JULY 3, 2019 VOLUME 11, ISSUE 18 KPU’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER
ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES Roller derby players in Vancouver are skating by without a rink to call their own
NEWS
KPU Senate and BoG Pass Proposal to Discontinue Faculty of ACA
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CULTURE
KPU Brewing Program Features at Vancouver Craft Beer Festival
OPINIONS › 14
Show Your Support By Learning About LGBTQ+ Issues and History
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STAFF Editor in Chief
Aly Laube editor@runnermag.ca
Managing Editor
Connor Doyle managing@runnermag.ca
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Associate Editor
NEWS
KPU Senate and Board of Governors Pass Proposal to Discontinue Faculty of Academic and Career Advancement According to the proposal, the process of administering these changes will begin immediately so as to be fully implemented by the time students begin registering for the fall 2020 term.
FEATURES
Rolling with the Punches I figured it would be empowering to be in a room full of women who are able to show aggression in the same way that men in sports are encouraged to—hopefully without the notion of being unladylike weighing on my mind.
Braden Klassen staff@runnermag.ca
Staff Writer
Cristian Hobson-Dimas writer@runnermag.ca
Production Manager
Sarah Kraft production@runnermag.ca
Graphics Editor
Kristen Frier graphics@runnermag.ca
Web Manager
Alex Rodriguez web@runnermag.ca
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CULTURE
KPU Brewing Program Features at Vancouver Craft Beer Festival Students from KPU’s Brewing and Brewery Operations Program ran a booth, offering samples of some of the beers made in the university’s brewery at the Langley campus.
OPINIONS
Show Your Support By Learning About LGBTQ+ Issues and History It was only in 2005 that same-sex couples gained the legal right to marry in Canada, making our country the fourth in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
HASHTAG KPU
Post on Twitter or Instagram about or around KPU and you could be featured!
Operations Manager Scott Boux office@runnermag.ca 778-565-3801
CONTRIBUTORS Thomas Buecking Netanya Castillo Ivy Edad Kyler Emerson Chelsea Franz Nicole Gonzales-Filos Lisa Hedmark Breanna Himmelright Amei-lee Laboucan Jessica Limoanco Nat Mussel Mariah Negrillo-Soor @RESLUS Tae Whitehouse
COVER BY Kristen Frier
Arbutus 3710/3720 12666 72 Ave. Surrey, B.C, V3W 2M8 778-565-3801 www.runnermag.ca Vol. 11, Issue no. 18 July 3 // 2019 ISSN# 1916 8241
All submissions to The Runner are subject to editing for style, quality, length, and legality. The Runner will not publish material which the editors deem to be harmful or discriminatory. The views expressed within the publication are not necessarily those of The Runner staff or of the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society. The Runner is student-owned and operated by Kwantlen Polytechnic University students, published under the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society. The Runner recognizes that our work, both in and out of the office, takes place on unceded Coast and Strait Salish territories, specifically the shared traditional territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Sto:lo and Tsawwassen First Nations. Our name is inspired by the hun’qumi’num meaning of Kwantlen, which is tireless hunters or tireless runners. Just as KPU is adaptable and changing, so is The Runner.
EDITORIAL
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FROM THE EDITOR
How to avoid panicking every time you read the news Aly Laube | Editor in Chief
There are days when I feel like I need a stiff drink after reading the news. In print, online, or through the air waves, conflict and tragedy are everywhere—and it covers everything from human rights violations and refugee camps to climate change and housing bubbles. It’s sad. It’s hard to read, and absorbing coverage about global calamities can make you feel painfully small. That’s okay. It’s normal to be scared of all the darkness out there. Sometimes, reflecting on it can even be healthy for your personal development. About a year ago, I had a moment while sitting at my desk that deeply affected me as a news reader. It was a sleepy spring morning and I was mentally and physically exhausted. Before coming to work I had watched a documentary about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The night before, I had stayed up doing research into the MMIWG Inquiry and was reading police reports until the sun rose. It was an important thing to learn about, but it was spirit-crushing, and I felt drained when I finally poured my first cup of coffee in the Runner office. I was thinking about that material when I sat down at my desk, and realized I had to clear my head before I started pitching stories, but it didn’t work. As soon as I turned on my computer, I saw a headline about a young Indigenous woman whose body was found in the Red River in Winnipeg several weeks after she disappeared. Her family was pictured crying by the shoreline, asking reporters why the cops hadn’t done anything sooner. Below it was an article about a woman whose rapist was acquitted because of her inability to
provide a full account of the assault, despite being heavily drugged against her will. The article included verbatim quotes of the threats witnesses heard him uttering to her while he was stalking her home that night. I turned on my phone and saw a text about a terror attack on an African church that killed dozens of people. Another friend messaged me about a xenophobic tweet Trump made about asylum-seekers camping out at the border. I got word about another airstrike in Yemen. Uncharacteristically and very suddenly, I burst into tears. Through blurry vision, I hurried to the bathroom on the third floor of the KPU Surrey library and cried my eyes out, ugly-style. I remember sitting on the toilet with my head in my hands, feeling confused and absolutely powerless. All this death and abuse and sadness is out there in the world—some of which affects me as a queer mixed woman, some of which I can blissfully ignore due to my own privileges—and what could I do about it? Write an article? Cry in the bathroom? Donate some of the little money I have to a charity that might take more than its share anyways? It all seemed shallow and self-soothing, and more than anything else, futile. When I went back to my desk, I wanted nothing more than to be as far away from a newsroom as possible. I completely disconnected from all the media I could without jeopardizing my professional obligations. That lasted a few weeks. It wasn’t fun, but when I came out the other end, I felt like I really had learned something. Heartbreaking news is hard to read because it’s real. Reacting to it is human. And going through all that effort, confusion, guilt, and anger is part of what it means to really meditate on the media you consume. Letting it shake you to your core is the deepest way of understanding
(Jessica Limoanco)
it, and it’s a guarantee that whatever you’re taking away from your consumption really sticks with you. That’s what will make you a more nuanced and empathetic person. Reading the news means more than filing away factoids in your head to bring up around the water cooler. It’s a way for you to step into someone else’s shoes, to try to understand them and how their experience differs from yours, to put in the work so you can truly help if possible. I believe that, to a certain extent, engaging in the media is a crucial but burdensome responsibility. Knowing what is happening in the world
is important for keeping your perspective in check and doing what you can to make this terrible hellstorm of a planet a slightly better place. Still, despite all that civic duty talk, sometimes it just feels like scanning your news feed is nothing more than a one-way ticket to Terror Town. If you find yourself getting that way, I say embrace it every now and then. Let yourself get rattled, and use that to create change in yourself and your community. Or just cry about it in the bathroom for a while. That’s alright too.
NEWS BRIEF
KPU Instructor Among Researchers Calling Dodgeball a “Tool of Oppression” Netanya Castillo | Contributor Earlier this month, a study labelling dodgeball as a “tool of oppression” was presented by SFU instructor Claire Robson, UBC instructor Joy Butler, and KPU instructor David Burns. Taking inspiration from the political theorist Iris Marion Young’s definition of the Five Faces of Oppression—those being violence, cultural imperialism, powerlessness, exploitation, and marginalization— the researchers behind the study argue that dodgeball emphasizes ideas of singling out students, building unhealthy alliances, and encouraging power struggles. While Robson, Butler, and Burns believe that the game negatively influences adolescents, others argue that the harmful effects of dodgeball can be mitigated depending on who is playing. “I think it definitely depends on the group of kids you’re playing with. If you have a group of athletes whose lives are centered around sports, they will view it as friendly competi-
tion,” says Alexia Stone, a student assistant for KPU’s Sports and Recreation facility. “But I also think kids who are less inclined to play sports willingly or be physically active could view it as an oppressive game.” Another factor to take into consideration are biological differences between individuals that give some people physical advantages over others. Oftentimes, students can be intimidated by peers who fiercely throw dodgeballs and aim at vulnerable places. This can be an even more important factor in coed physical education classes. “In high school, I don’t think you should play dodgeball with coeds,” says Josiah Engnan, another student assistant for KPU Sports & Recreation. “Maybe when it’s more like P.E. boys and P.E. girls kinda thing, then that kinda makes more sense.” According to Melissa Conrad Stöppler, a medical doctor and contributor for MedicineNet.com, puberty occurs in females, on average, between the ages 10 and 14, while in males it occurs on average between 12 and 16. “I think one of the best ways to go about
Some researchers argue that dodgeball singles out students, builds unhealthy alliances, and encourages power struggles. (U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Nathanael Callon) playing this game would be to just take a class vote to see who wants to actually play it and who doesn’t want to play it,” adds Stone. “Get the people who do want to play it and do want to have a good time, get them in their own little group and then get the people who aren’t as comfortable playing with those more athletic or aggressive type
people, get them playing their own thing.” While the trio of university researchers are closely examining the positive and negative effects of dodgeball on students, they are not encouraging an outright ban on the game. Rather, they hope educators will continue to analyze the ethical influence of hosting a human-target game in schools.
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NEWS
Wilson School of Design Offers the Best Fashion Education in Canada, According to Business of Fashion Magazine The acclaimed publication recognizes the school for offering one of the “top undergraduate programmes” in the world Cristian Hobson-Dimas | Staff Writer The Wilson School of Design at KPU was recently featured in Business of Fashion magazine’s guide to the top fashion schools around the world, and was even named the “best overall” fashion school in Canada. In addition to being one of only two Canadian schools acknowledged in the guide, the Wilson School also earned badges for being the “best in learning experience” as well as the “best in long term value.” “The fact that [Business of Fashion] recognized our school as notable is a great honour,” says Ami Edgmon, a graduate of Wilson School’s class of Spring 2019. Since its founding in 2007, the magazine has become a staple resource in fashion and design education around the world. Edgmon cites the publication as “one of the most important tools” she used in her fashion marketing program. A challenge that the Wilson School of Design faces over “more globalized” schools like Ryerson in Toronto is that over here it’s comparatively hard to “infiltrate the fashion industry” and to “find allies that share the same perspective,” according to Edgmon. However, she believes that this challenge is offset by a “well-connected staff” and the “many opportunities” they are able to offer students. Edgmon also says that the program offered her hands-on experiences such as meeting
the owners of established Vancouver fashion companies like Vancity Original and Hunter and Hare, and even working on window display curation in Yaletown. “Even if I went to any other schools in Vancouver, I don’t think I would have the same level of hands-on experience,” she says. “You leave the program feeling like you actually know what to expect from the industry, not just theoretically, because of all the hands on experience working with actual people in the industry.” She explains that the Wilson School of Design “really tries to educate [students] about sustainability, buying slow, and buying local,” to offset the environmental harm of globalized fast-fashion trends. “It isn’t just about supporting the economy. Usually local manufacturing practices are less harmful to the environment,” she says. “I had whole classes on sustainability alone.” In an email to The Runner, the Wilson School of Design’s interim Dean, Andhra Goundrey, attributes the institution’s success and reputation to “close connections with industry,” as well as its “curriculum relevance, focus on experiential learning, practicum placements, fully engaged advisory committees, and international exchange opportunities.” Goundrey believes that the Wilson School’s advantage over other Canadian design institutions comes from its “unique blend of programming,” which includes four under-
The Wilson School of Design is located at KPU's Richmond campus. (Kristen Frier) graduate degrees: Fashion and Technology, Product Design, Interior Design, and Graphic Design for Marketing. Other programs include a Fashion Marketing Diploma that can bridge into a BBA, as well as a one-year certificate in Foundations in Design and a post-baccalaureate in Technical Apparel. She is also proud of the school’s new build-
ing, featuring spaces that “are set up to encourage collaboration, creativity, and innovation.” “We are so proud of our team here,” Goundrey writes. “From students, alumni, faculty, and staff, we are all working together to make an impact in the world by making people’s lives better through innovative design solutions.”
