September 30, 2013

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013 | VoLuME XcV| IssuE XI Jesse, We need to cook since 1918

THE DEATH OF THE ACTIVIST UBC’s political scene has drifted from protests to proposals. Have the politicos gone underground, or do people just not care anymore?

WHISTLER LODGE WOES

After axing the lodge as a business and voting against supporting it as a student service, the AMS’s Whistler hostel’s fate is uncertain

P3

BC BIOTECH BCIT and UBC biotech students reunite 10 years after graduation

P6

P10

NETFLIX IS TAKING OVER TV P8 PONDEROSA PROBLEMS P4 UBC’S HUMANOID ROBOT P3 NEW PARIS EXCHANGE PROGRAM P3 UBC HEROIN STUDY CRITICIZED P4 FOOTBALL FUMBLES P5

Monday, September 30, 2013 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

WHAT’S ON

this week, may we suggest...

OUR CAMPUS

2

ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

MONDAY 30 TRIVIA NIGHTS 7:45 p.m. @ THE Gallery

What’s better than combining facts and drinking? Not much. Be a smartypants and win prizes.

Free, unless you decide to get a drink, then another one, then another, and then —

TUESDAY

01

ASK AN ADVISER

3 p.m. - 4 P.M. @ brock hall

Have a 10-15 minute session with an adviser in a small group setting to talk about “the future” — that is, your own career development.

Sign up online at students.ubc. ca/careers to ensure a spot for yourself.

Free CARTER BRUNDAGE/The Ubyssey

Tom Scholte stars in The Dick Knost Show, playing at the Vancouver International Film Festival this year.

WEDNESDAY 02 THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE 7:30 P.m. @ FREDDY WOOD THEATRE

Theatre at UBC’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s play features music, cross-dressing and a unique central stage setup. Runs until Oct. 5. $10 for students, regular price $22

Our first photo illustration cover of the year: a sleeping student, a Vancouver riot stock photo and too much Photoshop. A collaboration between photo editors old and new with direction from the features editor. Photo illustration by Carter Brundage.

Video content Make sure to check out our coverage of the AMS Build Broadway party bus launch, airing now at ubyssey.ca/videos/.

U The Ubyssey

editorial

Coordinating Editor Geoff Lister coordinating@ubyssey.ca Managing Editor, Print Ming Wong printeditor@ubyssey.ca Managing Editor, Web CJ Pentland webeditor@ubyssey.ca News Editors Will McDonald + Sarah Bigam news@ubyssey.ca Senior News Writer Brandon Chow mwong@ubyssey.ca Culture Editor Rhys Edwards culture@ubyssey.ca Senior Culture Writer Aurora Tejeida redwards@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Natalie Scadden sports@ubyssey.ca Senior Lifestyle Writer Reyhana Heatherington rheatherington@ubyssey.ca Features Editor Arno Rosenfeld features@ubyssey.ca

Video Producers Lu Zhang + Nick Grossman video@ubyssey.ca Copy Editor Matt Meuse copy@ubyssey.ca

Photo Editor Carter Brundage photos@ubyssey.ca Illustrator Indiana Joel ijoel@ubyssey.ca Graphic Designer Nena Nyugen nnyugen@ubyssey.ca Webmaster Tony Li webmaster@ubyssey.ca Distribution Coordinator Lily Cai lcai@ubyssey.ca Staff Catherine Guan, Nick Adams Write/shoot/contribute to The Ubyssey and attend our staff meetings and you too can see your name in the glorious tones of black that only offset printing can produce. We meet every week in our office, SUB 24 — in the basement, squirreled away in the back, there. Yeah, we know. You’ll get used to it.

september 30, 2013 | Volume XCV| Issue XI

BUSINESS

CONTACT

Business Manager Fernie Pereira fpereira@ ubyssey.ca 604.822.6681

Ad Sales Tiffany Tsao webadvertising @ubyssey.ca 604.822.1658

Ad Sales Mark Sha advertising@ ubyssey.ca 604.822.1654

Accounts Graham McDonald accounts@ ubyssey.ca

Editorial Office: SUB 24 604.822.2301 Business Office: SUB 23 Student Union Building 6138 SUB Boulevard Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

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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.

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.

Tom Scholte passes on the acting wisdom Tonia Ramogida Contributor

Tom Scholte wanted to be an actor ever since he was a brighteyed and bushy-tailed six-yearold in Toronto.

Since pursuing a BFA in theatre and an MFA in directing at UBC, he has worked on a number of films as both an actor and director, winning a Leo award for his performance in Last Wedding and a Gemini award for his performances on Da Vinci’s Inquest. In 2004, he started teaching at UBC and is currently an associate professor in the department of theatre and film.

Initially, Scholte wanted to pursue acting in order to fulfil his own desire for the spotlight.

“I wanted attention,” he said.

“I was an emotional kid and when I discovered that there was a place where you were applauded for expressing emotion in a heightened way and where that could be your job and that you could even get rich and famous doing that, that was the initial hook.”

A little older and a little wiser, Scholte now sees acting as a chance for advocacy. “I like being able to tell stories that you think are important [and] to give voice to marginalized characters, characters you don’t see or hear very often.”

As a professor, Scholte spends his time instructing the next generation of dedicated thespians. The best part about his job, he said, is “watching people discover that they are enough [and] that everything

they walked in the door with is enough to be an actor.

In our minds, we’re all the Hamlet or Juliet.

Not everybody’s a Romeo or Juliet.

Somebody’s the nurse, somebody’s Tybalt... that’s a tricky thing to get used to.

Tom Scholte Theatre and film associate professor

our minds, we’re all the hero or the heroine, the Hamlet or the Juliet. Not everybody’s a Romeo or a Juliet. Somebody’s the nurse, somebody’s Tybalt.... That’s a tricky thing to get used to.”

Scholte’s most recent project is The Dick Knost Show , a feature film directed by UBC alum Bruce Sweeney set to screen at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

Scholte stars as the lead, self-absorbed sports radio shock-jock Dick Knost. For Scholte, Knost is pretty much his dream role.

“I’m obsessed with sports,” Scholte said. “I’m really opinionated, I like to be a smartass, I like to be provocative, and I get to do all those things. We’re actually hoping to spin Dick Knost into a TV series if we can.” U <em>

</em>

<em>

“[Students start to] understand that [acting’s] not some magical thing ‘out there’ that they need to get a hold of in order to be a good actor who’s worthy of people’s attention or time on the stage,” he said.

That was something Scholte had to go through, too.

Earlier in his career, he auditioned for a part as the romantic lead in Goldrush: A Real Life Alaskan Adventure, a Disney film. He was told he would be filming for a whopping 12 of the 18 shooting days — definitely lead role filming hours. However, when he went to the costume fitting, he discovered he had not been cast in the leading role of Ed, but in fact as Monte, a secondary character who just happened to be around a lot.

“It’s tough ... accepting that you don’t get to decide how people see you,” Scholte said. “In

QUICK FACTS Favourite actor Marlon Brando Favourite movie Taxi Driver. “De Niro is so immersed in his character, there’s nothing ‘actory’ about that performance.

There’s in-depth character study plus social commentary that you have to work to figure out. It’s as close as you get to a perfect film.... It’s a benchmark for how deep an actor needs to go.”

Directorial debut Crime (2008)

Know someone at UBC who’s done something interesting?

Think they deserve to be profiled in Our Campus?

Email all candidates to printeditor@ubyssey.ca.

</em>

Monday, September 30, 2013 |

EDITORS WILL Mcdonald + Sarah Bigam

AMS >>

3

Cyborg overlords >>

UBC engineers program humanoid robot

Photo Mackenzie walker/THE UBYSSEY

The robot, named Charlie, is able to interact with humans.

Hannah Scott Contributor File Photo kai Jacobson/THE UBYSSEY

A motion to make the Whistler Lodge a student service was voted down at the last AMS Council meeting. In October, Council will be presented with options for decommissioning it.

Whistler Lodge on slippery slope

Will McDonald News Editor

The Whistler Lodge could be on its way to being sold.

At Wednesday night’s AMS Council meeting, Council voted down a motion 21-12 to classify the Whistler Lodge as a student service.

