Volume 09 // Issue 13
News KSA Plans Strategy for Next Three Years
R
THE RUNNER
March 28 2017
Culture The Dream of a Kwantlen Radio Station
Opinion Liberals, NDP Hitch a Ride with Uber
INCLUDING ALL WOMEN Exploring the Power and Development of Intersectional Feminism
find us online / runnermag.ca / @runnermag / facebook.com/runnerMAG / INSTAGRAM.com/RUNNERMAG
02 Table of contents
staff
04 06
News|The KSA’s New Strategic Plan Goes to AGM
The list of values in the first few pages of the plan was developed through brainstorming and discussion sessions between KSA councillors. After much deliberation, the terms they settled on as values were advocacy, leadership, learning, service, integrity, and social justice.
Coordinating Editor Tristan Johnston editor@runnermag.ca
Managing Editor
Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca
culture|Radio Free Kwantlen is Still a Possibility
Production Manager
Danielle George production@runnermag.ca
Back when the idea for Radio Free Kwantlen was passed via referendum, The Runner’s editorial staff was hoping to produce it in their own space. When that didn’t happen, the program failed to progress and its funding began to collect dust.
Art Director
Scott McLelland art@runnermag.ca
08 14
Photo Editor
Features |The Many Meanings of Intersectional Feminism
Tommy Nguyen photos@runnermag.ca
Feminism and womanhood means something unique to everyone. For women, that meaning can be deeply personal and complex, and where we fit into feminism is crucial to understanding which problems exist and how we can solve them.
Associate Editor
Alyssa Laube staff@runnermag.ca
Web Editor
Joseph Keller web@runnermag.ca
COLUMNS|British Columbia Uber Alles
The B.C. Liberal Party is promising to approve Uber’s operation in the province if they get re-elected. It’s an easy decision to make—so easy, in fact, that they probably could have done this years ago. But where’s the fun in that?
Operations Manager Scott Boux office@runnermag.ca 778.565.3801
#FeatureTweets
#BestPhoto
Beer Me BC @BeerMeBC Kwantlen Polytechnic University Receives Recognition Status from Baster Brewers Association Samantha Faith @jennythefriend The advisor at Kwantlen asked how SFU is going and I said it’s not as good as Kwantlen and she asked if she could get that in writing.
Harry Bains @HarryBainsSN Proud to walk with Kwantlen university students and faculty on international day for the elimination of racism.
Daniel Chai @IamDanielChai All those times I looked myself in the mirror and said, “You’re a winner!” has finally paid off! #TimHortons #Coffee
Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778.565.3801 www.runnermag.ca Vol. 09, Issue no. 13 March 28 2017 ISSN# 1916 8241
Contributors Yuta Anonuevo Calvin Borghardt Keith Harris Braden Klassen
Nat Mussell Rosaura Ojeda Jesse Pottinger Keely Rammage-Scott Lesley Salazar
Cover Rosaura Ojeda is a recent graduate of the Communication Design Essentials Program at Emily Carr and BCIT, as well as a BFA graduate from Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
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
The layoffs from Postmedia are depressing Tristan Johnston |Coordinating Editor On Friday, Postmedia handed 54 layoff notices to employees—many of whom were journalists—at the Vancouver Sun and The Province. There were already layoffs in January of this year, and admittedly those that happened on Friday were announced two weeks in advance. Regardless, there has been significant downsizing of many newspapers over the last several years. In addition to the recent layoffs, The Province and The Vancouver Sun are now published out of the same newsroom. It’s certainly strange to read this kind of news when also reading about The New York Times and Washington Post gaining readership, with The Times receiving 276,000 digital subscriptions in the last quarter of 2016. Of course, the situation with the United States’ wacky government is different than the one we have in Canada. Journalism is needed there more than ever, but we certainly need good journalism here as well. We shouldn’t need a crisis to make that clear. The problem isn’t so much that Canada is “boring,” it’s more that the situation which American journalism is in with regards to its government is so far out of the ordinary. Even so, we need journalism for the “boring” news that isn’t centred around megalomania. It hurts that small, local papers are vanishing because even in municipal city halls lots of important stuff gets decided. It hurts you and me when no one is around to cover crucial meetings, instead opting to read the press releases that come out after
What’s Happening this week
Mar 28 Multiplayer Madness
The Kwantlen Gaming Guild is holding its fourth annual Multiplayer Madness event. This is traditionally one of the biggest events of the year for student life, so be sure to bring a friend and throw down.
11 - 6, Surrey campus, free.
Mar 29
Vancouver Aquarium Uncovered
We don’t see many news stands to begin with, but the future for journalism in Canada doesn’t look financially secure. (Marty Portier/Flickr) the fact. Canadian journalism’s current state is very worrying, especially for me and several of my colleagues in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s journalism program. To be perfectly honest, it’s making me reconsider my life decisions. Every single time a layoff happens, the number of highly qualified reporters that I need to compete against for one of the remaining jobs in the industry increases. Even stranger is that the number of Master’s degrees in journalism programs increasing across Canada. There were only two programs before 2000, at Carlton and the University of Western Ontario. Today there are sev-
en, with UBC hosting one of them. To me, this just looks like credential creep, and pulls journalism further and further away from people who can’t afford to go into debt or an uncertain job market. More education certainly isn’t a bad thing, though. Last year Sportsnet donated $250,000 to our journalism program, and while my journalism requirements are done, I know several people who get to go to hockey games with press passes. This sort of thing is excellent for anyone trying to get some experience, especially in sports journalism, which is one of the sectors that isn’t shrinking. Another unshrinking sector is
business journalism. To my understanding, there currently isn’t a course for it at KPU, although taking a few business courses is always an option for journalism students. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy that there are so many people interested in journalism, and so many willing to go through a four-year program. Anyone willing to tough it out, and to go through the drudgery of hunting down freelance gigs and competing against a ton of people for a job, likely deserves it when they get it. But honestly, it sounds a little scary to me.
Join the Let’s Be Compassionate Club for their screening of documentary film Vancouver Aquarium Uncovered at the KSA Grassroots Cafe. The film will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker. 6 - 8, Grassroots Cafe, free.
mar 30 KSA AGM
The Kwantlen Student Association is holding their Annual General Meeting on the Surrey campus. Have your voice heard as they determine the future of the society that represents you! 1 - 4, various rooms across the campuses, free.
mar 31 KWS - O Canada, Happy 150
Birch Renovation Completion Date Remains Uncertain
News Briefs
Alyssa Laube | Associate Editor The Surrey campus’ renovated Birch building is still closed to students despite its projected completion date of Mar. 17. The date was written on a poster outside of the renovation area and placed there by Great Building Solutions, the general contractor for the club and constituency side of the building’s construction. Although the Kwantlen Student Association was the group that contracted GBS, they cannot attest to why they cited Mar. 17 as the projected completion date on the poster. “That wasn’t from us. We haven’t put up any signs whatsoever about the Birch space,” says Tanvir Singh, VP
Student Services for the KSA. “What happened is that building construction was supposed to end in the last week of March or so. We were aiming for a beginning of April opening week, and that was the original plan ever since about January.” According to an email from Craig Regan, the Interim Executive Director of KPU’s Facilities Services, “The General Contractor put the sign up to inform passersby of the project and contacts in case of issues, conflicts or general interest.” “The construction is complete and a second contractor is currently in the site installing the new furniture and wall partitions. The general contractor has applied for final permit approval and occupancy from the City of Surrey. They are now waiting on the City to do so,” writes Regan. “I
don’t believe there is any confusion regarding communications...While this project may be delayed somewhat I am confident that the KSA has been well informed through all of the steps to final completion.” Although there is “not really” a hard deadline for the Birch opening— at least on the KSA’s side—Singh says that the Association is planning a soft launch at the beginning of April and a welcoming party “sometime in May.” Contrastly, Regan believes that “the doors may be opened and the space approved for occupancy imminently – again, depending on the City’s inspection schedule.” The space will remain open to students from that point on, and will include new club and KSA space, a women’s centre, and a revamped cafeteria area, amongst other features.
