langara voice - march 26th 2015
DESCRIPTION
Vol.47 No.24 - Vancouver BCTRANSCRIPT
Printed on recycled paper Check out our web exclusives at http://langaravoice.com/
theVoice
Advertisment
Printed on recycled paper Check out our web exclusives at http://langaravoice.ca/
PRODUCED BY LANGARA JOURNALISM STUDENTS
Prime dog-walking on riverside Path......................6River District walkway hidden gem is heralded as the Seawall of South Vancouver
Check us out online at
langaravoice.ca
This week look for the
second installment of
Cooking with Nich and
take a virtual walk down
the Fraser River
MARCH 26, 2015 • VOL. 47 NO. 24 • VANCOUVER, B.C.
Staff hit with parking taxOutraged faculty are being forced to pay hefty back-taxes on park-ing benefits due to new assessment by Canada Revenue Agency
UNBC to mediate
SARA RABEY photoJordan Lloyd Watkins (left) and Corwin Ferguson (right) use sound, space and a model ship to conceptualize the journey of life.
Faculty strike on hold for now, but will resume if no agreement can be reached
Langara grads ship off to Prague
By TANYA COMMISSO
Although the University of North-ern British Columbia faculty strike was suspended last Thurs-
day, no agreement was reached on what the UNBC Faculty Association has termed “the worst faculty salary structure of any comparable institu-tion.”
The Labour Relations Board gave a mediator 20 days to help the parties reach an agreement or faculty may re-sume strike action.
“The issues which led to the strike have not been settled,” said Dave Sang-ha, instructor of the UNBC social work program at Langara. “I am hopeful that [they] will develop a collective agree-ment that allows our salaries to rise to a level which will allow us to continue to recruit and retain high quality fac-ulty.”
UNBC FA began strike action on March 5, halting instruction of two pro-grams taught out of Langara College – the UNBC bachelor of social work de-gree program, and the UNBC master of business administration graduate pro-gram. The strike lasted two weeks be-fore students returned to classes on Friday.
As stated on the UNBC FA website, “Specific issues in-clude reduced job security for faculty, the worst salary structure of any comparable insti-tution, and negligi-ble post-retirement benefits, among others.”
A report pre-pared by high-pro-file arbitrator Vince Ready –
known for resolving disputes such as the 2014 B.C. teachers’ strike – de-scribes a pay gap of more than 20 per cent between UNBC and comparable universities, such as Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.
Pamela Baldwin, a third-year stu-dent in the UNBC social work program at Langara, said she is looking forward to being back in classes, but is aware of the effect the strike has already had on her and her classmates.
“I know some students who gave no-tice on their apartments for the end of the semester who are already having to make alternate living arrangements should the semester be extended,” Baldwin said.
Sangha said he’s optimistic and pleased to be teaching again.
“I’m really glad to be back at work since I knew that this was having a huge negative impact on our students.”
By SARA RABEY
A model ship he found while clean-ing out his grandfather’s home inspired Jordan Lloyd Watkins to
create Le Voyage, an art installation that has been selected to go on display this summer at a major art festival in the Czech Republic.
Watkins and artistic collaborator Corwin Ferguson, both graduates of Langara College’s Studio 58, will show-
case their piece at the Prague Qua-drennial, a festival that celebrates the art of scenography—the study and practice of performance design.
Watkins said the model ship caused him to think about the journey of peo-ple and how they are always pushed to move.
The installation that Watkins and Ferguson are building is a small model ship that will be displayed in a large dark theatre with a video element that will be projected over the ship.
The piece will be viewed by two peo-ple at a time, and both will wear head-phones cancelling out the noise around them and playing a sound score by
Vancouver-based composer James Coomber. Watkins described it as a very personal and intimate experience in a much larger controlled space.
“Our composer James Coomber summed it up well when he said, ‘the piece is about negotiating loss and call,’” Watkins said. “So there is always this call of moving on and trying to move through this emptiness and how do you negotiate what you’re going to have to lose to get through this empty space.”
“It’s also about humanity and its constant struggle to reinvent itself,” Ferguson added.
Two former Studio 58 students selected to show their work at arts festival
DAVE SANGHAInstructor of UNBC social work at Langara
theVoice
See PRAGUE, page 2
See PARKING TAX, page 3
JOURNALI
SM
DAWN PALMERAssociate vice-president of human resources at Langara
By JOCELYN ASPA
Staff members at Langara Col-lege who enjoy low-cost on-cam-pus parking benefits are now being slapped with a big — and
unexpected — tax bill. After Canada Revenue Agency reas-
sessed the taxation of college parking this year, some instructors are being asked to cough up more than $1,200 in back taxes — including some who nev-er drove to work.
“It is so blatantly unfair,” said Cheryl McKeeman, instructor in the depart-ment of mathematics and an executive
of the Langara Faculty Association.Until now, faculty hasn’t paid tax on
their parking benefits, whether they opted to pay $110 per year for a re-served spot in the faculty lot, or $10 a year for a pass that allowed them to park on a first-come, first-serve basis in the general lot.
“Faculty were offered and accepted parking passes with the understanding that the parking was [practically] free,” McKeeman said. “Suddenly those people are looking at $2,000 in back taxes and interest.”
The new tax is particularly enraging to part-time faculty who acquired the
$10 annual pass — known as scramble parking and deemed non-taxable by CRA —because it was so cheap, in case they ever needed it.
Canada Revenue Agency has deter-mined that the value of the parking is $1,200 for the year 2011, and $1,260 for 2012. Values for 2013-1014 are still being assessed, according to Dawn Palmer, associate vice-president of human re-sources at Langara.
“Most faculty are getting bills for close to $1,000 for the 2011 and 2012 years, but the actual amount of this bill will depend on the employee’s tax bracket,” McKeeman said.
1 Prague Orloj is the
world’s oldest work-
ing astronomical
clock
2 The Zizkov distict
has over 300 bars
in a 5 sq. km radius
3 Charles Bridge is
decorated by an
alley of over 30
statues
4 Atop Petrin Hill,
you’ll find a mini
Eiffel Tower, and a
maze of mirrors
Various web sources
PRAGUEmust sees
News EDITOR CHARLOTTE DREWETTTHE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 20152
Affordable housing above a fire hallPublic hearing to discuss South Vancouver fire station with four floors of subsidized units By DUSTIN GODFREY
A proposal to build social housing on top of a fire hall is a creative approach to bringing more af-fordable housing to Vancouver,
according to city officials and a representative of the YWCA Metro Vancouver.
An April 1 open house will showcase the proposal, which builds on a previ-ous approval for the replacement of Vancouver’s Fire Hall No. 5 because it is too small for the department’s needs.
The new fire hall would be larger, with six floors. The first two would house the fire hall, while the top four would provide subsidized housing for single women with children.
Despite worries by some, however, the units shouldn’t have an issue with noise, said Tobin Postma, City of Van-couver communications manager.
“An acoustic engineer will assist the design team to control the noise and make sure the design meets or exceeds current standards,” Postma said.