AMS President Caroline Wong spoke against the motion, arguing there are better uses of student money.

“Are we going to invest in a niche opportunity for skiers and snowboarders in Whistler?” said Wong. “There are endless opportunities [for other services].”

Council then voted unanimously in favour of a motion to direct the Business Administration and Governance Board (BAGB) to report to Council by Oct. 23 with a decommissioning plan for the Lodge.

NEWS BRIEFS Indian activist wins first Allard Prize On Wednesday, Sept. 25, the first Allard Prize for International Integrity was awarded to social reformer and founder of India Against Corruption Anna Hazare.

“I’m very happy to receive this recognition,” said Hazare through an interpreter. “I have been combatting corruption for the last 25 years.”

Hazare’s series of hunger strikes in 2011 sparked large demonstrations across India that led to increased accountability laws for the country.

The prize awards $100,000 to the recipient, and this year included $25,000 for each of the other two finalists.

Homeless man escorted out of Koerner Library The RCMP were called to escort a homeless man out of the Walter C. Koerner Library on Sept 26, campus security said.

According to associate director Paul Wong, Campus Security got a call from library staff at 11:39 a.m. about a patron on the second floor. The patron was yelling at the staff, causing them to feel unsafe, Wong said.

According to Wong, security decided to call the RCMP after the man refused to identify himself or answer questions.

According to Grainger, once the RCMP arrived, the man cooperated and was escorted off the grounds without further incident. No charges were filed. U

In April of this year, the BAGB released a report arguing that the Whistler Lodge could not be operated as a viable business.

Erik MacKinnon, chair of the BAGB, said the BAGB will present Council with as many options as possible on Oct. 23.

“There’s no guarantee the lodge is going to go anywhere,” said MacKinnon. “It’s my job to present options to Council and all options are going to be looked at.”

MacKinnon said options include selling the Lodge, leasing it to a third party, closing the Lodge but keeping it and the land as an asset, demolishing the Lodge and selling just the land, or getting other student unions to run the Lodge, but handling its bookings for a profit.

“What we do with the money, whether we keep or don’t, that’s not my problem. That’s Council’s,” said MacKinnon. “My problem is what do we do with the building

first and then the land second, and we’ll have to have some options available for both of those.”

VP Finance Joaquin Acevedo released a plan on August 19 that would allow the Lodge to stay open if it was to be considered a student service rather than a business.

“The amount of students that are influenced by it and utilize this space is worth the effort for the AMS to continue running it,” said Acevedo at the meeting. “I think this is one opportunity for us to be able to provide more value for students.”

However, many councilors questioned whether the Lodge should be considered a student service since it is only used by a small number of students. Councilors also questioned how much money the AMS would have to invest in renovations for the Lodge if it was to remain open.

“Based on my report, I was a little disappointed in the decision that Council made, but at the end of the day, I think there was very strong arguments as to why they made that decision,” said Acevedo.

After the BAGB presents to Council, they will have to vote on what action to take with the Lodge based on the options the Board presents. Acevedo said he is confident that Council will continue to make progress on the Lodge.

“Council’s no longer satisfied with getting information. They actually want to take some action on it,” said Acevedo.

A decision to sell the Whistler Lodge would have to be approved by a student referendum. Acevedo said there would be enough time to put a referendum question on the January elections ballot if Council so chooses. U

Study Abroad >>

UBC to offer dual Arts and Commerce with Sciences Po

Oliver Longman Contributor

Starting next year, UBC students will be able to get a dual Commerce and Arts degree in four years, with two of those years spent in France.

On Sept. 19, UBC Senate approved the proposed curriculum for a Bachelor of Commerce degree to be offered in coordination with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in France.

For the first two years of the program, students will study social sciences at one of Sciences Po’s seven campuses in France. During this time, they will complete the equivalent of 90 UBC credits. Following this, they will select a Commerce specialization for concentrated study during their third and fourth years at UBC Vancouver.

Students will have to meet the entry requirements for both UBC and Sciences Po to enroll in the program.

“We expect it’s not going to be for all students, but for really bright and very motivated students,” said Brian Bemmels, senior associate dean of the Sauder School of Business. “It will be a very valuable and enriching program for them.”

According to Bemmels, the new dual BComm-BA program is a spe-

Sciences Po is an internationally-renowned university in France.

cial opportunity for students to be immersed internationally. While UBC has maintained academic exchange programs with Sciences Po for years, he argues that this program will be a much deeper, more marketable experience.

James Kim, a fourth-year international relations student, thinks the program could be beneficial.

“I think [the dual degree program] is a really great idea, because it’s a chance to learn French as well as take some politics courses at the same time,” he said.

The program will be highly intensive. Within the final two years at UBC, students will be completing all of the required Commerce courses that other students take four years to complete. As a result, students who plan to graduate within four years will not be able to take any elective courses.

Students will also not be able to complete multiple specializations.

Photo livatlants/Flickr

Though the curriculum has now been finalized for both programs, the uncharted nature of these programs for UBC means that issues are still arising. For Paul Harrison, chair of the Senate policy committee, this is especially true with regard to policy issues. As students are technically studying at both institutions for the entire fouryear period, there are potential conflicts of jurisdiction to resolve.

Harrison said the UBC Senate has struck a subcommittee to set up some guidelines.

This isn’t the first dual degree program UBC has offered with Sciences Po. At the beginning of this month, the inaugural cohort of a new UBC-Sciences Po dual BA program started the first year of their two years in France. Upon completion of these two years, they too will move to UBC for two years of study, to specialize in political science, economics or history. U

On Imagine Day, one display in particular may have caught the eye of the more mechanically-minded: more than a hundred students were handed water bottles by a robot as part of a project put together

by UBC’s Collaborative Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CARIS) team.

CARIS is an interdisciplinary and international research group that researches human-robot interaction. The robot, named “Charlie,” is a PR2 model manufactured by Willow Gage, Inc., and has lived in CARIS’s UBC lab for the past three years. It is the only robot of its kind in Canada and one of only a few worldwide.

The CARIS team, led by mechanical engineering professor Elizabeth Croft, is comprised of seven PhD and seven MASc candidates who work on programming Charlie. The Imagine Day project is one of a number of recent studies involving the robot; last year, the UBC Hackathon group programmed Charlie to ride an elevator by itself.

Masters student Ergun Calisgan is currently conducting a study looking at whether the robot can use non-verbal gestures, such as stepping back or looking another player in the eye, when playing turn-based games. This project builds on previous CARIS studies on robots and communicative, non-verbal cues.

Matthew Pan’s PhD research involves direct experimentation on the robot’s unique capabilities, including hand-over experiments, such as passing out water bottles.

“It does have two fully functional arms, so it can grab onto stuff, it can move around, it can move its head, it can rise up and down,” Pan said.

This means Charlie can perform many human-like movements.

The CARIS team has seen Charlie through a few technical difficulties. While their overall goal is to figure out the best way of compiling programs to make the robot run efficiently, the primary challenge is sharing Charlie’s programming code with other university programs.

“It’s a time-consuming process of understanding what other people have written and then trying to make it work,” said AJung Moon, a PhD student in computer science.

Safety features are another characteristic of Charlie’s design. “It’s not going to hurt you that much, although it looks pretty big and perhaps intimidating,” Moon said.

“The arms are actually spring-loaded, which allows the robot to have gentler motions,” Pan said. It also has 27 degrees of freedom for additional safety control.

Charlie is a popular robot, especially among children touring the lab, thanks to its apparently friendly facial features. In the future, Pan said that the team wants to program the robot to play ping-pong and serve hot dogs. U

4 | NEWS |

Monday, September 30, 2013

Housing >>

Ponderosa residents seek compensation

Residents petition for rent reduction due to noise, flooding, lack of services

Niklas Agarwal Contributor

Residents of the Ponderosa West Building are upset over the state of their residence and are calling for a reduction in rent for the month of September.

25 of the 434 residents of the Ponderosa West building have signed a petition asking for financial compensation for excessive construction noise, flooding and lack of services, among other concerns.

Andrew Parr, managing director of Student Housing and Hospitality Services, acknowledged the issues residents have experienced, but said they do not warrant financial compensation.

