File Photo Colin Chia/The Ubyssey

CTV reports that RCMP have issued a warning in the wake of two groping incidents at UBC.

Two women — one 36 years old, the other 20 years old — were allegedly assaulted on campus within the last month. The first incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. on April 19 on Larkin Road. The second incident occurred on Wesbrook Mall on May 18 around 3 a.m.

RCMP have yet to determine if the same suspect is responsible for both incidents.

One woman said the suspect was 5 foot 9 with dark clothes and shoes with white trim. The other woman said the suspect was 5 foot 8 with dark hair, in his mid- to late 20s.

“At this point it is not clear to police if there are one or two suspects, however we recognize the circumstances are very similar in how the women were assaulted,” said RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen.

“We’re reminding everyone walking on the campus at night to be vigilant of their surroundings, and to walk with someone else if at all possible.”

UBC has sent a broadcast email out saying both Campus Security and the RCMP are continuing their patrols.

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File Photo

A UBC law professor has denied allegations that he played a role in the expense scandal involving Senator Mike Duffy.

CTV reported that UBC associate law professor Benjamin Perrin negotiated a deal for Nigel Wright to write a personal cheque to help Sen. Duffy pay back his expenses. Perrin issued a statement denying the allegations.

“Last night’s CTV story in relation to me, which is based on unattributed sources, is false,” said Perrin. “In all my work, I have been committed to making our country a better place and I hope my record of service speaks for itself.”

UBC spokesperson Randy Schmidt said Perrin’s actions off campus have no affect on his position at UBC.

“From our understanding, there is no relationship between what was happening there and his role at UBC,” said Schmidt.

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Photo courtesy Emilia Gordon

You might not expect a play about sexual assault to be entertaining, and certainly not funny, but that is exactly how Shameless Hussy Productions describe their new show, Dissolve. The one-woman play tells the story of a seemingly standard night out at a club that comes to end with drug-facilitated rape.

Dissolve offers a compelling look at the myths surrounding sexual assault and consent, especially when drugs and alcohol are involved. Director Renee Iaci wants the play to function as a comedic piece of theatre, while at the same time shedding light on a major social issue.

“First and foremost we want it to be entertaining, otherwise people aren’t going to listen,” said Iaci. “If it’s just a safety lesson, who wants to come? I think it is an entertaining piece of theatre, and then afterward you’re like, ‘Oh, what was I laughing at?’”

Dissolve was written in 2003 by playwright Meghan Gardiner while completing her BFA at UBC; the narrative is based on her own experience with drug-facilitated sexual assault. She first performed it at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, and it’s been touring ever since. After ten years, Gardiner was ready to move onto other things. But she felt the play itself could not be retired, since the rate of drink-spiking and sexual assault has not declined.

“She approached us, Shameless Hussy Productions, last fall, and said ‘this would be a perfect fit,’” said Iaci. Shameless Hussy was born at UBC in 1992, with a mandate of “telling provocative stories about women to inspire the hand that rocks the cradle to rock the world.”

“It’s not really a ‘message piece,’” said actress Emmelia Gordon. “It is ‘this is what happens and these are the consequences.’ It’s also a ‘what not to do if you see this happening.’” Gordon, a graduate of the Langara Studio 58 program, plays over a dozen unique characters over the course of the 45 minute play.

According to Iaci, one in every three women will experience sexual assault, usually before the age of 24. Statistics like this could easily be reduced by people stepping in when they see someone who might need help.

“My main focus on this is not so much the perpetrator or the victim, it’s about the bystanders,” she explained. “All the people along the way who could have stepped in and done something, but no, they are laughing, and [they] take pictures and put it online.”

Gordon, assisted by support workers, will facilitate a discussion session after every show to help audiences grapple with the nature of the content, and also to encourage dialogue about the issue.

“It brings up such big issues and topics, and we could go on for hours, and that’s good…. I think people who come to the show will start having conversations and maybe make people realize things, encourage people to reach out to someone,” said Gordon. “Maybe [after] seeing the show, they’ll be out in a situation and it will spark something for them.”