While there isn’t a standard when planning social housing, it’s not unusu-al to see them mixed in with city ser-vices, according to Penny Gurstein, di-rector of the school of community and regional planning and the centre for human settlements at UBC.
Still, working with social housing on top of a fire hall is a type of project Gurstein said she hasn’t yet seen.
“It’s an interesting model to be look-ing at and testing and seeing if it works or not,” Gurstein said.
Part of this comes from a drive for more creative ways to bring affordable housing to Metro Vancouver, because there is little room for further develop-ment, according to Chantelle Krish,
manager of advocacy and public rela-tions with YWCA Metro Vancouver.
“Providing affordable housing op-tions is the challenge,” she said. “So, we’re seeing different kinds of develop-ments pop up that integrate community services with affordable housing so you can offset the density of urban living.”
Karl Leung, who owns a home near the fire hall, wonders whether the proj-ect will have an impact on property val-ues in the area.
“Whenever there’s a Starbucks near residential areas, it’s going to drive up the property values in places,” Leung said, noting the Starbucks across from the fire hall. “I don’t know if it’s offset by social housing.”
However, the area was picked for the project by the city because of its loca-tion according to the City of Vancou-ver’s Postma.
“Because the fire hall is in a family-oriented residential area, close to ser-vices and buses, it is an ideal location for non-market housing,” he said.
DUSTIN GODFREY photoA proposed plan to include subsidized housing for single women and children atop Vancouver’s Fire Hall No. 5 is breaking the affordable housing mould.
Rideshares not welcomeBy KELVIN GAWLEY
South Vancouver-based MacLure’s Cabs is joining the Vancouver Taxi Association in encouraging
drivers and their friends to sign a peti-tion asking city officials to stop Uber from coming to Vancouver.
The app-based ridesharing service, Uber, connects people looking for a ride with people driving their personal cars. It has tried to operate in Vancou-ver in the past but stopped when city council required them to be licensed as a limo service and charge a minimum of $75 a trip. In recent months, Uber has started its own online petition that has gained over 26,000 signatures.
Carolyn Bauer, a spokesperson for Vancouver Taxi Association, said their petition, which has been circulating for three weeks, has “thousands and thou-sands and thousands” of signatures but didn’t say exactly how many.
The petition alleges that if Uber is al-lowed to operate in the city it will pro-vide an inferior service. It also argues that drivers for the Uber service will be operating cars without the same safety features as traditional cabs like track-ing systems. Uber will also not have the same insurance as traditional taxis.
Kulwant Sahota, the president of Yellow Cab Company Ltd., said his tax-is are insured for up to $10 million per passenger at a cost to the company of $30,000 a year. He said this is to protect their customers and the only way they can afford it is to run their cabs 24 hours a day, seven days a week—some-thing difficult for an independent Uber driver. He said Uber drivers would not be able to properly insure their passen-gers, which is their responsibility.
Bauer said she does not want to see Uber come to Vancouver without fol-lowing the same licensing, regulatory and insurance standards as traditional taxi companies.
“We have a regulated industry for a reason,” she said.
Raj Shah, a MacLure’s Cabs driver, said he probably would be signing the anti-Uber petition. He said he is con-cerned that Uber drivers would not be able to pick up handicapped passen-gers, something he is able to do with a lift-equipped van.
Imran Hussein, another MacLure’s driver, said he feels Vancouver has enough taxis for its size, a point the pro-Uber petition argues against.
“I don’t think it’s that big of a town,” he said. “There’s plenty of cabs.”
Cambie housing shuffle
By ETHAN REYES
The City of Vancouver promises that housing developments along the Cambie Corridor will provide
new units of affordable housing, de-spite some tenants losing their homes in the process.
As part of this promise, the city re-cently purchased eight lots along SW Marine Drive, which will include 120 to 125 units of affordable rental housing for the neighbourhood.
Since 1988, 20 per cent of units in new neighbourhoods have been required to be available for the development of af-fordable housing, said Jag Sandhu, a communications coordinator with the City of Vancouver. This encourages bal-anced communities so that people of all income brackets “are also able to live in well-planned, conveniently located neighbourhoods,” he said.
Currently there are approved appli-cations for 701 new units along the Cambie Corridor, Sandhu said. There will only be an addition of 631 units though, because 70 existing units will be demolished.
Tenants of the housing complex Ma-rine Gardens are one such group of residents. The city has voted to demol-ish Marine Gardens to make room for the proposed 27-storey high-rise.
The Valdez family, along with the rest of the tenants of the Marine Gar-dens housing complex, will be forced to find a new home once demolition be-gins.
Barbara Valdez, translated by her son Roger Valdez, said that Concord Pacific Developments Inc. doesn’t guar-antee rent will remain at its current rate and that, despite the relocation package offered by Concord Pacific, they do not expect to return.
The Valdez’s are just one of the fam-ilies rallying be-hind Jillian Skeet, a Marine Gardens resident who has been vocal in her opposition to the proposed demoli-tion of her home, even organizing town hall meetings at the complex’s day care centre.
Roger Valdez, 18, said he doesn’t be-lieve Skeet’s protests will save his home, but is unsure of what else to do.
Petition to stop Uber from coming to Vancouver has thou-sands of signatures according to taxi association rep
70 affordable housing units to be demolished, including Marine Gardens
Drivers from MacLure’s Cabs, based in South Vancouver, support anti-Uber petition.
KELVIN GAWLEYphoto
The Prague Quadrennial takes place every four years. It displays scenogra-phy from all over the world, through-out the centre of the city. Some of the exhibits will be indoors and some in the streets, mixing the imagined art with everyday life.
Scenography is the art of creating performance environments. The envi-ronments can be composed of sound, lighting, clothing, performance, struc-ture and space. It originates from the architects of the Renaissance era in Eastern European stage design.
Watkins, Studio 58 class of 2011, and Corwin Ferguson, class of 2009, will be heading to Prague to display their piece from June 18 to 28.
Prague gradscontinued from page 1
IMRAN HUSSEINMacLure’s Cabs taxi driver
1920Total calls
945 Medical calls
251 Fire alarms
141 Public service calls
132 False alarms
125 Motor vehicle accidents
181Cancelled calls
Source: vancouver.ca
FIRE HALLresponses
Rendering from VANCOUVER.CA
ROGER VALDEZMarine Gardens resident
Campus news 3
Shirley Wacowich-Sgarbi, a chemis-try instructor at Langara, said she has been dinged twice because her hus-band, Paulo Sgarbi, also teaches at the school.
“It’s a nasty surprise,” she said. “We followed the rules and then we get hit with this.”
Cheryl Yeung, communications offi-cer for the Pacific region at Canada Revenue Agency, was unable to com-ment directly about Langara’s situa-tion or if other institutions are being affected, but she did say that employer-provided parking is usually a taxable benefit for an employee. In the past,
Langara was exempt from this taxation because of the “scramble parking” sce-nario in place. The reason for the sud-den change in Langara’s scramble parking status is unknown.
Yeung said the amount of the benefit is based on an estimated value of the parking, minus any amount the em-ployee pays to use the space. She added that Canada Revenue Agency defines the value as being the highest price that can be obtained on the open mar-ket.
