october 1 2012

WHAT DID I FALL OFF OF? SINCE 1918 UBC’S OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER | OCTOBER 1, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE IX

UTHE UBYSSEY

UBC INTRODUCES HOUSING PERKSRecently unveiled Housing Action Plan will offer residences to staff and faculty at below-market rates P4

How Fido fudges cell contracts

The Ubyssey has learned that wireless provider Fido instructed 18-year-olds to lie about their age in order to sign cell phone contracts P6

MEET THE MINISTERIn conversation with Jon Yap, B.C.’s third minister of advanced education in as many years P3

TONE IT DOWN, AMERICA

HOCKEY HOPES

A UBC prof has a solution forelection-season insanity P8

T-Birds take to the ice for highly anticipated season P5

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 | 2YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

STAFF

Bryce Warnes, Josh Curran, Peter Wojnar, Anthony Poon, Veronika Bondarenko, Yara De Jong, Lu Zhang, Ginny Monaco, Arno Rosenfeld

OCTOBER 1, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE IX

EDITORIAL

Coordinating Editor Jonny [email protected]

Managing Editor, PrintJeff [email protected]

Managing Editor, PrintAndrew [email protected]

News EditorsWill McDonald + Laura [email protected]

Senior News WriterMing [email protected]

Culture Editor Anna [email protected]

Senior Culture Writer Rhys [email protected]

Sports + Rec EditorCJ [email protected]

Senior Lifestyle WriterZafira [email protected]

Features Editor Natalya [email protected]

Video EditorDavid [email protected]

Copy Editor Karina [email protected]

Art DirectorKai [email protected]

Graphics AssistantIndiana [email protected]

Layout ArtistCollyn [email protected]

VideographerSoo Min [email protected]

WebmasterRiley [email protected]

UTHE UBYSSEY

The Ubyssey is the official stu-dent newspaper of the Uni-versity of British Columbia. It is published every Monday and Thursday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democratically run student organization, and all students are encouraged to participate.

Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opin-ion of the staff, and do not nec-essarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Co-lumbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society. Stories, opinions, photographs and art-

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Tue121 MONDAY

Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to [email protected].

LAUGHS >>

FARM >>

BAR >>

LIBRARY >>

SPORTS >>

Comedy on Campus: 8 p.m. @ the Gallery LoungeAMS Events presents Comedy on Campus, a series of improv and sketch comedy nights performed at the Gallery. Sit back with a pint of beer and laugh the night away. Cover is $3–5 at the door.

Digging into Digital Collec-tions: 3–4:30 p.m. @ Neville Scarfe BuildingFurther your research by using digital book collections and the over 500,000 electronic books in the UBC Library Collections. Attendees will learn how to efficiently search for resources and conduct thorough reviews on primary sources.

Seed Saving 101: 1–3 p.m. @ UBC FarmLearn how to save seeds for your favourite fruits and vegetables so they don’t go bad this winter. Seed-saving expert Mel Selvestre will lead hands-on workshops that include an overview of tech-niques and equipment.

UBC men’s soccer vs. Univer-sity of Northern B.C.: 7 p.m. @ Thunderbird StadiumThe CIS No. 3 ranked Thunder-birds take on their northern ri-vals and look to stay undefeated in the first game of a two-game series. $3 for students, free with Blue Crew pass.

Open Mic: 9 p.m. @ the Gallery LoungeAre you ready to show the world you’ve got voice? Or perhaps want to show off those new DJ skills you picked up from CiTR? Come to the Gallery for cheap(ish) beer and good times.

What’s on THIS WEEK, MAY WE SUGGEST...

Tue122 TUESDAY

Tue123 WEDNESDAY

Tue124 THURSDAY

Tue125FRIDAY

OUR CAMPUSONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

Glassblowing has been Brian Ditchburn’s passion since he started his first apprenticeship at 13 years old.

Sarah BigamContributor

As the official glassblower of the chemistry department at UBC, Brian Ditchburn has one of the most unique jobs on campus.

“I do a lot of repairs, cus-tom fabrication of scientific apparatus, one-offs. Things that chemists dream up in their research, I help them build,” said Ditchburn. “Glass is just fantastic.”

Glass, he said, is chemically inert and heat-resistant, which makes it very useful for chem-istry because it will not impact the outcome of experiments.

Ditchburn got involved with glassblowing at a very early age; he started an apprentice-ship with his father at the age of 13.

“That’s generally how most glassblowers get into the trade,” he said. “They’re taught by their family.”

His father taught him how to work with neon, and later taught him scientific glassblowing, which is what Ditchburn does now. Ditchburn then went to New Jersey for two years to get his glassblow-

ing degree. After five years of working at a scientific glass shop in Detroit, he came to UBC. This November marks the 14th year of his glassblowing career at the university.

“[With neon], there’s only seven or eight basic bends, so you tend to do the same thing over and over again,” he said. “That was another fun part of the job, but moving on to scien-tific is probably the best thing I ever did.”

He didn’t always plan on becoming a glassblower, though. “I actually thought I was going to join the army,” he said. “I ended up joining the reserves for a long period of time, but glassblowing dragged me back.”

Since then, his career never been a question for him, and every day brings new surprises. “Glassblowing is something you learn every day; there’s always something new to learn. Sometimes you have to relearn things as new materials come in, or new objects need to be created,” Ditchburn explained.

He was quick to note the important distinction between scientific and artistic glassblowing.

“I don’t classify myself as an artist, because artists create things out of their own mind and they make [them],” he said. “What I do is, from a drawing, I manufacture. It’s more like a craft than an art.... It’s tech-nical, it’s challenging, there’s always something new coming over the horizon that you get to try to manufacture.”

Ditchburn’s involvement in glassblowing doesn’t stop at his job, either. Once a year, he makes glass icicles for a charity project run by UBC’s Gradu-ate Student Society. He gives glassblowing demonstrations at high schools and during Science Week at UBC.

Ditchburn is also an active member of the American Sci-entific Glassblowers Society, which hosts yearly symposiums to demonstrate and discuss the newest advancements in glassblowing.

“All glassblowers tend to know each other,” he said. “We’re such a small group that [we’re] very tight-knit.”

Ditchburn’s wishes for his career are simple: “Just to grow as a glassblower,” he said. “To enjoy what I do, which is not hard, to tell you the truth.” U

Brian Ditchburn sees glass half fullkAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

This Week at The NormWednesday 3–Sunday 7

Brave: 7 p.m.Madagascar 3: 9 p.m.

Tickets are $5 for students, $2.50 for FilmSoc members. Learn more at UBCfilmsociety.com!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 | 3EDITORS WILL MCDONALD + LAURA RODGERS

UBC student wins skills award for indigenous youth

UBC M.Sc. student Baillie Redfern has been awarded the first annual Skills Award for Indigenous Youth by the Forest Products Association of Canada.

A member of Ontario’s Painted Feather Woodland Métis tribe, Red-fern is currently studying genome science and technology at UBC. She researches the use of wood fibre ingredients in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.

The award is aimed at First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth aged 18 to 25 with strong academic standing in a college, university or apprenticeship. The $2,500 prize recognizes their commitment to the forestry industry.

UBC Faculty of Law receives $2 million donation

Joan and Derek Lew gave a $2 million gift to UBC’s Faculty of Law, the second biggest donation made to the faculty by an individual. The donation memorializes Franklin Lew, late husband and father of the donors, who graduated from UBC Law in 1961.

He passed away in 2006 after a career in business.

Their gift will create the Franklin Lew Innovation Fund, to support faculty and student programs at UBC Law. The law school’s forum, a space at Allard Hall used for special events and lectures, will also be named after Franklin Lew. U

A new slate of directors for the UNA

John Yap takes over as new minister of advanced education

B.C. GOVERNMENT >>

From left to right: Charles Menzies, Richard Alexander and Shaohong Wu, all newly-elected UNA directors and members of the new, more aggressive OUR slate.HOGAN WONG PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

CAMPUS NEIGHBOURHOODS >>

Laura RodgersNews Editor

A new slate of directors just elect-ed by the University Neighbour-hoods Association (UNA) wants to more aggressively represent the residents of campus neighbour-hoods — once they figure out what those residents want.

At the UNA’s Annual Gen-eral Meeting on Sept. 26, the three candidates from the newly formed Organization for U-Town Residents (OUR) — Shaohong Wu, Charles Menzies and Richard Alexander — were all elected. The fourth candidate, Ada Dong, who was not a member of OUR, was not elected. Two directors previ-ously elected to the board, Erica

Frank and Thomas Beyer, will remain until their terms expire next year.

