Bus services could shut down Nov. 27 if deal not reached. P2 and at langaravoice.ca
Local pattern designer and entrepreneur turns worldly experiences into print. P4-5
This week's podcast covers traffic congestion issues and culture of city cycling. langaravoice.ca
Langara plans to be part of consultation over land development
By STEVEN CHANGThe Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is now considering new development on the Langara Golf Course. Green Party commissioner Dave Demers, the park board vice chair, thinks the golf course has potential as a sport’s field, freshwater swimming location or more walking trails.
“There have been talks about considering golf courses that are owned by the park board in the city of Vancouver for partial development costs for housing,” Demers said. Any plans for housing development would be made by the City of Vancouver; plans for recreational development would be made by the park board.
Affordable housing in proximity to Langara College has been a longstanding issue for students.
The Langara, Fraserview, and McCleery golf courses total 464 acres, some 15 per cent of all park land under Park Board jurisdiction, according to park board minutes. The number of golfers using the three golf courses plunged by more than 31 per cent since the late 1990s, as the population of Vancouver has increased by 20 per cent.
The City of Vancouver is expected to start planning strategies in 2020. Langara College, which is not involved with the golf course, has no claim on the municipal land.
However, Langara’s facilities director Dwayne Doornbosch said it would provide feedback to the city as part of community consultations.
“Any recreational scape adjacent to the college would likely be popular with our community,” he said.
Maurizio Grande, a South Vancouver resident and owner of Marble Art Canada Ltd., uses the golf course 15 to 20 times a year.
“The course is meant for the public to use, and it has already been cut down in the past to build the college,” Grande said. “The fantasy to create a stadium for sports is just absurd. If the city is making money, then they should plant more trees and spend it on maintenance.”
With a decrease in pollinators around the world, the Sunset community wants to create a greener, bee friendly neighbourhood by implementing the Sunset Pollinator Pathway Project.
The pathway project involves volunteers planting more pollinator friendly gardens in their yards to create a pathway between the parks in the area. They hope to provide more shelter and food, giving pollinators a reason to fly farther away from the parks and support an increase in population.
Due to growing cities, use of pesticides and the spread of diseases, pollinators have been on the decline and yet they are essential to our
survival.
They pollinate our plants, providing us with fruit, nuts, flowers and honey.
Angela Crampton, a Sunset resident and organizer of the Sunset Pollinator Pathway Project, encourages anyone who has space in their own yard, to consider leaving a patch of their garden to grow wild, which attracts more pollinators.
“People are really unaware of how urban areas foster such biodiversity,” said Andony Melathopoulos, Oregon State University’s pollinator health extensions specialist and host of PolliNation Podcast
The goal of the Sunset Pollinator Pathway Project is to connect the three main parks in the Sunset neighbourhood: Sunset Park, MacDonald Park and Memorial South Park, by providing more
plants in and between those parks that can become a full-season habitat for native pollinators.
“It’s a bit of a balance between the active parks and maintenance and being realistic,” Crampton said.
Getting permission for a community garden from the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is a slow process. However, Crampton said they have a lot of support as the Sunset neighbourhood and the parks board share an interest in increasing biodiversity in parks.
“There’s a lot of effort to encourage people to plant more pollinatorfriendly plants,” said Scott Pearce of GardenWorks in Burnaby. GardenWorks is a store that sells plants and supplies for gardeners.
They also supply a list of pollinator friendly plants on their website for bees, ladybugs, butterflies and hummingbirds.
“Twenty-five years ago, people would ask if a plant attracted bees, and if you said yes they wouldn’t want it and now it’s the opposite,” Pearce said.
“There's a lot of effort to encourage people to plant more pollinator friendly plants.”
— SCOTT PEARCE, GARDENWORKS
Official bus services in Metro Vancouver will be shutting down for three days next week if a deal is not reached between Coast Mountain Bus Company and the union representing its drivers and mechanics.
If the labour dispute is not settled by Nov. 27, Unifor said its bus drivers and mechanics would escalate current strike action by refusing to work on Wednesday through Friday.
