Issue 4, Volume 22

Over The Edge UNBC’s Independent Student Newspaper est. 1994

Timberwolves Basketball and Soccer see pages 14 and 15

Vive la France In Memory Of Those Killed In Paris On November 13

Volume 22, Issue 4

Dealing with Mental Health and Sexual Assault See page 7 Free

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November 17, 2015 ote-newspaper@unbc.ca

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of people, a small percentage of them are the ones committing these horrific acts.

Along with the victims of these incidents, we must remember that the rest of the 1.5 billion are innocent and are also suffering from the extremists among them. There are thousands of refugees in Europe, most of them Muslim, fleeing from a war being waged by the extremist members of their society.

Saying all these people are part of ISIS is like saying that all Christians are members of the Ku Klux Klan; simply ridiculous.

There are something like 1.5 billion muslims on planet Earth and of that large collection

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Over The Edge

Canada’s new government pledged during the election campaign to allow 25,000 Syrian refugees to enter Canada. I have already seen comments on media sites saying that Canada is poised to allow 25,000 terrorists into the country. Let the immediate anger settle down, and then reconsider your response.

The people that desire to come to Canada are also victims of Islamic extremism.

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Last Friday, Paris, France was rocked by a series of explosions and shootings that left __ people dead. Combined with the series of terrorist attacks that took place in the city in January, this event is sure to increase tensions between the French people and muslims in that country, and perhaps around the world as well. The gut reaction would be to condemn all followers of Islam.

Another terrorist attack by Islamic terrorist showing the inherent evil of muslims. We must resist these urges and thoughts.

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UNBC Life

UNBC is #1 (According to Maclean’s) Colin Slark Editor-in-Chief

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UNBC

t’s official. UNBC is number 1. Well, at least according to Maclean’s Magazine. After years of being highly regarded in the magazine’s annual post-secondary institution survey and being the runner-up several times, the plucky little school on top of Cranbrook Hill was named Canada’s top small university for 2016. Obviously those in charge of Maclean’s decided they needed to make up with Prince George after naming the city the most dangerous in the country back in 2011. Most likely they were impressed after we managed to hold a major national sporting event without any major incidents.

This announcement is nothing earthshaking, but is welcome. More exposure means more prospective students, more public awareness, and perhaps more top class instructors joining the excellent faculty at UNBC. More students could be needed to provide revenue to the university as according to the CBC, student enrollment declined 5.9% this year over last, possibly due to last March’s Faculty Association strike. Part of the Faculty Association’s assertions during that strike was that UNBC’s faculty was top quality and deserves proper compensation, so this announcement must be some sort of vindication.

Joking aside, what does this mean for UNBC and its students? One potential benefit is peace of mind.

Even though UNBC may not be the biggest, or most well known university, you can feel comfortable that you are still getting a quality education. UNBC may be your “local” post-secondary institution, but you have not compromised by attending classes here. However, many of you already know this. For the first time in over a decade, Maclean’s included a student satisfaction survey in their rankings, and students rated their university highly.

While these rankings are merely the opinion of one publication, it is still good for UNBC to be recognized as one of the best universities not just in British Columbia, but across Canada. We have a lot to be proud of: a beautiful campus, excellent faculty, accessible amenities, and much more. Remind yourself when thinking about these rankings that while the university itself deserves a lot of credit, you, the students are a large part of the institution’s success. Great job everyone, let us try to make it two years in a row.

UNBC Shines in Wastewater Competition TIerney Watkinson Team Member

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t the Water Environment Federation’s Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) in Chicago, which was held from September 26-30 this year, UNBC was represented by students Allison Matfin, Maureen Long, Clayton McBride, Brenden Vissers and Stephanie Wall. Each student is currently in their final semester in the joint UNBC/ UBC Environmental Engineering program.

The team had three months, beginning in January 2015, to come up with a solution for a complicated design problem. In this case, they were presented with the task of finding a way of creating biogas out of sludge, the leftover materials from treated waste

water, for the city of Kelowna.

Back in April, the team’s proposal placed first in the BC Water and Waste Association Student Design Competition, qualifying them for the international WEFTEC where the team ultimately placed third out of ten entries for their proposal in the Wastewater Competition. Allison Matfin remembers the competition as a great learning experience; she really enjoyed working with her team in researching all of the different technologies available that would help them solve the design problem.

The team’s findings have been presented to Kelowna, but whether the plan is put in place or not depends on the overall cost of

implementing the plan as well as space of the current waste site.

According to Matfin, the team is still speaking to the city about aspects of the proposal. In essence, the plan involves putting sludge into an anaerobic digester, which is “Essentially a tank that has no air in it,” Matfin explained to me.

Microorganisms in the tank digest the sludge and they produce energy in the form of natural gas; as well, the remaining solids are removed of odours and pathogens and can be used for fertilizer. The team’s proposal is a huge step towards making waste management more environmentally sustainable.

Congratulations to this extremely gifted group of students!

apsc.ubc.ca

Julia MacDonald

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Melanie Anderson Guest Contributor

UNBC Life

A Day in the Life of a Market Manager Melanie Anderson Guest Contributor

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he job I love the most is my position as the Market Manager at the University Farmers Market. When I was looking at schools for my undergraduate degree, one of the pulls to the University of Northern British Columbia was access to a farmers market on campus that I had a goal to be involved with in one way or another. In my first year I volunteered every week setting up tables and helping vendors load their goods and became the volunteer coordinator.

In year two I became chair of the committee and helped with everything from events to wearing a carrot suit when needed. Now in my 3rd and final year I have taken over as the manager and am putting my experience and passion to use every week.

Though the UFM runs Tuesdays from 11-3pm during the school year, there are still lots of things happening before market day from organizing special events, to coordinating layouts, as well as finding new vendors. Here is a look at a day in the life of a market manager on a typical market day: 7:00- The mad dash begins as I catch the first bus up to the University to begin my day. My first order of business is to get to Campus in time for a quick shot of coffee from Degrees to get me through the busy day ahead.

8:00- As I was also the gardener for the summer, harvest time is still in progress. I arrive at the PGPIRG Garden as early as possible to pick and wash the week’s ripe vegetables to bring to sell at the UFM.

9:00- Set up begins in the NUSC event space that houses our weekly market. I arrive before volunteers and prepare the space for vendors to arrive. I deal with last minute cancellations and purposeful placement of each type of goods fighting it out with weekly special events for the ideal space.

