Sex was in the air last weekend as young and old donned their flirtiest duds and got all oiled up for Saskatoon’s first naughty trade show at TCU Place.

Billed as an upscale consumer tradeshow, the Taboo Naughty but Nice show also aimed to create a bit of a party.

“It is what people make of it,” said Kevin Collins, spokesperson for Canwest Trade Shows, which sponsored the event.

“ ‘Dynamic’ is probably the best way to describe it. A lot of people come out of their shell, do things they wouldn’t normally do. Some people just come down to have a look; a few giggles.”

Other people, including couples, use the event as an educational experience, he said.

The event featured a series of workshops over the day, including ones on oral sex and the female orgasm. These demonstrations were lead by vendors, so they would usually begin as educational and then quickly veer into a pitch for whatever they were peddling.

And now that you know where the G-spot is, let me show you how to stimulate it with one of our fine glass dildos.

The gawk factor was enough to keep TCU busy Friday and Saturday night, with about 5,000 visiting over the course of the weekend. Shirtless men and women in ill-fitting corsets or bras and panties were plentiful both nights, possibly lured by the $6 drinks as they wandered the aisles among rows of dildos, vibrators, oils, whips and paddles.

“Saturday got really, really busy. For a while it was shoulder to shoulder,” said Collins.

Canwest flooded the city with promotional tickets, otherwise $15 at the door, to ensure the event was busy. This plan provided plenty of exposure, but Collins says they have not yet determined if sales over the weekend were enough to bring the show back to the city.

“I don’t know if we’re going to be coming back or not. It’s not really my decision,” he said.

Canwest has to first hear from all their vendors and make sure they sold enough in Saskatoon. The overall impression from them is positive, though.

There are nine or 10 exhibitors who have booths at every Taboo show, the only event of its kind in western Canada, while others only appear at certain locations.

“I go across Canada with them,” said Viktoria Kalatera, who runs a glass toy booth. “On average, we could be selling up to 500 pieces over a weekend.”

At no less than $50 per toy, this makes the $1,200 booth well worth it. But since Saskatoon was new territory, they were uncertain if sales would be good.

“This is the first time Saskatoon has actually held a sex show, so we weren’t sure what it was going to be like or how it was going to be received.”

On Friday night, business was slow but Kalatera was encouraged that people were curious and asking a lot of questions.

As onlookers walked by, she would thrust a glass dildo — which had been heated with warm water — into their hands to show off one of the selling points of glass toys. They can also be cooled down before use, she said.

“I always tell people to pick them up, play with them in their hands,” she said. “I own five of them at home — that’s me.”

Taboo also provided an opportunity for local group Saskatoon Saskatchewan King Association to educate people on BDSM, which signifies bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism.

BDSM can encompass any range of activities but for newly engaged demonstrators Rob Thomas and Allison Carpenter, it focuses on the idea of giving and receiving pain.

“She is submissive to me and I am a dominant, more on a top level, which is described as the idea of bringing physical pain to someone,” said Thomas. “Bottom is the idea of accepting pain but it doesn’t necessarily mean submission. It could just be for sensation.”

Someone who likes to try both top and bottom roles is referred to as a switch. Vanilla is a term for those outside of the BDSM culture.

Carpenter is a bottom, which means she likes Thomas to inflict (controlled) pain on her. Sometimes it is done sexually, as foreplay, though sometimes it is an end in and of itself.

Carpenter said Thomas will sometimes stick 30 to 40 syringes through her skin. For her, it’s an interesting feeling, but not a feeling of pleasure. Sometimes the two will play with a knife, where Thomas will scrape her back with a large blade.

“It’s all about having trust in him not to hurt me and he’s aware of how far is too far,” she said.

For some people this is something they would only do with their partner, but for others it is an experience external to their romantic relationships.

Thomas and Carpenter only like to play with each other, though they used to have an open relationship.

“We had an open relationship for quite a while, but it gets too complicated,” she said. “I like the idea, but when you take everybody’s emotions into play — I mean, it’s hard enough with just two people.”

- -

photo: Robby Davis / Raisa Pezderic

Students will soon be asked to devote some time to electing a new executive for the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union.

Election season began on March 8 with a preliminary meeting for candidates, who watched a presentation explaining the purpose of the USSU and the details of each position.

There are five positions open to students: president, vice-president external affairs, vice-president operations and finance, vice-president student affairs and vice-president academic affairs.

Last year’s election was a mere formality with only one person running for each position, all being acclaimed. However, there were at least eight candidates present at the initial meeting this year and by the time candidates are finalized on March 15 there could be more — or fewer, if some of the potential candidates fail to show that they are in good standing with their colleges. The fact that there will likely be more than one candidate for some positions promises to make debates and voting more interesting for everyone involved.

The 2009 election was criticized both because only one candidate ran for each position and because no women were in the running. However, at least one of the potential candidates for this year’s election is a woman.

Campaigning begins at 12:01 a.m. on March 17, giving candidates one week to get their faces, names and messages to students before voting begins on March 24.

Look for signs advertising candidates’ debates in the coming weeks.

- -

WINNIPEG (CUP) — Sarah-Kate Salmon readily admits she spends a large part of her day attached to her cellphone — yet she’s terrified of talking on it.

“I’m texting from 8 a.m. until 12 a.m.,” the Grade 12 student from Winnipeg said. “I could text someone, ‘I’m madly in love with you,’ but I can’t talk on the phone. It’s awkward.”

While Salmon likes to tune into her favourite TV shows and uses Facebook to procrastinate from homework, not all of her media exposure has been positive.

On her 15th birthday, Salmon was the victim of a physical attack by a group of teens — one girl and three boys — that put her in the hospital with a concussion.

“She kind of just kicked my head until I bled out my ear,” Salmon recalled.

After a friend told her a video of the attack had been posted on YouTube, she was forced to deal with the horror again.

“I thought, ‘What if this gets around?’ Then it just struck up the fear of it happening again. The situation just kept replaying in my head,” Salmon said.

It’s this complicated relationship between teenagers and the media that is the focus of a new study from Washington, D.C.’s Kaiser Family Foundation called “Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8–18 Year Olds.”

Reporting increased levels of entertainment media usage, with an average of over seven hours daily, the study has found a correlation between low levels of personal contentment and heavy users of media. Of the respondents, 21 per cent were identified as heavy users, meaning they consume upwards of 16 hours of media per day.

Taking into account variables such as age, race, parent education and single- versus two-parent households, contentment is measured by how the participant responds to questions like whether they often feel sad, get into trouble, are bored, get good grades and if they have a lot of friends.

According to Michael Zwaagstra, a high school teacher and research associate at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the study’s findings prove what he has seen for years.

“Time spent playing video games isn’t time spent socializing,” he said. “When you ask students, ‘How do you feel after you’ve spent all night playing games?’ The universal response is, ‘I feel terrible. I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing.’ ”

Zwaagstra advocates for more time spent on the fundamental skills of reading and writing in the earlier years in place of technologically-focused classrooms.