'Not a stunt' Gavin McGarrigle, the western regional director of Unifor, told reporters at Unifor’s New Westminster regional office, “This is not a stunt. This is real. These are members, men and women who are putting their own families on the line to fight for a better transit system in Metro Vancouver.”
In a written statement, CMBC said it is “alarmed” by the announcement, calling the action “drastic.” CMBC president Michael McDaniel was quoted as saying, “It is completely unacceptable our customers are being dragged into this dispute.”
Coast Mountain offer
In the statement, CMBC revealed it offered a wage increase over four years that would raise the top annual salary to $69,900 for drivers and $88,000 for mechanics.
The strike began on Nov. 1. Job action began with drivers wearing civilian clothing and refusing to work overtime.
Business student Sophie Slater said the equal gender balance in the federal cabinet helps her to find hope in a world where she said women are still underrepresented and underappreciated.
For the second time in a row, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a 50-50 gender-balanced cabinet he said in a statement to media will improve Canada moving forward.
Trudeau retained his position as prime minister after the Liberals were reelected Oct. 21, this time with a minority government.
Slater was looking for a cabinet she said that is fair for everybody, in order to balance out a world that isn’t always fair for women.
For her, that meant a 50-50 gender split.
“There is still that old guy at the office who thinks his secretary should be paid $12 an hour,” Slater said.
“It’s ridiculous, its almost 2020. Is this seriously still an issue?”
Eleanor Fast, executive director of Equal Voice, said she’s happy to see Trudeau keep his promise of another gender-balanced cabinet.
“We're very happy to see that once again we're going to have a gender-
balanced cabinet with an equal number of women and men,” Fast said after watching the ceremony at Rideau Hall on television Wednesday.
Equal Voice is a non-partisan organization that is dedicated to equality in gender representation
professor of political science at UBC said that assigning women to important cabinet portfolios is something Trudeau excels at.
Historically, she said, women have been given a less crucial portfolio to manage and in turn have had less power.
“Women tend to be appointed to cabinet portfolios that are either not very powerful, not very important, or they're all in what we call the ‘caring policy’ area like Health or Welfare,” Sundstrom said.
“Whereas [in 2015] you had a strong foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland.”
more women to be represented in Parliament as a whole in Canada's future.
“It’s extremely important to have [women] in high profile positions,” Fast said.
The first session of the 43rd Parliament will begin on Dec 5th.
in all facets and levels of Canadian government.
“We’re also very interested to see the integration of a new portfolio of diversity and inclusion, that will be headed by Bardish Chagger.”
Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger, appointed Minister of Small Business and Tourism in 2015, was named Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth Wednesday, after winning her riding with 48 per cent of the vote.
A record 98 women were elected to Parliament in this year’s election, this is however a far cry from actual gender parity in the house. Out of the 338 members, women represent a mere 29 per cent of all seats in the House of Commons.
Lisa Sundstrom, an associate
Alocal Indigenous artist said she believes in creating a difference in the lives of those looking for an identity.
Jolene Mitton, an Indigenous fashion artist and model, said she hopes to help shape and promote Indigenous culture. “I think getting Indigenous people in mainstream media, so people feel comfortable about who they are,” Mitton said.
Mitton said her upbringing was very different, being surrounded by people from all walks of life. She was exposed to party culture at a young age. “I lived in a house with a lot of people, it was near Granville Island. We had people from every nationality, it was simply like the party house,” Mitton said.
"It was a good time, and it made me appreciate the gathering."
However, Mitton said it also made her feel isolated and lonely.
“It was a pretty cool time but probably not the best place to raise the kids,” Mitton said. “Everyone was kind of passed out, and little me running around making sure everyone is breathing because they partied so hard.”
“My childhood wasn't the best.
My mum was a teenage mother, a lot of my time I grew up spending with my grandmother, she took the duties of raising me until she passed away,” Mitton said.
Growing up, Mitton’s interest in fashion was sparked by her love of drawing. As she had plenty of time to herself when her mother was busy, her hobby started to grow.
“When the adults were partying, nobody really paid attention to me so I kind of grew in my own thing,” Mitton said. “I kind of created my own world.”
Mitton is the founder of the Vancouver Indigenous Fashion
Pam Baker, an artist who worked along with Mitton in Indigenous fashion week, said Mitton has made efforts to uplift young girls, and speaks highly of her dedication.
