Aleida Guevara speaks at TRU conference 7

THEΩMEGA

VOLUME 22ISSUE 11

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

TRU’s Independent Student Newspaper

It was bound to happen...

UBC athletes investigated 10

Fido investigated for underage signing 2

November 14, 20122

ON THE COVER:Winter has finally arrived in Kamloops. On the night of Nov. 10, approximately 10 to 15 cm of the white stuff came down over only a few

hours, blanketing the city — and campus — in winter. —PHOTO BY COURTNEY DICKSON

VANCOUVER (CUP) — A Ubys-sey investigation has discovered evi-dence of salespeople from Fido Mobile compelling underage students to sign cell phone contracts using false ages.

Through interviewing students who signed up for Fido cellphones at two on-campus events and at an off-cam-pus Fido store frequented by students, as well as reporting undercover from both locations, it appears that asking 18-year-old students to fudge an extra year onto their ages may be a common practice for dealers at the cell phone service provider.

“We’re just going to make [you] one year older,” a Fido saleswoman in the Student Union Building (SUB) at UBC told a Ubyssey reporter inquiring as a potential underage customer.

B.C. law prevents minors under the age of 19 from being legally bound by contracts. Additionally, law professors interviewed about Fido’s practices ar-gue that this practice could possibly constitute fraud. Presently, no govern-mental agency appears to be respon-sible for enforcing the behaviour of cell phone providers.

Fido paid $5,000 for the exclusive sponsorship of two events during Jump Start, a two-week orientation event for first-year international students at UBC in August.

At a parents’ reception and a student dinner in mid-August, Fido signed many students up for their first Cana-dian cell phone plans. Fido also had a table in the SUB during the first week of classes, while Skynet Wireless, a Fido-authorized dealer, had booths in the first-year residences during the first week of school.

Several of the underage students who spoke to The Ubyssey found the lines at those events too long, and signed up at the Fido store on 519 West Broadway, a bus ride away, instead.

At all of these locations, salespeople reportedly of-fered to let 18-year-olds enter into multi-year con-tracts.

T., an 18-year-old arts student from Wisconsin, said she visited the Broad-way store with her mother, who T. assumed would need to sign the contract for her.

The Ubyssey is only identifying un-derage students interviewed for this article by the first letters of their names to avoid putting their contracts in jeop-ardy or exposing them to legal liability.

T. described standing at the counter while a Fido salesperson read off her passport, activating her account over the phone.

“They were reading it off and they said April 22 … 1993,” said T., whose passport attests that she was actually born in 1994. “And my mom and I both jumped up and we were like, ‘What? That’s not my birthday.’ And the per-son behind the counter told us, ‘Stop, let it go.’”

T. said the salesperson later offered to correct her birthday but discouraged it, saying it would make things more difficult.

A legal grey area

According to UBC law professor Bruce MacDougall, B.C.’s Infants Act declares that any contract signed by a minor is unenforceable on the minor, at least until he or she reaches the age of majority. In some cases, this can mean the contract stays unenforceable even after that minor’s 19th birthday.

MacDougall said that even though an 18-year-old signing a cell phone contract isn’t actually bound by its terms, many such minors feel com-pelled to follow them anyway.

“A lot of people actually abide by contracts that aren’t actually binding on them,” said MacDougall. “There are all sorts of contracts that you don’t have to abide by, but people do because they’re led to believe that somehow they’re binding.”

As well as believing they are locked into a cell phone plan’s monthly fees, underage students who have signed up with Fido also run the risk of hav-ing their credit damaged, MacDougall explained.

Many questions about the legality of Fido’s practices, and who is in charge of enforcing those laws, remain fuzzy. There is little regulation in the Cana-dian cell phone market, and it’s un-likely that the company would face any consequences for signing up underage customers unless the customers them-selves complain.

In 1996, the federal telecommu-nications regulator, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), decided that there was enough competition in the cellphone market that federal oversight was no longer needed.

“From that point onwards, wireless providers did not have to get the CRTC to approve their rates, terms and condi-tions of service,” said Kirsten Embree,

a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa and former legal counsel at AT&T Canada. AT&T Canada previ-ously held an ownership stake in Rog-ers Wireless, which has been Fido’s parent company since 2004.

Embree continued, “The CRTC has never really focused specifically on the age at which contracts are entered into ... I think there’s an implicit assumption that contracts will be with individuals who are over the age of majority.”

First-time buyers

When The Ubyssey went undercov-er to the Fido authorized dealer at 519 West Broadway and began the process of signing up for a new cellphone plan, we discovered that the rules were easy to flout.

“Legally, it’s 19,” a salesperson at the Broadway store told this 18-year-old

Ubyssey reporter, when asked if some-one who is 18 years old can still hold a regular cellphone plan. “But I can make it work,” she added.

She indicated that she would be us-ing a false age when entering the ac-count information into a Fido database. When asked why it was necessary to put down a false age, she explained, “It’s just with Canada ... once you sign up, they want you to take responsibility of the account. So they want you to be older.”

It isn’t strictly illegal for people un-der the age of 19 to sign a contract; the law only says that while people are still minors, they can’t be bound by the con-

tract’s terms. Recording a customer’s age incor-rectly as 19 doesn’t make the contract enforceable, but it does make it look like salespeople are com-plying with Fido’s cor-porate policy when they aren’t.

Sara Holland, a spokesperson from Fido’s parent company, Rogers, said that the company’s policy was to

only allow people who are 19 years and older to hold contract-based cellphone plans.

“Students may have different ex-periences going through [authorized dealers] when it comes to price,” wrote Holland in an email. “What should be consistent across the board, however, is our policy on age and account activa-tion.”

Rogers’ policy states that proof of age must be provided when a customer opens an account.

“Customers under age of majority are not eligible to act as a financially responsible party (i.e. account holder),” wrote Holland.

While Holland said Rogers does not disclose employee compensation, several online sources, including a job description on the Rogers website, in-dicate Fido salespeople are expected to meet sales goals. On Glassdoor, a

website where employees post reviews of the companies they work for, some-one describing themself as a Rogers employee in Ottawa said commissions were tied to “impossible targets.” The pressure of sales goals would provide an incentive to violate corporate policy and sign up underage customers.

In 2008, the Toronto Star reported that Fido was shifting its business model from “one focused on attract-ing young urban professionals to one targeting price-conscious first-time buyers.”

“Price-conscious first-time buyers” might describe the 700 or so interna-tional students at Jump Start, most of whom were under 19, as well as many of the UBC students encountering Fido’s tables in the SUB and at cam-pus residences during the first week of school.

Holland said Fido’s strategy during Jump Start was to sign up 18-year-olds for contract-free prepaid plans, and to restrict contract-based plans, which usually cost less on a per-minute or per-megabyte basis, to those 19 years and older.

She added that the goal of the Jump Start sponsorship was to attract inter-national students in general, not spe-cifically first-year students, though the Jump Start program is exclusively for first-year students.

Is this fraud?

According to Holland, there aren’t many checks on whether Rogers’ age policy is upheld. Age is only verified by the salesperson at the point of sale, Holland said. She said date of birth was kept on file as part of the manda-tory credit check for contract plans. Holland said she wasn’t able to com-ment on whether Rogers or Fido moni-tor or review the contracts signed up by their authorized dealers.

Signing up minors is a risky busi-ness practice, said law professor Mac-Dougall. “I can’t see how if [Fido salespeople are] the ones who are en-couraging people to do this, how they

would have any leg to stand on in try-ing to require the people to be bound by the contract,” MacDougall said.

He said that while the contract is unenforceable on the minor, it stays completely binding on Fido’s side. “Whatever they [minors signing the contract] were promised, they can get,” MacDougall said.

J., an 18-year-old arts student from California, described a Fido sales-man’s instructions after he signed up for a contract cellphone plan. “What he said was that, after I turned 19, to call the company and inform them of the error that was made on the sheet because I checked my own informa-tion and saw that they put my birthday in wrong.”

Under the Infants Act, if an adult ratifies a contract they signed while underage, then it becomes legally binding for both parties. Ratifying a contract can be as simple as the adult informing the other party, in this case Fido, that they are now old enough ac-cept the terms of the contract and wish to do so.

“I have a suspicion that what they may be doing is trying to turn [a mi-nor informing them about an ‘error’ in their age] into a ratification,” Mac-Dougall said.

MacDougall added that if a student does not repudiate the contract, either verbally or simply by stopping pay-ment, within one year of turning 19, the contract is considered to be rati-fied automatically.

MacDougall was clear in in his criticism of the Fido salespeople’s practices.

“In terms of contracts, it almost cer-tainly would be an illegal contract,” MacDougall said. A contract becomes illegal when it violates a public policy or piece of legislation, he explained. In this case, getting a minor to sign a cellphone contract attempts to skirt laws meant to prevent the exploitation of minors.

The Ubyssey (UBC)Arno Rosenfeld

Investigation finds Fido agents knowingly signed underage students to cellphone contracts

Feature

—ILLUSTRATION BY INDIANA JOEL/THE UBYSSEY

“There are all sorts of contracts that you don’t

have to abide by....”

—Bruce MacDougall, UBC law professor

SEE CELLPHONES p. 6

publishingboardEDITOR-IN-CHIEF * Mike DaviesBUSINESS MGR * VACANTINDUSTRY 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.

copyrightAll material in this publication is copyright The Omega and may not be reproduced without the expressed consent of the publisher. All unsolicited submissions become copyright Omega 2012.

