Dogfish with bacon combos since 1918Friday, 3 November, 2006www.ubyssey.bc.caVOL . LXXXVIII NO17

UTHE UBYSSEY

Front-runners disqualifiedUBC space elevator team failedto lift off at NASA competition...Page 12

Meth, madness and medicineYouth psychosis in the GVRD...Pages 4 & 9

Looking at snapshots of Aboriginal culture... Inside Supplement

God is deadAnd Douglas Couplandcares... Page 3

First Nations Issue

CULTURE2 FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2006 THE UBYSSEY

Canada Post Sales AgreementNumber 0040878022

FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2006VOL . LXXXVIII NO16

The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Tuesday and Friday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous,democratically run student organisation, and all students areencouraged to participate.

Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarilyreflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or theUniversity of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing inThe Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society.Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permissionof The Ubyssey Publications Society.

The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press(CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guiding principles.

Letters to the editor must be under 300 words. Please includeyour phone number, student number and signature (not for publication) as well as your year and faculty with all submissions.ID will be checked when submissions are dropped off at the editorial office of The Ubyssey; otherwise verification will be doneby phone. “Perspectives” are opinion pieces over 300 words butunder 750 words and are run according to space.“Freestyles” areopinion pieces written by Ubyssey staff members. Priority will begiven to letters and perspectives over freestyles unless the latter istime sensitive. Opinion pieces will not be run until the identity ofthe writer has been verified. The Ubyssey reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. All letters must be received by12 noon the day before intended publication.Letters received afterthis point will be published in the following issue unless there is anurgent time restriciton or other matter deemed relevant by theUbyssey staff.

It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertisingthat if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errorsthat do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.

EDITORIAL BOARDCOORDINATING EDITOR Eric Szetocoordinating@ubyssey.bc.ca

NEWS EDITORS Colleen Tang &Carolynne Burkholdernews@ubyssey.bc.ca

CULTURE EDITOR Jesse Ferrerasculture@ubyssey.bc.ca

SPORTS EDITOR Boris Korbysports@ubyssey.bc.ca

FEATURES/NATIONAL EDITOR

Momoko Pricefeatures@ubyssey.bc.ca

PHOTO EDITOR Oker Chenphotos@ubyssey.bc.ca

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Champagne Choquerproduction@ubyssey.bc.ca

COPY EDITOR Jesse Marchandcopy@ubyssey.bc.ca

COORDINATORSVOLUNTEERS Mary Leightonvolunteers@ubyssey.bc.ca

RESEARCH/LETTERS Andrew MacRaefeedback@ubyssey.bc.ca

WEBMASTER Matthew Jewkeswebmaster@ubyssey.bc.ca

Kimberly Rawes, Ross Howell, and Peter Holmes set out ona road journey across Kazakhstan for make glorious nationof Canada.Their manager Brandon Adams joined them onthe advice of Kellan Higgins and George Prior, the subur-ban UK comedy duo known as “Paul Bucci.”The journey’sfirst interview was with Elliott Chalmers, Eric Szeto, andMary Leighton, who wanted to throw Jesse Ferreras andAndrew MacRae down a well, following the hit song byCarolynne Burkholder and Sarah-Nelle Jackson. BorisKorby, Champagne Choquer and Claudia Li showed offtheir sisters and wives. Jesse Marchand and CandiceVallantin sang the national anthem at a baseball game,but Momoko Price, Colleen Tang, and Alisha Randhawadidn’t get it. Oker Chen and Levi Barnett tried to intervene.“WaWee!!” cried Emily Bodenberg and Jennifer Chrumka.Matthew Jewkes and Candice Okada agreed.

EDITORIAL OFFICERoom 24, Student Union Building6138 Student Union BoulevardVancouver, BC V6T 1Z1tel: 604-822-2301fax: 604-822-9279web: www.ubyssey.bc.cae-mail: feedback@ubyssey.bc.ca

BUSINESS OFFICERoom 23, Student Union Buildingadvertising: 604-822-1654 business office: 604-822-6681fax: 604-822-1658e-mail: advertising@ubyssey.bc.ca

BUSINESS MANAGER Fernie PereiraAD SALES Bernadette DelaquisAD DESIGN Shalene Takara

EDITORIAL GRAPHIC Michael Bround

UTHE UBYSSEY

‘tweens

HUUN-HUUR-TUat Canadian Memorial ChurchOctober 22

by Emily BodenbergCULTURE WRITER

In recent years, the small central Asianrepublic of Tuva has won a place in the heartsof North Americans for its unique musicaltraditions. The music of Tuva, which borderson Mongolia, was once accessible primarilythrough shortwave radio. It was celebrated byvisionaries like physicist Richard Feynman,who made it his dying wish to visit Tuva, andblind American bluesman Paul Pena whodreamed of participating in a throat-singingcompetition; Feynman never made it, butPena did. And now Huun-Huur-Tu, “Tuva’sforemost musical emissaries,” are touringNorth America.

The show was sold out and I found myselfin a long line of ticket holders that includedthe uninitiated and ardent fans alike. The lat-ter could be heard boasting of their knowl-edge of various styles of Tuvan throat-singingor sharing trivia about the faraway nation ofreindeer herders and steppes, the treelessplains that make up the bulk of the Tuvanlandscape.

Once inside the church, Vladimir, thequartet’s manager, primed the audience forthe performance. He described Tuvan throat-singing as the activation of typically unusedvocal folds, allowing one to produce two orthree tones at the same time.

Vladimir described throat-singing as a

musical tradition young men learned fromtheir fathers and grandfathers. Until recent-ly, shamanistic prohibitions forbade womenfrom taking up the art. It was believed thepractice would make them infertile.

Tuvan throat-singing, added Vladimir, hadonly recently taken on a performative element.It developed as a way for herders to communi-cate with each other and with the animalswhose landscape they shared.

The four musicians sat facing each otherwearing brightly colored satin robes. Thethroat-singing was electrifying, especially theearly solo that began with an unfathomablylow rumble interspersed with a higher flute-like sound, all emanating from the throat of asingle man.

I lost the point where the voices endedand the instruments began. Their instru-ments were handmade and I had to look upa number of them in the brochure to figureout what they were: an igil, a doshpuluur, andan Ulan ude. Before each song, Sayan Bapa,once a member of a Tuvan folk-rock band,provided a brief translation. A number ofsongs were about horses, nostalgia and theband’s love for their isolated homeland.

As the show drew to a close, the audiencesat in a trance-like state, very still with eyesclosed. This all changed as soon as the musicended. Two standing ovations later and I wasback on the street, grasping more easilyFeynman and Pena’s longing for a placethey’d never been before. uu

Barry White didn’t get this deep

“THE BAND’S MANAGER

DESCRIBED TUVAN

THROAT-SINGING AS THE

ACTIVATION OF TYPICALLY

UNUSED VOCAL FOLDS.”

Vancouver Asian FilmFestivalNovember 1-5The VAFF’s tenth anniversaryis taking place at TinseltownTheatres, showcasing 40 filmsby independent Asian film-makers from all over NorthAmerica.Tickets atwww.vaff.org.

Life After GodNovember 1-11, 7:30pmTheatre at UBC Check out this free-wheeling,spectacular examination ofour quest for transcendencein the city of seismic shifts—Vancouver.The play is adapt-ed from Douglas Coupland’sshort story Life After God andwritten by two-time GovernorGeneral’s Award finalistMichael Lewis MacLennan.

Reading for Your WritesNovember 5, 2pmMuseum of AnthropologyIn conjunction with the exhi-bition Acts of Transformation:From War Toys to Peace Art,MOA presents an afternoonof ideas and interaction withsome of our best localauthors writing about theroots of conflict, reconcilia-tion and social justice.

Talk of the TownNovember 6, 7:30-9pmUBC Robson SquareJoin moderator Hal Wake andguest Thomas Homer Dixon,Director of the Centre for theStudy of Peace and Conflict atUniversity of Toronto, for “TheUpside of Down: Catastrophe,Creativity and the Renewal ofCivilization.”

THE UBYSSEY FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2006 CULTURE 3

by Levi BarnettCULTURE STAFF

Vancouver finally takes centrestage in a new production byTheatre at UBC. Using an originalscript based on the works ofDouglas Coupland, Life After Godis a collaboration between stu-dents in the BFA program on cam-pus and Touchstone Theatre.

Coupland, who recently had hisscreenwriting debut with the filmEverything’s Gone Green, did not actually write the stage versionof Life After God. Rather, play-wright Michael Lewis MacLennanadapted the short story 1,000YEARS (Life After God) fromCoupland’s 1994 collection, LifeAfter God. MacLennan combinedelements of the short story with monologues written by

UBC Theatre students based onCoupland’s later book City of Glass, a guide to Vancouvercomposed of original essays andphotographs.

The story follows a group of reunited agnostic friends in their early 30s who are disillu-sioned and struggling with modern living. As MacLennanexplained, the play “sets the corrosive effect of cynicismagainst our compulsion to raise up heroes.” It’s a story about what happens to people with thepassing of time and what, if any-thing holds meaning in the charac-ters’ everyday lives. In one scene,tensions flared, curses wereuttered, and a shirt came off ascharacters argued while arrestedduring a mass demonstration.

Expectations are high for the

show, which features a slew of pro-fessional actors working alongsideUBC students in the theatrical BFAprogram. After its residence at theChan Centre’s Telus StudioTheatre, Life After God will moveto the Vancouver East CulturalCentre for a second ten-night run.It’s an auspicious turn of eventsfor playwright MacLennan, whocomes to the UBC stage after serv-ing as head writer on the YaletownTV drama Godiva’s. Vancouver-born, he wrote the script at theurging of director Katrina Dunnfrom Touchstone Theatre.

As a production about Vancouver,with a script involving significant stu-dent input and inspired by an autho-rial genius, Life After God aims forthe divine while courting an audi-ence from a generation raised with-out theatre. uu

Douglas Coupland inspires godlessness

by Jennifer Chrumka CULTURE WRITER

When Camyar Chai heard that theopera he wrote had been invited toperform at Rideau Hall for theGovernor General, he was only mild-ly excited.

“As a political person there’sonly so much I can jump up anddown,” he said. “I was excited thatMichaëlle Jean was interestedbecause I think she’s a fascinatingperson...but I don’t put a lot ofstock into colonial hierarchicalpositions.”

