MARTLET THE
UVIC LIFE
Eightthingstodobetweenclasses this semester PG. 3
FEATURE
Vancouver Island's dormant rail line couldbebetterservingcommunities PG. 6-7
SPORTS
Vikes athlete Carissa Norton wins a silvermedalintheParisOlympics PG. 8
The highly contested closure of the McKinnon Pool — announced in July and set to take effect mid-September— may have a detrimental impact on UVic’s Whitewater Club. Many student and Victoria community members have expressed concern about the loss of this critical infrastructure. The UVic Whitewater Club, who relies on the space to practise and store gear, is among those facing an uncertain future post pool closure.
The UVic Whitewater Club, one of the oldest clubs at UVic according to Whitewater Club co-president, is a group of UVic students passionate about whitewater kayaking and canoeing. The club trains beginners on skills like rolling their boat in the McKinnon Pool free of charge on Friday evenings.
“One of the biggest skills you can have if you’re whitewater canoeing or kayaking is to be
able to … right your boat if you flip over,” explained club co-president Oliver SacksKilback, to the Martlet.
“Often the rivers, especially on the island, are super cold. And it’s a little bit scary too if that’s the first time you’re trying to get that skill, and so the pool is a great place to do it,” he added.
Sacks-Kilback said the club is beginner-oriented, as whitewater sports are difficult to get into due to instruction and equipment — both are expensive and sparse. The Whitewater Club currently has a membership fee of $40 per semester.
“The whole point of the club is to try to make it accessible for new students at UVic to get into it,” Sacks-Kilback said.
On top of the pool providing a free space to practice, it also serves as a convenient weekly meeting place for the club.
Members called “pool clubbies” only go to pool sessions, opting to skip the club’s outdoor weekend sessions.
The club also stores its equipment at the pool,
including over 50 kayaks, 60 personal floatation devices, wetsuits, drysuits, paddles, a raft, and other gear. According to Saks-Kilback, the club hasn’t been offered an alternative space for their materials.
It is too soon to know how the pool’s closure will immediately impact groups like the Whitewater Club this academic year, said a UVic
"It's
spokesperson in an emailed statement to the Martlet
“The university will be working with student clubs who use McKinnon pool to assess their specific needs and determine the necessary support, including potential financial aid for relocation
costs,” said the spokesperson.
However, Sacks-Kilback explained that relocation has proved difficult. The club looked into other options for storage and training, like Crystal Pool and Oak Bay Recreational Centre, but they either didn’t have space for storage, or only had availability during inconvenient hours, like before 6:00 a.m. or after 9:30 p.m. Plus, he added, the pools’ hourly fees were more than the club could afford.
“It’s defeating the purpose of the club if we’re charging however much money if we just want to hang out and have a pool session.”
Sacks-Kilback said the club is working on a “no pool plan” if an alternative space isn’t found.
“We’ll have one pool session before the pool closes at the beginning of the year so we can at least do swim tests for all the new people and do a very basic introduction,” SacksKilback explained. After that, he said, they’ll prioritize taking trips to open waters, like lakes, where the club can practise.
The loss of cost-free practice space isn’t the only detriment that the pool’s closure poses to the club. It also means a smaller number of people interested in joining the Whitewater Club.
“The pool’s a really nice space because it’s not intimidating, it’s on campus, it doesn’t require much from students, especially first year students living on campus. It’s very easy. Just go to the pool, enjoy the pool, and if they … don’t want to commit the time on the weekend, that’s no problem,” said Saks-Kilback
“I think that one of our biggest challenges for this year is [going to be] trying to keep members engaged, especially if we don’t have that weekly meeting.”
Photo courtesy of Whitewater Club.
Little Free Libraries receives its 100 000th book — and counting
The literary hubs are 'coral reefs for communities' in Victoria
KIERA CLARK VOLUNTEER STAFF WRITER
On July 20, community members gathered in Rutledge Park to celebrate the Greater Victoria Placemaking Network’s (GVPN) tenth anniversary.
Founded in 2013, the non-proft is run by a small team of volunteers aiming “to inspire people, neighbourhoods, and communities to create vibrant public places that promote health, happiness, and well-being,” according to a press release.
During the celebration, the GVPN delivered their 100 000th book for the Pocket Places Project, a 2017 initiative they began to promote, map, build, and stock Little Free Libraries around the CRD.
“They come in all shapes and sizes,” said Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Pocket Places lead. “The biggest one in town can hold about 300 or 400 books, and the
smallest one barely holds one.” There are even specialized libraries, including one in Bastion Square for French books.
“Our initial eforts were to … identify a spot downtown or elsewhere that was neglected, or underwhelming, or not very well designed [and] put together some ideas of what could be done to improve it,” GVPN President Ray Straatsma told the Martlet of the little libraries project.
After asking the community for suggestions for what the 100 000th book should be, the GVPN selected Hand Drawn Victoria by Canadian artist and author Emma FitzGerald.
“We thought this [was] a really good book that exemplifies placemaking, because she’s celebrating place through her amazing drawings and art,” explained Phelps Bondarof in an interview with the Martlet
When he frst got involved with the GVPN, Phelps Bondarof and his partner helped improve the accuracy of the Little
Free Libraries map by pinpointing 111 of them that were unlisted in the region.
Currently, the map, which is available online on the GVPN’s website for anyone to access, has 850 Little Free Libraries for books, 28 for seeds and plants, and 21 for puzzles and board games. Since 2017, they have also helped build over 120 new libraries.
“We have an amazing team of volunteers who will often just go out and top up little libraries of their own volition,” said Phelps Bondarof. Some even go into the community to fnd “wild little libraries” that have not been mapped.
“The thing I love about Little Free Libraries is, in addition to sharing books, they’re all about placemaking,” Phelps Bondaroff shared. “Placemaking is softening the hard edges of the city through the way we design public spaces, and it’s really transformative.”
Little Free Libraries often become a community hub in neighborhoods. “You often will bump into people at them and have great conversations,” Phelps Bondarof explained. “I always describe them as coral reefs for communities because people swim around them like fsh."
Jessica Hum, a Little Free Librarian who has volunteered with the GVPN since 2021, notes how much people reuse these libraries.
“What I witness is people of all ages coming to the library,” Hum told the Martlet. “Sometimes my library is even full of books I’ve already put in there and someone has borrowed and they’ve brought back, so it’s a circular borrowing economy.”
Little Free Libraries have a positive impact on communities, fostering literacy and connectedness. Hum told the Martlet that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when public libraries restricted access to their materials, Little Free Libraries “started to fll a void where people could just access books in any way.”
To date, the Pocket Places Project has now delivered 104 972 books, including 19 062 in 2024, and are currently organizing a ribbon cutting ceremony for the 850th Little Free Library in the CRD. If you know of a Little Free Library missing from the GVPN’s interactive map,
you can apply to add it using a form on their website. Want to explore the Little Free Libraries around
the bingo cards are available to download on the GVPN’s website.
Six electives with no prerequisites you can register for this fall From Japanese animation to yoga, UVic has a barrier-free class for you
KIERA CLARK VOLUNTEER STAFF WRITER
Whether you’re looking for a last-minute class for the fall or you just need one more elective to graduate, these courses are the perfect additions to your schedule — and require no prerequisites to enroll in.
SLST180: MAGIC AND THE FAIRY TALE WORLD
Ever wanted to read fairy tales in a university class? Slavic Studies 180 is an introduction to Russian folk beliefs and magic. In the course, you'll examine the fairy tale in the Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet contexts. The course explores world fairy tale themes and popular folk and fairy tale fgures in literature, live action flms, and animation. SLST180 is Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.
AHVS337: SPECIAL TOPICS IN CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART
Art History and Visual Studies 337 is a special topics course that varies each time it’s taught, and this fall, the special topic is History of Japanese Animation and Interactive Media. The course examines diferent themes and issues in contemporary Asian art and analyzes contemporary Asian artists’ careers, art institutions, and art discourses through case studies from specifc global, regional, and/or national contexts. The course is ofered online on Fridays from 1:30 p.m. – 4:20 p.m.