International Students at KPU Speak Out Against Work Hour Limits Many are critical of a policy that led to the 2017 arrest of Jobandeep Singh Sandhu for exceeding working hours Braden Klassen | Associate Editor Jobandeep Singh Sandhu, a mechanical engineering student from India, was driving a truck from Montreal to Toronto in December 2017 when he was pulled over and arrested for exceeding a 20-hour work limit placed on international students. A year and a half later, he faced deportation. A petition was created in an effort to stop Sandhu’s deportation and grant him a temporary residence permit, and was signed by more than 50,000 people before being presented to Ahmed Hussen, the Federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Sandhu’s arrest has inspired international students across Canada to speak out against the work hours policy. They point to expensive tuition as one of the reasons that they would feel compelled to work past the government-imposed limit. “Our tuition fees are incompatible with how many hours we are allowed to work,” says Fernando Cilento, an international student who works with KPU on the Surrey campus while also holding a part-time job off campus. Cilento came to Canada as an exchange student from Brazil before becoming an international student at KPU. Transitioning from being an exchange student to an international student also granted him the ability to work off campus, which he was unable to do before. “For my reality, and I assume the reality of
most international students, you have to get a job. You have to work,” he says. “In some cases you have to get two jobs. It’s just what you have to do.” “When you hear things like ‘Canada is such a welcoming country to immigrants’ and ‘everything is so beautiful and bright, you can come here and you don’t need any money because there are jobs and opportunities’—it’s not so black and white,” he adds. Cilento says that, while he received a $650 bursary for international students, the amount of financial support specifically for international students can feel limited compared to what’s available for domestic students, even though international tuition can be up to four times higher. Starting Sept. 1, international students at KPU will be paying $658.03 per credit, compared to the $141.78 per credit rate that domestic students pay for most undergraduate courses. The rate that international students pay for post-secondary institutions across Canada has been steadily rising over the years, and KPU faced some backlash over a decision to increase the cost of international tuition by 15 per cent in 2018. Gurdial Dhindsa, Kwantlen Student Association International Student Representative, says that, instead of ensuring that international students have more time to focus on studying, the work hour limits actually put more of a burden on some who find it difficult to pay for
International student Fernando Cilento says that he would choose to work for longer than 20 hours a week if he was legally allowed to. (Braden Klassen) tuition and the cost of living in Canada. “It would help students and would encourage more students to come here. If students can work hard and study, it’s a good thing,” says Dhindsa.
“Mostly, international students here are from China or from India, and there’s a huge currency difference. I would like to appeal to the government, [and I think] that the working hours should be increased,” he adds.
NEWS
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KPU Senate and Board of Governors Pass Proposal to Discontinue Faculty of Academic and Career Advancement Continuous Intake and most fundamental-level Adult Basic Education courses will no longer be offered at the university as of fall 2020 Connor Doyle | Managing Editor Significant changes are coming to the Faculty of Academic and Career Advancement (FACA), as a proposal to discontinue the faculty has passed both KPU’s Senate and Board of Governors. The proposal recommends that all math and science courses in the FACA be redistributed to relevant departments in the Faculty of Science and Horticulture. It also lays out a plan for the discontinuance of the department of Academic and Career Preparation—which includes KPU’s Continuous Intake courses— as well as all Adult Basic Education (ABE) fundamental-level courses, with the exception of those offered under a pre-established arrangement with the Phoenix Drug & Alcohol Recovery & Education Society. The proposal further recommends that the FACA be renamed to reflect a greater emphasis on English preparatory studies. The newly named faculty will retain the department of English Language Studies, the department of Access Programs for People with Disabilities, and all developmental English courses at or beyond the Grade 10 level. According to the proposal, the process of administering these changes will begin immediately so as to be fully implemented by the time students begin registering for the fall 2020 term. KPU Provost Dr. Sal Ferreras, who spearheaded the changes to the FACA, wrote in the final report presented to Senate that the proposal “mitigates KPU’s principal financial concerns while proposing positive steps forward for developmental education.” Members of the FACA, however, have expressed both disappointment in the decision to split the faculty and concern for the students whose programming will be lost or altered as a result of the changes. Background Instructors in the FACA first learned of plans to discontinue the faculty in November of last year, when Ferreras met with them to discuss moving all math, science, and English courses to other faculties. The initial plan was to implement these changes by Jan. 1, but at a Nov. 26 meeting of Senate, that date was pushed back to April 1 over concerns that the administration was not following KPU’s GV9 policy. This policy lays out the procedures for discontinuing a faculty or department, and recommends the creation of a task force to assess the “impact on students, staffing, facilities, reputation, operating and capital budgets” that would result from the discontinuance. The GV9 Task Force for the FACA discontinuance proposal was formed on March 5 and was made up of more than a dozen members, roughly half of whom were students, staff, or instructors from the Faculty of Academic and Career Advancement. “The [GV9 policy] isn’t specific about the task force. It doesn’t say how many people should be on it or what their qualifications should be,” explains Ferreras. “I wanted representatives from ACA on it because, if [the
proposal] was going to go through, then it has to have everybody’s conversations.” The primary responsibility of the task force was to “consult, solicit, and analyze the data presented by various inputs that will inform a full discussion regarding the advantages or disadvantages of discontinuing the Faculty of ACA,” according to the task force’s report delivered to the provost on April 16. In that report, the task force made its central recommendation for the “continuance of the [FACA] with its current departments,” as they felt that the faculty, in its current form, allows for a “centralized and coordinated structure for developmental education.” Though Ferreras adopted several of the task force’s other recommendations into his final proposal to Senate, he did not include the central recommendation. “I was surprised that the provost's proposal did not follow the central recommendation of the task force—that ACA remain a faculty and that it retain its current departments,” says Sean Conway, a faculty member in the department of Academic and Career Preparation and a member of the task force. “Even though I didn't know what precisely the provost's final proposal would include, I had certainly assumed that this central recommendation would be part of it.” On May 27 the university’s Senate voted in favour of adopting the Provost’s proposal, which removes math and science courses from the faculty but allows it to retain the departments of English Language Studies and Access Programs for People with Disabilities. The proposal then passed to KPU’s Board of Governors, where it was again approved at a meeting on June 26.
KPU Provost Sal Ferreras (right) at a Board of Governors meeting on June 26. (Kristen Frier)
Reactions In an open letter, several members of the FACA criticized the decision to apply the provost’s changes, writing that it “directly contradicts the explicit advice of the GV9 Task Force.” Chris Traynor, the Senate representative for the Faculty of Academic and Career Advancement, was one of the signatories of the letter. He says that he is worried about how the changes to the faculty will affect students who rely on the programming currently offered by the FACA. “The faculty provides a support and a structure for students who are often trying to transition back into education, or who haven’t faced a lot of success in the past with their education, so there’s a very clear commitment from our faculty members to support those students as much as we can,” he says. “There is a discipline and a practice within the current existing structure,” Traynor continues. “That’s why the task force made the recommendation it did, to maintain that structure.” Conway shares Traynor’s belief that the FACA, in its current form, is best suited to serving students who rely on fundamental-level courses. “As a faculty, underprepared and preparatory students are our focus. They are our discipline,” he says. “We see the value in offering those students an opportunity to pursue higher education.”
Senate representative for the FACA Chris Traynor. (Kristen Frier) Conway adds that the division of the department of Academic and Career Preparation, in particular, could result in some students being left without the courses they need. “That is definitely a concern that I’m sure my math and science colleagues have as well, that there will be fewer courses and opportunities available for underprepared students at Kwantlen,” says Conway. “That’s always been a concern throughout this process.” Ferreras says that there are no plans to offer fewer preparatory courses, and considers the changes to the FACA to be a “lateral move.” “We’re going to be doing exactly what we’ve
been doing, in the exact buildings we’ve been doing it, with the same instructors,” he says. “[Those instructors] will just be reporting to different people.” According to the final proposal for the discontinuance of the FACA, students not enrolled in Continuous Intake courses “will not be affected by the change of reporting relationship of the ACP/ELST departments.” Students who are enrolled in Continuous Intake, it notes, will have the option to enroll in newly proposed fixed-intake courses, and will be given “ample notice” that Continuous Intake will be phased out.
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NEWS
Facing Potential Bankruptcy, KPIRG Holds 2019 AGM
The research group could cease operations this fall if its funding isn’t reinstated by the Kwantlen Student Association Aly Laube | Editor in Chief The Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group, an organization formerly funded by KPU students that is dedicated to social and environmental justice, held what may be its last annual general meeting on June 27. Unless the Kwantlen Student Association votes to reinstate the group’s funding in the next few months, KPIRG could be shutting down for good come fall, according to KPIRG Director Simon Massey. “With the money we have left and the way our budget’s going with cost of rent and staffing, we will probably have to close operations down either in September or October, probably predicated on how much this [upcoming] audit is going to end up costing,” he says, referring to the forensic audit of KPIRG’s 2014-2017 finances that was promised to its membership at last year’s AGM. This closure would leave the university without a public interest research group and the organization’s sole remaining staff member, Dana Kagis, out of a job. The remaining members of the board, Massey and Jagdeep Mangat, will also need to step out of their roles within the group if KPIRG becomes unable to pay its bills. The Kwantlen Student Association voted to revoke KPIRG’s funding in April 2018, after Massey and his colleagues filed a notice of civil claim against its founder and former member Richard Hossein. Allegedly, Hossein
defrauded the research group of approximately $112,000 before leaving the country. Thus far, he has not officially responded to the claim filed against him, and refused The Runner’s request for an interview on March 29, 2018. The June 27 meeting marked KPIRG’s second attempt at holding an AGM this year. At the first meeting, held on March 19, they failed to achieve quorum, meaning there were not enough people in the room to meet the requirement for conducting business under the Societies Act. This time around, because of an allowance in Section 82 of said act, they were able to hold the meeting without reaching a quorum. “The bylaws of a society may provide that if a general meeting is adjourned until a later date because a quorum is not present, and if, at the continuation of the adjourned meeting, a quorum is again not present, the voting members present constitute a quorum for the purposes of that meeting,” states the section of the Societies Act. While the AGM was completed successfully, the financial future of KPIRG remains uncertain. According to a bank statement provided by Massey, KPIRG had $46,774.60 remaining in its account at the end of May 2019. This figure represents all of the funding available to cover the group’s expenses, ranging from events to wages and rent. Massey is planning on speaking to the
KPIRG Director Simon Massey (Kristen Frier) recently elected KSA executive team to ask them one last time to reinstate KPIRG’s funding. If that fails, the organization may become inoperative. “If we had another funding agreement, it would not look like our old one. It would be nice to work a lot better with the KSA than KPIRG has in the past,” says Massey, adding
that the group ceasing to exist could be “a large loss of potential for students.” “It’s the loss of that ability to have just another institution doing things for students, and even though, yes, one could sprout up in the future, it’s always better to have the one that’s here now working,” he says.
