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Invisible Disabilities

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EIC
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The divide between our conceptions of access and success

By Rachel Braeuer
Photos by Mark Burnham

If you can read this, consider yourself lucky. Jeffrey Moore couldn’t have when he was eight years old. Finn Long is just four years old, but it’s doubtful he could read it out loud to you, even if he had the ability to read. What these two have in common is that both experienced barriers to learning, and sadly they seem to be representative of BC’s education systems. At SFU, we talk a lot about engagement, but how engaged can we possibly be if intelligent and capable people from our communities face such a host of barriers to access this so-called “public education”?

The logical first step to getting into university is getting your high school diploma, but cases like Moore and Long’s are emblematic of how difficult that can be. Moore’s parents were told 17 years ago that his North Vancouver elementary school wouldn’t be able to support his needs. Instead, the school suggested he go to a private school, paid for entirely out of pocket. Long was diagnosed with autism and waited 920 days for treatment in Surrey, a city that supposedly has a “no wait list policy.”

He is four years old and he still can’t speak, but videos of him show that he’s a happy and intelligent little boy. Despite the money the government claims to be throwing at services, stories like Long’s and Moore’s let us infer that these efforts are not working. In theory, the adequate support for kids who experience barriers to learning is there; in praxis, however, this is often not the case. More importantly, do you want the diagnosis — and the stigma that comes with it — that is necessary in order to access this extra support?

Elementary and Secondary School
There is a distinct difference between the kind of support that elementary and secondary schools must provide for students with a legitimate disability, and that found in post-secondary school — the difference of a right versus a privilege. Despite the various forms of funding that are made available to students, post-secondary as a whole is still legally a privilege in Canada whereas a grade 12 education is a right. This legal difference affects the way the education system must operate to address the different needs of students with disabilities, and is part of the reason the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) exists.

Where the focus in postsecondary becomes providing disabled students with the resources to equally access an education, primary and secondary institutions work around success-based mandates.

An IEP acknowledges that not all students can define success in the same way. In theory, a team of teachers, support workers, counsellors, and family would work together to define what success means for that individual and then proceed based on that plan, rather than on the general standards set out by the ministry. The good news is that students who might have otherwise failed are now able to succeed on a scale that is fair to them. The bad news is that this scale can’t always translate into the qualifications necessary for achieving a grade 12-equivalency diploma; while some students may graduate, they do not graduate with the same credentials as everyone else.

The counter argument is that without the IEPs, these students probably wouldn’t have succeeded to the degree that they had. While this may be true, questions over the effectiveness of IEPs in general abound. Tiffany Lodoen has a Master’s degree in counseling and has worked in the Alberta school system, both in the public and private sectors. While completing her undergraduate degree in education, she recalls having only one class on how to write an IPP [Alberta’s IEP], and this class was so large that her professor made writing one IPP into a group project. To her surprise, after becoming a teacher, she was responsible for completing nine IPPs by herself in her first month of teaching, something that her education had left her wanting.

This isn’t to say that individual- based assessment programs don’t work. “I have seen the IPP program work extremely well with children who have very high needs,” says Lodoen. “[But only] when implemented by teachers who know how to set appropriate goals, how to measure those goals, and who are able to access the resources needed to set the child up for success.” Emphasis here needs to be placed on providing teachers with the resources necessary to implement these plans.

After completing her BA and PDP at UBC, Joanna Martinez went on to do her practicum in a classroom containing five ESL students, one extreme student, two students with ADHD/ADD, and two unlabelled students. She was not provided with an educational assistant (EA) because the one extreme student had not been labelled extreme enough. Unfortunately, there were no job openings available for her in the public system upon her completion. Instead, she took her current position as the director of education at a local Sylvan Learning Centre. “Students with learning disabilities can learn to work around that disability in a lot of circumstances, and be just as successful as a ‘normal’ student,” she says of her experience.

She feels that, when it comes down to it, the question is one of providing alternatives and ample resources. Martinez is not the only educator hesitating to label ability levels in the name of acquiring funding and resources. In fact, there is a movement in the education field towards response to intervention (RTI)— a theory that seeks to provide a host of resources to struggling students before finding a diagnosis, rather than relying on a diagnosis.

This theory moves away from the medicalization of disabilities and towards the normalization of them; not surprisingly, it has proven wildly successful in all available test data. However, in a system so poorly funded that it can’t afford to hire welltrained teachers — and that informs parents of children with disabilities they’d be better off footing the bill for themselves — it’s questionable whether students would really be given fair access to the resources they might require.

