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T H O M P S O N R I V E R S U N I V E R S I T Y ' S I N D E P E N D E N T S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R
VOLUME 29 · ISSUE 01 · SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
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TRUSU OPENS EQUITY DISCUSSION
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PRIDE PARADE BRIGHTENS DOWNTOWN
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CFBX LAUNCHES VOLUNTEER DRIVE
Students thank TRU with a lively display of culture Cailyn Mocci EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω TRU and Kamloops welcomed the high school students of the International Islamic Education Council. Students thanked the community for the hospitality and experiences with a free cultural presentation called “Salingka Magari Ranah Minang: The Unique Culture of Minangkabau Indonesia”.
Each year, TRU partners with the International Islamic Education Council to bring students from Indonesia for 4-6 weeks to practice their English and learn more about Western culture, as well as sharing their own culture with Canadians. This concluded the sixth year that the IIEC partnered with TRU for this cultural experience. “Everyone has worked so hard to prepare for this amazing performance,” Lori De Frias, Associate
Director of TRU World, said, “It is not often that we get to see this free wonderful talent and we are very very fortunate to have them here.”
See Indonesian students Page 5
Indonesian students waved flags of both Indonesia and Canada as they finished yet another beautiful cultural performance in thanks for their time in Kamloops.(Cailyn Mocci/The Omega)
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NEWS
Kamloops Pride opens conversations on the community Panelists held honest conversations on where the community stands today Cailyn Mocci
SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
NOW
HIRING FOR SEPTEMBER START
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω Kamloops Pride made sure that within a week of celebration they held space for honest conversations of pride in the community with the Perspectives in Pride panel discussion. The event was moderated by TRU law professor and legal advocate for Transgender rights, Samuel Singer with panellists DJ Clark, Ahmad Danny Ramadan and Vessy Mochikas. All panellists came from different worlds but still came together with the same sentiment: less hate, more love. Mochikas, the District Principal of Inclusive Education for the school district 73, spoke of the growth schools have seen in the past years. One of the major initiatives introduced into the school curriculum would be SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity). “Students have the right to see themselves reflected in the curriculum,” Mochikas stated. It’s not uncommon for
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spiritual faith to collide with the LGBTQ2S+ community and DJ Clarke is a wonderful example of a congregation opening their doors with open and loving arms. Clarke’s a devout member of St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in which she will be marrying her fiance. Ramadan is a successful Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker and LGBTQ-refugees activist. His success did not
come easy but the Canadian literature scene is continuing to make the push towards prioritizing the voices of LGBTQ2S+ community. The panel took on the daunting task of what to do on behalf of the community as three individuals. All ideas revolved around the same notion that people are people and they deserve the same respect and safety as everyone else.
To apply, send your resumé and samples of your work (published or unpublished, academic work accepted) to editor@ truomega.ca. Positions will be filled as soon as possible. If a position is still posted on this page, applications are still being accepted. To be eligible for any of the above positions, you must be a student at Thompson Rivers University while you work. Students who will be employed by the TRU Students’ Union during their employment period may not be eligible to work for the newspaper in order to avoid any conflict of interest. Applicants are asked to disclose all potential conflicts of interest. See full posting at www.truomega.ca/work
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NEWS
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TRUSU Equity Committee joins forces with community TRUSU hopes to begin collaborative partnerships with community groups Cailyn Mocci EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω
TRUSU Equity committee held its first Kamloops Equity Forum in hopes of bringing together support systems within the community. During the first of what TRUSU expects will be quarterly meetings, members of Kamloops agencies including Kamloops YMCA/ YWCA and Kamloops Sexual Assault Counselling Centre discussed upcoming initiatives and projects in hopes of sparking
a collaborative community. Graham Specht of Kamloops Immigration Services brought to the table the idea of diversifying what it means to be an “equity seeker”. “When you say the word equity, my ultimate goal is to shift perspectives on public opinions of what is an equity seeker,” Specht said, “We have all of these identities and all these groups and people don’t want to feel like they’re being pigeon-holed in a social or cultural group who are definitely equity seekers.” Many of those who showed up for the forum collectively decided that to build a stronger
community, agencies would be stronger together. Specht expressed concern with the lack of. “It’s really about building connections and building community, trying to not only replicate work that’s already been done but also get the word out about initiatives,” Amie McLean, TRU’s Intercultural Coordinator, said. TRUSU Equity Coordinator, Dylan Robinson, continued to speak hopefully on the steps TRU is working to make along side the community of Kamloops. “Hopefully we can take some baby steps towards those larger goals,” Robinson said.
