November 21, 2011 by The Ubyssey

November 21, 2011 | VOL. XCIII ISS. XXIII

Seriously, you despicable jackasses SINCE 1918

THREE MORE

YEARS FOR

HARRIS P3

THE UBYSSEY

RIM

RATTLING WEEKEND

1 ‘Birds whack Spartans in basketball home openers

Mits Sumiya Former UBC student,

interned Japanese-Canadian

CLASS? Algoma University looks at moving to three-week long classes.

“I always considered myself a UBC student. It’s a great feeling. It’s like coming home.”

Micki Cowan News Editor

After much hesitation and public criticism, UBC has decided to give interned Japanese-Canadian students honourary degrees—a decision which Mits Sumiya says gives him closure on a dark incident from 70 years ago. “With the presentation of this honourary degree, it feels like UBC has opened their arms and said, ‘You are part of our alumni, you’re welcome, come on in,’” said Sumiya, who was interned at 18 and not allowed to return to his studies at UBC. “It’s a great feeling of belonging.” The Senate decided they will present 76 Japanese-Canadian who were UBC students, including Sumiya, with the degrees to recognize those who were interned and unable to complete their studies at the institution during WWII. This follows a course of action that many other universities in North America have already taken. Cont’d on P3

2 | Page 2 | 11.21.2011

What’s on 21 MON

This week, may we suggest...

UBC MUSIC>>

Our Campus

One on one with the people who make UBC

The Canadian karaoke champion Catherine Guan Staff Writer

UBC Composer’s concert: 12 pm @ Music Building If you’re one of the first people picking up today’s paper, RUN to the music building to catch some live works from UBC composers. Seriously, get moving!

22 TUE

CiTR>>

24 THU

THEATRE >>

CiTR Shindig Semi finals: 9pm @ The Railway Club CiTR’s annual, months long battle of the bands winds down with performances by Sleuth, Philoceraptor and Man Hands. Check out the next big thing in Vancouver music.

23 WED

GREEN >> In Brief: A Little Creation by Vanessa Imeson: 7:30 @ Freddy Wood This MFA project uses large scale puppets to tell a number of Aboriginal Canadian creation stories.

PARTY >> World Vision Bright Lights: 8pm @ Buchanan MASS World Vision is hosting a semiformal party at MASS to raise money for CLICK, an organization that works with disadvantaged youth. Feel good about dressing up and drinking beer.

Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to printeditor@ubyssey.ca.

THE UBYSSEY November 21, 2011, Volume XCIII, Issue XXII

EDITORIAL

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She was just a small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world. An aspiring optometrist, a Polynesian dancer and a die-hard Gleek, Santos is a woman of many talents. And she just added another accolade to her reel of accomplishments—karaoke champion. After completing her BSc in biology this past May, Santos entered a local contest on a whim and went on to win the Canadian Karaoke Championships. In September, she represented the country at the World Karaoke Championships in Ireland, finishing third. A singer in a smoky room. A smell of wine and cheap perfume.

A night for Burns Bog: 6:30pm @ Buchanan MASS A movie night and discussion panel on the threatened bog in North Delta. It’s important for the health of the region that it not be destroyed. Snacks will be provided!

25 FRI

For most, singing, dancing and optometry would seem like an odd triple threat. “Ever since I was young, I really wanted to go into optometry,” said UBC alumnus Jerrica Santos. “Concurrently, I’ve always been doing music. I’ve been singing and dancing since I was a little girl.”

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LEGAL

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. 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.

“It was really exhilarating. I couldn’t believe it. A big world competition with 46 singers from 25 different countries,” she said, still reeling from her unexpected success. She had never heard of the World Karaoke Championships before this summer. “One of my singing mates at the Metropolis Glee Club…he kind of started in this local competition, just a local bar, you know how karaoke kind of is,” Santos recalled. “He encouraged me to come out and try it, so I thought, you know, why not?” Some will win. Some will lose. Some were born to sing the blues. This isn’t the kind of Journeybutchering karaoke that most are accustomed to. “It definitely wasn’t a piece of cake,” she said of the competition. “I probably went to seven to ten rounds, to get to where I was. There was a lot of

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Santos takes karaoke a little more seriously than your average university student.

competition, 50 to 100 people each time.” Her win at the Canadian competition led her to Killarney, Ireland. “It was kind of like an American Idol style competition,” Santos explained. She made her way through elimination rounds to enter the top twenty, top ten, top five, to finally place third in the world. More than the trophy, Santos is grateful for the memories. “What was amazing was, since it’s karaoke…it was a lot of songs that everybody knew and everybody was kind of singing along.” Oh, the movie never ends. It goes on and on and on. Her new status as a karaoke champion has changed her life in other ways as well. While she has been accepted to a number of American

graduate schools for optometry, Santos is now seriously considering a future in music. Following her success in Ireland, Santos was signed to Vancouver record label Get Right Music, and is now touring to promote her seven-track debut, Dilemma. Her dream: “To be an internationally recognized R&B musician.” As any karaoke regular can tell you, don’t stop believin’. U

Jerrica Santos Jerrica’s winning set list “Hopelessly Devoted to You” (Grease) “I Turn to You” (Christina Aguilera) “Crazy” (Gnarls Barkley) “Who You Are” (Jesse J)

News

11.21.2011 |

Editors: Kalyeena Makortoff & Micki Cowan

ELECTIONS >>

Maria Harris wins second term as director for Electoral Area A Kalyeena Makortoff News Editor

The votes are in, and incumbent Maria Harris will be serving a second term as Electoral Area A director. “Winning was not easy,” said Harris. “It was a hard campaign.” Harris had 466 votes, 291 more than runner-up Scott Andrews, who secured 175 votes. Alexandria Mitchell wasn’t far behind Andrews, with 159 votes. Mischa Makortoff

had 114 and Colin Desjarlais 17. Harris’s incumbency helped her campaign. “I think people know me. People know how I work. ” Andrews said he would have done some things differently if he were to run again. “There are a lot of issues relating to zoning and density that appeal to University Neighbourhood Association voters...I would have tried to tap into the UNA a lot sooner.” Andrews said he believes the youth vote was split between him and Mitchell.

“We were hitting the same demographic, strong environmental platform and a student voice,” said Andrews. The total number of votes cast in the district reached 931 this weekend, up nearly 200 from the last election in 2008. “Quite simply, a lot more people are aware of Metro Vancouver than there used to be, but it’s still not enough. Turnout was not what I had hoped,” said Harris. Nonetheless, Harris said the voter

increase can be attributed to residents’ concerns about transit, land use and development, which “all really resurfaced in the public realm in the last couple of months...so it was actually a good time to engage people.” The first goal on Harris’s agenda will be to secure a vote for Electoral Area A on the Mayor’s TransLink Council. However, this will require a change in provincial legislation, which Harris said will mean no movement can really be made

