Men sacrifi ce feet to raise

funds, awareness, p. 3

YPY debate leaves campus,

enters courts, p. 3

Mother Mother emerge

from the studio, p. 9

UVic to proceed with new

athletics facilities, p. 11

Thursday, May 13, 2010 University of Victoria’s Independent Newspaper www.Martlet.ca

Exploring

Roots

p.9

UVic writing grad

travels to Italy for

a family memoir

2 NEWS May 13, 2010

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ContributorsGabby Guglielmi, Jess-C Hall, Elizabeth Hames, Taylor Heaven, Karolina Karas, Maria Kenney, Patrick Murry, Danielle Pope, Nadine Sander-Green, Scott Shi, Shawn Slavin, Josh Thompson, Glen O’Neill

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Students who purchase the UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) health and dental plan are not getting the best deal available, according to UVSS Chairperson James Coccola.

Under the new plan, which takes effect in September, students will pay $148 for health coverage and $140 for dental, totaling $288. The premium paid to insurance provider Greenshield is $256.08 per student; the extra $31.92 is collected by the UVSS as an administrative fee. This year, approximately $200,000 will be collected in administrative fees.

But Coccola, who campaigned on reforming the health plan, doesn’t feel this plan is the best value.

“I think that if we’d done it differ-ently, we could have done a better deal,” he said.

The contract for the new health plan was signed by outgoing Director of Finance Edward Pullman.

Coccola said he’s disappointed the contract was signed before the in-coming board had a chance to see it.

“It’s really unfortunate that we are where we are,” he said.

Coccola says that, under UVSS poli-cy, the director of finance is supposed to come to the board with contracts

of this size, but adds “that hasn’t been followed in recent years.”

However, Pullman says that, his-torically, it is the outgoing director of finance who signs the contract for the coming year, “because there are cer-tain deadlines that have to be met.”

“Basically, there’s no precedent in previous years for that carrying over into the summer,” said Pullman.

One issue new board members identified with the new plan is a decrease in dental coverage from $1,000 to $750, and from two check-ups per year down to one.

Pullman said this is due to an in-crease in usage of the dental coverage.

“Like any good insurance company, they’re going to say if you want to maintain that level of coverage, we’re going to have to jack up your premium substantially,” he said. “Sometimes it’s simply impossible to maintain a certain level of coverage without having to put up your fees and, when you can’t put up your fees above a certain point, you have to look at increasing your deductible.”

The fact that the outgoing board signed the new plan is not the only thing worrying new board members, however. They are also concerned about the $200,000 that is being col-lected as administrative fees.

UVSS audits from 2007, 2008 and 2009 show administration fees of ap-proximately $90,000 per year.

“There are obviously administrative fees to covering a plan like this. We have management that’s working on this very heavily and we have a lot of staff,” said Coccola. “But it shouldn’t cost as much as they’re charging for it. Where exactly it goes I’m not exactly sure.”

Student Union Building (SUB) General Manager Marne Jensen said the administration fee goes toward the infrastructure that supports the health plan, including staffing for the info booth, support

services and the administration manager. She said the additional funds go into the operations fund to help balance the budget.

Current Director of Finance Kelsey Hannan said he didn’t know about the administration fee until he took office on May 1 and gained access to all of the UVSS’ financial documents.

“[In spring 2009], our finance di-rector made an agreement to reduce our coverage and our premiums. So, they reduced the coverage by eight per cent. The quality of the plan went down. But instead of the plan becoming cheaper, they increased the amount they took. And this was essentially a way of reducing the defi-cit,” said Hannan. “Basically, what they did is they reduced student’s coverage, made the plan cheaper, but didn’t make the plan cheaper because they took the extra cut.”

Jensen said that, because of the UVSS’ financial situation, manage-ment advised the UVSS to take advantage of the fee.

“Because there’s a significant deficit coming from the strike and the cost of the wage package coming from the strike, we’re still struggling to rebal-ance the profitability of our opera-tions,” she said. “And so we’re relying heavily on the admin fee while we make the structural changes to bring the costs in line.”

While Coccola and Hannan want to see the administrative fee reduced, Hannan notes that doing so will not be an easy task, given the UVSS’ cur-rent financial situation.

“The scariest part about this is we’ve got $200,000 on the plan and we still posted a deficit [last] year,” Hannan said. “That means even with this bump up we’re in a bad financial situation, and that means a lot of tough decisions.

“We’re even further behind than we thought.”

- files from Gemma Karstens-Smith

New health plan comes with surprises> KailEy WillEttS

Political engagement among youth, or lack thereof, was a key theme at the Democracy and Participation Symposium hosted by UVic’s Depart-ment of Political Science in April.

The symposium began with an event that brought together high school students and academics to dis-cuss how to get youth more engaged in politics. Effective civic education emerged as a key element.

Brandt Bitterlich and Heather Clif-fords, Grade 12 students at Lambrick Park Secondary School, went to the event because they are interested in politics and plan on studying political science at UVic in September

But they said that most students at Lambrick have no interest in politics, and expressed frustration at the lack of civic education at their school.

“They don’t really teach it a lot in school,” said Cliffords. “And when they do teach it – politics and stuff – it’s kind of boring and no one likes learning about it. [The teachers] don’t really make it engaging.”

“Our [Social Studies] teacher made

us learn the whole Canadian govern-ment, and so on, on our own,” said Bitterlich. “He didn’t even bother teaching it last year.”

Istvan Sitar, a teacher at Reynolds Secondary School, brought his Civics 11 class to the event. Sitar said he tries to teach his class in an engaging way by having regular discussions and debates on current events and issues that concern students, and then relating what’s discussed to the structure and func-tion of governments.

“By using some of those current events, [students] engage and say, ‘Oh, that affects me. OK, I am inter-ested in that,’” said Sitar.

Sitar’s 16 and 17-year-old students said that Civics 11 has increased their interest in politics.

“I know I’m going to vote,” said Reynolds student Hola Mercedes.

The symposium also featured a talk by Taylor Gunn, founder of Student Vote, a non-profit that organizes parallel elec-tions in schools during official elections.

In the last federal election, Student Vote helped over 500,000 elementary and high school students cast ballots.

“We want to see this happen every election, so that through the course of a school career, for a student, vot-ing becomes normal,” said Gunn.

Another symposium event fea-tured former Liberal MP Stephen Owen, who said that young people are not disaffected.

“We do have to worry about the

next generation,” said Owen. “But it’s not apathy; it’s being left out of their conversation, which will dominate politics and will certainly characterize the way we participate as a citizenry ... Social media and younger generations are actually going to dominate public conversa-tion and decision making.”

Event strives to engage youth in politics> GrahaM BriGGS

JOSH THOMPSON

Experts at UVic’s Democracy and Participation symposium agreed that finding ways to get youth interested in politics is essential.

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If you’re downtown on Satur-day, May 15, and suddenly find yourself surrounded by men in high heels, rest assured it’s not the bar crowd on their mid-afternoon walk of shame — it’s Victoria’s fourth-annual Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event.