RCS120: THE PEOPLE, PRACTICES AND POLITICS OF CONTEMPORARY YOGA
In Religion, Culture, and Society 120, students will learn about and participate in a variety of yoga styles throughout the term. The course provides a “critical and experiential introduction to the major forms of modern yoga in the West,” according to the course description. It may discuss various topics, including the relationship of yoga to religion, the efect of shifting gender roles on yoga practices, and questions of “cultural authenticity.”
RCS120 is Mondays and Thursdays from 1:00 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.
ENSH255: INDIGENOUS LITERATURES
This fall, Richard Van Camp, UVic’s 2024/25 Indigenous Storyteller in Residence, will be teaching English 255. Van Camp is also teaching ENSH 395 in the spring, and both courses are under the larger topic of “Recovering Family Medicine through Story.” The fall modules are under the theme of “Inhale,” which is “a time to gather in, collect, cozy up, and refect on the stories that have made us who we are,” says the course description. The course is online on Wednesdays from 4:00 p.m. – 5:50 p.m., and is also available as a parallel course through the Division of Continuing Studies.
GRS355: LOVE, SEX, AND THE BODY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Greek and Roman Studies 355 is a popular Humanities elective ofering a unique perspective on the sex-gender systems of the Greek and Roman worlds by drawing on a variety of textual and material evidence, including erotic vase paintings, romantic novels, and legal texts.
Topics covered may include constructions of gender and sexuality, sexual customs and ethics, prostitution and sex slavery, gender and sexual identities, intersex and transgender persons, and constructions of the male and female body. Classes are Mondays and Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. – 11:20 a.m.
SOCI206: CRIME AND DEVIANCE
From environmental crime to serial killers, Sociology 206 ofers an introduction to crime and deviance through a sociological lens. Students will examine contemporary and classical sociological theories of crime and deviant behavior, while also considering the ways in which these theories are reflected in the criminal justice system. Using case studies, the course will look at a variety of issues, including race and crime, violence against women, crimes against animals, and portrayals of crime in the media. SOCI 206 is ofered on Mondays and Thursdays from 4:30 p.m. – 5:50 p.m.
Greater Victoria? Try Little Free Library Bingo! Created by John Threlfall, a local writer, arts advocate and community builder and Martlet alum)
Photo courtesey of Teale Phelps Bondarof
Photo courtesey of Teale Phelps Bondarof
UVIC LIFE
Eight things to do between classes
this semester
From a quick workout to a study session, here's how to kill time on campus
ASHLEY CIAMBRELLI CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Whether you’re entering your frst year of university or you’re a campus veteran, no one is immune to the question: what do I do between classes?
Sometimes it’s a meagre 30 minutes that goes by too quickly, other times it’s a daunting three-hour break that’s just short enough that it’s not worthwhile to leave campus. To help make your idle time at UVic more meaningful, follow the Martlet’s guide to campus between classes.
MAKE A CUSTOM SANDWICH AT MAC’S BISTRO
Who doesn’t get snacky between classes? While it’s generally a smart idea to pack a lunch or snacks, life happens, and Mac’s ofers a customizable sandwich bar, like Subway, but better. Mac’s also has a hot daily soup special to warm you up on those chilly autumn days!
WORK UP A SWEAT AT CARSA
to members of the UVic community. The Multifaith Centre hosts weekly events geared towards providing relief from the daily stresses of university life, like the Pet Café — where therapy dogs are brought in for students to play with on Wednesday afternoon — and Noon Meditation!
MEET UP WITH FRIENDS ON THE QUAD
Located smack dab in the middle of campus, the large grassy feld referred to as “the quad” is a common spot to see people throwing frisbees or setting up a slackline between the large oak trees. There are several chairs for sitting, but true Victorianites will plop themselves on the grass with a book, a snack, and no concern for the dew.
WALK AROUND FINNERTY GARDENS
GRAB A COFFEE (AND A SWEET TREAT) AT BIBLIO CAFÉ
Surprise, surprise: sitting for several hours a day isn’t great for your health. It’s an inescapable part of student life, which makes it all the more crucial to get your blood pumping every day. From indoor rock climbing to the weightlifting centre, or ftness classes like “Lunch Crunch” –– a short, group exercise class designed to ft in your lunch break –– there are plenty of options available at CARSA, UVic’s athletics centre.
When it’s study o’clock, grabbing a beverage and a snack before cozying up in the library is a university staple. My treat of choice is the chive and cheddar scone, and a great option for all the carb lovers out there. To avoid waiting in a long line, try to hit Biblio Café, a fanfavourite UVic café on the ground foor of the McPherson Library, mid-morning or late in the afternoon. Even if you do get
stuck in line, it moves relatively fast and is a great chance to catch up with friends.
RELIEVE STRESS AT THE MULTIFAITH CENTRE
To help keep your cool throughout the semester, check out the Multifaith Centre, a community centre which aims to provide spiritual and religious support
Strolling around the gorgeous Finnerty Gardens is sure to help you ground yourself on those inevitable stressful days on campus. Look at the plaques which state the Latin names of diferent bushes and trees, smell the fowers in bloom, gaze fondly at the ponds scattered throughout, or watch a squirrel bury a nut. Nothing can help you get perspective on that stressful assignment like a walk in the garden that helps you realize there’s more to life than school.
Local backyard fruit harvest initiative returns after near-closure
Join the Martlet for a day with the Fruit Tree Project — and combat food waste one apple at a time
FERNANDA SOLORZA SENIOR STAFF WRITER
As summer warms the vibrant streets of Victoria, fruit trees of all sizes and kinds ripen, ready to nurture the land's inhabitants. However, most of the fruit will not be consumed, as it’s either too unattractive to sit on a supermarket shelf or inaccessible to most, closed in by backyard fences. Around 35.5 million tons of food are wasted annually in Canada — and backyard fruit is one preventable contributor, according to a local initiative.
On the drizzly morning of July 30, I left my home without having breakfast to see what the Fruit Tree Project (FTP) — a non-proft based in Victoria — was
all about. The air buzzed with activity and my stomach grumbled before being silenced by a cofee shop chocolate chip cookie and side-street blackberries.
After just a few minutes of waiting, the FTP van arrived, alongside three volunteers ready to face the cold rain and harvest as much fruit as possible. According to project manager Ella Swan, the FTP's success is thanks to their passionate volunteer base. The FTP has over 100 active volunteers who help the project harvest and redistribute as much fruit as possible.
For the day, I would be one of them.
The FTP has become a cornerstone in addressing food security by harvesting and redistributing backyard fruit. The FTP ensures that fruit that would otherwise go to waste is distributed to those in the community who need it. This process relies on community service and connection. By linking dedicated volunteers with fruit tree owners in the Greater Victoria region, the FTP distributed 21 447 pounds of produce in the community last season.
According to Love Food Hate Waste Canada, a national zero waste council, fruits and vegetables comprise 45 per cent of domestic food waste.
Additionally, a study by the BC Centre for Disease Control found that, as of 2018, one in eight people experience food insecurity. There is obviously a demand for the FTP’s work, and a lot more work available to the organization. There are multiple reasons an individual can experience food insecurity, including unemployment, lack of affordable housing, chronic health conditions, and discrimination.
A survey by the UVSS found that 63.8 per cent of students at UVic are experiencing some level of food insecurity. This insecurity can range from limited food selection — which likely compromises nutritional quality — to going days without food. There are multiple roles for
volunteers with the FTP to choose from, as I would soon learn. These include tree assessors, who are trained to gather crucial information helping to ensure a successful harvest, and fruit sorters, who grade and distribute harvested fruit — the “backbone” of the FTP operation. But the most popular volunteer role is, of course, joining outings as a fruit picker.
