The Commerce COMMrade 1999

The year was 1999 and there were no Commerce newspapers. A travesty! The Internet wasn’t fully functional so newspapers were still a relatively big deal on campus. There was an Engineering paper and an Arts paper and even a Chinese students paper, but no Commerce newspapers.

So Alec Crawford, BCom’02, Chris Sidler, BCom’02, and I decided to start one. We had a great idea for a name, too! The Commerce COMMrade. 

We wrote a few articles, walked across the street to the P&CC photocopying joint in the JDUC, and asked them to print us 200 copies. One for every student! When we went back the next day they said they were really sorry but they were out of the cream cardstock paper we’d asked for so they printed it on the next closest color. And what was that? Bright blood red! Yes, suddenly we had an actually commie rag on our hands.

Undeterred, we left copies in every room in Dunning Hall as well as the ComSoc Lounge. About fifteen to twenty minutes later we were summoned to the main office. Were we the ones who just littered a bright-red pamphlet called the Commerce COMMrade all over Dunning Hall? Yes. Yes we were. A tense stare down took place.

We printed the next three issues on cream before folding shop at the end of the year. Why? No ads, no money, no readers. Everyone just wanted to read Golden Words anyway and our in-depth pieces on why the Dunning men’s bathroom was freezing cold and what the best meeting room was in Douglas library were met with deafening silence.