The men participating in the event will each don a pair of heels and engage in a painful mile-long trek starting and ending in Centen-nial Square. Proceeds from the walk go toward the Victoria Women’s Sexual Assault Centre (VWSAC).

The event takes a playful ap-proach to the serious topic of sex-ual assault and gender violence as a way of getting Victoria talking about this issue and rallying com-munity support.

“Sexualized violence is a dif-ficult subject for people to talk about,” said VWSAC Resource Development Manager Tracy Lubick. “As a community, we need to open up the channels of com-munication. We need to challenge societal expectations and gender stereotypes that can create an environment that perpetuates and can lead to sexualized violence.”

Because sexual assault is such a stigmatized topic of discussion, many people may not realize how extensively it affects the women we know. According to the 1993 Violence Against Women Survey by Statistics Canada, one in three women will experience sexual as-sault in her lifetime. More recently, the Statistics Canada’s report “Sex-ual Assault in Canada: 2004 and 2007,” estimated that there were about 512, 000 incidents of sexual assault in 2004. The same report estimated that approximately one in 10 incidents of sexual assault is reported to police.

“I have heard from men who

have signed on to walk in the past simply to ‘support a good cause’ and then have been very surprised when several women in their lives have shared with them their own stories as survivors of sexualized violence,” said Lubick. “I think it’s been eye-opening for many.”

University students are at the greatest statistical risk of ex-periencing sexualized violence because of their typical age range. They also risk greater impact from such an experience, as it can be made more profound on those undergoing university lifestyle transitions, such as going to a new school or changing peer groups.

“That particular age group is incredibly vulnerable in terms of what they are exposed to, and experience,” said Lubick. “But the campus environment also offers an opportunity to educate and learn. The Anti-Violence Project (AVP) at UVic is an incredible on-campus re-source. We work quite closely with them and are proud to be partners with their organization.”

This year, AVP is sponsoring a new Kid’s Zone tent which will have age-appropriate activities for children.

The first Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event was organized in 2001 in Los Angeles, and has since spread to become a successful world-wide phenomenon. In its in-augural year in Victoria, over 200 people showed up for the event, raising $15,000 for the VWSAC. This year, the overall fundraising goal for the event is $20,000.

“Victoria has really embraced this event. Many men have now walked in it every year and are passionate about showing their support,” said Lubick.

Walk A Mile In Her Shoes starts in Centennial Square, and runs from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. To find out more about the event, call VWSAC at (250) 383-5545 or visit vwsac.com.

Provided

Clicking heels will be heard downtown on May 15 when community mem-bers don their finest pumps to raise awareness for sexualized violence.

Men sport stiletos to support VWSAC> Maria Kenney

After years of battling the UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) for club status and funding, pro-life group Youth Protecting Youth (YPY) is taking the fight off campus and into court.

YPY filed a petition with the B.C. Supreme Court against the UVSS on May 3.

“What we’re asking for is that we’re treated like any other club and that means being granted status and funding and being allowed to share our beliefs with students on campus,” said YPY President Anastasia Pearse. “The UVSS has acted unlawfully in de-nying us. They need to know they cannot practice this censorship against the group. So, if it takes a court case to show them that what they have done is wrong, so be it.”

The B.C. Civil Liberties Associa-tion (BCCLA) is supporting YPY and seeking intervener status in the lawsuit. BCCLA also put YPY in contact with Vancouver lawyer Joseph Arvay, who will represent the club in court.

“The lawsuit seeks relief from a protracted campaign of censor-ship and discrimination against the club, in which the [UVSS] has deprived YPY of official club status and withdrawn its funding to punish it for expressing pro-life views,” said a BCCLA press release regarding the lawsuit.

“The position of the [UVSS] seems to be that all pro-life advocacy is inherently a form of harassment and discrimination against women, and hence YPY is appropriately denied the status and privileges of an official stu-dent club.”

In the lawsuit, YPY asks that their status and funding be restored, as well as funding they have been denied since Oct. 2008. They are also seeking a declara-tion that “past and current refus-als to fund and/or ratify [YPY] were and are unlawful,” and an order saying that YPY can be a club with status and funding as long they operate the same way they have in the past and do in the present. As well, the lawsuit asks that the amendments pertaining to pro-life groups in the UVSS’ recently revised harassment policy be eliminated.

Pearse says that the group has “ex-hausted multiple means of appeal” through the UVSS, but the situation has only deteriorated further.

YPY’s club status was questioned

in Sept. 2008 after the group put up Feminists for Life post-ers at UVic. From 2008 to 2010 the UVSS board received several complaints that YPY’s tactics con-stituted harassment. As a result, YPY’s status and funding were revoked several times between 2008 and 2010.

“We think it’s time we had a more official authority decide the matter and we hope this establish-es a stronger precedent so, in the future, the UVSS will treat YPY fairly,” said Pearse.

In Feb. 2010, the UVSS board re-voked YPY’s funding until Decem-ber 2010 and said the club would not be eligible for status until it signed onto a revised version of the UVSS’ harassment policy for clubs. The revised policy was to be developed by the UVSS Organisa-tional Development Committee in consultation with several con-cerned groups, including YPY.

Pearse says YPY was against the policy amendments from the beginning because they initially targeted pro-life clubs. She says that members of YPY attended the first two or three meetings of the committee, but eventually decided not to participate.

“We felt it would be a waste of our time to join in on the meetings because some people were deter-

mined to go ahead with making those policies,” said Pearse.

Ammendments to the harassment policy were passed by the UVSS board on April 21, including a new definition of harassment and a new process for how the board deals with harassment complaints.

The UVSS board also voted to restore YPY’s club status at the April 21 meeting.

Pearse says YPY was shocked by the board’s decision to restore YPY’s status, especially because the club was told that they would not have to sign the new harass-ment policy right away.

“It seemed like a goodwill thing on their part,” she said.

However, Pearse says the new harassment policies would censor her group when they do have to sign it.

“Really, we can’t sign it in good faith knowing that it prevents us from a lot of pro-life advocacy,” she said.

As of press time, it was unclear how the UVSS will react to the lawsuit. UVSS Chairperson James Coccola noted that the decisions on YPY’s status and funding had all been made by previous boards.

“This is a new board,” he said. “The board will be, in the future, given a chance to talk about [the lawsuit].”

> GeMMa Karstens-sMith

Pro-life club launches lawsuit against UVSS over status and funding

YPY debate heads to court

scott shi

YPY President Anastasia Pearse says the pro-life club has exhausted all other means of appeal with the UVSS in trying to restore their status and funding.

OpinionsEditorial

glen o’neill

Editorial topics are decided on by staff at our weekly editorial meeting at 2 p.m. every Friday 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.

4 OPINIONS May 13, 2010

•Do you have big ideas and opinions, but no one to share them with?

Get your voice heard loud and clear. Email opinions@martlet.ca for more info.

Lobby groups exist to influence government policies and practices. They have obvious agendas and biases.

The press exists to analyze, scrutinize, criticize and hold politicians and other public figures accountable for the decisions they make. They strive to be unbiased and report on all issues fairly and accurately.

