The Runner Volume 9, Issue 3

Volume 09 // Issue 03

News Student Groups Critical of Disabilities Office

October 12 2016

Culture Active KSA Release Their Fall Schedule

WHAT DOES

A SAFE SPACE

LOOK LIKE?

Opinion What it Means to be PC at KPU

R

THE RUNNER

Students and faculty share their views on inclusivity and academic freedoms

find us online / runnermag.ca / @runnermag / facebook.com/runnerMAG / INSTAGRAM.com/RUNNERMAG

02 Table of contents

04 07 10 14 18

staff

News | Student Groups critical of Disabilities Office

Unless you’ve gone through the Students with Disabilities Services office, you might believe that if you have a disability, all you need is a doctor’s note and an appointment. It turns out it’s much more complicated than that.

Coordinating Editor Tristan Johnston editor@runnermag.ca

Managing Editor

culture | Active KSA Releases New Fall Schedule

Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca

“We so often get stuck in our little shells, and we go in our routines and never try new things. I just hope that people will give it a shot,” says Active KSA Coordinator Tonya Myhedyn.

Production Manager

Danielle George production@runnermag.ca

Art Director

Features | What Does a Safe Space Look Like?

Scott McLelland art@runnermag.ca

“A certain openness [in the classroom] has to be there,” says Psychology instructor Gira Bhatt. “There is a difference between being cautious and being censored. We can be respectful without being censored.”

Photo Editor

Kier-Christer Junos photos@runnermag.ca @kierjunos

Staff Writer

Alyssa Laube staff@runnermag.ca

Opinions| Political Correctness is Beneficial, if Done Right Political Correctness has been a fairly regular part of being on campus at KPU lately, and from what I’ve seen so far it has been mostly positive.

Web Editor

Joseph Keller web@runnermag.ca

Operations Manager Scott Boux office@runnermag.ca 778.565.3801

COLUMN | How to Reduce Your Plastic Consumption

Plastic takes anywhere from 450 to 1000 years to biodegrade. That means that long after you’re gone, the plastic you’ve thrown out all your life will remain for centuries.

#BestPhoto

#FeatureTweets katie warfield @katie_warfield Le Clitoris a sex ed movie about the long lost clitoris http://404notfound Mark_Hamilton @gmarkham Nope. Trump still not a decent human being.

Pass it to Beelis @passittobulis Chris Tanev worked on his shot in the off-season and it’s no longer a muffin. Now it’s at least a scone.

KwantlenU @KwantlenU WHAT’S ON TAP: Celebrate #Oktoberfest w a German-style ALTBIER! KPU Brew Lab, Fri, 1-5, 20901 Lgly Byp. Fills: $10/64oz, $6/32oz #KwantlenU

Fall Semester 2016 Student Publication Fee Opt-Outs available in person Sept. 27 - Oct. 28.

Student ID & Proof of registration and payment required.

PIPS Office: Arbutus 3710, Surrey Campus.

Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778.565.3801 www.runnermag.ca Vol. 09, Issue no. 3 October 12, 2016 ISSN# 1916 8241

Contributors Braden Klassen Calvin Borghardt Louis Marta-Widjaja Melissa Pomerleau

Neil Bassan Nicole Kwit Shandis Harrison Tommy Nguyen

Cover

In the high arts community, comics based artists are considered especially heinous. In the City of Vancouver, the dedicated art directors who investigate these vicious illustrators are members of an elite squad known as the Special Visuals Unit. These are their stories.

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.

Editorial 03

From The Editors

Intelligent conservative criticism benefits everyone Tristan Johnston |Coordinating Editor Student newspapers tend to have a reputation for being left-leaning in their coverage and opinions. For any newspaper to adequately show a diversity of opinions, it ought to include a few on the right end of the spectrum as well.

Since many students, generally speaking, are on student loans and aren’t making very much money, it makes sense for most of us to want the government around to help us.

When we find ourselves constantly criticising the government in all the ways they let down students—whether it be funding or housing—I’d like to hear some who’re on their side. Or at least some who can convincingly argue that low taxes are good for us.

That doesn’t mean I necessarily have an interest in voting for the Conservatives, it’s just that I know there are likely a fair number of conservative students at KPU and that their view deserves to be represented in the school newspaper. In the 2015 Canadian election, 20 per cent of voters aged 18 to 25 voted Conservative.

In Louis CK’s show, Horace and Pete, there’s a scene in a bar where a liberal and a conservative are arguing with each other. A character comes between them and asks them to define each other. The conservative

A jack-o-lantern that appears to depict the eyebrow-cocked mug of Rex Murphy, the conservative columnist and pundit.

Is he eloquent or just impressively verbose? (Quiet.fyre/Flickr)

accuses the liberal of hating religion, business, government and having a gay agenda. The liberal accuses the conservative of being all about Jesus, caring only about money, and not helping out other people.

The man in the middle asks them to define themselves. The conservative says that he believes change should happen slowly, that family

values are important, and that the government is around to facilitate, not control. The liberal says that some people need to be lent a hand, other perspectives need to be heard, and diversity is a strength.

I thought this was a powerful conversation, and it speak to why I sometimes feel bothered when people I know get mad at conservatives for

thinking that they’re some sort of extreme form of it, rather than what they tend to be: people who want change to come slowly, and taxes to be low.

Either way, the most important reason for us to have well-written contrarian opinions is to expose our readers to something they’re not used to. It’s too easy to scroll through Facebook and see the ridiculous stuff being said by Donald Trump and Mike Pence and believing that they represent conservative thinking.

Our ideas grow weaker when they’re not being challenged fairly.

It’s easy to hang out with your friends who will nod their heads whenever you state an opinion, or for you to do the same.

One of the best things about my time in high school was the fact that a friend of mine was a very wellread Christian, and I was of course a Christopher Hitchens-reading atheist. It was through our five years of discussions and debate that we became better at respecting each other’s opinion, while also strengthening our own.

So yes, I would like to see more conservative writing. If you think the free market is the answer, or that you can argue convincingly that pipelines are good for the country and the economy, I would love to read your work.

It’s when good ideas get challenged fairly that the best ideas come to light.

KSA Become Platinum Donors to KDOCS

News Briefs

Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer

The KSA has provided $7,500 to KDOCS in exchange for verbal and media recognition, a half-page full colour ad in their festival program, and eight tickets to the festival itself. That amount was determined by “how much they have available to provide sponsorships and how much they had given in the past,” according to KSA President Alex McGowan.

“The KSA is just happy to support an event that promotes social justice and independent filmmaking,” he says.

Every year, KDOCS screens a series of documentaries at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. The event has run on campus since 2012, and last year, over 700 people attended.

Some of the films shown then were Drone, The Mask You Live In, Ivory Tower, and Fractured Land. Special guests and speakers involved with the movies are always invited as well.

“KDOCS is in line with our val-

ues as an organization, so it’s something we want to make sure to choose every year,” says McGowan. “The money helps them put on the festival, so they need to bring in speakers, their directors for the films, they need to book the space, that sort of thing.”

He says that although he cannot comment on “the future will of decision-makers of the KSA,” it is likely that the Association will continue donating to the festival in the future.

Founder and festival director of KDOCS, Janice Morris, feels that the relationship between the festival and the KSA is fundamental to its success.

“The whole raison d’être of KDOCS was student engagement.

That was the genesis of KDOCS and that still continues to be our number one goal, not only engage students but to work with students,” she says.

“For us, working with the KSA, whether it’s through sponsorship or any of the other ways we work with them to make sure this festival is a success—they’re the number one relationship that we have.”

Financially, Morris is also appreciative of the platinum sponsorship.

Every year, the festival’s fan base gets bigger, and the funds required to keep it up to standard grow along with that achievement.

This year’s donation from the KSA is up $2,500 from last year, according to Morris.

“This is an increase over last year and last year was a decrease from the past years,” she says.

KDOCS has also taken up a community outreach program for filmmaking and screening and has been hosting community events on campus outside of the festival. The sponsorship will help them keep those projects running as well.

“We are extremely grateful, and without the support of the KSA, KDOCS would likely cease to exist,” Morris concludes.

What’s Happening this week

Oct 13

Hello Future

The Kwantlen Psychology Society has put together this panel of graduates to help prepare students for life after university. Learn what awaits you beyond the halls of KPU. 11 - 3, KPU Surrey Conference Centre, Free.

Oct 15

Capilano Pacific Trail Hike

Active KSA has another great event in store with this hike along the Capilano Pacific Trail. Remember to bring a refillable water bottle and plenty of snacks.

11 - 2, Ambleside Park, Free for students.

Oct 17

Trivia Night - Sex Ed

Fun Fact: “Gonad” is a scientific term that refers to the testes or ovaries.

Come learn more facts about sexual education as part of the upcoming SEXPO conference.

5 - 7, Grassroots Cafe, Free.

Oct 18 Presidential Election Roundtable Discussion

The Political Science Club is hosting a roundtable about the ongoing American Presidential election.

Share your thoughts on Trump and Clinton on the road to the White House.

1 - 2:30, Cedar 1205B, Free.

Oct 20 Poetry Slam

Slamapalooza’s fall schedule continues with another open mic poetry slam in the Grassroots. Try your hand at some spoken word and support the Slamapalooza team.

6:30 - 8:30, Grassroots Cafe, Free.

Oct 21 Pieces of Mind: Mental Health Conference

The second annual Pieces of Mind conference can help students through the stressful, anxiety-inducing world of university. Come learn how to take care of your mental health.

8:30 - 5, KPU Surrey Conference Centre, Free.

04 News

Student Groups Report Negative Experiences with Students with Disabilities Office

Long wait times for accommodation, difficulty obtaining documentation among complaints Tristan Johnston |Coordinating Editor Unless you’ve gone through the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) office, you might believe that if you have a disability, all you need is a doctor’s note and an appointment.

It turns out it’s much more complicated than that.

“With DAMN (Disability Action Movement Now), we’re working to solve that a little more,” says Kim McMartin, board organizer for the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group and DAMN advocate.. “We’re hoping to move [SSD] towards a different sort of model where you get more of a say in your accommodations. Like some people really need a quiet room when they’re taking a test.

It’s part of their learning disability, it’s part of their anxiety.”

There have been several criticisms of the office as of late, coming mostly from DAMN and the Kwantlen Student Association. Some students who seek accommodation feel that there are too many hoops to jump though.

“There’s not a lot of transparency, I would say. You can’t find a lot of their stuff online. You can find some, but it’s kind of hard to find it, and kind of hard to understand it, especially if you’re a new student.”

