All Signs
No matter what we do, we all feel like we’re fighting an uphill battle. Things are going wrong in every direction: cars are breaking down, laptops are deciding they don’t want to work, money is being spent faster than it should be (I guess this is always the case), and friends and family are not hearing us. We want to do what is right, we want to follow our hearts, but it feels like the universe is shitting on us. So, what gives? Well, think of it this way. Say you make a new year’s resolution to change your life: get fit, stop smoking, eat healthier, but you don’t change ...
So, Canada has its first openly gay premier—sound the trumpets, right? Score one more for Canada on the greatest, most liberal country ever sheet!
Before we go ahead and do any cheering and whatnot, we need to look a little closer at this development. Kathleen Wynne, Ontario Liberal, was elected as the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party on Jan. 26. She is not only Ontario’s first gay Premier, but also the first woman. But, she isn’t the only female provincial or territorial leader in Canada.
For me—someone who was brought up believing that all people are equal, no matter their ...
It was recently announced that North America’s first paper-less physical public library system will be built in Bexar County, Texas, with the first branch set to open later in 2013. The system will be called BiblioTech and the library will feature computer stations, with e-Readers to borrow, but no bound books. Just digital copies. It will serve as a meeting place and a place to go read and will have banks of computers instead of rows of shelves. Is this a library or just a coffee shop without lattes and cappuccinos?
Until recently I’ve been a bound book purist. I love the physicality ...
Frank Moher, a VIU Creative Writing and Journalism professor, has been appointed to the position of Director of Spoken Word by the Gabriola Radio Society.
Moher, a resident of Gabriola Island, who recently completed a ten year term as artistic producer of Nanaimo’s Western Edge Theatre, will be responsible for developing a training program for the station and producing spoken word pilot projects.
“I have been a big supporter of the idea of a community radio station on Gabriola for a long time and I have been helping out with the logistics of the project for eight years,” Moher ...
VICTORIA CUP—Transit will likely fail to meet its provincial ridership targets by 2020 according to a new report by John Doyle, B.C.’s auditor general, issued in early Dec. This report covered five areas the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) investigated in 2012 and had not issued reports on, or which were ongoing investigations that would continue into 2013.
“My traditional public reports are the most visible output of this office, but they do not account for all the work we undertake. To be accountable for that work, we summarize the most important findings and recommendations in ...
Open auditions for the hit CBC reality television show Dragon’s Den were held at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre on Jan. 30. Local entrepreneurs had an opportunity to pitch their original ideas to the show’s producers for a chance to come face to face with the Dragons when the upcoming season is filmed in Toronto.
Peter Joyes, an artist from Gabriola Island, is confident that his product will receive a call back from producers. Joyes, who owns a company called “The Deceptive Advertising Institute,” pitched several of his novelty products including “Intrusive Thought Repellent,” a ...
VIU’s counseling centre has implemented two online prevention and intervention programs to motivate students to reduce alcohol and marijuana consumption using personalized information about their own drinking and marijuana-using risk factors.
The self assessment tools, called “e-CHECK UP TO GO,” were designed by San Diego State University counseling centre psychologists to increase student awareness of their personal consumption of alcohol and/or marijuana. The comprehensive survey takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete.
Michelle Daoust, a VIU counselor who helped implement ...
VANCOUVER (CUP)—A document all Trinity Western University students sign, called a “Community Covenant,” requires them to be committed Christians. It has rules banning pornography and on-campus boozing.
And a section titled “Healthy Sexuality” requires that students adhere to “a Biblical view of sexuality,”meaning “sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman.”
Although TWU administrators have argued through various media outlets that this section has never been enforced, the current rules would still allow the University to discipline, or expel, a student ...
VIU implemented a new smoking policy on the Nanaimo campus last fall, designed to reduce students’ and faculties’ exposure to second-hand smoke—but not everybody on campus is happy about it.
The new smoking policy, which was effective as of Sept. 2012, establishes 11 designated areas for tobacco use around campus and replacing the old policy, which permitted smoking in any area five or more metres from doorways. Along with the new policy came several old bus shelters from the Regional District of Nanaimo, which have been repurposed to serve as smoking shelters.
“The old policy ...
In the mid 15th century, Johanes Gutenburg invented the printing press. This invention would lead to a revolution, both technologically and culturally. In the late 20th century, computers became common household items. Combined with the Internet, computers have led to another revolution, which we are calling the digital revolution. The question that remains, however, is if the current revolution is technological, cultural, or both.
According to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, a revolution is defined as: “the forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new ...
As many of you might be aware, on Jan. 11 computer programmer Aaron Schwartz hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment. The reasons aren’t entirely known—he had publicly spoken of suffering from depression for years, and he was facing a legal battle that would see him potentially owing $1 million in fines and 35 years in jail—for stealing academic papers from JSTOR through Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) servers with the aim to make them freely available on the Internet.
Schwartz was a computer prodigy. By the age of 14 he was a co-author of RSS 1.0. Through his company, ...
Dalhousie University grad student Alex Sangha’s vision of an affordable housing community for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit seniors, and their allies, in Vancouver is becoming more concrete.
As reported in issue 2 of the Nav., Sangha is fundraising towards a feasibility study for the proposed LGBTT housing development. Since Aug. 31 he has managed to raise $37 thousand through private donations and grants through the VanCity Community Foundation and
from the B.C. Ideas competition. A large portion of the funds will be used to pay a consultant to study whether ...
