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Our first summer issue! Read why on page 7.
the ubyssey
MAY 10, 2011 summer volume xxviii, no i room 24, student union building published mondays and thursdays feedback@ubyssey.ca
David
Eby VS.
Christy
Clark
We profile tomorrow’s by-election. Page 3.
2 / u b y s s e y. c a / E v e n t s / 2 0 11 . 0 5 . 1 0 May 10, 2011 summer volume xxviii, no i
Events
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Ubyssey Production • Come help us create this baby! Learn about layout and editing, video production and more. • SundaysFridays, 11am-5pm.
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AMS Summer marketplace • The
culture editor
AMS Summer Marketplace is back! There will be plenty of past favourites as well as great new vendors. Stroll through the SUB concourse and see what’s hot this summer. • May 10-31. For more info check out ams. ubc.ca
senior culture writer
noon yoga $1 • Led by the UBC
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Yoga Club—all skill levels are welcome. Bring your own mat and enjoy this invigorating session. RSVP on the Facebook events page. • Tuesdays, 12–1pm, UBC Bookstore, $1.
UBC Rec spring shopping week • Spring is here and its time to
get out and get active. Shopping Week allows you, the participant an opportunity to try out any or all of the over 30+ UBC REC yoga, dance, pilates, health and martial arts classes for FREE! Check out the new additions to the REC instructional program including Staff and Faculty focused lunch hour and after work programs. • May 14-20, Student Recreation Centre, more info at rec.ubc.ca.
Comicmaster by maria cirstea
Thursday, may 12 Arts Club Theatre presents hairspray • Winner of 8 Tony
business
Andrew Hood Jon Chiang
Sodoku by krazydad
Marie Vondracek Paul Bucci
legal
Awards! Amidst the doo-wop and sock-hops of ‘60s Baltimore, pleasantly plump Tracy Turnblad won’t let popular Amber Von Tussle squash her dream of dancing on a local TV teen variety show. Can a girl with big dreams (and really big hair!) change the world and win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin? Welcome to the ‘60s! • May 12-Jul. 10, Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, $29-$79, www. artsclub.com.
suscomic.com by mike bround
Sunday May 15
The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Monday and Thursday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democratically run student organization, and all students are encouraged to participate. Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society. Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of The Ubyssey Publications Society. The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guiding principles. Letters to the editor must be under 300 words. Please include your phone number, student number and signature (not for publication) as well as your year and faculty with all submissions. ID will be checked when submissions are dropped off at the editorial office of The Ubyssey; otherwise verification will be done by phone. “Perspectives” are opinion pieces over 300 words but under 750 words and are run according to space. “Freestyles” are opinion pieces written by Ubyssey staff members. Priority will be given to letters and perspectives over freestyles unless the latter is time sensitive. Opinion pieces will not be run until the identity of the writer has been verified. The Ubyssey reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. All letters must be received by 12 noon the day before intended publication. Letters received after this point will be published in the following issue unless there is an urgent time restriction or other matter deemed relevant by the Ubyssey staff. It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.
Slutwalk vancouver • Founded on the occasion where a Toronto Police Services representative announced that women could reduce their risk of sexual assault by not dressing like “sluts.” Join us for SlutWalk, to make a unified statement about sexual assault and victims’ rights and to demand respect for all. • May 15, 1-4pm, on the Granville Strip.
Ski Ninjas by Kyle Lees/The Argus
Tuesday, May 17 H o w D i g i ta l a n at o m y h a s changed medicine • Advances
in the field of medical imaging have made it possible to look inside the human body with a precision that previously was unavailable without surgical exploration. Café Scientifique explores how radiology is changing medical practice. • May 17, 6-7:30pm, Cafè Perugia in the Life Sciences Centre.