“You have to book an appoint-

ment with an advisor,” says Landon Charney, Students with Disabilities Rep for the KSA. “Bring in a form from a doctor which proves you have a disability. I had to bring in a lot of stuff for mine to prove it.”

Charney says he has heard claims that the SSD office, particularly the one on the Surrey campus, is having problems. He believes that KPU should make it easier for students with registered disabilities to get accommodation, and that new students should be made aware of the office when applying to KPU. “I would say that they are substandard in their ability to get services to students with disabilities,” says Tanvir Singh, KSA Vice President of Student Services. “The office only deals with students with permanent disabilities, which is really up for debate. What does it mean to have a permanent disability?”

Singh also mentions that whether or not a student is frequently seeing a doctor could be considered a factor in getting accommodation. “Some individuals with arthritis or visual problems might not be regularly seeing a doctor because they have that issue and deal with it their entire lives.

They might not have documentation readily available.”

According to Singh, SSD requires about six months to request accommodation, meaning that a student

who’s coming to KPU right after high school might need to delay their arrival, or study for two semesters without any accommodation. He says that the office is vague about what their documentation standards are, and that documentation gathered from a family doctor might not be considered sufficient for SSD. In theory, a student with arthritis might have been happy with their family doctor, but would need to get referred to a rheumatologist to get the needed documentation. It could take months to make the appointment to get the documentation, which is needed before the accommodation process can even begin.

Singh mentions further that students cannot bring an advocate with them to the disabilities office past the first interview. An advocate could be a parent, guardian, caregiver, therapist or doctor.

“I would say they are performing inadequately,” says Singh.

Joshua Mitchell is the temporary director for the SSD, and has met with DAMN, the KSA and sat on the President’s Diversity and Equity Committee.

“There’s no set minimum threshold for students, each student is dealt with on a case-by-case basis,” says Mitchell. “There are certainly situations where a student is presenting a report of some kind, usually a medi-

The Services for Students with Disabilities office at KPU has faced criticism for placing barriers for students who need accommodation. (Tristan Johnston)

cal report, which may have a number of things laid out within it, but the report may be quite old. So there are instances where the student is asked to get a more up to date assessment.”

Mitchell says that sometimes students will bring in documents from their K-12 days, but could be a young adult by the time they get to KPU. “Sometimes we can work with that student to provide temporary accommodation, based on an initial quick review, but in order to provide ongoing support, sometimes we need more up to date information.”

When asked if there were legal reasons for the standard of documentation required, Mitchell said that he didn’t have the expertise required to

answer the question. The B.C. Human Rights Code says that students should not be discriminated against based on physical or mental disability.

“Student services is in the process of restructuring, we’ve been in the process of restructuring for the past two years now,” says Mitchell. “We’re in the final stages of that search process, so we’re hopeful that we’ll be bringing someone online in the fall. Their first priority will be reviewing KPU’s policies on supporting students with disabilities.”

While many student groups are critical of the Services for Students with Disabilities office, it can be said that the office is aware of these criticisms. Whether or not there’ll be a productive change is yet to be seen.

KPU partners with Siemens Canada for New Mechatronics Program

Starting in 2017 the program will address the future of manufacturing in Canada Joseph Keller | Web Editor A new diploma program at KPU will address the future of Canadian manufacturing. As part of the Advanced Manufacturing Technician diploma program, which will be offered next fall, KPU has partnered with the Canadian subsidiary of Siemens, a multinational engineering and electronics.

Graduates of the program will

have a broader understanding of all the various technical aspects of manufacturing, rather than learning about one particular subject.

“An advanced manufacturing technician from our program will develope a broad set of skills from across the spectrum. It’s not going to be as narrowly focused [as other trades programs],” says Brian Haugen, Dean of Trades and Technology at KPU Cloverdale.

The new program looks at a rela-

KPU Millwright student Brenton Hume examines a Mechatronics Learning System by Festo Didactic on Sept. 14, 2016. It’s an automated material handling system simulator that manages work pieces and simulates all the capabilities of a full-sized facility necessary for advanced manufacturing. (KPU Flickr)

tively new approach to manufacturing called mechatronics. Mechatronics takes three engineering disciplines— electronics, mechanics, and programing—and combines them to work in a harmonised fashion.

The logic behind mechatronics is simple. In industry, mechanics, electronics and software all work together as a unit, so specialists in the field should have a strong understanding of all three.

“For years, engineering disciplines have been traditionally defined between electrical, mechanical, etcetera, and then software came in during the second part of the 20th century and they were still all working in silos,” says Dr. Tom Murad, head of Siemens Canada Engineering and Technology Academy. “The uniqueness of this new multi-discipline technology is that you have three different scientific fields working hand in hand together.”

While mechatronics is beginning to be adopted by Canadian industry, this highly efficient engineering technique has been well-established in Germany.

“We Germans are top in engineering, applying engineering, and teach-

ing engineering,” says Dr. Murad.

“So this program has been launched in Berlin more than 15 years and it’s a proven concept to teach mechatronics in Europe.”

KPU officials approached Siemens specifically due to their status as a leader in Canadian mechatronics.

The program will be based on Siemens’ curriculum used in their Engineering and Technology Academy.

After completing KPU’s program, graduates will be able to gain global mechatronics certification through the Siemens program.

“Mechatronics is not all new to Canada. What’s new about what we are doing is actually bringing the Siemens approach and methodology to teaching mechatronics,” says Dr. Murad.

What gives this program value for graduates, according to Haugen, is the fact that graduates will have a more diversified portfolio of skills than those from more specialised programs. According to Haugen, this will make them highly employable, particularly with small to medium-sized companies.

“Small companies may not be able to afford someone to drive a

forklift, someone to quickly bolt something together if it falls apart, or quickly check the programing on a conveyer belt,“ says Haugen. “We’re hoping that this program will create that broad spectrum person who can do all of that.”

Part of the program is aimed at addressing the growing technical skills gap in Canada. That is, as time goes on, there will be a growing gap in Canada between the number of qualified technicians in this area and need within the industry. The idea to partner with Siemens Canada came about when Haugen saw a presentation by its president and realised how the company’s approach to manufacturing fits with KPU’s polytechnic philosophy. “[The Siemens Canada President] was speaking of the need for Canada to grow its technician skill base in these areas,” says Haugen. “He said that it’s a big need and if we don’t have enough people we will end up losing a competitive edge.”

News 05

Coalition of Student Associations Lobbies CFS for Change The KSA and CFS weigh in on causes and outcomes Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer A letter from 10 national student associations requesting reform within the Canadian Federation of Students was released on Sept. 19. In their letter, the associations highlighted six key concerns that they would like to see the CFS address.

Nearly 200,000 students are represented by the group of associations, including those at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Also on the list are associations from Carleton University, Cape Breton University, Ryerson, University of Regina, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, Ontario College of Art and Design, and two unions from Laurentian University.

As a whole, their concerns can be summarized as a lack of freedom and transparency within the CFS. The letter criticizes the Federation for failure to take proper minutes and make them—along with their bylaws, policies, and financial information—publicly and easily accessible. In addition, they feel that the criticisms and opinions of the Federation’s members are often ignored, particularly at general meetings, where exclusive behaviour is reportedly common.

One complaint written in the

letter is an issue that the Kwantlen Student Association has spoken on in the past: the difficulty of leaving the CFS. They feel that the process of terminating the Kwantlen Student Association’s membership with the Federation would be extremely difficult, particularly because it requires a high number of students to vote by referendum in favour of leaving. The chances of that happening are not great—in fact, many students don’t even know that they pay fees to the Federation every year.

“I think that, given that students at KPU are paying $260,000 a year to the Canadian Federation of Students, it’s something that we should be talking about and we should be allowed to vote on,” says KSA President Alex McGowan. “The 20 per cent threshold to get a petition together to vote on campus for a referendum of whether or not students want to be members is a barrier that essentially prohibits students from even having that discussion.”

“If students want to vote on a KSA fee, or any fee that they pay, 100 students need to sign a petition. If students want to vote on the CFS fee, 4000 students need to sign a petition, and I don’t think that’s reasonable.”

With the goal of change within the Federation in mind, McGowan

sees the coalition as a first step, not a last resort.

“For a number of years, the KSA has seen issues with the Canadian Federation of Students and we have pushed for changes like the ones being proposed by this coalition, and so when this group started meeting and talking it was something we naturally wanted to support,” he says. “I think a more open structure that allows for freer debate is the most important part of all this.”

National Chairperson of the CFS Bilan Arte was unpleasantly surprised to read the letter and challenges the notion that the Federation lacks transparency. However, despite disagreeing with several of the claims, she encourages a productive dialogue between the coalition and Federation staff at the upcoming general meeting.

“It’s really saddening for me to see that members are not feeling heard and considered in our Federation spaces. I do want to say that our Federation includes many structures at its meetings that allow for discussion and debate in an inclusive way,” says Arte.

In reference to the accessibility of files, most of the Federation’s minutes are posted on their website, although only since the letter was

released. Arte says that they have “always had [their] constitution, bylaws, operating policies and issue-based policies online,” with only their financial documents—as “sensitive” material—not unavailable.

Speaking on the socalled “burdensome” requirements for leaving the CFS, Arte states that “it’s important to recognize that that particularly was a process that was resolved upon through a democratic process by students at multiple general meetings prior to this one, and beyond that it’s also a process that is quite similar, actually, to many large-scale The Canadian Federation of Students flag placed federations and organi- inside a recycling bin in 2014. The Kwantlen Student zations.”

Association campaigned to leave the CFS in 2008, “That being said, and then later voted to defect in 2015, which led to a lawsuit that the KSA lost. the purpose of our (Matthew Dimera) meetings is to facilitate discussions and to define those pri- have agreed to discuss solutions and orities about processes that students future change at the Federation’s anhave today,” Arte concludes. nual general meeting in November.

The associations and the CFS

ABCS takes fight for student housing to B.C. legislature

Student group makes headway in Victoria with public demonstration Joseph Keller | Web Editor Members of the Kwantlen Student Association joined with other Alliance of British Columbia Students associations in Victoria to push for more student housing in B.C. The rally was held outside the the legislature buildings on Sept. 27. ABCS members were met during the demonstration by opposition politicians—including B.C. leader of the opposition John Horgan—as well as several media outlets.

“We believed it was necessary to show up on the lawn of the legislature, at the front door of government and let them know that they need to do something about [student housing] urgently,” says KSA Vice President External Alex McGowan.

