2 THE VOICE, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2011 EDITOR ANNE WATSON ews & features Kwantlen council in mayhem Members of the Student Association were escorted off the Surrey campus yesterday after students voted for their removal from office By PATRICK JOHNSTON ontroversy continues to swirl around the Kwantlen University Student Association, as five ousted council members were removed yesterday by university secu- rity. The group, including former director of finance Nina Sandhu, attempted to enter the KSA’s offices at the Surrey campus in the morning. “We are here to work,” Sandhu told The Voice by phone. Before this altercation, KSA staff and newly appointed councillors were assessing the association’s affairs, fol- lowing a contentious vote the day be- fore. At Wednesday’s special general meeting, students voted unanimously to dismiss 12 council members, includ- ing Sandhu and president Harman “Sean Birdman” Bassi. The dozen were also prohibited from further student union activities. At the meeting, five new members were appointed to join the remaining four councillors. This new council will maintain the association’s functions until elections are held in early 2012. The meeting was repeatedly disrupt- ed, with students lined up outside be- ing sprayed with chemicals by un- known assailants and the fire alarm being pulled twice. Sandhu alleged the “bear mace” was mainly directed towards students who were accusing the meeting’s organiz- ers of racism. KWANTLEN student association SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING 441 students attended 352 of them voted for the removal of 12 directors from office Interim directors were appointed with 338 votes Anew set of bylaws was adopted with 306 votes “Some students have said it’s a race issue, but we’re not claiming it’s a race issue,” she said. Sandhu and Bassi hired extra pri- vate security on Wednesday because she felt her safety was threatened and that “students were shouting lies to me,” she said. The university’s security service had recommended Envy Security Services to her, she said. Kwantlen University spokesperson Joanne Saunders said the university takes anything to do with students seri- ously. Saunders said university adminis- trators had been concerned about the KSA for years and wrote letters to the provincial minister of finance in 2008 and 2010, proposing changes to the So- ciety Act, which governs the KSA. Alberta’s act governing post-second- ary education was a good model, she said, because it “allows for interven- tion from the minister if there are alle- gations of misconduct.” The new council was busying re- viewing the association’s business and had instructed the seven lawyers re- tained by the previous council to cease activity until further notice, Langley campus director Jennifer Campbell said. As well, banks were told to freeze the association’s accounts until signing authority could be granted to the new council. Campbell also said the new council needed to hire a new general manager and a chief returning officer for the 2012 election. Source: The Runner newspaper website MATT LAW photos (Top) Ousted KSA council members Nipun Pandey (right) and Bobby Padda, along with other members of the former council were presented with letters from Kwantlen Polytechnic University before they were es- corted off campus. Members of the former council were demanding access to their personal belongings in the student association offices. (Above) Nina Sandhum, former Director of Finance for the KSA, reads a letter before being escorted off campus. There have been no statements about what the letter said. Youth centre helps disadvantaged teens with a special benefit concert The event featured Bed- ouin Soundclash, who took time to sign autographs and sing earlier in the day By CARLY WIGNES linowski serenaded an audience of about 100 youth yesterday after- noon in anticipation of a benefit con- cert held later that night downtown. Proceeds from the concert were raised for the Broadway Youth Re- source Centre as part of Re*Generation - a movement led by Virgin Mobile Canada and Virgin Unite that aims to help homeless and at-risk youth throughout the country. An alumnus of the centre, which pro- vides community-based social and health services for youth, welcomed the band with a tour of the facility be- fore the performance. Maddy, a graduate of the centre’s youth leadership program, guided the band through art-covered corridors decorated by the young people. She explained how the “one-stop re- source centre for marginalized youth” Bi: Soundclash’s Jay Ma- has become her home. “T came in and after that I didn’t want to go anywhere. You grow so much as a person if you stay here” she said. “I call this home. It’s safe. It’s hap- py. It’s warm.” Maddy described the many services offered at the centre, including past private rooms for counselling services, washrooms designed for people with disabilities, laundry machines, lockers and more. “We're only growing further and growing higher,” she said. “It’s amaz- ing.” After the tour, Malinowski gave an acoustic performance before joining with his bandmates to distribute auto- graphed free CDs. Bassist Eon Sinclair said that be- cause Bedouin Soundclash gets asked to take part in so many events, its band members are forced to be fairly selec- tive in where they contribute their time. He described Re*Generation as an especially beneficial movement for youth. “There’s such a strong focus on home- and life-skills and those are the things that will take you wherever you need to go, regardless of where you come from,” Sinclair said. Drummer Sekou Lumumba empha- sized the importance of having a place 66 where youth can develop life skills. You grow “T personally had no idea of the num- so much as ber of kids in need,” he said. ° Re*Generation reaches out to the a person if 65,000 youth in Canada who have no- you stay where to call home. A spokeswoman here for Virgin Mobile said the movement is on track to raise $250,000 for this year MADDY alone. CARLY WIGNES photo Jay Malinowski, of Bedouin Soundclash, serenades a group of teens at the Broadway Youth Resource Centre. Downtown Eastside condo plans a ‘disgrace’ Author Naomi Klein stood by protestors yesterday to address the lack of social housing in Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood By MARTIN WISSMATH town Eastside is a “disgrace,” said Canadian social activist and au- thor Naomi Klein at a protest event yesterday. Klein joined members of the Occupy Vancouver movement with about 200 people in the Downtown Eastside to protest the development of the Pantag- es Theatre at 138 East Hastings Street. The site is planned for condos rather than social housing demanded by the community. “This is a disgrace,” Klein said. “And I’m proud to be with you, saying ‘No.’ Drawing the line.” Klein said Vancouver has the least affordable housing in North America and throughout the Commonwealth countries. “For housing to be affordable it is supposed to take three years of income to be able to buy a home,” she said. “In Vancouver it takes nine and a half years.” Klein said gentrification elsewhere in Vancouver had increased the acute housing problem in the DTES. She called out property developer Marc Williams, who owns the Pantages The- atre site, saying he “should be deeply ashamed of himself.” “Mare Williams is acting as if this is a game,” Klein said. “And he is playing with people’s lives. This is not a game. This is survival.” Several representatives of the group calling themselves Sequel 138 after the Pantages’ former address, were also present. “This makes me sick,” said Fraser Stewart, a three year resident of the Downtown Eastside. He lives in single resident occupancy housing. “Average rent is now $800 to $1000.” Stewart said only 12 per cent of hous- ing is now affordable for people on wel- fare in the Downtown Eastside, when it was over 50 per cent a few years ago. Mary-anne Joseph was also living in the Downtown Eastside until last month, when she was evicted because the landlord raised her rent. “He wanted to raise my rent to $1000. I couldn’t afford that,” she said. “They say I should just go home, but the home situation there is even worse.” Joseph, from Smithers, B.C. said most of her family is now living in the Downtown Eastside. a development in the Down- MARTIN WISSMATH photo Social activist Naomi Klein (far right) with protesters in front of the demolished Pantages Theatre on Thursday.