SPOTLIGHT:
Danke danke

> DSU German Club hopes to revive passion
for Modern Languages department

Aaron Guillen
Staff Reporter

 

D iversity has always been an

important aspect at Douglas
College, and one of the newest clubs has
paved a way to appreciate language and
culture even more.

Students in German courses—or
any who are interested in learning a new
language—have an opportunity to learn
further about German language and
culture. Reah Aurora and Nicole Thom,
President and Vice President of the DSU
German Club, believe that this modern
language deserves more appreciation.

“We are language buffs and
language is something that is
important,” said Aurora. “German is
spoken officially in six countries, and is
the official language in three of them.
German is good to have on your roster.
It’s like learning Mandarin; it just makes
sense.”

In the Winter 2016 semester, both
women were enrolled in MODL 1131,
Basic German 1, and found that they
didn't have any additional support to
learn the language after their weekly
speech labs. As they moved onto
Basic German 2 and the student pool
narrowed, both found it necessary to
create a space to study the language.
Asa German study group, Aurora
and Thom ran the collective for the
past year and have now opened it to
all students—not only to increase
awareness of the language, but in the
aim of boosting all MODL courses.

“Not only is [the club] for personal
interest, studying, and practicing,
it’s beneficial for the school to draw
attention to the Modern Language
department, which is in decline,” said
Thom.

“Here you can't get a diploma in
modern languages,” said Aurora. “It’s
imperative that we create a need for it
again so that the school will identify it
as something that should bea diploma.”

The DSU German
Club meets every
Wednesday at 4:30
p.m. Stay updated
on their Facebook
page for where

to meet, as the
DSU has yet to
find a permanent
room for them.

 

In addition, the club hopes to find
student interest from UBC and SFU,
fellow institutions that run German
courses. Thom expressed her concern
that such courses would diminish in the
future.

“Eventually, our goal is to find a
way to campaign [for any student] to
study here at Douglas to take German.
It’s much cheaper and the class sizes are
small,” said Thom.

While learning German in the club,
Aurora hopes to break stereotypes.

“We love bringing on native
Germans because they are our access
to culture. Those in Basic German 1
or not in a language course might not
know about the culture itself and
have preconceived notions, [such as
thinking] that Germans are too serious
and can't take a joke. For example,
Annie, one of the native German girls,
has probably the most lighthearted and
charming personality. We want to fix
the 1930s vision that people might have.”

Looking towards the future, both
leaders hope to plan a wrap-up event
that would promote their club further
and open the floor for students to
socialize and ask questions about the

club.

Waiting for death

> Dark week for New Westminster
healthcare alludes to larger issue

Mercedes Deutscher
News Editor

 

raser Health came under scrutiny this
week when a story emerged about

a New Westminster woman passing
away in the waiting room of the Royal
Columbian Hospital (RCH). She had
been waiting for a bed to open up.

Surjit Kaur, a 73-year-old woman,
had her treatment delayed on March
14. After battling a difficult bladder
infection and an unsuccessful dosage of
antibiotics, Kaur was taken to the hospital
by her family. Despite suffering excessive
vomiting and diarrhea for the previous
week, the staff at RCH told Kaur’s family
that they could not check on vitals or
administer any treatments until Kaur
could be moved to a hospital bed. All the
beds were full at the time. Kaur’s health
deteriorated significantly in the hours
she spent in the hospital waiting room in
a wheelchair. By the time her condition
was noticed by healthcare professionals
and she was placed ina bed, she was
in the final 20 minutes of her life.

Fraser Health stated to Global
News that they “..have been working
closely with the family, including
arranging meetings with clinical staff and
administration. We have reviewed the
patient’s chart and have shared all of the
information related to her care with the
family. Unfortunately, this woman was
very ill. It is hard to lose a loved one. We
are continuing to work with the family
to support them through their loss.”

Fraser Health and provincial
healthcare was criticized by New

Westminster MLA Judy Darcy.

“There has been one crisis after
another, in one emergency room after
another in Fraser Health. We've raised
this issue repeatedly in the legislature.
It’s long overdue that the government
stepped in and took responsibility,”
Darcy said to Global News.

Long hospital wait times are a
common occurrence in BC hospitals.
While wait times in hospitals like
Vancouver General Hospital and St.
Paul’s Hospital are usually less than
half an hour, many hospitals have an
average wait time of multiple hours, with
Richmond General Hospital having an
average wait time of 3.5 hours, according
to Emergency Wait Times. No data
could be found on the average wait
time of Royal Columbian patients.

Kaut’s death is only the most
recent case in a slew of tragedies
that may have been prevented with
quicker or more thorough attention to
these patients. Since September 2016,
there has been three cases of alleged
negligence in hospitals that have yielded
tragic results. While these patients
were seen, they were sent home with
shots or prescriptions, and met their
demise within days of their visit.

Kaur’s niece, Amarjit Minhas, is a
nurse herself, and lamented the state
of the waiting and emergency room.

“I’m just so sad that I work ina
system where this kind of thing can
happen. I worked in the ER 30 years ago,
and things were bad then and there have
been some improvement, but things are
still as bad,” said Minhas to Global News.

 

Douglas College presents
Fentanyl: Breaking the Cycle

> Overdose crisis prompts discussion from doctors and police

Greg Waldock
Staff Writer

 

n March 30, Douglas College

hosted its second Urban Challenges
panel: Fentanyl: Breaking the Cycle.

The panel was hosted by the
SFU Faculty of Health Sciences’ Dr.
Julian Somers and New Westminster
Chief Constable Dave Jones. Together,
they covered the basics of the

ongoing Vancouver fentanyl crisis
and the difficulties in educating
people on the drug’s risk.

Somers broke up the overdose

cases into two groups of people:
ordinary people who are overprescribed
and undereducated on opioids, and
homeless people with pre-existing
mental health issues, disabilities,
traumas, or addictions. Each group,
Somers explained, needs a different

governmental approach. People with
homes and jobs need to be educated on
the dangers of opioid dependency, and
homeless people need shelter in order
to receive more regular medical care.
Jones discussed the changing role
of the police in Vancouver over the last
two decades, from law enforcement to
life preservation as deaths from drug
overdose overwhelms a healthcare
system that is not built to adequately

deal with the problem. He also

emphasized the need for doctors to

educate their patients on the withdrawal

and addictiveness of opioid prescriptions.
Both encouraged the need for

solutions to homelessness, the de-

stigmatization of mental health issues,

and an awareness of the humans

behind the increasing overdose

statistics in Metro Vancouver.