The Runner Volume 9, Issue 4 by The Runner

Volume 09 // Issue 04

News CCTV Cameras Coming to Surrey Campus

October 25 2016

Feature Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at KPU

THE CONJURING AT KPU

Online Our Coverage of the KSA By-Election

THE RUNNER

and other haunted happenings on campus

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

02 Table of contents

03 06

staff

News | Security Cameras come to KPU Surrey Campus

As part of its “commitment to the safety and security of all members of the university community,” KPU is introducing security cameras to its Surrey campus.

BOO-rdinating Editor Tristan Johnston editor@runnermag.ca

culture | Alumni Association Holds Craft Beer Night

Wolfman-aging Editor Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca

For an entrance fee of $20 per head, KPU grads were treated to a selection of beer samples brewed right here at the university as part of the Brewing and Brewery Operations program.

Abduction Manager

08 13 www

Danielle George production@runnermag.ca

Art DIE-rector

Scott McLelland art@runnermag.ca

Features | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at KPU

There’s nothing like a fuzzy face to make nine hours of gruelling classwork a little easier to stomach, but both pets and wildlife can be tragically tough to ﬁnd here.

Photo Dead-itor

Kier-Christer Junos photos@runnermag.ca @kierjunos

Staff Fright-er

Alyssa Laube staff@runnermag.ca

Opinions| KPU Students Deserve a Safety App of Their Own A full directory of security contact information, campus maps, and detailed instructions on what to do in various emergency situations are some of the features that safety apps provide.

Webbed Editor

Joseph Keller web@runnermag.ca

Abominations Manager Scott Boux office@runnermag.ca 778.565.3801

Online| The KSA By-Election

Check out The Runner’s website for interviews with the candidates running for ofﬁce in the KSA By-Election. Read up on your options and vote this Tuesday and Wednesday!

#FeatureTweets

#BestPhoto

Natalia J Gonzalez @Natsmarketplace I #love how #beautiful my #campus is. #kpu #fall #pond. The calm after the #storm. #instadaily

Joseph keller

Jodi Proznick @JodiProznick Our family will gather today at #KPU. Dad will be receiving his honorary Doctor of Laws. A very special day indeed. Nathan Griffiths @ nathangriffiths Ready for the storm. #bcbeer #Kwantlen #bcstorm #LangleyBC #ipa #kpu

Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778.565.3801 www.runnermag.ca Vol. 09, Issue no. 4 October 12, 2016 ISSN# 1916 8241

Contributors Braden Klassen Calvin Borghardt Celesta De Roo Keith Harris Louis Marta-Widjaja Melissa Pomerleau

Nat Mussell Neil Bassan Nicole Kwit Shandis Harrison Tommy Nguyen Yuta Annonuevo

Sandra Hoffman sits with Surrey and Richmond in the kittens’ habitat on the Cloverdale campus. Hoffman has been the kittens’ caretaker since they were first discovered.

Cover

Yuta is an emerging artist working with traditional mediums such as gouache, ink, markers, and watercolours. His subjects are often dark Fantasy, SciFi, and other related genres. He’s self-taught in the visual arts, which he’s been working in since early childhood. His other interests include bushcrafting, satire, and entrepreneurship. He currently resides in B.C. and is trying to achieve ﬁnancial independence through his art. You can contact him at: yutahiroko@yahoo.com

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

Mental health must be taken as seriously as physical health Tristan Johnston |Coordinating Editor Could you imagine if you told one of your friends that you had a broken leg, and they told you that the problem was all in your head? While most people know that bandages are good for cuts, many probably don’t know what the appropriate measure would be for those who’re experiencing short term depression. Almost everyone is taught in elementary school what sorts of actions they should take if they discover their friend has a bleeding arm. They should raise their hand above the heart, wrap the wound in a bandage, and bring them to a hospital if necessary. Most people likely have no idea what to do if their friend tells them they’re having a panic attack. To extend this metaphor further, if you were having a heart attack, you wouldn’t hesitate to call 911, but many people experiencing mental health problems are typically reluctant to get help right away. Not only is it often difficult to face your problems, but it can be stressful to consider what your friends and family might think. The stigma towards mental health is so great that some flat out refuse to let their parents know. Though this is often justified, many people simply don’t understand that you can’t simply “get over” these problems. If you want an economic argument, poor mental health means poor job performance. For instance, if you worked in construction and showed up to work hunched over, or otherwise in obviously bad shape, your boss will likely send you home because the last thing

Oct

25 -26

KSA By-Election

The KSA By-Election will determine who ﬁlls ﬁve vacant seats on KSA Council for the second half of the year-long term. Let your voice be heard by voting for your chosen representative! 10 - 7, all campuses, Free.

Oct 27 Kombit: The Cooperative

(Shandis Harrison)

he needs is a worker suing him for making him work when he shouldn’t have. Unfortunately, the same is rarely true for ofﬁce jobs, where the physical symptoms of stress are less apparent, but just as real. It’s normal for ofﬁce workers to be asked to push through whatever they’re dealing with, often to the detriment of their own health and job performance. Mental health isn’t a problem that can simply be solved by having money thrown at it. Society must move to make this a priority. If the government really wants to reduce homelessness in Vancouver, they should put mental health and addiction services on equal footing with housing. Why spend hundreds of thousands to keep someone reasonably miserable when you can merely spend thousands to make

someone healthy and happy? We also need to understand that “recovery” can mean different things to different people. To some, recovery means a complete and utter reduction of all problems a person is experiencing, while to others it simply means having the symptoms of an illness, but managing them in such a way that their quality of life is unaffected. If you want to play a small role in making things better, do some reading on these subjects and talk to your friends about their feelings in a non-judgemental way. If your best friend or loved one comes to you to talk about their depression, anxiety, addiction, or anything else, you should ﬁrst be grateful that they trust you enough to do this. Appreciate their vulnerability and listen to what

they have to say Be empathetic. What’s the difference between empathy and sympathy? Brene Brown, a researcher and author from the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work uses a good metaphor. If your friend or loved one is in a deep emotional hole, sympathy is shouting down into the hole to your friend, yelling something like “it’s dark down there eh?” Empathy is climbing into the hole yourself to be with them for a while. Don’t blame them for their problem, but don’t minimize it either. Don’t suggest that people “get over it,” and avoid giving someone unsolicited advice. It might be well-intentioned, but telling someone what they should do takes away their agency.

Security Cameras come to KPU Surrey Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer

News Briefs

What’s Happening this week

As part of its “commitment to the safety and security of all members of the university community,” as written in a letter from Vice President of KPU Finance and Administration Jon Harding, Kwantlen Polytechnic University is introducing security cameras to its Surrey campus. The university is also requesting funding to bring similar cameras to the Langley, Cloverdale, and Richmond campuses. The external, closed circuit television cameras will be installed on rooftops and canopies, where they will get a wide view of what’s happening down below. All populated, public areas, including parking lots, will be monitored, and there will be signs to indicate where the cameras are located. Footage will be archived for 30 days after being captured in case it is needed for reference. CCTV cameras are already in

place at Douglas College, Simon Fraser University, and the University of the Fraser Valley, amongst others. The beneﬁts of having security cameras on-campus are clear. Crimes are less likely to be committed when the criminals know they’re on camera, and when they are committed, there is proof of the incident and a way to identify the perpetrator. At least, that is the hope. Numerous studies have shown ﬂuctuating results in reference to crime rates and security cameras. Generally speaking, the conclusion that authorities have arrived at is that cameras help solve crime after it is carried out, but they don’t have a great effect on stopping it. Such mixed reviews may be caused by criminals simply deferring to areas not observed by cameras, or citizens feeling comfortable reporting more incidents to the police, letting their guard down, and being more vulnerable to attack in surveilled ar-

eas. Not only could this cause a literal increase in the number of crimes committed, but it could also create the impression that more are being committed when, in actuality, more are simply being reported. There have already been two cases of harassment at KPU this year, with several more documented at other universities in the Greater Vancouver Area. For students who need additional security to feel safe on university grounds, contact Safe Walk staff. The Safe Walk program provides escorted walks around campus, and they can be reached at their security phone numbers listed on the KPU website.