10:00- As volunteers arrive to help we meet vendors at the loading docks and load their goods onto carts. Volunteers then head to the market and I assign them their table for the day.

11:00- The Market opens to the public! As eager customers begin to trickle in, last minute set-up is still going on.

There are always a few late arrivals that need a bit of help getting going and I rush around the room to ensure vendors have everything they need to get through their day, be it small change, an extra chair, or even a coffee.

12:00- The rush hour is on and we see a few hundred people through the market during lunch. I make sure there is enough change for jams and kale and answer questions to people coming through. As it is my third year at the market there are a lot of familiar faces and I always try to say hello to everyone.

13:00- As the peak traffic time ends, a slower paced market atmosphere emerges and more people lounge in the chairs and chat with vendors. I take this opportunity to visit each vendor to collect weekly table fees and do my personal shopping at the same time.

14:00- If it is quiet enough and everything seems

to be running smoothly I indulge in a 10 minute back rub from Kathy at Relax-in-chair. A guilty pleasure, which I have never regretted.

15:00- The second the clock strikes three the mad dash for carts to leave begins. Unlike the morning as vendors trickle in over an hour the exit is much more instantaneous.

Volunteers struggle to get carts fast enough to meet vendor itching to get back to the farm or pick up their kids.

Oh no! We find a cooler with sausages left behind by a vendor and call them straight away to let them know we have them and arranging pick up for the next morning.

Sometimes if we are lucky someone leaves a sweet treat for volunteers to thank them for their much needed hard work that day. Other times I buy cookies to show them how much we love having them around!

16:00- Accounting is finished and we deposit revenues for the day at finance before they close at 16:30. Clean up finishes and we make it so it looks like the market had never happened.

17:00- At the end of a busy day I am always thankful the Thirsty Moose Pub is our neighbour. Once everything is tidied and the last of the tables are taken down I grab a chair at the bar and sip a local brew to finish out the day.

As you can see it is a busy day full of challenges and there is never a dull moment. It is a happy place to work, a place full of good food, homemade crafts and lovely people. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

What is Food Security?

Melanie Anderson Guest Contributor

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re you living off of Ramen and KD noodles right now?

Don’t know if your budget will stretch to the end of the semester for food? Do you skip a meal sometimes or eat less to make do? You may be food insecure, but don’t worry because you are also not alone.

Food security exists when “all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe & nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life” (World Health Organization). Food security seems to be a buzz-word in many of the classes I take but what does it mean and how does it affect students here at UNBC? In recent years there have been a growing number of food banks and assistance programs popping up all over the country at post-secondary institutions including our own. Rise in tuition fees and administrative fees, inadequate student loans systems and low paying student jobs contribute to the overall rise in student poverty.

That is the basis for a research project being

undertaken this month at UNBC. Dr. Annie Booth and I are conducting a campus wide survey to determine the extent of food security in our community.

This research project will serve two purposes: it will first undertake the first comprehensive study of food security issues at UNBC, and as such, it will help the institution understand the extent of food security concerns, their impacts on individuals you work and study with, and to start to identify methods by which the institution could support individuals who experience food insecurity. A second purpose is to provide basic data to support UNBC’s development of a Sustainable Food Policy and Strategy. As UNBC is also Canada’s Green University this is a progressive step towards a sustainable food system that could include locally/regionally produced foods and foods produced in a long term environmentally sustainable fashion.

Whether or not you personally feel you are food insecure, we would very much appreciate your thoughts and insights

as a member of the UNBC community to help us build a comprehensive overview of the issue on our campus.

The UNBC community will also see direct benefits through the identification of those at risk of food insecurity, the nature of those risks and the consequences for the institution as a result and potential solutions which UNBC can consider adopting. So please visit our survey (unbc. ca/surveys/food-security) and as a bonus there will be draws for gift cards for a few lucky participants.

If you would like further information on the research & results, please contact: Dr. Annie Booth, Professor, Ecosystem Science and Management Program, annie.booth@unbc.ca (250-960-6649) or Melanie Anderson Research Assistant Undergraduate Student, Environmental Studies Melanie.Anderson@unbc.ca

UNBC Life

Trick-Or-Eat 2015 n Tierney Watkinson Team Member

really popular movie I still have not seen.

Due to some miscommunication, I was dressed not to comply with the group theme, but as a Dwarf of Middle Earth.

However, only two of the four of us were actually wearing Emotion costumes, so everything was alright and the night was not to be ruined. After being fed pizza, cookies, and information, we were given a map of our designated route and, after I had grown a beard, our group headed out.

Finally, after so long of pretending to be too old for it, we were all momentarily returned to our childhoods and were trick-or-treating once again. Looking back, the night was a great success. We got a surprising amount of candy, and people were very gracious about donating food items after we had explained who we were.

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hen a good friend of mine first told me about Trick-Or-Eat and forcefully invited me to join her group, I will confess that I was tentative.

I admit, I have missed trick-or-treating, but the thought of trekking from house to house asking for donations struck fear into my heart—how would people react when they opened the door not to children in superhero-outfits asking for candy, but to practically-adults asking them to raid their cupboards for non-perishable donations?

Despite my trepidations, I joined the cause.

Signing my life away was incredibly easy; I registered at trickoreat.ca, found my friend’s group in the Prince George region, and forever linked my name to the “The Emotions” team. On Halloween night at 5:00pm, I arrived at the Northern Sports Centre with my friend, who was on the ball and already in costume (I would later frantically braid my beard and don my cloak in the sports center bathroom). Two of my friends in the group were dressed as characters from The Emotions, that

Just as generous was the fact that they gave us candy even after they discovered we were university students. By 8:00pm, the end of the event, our bags were heavy with donations. We drove back to UNBC, and our donations were weighed and arranged with the food items other groups had collected. Costumes had been optional, but I must say, I saw many amazing costumes that night amongst the other groups!

For those fellow students who get a little bit melancholy around Halloween because they miss the feeling of trick-or-treating, this event is the perfect solution. Not only do you get to be a kid again for a night, but you are part of a great cause, too. Altogether, I am told that UNBC students collected 1428 lbs. of donations to the university food bank!

Thank you to NUGSS Sustainability at UNBC for hosting this event!

