Feb. 25, 2015

185

by Sean Brady

games 112 in CIS played > Basketball, volleyball and soccer

55 FLYING HIGH MEN WINS 7 TRU students, alumni 9 flying high with company launchedWOMEN by local booster, p. 11 0-22 10-14

PROGRESSIVE HOST TRU prof’s weekly radio show explores progressive music on CFBX, p. 9

KS C R BY THE NUMBERS A BE FP UM See how the WolfPack

54

LOSSES

LONGEST

LOSING STREAK

LONGEST

WINNING STREAK

48

SETS LOST

STANDOUT PLAYER

>

1,449.5

Brad Gunter #1 kills per set (4.57)

FINISHED 7TH THIS

1 set won, 67 sets lost

40 sets won, 55 sets lost

SEASON:

SEASON:

TOP PERFORMERS

Y LE

#4 with 9.05 assists per set

9TH PLACE FINISH

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ES S AM G AM 20 7 TE 1

5 -1 14 N 20 ASO E S

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MOST DECISIVE VICTORY, VS. UBCO

MEN

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WOMEN

18-2

SK106-58 A B

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SEASON RECORD 541 BASKETS 1,494 SHOTS 36.2%, 13TH IN THE LEAGUE

5

2

wins

STANDOUT PLAYER

L AL

ES AM S G AM 12 TE 14

8 2

Travis Froehlich 81 saves

ties

fared in 2014-15 soccer, basketball and volleyball, p. 12

goals

losses

>

#2 in kills (405) and kills per set (4.6)

Kara Twomey

LL

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Iuliia Pakhomenko

ES S AM G AM 24 3 TE 1

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TOTAL POINTS

LAST

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45

SETS WON

on the season

113 shots

WOMEN

9 0

RECORD 1-10-1 goals goals AT HOME

AWAY

1,458 home attendance

#1

3rd best in Canada West (total)

SHOTS PER GAME

#1 IN EXPLORER DIVISION, BEST WIN PERCENTAGE IN LEAGUE (0.900)

MEN

★

STAR PLAYER

JOSH WOLFRAM #3 IN THREE POINTERS 18 POINTS PER GAME

#1 Turnovers per game

Volume 24 – Issue 21

www.truomega.ca Ω @TRU_Omega

11-9 ON THE SEASON 3RD IN EXPLORER DIVISION 1,566 points on the season (#8)

581 BASKETS 1,388 SHOTS 41.9%, 11TH IN THE LEAGUE

75.9% on freethrows (#2 overall)

February 25, 2015

GETTING A PIECE OF THE PIE

University enhancement fund divided up, p. 5

Celebrating the Lunar New Year at TRU, p. 4

Niche law prof wants to expand class offerings, p. 13

2 NEWS Sweating it out on campus

February 25, 2015

Student hopes to bring a sweat lodge to campus by September 2015 Ashley Wadhwani ISSUES EDITOR Ω

Fourth-year biology major Jordan Robinson is proposing a sweat lodge be built on campus with a focus on sustainability. If approved, the sweat lodge will be built on the hill beside the Lot N parking area.

Originally from northern Alberta, Robinson grew up attending his nation’s sweat lodge often. Upon moving to the city, Robinson stopped attending ceremonies and lost sight of his cultural roots.

“I completely forgot where I came from and I started being wavered

so easily just getting in with wrong crowd,” he said. “Once I started going back to the lodge it just instantly came back.”

Robinson is currently in the process of applying for a sustainability grant through the Sustainability Grant Fund to fund the building that would house the sweat lodge.

The building would be a dome-like structure covered in grass. Robinson is proposing a sweat lodge with two lodges, one for men and co-ed and one for women, roughly 20 to 40 feet in diameter.

“To keep it respectful and protected we would need to have a secured building around it so that people

don’t desiccate it because it would be a sacred place,” Robinson said. “The inside of the building wouldn’t be a typical building. It wouldn’t be made of bricks it would be clay, or raw wood.”

Robinson is focusing his graduation research project on finding what plants would be appropriate for different aspects of the building, focusing on sustainability.

“For every piece of grass that we take out of the ground we’ll put back on top of the roof. For every piece of sage we kill we’d have to replace it. It’s sort of a fair trade,” Robinson said.

“To actually put [a sweat lodge] up doesn’t take much and it’s not supposed to take much. It does incorporate the natural world and when you take it down too you should have it so it wasn’t there,” said Vernie Clement, Gathering Place mentor and community coordinator.

Aside from the sustainability grant, which would pay for the initial building costs, Robinson has met with the dean of arts, the dean of science and the dean of law who have offered to speak with the other deans in hopes of offering an honorarium for maintenance of the sweat lodge.

Robinson will also be meeting with the traditional knowledge keepers to seek permission for the lodge.

“With the spiritual leaders and Tk’emlups, that’s where the real

Robinson hopes to open the sweat lodge by Sept. 2015. (Ashley Wadhwani/The Omega)

challenge is,” Robinson said. “I will not go through with this if they don’t give me the permission.”

A sweat lodge on campus would give access to a ceremonial practice that students at the UBC and BCIT already have on their campuses.

“For Aboriginal students, a lot of [them] who come from smaller communities and who [have] really connected to their culture miss that about their home. When they move here they not only disconnect from their family but also that part of their culture and their life, and it’s kind of hard,” Clement said.

If a student is interested in taking part in a ceremony but not familiar

with the practice, workshops will be offered through the Gathering Place in order to prepare them.

“It involves being sober for, depending on the lodge keeper, between four days and two weeks. It’s a place of cleaning yourself up and being pure,” Robinson said.

Robinson was told to expect a reply on his proposal by late March. If approved, TRU can expect the sweat lodge to be completed by September 2015. Robinson added that ceremonies would have to start immediately.

“Once you put up a lodge, [if ] you leave it empty, it’s like leaving a banana peel on the floor – it just starts to rot,” Robinson said.

Black History Month in Kamloops Local lawyer recalls experience with film Zain Bakhtiar

CONTRIBUTOR Ω

Black History Month originated in the American colonies as “Negro History Week” in 1926. It later became recognized as Black History Month by the Canadian government in 1995 and is now celebrated across Canada annually in the month of February.

There are no gigantic monuments erected in Kamloops to commemorate slavery, but it was the first city in B.C. to elect John Freemont Smith, a black man, to its municipal council in 1903. William Allen Jones, the first registered dentist in B.C., was black. A man known as the “father of British Columbia,” governor of the colonies of Vancouver Island and later all of B.C., James Douglas had roots in Barbados.

Lesra Martin is a Brooklyn-born Canadian attorney and prosecutor.

He currently lives in Kamloops and is a prominent member of the African-Canadian community. In 1985, Martin was involved in securing the release of wrongfully convicted boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter.

In “The Hurricane,” a film starring Denzel Washington based on the wrongful imprisonment of Carter, Martin was portrayed by actor Vicellous Reon Shannon. The film gives a glimpse of Martin’s life, particularly how he struggled with illiteracy at age 15, trying to

get through the first book he’d ever purchased: Carter’s autobiography.

Martin understood every word and this led to his interest of Carter’s foul conviction and gradually forming a relationship with the boxer.

Martin has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live and he even addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

He still presents on his struggle with illiteracy, and how he became a renowned prosecutor for civil rights and aiding in the battle to prove Carter’s innocence. Martin is now a literacy ambassador for the ABC Network Life Literacy Organization.

Martin still contributes to all communities, as he believes that contributions made by the black

community are part of history and should be celebrated all year long.

“That is the now, what is going on now, it is not necessarily race-specific, it is contributions-specific, it is what we can do to make a difference,” Martin said.

