The Runner Volume 9, Issue 7

Volume 09 // Issue 07

News KSA to Advocate for Open Education

R

December 06 2016

Culture Stand Up Comedy Nights Come to Grassroots

Opinion A Look Back at the History of Kinder Morgan and KPU

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02 Table of contents

staff

News|KSA to Campaign for Open Education Resources

“What we want to do with this campaign is really put the information out there,” says KSA VP Student Services Tanvir Singh. “We think [adopting open education resources] is a no-brainer for both students and faculty.”

Coordinating Editor Tristan Johnston editor@runnermag.ca

culture|Stand Up, Open Mic Nights Come to Grassroots

KSA events coordinator Matt Hunt says the events are aimed at getting more people into the Grassroots cafe, which has had difficulty pulling students to its corner of the campus.

Managing Editor

Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca

Production Manager

Features|Where to Study Abroad in 2017

Danielle George production@runnermag.ca

Every year, KPU students have the choice of going away for school. There are annual exchanges to destinations all over the world, and although they can be pricey, they’re always an option for those looking to globe trot while getting an education.

Art Director

Scott McLelland art@runnermag.ca

Photo Editor

Kier-Christer Junos photos@runnermag.ca @kierjunos

Opinions |Teachers & Students Benefit from Smaller Classes

Staff Writer

Having fewer students in class would allow teachers to focus more on each individual child, understand their educational needs, and tailor instructions accordingly. This extra investment would help students that are struggling to learn.

Alyssa Laube staff@runnermag.ca

Web Editor

14

Joseph Keller web@runnermag.ca

Operations Manager

COLUMNS|The History between Kinder Morgan and KPU

Scott Boux office@runnermag.ca 778.565.3801

A turbulent history exists between Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and Kwantlen Polytechnic University, one that began in 2015 with a $300,000 bribe.

#FeatureTweets

#BestPhoto

Rajiv Jhangiani @thatpsychprof I am very proud of my students @KwantlenU. Enthusiastic, hardworking, balancing all kinds of life demands/challenges. They inspire me.

Alexander @Al_SportsLover The cheesecake was pretty good, though. Look how cute it was. #kpu @KwantlenU

KPU Ambassadors @kpu_ambassadors Two sunny days in a week? We’re being spoiled by Mother Nature. #kwantlenu #novemberrain Daniel Chai @IamDanielChai One of the best ways to celebrate a job well done is with pizza. Moving Day? Hot Show? Final Exam? Pizza.

Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778.565.3801 www.runnermag.ca Vol. 09, Issue no. 7 December 06 2016 ISSN# 1916 8241

Contributors Braden Klassen Calvin Borghardt Mel Pomerleau Nat Mussell

Rosaura Ojeda Shandis Harrison Tommy Nguyen Yuta Anonuevo

Cover

Yuta is an emerging artist working with traditional mediums such as gouache, ink, markers, and watercolours. His subjects often dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and other related genres. He’s self-taught in the visual arts, which he’s been working in since early childhood. He currently resides in B.C. and is trying to achieve financial independence through his art.

You can contact him as YutaCustoms on Artstation, Reddit or YouTube.

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

Trudeau’s political credit card is maxed out

Women hold up signs protesting Kinder Morgan during a celebration on top of Burnaby Mountain in Feb. 2016, a day after courts lifted an improperly placed injunction line before a drill testing site at the foot of the mountain. (Kier-Christer Junos)

Tristan Johnston |Coordinating Editor In the moments after the announcement that the Kinder Morgan pipeline project had received governmental approval, leader of the opposition, Rona Ambrose, said that Trudeau and the Liberal Party had “run out of political capital.”

She’s right.

A friend of mine pointed out that, in some ways, Trudeau approving the pipeline is worse than Harper doing the same thing, because Harper’s approval would have been fully expected. Trudeau was supposed to be different.

The Liberals ran on promises that they would be better than the Conservatives at addressing climate change, and those of us in B.C. were happy

to know that Trudeau had spent a lot of his time in Vancouver as a public school teacher and snowboarding instructor on Grouse Mountain. It would stand to reason that he, of all people, would respect the natural beauty of the province.

Now, plenty of environmental and indigenous activists have noted that the approval of this pipeline will be extremely dangerous to our dwindling population of Orcas. Only 80 are believed to remain. It’s not even the pipeline or the threat of an oil spill that would cause this, but the noise from increased tanker traffic which will ruin their ability to communicate with each other. This also means that the Strait of Georgia could be full of tankers ruining the view, causing damage to our tourism industry.

Let’s continue to assume that a

leak will never happen, and that everything will work exactly the way it’s supposed to. Even if no tankers leak, tar sands oil is easily the worst type of oil to extract. While Canada does have one of the highest oil reserves in the world, unlike Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, we can’t just stick a straw into the ocean floor and suck.

Tar sands need to be fracked, and to get it to market, it needs to be either put on a truck—which is horribly inefficient—or hurled down a pipeline.

This particular oil is thick, so it needs to have chemicals added to the mix to flow through the pipe properly, only for them to be removed when it gets to the refinement phase.

What’s worse for Canada, the price of oil needs to be very, very high for this to be worth it, and world markets have proven that oil is no longer

safe to bet on. With China embracing nuclear and solar power and phasing out coal, and with India building the largest solar power station in the world, Canada is beginning to make an ass of itself.

This is especially painful for indigenous communities. While Trudeau signalled that he would be better than Harper, the improvement seems marginal at best. In northern communities, food is so expensive that many stick to traditional fishing practices, but pipelines can screw that up. Tsleil-Waututh First Nation has already said that they will seek legal action over the pipeline approval, and they likely remember Trudeau’s statement that “governments grant permits, communities grant permission” from the UN. What Ambrose means by “political capital” is that, if Trudeau had made good on several other promises, this pipeline approval wouldn’t have been seen as such a big deal. They’re also losing political capital to election reform. Even though the all-party electoral reform committee has recommended a referendum and a new proportional representation voting system, the five Liberal members have said that the recommendations are “too radical,” which is especially absurd given Trudeau’s promise that 2015 was going to be the last election under first-past-the-post.

The Liberals were elected on the backs of people who were tired of the Conservatives, and left-leaning NDP voters who realized that a split vote could have meant an additional session of Harper. They were also elected on the shoulders of indigenous voters who were happy to hear the leader of a major party acknowledging them and the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. If they want to keep even a minority government in 2019, they have to dig themselves out of the hole they’ve made.

KSA Approves 2017 Budget, Slight Increase to Fees Per Inflation

News Briefs

Calvin Borghardt| Contributor The Kwantlen Student Association’s budget for next year has been approved, with a few changes from the previous year.

“One of the biggest changes starting next fall [is that] we’re going to be reflecting inflation towards fees,” says Ramini. “So there’s going to be a 2 per cent increase in all the fees per the increase in CPI.” CPI or Consumer Price Index is an index of the variation in prices paid by typical consumers for retail goods and other items. It’s used for tracking inflation rates, and usually increases by 2 per cent each year as inflation continues to rise.

“It’s an inflationary measure that

gets determined by [Statistics Canada] every year to determine how things increase in cost,” says Jeremy McElroy, general manager for the KSA. Students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University have previously approved the current rate of student fees for various services. This vote took place in the “Year One” referendum in 2009, when students agreed to allow the fee to increase over time.

According to Ramini, the KSA has been collecting $0.10 per credit of the allotted $0.25 per credit for various activities. These services include: Reboot, Advocacy, Peer Support, and START Volunteer.

As of this year, the KSA has decided to increase the student fees to the allotted $0.25, which will raise the total amount students pay by

roughly $1.00 per course.

According to McElroy, fees are only allowed to increase by a maximum of 15 per cent annually. As a result, the fees increased gradually over the years as the KSA offered their services to a greater number of students.

“All the fees were started at a base line and the idea was that they would increase over time as the programs came online,” McElroy says.

Though the 2016 budget saw a cut to clubs funding, there are no such cuts in next year’s budget. According to Ramini, the KSA has managed to balance the budget for clubs so that they don’t need to draw from their reserve in the upcoming year.

“It’s a great budget,” says Ramini.

What’s Happening this week

Dec 6

Winter Get Together

KPU International is hosting a get together on the Surrey and Richmond campuses to celebrate the end of the year. There will be games, entertainment, and even prizes! Bring your friends, or come by yourself and meet new people!

12 - 2, Surrey and Richmond campuses, free.

Dec

9 - 11

Queer Voices at KPU

The perennial holiday classic, The Nutcracker, is being performed at the Main Stage of the Surrey Arts Centre over three days. Presented by Royal City Youth ballet, the production is sure to delight the senses and stoke the imagination.

Various times, Surrey Arts Centre, $40.

