Volume 22, Issue 6

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Volume 22, Issue 6

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February 2, 2016 ote-newspaper@unbc.ca

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Next deadline: October 5

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Over The Edge is the University of Northern British Columbia’s independent student newspaper. Our office is located on the 2nd floor of the NUSC building in room 6-350.

We are an equal opportunity publication which represents students in the UNBC and Prince George community. Our publication supports student writing by welcoming news, arts, sports, culture and opinion articles, as well as photography, comics, and creative writing submissions.

their choice in a statement in January, the community will most likely continue to be upset through Moore’s term. Last year’s faculty strike combined with this appointment has shown that a fissure exists between UNBC Administration and various groups, most notably the Faculty Association. This animosity will damage the university and the public’s view of it, if it has not already started. Something needs to be done to start the healing process, but what that entails, this writer does not know.

Though the Board of Governors and UNBC Administration say they have received as much support as opposition, this seems disingenuous given that a cursory search through the pages of the Prince George Citizen or online reveals a handful of supporters against an army of dissenters.

The UNBC community is angry and since the Board of Governors have reaffirmed

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Over The Edge

and the way he was appointed. Adding to the opposition are statements from NBCGSS and NUGSS saying they oppose the appointment.

Brady

he James Moore appointment has been bad for UNBC. This is not an assessment of Moore’s worthiness or capabilities as a potential Chancellor. The former cabinet minister’s appointment has been divisive and toxic, except there is not much of a divide.

For many reasons, most of them to do with Moore’s politics, a large portion of the UNBC community has voiced their extreme dissent to the appointment. Senate and Board of Governors meetings have had to put it lightly, a larger turnout from the public, because of individuals protesting Moore’s appointment

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Letter from the

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Emily S trik

The

UNBC Life Writing Club...

UNBC Writing Club Masters of the Written Word

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ello students,

This is your master speaking... well, not really.

Seriously though, the Writing Club is doing a student anthology, titled Insert Title Here, and you will submit something or you will face the consequences.

Our submission details are as follows: font size 12, Times New Roman, single spaced and preferably less than six pages. You can submit something longer but we cannot guarantee it a spot in our excellent book. Our themes are Strange Realities, Memories/Dreams, Living World/Dead World, Home, or a topic of your choice, and we will accept poems, short stories, short plays and monologues.

Our deadline is February 12, 2016. Submit something by then and we will not wreak havoc on your life. If you have any questions/submissions email us at either unbcwritingclub@gmail.com or unbc.anthology@gmail.com.

All the love.

Writing Club.

...and Writing Tips Amanda Ramsay Guest Contributor

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riters are everywhere it seems, at local coffee shops and all over the internet. They are highly reachable through social media such as facebook and twitter, but the tips and tricks they provide readers are often ­heard recommendations.

One less ­oft recommendation I have recently taken up is carrying around a notepad and pen combo and having a permanent small pad at home. Why? Well, I’ve learned that when those moments of “eureka” occur it’s very important to have with me some form of writing utensil and paper. Some might think “pretty obvious,” right?

In the past I’ve used receipts, cue cards, backs of business cards to jot down a great idea before it dissipates from my foggy brain. More diverse is the number and types of utensils I’ve used to do the actual scribbling: a mascara wand, the very tip of a pencil that was broken off and lying at the bottom of my car floor and lipstick. These seem crazy. Sure, but it beats pricking your finger and writing with blood.

But why, oh why, am I mentioning this? The reason is simple. I used to carry around one book. Correction, I used to carry around loads of books, once. Eventually they got lost and the ideas I had with them.

In regards to my practices, I’ve lost enough brain cells to those facepalm moments and needed a change b ­ adly. The key trick to this is that there is one master notepad.

Mine is a little brown notepad I bought at a great coffeehouse over eight years ago. It says ‘Ideas can change the world,’ and has every idea that’s popped in my head since I bought it. The trick is to stow it away in your desk drawer (or wherever you do your writing) and then use it only to transfer thoughts from other travel pads. Once the thoughts, ideas or story plots are drawn or written up in your master pad at home you rip out the pages in the little notepads and recycle them.

Or, if you hate waste, then you can rip out the ideas and place them in a note card box at home. The main trick here is to ensure you never take the master notepad with you when you go out. You can lose all those crazy notepads as often as you want, especially at $0.30 a piece at the local dollar store, you’ll rest fine and easy. Just be sure you don’t lose one with your next bestselling novel’s plot. That could suck.

Amanda Ramsay is a local writer and business owner attending classes at UNBC to finish a degree she started eight years ago. Her background is in marketing and advertising for corporations and non­profits. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions for Amanda, she can be reached at info@poplarideas.ca.

4

UNBC Life

Going Over the Edge in Toronto Monique Gendron & Tierney Watkinson Team Members

M: Speaking about current events, I attended a panel on sourcing from social media. I’m definitely going to apply that in my future endeavours at Over the Edge. I’ve even started setting up Tweetdeck to start searching for local events and news to write about, and maybe I’ll even start up with YikYak and Whisper. Best part is, I learned all this from Ishmael Daro, a guy from Buzzfeed Canada. Who knew Buzzfeed was actually about journalism?

T: Journalism has a much broader career field than any of us realized, especially when you consider social media. Before the conference, I had tweeted maybe five times in the past six years. Now I’ve tweeted at least ten times. I’m moving up in the world. I’m so connected.

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ASH 2016, a student journalism conference, was held in Toronto from January 6 through 10, featuring many panels and some very inspirational journalists. Everything from coding, to virtual reality in the media, to podcasting was brought forward and shown to the student journalists from all over Canada. Namely, the journalists from UNBC’s very own Over The Edge. Monique and Tierney, two contributors, share their experiences with us: M: Actually, that was really weird. Referring to myself in the third person. I feel like Gollum.

M: Well, I never tweeted before the conference. You were already ahead of me. But I definitely learned the importance of using social media, not only for finding stories, but also for promoting.

(Psst, follow @ OVERtheEDGEunbc on Twitter!)

T: As long as this is the friendly Monique I’m working with, I can deal with it.