HONOURARY DEGREES >>

UBC to award 76 honourary degrees Cont’d from P1 After hearing about similar cases at other universities, Mary Kitagawa of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Students Association (JCSA) made the degrees a priority for their Human Rights Committee for the past three years. “It’s been a long struggle. It’s been more or less trying to educate people in power to understand the issue and it’s taken this long,” said Kitagawa. Student senator Sean Heisler said UBC has wanted to recognize the students all along. “UBC didn’t kick them out or force them to withdraw, but there is still a desire to do some personal recognition for them.” The degrees are part of a threepronged approach, which includes educational initiatives. Kitagawa said this component of Senate’s decision is crucial. “That’s a very important component because I find a lot of people in Canada do not know that such a horrible event happened,” he said, adding “It’s a lesson of injustice and when democracy broke down and something I feel everyone should know.” Associate history professor Henry Yu is one of several faculty and students who are proposing a minor in Asian-Canadian studies. The program would include existing classes on Asian-Canadian history and literature and two new classes. “One [class] would be a broad introduction, multi-disciplinary, drawing on the strengths of faculty and students from many different departments,” said Yu. “The other would be a 490 [class] and it would really be about community-based research,” he said.

until 2012 when the legislature reconvenes. Harris said she’s most looking forward to continuing to work on projects that she began in her first term. However, Andrews had some words of advice for Harris as she continues into her second term. “I think it’s high time to address the democracy deficit and listen to the strong pleas for governance reform. “She did very well, but she needs to listen to other voices.” U SUSTAINABILITY >>

Solar compactors and parking meters come to UBC

NATALYA KAUTZ/THE UBYSSEY

Kevin Zeng Contributor

Japanese-Canadians were forced to leave UBC during WWII to forced interment camps in the BC interior.

PHOTO COURTESY UBC ARCHIVES

UBC’s libraries also plan to digitize parts of their JapaneseCanadian collections. Yu said that despite the negative publicity UBC received as a result of their hesitation in giving out the degrees, it ultimately helped the university to engage with the community. “To me, there’s a lot of ways in which—as dark as an event it was 70 years ago—our marking it now gives us a chance to actually do things in a way that’s going to make the university better and our relationships with Vancouver better.” But according to Kitagawa, her work is not quite over.

Heisler said the Senate will be creating a new title of honourary degree. “It’s not taking the form of an honourary doctorate or an honourary baccalaureate, because this situation doesn’t fit into either of those two categories,” he said. “It’s not being given for eminence in a field, as honourary degrees typically are.” The exact title has not been decided yet for the newly-created honour, but Kitagawa said she’s going to keep pushing for a baccalaureate. “I did request that they receive an honourary baccelaureate degree

because any other name of a degree other than that would to me indicate a second-rate degree,” she said. Sumiya was also uncertain about the new title for the degree rather than a baccelaureate. But he said that he has always considered himself a UBC student, and an honourary degree would mean that UBC was finally acknowledging him as one too. “There was always the feeling that was my home, but it never really felt as welcoming as it does now,” he said. “I certainly hope that what they decide will include that feeling.” U

UBC student sent to hospital Friday afternoon

UBC profs make suggestions for climate change aid

UBC to use donation for mental health web portal

UBC researcher moves closer to creating headache-free wine

At about 2pm Friday afternoon, an ambulance was called to the SUB main floor after a young woman fainted by one of the kiosks across from the Lucky Market. According to a source on scene, the woman in her early 20s fainted and hit her head on the side of a table. Paramedics arrived within minutes, and by 2:30pm she was moved to a stretcher and was placed in an ambulance bound for Vancouver General Hospital accompanied by another student. According to a source at the scene, she was responding well and her vitals appeared to be fine.

Three professors at the University of British Columbia are recommending how to manage the $100 billion annual commitment made by the international community last year. The money is meant to help the developing world respond to climate change. UBC professors Simon Donner, Milind Kandlikar and Hisham Zerriffi recommend guidelines which include instituting an “adaptive” regulatory system to close funding loopholes, employing a decentralized network of third-party auditors and adopting a scientific approach to evaluating program effectiveness.

A $1 million donation to UBC from Bell Canada will be used to develop an interactive web portal for children and young adults with mental health issues, but it has raised concerns that it may duplicate sites already built. The website will offer information about depression, anxiety and mood disorders and will offer online, selfguided assessment tools and consultations between patients and experts using Skype, Google Plus, chat rooms, email and text messaging. “Our hypothesis is that kids are using the web and social media but maybe not the right websites,” said UBC psychiatry professor Michael Krausz.

Through genetic manipulation, a UBC research team has created a yeast that stops the production of headache-inducing allergens in wine. The researchers have also found a yeast that reduces the presence of a carcinogen, and are close to finding a way to reduce alcohol levels while enhancing flavour and body. Hennie van Vuuren, a South African-born microbiologist, holds the Eagles Chair in Food Biotechnology at UBC, and is the founding director of the university’s Wine Research Centre. The focus of van Vuuren’s research is the yeast cell, one of wine’s essential building blocks. U

News briefs

At UBC, even parking meters and garbage cans have jumped on the green train. UBC campus has been redecorated by two new solar-powered gadgets: LUKE parking meters and Bigbelly garbage and recycling units. Four defunct meters around campus have been replaced with new LUKE solar-powered parking meters, said Tyler Stangier, the facility and project manager with UBC Access Control. The meters are manufactured by Digital Payment Technology, a Vancouver based company. Since they rely on solar energy, the new parking meters don’t require battery replacement. The solar trash compactors, manufactured by Bigbelly Solar, are located at the bus loop. The manufacturer claims their compactors are designed to dramatically reduce waste collection, deliver cleaner public space and make for efficient and flexible operations. Waleed Giratalla, an engineer with UBC Sustainability, spoke on the environmental benefits. “Garbage compaction is actually a common thing within our buildings...What they do, though, is essentially using grid electricity. You are using mechanical power to compress the garbage, which draws from grid electricity,” he said. “The new technology compresses waste directly inside the bins using electricity from the solar panels, which essentially replaces the grid power used for compression of the waste… [This] reduces the amount of operational staff and resources you need to service the bin,” said Waleed. According to Stangier, more solar-powered units can be expected to come to campus in the future. U

4 | News | 11.21.2011 ALUMNI >>

Fotheringham a boy from nowhere, by way of UBC Famed political commentator talks about his hell-raising days on campus in his memoirs Justin McElroy Coordinating Editor

The engineers ran the campus. One day, they threw me in a car, took me to Georgia and Granville and chained me to a clock. Allan Fotheringham

Before he was the most prominent political writer in Canada, before he gave long-lasting nicknames to every person and institution in Canada, before he began his 27-year run as the back page columnist at Maclean’s , Allan Fotheringham made fun of engineers in The Ubyssey. “The engineers sort of ran the campus. They were all big, tough, beer-drinking guys and we hated them. So I wrote columns taking the mickey out of them,” he said. “And one day, I was walking out the office and six of these goons jumped me, threw me in a car and took me to the corner of Georgia and Granville, and chained me to a clock and left me there. The cops had to come and cut the chains down. “I spent the rest of the three years at The Ubyssey sticking it to the engineers.” Fotheringham was in Vancouver last week to promote his memoirs, Boy from Nowhere: A Life in Ninety-One Countries. The celebrated writer, who graduated from UBC in 1954, isn’t exactly from nowhere, but it’s close. “I’m a kid from the little wee town of Hearne, Saskatchewan,” he said. “It had a blacksmith shop, a church, two grain elevators, 26 people. The town was so small, we couldn’t afford a village idiot. Everyone had to take turns.” From Hearne, his family moved to Chilliwack, which led Fotheringham to UBC, where he took classes in the Faculty of Arts, played for the junior varsity basketball team and became head editor of The Ubyssey in 1953. The campus was smaller and more intimate then—enrollment the year he graduated

