April 18, 2012

PHOTO BY MIKE DAVIES

TRU Distinguished Alumni Awards 2

The “fresh face” of Kamloops art 5

WolfPack year in review 10

THEΩMEGA

VOLUME 21ISSUE 28

April 18, 2012

TRU’s Independent Student Newspaper

Another year done...almost

April 18, 20122

Around five years ago, an ice cream parlour in Vancouver that was shutting down for the winter laid off all of its workers without any notice or sever-ance pay.

The B.C. Employment Standards Branch was unwilling to step in until the workers completed a form that must also be filled in by the employer. The employer was unwilling to co-operate.

The workers were left with one op-tion, says Stephen Von Sychowski, who was friends with one of the work-ers.

“That’s when we actually did picket that business and actually did, over the course of two days, win the severance pay,” Von Sychowski said.

That event inspired the cre-ation of the Em-ployee Action and Rights Net-work (EARN) in 2010, which was founded to help non-union-ized workers deal with bad e m p l o y e r s , educate young workers about their rights in the workplace and advocate for improve-ments to labour standards.

Von Sy-chowski is now the chair of the B.C. Federa-tion of Labour’s Young Workers Committee, which is the organization behind EARN.

If a non-unionized worker wants to deal with a problem with his or her boss, that worker must first go to the Employment Standards Branch’s web-site, then fill out a form called a “self-help kit.” The self-help kit must be filled out within six months.

Problems that the self-help kit can deal with include not being paid prop-erly, not getting a notice of termination and severance pay when being laid off and the employee having to pay for ob-taining and cleaning a work uniform.

The worker must then give the filled-out self-help kit with their griev-ance to their employer. If the employer does not respond to the self-help kit within 15 days, only then can a worker ask the Employment Standards Branch for help.

Von Sychowski says that most non-unionized workers, fearing be-ing dismissed from their jobs, simply don’t fill out the self-help kits.

“A large amount of people will simply say: ‘Well, forget about it. I’m not going to take that risk. I’m not go-ing to do that. It’s too intimidating, it’s too risky’ and so a lot of the com-plaints just disappear,” he said.

That’s where workers can contact EARN for help. Over the last year, EARN has assisted between 120 to 150 workers. EARN now has around 1,500 members.

“Our goal is not just to create a large membership that’s names on paper,” said Von Sychowski. “It’s to create an activist base of non-union workers that can work collectively

with us and take some ac-tion to improve things out there.”

The liquor server wage is one thing that EARN is taking action against. On May 1, most workers will have a $10.25 an hour mini-mum wage. But those who serve liquor will have a m i n i m u m wage of $9.

“We be-lieve that there should be a m i n i m u m wage and there

shouldn’t be anything below that,” said Von Sychowski. “The minimum is the minimum.”

EARN is also calling on the pro-vincial government to restore a regu-lation requiring there be more than one person working at a gas station during late night hours.

As of Apr. 15, 2012, late night gas station workers can work alone if the employers install a time-lock safe for cash, limit access to the inside of the station, provide video surveillance and provide the employee with moni-tored emergency transmitters.

Those who want to join EARN can do so by filling out an online form at www.earnbc.ca. It is free to join and any information and correspondence is confidential. Those who want EARN’s help can contact them at [email protected].

Organization helps young workers with bad bossesΩ ContributorDevan C. Tasa

Feature

The 2012 Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Distinguished Alumni Awards dinner was held on Apr. 13 in the Grand Hall of TRU’s Campus Activity Centre.

Five awards were given out on the evening, including the Neil Russell Student Leadership Award, the Grace Chronister Bachelor of Social Work Award, the Professional Achievement Award, the Community Service Award and the Milestone Achieve-ment Award.

The evening opened with TRU president, Dr. Alan Shaver, ad-dressing the audience prior to the award presentations.

“You remind us of why we are here and you inspire us to become an even better institution,” Shav-er said. “In short, you carry our banner everyday, and for this we thank you sincerely.”

Amanda Jones was the first award recipient to be recognized. Currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in chemistry, Jones was awarded the Neil Russell Student Leader-ship Award. She volunteered as a hockey coach as well as a student mentor on campus.

“Volunteering is like toss-ing a stone in water,” Jones said. “You impact one person and the ripples that form from that one stone spread out and affect others around them.”

The second award recipient to be honoured was Raj Chahal, who was given the Grace Chronister Bachelor of Social Work Award. Chahal completed her Bachelor of Social Work degree in 2002 at TRU and has since moved on to work for the Ministry of Children and Family Development and most recently Royal Inland Hospital.

Chahal has also taught at TRU for the past six years.

“I am very honoured that this university has not only served my education, but continued to guide me in my profession,” Chahal said.

Paul Houle, receipient of the Professional Achievement Award, was the third honouree. Houle completed his Bachelor of Sci-ence degree in 2001 at TRU. He would go on to become an analyti-cal chemist, creating two state-of-the-art chemistry laboratories.

“If you were to have asked me 11 years ago when I finished my studies at [TRU] if I would be standing here receiving this award,” Houle said, “my re-sponse to you would be ‘you are categorically insane.’

“I was the guy who at the time thought it was a very, very good idea to organize study sessions at Heroes,” Houle said. “Believe me when I tell you that never, ever works out the way you think it will.”

James McCreath was then hon-oured with the Community Ser-vice Award. McCreath received his Bachelor of Journalism from TRU in 2002 and went on to ob-tain a Masters of Business Ad-ministration (MBA) from Royal Roads University. He has worked with KidSport Calgary and most recently BMO Nesbitt Burns.

McCreath helped to raise more than $14,000 towards the pur-chase of software that will help elementary students new to Can-ada learn English.