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Getting to the Meat of the Problem n Jesmeen Deo Guest Contributor

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rocessed meats, like bacon, are a widely loved staple by many of us. It is also widely known by everyone and their uncle how bad it is for you. Obviously, the fact that the hot dog you ate at your last club barbeque was incredibly unhealthy is probably not news. How bad it is, exactly, may not have sunk in yet, so allow science to butcher any misconceptions. Processed meats are now officially considered a Group 1 carcinogen, joining the likes of tobacco and asbestos.

Yikes.

Meats such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs, cold cuts, pork, and steak have long been suspected to have a hand in people developing cancer, but it was only this week that the International Agency for Research Against Cancer (IARC), a part of the World Health Organization, announced it officially.

The reason processed meats are so toxic to us likely has something to do with how they are preserved- the process of salting and curing creates known cancer-causing chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and N-nitroso compounds, according to the IARC study; however, the reason is still not yet fully understood.

The theory is that these compounds damage the inside bowel lining, so that the cell lining has to keep replicating in order to heal- the increased replication leads to the increased chance of error leading to mutation and eventually, cancer.

Cooking meat at high temperatures with grilling or barbequing can lead to these types of compounds being created, as well.

According to the IARC study, eating 50 g per day (2 slices of bacon or a bit less than 2 breakfast sausages) leads to an 18 percent increase in your risk for colorectal cancer.

The Canadian Cancer Society has long advised against eating red meat for this very reason. The Harvard School of Public Health published a study in April 2012 that showed that eating red meat once a day could increase your risk of dying by cancer or heart disease by 13 percent.

Eating processed meat once a day meant an

increase of 20 percent. Eating white meat, fish, legumes, low fat dairy or nuts once a day actually decreased the risk of cancer and heart disease by 7 to 19 percent.

So what can you do about your diet? Cut down on processed meat, obviously. We’ve still got the green light on fish and white meats like chicken. Beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, eggs and even dairy products are other sources of protein, and taste amazing if you learn how to cook them. However, those things are not complete proteins like meats are. Complete proteins are those that provide us with all the essential amino acids our bodies need. Since meat alternatives are incomplete sources of protein, a vegetarian diet has to be careful in including the right proportions of different types of incomplete proteins.

Besides, most of us are probably unwilling to give up on eating meats completely. The advice from experts is to limit your meat intake (the IARC did not release a specific recommended amount) and to steer clear of the processed and high-salt preserved and cured meats that line grocery store shelves, and instead buy from the fresh section.

Whether you choose to take action based on this evidence and reduce processed meat in your diet is up to you. Or perhaps you’ll choose to take this news with a grain of salt, especially when you consider it relative to some of the other substances that the IARC has labeled as a Group 1 carcinogen on their website: among them, alcoholic beverages, wood dust and outdoor air pollution. Now that’s some food for thought.

mirror.co.uk

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Student Voice

The TPP in Canada: Do International Corportions have more rights than we do?

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Andrew Kenway Contributor

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he TPP—or Trans Pacific Partnership— is a complex trade agreement between twelve different nations that has largely been kept in secrecy. Generally, if a trade deal were favourable to any of the countries involved, you might consider that going public with it would be a no-brainer for any politician. What’s more worrisome still is the fact that the deal is not slated to be released for public consumption until it is passed. If you’re worried about a person who informs you they’ll be engaging you in a deal, but won’t tell you; when, what for, or how much, but to bring your wallet, you’d be understandably worried. Even the publically released trade deal summary itself was worrying. Thanks to a recent leak of some portions of the document from famous whistleblower Wikileaks, the reality might be much more invasive and harmful than anyone ever might have imagined.

In the Democratic side of American politics, both democratic candidates—generally considered fairly right by Canadian political standards—have dismissed the deal as downright unconstitutional.

One of the principle areas the TPP areas will be affecting is that of copyrighted properties, intellectual or otherwise, and how long and far these rights extend. In general, this part of the deal does positively nothing positive for users of these properties, and absolutely everything for those who own the rights. This might not be so bad, because things that are good for businesses can be good for the public at large. However, in this case what it does is give corporations a reach that extends so far into the life of the average Canadian that it makes C-51 look positively polite in comparison. Except, of course, in this case these rights will not belong to your country, but instead to international corporations who hold the rights. Ariel Katz and Liran Kandinov of the Toronto Star have said that “an author’s legal monopoly in her expression necessarily limits the expressive

opportunities of others and also restricts access to and use of works, raises their prices, and imposes costs on potential users who need to find the owner to strike a bargain.”

The above assumes that the rights holder is even willing to sell the use of their product, and could infringe on anything from your available selections on Netflix. Even more unfortunate, the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled that “excessive control by holders of copyrights. . .may unduly limit the ability of the public to incorporate and embellish creative innovation in the long-term interests of society as a whole.” The rights of the TPP as they are currently written allow these copyright holder’s rights actually supersede those of our own government, never mind actual Canadians. Even under the much less restrictive currently help, Canada has been subject to copyright trolling—a practice where companies or individuals buy copyrights and sit on them, producing nothing and making money from it through a series of lawsuits against those who would produce something—and under the TPP it would be considerably worse. As far as internet rights are concerned The American Drug Company, Alexian Pharmaceuticals, has recently has sued our government for trying to lower the cost of a life-saving drug that is used primarily for a rare blood disease according to the CBC. In trying to regulate the cost of the drug—in our own country—the company has decided that it’s unfair for Ottawa to try and reduce the cost.

If this sounds familiar to another scandal that appeared in the American News recently, you’re likely thinking of Martin Shrekli of Turing Pharmaceuticals. He’s currently famous for gleefully defending his five thousand percent hike on a drug that people need to live. He simply said there was no profit being sold at its former price, and that the hike was required to turn a “reasonable profit.” If the TPP passes, some experts fear that business people like Shrekli will be

able to make these maddening increases in price on required drugs, and sue Canada if it refuses to comply with the hike.

For those who might argue that, yes, the average Canadian will certainly be hobbled by the deal, but Canadian businesses will thrive, they’d be wrong. One of the last minute issues of the most recent election was the TPP, which polarized Canadian dairy farmers who stood to lose considerable money to cheaper, lower quality American milk. American standards of quality in the Dairy Industry are lower than those in Canada, and allow hormones which allow for a cheaper production, but considered illegal or unsafe this far north. Steven Harper’s solution to this was a promise to subsidize dairy farmers with 4.3 billion dollars for the perceived and potential losses they might suffer at the hands of the deal. If this trade deal is supposed to be a good thing, then why was the sitting Prime Minister already promising a massive loss for a Canadian industry, creating a hole that had to be filled with taxpayer dollars?

