The Cascade Vol. 23 No. 1

Vol. 23 Issue 1

January 7, 2014 to January 13, 2014

Riding our battle-sheep up the mountain since 1993

GET HAPPY Seven ideas for getting over the winter blues p. 10-11

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NEWS

News

Briefs Dalhousie administration response inadequate HALIFAX — Following a CBC story on male dental students commenting hatefully about women in their classes in a Facebook group broke, the Dalhousie Gazette has covered the story at length online. In an extensive piece covering the incident and its resulting impact, the Gazette reveals several inconsistencies and problems with the university’s response, beginning with president Richard Florizone’s communication, both to the press and public and to the students affected by those in the group. While a debate over whether the offending students should be expelled or have their name, takes place, the Gazette’s piece argues the university’s actions and policies (anonymous reports about sexism in the dentistry department were disregarded earlier in the year) have further obfuscated an already-complicated matter, one where clear and direct leadership was especially needed. The students are for now suspended from clinic work, but that does not extend to lectures.

Newspaper companies remove competition FRASER VALLEY — Two major news publishers in BC are collaborating to remove the element of competition between city and community papers throughout the province. Following a deal that exchanged newspapers so only one company owns the publications of each town (where previously each company owned one of two) in Chilliwack and Abbotsford, with the Abbotsford Times shut down shortly after, the Georgia Straight reports a series of similar trades between Black Press and Glacier Media Inc. in Burnaby, Coquitlam, Langley, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, Richmond, and Surrey.

Nature taking over Chilliwack North campus CHILLIWACK —

Email news@ufvcascade.ca

New semester, new referendum

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SUS is asking for student opinion on another addition to campus services: this time, a student IT repair centre. SUS says it’ll provide a few jobs and save a lot of headaches — Vanessa Broadbent has the full story inside.

Opinion

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Misogyny in university

Culture

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Arts in Review

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Sports & Health

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How should the Dalhousie dentistry students be punished? And how do we stop more young men from following their example?

Chaos, art, and dolls

Martin Castro takes a peek at Between Madness and Delight, an art exhibition by Marcia Pitch at the Reach — and it’s just as whimsical, strange, and unnerving as it sounds.

A professor’s poetry Hard-earned wisdom is paired with dry humour in Madding Aphrodite, a hefty book of poetry by UFV English professor John Carroll.

The perks of pole dancing

Sexy, fun, and empowering — Melissa Ly checks out a free class at the Goddess Movement.

Actions speak louder than words Styrofoam isn’t sustainable, but cafeteria’s new charge is unfair to students KATIE STOBBART

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

At the end of last semester, Sodexo implemented a 20-cent “eco-charge” on cafeteria meals when you get a disposable container instead of a plate. Maybe 20 cents for a container here and five cents for an extra fork there isn’t the biggest burden on students — but anyone who has to rely on coin laundry knows those quarters can add up.

The reason for the charge, Where did all the metal cutlery go? according to Sodexo’s general manager Douglas Fowler, is sus- Cascade’s news brief informing tainability. It’s the same reason- students about the eco-charge, ing many grocery stores gave which was printed in the last iswhen they started charging for sue of the fall semester, Fowler plastic bags: disposable prod- defends Sodexo’s side of the ucts like plastic and styrofoam story. are a bigger burden on our plan“Incidentally,” he writes, “it et than they are on our pocket- would be more cost effective for books. The argument is that a Sodexo to eliminate a dishwashsmall charge makes consumers ing position and to rely entirely aware of their impact, instead of on disposables, but that would taking disposable products for be irresponsible.” granted.

He also notes that “actions However, whether or not speak much louder than words eco-charges have merit, there’s or glossy brochures.” something about Sodexo’s apYet the metal cutlery the cafproach that doesn’t fly with sus- eteria once set out on a counter tainability: the disappearance of alongside disposable cutlery, silverware. salt, and pepper has been reIn an email response to The placed by stacks of shiny leafVolume 23 · Issue 1 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529

Managing Editor valerie@ufvcascade.ca Valerie Franklin

Have a news tip?

Let us know!

www.ufvcascade.ca

News

Editor-in-Chief katie@ufvcascade.ca Katie Stobbart

Image: Courtney Kelly

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015

Director of Business Development joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson Webmaster ashley@ufvcascade.ca Ashley Mussbacher Copy Editor kodie@ufvcascade.ca Kodie Cherrille

Image: drp/Flickr

lets. The plastic cutlery and seasoning have been removed, and are now kept behind the counter.

Okay, move the forks. But relying on disposables is inconsistent with Sodexo’s position.

Furthermore, this isn’t a grocery store — it’s a university cafeteria. Its patrons are mainly students who have about 15 or 20 minutes to grab food and go, usually to eat it in their next class.

Unless Sodexo is expecting students to bring ceramic plates to class with them, the ecocharge acts as a kind of punishment for students who don’t have large blocks of time to sit in

News Editor michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular

Production Assistant shyanne@ufvcascade.ca Shyanne Schedel

News Editor megan@ufvcascade.ca Megan Lambert

Production Assistant eugene@ufvcascade.ca Eugene Kulaga

Opinion Editor alex@ufvcascade.ca Alex Rake Culture Editor nadine@ufvcascade.ca Nadine Moedt

News Writer vanessa@ufvcascade.ca Vanessa Broadbent Varsity Writer nathan@ufvcascade.ca Nathan Hutton

Arts in Review Editor sasha@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt

Arts and Culture Writer martin@ufvcascade.ca Martin Castro

Sports Editor catherine@ufvcascade.ca Catherine Stewart

Contributors Owen Coulter, Simon Grant, Ashley Hayes, Mitch Huttema, Melissa Ly, Ekaterina Marenkov, and Jasmin Sprangers.

Production and Design Editor anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi

Cover image: Anthony Biondi, Eugene Kulaga, and Megan Lambert

the cafeteria and eat.

UFV and its students are interested in sustainability. This year, for example, water fountains on campus now feature refill stations so it’s easier to bring reusable bottles instead of relying on plastic ones. Judging by the climbing counters tracking water bottles saved at those locations, I’d say the new stations are a success.

If Sodexo’s motive is purely to pursue sustainability, there are other ways it could do that. Disposable containers don’t have to be styrofoam; they can be made of biodegradable or compostable materials. If Sodexo is set on having an eco-charge, it could match funds raised and donate it to projects promoting sustainability on campus.

Though Sodexo is a distinct entity from the university, it’s still part of our campus for as long as its contract lasts. There’s no reason it shouldn’t endeavour to find sustainable options that meet students’ needs instead of taking away the pennies we’re already pinching.

Printed By International Web exPress The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It provides a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a circulation of 1500 and is distributed at UFV campuses and throughout Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. The Cascade is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of over 50 university and college newspapers from Victoria to St. John’s. The Cascade follows the CUP ethical policy concerning material of a prejudicial or oppressive nature.

Submissions are preferred in electronic format through e-mail. Please send submissions in “.txt” or “.doc” format only.

Articles and letters to the editor must be typed. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. The writer’s name and student number must be submitted with each submission. Letters to the editor must be under 250 words if intended for print. Only one letter to the editor per writer in any given edition.

Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, Cascade staff and collective, or associated members.

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

As 40th anniversary comes to a close, planners hope celebration has an effect on UFV reputation MEGAN LAMBERT

THE CASCADE

If you remember hearing sound checks during afternoon classes and walking across the Green only to find booths and food vendors scattered along the path last semester, you were walking through one of our university’s 40th anniversary parties.

Between the new graphics on UFV’s website, posters in the hallway depicting a timeline of UFV’s history, campus events, and the 40th anniversary logo etched into a Chilliwack corn maze this fall, it was hard to miss that UFV has been celebrating its anniversary since April 2014.

The celebration costs have taken $191,000 for marketing consultation, promotional materials, extra employees, entertainers, and supplies. Executive director of university relations Leslie Courchesne says surplus money from the last two years and donations have kept the events from dipping into the UFV’s current operating budget.

However, attendance for on-campus events was low — Courchesne gave a loose estimate of 500 to 1,000 people attending the Abbotsford and Canada Education Park (CEP) event over the course of the day.

In Abbotsford, much of that was foot traffic across the Green.

The 40th celebrations in Mission peaked at about 500 people, and the Hope campus hosted roughly 50 to 75.

“The on-campus events were an opportunity to not only have students, staff, and faculty celebrate the university, but to invite the wider community to come onto campus and get to know us a little better,” she says. “It [was] a one-time opportunity to draw attention to ourselves,” she says.

Images: UFV / Flickr

To begin the events of the 40th anniversary, administration, and staff met in Alumni Hall to cut cake.

While students may have noticed events happening on-campus, UFV’s aims with the 40th anniversary series of promotions and events were designed to reach outside, into the community and local businesses.

UFV — previously UCFV, and before that, Fraser Valley College — is still seen as less respected than older and more established universities like SFU, UBC, or UVic. Having received university status in 2008, UFV is still seen by many as merely a place where students can start their degree. The hope, Courchesne explains, is that an increased focus on outreach will change the university’s reputation in the community.

“Just because we don’t have a super high GPA to get in here, doesn’t mean that this isn’t a high quality institution,” she

says. “What we’re trying to do is move that needle on the reputation and awareness to the front — to have the university viewed positively and people to have a strong fit with UFV.” Alumni were invited to celebrate, too — UFV held a top 40 alumni campaign where graduates were nominated for the work they have done after their time at UFV. There was an evening reception at a winery as a capstone for the campaign where the “Top 40” were named, and Alumni Hall was revamped with televisions displaying info on the Top 40, a new banner, and fresh paint.

Comparing UFV to older universities, which have a larger pool of alumni to engage with, manager of alumni engagement Nancy Armitage says efforts like these are steps toward fostering a

UFV hoped to reach outside its campuses and old reputation with 40th anniversary promotions.

connection with the institution’s history. “Being such a young institution, we’ve only just started building a culture of giving with alumni,” she says. “[And] certainly the university wants to provide an opportunity for alumni to give back, should they wish,” she adds, using the Changing Lives Bursary Endowment as an example.