Dec 11 Sass Class

Army of Sass—a dance training and performance program for women of all levels—is offering a free sass class for those interested in gaining confidence and skills on the dance floor. Sign up in advance to learn how to sass away the competition.

12:30 - 1:30, Army of Sass Surrey, Free.

Dec 14

Tea and Treats Social

The last Tea and Treats Social of the year will be held on the 14th. These get togethers, jointly hosted by KPU Counseling and KPU International, encourage students to develop powerful strategies to thrive at KPU. Plus they have tea and treats!

1 - 2, Cedar 1175, free.

Dec 17 Snow Tubing

Active KSA is having one last blowout event before the winter holidays by inviting students to join them on a snow tubing adventure on Cypress Mountain. Wear something warm but flexible and be sure to thrash that tubular powder, brah!

12 - 2, Cypress Mountain, $25 for students.

04 News

KPU Tech Fitness Centre Now officially Open to Students and Faculty

Equipment at Cloverdale’s gym include a step mill, squat rack, bench press, and self-propelled treadmill Mel Pomerleau | Contributor Students and faculty at Kwantlen Polytechnic University are now officially welcome to visit KPU Tech’s new fitness centre on the Cloverdale campus. A former locker room owned by the Kwantlen Student Association, the space was converted into a fully operational fitness centre through a collaboration between the KSA and the university.

Although the grand opening for the centre was held on Nov. 15, the space has actually been in use for several weeks.

“We did a soft launch the second week of September,” says KPU Senior Director of Student Affairs Josh Mitchell. “It’s being well used, predominantly by students but also by staff.”

The gym is open from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday, using a paper sign in sheet to track usage. While there isn’t currently a faculty member present at all times—as there is on the Surrey campus fitness centre—the department is looking into a more efficient way for students to check in.

Among the equipment offered is a self-propelled treadmill. “You can do nine different running exercises on that treadmill, and it’s all propelled through your own body,” explains Codie Hindle, director of sports and recreation for KPU. “There’s no electronics. It’s a magnet. It’s on an incline, but you actually have to start

Natasha Lopes and Alan Davis cut the ribbon to commemorate the opening of KPU Tech’s Fitness Centre on Nov 15, 2016. (Mel Pomerleau)

moving for the machine to start moving. It simulates sprinting, sled workout, downhill running, uphill running, parachute training, and mountain climbers.”

“It’s not a large space, but you pick equipment that is conducive to a full body workout,” he says.

The gym also comes equipped with a multi-functional fitness trainer and slam ball attachment, step mill, squat rack, and bench press.

The official opening ceremony was complete with the cutting of a red ribbon by Alan Davis, president and vice-chancellor of KPU, and Natasha Lopes, VP student life and

women’s representative for the KSA. In a speech commemorating the event, Davis said that the university is “pleased that this facility is now available to [the] students, and we’re going to use this as an example. Obviously we have one in Surrey. We want to make sure that, eventually, we have them in Langley and Richmond, where they have some space but not the equipment.”

The KSA has been looking for a way to provide free fitness access to students at the Cloverdale campus since 2013, and have insisted that KPU make all on-campus fitness facilities free to students.

“Once we got fitness passes in the students’ hands we wanted to make sure [students and staff] could work out before, in between, or after class,” says Jeremy McElroy, general manager of the Kwantlen Student Association. “While we did put a low price point on the Steve Nash fitness passes, it is still a financial barrier for some students.”

“This is the first of hopefully many more facilities, both indoor and outdoor, that we’re going to be working with the university to try and make possible,” he says.

A fitness studio was opened at the Langley campus around the same

time as the Cloverdale launch, with student feedback requesting more fitness options. The studio—much like the one on the Richmond campus— provides fitness classes and a few exercise machines for student and staff use. The sports and recreation department is looking at ways to better utilize the space and meet the requests of students.

“We’re really excited to be able to provide this opportunity on each of our campuses now,” says Mitchell. “It’s a really important part of our focus going forward, and health and wellness is a really important part of our academic plan.”

KSA to Campaign for Open Education Resources The student association will encourage the use of free, open sourced textbooks Joseph Keller | Web Editor The Kwantlen Student Association is working on a campaign aimed at saving students hundreds of dollars per semester.

For many students, paying for a specific class or textbook is a barrier to achieving a post-secondary education. To address that, the KSA is raising awareness about a growing movement for free, open sourced textbooks and education.

“What we want to do with this campaign is really put the information out there,” says KSA VP Student Services Tanvir Singh, who is working on the campaign. “We think [adopting open education resources] is a no-brainer for both students and faculty.”

At its core, the open education movement is about reducing the obstacles between students and education. Open education textbooks are published under creative commons licenses by non-profit organisations

such as the B.C. Open Textbook Project and can be downloaded for free by students and instructors. Unlike traditional textbooks, open source textbooks can be modified and adapted for individual needs by instructors before they are assigned.

“For students, the cost savings are the biggest issue,“ says Rajiv Jhangiani, a psychology professor at KPU and senior open education fellow for BCcampus. “But for faculty, what’s really neat about this is that open education resources are really about pedagogical innovation.”

Singh and Jhangiani both point out that, according to research done by open education advocates, a significant portion of students don’t buy the required textbooks for their classes largely due to inability or unwillingness to foot the bill. Unsurprisingly, students who don’t buy textbooks were found to do worse than students who do. Jhangiani says that, over the last few years, textbook costs have skyrocketed at more than three times the rate of inflation, and that a

growing body of research shows that open education resources lead to an increase in course performance and knowledge retention.

“At KPU, we’ve found that our own students are performing better with a free textbook than with paying $200 for a textbook,” says Jhangiani.

According to Singh, a major focus of the KSA’s campaign is to bring attention to open education resources as a viable and preferable alternative to traditional, for-profit textbooks to both students and staff. To that end, the campaign will include information tables at KSA organised events beginning at the start of the spring semester. The KSA is also planning a social media campaign that will have students sharing photos of themselves holding signs with the amount they are spending on textbooks.

“We’re super excited for our campaign to start in January and we’re really hoping that students will be engaged,” says Singh. “We find that a lot of students are on board about what OERs are and what they stand

for.”

Open education has been growing in popularity ever since the provincial government mandated it in 2012. Currently, KPU offers more courses that utilize open education resources than any other university in B.C.. The only Canadian study on the efficacy of these resources was done at KPU last year.

While there are now hundreds of open sourced textbooks available for post-secondary courses in the province, there are still hundreds more with no open sourced option. The selection of open textbooks is particularly sparse for third and fourth year courses. Traditional textbook companies and their promotion machines also represent a challenge, as they employ great resources for marketing themselves to professors directly and recognize open education resources as a threat to their business model.

The biggest problem, however, is the need to raise awareness among students and faculty of the open education resources, which is where cam-

KSA VP Student Services Tanvir Singh is working on a campaign which aims to raise awareness of open education resources like online textbooks. (File photo)

paigns like the KSA’s come in.

“I think students often feel voiceless or powerless in these matters, but the truth is students have a lot of power,” says Jhangiani. “Especially when it comes to raising awareness for their own instructors.”

News 05

KSA Queer Representative Resigns Ryot “R” Jey steps down to improve his mental health Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer The Kwantlen Student Association Queer Students Representative has resigned from his position in order to focus on self-care, adding another title to the list of unfilled seats for KSA Council. Now former Queer Rep Ryot “R” Jey filled the position for eight months from April to November this year. He also became a director of anti-oppression with the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group last fall, but dropped that title in August for similar reasons.

“Because I was so focused on other things going on in my personal life, it was sort of hard to focus on the things that I needed to do as queer rep,” says Jey. Struggle in his personal life led Jey to his decision to resign, and he plans to spend more time focusing on his own health. Until he’s in “a better position to take on that lead,” he says that he doesn’t intend on returning to

(Scott McLelland)

the KSA anytime soon.

As written on the KSA’s website, “the Queer Students Constituency Representative is responsible for communicating the views and concerns of self-identified queer students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, to Council (the KSA’s board of directors). This representative ensures that the unique perspectives of queer students are considered in Council’s decision-making process.”

One of Jey’s main focuses in this role was creating safe spaces for trans people at KPU by celebrating pre-established events like the Transgender Day of Remembrance or creating events of his own for KPU students to partake in.

When Jey first ran for the KSA’s queer rep, he did so out of the belief that “it’s important that Kwantlen has someone who understands intersectionality and oppression of many marginalized groups within the LGBTQ+ community.” Even before he won, Jey was heavily involved with Pride Kwantlen and voluntarily stepped in to host meetings after the then-representative stepped down.

The queer students rep who preceded Jey also resigned, as did Kayla England the year before, though she now holds the position of mature students rep. Why it has been so difficult to steadily keep queer representatives within the KSA is up for speculation.