After a thorough orientation and safety spiel given by Harvest and Volunteer Coordinator Aimee Ernest and Harvest Support Worker Hannah Kirk, we all got to work picking apples from a family’s backyard apple tree. Apples that touched the ground were either composted or set aside for processing into products like apple juice. The biggest prize were the blushy red apples hanging in the branches. A piece of advice from Kirk: the easiest way to pick apples is not by pulling down or twisting — if you lift the apple upward, the tree will simply let go!
We moved to a different location after just under 45 minutes of picking. This time, we picked tangy green apples. Volunteers and staff talked about their everyday lives, their interests, and what they intended to do with their share of fruit. Plans for apple sauce and family sharing made me happy. I was just planning on eating one with peanut butter.
The FTP operates according to a community-sharing model. When volunteers pick fruit, the tree stewards are welcome to keep up to 25 per cent of the total fruit collected. Another 25 per cent may be divided among volunteers, so when we were fnished with the second tree, I was told I could take up to 14 pounds of apples. I took two: one for the walk home and another to eat with my peanut butter sandwich. The remaining 50 per cent, combined with the apples the tree stewards and volunteers didn’t want, is brought back to the FTP warehouse in Viewfeld, Esquimalt, where the apples are labeled
as either A or B grade fruit.
“We want to make sure that, as much as possible, all of our best quality fruit [is] going to the people with the least purchasing power,” said Swan. “We never give any B grade fruit to the food rescue.”
“Something that makes a fruit B grade could be anything from a little bit of pest damage to a soft spot or it’s got a little blemish on it,” said Swan. “We want every piece of fruit that goes to the food rescue, that if we held the [fruit] in our hands, we would say ‘Oh, I would eat that.’”
In 2023, the FTP faced signifcant economic challenges due to rising operating costs and a lack of funding. Despite these obstacles, the dedicated
team and Board of Directors have worked tirelessly to overcome these challenges by changing their leadership and reducing the number of services and programs they ofer. Now, they are back and ready for a full harvest season, more determined than ever to make a diference in the community. This is the perfect time to get involved — volunteer with the FTP and be part of something impactful, ensuring that no backyard fruit goes to waste!
Photo by Logan Kuzyk via Unsplash.
Photo by Fernanda Solorza.
Photo by Fernanda Solorza.
Students of Colour Collective set to open communal pantry New program will combat food insecurity amongst BIPOC students
ANNILEA PURSER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On July 31, the Students of Colour Collective (SOCC) announced that they will be opening a communal pantry for Black, Indigenous, and other People of Colour (BIPOC) on campus. The pantry is set to open this fall and aims to address food insecurity amongst UVic students by providing free food to BIPOC members of the UVic community.
SOCC is one of UVic’s on-campus advocacy groups and serves all selfidentifying BIPOC students in various ways.
“We create opportunities for community within the BIPOC students here as UVic, opportunity for education, opportunity for resources, advocacy,” said Taha Qureshi, the Coordinator of SOCC in an interview with the Martlet Over a year ago, SOCC began conceiving of building a communal pantry in their space with the aim of boosting food security amongst BIPOC students at UVic.
“Food insecurity is so, so prevalent in our society today, and it impacts a lot more people than we think it’s impacting,” said Qureshi. “There’s a reason the UVSS food bank works and runs and exists on this campus.”
In 2023, the UVSS launched Fed Up, a campaign with the goal to address food insecurity. According to the campaign’s launch statement, the UVSS found that 63.8 per cent
of UVic students expect to face food insecurity.
According to a study conducted by PROOF — a joint research program between the University of Toronto and the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control — 17 per cent of British Columbians face food insecurity. A UVic student is three times more likely than an average B.C. citizen not to know where their next meal is coming from
Additionally, Food Banks Canada reports that racialized people face significantly higher rates of food insecurity in Canada compared to non-racialized individuals. They report that 39.2 per cent of Black households and 33.4 per cent of Indigenous households across Canada face food insecurity, whereas Canada’s baseline is 16.9 per cent.
To address this disparity, this past spring, SOCC passed a referendum
with 61.9 per cent of voting students saying “Yes” to a fee increase that supports the collective. This funding increase enabled the advocacy group’s Communal Pantry Project to become a reality.
In addition to food, the Communal Pantry Project will also have a number of domestic items such as toilet and tissue paper, as well as a “quick fix” station. Qureshi hopes that this “quick fix” station will
house small kitchen appliances, like a toaster, so that students are able to prepare small meals and snacks using the pantry’s resources.
The Communal Pantry Project also hopes to invite BIPOC students into the SOCC lounge, which is located inside the Student Union Building in room B122. SOCC’s lounge has a number of desktops, printer access, a communal library, and a couch, and is being actively re-vamped for the fall.
“We’re really hoping to have this lounge sort of feel like a third space for BIPOC students when they’re on campus,” said Qureshi. “We want people to know we exist and that we’re here.”
The advocacy group runs a number of programs throughout the year, including their Artist in Residence, who typically runs art programming, and the Pulse Zine which is developed by a network of BIPOC students to build an anti-racist, multiracial, anti-oppressive movement.
Those wishing to support or get involved with SOCC’s Communal Pantry Project have a variety of options to do so. Qureshi encourages BIPOC students to get involved by attending SOCC’s meetings, connect with people in the collective, and keep an eye out for announcements about their pantry committee.
Unhoused folks in Victoria faced severe consequences in extreme July heat
Record-breaking global average temperature disproportionately afects unhoused encampments
FERNANDA SOLORZA SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On July 22, the daily global average temperature reached new heights at a record-breaking 17.16 C. The previous record, 17.09 C, had been set just the day before. Although Earth has been hotter millions of years ago, the key difference is today's accelerated pace of change.
According to NASA, the current rate of global warming is unlike anything seen in the past 10 000 years. Many are already aware that this unprecedented shift in climate is decimating ecosystems across the planet, but few are fully aware of the effects that it has on socially marginalized demographics — like those who are unhoused.
Among the most vulnerable are people experiencing homelessness.
“Those who are house insecure or those who are homeless are going to be much more directly exposed to the heat and weather in ways that are going to have immediate and long-term effects on their wellbeing,” said Founding Director of UBC’s Climate & Society lab Dr. Andrew Jorgenson. This exposure increases their risk of heat-related illnesses, such as heatstroke and dehydration, as well as exacerbating existing health conditions, he explained.
“[Unhoused] people are more psychologically and physically vulnerable to mental episodes of illogical or agitated behavior,” said Drew, an employee at SOLID Outreach Society, an organization
providing support to the homeless community in Victoria. “[Drugs] and dehydration, and the heat itself has led to an increase in seizure activity. … We probably see equal seizures and overdoses, [when in previous years] we would see maybe a seizure a year.”
“Everyone here has a ‘complex.’ It’s not one diagnosis, it’s multiple,” said a 55 year old unhoused man who used to work as a mechanic.
“I’m a person on disability. Although you can’t see my wheelchair, I’m not employable. That has always been a hard pill to swallow,” the man, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Martlet
“Older people who are homeless … it’s probably pretty rough on them,” said Rob, a young unhoused man. “The city has got a couple mist stations set up. … I’ve used them a few times myself.”
Mist stations, six-foot aluminum pillars that can spray cooling mist and fill water bottles, were developed by the city as a part of their extreme heat response plan following the June 2021 heat dome. But these stations are not a comprehensive solution, according to experts.
“These challenging phenomenons are driven by capitalism — corporate capitalism in particular,” said climate sociologist Dr. William Carroll about social inequality and climate change. Carroll explained that social inequality is a necessary condition for capitalism. As climate change intensifies, more people
become impoverished because the system is primarily concerned with generating and appropriating private profit for a small class of investors and top executives.
“The solutions to the climate crisis are not technological solutions — they are grounded in politics,” added Jorgenson. “We already know what needs to be done. It’s quite simple, we just need to stop burning
fossil fuels. Easier said than done.”