“I have enjoyed watching her grow, her interest in working with young girls.”
“Every time I have contacted her for a fashion show, or coordinating work she has always said yes,” Baker said.
Jolene says that in her community, she’s seen Indigenous people feeling a stronger sense of belonging and identity.
“They are now feeling comfortable after the work I have been doing in the last eight years,” she said.
In addition to her work as a fashion designer, Mitton additionally works with the Urban Butterflies Day Camp for indigenous children, as well as manages a Indigenous women’s basketball team.
Week, which launched for the first time in 2017 to promote Indigenous fashion and culture.
Mitton said that providing a way for Indgenous people to enter mainstream media as models was essential for the wellbeing of Indigenous people.
“I’ve never seen any Indigenous person or someone on any commercial or any kind of product,” Mitton said.
“It's really fun to me to watch,” Mitton said about seeing the models enjoy themselves.
“And I guess that’s just the goal of
“They are feeling proud, figuring out more about their roots and who they are.”
Okalani Leblanc, a fashion designer and model who’s worked with Mitton for six years, says Mitton has a unique ability to keep herself grounded and remember her audience in the world of fashion design.
“She’s awesome,” Leblanc said. “I think she’s a good person with a good heart, that doesn’t get lost in whatever she’s doing, she keeps that at the core.”
“[For Mitton], it’s not just about clothes and fashion, it’s about community and awareness.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland played a prominent role in the U.S.Canada trade negotiations with replacing the NAFTA deal. Freeland also represented Canada during its brief tumultuous diplomatic affair with Saudi Arabia over the use of Canadian-made military vehicles by Saudi forces.
Freeland was named deputy prime minister (only the third woman and tenth overall MP to assume the position since its creation in 1977 by Pierre Trudeau) on Wednesday, as well as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Her colleague, François-Philippe Champagne, succeeded her as Foreign Affairs Minister.
Fast said that while Equal Voice is happy with the balanced cabinet Trudeau delivered, she's hoping for
5%
Only 5 per cent of women candidates in 2019 were elected as Members of Parliament.
15%
Out of all federal elections since 1921, women only comprise 15 per cent of the total candidate pool.
SOURCE: LOP.PARL.CA
“It's ridiculous, it's almost 2020. Is this seriously still an issue?"
— SOPHIE SLATER LANGARA BUSINESS STUDENT SOUBHIK CHAKRABARTI PHOTO
“[For Mitton], it’s not just about clothes and fashion, it's about community and awareness. ”—
OKALANI LEBLANC FASHIONDESIGNER A BEAUTIFUL CREATION PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO Joleen Mitton, an Indigenous fashion designer and model, founded the Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, saying it was important to provide a path for Indigenous people to enter mainstream media. JOLEEN MITTON PHOTO
Langara College is one of three post-secondary institutions currently participating in the rollout of a new survey aimed at providing Canadian universities and colleges with student mental health statistics.
The survey, called the Canadian Campus Wellbeing Survey, was launched in early November. Historically, Canadian post-secondary institutions have relied on statistics compiled in the National College Health Assessment, a survey run by the American College Health Association.
However, according to the CCWS Information Package 2019-2020, “There have been concerns regarding the appropriateness and value of the NCHA in a Canadian context.”
Guy Faulkner, one of the project’s UBC based research members, said that gathering this kind of Canadian information is important.
“Interventions that promote health and wellbeing among young adults are needed,” said Faulkner. “Such interventions, however, require measurement tools that support intervention planning, monitoring and evaluation.”
ALangara-funded research project aimed at increasing diversity in its theatre programs has stalled after insufficient funding.
The project will provide Langara’s contemporary art curriculum with plays, scenes and monologues, which will more directly reflect the cultural mix of the students who bring the works alive on stage.
Artistic director of Studio 58
Kathryn Shaw, who is spearheading the project, said there has been a severe lack of diversity in Canada’s theatrical teaching curriculums for a long time.
The project was started by Shaw in the summer of 2018 after receiving a Research and Scholarly Activity Fund award from Langara.
