viu winter magazine · communications & public engagement 900 fifth street, nanaimo, bc v9r 5s5...

VIU Winter2017/18

VANCOUVERISLAND

UNIVERSITY

Plastic OceanScientists don't fully understand the impacts of

microplastics on ecosystems, and VIU faculty and

students are on the cutting edge of research on the issue.

Green Energy Poets on Campus Mass Specmobile

magazine

2 VIU Magazine

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As a member of the VIU Alumni Association, you are entitled to receive a free alumni benefi t card to access special group rates and exclusive products and services that assist you in your personal and professional life.



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W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 3

What a busy year we’ve had at Vancouver Island University!

Thanks to a $60-million investment from the provincial and federal governments, VIU and community partners, construction has begun on three major projects at the Nanaimo Campus — a new Health and Science Centre; Marine, Automotive and Trades Complex; and a District Geo-Exchange Energy System. See page 16 for more details on how the geo-exchange works.

As we write this note, construction activity is in full swing, and the large crane in the heart of campus is in constant motion. You can check out a picture of the crane on page 20, alongside a Q&A with VIU President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Ralph Nilson. Nilson shares his vision for the VIU Economic Enterprise Region, a strategy for the mid-Island region that removes barriers to accessing education and helps prepare people for the jobs of the future.

Another highlight this year was the start of a unique learning partnership with The Mastercard Foundation, the Rideau Hall Foundation and Yukon College.

This partnership will boost the number of Indigenous students attending VIU, and put more supports in place once they are here, thanks to a $13.5-million investment. We touch on VIU’s long-term commitment to Indigenous education on page 28 in Road to Reconciliation.

You’ll want to check out our feature on the microplastics research VIU faculty and students are conducting. There are trillions of particles in the world’s oceans, and our researchers have found that these microscopic particles are ending up in the shellfish we eat – an issue of global concern.

We also show off the Applied Environmental Research Lab’s new Mass Specmobile – a mobile lab that is revolutionizing the way environmental contaminants can be measured – and showcase the work of two amazing poets on campus who have captured some big awards and titles.

Thanks to our alumni who shared their stories in this issue. We are so proud of all you’ve accomplished! Do you have a story to tell? Email [email protected].

Happy reading!Janina, David and Jenn

L-R:

Jenn

McG

arrig

le, D

avid

For

rest

er, J

anin

a St

ajic

I am forever thankful to those

who have put these awards in

place; I hope to honour their

gift by applying myself and

using my education to give

back to the community that

makes all this possible.

Joseph MonaghanBachelor of Science, 3rd year

Support a future VIU student with a gift in your will, or consider making a gift today.

When there’s a will, there’s a way.

Contact Jason to learn how

your gift can change lives:

250.740.6258

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 5

20

insideviu magazine | winter 2017/18

VIU Spotlight

Drowning in Plastic

Green is the New Black: VIU’s District

Geo-Exchange Energy System

Building a Barrier-Free Future

Poets on Campus

Introducing … The Mass Specmobile

Road to Reconciliation

Putting Their Skills to Work

Alumni News

Q&A with VIU Alumnus Mat Snowie

61216

202225283033

12

38

22

16

COVER: VIU Biology student Maggie Dietterle, as well as other students and faculty at VIU, are studying how to remove microplastics from Pacific oysters.

photo credit: Island Expressions Photography


6 VIU Magazine

VIU spotlight

Volume 2 / Issue 1 / Winter 2017/18

VIU Magazine is published in the spring and fall by VIU’s Communications & Public Engagement Office and Alumni Relations Office. It is distributed free of charge to VIU alumni and friends.

All material is copyright © 2017, Vancouver Island University, and may be reprinted only with written permission. Opinions expressed in the magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of Vancouver Island University.

The VIU community acknowledges and thanks the Snuneymuxw, Tla’amin, Snaw-naw-as and Quw’utsun’ First Nations on whose traditional lands we teach, learn, research, live and share knowledge.

PUBLISHERCommunications & Public Engagement, Advancement & Alumni RelationsVancouver Island University

MANAGING EDITORSJanina StajicManager, Communications and Public Engagement

David ForresterManager, Advancement & Alumni Relations

EDITOR Jenn McGarrigle

GRAPHIC DESIGN Sheila Warren

WRITERSDane Gibson, Rachel Stern, Aly Winks

CONTRIBUTORSGloria Bell - Island Expressions Photography (select photos)

We welcome letters to the editor.

Editor, VIU Magazine

Communications & Public Engagement

900 Fifth Street, Nanaimo, BC V9R 5S5

[email protected]

Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #40063601

A green transformation is taking place in VIU’s Chemistry Department. The University recently joined the Green Chemistry Commitment, a consortium launched by the non-profit Beyond Benign that aims to create systemic and lasting change in university-level chemistry education

VIU Joins the Green Chemistry Commitment

and, ultimately, increase the number of green chemists and scientists. What this means for the Chemistry Department is that faculty and staff have committed to making continuous improvements in waste and hazard reduction, as well as introducing green chemistry concepts to students so

they will look for more benign and less wasteful alternatives once they are out in the workforce. “This is a big step forward for VIU’s commitment to sustainability,” says Chemistry Professor Dr. Alexandra Weissfloch, who spearheaded the University’s application to join the GCC. “It also means our chemistry program is going to be distinctive, not only in BC, but also in Canada. It is a perfect fit for a department that is already strong in environmental chemistry.” VIU is the second institution in Canada – the first being the University of Toronto – to sign on to the GCC. About three dozen universities and colleges in the United States have also signed up. Next up is working green chemistry and toxicology into the new Major in Chemistry program VIU hopes to offer once the Health and Science Centre, currently under construction in the heart of campus, is complete.

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W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 7

For VIU Anthropology Professor Dr. Imogene Lim, a menu isn’t just a list of food choices – it’s also a way of connecting with and studying society.

Something deliciously fishy is happening at VIU’s International Centre for Sturgeon Studies these days – and it’s caught on at local restaurants and retail outlets. The Centre began selling cans of smoked sturgeon and fresh and smoked fillets to restaurants and retail shops last year, both to help support the research and education that happens there and as a way of building awareness about what the ICSS does. It appears to have worked,

On the Menu: Chinese Food with a Side of Cultural Connections

Lim has been collecting Chinese restaurant menus for decades and now has hundreds – dating from the 1920s to the present – from across Canada,

the United States and the world, along with related items such as fortune cookie sayings, chopstick wrappers and takeout containers. Numerous menus were part of the Museum of Vancouver’s All Together Now exhibit (June 2016 - March 2017), which highlighted “rare, unconventional and awe-inspiring objects” from 20 collectors. As well, Lim’s menus and research were the focus of her presentation last October at the Chinese Food and Culture in Local and Global Perspectives conference in Guangzhou, China. “I think it’s important information,” she says. “The menus represent a particular point in time and place. For Vancouver’s Chinatown, they illustrate a vibrant, happening space which drew people from the larger community.”

Smoked Sturgeon, Anyone?

because the first batch of the canned product sold out in just weeks. Sturgeon at the Centre are raised in a land-based, closed-containment, recirculating system, which means 96% of the water in tanks is cleaned and reused; wild stocks are not impacted; discharge goes into the City of Nanaimo’s sewer system, not into the environment; and the fish are

raised according to the high standards of care set by the Canadian Council on Animal Care. Smoked and canned locally at St. Jean’s Cannery and Smokehouse, VIU Smoked Sturgeon is available at the Campus Store and select local retailers in Nanaimo. The fillets and smoked fillets are available by calling 250.740.6171.

Dr. I

mog

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Lim

8 VIU Magazine

VIU’s beloved former Elder-in-Residence Ellen White was recognized with Canada’s highest civilian honour earlier this year. Known affectionately as “Auntie Ellen” at VIU, the Coast Salish Elder touched the lives of many students, staff and faculty during her 13 years as an Elder-in-Residence. She is known on campus for her loving, generous and wise demeanour and for openly sharing knowledge. She received an Honorary Doctorate degree from VIU in 2006. White, also known by her Coast Salish name Kwulasulwut, which means “Many Stars,” worked tirelessly over seven decades to celebrate First Nations culture and build bridges between people of diverse cultural backgrounds. She was appointed to the Order of Canada for her outstanding contributions as an Elder and community leader, and efforts to preserve the Hul’qumi’num language. White received her insignia from the Honourable Judith Guichon,

“Auntie Ellen” Appointed to the Order of Canada

Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, during a special ceremony March 31 at Dufferin Place, Nanaimo. The Order of Canada is one of the nation’s highest civilian honours that recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.

“Grandma White has made so many amazing contributions. Her publications and work in the education system are an important foundation of building shared understandings and appreciation for the richness and depth of Coast Salish culture,” says Doug White III, her grandson and a Snuneymuxw Councillor. “Her advice and counsel is sought on a regular basis by people from the Coast Salish

world for their own traditional work of namings and other ceremonies.” Ellen White was an essential part of community and political work that supported the ground-breaking R. v. White and Bob (Supreme Court of Canada, 1965) litigation about treaty rights. It paved the way for the modern era of Canadian law on Aboriginal and treaty rights. She also wrote several books on Coast Salish beliefs and practices and created one of the first dictionaries of the Hul’qumi’num language. “My mother has done significant work that has helped to build under-standings between First Nations and non-First Nations people – this includes publishing multiple books on Coast Salish stories and her political work and advocacy that has helped to establish good working relationships and improved quality of life by securing essential services such as water and electricity for our community,” says her son and Snuneymuxw Councillor, Doug White Jr.

