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voting strategically, not idealistically........................7Strategic voting offers the option to vote collectively rather than according to personal preference to make voting more effective

theVoiceCheck us out online at

langaravoice.com

This week look for special

video content on the LSU

election forum and

Compass Card reactions.

OCTOBER 8, 2015 • VOL. 48 NO. 1 • VANCOUVER, B.C.

DAVID COOPER photoCamille Legg and Adelleh Furseth star as a same-sex couple in the modernized production of Romeo + Juliet, set in the year Studio 58 was founded.

Warholesque Romeo + Juliet pays homage to Studio 58’s beginnings By RUMANA DSOUZA

William Shakespeare’s global audience has witnessed his plays re-imagined in differ-ent settings and themes.

Langara College’s Studio 58 chose a setting in accordance with its 50 year anniversary.

Studio 58, in association with the Chop Theatre, presents Romeo + Ju-

liet, set in 1965 in Andy Warhol’s famed New York City studio, the Factory.

The anniversary also coincided with the passing of Studio 58’s founder, the-atre legend Antony Holland.

Anita Rochon, the director, said the milestone was the inspiration to set one of Shakespeare’s most iconic plays in 1965.

“I began researching the era and it revealed interesting things in society

during a period of societal upheaval, parallels that I also witnessed in Ro-meo + Juliet,” she said.

Audiences might assume that set-ting this tale of star-crossed lovers in 1965 may lead to drastic alterations of the orginal play, but Rochon said there were few changes.

See STUDIO 58, page 4

“The era revealed interesting things in society

DIRECTORANITA ROCHON

Shakespearewith atwist

New voterbill poses problems Stricter identification rules present roadblocks for students planning to vote in federal election

By BEN BENGTSON

The upcoming federal election will be the first time the Fair Elections Act is put to the test and the con-

troversial act has already caused con-fusion about the voting process.

The act, officially called Bill C-23, was passed last year by the Conserva-tive government. The bill raised con-cerns from students and special inter-est groups that say the bill would make voting more difficult for them.

The bill attempts to decrease voter fraud by reforming voter identification rules. In past elections, students could verify their voting address by using a government issued card that contained their current address or the address of their parents. Under the new rules, the card is no longer valid.

Changes to voter identification could mean students whose living situations are temporary are not eligible to vote.

“Contained within this law is a not-so-thinly veiled attempt to depress voter turnout,” said Paul Prosperi, de-partment chair of history, Latin and political science at Langara College. “I’m concerned that there may be instances in which people will either be unable or they will be put off the prospect of going down there to vote.”

Roberta LaQua-glia, who operates a Vote PopUp as a volunteer for Samara Canada, a non-partisan group that encourages civic engagement, agreed that the new rules are unclear.

“The perception out there is that voting is more confusing,” she said of the bill, adding that many students are unsure about what identification they need or where they can cast a ballot.

Some students are unaware of the new act all together.

“No, I haven’t heard of [the Fair Elec-tions Act],” said Victoria Chernyaeva, a computer science student at Langara.

Dorothy Sitek, a spokesperson for Elections Canada, argued that stu-dents who wish to vote have “every op-portunity to.” She added that it’s im-portant for Langara students to make sure they are registered to vote on Oct. 19, and encouraged visiting the elec-tions.ca website for more information.

PAUL PROSPERIPolitical science department chairCOMPASS CARDS

How are you liking the new Compass Card system? Are you remembering to tap in and out?

INTERVIEWS AND PHOTOS BY JULIA WICKHAM

FRANCES MCDONALDFine arts student “I find [the Compass Card] a little odd. I thought that the U-Pass was really easy to use, and honestly, I feel like I’m being tracked when I use the Compass Card. I feel like they know what bus I’m on, which kind of freaks me out, so I tend not to tap out of the bus because I don’t want them to know where I am.”

AUSTIN DOKinesiology student“It’s pretty useful, I can go wherever I want without using any coins. I always tap in, but I never remember to tap it out. It’s very conve-nient and I’ve never had a problem with it.”

TYLER GAUDET General sciences student “I really like the Compass Card, because going [for] free everywhere is awesome. I always tap it in, because the bus drivers are always kind of looking at you, but I always forget to tap it out. I try to, but I always worry that my wallet is going to fall and it’s not mandatory, so who cares?”

JUSTIN LUIComputer science student “The Compass Card is alright, compared to what I already know that exists. In Hong Kong, they have the Octopus Card, and the system is way better. I remember to tap in and out about 90 per cent of the time.On the bus there’s way too many people [getting off] to tap out.”

Electronic Compass Cards have now officially replaced paper U-Passes across BC campuses this fall. Now that the system has been fully intergrated, students are forced to adjust to the change. The Voice asked Langara stu-dents:

FLEXUS Olso, Norway

OCTOPUS CARD Hong Kong

OPUL CARD Sydney, Australia

OYSTER CARDLondon, UK

RABBIT CARDBangkok, Thailand

T-MONEYSeoul, Korea

Source: wikipedia

GLOBALfare cards

JOURNALISM

At large 2 EDITOR ETHAN REYESTHE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 2015

Pupils lose app-etite

By JAKE COSTELLO

The first term of Langara College’s new app design program is expe-riencing some glitches of it’s

own.Web and mobile app design and de-

velopment is a two-year post-degree diploma program that began teaching computer code and marketing at Lang-ara College this fall.