Because their aims are so diametrically opposed, lobby groups and the press should, in theory, maintain a respectful distance from one another. The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), however, seems to disagree with this notion. Recently, the Martlet discovered the draft agenda for the CFS National Annual General Meeting (AGM), tak-ing place in Ottawa later this month. One motion, moved by the York Federation of Students, calls for the CFS to undertake steps “to start a national magazine on higher education in Canada.” Part of the reason-ing behind this: “student perspectives are often absent or minimized in mainstream press.”

Does this mean that the CFS doesn’t see university publications as be-ing “mainstream”? Or if that’s not what they’re insinuating, do they see university newspapers as doing an inadequate job of covering student issues? Either way, we as student journalists are offended. The fact that a publication is produced at a university does not make it any less important than a national newspaper. The Martlet might not publish every day and our readership may be smaller, but we still have the ability – and responsibility – to effectively inform our communities. Like most university publications, this often includes reporting on post-secondary and student issues, including those that the CFS lobbies for, like transit, housing and tuition.

In recent years, reporting on student issues has included extensive critical coverage of the CFS at several post-secondary institutions across the country – including UVic – as those institutions question their continued membership in the organization. At times, this has included investigative stories exploring the boo-boos and blunders the CFS has made and possible problems with the organization’s structure. Coverage has also included editorial and opinion pieces critiquing the effectiveness of the CFS.

Perhaps the CFS’ proposed magazine is less about educating Canadians “on trends and changes to educational policies, issues and events that have a national scope and other issues that are important to the college and university system,” and more about pushing their agenda without the critical press that has come to surround them.

Either way, it’s dangerous for a lobby group to play the press game. Any publication the CFS releases should solely be a CFS undertaking, pro-duced by the organization for its members. But they want something bigger. They want to produce a “national” magazine, which we assume means distribution beyond just member locals. Furthermore, despite how the CFS may view university publications, they want the help of the student press to do it. The AGM motion says student journalists should be “sought to contribute to the magazine, including through discussions with the Canadian University Press.”

It seems fishy that the CFS wants the same journalists who are writing critical stories about the organization to help out with their fledgling propaganda rag. This would result in campus publications becoming saturated with the CFS line, since these student journalists would now be on the organization’s payroll.

The line between lobby groups and the press exists for a reason and the CFS should respect that by leaving university publications to do what they’re good at: being independent, critical media outlets.

Keep your agenda out of our press

Happy? Sad? Enraged?

Tell us: letters@martlet.caThe Martlet has an open let-ters policy and will endeavour to print every letter received from the university commu-nity. Letters must be submit-ted 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.

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opinions@martlet.ca

ode to McPhersonOur library,Which art at UVic,Hallowed be thy halls,To you we’ll come,Endless work to be done,At cubicles as well as workstations.Give us this day,All the references we need,And forgive us our snack time,As we forgive those,Who snack secretly too.Lead us not into Facebook’s temptation,And deliver us from essays.For you hold the answers in jour-nals and stories.And I’ll be here forever and ever,Amen

Erin WebbUVic student

Women’s Centre clarificationTo all members of the University of Victoria’s Students’ Society,

On behalf of the UVSS Women’s Centre, its members, and coordina-tors, I would like to state that the decision to approve the anti-choice group “Youth Protecting Youth” (YPY)’s club status, reached at the April 21, 2010 UVSS board meet-ing, does not have the support of the UVSS Women’s Centre.

The Women’s Centre did not participate in the construction of the motion to grant YPY club status and was not aware that it was being put forward at the aforementioned meeting. The ideological views expressed through this motion do not reflect those of the Women’s Centre, its constituents and members, or the organizations that we support such as Students for Choice.

In keeping with our mission, to be a strong, radical, feminist voice on campus, the Women’s Centre hopes to continue working together to protect women’s reproductive rights and to challenge the presence and ac-tions of anti-choice movements such as YPY at UVic. As a UVSS club, YPY’s actions have continually worked to undermine women’s reproductive rights through the proliferation of inaccurate information on abortion and the creation of hostile and intimi-dating environments on campus.

As co-coordinator of the UVSS Women’s Centre, I would like to apologize for the alienation and distress that this motion may have inflicted on UVic students and on all those who have worked tirelessly to-wards protecting reproductive rights on campus.

Anyone interested in discussing this matter further is welcome to stop by SUB B107 to speak to one of the Women’s Centre coordinators, or contact us at 250.721.8353 or wcentre@uvss.ca.

Gina StarblanketUVSS Women’s Centre Finance &

Administration Co-ordinator

Politics needs youthDuring the last Victoria municipal election campaigns, politicians failed to reach out to young voters. Several politicians chose to use outdated communication channels and to focus on key issues that do not con-cern young people today, or failed to communicate why the issues may be a concern to younger people.

Many of you may remember the 2002 civic election. Alan Lowe’s closest contender was Ben Isitt, then

a 24 year-old master’s student at the University of Victoria. Ben was able to engage some of us oldies to vote for him.

We live in a time where young people are well immersed in regu-larly using various social networks (eg. Facebook), and although this city’s mayor and some council mem-bers use this technology, it is the tired messages that continue to fail. Add to that perpetuating the ‘political ste-reotype’ as we continue to experience the disconnect with the voters, (eg. ‘Blue Bridge’) and there isn’t much incentive to become involved in a system that is tired and outdated.

I encourage younger individuals to express their fresh perspectives. Ide-ally, we will see younger candidates running in elections, and maybe, just maybe, they can achieve what we have failed to do – reform this Jurassic system that many have lost confidence in.

Maybe younger people can have better luck.

William PerryCommunity member

May 13, 2010 OPINIONS 5

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No Muslim woman should be forced to wear a niqab, a veil that shows only her eyes.  But no Muslim woman should be forced not to wear one. Muslim women are – this may shock some people – entirely capable of choosing what to do with their bod-ies, including how to dress.

Jean Charest’s Quebec Liberals recently introduced Bill 94 to the National Assembly, which would prohibit Muslim women from wearing the niqab when accessing public services, including attend-ing public school.

The bill was introduced after an Egyptian immigrant was expelled from a French class for refusing to re-move her niqab. Still wanting to learn one of Canada’s offi cial languages to better integrate into Canadian soci-ety, the woman enrolled at another school. Québec-Immigration tracked her down and expelled her again. The woman has since fi led a human rights complaint.

A second woman, a permanent resi-dent from India, was tracked down by Québec-Immigration and expelled from her French class in April for not removing her niqab.

A spokesperson for Québec-Immigration – yes, Immigration – claimed, “It is important for the teacher to see the student’s mouth to teach good elocution.”

Not a shred of evidence was cited to back that up. And noone can even attempt to learn “good elucu-tion” if they’re kicked out of school. The notion that banning niqabs in class is educationally justifi able is pure bunk.

Now, the number of Canadian Mus-lim women who actually wear the niqab is almost nil. Of over 500,000, only several dozen wear niqabs. And of roulghy 200,000 Muslim women in Quebec, just over 20 wear niqabs.

That’s 0.01 per cent. Have you ever seen a woman wearing a niqab at school? Didn’t think so.

