Responsible gambling goal of campaign

A gambling addiction can ruin your life and destroy relationships, finances and any plans you have for the future, according to the Responsible Gambling Council. That’s why Know the Score (KTS), a gambling awareness campaign, will be talking with students at Kwantlen’s Richmond campus until Thursday.

The program, which targets students aged 18-24, was developed by the Ontario Responsible Gambling Council in 2001. Last year B.C. did a pilot of the program, and found that 86 per cent of students were likely to use the information they received if they needed it. Seventy-five per cent of students surveyed also said that the KTS program increased their awareness of warning signs and strategies to limit the risk of problem gambling.

Clarence Chan, a counsellor at Richmond Addiction Services, is part of the problem-gambling program in Richmond and leads the Know the Score campaign at Kwantlen. He said it’s important to dispel the myths of gambling at colleges and universities because young adults are at an increased risk to develop an addiction. “Nearly every student tells us that, oh yeah, they know someone that has a problem.”

For more information, visit knowthescore.ca or the Know the Score team on the Richmond campus between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. this week.

Sunday draw ‘almost like loss’ for women’s soccer team

Nobody scored on Sunday Oct.5, as the Kwantlen women’s soccer team played the Douglas Royals to a 0-0 draw on their home turf at the Tamanawis field in Surrey.

The Eagles may have been tired after a big win the day before against the Langara Falcons, during which Head Coach Vladimir Samozvanov said the team was more alive.

Still, Samozvanov said the result of the Sunday’s game was positive. The women had a few chances during both the first and second half and continued to try their best.

The teams battled back and forth on the sunny fall afternoon with plenty of action in the middle of the field as each side played tug-o-war for control. What ground was gained for either side did not seem to kept for long.

In the second half of the game, Kwantlen used more of the field. Near the end of the second half, shouts of encouragement mingled with groans of disappointment could be heard as Reem Knyfatty, a first-year forward took a shot that drew the Douglas keeper out of the net. Jennifer Starheim, a Douglas forward, then took the play back to the Kwantlen end with a powerful kick.

“There were more passing sequences in the second half,” said Natalie Therrien who is playing her first year of defense, but “collectively the work ethic wasn’t there.”

She said the team was getting way better and “beat the best” when they played the Falcons Saturday. The game Sunday felt like a lose because the teams in the league are neck-in-neck and, “If we don’t get the points from the easy teams than taking points from the hard teams doesn’t really matter,” Therrien said.

The Royals and the Eagles each earned one point for the tie. The teams played two regular games last season, with one tie and one 2-0 loss for the Eagles

Next weekend, the women play the Vancouver Island University Mariners in Nanaimo.

Review: We’ve been down this road before

Sex Drive
2/4 stars
Release date: Oct. 17

The potholes along the way are sure to entertain in the movie Sex Drive. But we’ve all been down this bumpy road before in every other teenage comedy.

The plot of Sex Drive, which some Kwantlen students got to see after the KSA arranged for a pre-release screening, has been done in other movies such as Road Trip, Euro Trip, American Pie and many more coming-of-age tales. What seem to differentiate the teenage misadventures are the only misadventures themselves.

Ian Lafferty, played by Josh Zuckerman, is tired of being an 18-year-old virgin. His macho older brother, Rex, played by James Marsden is constantly accusing him of being gay, and his best friend, Lance, played by Clark Duke, is a ladies man, who’s pressuring Ian to rid of his virginity.

So when Ms.Tasty, a woman Ian has met on the internet, tells him that if he drives from Chicago to her home in Knoxville she’ll go all the way with him, Ian steals his brother’s ’69 GTO and heads out with Lance. When Ian’s good friend, Felicia, played by Amanda Crew, goes along for the ride, she becomes the first complications of many, including a trailer park brawl, travel through Amish country and an abstinence seminar.

Director Sean Anders takes his time developing the characters by throwing them into far-out, true-to-life scenarios, such as Ian’s minimum wage job, where he walks around the local mall wearing a giant doughnut costume.

James Marsden takes on an aggressive role that he hasn’t played before, kicking and screaming his way throughout the movie. He nailed the role of the testosterone-driven young male and looks like he had fun doing it.

There were some hilarious scenes reminiscent of American Pie, without Eugene Levy, involving Ian’s step-mother, whose timing couldn’t be worse.

