The Runner Volume 10, Issue 6

November 14, 2017 VOLUME 10 // ISSUE 6 kpu’s student newspaper

ADVERTISERS BATTLE FOR SURREY STUDENTS KPU faces intense marketing competition from other institutions

Culture

Feature

Humans of KPU Campaign Tells Community Members’ Stories

The Complicated Legacy of Che Guevara

Column The Paradise Papers Probably Won’t Make a Difference

2 table of contents

staff 04

News|Surrey is a Battleground for University Ads

Coordinating Editor Alyssa Laube editor@runnermag.ca

Managing Editor

Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca

Production Manager

Melanie Tan production@runnermag.ca

Art Director

The University of Victoria ad on the bus stop on 72nd Avenue, right outside of the KPU Surrey campus, is no accident. Neither are the UVic ads on buses running to and from Scottsdale.

08

culture|Humans of KPU Campaign Tells Community Members’ Stories

Two employees in KPU’s Marketing Department, Leland Dieno and Whitney Sharp, want to bring the KPU community a little closer together by highlighting the experiences of those who work and go to school here.

10

features|The Controversial Legacy of Che Guevara

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Guevara’s death, and the annual conference that bears his name celebrated by inviting a number of prestigious speakers to the Russian Hall in East Vancouver.

Nicole Kwit art@runnermag.ca

Photo Editor

Braden Klassen photos@runnermag.ca

14

columns|The Paradise Papers Probably Won’t Make a Difference

The CRA has repeatedly said that they will be stepping up their efforts in going after tax evasion, but it’s happening so slowly that, at this rate, it looks like the government will still lose out on billions of dollars in tax revenue every year for the foreseeable future.

Staff Writer

Joseph Keller staff@runnermag.ca

#FeatureTweets Web Editor

Mel Pomerleau web@runnermag.ca

Use #kpu or #runnermag in your tweet, and you could be featured in the next issue!

Community Reporter

Ashley Hyshka community@runnermag.ca

Operations Manager Scott Boux office@runnermag.ca 778-565-3801

contributors Epifania Alarcón Justin Bige Stephanie Davies Katherine Dolmat Kristen Frier Tristan Johnston Jesse Pottinger Leah Rosehill Isabelle Wirz

Cover by Braden Klassen

Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778.565.3801 www.runnermag.ca Vol. 10, Issue no. 6 November 14 // 2017 ISSN# 1916 8241

The Runner is student-owned and operated by Kwantlen Polytechnic University students, published under the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society. The Runner recognises that our work, both in and out of the office, takes place on unceded Coast and Strait Salish territories, specifically the shared traditional territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Sto:lo and Tsawwassen First Nations. Our name is inspired by the hun’qumi’num meaning of Kwantlen, which is tireless hunters or tireless runners. Just as Kwantlen is adaptable and changing so is The Runner.

From The Editor

editorial 3

What about whataboutism?

(Nicole Kwit)

connor doyle | managing editor A parent catches one of their kids misbehaving—let’s say, bullying someone on Twitter. In addition to telling him that online harassment is wrong, the parent decides to give the child a punishment. No Twitter for a week.

The kid says, “What about my sister? Last week she cheated on her homework and you haven’t punished her.”

Deciding to let the first kid off with a warning, the parent sits down with their other child and lectures them on the perils of cheating. To drive the lesson home, they take away their daughter’s weekly allowance The kid says, “What about my brother? He’s been taking money out of your wallet all year and you haven’t punished him.”

On and on this goes, with no one being punished and no one learning a lesson. The parent is so concerned with making things “fair” amongst

their misbehaving children that either everybody who has done wrong pays for it or they all get off scot-free.

No good parent would operate like this, yet politicians have been using this childlike tactic to escape blame for years. When confronted by the media for their immoral behavior, politicians all-too-frequently deflect criticism onto others, and even attack journalists for having the audacity to come after them and not their political rivals.

Unfortunately, “Whataboutism” has taken on newfound relevance in the era of fake news. The public is so endlessly inundated with information about our elected officials—much of it legitimate, still a lot of it made up— that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of any one story or scandal.

This is why, every time news breaks about someone from the Trump administration having colluded with Russia to rig the election, the American President takes to social media to point the finger of blame

at an opponent. On Oct. 30, the day that the FBI’s Special Counsel filed charges against two former Trump staffers, Trump wrote, “why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????”

Four days later he was still trying to shift attention onto Clinton, this time literally name-checking the “whataboutism” technique. “What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus,” he tweeted.

By reminding people of any negative connotation they might have with Clinton, Trump distracts the public and drowns out his critics. The minute someone criticizes him, bam!

“What about Clinton? What about the Democrats?” Suddenly the conversation isn’t about him possibly being a criminal. It’s about anything he can fire off a 140-character tweet at.

Ironically, given the allegations of Trump’s ties to Russian meddling, “whataboutism” is typically considered a holdover from Russia’s Cold

War-era moral relativism. Whenever a Western official would criticize the USSR for its human rights violations or war mongering, the Russian response was a sly, “What about you?”

The most famous example is from the 1950s, when the Russian ambassador to the United States responded to claims that his country was persecuting Jewish people by telling America, “Meanwhile, you are lynching blacks.”

The most insidious aspect of “whataboutism” is that it’s very near to the vicinity of legitimate criticism.

The Soviet official was correct in pointing out that the United States was throwing stones while living in a glass house, but America’s history of racial violence in no way excuses Russian anti-semitism. Whether or not other countries have their own issues of discrimination, prejudice, or genocide should have no relevance in holding nations—and by extension, the leaders of those nations—to account.

So what can we do to cut through the fog of “whataboutism”? I recommend finding one story about a public figure’s misdeeds, one scandal that outrages you personally, and following it through to the end. Do you find it heinous that Justin Trudeau defends Canada’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia? Don’t shut up about it. Don’t get distracted when people tell you that it’s really Stephen Harper’s fault, or that the NDP wouldn’t end the deal either. Continue to criticize the Prime Minister for his choices until you cannot criticize anymore—or until, ideally, a change is made.

Why should we let politicians get away with a logical fallacy that we wouldn’t tolerate from our kids?

Student Rights Centre Reports Discussed at ksa Council Meeting, Still Not Released

News Brief

joseph keller | staff writer Multiple iterations of a yearly report from the Kwantlen Student Association outlining student-reported issues with the university’s structure and policies remain unreleased.

The reports detail anonymous case studies of students who have gone to the KSA’s Student Rights Centre for assistance, and offers recommendations for improvement to Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

“What we want people to do after reading this report is say, ‘There’s more that, as a university, we can do,’” KSA President—at the time, Vice President Student Services— Tanvir Singh told The Runner in November 2016, shortly after the SRC completed the 2015 edition of the document.

Versions of the report now exist for both 2015 and 2016. The 2015 report was originally tentatively scheduled to be published last November, but the KSA opted to delay its release

pending further review and consultation with the university administration.

The KSA has remained tightlipped about the process of releasing the reports. They were discussed in camera—meaning the discussion took place privately and without minutes being taken or members of the press present—at the KSA Council meeting on Oct. 27. Few details about what was discussed regarding the report while in camera are available. However, Singh says that the 2015 report was recently seen by the KSA’s legal counsel.

“Due to [the SRC report] being a draft document, it’s very sensitive in nature,” says Singh. “When it comes to very sensitive documents, I think, rightfully so, we have the ability to go in-camera to consider those and we choose to do that every time we talk about the reports until they’re released.”

The full contents of the reports are currently unavailable. What is

known is that they detail, among other things, student experiences and issues with the Services for Students with Disabilities office, the Faculty of Health, and the university’s academic appeals system. Particularly in the case of the earlier report, some of the points outlined may have already been addressed by the university.

“We definitely don’t want the report to be seen as kind of a blast towards the university,” says Singh.

“The report itself does have a couple sensitive topics in it … [and] the document itself is supposed to be more of an internal use instrument.”

Singh explains that part of the reason for the delays is that the 2015 report is the first of its kind and the KSA is still perfecting the system of putting these documents together. He says he hopes that, once released, the reports will act as guides for future councillors, staff, and executives of the KSA.

What’s Happening this month

NOV. 14

SENATOR BRAZEAU PRESENTATION Patrick Brazeau, a member of the Kitigan Zibi and a Canadian senator, will be holding a public presentation at KPU. All are welcome to hear him talk about a number of topics, including senate reform.

7:00 pm, KPU Surrey, Fir 128, free.

nov. 16

LAUGHS AT LUNCH

This month, the KSA has invited Efthimios Nasiopoulos to bring his stand-up routine to the Grassroots.

He’ll be accompanied by DJ Ashton, who will be playing “tropical” themed music. Don’t miss out!

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm, Grassroots Cafe, free.

nov. 17 MOVEMBER DODGEBALL

KPU’s Sport & Rec. department will team up with the KSA for a memorable Movember Dodgeball event. Bring your enthusiasm and mustaches (real or fake) for a fun afternoon.