The KPU Wind Symphony is is performing a full concert in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. The selection of music will include work from Howard Cable, Rita Defoort, Joshua Sung, and more! 7:30, Langley Campus Auditorium, $5 for students.
apr 5 Get to Know KPU
This is an evening for parents of Surrey high school students to inform themselves about the opportunities offered at KPU. The event will include a tour of the campus and an education fair. 5:30 to 7:30, Surrey Main, free.
apr 8
Pacific Spirit Trail Hike
Active KSA is going on another adventure, and wants you to come along! Join them for an easy hike through Pacific Spirit Regional Park and be sure to bring loose clothing and a refillable water bottle 11 - 2, Pacific Spirit Regional Park, free.
04 News
The KSA’s New Strategic Plan Goes to AGM Students can vote and provide feedback on the plan on Mar. 30 Alyssa Laube | Associate Editor The Kwantlen Student Association is recommending its recently drafted strategic plan—which is the first comprehensive guide to be used as an organizational framework by the KSA—to its annual general meeting on Mar. 30. The plan will help direct the Association for the next three years. It opens with a statement from KSA President Alex McGowan before launching into the KSA’s mission, vision, and values. A list of priorities from 2017 until 2020 are explained in detail over the next dozen pages before the document concludes with a “Moving Forward” section outlining the implications of its existence for future council members. The list of values in the first few pages of the plan was developed through brainstorming and discussion sessions between KSA councillors. After much deliberation, the terms they settled on as values were advocacy, leadership, learning, service, integrity, and social justice. “We tried to make sure that all the values we talk about and all the things our society represents are represented in the plan,” says McGowan. The KSA’s previous attempt at a strategic plan, which was not often
Councillors discuss the KSA’s new strategic plan at a council meeting on Mar. 3. (Alyssa Laube).
put to use, lasted for five years. While writing the new one, the Association shortened its term down to three years. “Since this is kind of our first strategic plan, we wanted to give it a shorter time frame so that we could check back in with that in three years and come up with another one,” says McGowan. “Being a student society, we’re a pretty dynamic organization that may see some significant changes in the next three years, so we want
to give students and student leaders the opportunity to check back in with that in three years rather than the traditional five years.” The plan is also generally more specific and thought-out than the former five year strategic plan, and is designed to set up standards and time-oriented goals for the KSA executives, councillors, and staff. Before the plan was officially recommended to the Annual General Meeting, where the KSA’s member-
ship will vote on it, some members of council voiced concerns about the document not focusing enough on student life, which many feel is lacking at KPU. However, McGowan refutes that it fails to focus on socializing and cultural growth. “We wanted to make sure that there was an emphasis on having fun and making sure that, as an organization, we’re providing opportunities for having fun,” says McGowan. “But at the end of the day, we wanted the
document itself to be a professional representation of our plan. I think that our goals for fun are represented in the document, so I’m not sure we’re going to be changing it.” McGowan believes that the most significant shift in the plan from its predecessor is the focus on engagement and communication with KPU students, as well as the establishment of clear metrics to determine what success and failure would look like. The plan is being recommended to the AGM so that Kwantlen Polytechnic University students can be given “the opportunity to provide feedback and vote on it.” “When we, as an organization, want to make fundamental changes to the organization, we don’t do that at the Executive or Council level,” says McGowan. “We leave that to the membership at the Annual General Meeting, so once a year, students have the chance to vote on changes to the organization and a strategic plan is, ultimately, a change for the organization.” “I think, in general, this document is really exciting because it’s going to empower us to all be on the same page and working towards our shared goals with our shared values.”
KPIRG’s New Office Still Doesn’t Feel Like “Home” Though they are happier in the new location, KPIRG staff still long for on-campus space Braden Klassen| Contributor The Kwantlen Public Interest Group officially moved into their new office space at the end of February. It is located in room 204 on the second floor of 7380 King George Highway. The building—which is near the Newton Bus Exchange and contains the community office of Newton’s MLA Harry Bains—is right next door to KPIRG’s previous office, where the group had been operating since August 2015. “We decided to move from the previous office because our main goal was to have a collaborative area for all of the students to come in,” says Kimberly McMartin, KPIRG Director of Board Organization. According to McMartin, the rent for the new space is only slightly higher than their previous office, which was just under $1200 per month. KPIRG decided to lease the space “for more than a year, because [they] don’t think that [they’re] going to get space before the new SUB building is built.” With a size of 804 square feet, the new office is noticeably larger than the previous location. It contains a kitchen area, a smaller office, a sepa-
rate boardroom, and an array of storage lockers. McMartin is confident that it’s an improvement from their previous office. “Here we can have board meetings any time we want. We can have a whole bunch of people over. We can have workshops. We can have different organization meetings,” she says. “It’s really great.” KPIRG’s office also shares the floor with a couple of other social programs, including First Steps, a refugee child settlement program. “At certain parts of the day, there are kids running around,” laughs McMartin. “But then we just give them stickers and they quiet right down.” “It has the potential to be warm and inviting, which I’m enjoying,” says KPIRG Research Coordinator Deanna Fasciani. “There’s enough privacy for directors and staff.” Fasciani also thinks that the group’s relocation is a situational improvement, but that, even though she is glad to have left what she calls KPIRG’s old “closet office”, she still isn’t completely satisfied. “We’re not home,” she says. “There’s a lot of poverty and homelessness, low income families and service groups in the area, so it’s a great place for us to learn more about
Inside KPIRG’s new office space in Newton. (Braden Klassen)
the issues and get in touch with the people who are most affected by really poor policies.” She does see some positive aspects of KPIRG’s office being close to the Newton Exchange. However, Fasciani says that KPIRG is one of only two Canadian public interest
research groups (the other one being the Ontario PIRG in Windsor, Ontario) that has no specified space allocated for their use on campus. “This feels temporary,” says Fasciani, “because we don’t want to be here. It does feel like it’s a loaner. But it’s a comfortable loaner.”
Inder Johal, KPIRG’s Outreach and Communications Coordinator, agrees. “[We’d] definitely like to be back at KPU, but in the time that we are going to be here, it’s a good space and it’s a good location.”
