Volume II . . . No.

The Mark
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Squamish Nation
Audit Reveals
Misuse of Band
Funds
New financial transparency
legislation uncovers $1.5
million in unaccounted funds
from Squamish Nation
By ZACHARY KERSHMAN
Following a federal policy shift
implemented in March 2013 requiring the disclosure of financial statements from all First Nation bands,
an audit of the Squamish Nation
uncovered $1.5 million in unaccounted funds distributed by two
council members between 2012
and 2014.
On October 20, 2014, the Squamish Nation published a press
release on their official website announcing the end of an independent third-party investigation. The
investigation was launched following concerns raised by an internal
review conducted by the bands
Executive Operating Officer.
The press release states that
both the internal and independent
third-party investigations raised
concerns about the handling of
cash disbursements distributed
by the Band Manager Services
Department and in particular, disbursements made by Ms. Krisandra Jacobs and Mr. Glen Newman.
The report concludes that,
while there is not enough evidence
to prove that Jacobs and Newman
Continued on page B1

Student Tapes HE RAPES on Room Window to

Stimulate Campus-Wide Dialogue
Greers Facebook confession leads to activism debate
By THE EDITORS
At 3am on the morning of
Monday, November 9, first year
student Ian Greer rearranged
black tape on the north-facing
window of room 111 North from
THE KAVE to HE RAPES. Greer
admitted his actions publicly in a
Facebook post this past Friday. He
told the Mark that he acted while
completely sober.
This incident follows allegations of sexual assault on campus
last academic year. Although the
RCMP investigations concluded
with no charges filed and Quests
investigations dismissed the claims
as unsubstantiated, there is residual tension in the student body.
The morning following Greers
rearrangement of the tape, the residents of 111 North A.K., B.E., E.S.
and G.R. were shocked to discover the message on their window.
Its a crime, its vandalism
and its defamation of character,
said the resident of 111 North who
spoke to the Mark; I hope that,
whatever the consequences are,
[Greer] and the other person who
was involved address the underlying issues that triggered them to
do what they did, and seek professional help.
The same resident said, I

decided to call the cops and one

came within two hours. I kept the
thing [tape] up. She saw it, took a
picture and asked me who I suspected. I gave her names. I have
a pretty solid idea of who led the

ANONYMOUS

attacks on me in the past, so I gave

her the names of the people I suspected.
Greer, who had earlier
dropped his November block, left
campus at 7pm the day of the incident (Monday evening) to return
to his hometown Seattle. After
hearing news from friends on campus on Wednesday and Thursday,
including that several students had

LNG Debates

Proposal divides Squamish council candidates

By MICHAEL ALBERY-POWELL
& TARI AJADI
Squamishs newly elected municipal council faces internal divisions over the controversial Woodfibre LNG project, with the BC
Environmental Assessment Offices
decision on the plant expected in
the second quarter of 2015.
According to their website,
Woodfibre LNG hopes to be operational by early 2017. Mayoral
candidates stances on Woodfibre
proved decisive on election night,
as voters ousted the incumbent,
Rob Kirkham and elected current
councillor Patricia Heintzman.

Speaking to the Squamish Chief on

15th November, Kirkham said, If
[the voters] were saying no to LNG
without investigating the problems,
consequences and issues or how
they might be involved then I can
see why theyd choose Patty over
me.
Woodfibre also affected the
municipal councillors race, with
pro-LNG incumbent Doug Race
getting re-elected and anti-LNG
candidate Karen Elliot ascending
to council for the first time. Race
and Elliot have been two of the
most outspoken voices in the LNG
debate so far.

Race, a retired lawyer, believes

that the benefits of the gas industry in Squamish outweigh any
negatives. Race likes the proposal
because it complies with zoning, it will meet all of our district
standards, it will provide jobs for
Squamish residentsnot for foreign workersand it will provide
significant tax revenue. $2 million
has been floated, but it could be 3
or even 4 [million] per year in taxes. For a town that lost its major
economies (a logging company
and a pulp mill) from 2004 to 2007,
the benefits of the gas industry are
Continued on page B1

Accountability in the Backcountry

Sea to Sky Gondolas upcoming winter season raises questions of
backcountry accountability.

By LONNIE WAKE
The launch of the Sea to Sky
Gondolas first winter season later
this month has prompted questions about who is accountable for
the backcountry terrain accessed
via the gondola.
Safety and liability concerns
stem from two fatalities that occurred on Sky Pilot a peak located in the backcountry surrounding
the gondola during its opening
summer season.
Though only one of the men
who died accessed the peak by
way of the gondola the other
man drove up a forest service road
some residents of the Sea to Sky

corridor feel that the company

should take more responsibility for
the area outside of its tenure the
land it is currently operating on.
An increase in accidents resulting from easy access allowed
by the Sea to Sky Gondola will
result in a larger burden to SSAR
[Squamish Search and Rescue],
and it is not out of the realm of
reason to expect some sort of contribution by the Sea to Sky Gondola to pick up this increased demand for SAR [Search and Rescue]
services, said Connor McNee, a
Quest University student, in an online comment on an article about
one of the fatalities this summer.
John Howe, president of Squa-

FEATURES

OPINION

Local Ski Guide

PAGE A2

Quest and Squamish

Community
PAGE B1

KATIE GERSTLE

Continued on page B1
ARTS & CULTURE

Good For Grapes

at NWWF
PAGE C1

been contacted by the RCMP as

suspects, Greer decided to return
to campus to clear things up. He
wrote his confession on Facebook,
which he published to the Quest
University Canada - Students page,
while on the Greyhound heading
back to Squamish.
In an interview with the Mark,
Greer said, I wasnt about to let
someone else take the blame for it.
I think that its pretty unreasonable
to do something and then not hold
yourself accountable for it, especially when the people who were
being held accountable for it had
already experienced something
really traumatic relating to the issue at hand.
Greers Facebook confession
stated, my action serves to illustrate a broader problem at Quest.
The public nature of my action was
meant to begin a broad conversation, not a private debate. The fact
that private debate now accounts
for all the conversation around my
public action could not provide
better evidence to the existence of
the problem.
Following an email correspondence that Greer initiated
with Dean of Students Melanie
Koenderman, Greer is under the
impression that he is currently
Continued on page C1

FREE-ish

Squamish
Election Results
Are In
By SOPHIA MATTHEWS
& MACKENZIE ERLANK
Patricia (Patty) Heintzman, a
former city councillor, was elected
the next mayor of Squamish last
Saturday. Heintzman is joined by
re-elected councillors Doug Race,
Ted Prior, and Susan Chapelle, as
well as newly elected councillors
Jason Blackman-Wulff, Peter Kent,
and Karen Elliott. Voters elected
school trustees Ian Kent and Rick
Price.
Heintzman beat incumbent
Mayor Rob Kirkham by 289 votes
(2900 total votes for Heintzman
vs. 2611 for Kirkham). In total, 6045
votes were counted. According to
Councillor Kent, there was about a
44% voter turnout, which is a 2.76%
increase from the 2011 Squamish
Municipal Election (41.24% or 4734
votes). Twenty candidates ran for
council, three candidates ran for
mayor, and three for school trustee. School trustees oversee School
District No. 48 (Sea to Sky) and are
not considered part of the municipal government.
Race had a total of 2359 votes,
followed by Blackman-Wulff with
2315, Prior with 2194, Elliott with
2183, Kent with 2128, and Chapelle
with 2027. The only incumbent
councillor who lost his bid for
Continued on page B1