M: This was really an inspirational event in my life. I came away having learned about virtual reality and how it is coming into the media. I found that particularly interesting, and I want to apply it in the future. Maybe not just in journalism, but in other fields as well.

Virtual reality videogames are a definite reality. Journalism could take me pretty far.

T: I walked into this conference with a mild interest in journalism and left Toronto seriously considering it as a career. The scale to which journalism can operate really surprised me; I always imagined journalism as something with little creative freedom involved. Meaning, you are given an assignment and have to write a piece according to the wishes of your editor.

M: I felt like that too. I definitely never knew the extent to which a journalist actually could do what they wanted. And I didn’t know that a political writer could just as easily do a piece about gardening.

T: Or that a sports writer was free to write about fashion. I am absolutely intrigued by the idea of freelancing, because I am an independent person and am liable to become frustrated by being shoved into a single niche. Sometimes I like to write about art and television, sometimes I write about current events, and sometimes I write cryptic poetry.

I’m considering writing a piece about my search for the elusive unicorn. Stay tuned, guys.

Colin Slark

UNBC Life

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for CBC Spark and also hosts Braidio!, to name a couple of her works. The hosts played clips of podcasts for us students over the course of an hour and a half; between each clip they would explain why they found the piece so important and why it moved them.

To be honest, I knew very little about podcasts before last week, so this panel was incredibly eye-opening and introduced me to the power of sound and word arrangements. I learned an entirely new way to tell a story, and I absolutely loved it. I also very much appreciated the fact that the hosts were sharing a bottle of bourbon with anyone who asked them a question. It was the best.

M: My favourite presentations were all of the ones I attended. The best ones though, were the “Sourcing from Social Media” and the “Virtual Reality and Journalism” talks. Ishmael Daro, a Buzzfeed Canada writer, went over in detail how to find stories in social media, using hashtags, instinct and a good amount of double-checking. But I already talked about that really.

T: Also, our instagram is @overtheedgenewspaper. We are hoping to reboot Over The Edge’s media connections. One day. I’m excited.

M: I also learned to look deeper than the surface story. If something really cool shows up on the internet, you have to find out where it actually came from, not what everybody else says it’s about. Even if it means your article turns into a debunking article.

The virtual reality talk, on the other hand, was something I never before considered and I am genuinely interested in looking deeper into this. The New York Times has just started picking up on this idea, of using media to help put people into the story, maybe even as it is happening, and turning news into something more interactive. With some practice in Maya and some experience in creating virtual, 3D maps, maybe I could one day be sending people into the news.

T: That was another surprise--at every panel I went to, the presenters stressed the importance of honesty and being yourself. When you think of the media, you generally think of a really negative presence, a sleezy person who wants to expose a secret in order to get the best “scoop,” or who hides behind the neighbourhood foliage in an effort to take a candid, embarrassing photo of a subject. Although I have a friend who recently completed her

NASH 78 was definitely a worthwhile experience for everyone involved. Not only did the students who attended get to learn about journalism and all of the passion behind it, but they got to learn about it in Toronto, where they met many other fellow student journalists. It was an awesome opportunity to meet people with similar interests, and to share creative ideas with them.

Bachelor of Journalism and she is truly a lovely person, because of that stigma I had a hard time wanting to be a part of the journalism community myself. Also, the idea of interviewing people terrifies me. But after attending this conference and hearing the opinions of established writers, my entire viewpoint has changed.

M: To be frankly honest, I didn’t know what to expect walking into NASH. Actually, I had imagined a whole lot of uppity people glancing down their noses at you. But, none of the presenters were like that. A lot of them came off as, well, human. They all talked about having difficult times and varying degrees of mooching off of one’s parents. From that, I learned to not put all my eggs in one basket, journalistically speaking. And also to be wary of internships.

T: Thinking of all the amazing panels, choosing my favourite is nearly impossible, but there are two that really stood out to me. First was a presentation called “The Chris Jones Happy Hour”; needless to say, it was presented by a guy named Chris Jones. He is a very talented writer for both Esquire and ESPN. He spoke a little about his experiences as a journalist and shared some key tips for those of us considering becoming writers; he talked about keeping ourselves motivated and doing what we believe in without disrespecting ourselves or other people. His story about time spent with MMA fighter Conor McGregor was especially inspiring (and hilarious).

Second was a talk called “The Best Radio in the World”, given by Veronica Simmonds and Chris Berube. Berube currently works mainly with CBC Q, and Simmonds has created works

6

Student Voice

The Last Thing You Need in Your Life is Trash Dara Campbell Team Member

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n the past four years, Lauren Singer has barely produced enough trash to fill a mason jar. The 24-year-old NYU graduate isn’t living in off-the-grid or in a coma — Lauren Singer lives in New York City and leads a Zero Waste lifestyle. As an Environmental Studies major at NYU, she has always held a passionate interest in environmentalism and sustainability. However, there were two pivotal moments which led Lauren to the trash-free, waste-free lifestyle she stands by today.

The first moment happened during Lauren’s senior year at NYU, when one of her professors emphasized the importance of fully living one’s values. Jeffrey Hollender, professor and founder of Seventh Generation Inc., had set the trajectory for Lauren’s journey in analyzing and reshaping her own personal environmental impact. The second moment was triggered by a fellow Environmental Studies Major colleague. This student, as described by Lauren, would bring a disposable plastic water bottle and a plastic takeout container in a plastic bag. Week by week, Lauren grew more and more bothered by her classmate’s habits.

Soon after, she read about the Zero Waste Home in Mill Valley, California. Bea Johnson and her family have been living waste-free since 2008. Inspired

by Bea’s blog, entitled Zero Waste Home, Lauren decided to embark on her own trash-free journey.

Today, Lauren runs Trash Is For Tossers, a blog which documents her Zero Waste lifestyle and offers tools for others to live trash-free. In addition, she has successfully kickstarted a toxic-free and sustainable company called Simply Co., which sells cleaning supplies. Lauren’s NYC-based company proudly adheres to the principles of Zero Waste and honesty — the packaging is plastic-free and all ingredients are listed.