While Langara is offering short-term loans to employees struggling with the hit, action being taken by the school is on the horizon.
“The college is appealing the deci-sion and has engaged a tax specialist to assist with the documentation,” said Palmer.
EDITOR JAMES GOLDIE THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015
TRANSIT plebisciteWhen it comes to transit in Metro Vancouver what would you like to see changed?
INTERVIEWS AND PHOTOS BY MICHAEL LYLYK
“To be quite hon-est, it’s absolutely fine with me the way it’s rolling right now. I’m not a big user of transit, the only time I use transit is for the 49.”
“I think it’s a great idea but I also think that this path is unnecessary because [Trans-Link] already spends money where they don’t need to. So why not just cut back on spending…”
“I’d like to see more buses at most of the stops. I mean sometimes, there’s like a 30 minute wait for some buses and I’d like that to change.”
TANASIJA STOJANOVICBusiness, 2nd yearMy vote: Yes
MELISSA NICOLE ALVESAnthropology, 1st yearMy vote: No
SHAFEEL MURTAZA Kinesiology, 1st yearMy vote: Undecided
“I use the transit a lot because I’m in White Rock right now. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes, which is quite reasonable. So I like the transit system, and they usually arrive on time.”
“I have to do more research about where the money is going to go and who’s going to be making decisions about what’s going to be prioritized... It just seems like it hasn’t really been well thought out.”
ZAL DARUVALAComp. science, 1st yearMy vote: Yes
KRISTINA PORTERLangara instructorMy vote: Undecided
With the transit plebiscite now under-way, it’s time for Metro Vancouver residents to say yes or no to transit
reform. The Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council
plan includes adding 11 new B-Line bus routes throughout the region, increasing NightBus service by 80 per cent, and adding 2,700 km of bikeways.
However, the 0.5 per cent transit tax add-ed to the PST, plus TransLink’s track record when it comes to financial management of funds is causing some members of the pub-lic to feel skeptical.
The Voice asked Langara College stu-dents and faculty how they feel about tran-sit and how they plan to vote.
It should be noted, there are some misun-derstandings among students about the me-chanics of casting their ballots in the refer-endum. Remember: There is no online voting - you can only submit your ballot by mail.
To do so, students need to make sure they are registered with Elections BC in order to receive a ballot.
Students can register by phoning 1-800-661-8683.
By MONA BUTLER
With exams looming, many stu-dents at Langara College are looking for a way to relax, even
if only for a couple hours.On March 18, the Langara Students’
Union invited the students at the Blanche Macdonald Centre, a fashion and cosmetology college, to come help Langara students relax for two hours and get their hair and make-up done for free.
The event, called Glam Night, was a combination of a belated International Women’s Day celebration because there was not enough time to organize one the week before, and an end-of-se-mester party. Students who wanted to have their make-up and hair done needed to register in advance with the LSU.
“It’s for the girls to have fun, but guys can also participate too. There are two [guys] waiting to get their hair done,” said Garima Shrestha, a Langa-ra student who helped organize the event.
In exchange for their services, the
Blanche Macdonald students received a reference letter from the LSU and the Langara’s international education de-partment.
Melissa Diego, a hair and make-up student at Blanche Macdonald, said she thought that participating in the event would provide her with some good experience.
“There was a job posting at our school. They have a lot of volunteer op-portunities for future hair and make-up artistes to improve their portfolio,” she said.
Business management student Jag-jeet Kaur was excited to hear about the event and went with a group of friends.
“We want to participate to have fun before mid-term and finals,” she said.
Langara student Monika Szucs, who went to the event on the recommenda-tion of a friend, said that even though she doesn’t wear a lot of make-up at home, it felt good to have it done pro-fessionally.
“It’s good because I can look at it when I get home and take references,” Szucs said.
Glam Night offered free food and drinks, which drew some students like Tiffany Royrock who weren’t interest-ed in hair and make-up.
“Whenever there is free food, you’ll see me there,” she said.
By SARA RABEY
Students at Langara College are preparing for the end of the se-mester and many are looking to get help from tutors.
According to Megan Otton, coordi-nator of Langara’s writing centre, the private tutors advertised around cam-pus are not Langara students. She said they must be approved by the English department, no matter what subject they are helping students with.
“The English department has a list of tutors who are approved, so if you are looking for a tutor, make sure that the poster that you see has a date stamp on it,” Otton said. “That means that the tutor has been vetted and ap-proved by the English department be-cause anyone can come in and put up a sign. It can be a real problem.”
Lingyun Zhang, a private chemistry tutor, said that having a private tutor is more convenient for students and the one-on-one time spent with a student in a private setting can solve the stu-dent’s problems more efficiently.
“It’s more flexible and I think that’s why sometimes they prefer to go to [private] tutoring,” Zhang said.
Langara’s writing centre offers stu-dents help with their academics free of charge. According to Otton, the centre gets busy when mid-term assignments are handed out and from that point the number of students continues to rise until the end of the semester.
Harry Li, a first year student, used the writing center last semester but has not used it yet in the second term because the course he was struggling with was new and no one was able to help him.
“Also for [my calculus class] I have to go to the math centre but the stu-dents are not very helpful,” he said. “So instead of going there I go to my instructor’s office.” Li also said the staff at the writing centre “are pretty helpful for physics and computer sci-ence”
Li said he would not want to pay the money for a private tutor when there are free resources for him to use right here on campus.
Cosmetology students give make-overs to ease stress
1 Smear honey on
skin for a natural
facial mask.
2 Mix patchouli oil
and olive oil for a
nightly moisturizer
and anti-wrinkle
treatment. Also
helps with acne!
3 Shiny hair: mix one
egg with mashed
up banana. Apply
and leave 10-30
minutes, then rinse.
4 Use mix of olive oil
and 1/2 parts sea
salt as in-shower
body srub. Gets
rid of any need for
lotion.
5 Rest up! Not
enough sleep
causes skin to look
dull and can cause
breakouts.
Source: care2.com
DIYbeauty tips
MONA BUTLER photoSteff Jones (left) and her classmates did hair and make-up for Langara students free of charge.
LSU partnered with local beauty school to bring makeovers to Langara
SARA RABEY photoIf a poster doesn’t have a date stamp, the tutor isn’t approved by Langara.
continued from page 1
Parking tax
Choosing tutors Langara has a list of vetted options
4 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015 EDITOR CHARLOTTE DREWETT P
OH SNAP! Props to photo gradsAs the college bids farewell to this year’s photography graduates their works will live on
TERESA DONCK photoCarousel at Burnaby Heritage Village, 17mm wide angle to focus attention on foreground.
HALEY CROZIER photoForeshore aqua-life, low camera position, 11mm wide angle to distort subject.
FLORIAN NIDECKER photoRings, in studio with a ring-flash and soap bubbles, 24mm wide angle to distort face.
MEGHAN MACMILLAN-HEMSTRA photoLounging at poolside, overhead, natural light, 70mm.