“Canada is a multicultural society and the more we learn about the contributions made by different communities, people will respect each other more and racism will perish,” said Gail Morong, co-chair of the TRU Faculty Association’s equity committee.

Morong will be hosting a Caribbean dinner in light of Black History Month, an event open to the community, to be held at the Southwest Community Church on Friday, Feb. 27.

Lesra with wife and law partner Cheryl in their Kamloops office. (Zain Bakhtiar/The Omega)

OPINION & EDITORIAL

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 21

The Omega Thompson Rivers University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Terror on Burnaby Mountain

/TRUOmega

Bill C-51’s vague definitions might make terrorists of more people than it means to

@TRU_Omega

Sean Brady

Published since November 27, 1991

www.truomega.ca

/tru_omega

EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sean Brady @iamseanbrady editor@truomega.ca NEWS EDITOR Alexis Stockford @AlexisStockford news@truomega.ca ISSUES EDITOR Ashley Wadhwani @ashwadhwani issues@truomega.ca SCI-TECH EDITOR Ryan Turcot @RyanTurcot sci-tech@truomega.ca ARTS EDITOR Kim Anderson @K_AndersonSays arts@truomega.ca SPORTS EDITOR Tayla Scott @taylascott3 sports@truomega.ca COPY EDITOR Rachel Wood @rachelwoood copy@truomega.ca CONTRIBUTORS Zain Bakhtiar Steve Leahy Shelby Purcha

PUBLISHING BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sean Brady INDUSTRY REP Christopher Foulds FACULTY REP Charles Hays STUDENT REP Kim Anderson STUDENT REP Mason Buettner

PUBLISHING Cariboo Student Newspaper Society (Publisher of The Omega) TRU Campus House #4 900 McGill Rd, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 0C8 Phone: 250-828-5069 Advertising inquiries: accounts@truomega.ca

LETTERS POLICY Literary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Omega will attempt to publish each letter received, barring time and space constraints. The editor will take care not to change the intention or tone of submissions, but will not publish material deemed to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name (for publication) and contact details (not for publication). The Omega reserves the right not to publish any letter or submitted material. Opinions expressed in any section with an “Opinion” label do not represent those of The Omega, the Cariboo Student Newspaper Society, its Board of Directors or its staff. Opinions belong only to those who have signed them.

COPYRIGHT All material in this publication is copyright The Omega and may not be reproduced without the expressed consent of the publisher. All unsolicited submissions become copyright The Omega 2014.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

When work began on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion on Burnaby Mountain, protesters were there to try to stop them. The result was a typical line of protesters matched against a line of police. Things were mostly peaceful – several arrests were made and charges for civil contempt were laid, but thrown out later.

What worries me is the incident that came months before the most recent protests, when, according to a Sept. 18, 2014 article by the CBC, 71-year-old Lesslie Askin was paid a visit by someone looking after the interests of Canada’s national security. The cause for concern from the RCMP’s national security division (which includes members from CSIS)? Askin was seen photographing Kinder Morgan’s storage tanks at Burnaby Mountain and apparently deemed a threat to national security.

The CBC reported that Kinder Morgan had called her “evasive,” but she refutes that.

A visit from national security police is nothing to scoff at, especially not in today’s hypersensitive threat-laden atmosphere, where a dumb joke, or your name appearing on a list, can not only get you kicked off your flight, but held until you’re deemed not to be a threat.

Putting this heightened sensitivity

into perspective, consider the reaction to the 2008 pipeline bombings near Dawson’s Creek. EnCana’a sour-gas pipelines were deliberately targeted with explosives on two occasions, according to an Oct. 16, 2008 article by CBC. Considering Askin’s act of mere photography brought the gaze of national eyes, surely the 2008 bombings were also considered terror threats?

In fact, explicitly, they were not. In a statement by RCMP spokesman Tim Shields, it was stated that “We don’t want to characterize this as terrorism,” and that “there was no intent to hurt people,” according to the same article by the CBC. The act was called mere vandalism, despite its political motivations.

Considering the RCMP reaction to the 2008 event, it’s worrying that soon the police might be less inclined to use this kind of discretion. Bill C-51, Canada’s so-called Anti-Terrorism Act, contains language that try to make the above cases a lot more cut and dry. At issue is “activity that undermines the security of Canada,” and what exactly that means. One of the definitions provided within the bill reads, “interference with the capability of the Government of Canada in relation to … the economic or financial stability of Canada.” That’s the first part of the definition. The fourth part is simply “terrorism,” as if the two are held equal.

Opposition to the bill, specifically the NDP at the federal level, cited

five major problems in its motion to dump the new legislation. Among the five issues is that the bill “contains definitions that are broad, vague and threaten to lump legitimate dissent together with terrorism,” along with claims that it was created without consultation and that it gives CSIS too much power without sufficient oversight.

The above examples seem to illustrate the NDP’s point, but perhaps there are even more examples. What about two recent attacks on Canadians? Not threats, not politically-motivated bombings that don’t target people – what about actual attacks?

In his Oct. 29, 2014 column in the Toronto Star, Thomas Walkom points to Justin Bourque, the shooter in Moncton who killed three RCMP officers; Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the shooter in Ottawa; and Martin Couture-Rouleau, the man who committed the hit-andrun murder of Patrice Vincent in Quebec. Walkom says that while Couture-Rouleau and Zehaf-Bibeau were called terrorists, Bourque was not, and Walkom points to politics to explain why.

“Terrorism is – as it always has been – a political construct,” he wrote.

If terrorism is a term as malleable as Walkom claims, C-51 might be the skeleton key that government agencies need to unlock doors they have no business going through. editor@truomega.ca

So lame it might just work

How the stupidest technology can catch on Elliot Chan

THE OTHER PRESS (CUP)

This is not a criticism of any individual or organization, but rather the designs that come from an embarrassing collective demand. I’m talking about technology such as the selfie stick. You know, the elongated pole that people use to take pictures of themselves. Honestly I don’t mind it, the same way I don’t mind someone wearing a fanny pack, or socks and sandals. We can all do whatever we want; however, I’m surprised that technology has gone from innovative to awkward.

I’m as comfortable implementing hashtags into my social media posts as I am making cold calls on the phone. There is just something about the action that I still can’t buy into. For lack of a better phrase, when I do use hashtags to further my social media reach, I feel like I’m trying too hard. I feel like I’m trying to show off in an audition, I feel like I’m trying to get the pretty girl to look at me, I feel like I’m knotting a bow tie for a business-casual kind of party. I feel lame.

I know I shouldn’t because it is just technology, and hell everyone is doing it. In fact, some might say I’m stupid for not using selfie sticks

to take my pictures and hashtagging my photos #SelfieStick on Instagram. Even that sentence caused me to cringe a bit.

For a while, I watched as some “fortunate” individuals walked around town with Google Glass on their face. They did whatever they did, smiling and explaining what they were doing while they were doing it, and it was all fun and merriment. However, one day Google Glass’s popularity plummeted and now I rarely see it around. Perhaps it was because those who were wearing it were deemed “Glassholes” and that led to problematic interactions.

Like Bluetooth earpieces, you cannot look cool wearing it while walking down the street because you just don’t need it. You look stupid, arrogant, and lazy.

Technology, tools, and metadata tags are useful in situations where they are actually necessary. In my mind, there needs to be a purpose for something to be “cool.” It’s not cool hashtagging every word in your Twitter post, even if it’s done ironically, because that post will ultimately affect nobody.

However, if you are expressing your opinion, offering insight, or promoting something of value, then hashtags are great because you give someone who is searching #Cup-

Marco Verch/Flickr Commons

cakes a place for them to find cupcakes, recipes for cupcakes, or your opinion on a brand of cupcakes. If you are driving a car, Bluetooth is wonderful. If you want to get a group picture without excluding someone, selfie sticks are the grand solution.

