Pot activist urges students to speak up..................5 Wife of Marc Emery thinks weed legalization will protect young people from punishment
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produced by langara journalism students
oice MONTH november, 2012 • Vol. 45 no. 8 • vancouver,
Langara president quits to Alberta David Ross has resigned and will move to SAIT Polytechnic school in March of 2013 By Sascha Porteous
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angara College president David Ross announced his resignation in an email Monday. “I wish to inform the Langara community that I have submitted my resignation . . . with my last day on campus being March 1, 2013,” Ross wrote. He credits his resignation to his acceptance of the presidency at SAIT Polytechnic, in Calgary, Alberta.
“Langara has a strong sense of community and it will be that and all of you that I miss the most,” he said. Ross was appointed president and CEO of Langara College on Nov. 1, 2008, for a five-year term. “It goes without saying that it has been an honour to be your president. I am also humbled by the outstanding people whom I have worked with and consider themselves Langarans,” said Ross. The president of the Langara Facul-
ty Association, Lynn Carter, was “staggered and stunned” to hear the news. “I think his resignation comes at an unusual time,” she said. Carter mentioned his unfinished business, such as the complete reorganization of the administrative structure. “It’s not like things are settled right now,” said Carter. “There are a number of initiatives that he has begun that haven’t been completed.” Carter said she doesn’t know what
will happen, but added that it will take time to get used to a new president. “I think he did a very good job and that everyone is going to feel a sense of loss,” she said. Publishing instructor Terry Van Roon, said it would be sad to see him go. “He was a good administrator . . . I think because of the short amount of time that he was here, he wasn’t able to implement all the changes that he set out to do,” said Van Roon.
david ross Resigned as Langara president
LSU closing meetings As of March 2013, board meetings will be held incamera—closed to public By audrey mCkinnon
U
BRONWYN SCOTT photo
Local residents gathered to view and discuss the proposed development which will drastically affect the layout of their neighbourhood.
Oakridge a target for big changes Proposed development at Cambie and 41st will bring ‘pedestrian level’ shopping to residential area By Bronwyn Scott
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south Vancouver neighbourhood is pegged for major transformation if developers have their way. The project, at 41st Avenue and Cambie Street, would introduce thousands of residential, commercial and office spaces in 13 towers with the largest standing 45 storeys tall. The development is being marketed as a sustainable community that would include green spaces such as a Tai Chi plaza, pedestrian walkways and bicycle routes. Hundreds of residents attended an open house on Friday to learn more about population density, strains on exPrinted on recycled paper
isting infrastructure and traffic concerns. The development will introduce more than a thousand traffic spaces. “I came along 41st Avenue on the bus tonight. We were behind the cars, behind the cars, behind the cars, and where are you going to put [thousands of] more cars? That’s why I’m here,” said resident Frank Jameson. Others shared similar concerns. “It’s going to change the neighbourhood pretty significantly and the question I think people have, is, well, why? Who benefits from this?” said resident Michael Grant. “I know it will benefit developers,” he said. “The real issue is, do the people benefit?” Supporters of the project, however, say traffic won’t greatly affect residents because of how it is designed. “All the access to the mall is going to be either 41st or Cambie, so people will be discouraged to use these [residen-
tial] streets to enter the mall,” said transportation analyst Kati Tamashiro. No major changes are slated for 41st or Cambie, which are already at traffic capacity, according to Tamashiro. An underground connection to the mall including multi-tiered parking is proposed, as well as new bike routes and a pedestrian boulevard. The Canada Line will also help keep cars off the roads, she said. “We’re introducing another element of outdoor mall,” said Darren Burns of Stantec Architecture Ltd., one of the firms marketing the development. “[It will] broaden the scope of things that can happen at the pedestrian level—retail cafes, shops—those kinds of things that are outside the realm of just traditional retail,” Burns said. “The expanded level of retail . . . is needed because it’s underserving the community right now.” “There will be quite a large job creation as well,” he said.
Oakridge the details
will feature a Tai Chi plaza
13 towers in total, offering office, retail and residential space
highest building will be 45 storeys tall
green spaces such as pedestrian walkways and bicycle routes
nder the proposed new Langara Students’ Union bylaws, all students, including Voice reporters and editors, will be barred from attending board meetings. “Because every meeting will be a closed meeting, we are required to report on every meeting,” said LSU queer liason Adam Giesbrecht, adding they will be publishing a newspaper to keep students informed, “pretty much within the week” of meetings. LSU board meetings, like Vancouver school board meetings and Vancouver city council meetings, are currently open to the public. It is a measure taken to hold publicly elected bodies accountable to the people they represent. Langara students, including those working on the Voice, vote on who should represent them in the LSU. One student was not so hot on the idea of the LSU not allowing students to attend board meetings should the bylaws pass. “It’s for the public so that means that the public should be able to see,” said Langara business student Daniel Tkach, 21. He said if public bodies’ meetings were not held in the open “they’d have control over us and we wouldn’t have any say over it.” As common practice, Canadian government board meetings do go in camera, meaning closed to the public, for special circumstances like internal employee issues or deciding on bids from outside contractors. Any time they are not in camera, newspapers, TV and radio reporters are also allowed to attend and record
See LITTLE INFO ON BYLAWS, page 2 Check out our web exclusives at http://langaravoice.com/