2 May 27, 2013 · Volume 144, Issue 4FIRST PEEK

C A N A D I A NCOMMUNITYNEWSPAPERAWARD 2013

I was born on St. Martin, a small colonial island in the Ca-ribbean Sea. My family lived on the French side of the island, with the west side being under Dutch control. My roots are French and Italian, but my par-ents had lived around the globe before meeting and settling down in St. Martin and popping me out into existence.

Tensions began to rise in neighboring islands however, due to poor living conditions, and locals began fighting for their independence. Adding into the mixture the constant stream of hurricanes every year, my family decided it was best to move and find a new place to call home.

At the age of 11, I found myself in a vast mountainous region lost in a small rocky mountain town in the heart of British Columbia. Environ-mentally I underwent a massive shift, coming from a tropical island surrounded by a warm ocean to being placed in a mys-tical snowy valley. I had never witnessed snow before my

arrival to Canada, and I soon grew to love the mountains and jumped into a variety of thrill-ing sports granted by the glori-ous peaks.

The Canadian culture was another factor that changed my life dramatically. In the Carib-bean, racism and poverty was much more prevalent, but peo-ple were disarmingly relaxed and content. I found that Can-ada has a much higher stan-dard of living, but people seem tenser.

Throughout my adolescence in Canada, I realized how ma-terialism and one’s image is an apparent factor in how individ-uals judged and treated you. I found this challenging to grasp at first, and had a hard time understanding why other kids would pick on me for my ap-pearance and the way I acted. But I soon adapted and became assimilated to the style of inter-actions and appearances in my small Canadian mountain town.

After I graduated from high school, I underwent four years of privileged Canadian univer-sity, and I took an interest in understanding my new home’s

rights and politics. I soon fell in love with the Canadian sys-tem and felt honoured to be a permanent resident of Canada. However, I’ve always felt Ca-nadians were a bit spoiled, for overlooking so many of the priv-ileges and freedoms granted to them. With that said. I loved the polite and easy going attitude of the endless people I met across the country.

I could not wait to become a true Canadian citizen, and 12 years after setting foot on this grandiose land, my parents and I finally applied for citizenship. Sixteen months later, we found ourselves swearing our oath to the Queen and being accepted with open arms by a country I grew to love and cherish.

This wonderful event hap-pened not even two weeks ago, and three days after, I was granted the one privilege I never had as a permanent resident — the opportunity to vote and help dictate which path my country would head in.

I had already spent half of my life in Canada before be-coming a full citizen. I felt a sense of identity within Canada. In fact, not much changed when becoming a full-fledged citizen, but on that day I truly felt I be-longed to Canada. It turned out to be an emotional event, and I was filled with joy after the cer-emony. I voted shortly after, and felt proud to be fully part of this diverse country and to call my-self a Canadian.

3FIRST PEEK

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May 27, 2013

4 news editor Alison Roach associate news editor email / phone news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560NEWS May 27, 2013

When Tourism Australia an-nounced they were holding a contest for six dream jobs, they received 620,000 applications from 196 countries. The most popular of the six positions was Chief Funster, with over 20 per cent of applications going for the position.

The Chief Funster job is a year-long position where the winner will review festivals and events, tweet and blog about their experiences, and be a “Sydney VIP,” all while get-ting paid to live and play in Australia.

Among all those hopefuls was Salina Sui, a 24-year-old SFU grad with a passion for social media, marketing, and event organization. Sui gradu-ated last October with a de-gree in business and a minor in publishing. “I took a lot of marketing classes, I took a so-cial media class, so that stuff helped me develop my skills for trying to run for Chief Funster,” said Sui.

Sui made it past the first two rounds of cuts in the competi-tion and into the top 25 before missing out on the top three. Two of the applicants still in the running are American, while the third is from the UK.

Applicants for the Chief Funster position were required to post a 30-second video in-troducing themselves and why

they were right for the job. Sui was told about the competition by a friend, and decided to give it a shot. “I obviously wanted to try, even though I didn’t want to get my hopes up because I was sure it was a very difficult com-petition, but I thought I would submit the video and see what happens,” Sui said with a laugh.

Sui herself has a YouTube channel, where she gives do-it-yourself tutorials on t-shirt

cutting and alterations, using only a pair of scissors. Sui ex-plained that she actually didn’t know much about YouTube be-fore she started, but noticed a lack in those type of videos and wanted to learn how to make videos herself.

Two years later, Sui has over 30 videos and 60,000 subscrib-ers internationally. “That was kind of the kickstart to me thinking ‘wow, social media can

do a lot.’ It’s really grown into a community,” she said.

The second round of the competition asked the remain-ing applicants to get as much PR and high-profile endorsements as possible in two weeks. “I had to write a press release, I had to get people to help me contact newspapers and try to get media appearances. That was really good experience for me, learn-ing about PR,” Sui explained.

Sui appeared on CTV, 104.9 SONiC radio station, the Global News website, and several local newspapers. She also man-aged to score endorsements from Global BC meteorologist Wesla Wong, and SFU President Andrew Petter, who created a video in support of Sui. “I’m re-ally glad we have such a great president who is willing to do silly things . . . Even though I’m an alumnus now too,” said Sui, “I never knew how fun he was!”

Even though Sui’s time in the contest has now ended, she isn’t going to let the op-portunity go to waste. “I got so many PR appearances that it’s definitely going to help me in the future. It’s going to help my portfolio, and it’s going to be online still. I’m really happy for that, for what I’ve accom-plished,” said Sui.

For now, Sui is focusing on her own projects back home. She’s currently working on a social media conference called “OMG Social Media,” along with fellow SFU students Les-ley Yuen, Cindy Cheng, Grace Yang, and Christina Buiza. The aim of the conference is to give small business owners who are not well-versed in social media an overview of what they need to know in a world of tweets and blogs.

The day-long event will be held on Aug. 15, at SFU Segal Graduate School of Business downtown, include speakers and experts on social media, and host 100 attendees.