For the designs that would brand the 40th anniversary and UFV’s new identity, the university hired a marketing agency to work with its own graphic designers on staff to create the new logos and posters.

However, current students were not involved in the process, and for the most part did not have input in the future of the university’s image. The university did not consult current graphic design students or busi-

ness and marketing students for input in branding, design, or event planning.

“We do involve students very much,” Courchesne says. She says student opinion was consulted through an online survey and a focus group on which four students sat with alumni, faculty and staff, and donors. UFV also hired a tourism and hospitality graduate to help co-ordinate events, and one current student, Jarrett Bainbridge, sat on the 40th anniversary steering committee.

The committee didn’t expect any immediate revenue from the campaigning, but Courschesne notes that the events all work into a bigger picture.

“The goals of this were external as well as on-campus” she explains. “We needed to make sure the wider community, potential donors, [and] government all understood the great story that UFV had to tell.”

Because funding for postsecondary institutions has been decreasing each year, there is a growing dependence on alternate sources of revenue which could include donors or sponsorships from the community.

However, Courchesne says the celebrations and new marketing are not necessarily a response to the lack of government support.

“I wouldn’t say it was a direct relationship there,” she says.

“But as a publicly assisted, publicly funded university, we have a responsibility to the wider community and to taxpayers to report out on what we do and the positive things that go on here.”

With files from Katie Stobbart and Michael Scoular.

Music and other entertainment were brought to UFV for the 40th.

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

SUS plans to open IT support centre on campus Student referendum to decide on program and related fee at end of January VANESSA BROADBENT

THE CASCADE

The Student Union Society (SUS) has announced a plan to open an IT support centre on campus. As the Student Union Building nears completion, SUS has been planning how to fill the space beyond the SUS offices, student media, study area, and campus restaurant. “[We] had one or two nooks or crannies we were trying to figure out what to do with, [so] we started looking at other student unions,” SUS president Ryan Petersen says.

At Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the student association has Reboot, an IT service for students on the Surrey and Richmond campuses. The program costs students $0.30 per credit, or a minimum of $2.70 for a semester’s full-time equivalent courseload.

UFV’s program would be modelled after Kwantlen’s, and would therefore help students with problems they may have with personal devices, unlike UFV’s current IT service program, which only assists with UFV networks and UFV-owned devices. Petersen says this could include assis-

Image: Ashley Mussbacher

If approved, SUS’s student IT service would be housed within the to-be-completed Student Building. tance with viruses, installations, crashes, and data transfer, as well as any difficulties with UFV services such as Eduroam or Blackboard.

Students will have the opportunity to vote in a referendum on whether or not they support SUS’s proposed IT support centre and its per-student semester fee of $4.98.

Petersen says that beyond the fee the service is free of charge for students, unless

additional parts need to be brought in for repair. In that case, students would pay for the parts at cost. “There won’t be any mark-up on it. You won’t pay any service fee on top of that,” he says.

Petersen says SUS feels this is a service UFV students need. “We just felt in this modern age where all of us have a laptop, a tablet, a cellphone, all of these technological gadgets, we’re still catch-

ing up; we’re not as tech savvy as we should be,” he says. “We figured out what it would cost us and we just decided an IT service would be really excellent for this campus.”

Should the referendum pass, SUS will hire one outside professional to work full-time at the support centre as well as UFV students. Petersen thinks the centre could provide opportunities to computer science students hoping to work

in the field after graduation by helping them learn new skills, as well as helping them apply the skills they have already learned in class.

“It’s always nice to bring in a program where students who are training in [a field] can start using their skills. When the computer science students graduate, a lot of them will be able to say, ‘Well I already have experience working in an IT facility,’” he says.

As for the fee addition, Petersen thinks this is justified seeing how commercial IT support usually costs quite a bit. “If you go and get a diagnostic, it’s $40 just for them to look at your computer, and then it’s more for them after that to fix what the problem is,” he says. “In a four-year degree, if you use it once, it will cost pretty much the same as going somewhere else to do it, and let’s be honest, we’ll probably be using it more than once.”

Students can vote for or against the service in a referendum via their myUFV accounts from January 25 to 29.

If approved, the service would begin in Fall 2015.

Tuition costs for upgrade courses could hit UFV after provincial government ends GED program MICHAEL SCOULAR

THE CASCADE

The BC provincial government is ending its General Education Development (GED) program, impacting students who wish or are required to take upgrade courses at a college or university level.

At UFV, this impacts the institution’s departments of Upgrading and University Preparation (UUP) and English as a Second Language (ESL), where tuition had been free following the same government’s decision in 2007. Following the Winter 2015 semester, the university will now be able to charge full tuition. Designated by 0XX numbering, these courses act as high-school equivalencies, allowing students who did not take these courses while in high school, or whose grades do not fulfill prerequisites, to improve their

academic standing and, upon completion, take universitylevel courses.

Following the announcement, critics responded by saying the move decreases access to education for adults and younger students. The BC branch of the Canadian Federation of Students called the decision a poor replacement for the province’s reduced ESL program funding. Vancouver Community College recently was forced close its ESL program because of a lack of funding, laying off “about 72 staff members,” CBC reported last May. Speaking with News 1130, chairperson Zachary Crispin said, “It’s so important to getting people in the door, at college or university to continue their education, who never would otherwise. The imposition of tuition fees on these programs is a complete rever-

sal of policy that ultimately will hurt the most in need in British Columbia.”

In the Kootenays, Selkirk College says it is committed to not applying tuition costs to upgrade courses, despite the government’s decision.

“Until we receive a clear commitment that no reductions to our operating grants are planned by the province for ABE programming, we will also not be contemplating any changes to our programming or tuition charges,” president Angus Graeme said in an online release.

UFV has yet to comment on the provincial government’s decision. The Cascade will continue to follow this story in coming weeks.

Image: UFV

Upgrading courses are often advertised as “free,” something that could change as a result of the provincial government.

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Demolished gas station to be site of new U-District apartments VALERIE FRANKLIN

THE CASCADE

In the latest step towards creating a university district, four pieces of mixed-use property are set to be developed over a plot of land on the corner of King and McCallum, formerly occupied by the Rise and Shine gas station.

The proposed six-storey buildings will include 94 rental apartment units above 9917 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.

The lot has been unoccupied since 2012, and was rezoned for mixed use in September of that year. The gas station was finally demolished after a fire damaged the empty property in August 2014.

Darren Braun, director of development planning at the City of Abbotsford, notes that university students are currently renting apartments all over the city, and that this development will provide more housing opportunities close to campus. “[The developer] is quite aware that there’s a demand for housing around the university for students, so that’s what he’s targeting,” he says.

The mixed-use nature of the development will also offer shopping and employment opportunities to students living in the area. As an extra incentive, the developer also proposes to supply several bicycles and two electric vehicles for common use by the tenants of these buildings.

The timeline for the project’s construction is unknown, but Braun surmises that development will begin soon. “I would anticipate that now that [the developer] has removed the gas station, he’s going to … move forward in the near future,” he says.

Image: Focus Architecture

Ninety-four apartments are set to rise up from the corner of McCallum Road and King Road.

An ambitiously detailed UDistrict, citing the University of Washington, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Guelph as precedent models, was laid out in the City’s 2012 plan, and would encompass 365 acres of land surrounding UFV, King, McCallum, and McKenzie roads, and Highway 1.

Braun notes the involvement of UFV students in setting the original U-District plan in motion in 2011, when a class of fourth-year geography students led by in-

structor Cherie Enns polled UFV students to learn about their housing needs and preferences.

At the time, The Cascade reported the Geography 460 group’s information session to be unusually well-attended. One student, Angela Ostrikoff, was quoted as saying, “I want to see the beginning of a real university culture; a community that embraces university life, informed thinking, global development and international awareness.”

The students’ findings were

then presented to council. Braun notes that the poll was “kind of an ‘ah-ha’ moment” for the City, the university, and the development community.

“That’s what sparked the visioning process for the university district initiative,” he says.

“I just find that really cool, that it sparked from a fourth-year [geography] major project for coursework, and five years later we’re going to be doing a neighbourhood plan that’s going to outline a plan for thousands of

Let us know what you think by January 18!

Each year, The Cascade holds a survey to get your feedback on the paper, our website, and what we should prioritize.

Please take a few minutes to give us your input. The survey is available on myUFV.

people and services around the campus … It’s amazing [that] small initiatives can turn into reality with some good ideas and persistence.”

The City budgeted $200,000 in their 2014 financial plan to develop a U-District neighbourhood plan in partnership with UFV, which is set to be completed in 2015. More information, including the original U-District Vision Report to Council from 2012, can be found on the City of Abbotsford’s website.

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

SNAPSHOTS

Beware the dil-Doh

Curtailed commentary on current conditions

“Coke to drink” at the theatre

Generation broke, not broken

Textbook etiquette

Ashley Mussbacher

Alex Rake

Valerie Franklin

Vanessa Broadbent

Play-Doh cake-decorating kits came with a piece used to squeeze out Doh-icing in order to decorate the fake cake, but apparently that particular piece resembled an erect penis. We can all guess what happened next: parents complained.

When I read this, I literally laughed out loud. So, we’re going to start demanding objects don’t resemble penises now? Wow, that’s a slippery slope (pun intended). I mean, just think of the shape of crayons, hairbrush handles, and flashlights. Don’t even get me started on phallic-looking fruits and vegetables.

Seriously though, is a three-year-old really going to recognize if his or her toy resembles a reproductive organ? All they’ll care about is how Mom or Dad sent the toy back to Santa. I guess no one in this situation will get their cake and eat it too.

When I order a drink at the SilverCity in Mission, the employee at the till invariably forgets that I wanted root beer. “Uh, was that Coke to drink?” they ask, usually rather nervously. You little devil, I think, I know you know I don’t want Coke.

According to some friends who work at the theatre, their superiors instruct them to ask if the customer wants Coke as part of some Cola-quota the company wants them to meet. There’s nothing wrong with clearly offering what you want to sell, like combo deals or limited edition buckets, but the wording “Was that Coke to drink?” after I’ve made my love of root beer extremely clear is dishonest.