It’s a collaboration between the de-partment of computing sciences & in-formation systems and the department of publishing, which has received fund-ing from the President’s Innovation Fund at the college to develop the new curriculum.

Brian Koehler, who has been work-ing on the program since 2014, said that local demand for tech jobs got this proj-ect off the ground.

“The industry is really exciting,” Koehler said, “We know the jobs are there, and I think a lot of people will find them really rewarding.”

Not all of the students feel they are getting what they signed up for howev-er. One student, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal, raised concerns about an unbalanced schedule that has students at school for 11 hours each Monday.

Students also raised questions about the course’s design. Vikram Rana, a student from Delhi, said that with the pace of the courses “people without a programming background can feel se-cluded.”

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Monsters of Schlock will not be performing Oct 9-11

By SCOTT DRAKE

The Conservative candidate’s ab-sence at a Vancouver-South all-candidates meeting on Tuesday didn’t dampen a charged debate

about the country’s future.The riding, in which threehundre-

deight.com projects a Liberal victory, has historically swung between the Conservatives and the Liberals.

Harjit Sajjan, the Liberal candidate, lamented the divisive nature of politics under the Harper government.

Speaking to the Liberal support of Bill C-51, which he called a “wedge is-sue,” Sajjan said it was “our job as re-sponsible opposition to make this bill better for all Canadians.”

NDP candidate, Amandeep Nijjar,

who had to be reminded by an audi-ence member that the Green Party also voted against Bill C-51, criticized the Liberal leadership for its support of the bill.

“We should not have to choose be-tween our rights and security,” she said.

The meeting featured 45 minutes of audience questions and provided a “good opportunity to start a dialogue,” said Hari Sun, a political science stu-dent.

Sun added that the absence of the Conservatives shows that in some ways they are ”not on the same level as us regular people.”

Charles Boylan, the Maxsist-Leninist candidate, received the loudest ap-plause. He said that his presence con-

tributes to a political discourse that wouldn’t otherwise make its way into federal politics.

“I can guarantee you that a single Marxist-Leninist, like myself, in the House of Commons would really bring about serious discourse in this country about what direction it should take.”

Elain Ng, who was unable to partici-pate because of an eye problem, watched as Green Party candidate for Vancouver-Granville, Michael Barkusky echoed earlier statements about the need to alter political dia-logue in Ottawa.

“The key thing we need to do” he said, “is change the conversation about what economic prosperity is all about.”

And then there were four...“We should not have to choose between our rights and security

Amandeep Nijjar

Vancouver-South-NDP Candidate

JAMES SMITH photoVancouver-South political candidates address Langara Students on Tuesday. The Conservative candidate, however, did not attend.

Still some bugs in a new app design program at Langara say students

Langara’s lecture hall became a political battleground on Tuesday

Campus news 3EDITOR DUSTIN GODFREY THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT 8, 2015

ANNE-SOPHIE RODET photoGail Sparrow (left), Elder-in-Residence at Langara Col-lege, said she was pleased to see a large attendance at this year’s Aboriginal Feast.

C-Change to offer broader community volunteering opportunitiesBy SEYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI

As a way to expand Langara Col-lege’s volunteer program, VOLT is piloting a new project this se-mester to bring student volun-

teers beyond school grounds.VOLT volunteer program coordina-

tor Maggie Stewart said that C-Change has been in the works for the past year, and aims to bring volunteers more op-portunities to work in the communities of Vancouver. She said that students indicated desire for a greater role in community volunteering.

“The C in C-Change stands for com-munity; the tag line is: ‘Do you want to C Change?’” Stewart said. “We know a lot of students are coming to our office to volunteer and be able to have an im-

pact in their community.”C-Change will kick off by taking Lan-

gara volunteers tree planting in Pacific Spirit Regional Park on Oct. 17, with the Metro Vancouver Regional Parks Ecological Restoration Team and their EcoBlitz campaign.

In November, C-Change will launch a clean-up event in the community sur-rounding the college and in December, C-Change will launch Christmas Ham-pers 2015 in collaboration with Marpole Oakridge Family Place.

Alisha Samnani, health science stu-dent, said she spends most of her free time at The Hub, which houses the VOLT program.

“I am participating in C-Change,” Samnani said. “We are going to plant trees in a park and it will be beautify-

ing our community.”Ivy Han, psychology student, said

volunteering both at the college an in the community hold value.

“If you do it in Langara, you are more engaged on campus, but outside the campus your engagement is with big-ger community,” Han said. “You get en-gaged with the community and you get experience.”

Stewart said she sees community volunteering as a way to apply the skills students learn in class to work outside the college.

“The indirect goal of C-Change is to send students to the community,” Stewart said. “So they have some sense of stewardship of our community and through that process, develop some so-cial awareness skills.”

VOLT puts ‘C’ in community

By ANNE-SOPHIE RODET

Organizers of aboriginal student transfer program between Langa-ra College and UBC hope its im-

plementation will boost enrolment from the aboriginal community.

The UBC-Langara Aboriginal Trans-fer Program, which was formalized on Sept. 25, aims to support aboriginal stu-dents in their transition to UBC through mentorship and financial aid.

The announcement comes after a three-year pilot, which took 12 Langara students through the program.