According to Shaw, the goal of the project is “to diversify and decolonize the Studio 58 curriculum.”
Kelly Sveinson, the chair of Langara’s Applied Research Centre said
that awards allow Langara faculty members to pursue projects outside their main curriculum, which help deepen the college’s teachings.
Shaw used the grant money to hire two research assistants and compile a database of more than 600 plays from around the world.
“We need to stretch beyond the canon of old white men’s plays,” Shaw said. “We need to find voices from all ethnicities, women and LGBTQ and better reflect them to
our own diverse student body.”
But with the award money exhausted to pay for the research assistants, the project has effectively stalled.
“I simply don’t have the time to do it,” Shaw said.
In this case, the tool used is a survey on health topics such as physical activity, sexual behaviour and substance use.
The survey is in a pilot phase and is currently only active at Langara, UBC and the University of Toronto. However, according to an email from CCWS project manager Nikki Reiter, 17 additional post-secondary institutions will join the project between January and March of 2020, following the current pilot phase.
Reiter said participating schools will be able to use the system to view their own statistics, as well as others. “Institutions will be able to compare themselves nationally to an aggregated dataset and see how they fare in core areas of student wellbeing,” Reiter said. “We hope that the CCWS will be the new standard for information gathering for student mental and physical health and wellbeing on campuses across Canada.”
Plays found in the new database are proving popular with students.
“It’s a really important thing that Kathryn is doing,” Silken Lawson, a third term student from Studio 58 said.
Studio 58’s current production Anon(ymous), a contemporary re-imagining of The Odyssey, directed by Carmen Aguirre, is just one of the plays found through Shaw’s database project.
Anon(ymous) narrates a story of a young refugee boy who travels to the U.S. looking for his mother who has disappeared.
“It’s so relevant, it tells many stories of people silenced in our world today,” Lawson said.
“We need to find voices from all ethnicities, women and LGBTQ and better reflect them to our own diverse student body.”— KATHRYN SHAW, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF STUDIO 58
TOP LEFT: Pot holder design by Good.
ABOVE: Sheena Randahl works on her project at the community sewing class.
LEFT: Tools and supplies used at the community sewing class, used for measuring and cutting fabric.
RIGHT: Handmade wallets by Good, fabricated from used plastic bags.
LOWER LEFT: Design by Good, titled "ignaz," a repeat pattern inspired by a contour drawing of her father.
LOWER RIGHT: a pair of scissors from the community sewing class.
The small business sector in B.C. is a vital part of the economy. Nearly 1.1 million British Columbians worked in small businesses in 2018. Fabienne Good is a local entrepreneur, and manages an online business and presence through several E-commerce sites. Good says it is very important to keep an online presence active and professional to maintain relevance. Through Redbubble, Good submits her digital files to the website for potential customers to browse. From there, the company will do everything including deciding on the sales price. Redbubble manufactures their own clothes,
sourcing from different countries depending on where the customers live. Good said that this method is supposed to be low waste and ethical, but can be quite expensive as the website takes a significant part of the cut.
“I do it because it's exciting to have my designs on clothes, but it's not really the best business model,” she said.
Good is now looking to local retail stores in Vancouver to sell her productions.
“A lot of those places will take like 50 to 75 per cent of the artist's earnings as well, so it's good for exposure,” she said. “It’s just a matter of finding good places that will properly represent your work.”
exposure is good, but may come at a cost to the artist
“It's just a matter of finding good places that will properly represent your work. ”
— FABIENNE GOOD, FREELANCE DESIGNER
Textile pattern designer
Fabienne Good attributes her whimsical and colourful designs to a childhood growing up on a farm and her international travels around the globe.
As a freelancer, Good, who teaches a free community sewing class at the Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre on Prince Albert Street, sells her designs on three different websites.
Sheena Randahl, a friend of Good’s, thinks her designs are really unique. Randahl said that Good is not afraid to mix colours and patterns, but is also capable of tamer and less experimental works.
“She's got a bit of everything. She can appeal to the masses. And then also appeal to the weirdos,” said Randahl, who also attended the community sewing class last Wednesday. The community sewing project is open for
beginners to experts, and takes place every Wednesday until December 11.