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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.
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WRITE FOR US! We’re always looking for contributors. If you’re interested in writing for us, make sure you check out our contributor guidelines found at:
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NEWS
SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
TRU Wolfpack celebrates diversity in sports The TRU sports community proudly shares their support for players Cailyn Mocci EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω
TRU Wolfpack marks one year of participation in the You Can Play campaign. The You Can Play campaign champions for complete support of LGBTQ2S+ members of the sports community. “It is important to me and our institution that any athlete, coach, official; anyone who comes to participate in sports at TRU knows they can do it in a safe place and be comfortable being who they are,” Curtis Atkinson, TRU Athletics and Recreation director, said in a press release, “Hopefully, we will find other community partners to help us make it bigger and better every year.” You Can Play originally was founded in 2012 in an official partnership with the NHL. The campaign works with the sole determination to eradicate homophobia in the sports world. “You Can Play is dedicated to ensuring equality, respect and safety for all athletes, without regard to sexual orientation and/or gender identity,” states
the campaign's official mission statement. The campaign works with the slogan “If you can play, you can play”. According to Campus Pride statistics as of 2012, 81 per cent of Canadians have witnessed or experienced homophobia in sports. This daunting statistic is the reason many institutions across North America are loudly vocalizing their support for the campaign. TRU Wolfpack is working to support not only their sports community on campus but lending a helping hand to community groups such as Kamloops Pride. “We’d love to get to a point where we had partners that came to table with us and wanted to do weekend events or big events to make it bigger and better but right now for us it’s very much an important message that we want to share that you can be your authentic self,” Atkinson said. In addition to taking a firm stance on homophobia in their community, the Wolfpack dedicates an entire game to the campaign in a more explicit showcase of support with community speakers, vendors and booths serving more information
and uniforms dedicated to the LGBTQ2S+ community. “My hope is that if it’s impacted someone in a positive way then that’s a great start but we want, whether it’s our current athletes or our future athletes, to know they will be supported and our institution believes in respect, inclusion, diversity and equality and our athletic program certainly feels the same way,” Atkinson stated.
TRU Athletics
Kamloops Pride hosts third annual Pride Parade Everyone and their dog showed up in a sea of rainbow in streets of Downtown Kamloops Cailyn Mocci EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω
The streets of Victoria st. and Seymour st. were a sea of rainbows on Aug. 25, 2019 for the third annual Pride Parade. The parade was the icing on the cake to end Kamloops Pride Week. Kamloops Pride’s president Sam Numsen and the rest of Kamloops Pride worked tirelessly to bring fun, insightful and safe events for the LGBTQ2S+ community and the allies standing behind them. The crowds overtook the streets in full glee as music cascaded down the parade root from live DJing courtesy of Common Sounds. Kamloops locals were ready to celebrate even before the parade passed through the streets with dancing in the empty streets. Crowds attending this year were on the rise at a 17 per cent increase from last year. This year’s parade brought in a crowd of 1,409 marchers total and 57 registered groups/organizations. The celebration didn’t end as soon as the parade passed the crowds. Kamloops locals were
invited to continue the support at the Kamloops Pride festival in the Stuart Wood park on St. Paul st. As the sun shone on Kamloops, attendees basked in live music as they took in the wide array of creative costumes each taking a new take on the rainbow flag.
