AMERICAN PSYCHO AIN'T THE PROBLEM, NRA (P. 13)

ECOFEMINIST VANDANA SHI-VA'S FIGHT FOR FOOD (P. 4)

IN DEFENCE OF CREEPERS — NOT THE KIND YOU THINK (P. 9)

THOUGHT I WAS A LONER; TURNS OUT I'M A CAT (P. 18)

THE UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA’S INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERAPRIL 4, 2013 • VOLUME 65 • ISSUE 30 • MARTLET.CA

North-east Lynx celebrates five years of comics with a feature-length strip about opening a jar (P. 10)

Are you p repar ing for an academic career i n h igher educa t ion? Want the edge in the competitive post-secondary teaching market? Earn this cert ificate concurrently with your UVIC graduate degree! !REGISTER NOW FOR SEPTEMBER 2013

Contact STACEY BROWNELL ep lsg rad@uvic .ca 250.731.7883

LEARNING & TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION LATHE GRADUATE CERTIFICATE

The Learn ing & Teach ing Cen tre Departmen t o f Educa t iona l Psycho logy & Leadership Stud ies !

This is our last print issue of Volume 65. We'll move to once-per-month printing throughout the summer, but you can always

find content on martlet.ca. NEWS: Provincial

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • NEWS 3

> STUART ARMSTRONG

The Poverty Law Club (PLC), a UVic Law pover-ty advocacy group, reported 15 homeless per-sons deaths that occurred between August and November 2012 to the B.C. Coroners Service (BCCS) in January, asking for an inquest or a death review panel investigation to determine the causes of death. Of the 15 deaths reported to the BCCS, two are being reviewed for pos-sible further investigation.

According to its mandate, the BCCS must in-vestigate all unnatural, sudden and unexpect-ed, unexplained or unattended deaths in B.C. Its primary aims are to identify the deceased and determine how, when, where and by what means the person died. The death is then clas-sified as natural, accidental, suicide, homicide or undetermined.

According to Mikaela Robertson, the PLC’s president, the club first heard of the rise in homeless deaths after Tim Richards, a UVic law professor and former legal advocate with the Together Against Poverty Society, notified them of an article in the Times Colonist by Judith Lavoie, which was headlined “Surge in deaths reported among Victoria’s homeless.” The group then spoke to Don Evans, executive director of Our Place Society, who provided them with basic information on the deaths including names of the deceased. The five members of the PLC eventually documented 15 homeless deaths using incomplete information due to the victims living on the edge of society, according to Robertson.

“We sent a letter to the regional coroner of-fice [Matt Brown] asking that pursuant to the [Coroners Act], they investigate these deaths, and they make a recommendation to the head coroner for an investigation,” said Robert-

son. On Jan. 15, 2013, when they sent their findings to the BCCS, they requested formal court proceedings with a five-person jury held to publicly review the circumstances of the deaths, or a preliminary investigation by a death review panel.

Robertson says the deaths have had a devas-tating impact on the Victoria homeless com-munity, which has a very tight sense of commu-nity. According to one person who spoke to her, “Friends [are] dying almost every day.”

The BCCS has since kept in contact with the PLC, asking for clarification in some of the cases to which the PLC had referred them. “They were looking for additional information about nine of the names, and we have been in touch with them and with Our Place again and moving back and forth, and we’ve been in touch with them since we sent the letter in January,” says Robertson.

Barb McLintock, a coroner from the Victoria region of the B.C. Coroners Service, Strategic Programs, doesn’t agree that all of the reviews are needed. “Anybody that has read about the determinism of death knows that [those] living in a homeless period [have a higher death rate]. Our question is, ‘Are there any other subtle themes [that can be found] through an inquest and death review panel?’, and we are not sure of that yet, as we haven’t begun an investigation.”

McLintock said that of the 15 deaths the PLC brought to the BCCS’s attention, only two are being reviewed. The remaining 13 died in doc-tor care or due to natural heart attacks, bad lung conditions, liver disease, suicide and, in one case, fire asphyxiation from a fire in his makeshift shelter. According to the BCCS, there were no deaths from exposure, and at the moment, the one connection among the deceased is that they were all living in varying

degrees of homelessness.One of the BCCS’s problems with reviewing

the cases that the PLC brought to its attention was incomplete documentation. “Some were well documented, but some were less so,” said McLintock of the 15 cases. “They did have

names and locations, but some of them were lacking in dates of when the bodies were found.”

The BCCS will form a death review panel on the two deaths that meet its criteria; no date has been set. �

B.C. Coroners Service will investigate two homeless deaths out of 15 highlighted by UVic students

> VANESSA HAWK

The provincial government will restore funding to a provincial literacy organization with a $1-million grant to Decoda Literacy Solutions.

Before the $1-million government grant was announced on March 25, 55 out of 102 com-munity literacy task groups — including fac-tions in Victoria, Saanich and Nanaimo — were geared for closure unless alternative funding was secured.

“Initially, the government gave us $1 million in December,” says Leona Gadsby, lead director of programs and services at Decoda Literacy Solu-tions. “We were hoping to get this other million in early or mid-February, but we understood that it was going to be unlikely.”

Decoda Literacy Solutions is B.C.’s non-profit provincial literacy organization. It provides literacy and professional skills workshops and resources. The organization works with literacy providers, educational institutions and social

and health services to identify and achieve literacy goals for the province. Decoda Literacy Solutions formed in 2011 when 2010 Legacies Now and Literacy B.C. amalgamated.

“Government continued to work hard to find the extra million dollars, and the minister of education has been successful at doing that,” says Gadsby, “so we’ve been able to reinstate the funding to all the communities.”

In February, when it seemed unlikely that the government would provide further funding, Decoda announced to its 102 task groups that there would no longer be funding for half of the community-based organizations across the prov-ince. The 2012/2013 provincial budget cut gov-ernment funding to Decoda Literacy Solutions from $2.5 million to $1 million. The organiza-tion was able to stay afloat this past year using reserve funding from the 2010 Legacies Now department, which has since been exhausted.

“I believe strongly in the work they are doing, and I’m very pleased that we were able to pro-

vide this grant so that Decoda can continue its important literacy outreach programs in every region of the province,” said Minister of Educa-tion Don McRae in a press release.

Decoda receives annual community plans from the task forces across B.C. that outline the needs for literacy programs and supports specific to their area.

“I think that having these task groups in all these communities — having a local, on-the-ground approach to literacy development — is really important,” says Gadsby. “People who provide services in communities have a very strong sense of what’s needed, and we think it’s very important for people who work in the community to work together to make sure that everyone has the literacy skills that are needed in this day and age. That is critically important to the economy of British Columbia.”

The International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey in 2003 found that around 40 per cent of B.C. adults did not meet minimum literacy levels

required to participate and succeed in society.“Recently, the thing that keeps coming up the

most [in reports from task groups] is adult lit-eracy,” says Gadsby, “and the need to make sure that adults have the basic and essential skills that they need to enter the workforce, move up in their work and be productive in their work.”

The need for skilled workers will expand as an increasing number of jobs become vacant — the 2010–2020 B.C. Labour Profile predicts that 18 800 jobs will open by 2020. Decoda and its network of literacy providers offer programs to build reading, writing, oral communication, mathematical and computer skills for adults to more easily access careers and further employ-ment training or education.

“Right now, British Columbia is facing quite a looming labour and skills shortage, and literacy plays a strong role in making sure that adults in the province are able to participate in the work of the province,” says Gadsby. �

B.C. government grants $1 million to Decoda Literacy SolutionsRestored funding will keep 55 community literacy task groups operational

NEWS: Local

HUGO WONG

Mikaela Robertson is president of the Poverty Law Club at UVic. The club struggled with incomplete information when assembling reports on deaths in Victoria's homeless community.

NEWS: campus Follow us on Twitter (@themartlet)!What could pair better than the Martlet and the Twitter bird?

4 NEWS • MARTLET April 4, 2013

> MEGHAN CASEY

On March 27, UVic hosted its first Open House as part of the feasibility study for a proposed on-campus biomass thermal energy plant. The univer-sity has partnered with a company that specializes in energy systems, Dalkia Canada, to conduct a feasibility study to explore greener initiatives as set out by the university’s Integrated Energy Master Plan. The main goal of the study is to determine the financial, geographical and environmental practicality of a biomass plant on campus.

Biomass is biological material from living or re-cently living organisms. A biomass thermal energy plant uses wood waste such as landfill-destined demolition wood, forestry-sourced materials like saw dust and wood chips and forest byproducts that are otherwise left to rot. UVic’s feasibility study aims to look at the logistical issues behind fuel sourcing.

“[The biomass] could come from anywhere that can be reasonably reached on the Island by truck,” says Karl Marietta, head of the technical project

team. “It’s all going to be local.”Tom Smith, UVic’s executive director of facilities

management, estimates that the plant will need three truck-loads of wood waste per day during the winter months. He says the trucks would be a bit smaller than a typical bus.

Energy plant location and fuel transporting distance will be considered in the study.

If approved, the plant will cover about half an acre of land, or roughly the same area as the First Peoples House. Smith says it would probably be sized to deal with 60 per cent of the winter build-ing heating load, but would account for approxi-mately 90 per cent of UVic’s annual overall heating needs.

Currently, 65 per cent of UVic’s buildings are heated by natural gas-fueled boilers. Every year, the university spends $3.5 million on natural gas; more than 80 per cent of this goes to towards powering the boilers. One of the main goals of the feasibility study is to determine the financial changes the project would incur.

UVic pays roughly $410 000 per year in carbon

tax. The carbon tax UVic paid for the month of January alone was $58 000. Smith estimates the university can save up to $750 000 per year by switching to biomass. He says he supposes that if the university can reduce its energy costs, more money stays in the university.

UVic has undergone recent budget cuts, and there will be costs associated with building the plant and even funding the eight-month-long feasibility study. But Dalkia Canada would design, build, operate and maintain the plant, and UVic would simply buy hot water from the company. This means that the estimated building invest-ment of $12 million would be paid out by Dalkia Canada. However, the price of hot water changes depending on the overall project costs. Smith says if the cost of buying hot water is high, the university will apply for grants to pay for part of the principal cost of the building so the price of hot water will drop.

The $300 000 paid by UVic for the feasibility study will be rolled back into the hot water budget if the energy services agreement is signed with

Dalkia Canada. If the plant is rejected, that money will be lost.

“If we put an end to [the project] because we’re not going to achieve what we want to achieve, then we will end it and spend that much money,” says Smith. “It’s a structured agreement, but it’s a really good agreement for the university.”

The study will also look at the environmental aspects of the project.

The current natural gas boiler system accounts for 70 per cent of the university’s greenhouse gas emissions. A biomass plant would reduce this figure, but it wouldn’t be emission free.

“It’s important that we build and design and cost in a really good system to deal with those emis-sions,” says Smith. “That’s a no-brainer.”

The feasibility study’s estimated completion date is October 2013, at which time the university will decide if a biomass plant is in its future.

