The Runner: Volume 8, Issue 4

VOL-08-ISS-04

OCT-20-2015

Saying goodbye to a Prime Minister since 2009

KPU

What the KPU community is doing to make you feel safe on campus bee lab

tax dodges

niqab debate

find us online / runnermag.ca / @runnermag / facebook.com/runnerMAG / INSTAGRAM.com/RUNNERMAG

Table of Contents

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News | Kwantlen Bee Lab Generates Quite a Buzz 04

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s new cognitive bee lab is well on its way to being ready for use. The fly cage is up.

Several boxes with small bee hives contained within them stand ready. Cameras and TV monitors are waiting to go.

The Runner is student-owned and operated by Kwantlen Polytechnic University students, published under the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society. www.runnermag.ca Vol. 08, Issue no. 04 Oct 20 2015 ISSN# 1916 8241

Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778.565.3801

Culture | Meet Pulp Magazine’s New Staff 07 Since its inception in the spring of 2012, Pulp magazine has been tri-annually publishing the art and literature of Kwantlen Polytechnic University students and distributing it to all four KPU campuses. This semester the magazine has experienced a complete turnover in staff, as a new generation of designers, editors, and publishers take the helm to continue spreading Kwantlen student culture.

The Runner recognises that our work, both in and out of the office, takes place on unceded Coast and Strait Salish territories, specifically the shared traditional territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Sto:lo and Tsawwassen First Nations. Our name is inspired by the hun’qumi’num meaning of Kwantlen, which is tireless hunters or tireless runners. Just as Kwantlen is adaptable and changing so is The Runner.

features | Housing a Tax Dodge in Richmond and Vancouver 10 Some might be surprised to learn that certain areas of Richmond and Vancouver, despite being thoroughly decorated with mcmansions, monster homes, and incessantly rising land prices, are actually inhabited by low income residents that make up a surprising per cent of the population.

CONTRIBUTORS Aileen Tran Alyson Laube Ashneil Naress Hailey Logan Jonathan Fader Keith Harris Kyle Prince

Mike Zhao Natalie Mussell Pifanida Preet Hundal Renée McMillen Rosaura Ojeda Sascia SmithLouis Marta-Widjaja Jensen Marissa Partridge Torin Slik

RUNDOWNS | A Run-Down of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) 14 The Trans-Pacific Partnership shortens the stretch of Canada’s hand into foreign markets, and the reach of foreign hands into Canada, too. But the new free-trade agreement between Canada and 11 other nations includes provisions beyond basic trade that have critics denouncing TPP as pro-corporate in nature.

columns | The successes, and failures, of Take Back the Night 15 On Sept. 18 over 200 women gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery for the annual “Take Back the Night” rally and protest, bringing with them signs, slogans and chants of, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Patriarchy has got to go!”

COVER ARTIST

#BestPhoto Kwantlen’s finest featuring

fromMarcio Valerio (@marciovaleriorj on Instagram) The corridor. #fall #nature #Surrey #kpu #BeautifulBC #autumn #morning

Geoffrey Nilson

STAFF

Coordinating Editor

Managing Editor

Tristan Johnston editor@runnermag.ca

Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca

Executive Editor

Samantha Thompson deputy@runnermag.ca @sampthompson

Production Manager

Art Director

Web Editor

Charis Au art@runnermag.ca

Kenny Chui production@runnermag.ca

Staff Illustrator

Yaunna Sommersby web@runnermag.ca

Photo Editor

Geoffrey Nilson photo@runnermag.ca

Danielle George

Staff Writer

Kier-Christer Junos staff@runnermag.ca @kierjunos

Operation Manager

Scott Boux office@runnermag.ca 778.565.3801

Editorial

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From the editor

News Briefs

Finally… it is done.

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Tristan Johnston Coordinating Editor

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which seem to last at least a year, but still longer than expected, 78 days instead of 37.

Trudeau, like Ignatieff, had plenty of attack ads directed at him, but unlike Ignatieff he bounced back from them with confidence. When the Conservatives said Trudeau “just wasn’t ready,” Trudeau replied with “I’m not ready… For four more years of Harper.” He then proceeded to to debate confidently.

In some ways, the attack ads backfired on Trudeau. These advertisements lowered the expectations of Trudeau to such lows that all he needed to do was show up wearing pants in the first debate to “win.”

On top of this, Trudeau has also done a commendable job of handling the media and critics. His answer to the Bill C-51 question has been satisfying to many, replying with a truly centrist “we can increase safety to Canadians while protecting their rights as well.”

It was also nice to see him defend a journalist who, when asking Trudeau about Dan Gagnier, was being heckled.

The NDP, historically viewed as a “wasted vote,” started the elec-

It’s been a wild ride, friends.

Given the way our production schedule works, you’ll be reading this after the election, knowing who won. But one thing that even I know, in my pre-results position writing this, is that this election was a weird one.

While 2011 was the first election I was old enough to vote in, I don’t remember that one being half as weird as this one. Harper showed up to the CBC English debate. Attack ads were effective against Michael Ignatieff, who was even less impressive as a leader than Stephane Dion.

This year was very strange. The traditional CBC debate didn’t happen, which is supposed to happen every election, as it has since they started being televised in the 1960s.

We did get a bunch of other debates, and while many of them were excellent, such as Maclean’s and Munk, very few people even watched them.

Our election was much longer.

Nothing like the American ones

tion as the official opposition. They definitely started out strong as far as the polls go, but over the last 11 weeks have been slipping considerably. I think it has more to do with Trudeau’s strong performance than with Mulcair himself. Many Liberals jumped ship to the NDP and Conservatives in 2011 when Michael Ignatieff came off as a wet towel, and wasn’t able to appear like someone who could stand next to other heads of state. Now that the Liberals have a strong leader, the NDP suffers.

Others have said that Thomas Mulcair doesn’t have a very good personality, but I don’t see this. I have read comments in some forums that have argued Trudeau wants what’s best for Canada while Mulcair just wants to “win.”

The Conservatives made many campaign moves that perplexed me. Had Harper allowed more of his MPs to talk to the media, and attended more interviews himself, I think the poll numbers might have been different for him. Harper is an intelligent, calculating, and ruthless leader, and he seems to be most comfortable when talking about

the economy—after all, he has a degree in it. The problem for him came when he started saying stuff like “marijuana is infinitely worse than tobacco,” and stuff about the hijab. While it’s not Ted Cruz-style whackiness, it’s quite whacky by Canadian standards.

So as I write this on a Sunday afternoon, it looks like Monday night could grant us a Liberal minority government, but this assumes that the polls are accurate. Éric Grenier’s poll tracker was quite accurate last election, but it gets more and more difficult to track polls accurately as time goes on. Lots of people don’t pick up their phones when they think they’re about to polled, and the pollsters that only call landlines have a low success rate. The polls for BC’s provincial election predicted a NDP majority, and that obviously didn’t happen.

The likely explanation is that plenty of people don’t make their minds up until they actually walk into their polling station. My dad, for instance, doesn’t know if he’ll go Liberal or Conservative, and there are more than enough people in the same mindset who can shift an election.

Geoffrey Nilson

what’s up this week (Oct 21 – Oct 27)

with yaunna sommersby

wed, oct 21

thurs, oct 22

sun, oct 25

KSA START Program Orientation

Kwantlen Wind Symphony

KPU Eagles vs VIU Mariners

7:30 p.m., KPU Langley Auditorium. Tickets: $10 General, $5 Students and Seniors.

Women’s game: 12:00 p.m., men’s game: 2:30 p.m., Newton Athletic Park.

Free

Oct 26 - 29

Mon, Oct 26

tue, oct 27

KPU Sustainability Week

Pieces of Mind Mental Health Conference

SEXPO – Sexuality Education eXplores Positivity and Openness

2:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m., Conference Center, Cedar Building, KPU Surrey.

4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., Conference Center, Cedar Building, KPU Surrey. Free

Interested in volunteering and getting involved with the student community? The KSA Start Program is holding an orientation for students wanting to learn more about the program and volunteer opportunities.

12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., KPU Surrey Campus - Main Building Room 3801. Free

Kwantlen’s Sustainability Week kicks off at the KPU Tech campus on Monday with events at the Richmond, Surrey and Langley campuses throughout the week.

Stop by your campus event and see what it is all about!

10 a.m. – 2 p.m. each day, KPU Tech Campus – Atrium, Richmond Campus – Rotunda, Surrey Campus – Atrium, Langley Campus – Outside Student Services. Free

The theme for this Kwantlen Wind Symphony performance is Music for a Stormy Night. Enjoy a night full of beautiful music and see what you can learn about the songs they’re playing.

The Peer Support Program and the Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) are hosting this conference, which will feature guest speakers and a post-conference movie screening.

Your KPU Eagles women and men’s soccer teams are taking on the Vancouver Island University (VIU) Mariners on our home turf. Let’s go Eagles! Maybe Kwinten should stop by…

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Torin Slik

Contributor

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Transit bus fares decrease

Bus-only travel will no longer be affected by three-zone system.

As of Oct. 5, anyone travelling by bus anywhere in the three zones will only be required to pay for one zone of travel. This is good news for anyone who often uses bus transit.

Despite the decrease to one-zone with buses, it’s important to understand that the three-zone system is still in effect. The three zones will only apply to SkyTrain and SeaBus travel.

Any amount of travel on these two methods will still require the traveller to pay for the full amount of zones they are crossing.

If a traveller plans on using a combination of the bus system and the SkyTrain or SeaBus in the same trip, they will have to pay according to the number of zones they will be crossing on the SkyTrain or SeaBus only.

Another nice thing to remember is that after 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, and on weekends all-day, travellers will only have to pay one-zone, regardless of what system of transit they are using. Even if the SkyTrain or SeaBus is used, one zone is all that is needed at these times.

As always, the 90-minute transfer window is still in full effect. Any fare that is purchased will be valid for 90 minutes at the time of purchase, regardless of the number of zones.

In the end, TransLink’s change to the bus zone fare might be nice for the average user, but the real question is: why should students care? Every student at Kwantlen has the right to a U-pass on their compass card, and in the end, it doesn’t really matter how much the zones cost. All three zones are paid for by the U-pass.

There is one factor that students might rejoice in this new change: Compass card users will no longer be required to tap out from buses.

TransLink said early on when the U-passes were being changed from a paper pass to the compass card that it was a good idea for students to tap out in order to get into the habit for when they no longer have a U-pass. When the zone change happens, this will no longer be an issue for bus travel.