He was happier that the operawould reach larger audiences,because for Chai, it has an importantstory to tell. The opera is calledElijah’s Kite, named after Chai’s

nearly three-year old son, and itdepicts what children have to dealwith on the playground; namely,power, aggression and bullying.

Composed by James Rolfe andwritten by Chai, the opera pre-miered in New York at theManhattan School of Music. Afterits recent performance in Ottawa,Tapestry New Opera Works willtour the show to elementaryschools in Ontario and hopefullyacross Canada and the UnitedStates.

Chai is the founding artisticdirector of NeWorld Theatre, aVancouver-based theatre company,and is pursuing his master’s in finearts in directing from Theatre atUBC. He has a string of awards foracting, directing and playwriting.

When asked what he does for a liv-ing he sums it up by calling himselfa theatre maker.

In making Elijah’s Kite, Chai andhis partner Rolfe went to elementaryschools in Vancouver and met withgrade three and four children. Theylistened to what the kids had to sayand wanted to know what kind ofmusic they listened to.

“The funny thing was, I went incompletely naïve,” he said. “I said,‘do you guys listen to Raffi?’ Andthey laughed at me, they literallylaughed.”

The kids, Chai discovered, pre-fer 50 Cent, Tupac and Eminem.“So right away we realised that webetter not talk down to thembecause they know a lot more thanthey may be given credit for, cer-

tainly streetwise, and perhapseven more than they can handle.”

To incorporate the kind ofmusic the kids listen to, Rolfe thecomposer, featured base guitar anddrums, “which in opera is almostunheard of,” said Chai.

The plot of Elijah’s Kite isbased on the interviews from thekids but also from Chai and Rolfe’s own personal experiences.Growing up, Chai lived all over theworld and when he came toCanada, small and artistic and thenew kid at school, he found thereweren’t enough means to expresshimself.

“Because there weren’t the out-lets, one ends up [becoming] abenchwarmer on a basketball team,”he said. “I used to have this big guy

on the basketball team that wouldslam me against the locker and try tobeat me to a pulp...We ran into eachother as adults and he apologised tome with a tear in his eye.”

“That’s why the bully in Elijah’sKite is three-dimensional. He’s gota sunny side to him, he’s got a sen-sitive side, he’s not your archetypeof evil.”

There are no archetypal charac-ters in Chai’s story and rather thanblame the act of bullying on onebad kid, the story explores theimpulse for bullying as somethinginnately human.

“We try to ask difficult questionsas opposed to making it cutesy,” hesaid. “Everyone bullies to differentdegree. Even as adults, we just getmore sophisticated about it.” uu

Camyar Chai’s play is Governor General’s cup of tea

culture@ubyssey.bc.ca

LEVI BARNETT PHOTO

4 9FEATUREFRIDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER, 2006 THE UBYSSEY THE UBYSSEY TUESDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2006

s we move out of the shelter of ourchildhoods, few of us make the tran-sition from dependence to inde-pendence without accumulating afew neuroses along the way. Some

people get addicted to candy, some start smokingweed to get to sleep, while others find themselvesstruggling with onsets of depression and anxiety.

Some of us, on the other hand, go crazy.Really crazy. Contrary to what you might believeabout the lines between sanity and insanity,crossing from one to the other doesn’t necessar-ily take much. What many people don’t know isthat today, with the right help, it isn’t impossibleto cross back.

Psychosis, defined as losing touch with realityto the point of disabling your social and occupa-tional functioning, is in fact far from uncommon.Around three per cent of people will at one pointin their life have a full-blown psychotic episode,and the large majority of these cases arise rightaround the time we start jumping into the realworld—during our late teens and early 20s. Butthe extent to which psychosis is recognised inpublic circles, whether in a stress managementclass or at a mental health fair, makes it seemlike students just don’t get psychotic. We getstressed, we get anxious, we get depressed, buthey, we don’t go off the deep end—do we?

Dr Jekyll and Ms HydeSarah (whose name was changed for

anonymity) studies science at UBC. She’s cur-rently looking into potential supervisors forgraduate studies and trying to finish up thelast year of her undergraduate degree. She’sa chic dresser with a relaxed smile and aneasy laugh. The normalcy of sitting down in acafé and having coffee makes breaching thesubject of her psychosis a tad awkward. So wejust jump right into it.

Sarah was recently diagnosed with bipolardisorder—what used to be called manic-depres-sion. She was treated after suffering her firstmanic episode, which she describes as a gradualacceleration of her thinking over a number ofweeks. Though she says she didn’t realise some-thing was wrong until about a week before shewas hospitalised, the signs of a serious problemcould not have been more clear.

By the time her partner and family managedto get her to the hospital, Sarah had gone frombeing unusually talkative to being agoraphobic,paranoid, unable to eat and unable to sleep. Shewas chronically vomiting and compulsively writ-ing all over her arms. Riddled with paranoia, shewas absolutely convinced—falsely—that herfather had abused her and that her partner was arapist, ideas that she screamed repeatedly towhoever would listen.

Even within the confines of the emergencypsychiatric ward, she spent her first few dayscartwheeling down the hallways, singing at thetop of her lungs, trying to break into the nurse’soffice in the middle of the night and attemptingto sneak out the hospital windows.

How much of this does she actually remem-ber? “At that point, not very much,” she said.

This is often an unfortunate, though perhapsmerciful, consequence of full-blown psychosis,especially of the manic kind—when it starts get-ting really out of control, you black out. Betweenchemical imbalances screwing up your brainand the psychiatric intervention of highly potent

sedatives, some patients wake up weeks after thestart of their episode alone in the psych wardcompletely unaware that for the last several days,or even weeks, they’d been out of control.

Mulling over the experience while chewingon a rice krispie, Sarah is resigned to the fact thatfor other people, this kind of behaviour isn’t allthat easy to forget.

She knows about the perverse accusationsshe hurled against both her partner and herfather, in addition to the enormous amount ofdistress she put her loved ones through. Sheknows about the nonsensical ideas she plied onher friends and the conspiracy theories she rant-ed at work. But there’s nothing she can do exceptlaugh wryly at how socially irrevocable herbehaviour may have been.

“I mean, what can I say? ‘Hi sweetie, remem-ber that time I screamed at you and called you arapist? Man, I’m so, so sorry about that.Whoops.’”

Now, months later, Sarah is one of manyyoung people who survived the unexpectedupheaval of psychosis and has successfullyregained her grip on reality, as well as her sta-tion in life. Though at the start of her treat-ment she had to take large cocktails of seda-tives and anti-psychotics to keep calm whileher long-term medication took effect, she isnow only on maintenance doses of lithium tostabilise her moods. Her mind is clear, herdemeanour calm, her relationships reason-ably mended. She’s now able to look back on itall while still looking forward.

Crazy is as crazy does?Since Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the

Cuckoo’s Nest and Susanna Kaysen’s Girl,Interrupted—popular fiction that harshly criti-cised psychiatric practices in the ‘60s—it hasbecome somewhat popular to be skeptical of theline drawn between “normal” and “crazy.” Whendebating mental illness and medical interven-tion people often check themselves and ask: “Butwhat is ‘normal,’ really?”

The question is a valid one—cultural normsdictating irrational or unacceptable thinking canrange so widely they can be in complete opposi-tion to one another. One might assume thatdefining “normal thoughts” in Western medicinewould be an intrinsically difficult, mercurialpractice. Indeed, diagnosing mental illness is anongoing process, and changes in the Diagnosticand Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM), now in its fourth edition, are constantlybeing re-evaluated and updated.

Acute psychosis has always been one of themost easily distinguishable syndromes in psy-chiatry, alongside major clinical depression. Butsurprisingly, many people are not aware of whatbehaviour is officially considered ‘psychotic.’

According to the DSM-IV, acute psychosis isparsed into two types of symptoms: positivesymptoms—those aspects of the illness that man-ifest themselves in addition to regular thoughts—and negative symptoms—those that cause a defi-ciency in normal behaviour.

Positive symptoms are those we oftenthink of when we think of the stereotypicalpsychotic: hallucinations (usually in the formof hearing voices,) disorganised speech andbehaviour, and delusions (fixed, irrational,often paranoid, beliefs.) These symptoms areusually pretty easy to spot. When your bestfriend starts answering questions that werenever asked à la Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost,or tries to explain to you how their televisionis broadcasting their thoughts to the world,assessing whether or not this behaviour is“normal” isn’t all that hard.

Negative symptoms can be much tougherto detect. These symptoms simply denote theworsening of regular thinking: basically, dur-ing the throes of psychosis your emotions canbecome blunted, your intellectual capacitydulled, your sociability deadened.Differentiating between the negative symp-toms of psychosis and the standard symptomsof a mood disorder like depression thenbecomes extremely difficult.

Even harder and more crucial to recognise is

the calm before the storm—what is known as theprodromal stage of psychosis. This preliminaryphase of an episode is characterised by anti-social traits including withdrawal from others,skipping school or work, anxiety, reduced con-centration and irritability. But any parent,teacher or guidance counselor knows full wellthat these symptoms on their own could beindicative of other stressors and illnesses, orcould just as well be part of the standard routineof an angst-ridden teen.

Admitting there’s a prob-lem...in time

It’s unfortunate that such a debilitating illnessbegins so inconspicuously, because it’s duringthe prodromal stage that treatment is likely to bethe most effective and the least stressful. In fact,if treatment starts early enough, a person canavoid losing their marbles altogether.Technically, an accurate diagnosis is easier whena person is actively hallucinating or delusional,but medical intervention at this point is ofteninevitably traumatic and terrifying.

In Sarah’s case, she was so far off the deepend by the time she got real help she wouldn’ttrust anyone, not even her parents. She had tobe tricked into going to St. Paul’s Hospital, wascommitted against her will, and due to last-minute emergency circumstances, ended upshuffled around to the eating disorders wardbefore she got stuck in a kind of solitary con-finement—locked in an empty room with noth-ing but a mattress on the floor. She has no rec-ollection of those who visited her during thosefirst few weeks, partly because she was forcedto take so many drugs—Seroquel, Epival,Ativan, Clonazepam, you name it—just so thatshe’d finally start sleeping again.

When asked if there’s anything she wisheswere different about her experience getting treat-ment, she says she can’t understand why shehadn’t been helped earlier on.

“People aren’t aware [about psychosis] ...theydon’t know how to handle it. But when your part-ner is throwing up, running around, not sleep-ing, not making sense and calling you a rapist,isn’t it time to get some help?”