“It’s not an ideal situation.

I think that’s a very fair statement,” said Parr. “Our position is that these are unfortunate but not atypical situations in a new building.”

Lynsee Yee, a first-year arts student living in the building, had numerous problems in her first few weeks, such as missing shower curtains, lack of microwaves, lack of hot water and cable service.

“Most of the issues I had myself were minor and I was able to fix it, but aside from that it’s kind of been a little hellish,” she said.

Some units on the third and fourth floors flooded as well.

“The second day after I moved in, every other room on my side of the building flooded,” said Richard Romanow, a second-year engineering physics student. “For

25 residents have signed a petition aiming to reduce rent by $50 for the month of September.

the first three weeks, there were construction workers tearing up the other rooms and refinishing and redoing the carpet.”

Parr said the first flooding happened because a construction worker left a plug in a pipe that was used to test its resistance to leaks. Due to the flooding, seven residents were permanently relocated to other buildings, and seven more were moved to other units in the building.

“In that case, it was quite a severe situation,” said Parr. “[It was] massively frustrating to the students [who] were involved and

I can assure you equally if not more frustrating to us as operators as well.”

Construction noise has also been an issue for residents. Yee said she has to sleep with earplugs due to the noise.

Matt Harris, a third-year arts student, said he found it impossible to concentrate on studying while the drilling and hammering was occurring, often before 7:30 a.m.

Not all residents are bothered by the work going on in Ponderosa. “From my side, you can hear it even if your window is closed, but it’s not too bad,” said Jen-

Photo will mcdonald/THE UBYSSEY

nifer Doll, a fourth-year biology student. “It’s loud, but I can sleep through it. A few people that I’ve talked to here find it hard in the morning, especially if you’re not waking up early, but otherwise I don’t mind it.”

Yee and Doll said their biggest issue was the lack of communication prior to move-in day. “We were moving in with the understanding that it would be completely built,” said Doll. “There was nothing sent in email, phone or anything like that. Last update was that it would be open and ready for us, and this doesn’t real-

ly look ready to me.”

Parr said residents were notified by email the week before they moved in that there would be construction going on in the building, and that there may be other deficiencies that SHHS didn’t foresee.

Some residents formulated a petition and sent it to Amy Stewart, the Student Life Coordinator for Ponderosa Commons.

The students asked for a reduction in rent, possibly around $50.

More would be given for people whose furniture was damaged by flooding.

Amy Stewart responded by apologizing for their unhappiness and acknowledging the lack of communication on facilities.

However, she made it clear that rent reduction was not on the table.

There have also been reports of maintenance workers showing up unexpectedly at people’s doors and even entering without permission. “They’ve actually opened the door on me a couple times, so now I have to put the dead-bolt on so they can’t come in,” said Yee. “It’s our objective ... to make a quality living environment ... from the minute a student arrives,” said Parr. “Aside from these little short term hurdles, the environment’s great, the location is great, the building is really solid and we’re adding beds on campus for students to live.” U –With files from Will McDonald

Medicine >>

Health minister objects to UBC trial for heroin addicts Controversy arises over trial that administers heroin to treat chronic addicts Anna Ou Contributor

As the first set of participants finish a year-long trial treating chronic heroin addicts, Health Canada’s decision allowing B.C. doctors to prescribe heroin treatment to these patients is receiving political backlash.

On Sept. 20, health minister Rona Ambrose rebuked her department’s decision and vowed that it will not happen again under the federal Special Access Program, which authorizes successful applicants to access non-marketed drugs.

The Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness, or the SALOME trial, is headed by researchers at UBC and Providence Health Care in Vancouver.

It follows its predecessor, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI), in finding out if hydromorphone, a highly potent yet legal opiate, is as effective as monitored doses of heroin in treating patients with severe addictions.

Michael Krausz, a UBC professor of addictions psychiatry and one of the investigators leading the trial, said the positive results from this first study, led by researchers on the direction of UBC’s School of Public Health, was the starting point in developing the new trial.

“Heroin-assisted treatment was developed quite some time ago for clients [in Europe] who were failing in methadone maintenance treat-

ment or were not that successful,” Krausz said. “In North America, there was only one [heroin-assisted treatment] trial ... and that was the NAOMI trial.”

The trial has two stages. The first compares the effectiveness of hydromorphone and heroin in treating severe opiate addicts. The second has to do with the route of administration, either orally or intravenously.

Krausz said oral treatment is preferred over injection-based treatment as it eliminates the possibility of infection at injection sites.

Oral treatment is also cheaper.

Krausz also recognized the controversy surrounding heroin -assisted treatments.

“Any kind of addiction treatment in North America is controversial, but NAOMI was widely received.

It showed very positive results and huge interest,” he said. “At least in British Columbia and Vancouver, there was openness and huge support by Providence Health Care to implement [both] the trials.

“There is controversy because there is a huge group of special political decision makers who think abstinence should be the one and only goal,” Krausz said. “But overall, I think we could convince others that this is a very safe and very effective treatment.”

On Sept. 23, the SALOME/NAOMI Patient Association, a support and advocacy group comprised of patients from the two trials, released a statement opposing Minister Ambrose’s criticism of

Photo will mcdonald/THE UBYSSEY

Michael Krausz is a UBC professor leading the trial, which investigates whether hydromorphone or heroin is better for treating addicts.

Health Canada’s decision. The statement instead advocated that the SALOME trial continue to offer heroin-assisted treatment to its participants after the trial’s end.

“As patients who have benefited from the NAOMI and SALOME trials, we have firsthand experience [with] the efficacy of [heroin-assisted treatment],” the statement read.

“We urge the health minister to support our special access requests and access to a permanent [treatment] program. To do otherwise would breach our

Charter rights as patients needing medical care.”

Scott Bernstein, a lawyer from the Pivot Legal Society, which is representing 22 patients from the two trials, said that they are optimistic that Health Canada will remain impartial when processing applications for heroin-assisted treatment.

However, he said that there is some worry caused by Ambrose’s statement.

“We’re concerned because there is obviously a disagreement in the prime minister’s office and

that some pressure or legislative changes are coming down the line,” Bernstein said.

Currently, Health Canada has approved 16 of the 35 applications for heroin-assisted treatment for SALOME patients. 19 remain under review.

The clinical trial is not yet complete and recruitment is currently ongoing.

A discussion forum about the development of a prescription heroin program in Canada will be held from 7-9 p.m. at SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian Theatre on Oct. 30. U

Monday, September 30, 2013 |

EDITOR Natalie Scadden

5

FOOTBALL >>

UBC football fumbles chances to be elite

Team can’t seem to execute at home in the fourth quarter, despite numerous opportunities

C.J. Pentland Managing Editor, Web

Three home games. Three chances to qualify themselves as a legitimate contender in the Canada West. Three fourth-quarter leads.

Three losses.

The UBC football team has been following a bit of a pattern during their home games this season. After a slow first quarter for both teams, the game will head into the half with neither team looking dominant. The ’Birds will then come out flying in the third quarter, with Greg Bowcott replacing Carson Williams as quarterback and helping to give his team a lead that is held into the fourth quarter.

But in that final frame, UBC loses the ability to execute, and it leads to their downfall. Saturday’s contest against CIS No. 7 Saskatchewan was no different.

Thanks to the blustery Vancouver fall weather, the first quarter ended with a score only seen in Canadian-rules football: 1-0 for UBC. Two more rouges followed, making it 2-1 before Quinn Van Gylswyk kicked a field goal to give the T-Birds a 5-1 lead heading into halftime. A blocked punt gift-wrapped a touchdown for Saskatchewan at the start of the third quarter, and a safety then made it 10-5. Bowcott then went into third quarter mode, finding Patrick Bull in the end zone for an easy touchdown, but that was answered by a one-yard touchdown run by the Huskies. That made it 17-12, which proved to be the final score.

Not that UBC didn’t have chances to respond — they had some glorious ones. They had a firstand-goal from the one-yard line, which is almost always automatic points, except in this case. With top rusher Brandon Deschamps injured, Shawn Olson decided to call first-year running back Liam Mahara’s number, giving him just his second carry of the entire season. It was one that he promptly fumbled away, leaving UBC nothing to show for that possession.