3

THE MEGA

November 14, 2012 Volume 22, Issue 11

Published since November 27, 1991

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

Box 3010, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 0C8Phone: 250-372-1272

E-mail: editor@truomega.caAd Enquiries:

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(Correspondence not intended for publication should be labelled as such.)

editorialstaffEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Mike Davieseditor@truomega.ca

250-828-5069@PaperguyDavies

BUSINESS MANAGERVACANT

NEWS EDITORDevan C. Tasa

news@truomega.ca@DCTasa

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORBrendan Kerginarts@truomega.ca

@roguetowel

SPORTS EDITORAdam Williams

sports@truomega.ca@AdamWilliams87

ROVING EDITORCourtney Dicksonroving@truomega.ca

@dicksoncourtney

COPY/WEB EDITORTaylor Rocca

copy@truomega.ca@manovrboard

www.theomega.ca

omegacontributors Mark Hendricks, Rishu Gaind, Maximilian Birkner, RDC Photogra-phy, Astralwerks/ Secret City

The Omega · Volume 22, Issue 11

Editorial/Opinions

This being the third-to-last is-sue of The Omega for the Fall 2012 semester, I thought I would go ahead and pre-congratulate you all on a job well done.

I know, I know, “we’ve still got f inal projects to turn in and then the f inal exam period!” you yell in frustration and dismay at my presumption of your success.

To that sentiment I say this: You’ll be f ine.

You’ve done the work, gone to class, taken diligent notes and you know what you’re talking about around a table at Heroes (or wherever) with your class-mates after class.

You’ve put in your time and effort and you are about to be rewarded with a decent — if not excellent — grade and a month off to relax.

In fact, some of you are about to be rewarded with your TRU credentials and will be entering the workforce guns-a-blazin’ and ready to take on the world.

And you will.Granted, there will be some of

you who have not done what I’ve said you have.

You’ve not attended classes, or done the readings, or learned what you’ve needed to learn in order to pass the class(es) you’re enrolled in.

To those people I say this: You’ll be f ine.

You’ve still got some time — now do you see why I’m writing this with a couple weeks left? — and let’s look at the worst-case scenario….

You don’t pass the class(es) you’ve paid for and you’re out the money you put in — and let’s not forget you’ll never get that time back, either.

Here’s the rub, though: You’ve taught yourself a valuable lesson — you get out of your education-al experience what you put in. If you don’t do the work, you’re throwing money away.

I’m willing to assume, howev-er, if you didn’t put in the work you instead focused on other things — like socializing.

This is valuable, too.As I have said in earlier col-

umns this semester, people need to take time for non-academics. Whether you’ve spent your time (and it turns out to be too much of it) at the bars, or around the dorms, or at sporting events, engaged with clubs or organiza-tions — these are valuable en-deavours.

Some of my best friends are those I met when I just started school and had more interest in hanging out at the bar, or around the dorms, or at sporting events, involved in clubs or organiza-tions — and you don’t want to see my transcripts from those f irst years.

Or maybe you do — it might make you feel better about this past semester if you can’t pull out the credits you were hoping for by the end of it. I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out and the person I turned into because of it all — and you will be too.

So here’s a pre-congratula-tions to you all — no matter why you deserve it.

editor@truomega.ca

Mike Davies Ω Editor-in-Chief

Editor’s Note

Pre-congratulations!

Well kids, you’ve just about made it.

Whether you are counting down the days until the comple-tion of your f irst ever semester at TRU or whether you’re counting down the days until the comple-tion of your last ever semester at TRU, the light is f inally visible at the end of the tunnel.

But don’t let that light fool you.

Sure, it might be there, a shin-ing beacon of hope calling out your name, touching your skin with its warmth but don’t get complacent. Just because you can see the light and feel its soothing heat in the dead of win-ter, doesn’t mean you’ve reached

your f inal destination. You could still freeze to death.My compatriot Mr. Davies

has given you all a pat on the back for your hard work, or lack thereof. I’m here to give you a f irm, yet motivational kick in the pants.

Sure, hard work pays off in the end. The only problem is that hard work requires you to dedi-cate yourself from start to f in-ish, exposition to denouement, or for the full 60 minutes as the old sports cliché goes.

Don’t stop until it is all over. Don’t take your entire semes-

ter’s worth of hard work and f lush it down the toilet simply because you feel like mailing in the last couple of weeks. How brutal will you feel knowing you could have come out with an A but instead took home a B-minus because you cut corners, slacked off and went on vacation before vacation actually started?

As much as there is a valuable learning opportunity in doing something like that, the fulf ill-ment of completing a task to the best of your ability is much greater. So forge on, I say.

On top of all that, how much sweeter will four weeks of time off be after you have slaved and worked tirelessly for the two weeks that precede that vaca-tion?

On the f lipside of this coin, we have a group of people in despair — the pack of kids who kept say-ing to themselves, “Hey, it’s still October, I have plenty of time to catch up. I can make up for that botched midterm with an awe-some final project.”

Guess what, Mr. Party Pants? October has come and gone. The homestretch is upon us.

For you, it is likely looming much more ominously than it is for others.

Don’t worry, there is still hope for you, if only a sliver. Sure, you might be staring a D or even an F in the face right now, but if you dig deep and pull out all the effort and hard work you so effectively squirreled away dur-ing September and October, you can bust out a C-plus at the very least!

The moral of the story, for both sides of the coin, is to never give up and never give in. Keep-ing chugging along until you’ve reached your destination. Keep slugging away until the f inal bell rings.

If all of that isn’t cliché enough to motivate you...

It ain’t over ‘til it’s over...So play on until the fat lady

sings you to your glorious f inale. And oh how glorious that f i-

nale will be.copy@truomega.ca

Cliché motivation for a cliché situation

BURNABY (CUP) — When you walk into your first Monday morning lecture with a raging headache and a gymnastic stomach (the only acrobatic part of your body) you’ll obviously blame it on the alcohol: the vodka, the henny, the blue top, and the liquid nitro-gen.

Here’s the 411: when a few drops of liquid nitrogen are added to a drink, they release plumes of hazy vapour that make any plain margarita look like a misty bonsai tree. That might sound like a sexy little concoction to you now, but you’ll be rethinking your woefully deluded opinions after it causes your stomach to literally explode.

Sadly, this isn’t a figment of your worst nightmare. According a recent online publication for The Daily Mail, 18-year-old Gabby Scanlon was enjoy-ing her birthday at a wine bar in Lancast-er and chugged two Nitro Jagermeisters to celebrate — this quickly turned sour when she began experiencing breath-lessness and intolerable stomach pains. She was then sent to a nearby hospital where doctors diagnosed her with a perforated stomach that was leaking acidic gastric juices with a severity that required specialists to remove nearly all of it. Scanlon now faces a lifetime of specialized treatment, and a severely re-stricted diet.

Naturally, this will sound like non-sensical rubbish until you understand how liquid nitrogen functions. It’s a cryogenic fluid — this means that it exists naturally at temperatures cold enough to freeze your finger on contact and cause it to fall off your hand. This makes the substance handy as a coolant or preservative for biological samples like umbilical cords. It also has its uses in food processing: if you were around for SFU’s Week of Welcome, you may have noticed that liquid nitrogen was used to freeze ice cream doled out to stu-dents. And yet, unlike our friend Gabby Scanlon, stomachs campus-wide were left intact and unscathed.

This mystery isn’t really a mystery at all; it’s just science. High school sci-ence teaches us that matter has three states: solid, liquid and gaseous. A liquid needs to be heated to boiling in order to vaporize. Liquid nitrogen’s boiling point is minus-196 degrees Celsius, but upon becoming gaseous, it expands to almost 700 times its liquid volume. Al-though the boiling off process for liquid nitrogen is rapid, it’s very likely that Scanlon guzzled her nitro-infused cock-tails much quicker than your average alcoholic. Therefore, the nitrogen didn’t have enough time to vaporize before the drink entered her system. Considering that our body temperature is 37 degrees Celsius — way above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen — her stomach perfo-ration was caused by the huge expansion of the liquid into a gas. Two nitro-jagers quickly expanded into 1,400 jagers — not the kind of Jagerbomb you want on Friday night.

This doesn’t mean that you should ab-stain from suspiciously steamy alcoholic beverages and nitro-popsicles, though. It’s really as simple as letting your ed-ibles sit for a few minutes. However, if your concerns are insurmountable, stick with capped Red Racer beers and home-made highballs — you just can’t know how well-trained a bartender is in using liquid nitrogen, or how much of it is left in what you’re about to consume.

Obviously, you’re always better off

Nitrogen-infused beverages

can be gastronomically

explosiveThe Peak (SFU)Kristina Charania

CORRECTION:The Omega would like to correct the photo caption in the top right photo of last week’s

feature piece entitled, “A flag that I know and a flag that I trust.” Cpl. Max Birkner is the soldier pictured, not Kieran Van Wagoner.

We apologize for the mistake.

Also, it has been pointed out that “officer” is a rank structure, not a rank itself. Thank you to Wayne Cardinal for pointing out our error.

Taylor Rocca Ω Copy/Web Editor

TRUe Thoughts

November 14, 20124

News

The TRUSU India Club will be hosting a Diwali Bash in the Grand Hall of the Campus Activ-ity Centre on Nov. 18.

Diwali, otherwise known as the festival of lights, celebrates the triumph of good over evil and falls on Nov. 13. Because India has a variety of cultural inf luenc-es, each culture follows slightly different legends of the celebra-tion. However, because the entire country of India and many other communities around the world celebrate Diwali, it unites the people in a substantial way.