News 05
KPU Joins Learning Beyond Borders Initiative Canadian Bureau for International Education aims to support exchange students Jesse Pottinger In an effort to increase the number of students studying abroad each year, Kwantlen Polytechnic University has joined the Canadian Bureau for International Education’s Learning Beyond Borders initiative. Learning Beyond Borders is “an initiative to get more Canadian students to take advantage of #LearningAbroad experiences in other countries,” as written on CBIE’s website. One of the greatest barriers facing students who wish to travel is insufficient funds. According to CBIE research, 86 per cent of students expressed interest in studying abroad, but 80 per cent of those interested would need financial support. Another obstacle is a lack of understanding about the benefits that an international education can offer to students. KPU is one of over 150 institutions to join the Learning Beyond Borders initiative, and in many ways. KPU International will decide what strategy will work best, and design a program that suits its particular needs. “Each institution has to look at what the most significant barriers are to their particular cohort of students, and how they feel they can best address those barriers through institutional changes,” says Karen McBride, CEO of the Canadian Bureau for International Education. “The issue of self confidence
and risk taking, the soft skills and the knowledge that you gain from learning abroad—the data shows that it very much impacts students career paths, and they are the same skills and knowledge that employers are saying are relevant for where we need to be as a country,” says McBride. Joseph Watson-Mackay, a student ambassador at the International office at KPU, went on a yearlong exchange to Japan. His experience is a testament to the value of studying abroad. Watson-Mackay went to Nagoya Gakuin University in Japan as a marketing managing student to improve his Japanese and learn more about Japanese business culture. During his time in Japan, he worked in the in-
ternational lounge “helping students that are studying English, helping the exchange students that are studying Japanese, and encouraging people to go on exchange.” His work in the international lounge helped land him a job at KPU International, allowing him to connect with KPU students through his experience with studying abroad As a student ambassador, Watson-Mackay is well aware of the issues faced by students hoping to go on exchange, but assures that there are financial resources available. “There are definitely people that want to encourage this. They know it’s important for the future of our global competitiveness. They know
that it does a lot for building self confidence and increasing employability,” says Watson-Mackay. “If you put in the time, volunteer, work on getting those scholarship applications in, there’s a really high chance that they’ll recognize there’s a lot of potential in supporting that.” He adds that it is really difficult for students to picture themselves travelling abroad. To address this, KPU is creating a series of videos called “Studying Abroad – Learning to be Local” where past exchange students talk about their time abroad. The goal is to look beyond the general benefits of going on exchange, and have students share the moments that made their trip special. “It’s really hard for a lot of people to imagine leaving behind friends and family without any connection when they’re going there, but that’s the myth of looking at exchange,” says Watson-Mackay. “You’re not alone when you’re going on exchange like you’re alone when you go as a tourist.” Last year, 20 KPU students participated in international exchange programs. Since this year’s spring semester, 29 students joined a study abroad program. KPU International is working towards increasing the numbers and addressing the challenges through the Learning Beyond Borders initiative and their work with CBIE.
Student-Led “Count on Our Vote” Campaign Goes Live ABCS, KSA hope to encourage students to register to vote in the upcoming election Braden Klassen| Contributor In preparation for the provincial election in May, the Kwantlen Student Association is joining the Alliance of B.C. Students in their Count on Our Vote Campaign. The campaign is an effort to convince students to register to vote in the upcoming provincial election, which the KSA believes is important to students. According to KSA President and Chairperson of the ABCS Alex McGowan, the campaign will be “about empowering students and young people to vote, while recognizing that the current system is failing young people.” Through their future events, the KSA hopes to “provide [students] with more information, let them know about events that are happening in the community, and make sure they have all of the tools they need to vote.” McGowan says the campaign is in part an attempt to challenge the notion that students are too apathetic to vote in the provincial election. “Students definitely vote in lower
numbers than the average population, and we’re often told that that’s because young people are apathetic, and that’s just simply not true,” says McGowan. “There is no data or research to back that up. In fact, the research that is available indicates that, if anything, millennials and younger people care more than older generations and are more involved in their communities.” He argues that the lower voter turnout numbers among young people can be explained by a series of barriers including students’ lack of time, heightened vulnerability to family, and mental health-related crises. “There’s a lot more bogging down young people,” says McGowan.“Also, one of the biggest indicators of whether or not someone is going to vote is if they have voted in the past, and if you’re younger, the chances are that you haven’t voted in the past. That’s not through any fault of your own and it’s not because you missed the election, it’s just because you weren’t old enough.” There are also some systematic barriers that present challenges to younger demographics when they go
to vote. “Young people are using different communication platforms than there were in the past,” says McGowan. “We’ve seen a huge change in communication systems for this generation but Elections B.C. and the government, as well as the political parties, haven’t really adapted yet. So young people in general are just not contacted as much by political parties and Elections B.C.” Election B.C. sends information by mail to the primary owners of each registered household, which few stu-
dents and youth identify as. “Even if their parents get it, they might not see it,” says McGowan. “And if they’re not living at home, the government might not have their most recent address, so they might not get anything, or it goes to their landlord who might not pass it along.” The ABCS Count on Our Vote campaign website is set to formally launch in the second week of March. On it, students will be able to volunteer and find out more about the campaign.
KPIRG Holds AGM, Elects New Director Braden Klassen| Contributor The Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group’s Annual General Meeting was held on March 13 in the Cedar building conference room. The purpose of the AGM was to give student members a chance to vote on motions proposed by the PIRG, as well as vote in the new director, Zafreen Jaffer. “I’m really interested in social justice issues and environmental issues,” says Jaffer. “I just got back from parliament as a part of the Daughters of the Vote, and I learned a lot there. It’s really important for young women to stand up and have their voices heard, and I feel like this is one opportunity to do that.” Jaffer will be serving her first full-year term starting April 1, 2017, and ending on March 31, 2018. She says that one of her primary goals in that time will be to get KPIRG on-campus office space. “It would be really effective for us to communicate with students when we have somewhere for students to go, because not all students are able to travel around Surrey,” says Jaffer. “So for us to create a space on-campus, a place for [students] to feel like they can belong, that would be really important for us.” At a few moments throughout the AGM, such as the presentation of KPIRG’s financial report and budget, the meeting had to be paused so that the mandatory quorum of 15 present members could be met before the AGM could continue. “There was some difficulty getting all the people to stay because apparently a lot [of students] were going to class, so a lot of people voted, but they couldn’t stay,” says KPIRG’s Director of Community Affairs Russel Liu. KPIRG’s projected 2017 budget disclosed an income subtotal of $259,285, and an expenses subtotal of $281,084.71 which results in a $22,929.71 deficit. $250,200 of their finances come from membership fees collected from KPU students at a rate of roughly 80 cents per credit. MC and slam poet Dana I.D Matthews performed on stage before and after the meeting, and there were free samosas available for all of the members in attendance.
06 Culture
Radio Free Kwantlen is Still a Possibility Kimberley McMartin is spearheading the push for a radio program at KPU Alyssa Laube | Associate Editor University radio is a beacon of student life on many campuses across the province, but so far in its history, KPU has not produced a program of its own. The idea of Radio Free Kwantlen was approved by the Kwantlen Student Association’s council in 2009. A fee was collected at $0.13 per credit from 2013 to 2015, with $30,000 gathered during the summer and fall of 2013, $50,000 during 2014, and $10,000 collected for the first two semesters of 2015. At that point, and with $83,569 allocated to Radio Free Kwantlen in the bank, Council decided to stop collecting the fee. That money remains untouched in the KSA’s reserves, and is ready to be used as a source of start-up funds for any students who feel the desire to take Radio Free Kwantlen’s creation into their own hands. Back when the idea for Radio Free Kwantlen was passed via referendum, The Runner’s editorial staff was hoping to produce it in their own space. When that didn’t happen, the program failed to progress and its funding began to collect dust.
KPU community member Kimberley McMartin has been trying to get Radio Free Kwantlen active on campus for years (Alyssa Laube).