In 2021, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels accounted for over 90 percent of total global emissions. This means that even if oil and gas companies eliminated their emissions from extracting, transporting, and refining their product, the planet would continue to warm as long as we rely on fossil fuels.
In Canada, the biggest challenge to stop using fossil fuels, according to Canada’s National Observer , is that companies and financial institutions have heavy investments in them. There are multi-billion dollar megaprojects designed to make a profit off the oil sands operations.
In turn, not-for-profit organizations struggle to keep up with the rising demand. The 2024 State of BC’s Non-Profit Sector Report, Under Pressure, found that “the sector is operating in extremely difficult times, with feelings of being overwhelmed, stretched, underfunded, challenged, uncertain, and concerned.”
“The demand is always high, and the need for shelter spaces, in particular, always outweighs the supply,” CoolAid’s Community Engagement Manager Tracey Robertson told the Martlet in an emailed statement. “The most significant challenge we almost always face in providing support is funding that covers the wide range of things that are needed.”
Antonia Mash, Director of Operations at Together Against Poverty Society (TAPS) told the Martlet in an emailed statement that “TAPS believes that a greater supply of affordable housing, and legislative reform to protect the market renters from unreasonable and exploitative rent increases, are desperately needed
in B.C.”
Photo courtesy of Taha Qureshi.
Illustration by Sage Blackwell.
This article is long and for no reason.
'We have all the tracks. It just Advocates say Vancouver Island's dormant our communities — and students
ETHAN BARKLEY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
It’s winter break after a long semester. Exams are completed, papers are in, and I’m ready to go to my family’s home in Comox and unplug for a few weeks. Relieved that I don’t have to brave winter conditions on the Malahat, I book a ticket on a morning train and catch a bus to the station, looking forward to a scenic and trafc-free journey up island.
The train leaves Esquimalt and heads up the Island Rail Corridor — formerly the E&N — winding through southern Vancouver Island, passing along the ocean near Nanaimo and heading back inland for the fnal stretch. The journey ends just outside downtown Courtenay — an easy spot to be picked up, or to catch a bus.
Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
The reality of up island travel is, unfortunately, much different. Vancouver Island does have an intact railway corridor, but trains haven’t run on it since 2011. In its absence, those who need to travel up island but can’t, or prefer not to drive, have few options.
BC Transit does have bus service between some island communities, but they are extremely infrequent. The bus from Victoria to Duncan runs four times a day on weekdays and doesn’t run at all on Sundays.
The remaining options are to carpool, be picked up by family, or to book passage on a privately-run bus service. Relying on someone else to drive is not always ideal, and while the bus service does the job, it gets expensive — especially for frequent travellers.
In March 2011, rail service was temporarily suspended due to potentially unsafe track conditions. Service was set to return in spring 2013, after maintenance could be done, but the deadline was then pushed to 2015.
In April 2015, the Island Corridor Foundation (ICF), the federally registered charity and non-proft which has owned the railway since 2006, announced that repairs would be further delayed while the provincial government conducted a review of the project.
In July, the B.C. government had afrmed its commitment of $7 million for the project, but by November the foundation was still awaiting the remainder of the funds — $7.5 million — from the federal government.
Late 2016 or early 2017 was given as the next prospective date for resumed service, provided that funding for repairs could be secured.
As of 2024, there is still no active rail service. Vancouver Island still lacks a reliable alternative to travel down- or up-island except driving, which is not an option for many Vancouver Islanders — including UVic students, who still feel strongly that the railway should return to service.
“A
HUGE GAP IN TRANSIT SERVICES”
Despite over a decade of inactive rail service, interest in the future of the corridor has not dwindled. In fact, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest.
According to a UVic representative, 1580 UVic students are from central and northern Vancouver Island — almost 14 per cent of the student population.
University students who need to travel up-island –– whether to return home, in the case of the almost 14 per cent, or for a co-op placement, a sport tournament, or for a weekend adventure –– currently face a number of obstacles, ranging from gas and vehicle costs to concerns with time and road safety.
For students who lack their own vehicle, lack of travel options from Victoria to the rest of Vancouver Island can be a significant obstacle. By contrast, students from Vancouver
who want to travel home have several bus options to get from downtown Victoria to Swartz Bay, where they can catch hourly ferries to Tsawwassen.
“The problem currently,” said Isabelle Easton, Director of Campaigns and Community Relations for the UVSS, “is that there's not very many options when it comes to transit up-island, specifically when we're talking about transit that connects Victoria to the Duncan-Nanaimo stretch of the Malahat highway, there's only like a singular route you can take.”
Easton said interregional transit truly matters to students because it allows them freedom of mobility and also enables them to easily visit their families and communities.
Dylan Smith, a UVic computer science student without his own vehicle, says he’s fortunate that he can often carpool up-island with family members when he wants to visit home. When that option isn’t available, he relies on a privately owned bus service, but a combination of factors including cost, space, and reliability means it isn’t always convenient.
“[It] would be nice just to have a proper back and forth system of getting up and down the island [consistently],” he told the Martlet.
For students who do have their own car, travelling up-island can be a significant fnancial decision. “When I want to come up island, I have to think about the cost of it, because I would come and visit my parents way more often for a weekend, if it didn't cost me probably 40 bucks [in gas] for a full trip up here,” said Faith Scoffings, a UVic engineering student from Bowser.
For Scofngs, weather and road conditions are another obstacle they have to consider when planning a trip home, especially in the winter months.
“In the winter, especially if I'm coming up for the holidays, I have a lot of beef with driving because I have a very small car and the roads are very dangerous,” they said.
For students, timing a trip can be just as challenging as afording one. While UVic ofers a reading break around the middle of the semester, students are often overwhelmed with assignments by that time. Driving up-island can often take several hours — time that could otherwise be spent getting ahead on coursework.
Scoffings said their most recent trip up island took them three and a half hours due to trafc and construction — time they couldn’t use to do anything else.
While public transit options on Vancouver Island are often sufcient for getting around within the community, Todd Litman, president of Better Island Transit (BIT), says that there is a “huge gap” in transit services when it comes to interregional transit.
“If you want to travel from Victoria to Duncan, there are only four buses a day, and the fare is $10,” said Litman. “Those buses are oriented toward Duncan commuters coming to Victoria to work in the morning and returning in the afternoon. So there's no way that a BC transit traveller could leave Victoria, do some business in Duncan, and return the same day.”
BIT, an advocacy group, is pulling for just this: the expansion of interregional transit, like that between Victoria and Duncan.
Litman says they are campaigning “to have frequent and afordable bus service, at least hourly service, [for] no more than $5 for each trip operating by next year.”
“When I was growing up in Bowser, before I had a car, I couldn't go anywhere because there was a bus, like, once a day. So even going a couple cities over throughout my entire youth was a week’s planning,” said Scofngs.
Cassie, a Victoria resident, said her frequent drives up-island for work can be exhausting.
“When you're driving fve, six hours in a day, then you literally need a day to rest,” she said.
“You don't realize when you drive for a long time the toll that it takes on your body.”
“I love trains so much. on a train,” said Cassie. an audiobook, read a book, work on the train up, to said. “Even coming back easier than driving. I would on a train.”
Dr. Gordon Lovegrove, engineering at UBC Okanagan, a hydrogen powered light-rail in B.C.’s interior, which tram within cities and a them.
Lovegrove’s model is which has existed in Karlsruhe, around 40 years. He says greater connection between communities.
“This is good for the good for people, the environment, economy. We want a cleaner B.C., in terms of waste, zero emissions. to go,” said Lovegrove. what I call tick boxes, where communities, we're combating we're reducing crashes, said.
Lovegrove says that rail in existing transit infrastructure, connecting people with in other cities, or as a method in the case of wildfres.
The benefts of Lovegrove’s not only relevant to the Vancouver Island communities beneft from rail connection, access to healthcare services — Victoria centre, the only on the island, or from another of southern Vancouver Malahat highway.
