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Reconciliation at Camosun College: The student perspective

September 21, 2022

Over the past several years, Nexus has covered Camosun College’s reconciliation efforts in detail several times, usually by talking to those involved at the college. For this piece, however, we decided we’d go right to the students to get an honest opinion on what the college has done, and on what the college needs to do.

Camosun talks about Indigenization and reconciliation a lot, so I recently sat down with Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) Indigenous director Katie Manomie and Lansdowne director-at-large Richard Doucet to find out what it’s actually doing on a student level.

This conversation has been edited for clarity.

Why do you think it’s important that colleges put effort into reconciliation?

Manomie: Institutions like this have a responsibility, and moving forward in reconciliation we have to be open to having those uncomfortable discussions that will in turn make it more aware for non-Indigenous about what happened to our people. I think the revealings that happened have been able to make it more aware about residential schools. It’s not a good thing that it happened but it has opened a door for these hard discussions, and it’s going to be happening for the rest of our lives—there’s only been a handful of schools that have been searched. So it takes that off of Indigenous and makes non-Indigenous have to do that work and create those spaces for us.

Doucet: The creation of a safe space and how that is so needed. And because of everything that’s happened through colonialism—you know, ‘60s scoop, etc.—so many of our parents and our grandparents and many of our old ones don’t trust the system. So they don’t want our young ones being part of that system. A lot of it is the whitewashing, a lot of it is the many things that have happened. And it’s up to the colleges and universities to start to create those safe spaces, and it’s not just through gestures, it’s not just through “Here’s a room; we’re going to give you that.” It’s within the teachings as well… and having a real mindfulness towards our ways of being, knowing, and living, so that parents, Indigenous parents, they can send us here. That we can practice our ways of knowing, and being, and living. We just need that safe space.

Doucet: Out of the two years I’ve been here I’ve seen very wonderful things with Camosun as far as Indigenization. A lot of it is not only allowing spaces like Na’tsa’maht; UVic does that too with their First Peoples House, they have a space. The CCSS, we’re affiliated with the British Columbia Federation of Students [BCFS], about a year and a half ago I noticed something being at their conference, the BCFS. I was able to bring together a committee of all of us that came together once a month to discuss what’s happening at our colleges or universities. I had so many things to say that we were doing some really really good work here. For instance, right now they’re trying to implement IST 120, which is an introductory course into our ways, and they want to implement that into the health section of the college, into the classes. So when these people are training to be nurses, or dentists, that’s part of their course. And I find we’re, in my own opinion, that we are way ahead of many of the academic learning places throughout the province at Camosun. We’ve got a lot of things that need to be focused on through academic learning; there’s still a lot of problems in some certain courses and wrong terminology and wrong knowledge but we’re making strides. I think more than most.

Another way that Camosun has aimed to promote Indigenous learning is through courses that they offer now. Some of these courses are now required in the Ways of Indigenous Leadership and Learning, Education Assistant and Community Support, Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Addictions, Medical Lab Assistant, and Diagnostic Medical Sonography programs at Camosun. What effect do you think this will have on graduates of these programs as they enter the workforce?

Manomie: I’m hoping that it’s not just something that’s just mandatory, but people actually want to be taking these courses, like our interest in learning about the effects of colonization and, moreso, the uplifting parts of Indigenous learning. I feel that IST is very trauma based. Having been someone who has been part of the ‘60s scoop, I want to learn about the uplifting moments of the important Indigenous that are making changes right now and not just have it always be trauma, trauma, trauma. There’s going to be a committee that I’m going to be sitting on and I’m going to be putting that forward.

Do you think there are programs missing from this list?

Manomie: I feel that cultural safety needs to be taught and maybe it should be mandatory, because there’s been instances where terminology has been very poor and not taken well when given feedback about that. So, as somebody that’s Inuk I feel like there’s terminologies that shouldn’t be used. And I think the course material needs to be really, really looked at in order to be safer for Indigenous students. Let’s say a really young person that’s come from reserve hears these words and it really triggers them and effects them and they don’t want to come back to class and they don’t talk about it with anyone because they don’t have the resources or the courage to even talk about it. So I think it’s really important to have these safe places and open dialogues about terminology.