Linc Kesler, director of the UBC First Nations House of Learning, said there is an “underrepresentation of aborigi-nal students in higher education.”

However, Langara dean of student services and registrar Clayton Munro said he expects the new program will

increase aboriginal representation in both schools.

“We are very optimistic that this will have a significant impact on enrolment of aboriginal learners at Langara and significantly increase the number of aboriginal learners transferring to UBC,” Munro said.

As long as the students meet the re-quirements of the participating depart-ments, admission is guaranteed “re-gardless of the amount of competition,” UBC director of undergraduate admis-sions Andrew Arida said.

Although some students hadn’t yet heard of the program, it has been well received.

“It definitely opens possibilities for us,” first-year health sciences student Angeline Day said.

“Why not access my opportunities?” first year psychology student Jeana Poorman said.

In an effort to inform students, eight UBC advisers came to an Aboriginal Feast on Tuesday at the Gathering Space, a dedicated place for aboriginals at Langara.

BRIEFLY on campus

1 Position: Youth

workshop Facilita-

tors. Organization:

West Coast LEAF.

When: Oct. 12

2 Position: Volunteer

Tutor. Organization:

Frontier College.

When: Nov. 25

3 Position:

Graphic Designer

Organization:

What’s Your Impact

When: Dec. 12

Source: langara.ca

FALLat VOLT

Restoration services have got one Langara College classroom back in working order, after several

rooms were damaged when a sprinkler went off on the second floor of Build-ing A last month. Two more rooms are expected to be back in use next week.

Room A211 was returned to service on Monday. Room A212 and the A110 Mac lab will be in use next week, direc-tor of facilities Wendy Lannard said.

Despite water pouring into the com-puter lab on Sept. 22, no computers were damaged, said associate director of information technology Justin Yau.

Design formation instructor Marcela Noriega, who teaches a class in the lab, noted the rapid set up of a temporary lab in the library with the same com-puters following the incident.

“Students were really pleased and happy, since they had to finish a project that week,” Noriega said.

Lannard said the flood affected 10 faculty offices, two classrooms, a com-puter room and two additional rooms.

“We’re not sure how it exactly hap-pened, but (the sprinkler) most likely was accidently hit,” she said.

— Compiled by Julia Wickham

Aboriginal transfer program cementedLangara, UBC hopeful program will expand aboriginal enrolment

Campus voting vanishes from main foyer

SAYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI photoMaggie Stewart said she was informing students of the new program during Langara College’s volunteer fair.

Election page on website apparently defunct, as voting booths missing from Building A main foyer

Student democracy was missing in action Wednesday at Langara College, with no voting booth in Building A.

Similarly, clicking on the ‘Elections’ tab on the Langara Students’ Union website yielded little help, redirecting users to the home page.

The four-day voting period was scheduled from Oct. 5 until Oct. 8. Stu-dents conducted regular checks for a voting booth all day Wednesday after-noon without any luck.

Ballot counting for the LSU election was scheduled to begin on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in the LSU’s boardroom, im-mediately following the voting period.

Sixteen candidates vying over 10 councillor positions in the LSU.

The LSU was unable to comment by deadline.

Tatum MacLean, psychology student and councillor candidate spoke to stu-dents at a candidates’ forum.

“We are the ones that make up the community,” she said.

JULIA WICKHAM photoThe affected hallway was cleared out as restoration crews worked on repairing the office rooms.

Headway made with flooded roomsOne room open, with two more, including Mac lab set to open next week

ntertainment4 THE DAILY VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 2015 EDITOR ALEX HOEGLER E

By TESSA VIKANDER

A bold dynamic is being added to the tale of Dracula. The play is marked by gender roles, with a female being casted a leading

male character.In the production of Dracula, that

plays at the Metro Theatre from Oct. 14 to 24, King recasted Dracula’s rival, as a woman, and renamed the character to Anna Van Helsing.

Ellie King, director of the Royal Cana-dian Theatre Company, said she looked for a chance to give the play a unique storyline.

“I wanted to explore what it might bring to the plot if Dracula’s nemesis were a woman, and we’ve discovered that it adds a wonderful texture,”she

said.King’s decision to make Van Helsing

female responds to the lack of lead fe-male roles in theatre. She added that even though there are more women than men that are involved in commu-nity theatre, males still occupy most of the lead roles.

King’s actors also notice the inequal-ity. Kurtis Maguire, who plays Dracula, said that playwrights often portray women as young, helpless maidens, and older women are often left out of scripts entirely.

“It’s just not fair because [it means the actors] cannot play to the truth of what each story is or could be,” he said.

Kathryn Stewart said that she has no-ticed variety in roles throughout her acting career.

“As you get older you start looking for more complex characters,” she said. “This is the biggest role I’ve ever played in terms of dialogue,” she said.

When asked how the inequality can change, Stewart says that playwrights need to find more expressive ways of portraying women.

“It might take having more women playwrights, accompanied by more funding for the arts,” she said.

Maguire said he looks forward to more plays involving more women of all ages, but thinks that gender bending can be done in any play.

“[We should] turn off the automatic programming that society sometimes gives us, and think outside of the box. Which of course is what theatre is all about,” he said.

