2 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011 EDITOR KYLA JONAS ews & features Langara grad causes civic election stir NPA candidate Jason Lamarche is under fire for creating a blog to rate dates By DANIEL PALMER ason Lamarche, Vancouver city council NPA candidate and for- mer Langara commerce student, is becoming the star of the elec- tion campaign for all the wrong rea- sons. While studying at Langara in 2007 and 2008, Lamarche published The Date Matrix, a controversial template that ranks women based on their dat- ing potential, on his blog The Business Student. Neither Lamarche nor NPA spokes- man Michael Davis returned The Voice’s multiple requests for comment. The Date Matrix, which has since been taken offline, “used an excel spreadsheet to rate potential dates on various attributes,” Lamarche wrote on his website in response to the media scrutiny. “One of those criterion I asked my- self was if the potential date was ‘good in bed/if don’t know guess.’ When I first wrote that blog post I really didn’t think anyone would find it offensive as it was meant to be a light-hearted, nerdy take on dating.” But some did find it offensive, includ- ing city councillor and Vision Vancou- ver candidate Geoff Meggs. “I think Jason Lamarche’s so-called ‘Date Ma- trix’ ranking women by sexual prefer- ence and looks would be offensive to all women,” he told The Province. NPA city council candidate Bill Mc- Creery called Lamarche an articulate and capable candidate. “T think his positions, with the pos- sible exception of the website, have been thoughtful,” said McCreery, who refused further comment. Langara school of management in- structor, Danielle Michael, taught La- marche in several classes and remem- bers him as a keen student. “He always sat in the front. He’s a very likeable person,” said Michael. “He told me he was interested in poli- tics when he was at Langara.” Michael was unaware of Lamarche’s blog or the Date Matrix, but said, “If somebody were to do that as part of my class, I would not recommend it.” Lamarche received further scrutiny last week after The Vancouver Sun re- ported that someone had been posting offensive definitions on urbandiction- ary.com under his username, Down- townJ. Lamarche denied any knowl- edge of the posts and claimed his neighbour had admitted to using the BRIEF biography profile to post offensive terms such as ME Lamarche was “kneegina” and a sponsored “dickcheck.” skateboarder in the “T am offended 1990's and helped by this, lam upset secure funding by it and I am sor- for the Expo Blvd ry for any damag- skatepark es caused to my ME Heis the youngest friends and to the NPA candidate campaign, but it is not something I JASON LAMARCHE ME He worked on could have predict- Vancouver NPA Vision Vancouver ed or avoided,” La- candidate school board marche told The Vancouver Sun. “Tam very sad to see this smear cam- paign unfolding right now, which is dis- tracting voters from the real messages of homelessness, affordability and community planning. candidate Sarah Blythe's campaign before joining the NPA Source: Lamarche's website oe - We oe ie ¥ af ape he x Pe oop Op or 69 99 9G diss 9 ee, Ie IP r ree te x , wan] '* val Lae Le DEVON MACKENZIE photo Although wages are rising in B.C. students are still left with no more than a few nickels and dimes extra. Minimum wage earners seeing more As B.C.’s wages begins to rise, students debate whether the extra change will even make a difference By DEVON MACKENZIE another boost this past week as the second of three minimum wage increases took effect on Nov. 1. The three-stage wage increase pro- gram is part of Christy Clark’s families- first agenda and applies to all minimum wage workers across B.C. “Raising the minimum wage and eliminating the training wage is a fair and reasonable step forward in putting families first and building our econo- my,” said Premier Clark in a media statement this past March. The first increase saw wages go from $8 an hour up to $8.75 as well as the abolishment of the training wage, which was $6 for an employee’s first 500 hours of work. As of last week, minimum wage workers will earn $9.50 and during the final stage of the increase, workers are set to receive $10.25. Liquor servers wages, including res- taurant employees who work in a li- cenced venues, will only go up to $9 an hour by the final stage of the increase. Although the wage increases are good news for some workers, it has left B: minimum