Doucet: There’s so many courses and programs that are available out there now for teaching of Indigenous ways and Indigenous history and there’s many components there, but there needs to be a strong emphasis on these programs to also be taught to the teachers, the professors, the instructors because of cultural appropriation, like she said, using language that should not be used. A lot of these teachings have to be focused on training for our academic teachers to understand, and they don’t. They shouldn’t be. I know right now Camosun offers a course, but it’s not mandatory, and the participation rate I believe was around 50 percent, which actually is not that bad compared to what you think it would be… but it’s nowhere near what it should be. So in a place like Camosun, or other academic places that are in British Columbia or across the world, I don’t see the emphasis on a training of those academic teachers.

Manomie: I think it’s important to remember that we’re all human and we all make mistakes. You have to be apologizing and forgiving and moving forward in a good way, but if your ego gets in the way, say you have a PhD and you’re not willing to listen to the students, then that’s really not reconciliation, right?

Do you feel that there’s enough Indigenous content in the curriculum of programs listed as [related to] Indigenous learning, such as the Archaeological Field Assistant certificate and the Arts and Science Studies diploma?

Doucet: I took the Archaeological Field Assistant program and I found some of it was really a hard pill to swallow, if you will, in some of the teachings. There’s not a lot of Indigenous representation. The history is there, because that’s what they teach you is where those places are, what they’re about, and I think they do a wonderful job with that, but the teachings are missing appropriation to the land and what is our connection to the language to the land, why is the land so important. Those kinds of teachings aren’t really in there. I approached the instructor and I said, “So, coming up next year, can I be part of your class?” and we worked it out together to where I would walk in for two days of those teachings and I taught them about us and about the land and that connection. I was able to give them that connection to the land, because now when they go to do the work they’re going to have that mindfulness of the love and respect we have for our mother Earth. So, it’s implementing our Indigenous ways into some of these programs and they’re starting to be accepted as part of it. We’re slowly changing to where they’re giving me as an Indigenous person an opportunity to just emphasize to them the importance of the land and our connection to that land through our language and culture.

In that Archaeology class did you feel any responsibility for having to speak up for yourself and making your voice heard?

Doucet: Not making my voice heard, because it’s not about me as an Indigenous person but about a respect for our mother Earth and it’s a respect for all Indigenous people, so that’s what I felt was the most important part, is that that respect is there. I felt a need to emphasize how important that land is to us, to this generation. So I’m going to be permanently part of that every year now, teaching those two days. I’d like to see that more in archeological areas.

Manomie: I haven’t taken those, but I am going to speak to the Indigenous art class… It’s little small opportunities like that that have really opened up Indigenous ways of knowing and being through Camosun that I’m forever grateful for, because I feel like I’ve always had this knowledge inside me. I just needed that one little push from the teacher to show me that I had them.

How do you feel about reconciliation within Camosun Student Services and the opportunities that are given to Indigenous students through Student Services?

Manomie: I think Eyēʔ Sqȃ’lewen is doing a great part. As for services, I wasn’t really aware of many services, because I did start during COVID, that was all online. As Indigenous director in the new fall semester I’m going to be introducing these services so the Indigenous students can be like, “Look, this is our own and you can go speak to them about any of the issues that you’re having,” and then the sexual assault team and just people that I wasn’t aware of myself that I want to be made aware of to the new students so we have these resources and tools that are super available to us. We need to use them.

Are students benefiting from Camosun’s acts of reconciliation on an individual level? How effective are the acts of reconciliation at Camosun?

Manomie: I think we can only speak to personal use and now viewed as a pan-Indigenous thing because everybody has different perceptions and realities from the reconciliation here. On a personal level for myself I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and I’m really excited to be part of this Truth and Reconciliation Task Force so my voice can be heard.