“What I’m hoping for is that we’re actually able to live up to the promises which we’ve made, and that we will be able to make some real changes,” said Menzies, who is also an anthropology professor at UBC.

“We have a common goal, but we also respect the diversity of perspectives,... so there are some things that we don’t agree on in our community, the OUR group, but we have a common purpose. We actually want to see a real government here.”

The OUR slate formed this summer because many residents of UBC’s five campus neighbour-

hoods felt that their voices weren’t being heard by UBC.

Currently, the UNA functions as a cross between a community group and town council, and any bylaws it drafts have to be ap-proved by UBC. OUR claims that this situation sets up a “democrat-ic deficit” for those who live in non-student residence housing.

OUR doesn’t have a thor-oughly fleshed-out platform yet; beyond trying to give residents more power in local municipal decisions, they still feel the need to consult directly with their constituents to find out what they want.

“I think, first, I will have to lis-ten to the residents, to understand what they want, and do my best to

represent them in the board, and try to protect their interests and work with the other members in the board,” said Wu.

The third OUR director, Richard Alexander, echoed Wu’s perspective. “Our mandate is to listen to the residents. It’s merely a question of what the residents would like us to do. We will be guided accordingly,” said Alexander.

The meeting also saw residents restrict voting in UNA elections to campus residents 18 and over, a rule which had previously been enforced informally.

Members also voted to remove a rule that required one of the dir-ectors on the UNA board to come from faculty and staff housing. U

Micki Cowan CUP B.C. Bureau Chief

VANCOUVER (CUP) — B.C. has a new captain at the helm of the Ministry of Advanced Education.

John Yap, who is also the minis-ter for multiculturalism, took over the advanced education portfolio in early September as part of a major cabinet shuffle by Premier Christy Clark. He replaced Naomi Yama-moto, who had held the position since March 2011.

In an interview with the Can-adian University Press, Yap made it clear that he is intent on ensuring more trades training is available at post-secondary institutions.

This aligns with the Liberal government’s promise to prioritize job creation. Yap said there should be about a million job openings in B.C. in the next 10 years, with 43 per cent of these requiring some trades training. Beefing up trades training programs and facilities now will help to train the workforce for those job openings.

“It’s important we offer British Columbians the opportunity to fill those positions and encourage those that are in school and thinking about career options that they con-sider, if it’s right for them, a career that is well-paying and rewarding in the trades,” Yap said.

Yap’s plans are already underway. This week he announced $29.2 mil-lion will go towards two new trades buildings at Camosun College.

The portfolio he is taking over saw $70 million in cuts over three years in the last budget and was the only major sector to see an overall funding reduction. Yamamoto, his predecessor, also came under attack earlier this year for a confidential email from a reporter that leaked from her ministry to a Liberal donor.

Yap, however, said that he has confidence in B.C.’s higher education system.

“I am myself a product of a uni-versity here in B.C. I [got] a degree in science and then a master’s in business administration, which helped me appreciate the immense value of a post-secondary education because it prepared me for work life.”

When asked about the province’s increasing dependency on tuition to fund post-secondary institutions, he said now is not the time to reduce dependency, considering the econ-omy. B.C. is the province increasing its dependency on tuition at the fastest rate in Canada.

And as for other tenants of affordability, in trades or otherwise, Yap thinks the current system is affordable enough, so long as the tuition cap of two per cent remains in place.

Despite criticism about the increasing cost of higher education in B.C., Yap defended the prov-ince’s schools, which two of his children attended.

“Millions of dollars have been put into supporting our colleges and universities to prepare our stu-dents,” he said. “It’s a great college and university system and I’m looking forward to working with the many people who make it work so well.”

B.C. GOV PHOTO/FLICkR

NEWS BRIEFS UBC to replace Vista with Connect

ONLINE LEARNING >>

Clay CoffmanContributor

UBC is phasing out its old learning management system (LMS), Vista, and replacing it with Connect.

UBC implemented Connect in the Faculty of Science and across the UBC Okanagan campus in the beginning of this school year. Currently, between the partially integrated Vancouver campus and UBC-O, there are approximately 33,000 students using the new system, 42,000 still using Vista and some students using both systems. UBC expects it will take three years to completely switch over to Connect.

Tammy Yasrobi, the communi-cations coordinator for the Con-nect project within the Centre for Teaching and Learning Tech-nology, said the new LMS will allow for easier communication between students and faculty.

“It’s a lot more intuitive, it’s very menu-driven. That’s some of the feedback that we have re-ceived from students, is that it is a lot easier to open it up right out of the box and really know what you are doing,” said Yasrobi.

She also said communication between professors and stu-dents has been streamlined into Connect, and the new system allows for easier access to outside

content, such as student blogs or Wikipedia articles.

“Some of the improvements are in the ways you can communicate inside and outside the course. It’s a lot easier; there are tools in what’s called ‘Collaborate’ where you can collaborate a lot easier with other students in your class,” said Yasrobi.

But Mona Maleki, president of the Science Undergraduate Society, said the new system isn’t necessarily an improvement over Vista.

“I think it’s pretty much the same. Obviously I’m going to have a preference to Vista, because I was used to it and I knew how to use it. Right now there are some courses which are still on Vista, and others that are on the new system, which is really unfortu-nate, because you have to be con-

stantly checking both of them,” said Maleki.

Yasrobi said Vista is being replaced because the software it runs on has been discontinued by the manufacturer, Blackboard.

VP Academic and University Affairs Kiran Mahal said that the technology needed to be replaced anyway.

“From what I gather, it was that the technology was not serv-ing the purpose that they needed it to serve, and from a student/user perspective, students want-ed it replaced, because Vista was not functional in the way that students wanted it to be.”

The target date for the completed switch from Vista to Connect is set for June 2014. The exact timeframe for changeover will be determined individually by each faculty. U

HOGAN WONG PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

UBC aims to completely replace Vista with Connect by June 2014.

The Organization for U-Town Residents want a more representative government on campus

As the minister in charge of higher educa-tion, John Yap plans to focus on trades.

4 | NeWS | MONDAY, OCTOBeR 1, 2012

newspaper ad.pdf 1 12-08-30 1:36 PM

UNIONS >>

UBC prepares for potential strikes on campusEssential service levels are set for Laura RodgersNews Editor

As the situation between UBC and its various public-sector unions becomes more tense, the university is bracing itself for the possibility of a coordinated strike.

Two union locals on UBC campus, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 116 and CUPE 2278, have secured strike votes. A third, CUPE 2950, will have its members vote on giving the local the power to strike by late October.

UBC has just finished nego-tiating with 116 and 2950 about essential service levels, or how many employees are required to remain at work if the unions opt to strike. UBC has also rolled out a communication policy to groups throughout campus that it will enact in the event of a strike.

“I don’t expect [work stop-pages] in the short term, but they very well might take place in the next couple of months,” said UBC President Stephen Toope at the September 20 Board of Governors meeting.

Colleen Garbe, president of CUPE 116, said it was “very possible” that the various CUPE unions on campus would engage in coordinated strike action in the near future. “You’ll be hearing from us, most likely sooner rather than later,” said Garbe.

CUPE 116 represents security guards, technicians, food service workers and many other service positions on campus. CUPE 2278 is the local for UBC’s teaching assistants (TAs), many of whom are also graduate students. CUPE 2950 represents library and cler-ical staff. All three of these locals have been in bargaining and with-out a collective agreement with

UBC for over two years. Negotiations with public-sector

unions throughout the province have been intensifying for some time, due to provincial govern-ment mandates that restrict, and in some cases prevent, any wage increases. CUPE locals 116, 2950 and 2278 have all expressed dissatisfaction with UBC’s wage proposals on various occasions.

Similar tensions have already come to a head at SFU, where the union representing TAs and

sessional instructors will begin job action on October 1. Support staff at the University of Victoria engaged in a round of pickets in early September, but have since returned to the bargaining table.

If job action occurs on campus, the recently completed essential service negotiations ensure that some union members will need to keep working.

For CUPE 116, this means that a limited number of Campus Security workers, emergency on-

call tradespeople and technicians who monitor animal experiments would have to stay at work, ac-cording to Garbe.