Sensibly, Ontario simply allows women who wear niqabs to make an appointment with a female civil servant when they need to remove them to get a passport photo, a mam-mogram, etc.

So why is this xenophobic, dis-criminatory law even on Quebec’s legislative agenda? Because Charest’s Quebec Liberals are fl oundering in the polls. The main goal of Bill 94 is to divert attention from the Quebec Liberals’ failings. This discrimination against a minority group for political gain is disgusting and scary, and has chilling historical precedents.

I am not at all religious. I fi nd religion silly, and many religious practices strange. But, hey – many would say that I’m silly and strange.

I feel personally threatened by any law that bans anyone from wearing unusual clothes. How I dress should be my choice. How a Muslim woman dresses should be her choice. 

The threat to free expression and individuality posed by Bill 94 is what irks me most. In Canada, Muslim women who rock niqabs are among the most unusual, non-conforming

dressers. Bill 94 says, in essence, you cannot be too diff erent, you must conform. The bill should worry all who cherish free expres-sion and non-conformity.

In his essay “On Liberty,” John Stu-art Mill wrote that “the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccen-tricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Ec-centricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccen-tricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.”

Quebec’s niqab ban, assuming it passes, will hopefully be voided by every court that considers it.

In the meantime, those of us who value liberty, equality, non-confor-mity and individuality must speak out against the Quebec government’s discriminatory ploy meant to distract voters from its own blunders.

Quebec’s niqab ban stinks> GRAHAM BRIGGS

GLEN O’NEILL

St. Aidan’s United Churchwww.staidansunited.com

We are a welcoming, inclusive community church near the corner of Richmond and Cedar Hill X Road. Join us on a summer Sunday beginning with singing at 9:50am.

A big question on the minds of UVic administrators these days is what to do with the exploding rabbit population.

The Rabbit Pilot Project, a sterilization program undertaken by the university last year, was ineffective in shrinking the rabbit population, and was prohibi-tively expensive. After $17, 743 was spent, 40 sterilized rabbits, tattooed for identification, were released back on to campus, away from the “rabbit-free” zones.

Now the only other options that occur to me are 1) relocating them or 2) culling the population.

Relocating the rabbits doesn’t seem to be an option, especially because complications concern-ing taking the rabbits out of their habitat was a huge setback in the Pilot Project. Could UVic find a nice petting zoo, a hu-mane laboratory , or a desperate butcher’s shop to take them? Even if they found a petting zoo willing to take an influx of rabbits, I don’t think they would take a couple of hundred at once — no matter how cute they were. And I seriously doubt we could ask families to take them in as pets, since many rabbits were originally abandoned here because people didn’t want them.

So that just leaves culling, as the UVic administration has made it clear that the rabbits have to be dealt with — their feces alone poses a significant health risk to people on campus and the rabbits cause thousands of dollars in

damage to the university by eat-ing the foliage.

My smart-ass roommate be-lieves the rabbits should all be turned into homosexual crea-tures; that’ll solve the problem eventually.

The solution I prefer is a little less 1984: set up rabbit traps on campus (like bear traps), with ap-propriate signs to warn students and passersby. The traps will kill the rabbits and their carcasses can later be collected and disposed of by the groundskeepers or picked at by the hawks who eat the rab-bits anyway.

That seems the most effective and safest way to cull the rabbits, unless the UVic Board of Gover-nors want to authorize closing the campus so a bunch of staff with rifles and shotguns can comb the university grounds and shoot them. Running around campus with guns just doesn’t seem quite safe to me. The administration could use poison to get rid of these pesky creatures, but when it comes to using poison, let’s not forget that the rabbits won’t be the only UVic critters likely to stumble upon it.

A lot of people reading this will think “Stuart’s a monster” or “He doesn’t know what the most humane way of dealing with the rabbit population is” or maybe, “He’s a sociopath.”

To these people, I ask this very simple question: would you care so deeply if this was an infesta-tion of cockroaches rather than rabbits?

I didn’t think so.

> STUART ARMSTRONG

Are the UVic rabbits

vermin or pets? University must rethink what the bunnies really are

6 FEATURE May 13, 2010

A life between pagesOne UVic author strives to tell her

great, great grandmother’s story of Old Italia

B y N a d i n e S a n d e r - G r e e n

Throughout the 1950s, the Benecasa, Russos and Ferraris families uprooted their lives in Southern Italy and immigrated to Edmonton, Alta. Each one of the family members left their Italian soil to begin a life that, so far, had only existed in their imaginations.

Everybody, except Rosina Benecasa. After the Second World War, Italy had a surplus of citizens.

The government organized for whole villages to immigrate to nations whose economies were flourishing. But Rosina — the matriarch of her family — was getting old. She suffered from severe motion sickness. She had never ridden in a car, or even a carriage.

Rosina lived in Maione, Italy, for more than a decade after the mass immigration, and passed away in 1969 at the age of 86. Her family can only use their imagination to know what the last years of Rosina’s life were like.

A book in the makingFast-forward half a century. It’s August 2009. Rosina’s great, great granddaughter is driving from Edmonton to Victoria to start her graduate program at UVic. Her name is Jessica Kluthe and she’s entering the creative writing master’s program with a goal in mind.

She wants to write a book.Kluthe, under the guidance of the associate dean of the writ-

ing department, Lynne Van Luven, is now working on the fifth chapter of a creative non-fiction book based on her own expe-rience living as a second-generation Italian-Canadian, as well as a reconstructed world she creates for Rosina in the middle of the 20th century in the little Italian village of Maione.

Kluthe is interested in exploring the physical diaspora as mi-

grants moved from Italian farming villages to Canadian urban centers. She wants to get at the psychological loss of cultural identity, too, and how subsequent generations, including Klu-the herself, are unable to communicate in the language their family once knew so well. She wants to investigate if there are parallels between leaving an ancestral place and losing ancestral culture and language.

Rosina’s life is a mystery, defined now by a few official docu-ments and the memories her family have of her. She has birth, death and marriage certificates. There is one known photo-graph of her.

“There were always stories about Rosina,” says Kluthe. “But they just seemed like myths.”

She explained how her nanni, Rose Ferrari, believed Rosina had been 57 when the single photo was taken. But when Kluthe asked Rose’s younger cousin, he said Rosina had been 70. Neither knew who the photographer was or where it was taken.

“Everyone’s stories were different,” Kluthe says. “My grand-parents were getting old and I thought I should learn their history while I still could.”

Kluthe will write the majority of her 120-page manuscript this summer, as per requirements for her graduate degree. Come fall, she will travel to Italy to visit the villages where her family originated and she will meet locals who knew Rosina. She hopes to gather enough research and experience to finish the memoir.

“The book needs me to go to Italy,” she says.

A rural girlKluthe grew up in the town of Morinville, Alta. — a town of 6,500, about 20 minutes north of Edmonton.

She’s been writing in journals since she was in Grade 4, and admits to having “a fierce need to record everything.”

“I just don’t want to forget anything,” Kluthe says. “I want to have some sort of a record of my life, even if it’s just for me.”