Continuing Education
Program Connects Quest
New program brings the people of Squamish up to campus

By ERIKA SERODIO
This fall, Quest introduced the
Continuing Education Program
as part of an initiative to connect
the university with the rest of the
Squamish.
Quest students have expressed concern over the isolation
they feel at the top of the hill, and
the new program aims to bridge
this gap. Luce Mlanon, the coordinator of the program, has organized a collection of non-credit
classes, workshops and lectures
that run on evenings and weekends and are open to anyone.
Over 120 people attended the ten
classes and workshops in the fall
series, with some adult participants driving all the way from Surrey, Whistler and North Vancouver.
One event, a free childrens concert
with performer Graham Walker, attracted 175 parents and children.
In an interview, Mlanon explained that these classes are an
opportunity for Quest students to
take part in a truly multi-generational conversation. Mlanon has
been delighted with the number of
seniors who have enrolled in the
program. The upcoming spring
course selection includes an evening class that explores the topic
of morality. Mlanons eyes lit up
when she imagined the different
perspectives on morals in a group
of learners ranging in age from 18

to 70 (and older).
Quest president David Helfand
taught a condensed version of How
to Build a Habitable Planet as part
of the fall series. In an interview, he
noted that teaching this class of 30
to 75-year-olds was very different
from teaching the Quest Foundation course. Apparently, the energy level of a 9am class of Quest
students is hard to match. Helfand
believes this program creates more
opportunities for connections with
Squamish.
The fall programming has
nearly come to an end, but there
will be 18 courses offered in the
spring. Quest tutor Bob Perkins will
be teaching a three-week course
on Tuesday evenings titled Beer
and Wine Making at Home. Another class, The Art of Public Persuasion with Helfand, will run for three
Saturday afternoons. Other course
topics include photoshop basics,
upcycling, and how to start your
own business. Course fees range
from $50 to $245 and, while that
may seem steep to some, Quest is
running the program at cost. Some
of the courses are a single workshop or lecture; others run for up
to 8 weeks.
Many of the courses follow
the Quest classroom model, with a
maximum of 20 students engaging
in a round table discussion. The
students in these courses even
Continued on page B1

EDITORIAL

SPORTS

Creative Writing
Review
PAGE B2

Soccer Triumphs
PAGE C2

FEATURES

A2

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

The Mark

Winter is Coming

visibility).
Garbanzo Chair is Whistler mountains best kept secret. This chair
is the ultimate line avoiding chair.
You can access it from the base of
Emerald and Big Red (which are
both prone to ridiculously excessive lines). The original full-hit run
is a local legend and accessed off
of Garbanzo. It is a series of side
hits and features that link together.
Use a summer mountain bike map
to look at trails, especially in early
season and below red chair for fun
runs through the trees. The only
draw back is that it doesnt lead to
any alpine.

By ANDREW WOOD
Cut this out. Laminate it, memorize
it. The battle for park and powder
lines gets aggressive. This is how to
gain an edge.
Base knowledge:
Whistler/Blackcomb (WB) is incredibly variable. It has two mountains, five parks and 2700 feet of
vertical terrain on the Pacific west
coast. This means frequent precipitation and fluctuating temperaturespow to rain. The WB site
is worthy of a homepage so you
can keep a tab on snowfall, which
chairs opened (or didnt open) and
most importantly, freezing levels. A
broad rule is the higher you go the
colder it is, therefore, the lighter
the snow.
I split the mountain into three
layers: alpine, mid mountain and
lower mountain. Coming from
Quest, especially on a pow day
before class, your driver will want
to park in Creekside for time efficiency. This is usually reasonable,
it probably translates to two extra
runs, but mark my words: there
are days worth driving the extra 12
minutes to Base 2 on Blackcomb
Mountain.
Storm Cycles:
Generally during a storm, Blackcomb is the mountain you want to

be on. If the alpine is going to open,

it will often do so on Blackcomb
first. On Whistler, it goes: Harmony,
Symphony and last to crack will
be Peak Chair. Peak Chairs line is
usually a direct causation of the
potential it has to temporarily increase the quality of your life. If
they arent loading people, talk to
a ski-patroller and get an estimate
when it will crack, then start to barter your minutes spent going down
hillquantity or quality? If youre a

real keener, explore zones on notso-nice days, so when it cracks

you arent floundering in mashed
potato moguls.
When it is cold in the village or
snowing in Squamish, it can be
good. It can be really goodall the
way to the bottom. These days
are incredible. Lower mountain
below Creekside Gondola and local favourite Khyber Trees have
the best day of your life potential
when it is cold to the bottom.

Tough Little Princess

By ARLETTE AKINGENEYE &

CALEAH DEAN
Nestled in the patch of greenery between the cafeteria and academic building stands the only
magnolia tree on Quests campus.
About shoulder height, the little
tree is nondescript and, as winter
comes, lacks the deep pink blooms
that mark it during the spring
months. Only on holidays and special occasions are its branches decorated different shades of pink and
purple. Even if the busy students
rushing by notice the tree, they
dont know its true significance.
The two-year-old magnolia
tree was planted by a group of
local Squamish families in 2012 to
honor the passing of five-yearold Carmen White, who died
from complications with her chemotherapy treatment that same
year. Heather Feeney is one of
the Whites close family friends
in Squamish who planted and
routinely decorates the tree on
holidays. She spoke of the familys
struggles with Carmens death,
as well as the beautiful relationships and initiatives which have
stemmed from it. These have included the formation of Carmens
Makana, a program funded by donations to help struggling families
afford childrens cancer treatment,
and more recently the adoption of
the Whites two-year-old son Jake.
Carmen Leolani White was
born on April 1, 2007 in Squamish,
but her family moved to Hawaii
when she was 13 months old. Carmen led a healthy life until 2011,
when she was unexpectedly diagnosed with leukemia. Carmen
went through intensive induction
chemotherapy and her leukemia

Specifics:
Early season is fun, and dangerous.
Learn zones or specific runs, faces, trees, pitches and pow stashes
really well as opposed to learning
a little bit about everything.
Spankys Ladder is a zone off Glacier Chair with advanced alpine
terrain and will be one of the first
really good alpine zones to open
during a storm cycle (careful of low

Letter from
Steveston Harbour

Memorial tree on Quest University Canadas campus

stands in memory of local child, Carmen White
reached remission after 28 days.
Everything was looking better
until October 8, 2012, when she began to complain of severe stomach
pain. Carmen passed away in the
early morning on October 9 due to
what was later found to be a bacterial infection in the port used to administer her leukemia medication.
Throughout her illness, Carmen was the same joyful, loving
and strong girl she had been before
being diagnosed with leukemia.
Her parents, Chris and Heather
White, called her their TLP (tough
little princess), and Feeney said that
Carmen inspired everyone around
her to live a more full and joyful life.
Heather and Chris [Carmens
parents] were and still are rock
solid, said Feeney. They are
like, We have to move forward.
Were not going to move on, but
were going to move forward.
As a way of moving forward,
the Whites are offering hope to other children. Since Carmens passing,
the White family and their friends
have started and donated to a
number of organizations to further
assist the treatment of young cancer patients and thier families. Carmens Makana, in particular, raises
funds gifts for families with children
who are fighting cancer and who
are in need of financial assistance.
The Whites have also recently adopted a little boy. According
to Feeney, after Carmen died, the
Whites began visiting a L.A. based
psychic medium for assistance
with their grief. In February of 2013,
the medium shared with them a vision of Carmen who would have
been six by that time handing an
8-month-old baby in a blue blanket
to Heather White. She took down
the details of the vision and puz-

