The CFS: Controversial but vital

" By Wendy A. Case

egardless of how long
; you have been at Douglas
ollege, you have

undoubtedly heard of the Canadian
_ Federation of Students (CFS). The
© CFS is a somewhat controversial
national student union made up

of smaller student unions. The
Douglas Students’ Union (DSU) is
» one of them. The role of the CFS

= has been receiving more attention
than usual due to the attempts of
three B.C. members to remove
their organizations from the CFS
last spring. The big question at
Douglas is whether or not the CFS
is a vital part of the student society
or merely another money-grabbing
organization that seems to take and
take from Douglas students.

The CFS is something that
Douglas students probably don’t
think about on a regular basis.
However, over the past few years,
the CFS has become increasingly
important with the decline of the
~ student society. The CFS has helped

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STUDENT SOCIETY BUILDING

 

the students of Douglas College
in many ways that students don’t
even realize. While I don’t agree
with their methods, it is hard to
ignore the good that the Canadian
Federation of Students has done at
Douglas.

When the Douglas Students’
Union was torn apart by corruption,
students were the victims. After the
Health and Dental Plan Premiums
that full-time students pay were
redirected towards the purchase
of the Subway building, students
were in danger of losing their health
and dental coverage. It was the
Canadian Federation of Students to
the rescue. CFS-BC approved loans
to the DSU to cover the health and
dental plan premiums that they, to
this day, claim were advances on
the health plan. These loans kept
the DSU from defaulting on the
coverage and meant that students
were able to get the coverage that
they needed. These loans—or
advances, whichever you would
like to call them—were a bone of
contention for the de-federation-

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attempting student societies last _
year.

Since the DSU was put in
receivership in January of 2007, the
CFS has kept a presence at Douglas.
Last year, during another Health
and Dental Plan crisis, where UCFV
students attending the Criminology
program at Douglas were unable
to opt-in to the plan, CFS services,
in conjunction with Marne Jensen,
brought in the CFS coordinator of
the Student Health Network, which
runs the DSU Health and Dental
Plan to fix the problem.

The CFS has helped the DSU

-in crisis after crisis. Without the

CFS, the most used student society
services at Douglas would not

be available. These include the
Health and Dental Plan and the
International Student Identity Card.
The CFS is a crucial entity. Whether
or not you agree that the CFS is
good or bad outside of Douglas
College, at Douglas the fact remains
that the CFS is essential.

 

Translink Transstinks: The gauntlet of the rush

hour commute

By Natalie Nathanson platform to the point where they’ re

I can’t remember how many

very morning on my way
HE: work I imagine different

terrible misfortunes happening
upon me that would provide a
sufficient enough excuse to not come
in to work. Do I hate my job? No, it’s
quite pleasant actually. I just don’t
like seeing my life flash before my
eyes every morning. I don’t play
in traffic or anything; I just get on
the SkyTrain going westbound at
Broadway Station.

Broadway Station is the central
hub of the transit world where three
major routes collide, and at rush hour,
it becomes a cacophony of grumpy
businessmen, obnoxious Blackberry
owners and overly anxious Burrard
street office types who can’t wait
to get to work and crunch numbers
all day. So, why does my life flash
before my eyes?

That yellow line. That horrid
yellow line that everyone seems to
ignore.

It’s placed there for our safety;
but during the morning rush, people
seem to throw common sense and
caution to the wind in an attempt to
weasel their way to the front of the

inches away from the edge. It makes
me cringe. I could literally tap them
and they’d fall right in. It would
serve them right. I, on the other hand,
am a yellow line-abiding citizen,
because quite frankly, anything

past it scares the shit out of me. But
what really makes my heart jump is
when the wankers behind me start
urging me forward, forward past the
yellow line, before the train rumbles
into the platform, forward into the
tracks of certain death. So, I become
a wimp and let them crowd ahead
of me, which usually makes me late
for work. But if they want to die by
train, that’s fine by me. I must admit I
smirk a little whenever the SkyTrain
dudes come up and yell at people to
step back for their own safety. Don’t
bother, I say; they’re idiots.

I was once nearly pushed onto
the tracks; an idiot with a large bag
rushed past behind me and nearly
knocked me over into an oncoming
train. My stomach jumped into my
throat and my teeth bit my tongue.
The train itself in the morning is very
reminiscent of being herded into a
cattle car and sent off to some meat
packing plant.

times I’ve nearly broken a bone from
being crushed by the weight of fifty
people cramming into the tiny doors
of the already packed car. One day

I wish I could work up the courage
to push back and yell, “We’re not
sardines, so stop making me feel like
one, assholes!”

But what’s the use? How do you
break grown adults of their horrid
transit habits? It just can’t be done.

So, in a brilliant attempt to try
and remedy the hazardous platform
situation at Broadway Station,
TransLink is now upgrading the
station to increase platform capacity.
The platform does not need its
capacity increased; there are already
too many people on it as it is. What’s
needed is train capacity, and trains
coming more often! No more two
cars per train! If they made every
train a four-car train, the platform
would never be so unmanageable.
People might still be packed like
sardines, but at least we wouldn’t
have to risk our lives getting to work
every morning.

  

 

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