The Runner Vol 11, Issue 9

JANUARY 22, 2019 VOLUME 11, ISSUE 9 KPU’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

KPU OPENS FIFTH CAMPUS AT 3 CIVIC PLAZA The new campus in Surrey Central will offer post-graduate business courses as well as testing and assessment services

NEWS

Indigenous Voices at KPU Respond to Arrests Made in Wet’suwet’en Territory

› 05

CULTURE

Slamapalooza Poetry Team Welcomes New Leadership in 2019

› 06

OPINIONS

Mental Health First Aid Kits Have the Power to Help Students

› 13

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STAFF Editor in Chief

Aly Laube editor@runnermag.ca

Managing Editor

Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca

Staff Writer

Braden Klassen staff@runnermag.ca

Production Manager

Sarah Kraft production@runnermag.ca

Graphics Editor

Kristen Frier graphics@runnermag.ca

05 06 08 13

NEWS

Indigenous Voices at KPU Respond to Arrests Made in Wet’suwet’en Territory In a joint statement issued by the Kwantlen Student Association, President Joseph Thorpe and KSA Indigenous Student Representative Sarah Strachan wrote that they are “disappointed in Canada’s actions.”

CULTURE

Slamapalooza Poetry Team Welcomes New Leadership in 2019 “I’ve been doing this forever. It will be five years come May. For now it’s collective, but I will be passing down to these guys,” says Slamapalooza organizer Simon Massey, about team members Chelsea Franz and Tawahum Bige.

FEATURES

KPU Opens Fifth Campus in Surrey Centre The Civic Plaza campus will host classes for post-baccalaureate and graduate diploma programs under the School of Business as well as the Continuing and Professional Studies programs.

Classes, which started at the beginning of January, run from Monday through Saturday.

OPINIONS

Mental Health First Aid Kits Have the Power to Help Students Tina Chan, a first year student at the University of Waterloo, has developed a mental illness first aid kit called the Panic, Anxiety, and Stress Support (PASS) Kit to help students who experience serious mental health issues while on campus.

Web Manager

Alex Rodriguez web@runnermag.ca

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

HASHTAG KPU

Post on Twitter or Instagram about or around KPU and you could be featured!

CONTRIBUTORS Thomas Buecking Amanda Grundle Lisa Hedmark Cristian Hobson-Dimas Kristine Hui Kayci Roy

COVER BY Braden Klassen

Spring Semester 2019 Student Publication Fee opt-outs available in person from Feb. 1 - Feb. 28 Student ID and proof of registration and payment are required PIPS Office: Arbutus 3710, Surrey campus Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778-565-3801 www.runnermag.ca Vol. 11, Issue no. 9 January 22 // 2019 ISSN# 1916 8241

Hours: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Monday to Friday Phone: 778-565-3801 Email: office@runnermag.ca

All submissions to The Runner are subject to editing for style, quality, length, and legality. The Runner will not publish material which the editors deem to be harmful or discriminatory. The views expressed within the publication are not necessarily those of The Runner staff or of the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society.

The Runner is student-owned and operated by Kwantlen Polytechnic University students, published under the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society. The Runner recognizes 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 KPU is adaptable and changing, so is The Runner.

EDITORIAL

FROM THE EDITOR

What The Runner learned at the journalism conference you helped pay for Aly Laube | Editor in Chief As students, you give us money to create an engaging newspaper and to help us become better journalists.

The fee you pay to the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society as part of your tuition goes not only to The Runner but also to Pulp Magazine, our school’s arts and literature publication. We share an office on the Surrey grounds, which some of you may have visited already. For those who haven’t, you're invited to come by during one of our afternoon meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays to get a better sense of what we do and how you can get more involved.

It’s in that office that the staff members of The Runner do most of their work. When our writers and editors aren’t out interviewing, covering events, or researching, they’re plunking away at laptops and holding meetings on the third floor of the library. Our team is small, so it’s easy to keep busy, and all of us are passionate about what we do.

Sometimes there are anomalies in that packed but streamlined schedule. For instance, every year, The Runner’s team meets to decide whether or not they want to attend NASH, an annual student journalism conference that takes place in a different city in Canada each winter. We went last year—my first NASH—and learned a lot. I wrote about it in my editorial then, too, and I’ve chosen to do so again because I feel like it’s important that you know what we do with the funds you pay to us. Part of that is understanding how we and, by extension, our community, can benefit from the conferences we attend.

This year, PIPS sent five employees to NASH: our Managing Editor Connor Doyle, Staff Writer Braden Klassen, Graphics Editor Kristen Frier, Operations Manager Scott Boux, and myself. Each of us had our round trip to Calgary and conference admission, including three nights of accommodation, covered. This

JAN. 24

KPU has invited Virago Nation, an all-Indigenous burlesque collective, to perform on the Surrey campus. This will be the first event of several, so check it out early!

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm,

Cedar Conference Centre, free.

JAN. 25

MUSIC FACULTY SHOWCASE

Five of The Runner's staff members attended the Canadian University Press's annual conference from Jan. 3 to 6. (Kristen Frier) totaled $2,730.60 in hotel fees and tickets and $1,979.74 in flight expenses, leaving the total price of our attendance at NASH at $4,710.34.

That’s no small amount of money.

Knowing this, we opted to use it wisely.

NASH brings student journalists from all over the country together to connect and learn from each other, but it also provides them with invaluable opportunities to meet with titans of the industry.

This year, some of the most exciting names in Canadian journalism provided keynotes and led panels in Calgary’s Hotel Arts. Connie Walker, CBC investigative journalist and creator of the award-winning podcast Missing and Murdered, opened up the conference.

Suzanne Craig, who broke the history-making New York Times investigation of Trump’s perpetration of tax fraud, spoke on the last night of the event. In between were days full of panels, workshops, keynotes, and get-togethers designed to cover everything from the busi-

ness of journalism to visual storytelling and reporting on hate groups.

During each of the six blocks of programming held daily, attendees could choose from three events. Because every member of The Runner who attended the conference had such a wildly different skill set, we ended up spending most of the conference in different rooms, learning as much as we could to fill the gaps in our own abilities and perspectives.

I knew that this year’s NASH was worthwhile when our team arrived at the Calgary airport excited about our work and full of fresh and inventive ideas. We’re starting out the new year with optimism and ambition, ready to take a critical look at ourselves and the world around us. We hope you’ll come along for the ride in 2019 as we do our best to reflect the KPU community in smarter, braver, and more creative ways than we have before.

would like to focus on in his position as executive director is encouraging student involvement in the organization.

“The things that you can do while you’re here can give you an edge for practical experience once you leave here,” he says. “Student associations or student newspapers are examples of organizations that can help students recognize that they have more abilities than they think.”

He also says that he would like to provide more resources to students to help them succeed within the KSA. “The reason that I am here is because of the opportunities I’ve been given,” he says. “One of the things that I’m trying to encourage us to do here is to work better as a network of groups, so the individual departments can feel like they are able to operate on their own, and whenever possible, to try to have more student inclusion.”

At the first faculty showcase of 2019, current faculty members will be joined by former students in an evening of vocal quartets. Find out what KPU’s music department has to offer!

7:30 pm,

KPU Langley Auditorium, free.

JAN. 29 HOW TO APPLY FOR KPU AWARDS

Ever wanted to know what it takes to win a scholarship from the university?

Get the low down on all the awards, and how you can apply for them, by registering for this workshop.

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm,

KPU Surrey campus, free.

