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Exploring the importance of student press in Canada

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A collage of various student publication articles from The Peak, Capilano Courier, The Griffins’ Nest, and The Ubyssey
COLLAGE: Gudrun Wai-Gunnarsson / The Peak, with photos courtesy of The Peak, Capilano Courier, The Griffins’ Nest, and The Ubyssey

By: Ella Pendlington, SFU Student, and Petra Chase, Features Editor

In June 2021, the Student Press Freedom Act was created by student journalists Spencer Izen and Jessica Kim, then editor-in-chief and managing editor of The Griffins’ Nest, a high school student newspaper. In response to their work investigating the Vancouver School Board’s transparency and operations in May 2021, the school’s administration informed Izen and Kim they needed the principal’s “blessing” to publish said article. Following this, Izen and Kim wrote a letter to the BC Civil Liberties Association. Eventually, with their support, the Canadian Youth Journalism Project, and the Canadian Association of Journalists, the article was published. Izen and Kim drafted the Student Press Freedom Act with the help of lawyers, journalism professors, and civil liberty advocates to protect student publications’ right to freedom of the press through legislation. The campaign received endorsements from various civil society organizations and student publications. It was also reported on by media outlets including The Vancouver Sun and The Tyee. 

The Student Press Freedom Act seeks to clarify section 2 (b) in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the “freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication” for students. Though the Charter includes schools, the Student Press Freedom Act website notes there is no clear understanding of how this applies to student journalists: “Unlike the US, Canada does not have any case law” regarding the rights and freedoms specifically of student journalists. In the US, the Student Press Law Centre and the New Voices Movement aim to protect student press freedom with state laws. 

Izen and Kim sent a draft of the act to BC Premier David Eby in 2022, and met with him soon after. While Eby recognized its importance, he said there were greater priorities. Today, the act has yet to be enshrined.

Currently, Izen is a managing editor at University of British Columbia’s independent student newspaper The Ubyssey. He uses his experiences to teach incoming student journalists the importance of press freedom and advocacy. The Peak corresponded with him to learn more. Izen said, “The first time I heard an administrator remark that they had the ability to direct the content of the newspaper, I was confused.

“When I was that age, I assumed that adults were a little bit more in tune with the principles of democratic life,” he added. “The experience of censorship was one that pushed me to take on a radical amount of responsibility.” 

Institutional challenges

Izen and Kim’s experiences of advocating for press freedom as student journalists are not isolated. Student journalists across Canada continue to navigate institutional pushback, a lack of support, and censorship attempts. “I think the first thing we need to do is actually shift the way we think about the proper relationship between an administration and between student journalists,” Izen said. 

In the Western region of Canada, The Voice, Langara’s student newspaper, produced by journalism students, has shut down alongside the 60-year-old journalism program. The Runner, Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s newspaper, came under attack in 2024. While The Runner was reporting on Kwantlen Student Association mishandling student funds, they were threatened with a petition to dissolve the paper and “destroy all articles related to the Kwantlen Student Association.”

The Peak also experienced censorship by SFU’s student society, the SFSS. In September 2025, when the 2025/26 Council began, The Peak encountered various issues while trying to report on biweekly council meetings. In March 2026, the SFSS passed a motion banning recording at meetings. This motion significantly impacted The Peak’s news team who rely on recordings for fact-checking, and thus haven’t been able to report on council meetings. The news editor at the time, Hannah Fraser stated, “If meeting minutes aren’t actively updated for the community to reference, then the 2025/26 SFSS team has not allowed the students they represent to understand their operations and future plans effectively.” 

While Izen shared that The Ubyssey hasn’t had significant issues with censorship from their student society, they’ve had their fair share of harassment, both online and with papers being removed from stands. He added, university publications are a place to “demonstrate the right relationship between journalists and politicians from the beginning of our careers as journalists and their careers as politicians.” 

The Peak also reached out to the current managing editor of The Griffins’ Nest, Zak Tucker, to ask his thoughts regarding student press freedom, and how The Nest’s history has impacted their understanding, value, and approach to student journalism. 

“The basis for student press freedom lies in a key principle that guides all of my work at The Nest: student journalists are real journalists,” Tucker said. 

Tucker expressed that student journalists are obligated to tell the truth, which may sometimes hurt the reputation of others. He shared that a special report containing criticism of the Vancouver School Board underwent difficulty in publication. The piece was originally supposed to be published in March 2026, but wasn’t published in its entirety until April 2026. Tucker wrote, “My school’s principal, under direction from his superiors, [phoned] our commercial printers and [told] them not to print our newspaper until he approved it — because the newspaper contained a story that included criticism of the school board.”

