Student strikes against Enbridge

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January 20, 2014

Speaking out against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, SFU student, Mia Nissen, underwent a week-long fast to protest the pipeline at the end of last year.

Nissen made the decision to go on a hunger strike over winter break as a way to take an immediate and noticeable stance on the issue. During the week of Christmas up until New Year’s Eve, Nissen subsisted only on Gatorade and multivitamins.

The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline has been a hot button topic in the news since it was announced in 2006. The line would carry distilled crude oil from Alberta’s oilsands to the coastal city of Kitimat, BC.

Nissen began her strike in response to the approval of Enbridge’s latest project by the National Energy Board Joint Review Panel on Dec. 19. The Panel cited it as being an important key in boosting the Canadian economy, and the federal government has been given 180 days to decide the pipeline’s fate.

However, this decision has also been strongly contested by First Nations and environmental advocacy groups who worry about the catastrophic effects that a potential oil spill from the pipeline could have on the environment.

Adding her own voice to the fray, Nissen got creative during her week-long strike with her campaign by making a video of her lip syncing to “Electric Avenue”. The video was a means of voicing her opposition to the government’s use of crude oil by promoting an electricity-based society.

Nissen, who is finishing her liberal and business studies degree, explained the inspiration to give up food for a week: “I can’t just be a passive observer and watch companies like Enbridge continue committing their environmental crimes. It’s not just about this pipeline project — I am looking at the bigger picture. This is about the environment, about social justice.”

The young activist has also organized other events that protest the building of the pipeline, including a gathering in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery as an effort to get signatures in opposition to the project. She has also participated in several protest marches against Harper.

Even though her efforts have gone mostly unnoticed by politicians thus far, Nissen is still hopeful for a sustainable environmental future by forgoing the use of oil entirely in favour of eco-friendly alternatives.

Nissen says there could be long term economic effects in the event of an oil spill. Fishing and community interests could be wiped out, and the government would have to spend millions of dollars to clean up a spill, she explained.

Despite Enbridge’s promises, Nissen, referencing the work of SFU researcher Tom Gunton, says there is simply no guarantee that would safeguard such a vast structure against a spill. She continued, “The transportation of oil is not the issue, but rather the weaning of our society off of the oil addiction.”

As for what the strike taught her, Nissen says she has taken away more from the experience than just an empty stomach. “I learned that there is fierce opposition to this project, and that I am not alone anymore. I’ve learned also that the spirit needs nourishment as much as the body. This is about humanity; we are fighting for the future.”

Winless Clan showing signs of life

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EIC

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January 20, 2014

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Despite sitting 0–5 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play, the Clan men’s basketball team is showing signs of life in 2014. Opening the calendar year with three back-to-back losses was disappointing, but the team is finally starting to come together and show composure in big games against top-ranked teams.

The Clan opened the year with losses against Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska Anchorage, but the team’s game against the GNAC third-place Nanooks showcased some of their unachieved potential. The men fell 58–67, but Taylor Dunn and Sango Niang led the campaign with 15 and 10 points each.

Later that weekend, against the Seawolves, it was Justin Cole who led the team with 24 points, proving the importance of his addition this season, while Dunn added 16 and David Gebru had 15.

On an individual level, the team has some great talent and their best games have seen the five men on the floor come together for a great team effort both on offence and defence. However, they have suffered from slow starts and disjointed play.

That wasn’t the case one week later when the men travelled to Bellingham, WA to face GNAC leaders Western Washington, who are also ranked 20th in NCAA Div. II. This game saw one of the most notable team performances of the season and the Clan headed into the second half with a two-point lead. Dunn led the scoring with 18 followed by Ibrahim Appiah with 17, Cole with 14 and Niang with 11, proving that when the big players get together, there is a lot of potential for this underrated team.

Unfortunately, WWU proved their mettle and their ranking in the second half, as they came back with a vengeance to take the game 82–69, but the Clan’s performance against a very tough competitor proves that they have the ability to play in this league, they just need to tighten up their game.

The team lost in its return to the friendly confines of West Gym, 100–70 against Montana State-Billings, but another committed team effort may be enough to secure their first GNAC victory of the season sooner than later.

Gender stereotypes saturate media

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EIC

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January 20, 2014

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Last week, students representing post-secondary newspapers across Canada participated in NASH, the Canadian University Press’s annual event for networking, education, and celebration of Canadian student journalists.

I was lucky enough to go with The Peak to the event. On our third night, I saw key-note speaker Aliya-Jasmine Sovani, of MTV fame, give a speech predominantly about her career in journalism and body image in mainstream media.

