Okay, it's Tuesday, you work the next morning, you go to class the next morning, you must generally wake up and be responsible the next morning.
WELL PISS ON IT!
Die Mannequin, Marilyn Manson, and Deap Vally stand to blow the roof off the CN Centre Tuesday night @ 7:00 PM. That sounds like a much better idea than waking up well rested. (There are still a few tickets left too!)
Tune in to CFUR 88.7 FM @ 3:15 pm to hear a Live Performance from Care Failure herself!
Both Marilyn Manson, Die Mannequin, & Deap Vally dropped new albums in recent history and the best part is, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAS BEEN REALLY FREAKIN' GOOD! Seriously check the reviews. If you miss this show, you will have effectively reduced your overall quality of life, forever.
While the strike charges on, we may as well wonder… how can we get 25 million clams to the Faculty Administration, then get back to school? Here are a few thoughts:
1. Though many have a experienced a dirge in this season’s coffee shop reaping, perhaps this will work. If you win a few bucks, or anything at all, from your Tim Horton’s coffee cup rim, offer it as payment to the Profs! Who wouldn’t exchange a lesson or two for a five-thousand dollar pre-paid Visa, a few Toyotas, a big screen TV, or literally MILLIONS of instant food and beverage prizes? Just look for the profs holding signs that read, “Will teach for coffee!” and you’ve got your class back on schedule. There’s your purchasing power working for you.
2. Ok let’s get controversial for a moment. Let’s sell UNBC to the highest bidder! This bidder will likely be Enbridge though. They’re looking for a way to win over the town. Why not buy its ivory tower? We might get back into class, but not for long.
The Lheidli T’enneh ceded the land the University is on, so rest assured we would be trading picket signs for protest signs in a very short period of time. Let’s scratch that one, and any ideas of selling off any UNBC land to top up the coffers. Governments keep doing that and they’re running out of space now. We could build up to get some skyscrapers, then sell off the office space. I guess we tried to do that downtown with the wood innovation centre… Hmmm, that leads me to the next option.
3. Build a more innovative Wood Innovation Centre. This time though we’ll get really innovative. I mean... like... really innovative. Ideas?
4.Let’s go corporate! That’s right, we’ll trade publicly on the market. Buy, buy, buy! Sell, sell, sell! The advantages of being a corporation lay in its utter size and fear tactics. No one messes with a corporation because it’s too big to sue, and if in time we grow enough, then we're too big to fail. UNBC will get all the bailouts it needs, debt free. UNBC wouldn’t pay taxes because the government needs this money-making, job-creating, wonder machine to perform at peak efficiency. In no time at all we’ll become more valuable than the Canada’s fallible resource-based currency because at UNBC we produce more... education than anyone! Right? Well, the last couple weeks are an exception but we’ll turn that around in the next quarter. Come on! You’ve gotta’ believe me! Just buy a few grand in shares! They’re penny stocks! You can’t lose… gulp.
5. Another aspect of finance, which isn’t exactly the act of selling property to someone, but sort of like temporarily selling it to one evil entity, would be to re-mortgage UNBC’s assets. So instead of selling to some nasty company, we can take a whole bunch of money from an evil bank instead. We just have to promise to give the money back at some point, which means UNBC will have to find a way to make enough money to pay itback with interest. This will probably mean tuition hikes, corporate sponsorship (with all it’s nasty trappings), slashed services, crappier food, prof lay-offs, strikes, wait a minute…
6. Leave it to chance. Just get some lottery tickets and donate the earnings to the FA. Use the dough normally spent on ethical produce at the Farmer’s Market, Stackers deli, and Degrees coffee to buy as many scratch and wins as you can. We only need to get about 300 Set For Life winning tickets, and we’ll have well paid staff for 25 years, or we can let them spend it all in one ridiculous lump sum. Maybe they’ll put a bowling alley and a curling rink complete with beer taps in the sport centre after raking all that sweet BCLC dough in. Talk about a greeeeeeen university! Maybe before we fork the cash over, we should take it over to Treasure Cove and put it ALL ON BLACK. YEEEHAW! Okay next idea.
7. Have a fundraiser at Riley’s Pub. Make that many fundraisers. They’re always a good time, and why not have more of them? Let’s say we make $500.00 per fundraiser, with a final goal of $25, 000, 000. That’s only 50, 000 fundraisers if we decide to party ourselves out of this situation. We better get crackin’.