The Alliance of British Columbia Students is in the midst of a considerable push for more student housing in the Lower Mainland, arguing that the shortage of housing is creating considerable barriers to higher education and keeping students from achieving financial independence. The ABCS understands that in order for post-secondary institutions to feasibly build this housing, the B.C. government would have to pass legislation allowing them to take on debt.

The KSA sent Alex McGowan, Tanvir Singh, Natasha Lopes, Alex

Students protest against a lack of student housing at the B.C. Legislature on Sept. 27, 2016. (Ryan C/Flickr)

Lomelino, and Caitlin McCutchen to Victoria, feeling it was important for KPU students to be among the voices outside of the legislature.

“We recognize that the student housing issue has been really important for a long time now,” says McGowan. “It’s clear that we need more student housing in this province, but what has been particularly new is the level of crisis that we’ve

seen where rental market vacancies have been extremely low and there’s just no new student housing, so we so believe that it’s necessary to amp up the pressure.”

Also present at the demonstration were members of Union of B.C. Municipalities, the organisation that represents municipal governments across the province. McGowan says KSA members made a point of speak-

ing to representatives of the UBCM, recognizing them by their nametags.

“Whenever we saw someone with that name tag we flagged then down and said ‘hey, let’s talk about student housing,’” says McGowan.

The UBCM evidently heeded these conversations with ABCS reps, because shortly after the demonstration, the UBCM passed an emergency resolution in support of allowing

post-secondary institutions to take on debt. This ensures that the ABCS will have municipal support in their ongoing push for this measure.

While no members of the B.C. Liberals met with demonstrators outside the legislature, ABSC members were invited to a meeting with Andrew Wilkinson, B.C. Minister of Advanced Education in response to the demonstration. According to McGowan who was present at the meeting. The Advanced Education Minister heard the group’s concerns and seemed receptive the ABCS’s calls.

“They are definitely hearing the message loud and clear and it’s made me confident that message is getting across and our campaign has been successful,” says McGowan.

The Advanced Education Minister later reiterated a willingness to have a conversation on student housing to the press.

“We are working on that very idea right now,” Wilkinson told the press. “We are hoping to bring it into focus in the near future.”

However, the Minister also expressed concern about the question of allowing post-secondary institutions to take on debt. Telling the press, “We are very concerned not to grow that debt irresponsibility because it would drive up our interest rates.”

06 News

Birch Renovations to be Completed Late October or Early November Plans for the renovated space include recreation and social justice rooms

KPIRG’s Quest for Space

Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer KPU Surrey’s Birch building is currently being renovated in order to provide more space for students on campus, but the project hasn’t progressed without its speed bumps. The Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group was initially displeased that they weren’t given any space in the new Birch plans, and now the renovations have been pushed back from Sept. 1 to late October or early November.

With luck, the renovated building will be complete before Halloween, featuring a recreation room, multipurpose room, and social justice space, among other improvements.

The cafeteria and kitchen will stay where they are, although the location of the seating will change.

Renovations Running Long Due to a delay with attaining the necessary permits, Birch will remain under renovation for a month longer than anticipated.

Instead of being able to use a single permit to renovate both sides of the building, the Kwantlen Student Association had to get two

The unfinished construction site of the common room in KPU Surrey Campus Birch Building on Oct. 3, 2016. The premise was not locked or guarded at the time. (Tommy Nguyen)

from the City of Surrey, according to Vice-President Services Tanvir Singh.

KPU’s manager of media and communications, Corry Anderson-Fennell, says that the separate permits were requested by the city because of “the possibility of two different occupancy dates for each side” of Birch. To elaborate, the kitchen, cafeteria, and its seating are all under KPU control, whereas the rest is managed by the KSA. “On the KPU side, a permit has been issued and move-in is expected the week of Oct. 24,” says Ander-

son-Fennell, in an email Sept. 30.

KSA renovations are set to be completed by early November at the latest, as predicted by Singh.

“Our previous timeline of early September was quite an aggressive timeline. That was before we took a look at what the permits would look like, so now end of October is more realistic,” he says.

The City of Surrey’s website states that there are no guaranteed timelines for building permits. Instead, they depend “on the completeness of the application, how quickly the City’s comments are responded

to, volume of applications to be reviewed by each review group, etc.”

The KSA’s Office Location While it’s true that the KSA’s name will be attached to a great deal of space in Birch, none of the rooms will replace their current office space in Cedar. The Association is in charge of “general upkeep” of all non-cafeteria space in the building, including duties such as booking rooms. However, all of it will be used for the benefit of students rather than exclusively KSA staff.

Before and during the Birch renovations, KPIRG was running a campaign to get a permanent office of its own. When the renovations began, KPIRG staff had to leave their existing office, which they shared with Pride Kwantlen in the former social justice space. Without a room given to them in the renovated plans, KPIRG found themselves unable to find a place to safely store their documents and conduct their business.

“KPIRG is, of course, disappointed and frustrated that we did not get space in Birch. The plight of KPIRG is not unknown on campus, especially as our quest for space has remained unanswered for three years,” says Kimberley McMartin, board organizer for KPIRG. KPIRG has since opted to lease off-campus office space, a move which McMartin calls “another blow” to the group. Speaking more optimistically, she adds that “the off-campus, temporary office has helped to alleviate some of the problems we have incurred, though having an off-campus office is not without its obstacles.”

When told about KPIRG’s decision to lease off-campus, Singh was shocked, but said that the KSA will contact KPIRG staff to discuss it.

KPIRG Finds Temporary off-campus Office in Newton

Following a period of uncertainty, KPIRG leases temporary space to call home Braden Klassen| Contributor After being displaced by the construction work in Birch, KPIRG was unable to find a location on-campus from which to base their operations.

The group attempted to lobby Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the Kwantlen Student Association to find them the necessary space via petitions, poster campaigns, and utilizing the hashtag #KPIRGatory, but these proved unsuccessful.

KPIRG has now begun leasing off-campus office space at 7337 137 Street, which is about a five-minute walk north of the Newton Exchange.

“We’ve been here since the end of August, roughly,” says Richard Hosein, KPIRG’s Administrative & Resource Coordinator. “Shortly after we found out that we weren’t getting a space on campus, we started seeking out external space because we really needed a stable environment to conduct the business of the society.”

While Hosein believes that on-campus space was, and still is, KPIRG’s “best case scenario,” the group did ultimately reap some benefits by finding an off-campus location.

“We checked out a couple places closer to campus, but the conditions weren’t very good and it was actually quite expensive,” says Hosein.

“Over here it was a bit more affordable—we’ve got free Wi-Fi, and we

have access to a full boardroom and a kitchen. It’s a bit more accessible in the sense that transit’s close by. It sort of worked out for us, but mostly because of the cost.”

Hosein estimates that the space costs KPIRG a little less than $1200 a month. Financially, this constitutes a radical change since leaving the space in Birch that they previously shared with Pride Kwantlen.

“That was completely rent-free,” he says. “Pride allowed us to use the space in solidarity because they know what we’re about, they know that our mandate is closely aligned with Pride’s, and they basically said, ‘Hey, as long as we’re here, you’re wel-

come to come work here.’”

Hosein explains that when KPIRG was originally budgeting for space, they were counting on getting on-campus space.

“We had verbal confirmation from the KSA—including the general manager—that we would be getting space on-campus. We were banking on that based on a rate we know the KSA would have probably charged us, which was somewhere in the range of $400-ish a month.”

“We’ve had to drastically increase our budget,” Hosein continues. “Now our projections for 2017 are around $13,000 for the whole year.”

KPIRG has agreed to lease the

space for six months.

“I believe that we have put some money away in the capital acquisitions fund,” says Kimberley McMartin. “So there is money in there for that. That’s been taken care of.”

McMartin is the board organizer on KPIRG’s Board of Directors, and is central to the group’s current bid for on campus space.

“It’s still a temporary office for us,” she says. “We’re hopeful, in our relationship with the KSA and with KPU, that we will have space soon.

But then again, this has been a threeyear battle.”

“When we asked for space from the KSA it was for roughly 800

KPIRG’s new temporary offices are situated here on 7337 137 St. Surrey, two blocks away from Newton Exchange. The group was originally sharing the PRIDE office in the KPU Surrey Birch building, but have been unable to return due to Birch building’s overdue Summer 2016 renovations. (Braden Klassen)

square feet,” says Hosein. “I think these two rooms put together are about 300 square feet at best, if that.”

Hosein stresses the importance of being on-campus for KPIRG to uphold its mandate.

“Number one: we’re funded by the students. Number two: we’re governed by students. We need to be around the students in order for this organization to be successful because they’re the bread and butter of what makes our organization function.”

If students wish to meet with KPIRG staff face-to-face they’ll have to catch them when they’re on campus or head over to the new office, which is less convenient.

“We are doing a bunch of outreach regardless of our space situation,” says KPIRG Volunteer Coordinator Alex Dingiria. “When we’re on campus and someone wants to come to us physically, it becomes a bit more of a problem because of where we are located. It becomes a cat-and-mouse game of trying to find us.”

However, Dingiria says that there is at least one positive outcome for KPIRG’s relocation.

“For me, by far the biggest positive is being able to leave student information in a lockable space instead of having it in my backpack and in my house and that kind of thing.”

“It does offer some level of stability,” agrees Hosein, “but it’s not ideal.”

Second DigitaLENS course Focuses on Social justice issues

High schoolers from Surrey come to KPU to make films Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer The success of last May’s DigitaLENS student film festival has led to a second, social justice-themed instalment of the program. A group of Surrey high schoolers, led by instructor Aisha Amijee, will meet weekly in Cedar building’s journalism pod to work on films that reflect how their identities are represented in media.

“We’re really focusing on current social justice issues that are going on,” says Amijee. “It ranges from Kaepernick to Black Lives Matter to animal rights to women’s rights. Everyone had different areas of interest, so we’re going to explore that a lot more this semester.”

While there is room for freedom within the program, developing narratives on modern-day racial representation in the media is encouraged, Amijee says.

The nature of each film will vary from student to student in both subject and style. If last semester’s screening is any indication of what this class will produce, the films will offer a wide range of opinions and experiences from youth within the city of Surrey.

Most of the students enrolled in the course attend Princess Margaret Secondary School, although four individuals from other schools in the same school district were also accepted “because they had a key interest in social justice,” according to Amijee.