STACEY SHERBACK photoKurtis Maguire (left as Dracula,) is co-starring with Kathryn Stewart (right, as Anna Van Helsing.) Stewart’s char-acter is traditionally a male character, but it underwent changes as a female Anna Van Helsing

By MURRAY B. HUNT

VanDusen Botanical Garden is known for its plants and flowers. This month, from a com-posted coat to silk scarves, they’ll be display-

ing earth friendly works to celebrate Craft Year 2015, Canada’s largest year-long craft festival.

The Craft Council of British Columbia (CCBC) has teamed up with VanDusen, to give 33 B.C. art-ists an opportunity to sell their works for art ad-mirers.

Marina Georgiadis, a silk scarves crafter in the exhibition, is selling some of her crafts which are aimed at being earth friendly.

“White silk is an easy fabric to dye. Natural products like leaves and lavender are put on the scarves, then rolled up tightly and boiled in water for about an hour, then they are ready,” she said.

Dawn Russell, a fellow artist at the exhibition, is also the director of development and fundraiser for VanDusen. Russell contributed the composted coat

to th exhibit for sale, with some of the profits going to VanDusen.

“The coat which is white denim was compost died or ferment died, meaning it was buried in the ground for four months, it get its dark colour from the iron and was inspired by lichen on a tree,” Rus-sell said.

“I have two passions, the first is VanDusen and the other is craft and textile design,” she said.

Raine McKay, executive director for the CCBC has worked with VanDusen for three shows, and teamed up with them again this year.

“Every year we try to have a member’s exhibi-tion where our people get to show off their work and we usually have a theme,” she said.

“This year’s theme, Botanically Inspired, tied in with our work at VanDusen,“ she said.

The Botanically Inspired exhibition is free to visit at the Discovery Room, VanDusen Botanical Garden, 5151 Oak Street, between 10 a.m. and five p.m. until Nov. 1.

Garden-inspired artists go craftyVanDusen Botanical Garden and Craft Council of British Columbia are working together to come up with earth-friendly crafts for fundraising and allowing artists to show their finest works

MURRAY HUNT photoDawn Russell poses with her coat, that is made com-pletely of compost. A portion of the proceeds from the sold coat will go to VanDusen Botanical Garden

“White silk is an easy fabric to dye. Natural products like leaves and lav-ender are put on the scarves, then rolled up tightly and boiled in water

Marine Georgia-dis, silked scarves

crafter

The Metro Theatre’s version of Dracula is bringing more than just entertainment to the play. But also the element of surprises

By RUMANA DSOUZA

Studio 58’s Romeo + Juliet begins at a party at Warhol’s Factory, attended by the Montagues and the Capulets.

The enmity between the two families remains at the heart of the play. In Rochon’s production, the two lovers were casted as women.

Rochon said that the Shakespearean language from the original script was mainly kept in place, without adding any significant changes.

ChoreographerTara Cheyenne Friedenberg talked about what makes the play so unique. “We’ve never seen Romeo + Juliet like this before. Andy Warhol’s Factory is a fantastic setting, and there’s great music. It’s really fun to watch,” said Friedenberg.

Studio 58’s production of Romeo + Juliet runs from Oct.1-18.

Romeo + JulietRomeo + Juliet, continued from p.1

Van Helsing gender swap

DAVID COOPER photoJuliet and Mrs. Capulet – Juliet (Adelleh Furseth) kneeling and her Mother, Mrs. Capulet (Lucy McNulty).

DAVID COOPER photoCapulets & Montagues (Left to right):Tybalt (Kamyar Pazandeh), Abraham (Braiden Houle), Samson (Arash Ghorbani) and Nance (Samantha Pawliuk)

Lifestyles 5EDITOR BRYAN MC GOVERN THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 2015

‘Don’t call it a comeback’ The fashion cycle brings the ’90s back to students’ closets By SERENA PATTAR

While fashion week may be happening in Paris, a quick look around campus will re-veal the revival of ’90s

trends.A variety of trends have been spot-

ted on Langara College, including crop tops, loose plaid shirts and Doc Mar-tens boots.

Image and style instructor Katherine Lazaruk, from the continuing studies department at Langara College attri-butes the return to the edginess of the decade.

“There’s definitely an edge to it, and I think too a comfort factor with the ’90s clothing. It’s a slouchy jean rather than a skinny jean,” Lazaruk said.

“Comfort is key. The ’90s don’t need to be tight to be fashionable,” said Pa-

mela Lee, a third year so-cial sciences student at L a n g a r a , seen wear-ing a mo-t o r c yc l e jacket.

Laza-r u k s a i d t h e fash-i o n cycle

moves faster due to the rise of afford-able clothing stores like Forever 21 and H&M, which quickly replicate looks from the runway and deliver it to the consumers’ hands right away.

Manveer Sanghera, a second year general studies Langara student, seen wearing a loose green plaid shirt, said it was easy to follow the trends since she shops at the clothing store Forev-er 21.

The ’90s revival doesn’t only in-clude clothing and accessories. Ac-cording to Lazaruk there is a strong emphasis on make-up.

She said glitter and shimmer are making a comeback, but are ap-plied in a more refined way to par-allel the edginess of the decade.

Lazaruk said ’90s fashions are tailored to the female fashionistas rather than the male ones.

