6 THE DAILY VOICE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015 EDITOR MARY BEACH lewpoints Jokes can go too far hat’s your most unforget- Wi experience on April Fool’s Day? Sitting on a Whoopee cushion? Drinking a cup of coffee that tastes salty? It’s fun to fool or be fooled on such a day. However, it’s not that much fun when tricking someone becomes spread- ing falsehoods. According to a survey conducted in 2015 by Insights West, 12 per cent of people in B.C., and 26 per cent of Albertans believe global warming is a hoax and 7 per cent B.C. residents believe the lunar landing was not real. Untruths and conspiracy theories can begin as jokes. Some people think it’s funny to make things up, tell their friends and then make their friends look foolish because they believed OPINION XIAO XU and trusted them. However, r4 4 their jokes may lead to serious - consequences. Some p co Take global Pp le think warming for it’s funny example. When some people fo make hear that global things up, warming is not tell their —_—_—"al, they may . waste energy or fi riends neglect their and then recycling. They may take a make their friends look private car instead of public foolish be- transportation. Another cause they _ possibility is that believed children may overhear the and trusted jokes/untruths. them Children are impressionable and believe what people tell them. If they grow up thinking that global warming is a hoax, they will have little incentive to conserve energy, plant trees and plan for a greener future. The media also likes to have fun on April 1. In 1999, on April Fool’s Day, DJs at Oregon radio station announced that the Ochoco dam had burst and it would cause massive flooding. Because homes in the area had suffered flood damage, they believed the hoax and even started to evacuate. People should keep the tradition of the April Fool’s Day, but think before you trick. We want to hear from you Got a different point of view? Write to us. Problems with something we've said? Let us know. Think we got a fact wrong? Tell us. Journalism instructor Erica Bulman oversees The Voice. Email her at ebulman@langara.be.ca Ihere’s no ; question that Vancouver has traffic. Tom Tom’s 7 gh traffic index y = / | recently revealed — that Vancouver OPI N ION tops its list for JULIAWICKHAM most congested cities in Canada for 2014. Vancouver also ranks third highest in North America, behind Mexico City and Los Angeles. This could be because the city of Vancouver hasn’t properly pre- pared for the amount of new residents coming in. Transporta- tion, like infrastructure for vehicles and transit, can’t keep up with the rising population. An example of this is the poorly planned building of the Canada Line stations just over five years ago. They were built with room for only two SkyTrain cars at a time, when commuters could use double that space during peak hours. Vancouver is a city that relies on the function of its bridges. If traffic slows down on one bridge, it causes a chain reaction with the surround- ing bridges. There are only so many bridges for motorists to use and having thousands of motorists detouring to another bridge causes even more congestion. It can take anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour to cross the Lions Gate Bridge from West Vancouver to Downtown during rush hour. Congestion question Many of the bridges were built between the 1930s and the 1980s, a time when the population in Vancouver was significantly smaller and they were built to accommodate those numbers. Many major cities in North America, Montreal and Los Angeles for example, offer freeways for motorists to travel around on. They run through the heart of the city, and connect from one end of the city to the other; something that Vancouver does not have, and probably never will. The City of Vancouver needs to expand everything transportation wise. From more room for SkyTrain cars at stations, to wider bridges to accommodate more lanes for motorists, Vancouver needs to work on its transportation planning. ANNA DIMOFF and MICHAEL LYLYK comic Private school no new Statistics Canada study Ae found that students who attended private schools get better grades than their public school counter parts. That doesn’t mean you should overlook public schooling just yet. The study, which followed 7,142 grade 10 students in private and public schools until the age of 23 found that private school students did better because they have better socioeconomic ~~ backgrounds, = meaning they have more money. OPINION The parents of private school MONA BUTLER students are more likely to have higher paying jobs and to be university educated so they will be better able to help their children with their school work throughout high school, as the course work gets more challenging. Interestingly enough, school resources and practices did not play a role in whether or not one or the other did better. This means that it was not the school that meant they did better but the extra money their parents can afford to put into extracurricu- lar tutoring. Based on this, public school education is arguably just as good as private school education. The only difference is that the parents of public school kids may not have the money to pay for a t perfect private tutor or to send their kids to a learning centre. There is a wider range of kids from different backgrounds in public schools because anyone can get in. This means that children in the public school system are exposed to a more realistic picture of people with different backgrounds, instead of just the more privileged side of the spectrum. In the end though, this doesn’t mean one is better than the other, both public and private schools have pros and cons that need to be carefully weighed when choosing a school. What works for one family may not work for another. The Voice is published by Langara College's journalism department. Editorial opinions are those of the staff and are independent of views of the student government and administration. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must be signed. They may be edited for brevity. Names may be withheld in special cases, but your letter must include your name and phone number. HOW TO REACH US PHONE 604-323-5396 FAX 604-323-5398 E-MAIL thevoice@langara.be.ca DROP-IN Room A226 Langara College There is a mailbox at the entrance to the journalism rooms. SNAIL MAIL The Voice 100 West 49th Ave. Vancouver, B.C. VSY 226 WEBSITE wwwilangaravoice.ca EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE: MANAGING EDITOR/ PAGE 6 Mary Beach PAGE EDITORS PAGE 1 Sandy Powlik PAGE 2 Kera Piwowarski-Skocylas PAGE 3 Natasha Chang PAGE 4 Sableen Minhas PAGE 5 Vivian Chui PAGE 7 James Goldie PAGE 8 Shannon Lynch WEB EDITORS Lena Alsayegh Alice D'Eon CITY EDITOR Mel Edgar CITY DESKER Jes Hovanes COPY EDITORS Nich Johansen Charlotte Drewett REPORTERS Jocelyn Aspa Mona Butler Tanya Gommisso Anna Dimoff Kelvin Gawley Dustin Godfrey Alex Hoegler Michael Lylyk Bryan Mc Govem Owen Munro Bailey Nicholson Rebecca Phair Sara Rabey Ethan Reyes James Smith Tony Su Julia Wickham Xiao Xu Contact us: Online at langaravoice.ca Twitter at @LangaraVoice