the season with a 1-6 record, including the team’s fi rst victory, a 44-36 win against Castlebrooke. The Eagles came just shy of a second win, losing a 36-35 contest against Brampton Christian Academy. The Eagles look to continue building on their record next season with hopes of making the playoffs.

LASS intramurals made their much-antic-ipated return recently with the ball hockey regular season heating up the gymnasium. Rumour has it that the teachers’ team is set-ting its sights on recap-turing the championship - a title that was stripped away last year for the fi rst time in school his-tory. Action continues at lunch in the gymnasium with the playoffs set to begin shortly.

Intramural ball hockey

action returns

The LASS cross country Eagles had a great season this fall! A team of 21 runners competed in two invitational races leading up to the ROPSSAA cross country fi nals at Heart Lake Conservation area on Oct. 24. All runners trained hard over the season to improve their speed and delivered a num-ber of personal bests at ROPSSAA! Special congratulations go out to Baba Khan who placed 4th in the Para division and to Manveer Grewal, who led the senior boys team with a very competitive race! Coaches Charlton, Hanna and Ryan would like to extend our congratulations to all runners for their team spirit and hard work over the season. Way to go team!

FLAG FOOTBALLMembers of the LASS Flag Football Eagles fl exed a little muscle fi nishing the season with a 3-4 record - the best in the school’s short history. Along the way the Eagles defeated Castlebrooke, Sandalwood and Brathwaite. Special congratu-lations go out to graduating players Jasmine Punia, Gurjot Hayre, Chand Bhangal, Jasleen Sra, Gurleen Tak, Hansini De Silva, Lucy Pinto, Janet Joseph, and Riya Mistry.

Cross country Eagles deliver personal bests

ENTERTAINMENT

By Nida Shaikh

There are series that stay strong book after book, carried on by the organic growth from the author’s fantastic world building; there are series that started out on such shaky foundations that they can barely stretch out more than two books without falling apart. This series belongs to the latter. I loved Divergent. The book had its faults, but I really fell in love with the whole story, the characters, the romance between Tris and Four, the Factions, etc. I read and re-read Divergent proba-bly 8-10 times! I bought Insurgent and devoured it as well. It didn’t have quite the same magic for me that Divergent did, but I still loved it. So I was REALLY psyched to read Allegiant. I found it hard to care about the goings on in the book – there

seemed to be none of the energy and creativity from the fi rst two books and too much introspection and soul searching. However, the shocking ending to the trilogy is what left the Divergent fan base angry and heartbroken. Tris struggles through the book with great strength and what she gets in the end is death. We all know life isn’t fair, but books can be fair; they can be hopeful. She died a brave death, but still it was a sad death (almost all the bad guys live and get to have perfectly happy, normal lives). Tris’s death deeply plummets all hope that the book builds throughout the series. A perfect ending wasn’t neces-sary, but a satisfying one was. The book’s ending makes it inevitable to carry a good impression of the book. Truly a devastating end to her such beautiful acts of bravery.

Devastating end to popular book series

Allegiant by Veronica RothReview: 2/5 Stars

By Sonali Prasad

LASS student Kaitlin Karmachand is writing and directing a play for the upcoming Sears Drama Festival. Auditions will be held later this month and production of the play is expected to begin in December (specifi c dates have not yet been confi rmed). This is the second play LASS will be submitting to Sears: Karmachand and Mr. St. Clair’s production (title not confi rmed) and the fi rst being Mr. Dettman’s production, Lillies in the Valley.

Mr. St. Clair and Karmachand’s play is about a family of four living in modern times as if it is still 1986. The patriarch of the family has decided to change their way of life to the way it would be in 1986. Technology, music, movies, fashion, and literature, every-thing that existed before 1986 can be used and that is it. The eldest child is affected the most by this change in lifestyle because she has recently graduated high school and is faced with the in-ner battle of deciding to stay with her family or to go live on campus.

LASS preparing for Sears festival

Members of the PULSE dance team at LASS are in the process of putting together plans for a Holiday Dance Showcase. The event is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Dec. 12.Parents, students and staff are invited to come and watch the show, which is expected to include a fantastic lineup of various dance performances. For more information see Ms. Catalano.

PULSE hosting holiday showcase

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HALLOWEEN 2013

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Imagination on displayHalloween brought out a cast of characters, including a group of angels, above, and a ‘Cereal Killer’ (aka Ms. Cheney, at left). Bottom right, Ms. Kuhl, Ms. Galen, Ms. Aurora and Mr. Au were appropriately dressed as wizards from Harry Potter.