“We seem to be jumping (to) the latest gadgets instead of focusing on the basics,” he says. “If you have someone that already struggles with making friends, it makes it that much easier to avoid social interaction.”

Brad Stelmach, a guidance counsellor and psychology teacher in Winnipeg, sees the impact of social media in his office daily.

“Kids will come in to be counselled and (will) be crying, in distress. But their cellphone will buzz and they’ll answer it right away,” he said.

After helping students deal with the effects that Facebook statuses and text messages have on friendships, romantic relationships and bullying, Stelmach acknowledges that each individual has different predispositions and thresholds for media addiction.

“Technology is a great thing when it’s used in the appropriate way,” he said. “Sure there’s going to be a correlation (between heavy media use and discontentment), but is it going to impact everyone the same? No.”

- -
photo: Jill Brown

Five days for the homeless, where five students from the Edwards School of Business spend five days living outside to raise funds to help homeless people, begins next week, running from March 14 to 19.

“The main focus of the event is to increase awareness of youth at risk and of youth homelessness,” said Reem Matlak, local event organizer.

Five days for the homeless started in Alberta in 2005 and has been held in Saskatoon every year since 2008. The Saskatoon group is trying to raise $12,000 to donate to the Saskatoon downtown youth centre, EGADZ.

“They will be sleeping outside throughout the week,” said Matlak. “They have to attend all their classes, they don’t have access to showers on campus and they cannot have any flow of income.”

This year’s participants — John Irwin, Lisa Book, Gaelen Andrews, Megan Orr and Arianna Berthold — cannot pay for meals with their own income. All their food must be donated during the fundraiser.

“They’re given a sleeping bag and pillow. They use that throughout the week,” she said. Technology, including cell phones and laptops, is not permitted.

The five Edwards students must also wear the same clothes over the course of the challenge. They are allowed to trade in their sleeping bags and pillows for an emergency meal, if things should get tough.

Matlak says the point of the fundraiser is not to make these students suffer, but to use visible homelessness as a marketing gimmick to shine the spotlight on EGADZ and its programs.

“Instead of just having a poster on the wall saying these people are at risk, (you’re) going to see these people outside,” she said.

If weather dips below -15 C, participants will be allowed to stay inside.

Those interested in donating can do it online at fivedays.ca, or look for the group in the Arts Tunnel.

- -
file photo: Michelle Berg

“Don’t get caught up in being a woman in business, get caught up in being in business,” said Arlene Dickinson, owner of Venture Communications and best known for her role on CBC’s Dragons’ Den.

    “Thirty or 40 years ago, women fought hard for a right to sit at a business table. Now we should be fighting hard to be competent at the business table, and no longer characterize ourselves as women at the table but as business people at the table.”

   Dickinson was at the University of Saskatchewan on March 4 to speak to 21 student entrepreneurs — all of them women. She had a lot of advice for business people in general, but much of the conversation was geared towards women entrepreneurs specifically.

   Gabrielle Scrimshaw, a fourth-year Edwards School of Business student, asked what advice Dickinson would give her 20-year-old self. The question elicited a long pause from Dickinson.    

“It probably would have been to eat less when I was pregnant,” she responded, which elicted a laugh from the mostly 20-somethings at the lunch.

“I am not kidding. You pay later on for what you did to your body,” she added with a laugh. “That’s a very girl thing to say but it’s very true.”

   She went on to say that she would also tell herself not to take everything so seriously.

   “I thought that every decision was monumental and if I made a mistake then that would be a mistake forever. And what I’ve learned is that the mistakes are actually learning experiences.”

   It was the first piece of advice of many to come during the hour-long lunch meeting.

   Dickinson is the only woman on the panel of successful business people on the Dragons’ Den panel. Other panelists include Jim Treliving, owner of Boston Pizza, and U of S graduate W. Brett Wilson, owner of Prairie Merchant and founder of the W. Brett Wilson Centre on campus, which provided the opportunity for the lunch with Dickinson.

   Now in its fifth season, the format of Dragons’ Den is similar to the American Idol format, but instead of getting up in front of judges and singing, the contestants get up in front of prospective investors and pitch their businesses.

   The business people on the panel seem heartless at times, and many of the contestants walk away rejected, but Dickinson says sometimes that’s what it takes.

   “You can be aggressive without being bitchy; you can be strong without feeling like you don’t have a right to be.”

   Despite her assertion that women should think of themselves as business people first, she admitted there are differences between women and men. For example, Dickinson pointed out that more women start businesses than men, but more men stay in business and go big with that business.

“We’re the people that when the parents get sick we quit our careers. When we have children, we quit our careers. When our husband needs to go to school, we quit our careers. And that’s unfortunately the genetics that you’ve all been born with, and it’s not a bad thing; there’s a lot to be said for moms who stay at home and raise the next generation. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be business people too.”

   In 1988, Dickinson started as at Venture Communications, and by 1998, she was the owner. The Dragons’ Den intro says she has made “tens of millions of dollars” but it isn’t all about successes.

Carlene Deutscher, Wilson Centre marketing coordinator, asked what Dickinson has learned from her failures.

“Divorce has taught me a lot. That’s a big failure; I consider that a failure. Not being successful in marriage has taught me a lot about myself as a person…. My biggest failure in business was taking too long to figure out that as an entrepreneur I couldn’t do it myself.”

   After living in Austrailia, Scrimshaw was inspired to start her own business, importing clothing from Australian designers for her proposed store Indulge, which she hopes to open this summer after graduating.

Scrimshaw said she could relate to Dickinson.

   “She wasn’t intimidating or rude or checked her Blackberry every two minutes. She came around and she shook all of our hands,” said Scrimshaw. “Those are the sort of relationship management things that people who are really successful, they get it. She was human. For everything else, she cut the BS and she got right to it.”

As for the female-tailored advice, Scrimshaw said it was nice to hear a successful woman talk about her experiences.

    “We can’t say that (men and women are) equal because we’re not, we’re different. We have to acknowledge those differences and work with them…. Women have strengths that men don’t have.”

Words of wisdom from Arlene Dickinson

“We (employers) check Facebook to find out what’s going on with the people we hire…. You each have a brand and you each have an obligation to manage your brand and no one else will do it for you. If you don’t manage a brand, it will manage you.”

“Nothing beats face to face communication.”

“You need to find where your strengths are and then shine. Don’t be afraid of what you know, but don’t let your insecurities personally drive your business behaviour either.”

“The passion I have for my children, which is unconditional love, is the same passion I have for my business. Nobody was going to take me off that path. If you just have a job or you create a business because you feel like you should, you won’t succeed.”

“My mentor is the person sitting right next to me…. Never be afraid to ask the person sitting right next to you about themselves. You’ll be amazed at what you learn.”