And if you have other friends with Google Glass, it would be awesome to interact through that wearable platform. However, people are using technology for reasons that are beyond me, and that is why so many of us consider them lame.

3

TUNE IN/TUNE OUT Steve Leahy

CONTRIBUTOR Ω

So I’ve been doing some reflecting on government lately, and I’ll share some of my thoughts with you.

Who wants to be a politician? If you ask me, someone who’s a little bit optimistic and mostly controlling. Think about it, these peoples’ goal is to lead a nation. Or a city. Either way, they want to be in control of the future of a set area and its occupants. That takes a lot of commitment and a few screws loose.

Most of us have enough problems worrying about our own futures, let alone those of our fellows.

Second, what exactly does a government do? Effectively, not a lot, but that’s a good thing. Most times. Think about all the things you could do with a large amount of resources and the authority to make decisions. Now think about how many of those things would be good for everyone, everywhere, at all times. Not as many as you would expect.

The way I look at it, if a government doesn’t do much it’s because they’re really busy making sure terrible things don’t happen. And they don’t happen very often.

Third, why do we need government?

Remember all those things I asked you to think about before? Without a government you would be completely free to do those things. I mean, you are free to do them now, but without government there would be no one to stop you.

Where do the police get their funding?

Public payroll, managed by government. Same as hospitals and public schools. And that’s not even mentioning the multitudes of other public works all overseen by government. Would you want to manage that? If you would, then consider a career in politics.

Fourth, what would we do without government? Well, we wouldn’t have some convenient figurehead to hang the albatross of blame upon. Take for example, George W. Bush. He was a great president in the manner of how easy he was to blame. Almost every terrible thing going on currently can be attributed to Bush in some way. He is perhaps the most blameable world leader in recent times, just behind Dick Cheney and war criminals. If we didn’t have those guys to point fingers at, we may have to point fingers at each other, or, god help us, the people actually responsible.

Let’s face it, people, government takes a huge stress off of ourselves. They cause us a lot of stress too, don’t get me wrong, but it could so easily be so much worse. If you’re one of those people who thinks government is the worst thing to happen to civilization, you’re not wrong, but you’re not right either. Consider it the classic ‘devil you know’ scenario.

Want to know who else could be running the show? Unless your answer is ‘me; I could run the show’ then sit down and be thankful that someone else is putting up with all the bureaucratic nonsense on your behalf. The least you could do is vote. leahys112@mytru.ca

Give us your words!

We’ve got room for you. If you’ve got an opinion on a weekly basis, why not pitch it to us and put it on paper?

Politics? Social issues? Student life?

Tell us all about it and you might find yourself on this very page. If you’re interested in hearing more, write to editor@truomega.ca.

4

NEWS

February 25, 2015

Ringing in the Year of the Goat Celebrating luck, happiness and good health at TRU Ashley Wadhwani ISSUES EDITOR Ω

Chúc mung năm moi! Feb. 19 marked the Lunar New Year, more commonly known as Tet to the Vietnamese community, celebrating the year of the goat. The Lunar New Year is based on the lunisolar calendar, celebrating the first full moon of the New Year and usually falls between January and February.

On Feb. 21, students in the Vietnamese club took a break from studying for midterms to celebrate with the rest of the Kamloops Vietnamese community and other TRU students in the central residence hall at McGill. The night included games, a buffet style dinner and performances of singing and dancing organized by the Vietnamese club with help from TRU World. The food included traditional spring rolls, barbecue chicken, fried rice and bánh tét for dessert – sticky rice wrapped around mung bean and pork.

Lunar New Year is celebrated over the course of a few days to a week. For Lisa Nguyen, third-year sociology student, the celebration is a time for family.

“We cleaned out our house entirely, and we celebrated by making lots and lots of food to put on the Buddha,” Nguyen said. “So things like green vegetables, which represent wealth, we want to eat red beans to protect away from bad spirits and mom makes a kind of sweet dessert so that you can stay sweet the whole year around.”

The night was filled with games for the younger attendees with the winning prizes being “lucky money” in red en-

velopes. These red envelopes are traditionally given to children after they wish a happy New Year to their parents and grandparents.

“Traditionally they would get money, and the money specifically would either have special numbers or be brand new and that would signify brand new luck and hopefully a brand new start for your New Year,” Nguyen said.

Children and young adults pay particular attention expressing their appreciation to their parents. While for some international students that means a phone call to their relatives back home, Tuan Nguyen got the chance to sing while playing the guitar for his mom who was visiting from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. By the end of his performance the crowd was in tears.

Tracy To, TRU alumna and the MC for the night, sang “Hello Vietnam” originally written by Johnny Wright.

“It’s a great opportunity to introduce Vietnamese culture to all TRU students and staff,” To said on the event. “By organizing the event we hope to increase the identity of the Vietnamese community at TRU.” As 2015 marks the year of the goat, this year is extra special for anyone born in 1979 and 1991. According to Viet Horoscopes, those born in the year of the goat are level-headed and easily pleased.

“In the Vietnamese horoscope, the goat people enjoy the comforts of having great friends and an amiable relationship at work. They are not born leaders, but they make excellent members. They have smart opinions, which they willingly share to achieve success for the group,” advises Viet Horoscope.

Top: Do Thu Thao sings a happy new year song with parents and friends at the TRU Lunar New Year event held on Feb. 19.

Bottom: To Duo’ng Nga (Tracy) sings “Hello Vietnam.”

(Kim Anderson/The Omega)

Law conference speakers on the defensive after accusations of racism Alexis Stockford NEWS EDITOR Ω

Two speakers invited to TRU’s student-run law conference found themselves at the centre of a controversy over their chosen subject matter, with some calling their material racist and anti-aboriginal.

“Everyone knew about our book, Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry,” said Frances Widdowson, a faculty member at Mount Royal University.

“We took the wording that we used in discussions out of the book. So it’s really not very credible for the organizers to be claiming that there was this huge surprise as to what we were talking about.”

Widdowson and her partner, Albert Howard, were originally scheduled to take part in a panel discussion on Feb. 4, but were given a slot to themselves when there were scheduling issues.

The pair had been invited to speak on what they call “the aboriginal industry” – made up of professionals (many of whom are lawyers) who they claim siphon money from services in aboriginal communities to fund claim negotiations. Widdowson also argued that, “often the legal

profession, in its pursuit of aboriginal rights, promotes various aboriginal traditions that are not suited to satisfying aboriginal needs today.”

According to James Wegener, TRU Society of Law Students (SLS) vice-president external, the two had, in fact, been asked to speak on “the aboriginal industry,” but the talk shifted into the pair’s personal views of aboriginal people in general.

“This, all of a sudden, took it out of even an academic context,” Wegener said. “It was their own personal views.

They didn’t have any research on it and they said some things that people were really hurt about.”

Wegener called the pair’s comments “ignorant to aboriginal people” and said they included how rape culture was ingrained in aboriginal culture as well as general comments on aboriginal traditions.

Widdowson confirmed that at one point she referred to traditional aboriginal medicine as “quackery.”

She later defended her words, saying “I use the word ‘quackery’ to refer to any practice pretending to be a medical treatment which is, in fact, not helpful to the patient and is unscientific.”

Widdowson used the recent case of Makayla Sault as an example. The

11-year-old from Ontario died in January after choosing to pursue traditional medicine rather than chemotherapy to combat her leukemia.

She also insisted that the comments made by Howard in regards to rape culture were not his own views, but quotes from a Northwest Territories judge used to highlight attitudes prevalent in the legal profession.

She denied that the pair used the talk to promote personal views.

