Continued from page 4

pulled papers from the campus and froze Over the
Edge’s bank account.

That’s when the student newspaper began its
campaign for independence, and lobbied the stu-
dent union to hold a referendum November 8
and 9.

With 338 votes for and 161 against, the refer-
endum achieved the required two-thirds majority
threshold by only eight votes. Sixteen percent of
students voted.

Student-union director of external affairs
Ingrid Hope said she hoped the paper would
interpret the vote as a mandate to improve cover-
age of campus events.

“I hope they’re not going to bash everyone
because they can,” she said. “They need to please
the students; they’re the boss now.”

The student union had lost a newspaper, she
said, but there was no chance it would start a com-
peting publication.

“The student newspaper will still be a newspa-
per for students on campus,” she said.

Behind the referendum results is a serious
financial gain for the paper. Their fees have
increased from $2 per student to $5 per student,
meaning their per-term revenue more than dou-
bled to $17,500.

The paper will hire a bookkeeper, but editors
will remain unpaid for now, said managing editor
Stephanie Wilson.

It will also strive to abide by the university’s
harassment policy, but editors will have the ulti-
mate say in what goes in the paper, she said.

“Tt was blown out of proportion and I’m sorry
it came to this, but I’m glad it ended in our auton-
omy,” Wilson said.

Experts watching the battle for freedom of the
press play out in the microcosm of a university
campus watched with bemusement, said Claude
Adams, a lecturer with the University of BC
school of journalism.

“There’s a real humour deficit on the campus
of UNBC,” he said. “I wonder if they’ve got more
serious issues to deal with than to pick on Swiftian
satire.

“A lot of what we see in student newspapers is
pretty stiff and stodgy, so it’s nice to see some-
body using a bit of imagination to comment on
the world around them,” Adams said.

 

Saskatchewan Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Robert Kotyk, CUP Central Bureau Chief

WINNIPEG—A
court legalized same-sex marriage
November 5, making the province

Saskatchewan

the seventh jurisdiction in the
country to change the definition of
marriage to include same-sex cou-
ples.

The decision follows similar
precedents set in Québec, British
Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba, the
Yukon, and Nova Scotia.

Cicely McWilliam, a representa-
tive of the group Canadians for
Equal Marriage, said 85 percent of
Canadians now have access to
same-sex matriage.

“We're very pleased,” she said.
“There’s still a ways to go yet. We
can see the finish line, but in poli-
tics, sometimes the finish line gets
moved. So, we still need to ensure
that federal legislation is passed, so
that all Canadians have the equal
right to marry.”

Five Saskatoon couples—Erin
Scriven and Lisa Stumborg, Lenore
Swystun and Kelley Moore, James
Hein-Blackmore and William Hein-
Blackmore, Nicole White and Julie
Richards, and Martin Bonneville and
Ted Atkins—brought the case to
court when they were initially turned
down for marriage licenses.

Justice Donna Wilson of the
Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s
Bench ruled in favour of the couples,
finding current marriage laws dis-
criminate against gays and lesbians.

Donna Smith, co-chair of
Saskatchewan’s chapter of Canadians
for Equal Marriage, said she had
hoped the provincial government
would have arrived at the decision on
its own.

“It did happen quite quickly over-

all,” she said.
Saskatchewan, I thought, could have
been a bit more pro-active in taking

“Although

on an NDP social-government
stance and done it without being
forced by the courts.”

A July survey released by the
Centre for Research and Information
on Canada in conjunction with
Environics showed 57 percent of
Canadians agree the definition of
marriage should be extended to
same-sex couples. Thirty-eight per-
cent of those polled disagreed.

The Saskatchewan decision
stands in stark contrast to the results
of the US election November 2, in
which eleven out of eleven states
voting on the issue rejected same-sex

 

marriage.

Newfoundland is thought to be
the next Canadian province to legal-
ize same-sex marriage. Two couples
denied marriage licenses have filed in
court to overturn the ban.

Tim Smith, former president of
the group Gays, Bisexuals, and
Lesbians at the University of Regina,
saw the decision as a natural exten-
sion of what has already occurred in
six other Canadian jurisdictions.

“Gay and lesbian people are being
afforded the same rights that every-
one else is across the country,’ he
said. “You can see it happen here in
Saskatchewan, too.”

 

Douglas Marketing Students Do Some Good

Brendon Fergueson, OP Contributor

have gas in the future, this can guzzle it). “Life Fits Here” was
an Opportunity to promote both the Equinox and a good cause.

Aiding in the event were sponsors such as Tim Horton’s,
Coquitlam Centre, and Cartunes, who all donated prizes to be
raffled off. Some of the better prizes included a Vancouver
Canucks history book, a Canucks jersey, and a lithograph signed
by my boy, Trevor Linden. Over 600 Dougie students took part
in the games and raffle.

our Douglas College Marketing students put together

y a successful fundraising event at the New Westminster

campus on November 10th, raising $1,000 for Canuck

Place Children’s Hospice. The event, called “Life Fits Here,”

was part of the students’ marketing internship for General
Motors.

The internship is intended to offer real-world experience to

the students, whose campaign is aimed at increasing awareness

of the Chevrolet Equinox, a futuristic looking SUV (if we still

 

november an/aoou

i
i | @