The state of journalism today 

“Throughout history, people in positions of power have sought to prevent the dissemination of factual information, often in the name of advancing the public interest by combatting mischief and unrest. But suppressing truth is never the right answer. Rather, it is journalists who work in the public interest, since our work serves to hold politicians accountable and promote the kind of educated discussion that raises awareness about important issues.”

— Zak Tucker, Editor-in-Chief, The Griffins’ Nest newspaper

When asked how and why student press freedom is relevant in Canada in 2026, Tucker responded, “Throughout history, people in positions of power have sought to prevent the dissemination of factual information, often in the name of advancing the public interest by combatting mischief and unrest. But suppressing truth is never the right answer. Rather, it is [putting trust in] journalists who work in the public interest, since our work serves to hold politicians accountable and promote the kind of educated discussion that raises awareness about important issues.”

Izen added that Canada has an “increasingly problematic communications culture.” He noted that public relations professionals outnumber journalists. As of March 2025, Canada’s Government Communications and Public Engagement team has over 300 employees. According to the book Manipulating the Message by journalist Cecil Rosner, “public relations consultants outnumber journalists 14–1 in Canada.” 

“Student journalists themselves are now more responsible for taking on a lot of the work that professional news media are no longer able to do because there are fewer professional journalists than there were a few years ago,” said Izen, who also noted over 600 closures of news outlets in Canada since 2008 reported by the Local News Research Project, the large number of layoffs by Bell Media Canada and Postmedia. Tucker shared this sentiment, expressing, “With the death of local media, student journalists are often the only ones left to [ . . . ] hold elected trustees accountable.”

“For the few journalists that are still out there, it’s very difficult to talk to people,” Izen explained. “The institutions [politicians are] elected to observe, to keep accountable, are not giving us the time of day, whether it’s the City of Vancouver, whether it’s the Government of BC,” which have “a responsibility to be transparent.” 

“A journalist is a gatekeeper. What we want is democratic gatekeeping. We want someone who’s going to stand in the middle and say, ‘Hey, I don’t know if that’s true.’”

— Spencer Izen, managing editor, The Ubyssey newspaper

Izen also criticized “the way politicians represent how democratic life could be.” He mentioned Prime Minister Mark Carney’s increasing reliance on his own YouTube channel to share announcements. “Speaking directly to constituents, while it might be convenient in the short term, that’s bad democracy,” he said. “A journalist is a gatekeeper. What we want is democratic gatekeeping. We want someone who’s going to stand in the middle and say, ‘Hey, I don’t know if that’s true.’” This goes for politicians in the Government of Canada, as well as student politicians. 

Further, Izen noted that as student journalists, we have a duty to stand up for our own publications in the face of unjust censorship, and other publications. 

“We absolutely have to be the foremost advocates for press freedom in the country. We cannot rely on anyone else to be fluent as much as us,” he said. 

Today, press freedom — in both student and non-student publications — remains critical. 

Izen shared his belief that “the relationship with expertise that we’re discarding in society is really disturbing. You can’t be an expert on everything,” he added. “None of us do anything without speaking to sources because those are the objects that people are responsible for knowing stuff. That disposition towards knowledge is so, so valuable.”

Izen concluded that student journalism is a “nation building project,” and “there’s a reason that the second provision of the Constitution was dedicated to the protection of journalism, because we all recognized many a century ago how important this was and how at risk it is at any given moment.” 

In Pieces on making music

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Peak Web
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A photo of two band members of In Pieces performing on stage
PHOTO: Courtesy of Paco Estrada

By: Maya Barillas Mohan, Staff Writer

I have seen the band In Pieces live several times and can confirm: they know what they’re doing. Their sets are high energy and their members glow with the stagelights. The up-and-coming Vancouver rock band is fairly new to the scene, but they’ve already played at venues like The Rickshaw, and have their first album set to release this fall.

“Everyone has this dream of the rock star stuff, but that’s not the case for me. I [would say I] made it if I can make a living doing what I love in many different ways.”

— Paco Estrada, Founder and Guitarist of In Pieces

Founder and guitarist Paco Estrada sat down with The Peak to talk about building a career in music. “Everyone has this dream of the rock star stuff,” he began. “But that’s not the case for me. I [would say I] made it if I can make a living doing what I love in many different ways.” On top of working full-time at his day job, Estrada works on music until “two, three in the morning.” He mixes and writes for other bands, has projects with other singers, takes responsibility for his own band’s social media and emails, and of course, practices his solos late into the night. “How do you have the time for all of this?” I asked Estrada. “It’s my baby, for real,” he replied.