“You will never be strong mentally if you’re not strong physically. The best stress relief I have happens to be running. I weight-train and I run.”

Building on his presentation from last year, University of Saskatchewan Provost and vice-president academic Brett Fairbairn discussed the importance of innovation in universities.

The annual Provost’s academic agenda address allows the Provost to speak to the university and to discuss the direction in which he would like to steer the academic course of the school. For his 2009 address, Fairbairn chose to talk about the role of universities within a larger context, that context being the public interest. Fairbairn saw his address this year as a continuation of sorts of that talk, because innovation is an important factor in being dedicated to the public interest.

“ ‘Innovation’ makes some people uncomfortable,” Fairbairn said in his introduction. “It’s a bit of a buzzword, and it’s good to be skeptical of buzzwords.”

But as he went on it was obvious that to Fairbairn, innovation is far more important than it is trendy. He emphasized the need for innovation as a way to stay current and to improve the U of S, saying that often the greatest changes come about in times of need, such as now, rather than in times of comfort.

He attributes this to people’s tendency to take success as a sign that what they are doing at the time is working, rather than as a sign that changes they had made were good and that they should continue to change and tweak their operation.

Three areas of innovation where the U of S is succeeding, according to Fairbairn, are Aboriginal engagement, internationalization and new, interdisciplinary approaches to programs. He specifically mentioned several initiatives enacted in the ’70s to include Aboriginal students, such as Aboriginal law and the Indian Teacher Education Program, as well as new undergraduate programs being pioneered in the colleges of nursing and education.

But, he insisted, the university should be looking to change and improve what it is already doing rather than to add new programs.

An audience member said the U of S is positioned well to hire impressive faculty members now because it was not hit as hard by the financial crises of the last two years.

While Fairbairn acknowledged the truth in that, he stressed that adding new people and programs is the opposite of what he feels the university should be doing at the moment.

- -
photo: Robby Davis

OTTAWA (CUP) — While its title was “Leading the Way on Jobs and Growth,” the Conservatives’ March 4 federal budget offered little for students seeking such prosperity in the near future.

The biggest announcement in the over-400-page document offered $19 billion in stimulus funding to complete the Tories’ Economic Action Plan. The two-year program launched in the 2009 budget has supported post-secondary education in the form of a $2-billion “knowledge infrastructure program” announced last year — an initiative that many universities and colleges still have yet to benefit from. The majority of that targeted spending is set to end in March 2011, though.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty explained that the winding down of stimulus spending will help cut the annual deficit — projected to be $53.8 billion this year — nearly in half by 2012.

“We will have savings of about $17.6 billion over five years,” the minister told reporters prior to his speech in the House of Commons. “That aids us to be very close to balance in 2014-15.”

In order to reach smaller deficits without tax raises, however, cuts in government spending had to be made.

“This is a tough budget…. Some very difficult decisions have been made,” Flaherty said. “Most of the answers to requests for funding were ‘No.’ ”

Feds reinstate limited research funding

Nevertheless, the government did choose to dedicate a significant amount of money to college and university research: an extra $32 million will be funneled into Canada’s research granting councils annually, starting in 2010-11.

“I think the fact that we’re one of the rare sectors who managed to get some funding — an increase of funds in this federal budget — I think it’s a good situation for universities in general and for the research community,” said Lyse Huot, director of government relations and communications for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

The annual $32 million will be broken down into $16 million for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, $13 million for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and $3 million for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Several groups, however, were concerned that the 2010 budget’s allocation was not sufficient following recent cuts to research funding. This includes the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

“We were hoping after their disastrous mistake last year — where they cut the funding for the three granting councils by $147.9 million — that they would recognize that error and really re-calibrate things,” said CAUT executive director James Turk.

“In fact, what they’ve done is given the three granting councils less than the rate of inflation. So they’re not even able to keep up with where they were, let alone make up for the cuts that happened last year.”

Conversely, the budget for the College and Community Innovation Program was doubled, receiving an extra $15 million annually, beginning with the upcoming fiscal year.

“Our number-one priority was financial support for applied research done in colleges with our private-sector partners,” said James Knight, president and CEO of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.

“The size of the program was doubled, so we think we had a terrific day; we’re very pleased.”

For some, including NDP Member of Parliament Niki Ashton, the idea of private-sector partnerships and commercialization in research raised more concern than celebration.

“This is really what we fought against last year — the ideological directive around research,” the party’s post-secondary education critic explained. “When you’re not funding research properly through research councils and through post-secondary institutions, this commercial agenda and this agenda toward research that’s profitable is the outlet that researchers might have to go into, given that they’re not getting enough support.”

Additional research-related funding was earmarked for the establishment of a new post-doctoral fellowships program in co-operation with the granting councils. The allotment of $45 million over five years will aim to “attract top-level talent to Canada” in the form of up to 140 fellowships that will offer $70,000 per year over two years.

Employment support present, educational support lacking

Alongside announcements for some general job-creation and job-protection measures, the Conservatives offered limited funding to help Canadian students find work — including a one-year increase of $30 million for youth internships, set to take effect this year.

“Thirty million dollars, I think, is a great investment in (a) career-focus aspect…. I think this will help in terms of getting students into the workforce, but the issue is that about five years after a recession is when student jobs start to come back,” said Arati Sharma, Canadian Alliance of Student Associations national director. “So $30 million is a first step, but it’s going to take a long time for students to get back into the workforce.”

Another $30 million was earmarked for programs aimed at helping young immigrants, Aboriginal Canadians and single parents gain work experience, and accessibility to post-secondary education was the goal in giving $20 million to help high school students make it to university and college through the Pathways to Education Canada program.

The most significant, yet least detailed, mention of educational support was in a vague “new approach” the government plans to take in terms of post-secondary education funding for Aboriginal students, which will apparently be “co-ordinated with other federal student support programs.”

“It was kind of a non-announcement in a lot of ways,” said Katherine Giroux-Bougard, national chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students.

She said there has been a lot of speculation in the past few years about the future of the Post-Secondary Student Support Program, the existing funding program for Aboriginal students.

“There’s a lot of concern that if it’s rolled into existing programs, then that funding is subject to becoming (partially) loans and Aboriginal students just become part of the regular application program,” she continued. “The way the program is set up now ensures they have the necessary supports both in their communities and in terms of funding to be able to access post-secondary education.”

If the government does opt to alter the current structure for dissemination of funds, Sharma said that proper consultations with Aboriginal communities must play a role.

“We really want the government to focus on building relationships and also making sure… that aboriginal groups, First Nations groups (and) Métis groups are involved in those consultations,” she said. “They’re the ones that really have the connections with the youth or individuals who want to go to post-secondary education, and they really need to get the information from them.”