was 5500—and Fotheringham’s column, titled “Campus Chaff,” was required reading. In addition to all of this, Fotheringham points out with pride that he received his degree. “When I was there, I was one of the few Ubyssey editors who ever graduated. Usually, the head editor just gave up for the year. He knew he didn’t have time to go to class because all of the work at the paper, and the partying and the crazy things,” he said. “I imagine it still happens.” (Editor’s Note: Yup.) Following graduation, Fotheringham got a job with the Vancouver Sun , beginning a path that would see him become an ever-present figure in media for years. He used wit and wordplay in his columns, and the names he gave his targets became part of the national dictionary. Vancouver became “Lotusland,” the CBC became the “Mother Corp,” and the Liberals became “the Natural Governing Party.” He tormented politicians of all stripes too, including UBC’s only prime minister: John Turner. The man who succeeded Pierre Elliot Trudeau in 1984 was the big man on campus in the late 40s, groomed for greatness even at that young age. “He had everything going for him,” said Fotheringham. “He was handsome, 100-yard sprint champion in Canada, Rhodes scholar, danced with Princess Margaret, and looked to be someone who was definitely going to be something in life.” The two graduates became friends over the years, even as Fotheringham tormented him in print. “He’s not happy with how I treated him in previous books, because I told the truth,”

he said. “In the end, he was a Greek tragedy, only lasting four months as prime minister.” But the days of a national columnist having a degree of chumminess with leaders has past. “You could have drinks with cabinet ministers, and you weren’t told, ‘Now this is off the record, this is on the record,’ because I was smart enough, if he said something nasty, I had the brains not to put that in because it would destroy the relationship,” he said. “But now, you’ve got so many, you can’t have five or six reporters with Stephen Harper, and you’d never have a columnist sitting down with a cabinet minister. They’re surrounded by aids and PR agents and flacks who write their speeches, so the relationship has changed completely. “It’s made [politics] more artificial, you read speeches by a prime minister and you know damn well they didn’t write a word of it.” Of course, as the book’s title makes clear, Fotheringham didn’t spend all his time in press galleries. “I had five employers: Maclean’s, a sydincated column across the country, I was on Front Page Challenge for ten years, I was on the lecture circuit and I was writing books. Five employers, five expense accounts,” he said with a chuckle. Fotheringham never forgot UBC, organizing an annual alumni event in Toronto with Pierre Berton, also a Ubyssey alum, and former Turner. He received the Great Trekker award in 1989. And his advice for students, unsurprisingly, is to see the world. “The best education you can get is travel. And what I’ve learned by traveling to 91 countries is that I live in the best one.” U

National

11.21.2011 |

EDUCATION>>

ONTARIO>>

Ontario university considers offering students one course at a time

Universities probe whether or not you learned anything

‘Block’ plans could reduce class load

Lee Richardson

CUP Ontario Bureau Chief

TORONTO (CUP)—Students at an Ontario university might soon be doing away with standard course schedules. Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie is considering switching to a “block plan” that would allow students to study courses one at a time consecutively, instead of the usual four or five courses being studied at the same time. “You spend 15 hours per week on a course, you do it for three weeks, you do an exam and you’re done, and you move onto another one,” said Richard Myers, president of Algoma University. “A block plan simply reverses the prevailing mode of doing things.” An executive report on the proposal was recently released by the university, the result of eight months of research into the idea of switching from the typical “parallel curriculum model” to a “sequential” system. A major factor in the report revolves around an expected higher level of student engagement that results from a short burst of heavier learning. This concentration on a certain subject is seen as easier to manage than balancing workloads of various courses simultaneously. According to the “Block Plan Task Force Final Report,” a more intensive workload delivered in a short period results in students retaining what they learned better than if they studied a subject over a longer time. Classes would last for three to

PHOTO COURTESY OF 350.ORG

Students at Quest University ride in support of green movement 350. Quest is currently the only Canadian university to use a block system.

four hours a day, with students expected to spend another four to five hours after class doing more work, bringing an average academic week in line with a 40-hour work week. “Students have to work hard because they’re doing a semester’s worth of work in three and a half weeks,” said David Helfand, president of Quest University in Squamish. Currently, Quest is the only Canadian university that uses a block plan. While the proposal drew greater than average support from faculties

that are based on field-trip learning, like Science, there was opposition from departments that revolve around reading, like humanities and social science. There are also concerns around whether switching to a block plan system—developed at Colorado College in 1970—could alienate some groups of students, including part-time, special needs and mature students. “If you’re a part-time student just whittling away at a degree, maybe doing one course every semester,

[and] if you’re working during the day, you might find it difficult to do the course,” said Myers. “There [are] always practical questions when you look at a concept like this.” An academic planning committee at Algoma’s senate will now analyze the report, with a decision to be expected in early 2012. The estimated cost of Algoma switching to a block plan is $2 million, though Myers added that a change to the entire university might not be necessary.”

TORONTO (CUP)—A new report attempts to define what a university education actually gives students at the end of their studies. Released by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), the report, Ensuring the Value of University Degrees in Ontario, highlights a system that determines what students in bachelor, master’s and PhD programs actually learn and obtain over the course of their university career, in terms of skills. Some of the skills students are expected to be taught include the ability to “review, present and interpret quantitative and qualitative information to develop lines of argument” at the bachelor level. “The report was to bring people up to date...on what was happening in terms of high quality standards,” said COU President Bonnie Patterson. Every eight years, every program at every Ontario university is reviewed to ensure the “Quality Assurance Framework” standards are met, according to the report. “There’s nothing wrong with publishing a report like this, [but] the question is if there’s something happening because of it,” suggested Barrie Bennett, curriculum and teaching professor at the U of T, who added that a lack of specific training for instructors could make the goals hard to reach. “What they’re trying to do is get a really good menu,” said Bennett. “It’s one thing to have a beautiful menu, but it’s another thing to have a chef that can actually pull it off.”

QUEBEC >>

Riot police hit McGill after tuition protest

Jessica Lukawiecki and Erin Hudson The McGill Daily

MONTREAL (CUP)—Over 100 riot police stormed McGill campus on the evening of the November 10 tuition fee protests, forcefully dispersing student demonstrators that had gathered in front of the James Administration building. Police used pepper spray and tear gas against demonstrators who were protesting the allegedly violent tactics McGill Security used against a group of students who had occupied Principal Heather Munroe-Blum’s office earlier that day. Fourteen McGill students claim they were assaulted by McGill Security while they occupied the fifth floor of the James Administration building Thursday

Timeline March 17, 2011 Quebec’s new provincial budget proposes 75 per cent tuition hikes of $1625 over 5 years. March 31, 2011 A one-day strike draws 2000 students from 11 institutions, leading to 5 arrests. November 10, 2011 Campuses across Quebec go on strike and 30,000 students march through Montréal to Premier Jean Charest’s office.

