The Runner Volume 10, Issue 10

january 30, 2018 VOLUME 10 // ISSUE 10 kpu’s student newspaper

WHO WILL REPRESENT YOU? Polls for the Kwantlen Student Association elections will be open on Feb. 7 and 8

News

Feature

Opinions

Male Nurses Work Through Stigma to Provide Care

A First-Hand Account of the Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

KPU’s Stern Smoke-Free Policy Might Be What Students Need to Quit

2 table of contents

staff 04

News|Male Nurses Work Through Stigma to Provide Care

Coordinating Editor Alyssa Laube editor@runnermag.ca

Managing Editor

Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca

Production Manager

Melanie Tan production@runnermag.ca

Art Director

Nicola Kwit art@runnermag.ca

Photo Editor

Braden Klassen photos@runnermag.ca

“When I saw the title, I definitely hesitated because I didn’t have much knowledge or context of what nursing was, just whatever I’ve seen in TV or movies,” says psychiatric nurse and recent KPU graduate Josheal Jessel.

12

features|No More Stolen Sisters

Lorelei Williams found herself thrust into the forefront of Canada’s epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A combination of colonialism, racism, and sexism let a national crisis go unaddressed for years, and has silenced the voices of the families who have suffered. Now Lorelei is seeking justice not only for those families, but for herself.

16

culture|Bhangra Music and Dance Brings Rhythm to KPU Classes

“It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you are, or what’s happening in your life,” says KPU instructor Gurpreet Sian. “When you hear Bhangra, and especially when you see the dancing and the colours, the energy and excitement … there’s just a happiness, a positive energy that’s infectious.”

20

opinions|KPU’s Smoke-Free Policy Might be What Students Need to Quit

The decision for KPU campuses to go smoke-free came after the university administration received complaints about smoke on campus, even while the school was complying with all provincial bylaws pertaining to smoking.

Staff Writer

Joseph Keller staff@runnermag.ca

#FeatureTweets Web Editor

Mel Pomerleau web@runnermag.ca

Use #kpu or #runnermag in your tweet, and you could be featured in the next issue!

Community Reporter

Ashley Hyshka community@runnermag.ca

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

contributors Mia Davison Katherine Dolmat Kyrsten Downton Sandra Hunaidi Daniella Javier Tristan Johnston Nat Mussell Jesse Pottinger @Reslus Leah Rosehill Isabella Wirz

Cover by Braden Klassen

Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778.565.3801 www.runnermag.ca Vol. 10, Issue no. 10 January 30 // 2018 ISSN# 1916 8241

Spring Semester 2018 Student Publication Fee opt-outs available in person from Jan. 16 - Mar. 16. Hours: 10 - 5 Monday to Friday.

Student ID & proof of registration and payment required.

Phone: 778-565-3801 PIPS office: Arbutus 3710, Surrey Campus.

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 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 KPU is adaptable and changing, so is The Runner.

editorial 3

From The Editor

The Fets whiskey raid was a pathetic use of city resources

What’s Happening this month

jan. 31 Chatterbox

The Peer Support Team at KPU is offering a new event series where students can connect with their peers, participate in activities, win prizes, and enjoy free snacks and drinks.

11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Birch 250, free.

feb. 1

Smoothies with Sal

(Nicola Kwit)

alyssa laube | Coordinating Editor Vancouver is fraught with crises.

The opioid epidemic has ended thousands of lives, homelessness remains an enormous issue, and the housing shortage is sending the city’s affordability into a terrifying nosedive.

This is why it’s appalling that— while all of this and more plagues this city—the cops and their counterparts still manage to find time to walk into a swanky whiskey bar off of Commercial Drive to raid $40,000 worth of booze.

According to the Fets Whiskey Bar owner, 242 bottles of specialty whisky were whisked off by government officials and the police because they weren’t purchased through the Liquor Distribution Branch, which all B.C. liquor licensees are required to go through when buying product.

What apparently spurred the decision to conduct this raid was a complaint filed against a bar in Victoria, which eventually led to the Vancouver location. And while what Fets did was technically illegal, it hardly war-

ranted the confiscation of hundreds of bottles of single-cask whiskey, and certainly didn’t cause direct harm to anyone buying or selling it.

The local business owners and their employees, however, have now been left to count pennies and scramble to recover what was lost in the “prohibition-style” raid. That catchy phrasing, which is how Fets described it to the press, has now encouraged conversation across the province about B.C.’s archaic liquor laws.

When you consider the seriousness of the injustices being done in our communities, the whole event seems like an excuse to address what can only jokingly be described as a crime.

An online Vancouver Sun poll shows that the mass majority of the publication’s readers agree.

As of Jan. 23, 84 per cent of poll participants who were asked “Was the whisky raid at this Commercial Drive bar heavy handed or fair?” responded that they felt “It was heavy handed. That law needs to change.”

If only a small sliver of the population agrees that the raid was worth-

while, it’s time for the city police and government inspectors to look at themselves in the mirror and consider how to invest in something smarter.

If Fets Whiskey Kitchen had been a government-run liquor store instead of a private one, it never would have been raided. The latter are able to purchase bottles of the liquor that were confiscated, but are unable to then sell that liquor to other stores. If bottles of specialty whiskey changed hands from one liquor distributor to another—a practice which licensees commenting on this event say has been happening out in the open for years—suddenly the government is sending men in uniform to remove them from the premises.

Officers on the job aren’t needed in B.C. bars that sell specialty liquors which were fairly bought and collected. They’re needed on the streets, on patrol, in consultations with the public, and in crisis situations. What the government could possibly gain from either destroying or holding hundreds of bottles of whiskey in storage— other than oh-so-heroically laying

down the law—is a mystery.

If this practice is really peeving off the province, authorities can give businesses like Fets a slap on the wrist or two before taking more serious punitive action. Waltzing into a local bar with no warning and the intent of conducting an undercover sting is more than just unnecessary.

It’s insulting and unethical. There are other problems to be focusing on, and there are other people who really do deserve to have thousands of dollars of substances taken away from them (like B.C.’s fentanyl dealers, for instance).

With the NDP liquor review currently underway, we can hope that this won’t keep happening in the future. And maybe, just maybe, we will see our law enforcement working on what this city truly needs.

correction: “The profitability of the alt-right” published on nov. 28, 2017 On Dec. 11, 2017, PIPS received correspondence from a Crossroads, Texas lawyer, Mr. Jason L. Van Dyke, writing on behalf of the Proud Boys and its founder, Gavin McInnes, requiring that The Runner immediately cease and desist all false and defamatory publications concerning both Mr. McInnes and the Proud Boys and that The Runner retract and correct the below statement that appeared in the above article:

“Gavin McInnes, VICE co-founder turned Rebel Media associate and creator of the racist Proud Boys group, is also well-versed in this business.

He is an openly anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, misogynist, and transphobic dumpster fire of a human being, but his articles and videos (with titles like “10 Things I Hate About Jews”) draw clicks, which translate into ad revenue.”

PIPS retracts the above statement

and has corrected the statement as follows: “Gavin McInnes, VICE co-founder turned Rebel Media associate and creator of the “Proud Boys” group, is also well-versed in this business. He has published contentious remarks on social media, but his articles and videos (with titles like “10 Things I Hate About Jews”) draw clicks, which translate into ad revenue.”

Enjoy some delicious smoothies with the KPU Provost and Vice President, Academic Sal Ferreras, while he talks about new KPU curriculum.

11:00 am - 12:00 pm, KPU Surrey Grassroots, free.

feb. 4

Interfaith Pilgrimage

As part of Interfaith Harmony Week, KPU’s Multi-faith Centre is holding this pilgrimage through Surrey, stopping at various places of prayer and worship. They will be walking 16 kilometers in all.

9:30 am - 5:00 pm, Thien Ton Buddhist Temple, free.

feb. 7 & 8 KSA 2018 Elections

You have the power to decide who will represent your faculty, your campus, or your identity within the Kwantlen Student Association. So make sure to rock the vote!

10:00 am - 7:00 pm both days, all KPU campuses, free.

feb. 13 Substance Use in Surrey

KPU’s Criminology department will be hosting this lecture on drug and substance use in the City of Surrey.

You don’t have to be a criminology student to get informed.

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm, Surrey Cedar Boardroom, free.

feb. 15 KDocs Opening Night

KDocs is KPU’s annual documentary film festival. This year there will be 14 films shown over a four-day period, and the documentaries will be accompanied by keynote speeches from activists and filmmakers.

5:00 pm - 10:00 pm, Vancity theatre, $5 - $12.

4 news

Legal Trouble Between the KSA and the BCFS Concludes braden klassen | photo editor For years, the Kwantlen Student Association and the British Columbia Federation of Students have been embroiled in legal disputes over the student association’s attempt to leave the federation via referendum in 2013.

The BCFS claimed that the association owed outstanding fees which invalidated its right to host a petition, and further disputed that the KSA’s petition had received the minimum amount of signatures to trigger a referendum.

After four years, it seems that these issues have finally been resolved in court. When the KSA’s budget operations worksheet for 2018 was released, the line item dedicated to “Legal & Professional Fees” was reduced from $250,000 to $50,000 in allocated funding, indicating that the association is confident that the case will be concluded this year.

“We’re not predicting any lawsuits in the new fiscal year,” says KSA VP Finance & Operations Rawan Ramini. “We are done with our lawsuits with the BCFS … so we’re not expecting any major expenses.”

This news comes after a development in the case which was published by the B.C. Court of Appeal on Jan. 17. Justice Harvey Groberman ruled in favour of neither party, saying that only the impartial KPU Office of the Registrar could determine the validity of the signatures.

“From a practical standpoint, it would have been sensible for the parties to discuss and hopefully resolve discrepancies among themselves, perhaps with the assistance of the Registrar,” wrote Groberman in the court document.

“Even a brief dialog would have demonstrated that the numbers used by the [BCFS] were obviously flawed, and that the Registrar’s original assessment of the total number of eligible voters was probably accurate.”

Gorberman pointed out that, of the 165 signatures that the BCFS alleged were invalid, only nine had to be proven valid for the petition to meet the 10 per cent threshold.

“This year, we’re starting off 2018 without being in any legal disputes, so it’s a good situation for us to be in,” says KSA President Tanvir Singh. “It gives us the opportunity to start putting more money back into reserves so if, in the future, we need to use the money for other legal reasons, the KSA [will] have a healthy legal defence fund so that we can protect students if we need to.”

Male Nurses Work Through Stigma to Provide Care for the vulnerable Nursing offers opportunities for meaningful work, regardless of gender joseph keller | staff writer Recent Kwantlen Polytechnic University graduate Josheal Jessel made his decision to become a psychiatric nurse because he wanted to make a positive change in the lives of extremely vulnerable people.

It was only after researching and deciding to pursue KPU’s psychiatric nursing program that the idea of being referred to as a “nurse” began to worry him.

“When I saw the title, I definitely hesitated because I didn’t have much knowledge or context of what nursing was, just whatever I’ve seen in TV or movies,” says Jessel. “So initially I had some hesitance, but it all came back to that [KPU program] description and I was quite satisfied with what I read, so I decided to give it a shot.”

While a recent article by The New York Times shows that the number of men going into the nursing field has been slowly but steadily rising, the profession remains largely occupied by women. Despite a growing need for nurses in a wide range of specialties, there is a stigma attached to the word that has driven countless men away from one of today’s most in-demand lines of work.

“We’re not seeing this huge wave of ‘Oh my goodness, males are taking over the nursing field.’ It’s not happening that quick,” says KPU Dean of Health Dr. David Florkowski. “I think we are starting to see a rise, but it’s a very slow one.”

Florkowski says that the numbers for KPU’s nursing programs are roughly in line with national statistics, with a high proportion of female students and a low proportion of male students.

“I think there’s always been a stigma of male nurses. Usually the health-care adage was, ‘If you’re going into the medical field and you’re a male then you’re the doctor, if you’re female you’re the nurse,’” says Florkowski. “Today, society is still like that. Often you might see a patient in the hospital and a male nurse walks in [and] they don’t say they’re a nurse. The assumption is that they’re a doctor.”

For his part, Jessel hasn’t regretted his decision to go into nursing. These days, Jessel is a member of the Surrey Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team and works with Surrey’s homeless population, providing outreach nursing services. His duties vary from day to day, but they typically include medication defence, injections, doctor drop-ins, outreach visits where he sees to the physical and mental well-being of the client, and naloxone and harm reduction training. It’s a difficult and demanding job, but it provides Jessel with a tremendous amount of satisfaction.

“If you’re working with a vulnerable population, sometimes it’s not how you plan your day to be, so you always have to be adaptable and flexible,” says Jessel. “You got to be able to change things up, but you also have to be able to stay on a structured plan because your whole day’s going to get away from you.”

While a few of the social workers on the ACT team are men, Jessel is currently the only male nurse working there. This, however, is nothing new to him—for most of Jessel’s time at KPU, he had only five male peers in the psychiatric nursing program, with one more joining towards the end.

“Whenever I tell someone I’m in nursing, I usually get a pause or sometimes a smile or a confused look, and then I describe to them what I do and what psychiatric nursing is,” says Jessel. “And then they really understand. They’re like ‘Oh, okay. I never would have thought that’d be nursing. That sounds like it would be a completely different career.’”

KPU psychiatric nursing instructor Tess Kroeker first became interested in the field in 1992. While he was initially interested in becoming a guidance counselor, he discovered that the “nuts and bolts” of psychiatric nursing were very similar to those of guidance counseling. Aspects of the job that interested him, such as counseling, group therapy, and communication, were all present in psychiatric nursing, so he saw becoming a nurse as a more efficient way to help people in the way he wanted to.

“Back in the day when my grand-

parents found out what I was doing, they would say ‘Oh, our grandson’s a male nurse,’ because that was something that was foreign to them,” says Kroeker. “I know that just generally speaking … with people in my extended community, over the years their eyebrows didn’t reach the same peak as they did years before.”

Kroeker and Florkowski both agree that one of the major selling points of nursing as a career choice, be it for a man or for a woman, is that the job is actually several jobs requiring very different skills. It offers very different experiences, all with the unifying themes of care and compassion. Someone seeking an adrenaline rush will find all they can handle as an emergency nurse. Someone who prefers long sessions demanding high concentration would be well suited as an operating room nurse. Those who want to provide comfort to people at the end of their lives can get into palliative nursing.

“You name it, there’s something for you to go into,” says Florkowski.

“I think the diversity of the career is something to promote. It’s a good,

stable job with lots of challenges and lots of opportunity.”

Kroeker agrees, explaining that nursing requires “a general interest in people, an interest in wanting to be a part of improving people’s lives … but there’s also the challenge of the medical knowledge and the skill based pieces of it.”

Albeit slowly, the stigma faced by men in nursing careers is disappearing. Kroeker credits the age of social media and connectedness for providing the public with a better idea of what nursing as a profession truly involves. Changing social attitudes are also helping the ideas of “men’s work” and “woman’s work” to fade away.