Also, two ice-makers would be still required at Thunderbird Arena, which Garbe says is essen-tial to make sure the chemicals used in ice-making don’t rise to unsafe levels within the build-ing. She added that having only two people on the job will not be enough to keep the ice maintained for skating.

For CUPE 2950, some rec-ord-keepers and clinical clerks working in a hospital setting would be required to stay on the job, according to UBC spokes-person Randy Schmidt.

If picket lines are set up

on campus, any students who don’t want to cross them will be required to submit a form to UBC. Otherwise, they could be penalized for not showing up to classes.

According to UBC’s communi-cations policy, UBC will try to maintain normal operations if job action occurs.

As for what will happen at UBC, the university isn’t sure yet.

“We are committed to nego-tiating collective agreements with the CUPE locals within the bargaining mandates set by the provincial government,” read a bulletin issued by UBC on Sep-tember 27.

The bulletin ended ambigu-ously: “We expect that we will be providing information more fre-quently in the coming weeks.” U

UBC’s new Housing Action Plan aims to increase affordabilityLaura RodgersNews Editor

UBC is attempting to relieve the pressure of paying for housing in the high-priced Vancouver market through its new Housing Action Plan, which was just approved by the UBC Board of Governors.

The plan includes a list of poli-cies to lower the cost of housing for UBC’s faculty and staff. For students, it addresses the issue of affordability by saying that gov-ernment student loans should lend students higher amounts if they’re renting in Vancouver.

The plan requires UBC to offer some of the new housing built on campus to faculty and staff. It also commits UBC to offering 100 new low-income housing units on campus. For students, it reaffirms a handful of goals UBC has previous-ly committed to, including increas-ing the amount of student housing on campus.

UBC will designate 10 per cent of any new housing built on campus for a special ownership program for tenure and tenure-track faculty. Resale of the properties will be re-stricted, and a price ceiling will be set at 33 per cent below the bench-mark price for similar properties on the Vancouver Westside.

According to a report put out by UBC, only faculty who make over $150,000 would be able to afford the mortgage on a typical town-

house on the Westside. Only the top 10 per cent of UBC’s workforce earns this much money.

Also, 30 per cent of any new housing built on campus will be available to rent, not to own. Of this, 20 per cent will be part of UBC’s faculty and staff housing program, with rental rates set at 25 per cent below the average rental rates for similar properties in the city.

In the past, UBC has committed to trying to house 50 per cent of all full-time students on campus, and this goal is also mentioned in the Housing Action Plan. Another previous commitment of UBC’s, building student housing in the Gage South area, is also mentioned.

UBC’s student housing depart-ment is currently set up so that it is required to make a profit and give that money back to UBC’s central budget. The Housing Action Plan doesn’t intend to change this, and instead says that UBC should lobby the provincial government so that those receiving student loans can borrow more each month to pay for the cost of housing.

Currently, student loans in B.C. are calculated assuming that the monthly cost for rent and utilities is $584. In contrast, monthly prices for the soon-to-be-completed Pon-derosa Commons student housing building will range from $745 for one bedroom in a four-bedroom unit to $900 for a single unit. U

According to Colleen Garbe, president of CUPE 116, which represents service workers across the campus, is considering a strike.ANDREW BATES FILE PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

RENT >>

I don’t expect [work

stoppages] in the near future, but

they very well might take

place in the next couple of

months.Stephen ToopeUBC President

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 | 5EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

Dominance on the pitchWomen’s soccer coasts to a weekend sweep

T-Birds run all over Alberta, get season back on track

C.J. PentlandSports + Rec Editor

A dominant all-around per-formance powered the UBC women’s soccer team to a sweep of their prairie rivals this past weekend. The Thunderbirds soundly defeated the University of Saskatchewan Huskies 4-0 on Friday night and the CIS No. 9 ranked University of Regina Cougars 6-0 on Saturday night at Thunderbird Stadium.

Strikers Taryn Lim and Janine Frazao led the high-powered attack, combining for a total of seven goals and six assists over the two games. Frazao racked up a four-goal game against Regina, with Lim assisting on each goal. Frazao now has eight goals on the season, good enough for second in the Canada West conference, while Lim has six to go along with four assists.

On top of the duo’s offensive outburst, it was the all-around team game that led to the convin-cing victories. UBC only al-lowed four shots over the whole weekend, making goalie Alyssa Williamson’s job easy in earning the two shutouts.

“The girls did really well today; it was a good weekend of work for them,” said head coach Mark Rogers after Saturday’s contest. “[Regina’s] not a bad team, and I thought we were just that good today.”

Rogers was impressed by the standout performances from his top two strikers, but he was also quick to praise his entire squad for the contributions they made.

“It’s not just those two; that was 18 players again today,” he said. “Every player that has gone

in has given us a lift, and there’s nothing better as a coach to know that we can give fresh legs, and hopefully that’ll pay dividends towards the end of the season.”

Kelly Cook, Kim Van Duy-nhoven and Nicole Sydor also scored for UBC on the weekend, as the T-Birds didn’t have much trouble in breaking down their opponents’ defence. Their goals came in a variety of forms, from headers to breakaways, but it was their corner kicks that proved deadliest.

“Kelly got a nice header in the first half that got us up one nil, [and] we could’ve had a few more in the first half,” said Rogers, who has focused on creating a litany of set plays for corner kicks that his team has been running perfectly.

UBC now sits at 6-1 — good for third place in the Canada West — and has now clinched a playoff spot. They travel to Alberta next weekend to take on the University of Alberta and Mount Royal and try to extend their current four-game winning streak. U

Janine Frazao scored five goals on the weekend, helping to lead the offensive attack.

C.J. PentlandSports + Rec Editor

In a battle of the two last winless teams in the Canada West, the UBC football team managed to break their slump and keep playoff hopes alive by soundly defeating the University of Alberta Golden Bears 29-10 on Saturday afternoon in Edmonton.

The Thunderbirds desperately needed this victory to get their season back on track. Although Alberta may not have been the stiffest competition, simply gaining winning momentum is crucial at this point of the season for the T-Birds.

“This was huge. The first win definitely proved to be the hardest for us to get, but we are glad to finally get the monkey off our back,” said head coach Shawn Olson. “We came into this season with a group of guys that had big expectations, and then things didn’t go our way and we started to make mental mistakes. Today we were able to relax, play loose and get the job done.”

The ’Birds got off to a quick start in the contest and never looked back. After they forced the Golden Bears to fumble at the mid-field, UBC capitalized with a drive that was capped off by Brandon Deschamps running untouched into the endzone for a 15-yard score.

On Alberta’s next possession, the defence finally stepped up. They stopped the Bears three times on the five-yard line, with Nikolaas Termansen picking off quarterback Curtis Dell in the endzone on third down. UBC managed to turn that turnover into points as well, as Billy Greene scampered 62 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-0 UBC.

Deschamps added another

rushing touchdown to make it 21-0, and a rouge point for UBC sent the T-Birds into the dressing room with a 22-0 lead. After an Alberta safety in the fourth quarter, Greene hooked up with Patrick Bull on a four-yard pass to make it 29-2. Alberta added a late touchdown, putting the final score at 29-10.

The running game once again proved to be the T-Birds’ most dangerous weapon, as they racked up 293 yards on the ground. Greene rushed for 153, and Deschamps added 90 to go along with his two touchdowns.

“We have been committed to the ground game all year,” said Olson. “Because of our success today, we were able to control the clock and keep our defence off the field.”

The passing game was effective as well, with Greene throwing for 210 yards. Bull led the way with five catches for 56 yards, and Dan-iel English caught two balls for 64.

However, the most impressive part of the game was the T-Birds’ defence, which has under-per-formed all year. They allowed Alberta 369 offensive yards, but came up with several big plays to keep the Golden Bears off the board and the momentum in their favour. Along with the forced fumble and interception, UBC also recorded five sacks; Martin Park and Vivie Bojilov both chipped in with two apiece.

After the T-Birds’ bye week, they will attempt to continue their winning ways on October 13 when they take on Regina at home. There is still an outside chance that they can make the playoffs, but they will need a great deal of outside help.

Now that the Thunderbirds have been reminded what victory feels like, the tide may have turned for UBC football. U

SOCCER >> FOOTBALL >>

Confident T-Birds have visions of goldRory GattensContributor

The quest for a CIS champion-ship in men’s hockey is no easy task. But an internal belief among the players and head coach Milan Dragicevic has the UBC Thunderbirds motivated and eager to accept that challenge when they step on the ice come Friday’s regular season opener in Regina.