This ambitious work ethic is nothing new for Estrada. At just 12 years old, he started taking music seriously, practicing six hours a day. After graduating high school, he completed a music technology diploma at Douglas College to learn production and mixing. From there, Estrada worked in a variety of small bands. In Pieces is special; all five musicians are dedicated to the success of their band. Guitarist Caleb Liu expressed that “Paco certainly set a precedent and dedication, to which the rest of us have ascended.” Liu was a SFU student balancing a demanding job, classes, and playing shows every few weeks. “It’s about making time, not finding it,” Liu told The Peak.

Striving for success means adapting to (and also benefitting from) contemporary marketing. “The internet has done wonders for music,” Estrada said. “Back in the ‘80s, you had to get a record deal. You only really had one avenue to make it.” Now, internet algorithms allow independent artists to put themselves out there and make a career. His favourite part of performing is connecting with as many people as he can, and being able to share a piece of himself with the world that is otherwise difficult — a love for sharing his work is what drives him to put real effort into putting his band out there. While new to TikTok, Estrada finds it to be a valuable tool for outreach. “Making sure we have engaging videos is huge,” and luckily, the necessity of social media marketing doesn’t change the vision of what In Pieces is trying to create. Drawing on inspirational rock/alternative band Sleep Token’s strategies, Paco explained that posting is “useful in our niche; social media helps world-build around our work and make it bigger than just a couple pieces of music.” 

Concluding our interview, Estrada wishes that readers “stay tuned” for new releases from his band.

Their next show will be at The Fox Cabaret on August 28.

Remnants on the paperwork of the picket line

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Peak Web
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A photo of a person looking at posters from Strategies of Assembly
PHOTO: Courtesy of Gibson Art Museum / Facebook

By: Sia Garg, SFU Student

Whether in class or amongst my peers, when we look back at the history of resistance, we often treat political art as something distant and monumental: think of Michelangelo’s “David” serving as a symbol against Medici patronage in Renaissance Italy, or the crop up of sprawling public artwork throughout the French Revolution. However, in the 21st century, the reality of protest is rarely so well-defined. Instead, it is lived in, a phenomenon that is beautifully messy, loud, and permanently stained with printer ink.

Curated by Joshua Segun-Lean, a writer, researcher, and SFU MA graduate in contemporary arts, Strategies of Assembly: Revel & Revolt in British Columbia, is a compelling exhibition currently on display at SFU’s Gibson Art Museum. This exhibition maps 40 years of BC’s radical pulse by comparing two distinctive historical archives. The first is an expansive collection of street posters preserved by Perry Giguere, affectionately known as “Perry the Poster Man.” The second is a series of black-and-white documentary photographs captured for the Pacific Tribune, Vancouver’s historic weekly labour newspaper that ceased its publication in 1992. These collections serve to showcase that when we examine modern activism, particularly the history of resistance and protest here in BC, the traditional boundaries between objective journalism and creative art completely dissolves.

Conventionally, people tend to recognize that a newspaper photograph is meant to be perceived as objective photojournalism, while a protest poster tends to be thought of as artistic expressions. However, when standing in the gallery, that distinction becomes harder to fall upon. Whether you are looking at a Pacific Tribune photograph or a staple-worn poster shouting for Indigenous solidarity, these pieces are executing the exact same cultural work. With bold typography, hand-drawn territorial maps and portraits, and stark coastlines, these posters helped to turn utility poles and community bulletin boards into public declarations of title and rights. They are taking up space for social expression, and are documenting history while simultaneously demanding an alternative future.

Regardless of how empowering it is, seeing these pieces is another demonstration: a history of public gathering is also fundamentally a history of exclusion. While it is important to reflect on the artistic nature of protests, we are faced with the sobering complication that the items on display are merely the survivors. For every radical poster that is carefully salvaged by a collector, countless others marginalized in BC were quietly shut down, policed, or left completely undocumented. In this way, the art that isn’t present speaks just as loudly as the print matter that is. 

It is up to the individual to use arts as a form of social organization, and to insist that things must change for the better.

Being part of an assembly means weaponizing whatever tools are at your immediate disposal — be it a camera lens, a screen-print press, a sharpie, or a megaphone — and visiting community spaces of artistic protest like Strategies of Assembly; it is up to the individual to use arts as a form of social organization, and to insist that things must change for the better.

Strategies of Assembly will be on display at The Gibson until September 13, 2026.

1800s Pitt Meadows couple fights over butter churner!