afternoon. The sit-in coincided with a 30,000 person-strong protest against tuition hikes in the province. At 4:05pm, a group of approximately 50 students entered McGill campus after news of the occupation in James Admin reached the demonstrators. Reports of violence used against the occupiers by McGill Security reached those outside through text messages and phone calls. Demonstrators proceeded to form a human chain around the building, demanding entrance. At roughly 4:50pm, four Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) officers approached the building from the Milton Gates and entered James Administration through a back door, where students attempted to block them. “When we heard the cops were coming…we decided to delay them so people inside could have time to negotiate,” said Attar Rifai, president of the Association of McGill University Support Employees. Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson confirmed that he had been inside the James Administration throughout the demonstration. “There were four police who came to survey the situation. They at no time interacted with the people upstairs,” he told The McGill Daily. Mendelson said he did not know who called the police. McGill Security is “allowed to call the police when they feel that there is a threat

McGill students protest the high cost of tution.

to people or a threat to property. But I don’t know what triggered the decision to do that.” Moments after the 4 police officers arrived, around 20 students entered through a side door for a peaceful sit-in on the second floor, with McGill Security supervising. Just before 5pm, 20 police on bicycles approached James Admin from the Milton Gates. The officers spoke with McGill Security but did not take action immediately. Officers lined up, using their

COURTESY OF FLICKR

bicycles as barricades against the demonstrators. Some swung their bikes at the protesters who were attempting to push police off campus. A brief confrontation took place between demonstrators and police. Demonstrators pushed police back while officers dodged items, including sticks and water bottles, thrown by the crowd. The officers rode away, to the cheering of students. Shortly after 5pm, about 40 riot police entered the campus through the Milton Gates, beating their

shields with batons. Demonstrators were pepper-sprayed after pushing back against the police lines in front of James Administration. “The university did not call the riot squad. I can tell you that, unequivocally,” Mendelson said. “I know that the police who were here called in [the riot squad].” Jean-Pierre Brabant, a member of the SPVM’s public relations team, declined to answer questions as to whether the riot police had authorization to enter McGill campus. The next day, Munroe-Blum announced that McGill Dean of Law Daniel Jutras has been asked to conduct an independent investigation of the events of November 10. MunroeBlum said she was not on campus to witness the events firsthand, and emphasized that “the presence of the riot squad, which dispersed the protesters by its usual means, was entirely directed by the Montréal police service.” “The presence of riot police on our campus is shocking,” she wrote. On November 11, students drafted a letter to the administration, but were barred from delivering it to the James Administration building. An open-air discussion and general assembly on the issue was held on the 14th and drew over 1000 students. Munroe-Blum was present, but did not speak. —with files from Henry Gass, Queen Arsem-O’Malley, Pierre Chauvin and Anthony Lecossois

Sports

11.21.2011 |

Editor: Drake Fenton

BASKETBALL >>

T-Bird Standings B-Ball (W) W L East Alberta Regina Calgary Manitoba Sask. Winnipeg Lethbridge Brandon

6 5 4 3 2 2 2 0

0 0 2 3 3 4 4 6

3 4 4 2 2 0

1 2 2 4 4 4

West UBC Victoria Fraser Valley TWU TRU UBC- O

B-Ball (M) W L East Alberta Sask. Lethbridge Regina Brandon Manitoba Winnipeg Calgary

4 3 3 2 2 2 2 2

2 2 3 3 4 4 4 4

6 4 5 2 2 0

0 0 1 4 4 4

West

CHRIS BORCHERT/THE UBYSSEY

After losing last year’s CIS semifinal to Trinity Western, UBC took sweet revenge this weekend. In a two game series, UBC slaughtered Trinity 104-75 on Thursday and 103-75 on Saturday.

UBC sends Trinity to the slaughterhouse Rocking the Rim CJ Pentland If there is one thing the UBC men’s basketball team knows how to do, it’s scoring. During both games this past week against the Trinity Western University Spartans (2-4) at War Memorial Gym, the Thunderbirds (4-0) put up more than 100 points, making it 3 straight games where the team has broken the century mark. With the offence running on all cylinders, TWU was left in the dust as they could do little to stop UBC’s up-tempo game. They were soundly defeated 104-75 on Thursday night and clobbered 103-75 on Saturday by a UBC team who looked like they were playing a game of pick-up out in the school yard. Once the T-Birds were able to get their fast break going in the second quarter on Saturday night, they were able to break open a 21-21 game and never look back. It’s that lethal fast break and quick ball movement that is pivotal to UBC’s success on offence. Once fifth-year point guard Nathan Yu hits top gear and starts running circles around the opposition, open shots and easy lay-ups are created. I could not help but be reminded of two-time NBA MVP and Victoria native Steve Nash while watching Yu run the floor. Yu’s combination of speed, accurate passing and

long-range shooting leads to large point totals for not only him, but his teammates. The Thunderbirds, as a team, also remind me a lot of the Phoenix Suns teams that Nash played for during his MVP days. A few years ago the Suns were another highscoring team who relied heavily on a successful fast break. However, their defence was lacklustre at times. When the ‘Birds are on their game, the opposition has a very tough time creating good scoring opportunities against them. But there have been a few times when UBC has looked like the Suns on defence, and other teams have been able to go on short scoring runs. UBC has been lucky enough to make up for these letdowns by scoring a lot, but against stronger opponents this may be a cause for concern. The Phoenix Suns were able to mask their lacklustre D in the regular season by scoring an enormous amounts of points, but once they got to the playoffs they were beaten by more defensive minded teams. Thankfully, UBC’s defence has been quite strong for the most part. The positives on this side of the ball have outnumbered the negatives, and I have reason to believe that the ‘Birds will only get tougher to score on. On Saturday night they forced TWU into 29 turnovers and were able to turn that into 44 points. Head coach Kevin Hanson expressed how creating those turnovers are extremely important to how the offence plays.

“We really made our run when we got some deflections, we got some loose balls and we just scored in transition,” said Hanson following the Saturday night game.

CHRIS BORCHERT/THE UBYSSEY

As long as that defence remains tough, the fast break will be there. And as long as the fast break is there, the points will be on the board. The up-tempo style of playing has been known to wear down players as they are always running full speed, but UBC should be an exception to this. Their bench, though filled with youngsters, has players who are playing like

starters. This enables Hanson to always have fresh legs on the floor. “I thought we did a very good job of sharing the basketball. Different guys contributed, and it makes us very difficult (to play against) if we have a lot of different guys producing for us,” said Hanson. Malcolm Williams has been the most impressive player coming off the bench, as he is playing well beyond his years. He may be a true freshman, but he has stepped up his game to take on and dominate much older players. He’s been averaging close to 30 minutes a game and consistently scoring in the double figures. “I think he’s been one of our most complete players this year,” said Hanson. Second-year Tommy Nixon and first-year Nakai Luyken have also provided sparks off the bench, providing strong play on both ends of the floor. There is a good system in place for the T-Birds. Once starters Yu, Graham Bath, Kamar Burke, Balraj Bains and Doug Plumb come off the floor they are replaced by younger guys who work just as hard and put up the same impressive results. UBC has found the winning combination so far, and if they keep playing this way they will undoubtedly have yet another successful season. If the ‘Birds avoid playing too much like the Phoenix Suns, then their regular season success will translate into playoff success. U

Victoria UBC Fraser Valley TRU TWU UBC- O

Game notes

The total amount of points UBC outscored Trinity by in the two-game series

The number of UBC players with double digit point totals in Saturday’s game

The number of Trinity players with double digit point totals in Saturday’s game

0 30

The number of quarters UBC was outscored by Trinity The number of rebounds by UBC’s Kamar Burke over both games