This tactic of feigning forgetfulness illuminates the fact that the concern is not providing service, but aggressively selling junk. When the places we see films focus more on selling products than providing a service to the community, it increases the difficulty of considering film as art and not commodity. Also, I wanted a root beer.

“We’ve got a lost generation that has grown up with factory electronics that just work all of the time ... And when they [die] we throw them away and buy something new,” lamented University of Manchester professor Danielle George in this year’s Royal Institution Christmas lectures.

But George ignores the fact that Millennials are also a broke, debt-ridden generation without the money to take those gadgets to the repair shop. Trying to fix a toaster isn’t the same as trying to fix an iPad. She might also be surprised by the popularity of websites like iFixIt, LifeHack, and Pinterest, where many thrifty Millennials armed with screwdrivers and socket wrenches have turned DIY home projects from chore-work into a lifestyle.

It’s laughable to suggest that a whole generation is incompetent because most of us can’t MacGyver a paperclip into a ham radio antenna. (Guess what? Neither can most baby boomers.) On the contrary, George’s concerns ring of the classic curmudgeonly chorus: “Kids these days!”

With Christmas break out of the way and a new semester starting, ‘tis the season of online textbook shopping. While buying and selling textbooks online is one of the best money-saving discoveries I’ve ever made in my university career, it is also one of the most frustrating. We’re all trying desperately to find the cheapest deal we can and rid ourselves of books we know we’ll never read again, but we need to remember that there is an etiquette that comes with buying textbooks online. I have, more than once, had someone say they were going to buy my textbook and then suddenly go MIA, or better yet, leave me waiting at our said meeting place thinking that either they died on their way over, or found a better deal and decided to not let me know. This is never fun, especially when you’ve turned down multiple offers from other buyers because someone promised to buy your book.

So while you’re desperately hunting for the cheapest book available this book shopping season, remember to keep in mind your fellow students and don’t just leave them hanging.

Racking up holiday debt has an emotional price tag, too ASHLEY HAYES

CONTRIBUTOR

There’s a reason January can be a depressing month; the joy and excitement (and possibly family drama) of the holiday season is over and all that’s left is a stack of credit card bills. While saving year-round for holiday shopping would be the most logical approach to avoiding holiday debt, it isn’t always a viable option.

During the holidays, it is easy to just say “eff it” and go crazy buying gifts for others. Even with a solid gift-giving budget, you need to remember to account for all that other “stuff” that happens during the holidays: parties, secret Santa exchanges, those people who buy you gifts and force you to run out and buy them something so it’s fair … All the little, unexpected stuff can add up to even more than the gift-giving

Image: Sean MacEntee/ flickr

It’s easy to forget about expenses when they go on your credit card. portion of the holiday season!

I’ve had bad credit card debt and wound up going through a credit counselling agency to help

get my debts paid. It was by far one of the worst decisions I ever made and it has taken six years to get my credit history back to

where it should be. That said, I still use credit cards and definitely relied on them during this holiday season. Throughout the credit hell I’ve experienced over the past few years, I’ve learned how to be smart with my debt and how to use credit cards to my advantage.

If possible, get a credit card that gives you some sort of benefit.

MasterCard, VISA, and American Express offer cards that give you cash back on a yearly basis.

As a student, free money appeals to me, so all my holiday spending this year went onto my MasterCard. I’ve earned over $60 in cash back, which will come to me with my statement this month.

Any extra income (bonuses, odd jobs, etc.), income tax returns, and those quarterly GST rebates can all be used to make dents in the debt you’ve accumulated over the holidays if you aren’t able to pay your cards off in full when that dreaded January statement

arrives. The key to any type of debt repayment is to have a plan.

Set a goal for when to have your debt paid and calculate what your monthly payments will be. There are a tonne of websites that have loan calculators where you can input your debt and it will let you know what your payments need to be for the timeline you have set yourself.

At the end of the day, the holiday season is supposed to be about spending time with loved ones, and if a little holiday debt helps you achieve that goal, then is it really bad debt? If it doesn’t stress you out until the bill arrives, then I certainly don’t think so. But once you realize you have to actually pay for all those gifts you bought last month, make sure you come up with a solid plan so you have a zero balance before December and can do it all over again!

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

How to suck less this year EKATERINA MARENKOV

CONTRIBUTOR

On New Year’s Day, I saw a woman standing on the corner of a busy intersection handing out pamphlets instructing how to “Reinvent Your 2015.”

Hung-over, I refused to stop and banter about the fruitlessness of her actions (all I wanted was my Starbucks coffee), but it did get me thinking about the entire phenomenon of New Year’s resolutions.

These “resolutions” have become a giant cliché in the western hemisphere, and nearly everyone gives up before results can be seen. Beginning January 1, everyone and their mom is at the gym, working off their gluttonous holiday behaviour, trying to mould their body into a shape that isn’t round — but it doesn’t last very long. Making

“New Year’s resolutions” is just another typical, valueless, first-world fad that fails by the second week.

New Year’s resolutions ultimately fail because fear trumps good intentions. Procrastinators like me usually pin their self-worth on what they’ve achieved. I put off doing things like homework, relationships, and exercise because I’m terrified of failing.

New Year’s gives procrastinators an excuse to try, but after January’s over, there’s still that commitment to changing yourself that is difficult to maintain. It’s easier to stay the same loser rather than risk the prospect of failure. So, why do we still do it each year if we know that we’re just setting ourselves up for defeat?

It’s the idea of a fresh start that tantalizes millions of people. At the end of each year we’re bombarded with all this

“new year, new me” bullshit, and let’s face it: it’s enticing.

The idea of a clean slate motivates us and gives us a reason to embark on changing our bad habits, even if it’s just the date that’s fresh. The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that it is difficult to retain that spark for longer than the sparkler you lit at midnight.

I propose an alternative: instead of composing that ambitious list at the end of every year, persevere every day.

Don’t wait until the start of a new year to change your life, because if you wait too long you’ll start to feel like you did when you were a kid and you accidentally wet yourself and then just sat there for an hour rather than change out of your damp pants. Don’t sit there in your own urine this year. Be brave! Admit you peed in your pants, and then change out of them.

Image:: Wikimedia

It takes more than a new year to change your habits.

Dealing with sexism in Canadian universities ASHLEY MUSSBACHER

THE CASCADE

In the last two years, Dalhousie University, frosh week, and Jian Ghomeshi have left a lasting impression on Canadians, but for all the wrong reasons.

In 2013 at Saint Mary’s University, nearly 400 students participated in a pro-rape chant glorifying non-consensual sex with underage girls, and attention narrowed on sexism among the young, educated, and privileged. The following September, UBC students would follow SMU by delivering the same chant at frosh week, stoking the blaze in media. Facebook groups like Keep Misogyny out of Canadian Universities (KMOCU) started to spread awareness and channel the attention in a way that was proactive and positive. But with the recent misogyny scandal at Dalhousie University, the question still tugs at our sleeves: what is the best way to handle sexism in universities?

The current topic is the Facebook group “Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen,” which contained misogynistic posts, and what to do with the 12 Dalhousie students who ran it.

The usual go-to punishment for any offence is the termination of a privilege; in the case of SMU’s student association president Jared Perry, it meant his resignation. The 81 UBC students involved in the chant

Image: Wikimedia

Sexism isn’t a disease; it’s a mindset. were assigned community service. But consequences for the fourth-year Dalhousie students are still being discussed, and it looked as though Dalhousie might break the mould.

According to Alison Auld of the Canadian Press, Dalhousie president Richard Florizone announced that discussions were leading to a restorative justice process. All men who were involved would participate. It would be informal and confidential, and it would “explore the impacts of the comments and address accountability.”

Then the students were suspended from January 5 to Janu-

ary 12. One week. According to CBC, a statement posted online is urging Dalhousie to not only focus on the situation at hand, but the underlying causes, pointing out that sexualized violence is a problem at universities across Canada.

Suspension seems to be the appropriate response to a minor, temporary offence. But sexualized violence is anything but minor or temporary.

Not everyone agrees with the school’s course of action. A few suggestions were pushed forward, matching the usual formula and response by the general public: Change.org ran a petition to have the students

expelled, others tweeted to ban them from practicing dentistry, and a select few from KMOCU made more extreme comments, writing that they thought the male students deserved what they planned to do to the females in their posts.

The issue with these reactions is they’re founded on a need for revenge. The public had a similar reaction to the Jian Ghomeshi case, and The Cascade’s Megan Lambert wrote, “It is not the public’s job to decide who is telling the truth; that’s why we have a formal judicial system.”

But since half of these students’ tuition is paid for by the public, how much power — if any — should the public have in deciding their punishment?

The petition to have them expelled is one way the public is leveraging that power, but they’re doing so at the expense of actually understanding the problem. Expelling the Dalhousie students is not the answer, because it won’t change their attitudes. Sexism isn’t spreading through universities like a disease, because it’s not a disease; it’s a mindset. And changing a mindset is more difficult than expulsion, or fast justice.

It proves we’re still fumbling for an answer to the question of how to deal with sexism.

Though, according to comments on Facebook cited by he Canadian Press, the problem

wouldn’t have occurred at all if it hadn’t have been public.

Regarding the UBC rape chant, CBC writes: “Students say the chant has been used for 20 years, and this year frosh week organizers didn’t prevent it, allowing students to chant it ‘in the bus,’ but not in public.” A commenter on CBC’s website also wrote a response to the Dalhousie scandal: “Whose bright idea was it to explicitly type up this kind of stuff nonanonymously in an open group on Facebook? Why didn’t they just ‘relieve their stress’ in a private IRC channel?”

So, if it’s private, it’s okay ... until it’s not? Look how well that worked out for Ghomeshi. In fact, the outcome of the Ghomeshi sexual assault case shows that the prevalent attitude of “boys will be boys” is changing. When The Cascade’s Jess Wind wrote on SMU and UBC rape chants, she mentioned the rise of rape culture, our attitudes around it, and how people are suddenly realizing the message in a 20-yearold chant.