It could be the added stress of being publicly queer and criticized, having to host meetings, or simply feeling

Giant chess and jenga sets now available, more to come in spring Calvin Borghardt| Contributor

Former KSA Queer Representative Ryot “R” Jey pictured in Feb. 2015. Jey stepped down this year to improve his mental health. (File Photo)

under qualified for the job.

For Jey, the pressure to hide his true state of mind at work is part of what drove him to resign.

“In a way, there’s expectation to put on this role that you’re not struggling. I felt that, in a way, I was expected to [act like] what was going on in my personal life wasn’t impacting my professional life,” says Jey. “I’m not saying the KSA is shaming people for mental health struggles, but I think there’s an expectation that you

don’t show it or anything. You just do your job.”

Jey advises the next person who becomes the queer students constituency representative to “remember to focus on your mental health and your own well-being before you take on anything too big. Remember to focus on what’s going on around you— your job as well.”

Local Newspaper The Tyee Fundraising for Improved Provincial Election Coverage

B.C. publication hopes to raise $50,000 for voter’s guide to election Braden Klassen| Contributor The Tyee, an internet publication based in Vancouver, announced on Nov. 21 that they are fundraising for an upcoming election project called “BC in the Balance: The Voter’s Deep Guide to the 2017 Election.”

Their goal is to raise $50,000 through crowdfunding by Dec. 12, approximately five months before the expected election date in May. The purpose of the guide will be to inform B.C. voters about topics such as government transparency, education, housing, energy, and climate change. These topics are prioritized based on public-access polls that the publication has conducted on its website.

“In the lead-up to the 2017 B.C. election, we wanted the opportunity to take some time to do deep research and examine the record of the B.C. government,” says Jeanette Ageson,

Chief Revenue Officer of the Tyee.

“We’ve had one party in power for a decade and a half, so it’s a very long record. We think that before all of the horserace political coverage begins, it would be a good idea to take stock of what’s happened over the past 15 years.”

The money that the Tyee raises will be put towards things like overhead, editors’ time, and processing data journalism. They have a threeweek deadline to hit the $50,000 target, but they plan to continue with the project even if they do not reach that goal.

“We’ll still do something,” says Ageson, “But it won’t be to the extent that we had promised. If we don’t reach our goal, we’ll just need to prioritize which things are more important, and see what we can do and what we can’t do.”

The user survey on their site has consistently ranked “energy and climate change” as the topic they would

Clubs Can Borrow KSA Equipment Via Rental System

like most to see researched and reported on.

“It’s kind of a broad topic,” Ageson says. “We would probably look at which issues, specifically in B.C., are related to climate change. I expect that we would do some deep research into LNG, how that affects our climate budget or our carbon budget, or the carbon tax and how B.C. relates to it.”

The voter’s guide is intended to be informative and to provide deeper coverage of election issues, which Ageson says would differentiate it from some other media publications that may not have the funding available to spend on a similar project.

“What’s usually attractive in election coverage is the day-to-day horserace and reporting on the latest polls,” she says. “That tends to be sort of like a quick hit thing you can do when reporting on elections that doesn’t take a lot of resources to do,

and we realize that what we’re aiming to do is going to take a bit longer than that. That might be why it’s more of a rare thing.”

Ageson cited some of the media coverage of the recent American election as an example of the type of reporting that their voter’s guide could help British Columbians avoid.

“I think everyone has been seeing lately what damage can be done by rumours and fake news spreading like wildfire across social networks,” she says. “It’s our job to find facts and present them fairly and accurately, and what people do with that information is really up to them. I think it’s only positive, what can happen if you dig deep and put information into the hands of voters.”

The Kwantlen Student Association has launched a new loan system by which student groups can borrow KSA items for their events.

These items range from badminton equipment to the recently purchased giant chess set, and vary from campus-to-campus. “[The system is] just another benefit to that package of constituting under the KSA,” says Natasha Lopes, the KSA’s VP student life.

Lopes says that, depending on the amount of notice a club gives them in advance of their event, the KSA will work to ensure that the requested equipment is available.

Ideally, the KSA wants the same amount of notice as they do for planning tools: four to six weeks.

Because this system is still in the pilot phase, only the giant chess set and the giant Jenga set are currently available for rent. The official launch will be sometime in January or February, and which items the KSA makes available will depend on what the clubs are asking to use.

“We have so many cool things… and I don’t like seeing them get dusty,” says Lopes. “I like using these things myself, but I know it would just enhance more events on campus.”

A Google forum will be made available for clubs to respond to or send to the KSA. In effect, this forum is an extra step that clubs can take to secure additional equipment for free.

Lopes also hopes to assemble a policy and collect data on the rental process. This will include information such as which clubs are using the rental system and what are they asking to rent.

Certain items, such as tents, that may become available are more difficult to use. Therefore, the KSA will be hosting workshops for clubs to take part in to learn how to operate the item they rent without damaging or breaking it.

“This is, again, a pilot project,” says Lopes. “We’re hoping that it will be a success...because we want to make sure they help students have the best experience possible.”

06 Culture

KPU Gif Artist creates art in motion

Test Your Nerdy Knowledge with Trivia at the Storm Crow Tavern

Where to spend Tuesday night if you’ve got a head full of useless facts

Joseph Keller | Web Editor

Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer

A Kwantlen Polytechnic University student has gained a significant following online for his work with animated art. 18 year-old Philip Intile is in his first year of studying information technology and has been creating GIFs for his Tumblr page, PI Slices, since April 2014. Recently, Intile’s page surpassed 50,000 followers.

“I’m pretty happy,” says Intile. “I definitely never thought I’d make it this far.”

Intile has been creating and posting a GIF every day and is learning more about the process with every animation. Each GIF can take from 10 minutes to an hour to create, largely depending on how long it takes him to come up with an idea. He uses Cinema 4D—a program that he says carries such an immense amount of options and possibilities for creation that he’s still learning what can be done—for his work.

“There’s so much to do in that program. I’ve been using it every day for the last two and a half years and there’s still things that I don’t know how to do,” says Intile. “For the most part it’s just sort of pressing buttons until you make something that looks interesting.”

He was inspired to start creating GIFs by the work of other Tumblr users on his feed. He was able to reach out to a few of these artists, and some were helpful enough to provide him with access to their own project files and useful advice on how to get started.

“I’d see people’s GIFs pop up on my feed once in a while and thought it was pretty interesting and wanted to see how it’s made,” says Intile.

He’s also inspired often by the things he sees in his day-to-day life.

“There could be ideas just from seeing things outside. If the motion is inspiring, I might want to do something similar,” he says.

Recently, Intel’s work was featured on the CBC documentary program Exhibitionists which profiles the work of Canadian artists both established and budding. His episode aired on Oct. 9 and featured examples of Intile’s work, exploring his inspiration, process, and drive to create.

In addition to creating GIFs for the love of the craft, Intile has also taken to doing paid promotions. He has been approached by companies like Nissan and Vine to create promotional animations, and has also created visuals for live music performances for bands like Giraffage and Le Youth. Intile hopes that he’ll be able to continue making GIFs as a career well into the future.

It’s not surprising that a bar that serves drinks named “Brew of Cthulhu” and “The Furiosa” would have nerd trivia Tuesdays. Storm Crow Tavern calls itself Vancouver’s hottest nerd bar, and it seems to be holding that title quite well. Its trivia nights, which fall on every first and third Tuesday of each month, are notoriously packed and as celebrated as its whimsical drink menu.

The atmosphere at the Storm Crow is always lighthearted, playful, and casual. If there’s a place for inebriated geeks to feel at home in the city, it’s there. The walls are completely covered with Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Harry Potter memorabilia, amongst collector’s items and posters from countless other works of fiction. Advertisements for indie games are posted up on the bathroom walls, and up-close shots of people painting miniature spaceship models flash on a flat-screen TV. On Tuesday, Nov. 15, the bar is

Teams decide on their answers for Nerd Trivia Tuesday in Storm Crow Tavern on Nov. 15, 2016. (Alyssa Laube)

bustling with people. Every table is full and there are only a few spots at the bar, where I sit with a friend to share a pint of a 49th Parallel pale ale.

Trivia starts about an hour late, when quizmasters Shaun Stewart and Mister Nickel ask teams to sign up at the front of the room. They explain that it will take around two hours to finish the trivia and winners from first to fourth place will be awarded Storm Crow gift cards in ascending value from $10 to $40 based on rank.

Both Stuart and Nickel are entertainers in the city. Nickel is a stager performer, actor, and writer particularly involved in burlesque. Stuart is an experienced improv performer behind popular Vancouver productions Critical Hit Show: A Live Dungeons and Dragons Experience, The Gentlemen Hecklers, and Behind the Scenes with Shaun and Eric.