“My narrative ended up cross-ing paths with TRU,” McCreath said. “I learned about the power of story telling and enhancing your story and enhancing the story of others.

“I came here and I was in-spired, I was engaged and I was appreciated. The net result of that is that when I left here, I was em-powered. I am forever grateful to TRU for that experience.”

KPMG was the final award re-cipient of the night, receiving the Milestone Achievement Award for its support towards TRU stu-dents over many years.

Ian Hanomansing wrapped the night up as the event’s keynote speaker. Hanomansing’s speech highlighted a list of “five things that make Canada great that we take for granted.”

Hanomansing’s list consisted of the following:

It doesn’t matter what post-secondary institution you attend.

Public school is a viable option for parents to send their children to.

We are extraordinarily safe in this country.

We are advanced in diversity acceptance in this country.

We own an incredible level of free speech.

The TRU Distinguished Alumni Awards has honoured 65 different TRU alumni since the event was f irst established in 1995.

TRU Distinguished Alumni Awards honour deserving recipientsΩ Roving EditorTaylor Rocca

Raj Chahal (right) receives the Grace Chronister Bachelor of Social Work Award at the 2012 TRU Distinguished Alumni Awards dinner. —PHOTO BY TAYLOR ROCCA

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publishingboardEDITOR-IN-CHIEF * Mike DaviesBUSINESS MGR * Natasha SlackINDUSTRY REP * Mike YoudsFACULTY REP * Charles HaysSTUDENT REP* Sadie Cox

letterspolicyLiterary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Omega will attempt to publish each letter received, barring time and space constraints. The editor will take care not to change the intention or tone of submissions, but will not publish material deemed to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name (for publication) and contact details (not for publication). The Omega reserves the right not to publish any letter or submitted material. Opinions expressed in the Letters & Opinion section do not represent those of The Omega, the Cariboo Student Newspaper Society, its Board of Directors or its staff. Opinions belong only to those who have signed them.

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3

THE MEGA

April 18, 2012 Volume 21, Issue 28

Published since November 27, 1991

Cariboo Student Newspaper Society(Publisher of The Omega)TRU Campus House #4

Box 3010, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 5N3Phone: 250-372-1272

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editorialstaffEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORCory Hope

SPORTS EDITORNathan Crosby

Copy EditorLarkin Schmiedl

Photo EditorCory Hope

News EditorBrendan Kergin

Roving EditorTaylor Rocca

Promotions Coordinator/AdsalesAmrita Pannu

www.theomega.ca

omegacontributors Devan C. Tasa, Amy Berard, Marvin Beatty, Lauren Bell, Julia Marks, David Luca

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 28

Editorial

In the spirit of Kergin’s “Things I learned this year” column to the right — as well as his “In case you missed it” feature we’ve been run-ning most of the year and Crosby’s “Year that was in TRU sports” on page 10 this week — I thought for my last column of the winter 2012 TRU semester, I might treat you to a brief rundown of the best (in my opinion) pieces The Omega had to offer over the course of the last 28 issues.

We opened the year with a fun “get to know what’s around you” geocache game that never really caught on. It was a fun way to see some areas of Kamloops — often within walking distance — that you should’ve checked out (and still can!). Those who participated were greatly rewarded, not just with prizes from us, but with amazing views and fun experiences.

Kamloops got in on the “Oc-cupy” movement for a while in the fall, but considering that we’re not exactly a mecca of high-finance or a poverty-stricken community

destroyed by corporate greed, that never really caught on, either.

A fair number of important or influential people visited our cam-pus throughout the year. Not only did many of the federal NDP lead-ership candidates stop by during their campaigns to lead the party, but senator Mobina Jaffer came and discussed women’s and Aboriginal rights, Peter Mansbridge (one of the most recognizable Canadian broadcasters in history) came to talk about what’s great about Can-ada and Canadians, and Chief Jus-tice the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin came to discuss the strengths and flaws in the Canadian judicial system.

These were all fantastic events, we should be proud to have hosted such people, and I think The Omega had great coverage of these visits.

Hardly anyone bothered to vote. For anything.

Over the Christmas break, the first student representative for the board of governors and senate was elected with a whopping 2.2 per cent turnout of eligible voters.

Some thought the poor turnout was a result of a lack of awareness of the election and the fact that it was held while everyone was on break, but a few months later, we turned out in even fewer numbers while school was in full session to elect a second representative.

A slightly higher number of peo-ple bothered to vote for their stu-dent union representatives, but that number barely broke the 10 per cent mark of eligible voters.

It’s possible that because there was only one nominee for every position, people didn’t feel it was worth voting for either the nominee or not the nominee.

The last few weeks of the year had some of the most interesting news, as well as some of our best coverage, I think.

TRU student Sooraya Graham had her art ripped off the wall in the fine arts wing of Old Main by a staff member of TRU World, an event that has since garnered na-tional (and in fact international) attention about the issues of free-dom of expression, gender roles and stigmas associated with cul-tural preconceptions.

We’re still waiting on the press release about disciplinary action (or lack thereof ) taken, and will update this story when there’s some sort of resolution beyond the official statement that the school doesn’t condone this type of behaviour.

TRU was recently acknowl-edged for its sustainability ini-tiatives — a growing issue being considered by students as far as their choice of university (see story on page eight this week).

Kamloops’ first ever Pride Pa-rade was held right here at TRU just a few weeks ago, and was a fitting conclusion to a great se-mester, with people from all de-mographics coming together to celebrate equality.

You can check out these stories and everything else we covered this year at theomega.ca under “full issues.”

Have a great summer, good luck to those of you who still have final exams and I’ll see you on the stands again in Septem-ber if you’re not around for our monthly publications from May to August.

[email protected]

Mike Davies Ω Editor-in-Chief

Editor’s Note

As the semester winds down, this will be my final column of the school year.

