jIndigenous Children Heard SIMRAN LEHAL News Entror Over 70 First Nations and non-First Nations congregat- ed in lecture hall 7-212 to hear the honourable Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond speak about the rights of the child in BC. Although Canada has ratified the United Nations Con- vention on the Rights of the Child, and has done well for children’s education and health compared to other developed nations, organizations like UNICEF have ex- pressed concer over the welfare of Aboriginal children across the province. In under-privileged areas especially, the quality of life of Aboriginal children is on par with youth in third-world countries. Aboriginal children experience high mortality and dis- ease rates. Only 48% of Aboriginal students graduate from 77% of children under government care are aboriginal. In response to the above alarms, Turpel-Lafond has been appointed to a 5-year term as the first Representative for Children and Youth in BC; Her tole is to help mar- ginalized: children and to suggest improvements to the provinice’s childgare system. “At the end of the day, improving the welfare of children shouldn’t be about legal jargon and budgets. It should be about results and getting down into the root causes of child welfare. It should be about building real supports.” Real supports have been evident in her own life, Born on a Saskatchewan reserve, Turpel-Lafond endured physical mistreatment and family alcoholism before enjoying suc- cess as both a lawyer and judge, having studied at Cam- bridge and Harvard. She claims her cultural roots have provided her with strong motivation. She 1s now married to a First Nations tribal chief, and provides positive sup- port to her own daughters, Although Turpel-Lafond prioritizes good maternal edu- cation and cultural belonging as keys to improvement, she also sees potential in setting up schools specific for the needs of aboriginal youth. Just as the government sup- ports: French Immersion or Montessori programs across the province, she strongly supports school district 57’s proposed Aboriginal Choice School. This proposed ele- mentary school will offer a French-Immersion type pro- gram open to all students in the hopes to foster more cul- tural awareness and connections. Although controversial, Turpel-Lafond suggests “whatever might work, we'll try it.” She also strongly encourages interaction from the north of the province with the south. She’s one of few Victoria bureaucrats who has an office in Prince George staffed her team. provements to the quality of life of First Nations peoples ‘Nations program at UNBC. fis Nevertheless, Turpel-Lafond feels une more gro _ lected, or hurt in this province, we need to ask wh high school across the province. In the north, an alarming ? Apri Sth-September bese 2008 OVER THE EDGE Make Meow Records the Best in Canada! AnNpDREW KuRJATA Actine Epiror in CHier CBC Radio 3 is currently holding a contest to find the best record store in Canada. After the initial round of voting, Meow Records, owned by CFUR alumni Bryndis Ogmund- son, has made the Top 20 short list, and is a strong contender the top spot: The Top 10 short list will be announced on April 9, and voting will continue until April 19, when the ultim- ate top independent record store in Canada will be decided. This is where you come in. The winning store will have a live CBC broadcast featuring their favourite local artist on April 19. This just so happens to be International Record Store Day. Whether or not they win, Meow has already planned festiv- ities including local artists Jeremy Stewart, Naomi Kavka, Concerns of Royalty, Corey Wintermute, Anime and Versus. We have a hell of a music scene here in PG, and this would be a great way to get some national exposure. Not to mention the fact that Meow Records makes a huge contribution to the community, from releasing local al- bums to sponsoring music festivals to starting a Roller- girls league to making downtown a lot more awesome. So head over to radio3.cbc.ca and vote-- once a day, every day. It’s the right thing to do. by members of the north. UNBC ded are also part of Turpel-Lafond admits that there have been steady im j over the past decade. In 1990, for instance, only about | 20% of aboriginal youth graduated from high school compared to the 48% today. The evening itself opened | with the reclamation of heritage by First Nations youth: drumming and dancing was led By ees of ‘the First irst needs to be covered. “For every child who is abused, neg-_ we need and we vise eae We need to hear the bed news A The Budget in Deficit...for Now HAAKON SULLIVAN PHoTo/PRobDuUCTION COORDINATOR After five months of budget prepara- tion the University was all set to pass the budget for the 2008-2009 year. This was all well and good until a week before the vote when the prov- incial government decided to reduce the university’s anticipated funding in- crease by one million dollars because of the province’s decision to shift fund- ing from universities to colleges and trade schools to deal with a shortage in skilled labor. The budget passed in deficit on March 29th because of a combination of the late notice that the government has given and the five months of time put into creating the budget for the next year. It is against government policy to pass a budget that is in deficit and so it could be called illegal to do so. This deficit is only temporary how- ever as the Board of Governors has asked the administration’s budget committee to present a new, balanced budget by June 21st, giving them two months out of the five that they took to draw up the first budget. After talking to Rob van Adrichem, Director of Media Relations, it seems that the university has few options to generate revenue to balance the budget so it seems very likely that cuts will have to be made. Which programs or services will lose funding is unknown at the moment but van Adrichdem said that the cutting of classes or programs is something that the university will try its best to avoid and a small funding decrease among maybe all of the pro- grams is more likely. Increasing student fees is also not an option as it tends to turn away students and the government has a put a cap on the amount that post secondary institutions can charge any- way. Basically, the university will not be taking any cuts lightly. They want to keep a balanced budget but at the same time they want to attract, and keep, stu- dents at UNBC so they don’t want the cuts to have too much of an impact on our academic lives. © What exactly will be cut will be known in June when the Board of Gov- ermors votes on the new budget pro- posed by the Budget Committee.