Submitted photoA Thanksgiving dinner with a Canadian family hosting international students from a previous year

From left to right: Arash Khosravi first year English student said men’s

outfits from the ’90s have loud prints. Manveer Sanghera, second year gen-

eral studies student and Rachael Franz, second year general science student show

off their ’90s fashion style.

SERENA PATTARphotos

Turkey tradition for the first timeBy JASON HAMILTON

The holidays can be a lonely time for international students who may not be familiar with Canadian tra-

ditions.Every year, the international depart-

ment at Langara College pairs students with families from around the Metro Vancouver area to take part in a tradi-tional Canadian Thanksgiving environ-ment. In addition to Thanksgiving the students can attend Christmas, Easter and summer barbeque events.

Yangchun Ye, second year interna-tional student at Langara College, has attended two summer barbeques.

“It was my first time [getting] to know a Canadian family,” Ye said.

She recommended the events to her friends as an opportunity to connect with Canadians and make new friends in a different country.

Celine Huang, international student coordinator at Langara, said families around Metro Vancouver have been providing this opportunity for interna-tional students for 12 years.

This year, 25 Langara students are attending the Thanksgiving dinners.

According to Huang these events provide international students with a chance to spend the holidays with a Ca-

nadian family. “All of them are away from home and

likely missing [it] during that time,” Huang said.

Tara Morgan and her family have been hosting one-to-four dinner events a year since 2007. She said they talk about the backgrounds of American and Canadian Thanksgiving since her husband is American.

“So many students come to Canada and never step foot in a Canadians house. I love to give opportunity for in-ternational students to have a taste of Canadian culture,” Morgan said.

The dinner will be on Oct. 10.

International students invited to join Canadian families in feasting festivities

Gala helps women facing effects of cancer

By NANCY PLECHATY

Close your eyes and imagine a huge walk-in closet – brightly lit rows of make-up and mirrors, pampering

stations with expert beauticians at your beck and call upbeat music with a live DJ and a few of your friends to share the excitement.

Murale, a specialized cosmetics divi-sion of Shoppers Drug Mart, celebrated its sixth anniversary on Oct. 1 by host-ing the Hope is Beautiful gala, a fund-raiser for the Look Good Feel Better program.

Tanya Slingsby, regional manager in B.C. for the LGFB program said the proceeds of the event go towards help-ing women who have been diagnosed with cancer. Through workshops with information and skills to combat the ef-fects of the disease on their appare-ance.

“It’s a very empowering workshop,” Slingsby said. There are 13 locations across B.C. where these free work-shops are offered.

LGFB is a program from the founda-tion arm of the Canadian cosmetic, toi-letry and fragrance association.

“One hun-dred per cent of the proceeds will go to the LGFB programCONNIE MCNICOL

MURALE MAN-AGER

Cosmetics store at Oakridge Centre sup-ports international program

“Comfort is key. The ’90s don’t need to be tight to be fashion-able

PAMELA LEE SOCIAL SCIENCES

STUDENT AT LANGARA

NANCY PLECHATY photoThere were beauty stations provided by Murale with expert beauticians for attendees to give makeovers.

viewpoints6 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 2015 EDITOR OWEN MUNRO

We want to hear from youGot a different point of view?

Write to us. Problems with something we’ve said?

Let us know.Think we got a fact wrong?

Tell us.

Journalism instructor Erica Bulman oversees The Voice. Email her at

ebulman@langara.bc.ca

The Voice is published by Langara College’s journalism department. Editorial opinions are those of the staff and are independent of views of the student government and administration.We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must be signed. They may be edited for brevity. Names may be withheld in special cases, but your letter must include your name and phone number.

HOW TO REACH US

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WEBSITEwww.langaravoice.ca

EDITORIAL STAFF

MANAGING EDITOR Jocelyn Aspa

PAGE EDITORS

PAGE 1 Tanya Commisso

PAGE 2 Ethan Reyes

PAGE 3 Dustin Godfrey

PAGE 4 Alex Hoegler

PAGE 5 Bryan Mc Govern

PAGE 6 Owen Munro

PAGE 7 Bailey Nicholson

PAGE 8 Michael Lylyk

WEB EDITORSErin BoeAnna DimoffKelvin GawleyJames SmithTony SuXiao Xu

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REPORTERSBen BengtsonJake CostelloScott DrakeRumana DsouzaJason HamiltonMurray HuntSean LeeVincent Matak Rosemary NewtonSerena Pattar Nancy PlechatyMostafa RazieiKate RichardsonAnne-Sophie RodetMark StuartKevin UnderhillTessa VikanderBridgette WatsonJulia WickhamKathryn Wu

Contact us:

Online at langaravoice.ca

Twitter at@LangaraVoice

theVoiceCasting women in in lead roles long overdue

The irony of strategic voting W

hen I cast my vote at a ballot box on Oct. 19, it will be one cast with my head and not my heart.

I’m wary that a strategic vote to bring down Stephen Harper’s Conser-vative Party of Canada will do anything but that. Voting for the principles you stand for is a strategic vote in itself. Believing in our demo-cratic system and taking a pragmatic view of party platforms and electoral projections is what it comes down to.

Although strategic voting cam-paigns are more popular for those who take an “anyone but Harper” approach to the election, they haven’t proven to be effective in the past where disorga-nization is the biggest downfall.

Leadnow.ca, an independent advocacy group, encourages voting for the constituent that has the greatest

chance of defeating the Conservative candidate in a riding. Yet, they have not come out with candidates they back in potential swing ridings.