During Diwali, celebrators light lamps called diyas that stay lit through the night, meant to represent the power of good (light). Candles and fireworks are also lit for Diwali.

People often clean their homes, buy new clothing and cook new meals. Diwali is to the Hindu community as Christmas is to Christians.

According to the Association for Canadian Studies, there are more than 372,500 people prac-ticing Hinduism in Canada, with most of these people living in British Columbia and Ontario.

As of 2010, Hinduism is prac-ticed by 13 per cent of the world, making it the third most-prac-tised religion, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Diwali comes to TRUΩ Roving EditorCourtney Dickson

Corey Keith came to Kam-loops this fall to obtain her mas-ter’s of education from TRU.

She has become actively in-volved in the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) com-munity in Kamloops.

Her background in social work mixed with her diploma in pro-fessional counselling and coach-ing enables her to teach others how to think about sexuality in different ways.

“Sexual education is impor-tant,” Keith said, “and it does need to be ongoing.”

Keith, who is now attending her fourth post-secondary in-stitution, has noticed generally schools teach students the bare minimum about sex and gender.

Schools often focus on teach-ing the mechanics of sex rather than starting from the beginning and talking to students about re-lationships and communication. She f inds people are ashamed to talk about sex.

“Talking about sexual health in depth can be diff icult because everyone is at a different level of understanding, especially in a community like TRU where there are so many international students,” Keith said.

Keith’s intention is to f inish her master’s degree and teach in post-secondary institutions and implement more human sexual-ity courses in a variety of dis-ciplines.

Keith started her own busi-ness in 2011. Spectra Wellness Coaching and Consulting was established when she recog-nized being transgendered was impacting her ability to get em-ployment.

Spectra provides coaching, counselling, workshops and sex and gender consultations to any-one in need of assistance or edu-cation.

Keith started the business on her own. Though the practice is still quite small, Keith has acquired a strong team of nine people.

Keith’s plan for Spectra is to remain a primarily online con-sulting business so that indi-viduals from any area are able to reach out and f ind support.

In order to help people in dis-tant communities, Keith is fa-miliar with Skype and other on-line communication tools.

“Counselling is an art form,” Keith said. She is passionate about her role in the community and f inds it challenging at times but incredibly rewarding.

Keith’s intention for the prac-tice is to provide businesses, in-dividuals and families with sup-port and a sense of safety when discussing sensitive issues.

Her vision statement is to help others “live an authentic life, love one’s self and live the life we are meant to live.”

For more information about Keith or Spectra, visit spectra.webstarts.com/resources.html.

Ω Roving EditorCourtney Dickson

TRU student teaches peers about sexuality

TRUknowshowtocelebrateIndianculture.ThisphotofromRangDeBasanti(threeIndianfestivalsrolledintoonetocelebratespring)heldoncampusMarch2012isoneofmanyyearlycelebrationsofcultureheldhere.

—PHOTO BY TAYLOR ROCCA

The negotiations for a new contract for TRU’s support workers union are over but for the university’s faculty, it has only started.

It started with a verbal offer from the university’s admin-istration. Approximately 200 members of the TRU Faculty As-sociation (TRUFA) met Oct. 7 to discuss the offer.

“The membership’s response was that they overwhelmingly rejected the idea of accepting the offer,” said Jason Brown, TRUFA’s president, after 87 per cent of the membership voted against the deal.

TRUFA’s collective agreement ended March 31 of this year. The provisions of that contract will remain in force until the next one has been signed.

Brown said he couldn’t reveal the details of the verbal agree-ment at this time, but did say it was in line with recent agree-ments with public sector unions.

At most universities support

worker unions have secured a two per cent increase in wages per year over the last two years. This includes TRU’s Canadi-an Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4879.

John Weir, the B.C. Federation of Labour’s director of organiza-tion, said it was unusual to begin negotiations with a verbal offer.

“Usually people f ile more for-mal proposals initially,” he said. “It’s quite unusual for people not to come back without some very specif ic things. Usually there’s an agreement about what’s ex-actly on the table before the union goes back so everybody’s clear on what the offer is. You don’t want that miscommunica-tion.”

Weir said verbal offers were common during the f inal stages of negotiations as it allows the sides to explore possibilities without necessarily committing to them.

Brown said it was too early to discuss with the media the par-ticular issues TRUFA will be focusing on in its negotiations with the university.

“It’s reasonable to assume

that people are wanting a fair and reasonable wage increase amongst a variety of other things that will be discussed among our membership,” he said.

There are also non-monetary issues to be discussed, Brown added.

Students don’t have to worry about job ac-tion from the univer-sity’s professors for a while.

“It’s way too early for thoughts about that be-cause we haven’t even gone to the bargaining table,” Brown said.

First the union and the university have to present proposals and counterproposals to each other. If either side feels those negotiations are going nowhere, then job action can be taken.

Brown said he doesn’t believe CUPE 4879’s new collective agree-ment with the universi-ty will affects TRUFA’s negotiations.

“I don’t think it af-

fects TRUFA’s position because we have our own issues to con-sider and a different type of membership and a different type of collective agreement,” he said.

Faculty association rejects verbal offer; begins negotiationsΩ News EditorDevan C. Tasa

TRUFApresidentJasonBrown. —IMAGE COURTESY JASON BROWN

VICTORIA (CUP) — A new web portal is now open that allows anyone to access weather observations from over 6,000 locations in B.C.

The University of Victoria’s Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC) launched the portal on Oct. 24 as a means of providing easily accessible weather and climate data from as far back as 1872.

“The achievement is bringing to-

gether all of these networks into a single location,” according to Francis Zwiers, director at the PCIC. “In the past an en-gineer might have been aware that there was data from Environment Canada or other sources, but may not know how to get that. Now they can get that easily.”

However, it is not simply engineers who will find this portal valuable — students who are engaged in the issue of growing climate change and storms will find it useful too.

“If you’re engaged in those topics, you can help to inform yourself by us-ing our product,” Zwiers said. The infor-

mation is laid out on a map of B.C. By accessing the Provincial Climate Data Set Portal on the PCIC site, anyone can simply highlight an area of interest with a polygon tool in the top right corner and find data on any climate variable under 14 different networks. Users have the op-tion to filter results and can choose to do so by temperature, precipitation, humid-ity, wind — even soil moisture.

The new portal also creates teaching opportunities. Zwiers suggested that “[students of] math and stats, where they might need a handy source of data to play with, or ocean sciences and topography,

where they actually teach climate,” will make use of the not-for-profit collabora-tive project.

In a more professional setting, the PCIC portal puts wind in the sails of peo-ple like David Atkinson, who is building models to predict future climates. Atkin-son, a geography professor at the Univer-sity of Victoria (UVic), focuses his study on storm surges and impacts, such as the recent Hurricane Sandy.

For Atkinson, “having data, actual observed data from ground locations, is golden,” he said, appreciative of the PCIC efforts.

New web portal makes finding climate data a breeze in B.C.The Martlet (UVIC)Alex Davidson

The Omega · Volume 22, Issue 11 5

News

Gay rights not just topic on American minds

While the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) community in the United States is in the midst of hope and change, the LG-BTQ community in France is waiting with anticipation over their own vote.

The controversial bill, known as the “Marriage for All” Act, would give gay and lesbian couples the right to marry and adopt children.

The bill could go into effect as early as 2013 and would make good on a campaign promise of French president François Hollande, who was elected into office six months ago.

The bill is facing in-creasingly strong opposi-tion. A survey in 2011 re-vealed that 63 per cent of French people supported gay marriage. The support has dropped among right wing citizens, dropping 20 per cent in support for both gay mar-riage and gay adoption.

André Vingt-Trois, the Arch-bishop of Paris, has come out strongly in opposition.

France is a historically Catho-lic nation with a 2009 survey showing 64 per cent of the nation identifying as Catholic.

Where you can find out more: thedailybeast.com

Can you hear me now?

A new speech translator may soon make cross-language com-munications easier and more con-venient than ever.

Microsoft is in the prototype stages of a new wearable transla-tor that will translate your speech

and repeat it in the desired lan-guage in your own voice.

The prototype is still far from perfect.

The error rate is better than most modern translators - which are around 20 to 25 per cent - but is still 15 per cent error rate on average.

The translator works by trans-lating your speech into text. That text is then translated into the de-sired language.

There is no indication of when the product will be ready for commercial use. A technology presentation in Tianjin, China on Oct. 25 was used as a proof of concept.

Where you can find out more: news.discovery.com

Suicide rates higher in wealthier neighbourhoods

A new study from the Fed-eral Reserve Bank of San Francisco has found that, with all other factors being equal, suicide rates are high-er in wealthier neighbour-hoods.

It’s been a long standing belief that income is directly related to happiness, there-fore it stands to reason that higher income areas should have higher levels of happi-ness.

The study reveals that de-spite this belief, individuals in identical social and eco-nomic situations are 4.5 per cent more likely to commit suicide if they live in a high-er income area.

The study does confirm that higher income levels

generally lead to lower suicide rates overall.

When income levels are dis-parate between individuals in a neighbourhood the lower income families will face a higher sui-cide rate. The study calls this “behavioral response to unfavor-able interpersonal income com-parisons.”

Where you can find out more: business.time.com

Ω ContributorMark Hendricks

International IntonationLGBTQ rights, a wearable translator and

suicide rates by economic status

—IMAGE COURTESY CHRISTIAN FISCHERWIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The TRU Wellness Centre teamed up with the Zeta Beta Psi sorority and the Canadian Cancer Society to provide students with information about sexual health from Nov. 6 to 8.