CONRAD PK

Parks:
Catskinner chair is the shortest
wait time and is a leg-saver chair
for park laps in the Blackcomb XL
jumpline and blue park. It is also
a great birds eye view of some of
the biggest park jumps in Canada.
Note: Blackcomb parks have snowmaking, and therefore are better
established earlier in the season.
Emerald Chair/Whistler Park
Whistler park has long been the
most creative space to express
freestyle prowess. The features
flow together with a skate influenced design with multiple approaches to medium and large features. Weekdays are the best time
to cut laps in this park.

zled over it until January of 2014,

when they heard from the special
needs adoption agency they had
signed up with in 2011. They had a
match: a now 21-month-old baby
boy from China, born approximately the same day as Carmens death.
They named him Jake. In summer of 2014, the Whites traveled
to China to bring Jake home with
them to Hawaii where he is currently thriving with his new family.
Carmens tree was planted as
a way to remember Carmen and
a way for the Whites Squamish
friends to remain close to her since
her family is still in Hawaii. We want
the tree to raise a little awareness,
said Feeney. Not just for the people who knew Carmen but for the
people who didnt know her. Carmens story should remind people
of the importance of staying in the
moment. Live your life like there is
no tomorrow. Look up now and
again, and take note of your surroundings. Every time you pass by
and notice her tree on campus, we
are not only keeping her memory
alive, but we are all connecting to
`one another through her story.

CALEAH DEAN

By KATIE GERSTLE
When my marine conservation class visited Steveston Harbour, we expected to see boats,
nets, fishermen and plenty of fish.
But we didnt expect to board a
trawling vessel.
In the world of marine conservation, fishing by bottom trawling
is the lowest of the low. Imagine a
shower squeegee as big as a jet
plane bring dragged across the
surface of the land, uprooting and
destroying everything in its path.
Think of a trawler as the same
thing, just underwater: a giant mechanical rake meant to catch any
bottom-dwelling fish in its path
while digging up the seafloor.
We cast each other wary
side-glances as the class boarded
the trawler, Viking Enterprise. At
first sight, the trawler was impressive, but it wasnt until we embarked on our all-access tour that
we began to truly appreciate the
full scope of the vessel. Our tour
guide, Dustin, was a bouncy, sweatpants-sporting crewmember of the
Enterprise. He greeted us on the
top deck of the ship and beckoned
us inside to meet the captain.
On the bridge, the captain,
a burly, bearded but soft-spoken
man, introduced us to a highly
advanced sonar system that had
been tracking the ships movements for the past decade. Our
jaws dropped when we saw the
density of crisscrossing lines covering one of the many computer
screens surrounding the captains
chair. They indicated just how far
and wide this single vessel had
fished along the Eastern Pacific
coast in just the last ten years.
The sonar also had some
added features, such as the ability
to point out a school of fish, esti-

mate how big the school was and

exactly how deep the school was
below the ship. The Enterprise also
caught fish using mid-level trawling,
meaning that some of the sonar
lines represented open water fishing paths that did not leave streaks
of destruction in their wake.
Amazing technology like this
sonar led marine conservation
biologist and oceanographer Callum Roberts to claim that we have
peeled the lid off the oceans at the
2002 Boston conference for American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). When
advanced technology is coupled
with a massive machine like the
Enterprise, fish can no longer rely
on the oceans opaque depths for
safety.
At the end of our tour, we actually saw the trawling equipment.
Believe me when I say that the notion of a giant squeegee pales in
comparison to the real thing: two
long, black rollers followed by a
second set of steel doors that were
used in tandem to stir up the fish
in the sand before funnelling them
into an equally gargantuan green
net.
Again, glances flew between
the members of my class, but this
time with less judgement. Looking
at the captain and Dustin, it was
hard to see these men as the horrible, thoughtless fishers that many
academics make them out to be.
These mens lives on the
ocean are far from effortless. It is
easy to learn about the fishing industry through the lens of scientific literature from the comfort of
a classroom. Meeting the people
who live and breathe that lifestyle
taught us about being a fisher in
a way that no book or academic
journal ever could.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

The Mark

NEWS & OPINION

B1

Are We Forgetting About Squamishs Original Student Body?

Addressing the lack of connection between Quest and local Squamish students

By MICHALINA SLINGER
Our reputation as a bubble
on the hill is not new, and many
students and staff are consciously extending beyond the campus
boundaries to bridge the gap between Quest and the rest of Squamish. Weve established connections with community members
and organizations in Squamish
through classes, work, and socializing. While we may feel that these
efforts are adequate, a different
perspective on Quest is held by a
group that was learning and playing here long before we arrived:
Squamishs high school students.
I was motivated to investigate
how these youth viewed Quest
after chatting with a grade twelve
student from Howe Sound Secondary at a recent job interview.
She told me that while she had a
desire to attend Quest, many of
her friends thought it was pretentious. This struck a chord with
me as I thought back to the bubble we so carefully try not to exist in, and wondered how many
other Squamish students shared

this sentiment. After a few emails

were exchanged, I was on my way
to interview the leadership class at
Howe Sound Secondary.
Unsurprisingly, words like hippies, environment, expensive, and
private were all called out by various grade eleven and twelve students when asked to ascribe adjectives to Quest as a whole. However,
when students expressed their
views of Quest students, the results were overwhelmingly positive. We work with them [at Sushi
Sen], and theyre pretty awesome,
remarked one Howe Sound student. Other describing words included nice and welcoming, based
upon personal interactions such as
practicing alongside the womens
basketball team.
While connections between a
few Quest and Howe Sound students are fantastic, there were still
misconceptions about our system
articulated within the leadership
class. These included rumours
that it was impossible to transfer
out of Quest to a different school
during the program, along with

a lack of knowledge surrounding scholarships and financial aid

opportunities. After reciting the
Quest speech to our umpteenth
aunt or high school friend, it may
seem that by now everyone surely
understands how the school operates. This is not the case, however,
since some of our closest neighbours remain confused about what
Quest does.
I was surprised how many
students [from the Sea to Sky Corridor] didnt actually know, as far as
academically, what Quest offers,
noted Quests Director of Admissions Chelsey Froberg. The spread
of misinformation was also reiterated by Froberg, saying that local
students either know or think
they know things about Quest.
However, Squamishs high school
students will only understand
what they are exposed to, and
Froberg as well as Howe Sound
students both recognized limited
communication between campus
and community as an issue.
Many Howe Sounders referenced attempted partnerships

with Quest where communication

fizzled out. An example was last
year, when Howe Sounders were
on board to help an environmental team from Quest count all the
plastic bags in Squamishs grocery
stores until the project halted. Beyond Quests Summer Scholars
program or the on-campus GIN
conference, most students also
found a lack of opportunity to get
up to Quest. Some had attended
open events on campus, but wanted more frequent events and better advertising. One student found
out about our recording showcase
in the newspaper, but many Howe
Sounders likely look to other places for information.
Froberg explained that Quest
is attempting to improve our communication methods with the
Squamish community. Currently, this consists of event updates
emailed out to registered newsletter recipients, along with posters
put up in town by Student Affairs.
Alejandro Casazi, our new
Marketing Coordinator, wants to
streamline the way information

is shared at Quest by updating a

news and events blog with various category tabs that community members can browse. Froberg
suggested other ways to enhance
connection: one third of Howe
Sound Secondary is comprised of
international homestay students,
and creating a relationship with
our international students could be
a great way for them to embark on
activities outside of those that their
host family provides.
The leadership class that
I spoke to was full of engaged,
well-rounded students does
this sound familiar? Many Howe
Sounders expressed interest in
lessening the gap between us and
them. Students have to complete a
major and a minor project within
their class, and some began brainstorming events that would link
Quest and Howe Sound students.
We understand the value that
[Squamish students] can have on
our campus in creating relationships with the Squamish community . . . in that way, they have added
value, said Froberg.