The duo begins by asking for team names. There are a handful of teams playing—all with ridiculous ti-

tles—and even the winning team only earned 29 out of 40 possible points.

The questions are fairly challenging, from identifying actors by their voice to listing features of the human skull.

A unique aspect of the evening is that the stereotypical Star Trek and Lord of the Rings questions aren’t the star of the show. Instead, the trivia is bordering on obscure and vaguely educational. One of the first questions made players identify the Fairly Odd Parents theme song in German.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University students who may be interested in dropping into Nerd Trivia Tuesday should prepare for a commute.

Transiting from the suburbs is simple enough, but it will likely steal over an hour of your day. Take a bus or walk to the nearest skytrain station and ride a train to Commercial Broadway.

From there, you can either walk or hop a bus going down the Drive. How to get there by car depends on where you’re coming from, but it should take between 45 minutes to an hour to make it to the tavern. No matter what, you should end up travelling the BC-91N.

Borealis String Quartet Performs at SAC Vancouver musicians bring audience Out of Darkness, into Light Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer In the absence of light the imagination has ample room to run wild, especially with a theatrical soundtrack to keep it working. Out of Darkness, Into Light immersed its audience in pitch black on Nov. 21, with only the Borealis String Quartet to appeal to their senses with music.

During the first quarter of the concert, every light in the room was turned off. Each of the four instrumentalists sat in opposite corners of the room at the Surrey Arts Centre to play an eerie, spine-chilling piece reminiscent of an ambient horror soundtrack. Think Wendy Carlos’ The Shining score or Harry Manfredini’s Friday the 13th classic combined with the unnerving snaps and squeals from The Blair Witch Project.

The emcee of the evening steps onstage before the music starts to remind the audience that “the purpose of darkness is for us to be able to focus.” If any of the approximate 75 attendees begin to feel too uncomfortable, they are welcome to raise their hand or otherwise seek an exit, he says, before resuming his seat.

After our vision fades away, “In iij Noct.” by Georg Friedrich Haas fills the room. Sporadic knocking, screeching, and whirring sounds bounce off the walls from each of the four corners, creating the impression that a formidable creature is rapidly circling—or potentially hunting— you. The composition escalates and

The Borealis String Quartet takes a bow post-performance at the inauguration of KPU Chancellor George Melville on Oct. 1, 2014. (Kier-Christer Junos)

deescalates, coming to heart-pounding climaxes as often as it settles into plodding uncertainty.

The lights illuminate for “String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68”

by Dmitri Shostakovich, which is still nerve-testing, but not nearly as intense. With the brightening of the hall comes the first chance of the evening to watch the quartet play, and they do so with vigour. Each player moves their body dramatically to the music, swinging their arms and heads according to pitch and tempo. Of course, they were also spot-on. There was not a single detectable mistake during their performances, at least to an untrained ear.

The two compositions played after the intermission were “vita

Borealis” by Farshid Samandari and “Sunrise” by Joseph Haydn, each from radically different time periods.

“Vita Borealis” was written by an Iranian composer currently living in Vancouver, whereas “Sunrise” was written by an Austrian composer of the Classical period who died over two centuries ago.

“Sunrise” was the most uplifting and melodic performance of the night, described by quartet violinist Yuel Yawney as having “a lightness of texture and a beauty of sound.”

Arguably, hearing them play “Sunrise” was the only traditional aspect of the entire event, and it was a pleasant break from the tension of the other three compositions.

Violinists Patricia Shih and Yuel

Yawney, Viola player Nikita Pogrebnoy, and Cellist Sungyong Lim are the members of the Borealis String Quartet, and together they have formed an internationally acclaimed reputation. Worldwide, they have become known for their stage presence, extraordinary musicianship, and intriguing selection of musical pieces.

Their hometown is Vancouver, where they were the quartet-in-residence for KPU and UBC, and they have played for the Prime Minister in Ottawa. The quartet has also received the Golden Melody Award in Asia and performed for the Dalai Lama, amongst a host of other achievements both at home and abroad.

Culture 07

Stand Up, Open Mic Nights Come to Grassroots KSA partners with Yuk Yuks to bring professional comedians to Surrey campus Joseph Keller | Web Editor The Kwantlen Student Association has been focusing on improving student life at KPU by hosting monthly stand up comedy and open mic nights on the Surrey campus. KSA Events Coordinator Matt Hunt says the events are aimed at getting more people into the Grassroots Cafe, which has struggled to make profit.

“When I was hired [by the KSA], one of the things I was asked to do was try to encourage as many events as I can in the Grassroots,” says Hunt.

The stand up nights are presented in collaboration with the Canadian comedy establishment Yuk Yuks, who send local comics to the university at a significant discount. The first night was headlined by Steph Tolev, who won best female comedian last year at the Canadian Comedy Awards, while the second show on Tuesday Nov. 22 featured James Kennedy and James Hammond. Currently, there’s no schedule on who Yuk Yuks will be providing for future events.

“The Yuk Yuks name tends to draw people a little better than just saying ‘university stand up,’” says Hunt.

The comedy nights at the Grass-

James Hammond opened the second Grassroots Cafe comedy night on Nov. 22, 2016. (Joseph Keller)

James Kennedy headlined the second Grassroots Cafe comedy night on Nov. 22, 2016. (Joseph Keller)

roots are a new occurrence, and as such, word has yet to spread through the KPU community. Kennedy and Hammond were greeted by an audience of around 20 people at the Nov. 22 show—not including those in line for coffee—and not all of those in attendance came to the cafe that night expecting a comedy show.

Those who were there for the laughs tended to favor the back of the room, leaving plenty of empty space.

Being professionals, Kennedy and Hammond rolled with the less than ideal audience situation and delivered routines that had at least one reporter in the audience laughing, if not too many else. Still, stand up requires energy from the audience, and even the best comics can’t usually compensate for a mostly empty room. The night’s performers were visibly and vocally relieved when their time was up.

“Comedy is the type of thing that, if you can’t fill the room, it’s just not going to be as much fun for everyone,” says Hunt. “That’s just like with any comedy club. If you have ten people in the crowd, you just don’t get that energy.”

Hunt is confident that the stand up nights will find their audience, and points out that the open mic events faced similar struggles filling the room when they were first introduced at the start of the semester. He says the buzz for events at the Grassroots will “come with time,” but for now, Hunt will be busy promoting the events with signage around campus, as well as buying d space in local newspapers to draw crowds from outside the university.

“I think if people know that, every month, we’re doing a standup comedy thing with Yuk Yuks, people will come and it will build and build,” says Hunt.

In contrast to the stand up show, the more established open mic held on the following Thursday packed the room, with hardly an open table to be found. Beer and coffee were flowing and there was no shortage of performers ready to get on stage to show off their talent. As usual, opening for the evening was Hunt himself performing a few songs, along with KPU Multi-Faith Chaplain Ethan Vanderleek.

“I have quite a musical background myself, so having my own open mic was kind of a personal goal of mine as well,” says Hunt.

After Hunt and Vanderleek opened with their tribute to Leonard Cohen, the night was filled with a wide variety of performances, including singing, rapping and beatboxing, guitar, piano, ukulele, slam poetry, and stand up comedy. Some of the performers were professional musicians while others had never performed in front of an audience before.

“Kwantlen doesn’t have a ton of interactive things going on and I think that’s one thing we’re trying to change,” says Hunt. “Obviously, being a smaller university with a very diverse group of people, it’s tough to have everyone want to do the same thing and I think that’s what’s good about music. It’s the language of the world.”

This month wrapped up the last of the recurring Grassroots events for 2016. Hunt says that the events will be on hiatus for the month of December due to low foot-traffic on campus for the winter break. Both the open mic and stand up events will be back on in January. Anyone interested should check out the KSA event calendar for details.

KFA and Pride Kwantlen Host Panel, Screening of The T Word on surrey campus Both film and panel discuss societal issues facing transgender people Mel Pomerleau | Contributor Pride Kwantlen and the Kwantlen Faculty Association hosted Queer Voices @ KPU on the Surrey campus on Nov. 24. The event featured a screening of an MTV documentary entitled The T Word produced by actress Laverne Cox, as well as an informal Q&A discussion with panel members from the LGBTQ2S+ community.

The T Word follows seven transgender youths, with ages ranging from 12 to 24, and reveals the hardships they face while learning to identify as their authentic selves. After the screening, audience members were invited to ask questions—either written anonymously or spoken—to the panel members. Questions were asked about community resources, health care and surgery, personal stories of transitions, body image, and the role of gender in society.

One subject followed in the documentary was a 24-year-old athlete, Kye. Kye was the first Division One transgendered basketball player, but at home, Kye’s mother struggled to see Kye as her son. Despite this tension, Kye recognized that his relationship with his mother “supersedes pronouns,” and the two maintain regular communication.