The Peer Support Program and the KSA are hoping to raise awareness around sexual identity, gender, healthy relationships and consent. An exhibit, student speaker sessions and a panel discussion are the three features of this event.

Geoffrey Nilson

News

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Kwantlen Bee Lab Generates Quite a Buzz Studying bees may help to understand human psychology.

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Torin Slik Contributor

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Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s new cognitive bee lab is well on its way to being ready for use. The fly cage is up. Several boxes with small bee hives contained within them stand ready. Cameras and TV monitors are waiting to go.

Unlike what one might expect, this lab is not meant to be focused on the study of biological sciences.

Rather, it’s a study of psychology.

Levente Orban, professor of psychology at Kwantlen, is overseeing the bee lab project. He has extensive knowledge of bees and their behaviours, and he explained that a lot can be learned about psychology from studying bees.

“There are a lot of questions that can be explored with bees as a model species,” says Orban. “We could have picked any other species but bees are convenient because we know a lot about their behaviours and what they do, and we can keep them in a lab like this.”

The fly cage, a large glass box, is where the majority of the experiments will be run. These experiments will help scientists to understand more about the intuitive senses of bees.

“We can ask questions about their perception, their visual perception, cognition, information processing, [and] memory,” Orban says.

Orban explained that the drive for these experiments will come directly from the students of Kwantlen. His purpose is just to act as an overseer and advisor.

The lab is specifically designed for students to learn something, rather than professors doing their own research.

Kevin Smith, an honours psychology student, has his own ideas about what kind of experiments he would like to see done.

He has been acting as Orban’s as-

sistant in setting up the lab.

“There’s been a lot of research on bumblebees and their attraction to different colours of flowers,” Smith says. “A lot of the flower experiments they use are just general colours, blue, red, and yellow with some variation. I want to go a little bit further and see what the actual visual spectrum of the bumblebees would be.”

As with any experimental research, it’s important to be able to control certain variables. The more uncontrollable variables there are in an experiment, the less convinc-

ingly scientists can make inferences.

“There’s a lot of control we can have with bees that we can’t have with humans,” says Orban.

With the amount of bees that will be held in the lab, a reliable system needs to be in place to be able to track them. A bee colony can grow at the rate of about five to 10 new bees per a week.

“One of the important things when working with bees is to know which one is doing what, and there are quite a few of them,” says Orban. “There are small number tags that we glue on the bee, and they can go about their daily life, and we can see the number.”

Using a pair o f

tweezers, a bee is immobilized and put into a small jar with crosshatched holes at the top. The jar is formed like a syringe with the ability to gently push the bee to the top with the holes. These holes are just large enough to glue the number tags on them, but small enough that the bee can’t escape.

Of course, when dealing with bees, safety has to be a top priority. There are three main layers of containment.

There is the first door to the lab which remains shut at all points in time, other than entering and exiting. Just inside the main door, there is a mesh screen door. Having these two doors, there is very little chance of a bee escaping into the rest of the campus. The bees themselves are contained in wooden boxes with tiny covered holes that can be opened or sealed.

The other main safety concern is the case of someone getting stung in the lab. If this were to happen, the lab has various medical supplies to attend the sting. This includes a EpiPen in the case of a several allergic reaction to the bee sting.

The cognitive bee lab is expected to be open for full use sometime next year.

Natalie Mussel

KPU designates new gender-inclusive washrooms More choices for washrooms helps students feel more comfortable.

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Torin Slik Contributor

new

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gender-inclusive

washrooms are now up and running at KPU. Students, staff, and faculty members all have access to them, regardless of which campus they are at.

Nine different men’s and women’s washrooms, which were identified to be in high-traffic locations, have been converted.

Two of these nine are multiple stall facilities. The other seven facilities are single stall.

Compared to single gender washrooms, some physical modifications have been made.

These include full wheelchair accessibility, handles, and modified counter and sink heights.

Some of them have change tables for infants.

These washrooms are open for use of any student, staff, or faculty member regardless of gender.

“Gender-inclusive washrooms are helping everyone re-conceive our notions of a regular public washroom,” says Diane Naugler, associate dean of the faculty of arts and the director of PDEC - the President’s Diversity and Equity Committee. “Many retail and commercial spaces, like Starbucks for example, already offer customers accessible, genderinclusive washrooms.”

The need for these new faculties was identified by the student representation of PDEC as well as Pride Kwantlen.

“It was the student members of PDEC who said we need to do more to support transgender and gender nonconforming students at KPU, and the washrooms are one part of that support,” says Naugler.

When it comes to gender identity, not everyone identifies themselves as male or female, regardless of what sex they were assigned at birth. As such,

washrooms identified as only one gender or the other can be problematic. A transgender or gender non-binary student may not feel comfortable using a facility only catering to one gender.

In addition, there are challenges that some cis-gendered students may have with single-gendered washrooms.

“All are wheelchair accessible, and many of them have been outfitted with change tables so that caregivers of any gender could attend to the needs of their infant,” says Naugler. “Sometimes, men who have small children in their company find that men only washrooms aren’t set up for those kinds of needs, and it’s awkward to go into a woman’s washroom.”

Kim McMartin, representative of students with disabilities and a representative of Pride Kwantlen, is very happy with the implementation of genderinclusive washrooms. To her,

it’s a very important step for the positive inclusion of all students at Kwantlen, no matter their needs or identity.

“It’s a very nice progression,” she says. “It’s a way to encourage someone that they are important and you are supported.”

“KPU has a long history of being a proudly open-access institution, and this is an extension of that philosophy, that commitment and that pledge,” said KPU president Alan Davis in a release.

Gender-inclusive washrooms give all students more options when it comes to being comfortable with their washroom needs.

Naugler says that it’s just as important to have the single gender washrooms as well as the genderinclusive ones, as not everyone will be comfortable using them.

It’s not about converting all the washrooms to gender inclusive ones, but rather, it’s about giving more choice.

Locations of GenderInclusive Washrooms The gender-inclusive washrooms can be identified by the unique sign on the door.

On Surrey campus: Arbutus ­ 1814, Main 1894, Cedar 1256 and 1258.

On Richmond campus: Three, next to meeting room 1420.

On Langley campus: 1082 near Student Enrollment Services.

On Cloverdale campus: Room 1606 near the cafeteria.

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The Environmental Underdog

Eliza Olson accepts honourary degree from KPU.

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Alyssa Laube

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Burns Bog Conservation Society president Eliza Olson accepted her honourary degree from Kwantlen Polytechnic University on Oct. 9.

She’s a figure who has been giving back to the community for 27 years, and Olson’s relationship with the school began over a decade ago, when summer students joined the society hoping to fight alongside Olson in the battle for the bog. Although most of them were marketing students with promotional duties, many of Kwantlen’s science and business graduates have produced research papers on the subject as well. Olson has many of these reports shelved in her office, alongside the various awards and photos of local wildlife.

Looking around, it’s apparent that Olson’s long career with the Burns Bog Conservation Society has been her life, and she’s made proper use of it. Since the group’s inception in 1988, they’ve made great progress; the Society fought the encroachment of the Fraser Bridge into natural areas, educated on the importance of peatlands, and warded off threats to the bog countless times.

It’s a good thing that they fought so hard, as the consequences of the bog’s destruction would be catastrophic. Because a majority of Burns Bog’s foundation is peat--a carbon sink made out of decomposed plant matter—the disturbance of it would mean releasing enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Additionally, the bog’s ecosystem is necessary to maintain harmony within the environment. The society’s job is to maintain that natural balance, despite the ever-growing pressure to succumb to those looking to develop the land.

Olson has been at the forefront of those efforts since day one, and last week she received an honourary degree from Kwantlen to celebrate.

“I’m a retired teacher so I’ve been educating for years, but now that [I’ve got] an honourary degree, you can call me Doctor Olson,” she laughs. “When I first got the call from Alan Davis I was kind of blasé.

I thought, ‘What on Earth am I getting?’ So I finally got the courage to ask one of the people I’m connected with what to put on my business cards. Now I know.”

“In my speech, I want to talk to the group about their diplomas and degrees and what they mean. It’s kind of like what a friend of mine

said: ‘That certificate is a key. It’s a key to many doors, and it’s up to you whether you open them or not.’ I want to say how they can use that key, especially to protect the environment. And that’s something that, when I graduated university, no one was even thinking about.”

Thanks to Olson and her team at the Burns Bog Conservation Society, more people are thinking about it every day. Their relentless passion for the environment has had a lasting effect not only on British Columbia, but earth’s climate as a whole. Thanks to the society, “the emission of 5.2-million cars” has been stored inside of Burn’s Bog’s peat instead of escaping into the atmosphere. Their fight to preserve and spread awareness about the bog has given schoolchildren a site for field trips and adults the information they need to make a difference in their community. It’s kept struggling species alive and maintained the ecosystem that is imperative to the health of Delta’s plant, animal, and human inhabitants. At last, Olson’s accomplishments as president of the Burns Bog Conservation Society have been celebrated by Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She gave her speech after accepting the honourary degree at this year’s fall convocation.

Alyssa Laube

Survey helps to create more recreational opportunities at Kwantlen Money previously used for PACWEST will be reallocated to new recreational activities.

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Torin Slik Contributor

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Kwantlen Polytechnic University is planning on creating more recreational opportunities for students to enjoy. Precisely what type of activities created will be decided by students themselves.

On Oct. 1, KPU Recreation held a drop-in session in the main atrium at the Surrey campus for students to discuss ideas for furthering health

and wellness activities on campus.

Students were asked to fill out a survey that would give a general consensus of what students want to see. The other campuses held similar events in the same week.

“The purpose of these forms [is] to get feedback from the entire university campus,” says Judie Phillips, special assistant to the provost on policy and academic affairs.

“We’re asking students, faculty, staff, outside community members to provide us with their feedback,

their thoughts, on what kind of programming, what kind of facilities, they would like to see.”

The reason for this event was a commitment made back in July.

“Dr. Jane Fee, Vice-Provost Students, made an announcement about the university withdrawing its membership to PACWEST at the end of the season, and in doing so, the university was then going to look at other opportunities for different types of programming for both competitive sports, in rec-

KPU Rec / Twitter

reation and health and wellness,” says Phillips.

The money being used to create these new opportunities is money that was previously used to fund Kwantlen’s involvement in PACWEST, the Pacific Western Athletic Association. Phillips said that no actual budget has been cut due to Kwantlen’s withdrawal from PACWEST, and it will simply be used in other ways.

“We’ve given notification to PACWEST that we’ll be withdrawing at the end of this season,” she says. “The money that was used in support of PACWEST . . . that’s what we’ll be determining how to be used to support students across all the campuses.”