According to Pam Campbell, counselor for theFraser Health Early Psychosis InterventionProgram (EPI), this is the problem standing inthe way of easier, more effective treatment.Combine a psychotic person’s inability to assesstheir own condition with the general public’signorance of how the illness should be dealt with,and you end up with patients coming to the hos-pital when they’ve hit rock bottom, at whichpoint drastic medical measures need to be taenjust to restore order, let alone get the patient backon their feet.

Because psychosis so strongly affects a per-son’s perception of reality, simply waiting forthem to realise they need help isn’t always thebest course of action.

Campbell put the situation in a common-sense perspective—one that people whohaven’t dealt with mental illness might notthink of: “If you break your leg, your brain tellsyou your leg’s broken...but if you’re having dif-ficulties with your brain, who’s [going to] tellyour brain?” she asked.

“The longer you wait, the more ingrained[psychosis] becomes, so that it can seem nor-mal,” said Campbell. “It’s like, ‘well, I’ve beenhearing voices for a year now, so it’s kind of nor-mal,’ whereas if you just started hearing voices[recently] you can definitely tell it’s not normal.”

Sarah remembers how, while actively psy-chotic, she too lost sight of the shore, so tospeak. As her mind spiraled out of control andshe became trapped in a maze of paranoia anddissociated thoughts, her ability to do simpletasks, like reading, became impossible. Butterrifyingly enough, though she could see thatwritten words were no longer making sense toher, it never occurred to her to get help—sinceshe couldn’t remember if she was ever able toread to begin with.

Campbell attributes these treatment delays inpart to the abysmal state of BC’s Mental HealthAct. Though technically reformed in recent years,in her opinion, it still has a long way to go interms of helping people with mental illness.

Currently, medical professionals are legallypermitted to force a client to start treatment onlyif they are considered an “imminent” risk tothemselves or others at the point of intervention.

“You have to be at risk of killing yourself orsomeone else before you can be legally heldagainst your will,” Campbell explained. “It’s pret-ty awful. I mean, we can see, because we’re nurs-es, that people aren’t doing well, but basicallythere’s nothing we can do to help.”

“I had a client once who couldn’t get help forfour months because no one would see her, noone could certify her, and she wasn’t getting outof bed—ever. She wasn’t in danger, but she justwasn’t getting out of bed.” she said. “That’s not alife. She used to be a teacher, the whole bit, but[at that point] she just thought that everybody atwork was talking about her.”

In Ontario, legislative steps have beentaken to give medical professionals morepower to make patients get treated, but eventhese reforms were put in place after thingshad gotten way out of hand. Brian’s Law—

which gives doctors a marginal increase in theenforcement of treatment for severely illpatients—was only conceived after BrianSmith, a sportscaster from Ottawa, was shotand killed in 1995 by a man with paranoidschizophrenia who refused treatment.

The law passed unanimously in 2000 toimprove the province’s Mental Health Act, butone might argue it came too late. Though veryfew people with psychosis ever pose a real phys-ical danger to others, it took a fatal gunshot anda high-profile victim to make the governmentwake up and realise that mental health authori-ties might need a little more authority to get peo-ple the help they need.

Cutting in: early interventionThe Fraser Health EPI, manned at the front-

lines by nurses like Campbell, is an initiativeinspired by pro-active, successful psychosis out-reach organisations in other countries, likeAustralia’s well-funded Early PsychosisPrevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC).

Their mandate isn’t to force more people totake medication through legal reform, but toincrease awareness about what psychosislooks like so both patients and loved ones canspot it early and come in for help while thingsare still manageable.

It has been shown in psychiatric studiesthat the longer people are psychotic, themore resistant they are to treatment in thelong run. This is largely due to the accumula-tion of bad habits like self-medicating withstreet drugs and the degradation of socialsupport, which makes treating any mental ill-ness much more difficult.

People with chronic, untreated psychosis can,in the worst-case scenario, burn so many bridgesin their day-to-day existence that getting betterdoesn’t just involve getting their heads straight,but also picking up the pieces of their shatteredlives. Many lose their jobs, drop out of school, gethooked on drugs, alienate their friends and even

lose their homes before they get help. Through educational outreach in schools, as

well as faster access to medical assessment andtreatment, the EPI is trying to get young people inthe GVRD to get help before things get that bad.

By going through EPI, clients can get a psy-chiatric appointment within two weeks,whereas waiting in line to see a qualified psy-chiatrist through the conventional route cantake up to several months. Considering manypeople don’t even think about getting helpuntil they’re absolutely floundering, waitingthis long just to be diagnosed is practically aninvitation for disaster.

Drugs, drugs, drugs: someare good, some are bad

UBC psychiatrist Bill MacEwan created theEPI program to start making the treatment ofyouth psychosis a priority in our health system,considering that successful recovery is so time-sensitive. One of their major initiatives is edu-cating the public on the nature of psychosis andmaking people understand what factors con-tribute to its onset and what factors contribute torecovery. Interestingly enough, drugs play a sig-nificant role in triggering both.

When it comes to psychosis, genetic predis-position, such as a family history of schizo-phrenia, and trauma (physical or emotional)play a large part in triggering a first episode.But MacEwan stresses that in our current soci-ety, with the high prevalence of street druguse, it’s recreational drugs that can have thelargest influence on whether or not a youngperson becomes psychotic.

“People use marijuana, cocaine or metham-phetamines and those can all cause psy-chosis,” he explained. “Usually what will hap-pen is people will experience paranoia or hal-lucinations or delusions while they’re intoxi-cated...and when the drug goes out of them thesymptoms will go away. However, if you havea person who has a tendency, like if they haveschizophrenia in their [family background],their psychosis may linger.”

The age at which you start using drugs alsoaffects your vulnerability to the illness, hesaid. “If you’re 35 years old and start smokingmarijuana the chance of you getting a psychot-ic episode that lasts longer is really low. But ifyou’re 14 years old and smoking marijuanathere’s interesting evidence that shows thatthat may trigger psychosis...and there’s a high-er chance that [it] will hang around longer,and possibly turn into schizophrenia.”

The reason for this is that the brains offully-grown adults have stopped growing andchanging for the most part, while the brains ofadolescents are still developing, and don’tstop until well into their teen years, some-times even longer. Tossing crystal meth orweed into your brain circuitry while it’s stillfine-tuning is a very risky game that caninvolve long-term consequences, dependingon your genetic predisposition.

Unfortunately, genetic backgrounds don’tdisplay psychotic vulnerabilities very clearly.Unlike easily predictable, single-gene disor-ders like Huntington’s chorea, chronic psy-chosis is now thought to be influenced by 20genes or more. Basically, you could have 18 ofthem and be highly susceptible at any giventime, or you could have two and need a prettyheavy nudge to push you over the edge. Drugslike crystal meth or cocaine-laced, THC-richweed pack a pretty big punch, one that’s oftenmore than enough to do the job.

Wondering how vulnerable you might be?According to MacEwan, if you’ve had a bad timewith drugs in the past and are still using, you’relikely putting yourself at risk for a fall you proba-bly aren’t ready for.

“There are people who will say ‘I get para-noid whenever I smoke [marijuana,]’ or ‘I geta little weird when I’m on it,’” he said. “Thoseare the people who are much more prone to[psychosis.]”

Though MacEwan acknowledges the futility of

telling youth these days to “just say no to drugs,”he still hopes people who have responded nega-tively to drugs before will be honest with them-selves and stop using. Hopefully by doing sosome kids will manage to skip around the night-mare of psychosis and avoid being swallowed upby it altogether.

Cuckoo’s Nest misconceptions

Paradoxically, many people embrace illegaldrugs they get off their friends, but are incrediblydistrustful of legal ones that doctors give them tohelp with their illness. Campbell says that treat-ing clients who don’t understand what they needcan be so frustrating she “just wants to shakethem—but you have to be patient.”

“It’s like they need to experiment a little bit—they need to figure it out for themselves,” shemused. “I think people have to just come to thatpoint, but some people never come to it, youknow? We have people who experiment withtheir medication all the time, always changingthe dose, and then they complain that it’s notworking...it’s like, hello?”

Thankfully, it seems that as long as coun-selors show they want to help, regardless ofwhether or not clients take the drugs, patientseventually come around on their own.

Campbell reflected on a recent case: “We hadone fellow who had missed a few doses, smokeda bit of marijuana, and came back and said, ‘youknow what? I can’t do this anymore. I need totake medication and I need to stop smoking.’”

Although some clients don’t come back for ayear or longer, the EPI’s approach is to let themgo as they please and welcome them back withopen arms and no questions, if only to buildtrust. Once trust is established, proper compli-ance to treatment can start and real progresswon’t be far behind.

Drugs are only a small part of real treatment,anyway, Campbell said. The right drugs simplymanage the symptoms, while counseling andlong-term case management are usually neededto help clients learn to live with the disorder,make good decisions, handle relapses and gen-erally take care of themselves.

“Medication isn’t everything,” Campbellreminds us. Indeed, according to MacEwan,good social support can be the biggest factor driv-ing a rapid recovery. Which is exactly why pro-grams like EPI and EPPIC have been created.

Treatment for psychosis has come along waysince the days of Ken Kesey’s Cuckoo’s Nest,though most people outside of the psychiatriccommunity are unaware of this. Fifty years ago,the laws were such that a person suffering psy-chosis would be branded permanently as schizo-phrenic and be locked away in a mental institu-tion for years, even decades. Today, a betterunderstanding of the illness has made the treat-ment of psychosis, under the best circumstances,a practice of patience and hope, with an upliftingrecord of successful recovery.

Contrary to stereotypes, people aren’t ‘justcrazy.’ They get sick, and like most sick people,they have the capacity get better, even to becured. So one of the most important things thatcan be done now is get this message out to thosewho are straining to hear it. From there, with anyluck, helping hands can reach out and pull themin from the darkness of their disorders. UU

So crazy it just might work: Treating psychosis in Canadian youthby Momoko Price, photos by Oker ChenA

“I MEAN, WHAT CAN I SAY? ‘HI

SWEETIE, REMEMBER THAT TIME

I SCREAMED AT YOU AND

CALLED YOU A RAPIST? MAN,I’M SO, SO SORRY ABOUT THAT.WHOOPS.”