For Princess Margaret grade 9 student Dawson Ho, the class is an opportunity to try his hand at something new: video editing. In his downtime, he likes to game and draw, but DigitaLENS will be his first experience with putting together a film of his own. Although he doesn’t cur-

Culture 07

Active KSA Releases New Fall Schedule

KPU students looking to get active can sign up for an action-packed fall Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer

From KPU Surrey’s journalism pod, Aisha Amijee teaches a class of high school students about social justice and the representation of race in media.

The students will produce a collection of films to be screened this May. (Alyssa Laube)

rently know what his subject will be, he’s open to exploring themes of social justice.

Maleekah ArRahiman, who is in the tenth grade at Clayton Heights Secondary, “was really interested in the social justice part of it,” on top of wanting to become a professional journalist in the future. As a filmmaker, she is particularly interested in covering the Black Lives Matter movement, media representations of Islam, and Syrian refugees.

Regardless of individual hobbies or experiences, what Amijee finds most important when deciding which students to welcome into the class is that they call Surrey home.

“I was born and raised in Surrey, and I really feel that KPU and Surrey are my communities and this is where I belong,” she says. Having recently earned her Master’s degree in Education, it is the perfect time for Amijee to use that experience by making a

difference in her hometown, where young people are often misrepresented.

As a South Asian, Muslim woman, she is also hoping to act as a role model for the students in her class.

While she had help with instruction from KPU’s Communications professor Katie Warfield last semester, this will be the first Amijee teaches on her own.

“When I went to university, it was very rare but when I did have a South Asian or a Muslim—or anybody who kind of represented some aspect of my identity—teaching me a lecture in a university setting … it was really inspiring for me to actually break through barriers and reach my career aspirations,” Amijee says.

The screening of all of the students’ final films will be held early this May.

“We so often get stuck in our little shells, and we go in our routines and never try new things. I just hope that people give it a shot,” says Active KSA Coordinator Tonya Myhedyn.

Such is the aim of Active KSA, a program designed to keep students at KPU happy and healthy. To accomplish this, its organizers—such as Myhedyn—have scheduled plenty of new, exciting activities for this fall.

Pole dancing, archery, and laser tag are just a few of the options that they’re offering between October and December this year, with nine total events planned for the season. Swing dancing, hiking, bowling, curling, snow tubing, birdwatching, and pumpkin patch picking are in store for this autumn as well, along with the regular fitness classes and KSA care programs.

“This semester, some of the events are different because I’m trying new ideas,” says Myhedyn.

“We’ve had some really good success in the past with hiking, bike riding, rock climbing, stuff like that, and people wanted some new things to try.”

The pole dancing event has attracted particular attention, for obvious reasons. It’s not very often that such an alternative sport is brought to university students, and mixing it up is part of the reason why Active KSA chose to incorporate it into their schedule.

However, it’s also just good timing. The Kwantlen Student Association’s SEXPO (sexuality education

explores positivity & openness) Conference—which will discuss sexual health and positivity, along with featuring a to-be-announced keynote speaker—lines up with Active KSA’s pole dancing class. That’s more than sheer coincidence.

“I had gone to events that had fitness-style pole dancing, and I just thought it looked like a lot of fun,” says Myhedyn. “And so when we’re talking about SEXPO, all about healthy sexual image, I thought it’d be a really fun idea to do pole dancing as sexually positive, but at the same time focus on the fitness aspect of it.”

She says that the program is a fantastic opportunity for KPU students to get out and meet new people. Its events are popular with international students who are new to the city as well as locals, she explains.

“I believe Active KSA is super important because you can’t just go to school without having an active component to be truly healthy,” says Myhedyn. “It’s really important for mental health, it’s really important for physical health, and it really helps towards being successful.”

“The other aspect is the social aspect. We get a large group of students that come together and they mostly just want to meet new people. It’s an avenue they didn’t have before to meet new people and try new things.”

To register for an Active KSA event, visit its website and click the link under the event title. Students get a significant discount for the events, which are usually relatively cheap and paid for online via credit card.

All of the events are open to and inclusive of everyone who’s interested.

“TALK” Brings Together Students 50 and up at KPU

The nearly-free program is hosted on KPU campuses Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer They say that another year older is another year wiser, and Third Age Learning at Kwantlen is making sure it stays that way.

The program offers educational resources to anyone above the age of 50. The only prerequisites required are a craving for knowledge, a birth certificate that dates back to 1966 or earlier, and $10 for the annual membership fee in-pocket.

Once applicants are accepted, they won’t have to worry about exams, grades, or credits either. All they are expected to do is show up and participate.

TALK operates out of all four KPU campuses, hosting not only lectures and discussions but also special events that take groups away from

the confines of the classroom. One popular field trip this year is an excursion to TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics. Members can also choose to see the Vancouver Experimental Theremin Orchestra, take a tour of a Buddhist temple, and see the Mindful Meditation and Dharma Drum Centre.

In regards to TALK’s lectures, the fall 2017 courses have just been finalized, and they seem exciting and relevant for the young and old alike.

TALK members can look forward to learning about how marijuana could change the future of medicine, the consequences of climate change, an anthropological approach to zombie apocalypses, and bagpipes.

Robin Heath, Chairperson of TALK, says that the committee that determines course subjects “tries re-

ally hard never to recycle” their classes. Instead, they strive to innovate new curriculum ideas every year.

“Some of it—I would say maybe a quarter of it—is specifically geared to issues that you would face after the age of 50, and those would be the ones regarding mobile health for independent living. That would be an example, but there’s not a lot of other ones. I would say most of it is the kind of things that would interest anybody,” says Heath.

Working with an older demographic promises a more focused and outspoken student audience, Heath argues. She believes that, because of their greater life experience, most “people who come to the program are not intimidated by the atmosphere of being in a university and taking courses.”

“The difference with this group is

that they’re not on their cell phones and their laptops are not open.

They’re there because they want to be, not because they have to fulfill a credit. It’s out of sheer interest,” says Heath. “The questions they have for the presenters tend to have a much richer background than you would get from a younger crowd.”

Generally, the courses are 40 minutes of lecture and an approximate hour-long question and answer period.

KPU faculty often teach TALK courses, and this year, Sam Migliore, Simon Beck, Peter Robbins, Paivi Koskinen, and Ross Pink will be serving as guest lecturers. Librarian at KPU, Mirela Djokic, will also be teaching a class on the future of libraries.

Heath encourages young readers to urge their elders to sign up for TALK, saying, “I would hope that the

Chairperson of Third Age Learning at Kwantlen (TALK) Robin Heath, poses for a photo on KPU’s Surrey campus near the pond Sept. 22, 2016.

(Alyssa Laube)

students at Kwantlen might suggest to their parents or grandparents to consider this because they would be very welcome.”

08 Culture

UBC Researchers Develop Educational Video Game about Delta, B.C.

Future Delta 2.0 imagines a suburb devastated by climate change Melissa Pomerleau | Contributor Released by researchers from Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning at UBC, Future Delta 2.0 explores the effects that climate change could potentially have on the Metro Vancouver suburb.

“The model of the game is basically a Back to the Future game,” says Project Manager Alicia LaValle.

“You start in [the year] 2100, where we didn’t do anything about climate change, and then you return back as a player to 2015.”

LaValle has been a member of the Future Delta 2.0 team for the past five years, first as a student and now as a research scientist and project manager.

In the beginning of the game, the player is given a choice to explore North Delta, Boundary Bay, River Road, Ladner, or the Westham Island.

Each of these landscapes offer unique challenges in combating and preventing climate change.

“You have the [Fraser] River, an industrial court, then you have Burns Bog, then you have the Vancouver Municipal Landfill, so it’s just a lot of really interesting elements in developing a game there,” says LaValle.

The game starts off in the year

George Mackie Library on 112 St. and 84 Ave. in North Delta (background) and a screenshot of George Mackie Library in the video game Future Delta 2.0. The in-game version of Delta was designed using Google Earth. (Melissa Pomerleau)

2100 with the player talking to an old friend from Mangalore, India about climate change devastation. It is learned that the friend has invented time travel and the player is sent back to the year 2015 to reduce the impact of climate change.

As the player explores the area, they are faced with challenges to either adapt to the problem or promote better choices. The ultimate goal of

the game is to create a low carbon future, as opposed to the post-apocalyptic world shown at the start of the game.

Inspiration for the game stems from a decade-long relationship between the Corporation of Delta and CALP. Together they produce visualization work and create immersive, interactive models for people to see and understand the science behind a

given topic. In this case, that topic is climate change.

“We started working with video gaming and youth, given that that is the generation that will be most affected and will also be the decision makers of tomorrow,” says LaValle.

Future Delta 2.0 made it to the BETA stage and is available on their website for anyone to download. The game was also tested and evaluated

by Delta School District teachers and students from grades 10 – 12.

The team has recently received two small grants to further their project and are in the early stages of developing a teacher’s toolkit and handbook, as well as ways to expand into larger audiences.

“Some ideas we’ve been working with are to allow some of the best of the tools that we’ve developed to be open source, and allow the IT classrooms of secondary schools or after school groups interested in the technology side to do some development for Future Vancouver, or Future Ottawa,” says LaValle. “If we’re going to do Future Vancouver, or other places, we’re going to need the support of [the] tech industry or other resources.”

CALP does have one local partner—a Vancouver-based mobile platform and game development company called QuestUpon—that has expressed interest in working on the project. The team behind Future Delta 2.0 will be hosting seminars and workshops on Oct. 13 and 14 to help promote their project, educational gaming, teaching, and climate change.

“Maybe if we can work with youth and work with schools, we can find a different way to influence policy,” says LaValle.

Student Group Calls For Sensible Drug Policy

Group reforms with a focus on local drug issues Joseph Keller | Web Editor A student group aimed at advocating for a common-sense approach to drug policy is in the process of being reformed at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Kwantlen Students for Sensible Drug Policy is concerned with issues relevant to mental health and addiction at KPU and it’s surrounding communities.

According to the group’s organisers, recent events surrounding drug safety in the Lower Mainland, such as the fentanyl deaths, highlight that there is as great a need for such a group at the university now as ever.

“There’s never been a time when moving into drug use has been this dangerous,” says Richard Hosein, administrative and research coordinator for KPIRG, who is heading up the student organisation. “People are always going to be trying drugs, and here in university, we’ve got tons of young people that might move in that direction.”

Kwantlen Students for Sensible Drug Policy was originally founded

in 2013, largely to work alongside the provincial drug policy advocacy group Sensible B.C. and their push for cannabis decriminalisation in the province.