On the survey form, several questions were aimed to help KPU Rec understand what students would like to see. Questions about the preferred activities and reasons why students are unable to attend recreational classes were asked.

Schedule conflicts are a main reason why students are unable to attend health and wellness activities. If a student has class at the same time as these activities, then they will obviously be unable to at-

tend them. Phillips said one of the solutions would be to look at adding in more time slots for various activities. That way, there will be more opportunities for students to participate in health and wellness activities despite their schedule.

However, due to the large number of students at Kwantlen, it is not possible to accommodate everyone.

“Decisions will be made about how we can support health and wellness for the largest number of students possible,” Phillips says.

So far, KPU Rec has received a lot of feedback from students and staff alike. These responses are from all four campuses.

“So far, we’ve had really good uptake from students across all the campuses,” Phillips says. “We’ve probably had close to 400 responses.”

Students are encouraged to provide feedback online if they missed the event at their campus. Students can fill an online survey at Kpu.ca/ eagles/feedback.

Once students from all four campuses have had a chance to fill out the survey, KPU Rec will analyze all the responses and decide on the best course of action for the future of relational activities on Kwantlen.

Culture

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Farhan Mohamed and His Road to Success

Vancity Buzz editor spoke to Marketing Association about how he got where he is today.

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Sascia Smith-Jensen

On Sept. 23, the Kwantlen Polytechnic

University Marketing Association, a student organization for marketing students, hosted its first event of the fall 2015 semester. Guest speaker, Vancity Buzz editor-in-chief, Farhan Mohamed, shared stories of what drove him as a young man and how those experiences helped to propel him to where he is today. He also provided advice for students and entrepreneurs who

are starting to figure out their own journey to success.

As a young, innovative entrepreneur in Vancouver, Mohamed has pursued his passions in life— combining community-building, online social networks, business expertise, giving back to the community, and of course, having fun.

He quickly rose to the position of partner and editor-in-chief of Vancity Buzz and provided some insight as to how he got there.

“In high school, I was that guy that wanted to get involved with

pretty much anything and everything,” says Mohamed. “When I was about 14 or 15, I was finding that we didn’t really have many things to do. So I put together a basketball league for over the summer. The first year had about 40 or 50 registered players . . . and then the following year we did it again.”

This turned out to be a great lesson for Mohamed because he began to realize the value of connecting people, claiming, “That’s when I really understood the power of building communities and the power of bringing people together, and that was before things like social media.”

After switching between Arts and Criminology at SFU, Mohamed took Business Administration at Capilano University in 2011 and quickly excelled, becoming the director of media for their marketing association. Mohamed was motivated to find deviceful new ways to bring people together while considering the commodity of time, saying, “Time is probably the most important thing and time is the most precious thing when someone is coming to a website. They’re going to spend from 10 to 15 seconds to 10 to 15 minutes—what value are you giving them to stay?”

It was in 2010 that he first connected over Twitter with Karm Sumal, the Co-Founder of Vancity Buzz, but it wasn’t until two years later that they finally decided to meet. “We met in person the summer of 2012 when I was working at The Vancouver Sun, so we said ‘Hey, we’ve been following each other, why don’t we just do lunch?’”

After their initial meeting, Mohamed and Sumal sat down again and realized that they had the same vision for the future of the company, and his career at Vancity Buzz began that November. Graduating in 2013, he quickly excelled by developing a new standard for business operations, eventually creating a new position for himself. In September 2014, less than two years after starting with the company, he was able to become a partner and the editor-in-chief of Vancity Buzz.

At 23 years-old and freshly out of university, Mohamed was putting all of his energy into the company because as he continually stressed, “If you don’t do it, it’s not going to get done.”

Today Vancity Buzz is an industry-leading website and a social media hub for Vancouverites

strives to “connect Vancouverites with their city.” As Mohamed says, “We’ve gone from a blog where we had a few hundred thousand views a month to now—we’ve got millions of views. And the really rewarding thing is we’re able to tell stories and see the impact.”

“You have to push yourself, you know, if you’re not there to do it, it’s not going to happen and that was the biggest challenge I would think,” Mohamed says, addressing the key to his success. Parting with a word of advice for students and entrepreneurs alike, Mohamed stressed that it takes consistent, hard work to build on your vision.

“It’s not easy unless you’re being handed the lottery. It’s not going to come to you, so all these things take time, and all these things take tons and tons of work— especially in media and marketing, when it’s such a tough business to be in. You’re getting ideas coming from left and right that you really have to try harder to figure out a way to stand out and a way to be better. That’s what we did, and that’s what I did especially. You can’t quit, you quit and then everything you just did is going to crumble.”

Vancity Buzz

“Explore Arts” Shows Off Kwantlen’s Impressive Arts Faculties KPU alumni credit institution with their career successes.

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Preet Hundal Contributor

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On Sept. 23, Kwantlen Polytechnic

University’s s Explore Arts convention took place in the Surrey Campus’ conference room. This event featured a variety of information tables for each of the arts faculties available at the school, as well as numerous guest speakers attesting to the talent and employability of arts graduates. Even representatives from other schools attended the event, with a few head office members of UBC’s teacher education program making a notable appearance.

Arguably the most informative discussion at Explore Arts came from a panel of four KPU arts alumni, all of whom discussed the impact that Kwantlen has had on their professional lives, and how their time at school was pivotal to their post-university success. One particular alumna, Deepak Gill, gave KPU a substantial amount of credit for shaping her into the person she is today.

“The academic and team-building skills acquired throughout the program were a stepping stone for me that paved the way for the current field that I work in,” says Gill, who now works as a probation officer after graduating with a degree

Geoffrey Nilson

in Criminology.

Gill went on to credit the school with a number of advantages that were critical to her learning. “I think that having the smaller size classrooms and having the opportunity to build relations with my instructors gave me the sense of compassion and being flexible with others that I practice in my current line of work.”

She further mentioned that

shortly after finishing her undergrad she was able to obtain work in her field of study. Within a few months of completing her B.A. at KPU, Gill was hired as a probation officer, which she mentions is “an exciting career with opportunities and many areas to specialize in.”

In addition to Gill, alumna of the psychology program, Rachel Baitz, spoke highly of that department’s faculty, and the way that

her professors made her feel “comfortable” with their “engaging and fun” ways of teaching. Baitz also agreed with Gill by claiming that the small classroom sizes helped her get more “one-on-one time with professors and a feeling of support within the school.”

Ultimately, Gill claims that she “would definitely recommend KPU over other universities for students who wish to pursue their

undergraduate degrees, due to Kwantlen’s small classroom sizes, the relationship building opportunities with instructor.” She also emphasized how beneficial Kwantlen is for students going right from high school into university, saying, “KPU provides a less intimidating atmosphere where students may feel more comfortable,” and are therefore more likely to achieve successes in their chosen field.

Culture

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07

Meet Pulp Magazine’s New Staff

Kwantlen’s Arts and Literary publication enters third year with a new generation.

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Aileen Tran Contributor

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Since its inception in the spring of 2012, Pulp magazine has been tri-annually publishing the art and literature of Kwantlen Polytechnic University students and distributing it to all four KPU campuses.

This semester the magazine has experienced a complete turnover in staff as a new generation of designers, editors, and publishers take the helm to continue spreading Kwantlen student culture.

The main Pulp team now consists of six members. Stephanie Barnes and Brooks Lewis share the position of managing editor and are essentially the publication’s overseers. There are two literary editors, Emily Carefoot and Chantal Houle, who between them edit the poetry and short fiction, and one art editor, Natalie Mussell, who manages the photography and art. Finally, Sarah Neeson is the production manager, laying out the magazine and readying the final product.

Together the team reviews submissions, pick out the pieces they think best fit their magazine, polishes the work, and then push for

publication. The magazine comes out with three issues a year, one for each of the spring, summer, and winter semesters. They accept submissions of visual art, poetry, dialogue, fiction, and nonfiction prose.

It is a great stepping stone for those who wish to start submitting their work for publication or for those who wish to get experience in editing and working for a publication.

“A lot of people in the creative writing program are taught about literary magazines and they seem like something that’s so far away and something you’re supposed to work towards, especially if you’re going to be submitting,” says Barnes. “It’s very cool to be almost given a gift of a literary magazine where we have the freedom to learn about putting something together like this.”

Not only do students who get their work published in Pulp have their work immortalized in print, they also get the chance to show off their creative pursuits to the Kwantlen public. And it’s open to anyone—people looking to submit to Pulp do not have to directly join the team. “We don’t just accept submissions from Kwantlen students, we accept people all over the area, anybody who has the courage to

email us with a submission,” says Barnes. “If we like it, we’ll put it in, provided that the piece hasn’t been published elsewhere.”

“It also looks good on a resume,” adds Lewis, the other incoming managing editor As the new semester begins, Pulp’s new creative team have taken the opportunity to discuss a few possibilities going forward that could take the publication places it hasn’t been to yet. “We are considering maybe doing book reviews, but we aren’t sure yet. We need to account for how much space we have in the magazine,” says Lewis. “We’ve also discussed accepting scripts, such as screenwriting or drama, for the first time,” says Barnes.

“We love volunteers. We’ll be posting on our social media accounts for when we’re going be holding copyediting meetings, so if people want to be copyeditors or first readers, we would be happy to have them there,” says Barnes.

“If anybody has any ideas for interviews with artists or writers that they want to conduct, we are happy to hear about it. You don’t have to be on the staff to be involved with Pulp.”

The latest issue of Pulp came out in August 2015 and they’re hoping

to get their fall issue, the 12th issue overall, out within the next month.

For those who are interested in having your literary or art piece for published, you can submit at submis-

sions@pulpmag.ca or visit their website at Pulpmag.ca for more information.

You can pick up a free copy of The Pulp Magazine, which can be found on the stands around campus.

Geoffrey Nilson

BC Culture Days brings art connections to Richmond Inaugural event kicks off weekend of creation and participation.

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Jonathan Fader

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Sept. 24 marked the launch of the sixth annual BC Culture Days, held at the historic Britannia museum in Richmond. This year there were more than 615 arts and culture related activities in over 50 communities across the province during the three-day event.

Culture Days is a national movement to bring local arts and culture to the Canadian public on the last weekend of every September. Similar events were held all over Canada, with each of the provinces hosting their own unique iteration of the festivities. The event that kicked off the BC portion of the celebration hosted many prominent British Columbian figures including Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, several city councillors, and individuals from local indigenous groups, with Coast Salish representative Roberta Price ringing in the event.