Kluthe has been to Italy twice before, but never felt ready to journey to the southern tip of the country to meet her relatives. While completing an English degree at the University of Alberta, she worked in a gas bar in Morinville, where she used to spend her eight-hour shifts flipping through her Italian guidebooks as she worked behind the wall of thick glass.

“It was embarrassing to be working there,” admits Kluthe. “It was such a small town and people I knew would always come up and say things like ‘Oh, you’re still working here?’”

Kluthe was excited to have been accepted into the graduate writing program at UVic. She’s always wanted to live in B.C. She remembers trips to Fairmont Hot Springs, a town in the southeast corner of the province near the Rocky Mountains, as one of her favourite places.

The storyKluthe started thinking about the idea for her book years ago when she was volunteering with a non-profit charitable organization in Edmonton called Changing Together: a Centre for Immigrant Women. There she interviewed immigrant and refugee women and wrote their stories of immigration, displacement and memories of home. Those women’s stories motivated Kluthe to research and write her own family’s im-migration story.

Kluthe admits that she really “woke up” and realized her privilege as a Canadian citizen when she was volunteering at the centre.

“It wasn’t something I had thought a lot about. It was some-thing I am ashamed to say I had taken for granted.”

She remembers talking to one immigrant from Latin America who looked her in the eye and said she was lucky to be Canadian. The woman wasn’t able to work until she became a Canadian citizen, but she could volunteer at the centre. She said helping others gave her a sense of self worth.

“Imagine, though, coming to a foreign place, alone, and not even being able to work?” Kluthe says.

Another inspiration behind the book was Kluthe’s curiosity

May 13, 2010 FEATURE 7

about Rosina. Rosina was a midwife and a mother of five children. When her

husband died of a heart attack in a farmer’s field, Rosina moved in with Kluthe’s grandmother, who was just a child at the time. Kluthe has done much of her research through her grandmoth-er, who admits that leaving Rosina was her biggest loss.

“When I talk about going to Italy, Nanni says she could never go back,” says Kluthe. “A place is part of your identity and, for her, it’s better in memory. She can’t go back to her Italy.”

A trip to the homeland Kluthe is now in the process of obtaining citizenship in Italy. She acknowledges her privilege in comparison to her family’s situation just a few generations ago.

“Rosina couldn’t leave the country, and here I am getting citizenship when I can’t even speak the language,” she says.

Kluthe doesn’t know what Maione looks like now, but family stories have helped her construct a setting where Rosina lives in the book.

There is a river that Mussolini’s men crossed to demand families give up their copper pots so that they could be melted down into bullets. This is the same river that Klu-the’s nonno crossed to declare his love for her nanni, who, at first, turned him down. It’s the river Nonno fell in, wear-ing his new suit, crushing the eggs that he was carrying in his pocket.

There is an open field where Nanni used to pick acorns. It is the same field where Rosina’s husband had a heart attack and died.

“These spots belong to an Italy I won’t ever get to travel to — an Italy my grandparent’s couldn’t go back to because places change over time,” says Kluthe. “But it doesn’t matter. Everyone has their own landscapes that belong to them.”

Kluthe imagines the last three chapters of the book will be about her own trip to Italy. She says she can “feel them there” but really wants the experience to shape the book.

“I want to speak to people in the village who knew Rosina,”

says Kluthe. “I want to imagine what it would be like to be with her, and what it would be like at the end of her life when her whole family was gone.”

Truth in non-fictionUnlike fiction, creative non-fiction is based upon lived experi-ences and is rooted in an unstated pact between the author and the reader that the story the writer is telling is true. But how do we find truth? And is there just one?

Kluthe hopes her manuscript helps examine the relationship between fiction and non-fiction. Her recreated scenes of Ro-sina’s Italy are based in facts she has learned through her family: there is a river, an open field, a house on the hill.

But the art of creative non-fiction, and what makes the genre so compelling, is the reality a writer creates through his or her imagination.

“The places in the book probably don’t exist in the ways that I have imagined them, but they are real to me,” says Kluthe. “They are the only way I can connect to the past.”

In Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Non-Fiction, authors Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paula probe at the question of just how much emphasis writers should put on “non-fiction” and how much on the “creative” part.

“In creative non-fiction, the creative aspect involves not only writerly techniques, but also a creative interpretation of the facts of our lives, plumping the skeletal facts with the flesh of imagination,” they write.

Van Luven, Kluthe’s writing advisor, says that Kluthe is “scrupulous” in telling her reader when she is recreating a scene. Van Luven says non-fiction writers have been creating an imagined past for a long time, but the younger genera-tion seems to be more fearless in stretching the boundaries of the genre.

The work that thrills One word Kluthe repeats a lot about her inexperience with

writing a book is, “overwhelming.” Kluthe is a teacher’s assistant (TA) for the non-fiction

section of the 100-level writing workshop at UVic, she is working through the first few chapters of her book in a fourth-year workshop and has Van Luven as a one-on-one mentor. She admits to being “grateful” that she’s not “writing in a room blindly without any feedback.”

Soon she will send her first few chapters and book proposals to Canadian publishers.

“I can see the end of the book, and I can see the shape of it,” she said. “But I don’t know how I’m going to get there.”

Kluthe explains that she can’t use plot points when mapping out her book, which fiction writers often use, because she wants her experience to form the book.

“The overwhelming part is trying to privilege experience. I want to let the interviews and my own experience shape this story,” she says.

She does, however, believe that true stories are more inter-esting than fiction because they speak to our “lived experi-ence.” She admits that the hardest part of the writing process is wondering if anyone, other than herself, is going to be interested in the story.

Van Luven says that all writers feel disillusioned at various points in the writing process, and that you just have to “beat it away and carry on.”

“Jessica’s not just writing her own family history,” says Van Luven. “She’s writing a story on behalf of all Italians who came to North America.”

Writing a book, especially in the non-fiction genre, comes with obstacles: dealing with the issues of truth, memory and self-doubt. For Kluthe, she just has to keep reminding herself one thing.

“I just have to trust that everyone has a story to tell.”

A life between pagesOne UVic author strives to tell her

great, great grandmother’s story of Old Italia

B y N a d i n e S a n d e r - G r e e n

•Know of any amazing local bands that everyone else needs to hear?

Help us out and write about them!Email life@martlet.ca to get involved.

8 CULTURE May 13, 2010

life@martlet.ca

Island’s summer festivals offer musical treats

Some students’ summers can make anyone jealous, with plans of going to the family cabin, taking road trips across the country, or backpacking around Europe.

However, UVic students still on the island for the summer can ditch the envy and celebrate a Vancou-ver Island staycation. If music and entertainment tickle your fancy, the Island has an amalgam of music festivals this summer with acts that could make any globetrotter want to stay local.

TD Victoria International JazzFest: June 25 – July 4

Kicking off the festival season is the 26th annual TD Victoria Inter-national JazzFest. Running from June 25 until July 4, the festival is hosted in many Victoria ven-ues, including the Royal Theatre, Centennial Square and the Victoria Events Centre, as well as Element and Sugar nightclubs.

Founder and artistic director Darryl Mar takes great pride in the festival.