–Sarah, UBC student,successfully treated for bipolar disorder

and manic psychosis

“THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WILL

SAY ‘I GET PARANOID WHENEV-ER I SMOKE [MARIJUANA,]’ OR

‘I GET A LITTLE WEIRD WHEN

I’M ON IT,’” THOSE ARE THE

PEOPLE WHO ARE MUCH MORE

PRONE TO [PSYCHOSIS.]”–Dr Bill MacEwanUBC psychiatrist,

specialist in psychotic disorders

“WE HAVE PEOPLE WHO

EXPERIMENT WITH THEIR

MEDICATION ALL THE TIME,ALWAYS CHANGING THE DOSE,AND THEN THEY COMPLAIN

THAT IT’S NOT WORKING. IT’SLIKE, HELLO?”

–Pam Campbellcounsellor for the Fraser Health

Early Psychosis Intervention Program

xwulmuxw: A UBYSSEY SUPPLEMENT

FIRST NATIONS ISSUE

First Nations Issueby Kimberley Rawes

Priceless Tsimshian masks andmaterials of cultural significancewere auctioned off at the prestigiousSotheby’s Auction House at the begin-ning of October. With the sale comes continued commodificationof Aboriginal spirituality and culture.

This event provides a useful lookat three competing interests and val-ues surrounding First Nations cul-ture. Many in the art world believethey are aesthetically valuable, yetCanadians feel they are part of a his-tory to be preserved in Museums.Tsimshian values are generally leftout of the discussion.

The artifacts are part of a historythat does not begin with their salefrom Dundas’s great grandson to theKen Thompson family.

Dundas arrived at the Christiancommunity of Metlakatla inNovember of 1863. At the time,Dundas had relied on Duncan whohad set up the missionaries in thearea including Fort Simpson.

Gail Edwards, a BC historian andUBC professor said that Dundas wasvisiting Duncan and his communityto baptise 52 people.

Duncan was required to give themasks and other items to Dundas asconversion to Christianity demandedthe abandonment of traditionalobjects and names.

“Typically missionaries acquiredobjects... when they finished.Sometimes the mission here inBritish Columbia kept things soMethodist, George Raley, had hugecollections that later ended up in theMuseum of Anthropology here atUBC,” Edwards explained.

She described Dundas’s depar-ture to London and death in the early20th century. His famous collectionwas passed through family handsuntil Simon Cary, Dundas’s great-grandson, decided to put them on theauction block at Sotheby’s.

These articles, including masks,feasting regalia, bowls, spoons andshaman’s rattles had been pre-served, but had also been played with

by the family over time. Some of theobjects go back to early contact andall are in remarkable condition.

“Duncan was firm his convertcommunity would not practice tradi-tional medicine because it was a continued source of spiritualpower,” Edwards said. “For theTsimshian, these objects wereremoved from their cultural contextand are part of their own history withdeep meaning.”

These masks were very powerfulin a time of competing belief sys-tems.

For many First Nations communi-ties, the BC and Canadian govern-ments have imposed restrictionsranging from legislation to out-right cultural destruction—pressureswere put on Aboriginal people to giveup traditional practices andmanypeople weren’t carving for a longperiod of time; poles weren’t raisedfor years.

There was a ban on spiritual andeconomic practice of Potlatching.Dances weren’t being danced whichalso meant that new regalia wasn’tbeing created. Not only does this his-tory tell us about the importance ofthe artifacts but it also tells us about the relationships betweenTsimshian and Europeans.

If Dundas’s collection is seen as aremnant of the past then how can ithave a place within the living cultureand traditions of the Tsimshian peo-ple? It has a place, because the rat-tles, spoons, bowls and masks con-nect the past and present, asserting avibrant living culture for the peopleof Metlakatla.

Also, the questionable ownershipof these articles can act as a venue toopen up questions on land claimsand treaty-making,

Many private donors are the onlyones that can afford the cash forthese objects.

“These are Tsimshian objectsthat should be returned to theTsimshian community,” Edwardsargued. “They are specific to them.They are objects that have mean-ing. They have significance. [They]

have a history and a contextalthough some of that may have been lost in the transmissionbetween original ownership.They’re embedded in that tradi-tional culture.”

“From another perspective,”Edwards continued, “these areobjects of great significance toCanada as part of a Canadian her-itage of patrimony and to split thecollection, if you want to think of itthat way, means that they’ll lose theircontext as a set of artifacts acquiredat a specific time and place.”

The sale of these masks involves acentral argument around competinginterests. For some, these artifactsare beautiful to look at and valuable

for their aesthetics alone.Ken Thompson’s son, David,

acquired a number of these objectsfrom the Sotheby’s auction to pre-serve the collection for Canada. Butas Edwards asked, “do they belong toCanada? Do they belong to theThompson family? Or, do theybelong to the Tsimshian?”

Legislation around repatriationis slow. Now if they’re repatriateddo the objects go to Metlakatla or Prince Rupert? The same threevoices of value and interest pipe upto ask the underlying questions: isit art, culture or religion? Are thesepieces for use? If so, how? Whochooses?

To answer this question, I must

consider my positioning as a writerand non-Aboriginal settler of BritishColumbia for six generations. It isalso important to consider mysources.

Edwards explained that, “it is notmy story to tell, so the meaning Iwould put on them is an outsiderview that I can speak with but I can-not speak for and I certainly couldsay from my limited understandingof what it might mean to theTsimshian for those artifacts to berepatriated.”

This comes with more compli-cations and questions. Instead ofanswering them, send your feed-back. Write a letter. Talk about thisin a class. UU

by Kyla Lee

First Nations people get freetuitionWhile First Nations people are eligi-ble for scholarships and bursariesbased on our heritage, it is becausethat money has been provided by out-side organisations and estates specif-ically for Aboriginal students. Somestudents are also eligible for fundingfrom their band in order to covertuition costs. This amount variesfrom band to band. There are notuition cuts or breaks for people ofAboriginal heritage.

All Aboriginal people are brownor red There are hundreds of distinctAboriginal nations in Canada, manyof which created historical alliances

with white settlers in order to gaincertain advances and technologies.As a result, many people ofAboriginal ancestry can have whiteskin, blue eyes and blonde hair.

The term “Indian”is a-okActually, Indians are from India. Ifyou want to talk about the originalinhabitants of this country, use the words Native, Aboriginal,Indigenous, First Nations, Inuit, orMétis. Any others are unacceptable.

First Nations people are veryserious and stoic They laugh. Some of them evenmake jokes about their ancestry.This does not give you the right tolaugh about it. This does not giveyou the right to complain about it.We are entitled to our history and

to our interpretations and views ofthat history.

Native people lost the land fairand squareThe First Nations people did not giveup. They were not colonised and theydid not sign away their land willingly.The events that happened during thedevelopment of this country weremanipulative and unfair; there wasgerm warfare.

Native people deserve what hap-pened to themThe First Nations people did nothave it coming because they tookthe land away from the bears andthe deer. Before Europeans arrivedin this country, Aboriginal peoplewere coexisting with the animals ina peaceful way.

Aboriginal girls are whores Aboriginal women are not “cheapsquaws.” They happen to have feel-ings. The overrepresentation ofAboriginal women in the sex tradehas more to do with colonial racistattitudes than it does a predispositionto liking sex and booze.

Aboriginal people are criminals You know, just like those “blacks,”stealin’ your TV in the night. Just likeall people from the Middle East areall terrorists. And all Chinese peopleeat dog for dinner. The First Nationspeople generalisations are no moretrue than the ones above.

All Aboriginal art is Haida artAll Aboriginal nations did not makemasks and totem poles. Everyoneknows how many big fat cedar trees

grow in Saskatchewan. Headdresses,masks, posts, poles, spoons, soapstone and any other typicalAboriginal artifacts you can think ofare as unique as India is fromMexico. There were hundreds of dif-ferent cultures before contact.

There are no First Nations people left in CanadaActually, last I checked, there weremany. Oh, I’m sorry...did you mean“real” Aboriginal people? The oneswho wear buckskin and bone chokersand headdresses and dance around afire while performing voodoo cursesand banging drums and makingwampum? The ones who will scalpyou and eat your brains raw? Yeah,actually, I guess there aren’t any ofthose ones left. Weren’t any to beginwith either. Funny, that. UU

Ten myths about Aboriginals dispelled by a Métis

OKER CHEN PHOTO

Tsimshian masks tell competing stories of BC history

by Candice Okada

The Aboriginal Peoples ChoiceMusic Awards, the first accreditedaward show to feature only FirstNations musicians, begins today.The awards are part of the ManitoAhbee, a three-day festival inWinnipeg, Manitoba, that celebratesFirst Nations culture.

The award show provides FirstNations musicians with a stage topresent their talents and promotesthe growth of the First Nationsmusic industry. As one of the fea-tured artists, Tanya Tagaq Gillisexplained, “Aboriginal musicians, aswell as Aboriginal hip-hop artistsand Aboriginal comedians, help pro-mote the deep and rich Aboriginal

culture that goes unknown.”First Nations culture in Canadian

society remains highly unnoticed.Issues regarding First Nations peo-ple often appear on the eveningnews, but the stories usually coverland treaties, water quality and liv-ing conditions on reservations.Although these problems areextremely important and crucial tounderstanding the current situationof First Nations people, the empha-sis on such issues diverts peoples’attentions away from a part of theFirst Nations community that hassurvived, and is thriving.

The First Nations music industryin both Canada and the UnitedStates is alive and well. A number ofawards shows have emerged to cele-

brate and promote First Nations cul-ture. Shows like the CanadianAboriginal Music Awards and theNative American Music Awards fea-ture First Nations talent that israrely aired in mainstream media.Most First Nations musicians inCanada believe that these awardshows are essential for the recogni-tion of their culture, they are “one ofthe steps that has to happen” to pro-mote aboriginal music said Gillis.

In early October, Gillis combinedher Inuk throat singing skills with theslam poetry and music of fellow FirstNations musician Kinnie Starr. Theperformance was outstanding andunforgettable, a truly unique blend oftraditional First Nations music andcontemporary indie-rock tunes.

Despite breathtaking performanceson behalf of both musicians, theCapilano College Performing ArtsTheatre remained only half full.

Similarly, across town atUBC’s Museum of Anthropology,cellist Cris Derksen and hip-hopgroup Rapsure Risin’ also had apoor turnout for their concert.The low number of spectators atFirst Nations concerts is com-mon because very few peopleare aware of the events. EvenGillis said she had “never reallyheard of [the First Nations musiccommunity] before either.”