Post-Secondary
Many students have had to simply deal with their disabilities, regardless of IEP’s or RTI’s. “[My dyslexia] was never diagnosed and I never got tested because I wasn’t disruptive in class,” says Douglas College student Jenelle Davies. “They just thought I was lazy.” When she got to university, she attempted to go about the process of getting help from the disabilities centre on campus.

The response she got was less than helpful. “Since I was never formally diagnosed in high school, the college said I needed to pay $2,000 to a psychologist to do all the testing,” she remembers. Until then she could receive no formal assistance, and while they did indicate that they could try to reimburse her the fee paid, there was no 100 per cent guarantee they would be able to.

Kate M. has dropped out of university twice now, and only discovered she had a learning disability a year after leaving the second time. “The first time, I dropped out because forcing myself to write papers made me incapable of sleeping for two weeks,” she says. The second time she was physicaly unable to sit still for the length of the class. She quipped that she didn’t even consider that ADHD could have been a cause — and why would she? She otherwise achieved well, and her professors were usually good about giving her extensions. What was shocking, however, was that Kate wasn’t aware that her university even had a disabilities centre or that there were services available to people like her.

Disabilities at SFU
How does a university’s disabilities centre work, then? If there is a move away from labeling at the primary and secondary levels, then why would education at the tertiary level require a doctor’s note of sorts to access its resources? It comes down to legal definitions and responsibilities on the school’s behalf. “The reality is that there is a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, there are rights and there are university policies,” explains Mitchell Stoddard, director of SFU’s Centre for Students with Disabilities. “[In this document], there are protected classes of individuals, of which disabilities is one.” Institutions like SFU need to ensure that there is no discrimination against these individuals; groups within the institution like the centre ensure that these legal requirements are met.

Moreover, without these documents, the centre wouldn’t have the authority to give students with disabilities any resources. The legal position of those with disabilities as a “classified group of individuals” means that the centre must first have some form of vetted documentation before they can offer any assistance. SFU, like all Canadian universities, is working on an access-based mandate. Because universities focus on access rather than success, the responsibility to prove need is placed on the individual and not the school; once need is established, however, it becomes the university’s responsibility to accommodate them however possible.

Once the legal threshold is surpassed, the centre can and does provide a fantastic array of confidential services to students, including granting extra time to write exams or the ability to write exams away from peers, note-taking services, and providing alternatively formatted learning materials. The centre also acknowledges the effects of mental health on academic success, offering services to those with certain anxiety disorders, depression, and a myriad of other mental health impairments.

Individuals don’t have to have a diagnosed disability to come in and see someone at the centre. “[University is a] common time for people to first experience mental health problems,” says Stoddard. He goes on to explain that the rites of passage associated with coming to university can trigger previously dormant mental health issues. Anyone who is experiencing difficulties with their education at SFU that they hadn’t before should consider making use of SFU’s resources. “A student can approach us to talk about their condition or their concerns, and we’re not going to be reporting to anyone who they are,” Stoddard assures. “We don’t inform other bodies within the institution of whether or not someone is registered with us. Students need to know we’re a confidential service to the degree possible.”

While the process of getting diagnosed with a disability may seem costly and daunting, the benefits of being identified with this classified group seem to outweigh the cons. Logistically, what is a large fee for the individual translates into a much larger cost for the institution, something that SFU — unlike many other institutions — is actually willing to invest in.

Conclusion
There is a dissonance between institutional mandates regarding disabilities and education that confuses this issue. While the necessity to label and diagnose is often expensive and cumbersome, without naming these groups, we cannot grant them specific protected rights. Revisiting the notion of tertiary education as a right and not a privilege might offer a source of unity for the two educational sectors.

That fact that families like the Moores and the Longs are receiving attention for their struggles with disabilities is indicative of the positive shifts that seem to be occurring in terms of the growing acceptance and support of disabilities in a wide context. In terms of education, it is clear that the systems we currently have in place have a long way to go before they can be considered wholly beneficial to the groups that make use of them. We can only hope that a more informed public will bring greater support for initiatives like RTI that would give young students in Canada more opportunities to grow.

Shiraz Ramji: campus bard

By
EIC
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By Ljudmila Petrovic
Photos by Mark Burnham

Most people at SFU have at some point talked to Shiraz, the kind man with no qualms about stop­ ping people to give them his poetry. Even people that graduated from SFU several years ago know of him. Yet few of us halt our everyday rush for long enough to ask him about himself. We talk about our classes and take the poetry he hands us, but don’t really know his story, or why he does what he does.