I started writing in December with the goal of helping you as a reader to “know your communi-ty,” and not just on this campus, but in larger Kamloops as well.

In the past month alone, I can think of two excellent examples of the strength of our campus community.

Just two weeks ago, Kamloops’ f irst-ever pride parade was host-ed on our campus because of an entirely student-led initiative. The celebration included many community groups who arrived on campus due to the inclusivity and leadership shown by TRU.

As well, the recent controver-sy over Sooraya Graham’s photo of a woman in a niqab holding a bra made TRU the subject of several national media stories.

The highlight though is the support shown by TRU’s admin-istration towards Graham and our ability to embrace cultures in this international community we’ve created in Kamloops.

TRU is making concerted ef-forts to enhance our community and each of us has an opportu-nity to participate.

Starting next September, a “cul-ture of caring” will be introduced across campus in an effort to create a more caring and open community.

In the meantime, become in-volved and take advantages of opportunities this summer.

If you’re still a student search-ing for a summer job, I suggest introducing yourself to one of our many local non-profit orga-nizations.

Most of them are still awaiting approval for government fund-ing and once they receive it, they will be looking to TRU students to start work in early May. You can f ind many of these organiza-tions on www.accesskamloops.org.

A summer at a local non-profit could give you a new perspective on lives led under different cir-

cumstances, or on how you can use your education to make a difference.

One of the many roles you could take on could f ind you planting a garden with people who have mental illnesses, hanging out with youth who have endured juvenile detention, teaching brain injury awareness to young kids or picking fruits and vegetables from local gar-dens for people in need.

Congratulations to those of you graduating and entering the TRU alumni community.

Whether you move far away or stay right here at home, I en-courage you to remain connect-ed with the campus.

Our alumni network is grow-ing and there are opportuni-ties for you to give back to the school.

Volunteer some of your time as a career mentor to a TRU stu-dent and share your experience as a new graduate.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you are f inding your place at TRU and in Kamloops, and welcoming those students who will join us in September.

Amy Berard is a TRU business student and the campus liaison for United Way. To get connected with the community, email her at [email protected].

Know Your Community

Amy Berard

A final note as you finish up

There are a few things I’ve learned at TRU.

Some of them are even the rea-sons I came here.

Here are the other ones:TRU World is actually a sepa-

rate school from TRU. And TRU Residence is a sepa-

rate company. And Aramark food services

aren’t part of the school either! OK, that last one is a pretty

well-known fact, as they’re one of the biggest companies in North America and provide grub for many many schools, hospitals and other places in need of uncompli-cated food.

But yeah, the first two are true too at TRU.

The vending machines dispense pop at a surprising price struc-ture.

For barely over half the price of a bottle of pop you can get a can of pop. If my math is correct, a bottle is 591 ml. Two cans are 710. That’s a net difference of 119 ml. That’s big over a year, and then you have two reasons to sneak out of a boring class.

Also, the vending machines only stock the most inoffensive Dorito’s f lavour, Nacho Cheese. On lucky occasions Zesty Cheese may show up.

The campus pub Heroes is not even second-place on the list of places open latest to get food.

It’s regularly beaten by the Tim Horton’s in the House of Learn-ing and Common Grounds coffee shop run by TRUSU.

The science building has lots of cool little nooks to hide in.

The CFBX house was built be-fore Hitler died — and I just won a bet for fitting Hitler into one of my articles for The Omega.

Buying a mattress is essen-tial for good grades. Currently stacked on this student’s f loor are three foamies and a sleeping bag.

I don’t sleep well. Not sleep-ing well means I go to class tired. Ipso facto, sleep is important for school; roving editor Taylor Roc-ca was right.

Don’t wear a real tie to court. A clip-on will slip off your neck when you get grabbed by an al-leged violent offender.

Location, location, location is important not just for where you live, but also for where you place your school.

Being surrounded by industrial businesses and big box corporate stores is unlikely to have helped the culture of the school.

How long until we can gentrify this joint?

Things I learned this year

CHECK OUT

SOME GREAT

WEB-EXCLUSIVE

ARTICLES

AND PHOTOS

THIS WEEK AT

THEOMEGA.CA

Everyone else did a “year in review” type piece, so I guess I get to, as well

Kergin’s TakeBrendan Kergin, News Edior

April 18, 20124

News

In case you missed it, Kergin’s got you covered: Things you probably didn’t see happening around you last week

Global• Kabul attacks

While Canada’s combat role in Afghanistan has wrapped up, the beleaguered country is still deal-ing with war-like violence on a regular basis, even in its capital.

Kabul experienced an attack lasting 18 hours this past week-end, which has left nearly 20 peo-ple dead, mostly from the insur-gents’ group. Automatic firearms and grenades were fired at build-ings belonging to the govern-ment in the city. The attack was launched around the same time as three other attacks in other prov-inces of Afghanistan.

Read more at cbc.ca.

• Cuba left out

Most countries in the Western Hemisphere gathered their lead-ers together last week as part of the Summit of the Americas.

One notable exception to the list of attendees was Cuba.

This became more notable as discussions turned to inviting the small island nation to the next summit. While most countries

agreed, Canada stood by it’s big-gest trade partner the U.S.

American President Barack Obama said the country had not yet reached acceptable levels of democracy or human rights yet to deserve attendance at the summit. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Cuba can attend next time if it is a democratic nation.

Read more at bbc.co.uk/news.

National• Québec students

University students in Qué-bec are continuing to fight with their provincial government over how the post-secondary system is funded.

While students have been strik-ing for weeks due to the govern-ment’s plan to double tuition fees over the next few years ,the gov-ernment has been working out a plan to appease the students.