Change starts with recognizing that what the 12 Dalhousie students did was not harmless.

Calling their posts “jokes” or chalking it up to male bonding is an excuse. And expelling or suspending them does nothing to prevent something like this from happening again.

8

OPINION

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Victory for dogs: Canada Post will stop door-to-door delivery SIMON GRANT

CONTRIBUTOR

They say neither rain nor sleet nor hail can stop Canadian mail, but budgeting sure can. Canada Post is implementing community postal boxes in Abbotsford’s downtown core to service 12,000 residences. This is part of Canada Post’s nationwide five-point plan to secure its future.

The last time Canada Post experienced a net profit was 2010, with reported net losses of $188 million in 2011 and $269 million in 2013, and an expected annual deficit of $1 billion by 2020. By implementing community postal boxes, which 66 per cent of Canadian residences already use, they can avoid this. Seeing as Canada Post is a Crown corporation (owned by the government), and Crown corporations cannot be legally bankrupt, this is basically a $1 billion annual bonus to us, the taxpayers. (Win!) If saving money is not a good enough selling point for implementing community postal boxes, perhaps safety is. Rover will no longer feast upon the postman’s leg. With less injury comes less workers’ compensation and

Image:: Wikimedia

Some people are concerned about using community postal boxes, but the changes are for the best. fewer sick days. Fewer sick days means more productivity. Couple increased productivity with the efficiency of a community box

(that is, amalgamating dozens of residences to one single box) and we might not be able to call it “snail mail” anymore.

Of course, there are residents who are legitimately injured or frail and unable to walk to a community mail box. If you are such

a person, take heart: Canada Post has an opt-out form that, if completed, will still allow you to receive mail in the traditional way.

I have also seen worry expressed about mass identity theft, but community boxes have been used for decades in places like trailer parks, rural areas, and apartment buildings, and serve most residences already with few occurrences of mass identity theft. Besides, if thieves want your identity they can just as easily hack into your bank account, steal your wallet, or even break into your house to steal your mail. Also, most community boxes have some protective barrier like a lock and key, and they are placed in highly visible areas to deter theft.

There is also legitimate worry about layoffs. Canada Post has directly stated that this is not an issue. This is because while roughly 6 to 8,000 positions are being eliminated, an estimated 15,000 employees will retire in the next five years. They will actually be hiring people.

So, no matter which way you look at it, the move to community postal boxes provides better service for a lower price.

Wins all around!

Satire

Baby versus baby: the first lawsuit of 2015 REPP PORTER

THE CASCADE

It is a week into the New Year, and 2015 has already seen the birth of many babies — but obviously none of these babies are as important as the first to burst into the world. Controversy has exploded over who rightfully owns that title, however, between two Abbotsford girls named Jayne Wilson and Michaela Gordon. Wilson has filed a suit against Gordon for the rights to the coveted “First Baby of 2015” status.

This is the first baby-versusbaby suit in Canada, but the case is not altogether unique; in 2011, a four-year-old from New York sued his little sister for being useless and two years younger than himself, and won. This is, however, unprecedented in that this case is between newborns.

While Gordon was technically born eight seconds before Wilson on the midnight of January 1, Wilson argues that she deserves the title more because she “can already talk, walk, and do stuff.” Gordon, who was not born with such advantages, was not available for comment.

Image: Google

“Gordon was technically born eight seconds before Wilson on the midnight of January 1.”

Many commenters on the “Michaela Gordon, Number 1” Facebook page have argued that Wilson’s reasoning is flawed because her skills are arbitrary and unrelated to whether she was born first.

Wilson’s mother, on the other hand, has spoken to most major Canadian media outlets regarding her child’s right to be considered better than Gordon based on the superiority she demonstrates in other ar-

eas.

“Objectively speaking — and I’m not saying this because I’m the mother — it is my little pumpkin’s birthright to have anything she wants,” Mrs. Wilson told The Cascade

on Saturday. “She just got born and she’s already better at colouring than I am!”

Indeed, Mrs. Wilson’s colouring seems amateurish compared to her week-old daughter’s, but Gordon’s supporters still insist that these kinds of abilities do not constitute being born first.

Dr. Clara Friar, local expert on babies and global New Year traditions, is not surprised by the lawsuit. “Everybody wants to feel important and powerful on New Year’s,” she says, “and besides, babies do weird shit. It was only a matter of time before they started running the show.”

Friar added in an email: “The public perhaps ought to wait until little Jayne Wilson’s tuckered herself out before judging her; all the rascal needs is a nap.”

Gordon, who does not have her own lawyer because she is a newborn baby and is unaware of not only the lawsuit but of the fact that there are countries and that math exists, will be defended by her prosecutor, Wilson’s father.

The hearing begins in late January.

9

STUDY BREAK CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

CROSSWORD Ch-ch-ch-changes

by VALERIE FRANKLIN

ACROSS 2.

4.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Tiny, oily fish that some like on pizza. (7) An apartment with only one room (a.k.a. a studio). (8) Very manly. (5) Grass-like relative of the onion. (5) Things to roast over an open fire. (9) What you use to write on a blackboard. (5)

DOWN 1.

3.

5.

6.

9.

Deadly snow-slide. (9) Cheddar or brie. (6) Someone armed with a bow and arrows. (6) Professor Flitwick’s class. (6) A series of connected links. (5)

SUDOKU 3. HULK 4. ENVY 5. TOMATO 7. MARS 9. STOPSIGN 10. THUMB 12. POPPIES 13. SLEEVES

7 2 6 5 5 4 6 6 9 2 3

7

4 3 8 3 1 2 2

DOWN 1. BLOOD 2. AVOCADO 6. ABSINTHE 8. KERMIT 11. NOSE

2 6 7 4

The Weekly Horoscope

5 3 2 1 9 8 4 6 7 9 4 8 6 5 7 2 3 1 6 7 1 4 2 3 8 9 5

ACROSS

1 7 6

Sudoku solution

1 2 6 7 4 5 3 8 9 4 8 3 9 1 2 5 7 6 7 9 5 8 3 6 1 2 4

3

Last issue’s crossword

9

8 1 7 2 6 4 9 5 3 2 5 4 3 7 9 6 1 8 3 6 9 5 8 1 7 4 2

1 4 5 2 8 9 4 1

Star Signs from Sybil la Clair

Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18: Prepare for a journey somewhere bitterly cold! Bring your bikini for some quality snowbathing.

Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20: Freckles are your spirit animal.

Gemini: May 21 - June 21: You’ll find true love when your fingers touch on the last package of burgers while digging through the discount section of the grocery store freezer.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22: Your favourite yoga pants will develop a hole. Mourning is acceptable.

Aries: March 21 - April 19: Chocolate-covered mosquitoes make a juicy snack. Perfect for class, and a great conversation starter!

Leo: July 23 - Aug 22: You will find this week’s lottery numbers burned into the bottom of a pot of rice.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20: Backmasked messages broadcast on CIVL will reveal a trail of clues leading to UFV’s hidden treasure trove.

The legends were true!

Virgo: Aug 23 -Sept 22: Beware of your refrigerator. Something in it is growing legs.

Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22: Bang regret could strike at any time.

Stay away from scissors.

Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21: Discovering dinosaur bones in your backyard will make you a millionaire. Get digging!

Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21: A random explosion of dynamite will almost get you out of bed this Thursday. Almost.

Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19: A LAN party will go horribly awry when the pizza man takes your group hostage. Order curry instead, just to be safe.

10

FEATURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Let a little light in Seven suggestions for finding joy in the bleak midwinter Illustrations by Anthony Biondi Written by Katie Stobbart Hitting the books again in the winter can be depressing. Outside the classroom window, the world is often cloudy, dark, and wet. Like bone-chill, uncertainty makes its home beneath the skin and settles in behind the eyes as we consider The Future.

Winter holidays are a great way to stave off our worries and celebrate plenty in a season when little grows. But after splurging on luxuries students often forgo (frequent family dinners, gift budgets,

and free afternoons) the first few days hunkering down for another semester studying usually kindle a strong desire to stay under the covers — didn’t we just finish the fall semester?

However, dwelling on the doom and gloom doesn’t resolve dejected spirits or uncertainty. With that in mind, this week we’re featuring happiness, and the ways we avoid letting the darker months weigh us down.

Cat-cuddling does not require a willing feline.

There’s nothing like finger-snapping good tunes to put a little groove in your step.

All you need is coffee and conversation.

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FEATURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

“It was a dark and stormy night ... and they still lived happily ever after.”

Bundle up with good thoughts to avoid the frostbite of misery.

All there is to happiness is to embrace a warmer palette.

Don’t be afraid to ask for a hug.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Peer Pleasure

Courtship, kinship, and camaraderie YOURS TRULY THE CASCADE

College years are rife with decisions and transitions. As the threshold of adulthood looms, we begin the process of defining ourselves, of discovering what kind of person we want to become.

This is tested within our relationships and, inevitably, questions arise.

How do we navigate the socalled hookup culture of dating?

How to distance ourselves from our parents in a positive way?

What does it mean to have a healthy sex life? How to relate to bosses, ex-lovers, future in-laws, co-workers, or that super hot guy in your English 105 class?

In the age of the Cosmo quiz, overly generalized and underresearched advice is all too easy to come by. This advice leans a little too heavily on stereotypes, gender roles, and eye-catching headlines.

This is where The Cascade can help. Our new column, “Peer Pleasure,” offers anonymous and dependable advice on everything to do with your personal relationships. Let’s talk about relation-

ships. Let’s talk about sex.

Advice will come from a mixture of worldly personal experience from readers as well as sex-positive and reliable research conducted by Yours Truly.

Send in your questions, scenarios, or responses to peerpleasure@ufvcascade.ca Next week with Yours Truly: I just broke up with my girlfriend after two years of dating. We were friends for a while before we started dating and I’ve known her family for a long time. The breakup was a mutual thing, but now I’m not sure how to deal with her family. I have a bunch of them on Facebook and before the break-up would hang out with her siblings regularly. I haven’t spoken to any of them in a month. Should just leave it or if I should try and talk to them? Do I unfriend them on Facebook? What’s the protocol here?