JAN. 29

ARTS, SCIENCE, AND NATURE: IN CONVERSATION

The latest installment of the ongoing Science World Speaker Series will see KPU’s artist in residence Sylvia Grace Borda discuss how art and science can encourage increased public engagement with complex subjects.

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm,

Science World, free.

KSA Hires New Executive Director A months-long search for the Kwantlen Student Association’s next executive director concluded with the hiring of Benjamin Newsom in December. Newsom had already been performing the duties of the position since July 11, when the interim period following the resignation of the former executive director, Jeremy McElroy, began.

Newsom has years of experience with different roles in the association, such as helping to negotiate the B.C. U-Pass program, developing the KSA Multipass Program, and serving as the Manager of Student Services.

Prior to working for the KSA, Newsom was employed with the Capilano Student Union from 2005 to 2007. He also gathered experience working with the B.C. Government Employees Union from 2011 to 2012.

Newsom says that one of the things he

WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS MONTH “MEDICINE IN OUR VERY BONES”

NEWS BRIEF Braden Klassen | Staff Writer

3

The president of the KSA, Joseph Thorpe, predicts that Newsom is “going to do a really good job” as the new executive director.

“He understands the students really well.

He understands the organization really well, so I think the KSA is in really good hands,” says Thorpe. “He advocates for students getting experience and developing themselves, so I think for future execs and council, he’ll be someone who they’ll really appreciate.”

“Especially in Student Services, whenever possible, if someone wanted to be involved in something, I’d always offer [the chance],” says Newsom. “Various projects that we work on here that are big ideas—I always want to have a student that’s involved to work on that, because it’s a big thing. How many times in your life are you going to be able to say that you did that? Maybe just this one time.”

FEB. 1

IS BEING VEGAN A MORAL REQUIREMENT?

Speaker Michaela Lucas will explore whether or not we all have a moral obligation to be vegan in a society that offers most of us a wide variety of choices about what to eat.

11:30 am - 12:30 pm, Cedar 2110, free.

FEB. 3

SURREY INTERFAITH PILGRIMAGE

The KPU Multi-Faith Centre has teamed with Surrey’s Interfaith Council to once again host a pilgrimage that visits several places of worship around the city.

9:30 am - 5:30 pm,

pilgrimage begins at Thien Ton Buddhist Temple, free.

4

NEWS

KSA Prepares Referendum Questions for February Elections Read the questions now to decide how you want to cast your ballot on Feb. 12 and 13 Braden Klassen | Staff Writer The Kwantlen Student Association is currently preparing for a referendum through which students will vote on a number of issues concerning the student fees. The referendum will run on Feb. 12 and 13 across all campuses, with the results announced shortly afterwards.

Below are the referendum questions that will be posed to the student body, along with brief explanations about each of them. Note that the wording has not yet been finalized, so each question may be different on the ballots.

“Do you agree to continue the U-Pass BC program for all eligible Kwantlen Polytechnic University students at $42.50 per month beginning May 1, 2020; and allow for up to a 2% annual increase (with fees rounded to the nearest nickel) thereafter?”

The U-Pass BC program was designed to help students save money by charging them a lower monthly rate than TransLink’s normal fare, which is $174.00 per month for a threezone pass. The current fee that students pay is $41.00 per month. Students experiencing financial hardship can apply for the Multipass Hardship Bursary, and receive partial or full Multipass subsidies if they qualify.

“Do you approve of the removal of the Battle Impark Fund and Fee, and for any money held at the time of dissolution to be used for the creation and support of Scholarships and Bursaries?”

The Battle Impark Fund was instituted in 2009 to help students appeal parking tickets and towing fees from Impark. At the time of its creation, the KSA then cited Impark’s

(PXHere) “continuing diabolical campaign of terror against the students of Kwantlen” as the inspiration for this fee.

“Do you approve of the removal of the Fair is Fair Fund and Fee, and for any money held at the time of dissolution to be used for the creation and support of Scholarships and Bursaries?”

The Fair is Fair Fund is a Special Purposes Fund established in 2009 which was “used to balance the marketing and promotions of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) by creating and distributing free marketing materi-

als which offer an alternative view of the CFS.” “Do you approve that all monies in the Public Interest Research Group Fund as of September 2019 be allocated to the creation and support of Scholarships and Bursaries?”

This fee was collected by the KSA and remitted to the Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group on a semesterly basis. In April 2018, KSA Council voted to stop remitting the collected fees to KPIRG after it came to light that one of the research group’s founders, Richard Hossein, had allegedly committed fraud, taking

approximately $112,000 from the organization.

“It reduces the [fee] collection to $0, so students will no longer be paying for the fee,” says KSA President Joseph Thorpe. Right now, there is at least $100,000 in the KPIRG fund that would be released.

“In the future, if students decide—or KPIRG comes forward—and students want to pay for it again, it can go to referendum and students can vote to increase the fee back to a certain amount …. Then students would begin paying again and it would go into the KPIRG account.”

B.C. to Offer Post-Secondary Students 24/7 Mental Health Support The service will supplement similar resources available at colleges and universities across the province Cristian Hobson-Dimas | Contributor According to a press release from the B.C. government, college and university students across the province will soon have access to mental health support services for 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

“Whether mild or severe, mental-health concerns are very real among post-secondary students who have been calling for action to this important issue on—and off—campus,” Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training Melanie Mark said in the release.

“That’s why our government is working to develop a mental-health service that is available to students around the clock, provincewide.”

The announcement comes after years of lobbying from student groups that have made mental health support a major concern in their discussions with the government.

According to the 2016 National College Health Assessment (NCHA), which the government cited in its release, 58.7 per cent of all students surveyed reported experiencing stressors that were “very difficult to handle” within the previous 12 months. The NCHA survey also found that, within the same time frame, a significant number of students had

been diagnosed and/or treated by medical professionals for anxiety (20.1 per cent) and depression (15 per cent).

These statistics, of course, do not account for a significant number of mental health issues that go unreported and untreated.

A joint statement attributed to both the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions and the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training explains that “post-secondary education can come with a number of unique challenges and it’s important that students feel supported.”

“We also know that young people between 15 and 24 years old are more likely to experience mental illness and/or substance use disorders than other age groups,” it reads.

“Currently, there is a lack of after-hours and weekend services available to post-secondary students, and some students face long wait times to access campus mental health services.”

A student at KPU who has made use of the university’s counseling services attests to the benefits of having access to mental health support for post-secondary students.

“The sessions [with KPU Counseling] are extremely helpful and convenient,” said the student, who asked to remain anony-

Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training Melanie Mark announced the creation of a 24/7 mental health support service in a press release. (Flickr/BC NDP) mous. “Not only are they free for all students [through tuition], they are also conducted by caring professionals who really have the best interests of the students in mind.” The university’s counselling services, which sometimes go unutilized by KPU students in need, will soon be subsidized by the government’s provincewide resources.

“The new service is intended to supplement existing services—not replace,” the joint statement explains. “Details for prospective proponents will be outlined in the competitive solicitation that will be posted shortly.”

Representatives from student groups in the

province, including the Alliance of B.C. Students and the B.C. Federation of Students, were also quoted in the government’s release as being in favour of the 24/7 service. “[The] government is responding to pressure from students to take action on improving mental health services,” said Noah Berson, chairperson of the ABCS. “No one schedules a time when they need support, so it’s good that a service will be available outside of regular hours for students regardless of where they’re studying in the province.”