This seemed like a promising topic. She seemed to want to address the problem of the strict definition of beauty in media as a journalist, and a model who has scars on her body from a terrible accident in her past.

Her speech served to perpetuate that same problem, though. She contradicted herself creating confusion about the meaning of beauty, confusion that perpetuates negative gender stereotypes, and that is apparently prominent in North American mainstream media.

Hopefully we’re more concerned about losing women to cancer, rather than just their boobs.

I’m disappointed now that I walked out of her speech halfway through, as I missed some highlights that others pointed out afterwards, such as this very conventionally beautiful woman calling herself a poster child for unconventional beauty, and her asking an audience of journalism students whether or not they keep up with the news.

But, a couple of parts from the portion of her speech that I saw stood out to me: her story about her breast-cancer awareness commercial, and an off-hand comment about straight men.

Her sentiments about the commercial perhaps best exemplify the problem with her speech. The commercial features a woman in a bikini — a role Sovani took on short notice — walking along a pool-side, at whom every person in the pool stares at or gestures towards.

It ends with the statement: “You know you like them, now it’s time to save the boobs.” It’s supposed to be a fun, sexy, and fresh way to look at breast cancer.

Of course, there are inherent problems with the commercial itself. As several other students at NASH brought up to me, hopefully we’re more concerned about losing women to cancer, rather than just their boobs. Hopefully our society sees women as more than boobs, and hopefully we can see a variety of body types as sexy. Hopefully.

But aside from this, Sovani also introduced the video by saying in an offhand comment that she wished she had taken a laxative and done sit-ups beforehand. Albeit in a joking manner, she effectively suggested not only the extreme importance of trying to achieve one strict type of beauty, but also justifyied adopting a disease to achieve it.

Later in her speech, she said, in another off-hand comment, that all straight men lie, mostly because they look at other girls while with their own girlfriends. In saying this, she effectively separates straight men from women and homosexual men, and underhandedly inserts into the public subconscious the idea that proud women consider men liars, and that to be a straight man is to be a liar.

Beyond these comments being offensive in themselves, they’re complicated in these circumstances. The fact that these sentiments are paired with a speech on respecting positive body images is what creates the confusion resulting in negative stereotypes being swallowed easily, being almost equated with positive ones.

Am I taking Sovani’s fun, off-handed comments too seriously? Maybe. But I can’t ignore what appear to be the symptoms of the deep-set problems of mainstream gender images. We need to ask questions when people with media power make uninformed comments such as these without blinking an eye.

Sovani has her heart in the right place. But her speech is a reminder that perpetuation of gender stereotypes is not okay, even and especially when done in a casual way by a person with influence in the media.

Question political propaganda

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EIC

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January 20, 2014

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Political ads may be sharp criticisms of a candidate or party, but they tell an incomplete story, often leaving out inconvenient details. They claim to be informing the people, but they should be seen as nothing more than political propaganda, distorting and subverting the truth.

While every political group is guilty of this, my investigation for this article hinged on an online image that makes four claims about the prime minister, allegedly Canada’s “worst economist ever” (see above).

The first two claims stem from blog posts written last fall by Ralph Goodale, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party and former Minister of Finance under Paul Martin. In the original blogs, Goodale does not provide sources for his information, so readers cannot check the facts for themselves. In fact, I could not find any evidence to support the first claim.

While I will concede that Goodale may have had greater access to Canadian economic records in his position as finance minister, the information available to the majority of Canadians does not cover the period of time during which R. B. Bennett served as prime minister, — the Great Depression. Without any accessible evidence on which to base this claim, we, as critical thinkers, cannot readily accept it.

The second claim, that the Harper administration has added $169 billion to the national debt, also requires some examination. While the national debt has increased since the Conservatives first came to power in 2006, the figures here have been slightly exaggerated.

According to figures retrieved from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which runs a debt clock to show the per-second increase in debt, less than $100 billion had been added to the debt at the time Goodale wrote his blog. Currently, Conservative debt is just above $123 billion, which is still not great, but is better than the $169 billion claimed both by Goodale and the attack ad.

While the national debt has increased since the Conservatives first came to power, the figures here have been slightly exaggerated.

The third claim is true, the last six Conservative budgets have all been deficits. What this claim fails to point out, though, is that each of these deficit budgets has come after the Great Recession, the worst global economic crisis since the end of the Second World War.