Smith says, “I really believe that if [the plant] can do what we think it can do in terms of saving mon-ey and achieving our greenhouse gas reduction strategies, then that would be just fantastic.” �

UVic considers on-campus biomass energy plant

> BLAKE MORNEAU

Vandana Shiva, who the Martlet interviewed on the eve of her President’s Distinguished Lecture and the conferment of her honourary Doctor of Laws at UVic, is one of the world’s leading crusaders in the field of food security.

Food security is a relatively new term and new problem, only needing official definition in the past two decades. “The definition of food security is so established now,” says Shiva, “with the UN and everyone else. It basically is having access to adequate food, healthy food, safe food, good food and culturally appropriate food.”

Global food security faces an age-old problem according to Shiva: greed. “The biggest chal-lenge facing food security is corporate greed,” she says. “Corporate greed is . . . creating a trade system that privileges the subsidized and makes it cheap, allows dumping, destroys local produc-tion and local markets in the name of increasing food production.”

Shiva says problems that arise from industrial monopolies cross international borders and are not unique to any one country. “The combina-tion of these monopolies has been put into international free trade law. We will have to re-visit the [economic] assumptions because these companies are trying to take it to another level — whatever wasn’t made subject of free trade, wasn’t commodified, now through the Trans-Pacific Partnership they’d like to put it all in.”

Canada joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement, whose 11 signatories include Australia, Chile and Vietnam, on Oct. 8, 2012. Japan announced on March 15 that it is interested in joining negotiations.

Shiva relates the problem directly to Victoria’s backyard. “For example, I have been told the University of Victoria tries to procure locally, gives priority to local procurement. Those kinds of Trans-Pacific Partnerships would make local procurement illegal.”

Shiva says the international policies of eco-

nomically driven agreements like the Trans-Pa-cific Partnership, combined with the lobbyist-led policies of national governments, treat food not as a life-sustaining necessity, but rather as a thing to be bought and sold for profit. “The in-dustrial system is not producing food anymore; it’s producing commodities. If it makes more money to use that commodity to turn it into bio-fuel — which is the large diversion of corn and soya — or into animal feed, then that’s where it will go.” She says most industrially grown food is not reaching humans. “It’s driving cars and creating torture factories for animals.”

Shiva points to the inefficiency of an agricul-tural system that must change in the face of rap-idly growing populations. “Industrial agricul-ture uses 10 units of [energy] input to produce one unit of food,” says Shiva. “That’s a very inefficient way to produce food. Ecologically, we can use one unit to produce two or three units of food. And so, we have to go ecological because the earth is limited, and [population] numbers

are increasing.”Shiva is adamant the change must come now

and must come from more than just our day-to-day interactions with food. “At this point, the issue is not so much the consumption patterns; it still is, but I think it’s more the indifference of not knowing that the corporations that are bringing you bad food are also stealing from the poor. And that is where the solidarity must grow. Where first-world people must realize, ‘I have a right to good food, but I also have a re-sponsibility to grow my own food so I don’t have to steal the land of the South and empower the corporations.’ Because the narrative is that if all the stuff is coming from the South, it’s removing poverty. No, it’s removing the poor.”

Shiva has a simple, powerful action to put North Americans on the road to secure, sustain-able food. “When you think of food, you think, ‘It’s what’s on my plate.’ We have to realize when we think of food, we’re talking about the planet, the world, all people and all life.” �

Ecofeminist Vandana Shiva receives honourary UVic Doctor of Laws degreePhysicist and philosopher talks food security and corporatization in distinguished lecture

HUGO WONGFrom left: Tom Smith and Glenn Brenan of UVic Facilities Management stand in a boiler room in the Engineering Lab Wing. If the boiler system is pared back in favour of a biomass heating system, they estimate there will be significant reductions in UVic's carbon footprint.

BUSINESS & TECH

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • BUSINESS & TECH 5

No more Sports & Lifestyle stories in print until May? No worries. Check out Lachlan Ross's profile of Olympic hopeful

Rachel François online at martlet.ca.

> VANESSA HAWK

The end of term is approaching, and soon the relief of finishing exams will again be shattered by one further disappointment: bookstore buy-backs. Students often pay upwards of $500 at the beginning of each semester for textbooks and are lucky to receive half that if they sell those textbooks back to the UVic bookstore.

The B.C. government estimates that students spend $900 to $1 500 on textbooks each year. A single textbook can cost up to $200.

The 50 per cent buy-back deal at the UVic book-store applies to textbooks new and used, but only to those required by UVic professors in upcoming semesters and only if there are not already too many copies of a given textbook in stock. Many textbooks are excluded from the university’s buy-back list due to professors requiring the most recently updated edition of a text. Textbooks that are not used at UVic, but that are on booklists at other universities across Canada, are bought back from students at 30 per cent of the original selling price.

The provincial government plans to offer free, online textbooks for 40 high-enrolment post-sec-ondary courses as early as September 2013, but until then, students looking to get the best deal on textbooks have several options.

DIRECT SALES

Selling to friends or classmates makes it easy to negotiate a fair deal, and there are textbook trade groups on Facebook (just search “UVic text-book”). Often textbooks can be sold at Amazon.ca for a better price than the bookstore for both the buyer and the seller, and sites like Craigslist

and UsedVictoria can be utlized as well.

TEXTBOOK123.COM

Textbook123 is a website that students can use free of charge to sell and buy textbooks online and create flyers to post on campus. Students set up an account, select the textbooks they’re selling and determine a price for each. The site is attached to the user’s Facebook account; posts about selling textbooks can be liked or shared on Facebook, and prospective buyers can send the user private messages, which may raise privacy concerns for some students. The website operates like classifieds but is tailored to textbooks that already exist in the system, which creates consis-tency for easy searching but does not provide an exhaustive list. Textbook123 was started by UVic alumnus Ronnie Chung and has listings for post-secondary institutions across Canada.

SUBTEXT, IN THE STUDENT UNION BUILD-ING (SUB)

The Subtext bookstore in the SUB also allows students to sell their books at a price they deter-mine. Subtext encourages students to sell their books for 75 per cent of the original price, and if a book is sold, Subtext keeps 25 per cent of the sale to cover administrative costs. This is similar to the bookstore’s deal; however, the option to price higher is available, unlike the rates at the bookstore. Subtext does not notify students when their books sell, so you have to check in to see whether they have a cheque for you or not. For students leaving Victoria after the semester ends, Subtext allows you to give someone else permission to check in on your account and will send cheques by mail as long as a self-addressed

envelope is provided.

UVIC BOOKSTORE

So your expensive, nice textbook (barely touched by highlighters) isn’t on the UVic bookstore’s buy-back list? You can still sign up for BuyBack Alerts, which will notify you if the bookstore is buying your textbooks at a later

date. You can also register your books with the bookstore’s classifieds system that connects students privately selling their textbooks.

The cash for your books program begins April 2 and runs until September, though the book-store encourages students to get there as soon as possible in case it is only buying a limited number of a textbook. �

Time to talk textbook buy-backs

NINA NEISSL

6 BUSINESS & TECH • MARTLET April 4, 2013

TIFFANY GUNTONFourth yearHistory

“I can keep in touch with a lot of old friends from high school, and even earlier than that. I can also keep a connection to new friends. But at the same time, I feel like I always have to be on Facebook or have to check it all the time, so it’s a bit distracting in that way.”

ELIOT BAYNEThird yearPsychology

“I don’t really use Facebook all that often. I use it to keep in touch with friends sometimes, but it’s mostly used for a work forum that we use to trade shifts between employees.”

KALEIGH WOOLFORDFirst yearLinguistics

“It just makes me a lot more con-nected to everyone. I guess it means that we don’t maybe see each other as much because we’re always talk-ing online . . . It helps in planning things, and it was a big part of all of our school events as well last year, and a couple of years before, be-cause it’s good for organizing large groups of people.”

BRADEN SIEMPELKAMPFirst yearBiochemistry

“Both positive and negative ways; it allows me to be connected with friends and family all the time. On the other hand, it’s also a big time-suck when you’re trying to study. It’s a big distraction. But overall, I’d say it’s a beneficial thing, because I can basically contact anyone whenever I want and they’ll respond pretty soon, because everyone checks it fairly regularly.”

How has Facebook changed your life?

� > DOCUMENTED BY JP ZACHARIAS AND ALAN PIFFER

> MICHAEL HEMMINGS

You have worked hard, graduated or will graduate soon, and are ready to take on the world in a whole new way. However, one of the new ways in which the world will imme-diately confront you is debt. Here’s what you can do about it.

Don’t wait to deal with your debt. It will just get harder for you to pay it back if you ignore it. It will not simply go away. The debt will follow you until it is all paid up.

Athletes practise, work hard and are disci-plined now in order to achieve a future win. As students, you have given up some things in your life over the last few years in order to achieve, hopefully, a career in the future. You pay the cost now for an opportunity in the future. It is the same with beginning to pay down your debt as soon as you gradu-ate. Believe it or not, that is when the harder work begins.

So, how can you begin to pay down your debt in the most efficient and quickest manner?

Attitude is first. Get serious and commit to paying off the debt. This means, for example, establishing a budget and sticking to it. Know what money is coming in and what is going out. At the same time, cut down expen-diture on non-essentials. By non-essentials, I mean anything that does not either help you reduce your debt or pay your monthly (necessary) bills.

Get a job (or even two or three) and budget to pay more per month on the debt, and stick to it. I recognize that it can be difficult to get a job in your chosen field, but the critical thing here is your intention to be disciplined to pay down your debt as quickly as possible. You will achieve your other goals in life sooner and build more assets faster than if you delay the payback.

As I wrote in my last column, government loans can be costly because of the inter-est rate. A better way to pay off your debt is through a personal loan. These can have significantly lower interest rates. However, in order to get a personal loan, you have to have some equity and credit built up and/or a well-paying job to qualify. If you do not have any of these but you demonstrate trustworthiness, discipline and the willingness to pay down your debt as aggressively as possible, then perhaps someone else would be willing to co-sign a personal loan with you. The difficulty with this is that the credit rating for both you and the guarantor is affected by this arrange-ment, and if you decide not to or simply can’t pay off your loan, the guarantor is stuck with the bill. Such an arrangement can be fraught with difficulties, but if it is done properly, it benefits both the student and the guarantor because their credit ratings will be affected positively if the payments are made on time and the loan is finally paid off. �

UNCOMMON CENTS

Paying off student loan debt

> ALAN PIFFER

Are you interested in advice on sex, love and relationships? I’m going to assume that most of you are, and that’s why Dear Appvice will easily compel people to give it a try.

After you install and run Dear Appvice, you create your account, adding sex (but only male or female; perhaps the app’s makers should be petitioned to make this feature more inclu-sive) and age before creating your username. You then go to the main screen, where four category buttons appear: Sex, Love, Dating and Relationships. You also have a pull-up tab at the bottom of the screen where you can either get advice, give advice, look at advice, or look at your personal advice history (of given or taken advice) and the average ratings the advice you gave has received from others (five stars being the highest rating).

The advice appears in columns, formatted in simple text. Advice is listed by the 25 most re-cent postings, and you move from one posting column to the next by finger-scrolling directly on the text column.