“We are considered one of the ma-jor festivals across Canada. There’s about 10 of them, but we are one of the smaller of the biggest jazz festi-vals,” he said. With more than 350 musicians and 90 performances on just 13 stages, the festival is full of opportunity to experience jazz from around the world.

Headlining this year’s festival is Grammy-winning guitarist George Benson, the John Pizzarelli Quartet and the Juno-winning Bill Frisell Trio. JazzFest will also feature Nikki Yanofsky for the second time, fresh from her Vancouver 2010 Olympic performances and recording her debut studio album.

JazzFest also off ers opportunities for musicians to hone their craft.

“One of the things that’s signifi cant is that there are four workshops

available to the public for vocal jazz, the saxophone, the bass and the guitar. They are given absolutely for free. All you have to do is register for them,” said Mar.

For more information on JazzFest, a free program guide is available at local TD banks and Serious Coff ee locations.

Victoria’s 11th annual Ska Fest: July 7-10

Victoria’s 11th annual Ska Fest runs July 7 -10, with most shows taking place in Victoria’s Inner Harbour and the grand fi nale at the Victoria Curling Club.

The festival sprung from a one-day festival event created in 1999 as a grad project by UVic alumnus and festival founder Dane Rob-erts. Roberts hoped to “express the breadth and depth of the ska genre,” said Scott Laming, current president of the board of directors for the B.C. Ska Society.

Ska music came about in the 1940s, when musicians in the Carribbean would hear jazz music over radio broadcasts coming from the southern states. They then started to mix the jazz ele-ments with the local rhythms and music styles. From there, the ska genre evolved.

“If you don’t know if you like ska, then come down on July 7 with a free show to kick off the festival,” said Laming, “Each show we try to tailor to diff erent people. Each night is something diff erent to check out. The best value for your money is the fi nale because there’s a little something for everybody.”

Tickets for the Ska Festival are available at Lyle’s Place, Ditch Records, the Reef and the Strath-cona Hotel, with two free shows at the Inner Harbour on the evening of July 7 and afternoon of July 10. For more information, visit www.victoriaskafest.ca.

Big Day Up and Big Time Out: – July 17-18, Aug. 14-15

Cumberland Village Works is host-ing two weekend festivals this sum-mer. So, if miniature road trips are on the list of summer to-do’s, Big Day Up and Big Time Out are the festivals to visit this summer.

Vig Schulman, artistic director of Cumberland Village Works, is ex-cited for the Big Day Up, especially its location.

“We’ve been wanting to do some-thing with [Mt. Washington] for years. Together, we decided to build a show around The Cat Empire coming to Canada. It made sense to do it up there and to explore the stunning venue.”

The fi rst ever Big Day Up out door festival is on July 17 and 18. It features a main stage set up just outside of Mt. Washington’s bunny hill and Fat Teddy’s Bar and Grill.

Alongside Australia’s The Cat

Empire, who Schulman describes as “ridiculously amazing,” the festival also features Canadians Daniel Wesley, Nine Mile and Sweatshop Union. Tickets are currently avail-able online at thebigdayup.com for $40, with prices going up to $55 on May 16.

Related to the Big Day Up is an-other Comox Valley festival, the Big Time Out. Located in Cumberland Village Park, the two-day festival on Aug. 14 and 15 is heading into its sixth year and serves as the inspira-tion for the Big Day Up.

This summer, K’naan, the artist behind the hit “Wavin’ Flag,” will headline once again. DJ Champion and Montreal-based Winter Gloves are also performing.

“Part of the attraction of this festival is the venue,” says Schul-man. “It’s away. People can remove themselves from the city and hang out and just camp. And when you

factor in all the travel expenses, it’s just a nice weekend with good music where you do not necessarily spend a fortune.”

Tickets are available online at thebigtimeout.com starting June 1, at $50 for a day pass or $90 for a weekend pass.

Soundwave and Victoria Elec-tronic Music Festival:

For fans of electronic music, two festivals to keep tabs on are Uclue-let’s Soundwave Music Festival and the Victoria Electronic Music Festival (VEMF).

Soundwave is set to take place July 16 through 18 at Mussel Beach Wilderness Campground, while. VEMF is set for August long weekend (July 31 through Aug. 2) in Victoria’s Centennial Square. For more information, check out soundwavemusicfestival.ca and vemf.ca.

> KAROLINA KARAS

Fans of the hit TV series, beware: Carrie Bradshaw is back like you’ve never seen her before.

On April 27th, best-selling author Candace Bushnell released The Carrie Diaries, a prequel to her infamous collection of essays en-titled Sex and the City.

This Carrie is a far cry from the savvy New Yorker we know and love, however. Instead she is a senior in a small-town Connecti-cut high school, and her eclectic group of friends spend their nights sneaking into the local Emerald bar and smoking in the attic of a barn.

To make matters even more interesting, it’s the 1980s — the music is synthesized; the spandex is neon.

Everything changes when Carrie

falls for the good looks and bad-boy charm of Sebastian, the new kid in town. Of course, so does the entire female population of her graduating class, so it comes as a great surprise when Sebastian falls for her as well.

Just when we think The Carrie Diaries is about to follow in the footsteps of every teenage romance since Romeo and Juliet, the novel takes a dark shift.

Sebastian turns out to be the worst fi rst boyfriend in history, harassing her opinions and guilt-tripping her for not sleeping with him, and Carrie can only rational-ize staying with him by suppress-ing the part of herself that feels like something’s wrong.

At the same time, she begins to indulge the writer part of herself that Sex and the City fans will recognize. With a little encourage-

ment from friends and a second-wave feminist writer of her moth-er’s generation, Carrie develops her expressive side and, when she fi nally reaches her breaking point with Sebastian, she quickly learns that the best method of revenge is the pen.

By the novel’s end, we know how Carrie came to live in New York, how she met sex kitten Samantha Jones and, most importantly, how she developed from the meek and mild Carrie Bradshaw of The Car-rie Diaries to the witty and fully self-expressed sex columnist of Sex and the City.

Fans of the TV series will be disap-pointed that Bushnell ignores ev-erything mentioned about Carrie’s past in the episodes. For example, in the TV series, Carrie mentions that her father left her and her mother when she was young, but in

the novel her father plays a strong role and her mother is dead.

Those who have read the original Sex and the City novel, however, will know how diff erent it is from the TV series, which came second. The novel is a collection of news-paper articles from Bushnell’s sex column in The New York Observer, and the TV series is loosely based on this autobiographical account of her sex life.

Overall, The Carrie Diaries is an interesting and well-written portrayal of teenage life in the 1980s, with none of the sex and drug censorship and moral pooh-poohing that we so often fi nd in teen fi ction.

It’s the perfect pool-side read for the summer, and Bushnell will likely surprise her readers with a bit of wit and sarcasm that many writers in the genre fail to capture.

PROVIDED

The Black Seeds (above) will play Ska Fest, one of the Island’s stellar summer festivals, on July 10.