Both Elizabeth May of the Green Party and Tom Mulcair of the New Democrat Party were in full opposition to the TPP. The Liberals and the Conservatives seemed to share views on the document as a positive, though the Liberals kept distance on the subject by promising to make no commitment until they’ve ‘read the document in full.’ What their stance on it is now, we’ll only have to wait and see.

One thing is for certain though: this is a complex deal that will affect everyone in the twelve countries involved with the partnership. It’s a difficult deal to read, but it’s also potentially the most important piece of legislation available to date. It will affect the lives of every single Canadian, cost us unknown amounts in patent and copyright lawsuits, and give International rights holders to reach into our private lives and violate our rights. If C-51 made Canadians mad, the Trans Pacific Partnership should make them furious.

Student Voice 7 OTE

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et us talk about mental health and sexual assault. How do UNBC, Prince George, and Canada deals with mental health. We are going to look at these two topics from different perspectives, and go into to detail about both during a threepart series.

How can students deal with mental health issues when they are at university and on campus? UNBC has plenty of services that can help with that. Sarah Hanson, manager of the UNBC Wellness Center says: “Any registered student can access our services without charge.” UNBC has several relevant services for those who needs them. There is the Wellness Center, First Nations Centre, Peer Support Center, Access Resource center, and a new program, Counselor in Residence.

The Wellness Centre is focused on helping students in long, and short term counseling services. If you need to talk or simply need information, then this is where the students can go for help. Informal services like the peer support center is for students to talk with other students, while Counselor in Residence is for students living in residence for after hours service.

To utilize the services at the Wellness Center you can phone or attend one of their walk-in sessions. When you come in they look at what help you require and then they determine how best to give you the help you need. This can be short term or long term and they can even help get support from the community after you graduate. According to Hanson the largest group of people they see are dealing with anxiety, which is similar in universities across Canada.

Jack.org, is a student group on campus that helps students deal with mental health issues and other mental health situations. Their main goal is to combat the stigma around mental health. They have initiatives in order to accomplish

this like their recent “Sleeve the Stigma Behind,” initiative.

With this initiative they used coffee sleeves which had puns on them like “Espresso yourself ”, to help make people feel safe to talk about mental health. Jack.org’s message is that discussing mental health issues should be as normal as discussing something like a broken ankle.

Universities can give students a lot to focus on like assignment and tests and this leads to a lot of stress on students. How big is mental illness on campus and are we addressing the problem adequately? A study from 2013 by the American College Health Association, looked at the lives of university students in Canada. The findings of the study varied but one of the least surprising findings were that over a 12 month period 89.3% of students felt overwhelmed by all they had to do, and 86.9% felt exhausted. Deadlines, and pressure to do well are part of the life of a student.

The key is how we deal with the pressure. According to the study, the amount of suicide rates are low: 9.5% for seriously considered suicides while 76.2% have never considered it.

Drinking amongst students was also an interesting area of the study. According to the study 70.8% of students had gone out and drunk within a 30-day period of the study and 58.3% drinking with 1-9 days. The amounts of drinks that they had when they “partied” was, 51.3% had less than 4 drinks, 12.1% had 5 drinks, 9.9% had 6 drinks and 26.8% had more than 7 drinks.

Sexual assault is another aspect to university life that has been gaining a lot of infamy south of the border in the United States. It is important to understand that only 10% of sexual assaults are reported and this means 90% of victims are left alone to deal with this very serious issue on their own. That does not have to be the case.

The UNBC Wellness Center can help as well as the Sexual Assault unit at the hospital (250-564-8302) they are available 24/7 to help. It is important to understand that there is help available in the community for victims who want to help anyone in their time of need.

The information in this article is one part of the larger picture, and to better understand it we have to do more digging, and talk with more people. Part two and three of this series will hope to bring more light to the climate of mental health and sexual assault in our community and our country.

If you are someone who is going through a crisis right now, or you know someone who is, and don’t know what to do.

Go to the UNBC Wellness Center, or reach out to Jack. org. UNBC services are friendly and welcoming. Mental illness or stress does not need to be a huge thing to deal with and these people can help. If you have been a victim of sexual assault there are people who can help you all you need to do is reach out to them and they will help. If you want more information about any of the services offered at UNBC, here is a list of contact information: Jack.org, email unbcjackproject@gmail.com, UNBC Wellness Centre (Room 5-196, Monday – Friday, 9am-4pm) or call 250-960-6396, Health Services (Room 5-106, Monday –Friday, 9am- 4pm) or call 250-960-6370, First Nations Centre (Room 7-111, Monday – Friday, 9am-4pm) or call 250-960-5772.

If it is an emergency: UNBC Security (room 7-207) (250960-7058) (Emergencies 250-960-3333), Crisis line 24hr (Confidential) 250-563-1214, Community Response Unit 250565-2668, University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (250-565-2000), S.O.S. Society (sexual assault counseling services) (250-564-8302), Victim Services (250-561-3329).

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Election 2015

Election 2015: Results Grant Bachand Contributor

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t’s official. The election is over, and we now have a Liberal majority in the House of Commons and Justin Trudeau is the new Prime Minister of Canada.

The seat count is the Liberals at 184 seats, Conservatives 99 seats, the New Democratic Party 44 seats, Bloc Québécois 10 and Greens 1. Many people are celebrating the change while others are still trying to figure out where to go from here.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has officially stepped down as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, but will continue to sit in parliament as an MP. Thomas Mulcair, however is staying on as the leader of the New Democratic Party. Rona Ambrose will be the interim leader of the Conservative Party.

The Liberals moving all the way to a majority was surprising, but the fall of the NDP has to be one of the major surprises of the election. This election circled around a lot of issues, the economy, climate change, Niqab, C-51, Syria, Senate scandal, missing and murdered aboriginal women, and much more. The main issue of this election, however, was Stephen Harper, after 10 years of being Prime Minister of Canada; many Canadians felt he had simply lost his way as a leader. The Conservative Party became extremely ideological, divisive, and they propagated a culture of fear some would say was extremely anti-Islamic.