History repeats

Last week was not the first time that Widdowson and Howard have been at the centre of controversy.

In 2008, Widdowson’s talk on the reserve system for the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) led to a heated argument. One audience member even asked Widdowson if she’d like to “take it outside,” according to a Maclean’s article the following year. Critics labelled the talk “hate speech” and the incident led to an investigation by the CPSA into the creation of a complaints process, Maclean’s reported.

Wegener said several people voiced concern about Widdowson and Howard speaking at TRU prior to the event, but TRU SLS decided to keep the two on the schedule since

the topic had value to law students.

“I think we made a mistake bringing them in,” he said. “I think that’s what we feel in hindsight. I think we put faith in them that maybe we shouldn’t have, given what other people have said.”

Academic Freedom

Since returning from TRU, Widdowson and Howard have contacted the Society of Academic Freedom and Scholarship to protest what they feel is censorship on the part of the university.

In response to a CBC interview in which TRU dean of law Brad Morse expressed concern over student discomfort during Widdowson and Howard’s presentation, Mark Mercer, a board of directors for the Society of Academic Freedom and Scholarship, said students who cannot discuss uncomfortable subjects are not yet “competent intellectuals.”

“Our job as educators is to help students to acquire the ability to hear and discuss ideas and proposals they intensely dislike and to acquire the ability to engage in discussion with people who endorse ideas or proposals they intensely dislike,” Mercer wrote. “We’re not to be concerned with their feelings of comfort, but in-

deed to help them to engage in intellectual pursuits especially when they are uncomfortable.”

Widdowson also said she is drafting a letter to TRU president Alan Shaver over the incident.

Wegener said he is not sure how TRU SLS has censored Widdowson and Howard, given that no move was made to interfere with their talk.

“We let them speak,” he said. “We had questions. It played out like a normal speaker period, it was just more uncomfortable.”

Not banned While early media reports claimed the two presenters were not welcome back at TRU, university administration has since called those reports false.

According to Wegener, the reports stemmed from a misinterpreted comment made by one of the society’s cochairs during an interview by CBC. “He was one of the people that was really upset and, for him, he was like ‘I just want to let people know that this wasn’t what I thought they were going to talk about and what they said wasn’t my beliefs,’” Wegener said.

Widdowson said she would like to return to TRU, but would not participate in another event run by the law school.

5

NEWS

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 21

Enhancement fund changes on the horizon

Students to get more say in spending of million-dollar fund

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Alexis Stockford NEWS EDITOR Ω

Students will see almost double the money after the $1.1-million Comprehensive University Enhancement Fund (CUEF) restructures at the beginning of April.

Under the new plan, funds will be divided into thirds, with onethird going to the university senate budgeting committee, onethird going to the undergraduate research (UREAP) program, and one-third managed by TRUSU to fund student events and initiatives (such as lectures or conferences).

Of the third given to TRUSU, $15,000 will go to the Williams Lake campus student union.

Students pay $5.61 per credit into CUEF, one-quarter of non-tuition TRU fees, not counting lab

fees or those administered through TRUSU.

Hoping for “harder” money The change comes after a presentation made by TRUSU to the senate budget committee last March.

The union argued that CUEF lacked transparency, encouraged reliance on “soft” money outside of TRU’s budget and did not adequately fund actual student initiatives.

According to TRUSU president Dylan Robinson, the new plan increases transparency, since students will have more control through the union and student representatives on the senate research committee.

“By targeting the vast majority of CUEF funds to direct student ini-

tiatives and having the administration of that fund managed by students, it will really kind of clear up that vagueness that was present in previous iterations of the Comprehensive University Enhancement Fund and ensure that the fees and the monies that students are paying into the fund are actually used to directly benefit student activities on campus,” Robinson said.

In an email to The Omega, TRU VP of finance Matt Milovick added that set divisions would add consistency in how the fund is allocated, making it less “soft.”

Created in 2005, CUEF was originally meant to help the then University College of the Cariboo

transition into a university by expanding available programs and student opportunities.

The current CUEF steering committee includes two TRU administrators appointed by the budget committee, two faculty members nominated by TRUFA and four students appointed by TRUSU. Faculty members must be approved by the budget committee.

Stirring the pot

With about $737,000 set to become directly available to students, CUEF funds for strategic investment will drop significantly.

“Reallocations always create an impact,” Milovick said of the issue.

“At this time, it’s too early to say

who or what areas may not receive a CUEF allocation and where or if the university’s budget can support an allocation to those areas.”

TRUSU’s allocation of CUEF funds will be managed alongside its current student grants through an application process similar to what is already in place.

Robinson added that no new TRUSU positions will be created to handle the influx of money.

“The students’ union already administers a lot of granting requests for clubs and campus groups, and I don’t anticipate much will change in that process with the management of the CUEF portion of the fund,” he said.

Students looking for CUEF funds after the end of March should apply through the student union.

Attempted legislature bombing trial underway John Nuttall and wife Amanda Korody accused in 2013 attempts Angela Espinoza

THE OTHER PRESS (CUP)

The trial over an attempted bombing at B.C.’s legislature on Canada Day 2013 has been underway since February 10.

The accused are married couple John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, who conspired in the bomb plot.

They have a total of four terrorism-related charges against them, with the case taking place in B.C. Supreme Court.

On July 1, 2013, the couple left several “pressure-cooker” bombs on the front lawn outside legislature.

Nuttall and Korody’s plans were revealed after discussion of their plan was recorded on video in an undercover RCMP vehicle. In the video, Nuttall expressed concerns over being followed by undercover police, as well as various steps in putting his and Korody’s plans into action. Purchases of various materials at hardware stores were necessary to build their explosive

device, which was also discussed on video.

Other possible bombing attempts discussed in recordings, CBC revealed, included Victoria-based attacks of a passenger ferry, the popular foot-traffic area around the now-closed wax museum, and “storming” a naval base.

Korody also revealed vital information of the bomb plot to an undercover RCMP on a separate occasion, with the National Post reporting that she stated, “We know that if we do this, we’re going to get shot, we’re going to get killed.”

The couple recognized themselves as “extremist Muslim,” and were planning more than one attack on Canada Day in Victoria.

In another recorded statement, Nuttall stated, “I just wanted justice. … When 9/11 happened, I became really interested with these people.” The April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing was also named as an “inspiration” for Nuttall.

Reportedly Nuttall attempted to

conspire with other B.C. residents who identified as Muslim, several of whom CBC reports called police as a result.

Police investigation took several months as the couple organized the planned attack.

The National Post also revealed that numerous conversations with Nuttall and Korody were recorded during the investigation, much of which has since been played in court.

RCMP went so far as to fabricate a story on a “chemical scare” in the Surrey area of which the couple resided to bug their home.

Since the video recordings have been shown in court, Nuttall and Korody have been recognized as recovering heroin addicts facing financial difficulties at the time of the attempted bombing. Nuttall had also only recently converted to the Muslim religion prior to planning the attacks.

Despite the evidence, Nuttall and Korody are currently pleading “not guilty” on the count of attempted terrorism.

The B.C. legislature seen on Canada Day, 2009. (daryl_mitchell/Flickr Commons)

6

ARTS

February 25, 2015

MARCH EVENT LISTINGS ON CAMPUS, AROUND KAMLOOPS March 5 to 14 – Kamloops Film Festival, Paramount Theatre

March 5 to 6 – The Vagina Monologues, Coast Conference Centre

With 15 different films showing in 10 days, this year’s schedule is filled with a selection of drama, comedy, documentary and biography. TRU students get in for $5 with a valid student I.D. plus a one-time $2 Kamloops Film Society membership fee.

