The Cascade Vol. 20 No. 23

Vol. 20 Issue. 23

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Big damn heroes since 1993

Angels in the End Zone Beauty and athleticism in the sport of lingerie football

p. 12-13 SUS fee increase to be proposed p. 3

WE INSIST! student art show p. 16

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S ISSUE News Interviewing UFV’s new VP students Karen Aney talks to new VP students Jody Gordon about her preference of the west coast, the uncertain future of AfterMath pub nights and NHL lockout blues.

Opinion

Arts & Life

Participation marks CEP grand opening extravaganza!

Sports & Health Wrasslin’

Cascader Dessa Bayrock looks at her syllabus and wonders about the point of the ever-present participation grades. There are many questions, but one thing Bayrock knows for sure is she’s not 12.

CEP grand opening features actual barbecue, Mark Evered and the late-show band – in that they were 45 minutes late thanks to GoogleMaps.

Last week we send our Art Director Anthony Biondi to a Semi-Pro Wrestling event purely for our own amusement. See his novel response to that colourful blast from the ‘80s for yourself.

Read more on page 6

Read more on page 19

Read more on page 18

Read more on page 4

Let’s face it, everybody and their toaster has a bachelor’s degree these days.

If you want to stand out from the legions of little kitchen appliances pouring out of postsecondary institutions every spring, you’ve got to trick out your chrome finish with a little

Managing editor ali@ufvcascade.ca Ali Siemens

Online editor michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular

It don’t come easy

THE CASCADE

Editor-in-chief nick@ufvcascade.ca Nick Ubels

Business manager joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson

EDITORIAL

NICK UBELS

Volume 20 · Issue 23 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529

Image:photozou.jp

flair: extra-curricular activities.

An answer to the question: what did you really do in college?

But you’ve heard that speech before, at every college fair, in every advisory meeting. We all know what there is to be gained in these kind of pursuits, but there’s something standing in the way: intimidation.

I spent the first year of my undergrad on the sidelines. I at-

tended classes, did my readings, wrote my papers and hid out in my white Ford Focus on Tuesday afternoons playing guitar, but as soon as class was over, I drove straight home and never looked back.

I attended my first Cascade story meeting over two years ago.

I was terrified. Everybody in the crowded boardroom seemed to know everybody else and exactly what they were doing. Editors were furiously scribbling assignments onto whiteboards and writers were cracking complicated inside jokes I didn’t have a hope in hell of understanding. It was, in a word, intimidating. I felt out of my depth. It was the very reason I had put off attending meetings for such a long time, despite my journalistic ambitions.

Here’s an example of how far the conflict between what I was doing and what I wanted to do went. Second semester, I took home an issue of The Cascade and rigorously copy-edited the better portion of the news section with a red Bic. I thought I’d done a great job, but balked at actually delivering my work to the newspaper offices.

After a couple of meetings, the awkwardness began to thaw.

These days when I see new volunteers show up at story meetings, I’m impressed they took that all-important first step. I can see that same look of trepidation in their eyes I’m sure my early editors saw in mine.

Other clubs and associations

aren’t much different. CIVL station manager Aaron Levy is a busy guy, but tell him you want to pitch in and he’ll find something for you to do. Volunteering at CIVL radio is not as daunting as it might seem to the outsider.

If you want to host a show, you have to clock a few volunteer hours and undergo basic soundboard training before recording a 20-minute pilot episode. It might take a couple tries before you’ll be approved by the programming committee, but this is a perfect scenario for honing your skills.

Media not your thing? UFV’s roster of clubs and associations spans politics (SUS); activism (Pride, Students for Sustainibility); creative writing and publishing (the Louden Singletree); photography and much more.

Shit, there’s even a club for Accounting students.

Interested in grad school?

Why not check out the university’s paid work-study opportunities as research assistants?

College is the perfect time to discover your passion. Don’t neglect the wealth of unique opportunities afforded to you during your undergraduate degree just because you’re shy. We’ve all been there. Confidence is something you have to work at. The thing you’ll regret most is not getting involved sooner.

Production manager stewart@ufvcascade.ca Stewart Seymour Art director anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi Copy editor joel@ufvcascade.ca Joel Smart News editor news@ufvcascade.ca Dessa Bayrock Opinion editor opinion@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt Arts & life editor arts@ufvcascade.ca Nick Ubels/Amy Van Veen Sports editor sports@ufvcascade.ca Paul Esau Staff writers Karen Aney, Taylor Johnson, Nadine Moedt, Alexei Summers

Contributors Joel Colbourne, Beau O’Neill, Ryan Peterson, Tim Ubels, Jess Wind

Printed By International Web exPress

UPCOMING EVENTS September 27

September 27

October 1

October 3

Cinema Politica presents popcorn time

Voices of Peace

Last chance to join the race!

Thanksgiving at U-House

There are so many student groups banding together to bring you this film that it’s a little intimidating; UFV’s Student Union Society, Student Life, Students For Sustainabilty and Cinema Politica present The Age of Stupid. The film will play in U-House at 7 p.m. and looks at why the human race refuses to look at the effects of climate change.

It’s that time of semester when we all kind of need some soothing music. Good thing you have a chance to attend a free concert featuring cello, chamber music, and poetry at 7:30 p.m. at the Peace Lutheran Church on Ware Street! The concert is in celebration of the development of the Peaces Studies at UFV.

Monday is the last day that nominations are open for the SUS fall by-election. If you have a passion and want to run for SUS’ Accessibility Rep, Trades Rep, Clubs and Associations Rep, or Aboriginal Rep, your time is running out!

Pick up a nomination package from a SUS office near you.

It’s that wonderful time of year again. Pummelled potatoes! Vibrant vegetables!

Glorious gravy! Show up to U-House between 4-6 p.m. on Wednesday and you’ll get more than awful alliteration -- you’ll get a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal! (And yes, there will also be some terrific turkey. Be there or be hungry!)

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 75 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.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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NEWS

Possible fee increase to hit AGM dessa bayrock THE CASCADE

Considering over 16,000 students attend UFV, math says it shouldn’t be difficult to get 94 of them in one place.

UFV’s Student Union Society (SUS) disproved this theory last Wednesday as they tried to meet quorum for their Annual General Meeting (AGM) – and failed.

The general mood was laidback and unsurprised; SUS’ AGM meeting quorum on the first try is something that has only happened once before.

A second attempt has been scheduled for exactly a week after the first attempt, and quorum will be adjusted so fewer than 20 students are required to attend.

Meanwhile, the failed first attempt at an AGM became an opportunity for discussion and dialogue between students and the SUS board members.

“We don’t have anything else today, since the meeting’s not happening,” said Carlos Vidal, SUS president. “Right now we’ve got a bit of a unique situation … if anyone wants to ask any questions to any of the board members here, now’s your opportunity.”

Discussion quickly turned to the possibility of a student fee increase – something brought to students’ attention by posters ad-

vertising the AGM. Vice-president social Chris Doyle quickly clarified that the potential fee increase was something he was bringing to the table as a student, and not a move on the part of SUS as a whole.

Vice-president internal Greg Stickland is responsible for overseeing the policies and regulations that govern SUS. “At an AGM, any student can bring something to business,” Stickland explained.

Doyle, therefore, would be acting outside of his role as vicepresident social.

“There’s been a lot of talk about looking into this for years now,” Doyle said. “I decided, ‘Screw it.

I’m going to do it.’”

The fee increase Doyle intends to propose would be between $5 to $7.50 per student.

“The reason why I bring this

forward is that our budget’s tight; we haven’t raised [student fees] in about four years now,” Doyle explained, stating that the extra money would help fund clubs and associations, student grants and more SUS events like the recent Weeks of Welcome.

Overall, Doyle said, it would help “students get more out of SUS.” Although the motivation for the increase was apparent, less clear was the reason it would be proposed at the AGM; SUS bylaws state that a fee increase can be instituted either at an AGM or through a referendum.

Why, then, raise the issue at an AGM (which fewer than 100 students regularly attend) rather than going to referendum (in which every student would have a chance to vote)?

“The main reason it’s not going

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to referendum right now is because we have to vote as a board to bring things to referendum,” Stickland explained. “As a society right now, we are extremely divided on that.”

“Not all members of the board are necessarily for an increase,” Vidal clarified. “That discussion is up when the motion comes up next week.”

Shane Potter, who represents Chilliwack students as vice-president east, stated that he would prefer to see a potential fee increase put to referendum.

“Personally, I would prefer a referendum because it’s a more direct form of democracy, for me,” Potter explained. “But again, this is a very divided issue with our board.”

Vidal explained there is no technical difference between instituting a fee increase at an AGM

or through referendum.

“The decision to bring it to an AGM or a referendum is debatable, but either one is perfectly acceptable according to our bylaws and governing manual at this time,” Vidal said.

However, he noted, a fee increase voted on at an AGM would also have to be approved by UFV’s Board of Governors.

Stickland also mentioned that part of the need for a fee increase is due to inflation.

“If we don’t do a general fee increase once in a while, we tend to shrink and shrink and shrink until we become irrelevant,” he said.

Apart from a possible fee increase, Vidal briefly mentioned several other projects SUS will dive into over the next year. These projects include a possible referendum about SUS’ involvement with the student lobby group CASA, as well as a possible referendum concerning the coverage and price tag of the SUS-supplied student health and dental plan.

SUS will also continue working out the details of the Student Union Building.

These projects, among others, will be discussed at the AGM on September 26. The meeting is scheduled for 2:30 pm at AfterMath, and any student is welcome to attend and bring a motion to the table.

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then get yourself to Stream

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

NEWS

New VP students Jody Gordon tells it how it is karen aney THE CASCADE

Jody Gordon is our new vicepresident of students. She was hired over the summer, and comes to UFV after a long history of employment at both Simon Fraser University and Kwantlen Polytechnique University.

She has a Criminology BA and MA from SFU and joins an administrative team at UFV. Criminology to administration: that seems like an interesting switch. When you started your criminology degree, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I grew up in Ontario, and my counsellor in high school found me three criminology programs, which is what I was interested in pursuing. One of them happened to be out here at Simon Fraser, so I somehow convinced my family that I was moving to BC. I’ve certainly fallen in love with the province, and never left.

When I grew up, I was going to teach Criminology. That was my goal.

So how did you make the switch to your current role?

I fell into student affairs work as a student peer quite early. During my time [at SFU] I was a resident advisor in my third year and I was also a peer educational advisor helping first year students in arts. That’s where my career began: without realizing it, I became a very engaged student in university ... I began getting positions—not just peer positions anymore—I became a part-time manager of advising.

The neat thing for me when I left SFU is that I had the oppor-

Image: UFV/Flickr

tunity to combine both what I love—which is teaching Criminology—[with another career path]. For me that really worked.

members. They need to have a voice, and I need to listen. That’s a big part of what I need to do over this next couple of months.

What message do you think this sends to students struggling with employment options?

Study what you love. What I certainly encourage is be really involved and really engaged; these are things that culminate in learning moments. All of these things culminate in learning moments.

Tell me about some of the issues you think affect UFV students the most. What do you plan to do about them?

[One major issue is] the experience for a number of our students who don’t make it out of first year.

That can be [a result of] anything from financial issues to lack of engagement to lack of belongingness, lack of connection, to a program and not having a good understanding of what this is all about ... many of which don’t have anything to do with their academic standing.

So being able to keep up with the needs of our growing and vast student body, whether financially, direction around advising, with mental health issues on campus, facility services [etc].

So tell me what your area is here at UFV. What’s a day in the life of Jody Gordon look like?

When I’ve been asked how things are going, I go back to what a colleague of mine told me: it’s going to feel a little bit like your drinking from a fire hose.

I think he got it right, and that’s not a bad thing. I leave work with ideas and thoughts, I’m constantly trying to put it all together ... it can be exhausting ... I spend a lot of time in meetings but that’s an important part of going and listening to people.

I was in a meeting today with some Student Union Society

university life. It’s a gathering place not just for students, but faculty and staff . I have heard a little bit about [AfterMath’s] financial challenges. I wasn’t aware it was to that extent they’ve certainly put a business model in this year that they hope will benefit them.

They hope they will not be in the negative, but will produce some revenue for the Student Union Society.

It’s certainly a challenge. ... I’m interested in ways for them to be involved or engaged in other nights. Hosting a pep rally party, then having people head off to a basketball game is something they’d like to do.