Trash Is For Tossers has garnered interest from highprofile websites and non-profits such as Refinery29, Ted Talks, The Current Residents, MSNBC, Seeker Stories, and Life Without Plastic, to name a few. Like the Tiny House movement or off-the-grid lifestyles or even veganism, Zero Waste is a fascinating ‘alternative’ way of life — we are intrigued by such a way of life. However few of us are as eager to adopt such a lifestyle as we are to click a link or watch a short documentary.

Something important to note about Zero Waste is that it’s much easier than it sounds. Lauren has stressed time and time again, in interviews and through her writings, that the personal benefits of living trash-free far outweigh the time and effort spent transitioning.

Not only does a Zero Waste lifestyle benefit the planet, it comes with a number of up-sides for the individual. For one, it saves money. Living trash-free means making bathroom products at home, curbing spontaneous trips to the nearest take-out place or shopping mall, and spending less overall because of avoiding the embedded costs of packaging. Zero Waste also saves money in the sense that it borrows some of its principles from minimalism — owning fewer possessions and consuming fewer goods is an enriching experience. It forces the individual to find value and joy in experiences, instead of objects. It allows for more money spent on travel, concerts, sports, etc.

For anyone interested in living Zero Waste, or at simply lessening their contributions to landfills, Lauren has two suggestions: evaluate and transition. As they say, the first step is admitting you have a problem. Evaluate your trash — what are you currently producing? Do plastic utensils or paper towels or food packaging make up the majority of your garbage output? This step is important in identifying which of your habits produce the most waste, and how this can change. It’s also worth evaluating which of the items, products, and objects in your home truly enrich your life.

The second step is to initiate a transition. This sounds big, but it can be easily broken into baby steps. Here are a few — carry a reusable cloth bag and water bottle everywhere you go. Ask the barista to put your coffee in a thermos or mason jar. Replace your plastic tupperware with glass containers, mason jars, and tin lunch boxes.

Find products packaged with compostable and recyclable materials. Buy your cereal, pasta, bread, fruits and vegetables, etc. in bulk or package-free by bringing bags and jars to the grocery store. Make your own toothpaste and deodorant, and buy soap package-free. Treat yourself by investing in long-lasting materials such as cotton, glass, stainless trendonweb.com steel, and

wood. If you can’t repurpose something, donate it. If you can’t buy something package-free, find it second-hand or make it yourself. Do some research. Get creative. Start small.

Lauren Singer isn’t the first to go trash-free, but her journey has resonated for thousands. Why is that? Maybe it’s because Lauren presents the lifestyle in such a way that appears doable, affordable, and even fun. She educates her readers and viewers on simple ways to adopt Zero Waste habits. She never tells others how they should live, but rather provides tips and tricks for those who wish to make the transition.

I know that nearly everything there is to do in life is easier said than done. The habits we’ve spent all of our lives building and enforcing are tough to break. The words ‘lifestyle change’ sound too idealistic and overwhelming for their own good. Even after learning about Lauren Singer and Zero Waste, as compelled as I was, I continued to produce trash. Only now, whenever I throw something in the trash, I wonder “how could I have avoided that?” So you could say I’ve got one foot in the ‘Evaluate Your Trash’ step, and another in the transition.

Above all, I’ve realized that the last thing I need in my life is trash — literally. For me, it isn’t enough to just say that I love the Earth. I want to live like I love the Earth.

Student Voice 7

Diary of a C+ Student Monique Gendron Team Member

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fter high school, university seemed like it was going to be a step up. And having a university basically on my doorstep made it that much easier for me to transition into a new educational landscape. I felt so much hope and optimism, and all of my friends were wishing me good luck and goodbye, even though I could still come around and visit them regularly.

My first thought, walking into the wooden halls of the University of Northern British Columbia, was “Oh my gosh, this is going to be fun!” My second thought was that it couldn’t be any harder than my last year of high school, crammed with AP classes and my hardest tests yet.

Oh, how wrong I could be.

Nevertheless, I was still going to tumble headlong into university, heedless of any of the many dangers and obstacles that lay before me. The summer before my long misadventure, I had wandered into the offices of Over the Edge, the very paper you happen to hold in your hand at this moment. I loved to write, so I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to improve my

writing and to learn a thing or two about journalism. Although, to be completely honest, I was actually mostly excited about creating some comics and expanding my artistic abilities. And so I have, throughout this first semester, contributed at least once per issue, despite my struggles in the latter half of the terms.

unbc.ca

Once midterms hit, I felt a little bit of pressure, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. I must’ve tackled worse in high school, right? Once I got my first paper back, I realized how wrong I was.

My high school career was, as my English teacher had demonstrated what our elementary school successes were in grade eight, a solid castle built on a foundation of sand.

The midterms made my very, very solid, A-plus and B range castle sink to a very, very low C-minus. As my midterms kept returning to me, and my grades kept falling short of my norm, I realized that I wasn’t in the top tier of my grade any more.

I had become normal. But, the longer I thought about that idea, being normal, the better I felt about it. “If I’m normal,” I thought to myself, “that means that someone else has a higher grade because I didn’t force them out of that position.” On top of that, it meant I had room to improve.

So no, midterms didn’t go as well as I expected, but I still had this. Or so I thought. November, I quickly learned, was called Crunch Month for a reason, and not simply because it brought a ridiculously heavy load of papers and midterms, but because it would drain you of all ideas, feelings and energy, and leave you stranded in the middle of your sea of assignments. This is when both the best and the worst emerge from deep within yourself. You become snappier, bitter, testing the limits of your friends’ patience, but at the same time you complete volumes of work that you never thought were possible for yourself.

macleans.ca

That is exactly what happened to me. And I can say that I am

extremely grateful to have had such excessively patient friends.

From then on, it was only downhill.

The number of my assignments I had never decreased, and yet I was supposed to somehow fit in at least three hours of studying per class. November finished, and December began slowly crawling by at the pace of molasses flowing uphill in winter.

Finals were looming on the horizon, towering over me like some eighty-foot giant. I had no time to spend for myself any more, I never went on Facebook, didn’t hang out with any of my friends. I had fallen into a great, dark pit. The pre-final feelings and jammings.