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News
editors Kalyeena Makortoff & Micki Cowan » news@ubyssey.ca
Clark ready for Wednesday’s by-election
NEWS BRIEFS
Arshy Mann webeditor@ubyssey.ca When the The Ubyssey went to speak with BC Premier Christy Clark in her campaign office, she arrived talking about an issue that is generally seen to favour her NDP competitor, David Eby. “I am in such a good mood today,” she said before discussing the prayer breakfast she’d just attended with homelessness activist Judy Graves. “The thing about homelessness is [that it’s] a mental health and addiction issue…in lots of cases. In order for people to heal, the first thing they have to have is a roof over their head,” she said with an enthusiasm that few performers, let alone politicians, can muster. “So we have to provide people with [that] without conditions.” It’s that seemingly relentless positive attitude, even when talking about issues that are her opponent’s bread and butter, that she hopes will appeal to Vancouver-Point Grey voters in tomorrow’s by-election. “What I’m now trying to do is be candidate by morning, Premier by day, maybe candidate by lunchtime and then candidate by night again. And that’s the hard part.” While much of the coverage of the by-election against David Eby has become a smallscale referendum on an unelected Premier, the issues they talk about while canvassing focus on only one of BC’s 85 ridings. Transportation, as always, is
geoff lister photo/the ubyssey
UBC named first canadian “Fair Trade Campus”
Christy Clark speaks to The Ubyssey at her campaign office. geoff lister photo/the ubyssey
one of those issues. While Eby argues that rapid transit along the Broadway corridor could lead to a Cambie–like disaster, Clark feels differently. “This communit y at UBC needs that transit line. It’s the busiest transit destination anywhere in the province, so there’s a strong argument for making it happen.” She however, agrees with Eby that more consultation is needed. “We have time to consult and we need to consult. We need to make sure that the transit line happens in a way that respects the needs of the community and I think we can do it differently from the Cambie line.” On easing the student debt burden, Clark unequivocally pledged to maintain the inflation cap on
tuition rates and said that she was committed to reforming the student loan program, but did not provide any specific ways in which she would do so. “So [Minister of Advanced Education] Naomi Yamamoto is thinking about some of these issues, how we can address in particular how the student aid program works, because I’ve heard that a lot from students,” she said. “We’re not there yet for figuring it out, but we’re committed to trying to find an answer.” With regards to how the university endowment lands should be governed, Clark made no specific mention of students, but said she was consulting with property owners at UBC as well as the University Neighbourhoods’ Association, and wanted to ensure that she represented their views.
Clark also maintained that the UBC hospital, which Eby believes should return to providing 24hour emergency care, should continue operating as is. “I’m sure it was a really difficult decision...but I don’t think it’s one that we can revisit. What we need to be doing is figuring out how to stretch every dollar as far as we possibly can because we have to get the maximum bang for the buck.” More than just representing Vancouver-Point Grey on the issues, Clark believes that she has more in common with the neighbourhood than David Eby does. “If the two of us were to imagine the perfect street we would ever want to live on, for me it would be in Point Grey,” she said. “And for him it probably wouldn’t be.” U
Despite long odds, NDP’s Eby isn’t fazed micki cowan news@ubyssey.ca Meet your Vancouver-Point Grey NDP candidate—a community involved, thirty-three year old Law Professor who spends his time fighting AIDS and homelessness when he’s not singing and playing guitar in his rock band, Ladner. This is the self proclaimed “underdog” David Eby, who chose to go up against Christy Clark— the Liberal candidate for Vancouver-Point Grey and BC’s Premier. Eby said that it was the candidate search committee who approached him and asked him to run, in order to give voters a credible alternative to Clark. “I think that one of the things they were looking for is someone who would be in the community and be an advocate for the community but it wouldn’t be yet another absentee MLA,” he said. Eby is concerned about Clark’s devotion to the riding, as she has been neglecting local debates against her opponents. She didn’t attend the all-candidates meeting arranged by the Bayview Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) May 4. He said that he and the NDP would focus on topics such as the environment and education—issues that he thinks Clark is not devoted to. “I think that this riding is very environmentally conscious, and