Does that mean you support the return of regular pub nights?

There may be opportunities to see that in that capacity, and I hope I can liaise with them and look into that.

What are your thoughts on AfterMath? They ran a $159,000 budget deficit last year after budgeting zero dollars.

What I will say is that pubs are very much at the heart of some

Any other projects that you’d like to tell me about?

Yes! I’m working on what’s called a co-curricular record. This is a record of the extra-curricular activities you’ve done around campus and their learning outcomes: things like The Cascade, being part of a club, volunteering with SUS. So when a student graduates and leaves, they’ll leave with an academic record as well as a co-curricular record.

You can present both of those as you see fit to your potential employer down the road.

It’s been something I was pushing for at a previous institution.

When I arrived here, with our Student Life folks, it turned out we had some money aside that could be used to purchase the software but there wasn’t anybody giving the official yes.

Image: Reuters

Image: Reuters

Several strong universities are already doing this – Wilfred Laurier University, University of Calgary, [among others]. It’s definitely something—especially for a commuter institution—students can feel valued in what they do outside the classroom.

I noticed your Twitter handle is @jodyloveshockey. Are you active on Twitter?

I’d be happy for students to follow me and interact with me there. I do mainly UFV Athletics, and I talk about hockey—which isn’t very much right now—but what I’m looking for is for students to start to see this office in a way that is approachable ... it’s an opportunity for me to hear from them directly. They’re welcome to connect with me on Twitter.

Just for fun, let’s hear your thoughts on the lockout: how long will it last? What are you going to do to fill your time?

Well, given that this is the second lockout under [Gary] Bettman, my guess is that at least half the season is gone. I’m hopeful it’s not like 2004, but it’s frustrating to figure out that all of these people can’t come up with a plan to spread three billion dollars.

I’ve been a Canucks fan since I moved here ... maybe a half season will be one we can actually win!

I guess I’ll go to the AHL, and starting a new job I have lots of things I can fill my time with. I have other hobbies, but I miss the social aspect – that’s what I love, when you get together with people to watch the game.

This interview has been edited for length.

NEWS BRIEFS

Image: Flicker commons // Cindy Andrie

Image: public-domain-image.com

Image: Reuters

Tuition dependency rising in BC faster than other provinces

Five-year-olds put to the test as kindergarten exams gain steam

Canadian growth unfolding as forecast: Flaherty

Door for Israeli-Palestinian peace may be closing: U.N.

China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers

(CUP) Statistics Canada data shows that, in the past decade, tuition has come to account for 40.3 per cent of funding for B.C. universities, up from just over 25 per cent in 1999, according to the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ (CAUT) 2012-2013 Almanac of PostSecondary Education. This marks the largest increase in tuition dependency of any province in Canada during that timespan.

While B.C. is still the province with the fourth-lowest tuition in Canada, responsibility is increasingly being put on the student, rather than the government, to fund postsecondary education.

A national push to make public schools more rigorous and hold teachers more accountable has led to a vast expansion of testing in kindergarten. And more exams are on the way, including a test meant to determine whether 5-year-olds are on track to succeed in college and career.

Paul Weeks, a vice president at test developer ACT Inc., says he knows that particular assessment sounds a bit nutty, especially since many kindergarteners aspire to careers as superheroes. “What skills do you need for that, right? Flying is good. X-ray vision?” he said, laughing.

WHITBY, Ontario (Reuters) Canada’s economic growth is moderate but unfolding as forecast in the federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Thursday, adding that he would be flexible if the economy was hit with a shock from abroad.

“Right now we are seeing moderate economic growth in Canada, which is what was anticipated in the budget this year,” Flaherty told reporters in Whitby, Ontario.

(Reuters) - U.N. SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday the “door may be closing, for good” on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying the continued growth of Jewish settlements undercuts peace.

“The two-state solution is the only sustainable option.

Yet the door may be closing, for good,” Ban told the U.N. General Assembly. “The continued growth of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory seriously undermines efforts towards peace. We must break this dangerous impasse.”

(Reuters) - China sent its first aircraft carrier into formal service on Tuesday amid a tense maritime dispute with Japan in a show of force that could worry its neighbors.

China’s Ministry of Defense said the newly named Liaoning aircraft carrier would “raise the overall operational strength of the Chinese navy” and help Beijing to “effectively protect national sovereignty, security and development interests”.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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www.ufvcascade.ca

NEWS

Hay hoister turned literary mag jess wind

LOUDEN SINGLETREE It’s early on a Monday morning in September and just before your professor tells you to open to page 54 of Heart of Darkness, a group of students gathers at the front of your class. These are members of the editorial board for UFV’s literary and visual arts magazine.

Picture a book full of prose and poems, pictures and paintings, all conceived by members of the UFV family. Now working on its fifth annual publication, the Louden Singletree is accepting submissions from students, staff, faculty and alumni until December 17. But where did this magazine come from?

Andrea Macpherson, who has been with the magazine since its beginnings in 2008, said the magazine was always intended as an outlet for both students and faculty.

“Originally, John Carroll and I wanted to start a literary magazine, and envisioned it being run by the students,” Macpherson said. “It took a while. It has always been primarily concerned with showcasing our excellent student work and has grown to include faculty and staff and alumni. Even in the beginning, though, the appetite for the magazine has been clear, and each issue has grown, from size of the editorial board to the number and quality of submissions.”

First published in spring of 2009, the very first editorial board was comprised of a mere three members and a layout editor, all of them students. The first issue was 38 pages long, and was a brand new, unknown magazine on campus. Most contributors had two pieces published, and five faculty members had their words published to fill out the pages.

But as awareness of the publication grew on campus, faculty and staff have stepped aside and allowed the voice of UFV students to emerge.

By the second issue, the magazine grew to almost 75 pages, thanks in part to the addition of visual art. Including everything from sketches to photography, the September 2010 publication of-

What will happen to the old Chilliwack campus?

Image: UFV Flicker

nadine moedt THE CASCADE

Image:Cover art of the 2012 edition of Louden Singletree

fered a much broader sense of the creativity coming out of UFV. It wasn’t until the third issue hit the press in spring 2011 that the Louden Singletree emerged as we see it today.

Donning a new design layout for the cover, and returning to an editorial board of three students, the third issue saw more student involvement than ever before.

21 readers assisted in the selection of pieces by reading submissions and blindly voting on what should be included.

By the fourth issue, published in Spring 2012, students were no longer strangers to this creative showcase on campus. The 2011/2012 editorial board hosted the largest launch this magazine had seen at AfterMath this past April.

Eleah Turkstra, who was published in the first issue, reminisced about being selected. She described being chosen as “flattering” and the issue is something she’ll look back on if she ever gets

a novel published.

The question that remains, however, is the origin of the curiously unique name. A simple Google search shows a louden singletree as an old farming tool meant for hoisting hay. So how did it end up representing UFV’s creative voice?

“I know that they named it the Louden Singletree not just because it was a farm tool but because they like how it sounded,” Turskstra said. “‘The Loud and Single Tree’: a lone, solitary figure, shouting out its truths of the cosmos.”

The latest editorial board is already knee-deep in preparations for the fifth issue, which will be out next spring. If you are interested in shouting some truths of the cosmos, or just getting involved with this unique and diverse project, make sure to follow the Louden on Twitter and Facebook for more information, and submit your creative works

by December 17 to louden.singletree@ufv.ca.

Although many students may think primarily of the Abbotsford campus when it comes to UFV, the University has also been a large part of the community in Chilliwack for many years.

The main Chilliwack campus moved from the old location on Yale Road over the course of this summer, and UFV celebrated the opening of its newly renovated space at Canada Education Park (CEP) this past week with a barbeque, live music and prizes.

The new CEP building has many aspects to show off; UFV owns 85 acres of land adjacent to the picturesque Vedder River and Rotary Trail. The project cost $41 million for building renovation and refitting, with an additional $4 million set aside for campus transportation and infrastructure expansion.

Part of this cost was covered by funds from both provincial and federal government, and the remaining costs have been funded

by UFV through its capital plan.

A part of the funding involved in this plan anticipates the future sale of the old UFV Chilliwack campus on Yale Road.

The new campus has the potential for growth; UFV’s long term plan, according to the UFV website, includes the construction of “a dozen more buildings” using roughly half of the 85 acres UFV owns at CEP. But now that most of the UFV classes offered in Chilliwack have moved over to CEP, there is the question of what will become of the old Chilliwack campus.

According to Craig Toews, ex-

ecutive director of facilities and campus development, UFV is still in the process of selling the land and buildings UFV owns on Yale Road.

“The 27-acre site has three distinct uses – about eight acres of commercial/retail along Yale Road, about five acres of institutional building space, and about 14 acres of residential towards the rear,” said Toews.

However, it may be a while before the campus finds a buyer.

“The market is not ideal right now,” Toews admitted, “but there has been some interest in our property and we are continuing to work with the city to find the right fit for the site.”

And although the property is on the market, the old campus is not entirely abandoned just yet.

Though the once beautifully landscaped property has become a bit unkempt and a single security guard makes the rounds, there is still some life on campus. As the UFV Theatre department prepares for its opening production, Once in a Lifetime, actors and theatre students rehearse in the main performance theatre, preparing for the opening on November 9.

One of the reasons the theatre department has stayed at the Yale Road campus is that theatre space available at the new CEP campus simply does not have the capacity for a production of this size.

Toews stated that while UFV seeks funding for a new theatre facility, there’s no pressure on the theatre department to move.

“While we built a studio theatre at our new campus at CEP, we plan on retaining access to the performance theatre at [the Yale Road location] for five to seven years,” Toews explained.

Canada agrees to add asbestos to international list of hazardous materials ALEXEI SUMMERS THE CASCADE

In a move long-awaited by many, Canada Industry Minister Christian Paradis announced earlier this month that Canada will no longer oppose asbestos being added to a list of hazardous materials.

This move will effectively end the Quebec asbestos mining industry.

Until now, Quebec was the last remaining province to mine Canada’s supply of asbestos. Canada has been one of the largest exporters of the mineral for many years, and estimates have placed Canada as exporting approximately nine per cent of the world’s yearly yield of the mineral.

At the Rotterdam Conven-

tion in Geneva last year, Canada shocked UN delegates by announcing strong opposition to adding asbestos to an international list of hazardous materials being compiled.

Health Canada reports urged Canada to comply with the Rotterdam Convention, a multilateral treaty which requires an exporter to list possible negative health effects of its export. The object of this treaty is to promote open information between the seller and the buyer, so that the buyer may make an educated decision regarding the product. The government opposed this for many years.

“This government will not put Canadian industry in a position where it is discriminated against in a market where sale is permitted,” Prime Minister Stephen

Harper told media in the spring of 2010. He referred to the mining and export of asbestos, and made it clear that he did not intend to stand in the way of the production of the ore.

Asbestos has a long-documented history of causing cancer. Its needle-like fibres get caught in the lungs of those who breathe it, and while it is naturally occurring, it is harmful to those who work with it – despite the Canadian federal government’s protests to the contrary.

Asbestos use in Canada is legally restricted, but the export of the substance has until now been legal in the province of Quebec, which is the last province to mine the ore.

Third-world countries often purchase asbestos due to its inexpensive usefulness as an insula-

tor and fire retardant. These purchasing nations often choose to overlook its health effects, weighing its cost-effectiveness as more important.

The Canadian federal government aims to contribute $50 million to help asbestos communities in eastern Quebec transition into other industries.

An idea of what might happen to these communities based around asbestos mining in Quebec, an example of a worst-case scenario is found in the northern British Columbian town called Cassiar. What was once a promising community is now a ghost town; its buildings and community are largely abandoned.

The town was built around large asbestos deposits in 1952, predicted to have enough ore to last half a century. Fifty years

later, its population of 1500 residents has scattered to various nearby settlements – a result of the sudden closure of the mine in 1992. The mine shut down partially due to a lack of demand for asbestos, and partially due to unforeseen complications with the mine itself. Either way, the town of Cassiar stands as a warning to the Quebec towns who have been reluctant to give up asbestos.

While anti-asbestos activists in Quebec and the rest of the country are celebrating, many Canadians are left wondering what effect this will have on the economy, and how the asbestos mining communities in Quebec will survive now that the industry that their existence has always been based upon is gone.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

OPINION

Mandatory attendance? What am I, twelve?

DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE

It’s the first day of class. The professor stands at the front of the room, in front of a whiteboard or behind a podium, carefully explaining the rules of the class. No plagiarism (seems fairly obvious). No cellphones (trust me when I say you are the only one that wants to hear your Lady Gaga ringtone). Here are the due-dates. All assignments must be handed in. Let’s chat about how much your papers will be worth.

Let’s chat about your participation grade.

Participation?

Instantly I have visions of the ribbon I earned at some track meet at age 12, the colour verging on salmon, a gold stamp of some successful cartoon kid outlined in a circle.

I understand why professors think a participation grade is a vital addition to any syllabus; the idea

of talking at a mostly silent or distracted group of people for hours at a time is intimidating to say the least.

It sounds like a bad joke: how do you get 30 unwilling young adults to pay attention and contribute to discussion?

Well, you bribe them with 10 per cent of their grade. At least, that appears to be the universal solution. A portion of my grade in almost every class I’ve ever taken has been dedicated to participation.

But what does that even mean?

As vocabulary words go, “participation” is not exactly descriptive.

In order to earn your participation marks, should you to speak once per class? Twice per class? Pretend to know the answer to one out of every five queries directed your way?

Well, just like those vaguely-coloured ribbons I received at science fairs in my youth, the idea of assigning a mark to participation is juvenile And as my time at university drags itself further and further

along, I’m beginning to suspect that participation stands for something else: attendance. Some professors admit this outright in the first class of the year, and tell their students exactly how many classes they can miss before a chunk gets taken out of their final grade.

But hang on a second – marks for attendance? That can’t be true. All those glossy university viewbooks promised me that when I made the journey from high school to university that mandatory attendance would be left by the wayside.

I’ve been hearing for years that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. So why do we keep leading horses to water that clearly aren’t thirsty?

Look, it’s a simple answer. I’m tired of sitting in class with other people who don’t want to be there, or with people who speak up but clearly haven’t done their reading.

Can we please get rid of participation grades? Get rid of attendance

grades? Students who are interested and want to show up will take the time and effort to do so, without needing to be bribed with 10 per cent of their final grade. They’ll be earning that 10 per cent in other ways, and it’ll show on their final papers and exams.

I don’t want to take a chance on the fact that I might have one of those easily forgettable faces, and I’m sure you don’t want to lose out on a tenth of your grade when your professor mixes up Taylor with Tyler.

I’m an adult now. I don’t need a babysitter. I’m big enough to work hard and fight for my grades, rather than depend on some vague idea of participation. I’m grown-up enough to know when I should go to class.

I have a whole box of coloured ribbons that made me proud as a kid, but they have no place in a university setting, let alone on a syllabus.

Behold the monkey SASHA MOEDT

THE CASCADE

In other news: the old Spanish woman who botched a 18th century religious fresco painting in her efforts to restore it is demanding royalties from the church. Tourists—sorry, pilgrims—from all over the world are flocking to see what was once Ecce Homo – Behold the Man. Now it’s called Ecce Mono: Behold the Monkey.

Oh, what a twist. What was once a soulful looking Jesus Christ is now a round-faced blob that, yes, resembles monkey. An article in The Province called it an “amateur restoration.”

Amateur! This is like something out of Mr. Bean! It might even be more horrific than that. At least Mr. Bean didn’t desecrate a holy painting.

But, Mr. Bean pulled through in the end, didn’t he? That’s not the case for this lady. She wants what’s owed to her.

According to The Province, the church in Borja, Spain, has begun to charge a $10 entrance fee. The earning

Image: HO-Centro de Estudios Borjanos/Handout

in the first four days was $8000. Well!

And now Cecilia Gimenez, in her 80s, wants a cut for her efforts. Who wouldn’t?

Gimenez’s lawyer says she only wants the money for “charitable purposes.” Sure, and that’s what the church is probably saying, too. What are they thinking? Why would they put up a desecrated picture of Jesus?

I suppose they wouldn’t but for the

money.

Apparently people thrive off the oddities of religion. Miracles, visions, possessions by demons, whatever keeps you interested. I mean, religion can’t stay the same forever. Otherwise it wouldn’t be applicable! That’s what’s so great about this painting – it’s so relevant! Just as the likeness of Jesus Christ in the mold between your walls in the house or in your scone

is broadcasted as news around the world, this new restoration technique for the old priceless paintings is a sensation. It’s like it’s a symbol of humanity screwing around with religion and fucking up big time. Beautiful.

I could see something starting with this. A huge influx of tourists—pilgrims!—coming to see such an inspiring painting. Why not take a few more amateur liberties on some other worn out works? People get bored of the same old thing. But add some paint and maybe a bit of scandal, and perhaps the declining popularity of the Roman Catholic Church will begin to rise again.

Jesus in The Good Shepherd could use a bit of colour ... Maybe the Immaculate Heart of Mary could be added to, it’s a bit bare. I bet there’d be artists even better than Cecilia Gimenez that would paint for less. In fact, since we’re on the topic – I wonder if Mr. Bean is still around?

I tell ya, if we can recruit that old chap, the Pope will be as popular as the ones in the medieval times.

Five minutes is not long enough JESS WIND

CONTRIBUTOR It was months ago when I first sat down to hash out the new fall schedule. At first, it seemed like the usual dance: take this class, squeeze in that one. But soon something very concerning began to emerge.

Wading through the trenches of upper level waitlists is already daunting; add to that a five minute break between classes and the result is stress – lots of it. A five minute break is not new to the timetable, but this year it is affecting more than the brave students who try and fit as much education into the day as possible.

Consider, for a moment, what you accomplish during your cushy 10 minute trek between classes. Probably a bathroom break, a brief hello to a familiar face, and likely a pit stop at Tim Hortons. When asked if they noticed the squished schedule this year

in the traffic they serve, the response was less than positive. With a scoff I was informed by the Tims cashier that there is more pressure for students to make it to class on time, and they notice it in their numbers.

Some professors are accommodating, allowing students to leave class early or begin a little later. But, as English faculty member Andrea MacPherson confirmed, it’s problematic, and students are having trouble focusing as the clock approaches that tiny window.

It isn’t so much of a problem for some lucky students that have their back-to-back classes in the same room, but what about, for example, the unfortunate group that can be seen making their way across the green at about 3:10 p.m. from the top floor of A building over to C building?

Never mind a bathroom break or an afternoon snack; they are just shy of running to make it to their next class on time.

It is not bad luck or bad planning that has these students running; for the most part, they are dashing to highly-sought-after courses that make or break one’s ability to graduate on time. So these students—and there are many of us—are staring at the clock, willing our profs to wrap up lecture, and ultimately compromising our full opportunity for success in these coveted courses.

It is far too easy to miss that last minute announcement at the end of a lecture when you are staring daggers at the minute hand of the clock above your professor’s head. Then you make it to your next class after bowling over three people on the way and rudely letting the door close on everyone behind you in order to save valuable seconds.

You get to class and sit down, out of breath, only to realize that the emptiness of your water bottle is directly related to the fullness of your bladder, but the professor has already closed

the door and begun lecture.

So, then you wait. You fidget, you wiggle, you change position 16 times, and again, you’re staring at the clock instead of paying attention, waiting for break.

Sure you could just get up and go, you’re an adult after all, but then you’re that person that everyone watches as you leave, and everyone watches as you come back; you are a disruption. Had you had an extra few minutes before the start of class, none of this would have been a problem, but of course, you didn’t.

So, why are these classes so squished together? Does it come back to the overcapacity conversation; an attempt to save time and fit in more courses? Whatever the reason, it is ultimately the students that lose in the end. But until these coveted courses overlap entirely, we will keep running across the green.

Should royals be allowed in the army?

ALEXEI SUMMERS THE CASCADE

On September 14, 2012, insurgents wearing US Army uniforms stormed a joint US-British army compound in Afghanistan. According to CNN, two US servicemen died in the raid, as well as 14 of the 15 insurgents. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, declaring it the result of a controversial anti-Islam film that sparked rage with Muslims in the Islamic Middle East.

The camp, known as Camp Bastion, was the reported whereabouts of the United Kingdom’s Prince Harry, Grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, and third in line to the British throne. According to the Taliban’s statement, he was their real target in the raid.

Prince Harry, who was a mile-anda-half away during the attack, was immediately put under lockdown during the raid, and was protected.

According to NATO’s International Security Assistance’s spokesman, Major Martin Crighton, he was “in no way of danger.”

The prince had only been in Afghanistan since Friday, having just begun a tour as an Apache helicopter pilot after 18-months of training. The British forces have not lost any of their Apache helicopters in their time in Afghanistan, and the risk level for Harry has been commented on as being low.

Britain has plans to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014. At the current time their objective is to train Afghan forces in defending their own country from terrorist forces.

While the prince being in the army may be seen as admirable, and positive for the morale of the troops, it can also be seen as irrevocably irresponsible. The fact that that the war in Afghanistan is largely a guerilla war, and a religious one at that, where combatants often appear as regular civilians, it is unlike wars of the past.

If compared to other wars, it can perhaps best be compared to the Vietnam War, where the Americans fought the Viet Cong in hopes of toppling communism in Asia. The American forces were constantly caught unaware, and were unsure who their enemy was, as they were often pitted against poor farmers with rifles hiding in the jungle.

Prince Harry’s presence in Afghanistan drew attention to this encampment, and though the raid’s initial goal was unsuccessful, two American soldiers are dead because inside information regarding the prince’s location on the evening of September 14 was given to the enemy. Further attacks like this could be prevented by removing Harry from the warzone.

My own concern lies not with the prince, but with those who are designated to protect, and babysit him.

The prince’s presence in the war is largely a morale booster for troops, and although he does play an active role by piloting his helicopter, perhaps his role is hurting rather than helping, and perhaps his absence from the conflict could save lives.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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OPINION

Spanking should be illegal SASHA MOEDT

THE CASCADE

Remember one of the worst things you’ve ever done as a child – and gotten caught doing. Did your parents hit you?

It sounds odd to say aloud. Imagine, the ones you most trust and depend on, especially as a child, hitting you!

I believe children experience corporal punishment differently. This is because, in my mind, there are two types of spanking, and the difference between them is huge.

For me, the worst thing I can remember was getting into the medicinal cupboard and popping Tums and vitamin C chewables like candy.

When my Mum caught me standing on the stool with a mouthful of citrus-flavoured vitamin C, she told me to get down and spit it out, in her angry-mum way. I deposited a mushy orange gob into the sink. She told me to come here. I trudged over.

She lectured me, and spanked me.

It wasn’t a hard spank, and it was more the symbolism of the act that mattered. I was being punished. I was told to go to my room.

But I can imagine another way of it happening. Imagine, instead of an angry but calm parent, a parent who loses control in their anger; a parent that lashes out and spanks without warning. If my mother had yanked me down from that stool, and spanked me in anger, it would have been different. It would have been frightening.

A child whose parents lash out in physical violence would surely lose that solid foundation of safety parents provide. They shouldn’t be scared of their own mother or father.

A study published in a Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) in early September has suggested that spanking should be made illegal.

In Canada, section 43 of the Crim-

inal Code allows parents to hit a child to punish them. And, according to CMAJ, 50 per cent of parents still hit their toddlers.

The author, Dr. John Fletcher, moves past the ‘is it morally right or wrong’ question, and asks: “is the physical punishment of children effective?”

The quick answer is no.

“The physical punishment of children is associated with increased levels of child aggression and is no better at eliciting compliance than other methods,” Fletcher writes. He continues to say that physical punishment is also linked to various behavioral issues later in life, including depression and anxiety.

Going back to the mouthful of vitamin C, I hardly remembered the spanking. The spanking isn’t what taught me the lesson, it was my mum’s lecture, and my quiet time in my bedroom. I didn’t need it – no child does.

If you think about it, you’d think that a good smack should teach a child right and wrong without a doubt, right?

But there’s always more to it.

What if you’re wrong? Parents make mistakes. What if the child’s excuse was true? What if, 10 years later, you realize that a boy putting on makeup is okay? Or your daughter was

scared of the dark, and that’s why she smashed the lamp – to get your attention, not wanting to admit she was still afraid? And you—the parent, their guardian, their protector— come into the room and hit him or her. There is no creature so sensitive to injustice like the child.

