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OL. 48 NO. 4 » VANCOU

Candidate: aborted LSU election ‘fishy’

Student vying for position on board expresses outrage at LSU’s lack of transparency

= emma (cae) | m= =—Ss By RUMAANA DSOUZA and SCOTT DRAKE of the elections to find out its future
Bis — | prognosis.
el angara Students’ Union board ‘I still don’t r4 4
aw : : :
An members who have remained si- know anything

YEARS

lent after the unexplained can- else,” he said. “I It’s time
STRONG ,

celled election more than two was hoping to have .
weeks ago are “a joke,” said one stu. | abitmoreinforma- to] figure
dent council candidate. tion by now.” out who
According to Nathan Deschamps, Original voting
students running have not yet been in- for the election they are
formed when a new election will be was scheduled for qnd what
held or whether they are still eligible to Oct. 5 through to .
run, which has caused some resent- Oct. 8, but a notice their prob-
ment. “Something is fishy,” he said. of cancellation was Jem is
Deschamps added that no one with released on Oct. 7.

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7
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a
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OF.
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“any kind of power” is a current coun- According to the NATHAN
angara tu ents’ n io n@ cil member. He also said that allidenti- LSU website, its DESCHAMPS
i ties, including the Chief Election Offi- electoral commit- LSU CANDIDATE

cer’s, are not made public, even to tee and Chief Re-

Advocating For Students’ Rights Since 1969

RUMANA DSOUZA photo
Student council candidates have been kept waiting to find out details of the suspended election.

members of council.
“Tlt’s time to] figure out who they
are and what their problem is,” he said.
The LSU and its operations are
funded by the LSU capital fund, money
collected directly from students, which
contained a balance of $409,549 as of
Mar. 31. Further budget details must be
requested 48 hours in advance.
Jared Braverman, elected council
member, said he was unsuccessful get-
ting in touch with the people in charge

turning Officer, Jeannie Bates, found
numerous irregularities during the
election, which declared it void.

The specifics of the violations have
not been made public.

LSU’s website states any questions
regarding the elections should be di-
rected to the Deputy Returning Officer,
but no name was provided. Braverman
told The Voice that this position cur-
rently belongs to Donna Rainford-Cay-
enne.

Campus pub
not an option

Barriers preventing a pub
lead to a lack of lively
social space for students

By KEVIN UNDERHILL

after class before parting ways, cold

beer in hand, sinking into a comfort-
able booth with the buzz of conversa-
tion all around. A campus pub is miss-
ing from Langara College, and so is the
social atmosphere that comes with it.

The Langara Sushi Café in the LSU
building offers a small selection of beer
and ciders, closing its doors at 6:45 p.m.
through most of the week. Campus
pubs can provide more of an exciting
social hub, something Keegan Wong,
Langara Business Association co-pres-
ident said is lacking on campus.

“There aren’t really any environ-
ments for students to socialize on cam-
pus,” Wong said. “There’s the library
and the LSU building but they really
just feel like school.”

The Langara School of Management
had to look off campus for a venue to
host its Thursday night socials, he said.

“The school doesn’t really have a
venue that can accommodate 50 peo-
ple,” he said. “The LSM is holding their
‘Thirsty Thursday’ event at the Langa-

fics a place where friends gather

Crammed bikes cut community patrol

More storage space and
equipment are a must to
keep South Vancouver
streets policed

By JAKE COSTELLO

artine Charbonneau squeezes
Mi a stack of boxes as she

wheels a bicycle out of a crowd-
ed storage room at the South Vancou-
ver Community Policing Centre
(SVCPC).

Charbonneau is a volunteer with the
centre who’s working towards becom-
ing a police officer. She’s part of the
bike patrol pro-
gram, a service
that’s been dra-
matically re-
duced since the
centre moved to
its new location

last February y >
and lost’ valu- , f
able bike stor- ADRIEN BALAZS
age. SVCPC Executive

“TPolice re- Director

cruiters] do like

for candidates

or applicants to have a lot of volunteer
experience,” she said. Accumulating
enough shifts is becoming increasingly
difficult for other SVCPC volunteers, as
hours have been cut by 55 per cent in

Even with the reduction they are the
most active patrol office in Vancouver,
according to Adrien Balazs, executive
director of the SVCPC. She said that
getting their patrol presence back up is
important for the community. “If the
bad guys get used to not seeing us
there, that will just encourage their il-
legal activities,” she said.

Balazs said that competitive rental
rates forced the non-profit to pack up
when their lease expired.

Although the new building is mostly
positive and more accessible for the
community, she said it has also left vol-
unteers cramming supplies into a utili-
ty room. “We just don’t have that addi-
tional 800 square foot storage space
that we so badly need,” said Balazs.

The neighbouring Collingwood Com-
munity Policing Centre has taken on
some of the burden by storing 10 bikes,
which leaves just eight available for the
South Vancouver bike patrol team.

Bonny Bung, board member for
SVCPC, said that bike patrol is impor-
tant because they are the first line of
defense in high-crime level areas, and
have a direct line of communication
with the community.

Bung is organizing a fundraiser for
next February to buy a portable stor-
age container that will hold all of the
bikes.

“We're hoping to host around 400
guests and raise around $10,000 to pur-

JAKE COSTELLO photo

chase the mobile storage trailer,” she James Yongjian Qiu, bike patrol volunteer, takes out a

ra Golf Course.” ;
the past year. said. bike at the SVCPC from its current storage location.

STORY CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

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