Heading toward 2015

While Flaherty and the Conservatives have received criticism for misestimating deficits in the recent past, the government has tagged 2014–15 as the target to reach as close a balanced budget as possible — as well as reach a lower debt-to-GDP ratio of 31.9 per cent, compared to the coming year’s expected 35.4 per cent — and noted at that point, Canadians could see a deficit reaching only $1.8 billion.

“The announced targets are going to mean a vicious slash in programs over the next three or four years,” Turk suggested. He also said that without a tax increase there is no feasible way to eliminate the deficit without an increase in taxes.

“I think it’s important for the government to realize that spending on post-secondary education should actually not be viewed as spending — it’s really an investment.”

Acknowledging the support students have received in recent budgets from the Conservatives, Giroux-Bougard reinforced the consideration of post-secondary education as an economic benefit for the government.

“I think it’s important for the government to realize that spending on post-secondary education should actually not be viewed as spending — it’s really an investment,” said Giroux-Bougard. “If the government is serious about having skilled workers and a knowledge-based economy, then it only makes sense that they invest in students and that they see it more as an asset than as an expenditure.”

Sharma offered a similar perspective.

“We know we’re in a time of financial austerity,” said Sharma. “We’re just hoping that the government recognizes that funding toward post-secondary education is a way to stimulate the economy, and there (are no) cuts there.”

Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff told reporters on March 4 that the Liberals will vote against the budget, but not in sufficient numbers to bring down the government. While the NDP has voiced its opposition, the Bloc Québécois is the only party so far to have indicated they will not be supporting the budget.

- -
photo: Department of Finance

TANNARA YELLAND
Associate News Editor

Governor General Michaëlle Jean’s March 3 Speech from the Throne left many questions unanswered. Luckily, the federal budget was released the next day to answer some of them.

Jean spoke mostly about the economy, an important subject the world over as countries like Greece and Spain struggle to recover from shockingly severe recessions and as Canada itself continues to see negative effects from the financial meltdown of the last two years. It was also a timely subject as the federal budget was released the next day. What Jean’s speech hinted at or vaguely addressed, the federal budget set out in far more concrete terms.

University of Saskatchewan political studies professor David McGrane says this is generally the way such speeches are structured.

“What’s interesting,” he said, “is the way it attempted to set up the budget and frame the federal government’s action.”

Jean’s claim that there will be a smaller, leaner government was then displayed in the budget, where foreign aid is set to finish expanding in the coming years and there will be no new stimulus funding after last year’s $30 billion is fully apportioned and spent. McGrane says that if there actually is a move toward a smaller government, it “could be seen as a historical turning point.”

Keeping the Canadian economy functioning and making it stronger will require, Jean said, “a return to fiscal balance.” However, she said this will be possible without making drastic cuts to existing services.

“Balancing the nation’s books will not come at the expense of pensioners. It will not come by cutting transfer payments for health care and education or by raising taxes on hard-working Canadians.”

In addition to not providing any more stimulus spending, Jean said balancing the budget will require the government to restrict program spending in general, including freezing the wages of Members of Parliament and the prime minister. And while she reiterated Canada’s dedication to sending aid to Haiti, her message of fiscal conservatism is at odds with increasing aid obligations. This has led some political commentators to speculate about whether aid programs garnering less publicity will suffer as a result.

Probably because the speech was focused on how the government would cut back on spending and balance its budget, Jean devoted almost no time to talking about students. McGrane says he thinks this is because students cost governments millions of dollars in loans and often do not vote, especially Conservative.

“Why would the government make promises to them?” he asked.

However, McGrane says the government does deserve credit for pouring money into construction on campuses across Canada.

“It doesn’t really help (students) out with loans or tuition, but it’s something,” he said.

- -

Mental health first aid

The University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union Help Centre is hosting a training workshop on mental health first aid on March 13 and 14.

Mental health first aid prepares people to help those developing mental problems or those in crisis. It teaches participants to recognize the signs of mental health problems and the skills needed to properly assist the sufferer. The training also links participants to a network of helpers in the community to ensure long term care of those in crisis.

According to the Mental Health First Aid, the group that teaches the course, one in three Canadians will experience a mental health problem at some point in their life.

To sign up, just contact Help Centre coordinator Tina Elliot at help.centre@ussu.ca or 966-6982.

University’s public reporting

The University of Saskatchewan Board of Governors will hold its annual public reporting meeting March 12, which is open to both the public and media.

The public reporting meeting gives students and community members a rare opportunity to address and ask questions of the entire board.

This year’s agenda includes a discussion of governance at the U of S and the role of the board, an overview of the 2009-10 work plan and a presentation on capital projects.

Vote on student fee increase

Scott Hitchings, University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union vice-president operations and finance, motioned to increase the student fee by 5 per cent, or $2.95 for next year.

Student union general manager Caroline Cottrell had addressed council the previous week on the planned motion, outlining the USSU’s arguments for the increase, including maintaining the same level of services next year following the considerable deficit faced by the organization this year. This is due in part to the temporary loss in rental revenue from Place Riel due to renovations.

Hitchings’s motion stirred up renewed debate on the issue.

Councillor for pharmacy and nutrition Roger Loor suggested it would be more prudent to make the decision after the budget projections have been released, or council has at least been briefed on the USSU’s finances.

Hitchings said student fees were typically set first because they have to be submitted to University Council by mid-March before next year’s tuition is set.

Chris Stoicheff, vice-president external affairs, said that students have been “dinged” by all sorts of new fees in past years, including a $10 increase to the U-Pass and a $13 increase in the infrastructure fee last year.

The USSU seems to have no financial plan and instead appears to be reacting to things as they come, he said.

He asked Hitchings if rental revenue from Place Riel tenants was expected to compensate for the entire amount of the deficit next year, which is currently about $446,000.

Finally a new motion to table the vote for the next meeting, when USC could be briefed on the budget, passed by a wide margin.

New learning charter

Edwards School of Business professor Rick Long addressed council on the new learning charter that is near completion. The learning charter is a foundational document outlining the rights and responsibilities of students, faculty and administrators. The language is intentionally broad to guide policy makers in future decisions such as curriculum redesign.

Long asks that any students with recommendations to make about the learning charter email him at learning-charter@usask.ca.

Announcements

The Indigenous Students’ Council is holding a logo design contest, with a grand prize of $300 going to the winner. Applicants can submit entries to the Aboriginal Students’ Centre. The contest will remain open until a winning logo has been chosen.

It’s that time of year again: the Saskatoon Engineering Students’ Society’s annual “pi-throw” has begun. Until March 12, students can order a pie in the face for anyone in Saskatoon, with all proceeds going to charity. This year the SESS has created a new online ordering feature. Those interested in purchasing a pie can visit pithrow.org to order online or call 966-7700.