“It’s slow,” says Jessel. “I wouldn’t say [the stigma] is going to be gone right away, but from all my experiences through school and now working, all my experiences have been quite positive and everyone has been welcoming, so I haven’t really felt the stigma.”

Male Nursing student Ian Shaw practices administering a vaccine to a volunteer subject. (Submitted)

News 5

CASA Urges canada to Remove Financial Barriers For Students with mental health issues The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations has published a paper that calls on the government to take action mel pomerleau | web editor From being required to divulge sensitive and personal information to shouldering huge financial burdens for their care, students looking for mental health support may face institutional barriers that they weren’t previously aware of.

To address this, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) has published a paper titled Breaking Down Barriers: Mental Health and Post-Secondary Students which explores some of the most common barriers. The document also includes several calls to action for the provincial and federal governments to aid students whose mental health issues are potentially holding them back from succeeding in post-secondary education.

According to the document, “it is concerning that Canadians with mental health problems and illnesses appear to have lower rates of post-secondary credential than the general population.”

Health-care varies from province to province, but there are certain aspects of it that the federal government involved itself in. These include putting “funding into supporting

organizations like the Mental Health Commission of Canada and controlling some of the rules that underpin Canada student loans—which are the backbone of the loans the provincial system provide students,” according to Michael McDonald, CASA Executive Director.

The Canada Student Loan Program (CSLP) currently does not accommodate students needing to take time off from their studies for mental health-related reasons. CASA points to this as a fundamental flaw in the program that only adds additional stress for those seeking academic and financial assistance.

CASA would like to see changes made to the CSLP that would ensure that “students who need to take breaks aren’t punished or don’t have to enter into repayment if they are having to do so for mental health reasons,” McDonald says.

He adds, “It means ... being able to acknowledge that many mental health diagnoses cost significant money to those students.”

A wide spectrum of mental health challenges exist and manifest themselves in different ways, but not all diagnoses come with the level of permanency required to access the

support systems that currently exist to assist students.

One way to help address this problem is to reduce the public’s notion that there is something wrong with those who struggle with issues of mental health. For its part, the Kwantlen Student Association has hosted a number of events—such as the Pieces of Mind Mental Health Conference and a Mental Health Resource Fair, both hosted in October 2017—relating to mental health awareness, advocacy, and well-being.

“It’s important to bring awareness so students know that they’re not alone and that they can get resources,” says Caitlin McCutchen, KSA VP External and the association’s women’s representative. “The worst thing is to suffer alone or to think you don’t have any support.”

McDonald is glad to see that “student governments have been very active fighting on campaigns to make sure there is proper promotion of awareness on campuses,” but feels that, “if we’re not willing to back that up with the dollars to properly support those students … it’s going to be a frustrating challenge.”

According to CASA’s paper, targeted funding and active support

The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations released a paper urging the Canadian government to increase funding initiatives for students with issues of mental health. (casa-acae.com) from the federal government is an essential component of ensuring the success of students facing mental health barriers during their post-secondary careers.

“This is something that is going to have to be acknowledged, and it is a clear place for the federal government to have the commitment to ensuring all Canadians have the same access to services across the coun-

try,” states McDonald.

“Having these conversations continues to put pressure on the provincial and federal governments to really start helping out with this,” McCutchen says. “[Universities] pay for all the health services on campus, so I think continuing to talk about it puts pressure on the government to help supplement that.”

Post-Secondary Institutions Across Canada are Hiring More Female Faculty Members The national average has risen to 40 per cent, while KPU has consistently stayed above 50 per cent daniella javier | contributor According to an article by Times Higher Education, the number of female professors in post-secondary schools is higher than it has ever been, having risen by nine per cent over the last six years.

The data, gathered by Statistics Canada, says that women accounted for almost 40 per cent of full-time academic teaching staff at Canadian universities in 2016/17. This was largely the result of a 28.3 per cent increase in the total number of fulltime professors and an 18.2 per cent increase in female associate professors since 2010/11. The findings also reveal that the salary gap between male and female educators is relatively narrow, with women in academia earning between 95.3 and 97.7 per cent of their male counterparts.

Abby Thorsell, Associate Vice President of Human Resources at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, says that—since the university started monitoring gender in 2014—more than 50 per cent of its faculty members have been women.

“As a part of KPU’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, as also evidenced with our President’s support through [The President’s

Diversity and Equity Committee], we strive to hire the most qualified candidates and best talent in support of student success,” wrote Thorsell in an email to The Runner.

While KPU’s commitment to gender diversity is apparent, Sarah Hickinbottom, a part-time faculty member in the school’s Educational Studies department, says that the 50/50 gender ratio is common amongst college and teaching institutions. Instead of focusing on university instructors, she would like to see what the balance is in research institutions, which she says harbour a greater imbalance among male and female professors.

“Research institutions are considered more prestigious and competitive, so women with PhDs, historically, have ended up at colleges, which have now become teaching universities in Canada,” says Hickinbottom.

“That has often been seen as a marker of gender inequality.”

The article in Times Higher Education was based off of various university rankings across Canada. Romy Kozak, KPU Director of Diversity for The President’s Diversity and Equity Committee (PDEC), says that the statistics consider Canadian post-secondary institutions as a whole, including both research and

(Leah Rosehill) teaching-intensive schools.

“Even if you’re specifically looking at faculty, it’s important to look at positions that involve teaching and those that involve research,” says Kozak. “I’d be more interested in hearing about what’s going on in research-intensive universities regarding gender equity.”

Katie Warfield, a faculty member in KPU’s Journalism and Communication department, has mixed feelings about the increase in female

professors. As happy as she is to see more women teaching post-secondary classes, she still hopes to see more progress in the educational system.

“I think that the systems that are involved in getting more women … not just in academia, but in positions of seniority, require a lot of time,” says Warfield. “There needs to be a whole systemic change.”

Both Hickinbottom and Warfield agree that women leading college and university classes sends a posi-

tive message to students and provides young women in post-secondary education with someone to model themselves after.

“When women come into the classroom and [the students] see that their professor is a woman, it’s like a model for something that is possible,” says Warfield. “It speaks to some of these invisible affordances that enable younger people to feel like they can achieve that too.”

6 news

Students Looking For Work Can go to Career Services

The career centre provides information about job postings on and off campus joseph keller | staff writer The Career and Volunteer Services department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University is reaching out to students to help them find meaningful, paid work during and after their time in university.

As part of their effort to help students find work both on and off campus, the career centre has been sending out regular newsletters that include job postings for available positions. Some of the other services offered through the career centre include interview preparation, job search skills training, resume preparation, and portfolio building.

KPU’s Senior Director of Student Affairs, Joshua Mitchell, encourages students to check out the Career Services section of the KPU website to see which workshops are coming up.

They can also make an appointment with a career or volunteer coordinator.

“Given our role as a teaching and a learning organization, we really are focused … [on] how we can make their work as meaningful as possible,” says Mitchell.

He adds that one of the recent focuses of Career and Volunteer Services is engaging students in career planning earlier during their first years in university. To that end, the department has been putting effort into making students more aware of the services that are available.

“We know that students are anxious about what life following graduation might mean for them very early on in their academic career with us,” says Mitchell. “There are a lot of opportunities to work with [students] over four or five years to help relieve some of that anxiety, and help them connect their educational experience with the direction and purpose that they’re headed towards.”

Many of the opportunities found

by Career and Volunteer Services are on-campus placements. These postings can be with various academic departments, student organizations like the Kwantlen Student Association or Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group, or on-campus services like the Grassroots Cafe. Career Services itself employs several dozen students.

Mitchell explains that it’s up to the job posters to add their openings to the Career and Volunteer Services catalogue. As a result, they will not be able to promote all of the positions available on campus, and details about payment and work hours will vary significantly from post-to-post.

Still, he believes that there are a few inherent benefits to working on campus. For one, on-campus employers are committed to working with a student’s academic schedule. Proximity between the workplace and the classroom is also convenient, but the biggest benefit, according to Mitch-

The outside of the Career Services office in the Main building on Surrey Campus. (Braden Klassen) ell, is that many placements allow students to integrate work experience with academic experience.

A sizable portion of on-campus work opportunities are in work studies. These university-subsidized placements are reserved for students with financial need and student loans.

Some open work studies placements recently advertised by the career centre include a “communications & events” position at the newly opened Wilson School of Design, an assistant position at the Langley campus brewing lab, and a student assistant position for the interior design program.

“For students in financial need, they very often won’t have the same opportunity to participate on campus as some other students,” says Mitch-

ell. “[Work studies] is a way of ensuring that they have the opportunity to stay on campus and enjoy the benefits of campus life, ensuring that they have the same kind of undergraduate experience as a student who may not have that need.”

Mitchell says that the Career and Volunteer Services department has been increasing the number of work study placements over the past couple of years. Now, there are about 45 positions that are made available.

The centre also runs a job posting portal called Career Connection, which about 1,800 active employers use. The Career Connection portal is open to both current students and alumni and requires a student number and password to use.

The career centre’s biggest event of the year takes place in March.

Career Day, held on the Surrey and Richmond campuses, hosts dozens of employers giving out information about vacant positions and occasionally recruiting on-site.

“We ask students to bring their resumes and be prepared to explore opportunities that exist right now,” says Mitchell.

The centre also helps get students involved in volunteering. It runs a volunteer expo each September that is very similar to Career Days. Dozens of volunteer organizations and hundreds of students attend, with last year’s event including just over 750 opportunities, according to Mitchell.

The Giants are Exceeding Fans’ Expectations After spending the past several seasons in the WHL basement, The Giants prepare for a playoff run

joseph keller | staff writer Few expected that, at this point in the 2017/18 Western Hockey League season, the Vancouver Giants would be staring down a potentially deep playoff run.

The Giants, who finished their 2016/17 campaign at the bottom of the B.C. Division standings and in second last for the league, currently hold a very respectable 25-4-15 record. This puts the young team comfortably into a playoff position with just over two months to go in the regular season.

“I think we’ve come together as a group throughout the first few months here and we’re a much better team,” says Giants head coach Jason McKee. “We’re getting consistent goaltending and some timely goal scoring. Our special teams have been fairly constant here over the last couple of months. When you add it all up you’ve got a lot of things going in the right direction, and for us the challenge will be to continue to get better at it and continue to grow as a group here.”

At the centre of the Giants’ run from bottom feeders to serious contenders is goaltender David Tendeck.

The 18-year-old North Vancouver native started the season sharing the top spot in net with Todd Scott but

quickly distinguished himself with a series of excellent performances. The stability that Tendeck has provided for the Giants led the team to deal Scott to the Edmonton Oil Kings in December, firmly positioning Tendeck as the team’s number-one netminder.

Despite his calm, collected presence on the ice, Tendeck says gaining confidence in his newly earned role is still his top focus going forward.

“I think [for me] it’s just confidence,” said Tendeck, after the Giants’ 2-0 loss to the Portland Winterhawks on Jan. 20, during which he stopped 25 of 26 shots. In the future, he wants to focus on “playing more and more games in this league, getting more comfortable, and seeing more stuff happen before [his] eyes.”

Tendeck credits a tight, stable game by the Giants’ defence as another important factor in his impressive 0.912 save percentage.

“The boys are playing really well right now. They’re doing the right things, blocking shots, and making my job a little easier,” says Tendeck.

Indeed, the Giants’ defence has improved remarkably since last season, when the team struggled to control the puck in their own end.

The addition of veteran defenceman Brennan Riddle, as well as a coaching focus on improving defencive

Vancouver Giants goaltender David Tendeck makes a glove save against the Portland Winterhawks on Jan. 20. (Joseph Keller) systems, has resulted in a stable Vancouver blueline.

Moving forward, McKee says the team needs to stay on track by paying attention to the small details and habits of their game and maintaining their current attitude.

“If you show up at the rink with a good energy and a good work ethic and you practice the right way, you’re just naturally going to continue to get better as an individual and a group,” says McKee. It’s not exactly a groundbreaking

philosophy, but holding onto that intensity is what showed the WHL that this team has something to prove.

After Saturday’s scoreless loss to the Winterhawks, McKee noted that the team lacked the energy that got them to the point of playoff contention.

The Giants failed to create scoring chances against Portland by moving the puck to the offencive end, relying instead on dump-and-chase tactics.

The loss showed how small the margin for error is, and will continue to be, for this team moving into the

playoffs. “[After the game] we talked about the battle of attrition, doing the right things the whole time. The team that’s able to do that is usually the team that ends up winning the game,” said McKee, following the Giants’ loss to Portland.

If the Giants manage to keep the momentum going throughout the final two months of the season, they just might have their best shot in a decade at winning a second WHL championship.

news 7

Thousands Brave the Wind and Rain to Take Part in Vancouver Women’s March “We have to let our light shine, and let everyone else’s light shine,” said opening speaker Carleen Thomas ashley hyshka | community reporter Pouring rain and strong winds were not enough to dampen the spirits of thousands of people who marched through Downtown Vancouver’s Jack Poole Plaza on Jan. 20.

The second annual Vancouver Women’s March coincided with hundreds of similar events worldwide.

Last year’s march was held in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., which protested the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

The grassroots organization “March On - Vancouver hosted Saturday’s event. Organizer Sam Monckton says the group advocates for diversity and inclusivity, adding that one year after the first women’s march in Vancouver, work still needs to be done.

“We would like to showcase some voices that people have never heard,” says Monckton. “Lift up the people who are more marginalized in the community, because they don’t get a chance to speak out, and their voices are being crushed at twice the rate.”

More than a dozen activists and high-profile figures spoke at the event, which was opened by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Relationships and Protocol Agreements Coordinator Carleen Thomas. She reminded the marchers that “we should look at each other as human beings, and we have to remember that, as human beings, we have the right to be treated with respect, with integrity and honour.”

The most important theme of the march centered on viewing women’s rights as human rights. Violence against women, racism, human traf-

A man marches alongside the demonstrators, holding a sign that calls for the end of rape culture. The top left corner of the sign reads, “I believe survivors.” (Ashley Hyshka) ficking, rape culture, LGBTQ rights, missing and murdered Indigenous women, immigration rights, and affordable daycare were also discussed.

Judi Lewinson, a figure in the entertainment industry, said that “speaking up [as a person of colour] in Vancouver meant screaming at the top of our lungs that the black community is not a monolith.”

“We are not just one thing, one voice or one idea,” said Lewinson.

“Some of us are still screaming, but truth is on the rise!”

Black Lives Matter Vancouver representative Ariam Yetbarek and transgender sex worker Hailey Heartless encouraged the audience to help defend their human rights, not just on the day of the march, but from that moment forward.

“This year, when I was announced as a speaker, I received a lot of hate online from some … transphobic, whorephobic people who really, real-

ly wanted to tell me that I am not allowed to be here,” Heartless told the crowd.