Beyond that, Sui plans on continuing to grow her YouTube channel, and to plan for travel-ling in the future. “II definitely want to stay in social media and marketing because that’s my pas-sion, [and] I do definitely want to travel, even though I’m not going to be able to go on this trip,” Sui said. “I do one day hope to go to Australia, and see the world.”

5NEWS May 27, 2013

After the 2013 BC provincial elec-tion ended with a surprising Lib-eral victory, many are looking for something to blame the shock on, and landing on the polls.

Heading into campaigning, the BC Liberals were trailing the BC NDP by a significant 20 per cent, according to the Angus Reid poll, an online poll of 809 BC adults that found 48 per cent of decided voters were con-firmed or leading towards sup-porting the NDP.

However, in reality the BC Liberals — headed by Christy Clark — won a majority govern-ment on May 14, winning 44.4 per cent of the popular vote and 50 of the province’s 85 riding, in what CBC News called “one of the most remarkable politi-cal comebacks in the province’s history.”

The vast difference between the advanced polling predic-tions and the results have some pointing fingers at the polls themselves. Angus Reid himself — author of the popular Angus Reid poll and poller for CTV and The Globe and Mail — failed to predict the election results, but doesn’t believe the polls were wrong. His final poll on that Monday had the Liberals still trailing the NDP by nine per cent.

According to The Globe and Mail, Reid thinks the polls sim-ply missed the late Liberal surge, but did say, “I think there’s going to be a healthy skepticism for a while about polling. I don’t think the industry can completely dodge this one as it looks at try-ing to establish credibility going forward.”

Dr. Joti Samra, a clinical psy-chologist and adjunct psychol-ogy professor at SFU, says the disparity in the polls may have misled the voters themselves, and the message they were re-ceiving in the days and weeks

leading up to election day. Samra believes a phenomenon called diffusion of responsibility may

have discouraged voters from making it out on election day.

“When we’re place in

situations where there’s others involved and we perceive that others will be taking some kind of action toward an outcome, we tend to be less likely to adopt in-dividual kinds of responsibility,” Samra said in an interview with The Peak; “Our sense of individ-ual responsibility goes down as the size of the group goes up.”

Samra suspects that as the public was bombarded with the message of an imminent NDP win, many individuals perceived that their vote would not sway the election away from that outcome.

“People tend to be more likely

to take inaction, not necessarily because they’re apathetic about it, or they’re indifferent about

it, but because they think that there’s not going to be an impact of their particular behaviour,” Samra explained. She went on to

say that if the reports from the polls showed a closer election, the end result may have been different.

According to Samra, the way to mitigate the effect of diffu-sion of responsibility would be to qualify the messages that we hear in the media leading up to an election.

She concluded, “What needs to be underscored is that it’s a sample, it’s a prediction, and by definition that prediction is not perfect. It has the potential to be skewed by a number of factors, and we really have a real life ex-ample of that now.”

6 NEWS May 27, 2013

CUPE 3338 met with the univer-sity to continue bargaining for a new collective agreement sev-eral weeks ago, but according to the union, no tangible prog-ress was made. CUPE 3338 unit 1, represents approximately 1,000 university staff members in a range of different positions

such as library assistants, com-puter operators, store clerks, and others.

Even though the employ-ees’ current contract expired over three years ago, there has been little progress over nego-tiations. A CUPE press release quoted CUPE 3338 president Lynne Fowler as calling the university’s last offer “insult-ing.” And in an interview with Fowler, she described the nego-tiations as going “very slowly.”

According to CUPE, the “in-sulting” offer was 0.5 per cent pay increases in the last two years of a four-year agreement. The union claimed that the offer was 75 per cent less than staff wages doing the same jobs

at other BC universities.Although no new meeting

has been set up between the two parties as of print time, Fowler stated that this was primarily a result of schedul-ing conflicts. The university re-fused to comment on the nego-tiations; it is university policy to keep any comments private until an agreement is reached.

The last major labour event at SFU happened recently with the signing of a new collective agreement with CUPE 3338, unit 6 — the Teaching Support Staff Union. The university had been unsuccessfully fighting a bad faith bargaining ruling from the Labour Relations Board since January of this year.

7NEWS May 27, 2013

VANCOUVER (CUP) — After some BCIT students had prob-lems getting into master’s de-gree programs with their BCIT certification, the institution is now looking at becoming an ac-credited university.

Barry Hogan, BCIT’s senior director of program develop-ment, says the idea has not been pitched externally but there is talk of the institution’s need to make some changes when it comes to program recogni-tion across the country and in-ternationally — or becoming a university.

Hogan told The Link that when BCIT started in 1964 and likely through most of the 1980s, most of the graduates stayed in the Lower Mainland, but this

is not the case anymore. “Now everyone is more mobile and we’ve got graduates that are moving around and students that didn’t finish here want to apply their credits somewhere else,” he explained.

Paul Dangerfield, BCIT’s vice president of education, said the talks of BCIT becoming a uni-versity came up during discus-sion of the 2014 to 2019 strategic plan. Dangerfield said the idea was brought up informally over a decade ago. “It’s one of those topics that have been chatted about over the last probably 10

or 15 years at BCIT as other col-leges become universities,” he said.

Hogan said when BCIT was given degree-granting status in 1994, the only degree the insti-tution was allowed to issue was a Bachelor of Technology (B-Tech). The idea was brought up informally over a decade ago.

“We keep getting trapped by one of three buckets: we are not a university, we are not a part of the Association of Universities and Colleges Canada and peo-ple wondering, ‘What the heck is a B-Tech?’” said Dangerfield. The Association of Universities and Colleges Canada (AUCC) is an organization that repre-sents Canada’s colleges and universities.

There is no national accredi-tation in Canada, so one prov-ince may not necessarily know another province’s policies around accreditations, accord-ing to Hogan, and as a result of this lack of national accredita-tion, there are a few assump-tions that institutions tend to default to. For example, “. . . if

you’re a university, you must be better and if you’re a member of the AUCC,” said Hogan. “So, we’re getting the short end of the stick.”