The original group also operated under the umbrella of a parent group called Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and as Sensible B.C.’s campaign wound down, the group became inactive. Now Hosein, who was among the student group’s original members, is looking to reform Kwantlen Students for Sensible Drug Policy independently from the parent group in order to focus on drug issues as they affect KPU’s local communities.

“Although there’s lots of issues that are universal, we also feel that the Lower Mainland has unique problems revolving around drug use, safety, and public health,” says Hosein.

Of course, with the federal government’s ongoing process of legalising cannabis nation-wide, the group is concerned with what form the new policy will eventually take. The group is calling for a less corporatised and less restrictive approach to legislation.

Crystal Shay Kane (left) and Richard Hosein (right) are advocators for new drug policies at KPU. (Tristan Johnston)

“The biggest thing that is probably on most people’s minds is the legalisation of marijuana,” says Hosein. “We still don’t know what that’s like because the government is still giving us the runaround with that. Is this going to be the advent of corporatised cannabis?”

“With corporatisation comes the lack of accessibility and that’s a really big issue,” adds Crystal Shay Kane, who heads up the reformed group along with Hosein.

According to the group’s organisers, the most pressing drug issue in

the local community at this time is the ongoing fentanyl epidemic. In July, The Vancouver Sun reported that the rate of overdose deaths had jumped 74.2 per cent in one year due to fentanyl contamination. A top concern for the student group will be to raise awareness at KPU about this unprecedented epidemic.

“We’re in the worst opiate epidemic of all time, so we feel like this would be the best time to rehash this group,” says Kane.

The group has several plans underway for the next couple of se-

mesters and beyond. Ideas include a campaign aimed at reducing addiction and drug use stigma in favor of a more constructive approach, educational seminars, a TEDx talk on drug policy, and panel discussions featuring experts on addiction and drug use.

“We’re going around and contacting people who are really prominent in the drug policy reform community and we’re asking what approaches did they take that didn’t work, what priorities should we take when we’re approaching it, and getting a trial and error sense from them so that we can do things in a more efficient way,” says Shay Kane.

Kwantlen Students For Sensible Drug Policy is actively looking for “passionate people” to join them in their mission to create a safer environment at KPU. Students wanting to find out more can reach out to them via the group’s Facebook page.

“All the people in [this group] are really passionate. We are all in it to make a difference and we are all in it for the long term,” says Shay Kane.

KPIRG Could Help KPU Become A Fair Trade Campus

Culture 09

Public Interest Research Group encourages students to get goods without abusive labor Calvin Borghardt| Contributor The Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group hosted “Fair Trade Campus Week” at KPU from Sept.

26 to 30. The initiative was an opportunity to celebrate the fair trade movement and encourage fair trade certified products on campuses across Canada. “[A fair trade campus] means that organizations which are operating within the context of the university—or are contractual entities that are operating on the university— [are] sourcing their materials from fair trade sources when available and when necessary,” says KPIRG’s administrative & resource coordinator, Richard Hosein.

SFU, for example, is a fair trade campus, meaning a certain percentage of the goods sold on their campuses was purchased via their fair trade initiative.

“The goal of this initiative is to raise more awareness on fair trade and the influence it has on all of us,

From left to right: Lincey Amora, Victor Cortez, and Alex Dingiria from KPIRG hosted the group’s Fair Trade Initiative at KPU Surrey on Sept. 29, 2016.

(Calvin Borghardt)

even though we may not feel that it affects us,” says KPIRG’s director of campus life, Lincey Amora. “We want students to know that it’s accessible and that they can support fair trade initiatives even on a small level.”

Fair trade groups like KPIRG are focused on eliminating the abuse and

exploitation of labor throughout the production and distribution of goods in hopes of improving the treatment of workers.

“In this event, we’re celebrating and promoting it, and you get free coffee,” says Amora. “We just want to raise awareness for fair trade so it goes above and beyond just this

week. Fair trade products are also helpful to the environment, like how this coffee is 99 per cent biodegradable, so it ties into more environmentally and socially-just issues.”

KPIRG hopes to continue its fair trade awareness campaign by coordinating with the KSA and the university itself.

“It’s been a long-standing campaign that we’ve been doing,” says Hosein. “We’d love some solidarity and overlap with the student association and the university, because really a fair trade campus won’t come into fruition unless those other stakeholders are involved. So [KPIRG is] just here letting folks know, but it’s the university and the KSA, as policy makers of the school, that are really going to make the impact.”

During October of 2013, KPIRG helped coordinate their first fair trade event at KPU—a free, one-day symposium that sought to raise critical policy questions related to fair trade production and purchasing practices. “[The symposium] was a good collaboration to bring fair trade into

the limelight at KPU, and certainly if KPU becomes a fair trade campus, it [will] really set them apart from other universities,” says Hosein. “The reason we’re trying to push for it is because we’re striving for the best for KPU and for the greater community, and this is sort of an initiative that does both.”

Fair Trade Campus Week was just one of the many social justice events KPIRG intends to facilitate in the coming semesters. They hope to build on the momentum of the progress made thus far and continue advocating for KPU to become a fair trade campus.

“KPIRG is a strong proponent for securing the dignified rights of workers locally and worldwide,” says Alex Dingiria, KPIRG’s volunteer coordinator. “Therefore, we support the fair trade initiative because it is a step towards achieving [worker’s rights].

It’s not the end goal, but it is a step in the right direction towards securing [these rights].”

KPU’s Fourth Pow Wow Celebrates Aboriginal Culture The event featured stunningly elaborate regalia, and equally stunning dance moves Braden Klassen| Contributor Over the course of 10 hours on Sept.

24, KPU held its fourth annual Pow Wow in the Cedar building’s gymnasium. A variety of dance competitions were held throughout the day, and willing participants were invited to don their traditional regalia and dance in the hopes of taking home a cash prize.

Besides the dancing, a number of vendors were set up in and around the gymnasium, selling everything from bumper stickers and beadwork to paintings to jewelry.

“I’ve been doing this since 2012,” says Johnny Perry, a vendor who runs an Aboriginal artist’s healing group for people who have been affected by the traumatic aftermath of Cana-

da’s residential schools. “I really like seeing people display their work and their art, so that’s what I get out of it.

I like seeing people succeed in their own way.”

“Each person is really different, and this is a part of their income too, because a lot of times they’re on a really limited income. We try to keep prices reasonable so everybody can afford it. It’s not as expensive, like if you went into Gastown or Granville Island.”

Perry says he often travels around to different Pow Wows and conventions to set up and run his vendor space.

“I do probably, on average, about two or three a month just in the Lower Mainland area,” says Perry. “I go out to Kamloops about once or twice a year, but there’s enough in Van-

couver. I work full-time as a support worker as well, and I work for Vancouver native housing, so I obviously like to keep really busy.” “[The Pow Wow] means a lot to me,” says Estrella McKenna, who, along with her son Zactzevul, participated in the Pow Wow dance competition. “I come here with my family. I have four children and they all dance.

I put a lot of care and attention into the regalia and we put a lot attention into our practicing. It’s a social event, it’s a spiritual event, it’s a cultural event. It’s just a way of life.”

For two hours every Monday, McKenna practices her dance in a gym with some friends.

“Some people practice every day at home, some people don’t practice at all,” she says. “It’s a place to show your spirit, in a way. You see every-

A regalia-wearing Pow Wow dancer shows off his moves in the Traditional style dance competition during KPU’s fourth annual Pow Wow on Sept. 24, 2016. Each dancer has worked on creating their own unique regalia over their entire career, which can often span a couple of decades. (Braden Klassen)

The Hosting Drum Group Oceanside Dakota sings and keeps time for the dancers at the fourth annual KPU Pow Wow on Sept. 24, 2016. The Pow Wow celebrates the traditions and customs of indigenous peoples in Canada.

(Braden Klassen)

one in there in their street clothes, and a lot of times people won’t be recognized until they’re in their regalia.”

McKenna has been dancing for about 20 years, since she was child.

She also says that, like Perry, she often travels around to participate in different community Pow Wow events.

“We travel long distances to Pow

Wows—they’re all across North

America. We’ve been to New Mex-

ico, we’ve been to Manitoba. It’s a

way to see North America and share the culture,” says McKenna. “There

are no two regalias alike, or dances.

Everything is unique, It’s about being unique and sharing uniqueness with each other.”

Just before the fall semester began, a letter addressed to students in the class of 2020 from the University of Chicago’s Dean of Students, John Ellison, went viral.

In the letter, Ellison says that the university’s commitment to academic freedom means they cannot support trigger warnings for subjects in their classes, which may prove controversial. He also derides “safe spaces” in his letter, arguing that they are places where “individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”

The letter has been shared, applauded, attacked, dismissed, responded to, and discussed throughout September, as students flock back to colleges and universities across North America. Even here at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the debate rages on.

Kimberley McMartin, board organizer for the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group, is an advocate for trigger warnings and safe spaces.

“Safe spaces are places where people who have been historically oppressed can gather together, talk, organize, create events, and educate people [while] feeling safe and supported enough to speak out about oppression,” says McMartin. “Within our white, colonialist culture, there are a lot of things that are intrinsically racist, homophobic, [and] sexist. This is part of systemic violence, and it keeps people down and in boxes.”

KPIRG Director of Campus Life Lincey Amora echoes McMartin’s sentiment, arguing that, at their core, safe spaces are meant to be “inclusive” areas where both instructors and students can raise awareness about social justice issues.

Both Amora and McMartin’s ideas of what a safe space is differ from the picture Ellison

paints of them in his letter to new students. Instead of a haven for intellectual cowards, as he alleges, they are a place of freedom from potentially oppressive material that marginalized students have to face.

“Safe spaces provide a buffer—a break from what a person experiences every day,” says McMartin. “They are where people can go and take a break if they are feeling overwhelmed and stressed, when previous trauma becomes too much to bear.”

Much like safe spaces, Amora recognizes that “trigger” or “content warnings” also offer students a respite from problematic experiences. Professors can offer such warnings in advance of potentially offensive material to help promote “acceptance, respect, and education” in the classroom, says Amora.

Not everyone at KPU agrees with these sentiments, however. Psychology instructor Gira Bhatt believes a rigorous commitment to academic freedom is more important to a student’s development than safe spaces or trigger warnings.

“I am not here to convert people to my views, and I am not going to accept somebody telling me that ‘you cannot say this in the classroom,’” she argues.

Bhatt believes it is the instructor’s duty to find a balance between material that challenges their students and material that could potentially be harmful. When that balance is lost, she thanks her students for having the courage to speak openly with her before and after class about their troubling experiences.