Dissolve runs from May 20 to 24 at CBC Studio 700. For tickets, visit http://www.shamelesshussy.com/.

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Courtesy Palestrina55/Flickr

A new program aimed at teaching the art of politicking is starting at UBC.

The Summer Institute for Future Legislators is geared towards equipping aspiring politicians with the skills needed to run for and succeed in office. An initiative of UBC’s Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI), the program will provide mentorship and training for future representatives at all three levels of government.

“[The course] is for a range of people and open to anybody, regardless of [political] orientation,” said Dr. Max Cameron, founder of the program and director of CSDI. “The only prerequisite you have to have are political aspirations.”

Running from June to August, the program will cover a variety of topics, including representative government, accurate representation of constituencies, communications, parliamentary roles and procedures, legislation and relationships.

Cameron said the program’s creation was inspired by the lack of training current politicians have.

“It’s the only profession dominated by amateurs. You get very limited orientation and training before office doesn’t exist”, he said. “Nothing like this [program] exists at all. Not one single example.”

Some of the former government officials that will help with the program include former Leader of the Opposition Preston Manning.

“I am a great believer in political parties,” said Manning in a release. “But the modern party has become almost exclusively a marketing tool for fighting elections. They do very little training despite the fact that people are their only real assets.”

Cameron said many politicians in Canada who aren’t adequately prepared end up misrepresenting their constituencies and following orders handed down by party leaders.

Veteran political journalists will provide training in media communication. “Information on one’s background can come to light and lead to losing one’s nomination,” Cameron said. “Politicians are an ill-advised statement away from their retirement.”

The summer program starts on the heels of the B.C. provincial election, but Cameron says the timing wasn’t intended. “It’s entirely serendipity,” he said. “The program was not designed to coincide with or influence the election. Even so, [the program] would be of no particular use to the people campaigning.”

UBC students are also eligible to take the program for academic credit. The cost is $475, roughly the same price as a three-credit Arts course.

Cameron says for students, the program will be a mix of academia and mentorship, and a departure from the abstract theories learned in classrooms.

“Planting the seed in politics is a noble calling, and studying political science doesn’t prepare you well to become a politician,” he said.

Iqra Azhar, a third year political science student, agrees. “This class would be a necessity for aspiring politicians. Reading out of a textbook is much different than being in the legislature.”

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Future funding for the UBC drug research group may be determined by the upcoming BC election. Photo Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey

All work has been suspended for a prescription-drug research group at UBC after the B.C. government pulled their funding.

Therapeutics Initiative, a research group tasked with analyzing prescription drug data from across the province to see how effective those drugs are, can’t do any work right now. The provincial government has revoked their data access and shut off their budget. This could change after the provincial election, but for now, researchers aren’t happy.

“Nobody’s ever said anything. They never explained,” said James Wright, managing director of the initiative and medicine professor at UBC. He said that when the government revoked their access to free B.C. prescription drug use data last summer, the group had to purchase drug use data from the U.S. in order to continue their research.

The budget for the group was around $1 million before the province reduced it to $550,000 in 2012. Funding from the provincial Ministry of Health stopped in October 2012, and since then, the initiative’s research into the efficacy of prescription drugs has all but stopped. “It’s like shutting down [the] lab,” said Wright.

The abrupt shutdown of the initiative is just one front in the complicated battle playing out between the B.C. government and prescription drug researchers. Seven other employees, working in various capacities for the Ministry of Health, were fired from their positions last fall.

The ministry says the researchers were let go for the wrongful use of private data, but the researchers say the data they were working on was stripped of any personal information. Five of those who were let go have filed wrongful dismissal suits against the Ministry.

The same investigation suspended $4 million in prescription drug research contracts at UBC and UVic.