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Peak Web
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Someone writing on old, disgruntled slips of paper with a quill.
PHOTO: DNE Stock project / Pexels

By: Quinn Mulcahy, SFU Student and Mason Mattu, Humour Editor

I never knew that the SFU archives was actually a giant room with everything about the school ever. I thought it was just a bland hallway with some memories of the school’s past. So I ventured down there one day when I had nothing else to do. I ended up stumbling across someone’s history project from 1992 on a bunch of letters from the 1800s. The report detailed Johnestenshire and Mary, a married couple on a Pitt Meadows farm. I didn’t quite understand why the archives were keeping them nor what was so important about them. But I thought I’d share them for the kick I got out of them.  

October 1, 1889

The Daisy Ranch

Dear Johnestenshire, 

You woeful rodent. As I pen this letter, I can hear the sobs of Daisy, your sweet baby girl. How dare you leave me all on my lonesome with an infant? Her “moo’s” awaken me in the middle of the night because the bagpiped lullabies crafted by her dearest papa aren’t there to comfort her any longer. I admittedly do not yearn for your music as much as she — but alas, there is one thing which we both yearn for. 

The butter churner. 

Daisy’s udders have reached a particular zenith. A zenith at which you couldn’t have enough biscuits to accompany her milk. How dare you leave us like this?

Sometimes I wish you were still here to retire with me to the parlor and enjoy our fresh butter on sliced bread. Ah, sliced bread. Such a novel invention that brings joy to my heart. Other times, I wish you brought a pie to your face for hurtin’ me so badly. Which would require you to visit the Smiths . . . our rival farm . . . nevermind. I had told you that we needed to increase our berry yields.  

I implore you to bring back what ‘twas mine. Or else I’ll send papaw out hunting for you.

With desperation,

Your not so dear Mary anymore

December 20, 1889

Somewhere aboard a random train 

Dear Mary, 

I regret to inform you that I am currently on a train towards Stoney Creek and am in no position to return our butter churner. Bellingham and I journey forward to begin our dream enterprise of cowboy hats with hair woven into them for those gentlepersons who lack hair (as these gentlepeople still wish to feel artificial locks breeze in the wind as they gallop upon their horse . . . as if these locks were indeed their own). 

Your assessment of the situation is a gross over-simplification of the matters at hand. As you know, I require the butter churner to gain the monetary means to purchase hair from the shaving saloon. Since I was nothing but a wee lad, I have dreamed of giving the power of hair follicles back to the heads of the masses. Granddaddy shaved his head because he believed he could tell fortunes in the shine, and then meemaw left him because the only fortune he had left were his golden locks. Please don’t make this all about yourself now. 

Pray for a little sunshine in your soul, and perhaps I’ll think about buying you a gently-used churner. For you are not a gentlelady. And those who are not gentleladies do not deserve to retire to the parlour and enjoy fresh butter. 

With disgust,

Johnestenshire

February 1, 1890

The Daisy Estate

Dear Johnestenshire, 

You hornswoggling maggot. I wish I knew how much of a conniving man you were on our wedding day. My friend Beatrice tells me her husband saw you playing poker at the Rooney Rooster Pub only a day ago. A pub that is a whole FIVE MINUTES from our ranch. Your business is a sham just like the last one (you know, the one where you thought you could trade wood with the beavers to become their official dam builder). 

In fact, Patricia Malcom told me that you are churning butter for eligible maidens? How dare you. You no good charlatan — RETURN THE BUTTER CHURNER! 

Sincerely, 

Mary

P.S.: If you don’t, I’ll call upon pawpaw to come and shave your hair off amidst your slumber. Toodle-oo. 

April 25, 1890

5 minutes away from the ranch 

Dear Mary,

I hope this letter reaches you fast enough you haven’t sent your father yet. Anything but my locks. I will be on the way with the butter churner soon. In fact, you will probably see me before you receive this letter. 

Tell Daisy I’m sorry. 

Yours truly, 

Johnestenshire

The Peak Investigates: Who kidnapped our sports editor?

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Peak Web
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ILLUSTRATION: Victoria Lo / The Peak

By: Ian Vestigate, Debutante Detective

Having lost one of our finest storytellers, and with no adequate replacement forthcoming, the editor-in-chief has put me (the rookie reporter) in charge of picking up the trail of the sports editor’s disappearance. It’s been two years. They only thought to care now? When they realized they needed FIFA coverage? My only clue is a mysterious message graffitied on the wall of The Peak offices on the night our sports editor vanished, which read:  

Dear liberal losers — I have your sports editor and will be keeping them in the bowels of a secret stadium until my mission is complete. No more reputations shall be tarnished by your despicable diatribes in the sports section of your paper until my legacy has been secured. Keep quiet now, and you will have your friend back at the end of next summer. G. 