8.Go Hollywood! Two moderately successful films were shot here in Prince George. Strange Brew solidified Bob & Doug McKenzie’s celebrity status worldwide (cough), while Reindeer Games launched (ahem) Ben Afleck and Charlize Theron’s careers. As long as too may people don’t download the film before it hits the theatre, and we don’t start a grudge match with North Korea we could really rake in on a Made-In-Canada feature. Who knows what lurks beneath this bowl-like geographical anomally. For thousands of years, we assumed a glacier created it, but this summer the town confronts a different type of earth mover… Jeez, this is starting to sound like Tremors. Good thing there’s an entire English and Drama department to give this thing some teeth with their new-found free time.
9.Get a little sleazier. Screw it, if the sequel to Strange Brew doesn’t work. Just make a porno á la Zack and Miri. I think that’s pretty straightforward. Enough said.
10.Donation campaign. Back in 1988, some people had the swell idea of petitioning around the area to drum up support for a university. The petition was signed by ~16,000 people who had paid $5 for the privilege of doing so. Wowee huh? It may be difficult to get 5,000,000 individuals to donate $5.00 each to the FA, but anything is possible.
11. Truly anything is possible with the internet. Such a campaign could be launched on Kickstarter, Indiegogo or some such site. Why not?
12. This lack of money raises the question of what exactly money is. Put simply, it’s just a rectangle with a pretentious person’s face printed beside a number. I wish I’d thought of that one first, but I didn’t and neither did you. Right now, the EU doesn’t want to make any cuts, so it’s starting a program of quantitative easing. In many respects, this centrally involves printing money. Let’s get the Royal Canadian Mint to do the same for UNBC. The government will probably do it in a few years anyway, so if we have to cart a wheelbarrow full of cash to the Farmer’s Market to get a loaf of bread now as opposed to later, screw it, let’s do it. On the other hand, Ukraine has avoided printing money by becoming eligible for IMF loans. We just have to make the case that Putin is really bullying us and the IMF should come bail us out. In both situations though, UNBC would have to pay back debt, with interest, to someone very shady…
13. Perhaps Mickey Mouse would be a less shady business partner, and we can become a branch of Disneyworld and Disneyland. I found a badge on the ground the other day that said “My 1st Visit to Disneyland!” That proves that most of the groundwork is already done. People from the US have never seen a forest as huge or as enchanted as Forests For The World. We just need to install some robotic kids singing, “It’s a worldly forest after all.” again, and again, and again. The 25 million bones will roll into town during the opening week. After that we’ll dismantle the robots and set them up at the wood innovation centre where they’ll educate passersby how innovative the building is.
Dear UNBC Administration and Faculty Association,
Speaking on behalf of the undergraduate students at UNBC, we are disappointed with the lack of progress made in negotiations during the strike. It is imperative that both sides come to a compromise. At this point, nobody is going to attain what they set out to get in the beginning.
At school, you are teaching us to think critically and become problem solvers. We are told, it is not necessarily about the program we are in, it is about the skills we are learning to become active citizens in our communities. We need the members of our community to work together to find a solution to this problem. That means you!
The longer this strike goes on, the lines dividing our community become more defined. When this is all over, we must be able to work together in order to continue to build UNBC. If someone must be the villain in this situation, do not make it each other. As students, we need both the faculty and the administration to come to an agreement in order for us to get back to class. Let this be your goal: students back to school.
The most difficult task at this point is NOT to stick to your guns. The most difficult and admirable task is to take the first giant step towards agreement. We cannot wait for these incremental counter-proposals. If compromise is inevitable, please make it now. We cannot wait.
I understand this is a complicated issue, that there are limits to what each side can concede - but those limits must be acknowledged to establish a common ground to work from. This must stop being a matter of 'us vs. them'. In the end, everyone is working for the continued excellence of our institution, which is made by all of us. With open communication, compromise, and a common goal we can find a solution.
We are all UNBC and we must carry on together.
Respectfully,
Angela Kehler
President
Northern Undergraduate Student Society (NUGSS)
University of Northern BC
2015 Maple Blues Award Winners, Wicked Grin, will be appearing LIVE at Shiraz Cafe, 1600 15 Ave Prince George, BC
Tuesday March 24 2015.