Leonard Asper has resigned as head of Canwest Global Communications Corp., the media empire that owns Global television stations, the National Post and 13 daily newspapers including the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

In a memo to employees today, Asper said he “advised our Board of Directors that effective immediately I am resigning my position as President and Chief Executive Officer of Canwest Global Communications Corp. and Canwest Media Inc., as well as all of my other directorships and officer positions with the Company and its subsidiaries.”

Asper’s resignation comes at a turbulent time for Winnipeg based Canwest. After a decade of rapid expansion — not all of it wise — the company ended up with $4 billion in debt it could not pay off. Canwest’s broadcast and print divisions are currently under bankruptcy protection.

Asper’s resignation was also presented as a way to avoid a conflict of interest since he is currently bidding to retain a large share of the bankrupt company. However, there are competing bids from other groups, such as Calgary based Shaw Communications.

Asper became CEO of the company in 1999. His late father, Israel “Izzy” Asper, founded the company in 1974.

OTTAWA (CUP) — Employment growth — including more support for youth seeking jobs — was one of the top priorities in the Conservative government’s 2010 budget released on March 4.

Titled “Leading the Way on Jobs and Growth,” the more-than-400 page document offered $19 billion in stimulus funding to complete the Tories’ economic action plan, which is set to end in March 2011. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty explained the winding down of stimulus spending will help cut the current fiscal year’s $53.8 billion deficit nearly in half by 2012.

“We will have savings of about $17.6 billion over five years,” the minister told reporters prior to his speech in the House of Commons. “That aids us to be very close to balance in 2014-15.”

In order to incur smaller deficits without raising taxes, however, cuts in government spending had to be made.

“This is a tough budget. . . . Some very difficult decisions have been made,” Flaherty said. “Most of the answers to requests for funding were ‘No.’ ”

Despite the announcement of limited spending, Canadian students will be able to benefit from some employment and education related funding. A one-year increase of $30 million for youth internships is set to take effect this year, along with another $30 million for programs aimed at helping young immigrants, aboriginal Canadians and single parents to gain work experience.

In terms of colleges and universities, $20 million has been earmarked for increasing accessibility to post-secondary education over the next several years and a total of $64 million will be funneled into Canada’s research-granting councils between now and 2012.

Further support was mentioned in a vague “new approach” the government plans to take in terms of post-secondary education funding for aboriginal students, which will apparently be “co-ordinated with other federal student support programs.”

Few changes to income tax breaks were announced, though students in research-only programs and receiving post-doctoral fellowships will no longer be eligible for the Scholarship Exemption and Education Tax Credit.

- -
image: Flickr

WINNIPEG (CUP) — Health Canada has approved the use of the HPV vaccine Gardasil for men.

Pharmaceutical company Merck Frosst was granted authorization by the federal government on Feb. 22 to market Gardasil for boys and men from ages 9 to 26.

Dr. Bob Lotocki, program director of the Manitoba Cervical Cancer Screening Program, said that vaccinated males could decrease the overall prevalence of the human papillomavirus in the community.

“If they are having sex with more than one individual, theoretically, it will decrease the prevalence of HPV spread in the population as well, so it will help women indirectly,” said Lotocki.

Dr. Andrew Potter, director of the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, said the use of Gardasil in men isn’t new.

“Canada essentially is following what other countries are doing around the world. It’s not something (for which) we’ve jumped out on a limb and said, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ It’s something that’s happening all over the world.”

HPV encompasses a number of different viruses under one family that can cause a variety of inflictions from warts to cancer, including cervical and vulva cancers in women.

Lotocki said the fact that women have the ability to vaccinate themselves against HPV is “fantastic.” Health Canada approved the use of Gardasil in women ages nine to 26 in 2006.

“(The) long answer is that I think there are still some unanswered questions. I think that one of marketing directions that Gardasil has taken, at least (that) Merck has taken with their vaccine… is to prevent cervical cancer, but in reality it has the (ability) not only to prevent cervical cancer but a lot of precancerous lesions.”

Lotocki said that the vaccine protects women against the two genotypes of HPV that are associated with seven per cent of cervical cancers, and potentially up to 50 per cent or more of precancerous lesions.

He also said the vaccine would provide personal protection for men, with the potential to prevent not only warts but also certain types of cancers.

“What you’re looking at is preventing anal carcinomas. Theoretically, men who have sex with men are at risk of developing anal cancers that theoretically (this vaccine) prevents, (as well as) head and neck cancer.”

Potter said that men should be vaccinated not just to protect themselves, but to stop the spread of the virus.

“What happens is that if you only vaccinate women, you still have the virus out there. If you vaccinate men and women, you are not going to get transmission from infected men back into women. Essentially, the risk goes down accordingly,” he said.

Lotocki said the prevalence of HPV among youths is quite high.

“Theoretically, if you look at some population studies… it may be up to 25 per cent,” for the 20 to 30 age group, he said.

Lotocki said that all age groups are at risk for contracting HPV, with 75 per cent of the population being exposed to it at some point during their life.

He said that due to its prevalence, he would reclassify HPV not as a sexually transmitted infection but as a “very common viral infection with a low consequence of developing disease, such as precancerous changes or cancers.”

“The problem is we looked at it as a very uncommon infection, but we know that that’s not true now. It’s a very common infection. That’s why I think we should not use that stigma. We have to try and normalize it. Not normalize it in terms of saying it’s a normal thing, but normalize it in saying that it’s a very common thing.”

Lotocki recommended that women should still have regular Pap tests, as the vaccine is not fully protective.

“You need to be diligent in terms of your own health. The thing is when we’re busy, especially when you’re in university, you tend to think about your academics rather than think about your personal health, but you’ve got to take both hand in hand,” said Lotocki.

“If you look at it, you buy yourself something nice to make you comfortable today, so you may go and… buy yourself a pair of jeans, being male or female. The vaccine is expensive enough that potentially you could spoil yourself long term by protecting yourself clinically.”

- -

The University of Saskatchewan announced a $12 million donation from the Nasser family on Feb 26. Professor Emeritus Karim Nasser was on hand with his wife, Dora, five children and grandchildren to make the announcement.

The university was keeping the name of the donor and the amount donated under wraps until the announcement, only saying that it was the largest donation the U of S had ever received. At Friday’s announcement, Convocation Hall filled almost to the rafters with faculty, staff and students dying to hear how much would be donated to the U of S and who the mysterious donor was.

Also the largest donation in provincial history, the gift comes in the form of two pieces of real estate: the Vienna Building downtown, which houses the Edwards School of Business K. W. Nasser Centre, and the Idylwyld Apartments, which are three buildings on Idylwyld Drive. Together, the real estate is worth $18 million, but the U of S paid the family $6 million for the properties, resulting in the $12 million net worth of the gift.

The money will go toward several projects, including undergraduate needs-based student awards, the College of Engineering, and the Edwards School of Business downtown campus. They have also asked that the money be used toward the construction of a student amenities building as a part of the College Quarter student residence development and toward the construction of the Gordon Oakes-Red Bear Student Centre.