While the Conservative government could have taken an easier road by raising taxes and cutting some of their financial initiatives, such as the Universal Childcare Benefit Plan, they made the choice to remain true to promises that had been made prior to forming the government, such as keeping taxes low.

As the Canadian economy continues to recover and the deficit in each budget since the Great Recession decreases, barring another crisis, it is likely that the government will be able to start tackling this problem in the foreseeable future.

Finally, concerning the fourth claim, while some elements of taxation have increased, such as Canada Pension Plan, federal taxes have not increased under the Conservative government.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Finance’s website, “The federal tax burden is now the lowest it has been in 50 years,” and the government since 2006 has “cut taxes for an average family of four by $3,220.” I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use an extra three thousand dollars in my bank account. I mean, that’s a full-time semester!

So as we move into next year’s election and more ads like this begin to appear, I only ask that we think critically about what we are reading and hearing.

Don’t be sheep. Be critical thinkers and look into both the information and its source, lest you become a tool in a political propaganda machine.

Salt and Paper: Vegetarian West African peanut soup

By

Peak Web

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January 20, 2014

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If there’s one thing university tends to be synonymous with, it’s a decline in health. This is true for those who arrive and rely on cafeteria food and alcohol for sustenance — particularly on this cold mountain of ours where culinary options are limited.

An appropriate solution is this: create wholesome dishes that will nurture stressed student bodies. This column, appearing here every other week, will aim to tell stories, share recipes and seek out fellow foodies.

Post-holidays, January comes rushing in with its cold wind and seemingly endless wall of bleak, winter months. The days are shorter but feel longer, and this makes for a three- or four-month period when all we can do is hope for spring.

There are a few remedies to the SADs that January brings with it, though: a hot cup of tea, a good book, and a big, steaming bowl of hearty soup.

If anything, winter is a good excuse to stay inside and cozy up with a good novel (or textbook) and to perfect some homemade soup recipes. I offer this one up as the first in a series of delicious and easy recipes that — I hope — will warm you through to the end of these dark months (and exams).

It sounds like a weird combination, but trust me on this one. The spicy, peanut-y flavours balance out the tomato base, and chard or kale lend a bit of colour. Don’t slam it until you try it.

• 1 tablespoon oil (I prefer coconut)

• 6 cups vegetable broth

• 1 medium red onion, chopped

• 2 tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger (or powdered ginger)

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 bunch kale or chard, chopped into 1 inch strips. Go with your gut on how much you want to toss in.

• 3/4 cup unsalted peanut butter (chunky or smooth)

• 1 cup canned crushed tomatoes

• Hot sauce, like Sriracha

• 1/4 cup roughly chopped peanuts, for garnish (optional)

Add oil to a pot and add onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add salt, then broth, and then bring to boil. While broth is warming, whisk peanut butter and crushed tomatoes in a separate bowl. Add some of the heated broth and whisk to incorporate; add this mixture to the pot. Lower heat to medium low. Add as much or as little hot sauce as you’d like — I like mine spicy, so I added about 1-2 tablespoons. Toss in the chard or kale, and simmer on low for about 15 minutes. Garnish with crushed peanuts if you’d like.

*Recipe adapted from cookieandkate.com

Woohoo, boohoo

By

EIC

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January 20, 2014

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Woohoo: baby steps

I respect the crap out of people who stand up for their principles. To do so is, at its deepest level, to justify living. It’s what gets you up in the morning, it gives life meaning outside of merely existing.

I don’t think standing up for your principles means trying to be perfect, though. For instance, some people who want to support a cause put a small financial amount towards it yearly. If that’s all they can do, then that’s awesome.

Some people who support vegetarianism choose to only cut out red meat from their diet, while some choose to cut out everything but fish, and others choose to be vegan. If these are steps in a direction that someone wants to go, they’re awesome, no matter where they fall on a scale of intensity.

Even the smallest movements are adding to that something greater. In lieu of perfection, a step in a direction is worthwhile, regardless of its size.

Boohoo: moral apathy

Apathy, while its roots are often understandable, garners less respect from me.

I often hear apathetic responses to vegetarianism. Some say it’s useless because almost every product has animal by-products in it. It’s true, tires, cleaning products, condoms, fabric softeners, roads, insulin, etc. can or do have such ingredients.

On the other hand, I’ve been insulted for not being vegan when I eat vegetarian, for not going all the way.

However, it does not follow to argue that if we can’t be perfect we should give up. People aren’t perfect, but there’s nothing wrong with trying to solve or at least draw attention to problems. Do you think voting matters? I sincerely hope you do, and sincerely hope you wouldn’t abstain from voting if it didn’t look like your party would win.

