The Runner Volume 10, Issue 15

MAY 1, 2018 VOLUME 10, ISSUE 15 KPU’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Sikh Pride on Parade

Sunshine and bright colours filled the streets of Surrey for the annual Vaisakhi celebration

NEWS

CFS Will Vote to Expel BCFS Member Unions

CULTURE page 4

Five Unique Hiking Spots Near Surrey

OPINION page 11

KPIRG Should Keep Fighting Despite the Cost

page 12

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STAFF 04

NEWS | CFS Will Vote to Expel BCFS Member Unions

Editor in Chief

Aly Laube editor@runnermag.ca

Managing Editor

Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca

Production Manager

Melanie Tan production@runnermag.ca

The motion to expel the BCFS and its member locals was approved by the CFS executive and will go to a vote at the CFS national general meeting in June. The move comes after years of bitter infighting between the two student organizations.

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FEATURES | Surrey Shows High Spirits at 2018 Vaisakhi Parade

Hundreds of thousands of people from various cultures and communities gathered in Surrey to celebrate Vaisakhi, the Lower Mainland’s largest annual cultural event, on April 21.

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CULTURE | Five Unique Hiking Spots Near Surrey

There are so many amazing hikes in or around the Lower Mainland, so grab your hiking shoes, bring a friend and their dog, and try these hikes today.

Art Director

Nicola Kwit art@runnermag.ca

Photo Editor

Braden Klassen photos@runnermag.ca

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OPINIONS | KPIRG Should Keeping Fighting, Despite the Cost

KPIRG may now have the opportunity to finally hold someone to account, and hopefully deter others from seeing KPU students as an easy source of personal enrichment in the future.

Staff Writer

Joseph Keller staff@runnermag.ca

Hashtag KPU Web Editor

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

Mel Pomerleau web@runnermag.ca

Community Reporter

Ashley Hyshka community@runnermag.ca

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

CONTRIBUTORS Epifania Alarcón Katie Czenczek Mia Davison Scott Dawson Raheil Inaim Oliver Lum Nat Mussell Leah Rosehill

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. 15 May 1 // 2018 ISSN# 1916 8241

Summer Semester 2018

Student Publication Fee Opt-Outs available in person May 7 - 31. Student ID & Proof of registration and payment required. PIPS Office: Arbutus 3710, Surrey Campus.

Hours: 10 am - 5 pm Monday to Friday.

Phone: 778-565-3801 Email: office@runnermag.ca

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

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

FROM THE EDITOR

Doctors need to stop ignoring female pain

(Nicola Kwit)

Aly Laube | Editor in Chief When doctors ignore the suffering of any patient—regardless of their sex or gender— it can sometimes be fatal. But when they ignore the pain of female patients specifically, they do so as part of a society that has historically seen women as unstable, weak, and ultimately expendable.

In these cases, doctors may turn female patients away with a snide remark or an ill-fitting antibiotic prescription. This is more than just a symptom of laziness, or of the frantic, revolving-door system that is the health industry. It’s an internal bias within health professionals that puts lives at risk, and many women in Canada’s health system have shared their stories attesting to this inequity.

Typically, this is seen from male doctors who do not understand female pain and brush it off as an exaggeration, menstrual complication, or hormonal imbalance, but this ignorance can come from female doctors too. Such

behaviour grows increasingly oppressive for trans women, women of colour, and impoverished or mentally ill women in Canada.

My mother, who struggled with chronic pain without a diagnosis for over a decade, once went to a doctor in Surrey to find the cause of her difficulty with breathing, walking, and staying awake throughout her day.

She was told that she had “mommy syndrome” and just needed to take a day to relax before being sent home.

My friend, who found a sore lump near her uterus, had to make multiple trips to doctors in Metro Vancouver over the span of a month to have a single ultrasound conducted. When that didn’t provide the results she needed, she was kept on waitlists despite her constant suffering and effort to get help. I know multiple other women who were diagnosed with endometriosis, but were only medicated after months of debilitating pain.

Another friend, whose mental health plummeted while she was living abroad, was

told by her therapist that she was too pretty to be depressed and was being dramatic about her illness.

The list of anecdotes goes on and on—but this phenomenon is supported by research, too.

Several studies have been conducted over the years to discern how doctors diagnose the same illness differently between male and female patients. Many of them come to the same conclusion: health professionals underdiagnose women for the diseases they’re already suffering from. This has been proven to be true for cancer, heart disease, mental health issues, and more.

The crossfire between misdiagnosis in mental and physical health issues is crucial to understanding how this atmosphere has become so accepted in healthcare. Not too long ago, “female hysteria” was considered a genuine disorder, so it’s not surprising that women today are still told that their pain is “all in their head.” Those who do receive diagnoses might be left with a shrug and a “Sorry, nothing can be done.”

It’s sad but not shocking. Women in pain are seldom taken seriously, and angry women are even more invisible, so it’s no surprise that such biases have bled into Canada’s health-care system.

The solution, though, is relatively simple.

Doctors need to be spoken to about this issue and trained to behave otherwise. Perhaps this belief is too optimistic, but it seems achievable for trained professionals who dedicate their lives to helping others to be more inclusive in their practice. It could be done, and to save the lives of women who are sick, it needs to be.

For the women reading this, stand up to your doc if they refuse to hear you out about your pain. It could be the decision that helps you lead a longer and healthier life.

KPU Elects New Senate and Board of Governors

NEWS BRIEF

Aly Laube | Editor in Chief

The results of the spring election for KPU’s Senate and Board of Governors have been released, with students, staff, and faculty preparing to begin their terms in September.

For faculty positions on the Senate, David Burns and Robert Dearle were chosen to represent the Faculty of Arts. Carlos Calao is representing the School of Business, Andre Iwanchuk the Faculty of Educational Support and Development, and Amy Jeon the Faculty of Science and Horticulture. The Wilson School of Design seat remains vacant.

Stefanie Broad, who is being brought on as the coordinator of KPU’s transition programs and orientation, was the only professional support staff member elected to Senate.

The students who were elected are Rawan Ramini, Murdoch de Mooy, Lincoln Saugstad, and Christina Wilcox.

Rawan Ramini, who was previously the VP Finance & Operations for the Kwantlen Student Association, wrote in her candidate statement that she ran for the position “in an effort to continue working for students and ensuring that our voice is being heard.” Murdoch de Mooy has also been involved with the

KSA over the years and is hoping to have his voice heard on the Appeals Committee and during discussions of policy reform.

Lincoln Saugstad is primarily interested in “student affordability [and] course content and delivery, as well as applicability of knowledge to life after university,” and Christina Wilcox is dedicated to improving the curriculum of KPU’s Bachelor of Business Degree, according to their candidate statements.

On the Board of Governors, Arts instructor Farhad Dastur is the only faculty representative and Kim Rose, as the manager of communications and technologies for the Future Students’ Office, is the only support staff member elected.

Students Samuel Baroi and Akashdeep Bhullar will also be beginning their terms as student representatives in September. Baroi spent his past three years at KPU working as a student ambassador and is hoping to support students, “diversify the campuses,” and “design and implement strategic plans that would benefit the whole KPU community.” Bhullar wants to “play an active role in the ongoing improvement of our university and its many facets.”

All seats left vacant following the election will hopefully be filled in the byelection to be held in the fall.

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WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS MONTH

MAY 1 MAY DAY

In celebration of International Workers Day, there will be a march and rally at Jack Poole Plaza. Organizers encourage you to bring your banners, your flags, and your pots and pans. Fight the power! Fight the powers that be!

2:00 pm, Jack Poole Plaza, free.

MAY 7

FIRST DAY OF CLASSES

Just when you thought you were out. If you are one of the tragic few who will continue to take classes over the summer semester, hang in there! The campus is pretty relaxed in the summer, so you just might enjoy yourself over the next few months.

All day, all campuses, the cost of tuition.

MAY 12

SCIENCE RENDEZVOUS

KPU Langley will be transformed into a family-friendly science and art festival where people will get to participate in hands-on experiments, magic shows, and interactive science labs. The campus will also be hosting an open house for potential future students.

11:00 am - 3:00 pm, KPU Langley, free.

MAY 12

YUNG HEAZY RELEASE PARTY

Never in the history of music has there been a day so long prophesied and so greatly anticipated. This all-ages show will see the one, the only, the true messianic band Primp make their stage debut alongside Yung Heazy and The Jins. Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news.

8:30 pm, 333 Clark & Powell, tickets are $12.

MAY 17 GOLF TOURNAMENT

100 per cent of the net proceeds from the golf tournament will support student bursaries, and participants will get to determine which areas of the school those bursaries support! So practice your back nine and help fund students in financial need at the same time.

11:30 am - 9:00 pm, Morgan Creek Golf Course, $50 - $250.

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NEWS

Canadian Federation of Students Approves Motion to Split from the B.C. Federation of Students The Kwantlen Student Association will be one of only two student unions staying with the national organization Joseph Keller | Staff Writer The Canadian Federation of Students is preparing to sever ties with the British Columbia Federation of students and its 12 member associations, also known as member locals.

The motion to expel the BCFS and its member locals was approved by the CFS executive and will go to a vote at the CFS national general meeting in June. The move comes after years of bitter infighting between the two student organizations.

The BCFS has expressed support for the motion that will see them expelled from the national organization, which is expected to pass with favour from all parties at the June meeting. As a CFS member local, the Kwantlen Student Association will be sending its executive committee to vote on the motion.

