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It’s OK to live with your parents as an adult

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PHOTO: Amirul Anirban/ The Peak

By: Jerrica Zabala, Peak Associate

There’s this assumption, especially among older generations, that living with your parents means you haven’t matured yet or you’re behind on the milestones you “need” to be an adult. Living with your parents or guardians should be more normalized because the cost of living is beyond unmanageable in the Lower Mainland.

Boomers and Gen X can talk shit all they want, but I’m staying with my parents until I can save up for a down payment on a house. Even my parents understand this absurd housing market, and give me the privilege of living under their care until I have financial stability. For many of us, our parents have been our financial, emotional, and social safety nets since we were young, so there’s nothing wrong with extending your stay to get ahead.

In reality, if you’re completing any type of higher education, you’re going to take at least 2–6 years depending on if you’re studying full-time or part-time. If you’re paying for your education, it helps to have a roof over your head, not worry about rent, or tip-toe around roommates. Even if you have to take out student loans, living with your parents gives you the ability to save more money than you would living alone. This is a huge advantage that can set you up for long-term financial security.

That’s not to say that there aren’t any disadvantages to living with your parents. For me and most likely other students, we pay with our mental health regardless. You run the risk of still being viewed as a child, having to personally communicate about physical and emotional boundaries, or enduring the invisible contract of being a “fake” renter. However, no amount of societal pressure, unsolicited life advice, or invasion of privacy will ever amount to how much I get to save so I don’t enter the “real world” in debt.

It’s time to let go of the belief that young adults need to move out as quickly as physically possible. With that being said, if you’re lucky enough to live in comfort with parents who are letting you stay just a tad bit longer, don’t be ashamed. 

Donatello’s advice to new and current SFU students

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An 80’s style illustration of a wise raccoon looking off into space.
ILLUSTRATION: Raissa Sourabh / The Peak

By: Hana Hoffman, SFU Student

Hey there, I’m Donatello. I’ve been living at SFU and observing life here for longer than you can imagine, and it has come to my attention that some of you need my wise advice today. I’m happy to share my knowledge, but I really hope you read these tips and take them seriously because I had to skip my dumpster diving sesh with the raccoon community just to write this down.

  1. Get the free stuff.

You’re paying so much to be at SFU, so make the most out of it! The most important day of the semester is Clubs Day because almost every table has something to giveaway, including snacks and prizes. It’s basically trick-or-treating, except you have to talk a little bit and possibly sign up in order to get the prize. And, during the semester, you’ll see some tables here and there doing the same. I do want to mention one life hack to save time: if you join some clubs, just skip all the regular meetings and only attend the special events where they’ll have free food. Otherwise you’ll leave too much food for me and my friends! In addition, I expect you all to enter every single SFU giveaway. If you’re not already, then get started right now! Eyes on the prize, friend.

2. Enjoy nature, don’t hate it.

Although you must hate waiting in the freezing weather for the bus, slipping down the stairs, coming home in soggy shoes, and carrying an umbrella everywhere, there are still numerous reasons to be grateful to live on a mountain. With the earth’s temperature increasing, you might not get much cold weather anymore when you’re older. Don’t take the present for granted; go sledding on Burnaby Mountain, or get a cup and scoop up some free unlimited snow cones. Plus, on the occasion that it’s not foggy, you’ll see amazing views from campus! You can brag to your friends from other schools about how much higher you are than them, both geographically and academically, I hope!

3. Use my “eat, sleep, slay, repeat” method.

First of all, if it’s dark around your eyes like me then you’re not getting enough sleep. Don’t worry, my fellow raccoons, this only applies to humans. It’s also important to eat healthy, because you’d create a bad image of SFU if you’re seen eating packaged snacks and creating more garbage at a school known for its sustainable research and planning. Most importantly, I advise you to slay everyday fur real! I’ll even chant about it for you to get it in your head. Get good grades, get those A’s, get in shape, get that pay. Dash your way, through the rain, slay the day and get that praise. Okay. . . this is kind of cheesy, but you get the point, right? Make the most out of your years at SFU because you can’t paws time. I am spittin’ raccoon rhymes! AHEM.