There’s a wide range of questions, as well as answers, in all four categories. They include stuff like “Where do I go to meet another lady who is interested in being friends with benefits?,” “What do you do when you can’t get over someone?” and “He likes me and another girl. Should I stay with him?” The respective answers include advice like “OKCupid,” “Get under someone else,” and “No. If he likes another girl, obviously you’re not good enough for him.” The benefit of Dear Appvice is that frank discussion is encouraged by its anonym-ity. The only information showing beside each post, whether a question or an answer, is username and age. The app processed my age incorrectly, however — it says I’m 44 (I’m actu-ally 36). Other Dear Appvice users have noticed this issue as well. So, while I can’t be sure if the users’ info indicates their actual ages, the target audience seems to vary from teenage to middle-aged; it’s nice to see the young’uns get-ting helpful advice from older generations.

Before I downloaded this app, I made sure to check the reviews, which I think everyone should make a habit of doing in order to learn

about any issues an app might have. It only has a 2.5/5 star rating, and I think the main reason for that is Dear Appvice’s unreliability. One reviewer said the app crashed after only a minute of operation, and it soon happened to me as well. In fact, the app would often freeze up and crash, particularly when scrolling from one advice column to another.

Beyond the app’s technical issues, users of Dear Appvice obviously should be discerning when it comes to following people’s advice. That’s the downside when it comes to anony-mous online forums, but thankfully, most comments I saw were positive and helpful.

My final verdict? Dear Appvice is a lot of fun, possibly even addictive, and I think that’s because it’s simple and easy to use, and it relies on content contributed by its users, just like any good online forum. The only thing dragging it down is its unreliability and the gender binary-enforcing user profile options. Once the developer (hopefully) fixes the bugs in the program, it’ll likely receive much higher reviews in the Google Play store. �

APP YOUR PHONE

Dear Appvice for Android offers sexy advice on the go

visit martlet.ca

for your health

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • OPINIONS 7

Got an opinion that can't wait until our May issue? Go to martlet.ca to upvote and comment on stories. Opinions

> ANDREA ANTHONY

Founded in 1995, the Women’s Enterprise Centre (WEC), which has a head office in Kelowna and satellite offices in Victoria and Vancouver, helps women start, grow and suc-ceed in running their own businesses.

Thirty-seven per cent of businesses in B.C. are owned by women, according to Dawn McCooey, skills development manager of the Women’s Enterprise Centre. The WEC con-ducts about 75 training sessions per year and lends $1.4 million in loans per year to women across B.C. McCooey calls WEC a “well-hidden little gem of resources for women.”

The WEC is a non-profit organization. It is funded by the federal government’s Western Economic Diversification Canada department, which represents the four western provinces.

“Women have different barriers to business than men do,” says McCooey. Women often have a harder time accessing capital, she says. When a woman comes out of a divorce or a broken relationship, her credit rating is usu-ally the one that is badly affected, making it difficult for women to qualify for a traditional bank loan.

The WEC is able to offer more flexibility to women seeking business loans, because it looks at the reason for someone’s bad credit rating, says McCooey. Instead of focusing on what it can take if the business fails, the WEC looks at the business’s potential for success. This includes looking at the trends and the profitability of the industry, but the biggest factor is ensuring that the woman is a good fit for the business. The WEC looks at each woman’s character, the skills she possesses and her willingness to learn new skills. Before the loan goes through, McCooey says someone from the WEC will visit the business site to de-termine if there is a match between the person and the business.

WEC loans are up to $150 000 and are secured at a minimum of 30 per cent security (collateral that will be given to the lender if the entrepreneur cannot pay back the loan) and 25 per cent equity (the cash or business-related assets the entrepreneur herself invests). “These are much lower requirements than a traditional bank,” says McCooey.

McCooey identifies three key elements of a good business plan as the operations part of the business, financial management and mar-

keting. Most people are strong in the opera-tions part, she says. This includes knowing the ins and outs of running a particular business. For example, a Red Seal baker will know how to bake, what the best ingredients are, how much they can produce in a day and who the suppliers are. Financial management includes knowledge of profit margins: measuring the net profit as a percentage of a business’s revenue. Marketing focuses on differentiating the busi-ness in order to attract customers and develop-ing a plan to get those customers to come to the business. “ ‘Build it and they will come’ only happens in the movies,” says McCooey.

Business advisors at the WEC help women through the entire process of developing a business plan through telephone calls, webi-nars and, on occasion, in-person meetings. These business advisers must have their own direct business experience. The WEC offers 2 200 business advisory services every year to women across B.C., including one-on-one mentoring and peer mentoring. Seasoned women business owners are invited to a WEC training session after which they are sent back to their own communities to mentor other women. This creates a network of women in

business working together and supporting each other.

The WEC offers business support, resources and education for young women (including recent graduates) aspiring to become entre-preneurs. All that is requred is a willingness to learn and a drive to succeed in business. The WEC also works with YWiB (Young Women in Business), which has a chapter at UVic.

The WEC is trying to connect with women in technology, because most women entrepre-neurs still fall into traditional career categories, including service and retail. “We’ve joined women in technology groups, and we’re doing a peer mentoring group just for women in tech-nology in Victoria,” says McCooey. She adds that this mentoring receives additional support from Vancity. “It’s the first time we’ve done that, and it’s just a roaring success.” �

For more information, go to womensenterprise.ca, email the WEC at

inquiry@womensenterprise.ca or call 1-800-643-7014. To learn more about YWiB

at UVic, visit ywib.ca/uvic/.

The Women’s Enterprise Centre helps women start their own businesses

A ‘well-hidden little gem of resources for women’

> SOPHIE VIGNEAU, TIARE BOYES & JORDAN MCDONALD

In July 2012, Russ George, aided by financial collaboration with the village of Old Massett, dumped 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean, 300 kilometres west of the islands of Haida Gwaii. George assured locals that his scheme would result in the robust return of dwindling local salmon populations.

Iron fertilization projects have been experi-mented with on small scales by governments around the world and are mainly undertaken in high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll regions (HNLC). Adding iron to these regions stimu-lates plankton growth, which absorbs atmo-spheric carbon dioxide. When plankton dies, the carbon dioxide sequestered sinks with it to rest, hopefully indefinitely, upon the farthest reaches of the ocean floor.

George’s motivation was not only to rejuve-nate salmon stocks, but also to manufacture carbon credits for monetary gain. However, many scientists say iron fertilization is danger-ous and that it is doubtful this process would sequester enough carbon from the atmosphere to make any sort of impact on global warming. There is also little to no scientific evidence that iron fertilization may have any positive effect on salmon stocks. Ocean fertilization in agriculture run-off areas has been known to cause widespread depletion of dissolved oxy-gen and create areas that are almost hypoxic (devoid of oxygen), which support little to no conventional marine life.

Despite the possible dangers to the marine ecosystem and the unpredictable effects of iron fertilization, George went through with his project. The experiment took place al-legedly with the knowledge of government

officials, who did not appear to do anything to stop it. There is much controversy over who is actually responsible for the massive iron dump, and a lot of shock over the massive size of the release — over 100 times bigger than any previous.

John Disney of the Old Massett village coun-cil assured the public that no illegal action was committed related to this project and no international or Canadian laws were violated during the experiment. But what actual laws are in place against such internationally risky behaviour? Why was George allowed to con-duct his experiment, and why were there no repercussions for his actions?

International regulations and sanctions are weak or non-existent regarding geoengineer-ing schemes. Organizations such as UNESCO and the UN, whose mandate is to protect global interests, are far behind the science and technology of geoengineering in their policies. People like George are free to ma-nipulate others for monetary gain and experi-ment on large scales without consequences. Although there are some regulations aimed to protect against experiments such as these in the Environmental Protection Act, the Cana-dian government has yet to prosecute George in an effective manner — plus, Disney says the experiment took place outside the 200-mile Canadian territorial boundary, which would limit the government’s ability to litigate.

The bottom line is that experiments of this size and scale should absolutely not be able to transpire in our oceans and our world. Govern-ments and international bodies need to create and enforce legitimate laws and penalties for such violations, protecting our environment against further geoengineering schemes. �

The Haida Gwaii iron dump disaster

KLARA WOLDENGA

@themartlet

youtube.com/martletuvic

fb.com/martletuvic

connect with us online!

martlet.ca

/³fty

Martlet (SUB B011)P.O. BOX 3035 University of VictoriaVictoria, B.C. V8W 3P3

Newsroom: 250.721.8360Editor: 250.853.3206Business: 250.721.8361Advertising: 250.721.8359Fax: 250.472.4556

VOLUME 65 • ISSUE 30

EDITORIAL

KLARA WOLDENGA

This year’s review revue

8 OPINIONS • MARTLET April 4, 2013

From time to time, we editors pull out the big archive books in the Martlet office. It might be to fact-check a reference to an old story, to see if there’s a story we can follow up on or just to imagine what it must have been like to attend UVic in decades past. It’s easy to forget sometimes that our school is 110 years old (if you count the Victoria College years), and with issues of the Martlet dating back to 1948, there are a lot of memories to pore over.

It’s now April, which heralds the final issue of Volume 65 of this newspaper. What will readers find when they look over the archives in the future?

In the past year, we saw the retirement of the much-loved writer Lorna Crozier, who taught at UVic for more than 20 years, and the naming of Canada’s first youth poet laureate, established here in Victoria. We watched as Syria was engulfed in conflict and Hurricane Sandy battered the east coast. On campus, students agreed to renovate the Student Union Building. The B.C. Transit strike divided opinions. Idle No More took over the bus loop. UVic accepted half a million dollars from Goldcorp, a mining company that has come under fire for its South American operations.

The Martlet dealt with perennial issues, too, like the cost of tuition. We compared North America’s high-tuition fee system with the low-tuition system from Europe in the name of changing how we value educa-tion. Our writers tackled modern debates over equal rights, political correctness and corporate ethics. We discussed the morality of drone warfare, explored the efficacy of gun control in light of the Sandy Hook massacre and challenged the gender binary in discussions of celebrity influences like Lena Dunham and Seth MacFarlane.

Martlet writers looked at club sports funding and student nutrition and promoted the art of “procrastur-bation.” Sports player profiles took a look at the lives of the top Vikes and found a new lens through which to view competitive sports. Often, these athletes aren’t just stars on the court; they excel in the classroom as well. 

In the Features section, we asked contributors to submit photos of an environmental or societal ill that needs to be addressed, and they delivered. With their excellent composition, TJ Watt, Jackie Björnert and Louis Bockner highlighted deforestation, overconsumption and marginalization, respectively.

We pushed further onto the Web this year with a redesign of our website. Our new app review series re-ceived a lot of interest. IRL, the Martlet hosted the Western Region Canadian University Press conference, a convention of West Coast student newspapers.