Student volunteers set up a ta-ble Tuesday and Wednesday last week in Old Main with games, prizes, pamphlets, giveaways and donation boxes.

The Public Health Agency of Canada released a study in 2011 revealing that sexually transmit-ted infection rates among indi-viduals aged 20 to 24 had more than doubled since 1991.

A Statistics Canada report in 2010 indicated more than 50 per cent of college and university students in 2007 were between the ages of 18 and 23.

With students and STI sufferers falling into the same age demo-graphic, sexual health education is essential for post-secondary students in order to combat these statistics.

D o n a t i o n s to the Canadi-an Cancer So-ciety could be made in any denomination and paper bras and boxers could be pur-chased, which were hung in Student Street following the info sessions.

C h e l s e a Corsi, well-ness coor-dinator on campus and a registered nurse, real-izes students have gener-ally had some form of sex education but said, “It never hurts to pro-vide critical i n f o r m a t i o n twice.”

In talking to students through the years, Corsi learned many young women have either never had a PAP test or aren’t getting PAP tests regularly. This is the only way to detect cervical can-cer so it is important to be tested regularly.

Rather than teaching the breast health exam, the Wellness Centre promoted women familiarizing themselves with their bodies in order to notice changes.

“The Wellness Centre is trying to promote health and prevent ill-ness rather than treat patients,”

Corsi said. Sexual Health Aware-ness week is one of many health education events the Wellness Centre has planned.

According to Corsi, 83 per cent of students have had at least one sexual partner already. However, many of these students are un-aware of how to communicate with their partners about sex or relationships. The Wellness Centre is dedicated to informing students about the importance of healthy relationships and how to maintain them.

A September 2012 report from the B.C. Centre for Disease Con-trol indicates rates of chlamydia and syphilis are 0.2 per cent higher than the average rate of the past two years. This number only includes infections reported to public health authorities and does not account for undiagnosed individuals.

In addition to the information sessions, Corey Keith, a social worker and TRU student, ran two 50-minute workshops to educate about sexual communication and sex and gender diversity on Nov.

10. Rather than

strictly teach-ing facts, Keith facili-tated discus-sion amongst attendees.

The goal of The Joys of Good Commu-nication and Sex workshop was to dispel myths about ex p e c t a t io n s in romantic and sexual re-lationships.

Keith talked to attendees about the defi-nitions of re-spect and con-sent.

She also covered non-violent com-munication, a way of com-m u n i c a t i n g

compassionately when making requests or expressing concerns to a partner.

The second workshop, Sexual and Gender Diversity Awareness, taught students about gender ste-reotypes. Keith used games to engage the group and provide them with definitions of sexual terms.

The TRU Wellness Centre hopes to present some more spe-cific workshops and information sessions regarding sexual health and healthy relationships next se-mester.

Ω Roving EditorCourtney Dickson

Sexual health education crucial for post-secondary students

“The Wellness Centre is trying to

promote health and prevent illness rather

than treat patients.”

—Chelsea Corsi

Wellness Coordinator

The principles of electronic media are based on mass communication. It took researchers tremendous amount of time and energy to achieve it.

It was created as a mode of enter-tainment and information but what was not considered were the drastic effects it would have by its overuse.

This issue of overuse has been highlighted on numerous occasions and with many age groups. The age group that concerns me the most is the teenage group in North America.

The continuous overuse by this age group and the content of television, video games and the internet are an area of concern because of the effects they have on their mental and physical health.

“Years 15 to 18 are considered as developmental years in a teenager’s life,” according to an article published August, 2011 on the website WebMD entitled “Children’s Health: Growth and Development, Ages 15 to 18.”

It is the period where teenagers develop new skills and enhance their creativity.

Electronics influence these aspects in a major way since teenagers are de-pendant learners and do not question what they learn or see on the television or the internet.

Teenagers are distracted easily as they evolve from a stage of depen-dency to making their own decisions.

Television broadcasts a wide va-riety of programs on themes such as violence, lust, greed and temptation. Certain issues such as smoking, drug use etc. are portrayed with positive reinforcements in shows, which influ-ence teenagers in a destructive way, according to the WebMD article. Per-ception of life is influenced negatively by television shows and movies that portray killing someone for revenge and then getting away with it.

The Internet is even more danger-ous — especially in modern times. Children are lured by its offerings and spend countless hours browsing it and have access to the content that is not appropriate to them like adult and sexual websites.

All this overexposure to electronic media has led to serious issues in con-temporary youth.

“Obesity is one of the major health problem highlighted among teenagers due to overuse of television,” accord-ing to Stuart James, in his May, 2011 article, “Negative Effects of Technol-ogy on Teenagers.”

Weakening of the eyesight and la-ziness are some other health issues in teenagers.

Among the above-mentioned health issues laziness and obesity are interre-

lated since one leads to the other. According to the WebMD article,

“the influence of TV, magazine and internet can add to a teen’s body im-age.”

Many teenagers stop being social or don’t participate in any physical ac-tivities because of this addiction.

Electronic media overuse influenc-es the development of a teenager in a negative way.

Firm steps should be taken if men-tal and physical health of teenagers is to be kept in check. Parental control in checking the content of the television shows or browsing history should be the main focus in homes where it is overused. Getting teenagers involved in outdoor activities such as swim-ming, camping etc. may help ease this problem.

Also it is necessary to communi-cate with teenagers about the hazard-ous effects of overuse, as they might get defensive and angry when told to do something else than browsing the Internet or playing video games.

Parents influence most of the teen-ager’s decisions, and so they should lead by example by reading books and moderate use of computers and televi-sions.

Controlled and positive use of the electronic media will surely benefit our teens and make them into well-informed and responsible citizens.

Letter: Effects of electronic media on North American Teens

Got a story idea? Get in touch with the appropriate section editor (email

addresses on page 3, left side) and we’ll explore it.

Ω ContributorRishu Gaind

November 14, 20126

NORTH VANCOUVER (CUP) — Despite Canada’s relatively graceful recovery from the world-wide economic meltdown of 2008, the quality of life Canadians expe-rience is on the decline.

According to the Canadian In-dex of Wellbeing (CIW), a study conducted in conjunction with the University of Waterloo, Cana-dians’ quality of life plummeted by 24 per cent between 2008 and 2010.

Based on CIW findings, the cul-prit is an excessive focus on the economy and issues related to it.

“In a society that is preoccupied with the economy and working hard, among the first casualties are those things that ironically matter to us the most,” said Bryan Smale, director of the CIW. “We forget to protect time for family and friends, and to enjoy those pursuits that bring meaning to our lives.

“We want to bring some balance to the conversation by reminding people that a good life includes those things that too many people regard as being less important than work and making money.”

The correlation between well-being and economics has been demonstrated by earlier CIW stud-ies. From 1994 to 2008, Canadian wellbeing — as measured by the CIW — rose by 7.5 per cent. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, and Canada’s subsequent recovery, that number dropped by 5.7 per cent in just a two-year period.

“The concern then, and even more so now, was that policy was being driven primarily by a con-cern with the economy and little else,” Smale went on to say. “Our concern was that Canadians’ well-being was suffering because we were not attending to other aspects of our lives that contributed to quality of life. Certainly, the econ-omy matters, but [not] to the exclusion of every-thing else that makes our lives worth-while.”

C a n a d i a n quality of life has primarily taken a hit in the broader areas of envi-ronment, time use, leisure and culture, though Smale explains that the CIW is based on 64 specific indi-cators.

“Among the indicators that showed the greatest declines were such things as: fewer social con-tacts, worsening green gas emis-sions, a larger ecological footprint, an increase in the percentage of people with diabetes, continuing declines in visitation to our nation-al parks and historic sites,” Smale said.

“Less volunteering for culture and recreation organizations,

less time spent in social leisure, reduced economic security, in-creased long-term unemployment, longer commute times, and per-haps most troubling, [a] grow-ing income gap between rich and poor.”

In Smale’s opinion, that income gap and reduction of the middle class is where the problem lies.

“ T h e growth in an economy is not neces-sarily a bad thing, but the increasing in-come dispar-ity, with those at the lower end stagnat-ing and the middle class s h r i n k i n g , that seems to be accompa-nying this pe-riod of slow recovery is jeopard iz ing other aspects of our lives,” he said. “Ad-

herents to ‘trickle-down’ econom-ics have failed to produce any evi-dence that the wealth generated at the top of society has benefited those at the bottom.”

While it might seem that an eco-nomic recovery would increase so-cial engagement, leisure time and cultural participation, the solution is not that simple unless “that re-covery creates more opportunity for everyone.”

“The wellbeing associated with engagement in leisure and cultural pursuits does not simply require having sufficient funds to pur-chase recreational products and services,” said Smale.

“There must be the will among policy makers to ensure that such opportunities are available to all and that economic pressures do not bring about the decline of lei-sure, recreation, arts and cultural services, programs and other op-portunities. It is through our social relationships in leisure, our time spent in meaningful pursuits, and our enjoyment of the people and the world around us that enrich our lives, bring us closer together, and defines our humanity, that matter.”

It’s important to understand that the CIW’s definition of wellbeing does not equate to general public happiness.

“Quality of life — or wellbe-ing — is a broader concept that includes both those things that are internal to us like our health, hap-piness and life satisfaction, as well as those things that are external to us that affect our quality of life, such as our social relationships, our environment, our communi-ties and access to opportunities to enhance our lives,” said Smale. “Happiness is really linked to just emotion and general life satisfac-tion, although many others treat it as equivalent to wellbeing, perhaps because it is a more familiar con-cept to people.”