Electrical engineering and technology student Harjinder Kandola told The Link that BCIT becoming a university would help eliminate prob-lems students face trying to transfer their BCIT credits to other institutions. “As far as the student perspective goes, I think it would be a really good idea — more so if it were to get recognition and accreditation from the

government,” said Kandola.Kandola personally has

looked into the idea of transfer-ring into a degree program at other institutions, only to realize he would have to take at least a semester of bridging courses in order to do so.

“That’s another semester or two down the drain and that’s kind of discouraging to say the least,” said Kandola.“If BCIT was a university I think the transi-tion to a degree program would be more straightforward, rather than taking a bridging program which kind of defeats the pur-pose of transferring in the first place.”

Dangerfield said the insti-tutions governance structure would not change if it were to become a university. “In our preliminary examination of this process, it appears BCIT would not have to change our current governance structure,” said Dangerfield.

As for the name of the insti-tution, it is not mandatory for it to change to BC University of Technology, or something to represent that it has changed to a university. Hogan said a name change is not appealing to the community because of the brand equity of the BCIT name.

The research is still in the very early stages, but Hogan speculates if BCIT does in fact become a university, it would be about a three year process.

MOTOR  VEHICLE  ACCIDENT

November  12,  2012  at  12:30  p.m.

We now have video of the above white Mercedes SUV forcing

a black Nissan into the centre median westbound on University Drive, west of Tower Road. The

Nissan knocked down a road sign before ending up in the ditch on

the southside of the road.

Would the driver of the Mercedes, or anyone with knowledge of this person, contact Chris Leck at 604-

8 opinions editor Tara Nykyforiakemail / phone opinions@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560May 27, 2013OPINIONS

Self-proclaimed “anarchists” have taken responsibility for the recent burning of a hous-ing development in Vancouver’s downtown Eastside, all in the name of anti-gentrification of the area. Aside from being im-mature and dangerous, this act benefits neither the anti-gen-trification movement, nor anar-chist philosophy.

The DTES Anti-Gentrifica-tion group has great intentions. Its members do not want to see the community of the area driven out in favour of expen-sive housing projects, stores, restaurants, etc. The people who live in this community de-serve to be treated as people, not run out by developers who put profit over their welfare. Of course, these folks realize the area needs to be changed, but they don’t want it done at the expense of these peoples’ well-being.

Anarchists, philosophi-cally, fit right into this side of the debate. The website which claimed responsibility for the attack, anarchistnews.org, claim they did so “for a world where no one is homeless, has-sled by police, the state or capi-talists.” But attacks like these aren’t promoting equality. Yes, they prove that people are upset about gentrification in the area, and yes, they might cause fear in the real estate developers that perhaps could be called re-sponsible for the problem.

However, the violence of this act simply creates a divide be-tween these people and every-one else. The businessmen, the police, and the general public won’t see a reason to believe in anti-gentrification, nor in anar-chy; they will simply see people who purport a belief that ap-pears to be based on violence.

Creating a divide is most of what this accomplishes, and such a divide between people does not help the political ide-ology of anarchy. Setting fire to a developing housing com-plex does not fight the egos that make people in a capitalist

system put monetary profit over respecting people.

These attackers appear en-gulfed in similar mindsets: set-ting this fire seems more about being right than standing up for their beliefs, more about fight-ing an enemy than making their own perspectives known to the “capitalists,” or, in this particu-lar case, “yuppies.” Fighting the people inside a system is hardly taking a stand against that sys-tem itself. It is not changing the minds of those within it, but is doing just the opposite

by creating more strongly set opinions on either side, and a stronger divide between the two groups.

My argument here reminds me of one that bothered a friend of mine who protested at a neo-nazi rally. He was upset by a “hippie” proclaiming that even just shouting at the racist par-ticipants was merely fighting violence with another form of violence, which ultimately leads nowhere. My friend was upset that the man was using a philo-sophical debate which wouldn’t solve the immediate problem (the individuals whose rallying projected hatred).

I feel I’ve taken the philo-sophical side of the “hippie” — the one that points fingers, that complains, and that can’t offer practical solutions. But I, too, see the need for immediate protestation when neo-nazis, or in this case, gentrification, is

endangering people’s livelihoods and stripping them of respect.

A violent one like this though, does more bad than good. It widens the gap between

the protestors and the general public, and brings people fur-ther from the real issues while adding nothing to the debate at hand.

9OPINIONS May 27, 2013

IT’S TIME TO VOTE!Voting for the summer semester Web Producer is currently underway. If your name has appeared in the masthead of at least two of the last five issues, you are eligible to vote, and your ballot will be sent to your e-mail. The voting period ends at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29. If you are eligible to vote and have not received a ballot, contact coordinating@the-peak.ca. Additionally, a new Col-lective Representative is needed on the Peak Board of Directors. If you are eli-gible to vote in editor elec-tions, you are also eligible to run for this position. The vote will occur at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 5 in MBC 2900; contact coor-dinating@the-peak.ca for more details.

Unlike our melting pot neighbours to the south, Canada prides itself on being a mosaic — on celebrating a myriad of cultures from around the world. Our country’s diversity is well reflected in SFU’s student body, and by its various ethnic-based clubs. However, organization based on ethnicity walks a fine line between camaraderie and exclusion.

At SFU, students are given a wide variety of ethnic-based clubs to choose from. Perhaps the Ko-rean Storm (K.STORM), a not-for-profit student group aiming to promote the Korean culture to all students from all nations, is the right fit. Maybe it’s the Pakistan Stu-dents Association, which promotes Pakistani culture, cuisine, and way of life while advocating multi-cul-turalism at SFU. Or it could be the Canadianized Asian Club, where Canadians of Asian heritage aim to promote Asian-cultural awareness to all students on campus.

Such clubs are important for students for multiple reasons. First of all, it can be difficult to engage SFU when you’re not interested in things such as cheerleading, writ-ing, or gaming. Ethnic clubs pro-vide students with the opportu-nity to join a network of students and gain support and friendship

without having to latch onto a par-ticular interest.