Price was tasked with launching the inaugural event, and after telling her story about trying to re-establish ties with her culture— which she had initially lost at the age of six—she welcomed this special event in the ways of her people with blessings and prayers.

“I will bring you out of your

comfort zone, if you are not used to touching anyone or holding anyone’s hands,” Price said. She then asked the audience to join hands with their left palms up, to father sky, and right palms down, to mother earth. “Hauschka Oseem, Oseem,” she began in her native tongue, before switching to English.

The tagline for BC Culture Days was “Create, Participate and Celebrate,” which embodies what arts and culture is all about—taking active part in the celebration of creativity, and sharing that participation within a community.

“It’s been shown that . . . for our youth, participation in the arts results in higher school attendance and lower dropout rates,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie, speaking to the practical benefit of an event like BC Culture Days. “Students with more exposure to the arts score higher on average than their peers when creative and critical thinking fluency and originality are measured. And businesses look for creativity as the number one skill in their employees.”

According to the chair of BC Culture Days task force, Judy Robertson, the organization behind the event is “a not-for-profit dedicated to building a national network of cultural connections. [We are] devoted to providing Canadians with

the opportunities to participate in and appreciate all forms of arts and culture.”

This year also marks the first time that Culture Days has received an official provincial proclamation, one that was read out by BC Cultures Days coordinator Nazanin Shoja in the absence of any provincial officials.

“Culture Days is a national celebration of arts, culture and heritage,” says Shoja. “[It] invites the public behind the scenes to discover the world of artists and creators in their communities. And to engage the public in the arts and cultural life of their communities.”

Though the event only lasted one weekend, the continued success of BC Culture Days means it will likely return next year. Gateway artistic director Giovanni Sy is one among many who can’t seem to wait.

“There are so many things I love about the arts, I love how the art pursues truth,” says Sy. “And I love how subjective and varied this pursuit can be, because my expression of what is true might not match your own. I love how art reveals beauty and how often it finds beauty not only in what is sacred but in what is ordinary. But what I love most about art is its ability to connect people.”

Jonathan Fader

Features

08

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STAYING SAFE

WOOW and KSA to launch self-defence classes to make campuses safer.

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Alyssa Laube

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An alleged incident of sexual

assault on the Richmond campus has sparked change at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, beginning with the desire to foster a safer environment for female-identifying students. Kwantlen’s administration got in touch with Women Organizing Opportunities for Women and the Kwantlen Student Association to discuss upcoming policies and protocols for the improvement of student security.

This notion is a significant step forward for both WOOW and the KSA, who are excited to be working directly with the university’s administration in their efforts to make Kwantlen a safe space for women. WOOW Representa-

tive Kari Michaels, and KSA Women’s Representative, Chelsea Scott, explained what their organizations will be doing to help prevent more instances of abuse from occurring in the future.

“We’re solidifying plans to hold a self-defence class at Kwantlen,” says Scott. “A lot of people hear ‘self-defence class’ and think, ‘You’re not addressing the situation from the source. You’re only arming people to protect themselves, and we should create a culture where we don’t need to worry

about that.’ But this is just a response. It is just a tool that we have.”

“And we’ve offered it in the past,” adds Michaels. “WOOW organized self-defence back in 2013.

We had a class for students and they really loved it. Not only is it a good skill to have in assertiveness and learning how to set boundaries, but it also creates a space for discussing violence against women. You can talk about things that have happened in your life, or just things you’ve heard of, and recognize that a) you’re not alone and b) it’s actually quite frequent. It’s really important that there’s a safe place to have that conversation.”

The self-defence company that WOOW partnered with, Wenlido WEST—Women Educating in Selfdefence Training—has a strong relationship with Kwantlen. Anne McFearson, a member of the company, works in the learning centre, and an ex-KPU science professor is now one of Wenlido’s instructors.

Wenlido is a feminist-based company that is providing support and services for the self-defence classes, as is the KSA, who will be funding the project.

As a result of the KSA’s backing, the

classes will be “low-cost and lowbarrier.” In other words, the price will be less of a set value and more “pay-what-you-can.” The founding organizations “just want you to be able to take the course,” regardless of the attendee’s income or ability. Safety for all students is the goal, especially for Scott and Michaels, who place a great deal of importance on inclusiveness and intersectionality at Kwantlen.

“We at Kwantlen are always talking about how culturally diverse we are, so it’s important to discuss all of the beliefs that people have,” says Michaels.

WOOW and the KSA are also pushing for progress by launching poster campaigns, holding meetings, developing workshops, and showing videos. They are hoping to expand Kwantlen’s Safewalk program as well, which would ensure students who feel uncomfortable walking alone can be accompanied by volunteers, rather than security guards exclusively.

“In the consultation process, that would be number one,” says Michaels, “especially for those taking night classes at the university.”

Scott agrees, saying, “We know that it works at many other university campuses and that it’s relatively inexpensive.” And unlike the selfdefence classes, Safewalk is already in place, meaning that its expansion would be easily accomplished.

Some of the more esteemed campuses that use the Safewalk program are UBC, SFU, and UVic. KPU, which is rising among the ranks of those schools, has little reason to avoid expanding Safewalk. Limiting the members of the program to security guards increases the price of running it and decreases the number of available members. The more members that the program has, the more likely it is that students will use Safewalk at Kwantlen, since a higher volunteer count means greater diversity amongst volunteers.

For a student who only feels comfortable with certain people, being able to choose who accompanies them would make Safewalk much more appealing. A common

concern may be that many of the security guards on campus are men. If someone is nervous about being alone with a man they don’t know well, they’re unlikely to call Safewalk. Altering the program to include volunteers would promise students that they would get what they need to feel safe. By extension, it would also reduce the likelihood of public abuse happening at Kwantlen in the future.

On personal grounds, WOOW and the KSA would like to pay their respects and gratitude to the woman who was the alleged victim of the assault.

“It’s very brave of the person who reported this [to come forward]. She didn’t have to report it and, undoubtedly, it was stressful to bring it to the authorities’ and administration’s attention,” says Scott. “Luckily, there was recourse due to her report, but less than 10 per cent of all sexual assaults are reported. [Reporting] is not a common thing to happen, and the fact that it did opened the conversation up and got us here at this table. So I’m incredibly grateful to her.”

“This has been a catapult for drumming up support again,” Michaels notes. “We’d love to have regular meetings at some point in the near future and I think that it will be nice at the self-defence classes to have a space where you can talk about cases like this.”

The bravery of the victim has spurred on a wave of advancement for women’s groups at KPU. Their goal, in response to the assault, is to “give people faith that they will be believed, validated, and protected,” if they report on-campus abuse. At the same time, they want to give women what they need to protect themselves and feel comfortable while attending university.

The introduction of self-defence classes and an expanded Safewalk program could be exactly what Kwantlen needs to take a step towards equality and security for women. Students deserve to feel safe while getting an education, and small strides forward are crucial to allowing them that security.

Kat Nekuryashchikh

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AT KPU

Features

09

Kwantlen’s Security Manager discusses safety, precautions following alleged assault in Richmond.

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Aida Garcia

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“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

These words come from manager of security at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Harry McNeil, as he addresses the importance of making sure KPU students keep safe on campus. Students are increasingly some of the busiest people in society, and as we settle into the fall semester and the accompanying hustle and bustle, students returning to class can so easily take for granted how safe the school grounds can feel.

On Sept. 16, just after 8:30 a.m., a female Kwantlen student approached a man on the Richmond campus who claimed to be a massage therapy student looking to give away complimentary massages. The man asked for her participation in completing a survey and the young woman agreed. Instead of receiving a message, however, the woman allegedly became the victim of sexual assault.

If this sounds commonplace, it’s because university students are simply no strangers to sexual assaults. A CBC news investigation from earlier this year stated that more than 700 sexual assaults were reported from 87 Canadian colleges and universities in the past five years— that’s 11 victims per month across Canadian campuses that have reported the assault.

These statistics beg the question: what should students do if they feel at-risk on campus?

“Honestly, my advice for students would be to report any suspicious activity. Really, it’s as simple as if you see something, say something,” says McNeil, who was in charge of security during the midSeptember assault at Richmond.

“For the Richmond incident for

example, I was called down by the RCMP. We were never notified and the issue went directly to the police, which means that had I not been called down by them we would not even have recorded the issue.”

It’s next to impossible to record every single sexual assault that happens throughout Canadian universities. One of the primary reasons for this is the fact that, after an assault, the victims faces daunting barriers which discourage them from seeking justice. According to a story published in June by the New York Times, the most common reasons behind the underreported nature of sexual assault crimes are the victims’ fear of having their anonymous status taken away; a lack of knowledge regarding what constitutes sexual assault; and a fear of police institutions not taking their claims seriously.

Two of these barriers have a lot to do with issues between the victims, or relatives of the victims, and the authorities that deal with them. And it’s not just the RCMP who need to seek the victims’ collaboration, it’s also the responsibility of the school’s administration and security team to make sure that victims and students overall feel protected. So how well prepared is KPU security when dealing with these matters?

“We are extremely well prepared considering our size compared to, say UBC, and Kwantlen has several campuses so we really needed to tailor a security plan to fit each location,” says McNeil. “Another thing we have is experienced security officers. They’ve all got crisis intervention, they all have first aid, and they all have years in security background. KPU is really fortunate to have security officers that relate with the students and

have an excellent rapport with everyone else that works here.”

Having trained and experienced personnel is one thing, but just as critical is a staff’s ability to identify and track these problems when they occur.

“Oh, we absolutely record these events,” says McNeil. “Our reports are very professional and we try to gather as much information as frequently as we can. If a student sees something suspicious and contacts us, we’ll record it. We’d rather deal with something right away even if it’s nothing—as I say, it’s better to deal with a fire by stepping on the cigarette than when its 20 acres long.”

There is no such thing as too

many resources when dealing with security matters. Reducing these incidents is dependant on interaction between law enforcement and the general public, that both groups communicate and provide information. Understanding how security at Kwantlen works can be the first step towards familiarizing yourself with how to best remain aware and, ultimately, safe.

“Security at Kwantlen is contracted to a company, Concord, which signed a contract with the university,“ explains McNeil. “This contract is overseen by me and gives me the power to be the university’s

voice when it comes to any security issues. I am the head of security at Kwantlen and I answer to the VP of administration, who in turn answers to the VP of finance.”

According to McNeil, safety requires the cooperation of the security team and Kwantlen students.