So, what’s next for the Martlet? Keep your eyes peeled. Our summer issues will come out once a month, the weekly paper will be back in the fall and the website will be updated regularly. Don’t forget — the Martlet runs on you. We’ll be looking for volunteers all summer and continuing into September, when we hire our part-time staff. Blow the dust off that typewriter and start pounding away. We’ll be waiting. And in the meantime, we’ll be asking questions, reflecting on what inspires us, investigating what could change and reporting back to you. �

Single parents and families with children are critically under-represented at the University of Victoria. Though many marginalized groups are represented among the university population, this demographic is left without a voice and therefore often suffers the consequences of exclusion and oversight. We, as student parents, call for the university and our community to provide more support for those of us who care for our children on top of our academic and professional workload.

Last year, UVic students generously voted to increase fees in order to sponsor four rather than three World University Service of Canada (WUSC) refugee students each year. What the campus might have done with better information would have been to direct some of those funds to providing structural supports for the students already here and struggling.

Marwo Abdi and her partner Mohammed Adam write, “We have a two-year-old daughter and are still on the waitlist for campus daycare. As immigrant students, we experience many challenges in terms of accessing childcare services, finding suitable employment and a lack of child-friendly and family-centred spaces at the University. We feel this is due in part to the fact that most of the UVSS members/university spaces are youth-centred/led, and people like me and my partner, who are immigrant, black, Muslim, mature students with a family, are not represented and have no voice.”

Other examples of where we feel more consultation with mature students is needed include the funding and promotion of UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) referendums, such as the recent referendum pertaining to a facelift for the Student Union Building (SUB) and Felicita’s. We would have preferred a move toward creating a family-friendly communal space in Vertigo with a communal kitchen. Then, perhaps, we could start a student-run daycare co-operative. As well, neither UVic nor the UVSS offer childcare at most campus events, so student parents cannot participate. We, as community members, feel the pain of this exclusion.

Single, working-class mothers are often driven out of the home to sell their labour while simultaneously being relied upon to shop, provide meals, home/yard maintenance, physical and emotional care. The academy becomes the third shift. We find it disheartening that there is little effort to

make accommodations for mothers/parents on campus as we try to pull ourselves and our children up out of a poverty cycle.

At present, most job postings at UVic, including UVSS-funded organizations that pay union wages, appeal to marginalized groups to apply first — but they don’t list “single parents” in that category. Why does the campus fail to recognize single parents, in particular single mothers, as marginalized?

Though single parenthood can be a challenge for men and women alike, ending all forms of violence against women is crucial to a healthy society. Achieving this goal demands that we remove barriers keeping mothers stuck in precarious employment. Providing mothers opportunities to fully participate in post-secondary education is imperative. Global studies show that by investing in women, communities prosper; so why does UVic think it can afford a year-long and costly 50th birthday bash and not a long-term initiative to revamp its child-care systems, alter tenure-track options for mothers and create family-friendly policies? We feel expenditures such as renovations and parties come at the expense of mothers still waiting for women’s equality and the provision of structural supports that draw them here.

Shauna Breitkreutz says, “As a single mother of a three-year-old at the time I began my studies, it was really important to me that I be available to my son and close to him in proximity . . . Accessible, available and flexible daycare on campus would certainly have impacted my education experience. Perhaps I would have looked beyond distance programs . . . These programs were basically my only options.”

With distance learning, parents miss out on campus opportunities and resources, as well as access to our community.

Please ask the UVic administration and the UVSS to make childcare a priority. Tell them you support a plan that makes our campus family friendly and ensures mothers may pursue their educational goals. �

Director of Student Affairs: affairs@uvss.caAdviser to the Provost on Equity and Diversity:

gwongsne@uvic.ca Vice-President Academic and Provost:

provost@uvic.ca

An appeal to the campus community on behalf of families> RENAY MAURICE, CHANDRA VAN ESTERIK, TINA LALONDE, MANUELA

VAN DER MAY, JAKARDA MARSHALL, BARBARA SMITH, JANICE ARNOT

Editor-in-Chief • Vanessa Annand edit@martlet.caProduction Co-ordinator • Glen O’Neill proco@martlet.caManaging Editor • Erin Ball maned@martlet.caAdvertising Director • Marc Junker ads@martlet.ca News Editor • Shandi Shiach news@martlet.ca Opinions Editor • Sol Kauffman opinions@martlet.ca Culture Editor • Tyler Laing culture@martlet.ca Features & Humour Editor • Geoff Line martlet.humour.feature@gmail.comSports & Lifestyle Editor • Kevin Underhill sports.martlet@gmail.com Business & Tech Editor • Nina Neissl businesstech.martlet@gmail.com Photo Editor • Hugo Wong photo@martlet.caVideo Co-ordinator • Alan Piffer video@martlet.ca Graphics Editor • Klara Woldenga comics.martlet@gmail.caWeb Editor • Nina Neissl web@martlet.caDistribution Co-ordinator • Jon-Paul Zacharias jpzach@uvic.caVolunteer Co-ordinator • Marta LigockiProduction Assistant • William WorkmanStaff Writers • Vanessa Hawk, Tia Low Copy Editor • Ashley HampsonDistribution • Marketa Hlavon, Stefan Lake, Matt Loewen, Coltin Neyrinck, Kimberley VenessContributors • Andrea Anthony, Stuart Armstrong, Janice Arnot, Beaudin Bennett, Tiare Boyes, Meghan Casey, Meg Cuthbert,Patrick Grace, Adam Hayman, Michael Hemmings, Brittany Huddart, Jill Kuzyk, Tina Lalonde, Joseph Leroux, Jakarda Marshall, Renay Maurice, Beth May, Jordan McDonald, Sara Miles, Blake Morneau, Patrick Murry, Mike Parolini, Kaitlyn Rosenburg, Cara Spangler,

Barbara Smith, Mia Steinberg, Manuela Van Der May, Chandra Van Esterik, Sophie Vigneau

Want to help with the Editorial? Editorial topics are decided on by staff at our weekly editorial meetings. These meetings take place at 11 a.m. every Wednesday in the Martlet office (SUB B011). Editorials are written by one or more staff members and are not necessarily the opinion of all staff members.

Happy? Sad? Enraged? Tell us: letters@martlet.caThe Martlet has an open letters policy and will endeavour to print letters received from the university and local community. Letters must be submitted by email, include your real name and affiliation to UVic, and have “Letter to the editor” in the subject line. Letters must be under 200 words and may be edited. Letters must be sent by the Friday before publication in order to be considered for publication. The Martlet Publishing Society is an incorporated B.C. society and a full member of Canadian University Press (CUP). We strive to act as an agent of constructive social change and will not print racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise oppressive copy.

Cover Illustration • Patrick Murry

LETTERS

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • OPINIONS 9

RES IS A MESS

I would like to draw attention to the poor hy-gienic conditions residence students must put up with on a daily basis. Recently, I discovered a bloody something-or-other (could have been a bandage, could have been a tampon — I wasn’t going to look closely enough to find out) in one of the bathrooms in the Ring Road

building. It was wet and fresh. Since my mom is an ER nurse, I knew it was dangerous.

So I called the residence office. Their response amounted to, “It’s Sunday. We’ll deal with it tomorrow.” They did send a cleaning lady, but she did not seem to have the equip-ment to deal with blood-covered objects.

Next, I called campus security. It took them an hour to send someone. At least he was able to

collect the “evidence” and create a paper trail.What makes me sick is that before I showed

up, there were probably at least two or three people who got grossed out and did abso-lutely nothing.

I’ve found blood on the floor of a bathroom (dried that time, thankfully), and in toilets I’ve found giant poops that had been fester-ing overnight.

Cleaning up just once a day and leaving the inhabitants of the building to their own de-vices is not enough: these things could make someone seriously ill.

David BlairUVic Student

> SARA MILES

I remember the day I was accepted into the Ap-plied Communication Program (ACP) at Camosun College. I was painting fences on a farm in my hometown. There was a phone call in the farm-house, and I ran across the field to take it. I had been on a waitlist for the better part of a year, and a place for me had finally become available. I liter-ally jumped for joy. This was my ticket out of that small town: a two-year media generalist program with two co-op work term placements.

I had saved enough money to pay my first-year tuition and move to Victoria. With a part-time job as a server and the money I earned during the co-op work terms, I only needed a student loan of about $3 000 to complete the program. I paid it off within a couple years.

After graduating from the ACP, I was immedi-ately hired as a graphic designer with an inter-national currency exchange company. The skills I learned in the ACP were valuable in every job I held thereafter; writing, photography, radio and video production, website design, desktop publish-ing — I could do it all.

I worked at a newspaper in Alberta, developed instructional and curriculum content, managed a software training program for a health board staff of 1 500 — all on the basis of what ACP taught me. My fellow students went on to become pop radio DJs, television talk show hosts, CBC radio announcers, book publishers, newspaper editors, professional photographers and communicators.

Then I went to university. It was a valuable

experience, and I would never trade it in, even if you gave me back the $40 000 it cost. But I am still being hired for my ACP qualifications, not the Bachelor of General Studies that Simon Fraser University (SFU) finally accorded me after four years of full-time academic studies. And it was ACP that gave me the skills to work alongside computer science majors at my part-time job in audiovisual services at SFU.

This is my ACP story. It is one of many. Every year for 40 years, a cohort of 20–30 ACPers went out into the big, wide media world. This year is the end of ACP’s long life. Last November, the Camosun College Board of Governors cancelled the Applied Communication Program for budgetary reasons.

Programs are cancelled all the time — what’s the big deal?

There is no equivalent program in B.C. It had a waiting list every year. ACP grads have a high rate of employment in media all over the world. The college’s new two-semester Certificate in Digital Communication holds promise, but ACP as we knew it — hands-on, media generalist technical training — is over.

So, I will simply say farewell to ACP, and thanks for all you gave me. Thanks for putting me on-air at Village 900 AM; thanks for the instructors who kept up with changing technology; thanks for encouraging me to write for the Nexus student newspaper; thanks for being affordable; thanks for the network of talented colleagues.

It’s too bad all the government talk about jobs doesn’t translate into solid funding for education. Without ACP, I might still be painting fences. �

A eulogy for Applied Communication at Camosun College

KLARA WOLDENGA

> BRITTANY HUDDART 

Platform sneakers have crept onto the street style scene. Creepers have gained momentum as a footwear trend since about late 2009. Since then, creepers have snuck down runways and been incorporated by designers such as Prada and Balenciaga in their spring/summer 2011 collections. On the streets, creepers have been adopted with the resurgence of 1990s grunge and the social-media-driven seapunk scene. 

Platform soles have a history that dates back as early as Ancient Greece. More recently, they were a key element in the Teddy Boy style of the 1950s. The Teddy Boys’ counterparts, Teddy Girls, were tough, working-class women who wore slacks, tailored jackets and platform shoes — like creepers. I love Teddy Girl style, which sprang from a rejection of post-war austerity and a love for American rock ’n’ roll.

However, I picture creepers most at home on an aging rockabilly: a middle-aged man with a sagging pompadour who explains to you that his band almost made it while staring down at his shoes, abashed and defeated in his failed quest for fame. Like a crumpled rocker, creepers seem a little silly and dated.

I don’t own a pair of sneakers, so it makes sense that I have no attraction to sneakers on steroids. Though there is an aesthetic argument that the bulky nature of the shoe lends the illusion of slimmer legs and calves, I think creepers look like bricks glued to feet. 