The student amenities building would be a place for students to gather and socialize in the College Quarter residences, potentially with space for computer, exercise and music rooms, classrooms or office space. The Gordon Oakes-Red Bear Student Centre is a planned Aboriginal student space and cultural centre, designed to support, attract and retain First Nations students at the U of S.

Christy Miller, associate director of development communications and donor relations, said that while she didn’t want to speculate on
the university’s behalf, she thinks the U of S will be more likely to keep the Vienna Building downtown.

“Because we’re in the downtown campus building, if we were going to look at selling one of the properties it would be the Idylwyld apartments,” she said. “The university did look at them as being potential residences but they are a bit farther away from the university.”

The university will either keep the buildings and continue to operate them, or sell the buildings at some point in the future. Either way, the university will respect the donor’s wishes for the programs they want the money to fund.

The Nasser family has donated to the university each year since 1967, granting over 300 student awards at a value of over $600,000.

Karim Nasser showed a great sense of humour during his speech, eliciting chuckles from the crowd on more than one occasion. He continuously took the attention away from himself, encouraging applause for the many other people involved in making the gift a possibility.

“We love to give to deserving and needy students and to students at large,” said Nasser. “We also love to give to students with leadership and innovative abilities. We hope all these students will uphold and continue the great traditions of our university, the traditions of helping and giving generously to our community and to the world at large.”

Born in Lebanon, Nasser earned his PhD at the U of S and worked in the department of physics and engineering as a professor of civil engineering for 33 years. But Karim isn’t the only person in his family with a connection to the U of S: his wife and all of his five children — John, Mona, Selma, Roseann and May — are U of S alumni.

In a speech about his dad and the donation, John pointed out the importance of the university in their lives stretches far beyond their immediate family: he also met his wife while studying here.

- -
photo: Robby Davis

Jean McCardle wants you to believe in the Afghanistan mission.

The senior development advisor for the Canadian International Development Agency has worked for several years in Kandahar, Afghanistan — which Canada is responsible for — coordinating the government’s efforts to rebuild and improve the province, which has been plagued by decades of armed conflict.

Canada entered the war in Afghanistan at the request of the United States in order to assist in finding Osama Bin Laden. Since then, however, the focus of the mission has largely turned to one of peace building and development.

This has brought about a unique situation, says McCardle — civilian groups like CIDA are now co-operating with military groups at an unprecedented level.

“We’ve had such a large number of civilians working in collaboration with military on development,” she said.

“We have been through a civilianization process, where the highest ranking civilian now has equal rank to the Canadian commander.”

This means the senior development advisor now has access to all the high level meetings, she said.

McCardle is currently touring Canada as part of the government’s Afghanistan 360 project, which was created to promote the government’s development projects in the country. The Afghanistan 360 display can be viewed at the University of Saskatchewan in the Diefenbaker Centre until March 14.

The Canadian government has three flagship projects in Kandahar: the Dahla Dam and irrigation system, polio eradication and education in Kandahar.

“They were deemed to be the most important things for us to do at the time, the three things that would have the most positive impact on the population,” she said.

The projects are necessary to “get the economy going again, to get the children healthy and to get the schools open,” she said.

Canada has committed to investing up to $50 million in the Dahla Dam project. The dam has been in disrepair for years. This will provide farmers with irrigated land and should generate up to 10,000 seasonal jobs, according to a Government of Canada press release.

On the education front, Canada has committed $12 million to build, expand or repair 50 schools in Kandahar. Currently, only 16 per cent of Kandaharis are literate — 26 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women.

“Over the last two years there are 10,000 more kids in school,” she said.

Another major project is to eliminate polio in Afghanistan. Southern Afghanistan, where Kandahar is located, has the highest national incidence of the virus.

According to McCardle, Canada has had to push back the expected finishing date of the polio and the Dahla Dam efforts.

“Because it’s been so insecure,” she said.

McCardle bristles at the notion that it’s a contradiction to have a war that essentially revolves around development.

This sentiment echoes state officials, who now place less emphasis on the justification of the conflict as a war on terrorism in favour of emphasizing the development projects. The Afghanistan 360 project is just one facet of this campaign.

On a December visit to Saskatoon, Defence Minister Peter McKay emphasized Canada’s development role in Afghanistan, saying the Canadian military is there because the democratically elected government of Afghanistan has asked them to be there.

On the ubiquitous poppy crops, the government has been trying to get farmers to switch to wheat.

Although poppy is one of the most profitable crops in the country, the price of wheat on the global market has been increasing, said McCardle.

“We have provided (about) 2,000 farmers in each of the six key districts (of Kandahar) with wheat seed. It’s really hard to know exactly what impact that has, but obviously the hope and intent is that it will be planted. You just don’t know what the impact directly is.”

- -
photo: ISAF Public Affairs / Flickr

    For about two months, talking to strangers has been all the rage.

    The reason for this is the meteoric rise of Chatroulette, the Internet’s latest chat site. It matches you up with random strangers around the world. Users can communicate via webcam and microphone or simply through text, although without a camera you’re likely to get “nexted.”

    Indeed, that is one of the defining features of Chatroulette: if you don’t like what you see, you simply click “Next” and get matched up with someone else.

    In an age of ever-increasing interconnectedness with sites like Facebook and Twitter, Chatroulette is a refreshing splash of anonymity. It even resembles early Internet chat services in which strangers simply spoke to other strangers across the world, often looking for a sexual connection.

A brief spin through Chatroulette will have its mix of nudity, some of it mild, most of it downright scandalous. However, unlike traditional chat rooms, typing “asl” to ask for someone’s age, sex and location will get you suspended for 10 minutes.

    The service is relatively young and has only gained in popularity in the last several weeks. Started by Andrey Ternovskiy, a Russian teenager who wanted a new way to chat with his friends, the site soon gained a following and its user base exploded. Ternovskiy, 17, built and maintains the site by himself but he has already attracted the attentions of people in the tech industry with deep pockets.

    Ternovskiy told the New York Times that he never advertised his site, “but somehow, people started to talk to each other about the site. And the word started to spread. That’s how the simultaneous user count grew from 10 to 50, then from 50 to 100 and so on.”

    Chatroulette’s website shows there are “more than 20,000” users online at any given time, but the real figure is likely much higher, perhaps in the millions. That means that Chatroulette offers users the chance to come face to face with over a million strangers (or their genitals) all around the world.

    I tried my luck at Chatroulette and got a mixed bag. My first stranger was a young man in his 20s looking disinterestedly at the camera, a cigarette tucked behind his ear. After saying hello and not getting a response, I clicked next.

    A blank screen. I clicked next.

    Another blank screen. This time I waited and repeatedly asked if anyone was on the other side. Suddenly the blank screen changed and revealed a man’s erection. I clicked next.