the constituents that I’ve talked to have placed a huge importance on the environment—issues of tankers off our coast, the Enbridge pipeline bringing the tar sands oil over to load up tankers and ship it over to Asia,” he said. “They’re concerned about those plans as not being reflective of a sustainable future for BC, but rather a significant environmental risk.” A professor of Law at UBC, student debt is something Eby is well acquainted with and while short of specifics, he pledged the NDP would keep tuition rates affordable while making reforms to the student loan program. Before becoming the executive director for the BC Civil Liberties Association, Eby worked for the Pivot Legal Society on housing issues in the DTES. He hopes to bring some of that expertise to the riding to combat homelessness in the community. “This is a riding that’s very affected by issues of homelessness, although not many people think that when they hear the name Vancouver-Point Grey.” Eby is considered a longshot to defeat the Premier, but a strong result could be a stepping stone in his rise in the party. “I think I’m learning a lot while I’m out there about how to do politics and how not to do politics, and I feel very confident about the
photo courtesy of david eby
approach that we’ve taken, which is a grassroots, community based approach compared to Christy’s approach,” he said. When asked if this election was a test for Eby’s larger future
within the party, he was openminded about the idea. “I do think I have a future in Provincial politics, and I certainly hope it’s this election,” he said. “If not, then in the future.” U
UBC has been declared Canada’s first “Fair Trade Campus,” just in time to celebrate International Fair Trade Day on May 14. “There’s a lot of interest in Canada, and UBC just really picked up the leadership and ran with it,” said Michael Zelmer, Director of Communications for Fairtrade Canada, an arm of the international non-profit which designates products as “Fair Trade”. The distinction only applies to UBC and AMS entities, allowing private campus franchises such as Starbucks and Tim Horton’s to use—or not use—Fair Trade coffee on their own accord. Students from UBC taken down in Liberal collapse Three UBC student candidates that were running for the Liberals in long-shot ridings have all lost, in a federal election which the vast majority of Liberals found to be equally unwinnable. Kyle Warwick, Sangeeta Lalli and Stewart McGillivray, who were recruited by the Liberal Party to run in ridings where local candidates could not be found, all decisively lost. Of the three, McGillivray fared the best, with 4,110 votes in Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, 23,071 less than reelected Conservative cabinet minister James Moore. “Relative to the expectations going in, I wasn’t overly surprised,” said McGillivray. “It was disappointing that we went down [in this riding] compared to 2008, but that happened across the country.” syria detains ubc alumni The UBC Graduate School of Journalism is calling for the release of reporter Dorothy Parvaz, who is being held in Syria. Parvaz, a Canadian, American and Iranian citizen, obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia, and went on to a successful career as a journalist at The Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Al Jazeera. The UBC Graduate School of Journalism is urging the government of Canada to do everything in its power to bring Parvaz home to her family in North Vancouver. “When one journalist is attacked, we’re all attacked,” said Prof. Peter W. Klein, who heads the School of Journalism’s International Reporting Program. “All journalists feel the pain, but so do all citizens of the world. Reporters like Dorothy Parvaz serve as critical eyes and ears in these hotspots.” U
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MOA a national landmark Farm receives grant Museum’s resume grows with prestigious award
Andrew bates abates@ubyssey.ca
Andrew hood ahood@ubyssey.ca
Totem Poles in the Great Hall. Geoff Lister photo/The Ubyssey
completed between twenty-five and fifty years ago, specifically buildings that have established themselves as important physical or cultural landmarks in Canada. This is not the first accolade that the Museum has received. In 1983 the Museum was awarded the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture for outstanding architecture and the Museum was recently declared a top tourist attraction by Tourism Canada. UBC’s downtown branch in Robson Square also took home the award this year, along with the University of Regina’s heating and cooling plant and the Ottawa Train Station. Previous recipients include SFU in Burnaby and Habitat ’67 in Montreal. “It is an honour to receive such a prestigious award, and
YouNG mps
a tribute to the vision of the architect[s],” said Webb. “Together, they created a magnificent museum that is both respectful of its natural environment and expressive of truly great West Coast style.” Sean Tynan, a recent UBC graduate, visited t he museum for his first time on Sunday. “There’s that great main entrance when you come in, it’s really fantastic it feels like a great open space,” he said. Tynan was pleased to hear the museum was being given national landmark status. “There’s a great symbolic connection in displaying this as our shared Canadian heritage, instead of as just First Nations heritage,” he said. “It’s the history of BC and the history of Canada. It’s good to see it.” U
Paul Bucci Graphic/The Ubyssey
These new NDP MPs are your age and making $157,731 a year. Check out what they were doing before taking a seat.