Yetbarek also reminded the audience of the importance of the “Me Too” movement, which was popularized by actress Alyssa Milano but originally created by a black woman named Tarana Burke, who gave a voice to victims of sexual assault and harassment.

Bi-racial Black activist Angela Marie MacDougall noted that, for many women, telling their story can put their lives in jeopardy. Every year in B.C., 14 women on average are killed by their male partners.

While the event was a women’s march,, it was also attended by men and children who walked in solidarity with the women in their lives.

“We all have to work together. Men are always going to be, hopefully, our allies,” says Monckton. “There are sons, there are fathers, there are

brothers. There are lots of good, good men out there.”

Noor Fadel is an 18-year-old Muslim woman who was physically and verbally assaulted on the Canada Line last month. Fadel, who was one of the speakers at the march, is a poet and activist. She fought back tears as she read her poem “I Forgive You” to the audience.

“You will never know our stories, and we may never know yours. Yet life moves on whether we chose to continue or not. I gripped tight to the handle and held myself up, climbed over the hills and saw the view of fields. I tumbled, but I survived, and you couldn’t stop me. No one could stop me,” recited Fadel. “I forgive you, but I will never be sorry. Because this is our truth. This is my truth.”

The last person to speak before the march began was Lorelei Williams, an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls

who performed a dance routine with her troupe, Butterflies in Spirit.

The march took participants from Jack Poole Plaza to Thurlow Street, down West Georgia, and past the Trump International Hotel and Tower.

As they passed, the crowd chanted “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” Afterward, they returned to the plaza where a small closing ceremony concluded the event.

Viki Douglas, a volunteer with the KPU Women’s Centre, was stunned to see 15 neo-Nazi posters hung up around the plaza upon arriving on Saturday morning.

“It was really disheartening to see that, but it’s a reminder of why we’re coming together to march,” says Douglas.

Still, she adds, “It was so empowering and humbling to see various community members whose voices are often silenced be able to have a platform to speak up.”

B.C. Supreme Court Votes to End Solitary Confinement in canadian Prisons

The decision to end the controversial practice is one of the biggest in prison justice history daniella javier | contributor On Jan. 17, the B.C. Supreme Court made a historic ruling by ending solitary confinement in Canadian prisons. The government will have a 12-month period to implement this law before solitary confinement is declared unconstitutional. Until then, prisoners already being kept in solitary confinement will have to remain there.

Prisoners under these conditions are alone for 23 hours a day, spending one hour outside of their cells. The practice of solitary confinement is intended to be a disciplinary action in the correctional system, but Salehah Hakik, the president of KPU’s Prison Justice Club, says that it’s closer to an act of torture. She believes that it is inhumane and a violation of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights

and Freedoms.

“Regardless of how horrible someone is, where do your morals go?”

Hakik asks. “Just because you’re locking someone up doesn’t mean it has to be inhumane.”

Hakik says that solitary confinement also goes against some of the rules listed in The Criminal Code of Canada.

“Under Section 7.18 of the Criminal Code, one of the reasons we lock people up in the first place is to deter, denounce, and rehabilitate,” says Hakik. “If you just [practice] solitary confinement, it doesn’t benefit them in any way [because] it doesn’t follow any of the rules outlined in Section 7.18.”

Alana Abramson, a faculty member in KPU’s Criminology department, says that there needs to be a well-developed strategy that will

help solve these complex issues.

Abramson says it’s hard to imagine, but some inmates request being put into solitary confinement for their own protection. Either they’ve accumulated debts in prison, they’ve been threatened, or they simply want a break from the uncomfortable environment they’re a part of.

According to her, there’s a lot of work to do in order to make sure that prisons aren’t places of oppression.

“Until we start to deal with mental health, as well as systemic racism … we can’t just say that we’re going to eliminate it without a strategy,” says Abramson. “If prisoners are requesting to be locked up for 23 hours in a day, then we have to take a good, hard look at how prisons are operating and why people would want that kind of isolation.”

Alana Abramson and Hakik agree

that Correctional Service Canada needs to invest in more resources for prisons.

“Currently, there’s the idea that prison operates as a form of punishment and offers rehabilitation.

The latter doesn’t stack up [in] that rehabilitation in prison is very limited because of the oppressive conditions and lack of resources,” says Abramson. “Mental health services including detection, diagnosis, and treatment are severely lacking in the correctional system in Canada.”

Hakik adds that the prisons may try to rehabilitate inmates, but if they’re being locked up in a room for 23 hours in a day, they will not be rehabilitated. Instead, they may come out of prison in a worse condition because they didn’t receive proper help while incarcerated.

Still, she worries that there will

be inmates who will take advantage of the new legislation. Without the threat or option of being put into solitary confinement, some inmates may begin to misbehave, and those who sought refuge in being isolated will no longer be able to do so.

Though solitary confinement will soon be unconstitutional, Hakik says that Correctional Service Canada will most likely create another variation of solitary confinement under a different name.

“They will never eradicate the whole issue,” says Hakik.

8 features

Candidates in the 2018 Kwantlen Student Association On Feb. 7 and 8 you have the chance to decide who will represent you in student government THE RUNNER STAFF

Arts Representatives (4 Positions Available)

Natasha Farris | General Studies

Why are you running for this position?

I love being on the KSA. I love trying to create a community at KPU. I’m the chair of the Student Life Committee and I love trying to get people engaged and getting out there, talking to people, and getting them excited. I’m also a new student orientation leader and I find the two really work well together because you get to start meeting all the new students and telling them all of the interesting things that KPU has to offer [and implement their ideas into KSA initiatives].

Why should students vote for you?

I feel like I’m approachable. I’ve already talked to a couple people while running to get people to sign my nomination packages. I’ve talked to lots of different groups. I’ve also been helping get people interested in joining committees on my past term, into running for Council this term … and I feel like that I’m so approachable, [which] makes it easier to talk about their worries or concerns that they have.

Which experiences would you be bringing to this position?

One thing that I’m going to try to work on if I get reelected is that the music students really want to perform more at some of the events, so I’ve already been talking to a couple of the music students about them performing in the upcoming Welcome Weeks.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

Mostly just the disconnect between the actual Council and the student themselves. We’re all student members but sometimes I find that there’s not a lot of exchange between the other students and the Council members. I haven’t been getting out in my past two terms as much as I would have liked to talk to students, so that’s something I really want to work on this time around.

Chelsea Franz | Creative Writing Major

Why are you running for this position?

I want to see our campus community grow. I figure the best way to see this happen is to get involved hands-on with student life. We are very much a commuter school, and that’s okay for those who want it, but I also want community and social interaction to be available to those who seek it … [and] I want all artists to have a chance to engage in conversation with each other, to help one another thrive.

Why should students vote for you?

I’m passionate about what I do. I don’t like to half-ass things. I’m either in it or I’m not. I’m in this.

If elected, the KSA will have my time and commitment as promised, and I’ll be doing what I can to help our community where needed. My dream is to see a flourishing arts community. It’s my goal to create, find, and help hold a safe space for supportive and successful artists here at Kwantlen.

Which experiences would you be bringing to this position?

I’ve been involved with student council in high school, along with a handful of other extracurricular clubs. I’m a dork about these things. I’m eager to participate and plan.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I think that the students’ lack of awareness needs to change. There’s a lot more going on for us and [more] resources at our hands than we sometimes realize. I want to help people see that.

Shonel Kumar | Psychology Major, Counselling Minor

Why are you running for this position?

I wanted to step outside of my boundaries, open myself up to new experiences.

Why should students vote for you?

Three things that I believe in are inclusivity, diversity, and change. I feel like, if people believe in those values, then they can definitely see those values reflected in some of the changes that I would want to make.

Which experiences would you be bringing to this position?

I have been an orientation leader for a couple of years, so I kind of know the ins and outs of mainly the Surrey campus, but I also … have that kind of exclusive insider background of how the university works. I feel like I could definitely bring that to my position here.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

Some of the changes within the arts I would want to see is more stuff to do with open education and reducing textbook costs because that is still a major problem. [I’d also like to see] more study abroad options for the arts. I feel like it’s very limited and I feel like the business students get to dive into that more than arts students do.

Note: Candidates’ responses were edited for length and clarity.

Tawahum Justin Bige | Creative Writing Major

Why are you running for this position?

I want to see more of an arts community here and I see that a lot of folks who used to do the organising ... have graduated, so it’s up to who’s here to take care of it. If we want to see events, then we have to do it ourselves and I’m kind of stoked to have this opportunity. I used to be the Aboriginal Students Representative … [for the KSA, so] I’m definitely in support of Indigenous issues as well as the arts stuff.

Why should students vote for you?

I have two years of experience with Council to start withc so I understand the bureaucracy. I haven’t lost any of that knowledge, so having that information means that I can get right to work as soon as I’m elected. I think that’s a big one, and in my experience on Council, I’ve always been willing to speak my mind and speak from my heart about issues that matter to me and that I think matter to students.

Which experiences would you be bringing to this position?

Two years of experience with Council. I’ve spent a term with KPIRG so I have the bureaucratic side of things. I’m a performer myself, so I would bring that experience if I want to be running performance kind of events … I have a lot of experience with event organising since I used to run the KPU Pow Wow, which happens annually, and that’s one of the biggest KSA events on campus … I also have the experience of being part of the campaign to get KPU to rescind the agreement with Kinder Morgan.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I’d like to see a space that could be dedicated to writing students or arts students in general, but in terms of fundamentally what’s in the KSA, that’s not necessarily going to be my main concern. My concern is what art students want and how I can best deliver that to them.

David Piraquive | Political Science and History Major

Why are you running for this position?

I actually really enjoyed the time I’ve spent in this position and I feel like I want to accomplish more than I’ve done in the past year. I really like advocating for students. I was able to go to Victoria and lobby the government for student issues. I also went to the fair wage commission and talked about students’ perspectives. I’d like to do more of that this year.

Why should students vote for you?

I really care about student issues. I want to do more of that advocacy for students. It’s something I’m really passionate about.

Which experiences would you be bringing to this position?

I’ve been part of the KSA since 2013. I was part of the External Affairs Committee, and there’s the last year I’ve spent on the KSA. What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I think there’s a lack of communication with students. Not many students know there’s an election going on. Not many students know what we’re doing, so I think that’s something we need to work on.

Hannah Cenaiko | Sociology Major

Why are you running for this position?

Since I was in grade six, I ran for student council every year and I never got in … so I didn’t run for the first little while at Kwantlen. I wanted to get my grounding and focus on my schoolwork and I did a lot of volunteer work. But then, finally, a friend of mine suggested it to me, and I’m like, “You know what? I feel it is about time I really get involved, and the best way to do this is through something like this.”

Why should students vote for you?

I’ve been around for a long time and I’ve also been an orientation leader for three years, so I have experience with new students, and I know a lot of the services and a lot about KPU. I think that’s a real asset to have for someone on Council.

Which experiences would you be bringing to this position?

I also served on two committees when I was in high school for the Township of Langley: The Parks and Recreation Community and The Youth Advisory Committee.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

Voter turnout … When I say, ‘Come out and vote,’ they’re like, ‘Can I do it online?’ [and] they won’t come out … Whether it’s the accessibility of it or something online, I just think we could get way more people voting.

Mohammed Amir Makim, another candidate for Arts Representative, withdrew his name from the list of candidates.

Science and Horticulture Representatives (2)

Victoria Kalitowski | Biology Major

Why are you running for this position?

I was interested in it. I have a few friends who were in this position last year, so I did hear quite a few things about it. That kind of piqued my interest in it, and I kind of want to get more involved with the school … I feel like, in this department especially, a lot of students just go to class and then go home or go to class and study so they don’t really participate much in the school. I kind of wanted to try this out and see if I can get more people involved.

Why should students vote for you?

I like to think of myself as fairly extroverted. I feel like I’m pretty easy to talk to so I do get along with most of the other students in the science faculty. I think that is kind of an advantage that I have.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I used to be part of a different organization that was also at KPU [in which] I was head of town management, so I had to work with a lot of the other students and kind of set up events and make sure that everything flowed properly …. I would say that I’m pretty organized when it comes to that and organising events. Mostly I just wanted to get more of a science background into the KSA and get the science students more involved in what happens on campus.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I’m not sure what the politics are at the moment … so I’m not 100 per cent sure what the policies are at the moment. This is just my way of trying to get involved and to see what is actually going on on campus.

Rabia Khan | Biology Major, Medicinal Chemistry Minor

Why are you running for this position?

I’m in science, so I think it’s a really good way to reach out to the scientific community and to students who are interested in science as well.

Why should students vote for you?

I’m the candidate who actually cares about what goes on and how students are in the university. Everybody cares but I really, truly do care. I send emails and worry about students a lot and I really want to help the problems that are going on, because even though this is a really great institution, it’s not perfect.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I am the current representative, so I guess I would use that experience. I already am carrying out the duties so I feel like I’m already in that kind of zone of knowing what’s expected, so I feel like that would help me, just knowing the expectations.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

The KSA’s actually pretty good with their politics so far, but something that I would change is probably a little but of the structure. It’s confusing. It’s difficult to explain because it’s kind of like a textbook. There’s different types of structures and maybe the overall who-reports-to-who situation.

I feel like that could be ever-so-slightly tweaked.

Business Representatives (4)

Shereen Bhatia | Human Resources Management Major

Why are you running for this position?

I want to represent the students because when international students [join a] program, they face many difficulties because the education system is totally different.

They don’t know how to write papers … [and] feel that if they tell their problems to somebody, they probably won’t be able to relate [to] it too much. But as [an] international student, I can relate to the problems very much. I have been through the same process.

Why should students vote for you?

I can be available for them whenever they want. I can answer their questions. I can be a bridge between the students and the faculty, so that the faculty also know which problems students are facing.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

In my home country, I did English Honours and Practical Science and Journalism as my graduation course. We had elections … for president of the college. I was elected for that, so I know how to bring students together and work with them, how to assign them tasks, what they’re good in, [and I can] just function according to their availability.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

As I have some experience from my home country … I think people do their job, and they don’t ask the upper level and lower level students of faculty, like are they doing [things] correct or not, so … they should sit together in a long table conference and discuss what’s right and what’s wrong, so that … a perfect decision is taken, because finding a decision affects students.

Jay Reedy | Human Resources Management Major

Why are you running for this position?

A lot of the skills I already have will transfer very easily into finance and operations. Additionally, there was a big push last year to move what was previously the student services portfolio, which is now the university affairs, into the finance and operations role. I think there’s a big opportunity for whoever’s coming into the role now to look at which services the KSA is offering and how exactly we’re benefiting students with the fees we’re all paying.

Why should students vote for you?

I think I’ve proven over my last year-and-a-half on Council that I have a very good sense of the fiscal responsibilities of the KSA. For the most part, I think my skills lie in more administrative roles.

I think the KSA always needs someone with a lot of experience and insight into the organisation.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

A year as an executive. As the business rep I’ve had a lot of dealings with a lot of faculty members.