By the time finals hit, I was a mess. I probably looked bad, but I felt worse. I had never been through a harder school year in my life, and I was only halfway done. But, I have made it though okay. I lived. The finals are over. I don’t even really care what grades I’ve gotten, as long as they are passing grades. But because of what I’ve learned, what I’ve felt, I know that I’ll do better next semester. I know better now.

Although, I did say that when I left high school.

Opinion

You don’t have to sit in school to stand among greatness.

Opinion: “Straw Dog” Issues Grant Bachand Team Member

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he university has been through a world of hurt and much of it comes from last March’s faculty strike. The strike may be over and the arbitrator has given his verdict, but tensions are still high. This is apparent with all the negative reactions to James Moore being appointed as Chancellor of UNBC. The rift between the administration and the faculty is as wide as it was during the strike, with students falling right in the middle of these two spheres.

This is UNBC’s own Cold War, and it may be heating up once again. Why though? Why do students find themselves in this strange position? I have spoken to many students about this issue, and in my opinion students do not care as much as people are claiming. Yes, sure, some are extremely passionate, and in many ways the person who hands you your degree should be a strong and important person who you can be proud of. Can we though really say the majority of students are part of that crowd? I doubt it. James Moore’s appointment is a “straw dog” issue, something that is being held up as a major issue that in reality is a symptom of a larger issue: that the faculty and administration of UNBC do not like each other.

This is where the politics step in; the main issue, from the faculty perspective, is that administration is not willing to work with the union members, and possibly the vice versa can be said as well (though as students we will never really know the truth). This is because the union can talk smack all they want about the administration and will not result in any fall out. The inverse is not true, administrators cannot properly defend themselves because they are beholden to save face for the public, and not air their dirty laundry about their employees. I am not saying that the administration is some huge victim, but they are not on equal footing in the public relations department.

We love our teachers, we see them everyday, yet I bet some of the students have not even met the president, let alone a board member. We have emotional connections to our teachers, and nothing to the administration.

In the end, James Moore will be the chancellor of UNBC, and rightly so, not because I may not agree with his politics, but because it is likely he will give UNBC a big boost. His connections in Ottawa will be valuable for fundraising, relationship building, as well as the university’s overall

appeal. The old Conservative government did have a crappy track record on relationships with scientists, but just because your party has an official stance on an issue does not mean every member feels the same way.

We need to not be so quick to agree with the faculty on everything just because they are our professors and we like them. I like my professors too, some have even changed my life in many ways, but that does not mean I have to agree with them. The reasons that some members of the Senate are mad about James Moore are legitimate, but saying that most students care about this issue is a silly notion. Students care about classes, fellow students, getting money, and what the hell they are going to be doing after school. Who the UNBC chancellor is probably ranks fairly low on most students’ lists.

The staff, students, and faculty of UNBC have the right to get to know who James Moore is as a person. That is why it is the job of media organizations, like Over the Edge, to interview and publish stories about Mr. Moore. Last issue, OTE published an interview with him, if students are interested you can find more information at our website. If you have questions you can always approach UNBC administration, your student board members, or tweet James Moore himself.

› Thomas Edison:

pando.com Edited by OTE

The world’s most extraordinary failure never gave up.

Thank goodness.

open. online. everywhere. go.athabascau.ca/online-courses

By Levin C. Handy (per http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.04326) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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UNBC Life 9 unbc.ca

New Year, Moore Unhappiness Colin Slark Editor-in-Chief

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he old proverb says: “Time heals all wounds.” Whomever came up with that proverb did not attend UNBC. The winter break did nothing to cool the fiery tempers and extreme dissent to the Honourable James Moore’s appointment as UNBC’s next chancellor. Time has also not done anything to change the Board of Governors’ decision to appoint the former federal cabinet minister. In a letter from Board of Directors’ chair Ryan Matheson to the UNBC community in midJanuary, Matheson wrote that the board did consider the opposition to the appointment, but is staying the course: “Last week, the UNBC Board of Governors held a special meeting to discuss the appointment of the Honourable James Moore as our University’s sixth Chancellor.

The Board listened to and considered feedback, positive and negative, received from University stakeholders, including students, Senate, faculty, staff, and community members. Ultimately, the Board chose to not reverse its original decision to appoint the Honourable James Moore as UNBC’s sixth Chancellor.”

Though Matheson’s letter contains an air of finality, the conversation is anything but over. Both NUGSS and NBCGSS held surveys for their members and students in both groups indicated that they did not support Moore’s appointment. As a result, both groups are endorsing the results of their surveys and are now officially against Moore’s appointment, though NUGSS

president Duncan Malkinson indicated in a letter to undergrads that NUGSS’ opposition will be more in the form of advocacy: “Over the next few weeks, I intend to focus our advocacy on how this process can be improved in the future, rather than reliving past battles, by working with everyone to

ensure improvements to the appointment process are made. This will be in line with the values of our institution and with the top priority of upholding your interests.”

Outgoing NBCGSS president Jessy Rajan wrote that her organization does not feel that Moore is a suitable candidate for Chancellor

and wished the Board of Governors would: “...seriously consider the impact on the graduate students of this appointment and we request further consideration to rescind the offer [to Moore].”

Last Friday, the Board of Governors held an open meeting that was well attended by members of the community. Though the James Moore appointment was not on the agenda, the board decided to hear from the large group of anti-Moore protesters.

The visitors’ gallery was lined with people holding anti-Moore signs and some faculty members even had duct tape over their mouths, a reference to what was perceived by many as the former Conservative government’s - of which James Moore was a member - muzzling of federal scientists.

Despite the impassioned words of the anti-Moore speakers, Ryan Matheson told the crowd the decision was final, and the Board of Governors would be moving on.

Dr. Michael Murphy, a professor in the Political Science department and a member of the UNBC Senate told the CBC that the Faculty Association would be holding a non-confidence vote against Matheson, though such a vote would be unofficial and nonbinding. Given that the only body capable of making a decision about the Moore appointment is the Board of Governors, and they say they have come to a definitive decision, it looks likely that Moore will be handing out degrees at May’s Convocation. However, it does not look like the opposition to Moore’s appointment will cool down anytime soon.