The man
Shiraz Ramji was born in Tanzania, East Africa on Dec. 10, 1948–which he is quick to point out is human rights day. Even as he describes his heritage, Shiraz maintains his poetic air. “My father, Walji was a fear­buster and he educated me to respect people as global friends and not as harmful strangers,” he reminisces. “My mother, Rehmatbai was a greed-buster, and she educated me to enjoy people­ friendly freedom to share food, knowledge, and experiences.”

He finished his graduate studies in Europe, and has been associated with SFU in one way or another for the past 10 years: he has been a student, staff mem­ ber, researcher, and a guest lecturer in Education, Gerontology and First Nations Studies. He is also an avid supporter of the SFU community, frequently attending and discussing SFU arts and sports events. He has no intention of slowing down anytime soon, either. “Life is a journey of life-long learning,” he explains. “At age 64, I am developing a curriculum to start a school of grandparents in an Elementary School.” He is also taking his poetry to the next step, and is currently working on his poetry e-book, Fruitful Girl Power and Sports Poetry.

The poetry
Shiraz started writing poetry in elementary school after a teacher told him he spoke like a poet and should start writing down and sharing his words. He cites simple everyday interactions as his inspirations, usually from public transit or public events. His campus presence has become so strong that he says he even gets requests to write poetry, including from students and coaches.

When I ask him why he hands out poetry on campus, he is quick to correct me: “I never hand out poetry like the Metro or 24-hour newspapers, or like the corporations who hand out coupons for their products,” he specifies, stating he’d rather be seen as “sharing” the poetry with the SFU community.

The vision
Though Shiraz has a strong cultural background, he prefers to identify himself as “a global citizen and a pacifist working for gender justice and global peace.” Poetry is his medium in spreading this message. He sees poetry as a way to celebrate our differences, and to see the beauty in our commonalities – both globally and on the level of the SFU community. He sees his poems as an extension of the messages that his per­sonal heroes fought so hard to spread: the message of Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon. With a special in­ terest in the field of Gerontol­ ogy, Shiraz believes in working against ageism, as well against all other forms of repression. He hopes to someday see SFU pro­ mote Canadian Grandparents Day (which falls on Oct. 20). Everyone on the SFU campus is a grandchild and some members of the community are grandparents, he reasons.

Thompson Rivers student union to create LGBTQ collective

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EIC
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Omega Pride CUP

TRUSU hopes to implement the idea that has been discussing since last year

By Justine Cleghorn
Photos by Justine Cleghorn / The Omega

KAMLOOPS (CUP) — The Thompson Rivers University Students’ Union (TRUSU) is planning to add a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ) collective to the union after its annual general meeting on Jan. 24. 50 votes endorsing the creation of a LGBTQ collective are needed to secure its formation.

The only way to create a new advocacy representative on the council within TRUSU bylaws is through the annual general meeting, said TRUSU president Dustin McIntyre. “That’s why we didn’t do it when we first got into office. We had to wait and create the proper paper work.” The formation of the LGBTQ collective has been a priority for TRUSU since last year. “Right now, not having the LGBTQ collective is silencing a community that should have a voice,” said Alexandra Moulton, head of the women’s collective.

A pride collective “will make room for all people with different gender and sexual constructions to have a space for advocacy,” she added. A club is like a social gathering, whereas a collective is a more structured, hands-on approach to talk about issues, said Katie Hutfluss, a council member since April 2012 and one of the main organizers of last year’s pride parade. “This is where people learn about themselves, and we want to be that support group and tell them that being gay is okay,” she said.

“One of the biggest things that I have found is although more and more people are coming out, a lot of people are still very scared,” said pride club member Corey Keith. “They are afraid of being discriminated against.” He continued: “Having a collective allows for the creation of a safe space and a community that can share experience and information at a higher level . . . It’s not just about putting on a fun event, it is also about creating safety and awareness.”

An estimated 350 people participated in the Kamloops pride parade in April 2012. “The response to the pride parade is a testament to why we need a pride collective,” Moulton said. “I’m really excited for it because I think it is something that we need on this campus and as well as in Kamloops as a community,” McIntyre said. “My fingers are really crossed that it goes through.” TRUSU also hopes to add a graduate students collective to the union following this year’s AGM.