To all new and current students, follow my advice and you’ll be thanking me later. From the bottom of my little raccoon heart I wish you the best. And if you ever see me or my raccoon friends hanging out on campus, please take a picture and post us on your socials. We wanna be famous!

— Donatello

Dear CAL: we want Subway Surfers side-playing in our lectures

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Illustration of Subway Surfers on a phone.
ILLUSTRATION: Christina Cao / The Peak

By: Dev Petrovic, Peak Associate

Dear Centre for Accessible Learning,

Word around campus tells us you’re able to pull some strings and make things happen, and we wanted to get in on that. We are the SFU Centralized Union for Mid-focused Students, or, as we are commonly referred to: the chrnically oline. We do not claim that term. But anyone can form a union, so here we are. At this time, lectures at SFU do not include side-play videos of mobile games like Subway Surfers. We demand this changes across all SFU campuses — if that means ignoring CAL students’ needs even more to get it done, so be it. It’s the only way to make SFU an accessible place for everyone. 

We are students who have adapted to the simultaneous streaming trends of TikTok, and now only have the attention spans to consume information if there’s side-by-side video footage of a stranger playing a mobile game. You may wrongfully believe this would be a distraction for other students. This is partially true: they would be distracted from fully experiencing the Subway Surfers stream while partially paying attention to their lecture. The psychology checks out and the method is foolproof. 

Since lectures are already boring, SFU has nothing to lose by integrating mobile game side-streaming, and will only gain brighter individuals with a “renewed sudden interest” in their major and excellent “endless runner” game skills. These are valuable and highly applicable assets to students entering the post-graduation world in this economy. Sometimes we can learn just as much about quantum physics from Subway Surfers as some old guy with glasses and a “ten-yer,” whatever that means. Alternatively, SFU is also welcome to expand their range of educational videos to include ASMR soap-carving (teaches you how to waste soap), slime-making (chemistry), and hydraulic press compilations (sexy). 

What would this cost SFU? Money from their budget. But, finances and logistics are hardly relevant since money is more of an imaginary concept and side-streaming is a heavily integrated, highly valued, and relied-on aspect of society. Most importantly, with these integrations SFU would become the first university in the world to recognize and utilize Subway Surfers side-streaming as a mode of educational support. You can’t get any more engaged with the world than that! 

It’s critical for students’ health and well-being to be given the same opportunities to thrive despite systemic and institutional barriers, which is why this should be the priority and not anything else. Based on research (a cute way of saying we don’t have to prove it), students who get what they ask for from their universities — like Subway Surfers side-play — are far less likely to write hate mail to a certain student resource created to advocate for and accommodate students. It’s also historically true that universities who don’t do exactly as they’re told will be very sorry and shouldn’t be surprised when an anonymous hacker hijacks every SFU monitor to stream Sandwich Runner, the mobile game. Our point being, if you care about us at all, you’ll just do it — even though we’ll probably make it happen anyways. 

Sincerely,
SFU CUMS (Centralized Union for Mid-focused Students) 

Connect the Lingo

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Illustration of a character connecting the words “connect the” and “lingo” with a pencil.
ILLUSTRATION: Alyssa Umbal / The Peak

By: Natalie Cooke, News Writer

Word Bank: goalkeeper, airball, shank, 19th hole, double dribble, muff, cut shot, bunt, meet, nutmeg

  1. When a player stops dribbling and then begins again, or dribbles the basketball with two hands, they commit a ________ dribble.
  2. This soccer player usually wears a different colour than their teammates on the field.
  3. Time to relax and grab some lunch at the ________. 
  4. When a football player makes contact with the football, without successfully maintaining possession of it. 
  5. When a softball batter chooses to tap the ball instead of swing.
  6. A volleyball attack where the player spikes the ball “at an extreme angle across the court, making it nearly parallel with the net.” 
  7. The libero received the serve but their pass was a  ________. The ball flew out of bounds!
  8. You ________ an opponent in soccer when you kick the ball through their legs, instead of trying to go around them.
  9. She tried to make a three-point shot, but instead hit an ________. 
  10.  Another word for a swim competition.