Second, being with people from similar ethnic backgrounds can help international students who may feel overwhelmed in a new country. Having a break from English by speaking your mother tongue, or just being with friends who have similar beliefs and who face likewise challenges, can be ex-tremely valuable.

Finally, by sharing their heritage with other SFU students, ethnic-based clubs can create a spirit of multiculturalism and acceptance on campus.

However, this kind of club can do the exact opposite if it doesn’t act as a bridge to the rest of the community. Instead of sharing its culture, it becomes a social club — a group of people hanging out because they’re ethnically similar, not because they necessarily have shared interests.

There is definitely a place at SFU for ethnic-based clubs. In an increasingly homogenized world, diversity is becoming even more sacred, and should be celebrated. But an ethnic-based club loses its purpose if it fails to do just that: celebrate its heritage.

When a club appeals to mem-bers of a certain ethnicity or race, its intention should stem from this. For example, the purpose of a Canadianized Asian Club, mem-bers of which are mainly second or third generation Canadians, should be (at least in part) to look back to the values of their old culture and explore their past. It should not simply be about throw-ing events, however charitable or

noble they may be.While the merits of a club sup-

porting friendship and engage-ment are admirable, labelling it as an ethnic club is unnecessarily isolating. Therefore, a choice must be made: Does a club remain eth-nic-based and try to promote and share its heritage with the SFU community, or does it transform into a social club, removing ethnic labels from its title that might — even unintentionally — exclude other students?

There is only so much you can learn and experience by hanging out with people from a similar

background. Sure, it’s a safe zone, but university is all about explo-ration and discovery. This being said, it is not solely the respon-sibility of ethnic-based clubs to reach out. SFU students have to respond to and engage with these clubs themselves.

It can be easy, especially for the cultural majority, to dismiss the importance of belonging when surrounded by people of similar heritage. Taking the initia-tive to cross the floor and engage these groups is the next logical step in the evolution of ethnic clubs and culture at SFU.

The vast majority of the time, the work we do as students does nothing but get us a

grade. Some amazing research happens in universities, but for the most part, few people outside the university set-ting appreciate it. Education does not have to be like this; it should not be like this.

One way of shaping your degree into something that more directly reflects your own interests and aspirations is to literally design your own

course through the under-utilized Directed Studies op-tions. Students often com-plain about how irrelevant their course material will be once they’ve obtained their degree. It’s true that hav-ing a well-rounded degree is crucial, but that doesn’t make taking courses that don’t interest you any more palatable.

To start, you have to come up with a plan for what your perfect course would look like. In order to implement this, you then approach a pro-fessor who you think would be willing to supervise you. Assuming they agree, you

s is often the case given an ar-ticle on this subject, I should preface it by stating that I did vote in the recently completed Provincial elections — though

I neglected to update my Facebook sta-tus accordingly — before settling down on my couch to gaze in abject disbelief as the Liberals made off with an abso-lute landslide at the polls. The resultant beating was so thorough that it cast into doubt whether the outcome was actu-ally an upset at all; the underdog rarely crushes the Goliath in such a devastat-ing manner, so maybe we were simply misled by some shadowy Liberal-poll-ster conspiracy all along.

Given the events, politically bent minds within the media, social media and blogosphere erupted in a series of frenzied questions targeted at digging out the buried truth; specifically “What the hell happened?” A number of valid concerns regarding campaign strategies were raised by an array of sources, but the quickest point to catch on was the once again abject voter turnout. More significantly was the absolute void of eligible voters under the age of 35 who apparently had far better things to do than show up to the polls to perform their civic duty.

Public nattering has been palpable, and has easily stolen the thunder from Clark’s thunderous win. The venomous reaction targeted towards young voters has been swift and merciless, almost to the point of sheer mockery. Busier cate-gorizing youths as lazy, slovenly, ineffec-tual primitives with little or no connec-tion to the important events of the day, these cackling condemnations rarely made any headway into questioning why voter turnout was so low, preferring to scribble with a broad pen. Sadly, this blanket “Why the hell aren’t you voting? What’s wrong with you people?” mental-ity has sprouted legs everywhere, even University newspapers.

The Peak itself published two articles last week that commented on voter apa-thy in tones varnished with eloquence but seething with pure bile and pre-sumed civic outrage. “Instead of direct-ing anger at those who opted to vote for one of the smaller parties, blame should be rightfully placed on the shoulders of those who elected not to cast a ballot” fumed Gloria Mellesmoen, while trying to allocate blame for the Liberal win.

Alison Roach, of the same paper and apparent doomsayer apostle, sighed “Overall, the election seems to be saying that BC doesn’t care much about change; or rather, that we don’t care much about any of this.” In scrawling through mes-sage boards and comment threads on various websites, multiple commenters appeared to come up with variations on the same brilliant joke independently

(“We should put a Like button next to each candidate on Facebook, maybe the kids could vote between status up-dates!”) while laughing churlishly, wip-ing their monocles and sipping on cups of not-too-hot tea.

Voter participation has been on a downward trend in BC for a number of years, so allow me to immerse you in a few more (fun!) facts and figures by way of Elections BC. While numbers for the most recent election are still not fully available, overall voter participa-tion (across all age groups) has declined from 70.34 per cent in 1983 to 50.99 per cent in 2009, falling every year. In the 2009 general election, an abysmal 26.88 per cent of voters between the ages of 18 and 24 decided to cast a ballot (25–34 year olds won the silver in this dubious

category, logging votes from only 33.69 per cent of all those eligible.) So why the apathy with young voters?

First of all, let’s stop pretending that this affliction is limited to youth in BC. During their presidential elec-tion in 2012, the US grappled with the same issues despite record turnouts in 2008. Disaffection in Japan has reached a modern high as fewer than 50 per cent of young voters turned out in their De-cember 2012 election.