Host, and KFA LGBTQ2S+ representative, Tanya Boboricken (second from the left) and panel members of the Queer Voices at KPU documentary and panel discussion pose for a photo on Nov 24, 2016. (Mel Pomerleau)

The evening’s panel began with a speech by Gayle Roberts—a retired high school physics teacher and trans woman—who went through her transition nearly 20 years ago with nothing but support from the Vancouver School Board. When Roberts was young, the term “trans” hadn’t yet been adopted, and with the discussion of gender identity yet to be accepted, Roberts was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder from some internal trauma.

“I grew up feeling that, because I was a boy in the physical sense, my

feelings around that should be congruent with the fact that my body was that of a boy. And because I didn’t feel that way, I felt shame,” says Roberts. “I grew up in a society where if you were homosexual, transsexual, whatever—that was a shameful thing to be.”

Despite the turmoil of her younger years, Roberts has been able to overcome those feelings of shame imposed upon her. “I guess it was when I started to realize people have a core gender identity…I think that awareness enabled me to reach hap-

piness, because if my gender identity is female, which it is, then everything else drops into place for me,” she says.

Another panelist, gender diversity consultant for TransFamily Services B.C., Lukas Walther, discussed the importance of understanding the needs of trans youth.

“One of the concerns is to make sure that a kid isn’t put on hormones just because they know they’re trans,” says Walther. “It’s so crucial to find out what that means to the kid.

To some kids, it may just mean being

gender fluid and being part of the social movement.”

“It’s absolutely acceptable to be trans and not take hormones or surgeries. It doesn’t mean that you’re less trans. You’re [just] that kind of trans.”

Lucas Wilson, a trans man and health navigator for Trans Care B.C., spoke about his experience and thoughts surrounding his journey towards becoming the person he is today.

“I know, for myself, it was something I certainly had doubts about and thought, ‘What if I do this and nobody loves me?’ but that was the source of regret. It was like, ‘What if I do this and am ostracized forever and I’m never happy?’”

“It was something I knew I had to do,” says Wilson. “It turned me into a person who could thrive.”

For Tanya Boboricken, the KFA LGBTQ2S+ representative, hosting events such as Queer Voices @ KPU is inspiring and affirming.

“I find it valuable for the community, for the faculty, staff, and students to learn more and to humanize trans individuals, to see that, really, we’re all human beings and we all have things that we’re going through.”

Where to Study Abroad Next Year?

KPU students can visit Japan, Germany, France, or Columbia for credit

Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer

Man in Market: Known as “Kyoto’s kitchen,” the Nishiki Market is filled with exotic foods, from Japanese pickles and dried seafood to sushi and rice balls. (Submitted photo: Rachele Kanigel) Every year, Kwantlen Polytechnic University students have the choice of going away for school. There are annual exchanges to destinations all over the world, and although they can be pricey, they’re always an option for those looking to globe trot while getting an education.

Because KPU has so many partner institutions on the map, there are plenty of locations to choose from. Money paid for tuition while on exchange will go to the university, and all credits earned while studying abroad are transferable. The only requirements are having completed a minimum of 30 credits—with at least half of them earned at KPU—possessing a grade point average of 2.67, and agreeing to earn at least nine credits while away before returning to the university.

According to the institution’s website, there are several steps you should take before embarking on your journey. After ensuring that you’re eligible to go on a trip you should attend an exchange information session, talk to an educational advisor, and research KPU’s partner universities to narrow down where you you want to go. Once you’ve chosen your destination, meet with an international exchange coordinator, apply for any scholarships or awards that might provide you with financial aid for the travel and academic expenses, and submit your exchange application. Finally, go to a pre-departure session and apply to the institution that will be welcoming you.

Short trips to other countries have been organized for this year as well. The three most relevant to you will take KPU students to Kyoto, the Amazon Rainforest, or Paris.

Kyoto has more than 1,600 temples and shrines. (Subitted photo: Rachele Kanigel)

Kyoto Study Abroad Program For the first time, a trip to Kyoto, Japan is being offered to KPU students interested in journalism.

For $4,995, students will fill the role of foreign correspondents in Asia from June 26 to July 21, working with bilingual Japanese students who will show them the city and act as interpreters. They will also meet with local journalists, visit various temples, and publish stories of their own in an online magazine.

The Institute for Education in International Media is sponsoring the trip, and the program’s co-director, Rachele Kanigel, says that the decision to travel to Kyoto for the first time came from the desire to find something that was “very different and very exotic, but was also very safe.”

The Kyoto trip will also “provide students with a way to engage with a culture in a different and more intimate way than a lot of study abroad programs.”

“What’s different about these programs is that they’re reporting projects, so students are able to actually go into the field and report on the communities.

It gives students an opportunity to really talk with local people and find out about their lives and their careers,” she says.

Because students will be gone for so long, the entire first week will be dedicated to introducing them to the city and culture. Then they will start to explore how to thrive as international journalists, “in a place where you don’t know anybody, you don’t speak the language, and you have to find stories,” says Kanigel.

“We’ll be talking about how you find stories, how you interview people using an interpreter, and we’ll be having practice sessions on that,” she says. “We’ll be seeing these incredibly beautiful historical sites. Kyoto has 17 UNESCO world heritage sites, and these ancient treasures with shrines and temples and beautiful gardens, so we’ll certainly be doing some of that. But really I think the highlights are going to be the experiences that the students choose for themselves.”

Of course, the trip includes three transferable academic credits from the University of Jamestown, learning introductory Japanese, accommodation, excursions, a city bus pass, transportation to and from the airport, and welcome and farewell dinners. Students will be able to stay in either a traditional Japanese guesthouse or studio apartment with kitchen facilities, but have to pay for their own living expenses, airfare, and tuition. A $150 application fee is required, but will be returned if the applicant isn’t accepted. Because you do not need to be a student to go on the trip, there are no prerequisites for the program.

“Every single one of our students has come back with their eyes open. They come back feeling changed,” says Kanigel. “For a lot of students, this has really been a career-maker. I’ve had a lot of students who did one of these programs, went to employers and put it on their resumes, and employers were fascinated with hearing about their experiences.”

Amazon Field School If you’re looking for a healthy dose of culture shock, the Amazon Field School might be for you. Staying in the Amazon Rainforest from May 5 to 21 will take you to a time without internet or radio, when the hour was judged by the position of the sun in the sky.

“It’s going to bring you back to a much more ancient place that humanity has always known but very recently has forgotten,” says Farhad Dastur, one of two KPU professors who will be accompanying students on the trip.

“I just believe that these kind of experiences are really powerful, transformative experiences in a student’s educational journey, and I want to be part of that.”

Dastur, who has overseen a KPU field school to Ghana in the past, stresses that the field school is not biased towards students from any one faculty, and that even non-students can get involved. However, interested KPU students should contact Interna-

tional Student Services for information about scholarships.

“Problems of climate change, of habitat loss, of cultural extinction with indigenous peoples in the Amazon, of how we can balance stability with economic development. These aren’t problems that any one discipline can address, so we’re really looking for people that have that interdisciplinary perspective and have a number of different ways of looking at the world,” he says.

Those who are accepted can expect to explore the rainforest, meet with a shaman and guides from local tribes, learn about Colombian culture, and enjoy observing the flora and fauna that the Amazon has to offer. They will visit the Calanoa Natural Reserve, look for river dolphins, and paddle through flooded forest with their peers.

A minimum of 12 students are needed for the school to go forward, and there can be no more than 18 on the trip. Six credits

will be earned by those who take it, either by enrolling in Design 3000 or Arts 3000.

The overall cost of the trip is $2750, which includes accommodation, in-country transportation, field

trips, and most meals. 30 credits of 1100-level or higher courses are required in order to be accepted, and there is a non-refundable $300 deposit for application.

“This is really a journey for you as

* Will Lewis and Maya Schwayder report during a trip to the Negev desert in the ieiMedia program in Israel/Palestine.

(Submitted photo: Rachele Kanigel)

Paris/Documenta Field School

Blair Kurland, former student at Arizona State University, photographs the city of Perpignan, France during an ieiMedia program. (Submitted photo: Rachele Kanigel) Whisking away to Paris is a pipe dream for most North Americans, never mind getting academic credit for it. The field school to Paris and Documenta will allow students to do just that, along with attending a globally acclaimed art fair that only occurs once every five years, from June 3 to 22.

Before they get there, the class will study modernism and contempo-

a student to go and experience something you’ve never experienced before.

It’s very direct. There’s no four walls of a classroom. This is experiential learning at its best,” says Dastur.

rary art at KPU. Once in Europe, they will get to see some of the works they discussed and analyzed in the Lower Mainland up close and personal.