KDocs is screening this documentary film about a commitment to plant 5 million trees over five years in Haiti. The film will be followed by a panel discussion and a Q&A. 4:30 - 7, KPU Surrey Fir 128, Free.

Oct 29

Pole dancing lessons

Active KSA brings you yet another fun, interesting way to stay active throughout the semester. Whether you’re a pole novice or master, come on out and learn a few moves. 3 - 4, Tantra Fitness in Vancouver, $12 for students.

Oct 31

Revenge of the Gaming Dead The Kwantlen Gaming Guild is hosting their third annual Gaming Dead event on Halloween. They’ll have chess tournaments, Smash Brothers tournaments, and costume contests. 11 - 6, KPU Surrey Cedar 1205, Free.

Nov 4 Archery Lessons

Robin Hood, Legolas, Hawkeye, Katniss Everdeen, and you! Learn how to shoot arrows with the greats by joining the Active KSA team at the Richmond Archery club. 7 - 8:30, Richmond Archery Club, $10 for students.

Nov 4

The Mirror Test

As part of KPU Thrive there will be a performance of The Mirror Test, a one-man play from KPU alumnus Kevin Kokoska. 7 - 9, KPU Langley Auditorium, Free.

04 News

KSA TO Send KSA to Attend Canadian Alliance of Student ONE Delegate Association Advocacy Week in Ottawa to CFS National CASA members gather this November to collaborate on policy change General Meeting in Nov. Braden Klassen| Contributor From Nov. 18 to 21 the Canadian Federation of Students will be hosting its annual National General Meeting, and the Kwantlen Student Association will be sending one delegate to attend the event. The CFS is a nationwide association of student unions which provides various services to students who belong to its membership, including those at KPU. The services provided to students by the CFS range from cost-cutting programs like the Canadian Universities Travel Service to giving its members a discount StudentSaver Card, which is supposed to be distributed through the institutions’ student unions like the KSA. However, according to KSA President Alex McGowan, the CFS has not actually provided the KSA with the printer that makes the cards. Membership in the Canadian Federation of Students costs KPU students $260,000 dollars per year—which McGowan estimates is about $10 or $12 per student. “It’s always hard to put a dollar value on something like advocacy or membership in a larger student organization,” he says. “Because the benefits can come out over time.” “One win, in terms of getting a government to change a policy, can be worth ten years of nothing. I believe there’s an intrinsic value in an organization like the CFS, so I don’t want to do a cost-benefit analysis dollar for dollar. I don’t think that’s fair to an organization like this.” “That aside,” adds McGowan. “I don’t think the CFS provides value [for KPU students] in terms of just doing the job it’s trying to do.” Last month the KSA joined a coalition of student unions from across Canada to lobby the CFS for change. Members of the federation criticized the CFS for a lack of online documentation and for the strenuous process by which member unions can attempt to leave the organization. In response to the criticisms, the CFS will be providing a motion at the National General Meeting to make it easier for student unions to hold a referendum to withdraw membership. The National Executives for the CFS also announced they would now be providing audited financial documents online on the federation’s website.

Braden Klassen| Contributor On Oct. 6 the KSA approved the release of $6,500 for the upcoming Canadian Alliance of Student Associations Advocacy Week. According to KSA President Alex McGowan, the funds are meant to cover “ﬂights and accommodation and the registration fee, plus per diem, so food costs.” This year’s CASA Advocacy Week is set to occur from Nov. 13-18, and will be attended by a number of students, student organizations, and members of parliament from across the country. “Every year, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations puts on what they call their advocacy week, where they bring in all of their

members and invite observers and non-members to attend,” explains McGowan.” Last year, they coordinated 150 meetings with MPs and stakeholders in Ottawa. This year, they hope to coordinate as many if not more.” CASA is a not-for-proﬁt, non-partisan organization that consists of student associations from all across Canada. Since it was created in 1995, CASA has been advocating on behalf of Canadian students to the federal government, utilizing research to inform and lobby for policy change. “It’s a really impressive advocacy effort,” says McGowan. “It’s actually known as the biggest advocacy blitz in Canada, not just in student terms, but in all terms. They have the most meetings in one sort of go in Ottawa.”

CASA helps tutor students “on how to lobby and how to go into a meeting with a politician,” he says. “So it’s really good training for us.” The organization also assists students with awareness campaigns and developing government relations, and has been instrumental in policies that promote affordability and accessibility of post-secondary education in Canada. CASA is not unlike the Canadian Federation of Students in the sense that it consists of a large body of associated student unions, but McGowan says that the two groups are very different in terms of what their intended purposes are and what they do for students. “The CFS focuses more on campaigning and swaying public

opinion and mobilizing students, whereas CASA focuses more on that research-based advocacy, and having meetings with MPs to change public policy.” The CFS also provides its members with discounts for various things like a health and dental plan, or bulksale merchandise. However, KPU already gets better discounts on these things from other sources, so the CFS-provided services go unused. “We acknowledge that lobbying advocacy and collaboration are really important things that we want to do. We just aren’t getting opportunities to do it with the Canadian Federation of Students,” says McGowan. McGowan attended CASA’s Advocacy Week last year, where he met with John Aldag, the Cloverdale Langley City MP, and he expects to be able to meet with more members of parliament in November. “Advocacy Week provides us with a great opportunity to build the lobbying skills that we have. What we usually do is we go with the current VP External and a couple of other students or counsellors who have expressed an interest in getting more involved in the external affairs side of what we do.”

KPU Journalism program now includes indigenous course requirements

INDG1100 will educate student journalists on history of aboriginal peoples in Canada Kier-Christer Junos | Photo Editor New student journalists at KPU must now take Introduction to Indigenous Studies (INDG1100) as a program requirement. The course’s ﬁrst offering will begin in the spring of 2017, and Journalism Department Chair Beverley Sinclair says the course was added to the program after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released their list of recommendations in 2015. “It’s been long overdue, especially in a ﬁeld like journalism,” says Justin Bige, who helps at the Aboriginal Gathering Place on KPU’s Surrey campus. In the media section of their Calls to Action document, the TRC wrote: “We call upon Canadian journalism programs and media schools to require education for all students on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations.” Sinclair says the department’s de-

KPU students entering the journalism program this year will have to take INDG1100, Introduction to Indigenous Studies, as a degree requirement. The course’s first offering is in Spring 2017. (City College Norwich/Flickr)

cision to add the course virtually took “ten seconds.” According to the course website, INDG1100 pays special attention to the histories, cultures, and contemporary situation of Indigenous peoples in Canada and The United States of America. The course description suggests a curriculum focusing on history rather than media-speciﬁc lectures. But the course still aims to help students develop informed views on Indigenous cultures and histories, and will include teachings and perspectives from band elders and local communities. The journalism department is en-

suring that the course is in a convenient timeslot for all journalism students. Students further along in the program will not be required to take the course. “I actually think that it should be a requirement for all students,” says Sinclair. “But we’re starting with ours.” Sinclair says that most Canadians lack an understanding of Indigenous issues in Canada. Some critics posit that media can report on Indigenous people as if there’s always a crisis to capture. Bige agrees. Media can fail to report on regular, community stories or positive stories. He says journalists

still tend to tokenize Indigenous people, and retell other ill narratives, like the illustration of reserves as being “privileged.” He thinks that news reporting, for example, could show more contemporary depictions of Indigenous peoples in Canada. “There are contemporary natives in information technology,” says Bige, “and we don’t hear about them.” “If the same stories of Indigenous people are presented, that reinforces stereotypes,” says Lenée Son, a fourth-year KPU journalism student. She says that perpetuating stereotypes can be harmful to marginalized groups of people. Son, who has reported on various marginalized groups, says there has been “a long history of racism” against Indigenous people in the media. That, she says, may have created a distrust for them against journalists. For the incoming journalists at KPU, Son believes that INDG1100 will inform their cultural biases. In turn, the hope is that new journalists will do better to turn the ears of Canadian news-consumers to the voices of some of the country’s most marginalized.