cHarmaiNe BorG
LauriN Liu
mYLeNe FreemaN
maTTHew DuBÉ
pierre-Luc DusseauLT
Terrebonne-Blainville
Rivière-des-Mille-Îles
Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel
Chambly-Borduas
Sherbrooke
Political science student at McGill
Second-year student at McGill and staff of the McGill Daily
49.37%
49.21%
NDP
GROWTh OVER PREVIOUS ELECTIONS
2006 2008 2011
2006 2008 2011
NDP BQ
GROWTh OVER PREVIOUS ELECTIONS
2006 2008 2011
42.99%
NDP BQ
GROWTh OVER PREVIOUS ELECTIONS
Student of applied politics at Université de Sherbrooke
42.72%
NDP BQ
GROWTh OVER PREVIOUS ELECTIONS
BA in Political Science with a minor in History at McGill
44.24%
NDP BQ
BQ
Research assistant and a recent graduate from McGill
GROWTh OVER PREVIOUS ELECTIONS
2006 2008 2011
2006 2008 2011
Indiana Joel Graphic/The Ubyssey
The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) is again being recognized as an important part of Canadian architecture—this time making UBC’s popular tourist and student destination into a national landmark through the Prix du XXe Siècle Award. “We are so fortunate—here at UBC, in Vancouver, in Canada— to be able to share the beauty of this building with visitors from around the world,” said Jennifer Webb, MOA’s communications manager. MOA was designed by architect Arthur Erickson and landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander and opened in 1976. The exterior reflecting pool was added in September 2010 as per the original design of the museum. Erickson, an internationally renowned architect, was also behind the building design of Koerner Library at UBC, and the original design of Simon Fraser University. Gavin De West is a Vancouverite that has visited the museum dozens of times. He considers Erickson one of his architectural heroes. “The great thing about this building is it just kind of melts into the landscape. It’s a very open and airy place, yet it’s not huge. You can see everything in one visit, which is great,” he said. “All the glass at the front is stunning, I like how there is hardly any stairs. It’s a very accessible building. It’s decorated in neutral tones and is sympathetic to the art it shows, as there is a lot of colour in the pieces here.” The Prix du XXe Siècle Award was presented to the museum by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), an organization devoted to highlighting the diverse range of inspirations and concepts in Canadian architecture as well as showcasing talented architects. The award is given to buildings
A grant for $39,000 dollars from Vancity Credit Union will help UBC Farm graduates get started with their sustainable farming careers—an occupation which is greatly in need of newcomers to battle the current aging and dwindling population of farmers. “It is making sure that when someone leaves the program, that they’ve got somebody there to talk to, to meet with, to broker a new relationship, to set up a new agreement,” said Mark Bomford, program coordinator for the UBC Farm. “Right now there’s a lot of opportunity out there, but...from our graduates perspective, it’s not particularly publicized.” The farm’s “Growing Farmers: Feeding the City” program was announced as one of several recipients of grants from the Vancity’s EnviroFund program. “The hope is that with the VanCity money, we’ll actually have the dedicated staff money to help make those opportunities for our graduates. Right now it’s just limited at instruction.” The grant, according to Bomford, will fund a staff member, described as a Partnerships Coordinator, to develop a network and build relationships between graduates of the Farm’s Sowing Seeds practicum program and people who can help them embark on sustainable farming operations after graduation. “[There are] a lot of fairly significant barriers when you leave the program, the questions of ‘Okay, what do we do next? Who’s out there to help us?’ There are a lot of questions that go unanswered when it comes to finding land or facilities or a space.” The funding is derived from five per cent of the annual profits from Vancity EnviroVisa cards, which are directed towards
specific environmental issues based on a vote of cardholders. “In 2010, the whole area of sustainable agriculture emerged as the top issue,” said Sidney Sawyer, community investment manager for Vancity. “One of the focus areas we were really concerned about was increasing the production and ensuring sustainable agriculture... and I think the UBC project was just seen as meeting both the priority areas for the fund.” The Farm is seeking matching funding from Environment Canada to fund the program as a full-time concern. “We wanted to know whether this was going to be more of an exploratory program...[or], a higher-impact longterm program with some dedicated staff,” Bomford said. “At the end of the day, what it would allow is a bit more continuity and a longer time frame.” The funding announcement will be known in June, and program setup would start at the end of the growing season in November. According to the funding submission, the goal is to connect 35 new graduates, boost 15 new enterprises, and attract 5,000 participants in workshop programs at the Farm by the end of 2012. “Farmers are aging and dwindling,” Bomford said. “Even if we want to look at replacing the people who are currently growing the food in this province, we need to begin looking towards urban populations.” U