SFU found guilty of bargaining in bad faith

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EIC
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BC Labour Relations Board sides with CUPE 3338 in claim against the university

By Alison Roach
Photos by Mark Burnham

Last Monday, the BC Labour Relations Board (LRB) ruled that SFU is guilty of bargaining in bad faith with local union CUPE 3338. The union includes clerical workers, support staff, library workers, cleaning staff, and food and beverage service workers at SFSS services. CUPE 3338 first filed the claim against SFU with the BC Labour Relations Board last fall.

Back in October of 2010, CUPE 3338 and SFU signed a protocol agreement which restricted the parties from putting any new proposals on the bargaining table from that time on. In the proposals exchanged after that agreement, neither party mentioned changes to the University Pension Plan. However, in November of last year during mediations, the university put proposed amendments to the Pension Plan on the table for bargaining.

Also problematic is the fact that the Pension Plan is not administered within CUPE 3338’s collective agreement, but with a separate committee — the Employee’s Joint Pension Committee (EJPC) — that has a representative from each union and association on campus. The Pension Plan itself is in financial crisis, and is now reportedly more than $64.5 million in the red. In an attempt to fix these issues, university representative Dario Nonis stated in an email to the EJPC that the university “would not be considering matters of compensation such as a salary increase in isolation from the pension issue. The pension problem has to be addressed first.”

After receiving legal opinion, CUPE 3338 stated in a Dec. 6, 2012 letter to President Petter that “the Union cannot unilaterally negotiate amendments to the Pension Plan, or withdraw its members from the Pension Plan, without the consent of the other bargaining agent members of the Pension Plan.”

This left the two parties at an impasse, with the university’s offers to CUPE 3338 all addressing changes to the Pension Plan, and CUPE 3338 unable to respond to these changes. In their official decision, the LRB found the university’s attempt to keep the Pension Plan on the bargaining table a breach of the Labour Relations Code.

In an interview with The Peak, CUPE 3338 business agent John Bannister stated that the union is prepared to deal with the pension issue, but after bargaining issues have been resolved. Bannister went on to say that CUPE 3338 sent a final offer to the employer before the Christmas break that the union is hoping to get a response too now that the decision has been made by the LRB to find SFU guilty of bad faith bargaining.

“We’re anxious to get on with the settlement so we can get on to deal with the pension issues,” said Bannister, “that’s where our aim in this is.” This sentiment was echoed by CUPE BC universities coordinator Tracy Mathieson, who said in a statement: “In light of this decision, we look forward to getting back to the bargaining table — this time for a contract. Our calendars are open and we are ready to meet.”

When contacted by The Peak, officials for the university declined to comment on the situation, given that no collective agreement has been reached. However, a labour update on the official SFU website acknowledged the LRB’s judgment and stated: “The University is currently studying the decision to determine how best to respond.”

While the university did come to a tentative agreement with the Teaching Support Staff
Union (TSSU) at the close of last semester, CUPE 3338 has now gone nearing three years without an agreement. The collective agreement currently in effect expired on Mar. 31, 2010. Though many universities in the province were in bargaining with their respective unions this past fall, SFU is the only university in the that has had the ruling of bad faith bargaining charged against it.

SFU researcher looks to cell processes to treat cancer

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EIC
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Stopping cell “self-eating” may make cancer treatment more effective

By Kristina Charania
Photos by Yale Rosen

Lab research conducted by SFU associate professor Sharon Gorski suggests that cancer therapies can become more effective through the inhibition of a Pac-Man-like mechanism in eukaryotic (non-bacterial) cells. “A cell can consume parts of itself to help it survive until conditions are more favourable,” Gorski said in an interview with The Peak.

Autophagy — which literally means “self-eating” — is a basic mechanism that breaks down unwanted or unusable products generated in active cells. Vesicles act as waste containers that envelop parts of the cell’s interior cytoplasm or whole organelles during vesicle formation.

These vesicles fuse with the cell’s lysosome, which provides enzymes for the breakdown of each vesicle’s contents. “Autophagy is not simply just a degradation mechanism. It should more accurately be thought of as recycling,” Gorski explained.

The processed products are then released through pores in the lysosome and refuel the cell with necessary nutrients or participate in other cellular activities. This preserves the cell’s catabolic levels for homeostatic maintenance and allows the cell to adapt to self-stress or other environmental impositions.