In fact, Joseph Wasylycia-Leis, the Winnipeg field organizer for Leadnow, admits “there isn’t much evidence that it has worked in the past.”

This is because polling and projec-tions swing with regularity. The reliability of local polling has de-creased as more people switch to cellphones, which creates poorly selected samples.

On Monday, Oct. 5, CBC’s Poll Tracker showed the Liberal Party of Canada lead the national ballot with 32.4 per cent of support, but the Tories winning 122 seats. Bryan Breguet, an electoral forecaster who runs the political projection site www.tooclos-etocall.ca, projects the Tories to win

134 seats. Breguet wrote in 2011 that as many

as 60 per cent of Liberal and New Democratic Party supporters would have to switch to the “best progressive option in their riding” in order for strategic voting to make a difference.

It’s encouraging to see that many are united coast-to-coast to bring down a regime of fear mongering and tyranny. To do it in the veil of strategic voting defeats the purpose. Take a principled stand in what you believe in, and let democracy run its course.

OPINIONOWEN MUNRO

Women in theatre and film are getting screwed; and I don’t mean on the casting couch, but

by a serious lack of lead roles to be cast in.

An April 2015 report by Equity in Theatre revealed women get less than 35 per cent of key roles on the Canadian stage. The statistics for film and television are pretty depressing too. According to a study by Martha Lauzen at the Center for the Study of

Women in Television and Film, women played a pathetic 12 per cent of protagonists in the top 100 grossing films of 2014.

So I say go girl to Kathryn Stewart who was cast as vigilante vampire slayer Anna Van Helsing in the Royal

Canadian Theatre Company’s October production of Dracula.

Adapting male roles for women has been trending lately. Think Lucy Liu as Dr. Watson in CBS’s Elementary and the all-female Ghostbusters squad in the upcoming remake.

But is it enough to just rework male roles for women? Equity in Theatre says women constitute over half of theatre school students and that women are more likely to actually go to the theatre. Women deserve some creative new female roles rather than remixed male ones.

The statistics on male roles don’t sound that great either. Lauzen’s study shows male characters are more likely to be identified solely by their professions and to be cast as crimi-nals. No offence guys, but you can keep your boring workaholic and bad guy roles.

As much as I’m stoked to see a female Van Helsing, it is once again an old role adapted to a woman and not created for one. It’s time to write some new female characters because parts are paycheques and that matters.

OPINIONBRIDGETTE WATSON

MICHAEL LYLYK comicCatch a new comic by a Langara journalism student every week

Tapping out will be a cause of frustrationW

hen the struggle to tap out makes you want to flip out, you can thank TransLink’s new

Compass Card system. The post-secondary U-Pass system

was upgraded from paper passes to Compass Cards earlier this year in May. For four months, students practiced tapping in and out of inoperative Canada Line fare gates while TransLink phased out the older system.

Starting on Oct. 5, one gate at each station will close in order to test out the system, but here’s the problem: there are simply not enough gates at each station. The Langara-49th Avenue Station, for example, has only three fare gates.

In fall of 2011, TransLink did a station count and found that on a

typical random weekday, there were 7,437 people boarding and 9,263 people alighting at the Langara-49th Station alone. Now imagine those 16,700 people being funnelled through three

gates. This goes back

to the issue that the Canada Line infrastructure was designed too small to accommodate the large and growing Vancou-ver commuter population. The 49 bus transports not only Langara

students, but also large numbers of UBC and high school students. The 49 bus route was listed in a 2014 Trans-

Link Performance Report as Vancou-ver’s second busiest bus route and during operating hours, 45 per cent of buses were overcrowded.

According to the 2011 TransLink Annual Report, the reason for implementing gates is to decrease fare evasion, but fare evasion can occur with or without gates. If the gates are slow enough to allow mothers with children through, they will be slow enough for two or three people to slip through with one tap-in.

Electronic fare cards are supposed to make commuting easier and faster. The London Underground utilizes the Oyster card system because their stations can accommodate numerous exit gates. TransLink’s design, on the other hand, will only cause chaos and delays during peak hours.

OPINIONKATHRYN WU

Issues & ideas 7

By MARK STUART

Mandatory voting will be ex-plored as a solution to voter apathy at a Langara College

Philosophers’ Jam on Oct. 8. Murray Mollard, host of the event

and executive director of the North Shore Community Resources Society, acknowledged the lack of young Cana-dians voting, and said he plans to dis-cuss and encourage debate among stu-dents about whether making voting mandatory is the best resolution.

“Many young people don’t vote,” said Mollard. “That has an outcome on elections, and who gets elected. For the younger age demographic it’s an im-portant issue in terms of their ability to influence policy and law.”

There are currently 22 countries in the world where mandatory voting is law, with an estimated 744 million people worldwide living in nations with mandated voting laws, according

to PBS NewsHour. One of those countries is Brazil,

where Langara marketing manage-ment student Jessica Rebonatto is from. “I’m actually for it,” she said.” I think it would increase voter turnout, for sure.”

However, student’s sentiments on the subject aren’t all the same. Diego Rondon, also a Langara marketing management student and native of Brazil, said he feels differently. “I per-sonally don’t like it,” he said, “because when its mandatory, people don’t think before voting – they have to vote, they must vote – so they go there and just vote for any person.”