KSA Supports CFS Ontario Provincial Court Challenge The Canadian Federation of Students has vowed to fight the Ontario government’s policy that categorizes certain student fees as “non-essential” Braden Klassen | Associate Editor In late May, the Canadian Federation of Students launched a court challenge in response to the Ontario government’s proposed Student Choice Initiative, a policy which would categorize particular student fees as “non-essential.” The challenge states that the initiative, which is being backed by Ontario’s Minister of Training Colleges and Universities, “improperly and arbitrarily” designates which fees are to be considered non-essential. On this basis, it seeks to stop the policy from moving forward. The government first introduced the policy through a news release in January, and claims that it could reduce tuition fees by up to 10 per cent. According to the release, “every individual student in Ontario will be empowered to choose which student fees they want to pay and how that money will be allocated,” though the announcement adds that fees “for essential campus health and safety initiatives will continue to be mandatory.” Student organizations across the country have voiced opposition to the legislation for fear that it could set a precedent for cutting fees that were approved by students through democratic processes. “We know that this is an attack on student unions’ autonomy and right to organize,” says CFS President Sofia Descalzi. “It kind of ties into an attack on resources that go to marginalized communities. For
example, gender diversity centres, food banks, LGBTQ+ centres, and all of these services that allow students to feel safer on campus, or access the services and resources that they need to be able to study on the campus as well.” Descalzi says that in April, the CFS received a list of fees that would be categorized as optional. “It seems like an arbitrary distinction, as most of the ancillary fees that come from universities or colleges were deemed essential and most of the ancillary fees that come from student organizations are deemed non-essential.” Descalzi says she is hopeful that their challenge will be addressed in court before the upcoming fall semester. “We know that an attack on one student is an attack on all students. This sort of legislation would negatively impact student organizing across the country, not only in Ontario, and that is something that we need to stop,” she explains. Sarah Strachan, Kwantlen Student Association VP University Affairs and B.C. representative in the CFS, says that the KSA officially supports the court challenge and opposes the Student Choice Initiative. After the KSA left the British Columbia Federation of Students in 2018, it became one of only two remaining B.C. members of the CFS. The KSA is in a unique position where it is still involved in the Federation's advocacy efforts, and a portion of the fees that KPU students pay to the KSA are remitted to the CFS for
CFS President Sofia Descalzi and York Federation of Students President Fatima Babiker announce their intent to challenge the Ontario government in court. (Submitted) membership costs. “The Student Choice Initiative will affect students in Ontario by limiting the access for health and dental insurance plans, transit passes, advocacy support, peer support, food banks, jobs, and even food services that student associations provide,” Strachan wrote in an email to The Runner. “These will then be extra expenses that students will have to pay in order to get access to these services,” she adds. “Even though the announcement was labeled as a 10 per cent
tuition cut, making it sound appealing, it is really just a cover to weaken crucial student supports and diminish the quality of education students receive. Challenging this policy will help ensure the effective use of services and helping students receive supports that they need.” Strachan shares Descalzi’s concern that if the SCI is implemented in Ontario, other provincial governments across the country might do the same, though she believes that it is not likely to happen in B.C.
NEWS
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New Hotline Launched as Part of a National Effort to Combat Human Trafficking
CEO Barbara Gosse says that more needs to be done to address one of the worst human rights abuses occurring in our country today
Cristian Hobson-Dimas | Staff Writer Content warning: this article discusses issues related to sexual violence and assault. Reachable at 1-833-900-1010, a Human Trafficking Hotline was launched by the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking (CCEHT) in early June. The 24-hour hotline is the first of its kind in Canada, and is available in more than 200 languages and dialects. “The first call came in at 10:00 am on the day of the launch, and we’ve been fielding calls ever since,” says Barbara Gosse, CEO of CCEHT. “The hotline has been operating for three weeks now … [and] we’ve already had a couple hundred calls.” According to Gosse, the CCEHT believes that “a well-informed public” is in the best position to fight human trafficking, and helping Canadians to recognize the signs of human trafficking is where collective action can start. “Let me start off by saying that human trafficking is a hidden crime, occuring in communities across Canada,” she says. “Common recruitment practices involve isolating victims from family and friends and then transporting them to unfamiliar areas, often from province to province. Ultimately, they are forced to provide labour or a service, often being forced into the sex industry.” “The gang I was involved with ran its own escort company,” says Jackie Ellis, speaking
about her first hand experience in proximity to trafficking offenses. “A lot of girls I knew worked half-willingly … usually in situations where they needed money to fuel their drug addictions. Several other girls I knew were forced into straight-up prostitution.” In the beginning, Ellis says she witnessed girls being “repeatedly raped as a way of initiation,” and also “kept high enough that they become dependant on their pimps to avoid withdrawal.” “They’re taught how to work the streets and forced to bring back a certain amount of money to meet quota, and if they don’t, they don’t get their next high or a place to sleep. Pimps prey on young girls, often with substance abuse problems or in poor living situations like foster care,” she says. “I’ve seen a lot of runaways end up in sex work.” Ellis believes that the human trafficking hotline has the potential to be helpful, but adds that the difficult part will be “getting that number and the information out there to the people who need it.” “Not every woman is looking for an out, but a lot of them just don’t know it’s a possibility,” she says. In response to Ellis’s concern, Gosse says her organization wants to ensure that they are “informed by experience.” “Call advocates have received over 60 hours of victim-centered specialized training from experts who have worked in this field for
(Creative Commons) extensive periods of time,” she says. “They will provide a localized response to all callers, no matter where they are in the country.” When receiving a call, the hotline operators begin by ensuring that the caller is in a safe place to talk. They then ask a series of questions to evaluate the needs of the caller, and to discern whether or not they need to contact law enforcement. Operators will only call the police if the law compels them to do so. Otherwise, the calls are completely confidential. According to Gosse, an integrated strategy
between the provinces and the federal government is needed to address the problem of human trafficking on a broader scale. “Because human trafficking crosses jurisdictional boundaries, we need to ensure that we’re all working together,” she says. “No one organization or level of government can do this on their own.” The legal name of Jackie Ellis has been changed for confidentiality reasons.
Netflix Announces Partnership with Indigenous Film Groups in Canada
Wapikoni Mobile, Indigenous Screen Office, and imagineNATIVE join 11 other underserved Canadian screen creators with Netflix partnership
Amei-lee Laboucan | Contributor At the 2019 Banff World Media Festival, Netflix announced a partnership with three Indigenous screen creators: imagineNATIVE, The Indigenous Screen Office, and Wapikoni Mobile. The collaboration is part of a five-year, $25 million fund to help support the “next generation of Canadian creators” in underserved communities, according to Global News. imagineNATIVE will use this partnership with Netflix to expand in six areas over the next three years with the help of screenwriters, directors, and producers. In a statement to Netflix’s media centre, Artistic Director for imagineNATIVE Jason Ryle said that the funding being provided to them through the partnership “is a significant investment in opportunities ... and marks one of the largest sponsorships in imagineNATIVE’s history.” The Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) sees the partnership as an “opportunity to help support the development of projects that have already been funded,” according to a Netflix press release. The ISO will be pursuing these projects through key creative apprenticeships and cultural mentorships designed to help directors, producers, screenwriters, and showrunners. “This fund responds to [the] expressed
need for new funding opportunities that will advance work and career opportunities, as well as allow them to follow protocols and practices that are central to Indigenous ways of working,” said Jesse Wente, Director of the ISO, in a statement to Netflix. Wapikoni Mobile is a “traveling audio-visual studio that drives into First Nations communities to offer the audio-visual tools” needed to capture a movie and help create short films, according to Odile Joannett, Executive Director at Wapikoni Mobile. One of the new projects that Wapikoni Mobile has to offer because of the new partnership with Netflix is an artist residency “to allow for Indigenous creators that have been working on many films with [Wapikoni Mobile] that now have their own artistic signature,” and who don’t need as much mentorship, says Joannett. She adds that Wapikoni Mobile has worked with imagineNATIVE in the past and looks forward to working with them again. “I think Netflix working with Indigenous communities, artists, and film makers is good in some ways because they’re a huge platform that will allow those artists to be at the forefront instead of being in the back,” says Joseph Thorpe, business student and former KSA president and queer representative. He is also part of the Métis and Cree Nations.
imagineNATIVE, the Indigenous Screen Office, and Wapikoni Mobile launch new programs supported by Netflix’s development fund for Canadian screen creatives. (Submitted) However, Thorpe also expresses concern over how much creative control Netflix will have over the content released through this partnership. “We don’t know the extent of the contract and we don’t know how much control we have over these stories and the film,” says Thorpe. “There is a little bit of worry there in that aspect so, depending on the contract, I think it
could be good or bad.” Joannett says that the partnership with Netflix is about story sovereignty and promoting the “sparkle” that Indigenous youth have. “Hopefully it’s good and the artists can do what they want to and produce and tell stories they want to tell, and Netflix is there to support financially and as a platform," she says.