Election cont.

Audit cont.

and accountable First Nation governments by requiring the public

disclosure of remuneration and
expenses of chiefs and councillors
and First Nations audited consolidated financial statements.
In a release sent exclusively to
members of the Squamish Nation
on October 19, 2014, the Squamish
Nation Chiefs and Council released
an abridged and redacted report
on the third-party investigation
into the use of emergency funds
by their Communications and
Band Member Services Department (BMS).
The independent investi-

gation, performed by Vancouver-based lawyer Nazeer Mitha,

reviewed cheques issued from the
BMS to Jacobs and Newman from
April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2014. According to the report, the purpose
of the investigation was to advise
the Nation on what has occurred
and [to make] recommendations
on how to deal with wrongdoing.
Concerning the use of emergency funds, Mitha said that, the
reasons given for the payments
were almost nonexistent There
was no information provided as to
whom the funds were being provided, or the specific reasons for

the provision of the funds.

While no written description of what can be considered
emergency funds has been released, Mithas report presents a
description based on a collection
of interpretations from interested
parties. According to the report,
emergency funds are meant to
cover expenses like rent, travel
to funerals and food vouchers for
band members in need. What the
investigation found the emergency
funds were actually spent on were
things like restaurant bills, clothing
and Vancouver Canucks hockey
tickets.

Backcountry cont.

dola.
The Sea to Sky Gondola is
very cooperative, we have a great
working relationship, said Howe,
They help in whatever way they
can with SSAR.
The Sea to Sky Gondola indicates on its website that individuals who venture into the backcountry are responsible for their own
safety, providing tips for those who
are planning to go beyond the five
snowshoe trails maintained by the

company in the winter. The company urges potential backcountry

travellers to be aware of conditions
and prepared for the terrain.
As winter approaches, Howe
also urges backcountry users to
take safety precautions and be
self-reliant. Response times from
SSAR can be upwards of one hour,
and death occurs within 20 minutes of avalanche burial.
You are most likely to survive
if you can save yourself, he said.

people of Squamish have changed

and the economy should change
too. I think our demographic is
shifting to more knowledge-based
workers who have moved to Squamish for reasons other than big
industry.
With a mixed result for either
side of the debate in the election,
the question still remains as to
whether to promote industrialization to boost the economy, or
whether to reject fossil fuels as
sources of energy and economy.

Elliot wants Squamish to be shaped

by the newcomers: People arent
moving here for heavy industry
anymore. These people have higher levels of education, young families, and they want access to the
outdoors.
What the new Squamish will
look like is unknown. But the council that will lead the town into its
new phase will need to reconcile
its tensions before the Environmental Assessment Offices decision next year.

how this class compares to his

previous educational experience,
Plato replied, First of all, Ive never
been involved in a student model
of inquiry, and Ive also never taken
a course purely for learning, purely
for knowledge. His class, he said,
has a wide variety of students, including a retired teacher, someone
who works in Squamishs Parks
Maintenance department, and
even someone who is terrified of
math but is pushing herself out of
her comfort zone.
The number of Quest students
enrolling in the program has been
very low. A few students attended
a lecture on November 16 titled

Disconnect to Reconnect: connecting to technology is disconnecting

child development and learning.
The other ten courses this fall ran
without a single Quest student in
attendance. This statistic is not
shocking, as the typical Quest
student already has a full course
workload and extracurricular
schedule. However, this is a unique
opportunity to get to know the
people of Squamish without even
stepping off campus.
Mlanon has been looking
at different ways of incorporating
Quest students into the courses.
Student input on possible roles is
encouraged.

By SOPHIA MATTHEWS
& MACKENZIE ERLANK
re-election was Bryan Raiser who
received 1662 votes.
For anyone who was keeping
track of the election, the increase in
voter turnout means one thing: Arnold Schwarzenegger stunt double
and newly elected Councillor Kent,
in accordance with his pledge, will
be setting himself on fire. In a recent article by the Vancouver Sun,
Kent said, Ill have to approach the
district and ask for a permit. And
I have access to some of the best
burn suits available.
Leading up to the election,
many candidates discussed the importance of political engagement.
In an e-mail last week, Councillor
Race said if he could tell every citizen something about municipal
government, it would be to pay
attention [to it]. [Municipal government] has a more direct impact on
people who live here than the policies and decisions made by other
levels of government. Councillor
Chapelle echoed this sentiment,
stressing that public opinion matters.
Squamishs municipal government deals with the towns day-today concerns and opportunities.
Councillor Race sees the main job
of the Squamish government as
public safety and infrastructure. He
adds, We have to provide police
and fire fighting services, clean water, sewage and garbage treatment
and disposal, roads, dykes and the
planning and maintenance of those
services. Also, land use planning is
a significant service. Without that
there would be chaos in our neighbourhoods.
Heintzman said the most important issue is balancing competing interests, which means rationalizing the provinces interest
in LNG versus Squamishs vision
of itself today and into the future,
as well as balancing the demands
of development with the environment. She added that another
priority is open inclusive government while still providing efficient,
trustworthy processes. Councillor
Blackman-Wulff agrees, saying the
number one issue is balancing jobs
and the environment.
Incumbent councillors cited
different top priorities for Squamish. Councillor Race said the

By ZACHARY KERSHMAN
kept the embezzled money for
themselves, the two council members benefited through the favour
they won from various members
of the Nation by providing them
with funds.
The First Nations Financial
Transparency Act (FNFTA) came
as part of a commitment from
the Harper Governments 2011
Speech from the Throne. The Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada webpage describes the FNFTA as an effort to
increase democratic, transparent

SOPHIA MATTHEWS

towns most important issue is

Garibaldi at Squamish, a proposed
ski resort. Councillor Chapelle believes the more important issue is
that social services are stretched
and not adequate to support many
families facing homelessness and
hunger.
Newly elected Councillor Elliott said the largest issue facing
the government comes from the
bureaucracy itself. Many of our
systems are broken, she said, criticizing the last council as slow to
implement communication and
engagement practices that enable
our community to learn about and
voice their opinion on issues that
matter most to them.
Regardless of which issues
each official believes to be paramount, over the next four years
they will have to work together
to lead Squamish. Councillor Chapelle, however, does not seem
worried, pointing out that debate
is healthy, but dialogue is more important. Diversity of opinion in politics is an essential tool to making
sure all voices are heard and can
contribute to positive community
building. Focusing on our commonalities is more important than
fighting about our differences.