    On my next try, a friendly wave hello merited me an immediate disconnection. As did the next five tries. At this point, I almost wished for the erection to come back on screen. At least it didn’t skip me so cruelly.

    One last try, and I got matched up with a blonde 19-year-old woman with hoop earrings taking long drags from her cigarette between one-word responses. She was from Turkey.

    I asked her why she used Chatroulette, but she just stared back at me in boredom before disconnecting. It seems no one really knows why they go on Chatroulette. They just do.
   
- -

This spring, engineering student group Footprint Design plans to begin construction on a solar powered greenhouse.

One of the focuses of this greenhouse is food production.

“Right now, more than 90 per cent of the food that we eat in Saskatchewan is imported from other places and probably all of that is imported using fossil fuel transportation. We need ways to eat food locally,” said Footprint Design co-chair Steffen Bertelsen, who has studied solar greenhouse design.

“Solar greenhouse design utilizes solar storage of heat and uses environmentally friendly materials. It’s very possible to grow fruits and vegetables year-round without fossil fuels. These greenhouses require less than 10 per cent of the heating costs of normal greenhouses.”

In January, Bertelsen went on a trip to China where he viewed a number of solar powered greenhouses that have been used for decades to great success.

While in China, Bertelsen, Glen Sweetman, the Government of Saskatchewan’s greenhouse specialist, and some local greenhouse growers toured some of the country’s greenhouses with the goal of bringing back what they learned to adapt to Saskatchewan greenhouse growing.

Bertelsen wants to learn to better adapt and implement that technology in Saskatchewan.

“We learned lots of things,” he said. “But the challenge is because the climate is different as well as the economic influences
are different — labour is cheap, building materials are different — the challenge is finding out how we can take the same basic ideas and the same designs and adapt it to our materials, our labour costs and materials costs and our climate.”

One thing Bertelsen learned is that Saskatchewan needs to catch up.

“I learned that we are in the stone age in terms of greenhouse growing in Saskatchewan,” he said. “We saw acres and acres of solar greenhouses in China and compared to the industry in Saskatchewan, it’s just huge.”

Bertelsen acknowledged the hypocritical nature of flying to China when this contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions he is trying to mitigate.

“I struggled very much with this. This is contrary to what I believe but this is probably the only time I will go to China. And I (went) there to learn how to reduce carbon emissions and learn how to do that in the most effective or efficient way possible. So, sometimes you do have to make a deal with the devil.”

Bertelsen feels passionately about these issues because they have such important larger consequences.

“We are warming the climate and we are doing that by carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. There are large deposits of organic material that are decaying, which releases methane.

“As the polar icecaps melt, this methane is released and creates a runaway climate change effect. This occurs when we are at two degrees above pre-industrial levels and the correlates to 450 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. Right now we are about at 380. If we continue to this we are going to hit a tipping point in 2015.”

Bertelsen said in order to change this we need to get government policy to get big industries to cut emissions, as well as getting people to start using electric cars and eating locally to start reducing carbon emissions. He also suggests walking and bicycling more to help with this approach.

Bertelsen’s main goals throughout this are to better educate and help people understand what is happening within the environment.

“We don’t need to necessarily scare people but we do need to tell people what the situation is. There are tons of misinformation campaigns from both sides and we really need truth to come out. People need to know the truth because once you actually know what’s going on instead of what the media tells you, you are going to act accordingly.”

Extra credit

Home is a 2009 documentary that focuses on the environment, climate and global warming issues. The film was directed by Yann Arthus Bertrand and is narrated by Glenn Close. Bertrand intended the movie to be seen by as many people as possible and has no official copyright.

Home can be viewed for free on the Internet on websites such as YouTube. Home was also created as an educational tool and is free for use in schools.

Footprint Design has held screenings of this movie twice. They chose it in the hope that it would be more meaningful than just presenting scientific data would be.

“The purpose of this is to gather like minds and have a discussion and come up with some plans,” said Bertelsen.

“This movie is a really good way of getting people familiar with the subject without having to throw lots of scientific data at them.”

- -
photo: Colin McDonald / Flickr

When most people think of LSD, the first thing to come to mind is more likely a hippie love-in rather than a therapeutic drug, but for several decades in Saskatchewan, LSD was part of the new cutting edge of drug therapy.

Experiments that took place in Saskatoon and at the Weyburn mental hospital radically expanded the field of psychiatry and were a notable part of the shift from a focus on psychoanalysis to cognitive science, driven by drug therapy.

    Shortly after the Second World War, British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond began studying LSD, perceiving a similarity between the effects of LSD and the early stages of schizophrenia. His work was not well accepted in England, but in 1951 Osmond accepted a position at the Weyburn mental hospital where he met some like-minded researchers.

They began first by experimenting on themselves with psychedelic drugs, including mescaline and LSD-25. Osmond, along with Abram Hoffer, the superintendent of the Weyburn mental hospital, and others such as Duncan Blewett felt that in order to treat schizophrenia they had to know what the experience of it was like.

    Given that LSD seemed to mimic the effects of the early stages of schizophrenia, Osmond and his contemporaries reasoned that perhaps schizophrenia was caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.

    Hofmann encouraged the budding new field of experimentation in his hospital and the researchers received a number of grants from Tommy Douglas’s Cooperative Commonwealth Federation governent (the precursor to the New Democratic Party).
They were opening the field of drug therapy but, according to University of Saskatchewan history of psychiatry researcher Erika Dyck, they still tended to engage in psychoanalysis.

They did, however, distinguish themselves from the psychoanalysts, who they considered to be “dogmatic therapists largely concerned with treating middle-class patients,” says Dyck. 

    In her paper “Land of the Living Sky with Diamonds,” Dyck argues that these radical experiments were happening at a time when the social and political landscape of Saskatchewan was also changing dramatically.

    “Individuals involved in LSD research acknowledged the importance of place in terms of the supportive research environment, the optimistic intellectual atmosphere, and the receptive medical community,” she writes.

    At that time, the controls on drug experimentation were minimal compared to today. Chemicals were supplied with little hesitation.

    Osmond was even responsible for administering author Aldous Huxley with the dose of mescaline that led him to write The Doors of Perception, an enthusiastic description of his experience.

    Osmond experimented with many chemicals but LSD became the drug of choice because it is potent in extremely small doses — mere micrograms — and it was available for free from Swiss chemical supplier Sandoz. The economical nature of LSD also made the CCF government more open to financially supporting its research.

    Perhaps the best known LSD research at the Weyburn hospital was the experimention on alcoholics. Hoffer and Osmond began using LSD on patients to simulate delirium tremens — a potentially lethal state of agitated delirium suffered by chronic consumers of alcohol. 

    Since this treatment was not envisioned as a therapy — thereby replacing alcohol with LSD — it relied on administering patients with a single mega-dose of between 200 and 1,500 micrograms, says Dyck.