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2 0 1 7 F A L L / W I N T E R 9

Grant funding is helping Dr. Erik Krogh and Dr. Chris Gill push boundaries and develop new scientific approaches in environmental chemistry and analytical mass spectrometry. The VIU Chemistry Profs were awarded two Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant awards

VIU Scientists Earn Grants for Ground-breaking Research

totalling $250,000, which will be distributed over five years to support student projects. “Thanks to NSERC support, we will be able to push the limits of what we know is possible with mass spectrometry,” says Gill. “The research programs we are launching are aimed at developing new approaches for the direct, real-time measurements of trace molecules in different environments, which has important applications in environmental, medical and material sciences.” VIU’s Applied Environmental Research Laboratories is ground

zero for research. It hosts a team of undergraduate and graduate students providing the opportunity to conduct field and laboratory-based research with state-of-the-art instrumentation. Researchers work to identify contami-nants, determine concentration levels and study their fate and distribution in the environment. See page 25 for more on the lab’s latest addition – the Mass Specmobile.

The University’s first science course co-taught by a Biology Professor and a Traditional Knowledge Keeper launched at VIU Cowichan last spring. VIU Biology Professor Dr. Suzie Nilson and Traditional Knowledge Keeper Stella Johnny, from Quw’utsun’, taught separate knowledge on the science of plants and the environment in VIU’s Interdisciplinary Studies 211.

New Course Forms Partnership between Indigenous Science and Western Science

The course was made possible thanks to funding from Peninsula Co-op and Buckerfield’s, as well as two anonymous donors. The donations outfitted the lab with equipment. The concept began a decade ago when Nilson and Delores Louise, a VIU Elder-in-Residence, began meeting to talk about what could be done to bring Indigenous and Western

concepts of learning and knowing science together. During the semester, Johnny and Nilson taught on the same topics relative to plants and the environment. Indigenous science about plants was shared by Johnny through teachings and stories. Western science included standard methods with topics about plants, the environment and health. The lab component of the course included working with cedar bark, medicine walks, learning about microscopy, photosynthesis and testing plant medicines on bacterial populations. While teaching, Johnny and Nilson respectfully learned from one other, and joined the students in appreciation of the support and contribution of Elders in the community who shared the same interest. The course will be offered again at VIU Cowichan in January 2018.

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Dr. Erik Krogh, left, and Dr. Chris Gill

10 VIU Magazine

Biosphere reserves are the subject of research around the world, yet the field of study didn’t have an academic journal dedicated specifically to biosphere research. That is, not until recently, when VIU faculty and staff stepped up and created an online academic journal — the International UNESCO Journal of Biosphere Reserves.

International Biosphere Research Journal Launched by VIU

“There are 669 designated biosphere reserves located in 120 nations across the globe. The fact that there was nothing out there was stunning to us. That’s when we realized VIU could take a lead in creating a journal that fills that gap,” says Dr. Pam Shaw, Master of Community Planning Program Director. In the fall of 2016, Shaw hired VIU graduate Taylor Alexander to create the journal’s online platform. Once the website and guidelines were in place a call for submissions was made. “As a student, you don’t go into a master’s program thinking you are going to launch something this big or important,” says Alexander.

“It’s an honour to be able to say I contributed to the start of a journal that will become a permanent fixture in the research world.” VIU faculty and staff conduct research and share knowledge about the UNESCO-designated Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region. “We live in a place that has a magnificent UNESCO biosphere in its backyard,” says Shaw. “Now there is a journal right here at VIU, supported by students and faculty, to publish peer-reviewed scientific papers and community- driven research notes that explore the human/natural relationship to biospheres.”

International education is a vital part of VIU’s success. To foster relations and enhance VIU’s international presence, Dr. Ralph Nilson, VIU’s President and Vice- Chancellor, and colleagues travelled to India, Vietnam and China last spring. During a visit to VIU partner institution Chitkara University, at the Chandigarh campus in northwest India, Nilson signed a new agreement for VIU’s Hospitality Management Program to allow students to take their first two years of a hospitality program at CU and then transfer to VIU to complete an undergraduate degree. There are already two agreements in place for Computing Science and the Bachelor of Business Administration degree between the universities. In New Delhi, India, Nilson dis-cussed recruitment and partnership opportunities with Canadian High

VIU Expands Overseas Presence

Commission officials. While in Vietnam, Nilson and Dr. Graham Pike, VIU’s Dean of International Education, hosted the official opening reception of VIU’s East Asia office in Ho Chi Minh City. VIU has had an East Asia office for five years, but it was previously based in Seoul, South Korea.

In mid-March, Pike and colleagues fostered relations in China by visiting eight partner institutions in Beijing, Shanghai and the Shandong province. The visit included a stop at Shandong Technical and Business University in Yantai to celebrate VIU’s successful 10-year partnership with the school.

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Dr. Pam Shaw, Taylor Alexander & Lindsay Malbon

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 11

Vancouver Island University’s Mariners men’s soccer team has won the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Soccer National Championship. Rain pounded Merle Logan Field, but the Mariners didn’t let the weather dampen their spirit. They scored a goal in the first half of the game and hung on to win 1-0 over the Douglas Royals during the championship game November 11. “The elation on the faces of players and coaches really made it a special moment,” says Stephanie White, VIU’s Director of High Performance Sport, Recreation and Physical Literacy. “It’s always exciting to host a national championship, but to actually win the championship when you host is a dream for most institutions.” White says there were more than 1,000 fans in the stands for the championship game and many of them jumped on to the field to celebrate with the players. “Winning Nationals is truly a feat,” says White, adding that it takes resiliency and months of preparation to deal with the challenges and conditions thrown at you during a championship. Mariners Player of the Game was Colin Knight. Chris Merriman, Jordan DeGraaf and Ryan McCurdy were named Tournament All-Stars. Mariners’ ShunTakano was named MVP of the 2017 CCAA Men’s Soccer National Championship.

Mariners Men’s Soccer Team Wins National Championship

Culinary Management Diploma student Amanda Rizzo and Hairdressing student Leesy Ferguson got to show off how good they are with a whisk and a pair of scissors at the 2017 Skills Canada National Competition in Winnipeg. To get that far, the two students had to outperform dozens of the province’s best students at the Skills BC competition, held at the Abbotsford Tradex in April 2017. During Nationals, Rizzo made an elaborate appetizer, main course and dessert, and Ferguson demonstrated different cutting, colouring and styling techniques. While they didn’t pick up any hardware at the national competition, they were both excited to experience competing at that level. Skills Canada promotes careers in the skilled trades and technology industries primarily through a series of annual competitions held at regional, provincial and national levels. Check out skillscanada.bc.ca to learn more.

Trades Students Show off Skills at National Competition

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 11

photo credit: Northfield Photography

12 VIU Magazine

A rising tide of plastics are floating in the world’s waterways

and amongst the debris is a hidden pollutant — microplastics.

| BY RACHEL STERN |


W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 13

MICROPLASTICS are smaller than five millimetres, but most are indiscernible to the human eye and require a microscope to see. Larger plastic debris can eventually break down into microplastics due to waves, wind and sun exposure, but the pollutant also exists as either microbeads or microfibres, which come from many consumer products, including clothing.

Microplastics research is still in its infancy and VIU faculty and students are on the cutting edge.

VIU has partnered with Dr. Chris Pierce and Dr. Helen Gurney-Smith from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the BC Shellfish Grower’s Association. Dr. John Dower and Dr. Ben Koop from the University of Victoria, and Dr. Peter Ross from the Vancouver Aquarium on research involving shellfish and their environment. Funding from the BCSGA and DFO allowed the university to assemble a team, including three VIU under-graduate students and two VIU alumni, to work on many aspects of microplastic pollution.

Below the Surface Last year student researchers collected more than 2,000 oysters and 1,000 clams for tagging to monitor microplastics in shellfish.

Dr. Sarah Dudas, a VIU Biology professor, says shellfish were chosen because they are filter-feeding organisms and can potentially concentrate anything that’s present in the water.

“It’s an important topic because we have trillions of plastic particles in our waterways, fresh and marine, and we’ve only been using plastic for about 60 years, so that is mind-blowing,” says Dudas. “We’re not slowing down on our use of plastics, so it’s a problem that is only going to continue to increase and we don’t fully understand what the impacts are on the ecosystems and on the animals that live in those ecosystems.”

Dudas says the BCSGA has been criticized for its use of netting, ropes and other items made of plastic, but there is no direct evidence those items are leading to the microplastics found in shellfish. Growers are concerned about the issue of plastics and their support has been crucial to the success of the project.

Down the Drain Matt Miller, who recently graduated from VIU with a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Aquaculture, worked

with growers on his research project, which compared microplastic accumulation in deep-water raft and intertidal beach growing methods. Deep-water oysters are submerged all the time and are constantly feeding while intertidal oysters are exposed to the air and feed less. Miller is still compiling his findings.

“Before I began this work, I knew that microbeads from cosmetic products were ending up in freshwater systems and eventually the ocean and that it wasn’t good for organisms ingesting them,” says Miller. “I didn’t know then that microfibres, not microbeads, seem to be the dominant form of microplastics in the marine environment, and that they are likely coming from textile products such as synthetic clothing.”

The household washing machine is one of the biggest culprits, allowing microfibres to wash down household drains. Every time a piece of synthetic clothing is cleaned in a washing machine it releases thousands of microfibres – tiny pollutants that are too small to be filtered out by wastewater treatment plants.