While the bottom line is that you simply can’t fumble the ball at that moment, the decision to hand it off to the rookie was a

Photo josh curran/the ubyssey

Despite some key plays providing excellent scoring chances, UBC couldn’t quite come up with the needed points in the fourth quarter against Saskatchewan.

puzzling one. Olson said after the game that the call was made due to formation, but why they didn’t do a quarterback sneak with Bowcott behind centre seems bizarre. They’ve been using that play nearly all season when at the goal line, and it’s worked to perfection. Especially with such slippery conditions, why risk something going wrong on a handoff to someone who’s only received one in his university career?

However, that wasn’t their only magnificent chance of taking back the lead. UBC’s defence, which came up big all day by allowing just the one touchdown, got the Thunderbirds the ball back right

Especially with such slippery conditions, why risk something going wrong on a handoff to someone who’s only received one in his university career?

away, as Jordan Bosa picked off a pass deep in Saskatchewan territory. This eventually led to a firstand-goal from the five-yard line.

Automatic points, right? Well, once again, apparently not.

With Deschamps still out of the game, Jeff Effah ran it on the first down for a 16-yard gain and another first down. He then ran it another eight yards on the next play, putting UBC on the Saskatchewan 10. Bowcott carried it another five yards to get another first down. But on second down, a set play clearly wasn’t run properly, as his pass to the side of the end zone reached Josh Kronstrom before he even turned around to catch it.

The ’Birds then went for it on third down, and it seemed to be going well with two guys open in the back of the end zone. But Bowcott’s lofty pass never made it, clanging off the uprights and wobbling to the ground — along with UBC’s last great chance of winning.

The T-Birds had one more shot after they got the ball back, but they couldn’t get deep enough into Saskatchewan territory and opted to punt, hoping their defence could come up big one more time.

But with a timeout being wasted right before the punt, the Huskies just needed to run the ball a few times — without fumbling it, of course — and pick up a first down to seal the win — and it’s exactly what they did.

Frankly, UBC should have won that game. They could easily be 4-1 this year, perhaps even 5-0 with a bit of luck. But now they sit at 2-3, alone at fourth place in the Canada West. It’s been a tale of two fourth quarters this season; at home, they can’t get anything to go right on offence, and while on the road, they’ve used one dramatic comeback to beat Alberta and another sound final frame to defeat Regina last week. If they can hold on to that final playoff spot, then

perhaps going on the road will be advantageous.

At the start of the season, a 2-3 record through five games would be considered a modest success for UBC after last year’s 2-6 debacle. But this is no ordinary 2-3. This is a 2-3 team that has shown so much promise, and one that leaves T-Bird fans wanting so much more. Unless they hit the road, though, who knows if they’ll see in person what UBC is really capable of. U Note: Brandon Deschamps suffered his leg injury in the third quarter and did not play the rest of the game. He will be examined on Sunday to determine the severity of the injury. UBC takes on the Manitoba Bisons (3-2) next week in Manitoba in their last game before the Thanksgiving break. Their final regular season home game is Oct. 19 against the University of Alberta.

BIRD DROPPINGs

Women’s Soccer UBC remains undefeated this season with a 4-0 victory over the UNBC TImberwolves on Sunday afternoon in Prince George. Fifth-year striker Janine Frazao led the way with two goals and an assist. Already the Canada West women’s soccer alltime leading scorer, Frazao’s next goal will be number 50 in her career as a Thunderbird.

Left: quarterback Greg Bowcott was 6 for 14 on passes for 93 yards and a touchdown. Right: Alex Morrison ran a total of 130 yards on kickoff and punt returns.

Photos josh curran/the ubyssey

Monday, SepteMber 30, 2013 |

EDIToR ARNO ROSENFELD

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ometime in the early morning hours of Sept. 9, at least one student, angry over reports of an insensitive rape cheer during Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS) FROSH events, spray-painted political messages across the front of the Henry Angus Building, which houses the Sauder School of Business.

“Fuck rape culture,” read one statement. “[Sauder] teaches rape,” read another.

Some may have noticed something incongruous about this public display of a rather political type of anger. In recent years, UBC has been a more sedate campus than it once was. Public protests are few and far between, and students often appear to be disengaged from the political process.

The graffiti was just one small part in a wider response to the Sauder rape cheer, which included mobilization by the AMS and CUS, and a lively online discussion — on blogs, Twitter feeds and even comments on The Ubyssey ’s website — and when examined alongside the university’s decision to suspend classes Sept. 18 for Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) events, one sees an interesting picture of the current state of political involvement at UBC. The graffiti was an act of protest committed by an individual or small number of individuals that, while rooted in something that received shared anger, was itself petty and unfocused. The suspension of classes was an effort — backed by the university senate — to show the importance of embracing the mission of the TRC: forcing Canada to face a shameful and often glossed-over past.

In many ways, these two events are emblematic of the state of political involvement on campus. There is a general sense of political apathy among students at UBC — an excess of information about issues, a student body out of touch with the tradition of political engagement at the university and the absence of strong student-run groups that promote social change. <em>

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UbC’S ACTIVIST HISToRy

UBC was not always like this. A look at the university’s history shows a long legacy of political action.

As far back as 1922 — just seven years after UBC was founded — students marched from downtown Vancouver to Point Grey in what was dubbed “the Great Trek.” The goal was to pressure political leaders to fulfil their promises of building a new campus for the school — and it worked.

Since then, students have mobilized around myriad political issues.

They’ve travelled to the American border to protest nuclear weapons, advocated for divestment from South Africa during apartheid, launched fierce demonstrations against tuition hikes and more.

The last major campus protest was in 1997. That year, around 1,500 students protesting their university’s hosting of Asian dictators clashed with police at a protest in opposition to a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) at UBC. While there have been spurts of political controversy since then, they’ve failed to captivate the student body in public displays of anger or yearning for change.

A lot of [students] don’t feel the formal political process is the way to make a difference.

Stephen Toope uBc president

W H y TH E C HAN G E ?

M sci Ce In th stu ing students can find it difficult to un “The problem is we have so mu is incredibly fragmented and not While it’s an ironic concept on student body is, the less politicall ly supported by the diversity of is energy since the APEC protests.

In 2007, a handful of students a campus were arrested during a pr Ade”; in 2009, the AMS filed a com Human Rights Commission over emerged over whether an AMS re to donate student money to a grou Gaza Strip.

Hyper-local, international, tuit causes that got students’ attention the rise of the Internet. While the thinks the information superhigh blocking students from unifying a the only one.

Stephen Toope, president of UB ogy has been detrimental to polit “There is a tendency for social social, rather than political, purp

MoNDAy, SEPTEMbER 30, 2013

Toope and many others interviewed for this article seem to believe that whatever the particular societal causes of student apathy, a shift back to UBC’s historic, politically active roots is needed.

“Throughout our history, [UBC has] been a university with a lot of action around aboriginal issues, around feminism, around a whole range of political engagement,” Toope said.

But the university president is unsure that this legacy is being passed on to new students — a fear that may have been confirmed by the CUS FROSH scandal. “[Frosh events become] sort of an amorphous thing all about drinking rather than something that actually makes students feel engaged in the history of their own institution,” Toope said.

Beyond just orientation, some say that UBC’s culture today simply isn’t geared toward fostering activism.

Deniz Calisal has worked with various activism groups on campus over the years, including the Social Justice Centre, an AMS-funded resource group. “People come here to get jobs and people internalize the culture they see here — and the culture they see is one where business works very closely with the education system,” he said.

Calisal cited a joint SFU and UBC venture focused on improve Canada’s mining industry as an example of this corporate culture.

He believes that the re-emergence of political interest on campus has to come from a culture that promotes activism in concrete ways.

“You need community space and community events just for people to communicate and share ideas. Once you have that a lot of stuff can start to happen,” Calisal said.

“The number one thing is just to get a culture going where people feel involved and it becomes a part of their lives and it becomes meaningful.”

While consistent political causes have been few and far between at UBC in recent years, Calisal says there is constant rejuvenation as new students cycle through, which provides hope for the future despite a lack of consistency.