By LONNIE WAKE
mish Search and Rescue, confirmed that easier access to the
backcountry provided by the gondola will increase traffic, but that
SSAR is taking the increase into account and developing strategies to
respond up there effectively.
Howe also mentioned the
ongoing working relationship that
SSAR has with the Sea to Sky Gon-

LNG cont.
By MICHAEL ALBERY-POWELL
& TARI AJADI
clear.
But for Karen Elliot, the benefits of the project are not as black
and white: I think were going
to look quite foolish in 20 years
to have large infrastructure built
there.
Elliot envisions a new Squamish that reflects the interests of a
younger generation. She says the

Education cont.
By ERIKA SERODIO
elect a block rep. With a smile,
Mlanon said that some of the
adult participants are taking this
role very seriously.
Jeff Plato, the father of first
year Quest student Sawyer Plato,
has been driving up from North
Vancouver weekly to take Mathematical Problem-Solving with Richard Hoshino. Its been awesome,
said Plato, a completely positive
experienceinteresting, innovative,
and full of new solutions to problems that, in the past, Ive tried to
solve by brute force. When asked

EDITORIAL

B2

Alone In A Room With Your Psyche

Creative writing block fundamentally different from other Quest courses

By ALESSANDRO TERSIGNI
Last block I took a course that
was orders of magnitude different
from any other Ive taken at Quest.
Creative Writing is a practice distinctly different from the type of
writing prominently taught at universities: academic writing. While
both aim to illustrate or communicate an understanding of subject
matter, good academic writing
functions by telling and good creative writing by showing.
Taught by New York-based
novelist and playwright Mandy
Keifetz (Corrido, 1998, Flea Circus:
a brief bestiary of grief, 2012), the
course was unacademic from the
start. Keifetz had never taught before and didnt regiment class time
to provoke anticipated points of
comprehension from her students,
as is generally done in Quest
classes. Though we sometimes
prodded her for the type of logical
template we use in essay writing,
she maintained and we learned
that theres no formula for writing a good story. People who have
just spent 15 years in school tend
to develop a rigid and brittle approach to writing, said Keifetz. In
the crucible of an art practice, rigid
and brittle things perforce break.
Neder Gatmon-Segal, one of
Keifetzs students last month, says
this in another way: other Quest
blocks are assignment-focused
whereas Creative Writing was
tool-focused. He explains that, in
a lot of other classes, youre given
an assignment for the assignments
sake for example, the tutor wants
you to conduct research regarding
political science. In Creative Writing it was, Im giving you these assignments, but the point is not the
assignment, its developing a tool
set and practicing using it. Such
tools included showing, not telling
and sitting in a room alone with
yourself.
Telling invokes the kind of descriptions that students use to connect a thesis to evidence. You tell
your reader that your examples
reflect the truth of your argument,
and you point out the specific congruences that illustrate this truth.
But no matter how well you argue

that your character has a certain

temperament, no one is going to
take your word for it. You can tell
your readers what your characters
would be like if they met those
characters, what the situation and
the location of the scene would
feel like if they were there, but
youll never successfully introduce
your readers to your characters
with this second-hand story telling. To make your reader forget
shes reading a story, you need to

py with, she recalls Keifetz saying,

take another 24 hours and write
what you need to write. Im not going to dock marks off. When you
feel its finished, send it in.
Because forms of successful
creative writing are infinite and
cant be distilled into a rubric, the
course had to fundamentally reject the expectation that there are
specific strategies that we learn in
class that we can employ to do
well on an assignment, and that

show her how that character feels

so she can appraise temperaments
for herself, like she does with real
people.
How do you dream up stories
that live independently of the terse
labels used to describe human interactions every day? You sit alone
in a room with your psyche. Relatively, it turns out showing is easy.
Ive known many people who are
good writers, but few who are both
good writers and can spend their
life sitting in a room, says Keifetz.
As you can imagine, trying to master this approach in a classroom
with 21 people was somewhat contradictory.
However, the course did give
us the necessary time to sit alone
and try to answer some questions.
How is a person if they are graceful? How does someone who is
conflicted behave? What does jealousy sound like? Deconstructing
what common adjectives actually
describe is one of the great challenges of evocative storytelling.
Eva Schipper, another Creative
Writing student, noted that when
she couldnt achieve these moments of clarity before our allotted
assignment deadlines and had to
turn in something she wasnt hap-

students should receive a grade

according to how well they execute
those strategies. There is no single
prompt, exercise, work-around, secret key to the unconscious mind
which will work for everyone,
says Keifetz. A smorgasbord of approaches is necessary for each student to emerge with better access
to the words available to him or
her. These approaches included
studying common creative writing
mistakes and using a variety of restrictive writing prompts designed
to free us from writers block.
There are a few confined
instances in which this kind of
creative thinking plays into other
types of writing at Quest. For instance, journalistic writing combines telling with showing by using
artistic description to reinforce
factual information. With academic
essay writing, tutors can often tell
you precisely how to get an A- on
your paper, but find it difficult to
generally explain how to get an A
other than providing example approaches. The required extra nuance, sometimes referred to as an
external analysis, is born of looking
at the subject in a new way, and so
it cant be derived from a formula.

FLICKR

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

The Mark

Getting Off: Orally

By ANDREA PRUDENCIO
CARIAGA & CALEAH DEAN
Going down, eating out, blow
job, giving head, playing the flute,
cunnilingus, fellatio, anilingus;
whatever you choose to call it or
however you choose to do it, oral
sex is a hot topic in and out of the
bedroom.
Conversations with students
revealed many techniques, opinions, stereotypes, concerns, and
insights about oral sex and its
place and purpose in sexual relationships. For some, it is often the
highlight of their experience; others find it to be an ideal form of
foreplay.
However, we encountered
some aversion in our interviews
towards receiving oral sex. Some
heterosexual women said they enjoyed giving oral sex to their male
partners, but felt reluctant to let
their partners pleasure them in the
same way. We decided to investigate.
One of the more straightforward explanations for refusing
oral sex was an insecurity of my
vagina being...[Fill in the blank:
hairy, smelly, not tasty, etc]. Some
people who enjoy eating pussy
regularly tried to divert this insecurity. A student commenting on
the topic of hair, said, Of course
youre going to have pubic hair,
people are supposed to have hair!
Im never going to ask a partner to
shave and, similarly, I would never
shave myself for a partner. Another male student who believes oral
sex should be reciprocal in sexual
encounters recommended, dont
assume we are scared or grossed
out by your vaginas.
Another concern voiced by
this group of female students was
a fear of nakedness. One student
said, I prefer having sex without
any eyes on my vagina, I dont
want anyone to see it. Somehow
the act of letting someone see
their genitals was more uncomfortable or intimate than penetration.
I would never take it from someone I was just casually hooking up
with; it takes a lot of intimacy to do

that, said a female third year.