The vote may end a long history of dispute between the CFS and BCFS. Simka Marshall, Chairperson of the BCFS, says that allegations of electoral fraud and corruption within the national federation have caused the member locals in B.C. to pursue independence, although bylaw restrictions have prevented them from holding a referendum to separate.

To strengthen their bid for independence, the BCFS recently began offering its members many of the services that have historically been offered by the CFS. This, in the BCFS’

view, renders the CFS irrelevant to B.C. student organizations.

“All of these steps or actions that have been taken to move in a direction of focusing on provincial work and moving away from the national organization, these have all been at the direction of our memberships,” says Marshall. “It’s those student leaders from around B.C. who are having us take steps to do everything that we can to move away from that corruption in the CFS and to focus everything that we can in continuing to do good advocacy work.”

According to her, the BCFS has had much more success with their advocacy work since distancing themselves from the CFS. “A national organization is something that should be both relevant and effective, and the CFS is just neither,” says Mitchell.

Due to the animosity between the federations, the BCFS has been withholding the membership fees of its locals from the CFS, which has put the BCFS members in bad standing with the national organization.

Peyton Veitch, Treasurer of the CFS, says that the conflict has caused massive problems for both federations. The legal battles and infighting have been expensive and time consuming for both sides, and the the conflict has cast a shadow over national general meetings. He says that the situation has hurt

morale and hindered productivity. Veitch adds that there is a backlog of motions from two years ago that have yet to be voted on because of the conflict.

“It’s been disruptive in terms of our ability to conduct business. It’s been disruptive in terms of the focusing of national executive time on this issue as opposed to other ones that affect students,” he says. “I think that the same can be said for the leadership of the BCFS. It hasn’t been pleasant for them either.

I know that they care about doing right by their members and it’s been something that has occupied a lot of their time and energy as well and I regret that.”

As part of the separation, the CFS will not be pursuing any of the unpaid membership fees from the expelled members organizations.

“Ultimately, we’re not interested in a protracted battle over fees after this position is ratified,” says Veitch. “We’re interested in moving on and resetting the relationship and allowing us to get back to working for students.”

The conflict puts the Kwantlen Student Association in a particularly odd situation.

The KSA has been seeking independence from both the CFS and BCFS for years. In 2013, the KSA attempted to hold a referendum to leave the BCFS which sparked a lengthy legal dispute, as the BCFS argued that no such referendum would be valid due to outstanding

membership fees. The case ended early this year, with the court upholding the KSA’s referendum to leave.

However, because the KSA is no longer a member of the BCFS, it will not be one of the 12 member locals expelled from the CFS. The KSA will remain a member of the CFS and will be expected to continue paying fees to the national federation.

Had the legal dispute ended a couple of months later, the KSA may have gained the freedom from both federations.

Still, this circumstance does present a potential opportunity for the KSA. It is one of only two student unions in B.C. that is still being represented by the CFS, the other being the College of the Rockies Student Union.

As a result, the KSA will have the authority to easily appoint KPU students as B.C. representatives on the CFS national committees, giving the association a significant boost in national influence.

However, the KSA has not decided if that influence will be enough to end its members’ hopes of defederating.

“We are trying to weigh our options to see what’s best for students here,” says KSA President Caitlin McCutchen. “We haven’t decided what we’re going to do yet.”

Kwantlen Student Association to Sponsor Student Refugee The KSA will work with World University Service of Canada to support a refugee student this summer Joseph Keller | Staff Writer Starting this summer, the Kwantlen Student Association will be sponsoring a student refugee as part of a partnership with World University Service of Canada. The KSA has been considering the possibility of sponsoring a refugee for the past year, and at the KSA Council meeting on March 2, then-VP Finance and Operations Rawan Ramini passed the motion to make the sponsorship official.

Ramini says that it will cost roughly $28,000 to sponsor a student refugee for one year and that the cost will be split between the KSA and KPU. With this decision, the KSA joins a growing number of Canadian student associations that are sponsoring student refugees. The UBC and SFU student unions both support student refugees through dedicated student fees for that purpose. Ramini says that, if this pilot run is successful, the KSA will likely hold a referendum to add a student fee for supporting future refugee sponsorships.

She also feels that “this is truly an opportunity to save someone’s life.”

The idea of sponsoring a student refugee was brought up over a year ago, when officials from both the KSA and KPU separately heard presentations from WUSC about their student refugee program. The KSA sent Ramini to Ottawa to meet with representatives from WUSC to learn more about it.

While in Ottawa, she encountered a former student refugee who was supported through WUSC and has since gained citizenship and begun raising a family in Canada. Being told

about this experience fully convinced her of the value of the program.

“You need to hear the stories to know how powerful this program is,” says Ramini. “It stands for everything the KSA stands for: empowerment, education, providing opportunity. It just fits right in with the values of the KSA.” The KSA is currently in the process of meeting with the university administration to discuss their contribution to the student refugee initiative. KPU has yet to fully commit to contributing and has not confirmed exactly how much it may be chipping in, but Ramini is confident that these details will be worked out soon.

World University Service of Canada is a non-profit international development organization that operates a number of programs meant to provide employment and education opportunities for marginalized people.

Program Officer Carolyn McKee says that WUSC’s student refugee program is one of its flagship initiatives.

According to McKee, WUSC works with specialized committees set up by the universities that it partners with. It provides sponsored student refugees with four pillars of support— financial, academic, autonomy, and social— with the help of student unions. Social support refers to helping students combat loneliness by creating social opportunities and helping to counter culture shock, but it can also mean providing mental health support and trauma counseling when necessary.

McKee points out that every refugee’s story and situation is unique, however, and that

mental health and trauma services are not always required.

“We definitely try not to generalize. You are going to hear about stories of mental health and trauma and things like that with refugee populations, but we try not to make assumptions that students that come to this program will have had those experiences or want to talk about them,” he says. “So we want to basically be prepared for anything.”

To be eligible for a placement in Canada through WUSC, refugees must be between 18 and 25 years old, be single with no dependents, meet a minimum level of English or French proficiency, and be from one of the

currently supported countries: Jordan, Lebanon, Malawi, Kenya, or Tanzania. In their home countries, applicants are interviewed by a panel of representatives from WUSC as well as representatives from their partner organizations, one of which is the United Nations. Before being placed, student refugees go through about a year and a half of pre-departure training.

“I’m really excited because Rawan has worked so hard to get this off the ground, so it’s going to be really great to see it all come to fruition and to start the fun part of the actual integration process,” says McKee.

Rawan Ramini, newly elected KPU Senator and former KSA VP of Finance & Operations. (Braden Klassen)

NEWS

KSA Releases 2015 and 2016 Student Rights Centre Reports The reports compile issues that KPU students have had with the university Joseph Keller | Staff Writer After years of delay, the Kwantlen Student Association has publicly released its Student Rights Centre reports for 2015 and 2016.

The documents list the complaints of students who contacted the KSA Student Rights Centre because of troubling experiences they had with Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2015-16. They also make soft recommendations to the KPU administration for how to improve its framework based on that feedback.

The KSA is currently compiling its Student Rights Centre report for 2017 but has given no indication for when exactly the new document could be released.

The student association began the process of creating the reports in 2015 as a way of bringing student concerns to the attention of the university and enacting positive change.

“We’re not trying to be confrontational or give students negative hope,” says KSA VP University Affairs Murdoch de Mooy. “We’re just trying to highlight that these are some of the situations we’ve had in the past and this is how we can all work together to improve.”

While the fact that the documents are several years old means that much of the information contained in them is now out of date, they do provide snapshots of the issues that KPU students were facing at the time. The issues identified in the reports, when compared with how the university operates in 2018, can offer important context for how it has changed in response to student feedback.

“Not everything is perfect. We’ll always have room for improvement,” says de Mooy. “Even though the university did not have any of the annual reports to work off of, they did make improvements between 2015 and 2016 out of their own processes. Our hope is, as time goes on and we make these reports annual … that the university in and of itself can take these criticisms and these highlights of certain particular issues and they can acknowledge them and help develop things further.”

Both of the reports identify issues in the Faculty of Health. The Student Rights Centre received 15 complaints regarding the faculty in 2015 and 19 complaints in 2016. These figures are significantly higher—relative to the number of students in the faculty—than any of the other faculties at the university.

The 2015 report also points to a flawed academic appeals system in the department. Students in the Faculty of Health exclusively are required to appeal failing grades with the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia

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KPU Consults Students for Vision 2023 Document

Joseph Keller | Staff Writer

The KSA Student Rights Centre in Birch 236 on Surrey campus. (Braden Klassen) rather than with KPU itself.

The university’s academic appeals system in general was a major focus of both reports.

The system primarily received criticism from students for its lack of transparency.

When the 2015 report was written, the way the system was meant to work was as follows: Once an instructor had identified an apparent case of cheating or plagiarism, they reported the incident to the associate dean who then chose whether or not to take disciplinary action. From there, the disciplined student could appeal to the dean of their faculty, who could choose to send the appeal along to the university senate’s academic appeals committee. The issues that students reported stemmed from the perceived lack of transparency with this process, as reasoning for the decisions made in regards to the appeals is not publicly disclosed.

The university adjusted its academic appeals system last year, with the changes going into effect in May 2017. The Student Rights Centre’s 2017 and 2018 reports should shed light on whether or not these changes have fixed these issues.