 

Answer Key

  1. double
  2. goalkeeper
  3. 19th hole
  4. muff 
  5. bunt 
  6. cut shot 
  7. shank 
  8. nutmeg 
  9. airball 
  10.  meet

What’s with all the shouting in karate?

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photo of two people performing karate.
PHOTO: Ashima Pargal / Unsplash

By: Matthew Cheng, SFU student

One of the biggest questions people have about karate is why practitioners yell when they punch or kick. They do it to practice kiai (pronounced “key-eye”) — the official word to describe the sounds heard when performing an attacking strike. “Two Japanese characters make up the word: Ki means ‘energy,’ and ai means ‘to unify.’” It’s essentially the “convergence of your energy.”

To perform a kiai, athletes need to exhale during the technique instead of holding their breath. If an athlete holds their breath, their muscles will tighten up. This tension makes the body slow and rigid. When hit with a flood of adrenaline, it’s normal for your breathing to become more shallow because your airways are expanding to take in more oxygen to your muscles. Kiai can be a tremendous help in steadying your breathing. 

It’s important that the sound comes from your stomach and not your throat. In order to do that, you’ll have to trigger your transversus abdominis, which sits on either side of your abdominal wall. If done correctly, the pressure in your stomach should push the shout from your mouth as you exhale. The kiai is similar to vocalizations practiced in other sports. In boxing, competitors grunt to exert power, while in sumo wrestling, competitors use stomping as an intimidation tactic while entering the ring. Kiai can also be done for reasons beyond breath control: from gathering strength to intimidating your opponent. The real consensus is that it sounds different for everyone and is interconnected with a person’s spirit. 

This week at SFU

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PHOTO: Sebastian Brinkman / SFU Athletics

By: Simran Sarai, Sports Writer

Home Games

Friday, March 24: softball vs Northwest Nazarene (Idaho) at 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. 

  • Beedie Field
  • First regular season home game 

Saturday, March 25: softball vs Northwest Nazarene (Idaho) at 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. 

  • Beedie Field 
  • Second of four consecutive games against Northwest Nazarene 

Away Games

Monday, March 20: women’s golf at Colorado St. Pueblo Pack Spring Invite (all day)

  • Day two of the event

Saturday, March 25: lacrosse vs Brigham Young University at 2:00 p.m.

  • Riding a three game win streak 

Saturday, March 25 to Sunday, March 26: track and field at the UBC Open (all day)

  • Second meet of the outdoor season 

Letting go of the future to be aware of my present

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PHOTO: Stormseeker / Unsplash

By: Daniel Salcedo Rubio, Features Editor

Content warning: mentions of disordered eating and harmful behaviour.

Happiness is such an elusive concept; we look for it in every corner only to realize it’s still far away. We keep thinking we will eventually find it after some great achievement or in the company of someone else. I’m only 28 years old, and I feel I’m nowhere close to having any meaningful wisdom. For the past couple of years, I’ve lived in a continuous state of autopilot. Even before the pandemic started, I felt my life was becoming monotonous. I was already shutting down my awareness — I was just performing the same tasks and activities on the same days, every week, every month. Don’t get me wrong, I think finding a routine that works for your lifestyle is an essential part of finding a balance between leisure and responsibility, but moving through time without awareness of either removes all the obligations and enjoyment of both.