In many ways the election for Stephen Harper was lost before it had even started, with many notable losses to the executive of the party such as John Baird, and Peter McKay. The party was limping into this election on Stephen Harper’s tarnished brand, now the question is who will take over.

Jason Kenney? Peter McKay? Doug Ford? Who knows. Jason Kenney is the most likely but there is plenty of potential for anyone to lead. The rebuilding of the brand must begin and a shadow cabinet needs to be formed. Stephen Harper has declared he will stay on as an MP, which may make it hard for the party to move on and be ready for next election. The work has just begun for the Conservatives’ next chapter.

The tone of the Conservative Party has already begun to change, with the interim leader now talking about the need

ctvnews.ca

for an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous woman.

That was a sentiment that was not shared by the former leadership of the party. The tone of politics is changing in Ottawa; the Liberal cabinet is one major example of this change. A gender equal cabinet, with four Sikh Canadians, one indigenous woman and one refugee, makes this cabinet the most diverse a Canadian cabinet has been in a long time. Canada is not stranger to diversity in leadership, however this much diversity, and not to mention qualified diversity, is not something that Canada has seen in a long time. One of the best examples of this is Harjit Sajjan Canada’s new national defense minister, a turban wearing Sikh. This is a huge move for diversity, and multiculturalism in Canada, to have such a major position held by such a visible minority could mean a new era in Canadian politics.

Various ministries have had their names changed with the appointment of the new cabinet, but are too numerous to list.

The NDP have returned to third party status, and that too can be hung on the head of the leader. Throughout the election Thomas Mulcair was criticized for doing too much “politicking”, saying one thing in French and another in English. His party created a fair amount of fear as well, fear of Stephen Harper and what the future might hold if he was re-elected. However, in the end it could be as simple as the NDP lost Quebec, and that could be because of the Niqab issue, and the French language debates. Ever since those debates the NDP took a major hit in the polls and they never recovered. The NDP did not take a firm enough stance on the issue of the Niqab, which was a major issue in Quebec. With the Conservatives saying they would ban it from citizenship ceremonies and possibly in public spaces, to the Liberals declaring it none of the federal government’s business, the NDP never truly cemented itself in a strong position. The NDP need to rebuild, just like the Liberals did after the 2011 election.

The Bloc Quebecois, and the Green Party of Canada are both returning to parliament, but neither have enough seats to be an official party. Elizabeth May will return to represent

the Greens, there was hopes that the Greens would take some more seats in this election but it seems clear that under the first past the post system, the Greens will have a hard time picking up extra seats. This could have been the last election with the current system, electoral reform was one of the big points of the Liberal platform and they have an opportunity to make a significant change to this country with an electoral system change. Gilles Duceppe will step down as leader of the Bloc Quebecois for the second time since 2011. Duceppe took the party from 2 seats to 10 but it has been clear after 2011’s election and now this one separation for Canada for Quebec is no longer an issue.

Already we have seen a lot of election promises being answered. The long form census is back, which was a small and easy change for the liberals to make, but an important one. Federal scientists have been given the all clear and are once again able to talk to members of the press.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis has been granted much importance, and the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship has been working around the clock to ensure they meet their promise to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada by December.

The inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women is starting to get momentum, though how soon it comes is yet to be determined. One sign of the new kinder, gentler Conservative Party is new leader Rona Ambrose’s decision to change the party’s stance on such an inquiry, formerly opposing one, but now supporting the idea.

The Paris summit on climate change is in December and Justin Trudeau will have to prepare a strategy for when he goes to Paris on behalf of Canada, but he will not be alone.

Elizabeth May, Thomas Mulcair, Rona Ambrose, and all the premiers will be joining him. Paris will be his first real test as Prime Minister, and might set the tone for many things such as Trudeau’s leadership style, relationship with provinces and other parties, and foreign affairs reputation with major allies. One thing is clear though the new parliament and the new Prime Minister will likely be radically different than Stephen Harper and that is exactly what is needed right now.

Election 2015 9

Opinion: Red Surge Hits Canada, Not Prince George

James Mangan Team Member

[Pictured: Stornoway, official residence of the Leader of the Official Opposition]

M

r. Harper has run his course as Prime Minister, and Canada’s “Conservative Experiment” has finally come to an end. Canadian dissatisfaction in the Conservative party was evident in the motto of the opposition parties: “Change.”

In the end, it was the Change represented by the Liberal Party of Canada that Canadians found the most appealing; an oxymoron, as Prince George Citizen Columnist Tracy Summerville points out, since the Liberals have traditionally been recognized as Canada’s Naturally Governing Party.

Oxymoron aside, Canadians appear content with the change in government.

Canadians have great expectations from Mr. Trudeau.

After the past government’s tendency to muzzle scientists, engage in petty name-calling disputes with Supreme Court Judges, pursue “tough-on-crime” legislation which were anything but, marginalize Canadian minorities, continually embarrass Canada on the world stage, and attack opposition leaders based on their hair, it’s refreshing to finally have high expectations from the federal government. From one majority government to another, Canadians demanded change and they received it.

ncc-ccn.gc.ca

Well, many Canadians did. There are still 99 ridings in Canada that preferred the previous government. CaribooPrince George and Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies are two such ridings. Votes in the northern riding overwhelmingly supported Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, despite his recent comments in the national spotlight suggesting aboriginal women in Northern British Columbia live high-risk lifestyles due to a lack of jobs on First Nations reserves. Cariboo-Prince George, on the other hand, did not prove to be the Conservative stronghold that the federal parties believed it to be. Under former Member of Parliament Dick Harris, Cariboo-Prince George was regarded as a “safe riding” for the Conservative party. This election, Cariboo-Prince George was placed on a list of swing ridings that could potentially play critical roles in this election.

There were several factors that attributed to this riding losing its “safe riding” title, one of the most notorious being the Vancouver Sun reports of Mr. Harris’s travel expenses.

Mr. Harris was ousted as being one of the most expensive MP’s in Canada. It was revealed that Mr. Harris was billing Canadians for plane tickets between Ottawa, Prince George, and his residence in Osoyoos, nowhere near the constituency that he claimed to represent. Bill C-51 was another factor that dissuaded Cariboo-Prince George from the Conservative

Party. The divisive and intrusive bill left many right-winged voters feeling disenfranchised, as pro-surveillance and anti-warrant legislation are often descriptors of George Orwell’s Big Brother. Northern voters felt further alienated by the fact that not one federal leader visited Prince George during the Campaign. As a result of these factors, the local NDP and Liberal candidates, Trent Derrick and Tracy Calogheros found themselves in the position of quite possibly defeating Conservative candidate Todd Doherty.