Journalism Grad Receives Distinguished Alumni Award Sports Writer Steve Ewen on getting the award, overcoming cancer, and tips for student journalists Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer Steve Ewen’s career in journalism has been successful, eventful, and a source of pride for Kwantlen Polytechnic University for over two decades. He completed his practicum in the program at The Coquitlam Now, eventually moving on to writing sports coverage for The Province. He still works there to this day. For most student journalists, being hired fresh out of school and maintaining Ewen’s job security is a dream come true. He is a great inspiration to aspiring sports writers, with his considerable experience covering the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Canadians, Whitecaps, and BC Lions, amongst others. He was still breaking stories and making deadlines in 2010, when Ewen was diagnosed with cancer. Spending months in the hospital and learning how to walk again put his career on hold, but he was optimistic about the future.The very next year, he was not only discharged from the hospital, but also working full-time once more. Such remarkable achievements

have landed him on the list of KPU distinguished alumni, for which he received an award at the university’s fall convocation on Oct. 6. Ewen describes the experience as “very exciting” and expresses his gratitude to KPU and its faculty for preparing him for his career as a journalist. “I came in as a sports fan, not really understanding anything about writing in a newspaper style. It gave me the real basics [and] the contacts to go out and ﬁnd a job,” he says. “It gave us a chance to really understand the way the business works.” He says that his practicum at The Coquitlam Now, in particular, gave him the skills he needed to move up in the industry, and that he doesn’t know where would be if he hadn’t started out there. KPU’s journalism program has changed greatly since he completed it in 1989. The classes that were once operated out of “a renovated warehouse in Richmond,” as Ewen puts it, are now held in the beautiful, furbished buildings that stand tall on campus. The program is years longer than it used to be, and the curriculum is far different, but Ewen believes that the students in it are just as impres-

B.C. journalist Steve Ewen receives the KPU Distinguished Alumni award during the Fall 2016 convocation on Oct. 6. He has written for community papers including The Coquitlam Now, The Vancouver Sun, and The Province. (KPU/Flickr)

sive as ever. He is extremely proud of the quality of the university’s graduates, and if he had to give them a word of advice, it would be to listen carefully and keep a level head while working on a deadline. He would also remind them to be aware that “it’s a changing time” in the world of journalism. “The way we have done things for 50 years are going out the window now, and we’re trying to factor in Twitter and blogging and Instagram and Snapchat, all those things. Be excited and learn everything you

can,” he says. Nevertheless, sticking to the basics of journalism are still crucial for success. Student journalists need to have primed people skills, Ewen advises. “Essentially what we’re doing is telling people’s stories. We’re the history keepers, and if you can’t get people to talk to you, if you can’t get people to tell their stories, you can write like Hemingway but it’s just not going to work,” he says.

The organization believes Canadians “can’t sit idle” Braden Klassen| Contributor

Some members are heading down to key battleground states to help reach out to voters while other members will make phone calls and utilize online tools. “Someone as unstable as Donald Trump should not have 1,500 active nuclear missiles at his ﬁngertips. Someone who thinks global warming is ‘a hoax’ should not be negotiating climate change agreements,” Lewis said in a press release. “As good neighbors, and global citizens, we can’t sit idle. Not when the election is this close.” Despite being unable to vote in the American election, the members of CRAT still hope to inﬂuence their

Psych Prof Named Open Education Research Fellow Louis Marta-Widjaja | Contributor

“Canadians Rallying Against Trump” aims to help defeat Trump in U.S. election Glyn Lewis, a Canadian citizen living in Vancouver, has co-founded a volunteer group called Canadians Rallying Against Trump. The aim of the group is to mobilize Canadians towards contributing to the defeat of Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. election. “Donald Trump poses a serious threat to our world,” Lewis said in a press release. CRAT is a group composed entirely of Canadians who are deeply concerned about the prospect of a Trump presidency, and are therefore volunteering with the Clinton campaign in the United States. “We are opposed to Donald Trump being president of the United States because so far we’ve seen that he is pretty unstable,” says Ashley Fehr, Media Spokesperson for Canadians Rallying Against Trump. “We can’t really trust that he won’t just lash out at other world leaders. We are opposed to the hatred he spews. We are opposed to the misogyny and racism that he has so far put out into the world and we just don’t want to see that as our neighboring world leader.” Canadians Rallying Against Trump connects Canadian volunteers to the Hillary Clinton campaign.

News 05

(Keith Harris)

neighbors to the south to vote against Trump. “I don’t think it’s interfering,” says Fehr. “Legally, we are allowed to go and volunteer our time on their elections. We can’t ﬁnancially get involved, so we can’t donate to the campaign—Hillary’s campaign or anyone’s campaign—and we also can’t fundraise to send volunteers down to the States to help with travel costs, but we can go as volunteers.” According to the Federal Election Commission, it is legal for “foreign nationals” to volunteer with U.S. Presidential campaigns, but they cannot contribute ﬁnancially. “We’re asking Canadians who

want to help stop Donald Trump to reach out to us through our Facebook page. We’ll then help them get involved,” said Lewis, in a press release. Since it’s legal for Canadians to volunteer their time with any U.S. political campaign, Glyn Lewis and Ashley Fehr are encouraging their fellow citizens to get involved with Canadians Rallying Against Trump to prevent him from winning the presidential election. “We do want to make sure people know that they can join us, so they can sign up on [our website] and we will connect them directly with the Clinton campaign and get people slotted places,” says Fehr. Canadians Rallying Against Trump is not the only organization that intends to help prevent the Republican nominee from becoming President of the United States. On Oct. 5, an anti-Trump rally was held in Vancouver to encourage Americans living in the area to vote against Donald Trump. A dancing Trump with a large paper mache head was seen on the back of a truck just outside of the yet-to-be-ﬁnished Trump building. Joseph Huff-Hanonm organized the event with the activist group Avaaz, an American civic organization that promotes global activism on various political issues.

Dr. Farhad Dastur, a psychology professor at KPU, has been appointed an open education research fellow for 2016 and 2017, making this the second consecutive year that a KPU instructor has received this distinction. The Open Education Group is an interdisciplinary organization for conducting research and sharing knowledge about the development of open education. “Open Education is grounded in these enlightenment ideals for freedom and social progress and transformation and liberalism, and it’s connected to a bigger open movement which includes open access, open source, open data, open numbers,” says Dastur. “The essential idea here is that knowledge should be free to be shared, and it should be free to be accessed.” Dastur will be presenting “How to Open an Academic Department: A Case Study” at the 13th Annual Open Education conference in Virginia this November. He says that the paper will be written with professors in mind. “What I try to do in the paper is argue that if universities are to remain relevant, and if they are truly to become places of innovation, then they are going to have to step away from this path to some degree and embrace new models of teaching and of governance, and the best model for doing that is open education,” he says. For a generation with record-breaking student debt, the idea of open education brings rare, constructive attention to the often ignored economic plights of post-secondary students. Dastur believes that open education should be understood as a global movement, wherein learners are being empowered to better themselves through education, and where the barriers of economics and geography are torn down. Dastur says that KPU will see a number of initiatives from the Open Education Group, including workshops, information sessions, and a week dedicated to open education this month. He also encourages students to ask their instructors about “opening” their classes for greater access. “Begin working from the ground up to change the institution,” he says. “Because people like me and my colleagues who believe in this are working on a different level. It’s very important that we have different forces trying to change the institution at the same time.”

