Wanted:
more
disability
Services

| angara offering new

service for students

with disabilties, but

some still want more
By RAY CHOPPING

angara College has
L announced an online system

for students with disabili-
ties to arrange appropriate support
services at the school.

Director of accessibility services,
Suzanne Munson, told The Voice that
they recently launched a new case
management system.

“Our students are now able to do
certain things online like submit
requests for semester accommoda-
tions, accommodation letters, and
book exams,” Munson said.

‘The student management system,
called Accommodate, is an Ameri-
can product, and complies with the
Americans with Disabilities Act.

Munson explained they chose an
American system because the Acces-
sible Canada Act is still in its infancy.

“So that’s why we went with the
US product because we knew it
would be accessible,” she said.

‘The news comes after the provin-
cial government announced a series
of public consultations on accessi-
bility.

Shane Simpson, minister of social
development and poverty reduc-
tion, said at a Vancouver commu-
nity consultation on Nov. 1, that the
government wants to ensure future
spaces are designed to be accessi-
ble to everyone and not just aim for
ramps and accessible doorways.

“We need to work on changing the
culture of how we view disability,”
Simpson said. “That may be the most
important thing of all.”

According to visually impaired,
psychology and philosophy student,
Samaneh Nikmanesh, navigating the
Building A can be hard when it’s so
loud and crowded.

“This is supposed to be a college,
not a market,” Nikmanesh said.

Building A is one of the original
campus buildings not built under
the same regulations as the college’s
newer Science and Technology
Building.

“The A building gets very full at
certain times of the day,” said visually
impaired, creative writing student
Gabor Bene,who takes the majority
of his classes there. “I tend to avoid
it during those times.”

Navigating the older buildings is
not the only challenges some Lang-
ara students face.

“Langara’s accessibility services are
not current. They are not up to date
on blindness,” Nikmanesh said.

Langara College does offer an
in-house transcription service
through the Centre for Acces-
sible Post-secondary Education
Resources BC, for visually impaired
students, but issues can still arise
when access to course material is
delayed, according to Bene.

“It’s a process,” Bene said.

‘The provincial government is
hosting a series of community meet-
ings to learn what the residents of
B.C. want from provincial level legis-
lation in regards to accessibility.

communities in Canada. KRISTEN HOLLIDAY PHOTO

Bill 21: condoning racism

Students and instructors weigh in on the recent Quebec law

By KRISTEN HOLLIDAY

ashan Singh believes that in
Canada, you shouldn't have to
choose between your job and
your religion.

A recent Quebec law has the
fourth-year Langara business
administration student reflecting on
the impact of intolerance on people
who put down roots in Canada,
thinking the country values multi-
culturalism.

“You came here, you are work-
ing so hard, and contributing to the
economy,” Singh said. “In the end,
what are we going to get? A restric-
tion on our religion? That’s not fair.”

Bill 21 was passed by Quebec’s
provincial government in June
2019 which bans public workers,
such as teach-
ers, police officers
and lawyers, from
wearing religious
symbols. These
include turbans,
kippahs and
crosses. While

providing or

Indira-Natasha

Prahst wa
SOCIOLOGY recewing, Some
INSTRUCTOR public services it

is forbidden to
wear anything covering the face.
Coalition Avenir Québec says this

bill protects state secularism, but

Gandeep Kaur and Ransher Randhawa, sit with friend Jashan Singh (right) at Langara College. Singh said Bill 21 is intolerant and negatively impacts religious

Ranil Prasad, a campaign manager
for the BC Humanist Association,
disputes that claim. The association
of atheists and agnostics believe
compassion and morality are possi-
ble without religion.

Prasad spoke about the bill at a
UBC event, which was hosted by the
Hillel Jewish Students’ Association
and the Kazakh Student Association
on Oct. 30. He said even in a secular
state everyone should be heard.

“This doesn't mean excluding
people based on how they look from
society, which is what Bill 21 does,”
Prasad said.

Langara Canadian studies instruc-

tor Lee Blanding believes Bill 21 is

an attack on religious communi-
ties. He has friends in the Jewish
community who are impacted by the
bill and thinks it’s “terrible” Cana-
dians haven't done more to protest.

“It puts the lie to this idea that
we're a multicultural country in an
ideological sense,” Blanding said.

Sociology instructor Indira-Nata-
sha Prahst, who teaches a racism and
ethnic relations course at Langara,
said the students in her class waited
for federal leaders to react with a
plan to tackle this during the election
and were disappointed with silence.

“Tt leads to a serious question and
that is, are we condoning this act of
racism,” Prahst said.

B.C. politics gain leftism

New provincial political party promising greener policies

By GINA ROGERS

ith young voters making
up the largest voting
demographic in Canada,

a new provincial political party
launched this past week — directly
catering to youths.

‘The total percentage of Canadians
who voted in 2019 went down from
2015. While the number of young
voters was not available for the most
recent election, statistics show they
climbed 18 per cent from 2011 to
2015. The October federal election
left many students unsure of the
future, especially about the environ-
ment and the planet they will inherit.

“Young people see that if we don't
solve the climate crisis, we cannot
solve the affordability crisis,” Stuart
Parker, BC Ecosocialists spokesper-

son said.

The BC Ecosocialists say they
want to offer a solution to young
voters who are students.

“We have to get back to a properly
funded system... it means taxing the
very rich right here,” said Parker, who
was a Green Party leader prior to the
launch of BC Ecosocialists.

Langara political science student
Dayla Hart said she was dissatisfied
with the federal election but wasn't
surprised with the results.

Hart believes in eco-socialism but
views the BC Ecosocialists as an
awkward middle ground between
entryism and grassroots organizing.

“But with the benefits of neither,”
she said.

Hart used 24-year-old NDP
candidate Yvonne Hanson as an
example of effective entryism and
grassroots organizing, using an
established party to present new

leftist ideas.

“They actually have a chance of
winning,” Hart said.

Stephen Phillips, political science
department chair at Langara, said
that the BC Ecosocialists want
housing to be declared a social right
and the government to become more
involved in building housing.

“No other party, not even the
NDP has gone that far,” Phillips
said. “So that’s a message that I feel
might resonate well, particularly
with younger voters.”

Parker believes that the platform
BC Ecosocialists is offering some-
thing Canadians have been wanting.

“T think Canadians have been
really short-changed,” Parker said.
“We decided to do this because we
knew there'd be an appetite for it.”

The next provincial election is on

Saturday, Oct. 16,2021.

Percentage of registered youth
voters who voted in the 2017
provincial election

Percentage of registered youth
voters who voted in the 2013
provincial election

Percentage of registered youth
voters who voted in the 2009
provincial election

SOURCE: ELECTIONS BC