-FR Did you have a similar experience you’d like to share? Want to contribute with your own advice?

Feel free to write in with your own say and be published alongside my advice in the next issue of The Cascade.

Image: Tony Stairs / Flcikr

Have a relationship complication? Write in for advice from sexpert Yours Truly.

Dazed and confused

The Reach’s new exhibit by Marcia Pitch a visual equivalent of existentialism MARTIN CASTRO THE CASCADE / PHOTOS

The human mind usually tries to make sense of the things we see; we try to find patterns in our lives and experiences. But artist Marcia Pitch defies any sort of pattern with her exhibit Between Madness and Delight, currently on display at the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford.

A visual cacophony of dolls and trinkets placed in outlandish positions overwhelm the eye, jumping out at the passerby. Pitch herself describes the scene as “a nexus between lunacy and glee.”

As guests stare into a white room filled with dolls hanging from the ceiling, on the floor, the walls, and on several pedestals of varying heights and angles, we get the feeling there’s some kind of sense to this scene. Or that there must be, anyway.

I found myself jumping from

component to component, trying to decipher what, if any, intention Pitch had when she placed a certain figure in one position, as opposed to another. Gestalt theory posits that when we are exposed to stimuli, we try to assign a meaning to the whole, independent of its components. So when we see a car, we don’t see glass, metal, rubber, and paint — we see a car. When exposed to the sheer existential horror that is Between Madness and Delight, I tried to make sense of the ridiculous amount of visual information presented so haphazardly before me. There’s a reason for this figure’s placement and position, I thought. What is it?

While I tried as hard as I could to assign some sort of order or meaning to what I was seeing, I failed miserably. However, I found solace in the thought that if I couldn’t discern any clear message from the “madhouse”

(as Pitch herself describes it), then most of the people around me probably couldn’t either.

Ha! I thought as I let the various outlandish scenes wash over me, Marcia is probably laughing from afar, gleeful at the prospect that her exhibit so flawlessly reflects the chaos and unpredictability of real life. If we can’t even make sense of dolls in a room, how could we possibly make sense of our own increasingly intricate lives?

Slightly bewildered, I stumbled out of the exhibition room, thankful of Pitch’s stark reminder that life itself is chaos, and we ought not to take it so seriously when we can’t make sense of what’s before us.

Just go with the flow, man.

Between Madness and Delight will be on display at the Reach until March 1.

Image:: Martin Castro

Madness reigns at the Reach.

Image:: Martin Castro

13

CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Holy Moly Matrimony

Upcoming

Plan your student-friendly wedding in style

Events

NADINE MOEDT THE CASCADE

It seems we’ve reached that point in our lives when we begin receiving those gilded and meticulously calligraphed save-the-dates inviting us to share in the joy of our friends’, coworkers’, or peers’ weddings.

Those of us reaching the end of our degrees have likely attended more than a few weddings and, with some trepidation, have begun to consider the possibility of our own trip to the altar.

Start researching how to plan a wedding and you’ll soon find that wedding culture demands perfection. It demands you spend lavishly. It demands the bride wear white and be draped with jewels, that the groom be as deeppocketed as he is uninvolved. It demands Pinteresty perfection and crippling post-nuptials debt.

The average cost of a wedding, according to bridal magazine the Knot, is $28,858. $28,858.

Wedding culture thrives on stereotypes. Walk into any jewellery store as a couple and you’ll be directed to ring sets that will devour a year’s tuition; the salesperson assumes that the bride-to-be must be bought with diamonds. Nearly every avenue for wedding information, from advertising to personal blogs, caters to the woman. It’s her special day, after all. The day she’s been dreaming about since she was a

January 9 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.

Scholarly sharing initiative at UFV UFV’s Alex Wetmore and Miriam Nichols will give lectures at the first scholarly sharing initiative of 2015. Wetmore’s lecture, “No parrot on morality and sentimentality,” will delve into the fascinating world of 18th century talking birds while Nichols’ lecture will focus on her new publication, The Astonishment Tapes. The afternoon begins at 1:15 p.m. and a light lunch is provided.

How can you plan for a day that reflects your relationship on a budget? little girl because, you know, getting married is every woman’s major life goal.

This wedding culture applies pressure directly, but it also affects one’s planning in less obvious ways. Your family’s expectations of a flawless day and a bountiful celebration — of a strict adherence to a stale tradition — works to further enforce this wedding culture. A financial contribution to the day may come with strings attached.

So how can the average stu-

dent navigate this pervasive, unreasonably expensive, and sexist wedding culture? How can you plan for a day that reflects your relationship on a budget? How can you sidestep the stress and stereotypes?

Not to worry! The Cascade is here to help! Our Holy Moly Matrimony series will discuss the ins and outs of wedding culture, on everything from ring shopping to venue scouting, from caterer tastings to itinerary sketching. Follow newly engaged Sasha Moedt

Style on Campus

as she wades through tradition in search of a modern flavour of matrimony. Among other various contributors is the newlywed Anthony Biondi, who will share his hard-earned wisdom on how to pull off a student-friendly wedding.

Need specifics? Feel free to write in for advice. Contact nadine@ufvcascade.ca with questions about your upcoming nuptials.

Students keep it comfortable on the first day of classes MARTIN CASTRO THE CASCADE

What is your name and what are you studying?

My name is Bruce, and I’m studying nursing.

How would you describe your personal style?

I try to keep it classy when I’m going out, but [I wear] more casual stuff when I’m going to the mall or grocery shopping, [usually] jeans, some Nikes, a hoodie.

Why did you choose to wear what you’re wearing?

Well today was a little bit rainy, so I [chose] to dress a bit more comfortably.

Where do you usually get clothes?

I usually get clothes from places like H&M. What is your favourite thing about your outfit and why?

My shoes. Shoes are probably the most important part of an outfit. You can tell a lot about a person from their shoes.

Are you comfortable?

I am very comfortable right now.

What is your name?

Katrina.

How would you describe your personal style?

My friends have said I look like an English hipster.

Why did you choose to wear what you’re wearing?

Well, this is a new shirt, and these are new shoes. I thought they looked good together.

Where do you usually get clothes?

I try to get all my clothes on sales; I find a lot of clothes at H&M. What’s your favourite part of your outfit?

This shirt, I love the burgundy red.

Are you comfortable?

Oh yeah, that’s why I wear it.

Image: DJ Borhan / Flickr

January 10 100 Years of Loss exhibit The Reach’s newest exhibit opens this Saturday with a portrayal of the devastation left by Canada’s residential school system. The exhibit was developed by the Legacy of Hope Foundation, and works to create awareness of the intergenerational impacts of residential schools as well as to support the process of healing through understanding. The exhibition runs until May 3 and as always, the Reach offers free admission.

January 12 4 to 6 p.m.

Marie Curie scholars visit UFV The Centre for Indo-Canadian studies (F125) presents three lectures from Madam Curie scholar speakers. Come out for refreshments and conversation as visiting scholars and PhD candidates Ruby Rana and Melanie Wattenbarger from the University of Mumbai and Holly Morgan from the University of Munster present their papers on topics ranging from gender in postcolonial literature to authenticity in contemporary Indian literature and film, with the unifying theme of identity within a diaspora.

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ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Books

Marlowe goes Canadian in Last of the Independents ANTHONY BIONDI THE CASCADE

It’s surprising to me how few people I know have read the works of Raymond Chandler.

He is one of the American mystery greats. For those that read him, he is a touchstone for a genre that has become somewhat old-hat, even if most of his novels were published in the late ‘30s to late ‘50s. He wrote convoluted plots, well-developed characters, and coined some of the best wit and dialogue to date. He has become something of a point of reference in the mystery world.

When I first opened Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe on my Kindle, I was greeted with a Chandler epigraph: “It is the struggle of all fundamentally honest men to make a decent living in a corrupt society.”

This, coupled with a direct comparison to Chandler in one of the accolades on the cover, told me that the author was striving for something very Chandler in his work. So, everything I read in his novel I read through the eyes of Chandler ’s writing.

Last of the Independents is about a 29-year-old P.I. by the name of Michael Drayton. He is a sour young man who lives with his grandmother and

Sam Wiebe gives the detective humanity in his noir novel. keeps company with a rag-tag bunch: a young female secretary and a young man that likes to hang around his office. When the story opens, he is taking on a case to find out who has been sexually abusing corpses at a morgue. It quickly builds up other cases, including the young man’s missing sister, all of which build the background to the case that is the centre of the story: Mike Drayton has to

find the missing son of a junk seller.

To paraphrase Chandler, the character of the detective is one that seems to be apart from the world. He is unchanged throughout by the events of the story, and by the end he is the same as the beginning. However, Wiebe breathes a different sort of life into his characters.

Michael Drayton is very clearly human from the get-go. His di-

alogue is rarely cold, and only occasionally witty. He displays all the wants and needs of a normal human being, and even breaks his elbow in a simple, off-beat scuffle.

When placed beside Chandler ’s character Marlowe, the two appear as polar opposites, at least in attitude. Drayton felt rather soft-boiled at points throughout the novel. But by the end, I really felt that Drayton had grown into something, and that something made me question the entirety of his character. However, Wiebe’s characters and character arcs were fresh and surprising. Though they differed from Chandler ’s ideas of the American private eye, Wiebe seems to be creating something more Canadian.

He calls it Vancouver noir, but I would like to think of his characters as being in more of a Canadian noir.

One thing that Wiebe excels in is his narrative description. If one thing could be considered Chandleresque in this novel, it would be his detective’s view of the world. Not only did the novel’s setting feel like modernday Vancouver by the language alone, it also felt lived in by the character whose eyes we were seeing it through. The descriptions were lively and harsh,

very materialistic, very real.

I think one of my only complaints about the novel was the need to cram in so much of the candidness of Drayton’s life.

At points it took away from the mystery, and dragged out certain threads. In a way, the novel became more about the detective than it did about the problem. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but — especially with the romantic arc — it felt a little drawn-out and unresolved. There was a moment where the love story was meant to tie back into the overall mystery, but fell a little short. In the end, all of the threads that Wiebe draws on, with several cases and character dramas, only work in some occasions.

