SEBASTIAN BURNS: Biography

Glen Sebastian Burns was born in 1975 in Vancouver. He and his older sister were raised in West Vancouver, where Sebastian graduated from West Vancouver Secondary School in 1993, and where he began an Arts degree at Capilano College. As a youth, Sebastian was awarded the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Medal, and participated in charity by selling poppies for Remembrance Day and by working at book sales for the West Vancouver Library. Sebastian played cello from age 5-12, and took part in the Vancouver Youth Orchestra Summer Pops. From age 12-16, Sebastian belonged to the West Vancouver Pathfinder Royal Canadian Cadet Squadron. While he was an Air Cadet Sebastian led the largest parade to date in Vancouver as a Sergeant Major to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. He also took part in many outdoor activities, like a bike trip to Oregon, and led outdoor survival training, and flew gliders - he has his glider's certificate. This was in addition to his interest in classical music, film and fun sports like snowboarding. These days, Sebastian reads, studies Shakespeare and other great writers of literature and philosophy. He’s also a faithful reader of Harper's magazine and The New Yorker.

ATIF RAFAY: Biography

Atif Rafay, born in 1976, is the younger of Tariq and Sultana Rafay’s two children. He grew up in North Vancouver but also in Karachi, Pakistan, where his family lived from 1984 – 1989, and where he indulged his lifelong affection for cats and reading, not to mention for excessive movie rentals. Introduced to computers at an early age, he became interested in cognitive studies and philosophy of the mind; at the end of his freshman year at Cornell he was granted permission to pursue an inter-disciplinary course of study of his own devising as a College Scholar in lieu of a traditional major. He used to play tennis and, of all things, learned basketball and volleyball while in Pre-Trial detention; now however, he merely exercises. In diminished circumstances he remains grateful, whenever it is possible to breathe, for music, literature, and pictures, and all the while he waits and hopes.