Gorski’s current project examines the role of autophagy inhibition in chemotherapy treatment. The chemotherapy analyses focus on aggressive, treatment-resistant triple negative breast cancer, which has fewer treatment options than other types of cancer. In response to radiation, cells turn up autophagy in order to help the cell adapt, survive, and cope with the extra stress.

By observing breast cancer cell lines that are resistant or sensitive to chemotherapy, Gorski found that autophagy inhibition greatly increases the success of anti-cancer treatments like chemotherapy. “A lot of the time, a tumour will not respond to treatment or they will initially respond and then become resistant.

That poses a very significant clinical problem,” says Gorski. “[Autophagy inhibitor during chemotherapy] could be a particularly promising approach to treat this form of cancer.” In collaboration with SFU chemistry professor Robert Young and SFU molecular biology and biochemistry professor Steven Jones, Gorski is also testing proteins with the potential to halt autophagy in order to find the best inhibitor for the process.

Appointed as an SFU associate professor in the Faculty of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in 2008, Gorski began researching autophagy mechanisms as part of her post-doctoral and PhD studies. She completed her bachelors of science degree in biology with honours at SFU and earned her master’s degree in genetics and PhD in developmental biology at UBC and Washington University School of Medicine, respectively. During her initial lab studies, scientific literature on autophagy was scarce. After years of attending conferences and directing research, Gorski now conducts her research at a lab in the BC Cancer Research Center. “I found [autophagy] very interesting and exciting,” Gorski notes. “And, most importantly, I saw that there was a lot of potential to further explore the process, particularly in the areas of cancer and human health.”

The senior scientist recently explained her findings at the third segment of Cafe Scientifique, entitled “Dining in: investigating cellular self-digestion for cancer therapy.” This informal discussion forum is hosted by SFU, co-sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and intends to raise awareness of public health problems while linking them to research conducted by local researchers.

“It’s important that the public understands what we’re doing and why we’re trying to do it,” Gorski concludes. “Our hope is that we can make a contribution to society that will help people in the long run.”

TWU under fire for proposed law school

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EIC
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Opponents point to the university’s “community covenant”

By Leah Bjornson

Trinity Western University’s proposed law school has come under heavy criticism from the Council of Canadian Law Deans (CCLD), who argue the school discriminates against homosexuals and is therefore “fundamentally at odds with the core values of all Canadian law schools,” according to Bill Flanagan, president of the CCLD, as quoted by The Vancouver Sun. At issue is the Christian university’s “community covenant,” which all faculty and students must sign. Along with stipulations that students “cultivate Christian virtues” and “support other members of the community,” they are also obligated to abstain from lying, stealing, and “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.” Students are expected to follow these expectations both on and off the TWU campus.

In response to TWU’s plan to create the law school on its Langley campus, the CCLD sent a letter to the Federation of Canadian Law Societies (FCLS), whose National Committee on Accreditation is involved with the administration of Canadian law societies. Bill Flanagan, president of the council and dean of law at Queen’s University, said in an interview with The Toronto Star, “In our view, this is a covenant that clearly contemplates discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation . . . and it permits disciplinary measures against gay and lesbian students up to and including expulsion.”

This is not the first time that the university’s policies have been questioned. In 2001, the British Columbia College of Teachers rejected TWU’s application for certification of its teachers training program because its covenant was not congruent with the BCCT’s anti-discrimination policy. This rejection was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada, who found that “the Council of the B.C. College of Teachers . . . erroneously concluded that equality of rights on the basis of sexual orientation trump freedom of religion and association. They do not.”

Twelve years later, Trinity’s proposal presents a similar challenge. Despite being “consistent with federal and provincial law”, the Covenant’s interdiction of homosexual relationships still faces fierce opposition. “The covenant is deplorable,” stated Dr. Sam Black, an associate professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University. “This is because the restriction on gay sex is both highly intrusive and discriminatory while also having no conceivable pedagogic rationale.”

Despite similar criticism, Trinity Western claims that it should not be judged on one clause alone. TWU, which just received its seventh consecutive A+ rating for its Quality of Teaching and Learning from The Globe and Mail, released a press statement clarifying the issue: “There is no anti-gay or discriminatory language in TWU’s Community Covenant.”

Furthermore, the release insists that the law school would be a huge asset to BC and to
Canada, addressing areas of real need in Canadian law school education at no cost to taxpayers. SFU’s Dr. Brook Pearson, a professor of humanities at SFU, provides a voice of moderation: “My initial knee-jerk reaction was to be angry and upset . . . but then I took a step back and I thought, there is no such thing as a Christian lawyer. There are lawyers who are Christians. They still have to go through the same process to become accredited.”