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Seeing the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for the First Time Was Weird
Attending the VSO’s 100th anniversary was my first, and likely last, brush with high culture music in the city Aly Laube | Editor in Chief Like eating caviar or joining a yacht club, buying tickets to see the symphony may seem like an unnecessary indulgence for us empty-pocketed students. I had never seen a classical concert as an adult until I went to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s 100th anniversary performance on June 7, and walking into the Orpheum that night, I didn’t really know what to expect. Right off the bat, when I arrived with two other contributors to The Runner, I felt out of place. Did my outfit look cheap? Could they tell I was media? Was it weird that I was so young and boisterous? Did I have to lift my pinky while I drank my $12 glass of red wine? Did I have to golf clap after the orchestra was done, or just normal clap? There were so many questions in my mind, and no one was there to answer them. Until, that is, I talked to Noah Reitman, assistant principal bass for the VSO. “There’s something intimidating about sitting there. You don’t know when to clap. There’s no words, there’s only notes,” he told me in a conversation over the phone the night before the show. “No cell phones during the playing. You can take pictures while we’re standing up and everybody’s clapping. There’s not a lot of time to clap between movements, so just clap when you want to,” he continued. And then, “Gone are the days when everybody had to wear a suit. You’ll see people in sandals for sure, maybe one or two, but they’ll be the exception. A nice button-down shirt is more than enough. It’s a nice opportunity to show off your style if you want to be fancy. It’s fun in that way. You can come as you are, but you can also tap into your classy side.” Suddenly, I found myself even more nervous about clapping expectations. And attire expectations. And expectations in general, but Reitman’s laid back demeanor assured me that I could have fun even if I wasn’t some high-falutin person. “You don’t have to be some high-falutin person to enjoy a high culture experience,” he explained. “Enjoy yourself. Check out the lobby. Have a drink at intermission if you’re allowed to, and take in the scene.” I’ve been to hoity-toity events before, but there was something about this one that had me pulling at my collar, even after Reitman’s words of support. I was excited and ready to have a pleasant outing, yet I couldn’t help but feel like I stuck out in the crowd of old, rich folks dressed to the nines. All of these emotions came before we even walked through the front doors. Since we had to grab food and meet up after work before arriving, we got there 10 minutes past the written showtime, and were promptly told that we would have to wait until intermission to enter. We asked nicely, but were politely turned away, so we sat outside on the concrete for a half hour. Now, call me crazy, but I feel like it’s appropriate to show up a good 10 minutes late to most kinds of shows. The movies? Sure thing,
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performed "Also sprach Zarathustra" for the VSO's 100th anniversary. (Tristan Johnston) skip the trailers. A rock concert? The openers never start on time anyways. Even in theatre, there’s usually a low-key introduction before the ball really gets rolling, and people get escorted to their seats during plays all the time. As someone who had never been to VSO before, being turned away for being only a few minutes late left a sour taste in my mouth. There was no sort of notification that the intermission had ended. When we walked back into the Orpheum, we had apparently arrived literally five minutes after we were supposed to. The man who checked our tickets tried to turn us away again, even though we were on the media list, and one of the photographers with me had already been shooting throughout the first half of the performance. After a genuinely surprising amount of hemming and hawing about latecomers, he led us to a side door and sat us at the back of the room. Before this, however, he made sure to be shockingly condescending while he walked us through why exactly we couldn’t sit in our seats, and instead had to sit in the last row of the floor level. It is distracting for the performers and disrespectful to the audience and they don’t usually do this but clearly we don’t come here often so he would do it just this one time—and so on and so forth. Finally, we got to sit down. Once there, I actually did enjoy watching the symphony. The sound in the Orpheum was beautiful, and feeling the vibration of the instruments all around me was more stimulating than I had imagined. Watching the instrumentalists play with the conductor swaying before them felt like watching an elaborate choreographed dance being performed. It was something new to me, and for a second there, I almost felt like a rich young aristocrat. The piece that was being played, “Also sprach Zarathustra”, was inspired by one of Nietzsche’s philosophical novels and used iconically in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I was already familiar with it going in. Know-
ing the music did make being there far more engaging, and I found myself getting excited as the sound swooped and swelled around me. That was the best part. It was fun—and when anybody moved in any way at all, really funny too. If you’ve ever taken a test in a quiet room and had your entire train of thought derailed by some schmuck tapping their pencil or rustling around in their bag, you know how hard it can be to withhold your laughter as the pure silence is abruptly broken. Now imagine that, except all the people around you are 50 years old and look like they just hopped out of an episode of The Twilight Zone. Also, they don’t find it funny. Only you do. This makes it much more hilarious. The whole experience was strange, but not horrible. If it weren’t for the constant air of pretension hanging over the crowd—and the incessant feeling that I wasn’t really supposed to be there—I might even make a habit of coming back.
Still, spending over $20 to do anything on a weeknight is a little rich for my blood, and if I’m gonna do it, I don’t really want to be scoffed at. Nor do I want to be stressed out over whether or not my social etiquette is acceptable to John and Mary up in the first row, or whether or not I’m proper enough for the door guy. No offense, Orpheum people, but I’m not really concerned about whether or not you waggle your eyebrows at me for being 240 seconds late to the performance I clearly came here to see. And I definitely don’t want to pay a chunk of my dwindling expendable income for that experience. That being said, I could have just had a bad night, or gotten a bad bunch of folks around me. I probably will try it again when I’ve saved up a bit of money, just to see what it’s like the second time. You know what they say; don’t knock it til you try it, and then when you do try it and don’t like it, knock it in an article in The Runner.
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What Are Vancouver's Biggest Contributions to Hollywood History?
The Runner's staff and contributors weigh in on the best, movies, shows. and locations put to film in Vancouver SFU is Either a Secret Government Headquarters or the Location of my ECON 101 Class Tristan Johnston | Contributor
(Nat Mussel)
Vampires Suck, But Twilight is Actually Pretty Good
The X-Files Changed Sci-fi Television Forever
50/50 is Vancouver's Most Underrated Movie
Kristen Frier | Graphics Editor
Braden Klassen | Associate Editor
Cristian Hobson-Dimas | Staff Writer
Let’s be honest, The Twilight Saga fed on the insecurity of young girls who didn’t fit the mold. The novels and films empowered teens to seek out older, stalker-y men who have an insatiable taste for human fluids and who they are powerless to resist. The first movie starred Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner. It was filmed in a weirdly blue tinted light and made me at, age 10, avoid biting my lip at all costs. Kristen Stewart did it way too much and I refused to be compared to her. I told myself I didn’t want anyone to think that I wanted to be romanticized for being quirky and emotional. Of course I did though, I was quirky and emotional and it was about time I got romanticized for it—at the ripe old age of 10. These characters encouraged the scene movement and vampire fashion through the late 2000s and into the 2010s. While Twilight was not responsible for encouraging youth to self-harm, or for magnifying a sickly aesthetic, it sure didn’t help. It may have taken until the third installment of the series, Eclipse, for filming to take place in Vancouver, but by then, Vancouver teens had already been affected by this problematic but highly entertaining series. Yes, Twilight is problematic. However, I still like it. The Team Jacob/Team Edward fight appealed to my desire to be different when I was 11 and I enjoyed seeing New Moon in theaters, shouting “Team Charlie” because the man was just doing his goddamn best. After a certain amount of watching it ironically, I found I was having a good fucking time. It’s no longer a guilty pleasure but rather something I do for me when no one else is watching, because it’s so bad…but so good.
The innovative and iconic series The X-Files combines the spooky mysteries and fantasy elements of classic shows like The Twilight Zone with the serial partner crime investigation vibe of predecessor shows like Cagney and Lacey and Hill Street Blues. The writing on the X-Files is versatile, and episode plotlines range from self-contained and trope-heavy “monster of the week” narratives to longer, more detailed storylines featuring plenty of emotion, compelling suspense, and interesting characters. Many of the locations that the show filmed at are instantly recognizable to locals. There’s an extra element of fun in watching fictional FBI agents run around Chilliwack searching for the Loch Ness monster, or being stalked through Stanley Park by a satanic cult, or hunting in the hallways of St. Paul’s Hospital for a radiation-stricken man who’s forced to eat the tumours of cancer patients in order to survive. Despite David Duchovny’s notorious hatred for the area—he would famously complain about the near-constant cloud-cover and rain, a far cry from his preferred climate of sunny southern California—The Lower Mainland served the show as a geographical chameleon of locations, appearing one week as the boonies of Northern Wisconsin, the next week as the isolated forests of Siberia, and the week after that as Area 51. In the tradition of classic sci-fi, the series frequently poses philosophical and existential questions to the audience, some of which are actually surprisingly profound and even disturbing. Scully and Mulder are textbook character foils, and their diverging philosophies about faith and science result in a near-constant dialogue about the relationship between two ideas that people often take for granted as irreconcilable.
Despite how many well-known films and TV shows have been shot in and around Vancouver, I can’t say that I’m a fan of most of them. However, a handful of productions that were filmed here—like Juno, for instance— show that approaching a story with originality and thoughtful character building can make for an impactful piece of cinema. In this vein of realistic and poignant storytelling is one of the most underrated films shot in Hollywood North: 50/50 starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film starts with Adam Lerner’s (Gordan-Levitt) cancer diagnosis and unfolds in an honest, unpredictable, and most importantly, impactful way. It shows how, despite a cancer diagnosis with a 50 per cent mortality rate, the hardships of Adam’s life persist. He finds out his girlfriend is having an affair. His father’s Alzheimer’s worsens. He takes on the anxiety of his mother and best-friend Kyle (Seth Rogan), all while being abruptly forced to confront his own mortality. The most powerful aspect of the film is found in how all the people in Adam’s life unconsciously put themselves at the centre of his diagnosis. “You have no idea how hard it’s been,” his girlfriend says when he finds out she’s been cheating on him. His grief counsellor is using Adam’s sessions for therapy training. And though the rest of his friends and family act in well-meaning ways towards him, no one really knows how to put Adam as the central experiencer of his own diagnosis, which is expressive of our very common and human inability to empathize — even with the people we love the most.
If there’s one thing that’s more likely to take you out of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie than looking at a former/future California governor, it’s seeing your main library branch being depicted as a cloning laboratory. Perhaps even more jarring than that would be seeing the place that you graduated depicted as a sci-fi multipurpose space. Maybe it’s the brutalist architecture of the campus that makes it suitable to being a research lab in The 6th Day, or a military academy in the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, or a secret agent headquarters in Agent Cody Banks. The buildings have been in so many sci-fi films that it’s hard to watch many without being taken out of the experience. The architectural style used at the Burnaby campus is perfect for making any type of oppressive or futuristic looking structure. The same can be seen in other famous buildings such as Habitat 67 in Montreal, the Geisel Library at UC San Diego, or the Buffalo City court building. Each is clad in concrete and often features smaller-than-average windows. It might also come as no surprise that the same architect who designed the SFU campus, Arthur Erickson, also designed the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, which astute viewers could have noticed standing in for yet another “research lab” in the Netflix show Altered Carbon.
Riverview Hospital, One of the Most Filmed Locations in Canada Chelsea Franz | Contributor Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam used to be an asylum. It had an active sector all the way up to 2012, when it finally closed for good. Now, it’s one of the most sought-after out-ofstudio filming locations in Canada. The 244-acre property offers film and television production crews a variety of forested locations, old buildings, and indoor sets, and is close to the urban city space and both Mundy and Minnekhada parks. Due to the history of the property, there’s a set of standards that are upheld by BC Housing that must be met before the site can be acquired. The scripts must be pre-approved and there cannot be any negative depictions of those struggling with their mental health, nor can there be any nudity or sex scenes. These standards make sense due to the work that went on in the buildings. Riverview has a history of inhumane and illegal practices, such as administering electroshock treatment and forced sterilization. To film just anything there is blatantly disrespectful, but the architecture, scenery, and lower costs available there will keep filmmakers returning for new projects. Perhaps the film industry is the best way to repurpose the grounds, which are now a heritage site. Perhaps the ones who never made it out would think differently.