06 Culture

Alumni Association Holds Craft Beer Night Craft brew program hosts KPU Grads at Langley Brew Lab Joseph Keller | Web Editor The Kwantlen Alumni Association hosted it’s inaugural craft beer night on Oct. 13. For an entrance fee of $20 per head, KPU grads were treated to a selection of beer samples brewed right here at the university as part of the Brewing and Brewery Operations program, as well as a spread of beer infused snacks and a tour of the Langley campus brewing facilities. Students from the brewing program were on hand to serve samples and provide info for the beer on offer. At the end of the evening, attendees each received a growler of the program’s ‘Alumni porter’ brewed specially for the event. According to Colton Aston, director of the Alumni Association, many of the event attendees were recent KPU grads experiencing their ﬁrst Alumni Association event. “A lot of people weren’t aware of the brewery and the brewing operations program so we thought this was a fantastic way to learn about that and then also to connect with other alumni members.” Aston says that the association

Colton Aston, Director of the Kwantlen Alumni Association gives the opening speech at the KAA craft beer night in the Langley Campus brewing lab on Oct. 15, 2016. (Joseph Keller)

opted to include the brewing program in this event partially to show off the relatively new program to KPU grads who may not be familiar with it, and partially to drive interest in the alumni association via offerings of one of B.C.’s most popular products, deli-

cious craft beer. “The concept [of craft brewing] is really big in the community and growing in the culture right now in Vancouver and B.C., so I saw this opportunity to help elevate the proﬁle of a new program at Kwantlen as well

as connect alumni through something that’s maybe of interest.” The Kwantlen Alumni Association exists as part of a mandate in the British Columbia universty act that says all post-secondary institutions must support their students even after

graduation. The KAA hosts alumni events throughout the year as well as providing other beneﬁts such as an optional networking registry, an online job posting service, and discounts on various products and services. “The KAA’s mission is really to engage with our alumni so they remain connected with the institution, because they’re the university’s greatest ambassadors,” says Aston. The craft beer event is one of four yearly events held by the Alumni Association. The next will be the Association’s yearly general meeting, which will take place on Nov 16. At the meeting, members will network, vote on Alumni Association’s policies, and hear from a guest speaker. All KPU grads—from any of the institution’s incarnations, past and present—automatically qualify as alumni. The association encourages all alumni to come out to its events to see what it has to offer. “Come on out and try an event and meet with some of your fellow alumni members,” says Aston. “You really never know where those types of connections can take you.”

“Hello Future” Event Held for Psychology Students at KPU Panelists prepare students to say hello to their future in psychology Oct. 13 Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer Psychologists care for the wellbeing of people all across the globe, and it takes a lot of schooling to prepare to do that job right. In turn, getting the necessary qualifications demands an enormous amount of time, effort, and dedication from students who dream of working in the field. Rarely is it easy, and according to the Kwantlen Psychology Society and KPU’s Psychology Department, the path to graduation can be fraught with confusion and obstacles. That’s why they set out to organize an event that would prepare students for what lies ahead, using advice from graduates and professionals from Vancouver and its surrounding areas. That event, Hello Future, was held on Oct. 13 in the Surrey conference centre. The room was packed that afternoon, not only with KPU psychology students, but also those from other institutions, graduates from various related programs, admissions officers, faculty, and others. Four panelists opened up the event, moderated by KPS President Michelle Hunsche. Elisabeth Kreykenbohm, who received an MA in cognitive psychology from SFU, Kate Morrison, who received an MA in educational psychology from UBC, and Bonnie Chi, who received an MA in counselling, sat alongside Admissions Officer Mina Taheri at

the panel to answer questions about going to school, graduating, and working outside of university. Although Morrison feels well-suited to the degree she pursued, she adds that her “path to grad school was not straight at all.” In fact, she started out in marketing, and only after taking a few psychology courses here and there did she discover her passion for the subject. Chi and Kreykenbohm shared Morrison’s sentiment. Taheri stands out on the panel as an admissions ofﬁcer for Adler University. Her presence at Hello Future serves to provide speciﬁc insight into what post-secondary institutions are looking for from their applicants. Au-

dience members scribble furiously in notepads as she gives advice. “Get involved with the community. Adler focuses on social justice and community engagement as well,” she says. She also suggests that applicants remember to get three strong letters of recommendation from “people who can talk about you” and have relevant experience. “We want to know about the personality of the [applicant]. We want to know how they perform in a group,” says Taheri. “Can you write me a strong, positive letter of recommendation?” She also warns students who have not yet applied, “If you’re not interested in research but you want to do

a Ph.D. you’re setting yourself up for ﬁve miserable years.” Those tips apply to getting into grad school in particular, which take several months to complete. Part of that application should include applying for external funding such as grants and scholarships, according to Morrison. Applications themselves can be quite expensive, and the price for tuition in psychology can get extremely high—a cost that Kreykenbohm refers to as “rent.” “You’re simply living in your lab at that point,” she laughs. Two of the lead organizers behind the event, Hunsche and KPS Vice-President Alisha Gardiner, were inspired to create the event because of

“a lack of information for students” in the faculty. Hunsche says that they “really wanted to ﬁll that gap,” and part of that is showing “students who aren’t right for grad school [that] they don’t have to do seven years of a PhD program to go somewhere in psych.” Gardiner relates personally to that struggle and feels that she beneﬁted from Hello Future as a future graduate. “I’m one of those students that craves this information and I don’t know what I’m doing, and I think it’s better to have it in one special place where everyone comes together and you can get all that information right away,” she says.

(From left to right) Panelists Michelle Hunsche, Elisabeth Kreykenbohm, Kate Morrison, Mina Taberi, and Bonnie Chi (off-frame) give advice to psychology students at Hello Future, Oct. 13, 2016. (Alyssa Laube)

Fantastic Beasts Words and photos by

Alyssa Laube Staff Writer

Although rare, the days that paws and claws touch KPU soil are often the happiest ones. The university grounds are teeming with people, though commonplace critters like squirrels and birds are difficult to spot, despite rumours that Surrey has a live-in turtle in its pond, that bears have been seen wandering about, and that burrows of rabbits live in the underbrush by the forest. Those claims have yet to be photographically proven, but it is true that the university welcomes stress puppies around midterms each year, guide dogs are allowed on-campus, and for one blissful day, the KSA had a cat named Simba in their office. Still, it took a little digging before we found the rest of KPU’s creatures, both big and small, near and far, aquatic and terrestrial. After three weeks of investigating, meeting mammals and reptiles, and traipsing around with cameras, we present the fantastic beats of KPU.

