6 NEWS OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. OCTOBER 11, 2006 Finding Fergil -~ An Interview With the VP Social of NUGGS COLE HEWLETT STAFF WRITER I had the wonderful pleasure of interviewing UNBC’s VP social Fergil Mills, and I had privilege ask him a few questions, What does the title of VP Social entail? A VP social is in charge of coordinating all the social activities at the university, including my main responsibility, which is the events that go on. And there are some that are mandated by the position, such as Exam Buster, Shinearama, and Bartle of the Bands. And the rest like the Winter Frost Formal, Final Affair and UNBC Idol are more malleable, like every year different VPs decided to do different things. It's largely just the social aspect of the activities chat I am in charge of. What are the types of activities you have done so far? ‘The main two events that we have behind us already are Shinearama and the Backyard BBQ, Shinearama is the annual fund raiser for Canadian cystic fibroses foundation which is a Canadian wide fund raiser, which we are very proud to be a part of because we do amazing job of raising money for a school of our size because of how much club participation there is in it. So it's a big part about UNBC and it’s really integrated well with frosh week hete so that it's an awesome event. We also had the Backyard BBQ which was: a wonderful little shaker we had out in the court. We had Wide Mouth Mason this year, There's just no pretenses about it being a fun party to inaugurate the beginning of the school year. We were also really happy how that went off this year. What do you think has been your biggest success so far? Honestly, getting those two things ready is like this unbelievable stressful gong show of holding every thing together till it finally pulls off. It was an amazing experience having those two things behind my back and having them done successfully is so awesome. Like raising around or over $13 000 which we finally broke for Shinearama, which is phenomenal. I was so happy with how those two events came together. What things do you plan to improve upon? We have a lot to build on because we have a really good organization this year at NUGGS; we havea lor of good people in positions and a lot of cooperation between the different VPs like the clubs, the social and the financial president. It's just an awesome group of people who are getting things done. In the past there have been problems between NUGGS and the Student Body like people don't know what NUGGS does or we are not visible enough as an organization. Communication and keeping the professionalism of our organization, while still being for the students, is what we are shooting for, I think it has to do with the composition of the board and there is some phenomenal people working at it this year. What is your over all goal? My goal as VP social is make good ‘memories for the people who go here. Test, scores and grades you take with you but those details kind of get lost; but you will always remember the times you met friends and had parties, or branched out and did new things, I want to have great events that everyone enjoys and that can be really inclusive for the whole student body because there is so much diversity here on campus. I want to offer a range of events that really allows everyone to meet in positive contexts, rather then the Saturday night bar hoping. Trying to be a positive force in people's lives is kind of a broad goal and also throwing parties, PARTIES! Whats in store for the future UNBC? - We just had the campus activities counsel meeting:at which we are just brain storming possible events. We have a lot of events from last year. We want to bring back the Winter Frost Formal which was a ball we had in the winter and that went over super well. That was done for a local charity community health services. We are also going to have another Final Affair which is the big carnival we had out in the courtyard. Another event we thought about having is another round of UNBC Idol because it’s a good format. We have a lot of student talent come out and we were hoping to have a cultural day that involves a whole lot of different groups and committees around the school, We might have another bachelor and bachelotette auction in conjunction with the Winter Frost Ball for charity. Also NUGGS sanctioned pub nights, Halloween events, and also possibly a bus trip to Jasper in conjunction with the Snow Board Club. What I would really like to see is if people want to contact me with suggestions of events or want to discuss certain events you can just email me at VPsocial@nuggs.com because I would like to hear it from the students, and students rock and have awesome ideas. You get different types of Ideas that appeal to all different types of people. What I am really looking forward to in terms of new events is this bus trip to Jasper due to the fact it was the snowboard club that came up to me and asked about it and all of the possible things we can do in conjunction with that. Ottawa Slashes Equality-Rights Funding Cuts come despite report on serious problems in gender-equality issues CARL MEYER EXCALIBUR (YORK UNIVERSITY) TORONTO (CUP) -- The federal government has cut and eliminated funding to key government programs that promoted equality rights. On Sept. 25, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty unveiled $1 billion in spend- ing cuts as part of an expenditure review process. “Canadas new government is trim- ming the fat and refocusing spending on the priorities of Canadians,’ said Fla- herty upon releasing his annual financial report. But not everyone agrees on what those priorities ‘are. The expenditure review included the elimination of the Court Challenges Program, a non-profit organization that provided financial as- sistance to court cases arguing for equal rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The review also included a $5 mil- lion cut to Status of Women Canada, the sole federal department involved in advising government on gender-equality policies. The Law Commission of Can- ada, a federal law reform agency, has also been axed. “It's indicative of the mindset this government, said Kemba King, co-or- dinator for York University's Centre for Women and Trans People. “It's disheartening when women. take away rights from other women,’ she added. “A lot of politicians are looking out for themselves.” John Baird, president of the Treasury Board of Canada defended the cuts, say- ing, “I just don't think it makes sense for the government to subsidize lawyers to challenge government's laws in court.’ But King suggested that the govern- ment is able to carry out these cuts be- cause not enough people know about the recent legal historical significance of federal equality assistance programs, or even of the programs’ existence. On top of this, she said, the public is being blindsided by the federal govern- ment's piecemeal process of re-prioritiz- ation. People are getting things in small bits and not necessarily putting them together,’ King said. The cuts to Status of Women Can- ada come despite a report in September 2005 by the Expert Panel on Account- ability Mechanisms for Gender Equality that found serious problems in gender- equality issues in Canada. The report recommended the program's significant strengthening so that it may operate as an_effective gender equality watchdog group. It pointed to severe gender disparities in income, employment opportunities, sexual assault cases, single-parent fam- ilies and unpaid work, among other areas. King suggested that there is an un- realistic assumption among the public that the court system is entirely just and that equal-rights cases are a thing of the past. REAL Women of.Canada, an organ- ization that has defended the traditional definition of marriage in court and pro- motes a “Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage and family life’ has lobbied the government to reduce or eliminate funding for gender equality groups, on the grounds that their funding is biased towards feminist organizations. “I think that [there are other issues that] mean more to people than pay equity does,’ said Gwen Landolt, na- tional vice-president of REAL. “We would like the whole Status of Women to be abandoned or disbanded.” Many of those involved with the pol- itical process have objected to what they see is a clearly ideological approach to government funding. “Womens organizations are being forced to shut their doors,’ said Irene Mathyssen, NDP critic for the status of women. Mathyssen declared the cuts an attempt to “de-fang” the women's move- ment. The Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action noted that consti- tutional cases involving gender equality are often too expensive to mount single- handedly for those whom the discrimin- ation affects most. They argue that cuts to publicly funded constitutional rights cases present a clear picture of the Con- setvative government’ priorities. Nine professional and university organizations associated with the ad- vancement of women released a joint media statement, suggesting the cuts fly in the face of Canada’s commitment to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The federal government's annual ex- penditures amount to roughly $210 billion. The government has placed the $13.2 billion budget surplus for fis- cal year 2005-06 towards reducing the federal debt, which is $481.5 billion, or roughly 35 per cent of GDP, The federal government says repaying the federal debt is a larger priority. Other programs affected by the ex- penditure review include the elimina- tion of the GST rebate for tourists, a $9.7-million cut to the Canadian Vol- unteerism Initiative, and a $4.6 million cut to museum funding, ‘The expenditure review also cut $55 million from Human Resources and Skills Development's Summer Career Placement Program, eliminating 25,000 student jobs. ~— . MIKEKWIATKOWSKI THE BROCK PRESS (BROCK UNIVERSITY) ST. CATHARINES, Ont. (CUP) - - Stephen Harper's new border security plan will have 4,400 Canadian border guards equipped with firearms in an ef- fort to bolster Canada's security meas- ures over the next 10 years. Part of the plan also includes hiring 400 new permanent Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) officers across Canada, in an effort to eliminate the current situation where guards often work by themselves. “Arming CBSA officers and eliminat- ing situations. where these officers work alone will allow them to do their job bet- ter and more effectively,’ said the Prime Minister in a recent press release. “This continues to show that this government believes in secure, efficient borders, and is getting things done for Canadian fam- ilies and taxpayers.’ Fully trained officers with firearms will be expected to be on patrol by Septem- March 31, 2008. The final implementation is expected to be completed over the course of 10 years. The decision to arm CBSA officers is part of Harper's election and budget promises to increase border security. The federal budget currently has $101 million over two years committed to the new border security plan. Ron Moran, president of the Customs Excise Union, was pleased the govern- ment has finally decided to give the CBSA officers the protection they need ber 2007, with 150 more being added by: Government Aims to Arm Border Guards by 2007 Plan will also increase number of officers after appealing to the government about the issue over the past 22 years. “Its been one of our most long-stand- ing battles that our organization has known and it was getting frustrating dealing with the Liberals on this be- cause they were so entrenched in their position not to arm [the officers],” said Moran. “It’s one thing to stick your head in the sand and pretend things are not as dangerous as they are but it's another to bury evidence in the sand, which is what we caught [the Liberal government] do- ing,’ said Moran. Moran also said that the issue of arm- ing the officers is overshadowing the im- provement of not having officers work alone, especially in some of the more remote locations along the border. “Some of our members [work] very remotely, where if they needed backup, it is literally calculable in hours, so they're screwed if they get into a situa- tion where they require backup. The doubling up, to the men and women that work remotely, is the biggest issue and just as important to them as [having side-arms],’ said Moran. “The near misses are such that the of- ficers are relieved that the government didn't wait for a tragedy to occur and that they have the foresight to acknow- ledge this,’ said Moran. The decision to arm the officers is causing some controversy because of the history of Canada’s stance on firearms.