“We want to be a tough team to play against. Our mentality is to show up to the rink every day, ready to battle, ready to compete with one another in order to re-produce this when we step on the ice for games,” said Dragicevic.

“In order to be successful this season, we need to make sure we do the little things right, whether that is finishing our checks, chip-ping pucks deep or being patient cycling the puck.”

Dragicevic’s confidence has certainly been instilled in his players.

“Our main goal this year is to hang a [championship] banner in this rink,” said fourth-year forward Wyatt Hamilton. “We surprised a lot of people last year, and this year with the strong recruits we have added, our goal should be nothing short of reach-ing nationals.”

The Thunderbirds certainly have the attitude to achieve such a feat, but this confidence must be recreated on the ice in order to turn around a 2011-2012 regular

season in which they finished 12-12-4 and fourth in the Can-ada West. In the playoffs, they managed to stun the University of Calgary Dinos 4-3 in game one of the first-round three game series in Calgary, but ultimate-ly lost the next two games and were eliminated.

However, with 21 returning players and an impressive re-cruiting class in 2012, UBC is hoping to build off of that result.

“Our recruits this year were the ones we wanted,” said Hamilton. “Joe Antilla, Neil Manning, Dylan Wagner, Brad Hoban: I mean, these guys were all sought after by teams all over the country, and to bring them here to Vancouver is definitely a positive for us. They fill the needs we lacked last year as well as the holes left from players graduating.”

The Thunderbirds haven’t just improved on the ice, either; the team feels they have built a cohesive relationship outside of the rink as well.

“It’s really important to instill a camaraderie within the group, and I feel we have that,” said goaltender Jordan White, who will shoulder most of the load in between the pipes for UBC. “Whether you’re a first, fourth, or even fifth-year guy, it’s important that everyone gets to know each other on and off the ice. I think we’re the tight-est we’ve ever been; all the boys

really like each other and enjoy spending the time off the ice together. We do a lot of things outside the rink together, which we hope will only solidify our-selves as a solid unit on the ice as well.”

With the looming NHL lock-out, hockey-deprived students can look no further than this team, which has players with storied junior hockey careers.

Most notably, forward Scott Wasden played in the 2007 Memorial Cup for the Medicine Hat Tigers and battled future NHLers James Neal, Michal Neurvirth and David Perron before losing in the final to a Vancouver Giants squad made up of players such as Evander Kane, Milan Lucic and current team-mate Neil Manning.

“Our program definitely is the

most underrated [brand of ] hock-ey in the Lower Mainland. Every guy here has played the highest level in Junior or B.C. Junior hockey, and when you come out to games, you’re going to be pleased with the product you see on the ice,” said White.

The NHL lockout will un-doubtedly be a drag for the players, but they can seek con-solation in the fact that crowds for their games may be larger, which would be a big support for the ’Birds on their journey to a national championship.

“Friday and Saturday night games are a great spot to start the night at: gathering a group of friends together to cheer on the boys. The atmosphere is always great, and with increased fan support, this could be the start of something special,” said Hamilton.

UBC opens the 2012-13 Canada West season with two away games this weekend against the University of Regina Cougars. After travelling to Colorado for a few exhibition games, they will come back home on October 19 to face Lethbridge at the Doug Mitchell Sports Centre, where plans of a tailgate and pep rally are in the making.

With such a motivated group of talented players, it won’t be surprising when the Thunder-birds turn that energy into re-sults and start making headlines in 2012-2013. U

After an off-season of intense training, the T-Birds are prepared for a tough regular season.

HOCKEY >>

HOGAN WONG PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

kAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

6 | NeWS FeATURe | MONDAY, OCTOBeR 1, 2012

Ubyssey investigation has discovered evidence of salespeople from Fido Mobile compelling underage

students to sign cellphone con-tracts using false ages.

Through interviewing students who signed up for Fido cellphones at two on-campus events and at an off-campus Fido store frequented by students, as well as reporting undercover from both locations, it appears that asking 18-year-old students to fudge an extra year onto their ages may be a common practice for dealers at the cell-phone service provider.

“We’re just going to make [you] one year older,” a Fido sales-woman in the SUB told a Ubyssey reporter inquiring as a potential underage customer.

B.C. law prevents minors under the age of 19 from being legally bound by contracts. Additionally, law professors interviewed about Fido’s practices argue that this practice could possibly constitute fraud. Presently, no governmental agency appears to be responsible for enforcing the behaviour of cellphone providers.

Fido paid $5,000 for the ex-clusive sponsorship of two events during Jump Start, a two-week orientation event for first-year international students in August. At a parents’ reception and a student dinner in mid-August, Fido signed many students up for their first Canadian cellphone plans. Fido also had a table in the SUB during the first week of classes, while Skynet Wireless, a Fido-authorized dealer, was in two residence commonsblocks during the first week of school. Also, sev-eral of the underage students who spoke to The Ubyssey found the lines at those events too long, and signed up at the Fido store on 519 West Broadway instead.

At all of these locations, sales-people reportedly offered to let

18-year-olds enter into multi-year contracts.

T., an 18-year-old Arts student

from Wis-consin,

said she visited the Broadway store with her mother, who T. assumed would need to sign the contract for her.

The Ubyssey is only identifying underage students interviewed for this article by the first letters of their names to avoid putting their contracts in jeopardy or exposing them to legal liability.

T. described standing at the counter while a Fido salesperson read off her passport, activating her account over the phone.

“They were reading it off and they said April 22 ... 1993,” said T., whose passport attests that she was actually born in 1994. “And my mom and I both jumped up and we were like, ‘What? That’s not my birthday.’ And the person behind the counter told us, ‘Stop, let it go.’”

T. said the salesperson later offered to correct her birthday but discouraged it, saying it would make things more difficult.

A LEGAL GREY AREA

According to UBC law professor Bruce MacDougall, B.C.’s Infants Act declares that any contract signed by a minor is unenforceable on the minor, at least until he or she reaches the age of majority. In some cases, this can mean the contract stays unenforceable even after that minor’s 19th birthday.

MacDougall said that even though an 18-year-old signing a cellphone contract isn’t actually bound by its terms, many such minors feel compelled to follow them anyway.

“A lot of people actually abide by contracts that aren’t actually binding on them,” said MacDoug-all. “There are all sorts of contracts that you don’t have to abide by, but people do because they’re led to believe that somehow they’re binding.”

As well as believing they are locked into a cellphone plan’s monthly fees, underage students who have signed up with Fido also run the risk of having their credit damaged, MacDougall explained.

Many questions about the legal-ity of Fido’s practices, and who is in charge of enforcing them, remain fuzzy. There is little regu-lation in the Canadian cellphone

market, and it’s unlikely that the company would face any

consequences for signing up

under-

by Arno Rosenfeld

The Ubyssey investigates Fido Mobile salespeople’s practice of misreporting the age of minors in an attempt to drum up sales

MONDAY, OCTOBeR 1, 2012 | NeWS FeATURe | 7

age customers unless the customers themselves complain.

In 1996, the federal telecom-munications regulator, the Can-adian Radio-television Telecom-munications Commission (CRTC), decided that there was enough competition in the cellphone mar-ket that federal oversight was no longer needed.

“From that point onwards, wire-less providers did not have to get the CRTC to approve their rates, terms and conditions of service,” said Kirsten Embree, a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa and former legal counsel at AT&T Canada. AT&T Canada previously held an ownership stake in Rogers Wireless, which has been Fido’s parent company since 2004.

Embree continued, “The CRTC has never really focused specific-ally on the age at which contracts are entered into.... I think there’s an implicit assumption that contracts will be with individuals who are over the age of majority.”

FIRST-TIME BUYERS

When The Ubyssey went under-cover to the Fido authorized dealer at 519 West Broadway and began the process of signing up for a new cellphone plan, we discovered that the rules were easy to flout.

“Legally, it’s 19,” a salesperson at the Broadway store told this 18-year-old Ubyssey reporter, when asked if someone who is 18 years old can still hold a regular cellphone plan. “But I can make it work,” she added.

She indicated that she would be using a false age when entering the account information into a Fido database. When asked why it was necessary to put down a false age, she explained, “It’s just with Canada.... Once you sign up, they want you to take responsibility of the account. So they want you to be older.”