“We gave it a couple years for students to come together to come up with a proposal that Council could approve of, and then when no students came forward to actually launch it, we decided it didn’t make sense to keep collecting the fee,” says KSA President Alex McGowan. “We
put it on pause by not collecting the fee anymore but keeping the funds available.” Kimberley McMartin is a board organiser for the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group as well as a highly involved community member at KPU. For years she has been try-
ing to get Radio Free Kwantlen off the ground, reaching out to interested contacts and publishing the Creative Writing Guild’s Comma Splice series as an example of what could be in store for KPU students. “I’ve just been trying to prove that it can work. I’ve been trying to do a proof of concept so that young people can get interested in it, see that it can run by itself, and use that money that was collected for it,” says McMartin. “I would love to get more people involved, because if more people are involved, they can give me feedback on what’s working and not working, how to get in touch with different groups, and then I would have people who could take over when I graduate. They can grow it from there.” McMartin has experienced a great deal of difficulty with attracting attention and involvement from students, but refuses “to let it die” because of the program’s potential. “I think it’s a low-cost, highly interactive procedure,” she says. “It could reach a lot of people, like people who are not on campus a lot or have trouble getting to campus, or people who are vision impaired or blind can access it. It’s also a way for people to get experience that they
can’t in other avenues.” Examples of that would be playing music made by artists and bands from KPU, broadcasting news updates, and recording live readings of poetry, discussions, and stories from authors and experts in the community. In order to release the funds, interested students would have to submit a proposal for funding to the KSA and have it approved. Then the Association would need to approve continuing the collection of the student fee for Radio Free Kwantlen’s operation in its annual budget. “It’s something that was approved by students in a referendum and so if someone can come together with a proposal that looks like it could successfully launch Radio Free Kwantlen, absolutely, we are mandated to support that,” says McGowan. “Hypothetically, it’s a good program and there’s a lot of potential, but definitely it’s something that would require a lot of investment from a group of students and not just one student.”
Kwantlen First Nation sets up a GoFundMe page KFN to oppose pipeline construction in Langley
Keely Rammage-Scott|Contributor The Kwantlen First Nation created a GoFundMe page in opposition to the Kinder Morgan Pipeline on Mar. 5. The page allows supporters to contribute directly to the KFN’s water and land protection fund. As of Mar. 19, the page has raised $375 of its $4,000 goal. In addition to listing its donors, the page explains that the Kwantlen First Nation’s traditional lands and the Fraser River are both in the way of the pipeline plans. Page creators say in the description, “We have a strong strategy for moving forward but need your assistance in making the resistance happen!” The page was started by Kwantlen First Nation member and aboriginal artist Brandon Gabriel. “When we first heard about the pipeline it was about five years ago,” says Gabriel. “Kinder Morgan had sent representatives to our community to give a very brief, very vague [explanation], and there was no detail as to what the plan was, and where the actual pipeline was going to go through.” The Kwantlen First Nation’s land that would be affected by the pipeline construction is in Fort Langley at McMillan Island. The pipeline plans show that it’s expected to cut through the Fraser River near the Port
The Kwantlen First Nation is running a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for their Water and Land Protection project. This is their response to the Kinder Morgan Pipeline project. (Stock File)
Mann Bridge, and continue southeast towards Fort Langley before cutting through Indigenous land. “When they came here five years ago, there was an initiative that was started by Kinder Morgan, and it was called the community gifting program, whereby they offer a certain amount of dollars to the community in exchange for support for their pipe-
line development,” says Gabriel. “If you support their pipeline, you will get money for it. That’s without it having gone through the due processes with the National Energy Board and their policies and then the provincial standards, which there were like one hundred and fifty conditions set out by the provincial government, and there were five conditions that
had to be met by the federal government.” When this offer was first put on the table, it was important for the KFN community to explore their options. “The next steps for us were to do our own investigation into the merits of their offer,” says Gabriel. “There was a certain dollar amount that they
had offered us for our support.” The Kwantlen First Nation website reads, “through learning, family, health, our culture and traditions, and looking after our lands and resources, we are tireless in our spirit to make a better world for our future generations.” “We looked at ecological impacts. We looked at our historical presence on the land,” says Gabriel. “We also took into account the fact that the pipeline would be crossing over the Fraser River, which is a very important economic hub for our people in terms of people making livelihoods in the salmon fishing industry, not just out of the industry itself, but also for ceremonial and food purposes as well, which are also protected in the constitution of Canada.” Gabriel explains that, in the end, the Kwantlen First Nation decided they were not going to accept the money, describing it as an outright bribe. “We respect any nations’ right to voice concern about our expansion project. We remain open to meeting with any nation who might have interests potentially affected to incorporate their feedback and enhance the planning and execution of our project with their participation,” says Lizette Parsons Bell, lead stakeholder engagement and communications representative for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, in reference to the KFN’s concerns about the pipeline.
culture 07
Holi Fest Brings Colour to KPU
The Hindu spring festival was celebrated on the Surrey campus Alyssa Laube | Associate Editor Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors, is a celebration of new life, love, fertility, and joy. Every year, it occurs on the last full moon of the Hindu lunar month of Phalguna, falling on the 13th and 14th of March in 2017. A few days early, on Mar. 10, students and staff at KPU celebrated Holi on the Surrey campus. The event was organized by the International Students Office, with International Student Life Coordinator Waheed Taiwo taking the lead on its creation and execution. “We try to listen to our students,” says Taiwo, who decided to hold a Holi celebration after student orientation at the beginning of the semester. Generally, the festival is symbolic of cherishing good’s triumph over evil. Holi is connected to several tales in Indian mythology, such as the story of blue-skinned Krishna and Radha— lovers who overcome having different skin colours by painting Radha’s skin blue to match her beloved’s. “After the orientation, we tried to put on some music, and unfortunately it had already been three hours by then so we had to start running off,” says Taiwo. “That’s when we knew we had to put on an event which would give the opportunity to dance, because most of our events are mostly sitting down. A majority of our students come from India, and so, I thought, ‘What’s a better way to encourage dance and song than Holi?’” The students were clearly excited
Students and staff celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi in KPU Surrey’s Cedar building on Mar. 10. (Alyssa Laube)
by the celebration, given the number of people dancing and singing in the Cedar building’s gymnasium during the event. A DJ spinning Punjabi music stood at a mixing table next to a projector screen showing live footage of the room while Taiwo welcomed students to the Holi festivities, capping off his speech with a few dance moves of his own. Multicoloured balloons covered the floor and hung off of the walls around a large, open space designed for lounging and
dancing. Uncharacteristic for KPU events, the dance floor was filled with between 20 and 50 people moving and laughing all throughout the afternoon. More sat in the rows of seats before a small stage or mulled around the room to eat, drink, and chat. At 3:00pm, Bhangra dancers performed in the gymnasium, and an hour later, the famous and aesthetically astounding ritual of playfully tossing coloured powders into the air
began. Some threw handfuls of neon powder at their friends, strangers, or towards the ceiling. Students uninterested in dirtying their outfits could also choose to get henna done on their hands, snack on assorted Indian foods, or simply take the time to relax with their friends during the event. “As you can see, it has a lot of interest from a majority of the students, so that was one of the reasons,” says Taiwo. “As the International Student Life Coordinator, I’m required to put
on events for our students who are international on-campus. I already had a list of events that we need, but every once in awhile, I have the opportunity to put on some new things, and Holi is one of the things I have decided to have.” Taiwo is hoping to hold a similar event next year, since 2017’s spring semester marked the first time that a large-scale, student-focused Holi festival was held on campus.
Should the Queer Representative Be Called Something Else? KSA student reps debate “Queer” vs “Pride” Braden Klassen| Contributor The possibility of changing the title of “Queer Student Representative” was raised by the Kwantlen Student Association’s council before its Annual General Meeting in April. The current title was adopted in 2007, when a student came to the constituency representative to express the fact that they felt excluded from the community because of the position’s title, which had been “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students Liaison” at the time. “The representative at the time had been approached by a student who was asexual and said, ‘The LGBT’ [title] does not represent me,’ which made the representative realize that the title itself was a barrier,” says KSA Women’s Representative and VP Student Life Natasha Lopes. “Concern was expressed that the term ‘queer’ has been used as a derogatory term in the past and that some LGBT students might be opposed to the name change.”