More info: www.kamloopsfilmfest.ca

A collection of interviews with women on their relationship with their vaginas, the stories will be read out loud by local women with portions of ticket sales benefitting the Kamloops Sexual Assault Centre and Kamloops Women’s Resource Centre.

Tickets are $15 for students. Show starts at 8 p.m.

March 7 – Comedy for a Cause, Cactus Jacks

March 12 – Live at TRU! Eh 440, Clock Tower Alumni Theatre

Laugh with comedians James Ball and Ryan Paterson in support of the MS Society, Kamloops and area chapter.

This show may contain material that some audience members may find offensive and discretion is advised.

Tickets are $35 and this is a 19+ event. Show begins at 6:30 p.m.

March 15 – TRU Powwow,TRU Gymnasium Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend the annual TRU Powwow performance featuring local and regional talent. Drumming, dancing and singing will be presented. There will be performances at 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. The event is free.

The Toronto-based group visits TRU for some a cappella fun with their debut album Turn Me Up. The group of five includes three lead and backing vocalists, one bass vocalist and one beatboxer. The performance is free and starts at 12:30 p.m.

March 20 – Let It Be: A celebration of the music of The Beatles, Interior Savings Centre Sing along to all your Beatles favorites presented

by Annerin Productions. Tickets start at $69. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Visit Ticketmaster for details.

Why I looked up to Mulan more than all the other Disney princesses combined Ashley Wadhwani

GRANDMOTHER FA Ω

Forget Rapunzel, locked away in her tower or Cinderella misplacing her shoe; based on ancient China, Mulan is a story of a female warrior.

While the Disney princesses are left in singular plots’ surrounding their love quarrels with their princes, Mulan is the original Amanda Bynes in She’s The Man, but way more badass with swords and explosives.

Mulan doesn’t fit into the expectations everyone has for her.

She hates baths and doesn’t see the point in impressing the matchmaker yet tries so hard to not bring dishonour to her family. Disney could have focused on this plot alone but no, Mulan has crazier problems to worry about than the lack of men in her life – Fa Zhou, Mulan’s dad has been recruited to fight for China against the almighty evil Huns.

Mulan is terrified, and thus we have the seed being planted to what is the greatest father-daughter movie of all time.

See, Zhou is unfit to go into battle with a bad leg. He’s also too proud, so when Mulan begs him not to go they argue and the greatest

rainy sorrow scene with the most intense soundtrack I’ve ever heard happens. Mulan decides to do the unthinkable: cut her hair, take her father’s armour, and ride her horse to the army base. If you’re like me and someone who can put her hair in a bun and be mistaken for a boy, you’ll understand why Mulan is so relatable and cool.

Let’s not forget about the adorably sassy animals that support Mulan along the way: the cutest animated dog in the world Little Brother, her lucky cricket Crikee, her horse Khan and her closest companion Mushu, a Chinese dragon and the sassiest of them all.

It’s been said that animals pick up on kind hearts and good vibes and Mulan has more animal best friends than even the Little Mermaid.

At camp, a group of misfits befriends Mulan and finds a way into our hearts. They may not be great singers or tough fighters but they have spunk – even my dad cracked up a few times, and my dad does not crack up.

At the base, Mulan also meets the sexy hunk Li Shang. Of course she’s pretending to be a boy and can’t show her attraction to him, so instead she impresses him by climbing up a poll with weights and later

saves his life when they are confronted by the Huns. Unfortunately, he finds out Mulan is in fact a girl and by Emperor’s law she is punishable to death. Li Shang spares her life with the simple phrase “a life for a life.” CHILLS! Mulan is left on the mountain where she discovers the Huns are moving closer to the Emperor’s palace and decides she has to save the country. “Let’s go kick some hunny-buns!” Huns, hunny-buns, get it?

She teams up with her fellow misfits and has a crazy fight with the Huns nasty leader Shan Yu on the top of a building and uses her fan to pin and kill him. At the end of the day she gets to bring home nasty Shan Yu’s sword and the Emperor’s medallion. Her father is so proud, but more importantly, relieved and happy to have his daughter back in his arms. At this point, you either have something in your eye or are like me and flat-out balling.

In the final moments of the movie, the Mulan who was told she’d never get a man, has the sexiest most honourable man in all of China show up at her door. Way to go Mulan. This movie is the perfect mix of action, adventure and comedy and a movie that will always make me miss my dad back home.

March 6 – Mosaic Fashion Show, TRU CAC Multiple TRUSU clubs present styles and ensembles from local clothing and consignment stores. Also includes music by Leah Nakita and TRU Dance, followed by an after party (location TBA). Tickets available at the TRUSU desk or online at www. eventbrite.ca. $10 for students. Pre-show begins at 6 p.m. with doors closed for the 8 p.m. show.

March 12 to 15 – Annual Cowboy Festival Throw your cowboy boots on and join the celebration of western heritage in Kamloops. Being the 19th anniversary, this year showcases cowboy poetry and western music, cowboy artwork and artisans. For more information and ticket prices visit www.bcchs. com.

March 20 to 21 – Mostly Marley, Blue Grotto Stop by for a cold one and some chill reggae tunes.

The four-man group will be covering Bob Marley classics and other great soundtracks. Cover charge is $5 and is 21+. Doors open at 8 p.m.

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 21

7

8

February 25, 2015

ARTS

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 21

9

Accessing Shakespeare: AWT’s “As You Like It” coming soon Kim Anderson ARTS EDITOR Ω

For non-theatre buffs, the mere thought of Shakespeare can be intimidating. The antiquated language and bad memories of having it drilled into your head in high school English courses combine to frighten the unfamiliar away from the Bard.

Students from the Actors Workshop Theatre and director Heidi Verwey have been working over the last two months to make the most famous playwright of all time more accessible to students and the general public with their latest production, “As You Like It.” The play will run at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 to 28 and March 5 to 7. Matinees are Friday Feb. 27 and March 6, both at 11:30 a.m.

Verwey is very aware of how inaccessible Shakespeare can be at times and directed her students in a way that combats that stigma. “[I instructed them to] play this for the person in the audience who doesn’t get it. If you can engage someone who wasn’t in the beginning, then we’ve made something,” Verwey said.

The two lead roles are played by fourth-year students Jessica Buchanan, as Rosalin, and Josh Sunderman, as Orlando.

Both actors experienced challenges with the text of the play and learning their lines. Once they mastered the lines, the next obstacle was navigating and acting within a “theatre in the round,” a unique stage layout that features audience seating on four sides of the stage. “[We are] preforming in the round. We know that not everyone can see our faces.

You have to find a way to emote without facing everyone,” Sunderman said.

While Sunderman cited the round as one of his biggest challenges, Buchanan enjoyed the layout.

“I find theatre in the round kind of freeing. Especially since it’s Shakespeare. The audience can see the whole picture – they aren’t missing out on stuff. You get to see Shakespeare in its entirety. It’s quite fun and a little dangerous,” Buchanan said.

During rehearsal, Verwey made sure the actors were on point with their expressions by moving around and viewing the play from every part of the

Left: Josh Sunderman on stage. Above: Krystine Lucas, Jessica Buchanan during rehearsal on Feb. 23. (Kim Anderson/The Omega)

seating area.

The culmination of two months’ work and nightly rehearsals has finally come together.

“It’s really exciting. That one point in rehearsal when you say the line right, the lights are on and you have that moment, of, ‘yeah, I just killed that.’ You get the physicality right, the line right, you get the expression right; you know you look good. When it all comes together, that’s the most rewarding [part],” Buchanan said.

Many of the actors did “double duties” in this show, according to Verwey.

Maddi Hartloff and Kaliey Clark are

both in the production, and created the costumes. Two of the assistant stage managers have roles as well. All of this combined effort has resulted in a “truly ensemble piece,” Verwey said.