NATHAN BEAUSOLEIL photoAbandoned water tower, low angle at sunset, enhanced colours and texture.
MEGHAN MACMILLAN-HEMSTRA photoFashion, in studio, wire added in post-production, 100mm.
hoto showcase
Entertainment 5EDITOR KERA PIWOWARSKI-SKOCYLAS THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015
Students fundraise for grad show
By BAILEY NICHOLSON
Graduates from Langara’s film arts program are in the running for a $50,000 prize for their science fiction web series Silk –
and celebrated their success at a launch party on March 16 at 12 Kings Pub.
A contest through Storyhive, sponsored by Telus, invited B.C. and Alberta resi-dents to submit a pitch for a web series. Langara di-recting grads Na-thanael Vass and Ingo Lou have made it to the sec-ond round winning $10,000 to create their pilot. If they win one of two
$50,000 grand prizes they will use the money to create five additional epi-sodes.
The series revolves around a girl in Iran who develops supernatural pow-ers after eating an alien creature.
“Silk is delightfully weird,” Lou said. “What really drew me to the project was the way in which Silk reinvents the superhero motif to tell difficult sto-ries.”
According to producer Amanda Konkin, Silk uses supernatural ele-ments to shed light on real world is-sues.
“It has other-worldly elements, but they’re all sort of grounded in reality. Like, what would a girl from Iran who was wrongly imprisoned do with super strength? She would break down her walls and do everything she could to fight against that oppression,” Konkin said.
The launch party was lively with congratulations, and Silk’s pilot was streamed for the crowd. Producers en-
couraged everyone in attendance to tweet about the event, as social media presence is crucial for Silk to gain enough public votes by the March 26 deadline to win the grand prize.
Having shot Silk entirely on campus at Langara, Lou said he is grateful to the college for their support.
“[Winning] felt like receiving valida-tion for how hard we have all been working since leaving Langara. Film arts prepared us for the real world; it was awesome to be able to bring the real world back to Langara,” Lou said.
Despite the pilot’s major success, there have been some challenges Vass said. Some restrictions included a chal-lenging budget and a contest guideline of PG-rated material only. If granted the $50,000 prize, Vass said that his vi-sion for Silk might stretch beyond its current limits.
“Going forward we would love Silk to be very dark, very violent, very sexual. We’re not sure if PG is going to cut it,” he said.
By BRYAN Mc GOVERN
Langara College students from the professional photography program have been working on various fun-
draising events to support their up-coming grad show.
The latest fundraiser was a ticket and drink promotion held at Joe’s Apartment on March 21. Along with this event the students have tried en-gaging their community with fundrais-ers such as doughnut sales and photo booths. The money goes toward food and beverages for their opening night on May 1, along with frames and prints for the show which runs until May 8 at Langara.
“The more money we make, the more spectacular our show can be,” Teresa Donck, one of the professional photography soon-to-be grads said.
The college pro-vides equipment for the display but according to Donck it’s basic and the students would rather get their own.
“Every student is going to have to work their ass off and have a really good display of what they want to showcase, and what kind of genre of photography they want to show themselves as,” said photogra-phy student Sasha MacBain.
MacBain said the students don’t have a defined theme for the show. Instead the setup is a uniform design and students pick their best photos.
“It’s the opportunity for [the stu-dents] to showcase themselves and cre-ate their image. Who are they as an artist,” said Darren Bernaerdt, profes-sional photography department chair.
The grad show is completely in the hands of the students he said.
“They’re the ones who drive it, de-cide on how much space [to use], what the layout will be [and] what work they want to show,” Bernaerdt said.
Their next event is at Doolin’s Irish Pub on April 16.
Professional photography students are working to create a display to high-light their talent and skills
Langara grads up for $50,000After winning $10,000 to create the pilot, the grand prize is so close
Langara grads are going international on NetflixTwo former students work on the TV show Some As-sembly Required on YTV “They were
ideal students. They were always on time, always showing up to class. GARWIN SANFORD
LANGARA FILM ARTS DEPART-
MENT CHAIR
Travis Turner said he credits Langara’s instructors for helping prepare him for the industry. One teacher helped him find an agent.
Submitted photo
1 Shift
Created by
Janie Fontaine
2 Hug-O-Gram
Created by
Todd Kipp
3 Shy Guys
Created by
Steve Rosenberg
4 Coded
Created by
Steve Neufeld
Source: storyhive.com/
web-series
OTHERfinalists
By OWEN MUNRO
Netflix has picked up Some Assem-bly Required, a show that in-cludes two Langara College film
arts graduates, for international re-lease starting this summer.
Actor Travis Turner and writer Nadiya Chettiar graduated from the program in 2012, in time to join the show for its first season. Now in its sec-ond, Some Assembly Required is YTV’s number one show on the network. The show follows a group of teenagers who run a toy company, and is shot in front of a live audience in Burnaby.
Turner plays Aster Vanderberg, a creative, confident kid who creates fashions for various things such as hu-mans and dolls. Turner called working for the show a dream come true be-cause of the way the show is set up and
how they perform for a live audience. “Aster is a fun character. I’m always
trying to find ways to relate to him and even find a part of me that re-ally likes fashion,” Turner said. “All of the characters are really individ-ual, the writers are great and the jokes are funny.”
Chettiar said the ability to write comedy, especially for a live audience, is something she really enjoys. She said it was a huge transition to write with other people since she had nev-er written collab-oratively previ-ously.
“Before, I was writing by myself,
writing samples,” Chettiar said. “You’re hoping you get good enough that the right person hands it to the right person and you might get a job.”
Both Chettiar and Turner credit the film arts program at Langara as a ma-jor factor in finding jobs relatively quickly after graduation. The eight-month program is highly intensive and comprehensive, said Langara film arts department chair Garwin Sanford and is aimed at giving students experience with industry practices and principles.
Sanford said he remembers Turner and Chettiar as individuals who were very focused and had a lot of skills.
“They were ideal students. They were always on time, always showing up to class. It’s all positive,” Sanford said. “Travis just kept improving, and that’s always a sign. Nadiya was the same thing. It’s one of the things we look for right away.”
“It’s a really good program for a lot of reasons,” Turner said. “They’re good at preparing you in the really short amount of time.”
Nadiya Chettiar said the shows staff has been encouraging, helping her transition from writing for herself to doing so for an audience.
Submitted photo
SASHA MACBAINProfessional pho-tography student
“Going for-ward we would love Silk to be very dark, very vio-lent, very sexual.NATHANAEL VASS
FILM CREATOR
The cast and crew of Silk
filmed the pilot in various
locations around
Langara’s campus. This
scene was filmed in the
library building.
BETTINA STRAUSS
photo
Lifestyles6 EDITOR NATASHA CHANGTHE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015
ANNA DIMOFF photosDog walkers, cyclists and residents often take a stroll and exercise at the Riverfront Park pathway near the Killarney neighbourhood, which runs along the Fraser River.
A South Vancouver park is a good alternative to Seawall
Submitted photoMarisa Artiga studies for two associate degrees, and she makes sure to find time to volunteer.