It isn’t strictly illegal for people under the age of 19 to sign a con-tract; the law only says that while people are still minors, they can’t be bound by the contract’s terms. Re-cording a customer’s age incorrect-ly as 19 doesn’t make the contract enforceable, but it does make it look like salespeople are complying with Fido’s corporate policy when they aren’t.

Sara Holland, a spokesperson from Fido’s parent company, Rog-ers, said that the company’s policy was to only allow people who are 19 years and older to hold con-tract-based cellphone plans.

“Students may have different experiences going through [author-

ized dealers] when it comes to price,” wrote Holland in

an email. “What should be

consistent

across the board, however, is our policy on age and account activa-tion.”

Rogers’ policy states that proof of age must be provided when a customer opens an account.

“Customers under age of ma-jority are not eligible to act as a financially responsible party (i.e. account holder),” wrote Holland.

While Holland said Rogers does not disclose employee compen-sation, several online sources, including a job description on the Rogers website, indicate Fido salespeople are expected to meet sales goals. On Glassdoor, a website where employees post reviews of the companies they work for, someone describing themself as a Rogers employee in Ottawa said commissions were tied to “impos-sible targets.” The pressure of sales goals would provide an incentive to violate corporate policy and sign up underage customers.

In 2008, the Toronto Star reported that Fido was shifting its business model from “one focused on attracting young urban profes-sionals to one targeting price-con-scious first-time buyers.”

“Price-conscious first-time buyers” might describe the 700 or so international students at Jump Start, most of whom were under 19, as well as many of the UBC stu-dents encountering Fido’s tables in the SUB and at campus residences during the first week of school.

Holland said Fido’s strategy during Jump Start was to sign up 18-year-olds for contract-free prepaid plans, and to restrict contract-based plans, which usually cost less on a per-minute or per-megabyte basis, to those 19 years and older.

She added that the goal of the Jump Start sponsorship was to attract international students in general, not specifically first-year students, though the Jump Start program is exclusively for first-year students.

IS THIS FRAUD?

According to Holland, there aren’t many checks on whether Rogers’ age policy is upheld. Age is only verified by the salesperson at the point of sale, Holland said. She said date of birth was kept on file as part of the mandatory credit check for contract plans. Holland said she wasn’t able to comment on whether Rogers or Fido monitor or review the contracts signed up by their authorized dealers.

Signing up minors is a risky business practice, said law profes-sor MacDougall. “I can’t see how if [Fido salespeople are] the ones who are encouraging people to do this, how they would have any leg to stand on it, trying to require the

people to be bound by the contract,” MacDougall said.

He said that while the contract is unenforceable on the minor, it stays completely binding on Fido’s side. “Whatever they [minors signing the contract] were promised, they can get,” MacDougall said.

J., an 18-year-old Arts student from California, described a Fido salesman’s instructions after he signed up for a contract cellphone plan. “What he said was that, after I turned 19, to call the company and inform them of the error that was made on the sheet because I checked my own information and saw that they put my birthday in wrong.”

Under the Infants Act, if an adult ratifies a contract they signed while underage, then it becomes legally binding for both parties. Ratifying a contract can be as simple as the adult informing the other party, in this case Fido, that they are now old enough accept the terms of the contract and wish to do so.

“I have a suspicion that what they may be doing is trying to turn [a minor informing them about an ‘error’ in their age] into a ratifica-tion,” MacDougall said. MacDoug-all added that if a student does not repudiate the contract, either verbally or simply by stopping pay-ment, within one year of turning 19, the contract is considered to be ratified automatically.

MacDougall was clear in in his criticism of the Fido salespeople’s practices. “In terms of contracts, it almost certainly would be an illegal contract,” MacDougall said. A contract becomes illegal when it violates a public policy or piece of legislation, he explained. In this case, getting a minor to sign a cellphone contract attempts to skirt laws meant to prevent the exploita-tion of minors.

Professor Joel Bakan, who also teaches contract law at UBC, took an even stronger stance. Encour-aging minors to lie about their age “in order to avoid legal restrictions in British Columbia is ... highly problematic, akin to fraud, as there is a deliberate attempt to profit through deliberate deceit,” wrote Bakan in an email. “The company’s actions are certainly unethical and likely unlawful.”

UBC professor Joost Blom, who is familiar with both contract and fraud law, said it was unclear whether it constituted fraud to lead underage students to believe the contracts they signed were legally binding. However, Blom certainly thought the process was deceptive.

“Falsely telling someone what their legal rights are isn’t necessar-ily fraud,” Blom said, adding, “It’s not an easy matter.”

LEGAL HOT POTATO

With the CRTC no longer regulat-ing cellphone companies, it’s un-

clear who is in charge of ensuring they follow ethical guidelines.

“We don’t regulate contracts like that; I know, for sure,

that is provincially regulated,” a CRTC spokeswoman said, saying that The Ubyssey should instead contact Consumer Protection B.C.

Consumer Protection B.C. — the provincial agency charged with regulating business practices, including contracts — said the matter fell outside of their pur-view because there are federal bodies charged with overseeing the telecommunications industry. Those bodies are the CRTC and the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).

The CCTS is a federal agency that addresses consumer com-plaints against phone companies. However, a representative said they cannot intervene unless a consumer brings a personal complaint to their attention, and even then, they can only act if a cellphone company is explicitly violating its own corpor-ate terms of service. Fido’s terms of service make no mention of age.

Most of the 18-year-old students who signed contracts with Fido said in interviews with The Ubyssey that they were happy with their phone service, so it’s unlikely that any of them will be complaining to the CCTS anytime soon.

“The guy who was working at the [Fido] desk was really cool,” said J., the student from California. He said upon learning his age, the Fido salesman told him, “I know this is the situation, that you are a student, so I’m going to help you with this.”

The CCTS told The Ubyssey that Canada’s Competition Bureau, which enforces various business regulations, might have some jurisdiction over this matter. This summer, the bureau launched a class-action lawsuit against wireless companies Rogers, Bell and Telus for allegedly misleading customers about fees.

However, on the issue of minors signing contracts, Competition Bur-eau spokesman Bray Park said, “It may be more prudent to contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or a local law enforcement authority.” The RCMP did not reply to repeat-ed requests for comment and the Vancouver Police Department does not have jurisdiction over UBC’s campus.

When told that the federal agencies declined to address the issue, Consumer Protection B.C. spokeswoman Manjit Bains said the agency would follow up with the CRTC and CCTS. However, after Bains checked with both those bodies, he said he had no new information. A Consumer Protec-tion B.C. representative said they would look to raise the issue during their periodic discussions with the government.

VETTING FIDO

In the case of Fido’s Jump Start sponsorship, UBC international student advisor Michelle Suder-man said Jump Start relied on the government to ensure sponsors followed ethical business practices.

Randy Schmidt, associate direc-tor of UBC Public Affairs, elaborat-ed on the vetting process.

“Jump Start staff put out a request of interest for their event,... reviewed them for issues like fit, whether they met a student need, service [and] affordability,” Schmidt wrote in an email. “Fido was chosen as a good fit.”

Schmidt continued, “We are not aware of any complaints or con-cerns about their presence at the Jump Start [events].”

The AMS provided little in-formation about how they vetted vendors in the SUB, how much they charge to rent vendor tables, or which authorized dealer was repre-senting Fido at the table in the SUB during the first week of school. The AMS referred any legal questions about vendors’ actions to the RCMP and said they had not heard from any students unhappy with the Fido booth’s actions.

As for Skynet Wireless, the Fido-authorized dealer present in the Totem Park and Place Vanier commonsblocks during the first week of school, Schmidt said Stu-dent Housing and Hospitality Ser-vices enters into agreements with vendors every year who pay a daily fee. Schmidt added that Skynet had been on campus during the first week of school since 2010.

When this Ubyssey reporter went undercover to try to sign up at one of the Skynet booths, a salesperson said that no lying about age was necessary. The Skynet salesperson said they could sign up anyone who “had credit,” which they said could be obtained by purchasing a pre-paid credit card. Anyone 16 years of age or older can get a prepaid credit card in Canada, though most such cards do not actually contribute to the user’s credit history.

TIGHTENING THE LEACH

Rogers spokeswoman Holland said Rogers would be investigating these incidents, and she said they would take steps to make sure this prac-tice doesn’t keep happening. “It is hugely concerning to us if students are being signed up in violation of our policy or being encouraged to be dishonest about their ages,” she wrote in an email.