I’m not entirely sure how it all started, but in hindsight, I realize I was moving through life without any notion of awareness during the last year of my undergrad degree some five years ago (yikes). I had just come back from studying abroad, where every day truly felt like it could have been a short novel on its own. I was ready to apply that same motivation for life back in my own city, but I just couldn’t. I got extremely anxious about life after graduation. I started looking for a job in my field and had to navigate through an ocean of rejection, with each new failed interview feeling like a bigger wave of disappointment than the previous one — I thought I was going to drown. One day I got it: a great job with great pay in my field, and I thought I could finally breathe again, but the air didn’t last long — a month later I was back to the beginning. I kept looking for the next big thing to bring me joy: the next promotion, the next event, my next achievement, and soon after I finally got them, I would find myself back at the bottom of the ocean.

I was dissatisfied with my life despite having everything one could need. I had a great job with pay well above the average for my age bracket, caring friends, a great relationship with a wonderful person, and most importantly, I had a place to sleep and a full pantry. I didn’t go to a psychologist; I was afraid and I grew up in an environment where the stigma surrounding mental health was always present. I kept thinking, “you just need this one more thing, then your life will be better.” My eyes were always on the goal, but my mind was never in the present. I just kept moving through life on autopilot, jumping from tiny bits to tiny bits of awareness and enjoyment. One day I got a promotion, six months later I got accepted into SFU, and six months after that I was moving my entire life to Canada. Don’t get me wrong, I worked for these achievements, they’ve brought joy into my life and I’m proud and grateful for them — but I don’t remember enjoyment in between them. It wasn’t until I moved to Canada that I truly felt something was wrong. This had been a dream in the making for more than a decade; yet, my first few months here were filled with anxiety and confusion. “I made it!” I repeated to myself day after day, but I still found myself barely eating and barely going outside my room in residence. I was confused. This had been the big achievement that I had been working so hard for, it was the ultimate goalpost, the surface I had been trying to reach with all my strength —  I wasn’t sad nor happy, I just felt . . . nothing.

I decided I needed to take a step back, to chill the fuck out. Of course, that’s easier said than done when living in one of North America’s most expensive cities with an income that wasn’t enough to sustain me long-term. I had also just started a new degree — it seemed like the worst time for me to chill. There was so much to do, and so many new things to achieve. And there I was again, setting new objectives for myself, setting my happiness in goals yet to achieve, setting myself up for failure — until one catalytic moment happened. One goal I had been looking forward to and that felt so close was torn into pieces, never to be achieved. I was broken, I moved from barely eating to just not eating at all for days, from barely going out to literally not leaving my room once in an entire week. I took a step back; not by choice, but by force.

Thankfully I didn’t stay long in that dark place. I gathered myself slowly, built myself back up, and started to look for happiness wherever I could find it. A year ago, a friend gifted me a book called The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down and while I haven’t really read it, the title kept bouncing around my head, telling me, “you need to slow down, you need to appreciate the things around you.” So, I made the conscious effort of being aware of what I did and what was happening around me. I would try to no longer play music or something on Netflix just to get background noise. I would instead stop and try to focus and enjoy one thing at a time.

I started going outside, walking through the trails of Burnaby Mountain just to hear the leaves rattle with the wind, and I would wake up early just to listen to the noise of cargo ships in the distance. I decided to romanticize my life — I imagined myself as a character in a Studio Ghibli movie, finding magic and joy in doing the most mundane things. Taking the Expo Line suddenly felt like being on the Sea Railway of Spirited Away. I found joy by slowing down and being grateful for the tiny things that make my life special, and I even started a daily gratitude journal.

I wrote every other day what I was grateful for, from tiny things like my technological gadgets to more complex things like relationships with my friends. I must admit that I felt silly writing about why I was grateful for the change of seasons and it was kinda hard to find things to be grateful, but now I genuinely appreciate these things I used to take for granted. But don’t assume that I’m fooling myself, I’m well aware that the anxiety will likely come back. I’m still setting goals for my future — I even started 2023 with a list of 28 things to do before turning 29 — but now, my happiness isn’t solely bound to them.