“There are an estimated 51 trillion microplastic particles in the ocean. That is more than the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy,” says Miller, adding he believes people can

_________________________ “We have trillions of plastic

particles in our waterways,

fresh and marine, and we’ve

only been using plastic for

about 60 years, so that is

mind-blowing. We’re not slowing

down on our use of plastics,

so it’s a problem that is only

going to continue to increase.”_________________________

_________________________ “Microfibres, not microbeads,

seem to be the dominant form

of microplastics in the marine

environment, and they are likely

coming from textile products

such as synthetic clothing.”_________________________

14 VIU Magazine

Matt Miller, who recently graduated from VIU with a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Aquaculture, uses a jar of water

to demonstrate how researchers would filter liquefied shellfish to search for microplastics.

reduce the number of microplastics entering waterways, but is concerned about the amount already present.

“Microplastics are being ingested by marine organisms, and are likely being passed up the food chain and eventually onto our plates. We still don’t know if this has any effect on our health, but many studies on other organisms have shown negative consequences.”

Purging Particles Student scientists like Maggie Dietterle, a VIU Biology student, and others in the scientific community, are studying how to remove existing microplastics from the environment and organisms.

Dietterle worked with Dudas and Garth Covernton, a University of Victoria Master’s student, on the oyster and clam tagging and monitoring project and conducted her own research

study on depuration. Depuration is a common process used by the shellfish aquaculture industry to remove, or purify, contaminants such as microbes, bacteria and viruses from shellfish before being sent to consumer markets.

Dietterle wanted to determine whether microplastics could be removed from Pacific oysters. First she established a baseline for the average number of microplastics in an oyster and then worked to reduce the number over

five days. The method was successful, but Dietterle said because of the extra effort, time and materials required it may not be practical at an industrial scale.

Turning the Tide Plastics are ubiquitous in the modern world, found in everything from household building materials to electronics and consumer products.

Plastic is also in the air people breathe. Miller said microfibres can come off

_________________________ “Microplastics are being ingested

by marine organisms, and

are likely being passed up

the food chain and eventually

onto our plates.”_________________________

Maggie Dietterle, a VIU Biology student, is studying how to remove microplastics from Pacific oysters.photo credit: Island Expressions Photography

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 15

As knowledge about the harmful effects of microplastics on the environment and marine life increases, companies and countries are taking steps to ban the substance from consumer items.

• In the summer of 2015 Loblaws announced it would eliminate the use of microbeads and other harmful ingredients by the end of 2018.

• In 2015 Barack Obama, former United States President, signed the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, which banned rinse-off cosmetics that intentionally added plastic microbeads beginning on January 1, 2018 and to stop the manufacture of these products by July 1, 2017.

• In early 2015, according to United Nations Environment Programme, the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium and Sweden issued a call to ban microplastics in personal care products.

• In February 2017 the UN Environment launched the #CleanSeas campaign with the goal of eliminating major sources of marine litter, which includes microplastics and single-use plastic, by 2022.

• Canada has also imposed a ban on microbeads in cosmetic products, with these products having until the end of 2018 to be off shelves.

• India recently banned disposable plastic in its capital, Delhi. Cutlery, bags, cups and other forms of single-use plastic are now prohibited.

• Eight million tons of plastics end up in the ocean every year.

• By 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean.

• By 2050 an estimated 99% of seabirds will have ingested plastic.

• At least 51 trillion microplastic particles are already in the world’s oceans.

• Washing a single synthetic garment in a washing machine releases more than 1,900 microplastic fibres.

clothes and carpets. As people go about their daily lives they breathe these tiny pollutants into their lungs. More research is needed to determine how this affects human health, he adds.

Can Plastic be Eliminated from Modern Life? “Eliminating plastic is completely unrealistic. It really is used in every-thing,” says Dietterle, adding that knowledge and examining the waste you generate is important. “Spending

just five minutes to figure out ways you can reduce your plastics use really could make a difference. We are all in this together and most of us want to take care of the environment. I think everyone has heard this but reducing your use, refusing plastic when you can and recycling really are the keys to helping fight plastic pollution.”

Miller agrees knowledge is crucial.

“Avoiding products that contain microbeads is a given, but focusing on natural fibre clothing such as cotton, bamboo or wool can really make a difference,” he says. “Another big one to avoid is single-use plastics like bags, to-go containers and cutlery. Reducing our plastic consumption will help set an example for the rest of the world and hopefully reduce the amount of plastic being dumped into the oceans.”

_________________________ By 2050 there could be more

plastic than fish in the ocean._________________________

16 VIU Magazine

green is the new black

A new project at VIU’s Nanaimo campus

is using the flooded, abandoned coal mines

underneath the campus to build a greener future.

Here’s how.

BY DANE GIBSON

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 17

“The water is brought up by the extraction well on the north side of campus and from there is directed through a heat exchanger to campus buildings that will be equipped to use it,” says VIU project manager Debra Smilski. “The injection well is on the south side of campus, which is where the water will go back underground, completing the loop. Depending on the season, the water will either be heating or cooling the buildings that are connected to the system.”

The new Health and Science Centre, which is also currently under construction, the Academic and Career Preparation building and Shq’apthut, VIU’s Aboriginal Gathering Place, will be the first buildings to be connected to the District Geo-Exchange Energy System. As the system moves from Phase 1 to subsequent phases, other buildings on campus will be considered.

Geo-exchange uses heat pumps to transfer the heat captured in the water to the buildings. Electricity is used to drive those heat pumps, but in BC power is derived from hydro, which makes the impact of that use negligible.

NOBODY COULD PREDICT that the scores of workers who toiled in the Wakesiah coal mine in the early 1900s would be providing the infrastructure needed to heat and cool buildings at a Nanaimo university – nearly a century later.

VIU’s $2.4-million District Geo- Exchange Energy System is currently under construction and its success relies on a subterranean coal mine of yesteryear. The project is being funded in part through the federal government’s Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund ($1.1 million) with the remainder coming from VIU in collaboration with the University’s community partners. The system will use the energy stored in water trapped in the abandoned Wakesiah Mine, which stays at a relatively constant 11°C, to heat and cool buildings on campus.

“If you lay schematics of the Nanaimo campus on top of a blueprint of the Wakesiah Mine it matches perfectly for what we are trying to do. It’s as if it were planned out this way,” says Jeff Quibell, lead geo-exchange engineer with Falcon Engineering, the company responsible for guiding the project to completion. “It’s remarkable that so many decades later we are repurposing what is considered one of the dirtiest forms of energy, and turning that legacy into the cleanest form of energy.”

The mine workings underneath VIU were originally accessed from a tram that operated from where the current sports fields are behind Nanaimo District Secondary School on Wakesiah Avenue. From 1918 to 1930, workers took the tram deep into the Wakesiah coal mine. The same tram took the coal they mined out. Once the mine was shut down, the pumps that kept the tunnels from flooding were turned off and ground-water slowly filled the mine.

“The mine workings underneath the University are at varying elevations between 425 and 625 feet deep,” says Quibell, whose company drilled a test well back in 2010 when the idea of geo-exchange was first being explored. “For every 100 feet you drill, the ground temperature increases by half a degree Celsius. It’s that energy from the Earth that the water captures and it’s why this is such an effective, reliable source of heat.”

How It Works The project includes construction of two water loops. The first is a mine water loop and the second is an ambient water loop. Both rely on two wells that have been drilled on campus. The mine water loop will bring the water to the surface, direct it through a pump house and then back to the mine. The ambient water loop takes the water from the pump house, sends it to buildings that are attached to the system, and returns it back to the pump house, where the water rejoins the mine water loop. It means the water used by the system is recycled continuously.

WAKESIAH MINE FAST FACTS• OWNER: Canadian Western Fuel Company, successor to the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company, the successors to the original Hudson’s Bay Company coal mining operation

• 1918: first year of development – no coal mined until 1919

• 2 - 20 feet: depth of coal seam

• In 1928: 76,000 tons of coal were mined and 151 workers were employed both above and below ground

• 1930: mine was permanently abandoned and the shafts were allowed to fill with water

• 2018: District Geo-Exchange Energy System begins operating at VIU, using the thermal energy in the water in the abandoned coal mines to heat and cool buildings on campus

Source: Nanaimo Community Archives

18 VIU Magazine

“For each unit of electrical energy used, the geo-exchange will produce four units of heat,” says Quibell. “That means three heat units are clean, renewable energy drawn from the ground. It’s why the heating and cooling provided by the system is virtually greenhouse gas free.”

Smilski says once completed, a pump house will be the only visible structure on campus associated with the project. It will house heat pumps and the state-of-the-art technology required to monitor and regulate system operations.

“The goal of the project is first to ensure new structures built on campus are connected to the geo- exchange system and, as the project moves forward, to replace aging heating and cooling systems in older VIU buildings with new equipment that can use the sustainable energy resource that will be available on campus,” says Smilski. “This project allows the University to significantly reduce its carbon footprint and engage in research and innovation in this important area.”

Going Green Using the geo-exchange energy will enable VIU’s main campus to reduce its carbon output for heating and

#VIUBuildsThe District Geo-Exchange Energy System is one of three ongoing major projects at VIU’s Nanaimo campus with a total price tag of more than $60 million. The projects are made possible by investments from the federal government through the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund, the provincial government, VIU and the University’s community partners. Along with the geo-exchange, a Health and Science Centre and Marine, Automotive and Trades Complex are currently under construction.