That “next summer” was last summer. For some reason, nobody wondered where the editor was . . . until now. Having dropped out of my summer courses to try to solve this riddle and bring our sports editor back home, I found myself staring down the dark tunnel of despair, lost for any leads, until a chance encounter sparked an epiphany in the dusty recesses of my mind. Mulling over the mystery at Terry Fox Field, a varsity soccer player slumbered over towards me. Recognizing me from The Peak, he inquired about the fate of the sports editor. Someone who he was familiar with. 

“Whatever happened to the old scribe?” he asked, “I haven’t seen them since they interviewed the team for that piece about the announcement that the World Cup would be in Van.” 

He told me that during the interview with the soccer team about the detrimental impact of the FIFA World Cup on the sport as a whole, the sports editor received dozens of texts from a contact named “G.” After the last barrage of texts, looking distressed, my new friend said our missing maestro had apologized and left, muttering under their breath something about getting a slurpee at a SkyTrain station. 

Very interesting. I knew EXACTLY where they went. I caught the 145 bus down the mountain and arrived at Production Way-University Station, where the shirt of a 7/11 attendee caught my eye. On it, below a picture of a stadium, were the words “No more reputations shall be tarnished” in blood red. After inquiring about the origin of the t-shirt, I learned that it was purchased at BC Place. On its back were the signatures of four players from the Canadian men’s team. However, something caught my eye. “Help me,” a scribble read. “I sign shirts — but I used to write.” Ah-HA! I immediately commandeered a random Uber with my press pass (I don’t know if this is a thing, but I want it to be one!) downtown and rushed to the stadium. 

Scaling the stadium fence (and ripping my pants and underwear in the process), I descended the stairs to the basement, and set out in search of the darkest, dungiest room I could find. Finally, I came across a door marked “WC,” the bowels of the stadium! After kicking down the door, I was greeted by the back of a grotesque figure. With the words APPEASE tattooed across his chest, and a photo of him and Donald Trump on a ferris wheel together sticking out of his pocket, I would have recognized Gianni Infantino anywhere. Behind him was indeed our former sports editor, frantically signing t-shirts. The FIFA boss laughed and handed me a sharpie. 

Everything then turned to black.

SFU’s frat EXPOSED

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Peak Web
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A house with fraternity banners on it. A raccoon’s tail can be seen poking out of the door.
ILLUSTRATION: Jackie Peng / The Peak

By: Maya Barillas Mohan, Staff Writer, Staff Writer

To think that every decision I made in my life somehow resulted in going to a frat party is no small burden. I was the classic “fifth year” SFU student, grey around the eyes from all my time spent in windowless classes, just like everyone else in my cohort. 

Usually a homebody, it had to be serious business to get me out. But the grapevine exchanged hushed, secretive whispers the SFU frat had to take such intense precautions to get around the bad reputation surrounding frats, the brothers were “basically nocturnal.” That means primarily active at night. This kind of checked out, because no one so much as mentioned the frat in class, let alone confirmed actually belonging to it. I needed to see this firsthand: was DKE (Delta Kappa Epsilon) hazing new recruits in a whole new way that defied language (or species). For full investigative potential, I went undercover. 

At the door, I was asked to present “the Eventbrite thingy” by someone who wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Nice sunglasses,” I said. 

The dim lighting of the Robert C. Brown hall tutorial rooms had prepared me for the damp, boozy lustre of this frat house. My eyes hardly needed any time to adjust to this stifled space illuminated by a single electric disco ball suspended from the ceiling. Within moments of my arrival, I was instructed to keep my shoes on. This hooded figure would be my guide for the night. “Drinks are over there,” an acrylic-nailed hand with hairy palms jutted out from the darkness and pointed me towards a small folding table littered with bottles and sweating cans. I missed the altar to American novelist/party animal Charles Bukowski, because at most parties I’ve been to, the solo cups aren’t half overturned . . . and the snacks look a lot less like litter. It was possible the snacks had been foraged by raccoons. SFU, amiright?