However, I am an immense advocate of the platform heel due to the comfort and practicality it offers. While I may not incorporate the sneaker creeper into my wardrobe, I have spotted creeper Oxfords and creeper boots online. The Oxfords remind me of an amped-up, coquettish English

class, while the boots, with sparse detailing, seem like something worn by a trendy space alien from Planet Glamour. (David Bowie?) 

Who doesn’t want to be five inches taller in an instant? I love that platforms offer me the opportunity to pump up my height, pushing me over the six-foot mark. If you don’t already enjoy

this lofty position due to the blessings of biology, it can be fun to put on tiny stilts once in a while and cast one’s gaze around the party, thinking, “How’s the weather down there?” When wearing high heels, the less of an angle the foot is at, the less strain there is on bones and muscles. The last time I hiked downtown in stilettos, my feet felt as

if I had strapped them to beds of nails. Creepers are fun. They’re inspired by Teddy

Boys, and they allow one to play with the aes-thetics of height and body proportion. I think they’re a great addition to dress-up. Keep on creepin’ on.  �

STYLE VOMIT

Creep it real with your towering footwear

BRITTANY HUDDARTEven if you don't like the idea of wearing platform sneakers, or "creepers," consider trying other platform shoes.

10 FEATURE • MARTLET April 4, 2013

North-east Lynxby Patrick Murry & Mike Parolini

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • FEATURE 11

Read more North-East Lynx online at northeastlynx.tumblr.com. �

CULTURE Got a great travel story of your own with so many photos your family refuses to watch the full slide show? Email edit@martlet.ca to get it

out to a wider, more photo-friendly audience.

12 CULTURE • MARTLET April 4, 2013

> BEAUDIN BENNETT

Beaudin Bennett is a UVic Centre for Asia-Pacific Ini-tiatives (CAPI) and Students for Development intern working with the Welfare Association for the Rights of Bangladeshi Emigrants (WARBE) in Dhaka, Ban-gladesh. This is the second of two instalments that share his experiences.

In early February 2013, less than a month after I arrived in Dhaka, a controversial court verdict of life imprisonment for politician and Islamic scholar Abdul Kader Mollah was deliv-ered. Mollah, a leader of the main Islamist party in Bangladesh, was found guilty of crimes against humanity during the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971. Mollah flashed a V sign — as in V for victory — to the press scrum waiting for him outside the Dhaka courtroom. The image was broadcast across the country and appeared in many of the country’s major newspapers, resulting in a spontaneous demonstration at Shabagh, a street intersection in downtown Dhaka not far from Dhaka University. Protesters were outraged by the perceived leniency of the sentence.

In Canada, a life sentence verdict would be as tough as it gets, despite the clichés about convicts sitting in a “Club Fed” pen playing golf and eating gourmet meals. In Bangladesh, however, where you can still be sentenced to be “hanged by the neck until dead,” a life sentence can come off as a tad soft. Especially considering Mollah was con-

victed of the 1971 rape and murder of pro-inde-pendence activists and minority Hindus, as well as the burning of their homes and businesses. Shabagh thus became the centre of a grassroots populist push to have Mollah hanged. It was a natural reaction for Bangladeshis: justice was not served, they felt, and the best way to make this known was to gather immediately in a public place of national prominence and demonstrate their displeasure.

“I was there in the first days,” said 29-year-old Kamrul Hasan, a WARBE employee and a gradu-ate of Dhaka University’s political science master’s program. “There were very few people, but the next day the common people came. It started unintentionally [but became] a movement for the young generations.”

Indeed, within a few days the movement leaders had adopted a new name for Shabagh: Projonmo Chottor, or New Generation Square. Like their parents who had the Liberation War of 1971 as their generational symbol of struggle, these people — mostly students — made their symbolic struggle for justice synonymous with Shabagh. But whereas the generation of 1971 was focused on independence for Bangladesh, the generation of today wants its collective voice to be considered in court proceedings.

“I have some reservations about these protes-tors,” said my 20-year-old neighbour, Mashruk, as we searched for a tuk-tuk to take us to Sha-bagh one Friday afternoon. “I feel like this is mob

rule.” Later, listening to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina react to the Shabagh protest by recom-mending that the courts take the wishes of the people into consideration when delivering their verdicts, I couldn’t help but agree — it was unset-tling to hear young children chant “fashi, fashi, fashi chai!” (rough translation: “hang, hang, we want them to hang!”).

And just as there are differences between Bangladesh and elsewhere, there are differences within Bangladesh, too. In the city, for example, you’re a pinball in a pinball machine, bouncing from one place to the next, never quite knowing which way you will go or how you will be pro-pelled there. Lights flash; horns sound in your ear and you curse; rickshaw bells ring, their pullers crying for your business. Everyone and everything seems to want to push or pull you somewhere else. “Hey boss! Boss! Good food. Nice place. Come!”

But in the relative peace of the countryside, you are a leaf in a brook, drifting slowly, idling in small villages that hold your attention like a back eddy and moving passively between meals, concerned only with the next trip to the Ganges, where you will swim with the river dolphins or help a fisher-man empty his nets.

Away from the city, politics is something that plays out on the local television set or on the front page of the newspaper, and most farmers could not be bothered with it. The simple life is the status quo, and for farmers the simple life is the planting and harvesting of crops, evening prayers

and spending free time at the local tea stand, dis-cussing the season’s market rate for rice or when the rains might come.

Farming tools — like the life of the Bangladeshi farmer, and in contrast to the complicated political machinery of Bangladeshi party politics — are simple, designed with a single purpose in mind and limited resources. Ploughs are handmade and, except for a spade-like device that cuts the earth, constructed entirely of wood. Hand sickles are used to harvest the spring wheat crop. During the sugar cane harvest, cane is transported to the mills on wooden-wheeled bamboo carts hauled by great, black, mythical-looking water buffalo.

To meet the demand for agricultural equipment, carpenters set up shop under banyan trees and — smoking beedis and using chisel, hammer, adze and rasp — craft wheels, carts, ploughs and other farm implements. A Canadian pub might have an antique, handmade plough hanging on the wall. One person’s present is another’s past.

In his admiration of human diversity, American expatriate author and translator Paul Bowles stated, “I assume it is natural for a traveller to seek diversity, and that it is the human element which makes him most aware of difference. If people and their manner of living were alike everywhere, there would not be much point in moving from one place to another.” More so than a country’s food, politics or rural/urban divide, it is people that make a place unique. �

The contrast of politics and the pastoral in Bangladesh

BEAUDIN BENNETTLeft: Protesters crowd Dhaka's Shabagh intersection.

Right: Using a hand sickle, a farmer near the town of Ishwardi harvests the first wheat crop of the year.

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • CULTURE 13

> MIA STEINBERG

Male spree killers are in the news again, between the trial of Aurora massacre suspect James Holmes and the investigation of the Sandy Hook killer, Adam Lanza. Whenever mass violence occurs, the world searches for answers: access to guns? Sociopathic behaviour? What could cause a young man to murder innocents in cold blood?

In the aftermath of the horrific massacre at Sandy Hook elementary, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, conducted a now-notoriously tone-deaf press conference on the subject. In a time when people were finally — it seems — calling for increased gun control laws in the United States, LaPierre’s speech was full of the same boogeymen and scapegoats that had been trotted out for years: violent video games, music videos and “blood-soaked slasher films” like Natural Born Killers and American Psycho.

This was one of the most boneheaded things I’d heard in a long time for many reasons, but the comment about a 13-year-old dark comedy was particularly striking, because American Psycho is actually undergoing a modern feminist reinterpre-tation. There are few characters so intensely mis-understood as the titular psycho, Patrick Bateman, depicted by Christian Bale. Condemned by some as a brutal misogynist in a woman-hating film and revered by others as the epitome of cool-headed style, Bale’s character and director Mary Harron’s film are actually much more sly than some viewers may initially realize.

Author Bret Easton Ellis wrote the novel Ameri-can Psycho in 1991, and its publication sparked huge backlash. Feminist groups protested its grue-some descriptions of murder and torture, decrying it as the worst sort of misogyny; one group threw a bucket of fake blood on a bookshelf full of cop-ies. The novel is narrated by Patrick Bateman, a wealthy and vain investment banker in 1980s New York. In stream-of-consciousness style, Bateman describes his daily life: his extensive skincare routine each morning, his feelings on proper etiquette and the high-class meals he enjoys with his co-workers at the hottest restaurants in town. Bateman is introduced as the ultimate yuppie, or young urban professional: he and his colleagues snort cocaine, compare their business cards, judge each other based on their haircuts and have nearly identical taste in suits. They cheat with each other’s fiancées and vacation in the Hamptons. In between lengthy diatribes on the merits of arugula and octopus salad, Bateman also describes the horrific murders he commits each night. As the

novel progresses, his slayings become more and more sadistic, but increasingly unreliable as well. His violent sociopathy is held up against the casual sociopathy of the 1980s Me Generation, and towards the end of the book it’s difficult to tell the difference.

While the novel was optioned for film rights early in the 1990s, it was nearly impossible to find a screenwriter and director willing to take the project. Eventually, American Psycho was adapted for the screen and directed by filmmaker Mary Harron. She co-wrote the script with Guinevere Turner, a screenwriter and actress who had con-tributed to projects like The L Word and Dogma.

The women transformed Ellis’s novel into a viable film, stripping out most of the extreme violence and sex but keeping Bateman unsympa-thetic and cold-blooded. The screenplay refined the satirical elements of the novel, allowing the savage political humour to shine through. Bale struck a perfect balance of charisma and brutal-ity, making Bateman a believable and frightening example of 1980s excess. When the film was re-leased in 2000, it was met with a backlash similar to what the novel elicited; feminist organizations condemned the misogynistic violence, and post-Columbine-massacre media pundits wondered if young men would want to imitate Bateman’s styl-ish, confident mannerisms and his casual attitude towards murder.

The secret that Harron, Turner and Bale all know is this: Bateman is not a man to admire, not even a little bit. Harron says as much in the director’s commentary track for the film. She is occasionally approached by men who proudly proclaim that they’re like Patrick Bateman: they love suits, they dine at fancy New York eateries and they have cor-ner offices and bright business cards. But Harron is always aghast — why would anyone want to be like Patrick Bateman? He’s so insecure that he has a panic attack over a co-worker’s superior business card. This is a man who speaks at length about the depth and grandeur of shallow pop bands like Huey Lewis and the News; he generates meaning where there is none in order to justify his enjoy-ment of these bands. He is a phoney, a shadow of a man; he gets away with murder because he and his colleagues are so frequently confused with one another. He prides himself on being an individual, but he blends seamlessly into a crowd. Bale was cast, in part, because he wanted to make the char-acter as dorky as possible. While the book often drifts over the top, the American Psycho film is a blistering condemnation of this sort of arrogant male behaviour, not an endorsement of it. �

THE TRUTH AT 24 FRAMES PER SECOND

American patheticThe misunderstood satire of American Psycho

GLEN O'NEILL

> JOSEPH LEROUX

Slam poetry is meant to be heard. The slam, a poetry competition judged by the audience, emerged in the 1980s. According to Canadian poet Johnny MacRae, slam began as a rebuttal to the then-common theory that the best voice for a poem was the one most distant from the human experience, thus allowing the poem to be the only vehicle for communication. He says slam’s creator, Marc Smith, aimed to give poetry back its vibrancy by involving the audience in actively scoring poets’ work. Since then, slam has grown globally, includ-ing in Victoria.