The reports also documented complaints about the Services for Students with Disabilities Office. Criticisms of the SSD office included an inefficient system for registering students with disabilities and difficulty with getting those students the accommodation that they need, which often required specialist documentation that could be difficult to acquire. The process of registering as a student with a disability could take up to six months at the time that the 2016 report was written.

As with their academic appeals system,

KPU has made efforts to address issues faced by students with disabilities. The university hired a new SSD coordinator early in 2017 and tasked them with changing the model used in the office to be more inclusive and in line with modern practices.

Last summer, KPU Vice Provost Jane Fee told The Runner that the university has shifted to a more holistic approach to offering disability services. This approach, she said, includes better communication with students and other departments of the university to make sure that accommodations are better implemented. According to Fee, students can expect to get a meeting with an SSD representative within a week of contacting the office, while receiving accomodation for their disability can be expected about a week after the meeting.

Between the two reports, the Student Rights Centre has identified more than two dozen issues that have been experienced by students across the university. De Mooy says that the KSA is hopeful that it will be able to release the 2017 report more quickly than its predecessors, and that the 2018 report should be released even faster as the KSA continually improves the process of compiling and reviewing them.

The value of these reports is that they show how well KPU is addressing the issues that its students identify to the Student Rights Centre. Whether the reports indicate steady progress in student satisfaction by an ever-improving institution or show the same issues reappearing year after year remains to be seen.

Copies of the SRC reports from 2015 and 2016 are now available at kusa.ca/studentrights. (Braden Klassen)

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s administration is currently working on an academic plan to shape what the institution should look like by 2023.

To this end, representatives from the university’s senate have been surveying students both online and in-person on each of KPU’s four campuses. The results of the surveying will be used to form Vision 2023, a document that lays out the administration’s expectations for KPU over the next five years.

“It’s all about being a better institution,” says KPU President Alan Davis. “We have limited resources. We’re going to have to make some choices, but we want to be a sustainable, high-quality institution that really focuses on the experience.”

Davis says that the university's findings have already been telling of the type and quality of experience that students want to have at KPU. Unsurprisingly, among the top concerns voiced through this process is the need for students to have better access to the courses they require. Students commonly report that they’ve been unable to get into certain courses due to limited space or the course not being offered for a particular semester. Davis says that, because of this feedback, Vision 2023 will prescribe better “background planning” to make sure that courses are strategically offered to better align with student needs.

Vision 2023 will succeed its predecessor document, Vision 2018. While Vision 2018 focused on the brand of KPU, particularly public awareness and reputation, Davis says that Vision 2023 is more about the student experience.

“We want to be able to look at the student experience from the students’ point of view more,” explains Davis. “I think 2018 looked at ‘What’s a polytechnic university? What are we all about?’ [We were] trying to get some understanding of where we fit in the bigger ecosystem of higher education, and now we’re trying to turn it around and say, ‘What is it that students really need when they come here?’”

He adds that Vision 2023 will include an explicit statement calling for more investment in research and the scholarship associated with teaching and learning.

Although on-campus consultation was still being conducted in mid-April, the university released a draft version of Vision 2023 through the KPU website on April 2.

“I think every institution is being challenged now, both by provincial and federal governments and communities, to make sure that we are open, accessible, supportive, and help First Nations and Indigenous communities be sustainable and vibrant and healthy,” says Davis.

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NEWS

BC Parks Looks to Hire 48 Students as Park Rangers 30 per cent of this year’s student rangers will be from Indigenous backgrounds Joseph Keller | Staff Writer BC Parks is looking to students to find the next generation of park rangers in the province.

Applications are currently open for the province’s first student ranger program, which will see 48 students from across the province work in eight teams operating out of Prince George, Smithers, Kamloops, Victoria, Black Creek, Manning Park, North Vancouver, and Squamish. Crew leaders will begin work on May 22 while their crews will start on June 4. “[The student ranger program] will promote the ministry as an employer of choice for future career planning, so we certainly hope to get people interested in coming into BC Parks as a career through this avenue,” says BC Parks Regional Director Larry Boudreau.

Boudreau says that, through the student ranger program, BC Parks aims to promote “outdoor youth employment opportunities across the province of B.C.” while giving students interested in careers in conservation, recreation, public outreach, and Indigenous relations a taste of what BC Parks offers as an employer. It will also “provide student workers with an opportunity to foster their interest in caring for B.C.’s natural spaces,” according to Boudreau.

Ranger crews will be involved in a variety of projects from across the province. They will be working together and with other BC Parks staff and external organizations to perform conservation, recreation, and outreach-related projects. Student rangers will be working in crews of six with one student designated as the crew leader. The job will occasionally see student rangers partaking in overnight camping trips in distant and remote parts of their regions.

BC Parks is looking for people who are

enrolled in full-time studies for the current academic year and plan to be enrolled fulltime for the next academic year. Applicants must be Canadian citizens between the age of 18 and 30 who can commit to work from midMay to August. While not explicitly stated by BC Parks, Boudreau says that applicants who have a background and love of the outdoors will have an advantage.

If BC Parks meets its hiring target, 30 per cent of the 48 student rangers will be from Indigenous backgrounds. Boudreau says that

this is partially because much of the work will take place on culturally significant sites and traditional territories of B.C. First Nations.

“Engaging and including these First Nations is absolutely essential for relationships moving forward,” says Boudreau. “We have hired a lot of First Nations and Indigenous peoples previously and had huge success, so it’s just the right thing to do at the right time to further build those relationships and provide economic opportunities for Indigenous people.”

According to Boudreau, there is a high demand for park rangers in British Columbia, and he doesn’t expect that demand to decrease any time soon. In recent years, the province has annually rolled out around 85 to 90 seasonal park rangers across the province.

Additionally, BC Parks has hired 25 new full time park rangers in the past year.

“I always say that it’s one of the best jobs in the world that I know about,” says Boudreau.

A U.S. and a B.C. Park ranger assist a junior volunteer at International Point in Hozomeen, Washington. (Flickr/Park Ranger)

Accessibility Advocate Kim McMartin Says Goodbye to KPU Though it’s her final semester, McMartin has been making KPU more inclusive for years Aly Laube | Editor in Chief Four years ago, Kimberley McMartin ran for her first position in the Kwantlen Student Association. Shortly after, she came to know about the students with disabilities seat on Council and, once voted in, began what would become a long endeavour to make KPU a more accessible and inclusive place to study.

“I’m a student with disabilities and I didn’t feel represented on campus,” she says. “There was a lot that had to be changed and it took someone to just come out and say it. It took someone to notice those patterns.”

Some of those patterns were found in issues with the physical inaccessibility of parts of campus. Crooked ramps in the inner courtyard, a lack of student knowledge about the Services for Students with Disabilities office, and difficulty with communicating to the university administration are a few problems that she personally set out to fix.

In addition to being the KSA’s representative for students with disabilities—with only Landon Charney otherwise filling the role since she was first elected—McMartin also acted as a student senator and chair of the nominations committee in the KPU Senate.

She sat on the President’s Diversity and Equity Committee, functioned as a board orga-

nizer for KPIRG, and was the president of the Criminology Students Society, the Anthropology Students Society, and the Japan Club.

There has been a shift in how students with disabilities have been treated at KPU, according to McMartin. The ramps still need to be straightened, but there are more chairs on the school grounds for folks with mobility issues, as well as a scent-free policy within the KSA and assorted audits within KPU. This, in part, is due to the hard work that she is proud to see pay off as she prepares for her final semester.

“President Alan Davis was talking about thinking of accessibility when we renovate, and that’s amazing,” says McMartin. “It’s slowly changing into a social model which we really appreciate, because the other model wasn’t working for anybody. A lot of people don’t have the diagnosis but the diagnosis doesn’t dismiss the symptoms.”

McMartin is currently winding down from her KSA projects and tying up the loose ends she’s left in the Senate. An American Sign Language mini-school that she’s supporting still needs teachers. She’s also working on an illustrated pamphlet about KSA services for people who can’t read easily.

As of September she will officially be finished with KPU. This summer, she’s taking a class she can enjoy to leave a sweet taste in

her mouth before she departs with a Bachelor’s double major in anthropology and criminology.

Caring for her mental health, bolstering her portfolio, and working in Tsawwassen Mills’ guest services section are some of the activities she’s planning for her life post-graduation. This decision didn’t come to her easily, as McMartin explains that, “being someone with disabilities, it’s very hard to get that second interview [and] very hard to get your foot in the door, especially when it concerns your language.”

Experience, communication, and hope are

the three most important lessons she feels that she’s taking away from her time at KPU. “My way into getting into advocacy was to get angry and then get involved,” she says. “I would say before you get angry, get involved.

Get involved the first chance you get …. You can always change things. You can always appeal. There’s grants and other money you can go to. There are ways to support yourself at KPU and to get involved and to make it a better place.”

Kim McMartin has been one of the most active students on campus for several years. (Aly Laube)

NEWS

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Public Hearings for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Conclude in Metro Vancouver Though the inquiry is progressing, it has been the subject of heavy criticism Ashley Hyshka | Community Reporter After five days of testimonies from over 100 witnesses, the public hearings for the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) have concluded.

The inquiry seeks to examine the “systemic causes of all forms of violence against Indigenous women [and] girls” in Canada, according to the inquiry website. It’s estimated that, within the past four decades, approximately 4,000 Indigenous women and girls have been murdered or have gone missing.