Joseph Keller Web Editor

Over the summer, a makeshift habitat in the Cloverdale campus maintenance courtyard served as a temporary home for four little balls of fuzz and razorblades and their doting mother. For the past several years, a feral cat—named Clover by KPU staff—has made the campus her home. Not particularly trusting of humans, Clover largely avoided interaction with her bipedal neighbours until this past July when she gave birth to four adorable kittens. The first kitten, a black cat who would later be named Kaypuh, was found by the campus plumbing department. Soon after, a nest made of shredded bits of cardboard containing three more tiny kittens was discovered in a storage unit by KPU first aid attendant Sandra Hoffman. “So then we kind of mobilized and said ‘okay, what are we going to do about this?’” says Hoffman. What followed was a coordinated effort to trap and house all five. So as not to separate the kittens from their mother, they were left alone and monitored until staff could trap all five together. They spent the summer housed in a habitat made from four sections of fence donated by Yellow Fence rentals. Furnishings, toys, food, and litter were all

(Submitted photo/TFN Staff)

The Tsawwassen Farm School is home to the four-legged, two-legged, and winged. Chickens are brought up there for fresh eggs, and pigs are raised for their meat. The latter is potentially controversial— and frankly, it does come as a shock that KPU produces its own pork—but the farmers assure that the pigs live out long lives on large, lush pastures amongst other piggies. “[The pigs are] for educational purposes, for the community, for students, also just for being able to provide good quality, pasture-raised pork for our community members, students, and staff,” says Daniel Garfinkel, a student at the Tsawwassen Farm School. “We have an opendoor policy and we’re really proud of the way we raise our animals. We do want to showcase them and we do want to show them off.” “The bottom line is that if we’re taking business away from industrial farming

and the terrible agriculture that’s going on within farms and industrial livestock—if we’re encouraging a market that respects the products more and respects the meat more and the animal’s life from beginning to end, I think it’s a fantastic thing.” Bees have also arrived at the Farm School, but entirely by chance. One day, in a beautiful twist of fate, they just showed up there. Farmers have been taking care of them ever since. The dream is to harvest and sell their honey in the future, but for now, they’re more concerned about keeping the hive healthy and prosperous. People love the farmstock in Tsawwassen both for economic and personal reasons. Community members appreciate them for their products and their friendly presence, and often pay visits to the chickens and pigs.

of KPU

The Agriculture department at the Langley campus keeps a few furry feline employees on staff. The department has adopted several barn cats to act as guardians of the greenhouse, hunting down and taking care of any rodents that might otherwise decimate the department’s crops. These guys do their job remarkably well, ensuring that this feature will have no section on the Langley rats. When they’re not busy hunting down and murdering Mickey and Minnie, the Langley mousers like to be lay around the greenhouse, visit with the students, and even occasionally take a ride around

(Submitted photo/Sandra Hoffman)

donated by Costco as well as members of the community. Kaypuh, the black one, is “kinda the baby of the litter. He’s a little more shy but when he starts to play he really plays,” says Hoffman. Richmond, the largest of the four, is also the friendliest. “He’s a real mama’s boy,” says Hoffman. “If momma’s upset he’ll go into the nest with her and purr like mad.” Surrey is the smallest. “She’s a very lovely girl,” say’s Hoffman. “Probably the shyest of the litter.” Lastly we have Langley. “Her fur is like velvet,” says Hoffman. “For some reason it’s really short and dense.” The four kittens have captured the hearts of everyone on campus, with students regularly visiting during class breaks. Kaypuh, Langley, Surrey, and Richmond all went to their new homes to early this month. “We found four wonderful homes, and the families have all been here regularly for the time they’ve been in the habitat,” says Hoffman “So there’s that connection.” Mom, still the loner type despite the time around her human caretakers, has been spayed and released back onto the campus grounds. Next time you’re on the Cloverdale campus keep an eye out and you might just spot Clover skulking around her territory.

on the forklifts. Despite having the freedom to come and go as they please, the cats rarely leave their campus home for long, due to the benefits they receive as KPU employees. “These are spoiled cats,” Lori Karr, a member of the educational support for Langley, told The Runner last September. “They own the place. They go to the vet, they’ve got all their shots, they get good food and fresh water every day, they have catnip growing outside, and they get toys and treats. Who wouldn’t want to live here?”

U Who would have thought that a sterile lab would be chock full of life? Biology lab technician for the Surrey campus, James Callander, said in an email Oct. 7 that they “currently have a variety of animals on display such as crested geckos, Japanese fire-bellied toads, a Chilean rose tarantula, purple pincher hermit crabs, an axolotl, hissing cockroaches, walking sticks, prickly walking sticks, planaria, a variety of freshwater fish, [and] beetles.” A visit to the lab revealed that they are all there, healthy, and as interesting as they sound. The crested geckos—a couple known for biting at each other’s tails—were friendly and curious enough to crawl around on their handler, and Gladys the tarantula wasn’t nearly as scary as she looks. The hissing cockroaches lived up to their name when taken out of their enclosure, but the rest of the creatures were relatively quiet and inactive. And rest assured, none of them are physically experimented on. “If you’re going to have animals in a lab, you should take care of them properly,” says Callander, who has been working on improving their cages since he started at KPU. “[Having them in the lab] is a little bit more exciting than a DNA model or something like that. It just really engages the students.”

The Cloverdale campus regularly plays host to guests of the equine variety. On any given school day horses can be found in the campus’s custom farrier workshop. These majestic creatures come to KPU from clients around the Lower Mainland to work with KPU students. While in the care of KPU students and staff the horse’s safety and comfort is priority number one, according to Gerard Laverty, an instructor for the program. Laverty says that the workshop has the dual purpose of being a space for learning and work as well as for housing animals. With the students’ work area in the middle of the barn, the horses have the perimeter to themselves, well away from any work related hazards. Each horse has an individual space to move around in and receives ample water every four hours. The use of restraints, drugs and force on the horses is strictly banned in the program. Students entering the program must have at least two years experience working with horses. All these practices are to ensure that the animals are safe and happy during their time at KPU.

In a perfect world, animals would roam freely on KPU campuses and therapy pets would be around every day. Until then, keep this guide close and contact The Runner if you see any friends to add to our ever-growing list of fantastic beasts.

haunted happenings on campus Alyssa Laube Staff Writer

Joseph Keller Web Editor

Pumpkins are being picked, slasher ﬂicks are being watched, and KPU is gearing up for a hair-raising Halloween. There’s enough going on during October this year to get any student ready for the 31st, both in body and in spirit. And while you won’t ﬁnd much genuine horror here, there will be warm and welcoming get-togethers for people of all ages organized across the Lower Mainland. Fortunately for students—many of which whom may,

like myself, DIY their costumes this year to save a buck—most of them are free. If you want to stay on-campus for your fall festivities, there are plenty of options to choose from. Sports fans, gamers, ﬁlm buffs, and thrill seekers should be able to ﬁnd something that suits their scary needs on one of the campuses before November begins.

John Rupert Rupert's Ominous Office

The Annual Conjuring “I conjure thee thou spirit!” Every October for the last few years a class of KPU english students has undergone a right of passage by participating in an annual demon conjuring as part of one of John Rupert’s English classes. This year the class is “Satan, Sex and Demonics”, a 1202 course. The demonstration is always a favorite among students who aren’t scared away by the prospect of bringing demonic horror down upon our unsuspecting campus. Rupert stresses that the class is merely a demonstration, and that he wouldn’t be able to put his students in any real danger even if he wanted to. To conjure a real demon would take nine days of careful preparation, he says, so performing the complete procedure would be as irresponsible as it would be time consuming. The part of the ritual that is performed for the class is the actual evocation. The process takes about 80 minutes and involves addressing the demon by name, evoking the name of God—for protection—and letting the demon know what the summoner wants it to do. “Because it takes 80 minutes to do, the