In an excellent article published in ThinkAfrica Press in October 2011, Ce-leste Hicks interviewed young adults in Tunisia with higher educations, who “tearfully clutched” at their diplomas as they bemoaned the state of their job market in the aftermath of the Jasmine Revolution. “I’ve got no confidence

in these elections at all. I’m not going to vote” proclaimed 26 year old Neila Herela, qualified in publicity and mar-keting but living on the street.

For the sake of our discussion how-ever, let’s limit our focus to the so-called infotainment addicted, attention-span-compromised youth of BC who are at-tached by the hip, heart and mind to their smartphones. Truly, if you are a young voter, there is very rarely any good reason provided to actually impel you to vote, despite the proclamations of those voting-snobs out there who thumb their noses as they rifle off inane lines of dig-nified disbelief that do nothing to get at the real heart of the issue — “If you do not vote you don’t get to complain about decisions made in government;” “there are people out there your age dying for

82.6%Canada

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the right to vote;” “show these crusty old politicians that you matter and make your voice heard!” — let’s address the first and last comments first.

An individual’s voice is not nul-lified just because they don’t exercise their right to participate in a demo-cratic forum. Often those who decide not to vote feel marginalized, as if their thoughts already don’t matter to the out-come. By adopting such a divisive tactic, we further drive those individuals out of the social arena without addressing why they feel their voices carry no timbre.

Furthermore, a selective decision to not vote can be made as a form of silent protest. I say that because I have done it in the past. Why vote for a party you con-sider the lesser of two evils? A party that does not represent your moral, economic

or social viewpoints? A vote cast for the sake of voting by an uneducated indi-vidual with only the most basic under-standing of a party’s platforms is, by this ridiculous statement, elevated as much grander than an individual who exercised their own choice to sit out an election — a vote in and of itself.

In a sense, this resounding echo heard by those politicians vanquished in an election is the voice of the people. In an election where less than 30 per cent of the eligible members voted, that is a loud bloody noise.

As far as kids our age dying for this right, that is an indisputable truth. One needs only to flip open a newspaper and cast a glance at the atrocities committed in Syria to witness the plight of the dis-enfranchised. However, just as it would

be impossible for us to explain the inter-net to a cryogenically frozen and revived Walt Disney today, it is impossible to communicate that viewpoint to a youth who has grown up in North America with all the benefits of a free and mod-ern society. Individuals here need to be reached with a message that they un-derstand. One which is sadly absent in politics today: passion.

Paul Kershaw aptly labeled the Mil-lennial generation when he founded the Generation Squeeze campaign. His driving point is simple: parties in power don’t feel the need to court the youth vote because the youth vote doesn’t af-fect campaign results. As a result, the youth stay away from the polls because public policy is rarely shaped in a man-ner that affects them. And because they

stay away, they are not counted. It is an absurd cycle that most poli-

ticians appear uninterested in break-ing despite the ridiculously vast pool of untapped voters that they are allowing to fall by the wayside (ask Obama how much the youth vote helped his 2008 campaign before you claim that an in-vestment in this age group is a waste of time.) Public policy is almost invariably catered to middle class earners, families and older people. Individuals trying to afford school or crack the job market are routinely ignored by lawmakers, yet our taxes are diverted to fund social systems for people already of retirement age who, in today’s economic reality, cannot afford to leave their jobs.

This creates a simultaneous shortage of opportunities and support systems for those much maligned and chastised youth. We get squeezed at the pump by an uncaring and distant government, and are castigated when we choose not to elect one that continues to pretend we don’t exist.

Furthermore, the current political system has bred an enormous disconnect between government and the average working and voting Canadian. Politicians are no longer feted on high as honour-able civil servants, but viewed as walking scandals, punchlines and pompous gas-bags squabbling amongst one another in an environment that breeds compla-cency and reduced accountability. Politi-cal viewpoints and party outlines are no longer a means to an open and pragmatic discussion of views in the interest of pro-vincial and national agendas.

Every event, idea or platform is po-liticized in an endless display of exhaust-ing one-upmanship and chicanery that means nothing to the voting public. Very little information about important and vital social programs ever seeps down the ladder to the information starved masses; instead, we are deluged by vulgar attacks on candidates by candidates.

Is it any wonder that 18–24 year olds (every marketing analyst’s indica-tor of broad population trends) are tun-ing out in droves? Here’s a crazy idea: maybe Adrian Dix didn’t lose the un-losable election because youth voters didn’t turn out. Maybe he lost it be-cause he centered his entire campaign on attacking the bloated and hobbling Liberal government without discussing what his own party would do while in power. Maybe he was unable to allay voters’ fears about the disastrous NDP governments of the 90s, an attack line the Liberals have trotted out in every single election over the last twelve years.

In a rant on March 29, 2011, Rick Mer-cer personified the patronizing and pa-ternalistic viewpoint of an older genera-tion nonplussed by youth apathy, when he beseeched young people to “scare the hell out of the people running this coun-try [by doing] the unexpected. Take 20 minutes out of your day, and vote.” There is no compelling reason or passion in that statement. Vote because it’s your job. Vote because you should vote. Vote be-cause increased polling numbers makes us all feel better about ourselves.

But how about vote to effect an ac-tual change? That won’t happen until a candidate arises that commands that passion. Instead of going to your local candidate hat in hand, offering your feeble support, demand your candidate comes to you, and illustrate why they deserve your vote. That tactic may actu-ally bring some real change.

47.7%

United States

47.7%

United States

56.6%Russia

68.7%

Japan80.2%Germany

67.3%

Italy m

12 OPINIONS May 27, 2013

What’s that saying, again? The early bird gets the worm? That’s right, you’re the bird, and that gi-normous, never ending list of er-rands and homework is that dis-gusting ‘lil worm that follows you wherever you go. Getting up early does suck, but all your hard work and triumph makes it worth it, especially if it means you have the entire evening to spend with

just you and a bottle of whatever tickles your fancy. With a full day behind you, the night truly is yours for the taking, and by God, you’ve earned it. So here’s a toast to you, you productive person — drink up and enjoy! I’ll just be sitting here eyeing you from the corner as I plug away in panic mode and cursing myself for not being more productive today.