On the other hand, another student talked about feeling a
greater connection to their partner
because of oral sex, and considered it the main act of the night.
Another possible explanation for avoiding receiving oral
sex, offered by a female student,
is a worry of asking too much
of a partner. She said Im afraid
that I will take too long to cum. I
dont want to ask that they spend
20 minutes down there, while they
arent getting any. Yes, on average
it might take longer to stimulate
women to the point of orgasm,
but this doesnt mean you dont
deserve fully focused attention
and pleasure. Additionally, you
shouldnt rule out the possibility
that your partner could be getting
some just by giving you pleasure.
Some students even reported
getting more pleasure out of giving oral sex than receiving, and
one student said, I like knowing
that what I am doing is turning
them on. Overall, sex should be
pleasurable for all parties involved,
so dont be afraid to ask for what
makes you happy; your partner
will probably appreciate the guidance and opportunity to give back.
Remember, some STIs can be
passed through oral sex. These
include herpes, gonorrhea, HPV,
syphilis, and even HIV/AIDS in
very rare cases. The safest choice
is to use a latex barrier, such as a
condom or dental dam. This will
help guard against STIs transmitted by skin-to-skin contact or by
fluid transmission.
Regardless of your experience level, COMMUNICATE WITH
YOUR PARTNER. Its a great way
to work through any insecurities or
inhibitions either of you may have.
The best sex is the kind where everyone is comfortable, and being
vocal about your likes and dislikes
will let your partner know what
youre into and how you can both
be more confident.
Play safe,
Andrea & Caleah

The Inclusiveness Of Pay

One way of making on-campus leadership positions accessible to everyone: pay.

By KENDRA PERRIN
I have an idea and, like many
of my ideas, it was born out of a
disagreement.
It is Thanksgiving, and I am
sitting at the dinner table with my
grandpa. The annual Who Earns
What Macleans issue, where they
publish the earnings of a range
of occupations and people in
Canada (e.g. Eugenie Bouchard,
a Supreme Court judge, a Zamboni driver), has just come out,
and it sits on the table between
us. My grandfather thinks that
nearly everyone on Parliament
Hillcomposing the Canadian
Government, for you non-Canadiansearns too much.
In fact, Im not sure they
should get paid at all, he exclaims, perhaps facetiously, but
honestly Im not convinced. Its a
public service, he says, it should
be volunteer work.

I am cracking my knuckles, grinding my teeth. Grandpa,

if we didnt pay people to work
for the Government of Canada,
wouldnt that deny every single
Canadian who needs to be paid
for their work the opportunity to
do so? I.e. anyone from the lower
or middle-class who needs to put
food on the table and send their

MACLEANS

kids to school without the help of

a trust fund? I.e. Isnt that an elitist proposal?
The conversation didnt go
much further. Changing gears/
provinces/institutions/pay-scale,
let me put it bluntly: there is some
unpaid work at Quest right now
that needs to be paid. Namely
SRC ministers, floor reps, writers and editors for the Mark (full
disclosure: I write and edit for
the Mark; I think I should get
paid something). Positions of
student-leadership on our campus. People whose good work
and commitment the vitality of
our university depends on. I have
missed some, surely.
This isnt, at least as far as the
newspaper goes, a revolutionary
proposal. Many universities in
Canada pay at least some of their
writers and editors (I wont speak
for the States). The McGill Daily,

the Link at Concordia, the Capilano CourierI could go on.

The final Sunday of last block,
I worked an 11.5 hour day, as did
my fellow editors, to get your
thisnewspaper published on
Monday. I had also written two
articles for the edition and, if I
added up the reportage and writing time for those two pieces, I
would add another six hours (a
conservative estimate). If I had
been making $10.25/hour, the
minimum wage in BC, my labors would have brought in $180,
which isnt a ton, but isnt nothing.
Of course I wasnt paid for
this work and, luckily, because
of my socioeconomic situation, I
didnt need to be. Some people do
need that pay, though, and they
should not be excluded from positions of leadership on campus
because of that need, which can
only be adequately met with paid

employment elsewhere (generally

off campus).
If, instead of for the Mark, I
had worked those 17.5 hours at
Howe Sound Brew Pub and had
earned minimum wage, I would
have actually made that $180
plus tips.
It should not be an elite privilege to lead on campus. If the media and governance is for the people, by the people, then we need to
ensure that all the people have the
opportunity to participate. The
logistics of this pay can be negotiatedper hour, per word, where
does the money come from, who
gets paid and who doesnt?but
lets begin with the philosophy.
What do you think?

Letters to the Editor are always welcomeespecially in response to any Opinion/Editorial

pieces. Please email submissions
to [email protected] or
[email protected]

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

The Mark

ARTS & CULTURE

C1

Catching Up With Good for Grapes WERD To Your Founders

GOOD FOR GRAPES

By ELISE PEARSON
On December 6, Good For
Grapes will be playing at Northwest Winterfest. The indie group
hails from Vancouver and is keen
to be headlining this years festival.
The band has been performing together for the last four years.
They were brought together largely as a result of a shared interest
in music and theatre throughout
high school at Fleetwood Park
Secondary. We truly got to know
one another through a musical
we were all a part of called A
Very Potter Musicalyes, thats
exactly what it sounds like, said
vocalist and songwriter Daniel
McBurnie.
The group consists of six
members: Daniel McBurnie
writes their songs, sings and plays
acoustic guitar; Graham Gomez
is the lead guitarist and is a vocal-

Dialogue cont.
By THE EDITORS
not allowed on campus. He added
that, immediately upon returning
to Squamish on Friday, [he] went
up to campus for a very short period of time and got a call from one
of [his] friends saying, You cant be
on campus right now, people are
looking for you.
At this point, Greer has not
been contacted by the RCMP, who
have been involved in investigating the case. The Mark called the
RCMP asking for an incident report, but Cst. McMahon refused to
comment, citing privacy issues. He
said there was no plan for a media
release concerning this incident,
adding, on a small campus, gossip
spreads like wildfire.
The morning of Tuesday, November 11, the day following the
incident, Koenderman forwarded a
message from Cst. Nathalie Dimytruk of the Squamish RCMP to five
women all of them students at
Quest. Koenderman wrote, I was
contacted by the RCMP and asked
by the Constable below to forward
this message to you, as we do not
give out student contact information to third parties.
Referring to the case as mischief to property, Dimytruks
forwarded email told the women
they had been identified as possibly having information in relation
to this event. After receiving the
email, all five women contacted
Dimytruk as was requested of
them and, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, had individual
interviews with her.
One of these students said
that, in her interview, Dimytruk told
her she had been contacted as a

ist; Alexa Unwin is a pianist and

vocalist; Robert Hardie plays the
bass and sings vocals; Alex Hauka
plays the cello; and Will Watson
plays percussion.
The bands name came about
during the summer of 2010. We
were on our way to Victoria to
hang out for a weekthis was before we were a band. Alexa offered
Graham some grapes, and he replied, Nah, Im good for grapes.
On this same fated ferry ride,
the group drew public attention
as they improvised together. A
crowd gathered to listen to them
play and, when the audience inquired what their band name was,
they responded jokingly, Good
for grapes! They have been playing together ever since.
We really just loved music
and loved playing together. One
day I started writing songs for
the band and everyone just went
suspect because the student who
reported the incident to the RCMP
listed her as such. She said Dimytruk asked whether she had attended the open mic about female
sexuality the night of the incident.
The student had not.
Since Greers public confession on Friday, this same suspected
student has not been contacted by
the RCMP again.
The resident from 111 North
has not reported Greer to the
cops, saying he didnt want people to think that [he was] shutting
conversation down by reporting
Greer after the confession had
been posted on Facebook.
I was very happy to see the
amount of support I received [after the incident], the resident said.
It still affects me a lot emotionally,
but it seems that Im supported on
campus, and theres a very positive environment.
Greer said that, in the wake of
his post, he has received a number
of personal messages in addition
to the public comments, a few of
them supportive, a few of them
negative. He said, Generally, the
response has been extremely negative, which is completely understandable and reasonable. That
being said, I think that I received
a lot of non-constructive criticism,
which was not very helpful.
When asked if he would do it
again, Greer replied: No. He admits that he was fully aware of who
lived in 111 North, but said, I didnt
really think about it as an attack on
a specific person while I was doing
it. In hindsight, that should have
been the first thing that I thought
about -- whether or not my action was something liberating for
the community or something that