As of now, there is no implementation date set for the government’s service.

NEWS

5

Indigenous Voices at KPU Respond to Arrests Made in Wet’suwet’en Territory

The university administration declined to comment on the RCMP’s arrest of 14 people during the dismantling of a Gidimt’en checkpoint

Braden Klassen | Staff Writer The B.C. RCMP moved to dismantle a gated checkpoint maintained by the Wet’suwet’en First Nation on Jan. 7. Fourteen people were arrested for their involvement in supporting the barricade, which was constructed to keep people off of Wet’suwet’en traditional land.

The RCMP were enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court injunction ordering the dismantling of the blockade. The injunction allowed the employees of Coastal GasLink, a subsidiary of TransCanada, to access the vicinity around the Morice West Forest Service Road and the Morice River Bridge—both areas located in the traditional Wet’suwet’en territory—which hereditary leaders of the five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have pledged to protect.

The position of the hereditary chiefs is in conflict with that of the elected council, which had negotiated a deal with the Province of B.C. in 2014, agreeing to work with CGL following an environmental assessment of the project.

“While these agreements ensure First Nation communities share in the economic benefits of LNG, we are working collaboratively with the Province and other First Nations to ensure environmental priorities are addressed as well,” said Wet’suwet’en Chief Karen Ogen in a 2014 press release.

In the injunction, CGL says that the construction of the pipeline would create approximately 2,500 jobs, worth about $1.4 billion of labour income. According to the document, it would also contribute “at least $500 million in federal tax revenues and at least $100 million in British Columbia provincial tax revenues,” in addition to generating about $20 million annually in property taxes for the regional districts that the pipeline would cross.

Additionally, in return for the land use, the Wet’suwet’en would receive $2.8 million from the province over the duration of the construction process, as well as a share of $10 million in ongoing benefits for the lifetime of the pipeline, which was estimated to be 25 to 35 years.

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs publicly disagreed with allowing pipeline development on their land, and David de Wit, natural resource manager for the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, spoke out against the deal.

“Just the proposed construction alone will impact the water quality, fish habitat, and wildlife abundance. We have never stated that we are against resource development. However, after careful consideration weighing the risks and potential benefits, we are opposing proposed pipelines,” he said in a statement released in 2013.

The pipeline project includes the construction of a 670-kilometre natural gas pipeline that would stretch from Groundbirch, a small community close to Dawson Creek, to the LNG export facility in Kitimat.

The injunction describes the LNG facility as being a joint venture between several corporations including Royal Dutch Shell plc, PETRONAS, and Diamond LNG Canada ltd.—an affiliate of Mitsubishi Corporation—among others.

Members of the Un’istot’en clan had been living in a camp along the proposed pipeline route since 2009 and, supported by the hereditary chiefs, remained firmly opposed

to pipeline development on their land. In the time since, tensions escalated between the Unist’ot’en and the B.C. RCMP as CGL workers tried to gain access to the land.

In 2015, the B.C. RCMP issued a statement saying they had “no intention of ‘taking down the camp’ set up by the Unist’ot’en.”

“Despite what is being portrayed by some media and on social media, the B.C. RCMP would like to emphasize that we remain impartial in this dispute,” it read.

Following these developments, a second camp and checkpoint named after the Gidim’ten clan was set up along the road, which the B.C. RCMP dismantled on Jan. 7, 2019, while enforcing the injunction requested by CGL. Fourteen people were arrested and taken to Houston, B.C., about an hour north of the site. This happened after the original injunction was expanded to include the second checkpoint on Jan. 4.

In addition to the demand that the checkpoint be dismantled, CGL’s civil claim also seeks general damages, exemplary or punitive damages, and costs and interest from individuals involved. The claim says that their behaviour constitutes acts of creating a public nuisance including breach of contract, intentional interference with economic relations by unlawful means, conspiracy, and intimidation.

Before dismantling the checkpoint, the RCMP set up a blockade around the area and prevented the public and media from accessing it. The dismantling of the checkpoint also prompted public backlash to the actions of the RCMP, and rallies were organized in support of the Unist’ot’en in cities across Canada on Jan. 8.

Unist’ot’en members negotiated with the B.C. RCMP on Jan. 9. On Jan. 10, hereditary chief of the Tsayu clan of the Wet’suwet’en, Na’moks (also known as John Ridsdale) announced that the vehicles parked on the bridge blocking access would be moved, the injunction respected, and that CGL workers would be granted conditional access to the land. Still, hereditary chiefs remain opposed to the pipeline development.

Those who were arrested on Jan. 7 allege that the RCMP used an inappropriate amount of force while making the arrests, and video footage of the event shows RCMP officers climbing over the barricade and forcing people to the ground before arresting them.

Comment from Indigenous Community Members at KPU In a joint statement issued by the Kwantlen Student Association, President Joseph Thorpe and KSA Indigenous Student Representative Sarah Strachan wrote that they are “disappointed in Canada’s actions.”

“The government needs to take a hard look at their efforts of reconciliation and how this current action could be detrimental to the relationship Indigenous peoples have with Canada. We wish to ask the Canadian government, ‘When are they going to stop these acts of oppression and learn that this is not reconciliation?’ Indigenous people will continue to resist forced occupation of land as long as it continues to happen.”

Thorpe, who is of Métis and of Cree ancestry,

Sarah Strachan is the KSA's new Vice President Student Life. She and KSA President Joseph Thorpe released a statement saying they were "disappointed in Canada's actions" regarding the dismantling of the checkpoint. (Aly Laube) says that the KSA condemns the actions of the RCMP and the provincial and federal governments as they go against promises set during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“It’s super scary, the fact that this is happening in upper B.C.,” he says. “It’s not that far away. And the Canadian government still questions why Indigenous people don’t like the military, and don’t like cops, and don’t like the justice system. This is why.”

“The second that somebody says, ‘No,’ that should be respected because it’s their land,” he adds.

Lekeyten, an Elder of the Kwantlen First Nation and KPU’s First Nation Elder in Residence, visited family friends in the Wet’suwet’en territory in December.

“The reason why they wanted those rivers protected is because further upriver is where the pipeline would be crossing near the territory, which would mean that everything flowing through that river would affect everything in the Wet’suwet’en territory,” he says.

“There’s hunters going up there every day from the nations to feed their people. That would be gone.”

“It’s the future of our children and our grandchildren,” he continues. “My grandchildren should not have to pick up that fight. It should end within our lifetime.”

In 1997, The Supreme Court of Canada decided during the case of Delgamuukw v.

British Columbia that the government does not have the right to override Indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral territories.

This case is being looked at as a reference point for determining the rights and titles of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to their unceded territory following the 14 arrests made on Jan. 7.

A statement posted online under the “Indigenous Participation at KPU” section of KPU’s Academic Plan 2023 states that the university will “support and embrace the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

“We are dedicated to true partnerships, ongoing communication, and consultation with the local indigenous communities on whose lands our university is located as well as with local community-based and grassroots indigenous organizations,” it reads.

One of the TRC’s calls to action references the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which was made in 2007.

Article 10 of the UNDRIP states that “Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories.”

According to the declaration, “No relocation shall take place without the free, prior, and informed consent of the Indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.”

When The Runner reached out to KPU Media Relations for their input on this subject, the administration declined to comment.

Brandon Gabriel, an artist, member of the Kwantlen First Nation, and KPU graduate, travelled north with Lekeyten to support family friends in Wet’suwet’en territory in December.