I want to finish by saying that I’m truly happy, I’m enjoying the present while still looking forward to the future. I’m still switching to autopilot, but I’m no longer jumping between tiny bits of happiness; instead, I’m jumping between tiny moments of autopilot. I started going to counselling because I know my Studio Ghibli trick will not last forever, but I will still enjoy it while it does. If there’s one piece of advice I could give you, it’s not to wait until you’re broken into pieces. If you need help, look for it or ask for it. SFU Health & Counselling is open for you and British Columbia also has a list of resources you can access when needed. Take care of yourself, for yourself.

New Music: Vivek Shraya releases single and announces new album, Baby You’re Projecting

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Vivek Shraya wearing skintight black bodysuit, leather gloves, and black leather corset sitting in a front of a yellow wall. One hand is extended up touching the top of a glass through which half a part of her is filtered through a darker yellow shade. She has dark black makeup and a red bindi on her forehead looking fiercely into the camera.
PHOTO: Vanessa Heins

By: C Icart, Staff Writer

My first encounter with Vivek Shraya’s work was through her book, I’m Afraid of Men. Shraya’s powerful account of her relationship with masculinity in the context of homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny was unfortunately very relatable for me and helped me find language to talk about fears I was experiencing. While the book opens with “I’m afraid of men because it was men who taught me fear,” she goes on to highlight how her gender nonconformity (or gender expression) is the reason men (and women) fear her. 

In her new single, “Good Luck (You’re Fucked),” Shraya explores another kind of gendered fear: the anxieties vocalized by men in the post-#MeToo era. The song is aimed at men who fear being cancelled because of “how hard it is to even talk to women now.” Shraya is shutting those claims all the way down, and honey, it’s a banger. The lyrics are badass and unapologetic. Her confidence is infectious; paired with a punchy instrumental and disco-style vocals it’s almost impossible not to dance. 

The song emerges from a collaboration with James Bunton (producer and co-writer), Alanna Stuart and Kamilah Apong (background vocals), and Drew Jurecka (string-work). While she has been releasing music independently for twenty years both as a solo artist and with her brother as the band Too Attached, “Good Luck (You’re Fucked)” is the lead single for her label debut album Baby, You’re Projecting, set to come out in May.

Shraya is a multi-disciplinary artist and has received multiple awards and critical acclaim in fashion, writing, theatre, music, and visual art. She is “currently adapting her debut play, How to Fail as a Popstar, as a digital series with CBC.” It’s so exciting to watch her continue evolving as an artist in her 40s. She has said: “What I love about songwriting as a 40-something is that you’ve really earned and experienced the feelings you are writing and singing.” Her lived experience comes through in “Good Luck (You’re Fucked),” as she sounds so sure of herself.

I’ve been listening to the song on repeat and it makes me feel so empowered. I recommend it to anyone who’s tired of listening to men complain about the “hardships” of cancel culture. Add “Good Luck (You’re Fucked)” to all your feminist and dancy playlists and keep your eyes peeled for Shraya’s upcoming projects. If you’re looking for me sometime this spring or summer, hopefully I’ll be on a dancefloor surrounded by all my favourite women and femmes dancing and belting “You don’t care about my friends, you just care what they think about you. Guess what? They don’t! You don’t even cross our minds!”

Listen to The Peak’s regularly-updated “New Music” playlist on our Spotify profile.

The west is villainizing the Chinese government

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digital illustration of someone reading a newspaper with the Chinese flag on the front
ILLUSTRATION: Alyssa Umbal / The Peak

By: Karissa Ketter, News Editor

Content warning: mentions of anti-Asian violence and racism. 

China has consistently been featured in western news for one reason or another these last couple years. Beginning with the COVID-19 outbreak, western media and government officials have villainized China for their role in the pandemic. 