“Think about it from said Lovegrove. “A lot since COVID, want to remote areas. … This allows health care and other services just getting on a train.”
Lovegrove says he hopes model of governance instead ownership often seen because “sustainable, is a social determinant have proft-motivated the research is pretty just cut service, to maximize their efficiency, and the cancellation of service.”
Hydrogen-powered tram-trains ft in so many communities,” the Martlet
“PART OF THAT MODERN WORLD.”
The island railway’s origin late nineteenth century, Canada in 1871. One of in the agreement to join railroad had to be built to with the rest of the country of the date of the union.”
Dr. John Lutz, a UVic history, says that getting issue for many British Columbians nineteenth century. Railway the rest of the country tying the country together,” also facilitated travel and of Canada.
“This is just the high Lutz, comparing the rail time with modern high-speed seen in countries like prestige kind of technology
“British Columbians wanted modern world.”
When the railway was the promised two years, backlash. In 1874, B.C. threatened
just needs to be fixed' dormant rail line could be better serving
You could do anything
Cassie. “You could listen to book, play games, even get emails done,” she back would be so much would 100 per cent get
Lovegrove, a professor of Okanagan, advocates for light-rail transit system which would operate like a regular train between a similar train system Karlsruhe, Germany, for says this would facilitate between Okanagan Valley
the community. This is environment, for our sustainable future, a of climate action, zero
This is where we have “It’s a complex set of where we're connecting combating climate change, improving safety,” he rail can fll many gaps infrastructure, such as with healthcare services method of evacuation
Lovegrove’s proposal are the Okanagan Valley. communities also stand to connection, including from services like the BC Cancer only B.C. cancer facility another way in and out Island aside from the peoples’ perspective,” more of us, especially to live in these rural, allows folks access to services regionally by train.” hopes to see a European instead of the private seen in North America, stable transportation of health. When you companies involved, consistent. They will maximize their loads and the ultimate result is service.” tram-trains are “a great communities,” Lovegrove told
MODERN
origin story begins in the century, before B.C. joined of the province’s terms join Canada was that a to connect the province country “within two years union.” UVic professor of B.C. getting a railway was a major Columbians in the late Railway connection with provided “a sense of together,” he said, but it and access to other parts tech of the day,” said rail technology of the high-speed rail technology, like China. “That's the technology today,” Lutz said. wanted to be part of that not constructed within years, it provoked severe threatened to withdraw
from Canada due to lack of action from the federal government.
In the 1880s, the province settled on Robert Dunsmuir, the Nanaimo-based coal magnate and member of B.C. parliament, to build and operate the railway. Dunsmuir was initially reticent, but agreed to build the railway in exchange for a sizable cash subsidy as well as an enormous land grant — what amounted to nearly 20 per cent of Vancouver Island — including natural resources and mining rights.
“Dunsmuir was interested in it because he was already mining coal, and that's mainly what he was interested in,” said Lutz. “He wanted to get all of the coal deposits on Vancouver Island.”
The land grant given by the province to Dunsmuir privatised more than 800 000 hectares of Indigenous land. The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, formed to facilitate treaty negotiations by its six member nations, refers to the land grant given to the E&N Railway, as the Island Rail Corridor was formerly known, as the “great land grab” and an “act of egregious piracy” because this land was granted to the E&N without knowledge, consultation, or consent of the Indigenous residents and owners of the land.
“That's what the history is. It was an unconsented taking of an enormous amount of Vancouver Island. I think it's like 20 per cent of the island that was efectively paid to create this private rail line by Dunsmuir,” said Thomas Bevan, CEO of the Island Corridor Foundation.
These land grants continue to impact modern treaty negotiations, says the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group in a publication about the land grants, because much of this land remains in private hands today. “To date, the federal and provincial governments have refused to consider private lands in the treaty negotiation process.”
“When First Nations are negotiating treaties, the Crown has a lot of access to the land to restore to First Nations,” says Dr. Lutz, “[but] on southern and eastern Vancouver Island, there's no Crown land. Zero. It's become a huge impediment for modern treaty negotiations.”
In 1905, the railway was sold by Dunsmuir’s son, James, to the Canadian Pacifc Railway (CPR), who expanded the length of the railway further north to its current end-point in Courtenay. CPR owned the railway property until 2006, when it was transferred to the ICF.
“IT JUST NEEDS TO BE FIXED.”
The future of the railway has been a question mark on the map of Vancouver Island for over a decade now. However, many Vancouver Islanders seem more motivated than ever to explore what can be done with it.
“There's an awful lot of history … around the E&N land grant, the history of the corridor, in terms of First Nation communities really paying the price for it and not getting much beneft. That needs to change,” said Bevan. “We need to have a future that the First Nations are driving and providing us with the insightful leadership and ways of living with the land that they have known since time immemorial.”
Warren Skaalrud, a southern Vancouver Island resident and passionate advocate for the restoration of rail service, has organized two petitions — one garnered 7 610 signatures before it was tabled in the House of Commons in February. The other, a change.org petition which is still active, has reached more than 20 000 signatures.
“People have a tendency to look at the railway as it is, the condition the tracks are in … they don't look forward into the future and see what it will transform into over time, assuming we don't lose it,” said Skaalrud.
Skaalrud says that the restoration of rail service on the island would have numerous
benefits, ranging from more efficient transportation of goods for businesses on the island via freight, as well as benefits for tourists, young people, and the island’s growing population.
“Transportation ties into virtually everything. … If it's cheaper to live here, then maybe we'll get more nurses and doctors here, because we can live in a more healthy way. It has all of these interconnected pieces,” said Skaalrud.
Sean Marshall, a Toronto-based geographer and transportation advocate, says rail has the potential to provide essential transport service to areas where climate may afect other forms of transportation.
“Climate change means diferent things to diferent parts of the country, but climate change means more adverse weather efects and more chances of road washouts and fooding, [so] you want to make sure there's alternatives.”
Taj, a Victoria resident involved in advocacy for the railway, says he became more interested in the railway when he was frst commuting into the city for work but had yet to find housing.
“I was commuting for the frst two months I lived here. I was commuting back and forth every single day…and I thought it would be so much nicer to just board a train that would take you to Victoria and back,” he said, “and the funny thing is, we have that. We have all the infrastructure, we have all the tracks. It just needs to be fxed.”
Taj said he’s disappointed by the lack of action on rail in Canada and the US, compared to other countries like China, Japan, India and many in Europe.
Others, like Litman, are critical of the proposal. Litman and Better Island Transit want to get frequent and afordable bus service going as soon as possible, to fll the gaps in interregional transit, rather than waiting for a decision to be made about the railway.
In response to Skaalrud’s petition, Canadian Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez said in March that Canada “has committed to establishing a permanent, predictable federal fund to support public transit and active transportation solutions beginning in 202627,” and promised more details on this fund later in 2024.
The provincial government, meanwhile, provided $18 million in March 2023 “to allow for future corridor planning involving afected First Nations and regional districts,” when it also returned 10 acres of land to the Snawnaw-as First Nation which was taken for the railway in the 1900s, and had bisected their land ever since.
“This is a historic day for the Snaw-naw-as Mustimuxw. Rail has served an important purpose for British Columbia,” reads a public statement from Snaw-naw-as elected Chief and Council Gordon Edwards (Sul-aux-mait), “but this came at the expense of hindering the Snaw-naw-as and other First Nation communities.
“We sincerely hope that the Corridor once again benefts all people of Vancouver Island. There are many questions about what lies ahead for the rest of the corridor, but for today, we celebrate the successful return of our land.”
Bevan says the ICF is in the midst of a “shared vision project” with their member communities to fgure out the best way for the corridor to serve its members.
Restoring rail service is “defnitely on the table,” he said. “Everything is on the table with the corridor. The most important thing is that it needs to be driven by the community and particularly our members … what our members want is what we want.”
