NEWS Student Union Speak The Official Voice of the Douglas Students’ Union By Matthew Steinbach, DSU College Relations Officer WV ines going on at the Douglas Students’ Union, I hear this very often. What does the Douglas Students’ Union do? These are just a few of the questions, I have heard over the last several months. I hope to put an end to them for a while. The Douglas Students’ Union has been through a recession; we lost relevance with students over the last few years. Thus every election has been fought on saving the good name of the Union. Finally the last election was fought on this again. This time, the Students’ Union has decided to re-invent itself while undertaking its mandate to rebuild the organization. Since then we have focused on negotiating the U-Pass with Douglas College, we are fighting for a direct bus between Douglas’ campuses. We are pushing to make the New Westminster Campus greener, including paper recycling in every classroom. This is a victory which we should see come in before the next school year. We’ve also been advocating for your interests in many other ways, drop by our offices at either campuses, find out more about what we are doing and sign our petitions! We also have many events; the next one is the Welcome Back Pub Night happening on January 31“, 2008 at 8:00pm in New Westminster. Come by and chill out while listening to some excellent DJ-ing by one of Douglas’ own DJs. This will be our first pub night since Hallowe’ en and as always we make it our goal to make each event bigger and better. Be there to see how successful we are! The Douglas Students’ Union also provides plenty of services for you to use while you are at Douglas College. We recently started the online book swap. This is a textbook buy and sell service that puts/or saves you more money than by using the bookstore. Ambitious scheme? Ask one of the 500 (or 5% of students) members at Douglas who are already using the service what they think of it. We also have the extended health and dental plan, the ISIC Cards, which save you on VIA RAIL and Greyhound, and other quality services across Canada and in other countries too, free Canadian Springs Water, just bring your own water bottle, housing registry, we offer the only faxing service, cheap photocopying, and the only colour photocopier accessible to students is in our New Westminster office, etc. We also offer lockers at both campuses to provide students a safe place to store their belongings at both campuses. Check out www.cfslocal 18. ca for more details. The Douglas Students’ Union is a very busy place, but we are always happy to see our membership, so drop on by and one of our Representatives or excellent staff will be happy to discuss what we are up to. Powertul Statements Conclude Michael Levy Trial By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor O. Wednesday, January 23, Michael Levy’s sister Crystal, read her victim impact statement to the three young men found guilty of doing such horrible damage to her brother. Michael Levy, 19, is the victim of one of the most tragic attacks in years. On October 26, 2006, he was randomly assaulted outside a big party on Tynehead Hill in Surrey. The unprovoked attack was the action of Robert Green, Tuan Nguyen, and an unidentifiable minor. As Levy was leaving the party, he was grabbed and severely beaten. The minor, whose identity cannot be revealed in accordance with the Young Offenders Act, repeatedly hit Michael with a hatchet, severing his spinal cord. Nguyen swarmed Michael with a barrage 6 of fists. All three of the perpetrators are 17 years old, and all were convicted of aggravated assault. Nguyen and Green were both sentenced as adults, which is why their names were disclosed. Green, who pepper-sprayed Michael and smashed a bottle over his head, received three years in prison while Nguyen got only a 20- month conditional sentence. In a truly disgusting scene, Nguyen and Green were shown laughing hysterically at their sentences after their hearing. Green will serve out the remainder of his sentence, which has a year removed for time already served, at a youth correctional facility in Burnaby. Green never progressed past Grade 10, and will take classes at the facility. The Crown has _ appealed Nguyen’s sentence, with the appeal date set tentatively for February 14. Michael Levy is now a paraplegic, and will likely require assisted living for the rest of his life. He had aspirations of joining the Canadian military, and now has trouble using his hands. The third teen is currently in the process of being sentenced, and there has been much clamouring for him to be sentenced as an adult. “I hope he gets tried as an adult,” said Carol Lawrie. “This poor boy will never walk again, all three of them should go to jail for a long, long time.” Before sentencing of the third attacker, the victim impact statements were read, and brought almost all who heard them to the brink of tears as Crystal Levy expressed her anger and SOITOW. speaking on behalf of my mom, my brother — and myself. Writing this was the second- hardest thing I’ve ever had to | do. The first was ~ spending 15 hours in an airport not knowing if my “The only thing that I have to look forward to is that someday you will die.” baby brother was going to be there when we got to the hospital. Tears are just the tip of the iceberg. There are no words graphic enough to describe the anger, | am now disabled.” “When you love someone, you can’t help but take on their burden as your own. Michael would pick me up and throw me over his shoulder. Now it’s a struggle for him to use a fork. On his 19" birthday, he couldn’t even open his own birthday gift.” “I have dreams Michael can walk, he’s normal, he’s happy, to say that I absolutely hate you would be an understatement,” she said as she looked at the youth, who refused to meet her eyes. “The only thing that I have to look forward to is that someday you will die. On the day of judgement, you will get what you deserve.”