A warm can of IPA in hand, I roamed the frat house with a distinct squelch in my step. I think it came from the stickiness coating the laminate flooring. Their decor didn’t help; the house reminded me of the inside of donation bins (more like trash bins) adjacent to the dorms on move-out day. Classy! “Don’t go upstairs,” the figure in the hoodie had cautioned me earlier. So, I went downstairs to the basement.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. A beer pong table stretched nearly the whole width of the room. Groups of four wobbly players (almost as if balancing on something) flanked each side of this gargantuan table, and onlookers with beady eyes swayed as though a concert was in session. A player with silvery blonde, almost gray hair, spun in place, shot, and miserably missed the cup. There was no hollow echo of the ball as it bounced, likely totally stuck in place on the gummy flooring. The crowd erupted into a chant, each syllable garbled as voices joined in: RE-DEMP-TION SHOT RE-DEM-SHIN SHAWT RID-EMP-SHIN SHOT RE-DE-MSHIN SHAW. 

The pong players quickly rearranged themselves into a triangular formation. A player with a silverish buzzcut scrambled to the centre, pupils black in anticipation. He was launched into the air. Literally standing atop a platform of pongmates, he yelled, “TRICKSHOT!” before flinging the ball towards the cups. It sank perfectly. 

In my hurry to get out of the basement before anyone realized I was there, I tripped over an extension cord. The red glow of the strip lights pasted around the perimeter of the room flickered, and then glared white before cutting out completely. A hiss of surprise reverberated through the room and everyone dispersed to the corners. Before the shadows swallowed up the partygoers, I realized the flash of striped tail was not a mistake, or an IPA-addled hallucination (I had let the whole thing evaporate).

The brothers in this fraternity were racoons.

New immunotherapy treatment provides hope for aggressive cancer

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Peak Web
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Four T-cells coloured in neon greens, blues, and reds, some may be cancerous. Center cell is round with a clear cell wall but the other three are irregularly shaped.
PHOTO: The National Institutes of Health / Wikimedia Commons

By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer

Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are often recognized as the three most common forms of cancer treatment. Sometimes, the latter two approaches become no longer effective when cancers become drug resistant, allowing the cells to further spread. At the University of Calgary, however, promising developments in immunotherapy intervention seek to provide alternative treatment when common therapies are not viable. 

Cells continually divide to replenish dying cells, but certain gene mutations can create cancer cells, which divide and spread in an uncontrolled manner. The human body naturally defends itself from cancerous cells, though sometimes they can “hide from the immune system and avoid being destroyed,” according to the Canadian Cancer Society. Immunotherapy seeks to help strengthen the ability to recognize and fight these covert cells, allowing the body to continue using its natural line of defense.

University of Calgary researchers have “discovered a unique target present on a specific group of solid cancerous tumours. Armed with that information, researchers from the Riddell Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy, a core research centre of the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute, developed a new experimental therapy,” according to a press release. The Peak corresponded with Riddell Centre associate director of business Nubia Zepeda for more information on this novel therapy.

Zepeda explained that the treatment utilizes chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, which “uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer.” Specifically, “T cells, a type of immune cell, are collected from the patient and genetically engineered in a laboratory to recognize specific markers found on cancer cells,” she noted. “Once these modified cells are returned to the patient, they can seek out and destroy cancer cells while sparing most healthy tissue.”

CAR T-cell therapy itself has been in clinical trials since the 1980s, and was first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2017 to treat acute lymphocytic leukemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer. Zepeda said, “However, its success against solid tumours has been much more limited.” This new therapy seeks to change that. “University of Calgary researchers have developed a novel CAR T-cell therapy called GCAR1, designed to treat alveolar soft part sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer with few effective treatment options,” she explained. Sarcomas are solid tumours, often beginning “as a painless lump” before spreading through the bloodstream.

“This targeted approach aims to improve the therapy’s ability to recognize and eliminate cancer cells.” 

— Nubia Zepeda, Riddell Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy associate director of business

“GCAR1 targets a protein called GPNMB, which is highly expressed on certain cancer cells but has limited expression in healthy tissues,” shared Zepeda. “This targeted approach aims to improve the therapy’s ability to recognize and eliminate cancer cells while reducing damage to normal cells.”

So far, “the research team has treated two patients through single-patient studies,” Zepeda told The Peak. Stéphanie Alain was able to extend her life an additional 18 months through treatment, giving her more time to spend with her family and son. Kent B., also a parent, has had success in treatment, with “the lesions on his lungs [having] decreased by more than half the size,” the university shared. 

“While these are early findings, the results provide hope that GCAR1 could become a promising new treatment option for patients with difficult-to-treat solid tumours that currently have few effective therapies,” Zepeda added.