Instead of looking at tuition in-creases, they’ve presented a plan to increase student aid, providing more and offering it to students coming from higher-income fam-ilies than before.

As of press time the student or-ganizations central to the protest were not interested.

Read more at cupwire.ca

• David Suzuki

David Suzuki is resigning f rom his posit ion on the David Suzuki Foundat ion.

Yes, he’s resigning f rom the organizat ion which bears his name. In an open let ter on his website he descr ibes how he wishes to be an elder now and able to speak f reely about what he sees.

With the Har per government looking at alter ing how char i-t ies are classif ied, Suzuki is wor r ied his polit ical state-ments may harm the founda-t ions status as an environmen-tal char ity.

While not stat ing explicit ly who the foundat ion’s oppo-nents are, he does suggest they are at tempting to si lence the foundat ion th rough at tacking its char itable status.

Read more at davidsuzuki.ca.

Provincial• B.C. by-elect ion

A pair of provincial by-elec-t ions on Thursday could give a bet ter read of the polit ical cl imate in B.C. than any poll.

Two seats in the legislature are open in two r idings with st rong Liberal histor ies.

However both seats are be-ing challenged for by NDP and Conservat ive candidates, with other smaller par t ies having candidates as well.

This is a chance for the B.C. Liberals to halt or at least slow thei r ever-sinking poll num-bers, while the Conservat ives look at it as a chance to f inally return to Victor ia.

Read more at cbc.ca.

• Enbridge march

Alber ta’s Enbr idge Inc. faced some heat in B.C.’s cap -it al cit y over the weekend as act iv ist s took to the st reet to protest the proposed Nor ther n Gateway Project , a pipel ine connect ing the oi lsands in Nor ther n Alber ta to the Pa-cif ic Ocean.

The g roup, which had nearly 1,000 par t icipants at it s peak , shut down major roads as it made it s way to the leg isla-t u re.

The protest was inspi red by a documentar y made by a pai r of eco-advent u rers who t rav-el led the proposed pipel ine’s route. The f i lm was shown re -cent ly in Victor ia .

Read more at t imescolon ist .com

Local• Kamloops sports

The Kamloops Sports Council held it’s annual awards last week and highlighted the achievements of a variety of local sports people.

17-year-old Keifer Johnson won male athlete of the year while Tori Spence won female athlete for competitive speed skating and cy-cling.

Local mountain biker Catharine Pendrel and shot-putter Dylan Armstrong were also honoured after strong years internationally.

Read more on kamloopsnews.ca

• Miller time

Adrian Miller has been put un-der house arrest after pleading guilty to charges related to breach of probation and theft. While he currently does not have a home to stay in after being evicted from his former residence in March he will likely be staying in a motel until he finds a new permanent address. His sentence allows him to return to his university classes as well. Miller’s complex story will continue as he is still pursu-ing a civil case against TRU.

Read more atkamloopsthisweek.com.

Ω News EditorBrendan Kergin

IN MEMORIAM. Students both past and present, faculty, friends and family gathered at the Sagebrush Theatre on Apr. 11 to celebrate the memory of Jane Powell, a treasured member of the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) faculty. Jane passed away this past summer, but remains very present in the hearts of all who knew her. The second-year B. Ed students fundraised and because of the generous donations they received, were able to purchase a seat plaque at the theatre in her honour (J15), drama supplies for the B. Ed program and a photo and plaque to hang in AE 366. Jane made enormous contributions to the education and drama communities and the B. Ed students are proud to have helped preserve her memory.

—PHOTO BY LAUREN BELL

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 28 5

Arts & Entertainment

Clement Yeh with a pen in his hands makes me really jealous.

Maybe not if he was writing, because I’ve never read any of his writing (and I’m rather fond of my own because I happen to think I’m pretty funny sometimes, even if your average economist might dis-agree), but get Yeh drawing and I have to say I wouldn’t even want to play a game of hangman against him.

But I’d gladly go see his show again, and you should probably go see it, too.

Yeh has been TRU’s studio tech-nician for the visual arts department this year, and somehow, despite all of the time he’s put into making things work so that students can work, he’s managed to put together a show of all his own new material.

How do I know it’s all new mate-rial?

Because Yeh is new to town, and his show features people from Ka-mloops.

In fact, it’s called “Fresh Faces: Portraits of Kamloops Residents By a Newcomer.”

The show, hosted at Wilson House Gallery at 115 Tranquille Rd., opened up Apr. 10 and runs until May 9.

It features several different works of Yeh’s.

Each piece uses a different me-dium (OK, two of them were us-

ing the same medium, but I think in the art world they are classified as a diptych), and each one’s a rec-ognizable portrait of a person with whom he has met since he moved to Kamloops.

On top of more traditional meth-ods of portraiture, such as water-colour and pen drawings, there are also a pair of carved maple por-traits.

I’m not implying that the ball-point pen was invented before carv-ing here, but the precision in the maple carvings Yeh has produced look so much like they were made using lasers, the label for them spe-cifically states that no lasers were used.

The fine work on these pieces was done with a scroll saw.

Another medium used is Mecca-no, which is sort of like a predeces-sor to Lego except made of metal.

Using bits of Meccano, Yeh made a large-scale portrait of a TRU stu-dent.

While looking at this one, I couldn’t help but think that it looked like what a character out of a video game from Futurama would look like if you yanked it out of the television and put it on the wall.

Please note: I love Futurama, and this is a compliment.

Perhaps the most unusual piece, to me at least, was also one of the most instantly recognizable, both in subject and medium.

It was a portrait carved out of drywall.

While drywall is not necessar-ily the most unusual thing to make art with (ask anyone with a child about that), Yeh has captured a mo-ment with this portait that has made this person instantly recognizeable, even though a bare minimum of lines were used.