I have almost five years of experience in this program. I’m very in-tune with what business students are looking for as far as representation.

What would you like to change about student politics?

The big thing I want to do is move us towards online voting. Voter engagement is sadly low. I think having a program that doesn’t require you to trudge all the way out [to campus] and having a platform where you can vote online to express your ideas is a better way to go about things.

Puneet Bering | Accounting Major

Why are you running for this position?

I want to be the voice of accounting students. Business students as well, because business students are really hardcore and we’re always busy studying.

I’ll make sure that I organize more events, especially events related to business.

Why should students vote for you?

I really like to help people, so that is my main agenda. To make sure everybody gets help for whatever they need.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I’ll make sure that everything I do is good and positive and reflects what KPU and what KSA is. I’m very responsible, so I’ll make sure that whatever I do is for good.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

Something I want to change in KPU is the way students sometimes behave … which is not appropriate. I’ll try to bring up some ideas so that some rules can be made for that behaviour.

Mature Students Representatives (1)

Murdoch de Mooy | Criminology Major

Why are you running for this position?

If I win, this will be my third year on Council. I’ve been around for a little while and I’ve done little bits for constituencies throughout my tenure, made it so people didn’t have to run by legal name, so anybody trans could run under a name that they go by. [I want to] see if I can get the mature rep collective up and running.

Why should students vote for you?

I’ve been doing a lot of good work in the past, and we’re gonna see bylaws coming out in the AGM that I have been working on for the last couple years now.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I have two previous years … of being on Council, so I know how it works by now. I’ve been rewriting the bylaws and regulations, so I know how the organization exists, and how it operates … and [I’m] a mature student myself.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

Get more training for people who are on Council. A lot of times we get people on Council and they don’t know what we’re doing …. Also changing things for disability, working on social justice things … I’d love to have a daycare or something like that, for people who love to go to school but can’t because sometimes it’s just unaffordable.

Jasika Rai | Business Major

Why are you running for this position?

I want to bring [the] concerns of mature people, to help them out and to see what they want with the university.

Why should students vote for you?

I know what our university is and I know more of the people here because I’ve been volunteering for many hours. People recognize me and know who I am.

Most of the people at the university know me so I think I can do this better.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I’m going to gain experience.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I don’t know what is going on in the politics. Being in this position, maybe I’ll know more. I don’t know right now, but I will know soon.

Women’s Representative (1)

Aboriginal Students Representative (1)

Why are you running for this position?

I currently hold the women’s representative position and I found it to be really rewarding. I would label myself as a feminist and I believe that we need that voice and that presence on KPU’s campuses.

Why should students vote for you?

Over the past year, I’ve tried really hard to get the women’s collective up and running. I reached out to a sociology professor and they have a program you have to do that’s 100 hours of volunteer work, so I coordinated with her to get girls in that program or anyone who identifies as a woman into the women’s centre.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

Considering that I’ve just done it for the past year, I’m also VP in the KSA so I know the limitations and also what I can do for the role.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I feel like engagement is really low, and I know that this is something that has been touched on for many years, but I really want to make people aware of what the KSA is. Voter turnout was really low last year. Even just getting students active on campus and with the collective, outreach is something I’d like to improve upon with the KSA.

Why are you running for this position?

I want to see more of a community on campus and bring students together.

Why should students vote for you?

I’m very active in the Aboriginal community.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I work at the gathering place as a student assistant as well as at the future students office as the Aboriginal ambassador. I have helped set up the Facebook page for the gathering place. I’ve brought students together over the last few months and set up meetings.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

If you’re a representative for something you should actually be a representative and be present in what you’re doing.

Queer Students Representative (1)

Students of Colour Representative (1)

Why are you running for this position?

Same reason as last time, I want to make sure that there’s representation for that position. A lot of the time it’s vacant or people leave it and I wanted to be on it for a while and have a continual legacy. I want to be a support factor for LGBTQ students who maybe don’t feel comfortable talking to teachers … and can talk to a student much easier.

Why should students vote for you?

If you saw the Pride Parade and stuff like that, I’ve shown initiative in trying to get people to see Pride on campus and I’m trying to continue to do that. As well, it’s good to have someone to represent the position. If we didn’t have anyone in the position there wouldn’t be anyone to advocate for this side of things.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I want to [hold] more awareness events on campus, not just working with LGBTQ itself but all of the collectives on campus. We need to do more of a joint effort because our collectives are small and it’s better if we work together to try to create initiatives instead of working separately on our own things. And I want to bring more awareness to sexualities that aren’t really represented like asexuality and intersexuality.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I feel like it’s always been an issue that higher-level people in universities don’t really go to the bottom to talk to students about it. A lot of the time, if you have an issue when it comes to social justice stuff and you go to a place, usually you go to the KSA … but the university should be asking your opinion and asking what it can do better. There’s kind of a disconnect there and I feel like we need to work on that.

Why are you running for this position?

I held the position this term too and I’m re-running for it because it’s been an amazing experience. There’s a lot more work that I want to get done in this position and I see great potential for growth, especially with the [students of colour] collective.

With how diverse our school is, I think there’s a great opportunity to emphasize that in a positive way and help our institutions grow.

Why should students vote for you?

I hope that people have been able to benefit from the things I’ve been doing in office right now, and I’d like to take that opportunity to keep doing what I’ve been doing and to do more, and reach higher heights now that I have a year under my belt. I’ve learned how the society functions and I’ve learned how university administration functions and I’m willing to take those higher-level issues on.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I’ve been trying to rebuild and rebrand the students of colour collective, so one thing we’ve been focusing on this year is a lot more social engagement and social events. Another thing is I wrote a proposal for the KSA to form a social justice and equity committee … [to] help the mandate of social justice and equity, and [to] have a body in the KSA that is responsible for that.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

More support and concrete funding for constituencies is a really big thing. I’d like to see us utilise our space on campus more. I’d like to see [the social justice room] utilised more for events and having meetings and things like that. I’d also like to see emphasis put on our policies in the organization. We have a lot of expiring policies, so I’d like to see a more robust review on those ones.

Caitlin McCutchen | Political Science Major

Joseph Thorpe | Human Resources Management Student

Sarah Strachan | Anthropology Major

Munir-Khalid Dossa | Policy Studies Major, Political Science Minor

International Students Representatives (1)

Sanju Monga | Accounting Major

Why are you running for this position?

I want to support international students by introducing opportunities promoting their understanding and help them by knowing [the] difficulties faced by them and would bring those forward to KSA. I want to guide and support them for a better academic life.

Why should students vote for you?

I am an extrovert who is always happy to help everyone. I am easy going and try to understand everyone’s situations. I believe international students should vote for me if they are seeking an advisor for opportunities or help for solving their issues.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

Being an international student, I know most of the difficulties that are faced by other international students…Moreover, I have been doing new student orientations to get along with the new students at KPU. What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

Many students are not aware of the opportunities that KPU provides. I will try to bring the required awareness. Moreover, students sometimes get into trouble [and then don’t] know how to get out of it. It is very important to provide proper guidance to the international students for them to enjoy all the favourable incentives.

Yuvraj Kahlon | General Studies

Why are you running for this position?

As an international student, I know what they need … because if the person is from their community, people will understand them better.

Why should students vote for you?

I am from the community, and so I think that they will understand me better than any other candidate because they will see … a candidate whom they can trust and who could tell [them] the issues.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

If I got elected, I could make their lives better [by] bringing a demand to the higher authority … so I can tell the problems easily to the department. If they have problems regarding their assignments, I could talk to their teachers on their behalf, who’d give some extension to them.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

If I got elected I could promote the students to participate in the elections and discuss their problems … If we had a meeting regularly, we could understand each other better … [and] make a link with teachers and students more effectively so that we could work and perform better.

Nevneen Kaur Samra | Engineering Major

Why are you running for this position?

I’ve seen the rest of the students who ran for this position and they didn’t really involve themselves much in the international students community, so I really wanted to see a change and the only way to actively participate in that change is to run for the position.

Why should students vote for you?

I have very large exposure to international students because I myself work in the international office and I meet many students on a daily basis.

Which experiences will you be bringing to this position?

I help students with everything from applying for renewal of their study permits to every single thing that they have to do on their journey. I specifically work in student life, which means that I organize events for international students. I think that’s a really big part because when they come to our country they need a break from all the tensions and adjustments they have to make.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

The biggest problem that I see with international students is not being able to adjust, and they feel it’s hard to socialize and make friends. I was planning on maybe making a few changes there and then bringing the community together as a whole.

Shivam Kataria | Computer Information Systems Major

Why are you running for this position?

They are increasing the credit amount every semester, so I can say something on that so that can reduce the credit or they can make it constant.

Why should students vote for you?

Firstly, I’ll try to do my best. Secondly, to be frank, people know me and they will vote for me, I think.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I’ll try to bring some changes [to] the university, like for the international students, it’s very hard to live over here, so I’ll try to change it. I can’t say [how] but I’ll change it. I don’t have any plans yet, because it’s one year, I’ll think and make the plans over it.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

Firstly, last year and this year I’m standing and it’s over after one year. I’m for president, if elected then I’ll run. Basically, I’ll change it so like—don’t do it for your image, just do it for the students … because it’s a great responsibility to you as an international student.

Richmond Campus Representative (1)

Langley Campus Representative (1)

Why are you running for this position?

I was so happy and excited when I won the position of Richmond Campus Representative in October. Being on the Council has been a really great experience, but there’s a lot I still need to do and want to do that I haven’t been able to in my short amount on the Council. Student life has always been my priority and I don’t want to leave the KSA until I accomplish what I said in October I would like to do.

Why should students vote for you?

I’ve been involved with the KSA since 2014 and have been the Richmond Campus Representative since October. I have the experience and the motivation to do some really awesome things for students. I really would like to work towards enhancing the student life at the Richmond Campus and be available for students to talk to.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I’ve been the Richmond Campus Representative since October. Rather than spending lots of time trying to learn the ropes, I would be jumping back to where I left off and maximizing my time with the KSA to hopefully do some cool things.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I’ve said this since the beginning, but I’ really want to bring more student life to the KPU Richmond campus. There are other things on my list, but this will always be number one.

Why are you running for this position?

To help students across all campuses. I just want to help students in various different causes that they want to be helped with.

Why should students vote for you?

I always want to learn. Coming into the KSA, there’s things that I thought I could do and things that I realized I couldn’t do. But with the things I can do I still want to help students in terms of creating a space where they can interact with each other, create a more social environment within the different campuses.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I was a volunteer. I volunteered for both the KSA and KPU and I contributed over 200 hours, so coming into it I know trying to get people involved is very very difficult. I’ve been to different campaigns where just even asking ‘hey, would you like to help out?’ a lot of people will say ‘no.’

So knowing that, I try to change my angle on how to approach people.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I think I just want to see more diversity. Obviously student Council right now has very different, diverse people, but I just want to see different voices heard.

Damanpreet Garcha | Marketing Management Major

Bilan Hassan | Anthropology Major

Surrey Campus Representatives (1)

Akashdeep Bhullar | Major and/or Minor N/A

Why are you running for this position?

There are some things we need to change, like sports equipment, we need to get more, and more of the stuff like … athletics, not only studies, and get something more in our campus … because we only have one Tim Hortons for eating.

There’s a long line up for eating.

Why should students vote for you?

Because mostly I want to benefit the people who are studying here, like international students and domestic students. And mostly we should be giving a friendly environment to the students … and [the campus is] smoke-free, so that’s a very good thing.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I am from India, and my family is from politics also, so we learned how to … be friendly with everyone. [And I could] bring it upon the table so that it could be [like] this.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

Equipment for the games, we need more equipment, and we should be having tournaments. And library should be open late … like, 1 am. So some students who don’t have equipment to study at home, like laptops and the stuff—and [at] SFU, the libraries are open 24 hours, so we could extend our [library hours] too…. we should at least open it until 11:00 pm.

Gurpreet Singh Sabharwal | Accounting Major

Why are you running for this position?

I think that I’m the perfect candidate for Surrey campus representative because I have the confidence that if I have been selected I will have done full justice for this position.

Why should students vote for you?

I think I’m the perfect candidate and what a Surrey campus representative needs. I have that quality. I can go to the people and ask them.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

Since high school I was involved in student council activities. Moreover, I got an opportunity to lead campaigning during my college time back in India.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I think there should be more communication and socialisation between the student representatives and students. I observed sometimes that few students feel comfortable in telling the issues to faculty member or other concerned authorities as they are with student representatives.

Francis Gloriani | Accounting Major

Why are you running for this position?

I’ve been in a student [finance] committee for about a year now and I thought the next step was to run for a position as a rep.

Why should students vote for you?

I have some ideas to try to implement, like trying to have better charging stations because currently we only have that singular one in Fir building, I think.

So I’d like to have more students stay on campus instead of having to go home. I want to listen to more student voices instead of just focusing on the business students.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I’ve been in the finance committee for about a year and I helped with the budget we made last semester so I have a good idea of how the KSA works and how the money side of the KSA works.

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I’m also an executive in the Kwantlen Gaming Guild. I’m their events coordinator so I’m trying to make more events happen for the clubs, but I also want more events to happen for other clubs on the Surrey campus.

Vaibhav Agarwal | Computer and Information Systems Major

Why are you running for this position?

When I just joined [KPU] I wanted to be in some position and I want to represent and do something.

Why should students vote for you?

I’m working in a restaurant right now and I’m the manager, so I’m the kind of person who works with the employees and keeps in mind what they need.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I’ve worked in restaurants as a manager, so I thought I would be good for the position.

What would you like to see change about student politics if elected?

I know the problems faced by international students so I’d be dealing with those problems.

Anshul Grover | Business & Computer Information Systems Major

Why are you running for this position?

I’m an international student so I’ve been here for eight months now and there has been a lot to learn here. I’ve been volunteering a lot and I’ve been involved with the international department, career services, and also the orientation team, so I just want to make my way up to it. Standing as a student representative would give me an advantage for the things I’ve seen here that I want to improve.

Why should students vote for you?

I can’t say exactly why people should vote for me. It’s their choice, right? But I’m here to create a difference if I get a chance. I’m sure I’ll make that difference noticeable.

Which experiences would you bring to this position?

I’ve seen a lot of people who aren’t really into the KPU society or community. They only come here for classes. There are also people who have been facing troubles with institutional fees and expenses, so I would make that better. Also, as an international student, I know how hard it is to find a place to rent, so that is something I would try to work on .

What would you like to change about student politics if elected?

I’ve never actually been so much into politics here, but I would be more involved with students because a lot of people, even me, I don’t know a lot of currently elected officials. So I would be more involved in politics here and with the students to have them maybe show up more and make it more fun.

12 features

No More Stolen Sisters Canada’s epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls through the eyes of two peopled who lived it ashley hyshka | community reporter Over the past four decades, nearly 1,200 Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been murdered in Canada, according to a 2014 RCMP report. Some other estimates put that number at approximately 4,000.