It could be as simple as walking someone to their car if it’s dark and empty in the parking lot, or reporting suspicious activity to the security officers even though it could be a false alarm. Reports claim that the male who allegedly assaulted the Richmond student was not a Kwantlen student at all, and had already approached nine other people, none of whom contacted any security officer or RCMP staff. There will always be outside factors that we have no control of—however, the more we all do our part and mitigate any unsafe acts we do have control of, the more we can all enjoy a safer stay at Kwantlen.

Feature

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Housing a Tax Dodge in Richmond and Vancouver

Why some of the most upscale neighborhoods report poverty-levels of income.

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Louis Marta-Widjaja

Some might be surprised to

learn that certain areas of Richmond and Vancouver, despite being thoroughly decorated with mcmansions, monster homes, and incessantly rising land prices, are actually inhabited by low income residents that make up a surprising per cent of the population.

Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper, during a visit to Vancouver, said “There are real concerns that foreign, non-resident real estate speculation is the reason some Canadian families find house prices beyond their budgets. By some estimates as many as 15% of the condos in Vancouver sit empty.” Promising if re-elected to commit to collecting comprehensive data on foreign non-resident purchases of Canadian real estate, Harper goes on to outline our current situation. “In most developed economies, governments track this kind of information, but governments in Canada historically have not, and as a start this needs to change.”

During Oct. 7 foreign ownership was being discussed in a soldout public forum held by the Urban Development Institute. Jeffrey S. Lowe, immigration lawyer and panelist in the forum, attributes the longer-term visa program the federal government introduced in February 2014 as a contributing factor to the issue, stating “People can now come in as visitors, look at properties and buy properties.

They don’t have to spend any time here. Increasing the visas indirectly encourages more foreign ownership.”

This federal program enables easier “astronaut parenting,” where a family moves to Canada, but the head of the family goes elsewhere to make money. Canada ends up with the spouse and chil-

dren, who will not be declaring much earned income, as foreign nationals could acquire permanent resident status for themselves and their dependants without becoming resident for income tax purposes. The lack of income tax being declared causes demands on healthcare and education systems by residents unwilling to contribute their global income. The provincial and federal income taxes that are often unpaid also fund highways, transit, universities, and hospitals.

Many are calling for more data on the matter, including Vancouver lawyer Richard Kurland, who has made calls to enforce a requirement needing home buyers and sellers to provide Canadian Revenue Agency documentation to provide proof of residency for tax purposes during real estate transactions. The reasoning is that with such information, tax authorities would have better control over real estate transactions and less trouble going after wealthy buyers who may not be reporting as much in their income tax. Kurland further claims that property prices are skyrocketing partly because people who won’t pay their tax bill to Canada can afford to spend more for that property in Vancouver.

And it’s not just Vancouver.

These issues are also prevalent within Richmond, which is inhabited by low income residents that make up 22.4 per cent of the population, according to income reporting data. Statistics Canada portrays Richmond as one of the poorest cities in BC, with disproportionately high levels of child poverty. The Thompson neighborhood, which holds many $1-$3 million dollar properties, is ranked based on income reporting to be the second highest level of poverty, with 26.2 per cent of its inhabitants living in “near poverty levels.”

The Metro Vancouver Housing Data Book states that Richmond

has on average the third highest prices for single family dwellings of any municipality, behind only Vancouver and West Vancouver, seemingly contradicting the frequently reported “near poverty levels” of income.

The Housing Data Book also states that Richmond has the highest proportion of households maintained by immigrants who are, based on their income reports, judged to be in “extremely dire housing” situations, in that they are spending half their income on shelter. The number of these “extremely dire housing” situations maintained by immigrants is 51 per cent in Metro Vancouver, largely increasing to 71 per cent in Richmond.

More than 60 per cent of residents of Richmond are immigrants, which is the highest rate in any city in Canada, with concentrations as high 70 percent ethnic Chinese living in North Richmond. There is a disparity in paying taxes between the ultra-luxury, highly immigrant populated neighborhoods like Thompson, who report povertylike levels of income, and neighborhoods like Steveston which has the smallest number of immigrants in Richmond. Steveston reports the smallest portion of low income households at 11.4 per cent, despite being one of the more middle-class neighborhoods of Richmond, having no sidewalks in some of the less luxurious parts.

A 2014 Federal Government analysis showed that immigrants from China, Taiwan, and Korea are most likely to declare the lowest incomes in Canada. The same analysis reports recent immigrants from these countries are also more likely to be business-class investors who own significant unreported assets and might be reluctant to truthfully giving the government information about their income.

Dr. David Ley, UBC Professor of Geography and panelist at the

Urban Development Institute’s public forum, said that since the mid 1980s there have been attempts to use racism “As a kind of shaming of anyone who raises these questions. Right now, we have investment from a certain origin … that is making housing unaffordable to people who live and work in this region.”

The loophole in the law regarding income tax allows foreigners to send money to a Canadian national who is in their family in order to prevent paying income tax to Canada, as you will only have to pay tax from the income you earn in in Canada itself. The result is that wealthy property owners do not fully report and pay taxes on their global income. This is because the Canadian government believes you have paid taxes already on your own jurisdiction.

Colette Turgeon, media relations for the Canadian Revenue Agency, says “Real Property is a sector that the CRA focuses on, and the Agency pursues all forms of tax non-compliance and works hard to identify and correct cases of tax evasion or avoidance to keep the system fair for Canadians who meet their tax obligations.”

In response to the question of how the CRA plans to acclimatize new immigrants to taxes, Turgeon says, “The CRA is creating a short video to encourage newcomers to file their taxes and show the many advantages to filing, while also increasing awareness of their tax responsibilities while living in Canada. The video, approximately two minutes in length, will be translated into four languages (Punjabi, Cantonese, Arabic and Spanish)” These issues have attracted international attention and media, with filmmakers from Asia and Europe visiting Richmond to document its unique population boom and large immigrant majority.

South Korean filmmaker, Sunghan Lee, visited Richmond to create a

documentary that will explain to a South Korean viewership what happens when a large amount of wealthy, property buying Chinese immigrants move into a city. Lee’s documentary outlines how Asian money inflates the real estate market in Richmond, resulting in the construction of empty mansions.

Lee recommends new immigration policies in Canada, especially one dealing with empty houses as a result of foreign investing. As a result of a stream of rich Chinese immigrants buying up luxury housing in Seoul and Jeju, new laws were passed in South Korea that prohibit migrants from owning property unless they can prove their intent to stay within the country for more than 200 days in a year.

Interestingly, In 2006 an HSBC employee in Liechtenstein released thousands of names of tax haven exploiters, with 106 of them being Canadians who had hidden up to $100 million. With 22 million tax dollars left uncollected, none of the offenders were given any offenses or charges.

Tax evasion is an issue that has long been ignored within Canada.

The Conservative Government continues to promise to be tough on people who evade taxes, though very little is actually done in preventing or punishing offenders. An analysis done by the CBC two years ago reveals tax evasion problems similar to what is common today, with only eight of the 25 evaders within the analysis sample found guilty of hiding income or assets in an accepted tax-haven jurisdiction, signifying inefficiency to punish and discourage offenders. The executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, Dennis Howlett, claims that modest estimates conclude Canada is losing at least 7.8 billion dollars a year, with the bigger estimates being 10 or 20 billion.

Downtown Eastside: Average home value: $356,551 Median income: $12,154 Metro Vancouver: Average home value: $520,937 Median income: $20,754

Thompson neighbourhood: Average home value: $605,829 Median income: $16,712

*numbers are based on the 2006 census

Kenny Chui

Review

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11 Alyssa Laube

Solo artist Jonah August preps for upcoming album

Expands home studio in preparation for debut.

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Alyssa Laube

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Jonah August left home at 18 years old. Scraping together as much survival money as he could, he moved up to Salmon Arm, BC where he worked at a tree nursery and wrote his first record. Despite having a multi-instrumentalist for a father and playing bass in his brother’s band, August had never shown a particularly keen interest in music before picking up an acoustic guitar. His move to Salmon Arm sparked the beginning of a long and intense journey with music that, now, has produced two EP’s: first, There Was Snow at Your Funeral, shortly followed by Elder.

Now that he’s living back home in Chilliwack, August has started working on his self-proclaimed debut album. “I would consider the first two demos,” he explains, “be-

cause what I’m doing now is such a step up.”

Both There Was Snow at Your Funeral and Elder are high-quality, unique records chock full of emotion. Each song presents delightfully melancholy, finger-picked melodies paired with August’s low and gentle vibrato. If what he’s is brewing up in his home studio beats the old records by such a long shot, we’re certainly in for a treat with the next one.

Over the summer, August wrote a whopping 19 songs for the new album, 14 of which should make it onto the track list (the other five could possibly be compiled as an EP, which would come out just before it). This might seem like a lot to do within a year, but for August, it’s ample time. He’s off of school, off of work, and expanding his home studio as best he can in preparation for the debut. The goal is to be done recording by his 20th birthday in

March, which should be a piece of cake for the musician, as he finished his first EP within a month and his second in three weeks.

“If you’re serious about songwriting and you want to have an impact on someone, you have to live the music. You have to let it be your life, or when someone realizes that you’re a jerk but you write beautiful songs, they’re going to ask, ‘How does that work?’”

August plays, records, and produces every part of his work, regardless of the instrument. In other words, if you can hear it, he’s behind it. This becomes even more impressive when you realize his situation—everything he’s ever put out has been taped in his house using (gasp!) Garageband. The software has an unnecessarily bad rep, but that’s not stopping August from doing his best with it.

“I’m not embarrassed,” he says.

“There’s just so many bad things

said about Garageband that I’m successfully going to record a whole album on it.”

Although he’s channeling more time and effort into the upcoming album than ever before, he’s still recording from home on a computer, without needing help from anyone else. This lone wolf mentality doesn’t just apply to Jonah as an artist, though—it’s an integral part of his personality. In his high school years, Jonah regularly went off on unchaperoned adventures. To cure his adolescent shyness, he’d hitchhike with complete strangers just to force himself into conversation.

“Especially when I was 16, I’d go down to the ferry terminal and hop a ferry to the island, hang out for a week and sleep on the beach and stuff. I was living with my mom and she’d be at work, and I’d just ditch school. I was gone for like, two-anda-half weeks on Vancouver Island once. I recommend it for able-bod-

ied, young men to better yourselves a little bit.”

With every album, the artist focuses on a new theme. This album’s subject is simple: honesty. “I’m not going to be abstract about the lyrics,” Jonah explains. “I’m just going to be honest about the point I’m trying to get across.” This contrasts to his past releases, which were driven mainly by emotions and concepts, and therefore were more abstruse.