Family members and survivors gave their testimonies before the inquiry, recounting harrowing stories about missing and murdered loved ones, the child welfare system, failures of the judicial system, and the trauma caused by residential schools.

The national inquiry was announced by the Liberal government in 2015 at the behest of Indigenous families and officially launched on Sept. 1, 2016. Public hearings commenced on May 19, 2017 and have been held in all 13 provinces and territories since. An official report is due by the end of the year.

Despite this, Seema Ahluwalia, a professor of sociology at KPU, is concerned that the

inquiry will be unable to fulfill its goals and will only scratch the surface of the true causes behind the crisis.

She says that one of the core issues behind the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is colonialism.

This includes the vulnerabilities, poverty, and trafficking experienced by Indigenous women and Indigenous children forced into the welfare system.

Primarily, Ahluwalia says that the inquiry will fail to address the role of the “Canadian state in creating the current state of affairs for Native women, where they are targeted for violence, where they are made vulnerable by poverty and colonization, where they are treated as second-class citizens in Canada, and where there is largely indifference to their suffering by the Canadian population as a whole.”

She is also worried that, because the hearings are not being held in more rural communities, they are excluding others from coming forward and testifying about their experiences.

Since its beginning, the inquiry has been the subject of criticism. Ahluwalia says that it has suffered from underfunding, a lack of communication between the government and Indigenous people, and the resignation

of key figures.

The commission has asked the federal government for a two-year extension but it is currently unknown whether or not that request will be granted.

The Wally Oppal Inquiry, which examined how law enforcement failed to apprehend serial killer Robert Pickton, was created in 2012. The inquiry was heavily scrutinized and viewed as a failure by advocates who said that it wasn’t in-depth enough, as key pieces of evidence weren’t studied or acknowledged.

Ahluwalia fears that the national inquiry might be a repeat of the Wally Oppal Inquiry, which she says many speak of “as a lost opportunity.”

She adds that Indigenous families are often not believed by law enforcement and that, when their concerns are dismissed, many families decide to investigate the disappearances themselves.

“Native women are three times more likely to be murdered by strangers than non-Native women,” she says. “It is a standard trope in Canadian culture now for people to talk about the ‘Indian problem’ but really Canada is the problem.”

While Ahluwalia teaches about Indigenous

and women’s issues in her classes, she feels that there isn’t a strong awareness of them at KPU, and that much more can be done to educate students. She wants Canadians to remember that the women who have been murdered or have gone missing are loved by someone, and when tragedy strikes, their loved ones suffer.

Seema Ahluwalia, professor of sociology at KPU, dedicates much of her time to community outreach for Indigenous and women’s groups. (Submitted)

African-Canadians Request Apology for Slavery in Nova Scotia Those with ancestors who were bound by slavery are asking the Senate for reparations Aly Laube | Editor in Chief Before Canada confederated, the results of the Atlantic slave trade remained pervasive in Nova Scotia. Many of the first Black people who arrived there during the 1700s and 1800s came from across the border as slaves. According to a 2009 paper by historian Harvey Amani Whitfield, at least 1,232 slaves were brought to Nova Scotia by slave-owning Loyalists following the American Revolution.

The province wasn’t perceived as a major slave colony at the time, but it was still common for wealthy families to keep “bound servants” without being held to any legal standard of care for them. For instance, historical records attest that illiterate Black servants would be tricked into signing contracts that lasted for much longer than they agreed to and were only paid in a lump sum at the end of the contract. The “masters” would occasionally terminate the contract immediately before it ended, leaving the servants without any payment for their years of labour.

Many Black Canadians today feel that the government of Canada has failed to properly address injustices such as this..

At the end of this year’s Black History Month, a group of Black history experts confronted the Senate of Canada and requested reparations for the region’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.

“What we’re asking for includes two steps: first, recognition and an apology; then, demonstrate leadership so that other western countries that have had a slave trade do the same thing,” said Marjorie Villemarche, director general of an immigrant support agency called La Maison d'Haïti, in the Senate’s press release on the subject. “This crime against humanity should be dealt with in terms of reconciliation

and reparations.”

A United Nations measure deemed “the international decade”—10 years which, starting in 2015, will be dedicated partially to protect the rights of Black North Americans—has been publicly supported by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This was also discussed at the Senate meeting, raised by the first African-Nova Scotian woman in the Senate, Wanda Thomas Bernard.

“On January 30, 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the international decade offers a framework to better address the very real and unique challenges that Black Canadians face,” said Bernard, in the press release.

“By working together, we can combat anti-

Black racism and discrimination and deliver better outcomes for Black Canadians.”

Leland Harper, an instructor of philosophy at KPU who is half Black, conducts research on racial solidarity and identities. He doubts that reparations to Black Nova Scotians will ever be made due to how complicated that process is, but feels that an admission of blame from the government is feasible.

“An apology would be a good thing for the interested parties,” he says. “It could maybe provide some sort of closure, some acknowledgement in some sense that the government was involved in some way, at least in permitting some things that shouldn’t have happened.”

Still, he adds, “It wouldn’t mean much to me unless it was backed up by some legislation to make changes or some tangible thing, but I don’t see that happening, at least not now.”

Issuing an apology could open the door for others to legally demand reparations, Harper notes. He theorizes that this could be one of the reasons why the federal government may refuse to give a formal apology for Nova Scotia’s involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.

“I don’t know enough about what the legal repercussions of that could be,” he says. “But there are plenty of times when we know somebody did something and they’re just going to stay silent.”

(Nicola Kwit)

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FEATURES

Surrey Shows High Spirits at the 2018 Vaisakhi Parade Sunshine and bright colours filled the streets for the annual event celebrating the birth of Khalsa Braden Klassen | Photo Editor

The Guru Granth Sahib procession gradually makes its way through the crowd of spectators. (Braden Klassen) Hundreds of thousands of people from various cultures and communities gathered in Surrey to celebrate Vaisakhi, the Lower Mainland’s largest annual cultural event on April 21.

The festival celebrates the creation of the Khalsa fraternity in 1699, when the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, initiated the first Amrit Sanchar (Sikh baptism or initiation) for his followers. Khalsa, which means “pure,” is a name given to Sikhs who have been baptised by taking Amrit. Amrit, which is a mixture of sugar and water stirred with a double-edged sword while people pray, means “nectar.”

Surrey’s Vaisakhi parade has been occurring annually over the past 17 years and has steadily become more and more popular. Organizers claim that it is the largest celebration of Vaisakhi outside of India, in terms of attendance.

“I feel this time that there’s more [of a] crowd than last year,” says Jasmine Sarai, who mentioned that this was her second year attending the parade. “People every year come together and it’s like a moment of pride for the Sikh community. It’s a good environment. I like it here.”

In a press release published after the festival had ended, organizers said that up to 500,000 people took part in or attended the parade, either by marching alongside one of

the 19 procession entries, serving food from the sidelines, or viewing the festivities and in celebration with the Sikh community.

Businesses and volunteers set up tents along the sidewalks where people were served heaping plates of curry, pizza, meat, tea, and Badam and Kesar milk. There were also several volunteers walking around and doling out Parshaad, a Sikh offering of sweets, to members of the crowd.

“People who have never been here, I would say you should always come and see. It’s a big event and you’re going to see people having fun,” says Sarai. “It’s free to everyone. People from all communities can always come.”

Some of the entries included riders from the Sikh Motorcycle Club, students from the Newton Khalsa School, and members of the Royal Canadian Navy, the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Society, and the Mamta Foundation of Canada.

“All of these decorative trucks have a certain message to convey, and this year the one which I really like is the one for girls’ education,” says Sarai, referring to the Mamta Foundation’s parade entry.

The Mamta Foundation is a child support charity that aims to help orphaned children and advocate for gender equality and wom-

en’s empowerment around the world. Its first project is helping to raise funds for building a girls’ orphanage in Jalandhar City, India.

The procession, which lasted all day, started around 9:30 am from Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar and followed a square route to 124 Street, down to 76 Avenue, and back up 128 Street. Even though there were only 19 procession entries, and about 2,500 people signed up to be official parade participants, the parade moved slowly due to the size of the crowds. It often slowed to a stand still for 10 or 15 minutes while people dispersed enough to let the parade continue.

Some of the parade entries featured marching bands that played classic Punjabi instruments, while the main float in the parade carried the Sikh holy scriptures of Guru Granth Sahib. Other floats included one for Channel Punjabi’s team, who were filming the event live, as well as a Canadian Armed Forces entry flanked by military personnel and younger cadets from the Lower Mainland. Even TransLink participated in the parade with two entries in the procession.

2018 also marked the first year that drummers and singers from the Kwantlen First Nation opened the parade festivities.

Although the event was principally

arranged by Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar, the organization also relied on collaboration with The City of Surrey, Fraser Health, and Surrey RCMP to ensure that everything went as smoothly as possible. Traffic and security was managed by the RCMP, who set up barricades and patrols all along the procession route. There were also ambulances and paramedics stationed at the barricades to ensure the safety of everyone attending.

“It’s phenomenal,” says RCMP officer Scott Campbell, one of several police officers who patrolled around the parade. “This is well organized, good crowds and good turnout.

People are friendly and enjoying themselves, so it’s a successful show.”

Campbell says that this year is the second time he has been assigned to work security at the Vaisakhi parade and that, despite the enormous volume of people in the streets, there’s rarely any trouble with the festival goers at the event.

