Leah Myers
Editor-In-Chief
The Navigator
According to a Globe and Mail article, the Ontario Liberals are to propose a law where chain restaurants must post calorie counts, to allegedly help “curb childhood obesity.” In this effort, the government hopes to reduce health care costs going towards diet-related illness. Despite the comments under the Globe article that claim the proposed venture is a waste of time and a diversion from other pressing issues, I definitely think, tax dollars aside (if I dare say “tax dollars aside”) the concept of the proposal itself is one worth exploring.
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Nadine Wiepning
Contributor
The Navigator
TheatreOne will be holding general auditions in Nanaimo on Monday, September 30, and Tuesday, October 1. Artistic director David Mann and artistic associate Nicolle Nattrass want to see any performers who would be interested in working with TheatreOne this season and beyond.
Non-equity performers are welcome and will be scheduled to audition after all Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (CAEA) members have been seen. Equity members will be seen first at all open audition calls, and any members cast in this production will be engaged under an ...
Dr. Timothy Lewis
Contributor
The Navigator
Weighed down by the heartless workings of global capitalism, a food supply increasingly subject to genetic modification, and a popular culture equal parts violent and vacuous, some people today choose a radical alternative. They have gone ‘back to the land,’ with the aim of building a simpler, healthier, more authentic life in a rural setting. Yet this desire to escape the evils of modernity for the humble simplicity of the countryside is nothing new. The history of North America from the colonial era to the present day is replete with ‘back ...
Denisa Kraus
The Navigator
To those Nanaimo residents who dismiss their city as a boring sleepy hollow, or visitors who can’t seem to find any entertainment except for walking the harbour front and eating Nanaimo bars, thingsnanaimo.com might just be the place to check out. While providing a complete and accurate daily listing of local events, the ultimate mission of the new online service is to present the harbour city as the center point of Central Vancouver Island’s sports and social life. (more…)
Drew McLachlan
The Navigator
On August 31, listeners of The Lovecast were treated to an unscheduled interruption. As host Dave O Rama winded down a block of indie rock, he was interrupted by an RCMP officer. Despite pleas by Dave O and his guests, the studio was emptied, and the remaining half hour was replaced with a rebroadcast of Not Rocket Science intermingled with dead air.
Dave O’s barring from the building marked the first of nine bans in the past three weeks, as seven programmers/hosts and two other volunteers have so far been asked not to return to the station. These bans are ...
Danielle Cunningham
Contributor
The Navigator
While downtown’s Commercial Street draws an eclectic crowd for cuisine, coffee breaks, and conferences, Cayo Fashions shop owner, Erin Wagenaar, draws a crowd of her own to her local women’s boutique nuzzled in the downtown core.
Statistics Canada reported online sales to have doubled from 2007 to 2012, bringing the net total of purchases to a heaping $122 billion in Canada last year. With the growing population of members on social media such as Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr (to name a few); we are able to share ...
Tom Luke
The Muse
St. John’s (CUP) — Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books could be called a lost art, had there ever been any art to them in the first place. Traditionally a medium that punishes the player for seemingly innocuous choices—a Pride and Prejudice version, Lost in Austen has Elizabeth Bennett blinded by “gypsies” if she turns left rather than right at the beginning of the book—Choose-Your-Own-Adventures are almost universally badly-written, unsatisfying gimmicks with close near zero lasting appeal. (more…)
Blake Deal
The Navigator
The Nanaimo Daily News came under fire for another racially charged letter to the editor. The letter, written by Bill McRitchie, accuses first nations of “refusing to evolve as equal Canadian citizens and perpetuating the perceived notion that they remain under the heel of non-aboriginals.” Despite the Daily News removing the letter quite quickly, due to social media, it spread to many people and has been saved to multiple sites. Facebook and Twitter erupted with angry tweets, most wondering why the paper published this letter the response they received last ...
Blake Deal
The Navigator
Vancouver Island University’s Campus Rec has teamed up with the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) for their second annual Boxers and Bras Wellness Walk for Cancer Awareness.
The event scheduled for Wednesday, October 16, encourages both staff and students to decorate their boxers or bras, wear them over their clothes, and walk around campus. (more…)
Laura Rodgers
Canadian University Press
Vancouver (CUP) — Fifteen free university textbooks have been put online by the B.C. government—but so far, only a handful of classes are using them.
The “open textbook” project, announced by the Ministry of Advanced Education in 2012, aims to make free, non-copyright-restricted online textbooks available for the 40 most popular post-secondary courses in the province. They’ve budgeted $1 million for the plan. The 15 books, put online on September 3, were previously available for free elsewhere on the Internet, but now they’ve been reviewed for ...
Stephanie Brown
Contributor
The Navigator
Hub City Cinema Society will be celebrating its sixth month as an officially incorporated society in October. The club was officially recognized in B.C. as of May 2013 which entitles the group to apply for grants after it has been running for two years. (more…)
Ben Chessor
The Navigator
School is back in full swing, and that means another season of baseball for the Vancouver Island Baseball Institute Mariners.