BEACH BOOKS

Sex and the City prequel great foreplay for seriesCandace Bushnell’s The Carrie Diaries takes fans of the hit movie and TV show to a whole new level of understanding

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> MARIA KENNEY

May 13, 2010 CULTURE 9

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In an age of heavy synthetic beats and auto-tuned voices, indie band Mother Mother stands out with lively harmonies and quirky lyrics. The five-piece Canadian band, based in Vancouver and Quadra Island, has captivated a loyal fol-lowing across North America with two successful albums that stay true to the roots of rock music.

With a third album in the works, Mother Mother is kicking off the summer with their fi rst European tour, followed by a pair of shows in Victoria, at Alix Goolden Hall on June 8 and at Element on June 9.

Ryan Guldemond, lead vocalist, guitarist and now producer wel-comes the upcoming shows.

“When you record an album, you’re hobbled away at a studio and not getting out there,” he said over the phone from Vancouver, where the band is working in the studio. “It’ll be nice to play some shows after taking that hiatus, not only to just get the blood flowing again in the live context, but also to just get back to work.”

With the upcoming tour, Mother Mother – made up of Guldemond’s sister Molly Guldemond and Jasmin Parkin on vocals and key-board, bass player Jeremy Page

and drummer Ali Siadat – are hoping to become more global.

“That’s our goal,” Guldemond said. “You start in your hometown and then go, ‘Oh man, it’d be great to get a gig in Victoria.’ You then have to think, ‘Can we crack North America? Ah man, we gotta go to Europe!’ And then onwards. That mentality is a simple one that always persists the further you go.”

Opening the sold-out June 8 show will be Ontario’s Born Ruffi ans, who are no strangers to Mother Mother.

“We really love their band. They have such fun, quirky, catchy, simple little tunes. Sometimes to achieve simplicity effectively can be the most complex thing and Born Ruffians do that so well,” Guldemond said.

Mother Mother formed in 2005, originally debuted their fi rst record as a self-titled off ering, before re-releasing it as Touch Up in 2007. Their sophomore album, O My Heart, came out in 2008. The band is currently recording their third untitled album, with a potential release date for September 2010.

Guldemond believes that the upcoming album is “the most exciting record yet.”

“We are over the hump, so to speak. With [Mother Mother], the

vocals are always an interesting feat in the studio, especially in making those harmonies come to life in the recorded format,” he said. “I think there’s a nice cohe-sion among the songs. They’re all friends. There’s no outcast amongst the group.”

The new album is Guldemond’s fi rst time producing on his own, and he is also hinting that there may be an intergalactic space theme.

Mother Mother has also been talking with their label about releasing a B-sides album for fans that crave more.

“The idea of excluding any [song] is just heartbreaking,” Guldemond said.

Mother Mother cherish their fans in the same way they cherish their songs. And Victoria fans have a special place in the band’s heart.

“Victoria is very kind to us,” Gul-demond said. “Whenever people in a given region respond keenly to our music there is an inherent bond, one that we wish to serve for the remainder of our touring careers by visiting as often and as logically as possible.”

Geography works in favour of local fans too. “Victoria is a stone-throw away from our home on Quadra Island. So, there’s some sort of island pride there.”

Mother Mother hits the road after holing up in studio to create new album

THE ADVENTUROUS VEGAN

Healthy breakfast muffi ns

65 ml (¼ cup) margarine3 bananas, very ripe15 whole dried dates, unsweetened250 ml (1 cup) soy milk (or other milk alternative), unsweetened85 ml (1/3) cup applesauce15 ml (1 tbsp) vanilla17 ml (1 ½ tsp) egg replacer + 30 ml (2 tbsp) water5 ml (1 tsp) stevia, or replace stevia with 190 ml (3/4 cup) of brown sugar125 ml (½ cup) whole spelt fl our125 ml (½ cup) rice fl our125 ml (½ cup) oat bran30 ml (2 tbsp) baking powder5 ml (1 tsp) salt15 ml (1 tbsp) cinnamon5 ml (1 tsp) nutmeg5 ml (1 tsp) allspice1 large carrot, grated125 ml (½ cup) raisins

Preheat oven to (660 F) 350 C.

Place margarine, bananas, dates, milk, applesauce, vanilla, egg replacer and stevia in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. In a large bowl, mix the remaining ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just moistened. Pour the batter into a lightly-oiled muffi n tin and bake for 45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Makes 12 mouthwatering muffi ns.

Good morning, muffi n> ELIZABETH HAMES

These sweet, sugarless muffi ns are a great way to start the day. With a healthy dose of bran, fruits and vegetables, these baked goods are a nutritious treat and a healthy reward, for early risers.

Although this recipe uses a sugar-

free alternative to make it extra sweet, feel free to forget the stevia altogether (it is delicious enough without it), or replace it with brown sugar for a richer fl avour.

Even if you have nothing else to wake up for in the morning, these vegan breakfast muffi ns are sure to get you out of bed.

ELIZABETH HAMES

These nutritious and tasty muffi ns are an excellent way to start the day.

B.C. band returns to rock

> KAROLINA KARAS

PROVIDED

Mother Mother will play a pair of shows in Victoria at Alix Goolden Hall on June 8 and Element on June 9.

10 TRAVEL April 8, 2009

•Hanging out in the Swiss Alps next week? We want to live vicariously through you

(or maybe just hide in your suitcase). Write for the Martlet Travel section today!

travel@martlet.ca

The Royal & McPherson Theatres Society

Fujiya

The Wax Museum

Floyd’s Diner

Smoking Lily

The Bay

Miniature World

Craigdarroch Castle

Intrepid Theatre

Russell Books

The Blue Fox

Boston Pizza

Bikram Yoga Saanich

Victoria Phoenix Bar & Grill

Yo Video

John’s Place Restaurant

Mount Washington Alpine Resort

That’s Hot Tanning Studio

National Geographic IMAX

Element Night Club

Fifth Street Bar & Grill

The Victoria Symphony

Bliss Spa

Soprano’s Karaoke and Sports Bar

Bean Around the World

Brun Tanning

The Union Tattoo Studios

Darcy’s Pub

The Butchart Gardens

YMCA-YWCA of Greater Victoria

WildPlay Monkido Aerial Tree Course

Blenkinsop Valley Adventure Golf

Campus Dental

Cycle BC Rentals

The University of Victoria’s Annual Giving Student Calling Program

would like to thank our generous sponsors:

Last May, my roommate and I chose to stray from the norm of utilizing the summer to make money, and instead opted to spend money — a lot of money. I took what was left of my student loan and put it toward a three-week volunteer trip to Mo-rocco to work in an orphanage.

Paying to volunteer struck me as an odd concept. Yet, I felt certain the opportunity to help people in a less-privileged country would prove extremely worthwhile. Not to mention the obvious fact that the experience would likely be one of the most memorable of my life. And memorable it was — just not for the reasons I thought it would be.

We booked our trip through an online volunteer organization based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana called Global Crossroads. Yet, by the end of our trip, my roommate and I agreed Global Falseroads would’ve been more fi tting.

Almost immediately after our feet touched the tarmac at the Rabat-Sale airport, it became apparent that our itinerary for the follow-ing weeks’ planned events did not coincide with that of the in-country coordinators. For one thing, we were placed with separate homestay families, though we’d been assured we would together, something we felt was essential for our fi rst time traveling alone in a foreign coun-try. When we brought this to the attention of the co-ordinators, they told us we were being “selfi sh.” I pointed out that I had been chased into my building by a gang of men after walking home by myself from my roommate’s dwelling. Their response: “We don’t care.”