The number of blocks by UBC’s Balraj Bains over both games

The number of total blocks Trinity had in both games

UBC’s Tommy Nixon’s field goal percentage this season, the highest in the Canada West

11.21.2011 | Sports | 7 HOCKEY >>

McCrae’s path, from small town to the Memorial Cup Alison Mah Contributor

Growing up as a boy with not much else to do in the cold, flat lands of Cochrane, Alberta, there is a certain inevitability that you will fall into hockey. And yet, just as hopes of playing in the NHL begin to take hold and your veins begin to pump with puck passion, your dreams of playing professional hockey usually end. Realistically, not many young players will make it out of the midget level and move on to play in one of the three Canadian major junior leagues. Justin McCrae, now captain of the UBC Thunderbirds hockey team, took that next step out of midget when he was only 15 years old. He was uprooted from his hometown in Cochrane to play for the Saskatoon Blades and the Spokane Chiefs in the WHL for the next five years. “I knew it was coming,” says McCrae. “To play hockey at a high level, you have to move away unless there’s a junior team in your hometown, but that doesn’t happen for very many people.” During that stretch of time, McCrae experienced moments of both light and dark, highs and lows, a Memorial Cup championship and a crippling knee injury that kept him out ten weeks and jeopardized his hockey career. The good moments, though— there were many—came when he was drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2007, and then in 2008 when he was traded midseason from a sputtering Saskatoon

JOSH CURRAN/THE UBYSSEY

Justin McCrae has taken a long road to become the T-Birds captain. One that’s seen everything from broken trophies to busted knee’s.

team to high-flying Spokane, where they eventually captured the Memorial Cup. “The feeling in the dressing room was a complete 180 from what we had in Saskatoon. It was almost like we expected to win, and win everything. That was the only acceptable goal,” he says. “Going into the Memorial Cup it was a pretty crazy feeling. We got to fly out there on a private jet, and we were riding the high of our finals in the WHL. We went in there, won our first game

and just kept rolling. It was a wild experience and something I’ll definitely never forget.” The elation of the moment after the final buzzer rang was humourously punctured in the championship ceremony after captain Chris Bruton raised the trophy and went to pass it to a teammate, where it abruptly broke in two. The crowd erupted in one big “Oh!”, and the two players, looking like young boys who just got caught stealing cake from the fridge,

looked sheepishly around for someone to blame. “It was surprising,” McCrae says, smiling. “It was weird. Everyone was standing on the blue line and you had a weird feeling like you knew it was going to break the way it was…I don’t know. You didn’t know how to respond to that. “It was something that obviously wasn’t supposed to happen. But they fixed it with enough time for us to drink out of it.”

The season after that, McCrae was named captain of the Chiefs, and then things took a turn for the worse. “My last year of junior, I faced quite a bit of adversity. I went to the Carolina Hurricanes camp and had every hope of playing professionally, maybe not at the NHL level at the time, but the AHL level,” he says. “I got sent back from camp, so it’s obviously disappointing when you get cut from a team. My first game back I wrecked my knee and missed ten weeks and basically half the season. “It’s almost depressing when you’re out that long. I think that would be my lowest point, but I feel like things happen for a reason.” Playing professional hockey never stayed a dream for McCrae as it did for others; it always remained a distinct possibility. There was hope, hard work, and then a bit of bad luck that perhaps prevented him from realizing what could have been. “Honestly, my goal the whole time I was in junior was to get drafted and then eventually move on and play professional hockey. I guess I didn’t really look at it as being realistic or not. I felt confident enough in my abilities to one day accomplish that.” After that, McCrae moved out to UBC, visiting Cochrane in the summer and returning to play hockey in Vancouver every winter. More importantly, he’s content with the choices he’s made in life so far. The regrets aren’t there. “It’s a pretty good lifestyle, just worrying about hockey.” U

UBC wins fourth quarter thriller Men’s hockey relies on Women’s basketball team takes down Trinity 66-61

goalie to split series

Posting Up

Snap Shots

Henry Lebard

Alison Mah

Drowning in doubt and watching as the game and their No. 3 CIS rank was about to slip through their hands, the UBC women’s basketball team needed a dramatic shiversdown-your-spine comeback. Trailing 51-37 to the Trinity Western Spartans in the fourth quarter, the Thunderbirds were being outplayed by a less-talented squad. Head coach Deb Huband had seen her players turn the ball over and allow easy baskets nearly all evening. There appeared to be no sign of hope. Yet if this game teaches us anything, it’s that appearances can only tell so much. There certainly was a hope, and it turned into a furious fourth quarter rally that saw the ‘Birds become victors in a 66-61 court battle, improve to 3-1 on the season and keep their CIS ranking intact. Huband asked her players at the start of the final frame, “What do you see, what do you feel, what do we need to do, what’s going on out there?” If that’s not a coach putting trust in her players, I don’t know what is. The ‘Birds responded in the only fashion that a championship-calibre team would know how. They fought back hard. Hustling for every loose ball, making nearly every defensive stop and draining all but of one of their freethrows (18 for 19 from the charity stripe for the game) UBC marched off the court with their heads held

CHRIS BORCHERT/THE UBYSSEY

UBC’s Kristjana Young helped propel UBC to victory with a 24 point effort Saturday.

high and full of smiles after closing the gap, and stealing the win. The home team’s full-court press led to a plethora of turnovers by the Spartans, many of which led to quick points for the T-Birds. The benches, along with the home crowd could feel the tides changing in favour of UBC. All of the Spartans’ confidence had seemingly been transferred to the ‘Birds. For all of the things UBC can take from this game, however, there are negatives. Those smiles I spoke of—they were smiles of relief. This team must focus on their next opponent and keep their eyes on the prize. There are high expectations for this team, and with two of their premier players (Zara Huntley and Alex Vieweeg) nearing the end of their UBC playing days, the door for a championship may not be open next year. The team cannot afford to start slow against opponents or take

low-ranked teams for granted. Hopefully the momentum of this victory will endure into next weekend’s games in Alberta, where they’ll face Lethbridge and Calgary on back-to-back nights. That same momentum will be needed going forward into January’s games against fifth and sixthranked Alberta and Saskatchewan, respectively. From what I saw in their two most recent games, the team needs to have more confidence in their shooting and needs to gel offensively. Individual players cannot always be relied on to make their own plays and bail out dissolved offensive possessions. While open shots are at times missed, players cannot lose confidence. The premier teams in the Canada West will make them pay for tentative decision-making, and make them pay dearly. U

Friday night at Doug Mitchell arena, UBC Thunderbirds goaltender Jordan White stopped 40 of 41 shots en route to a tight 2-1 UBC victory over the dominating Manitoba Bisons. On Saturday, the Bisons overwhelmed the Thunderbirds for most of the night, peppering White with 39 shots and winning 4-2 in a game that was marred by missed chances and defensive relapses by UBC. “[Friday] night, our penalty kill was six for six and that was the difference,” said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. “They scored two power play goals tonight and they jumped on us early. Even though we scored two power play goals, which is a big positive, we just couldn’t recover. When you get outshot two to one, you’re not going to win many of those games.”

