International Women’s Day celebrated on March 8" By Shaylee Pérez, Associate News Editor he 98" International Women’s Day took place on Sunday, March 8" this year. In Canada, celebrations begin March 2™ and carry on for the week until March 8". The theme for 2009 in our country is “Strong leadership. Strong women. Strong world. Equality.” The women’s day initiative is strongly backed by the United Nations, whom declared the year 1975 as International Women’s Year and in 1977, passed a resolution calling all member state’s to recognize a day for women’s rights. Commemorated with many different themes which reflect current women’s issues, International Women’s Day has traditionally been used as a vehicle for further awareness. It began as day of recognition for working and voting rights of women, and is now a day of appreciation and celebration for all the progress made for women’s rights as well as the acknowledgement for the need to continue striving for even more equality. The first International Women’s Day was established March 8° 1909, one year after 15,000 women walked the streets of New York City in protest, calling for shortened work hours, better pay and suffrage. It also reached popularity after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which killed over 140 female garment workers in New York, calling attention to the atrocious conditions imposed on the women workers of that time. It is traditionally celebrated on March 8", although it is the prerogative of each country who honours the holiday which date to proclaim it on. International Women’s Day is an official holiday in over 32 countries, many observers give gifts to women on this day. For more information on International Women’s Day celebrations, visit http://www. at Matthew Laird to run for Green Party in New Westminster riding By Matthew Steinbach, News Editor atthew Laird is expected to be confirmed as the Green Party candidate for the New Westminster riding shortly. Laird most recently ran in the civic elections before being asked to run with the Greens provincially. He decided to run “because a lot of issues facing New Westminster [are only seeing the] Green Party addressing [them],” Laird explained. In this election he hopes to shine a light on a number of issues. One such issue he wants to focus on is the “Gateway Program [which] will have serious problems.” He explained. He sees BC Liberal support for this program, as well the support of federal NDP candidate Dawn Black as a serious concern. He explained that the Gateway project “might not have the demand but both [parties] are going full speed ahead [with Gateway] instead of transit.” He would rather see more environmentally sustainable initiatives pursued which he does not see happening currently. Another issue that Laird is concerned with is education. He explains that he has some familiarity with education since he works at SFU. He wants to see better access for all income levels. He explained that at one point he met a student who “couldn’t afford to use his degree because of debt.” Laird continued that this is a serious problem because recently graduated students “can’t spend money to help the economy.” Instead they are paying off their debt, so he would prefer to see forgivable loans implemented instead. Forgivable loans took prominence during last year’s federal election when Green Party leader Elizabeth May proposed instituting them. The idea behind these loans is that when students complete their degree a certain amount of their money would be forgiven. Many pundits have stated that this proposal would be quite costly to the government and that taxes would have to be raised. However, May explained that money would simply have to be reallocated in response to that statement. internationalwomensday.com. Paramedics could strike next month By Shaylee Pérez, Associate News working, a mediator has been called in Editor to facilitate negotiations. Ambulance Paramedics of BC s early as next month, British claim that they are far behind other Acai paramedics could provinces when it comes to wages be taking job action. because they have only been earning Currently the big issue is wages as the paramedics seek wage increases of 31 percent over five to eight years. The province in turn is offering a one year deal and a two per cent increase along with a signing bonus if contracts are signed by March 31“. The singing bonus technique was also used in 2006 when a large number of public servants renegotiated contracts and the province wished to ensure that negotiations didn’t hinder the Olympics, which will take place next year. In a province-wide mail-in ballot, the roughly 3,500 Ambulance Paramedics of BC voted 96 per cent in favour of job action if necessary with an unprecedented 70 percent of members voting. While no job action is currently planned and indeed would be minimal due to the Essential Services legislation which guarantees a large number of paramedics to continue an extra two per cent wage increase in the past four years bringing them nearly 20 per cent behind paramedics doing equal work in Toronto. According to saveourparamedics. com, working conditions have deteriorated as call volume rises, and the number of ambulances have not risen in accordance. Only 52 per cent of paramedics are able to reach their goals for response times as resources are being swallowed up elsewhere. Also stated on the website is the fact that part-time paramedics (all paramedics start out part-time), make only $2 an hour for “pager pay” — being on-call, which contributes to problems in retaining staff, especially in rural areas. The paramedics wish to regain parity with the Vancouver Police Department, and wish to see steps toward that before considering a new collective agreement.