A suit filed by Bill Warburton, a health and labour economist and one of the seven who were let go, claims that the ministry’s actions were influenced by substantial donations given by pharmaceutical companies to the B.C. Liberal party. These allegations have not been tested in court, and the Liberals have not returned requests for comment on the issue.

Wright says he was told the shutdown of research at UBC’s Therapeutics Initiative was a separate matter from the Ministry firings. But the goals of research performed by both groups were largely similar — examining how prescription drugs are prescribed in B.C., whether they’re effective, and whether or not they’re causing unwanted side effects.

The future of the Therapeutics Initiative could change after Tuesday’s election, as the NDP have pledged to restore funding for the group’s research. “The Therapeutics Initiative has an international reputation for keeping patients safe and controlling health care costs,” wrote NDP leader Adrian Dix in a release.

As far as Wright sees it, he’s hoping for a simple solution. “They need to reestablish our data access,” he said. “We can’t do the research.”

The B.C. Liberal Party did not return a Ubyssey request for comment on this story.

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Photo courtesy of Mercedes Batiz-Benet

El Jinete is the first mariachi opera in Canada, and possibly the world. And it will be at UBC’s Frederic Wood Theatre this weekend.

Inspired by black and white movies from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and a song that goes by the same name, El Jinete (The Rider) is a tribute to mariachi music, Mexican culture and love. The opera was written and directed by Mercedes Bátiz-Benét, the artistic director of Victoria-based Puente Theatre.

In an interview with The Ubyssey, Bátiz-Benét described the experience as an opportunity for Canadian audiences to see the origins of mariachi music. The story revolves around El Jinete, an embodiment of the mariachi archetype, who must travel from Mexico to the United States to rescue the love of his life after she is kidnapped.

El Jinete, however, is not a fat guy in a fancy suit with a sombrero and a guitar; he is not the beach resort “mariachi” that plays music with two other guys in suits who look uncomfortable in the heat. Rather, a real mariachi dresses like a charro (a Mexican cowboy) and sings about love and heartache.

The image of the mariachi and the charro became an elemental piece of Mexican culture during the Golden Age of cinema, which the show is meant to look and feel like.

“We use projections to transport people and make them feel like they’re inside one of these films,” explained Bátiz-Benét.

As El Jinete makes his way from Mexico to the United States, the audience is transported through time, starting in a colourless 1929 and ending in the colourful modern era. The press release puts it this way: “As he crosses the Rio Grande, he crosses into the modern world, and leaves his homeland forever.”

But Bátiz-Benét says the show was not created to be a critique of the immigration reform that is currently being revisited by the American government. Still, she hopes to create some reaction in the audience.

“It’s more of a yearning for our culture,” said Bátiz-Benét, who is originally from Mexico.

Attendees should be prepared to hear a lot of Spanish, as only a small portion of the dialogue will be in English. Most of the cast speaks fluent Spanish, including Alex Alegría, who plays El Jinete. Originally from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, Alegría is also the director of the mariachi ensemble Los Dorados.

He met Bátiz-Benét after Bátiz-Benét heard the ensemble play in last year’s International Mariachi Festival. Alegría shares the director’s love for Golden-Age Mexican cinema. For Alegría, the show isn’t just about beautiful music; he believes audiences will get a chance to see many more things they might not have know about Mexican culture.

Of course, you can’t discuss mariachi music and not mention the theme of love.

“I want [the audience] to see that true love still exists,” said Alegría.

Don’t miss the show at the Frederic Wood Theatre from May 10-12 (Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm).

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Photo Hogan Wong/The Ubyssey

Making the stretch between Macdonald and Alma for cyclists and pedestrians only. Getting from Surrey to UBC in record time. These are just some of the ideas tossed around at last Thursday’s community forum on what’s next for the Broadway corridor.

Hosted by the AMS, a panel of five transportation enthusiasts and experts discussed the politics behind and the future in store for the busiest bus corridor in North America, according to a KPMG study released earlier.