Her designs juxtapose her unique upbringing. Born and raised in Canada by European parents, Good has always immersed herself in new cultures.
“Having been raised in Canada doesn't feel more Canadian than European. It's nice to have
different cultures,” Good said. In her lifetime Good has visited Europe, Taiwan, Japan, China, Australia, Guatemala, Peru, Columbia, India, Italy, and Switzerland. While in Italy at 16-years-old, she learned Italian, and while in Switzerland, completed her master's degree in German.
"I feel like it's a lot of cultures that come together and you look at things differently, like colours and combinations," Good said.
Debra Wertman, a recent purchaser of Good’s work, and an entomologist with UBC, said the fit of Good’s shirts are “incredible and
versatile.”
“I greatly look forward to wearing this top to conferences – the other entomologists will be jealous,” she laughed.
Tara Nery, a jewellery designer from Toronto, and another purchaser of Good’s work, said she would recommend her designs to others. Nery said Good’s work is like no other she has seen before, describing them as chaotic yet organized.
“Her pieces make me smile. I get so many compliments whenever I'm wearing any of my Fabienne Good pieces,” said Nery.
Good moved to Vancouver from Switzerland earlier this year. When she first arrived, she noticed how different the west coast felt from the rest of Canada.
“It's Canada, but it's totally different [than home]. It's still feels like I'm still travelling. It's kind of bizarre,” she said.
ABOVE: Fabienne Good at her home studio, wearing a shirt of her own design.
LEFT: Pot holder design by Good.
Whether they’re deemed classics or contemporary, the majority of plays performed by college theatre programs like Langara’s Studio 58, are written by old white men. The world doesn’t look like a whitewashed sitcom from the 90s, neither should the film or theater industry. But while film students have the opportunity to write their own scripts, acting students are often stuck with what seems like a rotating selection of plays, no matter the theater school.
History is written by the victors, and theatre history is written by creative victors. From the comedies and tragedies of Ancient Greece, to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats getting a revival on Broadway, and a movie, a theater kid’s life is filled with monologues and songs written by white men. Life imitates art, and life is not seen through the eyes of one group of people.
While playwrights like Tennessee Williams and Stephen Sondheim are rightfully applauded for their work and genius, their voices do not fully represent today’s theatre students or audiences. As Kathryn Shaw, the artistic director of Studio Arts and Studio 58 said, “diversity to me means stretching beyond the canon of old white men’s plays.”
Despite the fact that academics and critics alike can find relatable content in a work that is over 200 years-old and that the human condition hasn’t changed, people have. Women are allowed to be actors on stage, being gay is no longer listed as a mental illness and being disabled doesn’t force you to the outskirts of society. And our schools and cities are, just like they were in Shakespeare’s time, diverse, but now we celebrate it.
So, give the people what they want: a diverse selection of plays. A production about and from different cultures and groups should not be news any more than a production of King Lear should be news—they should be expected, welcomed and readily accessible.
Gaming can be certainly be a distracting hobby, always hand in your assignments in advance and on time, and study ahead. Planning yourself like this can also mean spending more time on games after. MAXIM FOSSEY ILLUSTRATION
Video games are often pointed out as a negative impact for people who use it as a hobby. While for many, like myself, gaming can be just a time to spend by yourself and be carefree for a few hours. It can get in the way if you are not careful.
When I was in high school, I got easily distracted and played countless hours of different Call of Duty games. Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, Ghosts, Advanced Warfare. Those brought me great memories playing them online alongside my high school friends.
However, at a certain point in my high school years, there was one thing that caught my attention, my grades dropped. I decided to simply put aside the controller.
Of course, spending time on video
games can be seen as addictive because of the competitive aspect of it. When you drop-in in a game session you always think to yourself, “just one more game,” until you are completely satisfied with your online record and stats.
hours on online games, professionally too.
Of course, people can still enjoy playing these as a hobby, but be careful about not getting into it too much.
school, work or relationships.
While gaming certainly is a great way to spend your spare time, it can definitely catch you off guard.