“For a lot of the students, that’s probably the most amazing part of the trip itself—when they get to see the thing that they’ve been engaged with for such a long time,” says Dorothy Barenscott, a KPU instructor who will

be leading the field school alongside her colleague, Elizabeth Barnes.

The first KPU field school to Documenta happened five years ago, making it the oldest and most-established of the university’s field schools. This will be the second time that KPU students will be attending the fair, and both Barnes and Barenscott believe that it will be a highlight of the trip.

“Really, the cornerstone of our field school is the pairing of Paris—one of the world’s most important art cities—with Documenta, which is like the Olympics of the art world in terms of exhibitions,” says Barenscott. “Once every five years, a small town in Germany gets taken over to become sort of the centre point for artists all over the world to come and show their work. For students, it’s really about being able to see art that has existed throughout history, but then to also look at the very best of art that’s being made today.”

Other than admission to Documenta, the final cost of $3,000 will include a pass to the major museums and galleries in Paris, visits to department stores and opera houses, bike trips, and the chance to see the Eiffel Tower, amongst other sightseeing activities. Accommodation is also covered, with between two and four students sharing suites with full kitchens.

The collaborative nature of the field school adds a personal touch to academia, which Barnes thinks is extremely valuable.

“It’s kind of a chance of a lifetime to do something like this in a group of like-minded people,” she says. “Students will get to really discuss what they’ve seen with each other every day, and I think that’s really important.”

There is an individual component to the coursework too, with each participant being assigned an artist to study in France and Germany. They will be required to chronicle their experiences on a blog as well.

Nine total credits can be earned as a part of the field school, but only three are required for admission. Students must take either Art History 3100 or Studio Art 3202, which will be taught at the Surrey campus from May 8 to 26, in order to be accepted. Six prior credit hours in Art History or any 18 credit level university courses are required to take Art History 3100, and six prior credit hours in Fine Arts are required to take Fine Arts 3202. Students who want all nine credits can take Arts 1100 as well, which has no pre-requisites.

“It really is the connection between art history and studio that makes it such a strong field school. People can come to the field school who have experience making art, or just students who have an interest in the world of art,” says Barenscott. “Sometimes people see a fine arts field school and they think, ‘Oh, I have to be making art.’ That’s not the case at all. We welcome people from all kinds of backgrounds.”

10 opinions

A Look Back at the History of Kinder Morgan and KPU The highs, the lows, the rejection of a $300,000 bribe Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer A turbulent history exists between Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and Kwantlen Polytechnic University. It began in 2015, when the university signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Trans Mountain Expansion Project that would see KPU accept $300,000 in scholarships over 20 years for students studying environmental protection technology and trades.

The MOU outlined that four different awards would be offered: the Trans Mountain Pipeline Endowed Award for Leadership at $100,000, the Trans Mountain Pipeline Dean’s List Award for Leadership at $100,000, The Trans Mountain Pipeline Award for Excellence in Environment Protection at $60,000, and the Trans Mountain Pipeline Environmental Protection Lab at $40,000.

Each award budget would be separated into several scholarships to be given over two decades. The project was set to be approved in 2016, when Trans Mountain would slap their name onto the Environmental Protection Technology Lab at KPU’s Langley campus.

Kinder Morgan claimed that the MOU was a way of supporting Canadian students using their community

Kwantlen Polytechnic University Presedent Alan Davis addresses a forum of critics at the university who disagreed with a memorandum between KPU and Trans Mountain in 2015. (File photo) benefits program, which the company website describes as “committed to investing in communities that may be impacted by construction along the proposed pipeline route.”

There is also an “environmental stewardship” portion of the program, which is tailored to “protecting the environment along the proposed pipeline corridor.” According to Kinder Morgan, that includes restoring aquatic ecosystems and fish habitat as well as re-establishing provincial parks.

The irony and injustice of the MOU was not missed by KPU students, nor was it approved by the Kwantlen First Nation. Rallies were organized all around the Lower Mainland, with one in Fort Langley supported by the KFN bringing about 400 people together.

As is now well-known, pipelines can, have, and will continue to damage the environment. If a spill happens due to Kinder Morgan, the $300,000 offered to the university wouldn’t even come close to cover-

ing the costs of cleaning it up or healing the plants, animals, and humans hurt by the spill.

These were some of the concerns raised at rallies. They were echoed at September and October 2015 meetings between KPU President Alan Davis and the Kwantlen First Nation Council. The Kwantlen Student Association, the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group, the Pipe Up Network, and KPU Geography Professor Bill Burgess joined them as well. Because KPU is named after the

Kwantlen First Nation—and just out of respect—Davis placed considerable importance on their anti-pipeline stance. He also listened to the concerns of student groups and individuals on-campus.

The university did ultimately decide to withdraw from the memorandum in October, but the Trans Mountain Pipeline is still fully operating, as it has since 1953. An expansion is currently on the table, to be built from 2017 to 2019. The Trans Mountain Expansion Project will either be approved or rejected this year, on Dec. 19. The cost of the project is about $6.8 billion for 980 kilometres of new pipeline and 193 kilometres of reactivated pipeline, 12 new pump stations, 20 new tanks, terminal expansions, and the ability to carry heavier oils.

Chapter Coordinator for Pipe Up, Justine Nelson, says that she sees the 2015 MOU with KPU as the company’s attempt to “bribe” the university into supporting them and their projects.

“As an alumna from KPU, I was frustrated that my school decided to accept that money and we started organizing to oppose the memorandum,” she says. “I would say now it’s pretty good. I’m happy that [KPU] backed out of it. I think that was a pretty good move on behalf of the school.”

Teachers (And Students) benefit from Smaller Class Sizes The Supreme Court’s ruling provides room for students to grow properly Calvin Borghardt| Contributor Our public education system needs significant reform, and few solutions can offer the immediate benefit of individualized education. Having fewer students in class would allow teachers to focus more on each individual child, understand their educational needs, and tailor instructions accordingly. This extra investment would help students that are struggling to learn.

Recently, B.C. teachers achieved a milestone towards this end when The Supreme Court of Canada overturned a decision made by the BC Court of Appeal. The ruling concluded that the province did, in fact, violate teachers’ rights to negotiate their class sizes and the number of children with special needs in each classroom in their collective agreement.

“Small classes really involve students,” wrote Robert Kennedy in an article published by Boarding School Review. “[They] surround students with attention and encouragement.

Because students learn in different ways, the teacher can take all the time he needs to present the material being taught in a variety of ways appropriate to his small class of students.”

Large classrooms fosters an en-

(Rosaura Ojeda)

vironment where students have to compete for the teacher’s attention, whereas lasses with fewer students foster a sense of teamwork. Students are more connected to each other in a smaller class, which presents an opportunity for them to form a team of

curious, like-minded individuals.

Providing the teacher with enough time to meet our expectations is only fair. They need to have the opportunity to not only assess how a student learns, but also enough time to present the lesson in a way that

matches the student’s preferred learning style.

Kennedy also claims that, “students really do learn more when classes are small. They learn faster.

They progress through the material more quickly. They soon develop

confidence to express their ideas and opinions without fear of scorn and retribution from their peers.”

If nothing else, a classroom is supposed to be a “climate for learning.” Kwantlen Polytechnic University effectively creates this climate by limiting class sizes to roughly 30 students, and most of our classes don’t even have that many students.

Consideration must also be given to the number of special needs students present in each classroom.

While individualized education allows for this, it’s important to recognize that a teacher has to invest more time in one of these students than someone who prefers one learning style to another.

Students with special needs must be dispersed throughout the student body instead of being bundled together in a single classroom. This would allow teachers to focus on closely monitoring and managing one or two special needs students at a time.

The idea of individualized education does indeed have a visceral appeal. That should inform our judgment and help us recognize that if teacher are to perform at the level we expect, then it’s our responsibility as citizens and as students to give them the time and resources to do so.

12 opinions

Empty Homes tax Not Enough to Fix housing crisis The B.C. Residential Tenancy Act needs an update Calvin Borghardt| Contributor Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s 1 per cent tax on vacant homes may be a step closer to addressing the housing crisis, but it’s far from a wholesale solution.

The CBC reports that Robertson justified the measure as a “business tax” on owners he said were treating housing as investment property, and that he hopes the tax will improve Vancouver’s rental vacancy rate—which is currently around 0.6 per cent—by persuading owners of thousands of empty apartments and houses to put them up for rent. The keyword in that phrase is “persuading,” but it’s not clear how the tax will succeed in doing that.

According to the City of Vancouver’s official website, anyone who owns residential property in Vancouver will be required to make a property status declaration. This declaration will determine whether the Empty Homes Tax affects them.

However, the owner of a residen-

tial property is exempt from the tax if it is the principal residence of the owner or their family, or it’s rented for a total of 180 days of the year, in periods of at least 30 consecutive days. Exemptions also apply if the

property is being used for work purposes within the City of Vancouver for a minimum of six months per year.