with it. Since then weve taken it

more seriously as we went, said
McBurnie. The inspiration for
us playing together was probably
based on our love of the stage, and
how much fun we had with it.
McBurnie describes their
genre as folk/rock and considers
their major musical influences the
artists they grew up listening to:
Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, and other 80s folk
groups. A more modern influence
is Fleet Foxes.
Their debut album, Man on
the Page, was released in October
of 2013, and the group seems to
be gaining momentum. I definitely think what weve been
working on in 2014 has a remarkable singularity that weve had
to work for over time, especially
compared to our earliest songs,
said McBurnie.
Streams of their music can
be found on their website, http://
goodforgrapes.com/, and also on
their Facebook page. Its hard
for me to comprehend exactly
how we reached the level were at.
Blind persistence, maybe ... First
we were a band that not even our
friends knew about, and the next
thing we knew our name was being thrown around Vancouver.
McBurnie concluded, I suppose
it happens if you keep working
hard, playing lots of shows and
really care about the music youre
playing.

would be perceived just as an attack on a specific person.

In his confession, Greer said
that he had acted with a friend.
In his interview with the Mark, he
said this friend had no plan of outing him or herself, and Greer supports this, seeing himself as entirely responsible for their collective
actions. I would say I am responsible for everything responsible for
coming up with the idea and initiating the action and so I should
be responsible for dealing with the
consequences, he said.
My goal of being here [in
Squamish at
this time] is to
help the community end this on a
very positive note, said Greer. He
understands how his presence on
campus right now could be very
negative. He said the aftermath
of the incident has caused him to
do a lot of reflection about what
makes good activism.
The resident of 111 North, who
believes he was specifically the
target, said, Im more than willing
to go out on a public platform and
talk to whoever has anything to tell
me, or has any concerns. I have
nothing to hide, I have nothing to
be worried about, and I am more
than willing to talk to anyone.
In her interview with the
Mark, the student contacted by the
RCMP said, I respect what Ian did
as an act of activism and I think it
was brave, but Im not sure it was
the right way to start a dialogue.
Correction: November 30, 2014
An earlier print version of this article listed the full names of the four
occupants of room 111 North. For
this online version, the names have
been replaced with initials.

With this years first issue in the making, we look

back to when it all began.
By KEVIN BERNA
The next issue of WERD
magazine is set to come out in
time for Northwest Winterfest in
December. The event will display
many beautiful pieces of art, and
the magazine itself is no exception.
In the fall of 2011, WERD
was becoming Quests first unofficial student publication. During
the years since its inception, the
magazines editorsand consequently, the form of the publicationhave changed. Though
some have expressed concern on
the direction the magazine has
taken, the main goal of providing
students with a means of artistic
expression has remained a constant.
Tari Ajadi, a fourth year student who was involved in early
publications, remembers Ietzsche
Aran, Jamie Sumner, Bruna Melis and Anna Lippmanthe four
students who founded WERD.
These four students all contributed to the Quest admissions
blog that is now known as Life at
Quest. Ajadi explains that these
four students decided, An online
forum wasnt the most useful vehicle for what they wanted to express.
On the front page of the
magazines first issue is WERDs
mission statementscrawled in
pen on the original copy prior to
scanning and mass photocopying. Written by Aran, WERDs
driving force in the first year of
publication, the mission was to
organically express the diversity
of student thought. This goal was
immediately realized in a poem
by a contributor placed strategically underneath this founding
statement. Entitled O Tarsandia! the poem expresses the authors discontent with Canadas
policies on natural resource extraction. The final couplet read,
As we send Kyoto down the pit
Trudeau said it best, Kents a piece
of sh*t.
Aran eventually produced a
manifesto for WERD, defining
the publication as an inherently
subjective and inherently artistic

voice for the student body. Because of the interests of the founding members, WERD became a
zine that artfully expressed subjective views on politics, among
other subjects. The inaugural
issue was entitled winsome. erudite. righteous. damn. (WERD),
but the acronym changed for each
subsequent issue.
When Aran graduated from
Quest, Ajadi took her place and
ran the publication for most of
2012/2013. After producing the
inaugural issue of the Mark newspaper in his 2013 Journalism
class, Ajadi developed an interest
in reporting hard news and opted to continue as one of its editors-in-chief. Determined to keep
WERD alive, Ajadi happily relinquished his duties with WERD to
Andrew Wood, a then-first year
student who had expressed a keen
interest in poetry and collaborative art.
Wood continues as head of
WERD today. When I started, my
vision for WERD was a platform
of artistic expression through a
variety of mediums, said Wood.
In his second year at the helm,
Wood has turned a collection of
written pieces arranged in any
direction on five doubled-sided
sheets of white paper (the form
of the original WERD) into a legitimate magazine. With waxed
paper and all, this new WERD
pairs an image created by a visual
artista photo or a painting
with the poem or prose piece of
another. He plans to release some
copies of the newest issue into the
Squamish community to showcase student work: I want to do
anything I can to promote the arts
here at Quest, Wood said.
Some people have come up
to me and said that WERD has
gotten too institutional, Ajadi
said, but I think its important to
appreciate the cycle of this magazine from printing-account production to complete professionalism.
Be sure to talk to Andrew
Wood about submitting any writing or visual art so they can be
published in the NWWF edition
([email protected]).

SPORTS & HEALTH

C2

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014

The Mark

End of Season Triumphs

A Healthy Dose

The Quest Kermodes mens soccer team and their new coach finish off their best season in two years with a nail biting nationals playoff and a bronze medal in provincials

BMI: Bogus Medical Ideology

By EMMA TAYLOR
& CALEAH DEAN
A small crowd of soggy, excited students screamed on the
sidelines during the Quest University Canada versus Vancouver
Island University (VIU) mens
provincials play off game on Saturday, October 25. Overtime had
just hit, the game was tied two
all, and the Quest fans had never
seen their team playing so well.
[In overtime] there was just this
feeling of oh wow, were going to
win said Neder Gatmon-Segal,
a second year at Quest. It was
probably the most exciting sports
game Ive been at at Quest. Despite both teams best efforts, the
game ended in a penalty shootout
and the Quest team missed nationals by a single penalty.
The Quest mens soccer team
went into this playoff for the national tournament at the end of
their best season to date, following a two year dry spell where the
team failed to record a victory.
While the game ended 3-2 for
VIU after a tie breaking penalty
shootout, it hardly felt like a loss
to many of Quests fans. In the
end, Quest won bronze in the
provincial tournament with a 2-0
win against Kwantlen University
the next day. Coach Alexander

Elliott remarked, We talked after

the penalty shootout game, and
said we have to go through that to
be the team that should be going
to nationals.
This turnaround in performance is in part attributed to
the new mens coach at Quest,
Alexander Elliott. Coach Elliott
brought a whole new attitude to
the Kermodes. Kevin Berna, a
fourth year Kermode, put it quite
simply: Alex is not your friend,
hes your coach.
Berna said that the team and
administration decided at the
end of last year that a new coach
would push the Kermodes into
a new and more positive head
space, and that seems to be exactly what Elliott has done. We
spend more time on that mental
aspect than the actual tactical
aspect, said Elliott. The biggest
success this season was tapping
into that mental ability and seeing
how far we could run with it. Elliott went on, I think in the past
we were focusing too much on the
actual outcome of the game, and
we wanted to focus on playing a
faceless opponent.
Elliott is focusing on making
sure that every voice is heard, and
that every player is playing to the
best of their ability. I really want
to make sure we get the most out