When you get outshot two to one, you’re not going to win many of those games Milan Dragicevic Head Coach

For the second night in a row, White was the anchor in net that kept the Thunderbirds competitive when the rest of the UBC squad wasn’t functioning as smoothly. “I thought White gave us that opportunity to win tonight,” said Dragicevic. “Once again, there’s no

way we should be giving up 40 shots. You can’t rely on the goaltender every night. White stole us two points last night, he gave us that opportunity tonight. We didn’t help him at all offensively.” While the Thunderbirds began the season with 26 goals in 8 games, they’ve now netted only 6 in their last 4 games and in that time have been outscored by a margin of 6 to 13. UBC is getting opportunities, but their lack of consistency on the power play is killing any momentum they may gather and putting monumental pressure on White and the backend to keep games close. “We’re not doing the little things right now to get to the blue paint,” said Dragicevic. “Unless we start paying the price in front of the net, we’re only going to score one or two goals a game. If we start going hard to the net and start getting second and third shots and our power play starts capitalizing, we’ll get back to scoring some more goals.” This brief four game stint of offensive impotence could be just that: a blip in the radar of what, in the grand scheme of things, has been a relatively consistent offence thus far. And yet it could also be the emergence of a dangerous theme that plagued the Thunderbirds late last season and ultimately cost them a playoff spot in a competitive Canada West conference. There’s still more than half the season to be played, and UBC is far from out of it in the standings. Even a moderate increase offensively, with the strength of White in goal, should hopefully smooth out some of the inconsistencies the ‘Birds have been dealing with as of late. U

Culture

11.21.2011 |

Editor: Ginny Monaco

CAMPUS RADIO>>

CiTR’s fundraising week in the FunDriver’s seat

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

Patrick Francois was one of six professors who presented at the Faculty of Arts’ “This Hour has Six Ideas” on Thursday.

ALEXANDRA DOWNING/THE UBYSSEY

IDEAS>>

Arts profs present a night of big ideas Mike Dickson Staff Writer

On Thursday, six professors in the Faculty of Arts had ten minutes each to talk about an idea that changed their lives. Well, about fourteen and a half minutes each. The forum, “This Hour Has Six Ideas,” was an opportunity for Arts professors to showcase ideas that meant something to them or changed the way they see the world. In addition to broaching some fascinating subjects in political science, music, psychology, economics, First Nations studies and philosophy, it was also a chance for professors to see what their

colleagues have been up to. “As an audience member, it was really fun to listen to the other professors and get a sense of what they’ve been working on,” said Kathryn Harrison, a UBC political science professor. Harrison spoke about the idea of a market-centered approach to dealing with climate change and carbon emissions. “As a speaker, I found it was a lot harder to write for ten minutes than a usual lecture length of fifty.” Her sentiments were echoed by Rena Sharon. Sharon’s presentation was about the role of singing across cultures of the world, the medium of art song and the transformation it is undergoing to keep the art form alive. “This was wonderful,

not just for the students but faculty as well,” Sharon said. “It’s great for us to be inspired by each other’s work, and forums like these create opportunities for all these fields to converge. Events like this are the life of the university.” Andrew Irvine had a captivating section on how people are able to conceive the impossible, using the recent phenomenon of particles breaking the speed of light as an example and proceeding to the philosophical arguments behind it with a subtle humour that drew some laughs from the audience. Patrick Francois, an economics professor, presented a thought-provoking blend of economic psychology. He talked about the relationship

between markets and levels of trust people have. Psychology professor Joe Henrich shared his theory of humanity’s collective brain and how culture has driven human evolution through social learning. Sheryl Lightfoot, of political science and First Nations studies, talked about the significance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and what it means for the indigenous populations of Canada and around the world. “This was fantastic. To have people get off their arses and come here who just want to listen to ideas and get their neurons firing, it’s very humbling,” Henrich said. U

WRITERS>>

Alexis Kienlen examines childhood depression in 13 Will Johnson Senior Culture Writer

Alexis Kienlen has a number of strategies for battling depression—exercise, keeping busy and talk therapy, just to name a few. But perhaps some of her most profound healing came through writing. Her latest book of poetry, 13, explores a variety of themes, including her childhood depression. “I didn’t realize I had childhood depression until years later. I’ve suffered major depressions in my life—one major incidence at 20 and another at 30. One of the strategies I employed was learning as much about depression as possible,” she said. Kienlen wanted to share her discoveries with readers in a creative way. “13 was composed over about six months. I started with a few themes and wove them together,” she said. “I wrote sections on monsters, my childhood and another section about a relationship that I’d had while living in Vancouver.” Kienlen currently makes her living as an agricultural reporter in Edmonton, but she writes both fiction and poetry in her spare time. She said 13 is much stronger than her debut collection She Dreams in Red, which was published in 2007

Edmonton-based Alexis Kienlen reads from her poetry collection 13 on Tuesday.

by Frontenac Press. “The book is both dark and funny,” she said. “Many of the poems deal with basic human emotions— love and loss.” Kienlen said she hopes her work can reach those who have struggled with the same issues as she has. “I really hope people enjoy the book. I’m hoping they see that there is beauty in darkness and can appreciate some of the themes,” she said. “I wrote this book because there were topics that I needed to

talk about and stories that I needed to tell.” On Tuesday, November 22, Kienlen will be doing a reading at Project Space gallery in Chinatown along with Vancouver poet Nikki Reimer, the current managing editor of EVENT magazine. The pair first met at a book launch, and have kept in touch over Twitter. Reimer will also be promoting her book, which was shortlisted for the 2011 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Reimer’s book is a feminist

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

narrative-disjunctive tour of Vancouver, illness and capitalism. “Nikki is a fellow Frontenac poet, and we met at her reading in 2010. The publisher suggested that we team up for the reading, and I liked her and her work, so I was happy and excited to do so,” Kienlen said. “Her work is very different than [mine]. She does a lot of clever word play,” she said. “But I really admire her work and it’s going to be nice to share the stage with another young, female poet.” U

CiTR’s Fundrive will wrap up with a finale party at the Biltmore on November 25.

Scott MacDonald Staff Writer

At CiTR this week, it’s all about having fun to pay the bills. From November 17 to November 24, CiTR’s annual FunDrive will raise money to help with station operations and upgrades. “It’s essentially an on-air telethon where we ask people on the radio to donate to CiTR and then we have volunteers during all hours for seven days answering the phones and taking people’s donations,” said Brenda Grunau, station manager at CiTR. “Last year we made just over $30,000 and this year we’re aiming for $35,000, so I’m hopeful.” With the money raised in 2010, CiTR set up a digital library of their extensive music collection. This year, CiTR plans on looking to the future—appropriately enough, the theme of the fundraiser is Tune In to the Future—and will be putting much of the money raised towards upgrades for their location at the new SUB. “Towers only last for so long, the new SUB is on the horizon and we don’t have a lot of savings,” said Grunau. With the increases made to CiTR student fees last year, the station created a popular new program called DJing 101.9 that teaches interested students how to DJ. “The funding has gone directly back to students. We promised a Digital DJ training program, and our hardworking team of DJ trainers have delivered,” said Grace McRae-Okine, president of CiTR. FunDrive donations come with more than a warm feeling of selfsatisfaction; the station will be giving out prizes based on the amount of contributions. Prizes include basic things such as coolers, T-shirts, hoodies and so on, but there are much more extravagant offerings as well. “The best prize this year is a helicopter trip to Victoria and lunch in Victoria. The highest donor on [Ben’s] show gets to go on this trip,” said Grunau. This event is more important than ever for CiTR and donations will be used to “keep us relevant and awesome as ever for years to come,” said McRae-Okine. “It costs a lot to run a radio station—all that shared equipment sees a lot of use, and the better we can give our employees, volunteers and programmers, the better we can get.” U