Mindless entertainment can be good at times, but the movie gets tiring. A lot of scenes have been done before, and some jokes fall flat. This movie has its laugh-out-loud funny parts, but for the most part it is another teenage road trip story. And to be honest, that’s getting old.

With edgier coming-of-age movies have hit the theatres, such as Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, this movie reeks of clichés and mindless entertainment.

But if you’re not sick of those movies where there’s that guy who is still a virgin, goes on a road trip with his friends, sees a lot of topless girls, gets in fights and reaches an epiphany, then you’ll like Sex Drive.

Richmond election forum: Seven students vs. seven candidates

With seven candidates, seven students and 40 community residents filling the seats of the auditorium, the second of three all-candidates federal election forum took place Tuesday evening at Kwantlen’s Richmond campus.

The idea for the all-candidates forum began in a classroom at Kwantlen, in attempt to have students become more involved with the election and to help them understand the issues in their ridings. The ridings covered Tuesday were Delta South-Richmond East and Richmond.

“Our real interest here is a dialogue between the citizens and their candidates. It’s not an opportunity for the candidates to debate with one another,” explained Elaine Decker, associate dean of academic studies.

Each candidate started with a three-minute opening speech, then questions were taken from the audience. All major parties had at least one candidate present, including Liberal, Dana Miller, Conservative John Cummins, the NDP’s Szilvia Barna, and independent candidates Dobie To and Wei Ping Chen. There were also two Green party representatives, 25-year-old Matthew Laine for Delta South–Richmond East and 26-year-old Michael Wolfe for Richmond.

“We’re all in this together, were all living on this planet together,” said Laine, a recent graduate of Trinity Western University. “The Green party wants to empower individuals to make better and responsible choices for the future of Canada, and that’s only going to happen if we come together.”

Added Wolfe: “I don’t have children and I’m already worried about them. I want the food my family eats and the drugs my family takes to be safe.”

Conservative candidate Cummins, who has been MP for Delta South–Richmond East since 1993, discussed his concerns with farming, fishing and transportation issues including airports, seaports, highways and the railways, as well as his push to try “rationalize infrastructure growth.”

“Here in Delta we have some of the most valuable farmland in Canada, and we preserve that farmland for future generations,” said Cummins.

Miller said, “This is my home and the place I work, live, raise family and recreate,” as she discussed Liberal plans for the Green Shift, an environmental policy, and the “30/50 plan” a plan which calls for a 30 per cent decrease in poverty across Canada and a 50 per cent decrease in child poverty.

The Gateway highway expansion project, which could damage salmon stocks and disrupt small communities, dominated discussion. “Pollution from this port will be unprecedented,” said Barna.

Said Wolfe: “We need to cancel all funding for this project. It is the biggest disaster ever to have hit Delta.”

Health care issues also arose, including questions about restricting organic foods and unregistered health products, as well as the debate over the safety of overhead power lines in Delta. Crime prevention and homelessness were touched on, and members of each party gave potential solutions.

“All the problems we have now started under the Liberal and Conservative governments,” said NDP candidate Barna in regards to environmental issues. Miller added: “We’re all guinea pigs going along for the ride under the Stephan Harper regime.”

Near the end of the evening, members of each party began pointing fingers at the others over current issues, and then had a chance to make concluding remarks.

Richmond crosswalk scares students

Richmond Kwantlen students who have had, or seen, close encounters with cars are unhappy with a crosswalk at the intersection of Garden City Road and Lansdowne Road, but the city’s traffic department has received few complaints or suggestions from residents.

At the intersection, which is half-a-block from Kwantlen, the pedestrian walk light and the left-turn light for traffic turning north onto Garden City Road, come on at the same. Two lanes of left-turning traffic approach pedestrians as they cross.

Students must cross the busy intersection to get to a bus stop. Frequently-used buses that stop there include the 301-Newton Exchance – which connects the Richmond campus to the Surrey campus – and the 407 Bridgeport bus.

Alexa Kulak, a first-year student at Kwantlen in general studies, considers this a dangerous crosswalk because the two lights come on at the same time.

“Another thing that adds to this problem is the speed limit on Garden City road,” she said. “It’s 60. People seem to think they can just drive at highway speeds and not look out for pedestrians.”

Many people are speeding through the intersection and have to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting pedestrians, she said. She uses this crosswalk when she gets off the 407 bus, and recalled a time when her mother nearly hit a pedestrian there.

Another student nearly was hit recently.