4:00 pm - 7:00 pm, KPU Surrey Gym, by donation.

nov. 21

WOMEN’S CENTRE OPENING

The KSA’s Women’s Collective is holding the grand opening of their women’s centre in the freshly renovated Birch Building. There will be a film screening and a discussion afterwards.

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm, KPU Surrey, Birch 250, free.

nov. 23 PSYCH BEHIND: ETHICS

Join the Kwantlen Psychology Society for the latest installment of their “Psych Behind” event series. This specific event will explore ethics.

All students and KPU alumni are welcome.

5:30 pm - 6:30 pm, KPU Surrey, Fir 220, free.

nov. 24

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AFTER MURDER

For Restorative Justice Week, come hear the stories of Margaret Van Sluytman, whose father was murdered, and Glen Flett, the man who murdered him and spent 23 years in prison. KPU Criminology professor Alana Abramson will be facilitating the discussion.

5:00 pm - 8:00 pm, KPU Surrey, Fir 128, free.

4 news

Advertisers Battle for Surrey Students

KPU faces intense marketing competition from other institutions joseph keller | staff writer KPU students who take transit to get around might notice that their university has stepped up its advertising efforts lately, with ads appearing on dozens of buses and SkyTrains across Metro Vancouver.

“We’ve never operated with a big bank account. We’ve always operated with a small bank account. What has now happened is we’ve grown. We’re no longer a small operation,” says Wayne Tebb, Dean of KPU’s School of Business.

The recent marketing push has resulted in a significant increase in the KPU brand’s presence in Metro Vancouver, but the university has its work cut out for it. It’s competing against other post-secondary institutions with much larger warchests.

“What we have to do is recognize that the biggest portion of our home turf is in the most sought after territory in the country for prospective students,” says Tebb. “That means that we have to make sure we keep our brand in front of people’s faces.”

According to Tebb, Surrey is unique in Metro Vancouver and in Canada because—unlike almost

every other municipality in the country—the number of students graduating from high school every year is not significantly dropping. This is a mixed blessing for the university, as it means that KPU is on the doorstep of Canada’s most sought after demographic, but every other university wants to have their brand front and centre as well.

This creates a saturated marketing landscape, and it can be challenging for KPU to cut through the noise.

“This is where the population of potential students is,” says Tebb. “If we are not in the marketplace we are going to get run over, so we have to run hard given that everyone else is coming here trying to attract students.”

Other universities are making a point to place their brands in the view of KPU students. The University of Victoria ad on the bus stop on 72nd Avenue right outside of the KPU Surrey campus is no accident. Neither are the UVic ads on buses running to and from Scottsdale. Tebb says that UVic has made a strategic decision to focus their ads on KPU students, hoping to lure a few away and into UVic’s waiting arms.

Advertisements for KPU can be found in Guildford Town Centre, on the sides of buses, and at various SkyTrain stations. (Braden Klassen) KPU is already part of a crowded marketplace for universities here in the Lower Mainland. Just a few decades ago, the only public universities were UBC and SFU. Since then, there has been an explosion of post-secondary institutions in

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the area, with nearly a dozen public colleges and universities such as BCIT, Capilano, Langara, and Douglas competing for students. Almost all of them have bigger advertising budgets than KPU. The SkyTrain route in particular represents a battleground for post-secondary institutions in Metro Vancouver. It brings in potential students from north of the Fraser but also allows Surrey students the option to head into Vancouver to get an education. Meanwhile, the KPU Langley and Cloverdale campuses face competition from the University of the Fraser Valley and Trinity Western University.

“So what you’ve got is, how do you get your message across in an environment that has that many messages coming at you?” says Tebb.

“Are we more visible than we were?

Yes, because our actual marketing budget has actually increased believe it or not. It used to be a whole lot worse.”

KPU is at a major funding disadvantage because, as one of the newest public institutions created by the province, the university still has one of the smallest per-capita grants in B.C. While KPU has increased its advertising budget, it still includes only slightly more than one per cent of the total institutional budget. Tebb says that a reasonable and normal advertising budget should represent about two and a half to three per cent of the institution’s available funds.

The university’s advertising department knows that it needs to be strategic with its modest warchest.

Its employees know that fewer people are watching television, listening to the radio, and reading newspapers than they have in the past, so only a small percentage of the budget is used on advertising through these mediums. The prime advertising real estate for KPU is on public transit.

According to Tebb, data shows that young people in Metro Vancouver are not getting drivers licences as fast as they used to, and are taking transit more. He believes that the KPU mar-

keting department has done a great job by putting ads in locations where they’ll be visible and effective for the people who need to see them.

The university has also painstakingly negotiated discounts on their ad buys, saving at least 25 per cent, according to Tebb. It also made the cost-saving choice to focus its advertising dollars on promoting the singular KPU brand rather than specific program offerings.

“When you have a limited amount of money you can’t do a lot of specialised stuff and you can’t do a lot of stuff that makes the Music department happy or the Science department happy or the School of Business happy,” Tebb explains. “What you have to focus on is, ‘What’s the broad, general brand?’”

Another challenge for KPU comes from the ghost of its past: Kwantlen College. KPU has been a full-fledged degree-granting university since 2008 and hasn’t been a community college since 1996, but the institution is still frequently referred to as Kwantlen College by people who are not aware that KPU is a polytechnic university.

“In the minds of a great many people in our local market area, Kwantlen College did a great job of marketing. It imprinted on people’s brain so strongly,” says Tebb. “It’s almost like a backfire.”

The remedy for the Kwantlen College problem is to keep KPU’s modern brand front and centre and in the faces of Surrey residents until it’s burned into their brains, which, according to Tebb, takes “a “massive amount of horsepower.”

Despite these challenges, Tebb says that the university is making headway in becoming more and more present in the minds of Canadians and international audiences.

“Kwantlen is seen by many people around the province as a place that is going somewhere. They sense that there is something happening here,” says Tebb. “And I think we have a unique opportunity here.”

News 5

KPU Offers More than 50 Arts Courses with No Textbook Costs as Part of “Zed Cred” Program Thanks to a $35,000 grant from BCcampus, KPU continues to lead the way in open education resources

joseph keller | staff writer According to advocacy group BCcampus, Kwantlen Polytechnic University is leading the way for open education, and has adopted more open education resources than any other post-secondary institution in the province.

Now, to further dedicate themselves to offering open and affordable education, KPU is unveiling the “Zed Cred” program, Canada’s first post-secondary program to use nothing but free, open source course materials.

“I’m very proud that Kwantlen is delivering on a core aspect of their mission here, and that we’re choosing to support open education,” says KPU Psychology professor and senior open education fellow for BCcampus Rajiv Jhangiani. “I think people should realize that—not just across the country, but internationally—people learn about Kwantlen because of this because people are trying to copy what Kwantlen is doing.”

The Zed Cred program was made possible by a $35,000 grant from BCcampus.

Beginning with the spring semester, KPU students will be able to take a full year of university courses

without paying any textbook costs.

Participating courses will be labeled as “commercial textbook-free” in the course description and will only use open-source material. As a standalone program, students using the Zed Cred can earn KPU’s Certificate of Arts credential. The courses can also be applied to any Faculty of Arts degree offered by KPU. “We are deliberately trying to focus on areas that will help the maximum number of degrees,” says Jhangiani.

“I think [we] as students should be super excited about this,” says Kwantlen Student Association President Tanvir Singh. “I think this is going to lead to a lot more faculty [members] taking open education a lot more seriously.”

Open education textbooks are published under creative commons licenses by non-profit organisations such as the B.C. Open Textbook Project and can be downloaded for free by students and instructors. Unlike traditional textbooks, open source textbooks can be modified and adapted for individual needs by instructors before they are assigned.

Jhangiani says that the cost of traditional commercial textbooks has increased by 1,000 per cent since 1977—by three times the rate of inflation. This means that the cost

of textbooks has risen more than any other consumer good since then.

Singh likens the cost of textbooks on top of regular course fees to a 20 per cent tax on tuition.

According to BCcampus, course withdrawals and failure rates decrease when open education resources are made available to students.

Research done by open education advocates has revealed that 54 per cent of B.C. students don’t buy some or all of the required textbooks for their classes due to an inability or unwillingness to pay. Unsurprisingly, data from BCcampus suggests that students who don’t have all of the assigned course material tend to end up with lower grades.

“Students at KPU don’t buy textbooks because of cost. It’s one of the biggest reasons,” says Singh. “If we have an entire diploma where students don’t have to actually spend any money on textbooks and those textbooks are provided free of cost, they’re more likely to use them and they’re more likely to to succeed in their classes.”

As the first province making a government-supported effort to create and adopt open education resources, B.C. is the top province in Canada for open education. And with BCcampus acknowledging KPU as the top insti-

tution in the province for adoption of open education resources, it can confidently claim to be the nation’s leader in open education.

Jhangiani commends the Open Education Resources working group, which is constituted by KPU faculty, for pushing university administration to support the open education movement and helping teach other KPU faculty about its benefits.

“The creation of the [OER work-

ing] group has been absolutely critical, but at the same time there are other places that have done the same thing without nearly as much success, so I have to credit the university president and vice-president academic,” says Jhangiani. “It’s rare to have a university president and vice-president academic that understand open education as much as Alan Davis and Sal Ferreras do.”