“These two are the leads. They should be the be all and end all of romantic leads, but they are just such good team players, they let everyone else play,” Verwey said of Buchanan and Sunderman.

“As You Like It” features the main love story of Rosalin and Orlando and many other side relationships. This play encompasses all types of relationships, familial and romantic, and at its

core, it is simply about love.

Why should students spend a romantic evening in the round, experiencing Shakespeare?

“It’s still relevant, with universal themes [of ] love, gender dynamics and family relationships. Just because it’s Shakespeare, it shouldn’t draw people away. He is as important and well known for a reason,” Sunderman said.

“I can’t think of a reason not to. It’s Shakespeare, it’s set in the 60’s, it’s fun.

You get to learn things. You get to see parts of other people’s lives, and maybe your own life, unfold right in front of you,” Buchanan said.

A conversation with the ProgDog, Jason Bermiller Kim Anderson ARTS EDITOR Ω

Ever wonder if your professor is leading a double life? TRU’s own Jason Bermiller is a communications and English instructor by day, but once a week, he takes the airwaves at CFBX as the ProgDog. Bermiller has a background in music, part of which stems from being a professional DJ in Toronto for many years and through volunteer work with radio.

“I’ve been involved in announcing and music for a very long time. This was an opportunity to host a show in one my favourite forms of music,” Bermiller said.

His genre of choice, as his show name suggests, is progressive music – hard to contain in just one genre.

“The problem with any genre is that there is always crossover. I don’t even know how many subgenres of progressive music there are. The whole form was invented by Paul McCartney with Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band,” Bermiller said.

Progressive music differs from rock and roll in many ways. Progressive music tends to be a bit longer with odd time signatures and use of unique bass lines.

“Instead of using a blues bass line, like most rock and roll, it will use ei-

ther a classical, jazz or world motif,” Bermiller said.

Most people will think of older bands when discussing progressive music, but hundreds of contemporary bands like Porcupines, Opeth and Rush are still producing it today.

As far as the driving force behind progressive music, it is exactly as its title suggests, artists are trying to move forward, to progress the form.

“They were trying to progress the music to become more than rock and roll. They were trying to expand it.

There is only so far you can go with rock and roll. At a certain point it caps out and dries up. With any other form of music there are limitations to what it can achieve. I don’t see that with progressive, I see it continuing and expanding,” Bermiller said.

He has no problem filling his lengthy two-hour time slot. Once, Bermiller played just five songs over two hours, with one song clocking in at a whopping 59 minutes.

Because of his show, Bermiller has been able to interview giants in the music industry – icons like Ian Anderson, Roger Glover and John Wetton.

“I got into the habit of being silly enough to ask [for an interview],” Bermiller said.

Discussing the current popularity of EDM, Bermiller likens it to a trend and thinks that popular music is cycli-

cal and eventually “ears will get tired.”

“I don’t believe that people have good taste or bad taste in music. I think people have taste or they don’t,” Bermiller said.

When he plays songs on air, he doesn’t need to read the CD cover to know the vital stats of who wrote it, produced it and band members’ names.

His breadth of knowledge of musicians and artists comes from his time as a DJ. After his shifts at the radio station back in Toronto, Bermiller would cash his cheque and head straight to the new and used record store. All the production information is listed on the record package.

The commercial music market is vastly different today. With the digital shift of music sales, consumers aren’t being given that information readily anymore when they purchase individual songs or albums online.

“YouTube isn’t going to teach you.

It might expose you to different music, but you won’t learn. iTunes? What is iTunes going to show you? It’ll show you the top hits. It’s billboard driven,” Bermiller said.

Bermiller believes that CFBX is vital and unique to TRU and the Kamloops community as a whole.

“CFBX is very, very important.

I can’t tell you how vital it is in this community. CFBX is the only place you’ll hear real radio. This is what ra-

Jason Bermiller, or ProgDog, hosts a weekly show on CFBX. (Kim Anderson/The Omega)

dio used to be,” Bermiller said.

“Radio used to be people speaking to people, choosing the music themselves. Every programmer at this station chooses his or her own music.”

While CFBX does sell and feature ads, the ads-to-content ratio is far lower than commercial radio stations.

Most importantly, each week there is different content being aired, not just the billboard hits.

“Commercial radio sounds dead – rightfully so, because all it is is wallpaper for commercials to be aired,” Bermiller said.

Looking ahead, CFBX is hosting several different fundraisers for sta-

tion improvements, one of which is their annual record fair.

“We are looking at moving our transmitter. It’s going to cost several thousand dollars, but it will give a much better sound to the city. We are not a rich place, we run on a very tight budget,” Bermiller said.

Music is an outlet and a form of therapy to many. For Bermiller, it’s not only a longtime passion and an area of expertise, but a creative outlet.

“It is my Monday night sanity break,” Bermiller said.

Listeners can catch the ProgDog on CFBX on Monday evenings from 5 to 7 p.m. on 92.5 FM.

10

THE OMEGA

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Richard Sullivan Second-year business student

Favourite Subway sandwich Sweet onion chicken teriyaki, a few onions, some of those bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and some light mayo + sweet onion.

Win-loss ratio in Roll-up the Rim? One for seven.

Spirit animal? And why?

A lion. I had a lion doll when I was little and then I heard Richard the Lion-Hearted from Robin Hood.

What makes you swipe right?

Well I deleted Tinder, since I met a special someone. I met her in person, though through a friend.

Dream celebrity to meet, and what would you do?

Anthony Hopkins, and a staring contest. I heard that in the Silence of the Lambs he doesn’t blink once.

February 25, 2015

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 21

11

Apps of the week: Find a craft brew, use your smarts and dodge a useless app Ryan Turcot

SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR Ω

Untappd

iOS, Android, Blackberry I’m not judging you if you’re a devoted Bud Light fan – actually, I am – but if you’re ready to take the leap into the world of craft beers, it helps to at least sound like you know what you’re ordering. The transition can be intimidating, after all.

Untappd lets you “drink socially” by combining a Facebook-esque news feed with a Yelp-like rating system. The feed is split into three categories: friends, global and nearby. If you’re join-

ing some friends for a night out, use the app to find out what they’re drinking. If you don’t trust your friends’ judgment, go with a tried-and-true beer reviewed by the global Untappd community (and maybe consider making new friends.)

Untappd is also great if you’re travelling for the weekend and want to know what’s popular in [insert destination here]. For example, I was in Revelstoke over the reading break, and I found out that Mt. Begbie Brewery’s “Tall Timber Ale” is trending in the local pubs there. Speaking of local breweries and pubs, Untappd also helps you find them, although I’m pretty sure this task already comes easy to the average college student.

If we all start tapping into the power of this app, does it still warrant the name “Untappd?” I’m not sure but you should try it anyways.

Trivia Crack iOS, Android

This is one of the latest games to blow up the app stores. Trivia Crack pits you against your Face-

book friends and other randoms from the internet as you race to outsmart each other.

The main interface is a wheel that you spin – it wouldn’t be out of place in a board game – and stops on one of six categories: geography, science, history, art, entertainment or sports. You land on a category and answer a related multiple choice question. These questions are all user-submitted – this feature keeps the game fresh and is a good idea in my opinion.

Unfortunately, Trivia Crack overzealously asks you to rate the questions after you answer them.

Every. Single. One. An otherwise rapid-fire trivia spree becomes slow and choppy as a result. Worse yet are the ads if you’re too cheap to buy the “no ads” version. They

will interrupt you occasionally and slow your experience even further.