By ANNA DIMOFF
As dog walkers, cyclists and couples stroll the path
alongside the Fraser River, they’re accom-panied by a view re-sembling that of the downtown Vancouver Seawall, only slightly more industrial.
The River District, located along E Kent Avenue starting at Kerr Street, is quick-ly becoming a hub of urban activity. And, the City of Vancouver has plans to expand the community fur-ther by establishing five n e i g h b o u r h o o d s around the existing
homes and community centre. Devel-opment of new condos near the local Riverfront Park will be the next step in growing the waterfront neighbourhood.
During the week it’s usually only residents of the area and dog walkers who use the path, but on the weekends there is much more traffic, according to Laura Heil, who has been living in the River District since 1993.
“I think that it’s so popular because you can walk so far. I’ve walked almost the whole (path) with (my dog), but I got a ride back,” Heil said.
The riverside path, located south of SE Marine Drive, stretches almost eight kilometres from the foot of Argyle Street in South Vancouver to Tillicum Street in Burnaby.
Sheila Boardman, a resident of the district for about 12 years, said she feels lucky to have a place close by to take her dog, Loki, on long walks. She explained that the area is popular, but also sees why it doesn’t draw as many
people as the Seawall.“[It’s busy] especially on the
weekends, on nice days. The only problem is there’s nothing here. There’s Romer’s Burger Bar,” Boardman said. “But other than that there’s nothing. There’s no corner stores or coffee shops.”
There is, however, a farmers market, which is popular within the community Boardman added. The River District Farmers Market runs from May through October and is entering its fourth year of operation.
“We want the parks and recreation-al facilities to be accessible and inclusive for the public to enjoy with a focus on bringing some fun into our parks,” said Erin Shum, Park Board Commissioner and liaison for the Killarney Community Centre Society.
“We look forward to working with the community to have an open discus-sion to plan for our parks and recreation facilities.”
1 Fraser River
Park: located
on Angus Drive
and W 75th
Avenue
2 Park Site on
Shaugnessy
Street: located
at the end of
Shaugnessy
Street near W
Kent Avenue
3 Deering Island
Park: located
south of SW
Marine Drive,
end of Car-
rington Street
Source: City of Vancouver
RIVERparks
Waterfront walking trail
Giving back is just a start
Junk food not the way to go
By TONY SU
For many students, Langara is a launch pad into other institutions. For Marisa Artiga, however, it’s a
platform to help the community.A r t i g a , 21, has been at
Langara for three years and is soon
graduating with two associate degrees.
Still, she carves out time to volunteer from her jampacked schedule.
Artiga said she’s so invested in volunteering because she can make a
difference in the community.“I love helping out the world the best
that I can,” she said.“It may seem like a small
contribution, but it’s the small things that make the big picture.”
Artiga may be starting small, but she is changing students’ experiences with the new orientation. She goes out of her way to connect with these students.
“I ask random questions like ‘how many of you guys like country music?’ Because I want [them] to feel comfort-able.”
She routinely lends a hand at the Marpole Oakridge Family Place, over the holidays to lift up the spirits of families in the community.
“She really helped introduce stu-dents to the campus in a positive way,” said Maggie Stewart, Volt volunteer program coordinator.
“It may seem like a small con-tribution, but it’s the small things that make the big picture
MARISA ARTIGA
VOLT VOLUNTEER AND PSYCHOLOGY
STUDENT
By JAMES SMITH
With final exams only two weeks away, many Langara College students are logging extra
hours on campus to study. And, limited food options on campus lead many to choose what’s convenient rather than what’s healthy.
Although campus is open until 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and until 7:00 p.m. on weekends, various eateries on campus close well before that. The cafeteria and Students’ Union Building cafés are not even opened on weekends.
Joyce Ilao, general sciences student, said it’s hard to eat well with so few good-tasting healthy options on campus.
She said alternatives in the area are too far away during times of stress. And, the tendency is to reach for less nutritional snacks.
“When [I’m] trying to cram for [my] finals, it’s not like I’ll take half an hour and go to Oakridge,” said Ilao. “Maybe I’ll take two minutes and go to Tim Hortons if the line’s not long.”
Ma Rosetti Villamor, creative writing student, said she reaches for whatever is nearest, like Pringles and M&M’s, or even a panini from Starbucks if she’s famished.
Vashti Verbowski, registered dietitian and spokesperson for Dietitians of Canada, said it is important to take the time to eat well during marathon study sessions.
“If we’re studying [and] preparing for exams…we’re relying on vending machines and coffee shops, and usually those foods that are available are usually higher calorie, more processed, higher sugar,” Verbowski said.
“You might get that initial quick boost of energy, but then you’re likely to experience lower energy levels later on.”
The key is planning ahead and eating a variety of foods from all four food groups. And, bringing quick and easy snacks from home are a good way to avoid unhealthy choices later on, she added.
“An overall balanced diet does contribute to feeling good, thinking straight and a good mood as well.”
Verbowski said she would advise students to avoid sugary foods, con-sume less than “four small cups of reg-ular coffee” per day and switch to decaffeinated drinks or water at least four hours before bed.
Caffeine can stay in one’s system for up to eight hours and negatively affect sleep, she added.
“If you’re not sleeping as well, then you’re not thinking as well the next day,” said Verbowski.“You might think ‘Oh, I have to have my caffeine to study,’ but it can kind of have the opposite effect over the long run.”
A must-do on her to-do list is helping her community in and out of Langara
With stressful days coming up, students can expect more junk in their bodies
See langaravoice.ca for exclusive video!
7EDITOR JES HOVANESviewpoints
The Voice is published by Langara College’s journalism department.
Editorial opinions are those of the staff and are independent of views of the student government and administration.
We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must be signed. They may be edited for brevity. Names may be withheld in special cases, but your letter must include your name and phone number.
HOW TO REACH US
PHONE604-323-5396
FAX604-323-5398
DROP-INRoom A226Langara College There is a mailbox at the entrance to the journalism rooms.
SNAIL MAILThe Voice100 West 49th Ave.Vancouver, B.C.V5Y 2Z6
WEBSITEwww.langaravoice.ca
EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE:
MANAGING EDITOR/PAGE 6Jes Hovanes
PAGE EDITORS
PAGE 1Alice D’Eon
PAGE 2Charlotte Drewett
PAGE 3James Goldie
PAGE 4Kera Piwowarski-Skocylas
PAGE 5Natasha Chang
PAGE 7Vivian Chui
PAGE 8Lena Alsayegh
WEB EDITORSShannon LynchMel EdgarSableen MinhasSandy PowlikNich Johansen
COPY EDITORMary Beach
REPORTERSJocelyn AspaMona ButlerTanya CommissoAnna DimoffKelvin GawleyDustin GodfreyAlex HoeglerMichael LylykBryan Mc GovernOwen MunroBailey NicholsonRebecca PhairSara RabeyEthan ReyesJames SmithTony SuJulia WickhamXiao Xu
Contact us:
Online at langaravoice.ca
Twitter at@LangaraVoice
theVoice
MICHAEL LYLYK and ANNA DIMOFF comic
A well-trained and scrupulous
tutor is a great benefit. Their tutoring may be tough in the moment but will be infinitely more beneficial in the long run.