Smale emphasizes, “Happiness is about emotion, whereas well-being is about f lourishing in our lives.”

The Capilano Courier (Capilano)Connor Thorpe

More work, less play: quality of life in Canada on the decline according to study

Life & Community

Professor Joel Bakan, who also teaches contract law at UBC, took an even stronger stance. Encouraging minors to lie about their age “in order to avoid legal restrictions in British Columbia is … highly problematic, akin to fraud, as there is a deliberate attempt to profit through deliberate deceit,” wrote Bakan in an email.

“The company’s actions are cer-tainly unethical and likely unlawful.”

UBC professor Joost Blom, who is familiar with both contract and fraud law, said it was unclear whether it constituted fraud to lead underage students to believe the contracts they signed were legally binding. However, Blom certainly thought the process was deceptive.

“Falsely telling someone what their legal rights are isn’t necessarily fraud,” Blom said, adding, “It’s not an easy matter.”

Legal hot potato

With the CRTC no longer regulat-ing cellphone companies, it’s unclear who is in charge of ensuring they follow ethical guidelines. “We don’t regulate contracts like that; I know, for sure, that is provincially regulated,” a CRTC spokeswoman said, saying that The Ubyssey should instead contact Consumer Protection B.C.

Consumer Protection B.C. — the provincial agency charged with regu-lating business practices, including contracts — said the matter fell out-side of their purview because there are federal bodies charged with oversee-ing the telecommunications indus-try. Those bodies are the CRTC and the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).

The CCTS is a federal agency that addresses consumer complaints against phone companies. However, a representative said they cannot inter-vene unless a consumer brings a per-sonal complaint to their attention, and even then, they can only act if a cell-phone company is explicitly violating its own corporate terms of service.

Fido’s terms of service make no mention of age.

Most of the 18-year-old students who signed contracts with Fido said in interviews with The Ubyssey that they were happy with their phone service, so it’s unlikely that any of them will be complaining to the CCTS anytime soon.

“The guy who was working at the [Fido] desk was really cool,” said J., the student from California. He said upon learning his age, the Fido sales-man told him, “I know this is the situ-ation, that you are a student, so I’m going to help you with this.”

The CCTS told The Ubyssey that Canada’s Competition Bureau, which enforces various business regulations, might have some jurisdiction over this matter.

This summer, the bureau launched a class-action lawsuit against wireless companies Rogers, Bell and Telus for allegedly misleading customers about fees.

However, on the issue of minors signing contracts, Competition Bu-reau spokesman Bray Park said, “It may be more prudent to contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or a local law enforcement authority.” The RCMP did not reply to repeated requests for comment and the Vancou-ver Police Department does not have jurisdiction over UBC’s campus.

When told that the federal agencies declined to address the issue, Con-sumer Protection B.C. spokesman Manjit Bains said the agency would

follow up with the CRTC and CCTS. However, after Bains checked with

both those bodies, he said he had no new information. A Consumer Pro-tection B.C. representative said they would look to raise the issue during their periodic discussions with the government.

Vetting Fido

In the case of Fido’s Jump Start sponsorship, UBC international stu-dent advisor Michelle Suderman said Jump Start relied on the government to ensure sponsors followed ethical business practices.

Randy Schmidt, associate director of UBC Public Affairs, elaborated on the vetting process.

“Jump Start staff put out a request of interest for their event ... reviewed them for issues like fit, whether they met a student need, service [and] af-fordability,” Schmidt wrote in an email. “Fido was chosen as a good fit.”

Schmidt continued, “We are not aware of any complaints or concerns about their presence at the Jump Start [events].”

The Alma Mater Society (AMS), UBC’s student union, provided little information about how they vetted vendors in the SUB, how much they charge to rent vendor tables, or which authorized dealer was representing Fido at the table in the SUB during the first week of school.

The AMS referred any legal ques-tions about vendors’ actions to the RCMP and said they had not heard from any students unhappy with the Fido booth’s actions.

As for Skynet Wireless, the Fido-authorized dealer present in the first-year residences during the first week of school, Schmidt said Student Hous-ing and Hospitality Services enters into agreements with vendors every

year who pay a daily fee. Schmidt added that Skynet had been on cam-pus during the first week of school since 2010.

When this Ubyssey reporter went undercover to try to sign up at one of the Skynet booths, a salesperson said that no lying about age was necessary.

The Skynet salesperson said they could sign up anyone who “had cred-it,” which they said could be obtained by purchasing a prepaid credit card. Anyone 16 years of age or older can get a pre-paid credit card in Canada, though most such cards do not actu-ally contribute to the user’s credit his-tory.

Tightening the leash

Rogers spokeswoman Holland said Rogers would be investigating these incidents, and she said they would take steps to make sure this practice doesn’t keep happening.

“It is hugely concerning to us if students are being signed up in viola-tion of our policy or being encouraged to be dishonest about their ages,” she wrote in an email.

With an eye toward providing more oversight of cellphone companies, Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia have all passed legislation regulating cellphone contracts’ terms and condi-tions over the past year.

Frustrated by the piecemeal nature of these new provincial regulations, Rogers and Telus have petitioned the CRTC to create a national consumer code regulating cellphone contracts, with Rogers going as far as to submit an actual code to the CRTC for con-sideration.

“Everybody seems to play a little bit of a different role,” said Bains, the Consumer Protection B.C. spokes-woman. “There’s definitely room for strengthening the oversight of cell-phone contracts.”

—IMAGE COURTESY SCALLOP HOLDEN/FLICKR

CELLPHONES...from p. 2

“Certainly, the economy mat-ters, but [not]

to the exclusion of everything

else....”

—Brian Smale, director, CIW

theomega.ca

The Omega · Volume 22, Issue 11 7

On Nov. 5, TRU played host to the last day of the fifth annual Che Gue-vara Conference, whose featured speaker was Aleida Guevara, a paedia-trician and the daughter of revolution-ary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

Approximately 120 people attended the event, held at the Irving K. Barber Centre.

Organized by Vancouver Commu-nities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC) and the TRUSU Socialist Club, the first three days of the conference were held in Vancouver.

“We’re here to talk about how Cuba, a small, Third World, developing coun-try, is able to provide free education and free health care for its people,” said Tamara Hansen, VCSC’s co-ordinator, “while the government of Canada keeps having to cut all of the budgets here, in a very wealthy country.”

On the final day of the conference, there were two workshops. One fo-cused on the plight of five Cubans ar-rested by the Americans. The Cubans speaking at the conference said the five were in Florida to keep an eye out for terrorists and drug traffickers in the Cuban exile community while the American government said they were spies and conspiring to commit murder.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has said in a 2005 report the five Cubans, being tried in Miami, did not have a fair and objec-tive trial.

The other workshop focused on Cu-ba’s economic reforms, which include removing restrictions from private business and allowing Cubans to buy and sell houses and vehicles.

These new market-based reforms don’t mean Cuba is going capitalist said Manuel Yepe, a professor and rev-olutionary leader. In the current eco-nomic crisis, capitalist countries like the United States have been enacting centralized solutions, so the opposite is true for Cuba.

“They resorted to the bail out of the banks. They had [a] centralized solu-tion,” he said. “I’ve never heard anyone say because of this, the United States is heading towards socialism and com-munism.”

These reforms are necessary be-cause of the global economic down-turn, a reduction of prices for Cuba’s main exports, the fall of the Soviet Union, low productivity and the em-bargo enforced by the United States, said Yepe.

It was the embargo that caused Alei-da Guevara to express anger. She told the audience it increases costs for ba-sic items such as food and blocks vital drugs that could cure fatal illnesses.

“A little baby, eight months old, is condemned to die and the reason is because she was born inside a social-ist [country.] This is what it means to blockade the people of Cuba,” she said through a translator.

If the embargo were lifted today, the lives of Cubans would be “80 per cent better,” Guevara said. For instance, in order to get powdered milk, the Cu-bans have to get it from New Zealand instead of getting it cheaper from the closer United States.

Justin Terwiel, a recently graduated TRU business student, said he was at the conference to listen to new per-spectives and hear about the economic reforms. At the point he was inter-viewed, he only heard about the five arrested Cubans.

“I’m really open to seeing what they speak about, but I’m here with an open mind and I can’t judge that until they finish their presentation,” he said.

Ω News EditorDevan C. Tasa

¡Viva la revolución conferencia!

AleidaGuevara,daughterofrevolutionary“Che”Guevara,speakstotheassembledcroudatthefifthannualCheGue-varaConference,Nov.5. —PHOTO BY DEVAN C. TASA

Life & Community

TRU will remember revolution conference on fifth of November

—PHOTO COURTESY RDC PHOTOGRAPHY

WINDSOR (CUP) — A University of Windsor professor’s research into using dandelions to cure cancer is awaiting ap-proval from Health Canada before mov-ing to human testing.

Professor Siyaram Pandey has been working on a cure for cancer involving dandelion root extract. His work is fo-cused on apoptosis, or programmed cell death, a field that picked up steam in the 1990s.

“Our cells perform their function, and then commit suicide,” Pandey explained. Damaged cells sometimes forget to die off, become cancerous and then rapidly divide and multiply. He is using natural sources such as dandelions to find a way to convince cancer cells to die while spar-ing healthy cells.

Pamela Ovadje, a PhD student in bio-chemistry who has been working with Pandey since he started this project, ex-plained that finding such a treatment is the goal. “That’s the problem with currently available treatments like chemotherapy, because they are not very selective so they tend to target non-cancerous cells as well.”

Pandey’s attention was first brought to dandelions by Windsor Regional Cancer Centre oncologist Caroline Hamm, who discovered that two of her patients with leukaemia found positive results while drinking dandelion tea.