Should we be critical of the Chinese government? Absolutely. They have recently committed their own share of violence against minority groups, including over one million Uyghur Muslims being put in concentration camps. We should also be critical of their ever-expanding surveillance state and social credit system used to collect personal data and monitor behaviour. However, the west’s media framing of China goes beyond a critique of their government and falls into manufacturing severe and misplaced hatred for Chinese culture and citizens. It’s time news outlets take a hard stance against such divisive rhetoric.

At the start of the pandemic, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres posted to Twitter, “The pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering.” 

Human Rights Watch attributes the rise in anti-Chinese sentiment to conservative government leaders in western countries. A prominent example of the blatant racism and xenophobia in western politics is Majorie Taylor Greene, a US republican party representative. According to Vice News, Greene was trying to “do the Red Scare all over again — this time with Chinese citizens living in the United States.” The Red Scare was a government-manufactured fear of communism after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Throughout the 20th century, it resulted in multiple false accusations, and “is often cited as an example of how unfounded fears can compromise civil liberties.”

In 2021, Greene publicly declared her aim to deport everyone in the US with Chinese background if they’re loyal to the Chinese government. How she would prove loyalty is unclear, but the tactic echoes back to World War II, when the US detained Japanese Americans in concentration camps and publicly questioned their loyalties. 

Anti-Chinese sentiment is not exclusive to the US Republican party, either. Canada recently announced plans to introduce a “foreign influence transparency registry.” This came after months of demands from the Conservative Party to address allegations of Chinese election interference. The new registry could result in criminal charges to anyone who refuses to disclose “arrangements, registrable activities, exemptions, information disclosure,” and “compliance.” The list appears intentionally vague, and there’s little information on what would qualify as foreign influence.

Manufactured hatred for Chinese people exists across the globe. Senior government officials in the “United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Germany have latched onto the COVID-19 crisis to advance anti-immigrant, white supremacist,” and “xenophobic conspiracy theories.” The result is the demonization of refugees, foreigners, and anyone from East Asian descent. 

Unfortunately, their scare-mongering tactics worked. From 2015 to 2020, “unfavourable views” of China spiked from 55% to 73%. This was accompanied by a rise in xenophobia and hate crimes across the world. The Vancouver Police Department reported 204 incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020 alone.

Three years into the pandemic, this manufactured hatred for China has lingered. Most recently, an alleged Chinese “spy balloon” was spotted off the coast of South Carolina. The US used a fighter jet to shoot down the balloon. China responded to the incident and said the airship was a civilian vessel drifting off course. Their Foreign Ministry added, “The Chinese side has clearly asked the US side to properly handle the matter in a calm, professional, and restrained manner [ . . . ] The US use of force is a clear overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.” While the device’s true purpose is still unclear, western media outlets were quick to adopt the Pentagon’s unfounded spy balloon allegation, making claims of espionage. Fear-mongering without solid facts only exacerbates international division.

The anti-Chinese rhetoric created by the US has more consequences than awkward international relationships, though. One in four Americans think of China as an enemy. This has led to disgusting acts of violence against people from East Asian descent. 2022 reports find that anti-Asian violence in the US increased 339% compared to 2020. Violence against Chinese people continues to be reported worldwide, with Vancouver being titled the “anti-Asian hate crime capital of North America” after seeing a 717% increase in reported attacks in 2020. 

News articles that stir hatred and division are a sensationalized version of reality, and they contribute to widespread prejudice against East Asian people. We can’t point fingers at the Chinese government’s failures without acknowledging mistakes made by our own. For instance, Canada’s intelligence agency, CSIS, has been given permission to spy abroad and even break local laws in overseas countries. That’s not to mention the fact that the last residential school only closed in 1996, and a settlement for reparations was reached just this year. Canada still has a lot of work to do. We can and should discuss current events without perpetuating an “us vs. them” narrative.