The sun’s shining in the sky, the birds are singing in the trees. What a marvelous day to get out there and do stuff! But wait — you were so productive yesterday that you don’t really have anything to do today. Seri-ously, you couldn’t have at least spared yourself a couple things to accomplish? Now you’re just going to have to make work

for yourself all day long, and maybe even clean your room and make your bed to boot — when was the last time you ac-tually made your bed? It’s that feeling you get during the last couple days of a vacation, when you’re itching to have genuine tasks to perform again. But hey, that’s what you get for being such a keener yesterday.

simply fill out the paperwork required by your department and go from there.

Maybe you already know of a community group that you could approach, and then re-late their research or project request to your degree. If you can find a professor who will support you, that project could be the basis of your directed studies course.

If you don’t know what group you could do it for, there are campus resources you could check out, such as SFPIRG’s Action Research eX-change (ARX) program. Com-munity social and environ-mental justice groups submit a project proposal for assistance and interested students can then browse the ARX listings and apply for the opportunity.

As an undergraduate, Jen-nifer McRae pursued three directed studies courses. She wanted to have more auton-omy to further research areas of interest not covered within

her department’s courses. Through directed studies, she was able to co-author two book reviews with a profes-sor, both of which were sub-sequently published in a well-known academic journal.

Another one of these

courses led to her current em-ployment position as a project coordination in the Experien-tial Education Project for SFU, a position she has held for the past two and a half years.

As students, we spend a huge part of our lives at school and doing school-related activ-ities with hopes that our efforts will matter one day. However, it is worth questioning the notion

that we have nothing to offer right now and that we cannot be relevant to our communities until we graduate. Students are capable of all kinds of contribu-tions and it feels better to put energy and time into a project when you know it actually mat-ters to someone.

Because job-readiness is a real issue, it is also worth pointing out that this kind of engaged project really does look good on a resume. In to-day’s competitive job market, creativity, independence and ingenuity are highly valued, and completion of a directed studies course, particularly one that involves real work in the community, can only help you to stand out when it comes to applying for your dream job.

Getting our degree is a tre-mendous commitment of time and energy, so why shouldn’t we make the most of it? There are lots of ways that we can really engage with our studies, and directed studies courses are one excellent tool for tak-ing charge of our university experience.

13arts editor Daryn Wrightemail / phone arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560ARTS May 27, 2013

Jack Tatum’s work under his Wild Nothing moniker has never inspired descriptions of experimental or game-changing. Despite his idolization of Berlin-era Bowie, The Cure and Brian Eno, all of whom had a hand in building the foundations of their own genres, Tatum’s summery dream pop has never aspired to upset the sta-tus quo: his strength lies in economic, accessible pop, and both of his full-lengths — 2010’s Gemini and 2012’s Nocturne — have found the perfect balance between catchy hooks and nostalgia-laden instrumentation.

With Empty Estate EP, Tatum has adopted a more electronic-oriented sound: Where his synths once filled the empty space between jangling gui-tars and his thin, Jim Reid-voice, Ta-tum’s newest EP is built around a core

of sweet, synthesized melodies.“On Guyot” and “Hachiko” mark

Tatum’s first attempt at instrumental pieces, and although neither comes off as a strong point in the EP, both speak to Tatum’s growing talent for sonic landscapes — we’re sure to see him try his hand at more ambient music-inspired tracks in the future.

Disco-inspired single “A Dancing Shell” and groovy opener “The Body in Rainfall” are Tatum at his exuber-ant best, incorporating his new fasci-nation with electronica into typically Wild Nothing-style pop songs. Empty Estate EP also comes off as Tatum’s most cohesive work to date; Tracks bleed into one another and seem to take cues from each other, making the EP an engrossing, singular listening experience.

As a format, the Extended Play is underrated. As often as it’s used as an excuse to release B-sides or tracks left on the cutting room floor, artists use the format to push the boundar-ies, to test out new styles of musicality to a less expectant audience. Although Empty Estate EP’s high-water mark is below that of either of his previ-ous full-lengths, Tatum’s bold stylistic shifts and experimental bent speak to his growth as a songwriter, and cer-tainly raise the bar for his eventual third LP.

Talking Heads are easy to mistake as being grounded by a frontman / backing band dynamic. Lead singer and guitarist David

Byrne earns more than his fair share of the spotlight in retrospectives of the band’s de-cade-long career: his erratic vocals, abstract lyrics and frenzied dance moves have im-mortalized him as one of the most remark-able leading men in rock music history.

Released in 1980, Remain in Light was born out of the band’s desire to emanci-pate themselves from this short-sighted classification. Percussive, polyrhythmic and playfully experimental, the songs on the LP each began as heavily improvised jam sessions. Whereas on earlier albums, Byrne had retained creative control, here he shelved his ego in favour of bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz’s burgeoning fascination with native Haitian percussion styles

The two — who had been married since the band’s inception — had vaca-tioned in the Caribbean following the release of 1979‘s Fear of Music, vexed by Byrne’s creative dominance. Their leave of absence inspired them to purchase an apartment in the Bahamas, where Byrne and guitarist Jerry Harrison soon rejoined

them. Under the guidance of producer Brian Eno, the band combined their new, collaborative songwriting style with instru-mental loops and samples which, at the time of the album’s release, seemed posi-tively futuristic.

Byrne’s vocals were never stronger dur-ing the Heads’ tenure: his typically dis-tinctive lyrics are shouted, chanted, and even rapped throughout the album’s eight tracks. Weymouth and Frantz are perfectly in sync; The bass and drums are mixed into the foreground of songs like “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” and single “Once In a Lifetime,” giving the album a swaggering, danceable quality that never undermin es its brilliance.