The Health and Science Centre will provide a new home to VIU’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Practical Nursing, Health Care Assistant and Chemistry programs. It will also house the University’s renowned Applied Environmental Research Laboratories, a world-class chemical analysis research and training lab. The Marine, Automotive and Trades Complex project will provide a state-of-the-art new hub for the University’s trades programs. The project includes more than 4,000 m2 of both new and renovated space, allowing VIU address waitlists in high-demand programs.

These projects will help VIU train students for the jobs of the future and address critical skills shortages on the Island. They will also allow for expanded research and industry partnership capacity. For more information on these projects, visit viu.ca/campus-development.

cooling new buildings to near zero. It will also position the institution as a leader in post-secondary clean technology. VIU’s Cowichan Campus and Deep Bay Marine Field Station also use geo-exchange energy for heating and cooling.

“This is a major step towards fulfilling VIU’s commitment to sustainability, which includes significantly reducing our carbon footprint,” says Dr. Ralph Nilson, VIU President and Vice-Chancellor. “In later phases of the project, we will reach out to partners like the City of Nanaimo and School District 68 so that future renovations of their facilities may also benefit from the system.”

The project is expected to be fully operational in 2018.

Last spring, two wells were drilled on the Nanaimo campus as part of the District Geo-Exchange Energy System project.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 19

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20 VIU Magazine

buildingA BARRIER FREE future

VIU has a vision of a mid-Island with a thriving mix of businesses and industries setting up shop and taking advantage of a large pool of talented, skilled workers. In this vision, the job outlook is in the top third in BC, participation in the economy is high and so is the quality of life.

To achieve this, VIU has launched the VIU Education Enterprise Region, a long-term strategy for economic growth that calls for partnerships between educational institutions, First Nations, businesses and communities. The University can be a catalyst for change, addressing the region’s challenges and creating opportunities.

Why is this strategy necessary and why VIU? We asked Dr. Ralph Nilson, VIU’s President and Vice-Chancellor, those questions. Here’s what he shared with us.


W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 21

#1: Why did VIU decide to launch the Education Enterprise Region and why is it important that VIU takes on this leadership role?

We’ve been thinking about this for a long time because of the economic transition that’s happening on Vancouver Island. We’re evolving from a resource extraction economy to a knowledge-based economy. In the past, people have not needed post-secondary education to be engaged in the economy. As a result, the number of people in our region who have a post-secondary education is low. Today, two key determinants of population health are education and income and you need the education to get the income. VIU is uniquely positioned, with our broad range of programs, to provide education that enhances people’s potential to engage in the knowledge-based economy. Also, if we want to attract and retain business and industry in our region, we have to demonstrate a highly qualified workforce is available. Education is a key determinant of social change and sustainable economic prosperity for individuals and the community.

#2: What role does education play in the region?

Education is a great leveler in terms of providing people with opportunities to engage in the economy. It is essential to developing a prosperous social and economic environment. VIU recognizes our role as a post-secondary institution to ensure all populations have access to high-quality learning experiences. Equally important is working to provide transitions for people from post-secondary to employment opportunities so graduates can become fully engaged, contributing members of society. The University is also an important portal for attracting international students who emerge as highly qualified personnel needed to contribute to growing our economy.

#3: What are the strengths and challenges of the mid-Island region?

We are blessed with a beautiful environment, the best weather in Canada, a relatively reasonable cost of living and supportive communities. Challenges we face include a growing number of children living below the poverty line, large numbers of First Nations communities that have limited resources to support the fastest growing population of young people in the country to attend post-secondary, and low transition rates from high school to post-secondary education. We also have a large population of children living in care with low high school completion and transition rates.

The data suggests that 80% of all future jobs will require some form of post-secondary education. We can no longer continue in an environment where access to this education is limited to a few. That is why we have supported a tuition waiver for all former youth in care. This is an investment in reconciliation given that 64% of the foster care population is Indigenous, a direct result of the inter-generational impact of residential schools. We have also invested in a Canada Learning Bond coordinator to build awareness and register low-income families for free grants to help them save for their children’s education. I won’t be here at VIU when those first students come, but it’s going to change the face of Nanaimo when they graduate and go to work. We’re also currently working with national and international foundations to invest in the challenge of access for populations who currently don’t have a choice. We see it as the role of a post-secondary institution to take action, not just theorize about that action.

The whole idea behind all of this is moving an impoverished population into participating in the economy.

By forming partnerships with businesses and communities, this enterprise region can be a catalyst that addresses the challenges. The fundamental basis is building an educated workforce.

#4: How do you see Nanaimo and VIU changing in the next 20 to 30 years?

I see the University continuing to evolve, grow and engage with communities to meet the needs of an evolving environment. One example is the new buildings currently under construction at our Nanaimo campus – the new Health and Science Centre; Marine, Automotive and Trades Complex; and District Geo-Exchange Energy System will help us meet the research, innovation, education and job training needs in our region. I see Nanaimo evolving to become a vibrant social and economic hub on Vancouver Island where people recognize the strength of the human capital that exists in the region and as a result, decide to locate or relocate their businesses in Nanaimo.

Partnerships will be key, and we have to have a long-term focus on the specific challenges and opportunities in the region. We need to determine what the needs are — what is needed to grow and have businesses relocate here, and what resources we need to train and educate the population. I see us continuing to build relationships to support student success from the K-12 system to university, and build relationships with business and industry to support the transition of graduates into the workforce. We need to continue to build these relationships and be deliberate in our actions. If we do that, this region will have a very strong future.

Dr. Ralph Nilson,VIU President and Vice-Chancellor

22 VIU Magazine

on campus

The pen is definitely mightier

than the sword,

especially when it’s in the hands

of students in

VIU’s Creative Writing and

Journalism program!

Students captured

a number of prestigious awards

this year that are putting them –

and the whole program –

on the literary map.. Poets Délani Valin (left) and Kailey DeFehr

by Jenn McGarrigle


W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 23

FOR THE LOVE OF LANGUAGE: Délani Valin A dictionary and thesaurus helped Délani Valin get serious about writing when she was just 10 years old.

“I would find interesting words in the thesaurus and write poems about the words or insert them in a poem,” she remembers. “It didn’t always make sense, but it was fun to play with sounds and rhythms.”

Valin’s parents encouraged her to keep writing, and when she was 12 one of her poems was published in an anthology highlighting young poets. The writing bug blossomed further when she took a creative writing class at Nanaimo District Secondary School in her senior year.

After graduating from high school, Valin took a year off before enrolling in communications courses at Simon Fraser University, but it wasn’t where her heart was, so after a year, she transferred into VIU’s Creative Writing and Journalism program.

“I wanted to honour that 10-year-old who was having fun with words,” Valin recalls. “I wanted to write creatively, and the calibre of the faculty at VIU and what was offered in terms of different genres appealed to me. I knew I would be getting a quality education.”

Valin, who is Métis, likes to explore certain themes in her work.

“I write a lot about identity, mental illness, feminism, nature and climate change,” she says. “I also tend to gravitate towards political issues and a lot of marginalized voices. I think there’s a great opportunity for people to understand and experience certain conditions, feelings and perspectives better by inhabiting a poem for a while. It’s almost a kind of magic.”

Her poetry has appeared in a number of different magazines and an anthology, including subTerrain, through which she won the 2016 Lush Triumphant Literary Award; the Canadian anthology Those Who Make Us; Adbusters; Portal; Beautiful Minds Magazine; and The Malahat Review, which then awarded her one of two 2017 Long Poem Prizes.

“It’s still kind of surreal,” she says. “It took three months to write and it was difficult the entire time; I was navigating all these tensions in my life like being Indigenous, and having depression and other mental illnesses.”

Jay Ruzesky, a VIU English and Creative Writing professor who has taught Valin, is “over the moon proud” of her accomplishment. Past winners of the Long Poem Prize include Esta Spalding, Elizabeth Harvor and Shane Book. That list also includes current VIU Creative Writing and English Professor Sonnet L’Abbé and former faculty member Marilyn Bowering.

“It’s a huge honour to win — usually, big names in the poetry world win this prize, people with established, significant careers,” says Ruzesky. “It just draws attention to the quality of the work that some of our students are doing.”

Valin is also working on her first book of poetry, and plans to work in publishing or the video game industry once she finishes a master’s degree.

“There’s so many things you can do with a writing degree,” says Valin.

VIU Magazine had the chance to catch up with two aspiring poets in

the program: Délani Valin and Kailey DeFehr, who shared a bit about

themselves – and a poem – with us. Valin won The Malahat Review’s

prestigious Long Poem Prize this year – an honour that’s sought after by

well-established poets across the world. And DeFehr is the City of Nanaimo’s

inaugural Youth Poet Laureate, which means she’s participating in many of

the City’s poetry initiatives and helping to raise awareness amongst youth

of the positive impact literature and poetry can have on community life.

The SurvivorNo Botox, no facelifts,

no wrinkle creams. Please,

let me trust I am bound

to be elderly. I have no guiding

North Star, just a dim wish of crooked

fingers, crow’s feet. If I gain deep

creases it is proof that I’ve withstood

constantly craving my own disappearance:

those recurring self-destructive urges,

cut, burn, swallow, sleep.

If I am eighty, it means I’ve called the crisis line

at twenty-five, been hospitalized at thirty,

talked to therapists at fifty-three. I will have

earned every sequin of my solar lentigines.

As long as I believe in that old woman

version of me, I can take care. Do the practical

things: get up, do my taxes, eat celery.