Photos by Ethan Barkley
Who is Carissa Norsten?
ANNILEA PURSER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Third-year UVic student Carissa Norsten, who clinched a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 30, said that her win is proof that Vikes athletes should pursue their dreams, even if they have only been in their sport for a short time.
Norsten, a Vikes Women’s Rugby player, joined Canada’s Women’s Rugby Sevens Olympic roster after only fve years playing rugby. Norsten rose to international success as a star player on UVic Women’s Rugby team.
“I think really, if you are passionate for your sport to just give it your all. You never know where it’ll take you,” said Norsten. “It took me to some pretty cool places. Obviously, one of them being the Olympics.”
Like many UVic student athletes, Norsten is not originally from Vancouver Island. Originally from the small town of Waldheim, Saskatchewan, Norsten moved to Victoria while she was in high school to pursue rugby.
Well-known rugby coach and Team Canada alumni, Robin MacDowell, recognized Norsten’s athletic ability in her early days of the sport and supported her relocation in 2019.
In 2022 Norsten participated in RBC Training Ground, a talent
identification program aiming at fnding young athletes with potential and matching them with the resources they need to succeed.
Norsten shone at the RBC Training Ground skill tests and earned RBC Future Olympian funding and a commitment from Ruby Canada to support her athletic development.
Two years after receiving this deal, it’s clear that the name of the fund was a good sign for what was to come.
Shortly after debuting in universitylevel athletics, Norsten was awarded with 2022 U SPORTS Rookie of the
Year — one of the highest accolades in Canadian university athletics.
During the following season, she would secure her frst spot on Canada’s Senior National team, debuting at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
In 2024, she was awarded again with Canadian Rugby Women’s Sevens Series Women’s Rookie of the Year along with being named to the Paris Olympics roster.
Norsten was the only current UVic student to be named to Canada’s roster for the Paris Olympics. On the
women’s rugby sevens team, she was joined by UVic alumni Krissy Scurfeld and Shalaya Valenzuela.
Starting off the 2024 season, Canada’s women’s rugby team sat in ninth place overall.
Norsten’s team, under the guidance of team captain Olivia Apps, made a swift move to success, receiving a silver medal fnish in a hard-fought fnal match against New Zealand — the reigning gold medalists. This is Canada’s women’s rugby team’s bestever fnish.
“It obviously means the world. It’s
a dream come true,” said Norsten. “[I’m] just so grateful for the opportunity to go to the Olympics and be a part of such an incredible team and to win a medal.”
While Norsten was the only active student representing UVic at the Olympics, she was joined by numerous UVic alumni and support staf who were a part of the games. In addition to women’s rugby alumni Scurfeld and Valenzuela, Norsten was joined by women’s rowers Avalon Wasteneys — who is also an RBC Training Ground athlete — as well as Caileigh Filmer. Numerous UVic support staf also secured tickets to Paris, including alumnus and announcer Chris Hindmarch-Watson, physiotherapist Sue Lott, Vikes chiropractor Dr. Simon Pearson, and Rowing Canada team leader Adam Parftt.
Norsten will soon be returning to UVic in time for the fall semester where she will reconnect with her Vikes teammates. Having a newfound Olympic medalist perspective, Norsten hopes to motivate other student athletes.
“Going back to UVic, I just hope that it … inspires the younger athletes and even people my age to just go for it. Shoot your shot. You never know.”
UPCOMING FILMS
BRIANNA BOCK VOLUNTEER STAFF WRITER
The race began at 8:00 a.m. on the morning of August 10. Thirty-seven teams came from across B.C., and some from California, to compete. The womens and mixed teams raced down Victoria’s inner harbor until 5:00 p.m. Amidst the crowded docks were food trucks, stalls, and local performers. It was the 27th annual Dragon Boat Festival.
The Dragon Boats frst came to Victoria during the 1994 Commonwealth Games, organized by the Victoria Chinese Commerce Association. Dragon Boats are long boats, with teams of up to 20 people paddling, one drummer, and one steerer. It is an ancient Chinese sport.
The first Dragon Boat Festival was hosted in 1995, but the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival Society was founded in 1997, and has hosted the festival each year since.
“It’s something that the local Chinese community wanted to do, and have been pushing for it since, and an organization grew up around that: the Victoria Dragon Boat Festival Society. They’ve been organizing the event ever since then,” said Dominic Lai, one of the festival organizers.
Despite the Festival only being a single day, with the opening ceremony occurring the night before, that didn’t mean there was nothing to do besides watching the boats.
“Beyond the sports side, there is cultural programming. For example, there is Chinese Opera, there is Chinese dancing, there’s local acts that ensure that the Festival doesn’t just become a caricature of Chinese tradition. It is relevant as well,” said Lai.
“And contextualized in the context of Victoria now, so there’s local live music acts that are going to be on stage, emerging indie bands, artist groups
that represent the diversity of the community, Indigenous groups that will come, local organizations and non-profts that want to share what they are doing with the larger community. It really represents a little bit of what Victoria is about,” he added. Between the shows and the boating, there was always something to keep you occupied. There was a lineup of performers throughout the day on two separate stages. The main stage was host to a variety of bands, beginning with the Esquaimalt Singers and Dancers. The smaller patio stage had Chinese cultural acts, such as lion dancers, a Sichuan face changing show, dancing, and Chinese opera, as well as the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy.
Besides some minor technical issues during the Chinese opera, all the performances were arresting. Amateurs and seasoned professionals alike came together to share their skills and passion with Victoria.
But the performers weren't the only ones giving it their all; the racers were blurs on the water as they paddled across the Inner Harbor to victory.
“For some folks that have Dragon Boats as part of their cultural background, it’s a way for them to reconnect with their culture. For some people that don’t, they’re getting out onto the water as a team, the teamwork, working together as a part of a group, the sport aspect, the social aspect,” said Lai.
“But then, there is such a broad range of reasons that every time you talk to a diferent paddler you discover a little bit behind why they participate.”
As Lai spoke, I noticed we were standing next to a family holding handcrafted signs supporting their father.
At the Dragon Boat Festival, there is always something to enjoy. Registration for the 2025 festival is already open, and I am already looking forward to it.
Photo via Victoria Dragon Boat Festival Website.
Photo courtesy of Carissa Norsten.
OPINIONS
Canadian politicians can learn from Kamala's meme-mentum Heading toward a federal election, mministers must adjust to "meme-ifed" politics
SARAH ROBERTS VOLUNTEER STAFF WRITER
On July 21, a day after Joe Biden bowed out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris as his replacement, Charli XCX lit up the Democratic party with a three-word post on X: “kamala IS brat."
Harris's team has embraced the label, updating the @KamalaHQ profle on X to match the unmistakable slime green cover of Charli XCX’s most recent album, brat. They also began posting other videos using trending sounds on their official TikTok account, and thousands of user-generated memes have surfaced online, remixing footage of Kamala at public appearances, including her telling her infamous “coconut tree” anecdote.
Charli XCX defnes brat, the title of her most recent album, as a girl who is messy, likes to party, and says dumb things. However, “brat” has evolved as a catch-all term for the defning moments of summer 2024, including the powerful image of Harris taking on Trump.
In a 2019 article, UBC post-doctoral researcher in political science Chris Tenove defnes political memes as “inside jokes that can trigger an emotional reaction.”
According to Tenove, they typically function like a code which can only be deciphered by those with some contextual knowledge.
For instance, Democrats have adopted the coconut emoji, and many followers commented on Harris’s frst TikTok video, pledging support for “project coconut tree.”
Those in the know can share the humor of recalling Harris’s “coconut tree” speech and connect it to their excitement about the nomination of a new presidential candidate.
However, whether the social media attention will translate into more votes at the polls remains to be seen. According to CNN, the Harris campaign is now attempting to leverage the online attention, turning them to fundraising, voter registration and volunteer sign-ups.