(Nat Mussell)
Pride Kwantlen shared the concerns of students who were underrepresented by the position’s title, so they supported the name change. The motion was put forward by the KSA to change it to Queer Student Representative, an encompassing term that students agreed was more inclusive of other sexual identities, and it passed. 10 years later, student representatives
are now challenging the name and have suggested changing it to “Pride Representative” instead. “I don’t feel comfortable identifying myself as Queer,” says Kayla England, who is currently the Mature Students Representative, but has served as Queer Representative in the past. “Growing up in Edmonton, there was a real culture where there
were a lot of derogatory terms being thrown around and that was one of them, and it was used as an insult towards me.” “To me, it was almost like a slap to the face every time I was called the queer representative, even though I qualify under that umbrella term.” England supports changing the name to Pride Representative in order to make it “easier for students to understand the positive connotations of the term.” KSA Senate Representative and Kwantlen Polytechnic Interest Research Group Board Organizer Kim McMartin said in an email that she’s “comfortable with both Pride and Queer” as terms. “By the word Queer, I recognize that others maybe are reminded of what others pushed upon them. I feel though there needs to [be] much more feedback from the Pride collective,” she says. Lopes and England also believe that there should be more consultation with the community and constituents before moving ahead with any changes.
“If the student body has something to say, the student body will say it,” says Lopes. “It’s not a simple motion. It’s coming forward with all of that information you’ve gained from your dialogue with the collective, bringing it to the table and saying, ‘Hey, this is why this should change.’ And it’s a long process, but if you want it to be done properly, then it should be done in that manner.” Lopes says she’s not opposed to the name being changed so long as students and members of the community are properly consulted during the decision making process. Without that, she worries that any change would be undemocratic. England says that she’s committed to talking to students to come to a consensus. “In April, after the AGM is completed, I will be doing some consultations with Pride Kwantlen,” she says. “Going forward, I’m actually going to take that upon myself to try and get this community back together because it’s been really fragmented and underrepresented in the past.”
The Many Meanings of In
Words and
Alyssa Laube Ass Scott McLelland a
ntersectional Feminism
d art by
sociate Editor art director
Feminism has historically been dominated by privileged voices. Its first and second waves were largely a white, straight, cisgender, middle class woman’s game. Marginalized groups have been continually pushed to the wayside from the early days of women’s suffrage until now, and the pervasiveness of such exclusivity can be witnessed all over the world. In Vancouver, it’s easy to notice. The women’s march on Washington made waves while ignoring the contributions of women of colour and trans women at the beginning of this year. Many local protests and rallies are still overwhelmingly white and focus on the plight of cisgender women and their anatomy, being represented in the media by pale bodies holding signs covered in uteruses and menstrual products. This type of feminism is not only uninformed, but damaging to women of all identities who are left out of important narratives about human rights and social justice. In feminism, all women must be represented. Thus, intersectionality in the advocacy for women’s rights is not optional; it’s necessary. Feminism and womanhood mean something unique to everyone. For women, that meaning can be deeply personal and complex, and where we fit into feminism is crucial to understanding which problems exist and how we can solve them. During the Americans’ Women’s History Month this March, The Runner spoke to Canadian women of various identities and occupations to better understand intersectional feminism. Their insights and experiences can be read below. Morgane Oger If Morgane Oger wins this April’s provincial election, she will be the first transgender woman to be elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly, representing the BC NDP for Vancouver-False Creek. Oger is an entrepreneur in the high-tech sector and mother to two young children. “I can’t say celebrating women’s history month is a thing for me. Celebrating the achievements of the women now and who have come before us and the achievements of policy change is.” “The life arc of a trans person doesn’t necessarily lend itself to celebrating sisterhood,” She continues, “For me, as a trans woman for example, we still have difficulties with acceptance. Depending on where you are with coming out and transition
and fitting inside of women’s spaces and networks. My coming out was not that long ago and I’m still finding my way within women’s societies and women’s culture, and I’m really liking it.” Oger faced barriers to inclusivity in feminism this year, when organizers from the Vancouver’s Women’s March on Washington denied her the opportunity to speak at their event. Although she believes that the march “was not inclusive at the point of organizing and representation, at the point of participation, it was inclusive.” Still, “the transgender women, the black women in the women’s march were very aware of that general vibe that it was angry white women marching about how Trump is an offence to them as biological animals who are white,” Oger explains. “Women’s oppression has been a lot to do with bodies. A lot of us define ourselves on the basis of our parts rather than our experiences necessarily,” she says. “We have to make room for others who define themselves with their body parts just like we have to make room for others for whom doing that is uncomfortable.” “Women are more than a vessel for some man’s pleasure and incubation and a service provider of child-rearing,” she says. “Yet, when trans identities are torn apart, that’s the argument that those same women use. As an engineer, I rely a lot on logic, and it’s confounding.” On the subject of encouraging inclusivity in feminism, Oger cautions allies to avoid interjecting their opinions into discourses that they are not involved in. “All allies mean the very best, and there’s no zeal like the zeal of the misdirected ally it seems,” she says. “One thing is they need to listen. They need to not speak about things they don’t understand, and having taken a course on it is not the same as understanding it.” Oger will be speaking at UBC downtown for the UBC Dialogues series called Rethinking Gender on Mar. 30. Katie Warfield KPU Communications Professor Katie Warfield, who is “very cognizant” of the privileges she benefits from, strives to use that privilege to collaborate with those who lack it in her community. “I have to sort of situate myself within the various intersections when I talk about my own situation of privilege and oppression, and what I can
offer other people in their network of privilege and oppression,” she says. “I’m white. I’m able-bodied. I’m socio-economically very stable. I’m cisgender, and so within the identity category of women, I have the most privilege.” Warfield weaves feminism into her daily life as an instructor and scholar. Currently, she is writing a book chapter with a trans woman in Victoria named Courtney Demone about a photo project called “Do I Have Boobs Now?”. For the project, Demone “took images of herself topless while she was transitioning and waited for Instagram to censor her images.” “The assumption was that, when the algorithm censored her, then she was passing,” explains Warfield, who also identifies with the LGBTQ+ community and has second authorship on the chapter. Her passion for bringing intersectional feminism into the workplace comes from the understanding that “academia is fraught with gender imbalances, and yet it touts itself as the beacon of liberal thinking and academic freedom.” “I think there’s really a problem if your theory is disjointed from your actions. In terms of bringing it into the classrooms, I see it as a duty to the knowledge I’m imparting, that that knowledge be many knowledges instead of the established knowledge systems that hold up these systems of oppression,” says Warfield. France-Emmanuelle Joly Being a French-Canadian woman, executive director of the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective, France-Emmanualle Joly, feels like she has “a dual identity.” “I was born in B.C. but spent half of my life in France and the other half here. I identify with two cultures, which can sometimes be a little bit of a challenge—a minor challenge compared to many other women, definitely,” she says. “The major thing that it brought up for me was to stand up for what I believed was my own identity and to stand up to people who were saying, ‘You’re not Canadian because you’re from France,’ or ‘You’re not French because [you’re living in Canada]’ and it totally relates to my vision of being a woman. It doesn’t take anything away from me. It’s just who I am.” While working with the Women’s Health Collective, Joly helps wom-
The Many Meanings of Intersectional Feminism en of many different backgrounds and identities. Doing so during her day-today schedule has “reinforced [her] approach to feminism.” “I am reminded every day of the different realities that women can face or live in,” says Joly. “I was lucky to be born in a middle class family and white and privileged, from that standpoint.” “There are things that we forget even if we are aware of a number of things through a feminist lens. Me working at the collective is one of those daily reminders that there are things we still need to fight for, and it can be as simple as accessing health care for women, and accessing health care that takes into consideration the realities of women.” The Vancouver Women’s Health Collective is celebrating its first 45th anniversary this year and is open to all women seeking health care services. Jill Andrew Sizeism—the discrimination against a person because of their size— sucks. Founder of Body Confidence Canada, Jill Andrew, has dedicated her professional life to spreading that message and making size and physical appearance-based discrimination illegal in Canada. “We live in a society where thinness is an unearned, unfair signifier of ‘beauty’ - a beauty that is often rooted in Eurocentric body ideals,” says Andrew. “The main goal of the many unrealistic beautification processes women and and girls are socialized very early on to embrace seeks to erase any sign of failure: fatness is near, if not arguable at, the top of the list!” She asserts that women and girls are expected to achieve an “impossible aesthetic, and one that plays right into the hands of capitalism.” By pressuring them into spending money on image-altering products like cosmetic surgery, waist-training, and diet pills, women are not only being oppressed by patriarchal powers, but capitalistic powers as well. “It’s a relentless tyranny of paradoxical proportions,” she says. “Bodybased harassment such as sizeism and physical appearance-based discrimination is a feminist issue. It is a disability activist’s issue, an anti-racism activist’s issue, an LGBT issue. It is an issue for all of us who are invested in creating safer spaces of inclusivity and social change.” Also identifying as a queer, black feminist in her community, intersectionality is important to Andrew, and she is currently leading Body Confidence Canada’s #SizeismSUCKS campaign to rally against size and appearance-based discrimination.