“Since I’ve been here, there are movements that have both come and gone repeatedly,” he said. “It’s a weakness, because it means the movements have been losing momentum as people graduate or as people lose interest or as political events unfold. It’s a strength because it shows you there’s always that possibility for a spark to create student involvement.”

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ING LooK o T bACK AHEAD E FoRG

Max Cameron, a professor of political ience at UBC and director of the entre for the Study of Democratic nstitutions (CSDI), attributes some of his apathy to the flood of information udents receive. With so many pressg world issues thrown in their face, nite around specific issues. uch information, but the information well structured,” Cameron said. n its face — the more aware our ly active they are — it seems partialssues that have captured students’

angry about over-development on rotest that came to be dubbed “Knoll mplaint with the United Nations tuition hikes; and in 2010 a spat esource group should be allowed up trying to send a boat to the

tion and trade: the wide array of n in the past 15 years coincides with e correlation may be shaky, Cameron hway may be a contributing factor around specific issues — and he’s not

For what it’s worth, many continue to believe that despite the quitter image being put forth, students remain passionate about the world around them — politics included — even if they go about caring in less conventional ways.

BC, is also of the mind that technol“I totally resist the idea that students don’t care about the issues,” tical activism.

Toope said. “For good or bad, I think a lot of them don’t feel the formedia to be used more for purely mal political process is the way to make a difference.” poses,” said Toope.

The UBC Conservatives are a good illustration of Calisal and Toope’s comments. The group shut down last year in part due to a lack of membership, but it’s up and running again this year under president Bert Chen, a first-year integrated computer science student.

Chen is confident there is a strong political will at UBC, and a shortage of leadership among politically active student groups.

“Many students who might be interested in politics don’t receive the leadership or opportunities to get involved,” Chen said.

Part of Chen’s goal is to educate more students, believing T S E that is what will cause the most engagement.

I NTE R “Every student at UBC here has a lot of potential and a lot of propensity for learning,” he said. “Apathy starts with STILL RING ignorance — so a lot of it is just being informed.”

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IS THERE A SIMPLER REASoN?

Whatever the effects of a lack of grounding in UBC’s activist history, an unfocused student body and the often detrimental effect of social media, some see a simpler explanation.

“I think the culture of apathy is more perceived than it is real, ” said Loryn Blower, a Simon Fraser University student who sits on the board of the Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group. “We have a culture of talking about apathy, a culture where everyone talks pessimism.”

She sees a more straightforward answer for the cause of student apathy, while trying to stay positive.

“Given the fact that especially in B.C. we have to pay quite a bit for our education and living expenses, I think students do the best they can to be involved.”

The optimism Blower expresses is not necessarily shared at UBC. For the most part, it seems that students don’t feel like they can affect change through political action. The administration and faculty are serious enough about getting students involved — there is no lack of “top-down” attempts at reform — but the student body lacks the structure for activism that those on the school’s payroll posses.

The problems preventing political engagement are UBC are very much connected. Establishing a culture of activism would probably involve being more aware of the success of activism in the past at UBC, and that culture of activism would surely help to establish a stronger structure and leadership among student-run groups. By being more grounded in the history of UBC’s activism, students would recognize the power they have to bring about reform.

The place of social media and technology in the legacy of political involvement at the university is yet to be determined.

There’s no doubt that it needs to be used in a more focused way if students are to be informed of current issues instead of losing intensity and motivation. There is only so much the university’s top-down efforts can do without buy-in from the student body. U

8 | SPORTS + REC |

Monday, September 30, 2013

SOCCER >>

Men’s soccer extends win streak to 6 games Defending champs sit firmly atop the leaderboard at 7-1 with 6 games to go in regular season Nick Adams Staff Writer

The UBC men’s soccer team has been peppering the Canada West stats sheet in all the right places.

Almost every Canada West top10 list consists of at least three UBC names: Reynold Stewart, Navid Mashinchi and Milad Mehrabi lead for points and points per game; Mashinchi, Stewart, Harry Lakhan and Mehrabi hold top spots for assists; and Paul Clerc, Mashinchi, Mehrabi and Stewart round out the top goal scorers. Probably the most notable of these is Clerc, a defender for UBC, who sits atop the Canada West goal-scorers alongside striker Cody Cook from Mount Royal University.

With stats to maintain, UBC came flying out on Saturday night against the University of Alberta Golden Bears. Proving why they’re at the top of the table, the Thunderbirds handled the game easily, walking away after 90 minutes with a 4-0 victory.

None of the goals — scored by Sean Einarsson, Clerc, Mashinchi and Mehrabi — were individual efforts. Rather, every play UBC made seemed to have a flow akin to that of a championship-winning team that has found its rhythm once again.

Chromeo’s “Fancy Footwork” rang out from the bleachers at kickoff, and UBC was dominant from

the get-go. With a couple of early chances, the Thunderbirds had the Golden Bears on their heels. A good show of pressure from Tyler Mertens led to UBC’s first chance, a cross that was deflected out for a throw. From the throw, however, Mertens lobbed the ball to the head of Niall Cousens, who flicked it on to Einarsson, who slotted the ball past the keeper into its rightful home for his third goal of the season. That made it 1-0 UBC in only the seventh minute.

Flowing currents from both sides saw the tides ebbing in Alberta’s favor for the next few plays.

But despite controlling possession, the Golden Bears were only able to find enough room for two shots, and their failure to capitalize and reply would prove fatal. On a break, Lakhan ran the ball down the left sideline, cut in right and fired a shot low and hard to the far right corner. Alberta defender Eddy Sidra was there to block it, sending the ball out of bounds.

Lakhan quickly took the corner and found the head of – surprise, surprise – Clerc, who beamed it into the top left corner for his seventh goal of the season.

Sitting up 2-0 at the half, UBC had set out a clear road for themselves. Only minutes into the second half, a cross from Mashinchi found the foot of Mehrabi, who was completely open in front of the right post and rifled it across the

net into the top left corner to make it 3-0 UBC. Controlling the play and allowing nearly no Alberta possession, UBC kept up the pressure, and Mashinchi headed the ball home off a cross into the box from Lakhan: 4-0 UBC. Creating some of that key initial pressure that put Alberta to the test from the start was right back Tyler Mertens. His key runs in the opening minutes led to the game-winning goal.

“That’s my work rate,” Mertens said after the game. “I try to get up and down. They gave us a lot of space on the outside, so we tried to get up and combine with a lot of plays.”

Playing in front of Mertens, Mashinchi often drops back during overlapping runs and the two have created some great chemistry. “[Mashinchi] likes to switch sides too. We’ve been having pretty good combinations in practice,” Mertens said.

UBC head coach Mike Mosher praised Mertens’ game. “It’s something that he’s fully capable of doing and we encourage him to [make runs],” he said. “We’d love to have both of our fullbacks involved in our attacks. I think [Mertens] did a great job of it in the first half.”

Mosher also suggested that the T-Birds strong outing last night came from lessons learned in their much tougher 3-2 win against Saskatchewan on Friday

File Photo hogan wong/the ubyssey

UBC will host the Canada West playoffs if they can hold their lead in the Pacific Division for the six games remaining in the regular season.

night. In that game, UBC went into halftime up 2-0, but soon found themselves in a tied game after a weak start to the second half. Luckily, Mashinchi was there to poke home the game winner during a scramble in front of the Huskies’ net with just three minutes remaining.

“Today at half time we were up 2-0, and we said to the guys that [when] we were in the exact same situation yesterday, we hit a dip in form. We certainly reminded them of that, and we came out and

got a great goal to start the second half,” said Mosher.

After dropping their home opener to the Fraser Valley Cascades three weeks ago, the Thunderbirds (7-1-0) have now won six straight games. They’ll head north to Prince George for a pair of away games against the UNBC Timberwolves (1-3-2) this coming weekend. Now that they’re back in winning form, it should be something of a pre-Thanksgiving feast for the Thunderbirds. U

rugby >>

The pressure’s on for women’s rugby Thunderbirds

After two losses, struggling team will need to win their final game of the season to earn playoff berth Jenny Tang Contributor

Although the heavy rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the women’s rugby squad this weekend, it seemed that their gameplay was watered down in heavy losses against the University of Alberta Pandas and the University of Calgary Dinos, 39-0 and 22-5 respectively.