11.21.2011 | Games | 9 Sudoku by Krazydad

Comicsmaster by Maria Cirstea

Sazaemon by Meki Shu

Opinion

11.21.2011 |

Editor: Brian Platt

The Senate shouldn’t hide their work Editor’s Notebook Brian Platt

INDIANA JOEL/THE UBYSSEY

The Last Word Parting shots and snap judgments on today’s issues In celebrating Vision, don’t forget about COPE The re-election of Gregor Robertson and further entrenchment of Vision Vancouver as the dominant political party in Vancouver was celebrated by many UBC students last night, and that’s not surprising. Your typical politically-minded student is idealistic, socially progressive, fiscally conservative (but hates political labels), pro-environment, loves talking about how awesome Vancouver is and loves Twitter. For them, Vision is a perfect fit. But yesterday’s results also wiped COPE off the map, which is unfortunate even if you don’t own a Che Guevara shirt. On development and affordability issues, Vision is essentially NPA-lite: while their commitment to stopping homelessness is to be commended, for those of us looking for homes to rent—and one day, maybe buy—the last three years haven’t been kind. A COPE councillor speaking up on the cost of living in Vancouver wouldn’t have changed the plans of Vision and NPA, but it at least would have made them stop and listen. If students want to not only love Vancouver, but also be able to afford to live here post-graduation, Saturday’s results won’t help their chances.

Three more years for Harris as Electoral Area A director While Saturday’s civic election made a good number of students excited that their favourite juiceman was given another term by the voters of Vancouver, there’s another politician that deserves congratulations: Maria Harris, reelected to a second term as director of Electoral Area A. In the race to be the only municipal representative of the UBC area, Harris ran a solid campaign, and the combination of her incumbency and the inexperience of her competitors led to an easy win. Turnout increased from 743 in 2008 to 931 this year, which shows

that while interest in our quasidemocratic systems is growing, the number of people who care are still vastly eclipsed by those who don’t. But for those who do care how the lands west of Blanca are governed, Harris is your representative for another three years. She’s been elected by students and permanent residents to fight for us on the Metro Vancouver board. While we haven’t been thrilled with her lack of focus on student issues the last three years, we hope that will change this time around. We wish her well.

The Senate took too long to come to the right decision After many months, UBC has finally come to the conclusion that all but the most pedantic guarders of academia minutia had already figured out: that Japanese-Canadian UBC students who were forced out of the university during World War II should be awarded honourary degrees. The announcement should have been one of unequivocal celebration and remembrance. Instead, it came about after a prolonged in camera discussion by the Senate, which was preceded by months of awkward posturing by the university. Indeed, UBC’s response to this, while well-meaning, was not exactly sure-footed. First, there was the rejection of the original wish for honourary degrees. Then, there were ham-fisted attempts to explain that honourary degrees had very set criteria around them. Finally, there was an acknowledgement that the university had to move to accommodate this unique request—but it would be done in secret, only to be announced after they had put a fancy bow on the proceedings. The internment of JapaneseCanadians, one of the darkest moments in the history of this province, was one that this university was wholly complicit in. When the ceremony happens in May, it will provide closure to many and be an

emotional and uplifting moment for all. For that, the university deserves credit. We just wish it hadn’t taken them so long.

All Board of Governors reps should play by the same rules If Bill 18 passes in the BC legislature, the Board of Governors (BoG) at all universities in the province will be able to remove members elected by students and faculty if they can get a two-thirds majority vote. Provincial appointees will not be subject to this. Student politicians are outraged over this prospect, and we are too. Anyone on the BoG should be entitled to serve their full term. But if we are going to allow people to be removed, it should only be done by those who got that person on the board in the first place. For elected members, only the electorate should be able to remove them. For appointed members, only the appointers should have removal power. At the very least, all BoG members should be subject to the same rules. It is completely unfair, not to mention undemocratic, that student and faculty representatives could be voted out but not the provincial appointees. Bill 18 must not be allowed to pass in its current form.

The Grey Cup isn’t the only game in town this weekend With the BC Lions’s victory over Edmonton today, we have the chance for a home team victory in the Grey Cup. Unfortunately the game has been sold out for weeks, so none of us will be able to go. But don’t forget the Vanier Cup, which pits Laval against McMaster for the top prize in Canadian university football. It’s too bad the T-Birds weren’t able to make it past Calgary, but tickets are still available and quite cheap. This is a great chance to see high quality football in a beautiful new venue. And, you know, get really drunk with all your friends in public. U

Last Wednesday, the UBC Senate voted to give special degrees to Japanese-Canadian students who, during World War II, were kicked out of university due to the forced internment of all JapaneseCanadians. Yet we can’t tell you what the deliberations were like, or whether there was any significant dissent, or even the details of the vote. That’s because all of the proceedings on this matter were done behind closed doors. According to Senate procedures, the Tributes Committee’s work is generally done in camera. When honourary degrees are considered for specific people, senators need to be able to discuss the issue honestly but in private to avoid harming that person’s reputation. But that doesn’t apply in this case. No personal reputations were at stake; it was simply a debate over a policy decision of great interest to all Canadians with a sense of history and justice. I’ve talked to a few senators who were involved with this, and two things are clear. One, there was no pressing reason why this debate had to be sealed from public view. Two, the Tributes Committee handled the issue in a very thoughtful and responsible manner and came to the right answer in the end—which to me only reinforces the first point. The main justification for secrecy was that due to fear of public backlash over their comments, it was better to shield senators from observers. To which I say: tough beans. You’re on the senate of a public institution. People may get upset

over your stance on some things. Deal with it. But even if you accept the argument that this was a particularly sensitive topic, it’s a dangerous habit to allow public bodies to get away with. It’s the same argument used by the Gage South Working Group to keep their meetings protected from public scrutiny. When the options were presented last week for what to do with the bus loop area, we have to take their word for it that any options left off the table were “unviable.” If that’s really true, then why weren’t we allowed to see the work? What’s the harm? I’m not one of those dopes who think that all information should be public all the time. Wikileaks, to take the obvious example, actually hurt the cause of transparency with its indiscriminate document dumps. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for secrecy, and violating that privacy can prevent public institutions from functioning effectively. But the default position for public institutions must be that their work is open and transparent, unless there are strong justifications to do otherwise. That people might be afraid to speak up is a weak excuse, except perhaps in a few extreme cases. In the 1970s, Svend Robinson, the former NDP Member of Parliament, was a student member of the UBC Board of Governors. He got so mad at the board’s penchant for going in camera that he’d drop off those secret minutes at The Ubyssey’s office. I don’t expect current Board of Governors and Senate members to start leaking minutes, but I do wish they would do more to combat needless secrecy. Transparency builds respect for the university and allows dissent to be seen in full. Most importantly, it ensures everyone can truly be held to account for their words and actions. U