Mollard said he plans to run his pre-sentation in an interactive fashion. “You learn by listening, but you also

learn by engaging in conversation,” he said. “I’m interested to see if whether dialogue is a good basis for democra-cy.”

THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 8 , 2015EDITOR BAILEY NICHOLSON

Many of Langara’s young voters have a broader spectrum of sources than their parents when it comes to trusted election coverage

ROSEMARY NEWTON photo illustrationLangara students look to online versions of newspapers among a variety of outlets for political news and information

By ROSEMARY NEWTON

Students at Langara College are reaching for a wider variety of political news sources than the generation of voters before

them. Top picks for information on the

Oct. 19 federal election among Langara students included digital editions of CBC, the Globe and Mail, and the Van-couver Sun, along with 24 Hours, Met-ro, Vancity Buzz, Huffington Post and Facebook. Those more skeptical of bias looked to Reddit and sites 350.org, leadnow.ca and the satirical Syrup Trap.

General arts student Ben Ander-son said his parents’ choices are much more traditional.

“They definitely don’t use Face-book,” he said, and listed their go-to sources. “Print, newspaper articles, magazine journals, CBC, and they would definitely tune in to watch the debates.”

TV broadcasts have high reach, but low viewership among young Canadi-ans, according to Stephen Phillips, po-litical science instructor at Langara. He suggests voters pay attention to party websites in addition to their news outlet of choice.

“The news will provide a summary of party positions but may be selective in terms of which elements of the par-ty’s platform they cover,” Phillips said.

General arts student Reece Howey agrees that news has the ability to im-pact voter behaviour. “Very few people

have time or resources to actually first hand investigate,” he said. Howey said he chooses Facebook for more diverse political viewpoints.

Rukie Karov, Langara general arts student, turns to Tumblr for her elec-tion coverage. “They have a cool com-position of the 2015 federal elections with really well sourced information,” she said.

Regardless of preferred news source, voters should seek background information to better understand what they’re reading, according to Peter Prontzoz, Langara political science in-structor.

“The more they can be informed about the system, the more they can be informed about patterns and can see why people are saying certain things.”

Strategic voting may make young voters feel like their input makes a difference

By KATE RICHARDSON

Voters may be forced to choose be-tween the “lesser of two evils” to make their vote count on Oct.19,

according to Stephen Phillips, political science instructor at Langara College.

He is referring to the concept of strategic voting, which encourages people to vote collectively for one party instead of by personal preference, sole-ly to prevent a particular party from winning.

“Voters looking to cast that one vote will ask themselves whether they want to vote for their preferred choice or whether they want to have some influ-ence on the outcome,” Phillips said.

According to Karl Hardin, digital strategist at Dogwood Initiative, strate-gic voting is easier than ever.

“The Internet and the creation of large e-mail lists has made information that would allow for strategic voting much more accessible than previous elections,” he said.

Though there is a wealth of informa-tion to help people vote strategically, Hardin said it is important to refer to the most current data. He points to ad-vocacy organization LeadNow and their website votetogether.ca which of-fers riding level polling and local candi-date input. Phillips agreed, noting that previous election data “may not be a reliable guide to the state of the parties in the same riding this time around.”

Andrea Moerman, a Langara con-tinuing education student, said she would rather vote according to her val-ues; however, “in a riding where it could go either way, I might vote strate-gically.”

Others find the idea problematic. “I feel like it’s dishonourable. Maybe that’s how the system works and you have to play along with it but I am di-vided,” said Langara student Brian Thomson.

Riley Tylla, a Langara continuing education student, said she has no such qualms, feeling there is little choice. “If whoever you are voting for gets in, and they are not the majority government your vote means so little.”

When asked if she would vote strate-gically, Tylla was emphatic. “If I could vote for a specific party who would get the Conservative out? Hell yeah, times twelve.”

Students stray from tradition when seeking politcal news and information

Different votes for different folks Students voting in the federal election have many choices and sources at their disposal

Putting your best vote forward

Mandatory voting up for debate at LangaraUpcoming Philosophers’ Jam will weigh the pros and cons of mandatory voting in Canada

“[The news] may be selec-tive in terms of which ele-ments ... they cover

STEVEN PHILLIPS Langara political science instructor

ELECTIONS CANADA submitted photo

8 portss

By SEAN LEE

It’s been the ultimate goal of Langara College’s Ultimate club to make it to the country’s biggest tournament.

The only problem: they can’t afford to get there.

With the team finally reaching its goal of having a roster entirely of Lan-gara College students, the club is close to reaching recognition as a Falcons team, according to team administrator Chris Ren.

They won the bid to attend the Cana-dian University Ultimate Champion-ship (CUUC) last year, but were unable to go to Montreal, Quebec due to lack of funding.

The Langara Ultimate Club started off their second year with a third place ranking at the Canadian Western Uni-versity Ultimate Championships (CWUUC) Sept. 26, losing to UBC and the University of Victoria, and beating SFU. Both UVic and UBC declined the

spots they won at CWUUC because they could not afford the trip. Langa-ra’s team, the next in line, is also de-clining their spot, for the same reason.

When asked about the team’s com-petitive goal, Wu expressed that he wishes the team to continue their sea-son at the CUUC nationals this year, which takes place in Ottawa, Ontario from Oct. 16 to Oct. 18.