“For me, it was a very eye-opening experience,” he says. “I think it really brought home—it made it even closer to my heart—how much I’m still opposed to the pipeline. It only enhanced my perception that these are harmful entities who are using the courts and using tax-funded police resources to inflict violence on people who are upholding their rights.”

Gabriel is a prominent member of the KPU community, and even designed the KPU coat-of-arms presented to the university in 1999. He says he’s not surprised that KPU has decided to remain silent about the recent arrests made by the RCMP, speculating that the administration is “protecting their interests from a legal perspective.”

“It’s upsetting when large institutions don’t voice their concerns about these kinds of issues,” he says. “I think that there’s an opportunity there that they could be missing, that they’re kind of bypassing. I would prefer to see leadership calling out our government for the harms that they cause people, and I think more institutions need to do it.”

KSA Indigenous Students Representative Sarah Strachan is a member of the Gwich'in First Nation, and unlike Gabriel, she was surprised by KPU’s declination to comment on the issue.

“That’s disappointing, obviously,” she says.

“Students need to understand that colonialism is still happening. They’re taking over a territory that’s been proven in court that it’s not their jurisdiction to have any control over.

It’s terrible, and I don’t know what else to say.”

Gabriel adds that he was “really angered by the lack of respect towards the sovereignty of the Wet’suwet’en people.”

“It really irks me when governments and industries don’t respect people who are not consenting to the violence that occurs when they come into the community,” he says. “I’m quite certain that I would not have thought twice about standing alongside the people who were arrested that day.”

6

CULTURE

Slamapalooza Poetry Team Welcomes New Leadership in 2019

“We have so much potential here,” says incoming host Chelsea Franz Kristen Frier | Graphics Editor The organizers of Slamapalooza, KPU’s monthly poetry slam competition, have some big things planned for the new year.

The slam team—as well as the annual trip they take to the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, where Slamapalooza poets compete with other teams from across the country—has long been helmed by Simon Massey. For years he has coached the team, booked the feature poets, and lobbied for the slam’s funding.

But 2019 will see Massey pass the torch to two newer members of Slamapalooza: creative writing majors Chelsea Franz and Tawahum Bige.

“I’ve been doing this forever,” says Massey. “It will be five years come May. For now it’s collective, but I will be passing down to these guys.”

Traditionally, Slamapalooza’s events are somewhat sparsely attended. The poetry slam’s fanbase is consistent, but shifting locations and last-minute schedules would occasionally make attending or competing in the slam difficult. The most recent event, however—held in December and featuring famed Vancouver poet Jillian Christmas— saw a relatively higher turnout than average.

Franz and Bige, who took part in promoting the slam, helped cause this improvement.

“I want this attendance to be [the] minimum,” says Franz, about the December competition.

She and the other organizers of Slamapalooza agree that their ideal event would be so well-attended that the audience would not be able to fit into Birch 250, the student space on KPU’s Surrey campus which has been home to the slam as of late. Instead, they would move back to the Grassroots Cafe, the original home of Slamapalooza.

“When it gets to the point that [Birch 250] literally won’t have the capacity for us, [the Grassroots is] pretty much the only other room that could facilitate us,” adds Massey.

“It’s the only other bookable room that’s not surrounded by classrooms, because [the slam] is really loud.”

The organizers also stress the importance of using word of mouth to expand the on-campus spoken word community. Reaching out to creative writing classes, IDEA classes, and other groups with an interest in poetry—as well as collaborating with the Kwantlen Creative Writing Guild, and building their own social media presence—have been brought up as ways to improve Slamapalooza in the new year.

For his part, Tawahum says he will largely be offering the slam “tertiary support.”

Because he is still interested in competing in

Celebrated Vancouver poet Jillian Christmas performed at the Slamapalooza event in Birch 250 on Dec. 13. (Kayci Roy) the events, he cannot take part in selecting judges or making decisions about payment.

His participation will mostly be focused on improving outreach.

“I’m totally fine not competing, so I’m willing to take over eventually,” says Franz, who will become the new host of Slamapalooza later this year.

Tawahum stresses the value of sending poets to the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word.

“What we brought back from CFSW this year was organizing capacity, contacts and the raw fucking passion to make slam big on campus.”

“We have so much potential here,” adds Franz.

JUST BECAUSE THEY SWIPED RIGHT DOESN’T MAKE IT RIGHT.

Sexual violence and misconduct can never be part of student life.

It will not be tolerated.

Make campuses safe for everyone, play your part.

PROOF#

01

DOCKET #:

132103389 CLIENT: GCPE DESCRIPTION: newprint ads

account executive:

art director:

copywriter:

creative director:

producer:

studio artist:

CULTURE

7

Leaf the Meat Off the Menu at Compassion Con 2019 The totally free, totally vegan event will be held on the Surrey campus on Jan. 31 Kristen Frier | Graphics Editor KPU’s Let’s Be Compassionate Club will be hosting its first ever Compassion Con on the Surrey campus on the afternoon of Jan. 31.

The 100 per cent vegan, 100 per cent free event is inspired by VegFest, which was hosted by Capilano University. There will be plant-based vendors, lectures by a range of influential figures, zero-waste demonstrations, cooking tutorials, and—best of all—free plant-based snacks available there.

“We know there is a community of vegetarians and people who are interested in going vegan,” says Richard MacMillan, co-founder of the Let’s Be Compassionate Club and the coordinator of Compassion Con. “This [event] is supposed to contribute to the shift that’s going on.”

Emily Pickett, Program Coordinator of the Vancouver Humane Society, believes that having events like this on university campuses will have an impact on how students decide what to eat. The Vancouver Humane Society previously helped KPU establish its Meatless Mondays event, which is designed to educate students about plant-based eating.

“We’ve seen polling that suggests young people, young Canadians, are very much open to a plant-based diet,” says Pickett. “They are the ones who are going to be inheriting this planet, so [for them] to learn to eat more humanely, sustainably, and better for their health is super important.”

Geoff Regier, a former undercover investiga-

tor who has worked on farms and in slaughterhouses across Canada, will be speaking at the convention about his experiences with how animals are treated in these facilities. He says that, as a generally progressive population, university students are the “optimal demographic to reach” through such discussions.

“I would describe the work as the best job and the worst job,” says Regier, about his professional history. “Obviously it’s really meaningful work to be part of a movement that’s gradually eliminating and reducing the suffering of other animals, [but] nobody wants to work in a slaughterhouse. It doesn’t feel good, witnessing it and on some level participating in the suffering of animals.”

Another panelist is Mandy Gill, a Reebok-sponsored professional athlete who thrives on a plant-based diet. “[Vegans] get asked about protein all the time,” says MacMillan. “So hearing from someone who is an elite athlete will be very powerful.”

The intention of the event is to help empower students to make well-informed lifestyle changes and to learn about meat-reduction and sustainable living in a friendly and positive way.

“That’s always our goal with raising awareness about plant-based diets and veganism, to be really welcoming and reach people where they’re at and kind of help equip them to move along that journey,” says Pickett.

Regier hopes that he can “help already compassionate student make the connection

Richard MacMillan, co-founder of the Let's Be Compassionate Club and coordinator of Compassion Con. (Kristen Frier) between the foods that they eat and the animals that are slaughtered for those foods.”

If you have ever considered going vegan,

would like to become better informed about your dietary choices, or like Clif Bars, don’t miss out on Compassion Con 2019.