Due to the Liberal’s disastrous election outcome four years ago, receiving only 5% of the popular vote in Cariboo-Prince George, the NDP branded themselves as the logical choice for the “Anyone but Conservative” vote. This was further reinforced by an Environomics poll commissioned by the organization Lead Now, which found the NDP leading with 36%, followed by the Conservative Party at 30% and the Liberal Party at 29%. Unfortunately, this poll only asked 500 residents, leaving a margin of error at 4.4%, and was only conducted once throughout the entire election. Despite the NDP’s promotion of this poll, election night granted NDP Candidate Trent Derrick 26% of the vote. Conservative candidate Todd Doherty took the riding at 36%, with Liberal candidate Tracy Calogheros trailing at 32%.

Culture

Expectations

Apology

Sarah Green Guest Contributor

Tierney Watkinson Team Member

We all have an ideal.

I didn’t mean to hurt you

Some perfect world we want to live in;

I know that I made you cry

But the truth,

No, I didn’t mean to hurt you

Is that it will probably never happen.

But I said I would never lie.

That guy you fantasize about,

Sometimes the truth hurts,

The one with the perfect smile and

Maybe should remain unspoken.

Eyes that tell a million stories?

Yes, sometimes the truth hurts;

He never notices you.

Never meant to leave you broken.

Doesn’t even know you exist.

For all the times I spoke

The girl you’ve had your eye on,

And you weren’t meant to hear

The one with the twinkling laugh

For all the times I let you down

And a personality that

Made you face your fears alone

Lights up the room?

I’m sorry.

She will go for your best friend

I wasn’t strong enough to stand down,

And you’ll wonder,

Let the little things go

“What would have happened if I

Was never strong enough to stand down,

Had asked her first?”

Give things some room to grow.

The A+ you’re hoping for on

I know that I’m not perfect;

The test you’ve studied so hard for.

Sometimes I just don’t think.

You’ll get a C+,

You know that I’m not perfect;

If you’re lucky.

I don’t have the flair for wings.

You hope that life will get better;

For all the times I spoke

That someday you’ll be

And you weren’t meant to hear

Amazing.

For all the times I let you down

But you try your best,

Left you standing alone

Work so hard,

I’m sorry.

And for what?

And I promised

To get a well paying

I would never lie.

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

Job that you hate going to.

And work until You die.

› Thomas Edison: 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

10

Culture 11 hollywoodredux.com

a review

Andrew Kenway Contributor

T

he most recent Mad Max movie was a surprising success, which appeared unlikely if you look at the way it was brought together.

The movie almost never stops, but still has appropriate enough pacing to keep the audience just on the edge of emotional, exhaustion throughout its journey.

Almost thirty years after the last film-- Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome—a director who had taken time off from action movies to focus on films like Babe and Happy Feet returned to a series he pioneered with surprising results. It feels like it’s been ages since such a menagerie of powerful machines and characters hit the big screen on any action movie. The film was well-researched, and builds a world that feels deaf to the concept of hope, while also introducing a guitar flamethrower. The crazier thing is that somehow this works and blends almost seamlessly.

The film feels like a non-stop, heart-pounding action scene, and plot wise it honestly is. However, the veteran director George Miller knows that it’s not enough to have characters in danger if you don’t care about them.

Tom Hardy is a welcome replacement to Mel Gibson, doing a job easily the equal of his predecessor. Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa puts out a stunning performance.

This one-armed woman has a vaguely told back-story that is told by who she is and the world she lives in rather than a slow, emotionally manipulative exposition dump.

Furiosa jumps off the screen as something more than just an underdeveloped girl version of max that seems to have plagued cinema since the 90’s. She doesn’t start out strong and turn into some weak willed love interest; she stays a bad ass and unquestionably the film’s protagonist the whole way through. Her quest is to save a group of sex slaves from the insane group of desert marauders she’s grown up with. The film’s impressive, because it doesn’t just tell us that women aren’t things, it shows us they aren’t with every character.

The film builds and extensive and fleshed-out world without ever stopping the movie to sit down and explain it to the audience. Contrasting this with some of the world’s largest earners in Hollywood action movies like Transformers, Miller makes many modern action movies looking child-like and amateurish in their execution.

She’s a character whose every look and glance convey her every thought and emotion with such intensity it makes it obvious why the film manages to work with so little talking.

The sparse dialogue might make the movie feel anemic in characterization, but instead it just feels like everything

said counts. The main villain, Immortan Joe, is a character that looks so ludicrous it feels like it should be hard to take him seriously until you see him on screen. His strange breathing apparatus and booming voice make his rule over this apocalyptic wasteland seem more than believable, but like a simple fact. If that monstrosity of a man told you to do something, it would be hard to do otherwise.

This insane world of bullets and gasoline and Nordic mythology feels like it’s been put together out of the pieces of our society. Altars of steering wheels and vehicles that look like all of the vehicular ingenuity and hubris has been crushed and tweaked into something barely serviceable. The movie would be worth watching just for the technological design itself. The semi cobbled together into a war-truck, Furiosa’s metal prosthetic crafted with a welded wrench where her bones should be all make the ludicrous and almost alien tech feel real.

In a strange fantastical sort of way, it sucks you in and makes you believe this simultaneously absurd but poignant world of metal and flesh. If nothing else, it certainly displays what happens when you let a director from the golden age of action movies return to form, and show the Michael Bays of the world how it’s done.

12

Culture

All-Gender Bathrooms on Campus Colin Slark Editor-in-Chief

Y

ou may have noticed the signs all over campus. Every single-occupancy bathroom at UNBC now has a sign on it that reads “All-Gender Bathroom”. You might be wondering about that, after all, were the bathrooms previously not allgender? There was a little picture of a person, and picture of a little person in a dress. Male and female. All genders, right?

Not so. Many people were born in a male or female body and assigned that gender identity at birth, but identity as a member of the other gender. These people are transgender.