TRU Athletics
The Kamloops community flooded the streets in full force to celebrate equality and love. TRUSU waved their signs of equality (Bottom) while other parade marchers took to Victoria street in bright, colourful costumes while waving the iconic rainbow flag. (Top). (Brendan Kergin/Kamloops Matters)
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ARTS
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Indonesian students dazzle crowds with traditional performance CONTINUED (COVER) In total 155 students travelled from Indonesia to study Canadian culture along with 17 chaperones. Salingka Magari Ranah Minang: The Unique Culture of Minangkabau Indonesia was a beautiful showcase of dancing, music, fashion and storytelling. Each student demonstrated the cultural difference that TRU has prided their campus on showcasing. Stories such as “Sendatari Rambun Pamenan (Fragment of Rambun Pamenan” shared the
old tale popular among Minangkabau people. Students performed a hybrid of storytelling and dance to tell the story of a brave young man fighting to protect a woman from thieves. The evening also included a fashion show of regional traditional regalia, all beautifully stunning and intricate. The students finished their performance with an original song thanking Canada sung by the entire crowd as they waved flags of both Canada and Indonesia with wide grins and laughter.
Attendees were transported through traditional Indonesian culture. (Cailyn Mocci/The Omega)
Looking for work on Campus?? HAVE AN APPROVED student loan or have demonstrated financial need? Want to Earn $13.85/hr?
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Find these jobs – and over 100 more at the TRU Student Awards & Financial Support Office (Old Main Building) Open to all full-time students currently approved for a government student loan or have demonstrated financial need, the Work Study program provides students with valuable paid work experience. Applications and eligibility guidelines are available at www.tru.ca/awards/work-study, or visit the TRU Student Awards & Financial Support Office (OM 1629, 250-828-5024).
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ARTS
SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
CFBX set to host annual Fall Volunteer Drive Campus radio station on the hunt for volunteers to staff the fall semester
CONTRIBUTOR Ί
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Good Boys is if Superbad met the Goonies where the entire premise focuses on the concept of 12-13 year-olds kissing and swearing as if its funniest thing alive. When they actually do adult activities the way kids do, that's where its true strength lies. Good Boys follows three 6th graders who are trying their best to best prepare themselves for their very first kissing party. The film
to be adults so bad experiencing actual adult things is where the true comedy was. From finding sex toys and thinking it's jewelry to instantly thinking that the drug Molly(MDMA) is just a lost friend they don’t know. That holds more of an impact than the kids just swearing for 5 minutes straight. The show's weakness comes from just having the kids just insulting each other for far too long and swearing. The novelty of children swearing is something that the public couldn't get enough of back in the ’80s, but in 2019, it's honestly so commonplace that hearing it more than twice will just get boring and overplayed. I found myself laughing excessively during the duration of the film just due to the non-stop jokes being produced at a decent pace following its runtime. It was when the filmmakers decided that it needed twenty minutes for kids thinking the nickname “Sippy Cup� was the funniest thing in the world was the only part that bogged it down.
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follows them go through trials and hurdles in order to experience both kissing and growing in general. The biggest selling point that the marketers took in order to sell this film is the “overabundance of kids swearing� and how raunchy it is. However, what was shown was more of an explicit content as opposed to the explicit dialogue. The 3 main kid actors did have great chemistry which did help, however, the dialogue was relatively tame and wasn’t such a line crossing script. It was when they reacted like kids who want
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Good Boys film review
No experience is necessary for those interested in work with CFBX on campus (Wade Tomko/The Omega)
It’s that time of year again! CFBX, the campus radio station at Thompson Rivers University, will start the hunt for volunteers. Starting Sept. 6 until Sept. 27, CFBX will be looking for volunteers in their Fall Volunteer drive. CFBX is an entirely volunteer-run and programmed radio station and is always looking for energetic and creative volunteers to help out
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ί
electronic hosts and anyone interested in programming in a language other than English. CFBX is an excellent place to build up job skills in audio editing, interviewing, writing, organization skills and computer use. There are numerous ways to get involved at the station on-air and off. Anyone interested in getting involved with CFBX can call the station at (250) 377-3988, email to radio@tru. ca or drop by the station at House 8, behind the Campus Activity Centre on the TRU campus.