At points they strengthen one another; at others, they appear to dilute.

Overall, I would like to praise Sam Wiebe’s Vancouver noir.

Despite some fluff, it was a very enjoyable and humanistic take on the detective noir genre.

Even without the constant comparison to Chandler, the genre great, I feel it could stand on its own. I hear that he wants to write more Michael Drayton novels, and if this is true, I look forward to reading them. Perhaps Wiebe could truly coin the Canadian noir detective genre.

John Carroll’s Madding Aphrodite softens honesty with humour ALEX RAKE THE CASCADE

Madding Aphrodite, a book of “small town tales, metaphors, & dialogues of the heart” by UFV English professor John Carroll, is a delightfully strange and often funny piece of work, albeit with a few distracting weaknesses.

Structured as several (at first) unrelated passages of prosepoetry divided into a calendar of months, the book unravels its story using conversations between abstract concepts, love affairs with aliens, and short tales about people searching for things they cannot quite define.

In short, it’s a weird ride.

Carroll opts not to use traditional grammar, replacing most punctuation with spaces of varying length. This makes the passages resemble thought: statements triggered by statements without being planned beforehand. The speakers there-

fore reveal themselves through their streams-of-consciousness, and this gives their words the weight of honesty with all of honesty’s potential for humour and heartbreak.

The best thing about the book is its sense of humour. By forcing the opposing forces of life, such as Love and Lust, into conversation (or in this case, a slap-fight), Carroll reveals a lot of the absurdity hiding in life’s basic positions. In one passage, Loner and Family Man have their yearly conversation, and after Loner explains all his fears and desires and why family is a confining force, Family Man cannot comprehend this and responds automatically, “Without family you have nothing.”

Moments like this manage to be serious and funny at the same time, and this dissonance keeps the book engaging.

One potential problem with the writing is that the speakers’ streams-of-consciousness occasionally repeat ideas in rapid

Carroll’s most recent poetry draws its strength from humour. succession, sometimes to the point where it feels like an accident on Carroll’s part. For example, in a passage called “latte & cappuccino,” the narrator describes a character named K: “he just couldn’t tell ... he was afraid to make a choice because he could not decide which was best / he could not decide / pe-

riod ... he just didn’t know how to discriminate / just didn’t know.” Because the passages focus on narrative — that is, the information in the passages demands more attention than the structure of that information — the repetition grates without successfully revealing anything significant about the characters’

headspaces beyond where we already know their heads are stuck.

Another problem that blemishes the book is the frequency of small typos. One or two would not be a big deal, but there seems to be one hiding every 20 pages or so, especially near the first half. It really puts a damper on the reading experience because it makes the book feel unprofessional, not to mention it interrupts the reading itself. Then again, it is a large work in its first printing, so this issue can disappear if the publisher decides to print a second edition.

Despite some small bugs, Madding Aphrodite is worth the read. While its philosophizing probably won’t blow anybody’s mind, the book has an at-once playful and serious attitude that you cannot always find in contemporary prose-poetry — at least, not done this engagingly.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

15

ARTS IN REVIEW

Battle of the Five Armies is hollow, yet entertaining JEREMY HANNAFORD CONTRIBUTOR

The Hobbit trilogy has concluded and it has left a oddly familiar taste in the mouth. Almost as though as we have seen something like this before. It’s because we have. In essence, Peter Jackson’s trilogy is the Middle Earth equivalent of the Star Wars prequels.

The Hobbit trilogy is certainly not as flawed as the Star Wars prequels but they follow the same pattern. The first film is the overly drawn out disappointment, the slow sequel acting as the build-up to the finale, and the third the most empty yet most entertaining of the three. The similarities between these two trilogies is staggering when given further thought.

The Battle of the Five Armies may be the climactic end to the trilogy but does little to hide how shallow it truly is. Considering how few chapters remain in the book and how much extra content was added in the previous films, the amount of actual story content in this final film is almost on par with a Michael Bay flick.

But the overall quality is better.

Somewhat.

The film is primarily composed of three pieces. The confrontation with Smaug, the struggle with Thorin’s sickness of the mind, and the Battle of the Five Armies. But oddly enough, the film with the least amount of character development still produces one of the most layered characters in the LOTR franchise.

Despite the complaints he has received when the film’s began, Richard Armitage delivers a truly layered performance as Thorin Oakenshield. The sickness of the gold twists his mind and we see how his greed affects his standing with the group and Biblo Baggins. It is a shame however that his is the only major piece of character development in the film.

Other characters get far too little screen time or far too much. The Master ’s snivelling right-hand man Alfrid (Ryan Cage) gets more screen time than most of the main characters do and it serves no purpose other than to remind the audience he is a selfish swine. His character ’s usefulness, annoying presence, and excessive amount of screen time (despite not having been a character in the book) is on par with that of Jar Jar Binks.

At least Jar Jar Binks provided some variety. Alfrid is the same joke, rinse and repeat. This is perhaps the only issue of extension that is painfully obvious in the film. The battle sequences provide some amazing visuals and are probably some of the best in the Middle Earth saga. But much like how George Lucas was with Episode III, director Peter Jackson goes completely overboard with the use of CGI. It certainly provides some intense sequences, especially during

the final confrontation with Gandalf and the Necromancer. Also, Smaug’s destruction of Lake Town is terrifying and beautiful to watch. But as a result, whatever magic the series had left is sucked out of the film by the end.

One issue this trilogy ender doesn’t share with The Return of the King is a dragged-out ending. In fact, it is the shortest film in the whole Middle Earth saga and it actually suffers from its length. The editing is rather weak as the battle’s narrative becomes jumbled and there are several times where one gets the feeling something is missing. While the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings films may have been unnecessary, this film feels as though it would benefit from the extra scenes.

The movie serves its purpose to end the trilogy. It closes the story and even adds in some tie-ins to the LOTR trilogy, even if they come off as extremely phoned in. But it serves to entertain and in fact, it is the most constant film of the trilogy. Much like Star Wars Episode III, it provides some of the most entertaining moments in the trilogy.

But unlike Episode III, The Battle of the Five Armies purpose is overshadowed by an obvious want for money.

It’s sad to say that Episode III, despite its atrocious acting and pathetic dialogue, will stand as a strong testament to the Star Wars saga than The Battle of the Five Armies ever will for the Middle Earth saga.

Image: DeviantArt

The BCLIP is an educational six-month opportunity for Canadian university graduates to work in British Columbia’s parliamentary system. Your academic training will be enhanced by exposure to public policy-making and the legislative process by working in the executive and legislative branches of the provincial government at the Parliament Buildings in Victoria.

2016 PROGRAM DIRECTOR Karen L. Aitken Legislative Assembly of B.C. BCLIP@leg.bc.ca ACADEMIC DIRECTOR Dr. Patrick J. Smith Simon Fraser University psmith@sfu.ca

B.C. residents are eligible to apply if they have received their first Bachelor’s Degree from a Canadian university within two years of the start date of the 2016 program.

Apply online at:

www.leg.bc.ca/bclip Deadline:

January 31, 2015 Location: Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C. Term: January 4 to June 24, 2016 Remuneration: $26,120 for six months

Image: StaticFlickr

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ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Soundbites

J. Cole achieves near-greatness with 2014 Forest Hills Drive MARTIN CASTRO THE CASCADE

CHARTS 1

Monkeys in Drag Hated at Home

65 2 Buck Neverlove

3

Incognito Amplified Soul

Scott 4 Andy Faith in Strangers

5 Cowards Ruins 6 TVSeedsOn The Radio Lotus 7 Flying You’re Dead!

Jacobin Club 8 New Soldiers of the Mark Priest 9 Judas Redeemer of Souls

10

Cheap High Ego Wholesale

11 Viathyn Cynosure 12

Laika Somnia

Giants Once 13 Where Stood

14

Live Above Devin Townsend Ziltoid 2

For Refund 15 Return Return for Refund

16

The Nailheads Finish ‘em Off with a Bat!

17

The Rebel Spell Last Run

Matilda 18 Kill #Punk#Zombie#RocknRoll

Shuffle

AARON LEVY

CIVL MANAGER/ STAND UP COMEDIAN

CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy wants to welcome you BACK to school with this Back themed Shuffle!

Eminem “The Real Slim Shady” “Breadcrumb trail of gayness,” he says. “Guess who’s back, back again, guess who’s back, tell a friend. Two trailer park girls go round the outside.” No, you didn’t understand what that meant in 2002 when it came out, and it’s best that way. The man gives a good fake interview.

Aerosmith “Back in the Saddle” Years before daughter Liv was in the videos for “Cryin’” and the like with Leesh Silverstone, or the “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” vehicle that was Armageddon with Ben Who-Fleck, father Steve was shrieking like no man who didn’t look like a lady ever had before or has since.

Ghostface Killah “Back Like That” Violent, sexist, and so freaking catchy: “In the summertime I broke his jaw, had to do it quick, old fashioned, in the back of the mall.” “I’mma holla at dawg and rip his head off, word to the song”. “Never trust a female on no scale, you just confirmed that.”

Ahmad “Back in the Day” Wikipedia says Ahmad is perhaps best known for this recording. Wikipedia is indubitably wrong. This is literally the only song that Ahmad is known for, and he’s barely known for it at all; I thought this was a Tribe track from He Got Game with Ray Allen and Denzel.

Khia “My Neck, My Back” So raunchy, the next two body parts following neck and back are not repeatable within the context of a UFV student journalism publication; perish the thought of sullying these hallowed pages with such virulent and perverse language. Far be it from me to repeat them, so watch this video online at www.ufvcascade.ca!

A couple of points about Jermaine Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive: it could have been the best hip-hop record of the year. It wasn’t — and there’s a reason for that. However, 2014 FHD is probably the bestproduced record of the year, and includes some of the best songs of the year.

The record starts off with an early-2000s R&B feel, especially on tracks like “Wet Dreamz” (a song that is a catchy yet awkward-to-listen-to depiction of the time Cole lost his virginity) and “’03 Adolescence.”