Furthermore, other people identify as genderfluid, adhering to aspects of both male and female gender identity, and other people identify as non-binary; they do not identify as male or female. You may think that gender is a binary, but instead it is a vast spectrum. To accommodate all people on the spectrum, UNBC students led an initiative to make sure that bathrooms on campus are more accessible to people of all gender identities.

Members of NUGSS and the Northern Pride Centre started the initiative back in January when a group of students identified some issues important to them on

campus that they would like solved. UNBC President Dr. Daniel Weeks approved the initiative back in February and this October the plan was completed to change the signage on all single-occupancy bathrooms on campus.

Angela Kehler, past president of NUGSS and one of the leaders of the initiative says that the motivation for the initiative was about visibility: “It’s about [...] the awareness that not all people identify within the gender binary and we need a safe space for everyone on campus.”

Krystal Vandenberg, president of the Northern Pride Centre says that inclusivity was on the mind when the initiative was thought of: “The single-stalled washrooms only had the handicap sign on the labels as well as male and female, which is a binary, and people that are not of a binary gender are not comfortable in using those washrooms. Also, people that may be transitioning may not be able to pass and feel uncomfortable going into one of the big gendered bathrooms due to harassment. The stats of people being harassed in gendered bathrooms is actually quite high, there have actually been cases at UNBC of individuals who do not fit within the gender binary being harassed [in gendered bathrooms]. They prefer to use the single-stall bathrooms

but felt uncomfortable doing so because they were labeled handicapped washrooms, and these people felt they were occupying a space reserved for certain individuals.

However, some feel that this initiative does not go far enough as the multiple-occupant bathrooms are not gender neutral and some others believe that people using these washrooms will be labelled as not being part of the gender binary. The issue with making all washrooms gender neutral is that many women and men are uncomfortable with sharing bathroom space with each other. As for people using the washroom being singled out, Vandenberg says: “[The washrooms] are accessible to anyone. I know that one of the washrooms down in building 8, there was a female washroom and a single-stall washroom right beside it, and if you had a class nearby, males would tend to use that washroom instead of walking to the next closest bathroom at the other end of the building. It’s not going to flag anyone as being part of the non-binary, or trans community. They’re accessible to everyone.”

Ultimately, this move allows people at UNBC to use whatever bathroom they feel comfortable using. Anything that allows and facilitates people to feel safer and more secure without infringing on anyone else should be counted as a victory.

DLC and the Gaming Industry Shawn Caldera Publisher

E

arlier this month, one of the most anticipated video games of 2015 was released, Fallout 4. An estimated 1.2 million copies have been sold on launch day, with rumours suggesting it may even surpass the company’s last big release title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Many gamers at UNBC have already bought it, or are waiting for the chance to buy the game. What makes it stand out among the plethora of games that have been released over the past 3 months?

Besides the amazing themes, expansive worlds and customizability that the Fallout series has given gamers for years, one of the biggest things that gamers are attracted to is the massive amount of content they get on day 1; and to have the full game that they are paying for. That last sentence may confuse the non-gamers a bit, so prepare for some condensed info. Modern video games publishers are criticized for selling games that are full with DLC (Downloadable content) and microtransactions. More recent examples include Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, WB’s Arkham Knight, and Assassin’s Creed Unity. These games, when released, had major performance issues, limited the gameplay of the user and/or, had major areas that were inaccessible due to a DLC or microtransaction restriction. These are considered “top-shelf ” games, which sell anywhere from $69.99 to $79.99, and at that price, a game should be packing in as much quality as possible? Theoretically, they should, but in almost in a sudden wave, publishers began to adopt this

stance. Free to play games, such as Tribes: Ascend, were dubbed “pay-to-win,” due to the ability to buy almost every weapon, ability and level boost to get to a higher rank, than the vanilla experience point grinders. Essentially, it’s left many gamers with a sour taste in their mouth, and has led to much skepticism about where the industry is going.

The model of microtransactions is somewhat of a joke in the industry. It’s almost expected from all free-to-play games, and leave the gamer in a state of helplessness; and that’s probably why there is so much saturation of the model. Free-to-play is perhaps not the worst direction for the industry to go, but very few companies do it correctly.

Take for example the popular MOBA game, League of Legends. By having only special skins and experience boosts available for purchase, it allows for a much fairer metagame, which rewards players for skill and practice.

This way, it keeps the game true to its core, while having an option for players to succumb to their inner collectors.

Compared to a game that sells its DLC almost a year before the game comes out and can’t even run on launch day, one can figure out which is the better model, both for the gamer and the publisher. The DLC and microtransaction dominant model seems to have begotten lazy game design. However, publishers like Bethesda continue to be a guiding light for those losing faith in the once underdog industry. Even though Fallout 4 has DLC announced, it is merely for expansion, meaning that even once you

buy the game, you can do all you want to in the postapocalyptic setting without hitting an invisible moneywall. And if you do happen to want more stories and missions to follow, you can then purchase the extra content, which truly satisfies the meaning of “extra content.”

Game developer Masahiro Sakurai holds firmly onto this belief. Being the main man behind the Kirby and Smash Bros. series, he is considered one of gaming’s top developers. His latest game, Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS, has close to 60 playable characters (with more on the way), a huge selection of stages, game modes, and multiplayer capabilities.

In a column with Famitsu, Sakurai stated “these days, the ‘DLC scam’ has become quite the epidemic, charging customers extra money to complete what was essentially an unfinished product.” When asked what differentiates the DLC methods that he uses for his games, he wrote that “The DLC we are releasing for Smash is authentic, developed only after we finished working on the main game. Of course, said content will come to you at a premium as compensation for the work put into developing additional content post-production.”

With some of the bigger names holding true to the standard of quality, instead of succumbing to corporate greed, there is still hope that the industry will drop the DLC and microtransactions soon, or will be forced to when they see how these AAA developers are still making their fans happy to keep on coming back.

Events 13

Sports

UNBC

Great Expectations for UNBC Basketball UNBC

Brady Stark Team Member

D

espite a rather disappointing start to the season for both the men’s and women’s basketball season, there is still high expectations for achieving a spot in the playoffs.

Facing Thompson River in the first week was a tough break as both squads played their hearts out to no avail. One of the bright points to the weekend however was the play of 4th year guard, Rhys Elliott, who was dominant in the 2 game set scoring 29 and 30 points respectively. If the Timberwolves are wanting to make positive waves, they are going to need to do it with a balanced attack and some strong team play.