Canadian politicians may take note as we head toward our federal election, slated for before October 2025. The liberals in particular are struggling to win over young
voters. In July, an Abacus Data poll showed Trudeau’s party held just a 22 per cent vote share among those under 35, compared to a 41 per cent peak in 2015. Some ministers have already hopped on viral trends. In May, Minister for Employment Randy Boissonault told CBC News that he lets Gen Z staf run his social media pages and release videos using viral audio, like singer Sabrina Carpenter’s chart-topper “Espresso.”
However, some attempts to piggyback on Kamala’s “meme-mentum” (a term coined by Vox Media), have faltered. Environment and Housing Minister Steven Guilbeault faced backlash when he posted
a video on X using Charli XCX’s bratinspired lime green and lowercase font.
In the video, text that reads “brat summer” is changed to read “housing summer,” followed by newspaper clippings of housing projects. Commenters were unimpressed. Conservative Sarah Fischer criticized his “epic failure” to provide afordable housing, and others simply said “cringe.”
On July 24, the NDP foundered when they posted a Venn diagram to their party’s X page. Their post was inspired by viral audio, in which Kamala Harris enthuses about the circular infographics. Three overlapping circles in the diagram read
“cancel,” “corporate,” and “handouts.” The message “cancel corporate handouts” appears in the middle. Embarrassingly, the diagram was incorrectly constructed. One comment reads, “Did you even run this through a high schooler?”
The attempts of politicians to connect via social media may fail because they misunderstand how memes become popular. David Tenove warns, in an article for The Conversation, that attempting to capitalize on a joke or message which belongs to another group can lead to claims of inauthenticity.
The efort to “brat-ify” housing may have backfred because the messy and unapologetic attitude of brat is misaligned with Canadians' negative emotions as they struggle to find an affordable home. Moreover, the awkward Venn diagram lacks humour and doesn’t feel like it understands the joke. Surely, anyone who loved Venn diagrams would construct one correctly. Neither of these approaches came from an authentic moment, but instead, attempted to reclaim someone else's.
In contrast, American Democrats’ new tactic of dubbing Republicans "weird" taps into core emotions anybody can relate to, such as discomfort. It reinforces a sense of belonging in their voter base, by being a joke shared amongst the whole democratic party.
Canadian politicians should fnd a way to effectively capitalize on authentic moments and emotions to connect with Gen Z voters online. After all, memes don’t just fall out of coconut trees.
A new school year is exciting for some, fnancially stressful for others
Income diferences should be top of mind as September approaches
ANNILEA PURSER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The back-to-school season is an exciting time for many university students. Reconnecting with friends after the summer, taking new classes, maybe even moving into a new apartment. The start of a new school year offers much to look forward to.
For me, there’s a certain bitterness to this naivety. While the bustle of a new school year can be fun to romanticize, for students who face economic burdens, it often brings more stress than excitement. Rising tuition costs, finding a place to live amidst the housing crisis, and keeping up with the grocery prices all lead to stress.
Plenty of commonly accepted research on financial inequality in higher education focuses on the relationship between one’s economic status and their
likelihood to enroll into a postsecondary institution. For example, it was once the case that those from poorer backgrounds would not apply to post-secondary school, and instead enter the workforce right out of high school. Recently though, research finds that the effect of economic status on enrollment in Canadian postsecondary institutions has been progressively decreasing.
Despite the fact that new students’ financial situations still affect certain aspects of enrollment — such as in the kinds of programs that they tend to register for — being economically disadvantaged no longer affects the rate at which university students enroll in university.
Economic inequality in higher education is not merely an issue of enrollment inequality. The bigger issue at stake is students’ ability to afford higher education after enrollment.
This issue begins with the most obvious of students’ costs: tuition. According to a study by Statista, Canadian undergraduate tuition averages reached an all-time high in 2023 at $7 076, a 2.97 ($204) per cent increase from the previous year. What makes this increase in tuition scarier is that, at the same time, government funding is shrinking.
Ontario and Alberta have sharply limited their provincial student funding schemes in recent years. In Ontario, for example, because of Doug Ford’s change to the Ontario Student Assistant Program, students from Ontario no longer have access to free tuition for low-income families, are met with more loans than grants, and must meet a higher threshold of family income to receiving any assistance to begin with.
These trends, amidst already abysmal economic conditions in the country, have serious, real-life effects on students.
The Fostering Learning and Awareness on Student Housing survey that focuses on Canadian student housing experiences found that students across the country pay 25 per cent more than non-students to rent. Additionally, the survey found that 70 per cent of students spent over 30 per cent of their income just on rent.
In Victoria, students can expect to pay between $900 and $2 000 per month for their accommodation in off-campus housing, which most students must do after their first year, when dormitory housing becomes harder to secure. Students who are accepted to live in on-campus
residences can anticipate paying between $9 060 and $15 298 for a September to April rent term, or approximately $1 132 to $1 912 per month.
To make things worse, students living on Vancouver Island can also expect to pay more for groceries than those living on the mainland.
To deal with these obstacles, many students work multiple jobs, take out external loans, or put their education on the back burner
As a first-generation university student from a working class family, this is my reality. Working multiple jobs, experiencing pressure to do well in classes,
maintaining a social life, and building your resumé can have many negative effects on a student’s mental and physical well-being. Attending university is supposed to be one of the highlights of your life, but it can be difficult to frame it that way when you can barely afford to live. I know that many UVic students can relate to me.
Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t to say that students shouldn’t relish the new school year. To say so would overlook the fact that many have worked extraordinarily hard to overcome inequalities just to attend university in the first place. And, regardless of the inequalities that students encounter, finding joy in friends and classes is a necessary part of survival.
This is to say that we should all be aware of the ongoing education inequalities that exist in higher education in Canada, and how these inequalities are being addressed by our governments and schools. Backto-school season is exciting — it just happens to depend heavily on who you are, and what resources you have at your disposal. All students deserve better conditions, going into this academic year and every one after.
Ilustration by Sage Blackwell.
Photo via Getty Images.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
There's a new king of the jungle on the Victoria music festival scene
Philips Backyard Reverb Weekend delivered uninhibited fun
ERIC KWAKERNAAK CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Since its inception in 2013, the Phillips Backyard Festival Series has had its ups and downs. After being cancelled for two consecutive years due to COVID-19 and forced to watch a rival music festival, Langford’s Rock the Shores, close permanently due to lack of talent availability, the future of the popular summer event was uncertain.
But after securing considerable star power in the past two years — The Beaches, Peach Pit, Lord Huron, and Fleet Foxes — it’s clear that Phillips Backyard is here to stay. This year, armed with an extraordinary lineup and enough craft beer to fll Victoria’s inner harbour, the 2024 Reverb Weekend was perhaps their best ofering yet.
The Phillips festival site was divided into two sections. The lower half of the grounds was home to food trucks, games, and merchandise. The upper half was the stage area and beer gardens. It was well organized, fowing seamlessly and allowing for constant entertainment, even when no bands were playing.
My most anticipated band of the entire weekend headlined Friday, day one of the festival. After dropping out of the 2022 Rifflandia lineup due to tour fatigue, Black Pumas finally found themselves in Victoria for Reverb, hot on the heels of their second studio album, “Chronicles of a Diamond,” which came out in late 2023.
The Black Pumas duo — singer/ songwriter Eric Burton and Grammyaward winning guitarist Adrian Quesada — is one of the fnest R&B groups on the scene today. Burton’s voice is infectious. Hearing him on the radio, you’d think it impossible that he could sound the same live. And yet, he does. The Black Pumas make their craft seem efortless, and it was a privilege to behold.
On Saturday, Phillips brought in Cleveland’s Cautious Clay and Chicago’s Earl Sweatshirt as their two major attractions.
Cautious Clay’s set was enjoyable if low key. What most impressed me was the wide array of instruments he employed, from the saxophone, to the keyboard, to his trademark fute. Midway through his performance, as he pulled out his fute for the frst time, he held it
in one fst and raised it to the audience.