10

Culture

Sexual Assault and Mental Health: Part II Grant Bachand Team Member

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ur twenties and thirties are a time in our lives when we discover ourselves intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and sexually. Many people in their early twenties actively pursue understanding their sexuality. We leave the confinement of high school with heavy-handed rules and enter into college, university, or the “real world.” University, for many of us, is the place in which much of our sexual learning will happen; at parties, in dorms, and all manner of other places. It is in our first couple years that we might find a partner who will will help us explore our sexual desires and comforts.

University, unfortunately, can also be a place where people experience terrible traumas that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. When the doors open for the first semester of university, that is when many students are at its highest risk of sexual violence. This is according to Sarah Boyd and Shelly LeBreton from the Women’s Centre here at UNBC, who sat down with me to discuss sexual assault, feminism and the role society plays to end violence toward women. The two work with different groups at UNBC, such as security, faculty, administration and NUGSS to support, advocate, and educate people about the issues that affect women. The centre is a 24 hour safe space for women, who are looking for support or to simply just talk. Boyd is heavily involved in the community working with various groups and people from Shirley Bond to the court system, and she has become keenly aware of the problems facing women in northern BC. When dealing with sexual assault, the Women’s Centre has been actively working to identify areas and people, and trends that are problematic. Boyd told me that certain “hot spots” around campus where violence is a problem such as the library’s study rooms, and the residence is where much of attention is focused in terms of preventing violence. According to Boyd, security has done a good job in dealing with these areas, and situations that happen in these “hot spots”. Looking back to the beginning of the semester, Boyd tells me that is when students are at the highest risk for violence and that is due to many reasons, chiefly alcohol consumptions. Our society’s favourite social lubricant is one of the most prolific date rape drugs.

The question I keep asking myself, why is it that the first couple years of university are such a problematic time for violence? When I think about the world we enter into when

we start university it begins to make sense. When we start university we are young, and in many respects truly free for the first time. In high school heavy-handed authority figures tell us what we can do, when we can do it, and what is appropriate. Girls in high school have it even worse than boys, we have all heard “no boobs, backs, bellies or butts,” when teachers talk to girls about what they can and cannot wear to school.

At a young age we are already putting the ownership on girls to dress a certain way to “ensure boys can concentrate,” putting the importance of sexual restraint on girls and not boys. High school gives us a brief sexual education, but the whole time we are there we are not talking about our desires, motivations, drives, and needs. Nope, we talk about understanding our sexual organs and how to put on condoms on bananas. That is super important, but not the whole picture. High school is where many of us will try sex for the first time, however university is where we explore sex.

Not only are we being overloaded by puberty and desires we have never felt before, but our social stewards are doing everything to tell us that sex is weird, dangerous and girls need to not provoke men by wearing inappropriate clothing.

How does this even remotely help us deal with sex, consent, and love? For those playing the home game… it doesn’t.

Fast forward to university where we have just left this very uptight institution where they baby us, and entered into another which treats us as full fledge adults who know what we are doing. This level of autonomy is liberating, and can also be very problematic. Going to that first university party can be exhilarating. We drink, meet new people while trying to make a good impression and possibly meeting sexual partners. Though it is in that environment where we are at a high risk for problems to occur, the excessive drinking can lead to people taking advantage of the situation, drinks can be spiked or we simply many not feel that we are able to stop someone sexual advancements; one of hundreds of

situations could play out. The problems that can occur at the beginning of the semester is but the tip of the iceberg though.

The real problem is how we as a society looks at sex and how we deal with the concept of consent. Now when we hear the word consent many of us think we understand it, yes means yes and no means no. I think we all have heard of the No Means No campaign. However consent extends far beyond simply saying yes once, it is something that when we are being intimate we should be mindful of. Simply saying yes at the outset of any intimate interaction does not extend that consent to every possible intimate act.

Saying yes at every progression is critical. Understanding our comfort levels and the comfort levels of our partner comfort is how we determine how our relationship is built.

When one spells it out so plainly I think, for many of us, we will say well of course that’s obvious, but even though it is obvious, hearing it and understanding it is different.

Why is it that for something so obvious like consent, we still have a problem with sexual violence in our society? It is too easy to simply point to mass media as the outright instigator though when you couple our terrible education of sex in high school with the state of mass media it begins to

Culture 11

make sense. We are a very sexualized society, but we don’t really deal with it in a healthy way or openly talk about it.

Watching Big Bang Theory while writing this article really drives home this idea for me, the amount of references to sex in a single episode is staggering. People do talk with their friends about sex but if you think about it is always behind closed doors, with close friends, which is good but if those supports aren’t there what then do you do.

Open conversations about consent, sex, desires, and drives don’t happen nearly happen enough or in constructive ways. We don’t nearly enough allow for healthy ideas about women to foster, because we are constantly, not only overly sexualizing women in media, but demonizing people who talk about healthier societal ways to act in accordance to woman, aka feminist. However that is not a new idea in fact it is a well know problem, then why is it what we are moving forward at such a sloth like rate?

Let’s go back and look at UNBC and where the Woman’s Centre comes in. Boyd and LeBreton work hard to help women and men here at UNBC deal with these complex issues. One of their most recent campaigns has been their healthy and unhealthy relationships campaign, where they give people a quiz, which helps them; determine which type of relationship they are in. I asked Boyd what are some of the characteristics of an unhealthy relationship; “probably one of the bigger issues is control, as soon as you start hearing about someone who is texting them asking where they are, what they’re wearing, who they see, [and] who their friends are.” When you look to the roots of that behavior according to Boyd we are looking at insecurity possibly even trauma that the perpetrators have had. These sorts of relationships are not only happening to women, men can find themselves in these sorts of

relationships too. It is important to identify if you are in an unhealthy relationship and if so find ways to work on the relationship or simply get out of that relationship.

UNBC has been good at responding to acts of sexual violence in terms of how the Wellness Centre and security respond to them, but preventative measures is where the school seems to fall a bit short. A sexual violence task force is in place at UNBC, however the Women’s Centre is waiting on the recommendations from them to come out. It is also worth noting that no university really wants to deal with this issue to publicly because no university wants to be known as a school with a problem with sexual assault.