????

(Courtesy of BCcampus)

KPU Wins Environmental Leadership Award The Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce celebrated KPU for its commitment to sustainability Isabelle wirz In recognition of Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s tireless effort to go green, the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce granted the university a Business Excellence Award in the category of environmental leadership.

KPU remains dedicated to environmentalism, exemplified by the fact that it was named one of Canada’s greenest employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc. in April. This dedication can be found in many aspects of the university, but perhaps most notably in its signing of the Talloires Declaration. According to the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, the Talloires Declaration is an official statement made by the head of a university that commits that university to sustainability in higher education.

The Talloires Declaration was signed by KPU President and Vice Chancellor Dr. Alan Davis in 2016.

It includes a 10-point plan to incorporate progressive learning strategies about sustainability and environmental conservation into school courses.

Though KPU only signed the Declaration one year ago, the university has been making sustainable improvements for decades. Since

1994, KPU has expanded its campus space by more than 36 per cent, but has still managed to reduce electricity use by nine per cent and gas use by 14 per cent during that time. All new buildings on KPU campuses must meet the Leadership in Environmental Design Gold Standard on the LEED rating scale, while renovated buildings must at least meet the Silver Standard.

Several older buildings, however, still need upgrades to help increase energy efficiency.

“The main doors to the courtyard [on the Langley campus] have a visible gap that lets air through,” says Paul Richard, an instructor in KPU’s Environmental Protection Technology program. “Better doors would keep warm air in, but also send a message … People would ask why new doors are installed. This is how education starts.”

With his background in resource management, bioresource engineering, and environmental technology, Richard is highly experienced in issues of sustainability. He believes that KPU can further improve as a leader in environmental efforts by instilling a sense of pride for the university and its goals in its students and faculty.

If they are proud of their institu-

tion, KPU community members are “more likely to join in on simple tasks [like] turning off lights, turning off computers, that sort of thing,” says Richard.

In addition to its sustainable practices, KPU also teaches students how to be environmentally conscious through its programs. The university currently offers 16 diplomas and degrees associated with environmental sustainability and protection, and a variety of community programs that promote green values.

In addition to the Kwantlen St. Market held in Richmond, KPU’s Langley campus hosts a local Farmer’s Market weekly throughout the growing season, promoting local production and consumption of produce.

Similarly, KPU’s Sustainable Agriculture program runs a weekly vegetable-box program, further promoting local, sustainable eating.

To reduce vehicle emissions, KPU partners with two car sharing companies—electric car2go and carpool. ca—and provides bus shuttle services between campuses for commuting students and faculty. The pilot bus program is made possible by a partnership between the university, the Kwantlen Student Association, and a private bus company.

Environmental leadership is also

fostered and maintained by cooperative events like Green Wednesdays.

Hosted at KPU Langley in conjunction with the non-profit organization Green Ideas Network, video screenings and speakers cover various issues on the topic of sustainability.

Furthermore, KPU has shown additional commitment to the environment by having an Environmental Sustainability Committee, the members of which act as advisors for those making important decisions about the university.

“Ultimately, this should all be a

first step,” says Richard. While he believes that the actions taken have been effective, there are still many areas left to tackle to help KPU continue to be an environmental frontrunner.

Nevertheless, receiving the award for environmental leadership from the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce speaks to KPU’s values and sets it on track to continue leading the community in green initiatives and sustainable growth.

The Langley Chamber of Commerce listed KPU’s hosting of the Langley Farmers Market as one of the reasons why the school won the award. (Flickr/Kwantlen Polytechnic University)

6 news

“BRice” building for Low-Moderate Income Residents Opens at 1720 Kingsway

The City of Vancouver eyes a 10-year strategic plan for combatting the housing crisis ashley hyshka | community reporter Vancouver’s first housing complex built as part of a long-term land trust opened at 1720 Kingsway on Oct. 22.

The BRice building, as it is named, will offer 48 homes to families with low to moderate incomes at an affordable rate.

Abigail Bond, the Director of Housing Policy and Projects with the City of Vancouver, explains that the building is the city’s latest effort to address the ever-worsening housing crisis.

“We’ve been opening many similar projects like this over the last little while,” says Bond. “This isn’t the first building of its kind and it’s not going to be the last either.”

In order to qualify for a unit in the BRice building, the annual income of potential tenants must average between $49,999 and $69,500. Once living there, they will not pay more than 30 per cent of this figure.

The building is managed by the Sanford Housing Society. Its website explains that “rents for most apartments will be $1,250/month. There are three larger apartments with rents of $1,435/month.”

The land trust that led to the creation of the building represents a partnership between Vancouver, the Community Land Trust Foundation, the non-profit sector, and the provincial government.

“We look forward to more partnerships like this, and being able to

help more [low] and moderate-income people in Vancouver who are really facing the crunch in relation to that affordable housing crisis,” says Bond.

The building is named in honour of Bonnie Rice, a retired staffer from the Sanford Housing Society who, according to Metro News, was “closely involved in setting up the complicated land deal between many nonprofit and government players.”

The city begun seeking partnerships for this project back in 2012.

Bond says that Vancouver had four separate sites across the city which were put to market in the hope of getting partnerships with the non-profit sector to help construct new units.

The BRice building is the first of

those sites to be developed, with three others currently under development.

According to Bond, the city has about 1,000 similar units which will open before the end of 2018. She adds that the city approves between 500-600 additional units each year.

“Vancouver is facing an unprecedented housing crisis,” she says.

“And so, one building is not going to solve that crisis.”

The municipal government is enhancing efforts and eyeing new partnerships, policies, and investments to accomplish this long-term goal of combatting Vancouver’s lack of affordable housing.

Bond says that Vancouver’s current housing strategy, which was implemented in 2012, is about half-

way to meeting its long-term target of adding 5,000 social housing units similar to The BRice over the next 10 years.

However, the city is now hoping to increase that number to 12,000, which is in the new housing strategy and will be brought forth to Vancouver City Council by the end of November.

She says that, over the next 10 years, the target is for 72,000 new homes to be added across Vancouver.

“It takes all levels of government, including the federal government and the provincial and the municipal government, plus the private and the non-profit sector to really make an impact on the housing crisis,” says Bond.

The BRice building is named in honour of Bonnie Rice, who used to work for the Sanford Housing Society and was involved with the land deal that led to the site being developed. (Ashley Hyshka)

Surrey Homeless and Housing Society Offers $1 million for Innovative Housing Solutions

The society is seeking ways of helping the homeless that “haven’t been tried” joseph keller | staff writer The Surrey Homeless and Housing Society is offering $1 million in funding for projects promising “innovative” housing projects for low income people. The offer comes at a time when the homeless population in Surrey has risen dramatically, in part due to the ongoing housing affordability crisis in Metro Vancouver.

The call for project proposals went out on Oct. 12. Surrey City Councilor and Surrey Homeless and Housing Society staff member Vera Lefranc says that the society is looking for “solutions that haven’t been tried.”

“We know for sure that [the] government is stepping up to the plate in a big way, and want to be sure that our community organisations and partners are ready when funding calls are made for housing projects, for shelter projects,” says Lefranc.

“So that’s the rationale for us to be putting up a million dollars into the community.”

Housing prices in Metro Vancou-

ver have skyrocketed in recent years, and Surrey—once thought of as a haven of affordability compared to other municipalities in the area—has been no exception. According to this year’s Metro Vancouver homeless count, the number of homeless people in Surrey has risen from 403 to 602 over the past three years. Surrey’s vacancy rate stands at just 0.4 per cent, according to Lefranc.

“I think the vacancy rate [in Surrey] is no secret,” says Lefranc. “We know that people who are vulnerable, people who maybe have mental health and addiction issues, who are struggling to pay their rents because of low income are the least likely to access whatever scarce housing is out there, so they are sort of pushed out the bottom.”

The Surrey Homelessness and Housing Society was created by the City of Surrey in 2007 as a way to respond to the municipal issue of homelessness. The organization exists to manage and distribute funds to initiatives that help people who

are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. To date, the society has given out approximately $3.5 million.

“We’re a funding organization, but we trust our local nonprofits and charities to know what some innovative solutions might be,” says Lefranc.

As an example of an “innovative” solution that the society has funded, Lefranc points to supportive room-

mate projects such as those provided by the Pacific Community Resource Society. This project involves purchasing houses for up to five young people in a shared living situation.

Lefranc says that this project is an attractive option because it is cost effective and provides stability for residents struggling with other issues.

Though the housing crisis has forced many people out of stable liv-

ing situations and remains an urgent matter, Lefranc says that the Surrey government is optimistic about programs like these as a way to house Surrey’s most vulnerable citizens.

“I’m already starting to see light at the end of the tunnel,” says Lefranc.

“We’re working hard to make sure that we are meeting the needs of some of these folks.”