“Two people mean nothing,” Pandey said of the questionable results. He ex-plained that the cases could have been coincidental with other factors being re-sponsible for it. “It could have been psy-chosomatic,” he added.

Despite his skepticism, he was willing to take a chance and look into it. “The results were astonishing,” Pandey said. “I was not expecting anything.”

Tests on non-cancerous cells have proved promising. He was quick to cau-tion that despite the fact that just treating cancer in mice has turned out positive results, it may not show the same success with humans.

Currently, Pandey is trying to secure permission for clinical trials on humans from Health Canada. Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation has provided over $150,000 in funding for human test-ing, which Pandey can tap into as soon his request is approved.

Pandey has found a lot of support lo-cally, with donations from the Knights of

Columbus, Seeds 4 Hope and the parents of Kevin Couvillon.

“That kid … he was so amazing,” said Pandey, who added that Couvillon had donated blood for Pandey’s research. Af-ter Couvillon died in 2010 of leukaemia, his family kept faith in the project and later donated $20,000. In February 2012, another $20,000 was donated to keep the project going.

Pandey credits his students for the suc-cess he has experienced so far. “They are the ones who do the experiments — the hard jobs, actually.”

Pandey is researching other areas in-volving apoptosis, such as inhibiting cell death. “If cells in the brain start dying at a faster rate, we have a problem. With an excess of cell death we end up with neu-rological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s,” Pandey explained. “If we understand cell suicide, can we inhibit cell death in the brain?”

Krithika Muthukumaran, a PhD stu-dent in biochemistry, has been work-ing with Pandey on this next project. “I wanted to do something related to neuro-degeneration,” she said. “We work with a water soluble formulation of Coenzyme Q10, which we’ve shown … could be used in curing Parkinson’s disease.”

The Lance (University of Windsor)Darryl Gallinger

UWindsor prof looks to dandelions for cancer cure

While burlesque and moustaches might not be traditionally envisioned together, the Kamloops Burlesque troupe combined it into an evening of costumes, mostly nude women, com-edy and song Thursday, Nov. 8 at the Blue Grotto.

The evening of entertainment threw back to the roaring ‘20s while mixing in some more modern fundraising via fuzzy upper lips.

Performing on the second Thurs-day of each month, the female group decided to lend their monthly show to benefit the increasingly growing Mo-vember movement.

With an opening number that seemed to take inspiration from the Village People — male stereotypes dancing — and then played with it (all the dancers were women in drag) — the show got off to a good, gender-bending start.

The performances from there var-ied between magic, comedy, and strip-teases with live MCs and music from Emergency Happiness interspersed. While some of the performances were fairly amateur, the crowd responded well to the mix of nudity, music and jokes.

The performers all go by pseud-onyms like Calamity Jane and Vixen Malone and have a variety of careers outside their on-stage passtime.

Particular highlights from this month’s showcase included Calamity Jane’s take on the classic striptease

with huge feather fans, Coco Crème’s dance to the Guys and Dolls classic “Take Back Your Mink,” Pipes’s (aka Lizzie Borden at most other perfor-mances) take on Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” and the duo of Coco Crème and Gilda Lily with an extended Egyptian piece which included belly dancing and finger cymbals.

The finale provided not just a hu-mourous closing, but also a message relating to the Movember movement.

Pipes played a biker-physician while Calamity Jane took on the role of patient with a huge top hat covering her to just above the waist.

From there the majority of the skit took place behind a sheet as the per-formers were more akin to shadow puppets, which allowed for a surreal prostate exam (think of the Austin Powers 2 scene in the tent).

The Kamloops Burlesque group has been performing publically for nearly two years. With a fluid group work-ing with the group there are around 40 people involved according to Caroline Dick (aka Lizzie Borden/Pipes).

“The majority of the performances are unique each show. We do a fan fa-vourites every single year, and occa-sionally a performer may do a repeat, but our themes really foster creativity and the performers are always coming up with fun and new ideas,” said Dick in an email.

The costumes are also often cre-ated to some degree by performers for their specific skits. Future shows should have increased floor seating for the audience, as the shows are up to 100 people.

Tassels, feathers…and moustaches?

Ω Arts & Entertainment EditorBrendan Kergin

Kamloops Burlesque troupe puts revenue from their monthly show toward Movember movement

November 14, 20128

Delhi 2 Dublin might not sound like the most Canadian of band names, but being based out of Vancouver definitely puts the group inside our nation’s bor-ders.

With inf luences from India, Ireland and many more loca-tions, the sound is part of the world beat genre but modernizes those sounds into something that is more comfortable in a club than a traditional venue.

While plenty of the music re-lates heavily to the Delhi side, especially the rhythm section and a strong does of sitar, mod-

ern arrangements are more com-mon and f iddles play a promi-nent role in the vast majority. Then there’s the addition of elec-tronica for beats and melody.

This trio of sounds may seem bizarre written out but the group makes it work, producing a sound extraordinarily unique. In a world where so much music is made it’s hard to f ind a niche unexplored. This is partly due to the band’s willingness to ex-plore roots music as inspiration for more modern sounds. It’s an area where some of the most ex-citing sounds are coming from (like MIA and Gogol Bordello).

Suggested listening would be the title track off the recently re-leased Turn Up The Stereo.

If you don’t know who The Dudes are or what they sound like, you probably won’t be surprised when the tunes hit your ears. You will be hard pressed to find a band with a name more suitable for its sound.

The Dudes come just as adver-tised. The four-piece hails from Calgary, Alta. Bringing an en-joyable blend of indie rock and alternative garage to the table, The Dudes look and sound like a bunch of dudes just having a good time playing some rock ‘n’ roll. If you’re a fan of Weezer or Cana-dian pop-rock acts such as Two

Hours Traffic or Bend Sinister you will definitely dig The Dudes.

Formed in 1996, The Dudes are well-known around the Alberta music scene and received some positive recognition country-wide for 2006’s “Dropkick Queen of the Weekend.”

A mainstay on Canadian col-lege campuses, The Dudes most recent release came in April 2012. Barbers, Thieves and Bartend-ers features the single “American Girl.” Also worth checking out from The Dudes’ 2012 effort is “Saturday Night.”

“Girl Police,” from 2009’s Bloods. Guts. Bruises. Cuts is an-other upbeat, party rock track that is sure to get you going on a Sat-urday night.

Ω Copy/Web EditorTaylor Rocca

Ω Arts & Entertainment EditorBrendan Kergin

Arts & Entertainment

While there’s great music coming out of this country from coast to coast, To-ronto is the centre of a variety of genres, including electro/synth-based pop. Right in the middle of this is Diamond Rings, cementing his presence with the catchy, ‘80s-esque 10-song release, Free Dimen-sional.

Diamond Rings, a solo project by John O’Regan, formerly of the D’Ubervilles, pulls a lot of influence from David Bow-ie (especially aesthetically) and a variety of ‘80s synthesizer-based pop such as A-Ha and the Eurythmics.

While the album starts out strong with the coolly confident “Everything Speaks,” upbeat and danceable “All The Time” and guitar-led “Runaway Love,” it flounders a bit with the down-tempo “Put Me On.”

The lead single and strongest track, “I’m Just Me,” resurrects Free Dimen-sional for a moment with a back and forth between stripped-down verses and an explosive chorus before the album slows from there.

If the synth pop of the first couple of tracks hadn’t fully won the listener over the second half will be lost, without much more exploration of the sound O’Regan has built.

The sound stays generally light and doesn’t explore some of the darker areas the synth allows for.

At times some free-style rapping liv-ens up the course but it’s limited. On the upside, those looking for a modern Pet

Shop Boys might appreciate it.The album wraps up with a notewor-

thy track in “Day and Night” if only because it follows a much more modern sound, which seems reminiscent of late ‘90s pop.

Lyrically, the album puts forth a strong, confident self from O’Regan, though ill-defined. This leaves it open for the listener to connect with what’s being said but it can get repetitive as the album

goes on with not much explored, not dis-similar to the music.

While Free Dimensional is a trip into a style of music less common right now, it can grow tiresome. The first half is defi-nitely worth a listen for those interested in the general electronic-based pop genres, it’s niche specific afterwards. That said, the single “I’m Just Me,” could carry Diamond Rings a distance and allow for follow-up work, which is deserved.

Ω Arts & Entertainment EditorBrendan Kergin

Album Review: Free Dimensional

—IMAGE COURTESY ASTRALWERKS/SECRET CITY

Canadian Music Corner

Calgary (CUP) —The hit reality television series Big Brother is com-ing to Canada in early 2013 — which could be a big deal for ordinary people looking to become stars.

Viewers familiar with the Ameri-can version of the show, which has been airing since 2000, will likely recognize a familiar format. Locked in a house for nearly three months, contestants compete for food, special privileges, and power. Cameras fol-low the house guests 24 hours a day, while microphones record their every word, leaving absolutely no room for privacy.

The end goal is to be the only con-testant not voted out of the Big Brother House.

Sue Brophey, one of the producers of Big Brother Canada, shed some light on what takes to be a star on the show.

The Weal: A lot of people would love the opportunity to star on Big Brother. What are some qualities that you look for in a contestant?

Brophey: We are looking for contes-tants who are fiery, outgoing, adven-turous, plotters and planners who are somewhat competitive and are ready to live in a house for 75 days without any contact from the outside world.

What things should potential con-testants avoid doing during their au-dition?

