News.

Unexpected disappearance downtown

Young man missing since mid-December

—_

@ Matthew Huszar
By David Hollinshead, Staff Writer

ver a month into
their investigation,
the Vancouver Police

Department still haven’t made

any progress on the unexplained
disappearance of 25-year-old UBC
graduate Matthew Huszar. Despite
extensive searches by the police,

 

flyers all over the downtown

area, and have offered a reward

for anyone who brings forward
information that leads to their
son—but the family has received no
direct information, which they’ ve
described as, “very discouraging at
this point.”

Huszar’s girlfriend, Emilie
Whittemore, came in from Colorado
to aid in the search. Whittemore
had spoken to Huszar just hours
before his disappearance.

“There is no reason whatsoever
that he would leave. He’s a
successful geologist. He has a great
family that cares about him—just
got a sailboat,” Whittemore said.
“He is loved. He is very much
loved and everybody wants him
home, and to be strong if he is in
a difficult situation and just work

on coming home, and we are all
thinking about him.”

With this reach out, she also
refuses to give up hope. The couple
had planned on going skiing
together during the winter—plans
halted by Huszar’s unexpected
disappearance.

Huszar, an East Vancouver
resident, was working for Pretium
Resources and had no known
addiction or mental illness.

Huszar is a Caucasian male,
about five-foot-ten inches tall and
160 pounds. He has shoulder-length
brown hair and brown eyes. He was
last seen wearing a white-and-blue
checkered shirt, black dress pants,
and a dark green tweed coat.

Police urge anyone who has
information on Matthew Huszar to
call 911.

friends, and family, no indication of
his whereabouts has been found.
Huszar was last seen
on December 16 leaving the
Lamplig’ ter Pub in Gastown,
where he was attending an office
Christmas party. His disappearance
is being characterized as
“completely out of character.”
Huszar’s parents have posted

 

International Day brings multiculturalism to the concourse
Two-day celebration was alive at both campuses

By Dylan Hackett, News Editor

he concourses of both
* [ess campuses were

lit up last week with flags,
food, and dance as the diverse
cultural make-up of Douglas
College was expressed in booths,
slideshows, and presentations for
International Day.

The cultural exhibit
booths were hosted by student
ambassadors who talked about
their cultures and explained
artifacts, language sheets, and
traditional garbs worn by their
people. Student representative
for India, Azra Verjee talked
about India’s sometime
misrepresentation to the Douglas
population.

“T think there’s a lot of
misrepresentation. There’s a lot of
people with Indian background
here, but when other people
see Indian they either think of
varying extremes of religions,”
said Verjee. “They think of maybe
Sikhs which are only a certain
part. For example, I’m Muslim,
there’s a lot of Hindus and they
all have so many cultures within
India. By having something like
this [International Day] we can
show that we’ve got such a range
of peoples.”

The Immigrant Services
Society of British Columbia
also had a table at the event,
recruiting potential volunteers for
the group’s myriad of services.
“At the New Westminster
4

campus we had 25 students sign
up to volunteer,” claimed Elsie
Decena, Volunteer Connections
Facilitator for the Settlement and
Integration Program.

Also hosting a table was
Maria Morse, Program Assistant
for the Centre for Campus
Life at Douglas, representing
Douglas’ Zambia trip. The group
was raffling Canucks tickets at
International Day. “One of the
things we want to do here is
raise money,” said Morse. “One
of the things we thought would
fit in the international theme
was a little fundraiser and of
course who could say ‘no’ to
the chance of winning Canucks
tickets. The odds are pretty good.
Last year we had a college-wide
Canucks ticket sale. It was done
as an Official raffle. You could
buy Canucks tickets and it was
very well received by all the
campuses.”

International food and dance
were sampled and performed as
well, giving Douglas students
tastes of both cuisine and
tradition.

Keynote speaker Dr.
Samantha Nutt, founder of
humanitarian group War Child,
highlighted the New Westminster
campus’ Wednesday night and
spoke to the packed Laura C.
Muir Theatre about her anti-
poverty activist work as a
medical professional and author.

   

@ Flickr / Douglas College