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Rolling with the Punches Members of the Vancouver roller derby community share their love for the sport as they search for a rink of their own Krsiten Frier | Graphics Editor
Since 2009, I’ve wanted to be Ellen Page. I didn’t want to be her from the movie Juno, and certainly not her from Hard Candy. No, what I’ve longed for is the will to warrant the kind of badass montage her character gets in the movie Whip It. While the film may not be a 100 per cent accurate depiction of roller derby, it is a relatively good introduction to the premise of the sport, and it served as a classic inspiration for many current derby players. Page’s character, Babe Ruthless, is agile and of smaller build, which is traditionally ideal for a person in the Jammer position. A Jammer is a skater who wears a star on their helmet and scores points for lapping the members of the opposing team. Smashley Simpson, played by Drew Barrymore, is a more hands-on—or rather, elbowson—player. Despite her character dramatizing violence within derby, Simpson does get penalties for every dirty hit she throws. This is relatively true to life. Skaters are taught how to land hits in a way that is safer for other players, and not to use elbows or try to trip their opponent. I found the brutality of derby to be enticing. I figured it would be empowering to be in a room full of women who are able to show aggression in the same way that men in sports are encouraged to—hopefully without the notion of being unladylike weighing on my mind. Little did I know that, by researching roller derby in Vancouver, I was unearthing a welcoming, kind community of players who value inclusivity and sportsmanship. A large portion of this community is involved with Terminal City Roller Derby, one of the largest roller derby leagues in the city, which recently held a vote to change their name from Terminal City Roller Girls to be more inclusive. Sugar Elbows, a member of Terminal City, says that when the league was getting started, feminism was still a fresh concept. “We were just fighting to be seen as valid,” she says. “Now the inclusivity has expanded to be more welcoming of LGBTQ+ players.” “It’s also the history of roller derby and roller sports that has just kind of come up and grown through women taking risks and being showy,” adds Laura Drummond, Chair of the Board of Directors of Vancouver Junior
Roller Derby. “It comes from a history of derby, they call newcomers “freshmeat,” and being rebellious and being yourself and I was so fresh, I was practically mooing. being independent. Not worrying about what “It feels like you’re going to die,” says Sugar. other people think of you is kind of ingrained “It can be soul-crushing, but then you start in the culture.” getting better and you start feeling better.” The sport, which used to have more of a Freshmeat players can often be disheartpro-wrestling style of glamour and attitude, ened by how many times they are going to can often be portrayed as a “butch-wom- fall down, as it can be physically demanding en-only club,” but there are positions on the to try and remain vertical for a full 2-minute team which play to the strengths of any and jam. Starting out with derby can also be costly. all body types, potentially even mine. I am “Freshmeat” packages from RollerGirl, which small, I am not strong, I cannot do a single come with skates and all other necessary push-up, but strength is something that is additions, are available from $300 to $600. developed over time. If you are a new skater, many leagues have “I’ve never really seen myself as that programs which can get you up to speed. strong,” says Sugar. “When I was a kid I was Vancouver Junior Roller Derby is great for really boney and lanky.” those aged six to 18. Rolla Skate Club has lesHer name is derived from wanting some- sons for fun and fitness that can teach you to thing tough but a little nice, as well as from move forward, backwards, turn around, and her preconceived notion that she would be stop. Once you are at a skateable level, TCRD penalized for accidentally hitting people has a Mix Tapes program to train skaters in with her elbows. She feels that derby has approximately six weeks to have the skills helped her glow. needed to begin playing derby. “It’s had a huge impact. I totally just feel It’s a slippery slope once you tie on those comfortable in my own body,” she says. skates. It’s easy to feel like you’re either going I hadn’t smelled the inside of a gymnasium to be horribly disfigured, or morph into an for almost four whole years because I’m so all-powerful she-hawk and take flight. When clumsy and terrible at sports before I got to a you pair this with the comfort and safety of a Terminal City Roller Derby practice, so upon community so generous with support for one arriving, I was feeling a little embarrassed. another, it’s hard not to become infatuated Despite my reservations, I was greeted by with roller sports. many friendly faces. I was also handed a con“It started because I wanted to get better at tract stating that if I walked too close to the skiing,” says Sugar. skaters and got knocked over, it would be my She hoped to find something to keep her own damn fault. muscles working on the off-season and joined Bustylicious—formerly known as Cupid the Mix Tapes program. Now she plays on the Stunt—and Sugar Elbows took me under their TCRD house team, Team Terminal City. collective wing and babysat me for the evening. If you disregard a short-lived and very Busty even brought me a whole set of gear. shameful Heelys phase, I haven’t had wheels She guessed my size for skates dead-on and on my feet since Stardust was open. Starprovided me with a helmet, knee-pads, and dust was a roller sport rink in Surrey which wrist guards. I borrowed elbow pads from tragically closed in 2005, then served as a another player named Bruiseberry Pie who Liquidation World store for five years before plays for the Vancouver Murder, B.C.’s only re-opening in 2010 under the name Central men’s roller derby team. City Arena. Central City hosted its final skate The Murder are currently ranked fourth on June 23, 2018 and closed its doors once in the Men’s Roller Derby Association, and I again. The location is now being groomed for had the honour of putting my elbows where a tower development. she also puts her elbows. My sister and I loved that place growing Bustylicious helped me stand up while up and had many birthdays there. We would wearing skates and taught me to move for- stick around long after open skate and watch ward, stop, and fall without breaking all of wide-eyed while the derby teams prepared my bones. It was terrifying and fantastic. In for upcoming games.
Sadly, the City of Vancouver does not currently have a dedicated arena for roller sports. Events take place outside, or piggyback on other spaces like the Roller City Curling Club, but as it stands, there is no reliable spots for roller sports to thrive. The city does have a lot of indoor spaces that would be suitable, but there is a double standard when it comes to indoor sports. Vancouver won’t allow skaters into spaces because their activity can be “damaging”, but will allow for ball hockey, which has equal potential to damage a space. “We did a petition as part of our campaign to draw attention to this particular issue for all roller sports,” says Drummond. “It was the start of our louder message to the city of Vancouver that roller sports are growing.” Although roller sports are for people of all ages, the city is more likely to develop a space when children, rather than adults, are in need of a place to play. Vancouver Junior Roller Derby hosted an event entitled “Nowhere To Roll” on May 5 to rally for a roller sport space. Alongside allies from TCRD and fellow roller sport enthusiasts, the rally landed them a meeting with Vancouver’s City Hall to discuss the possibility of developing a space where the sport can thrive. “I think it’s a really empowering thing to watch young people find that connection in community. It’s a very supportive place where kids feel safe to be themselves and strive to be good athletes, but also good members of their community,” says Drummond. “I feel very grateful for previous generations of derby players and the history of derby. These powerful women got this game rolling … and I want to see that continue.” If you are interested in helping out, support the Nowhere To Roll petition, or check out some upcoming events. On July 6, Rolla Skate Club, RollerGirl, and Jack 96.9 will be hosting an 80s themed pop-up roller rink at Robson Square, and on July 7 there will be a roller rink on thedrive event taking place as a part of Car Free Day, also hosted by Rolla Skate Club. On July 27 and 28, TCRD is hosting a tournament at Royal City Curling Club in New Westminster. The tournament is called Summer Slam V: Dead Jams Tell No Tales. Tickets range from $10 to $20, and yes, there will be beer.
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The Terminal City Roller Derby League practices at the Royal City Curling Club in Uptown New Westminster. (Kristen Frier)
Bustylicious (left) teaches Kristen (right) how to skate without completely destroying her body. (Sugar Elbows)
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Essay Writing Services Don't Make the Grade $200 and an ethical compromise yielded a C- paper Lisa Hedmark | Contributor
Every student has been there. It’s the night before a big essay is due and the stress is slowly taking over. Sweat pours from your brow as you stare at a blank Word document and slowly press “next episode” on Netflix. There are, however, certain services that claim to offer a way out for students who can’t—or simply don’t want to—write a passable essay for class. One such service, EduBirdie—which launched in 2015—advertises its essay writing services for students who “can’t even.” They boast of their ability to deliver work “within a deadline of three hours” and claim that, by cross-checking their information on the internet and consulting with their database of completed orders, each paper is guaranteed to be 100 per cent factual and plagiarism free, starting at just $25 a page.
department, who says she has dealt with plagiarism every semester since she began teaching. The Service When using their service, the buyer is presented with EduBirdie’s three types of “writer qualities,” each at a different price point, though prices rarely match the estimates due to writers auctioning off their services at differing rates. The first, and lowest level of writing quality is called “all writers,” which gives the customer access to the website’s entire pool of contributors. The second level of quality is “premium,” which EduBirdie says is the best choice. This option lets only the top 50 per cent of writers—those with a Bachelor's degree or higher—see your order, though it is slightly more expensive.
There's no way of knowing an essay writer's credentials because, according to EduBirdie’s policies, writers are not allowed to disclose any personal information to the essay buyer. Essay writing services like EduBirdie encourage students to use their essays as templates to guide them when completing assignments for class. However, many students who use these services ultimately submit the essay as their own work. In April, the CBC conducted an investigation into a Toronto-based essay writing service, and found that some essays can go unnoticed by plagiarism-detection software. Following their lead, The Runner purchased a paper from EduBirdie to find out more about the validity of the claims made by the website, as well as to evaluate the ethics behind essay-buying services in general. For this article, we enlisted the help of Dr. Gillian Bright, an instructor in KPU’s English
The final option, “platinum,” allows only the top 20 per cent of writers to view the order. EduBridie says this option has a 95 per cent success rate, but it adds an extra 20 per cent to the price tag. From the customer’s perspective, there's no way of knowing an essay writer's credentials because, according to EduBirdie’s policies, writers are not allowed to disclose any personal information to the essay buyer. Many writers have screen names that include “Dr.” or “Professor” and their profile photos depict people in lab coats or graduation caps and gowns. “Our writers go through a series of tests to ensure they are seasoned and professional,” says Avery Morgan, an EduBirdie Senior Edi-
tor. “EduBirdie asks for a diploma as a proof According to Sucheta Singh, a media speof higher education and a copy of every appli- cialist working for KPU, faculty members have cant’s ID for verification.” noticed a rise in cases of plagiarism, though The essay ordered from EduBirdie by The it’s not clear whether these cases can be Runner was for a second-year English assign- linked to essay writing services, as they have ment—a 1,000-word essay on the topic of Jane not been around long enough for conclusive Eyre. The writer, known only by their screen data to be available. name “Samantha1,” was chosen because they offered one of the lowest prices (approximateThe Ethics ly $190), had a nearly five-star rating from previous users, and had reportedly completed Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Student more than 6,000 essays for EduBirdie. Academic Integrity Policy says that the uniOut of six topic options provided for the versity “ascribes to the highest standards of assignment, “Samantha1” chose topic num- academic integrity” and that these standards ber 4: “Both 'foils' and 'doubles' operate in “require students to not engage in or tolerate Jane Eyre as contrasts and/or reflections of its Integrity Violations, including falsification, central characters. Write an essay focusing on misrepresentation, or deception, as such acts the significance of a foil or double in relation violate the fundamental ethical principles of to one of the novel’s central themes.” the University community and compromise the worth of work completed by others.” The Results While academics are in nearly universal agreement that using essay writing services The essay was delivered in five days and, constitutes plagiarism, some writers—like after being marked by Bright, was awarded a Rahis Saifi, a contributor for the Huffington C- letter grade. In the first paragraph alone Post—defend them. Saifi argues that hiring an there were several confusing sentences and essay writer can help some students, particuno clear thesis. larly international students or those earning “There are many red flags that the writer of their Ph.D., alleviate the pressure of writing, this essay did not take my course,” says Bright. allowing them to focus more on research and “I teach very specific ways to structure essays learning. and to articulate arguments. For instance, I For their part, EduBirdie defends their serreview really useful techniques for develop- vices by arguing that their purpose is to “take ing sophisticated and clear thesis statements, some of the burden off of the overworked stuas well as other essay elements such as topic dent body.” sentences and quote integration. The student “EduBirdie’s goal is to allow people the followed none of these techniques.” opportunity to enjoy life and focus on one’s Bright adds that her teaching method passions and priorities, even when work strongly emphasizes the importance of inter- gets in the way,” says Morgan. “Students are preting the text rather than summarizing it or expected to enjoy their college education and explaining the traits of the characters in the grow as an individual, all while completing novel. According to her, the essay purchased upwards of 10 assignments at a time with no from EduBirdie was largely an explanation of excuse for failure.” the personalities found in Jane Eyre. Sera Fedirko, a marketing student at KPU, Though she says she had not heard of Edu- says he would “never even consider using an Birdie before, Bright has suspected students essay writing service.” of using essay writing services in her class. “Ethically, I don’t believe in them,” he says. “As with this case, it is usually quite easy to “I think students would benefit way more from detect a case of plagiarism—there are obvious visiting the learning centre, where they can signs that the student hasn't read the text actually learn skills to help them with their very well and hasn't incorporated any of the future, and it’s free.” writing skills I covered in class,” she explains.