KPU Promotes Higher Education, and Educates the High, at Lift & Co. Cannabis Expo Canada’s biggest cannabis expo was held from Jan. 11 to 13 at the Vancouver Convention Centre Lisa Hedmark | Contributor On the surface, the Lift & Co. Cannabis Expo looks like your average business conference.

For the vendors, many of whom wear lab coats and stand next to large, important-looking metal contraptions, it’s simply an opportunity to network and do business.

That business, however, involves getting Canadians medicated and—post-legalization—getting them recreationally high.

The expo offers more than 200 vendors as well as live speakers on multiple stages throughout the Vancouver Convention Centre. There’s no shortage of interesting information to check out, and most of the vendors are there to showcase a multitude of innovations to the cannabis industry, including changes to how Canadians cultivate, market, analize, and—yes—consume the crop.

One appliance being showcased at the expo was the LEVO, which lets users infuse their own cannabis oil and was recently named the “Kitchen Aid of Cannabis” by Forbes Magazine.

No two booths look the same; some have hanging signs above their booths or smoke billowing from the top of their displays to grab your attention. Every second booth is decked out with comfy couches or beanbag chairs to let attendees hang out on, enjoy the space, and maybe hit the vape. Alcohol is also conve-

niently served at all corners of the convention.

Legalization has opened the door for many investors to make money in the cannabis industry. Vendors joke that competition between companies has grown, but there’s still opportunity for individuals to profit in the industry if they can set themselves apart from the rest.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University had its own booth facing the main stage at the expo to promote its Cannabis Professional Series.

Graduates of the program will have a legup when entering the cannabis job market, which is rapidly expanding in terms of reach and job prospects. The university is also marketing courses to people who may currently work in the cannabis industry and want to hone their skills.

Inside the convention centre, you won’t see any vendors offering products containing THC or CBD, though a few savvy stoners took the opportunity to profit off the expo by setting up a table outside the centre selling everything from dry cannabis to concentrated cannabis and cannabis edibles. Distributing and selling cannabis in this form is not entirely legal, but that didn’t stop some attendees from passing around a blunt in the smoke pit before making use of the convention centre’s food court for some butter chicken.

The Lift & Co. Cannabis Expo demonstrat-

Freelance cannabis salesmen conduct business outside of the Lift Expo. (Lisa Hedmark)

KPU was at the Lift Expo to promote its Cannabis Professional Series. (Lisa Hedmark) ed just a few of the many ways to get involved and profit from the quickly growing cannabis industry. Whether your interest is in science,

technology, agriculture, marketing, or business management, there’s something at the cannabis expo for almost everyone to enjoy.

8

FEATURES

KPU Opens Fifth Campus in Surrey Centre The new campus at 3 Civic Plaza will offer post-graduate business courses as well as testing and assessment services Braden Klassen | Staff Writer

After years of planning, preparation, recruitment, and construction, Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s new campus at 3 Civic Plaza is now officially open for business.

The campus occupies the first five floors of the 52-storey building above the lobby and contains classrooms, study spaces, and both assessment and testing services. It also offers space shared between KPU, SFU, and the City of Surrey that will be the base of operations for a new Community Safety Office.

The Civic Plaza campus will host classes for post-baccalaureate and graduate diploma programs under the School of Business as well as the Continuing and Professional Studies programs. Classes, which started at the beginning of January, run from Monday through Saturday.

The Building The recently completed 3 Civic Plaza, which is the tallest building south of the Fraser River, is a mixed-use building that towers over Surrey Centre. The five floors that make up the new campus sit underneath several additional floors of condos, and beside a Marriott Autograph Collection Hotel. The building was designed with a number of sustainable features in mind, such as hydronic heating and cooling, and using the stack effect of the building to lower its reliance on electric fans for ventilation, which saves energy and money in the long term.

It takes about two minutes to walk from Surrey Central SkyTrain station to the front doors of the building lobby, where KPU students can access the campus via elevator using their student card. Most students will want to check in at the reception desk on the sixth floor to orient themselves before heading to other areas of the campus.

The idea for the new campus, according to KPU Provost Sal Ferreras, was to establish a new branch of the university that “would be embedded within the industrial, economic, and municipal development in Surrey, which is why the location was so important.”

“The significance of our presence would be to increase our connection to the community,” he says.

The first four floors of the campus have large study spaces on the western side, with the windows offering views over Surrey Civic

Plaza. There are six 35-seat classrooms and five 25-seat classrooms mostly organized on the eastern side of the building. A few of them are outfitted with walls that can retract to open up the space, or to make room for hosting events.

“The initial concept for Civic Plaza was that it was going to be different from every other campus we’ve done before,” says Trevor Wong, the director of planning and construction at KPU. “It’s a business-focused campus, really targeting working professionals that were coming here after hours to do their classes.”

There are a total of seven meeting rooms which students can book, and the small-sized north-facing balconies reveal an impressive view of the city. A prayer and meditation room can be found on the fifth floor. The eighth floor functions as the primary space for Assessment and Testing Services, and also has a broadcast centre room, several classrooms, and an employee lounge. The broadcast room will potentially be used for teaching course modules online, broadcasting to other campuses for collaborative purposes, developing media, or even staging mock interviews.

All of the floors are accessible by elevator and are connected by a large staircase on the south end. The ninth floor does not seem to be in use yet, but the plan is for it to be shared

by KPU, SFU, and the City of Surrey. The Community Safety Office will occupy part of the floor and potentially serve as a collaborative space for the Mayor’s Task Force on Gang Violence Prevention, which includes research and involvement from KPU instructors.

First Impressions For most staff and students, the beginning of classes in January marked the first time they were able to access the new campus.

“It’s nice. The classrooms are very spacious, and we have all the facilities, so if we want to sit outside the classroom and study we can and it’s very quiet,” says Puneet Jabbal, a first year international student enrolled in the Technical Management and Services post-baccalaureate program. “If there are students coming from Vancouver or students coming from Abbotsford, it saves time because we can easily go to Surrey Central.”

Cesar Castellanos, a business instructor

teaching in the new campus, says that the classroom amenities like smart TVs and portable whiteboards will help students as they work through their courses.

“It’s very nice, and technologically, it’s very helpful for classes where students need to discuss things in teams and they need to collaborate,” he says. “I think it’s very comfortable. It’s always nice to be in a new environment.”

Students have also voiced appreciation for the Civic Plaza’s proximity to shopping and food amenities, and for being right across from the Surrey Library and City Hall. There is also a Prado cafe in the lobby, in front of the elevator up to the campus, and a restaurant in the hotel adjacent to the building.

Operating Timeline Construction of 3 Civic Plaza began in 2014 and was completed in 2018. The building’s development was overseen by a shared partnership between Surrey City Development Corporation, Century Group, and Delta West Developments in conjunction with ZGF Architects, who designed the building.

Originally announced in June 2014, the new KPU campus was “projected to open in early 2016” according to a KPU press release from that time. However, the project faced a number of delays and adjustments were made to the timeline.

“I remember at one point during the construction some sort of a big leak happened in the elevator shafts, and water leaked into areas,” says Ferreras. “The timing of the construction was, at times, weather-contingent, and there were some delays because of terrible weather, and the construction crew couldn’t get in there and do what they needed to do.”

“When we started, there were some sections of the wall still wide open to the elements, and we were starting to frame without the building fully enclosed, so as the base building was delayed, we were also delayed in getting our work done,” adds Wong.