“A certain openness [in the classroom] has to be there,” says Bhatt. “We need to be guarded about what we are saying but not censored.

There is a difference between being cautious and being censored. We can be respectful

without being censored.”

Bhatt echoes a few of Ellison’s ideas about what a university education and campus should be. Both believe critical thinking and respectful dialogue can coexist without the barrier of safe spaces or trigger warnings separating one from the other.

“Students must be prepared,” says Bhatt.

“Different viewpoints will be expressed here.

The emotion part needs to be taken out of the equation.”

Gerald Walton, Educational Studies faculty at both KPU and Lakehead University, agrees with both Bhatt and Ellison’s belief that a university space “should be about new ideas, controversy, debate, and discussion.”

“While it is certainly the case that some university spaces can be upsetting and may give rise to emotion of various kinds, I do not think it is necessarily the case that this is a bad thing,” he says.

Walton argues that, by confronting a negative experience through course material, a student can move past their emotional response and begin to think critically about a subject they would not otherwise be able to confront.

Though he is wary of trigger warning, he does acknowledge that absolute dedication to free speech does not come free of charge.

“There is a price to be paid for free debate and discussion in academics,” says Walton.

“Some of that price might be paid in emotional upset and offence. In the name of education and working through that debate and discussion, this is the cost that needs to be paid.”

So who bears the brunt of that price? Do marginalized students pay more for the right to freely debate controversial topics than their more privileged classmates? And what happens when students and instructors don’t

(Shandis Harrison)

agree on where the line between offen freedom of expression rests?

According to Educational Studies member at KPU, David P. Burns, the b can only be struck when a high bar of respect has been established between t ulty and the student body.

“In the classroom, it is important to sure that persons are able to represent selves in the most authentic way possib still be respected,” says Burns.

According to him, there are sever ferent ways that a member of a classroo cultivate a space safe. “One of them is to controversial topics likely to trigger p You could disagree with the pedagogica tice of trigger warnings and not reject tion of safe space.”

Burns, however, is careful in his a tion of content warnings in his classroo en that there are inherent educational pu to difficult dialogue.

“There is a difference,” Burns argu tween “being intentionally exposed for tional reasons to unsettling things and exposed to things that cause psycho harm because they do not adequately say, some part of your person.”

“I do not give trigger warnings unle something quite conventionally disturb the senses. The assumption is, especiall I teach classes like social justice, that y be dealing with difficult conversation.”

Conversely, some proponents o spaces, such as Journalism and Comm tions faculty member Katie Warfield, that empathy and inclusivity are the r to most anxiety-inducing conversation is because engagement with controvers potentially triggering material becomes

nse and

faculty balance mutual the fac-

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applicaom, givurposes

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ently risky for some and, at times, traumatic for others.

“It is not human to assume that students should be able to bracket their emotions, their personal experiences, their embodied reaction to ideas, from their cognitive digestion of [these] ideas,” she says.

The humanity of the students, Warfield believes, comes before the absolute free flow of ideas. She believes that self-expression is inappropriate when it infringes on the rights of others, or hampers their ability to feel secure in a classroom setting. In cases like this, she favours the limitation of boundless academic freedom.

“We also have the criminal code, which articulates that certain types of communication, of expression, are inappropriate. We have laws in place that restrict hate speech,” says Warfield. “If I think comments in class, or ideas in class, are going to infringe on people’s’ sense of safety and security in the classroom, then I am not going to permit that type of communication.”

In Warfield’s view, this clashing of freedoms is again remedied, at least in part, by empathy—in addition to slow cultural changes.

“This is part of a long-term cultural shift, where the liberal state comes to expand the list of forms of diversity that it reflects, respects, and identifies,” says Burns. “It takes a long time and lots of little cultural shifts for people to start paying attention to things they did not think of before. The passing of generations of students educated in more modern values make these changes. The fights we get in are in moments of dramatic change.”

Safe Spaces 101 Neil Bassan Staff Writer

SHOULD

Where Can a KPU Student Get a Bite to Eat? Students at KPU may have noticed that the food situation on and around the Surrey campus is lacking something.

The surrounding area features an A&W, a McDonald’s, a Tim Hortons, several pubs and small family-owned eaterys—all just out of range of being conveniently accessed by foot. While the strip malls directly next to the campus feature a couple pizza places, there is only so much pizza-by-the-slice that a person can eat in a week.

None of these options provide much for the health-conscious student, and since few of us have the time to trek to faraway restaurants between classes, it’s worth knowing what’s available right here on campus.

The Birch Cafeteria Sodexo is a multinational food service company operating in 80 countries, and like most multinational corporations, they have a number of scandals to their name.

At least nine universities across the world have chosen to boycott Sodexo for a variety of reasons, such as alleged low pay, investment in private prisons, poor food quality, and a lack of local food options.

In 2013, all of Sodexo’s frozen beef products within the UK were recalled upon the discovery of horse DNA being found in their beef.

The Sodexo Justice Services is a branch of Sodexo

that owns and operates prisons across the United Kingdom. The company was accused of terrible inhumane treatment of a female prisoner who was detained in a segregated cell for 5 years.

The Cafeteria in the Birch building is operated by that very same company.

“I started two months ago at this University, and my main goal was to get everything up and running from the summertime when we were closed,” says General Manager of Sodexo at KPU, Kevin Poland. “I’m trying to provide things that are a little bit healthier for the University, and a lot more variety.”

In an effort to provide a variety of healthy options, Sodexo has a number of programs in place. For instance, “In My Kitchen” brings top chefs throughout Canada together to offer up some of the recipes they grew up with.

“Mindful” by Sodexo is another initiative to encourage healthy choices. It focuses on veggie-based dishes that are low in sugar and salt, while steering away from breads and other high fat foods.

The cafeteria offers burgers, fries, quick grab-andgo items such as salads and sandwiches, and Starbucks brewed coffee.

“All the meats we serve in our sandwiches, aside from pepperoni and salami, are fresh meat, sulfite and phosphate-free and cooked in house,” says Poland, who explains that the cafe is equipped with it’s own,

in-house deli and grill.

Information on Sodexo at KPU can be found at www.kwantlenkuisine.com. According to the site, Sodexo “support[s] local businesses and communities by purchasing from local producers and growers. Sodexo buys 100 per cent of our fresh dairy products from local and regional farmers. For the future, we have committed to serve only farm and ranch products that are sustainably grown by local producers and minority and women-owned businesses.”

“Through our purchasing, that is all taken care of,” says Poland. “We purchase a majority of our products from Gordon Food Service, and they in turn look to local areas and bring food from local areas into their main warehouse, and then we take it from there.”

Poland is also hoping to introduce a few healthier and more gluten-free options to the menu, like gluten-free pastas, and offering brown rice instead of just white.

“We’re going to try to become a lot more nutritious without alienating the burger/fry people,” says Poland.

Grassroots Cafe Those turned off by Sodexo’s corporate history, or just anyone looking to support something more independent with their food budget, might want to check out the Grassroots Cafe. As the name implies, the Grassroots is

Your guide to food on the Surrey Campus Joseph Keller Web Editor

a small, independent, student-run initiative with a focus on sustainable operation and providing healthy eating options. The cafe is located in Cedar building across from the athletic department.

“The Grassroots is here to provide people with affordable and nutritious meals,” says Adam Rhode, manager at the Grassroots.

In addition to their food and beverage offerings, the Grassroots also provides catering services for events around campus throughout the semester.

As a Kwantlen Student Association initiative, the cafe is funded in part by student fees. While Sodexo has a non-competition contract with the university, there’s an agreement that allows the cafe to operate. Staffed by KPU students, part of the mission of the Grassroots is to provide a venue and gathering point for student life.

To that end, the Grassroots hosts events such as open mic nights, stand up comedy, live music, movie nights, viewing parties for sporting events, and more.

“We want to provide students with an atmosphere that they can’t get anywhere else on campus,” says Rawan Ramini, KSA Vice President Finance and Operations, who helps oversee the Grassroots Cafe. “Students can come here, grab a meal, grab a drink, listen to music, watch a movie or a live performance, and experience student life.”

“We’re starting to see a lot more people coming

Melissa Pomerleau Contributor

down and participating in the events,” says Rhode.

Health and sustainability are key elements of the Grassroots mission. It offers organic food options whenever possible, with much of the cafe’s offerings coming from KPU’s own gardens, courtesy of the university’s agriculture and food programs. In keeping with this philosophy, there are always ample vegan options available.

Ever head to the Tim Hortons during a class break only to find the lineup stretching down the hall? Nobody should have to wait that long for a cup of coffee.

To skip that line, head to the Grassroots where the line wait is rarely unreasonable. Drip coffee is sold as well as cappuccinos, lattes, mochas, and other specialty coffees.

One definite point in the Grassroots’ favor is that it’s the only place on campus to get beer. Recently-added taps mean that craft beer is available, and beer made

by KPU’s brewing program students is coming soon.

The KSA is always looking to address student feedback with the Grassroots in order to improve the venue. This past summer, the Grassroots was the subject of major renovations to improve atmosphere and bring in more customers. Coinciding with these renovations were overhauls to the Grassroots menu options, with a particular focus on adding sharable snacks such as chicken wings and nachos.

(Danielle George)

The biggest challenge for management at the Grassroots at this time is increasing awareness of the cafe and bringing in more people. While events hosted at the Grassroots have helped, management continues their efforts to raise its profile on campus.

“Even though we have a closed market, we still don’t have 100 per cent exposure,” says Rhode. “Students still are not aware of us. Even though they may have been on campus for two or three years, they still may not venture to this part of campus.”

Tim Hortons Looking for something more familiar? There’s always Timmy’s.

Of course, Sodexo also own and operate the Tim Hortons located in the Cedar building. It offers a pretty wide variety of bagels, sandwiches, donuts, and muffins. Also available are takeaway sandwiches and salads—the same ones available in the Birch Cafeteria. A variety of hot beverages are also served, such as tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

If you’re looking for cheap food and have an infinite amount of time to wait in the incredibly long line it seems to always have, this is probably your best bet.

14 Opinions

What it Means to be PC at KPU

Political correctness is beneficial for modern-day teaching, if done right Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer Political correctness seems to be a staple of life for this generation. Discussions of social justice have permeated almost every aspect our world, from mass media coverage to how we learn, work, speak, and identify. In the prosperous bubble that is Vancouver, many citizens choose what they eat, drink, and wear based on their social ideals. Nowadays, it’s unacceptable not to follow topics such as Black Lives Matter, Hillary Clinton’s potential to be the first female president, and the politics of television shows such as Transparent.