(Jessica Limoanco)
14 CULTURE
KPU Students Ran an Amazing Race on Campus Cristian Hobson-Dimas | Staff Writer On June 12, KPU students were invited to take part in a two-hour race that took them around the Surrey campus as they looked for clues, solved riddles, completed challenges, and cooperated in pairs. This was the second annual KPU edition of The Amazing Race. One competitor, Nick Gill, says he was going all out for a win because of the prize for first place—a $100 Sports Check gift card for each teammate. He even went as far as abandoning Alex, his initial teammate, for a better shot at the prize. “It’s the whole reason I was competitive,” says Gill. “I told [Alex], ‘Sorry, it’s a hundred dollars. I’ve gotta ditch you for a partner I know I can win with.’ But I helped him find another teammate, so it worked out.” The race featured a variety of stations across the campus, each with its own theme. The first challenge was about religious inclusivity, while others focused on sustainability and the importance of staying physically active. A few of them even offered information about KSA organizations, such as the Peer Support program crossword and the MultiPass trivia challenge. The last station, reminiscent of the TV show Fear Factor, had both teammates blindfolded and consuming an unidentified mystery concoction. “I ate it and I was like, ‘Is this a worm? Why is it sweet? Why do I like this!’” Gill recalls. “A lot of people thought it was worms,” says Maria Penner, an event volunteer who helped to devise the strange amalgamation of bell peppers, corn starch, popcorn and cinnamon that students had to eat. “I had to keep telling people it wasn’t worms.” Penner adds that, on top of being a valuable addition to a resume, volunteering has helped her academic experience as well. “It sounds terrible, but when I first started university I didn’t see the point in coming, looking at a bunch of books, and then leaving. It just felt empty.” After making a group of friends by volunteering with the KSA, she says her experience began to turn around. “When you have friends to come to university for, it feels more full,” she says. “It stops feeling so lonely.” According to event organizer Connor McCann, Active KSA has more events scheduled throughout the rest of the summer, including a Dragon Boating session on August 10. “I really enjoy the whole planning aspect,” says McCann. “It was a bit rushed, as I was only hired a few weeks ago, but I was very fortunate that so many of the different departments who participated did an awesome job planning and preparing a lot of their own activities. From the feedback I've received so far, it sounds like both staff and students really enjoyed themselves.”
KPU Brewing Program Features at Vancouver Craft Beer Festival
Students offered samples of the program’s best brews while mingling with beer enthusiasts and industry insiders
Braden Klassen | Associate Editor Vancouver Craft Beer Week is a glorious time of year where beer lovers and creators converge at different places around the city to nerd out about their favourite foamy beverage and indulge in a few cold ones with the community. Each year, the week culminates in the Vancouver Craft Beer Week Tasting Festival held at the PNE grounds, where several local breweries from B.C. and beyond bring out their best for the public to taste and enjoy. Students from KPU’s Brewing and Brewery Operations Program ran a booth at this year’s festival, and offered guests a chance to sample some of the beers made in the university’s brewery at the Langley campus. “I was a microbiologist, so my background is in microbiology and that kind of led me towards the brewing industry,” says Justin Larter, who recently finished his first year in the program and will be returning in September. “I’d like to be a head-brewer for somebody established, somebody where I can support their products, and then eventually I’d like to open up my own.” Larter adds that he enjoys attending craft beer events because they give him a chance to try new and exciting recipes and meet other people working in the industry. “It gets people involved and it gets your face out there and interacting with the public, and most of all, it’s just a lot of fun,” he says. The KPU booth offered samples of the award-winning 50/50 Hefe hefeweizen beer,
KPU Brewing students Graeme Heaven and Justin Larter offer beer samples at VCBW Festival on the PNE fairgrounds on June 8. (Braden Klassen) as well as a Lavender-infused brown ale which had been brewed by a cohort of Italian students who are currently visiting and participating in the program. The weather fluctuated between calm, sunny stretches and short bouts of light rain, but spirits remained high throughout the day. Multiple stages were set up around the grounds for performances from various bands, DJs, and MCs, and a number of food trucks served snacks and meals. There were a large number of local breweries present, including Surrey’s Central City Brewing—which makes Red Racer brand beer—New West’s Steel & Oak, Langley’s Trading Post and Dead Frog, Delta’s Four Winds brewery, Richmond’s Fuggles & Warlock, and Vancouver staples like Parallel 49, Brassneck, Steamworks, Bomber, Red Truck, and many, many more. The festival also hosted guests from other Canadian cities and provinces as well as some from outside
the country like Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery, Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing, and even Cigar City Brewing Company from Florida. In celebration of the festival’s 10-year anniversary, a few of the breweries decided to collaborate on special commemorative beers to be served in honour of the occasion. Students at the KPU booth were also handing out information about the program for anyone curious about trying their hand at joining the professional brewing industry. KPU student Jamie Verschoor, who had been working toward a business degree before switching into the Brewing and Brewery Operations program, says that the program offered her a chance to combine her interests of science and business. “We do a lot of hands-on learning,” she says. “I didn’t have any experience brewing before I got into the program, and it wasn’t a problem at all and everyone was super friendly.”
Filipino Heritage Festival Held at Civic Plaza The Surrey Filipino Canadian Society of B.C. held the first Filipino Heritage Festival near KPU’s newest campus
Ivy Edad | Contributor The Filipino Heritage Festival, held on June 22 and 24, was headlined by renowned Filipino singer Yeng Constantino and featured Filipino talent across disciplines. The two-day event showcased many performances from dance groups such as Praise Team Dance Crew, Bibak Dancers, and Philippine Historama Society. Harvic Dominguez, a Filipino fashion designer from the Mountain Province, presented his work to guests at the closing gala. Civic Plaza was lined with booths with offerings ranging from street food to immigration agencies. Members of the Filipino community lined up for a Max’s Restaurant food truck and for pork barbeque at Manny’s Grill and Silog House, a local business. Other booths also supported locals, such as those selling handmade backpacks from the province of Sagada. I proudly sported my own Sagada backpack, which I got when I visited the well-known tourist spot in Baguio. The store-owner and I bonded over the cold wind we missed from back home, and how we found it all the way across the world. The Heritage Festival was organized by Ed Valdez, who started the Surrey Filipino Canadian Society of British Columbia. For this, Valdez recruited 220 volunteers within the span of seven months. When I met him, he asked me if I was
Chinese. This is very typical of a tito, a Filipino uncle. “Surrey doesn’t have any community. I started SFCSBC and I tried my best to do this. I’ve been here for eight months, feeding the homeless, schooling for kids, and helping seniors,” he says. Valdez emphasizes how important it is for members of the Filipino community to help each other. He describes this using Bayanihan, a long-standing Filipino tradition that focuses on support and cooperation. “It’s the first time [the] festival happened in our community. I’m happy and thankful for all the volunteers. They said it was going to rain today, but everything happens for a reason. That’s why it’s sunny. I tried my best,” says Valdez. Valdez is also planning on starting a Filipino Center. As a community that highly values family, it is important to take care of elders. The Filipino Center will aim to realize this for elderly Filipinos who do not have familial support. Valdez has taken the initiative to create these spaces in order to serve the Filipino Community. His dedication to his work is a prime example of what a modern Filipino immigrant in Canada can look like. “I’m looking forward to continue to serve our community, especially for Filipino seniors. I want to invite all the Filipinos, especially the seniors who need help, because I am here to help,” he says.
A dance crew called Fresh Groove was at the festival in order to raise money to support different groups representing them at an international competition. Jenna Escobiro, the coach for one of the groups under Fresh Groove, is hoping that they’ll also raise enough money to participate in the World of Dance Finals in Los Angeles. Fresh Groove started as a Filipino dance crew, but now welcomes people from different ethnicities because they recognized what others had to offer. “I find that the Filipino community is like a family and welcoming to everyone and is really great to be a part of,” says Alicia Kim, a dancer for Fresh Groove. The community at the Filipino Heritage Festival gathered with the intention of imitating what home and belonging feels like. However, it also created a new community. There, I found the sense of belonging that had been lost in diaspora. It was in a pork barbecue lineup, surrounded by the sweaty smiling faces of people who looked like me and spoke my language, that this realization hit me the most. If you’re looking to support local Filipino artists, donations can be made to Fresh Groove’s GoFundMe page. For information on similar upcoming events and volunteer opportunities, visit the Surrey Filipino Canadian Society of British Columbia’s website.