The failure of various police departments around the Lower Mainland to investigate the epidemic enabled serial predators to target vulnerable women, particularly along the Highway of Tears and on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).

For years, both law enforcement officials and the public at large turned a blind eye as dozens of women wound up dead or disappeared without a trace.

How Did This Happen?

For every person who knew one of these women, there is a story that will break your heart.

Dave Dickson, a retired constable with the Vancouver Police Department, calls these stories “incredible” and “horrendous.” Dickson was first posted to the DTES in 1980 and chose to remain there for the duration of his 25 years in the VPD. During that time, he learned that many of the adults and children in the neighbourhood were victims of physical, mental, or emotional abuse.

“I’ve heard just about every story,” he says. “None of the women, or men for that matter, ever made a conscious decision to come to the Downtown Eastside and sell drugs or work the streets.”

Many of the men and women on the streets were known to Dickson since they were children, when he would visit them in the local daycare.

He developed a rapport with members of the community, specifically empathizing with the women, as they bore the brunt of the violence he witnessed.

One of Dickson’s most difficult experiences was working with a little girl who had her first child before her 11th birthday. The baby’s biological dad was the girl’s own father, and she had also been raped by her uncle and brother.

He recalls another woman he knew from that time. Once a drug user, she chose to pursue recovery because of an investigation into her mother’s murder. The father had murdered her mother and buried her body beneath the floor of their condominium’s basement.

While the woman was in recovery, Dickson told her, “I’m so proud of you, and I’m sure your mom would be too.”

Not all of Dickson’s fellow officers shared his empathy for members of the DTES community, however. He recalls that, though the VPD’s attitude towards women and sex workers was mostly positive, some personnel

viewed them as “disposable.”

Dickson recalls that the police sometimes referred to sex workers as “crack hoes” and believed that the women themselves, rather than their batterers, were to blame for the violence directed at them. These attitudes, he says, helped create a barrier of distrust between the police officers working the DTES and those living there.

Institutional Failure During the 1990s, Dickson was the community outreach officer for the DTES, offering support to the people there, providing them with food and cigarettes, and visiting them in the hospital. Twice he attended the funerals of people who had no known loved ones. Aside from the pastor, he was the only one there.

Most importantly, he says he supported the women he reached out to by listening to them. Dickson befriended the women of the community by visiting them and learning their names, lives, and backstories.

One by one, however, his friends began vanishing without a trace.

“All of a sudden I wouldn’t see somebody,” says Dickson. “I’d wake up in the middle of the night and I’d think of somebody—a name—and I’d write it down. And when I got into work I’d check the name on the police computer. That was really telling.”

In conducting his own investigation, Dickson compiled a list of 31 women who vanished. When he filed his report on the disappearances to his superiors, he says that his concerns were met with indifference and callousness. During his first meeting with the department’s higher-ups, one inspector told him that he wasn’t going to waste police resources on a case with no bodies and no crime scene.

A month later, during a second meeting with his superiors, Dickson presented another list. This one included the names of 23 murder victims who were picked up in the DTES and later found dead in outlying areas. He argued that the murders could potentially be related, and that they “deserved to be looked at.”

According to Dickson, a senior VPD official replied, “This is bullshit.

The bottom line is I’m not wasting money looking for fucking whores.”

“It Could’ve Been Over” Fourteen years later, Dickson testified at the Wally Oppal Inquiry, which was tasked with determining how serial killer Robert Pickton was able to prey on the women of the DTES for decades.

Dickson recalled thinking that if the VPD had taken the investigation and threat of an active serial killer

seriously from the beginning, lives could have been saved.

A woman named Lynn Ellingsen reported seeing a body on Pickton’s farm, but when authorities went to investigate, she recanted. Dickson says that the woman “shut down” because of the behaviour of the detective who questioned her. Later, he says, that same detective commented that Ellingsen “was just an unreliable crack hoe.”

After that failed interview, 15 more women turned up dead. Dickson believes that, had the interview been conducted properly, the police could have executed a search warrant on the property and potentially brought an early end to the Pickton killings.

Right then, he says, “it could’ve been over.”

Dickson was involved in the inquiry because, after being rebuffed by his superiors, he leaked his report on the missing women to Global News. During his four-day testimony, he said that the epidemic wasn’t the result of a lack of investigations and police manpower. Rather, it was fuelled by a lack of communication amongst law enforcement officials, coupled with the negative attitude that some VPD officials felt towards the community.

During the inquiry, Dickson learned that when he filed his missing persons report in 1998, the department executive thought he had developed Stockholm syndrome for those living on the DTES, and that he had “gone to the other side.”

“I didn’t realize it was about sides,” says Dickson. “I said, ‘I didn’t join the department to take sides—you’re talking about people and women.’”

“You get close to the people [in the DTES] and everybody tells you ‘You shouldn’t get close,’” he adds.

“I mean, I can’t help it. I crossed that line years ago.”

The VPD did not respond to The Runner’s request for comment.

Lost Loved Ones While Dickson spent the summer of 1998 trying to get the VPD to launch an investigation into the murders and disappearances, Lorelei Williams and her family were experiencing the ramifications of the police’s failure first-hand.

Since before she was born, Lorelei’s family has been surrounded by violence. Her aunt, Belinda Williams, has been missing since 1978. Her cousin, Tanya Holyk, disappeared in 1996, and in 2002 Tanya’s DNA was discovered on Robert Pickton’s farm.

Lorelei found herself thrust into the forefront of Canada’s epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A combination of colonialism, racism, and sexism let a national crisis go unaddressed for years, and has silenced the voices

of the families who have suffered.

Lorelei is seeking justice not only for those families, but for herself.

“That’s why I do the work that I do,” she says. “Violence has been in my family forever—with our people.”

Lorelei was born two years after her aunt’s disappearance, and that loss has followed her throughout her life. After Belinda’s family reported her disappearance, Lorelei says that the case wasn’t taken seriously until the Pickton investigation began years later. Even then, because she wasn’t a drug user or sex worker, Belinda’s disappearance was dismissed.

“I saw what it did to them,” says Lorelei. “To this day, whenever my family speaks of her, they shake. Her children miss her. My mom missed her.”

Tanya never arrived at a family event held in 1996. Though it was hidden from Lorelei at the time, her cousin was struggling with addiction, which Lorelei says “had a strong hold on her.”

It was around this time that the Williams family was confronted with another tragedy. Unbeknownst to her family, written on Dave Dickson’s original missing persons report was the name Tanya Holyk.

The trauma caused by Tanya’s disappearance led Lorelei to drop out of school, and when her missing person file was closed after one month, Tanya’s mother Dorothy was devastated.

After Tanya’s DNA was found on the Pickton farm in 2002, the Wally Oppal Inquiry revealed that the police initially believed that she had disappeared not because she was the victim of a serial killer, but because she was a “coke head” who wanted to “run away” and party, even though she had an infant child.

The Crown tried and convicted Pickton for six murders. To avoid burdening the jury, the remaining 20 charges were stayed. One of those cases was Tanya’s.

“There was no justice for her,” says Lorelei. “I still kind of feel that way.”

While she says she understands the Crown’s decision, she wishes Pickton could face trial for Tanya’s murder.

According to a CBC report, the remains and DNA of 33 women were found on Pickton’s farm.

A Path to Healing Through song and dance, Lorelei has found some measure of peace.

In 2012 she created Butterflies in Spirit, a dance troupe that seeks to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, including her cousin and aunt. The troupe’s first performance was held in Downtown Vancouver in 2012, blocking off the streets of Georgia and Granville to protest the failures of the Wally

Oppal Inquiry.

Her mother died five days before their first performance, so Lorelei was faced with the decision of whether to go through with holding the event.

In the end, she thought, “My mom would want me to do this.”

Though she thought it was going to be a one-time performance, other women who wanted to celebrate and honour their missing and murdered loved ones approached Lorelei with interest in joining the troupe. People who don’t want to sing or dance, but still feel inclined to be a part of their work, can receive a T-shirt from the group with their loved one’s face on it. According to Lorelei, people tend to “burst into tears” when they receive it.

“I didn’t realize how healing that was,” she says, about the therapeutic effects of her work with Butterflies in Spirit.

At the behest of Indigenous families and communities, the Government of Canada created the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in September 2016. According to its website, the inquiry’s mandate is “to examine and report on the systemic causes of all forms of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada by looking at patterns and underlying factors.”

Last year, the inquiry held hearings in eight provinces and territories, and it is expected to hold two more in 2018. Since its formation, however, it has been plagued by delays, staff resignations, and outcries from victims’ loved ones who have accused the inquiry of miscommunication and disorganization, according to a CTV News article. A final report is expected to be issued by the end of the year.

“The inquiry is hanging on just by a little thread …. It breaks my heart.

I want it to be successful,” says Lorelei. “We need this to be successful ….

Our women and girls’ lives depend on this inquiry.”

Though she initially wanted to get a bachelor’s degree in business tourism and management, Lorelei later realized that her passion for helping people was her vocation in life. These days, she’s enrolled in Indigenous justice studies at the Native Education College, not far from the DTES. As part of her work, she supports the families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, as well as girls and women in the DTES. She also fosters relationships between women in the community and the police.

“It’s Indigenous women and girls I need to be helping,” says Lorelei.

“We have so much healing to do.”

features 13

Following the disappearance of her aunt Belinda and the murder of her cousin Tanya, Lorelei Williams is now an advocate seeking justice for Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. (Ashley Hyshka)

Honouring the lives of their stolen sisters, Lorelei Williams and her dance troupe “Butterflies in Spirit” perform before the crowd during the 2018 Women’s March on Vancouver. (Ashley Hyshka)

Dave Dickson, a former constable with the Vancouver Police Department, dedicated his career to helping those on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. (Ashley Hyshka)

A photograph of women walking in the annual Women’s March in Feb. 14, 2015. (Flickr/Jen Castro)

STUDENT SNAPSHOT

The Vancouver Women’s March was attended by scores of people marching in solidarity with the women in their lives.

(Ashley Hyshka)

Students practice their moves during a session of LANC 1870, or the “Intro to Bhangra Dance” course, Jan. 24.

(Jesse Pottinger)

Vancouver Giants defenceman Daniel Plouffe (#6) takes a shot from the blue line against the Portland Winterhawks, Jan. 20.

(Joseph Keller)

KPU Surrey campus security admits a firefighter into the Birch Building after a fire alarm was pulled on Jan. 24, disrupting afternoon classes and forcing students and staff to vacate all buildings on campus.

(Braden Klassen)

Representing Black Lives Matter Vancouver, Ariam Yetbarek challenged the audience “to support the people that look like me, and to support those who are not with me.”

(Ashley Hyshka)

culture 15

KPU Instructor Examines Lies and Paranoia in New young adult science-fiction novel The Innocence Treatment has been selected as this year’s novel for the “KPU Reads” reading series joseph keller | staff writer Kwantlen Polytechnic University business and criminology professor Ari Goelman’s second novel, The Innocence Treatment, is the latest to be featured as part of the annual KPU Reads series. The book, which hit shelves in October, is a work of young adult dystopian science-fiction that explores themes of paranoia, lies, and critical thought.

In an event on the KPU Surrey campus library, Goelman read from his book and took questions from students on Jan. 22.

“It’s always fun doing readings, and what I teach at Kwantlen is not creative writing. I teach research methods and statistics and all sorts of things I really enjoy teaching, but this will be the first time I do anything writing-related at KPU,” says Goelman. “So that’s exciting to me.”

The Innocence Treatment is set in the near future and follows Lauren, a 16-year-old girl born with an extremely rare cognitive disability that inhibits critical thinking. Her condition makes it impossible for her to tell when people are joking or lying, so she believes that everyone she meets is her friend and that everyone has good intentions. As the story opens, Lauren is about to undergo an experimental surgery to correct the

disability and give her a chance to live normally.

The novel reads as a series of journal entries and interview transcriptions from various time periods before and after the procedure. Its back-and-forth structure highlights Lauren’s transformation from a naive and carefree girl to an extremely paranoid individual dismayed by the dystopian world in which she lives.

“Some of the fun of the book—as you go back and forth between her journal entries and you see her grow much more cynical and much more

knowing about the world, and then you see her maybe veer into paranoia—is trying to figure out how much is paranoia and how much is the dystopian world,” says Goelman.

While he says that he’s not trying to make any sort of political statement with the book, Goelman acknowledges that some of the themes of The Innocence Treatment are highly relevant today. Its exploration of dystopian society takes on a deeper meaning now, when propaganda and public deception are pervasive parts of popular discourse.

“I guess all literature does have some greater meaning to the world, and especially now, when we live in this world of ‘fake news’ and a U.S. President who tells a lot of lies, I think it’s a really interesting parable for today to think about what it means to not know when people are lying,” says Goelman. “It’s a really interesting time to think about lies and truth and how we know reality.”

The ideas in The Innocence Treatment do relate to the content that Goelman teaches at KPU. He explains that the courses he teaches are fun-

damentally about learning to make sense of the world, critical thinking, and “turning data into meaning.”

“A book with a main character who starts out not being able to make that meaning at all, and ends up making maybe too much meaning or just the right amount, is central to the same ideas of ‘How do we make sense of the world?’” says Goelman. “I think one of the important things students get, not just out of my classes but from university ideally, is just critical thinking.”

KPU business and criminology instructor Ari Goelman answers questions about his new young adult science-fiction novel The Innocence Treatment at a KPU Reads event on Jan. 22. (Joseph Keller)

Bigger and Better: A Sneak Peek at this year’s KDocs Festival

Four days, 14 films, 12 keynote speakers, and a myriad of panelists and exhibitors await fans of KPU’s annual documentary festival braden klassen | photo editor KDocs is back again with more documentaries and more speakers than ever before.

Starting on Feb. 15, documentary film lovers will be able to attend the festival at Vancity Theatre on Seymour Street in Vancouver. Those who go will be able to check out the latest documentaries and listen to panel discussions featuring directors and activists.

Janice Morris, the festival director of KDocs, has been with the organization since its beginnings in 2012.

“We look at all the various films that have any kind of social justice topic or theme or approach or interest. We make a gigantic list and then start looking at the trailers of every single one of them,” she says.

The list of documentaries that KDocs began reviewing last summer included approximately 200 titles.

Over the following months, the organizers whittled their list down to a final selection of 14 films that will be screened this year.

“Arriving at a final list is never easy,” says Morris. “There are always

hard decisions that have to be made.”

Some of the films they decided to show include Solitary, directed by Kristi Jacobson, and Vancouver: No Fixed Address, directed by Charlese Wilkinson. For the latter, long-time Vancouver activist and prolific housing advocate Jean Swanson will be the keynote address at the film’s screening.

Swanson ran for a seat on Vancouver City Council last term and campaigned on the promise of introducing measures to combat the housing crisis. Some of these included implementing a mansion tax for homes over $5 million, using the money to fund more social housing development.