Moderator Brendan Hurley from the architectural firm Via, along with Karen Fung of the Vancouver Public Space Network, a public space interest group; Arno Schortinghuis of Hub: Your Cycling Connection, a cycling advocacy group; Yuri Artibise, an urbanist; and Claire Havens, an analyst with SFU Carbon Talks, gave their two cents on questions of transit funding and governance, and long-term and short-term solutions to alleviate traffic congestion.

For the short term, Artibise and Schortinghuis suggested adding more buses on 41st Avenue or King Edward Avenue to put less pressure on Broadway. For the long term, panelists suggested more abstract ideas such as maintaining thriving neighbourhoods and increasing public participation on TransLink plans.

Despite the many unfilled seats at the Hollywood Theatre where the forum was held, some residents who did show up were restless to move past the moderated questions and dive straight into asking their own questions.

Terry Martin, a Kitsilano resident, believes that instead of building a rapid transit line, the money could be better used to fund student housing, which would decrease the number of students commuting on Broadway to UBC.

He thought that the panel presented biased ideas. “Through the first parts of it they all talked about a subway down Broadway … rather than what are the options and how can we solve this problem,” said Martin.

AMS VP External Tanner Bokor disagreed and said the panel was intended to be a mixed bag to represent a spectrum of opinions. He said most of the panelists described themselves as “technology agnostic,” meaning they did not believe solely in one form of transportation best suited for alleviating traffic on Broadway.

Though the event was hosted by a student society, there was not a strong student presence. Bokor said around 50 people tuned in to the live Internet stream of the event.

Angela Jarvis, a SFU student with aspirations to become a city planner, often attends community forums. She said students are not informed about the politics behind transit on the Broadway corridor and not particularly interested at coming out to an event such as this.

“They’re happy just to get their U-Pass and continue on and hope for the best that someone’s going to take care of it,” she said. “I don’t know if every student that uses a transit pass is invested in Vancouver.”

Bokor said he hopes more transit forums will be held on campus in the fall when classes are in session again.

“We obviously don’t know what solution is best for the corridor but we need to have these conversations,” said Bokor. “This is really helpful at least to understand what the community’s thoughts are.”

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Photo Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey

A young woman riding a moped on campus is in hospital after being hit by a car.

The woman was heading eastbound on University Boulevard, when she was struck by a man driving a Chevrolet Corvette turning left onto Toronto Road around 8:15 Wednesday night. RCMP and paramedics responded to the scene.

RCMP would not disclose the name or age of the young woman. Eyewitnesses said the woman was around twenty years old.

Pete Whittstock, a third year geological engineering student, biked by the scene shortly after the collision. Whittstock said the woman was bleeding from her head and her right knee was scraped down to the bone.

He and a few other bystanders tried to help stop the bleeding while they waited for paramedics to arrive on scene.

“Other people grabbed some towels … just to stop the blood from leaking out everywhere and make her a bit more comfortable,” said Whittstock.

RCMP did not comment on the condition of the woman, but Whittstock said she was still conscious and able to respond to the paramedics’ questions.

“It seemed like she’ll be okay, but she was definitely in a lot of pain,” said Whittstock.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Photo Geoff Lister/The Ubssey

Police have laid charges against an accountant at the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform (ICCLR) for allegedly embezzling over $1 million from the law centre.

Janet Mercedes Bayda is charged with nine counts of fraud over $5,000 with the first offence dating back to 2004, according to court files.

Bayda allegedly created false entries in the ICCLR account records to hide payments made to her benefit. She was fired in December 2011 when management found out about her alleged fraudulent actions. Bayda worked for ICCLR for 18 years, from 1993 to 2011.

Over $1 million went missing over a period of several years, according to Daniel J. Sorochan, counsel for the ICCLR, but the precise amount has not yet been determined. $425,000 was recovered in January and February 2012 with cooperation from Bayda. Sorochan said the $425,000 recovered permitted the centre to continue its operations, but not without some staff reductions.

