High school hacker. University dropout. Online skit comedian. International humanitarian. Accredited Journalist. And a helluva lot of other labels that could stick prior to learning that I was selected as the recipient of the Rising Star award. Countless stories that would make for Emmy-winning SNL skits, so here we go.
As a high school hacker, easily one of the biggest email philanderers, and a libertine when it came to getting into the private communications and information of others. From the Ottawa Police Service to Hells Angels and Italian and South Asian organized crime, and beyond. A “deadbeat” gamer in the sense that I never supported game studios by “paying” for games and resorted to modding instead. From PlayStation to Microsoft, and beyond. All of it made possible thanks to grey market software that came with README files, back when it did not take much to be a cyber marauder. But the most significant would end up being that a friend in a Grade 12 (2009) economics convinced me to get into Bitcoin.
Deciding what I wanted to do after high school almost was to pursue cyber security, but I chose nursing instead. The cyber security program was less than ideal because it was offered by a private company that had “college” in its name but was not accredited. It was a one-year preparatory course and it charged just under $20k for a year’s worth of tuition. So, that career path was not an option, and I would end up getting influenced to go into nursing by my parents who thought it was a good idea. It ended up being a “great idea”, but for all the wrong reasons.
Back in 2011, society was still struggling with issues related to gender parity and representation, and the university only accepted 4 guys (me being one of them) into the nursing program while welcoming hundreds of gals. Although that lack of gender parity might be a concern for some, that “guy to gal” ratio brought me great joy. Safe to say my studies were not my main priority when it came to university, nor was scoring with high grades. See the problem? A lack of discipline and a lot of mental immaturity, and I became a statistic in the column of university dropout.
During the early days of social media platforms, a friend suggested skit comedy and how some were monetizing it over different apps. It helped that I knew a few individuals who moved overseas to set up a social media boosting business that netted them some serious bank. At some point, the skit and shit posting resulted in a producer reaching out, and later another “scout” contacted me about different “opportunities”. I was all-in, headfirst and feet up, until I heard the numbers, or lack thereof. When I told my parents I was offered $400 per week for 12 weeks of “work” they told me what I already knew, I could make more money working at McDonalds and that I should stay in college. So, I dropped acting as though I had a limited amount of brain cells and decided that I rather be known for making a difference in the lives of others and make positive use of the fact that the “coin” had provided me with a degree of financial freedom.
As an international humanitarian, I almost burned down an entire villa in the Dominican Republic after the discovery of a supersized Huntsman spider, almost getting a local killed in that process because of how much insect pesticide they had sprayed trying to kill the spider for me. During that same humanitarian project, there was a visit and tour of a women’s prison, the guards asked me if I wanted to buy the female inmates some bananas or ask them how hard they were willing to work for food or drinks (female inmates routinely get sexually exploited and trafficked while in jail). When I responded by quoting Birdman and telling them to “Put some respeck on my name”, nobody understood, because they did not speak English and because they only listened to Tego Calderon.
Nearing the end of that same humanitarian project, there was also the discovery of a Hells Angels restaurant in Sosua that allegedly made some great “gringo” food and had me wondering whether I should visit and introduce myself as their “big brother” from Ottawa. Or, how a taxi driver tried to intimidate me for more money because of how I looked, sporting a nice combover, a polo t-shirt tucked into the pants, with a belt around the waist and shorts that were above the knee and socks that were above the ankle, only for him to lose $10.
As an accredited journalist, a fusion between Jerry Springer (who I met in 2012) and Larry King. From providing what I think is the best and most accurate coverage of the Trucker Convoy in 2022 to going through legal documents from the Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (1997) and finding that reporters, political scientists and lawyers were entirely wrong about their claims about the civil and criminal liability limitations of public inquiries. It was not a matter of opinion, and rather a matter of fact that the Honourable Justice Alphonse Decary opined in 1997 that whether public inquiries could make findings of criminal or civil liability would be left open and remain undetermined, and that the reason the Tainted Blood Commission was unable to do so was because of what they had stated previously about not being criminal or civil in their scope. Those same reporters, political scientists and lawyers ought to give me their diplomas.
Let us not forget disarming the handful of Ottawa Police Service officers who attempted to file two frivolous police reports, including one who was working in the chief’s executive office. Seeming to stem from a request I made as a board member of a community association – or perhaps they were still upset about how hacked (Fall of 2009) into the emails of police brass and became acquainted with the most intimate details of many police operations. In any case, it resulted in me providing policing stakeholders with a complimentary analysis of the public policies related to records managements, identifying the core issue of “carding” and detailing why it remains unresolved, and why I was unable to officially challenge the frivolous police reports. But with them playing policing, thus playing our courts, I was the new recipient of policing and judicial powers. All thanks to my learning experiences, and precisely why education is the antithesis to small thinking and timid living and a remedy for the social diseases that plague society.
From Rising Star to Supernova.
The “Rising Star” seems to have become a “Supernova”, at a speed far exceeding what scientists believed was possible, arguably the brightest and most luminous of them all. A humble and more accurate description of the “Rising Star” might be, “Armed with a superior education and with no plans of holstering it, arguably the quickest draw in the country. Equipped with a marine mentality and a special forces education, and proudly going places where no man has gone before. Both The Pinky and the Brain. So, does anyone want to go thought-for thought mind-for-mind with him? No, because he can “turn his swag on” better than Soulja Boy, but also shift to get his Barrack Obama on and make tangible differences in people’s lives beyond just entertaining them, not that there is anything wrong with entertaining.”
On a more serious note, however, upon hearing that I had been chosen as the recipient of the Rising Star award, it was exciting, but also scary. It was acknowledgement, but also a challenge. For whatever I have achieved thus far, I must do more. My path to the award might best demonstrate that there is rarely such a thing as a foreseeable future and that life is often non-linear, that nothing is unachievable, and the importance of shedding imagined boundaries and self-imposed limitations. And once a mind is stretched by an idea or sensation, it never shrinks back to its former dimensions.
Not that it needs to be said but education is the compass and tools that make everything possible, to better one’s own life but to also better life for others in society as well. Education was the bedrock for everything else, from being at the core of thriving societies and economies to enabling all other rights. Education is a health issue, it is an economic issue, it is a diplomacy issue, and it is the single-greatest tool for international cooperation. Because when education increases, violence decreases. Because better-educated people make better decisions and have a better understanding for the world around them.
Perhaps the most important takeaway is that there is nothing special about me or any other winner that every other individual could not match, or even surpass, if they chose to pursue excellence instead of embracing comfort and low expectations. That, and that ordinary people have extraordinary potential. So, congratulations to my fellow 2024 Alumni Award winners, thanks to Athabasca University for the honour as well as the challenge, and good luck to aspiring award winners!