The most important thing to do is to be yourself. A lot of people come

in trying to be just like previous Big Brother contestants and put on a per-sona that isn’t truly them. We are looking to see real people. So if you’re funny, be funny. If you have a wacky personality and you like to wear carrot costumes, then do that.

If a contestant is unable to attend an open casting call because they live in a different city, are there other ways to apply to be on Big Brother Canada?

Absolutely. You can apply online by going to Slice.ca and follow the casting link to the casting application website where you can upload a video. Fill in an application form and answer every question as best you can. The produc-ers look at and evaluate every single application. If we really like you, we will call you and if we truly like you, we will come straight to your town to meet you. So the entire country defi-nitely has a chance to be on the show.

How is Big Brother Canada going to be different from Big Brother U.S.?

The format that we will follow will be similar to Big Brother U.S., howev-er, we will be adding Canadian twists as well as Canadian elements to the show to make it our own. But the real difference will be that all our house guests will be Canadian.

Is there any last piece of advice that you can offer?

The most important thing for any-one who wants to apply for this show is to make sure to be yourself and show us who you are. Don’t be a wall-flower. We are looking for big person-alities, so you need to show us your personality.

How to star on Big Brother Canada

Live music at Heroes on Wednesdays continued on Nov. 7 with locals, the Chris Brock Band. Brock, himself a resident in Kamloops for a decade, led the foursome of local lads (Da-vid Johnstone, Kelly Myre and Casey Kayczan) through a va-riety of covers and original ma-terial. While the crowd wasn’t large it was boisterous and spent the encore shouting out requests.

The set consisted of a f lair for ‘90s, an era f illed with rock. While not all songs originated during that decade, many still carried that inf luence, including forays into Pink Floyd and Phil Collins. Bands that were popular post-grunge held the day, with covers of bands like Bush and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In amongst the covers were some of Brock’s original mate-rial, which f it well among the likes of Matthew Good and 3 Doors Down, though was typi-cally more down tempo, though not to the point of ballad.

Brock and other locals can of-ten be found Saturday nights at the Rock’n Firkin Pub & Grill as part of an open mike night with live musicians.

Ω Arts &Entertainment EditorBrendan Kergin

Local rockers play for local rock fans at Heroes

ChrisBrockleadshisbandthroughthenightastheWednes-daylivemusiccontinuestorollthroughHeroes. —PHOTO BY MIKE DAVIES

The Weal (SAIT)Inonge Chimwaso

Got an event coming up you think we should review?

Want to be an arts photographer?Think you know music

and want to review an album?Contact Brendan at arts@truomega.ca

to get involved.

The Omega · Volume 22, Issue 11 9

TORONTO (CUP) Despite the fact that his video has been viewed over 30 million times on YouTube, Graydon Sheppard is not easily distinguishable from the teeming crowds of his home-town, Toronto. Sheppard looks simply “like a boy,” he says with a laugh. A scruffy beard and short messy hair make up his ev-eryday look but, on camera, he stands out as ditzy brunette girl, star of the viral video “Shit Girls Say.”

Dressed in drag and a long brown wig, 29-year-old Shep-pard squeals nuanced catch-phrases, uttered often by mem-bers of the fairer sex. “Do you want to split a cookie?” “Do you know anything about comput-ers?”

Despite his knack for one-liners, Sheppard and his partner Kyle Humphrey are no one-hit wonders. The fourth and f inal installment of their “Shit Girls Say” video franchise was viewed by more than online comedy lov-ers — it was a feature video of the Short Cuts Canada program at this year’s Toronto Interna-tional Film Festival (TIFF).

Unlike the over-the-top lead character from “Shit Girls Say,” Sheppard is soft-spoken and shy when speaking from his ninth f loor room in the Ace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. After graduating from Ryerson’s pho-tography program in 2005, he has been directing regularly, heading up all kinds of projects from commercials to music vid-eos. He also did the graphic de-sign for Feist’s 2011 album Met-als.

A fun little side project and a few simple tweets starting in April 2011 put him on another tangent. He and Humphrey start-ed the Twitter account @shit-girlssay.

Promoting it through his con-tacts in f ilm and music, they quickly garnered a following that now exceeds 1.6 million.

“Cameron Bailey, TIFF’s ar-tistic director, had followed ‘Shit Girls Say’ on Twitter,” Sheppard says. “At one point, someone sent us a tweet that he had writ-ten saying, ‘hope someone is making this into a movie.’”

Little did Bailey know that the f ilms were already in the works, and that actress Juliette Lewis, perhaps best known for playing alongside Woody Har-relson in Natural Born Killers, had already f ilmed a cameo ap-pearance for the “Shit Girls Say” videos.

Once the webisodes were re-leased online, Sheppard and Humphrey were asked to submit videos for Packaged Goods, a showcase for short f ilmmaking at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The pair credit the smart use of so-cial media, namely Twitter and YouTube, for elevating their web videos into mainstream conver-sations. Countless variations of the meme have also struck niche audiences, but the original has brought Sheppard and Hum-phrey to the next level.

Having TIFF on your resumé is a huge push for any young f ilmmaker.

“It gives you that cachet so you can be recognized and make more f ilms,” Sheppard says.

It is also a big boost when ask-ing for grants, like those used toward the development of the newly released Shit Girls Say book.

Though “Shit Girls Say” has quickly grown from Twitter and YouTube to theatres and book-stores, Sheppard isn’t worried about being typecast in the same role or cornered in one-line com-edy writing.

“I’m not pigeonholed,” he says. “More opportunities are coming up than ever before.”

Arts & Entertainment

Last night I saw Skyfall. My head is still spinning.

The film begins appropriately with a motorcycle chase in that clas-sic Third World setting.

Surprise, surprise, 007 is in dire straits again because of a girl (Nao-mie Harris) – a very important girl, as we will soon find out.

It’s not the first time Bond has died. This time he uses it to take time off on an island paradise with women and Scotch for company before returning to England after a bomb attack on MI6

In London, themes from the past are dug up. The fight in the “shad-ows” is a young man’s game. Can Bond continue to measure up in the modern world? After all, exploding pens aren’t standard issue anymore and even Q is younger.

The story continues to Shanghai, which reminds us of the timeliness of the Bond enterprise. In Quan-tum of Solace, problems lay in the dwindling world water supply. In the newest success, director Sam Mendes takes us straight to the ris-ing Red Dragon.

Under the flashing neons of the booming Chinese metropolis, and later in Macau, Bond takes control of his destiny. There is the obliga-tory casino scene, an Asian siren (Bérénice Marlohe), and a journey by sailboat to an abandoned city where Bond comes face-to-face with Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) the lat-est sociopath, out to dominate the world in a glaringly modern way. Forget the nukes, this villain does it online.

Suitably, the latest and greatest fi-nale brings us back to the old coun-try. We almost wonder why no Bond film already did this. After a brief incarceration at MI6, Silva breaks

free and adds subway derailments to his record in the London under-ground.

Then, on a moor in Scotland, Bond returns to his roots, in an Aston Martin DB5 complete with ejector seats. The sentiment only holds for so long. Soon a mansion is ablaze, a helicopter gunship does its thing and 007 strides unhampered through the

exploding masonry, utterly himself.When we have survived the

shocking climax – very shocking be-cause of that sick twist we all knew had to happen – the conclusion is just as rapturous. In a cyclical clos-ing scene, the man with the license to kill feeds us one more critical de-tail and leaves us white-knuckled, panting for the next one.

Ω ContributorMaximilian Birkner

Film review: Skyfall ‘Shit Girls Say’ goes from Twitter to TIFF

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Puzzle of the Week #10 – Losing Your Marbles

This is the last problem of the semester. See you in January.

You kept your marbles in a paper bag. Unfortunately, in the rain, the bagbecame soggy, and well, you lost your marbles. Each marble was one ofsix colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

1. The number of blue marbles and yellow marbles together was thesame as the number of green marbles and orange marbles together.

2. The number of orange marbles was one less than the number of redmarbles.

3. The number of blue marbles was not prime.

4. There were more of each succeeding colour when the colour nameswere arranged in ascending alphabetical order.

5. The number of red marbles was greater than twenty and was alsoprime.

6. There were fewer than 100 marbles and at least one marble of eachof the six colours.

How many marbles were there of each colour?

This contest is sponsored by the Mathematics and Statistics department. The

full-time student with the best score at the end of the year will win a prize.

Please submit your solution (not just the answer but also why) by noon next

Wednesday to Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net>. Submissions by others are

also welcome. The solution will be posted the Wednesday after that in the Math

Centre (HL210A). Come visit: we are friendly.

—IMAGE COURTESY MGM/EON PRODUCTIONS

Torontonian turns YouTube fame into short film success

November 14, 201210

VANCOUVER (CUP) — A website and Twitter feed devoted to nonconsen-ual photos of and lewd comments about women on UBC campus has resulted in a backlash that may have consequences for some UBC varsity athletes.

UBC is looking into whether they will discipline a number of student-ath-letes for their alleged involvement in the “UBC Dime Watch” website and Twit-ter feed.

The UBC Athletics department be-came aware of the site and account late Tuesday night, when UBC Insiders editor Neal Yonson tweeted an image showing that the domain name thed-imewatch.com was registered to varsity hockey player Ben Schmidt.

The website appeared to be linked to the Twitter account @UBCDimeWatch, which was started in early 2012.

The account encouraged people to post pictures of women without their consent.

A “dime” is a slang word that refer-ences the practice of rating a woman’s level of attractive-ness on a scale of 1 to 10. Schmidt claims he made the site for a friend.

“I registered the do-main and created the basic website layout for a friend. Didn’t ex-pect publicity for it,” Schmidt said in a tweet.