The ICCLR is located in the Faculty of Law of the UBC Vancouver campus, but it operates independently from the university. A registered charity since 1994, the ICCLR’s total expenses in 2012 were $728,775 and total revenue was $644,399, according to the Canada Revenue Agency. They have only four full-time employees.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey

Shanice Marcelle insists that she doesn’t exactly have a trophy case; she just keeps all her hardware on a shelf in her bedroom. If that’s true, that must be one big shelf. After all, she’s won almost every award a university volleyball player can win over her five-year career.

At the CIS level, this women’s volleyball standout has won two CIS national player of the year awards and was named tournament MVP at the CIS championships in 2011. At the Canada West stage, she’s won a pair of MVP awards. And at UBC, she became the first Thunderbird to win the Marilyn Pomfret Trophy for female athlete of the year, the May Brown Trophy for graduating female athlete of the year and the female Thunderbird rookie of the year award. All of this goes along with being named to numerous All-Star teams at the national and conference level, and winning three Canada West championships and five national titles.

But on Monday night in Toronto, Marcelle received one last honour at the university level: the Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) Award as the CIS female athlete of the year, arguably the most prestigious individual award in Canadian university sports. The trophy comes with a $10,000 scholarship to attend a Canadian university graduate school, as well as a commemorative gold ring that is given to all nominees. It was the second time that she had been nominated; Marcelle is the only two-time finalist from the Canada West.

“This award is so prestigious, and everything that BLG does for CIS sports is really incredible, so this award was almost like winning a national championship, to be honest,” said Marcelle shortly after she won. “Once they called my name,… I didn’t really know what was happening, so it’s kind of been a really big shock. It’s so humbling to be recognized out of all the incredible athletes in the CIS.”

In her fifth and final year donning the T-Bird blue and gold, the outside hitter from Victoria played perhaps her best season yet. She won the Canada West MVP and was named CIS player of the year — both for the second time — and led the women’s volleyball team to its sixth straight national championship.

Marcelle’s awards were backed up by impressive stats this year. She finished fourth in the Canada West in kills (3.33) and points (4.16) per set, sixth in hitting percentage (.302) and seventh in service aces per set (0.46). She also recorded 166 total digs during the season — a testament to her defensive play, which often went unnoticed but kept plays alive and acted as a key momentum shifter. After the Canada West final in February 2013, UBC head coach Doug Reimer praised Marcelle for her impact on the game.

“We were off by just that little bit in a few areas, and that’s what happens, but we had to make plays and Shanice makes plays, almost without exception, at key times,” he said at the time. “She can do it in so many different ways, but defensively,… that’s pretty critical.”

The school year may be over, but there is no time off for Marcelle. On Tuesday morning she left for Winnipeg, where she will attend the national team tryouts. She said she hopes to be with the national team for the summer, as she was last year.

As for the long-term future, Marcelle plans to remain focused on volleyball. She hopes to hone her skills by playing professionally in Europe next year. Ultimately, her sights are set on playing for Team Canada at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.

The BLG trophy will take up a considerable amount of space on Marcelle’s shelf. But if her volleyball career keeps going in the same direction, it might be time to invest in an entire cabinet.

—With files from Natalie Scadden

UBC at the BLG Awards

2013 saw UBC sweep the Canada West nominations for the BLG Awards. In addition to Marcelle being nominated on the female side, men’s soccer star Gagandeep Dosanjh was a finalist on the men’s side. Dosanjh led the Canada West in scoring during the regular season and was the driving force behind UBC’s perfect season and 12th national championship in men’s soccer. The third-year striker also scored four goals during the CIS championships and was named MVP of the tournament.

Marcelle is the fourth UBC athlete to take home the award; women’s volleyball player Liz Cordonier and swimmers Brian Johns and Annamay Pierse have also received the honour. The two nominations this year give UBC 11 finalists since the award’s inception in 1993, the most of any Canada West school. A T-Bird has been nominated in each of the past five years.

The BLG Awards are selected by the Canadian Athletic Foundation, a not-for-profit board created to administer the awards and protect the selection process.

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