I had to leave before the show had actually started, but accord-ing to everyone I spoke to who made it out, Fresh Faces was both well-attended and well-received.

Hopefully, Yeh will return to us after the summer.

He’s returning to Montreal to

be with his family over the break, but judging by the work he’s put into making portraits of people he’s met in town, he’s grown quite fond of Kamloops and the people in it.

Wilson House Gallery is open from Monday to Friday, 1 to 4 p.m.

Kamloops newcomer puts a fresh face on region

Ω Arts and Entertainment EditorCory Hope

Clement Yeh makes portraits of locals in a variety of mediums, creating eclectic show

With a show at the legendary SXSW last year followed by three shows at this year’s Canadian Music Week in their hometown of Toronto and past appear-ances at New York’s CMJ and Halifax’s Pop Explosion Festival, Dinosaur Bones is getting its name out there.

So the band’s got a bit of hype to pique your interest, but what does it offer?

The quintet’s quintessential sound is a slower, dreamier indie sound. Aiming to create thoughtful music, the band doesn’t rely on a quirky sound or big bombastic musicianship, instead it hits a solid sound between banal pop rock of the main-stream and inaccessible hipster rock.

The slower feel doesn’t suggest party rock; this is more a style created for lis-tening pleasure while you’re physically doing something. Not a sit back and try and discover the meaning behind ob-

scure lyrics, it’s much more easy going than that.

No frills rock music, how it it was sup-posed to have evolved before marketing corporations got ahold of the genre.

A solid member of the Canadian in-die scene, Dinosaur Bones has toured with Yukon Blonde recently, and shared stages with the likes of I Mother Earth and Sloan.

While it’s often played as the opener, there’s a good chance the band will be swinging through the country as the leader of its own tour soon.

With the release of My Divider on Mar. 8, it’s now got a young album to nurture and grow and share with the country.

Check out the song Ice Hotels for an auditory example of Dinosaur Bones’ work.

San Sebastian is an indie-rock act from Hamilton, Ont.

They’ve earned recent publicity travelling as the opening act on the tour for fellow Hamiltonians, the Arkells.

San Sebastian rolled through Kamloops earlier in this academic year in support of their most recent album Relations, which was re-leased Oct. 4, 2011.

Relations features the singles Wake Up and Young Youth. Also worth checking out is the track Say I’m Alright.

With catchy pop lyrics and melo-dies, San Sebastian is a band that will appeal to a wide variety of lis-teners. There are instances where Relations reminds me of Jimmy

Eat World’s infamous album Bleed American. Chances are if you enjoy that classic record from Jimmy Eat World, you will also enjoy San Se-bastian’s debut studio album.

San Sebastian is led by the ener-getic and boisterous performance of vocalist Mike Veerman, who gives it his all while onstage. When seeing Veerman live and compar-ing his performance to the record, it easy to tell that he doesn’t ease up in the studio either.

Veerman’s vocals ooze with ener-gy and an upbeat attitude through-out Relations.

San Sebastian is offering a free download of their track Baby, which can be found on their web-site, www.sansebastianmusic.com.

Ye Olde Canadian Music Corner

Ω Roving EditorTaylor Rocca

Ω News EditorBrendan Kergin

Clement Yeh uses unusual mediums in his portraiture. Despite the often minimalist use of line and shape, the subjects are definitely recognizable. —PHOTO BY CORY HOPE

Kergin and Rocca highlight the underappreciated

RENOS UNDERWAY! Grant’s Crane Services was contracted to lift new boiler and heating machinery to the roof of the Old Main building at Thompson Rivers University on Apr. 5. The 51.5 m high crane was doing work to prepare for a third floor that will house the new School of Law. —PHOTO BY MARVIN BEATTY

April 18, 20126

Thompson Rivers University launched the Alvin & Lydia Grunert Scholarship to recognize and foster academic achievement: eight scholarships valued at $5,000 each, offered to the student with the highest Fall/Winter GPA from each faculty and school and one athlete.

Each Winter term, the 10 students from each faculty, school, and athletics with the highest Fall GPAs will be nominated for the scholar-ship. Each May, the students with the highest combined Fall and Winter GPAs will each be offered one of eight Grunert scholarships for

use in the 2012 Fall term. Almost 1,000 top TRU students met the scholarship’s stringent minimum criteria. Of those, only the top 10 from each area were selected, for a total of 70 nominations, as listed below. This elite group’s average Fall GPA was 4.21.

Faculty of ArtsChace BarberElisabeth BassAlexander CondonAmy LongoRobert MarsdenEmily HopeWill PlommerRebecca SandenElizabeth WarnerGraham Woodhurst

Faculty of ScienceColin BaileyNatascha HedrichMichael HildebrandtHarry HolmanTeralynn LedgerTaran MainKristine McDonaldJennifer OlsenJillian RutherfordJustin SmeatonBlake St.Peter

School of NursingJessica BauerKaitlin ClementSarah DenbighMelanie KleinAmelia Mackay-SmithTiana Miller-TaitMary StewartMelanie van ErpJanine VanwykJennifer Werkman

AthleticsNicholas AzadRolena de BruynKelsey GoogelMonica HehliKia LidsterJessica PaustianSpencer ReedJustin SmeatonVanessa WiebeTaiysa Worsfold

Faculty of Human, Social, and Educational DevelopmentKyle AllanHeidi AthersychKelsey ClovechokSamantha ElliottKathryn GibbardCassandra HookChelan LubinRobyn SamborskyKaelene SantosTatijana Yung

Faculty of Adventure, Culinary Arts and TourismKristina KisioColin LooseAiden MacintyreAudrey MatasejeShawneen MoorhouseJyllean NorlanderEvan RathgeberHailey RobertsonKatelyn ScorerYan Yan Wu