Dr. Fletcher writes that “While section 43 stands, it is a constant excuse for parents to cling to an ineffective method of child discipline when better approaches are available.”

There are better methods. You could probably complete a BA in raising children with all the research and studies done on the matter. Parenting books and classes are extremely popular right now. Why do we still fall back on hitting our children? We shouldn’t rely on mimicking our own parent’s techniques, because they aren’t always right.

Fletcher writes that parenting programs should be offered widely, across Canada. “Parenting programs have been successful at teaching positive parenting techniques and improving behavior of children.

Given that a large proportion of the population needs to be taught, education will need to reach beyond just families with overt problems.”

There are too many ways to go wrong clinging to a method that has been proven ineffective. Parents don’t want to hit their children.

But they also don’t want to admit to themselves that they are and were wrong, and openly realize that they hurt their child.

Corporeal punishment is ineffective as a form of parenting. It hurts children in the short and long run. It damages significant child-parent relationships. We need to move past it.

It’s both the parents and the law that needs to change. It’s time to stop making excuses for corporal punishment.

The Cascade is now hiring an Opinion Editor Terms of contract: September 2012 to August 2013 Pay: $100 per issue honorarium Job Summary: The Opinion Editor of the Cascade is responsible for assigning, collecting, editing and laying out the content of the Opinion section of the Cascade. The Opinion Editor shall ensure that issues relevant to students are presented in his/her section, and allow for a diversity of opinions to be expressed on a range of topics. At all times, the Opinion Editor shall adhere to the Cascade Journalism Society’s bylaws, Code of Conduct and other polices, as well as ensuring that all material in his/her section does not violate the Canadian University Press Code of Ethics.

Duties and Responsibilities: 1) Ensure that matters of interest to UFV students are covered in the opinion section.

2) Assign, collect, edit, and lay out articles for the opinion section of the Cascade.

3) Request and select appropriate images for the opinion section in consultation with any graphics and/or photo editors, the Production Manager, and the Editor-in-Chief.

4) Lay out the Opinion Section of each issue, ensuring that it adheres to the Cascade style guide 5) Hold at least one writing workshops per semester for the purpose of training.

6) Update the Opinion Training Manual as necessary, to ensure that contacts, issues, &c. are shared with successors.

7) Write a minimum of one article for the opinion section per week.

8) Along with the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor, solicit volunteers to generate story and feature ideas to be covered in depth in the Features section.

9) Must work 5 hours per publishing week in the Cascade’s office.

10) Perform other duties as required by the Editor-in-chief.

11) Attend all writers’, editorial board and lay out meetings.

Qualifications: 1) Must be a member in good standing of the Cascade Journalism Society.

2) Must be registered in at least one credit course during the fall/winter semesters.

3) Must be available to work varying hours.

4) Must be available to be present in the office for at least 5 hours per week.

5) Must be able to deal effectively with Society and university staff, students and the general public.

6) Must demonstrate strong command of the English language by passing an editing test, which will be administered during the interview process.

7) Basic literacy is required 8) Must have knowledge of all relevant laws and journalistic standards concerning libel.

Send cover letter, resume, and sample article to nick@ufvcascade.ca

Letters to the Editor Herman Nilsson’s call for truth and accountability sounded pretty good to me, so I eagerly looked forward to some new facts that he might present.

Unfortunately facts can be hard to come by if one is forced to rely on the petroleum industry.

Mr. Nilsson mentions that the Trans Mountain Pipeline has carried bitumen for years. This is the same claim that Kinder Morgan has been making. Many residents have asked them to tell us when, and how much bitumen has been transported on that line. Was it shipped five times, twenty, or continuously? We don’t know.

Without a knowledge of throughput, this information is meaningless. PIPE UP has been told that they are shipping it now, and the company says about one third of its product is now bitumen.

More information on this would be helpful. When did Kinder Morgan get approval to ship bitumen? Why is there no record of NEB approval?

Could this be related to their strong assertions that there is no difference between bitumen and conventional crude?

Is diluted bitumen just another kind of crude oil? As a petroleum product, of course it has many similarities to other forms of petroleum.

However, according to the grading scheme used by the National Energy Board, bitumen itself is classed as “extra heavy crude” and when diluted, it

is “heavy crude.” It is one of a very few petroleum products in that category.

What does this mean to residents who live near a pipeline? The inquiry into the Michigan tar sands spill referred to by Nadine Moedt found that this made a huge difference. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board report found that, once the diluents had off-gassed, the bitumen went back to its semi-solid state and sank to the bottom of the river. Two hundred acres of river bottom were covered with the tar, which greatly complicated the clean up.

Lighter forms of crude oil can be skimmed off the surface. Not so with bitumen once it sinks. It took over two years and $800 million to “clean” it up (i.e., get most of the tarry gunk out of the watercourse). The ecosystem remains degraded, however, and the local economy is still recovering.

In his comments, Mr. Nilsson repeats Kinder Morgan’s claim that their safety record is good. Is it? There have been nine spills on that pipeline in 10 years, of which four (all on Kinder Morgan’s watch) have been major.

One of these, the spill in Burnaby in 2007, caused homes to be evacuated and cost $15 million to remediate.

The company was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars in that case. As far as we know, Kinder Morgan has not yet had a spill of bitumen. We, at least, have that to be thankful for!

Mr. Nilsson points out that we do

need petroleum. Many of us drive cars, after all, and use a variety of petroleum products. I agree. We will, of course, be using petroleum products for the indefinite future. However, can we afford to extract bitumen in such quantities now? Should we be exporting it? What are the alternatives to tar sands. These are the questions readers may want to hear more discussion on.

Michael Hale member of the PIPE UP Network Website: http://pipe-up.net/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/ stoptheflow I would have to say the main reason for commenting on this opinion article is too agree with Ms. Moedt. (I do believe that the name Nadine is a female name; please correct me if I am wrong.)

I myself have been keeping up with current information with the Northern Gateway Pipeline, with all the available information that the Enderbridge Company is giving my answer is still strongly, NO! I have just recently reviewed a video that is posted on The Northern Gateway website; the primary engineer is discussing “Route Safety.” I was shocked when I was watching and listening this man explain the various hazards and

preventative measures him and his colleagues are aware of and trying to prevent.

In the case of an earth quake he is not worried because the earthquake zone is only 12 per cent compared to Vancouver and the Fraser Valley with an earthquake zone of 43 per cent. No big deal, according to him.

He explains that the big issue is landslides they have the ability to cause large ruptures, most likely to happen in Alberta. To avoid this problem they are routing the pipe on the Smoky River, just an area with a sensitive habitat. No big.

I do have to applaud the man for realizing that there is a risk and I quote “There is a risk, and there has to be some impact.” The impact he says is “At the very least remove some trees. Build a grade.”

I am pretty sure that they are going to disturb a little more than some trees and earth. Many of the areas that this pipeline will lay have endangered species of vegetation and animals. The Great Blue Heron, Wood Bison, Mountain Caribou and the Common PitcherPlant are just very small example of endangered species that live in this path.

“Balance this risk with the benefit we get to society, and that the balance is very much on the positive side for the project”, this

is how he ended his explanation, this clearly demonstrates they do not care about the impact on the environment and there focus is revenue! There is no care of what gets disturbed or hurt in the process; the care is about the NOW and the almighty dollar. Mr. Nillson you should be focusing your efforts for ensuring a safe future for our family and friends! I highly doubt that the reason for unstable third world countries such as India, Syria, China … are not at the same level is because of tradition and not willing to evolve. Surely not because of gas or oil.

The best medicine is prevention! Do not misunderstand me, I do understand that this so called project could bring upon many short and long term jobs, but look at the risks. They are much too great for something so short term.

We should be focusing our efforts on preserving and living equally with Nature, not putting a pipe through it.

Marco Webber www.northerngateway.ca/project-details/route-safety/ www.lastplaceonearth.ca/ www.theglobeandmail.com/ news/politics/fight-against-northern-gateway-pipeline-gains-starpower/article4556031/

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

ARTS & LIFE

CROSSWORD

The greats 1

2

3

4

5 6

8

9

ANTHONY BIONDI THe cascade

ACROSS

4. Abbreviation for what used to be known as the Great War. (3 letters) 5. The loving home of the Great Barrier Reef. (9 letters) 8. Richard Attenborough has to escape a WWII German POW camp in

this movie. (3, 5, 6 letters) 11. The month the stock markets crashed, marking the beginning of The

Great Depression. (7 letters) 12. That island with that BIG important monarchy. (5, 7 letters)

7

DOWN 10

11

1. The hero of The Land Before Time, who had to migrate to The Great

Valley. (10 letters) 2. An F. Scott Fitzgerald book to movie adaption starring Leo Decaprio.

(5, 6 letters) 3. Doc Brown’s favorite saying. (5, 5 letters) 6. The ancient conquerer known as _________ the Great. (9 letters) 7. A great lake with a weird sounding name. (4 letters) 9. A big ol’ trench coat. (5, 4 letters) 10. A barred covering for a grate or service area. (5 letters)

LAST WEEK’S Answer Key Across 2. Lamb Chop 6. Subtle 9. Limbs 10. Crumb 11. Tomb Raider 13. Sex Bob-omb

Down 1. Thumb 3. Aplomb 4. Combover 5. Plumber 7. Succumb 8. Debt 12. Doubt

12 EclipseCrossword.com

Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18

The Weekly Horoscope Star Signs from Swamp Bob Gemini: May 21 - June 21

Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22

The muses of fashionable hairdos foresee a blissful week for you, filled with puppies, ice cream sundaes and Zen gardens …

Unless your birthday falls on the 13th of June in which case you will be set upon by a plate of indignant scrambled eggs.

Jupiter wisely advises that any emptiness in your life can be rectified when you discover the satisfying new hobby of bathroom stall graffiti editor.

Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20

Cancer: June 22 - July 22

Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21

Mercury and Mars both agree that even though they foresee misfortune involving yourself, a staple remover and a banana, they also concur that you should not always believe what you read in the paper.

Neptune recommends impressing friends, family and potential new employers by taking up the time-honoured tradition of ferret legging.

Uranus understands that something called a “midterm” is on the horizon for you and suggests that you track down the smartest person in your class and attempt a Vulcan mind meld. If all else fails, rock a lab coat and pocket protector.

Aries: March 21 - April 19

Leo: July 23 - Aug 22

While at the hair salon, Venus overhears that you will develop a crippling addiction to smoothies. She foresees that next you will find yourself in a hippy commune tending to your wheatgrass fields with your life partner River and your two children, Dances with Spring Blossom and Lenny Kravitz, Jr.

Pluto remarks that, if not eternal happiness, then at least present satisfaction is within your grasp when you throw your drink at the next person who asks if you have seen the new “Gangnam Style” music video.

Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21

Io mentions that the squirrels near your house are considering world domination (starting with your block) unless their demands are met: a more aggressive federal plan for ecological reform, a better selection of local nut and berry tree’s and a performance by French artist, YELLE.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20

After listening to “Sweet Nothing” on repeat for seventy two hours Mercury suggests that to make new friends, you should attend more raves dressed as the Easter Bunny and hand out Melba Toast.

Virgo: Aug 23 - Sept 22 Saturn reminds you that although diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, not using the Jersey Shore as dating or life role models can also be beneficial to one’s love life.

On your next outing to the mall, you will find yourself in the middle of a wellchoreographed song and dance number as two lovers try to reconcile their differences. Mars suggests just going with it and trying not to lose the beat.

Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19 Ares recommends pulling back on your desire to be on the cutting edge of fashion lest you undergo an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction as your haute couture jumpsuit made out of luncheon meat and tinfoil gains the attention of local magpies.

Visit us at www.monktucky.com!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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ARTS & LIFE

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

FEATURE

LFL: She talks to Angels KAREN ANEY THe cascade Tell me about your life – growing up, and what it’s like now.

I moved here from Ontario when I was 12 with my parents. We moved to Maple Ridge, and I did a couple years at Garibaldi and then after I moved to Terry Fox in Port Coquitlam. I graduated early and started working in tons of different things. When I was 19, I moved to Europe to be a nanny. When I came back, I started my business degree at Simon Fraser University. When I finished my degree, I decided to start a company – it’s a local tech company. After six years of doing that, I recently purchased another one—Brag Company—what we do is luxury bra bags and panty packs for travel. We just finished ... one called Hope, and all the proceeds go to breast cancer research, so I’m really excited about that.