McGill students elected to parliament Henry Gass McGill Daily MONTREAL (CUP) — Three current McGill students and one recent McGill graduate were elected Members of Parliament in the May 2 federal election. The students, Charmaine Borg, Matthew Dubé, Mylène Freeman and Laurin Liu, were all NDP candidates in Quebec ridings. With 102 seats in the new Parliament, Jack Layton’s NDP will form the official Opposition to Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which won a majority with 167 seats. The NDP nearly tripled their number of seats in the election, attributable in large part to an upsurge in popularity in Quebec, where they captured 58 of the province’s 75 ridings. The explosion in popularity seems to have come at the expense of the Bloc, who slumped to just four seats in Parliament, all in Quebec. Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe lost his own riding of Laurier—Sainte-Marie to NDP candidate Hélène Laverdière by over ten per cent of the vote, and has announced his resignation as leader of the party. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff also lost his riding, Etobicoke—Lakeshore in Toronto. U
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Flying the coop After up to five years of taking courses and trying for championships, dozens of UBC’s finest student-athletes end their varsity careers with their graduation this month. We attempted to contact all of them to get their plans, favourite moment and quote for a retrospective. Those that replied have their “yearbook moment” online at ubyssey.ca/sports. We hope you enjoy.
Max Gordichuk Shawn Hetherington Hometown: Kelowna, BC Favourite Memory: Too many. Plans: Real Estate Development. Quote: “Here it is, here it Tiz, Alright.”
Blair Bann Hometown: Edmonton, AB Favourite Memory: Receiving the ball from my 1000th career dig after my final match at War Memorial Gym as a Thunderbird. Plans: Join the national team and play professionally overseas. Quote: “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.”
Hometown: Tsawwassen, BC Favourite Memory: The excitement of playoffs, Storm the Wall with the boys, athletic events/TAC parties and the atmosphere of the varsity community. Plans: Baseball, grad school and travelling. Quote: “Don’t worry, be happy.”
U
ubyssey.ca/sports
Alpine Skiing
rowing
Meghan McLeod Ben Millar
Teena Schneider
Rugby
Baseball
Sonia Purewal Jennafer Wilson
Brandon Kaye Mike Elias
Soccer
Basketball Virginia Watson Devan Lisson Arianne Duchesne
Graeme Webber Sebastian Crema Caitlin Davie Carmen Lindsay
Golf
Softball
David Sheman
Jessica Barclay Courtney O’Connor Tanya McLean
cross country/ Track & Field
Swimming
Nicola Evangelista Shaun Stephens-Whale Brittany Imlach Amelia Rajala Nigel Hole
Matt Pariselli Tara Ivanitz Hanna Pierse
Volleyball
Field hockey
Blair Bann Jennifer Hinze Lauren Whitehead
Chris Robertson Antoni Kindler
Hockey Dalton Pajak Craig Lineker Alisha Choy Melinda Choy Kirsten Mihalcheon
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UBC takes a pass on the NCAA
Toope proposes structural reform of CIS with other presidents Drake Fenton sports@ubyssey.ca After three years of uncertainty, UBC has finally made a decisive decision about whether to move from the CIS to the NCAA— it won’t. The status-quo will remain for the immediate future, but when President Stephen Toope announced the decision, he made it quite clear that this was no longer satisfactory. “UBC has a proud history within the CIS as both a founding member and successful competitor,” he said. “But we need to build upon this tradition because, frankly, the status quo is no longer acceptable. Therefore we commit, in affirming our membership, to drive change.” For the past five years the CIS has been resistant to proposed reforms to its structure. UBC’s athletic director Bob Philip has often said that it would be in the best interest of UBC’s current and prospective athletes to shift its collegiate allegiance to the NCAA. “A lot of times you see...student athletes from high school are looking at the NCAA, and a lot of them are going there,” said Philip in 2011. “We just felt it was time that somebody stepped up in Canada and offered that opportunity to Canadian students.” Key issues that motivated the proposal of a switch to the NCAA were scholarship limitations for student athletes and the ever increasing growth of CIS membership, which has created an unbalanced competitive field.