She has also been involved with the Carnegie Action Project for the last 12 years, fighting gentrification and working to create more affordable housing for people with low incomes. “[Vancouver: No Fixed Address] is mostly interviewing people who are experiencing the Vancouver housing crisis,” she says, adding that she plans to discuss solutions to this crisis during her keynote address on Feb. 16.

Morris believes that it’s import-

(Left to right): KDocs organizers Elizabeth Tosetti, Jannice Morris, Greg Chan, and Mark Diotte check the registration list before a screening of Kombit: The Cooperative on Nov. 2, 2016. (Braden Klassen) ant to feature a variety of presenters, especially those representing the voices of women.

“From directors to keynote speakers to panelists, there are a lot of women’s voices to be heard at KDocs,” she says. “The other exciting thing about this year’s festival is the number of exhibitors we have invited to be a part of our Exhibitors’ Hall, which happens in the theatre’s

atrium space before and after films.”

Exhibitors and representatives from social justice-focused organizations like Climate Convergence, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Amnesty International, Black Lives Matter Vancouver, and the Vancouver Tenants’ Union will be in attendance throughout the four-day festival.

“This is a chance for our guests to be more than passive receivers of

information, but rather to interact, to sign up, to volunteer, to participate,” says Morris.

The festival will run from Feb. 15 at 4:30 pm until Feb. 18 at 9:00 pm.

The full schedule, guest speaker list, and ticket purchase form is available at kdocsff.com.

16 culture

Bhangra Music and Dance Brings Rhythm to KPU Classes

A brand new Bhangra course is being offered to students this semester Jesse Pottinger | contributor Aspects of Punjabi culture are all around us at KPU Surrey, from restaurants serving delicious food to events like the annual Vaisakhi parade. A central part of this culture is Bhangra, a type of dance and music characterized by exuberance, high-energy movements, and hard work.

Within the Punjabi community, Bhangra is an opportunity to connect with and celebrate Punjab’s vibrant culture. It is equal parts uplifting, energizing, and physically demanding.

This semester at KPU, the highly popular “Intro to Bhangra Dance” (LANC 1870) course is running for its third semester and is being taught

by Gurpreet Sian. In addition, a brand new “Bhangra Movements and Identity” (LANC 3870) course is being taught by Ranbir Johal.

According to Sian, what makes Bhangra special is that it has “a different energy that gets you excited.”

“It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you are, or what’s happening in your life,” says Sian. “When you hear Bhangra, and especially when you see the dancing and the colours, the energy and excitement … there’s

just a happiness, a positive energy that’s infectious.”

And by the looks on their faces, Sian’s students agree.

The class, which runs on Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 10:00 a.m. in the gym, was filled with smiling dancers. Between the movements and the music, there was an undeniably joyful energy in the room.

“In our culture, we do Bhangra on every occasion,” says Simarpreet Kaur Mundi, an exchange student from Punjab. “When we are happy, when we get married, when we get good news, we do Bhangra.”

Amanpreet Kaur Dhaliwal, another Punjabi exchange student, had been waiting for KPU to offer a Bhangra course since she came to Vancouver four years ago. She jumped at the opportunity as soon as it became available.

“Whenever we do Bhangra, we feel energetic,” she says. “We feel very good whenever we’re doing it because it represents our culture.”

Johal’s “Bhangra Movements and Identity” course takes a different approach to the art form, examining Bhangra from an academic standpoint. Students in the class explore

Gurpreet Sian coaches students during the “Intro to Bhangra Dance” course in the gymnasium on the Surrey Campus. (Jesse Pottinger) topics like how Bhangra is “related to identity, the tension between traditional and so-called modern forms, concepts of masculinity, the female voice in Bhangra,” and the relationship between Bhangra and India’s caste system.

For their main project, students can either write a paper or choose 10 Bhangra songs to analyze “for examples of common motives, or examples of misogyny, representations of other castes, representations of masculinity or femininity,” says Johal.

For example, Johal says that the

Jat caste has “become ubiquitous, almost synonymous, for some people growing up here, with being Punjabi, because it’s one of the higher represented castes here in the Lower Mainland,” despite accounting for only a portion of Punjabi people.

The class will also learn about the traditional costumes used in Bhangra, as well as commonly used instruments like the Ektar, Sarangi, and Dhol.

Both Johal and Sian said that their courses are primarily filled with South Asian students, and both agreed that

they would love to see more students of different backgrounds getting involved in the future.

“Bhangra has become pretty universal. It’s like hip hop—there’s a whole subculture,” says Sian.

“There’s competitions, fashion, music, and all the stuff that happens all around it. And it’s not just South Asians who do Bhangra. If you travel, you see these teams from across North America. There are some very diverse, multicultural teams, and dancers who aren’t South Asian competing at a high level.”

new kpu course teaches music students how to film their own videos

The course is the first of its kind in Canada joseph keller | staff writer For the first time, a course at Kwantlen Polytechnic University is giving students the tools they need to express their music visually.

Music Video Production (MUSI 4602) is the only video production course in Canada aimed at music students, and is being taught through KPU’s music department this semester.

“What the music video does for the music artist is it creates opportunities to extend the meaning-making of their music,” says KPU music professor Gordon Cobb, who designed the course. “You can create a piece of music and you can record it online and people can listen to it, but if you figure out a way to pull more meaning out of your song by representing it visually, you can actually create multiple dimensions of meaning around your song.”

Throughout the semester, students in the course will make music videos featuring their own original performances and composition. Since the course looks at music video production from a musician’s perspective, a significant part of the process is actually composing the piece itself.

“What makes us different from a video production program at a film

school is that we are approaching music video production from the point of view of musicians rather than filmmakers,” says Cobb. “Music is the centre of the process, not the image.”

At the start of the semester, students explore the impact that music video production can have on how their music is received by the audience. Over the next few weeks, students learn the language of video production, the basics of photography and videography, how to edit using Final Cut Pro, and the right way to record and produce audio. Pre-production is also an important focus for students as they develop their concept into a finished product.

Once complete, videos will be shared on the KPU Music Technology Facebook page. Other music videos that have been produced at KPU are already getting shared on the page which, according to Cobb, has received around 20,000 views.

“These are successes for young emerging music artists who are just starting their careers. They’re just in their Bachelor’s degrees and they’re already finding ways to share their work and their talent and their chops with people online who are giving them positive feedback and encour-

aging them,” he says. “I think that’s a huge success.”

Although this is the first semester that the Music Video Production course is being offered, Cobb has been making music videos with students for the past year and a half, and before coming to KPU, helped musicians make videos for over 10 years.

The idea for the course came about when Cobb realized that music video production was not being taught almost anywhere. He created the curriculum with the help of KPU Provost Salvador Ferreras. KPU has pur-

chased a range of equipment for the class including three DSLR cameras, tripods, a lighting kit, and backdrops.

No other universities in Canada and few outside of the country are teaching courses similar to KPU’s Music Video Production class. Cobb says that part of the reason for this is that the course requires an instructor with a very unique skill set. He has a background in film, dance, teaching, and music. It is this experience that gave Cobb the tool set he needed to create and teach the course.

“It’s kind of like three courses—

it’s music composition, it’s music production, and it’s video production,” he explains. “Just because it’s such a vast subject matter I think you have to have a pretty unique point of view to teach a course like this to music students.”

Currently, KPU plans to offer Music Video Production every other year. If it proves to be popular with students, Cobb says that the course could be offered more frequently.

Students in KPU’s music program are given the opportunity to produce their own music videos in the MUSI 4602 course. (Submitted)

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Vancouver Charity Asks Students to “Search for Jugaad”

For the winner, a contest held by The Walking School Bus will end in a cash prize and a free expedition to India alyssa laube | coordinating editor KPU students with innovative ideas for making education more accessible abroad could soon be headed to India with $1,000 in their pocket—if they entered the Walking School Bus’ “Search for Jugaad” contest.

The Walking School Bus, a charity founded by Aaron Friedland, launched “Search for Jugaad” to encourage young and bright students to submit their best ideas for how to make education more accessible in Africa and India. A colloquial Hindi term, “jugaad” can be interpreted as “an innovative fix or an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness,” according to the group’s website.

Those who entered the contest were expected to submit an elevator pitch of their idea, which must pertain to improving access to education and should consider the charity’s pre-existing projects. The winner will receive a cash prize, a mentorship, and a trip to India to work with the Walking School Bus team this April.

Aaron Friedland was a first-year student at McGill the first time he went to Uganda. There, he quickly noticed how long the schoolchildren in that country had to commute to get to school, often making multiple kilometre-long treks or hitchhiking their

way to class. Friedland started the Walking School Bus to help improve the education system in these areas, adopting a research-backed approach to the organization that has now led to the creation of several initiatives such as solar powered classrooms and the school bus itself, which transports students to and from class every day.

“When I was in the classrooms, something that routinely reverberated in my mind and that I could just not stop thinking about was that if I had grown up in that community, had I grown up in that school … I definitely wouldn’t have made it to high school,” says Friedland.

Growing up, he suffered from dyslexia, but Friedland is now pursuing his doctorate degree at UBC. “I think a big part of the drive later on to develop these solar powered classrooms and provide access to this more robust education was selfish,” he says. “[I] was thinking about how I would have been in these communities and thinking about what we could actually do to improve this situation.”

The expedition to India is optional for the winners of the contest. If they choose to go on the trip, they will be working with development practitioners, educators, students, professionals, and researchers on the ground in Uttarakhand, Northern India to bring their idea and WSB’s other

The Walking School Bus hosted a competition called “The Search for Jugaad”. Jugaad is a Hindi word that translates to “an innovative fix or an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness.” (Submitted) projects to life. Right now, youth in the communities there walk between five and six kilometres per day to get to class through uneven terrain. The expedition team will be working in a total of three schools, one of which will only receive a water catchment system.

Two years ago, Friedland submitted his idea to the Next Einstein Contest without expecting to hear back, but won the prestigious award and accepted it from Anderson Cooper in

Toronto shortly after. He notes that the same thing could have happened to a KPU student.

“I think there are a lot of students who are thinking, ‘I don’t have a good idea,’ or they’re suffering from a little bit of imposter syndrome and they’re thinking, ‘my ideas aren’t valuable or they’re not worthy,’” says Friedland.

“I think that 90 per cent of the work is thinking of a good idea, and everyone I know has a list of good ideas on their cell phones or that they keep

somewhere. If any of those ideas can improve how people are accessing education or nutrition or curriculum, let us know, because we can use that as well.”

Students who want to share their ideas but missed the contest submission deadline are encouraged to check the Walking School Bus website for announcements or get in touch with a representative at https://thewalkingschoolbus.com/.

18 opinions

KPU Richmond Continues to Struggle with School Spirit Sandra Hunaidi | contributor The general consensus at KPU Richmond is that, unless you’re part of a clique, there isn’t a lot of social connectivity amongst the students.

At large, university students are busy people. KPU students rely on attending events held on campus and joining clubs to get involved. Unfortunately, students in Richmond say that there is seldom anything exciting to do there, and that if there is, they might not hear about it.

Emily Crugel, a design student involved with KPU’s Student Experience Committee, believes that school pride comes from taking ownership of your institution. She describes what Richmond campus has to offer as little more than a small cafe, Tim Hortons, and uncomfortable seating.

As a student in the Wilson School of Design who attends class about four times per week, she has little to no interaction with students from different programs.

“The stage belongs to you as much as you belong to the stage,” she says.

For Leah Donean, a fashion marketing student in Richmond, the isolation others feel at KPU isn’t an issue. Because she takes business classes, she is able to meet students from other departments. However, she says that there are “no fun or cool activities around campus,” and suggests that organising more student-run activities would address this problem.

“It makes students want to participate because it doesn’t feel forced,” she says.

Both Crugel and Donean say that they can’t help but compare this experience to what they came to expect from the media’s portrayal of university—parties, crazy campus life, and a vibrant social atmosphere.

These preconceived ideas may only exist on television, or at a Beta House somewhere in America.

Still, Donean contrasts KPU’s social atmosphere to UBC’s and SFU’s. She feels that, if students at KPU took action and organized off-campus social events, there would be more of a community between the major campuses.

Be more than just a seat number.

Get involved, talk to other students and faculty members, try different clubs, and keep an eye on the posters.

Take advantage of the opportunities given to you as a university student at KPU and it could help you connect with your community.

Students in Surrey are always buzzing around and making connections. This only became clear to me when I chose to get involved in extracurricular activities. By doing so, I found the magic in someone other than a professor knowing your name.

Your Second-Language Course is More Than Just a Credit Shape up, anglos

tristan johnston | contributor When I say “ni hao” to a Chinese speaker in Vancouver, no one cares.

Anyone can say “ni hao.” But when I say “wo zai No. 3 lu he Westminster,” on the phone to my rideshare, I get stunned reactions.

I’m not fluent in Mandarin by any means; I can only say a few words, but I’m starting to feel foolish for not knowing more. I live in Vancouver, where Mandarin is the second most spoken language. I should not be the only white guy who can string a sentence together.

At KPU, many of us have a foreign language component to our degrees, and while you’re here, I plead that you take it more seriously than as a means to earn a few measly credits.

All of us had to study French in school, but barely any of us can speak it now. Even when I was six years old I found French to be useless on this side of the country, but ended up retaining most of it because I was in an immersion program for several years.

The reality for most anglophones is that the pressing need to learn a second language simply doesn’t exist.

Even when you travel to Europe, it’s easy to find others who speak English well, and in Germanic countries you can bet on almost everyone being able to speak it. In India, an estimated one in 10 people speak English at a high level. In China, getting a degree from Tsinghua and having great family connections is considered nearly pointless if you can’t speak English at meetings with North Americans or

According to 2016 census statistics, more than 373,000 Metro Vancouver residents speak either Mandarin or Cantonese as a first language. (Tristan Johnston) Europeans.

So not only is it lucky to be born in Canada—it’s also beneficial to be monolingual in the one language that the rest of the world is trying their best to become conversational in.

As for Vancouver specifically, a lack of bilingualism might be hurting us in the long run. In 2016, Edmonton had just over 2,000 elementary and high school students enrolled in Mandarin immersion programs.

Vancouver had only 500. This is bad for our future economic success and, thankfully, some parents are raising hell over it.

I know that it’s difficult to fully appreciate the language course you’re required to take, especially if you’re taking three or four other courses at the same time. Learning a language requires a consistent, thoughtful effort, especially if you’re not immersed. Learning a language in the classroom for three to four hours

a week isn’t remotely comparable to the amount of time you spent on learning your first language as a baby.

Moreover, if it’s a language you’re not passionate about, it’s pure drudgery.

Learning a “difficult” language that you have a passion for is much, much easier than learning an “easy” one you don’t care about. This is why Japanese courses tend to be popular; with its three alphabets and unusual sentence structure, it’s easily one of the most difficult for anglophones.