That tends to drop enrollment numbers. I asked Boyd about the greatest challenges facing the centre funding and groups working together seemed to be a common issue. Funding is always problematic in public institutions cause of the limited resources and opportunities, so this is where governments can take on being stewards of this issues and put the necessary resources in place to help this organization’s work to combat sexual violence in universities.

Another group dealing with this issue is the Moose Hide Campaign. I spoke with an individual from the group who talks a lot about men taking on this issue, some of them perpetrators of sexual assault, or simply had very misogynistic views in the past. Now they advocate for men to take accountability for changing the culture and helping end violence against women. They do this through the sharing of stories and being open about past transgressions in order to help heal and change.

If you want more information about the Moose Hide Campaign, the First Nations Centre at UNBC can help.

If you want get involved with helping changing the climate of sexual violence, reaching out to the Women’s Centre is a good place to start. NUGSS also has a role to play and asking them to take real meaningful steps to support initiatives around UNBC to prevent sexual violence will go a long way. In the end what is the idea of this article, what is the take away.

Well saying don’t rape people seems a bit obvious, and over simplifies this issue. Sexual assault is a complex issue, society does propagate a culture of over sexualization in media, high schools don’t do an adequate job with teaching kids about sex, and organizations that have a mandate to handle sexual assault problems don’t always have the resource to deal with the problem. So what is the answer, we can start with consent its simple and easy to understand. As a society we need to dispel all myths about consent replace them with the simple notion that a person has to say yes to every stage of the sexual experience, if they say no them don’t get mad, accept the no and move on. If a girl is passed out at a part it is not an invitation to have sex, and getting someone so drunk they don’t know what they are doing is also not consent. Consent comes from a mind that knows what is happening and can be revoked at anytime. Beyond consent we should feel open to talk about sex, it doesn’t have to be weird, we all do it, and therefore we should learn to embrace it in a healthy way.

Finally, we need to learn to be ok with being feminism; men need to learn to accept feminism and calling themselves feminists. Feminism is not about man hating, anyone who tells you that is wrong. It’s simple, I don’t think a woman should be treated as less than a man in any facet of society.

Once we start changing how we as a society deals with these things, we will begin to take away the shame associated with sexual assaults cause in the end it is not that person’s fault, they never asked for it, and their clothes did not open them up to it. Stop blaming the victim and start fixing the problem.

12

Culture

Music for Studying and Writing Robert Corbin Guest Contributor

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ll students understand the process of studying. Studying is something that many do not know or care about in the first year, but after some botched midterms and frantically raised eyebrows, they will either get together with friends to discover how it is done, or they will continue to assume they are not the problems and fail. It is to the former group I wish to speak today.

Many students have had great success writing long lab reports or studying the same dry material hour after hour by listening to their favourite music turned down low as a means of helping concentration. Many however do not know the wide assortment of music that is available on the internet for free which is excellent for both studying and writing papers. My first recommendation is the soundtrack to Thor: The Dark World. This fantastic creation can be listened to on YouTube as a single 80 minute soundtrack for convenience. The thing that made it such a compelling movie was the amazing music, which can also help both studying and paper writing by taking your mind to a place where it can feel a sense of purpose in writing or studying.

Powerful music serves multiple purposes; helping to complete a task before a deadline while preventing sudden sleep syndrome, which will hit students at various times of the semester while also pushing aside feelings

of hunger and boredom that will begin to soak through the consciousness after a time. Other amazing tracks that can be listened to over and again without having to worry about “killing a classic”, mostly due to the length, but also because of the timeless classicism include the soundtracks to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.

For the marathon sessions of writing encountered several times per semester in the undergrad years, a simple 80 minutes of heroic music from Thor might not be enough, but ringing in at a staggering 3 hours and 40 minutes, the official soundtrack of the LOTR trilogy can be enough to complete most papers in one sitting. For longer papers requiring some extra oomph, throw in The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey soundtrack ringing in at 2 hours 21 minutes, and that should be enough time to write, edit, append, and proofread a full twenty page biochemistry marathon.

For those of us with less predictable tastes that maybe have more fluid, changing minds needing some repetition, there is the dark side of YouTube with its 10 hour videos, perfectly looped to prevent the ability of quickly detecting the loop point. Case studies have shown that playing these songs next to an unsuspecting test subject can play for up to seventeen minutes before a sneaking suspicion that this song has been heard before begins

to set in. With this in mind, some songs from the dark side of YouTube can quickly become annoying, which can be a positive as it will increase the drive to finish a paper no matter where in the paper one may be.

Lastly, students looking for the energy of heavy metal music to help writing, but preferring to have catchy lyrics that can be sung along with after finishing a paper need look no further than power metal. This genre contains many entries with themes such as pirate metal, galactic war metal, and werewolf and vampire metal to fill any listening slot.

Bands from these aforementioned entries include: Alestorm, Gloryhammer, and Powerwolf. Alestorm is a well Scottish pirate metal band, known for such hits as “Keelhauled”, “Hangover”, and “Drink”. Gloryhammer tells the tale of the hero Angus McFyfe, ruler of a country summed up as space Scotland, and in a perpetual battle with Zolgathrax, the evil sorcerer. Song selections from Gloryhammer include: “The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee”, “Universe on Fire”, and “Apocalypse 1992”. Powerwolf is a German power metal band that sings songs about werewolves, vampires, undead and many other things. Amazing songs from Powerwolf include:” Army of the Night”, and “We are the Wild”.

Happy studying and happy listening!

Student Voice 13

“Procreational Neglect”: (Part 1/2) Amanda Ramsay Guest Contributor

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y sister arrives at the courthouse and is met with screaming from the hallway and the continuous sound of clicking. In the courtroom she is met with stares, whispers and pointed fingers. The media supports her; all of the newspapers have offered her interviews and photo shoots to advance her cause, national media have taken the contentious case and placed it on their front pages. The average citizen is not so kind; they already blame her for the life destroying precedent she is about to set.

She was a young girl who wore sundresses and insisted on wearing her hair down so that the sun could bleach it from the brown of Mexico sands to the color of the early morning sun on a spider’s web. Now her hair pales in comparison to the bark of a paper birch; what little there is left of it.