The only problem with that is the confusion around the term “political correctness” and how much its meaning and execution can vary from person-to-person. While Merriam-Webster technically defines it as agreeing with the idea that people should be careful to not use language or behave in a way that could offend a particular group of people, even that is open to interpretation. Being offensive is subjective, and because of that, everyone appears to have a marginally different idea of what is and isn’t politically correct.

At Kwantlen Polytechnic University, political correctness has noticeably arrived, and not a minute too soon. Its presence has been a fairly regular part of being on campus lately, and what I’ve seen so far has

been mostly positive. Groups like the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group and Women Organizing Opportunities for Women have been doing a great job of setting an example of what it means to be PC. From inside the classroom, though, there have been some red flags.

All it took was a look at the syllabus to figure out that one of my instructors—let’s call them Prof. A— was using their curriculum to enforce a personal agenda that, in their minds, was politically correct. Their chosen subjects covered both human and animal rights, which is great, but not specifically relevant to what most of us were told about the class pre-registration.

The way that these subjects were approached was not through open, unbiased debate, but through the instructor’s pre-determined opinion, which was routinely forced on the class. Most of subjects were highly contentious issues, and many revolved around personal morals and upbringing, so the pressure to conform to the instructor’s views was extremely uncomfortable, if not wholly inappropriate. Other students in the class have voiced the same concern amongst their peers.

That same year, I was faced with an example of healthy political correctness in the classroom with Prof.

B. In that class, it went as far as giving trigger warnings, but still teaching

about social justice and asking the class to be open about their personal opinions. Debate was genuinely encouraged, and only hate speech was banned.

For me, as a member of quite a few marginalized groups, that was both respected and appreciated.

The difference is this: political correctness does not mean beating other people to death with what you think is right. By restricting voices in schools, those who may have offensive or toxic opinions cannot be vulnerable and honest enough to learn and grow.

Valuable perspectives of both the oppressed and oppressors are lost.

Students could feel personally attacked, and that’s not conducive to learning in the slightest.

Being politically correct, at least as a teacher, means being respectful and encouraging safe spaces in your room. Radicalism should be saved for behind closed doors, unless it’s in the course mandate.

(Scott McLelland)

Vancouver Has a New Transit Tax, For Better or Worse

General public doesn’t want it, university students do Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer Last year, 61.7 per cent of voters said no via referendum to paying taxes for improved transit in Metro Vancouver and its surrounding areas. As expected, the quality of transit subsequently plummeted, and is still the source of countless complaints today.

That may explain why, this year, the Mayor’s Council of Vancouver voted in favour of said tax, despite the referendum. It is acting as part of the City’s 10-year, $7.5 billion plan for improved transit and transportation—so it seems that, despite public disagreement, $3 of property tax per year will be coming out of public pockets anyhow.

That small, annual fee will spruce up transit by raising funds for new SkyTrain cars, a new Seabus, and improved bus service.

Speaking from the perspective of a U-pass wielding student, it’s about time. Riding on the SkyTrain sounds and feels like being in the depths of hell 90 per cent of the time. The screeching and rattling of those old

A SkyTrain pulls out of Surrey Central station on Oct. 2, 2016. Metro Vancouver mayors have recently voted in favour of a $3 per year property tax increase to help add more SkyTrain cars, increase bus service and add a new Seabus.

(Tommy Nguyen)

train cars is enough to drive anyone without headphones crazy, and they need maintenance checks often enough to screw up schedules from Vancouver to the Fraser Valley.

While I can’t personally bash the Seabus, I do know the soul-killing, blood vessel-popping, mood-destroying frustration of getting around on normal buses. Extremely rare is it that they show up on time—even less likely if you’re in the suburbs, like most KPU students—and when they do, they’re probably overpacked.

They’re also normally dirty, wet, and cold on any given day.

Several of my peers and I spend at least an hour on transit every day.

Usually, on most weekdays, it’s upwards of three hours sitting on a bus or train for yours truly.

Because of that unpleasant reality of my life—which, granted, I choose out of personal preference for financial and environmental reasons—I am extremely biased towards a property tax. In my eyes, $3 out of my savings account is worth feeling

happy and healthy after getting from point A to point B, but not everyone agrees. That became evident with the 2015 failed referendum.

My best guess would be that drivers don’t want to pay for transit folk’s benefit. A select margin of transit riders might even think that TransLink is doing a fine job. But due to the Mayor’s Council, they’re going to have to lump it.

The Council’s report claims that, “if we do not address the growth-related congestion and transportation

challenges before us, things could soon get much worse.” That sounds ominous, and it is. With a ridiculously large influx of new residents, the transit we have now just isn’t cutting it anymore. And so, Council is “calling on the Provincial Government, once again, to make additional amendments to the TransLink governance structure.”

They will also be using B.C. Carbon Tax revenues, motor fuel taxes, provincial contributions, toll revenues, real estate and interest, and miscellaneous taxes to improve transit and transportation, with the property tax representing 23 per cent of the current overall fund.

In ten years’ time, they hope that more income will be gained from new revenue sources, toll revenues, provincial contributions, and real estate and interest. Council expects to be receiving less from transit revenues, motor fuel taxes, property taxes, and other taxes.

The property tax is mandatory in order for Vancouver’s transit to get better. I say it’s time to bring it on.

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Canada Reintroduces Itself to global community in Bid for UN Security Council Seat A new beginning after a decade-long standstill

Louis Marta-Widjaja | Contributor Trudeau is working hard to improve Canada’s international image. To help accomplish this, he has recently prioritized Canada’s search for a UN Security Council seat in 2021.

Due to a mess of incidents during Stephen Harper’s reign, Canada’s international image at the United Nations over the last few years was turbulent. The Conservatives’ foreign relations were very critical of the UN after losing the bid for a seat on the Security Council in 2010. Then, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said at his first U.N General Assembly that “Canada does not just go along in order to get along.”

The quote was used for several years to criticize the Conservative government’s political philosophy.

Whenever questioned, Stephen Harper insisted that Canada’s Security Council bid was strong and principled, blaming the defeat instead on the political opposition from other nations. This dodging of responsibility would carry on to other issues that plagued the reputation of his administration, such as decreased African aid and weakened stances on climate change and peacekeeping. Unsurprisingly, many attribute Canada’s loss of the Security Council bid to such un-

Louis Marta-Widjaja | Contributor

NEW YORK - During a public conversation at UN Headquarters on March 6, 2016, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka call on global leaders to do more to ensure gender equality and promote women’s empowerment. (Flickr: UN Women/Ryan Brown)

popular actions.

Trudeau is hoping Canada can re-enter the international stage in the sunny, positive way that we were traditionally known for. The Liberal Party is attempting to re-brand Canada as an active, progressive voice in international diplomacy. The general consensus is that this attitude defines Canada—not the cold, conflict-driven attitudes that were shown by the Conservatives.

Canadian officials are counting on several factors to help Canada earn the Security Council seat bid. From promising to send Canadian troops on UN peacekeeping missions to presenting measures to help refugees

integrate into their new homes, Canada has much more to offer the world these days than it did under Harper.

That is not to say that the Liberals are without their challenges. The international political climate is liable to perceive Trudeau’s plan for progressive leadership unfavorably, as anti-immigrant sentiment runs high among several European countries and the States. However, the Liberal Party is in a good position to at least offer advice on matters of foreign immigration, as they have successfully welcomed and accommodated over 30,000 refugees.

Trudeau has demonstrated that he is fully capable of practicing what

he preaches, at least in regards to allowing refugees into the country.

This may be crucial in proving that Canada is the new face of progressive leadership. Thus far, the foreign press seems impressed by our Prime Minister. Time Magazine has put his name on their list of 100 Most Influential People, and The International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde approved of his economic policies as well as his gender diversity policies.

Whether or not these accolades will translate into a UN Security Council seat, however, remains to be seen.

Why we never hear about the good, but always hear about the bad

This September, CBC Aboriginal officially changed their name to CBC Indigenous in order to better represent the unit’s most covered demographic.

CBC Indigenous is highly sensitive and dedicated to following the stories of indigenous community members and events within Canada, and it is one of very few mass media sources to do so. Indigenous news coverage has long been the source of criticism, controversy, and neglect in this country.

Only relatively recently has Eurocentric media focused their eye and camera lens on indigenous history, opinions, and culture, and even then, they have botched the job time and time again. Using incorrect terminology, biased or ignorant language, and complete misrepresentation is not unheard of in the industry. Regularly, journalists have been called out for mistakes. Occasionally, they apologize.

Even then, the most popular stories on indigenous life seem to be consistently negative. As always, we as consumers should ask the question of whether or not that portrayal

False Equivalence is for Readers to Decide

A new beginning after a decadelong standstill

Indigenous News Coverage in Canada is Misrepresentative Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer

Opinions 17

is accurate or selective. It’s a fact that many indigenous groups across the country are oppressed by countless, interworking, unjust systems, and it shows in the news.

Right now, Regina police are searching for one of the indigenous women murdered by Clayton Eichler two years ago. Yet again, tribes are coming together to protest against pipelines. To this day, there is a deeply harmful and insultingly low cap on First Nations funding that the federal government refuses to lift. That’s something to be mad about.

A Métis writer debuted her novel about indigenous women, the University of Winnipeg made it mandatory for students to learn about indigenous studies, and a new cancer screening program was designed particularly for First Nations women. That’s something to celebrate.

So why do we only seem to hear the worst from Canada’s indigenous news? Very seldom is the other side of the story given equal attention. The answer may lie in our still pervasive colonialist roots.

By only covering conflicts around indigenous news, the impression given is that indigenous people are conflict-driven. While privileged, white Canadians can easily claim to empa-

thize with their plight—and many imoutlets only cover those ones, and the image of indigenous reporting portant and enlightening stories have suffers. been broken on the injustices done to As journalists, we’ve been failindigenous people with overwhelming that community for years. We ing response—they can also easily continue to do so today. As a white separate and dehumanize them. The woman working in media, I would between-the-lines narrative is that love to see the tides turn, and it’s indigenous news is synonymous with about time we take a harder look at problems rather than success, not to how we cover indigenous news. mention the oft-avoided burden of white guilt.

The reason for the popularity of these stories is that Canadians with colonialist roots can temporarily alleviate themselves of that guilt while claiming to support and stay updated on indigenous issues. At the same time, they likely ignore their accomplishments, vibrant culture, and general excellence— whether it’s consciously or otherwise.