MacRae, 26, is a poet — equal parts Vancouver-ite and Victorian — who, since 2008, has grown

from the seeds of slam that Smith has sown. He has a degree in literature from the University of British Columbia and a firmly established identity within the provincial and national slam communi-ties (he won the Vancouver Grand Slam Champi-onship in 2010 and the Canadian Underground Individual Champ title in 2011). MacRae says many don’t give slam credit for what it has to offer. “One of the criticisms levelled against slam is that we use humour and irony and emotion in our voice in the performance, and that this is seen as a drawback,” says MacRae. He explains placing scorecards in the hands of audience members forces the poet to acknowledge that the audience is there and to make them pay attention.

A major difference between slam poetry and po-etry for the page is how one measures success. In slam, there is no board of editors, no subscription fee (unless you count the venue’s cover charge) and no cheque for publication. MacRae says interaction with an audience overrides publishing success. He says he has performed his poetry for as many as 10 000 people over the years. “No way in hell I would get read by that many people,” he says. “Even if I had success in publishing, even if I was a lauded poet, I very highly doubt I would reach that many people.”

The oddity of mixing scorecards with art is ap-parent to the slam community. “There is a pretty widespread understanding in [the slam com-munity] that the slam is itself a giant joke on the audience,” says MacRae. He believes slam is a tool to draw an audience in with the promise of com-petition and then hook them with the rawness and energy of poetry. “If you tell people that they’re coming out to see a slam and that it’s a competi-tion, they’re like, ‘Ooh, is it kind of like rap battle?’ and you’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t know, you’re just going to have to come out and see,’ ” says MacRae. “That gets people excited. That’s sexy. That’s cool they want to come out and watch it. And then they

come out and see it and say, ‘I had no idea some-thing like this existed.’ ”

Another well-spoken poet who believes in slam for its interaction with audience is Matthew Da-vidson, 34, who recently opened for one of spoken word’s greats, Buddy Wakefield. He and local poet Jeremy Loveday performed under the moniker the Roadside Dogs. Davidson believes spoken word has a greater potential for engaging human beings than that of music. “I’m a jazz musician,” he says, “so I can really dig into music and analyze it, but I can tune it out. Spoken word really requires you to stop what you are doing and listen, so presence is really important. There is this kind of feedback loop that happens between audience and artist.”

Slam has its critics, the crux of whose argument rests in the movement’s lack of history and lack of

proofing process by which performers become rec-ognized — a marked difference from the publish-ing industry. Simply put, without a solid literary tradition to grow from and lacking anything but itself from which to learn, how can slam progress? MacRae sees mentorship and honest critique as an answer to this problem. “We need poets within our community to say to the younger poets, ‘Don’t be lazy writers, challenge yourselves, write interest-ing things, stop ranting onstage.’ ” He believes he and other more established poets in the Victoria community should mentor less experienced poets.

Slam continues to play through the pain of its genesis, writing and rewriting its identity in the face of critiques in the literary realm as well as its own internal struggles. At the very least, if slam is a joke, it is one worth being in on. �

14 CULTURE • MARTLET April 4, 2013

> JILL KUZYK

In the fashion world, if you’re not six months ahead, you’re already behind. The looks walking down the runway at the 2013 Vancouver Fash-ion Week, held March 19–24 at the Chinese Cul-tural Centre, were geared towards the chillier days and crisp nights awaiting us six months from now. So while you’re dreaming of springy pastels and the vibrant brights of summer, file away a few of these trends to stay ahead of the curve when the temperature starts to drop.

Get ready to embrace texture this fall because the runways at the March 23 International De-signer Show were rife with a rich array of mate-rials made to tempt even the most steadfast cot-ton lover. Red velvet at LUVON (China), caramel leather at Nina Athanasiou (Germany), neon beadwork at Nova Chiu (U.K.) and eye-catching sequins and chiffon at Lila Nova (Greece) will mean lots of variety with an attention to detail in stores this fall. Traditional autumnal beiges and reds met with an abundance of monochro-matic black and white looks, with neon accents and earthy neutrals providing optimal pops of colour. With clothing taking on a more tailored fit, it should come as no surprise that each line mixed ladylike sophistication with ethnic flair. The sensual fabrics combined with geometric, gothic and whimsical themes means that casual styles are getting a serious structural upgrade for fall/winter 2013. Even footwear stayed high class with an abundance of nude and black platforms and pumps.

The shimmering jewel tones and buttery leath-ers that Hatice Ipek Tohumcu (Turkey) showed were a nod to classical winter elegance, but the designer’s elaborately stenciled dresses and “con-vertible” outerwear (complete with removable zippered and buttoned panels) point to modern versatility and subtle risk-taking. Tohumcu has more than 20 years’ experience in the fashion

business and is a wizard with leather. When asked about her multi-look, convertible pieces, she said, “I wanted to have different images and shapes for my designs. I don’t want a piece to be worn with just one look in mind.”

Budding fashionistas, take that as your cue to mix it up and combine different shapes and textures this fall. Leather with silk, wool with lace, or chiffon with a bit of fur (faux or other-wise). Try highly tailored pants or a skirt on the bottom with a boxy, geometric tunic on top. Not into wild, neon colour combos like those at the Nova Chiu show? That’s okay. Go for a head-to-toe monochromatic look in black or white, as seen at the Jacob Kimmie (South Africa) show.

Roksolana Bogutska, one of Ukraine’s most popular designers, showcased traditional Eastern European floral prints alongside elegant black and gold brocade, with hints of red velvet and delicate white lace. According to her PR team, Bogutska’s designs have been worn by former Ukrainian First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko, and with her classical shapes and attention to detail and intricacy, it’s no wonder why. All of those lush fabrics and colours, along with the vintage feel of the show, hinted at the custom-made pieces of a bygone era. “Her signature look is all about an ethnic Ukrainian style. There’s lots of embroidery and beading in her looks. It’s all handmade,” said Bogutska’s PR rep.

With an overwhelming number of vintage styles strutting down the strip, it’s clear that old is in, so don’t be afraid to check out local vintage shops for rare finds. Handmade pieces are the items to have, so embrace the unique wave hit-ting the fashion world and find antiqued pieces that speak to your own aesthetic this autumn.

As each designer proved with their autumn/winter collections, ’tis the season of traditional-meets-outside-the-box, so consider taking your favourite classical looks and putting a new spin on them when the summer fades. �

International flair for the year aheadVancouver Fashion Week showcases trends from every corner of the globe

Art out loud: poetry that’s meant to be heard

JILL KUZYKLila Nova (in red) and models at the March 23 Lila Nova show, part of Vancouver Fashion Week's International Designer Show.

Johnny MacRae, veteran of slam. PROVIDED (BRETT REID)

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • CULTURE 15

250.595.6044

EDUCATIONWEDNESDAY, APRIL 10INFORMATION SESSION: I-WITNESS HOLOCAUST FIELD SCHOOL Learning about a subject in a classroom is important, but there’s no substitute for learn-ing about a subject in the field. It’s important to ensure that a tragedy such as the Holo-caust is never forgotten. One way to do this is by educating about it through more than just a textbook. The I-Witness Holocaust Field School, also known as UVic’s Germanic Studies 489 course, discusses ways in which nations in Central Europe have chosen to memorialize the Holocaust. The course con-sists of one week of studies at UVic before students embark on a three-week field trip over to Germany, Austria and Poland to visit former concentration camps and ghettos, as well as cemeteries and museums. If you’re interested in applying to this course, which starts in May 2014, the deadline is Nov. 1, 2013. This information session features a discussion about the program by former students, as well as a travel itinerary. For more info, visit oia.uvic.ca, call (250) 721-7320 or email helgat@uvic.ca. UVic Clearihue Bldg. (Rm. C108), 2 p.m. Free.

THURSDAY, APRIL 11CAFÉ SCIENTIFIQUE — LIFESTYLE CROSS-TRAINING: A HEALTHY LIVING TRACK TO COGNITIVE FITNESSDo you spend too much time browsing Red-dit and eating leftover pizza with lukewarm coffee? If you do, your health — both of body and mind — is going to pay a price someday. To be clear, I’m really just talking to myself here. But if you happen to be in the same boat as me, it’s time to turn off the computer, go outside and get some kind of exercise, because a not-so-great lifestyle will definitely affect your life in the long term (unless you happen to be one of those old Russian guys you read about in the news who mysteriously live to be 98 while drink-ing vodka and smoking cigars every day of their lives). At this Café Scientifique encore lecture, host Stuart MacDonald of UVic’s Department of Psychology/Centre on Aging discusses maintaining good overall health throughout one’s life. He asks the question: how much does living a good lifestyle keep age-related health problems such as memory loss at bay? Make sure to reserve a seat for this discus-sion by contacting the UVic Centre on Aging at senage@uvic.ca or at (250) 721-6369. For more info, visit coag.uvic.ca/events.htm.UVic David Strong Bldg. (Rm. C103), 6:30 p.m. (doors at 5:45 p.m.) Free.

CHARITYSUNDAY, APRIL 14MS WALK VICTORIAWhile driving to and fro can be handy, I’ve realized I shouldn’t neglect simply walking everywhere as a means of exercise. Walking, or any other means of self-powered trans-portation, really does make a difference in your overall fitness, which you realize pretty quickly after not doing too much of it over a period of a few months. And what better excuse to do it than to help raise money to fight multiple sclerosis? Join several hun-dred other participants in our city’s annual MS Walk, which starts off at scenic Willows Beach and stays scenic throughout its course (this is Victoria, after all). If you’re walking or using a wheelchair or scooter, you can choose between a three- or six-kilometre route; for those up for a good, solid run, there’s the nine-kilometre route. You’ll be checking in bright and early Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m., and the walk begins at 10 a.m. Be sure to visit mswalks.ca to register, and, oh yeah, if you’re able to raise $120 in funds for the walk, you’ll receive a fancy shirt! For more info, visit mswalks.ca, call (250) 388-6496 ext. 236 or email sukhi.tomana@mssociety.ca. Willows Beach Park (Beach Dr. at 2740 Dal-housie St.). 8:30 a.m. check-in time. Free.

THURSDAY, APRIL 25DINING OUT FOR LIFE Earlier I mentioned the act of walking for charity. Well, after getting all that walking out of your system, here’s an event Garfield the cat would surely enjoy: eating for charity!

On April 25, more than 80 Island restaurants will be donating a quarter of their proceeds from food and non-alcoholic beverage sales to support the important work being done by AIDS Vancouver Island. I know Garfield is a fictional character, but this would be a good day to at least pretend you’re him. Go out and eat as much lasagna as you can handle. It’s for a good (burp) cause, after all! For more info about participating restau-rants, visit diningoutforlife.com.