School of Business and EconomicsMohsen AlyamiRuvimbo ChinyanganyaMatthew KlassenReta LanglandsKatelin McNicholBrittany MorrisonParth PatelShannon RexKateryna ShkalBreanna Wacheck

LEARN MORE about this award

and other student awards at

www.tru.ca/finaid/awards

The following continuing students held the 10 highest GPAs* in their faculty last term

* based on scholarship criteria

(For complete criteria, seewww.tru.ca/finaid/awards,click View the TRU Awards Guide, select Award Type“Scholarship”, and click Alvin & Lydia GrunertScholarship)

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C ongratulations2012 Grunert Scholarship

Nominees


Photo Gallery BEST PHOTOS OF 2011/2012 (WINTER)

PHOTO CREDITS:

ABOVE: CORY HOPEABOVE RIGHT: TAYLOR ROCCABELOW RIGHT: CORY HOPEBELOW LEFT: JULIA MARKS

We’re still looking for a photo/image editor for next year.

Send samples, cover letter and resume to:

[email protected]

April 18, 20128

TRU named STARS silver institution

Thompson Rivers University (TRU) has been named a Sustain-ability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS) silver institution by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainabili-ty in Higher Education (AASHE).

STARS is a means for univer-sities and colleges to measure s u s t a i n a b i l i t y performance and compare progress to past results. It also provides aca-demic institutions with the opportu-nity to compare themselves with competing institu-tions.

The AASHE, located in Lex-ington, Ky., is the international professional organi-zation in the field of post-second-ary institutional sustainability. It was established in Jan. 2006.

On Dec. 19, 2011, TRU submit-ted a report to the AASHE for its consideration. The report re-quired that the institution answer over 100 questions that address academic and operational areas of sustainability. This is the first time that TRU has made a sub-mission to the AASHE in an ef-fort to receive a STARS rating.

There are four rating levels within STARS: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. A minimum score of 45 is required to obtain

a silver rating. TRU scored 48.57. In order to step up to the gold rat-ing, a minimum score of 65 is re-quired.

No post-secondary institution has obtained a platinum rating, which requires a minimum score of 85.

Academic components of the report include areas such as the number of courses addressing sustainability and the number of faculty engaging in sustainabili-ty-based research.

Operational components of the report include more common sus-tainability issues such as energy use, water conservation and recy-cling.

The full breakdown of TRU’s report is available at https://s t a r s . a a s h e .o r g / i n s t i t u t io n s /thompson-r ivers-university-bc/report/2011-12-19/.

According to Dr. Tom Owen, the director for environmental sustainability at TRU, the rating is important to TRU because of the institution’s founding princi-ple to be the university of choice for environmental sustainability.

“[The STARS rating] shows

that TRU is doing very well at the moment,” Owens said, “But it also highlights areas where we can improve.”

Dr. Owen is the liaison for the TRU submission to the AASHE.

“Students are demanding more of their university in terms of sustainability,” Dr. Owens said via email, “New students are con-sidering sustainability in their choice of university.

“[The STARS rating] is an op-portunity for TRU to highlight

sustainability in re-cruitment.”

TRU joins the Uni-versity of Northern B.C. (UNBC), Okan-agan College, Royal Roads University (RRU) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) as the only STARS silver-rated schools in B.C.

According to the STARS web-

site, www.stars.aashe.org, TRU scored lower than UNBC and Okanagan College, but higher than SFU.

The University of B.C. (UBC) is the only academic institution in the province to receive a STARS gold-rating from the AASHE, scoring 65.09.

The rating will be good for three years, although TRU is free to submit once per year.

The STARS project is currently only active in North America. AASHE has recently launched a STARS international pilot project for academic institutions outside of North America.

Ω Roving EditorTaylor Rocca

Sustainability award recognizes excellence as well as ways to improve on area of growing awareness

Community Calendar

There are many upcoming events for career prep

and employment strategies. Check out

www.tru.ca/careereducation/

eventsto find out more

about ways to improve your

prospects.

If you know of upcoming events that the student body

should be aware of, you should let us know!

Get them in the calendar for free!Contact:

[email protected]

Anything that is happening next month that you want

us to tell people about should be included.

“Community calendar” in the subject line will

help ensure they get to the campus community.

“Your Space Place”

The exams will soon be finished. Now you need to store your possessions for the summer.

Clean; Controlled Access; Security Systems; All Sizes Boxes & Moving Supplies Available

Close to you at 820 Notre Dame Drive

Call 250-374-7368 to book your space! www.budgetstorage.ca

STUDENT SPECIAL 15% OFF March to September

For as many months as you prepay. 10’x10’ or smaller—must present Student ID

Life & Community

“Students are demanding more of their university in

terms of sustainability.” —Dr. Tom Owen


Arts & Entertainment

I couldn’t do it.I was going to go and see Ti-

tanic 3D and review it for you, but the fates were against it.

I couldn’t even fake it for you because I have never seen Titan-ic, but I do know that the ship sinks by the end of the movie and Kate Winslet shows her boobs and then throws Leonardo DiCaprio into the water.

I also know Celine Dion sang a lot, which probably would have sent me throwing myself into the icy abyss too if I had had the op-tion.

But as I said, the fates were against it.

There I was at the ticket booth, cursing myself for agreeing to see Titanic and ruining my claim to fame as the last person on Earth who hadn’t seen it.

(Which does beg the ques-t ion: Who needs a review of Titanic?)

But when my mouth opened up I said, “One for Cabin In The Woods, please.”

If I had gone to the theatre and not seen a new Joss Whedon movie, and instead gone to see, well, anything else to be honest, I would have never been able to forgive myself.