Because most readers can’t get that ego boost from an article profiling a Award-winning CBC journalist Duncan McCue. The talented Indigenous artist, UBC journalism professor won numerous honours interesting cultural event, for his investigative work with CBC Indigenous on or positive steps towards missing and murdered Indigenous women, and societal equity, most only he is Anishinaabe, a member of the Chippewas of click on the stories they Georgina Island First Nation in southern Ontario.

(Submitted photo: CBC) can rant over. Thus, news

The contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the American election has stirred debate amongst journalists over the concept of false equivalence. Basically, false equivalence is when two opposing sides are treated as equals by the media, despite evidence suggesting that they are not equals.

As a journalist, I believe the issue of false equivalence in stories should be left up to the discretion of the reader. When there is no reasonable choice to make between two people in a two-party-system, is it not reasonable to be impartial in our complete disgust and equally unbiased in our total disappointment?

Besides, providing biased coverage could potentially bring far heavier consequences than false equivalence.

In April 27, 2012, The Washington Post wrote a scathing article entitled “Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.” Although it was an opinion article, it quickly reached the maximum 5000 comments its website allowed, after which the ensuing debate was continued on several different websites.

As a result of the mass circulation—and subsequent commentary— of the article, many right-wingers on social media cite the piece as proof of the leftist biases in media. Claims which dispute objectivity and partisanship in major media outlets are common among many American social network communities, but especially those within the right-wing political spectrum.

One of a journalist’s greatest responsibilities is to remain unbiased.

The same should remain true when a journalist voices an opinion on a channel as powerful and far reaching as the internet. Simply put, having your article under the opinion category does not give reason to start a flame war targeting a certain group. Doing so incurs repercussions on their reputation with no possible room for a fair retort or dialogue.

Such practices only serve to pour more fuel into the smoldering hell that is the American political climate. In a time when extremism is on the rise among both domestic and foreign influences, it would be more than wise to avoid creating any possible sources of unrest or distrust among the American citizenry. When it comes to Trump and Clinton, it should be plenty enough to practice the “show, don’t tell” principle, as their actions or words individually are often loud enough to speak for themselves.

18 Columns

Artist Spotlight: Freak Dream

Local musician Elliot Langford heals and experiments with new solo project Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer

Since the millennium, Elliot Langford has contributed to some of the most interesting indie bands to sweep Vancouver. Way back in 2008 he was a part of experimental noise-pop group SSRIs—a personal favourite of mine that, incidentally, introduced my teeny-bopping self to the city’s local scene. Some of his other projects, including the psych-folky Sprïng and Beatles cover group Taxmen, came and went.

Time passed and tours ended, but playing bass in the well-adored noise punk band The Rebel Spell remained a steady source of creativity and passion for Langford until they lost their late frontman, Todd Serious, last year.

Today, Langford is back to being as busy as ever. He’s joined jazz-punk group Big EviL and math rock band Togetherness, along with making appearances in Jo Passed, Summering, Gay Nineties, Youngblood, Les Chausettes, Glad Rags, and Sightlines. Such a packed schedule can be partially attributed to the fact that he lives in a pseudo-venue with a bunch of other artists, many of whom he writes and plays alongside.

Even though Langford has now

Elliot Langford, the artist behind Freak Dream, stands in an alleyway off of Vancouver’s Commercial Drive Sept. 20, 2016.

(Alyssa Laube)

moved past The Rebel Spell, he will never forget Todd Serious or the band. Now, as an amalgamation of his musical hyperactivity and mourning, Langford is releasing an entire album dedicated to Serious and two other friends he lost through his 20’s under his new solo project, Freak Dream.

“I was sort of going through sadness mixed with frustration and anger about that, so I wanted to get some of that off my chest too. I wanted to feel

like I could do that and not be embarrassed that some of it is just sort of high school angst poetry,” says Langford.

While that description doesn’t give nearly enough credit to the music, his writing on the record is unabashed and noisy. Tracks like “Almost Gone” are chaotic, but the chaos is well-organized. Listening to the whole collection of songs feels turbulent, violent, but somehow resolved and peaceful.

For Langford, that quality is part of what made creating the record “really cathartic,” both as an accolade to his dearly departed and because of its honest and blunt style.

“More than it’s angry or sad, that’s the feeling that I’ve really appreciated,” he says. “I think that some people who aren’t familiar with heavy music might mistake it as being just angry, but for me it’s cathartic.”

“Trying to remain optimistic and positive and moving forward even

Sustainable Living How to reduce your plastic consumption Melissa Pomerleau|Contributor Living sustainably doesn’t have to be hard, and it certainly doesn’t have to mean giving up or going without. One of the first things I chose to commit to in my quest to live more sustainably was to purchase fewer single-use items. That meant not allowing myself to purchase my morning cup of joe without my trusty travel mug. It only took three miserable, coffee-less mornings before it became part of my routine to grab my mug before leaving the house and that eventually evolved into making my own coffee at home.

Another great and simple place to start living more sustainably is reducing the amount of plastic you bring into your home. Plastic takes anywhere from 450 to 1000 years to biodegrade. That means that long after you’re gone, the plastic you’ve thrown out all your life will remain for centuries.

Reducing your plastic consumption is easy. Here are a few tips to cut back on using plastic products and lead a more sustainable life:

find, and you can even make your own out of old t-shirts or thrifted fabric. T-shirts are especially great to repurpose into produce bags. I get that it’s easier to just put your apples into the provided plastic bags so they aren’t rolling around and the cashier can easily plop them onto the scale, but try to leave the plastic behind.

Buying in Bulk Purchasing items in bulk can reduce the amount of plastic you use simply by making an effort to reuse your bulk bags. When you get home, transfer your bulk goodies into jars or airtight containers and store the bags for reuse. Proper food storage keeps critters away and you won’t run the risk of your bag tearing in your cupboard, leaving you with a giant mess. You can even avoid having to use plastic bulk bags at all by purchasing a few sturdy mesh bulk bags and using those instead. As long as they’re semi-transparent, clean, and you’re able to properly label it with whatever bulk code the store uses at their point of sale, there shouldn’t be any problem.

Cloth Bags

Food Storage and Plastic Wrap

This might seem like common sense, but still so many people use plastic bags for their groceries. Why? Cloth bags are cheap and easy to

Mason jars are a great way to store pantry items and leftovers. I’m not saying go and throw out all your existing Tupperware—we all have plas-

tic storage containers, so you might as well use them. But the next time you find yourself short of lunch containers, consider picking up a few mason jars, or other glass containers, instead of plastic versions. Glass is easier to clean and a lot better for the environment. Plastic wrap, cling film, saran wrap—whatever you call it—ought to be avoided.

Replacements for plastic wrap include smaller mason jars, wax or parchment paper, and even tin foil. All of these can be used more than once with care.

Oil cloth is another relatively simple alternative, as it’s just fabric treated on one side with linseed oil to make it waterproof. A Victoria-based company, Abeego, sells beeswax food wraps in a variety of sizes that last around a year each.

Shifting to a more sustainable lifestyle is about working within your means, pushing yourself a little bit at a time, and making more mindful and conscious decisions.

If I happen to have left my water bottle at home one day, I’m not going to deprive myself of water because it comes in a plastic bottle, and I’m certainly not going to judge or lecture my classmates for using a paper cup instead of a reusable travel mug.

(Scott McLelland)

when things aren’t going so great is kind of a consistent theme in the songs,” says Langford.

They were also a chance for him to explore musical extremes that hadn’t fit into his other bands, along with an opportunity for complete freedom of expression devoid of shyness or insecurity.

“I just wanted to do outrageous shit,” he says.

An influence from Langford’s teenage years—Nine Inch Nails’ Downward Spiral album—is already bleeding into Freak Dream’s sound. Heavy, industrial beats blast through most of his new songs, and Reznor-esque screams often make it into the most calamitous parts of each track.

As a DIY producer and musician, Prince was also an inspiration for the project, as was metalcore band Converge and noise rock group Health.

Although he played and produced every part of Freak Dream’s record on his own, it has officially taken the stage as a live band. With Langford on vocals and a band behind him, the project’s name will be appearing on bills within Vancouver on the regular. As a matter of fact, the first multi-member performance was at a tribute show to The Rebel Spell.

Procrastination 19

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Taurus Apr 20 - May 20 Right when someone approaches you, whisper “they still don’t suspect a thing” into your lapel before greeting them with an unconvincing smile.

You’re pretty sure that clown staring at you from across the street is a figment of your imagination.

You grip the nunchucks you’ve hidden in your briefcase anyway.

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 22

Aug 24 - Sept 23

Some people will tell you it’s impractical to own a flamethrower, that if you need to set something on fire you can just walk over to it. Don’t even dignify them with a response.

Create a new genre of music where nobody can play an instrument above a fourth-grade level. Call it Mediocore.

Leo Jul 24 - Aug 23

For many strategies, hints and tips, visit www.sudokuwiki.org

To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains every number uniquely. © 2016 Syndicated Puzzles

life”? No? :( it is then.

9

9 9 75 6 4

© 2016 Syndicated Puzzles

3

9 Sure, laugh at the guy who ran full-tilt into solid 5 rock because he thought the tunnel painted on it was real, but you can’t tell me that speedy little 8 2 3 7 1 5 6 9 4 ostrich doesn’t look delicious.

5 7 6 9 4 2 1 3 8 4 1Pisces 9 8 6 3 5 7 2 Aries Feb 2 20 3 - 5Mar120 9 6 4 8 7 Mar 21 - Apr 19 7 are9just4butts5for your 3 neck.

8 I can’t 2 believe 1 6 Hmm, lesse here, where’s the emoji for “acid sprays Faces we’re still going over this.

1 6 8 4 2 7 9 5 3 all over my face as I scream in horror at my stupid

9

3 5 1

Aquarius Jan 21 - Feb 19

3 destroy 5 yourself.

1 6This7is your4task for 8 the2 Don’t evening.

9 4 2 3 8 1 7 6

Previous solution - Medium

5

4 3 9 1 8 5 5 9 7 8 2 6 1 7 The solutions will be published here 3 2 6 4 Previous solution - Tough

5

3

3

KU 2 9 6 7 88

Sagittarius Capricorn 6 823 -7Dec221 5 9 3 4 1 Dec. 22 - Jan 20 Nov.

5

6 4 9 7 2 7

Previous solution - Tough

Later...

All I’m saying is that your problems could hardly be made worse by going out to the desert and digging a shallow grave.