Given the weather conditions, UBC had a good first 25 minutes against Alberta on Saturday, but things quickly started to fall apart, and the Thunderbirds ultimately couldn’t put any points on the board.

Unable to bounce back from a 31-14 loss against Lethbridge last week, the T-Birds found themselves down by 27 points at halftime. Alberta took control of the ball for the majority of the first half, scoring on five tries and one conversion.

Victoria has historically been the team that we could aim to beat, but they’ve made a lot of improvements, so we’re definitely going to have to come in with some smack.

Maria Gallo Head coach, UBC women’s rugby

In the second half, UBC appeared to be spurred on by a change of mentality from their coaches and the encouraging words of veteran teammate Carolyn McEwen, who put pressure on the Pandas and forced them into making errors and losing possession on multiple occasions. Fullback Annabel Arnott and flanker Cassidy Gale provided spectacular defence, while centre Catherine Ohler went in fierce and tackled opponents to the ground.

On the opposing side, fullback Alana Fittes had some great plays of her own in the game, scoring a try and a successful conversion. Last Tuesday, Fittes was named Canada West female athlete of the week, and she continues to lead the Pandas, who are ranked second nationally.

UBC head coach Maria Gallo made frequent replacements and changes of jerseys throughout the game. These tactical substitutions were put into play in order to rest the girls who would be instrumental for Sunday’s game against Calgary.

With the Alberta game originally scheduled for Friday afternoon, UBC was forced to play games on back-to-back days — not ideal in a four-game regular season.

Despite ice baths and advice from coaches and nutritionists, the short rest between games seemed to mentally and physically drain the Thunderbirds, which led to small mistakes that brought victory for the Dinos as they zoned in and took advantage. The T-Birds started off strong and kept possession of the ball in the first half of the game, but seemed to lose steam during the second half — especially when inside center Mackenzie Lee was taken off due to injury.

UBC couldn’t get much offence going in two losses this weekend against Alberta and Calgary.

There were some solid plays by UBC despite all this, and the single try scored in the game was a group effort. When the Thunderbirds grouped together and blitzed their opponents, the Dinos fought back hard. One Dino had her jersey pulled off in the middle of a play, and another had her two front teeth knocked in. The Thunderbirds gave it their all even in the last few moments of the game, but they were clearly ready for the six-day break before their game next weekend.

“Defensively we’ve gotta pull up our socks and come out a bit harder,”

Gallo commented on the team’s gameplay. “Tactically on offense we need to be a little bit less creative and really do the hard work up the field.”

So far, UBC has had the advantage of playing on home soil, but the weekend’s losses add pressure to their final game against UVic in Victoria.

The Thunderbirds need just one win in order to make it to playoffs, but that’s no easy task when playing in a tough league like Canada West. UBC will really have to dig deep now if they want to make the

Photo carter brundage/the ubyssey

post-season. If they are unable to come up with a victory against Victoria, their already short season will be over. “[We’re] in a hard division, but we’re good to go,” said Gallo, responding positively to the challenge.

“We have six days to turn it around.

Victoria has historically been the team that we could aim to beat, but they’ve made a lot of improvements in the last couple of months, so we’re definitely going to have to come in with some smack.

“It’s do or die for us if we don’t win that game.” U

Monday, September 30, 2013 |

EDITOR Rhys Edwards

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FILM >>

Farms, fairytales and fish The Vancouver Film Festival is one of Canada’s premier cinematic showcases, running until Oct. 11 at multiple venues across the city. From family-friendly anime to searing docudramas, there’s images courtesy of viff something for everyone, no matter their taste. Check out our first batch of reviews for the esteemed event.

Desert Runners

Miss Violence

Matterhorn

How far can the human body can be pushed before it cracks?

This vivid documentary, directed by Jennifer Steinman, profiles four global citizens brought together by a rare goal: completing the Four Deserts Grand Slam. This entails competing in 250-kilometre ultra-marathons in each of the world’s harshest deserts: the driest in the Atacama, Chile; the windiest in the Gobi, China; the hottest in the Sahara, Egypt; and the coldest, in Antarctica. Moreover, all four races must be done within one calendar year in order to be eligible for Grand Slam status.

One might call these athletes freakish, insane or suicidal, but what they truly have is an unparalleled wealth of strength, both mental and physical, that propels them to achieve their goals.

Arranged in a chronological timeline starting from January and ending with the final race in November, the viewer has the sense of embarking on a journey with the athletes.

Steinman ensures we feel every pain and triumph along with them, providing for an emotional viewing experience that can induce tears. The film is more than just an informative exposé of an international event, however — it is an eye-opening, inspirational glimpse into the successes that one can achieve with mental fortitude, which can ultimately be applied to any experience in life.

Desert Runners is part of the non-fiction features series at VIFF, and should not be missed.

–Julie Gordon

Miss Violence is the opposite of the feel good movie of the year. If no other movie at VIFF leaves you feeling depressed, Miss Violence will.

This is not to say it’s a bad movie; in fact, it’s a great movie. Miss Violence follows the day-to-day life of a seemingly ordinary family in Athens after their eleven-year-old daughter commits suicide for no apparent reason. The family is anything but ordinary, and their non-traditional power and relationship dynamic will leave audiences scratching their head. The true nature of this dynamic is slowly uncovered over the course of the film through a unique style of still-camera shots. What they reveal is exactly what the audience expects, but wishes wasn’t true.

The film is shot in black and white. This, coupled with the actors’ emotionless expressions, suggests that there is something fundamentally flawed with the family. A particularly graphic scene then kills the expressionless style the film uses up to that point. The star here is Eleni Roussinou, who plays the mother — she portrays a believable, complex character with a lot of body language and little dialogue.

Miss Violence is a hard watch, but a strong exploration of the Greek family tragedy genre.

–Niklas Agarwal

The fact that this film has been classified as a comedy in the VIFF programme booklet only proves how inadequate genre classifications can be.

Matterhorn , a story about a religious Dutch widower and his encounter with a mentally challenged adult, is indeed funny at times, yet the laughs it draws are awkward and contained. Being funny is not the main goal of this film.

What makes it move an audience is its treatment of the most painful personal tragedies, only to resolve them in absurdity.

No prejudice is safe in this film, which constantly keeps the audience guessing about religion, identity, gender, power and sexuality – and all this in a village in the Dutch Bible belt, where time has stood still.

While the film confronts the issue of the place of strict Christian values in a country that is becoming more and more secular, it also suggests in which way these values can still be applied – and how religious theory and practice can clash, with terrible consequences.

Though Matterhorn is at times so absurd it makes you cringe, the film draws you in until the very end. The conclusion is ridiculously over-the-top, but the amazing lead, Tom Kas, manages to turn it into a heart-wrenching scene that will leave viewers amazed.

–Kanta Dihal

Playing at the International Village on Oct. 4 at 11:30 a.m.

Playing at the Centre for the Performing Arts on Sept. 30 at 6:45 p.m.

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Salmon Confidential

H&G

Wolf Children

In Salmon Confidential , director Twyla Roscovich follows biologist Alexandra Morton as she struggles to save the sockeye salmon, whose runs have been plummeting since the 1990s. The problem is, although they know what the cause of the decline is — diseases from farmed salmon — the government refuses to listen. There’s something rotten in the province of B.C. Roscovich reveals that in spite of irrefutable evidence, the government’s response has been to attack the messenger: scientists have been muzzled, labs have been threatened with closure and anti-whistleblower laws have been drafted. Beyond the charts, data and interviews, however, the point is really driven home by shots of beautiful, placid streams choked with dead salmon — something no amount of spin can fix.

Salmon Confidential is thoroughly researched, informative and so infuriating that you’ll want to throw something at the screen.

–Greg Ursic

Single mothers, cheap beers, gender-bending and stolen donuts: Danishka Esterhazy’s H & G is no typical fairytale.

A clever spin-off of the Grimm Brothers’ Hansel and Gretel, this independent Canadian film brings new meaning to the well-known story.