Bob Phillip looks on as Stephen Toope talks about the CIS. Geoff Lister Photo/The Ubyssey
Toope said that by staying in the CIS, UBC will be able to spearhead a movement of change within the organization’s structure. “[With this decision] UBC is committing to both honouring and seeking to build upon the tradition of Canadian Interuniversity Sport,” he said. By not joining the NCAA, UBC has made a commitment to advocate for more flexible scholarship opportunities and restructure the CIS’s athletic landscape. UBC, along with other universities in the Canada West, is urging a two-tiered system to be implemented by the 2012-13 academic year, which would see conferences created based on size, not region. This proposition, though not as controversial as the shift to the NCAA, will provide its own set of controversies. A two-tiered system will effectively diminish the opportunity for small-sized schools to compete with the likes of UBC and Alberta. Schools like
Trinity Western, who excel in only a few sports, may not meet the requirements to compete in the CIS’s top division. This year Trinity defeated UBC in the CIS basketball semi-finals. While many student-athletes expressed disappointment over Twitter when the announcement was made, staying in the CIS also has its share of support from TBird athletes. Nathan Kanya, a five-year player on the UBC football team, was elated about the news. “I’m happy we’re staying” he said. “We need CIS and Canadian sports to get better, by moving to the NCAA the ability to improve in Canada will be halted. CIS sports and Canadian athletes won’t get better if schools start leaving for the NCAA. “CIS athletics needs to improve on its own as an organization. A move to the NCAA will just be crutch to improve athletic programs. Moving to the NCAA
would be letting down the CIS and Canadian athletes.” Switching into t he NCA A would, to an extent, Americanize UBC’s athletic identity. Staying in the CIS will allow UBC to retain a Canadian identity, but if changes to the CIS structure are not implemented, then the validity of this decision will remain in question. As of now, nothing has really changed for UBC’s athletic department—as it has been for the past three years, nothing has occurred but talk. Only time will tell how this talk will translate to action. Until then, as it has been for awhile, athletes and students will just have to wait and see. The first steps to changing the status-quo will take place at the CIS Annual General Meeting, to be held June 6-9 in Victoria. “UBC looks forward to discussing governance issues [at the CIS AGM], and I anticipate playing an even more active role in this organization,” Toope said. U
Bird Droppings Men’s Baseball The no. 2 ranked men’s baseball team won the 2011 NAIA Western conference championship with a 13-8 win Saturday over the College of Idaho Coyotes. The win secured the ‘Birds an automatic berth into the 45team NAIA National Championship next week. Following a 7-2 loss on Friday, UBC was offensively explosive in Saturday’s winner-take-all game. The T-Birds had four players contribute multiple RBI’s in the contest, with Andrew Madsen leading UBC’s offensive attack with three RBI’s on a pair of doubles. Gol f Both UBC golf teams secured berths to the NAIA championships with victories at the AII conference tournament two weeks ago in Victoria, Texas. The men’s four-man team finished six strokes ahead of the University of Houston-Victoria Jaguars and the Cal State Marcos Cougars with a 54-hole total of 910 (310-297-303). Going into the final round UBC only held a one stroke lead, but a stellar two under par round of 70 by senior Andrew Robb was enough to distance UBC from its competition. On t he women’s side, t he ‘Birds crushed the competition wit h a 628 team score, 39 strokes less than the second place University of Victoria. UBC managed to sweep the individual podium, with Kylie Barros finishing first (151), Haley Cameron second (157), and Janelle Samoluk and Vanessa Leon tied for third (161). U