Another new contribution on the LP is the addition of drums. August decided to add percussion due to the “lack of rhythm in the other EPs,” and plans on adding more instruments into the mix, too. It’s bound to be an exciting project for the artist, who is going into it with enthusiasm and a critical mindset.

“I get so worked up about the details. Like, I get headaches,” he laughs. But it’s that kind of meticulous care for his work that creates such a clean, interesting product.

Claire Moore’s Experimentations with The Human Form Intersection of art and biotechnology explored at SAG.

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Ashneil Naress

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Weaving together Art and Biotechnology seems, at best, an indulgence into science fiction. But on Oct. 1, local artist Claire Moore made fiction a reality at the Surrey Art Gallery.

It began in 2008, when Moore caught word of beauty pageants being held for landmine victims in Angola and Cambodia. In her mind, such an event was a “weird concept, yet it made me think about the human body and what we consider it to be normal or not normal.”

From then on she experimented with art that represented the struggle of people with “not normal” body configurations, titling her work “Life Lines and Land Mines.”

Soon after, Moore began to muse the idea of adding limbs into her work, rather than taking them away. This is where biotechnology mixed with art, allowing her to create “the postmodern self.” One of the artist’s most notable pieces featured a cluster of human figures

that each sported a different tail attached to them, all made with wire.

In her presentation, Moore spoke of human advancement and how far we’ve come, to the extent that prosthetic body parts can be developed with relative ease.

“Body augmentation can be helpful to the disabled, to accentuate one’s beauty, and to push what is unique,” Moore said. She revealed how her work hoped to “embody” the experience of augmentation and “how [that idea] flows through art.”

Another piece combined a number of Moore’s ideas into one, in that it used small elements of body and modification to create something altogether new. Two wooden crutches, ceramic vertebrate covered in words representing our reasoning for advancement, long strands of thick rope representing a tail, and a strip of tile of etched X-ray film.

At first glance this piece was nearly impossible to comprehend, just an odd mash of body parts and assorted tools--but like an image that you must relax your eyes to see, the meaning of her work became clearer the more the artist addressed the

concepts at play in her work.

Moore contrasts the past with the future, mixing genetic heritage with biotechnical advancement, creating a bio-prosthetic metamorphosis in her figures. She wanted to test the waters of “how we can deviate from being normal,” through her art. Each little puzzle piece of her work seems to lend itself to the other, representing a whole idea of our potential legacy as a human species. Our DNA, our very molecules

become playthings for the artist, all to represent the way our own technological advancements can play a key role in our perception of self.

Essentially, the tail expresses our future, but being represented by rope it is a self-determined future, rather than a naturally evolving one. The crutches in the figure evoke those missing the essential body parts, the vertebrae symbolize the human drive, and the etched X-ray film contrast the past with the

present.

From her initial idea of prosthetics and biotechnology, Moore worked through the concept of how we identify with our own bodies, and how easily that identity can be tampered with. All through the unification of art and biotechnology, humans can redefine themselves, and see themselves as a possible future iteration through these pieces.

In Moore’s own word, “Crazy ideas can become a reality.”

SAGA

Opinion

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The politics of white students’ unions Not everything is so black and white.

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Kyle Prince Contributor

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Black students’ unions started in the ‘60s as a way to bring struggling students together during hard times. Other groups followed not long after. Fast-forward a few decades and each of these groups is now much more inclusive, allowing anybody to join as they share the culture and values with everyone, not just those who share the heritage. Recently there’s been an instances of a white students’

union at the University of Toronto, Ryerson, and York.

Calls of racism, oppression, and a general consensus of “shock” is going around as people discuss the circumstances and consequences of putting up posters promoting the group. However, the group does not exclude any particular group or demographic, they only encourage young people to contact them.

The group isn’t without its faults though. Ties with professors who have been linked to racist comments and a hard right political lean don’t do them any favors, but

the question is still there: should this be allowed in university?

So far, it seems to be an isolated incident, only appearing in three Toronto universities, but the group, Students for Western Civilization, calls for people across Canada to join in and start thinking about more than what we learn in our classes. From their own site, they make the claim that, “when it comes to cultural and ethnic politics, we have been exposed to nothing other than leftist perspectives. If it wasn’t for the Internet, we wouldn’t be aware that schol-

Natalie Mussell

arly rightist perspectives on these issues even exist.” So again, should this be allowed in university? Is there anything inherently racist or oppressive about exploring opposing views?

If the group was excluding people of a certain race, or promoting discrimination, then there would be an issue. As it stands, most of the initial responses are simply to get rid of the posters. Not to investigate or talk to people involved, but simply to remove the pieces of paper because students may find it offensive. Fraser Macpherson, one of the first people to come across a poster, was quoted in various news sources saying, “I was not expecting to see something like this.” He had ripped down the poster when he found it and looked up the website associated with the group, but took it upon himself to remove the supposedly offensive material. Because he didn’t expect it… at a university… but I’ll get to this later.

Now, on the surface, this group seems to be nothing more than a place for people to discuss rightleaning politics. There’s a chance it could go deeper and have race-motivated goals, but so far I haven’t come across anything that would point towards that. People are simply assuming it’s racist based solely on the fact that the posters had “White Students’ Union” written on them. There’s something else that’s been popping up around Canadian universities lately as well

though: the near-overwhelming influence of a movement obsessed with “political correctness.” Can’t say “%!@#”, it might trigger some people. Can’t do this or that, it might upset or offend other people.

There are some legitimate cases where hate speech, or other truly offensive material; has been taken down and dealt with, but the extent to which people and ideas are now being policed in universities is worrying. For example, Dalhousie University was throwing around an idea that minorities and women ought to speak before any person who is white or male be allowed to speak. And no, that’s not a joke.

Universities are supposed to be a safe haven for free speech. We get coddled in pre-school, where the monsters are under our beds or in our closets, but not in university.

You should come across ideas that make you uncomfortable as you question what you believe. You should be exposed to opposing views, and you should definitely not be protected by the institution that’s supposed to be teaching you how to deal with these opposing views. By limiting these ideas the universities are undercutting the education we pay for. It isn’t just in the classroom that we learn, it’s the mixture of life experiences, ideas, beliefs, and views that make it a truly worthwhile education that can carry us through the rest of our lives. Don’t turn your back on that because something is “offensive.”

Viet Cong No More

Polarizing group changes their name after controversy.

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Ashneil Naress

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By almost any account, indie

rock band Viet Cong have achieved quite a bit of success since forming in 2012. They’ve toured across Canada, signed a record deal with Flemish Eye, a national label, and released a critically celebrated self-titled album that was recently shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. Few bands in Canada can boast such success.

Few bands in Canada could also generate as much controversy as Viet Cong have in their short existence. They are a remarkably polarizing group and a talking point for a number of key players in the Canadian indie rock scene—all because of their choice of name.

For those who aren’t aware why a band named Viet Cong is so controversial, here’s a brief retrospective. The Viet Cong was an infamous guerilla group who wreaked havoc among South Vietnamese citizens during their peak in the Vietnam War. They were especially notorious for a massive assault of

over 100 South Vietnamese urban centres in 1968, even going as far as to attack the American embassy that was established in Saigon. Furthermore, many innocent Vietnamese citizens were forced into Viet Cong internment camps, in which they were abused in unimaginable ways and extremely malnourished.

This group, though now gone, leaves a stain on Vietnamese history. This is why the controversy over a band referencing the Viet Cong in their name has caused such an outrage within the Canadian-Vietnamese community, among other groups.

So why did the band choose that name for themselves? In an interview with The Guardian, the band revealed that, while they were rehearsing, bassist Matt Flegel was playing his bass in a way that evoked the sound of a gun, prompting Mike Wallace, the drummer, to remark, “all you need is a rice paddy hat and it would be so Viet Cong.”

It’s clear they were not aware of the ignorance of such a decision.

Not only is it culturally insensitive, it was borderline racist. And now it

has caused hundreds of people to be rightfully upset.

To say that Viet Cong has felt the heat is an understatement. Various gigs, including one they were supposed to perform at Oberlin College in March, have cancelled their appearance due to the offensive band name. The outpour of negativity reached a boiling point close to the time the Polaris Music Gala rolled in on Sept. 21. An outpour of tweets from Vietnamese people, and others who were aware of the insensitive band name, expressed their displeasure for the

band to be nominated for such a coveted prize.

Interestingly enough, Viet Cong didn’t win, as Buffy St. Marie took home the Polaris that night. Two days prior to the Polaris Music Gala, however, Viet Cong declared on their official Facebook page that “We are a band who want to make music and play our music for our fans. We are not here to cause pain or remind people of atrocities of the past.” While the band itself aren’t exactly sure of which name they should carry on with, it is a change welcomed by most.

Nonetheless, the realization that Viet Cong should change their name should have occurred years ago, as the backlash against the name should have been anticipated. Hopefully the band can shake off this rough patch so early in their career, continue to make music, and hopefully find success under a new name. This should be a lesson for all musical acts: cultural insensitivity is not accepted with the musical society, and the criticism received is justified.

Jagjaguar

Opinion

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Demanding niqab removal threatens charter rights

Harper’s suggestion is fundamentally flawed.

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Alyssa Laube

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The Tories seem to love repressing Canadians’ freedom of religion and expression. This year, they supported Quebec’s Bill-62, which aimed to ban “face-covering religious garments for public servants.” Now their gaze has fallen on niqab-wearing women swearing in as Canadian citizens. Back in March, Harper made a bold statement against niqabs, accusing them of being the product of “a culture that is anti-women.” Unsurprisingly, the Prime Minister failed to see the obvious irony in his dictation of appropriate female dress code, and ordered a poll of 3,000 Canadians to get their opinion on the subject. A resounding 82 per cent sided with Harper, supporting the notion that the article should be banned during citizenship ceremonies for reasons of identification. However, Harper’s suggestion is fundamentally flawed: there is no lawful reason why those swearing into citizenship must be publicly identifiable in court. Despite this, and previous failures to ban religious garments, the Tories continue to stubbornly and disrespectfully demand public niqab removal during the ceremony.

The niqab, which covers the entire face aside from the eyes, is worn by some muslim women out of “religious obligation and as an expression of their identity,” according to Sheikha El-Kathiri, who wears the niqab, in an interview with CBC. “It’s just a spiritual choice. It exemplifies the fact that I am an honoured muslim woman … who has her own opinions, her own voice, her own personality, her own character, and everything else that’s wonderful about me,” she explained. “My beauty is a wonderful part of me as well but I don’t feel that I have to display it to the world.

And just because I’m covering myself doesn’t mean I’m doing it to make [a man’s] job easier.”