Abandoned in the woods in the middle of the night by their mother’s drunken date, young heroes Harley and Gemma are left to fend for themselves against the darkest dangers of growing up in the 21st century. Along their journey, they face a nightmarish list of social issues, including poverty, neglect, paedophilia, substance abuse, sexual violence and murder. By exploring these adult problems from a child’s perspective, H & G confronts its viewers with the “wicked witches” of our modern world.

Echoes of the original fairytale appear throughout the film, evoking an unnerving feeling of déjà vu. Realizing that the strange horror on screen feels oddly familiar, viewers are pushed to reconsider the original fairytale and their current reality through a new lens. An incredible story of danger, love and survival, H & G promises some thought-provoking — and often chilling — revelations.

Fans of Studio Ghibili and Ozu will love Wolf Children . Social realism with a smidge of fantasy, the film is a Japanese animation that can be cute and tragic at the same time. It tells the story of Hana, a hardworking college student who falls for an emo bad boy who happens to be part wolf, part man. She then gets pregnant and has to raise two — well, two wolf children.

Much of Wolf Children details how the kids deal with their wolf-human identities. Most of it is humorous, but it’s hard not to feel for Hana, the single mother who drops out of university to provide for her kids. It’s both funny and heartbreaking when she can’t decide between going to the doctor or the vet when her kids are sick. The wolf-human identity crisis is treated in a non-gimmicky way, and when the kids transition between human and wolf, it’s more cute than scary.

The animation is excellent, and the lush countryside scenery is a treat for the eyes. Overall, Wolf Children is a gentle film about family and self-acceptance. Laughs will be had. Tears may be shed. U –Ming Wong

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10 | CULTURE |

Monday, September 30, 2013

PROCRASTINATION STATION THE BUSINESS OF STREAMING

yEAH, SCIENCE! >>

Composite companions

Biotechnology reunion promotes B.C. science culture

Welcome to Procrastination Station, a semi-regular column featuring thoughtful dispatches on all the media, pop-cultural and technological phenomena that conspire to prevent you from studying. This week, we look at the impact of streaming on the television industry.

Does anyone remember the old days, when practically every movie or TV show was available on Megaupload? Granted, sometimes the quality wasn’t top notch, but all you had to do was Google it, and there it was. Then Kim Dotcom got himself arrested and all the files were erased. Since then, there have been many changes in the world of online streaming.

Vince Gilligan attributes the success of Breaking Bad to the fact that anyone with a Netflix account can binge-watch previous seasons. Netflix is the king of binge watching, a feat that is both wonderful and terrible at the same time. Is it healthy to watch TV, even if it’s on your laptop, for six straight hours?

And then there’s the flip side: networks are starting to realize the money-making potential. This is why Warner Brothers, MGM and Universal pulled their content from Netflix in May. Almost 2,000 titles disappeared — some of which you’ve probably never even heard of, but the list also included popular titles like Cruel Intentions and Big Daddy.

The worst part is that a couple of days later, Warner Bros. launched its own streaming site. For the price of $9.99 a month, you could watch 123 titles. The amount of content has grown since then, of course, but the fact remains that you used to pay only $7.99 for Netflix, but if you also want content from WB, you’d now have to cough up almost $18 a month. This is still cheaper than cable, but only by about $5 or so.

But who needs the WB anyway? One great advance in the post Kim Dotcomera is that streaming companies like Netflix are now creating original material.

Content like House of Cards and the most recent season of Arrested Development have been critically acclaimed. Even though some people were unhappy with the latest Arrested Development, everyone watched it.

And that brings us to Orange Is the New Black.

The show — produced by Jenji Kohan, creator of Weeds — broke every previous viewer record Netflix had. Even though the show was aired — or rather, streamed — too late to be considered for this year’s Emmy Awards, it’s most likely to pick up as many if not more nominations than both House of Cards and Arrested Development next year.

That said, it seems that the Emmys haven’t fully embraced the Netflix-original-content craze. This year, a Netflix-based program only picked up one high-profile award, Best Directing, for David Fincher’s work on House of Cards.

HBO is clearly still superior in content, and you don’t need awards to prove it (even though they have tons of those).

Netflix’s biggest problem is its lack of HBO content, and HBO’s biggest problem is its hesitation to adopt large-scale streaming. The only way to access HBO Go — the networks’s own streaming platform — is if you’re already a subscriber.

But if Netflix has proven anything with its almost 30 million subscribers in the U.S., it’s that streaming is clearly the future. We can only hope that HBO will jump on board the streaming ship sometime soon — and when they do, let’s hope they charge less than $10 a month. U –Aurora Tejeida, Senior Culture Writer

Jason Vandervill/THE UBYSSEY

The first alumni reunion of the UBC-BCIT joint program took place at the Life Sciences Centre.

Richard Sterndale-Bennett Contributor

Just like the science itself, students in the UBC-BCIT bachelor of biotechnology honours program are a hybrid entity.

The jointly-operated program recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, holding its first alumni reunion last Thursday, Sept. 27, at the Life Sciences Centre.

Organizers of the event chose to split the difference between the specialization’s first intake in 2001 and its first graduating cohort in 2005. The program was conceived by the former head of BCIT’s biotechnology diploma program, Paul Barran, with support from UBC microbiology and immunology’s William Raymey. The idea was to fill the industry’s need for graduates with in-depth scientific training and technical expertise.

Biotech students spend their first two years in the specialization at BCIT, learning life sciences and

chemistry. These courses are supplemented with others focused on issues relevant to the biotech industry — regulatory policy, ethics and pharmaceutical development.

This is part of a larger effort to get students out of the lecture hall and into the lab. Co-op terms and a strong lab component at BCIT contribute to this.

The final two years are spent at UBC, where higher-level science courses culminate in an independent research project.

“I think the program has the best of both worlds,” said Carol Friedrich-Fong, head of the program.

“When these students are at BCIT, they have smaller class sizes, but they’re in the lab almost 12 hours a week ... and then of course coming back to UBC, they get more of these higher-level science courses.”

Class sizes at BCIT are indeed small — current and former students in attendance consistently cited the 20-per-

son persistent cohorts at the smaller institution as one of the program’s strengths. The small scale allows students to get to know one another well, forming a tight-knit network.

The result is a valuable contribution to B.C.’s biotech culture. Mixed in with students and instructors at the reunion were members of the biotech industry, there not just as a courtesy but as part of the program’s wider community.

“I now work with industry,” said Lesley Esford, former program head and current industrial technology adviser for the National Research Council. “I know people within industry recognize the difference between these students.”

That’s something Annie Chen, a 2011 graduate of the program, knows firsthand. She landed a job with B.C. biotech firm STEMCELL Technologies a month after graduation. “[Employers] know about this program, and they know that the people that come out of this program are very well trained because we get a lot of hands-on experience and co-op experience ... so they’re always quite happy to get people from this program,” she said.

While this emphasis on both theory and practice works well for students hoping to find work in the biotech industry right after graduation, it also contributes to UBC’s broader overall push to produce strong researchers.

Biotech students are regularly exposed to active research laboratories, allowing them a firsthand view of the day-to-day life and procedure of a researcher. When it comes to competing for graduate studies in related fields, this is a big advantage.

This hybrid spirit — two institutions and strong prospects for both employment and further study after graduation — speaks to a larger cooperative approach that warrants the celebration. U

literature >>

Aspiring writers at Word Vancouver Alexandra Meisner Contributor

There’s a place in Western Canada where aspiring artists of the creative and poetic word can come together to celebrate the world of literacy. It attracts publishers, professionals and students of all genres and ambition. But take into account the side effects: too much poetry, and your tongue could be tied into rhyming schemes for days.

It is known as Word Vancouver.

With a new name and network outreach, the literacy festival — first founded in 1995 as the Word on the Street Festival — ran from Sept. 26-29, with events ranging from poetry celebrations to live readings of fiction and children’s book showcases.

UBC alumna and fiction novelist Caroline Adderson has been an active contributor to the annual festivities of Word Vancouver. This year, Adderson presented her children’s book Jasper John Dooley: Left Behind.

“It’s a celebration of books for book lovers,” Adderson said, summing up the festivities.