“It’s a nice parade. It’s a nice community opportunity for people to come together at such a big venue,” he says. “So far, everything has gone very smoothly as it has in the past years.”

A man walks beside a float and offers Parshaad to people in the crowd.

(Braden Klassen)

Members of the Guru Granth Sahib procession hold Kirpan swords and walk ahead of the float. (Braden Klassen)

A member of Surrey's Sikh Motorcycle Club poses in the sunshine along the parade route. (Braden Klassen)

The Mamta Foundation float was one of the final floats in the parade procession. (Braden Klassen)

Members of the Sikh Motorcycle Club joined the parade on motorbikes and on foot. (Braden Klassen)

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CULTURE

Organizers of Science Rendezvous Hope to Inspire the Next Generation of Science Enthusiasts The event will take place on May 12 at KPU's Langley campus Ashley Hyshka | Community Reporter In conjunction with hundreds of other events held across Canada for Science Odyssey week, KPU Langley will be hosting a Science Rendezvous for the sixth year in a row. The event is free to the public and will be held on May 12 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Event organizers from the Faculty of Science and Horticulture, Triona King and DeAnn Bremner, have high hopes for the Rendezvous. They expect approximately 3,000 people to attend this year.

“It’s kind of a way to celebrate science,” says King.

Approximately 150 student and faculty volunteers will be operating 50 different activities, tours, and workshops for the event.

Most of the campus and the science labs will be open to all, and attendees will get to participate in hands-on activities.

Aside from the Faculty of Science and Horticulture, King says that most of the other faculties at KPU are now involved with the Science Rendezvous in some way. In past years, the event would only focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs, but has recently introduced arts and design programs. As such, it has shifted its focus to “STEAM.” “Every department comes out and shows

something that’s really cool and fun,” says Bremner.

Some of the activities will include touring real science labs and performing experiments, engaging with virtual reality stations, and taking part in musical percussion workshops.

Attendees will also be able to participate in water science activities, attend a workshop with a former Ferrari designer, and visit the brewing lab to sample student-brewed beer.

King says that one of the biggest draws for the event is an interactive and engaging chemistry magic show held in the campus auditorium which, in the past, has succeeded in filling up the entire 250-seat auditorium.

The event is hosted by KPU chemistry instructors, and King says that it’s based largely on experiments and “blowing up things.”

Another major draw is the dancing flame show, which—like the chemistry magic event—will have three separate showtimes.

King explains that propane gas is pumped through a metal tube and ignited and that “when you play music, the flames kind of dance to the music.”

One of the main goals for the organizers of the Science Rendezvous is to engage the curiosity of children and families.

“We want [children] actually doing the activities and experiencing them,” says King.

“I think they get a lot more out of it when

they’re actually doing it.”

Another goal of the Rendezvous is community outreach. According to King, it’s part of KPU’s vision to hold public events which connect the university to the community, and the Rendezvous is one of their most successful methods of achieving this goal.

Because the event is being hosted at the same time as the Langley campus open house, King says that what people learn will

vary depending on which event they attend.

She hopes that the people who show up will enjoy touring the science labs and engaging in hands-on learning so that “they’ll have a feel of what it’ll be like to go here one day and to study science.”

“Science Rendezvous is absolutely a way to instill a love of science and inspire specifically young minds who want to pursue … a career or education in science,” says Bremner.

Instructors demonstrate chemical reactions in front of attendees at a previous Science Rendezvous on the Langley campus. (Courtesy of Matt Law)

Design Grads Showcase Their Work at re:vision The show was put together by students from KPU’s graphic design cohort Joseph Keller | Staff Writer Graduating students from Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s various design programs had the opportunity to showcase their best work this month. The event, named re:vision, was KPU’s first interdisciplinary design show held in the recently opened Wilson School of Design. re:vision in part put together by KPU design students along with the dean’s office and an outside event planner. The event was designed to tie together the different types of design on display while still showcasing a variety of disciplines taught at the school.

“We wanted something to represent the depth of design as a whole because we’re in the graphic design program but, obviously, we’ve got fashion design and interior design and tech apparel and all sorts of other facets of design,” says KPU graphic design graduate Ethan Sztuhar. re:vision was held over four days during the third week of April. The grand opening was on Monday while Wednesday was an industry open house, Thursday was a fashion design show, and Friday was reserved for friends and family members of the students as well as the general public. Exhibitions were set up for each of the design programs. Some students used the best examples of their later work from their programs while others took earlier examples and revamped them to show the progress they have made.

Graphic design graduate Natalie Fitzpatrick says that putting the event together was a long and hard process. Each cohort worked on designing their own exhibits,

and the trick to making it go well, according to her, was identifying and working with each individual’s talents.

“I feel like it was a nice balance, having people who were talented both in eventbased exhibits and designing an experience for everyone who’s coming together for this show,” says Fitzpatrick .

The Wednesday exhibition proved to be a tremendous opportunity for the graduates.

The Wilson School of Design invited representatives from Vancouver’s design industry to see what KPU design students have to

offer. Instructor David Young says that the idea with this was to provide graduates with an incredible networking opportunity.

“We’re primarily trying to show [industry figures] employability,” says Young. “We’re hoping that, not only will they experience work that our students have done by looking at it, but [also that] our graduating students will connect with them and talk with them and at least create an opportunity for more potential connection and hopefully find a job.”

Since the event took place in the school’s newest building, it also functioned as a soft

launch for the Wilson School of Design’s new brand. KPU Fashion Marketing instructor Jimmy Choi says that re:vision marks the beginning of more interdisciplinary programming being offered by the design school.

“It seems like a lot of people think the Wilson School of Design is a fashion school and, in fact, all these programs are here,” says Choi.

“We wanted to show that this is a design school that has all these programs and our goal is to have more interdisciplinary programming.

[The grad show] is one of those stepping stones for our future as a school of design.”

KPU design graduates and industry representatives gather at re:vision, KPU's design grad show. (Joseph Keller)

CULTURE

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Will the Next Vancouver Mayor Please Stand Up? A run-down of who to watch out for in the upcoming election Kyrsten Downton | Contributor On Jan. 10, Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson announced that he would not seek a fifth term as mayor in the upcoming election.

Throughout his term, Robertson will be remembered by his peers and the public for his commitment to serving the City of Vancouver.

However, he has dropped the ball on a number of political promises throughout his career, such as the promotion of bike lanes, addressing the housing and opioid crisis, and his vow to end homelessness by 2015.

Despite his polarizing legacy, Robertson does leave behind big shoes to fill for the next mayor. While the election is not until October, many people have announced their bid or are rumoured to be running. Here is a run down of who to watch out for.

Adriane Carr While she has yet to confirm that she’s running, Carr is currently leading the polls as the favourite to win. She’s already an elected city councillor and is the leader of the Vancouver Green Party.

On March 11, at the Green Party’s annual general meeting, party members unanimously

voted to support Carr if she decides to run for mayor. According to the website “Adriane for Mayor”, Carr will run if there is a strong public support for her. If not, she will run for her third term as a councillor.

However, Carr must now choose her path wisely. If she decides to run for mayor, she could not run for council ever again, even if she doesn’t win the election.

Shauna Sylvester Sylvester is running as an independent in the 2018 municipal election and is a former Vision Vancouver board member. She left her job as the executive director of Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue to run in the election.

Sylvester hopes that she can unite the left as an independent candidate. Her platform tackles the housing crisis and promises to “ensure that Vancouver offers secure, long-term housing for people at all income levels.”

NPA Candidates There are four people currently running for the NPA mayoral nomination, which will be held on May 29.

Vancouver entrepreneur Ken Sim, who helped co-found Nurse Next Door in 2001 and Rosemary Rocksalt in 2013, is planning to run. He has said that he will be focusing on the affordability crisis and on supporting the Downtown Eastside if he is elected mayor.

George Steeves is a former president of Sterling Cooper NDY, a Vancouver-based engineering consultancy firm. He plans on using his experience in building residential housing to help fix the housing crisis.

Glen Cherman initially ran against Robertson in 2014 before dropping out of the race.

He works in finance and is pro-foreign investment. If elected, he also plans to conduct a “100-day emergency review” of Vancouver's transportation systems.

John Coupar, a twice-elected Vancouver Park Board commissioner, has also announced that he is running for nomination. When the park board announced that it would be closing the Bloedel Conservatory almost a decade ago, Coupar was at the forefront of successfully saving it. He also has several members of the NPA caucus supporting him.

al party, but it will be facing a major shakeup with its party members. There had been no announcement regarding who will replace Robertson until April 4, when Vision announced that it may not run a mayoral candidate at all. However, there is still plenty of time for the party to figure that out.

Other candidates include David Chen, who seeks the Pro-Vancouver nomination, and Brette Mullins for the Your Political Party in Vancouver.

Vision Vancouver Candidates Vision Vancouver is the current mayor-

2018 Vancouver mayoral candidate Adriane Carr. (Wikimedia Commons)

Five Unique Hiking Spots Near Surrey You don't have to suffer the Grouse Grind for another year Mia Davison | Contributor Active KSA, a branch of the Kwantlen Student Association designed to help KPU students participate in group-oriented outdoor events, recently hiked to Jug Island in the middle of Belcarra Regional Park.

Maybe you were one of those hikers and had a blast, or maybe you couldn’t make it that day. Don’t let that stop you from hiking, especially now that the weather has improved. There are so many amazing hikes in or around the Lower Mainland, so grab your hiking shoes, bring a friend and their dog, and try these hikes today.