OPINION
MAXIM FOSSEY
For example, I was never satisfied until my ‘kills per death’ ratio went higher on Call of Duty, which meant more distractions away from my assignments. With the rise of Esports and popularity of games such as League of Legends, people can spend countless
Some people may use video games as a sort of coping mechanism. Craig Lee, a clinical counsellor who specializes in overcoming video game addiction said that people who come to him use gaming to get away from negative emotions such as loneliness, depression and anxiety.
They continue to play games even though it’s impacting their life in
Gaming can certainly be a distracting hobby, one thing I’ve helped myself with is to always complete or hand in your assignments on time. They should be a priority. Planning yourself ahead can also mean more game time for yourself.
Rank up those stats all you want, but I’ve learned to do it in a moderate way.
LAUREN GARGIULO
“So, give the people what they want: a diverse selection of plays. ”
“Planning yourself ahead can also mean more game time for yourself. ”
November began with reports of Vancouver bus operators wearing, in one case, a Hawaiian shirt instead of the TransLink uniform, as part of an overtime and uniform ban.
Bus drivers have not been wearing uniforms as a form of protest since Nov.1 as part of job action.
Anon(ymous) , presented by Langara’s Studio 58, is a timely retelling of a classic tale, addressing themes of refugee displacement and a quest for home, says director Carmen Aguirre.
Aguirre, a graduate of Studio 58 in 1994, has returned to Langara to direct the play. She says she was drawn to the adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey in part because she was a refugee herself. Aguirre was six years old when her family fled Chile in December of 1973. Her family made their way to California and they eventually ended up Vancouver where they were accepted as political refugees.
“I thought I could bring the
sensibility and the lens of an exile,” Aguirre said. “It is a work that really challenges the accepted narrative that North America is a safe place for refugees.”
Aguirre said although the script is over 20 years old, the themes have become increasingly relevant. To highlight this, she sets the opening scenes of the play in a presentday refugee detention centre at the border of United States and Mexico. Here, a young boy named Anon begins his journey through the U.S.
in search of his disappeared mother, trying to recover memories of the home they fled from.
Ashley Cook, a thirdyear Studio 58 student, plays the lead role of Anon. She says she hopes audiences will connect with the play’s characters and see the humanity in refugees.
“The people who are experiencing oppression and war and genocide… they are someone’s daughter, they are someone’s dad, and we really get to see that in the characters in this play,”
Cook said. “They’re not some inhuman other.”
Lucy Hotchkiss, an audience member who attended the Nov. 17 matinee performance, said she was moved by the play’s depiction of refugees who have died or are struggling trying to make a better life for themselves.
“I cried through the whole thing,” Hotchkiss said, through tears. “Just because we know it’s real, the role that geographic luck plays in your life is so wrong.”
Performances of Anon(ymous), which kicked off at Studio 58 on Nov. 14 will run until Dec. 1. Tickets are available through Ticketstonight.ticketforce.com. Shows are being held Tuesday to Saturday as well as Sunday matinee shows.
By LINA CHUNGDaljit Singh, a first -year Langara business management student, failed a test three times when he was in school in India because he was spent so much time playing a video game.
November and December are two months where lots of video games come out. It is also time for exams for college students. Craig Lee, a clinical psychologist who specializes in video game addiction said students should reduce gaming time and focus on more important things like exams.
“If I have a final coming up and
I’m playing games for too long, instead of spending four hours a night playing games, I would cut it to two hours or three.” said Lee. “I would use the rest of the time studying for my final.”
The fourth time Singh had to write the exam, he uninstalled the game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds commonly known as PUBG from his phone so he could focus on studying.
“I’m worried that if I delete this game, what would I do in my free time?” said Singh who re-installed the game later.
Dimos Kefalas, a first-year fine arts student at Langara is not concerned with his video game playing. According to Kefalas, he’s in school for 10 hours a day, and when he gets home he usually plays
League of Legends remotely with his siblings and friends for two to three hours.
“I just enjoy the social aspect of it,” Kefalas said.
For students who are concerned about their gaming, Lee recommended tracking the amount of hours they play each day.
“If you are playing games for four hours or more per day, for more days than not...you’re kind of creeping into that addiction side,” Lee said.
Lee also suggested setting goals to gradually reduce the time playing, in addition to developing and re-engaging with other hobbies, sports and work.