Natasha Lopes Over the past year, feminism at KPU has been greatly influenced by the Kwantlen Student Association’s VP student life and women’s representative, Natasha Lopes. During that time, she has chaired the university’s feminist collective, Women Organising Opportunities for Women, and written the KSA’s first policy on sexualized violence and misconduct. Lopes was born into a Portuguese family, and although she grew up in Canada, she identifies strongly with the culture. “I come from a female-dominated family, and even back home in the old land, it’s a female-dominated community as well,” she says. However, she still feels the dissonance between her views of feminism and those that are common in traditional Portuguese culture. For instance, although Lopes is moving towards living alone with her fiance, her mother encourages her to stay at home until being officially married. “I realized the conflict between old country and new country, and I didn’t like the stereotypes put on women,” she says. “I think there will always be the conflict, at least in my life, between being born in Canada and going back and listening to what people who were born in another Western country think of it.” Lopes chooses to celebrate Women’s History Month by reading feminist works and focusing on self-reflection. To her, the month “symbolizes the change that we have seen in the feminist community,” in the sense that feminism is “not just [for] biological women” anymore. She is also a survivor of sexualized violence, and has been working on making KPU campuses safer and more inclusive since she entered student politics last year. “I think being incredibly hurt and abused by someone you love changes you and it makes you a little cold and a little louder,” she says. “It took me a very long time to come to grips with what happened and then realize that what happened to me was not unique and obviously is not going to stop, because that’s just one person and I’m just one person. There are over seven billion people on the planet. It gave me the mandate to want to make a change.” Formulating the KSA’s sexualized violence and misconduct policy was one way of achieving that goal, as was planning initiatives with WOOW. As a bisexual woman, she strives to assure that everybody on campus—including members of the queer community—is able to get involved with feminism, either by attending some of her bystander training events, roundtable discussions,
film screenings, or other female and safety-focused events. Kimberley McMartin Rather than celebrating women’s achievements for one month of the year, Kimberley McMartin endeavours to do so every day. She is a board member for the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group, a member of Pride Kwantlen, and a highly involved member of the KPU community. “I think if people just pay attention to one month, then they’re not really paying attention. It’s kind of like Black History Month. If you just celebrate black achievements for that kind of thing, then I believe you’re part of the problem,” she says. “You’re not being a good ally and you’re not being supportive because, for the rest of the year, are you living in ignorance? Are you helping the oppression?” McMartin identifies as an asexual femme person who doesn’t “feel a specific affinity with either gender.” She has physical and learning disabilities which she feels has affected her inclusivity in feminism and her everyday environment. “My needed accommodations aren’t necessarily the same every day. They change, and a lot of people that aren’t used to that can’t handle it,” she says. “There’s also the fact that asexualism is usually not what people see when they think of the LGBTQ community. With asexuals, people don’t understand relationships without that sexual component.” Her learning disability affects the way she speaks and communicates, occasionally leading her to become non-verbal while under stress. That, along with joint issues, allergies, and anxiety, is an obstacle to McMartin and her inclusivity in the feminist and local community. “I think if you say that any place has intersectional feminism, hard stop, then you’re wrong,” she says. “Every day we’re learning that stuff that we thought was okay is actually transphobic or racist or ableist in some way. Every day you’re learning something in a new and better way in order to support someone.” She believes that intersectional feminism starts by engaging in dialogue, and that businesses and organizations are responsible for making social justice a mandatory part of employee training. Having a low tolerance for discriminatory behaviour, checking in with “people who have been historically oppressed” in the workplace, and bridging the gap between people in power and citizens are all essential to the aims of intersectional feminism, McMartin says. On an individual level, she suggests that, “when you do something that of-
fends someone, apologize and change.” Aisha Amijee “Feminism is very deeply layered for me because, as a coloured woman who’s married, being of the South Asian ethnicity, being Muslim, there are cultural norms,” says Aisha Amijee, instructor of digital storytelling courses at KPU. Amijee has two young children and a husband at home, and finds juggling her life as an educator, activist, mother, and wife to be a challenge to her relationship with feminism. The expectations of motherhood that have been imposed on her by others can cause internal conflict for Amijee, who is deeply passionate about both intersectional feminism and her family. “Being a working mom has been really challenging for me because I don’t just work. I love what I do, so I usually put a lot of time and effort into it,” she says. “I have to make that decision every day. Like, is it going to be one of those days where I say to my husband, ‘Okay, get pizza. I’ve got to go do this,’ or do I just stay home and skip this one out?” As a Muslim woman, she feels that “being pigeonholed and being directly misrepresented in the media and stereotyped is super frustrating.” “I think that most of it comes from the misrepresentation of Muslim women. We’re always seen to be more oppressed and helpless, like we have to cover our heads and wear the hijab, and if we’re wearing it, it must be because a man is forcing us to,” explains Aimjee. “It’s really hard to fight that stigma, where people are either feeling sorry for you, or they think you’re very sheltered and closed minded and that you couldn’t express a diverse opinion.” Despite this negative perception of Muslim women, she believes that “it is changing a lot,” thanks to members of her community. “A lot of muslim women are coming to terms with that, if we don’t self-represent, we’re always going to be represented this way, which is either that you’re the Aladdin Jasmine figure or you’re the one that’s always on the news—the veiled woman that can’t help herself,” she says. “It’s just so sad because the religion is so diverse. Interpretations of the religion are so diverse, and muslim women are so diverse.” Next month, she will be instructing a course called Voices of Muslim Women, which, over the span of four Saturdays, will encourage 20 students from diverse backgrounds and ages to “come together to tell their stories on a variety of topics.”