A study by Ecotagious Inc. published in February 2016 concluded

(Scott McLelland)

that the non-occupancy rate within the City of Vancouver was “relatively stable” from 2002 to 2014. It was 4.8 per cent at that time.

It also determined that “the non-occupancy rate is in-line with that of the rest of the [Greater Vancouver Regional District], and fairly uniform throughout the geographic sectors of the City.”

The analysis revealed that apartments were driving non-occupancy in the city at 7.2 per cent in 2014. These apartments represent 60 per cent of the City of Vancouver’s residential housing.

Based on the city’s objective and the available data, it seems unlikely that this tax will provide the intended outcome of improve the vacancy rate.

For the desired result, this tax would have to be focused on incentivizing those who own apartments buildings to rent the space—and even that comes with a few hurdles that make the problem harder to solve.

According to CBC News, homeowners often don’t know much about their tenants, and when things go

wrong, evicting them can be a major headache since navigating the B.C. Residential Tenancy Act can be a complicated process.

Vancouver-based Lawyer Lisa Mackie specializes in residential tenancy law and has heard her fair share of tenancy horror stories over the years.

“Unfortunately, sometimes when you let the tenants in the door, it’s very hard to get them out,” she told B.C. Almanac’s Duncan McCue. If the government of Vancouver were serious about solving this problem, they would consult with lawyers like Mackie and address the flaws in the B.C. Residential Tenancy Act. Simplifying this piece of legislation, in combination with the Empty Homes Tax, would improve the chances of successfully persuading landlords to rent their apartments.

In that case, the government’s goal becomes more realistic than expecting a 1 per cent tax to curtail Vancouver’s housing crisis. Perhaps then we’d the see the proper incentivization of behavior.

eliminating Coal is the right Step, Albeit a Tiny One It’s time to finally let the coals die out Braden Klassen| Contributor The Federal Liberal Party of Canada has announced that they are planning to drastically reduce the country’s reliance on coal-based power by 2030—as if taking 15 more years to do something that should’ve been done forever ago is somehow positive.

For decades, coal power has been widely known as the dirtiest, most pollution-heavy type of energy production there is. Compared to other fossil fuel types like gasoline and oil, coal has the highest ratio of pollution-to-energy when it is burned, clocking in an average of 216 million pounds of CO2 emitted per million British thermal units (Btu) of energy produced. In contrast, natural gas, the fossil fuel with the lowest pollution ratio, produces about 117 pounds of CO2 per million Btu. Coal, however, is more easily found and extracted than other fossil fuels and is also cheaper to refine and use, which is why many countries like China and India rely on it as their primary source of energy for elec-

tricity. It’s also why Donald Trump is advocating for its revitalization in the States.

In Canada, around 80 per cent of our electricity is currently generated by utilizing renewable energy sources like hydro or wind power, and the federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said that the government is planning to increase that to 90 per cent by 2030.

The abolition of the coal-power industry and the subsequent reduction of carbon emissions is supposed to be the equivalent of removing 1.3 million cars from the road, which is nice, but the sad truth of it is that it’s not going to be nearly enough to make any meaningful impact on a global level. But our governments have never really been into that anyway.

It’s the 21st century, and making a meaningful difference for future generations has become passé. On a federal level, Canada has failed to hit every emissions reduction target it has ever set—so why should we start now, when it’s so much easier to plunge our heads into the tar sands like ostriches?

When people see the government

do things like promise to abolish coal while simultaneously approving pipelines and subsidizing polluting industries, it doesn’t take a huge amount of critical thinking to realize that they might not be entirely committed to the idea of protecting the environment. Yes, phasing out coal is a good thing, but skeptical Canadians should recognize that the move is as much about optics as it is about environmental protection. They’re not wrong to do it, but if the government wants to show that they’re actually taking the environment seriously, they’ll have to introduce a much more drastic suite of policy changes than what they are currently proposing.

If the planet is a lifeboat capsizing amidst the rising tides of climate change, the Liberal party’s phasing out of coal while subsidizing oil and gas is analogous to putting duct tape over a tiny crack while drilling holes in the deck. They can be as self-congratulating as they want, but they’re kidding themselves if they think that it’s going to solve anything in a meaningful way.

Draw for the runner!

(Nat Mussell)

Contact: Art@Runnermag.ca

opinions 13

Electoral Reform Needed for True Democracy

It’s time for FPTP to go, whether the Liberals or the electorate make the decision Braden Klassen| Contributor It’s been speculated that a preliminary survey, which will be conducted in early December, might be the precursor to a national referendum on whether or not the electoral system should change. While a referendum result that opposes the change would effectively torpedo a year-long effort to brainstorm an effective replacement for Canada’s first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, it does seem to be the more democratic approach to overhauling the country’s present voting procedure.

Make no mistake—FPTP is an antiquated and unbalanced system that causes election results to confer power on larger parties that exceed their portion of the vote while unfairly kneecapping smaller parties, even if a large number of people voted for them. For instance, the Green Party got about a tenth of the amount of votes that the Liberal Party did, but the Green Party only won one seat while the Liberals won 184 seats.

It’s as stupid as it sounds, but now it seems like the government is looking to fix it.

The FPTP voting system was originally conceived and loosely adopted by the early 19th century British government, but it wasn’t until the third and final Reform Act of 1884 that it was truly implemented effectively.

(Shandis Harrison)

To provide you with some chronological context, FPTP is 11 years older than the early invention of rudimentary radios, 44 years older than the commercialization of sliced bread, and predates the launch of Tinder by a whopping 128 years. Some people think that’s reason enough to get rid of it, and the Liberal Party’s election platform and 2016 budget acknowledged that desire with a promise to “restore public trust and faith in

the political system by demonstrating to Canadians that their votes count and help shape the policies their governments pursue.”

There is a very visible intent on behalf of all parties to reach an agreement that will pave the way for electoral change, and the committee is expected to release its report late November, right before Canadians are supposed to get a postcard in the mail with a survey that asks them

about their opinion on the issue. If a referendum were to follow, it could very well destroy all of the work and advocacy that happened on behalf of those seeking proportional representation—but in the same breath, a referendum is a form of proportional representation itself, and it seems paradoxically anti-democratic to bar people from having a say in this.

But the Liberal government addressed this when it decided to “es-

tablish a special all-party committee with a mandate to study electoral reform options that would be the basis for a cross-country consultation.”

So they’ve already spent time and money asking people what they want, so why would they want to do it again? Rumour has it that they had been planning to do this for months prior to the publishing of the report.

Are they expecting this survey to yield different results than the findings of the committee? Might they want to use the survey—and by extension a referendum—as a means to justify keeping FPTP? Sticking to FPTP gives the Liberal Party a more favourable chance to win seats, and maybe they figure if they ask again, the answer might change. If this happens, or if the fabled referendum results in Canadians rejecting reform, then all of this effort would have been for nothing, and the Liberals would retain their advantage even though the reform committee was spearheaded by them in the first place. But it would have been the decision of the electorate, not that of their government. And oddly enough, that’s about as democratic as it gets.

So in principle, I support both the idea of a referendum and the FPTP system being abolished, even if the former obviates the latter.

I just really hope it doesn’t.

The Race for Leadership of the Conservative Party Spotlight on Alexander, Bernier, Chong, and Leitch

Calvin Borghardt| Contributor Though the next federal election in Canada is still years away, contenders for the Conservative party’s leadership seem to jumping in and out of the race on a weekly basis. To help parse the real contenders from the others, here’s a look at some of the candidates who have a real shot at replacing Stephen Harper as next leader of the Conservatives.

Chris Alexander, the former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration as well as the former ambassador to Afghanistan, is proposing to increase immigration to 400,000 a year, including 40,000 refugees. He’s calling “for an accelerated push to settle all outstanding land claims and to sign treaties with First Nations communities that would empower them to govern themselves.”

Alexander was prominent both in the Conservative government’s handling of the Syrian refugee crisis and in their promise to create a telephone tip line to report so-called “barbaric cultural practices.”

Maxime Bernier is considered

The Hon. Maxime Bernier (centre) is in the running for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race.

(Government of B.C./Flickr )

a libertarian and an advocate for limited government, and therefore feels “at odds with his party’s longheld opposition to loosening the laws against recreational…marijuana,” according to the CBC. He is one of the few Conservatives who supports the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana.

Bernier is currently calling for an end to federal transfer payments to the provinces for health care. He wants to lower taxes and pay off the national debt, and also to end corporate bailouts and business subsidies.

According to CTV News, Michael Chong “resigned from [Stephen Harper’s] cabinet over the Con-

servative government’s motion to recognize the Quebecois as a nation.”