I’m also a single mom. I have a five-year-old daughter, named Ciara. She’ll come out to practices and help out. She’s right involved – she loves it! The other day, she said “Mom, I’m going to put my cleats on so I can help out at practice”… she plays soccer, tennis, gymnastics ... lots.

Tell me more about your life outside of the Angels.

What’s your day-to-day like?

Jeanette Jackson is a tight-end guard on the BC Angels – Abbotsford’s illustrious lingerie football team. She chatted with us about her life on and off the field. marathons. Every two years, I pick a new sport and go hard at it. Two years ago was tennis, and I actually ended up competing at the Stanley Park open.

What were the tryouts like?

How many people were there – did you feel intimidated at all?

I think for the first tryout there were 75-100 people there. The second was about the same. I didn’t feel intimidated – for me, I’m one of the older players, and so you’re comparing yourself to these young pups who have never had a kid ... it’s a different lifestyle.

Speaking of lifestyle – what’s your training schedule like?

We train with the team three days a week. I train at least another three days a week at the gym or trail running or whatever it is.

I also coach my daughter’s soccer team, and so I really take that time to run around as much as possible and keep my cardio up.

“Men

Image:Joe Petro/ LFL photographer

have been playing since they’ve been five, whereas we have six months to become NFL players.

[The Angels and my work] are the main thing.

Other than that, it’s a balance of working out and living a very healthy lifestyle – and travel. I’ve already been married and done all that, so I’m in retirement mode.

Take it easy, relax and find a nice guy.

Has your involvement in the team helped with that at all? You must meet plenty of guys that would be interested!

[Laughs] It’s not really the right crowd.

Fair enough. So how did you hear about try outs?

For the last year, I’ve been playing flag football in the A division.

There was talk of an LFL [Lingerie Football League] team coming to Vancouver, and I kind of got along with all the teams – so certain girls from each team, you could see which ones would be interested in trying out. We talked about it, and a girlfriend of mine sent me a link last fall just saying hey it’s coming, watch out for tryouts in May. What made you decide to try out?

Kind of for me, it’ll be my last opportunity to play in a competitive level in this type of sport ... as opposed to running, running

”

Is there any sort of team mandate that dictates how much physical training you’re doing outside of team practices?

There isn’t, no – but you’ll know if you’re not doing that stuff out of practice. It will really show, because you won’t be able to keep up with the rest of the team during drills and stuff.

Are there any requirements on the players outside of fitness? I’m thinking along the lines of beauty – are you required to have your hair done and makeup on at all times?

I think once people get to the field, in the audience, they’ll see that it’s solid football. But there’s a lot of prep work – there’s photos and video clips and things like that, so we want to represent the team and both aspects of brawn and beauty. So we all work together to come in early and do hair and makeup and all that stuff. They say to come done up.

Has anyone ever been told they weren’t “done up” enough – sent back to the locker room to fix their hair or add more makeup?

No, nothing like that. We take a lot of pride in ourselves, and we

get a lot of flexibility. But with the league being so new here, it may become a priority in the future.

Your team’s record currently sits at 1-1. How do you feel going into this week’s (September 29) game?

Any response to the press that surrounds you guys? Lots of it is negative, but there’s lots of focus on objectifying you as well. What are your thoughts on that?

I get a kick out of it. Instead of talking, go out and buy a $12 ticket. Show up at the game. It is one of the best nights of your life. If people came and were not sure, they are now – we expect to see them and many more people back. It’s a great show and it’s amazing athleticism. We’re there to play hard.

income to the team based on sales, but really it just covers basic expenses. We don’t get paid. We invest a lot of time and resources to make sure we’re representing as best we can, so eventually we’ll see compensation.

If ticket sales increase, will you see more compensation? Is that how your contracts work?

I would say that we definitely have a renewed focus, and we are It’s possible. If we sell more tickrevisiting what made us successets, we may see something over ful in the first game. Focusing on and above our basic expenses ... that one play at a time, and it’s more next year, as the really smart playing. We’re a league continues to build in smart football team, so if we the U.S. They want to build focus on that and do our job I got a really good kickoff it into an NFL-type league, as a team we should be sucso to get that type of comreturn, and the girl that came mitment you’ll need to [be cessful. to tackle me got a bit of a con- compensated].

Do you find your team— cussion. That was an awakas it’s women—is more cereTell me some of your bral than a men’s team? favourite game-time moening – ‘we’re actually play- ments – as a team, and as a Initially what I’ve seen is player individually. ing tackle football here! that depending on your role on the team, it’s some peoThe first game ... I played ple’s job not to think – just to do really safe, but ... I got a really their task. Other positions, there’s How close is your team outside good kickoff return, and the girl more thought that has to go into of your games and practices? that came to tackle me got a bit of it. If you’re the mid linebacker, a concussion. That was an awakyou gotta watch where that centre We have a lot of respect for each ening – “we’re actually playing is going, or where their running other. We all play a different role tackle football here!” In the second back’s going. You gotta be more on the team – in addition to pro- game, I felt a little bit more comthought-oriented. Compared to mo events, we have nights where fortable and willing to take some men ... I can see a shift over the last we watch footage and get ready risks. I was able to take a breath two games, because we are becom- together and talk about things. and see the field better – it made ing more familiar with the brain If somebody needs to be picked me stronger in that position. behind the game. Men have been up, we do that – we don’t rely playing since they’ve been five, on friends and family (though of whereas we have six months to course they help out as well). We become NFL players. It’s mental. take care of each other.

And physically, to be up to speed on that level quickly – especially You have a job to do for sure – with the U.S. girls on all the teams, so do you get paid, then? they’ve been playing for a couple years longer than us.

Well, it’s a grass roots league in Image:Used with permission Canada. Right now, there is some

“

”

Jeannete Jackson

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

11

FEATURE You mentioned feeling that your team represents a mix of brawn and beauty. Do you think the lingerie helps that?

all about and support another local amateur sport. We’d like to see it go to the next level. All of us are on Facebook, and we’re here to answer any questions. We come from all walks of life, bartenders and business owners, wives and single moms ... all of us are here to work hard and play hard. You’d be surprised at how unique we are. Come watch – it’s the best $12 you’ll ever spend.

I don’t really look at the outfits as lingerie. If you really wanted that, you could almost be skimpier and more flattering. They’re one-size fits all booty shorts that cover more than a volleyball player does. Then you have all the padding and socks and stuff ... the top athletes should be playing the sport ... when you are active and fit, you look good because you feel good. As long as it comes across [that’s what matters].

None of us are overdone. There’s a bit of makeup and stuff, but we’re all pretty natural. Natural athletic beauties, I think. The athleticism and beauty enhance each other.

plants. Do you? Have you heard any negative experiences from girls who play with them?

Looking at the league website, it looks like some of the girls across the league have breast im-

Well, I personally don’t have any.

My biggest thing is, “do I put cutlets in?” – I just leave it. It’s safter

Image:Joe Petro/ LFL photographer

that way. We put on nipple covers, and away we go. None of the girls have brought it up in terms of how they feel or the risks involved there – I haven’t heard any stories across the league, which is good because it’s such an investment.

Any last comments you’d like to get out?

I would say for anyone who’s skeptical, take a chance and come out to our game. See what we’re

Tickets for the September 29 game between the Abbotsford Angels and the Toronto Triumph range between $12-78 ($10 for students with I.D.) and can be purchased on the website (lflcanada.com ) or by calling 1-866-977AESC (2372).

This interview has been edited for length.

Conversation with an almost-Angel Annie (name has been changed) is a 27-year-old who tried out for the Angels. She was asked to come back to the second round of tryouts, but decided to decline the invitation. She spoke with us to share what led her to that decision.

Tell me about your background, athletic and otherwise.

The protests made you more interested in playing?

And what was the tryout itself like?

I’ve played rugby for a long time, since I was 16. I’ve been involved in dance since I was five.

I’m pretty athletic, my body and fitness is important to me.

Haha – no, not necessarily, but it made me more aware of it. I kind of felt like, hey, why are they protesting it? There’s nothing wrong with wanting to play football if you’re a girl, and who cares if it’s in lingerie?

Pretty standard. There were girls there that were definitely just models – girls who cared about looking good. They didn’t have athletic experience. It was weird for me, because playing rugby you’re used to ... going hard, all the time. It was weird that some of them didn’t

What do you do to stay in shape right now?

I take a class that’s a mix of pilates and cardio. I’m also playing rugby, so that takes up a lot of time.

How did you hear about the tryouts?

Well, I knew the team was going to be happening. I lived in Abbotsford last year, so I saw a lot [in the papers] about the team, protesting it and stuff.

So how was the first tryout?

ing?

I guess that was part of it. It didn’t feel like a secure environment for me. At rugby, if you have mud all over yourself and you haven’t brushed your hair in a week and you forgot your socks, that’s okay. The most my team would do is lend you socks and point out if you have a stick in your ponytail. I felt like these girls would judge me if I wasn’t ... looking my would best, all the time.

“

I felt like these girls It was okay. I was kind of put off, because we were judge me if I wasn’t ... looktold to look cute, to wear That’s why you decided ing my best, all the time. not to go back? Any other cute gym clothes. I’m not reasons? used to being told how to look when I’m training – I That’s mostly the reason. It was mean, with dance and stuff, you seem to care ... why were they partially because I didn’t want to always try to look nice but there there? are days that you just don’t care, be looked at for the fact that I was wearing lingerie. It’s like, I’m an you know?

Is that what put you off play- athlete, deal with it ... what else

”

should fans need?

How do you feel about the girls selected for the team? Do you remember them from tryouts?

Maybe a couple. I don’t have specific memories of any of them.

I remember one girl who didn’t make the team, she asked me where I got my shorts with that look on her face – you know? The one that’s like, “why are you so cheap?” But I don’t want to wear expensive stuff if it’s going to get wrecked.

When you hear about the team now, how does it make you feel?

I don’t feel much of anything. If those girls want to play, it’s their thing. I’ll focus on rugby, and my own health. That’s what matters to me. I wish them the best of luck.

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SCAN FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN! Image:Joe Petro/ LFL photographer

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ARTS & LIFE

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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13

ARTS & LIFE

Dine & Dash Cookies Grill

The Bartender

Blue Hawaiian

Image:Brad Stuart/urbanspoon.com

Unit A-3 44335 Yale Road West Chilliwack, BC V2R 4H2 Hours: Monday to Saturday 5:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Sundays & Holidays 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Price range: $7 to $12

NICK UBELS

THE CASCADE

Saturday afternoon in Chilliwack, in a non-descript warehouse and industrial district, three friends walk into an unassuming little restaurant tucked away under the awning of M.Y. Mini Storage. Surprisingly, the place is nearly full of customers seated in fold-up tables and chairs scattered across the rectangular dining area that backs onto an open cutlery, coffee and condiment counter with a window to the kitchen. We seat ourselves at one of the few open tables near the middle of the room and flip over our coffee cups, the universal signal to fill ‘er up.

“So what’ll you kids have today?” asks the waitress.

Cookies Grill is a bustling truck stop diner just off highway one, replete with all day breakfast, salt

of the earth clientele and an ambiance that favours practicality over style or luxury. Far from a fine dining experience, Cookies does offer a wide variety of quality breakfast and lunch dishes in a large foldout menu. I was already overwhelmed by possible selections before my friend pointed out that I had forgotten to fold out an additional two pages of lunch choices. I almost fell out of my chair.

In addition to almost every imaginable breakfast item, Cookies boasts a formidable lunch menu that includes wraps, burgers, sandwiches, shepherd’s pie, and perogies among other plates.

Rather than run screaming from the restaurant at the debilitating prospect of having to choose from such an impressive range of possibilities, I trusted my instincts as a staunch breakfast enthusiast in an all-day breakfast joint. I opted for one of the daily specials: the triplecheese omelet. The omelet arrived accompanied by two strips of bacon, shredded hash browns and sour dough toast, the latter two being my choices from a variety of sides.