Her translucent skin turns blue in front of the courthouse’s red wood panelled walls that reminds me of a maple tree in late fall. She wears a skirt suit that is some feminine version of a Charlie Chapman costume and she’d failed at trying to liven it up with a multicoloured scarf. She had covered her head for walking into the courthouse but lowers the scarf; for effect, I’m sure of it, upon entry to the courtroom.

Seated on the right of the courthouse and turning, she grins at me with conceit. I glare at her seriously. If she knew what she was putting us through, the suffering, then she would slap that smile off of her own face, but perhaps I am projecting.

“Court is in session, this date of 2088. Mr. Finnegan, et. al vs. Mrs. Finnegan. All stand for the Right Honourable Judge Mathis,” calls the uniform up front and like worshippers, we all rise.

I watch my dad from behind the bar, staring at his back. His shoulders are drawn in and

his chin touches his chest. I reach over the bar and grab one of his shoulders in support, I squeeze gently. His hand, a falling leaf on a cold day, lights on mine and then his shoulder moves gently to let my hand fall away from him. This spurn does little to disperse my own fear, I hope that my touch saves him some grief, or gives him minor comfort. Counsel had prepared us, we knew that the only thing we could ask for was to have him live, should he be deemed guilty.

They assured us that the judge is competent in his law but prodigious in his application to personal court cases and family law.

We’d heard of no one who thought him insensitive, even if they had lost their case.

“Please sit,” says the judge. His large robes are a black that speaks of nothing, hemmed and collared with red; the kind that seeps from an arterial wound, pumping and spurting with each heartbeat, all the while the heart is slowing and dying. An unblemished white collar disturbs me. White has a promise of purity yet this trial spoke of defilement and human error, more suited to the image of mud on a beige carpet.

“I cannot,” the judge speaks in a resonant bass, “decide the outcome of this case based on emotions.” He clears his throat, a guttural sound. “Because, Mrs. Finnegan,” he holds a hand upright in her direction, “The precedent set by this case will not only have an effect on your life and your father’s but would also affect a huge populace politically. So before I begin, I am open to your questions at this time.” He cocks his head in her direction for a response.

She stands, surprised. “I have none at this time, your honour.” She sits back down hesitantly. Her council give her a look full of meaning I can’t discern.

“First, should I rule that your father created your life, naturally- and by naturally I

mean without the assistance of third party surrogacy or fertility intervention. If he did so with knowledge of his family history of cancer and if that makes him criminally responsible for your sickness; several things will occur.” He undoes the top button of his collar and then takes a sip of water from a glass invisible behind his seated podium.

“Your father will not only be financially responsible for your sickness, but he will also be criminally negligent of creating your life, with his wife; who also would be negligent in carrying you to term with the possibility of carrying on those cancerous genes.” He leans into the podium to look at my sister gravely.

My sister shakes noticeably at the mention of our long-dead mother.

Her eyes widen and her mouth opens enough to show two front teeth.

Our mother was the one who united our family even in times of controversy. Her memory alone brings me joy but the details of her barrel-shaped body, her earthy fragrance and her unyielding hugs make me sad for the loss.

“Next would be the legal ramifications to your family members and yourself. If we pursue this legal course; then, my dear,” he speaks to her, maintaining eye contact.

“Your father will be put to death for the biological torture you are suggesting he has

placed on you by virtue of his genes and his knowledge of his family history.”

In front of me my dad is looking down and his shoulders are hunched. He picks at his fingers, thick and calloused. To everyone else, perhaps he looks as though he isn’t paying attention but it’s his comfort measure and it has often helped him to hear or focus on everything that is going on around him. He is a carpenter by trade and works in silence, he hears anything that is not silence. If he couldn’t be working with wood, he’d be picking his hands. It is the same fidgeting he’d resorted to when my mother would tell him about her day.

“Stop picking your callouses dear,” Mom would say coming out of the kitchen and interrupting her own oration. “You know you’ll have to scrub with pumice if you want them to go away.” She’d smile at him, a smile I never used to understand.

To be continued...

hubpages.com

Student Life A Very Potter Musical—Round Two! Tierney Watkinson Team Member

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n February 20th, the UNBC Musical Production Group will perform select scenes from A Very Potter Musical for the second time!

The show will start at 7:00pm in the Canfor Theatre.

Instead of a pub night to follow, this time the club will be hosting a Yule Ball in the NUSC space, complete with a Hogwarts-themed concession, Harry Potter series trivia, and a costume contest. This is an alcohol-free event, so underage students will be able to attend!

Ticket sale dates are TBA. Follow the night’s Facebook page, “A Very Potter Yule Ball and Musical Event”, to keep informed. Do not hesitate to buy a ticket once they are on sale—they sell like special brownies. I mean, pumpkin pasties.

Tickets will be 10$ each, and cover your admittance to both the Yule Ball and the preceding musical numbers. Without a ticket, entrance to the musical show is by donation so if you miss out on a ticket to the Yule Ball itself, you can still enjoy a hilarious, dysfunctional, musical rendition of life at Hogwarts.

Join us to celebrate the 12 year old phenomenon, Harry Potter, as he completely disregards the two-faced Quirrell (see what I did there?), squabbles with Cedric Diggory for the love of southern belle Cho Chang, and ultimately faces down the incredible dancer that is Lord Voldemort. Don’t forget your wands! *Unfortunately, owls, cats, toads, and other magical animal companions are prohibited from attending due to the building codes. I don’t make the rules.

Sports 15

Top 10 Sports Video Games Brady Stark Team Member

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s winter grabs us with its icy hand, we are forced to stay indoors more often than usual and we can turn to our favorite pastime: video games. Here are my top ten sports games of all-time.

10) MLB the Show: As far as over the top games go, MLB the Show does a marvelous job at giving you the feel of a normal baseball game, but cranks up the intensity by making any epic play larger than life. You can be David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox and smash a home run over the fence and into the San Francisco harbor in super slow motion and with fireworks lighting up the sky. If you are on the defensive side of the ball, you can leap twice as high as physically possible.

This game is for those who just want to see baseball played at its most extreme.

9) NBA Live Jam: Speaking of over-the-top games, with NBA Jam you can literally be on fire if you go on a good enough streak.