Vancouver Public Library offers employment resources for persons with disabilities

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Peak Web
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Illustration of child and adult looking at each other smiling, surrounded by swirling pages and pamphlets drawn with bright hues
ILLUSTRATION: Jackie Peng / The Peak

By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer

In The Compass, a man named Ernest shared his story. He grew up in foster care, and at age six he started to lose his hearing. As a young man, he looked for jobs to help out his family, but got rejection after rejection. “Job after job, the hiring manager or hiring team would take one look at me with my hearing aids and a speech disability and determine before I got through an interview that I could not do the job,” he wrote. 

Gaps in employment opportunities continue to emerge for people with disabilities. According to the Government of Canada, people with disabilities face increased employment challenges. The report specifically highlighted that in the age range of 25 to 64 year olds, a 16% gap of employment existed between the two demographics in a 2022 survey. 

To this end, governments on both the provincial and municipal levels have attempted to address issues facing this community. The BC government provides the Work-Able Accessible Employment Program to individuals who recently graduated from post-secondary. This co-op program pays recent graduates with self-identified disabilities to work in one of many possible BC Public Service ministries for a term of 24 months. 

On a municipal level, the Vancouver Public Library (VPL) also provides career and job programs targeted towards people with disabilities. The Peak spoke to Chelsea Leslie who is currently serving as a senior public library service associate at the VPL’s accessible services department, to learn more about the programs that the VPL offers. 

She said that the VPL’s accessibility department partnered with the Neil Squire Society, a registered charity organization headquartered in Burnaby. The company creates programs, technological devices, and financial solutions to help people with disabilities. The groups work together to provide the society’s Creative Employment Options program to a wider audience, a program built to support “job seekers with disabilities through skills development and job search support” which often includes a “one-on-one” format.

Leslie said that the VPL had run this particular program twice already this year, highlighting the topics “navigating the hidden job market” and “disclosing disability to your potential employer.” She also noted that the library, which runs the registration aspect of the event, planned to host the program with the society once more this year.

“In general, our department focuses on enhancing the accessibility of the library to people with disabilities.”

— Chelsea Leslie, senior service associate at VPL’s accessible services department

Leslie shared the role of the VPL’s accessible services department. “In general, our department focuses on enhancing the accessibility of the library to people with disabilities. We do this by offering services such as a home delivery service for library patrons who aren’t able to get to the library in person. We also offer accessible formats such as audiobooks for library patrons who have print disabilities,” which are mobility, cognitive, and visual impairments that prevent people from reading print,” according to the Government of Canada.

Another resource for persons with disabilities is March of Dimes Canada. They are a national non-profit that “offers a wide range of support and services to empower people with disabilities to live in their communities with independence, choice and control,” according to their website. Their Strategic Employment Solutions Program provides hands-on assistance to people in the job hunt: identifying personal strengths, finding available listings, applying to the position, and continued support on the job after successful hiring. Similarly, Paving the Path to Work, their free six-week online program, helps participants to personally develop and learn about the job market. 

The SFSS Health and Dental Plan is too shallow for student needs

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Peak Web
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Person sitting at a table looking at medical bills and feeling stressed
PHOTO: Vitaly Gariev / Unsplash

By: Jonah Lazar, Staff Writer

The Simon Fraser Student Society’s (SFSS) health and dental plan is as wide as the sea and as deep as a pond. Currently, two plans are available to undergraduate SFU students, an enhanced care plan and a basic care plan for a reduced fee. Each has a short period of time to opt out entirely with proof of alternative coverage. These plans are offered by Alumo (previously Studentcare), a student dental and health care provider contracted by the SFSS. While the plan covers a lot, the maximum annual amounts don’t. 

The enhanced care plan is the default for undergraduate students. It costs $364 a year and students receive an annual maximum of $750 for mental health services, $400 for physiotherapy, and $700 for dental care. Students also receive coverage for services like osteopathy, naturopathy, and massage therapists, as well as $150 every two years for eyeglasses and up to 80% coverage for prescription drugs. 

On the surface that seems like decent coverage, however if you are in actual need of these services, you will end up having to pay for them yourself very quickly.

On the surface that seems like decent coverage, however if you are in actual need of these services, you will end up having to pay for them yourself very quickly. Mental health services like therapy cost anywhere from $140–$175 per hour; exhausting your coverage between 4–5 visits. If you need to visit a physiotherapist, which costs about $130 per visit in BC, you’ll be paying out of pocket by your fourth visit. $700 for dental care is OK but it comes with multiple conditions, and you really need to use StudentCare’s dental network to reduce your out of pocket costs. Dental work isn’t cheap, with crowns costing $1,000 or more.