Let the camp stay Perspectives >> Conrad Compagna

There’s a story commonly told about Occupy Vancouver. It goes like this: the first few marches were led by rosy-cheeked, middle-class college students, rational if misguided, but they all left because they had jobs and school, so the only ones remaining are drifters, junkies and “blackmasked” anarchists, in the words of Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu. According to this story, Ashlie Gough’s overdose two weeks ago was proof the camp needed to go. Except it’s not. First of all, Ashlie defied rightwing stereotypes about protestors. I knew her personally, and although she was a recreational drug user, she was bright, talented and artistic. In many ways, she was actually representative of our generation. She lived in subsidized housing because the cost of living was so high and she was having trouble finding work—issues anyone who just graduated from high school can sympathize with. Occupy Vancouver seeks to address those issues, and it should be allowed to continue doing so. I respect the fact that Mayor Gregor Robertson wanted a peaceful solution with the court injunction, which would spare Vancouver

the counter-revolutionary mayhem seen in Oakland. But why do he and his supporters want Occupy Vancouver shut down? Is it really because they’re afraid the camp is a fire hazard, or is it because they’re tired of having a group of marginalized people whose lives are messy and sometimes tragic in their midst? Would they rather Ashlie had overdosed on the Downtown Eastside, out of mind and out of sight? The camp needs to stay as well as the protestors. Robertson has said the protestors can stay, but the camp needs to go. That’s no compromise. There’s power that comes with occupying a public space. The Egyptian Revolution never would have happened without Tahrir Square, and decision-makers know it. When Wall Street billionaire and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg evicted protestors from Zucotti Park last Monday, he was not spring cleaning. Police came in the night with floodlights, sound cannons and a fleet of garbage trucks, with which they carted away $100,000 worth of donations, including an entire library. They effectively eviscerated the birthplace of the Occupy movement, and it’s unclear whether it will rebound. To use Ashlie’s name to do the same to Occupy Vancouver is to slander it. U

Scene

11.21.2011 |

Pictures and words on your university experience

LIVING >>

Screw braving the elements; I’m hibernating Seasonal Affective Disorder is no match for TV, grilled cheese and masturbation Melodramatic Musings Will Johnson

I was driving through the slush as snow drifted down when I spotted a particularly determined girl hiking to school through the ankledeep mush. She was wearing a short skirt, a pea coat and high heels. Her legs were pink, blotchy and bare. She was smoking a cigarette angrily and looked like she wanted to put it out in somebody’s eye.

If I had my way, I would never have to leave the house in anything other than a pair of shorts and some flip flops.

It’s official: people on the West Coast hate snow. Traffic gnarls up, residents look out their windows despondently and the city devolves into chaos. “Since when does it snow in November?” everyone asks, as if winter is a completely unprecedented phenomenon. The fact that

the snow usually doesn’t really stick and only lasts about two days is entirely irrelevant. People are completely lost. The Edmontonians among us scoff at our ineptitude. The Toronto natives can’t figure out what the big deal is. But all of us who grew up in Vancouver are as helpless as abandoned kittens in the face of winter. It seems like every year we forget that cold weather exists. I don’t even own gloves, an umbrella or any sort of winter jacket. As soon as my feet get wet, I just want to murder someone. This is where most columnists would encourage people to suck it up, to enjoy the majestic beauty and slap a pair of snow tires on your car. But not this guy. I say we should all start hiding inside where it’s nice and warm. I’ve never been diagnosed, but I’m convinced I have an extreme case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. If I had my way, I would never have to leave the house in anything other than a pair of shorts and some flip flops. I haven’t ruled out the possibility of moving to Thailand or Australia someday— somewhere I can hide from snow for the rest of my life. However, I also welcome the excuse to sit around my house and spend an exorbitant amount of time watching TV and surfing Facebook. I pad around in sweatpants, make myself grilled cheese

WORK HARD

PLAY HARD

Volunteer for The Ubyssey, enjoy perks like these.

GEOFF LISTER PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

Why go outside at all in these winter months? It’s much easier to settle down with some HBO, sleep 10 hours a day and eat junk food.

sandwiches and sleep unreasonably long hours. Every Christmas, I put on 5, 10, even 15 pounds of insulating fat. This, my friends, is the art of hibernation. Winter is also a great time to catch up on sex, assuming you

have a special someone kicking around. If not, a warm shower and a laptop connected to the Internet should do the trick. So while other people go snowboarding or tobogganing, I recommend that you cancel all your

immediate plans, catch up on your reading, go buy a couple of TV show box sets (I recommend Mad Men, Breaking Bad or The Wire) and stock up on groceries and beer for the long haul. You’ll be glad you did. U

12 | Games | 11.21.2011 Across

(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.

OCCUPY>>

The tents are coming down for Occupy Vancouver After losing a court battle to maintain physical presence in the plaza outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, activists dismantled the tent city that had occupied the square since October 15. The movement’s website asked volunteers to assist with cleanup as it moved to “Occupy 2.0,” but over the weekend few of the site’s nearly 100 tents had been dismantled, according to the Vancouver Sun. There is currently no indication of where the movement might go next, although City Hall is an option. According to a Sun reporter on Twitter, a proposal came to the general assembly to keep the next location secret until the last minute. A rally in support of the movement is scheduled at noon on Monday. The deadline to remove the tents is 2pm. —Andrew Bates

1— Love affair 8— A chewy candy 15— High—spirited horse 16— Function 17— One of the Furies 18— Cornmeal mush 19— Enzyme ending 20— Comply 22— Syrian leader 23— Small hand drum 25— Westernmost of the Aleutians 26— HI hi 29— French school 31— Dash lengths 34— Majestic 36— Boater or bowler 37— “South Park” kid 38— Floating mass 40— Ecstasy 42— “Judith” composer 43— Cycle starter 45— Person with a paper, perhaps 46— O.T. book 47— African wader 49— Summit 50— Slippery _______ eel 52— Plumber’s tool 54— Carries on

56— 3:00 57— French possessive 60— Listener 62— Hard to define 65— Kitchen gadgets 66— Narc 67— Cooked but still firm 68— Wrap with bandages Down 1— Avatar of Vishnu 2— Metal containers 3— Merlin, e.g. 4— Attorney’s org. 5— Never, in Nuremberg 6— Chocolate substitute 7— Allow 8— Reproduction 9— GI mail drop 10— Narrate 11— Give it _ ! 12— Gentleness 13— Blues singer James 14— Be in front 21— “From _ according to his abilities…” 23— Monetary unit of Botswana 24— Bern’s river 25— Communion table 26— Continental identity of a Chinese person

27— “Filthy” money 28— Liberal 30— Boat propeller 32— Nostrils 33— Hagar the Horrible’s dog 35— Boston hockey player 37— Blank look 39— Econ. indicator 41— Quarter bushel 44— Res _ loquitur 47— Hurry 48— Beginnings 51— Subway turner 53— Attorney follower 54— _ ___ Nui (Easter Island) 55— The Clan of the Cave Bear author 56— Celtic tongue 57— Immature herring 58— Daredevil Knievel 59— Parched 61— Leftover 63— Respect for Acting author Hagen 64— Avg.