Though Remain in Light catches the band between its punk rock roots and its adoption of the New Wave aesthetic, the Heads never sounded more assured or in-novative. In a decade that would come to be defined by superficiality and inanity, Re-main in Light is a shining beacon, the best album by a band that was never more ex-ceptional than when they worked together.

The easiest reviews to write are al-ways the ones fueled by intensity, by passion, by that indescribable feeling of having something worth writing about. However, with ...Like Clockwork, the new album from Josh Homme’s alternative rock collective, Queens of the Stone Age, inspires no such feeling. It’s not bad, maybe that’s the problem. It’s not great, either, and it certainly doesn’t reach the lustful, grungy highs of the Songs for the Deaf or Lullabies to Paralyze.

Adopting an overarching theme of desperation and misguided lust, the 10 songs on ...Like Clockwork see Homme imagining himself as several different animals, rueing the ephem-eral nature of love, and balancing the theatrical (Elton John-featur-ing “Fairweather Friends”) with the

bleak (album opener “Keep Your Eyes Peeled”).

As per usual, Dave Grohl’s drum-ming is incredibly tight — it’s easy to forget that his real talent is behind the kit, not the mic — and usual sus-pects Troy Van Leeuwen and Michael Schuman are in fine form here.

There’s a positive correlation be-tween the volume of Homme’s voice and its quality, slower, sparser tracks like “Kalopsia” and album closer “...Like Clockwork” fall flat. On the other hand, early single “My God is the Sun” and “I Appear Missing” are album highlights, recalling the seduc-tive, murky stoner rock of the group’s earlier albums.

The lyrics are unremarkable, but rarely distract. Homme’s refrain of “Does anyone ever get this right?” at the album’s beginning seems to refer to his lack of conviction, which co-lours the album even during its stron-gest moments.

Homme, who is spread thin as a part-time member of Them Crooked Vultures and Eagles of Death Metal, just doesn’t seem to have his heart in it; ...Like Clockwork sounds more like an obligation than a labour of love. “Most of what you see, my dear / Is purely for show”, he sings on “...Like Clockwork,” and although many mo-ments on the album don’t ring true, this one certainly does.

14 ARTS May 27, 2013

15ARTS May 27, 2013

16 ARTS May 27, 2013

On May 27, The Acorn chef Brian Skinner will be cook-ing at Edible Canada as part of a Guest Chef Market Din-ner series. Guests will be able to enjoy a multi-course sea-sonal dinner paired with spe-cial wines. Skinner will talk a bit about his use of vegetables and how to treat them with care. And if you can’t make it to this event but are interested in Skinner’s artisanal and deli-cious use of vegetables, you should definitely head over to Main St. and check out The Acorn very soon.

Christopher Smith and In Medias Res will be taking the stage at the Biltmore Cabaret this Thursday May 30. Christopher Smith is a Vancouver local with alter-native indie rock sounds, sharing the night with In Medias Res, another note-worthy local group. If Christopher Smith and In Medias Res were wine and cheese, they’d be perfectly paired; as musicians, the two acts complement each other in their ambient, and sometimes experimental styles. It’s definitely a night of Vancouver music that is not to be missed.

Strange Magic: The Films of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder is running until June 24 at The Cinematheque. This film series highlights the Golden Age of Film, the pe-riod between 1929 and 1959. The stylistic devices and nar-rative techniques developed during this era have remained influential for cinematic art forms to come. Some films being shown include Ni-notchka directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Ball of Fire starring Barbara Stanwyck, and Mid-night directed by Mitchell Leisen.

This Thursday, May 30, BookThug presents the Vancouver launch of Kim Minkus’ Tuft and Stephen Collis’ The Red Album at People’s Co-op Bookstore. Minkus’ poetry considers the future and challenges us to “observe the green elite” and “iceplants bloom in the monotony of paved paths.” Collis, who is an English professor at SFU, launches his first novel, which questions historical authenticity and author-ity. Divided into two parts, The Red Album begins with narrative and ends with a section of documents, including essays, mem-oirs, a short play and a filmography.

The Vancouver Chinatown Night Market is back! Run-ning now until Sept. 8, with an opening night on June 1, stop by on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Located on Keefer St. between Main and Columbia, this year’s market is going to see a bit of a face-lift: with a mix of old and new, imports and originals, and mainstream and hand-made, the market has something to offer almost everyone. Some vendors include China Cloud (jewelery and art), Duchesse Vintage (clothing and home-ware), Community Thrift and Vintage (sunglasses), Mellifera Bees (artisanal honey) and much more.

a b o u t

17DIVERSIONS / ETC May 27, 2013

Across

1- Remove by melt-ing7- Small batteries10- Rooster14- Fit with clothes15- Tear16- Actress Heche17- Birthplace of St. Francis18- Grounded bird19- It’s a gas20- Peculiarity23- Yoga posture26- Aussie hopper27- Port of Crete28- Nothing special29- Gallery display30- Monetary unit of Japan31- Highest singing voice in women33- Sleep stage34- Capote, to friends37- Hot time in Paris38- Latin word which means “for every”39- Neighbour of Mexico40- Hi-___41- Thesaurus wd.42- Surgery sites, briefly43- Below45- Menu words46- Air rifle ammo47- Romeo’s last words48- Alloy of iron and carbon51- Enemy52- Villain’s look53- Aghast56- Ballerina Pavlova57- ABA member58- Black magic62- What’s left63- Impresario Hurok64- Add vitamins to flour, e.g.

65- Ferrara family66- Copycat67- Trojan War hero; Down

1- Loss leader?2- ___-relief3- Fleur-de-___4- Person who trans-fers property5- Puccini opera6- Slang expert Par-

tridge7- Playground retort8- We ___ please9- Boot attachment10- High-kicking dance11- ___ a million12- Benjamin13- Nairobi’s nation21- Mistakes22- Person with a cool job?23- Beasts of burden

24- Like a smokestack25- Colorado resort29- The end of ___30- Approvals32- Ancient Greek god33- Eraser34- Commerce35- Knot again36- Doorkeeper44- Primitive form of wheat45- Add fizz46- Liquid container

48- Apportion49- Musical sounds50- Dadaist Max51- Camera setting52- Biscuitlike quick bread54- Tabula ___55- Eye layer59- Become an ex-parrot?60- South American tuber61- Surprised cries

18 humour editor Brad McLeodemail / phone humour@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560HUMOUR May 27, 2013

JOIN THE CLUB is a feature that highlights SFU’s lesser known clubs and non-existent organizations.

is best paired with a glass of 2002 Louis Jadot Chardonnay, or any other alcohol. One in every 24 temporary tattoos is actually permanent.