_________________________ “I think there’s a great opportunity

for people to understand and

experience certain conditions,

feelings and perspectives better

by inhabiting a poem for a while.

It’s almost a kind of magic.”_____________________________

24 VIU Magazine

the mass specmobilePOET FOR THE PEOPLE: Kailey DeFehr

Kailey DeFehr lives a double life. By day, she’s a dental assistant with Lakeside Dental Clinic; by night, she’s the City of Nanaimo’s Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate, spreading the word, so to speak, far and wide about the valuable role poetry plays in society.

The Dover Bay Secondary School graduate decided to enter VIU’s Dental Hygiene Diploma program right out of high school. After working full-time as a dental assistant for a couple of years, DeFehr wanted to scratch the itch to write creatively a bit more so she returned to VIU to take one creative writing class per semester.

“I wrote my first short story when I was six years old,” she remembers. “It was about the Grinch stealing the light from Rudolph’s nose. During a parent-teacher interview, my teacher told my parents it was the best story she’d ever read by a six-year-old and that I should be a writer someday.”

By the time she entered high school, DeFehr’s favourite form of writing was poetry.

“I like that it’s raw and rhyming always came naturally to me,” she explains. “Throughout high school, I suffered from depression and anxiety and poetry became my escape. I started a blog that I put my poems on and when I started getting responses, I realized I was making an impact.

My poems are really blunt for the most part – I don’t use a lot of heavy metaphors and a lot of my friends really connected with that.”

Naturally, the first class DeFehr took at VIU was Introduction to Poetry, during which she met Nanaimo’s first Poet Laureate,

Naomi Beth Wakan, who came as a guest speaker. DeFehr was inspired to submit poems to Waken’s Poetry in Transit and Nanaimo Poetry Map projects and several were published through those initiatives.

When the City of Nanaimo decided to expand its Poet Laureate program to include a Youth Poet Laureate this year, Wakan nominated DeFehr.

“I’m honoured and flattered – it was unexpected,” says DeFehr. “I remember when I put my credit card into the machine to pay for that first class, I was terrified. And now it’s turned into this huge thing that’s unrolled in my life.”

As Nanaimo’s Youth Poet Laureate, DeFehr reads at different poetry events on the Island, occasionally opens Nanaimo City Council meetings with a reading and she’s done a poetry workshop with students at The High School at VIU. She is currently working on a poetry project in conjunction with the city and Vancouver Island Regional Library that aims to engage youth on the theme of invisible illnesses.

Coming HomeI kissed him first

in the full moonlight

under a canopy of evergreens,

dusted with stars and crystalized

raindrops. He was leaning against

the mud-splattered tire of his

faded red quad in dirty work boots,

ankles crossed, those deep

amber truck lights casting long

shadows of our bodies

out toward the still water’s edge

of Barsby Lake.

He tasted of Lucky and cherry

Blackstones, his rough, tan hands

coming to rest on my too-wide hips,

pulling himself into the warmth beneath

his own green and black plaid jacket,

draped like a blanket over my

now unwinding shoulders.

We were practically kids,

new-found freedom hanging over

our heads like a ball of yarn for a kitten;

not a clue what to do with a happy ending

if we ever did manage to snag one.

And yet I knew even then

what coming home was supposed

to feel like. And he was all wind chimes

on the front porch, steak, potatoes,

and a pair of old, paint-splattered,

faded blue jeans.

_________________________ “Throughout high school,

I suffered from depression and

anxiety and poetry became

my escape. I started a blog that

I put my poems on and when

I started getting responses, I realized

I was making an impact.” _________________________

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 25

the mass specmobile

Thanks to a $1-million investment from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and BC Knowledge Development Fund, VIU scientists are developing new technologies in a state-of-the-art mobile mass spectrometry lab, a.k.a. the Mass Specmobile, to make chemical measurements of air and water quality on-the-run.

A mass spectrometer sorts molecules based on how heavy they are and can detect very low levels. The Mass Specmobile is essentially the world’s most sensitive nose, “sniffing” the air as it wheels around the block, or “sipping” water samples on-site to detect the unseen.

Unique in Canada, the new research vehicle allows for the continuous

measurement of molecules that impact the environment and human health.

Why is this so innovative? Right now, measuring contaminants in the air or water involves taking a sample and bringing it back to a lab, where it is analyzed and results are returned a few weeks later. The Mass Specmobile, which is still in the prototype phase, brings these analytical tools to the field, enabling scientists to understand the extent and degree of contamination at a study site in real-time. This molecular-level information can be mapped over time and space, allowing for a greater understanding of regional scale impacts.

“It gives us that information when and where it is needed, allowing for

a better understanding of what happens to certain molecules in the real-world,” explains Dr. Erik Krogh, co-director of VIU’s AERL. “This research vehicle will help us answer fundamental questions about the fate and distribution of environmental contaminants, both in the air and in the water, questions that are significant both locally and around the world.”

Aside from Krogh and the lab’s other director, Dr. Chris Gill, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students are involved in this research and development project.

For more details, email Gill and Krogh at [email protected] or [email protected].

Is there something strange in your neighbourhood’s air or water?

VIU’s Applied Environmental Research Labs is developing new

technologies that could revolutionize how we figure out what’s

going on in our environment.

INTRODUCING ...

BY J E N N M CG A R R I G L E

26 VIU Magazine

MOBILE MASS SPECTROMETRY LABa.k.a. the Mass Specmobile

Unique in Canada, the Mass Specmobile is a state-of-the-art mobile lab dedicated to measuring air and water quality. Here’s what’s on board!

A weather station keeps track of ambient conditions including temperature, pressure and relative humidity.

A proton-transfer time-of-flight mass spectrometer measures a wide range of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds. This instrument is very sensitive — measuring down to a few molecules in a trillion.

A membrane introduction mass spectrometer is very selective, allowing researchers to directly determine the identity of trace organic contaminants in complex samples.

The vehicle has been customized with additional on-board power to run instruments with the engine off for up to eight hours.

Larissa Richards VIU alum and PhD student

Dr. Erik Krogh Chemistry Professor and Co-Director of the Applied Environmental Research Laboratories

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 27

Sampling lines continuously deliver air to advanced instrumentation inside for chemical analysis.

A sonic anemometer measures wind speed and direction. A high-resolution GPS keeps track of current location and calculates the true wind speed and direction while driving.

A particulate matter sensor measures the number of particles in the air as well as their size distribution. Particulate matter is a key determinant of respiratory health.

Ground-level ozone and nitrogen oxides are associated with poor air quality and are measured by photometric instruments.

A greenhouse gas analyzer measures carbon dioxide and methane using optical spectroscopy.

On computer screens, gigabytes of measured data are collated, calibrated and converted to a form that can be plotted on a Google Earth map for real-time viewing.

Dr. Chris Gill Chemistry Professor and Co-Director of the Applied Environmental Research Laboratories

Nick Davey VIU alum and post-doctoral researcher

a haiku inspired by the specmobile“White, four-wheeled bloodhound;maps made from its memories.Hose for a nose. Sniff!”

— Dr. Caroline Tong,VIU Chemistry Professor


28 VIU Magazine

WHEN CANADA’S TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION RELEASED THEIR REPORT IN 2015, there was a clear call to educational institutions to take responsibility for leading the way in addressing the challenge of reconciliation between Canada’s Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples.

What does reconciliation mean at VIU? It starts with acknowledging history and traditions, valuing contributions, celebrating success and building relationships. It means working together, supporting access to post-secondary education and making education relevant to all learners.

“Education will play a key role in building a path to reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples,” says Dr. Ralph Nilson, VIU President and Vice-Chancellor. “As an educational institution, VIU takes that responsibility very seriously. We need to ensure education is delivered in a way that

A progression in Indigenous education 1970 A lecture series starts with the goal of having Indigenous leaders teach their own culture and history using their own words and experiences.

1971 An Indigenous group performs a traditional dance at Malaspina’s convocation – a first for any BC college convocation.

1974 Fran Tait, Tsimshian from Lax Kw’alaams, is hired as a Native Student Counsellor Aide.

1990 Ruth Kroek (University- Transfer Program, Arts ’79), a member of the Cowichan Tribes, is hired by Malaspina as Native Programs and Services Coordinator for the Cowichan Campus.

1994 The school starts the Arts One First Nations program, the first of its kind in BC with a focus on First Nations culture and history; 91 students enroll. One of the first Elders-in-Residence, Auntie Ellen White from the Snuneymuxw First Nation, is appointed to this program.

2008 VIU becomes the first university in BC to appoint an Aboriginal chancellor: Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, a member of the Ahousaht First Nation, who became National Chief to the Assembly of First Nations in 2009. VIU’s Elders-in-Residence began opening Convocation with drumming, a welcome prayer and song.

VIU participates in Tribal Journeys for the first time, paddling from Fort Rupert to Cowichan for the North American Indigenous Games.

The first meeting of VIU’s Indigenous alumni group takes place in October.

2010 The first phase of Shq’apthut, VIU’s Aboriginal Gathering Place, opens.

VIU awards an Honorary Degree to Elsie Paul, a Tla’amin First Nation Elder from Powell River.

2011 The ‘Su’luqw’a’ Community Cousins Aboriginal Mentorship Program begins with funding from the Counselling Foundation of Canada.

2009 VIU Elders-in-Residence host a gathering for Elders who work at post-secondary institutions on Vancouver Island. The first-time gathering includes Elders from the University of Victoria, Camosun College and North Island College.