“There was some concern expressed to us…. [People] complained about the sexist nature of that language, and had concerns that … some of the posts, they felt, were getting pretty close to harass-ment,” said UBC director of public af-fairs Lucie McNeill.

“Or some of the posts were also a little bit scary in terms of inviting ha-rassment. So the whole tenor of the con-versation took a turn that UBC Athletics certainly felt was not something that would be considered conduct becoming of a student-athlete.”

When the details of Schmidt’s link to thedimewatch.com were made pub-lic, UBC student Ekateryna Baranovs-kaya retweeted them and condemned Schmidt’s involvement with the site.

The @UBCDimeWatch Twitter handle and other UBC varsity athletes, tweeting under their own names and retweeting one another, mocked Ba-ranovskaya and called her derogatory names.

“I definitely got a very, very negative response from members of the UBC varsity hockey team,” said Baranovska-ya. “It definitely highlighted the things I did not like about the @ubcdimewatch Twitter account, which were very gen-dered insults.

“I noticed that there were quite a few more targeted at me rather than Neal [Yonson, who originally reported Schmidt’s involvement]. I would say most likely it was for that reason.”

A number of athletes who were deemed to have some connection with the incident were called into an emer-gency meeting with UBC Athletics on Oct. 31.

They were encouraged to make sure

that the website and the @UBCDime-Watch Twitter account were deleted, said McNeill.

So far, UBC has not confirmed the identity of who was responsible for the Twitter feed, although they believe it may have originated within the men’s varsity hockey team.

McNeill said it is not UBC’s place to uncover the identity of the people be-hind the anonymous account.

So far, UBC Athletics is still investi-gating the incident and has not yet de-termined if any discipline will happen.

“We will be looking into this, and UBC Athletics will decide whether or not action is needed,” said McNeill. “Depending on the results,… there may be consequences.”

UBC has a code of conduct all ath-letes are required to sign that prohibits harassment or any actions that are “in-

sulting, intimidating, hurtful, malicious, de-grading or otherwise offensive.”

“They are held to a higher standard of be-haviour; they have to have conduct becom-ing of a student-athlete, because they represent the university,” said

McNeill.The code doesn’t set out any specific

punishments for when its rules are bro-ken. Disciplinary action is at the discre-tion of the UBC Athletics department.

“People who were involved in that Twitter conversation, whose own Twit-ter handles were [retweeted] on that Twitter feed, they themselves deny that it was anything more than casual in-volvement — because they were drawn into it, because of the mention of the men’s hockey team,” said McNeill.

“So this has to be looked into a little

more seriously … before we can start determining if indeed there is some-thing that needs to be done, or actions to be taken [against] individual student-athletes.”

“I think there should be a relatively serious response,” said Baranovskaya. “If this is something that many members of the varsity hockey team are in support of, then this is something more system-atic than they would like.” She said that she hopes UBC will create some form of education for student-athletes to try to prevent similar incidents in the future.

UBC does not currently have a social media policy for student-athletes, but they are developing one in response to this incident.

“To be fair, those students [tweet-ing] did not have guidelines in front of them,” said McNeill. She mentioned that orientation sessions for athletes at the beginning of the year did contain a brief presentation about social media.

“Clearly the people who participated in those conversations on social media think that it’s all fun and games, and maybe they don’t think of the ramifica-tions of what it is they say,” said McNeill.

“This is a challenge that’s facing not only UBC, but all schools that have in-tercollegiate sport right now.”

Other universities with more promi-

nent varsity athletics programs take var-ied approaches to policing their athletes on social media. According to Carter Henderson, an assistant athletic director at the University of Washington, student athletes at that school sign a general code of conduct but no policy specific to social media. That’s handled on a program-by-program basis, meaning it is under the purview of head coaches. To his knowledge, no incidents had oc-curred under this policy.

Within the University of California system, student-athletes sign a social me-dia policy that gives general advice and begins with, “If you wouldn’t want your grandma to read it, DON’T post/tweet it.”

At UBC, McNeill said it was a chal-lenge for staff to keep tabs on students’ social media use. “It goes to show that there is a bit of a generational divide be-tween faculty, staff leadership, who tend to be over 35, and students, who are of-ten younger than 25,” she said.

These incidents come at a time when UBC Athletics is still in its first year of participating in “Be More than a Bystander,” a campaign aimed at rais-ing awareness about domestic violence through the endorsement of prominent athletes. The program is also promoted by the B.C. Lions CFL team.

— With files from Jonny Wakefield

Sports

Let’s stop pretending sports aren’t important

Have you ever thought about what your life would be like with-out sports?

For some, things wouldn’t change much. The occasional spectator would find other things to watch and the casual participant another way to get exercise.

For those who don’t see the value of sport it would be an occasion to celebrate. No more outrageous reg-istration fees for a child’s minor sports, no more professional sports monopolizing the television on weekends and holidays.

For others, it would be a dev-astating loss. I’m not just talking about the hardcore spectator who spends his entire Sunday watching football, or her entire Christmas holiday watching the World Junior Championship.

I’m also talking about people who have used sports as a forum for personal growth, who have im-proved self-confidence and devel-oped collaboration skills as part of a team.

I had the opportunity to work with a phenomenal program this past weekend that’s allowing kids to do just that, which reaffirmed for

me the importance of sports in our society.

It’s called Hockey for Youth with Special Needs. It’s entering its sec-ond season of existence courtesy of the City of Kamloops. The group had their first on-ice session Nov. 10 at Interior Savings Centre and welcomed 14 returnees and seven new members.

The program is open to youth of all ages and skill levels. It focuses on helping kids develop basic hock-ey skills while at the same time giv-ing them the opportunity to social-ize with their peers.

These are kids who face chal-lenges every day but as Ashly Hay, a coach in the program, asserts, “this is an extra challenge and they’re succeeding at it.”

Whether they’re just learning how to skate or they’re a fairly ac-complished player already, this program has enabled them to play a sport they love. Before the first year of Hockey for Youth with Spe-cial Needs, there was no league for them to play in.

Now, they’re gaining confidence, they’re having fun, they’re bonding with their peers and learning how to work as part of a team. It’s the sport that has allowed them to do that and if you ask me, that’s pretty important.

Those are just the social benefits these kids are getting, there are also the health benefits.

Health Canada recommends “an hour every day of moderate- to vigor-ous-intensity activity.” In today’s day and age, childhood obesity is running rampant and sports are a means for kids to stay active. According to a 2004 Statistics Canada study, 24 per cent of Canadian youth between the ages of 12 and 17 spend 30 or more hours a week participating in sed-entary activities and according to a 2008 study, 24 per cent are either overweight or obese.

According to Health Canada, reg-ular activity improves mental health, reduces stress and helps kids to do better in school -- as I see it there aren’t too many negatives to regular participation in sports.

Sure, sport has its problems. When our athletes are making $5 million while our school teachers are making $40,000, one has to wonder about the priorities of our society -- although the same could be said about the entertainment industry. At the heart of sport is giving kids the opportu-nity to have fun and exercise, make friends and just be kids, which is exactly what Hockey for Youth with Special Needs is all about.

There are few things more im-portant than that.

Ω Sports EditorAdam Williams

UBC Athletics investigating athlete misconductThe Ubyssey (UBC)Laura Rogers

UBCAthleticsisinvestigatingallegedmisconductoccurringoversocialmediathatmayhaveinvolvedsomeathletes.PhotobyColinChia/TheUbyssey.

—PHOTO BY COLIN CHIA/ THE UBYSSEY

“I think there should be a relatively serious response.”

—Ekateryna Baranovskaya, UBC student

The Omega would like to congratulate the WolfPack women’s soccer team on

finishing fourth nationally in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association for the

second consecutive year.

Check out next week’s Omega for a year-in-review

from both the men’s and women’s soccer seasons.

The Omega · Volume 22, Issue 11 11

Across

1. Helpful ones7. Born’s partner11. Audience14. Dorm mate15. Abandon17. Bellow protagonist18. Dowel19. Early20. Come-on21. Less populated25. Is in the past?27. Nav. rank28. Holed up29. 16 1/2 feet31. Coke’s partner33. Volcanic rock36. Catch, in a way40. Salinger protagonist43. Prepare, as tea44. Worked a potter’s wheel45. Wassail alternative47. Retrovirus, for short48. Jellied delicacy49. Matterhorn, e.g.52. Go on and on54. Gassy57. Tropical constrictors59. O.T. book61. Orkin target62. Twain protagonist67. Voluntary

68. Organism that needs oxygen to live69. Like some phone nos.70. The Who’s “___ O’Riley”71. Hypnotic state

Down

1. It often appears to the right of you2. Slip in a pot3. Simple swim stroke4. Mideast V.I.P.5. Saturn has these6. Visit7. Cold one8. Extend, in a way9. Make beloved10. Female hare11. Result12. ___ squash13. Magritte and Descartes16. Dot-com’s address21. Persian potentates22. Burgundy grape23. One of the Waltons24. Drilling grp.26. Drug type30. End32. Domestic34. Biblical plot35. ___ Rebellion of 1857-5937. ___ pressure

38. Aerodynamic39. In a strange way41. ___ acid42. Prefix for scoliosis46. Antique mecca in Illinois49. Can’t stomach50. Jeweler’s glass51. Agreements53. Middle Eastern dish55. Kind of cake56. Prefix with red58. Schuss, e.g.60. A constellation63. Court ploy64. Deserter65. “Today” network66. Watchman ___, Chinese Christian author

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November 14, 201212

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