Cole does a lot of singing on this record, a little too much for my taste. However, he makes up for it by coming out swinging on “Fire Squad,” one of the hardest-hitting tracks I’ve heard this year. Over some stellar production, Cole spits some of his best verses. Every verse on this song ends in a ridiculous way: Cole amps up the listener in preparation for a third verse that criticizes the commercial success of artists like Iggy Azalea and Justin Timberlake in a hilariously enjoyable way. (Fun fact: Cole is featured on a remix of JT’s “TKO” alongside Pusha T and A$AP Rocky, his verse is pretty ridiculous there, too.)

Cole also does an all right job on “Hello,” a track that sees Cole attempt to become a soul singer, along with “Apparently”; on both these songs, there’s a lot of singing, and then one exceptionally good verse.

The other two standout tracks on the record are “No Role Modelz” and “G.O.M.D.” “G.O.M.D.” sees Cole adapt quite an arrogant mindset; however, this track features some amazing

J. Cole is close to making the best record of 2014. production and some of Cole’s best rapping. Also, Cole goes crazy on this song, literally: “Hands up, everybody run / Cole outside and he say he got a gun.”

If it hadn’t been for Schoolboy Q’s Oxymoron and Royce Da 5’9”s PRhyme, 2014 Forest Hills Drive could have been the best hip-hop record of the year, which still places it really quite high. If Cole focuses his craft and keeps releasing material like this, hip-hop will be in good hands.

No Fixed Address is a crash landing for Nickelback OWEN COULTER CONTRIBUTOR

It felt like a lifetime since Nickelback’s Here and Now was released in 2011, and as a die-hard Nickelback fan I was eager — salivating if you will, like a fiveyear-old at Dairy Queen. I waited patiently for Nickelback’s eighth release to be released in November.

But like a five-year-old kid, I felt the same utter disappointment as dropping a sundae after only a few bites. As soon as I had gotten past the opening two tracks, I felt like dropping the CD and smashing it into thousands of pieces. The opener, “Million Miles an Hour,” sets you up feeling like the album will in fact take you a million miles an hour, only for you to crash land after the second track. Frontman Chad Kroeger sings, “I like this everlasting pill,” but whatever everlasting pill he took made him go off the rails and somehow think this album was any good at all.

I understand that many rock bands are following in the musical style of Taylor Swift, Luke Bryan, Hedley, and Simple Plan, but it alienates not just Nickelback’s fan base, but rock fans in general (think Halestorm with its influence from Eric Church, doing country collaborations and going on tour with him). In the case of Nickelback, the drop-D guitar, the turned-up bass, the profane lyrics about promiscuous women, and the band members handing out glasses of Canadian Club to fans at concerts was what sold out arenas. In the 2000s Nickelback was

After two tracks of No Fixed Address, you’ll want to stop listening. the second best-selling foreign act in the United States.

If the band’s purpose was to change the crowd at concerts from mid-20-year-olds to screaming tweens who are found at a One Direction concert, then I would say job well done. All your old fans will wait until 2018 in the hopes the bass is turned up loud enough to shake house windows.

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ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Dine and Dash

Jojo’s is a homely little restaurant with a big heart SASHA MOEDT THE CASCADE

32700 George Ferguson Way Abbotsford, B.C., V2T 4V6 The first time I went to Jojo’s Fish & Chips Bana Restaurant was with some hung-over friends, a group of five who wanted greasy food. The idea of fish and chips at 11 a.m. didn’t appeal to me, but I’ve always been curious about the grungylooking restaurant.

The inside isn’t much better.

The décor is diner-style with truly ugly ’90s fish memorabilia. The décor colour is turquoise, very dusty fake plants are placed here and there, and there are random sea-related things on the wall. One friend joked about wanting to see Gordon Ramsay come in and tear the place apart.

But I found it was all part of the charm. Jojo’s is a well-kept secret, and my new favourite breakfast place.

We were accommodated quickly, though it was fairly busy. Jojo’s is bigger than you’d expect. And there are always a lot of older people there. Is it because the service is oldfashioned and friendly? Is it the classic and greasy food? Maybe it’s how cheap the menu items are. I get the feeling that Jojo’s is a hidden gem, and these old-

Image: JoJo’s Fish and Chips Resturant / Facebook

JoJo’s has the best breakfast prices in Abbotsford. er customers have been going for years without telling anyone else.

The servers were great. I like customer service, and not a lot of small talk. The servers seemed to feel me out; at the table next to me, a loud guy just wanted to chat, and she joked along with him. For me, she was prompt and friendly.

The menu is huge. There are several pages of breakfast items,

with very good prices, ranging from $3.99 (meatless breakfast) to $10.99 (steak breakfast). Definitely the cheapest in town, and the portions are huge. Lunch is a couple pages of sandwiches, burgers, and melts, as well as classic fish and chips combos.

Dinner includes the heavyhitters, like pot roast, meatloaf and steak (up to $13.49). The seafood combos get bigger with dinners, with plates of shrimp,

scallops and oysters.

My first time at Jojo’s, I had tried the fish and chips. I’m no fish and chips expert, but the fish was moist yet firm, and the batter was melt-in-your mouth, golden, and delicious! It felt so light eating, but it was a heavy meal. I had the lunch special — cod, chips, salad and pop for $6.99. The cod was great, but the chips were just very chunky French fries.

This time, I ordered a basic breakfast — two eggs, two strips of bacon (or sausage links), hash browns and toast. For $4.49! So cheap, and the plate was huge.

Jojo’s offers the choice of cubed or shredded hash browns, and their shredded is fantastic; nice and crispy and greasy. Unfortunately, Jojo’s has very weak and watery coffee. It’s a shame, because unlike many breakfast places, they actually refill your cup very frequently.

My partner ordered the breakfast skillet, and every time he’s gone since he ordered the same thing — it’s a skillet of hash browns, onions, green peppers, smothered with cheese and topped with two eggs and two bacon strips (or sausage), with toast on the side. The cheese melding it all together is heavenly, and it’s only $5.25.

It’s a nice place to sit and have a leisurely breakfast. The tables are sturdy and clean, the atmosphere is welcoming, and you can tell the servers don’t hate their lives.

I’d definitely recommend it.

Great prices, greasy food, big portions, and décor so ugly that it is kind of charming — like your favourite teacher in elementary school with a horrible fashion sense. Trying a breakfast there can be cheaper than a coffee at Starbucks. Give it a try!

TV

Suits is a tangled mess of melodrama MITCH HUTTEMA CONTRIBUTOR

Suits follows Mike Ross (Patrick Adams), a former drug-dealing university dropout with a photographic memory who manages to get into the world of Wall Street financial law. Mike is hired as associate for Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), a badboy big business lawyer who is impressed by Mike’s answers in an impromptu interview and hires him against the law.

What follows are several seasons of various characters bashing egos together and creating unnecessary and completely avoidable problems. And of course, don’t forget the classic sexual tension between every male and female in the cast that also plays a major role in those avoidable problems.

The opening minute or so in

each episode recaps the past events and builds anticipation.

I watched the show through several different websites, and I eventually lost track of where I was. It wasn’t until the fourth season that — after seeing a recap of a storyline I’d never seen before — I realized I’d skipped six episodes from the middle of the third season! I had managed nearly a whole season without it and not even noticed. It seems to me that this speaks to the quality of the narrative.

However, it was to my joy that I had the six episodes to enjoy anew, as I had finished everything and was waiting in eager anticipation for the next season. Despite the contrived storylines and egocentric characters, I had fallen in love with Suits. The series houses some of my most beloved television characters, and not without

Image: Suits / Facebook

Several seasons of various characters bash egos together. good reason. The show focuses on several characters interchangeably through the series, allowing the viewer to explore each character through their own perspective of themselves as well from other characters.

From one point-of-view a certain character may be loveable, but from another they become vile.

It is the well-rounded presentation of each character that the viewer comes to know each

of the characters’ many sides and so has the opportunity to love them. Despite the set-up drama and easily avoidable, ego-driven conundrums, Suits redeems itself by making the viewer actually care and feel for each of its characters. Because the viewer invests emotion into the characters, the show has the power to drag you back again and again for more.

A word of advice: if you do not want to lose yourself to an all-night binge, avoid the last two minutes of every episode: it is in this time that an insurmountable problem arises every time, only to be solved in the first two minutes of the next episode. For some reason, though, it is still satisfying and works every time.

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SPORTS & HEALTH

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Pole dancing at the Goddess Movement MELISSA LY CONTRIBUTOR

The mention of pole dancing usually stirs up imagery of something along the lines of a neon-lit stage with scantily clad strippers walking around a pole as men flip money into the air. However, pole dancing has been emerging as a form of performance art, and a recreational and competitive sport.

If you watch a video of a pole dancing competition, you will see why this is.

Pole dancers require a tremendous amount of talent, skill, and strength.

The Goddess Movement, an alternative fitness studio hidden right beside Wings on Sumas Way, offers free pole classes every Monday night at 6 p.m. No obligations. This past winter break I took up this offer.

When first entering the Goddess Movement, you are immediately welcomed with a warmness that is a nice contrast to the winter cold, and there’s a pleasant fragrance that fills the air.

Just around the office is the spacious room with six dance

Image: The Goddess Movement / Flickr

Your skin needs to be exposed to properly grip the pole. poles spread about. Hanging from the high ceilings are aerial hoops, silks, and trapezes.

The “try it out” class began with a short introduction of everyone who had made it out to the class that evening. The instructor Sorrell-Ann then took some time to talk about how the Goddess Movement is a place of support, self-acceptance, and empowerment.

In the words of Aryn, the owner, director, and instructor of TGM, “Because we do not judge you or set unrealistic expectations for you, we ask that

you do the same for the other women in the room ... judge less, encourage more. We are all the same — things we do / don’t like about ourselves, hang ups, hard days ... so let’s just agree that we are all a little broken and offer space and support to heal and grow.”

The Goddess Movement is a place where the negativity, judgment, and toxic notions of beauty stop.