With an eye toward provid-ing more oversight of cellphone companies, Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia have all passed legislation regulating cellphone contracts’ terms and conditions over the past year. Frustrated by the piecemeal nature of these new provincial regulations, Rogers and Telus have petitioned the CRTC to create a national consumer code regulating cellphone contracts, with Rogers going as far as to submit an actual code to the CRTC for consideration.

“Everybody seems to play a little bit of a different role,” said Bains, the Consumer Protection B.C. spokeswoman. “There’s definitely room for strengthening the over-sight of cellphone contracts.” U

Encouraging minors to lie about their age is “...highly problematic, akin to fraud, as there is a deliberate attempt to profit through deliberate deceit.”

Joel BakanUBC law professor

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 | 8EDITOR ANNA ZORIA

UBC prof spoofs U.S. elections in viral videos

YouTube artists make waves at Chan Centre

PERFORMING ARTS >>

Chris Cannon, a UBC journalism lecturer, joined forces with comedian Brian Calvert to create the Canada Party. PHOTO COURTESY ZOE GRAMS

ELECTIONS >>

Rhys EdwardsSenior Culture Writer

With the Republican Party’s commitment to alienating as many Americans as possible, and the Democrats’ reluctance to distinguish themselves from the Republicans, American citizens are struggling to choose between candidates for the upcoming presidential elections.

Thankfully, there is now a third option. On behalf of the entire Canadian populace, the Canada Party has officially nominated itself as a candidate for the U.S. presidency. If the Canada Party is elected, Can-adian citizens everywhere will be granted the right to lead the most powerful nation on earth.

“All the candidates seemed to have glaring issues, so much so that even the Republican Party was complaining about their crop of candidates, and so we thought, the American people are really getting screwed in all of this,” said UBC journalism professor Chris Cannon, who co-founded the Canada Party with comedian Brian Calvert.

“We couldn’t just sit back, say-ing, ‘Why isn’t somebody helping these poor people?’ We realized we’re people, and we realized that the Canadian people might actually be able to help out.”

Once elected, the Canada Party will introduce legislation designed to better America’s state of affairs. Proposed policies include legalizing marijuana and then investing in Cheetos stocks to pay off America’s debts to China; free dental care for all hockey players; and the addition of William Shatner’s head to Mount Rushmore.

Since its inception, the party has quickly gained momentum. Their inaugural campaign com-mercial, Meet the Canada Party, has over one million YouTube hits, and the party has been covered by CBC, CNN and the BBC. The campaign’s success has prompted a book launch and tours of the U.S. According to Cannon, “The message we’re getting from a lot of Americans is that the reason we look great is because we’re not the other two [parties].”

“I think they’re happy to have

a third option that’s not caught in a binary relationship,” added Calvert, who stars in the party’s viral videos. “Everything is black and white terms: it’s liberal-con-servative, Republican-Democrat, patriot-terrorist.

“We have a chapter in our book called ‘The Cameron Plan: America in 3D,’ and it proposes that James Cameron, the Can-adian director, oversee the legis-lature in the United States, so that for anything they can’t agree on on certain days, Cameron has broad sweeping powers to come in and offer a third dimension.”

Cannon met Calvert through ultimate frisbee, where they dis-covered they share an interest in sketch comedy and short videos. They began working together, producing and uploading comedy videos to Calvert’s YouTube channel. It was last year’s Repub-lican primaries that drove the duo towards political comedy.

“We saw the parade of clowns and thought, ‘We gotta get in on this,’” said Cannon.

In running their campaign, Cannon and Calvert are not just trying to lampoon the Amer-

ican political system for cheap laughs; they have more nuanced goals in mind. The duo hopes that their satire will encourage a more rational discourse among American politicians.

“We do believe in the concept of American exceptionalism,… but we think that the thing that’s missing most in the concept of American exceptionalism is the concept of humility, which is something Canadians are uniquely qualified to bring to America,” said Cannon.

“The two bullhorns on either side are so loud and judgmental that people don’t really have a chance to sit down with some-body who has a different view and just have a discussion without it getting emotional and heated,” added Calvert. “We’re hoping that the humour sort of diffuses it a bit.”

But what are the Canada Party’s real political sympathies?

“We like to think of ourselves as rational humanists,” asserted Calvert. “We believe in reason and kindness, and you can drive a whole nation on those princi-ples.” U

Priyanka HariharanContributor

After five years in Toronto, the annual Youth Waves Concert — a festival that features emerging Canadian artists — has finally ar-rived on the shores of Vancouver.

The performers, many of which were scouted from YouTube, made a splash on Sept. 29 at the Chan Centre. Acts like Tori Kelly, D-Pride, Jenny Suk and Mitchell Grey have travelled as part of the festival’s national tour.

At its roots, Youth Waves was created to celebrate the cultural bonds of the Filipino community in Toronto. This year, organiz-er Ronn Ligaya decided that it was time to diversify the fes-tival’s audience by embracing other cultures and recruiting non-Filipino talent.

Wanting to differentiate this year’s event from a typical talent show, Ligaya decided on a YouTube-inspired angle. He was floored by the plethora of home-grown talent on the popular video sharing website.

“In Canada, many people view YouTubers as just YouTubers, not performers,” he said. “Youth Waves works to change that. You-Tube is simple, relatable and real. One should think, if they can do that, then I can too.”

When asked about his favour-ite Youth Waves moment, Ligaya recalled AJ Rafael’s 2010 perform-ance at Dundas Square in Toronto.

“It was raining hard all night. But he still performed and the crowd went nuts.... I love these guys, because the show must always go on. That’s the kind of people we are looking for,” he said.

For Ligaya and one of the artists at this year’s concert, Don Smoove, the most appealing aspect of Youth Waves is that there is no single headliner. Smoove met Ligaya at Dundas Square over a year ago and has been participating in the festival ever since.

“This is my second year and I have such an awesome bond with all the artists. It’s such a family atmosphere and we just feed off each other’s energy all the time,” Smoove said.

Smoove said he was over-whelmed by the crowd of two thousand people at his first per-formance last year.

“No one is always going to give a perfect performance. You just have to rattle it up and go with it. That’s what makes an amazing show,” he said.

Youth Waves is a nonprofit organization, so every year, they choose a cause to donate their profits to. This year, proceeds will go to the Multicultural Helping House Society, an organization that helps immigrants integrate into the community.

“We do this for the community and [to] make people feel like they are part of something special,” explained Ligaya. “It’s a labour of love.” U

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

Youth Waves Concert debuts in Vancouver.

VCON going strong since 1971CONVENTIONS >>

Matisse EmanueleContributor

In the days before science fiction and fantasy went mainstream, a group of UBC and SFU students had one big idea: host a large convention with all of the notable writers, movie stars and artists in the genre.

This convention was originally meant to be a one-shot event, but since its debut in 1971, there have been 37 editions of the Vancouver Convention (VCON). It is now Vancouver’s largest general-inter-est convention. This year’s VCON was held from Sept. 28–30 and featured a post-apocalyptic theme.

Unlike similar conventions in the U.S., VCON doesn’t focus exclusively on popular media and celebrities.

Rose Wilson, the director of the art show at VCON, said she tries to feature artists who stretch the boundaries of the genre — in her words, “more than dragons and

kitty cats with wings.”“We’ve never been able to

describe VCON [to] any satisfac-tion,” said R. Graeme Cameron, who helped put together the first VCON when he was 18 years old. “It’s a general-interest convention, which means there’s a little bit of everything going on.”

The faces behind VCON have changed; it is no longer run by either UBC or SFU clubs, but rath-er the West Coast Science Fiction Association, a society created spe-cifically to manage the convention. The association hopes to expand VCON enough to one day host Westercon, the largest science fic-

tion convention in the West Coast. The last time that Westercon was held at UBC was in 1990, and had over 3,000 attendees.

Could there be another West-ercon at UBC in the near future? It is definitely a possibility, but as Cameron was quick to note, it all depends on the fans. “Gener-al-interest conventions have been dying, [so it] could go either way,” he said.

The convention certainly doesn’t lack a loyal fanbase; many attendees have been drawn back to VCON year after year since its in-ception. Michael Walsh, who was a reporter for the Province in 1971, has fond memories of walking into the convention for the first time as an outsider.

“[There was a] great deal of energy being expended in pursuit of — I wasn’t really sure of what at the time, [but] I wanted to know more,” he said. Forty years later, he’s still coming back. U

VCON was born out of a UBC and SFU science fiction club collaboration.