2013 The University appoints the first full-time Elder-in-Residence. Snuneymuxw Elder Geraldine Manson, a part-time Elder-in- Residence for six years, has her role expand to support students in the Faculty of Health and Human Services.

“The only path to reconciliation is one that begins with recognition.”

– Douglas White III, Director of VIU’s Centre for Pre-Confederation

Treaties and Reconciliation

1980 Malaspina College gave Tamagawa University in Tokyo a totem pole carved by renowned artist Reg Davidson to represent an enduring relationship between the two institutions.

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 29

is relevant and seen as a tool of emancipation, of building knowledge, and of bringing people and organiza-tions together, rather than what it has been in the past – a tool of oppression.”

For years, VIU has worked towards providing a welcoming and relevant education for all, including Indigenous students. From Shq’apthut, VIU’s Aboriginal Gathering Place, to the

Elders-in-Residence and the ‘Su’luqw’a’ Community Cousins Aboriginal mentorship program, the timeline below shows a few highlights in Indigenous education at VIU.

Reconciliation Road: Join the Journey with VIU was another step along that path. Reconciliation Road was a series of events and activities planned in the

fall of 2016 to build understanding around the challenging and critical work of reconciliation. Visit viu.ca/reconciliationroad for more info.

“The Reconciliation Road events, such as the Witness Blanket exhibit, speak to the truth of our history, of Canada’s history,” says Gary Manson, VIU Elder-in-Residence and Snuneymuxw First Nation member. “They speak

to what the colonizers did; and speak to the spirit of our survivors. To understand this fully, it will take time. It will mean coming back to this topic many times, in different ways. This is powerful work, and it is right that an educational institution – VIU – is taking this work on, making it possible for our communities, Indigenous and

“Everyone is struggling with the big ‘R’ in reconciliation, but it is really the small ‘r’s that are important – how we see each other, how we are together and how we create relationships in our everyday existence.”

— Dr. Sharon Hobenshield, VIU’s Director of Aboriginal Education and Engagement

1995 The Child and Youth Care First Nations program begins at VIU Cowichan.

Louise Underwood, from Cowichan Tribes, is appointed Elder-in-Residence for this program.

1996 A BA in First Nations Studies is developed.

2005 The position, Director of Aboriginal Education, is created.

2006 Sharon Hobenshield, a member of the Gitxsan First Nation, is hired as Director of Aboriginal Education.

The first Aboriginal Recognition Ceremony to celebrate Indigenous students completing degrees, diplomas and certificates is held.

VIU awards an Honorary Degree to Auntie Ellen White.

2007 The Institution submits an Expression of Interest for VIU’s first Aboriginal Service Plan, a provincially funded initiative aimed at enhancing educational experiences and outcomes for Indigenous learners.

2014 VIU establishes a Centre for Pre-Confederation Treaties & Reconciliation.

Douglas White lll is appointed Director.

2015 VIU launches the Indigenous Speakers Series in partnership wIth The Laurier Institution and CBC Radio One’s Ideas.

A Letter of Agreement is signed between Vancouver Island University and Vancouver Island Faculty Association recognizing Elders-in-Residence as University faculty.

2017 A new learning partnership with Rideau Hall Foundation, Mastercard Foundation and Yukon College is announced to increase Indigenous student engagement and success in post-secondary education.

2016 VIU launches Reconciliation Road, a series of events and activities aimed at engaging people in dialogue about reconciliation.

2015/16 Three totem poles representing the three major language groups on Vancouver Island – the Kwakwak’wakw, the Nuu-chah-nulth and the Coast Salish – are raised at Shq’apthut.

non-Indigenous, to come together to learn, which I hope will lead to understanding.”

In September 2017, VIU embarked on the next stage of this journey with the start of a unique learning partnership to support Indigenous youth. In partnership with the Rideau Hall Foundation, the Mastercard Foundation and Yukon College, and in collaboration with Indigenous community partners and learners, the goal is to increase Indigenous student engagement and success in post-secondary education. Visit viu.ca/learning-partnership for more details.

“What I’ve seen at VIU is the opportunity for real partnerships, the opportunity to be an equal partner at the table for planning and ensuring the traditional protocols of the Snuneymuxw First Nation are followed,” says Emmy Manson, a VIU alumna and one of the new Indigenous Education Navigators hired as part of the learning partnership.

30 VIU Magazine

Hailey Mannynvali and Paul Aboud know the products they serve at the Hearthstone Artisan Bakery in south Nanaimo are amazing, and so do their many regular customers. Now people across Canada know as well, thanks to the attention the bakery has received from television shows.

Last year, Mannynvali showed hosts from YTV’s The Zone how to make a Nanaimo bar. Then earlier this year, a crew from The Food Network came to film in the shop for two days for a new show called The Baker Sisters, produced by Alibi Entertainment, the company responsible for shows

such as Carnival Eats and You Gotta Eat Here. The segment aired at the beginning of November.

“When I asked how they heard about us, they said they had researched Nanaimo and found the Nanaimo Bar Trail, a map that marks all the stops for Nanaimo bars and other Nanaimo

There are more than 75,000 VIU alumni living and working around the world, many of whom have started their own unique, innovative and successful businesses.

Here’s what three grads did with the skills they learned in VIU programs.

putting their

Hailey Mannynvali and Paul Aboud, co-owners, Hearthstone Bakery

BY J E N N M CG A R R I G L E

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 / 1 8 31

bar-like goodies and treats. We are one of the businesses listed and they liked our social media page,” says Mannynvali. “When they asked if we were interested in being featured on the show, there was no hesitation – the answer was yes!”

It was their connection to VIU and each other that made the business happen. Both alumni of VIU’s Professional Baking program – Mannynvali graduated in 2009 and Aboud finished the program in 2012 — they both ended up working at the Old Country Market in Coombs a few years ago, where they became friends.

“Working there, we found out we could actually work together, and we both supported each other in the drive to produce quality products,” says Aboud.

Around this time, Marty Dohm, owner of the Southgate Shopping Centre, approached Martin Barnett, Chair of VIU’s Baking Program, to ask him if he knew of anyone who could help him establish an artisan bakery in the shopping plaza.

“We had just gone to VIU together to visit, so that probably made him think of us,” remembers Mannynvali.

Hearthstone Artisan Bakery opened on December 28, 2015, a day Mannynvali and Aboud will never forget because they had lineups out the door all day. This year, the bakery won Best Desserts in the Nanaimo News Bulletin’s 2017 Best of the City contest. Aboud believes their success lies in their commitment to quality over quantity.

“We use high-quality ingredients and we’re not mass producing anything,” he says. “We’re basically bringing back the mom-and-pop shop. It’s all open-concept, so people can talk to us while we are making the products.”

Mannynvali has known she wanted to be a baker ever since she watched a former boss decorate a cake in a grocery store bakery. The Nanaimo District Secondary School grad was able to complete her training in her final year of high school through the dual-credit program, which allows high school students to complete university credits and have them count towards their high school diploma as well.

Aboud became a career baker late in life, but he’s been a home baker ever since he tasted real sourdough bread on a trip to San Francisco in 1989. He continued to bake as a hobby while pursuing numerous different careers, including in graphic design, illustration, animation, newspaper layout and television prop-making, until he moved to the Island and enrolled in the Baking program at VIU when he was 58.

“The skill set I learned there has been the backbone of my current career path — this simply wouldn’t have happened had I not taken the program,” says Aboud.

Byron Bates, Founder and CEO of Muskwa Computer Sciences Corporation Byron Bates feels his career has come full-circle.

When he first decided to go back to VIU to take Computing Science in

2000, the Athabasca Tribal Council helped him out financially.

Years later, he returned the favour when he helped them create a cellphone app the ATC hopes will help preserve the Cree language dialect of northeastern Alberta. The app, ATC Cree, which can be downloaded for free from iTunes and the Android App Store, includes the spelling of more than 100 basic Cree words and phrases, and recordings of people reciting the words. The accomplishment caught the attention of local and national media outlets earlier this year.

“ATC provided me with support to get the skills I needed to create the language app,” says Bates. “It was rewarding to be able to use my skills to help the ATC fulfill a vision they had — the preservation of a language that plays a big part in identity.”

Computer science is Bates’s second career. Growing up in Nanaimo, he was fortunate enough to complete VIU’s Carpentry Foundation program while still in high school through the

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dual-credit program. He started his own business and worked as a carpenter until he was 30. When work dried up that year, he decided to make a change.

“I always had computers when I was young and was really interested in them, so I went back to explore a career in that industry,” he says.

Since graduating in 2004, Bates has held a variety of interesting jobs, including maintaining remote servers for a company that sells management software for body shops and setting up and managing the server that handled all the media for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

“Plus of course helping every friend I have get viruses out of Windows machines,” he jokes, adding that while the technical skills he learned at VIU have been vital to his success, the most important skill he learned was the ability to quickly acquire new skills.

“Technology changes so rapidly, so it’s important to be able to adapt and keep up,” he says.

Bates moved to Fort McMurray in 2012 to work as Band Administrator for Fort McMurray #468 First Nation — a job that wasn’t initially related to his training until he began devising ways to improve the band’s IT systems and better manage workflow.

“I started Muskwa Computer Sciences Corporation in 2014 with the goal of

helping to modernize IT infrastructure and management software for First Nations governments,” he says. “Part of my vision is to help create jobs for First Nations people working with their own Nations. Traditionally, these jobs have been farmed out to non-Aboriginal individuals and companies. I would like to help First Nations people acquire those skills through work experience, mentorship and education, and have rewarding careers in the tech sector.”