Accredited tutors at Langara
College have a stamp on the posters they post around the school. This proves that they have gone through training to avoid committing plagiarism on their client’s behalf.
A surrogate student for hire is certainly an understandable
temptation for both struggling student and skilled tutor.
Let’s say you are struggling with a math course and you (or your family) can afford a tutor.
This tutor is a bona fide math-whiz who could breeze through your course material effortlessly but has little knowledge of how to help you find ways to understand the mate-rial involved. Both of you could take the lazy route and have the tutor complete the task while you sit and watch.
In the end, you, the student, have not benefitted very much at all.
You have likely delayed the day when you will have to confront more challenging course material.
In a blog post published last week,
Steve Nash announced his retire-ment. He wrote at length about the people who helped him along the way, especially coaches.
Nash said that these people share in his successes but he also points to his incredible determination and hard work. He wrote about training hard and constantly striving to improve his game.
Coaches helped him, no doubt, but it was Nash who won two MVP awards by making plays when it mattered, not the coaches.
If you let the coach take the shots during practice (or your tutor do your homework) then, when (and if) you graduate, you will have the ball in your hands and not know what to do with it.
OPINIONKELVIN GAWLEY
Tutors not meant to do your homework for you
OPINIONJES HOVANES
Unions get a lot of bad press. From the Canada Post strike
a couple years ago, to the B.C. teachers strike all last summer, to the current strike of the union repre-senting Univeristy of Northern B.C. Faculty, to the Langara faculty on strike vote notice, all these work-places have something in common — the employer they are walking out on is the government.
And, it is the government that continues to force them into mediation instead of negotiating a contract.
And, it is the government denying them cost-of-living wage increases.
And, it is the government cutting funding to the institutions where they work.
And, it is the government funding the bad press campaigns, and messages that try to demonize not only public employees unions, but all organized labour.
I get it that the government wants to cut costs. But, cutting costs by burdening the very people that we all agreed to employ for the public benefit – teachers, professors, nurses – really does not seem like a very good way to make friends.
So in order to make friends, it seems, they decide to spend lots and lots of time and money trying to convince people that teachers are greedy for wanting their wages to keep up with the pace of inflation.
And then rather than negotiate a contract that people can live with — a contract under which people can come to work and not feel like they are being exploited — the government waits until the public is thoroughly confused and frustrated and orders everyone back to work.
Why not just negotiate in good faith, instead?
When the members of the legislative assembly wanted a raise,
they gave themselves one and made sure that people were happy at work.
The only reason that contract negotia-tions would take more than two years is if the goals of the two sides are so fundamentally different that it has become unclear what they are really working toward. The instructors want a contract, for sure.
It seems ridiculous that anyone would continue to work without knowing the full terms of their employment – but the UNBC professors do.
Like our instructors, they do it because they believe in the work they are doing. And, they too are getting a raw deal.
No faith in negotiating in good faith
THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015
We want to hear from youGot a different point of view?
Write to us. Problems with something we’ve said?
Let us know.Think we got a fact wrong?
Tell us.
Journalism instructor Erica Bulman oversees The Voice. Email her at
OPINIONMICHAEL LYLYK
“I was stuck trying to balance the film ca-reer that I wanted to have and looking for the side job that would let me continue to pursue it
A20-cent mimimum wage increase just isn’t good enough in an expensive city like
Vancouver.At a previous job, and probably
the best job I’ve had living here in Vancouver, I worked as many hours as I could for $10.25/hour. I started at a couple of shifts here and there at The Source, a technology retail store. In need of money, I was given more shifts and opportunity to open and close the store on weekends.
It felt good to receive a cheque to be able to pay rent and bills. But, at the end of the day I was really just scraping by.
I was never able to pay off the student loan from previous educa-tion. I had just enough to be able to live off of it.
I was stuck trying to balance the film career that I wanted to have, and looking for the side job that would let me continue to pursue it. What I ended up experiencing in film was demand-ing hours, at any time, for very little pay. So I had to work more at the minimum wage job to make up for it. I was stuck in an endless loop of just getting by for five years. I came back to school to rethink what I wanted to do.
Now I am a full-time student trying to balance work and school life and the current minimum wage doesn’t make sense. If I want to do things like paying rent
and buying food, I need to work more hours than I have available. An extra 20 cents doesn’t change income for the better, it doesn’t really change anything at all.
Raging over raising wages
issues & ideas8 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015 EDITOR VIVIAN CHUI I
Twenty-cent increase in B.C.’s minimum wage leaves some students and union leaders dissatisfied
What Langara students expect to earn after gradu-ation may be different from the present reality
By TANYA COMMISSO
Women’s tendency to ask questions is found to have a positive impact on decision-making in the business
world, according to a recent study re-leased by UBC.
The study, conducted by the Sauder School of Business, was recently pub-lished in a business journal. It said that female board members are more likely to seek counsel from financial advisors than their male counterparts when fac-ing corporate takeovers.
“In the long term, the economic im-portance of men and women are about equal, so why should only one of these genders make the decisions, and the other sort of just follow in line?” said
Maurice Levi, fi-nance professor at UBC, who was on the research team.
Presently, Nor-way has a legal provision that re-quires women to make up 40 per cent of board mem-bers.
Levi said he be-lieves it would be worthwhile to look into how similar laws would benefit Canadian compa-nies.
Marianne Gianacopoulos, business instructor at the Langara School of Management, said she has observed
this behavioural difference between the genders in her classes at Langara College, as well as in her own experi-ences in the workplace.
Gianacopoulos said she finds that among her students, women are far more likely to approach her to ask for help with coursework. They also ap-pear to be more willing to work togeth-er with their classmates.
“I think it’s just a natural part of the feminine orientation to ask questions,” Gianacopoulos said.
She also found that women in deci-sion-making roles appear to be far more open to suggestion than men in similar positions.
“All the women I’ve reported to al-ways make decisions based on consen-sus and collaboration,” she added.
By OWEN MUNRO
The debate rages on for those argu-ing for a better minimum wage af-ter a 20-cent increase was an-
nounced by the B.C. jobs minister on March 12.
The minimum wage is set to increase from the current $10.25 to $10.45, but the increase has caused backlash from several union leaders and advocates who are calling it an insignificant amount.
The current minimum wage doesn’t allow people the opportunity to fully participate in the economy, said Lee Loftus, president of BC Building Trades and business manager of the BC Insu-lators.
“The government believes those that are telling them if they increase the minimum wage, it’s going to hinder the economy, it’s going to create unemploy-ment,” Loftus said. “The evidence is actually contrary.”
The last increase, introduced on May 1, 2012, had next to no layoffs and actu-ally injected money into the economy, according to Loftus. He argued that there’s a difference between a mini-mum and liveable wage, but a $15 hour-ly wage should be the starting point in any discussion.
“We should be looking at a liveable wage, which is more towards $17.50 or $17.80 an hour,” Loftus said. “Even with a $15-an-hour wage, you’re still feeling the poverty line.”
