The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) is pleased to share programming plans for Canada Day on Thursday, July 1.

Canada Day this year will see select, COVID-19 safe programming spread throughout Whistler. Whistler, originally known as Cwítima (Lil’wat) and Sk̲wik̲w (Squamish), is in the shared, unceded territory of the Lil’wat People and the Squamish People. The city recognizes that this July 1 will be a time to reflect on all of Canada’s municipal history, including its past and present truths about our relationship with Indigenous peoples.

Part of the programming includes 215 orange hearts that mark a path between the Maury Young Arts Center and the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre. These hearts are installed to represent the 215 children who lost their lives at a Kamloops residential school and never returned home to their families. It is hoped that this path of hearts provides an invitation to everyone to deepen their understanding about local First Nations peoples so that our future in Canada can be one of truth, reconciliation, love and understanding.

Programming includes:

• Free admission to the SLCC throughout the day
• Yoga in the Plaza at Whistler Olympic Plaza from 9:30 to 10:30 am
• Spo7ez Performance Team Drum Circle at Whistler Olympic Plaza at 10:45 am
• Whistler’s Moving Meadows art showcase at Whistler Olympic Plaza from noon to 4 pm
• Scavenger Hunt pick up at Whistler Olympic Plaza from noon to 4 pm
• Live painting with local artists Dave “Pepe” Petko, Taka Sudo and Ben Poechman at Whistler Olympic Plaza from noon to 4 pm
• Paintillio large paint-by-numbers mural at Town Plaza Gazebo from 11 am to 4 pm
• Street entertainment including Treeline Aerialists and roving characters from noon to 4 pm

Everyone is also encouraged to explore places throughout Whistler, such as:

• Taking one of Whistler’s Self-Guided Tours, including Nature Walking Tour, LIFTing the Community, Public Art Tours, and the Whistler 2010 Games Experience”
• Visiting the Audain Art Museum, Whistler Museum & Archives, Valley of Dreams Walking Tour, Discover Nature pop-up museum at Lost Lake Park, Summer Bobsleigh at the Whistler Sliding Center, sightseeing and hiking on Whistler Blackcomb and Whistler Mountain Bike Park.

Enjoy food trucks and pop-ups at Whistler’s parks with Park Eats, such as crepes, gelato, pizza, burgers, kombucha, sandwiches, salads and more. Portobello is also offering food delivery to many of Whistler parks. Learn more.

Get around by walking, biking or talking the bus. The free park shuttle is now in effect, and Whistler Transit will be offered free all day. Free secure Bike Parking is also available at Lost Lake, Rainbow Park and Whistler Olympic Park. Learn more.

For full programming details, visit whistler.ca/CanadaDay.

Funding is made possible thanks to the Province of British Columbia’s Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT Hotel Tax) revenues collected in Whistler.

“Let’s mark this day with understanding,” said Whistler Major Jack Crompton. “Through this carefully considered programming, the RMOW hopes to engage non-indigenous people, help foster greater awareness and understanding, and provide a forum for people to positively commit to an act of reconciliation.”

RIT students took on some of the most prestigious universities across the northeast US and Canada in a computer programming contest. Five RIT student teams competed in the 2023 International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Northeast North America Regional event.

RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences is the headquarters of the ICPC Northeast North America Regional Contest.

This year, the regional contest was held on Feb. 25 with 84 teams from 19 universities located in New York, New England, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. There were six in-person sites across the northeast, including one at RIT’s Golisano College.

For the contest, teams of up to three students compete to solve the largest number of problems within five hours—using a single computer. Many of the problems are algorithmic, aiming for computational efficiency. Solving the problem is not enough—if the code is not fast enough, the team is notified that the time limit has been exceeded, and they need to optimize their solution.

“This is an important real-life skill, and especially so with ever-growing amounts of data,” said Ivona Bezakova, a professor of computer science at RIT and the ICPC NENA Regional Contest Director. “The contest (and practicing for it) teaches students creativity, computational and algorithmic thinking, coding skills, attention to detail, testing and debugging skills, and teamwork. For these reasons, successful participation is highly valued by many employers.”

RIT placed eighth among the 19 universities at the region. Five RIT teams competed—all of which were first time competitors in the contest.

The top team at the RIT site placed 13th overall, solving seven problems. The team included Eric Karschner, a fourth-year computational mathematics major, Mohammed Raeesul Irfan Riaz Ahmed, a computer science Master’s student, and Quinn Tucker is a computer science BS/MS student.

The problems and the final scoreboard for the Northeast North America Regional Contest can be found at https://nena22.kattis.com/contests/nena22/standings. The top four universities—MIT, Harvard, Brown University, and McGill University—are advancing to the North America Championship, from which the top teams advance to the World Finals.

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Bezakova said that the contest is inclusive and welcomes newcomer teams—“there are always problems that are solvable after taking an introductory computing class.” She also thanked the judges, site directors, technical setup, and RIT community members, including; Zack Butler, professor and interim department chair of computer science and ICPC NENA Deputy Regional Contest Director and RIT site director; Charity Chaaben; visiting lecturer in computer science; Varsha Dani; assistant professor of computer science; Michael Mior, assistant professor of computer science; Sean Strout, principal lecturer of computer science; Weijie Zhao, assistant professor of computer science; Jake Downie, a fifth-year computer science student; and Mark Ackerman, a second-year computer science student.