CULTURE
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Round-Up Cafe Celebrates 70 Years of Serving Surrey “It was just like it is today,” says Goldie Springenatic, owner since 1959 Kristen Frier | Graphics Editor
“There were blueberry bushes around here in the old days,” says Goldie. “Now there are Located only steps away from the new KPU high rises.” Civic Plaza campus, Surrey Central’s RoundSurrey Central, formerly known as Whalley Up Cafe has kept the community well-fed and formerly formerly known as Whalley’s since 1949. For most of its life, the restaurant Corner, was named after the first gas station has been owned and operated by Goldie Sprin- built in 1925 outside of Vancouver’s “original genatic, who purchased it with her late hus- downtown,” New Westminster. Due to Surband Orest in 1959. rey’s proximity to New West, the completion “[Our menu] hasn’t changed in all those of the highways connecting the two cities, and years,” says Goldie. the significantly lower lot prices on our side of To honour Orest’s Ukrainian heritage, the the Fraser River, the locale became a rapidly Round-Up Cafe serves homemade and made- developing area in need of a good eatery. to-order pierogies alongside 50s diner classics. Round-Up was originally open 24-hours a The monte cristo sandwiches, lemon meringue day. After 30 years of splitting shifts to make pie, and eggs benedict have kept clientele hap- it through the night, Goldie and her husband pily returning to the cafe for decades. decided to start closing at 5:00 pm. Stepping into the Round-Up feels like walkStill, 60 years on the grind has made Goldie ing backwards through time. Between the truly value hard work. To this day she still 1940s-50s decor, the bright neon sign outside, works up to five days a week, lending the staff and Goldie—the hostess with the most-ess— a hand and graciously greeting customers. Round-Up provides the perfect side order to “We’ve had some rough times,” says Goldie. quality libations: authenticity. Her husband Orest used to keep a baseball Round-Up still has its original sign which bat behind the counter to chase away probhangs over the sidewalk, accented by a cow- lematic folks. He was, after all, a little league boy riding on top of a bucking bronco. Both coach in Whalley and a massively influential the name of the restaurant and the vintage figure in the Surrey baseball community. signage are indicative of the For idealized western Thankfully, Goldie sayshow that issues withinvolved, contact more information about to get For more information about how to get involved, culture that was portrayed by Hollywood in customers have been fewer and further editor@runnermag.ca. Round-Up Cafe's neon sign features a cowboy on a bucking bronco. (Kristen Frier) contact editor@runnermag.ca. the 40s and 50s. between since then. While the cafe may not have changed dras“[Our customers] seem to respect us these KPU students, especially those who will be of Surrey’s history, and have a fantastic meal tically in the last 60 years, the City of Surrey days,” she says. “People like to come here to taking classes at the nearby Civic Plaza cam- all in one go at the Round-Up Cafe. sure has. support the small business.” pus, can support a local shop, share in a slice
DO YOU FEEL UNDERREPRESENTED IN THE MEDIA? The Runner is looking for writers from diverse and marginalized backgrounds. Bring attention to the issues and events that you care about by contributing to KPU’s student newspaper. For more information about how to get involved, contact editor@runnermag.ca.
16 OPINIONS
B.C. Created 600 New Reasons to Go Camping in 2019, Here are Two More Whether you want to relax or challenge yourself, camping is a versatile experience that almost everyone can appreciate Cristian Hobson-Dimas | Staff Writer Last month, B.C. announced nearly 600 new campsites to parks and recreation sites across the province. This is in addition to the 431 campsites that were added last year, bringing our two-year net gain of campsites to 1,025. Now, if camping isn’t something you do much, you’re probably missing out. All it really takes is for you to coordinate some friends, find an available campsite, set a date, and go. So let me take this opportunity to tell you about two B.C. campsites that convinced me that anyone can have fun camping. Lightning Lake in E.C. Manning Park This is probably the most common kind of camping, and my personal favourite—the lawn chairs and beer pong type. If you go with people you love, it’s impossible not to have a great time. You can drive right up to your campsite, no hiking required. There are a few amenities for convenience and copious amounts of nature. Last year, my campsite was a four-minute walk from the east shore of Lightning Lake. In a nutshell, we day drank. We kayaked and canoed. We spent less time on our phones. We opened up more than we normally would. We listened to music by the beach. We shared meals around campfires. We played games like king’s cup and werewolves all day and night. Our laughter filled the forest. We took photos, not just for the ’gram, but to commemorate the fun we had. After a couple of
nights, we all returned home a little refreshed and more than a little nostalgic. Joffre Lakes Trail This is more of a character-building kind of hike and campsite. It’s good for when you feel stagnant and are up for a rewarding challenge. You’ve probably seen the dreamlike Lake Joffre on your Instagram feed or on r/earthporn. The whole park includes three lakes, all at different elevations up a mountain. The only campsites are at third lake. The hike up is physically demanding, especially if you plan to camp, because you’re going to be hauling gear on foot. Dress warm, too, even in the summer. I can’t explain the gratification of hiking up a mountain all day to be able to set up your own bed and shelter next to one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Afterward, you return to normal life and take less for granted. You realize how convenient everything is, from the bed you wake up in to the food that is conveniently stored and ready for preparation. This campsite forces you into being a more thoughtful person because preparation and care needs to be put into everything. “How am I going to see at night without electricity?” “Do I have enough food to last me for a few days?” These kinds of trips help to affirm that you are a capable human being in the most practical and primal senses. Many trips over the years have taught me that
Over the last two years, B.C. has created 1,025 new campsites across the province. (Cristian Hobson-Dimas) the best way to experience camping is to do it ritually. Even if it’s just one weekend out of the year, go with as many of the same people as you can. The friendships grow over time and it stops
mattering who brought what beer or who forgot to pack properly. All that matters is that you’re present and ready for the adventure that every camping trip inevitably becomes.
Investing in a Murder House Might Actually Be Worth It In an unaffordable market, a house in which someone was murdered can sometimes be purchsed at an enticing discount
Nicole Gonzalez-Filos | Contributor If you’re thinking about buying a murder house, the first thing you should do is find someone like Randall Bell. Bell is a real estate appraiser who specializes in “stigmatized properties.” According to an article published by The Hustle, Bell has priced and sold dozens of murder houses, including the home where Nicole Brown Simpson was killed and the house where, in 1997, 39 Heaven’s Gate cult members committed ritual suicide. Bell says that, unlike most real estate— which pretty much only gets more expensive as time goes on—a murder house’s reputation can decrease in value by up to 25 per cent, making it much more affordable for potential home-buyers. If the fact that someone died in the same bedroom you plan on sleeping in strikes you as a bit of a turn-off, there are a few things you can do to make the most of it. You could make the house into a tourist attraction by charging people as much as you want to explore your potentially haunted abode and ultimately turn a profit off of it. You could also consider demolishing the house and building a new one, though you might want to sprinkle some holy water on the site before building your new and
improved home. Unfortunately, there could also be some unforseen downsides to owning a murder house. If you happen to buy one where a “famous” murder took place, be prepared to have people constantly creeping around your property trying to peek inside. People are curious, and they love to snoop around, so just make sure to put up “No Trespassing” signs everywhere. Also, your home might come with some weird stains. You might be walking through your living room and come across something that looks like ketchup on your green carpet, but once you sniff it you come to realize it’s more likely to be a 20-year-old pool of blood. Sometimes the only way to get rid of gross stains is by renovating the whole place, but that takes a lot of money. Another potential disadvantage depends on whether or not you believe in ghosts. If we’re being honest, if someone died in your house, their spirit might still be there looking at you as you eat or even as you go to the bathroom. Being paranoid in the supposed comforts of your home is the last thing you want. Murder houses are intriguing, and there is a clear and significant difference between living in them and just touring the place. When living in the house, you have to put all your effort into making your new home
(Kristen Frier) comfy and welcoming for you and your guests. Some people will probably judge you for living in a place where someone got killed, and that won't feel very nice. If that’s not a problem for you, and you’re
the kind of person who doesn’t mind ghosts or spirits and has lots of friends who enjoy visiting mysterious places, then murder houses are definitely for you.
OPINIONS
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Show Your Support By Learning About LGBTQ+ Issues and History
Pride started as a protest, and the Township of Langley’s removal of an LGBTQ+ flag shows that the fight is not over
Kyler Emerson | Contributor Half a century ago, Canada decriminalized homosexuality. In the 70s, Pride Week became a national LGBTQ+ event and Vancouver was one of two Canadian cities to first host an official parade. It was only in 2005 that same-sex couples gained the legal right to marry in Canada, making our country the fourth in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Just earlier this year the World Health Organization voted to remove “transgender” from its list of mental disorders. I live in the Township of Langley, and all month a woman in Aldergrove has had to deal with her pride flag being taken down. Twice the flag was stolen, but once it was taken from her private property by a township worker after they assumed the flag had been placed on public property. The worker returned it to her with an apology after she called to complain. In a CTV News Vancouver interview, the woman said, “I put it up because to me it represents Canada. It represents all people being equal and everything good about Canada and I am proud of the country we live in.” Her neighbour was told by the Township that the flag’s removal came in response to a phone call complaint. He said in an interview, “It was wrong for the [township] to act on such a phone call … that is total discrimination against the gay community.” Just two weeks ago, the Vancouver Sun reported that anti-Trans protestors, from the group Parents United Canada, were upset with the SOGI 123 program being implemented into
schools and were met by counter protestors at the Vancouver Art Gallery. SOGI 123 is a government program for primary and secondary schools designed to help teachers support LGBTQ+ students. The idea is to make LGBTQ+ students feel included and prevent bullying which targets a child’s sexuality or gender identity. These Parents United Canada members are spreading intolerance, which could encourage bullying towards young LGBTQ+ students who are already struggling with self-acceptance and acceptance within their communities. I believe that these parents are concerned that introducing this government-approved program to schools and teaching young students about the LGBTQ+ community will cause their children to question their identity and sexuality. I hope that’s the only place the parents are coming from. But this is only going to do more harm than good, and I think that it’s much safer for children to be exposed to the LGBTQ+ community than not. It’s safer for them to know that there are resources out there for them if they start questioning, or if they need to talk to someone. It’s reassuring for them to know they are not alone. Too many kids have grown up alienated by their friends and family. Too many kids have suffered simply for being who they are. We should educate them, and teach them that they do not have to go through it on their own. You don’t have to attend a protest or even go to the parade to show support, but you can read up on the history of LGBTQ+ rights and
The fight to protect LGBTQ+ rights in Canada is still ongoing.. (Flickr/ Dennis Sylvester Hurd) educate yourself on why people who identify as LGBTQ+ need to celebrate their identities. Support a friend that comes out to you. Don’t make jokes that target gay or trans people, and stop using derogatory terms towards members of the LGBTQ+ community.
My mother bought a pride flag the day she read about the one that was taken down in our neighbourhood, and it proudly hangs outside our front window for all to see. Pride started as a protest and our fight is not over.
Canada Will Finally Break Free from Relying on Single-Use Plastics
Trudeau’s plan to banish single-use plastics will have a net positive impact on the environment Nicole Gonzalez-Filos | Contributor Plastics are one of the many sources of pollution devaluing and poisoning our oceans, forests, and cities. Animals, including humans, suffer from the impact these materials have, but thankfully, on June 10, Trudeau announced a plan to ban all harmful single-use plastic items as early as 2021. These items include straws, bags, cutlery, cups, food containers, cotton swabs, drink stirrers, and more. Trudeau mentioned in his announcement that Canadians throw away $8 billion worth of plastic each year, and that much of it does not get recycled. Instead, the plastic ends up in landfills, where it could take hundreds or even thousands of years to decompose. Trudeau also mentioned that he didn't want his children to go to the beach and encounter straws, Styrofoam, or plastic bottles, and I am positive that many of us don’t want that for future generations either. Plus, it’s no secret that our oceans are drowning in plastic waste, and that aquatic debris has become one of the most harmful sources of pollution. What are the poor turtles going to think about us now? Probably that we are horrible creatures, which, in a way, we are!