Gout on Campus is a group of students, faculty, alumni and allies working together to reduce discrimination and increase awareness about gout, podagra and other inflammatory arthritic diseases. The organization is committed to ensuring that students with gout are free to be open about their blood’s high uric acid levels and hope to provide a safe environment where they can be proud about their inflated big toes.

At Burnaby Mountain Toastmakers, students can learn how to communicate, improve their public speaking skills, make friends — but mostly they just learn how to make a really good piece of toast. Toaster settings, browning techniques . . . the Burnaby Mountain Toastmakers is a club dedicated to the perfection of the most boring part of breakfast.

The Free Tibet Club is SFU’s home for Tibetan rights and campaigns related to recognition of Tibet as a sovereign, self-determining nation.

The SFSS does not currently recognize this club. If you have any inquiries take it up with Chinese Debate Society.

19May 27, 2013HUMOUR

Blogger Bifocals

McAfee Safety Goggles

Craigs list Used Google Glass

Linkedin Telescope

20 LAST WORD features editor Rachel Braeueremail / phone features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560 May 27, 2013

f there’s a tape of a shady politician smoking crack, I want to see it. As a writ-ing plebe, when people like Rob Ford try to divert millions of dollars from AIDS prevention because “if you’re not doing needles or you’re not gay,” as he alleges, you won’t get AIDS; or state that oriental

people work like dogs, “sleeping beside their machines,” ergo they’re more successful, there’s little to nothing that I or anyone like me can do besides bang out a few vitriolic words and hope to inform more people and inspire them to care.

Still, it’s heavy and hard work, and at the end of the day, it doesn’t change anything. And then these people do something like (allegedly) smoke a crack pipe on film. For a day, they’re your assistant. They did all the heavy lifting for you, and now you can watch the video and laugh maniacally in all your well-deserved schadenfreude glory. But am I willing to spend my own money for this pleasure, and should I even have to?

Crowdfunding is becoming an increas-ingly popular way for creative-types to make a go at it in a world where, up until 20 years ago, consumers could be happily removed from the process the goods they consume go through to get to them, and more im-portantly from the producers, whether we’re talking about the illegal immigrant trafficked into Canada to work on a farm in the valley that our blueberries come from, or the singer behind our latest favourite song.

Cue the internet: individuals who we would only have a hope of really getting to know after a stunning rise to fame, chron-icled in Rolling Stone after their second

successful world tour, we now know on a very personal level. Amanda Palmer is argu-ably the most successful crowdfunded artist of our time, attributing her success to focus-ing on the give and take of a relationship defined by monetary exchange.

The give, on her part, seems to be equal parts music and a controlled yet voyeuris-tic look into her life through a commitment to connecting with fans via social media. When she cancels a tour, we don’t get a hol-low press release about family health and a

wish for privacy. She tells us her friend has cancer on her blog, offering us real emotions behind her choice, posting pictures from the hospital, humanizing her celebrity. We seem to appreciate this, as we’ve collectively given her over $1.2 million.

The people behind Ford’s crack-tape are no Amanda Palmers, though. The person or people holding on to the alleged tape and asking for the hefty $200, 000 investment are (again, allegedly) drug dealers. While I was initially prepared to fork over at least

$20, after realizing this, I hit pause. Not that I haven’t, uh, funded local hydroponic ef-forts ever, just that helping to give $200k to someone who probably sells crack cocaine is a pretty dark cloud, even if the silver lining is roasting a pig of epic proportions. Many have brought up this same issue, saying there are much more worthwhile endeav-ours to donate to. “There are starving chil-dren in China!” they bellow, before picking through the “Made in Bangladesh” discount piles of Joe Fresh clothing at Superstore.

Naysayers aren’t wrong, but in a world with such nefarious ethics, define right. It’s clear that governing bodies aren’t going to hold public figures accountable for their ac-tions. A former police officer has stated that the purchase of the tape itself poses interest-ing legal issues surrounding the proceeds of crime and money laundering sections of the Criminal Code. What about the legality of someone purchasing and smoking crack co-caine? Last time I checked, that was still, un-questionably, illegal. Proof allegedly exists,

but instead of confirming the validity of this and holding people accountable, we’re pon-tificating about questionably ethical, maybe illegal activity that hasn’t happened yet.

Gawker, the media conglomerate that wants to raise funds to buy the tape, is a gos-sip blog geared towards entertainment. It’s understandable why people would have a hard time taking them seriously. But other, more highbrow, media outlets don’t seem any less suspect when it comes to fair reporting.

In an interview with Jian Ghomeshi, Conrad Black, who headed the third-largest newspaper group in the world, character-ized the recent scandal in the PM’s office sur-rounding a $90, 000 personal cheque being used to divert attention away from a poten-tial misuse of Government funds as a friend looking out for another friend. By this logic, if the crack-tape exists, we can just write it off as Ford supporting local small business own-ers, I guess.

It’s a sad day when the public has to spend their own income, the taxes from which pay for Ford’s habits (whether they’re late night trips to McDonalds or to his deal-ers), to hold public figures such as him ac-countable. While we choose to fund individu-als like Palmer, or efforts like Kony 2012 or even the crack-tape purchase, we, via proxy, fund politician’s illegal activities whether we like it or not.

Given the passionate response to this scandal and others like it by those who could actually do something about it, it’s clear that whether we’re it comes directly from2 our pockets or elsewhere, of our own volition or not, we’re going to be paying for it.