Science fiction and fantasy convention got its start at UBC and SFU

VALERIE WYNS PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

MONDAY, OCTOBeR 1, 2012 | CULTURe | 9

MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN As British colonial rule in India comes to an end on August 15, 1947, two baby boys born at the stroke of midnight — one rich, one poor — are switched in their cribs as an act of revolution. While Saleem is raised with the trappings of privilege, Shi-va must rely on his wits to survive. As India goes through its grow-ing pains, fate repeatedly draws the duo together over the next three decades.

With Deepah Mehta (Water, 2005) directing and Salman Rushdie adapting and narrating his best-sell-ing novel for the big screen, you’d expect nothing less than greatness from Midnight’s Children.

But while the multigenerational story is intriguing, it’s not with-out problems. Rushdie’s narration quickly grows tiresome — a case of too much tell and not enough show — and the huge cast of characters becomes challenging to keep track of. More importantly, the magical elements of the story are poorly explained and awkwardly executed. Anyone unfamiliar with India’s tumultuous history will surely be lost for the bulk of the movie.

—Greg Ursic

MY FATHER AND THE MAN IN BLACK

Jonathan Holiff never understood

why his father, Saul, was absent for most of his childhood; as Johnny Cash’s long-time agent, Saul often put the celebrity’s issues before his own. Saul and Jonathan’s relation-ship grew so strained that at 17, Jonathan left home and the two never spoke again. In 2005, Saul committed suicide. While clean-ing out his father’s storage locker, Jonathan found a treasure trove that provided some answers.

 My Father and the Man In Black uses never-before-seen source material, including audio clips from the journals that Saul recorded over several decades, as well as a vast library of photos and video clips. While the documentary further fleshes out Cash’s turbulent career, Holiff inadvertently authors his own cautionary tale.

A cathartic exercise for the younger Holiff, Man In Black is thor-oughly researched, perfectly paced and engaging.

—Greg Ursic

DESIGN OF DEATH

Hu Guan’s (Cow, 2009) fourth feature film literally starts off with a bang. After being ruthlessly beaten in a potato sack in the back of a truck, the hero of the film is thrown down a mountain only to be hit by a truck as he reaches the bottom. The Tarantino-style violence is nothing short of hilarious.

The protagonist, Niu Jieshi (Huang Bo), has been banished from the village he grew up in because of his father’s poor reputation. The bizarre little town is famous for absurdist traditions and rituals, such as keeping their elders alive against their will until they are 120 years old. As Jieshi grows older, his loneliness causes him to seek attention as a prankster. To get rid of him, the entire town makes his alienation official by pretending he has a disease.

The small society in the film is so focused on preserving life that it neglects the human emotions that make it worth living. Satirical and often absurd, Design of Death defin-itely gives the viewer something to think about.

—Alexis Sogl

CARTOON COLLEGE

Cartoon College is an institution in the middle of nowhere — more specifically, White River Junction, Vermont — where 20 students enter an intense two-year program to try to make it in the graphic novel in-dustry. The struggles of the students are sugar-coated and even a bit distracting to the ultimate premise of the film, mainly centred around the future of the graphic novel.

Big-shots like Jimmy Corrigan and Art Spiegelman clarify that cartoons and graphic art still ha-

ven’t been properly differentiated. Though the practice was borne out of Warhol’s Factory in the sixties, it only started being widely published in the past 10 years.

Despite shedding some light on recent developments in the graphic novel industry, Cartoon College provides little reason for audiences to get excited about the cause.

—Alexis Sogl

NEIGHBOURING SOUNDS

Taking place in Recife, Brazil, Neighbouring Sounds delves into the lives of about a dozen characters living on the same street. Through-out the film, themes of class division, fear, safety and violence are explored through seemingly mundane moments. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho has created a de-tail-oriented, character-driven piece that lets the audience form their own opinions on the motivations of each character.

Although Neighbouring Sounds is categorized as a thriller and drama, the tension is so subtle that it is easily forgotten. The suspense becomes tiring, and all the ominous foreshadowing essentially builds up to nothing.

However, Neighbouring Sounds demonstrates how a well-timed soundtrack can bring a movie to life. The intentional use of silence and noise was sometimes the only thing

that could keep the attention of the audience.

—Rebekah Ho

TEDDY BEAR

Picture a Danish Arnold Schwarz-enegger, sans accent, and you’ll have Dennis (Kim Kold), the endearing 38-year-old professional body-build-er on a quest for love.

Unbeknownst to his diminutive and controlling mother, Ingrid (Elsebeth Steentoft), the gentle giant decides to fly to beautiful Thailand in pursuit of love. The protagonist grows disenchanted, however, when he finds himself in a series of painfully awkward encounters with local Thai prostitutes. It is not until he visits his natural habitat, the gym, that he finds what he’s looking for in Toi, the sweet Thai woman who runs the facility.

Director Mads Matthiesen’s -

Teddy Bear boasts no diabolical twists or witty dialogue, since all that seems to come out of Dennis’s mouth is “No.” But once you get past this minor setback, you stumble upon a phenomenal masterpiece embedded in a stellar cast. In his ironic brilliance as a meek lamb trapped inside a gargantuan body, Kim Kold exceeds expectations as Dennis. U

—Trisha Bernardo

VIFF flicks span slow thrills, dark comedy and lovePHOTOS COURTESY VIFF

Clockwise: Neighbouring Sounds, Teddy Bear, Design of Death.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 | 10STUDENT VOICE. COMMUNITY REACH.

Housing Action Plan gives students short shrift

University, we’re told, is supposed to be about the “big questions,” about the process psychologist Abraham Maslow described as (bear with me here) “self-actual-ization.”

But most students at UBC are concerned about a more fun-damental segment of Maslow’s famous pyramid: whether they’ll be able to pay rent.

It’s probably the most pressing issue facing UBC and Vancouver as a whole. Only a small subset of people can actually afford to live here. From a university perspec-tive, it’s also the single biggest impediment to raising UBC’s international stature. The univer-sity competes globally for faculty and students, and the cost of living in Vancouver is a big turn-off.

With that in mind, the UBC Board of Governors (BoG) has been developing a strategy for housing more students, faculty and staff on campus. The Housing Action Plan, passed at the BoG’s September meeting, sets out new guidelines for controlling rent on housing owned and operated by the university.

And as usual, students are get-ting short shrift.

In a nutshell, here’s what the plan does for faculty and staff.

Ten per cent of all new hous-ing built on campus will be made available to own for tenured and tenure-track faculty members at 33 per cent below market value. The average cost of a home on Vancouver’s Westside is around $1.2 million. Another 20 per cent of new housing will be reserved for faculty and staff, kept at 25 per cent below market. Because it’s both owner and developer of the land, UBC doesn’t have to sub-sidize anything; it can simply not charge as much.

Obviously, UBC’s Greatest University in the World ambi-tions are hurt by the high cost of housing in Vancouver. It’s hard to attract high-powered professors and rockstar researchers when they find out that only 10 per cent of university employees actually make enough to afford a house anywhere close to campus. Those who do accept positions with the university and don’t earn that much may opt to commute from the suburbs, which tends to turn people into stress-filled balls of hate. Nobody wants that.

UBC has other motives for housing more of its own on campus, too. For one, there’s the argument that housing more UBC-affiliated people on campus will make the campus less of a cultural wasteland. Students and faculty might develop an actual connection to this place when hanging around after 5 p.m. is at least a little more desirable. Plus, a stable, year-round population would make for a more vibrant

campus that’s able to support more transit, business and academic ac-tivities — including the possibility of a full-blown summer semester.

And, as revealed in a blog post by Nassif Ghoussoub, the elected BoG faculty rep who spearheaded the plan, it sounds like UBC expects this to make campus residents less critical of the university’s development agenda. From a post from last October: “UBC-affiliated personnel are bet-ter positioned to accept and appre-ciate the living conditions within a university community. They would be more inclined to accept keeping academic priorities at the core of future decisions regarding campus development, taxation, representation and governance.” UBC is always telling itself that non-academic development on campus is fine because the rev-enues go back into the endowment, which benefits the academic side of the university and ultimately its biggest stakeholders: students.

Which brings us, finally, to the issue of student housing. What does this plan offer for students who want to live in this academic Eden without breaking the bank?

Well, not much. The student-fo-cused bit of the plan is pretty basic. It assumes supply is the issue, and pledges to house 50 per cent of full-time students on campus. The flagship Ponderosa Housing Hub, currently a hole in the ground at the intersection of West Mall and University Boulevard, will add 1,100 new beds for students.