Well, there goes Harper’s woman-hating culture argument. As a democratic nation living under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it’s clearly contradictory to reject such harmless religious and personal practices. Many participants that voted in favour of the ban did so to encourage new immigrants to assimilate, seeing as “removing their niqab or burka was the normal thing to do in Canada.”

In other words, we welcome immigrants, but only if they act and dress

like “religiously neutral” Westerners. It’s an odd stance to take as a nation that prides itself on being diverse and multicultural (and one that was founded by colonizers forcing those who were already living here to assimilate, rather than the other way around), but it’s one that the Tories are sticking to.

If identification is truly the issue at hand, it’s important to note that most women who wear the niqab are “flexible about uncovering their faces in specific circumstances.”

In a perfect world, those circumstances would be in a private setting with another woman. These are not unreasonable requirements; the identification can be completed, and the woman need not feel ashamed or uncomfortable by being exposed in a public space. In any case, identification isn’t even a key component of swearing into citizenship. The only mandatory act is to sign the papers in court.

Even further, the (weak) argument that the niqab muffles the voice of the speaker could be settled by giving her a microphone to speak into.

Overall, the opposition to the garment makes less and less sense the more you research the topic. So why is it still being encouraged?

It certainly feels like this is a discriminatory issue, as all practical solutions directed towards its supporters have been brushed off as irrelevant. Simply put, it’s bigotry and misdirection veiled as a concern for public security. It does seem convenient that a law denying muslim women of their rights has been proposed at a time when North American Islamophobia is remarkably high due to global terrorist activity. Is the ban supposed to repel Islamic women from becoming citizens? Is it purely a means of forced assimilation, or is it based on the inapplicable platform of Canadian tradition and pride?

It’s expected that xenophobes will take a disliking to cultural diversity in their community, but when that prejudice becomes entangled in law, human rights are threatened.

Perhaps Harper and the Tories should follow Trudeau’s advice to “get [their] priorities straight” and work on fixing Canada’s real problems.

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Nobody wants another “Separate but equal”

Niqab accommodations lead to segregation.

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Kyle Prince

Contributor

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The Conservatives, and according to a Privy Council Office poll, approximately 72 per cent of British Columbians, are saying that any face covering should be removed during the Canadian citizenship ceremonies. The specific incident is focused around the niqab, a nearly full face covering that leaves only the eyes visible.

Don’t worry that identification is necessary at these ceremonies, what with becoming an official citizen and all, people should be allowed to cover as much of themselves as they like right?

That sounds reasonable enough, until you look beneath the surface.

According to the religious rules behind the niqab, a woman must not be seen by a man. So the problem here would be the removal of the covering in a room full of people, both female and male.

The supposed compromise that the Conservatives rightly refused was to take these women into a separate room where only women were allowed and have them remove the niqab there for their own “separate but equal” ceremony. It’s a little different because they would be doing this on their own, but then where do Canadian values come in? When do we unify people through a ceremony and welcome them into our country as free citizens? It shouldn’t be in some room separated from the actual ceremony.

While there isn’t a separation of church and state written into our constitution, it’s commonly accepted that religious beliefs do not trump Canadian laws. Anything that covers the face must be removed for driver’s licence photos, and any other government-issued identification. It isn’t unreasonable to ask that people show their faces

when they become citizens, one of the few places there’s a reason and need to easily identify people. On top of that, when entering Canada it is important to make it clear that there should not be a taboo around showing your face to anyone. People are obviously allowed to hold their own beliefs, but given our decidedly liberal country, it should not come a shock for people to think of faces being uncovered during an important ceremony.

Usually when someone quotes Harper it’s when he says something outrageous or funny, but this time I think he said it best: “When you join the Canadian family in a public citizenship ceremony, it is essential that that is a time when you reveal yourselves to Canadians.” Allowing a gender-segregated ceremony goes against any sense of inclusion people may feel, and more importantly the split would force them to stay segregated as they enter the country. No matter how it’s done, asking roughly half of the people present to leave isn’t a good sign.

There are many religious beliefs that are ignored in our day-to-day lives, and just to follow a hypothetical line here, let’s see which ones people have argued for in the past couple years. Faith healing in America, allowing children to die of easily curable illnesses because the parents believe they can fix it through prayer. We wouldn’t allow the parents to do that here. Doctors who aren’t in favour of abortions are required to refer patients to other practices—we don’t allow them to force a patient’s hand in those situations. There are other examples, but these are people’s beliefs. We cannot hold these beliefs, however dearly held, over laws and values. We are a free country and for a government to help impose religious laws is definitely a step in the wrong direction.

In the end it’s a government ceremony where people are being welcomed into the country. A niqab or any other face covering obscures identity, which happens to be a very important aspect of making somebody a Canadian citizen. We need to be able to identify who is there, and who is saying the oath.

Run-Downs

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A Run-Down of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) Ambitious free trade agreement implicates dairy farmers, and possibly public policy.

Government of Canada

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Kier-Christer Junos Staff Writer

The Trans-Pacific Partnership

shortens the stretch of Canada’s hand into foreign markets, and the reach of foreign hands into Canada, too.

But the new free-trade agreement between Canada and 11 other nations includes provisions beyond basic trade that have critics denouncing TPP as pro-corporate in nature. It especially concerns critics because of the perceived, secretive nature of TPP negotiations before the deal was reached.

The TPP functions in the AsiaPacific, a region projected to comprise two-thirds of the world’s middle class in 2030 and one half of GDP by 2050. TPP appears to be an effort to reduce trade barriers for various kinds of industries in treaty-participating countries. That’s the basis for most free trade agreements. Import-export tariffs can be significant costs for an industry.

Lowering those tariffs means lowering costs and prices, and

that makes consumers’ dollars go further. Theoretically, on the other side, Canadian producers could produce more since their costs would be diverted from tariffs. All things held equal, as the quantity of goods increases, goods become relatively cheaper. Can’t really speculate on how much, though.

If a Canadian industry like agriculture can ship goods easier under TPP, so can agriculture industries of other TPP countries. That’s where Canadian farmers become concerned.

Farmers in the historically and highly protected Canadian dairy industry can keep their milk prices higher, for example, because they can produce at a low quota. Import surges from other countries could disrupt domestic dairy markets, potentially lowering prices—and profits—because of the increased supply.

Provisions exist in the TPP that help protect against import surges. Still, the Canadian government promised $4.3-billion over 15 years to farmers, according to The

Globe and Mail. That indicates some awareness of potential market losses to farmers with the TPP, all while considering the reassurance of keeping the supply management system that was initially feared to be lost.

TPP critics in Canada are also concerned about the potential privatization of CBC and Canada Post. The TPP’s updated technical summary on the government’s foreign affairs website at least confirms that CBC, Telefilm Canada, and future cultural enterprises will be exempt from “key rules of the chapter.” There’s nothing about Canada Post in their chapter summary, which is a chapter about state-owned enterprises.

That section basically aims to keep SOEs from being more competitive than private enterprises.

When coupled with the TPP’s prohibitions on exporter subsidies (arguably, like that $4.3-billion over 15 years Ottawa managed to promise to farmers) the TPP is essentially trying to keep governments out in an effort to level the market.

It’s clear that many provisions in the TPP focus on tariff-cutting and trade equity, many of which have received criticism. Besides these more market-based criticisms are the ones that discuss the agency of corporations in public policy and perceived threats against nation sovereignty.

Investor-state dispute settlements are the core of this part of the conversation. They’re not exclusive to the TPP, but they are contentious because they give investors a venue to sue nations for future losses.

These ISDS cases are also settled by an international tribunal not tied to the justice system of any country.

The multinational, Fortune 500 corporation Owens-Illinois made use of this mechanism against Venezuela and was awarded $455-million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Venezuelan government had seized their bottle plants in 2010 because of poor environmental standards and worker exploitation.

Another parallel: The Uruguayan government decided to add

new health regulations on tobacco products—bigger warning labels— which assumedly aim to drive tobacco demand downwards. Subsequently, under the ISDS terms of a previously-agreed-upon multinational trade deal, one multinational tobacco corporation decided to sue the country.

The dilemma illustrated here is that public policy under the TPP could be subject to how countries oblige corporations. That’s part of the basis for the “threat-to-sovereignty” argument. To put this in context, consider that there are countries much smaller than Uruguay and have much less GDP, even less than the net worth of some tobacco companies.

The point is, this sort of litigation is part of what TPP critics don’t want to see aggregated because of the leverage it provides to corporations.

Kier obviously isn’t an economist.

But he is a fourth-year journalism and economics student, and that helps him grip some of these issues.

KSA’s resolutions of continuing effect Snapshots of time and democracy.

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Kier-Christer Junos Staff Writer

Sometimes, you’ll walk by the

Surrey conference centre in Cedar building and the smell of pizza will waft into the hallway, enticing your arteries to say, “Why yes, I would love a pulmonary embolism this afternoon.”

But sometimes, it’ll be a trap into a democratic process that you’ll be too fatigued to walk away from— namely, a Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) general meeting.

Weighed down by pizza, you and over 100 students are now sitting at this thing, voting on governance and policy the way Kwantlen students have been doing it all the back to 1981.

These governance and policy decisions that students vote on are archived in a KSA document called “Resolutions of Continuing Effect.”

Look it up, it’s on their website.

There are regular and special resolutions that students vote on at general meetings which make it

into their archived, website document. The regular ones usually have to do with bylaws, which implicate the governance of the KSA. The special resolutions, however, are a much bigger deal as they might mean the appointment or removal of a board official, among other things. These resolutions need at least a 75 per cent vote while the regular resolutions only need 50 per cent plus one.

That old document also shows the student fees that are being collected or have yet to be collected, and those fees must be approved through referendum. The KSA holds referendum questions every so often to decide on what student fees are collected.

If there’s demand for a radio station in some form, for example, the KSA asks a referendum question to gauge whether students want to collect a fee for that. If there is a fee change proposed for the health and dental plan, as another example, then the KSA asks a referendum question. If votes are 50 per cent plus one either way, then that

is the resolution that students take on the fee in question.

But even though the students have given the KSA their position on a fee—let’s say students approve the radio fee—the KSA might not collect it right away because there’s nothing to put money towards. That would be a waste of students’ money.

The Radio Free Kwantlen fee is an example of a fee which experiences a weird, transient state of being collected then not being collected. Students showed interest in the radio project and in the months following its inauguration, the project saw students taking point on the project and then losing interest.

There’s been some money gathered from that radio fee, but right now it’s idle, neither growing or being spent. And that’s because that money is earmarked for the purposes of creating a Kwantlen radio station alone.