tension kind of mounts,” says Rupert. “By the time we get to that step people are sitting straighter, getting a little bit nervous.” When the time comes to summon the demon, Rupert says that the summoner must speciﬁcally demand that it appear in a “fair and comely human shape.” He says that the summoner can make the demon appear in any shape he chooses, but if he doesn’t specify it will appear in any shape it likes. You don’t want that. Since Rupert has never done the complete ritual, he has yet to actually bring any malicious beings onto the Surrey campus— as far as we know. Despite the fact that Rupert is—pretty— sure that the ritual will not summon something that will follow his student around for the rest of their lives, he says that it’s not uncommon for students to be apprehensive about the whole deal. “This is the one class that some students really don’t want to be there for,” says Rupert. “Sometimes it’s for religious reasons but more often it’s just that they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The yearly summoning of a demon isn’t the only annual halloween tradition put on at KPU by John Rupert. Students entering Rupert’s office will be greeted by an elaborate display of horror and grotesquery. Each year he decorates the office to rival Fright Night and the nearby Potter’s Haunted House. Work on the display begins mid-September and the demonic decor stays up through October. “Halloween is my time of year,” says Rupert. “It’s my Christmas. [decorating the office] is a labor of love for me, so it really helps me put myself into the frame of mind and helps bring me into the spirit of the season.” The office is filled with severed heads, creepy clowns, and all manners of monstrosities. Cobwebs cover shelves containing strange and macabre literature, including a copy of Necronomicon, novels by H.P The Necronomicon Lovecraft and other horror masters, and texts on arcane rituals and demonology. These texts aren’t strictly speaking part of the display—rather, they’re Rupert’s typical reading material. The office is located at Fir 312 and the display will remain up throughout the month.

Birds and Pumpkins You can’t have Halloween without pumpkins, and Active KSA invited students to pick them on a trip to Westham Island on Oct. 21 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. They will also be visiting the Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Delta, where they’ll search for and admire avians from chickadees to cranes. To go on the trip, all you need is $10— on top of the price of buying your own pumpkins—and to register beforehand. For non-students, that price gets hiked up to $25. It’s suggested that pumpkin pickers and birdwatchers bring a reﬁllable water bottle, snacks, running shoes or boots, and activewear before taking the shuttle from the Surrey campus to Richmond’s.

Return of the Gaming Dead The Kwantlen Gaming Guild will be holding its second annual Halloween bash in the Surrey Conference Centre two days before Halloween and, of course, it’s expected to be a gamer’s paradise. There will be a few horror games at the Return of the Gaming Dead, but for the most part, the Guild will be setting up some of the classics. Between 11:00 am and 7:00 pm, card games, board games, and Smash Bros will be laid out and ready for action, along with a costume contest and free junk food.

A late night decapitation in Potters’ House of Horrors. (Louis Luzuka)

Halloween Volleyball

Library Movie Marathon

The international ofﬁce will once again be holding their annual pumpkin carving contest on October 30 in cedar 1140 on the Surrey campus and the Richmond campus rotunda from 1 pm to 4 pm. Participants can register online. Those who register while supplies last will be provided with pumpkins, while late sign ups are welcome to bring their own. Prizes are on offer for the best carvings and participants are encouraged to come in costume.

The administration ran a poll on the university’s website earlier this month asking students to vote on their favorite horror movies. The three winning titles will be shown at the Surrey, Richmond, and Langley libraries on Halloween from 10 am to 4 pm. Any horror buffs on campus are encouraged to come and enjoy some free popcorn and macabre classics. There’s not much time left before it’s the eeriest day of the year, and KPU is stufﬁng its schedule full of fun events. Come out and enjoy the creepiness before Christmas takes over!

(Nat Mussell)

12 opinions

Crime and Punishment and Creep Catchers The pitfalls of vigilante justice Braden Klassen| Contributor It seems that there has always been a special place for the extrajudicial vigilante in our culture. From Batman to Dirty Harry to that masked dude from V for Vendetta, popular narratives have run wild with gritty, vindictive anti-heroes that endeavor to take justice into their own hands for better or worse. It’s a tempting idea for many. There are people out there who have taken the role of the vigilante straight from the comic books and are trying it on as a real-life vocation. Creep Catchers is an online Canadian organization of people who track down internet predators with the intentions of confronting them in reality, a la Chris Hansen. Their intention seems to be that once the creep is caught, the affair can be turned over to the police and the suspect can be subjected to the full force of the law. Recently, however, the Surrey-based chapter of Creep Catchers ended up discovering that one of the pedo-

philes they had set up was in fact an ofﬁcer of the RCMP. Justice may be blind, but it still seems to have a sense of irony. For a while, the group was able to enjoy a bit of fame for their success, and it seemed that their operations really were making a difference and dealing out justice in a small part for society as a whole. And then they

took it too far. At the end of September, Darrell Berekoff had his picture posted to the Creep Catcher’s Facebook page. The picture was posted by Ryan Laforge, the founder of the Surrey side of the group, in an attempt to discern whether or not Berekoff had ﬁt the description of one of the predators they had caught on camera in the summer.

Stop Sending in the Clowns

(Nicole Kwit)

Members of the Facebook group accused Berekoff of being a pedophile and began to harass him, unaware that he was actually innocent, and that the similarities were entirely coincidental. Berekoff and his family received death threats over the phone and online, and his reputation had been severely poisoned, perhaps irreversibly.

Laforge has since apologized, somewhat dismissively, and maintains that the group will continue doing what they do. Unfortunately, it looks like Berekoff has been reduced to an involuntary test-subject in a social experiment on mob justice gone wrong. In the court of public opinion, the scales of justice are never fairly balanced. But isn’t that the point? Mob justice and vigilantism seem to be symptomatic of society’s intolerance for the perceived failures and inefﬁciency of the traditional legal justice system, and in a perfect world, where pedophiles and bank robbers and war criminals were getting their just dues, people wouldn’t feel it necessary to supplement their own brand of homemade justice. It’s misguided, messy, and out of control, and until our criminal justice system catches up to society’s expectations, I’m afraid we’ll keep seeing vengeful guys like Laforge taking matters into their own hands. We’ll keep seeing innocent guys like Berekoff getting caught in the crossﬁre.

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Intense horror is the only appropriate emotional response to freaky clown sightings

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Recent reports from the U.S., Canada, and Europe detail a disturbing rise in both the number and creepiness of so-called evil clown sightings. Most reports feature misplaced clowns— many modeled after Pennywise, the clown from Stephen King’s It—posing as part of some bizarre scare tactic or hoax, possibly in the hopes of garnering YouTube views. I argue that understanding this social and psychological phenomenon is at least equally as worthwhile as banning it. To begin, let there be no mistake: evil clowns are disgusting. They are not merely creepy, but unsettling, potentially violent, and frightening to look at. While clowns—as mythologized jokers, tricksters, and pranksters— have been around for nearly as long as history has been recorded, it feels like they have only recently become synonymous with horror. However, according to David Kiser, a former clown and now-director of talent for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, “clowns have always had a dark side.” It is this dark side—a penchant, perhaps, for lunacy and maniacal behavior lurking beneath the mounds

of makeup and unsightly arched brows—that accompanies the recent sightings. The dark side of clowns inspires terror, according to William Ian Miller, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. Our emotional reaction to clowns is seldom unaccompanied by disgust. We often use contempt, loathing, horror, and hatred when describing our immediate reaction to creepy-looking clowns. Both the relationship and difference between fear and disgust is explored by Miller in his 1997 book, The Anatomy of Disgust. In it, he argues that the reason for the emotions are so often paired with one another because the two are often intensely co-experienced. Intense disgust, Miller argues, almost always invites fear. This is why experiences of pure, unadulterated fear are easier to remedy than disgust. While fear rapidly decays as it sends us ﬂeeing to safety, disgust seems to linger. It demands puriﬁcation, a cleansing of both mind and body, according to Miller. Fear, like disgust, is among the most strongly unpleasant emotions one can experience. The uncanny disturbs us in a way that heightens the duration and invasiveness of fear and similar emotions, says Miller. The deformed fragility of evil clowns is nothing if not uncanny.