Since 2003, Murray Kinsley and Wicked Grin have been rockin' festivals and clubs throughout Ontario and Quebec with their distinctive hard driving, in your face blues. Murray’s fresh take on gritty blues and killer guitar delivers full-tilt blues with a groove that just won't quit.
Wicked Grin’s lasted CD, “Shame On Me” is quote "Bitchin'!" Says CFUR's Programming Director.
The Ottawa Citizen described “Shame On Me” as “Dark, bluesy ruminations on love and loss featuring the weathered vocals and nasty guitar of Kinsley, who must have sold his soul to achieve such depths of sonic wickedness.”
The song “Heaven” from “Shame On Me” was selected by the Ottawa Citizen has one of the top ten tunes of 2013 recorded by Ottawa artists.
Stephen Harper has yet to make a comment on this band, despite being in Ottawa most of the time. So head down to Shiraz so you have one more thing to wave in front of his eyes. Maybe he'll notice this time :D
If your headed south to Kelowna in May, here's the best pit stop in town:
If you have no plans to head south, stop in at 2nd Thoughts Records downtown on 2nd ave in PG to get your vintage audio groove on, just leave one of those sweet cassette players behind for me.
You're Tax experience doesn't have to look like this:
Instead it can be a hip social media experience...
whoahhhhh.
Seriously though, the government is making an effort to at least marginally improve the crummy reality of forcing you to calculate your own bill owing to the government. The following is now available on the news.gc.ca website:
Growing up in Prince George was a pretty good time, with lots of ups and downs, and lots of metal, punk, and alternative shows. I entered the music in 2004, when I was 13, and I have seen a lot of venues come and go. I am too young to have witnessed the glory that was Growlies, or Pizza Rico’s when they actually served pizza. Honourable mentions go to Sound Entertainment, St. Michaels and Knox United – all the hardcore nonsense! With that in mind, here are my top five favourite Prince George venues from past, and present.
#5 – Connaught Youth Center
This venue was where I saw my first ‘big’ metal concert – the Adamant CD release show back in 2005. The Center has a lot of great aspects about it, the sound can be really great for metal bands because it is such a big venue. When Dying Fetus came here for Helloween II they sounded so big and fantastic inside the gym. I also found that this venue didn’t get as hot as some of the other venues, and it had a lot of great spots outside to take a rest after a lengthy mosh pit experience. I will always think fondly of the many concerts that happened at this venue. I’m not sure why it stopped being used as a venue, maybe it was that time someone dressed as Jesus and then set their costume on fire….
#4 – The Roll-A-Dome
This venue needs no introduction, as it has been a staple in the community since the 70s. When I was a pre-teen the All Night Skates were all the rage, and then as I got older the Prazma Entertainment shows became the biggest draw for me. I have witnessed so much epic music in this place. Swallow the Sun, Rotting Christ, Three Inches of Blood (like three times), Zimmers Hole…. The list could go on and on. I once fell asleep on the floor of this venue by the speakers because they were so loud it felt like I was being a massage. So many good times, thank you Roll-A-Dome.
#3 - The Artspace
This venue has been around longer than I can personally remember. Some very important formative moments of my life took place in this upstairs haven of art and song and life. I performed my first burlesque show here, cried to so many sad songs, headbanged to so much good metal, and above all, laughed and shared experiences with my friends. My only complaint is that it is so HOT. You cannot dance for longer than thirty seconds to two minutes without breaking a sweat. One of the greatest things about this venue is the $2 bookshelf that you can browse and buy books from while attending a show. Introverts rejoice! Unlike all the other venues on this list, this venue is still open and available!
#2 – Pizza Rico’s
I came too late in the game to ever get served pizza at this venue… but I definitely had time to enjoy it. For a while there was nothing else for metal, and I saw some crazy shows here man. The small risers in the windows were perfect for gazing out over the pit, in this tiny red dungeon of a space. Deadriver Wasteland, Hunger, Gyibaaw, Primal Stance, Necrobiosis… those are some of the most memorable sets for me, but there is so much more! This venue was great for temperature, great location right downtown, and even though there were sometimes altercations with the cops it kept the spirit of the metal and punk scene alive for years.
#1 – (of course) Third
If you don’t know, then I’m sorry for you, Third was the best thing that happened to the PG music scene in the 2000s. Tiny, dark, and spray painted with a hundred or more band names, when it was shut down in 2013, many hearts were crushed. In my humble opinion, small venues are the best venues. You could fill that room with 30 people, or it would be crammed with 100+ people when a show had a big draw. The bathroom sucked, there was nowhere to sit, and no one cared. It sounded great and it was a cheap venue for local and out of town bands to throw shows. Third brought us so many gifts, the most important of which was community and family. If you remember Third, toast your next drink to that beautiful little oasis of alternative.
Article by volunteer, contributor, and all -round'-solid-human Shannon Williams
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has tax credits, deductions, and benefits to help students—no exam required. All you have to do is file your income tax and benefit return and claim them. Read on for tips that will ensure you get the most from your income tax and benefit return.
There are many ways to save at tax time—here is a lesson you don’t want to miss!
And don’t forget when your assignment is due! The deadline to file your personal income tax return is April 30th!
Claim your eligible tuition fees—You will have received a tax certificate from your educational institution with the total eligible fees paid for the tax year.
Claim the education amount—If you are a full-time student (or a part-time student who can claim the disability amount or has a certified mental or physical impairment), you can claim $400 for each month you were enrolled in an educational institution. If you are a part-time student, you can claim $120 for each month you were enrolled.
Claim thetextbook amount—You can claim this amount only if you are entitled to claim the education amount. You can claim:
$65 for each month you qualify for the full-time education amount; or
$20 for each month you qualify for the part-time education amount.
Claim the interest paid on your student loans—You may be able to claim an amount for the interest paid on your loan in 2014 for post-secondary education. You can also claim interest paid over the last five years if you haven't already claimed it. Only interest paid on loans received under the Canada Student Loans Act, the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act, or similar provincial or territorial legislation for post-secondary education can be claimed.
Claim the public transit amount—If you use public transit, you may be able to reduce your taxes owing by claiming the cost of your transit passes. Keep your transit passes for local buses, streetcars, subways, commuter trains or buses, and local ferries, and enter your total public transit amount on line 364 of Schedule 1, Federal Tax. To find out if your transit pass is eligible and for more information, visit www.cra.gc.ca/transitpass.
Claim your eligible moving expenses—If you moved for your post-secondary studies and you are a full-time student, you may be able to claim moving expenses. However, you can only deduct these expenses from the part of your scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, certain prizes, and research grants that has to be included in your income. If you moved to work (including summer employment) or to run a business, you can also claim moving expenses. However you can only deduct these expenses from the income you earned at the new work location. To qualify, your new home must be at least 40 kilometres closer to your new school or work location.
Claim the GST/HST credit—If you have low or modest income, you are a resident of Canada, and 19 years of age or older, you may be able to receive the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) credit. Starting this year, you no longer need to apply for this credit—the CRA will determine your eligibility when you file your income tax and benefit return and send you a notice if you are entitled.
Claim your child care expenses—If you have to pay someone to look after your child so you can go to school, you may be able to deduct child care expenses.
If you need help filing your return, and you have a modest income and a simple tax situation, volunteers from the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program may be able to prepare and submit your tax return for you to make sure you receive all the credits and benefits you are entitled to. For more information, go to www.cra.gc.ca/volunteer.
CRA online services make filing easier and let you get your refund faster
The CRA’s online services are fast, easy, and secure. You can use them to file your income tax and benefit return, make a payment, set up a direct deposit, track your refund, pay with a pre-authorized debit, register for online mail and more.
Sign up for direct deposit
Did you know...that the Government of Canada is switching to direct deposit for payments that it issues? Direct deposit is a faster, more convenient, reliable, and secure way to get your income tax refund and your credit and benefit payments directly into your account at a financial institution in Canada. Why wait? Sign up for direct deposit today. For more information, go to www.cra.gc.ca/getready.
International students
If you are an international student studying in Canada, you first have to determine your residency status at www.cra.gc.ca/internationalstudents. You may owe taxes to the Canadian government, and may qualify for GST/HST credit payments. If you are an international student, your individual income tax and benefit return is due on April 30 and you have to send it to the CRA’s International and Ottawa Tax Services Office. If you have questions, call the CRA’s international tax and non-resident enquiries line at 1-800-959-8281.
Looking for more information? Get out the popcorn, because the CRA has informative videos just for students. Check them out at www.cra.gc.ca/videogallery.