“Reaching out to the counselling department of their school is also a good idea,” Lee said.
SOURCE: THEESA.CA
The job action escalated as talks broke down between the Unifor locals and Coast Mountain Bus Company.
Judith Zaichkowsky, a marketing professor at SFU who specializes in brand management, said uniforms have bigger effect on the drivers than the passengers.
“I think it relaxes the drivers more,” said Zaichkowsky. “It gives the drivers more of an identity, that they are having some action against management, some small revolt in a way.
"For the customers’ part, people who ride the transit, people who know what’s going on, I think they’re just darn happy to see the bus, because there’s been a lot of bus disruptions.”
TransLink has two options when drivers cancel because of sickness or other reasons. They can ask existing drivers for overtime, or hire extra board workers.
Christy Slusarenko, MoveUP Vice-President of Combined Units said “A uniform ban is one of many methods that can be used to generate public awareness about bargaining concerns with an employer.
"It is also a way of demonstrating solidarity."
She said their members are encouraged to wear buttons to the same ends.
Ahmed El-Geneidy, professor at the McGill University School of Urban Planning, whose research interests include public transport operations, “as long as they have something that identifies them as drivers” the uniform ban won’t endanger riders.
El-Genedidy has one concern:
“Someone jumping in the driver’s seat and taking passengers anywhere without them knowing that they are kidnapped. Until they realize later on," he said.
TransLink Spokesperson Ben Murphy said November 18, “The union needs to be more realistic about their wage demands.
"The union is still refusing to take part in mediation.”
In addition to not wearing uniforms, bus drivers have refused overtime and plenty of bus delays as well as reduced Seabus service.
“It is a work that really challenges the accepted narrative that North America is a safe place for refugees.”
— CARMEN AGUIRRE, ANON(YMOUS) DIRECTOR
“I’m worried that if I delete this game, what would I do in my free time?”
— DALJIT SINGH, LANGARA STUDENTStudents perform Anon(ymous) at the mantinee performance. Director Carmen Aguirre's experience as a refugee helped inspire the story. DAVID COOPER PHOTO
“I think it relaxes the drivers more.”
— JUDITH ZAICHKOWSKY, SFU PROFESSOR
Watson is the first female women's basketball coach at Langara in over 20
By GINA ROGERSFormer Falcons assistant coach Virginia Watson is hoping to turn the women’s basketball teams’ season around after it was left in the lurch by former head coach Curtis Nelson.
Watson is the first female head coach since Morgan Kyle who last coached the women’s team for the 1996-97 season.
“It’s nice to have a female coach for a female program. It’s difficult to find female coaches,” McCallum said.
Athletes with disabilities face obvious challenges in competitive sports. What is less intuitive is the edge their very disability sometimes provides them.
From a wheelchair’s momentum to quicker recovery in weight-bearing sports, some adaptive sports have their advantages, often influencing an athlete’s performance and training.
According to the B.C. Wheelchair Sports Association’s wheelchair racing coach James Hustvedt, track and field athletes don’t have to worry about the toll of running on their bodies like able-bodied people do.
“We’re not weight-bearing,” Hustvedt said. “When [an ablebodied person] is running, your
weight is bearing on your legs and your joints. While in the wheelchair, you’re supported by the chair. That lends for a shorter recovery for the body.”
Athletes in wheelchairs may not be able to outdo their able-bodied counterparts in shorter races, yet have a much quicker pace in distance races.
In 2009, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt set the world record in the 100-metre dash posting a time of 9.58 at the World Championships in Athletics. Whereas Finland’s Leo-Pekka Tähti crossed the line in 13.76 at the 2012 Paralympics in London.
In comparison, during 2017, Switzerland’s Marcel Hug clocked the fastest men’s Boston Marathon wheelchair race, finishing in 1:18:04. On the other hand, Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya, who holds the fastest time
in the able-bodied race, clocked 2:03:02 in 2011.
However, not all sports allow for advantages for athletes with disabilities.
Former Canadian Paralympic swimming champion, Donovan Tildesley said blind swimmers need tappers to prevent injury. He once split his head open from hitting the wall.