12 Opinion
Vancouver’s 4/20 Event Needs to be Held to a Higher Standard Last year’s gathering was an embarrassment to responsible cannabis consumers Joseph Keller | Web Editor April 20th used to be my favorite day of the year. I looked at the yearly festival as a way of showing the community that cannabis users don’t necessarily fit the negative stereotypes that have been perpetuated for decades, and to showcase the benefits of a substance that never should have been illegal. In recent years however, I can’t help but think that the festival is making myself and other advocates for the green stuff look bad. Last year’s 4/20 smoke-out only served to enforce negative stereotypes. That was the first year where the event was held at Sunset Beach, rather than the traditional location in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and attracted an estimated 25,000 attendees. One would have thought that the more ecologically sensitive location would have inspired event organisers to ramp up the cooperative cleanup efforts that had been successful in other years. Instead, for whatever reason, after everyone had packed up and gone home the beach was left covered in massive mounds of trash. The cleanup was left to the city, on the taxpayer’s dime. It shouldn’t matter what event is
(Keith Harris)
being held or what it stands for. If you bring together 25,000 people in a community space—and more importantly, an ecosystem—like Sunset Beach, you better be prepared to make sure that space looks like it did at the beginning of the day. Considering that the old stereotype of the lazy, unclean, inconsiderate stoner still persists in the minds of many in the community, last year’s
event was not a good look for a Vancouver cannabis community. Despite their precarious legal position, the dispensaries of Vancouver have largely been accepted by the people of the city by adhering to responsible business practices. They train their employees extensively in carding anyone who comes through the door to ensure they are above age with the same standards one would
expect in any liquor store. The best of them maintain strict quality standards for their product, utilizing high powered microscopes to examine it for pesticides, mold, insects, or other contaminants. They do this not just to ensure that they can continue to exist but because they—the best ones at least—care about the wellbeing of their patrons. These same standards don’t seem
to apply to the venders at the Vancouver 4/20 festival, where none of the stands ask for ID and seemingly anyone is allowed to sell product with whatever amount of quality control each individual seller cares to conduct. This doesn’t create a good or accurate representation for Vancouver’s cannabis dispensaries. Cannabis legalisation is, hopefully, right around the corner in Canada. Last April 20th, the federal government announced its intention to introduce legislation to end prohibition. That legislation is expected to be unveiled next month. It’s my hope that this Vancouver tradition can grow with the country’s policy. I hope to one day attend a fully sanctioned 4/20 festival complete with event organised security and cleanup crews. I’m picturing something very similar the Vancouver Craft Beer Week, where newly legal producers and distributors can showcase a vibrant local industry and a product that can improve lives. In the meantime, if we’re going to continue to have the unsanctioned festival it will be up to everyone involved to make sure that it’s one the entire city can still be proud of.
The top contenders in the NDP Leadership Race Niki Ashton campaigns as “polar opposite of Kellie Leitch” Calvin Borghardt| Contributor The NDP leadership race now has a quartet of political players jockeying for Thomas Mulcair’s vacant seat, and each of them is hoping to pull the party to the left. Unlike the Conservative leadership race, which has over 10 candidates running, the NDP has four people in its race: Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton, Guy Caron, and Peter Julian. Charlie Angus is an MP who is also the NDP’s former Caucus Chair and Indigenous Affairs Critic. According to his website, he wants to ensure that infrastructure projects like dams and pipelines, “have the consent of the people they will impact. This is especially true with projects on indigenous land.” He has also claimed that “the middle class has become the new working class.” Niki Ashton is currently an MP who has served as NDP Critic for Jobs, Employment & Workforce Development Critic, and Shadow Minister for Status of Women and Aboriginal Affairs. Ashton has called herself the “polar opposite of Kellie Leitch,” according to a report by The Winnipeg Free Press on March 7. Leitch is a Conservative MP and leadership candidate for that party. Guy Caron has been an MP since
Niki Ashton announced her candidacy for NDP leadership on Mar. 7. (Niki Ashton/Flickr)
2011 and was the former NDP Finance Critic. The National Post reported on Feb. 27 that Caron claims, “The two biggest challenges Canadians face … are income inequality and climate change,” and his platform primarily focuses on addressing those two concerns. As Prime Minister he would also institute a guaranteed ba-
sic income. Peter Julian is a current MP and a former NDP House Leader. On Feb. 14, the CBC reported that Julian’s address emphasized “growing inequality throughout his speech.” The report goes on to say that Julian plans on narrowing the wealth disparity between the “One Percent” and the
working class by ending tax breaks for the rich and shutting down tax havens. Among these four contenders, the most feasible choice for NDP leadership is Niki Ashton. The 2012 leadership race, which elected Thomas Mulcair, saw Ashton receive only 5.7 per cent of the vote on the first
ballot before being eliminated from the race. However, the NDP Socialist Caucus endorsed her on their website during the 2012 race, claiming that she is “under the circumstances, in our estimation, the best hope for progressive change in the NDP’s top office.” The Caucus was impressed by her willingness to rock the boat, her relatively young age, and her focus on feminism. According to them, all of these traits add to her appeal, and increase the potential for her to move the NDP to the left. She seems to be consistent in her views, maintaining these positions while contending in the current leadership race as well. This is obvious when she calls herself the “polar opposite of Kellie Leitch.” Any member of the NDP who wants to uphold the party’s socialist leanings should cast their vote for Niki Ashton. The previously mentioned endorsement by the NDP Socialist Caucus said that, “while Ashton does not advocate public ownership, she praised the successful effort of the Socialist Caucus at the NDP federal convention in Vancouver, in June 2011, to keep ‘socialism’ in the party’s constitution.”
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14 Opinion
Artist Spotlight: Dana I.D. Matthews
The creative collision of spoken word and hip hop Alyssa Laube | Associate Editor It’s easy to draw parallels between hip-hop music and spoken word poetry. Both rely on rhythm, feeling, and the pleasure of listening, but are undeniably distinct genres in their own right. Dana I.D. Matthews, an artist and poet who performed at the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group’s Annual General Meeting on Mar. 14, not only understands that, but has moulded his entire creative career around it. “It’s not the difference in the two genres that I really worry about. It’s the similarities,” says Matthews. “You can take a rap and make it a spoken word poem and if the spoken word poem is rhyming, depending on the pattern and the flow and if you’re willing to change it, you can make it a rap as well.” “I find the connections strong enough to the point where, if I want to make them individual things, I can,” he adds. “And people can see the clear differences, but if I feel like melding them together into one art that’s also a possibility. It’s that adaptiveness of the spoken art in general that really intrigues me.” Since 2014, he has released six records and is currently in the process of putting out a seventh, one song at a time. Titled Piece of Pie (The Second Slice), the new record is a follow-up to 2016’s The First Slice and will be up to 10 tracks long. “I want to keep it consistent,” says Matthews. “If I keep putting out music every week at a time or month at a
Dana I.D. Matthews combines slam poetry and hip hop music to create impactful art. (Submitted)
time, I feel like that will garner more attention. At least that’s the formula I’m working with this year.” Listening to The First Slice, it’s nearly impossible not to pay attention to Matthews’ lyrics. They’re genuine, deeply emotional, and catchy, flowing gracefully through whichever sounds he chooses to accompany them. The record revolves around hard-hitting beats on one track and ambient noise the next, showing the many facets of Matthews’ creativity. Still, lyrical intelligence is a constant throughout his
entire discography. Dreaming and “chasing after your goals and not quitting even if they seem unachievable” are two important themes in his writing, and if listeners take a message from his music, Matthews hopes that it’s “honesty and development.” “I feel like everybody has this hope and something they want to do that’s great. You can believe but there’s always that bitter doubt where you don’t believe it at the same time. I think that struggle and that chase is
very important in life, at least to me,” he says. “The thing I want people to take the most from my music is that people are different and that’s to be celebrated, not hated on.” “I think a lot of people, in their minds, think they’re weird and that they think so differently from everybody else, and they do, in a way,” he continues. “I want people to accept that part of themselves but also realize that at least some of the thoughts they think are really weird are not as weird as you think. There are other people
out there who do like those things too and you don’t have to be alone. It’s good to spend some time with yourself, but you don’t have to be alone.” At the moment, Matthews also has a review and talk show he’s running on Youtube, as well as an ongoing remix series called Dana Vs Everyone. “I do everything. It’s ridiculous,” he laughs. “I’m just going to keep going. I don’t plan to stop. I’m not going to stop until the day that I die. I’m just going to keep making music until my lungs tell me, ‘No more.’”