From that point on, it’s diffi cult to pinpoint a moment when I didn’t fear for my well-being. Each morn-ing, we would meet with a diff er-ent guide, none of whom seemed trustworthy. As we were strolling through the most poverty-stricken area of Rabat, one “guide” chucked us into a black sedan with four men, none of whom spoke English, while he disappeared for an hour. When our guide fi nally returned, he claimed he “was just visiting with friends.”

The following day we were informed that we would be leaving for a weekend trip to Fez, a beautiful city two hours north of Rabat, with three of our guides. Already feeling uneasy because we were to share a single hotel room with three men, we discovered they were attempting to secure alcohol for the journey. Now, Morocco is a strictly Islamic nation where alcohol is prohibited

— anyone caught with it in their possession can be heavily fi ned or even jailed.

Clearly our safety and secu-rity were not among our guide’s priorities, a realization that fi nally prompted us to leave. But we didn’t speak the language and we didn’t even know where the airport was. Ultimately, the guides had the power to keep us there. Devising a lie seemed to be the only means of gaining permission to leave.

So, tears streaming down my face, I claimed my grandmother had passed away and we needed to return home. Make no mistake, those tears weren’t forced. The co-ordinators bought the ruse, and got us to the airport where we booked a fl ight to Paris for the next day.

The night before our departure, my homestay family, who had been exceptionally wonderful to me, said their goodbyes and we exchanged gifts. Without a doubt, they were the highlight of my stay in Morocco and I was sorry to have to leave them after only a few days.

My roommate received her own variation of a goodbye from her homestay brother, in the form of a marriage proposal. Throughout her stay with him, he had been in-cessantly quizzing her on marriage laws and visa entrance require-ments to Canada. He confessed that he wanted to move to Canada and, if she were to marry him, he could possibly accomplish this. After his genuine proposal, dur-ing which he gave her a ring, she turned him down.

After enduring 72 hours in Morocco, we arrived in Paris the following day, and decided to spend the following two weeks exploring Europe. Talk about taking lemons and making lemonade.

Despite the unfortunate begin-ning, my trip took me to places I couldn’t have begun to imagine exploring when it fi rst began: Versailles, Notre Dame, the Eiff el Tower, Anne Frank’s house, Buck-ingham Palace, Cologne Cathedral and so much more. Our spontane-ity and impulsiveness were what ultimately turned our experience into the trip of a lifetime.

As for Morocco, the experience has in no way deterred me from going back. There were so many other places to see and culture to immerse myself in that I didn’t get a chance to experience.

I fully intend on returning one day, but the fi rst trip proved to me the importance of educating my-self — and making it clear that I’m not in the market for a husband.

Volunteering in Morocco not for the faint of heartPhilanthropic journey to an overseas orphanage clouded by creepy, less-than-legal coordinators and marriage proposals

> TAYLOR HEAVEN

MARC JUNKER

MOROCCO- capital: Rabat- largest city: Casablanca- offi cial language: Arabic- population: 31, 993,000 (according to 2009 census)- currency: Moroccan dirham (MAD)- climate: mediterranean- 99.1 per cent of the population are Arab-Berber

Sports

May 13, 2010 SPORTS 11

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UVic’s Department of Athletics and Recreation is continuing with plans for new athletic facilities, though substantial funding still needs to be secured in order to build them.

Plans for the new facilities suffered a setback in February, when the B.C. Ministry of Ad-vanced Education rejected UVic’s proposed athletic fee increase of $55 per student per term, which, they said, was not in line with the provincial tuition limit policy. Stu-dents currently pay $72 per term in athletic fees.

However, a consultative bal-lot conducted in October 2009 demonstrated that 53 per cent of students who voted supported the fee increase; 20 per cent of UVic students participated in the con-sultative ballot. Clint Hamilton, UVic’s Director of Athletics, feels the ballot results show support for the new facilities more than for the fee increase, pointing out the vote was non-binding.

“There was not a formal request for any new fee,” said Hamilton.

The proposed fee would have contributed $21.6 million of the $58.7 million required to construct a new athletic facility on Parking Lot Three and the adjacent tennis courts. The new building would replace many of the services cur-rently offered in the Ian Stewart Complex, which would be rede-ployed for other uses, though the arena would remain.

“There was a lot of consultation done with students about what we needed,” said Hamilton.

The facility would include a basketball court, recreational gyms , a climbing wall, a rowing machine room, an indoor field house with locker rooms, storage and training facilities, and other activity spaces. It would also

house CanAssist, an organization that offers programs for students with special needs. Currently, CanAssist runs the Just for Kicks program in the basement of the McKinnon Gym.

“The detailed design of the facil-ity will be done any day now,” said Hamilton. “The financing of the facility needs to be clarified.”

The current federal-provincial infrastructure grants that UVic has received to upgrade several buildings on campus will not cover athletic facilities.

But Hamilton says UVic will con-tinue to pursue funding options, including government grants.

“I remain very positive about the new facility going forward,” he

said. Once construction begins, the project is expected to take 18 to 24 months to complete.

Since the proposed building would occupy a current parking lot, the Department of Campus Planning has stipulated that a parkade must be included in the plans. The water table in the area doesn’t allow for much under-

ground construction, so a multi-level parkade is planned for next to the gym.

Hamilton said his department was not involved in decisions around the parkade.

A second phase of construction would add an aquatic facility in McKinnon which would cost another $30 million.

may 2010 Felicitaʼs

New facilities to go ahead despite lack of fees> DaviD J.a. Foster

jess-C Hall

Clint Hamilton, UVic’s Director of Athletics, stands in front of the space where the university’s new athletic facilities will be built.

vikes try to tackle titleThe Vikes men’s rugby team is headed to the final match of the B.C. Rugby Premier League’s championships. UVic downed the top-seeded James Bay team 36-32 on May 8 to earn the spot in the finals.

They will now go up against Meralomas for the Rounsefell Cup at Wallace Field on Saturday, May 15 at 5 p.m.

Meralomas trounced the Vikes 22-9 in their only match-up of this season on March 22.

UVic has not won the Rounsefell Cup since 2003, when they beat James Bay to take the Premier League title.

Golf team to take a swing at championshipUVic’s men’s golf team gave an impressive performance at their Na-tional Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) regional champi-onships last month. All five members of the team placed top 10 in the tournament, earning the team a trip to the NAIA Championships.

Last year, UVic placed 14th at the NAIA Championships. This year’s NAIA Championships take place in Silvis, Illinois from

May 18-21.

UBCo brings Heat to Canada WestThe Vikes will have some new competition this fall, as the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Canada West division expands to include the University of British Columbia-Okanagan (UBCO) Heat. The Heat will compete in Canada West men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball, starting this September. UBCO will be probationary members of the division for three years.

sports shorts

ComicsEditor Glen O’Neill grafx@martlet.ca

12 COMICS May 13, 2010

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