KPU Students Deserve Their Own Safety App Safety apps allow student users to report and be notified of dangerous or emergency situations in their area Melissa Pomerleau | Contributor In conjunction with AppArmor—a company that specializes in mobile safety apps—Capilano University, BCIT, Thompson Rivers University, and UBC Okanagan are among many post-secondary institutions worldwide that have established campus safety apps for their students. These apps are designed to interact with students and security ofﬁcers in a discreet and efﬁcient manner. Not only are they used for fast communication between the users and campus security, but also, the app provides a variety of information for the user. A full directory of security contact information, campus maps, and detailed instructions on what to do in various emergency situations are some of the features that safety apps provide. It’s a lot easier to open up an app than to Google your campus security phone number. Users are also a lot more likely to request a walk to their car via app rather than picking up the phone to make a call. It’s also likely that students noticing suspicious behaviour would be more inclined to report anonymous tips through the app than calling it in. The opportunity to report suspicious behaviour in a quick, anonymous way relieves people of the hassle or embarrassment of a false claim. GPS and location-tracking software paired with a one-touch feature allow for safety dispatch to precisely locate the individual’s whereabouts

(Celesta De Roo)

in the event of an emergency. Apps of this nature generally have a notification feature that allow security to notify users about any potential dangers across campus as they are reported and confirmed. The types of dangers a safety app can help alleviate include awareness of any possible threats, whether it be bears, sexual assaults on campus, or rampant gunmen. No safety concern is too small, and through the use of push notifications, users can become instantly aware of any potential threats. It’s not uncommon for campus security officers to offer safe walks to and from bus stops and parking

lots late at night. This app would facilitate and expand on those types of services, providing safety and security to both faculty and students across KPU. One challenge for KPU implementing this type of app is that there are four different campuses throughout the Lower Mainland. That means four different locations and four different sets of security contact information. While I don’t claim to be an app developer myself, I’m almost certain there is a way to create one app, usable across all campuses, without compromising safety. The alternative is designing four separate apps—one for each location.

UBC Okanagan has an app solely for their location, and there has been talk of UBC Vancouver coming out with their own app in the future. It wouldn’t be so unreasonable for KPU to have separate apps as well. However, students often attend classes on a few different campuses at KPU, so there would be a beneﬁt to having one app that works well across all four campus locations. Students and faculty spend a lot of time on campus, and KPU should provide them with access to this type of app. It provides a sense of security on a campus-wide level and lets students and faculty know that the university takes their safety seriously.

Sustainability is not a spectrum In a disappointing move that contradicts their earlier promises of championing environmental sustainability, the federal government has given their authoritative approval of the Paciﬁc NorthWest Liquiﬁed Natural Gas project, a $36-billion natural gas liquefaction and export facility that would play a role in the processing and overseas exportation of gas produced by Progress Energy Canada Limited. In doing so, they have failed the portion of the electorate that voted for them in the hopes that the party’s promises would manifest in policy changes that support the protection of the environment, as well the rights of Aboriginal people. According to PNW’s website, the project is expected to create between 600 and 700 permanent on-site and “spin off” jobs, as well as over 4,000 construction jobs. This construction is to take place around and on top of ecologically sensitive regions on Lelu Island, an island just south of Prince

How to Green up your clean up Melissa Pomerleau| Contributor

Federal Liberals Let Down Their Electorate with Support for Pacific NorthWest LNG project Braden Klassen| Contributor

opinions 13

Rupert, and has thus earned the project condemnation from environmental advocates and First Nations groups from all across Canada. The most vocal First Nations opponent is the Lax Kw’alaams Band who have title claim to the area and have been ﬁghting the project for years. In 2014, they sent an open letter to Kenneth Howes, PNW’s project assessment manager, expressing their frustration with the process. “We continue to have problems with PNW failing to direct relevant correspondence to our EA (environmental assessment) contacts as explicitly requested. We cannot understand why PNW continues to fail to follow our explicit communication protocol for their project […]. Intelligent conservation design addressing impacts would require an in-depth understanding of the Skeena system, which PNW does not have […]. It is abundantly clear the PNW project will offend Lax Kw’alaams’ aboriginal title and rights interests,” the letter reads. In a CBC article posted on Oct. 7,

Canada’s Federal Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna, said, “I am conﬁdent—with the 190 legally binding and scientiﬁcally determined conditions—that we will address the most important environmental impacts to ensure this project proceeds in the most sustainable manner possible.” The problem that this kind of doublespeak glosses over is that the entire concept of environmental sustainability is fundamentally binary. Nothing can be “more or less” sustainable than something else; it either is or it isn’t. Sustainability is like affordability in that it’s a condition, rather than a spectrum. Saying “I almost have enough money for x” is functionally equivalent to saying “I don’t have enough money for x.” You either have enough money, or you don’t. Period. The long-term reliance on burning fossil fuels for energy is not sustainable—the LNG project is not sustainable, and in my opinion, trying to tell people that an incontrovertibly unsustainable project is trying to pro-

ceed “in the most sustainable manner possible” is intentionally misleading, and an insult to Canadians’ intelligence. An excerpt from the Liberals’ 2015 platform manifesto, A New Plan for a Strong Middle Class, reads: “We will protect our communities from the challenges of climate change and grow our economy by making signiﬁcant new investments in green infrastructure. We will fulﬁll our G20 commitment and phase out subsidies for the fossil fuel industry over the medium-term.” In this context, the approval of the PNW project is a politically antithetical act that contravenes everything the Liberals committed to by making these statements, and their aversion to publicizing this decision (after delaying it for months) indicates that they were very well aware of the hypocrisy. Perhaps the phrase “sunny ways” wasn’t supposed to be a reference to a future of illuminating policy changes, but was rather a clever foreshadowing of the party’s inclination towards blinding distraction politics.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that long exposure to chemicals can be hazardous to your health. So why is there an ever-growing list of chemicals present in all your standard household cleaners and other common household items? Here’s the kicker: when it comes to cleaners, you don’t even need chemicals to get something clean. Sure, chemicals can make the job easier, but easiness might not be worth the high cost, unnecessary waste that will remain in our landﬁlls for hundreds of years to come, and increased exposure to disease and illness. Vegetable oil—like olive oil— has long been used in the making of soaps, commonly known as castile soap. These should pretty much be your best friend if you’re looking to be a more sustainable in your cleaning. The great thing about liquid castile soap is it’s often concentrated, meaning you have the freedom to dilute it for whatever your needs may be. Add some essential oils to the mix and you’ve got yourself a delightful disinfectant ready to replace store brand spray cleaners. You’ve probably already got some baking soda in your kitchen. It’s an effective stain remover on fabrics, carpet, or furniture, and works wonders to deodorize rugs and compost bins. Another kitchen staple, vinegar, makes for a highly effective bathroom and glass cleaner. Dilute vinegar with water before using and your house won’t smell like vinegar for days on end. Mix the two together and you’ve got a homemade volcanic eruption and drain cleaner. Of course the argument in favour of the continual use of harmful chemicals and toxins in storebought cleaners comes from the fact that it is too small an amount to have any effect on a human being, and it’s just easier to buy a readymade solution than mixing your own. In reality, it’s not worth the risk, and you most likely already have most of the items to make green products. Yes, it’s easier said than done, but you’ll save money, do your part to save the planet, and reduce exposure to hazardous chemicals. For more information on how exactly to use these types of ingredients as household cleaners, visit David Suzuki’s Queen of Green blog for measurements and recipes.