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editorial youth mattered, but what did it mean? There was no shortage of storylines that came out of the federal election on May 2. Between Stephen Harper finally getting his majority, the NDP leaping forward into the official opposition, Elizabeth May winning her riding and the collapse of both the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois, political scientists and pundits will be talking about this election for years. But there was also no shortage of stories about young voters and candidates. Most prominently, five McGill students were elected to the NDP caucus in Quebec. This was justly celebrated on campuses across the country. There is no reason to think that these students are any less able than many of the MPs who normally get elected—indeed, the youngest of them, 19-year-old Pierre-Luc Dusseault, already speaks with more maturity and intelligence than many of our “experienced” politicians do. However, we should be careful about celebrating this too much. Four of the students did not even campaign in their own ridings, choosing to help fellow candidate Thomas Mulcair instead. Another newly-elected Quebec NDP MP has never even visited her riding and barely speaks French. The election of these candidates is a sign that individual MPs are largely irrelevant in our political system; it’s all about the leaders of the parties. Considering our democracy is built on local representation, this should be of grave concern to all Canadians. Meanwhile, CBC comedian Rick Mercer inspired a series of “Vote Mobs” across Canadian campuses, including one here at UBC. Media outlets responded by speculating whether the “youth vote” would increase as a result. But as UBC Vote Mob co-organizer Alyssa Koehn acknowledges elsewhere on this page, the more important goal was simply raising awareness, not turnout. All efforts to raise voter awareness among students are beneficial, and in that regard future Vote Mobs should be encouraged. But it is doubtful that the resulting Youtube videos will ever have the capability of broadly influencing youth across Canada. In fact, all Canadian youth need to do some hard thinking about their role in our elections. A torrent of Tweets and Facebook statuses from UBC students on election night expressed apparently genuine fear of what Harper will do with a majority. If you were one of the people who called May 2 “a sad day for Canada,” the real question is: what are you going to do about it? Social media activism does not swing elections. 700 people signed up on Facebook for the Vote Mob, and just over 100 turned out. Elections are ultimately won by the hard work of organizing for political parties. This involves fundraising, doorknocking, phone campaigns, and rallies. It’s tough trench work, but campaign organizers put a high value on the energy and passion of youth volunteers, and rightly so. If youth really want to make their presence felt in the next election, the work starts now. U why we’re sticking around for the summer What’s this, you rhetorically ask? A May issue of The Ubyssey!? Explain! Happily. In past summers The Ubyssey would take a collective three-month break. Editors found summer jobs, email accounts filled up, and aside from one or two editors doing some preparation for the school year, our office would sit mostly empty. This was unfortunate for two main reasons. First, news does not stop when exams end, selfevident though that may be. This university goes on, teeming with people and news, but without a campus press. Second, by waiting until August to start up, The Ubyssey has never had proper time to really train incoming editors. Not only is September the busiest month on campus and the time with the least number of volunteers; it’s also when editors have to learn how to do their jobs. Yes, it was stressful. But no more. For the next four months, we’ll have a smaller staff around the office putting out a summer edition of The Ubyssey every second Tuesday. We’ll also be expanding our web presence, as we embrace the idea of doing slideshows, podcasts, blogs and web-only exclusives like it’s 2007. So enjoy this issue, and the ones that follow it this summer. We hope the work (and reporting) we put in now will pay off in September. U
ryan haak illustration/the martlet
opinions
Koehn: Vote Mobs proved their worth Alyssa Koehn Contributor The 41st Canadian election saw what could only be described as a youth vote phenomenon take place. Stemming from one of his rants, Rick Mercer highlighted how student voters could scare politicians by doing something so simple as taking to the polls, something they never expect our demographic to do. Students who wanted to see change in federal politics picked up his message across the nation. As the momentum was growing behind a grassroots youth campaign, a group of five girls, including myself, were inspired to bring the movement to UBC. This was shortly after Queen’s had released a “Vote Mob” video that sparked numerous other schools to share a similar message. Each of us thought that these Vote Mobs were valuable for their ability to inspire and engage young Canadians.