Homelessness in Surrey has increased drastically in the past decade, a problem that the Surrey Homeless and Housing Society hopes to find a solution to. (Flickr/Marc Brüneke)

Journalistic Sources Protection Act Slated to Become Federal Law

news 7

Bill S-231 will protect journalists’ confidential sources in almost all circumstances

Ashley Hyshka | community reporter Bill S-231, also known as the Journalistic Sources Protection Act, received royal assent on Oct. 18, amending both the Canada Evidence Act and the section of the Criminal Code that relates to the protection of journalistic sources.

The bill was first proposed in November of last year by Conservative Senator Claude Carignan of Quebec. It stipulates that journalists are not compelled to “disclose information or a document that identifies or is likely to identify a journalistic source” unless compelled to by a search warrant issued by a superior court judge, according to the Parliament of Canada website.

A professor of journalism at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Mark Hamilton, explains that the bill’s passage into law will offer two important benefits for journalists.

The first is that now low-ranking judicial officials, including justices of the peace, are no longer able order journalists to provide information that reveals their source. The second is that journalists no longer need to argue over why they must protect their sources. Rather, those who want to identify a source must now prove that the issue is of public interest, and that there is no other means of obtaining the source’s identity than issuing

a warrant.

Hamilton says that this will dissuade some people from going after journalists and their confidential sources, including whistleblowers.

“It really raises the bar at that end,” he says. “You will see fewer people doing that.”

The bill was born out of a 2013 scandal in Quebec, where—according to The Globe and Mail—“police sought warrants to obtain the telephone records of a total of eight journalists in Quebec, sometimes going back five years, and to track a reporter using his cellphone.”

During the last federal election, the Liberal Party made addressing the issue a part of its campaign, and once the bill began its journey through the Senate and the House of Commons, it received support from all parties.

Hamilton believes that the passage of the bill “was overdue, [and] it was, to a degree, unprecedented … but I think all of the parties saw it was really important symbolically to support this.”

While the new law stipulates that a journalist must only surrender information related to their source if it’s deemed to be in the public interest and there’s no other way to obtain the information, Hamilton says that ultimately, “the interpretation is going to be up to the courts.”

He does, however, identify one

flaw with the bill, in that it will not protect a journalist if they used a named source in their story. Hamilton cites a recent incident with a VICE reporter, who is being compelled to surrender their notes to the RCMP for a Supreme Court of Canada case, as an example.

Though Hamilton doesn’t think that the Journalistic Sources Protec-

tion Act will have much of an effect on how journalism is practiced in Canada, he supports the passage of the bill because he believes that protecting the confidentiality of journalistic sources is more important now than ever.

“The big effect it’s going to have is—knowing that the burden of proof now is on their side—the RCMP

and other institutions are going to be much less likely to go after journalists and say, ‘Give us your notes or we’ll take you to court,’ because the journalist can now say, ‘Okay, fine.

See you in court.’ It’s a very tough thing that they have to prove now.”

(Leah Rosehill)

Surrey Filmmakers Receive $10,000 Grant for Sci-Fi Romantic Comedy Web Series

The money will fund the Lux-Me pilot, which will air on the Storyhive website in February Jesse Pottinger | contributor A team of Surrey filmmakers were granted $10,000 last month to create a sci-fi romantic comedy web series that follows two South Asian youths in Vancouver.

The grant comes from the Storyhive contest which funds community-based film projects in B.C. and Alberta and is financially backed by Telus.

The web series, entitled Lux-Me, will touch on themes of multiculturalism, bicultural lifestyles, and the intersection of romance and technology in the modern world.

“I really wanted to see South Asians do sci-fi, and I’ve never really seen it done properly,” says Bhaveek Makan, director of the series and a co-founder of Rendering Glint Films, the production company behind the project. “I’ve always been interested in teenage South Asians in the West. … There aren’t many stories about those guys.”

The $10,000 grant will be used to produce a pilot episode, which will air on the Storyhive website in February.

Viewers will then have the opportunity to vote for their favourite series

among the 15 B.C. entrants, and one winner will be awarded an additional $50,000 to fund subsequent episodes.

Lux-Me follows the characters Aru and Noori as they experience life in the not-so-distant future of Metro Vancouver. Both of them download the Lux-Me app, which allows users to project their personal information—interests, relationship status, gender identity, age—overhead.

With the help of their millennial parents, the characters attempt to find a balance between their bicultural identities and the augmented reality of modern life.

Those who are familiar with the show Black Mirror might be inclined to draw a comparison between the two, but Makan insists that despite the common sci-fi element, Lux-Me is quite the opposite.

“It never does get that dark,” he says. “At its core it’s still a romantic comedy … [and] all of the big, extravagant sci-finess, it’s very minimal.”

There will be five episodes in the Lux-Me series, and each episode will be approximately 10 minutes in length.

Bhaveek Makan and his broth-

er Jashan founded Rendering Glint Films in 2007. The pair began making videos back in 2005, and their work has been evolving ever since.

In 2009, they began exploring the comedy genre and incorporating South Asian content into their work.

In 2013, they produced a feature film

that was presented at the Calgary International Film Festival, which emboldened the brothers to pursue their passion full time.

The idea for Lux-Me came to them in 2009, but due to a lack of time and resources the brothers were unable to make any headway. The

Co-founders of Rendering Glint Films, Bhaveek Makan and Jashan Makan. (Submitted)

idea re-emerged in 2011, but the pair encountered similar problems with their commitments to school, and lacked suitable actors to fill the rolls.

This year, when they discovered the opportunity available with Storyhive, they decided it would be the perfect chance to bring Lux-Me back to life.

In addition to the Makan brothers, several other team members are involved in the Lux-Me series.

Sumeet Kumar is the production manager and series producer. Pooja Patel is the team’s social media strategist, and handles production design, props, costumes, interior, and makeup. Kajal Jindal works with Patel on production design and props, and Bhavesh Chauhan works with Kumar on production.

Voting for the contest will take place from Feb. 5 to 9, and the winner will be selected between Feb. 22 and 23.

For more information about Rendering Glint Films, and to see some of their previous work, check them out on Instagram and Twitter at @ rgofficial and on Facebook at Rendering Glint Films.

8 culture

Humans of KPU Campaign uses social media to Tell Community Members’ Stories “We have a community here full of those great stories that deserve to be heard,” says KPU Marketing rep.

Ashley Hyshka | Community Reporter Two employees in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Marketing and Communications Department, Leland Dieno and Whitney Sharp, want to bring the KPU community a little closer together by highlighting the experiences of those who work and go to school here.

To that end, they launched the Humans of KPU campaign in September of last year, based on Brandon Stanton’s “Humans of New York” photoblog.

Sharp says that the university previously collected testimonials from students, alumni, and faculty which were more oriented towards programs and courses at KPU. She and Dieno decided to expand their storytelling to encompass the “broader KPU community,” focusing instead on human interest stories, accomplishments, and inspiring anecdotes.

“We have a community here full of those great stories that deserve to be heard,” says Sharp.

These stories and photos are initially posted to Instagram and then shared on Twitter, Facebook, and the university’s Humans of KPU webpage. KPU has also began promoting the participants’ profiles through

digital displays located across all four campuses, thereby increasing the number of students and faculty who will view a single story.

“There’s a potential to create a connection,” says Dieno. “There might be a prospective student or current student walking through the hall or visiting our website or social media [who will] see something in someone else’s story that maybe motivates them, or that they relate to, and it creates a connection between them and the university or that person specifically.”

Sharp says that Humans of KPU posts receive some of the highest community engagement of all of the social media content from the university. Despite this, Dieno says that the campaign isn’t tailored to advertise KPU itself, but instead celebrate the people at the university. There is no financial marketing used for the campaign, as current forms of advertising are used to promote it at no extra cost to the university.

Recently, there has been an increase in the Humans of KPU advertisements present on campus, which Dieno says is an attempt to create a dialogue among students and show them that there is a channel available for easily sharing their

stories.

“It’s an opportunity for us to share knowledge, to share personal growth stories, or anything related or in between,” he says. “The purpose really is to capture content and create some engaging content that emotionally connects with both prospective and current students, alumni, faculty, and staff.”

The campaign has also gained momentum by word of mouth. Following an interview, the newly designated “human” of KPU will often refer the campaign to friends or peers who they think would make suitable interview subjects.

“The underlying theme that a lot of the stories have is this kind of message of inspiration, and [that] every-

one has a story, and it doesn’t matter what that story is. It’s worth sharing,” says Sharp. “It’s a way for us to kind of share all the great things that we hear about happening in KPU.” To nominate yourself or someone you know for a Humans of KPU feature, visit KPU.ca/humans.

Top left to right: Stephanie C., Julian M., Harman B. Bottom left to right: Jaime M., Michelle I., Gagan J. These are some of the students and staff who shared their stories with Humans of KPU. (kpu.ca)

Slamapalooza Places 13th at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word

Student and poet Justin Bige says it was “life changing” to see poets in final rounds Kristen Frier | Contributor The Kwantlen Polytechnic University Slam Poetry Team, known as Slamapalooza, placed 13th out of 22 teams from around the country at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word.

In a poetry slams, writers fuse poetry with performance and com-

pete for points as determined by audience members. At CFSW—an annual, nation-wide event which this year took place from Oct. 23 to 28 in Ontario—the stakes could not be higher.