ENTERTAINMENTTHURSDAY, APRIL 11 RAY FRANK: THE GIRL RABBI OF THE GOLDEN WESTThis one-night-only play is about a woman hired to serve, for a few weeks back in 1895, as a rabbi at Victoria’s Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue, making world history by doing so. One really interesting part about this play is that it’s being held in the same syna-gogue where the actual events in the play took place. How often does that happen? Imagine people doing a play about your life in whatever place you’re living in now 100 years in the future. Act One: Look at Reddit for three hours. Act Two: watch Star Trek: TNG episodes on Netflix. Act Three: Eat some leftover pizza, washing it down with lukewarm coffee. Hey, it could be exciting to someone . . . I guess? Nah, I couldn’t recom-mend going to see that. But I would definite-ly recommend you go see Ray Frank.For more info, email info@congregatione-manu-el.ca or call (250) 382-0615 (Tues. – Thurs.).Emanu-El Synagogue (1461 Blanshard St.), 7:30–9 p.m. $10 (suggested donation).

NATURESATURDAY, APRIL 13GARDEN DESIGN: WATER HARVESTING WORKSHOPThe problem with using water is that it’s costly when it comes from the tap. Thank-fully, it’s free when it comes down from the sky! Isn’t that handy? Unfortunately, as you will remember from Victoria’s weird weather in 2012, the rain doesn’t fall when we want it to. So, if you’re into gardening and you’d prefer to rely more on rainwater than your garden hose, you need to strategize. That’s why local expert Tayler Krawczyk will be hosting this event, which will teach you all about the various tips and tricks for cap-turing and storing rainwater and runoff. Thinking about gardening makes me think about the smell of a gardening section of a hardware store. For some reason, that’s one of the greatest smells ever. By the way, you need to pre-register for this event through Eventbrite. To register, visit eventbrite.ca/event/5209078494. For more info, visit compost.bc.ca, call (250) 386-9676 or email info@compost.bc.ca.Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre (1216 North Park St.), 2–4 p.m. $10 mem-bers/$15 non-members. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 16BOTANICA POETICA: BOTANY IN POETRYOkay, so you’ve got your poetry nerds (or “perds” for short), and then you’ve got your flower nerds (or “flerds”). Combine their pas-sions into one single event, and what do you get? A nerd explosion of such magnitude that it nearly creates a rupture in the space-time continuum. Sort of like how I reacted when I was in a toy store and I saw a bunch of Star Wars Transformers for the first time. Or how I felt when I put chocolate sauce and chocolate fudge sauce on a bowl of choco-late ice cream. Anyhoo, Andy MacKinnon, the poet laureate of the Victoria Natural History Society, will be hosting this event in which flerds, perds and yes, even peflerds can contribute their own poetry, songs, flow-ers or other artistic expressions inspired by the beauty of poems and flowers. For more info, visit vicnhs.bc.ca/calendar.html.Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature House (3873 Swan Lake Rd.) 7:30–9 p.m. Free.

� > ALAN PIFFER

APRIL 10–25EVENTS CALENDAR

martlet.ca

16 CULTURE • MARTLET April 4, 2013

© 2013 H&R Block Canada, Inc. *$29.95 valid for student tax preparation only. To qualify, student must present either (i) a T2202a documenting 4 or more months of full-time attendance at a college or university during the applicable tax year or (ii) a valid high school ID card. Instant Cash Back is included in the price. Students pay $79.99 for Complex/Premier return. Expires 12/31/2013. Valid only at participating locations. Additional fees apply. Instant Cash Back valid only on the federal portion of tax returns filed in Quebec. Some restrictions apply. SPC cards available at participating locations in Canada only. Offers may vary, restrictions may apply. For full terms see www.spccard.ca.

For just $29.95, walk in with your taxes, walk out with your refund. Instantly. You’ll also get a free SPC Card to save big at your favourite retailers.*

hrblock.ca | 800-HRBLOCK (472-5625)

Studentpricing

FILE NAME: 12-HRB-033-BW-SP-E-8 TRIM: 4" x 7.5"

DATE: Jan 22 REV #: 0 BLEED: –

ARTIST: ID COLOUR: 1/0 SAFETY: –

CD: AD: CW: PP: SM: AM:

PUBLICATION/LOCATION:Mars Hill

we make taxes painle$$

> KAITLYN ROSENBURG

Watching people spending money amuses me, because people spend money on the most absurd things: Groupon offers for a bikini wax and facial combo; Lotto tickets with the same six “lucky” numbers; juice cleanses; week-day lunches at gourmet bistros in Fernwood. Okay, so the last expense listed is mine, and in my opinion, not an absurd purchase. I’d like to think others agree.

Ça Va Bistro Moderne, open only since December 2012, doesn’t exhibit the tell-tale signs of newness that a restaurant typically displays after it has just opened. The space, a narrow enclave cleverly expanded by natural light and the use of multiple mirrors, feels es-tablished. No residual paint fumes here. Even the clientele, who chatted with staff while dining, felt like regulars.

One wall has been transformed into a head-to-toe chalkboard displaying the entire dinner menu. For all you pseudo-photographers, it’s worthy of multiple Instagram posts.

The lunch menu offered only eight options the day my friend and I dined — welcome simplicity when it came to choosing. I had to try the fish pie ($18). My friend picked crab and saffron angel hair pasta ($15).

A chestnut-brown dome of puff pastry, my pie encapsulated rock cod and leek in a béchamel-type sauce. The satisfying destruc-tion of the crust, which soaks up the filling as one cracks through, needs to be experienced. Slow-cooked leeks and white fish are a classic combination, so don’t be surprised if you fall in love with each rich, creamy bite.

The pasta, an often heavy restaurant dish, veered to the delicate side, so much so that my friend remained hungry after polishing off the plate. Fine ribbons of crab stained red from the saffron were strewn among the thin pasta strands. A sophisticated option for carb lovers — and crab lovers.

Still not full, my friend ordered the maple-walnut brioche bread pudding ($8) and convinced me to try the dark chocolate soufflé with sour cherry ice cream ($8).

His first-ever bread pudding experience con-cluded with smiles. Brioche, a slightly sweet bread with high butter and egg content, lends itself well to dessert. At Ça Va, the pudding drips with maple sauce and slowly melting ice cream. It produces a serious sugar high that sweet-tooth self-identifiers will enjoy.

I’m still smitten with the deep cocoa soufflé, which is really a cookie crumb tart shell oozing hot, chocolate batter. As with the fish pie, take a spoon, break through the crust and indulge.

I found wait times for food on the long side, especially for a restaurant with only 32 seats — not all of which were filled — and for a mid-week lunch. My friend also requested I mention the in-house music in this review, which featured “In the Waiting Line” by Zero 7 off the Garden State soundtrack. He’s a fan.

I’d gladly spend my funds here again. Per-haps you’ll do the same? �

EATS, CHEWS AND LEAVES

The easy-to-love taste of Ça Va Bistro Moderne

HUGO WONG

`

R R R RR R R R RR R R R

SERVICE

FOOD

OVERALL

ÇA VA BISTRO MODERNE

1296 GLADSTONE AVE.(250) 590-7982

(RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED)

TUESDAY – THURSDAY: 11:30 A.M. – 2 P.M., 5–9 P.M.FRIDAY: 11:30 A.M. – 2 P.M., 5–10 P.M.SATURDAY: 10 A.M. – 2 P.M., 5–10 P.M.SUNDAY: 10 A.M. – 2 P.M.

BRUNCH SERVED SATURDAY AND SUNDAY ONLY

t @CAVAVICTORIA

•

Lil BUB wants you to check out martlet.caShe knows that when it comes to the In-ternet, you gotta make sure everything is interactive. That’s why martlet.ca has new features like upvoting and threaded comments. You’ll also find stories that use awesome media like videos, slideshows, Storify and more! So listen to Lil BUB, be-cause as a famous Internet cat, she's the undisputed expert.

> The University of Victoria’s Independent Newspaper23 COMMENTS39 UPVOTES

PHOTO PROVIDED BY LIL BUB'S DUDE (LILBUB.COMI

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • CULTURE 17

with minimum $50 orderwithin radius

1 0 1 . 9 F Mc fuv.uv ic . ca

CFUV

CFU

V T

op T

enFo

r Th

e w

eek

oF A

prIL

2, 20

13

1. SUUNS * Images Du Futur (Secret City)2. CHARLES BRADLEY Victim Of Love (Daptone)3. SHOTGUN JIMMIE * Everything Everything (You’ve Changed)4. THE BLACK ANGELS Indigo Meadow (Blue Horizon)5. BRITTANY HOWARD & RUBY AMANFU I Wonder b/w When My Man Comes Home (7-inch; Third Man)6. PICK A PIPER * Pick A Piper (Mint)7. CHELSEA LIGHT MOVING Chelsea Light Moving (Matador)8. THE DELFONICS Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics (Wax Poetics)9. DAVID BOWIE The Next Day (ISO/Columbia)10. LOW The Invisible Way (Sub Pop)

CFUV is an award winning campus/community radio station based at the University of Victoria. For more information about CFUV (including volunteering info, our program schedule, complete charts and much more) please visit us at: www.cfuv.uvic.catwitter.com/cfuv

Hear the weekly top ten on Charts and Graphs Mondays 2-3PM on CFUV 101.9FM or online! * Canadian artist + local artist

> JP ZACHARIAS

Students in UVic housing are 18-year-old first-years and middle-aged grad students. Some are ready to party; others wish their neighbours would shut up. Some long for a kitchen; others wonder why their cluster roommates never clean the kitchen they share. Students in UVic housing are diverse, but there is one group among them whose experience is especially unusual, because they must pay attention to everybody.

UVic calls them CLs (Community Leaders). Other universities call them Residence Advis-ers. Several CLs recently met with the Martlet and chatted about CL life.

“The overarching role of a CL is obviously to build community in the establishment, and basi-cally create a sense of family, and really create a place where UVic can differentiate itself as a place where we build lifelong learners,” says Mike Wilson, CL in Cluster, Block 59.

CLs have an interesting relationship with their residents. They’re not permitted to have romantic relations or drink alcohol with non-CL residents, and they are the first line of rule enforcement. “You tread a certain line between authority figure and also like their friend who helps them,” says Brody McDonald, third-year student and CL in Ring Road Hall.

“At the same time, at the end of the year,” says Meghan Reiser, “. . . you are able to have a closer friendship relationship, and I was amazed at how easily that transition happened.” Reiser, a third-year student, is now a Senior Community Leader (SCL). UVic has seven SCLs, one for each residence neighbourhood, while there is a CL in every residence building. All SCLs have previously worked as CLs. While CLs monitor individual buildings and are the first respond-ers to behavioural issues, SCLs monitor the residence community on a larger scale and deal with particularly difficult issues. SCLs also pro-gram events for the larger residence community, while CLs focus more on their own building.

Says Nathan Gates, a fifth-year student and CL in Trutch, “I’ve had residents, or ex-residents from the past two years — literally, some of them have called me up and been like, ‘Hey, can I talk to you about this thing?’ Or I’ve had them literally show up at my door and be like, ‘Hey, I need to talk to you’ . . . and it’s like years and years later.”