Ferreras also noted that coordinating the construction of the campus with that of the hotel and condos slowed the process down more than was initially expected.

“There were several clients, and everybody needs different stuff at different times,” says

Ferreras. “Because we run on a semester system, once we have a delay, then immediately it delays it by one or two semesters.”

KPU used some of its capital reserves to purchase the space in the building before construction began, and paid for it without outside financial support from the government. The university is responsible for using the revenue generated by the classes, the rental of the ninth floor, and assessment and testing services to maintain the operation of the campus.

KPU Courses and Programs 3 Civic Plaza will be the base for a few new programs encompassing a suite of classes that are targeted towards business and continuing education.

There are four post-baccalaureate business programs open to students who have attained an undergraduate degree: Operations Supply Chain Management, Professional Accounting Preparation, Technical Management and Services, and Human Resource Management.

There are also two graduate diploma programs: Global Business Management and Green Business Management and Sustainability.

“Business is now global and no longer just local,” says Ferreras, who adds that both post-graduate programs have seen high enrolment numbers.

“I’ve been around for a while, and I’ve watched education change,” says Wayne Tebb, former Dean of Business who now works as a special advisor for strategic innovation at KPU. “I think the marketplace, both the students and the employers, are looking for more condensed options … partly because of the cost of education and the cost of living. They want to get enough of [an education] so they can go and get some work, but they don’t want to be stopped there. They want to get the next piece, and the next piece, and the next piece.”

“We have the structure to do it,” adds Ferreras. “We have the system for people to register, and now we have the facility to offer it which is SkyTrain and bus-accessible—more than any of our other campuses. It’s an ideal place for that kind of work.”

On the sixth floor, students can ask for directions around the campus. (Braden Klassen)

Some of the floors have reception and study spaces available. (Braden Klassen)

There are six 35-seat classrooms and five 25-seat classrooms spaced out across the campus. Some have walls that can retract to create more open spaces. (Braden Klassen)

The sixth floor of KPU's Civic Plaza campus features a large collaborative study space outfitted with tables, chairs, and funky oval benches set into the wall. (Braden Klassen)

KPU's logo hangs above the staircase on the south side of the campus. (Braden Klassen)

10 FEATURES

Through Times of Loss, Escapism Can Both Help and Hinder A year spent in grief and denial helped me realize the value of personal connection

Cristian Hobson-Dimas | Contributor One foggy Saturday morning in October 2015, distant sirens pulled me from sleep. My phone was still in my hand, where it stayed throughout the night. For reasons unclear at the time, I had developed an obsession with a subreddit called r/Drugs. There, I would voraciously read anonymous stories about hardcore drug addiction, substance abuse, ruined lives, ongoing struggles to maintain sobriety, and failures to begin anew.

I could hear the sirens getting closer. Within minutes, paramedics were piling into the house next door to mine. Maybe I would have been shocked if it hadn’t been happening routinely for years.

What I didn’t know was that that morning would be the last time. Karn, the 15-year-old boy who lived next door to me, was about to lose his three-year battle with brain cancer.

After an hour of paramedics filing in and out of his house, I watched Karn being carried away on a small gurney into the back of one of the ambulances before they all drove off.

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, I opened my phone and continued reading what I had picked up the night before: a story of a suicidal woman who could only find the will to live while completely dissociated on heavy doses of LSD. A week later, my family was at the young boy’s memorial. There was a line forming in the centre of the funeral parlour to see him lying in a casket, but I couldn’t bring myself to stand in it. At the front of the parlour, his father made sounds I’d never heard before— sounds I hope you never have to hear, the sound of a man who has lost his child, the sound of a ruined family, the sound of a lifetime of grief beginning to unfold.

This was the fifth death I had been within arms reach of that year, and it was starting to overwhelm me. The first had been in March, when my former classmate from elementary and high school fell down a steep rock face on a hike near Chilliwack and broke his neck.

Later that spring, my best friend lost his sister to Lymphoma. I remembered how he wept the first time he called to tell me about her terminal diagnosis. I attended her service on the same day as another memorial for a different friend’s mother.

Although I did not know it at the time, reading about other people’s abuse of drugs, their lack of control over their own lives, made me feel as if I had relatively strong control over my own. The narcotics they abused had such power over them. “Nothing has this much power over me,” I reasoned.

But that couldn’t have been further from the truth. While I was fixated on the turmoils and traumas of these faceless strangers, I was successfully neglecting my own. They were still present, gestating deep inside me, forming into something I’d struggle to overcome for years.

In hindsight, the signs that I was developing depression were obvious. Instead of seeking help, my response was to dissociate completely, both mentally and physically. I stopped seeing my friends. I’d go for days without speaking to anyone. I’d spend all my free time in bed, watching TV and reading more drug stories. These anonymous internet storytellers were pretty much the only people I connected to.

I remember learning about one man who was so addicted to opiates that, when he threw up xanax pills onto a public bathroom floor, he ate his own vomit so that his drugs wouldn’t go to waste. I began anonymously commenting my sympathies and support through their struggles. The facade of genuine connection between us manifested.

I consumed dozens and dozens of these stories every day, even while visiting my grandmother in the hospital that summer.

She had hidden for years that she was sick.

She didn’t want chemotherapy or surgery.

The way she put it was that she had lived a full life, and now she was just stuck, waiting.

(Thomas Buecking) She let herself collapse on her kitchen floor and break her hip before she would ever step foot in a hospital.

During the weeks before she passed, I became acquainted with her hospital room neighbours. One, an older man named Ivan, was recovering from surgery on his liver.

Years of alcohol abuse had rendered it useless.

Once he was out of the hospital, he told me, he was going to celebrate with a big bottle of Wiser’s Special Blend Whiskey.

He was a real life version of these stories I had been reading, but this one was too real.

There was a face to them now. There was interaction in real time. I asked him why he wouldn’t stop, and he told me that the burn of alcohol in his body was the only warmth he had felt for years. He had lost his wife many years ago. His kids were too busy abusing their own drugs to be in his life.

It wasn’t until after the fifth death, that of my next door neighbour, that I came to the realization that I was over-indulging in these stories as a means to ignore my own problems. In the same way that these people used drugs to dissociate from their worlds, I was using their stories to dissociate from mine.

The same month that my neighbour died, my sister took me to the Fox Cabaret for my twentieth birthday. I hadn’t bothered to invite any of my own friends. In that crowded, red-lit room, surrounded by strangers, I had never felt more lonely.

I stared as they danced, longing to know intimate things about them without putting in the groundwork of establishing a personal connection first. I longed to know their vices, their wildest dreams, their biggest regrets, their highest highs and lowest lows, the wrongs they could never make right. I could

only stand at the edge of the dance floor, drinking overpriced beer, wondering.

Looking back, in the heart of my depression, the close deaths I had been experiencing over the year left me terrified to connect. All of the anguish, the violent weeping, the candlelit vigils, the condolences, the first Christmas my family spent without my Grandmother—it had been a jarring introduction to the world of real, irreplaceable loss.

It wasn’t until I reached out to the people around me that I was able to start on a path to self-betterment. Connecting with the family and close friends who helped me return to normalcy allowed me to understand that, in a much deeper sense, it wasn’t a year full of such immediate death that had been the underlying source of my depression, but the fear of connection that these deaths managed to instill.

I still remember Karn’s excitement when I used to play guitar for him in the earlier part of his diagnoses. There were breathing tubes in his nostrils everytime we saw him. Even when he couldn’t speak anymore, he still smiled brightly.