“The poetry community is absolutely wild in Canada,” says Justin Bige, a member of the Slamapalooza

team who is also a KPU student. “[CFSW] is like poetry camp,” says Simon Massey, the Slamapalooza organizer and coach. “The neat thing about it is that you’re going to a different city and you’re kind of displaced in that city—you have a community of two to four hundred poets there that you all just know in

KPU Slamapalooza team member Justin Bige at the Poetry in the Park event in Trout Lake Park in Vancouver, Sept. 17. (Alyssa Laube)

this new place.”

Only four of the 22 teams competing in the festival were from British Columbia: the University of Victoria team, Vancouver Slam team, University of British Columbia team, and, of course, our very own Kwantlen Polytechnic University team. The UBC and UVIC teams placed 12th and 14th respectively, while the VanSlam team came in 17th overall.

Both Massey and Bige feel proud of where the team ranked, and were glad to be able to expand their skills by learning from other poets.

“Vancouver is really lucky that we have some amazing poets,” says Massey. “Only one team gets to win, so going there expecting to win isn’t a healthy thing.”

While attending the festival, Bige had the opportunity to perform in the “Underground Indies” event, where the audience—primarily made up of CFSW contestants—sits in a circle while poets perform in the center.

Poets face off without a microphone and try to keep the attention of everyone in the circle. Judging by the volume of the applause, the audience determines which poet moves on the next round until only one stands.

Bige did not win, but says that his poem took on a powerful new life

through the performance he gave at the Underground Indies.

Another member of the Slamapalooza team, Jaye Simpson, was featured in a showcase with three other performances that the organizers of CFSW felt represent the spirit of the event.

The day that Bige and Simpson returned from Ontario, they channeled the experience they gained from the festival into a performances at the Vancouver Poetry Slam at Café Deux Soleil. That night, Bige placed first and Simpson placed second— successes that Bige says were “definitely a direct result of what we did at CFSW.” In order to attend the festival, Slamapalooza fundraised throughout the fall, and also received a sponsorship from the Kwantlen Student Association. According to Massey, the team was “proud to rep the Kwantlen Student Association at CFSW.” Poetry slams take place every third Thursday of the month in the Grassroots cafe on KPU’s Surrey campus.

The next slam is on Nov. 16. Look up Slamapalooza KPU on Facebook for more details.

culture 9

KPU Farm School Grad Grows Hard-to-Find Chinese vegetables in Richmond

Caroline Chiu is bridging the gap between Vancouver and Hong Kong by selling locally-grown bok choy JESSE POTTINGER | CONTRIBUTOR KPU Farm School graduate Caroline Chiu has been making sure that Vancouverites eat their greens by growing organic Chinese veggies on her own farm in Richmond.

Chiu moved to Hong Kong from Vancouver at a young age, and when she returned to the city 14 years ago, she noticed that it was difficult to find many of the veggies she enjoyed while growing up.

“When I go to the farmers markets there aren’t any organic Chinese greens, so I just saw that as a gap,” she says.

Two years ago, she leased a halfacre plot of KPU-owned land at 13840 Gilbert Road in Richmond, and Riverside Farm was born. She now grows a variety of organic Chinese produce including bok choy, gai lan, choy sum, gai choy, siu choy, pea tips, and tong ho.

“I feel very lucky that I have both cultures,” she says. “Food is like a universal language. It brings people together.”

Chiu is currently working to strengthen the connection to Chinese culture in the Vancouver community through the food she produces. She also hopes to encourage more people in the city, particular young people, to get involved in farming.

At the Kwantlen St. Farm Mar-

ket, Chiu was often approached by Chinese customers who were eager to learn about the benefits of organic food and what she was offering. After selling produce at various markets in her first year at KPU’s Farm School, she entered the Community Supported Agriculture program with the hope of reaching more people from the Chinese community.

The program provides customers with a $20 box of vegetables once a week for 15 weeks, and with 37 participants this season, virtually all her produce was accounted for. At least half of her customers were Chinese.

While her hard work has been rewarding, it has not come without challenges. Farming is both physically and mentally demanding, and Chiu has had to accept that her summer months will be dedicated to caring for her land.

“You don’t have weekends,” she says. “Vegetables don’t take long weekends.”

In addition to caring for her produce, she must handle the added stress of ensuring that all of her customers receive their weekly box and that all of her equipment is functioning properly.

“Things always break down on the farm. I could go to my farm one day and it’s flooding because my pipe broke or something, so there’s always that kind of worry,” she explains.

Chiu began her studies at UBC, where she received a master’s degree in food and resource economics. She then volunteered on a farm in Pemberton for three weeks and decided to continue her agricultural education with KPU. The university’s nine-month farming program is designed for beginners, with additional classes that teach students about soil health, pest

management, compost management, business planning, and beekeeping.

“You learn the holistic system of farming and not just how to grow,” says Chiu.

In addition to being the coordinator for KPU’s farming program, she is also the primary operator of Riverside Farm, where she and her business partner, fellow KPU graduate Jennifer Cline, will continue to grow

healthy Chinese produce for their third season in the spring.

“I think a lot of Chinese people can’t relate to farmers market as much, and I think the fact that I’m Chinese and selling Chinese greens makes it more approachable,” says Chiu. “The fact that I’m young, I’ve had two cultures, and I speak both languages—I feel like it’s my duty to bridge that gap.”

Caroline Chiu, a KPU Farm School graduate, tends to rows of vegetables on her small half-acre farm in Richmond called Riverside Farm. (Submitted)

in-need no-more helps provide school supplies to kids KPU students connect local businesses to underprivileged elementary school students

JOSEPH KELLER | STAFF WRITER Three students in the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Entrepreneurial Leadership program have turned their practicum into an opportunity to help kids in need.

Matthew Wollin, Tyler Carmont, and Chad Nehring launched In-Need No-More in early October after laying groundwork and putting together a business plan for it back in August.

Their organization works with other businesses in the community to provide school supplies to underprivileged students in Metro Vancouver elementary schools.

As part of the Entrepreneurial Leadership program, students are expected to launch a fully operational for-profit business. Nehring says that starting a business through KPU’s program “forces you to do what you’ve always wanted to do and it pushes you out of your comfort zone, and the experience of that is nothing but rewarding.”

After Wollin, Carmont, and Nehring decided that they wanted to create a business that helps people in the community, they set out to identify a need. They spoke with the principals of several local elementary schools, and before long, a theme of students

not having adequate school supplies emerged.

By talking to the principals, they were able to identify 450 students in need across Metro Vancouver. The group then partnered with Staples to get a bulk rate on supplies and began looking to other businesses in the community for funding in exchange for promotion on In-Need No-More’s social media pages.

“We knew that the good will was part of the proposition, but there had to be more for some businesses,” says Nehring. “So we started targeting businesses that had small social media presences and could really benefit from us sharing their involvement.”

One of the first businesses to get involved with In-Need No-More was local realtor Randy Mann, who committed to supporting 33 students with a contribution of $1000. Mann also agreed to match the contributions of other involved businesses, such as Century Group, NRI Distribution, and Buns Master Bakery, up to $3000.

One problem for the creators of In-Need No-More was that the assignment guidelines required the businesses created for the practicum to be for-profit. The founders were

able to get around this requirement by retaining for-profit status while investing all earnings that they make back into the business.

The for-profit status of In-Need No-More presents a challenge for the company in convincing business and individuals to come on board.

It also means that they are unable to provide tax receipts to participating

businesses. So far, In-Need No-More has been able to meet its goals despite this technicality.

Though the course project requirements end once the semester is over, Nehring says that this will not be the end of In-Need No-More. Its founders plan to refine their business model and keep the company going.

This will likely involve becoming a

non-profit organisation and pursuing a charity designation. They are also looking at expanding to address other student needs such as food and sports equipment.

“We do want to pursue this once we’re out of the program because it’s such a good cause and it has helped build our network substantially, and it feels good to give,” says Nehring.

KPU student Matthew Wollin, who co-founded the In-Need No-More program in Surrey, loads a van up with boxes of school supplies for children. (Submitted)

10 features

The Controversial Legacy of ernesto “Che” Guevara Lives on in Vancouver

Revolutionary thinkers gathered to observe the 50th anniversary of the death of the famous Marxist figure BRADEN KLASSEN | PHOTO EDITOR The radical leanings of Communism seem like an oddity in the sphere of contemporary Canadian politics. Ideals of revolution and extreme socialism sound anachronistic, but they have not disappeared entirely from modern discourse. The seventh annual Che Guevara conference hosted by Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba was living proof of this.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Guevara’s death, and the conference celebrated this by inviting a number of prestigious speakers to the Russian Hall in East Vancouver.

The speakers included Central and South American politicians, economists, professors, journalists, and writers who came together to discuss the aftermath of the socialist revolutions in Russia and Central and South America.

The walls of the auditorium in the Russian Hall were adorned with communist memorabilia, old posters, maps, flags, and portraits of Lenin, Castro, and Guevara.