Katelyn McDougall, owner, OfCity Consulting, and Public Engagement Coordinator for the City of New Westminster A cup of coffee with VIU Geography Professor Dr. Pam Shaw changed Katelyn McDougall’s life.

One of her Sociology professors connected the two after recognizing McDougall’s interest in urban geography. The next semester, she started taking geography courses at Shaw’s urging, which led to a whole new set of opportunities, including a travel abroad trip to Los Angeles. She also formed a small business called OfCity Consulting the year before she graduated from VIU.

“My life would be 100% different if I hadn’t met Pam. It’s one of those moments I will look back on that has really helped me become who I want to be,” she says. “While it’s partly luck and chance, it’s also a result of the environment at VIU. The small class sizes allowed me to develop strong relationships with both my professors and my peers, which has continued to foster my growth and development since graduating.”

One of McDougall’s first contracts

through OfCity Consulting was with the City of Nanaimo, researching the impact of a social housing development on a neighbourhood.

She also went to Parksville to help with a homeless count.

“It really opened my eyes to the reality of what homeless people face,” she remembers. “Knowing more about their challenges, but more so, having this deep connection with them through interviews, I realized there’s no difference between myself and those who find themselves living on the streets. This could happen to anybody.”

After graduating from VIU in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts (Major in Sociology, Minor in Geography), McDougall continued to build her business. She also began taking courses towards a Certificate in Dialogue and Civic Engagement at Simon Fraser University, which led her to move to Vancouver to enrol in the Urban Studies master’s program at SFU. She defended her thesis this September.

Living in Vancouver gave her the opportunity to work with a diverse range of organizations and different levels of government, including the BC Safety Authority, the Burnaby Heights Merchants’ Association and the City of Vancouver’s Mayor’s Office.

This fall, McDougall took a new step in her career when she started work as the City of New Westminster’s new Public Engagement Coordinator – a completely new role for the city and one she believes her extensive public consultation experience helped her get.

“I’m passionate about bringing my love of knowledge and information to impact the community,” says McDougall. “At the end of the day, the most important thing to me is that the things I’m doing are going to have some sort of meaningful and positive impact on the communities I live and work in.”

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Alumni News1990s

A lot of people would be thrilled to simply meet Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, let alone work with him and the band on an animated music video. In 1998, Terence Fitzgerald (Diploma of Fine Arts – Visual Arts ’92; Diploma of Applied Arts – Graphics ’91) was lucky enough to produce the “Do The Evolution” music video for Pearl Jam, which made Spin magazine’s Top 10 Videos of All Time and MTV’s Top 20 Music Videos of All Time. A new art book coming out in February — Pearl Jam: Art of Do the Evolution — features never-before-seen concept artwork, personal stories and photographs, as well as scanned cells from the actual production. Check it out on amazon.ca!

Laura Anne Passarello (Diploma of Applied Arts – Graphics ’93) started drawing and painting at a young age with her mother, who is also an artist. Now she creates artwork for clients around the globe, including T-shirt

designs, art for software development companies, illustrative logos, airbrushed murals, tattoo designs, book covers and posters. Check out her illustrations and designs at laura-anne.com.

Sabrina Goh (Hospitality Management Diploma ’97) and her husband Chef Sebastian Ng recently opened a new restaurant called Venue by Sebastian in Singapore. Sabrina manages the 80-seat casual restaurant, which serves contemporary European cuisine with Asian influences.

For Brock Bowes (Culinary Arts ’98), his chef training was his ticket to exploring the world. After graduation, he worked at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler for two years. Then he packed his bags to travel throughout Canada, the United States and Europe, working in some of the best restaurants in the world. On June 27, 2015, he blew away his competition on Chopped Canada and captured

the grand prize of $10,000, part of which he donated to his local SPCA branch. Bowes now runs three restaurants in the Kelowna region of the Okanagan — RauDZ Regional Table, a farm-to-table operation; Micro Bar & Bites, a 36-seat tapas-style bar; and Terrafina at Hester Creek Estate Winery.

2000s

A desire to expand her knowledge and skills in journalism, media studies and creative writing led writer, editor and now published author Julie Chadwick (Exploratory Studies) to VIU. After a stint as editor of The Navigator, VIU’s student newspaper, Chadwick went on to work as a journalist and editor with the Nanaimo Daily News. In May, she published her first book — The Man Who Carried

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Cash — with Dundurn Press. The book is about the relationship between Johnny Cash and his Canadian manager, Saul Holiff.

Once Ruth Wigman (Culinary Arts ’01) got a taste for cooking competitions, she never stopped. While at the Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda, she placed second in the Escoffier

Cup and helped them become the first AAA five-star-rated restaurant in the Caribbean. After relocating to Newfoundland with her husband Matt, who is also a chef, Wigman competed in a number of other competitions, including Gold Metal Plates, at which she’s taken home both gold and silver

medals, and Top Chef Canada. She recently left her job as Executive Chef of the Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland to return to British Columbia, where she now works as a private chef in the Vancouver area.

Pam Smith (Hospitality Management Diploma ’01) and her husband Joel Pollock have opened up a new restaurant on Blanshard Street in Victoria called Yalla, which translates to “let’s go.” Smith, a trained sommelier and CPA, and Pollock, a trained chef who has worked in restaurants ranging from Eden at The Rimrock Hotel in Banff to Sooke Harbour House and Stage Wine Bar, offer a menu of fresh and inspired Middle Eastern street food at Yalla.

One of the Top 20 Under 40 Business & Community Achievement Award winners for Vancouver Island for 2016, Tim Mawdsley (Bachelor of Arts ’02, Major in Business Finance; Associate of Commerce ’00) is Past-President of the VIU Alumni Association board and a current board member. A Branch Manager with Island Savings in Nanaimo for the past five years, Mawdsley recently embarked on a new journey to work full-time with his wife Kylie Mawdsley on her business — Kylie M Interiors (kylieminteriors.ca).

INDIGENOUS EDUCATION ADVOCATE: TASHA BROOKS

Ten years ago, Tasha Brooks was struggling through the accounting classes she had to take as part of her Bachelor of Business Administration degree and wondering what her career options might be if she quit.

Fast forward to 2017, and Brooks just finished her dual Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in International Management degree at VIU, and she started a Doctorate of Business Administration this fall with the help of a $16,000 scholarship from the Royal Bank of Canada’s Aboriginal Student Awards Program.

One highlight from her master’s degree experience was a unique internship opportunity at VIU Cowichan, through which she’s played an important role in advancing Indigenous education initiatives at VIU. During the internship, she investigated ways to make the campus even more relevant and welcoming for Indigenous learners.

The internship required her to interview faculty and staff at the campus and delve into the history of Indigenous education. She wrote up her findings and recommendations in a report that Campus Academic Administrator Warren Weir, who was also her internship supervisor, will use to inform a strategic education plan for the campus. At graduate school, Brooks is interested in studying the social development impacts of increased access to education. In the meantime, she maintains her ties to the institution as a VIU Indigenous Education Navigator. In this position, she connects with potential students in First Nations communities to help remove barriers to attending post-secondary.

“I’d like to focus on Indigenous business education, and I feel like this place is where I can make a difference and do more for my community,” Brooks explains.

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Past-President of the Nanaimo North Rotary Club, and is on the Nanaimo Ladysmith Schools Foundation board.

2010s Amy Pye (Bachelor of Arts ’10; Diploma in Information Technology and Systems ’05; Diploma in Applied Arts ’04) is the owner and operator of Pye Design, an award-winning agency that provides everything from advertising and design, to Internet marketing and public relations. In her spare time, the Top 20 Under 40 finalist has also joined the Naval Reserves and is training to be a Maritime Surface and Sub-Surface Officer. Check out her new website at artbyamy.ca.

Julie McManus (Bachelor of Arts ’10, Major in Creative Writing) credits an internship she participated in as part of her degree program at VIU, as well as supportive professors, for steering

After playing a key part in the restructuring of Tourism Tofino into a non-profit society when she was Executive Director, Kirsten Soder (Bachelor of Tourism Management ’04; Diploma in Tourism Studies ’01) is the new Executive Manager of Destination Marketing for Tourism Campbell River & Region with Destination Think!

Greg Phillips (Bachelor of Arts ’06, Major in English) recently became a partner at Johnston Franklin Bishop Lawyers in Nanaimo. Phillips is a noted trial lawyer and advocate whose cases become important precedents used by other lawyers across BC. A Top 20 Under 40 Business & Community Achievement Award recipient on Vancouver Island for 2016, he is highly involved in the community, serving as Chair of the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce, Governor of the Trial Lawyers Association of BC,

her towards her current career path. The internship at Point One Media, a Nanaimo-based trade magazine publisher, turned into a full-time gig, which then led her to work at Nanaimo-based Maximum Yield Publications — first as Assistant Editor, then Associate Editor then Web Editor and now Communications Co-ordinator/Web Writer for the City of Surrey.

Multiple requests for cakes from family and friends motivated Caitlin McGarrigle (Culinary Arts ’11) to make homemade cheesecakes, cakes

IT’S A VIU FAMILY AFFAIR AT 460 COMMUNICATIONS:

Senior director Andrea van Rossum (Bachelor of Arts ’06, Major in Business Management; Diploma in Business Management ’04; Diploma in Recreation and Sport Management ’02) is passionate about sharing stories that connect people. With more than 16 years’ experience in communications and marketing, she has the luxury of making her passion her career.