CTV News also reported that the former minister of intergovernmental affairs, “supports lower taxes and preserving the environment, in part by using carbon pricing to lower income taxes.”

Chong told CTV’s Power Play

that, following their defeat in 2015, the Conservative party must “reach out to new Canadians and re-earn their trust.”

Perhaps the most prominent contender these days is Kellie Leitch, who has been the target of criticism both before and after she declared her intent to seek the Conservative party’s leadership.

Like Alexander, Leitch was criticized for proposing the creation of telephone tip line to report so-called ‘barbaric cultural practices” around the time of last year’s election. More recently, she has stirred up controversy for promising to devise a “Canadian values” test for immigrants.

According to CTV, “Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch is losing the support of some influential party members over her proposal to screen immigrants for anti-Canadian values.”

According the Toronto Star, she has also described Donald J. Trump’s win of the American presidency as an “exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada as well.”

14 Columns

Artist Spotlight: Tigerchild

Hip-hop and R&B hybrid to release new EP before the year’s end Alyssa Laube | Staff Writer Before Max Hayes and Jordan McCuaig started working together in retail, they were making music alone and online. They started playing as a duo shortly after they met, and have now formed the band Tigerchild to perform their songs live.

“Basically, I’m the DJ and I also produce a majority of the beats,” says McCuaig. “[Hayes] produced a couple of them as well and we get up and perform together. I sort of stand back in the DJ booth and he stands at the front with the mic. He does about 50/50 rapping and singing so usually the verses are a little more rap-heavy and when the chorus comes in he sings more of the melodic parts.”

Tigerchild can be described as electro-hop or West Coast R&B, somewhere between hip hop and dance music. McCuaig attributes that sound to how different his “oldschool” style is from Hayes’ “modern” taste.

“For myself, I would lean towards artists like Atmosphere and Aesop Rock. [Hayes] is into the more modern sort of current stuff, so like, Drake and The Weeknd,” says McCuaig. “There are a lot of similarities between those two sounds but the stuff I listen to tends to be more underground local indie.”

Part of the reason why Hayes cre-

Max Hayes (upstage) and Jordan McCuaig of Tigerchild perform at Studio Records on Granville Street in Vancouver. (Courtesy of Rudolf Cagalawan)

ated Tigerchild with McCuaig was that he was tired of working with producers from around the world. Communication errors and the impersonal nature of collaborating online was causing his musical career to suffer— something he never has to deal with now that he’s in a local band.

“For us to be able to sit down in my home studio or wherever and be able to play five or six or seven different tracks that I’m working on and have him say, “Okay, I like that one. I don’t like that one. Let’s change this.

Let’s change that,’…it worked out quite naturally,” says McCuaig.

So far they have played six shows together, with another coming up at Studio Records on Granville on Dec. 16. An EP is in the works too—set to be made public before the end of the year—the possibility of a Western Canada tour next year is dependent on the success of that record release.

The EP will be titled Firestorm, with cover art made by a friend of the band. It’s expected to have either five or six songs on its tracklist and

be available on Soundcloud, iTunes, and Spotify.

Thematically, Firestorm will aim for a unique balance of two contrasting topics: love and politics.

“It’s kind of a hybrid between those two things. They’re the things that keep you up at night: politics and the stress in the world, and then there’s the stuff that brings you back down and grounds you as well in terms of personal relationships and romances,” says McCuaig. “It really sort of deals with power and authori-

SUSTIANABLE LIVING: Holiday Edition The tree isn’t the only thing that should be green this holiday season Mel Pomerleau | Contributor Marketing during the holidays is pretty intense to say the least. It seems that advertisements demand your attention everywhere you look, telling you that you can’t be happy without the product they’re selling.

You might feel momentarily elated by making new purchase, and that’s okay because you’re human.

Just be aware of the economic and environmental impacts of your actions and work towards more sustainable shopping habits.

A lot of consumer items are made in China or other faraway countries around the world. The materials used are often plastic of questionable quality, and the finished item is often created in poor conditions for the workers involved. Not to mention, the carbon footprint from having those products shipped to North America for distribution is incredibly harmful to the environment.

The holidays at my house were always relatively simple, but far from sustainable. Between my parents, my sister, and I, we would always get each other a few gifts, with my parents going way overboard with how

(Danielle George)

many presents they purchased. Of course, this isn’t the experience of every family, and now that my sister and I are both adults, the holidays are more about the time we are able to spend together than the items we receive.

Last year, I put a lot of thought

into what I could do for my mom to show my appreciation for her while still being economical and sustainable. My partner and I decided we would cook up a massive pot of Spud Special—an Italian sausage and potato chowder—and freeze it in 2-3 serving size portions for my mom to en-

joy over the next few months. I know my mom appreciated that type of gift because for months following the holiday season I would receive random text messages from her thanking me for the soup and expressing her appreciation for being able to come home to an already prepared meal.

ty and the power dynamics as they’re unfolding today … in a meaningful way, hopefully.”

Speaking of his collaboration with Hayes, McCuaig says that the duo “individually bring two really different perspectives to the table, but when it comes together it makes this hybrid sound that has something personal, it has something political, and it has a solid bassline. It comes together to create this great energy that people want to dance to and sing along to.”

Of course, not all families are small. Large families can be a significant financial burden come January if we’re not conscious of our spending throughout the entire holiday season.

With larger groups, consider a gift swap or Secret Santa exchange in lieu of separate gifts for everyone.

When it comes to outdoor festive decor, remember that decorations don’t need to be extravagant to be festive. It doesn’t make you “better” to have more lights on your house than your neighbour. A smaller display can still have the same look and feel of the holiday spirit while using less energy.

If you’re buying new lights this year, consider LED lights as they are more efficient than traditional bulbs.

Also think about the length-to-light ratio. The longer the string and fewer the lights, the better.

This holiday season, know that energy is a resource and conserving it benefits everyone. Yes, you are only one person, but setting an example and talking to your loved ones about your choice to be more environmentally conscious can nudge them towards making sustainable changes in their own lives.

Show us your story #runnermag Your picture could be selected as our featured photo!

Sudoku

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For many strategies, hints and tips, visit www.sudokuwiki.org If you like Sudoku you’ll really like ‘Str8ts’ and our other puzzles, Apps and books. Visit www.str8ts.com

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Taurus Apr 20 - May 20 You’ll love your stylish new haircut right up until the moment you see it atop a prominent Neo Nazi.

procrastinate. You don’t ritualistically disappoint yourself and your loved ones.”

To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such thatGemini each row, column and 3x3Cancer box contains every number uniquely.

May 21 - Jun 20 Jun 21 - Jul 23

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The presence of Mercury in your sign this week Fifteen times you’ve crawled into the womb For many strategies, hints indicates that you should probably get tested for ofand recentlytips, dug earth, and fifteen times you’ve Mercury visitpoisoning. www.sudokuwiki.orgreturned as something greater.

At this point your means of communication with the rest of the world is almost entirely head nods and classic era quotes from The Simpsons.

If you like Sudoku you’ll really like ‘Str8ts’ and our other puzzles, Apps Libra Virgo and books. Visit www.str8ts.com Sept 24 - Oct 23

Aug 24 - Sept 23

Tell your mother you’re not coming home for the holidays. When she asks why tell her “the goddamned hippies, that’s why” and hang up.

Nothing like a morning routine to start your day off right. Brush your teeth. Eat a hearty breakfast. Stare into the mirror and whisper “human garbage” as long as you can bear to look at yourself.

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 22 You’re beginning to suspect your coworkers have accepted you as a member of the team. How dare they presume upon you some measure of satisfaction in this place.

notice of nomination

KSA

GENERAL

ELECTION

february 7 & 8, 2017

Nomination forms will be available at the four KSA Member Services Offices and online at www.kusa.ca/elections from Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at 9 am to Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 12 pm.

The election will be held for all current Council positions:

Nominations Open

Campus Representatives (4 positions)

Nominations Close

Constituency Representatives (7 positions)

Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at 9 am

Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 12 pm

Election Polling

Tuesday, February 7, 2017 & Wednesday, February 8, 2017 10 am – 7 pm All Campuses

• • • •

• • • • • • •

Langley Campus Representative (1) Richmond Campus Representative (1) Surrey Campus Representative (1) Tech / Cloverdale Campus Representative (1)

Aboriginal Students Representative (1) International Students Representative (1) Mature Students Representative (1) Queer Students Representative (1) Students of Colour Representative (1) Students with Disabilities Representative (1) Women’s Representative (1)

Faculty Representatives (14 positions) • • • • • • •

Academic and Career Advancement Representative (1) Arts Representative (4) Business Representative (4) Design Representative (1) Health Representative (1) Science and Horticulture Representative (2) Trades and Technology Representative (1)