Many of the panelists only spoke Spanish, so audience members were given headsets through which realtime English translations were provided. At times the speakers grew passionate, inciting exclamations of “Viva Cuba!” and “Viva la revolución!” from members of the audience, all sitting under the gaze of a massive banner depicting the conference’s eponymous revolutionary figurehead.

The Man Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. He grew up in a middle class family with parents who were involved with socialist politics and ensured that he was well-educated.

Before earning his medical degree from Buenos Aires University in 1953, he traveled extensively throughout South America, where he witnessed the impact of poverty and poor working conditions on people in different countries, most notably Chile and Peru.

In Guatemala, Guevara saw how the local farmers were being exploited and oppressed by the international agriculture businesses, which quickly solidified his disdain for capitalism.

Shortly after his arrival in the country, the new and democratically elected Guatemalan government passed land reform policies that took away unused land from these businesses and distributed it back to the impoverished farmers.

This impressed Guevara, who was influenced by and supportive of Marxism at the time, and it inspired him to help unite the people of Latin America under the banner of communism.

Not long afterwards he met Fidel

Audience members in the Russian Hall listen to Wilfredo J. Perez Bianco lecture about the political and economic struggles of Venezuelans being oppressed by President Nicolás Maduro’s government. (Braden Klassen) Castro, a like-minded anti-imperialist revolutionary who was already involved in inciting smaller communist revolutions across Central America. Together, they planned to overthrow the dictatorship of the Cuban president, Fulgencio Batista, as an initial step towards revolutionising all of South America.

In 1956, after years of extensive training in guerilla warfare and military tactics, Guevara, Castro, and just over 100 recruits sailed into Cuba on a small boat as part of a mission to “invade” the country by sea. Almost immediately, the armed forces under Batista’s command massacred most of the men, and Guevara and Castro went into hiding, protected by a network of guerilla sympathizers in rural Cuba.

Initially, Guevara had meant to accompany the rebel group and act as a combat medic, but during that first desperate fight against Batista’s army, it is said that Guevara abandoned his medical supplies so he could pick up a box of ammunition. Later, he interpreted this as a pivotal and symbolic moment in his life.

Over time, the revolutionaries waged war against members of Batista’s regime, which was becoming increasingly anti-communist. Guevara earned his reputation as a brutal and merciless leader, personally killing defectors and presiding over summary executions of those who complied with Batista’s forces. He also spent that time organizing the construction of schools and medical clinics, as well as factories that produced food and weapons. Castro was impressed with Guevara’s efforts and performance, and promoted him to the rank of Commandante.

Guevara led battles against the

regime and perfected the usage of hit-and-run guerilla military tactics to slowly capture cities and towns in Cuba. He was recognized as an exceptional military leader, able to achieve victory in battles even when his forces were vastly outnumbered.

In January 1959, after a series of decisive losses to the revolutionaries, Batista fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic, taking hundreds of millions of dollars with him. The next day, Guevara marched into Havana and took control of Cuba’s capital city.

The revolutionary war lasted three years and claimed thousands of lives, but Castro and Guevara conquered Cuba and replaced the previous government with a socialist state. Castro nationalised all of the U.S.-owned oil production sites, which led to the American embargo on Cuba that still exists today.

A few years later, Guevara became an instrumental figure in the Cuban Missile crisis. He was sympathetic to the Soviet communists, allowing them to station nuclear weapons in Cuba as a means of deterring nuclear war. This had the opposite effect, however, and despite the successful negotiations between the U.S. and the Soviets to dismantle the weapons, the crisis is generally seen as the closest the world has ever come to waging a nuclear war. Guevara went on record stating that, if the missiles had been under Cuban control instead of Soviet, he would have used all of them to strike the U.S. instead of dismantling them.

Guevara became as critical of the Soviets as he was of the U.S. and he eventually left Cuba to travel to Africa and Bolivia in support of local communist rebel forces. After

an unsuccessful rebel campaign in Bolivia, he was wounded in a gunfight and captured by militants aided by the CIA. At the age of 39, Ernesto “Che” Guevara was executed on Oct. 9, 1967.

The Legacy Since then, Guevara’s image has become inextricably linked with notions of counterculture and rebellion, and the beneficence of his legacy remains a contentious topic of debate.

On the one hand, he liberated the Cuban people from a repressive dictatorship and helped install a socialist state that is directly responsible for raising the literacy rates, health care quality, and income equality in Cuba. On the other hand, he personally killed over one hundred people and was indirectly responsible for the deaths of many more, and his and Castro’s bloodthirsty approach to warfare and politics brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

The contention surrounding Guevara’s legacy was not really addressed during the conference, however. The speakers there discussed the more concrete impacts that Guevara had on policy and political thought.

Hellen Yaffe, an Economic History fellow at the London School of Economics, delivered a lecture over video conference on her paper, “Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara: A rebel against Soviet Political Economy”.

She explains that, unlike the Soviets, Guevara did not let communist ideology and moralism get in the way of Cuba’s technological and economic progress.

“Guevara was struck by the backwardness of Soviet techniques,”

Yaffe wrote. “He complained about the contradiction between the high level of research and development in military technology and low investment applied to civilian production.”

Guevara’s efforts to maintain modernity in socialist countries and diverge from the Soviet model of socialism were unsuccessful at the time.

“He hoped to persuade socialist countries to gradually replace capitalist mechanisms during transition and offered alternative policies to serve this function,” Yaffe continued. “His warnings were not heeded and, for the reasons which Guevara predicted, among others, capitalism returned to all those countries.”

“Canadians have had an interest in Cuba for a very long time. Every year there are many Canadian tourists who come and visit Cuba,” says Luis Morolte Rivas, through a Spanish translator.

Rivas is a member of the Cuban National Assembly and the Vice-President of the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists. Without the socialist ideals of revolutionaries like Guevara and Castro that prioritized funding for Cuban cultural initiatives, the Union would not exist.

He says that the Cuban people do owe a certain debt to Guevara and Castro for bringing the country out of the grasp of Batista’s dictatorship, and he’s pleased that Canadians can recognize this.

“Canada is a very cold country, but the people here are very warm,” says Rivas. “We have a lot of friends in this country.”

(Nicole Kwit)

12 OPINIONS

Diversity in kpu’s Faculty Means a Closer Connection to students STEPHANIE DAVIES | contributor Walking around campus, you’re sure to notice how multicultural our student body is, but does that diversity translate to KPU’s faculty?

In general, it doesn’t seem like KPU’s faculty is any more or less diverse than the majority of institutions around the province. Reflecting diversity in employment is a never ending work-in-progress, so of course there’s always room for improvement, namely in regards to the representation of women, minority groups and sexual orientations and identities.

As curriculums expand to include more perspectives, there’s never been a greater need to have professors from as many different backgrounds as possible. The university can’t really call itself a place of diversity if the student body continues to become more inclusive while the range of faculty doesn’t shift at a similar pace. KPU, along with every other post-secondary institution in the country, should strive for nothing less than a reflection of Canadian society.

There’s no doubt that this will make our student body more unified and confident.

In an ideal world, a student from any background should be able to see their culture represented in their instructor pool. They should feel like they’re able to relate to a professor or mentor on a cultural level. That kind of understanding helps a student feel like they belong to a community, which is what student and faculty diversity is all about—connection and community. The greater the diversity, the closer the connection.

A good place to start in terms of forming a more diverse faculty is looking at courses where the curriculum is centered on specific groups of people. For instance, an Indigenous professor teaching an Indigenous history or literature class would be able to bring something that, say, a Caucasian professor couldn’t. When a professor has not only the wealth of experience but also the richness of ancestral connection to the material, their lessons become even more powerful.

When a professor is connected to the material in that way, students often receive a greater level of understanding, and hopefully an even greater appreciation for the material.

Of course, this isn’t to say that someone who isn’t Indigenous shouldn’t teach courses that revolve around that culture, but it’s about time we have a better representation of perspectives across the board. KPU thrives on its diversity, and will only become stronger if it acts on its desire to reflect the real Canadian society.

We Need a Final Exam Revolution

It’s time for universities to offer alternatives to the stress and anxiety of final exams

KATHERINE DOLMAT Exam season is the worst. The last two weeks of the semester always involve study sessions, cramming, stress, caffeine, and thoughts like, “What mark do I need on this exam to pass the course?”

Studies show that final exam periods cause an increased demand for prescription medication, counselling services, tutoring services, and all too frequently result in course failures.

When your final grade depends on the mark you get on your last test, it can feel like the end of the world if you’re not prepared.

So how is it beneficial for students to memorize the answers to a test in a short amount of time only to forget all about it after the exam is over?

How does that prepare you for your future career path?

Test anxiety could be due, in part, to the time frame in which final exams take place. If you’re in five or six courses, there’s a high chance that your exams will fall on the same day or just days apart. This is one of the major reasons for stress and cramming during exam season—there simply isn’t enough time to properly study for everything.

There is a mental health crisis affecting students across Canada. In 2016, The Ontario University and College Health Association published a survey of 25,000 students which found that 65 per cent of post-secondary students had experienced over-

whelming anxiety in the previous year. The health and well-being of students should be the most important factor when deciding how to structure courses, so universities and colleges need to consider how much unnecessary mental strain they are putting on students by having such a strict and condensed exam schedule.

