“Start now so my daughter won’t be standing here in 20 years making the same requests,” one speaker said, to applause regarding the concerns about the federal governments to follow through on its Paris agreement pledges.

On July 16, hundreds of concerned citizens met with Burnaby North-Seymour MP Terry Beech to weigh in on climate change and the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion.

The town hall meeting was divided into brief presentations by Beech that explained the Liberal platform, followed by questions from the public. About 200 attendees packed the venue.

Speaking to the issue of climate change, Beech explained the goals that the government has outlined in order to meet its emission reduction targets. In December 2015, Canada adopted the Paris Agreement, which sets the goal of limiting global warming to 2 C above pre-industrial levels by 2030.

Despite Beech’s optimism, the Liberal government’s willingness to follow through on its promises was met with a mixed reaction by the audience.

Another speaker expressed skepticism that the meeting would result in any change at all, instead urging the attendees to “make it politically impossible for [the government] to not act.”

As the meeting shifted topics to discussing the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, the conversation grew markedly more personal.

The pipeline, conditionally approved by the National Energy Board (NEB) on May 19, is a hotly contested development that would triple the current pipeline’s capacity to transport diluted bitumen from the tar sands to Burnaby, where it would be loaded into tankers in the Burrard Inlet. In 2014, around 100 protesters were arrested for occupying a site being used for geological surveys ahead of the pipeline construction.

Many Burnaby residents present at the meeting lamented the fact that they would be put at greater risk of disaster should there ever be a spill or fire. One such spill in 2007 caused a geyser of oil to erupt from a breached pipeline under the street. About 234,000 litres of oil slicked nearby houses and flowed into the Burrard Inlet.

Several speakers also made reference to the controversial process by which the NEB approved the pipeline. The Board has been accused of not having enough political distance from the companies they regulate, after a former Kinder Morgan consultant was appointed by the Harper government in 2015. The Board has also been criticized for insufficient follow-up with projects that it has approved in the past.

Addressing these comments, Beech spoke to the huge cultural change he has experienced in Parliament, emphatically stating that “It is our job to be the community’s voice in Ottawa, and not the other way around.”

He also drew attention to the fact that the Trudeau government has promised to review the NEB approval process, and has added several more regulatory steps to the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Several attendees expressed appreciation that the meetings were being held at all, with one saying that it was a “huge contrast to our former experiences” with the Harper government.

In a statement he provided after the meeting, Beech explained that SFU students are also important in shaping climate change policy.

“I believe that we need to have SFU students and young Canadians [. . .] involved in developing a strong national climate change policy,” Beech said. He invited young people to attend the other meetings his office is holding over the summer, and asked them to “hold our government’s feet to the fire because, at the end of the day, my voice as an MP is made stronger and louder by you.”

SFU students are “engaging the policymakers of the future” with the Global Model NATO Summit, July 25–30.

Students, academics, and defence experts from across the world will come to Vancouver to participate in the six-day conference.

Students from around the world, including India, Africa, many European countries, the US, and all across Canada will be in attendance. NATO experts from Belgium, Germany, and Canada will mentor and assist the participating students to develop their negotiation and diplomacy skills.

“We’re creating an out-of-classroom learning vehicle to prepare [students] for foreign service, diplomacy, international relations, and defence,” said SFU political science professor, Dr. Alex Moens.

According to him, the Summit “moves past traditional education,” and has attendees learn by doing a simulation as close to the NATO experience as possible.

Moens explained that this will be achieved first by committee work — the most important aspect of NATO decision-making — and second through a crisis response simulation where students will practice the first three critical steps of actual NATO crisis response.

Students have an opportunity to get “real answers from real policymakers” in panel sessions with Q&A, said conference manager Cornel Turdeanu. Speakers include the Honourable Harjit Singh Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, and Colonel Ian Hope of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Students will be “very close to the actual decision-makers” while interacting with NATO delegates at the conference, many of whom work closely with NATO’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg.

The event is student-led, with mentorship from Moens, a self-described “guide” for the student team.

“The leaders are gaining a tremendous amount of experience,” he added, noting that the students will be filling out grant proposals, negotiating with NGOs and government organizations, booking flights and hotel accommodations, creating agendas, and building skills in hosting and designing websites.

The team’s grant proposals have so far been incredibly successful, bringing the Canadian Department of National Defence, Royal Canadian Navy, NATO Defence College, SFU’s political science and Hellenic studies departments, and even the Vancouver Canucks on board as sponsors.

SFU students Cornel Turdeanu, Aleksandra Panic, and Sai Wong started SFU’s Model NATO club in 2015. They were inspired after attending a Model NATO Youth Summit in Latvia, and wanted to bring that experience to SFU and Canada.

“It started as a dream, that one day we would host a summit at SFU,” Turdeanu told The Peak. The intention to host the summit came first, and the club came afterwards.

“NATO stands for democracy, liberty, and the rule of law,” values that make Canada function, said Turdeanu, who grew up in Romania, a former Soviet-controlled country. Moens shared the same sentiments, having seen East Germany in the 1970s before the fall of the Soviet Empire.

“We call it ‘Global Model NATO’ for a reason,” said Dr. Moens. “It is a framework for different allies and partners to discuss and reach consensus-based decisions.”

David Newman has lived in Canada for 11 years and earned his PhD at SFU. Now he’s being told he will have to leave the country.

Newman has been denied permanent residence status as a result of Canada’s unique express entry system for immigration. The system works by allotting ‘points’ to immigrants based on several socio-economic factors. Those with the highest points gain priority in applying for permanent residence in Canada. Newman is 45 years old, which awards him zero points under the system. He also does not gain any points for his international work experience, as he has lived in Canada for over a decade.

However, the biggest obstacle he faces is his inability to earn the 600 points available to those who have a permanent full-time job. As a sessional instructor, Newman fails this criteria.

Newman explained to The Peak that given his seniority in his department, he has effective ongoing employment — however, technically, each contract lasts for only a semester. Now he can no longer in work in Canada.

How does Newman plan to proceed? Having left his home country of New Zealand in 1987, he remarked, “I’m like a foreigner in New Zealand.”

He plans to leave for Vietnam this August where he will rejoin his wife and mother-in-law, who is currently ill. Newman’s options for the future remain limited. Officials have encouraged him to wait until the policy can be changed; however, he is unable to work in Canada in the interim, and his son, who is 14, will also be unable to attend school here. Said Newman, “What am I going to live on? I don’t [have] any real choice but to leave at this point.”

He continued, “It’s very frustrating. I believe that common sense will ultimately prevail and there will be a way for us to continue and stay here.” What he hopes is that by appealing to the office of Immigration Minister John McCallum, he will be allowed to apply on the basis of a humanitarian or compassionate ground.

The problem is that since Newman originally applied for residence under economic grounds, he cannot switch. “I understand that [issue],” he said. “But for a 14-year-old, this isn’t about economics — this is where he grew up.”

The Newman family has received a groundswell of support from the Communications Student Union, as well as VP academic and provost Jon Driver, who will be writing a personal letter to the immigration minister. Newman is even working through the office of local MP Terry Beech for support.

Newman feels as though he has made a significant contribution to Canada, citing the “thousands” of students who have gone through his classes at SFU. “Many have felt that I have contributed to their growth and development in a positive way,” he said.

He expressed his disappointment at the bureaucratic technicalities that have caused so much disruption in his life. “I meet the spirit of what the immigration department requires,” he said, “[just] not the technical requirements of how it is met.”