British Columbia über alles
The arrival of Uber is inevitable, so the B.C. NDP might as well hitch a ride
Braden Klassen| Contributor It’s more or less official now; ride-sharing enterprises like Uber and Lyft will be coming to B.C., possibly as soon as December. Uber itself hosted an online petition that British Columbians can sign to show their support for the business, with the goal of reaching 75,000 signatures—a goal which will have certainly been achieved by the time you read this article. It seems that most people are excited to replace conventional taxi services and embrace the tech giant’s alluring promise of a convenient and affordable alternative. Strictly from a consumer point of view there’s nothing to lose, which is why the B.C. Liberal Party has decided to hop on the coattails of Uber’s inevitable takeover and turn the company’s expansion into an election issue. The party is promising to approve Uber’s operation in the province if they get re-elected. An easy decision
Premier Christy Clark leads youth panel “The Ultimate TECH Talk: Premier Christy Clark and Generation Now.” (Province of British Columbia/Flickr)
to make. So easy in fact, that they probably could have done this years ago. But where’s the fun in that? Why would the Liberals make everybody’s lives easier by sanctioning ride-sharing businesses earlier in their term when they could just sit on it for a few years before making a big deal about it at election time? The party proudly made the announcement like
they thought it was some kind of ace in the hole that would force the NDP to oppose Uber’s overwhelming popularity, or support Uber and sell out their small-business constituents in the taxi industry. In fact, a cursory glance over the Elections B.C. party donor lists from 2014-2016 reveals that a number of taxi companies have given money to both parties. But as the de-facto
proponents of commercial regulation and defenders of fair business practices, the NDP are much more likely to feel the heat from their benefactors once Uber and Lyft set up shop across the province. Mike Smyth from The Province wrote that this would keep the NDP “on the mushy middle of the fence,” where they’ll be unable to make a decision without looking hypocritical. Fortunately for the NDP, it seems like they won’t have to make the unpopular move of barring Uber from B.C. after all. The multi-billion-dollar revenue-generating juggernaut that is Uber has historically shown that when it wants access to a particular market, it gets what it wants. An excerpt from Uber’s online petition site boasts that the company’s tech-based, app-driven (and ostensibly driver-driven) business model has outdistanced the long arm of the law, and that “existing regulations have not kept pace with technology.” When it comes to expanding its empire, the company is not shy about
exploiting legislative vulnerabilities, and has repeatedly done so with relative impunity. Uber was able to operate in Toronto illegally for years until the city council relented and legalized the service. Innovative, competitive, lucrative—the company’s modus operandi involves many different things, but “playing nice” is not one of them. “There’s no question that ridesharing is coming to B.C.,” wrote B.C. NDP leader John Horgan in an email statement published by Metro News Vancouver. He knows that the party can’t afford to oppose the unopposable, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try to regulate it, especially when their mandate is to raise the minimum wage to $15 if elected. The bottom line is that, come election time, voters will likely have a choice between two parties who support the integration of ride-sharing services into the province’s economy, the only potential difference being in the level of regulation the companies might have to endure.
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Sudoku
Horoscopes
SUDOKU No. 170
Very Hard
4
9 3 6 4
3 5
2
2
6
5 6
9 8
5
8
3 8 4 7
6
7 3 6 9 8 4 5 2 1
6
9 8 1 2 3 5 4 7 6
4
To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains every number uniquely. 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
To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains every number uniquely. © 2017 Syndicated Puzzles
5
5
9 5 4
© 2016 Syndicated Puzzles
5 7 1
4
7 5
4 3 7 2 8 1 6 9 5 9 1 6 3 7 5 4 2 8 8 5 2 4 6 9 1 3 7 5 9 3 7 1 4 2 8 6 7 8 1 9 2 6 3 5 4 2 6 4 8 5 3 9 7 1 1 7 8 6 9 2 5 4 3 The solutions will be published 3 2here 5 1in4the 8 7next 6 9issue. Previous solution - Tough 6 4 9 5 3 7 8 1 2
2 9 6 7 8
1 8 5 3 4 6 2 6 7 2 9 5 1 4 9 3 4 2 7 8 5 3 4 8 6 1 5 7 2 5 1 4 9 7 6 7 6 9 8 3 2 1 8 1 6 7 2 3 9 5 9 3 1 6 4 8 s will be published in the 4 here 2 7 5 next 8 issue. 9 3
.
1 3 8 5
Previous solution - Medium
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
Capricorn
9 Dec. 22 - Jan 20 8This is the week you finally tweet the entire works 1of Jane Austin to your 17 followers. Godspeed You! Beautiful Loser. 2 3 5 4 Aries 7 Mar 21 - Apr 19 6
You’ve been told that Werewolf Mountain is just a name, but why take the chance?
To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains every number uniquely.
1 Tough
7 3 6 9 8 4 5 2 1
You will be the proof this week that people can survive anything.
© 2017 Syndicated Puzzles
3
7
3 Hard
Sagittarius
1 23 8 - Dec 5 3 Nov. 21 4 6 2 6 7 2 9 5 1 4 You hate yourself, but like, you’re also sort of a 9 3 4 2 7 8 5 narcissist? 3 4 8 6 1 5 7 2 5 1 4 9 7 6 7 6 9 8 3 2 1 8 1 6 7 2 3 9 5 Pisces 9 3 1 6 4 8 Feb 20 - Mar 20 4 2 7 5 8 9 3
8 3 9
8 OKU
Previous solution - Tough
Gemini
Cancer
For many strategies, hints and tips, Jun 21 - Jul 23 May 21 - Jun 20 visit www.sudokuwiki.org
If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at Even now your grandfather germinates somewhere all. Unless you’re talking about Mark, the big ugly beneath the soil, growing stronger than you ever knew him to be in life. If you like Sudoku you’ll really like goon.
‘Str8ts’ and our other puzzles, Apps and books. Visit www.str8ts.com
Virgo Aug 24 - Sept 23 This horoscope was intentionally left blank.
Libra Sept 24 - Oct 23 You’ve had some disappointments this year, sure. But come Summerslam you’re gonna win that 8-man steel cage match and become the new Intercontinental Champion!
Aquarius Jan 21 - Feb 19 Put the first draft of your novel away. It will rest for centuries in the darkness of your desk drawer, gathering power over the weak-minded, before it rises mightier and with less adverbs.
Taurus Apr 20 - May 20 Portmanteaus are the work of the Devil, avoid them at all costs.
Leo Jul 24 - Aug 23 This Box That Used To Have Macadamia Nut Cookies In It But Now Only Contains A Bit Of String, Some Rubber Bands, And The Name Of The Man Who Killed Your Father Is Everything.
Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 22 So shall it be in these times: your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and you will shotgun the third through eighth season of Friends this whole week.