Some countries have taken note of these issues and created alternate solutions for final exams. For example, certain universities in the United Kingdom and France only hold exams at the end of a degree program, not at the end of each course. Others evaluate student knowledge based on individual projects that showcase what they’ve learned and measure whether the students can apply their knowledge to real-world challenges.

Changing the structure of courses and eliminating final exams is beneficial for institutions as well as students. Exam stress from students puts more pressure on staff and faculty to be accessible, meaning more counselling services and instructor office hours are needed. When students fail courses, they need to take that course again, creating waitlists and the need for extra sections of the course to be planned. Post-secondary institutions should want their students to excel, and rethinking the structure of final exams is an important factor in helping them do so.

Everyone learns differently. You can’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. I believe that students

should be fairly tested on their knowledge of course work through projects, essays, and a final exam only if they prefer to learn that way. Exam period should be extended to longer than two weeks and alternate dates should

be automatically given if exams are scheduled too close together. For the benefit of everyone, it’s time for universities to have a final exam revolution.

(Epifania Alarcón)

STEM Fields are Important, and Education Should Reflect This

Canada needs teachers to better prepare students for careers in math and science

tristan johnston| contributor Despite what you may think, you— and the vast majority of people—are probably capable of doing Grade 12 level math.

While I was earning my journalism degree, I would hear my peers make off-handed comments decrying any requirement to do math, even saying that they hated the subject. I found this frustrating because I find that most math-induced groaning is the result of poor early experiences in classes, not an inability to succeed in it.

Many of us are taught early math

by English majors. It’s no wonder that, by the time we get to Grade 11 and 12, our occasionally-qualified teachers can’t do anything to make up for the crappy ones who were supposed to build our foundations in understanding mathematics.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada is currently ninth place on the PISA world math ranking, with Singapore, Hong Kong, Tai-

wan, and Macau in the top four places. The United States is well below the OECD’s average.

I would be willing to argue that Canada only gets a spot on the list because we’re better at immigration—as many don’t go through the bureaucratic headache of becoming a citizen of Canada just to watch their children study English—and because there aren’t vast disparities between how much funding schools get in our country.

The more educated you are, the easier it is to become a citizen in another country. Some of our top performers in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) go to work in the U.S., where the H1-B Visa is used to bring over specialised foreign workers. I’m already aware of two engineers in my social network who now work for Microsoft and Tesla.

Our spot on the OECD’s list is destined to fall. Doing nothing to change the way math and science are taught in Canada will create greater wealth

divides in Canada in the future, but adopting less traditional approaches to math education won’t fix the problem of having inadequate instructors in the school system. When teaching standards in public schools are poor, it ensures that only financially secure families that put a high value on education will be able to give their kids the skills they would need to succeed in STEM fields.

STEM courses are what you take if you want a job waiting for you when you get out of school, and not having students with those sorts of opportunities will eventually hurt our economy. When countries like China and India can provide their STEM graduates with high pay and clean air in the future, they won’t have much reason to come here and contribute to our economy.

If we want to fix the math education problem in Canada, we need to stop using experimental methods and ensure that students are being taught by teachers who understand what they’re teaching. And while it’s a tall order, we should also make like

Finland and pay our instructors more, while expecting more from them.

More importantly, we need a cultural shift to encourage young people to pursue degrees in math and science. My dad wasn’t necessarily taught to seek happiness in a job or through his education, but for him, working hard at math brought him a degree in electrical engineering and took him out of poverty. Many of us were told that we should “seek our passion” in school, and that’s what I did with my journalism degree. But a future of endless freelancing in a collapsing industry sure didn’t bring me any joy.

Many of us Millenials are rightfully worried about the changing nature of our economy and our expensive educations. Maybe we shouldn’t go for degrees in creative writing.

OPINIONS 13

The Government’s Plan to Help Endangered killer Whales Lacks Action

Federal decisions put orcas at an increased risk of extinction despite Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s recovery strategy MEL POMERLEAU | WEB EDITOR Killer whales residing off the coast of B.C. and California are listed as an endangered species due to dwindling food population, noise pollution, and high levels of human-caused toxins and pollutants.

According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Northeast Pacific southern-resident killer whale has been listed as endangered through the Species at Risk Act since 2003. The department’s recovery strategy currently lists four ways to aid in the recovery of the species: protecting their habitat and their prey’s habitat, ensuring an adequate food supply, and making sure that chemical pollutants and human activity don’t prevent the recovery of the species.

Unfortunately, these objectives lack specificity and don’t offer any real solution or action plan to recover the species.

Killer whales use echolocation to navigate their surroundings and find their prey. Echolocation works by making sounds that bounce off of objects to determine their location in a given space. With so much extra noise coming from oil tankers and other boats, the sound waves and echoes used in echolocation are

increasingly difficult to trace, leaving orcas with an unclear perception of their surroundings and unable to communicate with their pod.

Considering the approval of Kinder Morgan, Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s third objective to “ensure that disturbances from human activities does not prevent the recovery of resident killer whales” is already failing.

The increased risk of oil spills from the pipeline threaten all marine life in the area. Spills aside, the pipeline expansion will increase tanker traffic, effectively creating more noise pollution from idle engines and tankers moving along the coast.

A recent study showed just how much human toxins and contaminants are contributing to the decline of the southern-resident killer whales.

Researchers collected 26 samples of exhaled breath from eight male orcas, seven female orcas, and six orcas of undetermined sex between 2006 and 2009. The study found “an array of bacteria and fungi in breath and [surface microlayer] samples ... as well as microorganisms that exhibited resistance to multiple antimicrobial agents.”

Objective two of the recovery strategy is to “ensure that chemical and biological pollutants do not pre-

vent the recovery of resident killer whale populations.” To do this, the report indicates it will “reduce the introduction into the environment of pesticides and other chemical compounds that have the potential to adversely affect the health of killer whales and/or their prey.” It goes on to say that “mitigation must occur on scales that range from local consumer to the international level, as many pollutants originate from sources outside of Canada.”

Wastewater treatment plants vary among municipalities. Fisheries and Oceans Canada should implement a standard for thorough treatment

to effectively reduce contaminants from wastewater, especially in areas of close proximity to at-risk marine wildlife.

To date, whale-hunting is prohibited without a license, and guidelines for whale-watching are in place to help protect the species. Guidelines are great when they’re universally followed, but unfortunately, they rarely are.

More strict regulations for whale-watching are set to come into effect in the spring, Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters outside of the House of Commons last month. Boats will be required

to stay 200 metres away from any southern-resident killer whales they encounter in Canadian waters and 100 metres away from all other marine mammals encountered.

Regulations and policies play an important role in reducing adverse effects to whales. Fisheries and Oceans Canada needs to get the ball rolling by implementing the necessary policies and regulations to protect orcas and put more serious punishments in place for larger corporations and communities that are not currently held accountable for their actions as often as they should be.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada have been tracking the decline of killer whales living off of the West Coast of Canada. The species has been listed as endangered for over a decade. (Flickr/J. (Leah Maughn) Rosehill)

Behind the Mask: The Selfishness of Black Bloc Agitators disguised as protesters have been disrupting demonstrations to satisfy their desire for violence

BRADEN KLASSEN | PHOTO EDITOR Without sustained public protests, standard human rights in North America would probably be centuries behind where they are today.

Historically, important and impactful protests like the Stonewall Riots, the Birmingham campaign, and the Vietnam War protests would turn violent because of the rising tension and conflict in the events, and the one-sidedness of armed authoritarian suppression. But now, the evolution of citizen journalism and social media has made it much easier for people to report on and help identify those who are responsible for inciting violence. For that reason, some protesters go out of their way to protect their identity.

There are legitimate reasons for wanting to conceal your identity during a demonstration—in an oppressive police state or dictatorship, your identity becomes a liability. I have personally talked to activists who told me they were afraid to be seen with anti-racist and anti-fascist movements because there were people in their lives who could potentially become a threat to their safety if they found out.

However, there are also people who use anonymity as a way to commit crimes and hurt people without

facing the consequences, crossing the line between civil expression and civil misconduct.

The Black Bloc has been a loosely organized label for these people since the 80s, but as political tensions have been steadily building in America and Canada over the past decade, it has become prominent again. In August, members of the Black Bloc attacked a Global News journalist during a protest in Quebec, destroying some of their equipment.

This is probably the most telling example of the misguided motivations of such a group: actual protesters should welcome journalists to their events because news coverage can strengthen the reach of their message. Attacking a journalist is unreasonable, as they are ideally objective, unbiased bystanders who are only there to observe and report. That’s it.

Members of the Black Bloc released a statement online that defended the actions of the attackers, claiming that they had the right to become violent in order to protect their identities from the news media.

The post advocated the Bloc’s use of “going in anonymous mode” by donning masks to protect themselves and their identity—a cowardly, thinly veiled parasitism that divests them from the responsibility of their actions and puts others at risk.

