This is the latest in an ongoing contributor series by Stephanie Brown. You can read the first part here. Check back next issue for the next chapter of The Long Commute.
So where should you live while traveling abroad, dorms or a house? Like most things in life and travel, there are benefits and drawbacks to both.
I looked into renting a house, but, unless you find people who are just looking for a roommate, it’s hard when you’re only around for a semester. In a house it’s easier to feel like you’re actually in a different country. There’s more independence and you can get ...
By contributor Chantelle Spicer
British Columbia—the early 1800s. Colonization by the Europeans has not yet begun. Ecosystems are in their natural state or managed under the sustainable ideals of the numerous First Nations bands across the province; populations of all animals flourish in their natural balance. River systems run in an unimpeded web for thousands of kilometres across the province, supporting many unique habitats and one of the world’s most compelling natural events—the Pacific salmon spawn.
At the time of colonization in the 1850s, logging began in earnest, a ...
Back by popular demand! Read The Navigator's print version online. Volumes 45 and 46 online now on ISSUU.
By contributor Shari Bishop Bowes
If there’s a chance you could save someone’s life, someone you’ve never met, would you do it?
VIU Nursing students and Canadian Blood Services (CBS) are hoping to get a long list of healthy young adults showing up for a OneMatch stem cell donor registration event from 3 to 6 pm on Friday, March 27 at Nanaimo’s Country Club Centre mall. The registry is open to people aged 17 to 35, with a particular need for healthy young men of different diverse backgrounds.
“We are encouraging people to come out and learn about OneMatch and hopefully make ...
Variety’s Sunshine Coach program grants vehicles to organizations that support children with
special needs, providing a comfortable, safe mode of transportation.
Variety - The Children’s Charity, an organization which gives financial support to individual families and organizations across British Columbia that care for children with special needs is teaming up with 102.3 The Wave to host the 8th Annual Radiothon fundraising event at Woodgrove Centre in Nanaimo on April 8.
The show will be on air from 6 am to 6 pm. In between newscasts, it will go to the live location set up in ...
The BC government refuses to increase minimum wage enough to keep working people above the poverty line, despite calls for an increase from British Columbians.
Instead, the provincial government has announced that it will increase the minimum wage by 20 cents in September, and link it to BC’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation increases annually.
VIU’s Students’ Union (VIUSU) Director of External Relations Alec Patterson spoke about the impact this will have on minimum wage workers.
“The 20 cents increase in my opinion is infuriating,” said Patterson. “It shows the stance of ...
Word counts.
As students and writers producing academic essays and creative writing projects, they’re all around us. This is, of course, understandable in an academic environment, because it helps define the parametres of our assignments and ensures that we meet the expectations of the instructors that are entrusted to imbue us, their inquiring charges, with the knowledge that we so desperately seek, and will, ultimately, help us meet our objectives.
See what I did there? That is one heck of a sentence, fat with syllables and big words plumping up the word count. But what does it ...
When I hit tween-hood, I had what I’d call a healthy curiosity for beauty products and accessories. I remember in grade five or six occasionally sneaking makeup to school, applying it in the washroom, and then taking it off before I got back on the school bus home. Though it’s now often overridden by an unending pursuit for comfort, over the years I’ve experimented with high heels, skin-tight jeans, push-up bras, etc.
Over the years I’ve also found myself caught up in mini-obsessions to do with how I look, focusing on one self-dramatized flaw for an amount of time, then finding ...
By contributor Spencer Wilson.
From 10 am on February 28 to 10 am on February 29, I had the pleasure of attending the Cinematheque’s second 24 Hour Movie Marathon in Vancouver. The $40 tickets were well worth the price considering the amount of films shown and the free goodies given out. 15 films that the Cinematheque deemed essential viewing were shown. The list of films was not revealed ahead of time. The only hint provided was “tick tock.”
It was a great spectacle the morning of the event: everyone pouring into the theatre dressed in pajamas with pillows, blankets, and survival ...
It wasn’t the game they wanted to be playing in, but the VIU Mariners’ women’s basketball team picked up the win in the team’s final game at the National Championship. VIU got a monster performance from fifth-year forward Jenna Carver as the Mariners picked up a 63-51 victory over the Mount Allison University Mounties.
Mount Allison jumped out to an early lead to start the game, but Carver scored a basket with four seconds left in the quarter to give the Mariners a 14-12 lead. The Mariners built on their lead at the start of the second quarter, taking a 20-14 lead three minutes into ...
The VIU Mariners’ men’s basketball team’s hunt for a National Championship came to a disappointing end on Saturday, March 21. The Mariners lost the National Championship game 68-62 to the Humber College Hawks. The Mariners return home from the Nationals with a silver medal.
The championship game was a tightly contested defensive affair. The two teams went basket for basket through the game’s opening quarter with Humber, taking a 17-15 lead after the first. The Mariners were the stronger team early in the second quarter, taking a 21-19 lead in the quarter. VIU extended their lead to ...
On February 28, the VIU Mariners’ women’s volleyball team staged a dramatic comeback to defeat the Camosun Chargers and capture the PacWest Provincial Championship on the Chargers’ home court in Victoria. The Mariners rallied back after losing the first two sets to stun the Chargers in a dramatic five-set thriller.
At the National Championship in Longueuil, Quebec, the Chargers managed to exact a form of revenge, as the Chargers were able to hold off the Mariners in the semi-finals to advance to the bronze medal game.
The match between the two rivals was extremely close to being ...
With a victory in game 7 of the BCHL’s Island division final, the Nanaimo Clippers captured their first division championship since 2008. The Clippers picked up a 3-2 victory over the Powell River Kings at Frank Crane Arena on Sunday, March 22. More than 1900 fans in attendance were treated to an intense game.