Playing two-on-two basketball, you try and use a balance of timing and super dunks in order to get the upper hand. Considering this game is almost a decade old, you can play with some NBA legends and have a ball trying to dunk over your friends.

Probably the most underappreciated aspect of this game is the fantastic play-by-play.

8) Bo Jackson’s Football and Baseball: This original Game Boy game gives you two for the price of one as famous athlete made his mark on two different sports and was immortalized in this 1990 game. On the baseball side of the game, you were the pitcher and batters for your team. If you wanted to really make the game easy for yourself, all you would have to do is throw a fastball in the upper right corner of the pitching box and have the batters miss every time. On the batting side of the ball, timing is your only nemesis due to not many options for the pitchers

being available. As long as you wait for the change-up, you should be ok. On the football side of the game, you are playing with little better than different stick figures but it is the first Game Boy game in which you can call your own plays and see what kind of football bench boss you really are.

7) NHL 2008: The reason that this NHL is on the list is because it is the biggest example of a homer game that any hockey lover could come across. 2007 was the last year of of Naslund, Bertuzzi, and Morrison lighting up the lamp despite the Canucks not getting anywhere near the Stanley Cup. Yes, the West Coast Express line was dominant, but were they all worthy of mid 90’s to late 80’s stats? EA Sports HQ is in the beautiful city of Vancouver (well, Burnaby), and they are privileged to be able to see the Canucks in their backyard. Due to their proximity to the Canucks, players get the benefit of some favorable rankings, but none was more obvious than NHL 2008.

It’s the little additions and comical player rankings that make NHL 2008 so great.

6) NHL 2002: Despite the graphics being on a lower level than that of 2008, NHL 2002 was more revolutionary. For the first time you could actually tell that the player you were playing with was not just a generic face, but actually resembled the your favourite stars.

The gameplay was more fluid than years past, and trading players got an upgrade as you actually had a menu for proper trades rather than just swapping players via roster moves.

Playing with the likes of Sakic and Iginla when you can actually tell that it is them was a great feeling as a hockey fan growing up.

5) Tiger Woods Golf: Tiger Woods Golf was the very first realistic golf game for any console.

The fact that you have to be able to swing your joystick in the right direction in order to make a clean shot, makes this game worlds better than its predecessors. The putting in Tiger Woods has basically revolutionized

the video game golfing experience due to its accurate depiction of the putting greens of each of its PGA courses. With previous games, the player would get to the putting green and just have to judge the right distance to the ball, now you have to make sure that the distance as well as the angle is right before taking the shot makes the game much harder, not to mention, make Tiger Woods Golf the best line of golf games ever created.

4) Madden 13: The Madden franchise is synonymous with the NFL and how new generations of fans connect with the game.

Whenever playing Madden, you always had a good idea of who you had on your team because of the roster names and so on, but Madden 13 really took the time to make sure that the style of each of the star athletes was properly represented. The gameplay in Madden 13 was significantly improved as the player had a plethora of playing options that were not available in previous games. Having the coaches challenge and other in-game options makes the gamer feel closer to the action than ever before.

The only issue that I have with the Madden franchise is, why can they not acquire the rights to the CFL and make it another league that you can play in like FIFA or NHL? 3) WWE All-Stars: Despite not being the biggest fake wrestling fan, WWE All-Stars has got to be one of the most fun games that one could ever play. When you are tired of the same old wrestling game where the superstars somewhat resemble who they are supposed to when the action starts, you want to reach for something a little more ridiculous. WWE All-Stars gives you all of your favorite past and present wrestlers and then makes then to insane proportions. Everything in this game is blown way out of scale, from the extra muscle mass put on the characters to gravity defying wrestling moves. Imagine being The Rock, instead of lifting your opponent a couple of feet off the ground for a Rock Bottom, you jump 20 feet into the air and

throw your opponent down. WWE AllStars is the wrestling trip of a lifetime.

2) FIFA 14: FIFA ended up knocking it out of the park in 2014 with its innovative gameplay and out of this world graphics. FIFA 14 was the first in its franchise to really utilize the right analogue stick to its fullest potential.

Now, when trying to deke around opponents in a tight space, the players can now do the fancy footwork that stars like Messi and Ronaldo are famous for. Previously, if you wanted to get around someone in the game, one would turn the players’ whole body and bull rush the defenders and hope to get the ball past them. Another innovation is the feature that when passing the ball, the player has to be facing the right direction instead of pressing the pass button before kicking the ball away. Lastly, the graphics are miles above previous FIFA games as the likenesses of the players are sharper than ever before and the fans in the stadiums were not all just one dimensional. The pitch and surrounding environment have all been upgraded to give the gamer the most realistic experience of any sports games.

1) NHL 94: Probably the most classic game for any Canadian sports gamer. NHL 94 ushered in the new era of hockey games with graphics that are now laughable, but in 1994 you could finally see the difference between each team and which player was which. No longer were you just playing with “Forward 1”, you were playing with the likes of Gretzky, Sakic, and the silver fox himself, Trevor Linden. NHL 94 instituted hockey’s actual rules: Icing, offside, tripping, roughing, etc. Finally a hockey game where you actually felt like you were playing with your favorite team. Not only was it a gem in its time, NHL has remained rather timeless as hockey fans will still play the game if they want a blast from the past. NHL 94 will forever be the game that launched the NHL gaming franchise into the beautiful game that it is today. Now excuse me while I trade Derek Dorsett for Connor McDavid.

Coffee Break Filbert Cartoons

By Anthony Labonté

The HuNT TO LOVE OUR BODIES, LOVE OURSELVES! FEB. 1 - Feb. 29, 2016 Win Prizes Using your Android, iPhone or tablet device, complete missions using a free app called "GooseChase" all in the name of Eating Disorders Awareness!

GRAND PRIZE: APPLE IPAD MINI Donated by Family Services of the North Shore

Random Draw Prizes: $100.00 Gift Certificate towards The Source courtesy of Bell Let's Talk $50.00 Best Buy Gift Certificate Inspirational Necklace from Wonderkath Etsy Shop

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Presented by: The Provinical Eating Disorders Awareness (PEDAW) Campaign