wage workers got some of Langara’s experts wondering if as many minimum wage jobs will be as readily available. “For workers it will be extra money, yes, but the wage increases during only a year’s time? That could discourage business owners from hiring new staff or even giving their current staff more hours,” said Mumsy Ullattikulam from the Langara School of Management. “Those who already work for just above minimum wage may see their hours cut because of the increase in other staff’s wages.” Although Ullattikulam was quick to point out the possibility of businesses not hiring, she also acknowledged an- other aspect of the increases. “In reality, other provinces are pay- ing much, much more...B.C. is one of the three lowest minimum wage prov- inces in Canada, so I don’t really know why business owners are complaining so much.” Small retail business owner, Muffet Billyard-Leake said that she will feel the wage increase in her staffing costs. “Retail is already feeling a huge pinch from the market crash in 2008, so where I would normally hire someone part-time to cover gaps in scheduling or whatnot, now I will most likely just cover them myself,” she explained. Students at Langara and minimum wage workers seem wary of the mini- mum wage increases. “Well, I mean who doesn’t like more money as an employee? But still, it’s not like you can live on that in Vancou- ver, you’d become unhappy. And when you're unhappy, you’re unproductive.” said business studies student, Daniel Kazimian. Full-time student Kazmian also said the wage increases were no incentive for him to get a part-time job. “T wouldn’t go out and get a part- time job now just because it’s a higher wage, it’s still barely worth it.” Full-time, near-minimum wage worker Marina Oldfield Lindsay said that she is happy about making more by the hour but is aware that ultimate- ly it will be only have a slight effect on her monthly cheques. “T did the math and I know I won’t actually be seeing a huge increase on my monthly gross, so I don’t think it will really be that noticeable of a differ- ence over the year,” she said. May 1, 2012 marks the final stage of the minimum wage increase schedule. 66 World peace rally coming to Langara Event organizers hope students will begin evaluating world issues By LYNDA CHAPPLE holding its fourth annual teach-in at Langara on Nov. 12. The forum aims to bring together academics and activists to discuss the possibility of a transformed world. “This year’s theme is somewhere over the rainbow - another world is pos- sible but how do we get there?” said Gary Cristall, event organizer. “Teach-ins look at various issues: from the aftermath of World War I to the economic crisis of the thirties and the situation of the fifties,” he said It’s not a coincidence that the event is held on Remembrance Day weekend. Cristall, and other organizers, “are extremely upset by the fact that this country, Canada, has been more and more involved in wars.” “We don’t think it is good for Canada or to those on the receiving end of the military.” On Saturday, the forum will include four sessions, 12 workshops and host 20 speakers including; Nadia Habib, a pro- fessor at York University, and Peter Prontzos, a Langara political science instructor. “Habib is very involved at monitor- Te World Peace Forum Society is 3 ing events in Cairo and will be address- ITwouldn’t ing events in Cairo and will be add go out and ing those issues,” Cristall said. _ Prontzos will be speaking about the r 9g et a p art current economic state of Greece and time job how it relates to Canada and the rest of now just the world. J ous The event will be a lot smaller com- because it’s | pared to the first World Peace Forum in a higher 2006, which brought thousands of peo- on3 ple from around the world. wage, it’s “T think we’d like the audience to still barely come away fired with the holy spirit of hit transforming the world around them,” worth it. said Cristall. The schedule of events and speakers DANIEL KAZMIAN Langara business studies student for the teach-in can be found on the peace forum’s website, and $15 tickets can be reserved at info@worldpeacefo- rum.be.ca. Registration prior to the event is required. However, if you can’t make it to Sat- urday’s forum, organizers have planned a screening of The Wizard of Oz on Fri- day, Nov. 11 at The Wise Hall. A discus- sion deconstructing the reality behind the film and its relation to the world of capitalism will follow.