“I required someone to be with me at every practice or race,” Tildesley said. “I would need someone with a long stick and a foam tip, called a ‘tapper’ to tap me on the head as I’m coming into the wall, and that’s how I knew to make a flip-turn.
The difference in swimming times grows the longer the race goes on. The Netherland’s Ranomi Kromowidjojoset the record for the 50-metre swimwith a time of 24.05 at the 2012
London Olympics. Yet, Paralympic, blind swimmer Maryna Piddubna from the Ukraine finished a race at 30.22 at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Dublin. For the 800-metre swim, Katie Ledecky set the record at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil posting a time of 8:04.79. That’s nearly three minutes faster than the Paralympic record at the distance set by Germany’s Daniela Schulte clocking in at 10:57.82. Yet, regardless of the adaptation of the sport, or the way it’s played, according to Paralympic athlete and academic, Staci Mannella, who is a blind skier, the goals are the same.
“My goal is to ski fast and that’s the same as an able-bodied skier,” Mannella said. “Regardless of how I achieve that goal, that’s still the goal.”
Men's and women's teams look to stay fit and motivated
By RAY CHOPPINGThe inter-semester break is fast approaching, and that means the men’s and women’s basketball teams are about to have their most prolonged stretch of non-competitive action.
Following the men’s and women’s games against Columbia Bible College on Nov. 23, a 48-day stretch without another game will begin. It’s
within that time period that players are expected to continue training and remain academically eligible to play, which the director of athletics at Langara, Jake McCallum, said can hard to sustain.
“Teams are rarely the same after the break, you lose people academically,” McCallum said
“The fall is one-third of the season,” McCallum said. “It’s almost like two different seasons. If you have no wins or only a few, this break is a time to reboot, revamp and look at where the roster needs work.”
Following the unexpected departure of Nelson last week, Watson took over the position in an interim role. Coach Nelson resigned his position as head of the women’s basketball team for personal reasons and on mutually agreeable terms.
Virginia joined the Falcons staff at the same time as Nelson at beginning of the 201819 season.
It hasn’t been an easy start for Watson, a former Falcon and PACWEST rookie of the year, or for her Falcons who lost back-toback games this weekend. After losing to Vancouver Island University, the top-ranked team in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association last Saturday.
Falcon Meagan Briggs spoke about what the 100-84 loss shows about where the team stands.
“I’m really excited to see them again in the second half of the season because I think playing them shows us where we need to be in the second half,” 0 Briggs said.
According to Langara’s athletic director Jake McCallum, Watson, who played collegiate basketball for five seasons, has the character to coach this women’s team because she knows how to navigate, “the bumps, bruises and team dynamics.”
McCallum believes that Watson has what it takes to win, and it will take wins for Watson to keep her job. When asked if she would like to continue being the head coach after this season, Watson made her opinion clear.
“I’d love it,” she said.
Conversely, McCallum added, that a slow start to the season isn’t always indicative of the teams’ final standing because most games are played after the intersemester break.
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For the Falcons women’s team, head coach Virginia Watson will keep the practice as usual, even with no games on the horizon. The Falcons will play a couple of exhibition games in that time to stay in game-shape and continue to work on their man-toman and zone marking systems.
“From the end of November to the beginning of January we’re going to be on the court a ton,” Watson said. Steph Von Riedemann, the team’s only returning veteran player, says that because of the training regimen, fitness won’t be an issue come Jan. 10, when both the men and women restart their seasons
“It’s important to be diligent with workouts. Doing our own training program, to maintain fitness is really important before those exhibition games,” Riedemann said.
It’s not all work and no play, the players do get ten days off over the Christmas period, and Watson wants them to use it to get some rest.
“They work super hard for eight months a year, it’s important they take time off,” Watson said.
MEN'S BAKETBALL
Upcoming game:
Saturday, Nov. 23 vs. Columbia Bible College 8:00 p.m.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Upcoming game:
Saturday, Nov. 23 vs. Columbia Bible College 6:00 p.m.
“They work super hard for eight months a year, it's important they take time off.”
VIRGINIA WATSON, FALCONS WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACHVirginia Watson FALCONS WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACH
