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Animal rights campaign spreads beyond UBC campus

VANCOUVER (CUP)—A UNIVERSITY OF British Columbia (UBC) activist group is taking their campaign to end animal experimentation to the national level.

STOP UBC Animal Research (STOP), an animal rights group started at UBC’s Vancouver campus, has begun working with other groups with similar goals at institutions across Canada.

In the long term, STOP wants an end to animal testing across Canada, but in the short term, the group is advocating for more transparency for the experiments currently done.

Earlier this year, STOP joined dozens of other organizations to create the Canadian Coalition Against Animal Research and Experimentation, which includes a number of groups from institutions such as the University of Toronto, Dalhousie University, University of Alberta, York University, and University of Victoria.

“We started out concerned about the animals at UBC,” said Brian Vincent, STOP spokesperson. “And the more we learned about this issue, the more … [we felt] there was an urgent need to reform the way that animal research is done in Canada.”

—Arshy Mann, CUP Western Bureau Chief

Ryerson’s radio signal reclaimed

TORONTO (CUP)—SINCE CKLN, RYERSON University’s radio station, was taken off the air by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) earlier this year, the frequency 88.1 FM has been up for grabs. This is this first time this frequency has been available in over 27 years, and a group of Ryerson students and faculty has its eye on it.

Kolter Bouchard and Noorez Nunu Rhemtulla, two radio and television arts students, have spearheaded a campaign to use a portion of the $250,000 set aside for CKLN to apply to the CRTC for a student-run radio station. The $10.35 paid by each Ryerson Students’ Union member as a part of the 2011–12 tuition, has been put into an untapped reserve since CKLN can no longer access funds.

This new radio station, if accepted by the CRTC, will have no affiliation with CKLN.

“We want to be everything [CKLN] was not,” said Lorie Beckstead, the faculty advisor for the potential new radio station.

—Nicole Siena, the Eyeopener

SFU student shot to death on campus

BURNABY, B.C. (CUP)—A 19-YEAR-OLD SIMON Fraser University (SFU) student was shot and killed in the parkade at the SFU Surrey campus in the early hours of Sept. 28. Police found the victim, Maple Batalia, shortly after 1 a.m. on the third floor of the parking lot.

According to Don MacLachlan, head of SFU’s media relations, Batalia was on her way home after a late-night study session with her friends. She lived only blocks away from Surrey Central, the main SkyTrain station in the area.

Batalia, who was in the second year of her health sciences degree at SFU was also a model and actress. She had a small role as Melissa in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules.

According to RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen, who gave a statement later that day, officers found Batalia “suffering from what can only be described as significant and multiple gunshot wounds.” Thiessen added that the officers did all they could to save the young woman’s life, but were unsuccessful. She died later that day at the Royal Columbian Hospital.

—David Dyck, the Peak

UVic students fuming over new smoking rules

VICTORIA (CUP)—THE UNIVERSITY OF Victoria’s (UVic) new smoking policy, which prohibits smoking within the boundaries of Ring Road at the centre of campus, is facing opposition from students who feel they were left out of the loop in the decision-making process.

Ariel Tseng, UVic Students’ Society director-at-large, is the only student representative sitting on the university’s smoking committee—and he was elected after the policy had been finalized. It came into effect Sept. 1.

“The committee said that they had some kind of campus-wide vote, yet hardly any students even knew about the ban. Somehow, they managed to do this without informing the student society,” said Tseng.

He explained the committee doesn’t expect to have 100 per cent of students participate in the ban, but in the future, people who repeatedly break the ban will put their position at the university in jeopardy.

—Jenny Boychuk, the Martlet