But in spite of the positive environmental impact this policy will have, some small businesses will unfortunately suffer, as they tend to rely on single-use plastics. A recent CBC article mentions a small bubble tea shop that will have to adjust to using non-plastic cups and straws and adopt more expensive products made of paper, sugar cane, or rice. Although this can make financial matters more difficult for these types of businesses, changes like this will have tremendous benefits to our environment as long as we are willing and able to pay the extra penny for them. Plastics Today, an online plastics industry publication, challenged parts of the policy in a recent article posted on its website. According to the article, paper products are sometimes bleached with chlorine, which not only prevents them from being properly composted, but can also make them taste like chlorine. The article also mentions that paper cups and plates are usually coated in polyethylene or wax, which apparently makes them impossible to properly recycle. The article reads, “But if anyone in the Canadian government is astute enough to actually compare the manufacture of paper compared with plastics, there’s no doubt which product is more eco friendly and more
Single-use plastics, such as cups, straws, bags, and cutlery will soon be banned in Canada. (Kristen Frier) recyclable—plastic, of course!” Even if these claims are true, it will still be our job to make sure plastic gets recycled. If we don’t take care of it, who will? The Martians? I don’t think so.
Hopefully by 2021, all Canadians can move on from this plastic mania and break free from the chains of contamination. But meanwhile, let’s be more thoughtful and careful when recycling our plastics and help keep Canada clean.
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KPU COMMENTS
How Do You Connect with Nature? Interviews by Braden Klassen & Photos by Kristen Frier For many, taking a step away from the hectic and often overwhelming demands of urban life can help refresh our sense of emotional wellbeing.
Each KPU campus has its own little pockets of nature, like the farm school gardens in Richmond, the greenhouses in Langley, or the forested spaces in Surrey which, unfor-
tunately, have recently been cut back. Whether it’s spending time amidst the wildlife outside of the city limits or getting kneedeep into the soil of your own backyard garden,
Jennifer Reddington
Simranjeet Singh
Tanisha Bedi
“As soon as the days start getting longer, I start going for an early morning walk everyday. I camp a lot in the summer, and I try to get out in the sun as much as possible.”
“We go to the park grounds to play sports in the evening with our friends, or we go for evening walks over there. We go hiking on weekends in Squamish or other areas and I like the views there.”
“I don’t like littering in nature—if it’s recyclable I recycle it, and if it’s paper I throw it in the paper recycling. I’m working with Starbucks, so we go on staff huddles and stuff clearing forests and doing all kinds of stuff like that.
I like to volunteer for that, so that’s one way I connect with nature. I love nature. I love the beauty of nature.”
Akashdeep Singh
Toby Danyliuk “I connect with nature mostly by sitting outside and reading once in awhile, or I’ll play my video games and bring them outside. I just kind of sit outside with my guinea pig, otherwise I just kind of stay inside mostly.”
Divisional Business Manager, Student Services
2nd Year Business Administration
Sukhman Deep Kaur
2nd Year Business Management
2nd Year Health Science
2nd Year Business Administration
“I like nature, and I like photography also. I like to take pictures and admire nature. The background should be something green, and basically, I look at the focus in my picture and
I blur the background in portraits. We go on walks, and the park is near our home, and me and my friends go just to chill.”
“I have a garden and I want an animal, but my parents won’t allow me. Spending time in parks, it’s very refreshing. And I heard that the green colour is very good for your eyesight.”
Navpreet Rapai
Navneet Kaur
Lyn Benn
“I like going to the beach. I have a garden—a kitchen garden—and I have all types of vegetables. I’ve got spinach, tomatoes, chilies, and different kinds of flowers like roses in my backyard.”
“I’m fond of travelling so I go trucking sometimes—hiking, trucking and camping. This summer we went to Lynn Valley. It was really fun, and it was 19 kilometres up and down.”
“I’ve got my little flowerpots and veggie pots around. At the moment I have a chickadee nesting in one of my pots with four babies. When I think of connecting with
3rd Year Biology
2nd Year General Science
it’s interesting to learn each person’s unique way of spending quality time outdoors. This is why we asked people from the KPU community: How do you connect with nature?
4th Year History
Director of Student Development nature, it’s very sensory. Not only is it a visual experience, but it’s also my happy place for meditation.”
COLUMNS
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A Critical Affair: Canada’s Brand New Political Ad Registry Bill C-76 might help curb election interference, but voters still have a responsibility to inform themselves
Braden Klassen | Associate Editor Over the last five years or so, online platforms have introduced an inescapable, almost surreal level of uncertainty to political discussion. The advertising engines that drive Facebook’s and Google’s business models thrive on user engagement, and the more clicks an article receives or the more commenters a discussion involves, the more money is made through the ads the users are subjected to. This has led to a bit of an oversaturation in political content spread across social media, and because provocative ads are more likely to receive attention than genuinely informative ones, the algorithms that determine which ads are shown (and to whom) tend to promote messages that elicit strong feelings, usually along the lines of moral indignation and outrage. Society’s increased connection through the internet has helped shape political conflict into a much more accessible and popular media bloodsport, a ceaseless competition in which anybody can participate via the freefor-all arena of Twitter threads or Facebook comment sections. It’s the kind of public spectacle that captures people’s attention, and there are interested parties and businesses who stand to gain from manipulating the discussions in favour of one political party or ideology over the other. This is why, for years, the government and Elections Canada have expressed concern that this will cause huge problems for the democratic process. Their solution was to pass Bill C-76, which requires that online publication networks like CBC, Postmedia, and even Facebook create publicly accessible registries which identify individuals and groups who
buy ads that advocate for political candidates and parties. Over the internet, anonymity is power. Attempting to influence someone’s opinion without revealing the source of the message limits people’s ability to consider critical context about the topic, and it obscures the advertiser’s intentions. Critical thinkers know that in all advertising, especially political advertising, the people paying for the ads often matter as much as the ad content itself—sometimes more. Being able to influence the opinions of the electorate without revealing any information about the origin or affiliations of the ad-buyer creates a relationship wherein the anonymous person or group holds the power by protecting themselves from scrutiny. Entities that wouldn’t otherwise have representation in Canadian politics could have a disproportionate effect on the outcome of the election, essentially hijacking this country’s ability to fully inform itself in order to affect legislation down the road. Concerns over the ease with which fake news can spread and worries about foreign funding and influence have been daunting politicians and the public for a while, so this requirement makes sense, but it may not be enough. There have been instances of other countries or business interests already attempting to sway elections or take control of the wider political discourse, in ways that this new legislation will not be able to adequately address. For example, last year, a Chinese government-affiliated organization was subjected to an RCMP investigation due to allegations that the group was using social media app WeChat to urge people to vote for particular candidates in the Richmond mayoral election. In
(@RESLUS) February, a CBC analysis of millions of tweets revealed that Russia, Venezuela, and Iran were attempting to use social media to influence public discourse about the Trans Mountain pipeline and immigration. It’s a strong possibility that Bill C-76 will not be able to prevent similar tactics from being used, so people who truly care about the future of Canada and its politics should
make an effort to familiarize themselves with each party’s platform, think carefully about their promises, and consider the effects of their policy decisions. Reducing the ability for anonymous interests to buy ads online is necessary, but no amount of campaign regulation will ever replace an informed electorate armed with plain old critical thinking.
How to Respond to Hate in the Digital Age
Now that the internet can be a tool for radicalization, learning to recognize and confront hate is key
Breanna Himmelright Given Canada’s reputation as the nice, friendly neighbour to the U.S., one would be forgiven for believing that our country is immune to the rise of white nationalism that has occurred since Trump’s election. Sadly, this is not the case. For an article published just this April, the Globe and Mail sifted through 150,000 messages from a group chat composed of right-wing extremists throughout Canada—18 of whom were from B.C. These conversations took place between February 2017 and early 2018 on Discord, a text and voice app meant for gamers. The extremists disguised themselves and used coded language to hide the fact that they were discussing Nazism and boasting about acts of hatred that they had committed. Even sadder is the fact that the reach of the alt-right has gone far beyond online forums. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director David Vigneault said that the agency is increasingly preoccupied by the threat of rightwing extremism—a far cry from the ineffectual trolls that members of the far right were perceived to be back in 2014. In fact, today’s leaders of the far right are better educated, better organized, more affluent, more willing to adopt new, effective tactics to get their message across. So, how do we respond to an alt-right that
seems to hold all the best cards for spreading vitriol? The first and most important thing you can do when confronted with online hate is to know the laws surrounding it and understand your rights as a citizen. According to the Criminal Code, it’s against the law to advocate for genocide and publicly encourage or promote hatred against an “identifiable group.” Those found guilty of either offence can face anywhere from two to five years in prison. Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act forbids using telecommunications technologies like the internet to communicate messages that will expose people to hatred or contempt based on their race, place of origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or disability. However, it seems that this rarely stops members of the alt-right from committing their crimes. According to a report published in 2012 by MediaSmarts, the two most important things one can learn about dealing with hateful online interactions are learning how to recognize and decode hate, and how to confront or respond to it. Learning to recognize and decode hate is particularly important, as hate sites will often perpetuate rhetoric that revolves around the idea of the existence of “the Other.” They will claim that “the Other” is inferior to the site’s creator and is therefore dangerous, and that
(Thomas Buecking) those who created the site and the group they belong to are victims. When attempting to respond to hateful messages, it is important to remember that our history has affected how we see both ourselves and others, and to emphasize that the main purpose of raising issues surrounding race, gender, sexual orientation, and class is to promote justice and equality. If this doesn’t work, however, you can take note of the date and time that the hateful content was created and how you came across
it, and report it to the site administrator, an internet service provider, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, or the police. Building a hate-free environment is never an easy task, especially when anyone can find anything they want online. But there are three key components of a school or business free of hate: building empathy, promoting tolerance and diversity, and reminding everyone that outwardly hateful behaviour and rhetoric is, despite how it may seem, still quite rare in many parts of Canada.
PROCRASTINATION HOROSCOPES
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
This is not a salve, not a splint or a “God, it’s good to see you.” This is an itch at the end of everything. This is an ending.
This week you will be betrothed to a 300-year-old pirate ghost. It’ll be a sham marriage, but you’ll stay together for the benefits.
Your final words will go unheeded; your dying wish, unfulfilled.
Pisces
Aries
Taurus
They say you got brains, but those brains ain’t doing you no good.
This week you will perform a tracheotomy with a ballpoint pen. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Don’t call the gay cops on me. They will take away my license to gay and I need that for reasons that are too complicated to get into right now.
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
You will have a perfectly enjoyable weekend, confirming once and for all that we live in a failed timeline which has strayed spectacularly from God’s design.
You are a wicked person, brim-full of evil qualities. Your soul is polluted with every crime that could disgrace a man.
It’s time you evolve into your final form.
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
If you are rude to my alligator and he decides to bite you on the finger I will be disappointed in him, but I will also be disappointed in you for being rude to my alligator.
You will watch a friend of yours fall down, break wind, and split their pants. It will be a hilarious moment in an otherwise inconceivably bleak time of your life.
This is not a feel good poem. This is not feeling good. This is not a feeling. This is not a. This is not. This is. This. His. Is. I. .
Nov. 23 - Dec 21
Dec. 22 - Jan 20
Feb 20 - Mar 20
Jan 21 - Feb 19
Mar 21 - Apr 19
May 21 - Jun 20
Jun 21 - Jul 23
Sept 24 - Oct 23
Aug 24 - Sept 23
Apr 20 - May 20
Jul 24 - Aug 23
Oct 24 - Nov 22
CROSSWORD
SUDOKU
Look for the answers in the next issue of The Runner.