NATALIE DOUGLAS

of each player, said Elliot. Im

really focusing on putting myself
at the same level as the players,
making sure everyone has a say
in what were creating. While the
season is over for the Kermodes,
the team will be starting up training again in the next few weeks,
and will be ready to play next season.
Coach Elliott was very proud
of the Kermodes win at provincials. After Saturdays game,
which was a thrilling game to lose
in a penalty shootout, it shows
the character of our team to come
out and put a great performance
together to get that bronze. The
players were confident in their
abilities, and determined to win
the bronze. Berna said, We came
out on that Sunday game and we
didnt even have to say anything,
we knew we were going to win
that game. You cant lose the
bronze medal game on your home
field.
The season couldnt have
ended better for us seniors, said
Berna. And Im so excited that I
live in Vancouver so Ill be able
to come up and watch these guys
kick some ass in the next two
years. The Kermodes will have
a short time to recuperate before
training begins again for next season.

A Jean of all Trades

Getting to know Quests new athletics & outdoor coordinator

By KENDRA PERRIN
& KEVIN BERNA

HELLY HANSON

If you strolled into the RecPlex on any given day, you would
likely encounter a five-foot something man with a flat-brimmed
baseball cap and remarkably muscled calves. He would be smiling,
and yelling something like, Allez

allez! in a distinctly Qubecois

accent. This man would be Jean
Franois Plouffe, a self-described
happy-bully known colloquially
as JF.
His official title here at Quest
is the Athletics and Outdoor Coordinator, and he facilitates workouts for student-athletes, faculty
and anyone who is willing to get
in shape. Not only will he be patrolling the RecPlex for the foreseeable future, he also has plans
to work with administration to
enhance outdoor components of
the curriculum, such as the Winter Hazards class and Adventure
Pursuits.
Originally from Mont Tremblant, a small and very French
(roughly 90% of people have
French as their first language) ski
town in the Laurentian mountains of Qubec, JF has been an
outdoorsman his whole life.
He first moved west in the
early 90s, after having spent a few
years in Europe improving his
climbing and skiing. Did we mention the man likes the outdoors?
Lake Louise was his first pit-stop,
where he spent some time waxing

skis and learning to speak English before arriving in BC in 95,

which has been his home-base
ever since.
Despite some consistency
in location, JFs time in BC has
been anything but predictable. To
begin, he worked with a young
offenders program, where a six
week bout of outdoor immersion
was used as a means of rehabilitation. He would start by having the
kids cut grass on their hands and
knees, and by the end of the six
weeks, they were building mountain bike trails, said JF.
While working with the
young offenders program, JF was
living in, well, the humblest of
humble abodes: his 1972 GMC
Vandura van, parked in lots 4 and
5 at Whistler. This lasted for three
summers and three wintersno
insulation. He would shower at
the Meadow Park Sports Centre in Whistler. Did he ever get
towed? Oh, I got so much towed,
he replied, and he wasnt alone.
We were a couple of van people.
At some point, he hit the
(transoceanic) road again heading
for Australia and New Zealand

BY MAYA GREENBERG
& AYLA RAABIS
The Body Mass Index (BMI) is
a mathematical equation that is
used by health professionals and
researchers worldwide to infer a
relationship between health and
weight. It was invented in the
1830s by a Belgian statistician interested in studying the average
height-to-weight ratio in his community. It was later co-opted by
insurance companies and medical
professionals, thus beginning its
reign of terror.
The BMI divides a persons weight
in kilograms by their height in
meters squared, and then places them into categories ranging
from underweight (<18) to obese
(>30). So what are these categories based on? Not a lot, actually.
They are not indicative of the averages in a population, and they
are only tenuously linked to any
indicator of health. In fact, in
1998 the normal category was
abruptly changed by the National Institutes of Health from 18-27
for women and 18-28 for men to
18-25 for everyone. 29 million citizens of the United States became
overweight overnight without
gaining a pound.
Why would health professionals
use the BMI if its so limited and
arbitrary? The resounding answer
is that its easy. It is an effective
and inexpensive way to reduce
people into categories that are
easily comparable and can be statistically linked to certain health
issues. One major problem with
this, however, is that the BMI
categories have been shown to
not accurately indicate a general
trend in health.
The overweight category shows
no adverse health effects, but being categorized as such leads to
mistreatment that comes along
with weight stigma in the mediwhere he unsurprisingly worked
with an outdoor education group
as a ski guide, climbing guide,
rafting guide and kayaking guide.
Then, eventually, back to BC.
Though the days of being a
typical Whistler guylong hair,
curly hair, dreadies, the whole
deal, have now passed, JF still
gets outside. A lot. He is a sponsored athlete for Helly Hansen
(you can Google him for proof).
He founded and owns Whistler
Core, a climbing and fitness centre in Whistler. He trains world
class athletes, snowboarder Jess
Kimura is one of his clients, and
after being approached by Toran
Savjordhe now works full-time
at Quest.
JFs vision for the future of
physical activity on campus is a
simple: make workouts fun! He
has worked tirelessly on expanding the gym and keeping it clean
to make it appealing to everyone.
With a smile on his face, he promises to ensure that everyone feels
comfortable, whether theyre
a guy or girl, a top athlete or
non-athlete. This is for everyone.
If youre fitter, youll be better at school, because you discharge all your stress. Allez allez,
chop chop!

cal profession. The BMI has also

been shown to be highly racially
biased, as it is based on measurements of a White population and
fails to account for factors such as
naturally increased bone density
in Black populations. Along with
this, it doesnt account for many
important indicators of health
such as aging, diet, fitness level,
lifestyle, or mental health.
Acknowledging the inaccuracy
of the BMI is important because
it can have seriously adverse effects on both mental and physical
health. 63% of students training
to be medical professionals are
shown to have significant weight
bias, which leads to worse care for
those who are arbitrarily placed
above normal weight.
The undue importance often
placed on a patients BMI can lead
to misdiagnosis, as other factors
are often ignored or underrepresented. This weight bias doesnt
end with health professionals, but
provides medical legitimation of
popular cultures stigmatization
of overweight people and general fat phobia. The widespread use
of the BMI also prompts doctors
to inadvertently encourage eating disorders and yo-yo dieting,
which have both been shown to
have extremely adverse health effects.
This is not to say that weight
doesnt play a role in a persons
overall health, but that a much
more holistic approach should be
used when assessing health. The
elimination of rigid categorizations and increased consideration
of other factors, such as medical
history and diet, would likely lead
to better health outcomes and decreased weight stigma. Hopefully,
the medical profession will begin
caring less about convenience and
more about patient care in the future.

The Mark
Caleah Dean &
Jonathan Von Ofenheim
Editors-in-Chief

Alessandro Tersigni
News Editor

Zachary Kershman
Opinion Editor

Kendra Perrin

Arts & Culture Editor

Kevin Berna

Sports Editor

R. Maris Winters

Production Manager

Morgan Hillis

Production Assistant

Jordan Ross
Media Guru

Jeannie Rakamnuaykit
Copy Editor