Buntzen Lake, located near Coquitlam, has a whole network of trails that will interest you, whether it’s your first hike or you’re a seasoned backpacker. There’s the Energy Trail, a one-kilometre stroll weaving in and out of the trees with views of the lake. Then there’s the much more intimidating Dilly Dally Loop at a whopping 25 kilometres. Still, it’s a great hike that’s suitable for all.

Looking to get outdoors and try a new hike but don’t want to leave the comfort of the city? Sea 2 Sky is 7.5 kilometres at a gnarly elevation, but don’t be dismayed. It’s only one way. You take the gondola down—$15.00 for humans or dogs—but before you do make sure to check out the view. The hike rivals its well-known counterpart, the Squamish Chief.

In fact, it’s located barely two minutes away from the Chief, and parts of the Sea 2 Sky trail will cross over onto the Chief. However, Sea 2 Sky has one thing the Chief does not—burgers.

If the verb “walk” rather than “hike” sounds more comforting to you, then Teapot Hill might be the one for you. It’s five kilometres round-trip, but you won’t be cheated out of amazing views. Teapot Hill is located in Chilliwack near Cultus Lake, perfect for a

post-hike swim. It’s a well-marked trail that will eventually take you to a fenced-in plateau at the top. What makes this hike really special is the hidden teapots along the way.

You’ll feel like you’re walking through Beauty and the Beast. Remember to bring water, good shoes, and your own teapot to hide.

Widgeon Creek (also known as Widgeon Falls) is probably one of the more unique hikes around here. It is located in Maple Ridge, only 6 kilometres long, and ends with a beautiful view of a waterfall. However, this hike is really unique because, to access it, you must paddle roughly 9 kilometres across a lake and up a lazy river. You can bring your

own canoe, kayak or paddle board or choose to rent one at the park.

There are quite a few different trails to choose from on Mount Seymour, but personally, I’m a fan of the classic Mount Seymour Trail. It’s only four kilometres, but it does climb to moderate heights. About three quarters through the hike you’ll reach a flat area called Brockton Point. This is a great place to eat your lunch because, after all that climbing, you’ll have an absolutely gorgeous, 360 degree view of Vancouver, the ocean, and our local snowy mountains. After lunch, keep going to reach the top. Finishing the rest will literally be a climb in some points as you’ll have to

scramble over several rock features. It’s hard, but incredibly fun and a little different than your average hike. However, I do not recommend completing this portion of the hike in the dark, and be aware that your four legged friends may not be suitable for this portion of it either.

There are so many diverse hikes around here. There’s no need to be stuck suffering the Grouse Grind for the seventeenth time this summer. And, hey, once you’ve got these hikes down, why not try an overnighter backpacking trip? The possibilities are endless.

(Leah Rosehill)

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OPINION

KPIRG Should Continue to Pursue Litigation Against Former Employee Despite the Cost If Richard Hossein did indeed defraud students, KPIRG can’t let him get away with it Joseph Keller | Staff Writer So it’s happened again. For the second time in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s short history, a trusted student representative has been caught—allegedly—stuffing his pockets with tens of thousands of dollars that were entrusted to him by his fellow students.

This time it was—allegedly—Richard Hossein, founder of Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group who—allegedly—stole over $110,000 in student-provided funds from the organisation that he helped create.

As someone who has paid student fees at KPU for five years, seeing some of that money lining the pockets of a corrupt student official is disappointing and depressing. Adding to that immense disappointment is the knowledge that, with the way things are progressing, the corrupt student official in question is likely to get away with the money. Just like last time.

Last month at KPIRG’s annual general meeting, director Simon Massey indicated to concerned students that KPIRG is willing to fight the good fight, but only to the extent that the organization could get back more money than it would spend in legal fees.

“We don’t have a plan to just run wild and spend all of our students’ money chasing, potentially, less money than we spend doing it,” Massey said at the meeting. “But since this is early on in the claim process, it’s going to be through careful consultation with our legal counsel.”

In other words, if going to court will cost KPIRG more than it can get back in a settle-

ment, as it most likely will, then it will not pursue its former administrative coordinator for this betrayal of trust. This would be a deeply upsetting—and familiar—outcome.

In 2005, members of the Kwantlen Student Association’s board were exposed for pocketing over $2 million in student fees. Those disgraced councilors were removed in 2006 and a court battle between the KSA and its former board members ensued in the years following, until the KSA abruptly dropped the case in 2011. Shortly after, The Runner revealed that the 2011 class of councilors who voted to drop the case had previously undisclosed ties to the 2005 councilors whom they had let off the hook. What followed was yet another lengthy legal battle that ended in an undisclosed settlement by KSA councilors that seemed to just want to put the ugly matter behind them.

It was a weak resolution that The Runner’s editorial board at the time referred to as a “travesty.” In hindsight, it certainly is a travesty that no one faced serious consequences for stealing from the students who they were supposed to serve. It sent a message to any would-be con artists that KPU student funds can be abused with little to no consequence as long as the amount stolen doesn’t outweigh the cost of a court battle.

Assuming that the allegations against Hossein are true, if KPIRG allows him to walk away with over $110,000 that belonged to students, it will further cement that message.

The shadow of the KSA scandals still hangs over this institution. Seven years of honest representation from new KSA leaders has not

been enough to change that. It’s brought up in comment sections nearly every time KPU finds itself in the media and it tells students and prospective students that their money will not be used in good faith. It can be hard to take pride in being part of a community where people in trust take advantage of students and, when caught, are not held to account.

KPIRG may now have the opportunity to finally hold one of those people to account and hopefully deter others from seeing KPU students as an easy source of personal enrichment in the future.

It’s understandable that KPIRG is hesitant

to spend even more student funds after so much has already been mismanaged. Lawyers and court fees certainly are not cheap, and it’s not fair that the group’s current staff is left to deal with this mess.

Ultimately, however, the public interest would be best served by KPIRG fighting this fight, even if the victory comes at a financial loss. I would rather see $150,000 spent to prove that our money is off limits to scummy opportunists masquerading as student leaders than see $110,000 of our money finding its way into the retirement fund one of those opportunists.

KPIRG directors Jagdeep Mangat and Simon Massey, and former director Raqiya Khan, at the organization's annual general meeting. (Braden Klassen)

Surrey Should Look to Vancouver for how to Update its Airbnb Regulations The city’s lack of policy for governing short-term rentals is a blind spot that needs to be remedied Braden Klassen | Photo Editor A Vancouver bylaw that facilitates the regulation of Airbnbs in the city came into effect on April 19. The bylaw mandates that people who host short-term accomodations on the Airbnb website will need to obtain a $49.00 licence before doing so. It also makes it illegal for people to rent out properties that are not part of their principal residence.

A fine of $1,000.00 per day will be levied against individuals who continue to advertise rentals on the site without posting their licence number online, or who can’t prove that said rental is also their principal residence.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said that the bylaw should free up about 1,000 residential units that were being used solely for the purposes of short-term rentals (STR), a practice which was technically illegal in Vancouver and other municipalities in the Lower Mainland, including Surrey. This is because the business and zoning laws that govern STRs, like bed and breakfasts, don’t extend to online platforms like Airbnb and Vacation Rental by Owners—even though these services have become increasingly popular over the past few years.

This blind spot in regulation and enforcement has led to the creation of a “grey mar-

ket” where thousands of property owners are essentially running businesses analogous to a bed and breakfast, but without being held accountable to the same levels of regulation.

For instance, if you run a bed and breakfast, or any other kind of business out of a residence in the city of Surrey, you need to apply for a “Home-Based Business Licence” which requires you to submit important information about your business to the city. You also have to pay the licence fee, which in the case of bed and breakfasts, is $109.25 per year.

Clearly, this is not something that most, if any homeowners that operate Airbnbs, actually do, and it’s difficult for the city to enforce this without assistance from the website.

Zoning bylaws and property strata councils are also capable of disallowing Airbnb-style STRs, though there’s only so much they’re capable of without having the back up from municipal enforcement.

We’ve all heard those anecdotes about wealthy people who buy up to 10 or 15 apartments solely for the purpose of renting them out over Airbnb, or strata tenants who turn their townhome into a rowdy hotel. This behaviour negatively impacts local affordability by reducing unit supply, and it pisses off the neighbours who have to contend with new streams of people constantly coming in and out.

It’s a big pickle for Surrey—on the one hand, we can presume that the city wants to encourage responsible business ownership and entrepreneurialism without being too overbearing. On the other hand, the city needs to listen to those who are victimized by abuse of the STR market.

Therein lies the genius of Vancouver’s new policy. Because the City of Vancouver reached an agreement with Airbnb directly, the website is going to help enforce its restrictions

by blocking new hosts who don’t show their licence numbers. This shares some of the responsibility of enforcement to the entity who has the most power over the user base.

The $49.00 licensing fee is relatively light, and since Airbnb reportedly controls well over 80 per cent of the STR grey market in Vancouver, the policy will be able to scale to the size of the market and hopefully become the new norm for STRs in all Metro Vancouver municipalities.

There are several unregulated Airbnb short-term rentals in the apartments around King George Hub in Surrey. (Flickr/waferboard)

OPINION

Find Time for Extra-Curricular Activities

Vancouver Grocery Stores Will Soon be Able to Sell Booze

University students should attend events and festivals in their areas of study Nicola Kwit | Art Director Since graduating from Kwantlen Polytechnic University last year, I’ve come to realize that there is only one regret I have about my experience as a student: that I didn’t take part in more events and festivals while I could.