Don’t expect to see any real cost controls on student housing. While rooms in the new hub will be below the market rate, that still puts rent in the $745–900 range — hardly affordable for anyone who doesn’t get significant help from their parents. Beyond that, BoG’s promised to advocate for an increase in the B.C. student loans housing allowance, which looks good on paper but is really just kicking the can down the road.

It’s here we see the double standard: UBC is willing to go to the ropes to defend faculty and staff from the big bad Vancouver housing market. It’s willing to simply charge less for housing, because, ultimately, it can. But when students complain, we get a callous dismissal. As UBC Housing has said in the past, the system is completely full, even at Ponder-osa-level rents. Some of us can afford it, so they don’t really see a problem here.

Because of the way student housing is set up, it has to cover the costs of its operation without any additional money from the university. But even then, it con-sistently runs a surplus, meaning UBC could afford to charge less for student housing.

But it won’t. Unlike the profs UBC hopes to recruit, we’re not on the sexy, jet-setting, bleeding edge of the knowledge economy. But ultimately, most students do vote with their feet — by leaving this place the second that classes end. U

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOKby Jonny Wakefield

AMS finally gets real with its rapid transit strategy

Those of you following the AMS’s most recent rapid transit campaign may have been sur-prised to hear Surrey mentioned more frequently than the fabled UBC Line.

The AMS is taking a different approach to rapid transit issues with the Get on Board cam-paign, a partnership between area student unions and muni-cipalities that advocates for new funding for TransLink. In 2010, the AMS poured money into a similar initiative that declared, “UBC needs rapid transit now.” To anybody living south of the Fraser, the idea that Point Grey should be prioritized for rapid transit probably seemed a little petulant, and downright heinous if the project would be funded by a toll on the Port Mann Bridge.

That’s why you won’t see much mention of a UBC Line in this campaign. Instead of posi-tioning themselves in opposition to the suburbs, the AMS has realized that when it comes to transit improvements, every-one’s equally screwed. 99 B-Line pass-ups will still be the rallying cry for students, but this more measured approach, coupled with the upcoming election, will probably prove more effective.

UBC needs to make sure its students aren’t being fleeced

 So Fido has been giving con-tracts to underage students. Both parties are getting what they think they want. Eight-een-year-olds are getting their cellphones and Fido employees are meeting their sales goals.

Shadiness of the contracts aside, there are reasons why you have to be 19 to sign a binding contract in B.C. Students are risking their credit history on an unenforceable contract that they shouldn’t have been able to sign in the first place.

Fido has admitted that their biggest demographic is young

people who have never had a cellphone. Add to this the fact that Fido was marketing their phones to international students at a UBC-sponsored event, and the situation gets even more complicated. Students who have just arrived in Canada and ha-ven’t developed any brand loyal-ties are being offered contracts by a company that seems to have UBC’s seal of approval.

There are currently no gov-

ernmental agencies overseeing cellphone contacts, so the onus falls on UBC to decide who can promote themselves on campus. UBC has to be more careful about regulating marketing, especially if they are the only group doing it.

Post-secondary sector needs leadership from government



It’s always a bit of a stretch to expect a new minister to be good at their job right away. Often without any professional experience in the field, minis-ters are thrust into a position and have to learn as they go.

This is why it’s easy to be skeptical about the appointment of a third provincial minister of advanced education in three years. The sector is facing tough times. Universities and colleges

are seeing funded seats fill up, yet are expected to reduce reliance on provincial fund-ing. The government wants to see universities work harder to avoid duplicating services, even as it leads the charge in converting colleges into teaching universities.

The last minister, Naomi Yamamoto, planned to deal with all of these structural issues by letting university presidents find solutions that worked for their specific institutions. This wasn’t exactly fearless leader-ship from someone with a clear vision for the sector.

The new minister, John Yap, appears to think that the issue of post-secondary affordability in B.C. will manage itself; he’s content to focus on trades and job creation instead.

Post-secondary education in B.C. needs fixing. It remains to be seen whether the leadership required to fix the system will ever come from the government.

Lightning round

And now, a grab bag of our scribbled ravings on the news of the day.

Career Days Hope you like taking things out of the ground, because if not, no one even wants to look at you at these events. If your degree is about taking things out of the ground, you don’t need a hiring fair; you’re going to have no problem finding a job when you graduate. Why not hold an Arts hiring fair? You’re going to need someone to write all your feel-good press release copy.

 B.C. mayors Good on you for voting, in this, the Year of Our Lord 2012, to decriminalize possession of marijuana. Now you just have to figure out how in hell you’re ever going to get this one past Harper. (Of course, if pot ever is legalized, what will stoners have to talk about when they hang out?)

 John Furlong Whoa. U

THE LAST WORD

JONNY WAkEFIELD GRAPHIC/THE UBYSSEY

In 2010, the AMS poured money into an initiative that declared ‘UBC needs rapid transit now.’ To anybody living south of the Fraser, the idea that Point Grey should be prioritized for rapid transit probably seemed a little petulant.

Re: Get on Board campaign

Parking tickets

Tuition, government money, important-sounding research

Buzzwords, sustainability

UBC’s hierarchy of needs

University rankings

Feeling inferior to U of T

DAVID MARINO FILE PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2012 | 11PICTURES + WORDS ON YOUR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR PROFS?But How Does This

Relate to Colonialism?

TMIYour BFFThe One You Can’t Understand

The Grad StudentPILFWar on

Technology

INDICATORS

PERFECT PROFESSOR?!

Put that laptop away.

•Asks for hard copies of everything•Assigns long books for homework•Requires you to cite only printed sources

•Hot as #$%•Always impeccably dressed•Extremely distracting

•Ridiculously strict and overzealous•Over-complicates every concept•Brings up their thesis project constantly

•When students complain, he/she speaks clearly for five minutes and then reverts back to incomprehensibility

•Desperate for your approval

slang•Likes to tell you that

•Tells long anecdotes about children/pets/spouse•Relates everything back to personal life

•Relates all topics to colonialism•Launches into long tangents on power dynamics•Fails to notice students falling asleep

I’m going to talk about this concept you know in a way that you don’t

understand at all.

No, I’m not sorry that I speak too slowly/too quickly/too quietly.

Call me [insert first name], and talk to me about anything. I care.

Oh, how did those cute family photos get

on my desktop...? Seriously.Hey girl, please

legitimately register for my course.

Leaves submissions, notetaking and citations up to you

Their devastating wit is hot all on its own Projects

melodious speaking voice to the back of the room

Mocks our generation’s

technology, yet understands and uses technology well

Uses sophisticated language in an understandable way

Only tells funny, relevant stories that make you realize how cool they are

Relates curriculum to useful, current topics

12 | GAMeS | MONDAY, OCTOBeR 1, 2012

Across1- Subject to sizing, as fonts9- Receipts15- Tree specialist16- Fishing nets17- Comment at the bottom of a page18- Didn’t exist19- Old French coins20- Pericarp

22- Like Fran Drescher’s voice26- Squid27- Deranged29- Suffix with glob30- Mine find31- Affable33- Box38- Historic county in E. Scotland39- Partial motor paralysis41- Enthusiastic

42- Earphone43- Actress Joanne46- Comics bark47- Abu Dhabi’s fed.48- High-spirited horse52- Clan symbol54- Radioactive chemical element56- Lodge letters59- Native of Hyderabad or Mumbai60- Blood condition64- ___ Fideles65- Member of a lay society66- Don’t bother67- Scalloped on the margin

Down

1- Securely confined2- Gator’s cousin3- Teeming4- ___ luck!5- Prince Valiant’s son6- Life story7- D-Day craft8- French summers9- Honest!10- Needlework11- About12- Late bedtime13- Brainy bunch14- Fragrant compound21- Green prefix23- Belonging to a lower rank24- ___ well...25- Bottom of the barrel27- Bring into existence28- What ___ mind reader?32- Exist34- Blushing35- Legal action over breach of contract36- ___ yellow ribbon...37- Ferrara family39- Excellent, slangily40- Flying start?44- Showered45- Burma’s first prime minister48- Pertaining to bees

49- Sonata movement50- Pilgrim John51- Idaho capital53- Deadly virus55- Not fem.57- River to the Seine58- Cornerstone abbr.61- ___ anglais (English horn)62- Ox tail?63- Rockers Steely ___

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october 1 2012

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