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November 30, 2011 • Vol. 44 no. 10 • vancouver, b.c.
Students want council gutted Pipelines Kwantlen Student Association accused of mismanaging funds By PATRICK JOHNSTON
K
wantlen University’s Student Association’s executive board is being accused of corruption, and a student opposition group is demanding some of its members be dismissed. In a controversy dating back six years, the opposition group is accusing current board members of mismanaging association legal funds and of trying to hide connections to former KSA directors. The group has asked the association to hold a special general meeting this afternoon at Kwantlen’s Surrey campus. They want the right to vote for the removal of 13 KSA council members. If those members are removed, the group will also ask for interim members to be appointed. Those members would maintain KSA
operations until elections in January. Speaking for the opposition group, Reena Bali said, “The bigger purpose [of the meeting] is to unite students in asking for accountability.” Bali served three and a half terms on council before losing in the 2011 election. The KSA’s director of finance, Nina Sandhu, said the association’s bylaws state a meeting must be called within 21 days of the filing of a petition. The council has announced a special general meeting for Dec. 5. Sandhu said according to legal advice given to the council, it is obliged to announce a meeting within 21 days, but not hold one. Bali disagreed and said that in the past when a meeting was called, a meeting was held, not merely announced. When asked if her actions were prompted by her electoral defeat, Bali said the 2011 elec-
tion’s chief returning officer Fred Schiffner called it “the worst election he’s seen there.” The current controversy dates back to 2008 when former KSA director of finance, Aaron Takhar, was a defendant in a B.C. Supreme Court civil suit filed by the KSA. The suit alleged Takhar and other former directors and staff had mismanaged more than $2 million in student fees. Earlier this year the court agreed, and delivered a default judgment against them. None of the defendants appeared in court. The current council settled with Takhar and his associates in October, with no financial costs to either side. At the time, KSA President Harman Bassi said in a statement that council had already spent $800,000 in legal fees and there was little chance they would be able “to recoup the monies that went into it.”
RUMAN KANG photo
Protesters say the continued development of condos in the Downtown Eastside is reducing the housing available for low-income people.
Fewer emergency shelters available this winter Province claims homeless are finding established housing so fewer shelters are needed By RUMAN KANG
T
he B.C. government has decided it will be funding fewer seasonal shelters in Vancouver this winter. The province is saying there is less demand for the emergency shelters as more homeless people are finding permanent year-round housing. “The province believes that the opening of 309 apartments in three new buildings in the City of Vancouver has reduced the need for the 160 Winter Response spaces to be added to the shelter resources in the City of Vancouver,” said Sandra Steilo, housing ministry spokeswoman in an email. The announcement comes a day after a press conference given by housPrinted on recycled paper
ing minister Rich Coleman and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson where they announced construction of supportive housing project for individuals who are HIV-positive. Following the press conference, Robertson said the province wasn’t acting fast enough to meet shelter demands. “At this point, we don’t have a commitment of any funding for the winter shelters. We’ve still got people outside with winter hitting us and we need more capacity….” said Robertson. For the past two years the province has provided about $3 million in funding to pay for the operating costs of four shelters providing 160 spaces at buildings owned or leased by the City of Vancouver in neighbourhoods out-
side of the Downtown Eastside. This year the government will provide funding to the Homeless Emergency Action Team to provide 340 extra temporary beds during the winter season instead. HEAT is an initiative put together by the city, provincial government, and private sector provides temporary shelters, which are opened when the temperatures are deemed cold enough to cause death. PIVOT Legal Society Lawyer Doug King is surprised with the province’s logic, “It seems they don’t really understand the dynamics of homelessness. To say that a shelter and a supportive housing unit can be exchanged one for the other shows misunderstanding.”
HOUSING shelters
550 temporary shelter beds
47 permanent shelter beds
1,820 supportive housing units
In total there are 2,417 different types of housing units within Vancouver Source: City of Vancouver
a danger for B.C.
Transporting oil to north coast poses extreme risk, say environmental groups By CARLY WIGNES
T
he costs of a proposed pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat would be unacceptably high, according to a report released yesterday by three prominent environmental groups. In a report called Pipeline and Tanker Trouble, the groups say the social, economic and environmental costs of transporting raw tar sands crude oil would far outweigh the benefits. A special presentation on the proposed pipeline will be made at the Rio Theatre on Thursday, Dec. 1. One of the featured speakers will be author and activist Naomi Klein. Enbridge Inc., the pipeline’s backer, was unavailable for comment, but it states on its website that the project would provide years of long-term employment and billions of dollars in tax revenues for Canadian governments. But Nathan Lemphers, a senior analyst with the Pembina Institute, said in a teleconference Tuesday that Enbridge has failed to outline potential costs to the salmon fishery. “A lot of government agencies throughout the world do a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether or not a project is in the public interest, but Enbridge clearly has done just a benefit assessment,” Lemphers said. “Enbridge is simply stating all the benefits without stating any of the costs.” Katie Terhune, an energy campaign manager at Living Oceans Society, said the pipeline would bring an average of 220 supertankers to B.C.’s north coast. “One mistake in navigations and we could have a catastrophe in one of the most beautiful places on earth,” Terhune said. “There really is no safe and risk-free way to get tar sands oil, pipelines and supertankers across British Columbia’s ecosystems,” said Susan CaseyLefkowitz of the National Resource Defence Council. “The benefit really stays with the major oil companies who are extracting from the tar sands and all the risk is then born by the communities and the ecosystems in British Columbia.” Gerald Amos, a member of the Haisla First Nation and a long-time campaigner on behalf of First Nations rights, said the project brings a threat to his community. “If push comes to shove and this project is given the go-ahead, I’m prepared to do as others have done before me in our communities and stand on the line to prevent any machinery from moving onto a site that the company wishes to use in our territory.”
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