Adderson believes that one of the most beneficial things young writers can always look forward to with Word Vancouver is the intimate setting. “You can really get some networking done, and go and see what’s available in Vancouver,” she said. Writers can find out from editors what they are looking for on a one-to-one basis.

image courtesy chris blakely/flickr

The annual literacy festival provides industry contacts for young authors while showcasing new work.

For those intending to publish along the lines of the rhythmic word, Word Vancouver now has an exciting vision for the poetry portion of their programming. Carl Leggo, a professor at UBC in the department of language and literacy education since 1990, was featured at the live poetry reading held on Thursday at the Cottage Bistro.

“This is a city [and] a province that has hundreds of published poets,” Leggo said after his performance.

“The main part of the whole adventure has to do with there being lots of writers [and] lots of listeners, and they come together.”

Leggo’s passion for the art of literacy has made him a successful published poet, and he believes that Word Vancouver is an opportunity for that passion to grow in young writers. “[With Word Vancouver] the emphasis is on art, it’s on writing, it’s on poetry, but there’s also an emphasis on the passion we have for it,” he said.

Both Leggo and Adderson understand the difficulties of working in the publishing world. Leggo advises his own students, and any ambitious writer who finds solace and expression through the art of literacy: “Love your work, be bold about iwt, and don’t be discouraged.” U

Monday, September 30, 2013 |

student voice. Community reach.

11

Bikes and bottle openers

Photo Alexandra Downing/the ubyssey

Main Mall is home to a wide variety of transportation methods, including wheeled and non-wheeled species.

letter

Illustration David Marino/The Ubyssey

LAST WORDS Heroin study nothing to fear While we’re sure some members of the UBC community will be outraged that the university is giving 150 people heroin for six months, the reality is that more than 60,000 people are affected by heroin and opiate addiction in British Columbia alone.

Ultimately, SALOME aims to help addicts, and their research will benefit our understanding of addiction treatment. As part of its contribution, the chosen test subjects will receive support from assigned social workers to help with job-finding services. And this isn’t the first time Providence Health has given out heroin to test subjects: they conducted a similar study from 2005-2008.

The point is, these guys are experienced, and they know their stuff. There’s nothing to worry about here.

Sciences Po exchange reason to cheer

Studying abroad is an enriching experience. But it’s expensive — all of those trips across the Atlantic or Pacific on your three-month jaunt gets expensive.

But UBC’s new two-year exchange changes the game. Granted, Paris isn’t the cheapest city in the world, but it’s comparable to living in Vancouver. If you’re coming from the East Coast, the trip doesn’t cost substantially more, either. And this program could expand to other schools around the world.

Living in a university town abroad can be a lot cheaper than

PArting shots and snap judgments from The ubyssey editorial board

living in Vancouver — enough to offset the cost of getting there.

While some students may find the program financially out of reach, others could use the program to get away from home for their first two years before returning to finish their degree on a budget.

Best of all, this will attract more exchange students to UBC who can build into the general student community, instead of sticking with friends made in international orientations. And that is what exchange programs are supposed to do: build cultural understanding between different communities.

Student political apathy is real The feature in today’s issue discusses the change at UBC from a campus of political action — including at-times violent protests — into a more sedated school surrounded by less visible politics.

One thing both UBC President Toope and political science professor Max Cameron agreed on is that students don’t lack the passion or interest, even if they don’t show it outwardly. We’re not so sure.

UBC today is a campus with a large proportion of international students who may not care much about Canadian or provincial politics. And the commuter student problem may be a bigger part of the issue than people want to acknowledge.

Without a strong campus community invested in improving their university and society, there will not be an active political culture, and we’re all worse off for it.

Good riddance, Whistler Lodge The AMS decided last week that the Whistler Lodge would not be classified as a student service, and at this point, it is probably for the best.

After so many years of students coming out to Lodge consultations to fight for keeping the lodge — the majority of them being Ski and

Board Club or Varsity Outdoor Club members — next to no one outside the AMS bothered to fight for the Lodge.

There were two town halls and two online forums that resulted in next to no feedback, with one being cancelled on no notice and one online forum being attended by six people — a whopping 0.0001 per cent of campus. We’ve also written about political apathy here on campus, and this appears to the latest example of students simply not caring.

But with many other accommodations being much closer to the slopes and the parties, it’s become clear now that the Whistler Lodge isn’t serving the purpose that it’s meant to. The AMS has already admitted that the Lodge can’t be run as a viable business, so perhaps it’s finally time for the Lodge to become a new financial investment.

Canadian Netflix doesn’t have to suck American expats: complain no more about how Netflix Canada sucks, because we already know it does.

We know we offer fewer shows, but before you start berating your Canadian roommate on how this country is bringing you down, seek out ye the Internet first. There are many tech tricks you, a young able-bodied twentysomething, can use to Very Precisely Navigate your way past geographic restrictions. Soon, you’ll be saying “hola”1 to more shows in no time. U 1 Hola is a web browser extension you can use to unblock American Netflix.

In last issue’s Last Words opinion column, a “snap judgment” was made by someone on the Ubyssey editorial board suggesting that cyclists on campus stay clear of pedestrian walkways between classes.

Nope. Definitely not going to do that. I’ma ride my bike all up in that business.

Specifically, I’m talking about Main Mall — you know, those two enormous pathways the university just blew $46 million1 on. I’m going to carry on riding my bike through these pathways during peak pedestrian usage, because they are the major thoroughfares on campus. They take me — a cyclist — where I need to go, much the same way they take pedestrians where they’re going.

It also helps that the sidewalks are enormous — plenty of room for pedestrians, cyclists, or even a few circus elephants should they be passing through. When the editors encounter a bicycle that’s “in their

letter Thank you for publishing BC Liberal campaigner Joel Allan’s letter about handing out bottle opener keychains during Clubs Days. I note that after accusing me of hyperbole, Allan concluded that the BC Liberals were just like the heroic street nurses of the Downtown Eastside running a needle exchange.

Perhaps we’re both losing the plot a bit.

As an attempt to make amends, I write to put on the record that I was wrong to question the handing out of the bottle opener keychain by the BC Liberals. In fact, on reflection, I have to admit that the BC Liberals giving bottle opener keychains to students actually makes a lot of sense.

I’m on a tour of B.C. campuses right now, and I had a student literally crying at the College of New Caledonia as she explained to me how financially overwhelmed she was being a single parent trying to get an education to improve life for her and her daughter.

At the University of Victoria, the food bank has run out of food. Demand has increased by 10 per cent every year for the last five years.

way,” it’s probably because they and the entire editorial staff at The Ubyssey are walking 15 abreast down one of the pathways, paying no attention whatsoever to their surroundings. So really, you’re in my way, and in the way of everyone else trying to get by that might be going slightly faster than you — either on foot or on wheels.

Now, this is of course a hypothetical, but the point is we can all get along if we just pay a bit more attention, and that goes for all modes of transport. But hey, I’m not necessarily complaining — I kind of like dodging pedestrians. It’s a great core and cardio workout — a mix of getting your heart rate up by spinning those pedals and working your core by track-standing while waiting for that clueless texting student to realize they are literally zigzagging all over the place.

Tim Philpott is a PhD student at UBC and an avid cyclist. <em>

</em>

Editor’s note: $46 million is the entire budget for all public realms projects.

1

Administrators at BCIT have told me the number one reason that students leave their programs early is financial crisis. At SFU, students in family housing live beside condemned suites simply because the Liberals won’t let the school borrow the money to build a replacement residence — the borrowing, although entirely covered by student rent payments, would show up on the province’s books.

With B.C. students having the highest student debt levels in Canada by thousands of dollars, not even able to borrow enough money to pay tuition and living expenses from the student loan program, paying 2.5 per cent more in interest on those loans on graduation or dropping out than the B.C. government pays to borrow the money in the first place, and private sector jobs collapsing in the province especially among young people, having a beer bottle opener handy is probably a great idea.

I hope Mr. Allan will accept my apology. He was right, and I was wrong. If students are being driven to drink by his party’s policies, then let’s at least reduce the number of teeth chipped while opening bottles and remind them of how we got here. What better way to do that than a BC Liberal bottle opener?

David Eby is the NDP MLA for the UBC-Point Grey riding. <em>

</em>

12 | GAMES |

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