Cailyn Mocci
on-air and off-air. Volunteers are not required to have any experience as all the training you need will be provided. CFBX programs a wide variety of music and spoken word programming with a non-commercial focus. Music programming includes folk, roots, country, classical, jazz, funk, blues, punk, metal, hip-hop and electronic. Spoken word programming ranges from social and political issues to sports and entertainment. In addition, CFBX is especially in need of classical music hosts, hip-hop hosts,
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Ready or Not film review: A deadly take on a childhood game The film based off of Hide and Seek that was actually great Morgan Hunter CONTRIBUTOR Ί Ready or Not is the one film this year that couldn’t be recommended enough not due to its quality (which isn’t anything to brag about) or its revolutionary directing, but just the ride it takes the viewer on with both its horror and comedic aspects of the film. The picture revolves around Grace, who marries into a very wealthy family who, on the night of their wedding day, must play a deadly game of Hide and Seek and must stay alive until dawn in order
to survive. The acting on all the casts' part was fantastic due to their ability to just juggle trying to seem relatively normal yet insane at the exact same time. The lead’s performance, (Samara Weaving) must also be commended due to her likability, charm and her ability at seeming utterly petrified yet still just being over everything. The screenplay is the true star of the show by showing a very serious issue mixed in at the same time. The film actually holds a great theme of the disconnect that is present between the extremely wealthy and everyone else. With the exception of the character Daniel,
who also stole the show in his own way, it gives both the desperation that people who are wealthy have in order to keep their riches and the opposite plague that comes from having it. Having wealth and seeming relatable is a hard thing to reflect on a movie, due to a number of reasons, but with Ready or Not, it works. People who are there are either far too prepared to treat killing lower class people like animals or are forced to continue on with that with no option of escape, that realization can produce a lot of empathy from almost anyone. Ready or Not is more than enjoyable, it offers a number of
layered themes that elevate it with both its comedic moments keeping it light, its attention to its horror scenes give more weight to them.
The film sticks the landing with its ending which makes it one of the must-see horror films to see this year.
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CFBX 92.5 FM, 350 Watts Kamloops, BC Music Director: Steve Marlow Charts to August 29, 2019 * indicates Canadian Content ** indicates a local artist Artist - Album (Label) 1) Mauno* - Really Well (Tin Angel) 2) Hush Hush Noise* - Hush Hush Noise (Coax) 3) Allison Lupton* - Words of Love (Independent) 4) Al Lerman* - Northern Bayou (Independent) 5) Lucas Choi Zimbel* - Tempered Tantrum (Independent) 6) Black Mountain* - Destroyer (Dine Alone) 7) Necking* - Cut Your Teeth (Mint) 8) Alex Little and the Suspicious Minds* - No Control (Light Organ) 9) Lydia Persaud* - Let Me Show You (Next Door) 10) Kate Lush Band - Headline (Independent) 11) Starlight Pines* - City Lights (Independent) 12) James Kasper* - '95 Dalmatian (Mighty Speck) 13) Paul Bley/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian* - When Will the Blues Leave? (ECM) 14) Genevieve Racette* - No Water, No Flowers (Independent) 15) Toebow - Themes (Imaginator) 16) Sawbones* - Rejects (Independent) 17) Humans* - Going Late (Haven) 18) Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell - El Corazon (ECM) 19) Hackensaw Boys - A Fireproof House of Sunshine (Free Dirt) 20) TANDM* - Reflections Vol. 1 (Independent) 21) Jean-Marc Hebert* - L'Attente (Independent) 22) Eagles of Death Metal - Boots Electric (Universal) 23) Lily Frost* - Retro Moderne (Independent) 24) Headache24* - M for Love (P572) 25) Co-Op* - III (Independent) 26) The Day - Midnight Parade (Sinnbus) 27) Rammstein - Rammstein (Universal) 28) Lydia Ainsworth* - Phantom Forest (Independent) 29) Donovan Woods* - The Other Way (Meant Well) 30) Siskyou* - Not Somewhere (Constellation)
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THE OMEGA
SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
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