For comparison, a typical tab of LSD blotter today contains around 30 to 90 micrograms. A threshold dose is about 20 micrograms.

    The researchers lauded their form of shock-therapy as successful, claiming a 50 per cent recovery rate for the length of the post-treatment study period.

    “Patients in the initial study were chronic alcoholics in the Saskatchewan Mental Hospital in Weyburn. Following the LSD treatment, the male patient stopped drinking and remained sober for at least six months, at which point the follow-up study ended. The female patient continued drinking after the experiment but stopped during the follow-up period,” Dyck writes.

Over the next few decades, Saskatchewan researchers tested LSD on hundreds of alcoholics, claiming similar results.

    Hoffer later rejected the theory that they were simulating delirium tremens and speculated that it was more likely the self-reflective experience of LSD that convinced alcoholics to stop drinking.

    Blewett, the founding chairman of the U of S psychology department, also argued that LSD was effective in treating alcoholism because it allowed patients to look within themselves.

    “Other methods frequently produced dependence, whether on a chemical or a psychotherapeutic relationship, and did little to assist the patient in resurrecting self-control,” said Dyck.

    Critics have since rejected these experiments for their lack of controlled trials, but the work begun by Osmond, Hoffer and Blewett has contributed to the conception of alcoholism as a bio-chemical disease, and one that can be treated.

    Psychiatry was a different world during this time, as evidenced by the researchers’s psychedelic experiments, which would be difficult to attempt today.

    “It strikes me that the layers of regulation and bureaucracy are much thicker today,” said Dyck.

Experimentation with new psychiatric drugs has become much more tightly controlled by legislation, ethics boards and ethicists, she said.

    By 1968, LSD had become a controlled substance in Canada and the U.S., severely restricting its use. 

    “I think that the media had a lot to do with it,” said Dyck.

Many publications were blaming the growing student protest movement on the use of psychedelic drugs and the rise of psychedelic celebrities like Timothy Leary.

Leary, a former Harvard-based psychologist, was expelled from his position for freely giving away LSD to community residents. He later travelled across California offering LSD as a new form of consciousness expansion with the slogan, “Turn on, tune in, drop out.”

    According to Dyck, this contributed to the idea that LSD was over-hyped.

    “There was too much hype. It was almost caught up in a placebo type (of effect),” she said. 

    Osmond had left the Saskatchewan Mental Hospital by the early 1960s and Hoffer resigned in 1967, but by that time he had moved from psychedelics to experiments with high doses of vitamins. The Weyburn mental hospital was demolished in 2008, after the facility had essentially been closed for a decade.

- -

Research linking diabetes to pollution has been largely ignored by mainstream media outlets, says John Hummel.

Hummel has been active in the field of environmental activism and advocating for First Nations for the past 30 years, and has been attempting to rectify what he sees as an oversight on the part of the media.

“It’s well known in scientific circles,” that there is a connection between pollutants and diabetes, he said. “But it has hardly made it into any media.”

Studies showing a clear link between pollution and the development of diabetes have been around since the early 1990s. The National Academy of Sciences published a report in July 1993 that linked Type 2 diabetes to dioxin, one of the main chemicals in Agent Orange, the infamous herbicide used to clear vast swathes of Vietnamese jungle.

Following the results of the study, Type 2 diabetes was added to a list of diseases for which veterans could receive compensation.

Since then there have been numerous studies released worldwide showing similar links, often between pesticides or herbicides and diabetes.

“DDT seems to be the most common one,” Hummel said, “and that’s in all of us now.”

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, the chemical name for an insecticide commonly known as DDT, was one of the most commonly used pesticides in the world between the ’40s and ’60s; it has proven effective both for agricultural purposes and for fighting malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. It has since been proven to be extremely toxic to humans and has been illegal in many Western nations since the mid-’70s.

“It’s still being used in some malarial regions and it’s just building up in the ocean (over time),” Hummel added.

One of Hummel’s main concerns is that First Nations populations often suffer from diabetes.

According to a report released by the Environmental Stewardship Unit of the Assembly of First Nations in June 2009, diabetes is between three and five times more likely among First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada. This number is so high that diet and lifestyle cannot fully explain it.

“As many environmental toxins bio-accumulate in the food chain and are found in the wild game and fish traditionally harvested and consumed by Aboriginal peoples, these chemicals could present health risks not yet fully explored,” writes the report’s author, Donald Sharp.

Industry transgressions pose a problem for both Aboriginal people and other groups. For example, a pulp mill near Dryden, Ont. dumped 10 tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon River between 1962 and 1970. That pollution has since spread to Lake Winnipeg and the Winnipeg River and has caused health problems for the Grassy Narrows First Nation.

- -

Lung Association launches 2010 “Share the Air” raffle

Tickets for the Lung Association’s annual raffle went on sale March 1. The deadline is May 28 and the draw is set for June 4.

The grand prize is “up to $140,000 in tax-free cash” and other prizes include a choice between $10,000 and a vacation to Tahiti; a Titleist golf club set; two 52-inch LCD televisions; one Plasma-screen television; and four Panasonic cameras, among other things. There is also a bonus draw for a prize of $1,004, which is free with every purchase of a four-pack of tickets.

Tickets are $35 for one, two for $60 or four for $100.

STM to hold community forum

St. Thomas More College, along with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Saskatchewan, will be holding a forum on justice March 16 at 7 p.m. in Father O’Donnell Auditorium.

The forum, entitled “It’s About Justice,” will feature author Graham Stewart, Saskatoon’s Chief of Police Clive Weighill, Kim Pate of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and representative from the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations.

The Elizabeth Fry Society is focused on working with women in the justice system, specifically those who are or may be criminalized.

Stewart is the former executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada, which works to promote humane and just responses to the causes and consequences of crime, according to its mission statement.

University celebrates Aboriginal Achievement Week

Between March 1 and 5 the University of Saskatchewan observed Aboriginal Achievement Week. The week featured speakers and a career fair, with a focus on research and careers.

At the March 2 career fair, Aboriginal university staff spoke to students about their experiences working for the university, and entertainment was provided by the Mykal Gambul Band. Wanda McCaslin spoke in the Aboriginal Students’ Centre on March 3, with a reception following. McCaslin is the legal research officer for the Native Law Centre of Canada.

There will be an Aboriginal research poster display on March 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the education student lounge.

Pharmacist Awareness Week 2010

March 1 to 5 is also Pharmacist Awareness Week, for which a number of events will be hosted by the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition.

The theme of the week is “Pharmacists in Motion.” This theme is intended to represent the rapidly changing nature of the profession, specifically toward a more patient-centred brand of care.

The College of Pharmacy and Nutrition was awarded the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns Award of Professionalism in 2009. This is awarded annually to the Canadian pharmacy school that holds the most organized Pharmacy Awareness Week.