THURSDAY JUNE 18, 2015
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Vol. 120, Issue 95
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Smokies make roster moves Page 9
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
SOWK Youth, local organization team up candidates for monthly open mike night talk Bill C-51 BY SHERI REGNIER
BY LIZ BEVAN
Times Staff
Young people from Trail and beyond will take their creative energy from home to centre stage this weekend in the city's first Kootenay Cypher. A cypher refers to a casual gathering where rappers and the music minded share rhythm, rhyme and flow. “It's pretty much hanging out and rapping on a beat,” says Matt Sherbinin, a local youth spearheading the event in partnership with the Youth Community Development Centre (YCDC). “There is no judgment and it is open to anyone who wants to come. It's an open mike kind of a thing.” Sherbinin,19, is a Trail musician who first began his musical foray as a young boy with a set of drums. Since then, he's moved away from tapping the skins to using his voice as an instrument. “Around the age of 13 I started getting into hip hop and my cousin started to rap,” he said. “I thought it was really cool and started free styling with my friends and listening to beats.” He soon became obsessed with rapping, which is a creative expression of spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics, delivered over a beat or without accompaniment. A first time stage performance in Nelson four years ago, led Sherbinin to further opportunities in the spotlight with rappers like Snak the Ripper, a well known Vancouver-based artist. “That ended up really cool because he became a friend and I went to another concert, and was invited to go and do a show in Nanaimo with a couple of rappers named Natty Snaps and MC Bodhi.” Sherbinin was part of the opening act for Sirreal, a Comox musician that he describes as rap's “king of the island.” “That was my very first time doing something like that and getting paid,” said Sherbinin. “It was random but they felt I was good enough.” Now the Trail rapper is taking his talent one step further by bringing local youth together in the open mike night Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in downtown Trail's KP Hall. “I want to get all the youth in the community involved because I know
Times Staff
SHERI REGNIER PHOTO
Matt Sherbinin has teamed up with the Youth Community Development Centre to host a monthly open mike night called Kootenay Cypher. The first event kicks off Saturday 6:30 p.m. in the KP Hall on Eldorado Street in downtown Trail. there are a lot of young people who love rap just as much as I do,” said Sherbinin. “And they want to show their talent but never really find time to get together. “So I've collaborated with Meagan (Meagan Zunti) from the youth centre and we are going to try to make this a monthly thing.”
The event is open to anyone, however Sherbinin said it may not be suitable for pre-teens. “It's probably not the best for young kids but it is friendly to everybody who wants to come. If they feel comfortable and they can rap and maybe take on some free style if they want. See EVENT, Page 2
Bill C-51 was passed by the Senate on June 9 despite very vocal protests from across the country, including a rally in Castlegar in May. With the federal election coming up in October, South Okanagan-West Kootenay (SOWK) candidates weighed in on the controversial piece of legislation. The bill, named the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2105, changes pieces of the federal criminal code and expands the reach of Canada's spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The bill gives CSIS authorization to actively pursue terrorist threats outside of Canada's borders, while also allowing the federal government to collect and share citizens' personal information, widens the definition of terrorism to include acts or opinions in opposition to Canada's resource economy and much more. The federal Liberal Party, headed by Justin Trudeau, has been in support of the bill over the last few months, but the SOWK liberal candidate, Connie Denesiuk, believes C-51 was passed unfinished. “I think that there are a couple of practical things in the bill, and don't get me wrong, I don't like the bill, but I do recognize the other side,” she said, adding that it needed amendments which were shot down by the Conservative majority in Ottawa ahead of the Senate vote that passed the bill. “It was going to go through anyways, but our revisions and recommendations were rejected. Who is going to police the police?” Liberal representatives proposed additions, or amendments, to the bill, implementing a system for oversight and regulation, and a sunset clause, which would stop the bill from having any effect after three years unless any active legislation was made to keep it law. The New Democrats have been publicly against the bill since it was first proposed, and the SOWK NDP candidate, Richard Cannings, says even with the Liberals’ proposed amendments, the bill still isn't right for Canadians. “Frankly, oversight and a sunset clause wouldn't be nearly enough to mitigate the dangers of this bill,” he said. “For New Democrats, voting to send C-51 to the Senate simply was not an option. The NDP proposed a series of amendments to C-51 to scrap the offending provisions, none of which were adopted.” See MISINFORMATION, Page 3
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Supporting our community West Kootenay Brain Injury Association Support for Survivors and their Caregivers in the community. Visit their store every Thursday at Waneta Plaza beside Crockett Books to view the artistic endeavours of their clients
Canada Post, Contract number 42068012
Free kids playroom and ball pit
www.wanetaplaza.com
5 min. east of Trail on Hwy 3B