There has reportedly been a significant increase in health and dental claims recently; last year, former SFSS president Emmanuel Adegboyega wrote in The Peak that there has been a 35% increase in claims since 2020. Despite this, students have shut down most attempts to increase health fees. From 2010–2023, there were five health and dental referendum campaigns, all of which failed. In 2025, a successful referendum raised the fees from $267 to $364, winning by just 49 votes. What’s needed is an increase in transparency. How many students actively use the plan? How many max out the different areas? What changes are students asking for in those surveys each year that Alumo runs? How much would it cost the plan if the caps were doubled?

The referendum’s history of failure does not indicate that this system will improve anytime soon, if the SFSS keeps approaching the situation in the same way. Better communication is needed to end this referendum’s losing streak. First off, SFU’s undergraduate student body in spring 2025 was 24,238 strong, yet the health and dental fee question only had a total 2,345 votes — that’s a 9.7% voter turnout. What’s worse is that the turnout is often far lower; in 2022, only 543 ballots were cast on this matter. Clearly, the SFSS is failing to effectively communicate and campaign to the student body. They should start by reaching out to other student unions that have consistently larger election and referendum turnout, like the University of British Columbia Alma Mater Society, to learn how to run campaigns.

If the current plan was strong enough for students to be able to rely on it, then the student body would value it as an essential service. As it stands, however, the insurance plan is not enough for anyone who actually needs it, and a waste of almost $400 for those who don’t. So why do you expect students to vote for a more expensive status quo?

FIFA showed Vancouver a glimpse of what transit is possible

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Peak Web
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Photo of a bus wrapped in the FIFA World Cup with a soccer ball on the front
PHOTO: J.J. Jang / The Peak

By: Maya Barillas Mohan, Staff Writer

There is an energy injected into Granville Street lately: coloured smoke bursting through the thick crowd, extended liquor-serving hours, and being able to catch the train home late. Hosting FIFA has brought many changes to Vancouver and some of these should be made permanent, especially with transit. This includes longer service hours and more Mark V trains. 

TransLink has been a mode of travel for fans of sports, concerts, and community events. In 2024, they helped transport fans attending Taylor Swift’s concerts. Now, for the World Cup, trains and buses wear festive wraps, and 12,000 more bus service hours have been added. Some SkyTrains run more frequently, and on match days, service will run an extra hour. Signage has cropped up around town, too, including a large mural-sized map at Renfrew Station. What’s new is having longer Millenium line trains that run more often meaning I lose less time waiting on the platform, and share much less elbow room with fellow commuters. TransLink has started putting larger trains running on the Expo line by supplementing its fleet with the Mark V, a five-car train with 25% more capacity than the previous generation, Mark III. 

I would be less enthusiastic about keeping the new 11 FIFA Fan Festival routes. These run “every 5 minutes from two hours prior to gate open to two hours following gate close” at the expense of the 145 route between SFU and Production Way. Articulated buses (the 60-foot long accordion ones) have been conscripted for the FIFA Fan Express. There seems to have been a mismanagement in priorities somewhere. Train stations with bus connections to SFU get packed with students forced to jam themselves into buses 65% the size of the old ones without an increase in frequency. I wondered why police officers could be imported from Delta, Calgary, and Edmonton but extra buses/operators couldn’t have? So yes, the displacement is temporary, and yes, demand for the 11 routes seem to be there on game days. Maybe my real issue with the bus re-routing isn’t that I feel like externalities facing students weren’t priced fairly. Out of the $22 million spent on transit, how much of that was on ornamental soccer balls!?’

As Metro Vancouver continues to develop, a need for increased transit frequency and capacity will be impossible to ignore.

As Metro Vancouver continues to develop, a need for increased transit frequency and capacity will be impossible to ignore. The Mark V is the longest train possible due to existing platform lengths, so FIFA’s constant application of a rush-hour schedule could be a valuable alternative. Housing developers are pushing boundaries of what is possible, with Pinnacle’s new plan for Lougheed Town Centre including an 87-storey tower. With mixed use planning including nearly 2,000 strata units among commercial space, traffic in the area is guaranteed to surge. There just isn’t room for car traffic at this scale: Lougheed highway is just four lanes. Widening the road isn’t a viable solution, either. As shown in Los Angeles, it creates “induced demand” where traffic becomes congested again as demand catches up with increased breathing room for drivers. 

The FIFA upgrades are a fantastic step in the right direction to increased service. SkyTrains cannot operate 24/7 because there is “no safe way to maintain the 30-year-old transit system if it were to run around the clock on weekends,” according to the findings in a 2019 report. I don’t think non-stop service is necessary, though, Transit just has to continue their increased bus and train service to keep cars off the road.

 

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

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For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society