The plate wasn’t spectacular or groundbreaking—some of the grated cheese that garnished the top of the omelet remained unmelted and the bacon was fairly unremarkable—but it was a satis-

fying, home-style meal that staid my hunger until well-past the dinner hour. Cookies doesn’t aim to wow anyone, but its reliably good, hearty dishes and casual atmosphere lend it an undeniable, modest charm. It specializes in comfort food, yet it manages to avoid the collateral messiness that seems to plague every other greasy spoon by maintaining a spotless dining environment. The downside of this is a relatively spartan decor. Sorely missing are the fascinating antique store oddities that often litter the walls of the best diners, traded in for mocha shaded walls. That said, Cookies seems content to let its food speak for itself.

The service is conversational, dependable and down-to-earth.

And as a bonus, coffee is complementary with any of their regular breakfast dishes, meaning no surprises when the bill comes around, unless you want a good surprise of a U-Pass discount.

Cookies is the perfect way to start an early day, end a long night or catch a satisfying home-cooked lunch to help power through a big afternoon study session. Be sure to keep the coffee flowing, though, to ensure best intentions aren’t thwarted by an unavoidable postmeal nap.

The Cascade Cookbook Cristina Ugalde’s “The Sangria Spectrum”

Cristina Ugalde is currently teaching Spanish at the University of the Fraser Valley with a master’s degree in Latin American Literature. She likes traveling to different countries and learning more about different cultures. During her spare time she enjoys having company at home and drinking a good wine.

Pineapple-Orange Sangria Ingredients:

Directions:

1 750-ml bottle dry Riesling 6 fl. oz. (3/4 cup) peach vodka 6 fl. oz. (3/4 cup) canned pineapple juice ½ cup agave nectar, light or amber 1 small navel orange, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced 1 cup bite-size pieces fresh pineapple Club soda

In a 2 ½ -to-3-quart pitcher, stir the wine, vodka, pineapple juice and agave nectar until well mixed.

Add the fruit and then refrigerate for at least 24 hours.

Serve over ice, garnished with the fruit.

Top of each glass with a splash of club soda.

Salud!

Image: UFV.ca

In 1961, Hawaii was a lot less blue for the King as long as he had rum, vodka and the ladies.

3/4 oz light rum 3/4 oz vodka 1/2 oz blue curacao 3 oz pineapple juice 1 oz sweet and sour mix Mix: Stir with ice (or blend) Glass: Hurricane glass Garnish: Orange/ pineapple slice, maraschino cherry

Haute Stuff An autumnal shoe dilemma solved AMY VAN VEEN

THE CASCADE

Welcome, fall.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen you. Your friend summer is staying a little too long and making morning wardrobe decisions a disaster. After all, September should be the quintessential time for scarves, blazers and boots to start filling the sidewalks instead of flip flops, short shorts and flowy tops.

It’s not that it’s the biggest deal in the world to adjust my ensemble throughout the day, especially because, for the most part, I can.

Capris or leggings act as an appropriate stepping stone from shorts to pants; and sweaters are fairly easy to layer on and off, but what about my feet? My poor feet constantly being confused as to what’s going on – sandals means being too chilled out in the morning to enjoy being free in the afternoon and boots may feel comfortable before the day starts but begin to sweat the longer the unabashed sun beats down. What’s a girl to do when stuck in the dilemma of the changing season?

Well, fall, you haven’t gotten the best of me yet.

The answer? Oxfords.

I’m not saying there aren’t other fall shoes to be found. Certainly ballet flats have that timeless thing going for them and loafers are the latest trend to steal from old men, but oxfords have a certain distinguishable charm to them.

And while some loafers, from a distance, may just look like ballet flats, Oxfords? they get people’s attention.

From the naysayers, the attention may be negative. Some people may try to say they’re nurse’s

Image: Amy Van Veen

shoes or supportive elderly walking shoes. Others may say they’re too masculine or clunky, but it’s all in how one wears them. Paired with some cuffed trousers or cropped skinny jeans and they’ll make an outfit totally new. Paired with wide-leg trousers and an oversize button-up may make someone look like an androgynous Annie Hall. While this has its own appeal, it may be a little too intimidating to start off with.

The brilliance of this latest shoe trend, too, is in the multiplicity of styles. They can be casually shaped with comfort in mind or more structured with the clickety-clackety heel or they can be bedazzled with too many sequins to count.

Some are colourful, some are neutral. Some are leather, some are suede. Some are flat and some are heeled. Some come with the standard laces and some come flirted up with ribbon ties. Some can be worn with dresses while others can be worn with pants. Some can be worn to work while others can be toned down for the weekend.

But in the end of this Seuss-y shoe situation, they can be the perfect transition from sandal to boot for those looking for something other than a ballet flat to wear when the chilly morning fog gives way to the blistering afternoon sun.

So, fall, as much as I’m pleased you’re back, I’m even more pleased I found something to combat your temperamental weather: my oxford shoes.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

ARTS & LIFE

Album Review

Grizzly Bear hits a high note with introspective Shields JOEL SMART

THE CASCADE

CHARTS

1 2

Treasure Eyes Treasure Eyes

Fist City Buried b/w Cryptic Transmissions

3 4 5

Raygun Cowboys Cowboy Up! Teen Daze All Of Us, Together

The Tranzmitors Concrete Depression b/w A Little Bit Close

6

Cousins The Palm At The End Of The Mind

7 8 9 10 11

White Lung Sorry Madchild Dope Sick Hot Chip In Our Heads Yeasayer Fragrant World

Shout Out Out Out Out Spanish Moss and Total Loss

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

The Vibrating Beds Sing The Blues Nu Sensae Sundowning The Quakes Planet Obscure Beak> >> Twin River Rough Gold Travis Bretzer Making Love The xx Coexist

Mascara Nites/The Poor Choices Tiger Lily

Shuffle ALICIA WILLIAMS

CIVL DJ/The Bestest Hello! My name is Alicia Williams, I am a show host at CiVL (Mood Swings, GRLGRMS) and a student who likes MACS and VA most. Recently I had some pieces of board I painted on in an art show in B building, to celebrate what may be the last UFV show to feature my acrylicz, here are some Q-T songs about art.

Moving Parts/Mission of Burma – “Max Ernst” Max Ernst is my favourite painter in time. This song is about how much of a big time, dope, Dada he was. I think this song is a tribute to ol’ Maxy’s lifestyle, as well as to Dada/ avant-garde in general. Check out MOB and double check on Ernst, my favourite painting is “The Eye of Silence.”

Thee Headcoats - “Art or Arse (You Be the Judge)” “Damien Hirst got his fish in a tank, some say it’s art others think it’s wank.” Billy Childish founded Stuckism, Damien Hirst is a member of the Young British Artists. This song is about ... just, long story short, figurative artists hate conceptual artists. Why wouldn’t they? Great song/super punk.

Hirst, more like Worst, amiright?

LeTigre – “My Art” I used to hate this Le Tigre song (shock!) because I didn’t “get it.” But that time has passed.

Kathleen doesn’t think her art is better than yours, she thinks you think yours is better than hers. Art programs are super competitive, everyone always wants to be the best even if that means being a stinkin’ pretentious snob.

Kanye West (feat. Pusha T, 2 Chainz, Big Sean) – “Mercy” Kanye: “Something’ ’bout Mary she gone off that Molly.

Now the whole party is melted like Dalí. Now everybody is movin’ they body.” I don’t have much else to say. I guess it’s nice to see almost-intelligent art history references in rap, or whatever? (After hearing Q-tip and Phife nothing really matters. Blah, blah, Kanye.)

“Who is this playing?”

It was a demand I am somewhat known for. This time, it was three in the morning, sitting around a dwindling fire in the backyard of a ramshackle house in downtown Abbotsford. “Grizzly Bear” was the simple reply. Their experimental style of folk rock was both surreal and core-wrenchingly sincere.

Something about their sound captures a realness – a deep, thoughtful questioning, not unlike the sound of Radiohead, which is an apt comparison considering they used to open for the British band.

It impacted me that night in a way I can’t fully explain.

Shields, Grizzly Bear’s new 10-track album, is full of surprising moments – moments that reach out to you, catch you off guard and send your mind spinning off in a new direction. It’s a daring venture, experimenting and exploring in a number of songs that won’t work for a mainstream audience.

While I’d argue that Shields as a whole is masterful, four songs transcend the album – they belong on your iPod. They need to be heard, to be thought about. These are the great ones.

In “Sleeping Ute,” the opening number, hints of ‘60s psychedelic rock arise out of the distorted guitars and synthesized backdrop.

The vocals, which are soft yet impassioned, really take the track to a new level. It sets the tone, humble and earnest, with a greatness and brilliance lying just under the surface waiting to be discovered.

Destined to become a major hit,

“Yet Again” hits all the right notes.

It could very well be the song that puts Brooklyn-based Grizzly Bear on the map. It comes after, and in stark contrast to, Shields’ most experimental track, the one-minutelong “Adelma.” Not that “Adelma” doesn’t work, but while it looks as though it could have been put together in a short amount of time “Yet Again” must have been the magnum opus that the band belaboured over, ensuring each note was in its precise spot, each word sung just right. It works. If you only look up one track from this album on YouTube, this is the one it should be.

“A Simple Answer” could probably top the radio charts as well.

It’s accessible, yet unique. As the song slowly builds, it gains layers of unique sounds, and then all at once it’s pulled away; only the vocals linger, echo, urging the song

Book Review AMY VAN VEEN

THE CASCADE

Author Sophie Kinsella has managed to bring about yet another loveable heroine in her latest novel I’ve Got Your Number. Much like this novel’s predecessors, such as the Shopaholic series and Undomestic Goddess, this novel follows the same girl-meets-boy formula, but does so in a way that is entertaining instead of exhausting.

Kinsella’s tales tend to focus on the quirky misadventures of heroines who still need to figure themselves out, but she does so with a degree of humour that sets her apart from the dozens of other pink-hued novels on the bookshelf. She’s not a romance author, like Danielle Steele or Nora Roberts, but she also doesn’t quite line up with the novels of her contemporaries like Marian Keyes or Emily Giffin. Her stories may not, at first, seem overly complex, but the humour and familiarity she puts into her heroines make her novels more tangible than those of Keyes or Giffin whose characters often become the friend you like to hate rather than the friend you love to laugh with.

Kinsella’s previous novels—not including the ones she wrote under the name Madeleine Wickham— are not great works of fiction that will forever act as a mirror on the face of society, but they are works

forward: “No wrong or right/ just do whatever you like.”

The album’s ninth track, “Half Gate,” has an intense opening and an ethereal middle before it really finds itself halfway through. It’s great the whole time, but the ending really sets it apart. It’s both memorable and ambitious. It really shows off the band’s versatility. “Gun Shy,” the song preceding “Half Gate,” is an excellent lead up to this track, and is certainly worth checking out as well.

Since I first asked about the band that night, I’ve found myself on the opposite side of the coin on several occasions. “Grizzly Bear,” I say with knowing eyes, “only one of the greatest bands!” I suspect Shields may turn a whole new group of music lovers onto the same idea.

I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

that give the reader a break and a chance to, for lack of a better expression, laugh out loud. Also, for those readers who also love their fair share of romantic comedies, reading one of Kinsella’s books makes those predictable yet adorable love stories last over a couple of days instead of the regular ninety minutes in rom-com world.

The main character in her latest novel I’ve Got Your Number is Poppy Wyatt, a physiotherapist who has landed the dream man with a dream heirloom ring. His highly intellectual family, however, doesn’t seem to think she’s up to snuff. After she loses her incredibly expensive—and presumably incredibly sentimental—engagement ring as well as her phone, she throws caution to the wind and steals an abandoned cell phone from a garbage can. Of course that phone belongs to a man who, through a series of humorous and often mortifying misunderstandings, ends up being the guy for her.

Spoiler alert on that last sentence – although it was kind of obvious.

Kinsella’s formula of Bridget Jones-esque humiliation may seem overdone, but—just like the rom-com film industry—her novels keep selling. When the plot is explained, it seems ridiculous and not worth a second glance, but it’s not the complexities of the plot that keep readers going back to Kinsella, it’s her characters. The format-

ting for this novel is a little different since the “dialogue” Poppy has with Sam—the man on the other end of her borrowed phone—is all via text. This kind of writing may appear to be lacking in what some would consider literary integrity, but there’s something more to her writing than just plot and sentence structure. The characters she creates give readers the permission to see the humour in their own flaws and to live out humiliating circumstances that could potentially happen to today’s average girl.

