SFU’s second annual Indigenous Day was celebrated on September 24 by Aboriginal peoples from all over BC in a day filled with music, food, and culture.

The event was organized by the First Nations Student Association (FSNA), which began planning in May, and was sponsored by the FNSA, the Office for Aboriginal People, CJSF 90.1 FM, and the SFSS.

FNSA Treasurer and event organizer Laura Forsythe explained how the event almost didn’t go ahead: “Unfortunately, [the] SFSS had decided that they also wanted to have their kickoff party the day after our event, which almost ended the annual indigenous day.”

However, after negotiations the event went ahead as planned, and featured a six-hour program accompanied by 44 vendors selling items ranging from clothing and jewellery to salmon and artwork.

A highlight of the day was the 14 different performing groups from all over Canada, including hip-hop artists and dancing groups who performed in front a 32 foot longhouse set, specially constructed in Convocation Mall for the event.

Significant effort was made to engage educational institutions in the day’s festivities. Seven school districts and three universities and colleges were in attendance. In the morning a catcher workshop taught nearly 600 students and others how to make dreamcatchers.

Forsythe commended the fact that the day grew from last year, which saw 2,000 individuals in attendance. “We had twice as many vendors, we had two additional hours for the performers, and we had numerous schools [in attendance],” said Forsythe.

Planning of the event began through the FNSA Indigenous Day committee, composed of 15 students, including Forsythe herself. “We basically put together contacts and put a call out to the indigenous community and said, ‘This is something we want to do here on campus. Do you want to be [a] part of it?’” said Forsythe.

Special attention was paid to respecting indigenous culture. Forsythe noted that the planning committee in addition to all the performers and vendors were indigenous. She added, “We respected our own culture, by simply being ourselves and being proud of our culture.”

Forsythe remarked, “Four years ago, when I joined this university in 2011, we didn’t have this type of event. We had one teepee and one elder in the AQ for the afternoon and we sat there.” She further acknowledged that while a lot of work still needs to be done, “there has been a lot of work to reconcile and to be more respectful of the indigenous community here on campus.”

Forsythe succinctly broke down what the day’s celebrations added to the SFU community.

Said Forsythe, “for the non-indigenous community I think it gives them the opportunity to have a glimpse of [. . .] the diversity that there is in the indigenous community especially when you’re having Cree, and Mohawk, and Tlingit, and Kwakwaka’wakw performers and vendors.”

She elaborated on what this event did for SFU’s indigenous community: “It allows us to share our culture, but also to have pride in our culture and express that we’re still here and very much alive and very much thriving.”

Democratic reform, voter participation, and the environment took centre stage in a town hall with Green party candidates SFU professor Lynne Quarmby, Claire Martin, and environmentalist David Suzuki.

The meeting on Wednesday night, held in Images Theatre on Burnaby Campus, was organized to allow the crowd of about 150 students and voters to ask the candidates questions directly.

As part of the developing campaign story, the town hall sought to foster conversation between voters and the parliamentary hopefuls.

Quarmby is running in Burnaby North — Seymour, and Claire Martin is running in North Vancouver. The election is on October 19.

To begin the event, Suzuki offered a passionate call for young voters to act because “youth has everything at stake in this election.” Although he describes himself as nonpartisan, he plainly stated his opposition to the current government by telling the audience, “I just want Harper to get the hell out of office.”

As his speech went on, Suzuki grew more candid. While retelling a story of how he had met Harper in the late 1980s, he let slip that he told the politician, “Mr. Harper, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

Martin jested later in the evening, “I didn’t know we could swear!”

Distrust of politicians and distaste for the current state of affairs in Ottawa was a common theme as the candidates described their thoughts and why they decided to run for the Green Party.

Quarmby expressed that if politicians were doing their job faithfully, she wouldn’t have to leave science and run. She continued to say that the Green Party was the only party she could run for, being “the only party that can freely represent their constituents.”

Quarmby’s decision to run has had an effect on the campus over the course of this election. Her campaign signs and buttons can be found all over campus, some even hanging from faculty office name-plates.

Michael Vegh, co-president of SFU Greens and Quarmby’s campus campaign organizer said that student support has been strong since the SFU Greens was founded in Spring 2015 and added, “Week by week [support] keeps growing.”

The town hall ended with a question and answer period. The topics ranged from tuition fees, unemployment, and the contentious subject of strategic voting. Several times, attendees also referred to the Green Party’s election platform.

The document, released on September 9, promises an end to tuition, the repealing of Bill C-51, and a bold action on climate. Quarmby expressed confidence in these promises: “I know what I offer is what people want.”

The recurring theme that overshadowed all others was voter participation. Martin explained that by not voting in the election, citizens were in effect casting a vote on the status quo.

She concluded that in acknowledgement of candidates’ effort to inform voters with events such as this, she asked that participants “[do] us the honour and vote.”

SFU IT Services (ITS) is currently working to implement PaperCut, a card-less system, to all of their printers in the libraries and computer labs.

This will replace the current print card system which has been in place for 20 years.

Desktop Services manager and PaperCut project manager Allen Murray explained that rather than constantly replacing and repairing the old card readers and dispensers — which can cost between $1,500 and $2,000 each — ITS made the decision to upgrade the entire system.

“PaperCut is used by many universities all over the world and it seemed to be [. . .] the best product out there at this time for an online type of system,” said Murray.

One of the main differences between the old system and PaperCut is the option to pay for printing using a credit card through an online account. This part of the system was “soft-launched” this month, and so far approximately 200 to 300 students have set up accounts.

Students will also have the option to add cash to their PaperCut printing accounts at a “loader” machine, which will function in a manner similar to the old card dispensers.

The printing process will be similar to the current one, as students will still enter their account credentials at a print terminal to release their documents. 

“It’s a pretty nice little system,” said Murray. “It shows you what you’ve printed. When you put money into your account there’s a transaction history and a print job history that lets you see exactly how much you’ve spent.”

ITS hoped to have everything set up by the start of the semester so that new students wouldn’t have to purchase print cards. However, the cash payment side of the system was not ready due to a last-minute decision to change the specific model of the loaders that will allow students to add cash to their accounts.

Murray explained that they are currently testing a new loader model manufactured by the Canadian company ITC Systems prior to installing them for student use. The goal is to have the cash loaders in place at all three campuses and in the libraries for the start of the Spring semester.

Murray noted, “One of the hassles of this [transition] is going to be phasing out the card, obviously.” ITS plans to stop selling print cards by January once all of the cash loaders are in place.

The library and ITS are working out a way to reimburse the $1 deposit for the cards — however, any additional funds on the card will not be transferable or refundable.

The card reader system will remain running parallel to PaperCut in the labs and libraries for at least two additional semesters to give students an opportunity to use up any remaining funds on their print cards.

“Two semesters should accommodate most people, but even at that point if we get feedback from students that [. . .] there’s still cards out there, we could leave one printer somewhere with a card [reader] on it, so that they could still use it until we know that it’s all cleaned up.”

Murray referred to the PaperCut FAQ webpage as a primary resource for students, which outlines the system in detail and is frequently being updated as they work out specifics and receive new questions and feedback.

All SFU’s computers have shortcut links on the desktop leading to the FAQ page, as well as to the Moneras page that allows students to add funds to their account using a credit card.

Regarding the transition process in general, Murray said, “There’s going to be a little bit of pain, just like starting anything new.”