Volume 16, Issue 9 January 27, 2010 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Andrew Bailey MANAGING EDITOR Stephanie McCullough (Vacant) PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Tyler Clarke (Vacant) GENERAL OFFICE ASSISTANT Kali Flick COPY EDITOR Helen Hogeterp NEWS EDITOR Shelby Petersen ARTS EDITOR Vacant SPORTS EDITOR Andrew Bailey (Vacant) PHOTO EDITOR Aria Hannolyn Cheng AD MANAGER Vacant CLUBS EDITOR Vacant CONTRIBUTORS Thomas Cheney Haakon Sullivan Deadline for submissions for next issue is Wednesday February 17, 2010 Over the Edge is the official independent publishing media of students at the University of Northern British Columbia. As such, it is our mandate to report on issues of interest to students in the Northern Region. We encourage all students, both on the main and regional campuses to submit to Over the Edge. Over the Edge is part of the Canadian Uni- versity Press network of papers, otherwise known as CUP. CUP is an organization that is entirely owned by member papers, and provides such services as a news wire and advertising to Over the Edge. Over the Edge is published every second week during the fall and winter semesters. OFFICE LOCATION 6-350 MAILING ADDRESS 3333 University Way Prince George, BC V2N 429 PHONE (250) 960-5633 FAX (250) 960-5407 E-mail over-the-edge@unbc.ca Memo From the Boss youre midterms and papers are going well. I find myself very far behind in my studies, as always tends to happen, but hopefully like the rest of you slackers I'll be able to pull through. Welcome to this sensational is- sue of Over the Edge. It was put together by our new interim production coordinator Tyler Clarke and therefore looks awesome. I suppose I am obligated to wish y'all a happy Valentines Day so there you go, you're wel- come. Olympic protest, continued from Page 1 I can feel the grip on your juice-box slipping so let’s take a quick break. I’m going to spend my me- time surfing through profiles of single ladies in my area, All the 25 year olds on my chosen singles site look really old. Do I look that old? Anyone looking to make a couple extra bucks: I will give 10 dollars to the person who emails me the most flattering list of at least 10 people 25 or younger who look older than me. I have a moderate grasp of reality so dont be too creative. Deadline for submissions is next Wednesday the 17th of February. Seriously, it’s 10 bucks, that's a pitcher of beer at the Thirsty Moose on a Thursday, or a pack of smokes, or 2 foot-longs from Subway, which I still don’t think is that great a deal much less a bargain that deserves a whole ad campaign and epic- fail jingle, but still 10 bucks all, make it yours. There's the bell, back to class. While most of the folks who congregated at the Exhibition Grounds were there to celebrate the Olympic spirit and welcome the Torch, a small group of roughly 20 local heroes stood near the main-stage holding signs and shouting deroga- tory comments about those same Olympics. The Olympic festivities had actually started earlier on in the day with a parade at which the afternoon pro- test group is reported to have been over 50 heroes strong, Thad spent the day drinking and arguing with my coffee table over whether or not there was a basketball game to watch that night and therefore missed the afternoon affair, but according to one protestor, a red-headed chic named Nikki Mitten, (in case you didn't notice I tend to seek out the red- heads for comments, I've got a type. 1 part Jagger- meister, 1 part Peach Schnapps, 1 part Cranberry Juice makes 1 part of Andrew Bailey very happy) the protestors had gotten a lot of attention during the day, says Mitten “during the parade a lady on one of the parade floats saw [the protestors] and said into the microphone oh this is awkward’ and a couple of old people yelled ‘get a job’ at us when we were walking into the Exhibition area.” Gingetaculars aside, there were also a slew of famous UNBC faces in the crowd. PGPIRG guru Nick Ehlers was one of the more prominent protes- tors in the pack, He explained to me that he is “not against the concept of the Olympics, just against the wastefulness.’ This attitude was illustrated through the words on his sign, which read “Live'n'Learn. Simple Changes 4 a Sustainable Olympics, Change is necessary: 1- Re-use Host Cities, 2- Reduce Wasteful Spending on infrastructure solely for the Olympics. 