Eating right Instilling healthy eating habits in parents and kids. Page A3
NEWS: Victoria mulls movies and beer /A10 ARTS: New director for UVic auditorium /A16 SPORTS: Grizzlies back in first after OT win /A22
SAANICHNEWS Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Ready for the
Big One? Probably not. Most British Columbians ignore calls for emergency preparedness
Natalie North News staff
PLEASE SEE: Trustee skeptical, Page A6
SL13
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Debate over school Wi-Fi reignites Debate over allowing wireless Internet into Greater Victoria schools will take centre stage again after a yearand-a-half hiatus. The district’s Wi-Fi committee, established in January 2011 to investigate parental concerns over alleged health affects linked to wireless Internet in schools, will meet tonight (Oct. 17). The committee plans to review any new information regarding the technology that was submitted between May 2011 and this month. It doesn’t plan on making a ruling yet on allowing Wi-Fi into schools. “There is no question on the table that says ‘should we or should we not?’” said Pat Duncan, associate superintendent and committee chair. “People seem to think that there’s a predetermined outcome, that: ‘The school board is putting Wi-Fi in schools,’” added Peg Orcherton, chair of the Greater Victoria board of education. “The determination as to what would happen hasn’t been made.” All high schools and one elementary school in the district have Wi-Fi, but the technology hasn’t been installed in any other schools since the committee was struck. The committee set a deadline of Oct. 9 to collect new information for review. A small but vocal group of people opposed to Wi-Fi have submitted about 30 items for review, Duncan said, in addition to nearly 200 website addresses, which did not contain new information.
Offer Expires Oct. 31st, 2012
Natalie North News staff
Sharon Tiffin/News staff
The right to run Visually impaired runner Graeme McCreath and his guide Carlos Castillo run on the Galloping Goose trail. McCreath has filed a human rights complaint against the TC10K race for not allowing him to run with other disabled runners in the annual event. See the story on page A5.
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Despite repeated media campaigns and shocking images of devastation from other parts of the world, the vast majority British Columbians remain stubbornly unprepared for an earthquake. Provincial emergency officials estimate only 14 per cent of British Columbians are prepared for the inevitable big one. Last October, 470,000 people registered in The Great British Columbia Shake Out, a provincewide earthquake drill aimed at preparing everyone in B.C. This year, organizers hope to see that number increase. But despite the co-ordinated education effort, many people living in the high-risk coastal earthquake zone choose to ignore the warnings – a choice largely determined by what University of Victoria environmental psychologist Robert Gifford calls the “dragons of inaction.” “We all know we should brush our teeth, we should exercise, we should eat the rights things, but a lot of us don’t do those things even when we should,” Gifford said, noting that the same goes for preparing for an earthquake or other natural disaster. Many people often have other priorities or conflicting goals, which stand in the way of planning for disaster. Sometimes people who are closest to a risk actually perceive it as being a smaller risk, Gifford said, perhaps because they don’t want to face the danger or because it’s easier to suppress it. “They may think that it just won’t do any good. ‘A desk or a building isn’t going to save me so why try?’” he said. Social amplification – the influence of those who we surround ourselves with – also has a strong effect, and could be keeping the majority of people who still haven’t prepared from getting on with it, Gifford added. PLEASE SEE: Shake Out on Thursday, Page A6
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