The primary purpose of theAboriginal Peoples Music ChoiceAwards and this Ubyssey FirstNations Issue is to bring awareness

to a part of the FirstNations communitythat is often over-looked, while stillrecognising thep r o b l e m a t i c s i t u a t i o n t h a t people are forcedto deal with. Thefollowing feature provides a briefdescript ion ofsome prominentFirst Nations musi-

cians who will be attending the

Aboriginal PeoplesMusic Choice Awards

tonight. UU

FRIDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER, 2006 THE UBYSSEY THE UBYSSEY TUESDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 20062 xwulmuxw: A UBYSSEY SUPPLEMENT 3xwulmuxw: A UBYSSEY SUPPLEMENT

First Nations Issue

by Cynthia Khoo

“Indigenous peoples the world overcontinue to be among the most mar-ginalised and dispossessed sectors ofsociety, the victims of perennial prej-udice and discrimination.”—LouiseArbour, United Nations (UN) HighCommissioner for Human Rights.

When was the last time your sisterwent missing, or your cousin, moth-er, niece, aunt, or daughter? Did sheturn out to be fine, or was she foundto have been sexually assaulted andbrutally murdered—or perhapsworse, not found at all? For manyIndigenous women and families inCanada, it is the latter and not the for-mer that might fulfill the most expec-tations. The plight of Indigenouswomen and their rights—or lackthereof—has been a longtime yetlargely undocumented blemish onCanada’s record in the internationalcommunity, and it is time that some-thing be done to resolve the issue.

That is why the rights ofIndigenous women—in fact of allIndigenous people—is one of thethree major foci of AmnestyInternational’s latest campaign,“Human Rights for All: NoExceptions.” Simple yet powerful, thisconcept highlights the discrepancy inthe treatment of peoples’ humanrights by various authorities and bod-ies of government around the world,several of whom appear to act as ifhuman rights are more important orapplicable to some groups of peoplethan to others.

The most prominent example ofthis, as mentioned, is the case of theIndigenous women in Canada,including those in Vancouver, BC. Ahigh-profile comprehensive reportwas released by Amnesty in October2004, providing an in-depth look atnine different cases of “StolenSisters,” as the report was titled, aswell as police and governmentresponse to these cases, and the issueof Indigenous women’s rights in gen-eral.

One of these cases in particularshows up police inaction and govern-ment inefficacy. Helen Betty Osbornewas a 19 year-old Manitoban Creestudent when she was assaulted andkilled by four Caucasian men in1971. If she had survived to livethrough the investigation of her owncase, Helen would have been nearly40 years old before just one of herperpetrators was brought to justice.Meanwhile, 30 years after her death,history would repeat itself: body partsfound in Manitoba in June of 2003were identified as those of FeliciaSolomon, Helen’s 16-year-old cousin.Felicia’s killer remains unknown.

Today, November 3, 2006, theUbyssey has decided to bring much-needed attention to the situation ofFirst Nations people in Canada. Atthe same time, AmnestyInternational UBC is offering stu-dents a chance to take action, by vis-iting Amnesty’s annual Write forRights Write-a-thon held all daytoday in the SUB Main Concourse.Whether it’s writing a letter toIndian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice,or signing a postcard in support ofthe UN Declaration on the Rights ofIndigenous Peoples, anything onedoes will contribute to making a dif-ference; and as Indigenous peoples,Amnesty International, and theGovernment of Canada haveacknowledged time and time again—we could use one. UU

Take Action:No Exceptions!

Resistant CultureWelcome to RealitySeventh Generation Records

by Patty Comeau

Resistant Culture, hailing from Los Angeles, istaking their political beliefs to the streets with aunique brand of radical grindcrust. Theirmusic, a blend of hardcore punk and metal thatmakes use of tribal instruments and rhythms,makes quite the impression. Tracing its rootsback to the late 1980s (then known as ResistantMilitia), the current lineup is strongly influ-enced by indigenous Turtle Island culture; three

of the four members are of First Nationsdescent. Their activist mission includes empow-ering native youth by using music as a tool ofcultural survival in the face of dominant modesof waste and self-indulgent destruction.

Their most recent full-length disc, WelcomeTo Reality, is an aggressive statement againstcapitalist ecological annihilation and war mon-gering. The sounds of marching soldiers, heli-copters, and a voice stating, “it’s a nightmare,it’s not a dream...it’s a horrible reality,” openthe fast-paced and dark track “Hang on toNothing”.

Singer Anthony Rezhawk’s roaring vocals arecomplimented greatly by the tight and furiousbeats laid down by drummer Ben Axiom, devel-oping an unrelenting politically-charged maniaacross the stretch of the album. Meanwhile thedown-tuned and technically complicated riffs(developed from a classical guitar background)that characterise guitarist Katina’s playing styleare strongly paired with bassist Ralph’s ground-ing in experimental jazz and punk. “Ecocide”

confronts attitudes that consider the “nature forprofit” attitude held by the controlling powers ofcapitalism and “Landkeeper” provides an exam-ple of the powerful place that First Nationsmusic can have in hardcore scenes. UU

Resistant culturewants you towake up

Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards

by Levi Barnett

What does a hip-hop cello concert sound like?Music enthusiasts and curiosity-seekers foundout at a performance held at the Museum ofAnthropology in late October. Half-Cree musicianCris Derksen played, along with a set by local all-woman rap duo Rapsure Risin’.

While not many cellists and even fewer MCshave likely graced the Great Hall of the Museumof Anthropology in the past, it easily holds up asone of Vancouver’s best concert venues. Thebuilding’s post-modern architecture fits wellwith Derksen’s music, which is unorthodox forcello, but still tied to classical traditions. It does-n’t fit well with the hip-hop label, but that didn’tseem to bother the audience at the Museum ofAnthropology.

What Cris Derksen does is play a line of musicon the cello and then record it with an electroniceffects pedal, which then can be repeated in thebackground while she plays a new melody overthe music. It makes for great effects and allowsher to do things that are otherwise impossiblewithout accompaniment. For instance, one songmixed a background of Derksen playing a snip-pet of Bach’s prelude in C minor with a stampingdrum beat. At the same time she recited slam

poetry and added a layer or cello playing on top,which created a complex sound for one musi-cian, but worked surprisingly well.

In between songs, Derksen shared an anec-dote about her past. “Growing up I was a kind ofpunkish kid,” she explained. She had pink hair.When attending a concert at the Chan Centre,someone told her that she didn’t belong there.Which Derksen finds ironic today, “since my jobis to play cello.”

Derksen finished her set with a song entitled“War Cry,” which was originally dedicated toGeorge W. Bush. No longer using spoken word,but singing a lilting wail, Derksen’s cello andsong made optimal use of her performance set-ting, with the vocal lamentation and stringed sad-ness wafting through the cathedral architectureof the Great Hall, past the half-dozen totem polessurrounding her and out through the wall ofglass into the open sky beyond. It was quite asight and allowed her music to become greaterthan herself, reverberating through the GreatHall’s many Aboriginal artifacts.

After Derksen’s cello came the youthful pairthat make up Rapsure Risin’. Female MCsCarrielynn Victor and Theresa Point are mem-bers of local Aboriginal groups under the greateraegis of the Sto:lo Tribal Council and have been

together musically for about a year and a half. Toopen their portion of the show, one pointed tothe surrounding totem poles and said that theywould be “singing to the old people.” The exhor-tation could have just as easily applied to thecrowd though, many of whom were grey-haired.Nonetheless, Rapsure Risin’ put on a fine per-formance.

Featuring more emotion than one normallysees in hip-hop, Rapsure Risin’ explained duringtheir set that “a lot of our music is about person-al development, your mind, your world.” Withbeats that made the audience nod their headsand song lyrics that tried to expand their minds,Rapsure Risin’ are clearly trying to go the dis-tance in the rap game.

The fact that they missed a beat to one songwas more than made up by their freestylingskills, which stood out for being able to say some-thing while keeping rapid rhythm and rhymingat a rapid clip. Rapsure Risin’s rapping cadenceleans to an early to mid ‘90s style, yet still deliv-ers: they craft raps that are neither Gangsta’ norpreachy. They have a verbal flow stands upagainst the best of BC and deserves to be heardby more than just the 80 person crowd and othermuseum patrons who wandered in to listen. UU

Aboriginal artists bring unique music to the Museum of Anthropology

Hip hop meets cello

Tonight at the Winnipeg MTS Centre

TRACY BONE

Hailing from Thompson,Manitoba, Tracy Bone beganwriting music after the life-threatening birth of her thirdchild. Her debut CD No Lieswas co-written with fiancéand fellow artist JCCampbell, an awards candi-date himself. The CDincludes the hit singles “TheAir I Breathe” and “Games.”“Games” peaked at numberone on the NCI-FM Top 30and has been nominated forsingle of the year.

Bone’s flawless, heartfeltvocals, combined with impec-cable guitar skills produce aharmony that is all her own.Although a country singer,Bone’s musical influencesinclude Alanis Morrissetteand Sheryl Crow. Aside fromher budding musical career,Bone is a committed motherof five children, two of whomare stepchildren, and a fulltime employee at the AwasisAgency of NorthernManitoba—a Child andFamily Service agency forAboriginal people.

TAGAQ

Tanya Tagaq Gillis is a world-renowned Inuk throatsinger. Originally fromCambridge, Nunavut, Gillisbegan practicing the ancientart of throat singing whileattending college in NovaScotia. In just six years shehas risen to the top of theexperimental music scene.

Gillis has managed totransform Inuk throatsinging into an innovativeexpression of emotion. Hervoice is used primarily as aninstrument and is often combined with computer-enhanced sounds.

Tagaq has collaboratedwith artists Bjork and theKronos quartet and touredthe world with variousartists. On her latest CDSinaa, Gillis displays her tal-ent through original inter-pretations of traditional Inukthroat songs. Gillis is also therecipient of the CanadianAboriginal Music Awards’“Best Female Artist.”

SHANE YELLOWBIRD

One of Canada’s most bril-liant up-and-coming countrymusicians, Yellowbird canoften be heard on the mainstream radio stationJRFM and Country MusicTelevision. Growing up, thisAlbertan wanted nothingmore than to be a cowboy.However, a speech impedi-ment he was born with forcedhim to see a speech therapist.Yellowbird’s speech therapistencouraged him to sing andhum sentences to help him speak more clearly.Eventually all the singing andhuming launched him intohis musical career.

His debut CD, Life isCalling My Name, containstwo hit singles “BeautifulConcepts” and “Easy.”“Beautiful Concepts” hasbeen nominated for single ofthe year and best musicvideo.