Granted, I was spending about 90 per cent of my time in a windowless room creating art while forgetting to eat and sporadically crying because either my pen had run out or I remembered the balance in my bank account.

Realistically, between my full-time course load and nearly full-time work, I barely had time for hygiene, let alone attending a potentially day-long event.

Still, I wish I had just pounded back a coffee and made myself go.

Just recently I got the amazing news that I would have my own table at VanCAF, the Vancouver Comic and Arts Festival, which is a big annual event for artists, writers, and creators.

While I’m thrilled to be there, if I had had this opportunity when I was back in school it would have given me not only the opportunity to meet others in my field, but also to find inspiration and motivation from their work.

This applies to all fields of study, not just art or anything creativity-based. Generally, it’s beneficial for students to network while in classes instead of just waiting to get your degree and then starting.

Sure, I’m now a part of the festival and get to experience, but knowing that I could have done it earlier annoys me. So do all of the other festivals, gallery openings, and shows I couldn’t get to because I was busy crying and exhausted in the back of the Grassroots staff area.

I know that, as a student, getting the motivation to take part in anything extracurricular, or anything at all outside of your studies, can be extremely difficult, but the doors it can crack open for you are worth it. Even briefly meeting people in your field can give you a bit of insight into what you are doing and which direction you want to go in.

People who have been doing what you want

Raheil Inaim

(Nat Mussell) to do for years and are open to sharing their knowledge can give you a good kick in the butt, make you want to take your work more seriously, or simply inspire you to delve deeper into your career. There are plenty of events that are geared towards professional development, and sometimes all it takes is a quick Google search or a suggestion from a professor to find them.

I’m now taking part in VanCAF thanks to months of hard work and the nauseating

amount of hours I put into my degree, but if I could go back in time, I would have gone to that gallery event I didn’t have the energy to go to then.

The reality is that there’s only so much you can learn from books and class. Sometimes the best opportunities for growth are in a room full of strangers hoping to learn the same thing as you.

Don’t Stress Out About Data Mining The data being collected is trivial, so you can relax for now Scott Dawson Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, has recently been in headlines around the world for his involvement in Facebook’s data mining scandal.

In short, a U.K. analytics firm was able to access and record Facebook users’ data, such as their friends and interests, through a third party quiz game. This date was collected without the knowledge or consent of the user, and as a result more than 50 million people were tracked and recorded because of it. Now many are protesting this breach of privacy.

The only defence that Facebook has been offering is the fact that every user technically agreed to have their data assessed and recorded when they checked that infamous little “terms and conditions” box upon signing up. This may seem fair if the user is aware that they will be tracked, but so few of us have the time to read the fine print in Facebook’s terms and conditions before creating a profile on the website.

This raises the question: Should the aver-

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age Canadian be worried about their data being monitored and recorded? In my opinion, the answer is no. The most likely use for mined data isn’t all that nefarious—it’s typically used for studies or advertisements that appeals to a specific demographic.

Personally, being one of thousands of participants in an academic study will certainly not keep me up at night. If a company realizes that I, along with thousands of others, love hockey and soon after starts showing me commercials for hockey games, I will most likely not put two and two together. It won’t affect me in any way shape or form.

I can see why people have issues with their data being recorded, as it’s inarguably an invasion of privacy. However, the reality is that the data that’s being collected is largely trivial. It’s not our social security numbers, it’s not our addresses, and it is not our salaries or our insurance information. It’s our hobbies and our friend’s hobbies. It’s who we’re cheering for on Hockey Night in Canada, which books we like to read, our favourite character on The Bachelor. The collection of

this information does not and will not affect my everyday life, nor will it affect anyone else whose data has been mined.

Personal information accessed by Facebook includes your username, user ID, profile picture, full name, and gender. In other words, the information being mined is information that could easily be found online within five minutes of searching for your personal account.

The only difference is that the data is being mass collected and compared to data from other users through computer software.

While it is considered private information on the Facebook website, it’s not actually confidential and is easily accessible for someone who might be searching for you.

That individual would be like a fisherman casting one rod in the ocean, while the data mining apps are a trawler casting a net behind it. They have the same goal, but one works on a much larger scale.

I will not be changing any of my information, nor will this scandal inspire me to stop using social media.

Vancouver residents love having a drink with their dinner, and before long, they’ll be able to pick up some wine while they grab their groceries.

Starting May 1, new amendments to city bylaws will allow certain grocery stores in the City of Vancouver to apply for a liquor licence. This new model does not, however, allow alcohol to be sold straight off the shelf. Instead, an in-store model will be used to sell all alcoholic products at a till in a separate section of the grocery store.

So far, the news about the amendments has raised some concern from citizens who fear an increase in alcoholism and underage drinking. Other critics believe that the change to the bylaws will only cater to people above the age of 19 who can already buy alcohol legally, but who simply don’t want to take a trip down to the liquor store for their purchases.

While the easy access to alcohol may seem like it could cause drinking problems, these assumptions are not backed up by any definitive proof. Claims like this should be assessed and studied in cities where alcohol is already being sold in grocery stores in order to get a clearer idea of the connection between the rate of alcoholism and the privatization of liquor sales.

Such concerns can also be addressed by having vigilant and careful employees working in the liquor section of the store.

Holding grocers to a high standard of service and bylaw enforcement should allow the products to be sold without an issue.

To further dispel concerns about underage or excessive drinking, grocery stores within a kilometre of a liquor store will not be allowed to sell alcohol. There are also several other strict bylaws that limit which stores can get liquor permits.

Vancouver’s new bylaws are actually changing the rules to be more aligned with the bylaws set by the province, as the city previously had much more stringent rules regarding the selling of liquor compared to other municipalities in the Lower Mainland. Cities like Surrey and Abbotsford have been allowing off-the-shelf wine sales in grocery stores for a long time, though hard liquor still can’t be sold off the shelf anywhere in B.C. The bylaw amendments will likely be a positive change for the city. Residents will have an easier time buying their wine and groceries, and concerns about easy access to the alcohol can be addressed and evaluated after a few months of it being available in grocery stores across Vancouver.

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OPINIONS

Earth Day is Over, But Climate Change Isn’t Protecting Earth is something that needs to be done throughout the year Ashley Hyshka | Community Reporter Growing up, Earth was always my favourite planet. The “blue marble” is home to endless kilometres of deep blue oceans, vivid evergreen forests, and golden deserts.

But lately one thing has been made very clear: We are killing our planet.

I personally didn’t have anything planned for celebrating Earth Day on April 22, though there were events, festivals and parades held across Metro Vancouver. While these are great, in my opinion the best thing one can do in celebration of Earth Day is to keep what it represents fresh in our minds throughout the rest of the year.

So on Earth Day I did something simple to honour the planet: I went for a walk.

My boyfriend and I walked around Vancouver’s False Creek, through Yaletown, over the Granville Street Bridge, and to Granville Island.

We got some exercise and avoided putting another vehicle on the streets. But most importantly, we fell in love with the city all over again and were awestruck by its natural beauty.

Between debates about the Site C Dam, the ongoing drama with the Kinder Morgan pipeline, and threats to B.C.’s endangered resident killer whale population, it has undoubtedly been a busy year for environmentalists in British Columbia. Even if you don’t personally believe in climate change—although the evidence is compelling, as “ninety-seven per cent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities,” according to NASA—you must still admit that we are doing untold damage to planet Earth.

CNN recently reported that a young sperm whale washed up dead on the coast of Spain due to 64 pounds of waste, mostly plastic, that was found inside of its stomach.

In Australia, multiple news outlets have reported that the Great Barrier Reef is dying,

with NPR stating that “the die-off has caused the collapse of the ecosystem for 29 percent of the 3,863 reefs.”

A recent Forbes report revealed that, in 2016, six million people died worldwide due to breathing in polluted air.

When it comes to our environment, doing nothing isn’t really an option you want to gamble on.

If change is to happen, we can’t keep ignoring our promises to focus more on environmentalism, nor can we shuffle the problem down to future generations. Our children and grandchildren shouldn’t have to suffer with a broken planet because we were too selfish to

fix the problem ourselves.

I have moved nine times across Canada, coast to coast, and while every province is beautiful in its own way, British Columbia happened to be the first province that truly took my breath away. And I think that’s something worth protecting.

Saving the environment doesn’t just have to be on Earth Day, because there are things we as ordinary citizens can do during the other 364 days of the year. For example, when making our daily runs to Tim Hortons or Starbucks, use reusable mugs and tumblers.

Shut the faucet off while brushing your teeth each morning and switch out your home light

bulbs for energy efficient ones. Ride public transit in lieu of driving and separate garbage from recyclable items.

These little changes only take a few moments of your time and can even save you money in the long run.

Imagine B.C.’s beautiful landscape engulfed in a raging inferno every summer, plastic waste continuing to choke the wildlife in our oceans, or toxic oil spills polluting the land and water, devastating the environment for years to come.

Just ask yourself: is that the kind of future you want?

(Nicola Kwit)

Pitbulls are not the Problem It’s time to stop treating the breed unfairly in Richmond Oliver Lum Let me set some context for why I am writing this. My partner and I have recently adopted a dog, though he shall remain nameless for his own protection. From a veterinarians’ point of view, he is labelled a “Labrador retriever mix,” but to be perfectly honest I am not sure what he is. He looks to have some pitbull features, a few of the rolls from a Shar-Pei, and the golden colour of a Labrador retriever.