In Ontario, the Queen’s University Gaels Ultimate Frisbee team is official-ly recognized as a varsity athletics club. In addition, University of Western Ontario Mustangs and University of Ottawa Gee-Gees both recognize Ulti-mate Frisbee as part of the athletics department.

“That’s what the goal is. I know that one school in Canada is a varsity team, which is sick. That’s what we want for our school team,” said Wu.

By VINCENT MATAK

An old financial aid program for struggling Langara College ath-letes set to re-launch this year is

being pushed back.Jake McCallum, director of athletics

and intramurals, told The Voice last No-vember the Adopt-A-Falcon program – which helps student athletes cover the costs for equipment, travel meals and non-conference trips through dona-tions matched by Langara College – would be updated and re-launched for September.

McCallum told The Voice on Tues-day the program – which still requests donations “to assist student athletes” on the Langara College website – isn’t completed.

“Other than not having it done? Not having it done” he said referring to the delay.

He said he initiated a review of the program last year because it “wasn’t functional”. He later added that people were donating money for individual student athletes, rather than the de-partment as a whole.

“That’s not really how it works,” he said.

“The money comes in for the greater good.”

He also said when the program is re-launched – hopefully later this fall – do-nations made won’t be matched by Lan-gara.

He added that money hasn’t been coming in through the program since he initiated the review process last year, despite information requesting donations existing online.

“I haven’t had any money come in since I’ve been in the position,” he said.

“I can’t comment on what was com-ing in before.”

Some coaches have said the program hasn’t been in use for up to five years.

Paul Eberhardt, head coach for men’s basketball, said since he started coaching at Langara four years ago, the program has never been used.

“This is my fourth year here and I’ve never had an athlete who’s been able to use that,” he said.

He added that since he started, “a handful” of students have had trouble paying their $150 athletic fee which goes toward equipment costs, as well as travel expenses for games outside of PACWEST league and travel meals.

Eberhardt said he has helped some athletes find work with a friend’s con-struction company, organized fundrais-ing initiatives and helped some secure scholarships.

He also said the school has occasion-ally waived fees for students who struggle financially.

Ryan Birt, head coach for women’s soccer, said the last time the Adopt-A-Falcon program was used for his team was around five years ago.

Birt, who’s been coaching at Langara for 15 years, said he thinks the pro-gram was pulled because of “tax impli-cations,” although he couldn’t confirm.

“The athletic director would be bet-ter able to explain to you what the changes are,” he said.

THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 08, 2015 EDITOR MICHAEL LYLYK

Flock of fresh facesLangara Falcons men’s basketball coach has a whole new group to mould into a great teamBy KEVIN UNDERHILL

The Langara Falcons men’s bas-ketball head coach says he hopes to get back to the PACWEST championship, despite leading a

mostly-rookie team.

The team has made it to the champi-onship final the last three years, winning twice.

In his four years as the head coach, Paul Eberhardt has never expe-rienced an influx of this magnitude. The challenge that lies ahead is piecing together his young talent into a team, he said.

Fourteen of 15 players are new this year.

“You have to teach the skills and the systems and the plays but my most im-portant challenge for this group is teaching them how to become a team,” he said.

Eberhardt has been coaching high school and college-level athletes for 33 years and will have his hands full. This unit will require more of his direct at-tention.

“It’s exciting for me as a coach be-cause it’s like a blank slate. I get to do a lot more teaching…it’s a nice chal-lenge,” he said.

Sole-returning player Max Neumann said that with the injection of youth, they have the opportunity to be health-ier and more athletic than last year’s injury-prone team.

Most of all, Neumann is ready for the season to begin Oct. 29 in Squamish.

“We’ve got all our new pieces and now that our preseason is almost over, I want to go out and actually play with these guys,” he said.

Taking a team stocked with rookies from different coaching systems and making them into a championship-cali-ber team is something that Eberhardt he can’t do alone, he said.

He will be looking to Neumann and other more experienced players to take on leadership roles.

Eberhardt says it won’t be the same path as in previous years but he still hopes to guide his team back to nation-als.

“Our goal is to qualify for the nation-al championship again. We’ve gone three years in a row … and our goal is to get back there,” Eberhardt said.

A goal that isn’t out of reach, accord-ing to Neumann.

“I definitely think we can go back to nationals and win the PACWEST,” said Neumann.

“It’s excit-ing for me as a coach because it’s like a blank slate. I get to do a lot more teaching...it’s a nice challenge.

PAUL EBERHARDT

MEN’S HEAD COACH

KEVIN UNDERHILL photoCoach Eberhardt gathers his team for a huddle following a practice at Langara College.

Falcons who can’t be adopted, adapt With ‘Adopt-A-Falcon’ still under revision Some ath-letes have found a way to earn money

Langara Ultimate Club has chance to be a Falcons team

SEAN LEE photoDarren Wu, captain of the Langara Ultimate team

MICHAEL LYLYK photoEquipment is probably the most important for any sport.

Falcons’ TallyWOMEN’S SOCCER

W-D-L

2-3-3

Ranked: (NR)

MEN’S SOCCER

W-D-L

4-0-5

Ranked: (NR)

The team is full of Lan-gara students, and that is a pretty big deal.