For many parents, creating a dialogue about sexual health with their children can be a little daunting. Sexual health educator Kerri Isham, of Parksville, believes that parents are their child’s number one sexual educator and stresses the importance of parents becoming actively involved in educating their children about sexual health and safety.
On Jan. 30, Isham will deliver her presentation “Smart: Right from the Start” at Tansor Elementary School in Duncan (7 to 9 p.m). Designed to help parents create a sexual health dialogue with their children in order to increase abuse ...
Fredericton (CUP)—Want to get high? With the Liberal Party of Canada adding marijuana legalization to their platform last year, along with the recent legalization for recreational use in Washington state and Colorado, it looks like a lot of people do.
Decades ago, many thought marijuana was the devil’s drug—which would cause whoever uses it to turn into a sinful, psychotic, promiscuous junky—as seen in the 1936 American propaganda film Reefer Madness. However, these recent events show the culture around cannabis has changed.
“I think it’s shifting to the opposite end of Reefer ...
Charlottetown (CUP)—The misplacement of an external hard drive from a federal government office in Gatineau, Quebec, has Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) publicly acknowledging a loss of data concerning over half-a-million recipients of Canada Student Loans.
“I want all Canadians to know that I have expressed my disappointment to departmental officials at this unacceptable and avoidable incident in handling Canadians’ personal information,” HRSDC Minister Diane Finley says in a statement released on Jan. 11. The discovery came during the review of a previous ...
The “Idle No More” movement has been sweeping across Canada. On Friday, Jan. 11, and Saturday, Jan. 12, “Idle No More” hit Nanaimo, and not for the first time. The demonstration on Friday took place at VIU in the main quad outside the library. Close to 100 people showed up to show their support for the movement, and, between the various speeches, students were encouraged to take part in round dances and singing. The demonstration on Saturday was more exciting. A larger group showed up, close to 500 people, and marched from Maffeo Sutton Park to the intersection of the Old Island Highway ...
Students at VIU had a much shorter window to pay their tuition fees this semester. An online notifying system implemented by the institution has cut the previous fee payment deadline by two weeks.
VIU Registrar Fred Jacklin says the changes were made to simplify the system for students and assures that the amount of fees has remained static. He explains that the earlier deadline is due partly to advancements in communication.
“The reason there was a two week period was because we used to prepare bills and we felt that it was reasonable to allow time for students to receive them, ...
Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? The VIUSU served up hearty amounts of chili and cheer with their annual Funky Frost Fair; a carnival-like celebration to help students shake off their winter blues.
“Its a welcome back event for the students to bring in the spring semester,” says Delaney Sullivan, the VIUSU’s Director of Events.
The Funky Frost Fair was held on Jan. 17 in front of the library of VIU’s Nanaimo campus. The three-hour event drew a large crowd of students and staff who were treated to carnival confections including popcorn, cotton candy, and snow cones ...
The act of being spontaneous holds a different meaning for everyone. For some, it means ordering the feature instead of their favourite from the restaurant menu. For others, it means taking a different way home, touching base with an old friend, or watching Vampire Diaries instead of True Blood. To some, spontaneity is a foreign concept altogether, lost somewhere between textbook pages and school papers, jobs, social media, and other commitments or rituals we are blindly bound to.
I never personally understood spontaneity until I abandoned the comforts of the Island and headed to ...
Last issue we left off assessing the relatively novel “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) category, and began to dig at the reasons behind this shift away from the religions of our parents and towards our own systems of beliefs. To look at these reasons we have to first find our place in history. I’m going to draw from Louis Dupré’s book, Passage to Modernity: An Essay in the Hermeneutics of Nature and Culture, as it was a compelling (if at times impossible to understand!) journey through history to modernity, addressing specifically the questions we posed last week. (Wait, who is this ...
National Hockey League clubs knew there were disgruntled fans to be won back after announcing the end of the lockout earlier this month, and many are doing so with an apology and plenty of perks.
The Vancouver Canucks opened the season last Saturday with a post-game “jerseys off our back” giveaway to 24 fans at centre ice. A season ticket holder made the ceremonial puck drop and two fans had the chance to win a road trip with the Canucks on the team charter.
For the first three games of the season the team store is half price and hot dogs, popcorn, nachos, and soft drinks are ...
Most people use the weekends in Jan. to relax after a crazy Christmas season, but the hockey world is anything but quiet. Oceanside kicked off their busiest weekend of the season on Jan. 13 as hosts of the 2013 Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League (VIJHL) All Star Classic.
Each year the VIJHL puts on the Classic as a full day event. The day includes a prospects game for rookies, a skills competition for players to showcase their individual skills, and an All Star game with the most talented players on the Island.
Oceanside General forward and VIU student Cam McCarrick was selected ...
After winning the CCAA National Championship last season at home in such dramatic fashion, there was some concern for this season’s Mariners lacking the same motivation to repeat. But that hasn’t been an issue as VIU has another successful season underway.
The squad is sitting in second place, just two points behind the University of Frasier Valley (UFV), and has a comfortable lead over third place Columbia Bible College (CBC). The M’s have only lost two matches all season and head coach Shane Hyde is happy with where his team is at so far.
“The only area for slight concern was ...