“A lady almost ran over me, she was in such a hurry. She stopped right in front of me and nearly hit me!” recalled a wide-eyed Kanwal Rashid, a science major at Kwantlen. She said there isn’t enough time for pedestrians to walk across and she finds it scary.

Amanda Punshon, a full-time student at Kwantlen taking general studies, said the crosswalk makes her uncomfortable, and she rides the 301 bus five days a week. “People don’t always stop for you. You have to kind of duck and dodge. It’s not fun.”

Nicky Forshaw, a student in the IDDS program at Kwantlen, takes the 301 bus every day during the week. She thinks that anything would be better than the current set up, suggesting a delay in the walk light.

The city is considering changing phasing so the pedestrian light doesn’t conflict with the left-turning signal. However, this could delay traffic and must be looked at carefully, said Victor Wei, the director of transportation for Richmond.

A remedy also being considered is increasing the size of the yield-to-pedestrian sign, which the city can do quite easily, Wei added.

Wei recognizes that the intersection is “challenging because you are having to walk straight into oncoming traffic.” But he says the city does not consider this a dangerous intersection.

The city does not receive many complaints regarding this intersection, but they are, “open-minded,” said Wei.

“If any of the users of this crosswalk, including the students from Kwantlen have any ideas of how to improve it, we are more than happy to hear them and consider them.”

He encourages students to contact Richmond’s traffic operation department with concerns and suggestions.

KSA calls for by-election candidates

The KSA is calling on students to run in the Oct. 27-30 by-election to fill 23 spots currently open at the student association.

Jobs range from director of events and student life to First Nations liaison. The only criteria are that you have to be a current Kwantlen student and, if running for a liaison post, you must “self-identify” with the group.

Nathan Griffiths, director of operation, said that running for a position is “the best way to create positive change in the KSA and at Kwantlen.” He encouraged those running to get out, talk with students and listen to their concerns. “There is a direct correlation between how much campaigning you do, how many people you talk to and the amount of votes you get.”

Students who want to run have to collect signatures from 25 Kwantlen students and fill out an application form, which can be picked up at any KSA office or downloaded from http://kusa.ca/index.php?pid=222.

A list of available KSA positions, and responsibilities that go with various positions, is available in the KSA by-election advertisement. (Link at right on this page.)

All nomination applications are due Oct. 15 at 2 p.m.

Webcasting the inauguration

As the official ceremonies for the inauguration of Kwantlen Polytechnic University roll-outs Friday, some folks may be able to watch it on their computer.

The university is webcasting Friday’s ceremonies. According to the web:

Please note that web server space is somewhat limited. Access is on a first-come, first-served basis. This webcast is designed to work in Internet Explorer.

You can find details about the inauguration ceremony and related events here.

(Note: We fixed up the grammar a little in the quote from the web page.)

Full house hears, questions Surrey federal candidates

Kwantlen’s first all-candidates federal election forum was held Monday night in Surrey with a full house of more than 200 students, instructors and community residents.

The forum, organized by the school’s criminology department as part of its Hear the Candidates, Make Up Your Own Mind series, was set up like a town hall meeting so those in attendance could direct questions to the panel of politicians.

Wade Deisman, criminology instructor and coordinator of the event, said it was an “awesome” experience for those in attendance.

“Elections are an opportunity for there to be substantive proposals for change,” he said, adding that he hoped meeting with candidates face-to-face would facilitate that.

The 12 hopeful MPs in attendance each had five minutes for opening comments, which was followed by questions from the audience. Topics raised by candidates varied greatly, but the future of post-secondary education dominated discussion.

Many people waited in line for more than an hour to ask their question, and Deisman said that for his students asking questions about criminal justice issues, it often wasn’t worth the wait. “Nobody responded to the issue in any kind of concrete sense.”

All major parties had representatives at the event, with two Liberals, one Conservative, two NDPers and one Green there to explain and defend party policies.

Fringe paries were also represented, with candidates from the Canadian Action Party, the Progressive Canadian Party, the Christian Heritage Party and the Communist Party. Two independents were there as well.

Deisman said that once the forums concluded, the criminology department would try and stay in contact with the candidates to follow their policies on criminal justice issues. He added that they hoped to put on a similar event for the next provincial election.

An all-candidates forums was also be held in the Richmond Conference Centre Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. and the third in the series will be held at the Langley Auditorium Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.

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