Some Langara College students don’t necessarily believe the 20-cent in-crease is the best solution for their own problems.
Chelsea Riva, an English student at Langara said she works at a shoe store in Richmond for up to 20 hours a week. On a good week, she said she makes about $300 a paycheque, but has only $20 left in her bank account by the end of the week, even though she was paid the Friday before.
“I’m not sure my bank account is go-ing to notice the increase because it’s so slim,” Riva said. “I’ll still have to sit in the break room in the back and do homework.”
By ALEX HOEGLER
Wages increase at different lev-els based on industry, which may surprise Langara College
students who have a certain expecta-tion of how much they’ll earn when they graduate in their respective field of studies.
According to a payroll information report by Statistics Canada, the weekly wage in B.C. has increased by 1.8 per-cent. However, this is an aggregate compiled from different industries.
For example, first-year Langara health sciences student Stephany Vale-ros is planning to work as a nurse when she graduates. She believes her expect-
ed starting wage is reasonable.“[I expect] to make $42,000 a year [to
start out.] I think it’s reasonable be-cause you’re starting off, you can’t make a lot,” she said.
She said she expects her earnings will grow over time. However, Statistics Canada reports weekly wages in health care and social assistance rose by only 0.7 per cent last year, well below the av-erage.
First-year marketing management student Gurvinder Singh is planning to graduate with a diploma, and hopes to start his own construction business.
“I would like to start working on high rises and develop complexes and townhouses,” he said. “If I want to start [out working on] carpentry or escala-tors, [companies probably pay] around $60 an hour,” he said.
Construction wages rose last year to above the average, at the rate of 2.8 per cent, according to the report.
Students in design and arts can ex-
pect fairly good wages. “I would say a median is around $20 an hour,” said Lenke Sifko, program coordinator for the design arts in continuing studies at Langara, who also said wages can be as high as $60 an hour.
Weekly wages for arts, entertain-ment and recreation rose well above the average to a 4.9 per cent increase last year.
First-year general education student Kiran Saulnier plans to become a teacher when he graduates, but he said that he probably won’t be able to afford the cost of living here.
This may be reasonable because weekly wages in educational services actually dropped last year by 0.3 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.
“[The starting pay is] probably not enough to live in the Lower Mainland. It’s my home, so I don’t want to leave it, but my living here in the future is slow-ly becoming less and less likely,” he said.
A UBC study shows that gender equality is good for corporations
VIVIAN CHUI photoLangara business students Bethany Chan (left) and Joann Lam collaborate for an upcoming presentation in their management class.
Change in B.C.’s average weekly wage from 2013 to 2014
MARIANNE GIANACOPOULOSLangara business instructor
“Why should only one of these gen-ders make the deci-sions, and the other sort of just follow in line?
MAURICE LEVI
UBC PROFESSOR
Provincial wage increases vary across fields of study
Wage war stalemate
Working hard for the money, honey
Expert says get women on boards
VIVIAN CHUI chartCompiled with source material from Statistics Canada.
Sports 9 EDITOR LENA ALSAYEGH THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015
Hunting for premiere talent
Summer intramurals yet to take off
Riders prep to compete
Langara men’s soccer ID camps begin, preparing for next season
Traditional indoor sports are still more popular than newer outdoor op-tions
Showing season has be-gun, and riders are getting back on their horses
XIAO XU photoStudents try out for the Langara men’s soccer team at an ID session held at the Minoru oval in Richmond on Sunday, March 22.
By XIAO XU
The Langara men’s soccer team is seeking players to strengthen this year’s roster and make them contenders for the top spot in the
provincial championships.The Falcons hosted an ID session on
Sunday evening at the Minoru oval in Richmond. The session was aimed at recruiting high school athletes to play for the new season, which will start in September.
Despite the rain, about 40 young soc-cer players performed hard on the field, trying to win one of the limited roster spots under the coach’s evalua-tion.
“Basically, all positions are open and available,” said Marc Rizzardo, head coach of men’s soccer. “We have a
series of training sessions over the course of the next two months. I’ll in-vite 25 to 28 kids to our pre-season which starts early August,” Rizzardo said.
According to Rizzardo, the players who came to the session were a mix-ture of current Falcons players and high school students who are trying out for the first time.
During the two hour session, Riz-zardo ran an intramural scrimmage between players, who were separated into four teams.
All the athletes played pretty ag-gressively during the game, at the coach’s request.
Two players got slightly injured in the scrimmage. Thirteen players were cut.
“We are looking for players that are
skillful, quick and hard workers.” Riz-zardo said. This season, his goal is leading the team to nationals in Mon-treal.
Rafi Durrani, 19, came to the tryout because he’s “crazy for soccer.” He said joining the Vancouver Whitecaps FC would be his goal in future.
Godwin Nyong, FIFA licensed agent and business instructor at Capilano University, was looking for young tal-ent during Sunday’s session as well.
Nyong said he looks out for players who will be good to market to clubs. Players who have skill, persistence and physical fitness during the session may win his attention.
“[I look out for] the players who are good enough to market to clubs. The Vancouver Whitecaps and other MLS clubs.” Nyong said.
JULIA WICKHAM photoRight: students play intramurals in the gym. Left: Jena Riches, Langara athletics and intramurals assistant.
BY JULIA WICKHAM
Bocce, ladder golf and croquet may not come to mind when students think of Langara College’s intra-
mural program, and this may explain why the equipment isn’t getting much play, despite the warmer weather.
Students are bypassing the summer options and gravitate toward indoor sports such as basketball, volleyball and badminton, according to Langara’s athletics and intramurals staff.
Jena Riches, athletics and intramu-rals facilities assistant at Langara, said that since she began work in Novem-ber, she hasn’t seen any students take out the bocce, ladder golf or croquet equipment.
“I would say there have never been any signed out that I know of, but I think it would be kind of cool to do,” she said.
Riches said that she does see a few people come and take out Frisbees, footballs and badminton racquets. She hopes intramurals will become more popular during the summer months.
Victoria Dengler, a first-year kinesi-ology student at Langara, says that she has never played bocce, ladder golf or croquet before.
“I don’t even know those sports,” she said. “I normally play [intramurals] around two to three times a week, play-
ing either basketball or volleyball.”Since Langara organized a bubble
soccer tournament, the intramurals program has become more popular, said Riches.
“They set up and played and we got maybe 60 people out… it was quite fun-ny to watch,” she said. “I found that af-
ter that, the Thursday [intramurals slot] has filled up a lot.”
“It’s always good to get the word out and get people involved because I think it’s a good stress reliever,” Riches said.
Equipment can be signed out for free with a valid student ID between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
By REBECCA PHAIR
In order to capture the grace, skill and athleticism required for com-petitive showing, horseback riders
at local stables are boosting their train-ing in preparation of the spring compe-tition season.
Equestrians at both Southlands Rid-ing Club and Town & Country Eques-trian are dedicating countless hours to improving their skills for competition. For most, this entails an intense riding and training regimen to ensure both horse and rider are well prepared.