They connected with youth through social media, something neither the parties nor Elections Canada was effective at doing. We had a common aspiration that students should be a little louder this election. Our Vote Mob had two main goals. The first was to bring more UBC students out to the polls by reminding them that our votes matter as much as any other adults and that federal elections are important. At the time we had no idea how true that message would be, with what was to be a tight race in our own Vancouver Quadra and a drastically different seat distribution across the nation. The second and, in my opinion, more important goal was to connect students all across Canada to share a unanimous message to those vying for power. Our message was nonpartisan. The drive behind the Vote Mob campaign was to encourage the parties to inform students what their plans were
for the issues directly affecting us. We wanted to be considered as an important target group. While our Vote Mob turnout was what we expected, with over a hundred people coming out to help craft our video, I can’t say if it had any affect on those who were never planning to vote. We’ve yet to see if the Vote Mob movement made any significant impact to the number of youth voting this election. Whether or not it did, the youth vote movement as a whole caught national attention and I can’t imagine a greater success at our second goal. The collective student action forced itself into the spotlight this election and, I believe, changed the way that students will be perceived in future elections. No matter if our numbers increased or not, those of us who do vote have shown that we are an active, engaged part of democracy and will make our voice heard when it isn’t being represented. U
McElroy: Can Toope become the CIS’ saviour? Justin McElroy coordinating@ubyssey.ca Leaders make decisions all the time that people have to follow. That’s the easy part of being a leader, though. Harder is making choices—choices that effect people for years to come. So it was for Stephen Toope last month, when after a three-year consultation process, he finally had to make a choice on whether to join the NCAA or not. That he chose to stay in the CIS was a surprise to most of the media at the press conference. In retrospect, it shouldn’t have been. Choosing to stay in Canada was the safe choice for UBC. The campus is divided. The ten-year window the NCAA opened for international schools to join isn’t even half-way through. Despite years of public lobbying in support of moving by the Athletic department, those who were against the NCAA three years ago were still against it last month. In rejecting the NCAA though, Toope now faces a new set of challenges. For
three years UBC has flirted with the NCAA, only to now go back into the waiting arms of the CIS. But there was a reason UBC was playing the field: the relationship with the CIS had soured. There were three main areas of contention. The first was governance of the CIS, which, due to a one-member onevote system, had favoured the needs of smaller schools. Second was competitiveness—as more and more bite-sized campuses joined the CIS, UBC has increasingly been stuck playing games where their athletes aren’t challenged. And third was the issue of scholarships, where there has been an ideological resistance to supporting anything other than tuition since the dawn of time. At last month’s press conference, Toope proudly announced that negotiations on these issues had yielded results. By which he meant, there would be motions to improve governance and competitiveness at the next AGM, and scholarships were still off the table. But still, progress! Toope has said that he isn’t satisfied yet, and he will continue to work with other likeminded presidents
to reform the CIS. But now that UBC has announced they will stay in the CIS fold, what leverage do they have? They’re a big school—but there are other big schools, mostly in Ontario, happy with the status quo. They could threaten to leave—but they’ve already threatened to leave once. And what are the consequences if UBC fails? If the rumours are true and the NAIA folds in the next few years, UBC will be without a place for the baseball, softball, track and golf teams they have poured millions of dollars into. If the CIS remains static and full of uncompetitive games, UBC’s hockey team will continue to play to 95% empty seats at Thunderbird Arena. If reforms aren’t made, staying in the CIS could well mean the slow decline of UBC’s athletic program. And reforming the CIS has been historically tantamount to doing synchronized swimming in quicksand. Toope did not become President of UBC five years ago with reforming Canadian university athletics as one of his top priorities. But with his decision to keep UBC in the CIS, it will become part of his legacy—for better or worse. U
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ourcampus
Andrew Hood ahood@ubyssey.ca This past Friday was the University’s first Staff and Faculty Sports Day, a free event organized by UBC REC and the University that pitted teams of UBC employees against one another. The event was split between a health and wellness expo and several unorthodox sporting events such as extreme bocce or human go-karting. The winning team, the Leafy Greens of the Forestry faculty, won with a leading time of 1:01 in the relay race, earning them a session of UBC REC Workplace Yoga. U
Jon Chiang/UBC Rec