“This is the frst instrument I ever played,” he said, “and it’s the reason I’m not a real estate agent anymore.”
Following Cautious Clay, Earl Sweatshirt delivered a different experience — and one that I admit wasn’t my favourite. Though a talented musician, Earl’s music is slow-paced and heavily lyrical. It was clear that the majority of the crowd, including myself, didn’t know his songs, which caused so many of the moody, contemplative tracks to fall fat in a capacious live venue. That, combined with barebones production design — I’ve seen high school theatre productions with more elaborate lighting — led to him being my most forgettable headliner of the weekend.
On Sunday, day three, I arrived right as the gates opened in order to see Posh Coat, one of Victoria’s fastest growing local bands. Their stylish and lively set epitomized my favourite thing about the Phillips Reverb weekend— the diversity of music, both in genre and origin.
Performers like Posh Coat, alongside Trophy Dad, Current Swell, and Astrocolor brought locality and downto-earthness to the proceedings, while bands like DRAMA and Jungle — the Sunday headliners and my two favourite sets of the weekend — reminded me just how big the world really is.
DRAMA, the Chicago-based duo of producer Na’el Shehade and Via Rosa, shocked me with their energy and soul. Shehade’s dark, infectious beats combined with Rosa’s sunny vocals, which felt infused with lavender and honey, to create an unmatched mood of optimism. If there had been clouds out on Sunday, DRAMA would’ve driven them away.
However, if there was one band whose performance will forever stay in my mind, it was Jungle’s.
Their sellout crowd was rowdy. Their production design and choreography were fawless. Their gigantic beach balls, which exploded from either side of the stage midway through their set, hit me square on the forehead twice but were a lot of fun regardless.
And their music? Perfect. The London group's trademark eclectic style — mixing elements of dance, soul, and funk — was a showstopping way to end the weekend. Having just performed two of the largest festivals in the world
this summer in Coachella and Glastonbury, the band could have chosen to take it easy in front of a relatively small Victoria crowd. They did anything but. Lydia Kitto, who joined the project in 2023, has some of the most captivating stage presence I’ve ever witnessed. She’s loud, she’s boisterous, she’s having the most fun of anyone there. It felt like the crowd had no choice but to dance, if only just to match her energy and prove to her that we were an audience worth having. I can’t say I knew more than a few of Jungle’s songs prior to this weekend, but I can say without a doubt that they’ve gained a new lifelong fan. Jungle’s set wrapped up around 11:00 p.m. Afterwards, festival-goers fooded the streets of Victoria, riding a high only possible through the group catharsis of live performance. Some of us went home, while others stayed out for as long as they could, refusing to let the night end.
I Saw The TV Glow, Jane Schoenbrun’s 2024 horror drama flm, opens with Yeule’s cover of “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl.” Originally by Broken Social Scene, the song is a timeless Canadian classic that sounds older than it is with the colour of an analog vocoder and phaser. The repetitive closing line — “park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the foor, dream about me” — has garnered recent memetic status. Yeule makes it their own with crystalline, glitchy vocals, which sound somehow clearer and more distorted than the original.
Yeule trades banjo for these glittery vocal chops and rearranges the verses, but the spirit of the original song remains, in a wistful string melody, flter sweeps, and an insistent refrain that recalls long-gone adolescence. The cover of “Anthems” is a perfect introduction to the soundtrack’s ethos: a unique, sprawling, and magnetic triumph.
Over an hour long, the album is remarkably cohesive patchwork, a satisfying standalone while still coupling perfectly with the flm. A rarity in flm soundtracks, every song was commissioned specifcally for the flm from diferent artists, and the success of this style of scoring will no doubt set a precedent for soundtracks to come.
The commonly expressed nostalgia for the early days of the digital age — clunky interfaces, tube televisions, retro arcade machines — knits the album together. The movie is full of visual references to ‘90s pop culture, and the soundtrack follows suit. The characters in the flm visit a bar that parallels the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks, and Phoebe Bridgers and Sloppy Jane sing “Claw Machine,” a slow lullaby that imitates the reverb-heavy ballads found in Twin Peaks.
Beyond these clear-cut allusions, the musical references are subtler than the visual ones, giving way to a soft but unwavering stuck-in-time feeling. The
contemporary stars that feature on the soundtrack — like Bridgers and Yeule — reimagine and adjust their sound to match, half present tense and half artefact, partially true to the sound of their modernist indie work, but with one foot in the past. The film deals with memory and buried emotion, and the soundtrack, informed by past decades, refects this.
I Saw the TV Glow blurs the lines between reality, fction, imagination, and memory, and explores the transformation and reassertion of childhood experience throughout a lifetime. In what ways are we forever unknown to ourselves, and how will what we bury within resurface in time?
On “Another Season,” a dynamic but tender indie rock track, Frances Quinlan asks, “If this isn’t over, what else could take shape? How will you remember it?”
Beginning with a sparse vocal and electric guitar line, the music swells after the frst verse and a harsher guitar enters, followed by punchy drums and bass. By the end of the song, these compete with overdriven and overlapping vocals which repeat “even if this isn’t over,” in striking contrast to what started out as a gentle inquiry into permanence. The emotional crescendo of this song plays during the end credits, the coda to a deliberately arranged set of songs, each furthering the central concerns of the flm — the recurrence of the past, repression and release, and the interplay between real life and fantasy.
Florist’s Emily Sprague recalls adolescent alienation on the plaintive, dreamy ballad “Riding Around in the Dark.” The song opens with the sounds of strings and lightly strummed acoustic guitar, and later drums that come and go. The lyrics bring us to a parking lot, moonlight, and the slow apocalypse, weaving into the tapestry of longing and separation that comprises the soundtrack. By the time the movie ends, one is left with the impression of having been transported elsewhere and then left alone, disoriented, haunted by loss and possibility and the passage of time. This is due in large part to the soundtrack, which, like any original score worth its salt, not only complements a narrative, but defnes it.
Photo by Molly Harris.
TRIVIA
TUESDAYS IN THE PUB @ 7PM
If you have a knack for Trivia, come to Felicita’s to have fun with friends & WIN PRIZES!
KARAOKE
THURSDAYS IN THE PUB @ 7PM
You can sing your heart out in front of a
FUN STUFF
Redundancies
ACROSS
1. Sword used in Olympic fencing
5. Actress Michele, star of Glee
8. Appropiately small apartment?
11. Nikola Jokic, e.g.
12. Not online, abbr.
13. Slang for high quality cannabis
14. Actor Davidson
15. Like a size 14
17. Gluten free?
19. Wedding invitation request
23. Without a doubt
25. Clothing retailer known for jeans, abbr.
26. Romanian unit of currency
27. Slender and elegant
30. It gives cash for cards?
34. Why you might not make it into heaven?
37. "I would never be the best!"
40. Extrude
41. Was a candidate
42. Fourth number in the fibonacci sequence
43. Texan measurement unit equal to
33 inches
44. Combine
45. Fantasy foe
46. The most cited name in history?
DOWN
1. Sports channel
2. Urgent request
3. "Have a piece of stonefruit!"
4. Fairly
5. People born in September and October
6. Iriquoian people
7. Pond scum
8. "Without further ___"
9. Supportive
10. Baby or potato
16. In short, the 32nd president
18. Pollinator
20. A cheap watercraft?
21. Examine carefully
22. "The Tell-Tale Heart" author
23. In the vein of
24. Allow
27. Someone easily fooled
28. UVic rival
29. Cause to feel emotion
31. Taiwanese technology company, abbr.
32. " I always __ __ be the best!"
33. Trnt Indmrk
35. Actor Miller
36. Not a fake
37. The tax man, abbr.
38. Chap
39. Sentence connecter
Mook-Sang-Forbes.
Ilustration by Sage Blackwell.