the other press

Erica Cross
OP Contributor

On Tuesday, January 14 the Douglas Students’ Union
held a pancake breakfast at the New Westminster campus
as a “give-back” to the students.

Organizer Micheal Ouellet, Internal Relations
Coordinator for the DSU referred to the breakfast as a
chance to show the students what the Students’ Union is
all about.

“Each student pays $25 with tuition that goes toward
the Students’ Union and we know that tuition is high, so
we hold these breakfasts for free to help give back to the
students,” he explained.

Tuesday morning around 100 people ate their breakfast
at the Students’ Union.

Student Stephanie Alleyn thinks the pancake breakfast
was great.

“[The pancakes were] very tasty and fluffy. They
should do this more often,” she said.

With a small shopping list that includes batter, orange
juice, paper plates and plastic forks, Ouellet hoped to be
able to serve more breakfasts than last year.

This year the DSU held only two breakfasts, one at the
New Westminster campus and one at David Lam, but

News
http://otherpress.douglas.bc.ca

DSU Gives Back With Free Breakfast

with everything the Students’ Union does, that’s all there
is time for.

Last year, at the David Lam campus, the DSU held a
pancake breakfast in the cafeteria, but it cost $2 per plate
with proceeds going to charity, and local firemen were
serving.

The DSU decided to hold their breakfast in the
Students’ Union building this time because only certified
workers can work behind the grill in the cafeteria, and
the DSU building is much more comfortable and
relaxed.

If you missed the signs that advertised the free pan-
cakes, have no fear. Next time the Students’ Union is
planning on much more advertising, with extra flyers, so
hopefully they'll have a bigger turn out. Ouellet’s goal is
to have students lined up around the building with their
mouths watering for those beautiful, fluffy pancakes.

The Students’ Union’s next event is Pub Night on
January 23 from 5:30pm—1:00am in the DSU building
at the New Westminster campus. There will be cheap
drinks and tons of spaghetti, so check it out!

Jodi Garwood
The Peak

BURNABY, BC (CUP)—First Nations
and environmental groups held an inter-
national day of protest against fish farm
expansion on BC's central coast
Wednesday.

Demonstrations against the practices
and expansion of Norway's Pan Fish
International, the second-largest farmed
salmon producer in the world, were held
in Ocean Falls, BC and Vancouver, in
addition to Seattle, Hamburg and Hong
Kong. Members of the Nuxalk and
Heiltsuk Nations, Raincoast Conservation
Society, Americans for Wild Pacific
Salmon, Forest Action Network, and
other groups participated in the protests,
which highlighted growing concern over
the impact of fish farming on human
health, wild salmon populations and the
environment.

Omega Salmon Group, owned by Pan
Fish International, plans to build a salmon
farm in Ocean Falls, the heart of what
environmentalists have dubbed BC’s
“Great Bear Rainforest,” despite vocal

opposition. According to protest organiz-
ers, an Atlantic salmon fish farm would be
both environmentally and economically
devastating for communities in the region.

“The international day of protest against
BC fish farm expansion [aims] to protect
the Great Bear Rainforest and to assert
some respect for First Nations’ rights and
the rights of local communities against
this blatant disregard for wild ecosystems
and local communities on the British
Columbia coast,” said Theresa
Rothenbush of Raincoast Conservation
Society at the Vancouver protest.

Clement Lam from Forest Action
Network said provincial and federal inac-
tion has left the groups no choice but to
take their campaign to the international
community.

“The movement has already started to
the United States a few months ago and
now this is the first step to Europe,” said
Lam.

For Ian Reid, a Heiltsuk youth from
Bella Bella, BC, a community near Ocean

Falls,
there was
also a need to
speak to an audience a
little closer to home. He
came to the Vancouver rally

to bring awareness about fish farming to
BC’s urban population.

“We certainly don’t see it here in the city,
the damage it does to our wildlife and the
life underneath the ocean,” Reid said. “It’s
just around the corner from our village,
it’s just right around the bend, poisoning
all our crabs, our clams, everything.”

Reid, along with others at the Vancouver
rally asked people to demand that restau-
rants and grocery stores stop serving
farmed salmon.

Approximately 100 people attended the
rally outside the Norwegian consulate in
Vancouver, which was followed by a pri-
vate meeting between consulate officials
and demonstration organizers. They used

January 22, 2003

 

 

International Protest Targets Fish Farms

First Nations and environmentalists rally against
health and environmental threat in Vancouver

 
    
  
 
 
 
 

the brief meeting to present the
Norwegian government with letters of
opposition to the Ocean Falls salmon
farm and the corpses of two Atlantic
farmed salmon that had escaped into the
wild.

“Norway, a country that’s typically very
socially and environmentally responsible,
has a company operating in Canadian
waters in a very irresponsible manner,”
Rothenbush said. “We want [the con-
sulate] to take this message back home to
the Norwegian public to put pressure on
the company to change their activities in
Canadian waters.”

 

 

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