“The issue is a storm in a tea kettle,” he continued. “And the fact that it is a storm in a tea kettle is the issue. The place of religion is not something we’re allowed to talk about.” A decision on TWU’s proposal is expected within 6–12 months, and if accepted the university will welcome its first law students in fall 2015.
 

Philosopher’s Café honoured, celebrates 15th anniversary

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EIC
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SFU’s popular program given an award for Best Practices in Higher Education

By Alison Roach

SFU’s Philosophers’ Cafe celebrates its 15th anniversary this Feb. 28, and has been awarded for Best Practices in Higher Education by the two-day World Universities Forum held on Jan. 10–11. The Best Practices award recognizes the most significant higher education practices of the year, and may go to post-secondary institutions for accomplishments in research projects, student services, and innovative curricula.

This year’s World Universities Forum was attended by 25 institutions from around the world. Previous Best Practices Awards have been presented to Plymouth University for their entre for Advanced Inquiry in the Integrative Arts, and the University of the Free State in South Africa for the most significant practices implemented in that year, facing problems of racial division, student failure, and academic stagnation. SFU Philosophers’ Cafe was founded in 1992 by Yosef Wosk, with the goal of bringing diverse groups of people for the Vancouver community together for stimulating conversations on a huge variety of topics ranging from social issues. Since then, over 70,000 people have attended Philosophers’ Cafe.

The program is a part of SFU’s Continuing Studies program, and cafes take place throughout the Metro Vancouver area with talks in venues located in municipalities from downtown Vancouver out to Maple Ridge. Philosophers’ Cafe has even invaded cyberspace, with groups of over a thousand online participants coming together on online platform Second Life, hosted out of North Vancouver.

Cafes take place wherever there is room for a conversation, including churches, community centres, libraries, and the traditional coffee shop. Current director Michael Filimowicz has been leading the program for the past two years. Filimowicz is a SFU lecturer in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology, specializing in media arts.

While philosophers’ cafes may seem archaic to some, Filimowicz has found plenty of support in the community. “As much as people always talk about that we’re in this age of social media and online profiles and media-wikitweets — Tweet-leaks, leakytweets, whatever — there’s no substitute for talking face to face,” said Filimowicz. “People like this experience of having serious conversations or stimulating conversations in an actual space with other real people.”

Philosophers’ Cafe also functions as part of SFU’s overall goal of engagement. “[Philosophers’ Cafe is] probably the university’s flagship program for community engagement, as part of the university’s overall goal of engaging Vancouver,” said Filimowicz. He went on to say that one way to better engage to community is to have more SFU faculty be part of the program.

In his time as director, Filimowicz has focused heavily on expanding the program by recruiting more SFU experts as moderators. “When I started directing the program two years ago, most of the moderators were non-SFU, and now most of the moderators are SFU related people,” said Filimowicz.

SFU moderators include faculty, grad students, alumni, or retired faculty. Since Filimowicz has been directing the program, somewhere around 60 new SFU-related experts have come on board the program as moderators. Philosophers’ cafes are popular in cities around the world, but Filimowicz hailed his program as unique in that it’s backed by a post-secondary education in a way others cafes are not.

“There’s a very strong commitment at all levels — from the president’s commitment to community engagement, Jon Driver VPA’s commitment with getting faculty involved with community engagement, and supporting this as something that the university pays for,” said Filimowicz. “Everyone recognizes that the program generates a lot of good will out in the community and is important in terms of the overall goal in engaging the general public. There’s plenty of support.”
 

What’s the spill about Enbridge?

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Protestors gathered in downtown Van during the first set of Enbridge hearings

By Sarah Campbell

On Jan. 14, 2013 more than 4,500 protestors amassed outside the Sheraton Wall Centre to protest the eight day long hearings of Enbridge. Previous hearings throughout the province were held with full public access, but Vancouver and Victoria’s hearings have barred direct public access. The hearings are instead being broadcasted online through the panel’s website. After breaking the public -barred access during a Vancouver hearing on Jan. 15, six protestors, organized by Defend our Coast and supplemented with Idle No More participants, were arrested.

Rallies were held all over British Columbia, led by Aboriginal leaders and members of the opposition from both Ottawa and BC. “We are concerned about the project because of the risks that come along with it and the limited amount of benefits,” says Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council during the rally in Prince George: “Our aboriginal rights, our human rights, and our rights as citizens of Canada, we have to stand up for that, it’s much more than just a project, we have to stand up for mother earth. . . .”