SFU350 calls for the SFSS to divest from Scotiabank

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This is a photo of the outside of the Student Union Building at the SFSS Burnaby campus. The photo is a close up of the doors. Above the doors the sign reads “Student Union Building, Simon Fraser University”
PHOTO: Afsaneh Keivanshekouh / The Peak

By: Aditi Dwivedi, News Writer

Editor’s note: Chloë Arneson, who was interviewed for this piece, is a former Peak employee. The Peak acknowledges and has taken steps to prevent conflicts of interest or potential bias from influencing the article. 

On March 1, SFU350 organized a sit-in in the Student Union Building at the SFU Burnaby campus. They were calling for the SFSS to divest from Scotiabank. The non-violent protest was, however, put to a stop by SFSS staff, citing they did not obtain permission to host the sit-in.

SFU350 is a student-led club that promotes divesting from fossil fuels. They called for the SFSS to “cut their ties” from Scotiabank, the second largest funder of fossil fuel projects in Canada. The sit-in was organized in tandem with Banking On A Better Future, a non-profit organization that mobilizes youth climate justice activists to address financial support for fossil fuel projects. 

Representatives from the SFU350 called on SFU students to sign their open letter. The letter was addressed to the SFSS during their peaceful sit-in. After the SFSS staff shut down their sit-in, SFU350 later released a statement condemning the actions of the SFSS for curbing their right to protest. They noted, “Protests don’t involve booking space. They involve taking up space.” 

In an interview with The Peak, executives of SFU350, Jaden Dyer, Natasha Ivkov, and Maryam Shakeri talked about their efforts to help the SFU community divest from fossil fuels. 

According to Dyer, “The SFSS purports to represent students and their interests, but is using our money to support the banks’ fossil fuel lending. So it’s our role to hold them accountable as students.”

Dyer explained the sit-in on March 1 was organized at the same time as other sit-ins by climate justice groups from universities across Canada, like University of Alberta, University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia. They all pressued their student unions and universities to switch banks and educate them on the roles that big banks — RBC, CIBC, and Scotiabank — play in funding fossil fuel projects. 

Ivkov discussed the SFSS response to their demands. According to her, their response can be summed up as “a tentative yes,” and that the SFSS “have expressed interest in investing in renewables and investing in credit unions instead of banking with Scotiabank in the future.” She added that SFU350 understands the divestment, if it occurs, would be a slow process since the SFSS has “ties to Scotiabank that they have to abide by.” 

Addressing the protest on March 1, they said, “The problem we encountered with the SFSS was not exactly about the topic and our demands for the sit-in but more, the logistics of it.” According to the SFSS, a prior booking needs to be obtained to host an event in the Student Union Building. Ivkov however, called their actions “unjustified,” stating the difference between events and protests. She added the purpose of the sit-in is to “have a spontaneous demonstration that is not booked in advance.”

Since then, the SFSS executive committee has released a public apology letter in solidarity of the cause upheld by SFU350, acknowledging the “lapse in judgment” on their end, and reaffirming their support of the freedom to protest. The statement also noted, “We want to acknowledge that many of the members of SFU350 belong to racialized groups and thus experienced further harm due to racial disparities in policing and security. We take concerns about discrimination very seriously and are taking internal action to discuss this factor further with our staff.”

Additionally, according to a statement given to The Peak by Chloë Arneson, acting vice-president of university and academic affairs, “The concerns about our relationship with Scotiabank align with our Issues Policies and also reflect the broader societal change that is happening right now [ . . . ] We are an organization that handles a lot of money and it’s critical to consider the impact of how we are managing that money.”

Arneson added, “I don’t want our organization to be unwelcome to change or criticism. I want SFU350 and any other students with concerns to know that my doors are always open if they have concerns regarding the SFSS.”

Find out more information about divestment from fossil fuels on SFU350’s website. Sign the open letter calling for the SFSS to stop banking with fossil funders on Action Network’s website.

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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