All CLs — who must have either lived in resi-dence before or had similar experience — train for 10 days at the end of August. They do work around peer helping, active listening, commu-

nity building, safety training, first aid, mental health, sexual assault response and suicide pre-vention. Throughout the year, there are other paraprofessional development workshops and seminars. Wilson describes the training, which often involves role-playing.

“They usually have a returner CL or an SCL . . . kind of guide you in the right direction . . . it kind of shows you the gravity of certain situ-ations . . . and it doesn’t take you by surprise if something really unorthodox hits,” says Wilson.

“I think that everything we learn in August training is very applicable to real situations that you experience, surprisingly often,” echoes McDonald.

The CLs did not find that CL duties hurt their academic or social lives. In fact, they found the opposite. “When you become more time managed . . . everything improves,” says Slevin Garfinkel, second-year student and CL in Sir Arthur Currie.

“I’m taking courses with my residents . . . or co-workers . . . so it’s so much easier to co-ordinate studying,” says Michelle Dumont, third-year student and CL in Emily Carr. “I got way more connected to my campus commu-nity,” she adds, “because compared to before I now know so many people, and I’m more connected to the university as a whole, just because everywhere I go, I know somebody.”

What are some necessary CL qualities? “Even though there are some qualities that

may be very important and probably come up probably more often in CL populations, we all have different ways of dealing with things,” says Chelsie Hart, second-year student and CL in Ring Road Hall.

“Knowing you don’t know everything, but having the drive to learn how to be better, is so important,” says Gates.

“I think the one common thing that every single person has is that they generally care very deeply about people,” says Dumont.

Wilson echoes this. “The rewards you get just from seeing people grow and seeing people come out of their shell or just become the people you can tell they want to be . . . you sometimes find that, and it makes it totally worth it.”

For more CL interview content, visit martlet.ca. �

The next application period for CL positions will take place in December

2013 for the following September. See hous-ing.uvic.ca/winter/rl-staff.php#jobopportunities

for updates on possible positions.

The life and insight of UVic Community Leaders

visit martlet.caIT'S ON THE INTERNET.

HUMOuR Want to get your humorous essays published? It's not too late! We'll be posting forays into funny-land on

martlet.ca all summer long. Email edit@martlet.ca.

18 HUMOUR • MARTLET April 4, 2013

> PATRICK GRACE

I was a cat in a past life. All the signs are there: I nap on my back with my wrists limp as I dream of chasing birds. I like to sit at my liv-ing room window and swat the Venetian blind cords. I’m picky as hell with food (except for fish), friends, friends of friends, lovers. People call me a snob and a loner. The other day, my roommate made a quip about me being that guy at a party who hides in the master bed-room to play with the house cat.

I love cats. And I blame this bizarre obses-sion on my childhood. Growing up, all we had were cats. We had so many at one point that we stopped naming them. Instead, we used variations on the word “cat”: kitty, kitten, kits

— you get the idea. I presently don’t own a cat because my apartment doesn’t allow pets, but thankfully I live in a neighbourhood that purrs with cats.

As a student, my proximity to cats is a golden distraction from schoolwork. I’ve even used the “cat ate my homework” excuse.

I won’t tell you where I live for two reasons: 1) because people tend to either love or hate the feline species, and I wouldn’t want any readers maliciously stalking these unsuspect-ing pussies; and 2) because as a writer, I want to enjoy their aloof company all by myself. All I have to do is walk for a couple blocks and I’m in furball heaven. I’ve even mastered a high-pitched noise to call them from miles away. My teeth and tongue start to chatter in

a strange tuk tuk tuk sound, and all the neigh-bourhood cats flock toward me. One day, when my illusion of making it as a famous writer finally breaks, I’ll live in the sewers and declare myself King of the Cats. Just imagine the crazy pigeon lady from Home Alone 2, only not as shabby.

I get more emotional over a dead animal in a movie or TV show than I do when a person gets blown up, thrown off a building, eaten by zombies, etc. (Ever seen Hocus Pocus? I still howl like a kitten in pain when Binx the cat gets flattened by a truck.) I figure I probably care more about animals than I do about peo-ple. (I’ll say “probably” here to avoid coming across as entirely apathetic toward the human species and, ergo, a potential mass murderer.)

I should make a public plea to anyone who sees me chasing cats: please alert the local au-thorities, or at least the owners. I’ve stopped thinking like a human, you see, and all I want to do when I spot a fellow feline is roll on the ground and play. And if you happen to attend the same gathering as me, please ensure I don’t enter random bedrooms in search of four-footed creatures. I’m only just begin-ning my career as a writer — I don’t want to be known as “crazy cat guy” who shows up at readings with a furry friend on a leash, or worse yet, balanced on my shoulder.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, someone is shining a laser pen onto the wall beside me, and I must puncture that tiny red dot. �

Kitty konfession kornerLoner writing student or feline reincarnation?

BETH MAY

April 4, 2013 MARTLET • HUMOUR 19

UVIC VIKES UPDATE // PRESENTED BY

VIKES CELEBRATION OF CHAMPIONSFULL LIST OF AWARD WINNERS: GOVIKESGO.COM/COC

2012-13 VIKES ATHLETIC AWARD WINNERSPRESIDENT ’S CUP WINNERS ATHLETES OF THE YEAR ROOKIES OF THE YEAR

CHANCELLOR’SAWARD

PROVOSTAWARD

DEBBIE YEBOAHBASKETBALL5th Year2013 Canada West First Team All-Star.Led the Vikes in scoring in 14 of 22 regular season games. Varsity Council member. GPA of 7.5, Humanities

SEAN DUKERUGBY4th YearDominant player in Ca-nadian University rugby for four seasons, has led Vikes to National 7s championship & BC Premier title.GPA of 8.5, Education

WILL O’CONNELLROWING4th YearTeam captain. Led Vikes to second-straight Western CURC banner. Won Silver medal in open pair and bronze medal in open eight at CURC’s. Has helped Vikes win Brown Cup race two of the past three years and has been a regular medal-list at CURC’s every year.

MEGAN WOODLANDGOLF4th YearTeam captain. Was the 2012 AI I regional indi-vidual champion, 2012 NAIA individual cham-pion and was second at the Canadian University championship. Finished 16th at World Univer-sity Championship and 2012 Vikes Shootout individual champion. Top 5 finisher in all events in 2012-13.

NATHAN YANAGIYARUGBY

JENNA BUGIARDINIBASKETBALL

OLIVIA DE GOEDESOCCER

KENDRA POMFRETX-COUNTRY & TRACK

> ADAM HAYMAN

Campus deer. They’re a breed separate from the modern-day nuisance of city deer. They are leaps and bounds different from the frolicking, fun-loving, Bambi-esque deer of the wild. Cam-pus deer are the redneck cousins of those deer — ironic considering they live on the grounds of an educational institution. They’re obnox-ious, dirty. They forgo the diet of leaves and grass for waffle fries and half-eaten Ham Kick It sandwiches from Biblio. They don’t scare easily. Worst of all: they get drunk.

There’s no shortage of liquor bottles on cam-pus the day after a party. We’ve all seen deer on Saturday and Sunday mornings, walking around residence buildings. The more naive among us assume the deer are grazing, but take a closer look: it’s the not-quite-empty beer cans they’re after. On my way to the library just last Sunday, I saw a female deer throwing up beside Felicita’s patio after drinking too much Doe’s Equis. Another deer stumbled and kicked a discarded two-six of Jägermeister with its front hoof. In rutting season, I’ve seen bucks stagger into parked road bikes, short trees and some of UVic’s more diminutive faculty members.

Although they are relatively large creatures, it takes very little alcohol to get a buck drunk. They lack fat and are pure sinew. Carrie Boo, who is completing her PhD in biology, said of the situation, “Deer are adaptable. It’s no sur-prise they’re addicted to leftover alcohol. Their

adaptivity comes from their addictive personali-ties. The alcohol will most likely enhance their reproductive urges, and if we don’t take action, these campus deer could be just as much of a problem as the rabbits were.”

Boo was right in her prediction. Not five min-utes after the interview, two bucks were seen staggering towards a cluster of does. The bucks wore white-rimmed shades, and one carried an old ghetto blaster in his antlers that blared a Barry White-tail CD.

Some students have been traumatized by the campus deer. Tim Buckley, a second-year fine arts student, has been “harassed” by one of the larger does. She followed him home on a number of occasions and tried attacking his girlfriend. Other students are simply concerned. I ran into Jane Elkhorn, a first-year history stu-dent, on her way back from class, and she said, “It’s not the deer’s fault. People need to stop throwing half-empty beer cans around residence on Friday nights.” However, before we could finish our interview, a small buck hooked her bag with his antlers and fled the scene with her two-six of Malibu rum.

The campus deer aren’t dying, but they’re hurt. Herds are becoming dysfunctional, overly aroused and aggressive. The university has stepped up and notified PETA. The animal rights organization is setting up AA meetings and organizing a benefit song: “No poachers, no Pilsner, just love.” �

UVic’s drunken deer

� Applying lipstick with your cleavage is an adequate substitute for a personality.

� In the end, nerds don’t get love. Especially not if Molly Ringwald is involved.

� Skipping class requires an elaborate story about a death in the family, a costume and a stolen car. Whatever, Hughes: you obviously didn’t go to public school.

� You can pretend your dandruff is snow and still somehow land a boyfriend.

� It’s fine to make Molly Ringwald your protagonist in every film without changing her personality. Eat your heart out, writing students.

� Opposites attract; we’re also all the same. What was the end message in The Breakfast Club again?

� It’s fine to leave a young Macaulay Culkin home alone. He’ll figure it out.

� Go for the boy who wears a sports coat in high school. He’s rich.

� Never lend your panties to a boy. Should be obvious.

� With enough charisma, you can overtake a parade float and make an entire city fall in love with you.

� Parents are dense.

� Drama always increases just before summer vacation. Have a good one, UVic.

� > MEG CUTHBERT

Lessons from film director John Hughes

A-LIST

visit martlet.caThere is a ton of awesome daily, web-exclusive content waiting for your ocular enjoyment.

20 HUMOUR • MARTLET April 4, 2013

BOOK YOUR NEXT EVENT

OR PUB CRAWL WITH US!sopranoskaraoke.ca

student night every thursday.

cheap drinks.

730 Caledonia (250) 382-5853

Win up to $500

Of Your Tuition

on the Wheel of

Fortune.

Book your sitting: gradpic@uvic.ca or 250-721-8281

Social Sciences and Math Building, Room B345

www.uvic.ca/gradphotos

@UVicGradPhotos

UVic Grad Photos is auniversity service.

Here for you.On campus.

NORTH-EAST LYNX BY PATRICK MURRY & MIKE PAROLINI

ROBOT COMICS BY KLARA WOLDENGA

feeling creative?tired of having boring summers?

Share it with the world. Send us your comics.

Try your hand at journalism! We're looking for volunteer writers, photographers, illustrators and copy editors to help out with our summer issues of the Martlet.

E-mail proco@martlet.ca for more info

E-mail edit@martlet.ca to find out how to get involved.