The class first proceeded into the warm-up, pilates, and stretches, with SorrellAnn weaving in her humour,

Image: The Goddess Movement/ Flickr

People are pushing for pole dancing to become an Olympic event. playfulness, and positivity throughout.

Last but not least, we learned actual pole skills! The pole moves were quite simple, yet sexy. I personally found them easy, as I dance seductively around my room all the time.

But even if you do feel shy or awkward about shaking your booty and hips, no one is judging!

“Pole has challenged me in my physical, mental, and spiritual growth in ways I never ex-

pected,” Aryn says. “I am a fully different person than I was 10 years ago. I have learned I am strong, capable, and powerful, and that I love my soul and body for what it is, not tearing it apart due to what society and media says I am not.”

Pole dancing has been a fun, sensual, and adventurous experience. If it ends up not being your cup of tea, no harm done, keep it as an interesting story.

to interview me,” said Cullen.

“After three interviews, I was accepted.”

Cullen then told Robar about Bhubesi Pride, and he applied and also earned a chance to travel to Africa.

“I was chosen for my experience with this type of thing and because they felt Johnny and I had the right mindset for this work,” Robar said.

Both Cullen and Robar started playing in high school.

Robar said he struggled academically, wasn’t sure of his direction in life, and wasn’t in the best physical shape.

“I started playing rugby and all of those things turned around and rugby taught me so much.”

Playing rugby was more of an acquired taste for Cullen, but he said he learned to enjoy it.

“I’ve met many great people with it, and it’s given me a lot of opportunities,” said Cullen.

Cullen and Robar will teach

for mornings and afternoons, with free time in the evenings.

One day each week will be spent hosting a tournament.

The trip costs $6,000 per person, which includes airfare, transportation, a $3,400 program fee, vaccines and other expenses. Cullen and Robar are raising funds using the crowdfunding site Go Fund Me, and they’re hosting The Fredericton Safari pub crawl Friday, Dec. 5.

Bracelets are available all week in Sir James Dunn Hall for $10 each.

Both have raised around $1,000 so far, and Cullen said they’re still open to ideas for fundraisers.

“I want to share opportunities I’ve had with rugby with people who may not otherwise get to enjoy it,” said Cullen.

To support Cullen and Robar, visit Cullen’s Go Fund Me page at gofundme.com/hcoq6g and Robar’s page at gofundme. com/hcmnoc.

Rugby without borders Two Tommies are looking to teach their sport in Africa NATHAN DeLONG THE AQUINIAN

FREDRICTON (CUP) — Two St. Thomas men’s rugby players will spread their love of the game throughout Africa this spring.

Third-year scrum-half Johnny Cullen and secondyear back row Justin Robar will spend May 2015 teaching rugby to African children with an organization called Bhubesi Pride.

“Volunteering with the purpose of developing communities through sports is a wonderful idea,” said Robar.

Bhubesi Pride is based in London, England. The charity assembles groups of coaches to travel around Africa on annual six-month expeditions to support rugby and community development in schools and community centres. The upcoming 2015 expedition will be the charity’s fifth tour of Africa.

Cullen said he and Robar will

Image: nanagyei/flickr

This spring, two students’ love for rugby will travel to Africa. join the expedition for a month so they can work at home for the summer.

Cullen saw the opportunity to teach rugby in Africa through the website rugbydump.com, which he said is like other sports news sites. He saw videos about Bhubesi Pride on the site that sparked his interest.

“I thought they took professional coaches,” he said. “I didn’t know students could apply and be chosen.”

Cullen heard a friend in Newfoundland and Labrador applied to the program, so he also applied online.

“They responded the next day and said I had a strong application and they wanted

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SPORTS & HEALTH

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

The beginner’s guide to skiing and snowboarding JASMIN SPRANGERS CONTRIBUTOR

It’s that time of year. The weather is cold, the roads are icy, and the hills are snowy. Dreaded by many but highly anticipated by few, it’s time for winter sports to begin. With fresh snow on local hills such as Cypress and Manning, snowboarders and skiers couldn’t be more excited.

Despite a late and grueling start, the season is starting to kick off. Skiers and boarders, novices and experts, it’s your turn to get out there, carve your mark in the snow, and shred some powder!

Many people look at the cost of boarding and skiing, and are instantly turned away. They are not cheap sports. Not only is there a cost for the lift ticket, and general snow gear (hats, mitts, snow pants, jacket), but there’s a cost for the boots, the

snowboard and bindings, skis, and poles, too. It adds up real fast. But don’t let that scare you off. Renting is a possibility for around $50 a day for the full package (ski or board, boots, poles or bindings). This is a bit easier if you’re not a regular skier or boarder.

With Manning and Hemlock offering half-day prices, it becomes even better! If you’re not wanting to rent from the hill, No Sweat Sports in Chilliwack offers equipment rentals. If looking to buy boots or poles, consignment stores or the annual Ski Swap are great places to check out. Even Craigslist is an option. It’s a bit easier, with less driving, and a picture is usually posted. Once you’ve got your gear all set, it’s time to head up the hill.

There are a few very important things to keep in mind when on the hill.

Upcoming Games Mens and Women’s Basketball Jan 9th at home against MRU Jan 10th at home against MRU Jan 16th away against MacEwan Jan 17th away against MacEwan Jan 23rd at home against UBCO Jan 24th at home against UBCO Jan 30th away against MRU

Mens and Women’s Volleyball Jan 9th away against DC Jan 10th away against DC Jan 16th away against CAM

Know how to stop Even if purposely falling on your bum is considered stopping, do it. It’s better to have a bruised bottom than it is to run into a tree, person, or go hurtling over a cliff. Your whole body will thank you later.

Know what’s in front of you Nobody likes being run over by the person behind them who was flying down the hill while looking at the sky — as beautiful as it may have been.

Chairlift safety Don’t lower the bar unless both people are ready (metal on the head is not a good combination).

Keep track of your limbs Especially for skiers, know where your hands and arms are when losing control. Shoulder injuries suck, and poles jabbing into the legs can’t be too pleas-

ant either.

Mind your head While more of a safety tip, and not quite as popular, a helmet is always a good idea. Somersaulting hurts, and it hurts more without a helmet. Wearing one is even becoming a requirement on some hills.

Skiing and snowboarding are great activities. The sense of freedom when flying down the hill is amazing, and the feeling of powder beneath your board is exhilarating! Although weird at first, the feeling becomes natural quickly as you learn the correct way to angle your board around obstacles in the snow.

The cost may seem daunting at first, but the rush of adrenaline makes it all worthwhile.

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20

SPORTS & HEALTH

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Basketball teams spend Christmas in California NATHAN HUTTON THE CASCADE

The holiday season in Abbotsford is, while festive, extremely cold, so who can blame the UFV men’s and women’s basketball teams for spending their New Year’s Eve down south? In states dominated by bikinis and beaches, they got the chance to showcase their talent against premier American competition.

It is a common occurrence for teams to play exhibition schedules around this time in order to “get their legs back” before their conference games resume. For the men’s team, it was Southern California that played host to their exhibition schedule in games against the Vanguard University Lions and the Northwestern College Red Raiders. The Cascades would lose both games, but they still had their impressive moments.

Nate Brown registered a gamehigh 19 of his team’s 56 points against Vanguard in the loss.

A large part of the Cascades’ loss was their inability to hold on to the ball, throwing 24

Image: UFV / Flickr

The American competition provided a great opportunity for the Cascades to “get their legs back”. turnovers to the NAIA school.

The Cascades’ game against the Red Raiders was closer than their game with the Lions, but it ultimately ended the same

way.

The early 13-5 run from the Red Raiders gave them a lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the game. That

isn’t to say the Cascades didn’t come close. Only one point separated the two teams after the Cascades scored the first nine of the second half, bringing the

score to 47-46.

That was the closest the game would get. The Red Raiders responded well to the Cascades’ early run and took back the momentum for good this time, winning 87-73.

The Cascades’ Kadeem Willis shone in the game, scoring a game-high 18 for the Cascades, and chipped in five rebounds and a steal.

Coach Adam Friesen also claimed, prior to leaving, that he was looking forward to getting his team back into a “basketball frame of mind,” when he spoke with Cascades Media.

The women wound up going even further south in their search of competition: Phoenix, Arizona. They would get the chance to battle a pair of NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) schools: Glendale Community College and the Phoenix College Bears.

Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams will be in action this weekend against the Mount Royal Cougars on Friday and Saturday.

Nowhere to go but up for the Cascades volleyball teams NATHAN HUTTON THE CASCADE

The potential for teams to get back into a game, even after it seems like there is no possible way, happens to the extreme in volleyball. The UFV women’s volleyball team entered the break in third place in the PacWest — still a playoff position, but on the fringe. The Cascades, however, are the third of four PacWest teams in the national rankings. At ninth place, they’re in front of the VIU Mariners (14th) and behind the Camosun Chargers (6th) and Capilano Blues (3rd).

They’re where they deserve to be at this point in the season.

In contrast, the men’s volleyball team has been one of the surprises in the latter part of 2014. Their 12 points, which is responsible for their fourth place in the conference, seemingly guarantees that they will play at least one postseason game.

Even more surprising is the fact that at the beginning of 2015, the Cascades are a sta-

Image:L UFV / Flickr

The Cascades are looking to climb the rankings, despite playing only three games at home. ple on the national rankings.

Granted, they haven’t been able to crack the top 10, and sit near the bottom of the rankings, but for the Cascades, the only place they can go is up.

Both the Cascades men’s and women’s volleyball teams are in a tough spot in the second half of the season. They play

only three of their 12 games in Abbotsford, which will make it extremely difficult for the Cascades to gain traction.

Head coaches Dennis Bokenfohr and Kyle Donen have a tough road ahead of them. Winning games in any competitive university is hard, but having to play nine of those games on

the road is a difficult task for any coach.

Anyone in major volleyball circles can take a look at the season Kyle Donen has coached with his Cascades team and see that he is a dark horse candidate for coach of the year. He has been one of the most impressive young minds in the

PacWest, and looks poised to do even more damage in the second half of the season.

Both teams kick off the second half of their seasons this weekend against the Douglas College Royals.