Still, Japan has immense geo-political soft power and many in the West find their films, video games, and culture intriguing.

Learning a second language to an intermediate or advanced level will make you much more competitive in the job market. After all, in Vancouver, you’re competing against a city where one in three citizens don’t speak English at home. You’d be surprised where this might come

in handy, and its utility isn’t limited to journalism or business students. A scientist would have access to more institutions, and a medical student would be able to serve more patients.

There are also the numerous health benefits that come with bilingualism such as reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and improved brain function. I’d also argue that the ability to empathize is important. It’s certainly harder to be discriminatory towards a culture when you’ve spent years literally learning to speak their language.

In our highly globalized world of cheap air travel and broad trade agreements, you’re not only competing to get a job with your classmates.

You’re probably competing with someone from another country who has your skills plus two languages.

Consider that the next time you think about ditching your language requirement class.

Invest in Cryptocurrency the Smart Way We’ve all heard the hype, but it’s important to be prepared before buying in Katherine Dolmat | contributor You’ve probably heard of Bitcoin and the hype surrounding it. By now, most people have been told that investing in cryptocurrency can make you rich if you know enough about investing and economics.

But, if you’re like me, you also have no idea what you’re doing.

I recently decided to invest in Ripple, another type of e-currency similar to Bitcoin. I purchased $100 CAD worth, which at the time got me about 34 of Ripple’s tokens called XRP. With all of the hype surrounding these potential investment opportunities, I decided to do some research to better understand what I was investing in and how profitable it might actually become.

Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency, or e-currency, that was developed in 2009. Bitcoin’s purpose is for people to be able to safely exchange money electronically without having to go through a third party bank. Users can send and receive coins similarly to how e-transfers are sent from one

individual to another. These transactions are not recorded using the names of buyers and sellers, which is why Bitcoin is popular among criminals buying drugs or other contraband.

Bitcoins aren’t printed bills or coins like regular money. They are electronic and stored in a digital wallet that exists on a user’s computer or mobile device, sort of like a virtual bank account. Bitcoin relies on “miners” who run mathematical equations that validate transactions and keep the currency secure. Bitcoin tokens are released as rewards for mining.

Ripple, however, involves the use of XRP for trading and differs from Bitcoin in one major way: it doesn’t require mining. All of the XRP that will ever exist—numbered at 100 billion—were created when the company launched in 2012. Like Bitcoin, it uses computer algorithms to validate transactions, and computers must identify themselves to obtain permission to participate in the network. It is faster and cheaper to send and receive XRP than Bitcoin.

I’ve been told that Ripple is the new Bitcoin, but better. Its intention is to replace current networks that financial institutions already use in order to settle international payments faster and for less money than they do now. Ripple can settle 1,000 transactions per second, while Bitcoin can only settle seven.

Ripple’s XRP reached an all-time high on Jan. 4 at almost $4.00 per token. Over the previous month, it climbed by more than 1,400 per cent.

This certainly sounds promising to potential investors.

There are a few reasons for Ripple’s sudden value hike. Bank partnerships have played a key role in driving up XRP prices. Ripple says that 100 financial institutions are already using its technology. Secondly, a major cryptocurrency exchange called Coinbase is rumored to begin offering XRP trading soon. MoneyGram, a leading money transfer company, has also announced that it will test XRP. This will push the price of the tokens even higher. On top of all this, XRP is being covered

in the media in a largely positive way, which drives its momentum and fuels further gains.

Unfortunately for investors, recent events have caused XRP to drop by 40 per cent from its all-time high.

Cryptocurrency tracking website CoinMarketCap decided to exclude Korean exchanges in price calculations on Jan. 8. South Korean regulators also threatened to ban cryptocurrency trading, which affected the entire market. The price dropped to as low as $1.70 before rising above the $2.00 mark and holding steady.

Admittedly, my reason for investing in XRP was for a little bit of extra income and the fear of missing out.

While $100 may not be a huge loss for me personally, investors need to be ready to lose everything they put down due to the extremely volatile cryptocurrency market. Do your own research and watch the market closely before investing your money in Ripple, Bitcoin, or any other type of e-currency.

Bell Let’s Talk Day Breaks the Silence on Mental Illness

opinions 19

The initiative is still helping to foster a dialogue about mental illness eight years later ashley hyshka | community reporter It’s 2018, but people are still frightened to speak publicly about mental health. We see this when someone with a physical health condition is treated with empathy, while those suffering from depression, anxiety, or mood disorders are shunned and stigmatized.

For the eighth year in a row, Bell has been helping people talk about mental health and mental illnesses in Canada, and has been raising funds to support those who are struggling.

Jan. 31 is Bell Let’s Talk Day, and as ordinary Canadians, we have the power to do something extraordinary on that day. According to the company’s website, “Bell will donate more towards mental health initiatives in Canada by contributing 5 cents for every applicable text, call, tweet, social media video view, and use of our Facebook frame or Snapchat filter.”

We can all be a part of that effort.

If we just take a few moments to participate in these social media activities and interactions on Jan. 31, we can help instigate change both by donating money and opening up conversations about mental health.

Five cents in donations might

not seem like a significant amount of money, but revenue collected by Snapchat filters, texts, and tweets can translate into millions of dollars being put towards the cause.

One of the slogans for this year’s Bell Let’s Talk Day is “Mental health affects us all.” The Canadian Mental Health Association reports that, in any given year, one out of five Canadians will suffer with a mental health problem.

It’s easy to dismiss mental illnesses as a problem only “crazy” people combat because that stigma has been attached to the issue of mental health for decades. But it’s likely that if you examine your social circle, someone you love is experiencing a mental health issue.

Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia do not discriminate against their victims.

Genetics and environmental factors have some say in who will battle a mental illness, but the effects aren’t always easy to see. If a person is smiling, it doesn’t mean that they’re not suffering.

With its campaign, Bell may have ulterior motives. In addition to raising mental health awareness, they’re also funding these initiatives for marketing and advertising purposes. Perhaps

(Nat Mussell) this is true, but the work they’ve done over the past eight years for Canadians coast-to-coast is remarkable.

According to its website, “Bell’s total donation to mental health programs now stands at $86,504,429.05.”

“We are well on our way to donating at least $100 million through 2020,” it reads.

You might not have a choice in whether you’re diagnosed with a mental illness, but you do often have a choice in how you wish to respond to it. Therefore, talking about it with those around you and supporting Bell Let’s Talk Day is important.

We all have a choice in how we choose to support people with mental

illnesses. We must exhibit empathy and show people who come forward with their health issues that admitting you need help is not a sign of weakness.

This is a fight no one can endure alone. So, on Jan. 31, let’s talk.

NAFTA Probably Isn’t Going Anywhere New York real estate negotiation tactics look odd on trilateral trade deals tristan johnston | contributor Donald Trump would have you believe that he could “tear up” NAFTA at any given moment, but don’t worry, that’s just how they do in New York.

While there has been a lot of talk about how turbulent negotiations have been between Mexico, Canada, and the U.S., it’s more likely than not that NAFTA will be here to stay.

Trade deals are never easy—they always take years to set up and any attempt to adjust them adds months to the process. Often, one party will ask for things they know they’ll never get, just to be able to negotiate down to what they actually want while appearing as if they’re settling for less. The nature of the negotiations being made in NAFTA are not unusual, though the rhetoric from the U.S. is, of course, highly unusual.

America has been asking for some big changes and Canada isn’t giving in. For one, the U.S. wants to see an end to supply management and the independent dispute settlement process, and an added clause that would require all three countries to re-sign every five years to keep the pact active. Canada isn’t moving on any of these.

Supply management is an understandable pain to the Americans. It also was to other countries during the Canada-EU and TPP talks. In

Canada, marketing boards control tariffs and the price of various food goods such as eggs, milk, chicken, and so on. This is a form of economic protectionism that makes American goods uncompetitive, and there have been opponents to this practice for that reason.

Self-described libertarian Maxime Bernier came within percentage points of becoming today’s Conservative Party leader, but many believe he lost conservative-voting farmers who enjoy supply management. It’s estimated that only 13,500—or about 8 per cent—of Canadian farmers benefit from supply management.

The U.S. takes similar measures as well; Trump recently put a 30 per cent tariff on imported solar panels.

The idea is to protect domestic manufacturing and look tougher on China, but this comes at the cost of slowing down green energy growth in the U.S. As it stands, Canada is the number one import trading partner of 22 states. When it comes to agriculture, Canada is a massive market to farmers in the northern parts of continental America.

Some might argue that Trump has put himself into a very politically advantageous position. He can get an easy win whether NAFTA continues or fails, as he marketed himself as a “negotiator” in the election and talked up his willingness to leave the deal as he had done with TPP.

(Nicola Kwit) In practice, however, that might not be the case. Farmers are intimately familiar with NAFTA’s benefits and drawbacks. It’s in their best interest to see a NAFTA that’s tweaked more in their favour, but “no deal” is actually worse. Farmers for Free Trade have argued that losing NAFTA would cost the pork industry in the U.S. an extra $130 million USD per year, and farms

already run on extremely tight margins.

In the rare event of a NAFTA failure, Canada and Mexico would surely suffer far more than the U.S. would, but it would be bad for everyone.

There would likely be a loss in value of the Canadian dollar, but it would magnify the geopolitical appearance of a withdrawing United States and make them look less cooperative.

Regardless, the only thing that’s really unusual about these negotiations is the way Trump communicates it. Any other president would be saying, “We’re having lively discussions at the moment,” but Trump— being Trump—is going to say whatever will put you on the edge of your seat while you wait for commercials to end.

20 opinions

I Love Pineapple on Pizza and So Should You

An impassioned defence of one of the most vilified fusion cuisine dishes of our time braden klassen | photo editor Ananas comosus, or the common pineapple, is a medium-sized yellow fruit with a sweet tangy flavour, a half-chewy, half-crunchy texture, and a pokey, leathery outer rind crowned with an adorable little hairdo of spiky leaves on top.

It tastes great by itself, in fruit salads, in pina coladas, and yes, as a topping on pizza. In 1962, Sam Panopoulos made this discovery in his family-owned pizzeria in Ontario, introducing to the public one of the tastiest pizza toppings and forever changing the world.

Despite its popularity, the thought of putting pineapple on pizza elicits a primal form of disgust in a lot of people these days. As a result, the poor Hawaiian pizza has been made the target of ridicule by a mob of cynical, unadventurous pizza-philistines.

Of all of the culinary dishes that mix the sweet with the savoury, Hawaiian pizza has become one of the most unjustifiably hated-on dishes of our era. It’s time for somebody to set the record straight in its defence. Here are three reasons why pineapple should be accepted as the amazing pizza topping it is.

It tastes great.

The world of pizza toppings is an undeniably vast and intimidating one, but luckily they can all be sorted into three simple categories: cheese, vegetables, and meat.

For the carnivores, there’s pepperoni, salami, ham, genoa, Italian sausage, ground beef, chorizo sausage, chicken, and bacon.

You’ve got your basic cheeses: mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, gorgonzola, blue cheese, Monterey Jack, asiago, fontina, provolone, and emmental.

Common veggies include green peppers, tomatoes, onions, olives, red peppers, mushrooms (fungi are pretty much vegetables right?) chillies, corn, spinach, and kale.

Now, I’m by no means an expert in math, but I’m pretty sure that mixing these 30 individual toppings in every conceivable way can only yield a maximum of six or seven different kinds of unique pizza variations.

After a while, most of these toppings come together to create flavour profiles that are unoriginal and repetitive. You’re just making the same pizzas over and over again—salty cheese covered in salty meat with some vegetables thrown on top as an afterthought in an attempt to preserve the dwindling remains of your self-respect.

We know you’re better than this.

This is why the pineapple is a game changer. Instead of combining the same few flavours, you can mix things up a little and throw some delicious, sweet, tangy, tropical deliciousness in there. All of a sudden this whole new dimension of flavour opens up to you that you had never experienced before, all thanks to our little spiky friend.

It’s healthy.

It is a scientific fact that fruit is good for you. Ask a doctor. Ask your mom. They’ll tell you.

Stats Canada says that “a diet rich in fruit and vegetables may help to prevent cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and obesity.”

That’s just science.

That’s science talking.

Did you know that 100 grams of pineapple contains 58 per cent of your daily recommended intake of Vitamin C? Pineapple also contains high amounts of manganese, which you need for your body to do things.

People eat fruit for breakfast all the time because of the health benefits.

This conclusively legitimizes Hawaiian pizza as a part of this complete breakfast because it contains fruit. Eating pizza for breakfast can be good for you. That’s just more science.

Don’t ask your mom about that, though.

If I’m at a party or another event where pizza is being served to a bunch of people, I can take my time in grabbing a slice or two, strolling up to the buffet with lackadaisical

confidence. I retrieve my slices, brandishing the forbidden fruit with dignity, and focus my pitying gaze on the fools who have yet to see the light.

It’s divisive.

As a person who enjoys the shit out of Hawaiian pizza, this divisiveness is definitely a good thing. Because of its controversial reputation, the supply of Hawaiian pizza often outweighs the demand for it, which means that there’s almost always more left over for pineapple lovers to enjoy. This lends a convenient exclusivity to the dish, which I personally take advantage of as much I can.

(@RESLUS)

KPU’s Stern Smoke-Free Policy Might Just Be What Students Need to Quit

Though a total ban on smoking is severe, it will likely have a positive effect isabelle wirz | contributor Kwantlen Polytechnic University became smoke-free on Jan. 21, with the announcement being made via email to students and faculty at the end of Sept. 2017.

Other post-secondary institutions in Canada have also made the switch to smoke-free campuses, with more than 10 boasting 100 per cent smokefree policies, including Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver and Trinity Western University in Langley. KPU has now joined the list of institutions taking a step towards creating public areas with clean air, hopefully incentivizing people to quit or at least reduce their smoking habits.

KPU President Alan Davis showed enthusiasm for the new policy, which prohibits all smoking and vaping on university properties, including inside personal vehicles parked on campuses. Many students find this part of the policy particularly severe.

The decision for KPU campuses to go smoke-free came after two

years of deliberation about policies to regulate smoking-related activities.

The university administration says it received complaints about smoke on campus, even while the school was complying with all provincial bylaws pertaining to smoking.

A non-smoking Langley student, Brad Prato, is critical of people who smoke on university campuses.

“It sucks to be discriminated against for the group you’re in, but also it’s a conscious decision to be in that group,” he says.

Prato’s sentiments are echoed by another non-smoking student in Langley, Emily Chabot, who feels that students who leave campus for a smoke break are “making the conscious decision to allow it to impede [their] education.” Navjeet Phagura, a first year non-smoker, also notes that “for some people, [smoking] is not appropriate to their religion,” or for those with respiratory problems.

Although these students agree with eliminating second-hand smoke from KPU, others find the complete ban of smoking on campus to be too severe.