Trivia Crack also integrates aggressively into Facebook and your phone’s operating system. It tries to publish your scores to Facebook unless you opt out, and I found I got a lot of unnecessary notifications on my phone until I disabled them.

The concept behind the game is great, but I feel the user experience needs to be refined. It’s still playable though, and it’s a welcome, intellectually stimulating change from mental junk food games like Flappy Bird or Crossy Road.

Autodesk 123D Catch iOS, Android

The idea behind this app is ambitious and seems like something out of a sci-fi film. You use your phone to take a series of photos of a subject – ideally revolving around your subject – then this app stitches them together into an interactive 3D model that can be shared online and even 3D printed!

Or that’s what it promises to do.

When I tried it, I snapped about 25 photos then spent the next half hour waiting for my phone to stitch them together before getting impatient, realizing I had better things to do with my life and giving up.

As it turns out, the app sends these photos to a cloud-based server that does all the heavy lifting so your phone doesn’t have to.

This makes sense in theory, as our phones probably aren’t ideal for the heavy-duty computing associated with 3D modelling, but you better have a Wi-Fi connection if you use this. It will waste a lot of data!

There’s also a PC version of this app, which might work better.

I’m not sure, but the mobile app doesn’t seem to be worth it, not on Android, anyways. Maybe it works better on iOS.

Drone startup spreads wings as TRU Generator opens doors TRU students, alumni launch aerial imaging company Hummingbird Drones Ryan Turcot

SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR Ω

Last summer, a car ride from Dease Lake to Smithers was business as usual for two TRU students – both wildfire fighters at the time – until they struck up idle conversation.

Robert Atwood and Richard Sullivan began talking about remote control vehicles and drone aircrafts. The topic was as routine as their commute, but this particular road trip took an interesting turn when the duo spontaneously decided they wanted to start their

own aerial drone company.

“By the time we got down to Smithers, we stopped in at The Source, bought this $400 drone and immediately crashed it,” Atwood recalled. “That was essentially the birth of Hummingbird Drones.”

For the past year, Atwood and Sullivan have been working to install cameras and proprietary software onto drones – the end goal being to provide cost-efficient mapping and research solutions for workers in the natural resource, agriculture and oil and gas industries.

“Hummingbird Drones is an

aerial imaging, remote sensing and software development company,” Atwood said. “We do a lot of work with surveying, mapping and data acquisition from the air.”

In late December, two new recruits, Jay Bell and Aaren RitchieBonar, joined the team.

Bell, a TRU computing science alumnus, is spearheading Hummingbird’s software development.

He said that the company’s big focus right now is on thermal imaging software.

“The drone will capture video over the span of a field,” he said. “Then the software will go through the video and create a

TRU Generator opens, boosts startups like Hummingbird Around the same time that Hummingbird Drones was starting up, TRU enterprise creation director Lincoln Smith was working on a project of his own: the TRU Generator.

The TRU Generator is a startup incubator and workspace in the House of Learning basement, closely modelled after existing incubators at other universities, like the e@ UBC incubator at UBC, according to Smith.

TRU received a $50,000 grant from the BC Innovation Council (BCIC) last April to build the TRU Generator, according to TRU’s website. Events like H4CK Night and Startup Coffee have been running in the workspace since May, but Smith said the actual TRU Generator program officially launched this semester.

“Eight students split among four companies are now using the Generator to build their own startups,” Smith explained. “They applied to be part of the program last fall, and it started in January.”

Students in the TRU Generator program receive business mentorship, online business education and access to a physical workspace where they can hold meetings.

“We don’t really have a strong background in business right now, so the Generator really progressed our ability to function as a company,” Atwood said. “They’ve been a huge supporter of what we’re doing.”

“The biggest benefit hasn’t been the classroom space or the business courses though,” Ritchie-Bonar added. “It has actually been the mentorship provided to us from the Generator.”

Smith said his vision for Generator is to encourage “collisions” between students with entrepreneurial ideas and students with the business savvy and technical know-how needed to implement them.

“My dream goal is for every student at TRU to have the chance and develop the skill to evaluate a startup idea,” he said.

Smith, who also serves as the Kamloops Innovation Centre’s executive director, also sees potential for crossover between the Generator and Innovation Centre.

“I believe that new innovative businesses can be started at TRU, then continue to be fostered in Kamloops,” he said. “My vision is to see students taking degrees that let them build innovative businesses, graduate, then work with Kamloops Innovation to grow business in our region.”

single thermal map out of it.”

The map can display the heat signatures of anything ranging from cattle and wildlife to oil spills and wildfires, according to Bell, depending on what parameters are entered into the software. Additionally, the software provides GPS coordinates for the detected objects.

“If we can just fly up somewhere with a drone and get this info, it really saves people a lot of time, money and effort in acquiring that data.

“If you fly a drone equipped with a thermal camera over a farmer’s field of crops, you can determine the health of those crops by their thermal signature,” he said.

According to Atwood, crops will emit different wavelengths depending on the type and quality of photosynthesis in their leaves.

“The software especially helps with the wildfires,” Bell added.

“Because if it’s thermal intensity is super high, that needs to be dealt with right away. But if the heat signature suggests there’s only a 15 per cent chance it’s a fire, you know you can prioritize other spots over that one.”

According to Bell, the whole mapping process can be automated, too.

“We can set a drone up to have a landing pad that automatically charges it, kind of like those wireless chargers that are coming out for smartphones. Then we can set up the drone to automatically fly a set path every day at a specific time.”

“I’d say we have a lot of momentum going here,” Bell said.

“We haven’t seen any profit yet, as we haven’t really started our contracts, but we have been cementing relationships in the past weeks with a number of large engineering and environmental companies in town.”

Jay Bell, Aaren Ritchie-Bonar, Robert Atwood and Richard Sullivan (Ryan Turcot/The Omega)

185

by Sean Brady

games 112 in CIS played > Basketball, volleyball and soccer

55

WINS

MEN

7 9

54

LONGEST

A B M P U F

R E

LOSSES

LOSING STREAK

LONGEST

WINNING STREAK

48

SETS WON

SETS LOST

STANDOUT PLAYER

>

1,449.5

Brad Gunter #1 kills per set (4.57)

WB

TOTAL POINTS

FINISHED 7TH

WOMEN LAST

SEASON:

0-22

THIS

SEASON:

1 set won, 67 sets lost

10-14

TOP PERFORMERS #2 in kills (405) and kills per set (4.6)

Y E

#4 with 9.05 assists per set

L L

9TH PLACE FINISH

ES S AM M G A 24 3 TE 1

O V

ES S M A G EAM 20 7 T 1

K S

A B

L L

18-2

106-58

MOST DECISIVE VICTORY, VS. UBCO

SEASON RECORD 541 BASKETS 1,494 SHOTS 36.2%, 13TH IN THE LEAGUE

MEN

C C

O S

WOMEN

ES AM S G AM 12 TE 14

R E

STANDOUT PLAYER

A B

T E

N

5

2

wins

8

goals

losses

2

>

A B

Iuliia Pakhomenko

15 4 N 1 20 ASO SE

L L

40 sets won, 55 sets lost

Kara Twomey

LHE

OY T

45

K C S

Travis Froehlich 81 saves

ties

on the season

113 shots

WOMEN

9 0

RECORD 1-10-1 goals goals AT HOME

AWAY

1,458 home attendance

#1

3rd best in Canada West (total)

SHOTS PER GAME

#1 IN EXPLORER DIVISION, BEST WIN PERCENTAGE IN LEAGUE (0.900)

MEN

★

STAR PLAYER

JOSH WOLFRAM #3 IN THREE POINTERS 18 POINTS PER GAME

#1 Turnovers per game

11-9 ON THE SEASON 3RD IN EXPLORER DIVISION 1,566 points on the season (#8)

581 BASKETS 1,388 SHOTS 41.9%, 11TH IN THE LEAGUE

75.9% on freethrows (#2 overall)

SPORTS

The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 21

13

Building sports law at TRU

TRU home to niche law expert who now wants to expand the university’s law offerings Tayla Scott

SPORTS EDITOR Ω

Associate dean of law Jon Heshka created and teaches two sports law courses at TRU, which is more than any other Canadian university offers, and he’s not stopping there. In the next few years, he plans to create a centre for excellence in sports law and make a sports law certificate available at the university.