And even though his passing put me into disrepair, as did every passing that year, I still hold fond the memories of the people who are now gone. I hold them closer than any of the stories I read as a means of escapism.

Looking back, I discovered that the true value of connection lies within the limited amount of time we have in this life, and although escaping our own realities for a while can occasionally be healthy, it can also quickly turn into an alienating addiction in it’s own right. Even though creating such distance can shield us from pain, it also causes us to lose out on so much of the joy there is to be experienced through connection.

OPINIONS

13

Introducing Free Speech Policies in Ontario was a Good Idea Executed Poorly

The government didn't allow enough time for university administrators to properly coordinate the policies with students and faculty Kristine Hui | Contributor Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms lists “freedom of expression” as a “fundamental freedom” in this country.

The government of Ontario recently reinforced the importance of this freedom by mandating that the province’s universities and colleges have a policy addressing free speech on campus in place by the first day of 2019. Failure to do so, it warned, could result in reduced funding for the offending institutions.

As a result, Ontario’s 24 colleges developed a joint free speech policy written by a group of administrators and a single student. No faculty members were consulted in the process, and the speed and secrecy by which this free speech policy was created has caused division within campus communities.

While there are many who believe this policy is long overdue, RM Kennedy, a college faculty division chair of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, worries that it will only serve to hinder free speech. He cites one aspect of the policy which states that a college “may reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner of freedom of expression to ensure that it does not disrupt normal operations.”

Kennedy believes that this statement interferes with the right to freedom of assembly, and that it is “absolutely bizarre that [postsecondary administrators] think they can regulate the time and place of free expression on a post-secondary campus,” as written in the Globe and Mail.

On one hand, the pessimist in me finds the

Ontario's Conservative government mandated that all 24 post-secondary institutions in the province implement policies governing free speech by Jan. 1, 2019. (Flickr/wiredforlego) notion of a mandatory free speech policy to be oxymoronic, as it sets up boundaries and rules to govern freedom of expression. This takes away from that freedom and puts restrictions on what people say and where and how they say it. The entire situation gives me the impression that the Ontario government does not trust higher institutions to protect students’ freedom of speech and must, instead, force itself into the operations of supposedly independent colleges and universities.

On the other hand, I understand the argument that it makes sense for post-secondary institutions to have free speech policies in order to avoid cases like that of Lindsay Shepherd, the TA from Wilfrid Laurier Uni-

versity who was reprimanded for showing her class clips on a debate from Jordan Peterson about the political correctness of gender-neutral pronouns. The case drew national attention and brought to light the issue of what is and is not protected under the banner of free speech.

Since post-secondary institutions deal with the exchange of ideas and discourse, it ultimately makes sense to draw a clear line between what constitutes free speech and what constitutes hate speech. Especially nowadays, when anyone is able to spew hateful rhetoric online under the guise of free speech with minimal consequences.

If B.C. were to follow Ontario’s example, the

process of creating a free speech policy would need to fairly represent the voices of administrators, faculty members, and students alike.

The panel of policy makers should be representative of a school’s community, and since students and faculty members make up the majority of those communities, they would deserve the most say in crafting such a policy.

In order to create an effective document, fair representation and more open dialogue is necessary. After all, being able to discuss and shape a free speech policy is central to what free speech is all about.

Mental Health First Aid Kits Have the Power to Help Students The University of Waterloo’s PASS kit should be implemented at KPU Amanda Grundle Tina Chan, a first year student at the University of Waterloo, has developed a mental illness first aid kit called the Panic, Anxiety, and Stress Support (PASS) Kit to help students who experience serious mental health issues while on campus.

According to a Maclean’s article written about it, Chan felt that the kit—which includes earplugs, sleeping masks, gum, a stress ball, and flash cards which display symptoms of stress and suggest healthy coping mechanisms—would be more helpful than pamphlets and crisis lines. The flash cards are based on cognitive behavioural therapy, which allows students to complete simple, practical exercises intended to help them relax.

Personally, I think this is a fantastic idea that more schools should adopt. I was very relieved to know that the University of Waterloo was supportive of Chan’s ideas, and that it worked with her to offer the PASS Kits to students. Faculties around the school ordered them for first year students, which is a good way to show that they care want to provide support to those who are struggling. I hope that soon these kits reach second, third, and fourth-year students as well.

Having struggled with anxiety since childhood, I know I would benefit from using

the PASS kits. I would love to have resources on-hand that help me stray away from the negative coping mechanisms I’ve used before, which could range from nail biting to self-harm.

In the Maclean’s article, Chan also mentions a student who used the kit instead of resorting to her eating disorder behaviours, which is something that also hits home for me, as I have dealt with an eating disorder as well. I would love to use this kit as a healthy way to cope and to help replace those behaviours.

I know I am not alone, and that many other people would benefit from using these kits both on and off campus. I’ve met so many people who suffer from anxiety and other mental illnesses who I believe would welcome these kits into their lives.

Students can purchase the kits for themselves and can carry them around in their backpacks and purses. I would even go so far as to say that a kit like this should be mandatory to have in each classroom, and that it can be useful for all students, from elementary school all the way up to post-secondary. They could be added to school supply lists.

Although younger students could be distracted by some items in the kit, such as the stress ball, I see no problem with keeping a PASS Kit or two in the classroom along with the standard first aid kit. This will not only

RE LA X

@ (Kristen Frier) help struggling students of all ages, but will bring awareness to mental illness and make it easier to talk about.

It’s a step in the right direction to equate mental health first aid kits with physical health

ones. Though this is not a cure for anxiety or any mental illnesses, I believe that anything that can provide a healthy way to cope should be introduced into our everyday lives.

14 OPINIONS

Break the Bad Habit of Indulging in Information Overload Kayci Roy | Contributor

Do you remember when children were eating Tide Pods or when the PS4 exclusive Spider-Man video game was released? These events garnered a lot of attention a few months ago, but they’ve been nearly forgotten.

The rapid rate at which we consume media today is harming our ability to properly digest news and events, and is impairing our perception of what is actually important. Content ranging from targeted ads to obscure memes—which wouldn’t make sense to anyone outside of our generation—are muddled together, forcing us to create our own filters in order to categorize what we actually want to see and what we just want to scroll past.

News and information are more readily available now than ever before. On social media, anyone is able to document an event in real time, telling raw stories without editorial interference.

As Mark Manson writes in his book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, “Our lives today are filled with information from the extremes of the bell curve of human experience, because in the media business that’s what gets eyeballs, and eyeballs bring dollars.”

Without being able to decide what is most important in the news, critical information is lost to us. Over time, both meaningful and meaningless information has begun to be processed through the same channels and in similar ways, affecting how we respond to events that would have been much more impactful a decade ago.

Though you may never seem bored, boredom has become a bigger issue in the age of the internet because of our constant intake of information. When one online article becomes boring, there are thousands more to pick up instead. As a result, we end up consuming more information than we know what to do with.

An easily bored audience has caused the lifespan of media to become much shorter. The most obvious example of this is memes. Today you can expect to see a new viral meme every couple of days. All of our media is beginning to follow this trend.

Consistent boredom and rapid media consumption also makes us more interested in looking at what keeps us entertained rather than informed. According to a VICE article by Hussein Kesvani, active participation and interest in politics is at an all-time low.

Without proper assessment of what we’re looking at online, we’ll never stop developing these bad habits. Managing your time online or staying up to date through credibly-sourced news outlets can instantly start to help you control the amount of information you intake, and how well you retain it.