Currently Yellowbird istouring Western Canada andcompeting is local rodeos,keeping in touch with hisinner cowboy.

¥

EAGLE AND HAWK

Formed in the early 90s,Eagle and Hawk have definedcontemporary First Nationsmusic within both Aboriginaland non-Aboriginal commu-nities. Their contemporaryrock music incorporates theirAboriginal roots to producemelodies of cultural under-standing.

Eagle and Hawk havetoured throughout NorthAmerica and Europe sharingtheir perspectives on FirstNations life. The group has received a number of Canadian awards includ-ing Junos and CanadianAboriginal Music Awards.Their latest CD Life Is... fea-tures three hit singles, includ-ing “The Way” which is nomi-nated for single of the year.

The band continues towrite their own songs in aneffort to bring awareness toFirst Nations peoples.

DEREK MILLER

An internationally respectedblues-rock performer, DerekMiller, is a fabulous song-writer and performer. Hehas been the recipient ofnumerous awards. Theseinclude Juno awards andNorth American MusicAwards (Nammy) nomina-tions. In 2003 Millerreceived the prestigiousBlues/Jazz Recording awardpresented at the NativeAmerican Music Awards.

Along with his new band,the latest CD The Dirty Looksmeasures up to artists suchas John Mayer and NeilYoung. The hit single fromhis CD Stormy Eyes has beennominated for single of theyear and best songwriter.Miller was also showcased atthe Grammy’s last year andgave an unbelievable per-formance at the Nammy’s.

¥

REDDNATION

Natives of Alberta, this hip-hop group proudly repre-sents the people of theirnation.

Staying true to hip-hop/rap frontrunners,Reddnation describes theinjustices that First Nationspeople face. But they providea breath of fresh air to thestalled First Nations hip-hopindustry.

Their mainstream beatscombined with uniquely FirstNations lyrics allow for tracksthat are comparable to top-charting artists. Formed in2000, Reddnation has givenunforgettable performancesat the Arctic Winter Gamesand the North AmericanIndigenous Games. Theyhave toured throughout west-ern Canada, as well as the ter-ritories. Reddnation is quick-ly becoming the most sought-after First Nations hip-hopgroup in Canada.

BEST SONGWRITERBEST PRODUCERBEST ROCK CD

BEST GROUPBEST RAP/HIP-HOP CD

SINGLE OF THE YEARBEST GROUPBEST ROCK CD

BEST NEW ARTISTSINGLE OF THE YEARBEST MUSIC VIDEO

BEST NEW ARTISTBEST ALBUM COVER

BEST NEW ARTISTSINGLE OF THE YEARBEST SONGWRITERBEST ALBUM COVERBEST COUNTRY CD

See

ds

of

Rev

olu

tio

n

TAN

IA W

ILLA

RD

ILL

USTR

ATI

ON

4 xwulmuxw: A UBYSSEY SUPPLEMENT FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2006 THE UBYSSEY

FIRST NATIONS ISSUE

by Cheata Nao

Every four years the best athletes from aroundthe world compete against one another to claimfirst prize. No, it’s not the Olympics or theWorld Cup, but the World LacrosseChampionships.

While the rest of the world was stillenthralled over the Zidane headbutt on Italy’sMaterazzi, 21 of the best lacrosse nations inthe world were quietly gathering in London,Ontario for the 2006 World LacrosseChampionships. One of those teams was theIroquois Nationals.

The Iroquois Nation—consisting of sixtribes: the Mohawks, the Oneidas, theOnondagas, the Cayugas, the Senecas, and theTuscarora—became the only Aboriginal teamthat was sanctioned to compete in any sportinternationally when it was admitted into theInternational Lacrosse Federation in 1990. Itwas also the first First Nations team that Nikehas sponsored.

It’s only fitting that lacrosse is the only sportthat allows for an Aboriginal team to competeconsidering that the game originated from theFirst Nations of North America.

The game of lacrosse, as we know it today,was said to have evolved from a Mohawk “balland stick” game called tawaarathon. It was agame that was deeply spiritual and concernedwith the ideas of bringing honour and glory toone’s tribe. In early Canadian history the gameof lacrosse was one of the rare occasions inwhich an element of Aboriginal culture was completely embraced and accepted byEuropean settlers.

In fact, lacrosse gained so much populari-ty in Canada that Parliament named itCanada’s National Game in 1859. Canadaeven had a couple of Prime Ministers whowere known for their lacrosse skills. PierreTrudeau was quite a player during his schoolboy days in Quebec and Lester B. Pearsonstarted for the Oxford team. Pearson alsobecame the honourary chairman of theCanadian Lacrosse Association.

In the 2006 championships the IroquoisNationals fell to Australia in the bronze medalmatch 21-8. Canada defeated the United States15-10 in the gold medal game. The loss toCanada was the first time the Americans hadlost in international competition since 1978,when they lost to Canada 17-16 in overtime. UU

by Kyla Lee

My brother and I used to have a club. We builta teepee in the woods with a tarp and logs, andtalked about our deep, inherent connection tothe spirit world. We called ourselves“Windians,” which stood for White Indians. Iknow what you’re thinking. You think I’m aracist. But the truth is, I am not a racist, butcertainly a White Indian. I am Métis.

Métis people are recognised under theIndian Act as one of three different categoriesof “Indians” in Canada, the other two beingStatus Indians and Inuit people. Métis peopleare also recognised in UBC’s policies and pro-tocol for Aboriginal students, as UBC and othermajor academic and non-academic institu-tions in Canada consider Status, Non-Status,Inuit and Métis people to be members ofCanada’s Aboriginal population.

It seems that all the institutions in thiscountry are willing to accept my Aboriginalheritage despite my white skin. However, Ihave often been met with racist remarks andblatant ignorance from individuals. On paperit’s fine for me to be an Indian, but in person Ishould act white, talk white and be white.

Nearly every time I tell people about myAboriginal ancestry, I get the same exact com-ment: “But you’re not a real Indian.” For com-ments like that I have no words. There is a his-torical reality in this country that created myrace. I am a REAL Métis person. I am the defi-nition of Métis people. Blue eyes and pale skindo not make you Russian and being blondedoes not make you Scandinavian.

Being Métis on campus has been difficult.When I speak on behalf of Aboriginal culturein my classrooms, people often make racistand ignorant comments to my face, withoutbeing aware of my heritage. And I’ve had dif-ficulty in asserting my heritage because ofmy skin colour. In making comments abouthistory, I’ve often been called a racist by thesame people who tell me that because I don’tlook Indian enough, I’m not really anAboriginal person.

And I’m not just marginalised by my class-mates. It’s difficult being Métis on campus ingeneral. Many Métis people at UBC don’t feelwelcome at the Longhouse. I’m not blamingthe Longhouse, however I do believe thatsome of their assertions are contradictory.They claim that Stey-Wet-Ten has elements ofevery culture in the houseposts, ceremonialdoors and crossbars on the ceiling, yetnowhere in the great hall is there a represen-tation of Métis culture—not a fiddle, a sash orthe Métis flag.

UBC Housing and Conferences also allowsspecial priority admission to First Nations stu-dents on campus provided they can provetheir Aboriginal heritage. But Métis people arenot issued a Department of Indian Affairs sta-tus card, and many people of Aboriginal ances-try do not have status cards thanks to discrim-inatory legislation and the systemic removal ofstatus from Aboriginal people over the last500 years.

Being Métis on this campus is undeniablyhard. Granted, it is difficult to be Métis any-where. I am part of a growing invisible minor-ity in this country. However, the prevalence ofignorance about my culture and the difficultyof the lived experiences of mixed-blood peopleeverywhere must come to an end. This is the21st century, and interracial marriages arenormal. Just because I do not look differentfrom the white majority does not mean I amnot a victim of the racist attitudes and com-ments typically applied to my darker-skinnedcounterparts.

Métis people are not invisible. We walkaround campus in our varying skin tones; wewear our sashes with pride; we know our his-tory and we aren’t afraid to tell it. Remove theblindfold of cultural ignorance, realise andaccept mixed-blood people as the distinct andculturally unique people that they are. Thereality of our multicultural Canada is thatmore and more often people are becomingpart of interracial marriages. One day, every-one will be of mixed blood. The Métis peopleare simply ahead of their time. UU

by Cheata Nao

Ted Nolan is remembered for taking a lacklus-ter Buffalo Sabres team—aside from superstargoalie Dominik Hasek—that no one thoughthad a chance of making the playoffs and turn-ing them into North East Division Championsin the 1996-1997 season. He is rememberedfor winning the Jack Adams award for coachof the year in 1997.

He is also remembered for having avolatile relationship with Hasek and wasdubbed by many around the NHL as a “GMkiller” when then general manager JohnMuckler was fired after the team lost in thesecond round of the 1997 playoffs.

But he is most remembered as the onlyAboriginal coach in the NHL to be unem-ployed for nine years following such a suc-cessful season, playoff loss aside. This is theTed Nolan most of us hear about.

What we don’t hear much about is TedNolan the motivational speaker, the rolemodel, the icon or the inspiration toAboriginals all across Canada. Maybe it’s timewe remember this Ted Nolan.

Nolan, the third youngest of 12 children,was born on the Ojibwa First Nations reservejust outside of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. Hegrew up in a house that at times was withoutelectricity or plumbing. But thanks to his par-ents the Nolan house was always fullystocked with cultural pride, strength and thewillingness to dream—all things that came inhandy during his involuntary nine yearsaway from the NHL.

While away from the NHL, Nolan dedicat-ed much of his time to First Nations youth allacross Canada—consistently stressing theimportance of staying in school and receivingan education. In a speech he made at thefourth annual Aboriginal TraditionalCelebration of Achievement he told theyouths in attendance that “you just can’t quit

in grade ten and expect to get a great job.Even grade 12 may not be good enough...youhave to get a post-secondary education ofsome sort.”

Over the years he has given many inspi-rational speeches to motivate First Nationsyouth to always aspire for more. He also cre-ated the Ted Nolan Foundation whose mis-sion is to “encourage aboriginal youth tocombine academics and recreation in pur-suit of a better future for themselves andtheir people.”