The VIBI Mariners share the same team name as VIU’s sports teams and is made up of VIU students, although they are not affiliated with the university.
(more…)
Ben Chessor
The Navigator
The game of golf has been around for hundreds of years, with history dating back as far as the 15th century—back to a time when the Scottish people used to hit balls made out of sheep skin across an unplowed field with sticks. Golf has changed completely since then. It’s now played on perfectly manicured courses with titanium clubs and multilayer balls. Despite its rich history, the sport has fallen on hard times.
The current economic situation in North America has left golf courses across the island bare—although the problem isn’t only about economics. Some ...
James Bronte
The Brunswickian
Frederickton (CUP) — Athletes can push, pull, kick, hit, and shove their way through a game, but the physicality can only take them so far.
Mental preparation before a game is a key element people forget about. “The things we think about, the ways we feel, influence us on a daily basis,” said Assistant Professor in Psychology and Sports Consultant at University of New Brunswick (UNB), Ryan Hamilton. “Whether it’s because we hate Mondays, or believe we can’t hit a free-throw or serve the ball, we look for evidence that it’s true, and so we need to have the ...
Giridhar Krishnan
Over the Edge
Prince George (CUP) — One of the beautiful things in any sport is the desire to win—a healthy dose of competition. The desire amongst all athletes, from world tournaments to local leagues, is to win. At times, there are rivalries so heated, competitors don’t mind if they lose the championship but cannot bear losing against a particular team. There can be a lot of reasons, like cultural setup or political relations. In turn, this makes those matches super heated. Popular rivalries act as advertising for various sports, such as the Blackhawks vs Canucks ...
Ben Chessor
The Navigator
The Nanaimo Buccaneers are off to a perfect 7-0 start to begin the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League season, and the second in team history. The Buccaneers kicked off the season on September 1 with a 4-1 at home over the visiting Campbell River Storm. Since the opener, the team cursed through the early part of the season. The Buccaneers have outscored the opposition 36-11 over their first seven games. The perfect start has given the Buccaneers first place in the VIJHL North division with 14 points, six clear of second place Campbell River. (more…)
Ben Chessor
The Navigator
After a disappointing end to the 2013 season, the Nanaimo Clippers are back for another season of British Columbia Hockey League action. The Clippers have compiled a 3-2 record in the first five games of the new season, winning both their games at the BCHL showcase in Chilliwack. A win over Port Alberni on September 13 moved the Clippers to 3-0. The team then suffered its first two setbacks of the season, falling to Victoria and Powell River respectively on September 20 and 21. (more…)
Kalina Laframboise
Canadian University Press
Montreal (CUP) — Hundreds of protesters gathered in the streets of downtown Montreal Sunday, September 22, to show their support for the Parti Québécois government’s newly-proposed Charter of Values that promotes the secularization of the public institutions in Quebec.
A sea of blue and white stood patiently in the rain at Place Émilie- (more…)
Denisa Kraus
The Navigator
Photos by Denisa Kraus
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Blake Deal
The Navigator
Courtenay based author, Paula Wild, is giving a presentation on October 12 at the Nanaimo Museum, which will be a condensed version of her book, The Cougar, Beautiful, Wild and Dangerous.
Wild has spent the last three years working full-time on the book, which she ventured into after becoming enthralled with cougars. Wild said she read a cougar safety article one day and found it very interesting. She continued to read more, and then contacted the author and told him he should write a book. He suggested she write it and he would assist her in gathering ...
Denisa Kraus
The Navaigator
Interview with the host of The Big Come Down, the weekly avant-garde industrial electronic madness on CHLY 101.7
Navigator: Why The Big Come Down?
Devon Smirl: I started the show about a year and a half ago. It was just me doing DJ mixes with my co-host Jim Woods. I did it because there was nothing else on the radio like what I was doing, and I wasn’t able to play it in clubs. My music was a little too dark for the dance scene; I played a lot of trance or slowed down hip hop, but it wasn’t danceable and I got rejected from Spice Lounge because I ...
Drew McLachlan
Associate Editor
The Navigator
In August of this year, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) put forward a proposal to the federal government. The idea is to give the RCMP the power to hand out tickets, with fines determined by the government, to anyone caught with small amounts of marijuana. Current laws require officers to make an arrest in order to pursue a charge, costing the officer time, the justice system money, and leaving a permanent mark on the individual’s criminal record. The Prime Minister has stated that he is looking “very (more…)
Leah Myers
Editor-In-Chief
The Navigator
School boards across Ontario have recently jumped on a new, techno-savvy bandwagon to assist students experiencing social stresses at school. Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board announced in February that they planned to launch a mobile app, called “TipOff” that allows students to anonymously report when they’re being bullied.
According to Pam Reinholdt, the board’s superintendent of student achievement, the app will make it easier and more (more…)
Natalie Golbeck
Contributor
The Navigator
Portal 2014 has chosen its team and contest and is already accepting submissions for the upcoming issue.
VIU’s literary magazine, Portal, is your gateway to accomplished short fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, scripts, interviews, art, and photography, and is all submitted, designed, and edited by VIU students. (more…)