The KSA does things this way—meetings and voting and all that—because they’re legally a B.C. non-profit society privy to the B.C.

Society Act. B.C. societies are member-driven, and subsequently have to hold general meetings.

The KSA general manager Jeremy McElroy says that these meetings are important because, “it’s where the information is exchanged from the leadership to the members and where direction is given from the members to the leadership.”

McElroy says these resolutions show a history where students took leadership in giving the KSA direction, since it is their organization. He says that if there’s an issue that students feel strongly about, a resolution at a general meeting is a good place to have that heard and have that be acted upon.

He says they’re like snapshots in time of when students took position on an issue.

Columns

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Going Global

Viva la Catalonia Libra.

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Tristan Johnston Columnist

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Late last month, two pro-separation parties in Catalonia’s regional legislature won a majority of seats, 72 out of 135, but not an outright majority of the popular vote, which was around 48 per cent of the Catalan population. Catalonia, like the rest of Spain, votes with a representative system, meaning popular vote and seat count match up quite well. Separation parties won over 50 per cent

of the popular vote in Lleida and in Girona, and around 48 per cent in both Barcelona and Tarragona.

The “Junts pel Si” — otherwise known as “Together for Yes,” — won 62 seats, and Popular Unity Candidacy, a left-wing pro-independence party won 10 seats. This brings the unity of Spain into question. The leader of the region, Artur Mas, had already held a symbolic referendum last year, asking voters if Catalonia “should become an independent country.” The result was 80 per cent in favour of “yes,”

but less than half of eligible voters participated. Mas had been ordered to court on Oct. 15 for questioning about the referendum, and he walked to court with 5,000 pro-independence marchers behind him.

Canadians and Brits might be familiar with this sort of situation.

Just like Quebec for us, and Scotland for the British just last year, the Catalonia situation in Spain has been a long time in the making.

While the story of Catalan independence is long, let’s start in the 1930’s. Spain broke out into a civil war, and Catalonia chose to join the losing side. When Hitler-friendly Francisco Franco won, he made sure to crush any Catalan who’d dream of separation.

After Franco died in 1975, Spain was democratic once again, and Catalonia was granted some degree of autonomy, along with several other regions.

Catalonia is not like the rest of Spain. Just as Quebec Separatists were able to claim in their movement, Catalonia has a very different culture, as well as a different language: Catalan, which when heard,

sounds a little bit like a combination of French and Castilian Spanish.

The region is the wealthiest one in Spain, and holds Barcelona, one of the busiest tourist spots in Europe.

There are plenty of reasons why separation has been brewing again in Spain. The 2008 financial crisis had its effects felt in Europe, and if Greece suffered the deepest wound, Spain was the second worst hit.

Catalonia generates 20 per cent of Spanish GDP with 16 per cent of total population, and many separatists feel that they put more into Spain than they get out. Catalonia generates as much GDP being a region of Spain as Portugal generates being a whole country. However, Standard and Poor’s lowered the credit rating of Catalonia on Oct. 10, dropping them by one grade to BB-. S&P believes that they would need Spain to assist the region in addressing their regional debt load.

It should be clear at this point why Spain wants to keep Catalonia—they make a lot of money. Just like Quebec and especially Scotland, Spain has given various warnings to Catalonia, such as the possibility of

being dropped from the Eurozone, forcing them to adopt a new currency. Football fans might be aware that FC Barcelona could be dropped from the Liga. The European Union has also issued warnings, letting separatists know that they’d have to reapply for admission.

The European Union in general doesn’t want to see a successful separation movement take place. The E.U. is surely worried that if one succeeds, there will be a stronger push in other countries, and such moves could make Europe much riskier economically for investors.

As for now, some are questioning the idea that 48 per cent of a popular vote is enough for separation. I would have to agree, but I’m not Spanish or Catalan. I wasn’t old enough at the time, but Quebec’s 1995 referendum had a voter turnout of around 93 per cent, and 49.42 per cent voted for a separate Quebec. I think that if you’re going to change the cultural identity of an entire population, you need an overwhelming majority, not a sliver. If a referendum in Catalonia takes place, let it at least be decisive.

sex-work and slandered “Johns.”

According to the Vancouver’s Rape Relief website, the organization sees themselves as “Feminist abolitionists” because they are trying to lobby the government to formally repeal the practice of sex work, either by making it illegal or simply no longer allowing it to exist in any form.

The Rape Relief’s Abolition Prostitution page say, “They

think they can tame it or soften its horrors with local health regulations.”

True feminism is sex worker-inclusive. Feminism stands up for the right of women to sell their sexual services (with consent) and it acknowledges that sex work has the potential to be normalized and safe with health and safety regulations provided by the government.

The “Take Back the Night” protests give people a chance to stand up for women who have been victims of violence caused by men.

It is an incredible way to honour, mourn, and give voice to the missing and murdered aboriginal women.

The goal of the organizers behind the rallies is to fight for women’s safety, equality and freedom, but to be progressive and successful, they must be inclusive to transwomen and they must be pro sex-workers’ rights.

The “F” Word

The successes, and failures, of Take Back the Night.

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Aileen Tran Columnist

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On Sept. 18 over 200 women gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery for the annual “Take Back the Night” rally and protest, bringing with them signs, slogans and chants of, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Patriarchy has got to go!”

The theme “Take Back the Night” was first used for a protest march down San Francisco’s pornography strip, where demonstrators demanded the pornography industry end their tide of sexual violence against women. One of the protesters, a woman who worked for Vancouver Rape Relief, a women’s crisis center, was inspired to start a similar campaign in in her homes city.

The first “Take Back the Night” march in Canada was held in 1978 by an ad-hoc collective known as “Fly By Night.” Through the 1980s and until now, the marches have been organized by Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, the city’s oldest women’s crisis centre. It is an annual opportunity for feminists to take to the streets and “stand together as women, refusing to be silent about sexual violence.”

At this year’s rally, women spoke up about the “rape culture” that occurs on university campuses, addressing such issues as UBC’s Sauder School of Business’ traditional pro-rape chants and the numerous reports of female students being sexually assaulted when walking

alone across campus. Women also addressed one of Canada’s national shames: the issue of the missing and murdered aboriginal women.

According to a 2002 study conducted for the Ministry of Women’s Equality, about 70 per cent of street sex workers operating in the most dangerous parts of the Downtown Eastside are Aboriginal women under the age of 26. In Kristen Gilchrist’s article, in the journal Feminist Media Studies, more than 500 Aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since the 1980s. However, their taboo position in society as sex workers, combined with their status as women of colour, puts them at the bottom of the hierarchy of victimization. This causes many victims to be unaccounted for, not only in the press but also on police records.

Every year, “Take Back The Night” protesters confront these discriminations. Adding traditional aboriginal drums to the mix of posters and chants, the women left the VAG and continued onto Granville street to give voice to the sisters they’ve lost to violence caused by men.

Violence targeted at women isn’t anything new. In 2014, according to the BC Ministry of Justice, British Columbia has reached its highest record of spousal homicides in the last five years. When looking at the deaths that were reported to the BC Coroners Service between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 15, 2014, females accounted for 74 per cent of the victims of spousal homicide.

“Take Back the Night” provides

a great opportunity to speak up about women’s issues, but not everything Vancouver Rape Relief does at these rallies is true to the principles of feminism.

They are not, for example, transgender inclusive. In 1995, Kimberly Nixon, a postop transwoman, answered the organization’s ad for women interested in counselling at the crisis center. Nixon attended the workshop but was asked to leave after the centre found out she was born male. In response she filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal against Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter.

After a 12-year legal battle, Nixon lost the case as the organization was protected under Section 41 of the B.C. Human Rights Code. Under Section 41, organized groups can be exempted from charges of discrimination, which is designed to link with section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in protecting group rights. Nixon’s lawyer, Barbara Findlay, whose clients are often from the LGBTQ and transgender community, told The Tyee, “Ultimately, what is accessible to all women will be accessible to trans women, too. I think this just shows that achieving equality will take a long time for the transgendered.

But there will be other cases.”

Another failure of the rally due to Vancouver Rape Relief’s belief system is that it takes a stance against sex-workers’ rights, as many of protesters’ signs were anti

Procrastination

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SUDOKU No. 129

Tough

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6 3 4 8 5 7 9 1 2

6 8 9 8 9 6 5

1 6 4 5 7 8 3 9 9 7 2 1 6 3 1 7 2 The solutions will be published here in the next issue.

© 2011 Syndicated Puzzles, Inc.

3

2 7 1 3 4 9 8 6 5

8 5 9 2 6 1 7 4 3

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7 4 2 9 1 5 3 8 6

5 1 8 6 3 4 2 9 7

9 6 3 7 8 2 4 5 1

To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains every number uniquely.

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Horoscopes Sagittarius Nov. 23 - Dec 21

Capricorn Dec. 22 - Jan 20

This week’s aesthetic: white, 40-something middle manager blasting brag-heavy gangster rap from his corner cubicle.

DRAAAAAAAINAGE, Eli. DRAAAAAAAINAGE.

Today you will become living proof that man can withstand anything.

Pisces Feb 20 - Mar 20

Aries Mar 21 - Apr 19

Taurus Apr 20 - May 20

There’s absolutely no reason for North Delta to exist. #Truth #SurreyNotSurrey

You will never know the pure, masturbatory freedom of unburdening yourself of a oversized gorilla costume just as the nepalese sun rises over the Himalayas.

Wait... Carlos?

Gemini May 21 - Jun 20

Cancer Jun 21 - Jul 23

Aquarius Jan 21 - Feb 19

Leo Jul 24 - Aug 23

Declaring “I AM HUMAN! I AM HUMAN!” when entering a packed room is a great way to blend in with other sentient, earth-based life forms.

You’ve done what even your father couldn’t. You’ve brought them back.

Not to life, to something greater. You’ve made them angels of a new god.

Ok, so, I’m Samantha, you’re Carrie, you’re Charlotte, and she’s Turtle from Entourage.

Virgo Aug 24 - Sept 23

Libra Sept 24 - Oct 23

Scorpio Oct 24 - Nov 22

Stare for eight whole minutes at the doormat that reads “Bless This Mess” before finally looking up into the house proper and whispering “an evil bastard lives here.”

THIS IS NOT A JOKE. You have been visited by the Horoscopes Fairy. Warn twelve people about the moon’s precarious place in their house to avoid being cursed.

The boney king of space has returned to his seat on Neptune. The moon armies of Thalassa, Galatea, and S/2004 N1 are poised to attack. Try to avoid dairy this week.