Still, the only traits that people seem to see and comment on are from the pitbull part of him. The perception of pitbulls as cruel and dangerous creatures remains prevalent in Canada, particularly in Richmond.

According to the City of Richmond Bylaw number 7138, “a pitbull terrier, American pitbull Terrier, pitbull, Staffordshire bull terrier, or any dog of mixed breeding which includes any of these breeds” is considered a “dangerous breed.” It also states that any dog which possesses the predominant characteristics of these breeds should be considered dangerous.

Now, I have a lot of problems with this.

According to the CDC, there are 4.5 million dog bites per year, with most of them coming

from Chihuahuas. This falls in line with my personal experience. I have met many dogs in my life—some small, some large, some pitbull—and have found that it’s the smaller dogs who bite most often.

I would also question how these claims against pitbulls as a “dangerous breed” are substantiated. Is there real research involved in labelling them this way, or is it simply reinforced by fear and word of mouth? According to Canine Journal, a majority of the reports on pitbulls are not well-backed enough to support this. This leads to an inflated number of attacks being attributed to dogs who may have never inflicted harm in their lives.

While I can’t deny that pitbulls are on the list of dogs who bite, the fact of the matter is that any dog of any breed can and will bite under certain circumstances. That’s just a risk that dog owners and the people around them take when they’re interacting with animals.

One question that comes to mind about this bylaw is: why does the city need it in the first place? There must have been some inciting incident to warrant creating this legislation, but even so, it’s surely time to move on and focus our criticism on the dog owners

rather than the dogs themselves.

Dogs are like children. They need guidance and they need to be taught right from wrong.

If a dog of any breed is showing aggressive behaviour, they need to be corrected to prevent injuries and fights from happening. The owner is responsible for teaching the dog how

to act. We can not be reliant on the dog to be responsible if it isn’t trained correctly.

The City of Vancouver used to have the same legislation as Richmond in place, but removed it in 2005 and has not reinstated it since. So if a neighboring city can have success without it, why can’t we?

A young pitt bull resting in a meadow, looking as cute as can be. (Flickr/sally9258)

OPINIONS

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Investing in Transit Benefits Both British Columbians and the Environment Federal and provincial investments in eco-friendly infrastructure are a cause for celebration Braden Klassen | Photo Editor Over the next 10 years, the federal government will be allocating $4.1 billion to B.C. infrastructure projects.

The funding deal, which was announced at the beginning of April, will cover the costs of green infrastructure projects, recreation areas, infrastructure in northern B.C., and perhaps most importantly, transit projects— specifically the proposed Broadway subway line and the Surrey LRT extension. Approximately $2.2 billion of that funding, which was included in the 2017 provincial budget, is going towards public transportation in the Lower Mainland.

To put that number into perspective, the entire process of constructing the Evergreen line cost just a little over $1.4 billion, with about $1 billion coming from the provincial and federal governments and $400 million coming from TransLink.

People often forget that public transit initiatives are one of the most effective and important ways of addressing carbon emission reduction in the country, and the collaboration between provincial and federal governments is a considerable step towards

accomplishing the country’s mandate to mitigate the risk of climate change.

Both levels of government have committed to funding 40 per cent of the Broadway expansion and the Surrey LRT, leaving Vancouver and Surrey to pay for the remaining 20 per cent for each project. If everything goes according to plan, the projects should reduce the number of cars in those areas, which means cutting down on traffic congestion and reducing commuters’ reliance on fossil fuels.

The funding comes as a part of the federal Liberals’ post-election commitment to spending $180 billion on infrastructure projects across Canada, but details about sourcing and transferring the money weren’t finalized until April 2, which is when most of the $4.1 billion was “unlocked” for the province’s use.

Since the B.C. Liberals announced their Climate Leadership Plan in 2008, making infrastructure in the province more environmentally friendly has become a central focus of these projects.

Examples of “green infrastructure” upgrades include implementing more HOV lanes, installing solar-powered lights and cameras along highways, and even optimizing border crossing traffic between B.C. and

the U.S. in order to cut down on the emissions created by cars waiting in line. In Vancouver, rainwater collection and management helps to hydrate the abundant trees and plants in the city while conserving water, and the plants actually help filter pollutants out of the rainwater before it makes its way into rivers or the ocean.

During a time when the controversy surrounding the Trans Mountain pipeline has highlighted the importance of infrastructure projects’ impact on the environment, the

fact that the federal government is making good on its commitment to invest in greener infrastructure and transit goes a long way in terms of demonstrating its willingness to take action where it can.

It’s important to remain critical of our governments and to hold them to account for repeatedly failing to meet emissions reduction targets over the past two decades.

However, it’s also important to validate and appreciate the efforts made that will have a real and positive impact.

TransLink's 10-year vision includes adding 164 Skytrain cars to the Expo/Millenium lines and 24 cars to the Canada line by 2026. (Flickr/GoToVan)

Your Guide to Surviving Final Exam Season Learn from a fourth-year student who is old and (sort of) wise Ashley Hyshka | Community Reporter Hurray, KPU family, you’ve survived yet another semester of classes! With summer just around the corner, I bet you’re eager to finally ditch the textbooks and enjoy all that Vancouver has to offer this glorious time of year.

While the 2018 spring exam season has concluded, chances are you’re going to be attending KPU for a while. Over four years of “higher learning” I’ve taken my fair share of exams, so here’s my handy survival guide that has helped me get through final exams over the years: Time Management I hate to sound like your mother, but to survive finals, time management and resisting the urge to procrastinate are key. Set aside a few hours each day to surround yourself with your textbooks, laptop, healthy snacks, and a French press full of coffee so you can hit the books in comfort. For a more drastic effect, put away your smartphone and log off social media so you avoid distractions.

Sure, binging Netflix sounds like more fun, but you know what’s worse than studying for finals? Being forced to enrol in the same course twice because you failed the first time.

ville, Canada. Population: You. Pet Therapy Over the semesters, KPU has hosted therapy dogs from St. John’s Ambulance for anxiety-ridden students to play with. If you’re unable to spend time with any fluffy four-legged friends of your own, tell your animal-loving amigos that you want to get together at their house. Use that as an excuse to play with their pets.

Friends and Family You might feel the need to isolate yourself throughout the exam season, but humans are social creatures. The only thing you’ll get out of this plan is a nervous breakdown.

Arrange some time to spend with friends and loved ones. Go to your neighborhood

hipster coffee joint with your bestie. Have a movie night with your family or go out for a romantic dinner with your significant other. If your exams are causing you distress, don’t shy away from talking about your problems. It can be therapeutic to talk to others about your troubles, and because they’re your friends and family, they’ll gladly listen.

Catch Some Zzz’s It might seem like a good idea to pull an all-nighter and cram for finals, but this is literally the worst thing you can do to yourself. Your brain won’t be able to function and sleep-deprivation can have some very negative consequences. If your mind is tired, you won’t be able to think critically and recall facts during the actual exam. It might not seem like it, but those few hours of sleep will make a difference.

Navigating the Big Day Hurrah! It’s finally exam day and you’re a mere three hours away from absolute freedom—unless you have multiple exams, and in that case, I offer my condolences. Make sure you have everything on this must-have checklist, which has saved my ass more times than I care to admit: keys or Compass card, pens, water bottle, comfy clothes, mug of coffee, protein-rich snacks, and your textbooks and notes so you can do some last-minute studying prior to entering the exam room.

And lastly, believe in yourself.

When All Else Fails Alcohol. Welcome to adulthood, my friends.

Me Time Do you remember dreading the days when your parents made you take a bath as a child?

As an adult, baths are freaking awesome. Go splurge on some scented candles or bubble bath and let your problems soak away while you read a book, watch a movie, or just close your eyes and relax. Welcome to Relaxation-

Time management and self-care are paramount when it comes to succeeding during final exams. (Braden Klassen)

PROCRASTINATION HOROSCOPES

Sagittarius Nov. 23 - Dec 21 You will become a notorious hammer murderer before the week is out.

Capricorn Dec. 22 - Jan 20 This weekend you will invent a serum that destroys Cancer. Next week? Scorpio.

Aquarius Jan 21 - Feb 19 Tomorrow you will either get to second base with your third cousin or third base with your second cousin.

Pisces Feb 20 - Mar 20 This is the week that Wodin makes an example of you in front of the other gods.

Aries Mar 21 - Apr 19 You’re old enough to know: happiness is just a moment.

Taurus Apr 20 - May 20 If somebody sucker punches you, don’t attempt to block or dodge. Absorb the blow, then retaliate with a pump-handle axe strike, throw in a driving lariat for good measure. If the attacker isn’t instantly vaporized, pin him for the three count and a chance at the belt.

Gemini May 21 - Jun 20 The future is now, old man.

Cancer Jun 21 - Jul 23 Always remember, juggalos may dress as clowns, but that does not mean they are not happy.

Leo Jul 24 - Aug 23 You will soon run afoul of a disgruntled ghost, killed by a notorious hammer murderer only days prior.

Virgo Aug 24 - Sept 23 Your life from this point on will identically mirror the events of The Godfather, but everyone will inexplicably be speaking with Australian accents.

Libra Sept 24 - Oct 23 You must obey the inscrutable exhortations of your soul.

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 22 This horoscope is, like … meta. But in a bad way?

SUDOKU

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

Last issue’s answers.