What if, for example, you thought your fiancé gave you a silk chemise only to realize—after you put it on under your outfit—that gift was from your future fatherin-law and meant for your future mother-in-law? Or what would you do if you needed a phone and you happened to take the discarded phone of a businessman’s assistant? Well, okay, for that one I would probably just buy a new phone at the store, but that’s where the need for suspension of disbelief becomes necessary in order to enjoy the ride.

Sophie Kinsella’s latest novel may not move mountains, but I’ve Got Your Number does turn a dull afternoon of channel surfing into an enjoyable escapist reading session.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

www.ufvcascade.ca

15

Mini Album Reviews

SoundBites

ARTS & LIFE

C.R. Avery et al Act One

Carly Rae Jepsen Kiss

Act One is for those albums interested in imagery and wordplay, and though the musical arrangements on the album are on the surface just songs, the instruments are background to C.R. Avery’s beat-like poetry of two prime foci: women and the travails of city life. Introducing the musical or dramatic arc that the album’s name promises the work to be part of, “The Gospel According To The Purple Cotton Dress” works as overture, explicating the themes of the whole work: “sundown in a small village called East Van” is the setting; women and junkies are the characters. Avery characteristically exemplifies his pensive, poetic sensibility when he asks, “How come the worst drug known to man has the same name as a woman with fierce inner light?” in “A Kind Man of Alexander.” He whispers this to sound like “fears in her life,” adding a layer of complexity to the subject. This is the good. But can the words make up for the lack of music? The songs are close to early Tom Waits in sound and voice, but they are ballads without energy or rhythm. Truthfully, this album was a book of decent poetry spoiled by a symphony orchestra.

If Carly Rae Jepsen was ever just a singer-songwriter, that side of her has since been absorbed into the megamonomaniacal hardware of this radio pop star’s image. So much of the discussion surrounding Jepsen amounts to only distraction away from what the whole ascendancy of “Call Me Maybe” as the new Canadian anthem was based on: Jepsen’s contribution as lyricist-vocalist. As an example of current/ future pop, Kiss is light on breaks from overpowering and incessant arrangements of flaring beats while autotune has its way, as on “Hurt So Good.”

But then there’s the captive, earnest dramas of “More Than a Memory” and “Your Heart Is a Muscle,” the way “Tonight I’m Getting Over You” enters into the “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” conversation with even fewer qualms and uncontainable force of emotion. Kiss continues to make the case for Jepsen as a megaphone emoter with a mind to multivarious possibilities, struggling to find one that satisfies. On “Turn Me Up,” Jepsen equivocates herself with the technological representation of herself before destroying that notion with “I don’t think it reaches;” and on “Wrong Feels So Right,” the opposing gaze is turned back on itself with a sarcastic “now what could you be looking at me for?”

BEAU O’NIELL

MICHAEL SCOULAR

Melody’s Echo Chamber

Boxer the Horse French Residency

Melody’s Echo Chamber is a place where musical motifs circulate freely and discombobulating phasers create a heady rush of unfamiliarity. Take album opener “I Follow You,” an echoing twelve-string arpeggio is sliced open by a drum riff that unexpectedly re-frames the rhythm of the entire song. Throughout the album, Parisian songstress Melody Prachet’s clear, classically-trained vocals are rendered in a dreamlike cocoon of reverb. In a debut record produced by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Prachet considers isolation and what it reveals about the self through a cavalcade of colourful melodicism and ever-changing sonic terrain. This is brought to life by Parker’s distinctive juxtaposition of frothy, swirling psychedelic shades and sharp, incessant drumming. There are nods to Prachet’s psychedelic forebears, yet the record’s trips are designed with payoff in mind. The brief instrumental “Is That What You Said” cleanses the palette with a choppy, electronically distorted rave-up before Melody dives into the sweetly-sung, “Snowcapped Andes Crash.” A simple four note melody anchors the song which seamlessly switches from the French verse to English refrain. When Prachet dispassionately sings lines like “Me and my lover / are go-ing to die,” they take on a nursery-rhyme menace that is all the more terrifying for her delivery.

Winners of the Bucky Award for Best New Band of 2010 by CBC Radio 3, Boxer the Horse meld the easyto-love slacker-rock sound and styles from the Clinton administration.

Their sophomore release French Residency—recorded in their hometown of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island—is undoubtedly frontloaded.

The opening three tracks “Community Affair,” “Sentimental-Oriental” and “Rattle Your Cage” all invoke the coherent sound and laidback sarcasm of Brighten the Corners era Pavement tunes. There are a few tracks that only half work for me, like the uninspired, Vampire Weekend-esqe “Party Saturday” and the bizarre “Karen Silkwood” that weigh down the album’s initial flourishes. French Residency is sophisticated, but wise-assed; melodic but multifaceted; and their love of loud/ quiet ‘90s guitar rock is untainted and it translates into the songs and the sound, showing great deal of promise.

It’s hard to point a finger at a band like Boxer the Horse, because their intentions are obviously good, but in the end the record fails to add up to a satisfying whole, as the shiny alt. rock appeal begins to wear thin during French Residency’s second half.

Melody’s Echo Chamber

NICK ubels

TIM UBELS

Film Review Trouble with the Curve MICHAEL SCOULAR

THE CASCADE

The only forward thinking idea in Trouble with the Curve is the depiction of the Boston Red Sox as strong contenders for the number one selection in the first year player draft. And that, every thing about the movie screams, is precisely the point. Setting aside all of the baseball monologue, Clint Eastwood’s father character Gus and Amy Adams’ daughter character Mickey are brought together to talk about the past, remember and regret things from the past, and ultimately think long and hard about how their pasts apparently excuse what they are in the present. In spite of its set-up as a contrarian story, Trouble with the Curve is a load of unversed nonsense, an unconflicted view of baseball and life that agrees with itself.

First-time director Robert Lorenz, though working with Clint Eastwood’s regular cinematographer Tom Stern and editor Joel Cox, does nothing to distinguish any of the person searching and watching. A movie calling for emotion that’s comprised of flat, rhythmless vacancies, Trouble with the Curve takes place in bars, motels, bleachers and boardrooms.

This is the natural habitat of the

made-for-television or television re-run movie, an approach pounded home by the appearance of Justin Timberlake, almost as lifeless as his minor league baseball playeraspiring writer in the similarly themed The Open Road. Like that atrocity, Curve is a screenwriter’s concoction, one lacking in focus or anything vivid. There’s the fatherdaughter connection, with Clint Eastwood now an emulation of a parody of an image of himself, to hang a few memories on, but nothing approaching a follow-through after the establishing shots. Trouble with the Curve has no central character, only generalities, and if ever another being finds itself in the frame, it is only as a reflection of problems that have already been expounded upon.

Maybe this distance is to provide room for the baseball argument.

But this too is a sham of a picture.

Randy Brown’s script takes the understandable view of disliking how technology is making people expendable in the minds of some and a universal appeal to the love of watching the sport of baseball, and contorts them into a one-sided, simple-minded grotesque diatribe.

Scouts watch the game, know the game, and law school grads read out numbers with no eye for the details, no love of baseball. This

is so cartoonish that it hardly deserves to be taken seriously, but it is a real divide, and Trouble with the Curve seizes the opportunity of being the self-flattering emblem of a staunch position. There are problems everywhere in the way Curve deals with this. The so-called numbers crew stake their claim on small sample sizes and batting average, making one anticipate Trouble with Pitch Location, in which win-loss records and ERA are trotted out by the youngish cocksure wannabe general managers. The scope is limited, oppressively unrepresentative, here. Statistics can provide analysis, and are not always a symbol of idiotic anti-humanism, and surely scouts can provide more than a pitch sound effects description. It’s a function of a lazy argument to distort facts to the point of laughability, and Trouble with the Curve sets to this with no reservations. Sabremetricians watch baseball games, and scouting is informed in part by statistics. Trouble with the Curve hopes its audience is ignorant to this, isn’t thinking even the most rudimentary things about what it is to watch something.

The actual depiction of the sport isn’t very different in approach.

There’s an emphasis on sound, which boils down to hating the alien aluminum ping of a bat and

loving the muffled leather smack of a caught ball. The sport is slashed visually, cuts to at-bats that would make someone who only knows the sport through SportsCentre think something is off, every swing a violent misrepresentation of what draws people to baseball. At one point Amy Adams asserts that “it’s just a game,” which provides the necessary motivation for the movie to get on its way to ending.

But there are some commonali-

ties between baseball, the cinema, and life. All find their excitement and unforgettable qualities in the way variation arises out of routine.

Scouts observe and learn how to anticipate, statistics document and serve as a basis for analysis, and people, filmmakers and otherwise, do all of the above. Trouble with the Curve, divisive and blind, doesn’t even begin to comprehend all of this.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

ARTS & LIFE

WE INSIST! Behind UFV’s independent studies art show JOE JOHNSON

THE CASCADE

Alicia Williams: I guess my idea was to paint a bunch of cassettes and combine them with my favourite paintings of basically the the last 100 years or so. I don’t think anything’s before 1900 and I guess it’s really just a selfish look at art history. Again, inspiration is a way to combine art history with popular culture and modernism.

Kate Feltren: I’ve always been really inspired by the extensive 80 methods that women use to perfect themselves and the irony behind how extensive they are and how much harm they can actually cause to women’s bodies.

Jessica Laibahas: Mine is about the experience of going to studying abroad, last January to June, and these are the places that I went to. And just talking about how I took the pictures on Instagram and everything’s so instant now and it’s about the low art and the popular culture and the high art. So what I did is I took the picture in Instagram, drew it in a polaroid film and painted it.

Chris Friesen (Instructor): Essentially how this class developed, it’s called Independent Studies, so it basically takes place outside of the normal learning classroom structure. So these students would have completed their four painting classes, which are studio classes, but they still had the

desire to learn more and basically work in a direction that’s entirely their own. So this course allows them to take a sustained approach with their project, so what they’re able to do is propose an idea and then have – in our case the entire summer – to develop it. And this exhibition was a culmination of that; it’s basically showing the work off at the end of the process.

And this also becomes part of the process. It’s important to see the work in an environment in which it’s intended to be.

What they did, which is somewhat impressive, is from an initial concept they’re able to literally study, produce, edit, go back into the work, come up with different directions, and then what the ultimate goal is—when they’re outside of the university system—that this is a process that they’re able to continue with to develop their own studio practice. So it’s a specialized course but what it allows you to do is just go further indepth than you would in your normal course of study. Because with a normal course of study you’re dealing with a lot of other concerns such as different types of pedagogy, which is attending lectures, doing your readings, which they still do but from the onset it’s basically their direction and I’m here as a support system to guide them in the way that they feel comfortable when they leave this institution, that they’re able to know the steps that it takes to make a successful practice.

That’s essentially what this is in a nutshell.

Image:Blake McGuire

Alicia Williams

Image:Blake McGuire

Kate Feltren

Image:Blake McGuire

Image:Blake McGuire

Jessica Laibahas

CEP grand opening features performances from The Pink Slips, The Matinee and more

Image:Blake McGuire

BEAU O’NEILL

CONTRIBUTOR

On the perfectly clear and sunny day that ended this year’s summer, many UFV students, scores of Chilliwack residents and the directors and chancellors of the university came out to the Canada Education Park (CEP) in Sardis to enjoy the open house put on by the Marketing and Communications Department. Out on the green were displays from the Athletics Department alongside local food vendors and craft hawkers. All of this took place in the large, treeedged field south of the glimmering new main Chilliwack building,

which featured displays from various departments and universityinvolved organizations inside its hall of steel, glass and timber.

To formally mark the opening of the CEP, UFV president Mark Evered and Chilliwack mayor Sharon Gaetz gave speeches that thanked the community for its support and the students for their continued effort in the pursuit of higher education. Evered expounded upon the possibilities of the university’s future as it nears its 40th anniversary, which will be next fall, and afterwards received a special gift from RCMP Superintendent Mike Ladeau: a painting of three horse-riding and flag-bear-

ing officers. Before these events was the ceremonial beating of a drum by a First Nations elder, an act that shows UFV’s respect and ties to the original inhabitants of these lands.

Students can often hear the reports from the RCMP’s firing range, so close to the campus it shares the same parking lot.

But the guns were at ease this day and the only annoyance was the unavoidable, sweltering, but moreso pleasant sun, which did not set until well after the first band, The Pink Slips, hit the stage.