In the summer of 2006 the foundationhosted a charity golf event that raised$50,000. Proceeds went to the Little NHLhockey tournament for young Aboriginalboys and girls and to the Rose Nolan memo-rial scholarship fund. This scholarship fundis in memory of Nolan’s mother who diedtragically after being hit by a drunk driver. Itis a scholarship that provides financial aidto First Nations women across Ontario who

want to pursue an education.With all the work he’s done to inspire and

motivate youths across Canada it was only fit-ting that when he returned to the back of ahockey bench it was with a team of playersaged 16 to 20.

In April 2005 he was hired to be the headcoach and director of hockey operations forthe Moncton Wildcats of the Québec MajorJunior Hockey League. In May of 2006 he tookthe team to the Memorial Cup final only to loseto the Québec Ramparts who were coached byHall of Fame and former Colorado Avalanchegoaltender Patrick Roy.

His success with the Wildcats has led toan NHL coaching job when New YorkIslander’s owner Charles Wang hired Nolanin the summer to be their head coach.Finally, after nine years, Ted Nolan is backbehind an NHL bench and more than readyto take this team back to their glory days of the 1980s. UU

Iroquois Nation takes on the world in lacrosse

Metis Perspective

WISE WORDS: Ted Nolan addresses the crowd at the 2005 Ted Nolan Golf Tournament.“YOU JUST CAN’T QUIT IN

GRADE TEN AND EXPECT TO

GET A GREAT JOB. EVEN

GRADE 12 MAY NOT BE GOOD

ENOUGH...YOU HAVE TO GET

A POST-SECONDARY

EDUCATION OF SOME SORT.”–Ted Nolan

NHL Coach

Aboriginal coach gets behind the bench

10 FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2006 THE UBYSSEYOPINION/EDITORIAL

PERSPECTIVES

—Andre CoronadoScience, 1

—Jerome PasionScience, 3

—Cathy MokScience, 3

—David WangBioChem, 2

—Spencer CrippsCivil Engineering, 4

“I’d probably save itup and travel...I reallywant to go to visitsome Mayan ruins.”

“I wouldn’t give it tothe Commercedepartment...Iwould buy new tiresfor my bike.”

“Entertainment...shopping, maybe. Iwould buy clothes.”

“I would buy anotherVolvo.”

“I’d give it for scientificresearch...somethingthat’s beneficial toboth business andscience.”

What would you do with an extra $500?

Streeters

—Coordinated by George Prior and Paul Bucci

by Maayan Kreitzman

Two distinct, but related issues that AlisonBodine and Nita Palmer brought up in their let-ter to the Ubyssey “A measured response?”(October 27) warrant a direct response. The firstis their claim that civility in discourse maskstruth, and furthermore, is irrelevant. The sec-ond is the denial of the existence of complexityor gray areas joined with the use of heavy andproblematic rhetoric, which results in stifleddebate. Both these features confirm the per-verse attitude the AMS Social Justice Centre hasadopted towards discourse.

First, civility is not a deterrent to honesty. Onthe contrary, the social obligation of civility allowsa multilateral society to function. The call for civil-ity is not to obstruct voices, or serve “as a cover”but to enable all voices to be heard above the din.The cynical question Bodine and Palmer posed,whether “the real problem facing oppressed peo-ple in Palestine is a lack of ‘civility?’” is a falla-cious extension of the concerns we brought upabout discourse on campus to the completely sep-arate issue of the condition of Palestinians in theregion. This fallacy is a willful misrepresentationof what our letter of October 17 was discussing.Though, perhaps, an increase in the level ofrestraint and civility would be beneficial, not onlyto students, as we suggested in our letter, but alsoto leaders and residents of the region, who willultimately have to come to terms with each other.

In reference to the SJC’s September 27’sforum, titled “Palestine, Lebanon, and the IsraeliOccupation,” Bodine and Palmer state that theforum was meant for “activists at UBC,” and thatthe people who advocate civil dialogue “came tothis forum to disrupt it and divert attention fromthe forum’s issues.” These statements indicatethat, first, the forum was specifically targeted tothose already identifying with the organisers’ spe-cific brand of ‘activism.’ This raises the questionof how, and to whom this AMS Resource Centre iscatering. Moreover, the statements show that ifothers desire to listen to speakers or participatein questions following such an event, they are notwelcome, nor do they deserve to be treatedrespectfully. After all, if they are skeptical orambivalent, why should they be present unless todisrupt, distract, and silence?

A forum so restricted in direction that its man-date, as stated by the organisers, is to provide aone-way flow of information from panelists thatagree to audience members that likewise agree isabsurd. By defining their event in such a way,organisers do away with the discomfort of thecontroversies at the heart of Middle East politics.If all we want is to hear the sound of our own voic-es, we relinquish meaningful engagement, anddispose of learning. All we do is wall ourselvesinto isolated self-congratulation.

Another method of isolation and estrangementemployed by the center’s organisers and speakersis one of language and rhetoric. During the forum,Shannon Bundock incited the audience by saying“this is a time to choose sides”—a message eerilyreminiscent of president Bush’s own infamous“with us or against us” speech. Bodine and Palmerstrengthen this when they repeat in their letter that“there are no two sides” to issues like the right ofreturn and the separation fence—two topics ofremarkable complexity and little consensus. Whilethey feel strongly that they are morally and histori-cally correct, the declaration that “these are facts”is far more emotional than cerebral.

Laila went so far as to insist repeatedly thatIsraeli citizens themselves are victims ofZionism—a statement so loony it is difficult toanalyse. Saying that there is “racism inherent”in the Canadian government’s statement aboutIsrael’s action (“a measured response”) duringthis summer’s war is another example of height-ened rhetoric. It is particularly surprising to seethe racism card played here, where its relevanceto military proportionality is nominal, while oneof the SJC’s own speakers hugely oversteps themost exclusive distinction between criticism ofIsrael and Jew-hatred.

Once again: civility, forbearance, and self-dis-cipline are the very social tools that allow for anopen society. They will be essential to any futurenegotiated peace in Israel and Palestine. Let’sstart here. UU

–Maayan Kreitzman Science 3

With so much commotion fromall the construction at UBC, itoften feels like our school wasbuilt on a minefield. And ifcommerce students pay anyattention to the new policytheir faculty and student socie-ty are hoping to pass thismonth, the commotion is onlygoing to get worse. If enoughvotes are collected at theNovember referendum on therecent Faculty of Commercebuilding proposal, studentswill, for the first time, have tofoot almost a third of a $65million building projectthrough a series of fees thatwill be put towards commercestudents for the next 25 years.

What the CommerceUndergraduate Society (CUS)and the Dean will have youbelieve is that the proposedbuilding will provide advancedtechnology and bigger class-rooms to enhance lectures andimprove the overall quality ofeducation. If this were indeedthe case, the University wouldhave considered footing thebill for this $65 million projectat the start.

The current proposal saysthat UBC will not be shellingout, however. As Associate ofthe Commerce Faculty Dean

Robert Helsley told theUbyssey, the wait to get fund-ing from the University “couldbe 15 years.” Probably becausethe university clued in anddetermined that this expendi-ture wasn’t necessary.

The CUS and the Dean, thebiggest proponents of the proj-ect, were left with the embar-rassing dilemma of gettingfunding for a project that theirown university deemedunessential.

The solution? Rely on ahodge-podge of private spon-sorship, and stick some stu-dent fees on there, to boot.While soliciting private fund-ing is a tried-and-true methodfor helping offset buildingcosts (i.e. Science SocialSpace), having future studentsfinance the renovations is not.

We don’t have to highlighthow tacking an additional$500 student fee to cash-starved, debt-ridden studentsevery year is problematic, butif the referendum passes thismandatory fee, will be in effectfor a generation of students.For a three-year project, 25years worth of commerce stu-dents will be leashed into help-ing pay off the $20 millionmortgage at $500 a pop each

year, meaning that kids whoaren’t even born yet arealready being set up with UBCfees. That’s a little extreme.Moreover, graduate studentshave to suck it up because forthem it will be an extra $1,000each year, and they don’t evenget the chance to vote. The feeis also subject to inflation witheach subsequent year.

The Dean of Commerce haspledged that students unable tomeet the financial criteria willnot be left out as they will beprovided bursaries that can beused to fund these fees forthose struggling students. Butif these bursaries are enoughto offset students’ financialconcerns over the fee increase,then shouldn’t they collectivelybe enough to lower the fees, oreven cover a larger part of thebuilding costs?

Let’s face it: the priorityhere is giving the SauderSchool of Business a shiny newexterior, not creating a superi-or learning environment.Asking students to bear thebrunt of a $250 fee in 2008and a $500 fee every yearafter, on top of their alreadysubstantial student fees, in thename of the School ofBusiness’s reputation is insen-

sitive to student needs, as wellas transparently self-serving.

Commerce students cur-rently pay $526 in studentfees—well above the averagefees of $273 in the Faculty ofArts or $282 in the Faculty ofScience. Tack on another $500and that’s $1026 in annualfees you can kiss goodbye.

Instead of thinking aboutthe prestige the new buildingwill bring to commerce stu-dents —a doubtful claim—stu-dents should think hard aboutwhether they really need a newbuilding and whether this justi-fies saddling a future genera-tion of UBC students with amassive fee.

If commerce students votein favour of this idea, it will seta dangerous precedent for therest of UBC’s building projects.Before long, arts students willbe asked to rebuild Brock Halland physics students theancient and drafty Henningsbuilding.

Suddenly student fees arenot about services and tuitionis not about a valuable educa-tion; it’s about whicheverdepartment has the prettiestbuilding.

Why fix the plumage andneglect the suffering bird? uu

Make the University pay, not students

A Civil Debate and more discourse

THE UBYSSEY FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2006 NEWS 11

(CUP)—The Thunderbirds are look-ing to become just the second hostteam in the past 13 years to capturethe CIS women’s field hockeynational championship, as they wel-come the four best clubs in Canadato Wright Field for the four day tour-nament, which began Thursday.

The hometown jinx bit theThunderbirds last year when theylost in the national final to the tenthshooter—the University of Alberta’sNiki Baumann—in penalty strokes.UBC made Alberta feel the same painwhen they won in the 2004 final overthe Pandas in Edmonton.

The University of Victoria Vikeswere the last hosts to win in 2000.The Vikes will seek their record11th championship this weekendafter missing last year’s tourna-ment for the first time since itbegan in 1979. The Toronto VarsityBlues cruise into town with anundefeated record in Ontario play,and will be joined by their cross-town rivals, the York Lions.

The 2006 tournament reunitesthe five traditionally strongest pro-grams in the country.