3- Re-Allocate funds to —-communities- schools- local initia- tives.” Yeah I thought it was a little long too but I promised him Id include all of it and you don't mess with the leader of UNBC’s 2nd most active and respected society on campus, even if youre the boss of the 1st. Jonathan Van Barneveld, the Presidential Co-Chair of UNBC’s Young New Demo- crats (gross) was also there, however he had focused most of his protest powers a few hours before the Exhibition Grounds rally by protesting for the School District at a peaceful demonstration held on Ferry Avenue. Van Barneveld illustrated his anger towards Olympic spending by explaining to me: “B.C. is currently winning the Gold Medal in Child Poverty. Closing a school saves approximately $200, 000 while the gov- ernment pays our athletes $100, 000 per gold medal. So that means two gold medals for each school.” I'm thinking, that given Jack Layton’s recent announcement, I should probably re- move the parenthesized gross that I included above to illustrate my distaste for the NDP. However, I respect Layton as a fighter and therefore feel I would be showing him disrespect by taking it easy on his party simply due to his current illness. We here at Over the Edge wish Mr. Layton all the best and will be praying for his recovery. Many of the signs also raised the issue of the Olympics taking place on Aboriginal soil, For example: Jeremy Pahl held up a sign reading “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land,” and Shannon Bird held a sign reading “Solidarity with First Nations.’ There were also chants of “Indigenous rights” being yelled throughout the ceremony, among other chants. In fact the level of energy among the protestors was extremely impressive as they kept up the shouting and general protest awesomeness through the entire duration of the event. Even the awesome fireworks display at the end of the celebration failed to distract them. I, on the other hand, love fireworks, but then again I am not a protestor, just a noble newsman telling y'all what went down. We here at Over the Edge are reach- ing mid-season form as you can tell by the fantastic copy within this fine newspaper's pages. Much love for the huge support we have been getting, your words of praise are always awesome however we could always use more content so anyone thinking about writing for us should not hesitate to email us your articles, stories, or ideas. If you want to write but have no idea what to write about just email us, or come into our fantastic of fice located in room 6-350 above the Thirsty Moose Pub, and we will steer you in an awe- some direction. We are also currently hiring Over the Edge, February 10-24, 2010 so look to the bar at the left of this page, any position with the word vacant underneath is one you should apply for immediately! But it just turned midnight on Sunday and I've got a mid-term tomorrow afternoon so I gotta go study for that. Good luck to all of you and many thanks for picking up and reading this paper. Hopefully you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy putting it all together for you. Andrew Bailey Tyler Clarke, production coordinator UNBC president George Ilwama gives a speech about leadership and dedication during the Olympic community celebration at the Exploration Park, January 29. It was a well put together protest to be sure. The protestors were of course, moni- tored closely by several RCMP officials, however there were no disputes and not a shred of violence occurred. Robyn Ocean's name was dropped by a large percentage of the protestors as one of the main organizational heroes of the rally. Ocean is obviously an| exceptionally well known pillar of the Prince George community and such an organized demonstration has her classic soy-covered fingerprints all over it. Despite all this, the Olympics will occur. Many of us will watch and cheer on our Nation's best as they compete against the top athletes from all over the world. A cool fact in this Olympic Games is that the podiums for medal winners will be made from| Northern pine beetle stained wood. So that is neat, and hopefully some rich investor will see them and think that the wood is awesome and Prince George's economy can boom again. However, just because the Olympics happen does not mean the protests were done in vain. It is of the utmost importance that we as Canadians voice our opin- ions when we feel the government is not acting in our best interest. We are the Nation] of Luis Riel, Nellie McClung, and the great Pierre Trudeau. Sitting back and allowing injustices within Canada to occur is not in our blood or our culture. The existence of al Canadian culture is often argued against, but those who would argue its presence did| not witness the electrifying display of patriotism and Canadianism shown by the heroes carrying signs and voicing their angst in a peaceful display based on their belief that their Country is not acting in accordance with its people. It was beautiful, it was non-violent, and it was effective. It was truly Canadian. On a personal note, I must express much love to my new friends Math, Eldon, Nikki, Alicia and Bertha who showed me great hospitality after the protest and provided me with much cheer, Many thanks to yall for the complimentary cake and beer, and a very, happy birthday to you Bertha, May this year bring nothing but rainbows and roller- coasters. Thanks to you noble allies, my belief that if one gets drunk enough cake will] eventually present itself, has been reaffirmed. Joyeux, content, heureux eh.