The Clippers and Kings entered the third period tied 2-2, but just 18 seconds into the third period, Clipper forward Cole Maier scored the series deciding goal to send Nanaimo onto the next round.
The Clippers never trailed during game 7, with Spencer Hewson scoring just ...
For the second straight series, the Nanaimo Clippers played a do-or-die game seven on home ice, this time with the BCHL Island Championship on the line.
The Clippers and their opponent, the Powell River Kings, were tied 3-3 after the first six games of the Island Championship series. The home team has won every game thus far in the series.
Game one between the Clippers and Kings was played in Nanaimo on Friday, March 13. With the game tied at two early in the third period, the Clippers got two goals in one minute and 23 seconds from Brendan Taylor to give Nanaimo a 4-2 lead and ...
With the end of the National Championship comes the end to the season for the VIU Mariners’ women’s basketball team. The Mariners were a very deep team this year, with a lot of players contributing in different ways to the team’s success. Leading the team scoring this year was Sienna Pollard, a first year Mariner, whose strong play on the court has earned her some national recognition.
On March 18, Pollard was selected as one of 10 players named CCAA Women’s Basketball All-Canadian. The awards were given out at an awards banquet held before the National Championship.
This season ...
A group of first and fourth year Tourism and Management students will be showcasing 10 different ethnicities with their traditional clothing on March 30 on Nanaimo’s campus in the Royal Arbutus room.
There will be 20 student models, both male and female representing clothing from 10 countries including: China, Japan, India, Morocco, Columbia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Chile and Canada.
Mary Mitchell, the first year student hosting the event, with three other Tourism students, says, “Everyone is welcome to come in their own traditional clothing.”
...
The VIU Political Society will be hosting an event that will give students the opportunity to listen to, and mingle with, local politicians on March 24.
The event will give students a chance to socialize with each other and local politicians, and act as an opportunity to provide knowledge about the VIU Political Society and its plans.
“We have written up a letter and sent it to politicians in the area to invite them,” club chair Avery Bonner said.
Some of the expected speakers include Nanaimo-Ladysmith NDP candidate Sheila ...
After a long couple weeks of waiting, it’s finally time for the VIU Mariners to compete for the National Championships on home court. The Mariners play their first game of the tournament tonight, as they take on the visiting Holland College Hurricanes tonight at 6 pm in the VIU gym.
The Mariners know that they need to play their best basketball game of the year if they hope to bring a National Championship to Nanaimo.
“We are going to have to be outstanding defensively,” said Mariners head coach, Bill McWhinnie. “We are going to have to play near perfect basketball to win.”
The ...
In issue 9, The Navigator covered the story about 11 students raising money to fund their trip down the coast, to see three universities in BC: VIU, UBC and SFU.
Only two months later, the group has surpassed their goal, raising just over $11k according to their FundMe page.
The largest donation was an accumulation of the events the students held in their small town, including pancake breakfasts, movie nights and bake sales. Some donations were anonymous, but many have comments underneath of gratitude from the teacher, Kathryn Ovenell-Carter.
“My hope is that we can use some of ...
Photo credit to Paul Manly
Canadians came together to protest Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Bill C-51 on March 14.
Citizens from dozens of major cities across the country participated in these protests, including Nanaimo.
“The signs are everywhere, not the allegorical signs, but the ones that are octagonal in shape and read ‘Stop Harper’,” said Sebastian Barkovic, a VIU student who attended the Nanaimo protest. “It’s time for change and Canadians know it.”
Nanaimo’s NDP MP Jean Crowder attended the Nanaimo rally, which started on Terminal Avenue and Commercial Street, ...
This week, VIU’s very own weekly online newsletter launched. While their content is plentiful, it has yet to have a name. This is where you come in.
Before midnight of March 18, Student Affairs wants submissions of your best creative ideas, to summarize our university, the events that happen and what it means to be a student here.
The best part: prizes. You could win:
$150 VIU Bookstore Credit
$150 Tuition Credit
Lunch for 6 in the Discovery Room ($150 value)
Just for sending in a few catchy words? Easy. So get your brainstorming cap on, check out ...
By contributor Jennifer Garcea
With glitter in his beard and performing on what ends up being a player piano, Father John Misty introduced the world to his single “Bored in the USA” from his new album I Love You, Honeybear on David Letterman. Replete with a full orchestra and finishing the performance with an impassioned plea from the singer, “Save me President Jesus / I’m bored in the USA / How did it happen?” you get a sneek peek into the experience of the album—expect the unexpected.
Under the moniker of Father John Misty, Joshua Tillman has created an album that is implausibly ...
By contributor John Hill
“We live in an age when the assumption that fiction is essential in the classroom cannot be taken for granted,” says Joy Gugeler. If we are to maintain a vigorous Canadian Literature, she suggests “the task of revolutionizing Canadian teachers and students seems essential.” She will address this topic in her upcoming Arts & Humanities Colloquium presentation entitled Firing the Canon and Hiring the Reader: How to Win the Classroom War on CanLit. The talk will be held in the Malaspina Theatre on Friday, March 27, beginning at 10 am.
“It is easy to ...
Laplante has been called “an artist of rare romantic inspiration.” [Photo courtesy Nanaimo Conservatory of Music]
By Denisa Kraus and contributor Alexis Deighton Harrison
On Sunday, March 15, Nanaimo will have the rare opportunity to welcome world class pianist André Laplante. Widely regarded as one of Canada’s best, the Québécois virtuoso will appear at the Port Theatre in solo concert.
A pianist of global repute, Laplante is the recipient of international attention after winning prizes at the Geneva and Sydney International Piano Competitions; his capture of the silver medal ...