Instead, they would have liked to see the creation of a designated smoking area on campus. Even as a non-smoker, Nick Coers says that he doesn’t “believe in dictating other people’s health.”

“We’re always talking about how a healthy body creates a healthy mind, so I get that [smoke-free policies are] being linked to education and mental well-being,” says Victoria Nylander, a non-smoking student in the Health Foundations program. Overall, she describes herself as neutral-positive to the policy.

Personally, this ban reminds me of an experience I had in high school.

No tobacco products were allowed on school property, so smokers would congregate at one point close to the school to smoke, leaving their butts littered in the area. I hope that this doesn’t cause a litter problem outside of the limits of campus, as cigarette butts pose a huge environmental threat.

That aside, I do think that the university’s policy could be the extra incentive some people need to kick

The university has posted signs on all campuses that prohibit people from smoking on KPU property. (Braden Klassen) their smoking habit, and perhaps the larger KPU campuses could provide some sort of relief room for people dealing with nicotine cravings. For those trying to quit, B.C. offers three months worth of quitting aides per year, which more people should take advantage of.

While I think the policy is drastic and a bit stern for banishing smoking completely, myself and many other students on the Langley campus think that it could bring about a positive change at KPU.

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Merriam-Webster Stays Relevant With Its 2017 Word of the Year

“Milkshake duck” is a necessary term to describe a unique element of online culture mia davison Every January, the Oxford and Merriam-Webster dictionaries choose their “Word of the Year”, taking into consideration the trends, themes, and major events that were prevalent over the past 365 days.

For 2016, Oxford awarded bestowed its annual award on “posttruth”, which it defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” The term rose to prominence in the year of the unforgettable U.S presidential election. For 2017, Oxford and its primary rival, Merriam-Webster, chose “youthquake” and “milkshake duck” respectively as their words of the year.

According to Oxford, “youthquake” refers to “a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people.” The term was first coined in 1965 by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland and was used to capture the growing youth culture and the influence that it had.

“Youthquake” certainly seems appropriate to describe the ‘60s, when the baby boomers began to move into their teen years and the era of the hippie began. But in 2017, I’m not sure that the word is still applicable. Even if it is, does it deserve to be the word of the year?

As for Merriam-Webster, “milkshake duck” is a noticeably funnier-sounding choice, but still subtly political and highly judgmental. The official definition is “a person who is initially viewed positively by the media but is then discovered to have something questionable about them which causes a sharp decline in their

(Melanie Tan) popularity.”

The term was first used in 2016 when it was tweeted by @pixelatedboat. The original tweet reads: “The whole internet loves Milkshake Duck, a lovely duck that drinks milkshakes! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the duck is racist.”

It’s funny, it’s odd, and it’s accurate. As real-time updates in the news media become more common across various online platforms, the need for a word which describes the phenomenon of drastically loving a public figure online and then quickly denouncing and

hating them has become more apparent.

The relevance of this term, although seemingly random, is undeniable. Its randomness is part of the charm that makes it pertinent with online culture.

The internet is an extremely important part of life these days, which is why I support “milkshake duck” as the most deserving word of the year. We have no use for a term invented in the ‘60s to describe the youth of that age because today’s youth are in living a different world.

We need more terms to describe our

thriving online culture, and although I personally have never heard anyone use the term “milkshake duck” before, I know it’s only a matter of time before our parents start to use that word at all the wrong times and in all the wrong places, causing the younger generation to slap their foreheads and ask why the older generations can’t keep up with the lingo.

At least for now, those reading this article who plan to use Merriam-Webster’s word of the year in conversation are one step ahead of the game.

It’s Time to Hold Hecklers Accountable

A Halifax reporter pursues charges against man who yelled sexist slurs at her Kyrsten Downton | contributor Words are more powerful than many realize. The right words can be used to empower one another, raise the goosebumps on our arms, and enrich our lives.

On the other hand, words can also be used to demean and destroy a person’s feeling of security.

Heather Butts, a CTV Atlantic reporter, was broadcasting live outside a local pub in Halifax when a man approached her during the broadcast. He appeared to make a sexual gesture and then called out a sexually explicit phrase at Butts.

Butts ignored the heckler during the broadcast, but filed a complaint with the police. Now, Nash John Gracie has been charged with public mischief and causing a disturbance. He is due in court for March What this reporter experienced is

not unique. Any person that is in the public eye is subject to heckling. It happens so often that it feels like part of the job description.

In 2014, filmmaker John Cain began making fake news videos that where an unknown hooded man appeared to be hijacking the broadcast by saying explicit sexual phrases. These hoax videos became viral and inspired many individuals to interrupt real-life broadcasts with the same phrase.

In a perfect world, people would be able to show basic human decency and not disrespect one another.

Unfortunately, this not a perfect world. There will always be hecklers.

That will never change.

In many cases, people being heckled or harassed in work, public, or in their personal environments do not seek any legal action. Many people just shrug it off.

Taking legal action against Gracie was a bold move by both Butts and the Halifax police. This case breaks new ground by going after the perpetrator instead of simply ignoring his misbehaviour.

Some may argue that getting the police involved is an extreme response, especially when it is expected of a person to look the other way or to get over being heckled. It’s true that there is nothing wrong with shrugging a heckler off, as long you feel that doing so is the right decision.

But there is also nothing wrong with Butts taking legal action because that is what she felt was right. In doing so, she was able to stand up for herself and start a conversation about hecklers.

This issue goes beyond simply pressing charges. There is no place in today’s society for people to speak to one another in a derogatory manner.

We need to respect each other.

People should always be held accountable for their words. Humans need to understand the effect we have on other humans, and realize that what we say can have serious ramifications.

Butts was able to handle her situation in a professional manner, but what about other journalists in the same predicament? What about people who are heckled in public for their race, gender, or sexual orientation? What about children who are being bullied at school or on the internet every day?

Everyone has their breaking point.

Your words could cause someone to reach theirs.

Vancouver’s Trump Tower is a “Shithole” Sandra Hunaidi | contributor A poll from The Vancouver Sun on Jan. 17 asked readers if they would visit Vancouver’s Trump Tower after the President made racist remarks about rejecting immigrants from “shithole countries.”

1,343 people participated in the poll, and of those, 63 per cent said they wouldn’t visit the building.

Users on Yelp left derogatory comments about the Trump International Hotel and Tower, with one reviewer writing: “A giant tank of skeevy, greasy losers. Total shithole.” Another described it as “a major cheetoh dump of a shithole.”

Trump’s “shithole” remark is not much different than his previous racist comments and actions, but it’s the public’s response is what makes this conversation interesting. The American President gave the people ammunition to fire back at his businesses, which have now been tainted by his crude behavior. Whether or not the tower actually looks like a dump or “smells of cheap tanner,” as one Yelp user wrote, is irrelevant.

When Trump referred to thirdworld countries as “shitholes,” he was directing his insult at the people who live in those countries as much as the countries themselves. He doesn’t want people from underprivileged nations to come to America because, to him, they aren’t worth as much as people from wealthier nations.

This caused an outrage amongst Vancouverites and other citizens around the world, who jumped at the opportunity to help humiliate a racist politician. Who doesn’t like the feeling of throwing a bully’s words back at them? And, as an added bonus, his remark could deter people from supporting him—and the less support there is for Trump, the better.

A book called The Rhetoric of Interpretation and the Interpretation of Rhetoric by Paul Hernadi outlines Trump’s strategy for making these comments. By doing so, he can gain more influence.

“Structures of power must become the structures of feeling and the name for this mediation from property to priority is the aesthetics,” writes Hernadi. “If politicians and aesthetics are deeply as one, it is because pleasurable conduct is the true index of successful social hegemony, self-delight the very mark of social submission.”

This particular attempt at social submission hasn’t fooled as many as he might have hoped for, according to the poll results. Vancouverites won’t take Trump’s shit, and the tower’s reputation is suffering as a result.

22 columns

Artist Spotlight: Wax Cowboy Connecting with the community comes first for this jangle rock four-piece

alyssa laube | coordinating editor The “bandmates first, friends second” mentality is at the heart of plenty of indie acts, but it means something special to Wax Cowboy, a Vancouver four-piece with members who have known each other since high school.

Together, frontman Atley King, drummer Eric Sanderson, bassist John Domenici, and guitarist Taliesin Mason-McCrea grew up listening to Billy Talent, fumbling with their respective instruments, and jamming out covers. Now, they present delaysoaked, alternative hits inspired by projects like Melody’s Echo Chamber and Tame Impala.

“I have a lot of bands that I’m in, but this is the band of my friends,” says King. “I could spend a day hanging out with them and playing music or I could spend a day playing no music with them and it would still be the same.”

King and Sanderson were formerly in a metal band together but got bored of the lack of enthusiasm that they felt in the scene. Wax Cowboy was created to escape that atmosphere and start something fresh and positive.

King taught Domenici bass and had him performing live sets in no time, and Mason-McCrea’s musicianship has long been a part of his relationship to his now-bandmates.

Off the stage, non-member also helped nurture the band in its forma-

(From left to right): Frontman Atley King, drummer Eric Sanderson, bassist John Domenici, and guitarist Taliesin Mason-McCrae are recording their next release as Wax Cowboy. (Submitted) tive days. The name Wax Cowboy was picked from a list of potential band names written by Chris Pantazis, a close friend of the members who also creates artwork for their merch.

On Jan. 23, they started recording their next release, described by the band as “something to get you through the winter”, or the period between one album and the next. Likely to be an EP, but currently unrestricted by a track limit, the record will feature a humbler, more intimate approach than the group has taken in the past.

“To me, it’s like a night in that you wish [was] a night out. It’s bittersweet,” says King, about the tone of the tracks they’re currently recording. “Some of our other stuff was more to just jump around and dance to. But with this, it’s more so that you can hang out alone and groove to it.

It’s stuff to listen to when you’re not doing stuff.”

There’s no use trying to predict what the atmosphere will be like at each Wax Cowboy show—the band places importance on mixing it up

and hand-picking songs to suit the venue and other performers on the bill. They can be cozy hangouts or raucous moshes, depending on when and where you see them play.

Wax Cowboy isn’t on a label, but they are part of a collective of other local bands called Soft Sun Records.

Videos of their live shows, along with performances by groups like Club Sofa and Kai Bravewood, can be found on their Youtube channel.

“If there are any fans out there who want to say hi, say hi,” grins Dome-

nici. The other three members laugh and nod in agreement.

The band will be playing on Feb. 2 at 333 with Thee Magic Circle and Bear Call and in the last week of February at Stylus Records with Highland Eyeway.

After Thought: No LNG or No Confidence

Andrew Weaver threw down the gauntlet on Twitter, warning the BCNDP to back off liquefied natural gas BRADEN KLASSEN | PHOTO EDITOR On Jan. 15, B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver tweeted, “If BCNDP caucus continue the generational sellout embodied in the LNG folly of the BC Liberals, their government will fall.”

This was in response to a DeSmog Canada article that illuminated the provincial government’s appalling failure to meet their emissions reduction target for 2020. The target, set in 2008, called for a 33 per cent reduction in B.C.’s carbon emission production, and successive governments cheerfully maintained that they were making genuine efforts to meet that target.

Over the next decade, however, the government’s commitment to blowing hot air progressed from figurative to literal, as the grand total of the emissions reduction rate came in at just two per cent. The government had 10 years, multiple terms, and millions of dollars to do something about this, and they still missed the mark by 31 per cent.

I can understand Weaver’s outrage.

The situation is ludicrous.

Despite this troubling statistic— and the $11 billion failing of the Pacific Northwest Liquefied Natural Gas project in July 2017—it seems

likely that the NDP are lining up to take another swing at investing in the LNG exporting industry. PNW LNG was cancelled by Malaysian fossil fuel company Petronas after years of negotiating and planning with the Clark government. This prompted PNW to issue an unceremonious and uninformative statement that read: “The decision [to cancel the PNW LNG] was made by the project partners following a total review of the project amid changes in market conditions.”

Less than a year ago, the LNG market conditions were apparently volatile enough to torpedo a multi-billion dollar mega project that had been years in the making. But that hasn’t stopped John Horgan from speaking with LNG interests while on his trade mission through Asia.

During election campaigns through all levels of government, it has become a common practice for parties to tout the idea of reducing carbon emissions, promising to firmly adhere to greenhouse gas reduction targets in order to tackle climate change and, ultimately, save the planet.

Time and time again, this country has failed to meet its emission reduction targets. Since the 2017 election elevated the Green Party’s parliamentary role from the voiceless

“You can’t have LNG and meet the targets. … This is that sword I would die on,” said Weaver in a Globe and Mail interview published on Jan.23. (Flicker/NDP BC & Braden Klassen) underdogs to the key support for the NDP’s fragile minority, the balance of power has swung dramatically in their favour.

If Weaver makes threats like this, the other parties have no choice but to listen. But listening to him and seriously considering his input is different from totally abiding by

his demands, and the likelihood of this aggressive tactic working to the Greens’ benefit is uncertain.

If Weaver called a motion of no-confidence that unseated the NDP party, it may send a message to the other parties and to the province at large, but there’s no guarantee that it would prevent LNG projects from

coming to fruition in the future.

For what it’s worth, I admire Andrew Weaver’s cause and dedication to taking an uncompromising approach here, but he may be creating a schism between the Greens and the NDP that could backfire rather than reduce emissions.

PROCRASTINATION HOROSCOPES Sagittarius Nov. 23 - Dec 21

Capricorn Dec. 22 - Jan 20

Aquarius Jan 21 - Feb 19

I mean, God’s already dead. Must you parade on His corpse?

This week, despite every effort to prevent it from happening, your life will be perfectly synchronized with the events of The Room.

The world has never been more ready for your freestyle ska/electrica reimagining of the life of Louis Riel than it is at this exact moment.

Pisces Feb 20 - Mar 20

Aries Mar 21 - Apr 19

Taurus Apr 20 - May 20

Watch out for that halibut!

The eyelids and lips of the guillotined man work in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds. When the spasmodic movements end, you call the man’s name and watch as the eyelids slowly lift once more, as if awakened or torn from thought.

Your marriage is loveless.

Gemini May 21 - Jun 20

Cancer Jun 21 - Jul 23

Leo Jul 24 - Aug 23

For a bit of extra luck this weekend, commit a small offering to the Poison Fang Mask Monster from the 1970s Japanese tokusatsu TV series Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.

Seek high ground. The first wave isn’t always the biggest.

All your college boyfriends one your night stands, your male co-workers and platonic gay friends. All the men in your life will be killed by Candarian demons.

Virgo Aug 24 - Sept 23

Libra Sept 24 - Oct 23

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 22

You own a werewolf, and have the sense to use it.

You are on an inevitable path to Saskatchewan.

You’ll never get far on foot.

SUDOKU

THE DOODLE BOX Last issue’s answers.

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

We’ve merely started the creation, you get to finish it!

Tweet a photo of your drawing with #runnerdoodles and you could be featured in the next issue!