Joss Whedon is the brains be-hind Firef ly, the too-short-lived television series about space cowboys; the recently cancelled Dollhouse, which never got its due; Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Buffy’s spinoff series An-gel.

If you haven’t seen any of

those, go check them out. If you don’t like any of them,

let us never speak to each other again.

He also wrote the screenplay for the original Toy Story.

Are you sold on seeing Cabin In The Woods yet, or do I have to review it?

I’ll keep writing, just in case.Five kids go on a camping

trip into the middle of nowhere, searching for a cabin so far off the grid that there’s no cellphone service.

Cliché enough for you? Don’t worry, Joss Whedon wouldn’t leave you in the woods with a cliché.

Of course, all hell breaks loose on their innocent weekend vacation, and victims - ahem, I meant innocent campers - f ind themselves on the wrong end of a new kind of old kind of horror movie.

The Cabin In The Woods knows that you know what hap-pens in the cabin in the woods, but from before the opening credits are over serves you up a twist that you would never have seen coming, which it explores along the way.

I can remain spoiler-free (at least as much as the commer-cials and previews keep it) by telling you that secret agencies and SWAT teams get involved as the happy campers get picked off one at a time, running for their lives as they try to f igure out just what the hell is going on.

Fran Kranz plays Marty, the stoner.

Of course there had to be a stoner.

He’s the conspiracy-theorist of

the bunch, and an integral part of any group of kids heading off into the woods.

He’s also the all-too-important f ifth wheel of the social group.

His background in the Whedonverse (the universe of Joss Whedon) was the character of Topher Brink, the genius en-gineer at The Dollhouse.

Even if Whedon himself wasn’t involved with The Cabin In The Woods, I would have gone to see it just for Kranz.

His delivery of lines is so bril-liant that the lines themselves only have to be a little bit funny for him to make them hilarious. According to my wife he’s easy on the eyes, too. I guess I can see that.

And speaking of easy on the eyes, the rest of the cast is right up there, too, and for a hor-ror movie their acting is pretty damn good.

Even the f lash-and-stabbed types are way above par for this style of movie.

Hopefully this movie marks a return of some sort for Joss Whedon after two television shows in a row got cancelled.

Even though he wrote the Avengers movie due out this summer (which I probably will go to see, just because he wrote the screenplay), I would rather see an original story by him than his style of writing placed onto a pre-existing idea.

So what does any of this have to do with Titanic 3D?

Go see Cabin In The Woods, that’s what.

Trust me. Have I ever let you down?

(Pipe down, Mom.)

Ω Arts and Entertainment EditorCory Hope

Not a Titanic 3D review

—IMAGE COURTESY LIONSGATE FILMS

Our arts and entertainment editor orders the wrong ticket on purpose

John K. Samson, lead singer of The Weakerthans, plays the Commodore downtown on Apr. 12. The event was put on by David Luca, Kacie Wright, Brandy White, Kristina Kisio, Kaitlin Veillette, Terry Welton, Kazu Tasogare and Paris Sanesh as part of TRU’s staging special events course, and was a great success. —PHOTO BY DAVID LUCA

April 18, 201210

Sports

The year that was for TRU sports

WolfPack teams skated, swung, smashed, shot, dribbled, danced, ran, kicked and screamed their way into writing another chapter of TRU’s growing athletic programs.

It was the women’s teams who stole the spotlight this year with the volleyball, basketball and soccer programs all making the playoffs in their respective leagues.

The year started with the women’s soccer team winning the PACWEST title, defeating UBCO 2-1 for the school’s first conference title in the sport since 2004.

The heroic ef-fort of Alanna Bekkering, who scratched her retina in the semi-final game against Langara College, was the stuff of sports lore. She scored both goals in the championship game, including the overtime winner and was named Championship MVP.

The team went on to represent TRU at the CCAA Nationals in Québec City where they finished fourth in the country. The team was defeated by the Ahuntsic Indiennes 3-0 in the semi-finals but was voted the most sportsman-like team at the tournament.

The women’s volleyball team achieved a new benchmark this year in wins and for the first time since joining the CIS, made the playoffs.

The team went on a five-game winning streak that started with a win over Brandon on Jan. 20. Cap-tain Kelly Asleson finished in the top 20 in hitting percentage and kills in the Canada West and setter Kara Twomey finished sixth in assists.

While the team will say good-bye to Asleson and Twomey as well as Amanda Frayne and Vanessa Wiebe, the team’s future looks to be heading in the right direction with the emergence of Anne Weiss, Brianne Rauch and libero Sara Pet-tersson.

The team finished with a 9-11 record under the tutelage of coach Keith Lundgren and eventually lost in the first round of the playoffs to Alberta.

The women’s basketball team also made the playoffs for the first time, finish-ing the season on a four game win-ning streak and a 9-9 record.

The team was one of the best rebounding teams in the Canada West. Forward Diane Schuetze finished first in scoring and third in rebounding and Jorri Duxbury fin-ished second in as-

sists.The team looked to be out of it in

January when they hit a four game losing streak, but the team pulled through with back-to-back wins over Trinity Western and UBCO. The team played Saskatchewan in the first round of the playoffs, los-ing by six points in the first game and following it up with a loss in the game two to end the year.

Both the women’s volleyball and basketball teams set new standards for TRU.

Away from the hardwood, the golf team finished third in team standings in the PACWEST and Ri-ley Balson won an individual silver medal for his play during the sea-son.

October came and tragedy of the most unimaginable and probable nature occurred in an exhibition baseball game at Norbrock stadi-um. The heart and soul of the base-

ball team, Tyler Lowey, was struck in the eye after swinging at a high fastball. The ball smashed his right eye and he would go on to lose it. A glass eye was made for him and he was forced to leave school midway through the semester.