A major concern is the potential risk of an oil spill. Former BC Minister of Environment, David Anderson, stated, “it’s always been the same code, the coast is too fragile and the technology is inadequate to make this a safe proposition. Nothing has changed, except that with climate change getting more severe, the level of risk is getting higher.”

Tom Gunton a registered professional planner specializing in resource and environmental policy and professor at SFU stated that regardless of whoever operates the pipeline, a significant number of spills are an inevitable part of the pipeline transport system. Gunton explained that Enbridge has on average 70 spills per year, and the addition of the Northern Gateway pipeline could generate at least 11 further spills per year.

However, according to Enbridge’s website, “Spills are not inevitable and Northern Gateway has placed high priority on both the assessment of risks and the measures required to mitigate those risks, as well as response capabilities and the equipment and logistics support a rapid response would require.”

Enbridge’s “Marine assessment and our first response plan” states that Enbridge will “employ the highest worldwide safety and navigational standards” to prevent a spill. Additionally, Northern Gateway is participating in a voluntary assessment, the TERMPOL review process, (a set of extensive guidelines, which are to be considered when analyzing vessel safety and the risks associated with vessel maneuvers and operations). “Enbridge has stated that as a company it will not accept liability for risks that come with pipeline and oil spills,” Gunton states, “So my question to the public is, if Enbridge thinks the pipeline is so safe, why won’t they accept the responsibility for damages? If there are alternatives with no tanker spills and no risk, why even consider the pipeline?”

Long-term economic benefits are also widely debated. Enbridge claims economic development in BC and Canada will be a direct benefit of the pipeline, projecting new jobs and a combined tax revenue to local, provincial and national government of around $2.6 billion.

They also intend to expand further fuel trade to China. However, Gunton refutes this, stating that the project will only generate 80 direct jobs and 500 permanent ones. Additionally, 8,000–9,000 jobs currently held in BC will be negatively affected. Enbridge proposed the Northern Gateway Pipeline on May 27, 2012 to the National Energy Board. The project includes two 1,172 km pipes between Bruderheim AB and Kitimat Marine Terminal in BC. One pipe, 30 inches in diameter, will carry on average 525,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Kitimat, the other 20-inches diameter pipe will carry back 193,000 barrels of condensate per day to Bruderheim. The pipes will be buried on average one meter below ground, except in water crossings.
 

University Briefs – January 28, 2013

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By Amara Janssens

Three Albertan campuses will receive mental health funding from the province
On Jan. 16, 2013, Alberta’s Minister for Health announced that the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge will each receive $1 million per year for three years. This funding will provide additional staff for mental and addiction services at the three universities. However, concerns have been raised questioning why other post-secondary institutions, such as Grant MacEwan University, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and Olds College, were not included in the funding.

With files from The Gateway

Ryerson Students’ Union renewed membership to the Canadian Peace Alliance
On Jan. 10, 2013, the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) voted to rejoin the national lobbying group, Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA). CPA was founded in 1985 as coalition of social groups and has more than 150 members. The group has lobbied the government on numerous occasions, including Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan. Currently, the group is lobbying on a campaign to de-list Hamas and Hezbollah from Canada’s list of terrorist organizations. Although the RSU has no official stance on these issues, they stated that Ryerson students want to RSU to conduct anti-war and peace work.

With files from The Eyeopener

Student loses trial against University of Ottawa’s student union
In Oct. 2012, the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) was taken to Ontario Small Claims Court by student Edward Inch when his student union fees could not be reimbursed. Inch was granted resignation from the SFUO by the then-president Amalia Savva, however his fees of $92.60 were not reimbursed. The Small Claims Court denied Inch’s case because Savva did not have the proper authority to accept Inch’s resignation. In addition, Inch agreed to pay student union fees as part of the terms and conditions one must accept in order to enroll in courses at the University of Ottawa. After the ruling, Inch made a $50 cheque to the Children’s Miracle Network in lieu of the SFUO seeking legal costs.