They performed their folk-rock music with gusto and without a drummer, replacing him with a single kick drum operated by the lead singer’s rhythmic right foot, a touch that completed their imitation of Mumford and Sons with both aural and visual acuity. Adding to what was an older population in lawn chairs, a younger crowd started to congregate in front of the stage, no doubt having smelled the music in the air, which was floating around like the unmistakable perfume of the pork and cheese that was being slung far afield.

Next came The Matinee, a group of men still in the noon of life that, in their hats, jeans, long hair, beards and sunglasses, looked very

much like the Sheepdogs, or better yet their predecessor Stillwater, the fake but successful rock group from the 2000 blockbuster Almost Famous. Having performed two Led Zeppelin covers amongst their own jug band creations, Sheepwater finished their set with a monorhythmic group percussion jam.

For the next 45 minutes the amicable members of the crowd swayed and held hands as they waited patiently—there was no yelling or shouted questions—in the Valley’s darkness for the Zolas, who, being led astray by a misplaced confidence in Google Maps, were a quarter hour late.

Once the band was ready, Gwen O’Mahoney, NDP MLA for Chilliwack-Hope, read aloud a prolonged and seemingly embarrassing biography, compiled of phrases at which the band members smirked and grimaced back stage. They performed their singalong indie pop with remarkable aplomb, not even startled at the vociferous smoke machine that intermittently belched out a huge whistling cloud of opacity. After the last keyboard chord was smashed out, Dr. Evered once again took the stage to dole out raffle prizes, and thanked the many members of the community and the students of UFV for attending the event.

Image:Blake McGuire

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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SPORTS & HEALTH

UFV women’s volleyball squad shows promise in exhibition victory NADINE MOEDT THE CASCADE

The women’s volleyball team defeated SFU in a preseason scrimmage this past week, winning three of five matches.

The team played with admirable chemistry considering that this is only their second game of the season; Kierra Noot made several strong finishing serves at several critical points in the match, while middle Katie Bakgaard and power Jania Toljanich put down some awesome spikes. Sarah Russell made several spectacular diving saves late in the set, giving the team a needed boost in morale.

The final match was close, both teams putting up a strong fight for every point. The Cascades took the victory 15-13.

Coach Dennis Bokenfohr was pleased with the team’s performance.

“We’re just building right now, we’ve just completed week two, and we just keep finding stuff we need to work on, building that bridge so to speak,” he said. “We get to see a lot of new players and get to see how they do in these situations.”

A key player for the team, according to Bokenfohr, was the libero, Mallory Donen. “[She]

played very well in libero. Mallory’s going into year three now, she had a fantastic game tonight, played the entire game. I thought she did an excellent job.”

Kayla Bruce, a fifth year fivefoot-10 middle from Surrey, regarded the game as a “building experience.”

“A lot of our fourth and fifth years actually didn’t play, a few of us are out with injuries so there were a lot of rookies and freshmen out there,” Bruce said. “I thought they played really well as a team.”

“It’s good to go out there and see who you work well with, teamwork wise. This was a good opportunity to get everyone out on the court. It’s a good way to work out the kinks and get ready for the season.”

The team is practicing daily, Monday to Friday, to get ready for the upcoming season. On September 29, the team will play against Alumni as part of the preparations. Their first game of the season is against Columbia Bible College, October 12, at the Envision Athletic Centre.

Expectations for this season are high; the team won the 2012 CCAA bronze and are the CCAA PACWEST Silver medalists. Currently the team is ranked fourth in the CCAA top 10.

Cascades line up to receive a serve.

Coconut oil helps Alzheimer’s patients TAYLOR JOHNSON CONTRIBUTOR

What if one day you couldn’t remember anything? What if the same person you woke up next to every day suddenly became a stranger? What if one day you forgot how to eat, how to talk, how to walk? Imagine the people around you: your neighbours, your friends, your future children, how would they react? What would you do for the possibility of preventing this? What if there was a way to slow down time and protect your memories?

In an January interview with CBN News, Dr. Kieran Clarke discussed her team’s work at Oxford University. In a research study they discovered that high doses of the protein Ketone have substantial effects on a brain with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s can be compared to diabetes of the brain. Between 10 and 20 years before symptoms begin to show, insulin blocks glucose from entering cells, which then results in the decay of brain cells. Ketones, however, can be accepted by cells even in high levels of insulin, meaning

the cells are able to function relatively normally. The higher the levels of ketones, the more fuel is given to brain cells. The solution produced by Dr. Clarke and her team would cost millions of dollars to mass produce and without intensive funding, the team is unable to make large quantities.

Even though Dr. Clarke’s Ketone solution has such a high improvement rate, the major drug companies will not support the production. The costs of producing the solution are higher than the possible income produced by its purchase. In the meantime, until funding can be found, there is a lower dosage solution. A solution which doesn’t cost millions of dollars, intensive funding or a big name drug company – and finding it is as easy as going to your local grocery store. Pure, non-hydrogenated coconut oil not only contains good cholesterol (which will negate bad cholesterol), boosts natural antibodies and helps kill viruses, it also contains very high levels of ketones, the vital ingredient in Dr. Clarke’s solution. It has high enough levels that after only 30 grams per day some Alzheim-

er’s patients began to show major improvements. While some improvements were only momentary (patients would recognize where they were, improve communication, show physical improvement or exhibit more balanced emotions), patients have also shown steady improvement in overall motor functions and logical thinking.

Coconut oil can be substituted for cooking oils, butter on toast, milk in oatmeal or in pasta. The possible uses are endless. Patients’ families have substituted butters and margarines for coconut oil and made it a part of their daily diet, in hopes of postponing the tragic outcomes of Alzheimer’s disease.

Some people have also self-medicated with coconut oil in the hopes of preventing future brain-cell decay. The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease might take between 10 to 20 years to show; however the possibility of decreasing that risk has been found in coconut oil.

If one small change a day could protect your memories would you make that change?

Image: Nadine Moedt

UFV Scoreboard The week’s results Soccer Men Sept. 22 UFV vs. Lethbridge T 1-1 Sept. 23 UFV vs. Calgary W 3-0 Women Sept. 22 UFV vs. Lethbridge W 2-1 Sept. 23 UFV vs. Calgary T 2-2

Volleyball Women (Preseason) Sept. 17 UFV vs. SFU W 3-2

Upcoming basketball matches Sept. 29 Women’s Alumni Game 5:30 Sept. 29 Men’s Alumni Game 7:30

Soccer League Registration: • Teams can register at U-House to participate in the League.

• Teams will consist of 5-8 players. • There is a cost of $30/team.

• Games will be on Wednesday night between 4 and 8 p.m.

• Registration is currently open and league play will begin next week.

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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SPORTS & HEALTH

All Star Wrestling hits hard ANTHONY BIONDI THE CASCADE

Weird, random, crazed and wild. I think this would accurately describe the experience of watching a show put on by All Star Wrestling last Sunday in the bowels of the Abby Arts Centre. I won’t deny that at first I had second thoughts about going, but in the end I was glad I did. It was exactly what I would have expected from a wrestling show. There were the classic fake punches and kicks accompanied by the stomp on the mat and flashy acrobatics to add a dash of flare to the show. However, it wasn’t these things that made it a worthwhile experience. It was the performance. Everything was shouted through sweatcovered mouths at an audience that shouted back. There were insults thrown, alliances forged and betrayed, and egos stacked higher than the Empire State. It was like watching a bad movie, but one that you could interact with and enjoy for its sheer lunacy. Overall this experience was one worth having and one worth repeating.

I’ve tried to chronicle my experience with this fun filled comic. I believe it most accurately describes the progress of my enjoyment of this event.

September 28 & 29

UFV men’s & women’s soCCeR FREE A

sion dmis

September 28 Women v Manitoba 5:00 p.m.

Men v Saskatchewan 7:15 p.m.

September 29 Women v Winnipeg Men v Alberta

5:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m.

ADIDAS NIGHT/ALUMNI NIGHT

UFV Cascades Athletics

@ufvcascades

www.ufvcascades.ca

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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SPORTS & HEALTH

Cascades in the Community

PAUL ESAU

THE CASCADE

Student events happen fast and furious in September, and it can be easy to forget the students, staff and faculty whose effort makes them happen. While support for such events comes from many places around UFV, the men and women of the varsity sports team deserve special mention this year for volunteering their time and effort towards a good cause.

Since serving burgers and hot dogs for the Community Dinners program on August 8, Cascades athletes have helped out at both the Chilliwack and Abbotsford orientations (August 23 and 30 respectively), UFV International’s Amazing Race orientation on August 28, the Baker House move in on September 1, and Student Life’s Welcome Back “Barbecue” on September 6. Dozens of athletes participated over the course of these events, including every single member of the women’s basketball team.

While at times the athletes were simply required to showcase their skills, wow audiences and teach some tricks, they also readily served in other ways. The Baker House move in, a day when new and returning students migrate their lives into

volvement at Baker House. “It provides those extra hands … picture a car and then ten athletes just swarm in picking up bags and boxes … It’s just tremendous to see the support. Again, a lot of conversations go on back and forth [between athletes and residents], the parents just loved it and we loved it. It definitely helps with the process.”

A large portion of the student attendance at Cascades home games last year came from Baker House, and part of the importance of the move in is connecting athletes with their support on campus. Resident assistant Sean Webber says he’s already seeing more residents turn out for varsity games, and attributes it to a newfound sense of community.

Cascades athletes were also an important component in the novel “Infotainment” portion of student orientations in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, a program highlighted by a skills demonstration from the men’s soccer team. In a similar contribution, coach Chris Bertram and the UFV golf team put on a swing clinic at CEP during last Thursday’s festivities.

Student Life manager Jill Harrison, whose department benefited from athlete involvement both in the orientations and the Welcome Back Barbecue, was extremely positive about the growing number of student athletes who’ve decided to give back to their university. “I think it’s really good because sometimes Athletics [departments] can be off to the side and only of interest to the athletes. But our athletes are pulling into the community and saying ‘we’re part of this community and we want to be involved and part of it.’”

The man providing many of the opportunities for athlete involvement is Athletics information coordinator David Kent, who is also the mastermind behind the annual Cascades AESC doubleheader and the fast-approaching Cascades Tailgate Party. “In my three years here,” he said, “this was a record amount of [athlete]

image: UFV International

A stream of Cascades players help residents make the exodus from car to room.

image: Baker House

UFV basketball team members Alexa McCarthy and Sarah Wierks look on during International’s Amazing Race event in the Envision Centre.

image: UFV International

UFV soccer teammates Mark Village, Trevor O’Neill, Sasa Plavsic, and Ryan Liddiard pose during a lull in the Baker House move in.

image: Baker House

Students try out the rowing machines in the Envision Centre. Perhaps future recruits for UFV rowing?

UFV residence, was a perfect example of athletes serving their fellow students and their school.

“We were just basically there helping people move in,” said Sasa Plavsic, one of 26 student athletes who volunteered at Baker House, “there’s a lot of people coming in from different areas of Canada going to UFV so we were there helping them as soon as they got in the parking lot. We’d come over there with some carts and we’d help them bring their stuff up to the rooms and assist them in any way we could.”

Athlete involvement is a tradition at the event says residence housing assistant Junelle Mah, who has benefited from Cascades help for all three years of her in-

attendance and support that they gave to the Athletics administration. We know that they were all trying out at the times that these were happening…we know they were still working their summer jobs. We know they were still getting used to being back at UFV for September, and yet a record 26 people showed up at Baker House. We had 12 student athletes help out with Infotainment in Abbotsford, we had six soccer players in Chilliwack plus cheerleaders. It was tremendous.”

For his part, Plavsic said the importance of his and his teammates’ service was in creating a more vibrant UFV community. “I’d have to say [the event’s value] was to meet all the new people. There were a lot of people coming into the school … and to just let them know what UFV is all about and if they see me or any other [player] on campus they now know that they can ask us for help. So kind of just to build a relationship with people around the school because I know our school is a lot smaller than a big school like UBC so it’s good to build a tight-knit community and welcome everybody who’s new to the school and let them know it’s a little different around here. You’re not going to be isolated, there’s so many people around you that you can talk to and be a part of great groups and communities and sporting events too.”

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SPORTS & HEALTH

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