But Lowey didn’t let losing an eye stop him from making the most surprising comeback to return to class in the winter semester and not miss any games for the baseball team.

Because of his inspiring story, the Tyler Lowey Award for perse-verance was created in his name and he was the first recipient. TRU will give out the year every year from now on to an athlete who struggled with adversity and over-came it. Hopefully, no TRU athlete will ever have to go through what happened to Lowey that day in Oc-tober.

The men’s soccer team failed to reach the playoffs after finishing fourth in the Group B division with four wins, two ties and five losses.

Conor Doherty, however, fin-ished in the top five in scoring in the PACWEST.

The men’s basketball team fin-ished with a 6-12 record, a best since joining the CIS. They beat a tough UFV team and followed it up with a win in Calgary to start the year.

At the semester break, the team was 4-4, matching the previous year’s win total. However, the team won two of its last ten to miss the playoffs.

The team was led by forwards Justin King — who was also Can-ada West’s leading scorer — and Chas Kok. Both finished in the top-ten in rebounds. It was Kok’s last year and he will now look to help the program as an assistant coach. King will not be returning next year after deciding to return home to the United States.

For the men’s volleyball team, it was a season of disappointment af-ter the team finished 3-17 and last in the Canada West. However, the fu-ture seems to favour the WolfPack, with the rise of hitter Brad Gunter, who was among the top ten in kills during the season before suffering a season-ending ankle injury.

Setter Colin Carson finished 11th in the Canada West in assists and will be an important piece of coach Pat Hennelly’s team next year with his experience.

November had TRU hosting the CCAA National Cross Country Championships and runners from around the country raced across a wet and cold course on McArthur Island.

In the women’s five km heat, TRU was represented by eight runners. In the eight km male heat they had 13. Faryn Brown and Obed Masege had the best times for a TRU runner in their respective categories.

The WolfPack badminton team said goodbye to one of TRU’s lon-gest-serving coaches. Brad Pape re-tired after 27 years of coaching the badminton teams of TRU and UCC.

This year, Pape’s squad finished with three bronze medals at the PACWEST tournament hosted by TRU. Kia Lidster won bronze in women’s singles, Marlee Mertens and Anica Arduini won bronze in women’s doubles and Joey Chu won bronze in men’s doubles.

Although it wasn’t enough for TRU to have a player represent the school at Nationals, the school served as a great host to the tour-

nament. Once again, players from around the country came to the TCC for the CCAA National Bad-minton Tournament, which includ-ed a spectacular men’s doubles fi-nal that brought much attention to the sport.

WolfPack hockey also hosted the BCIHL Championships at Memo-rial Arena in March.

It was another successful year for the team. Headed by first year coach Don Schulz, the team went on to finish third in the league and were favou-rites to win it all with an experi-enced group of veterans includ-ing David Gore, Jassi Sangha, Andrew Fisher, Cody Lockwood and versatile de-fenceman Shane Oatway.

But it wasn’t meant to be.The team lost a heartbreaker to

its rivals from SFU in the semi-fi-nals. The WolfPack were one of the few teams that beat SFU in the reg-ular season but the team fell short after two straight years of reaching the finals.

The cheerleading team made a big

step this year by representing TRU at the Sea to Sky Imitational Cheer-leading Competition.

It was the first time the cheerlead-ing team competed in a competition. The teams finished second in the open four division.

As for the baseball team, they are in the thick of their season at the mo-ment.

The off-season had the team travel to Califor-nia and Arizona for spring train-ing. Since return-ing, the team has gone 8-8 through the first half of the schedule, with Dave Hole and Alex Condon leading the league in hits, RBIs and home runs. Rookie Erik Her-branson has found himself a regular spot in the starting

line-up and Denver Wynn continues to be one of the most feared pitches in the CCBC.

The comeback kid Tyler Lowey has been used in a variety of posi-tions around the field as a relief pitcher, left fielder and second base-man. The baseball team will host the CCBC Championships in May at Norbrock Stadium.

Ω Sports EditorNathan Crosby

Women’s teams all make playoffs, tradgedy won’t keep a good man down, and the future looks bright

—ALL PHOTOS BY CORY HOPE


Across

1. Besides5. Sludge-like10. Glitch14. Continue15. Tic or synthesis starters16. Corn bread17. Executive’s preferred exit20. Ribbon holder21. It’s used to make chemicals

and dyes22. Palm tree25. Brand26. Global finance grp.29. Small islands31. Legal claims35. Content of some barrels36. Asinine38. Bright thought39. Rely on management43. Bit of physics44. Red cedar45. Burro46. Bubba Gump’s forte49. Enterprise captain50. ESPN sportscaster51. Portuguese navigator53. Notary stamp55. Small generator58. Worker’s demand62. Give too much compensation65. Fall setting

66. Alicia Keys hit67. This is one68. Bitter end?69. Shell out cash for70. Classic street liners

Down

1. Baker’s dozen?2. Historical center of Chicago,

with The3. Chewbacca’s buddy4. Finish at5. Fashion’s Taylor6. Notebook, with top7. Seize8. Lots of land9. Advanced10. Football, in shape11. It may be proper12. Some chips, maybe13. “How about that!”18. Draw out19. Industry big shot23. Huff and puff24. Maids of India26. Specks27. Jollity28. A soft mineral30. Kind of preview32. Archetype33. Brusque34. Flip, in a way

37. “The King”40. Little bits41. Cork’s place42. Turkey city47. Coquette48. Poetic syllable arrangements52. Sharpener54. Charging weapon55. Earned56. Some votes57. Cousin of a bassoon59. “___ cost you!”60. Where Jamal Malik grew up61. Regards62. Signature piece?63. Bed-and-breakfast64. Guitarist Nugent

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April 18, 201212

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April 18, 2012

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