UBC ThunderbirdsSeed: FirstConference: Canada West2006 record: 6-1-4Nationals trip: 23rdMedals: 10 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze

The reigning CIS silver-medal-lists have high expectations as theymake their final preparations forthis weekend’s tournament. Led byCIS player-of-the-year Christine De

Pape, the Canada West championsenter the tournament with only oneloss on the season, a 1-0 setback toUVic on October 15, which theypromptly avenged one week later inthe CanWest final.

With only nine goals allowed overthe course of 11 games this year,strong defence will continue to be theT-Birds’ trademark as they welcomethe opposition to Wright Field.

—Boris Korby, the Ubyssey

Toronto Varsity BluesSeed: SecondConference: Ontario UniversityAthletics (OUA)2006 record: 14-0-2Nationals trip: 23rdMedals: 7 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze

The Toronto Varsity Blues cruisedto a 12-0-2 regular season record,outscoring their Ontario opponentsby a 62-5 margin. And then they

almost missed the boat (or plane) tonationals, narrowly surviving penaltystrokes for a 1-0 victory over Queen’sin the OUA semi-finals.

Cailie O’Hara and AmandaTreacy led the conference champs’offence with 12 goals apiece, whiledefender Malinda Hapuarachchiand goalkeeper Sarah Goertzen area force on the back end. The VarsityBlues are the only eastern team toever have won a CIS title, but haven’tdone so since 1996.

—Dan Plouffe CUP Sports Bureau Chief

Victoria VikesSeed: ThirdConference: Canada West2006 record: 7-1-3Nationals trip: 25thMedals: 10 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze

UVic may be the favouritesheading into the championships,

despite being seeded third. Theteam outscored their Canada Westopponents 25-6 this season, onlylosing once. Unfortunately for theislanders, that loss came in the con-ference championship game.

The Vikes will be eager to provethey can win when it counts at thenationals, and will be looking for biggoals from Canada West’s leadinggoal scorer and rookie-of-the-year,Robyn Pendleton. Opponents willneed to beat Danielle Wilson if theywant to win, which won’t be easy—she posted a regular season goals-against-average of 0.57.—David Karp, the Martlet, Victoria

Alberta PandasSeed: FourthConference: Canada West2006 record: 3-5-3Nationals trip: 12thMedals: 1 gold, 1 silver, 5 bronze

After a 3-5-3 regular season thatmade them look like anything butthe defending national champions,the University of Alberta Pandas willbe out to prove they were not a flukeat nationals. All three victories onthe season came against the CalgaryDinos, the doormats of the four-team Canada West conference, andAlberta managed only a 0-2-2 recordagainst UBC, plus a playoff tie, andwas 0-3-1 against Victoria.

In search of a repeat, thePandas are led by third-year mid-fielder Erin Mason, who scoredfive goals in Canada West confer-ence play, and fifth-year goal-tender Sarah Houlihan—the hero

of last year’s championship run.The defending champions will be

the least experienced of the bunchin Vancouver, making their 12thnationals appearance in the pro-gram’s history.

—Paul Owen the Gateway, Edmonton

York LionsSeed: FifthConference: OUA2006 record: 11-3-2Nationals trip: 20thMedals: 5 silver, 2 bronze

The York Lions have been on firethis year, dropping just two regular-season games. Despite this streak,they were unable to defeat theirnemesis, the Toronto Varsity Blues,to whom the Lions lost 1-0 in theOUA final. York’s first game atnationals will be a rematch againsttheir cross-town rivals.

The Lions took full advantage ofplaying at home for the OUA cham-pionships when they handledGuelph—which had matched York’s12-2-2 record—in the semi-finals bya 3-0 score to secure a berth in theCIS championships. Superstar for-ward Lauren Conforzi had ten moregoals than anyone else in the coun-try this season with 22 for the Lions.

—Precious Yutangco Excalibur, Toronto

Round robin play began Thursdayand continues until Saturday. The toptwo teams will meet Sunday in thegold medal game, while three andfour will play for bronze uu

FIELD HOCKEY NATIONALS KICK OFF AT UBC, T-BIRDS FAVOURED

sports@ubyssey.bc.ca

Interested in volunteering for the Ubyssey? Thinkit’s too late to join? Well, think again.

Come to production nights every Monday andThursday night to come help out at the paper andcome to staff meetings on Wednesdays at noon. toget more involved.

Otherwise, email volunteers@ubyssey.bc.ca for morespecific information.

OKER CHEN PHOTO

UBC DEFEATED TORONTO 2-0, AND ALBERTA 1-0, IN DAY ONE ACTION THURSDAY

NEWS12 FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2006 THE UBYSSEY

Sessionals fight for fair employmentby Colleen Tang

NEWS EDITOR

There is still a lack of awareness ofsessional lecturers and what it isthat they do. At this year’s fifth annu-al Fair Employment Week (FEW),sessional lecturers and supportersshowcased their importance to theUBC community.

According to chair of theSessional Faculty Committee,Petra Ganzenmueller, the objec-tive of FEW is “to showcase the sig-nificant and substantive contribu-tions sessional faculty [make] toteaching, research and service.”

The areas that FEW is concen-trating on are “sub-standard pay,oppressive workloads and poorworking conditions that define asessional appointment in themajority of departments, schoolsand academic units across bothUBC campuses,” she said, addingthat there are specific conditions

the University administrationimpose on sessional academics aswell.

Currently 27 per cent of the fac-ulty at UBC is considered “session-al,” according to Ganzenmueller.

“Despite the highly problematicnature of a sessional appointmentgiven the employment inequitiesthat persist, UBC has increasedrather than decreased its use ofcontingent academic faculty atboth campuses,” she said. “Inmany UBC departments, as muchas 80 per cent of undergraduateteaching is done by sessional fac-ulty with little or no job security.”

James Turk of the CanadianAssociation of University Teachersis working towards getting ses-sional faculty more job securityand opportunities.

“In reality, sessional professorsare treated worse than full timeprofessors,” he said. “They make adramatically lower amount of

money...they’re really exploited byuniversities badly.”

Turk hopes that FEW will helpthe University community recog-nise how vital the sessional facultyis and “also recognise the unfair-ness of how they’re treated in theirefforts to get more equitable treat-ment for the part-timers.”

Alison Acheson, sessional lec-turer at UBC warns people in theirmid-30s and 40s to consider thisoccupation thoroughly.

“If they’re in their 20s go for it.If you’re 42 don’t even think aboutit. Seriously, I would say if youwere mid-30s on really thinkabout it because you’re not goingto make enough money withoutbeing subsidised by a spouse orsomebody. “

The uncertainty of a sessionallecturer makes it difficult to takeon students in the summer.

“By the time April rolls aroundyou’re really attached to students

and you want to do your best by them,” said Acheson. “There’ssomething really humiliatingabout having a student say I wantto work with you over the summerand saying you know what I’m notpaid to do that, I have to try tofocus on my own work so I can geta career happening, so I can get areal job somewhere.”

Sessionals lecturers also do nothave the time to research andwrite in hopes of getting a tenuredjob said Michael Schoen, a ses-sional lecturer for 15 years.

“We have to teach more tomake less and we don’t have thetime or the opportunity to try andcontinue with research and devel-opment, so it’s a double-edgedsword,” he said.

“Work harder to earn a living,work less to try and have an oppor-tunity to develop because again as asessional lecturer...it inhibits yourability to advance.” uu

UBC space elevator team unexpectedly disqualifiedby Alisha Randhawa

NEWS WRITER

A team of UBC science students whoentered a NASA sponsored SpaceElevator Competition last monthwere unexpectedly disqualified.

Team Snowstar was described byevent organiser Bob Shelef as “by farthe strongest competitor.” In spite ofthis the team was disqualified afterthey were found to be in violation ofone of the rules at the event held inLas Cruces, New Mexico on October20 and 21.

NASA’s main objective for thiscompetition is to encourage devel-opment of technology that couldone day be used to transport people

and cargo to an orbiting station inspace.

The competition required partici-pating teams to “develop two typesof technologies that are believed tobe required to construct a space ele-vator,” explained Snowstar memberSteve Jones.

One of these required technolo-gies was to build a strong tethermaterial that, in accordance withNASA’s rules, was not to weighmore than two grams. The tetherhad to carry more weight thanNASA’s three-gram tether beforethe testing machine would stretchand break it.

Another rule stated that the cir-cumference of the tether’s loop had

to be at least two metres andSnowstar’s tether was a half a mil-limeter short of this stipulation.

Jones attributed this smaller circumference to the team’s boldapproach as they “pushed the balance between performance andmechanical strength very far towardsa high performance climber and thatmeant that reliability was going to bea primary concern.”

While Snowstar took a risk inmaking power and speed a priority,Jones said that other teams “weremore conservative in their mechani-cal design and although they made itto the top of the cable they did nothave enough power density to do itfast enough.”

While members of Snowstarrealised that their team was a fron-trunner in the competition, they werealso aware that there was room forerror. The team would have likedtheir alternate tethers to have beenconsidered as “the first tether [tostart] out at over two metres andwhen it was handled for the weigh-inprocedure it became bunched up andshorter than two metres,” said Jones.

Though frustrated with the disqualification, which cost TeamSnowstar the $200,000 prize, Jonessaid that “the team remained profes-sional and in good spirits,” decidingto participate in a “just-for-fun” com-petition with the three other disqual-ified groups.

NASA and the SpacewardFoundation on Space ElevatorDevelopment, which co-hosted andsponsored the event, plan to holdthe contest again in 2007. They arehoping that they can further pro-mote the cost-effective and saferalternative to rocket travel that willintroduce and inspire the creationof interesting technologies.

Snowstar remains undeterredand, with renewed support from itssponsor TOYOBO, Jones is opti-mistic about future opportunities.

“Our climber had a very highpower density and so once we gothrough some mechanical refine-ments we already have a leadingedge,” he said. uu

LISTEN: Petra Ganzenmuellerwants to inform students aboutsessionals. OKER CHEN PHOTO

IIff yyoouu aarree iinntteerreesstteedd iinn ccoonnttiinnuuiinngg iinnjjoouurrnnaalliissmm,, cchheecckk oouutt oouurr NNeewwss sseeccttiioonn..MMeeeettiinnggss aarree eevveerryy TTuueessddaayy aatt 1111::3300aamm oorr

eemmaaiill uuss aatt nneewwss@@uubbyysssseeyy..bbcc..ccaa