Apathy can achieve a perfection of correctness: if you don’t try, you can’t fail. While I appreciate this concern, pursuit of perfection isn’t an excuse to roll-over and give up.

University Briefs

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EIC

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January 20, 2014

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Emergency landing on UBC waters

At 3:30 pm on Sunday, a Harbour Air seaplane made an emergency landing in the waters off UBC. The plane was on its way from the Gulf Islands to Vancouver. No one was injured and the aircraft was not damaged; it was towed to shore shortly after the landing. The company’s VP Flight Operations and Safety, Eric Scott, said that there was a mechanical failure with the engine, but that it was still being investigated. Only one passenger was on board.

With files from The Ubyssey

Students surviving polar vortex

Despite harsh winter weather, all three U of T campuses have remained open. On Jan. 7, the university made the decision to remain open at 6:00 a.m., despite low temperatures around -30° C.

More than temperatures, the university was focused on what it called a “five-factor” policy including weather conditions, transit accessibility, campus and road conditions, and whether or not other institutions in the area are closed.

Though the weather raised concerns of accessibility for students with physical disabilities, it didn’t prevent U of T’s social programming from taking place – on Tuesday night, a Winterfest pub crawl event went ahead as planned.

With files from The Varsity

UNB shuts down during strike

Stop the presses! Full-time profs started a strike at the University of New Brunswick on the morning of Jan. 13; meetings between the university and full-time faculty were not enough to reach a collective agreement.

All classes at UNB are suspended for the duration of the strike, except for a few online courses. Although having decided to stay neutral, UNB student union president Ben Whitney said he was disappointed with the news and that the UNBSU would be “communicating with the students and getting them involved in the dialogue.”

With files from The Brunswickan

SFU Hockey showcases top college talent

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EIC

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January 20, 2014

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After a lengthy break over the holidays, the Simon Fraser University men’s hockey team welcomed the University of Princeton, University of North Dakota and cross town rivals University of British Columbia to Bill Copeland Arena for the second annual Great Northwest Showcase (GNS). SFU had an up and down weekend as they were trounced by Princeton 8-1, but narrowly lost to powerhouse North Dakota, 4-3.

Princeton and North Dakota, two NCAA Division I schools, are premier colleges for developing NHL talent. Princeton has had 23 players since 1963 drafted by NHL teams, while this year’s North Dakota squad boasts 15 NHL draft picks, highlighted by USA’s 2012-13 World Juniors hero Rocco Grimaldi and St. Louis Blues’ first rounder Jordan Schmaltz.

Simon Fraser played Princeton for their opening game of the GNS. In the first period, Princeton’s Andrew Calof, the eventual player of the game, put the visitors ahead early. Despite being heavily outshot, SFU found itself level when Graham Smerek forced a turnover in Princeton’s zone and found Clan leading scorer Nick Sandor, who buried the equalizer.

Sandor’s goal was SFU’s lone bright spot of the night. Calof led the Princeton onslaught with four points over the course of the game, which featured six third-period Princeton goals. The Clan was no match for Princeton’s obvious talent level.

SFU’s strategy in the second game of the showcase, against North Dakota, was to play a five man neutral zone trap: keep five men in front of the puck, absorb as much heat as North Dakota could bring, and capitalize on chances in transition. For most of the night, the strategy worked perfectly.

The first period came and went without any scoring, but North Dakota carried the play, peppering Clan netminder Graham Gordon with a multitude of shots.

North Dakota’s relentless fore-check finally paid off, as in the second, they drew a Clan penalty, and on the ensuing powerplay Grimaldi put his team ahead 1-0. SFU’s newest member Scott Brkich answered with a power play blast of his own, leveling the game at one goal apiece.

The third period featured as much drama as a hockey game could provide. SFU took a surprising one from a great individual effort by Trevor Piller, whose cross-ice pass hit a ND defenseman and went in. After the go ahead goal, North Dakota did what great teams do and picked up their game, eventually replying to SFU’s goal with two of their own, taking a 3–2 lead.

The seesaw period continued when Jono Ceci found Sandor cross-crease for the tap-in equalizer. North Dakota’s Dillon Simpson eventually put the Fighting Sioux ahead for good off of a mad scramble in the SFU crease. Ceci later had a glorious opportunity all alone at the side of the net, but was denied by Sioux netminder Zane Gothberg, securing North Dakota’s 4–3 victory.