The B.C. Government’s Plan for Electric Vehicles is Unattainable Their goal for all light-duty vehicles to be zero-emission by 2040 is not realistic Lisa Hedmark | Contributor The provincial government’s new legislation intended to eliminate fossil fuel vehicles by 2040 seems too far fetched to be successful.

The lack of charging stations, electric vehicles in dealership lots, and knowledge on the efficiency of hydrogen extraction is a huge issue that the government has not planned on addressing properly. It seems nearly impossible for a whole province to switch over to using electric vehicles within the time frame that the government has determined.

As written in a Vancouver Sun article, “under the new goals, by 2025, 10 per cent of new light-duty passenger vehicle sales in B.C. will be zero-emission vehicles, increasing to 30 per cent by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2040.” However, making these vehicles easier to buy and to drive is necessary to achieving that goal.

The government has named this incentive program CEVforBC, which stands for Clean Energy Vehicles for British Columbia.

The program website states that it “provides point-of-sale incentives on eligible vehicles of up to: $6,000 for the purchase or lease of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle; $5,000 for the purchase or lease of a new battery electric vehicle; [and] $2,500 – $5,000 for the purchase or lease of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.”

Having done some research on these new hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, it seems clear to me that this plan is completely impracticable. Toyota just launched the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle

A KPU student plugs her family’s Nissan Leaf into their new home charging station.

(Lisa Hedmark) called the Mirai. According to their website, “it is powered by hydrogen, enables you to enjoy silent, long-distance driving, zero CO2 emissions driving—while only emitting water from the tail pipes.”

Currently, British Columbia does not possess a single hydrogen fueling station, so extra funding for vehicles that cannot be charged strikes me as a little redundant. According to a video by Real Engineering, to fully charge a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle costs about $80, as opposed to charging an electric vehicle like a Tesla Model 3 for around $20. The video also points out the inefficiency of extracting hydrogen, with a loss of about 30 per cent of energy during extraction. The hydrogen fuel cell tanks in the vehicles are extremely heavy, and as you increase the capacity, the weight also increases rapidly. Therefore, building a vehicle larger

than a sedan with a hydrogen fuel cell system in it is impractical and expensive to run.

Only about 40 per cent of auto dealerships have electric vehicles in stock, according to the CBC, and many don’t even have an electric vehicle for customers to test drive. One woman in a CBC article even went as far as having an electric charging outlet installed in her home, which remained untouched a year later due high electric vehicle demands and long wait lists. To have these charging stations installed is expensive and time consuming, and without having a vehicle to plug it into, the station is useless.

The incentives introduced by the B.C. government can ease the burden of paying full price for a low or zero emission vehicle, but if there are not even enough to fill the current demand, they will be useless to the average citizen.

“Surrey Theme Song” Plays With Funny, And Harmful, Stereotypes

Melvin Medici’s song about the Surrey Jack lifestyle is fun to listen to, but there’s a dark side that it doesn’t consider

Kayci Roy | Contributor As part of an ongoing series of videos humorously depicting the “Surrey Jack” stereotype, Melvin Medici (Melvin Voon) released a video titled “Surrey Theme Song”.

While the videos can be funny, Voon’s work has begun to park conversations about the dark side of the Surrey Jack lifestyle.

With over 76,000 views on YouTube, the video details common experiences in Surrey, such as driving along King George or Scott Road and hanging out at Guildford Town Centre. Many have commented on the accuracy of the song, as well as some of Voon’s other videos like “Types of Asian Guys - Vancouver”.

“The Surrey Jack stereotype is something I’ve witnessed all throughout my high school and so forth, so I decided to make a song as one, but in a comedic and lighthearted manner,” Voon told the Surrey Now-Leader. “It’s all fun and jokes at the end of the day, and it’s also great to see people relating to this song and being entertained.”

Personally, I agree that the video is entertaining. It’s funny, authentic, and avoids being

offensive or derogatory in its depiction of Surrey youth. I may not be a Surrey Jack myself, but I’ve known many people who bear a resemblance to Voon’s character in the song.

However, the Surrey Jack stereotype also comes with traits not mentioned in Voon’s song. Young men and women referred to as Surrey Jacks are also often associated with being involved in drug dealing and gang violence. Multiple cases of young teenagers being stabbed or shot in the city made headlines in 2018, prompting an anti-gang rally and leaving Surrey citizens wondering if more children would lose their lives to gang violence.

Surrey youth are vulnerable to violence, and a 2017 report by the Mayor’s Task Force on Gang Violence Prevention wrote that “some youth in B.C. join gangs because of a choice to pursue the gang lifestyle, instead of a necessity due to a lack of opportunities.”

Being involved in these groups can create a sense of community and acknowledgement for youth, with recruiters convincing preteens to join through promise of reward for completing dangerous tasks.

Considering this, Voon’s video isn’t prob-

lematic in itself, but it brings up the question of whether or not we should be taking the stereotype a little more seriously instead of just looking at it as a joke. Voon’s audience is mostly comprised of young people in Surrey, many of whom aren’t seeing the problems with drug dealing and gang activity from the inside, as such, they may not understand that glamourizing and ridiculing this culture can be dangerous.

Cracking jokes about Surrey Jacks detracts from the seriousness of the issue, meaning people are less likely to take the idea of changing things seriously. Kids thinking about joining the gangs who don't recognize the risks can become much more likely to involve themselves in dangerous situations.

By eliminating this stereotype, and the frivolous coverage of it in the media, we’ll be working to save young lives. Realizing how serious the situation is, and working together to prevent more young people from getting involved with the wrong groups, is essential to combating this growing problem.

PROCRASTINATION

15

HOROSCOPES

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

You’re kind of a big deal. In the way that, like, a flaming garbage bin rolling through the Macy’s Day Parade, just fucking knocking into floats left and right, is kind of a big deal.

Rumours of your death were only slightly exaggerated. They were referring to the fact that you’re dead inside.

Beginning this week, no one will ever laugh at the jokes you tell. They will stare blankly at a space just above your nose and say, “Technically you are very clever.”

Pisces

Aries

Taurus

Your entire week will be permeated by a sense of ominous positivity. You will feel good about yourself—you have no say in the matter.

Things will turn out well for you. Or else.

The Russian spider sits atop the world and watches for more victims.

Performing a tracheostomy on yourself is a fun and inexpensive way to get that hip new vocal-fry sound everyone’s been raving about.

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Your dreams of gaining entrance into the sacred halls of Valhalla to dine alongside the gods and the goodly warriors of old will go unfulfilled after a social media influencer refers to your fashion sense as “no Gucci.”

To escape awkward or cringey scenarios, simply fold into yourself up like a towel. Just keep folding yourself inward again and again until you reach that sub-molecular nothingness where the bad thoughts can’t follow.

The owl that kills you will find no purchase in the empty belfry of your bones.

Nov. 23 - Dec 21

Dec. 22 - Jan 20

Feb 20 - Mar 20

Mar 21 - Apr 19

Jun 21 - Jul 23

May 21 - Jun 20

Virgo

Libra

Aug 24 - Sept 23

There will always be a Garfield.

SUDOKU

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

Sept 24 - Oct 23

The hills have your eyes.

Jan 21 - Feb 19

Apr 20 - May 20

Jul 24 - Aug 23

Scorpio

Oct 24 - Nov 22

Don’t put your mouth near what your teeth want.