With files from The Fulcrum

LAST WORD: How Yoga came to the west and lost itself on the way

By
EIC
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WEB-yoga-Mark Burnham

By Ljudmila Petrovic
Photos by Mark Burnham

It seems like no matter where you go in Vancouver, you cannot escape the fresh-faced, mat-carrying yogis that dot the city’s sidewalks and studios. In fact, Vancouver’s 2011 designation as one of the worst-dressed cities is mostly blamed on the excess of yoga pants. Sure, you can call me a hypocrite — my keychains are filled with yoga studio tags — but that’s never stopped me from ranting about something before. Nor can we deny that the practice has become so unlike the meditation yogis thousands of years ago were striving for that it is nearly unrecognizable. No matter how many namastes are exchanged in our over-priced swanky classes, the fact remains that simple spirituality has been replaced with the likes of Yogilates (a hybrid between yoga and pilates) and Power Yoga.

We now have yoga raves — a kundalini class with music and glow sticks — antigravity yoga and harmonica yoga (which is exactly what it sounds like). In April 2011, 21-year-old Jean Wharf was kicked off of a Vancouver Skytrain for refusing to take off her “Fuck Yoga” pin. Yeah, that was a big deal at the time because of freedom of speech, and organizations like the B.C. Civil Liberties Association got involved and so on. Whatever, that’s irrelevant in this context. What matters here is that there is clearly a movement to counter that of yoga’s rising popularity. There is a record label with the same name, and an entire website that sells merchandise emblazoned with the words.

Just as there is an entire army of downward-doggy-styling, wheatgrassdrinking, quinoa-munching individuals, so too is there a group that thinks they’re full of shit.

Not everyone takes such an angry approach. There are also those who feel that yoga has become grossly misrepresented by the styles of yoga that have developed in recent years. The “Not Yoga” group, for example, jokes about this on their light-hearted Facebook page. “[This] group is playfully devoted to the ways in which yoga is misrepresented,” reads their page. “Yoga is now so totally altered that we can cry, get angry, or laugh, and laughing might be the most positive.” Those that subscribe to these ideas are not of the belief that yoga is even being practiced wrong, so much as that its very essence has been misrepresented; its practitioners strive for the poses and have lost the spiritual aspect on the way. “Yoga is primarily a spiritual discipline. I don’t mean to belittle the Yoga postures,” writes Paramahansa Yogananda in The Essence of Self-Realization. “The body, moreover, is a part of our human nature, and must be kept fit lest it obstruct our spiritual efforts.”

Swami Chidananda Saraswati, head of the internationally known Sivananda Ashram, is another proponent of the idea that the familiar poses we view as making up a class are actually inconsequential — or at least minimal — in the grand scheme of an individual’s practice. “Physical posture serves at best as an auxiliary, or a minor form of Yoga,” he has explained.

In recent years, there has also been more media attention surrounding the “Take Back Yoga” approach, headed by the small, but significant, Hindu American Foundation (HAF). The group believes that those practicing yoga should become more aware of the Hindu traditions that lie at the core of the practice. At 2009’s Parliament of World Religions, Suhag Shukla of HAF brought to attention the rising commercialization of the yoga movement and the ways in which this was insulting to its Hindu roots. The following year, The New York Times drew more attention to the cause with the article “Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga’s Soul.” Since then, there has been a rise in the discussions surrounding yoga’s roots and whether the West is honoring the traditions of yoga or bastardizing them.

A prime example is that of Bikram Choudhury, an Indian-born yoga instructor and founder of the Bikram stream of yoga. Based in Los Angeles, he is the self-proclaimed guru to the stars, he is filthy rich and unapologetic about it. His system consists of 90-minute long sessions, held in a 105-degree Fahrenheit room. The session involves a sequence of 26 poses and two breathing exercises, which Choudhury unsuccessfully tried to copyright in a recent lawsuit: in July 2011, he sued two yoga instructors that were using the same sequences without his permission; the case finished in December 2012. “The sequence — Choudhury’s compilation of exercises and yoga poses . . . is merely a procedure or system of exercises,” wrote U.S. District Otis Wright about the ruling.

Lawsuits? LA celebs? This doesn’t sound like the yoga that has spirituality at its roots, and yet this is one of the most popular and well-known streams of yoga. So, how can we describe the yoga craze in North America? “It’s a mess,” said Dr. Georg Feuerstein in a 2003 interview in LA Yoga Magazine. “Looking at the Yoga movement today, part of me feels very saddened by it, but then I also see that it contains the seeds of something better.” So, as much as I can bitch about what the practice has become, the fact remains that yoga is what we make of it. You can do it for the sake of Lululemon, you can do it for the physical benefits, you can do it because it’s all the rage, but you can also do it to acquire a calm introspection and become the most spiritual person you can be amongst the everyday bustle.

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us:
[email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024