“If you are a serious rider, you train like a serious rider,” said Corinna Ploeger, a rider at Southlands Riding Club.
Most English style eventing shows take place over a three-day period. Each day features a differ-ent event — most commonly these are dressage, speed and endur-ance and show j u m p i n g . Each disci-pline com-bines gener-a l h o r s e m a n -ship and the fine-tuning of event spe-cific skills, such as movement and obedi-ence.
R e -gardless of the rid-er’s cho-sen event, all competi-tive equine showing re-quires the rid-ers and their horses to train up to six or seven days a week, includ-ing intense cross training according to Ploeger, a d r e s s a g e competitor.
“Competi-tive showing e v a l u a t e s both the horse and rider’s ability to harmonize their movements and mas-ter obedience with a graceful and ef-fortless hand,” said Ploeger.
At the Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, a three-day competition took place over the weekend attracting rid-ers of all skill levels and varying disci-plines.
Izzie Thompson, a first year associ-ate science and health sciences student at Langara College, was in attendance riding her horse, Rubix.
“Despite the pouring rain [the com-petition] was fabulous and a huge suc-cess,” said Thompson.
Thompson and Rubix were entered in the Cross Pole Hunter competition, a show jumping class.
Entering and training for shows al-lows riders not only to set goals for themselves and their horses, but to measure success, according to Amelia Butler, head coach and owner at Town & Country Equestrian.
With many of the riders at Town & Country being between the ages of 12 and 16, Butler’s training tactics are ca-tered to building a strong foundation and communication between horse and rider.
SEASON RESULTS5 wins, 8 losses, 2 ties
PROVINCIALSWon 2002-2003
PACWEST league
championship
Won 2001-2002
PACWEST provincial
championship
NATIONALSWon CCAA silver medal
in 2001-2002 season
Source: Langara Athletics & Intramurals webpage
SOCCERstats
“It’s always good to get the word out and get people involved because I think it’s a good stress reliever
JENA RICHES
LANGARAINTRAMURALS
ASSISTANT
MARQUITA ZOLLMAN submitted photo
Izzie Thompson competes with her horse, Rubix.
Special feature10 EDITOR MEL EDGARTHE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2015
Seriously fun news over the years
By MEL EDGAR
From the days of The Savant 50 years ago to the hot of the press pages of The Voice today, Langara College
journalism students have always strived for excellence — and some-times they’ve even succeeded
Langara College journalism stu-dents have covered it all: the college’s first electric typewriters, broken bath-
room stalls, council politics, a missing campus dishwashing machine as well as myriad student successes.
Over the years raucous pub nights with the on-campus ra-dio station may have been replaced by more professional (cough) behavior over the years.
What hasn’t changed is our student newspaper’s commitment to the es-sential tenets of journal-ism: accuracy, transparency, independence, fairness — and a little bit of fun.
Student journalism, from wild and wacky headlines to cold hard facts is still a commited watchdog
Langara journalism celebrates 50th
MEL EDGAR photo collageStudent reporters at Langara College have covered some pretty big stories over the years, from the days of The Savant, Langara College’s first student paper, to modern times.
Adventures in Journalism
1960s1969 — Brian Brennan went on to
work at the Calgary Herald for many years, but has become a full-time book writer in the last decade, with 10 titles to his credit.
1970s
1970 — Russ Froese works in crisis communications at the Canadian Red Cross and had a long and illustrious ca-reer as a reporter and documentary producer at Global TV and the CBC, among others.
1975 — Cari Goldin went on from the program to do a law degree. She prac-ticed as a lawyer for many years, then went to work as a review officer at WorkSafeBC where she said she gets to combine her journalistic and legal-training.
1980s
1980 — Shelley Fralic went on to work as a reporter and senior editor and now a columnist at The Vancouver Sun.
1986 — Patti Bacchus (Balfour back then) went on from reporting in Rich-mond to become chair of the Vancou-ver School Board from 2008 to 2014 and trustee in 2015.
1986 — Krysta Davies Foss After J-school, did a Masters in Intelligence and International Relations in Man-chester U.K. and worked as a U.S. intel-
ligence consultant. She currently runs a company that provides competitive intelligence for the pharmaceutical in-dustry.
1989 — Noreen Flanagan is the edi-tor-in-chief at Elle Canada.
1990s
1990 — Martin Dunphy currently works as a senior editor at The Georgia Straight.
1992 — George Affleck went on to run his own communications company and he is a Vancouver city councillor.
1998 — Steven Addison, formerly a reporter at Peace Arch News, currently works as a Vancouver police officer and runs a blog called Eastside Stories: diary of a Vancouver beat cop.
2000s2004 — Fiona Anderson gave up law
for journalism, working first as a busi-ness reporter for The Vancouver Sun, now as editor-in-chief for Business in Vancouver.
2009 — Chris Richards is working as the social-media manager for the Van-couver Airport.
2010s2010 — Todd Coyne works as deputy
editor with Venture Publishing Inc. writing for Alberta Oil Magazine.
2011 — Mike Hager is now a reporter at The Globe and Mail.
2014 — Nick Eagland, grandson of famed Vancouver Sun photographer Deni Eagland, is now a reporter at The Province.
Just look at the interesting things Langara College journalism grads have been up to since the 60s
From small beginnings in 1965 to a big anniversary today By FRANCES BULA
Langara’s journalism program start-ed 50 years ago this year. It was a small effort, resulting in one gradu-ate by 1967, an Irene St. Louis who
has since vanished from history. It was the beginning of a school that
has now sent more than 1,500 people out into the world of mass media — as well as, eventually, law, communications, strategic intelligence, public relations, police work, academia, theatre, book-writing, and much, much more.
That small beginning, which the department will be celebrating with an anniversary party in May, was the local offshoot of a continental trend: educa-tion for journalists.
People who wrote for newspapers in the mid-19th century didn’t need much training, except in how to run heavy
printing machinery. The papers of that era were more like blogs — partisan, opinionated screeds that were mainly intended to be the gathering place for one set of political opinions or another.
But then newspapers turned into big business, operations that needed dozens of reporters and editors, preferably people who knew a little bit about spelling and how the country was run.
Langara’s journalism program began at the former King Edward high school, where Vancouver City College operated in 1965, on the corner of 12th and Oak.
It really took off, though, when Nick Russell arrived in 1968 and made it into a real department. And in 1970, the whole college moved up to 49th, where it was eventually renamed Langara.
The program’s paper in the early days was called The Savant, which was operated on what we would now think of
as primitive equipment involving glue, darkrooms, and rulers. But it had the same irreverence that has endeared the journalism program, its students, and its publications to college administra-tors — and fellow students — for 50 years.
Langara’s journalism program has survived many changes, changing as rapidly as the industry around it.
Langara, once a mainly print and photography program, now sends stu-dents out routinely with video cameras and orders to tweet the news as they find it. But the basics are the same — it’s all about doing the research and finding the best way to tell the best story.
Langara Journalism is holding a 50th anniversary celebration May 15 at the Olympic Village. Tickets, $10 each, are available through the Lang-ara website.