Coming to TRU was “almost too good to be true” for Heshka, who

started as an adventure studies professor in 2002. It was a position he was well suited for, having lived an adventurous lifestyle.

After graduating high school in Winnipeg, Heshka moved to Brazil and played semi-pro volleyball for a year. It was there he had his first taste of worldly adventure, but it certainly wasn’t his last.

Between pursuing a bachelor’s degree in science and in arts, a master’s degree in education and in law, Heshka has had multiple careers relating to adventure sport. He worked

as a climbing guide at Canada West Mountain School and as a search and rescue co-ordinator for the Justice Institute of British Columbia.

“In 1989 I began the first of a series of big mountain climbing expeditions.

That took me to South America three times, then Europe and what was then the Soviet Union, Alaska and the Yukon,” Heshka said. “In the late ‘80s, I could see that adventure and climbing was where I was destined.”

Heshka helped rescue other climbers on almost every big mountain expedition he went on.

Jon Heshka, an expert in adventure law, plans to create a sports centre for excellence and sports certificate at TRU (Tayla Scott/The Omega)

“Sometimes you’d be hanging out at base camp or at a high camp and someone would come staggering in saying they need help. Other times you could see it actually taking place.

And other times you would come across the body and need to evacuate it,” Heshka said.

Heshka’s interest, experience and education in extreme sports liability law and risk management has made him one of the few experts on the subject in Canada and the United States.

He has written over 50 articles about extreme sports and has been hired as an expert witness around the world in cases involving adventure sport risk management. He has also worked as a consultant for municipal, provincial and national levels of Canadian government regarding risk management.

Today, Heshka is focused on building sports law opportunities for the students at TRU. “We have two courses in sports law. No other Canadian university has two. For those universities that do offer something in it, it’s always combined with entertainment law,” Heshka said. “[Students] will certainly have a leg up in approaching any professional, semi-pro or amateur franchise.”

“I’d like to build up other courses or modules so that, if a person takes [both courses], they can be rounded out with a certificate in sports law,” Heshka said.

It’s Heshka’s goal to have a certificate created for students who take sports law courses, although it is too early to say if this will definitely be the form in which students receive recognition.

Heshka also plans to start a centre of excellence in sports law in the next few years. This will provide mentoring and training in sports law practices.

“There would be some research opportunities that come along with it and publishing opportunities not just with ourselves here, but elsewhere, for students and faculty,” Heshka said.

One the students who learned sports law under Heshka is Mitchell Smith, a third-year law student.

“The class centered around liability and his expertise within the actual law and we did a big section on doping,” Smith said.

“He’s probably one of the most approachable profs. It’s kind of nice to get his ear because he’s actually so busy as associate dean,” Smith said.

“He would be approachable with any ideas or if you had a draft ready he’d be more than helpful to have it read and provide feedback.”

Smith has an interest in hockey and enjoys coaching youth teams. He was glad for the chance to incorporate his law studies with his interest in sports.

So far Heshka has had roughly 20 students enrolled in each sports law course. He would like to see that number rise in the future.

“Sport itself is ubiquitous, that is, it’s everywhere. It’s the oxygen we breathe. When you combine the ubiquity of sport from amateur to professional levels and the amount of money at play, it almost creates the perfect conditions for there to be conflict. And where there’s conflict, there are lawyers,” Heshka said. “So why is sports law important? Because there’s a market demand for it.”

Men’s basketball sweep first playoff weekend

Hard-won game sends WolfPack men further than ever before in playoffs Tayla Scott

SPORTS EDITOR Ω

Last year, the WolfPack men’s basketball team made it to the playoffs for the first time in history, only to lose in the first round of post-season play. This year, the team was happy to make it one step further when they defeated the University of Winnipeg Wesmen and won their first ever play-in series.

The ‘Pack defeated the Wesmen on Friday, Feb. 19 by eight points and won narrowly (by one point) on the following night.

Both the ‘Pack and the Wesmen were fighting to stay in the playoffs, which made for an intense Saturday night, with scoring to match.

“We’re pretty confident that we’re able to handle battle-type games,” said captain Reese Pribilsky.

“We just think that if we can make it a close game in the last two minutes, we’re used to being in those situations and know we can be successful.”

Pribilsky scored the team’s last lay-up of the game, with 55 seconds left on the clock, to give the ‘Pack a 62-58 lead.

The Wesmen fought back but

came up one point short of the tie, losing 62-61.

“It’s great to get our first playoff wins as a CIS institution,” said head coach Scott Clark. “Winning a playoff series was quite big. I think the guys are really excited about continuing on this journey of the season.”

The win was particularly special for Joe Davis and Josh Mayorga, the two rookies who had to step up when forwards Tallon Milne and Josh Wolfram fouled out in the fourth quarter.

“I think it’s pretty special for them to be able to be out on the floor, but also it bodes well for us in the future that we have some guys that are ready to step up. “[Mayorga] had a couple of key baskets and key rebounds for us which really helped us secure the win,” Clark said.

The head coach said that it’s not uncommon for either Milne or Wolfram to foul out of a game, but it is unusual for them to both foul out in the same game.

Losing Milne and Wolfram was a blow, Pribilsky said, but the ‘Pack had home court advantage.

“The crowd was a big part of it.

They were loud and they gave us a

Reese Pribilsky, Josh Mayorga and Josh Wolfram celebrate after winning their first ever play-in series. (TRU Athletics)

bunch of momentum and a bunch of energy. It’s a huge advantage to be at home and have a crowd like that,” Pribilsky said.

The Wesmen’s loss takes them out of the playoffs and advances the

WolfPack to the quarter finals, where they will play against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies – the team that defeated the ‘Pack in their first round of post-season play last year.

“It would definitely feel good to

beat them and a little extra added because we lost to them last year,” Pribilsky said.

The ‘Pack heads to Saskatoon this weekend to try to advance through another playoff round.

14

COMICS & PUZZLES

February 25, 2015

C R O S S W O R D Ω From the world ofName: Dr. Seuss

Puzzle of the Week #16 – Grandma’s Oatmeal Cookies Grandma is making oatmeal cookies. She is making a batch of 36. To the basic recipe, she adds apple sauce, chocolate chips, and cinnamon in various combinations.

1. The numbers of cookies for one of the ingredient’s four combinations are consecutive e.g. 7, 8, 9, 10.

by Ashley Wadhwani 1

2

2. All of the apple sauce combination numbers are prime.

Name: Name:

3. The number of cookies with exactly two of the additional ingredients is as big as it can be.

4. The number of cookies that have chocolate chips is even.

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4

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7

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How many cookies are there in each of the combinations?

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5. Each combination of additional ingredients has a different number of cookies.

2

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7

10

This contest is sponsored by the Mathematics and Statistics department. The full-time student with the best score at the end of the year will win a prize.

Please submit your solution (not just the answer but also why) by noon next Wednesday to Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net>. Submissions by others are also welcome. The solution will be posted the Wednesday after that in my blog (http://genew.ca/) and in the Math Centre (HL304). Come visit: we are friendly.

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smbc-comics.com

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xkcd.com

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The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 21

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February 25, 2015