A student newspaper flourishes amidst history of memorable controversy
Since its inception in 1951, The Ontarion has been a compendium of human experience. Filled with years of excitement and long-lasting friendships, alongside controversy and political turmoil, there has been no shortage of interesting historical events throughout The Ontarion’s 65 years. With everything from being raided by the RCMP, to acting as the nation’s media hub during Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s visit to the University of Guelph, the depth of experience and historical importance of The Ontarion to U of G is insurmountable.
Currently, in our office on the second floor of the University Centre, there is a large collection of archived issues near our front door, ranging from 1960 to the present. In preparation for this week’s issue, the staff at The Ontarion took the time to peruse a large amount of these archives in search of any fascinating coverage of crucial moments in the University of Guelph’s history.
In our office filled with modern iMac computers, seemingly endless strands of Ethernet cables lining the floors, and a dusty yellow couch that is probably as old as the archives themselves, a feeling of nostalgia and connectivity was immediately present upon discovering the old black and white photos of previous staff members at The Ontarion. Searching through our archives, various looks of bewilderment were shared among our staff when we were able to catch a glimpse of vintage, hand-drawn cigarette and alcohol advertisements, read a blatantly sexist letter to the editor, or when looking at the angst and edginess of ‘90s that was portrayed and interpreted through various clipart.
While many aspects of our newspaper’s coverage, staff, and editorial voice have drastically changed over the years, one thing has remained constant throughout The Ontarion’s 65 year history—the long-standing relationship between a student newspaper and its community.
The Ontarion occupies a unique space at the University of Guelph—specifically, the autonomy and independence of the paper has defined and characterized the degree of involvement and critical engagement with campus events that an individual student can have in their community. For 65 years, The Ontarion has delivered this unwavering opportunity for students to fundamentally shape and inform the campus they occupy.
For David Akin, the current parliamentary bureau chief for Sun Media, the University of Guelph’s independent student newspaper has influenced and inspired him in a variety of ways. Akin, who attended the U of G and obtained a BA in history, also served as Editor-in-Chief of The Ontarion in 1988.
In light of celebrating our 65th anniversary, The Ontarion spoke to Akin about his time spent at our newspaper.
“Of the highlights in my career—I’ve worked at two national newspapers, three national news networks, and I’ve won a Gemini national newspaper award,” Akin recalls. “But still, among the most proud of the things that I’ve done, is when I was Editor-in-Chief at The Ontarion. I’m tremendously fond of the paper and the school, still follow along on what’s going on…because it’s just a great institution, and The Ontarion is a fundamental part of the university community.”
As technological advancements were made within the print industry, and as society continued to progress in a variety of ways, so too did The Ontarion. One such instance occurred in 1974, when the staff of The Ontarion was forced to move from the second floor of Massey Hall and into the newly constructed University Centre—a change that was not well received by the newspaper’s staff at the time, who were quite fond of the now forgotten Massey Hall coffee house. Another enormous change at The Ontarion occurred in 2002, when the layout of the newspaper was officially completed through digital publishing programs instead of the traditional phototypesetting process previously used.
When looking through some archived issues from the late ‘80s, our staff stumbled upon a vintage photo of David Akin, as seen on the front cover, during his time as Editor-in-Chief. During our interview with Akin, The Ontarion asked about that photo.
“Yeah, with the cigarette hanging out of my mouth? [Laughs] That was back when we could smoke in the office,” Akin recounted. “I mean if you want to talk about computers, when I became Editor-in-Chief, and because I was the boss, I gave myself the biggest and most powerful computer in the office, and it had a 10 megabyte hard drive.”
While The Ontarion was constantly adapting alongside technological advancements, a large component of the paper’s history can be attributed to political controversy and the strong, left-leaning stance of previous groups of staff members.
Most notably, The Ontarion’s political stirrings were confronted in full force in the Fall of 1970 when the RCMP raided and confiscated an issue of The Ontarion at the presses. When the War Measures Act was enacted during the FLQ crisis, The Ontarion staff sought to publish a complete copy of the FLQ manifesto, a controversial document, on the front page of their Oct. 16 issue—however, at the time, the publishing and circulation of the FLQ manifesto was in direct violation of the War Measures Act, which eventually prompted the RCMP to seize the prints before they were distributed to the public.
Another remarkable political moment in the history of The Ontarion occurred in 1983, when Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau visited the University of Guelph and delivered a lecture. According to the coverage of the event found in the 1983 archived issue, The Ontarion hosted a large group professional journalists who were in town to cover the event.
Coverage of the event, written by P.W. Oxtoby, reads, “The Ontarion hosted a contingent of more than 100 international media personnel in their second-floor UC office…staff and volunteers had the opportunity to discuss the media business with writers working for papers ranging from the Vancouver Sun to the New York Times.”
This moment in our history, as summarized by Oxtoby in the article, profoundly concludes, “For one brief evening, The Ontarion office was the center of Canada’s media universe.”
While the RCMP raid and the Trudeau lecture serve as vital moments in The Ontarion’s history, perhaps the most memorable component of the paper is excitement of being involved and envelopment in a functioning journalism environment—a place where students can learn and perform to the best of their journalistic ability.
“You’re doing it already if you’re working at The Ontarion,” said Akin when asked about journalism. “That’s the great thing, that you’re curious about the world…that’s another thing that you can’t teach: curiosity. And so, just by the very fact that you’re volunteering your time—most people are volunteers, I know there might be a couple of paid staff—but just the fact that you’re volunteering your time to go out and find things about the world and write about them demonstrates that you’re curious, and that is a fundamental requirement of a journalist. You don’t have to be a really good writer—there’ll be editors that can make you a better writer, but you can’t teach curiosity. You have to be curious.”
Throughout 65 years, The Ontarion has provided individuals with an experience that is truly unique to this paper—enduring moments of hope, happiness, frustration, and more recently, loss. The catalogue of emotions shared among those who have been influenced by The Ontarion cannot be found in our archives, but it is real—and it is embedded within the culture and spirit of our present staff, our past contributors, and in all of those who will shape our history in future years.
Nice story. I was EIC in 1983-84 when Trudeau the elder was here. Not only did we host the media, we set up a bar in the office and sold them beer for the princely sum of $2 a bottle and made a tidy profit. Which we spent on a party.
One correction: the first full colour photos appear in 1984, the final edition of the Winter Semester. They were rare and expensive to do, but the technology was there long before it became common place to see full colour.