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Artist Spotlight: Ram Hoss Seven years of songwriting by Jordon Hossack Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer It was late morning in Jasper, British Columbia, and the mist still hadn’t burned off from under the sun when I ﬁrst met Jordon Hossack for a meal of french fries and tequila. He arrived a little late, wearing a wide, toothy smile and a backpack full of CDs. His mind and mouth were full of stories to tell, and before a half hour had passed, we had learned about his journey to Jasper, musical adventures and misadventures, and plans to return to Vancouver, where he now resides. Hossack has a big personality, which makes it puzzling that he would be staying in such a tiny place as Jasper. The municipality has a population of about 5,000 people, and other than going for long walks in the forest and working through the day, there isn’t much to do there. In fact, it was a series of unfortunate events that drove him up into the mountains, where he brieﬂy settled down to wait for the smoke to clear. Stuck between the snow-capped crests of the Rockies, he got a job at a local hotel and dedicated himself to creating music under his solo project, Ram Hoss. Ram Hoss has been seven years

Jordon Hossack smokes a cigarette in Victory Square, Downtown Vancouver. (Alyssa Laube)

in the making, with about 250 songs to show for it. All of them are clearly and distinctly his, thanks to his trademark hoppy, eclectic guitar playing and light, raspy vocals. Once you hear it, that sound is difﬁcult to forget. It would be nearly impossible to listen to everything Ram Hoss has released since it was born, and it’s stylistically diverse, but there’s always something new to look forward to from the project. Hossack already

has four new albums planned for this season alone. The ﬁrst to come will be tV, featuring “a bunch of crazy trippy electronic and full band songs”, followed by Candy: The Juiciest Jams of FNC Vol. 1, Candy: The Juiciest Jams of FNC Vol. 2, and Cavell—named after a mountain in Jasper National Park. His hyper-productivity comes from Hossack’s pure passion for music, which he sees as “a meditation on sincerity.”

“You try to ﬁnd the most sincere place in you and let it be free instead of letting the ego hold it up in a conﬁned space,” he says about his solo career. “[Ram Hoss] lets me get in touch and push that part of myself, helping that part of myself grow. When you can do that in solitude you can then bring it into a place where you’re doing it with your friends and get stronger in that atmosphere.” Indeed, Hossack will be collaborating with other musicians in Van-

couver this year to bring some of his Ram Hoss material to life with a full band. He will also be playing shows across the city. As well as focusing on sincerity, Ram Hoss revolves around testing and pushing boundaries. He does that with his songwriting, crafting lyrics about sex, religion, and other taboo subjects. “I don’t like how cut and dry things are. I don’t like the good and bad and right and wrong and white and black of things, and I try to unite them,” he says. “I want people to forgive themselves and I want to show them parts of nature in humans that they might ﬁnd trouble with in themselves, and show them that it’s okay.” “I guess, in that way, it’s sort of sarcastic and ironic. It’s a little bit instigating,” he says. “But part of that is showing them that there’s nothing they can do about who I am and nothing they can do about who they are.” It’s clear as a listener that Ram Hoss’ music is honest. Musically, it’s only a man and his guitar, often recorded on an iPhone, rarely manipulated. Lyrically, as demonstrated, he has nothing to hide and holds nothing sacred. Ram Hoss is an extension of Jordon Hossack’s personality, and listening to it feels deeply personal for exactly that reason.

Going Global: The Philippines President Duterte pivots towards China Tristan Johnston |Coordinating Editor Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte made a name for himself when he called U.S. President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch,” and said that he didn’t like Americans. It was little surprise that Obama cancelled their meeting the day of his comments. Duterte might appear controversial from the outside, given his references to Hitler and calls for the execution of drug addicts, but he’s in fact extremely popular in his home country. Though polling in the Philippines is dubious due to limitations in the country and the inconsistency between Social Weather Survey and Pulse Asia, data would suggest that Duterte has a 76 per cent approval rating. Higher than the peak ratings of Aquino (71) and Estrada (69). He currently also has a low disapproval rating at 11 per cent. Duterte has been especially controversial for a democratically elected leader, one that some might describe as Trump-like, given his overly casual tone when he speaks and tendency to insult people. Unlike Trump, Duterte has been in politics for a long time, though like Trump, much of his experience can be characterized by ugly behavior.

Duterte has been known for taking the classic “tough on crime” talking point to another level when, during his time as mayor of Davao City, he supported the actions of violent vigilante groups. In July 2005, he said that “summary execution of criminals remains the most effective way to crush kidnapping and illegal drugs.” It seems that Duterte is sending the Philippines towards a China pivot. The president is calling for the U.S. to remove troops from their island, and Duterte is saying more and more nice things about China and Russia. Some might argue that with Duterte’s authoritarian leadership style, it would make sense for him to seek closer ties with other authoritarian governments. Russia and China would both beneﬁt from a new ally in the South China Sea. Russia is always happy to shift the balance of power towards them and away from the U.S., especially in a region where they have almost no representation. China would be happy if this meant being one step closer to becoming the local hegemon. Historically speaking though, this is a strange move on Duterte’s part, given the fact that the Chinese military has been a problem for the Philippines by raising several man-made military islands close to their islands.

PHILIPPINES - President Rodrigo R. Duterte shows a copy of a diagram showing the connection of high level drug syndicates operating in the country during a press conference at Malacañang on July 7, 2016. (KING RODRIGUEZ/Presidential Photographers Division)

China considers much of the South China Sea to be their territory, despite an international court ruling saying that the “nine dash line” has no legal basis. The Philippines has also been a long-time strategic ally of the U.S., receiving support over the years in the form of training, intelligence trading, and billions of dollars in excess

hardware. This is why it’s so perplexing for Duterte to suggest that the bilateral relationship with the United States is no longer beneﬁting them. Either way, the Chinese are quite sunny about Duterte’s friendliness towards China. “The clouds are fading away. The sun is rising over the horizon, and will shine beautifully on the new chapter of bilateral rela-

tions,” Zhao Jianhua told a reception in Manila. It should go without saying that the U.S. will be frustrated. They have maintained strong relationships with South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and several other countries in the region for the purposes of keeping China in check, as well as protecting their vital trade routes.

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Sudoku SUDOKU No. 159

Easy

Previous solution - Very Hard

6 7 3 4 8 2 3 6

6 7

7 3

2 8 1 7 3 4

2 The solutions will be published here in the next issue. Previous solution - Very Hard

2 5 7 1 9 4 6 9 3 1 8 7 6 5 Previous solution - Medium 8 6 4 2 5 3 7 4 3 7 2 8 1 6 9 5 6 51 4 52 88 93 1 46 93 7 87 5 22 54 6 4 93 1 83 17 51 9 83 67 1 9 42 2 78 36 7 8 1 9 2 6 3 5 4 5 38 9 27 91 24 6 74 38 5 3 24 5 94 23 16 7 18 86 9 35 2 95 21 4 7 86 7 16 49

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9 5 74

6 4 9 5 3 7 8 1 2

8 4 9 2 6 5 1 7 3

3 2 1 7 9 4 6 5 8

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Horoscopes

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When there’s no more room in hell the dead will move to the outer suburbs like Surrey and Abbotsford.

Here’s the plan: you and some of your friends get good and loaded at the bar, then head on up to that goddamned ziggurat and show that warlock who runs this town!

Taurus Apr 20 - May 20 Don’t buy into that bullshit, anti-witch propaganda this week.

Leo Jul 24 - Aug 23 Philosophy is odious and obscure; Both law and physic are for petty wits; Divinity is basest of the three, Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile. ‘Tis magic that hath ravished you.

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 22 That man standing before a gaping vortex to Hell holding his bleeding eyeballs says he’s got something to show you. It would be rude to say no!