SFU only had 17 shots in the game compared to North Dakota’s 51, but despite what the stat sheet may say, SFU did a great job of limiting North Dakota’s chances, as most of the 51 shots were from low percentage areas on the ice.

UBC eventually went on to win the GNS, with two victories out of two games played, but SFU’s valiant effort against North Dakota wrapped up a great weekend of high-level hockey.

Tippy Top Ten: SFU Observatory

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EIC

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January 20, 2014

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The weekly Peak Humour “Tippy Top 10” list is a hilarious and unique countdown of 10 jokes following a specific theme. It is completely original and in no way a rip-off of any segment from a popular late-night show hosted by David Letterman. In fact we here at The Peak had never even heard about David Letterman or his signature “Top Ten List” until we wrote that last sentence.

SFU recently announced a new $4.4 million astronomical observatory and plaza which will house a telescope that the public can use to view galaxies billions of light-years away. Anyway here’s this week’s Tippy Top 10 . . .

Tippy Top 10 Reasons to Get Excited About the New SFU Observatory

10. We’ll be first to see the asteroid that destroys UBC (and the rest of earth)

9. Can finally stop lying about the size of our telescope

8. Will provide a safe place for students to pursue passion in science, or trip on acid

7. Might actually find out the difference between astrology, astronomy and scientology

6. Discovering a new comet could make you the envy of dozens

5. Will finally have a place to take dates to see Uranus

4. It’ll centralize school’s nerds in a way the Quidditch team never could

3. No longer have to just wonder about what those damn Wookies are up to

2. View of galaxies billions of light-years away will allow you to see just how minor and insignificant your degree is

1. Three words: Martian Sex Voyeurism

Local singer lends voice to SFU recycling campaign

By

EIC

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January 20, 2014

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The lead singer of local band Bend Sinister lent his talents to SFU’s newest campaign, the Zero Waste Initiative, which is looking to greatly reduce the university’s environmental footprint by 2015.

Dan Moxon, an SFU alumni and singer from Bend Sinister, joined up with SFU Creative Services in early January to make a music video that explains the initiative to students. The video features Moxon singing about how to further separate waste into four new recycling streams: landfill waste, compostables, paper, and recyclables.

The Zero Waste Initiative is a joint project between the Sustainability Office and Facilities Services that aims to double the amount of waste SFU will divert from landfills over the next year by encouraging recycling and composting alternatives.

“2014 is the best possible time to implement this program because it’s now, and now is far better than later,” Rachel Telling told The Peak. Telling, the Zero Waste coordinator, explained that Metro Vancouver is implementing zero waste goals, which include a ban on organic wastes from its landfills by 2015.

“SFU is leading in this changeover . . . so members of our community not only have time to become familiar with it, but so they can themselves be leaders in this major change in how waste is managed in BC,” Telling explained.

However, with a new system comes the challenge of making recycling exciting for SFU students. After brainstorming the best medium through which to connect with students, the Sustainability Office and Creative Services settled on the idea of a “playful and catchy video.”

Enter Moxon. As a member of SFU Creative Services by day and musician by night, Moxon offered to lend his songwriting talents and personality to the Zero Waste video.

“It’s pretty easy to get behind green initiatives and recycling and doing that sort of thing in general, and it sounded like a fun project,” Moxon said. “Alex [Konyves], the key creative director, was the one who approached me about being involved and he just had this idea to do a sort of musical-esque video to promote it and it just sounded like an interesting way to approach it and raise awareness around it.”

Moxon has been composing music for SFU Creative Services since 2006, but this video was a new experience for the entire team.

“This was the first time they asked me to act in something, so that’s a little out of my element, but I sort of said I’d give it a whirl and try,” said Moxon. “At first they were talking about having a chorus line with people dancing, and I said I don’t mind singing the song and doing my thing, but I don’t know if I’m going to jump around and dance . . . it’s a little bit out of my element, but I was happy to do it for an interesting and good cause.”

Although Bend Sinister’s new album is coming out this March, Moxon does not feel like he needs to choose between being frontman of the band and the face of the Zero Waste Campaign. “I think I can probably do both at the same time,” he said. “I don’t think they have any further campaign schedules for me to go from campus to campus promoting being green and recycling . . . I’d be happy to do both.”

SFU hopes to divert 70% of its waste from landfills by 2015, but for Telling this is only the first step in a grander environmental initiative: “Our vision is that, by the end of 2015, the only people not understanding and accepting as natural how to use the new bins will be people arriving at SFU from beyond the Lower Mainland.”