Graphic Designer Scott Booth (Diploma in Applied Arts ’07) was drawn into the design field by a passion for illustration. Booth brings a broad skill set and a craftsman’s attention to detail to the team.

Megan Beauregard (Bachelor of Tourism Management ’05; Diploma in Tourism Studies ’02) rounds out the team as the company’s Marketing & Social Media Manager. A career in this fast-paced industry is truly a dream come true for Beauregard, who is never seen without her phone.

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and cupcakes for her loved ones. Her full-time gig is as a sous chef at the Hilltop Bistro, where she’s enjoying learning from Chef Ryan Zuvich, who just won bronze at October’s Gold Medal Plates in Victoria.

Lori Shwydky (Bachelor of Arts ’16, Major Creative Writing) wasted no time putting what she learned to use after graduating — she immediately created Rebel Mountain Press in her hometown of Nanoose Bay. Since its launch, the business has produced

several anthologies. For a full list, visit rebelmountainpress.com.

A passion for lifelong learning motivated Brian Dickinson (Bachelor of Arts ’15; Associate of Arts Degree ’99) to return to VIU to complete his Bachelor of Arts after a long career in telecommunications, including working at the Port Alberni Undersea Cable Station, Lake Cowichan Satellite Earth Station and all over BC with the Canadian Department of Transport.

After more than six years together, Chris Sorensen (Bachelor of Arts ’15) and his partner Paige tied the knot on April 22, 2017. Shortly afterwards, the newlyweds set out to explore Rome and Croatia for a few weeks on their honeymoon.

After graduating from VIU, Alexandra Dawley (Bachelor of Arts ’13, Major in Global Studies) was selected to become a Rotary Ambassador Scholar. On full scholarship, she pursued a Social Development Master of Arts degree at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.

Array Web + Creative is a

Nanaimo-based agency in

love with marketing, web and

design. This close-knit team

of nine includes a whopping

seven VIU alumni and current

students, many of whom

were classmates!

Sarah Bromley (Internet Production Diploma ’09; Internet Production Certificate ’07) is Array’s Technical Director and one of its original three founding members. Bromley is an ambitious lifelong learner who is passionate about tech and community — she also founded the Central Vancouver Island chapter of Ladies Learning Code.

Senior Developer Suttasinee Chansirinthorn (Bachelor of Science ’10) is a true “full stack” developer with proven skills in all stages of software development, a deep understanding of programming architecture and fluency in more than six different programming languages.

Content Strategist Carrie Brisson (Bachelor of Arts ’15) double minored in Business and Digital Media. Her skills and interests range from marketing, search engine optimization, social media and writing.

Digital Media grad Andrew Powell (Bachelor of Arts ’17) does double duty at Array as the Support Specialist and Developer. Powell has a natural way of putting people at ease and is always happy to jump in wherever his skills are needed.

Daelen Berg (Bachelor of Arts) started as a part-time programming intern, and has worked his way up to Production Manager. Berg’s enthusiasm for new, innovative technologies combined with his keen visual eye help him create beautiful, intuitive user interfaces.

Jessica Pirson (Bachelor of Design in Graphic Design) has been in love with art and design since before she could walk, so the Graphic Design program at VIU was a natural fit. Pirson, who loves being able to translate a client’s vision into gorgeous, functional visual communication, will graduate in 2018.

Calleigh Lim (Bachelor of Arts) is the newest member of the Array team, working as a Developer while she completes her degree in Digital Media. Eager to share her knowledge with others, she mentors with Ladies Learning Code, works in VIU’s Media Lab and leads a class at the University of Victoria.

The Array team has had an incredible year so far, winning four Hermes Creative Awards, one Summit Creative Award and one Muse Creative Award. Congratulations!

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As part of her dissertation, Dawley analyzed the formal and informal education programs available to urban refugee youth in Jordan. When she came back to Canada, Dawley managed individual refugee cases within the Canadian Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. Later, she worked for the Federal Resettlement Assistance Program, where she delivered immediate and essential resettlement assistance to Government-Assisted Refugees at the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater

Victoria. Dawley currently lives in Budapest, Hungary, where she is an evaluation intern with the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Sarah Dion (Bachelor of Business Administration ’16) tested her limits in the Spartan Race this past spring. She ran, climbed and crawled through challenging obstacles that tested her overall strength, balance, and mental tenacity and endurance, and finished with a fiery leap of victory. By day, Sarah works at Island Savings in cash management.

FROM NANAIMO TO HOLLYWOOD: ALEX PANGBURN

VIU Theatre alum Alex Pangburn’s acting career has taken off this year. He managed to snag several roles recently that have given him the chance to work with high-profile actors and directors, including in the popular post-apocalyptic TV series The 100.

“Playing Hayes on The 100 was an awesome experience and I’m so grateful I had the chance to work with such a talented cast and crew. Everyone was so inclusive and made me feel very comfortable,” says Pangburn. “I’ve been fortunate enough to find my passion at

a very young age. To be honest, it’s felt like I’ve never had a choice or decision to make — I’ve always known that this is what I wanted to do.”

After graduating from VIU’s Technical Theatre Diploma program in 2009, Pangburn went on to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of British Columbia in 2012. While theatre was his initial passion, he has become more and more interested in film.

“One thing I love about film is that I feel like I can be intimate and honest with my scene partners without needing to sell it to a large house of people, like in theatre,” he says. “There’s also less of an expectation of transformation in film. I can just be me in the circumstances and that helps make the work feel more sincere as well. I will always jump at a good theatre opportunity when it comes up, but for now, my main focus is film and TV.”

Fans can also find Pangburn in Midnight Sun, a movie starring Bella Thorne, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Rob Riggle; several other recent movies; and a role in a Subway/Star Wars commercial. Follow Pangburn’s achievements in film and TV on his imdb.com page.

On Wednesday, June 7, 2017, Justice (Zheng) Gong (Diploma in Hospitality Management ’17) proposed at his graduation reception to Constance (Jiali) Long (Master of Business Administration ’16) and the VIU Alumni Association was there to capture the moment! Gong and Long both work for mobile phone companies.

Aditya (Adi) Kulkarni (Master of Business Administration ’17) is planning to pursue a career as an IT Consultant. He also has a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and five years’ experience in IT service management with tech giants such as Fujitsu and TechMahindra.

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How did you get your current gig?An application for a paid internship at the Liberal Party was recommended to me by a friend and my film portfolio got me the job. My three-month internship in 2014 went well and they offered me a contract through to the end of the 2015 election. Then I was offered an expanded role after the new government was sworn in.

What was your first week on the job like?At first I had a few small tasks like cleaning up friend requests on LinkedIn, but then I was handed a plane ticket to Toronto and given a schedule of events to film the next morning. After I landed, I found Justin Trudeau at a tailor shop and filmed him walking for six blocks to the offices of Adam Vaughan’s byelection campaign while he greeted

and chatted with half the population of Toronto. I filmed the speeches and the press conference, got a taxi to Queen’s Park, didn’t get in and nearly missed him leaving, and then got another taxi to rush ahead of him to get set up at a rally event with hundreds of people packed into a theatre in Little Italy. Then I had a beer. And then I flew back to Ottawa and made my first video.

What do you like most about your job?The ever-changing nature of current events and politics and social media means that I always have new challenges and opportunities. I get to explore new technologies and techniques in an industry that is changing daily. I also get to travel sometimes, which has allowed me to see almost every part of the country. I’m only missing the Yukon now.

What’s Justin Trudeau like behind the scenes?He is a very genuine person who actually takes an interest in the people he meets and works with, and he is usually the smartest or at least the most curious person in the room. During the election campaign, when he toured factories and science labs,

Q &A with Mat Snowie

As the Liberal Party of Canada’s videographer, VIU Creative Writing alum Mat Snowie has seen almost every part of the country and met a lot of high-profile politicians along the way – including, of course, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom he films every few weeks.

Snowie, who graduated in 2013, is responsible for all the video recording and animation work done for the Liberal Party. He is also involved in the Liberal Party’s live productions, which are broadcast to Facebook, and he produces special video products for everything from their biennial conventions to staff parties. Snowie credits his BA and the extracurricular activities he participated in while at VIU with giving him the unique skill-set needed to be successful at his job — he was published in two issues of Portal, a student-run literary magazine; wrote film articles for The Navigator student newspaper; wrote and directed scripts for the VIU Satyr Players acting group; and directed the year-end show for the senior acting class in 2013.

In between assignments, Snowie took a moment to give us a glimpse of life in the inner circle of the federal political scene.

he would have endless questions for the tour guides. Now that he is the Prime Minister, he is usually focused on getting through it to get on with his busy day, but unless he is very rushed he’ll still make time to talk about the latest Star Wars rumours.

Can you share a highlight from the job?I turned 26 five days before the election in 2015, so by then we’d been living out of suitcases for two months and sleeping in different hotels every night. But that evening on the plane, as we relocated for the next day’s events, I was surprised by a cake and Justin Trudeau leading all the staff and journalists in a rendition of Happy Birthday.

What’s next for you?There will be plenty of things keeping me busy for the next few years, particularly a convention in Halifax in 2018, and then I look forward to being a part of Justin Trudeau’s 2019 re-election campaign. After that, I’ll have to wait to find out, but I see a film or TV production in my future and maybe a novel if I can keep my head down in the evenings.

photo credit: Adam Scotti

photo credit: Adam Scotti

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