The nature of meaningful protest is inherently subversive. It’s a populist cry for change, an impassioned expression of dissent, and a rallying cry for action. People protest because they disagree with policies or ideologies, so it’s understandable that when a crowd of unsatisfied and upset people congregate into one space, things might get out of hand.

The Black Bloc is a representation of the ugliest intentions some people can harbour in these spaces. Some people have an appetite for violence, chaos, and destruction, and they see protests or large public gatherings as an arena, a means to satisfying this appetite with a diminished risk of being held accountable for their actions. Think of the people who looted and vandalised downtown Vancouver after the Stanley Cup finals.

Unprovoked violent action— which should be distinguished from violence made in self-defence—is the Achilles Heel of earnest demonstration and protest. Once a group like Antifa or Black Lives Matter becomes associated with violence, their message becomes secondary, their motives more open to question and their reputation irreversibly corrupted and tarnished. These incidents give governments excuses to clamp down on democratic rights and target

activists and political dissenters.

Activists need to organize peaceful protests and marches because they feel that every alternative method of voicing their opinion is inadequate.

When members of the Black Bloc hijack these events, they delegitimize the points actual protesters are trying to make, and they open up move-

ments or groups to criticism that would otherwise be irrelevant. They put other demonstrators in danger by inciting combative reactions from police or counter-protesters.

This behaviour is irresponsible and selfish, and it is not different from regular violent criminality.

Members of the Black Bloc join in protests in the U.K. in 2015.

(Flickr/Nic Walker) (Leah Rosehill)

14 columns

Decolonial Discourse: Evaluating George Vancouver Is the man this city is named after an explorer or a colonizer?

JUSTIN BIGE | CONTRIBUTOR In 1792, George Vancouver reached— not discovered—the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh lands that are colonially known as Vancouver.

Often revered, this explorer was the reason the Lower Mainland was colonized through to its current existence today. We seldom talk critically of men such as him in history, and most accounts of his life don’t examine the negative impacts of his actions.

First off, although he was hailed for his apparently good relations with Indigenous peoples, Vancouver called the people of the Northwest Coast “repugnant” for their sloped foreheads and lip labrets. He is said to have had amiable relations with First Nations when he arrived on the coast, but those relations were venomous at best. At worst, they were wholly genocidal.

For generations after his visit, the people of the city-village of c’əsnaʔəm—in what is now referred to as Marpole—had their homes built over, their culture severely restricted and, of course, their children stolen and forcibly entered into the Residential School system. Those must have

been the most amiable of relations, in standard British fashion.

Also, most accounts of his life mention this mysteriously clearedout land that Vancouver just happened upon, now named after him.

The reason the area was so empty was due to the intentional spreading of disease via smallpox years prior, as mentioned in a recent article from the National Post from February titled “Everyone was dead: When Europeans first came to B.C., they stepped into the aftermath of a holocaust.”

This germ-warfare was perpetrated ahead of Vancouver’s arrival, decimating First Nations numbers from the tens of thousands to mere thousands or possibly hundreds. This was an act of genocide, and George Vancouver arrived in the aftermath.

Though many of the Indigenous places he travelled through still bare the names he gave them, it’s surprising how little thought was put into them. He described Vancouver Island’s Desolation Sound as being barren and desolate, despite the fact that the land surrounding it is beautiful and green. He named the west and east sides of the Sound after his sisters, Mary and Susan Point. Is this homesickness? The result of Seasonal Affective Disorder after sailing so far

from home?

On the topic of his emotionality, Vancouver’s also known for giving harsh beatings and lashings to his own crew. Perhaps this was the result of unchecked mental health or anger issues, or of his sailings with James Cook.

Cook, who bumped into Hawaii with Vancouver in his crew, was also known for unusually violent attacks on his own members. Cook was eventually killed by Hawaiian Indigenous people who resisted his colonial occupation. By this time Vancouver was off sailing on his own expeditions.

For such a famous explorer and navigator, his reports were ridden with errors on longitudinal coordinates, even though he was the one to put an end to the idea of a Northwest Passage. George Vancouver, in the end, had a half-written report on his journeys through the Pacific Northwest, and died back in Britain without proper documentation—an interesting fate for the colonial namesake of Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories.

A statue of Captain George Vancouver stands outside of Vancouver City Hall. Vancouver was a British Naval Officer ??? who lived from 1757 to 1798. (Wikimedia Commons)

The CRA Probably Won’t Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is

Despite the release of the Paradise Papers, the Canadian Revenue Agency is unlikely to bring tax evaders to justice BRADEN KLASSEN | PHOTO EDITOR If a corporation finds out that its employees are embezzling money, the corporation fires these people and presses charges. These people end up penniless and in prison, and the corporation receives its restitution.

If wealthy Canadians stash their money in tax havens—effectively embezzling money from the Canadian government, and by extension, the Canadian public—what do you think the Canadian Revenue Agency should do?

A.) Go after every cent owed and prosecute these people to the full extent of the law. B.) Force the tax evaders to repay all of the money and put them in a special punitive tax bracket reserved for people who commit similar crimes. C.) Prosecute a handful of them and let the rest apply for a “voluntary disclosure” tax amnesty deal, perpetuating systemic tax evasion by setting the example that some Canadians can get away with stealing from the country, as long as they have enough money.

Ideally, the answer to this question is always option A. But in 2016, after the Panama Papers were leaked, the CRA chose option C. The Panama Papers are a massive set of documents that named individuals who routinely used tax havens to hide money from the government.

The CRA was able to use this infor-

mation to find people involved in tax evasion, and they did what they do: they audited the shit out of them.

But were their efforts enough?

The CRA pursued detailed audits of 85 Canadians or companies and offered the Voluntary Disclosure Program to the other 2,586 files that were eligible for review. The program basically let tax evaders turn themselves in to the agency in return for reduced penalties and less rigorous auditing.

Since then, the CRA has repeatedly said that they will be stepping up their efforts in going after tax evasion, but it’s happening so slowly that, at this rate, it looks like the government will still lose out on billions of dollars in tax revenue every year for the foreseeable future.

There are good reasons for the CRA’s caution in litigating against tax evaders. Namely, it costs a significant amount of time and money, as wealthy people can afford to hire a team of lawyers who can relentlessly fight the agency, costing taxpayers millions in the process. It almost seems reasonable, at least in the shorter term, for the CRA to cut its losses in the name of saving Canadians money.

If this is the case, though, it’s pretty blatant that wealth equals power in this country, and that even the government and our justice system are incapable of dealing with this rampant problem.

In early November, a similar set of documents were leaked, commonly referred to as the Paradise Papers. These documents tied even more Canadian elites to tax havens, including former Prime Ministers Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, and Brian

Mulroney, as well as prominent Liberal Party donors. Even the Queen and Prince Charles were named.

It’s astounding that the level of tax evasion in this country has been allowed to grow to these proportions.

The entities responsible for prevent-

ing this from happening have been failing for decades. If the government and the CRA are as committed to dealing with these oversights as they say they are, they need to shut up and just do it already.

The Canadian Revenue Agency is the federal organization responsible for administrating ??? and enforcing tax laws. (Flickr/Obert Madondo)

PROCRASTINATION HOROSCOPES Sagittarius Nov. 23 - Dec 21

Capricorn Dec. 22 - Jan 20

Aquarius Jan 21 - Feb 19

I feel like your “I do not have sex with jack-o-lanterns” T-shirt is raising more questions than it’s answering.

Real quick, what’s a “Meat hello”?

Your ultimatum to the producers of Fast9 has backfired. They decided The Rock was a more important asset to the franchise than you.

Pisces Feb 20 - Mar 20

Aries Mar 21 - Apr 19

Taurus Apr 20 - May 20

As you try to sleep, all you can hear is the sound of skeletons having sex in a tin closet during a hailstorm, using a bag of microwavable popcorn for a condom.

Always remember that marriage is about supporting each other, being there for each other, and vowing to raise the kids to hate the same things you hate if one of you dies.

Some days you’re Emilio Estevez, other days you’re Charlie Sheen.

Gemini May 21 - Jun 20

Cancer Jun 21 - Jul 23

Leo Jul 24 - Aug 23

You are the tonic for this dark age.

The mechanism that allowed you to keep your head above water following your mother’s departure has not been described or catalogued by scientists.

Its details aren’t observable from the outside world. But there it is, within you.

You are one of the priests of the southern sea, descended from Holothurian nomads and said to be immortal. Try not to lord it over your friends.

Virgo Aug 24 - Sept 23

Libra Sept 24 - Oct 23

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 22

Owls have begun to roost inside your belly. They ward off the ghosts at your door so you cannot be haunted. Before the owls, your body was filled with such empty barns.

In your darkest moment you look up, seeking the light. Above your monitor, the words: “Galaxy Quest still holds up.”

Never forget that you are a Great and Tragic Disappointment to The People of Djibouti.

SUDOKU

THE DOODLE BOX Last issue’s answers.

Look for the answers in the next issue of The Runner.

We’ve merely started the creation, you get to finish it!

Tweet a photo of your drawing with #runnerdoodles and you could be featured in the next issue!

(Nicole Kwit)