Elliott cannot continue to carry the team throughout the whole season, especially when the team goes up against the very best in the Canada West. Most of the higher teams in the Canada West have the ability to recruit some of the bigger name students from High schools that don’t go the US college route. With the Timberwolves, they do not have the resources or the prestige of other universities to

grab the attention of the game changers, therefore they have to have a system of play that utilizes everyone’s strengths from the starters to the men and women that come off the bench. In many of the games that have been won by the statically weaker teams in basketball, it was the bench players that have made all the difference.

Sometimes there needs to be a war of attrition that needs to be the main game pan when squeaking out close contests. Make no mistake, our men and women’s teams are good and deserve to be in the CIS, but they need to be realistic when looking at their goals for the season and looking at their roster.

Coaches Sergey Shechepotkin and Todd Jordan, have the unenviable task of taking teams that were dominate in the lower league and trying to make them consistent playoff contenders every year. With the men, the coach needs to preach a team mentality with lots of crisp passing and some

key perimeter shooting to keep their opponents off guard.

For the women, Sergey needs to preach patience to his team as well as the fans that follow them faithfully. Unlike the men, the women’s team is rather young by comparison. With only a few players past their 2nd year of CIS experience, there will be a lot of growing pains as they try to understand the pace of the game as well as how to exploit the other team’s weaknesses. So, what should the expectations for each team be? The men should at least make it to the playoffs like last year. Whenever one is developing a program, you always need to strive for better than last year. Don’t expect miracles for this relatively young program but we should see some fantastic close games that we come out on top more times than not. For the women, one should only expect an exciting brand of basketball with some close games and some blowouts peppered in. With this fun style of play we should all hope for some W’s on the scoresheet this year.

End of the Hall Era for the Timberwolves Soccer Program

Sports 15

Brady Stark Team Member

W

hen the season closed on the UNBC soccer squads this year, there was a more than just the hopes of a playoff game that floated away this year. Sydney and Jordan Hall of the women’s squad had played their final games in a Timberwolves uniform.

Over the past four years, the hall sisters have been the heart and soul of the soccer program in Prince George.

Hailing from right here in Prince George, the Hall sisters showed their passion and skill every time they stepped onto the pitch. When you came to the game as a fan or even a member of the team, you knew that you always had a chance for your side to come out victorious because they were not going to go down without a fight that would make Ares himself smile with admiration.

Sydney Hall was a striker/midfielder that used her skill, speed, and aggression to find the open gaps and strike the ball with vigor towards the net for marvelous chances abound in most games that she played. On multiple occasions, one would look at the scoresheet at the end of the match and see Sydney’s name on the paper in some capacity. She was a true leader of the team in the way that she approached the game with an intensity that reminds us of why we love the

beautiful game. When you have a leader like Sydney Hall, your team automatically knows their place on the pitch in every moment and work as a unit in order to achieve the same goal.

As much as Sydney led the forwards in a systematic attack on the other team’s net, Jordan Hall was just as effective in commanding the whole team whenever she had the ball for a goal kick. From the moment that the ball even came close to her, Jordan would make sure that her defense had all their checks covered as well as make sure that everyone knew what she was seeing from her advantage point.

to understand what went wrong and how the outcome could have turned around in their favour. It is because of these skills, experience, and emotions are why the UNBC soccer program are reeling from the end of the Hall era.

Even though there are some great players that can take up the leadership mantle (Rossi), a giant hole has been left in the dressing room of the UNBC women’s soccer team as they look to continue developing the soccer program without two of the hometown juggernauts.

UNBC

With a goaltender, a team needs a strong general between the pipes to make sure that everyone is in the position that they need to be and to make sure that the opponents are not in a position to counterattack if something goes wrong. One would always know how the game went even if they arrived after the game had ended because of how the Hall sisters carried themselves.

Despite being gracious in defeat, the Hall sisters wore their emotions on their sleeves and when they lost a game, they were not happy campers. On more than one occasion, one or both would be seen pacing back and forth trying

Smoke’s Rant: 3-on-3 Overtime Brady Stark Team Member

N

ow I have been fuming over the past couple of weeks for a plethora of reasons: McDavid getting injured, Tortorella getting another coaching gig, Eddie Lack’s terrible save percentage to name a few. Despite having the ability to go on a rant on all those topics, none of those hold a candle to my rage against the Vancouver Canucks futility in 3-on-3 overtime.

does the New Jersey Devils have in their lineup that can matchup with the likes of the Sedins, Vrbata, and Sutter?

We have a nice balance of skill and speed that should be good for all areas of the games, even 3-on-3 hockey.

Overtime has now become one of the most exciting things to watch in any sport because of the wide open style of play that the abundance of ice offers. Every time I see a game that is going close to overtime, I cross my fingers in the hopes that I see some highlight reel saves and goals in overtime.

Apparently the likes of Kyle Palmieri are good enough to beat us and show that we are the absolute worst after 60 minutes. Those of you that are saying, “well the goal was on the PP” are just making an excuse for a team whose defensive leader (Hamhuis) decides he wants to get an interference penalty in overtime. Luckily for the Canucks, they rebounded with a win against the hopeless Columbus Blue jackets to mend the wounds of yet another extra point mess up.

Unfortunately, when the Vancouver Canucks are getting close to going into overtime is just cringe because I know that the outcome is not going to work in their favor. 5 times the Canucks have gone to the extra frame with all 5 being utter disappointments. I mean come on, how the heck

Willie Desjardins has been putting the same people out in overtime to try and win the game because he sees that he has a set of twins that can conjure up enough magic in their sticks to give the Dumbledore brothers a run for their galleons, but unfortunately, the Sedins

are usually tired when overtime comes around.

One thing that might make the difference is to get players like Dorsett or McCann some overtime icetime due to the fact that they only play about 12 minutes per game and can skate like the wind.

It is time to try and change things up because more and more games are in the forecast for the rest of the game, so make sure that the Canucks have some options after 60 minutes and let’s see some highlight reel goals going in the back of the other team’s net.

Lastly, for the love of all the galleons in Gringotts bank, please fix the powerplay. 5th worst powerplay in the NHL is unacceptable with the offensive team and the level of talent the Canucks possess.

Coffee Break Cartoons by Monique Monique Gendron

Monique Gendron

Filbert Cartoons

By Anthony LabontĂŠ