What steps should be taken moving forward?

Manomie: I just think that Indigenous and non-Indigenous really need to come together and start apologizing and forgiving in order to move forward in a good way and have accurate representation in classes… There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, though, not just in post-secondary in general, which is happening because of programs like the Indigenous Law program, that’s a new program that’s being offered. So we’re moving forward.

Doucet: That work needs to be done by everybody. We just don’t need certain parts, or certain schools, or the government. It’s an equilibrium, just a circle where everybody needs to hopefully eventually be on board with working together.

From a student perspective, what can students do to start supporting Camosun’s reconciliation efforts?

Manomie: I think we could hold more events. We have a few events planned this upcoming year, and just being open to teaching others about our culture and having good receptive learners from non-Indigenous. Stuff like our beading workshops and drum workshops.

Doucet: It’s up to them to do the work. To want to engage, and how do you do that? That’s through what she’s saying. Through having more cultural emphasis at the college and participation with that. We have the pit cook at Camosun every year, and that’s culturally appropriate that we have the right to food sovereignty on our own territories. It would be so beautiful if we had so many more students that were there, to experience that culture that we have always done here, tens of thousands of years, so it would just be nice if they wanted to be part of it more. How do we do that? That’s a tough question.

Since both of you have been through some form of Indigenous learning at Camosun, what would you recommend to a student going into one of those programs?

Manomie: I think just being super open, and Camosun has so much to offer for Indigenous ways. This is the most I’ve learned about Indigenous culture my whole life. It’s amazing to see how many Indigenous are open to learning. It just makes my heart feel really full, because I just love my classmates and teachers.

Doucet: I think it’s just really important to emphasize to them that you’re going to be trauma informed by a lot of things that you may not have been told. It’s very heavy but the best advice is you have an opportunity to be you, you have an opportunity to be your culture, you have an opportunity to introduce yourself, to be proud of who you are and where you’re from and carry that pride with you; carry your father, your grandfather, your grandmother on your back with you, because, like I say, when the old ones see us going to these places here they’re in tears many times because they never thought that would ever happen. So just be open and take that opportunity as an open window to just be free and express yourself, because there’s going to be no discrimination within those courses with you as an individual. You get to say, “Hey, I’m from Esquimalt nation,” or “I’m from here.” You get to be proud walking in there. Look where you are: you’re at college. You made it this far. You look at the dropout rate of our Indigenous people, which is super heavy because of a lot of the trauma. You’re here, now your voice is being heard. Be proud of who you are.

A Disruptive Decade (and a bit): 12 years of Camosun’s Women in Trades Training

November 2, 2022 

COVID got in the way of everything, even celebrating a gradual decline of gender barriers: for example, it was two years late because of the virus, but Camosun’s Women in Trade Training (WITT) celebrated its 10-year anniversary this September.

Since its inception in 2010, WITT has aimed to promote and facilitate gender diversity within trades. Historically, the trades have been seen as a man’s job for various illogical reasons, like the belief that men have physiological superiority over women and that the work is too dirty for women. Thankfully, as the years go on we’ve realized that these beliefs are inaccurate, which is great, because trade careers provide a stable income that can be quite lucrative, especially given what we’re seeing with inflation and the high cost of living on Vancouver Island today.

The work WITT has been doing in changing mindsets and encouraging women to enter trades is great for trades students, as proven through the evolving popularity of women entering trades.

Where it all began

Amy Carr attended the first WITT program run at Camosun over 10 years ago, and has personally seen the change in Victoria’s trades. 

“I was actually thinking about going into social work when [WITT training coordinator] Karen McNeill said, ‘Hey, we’re starting this new program—you get to try all these different trades and see if you like any of them. Why haven’t you thought about doing this since you’re doing all these home renos at home?’ I said, ‘Well, women don’t belong in the trades. ‘And she said, ‘Who told you that?’ and I said, ‘My uncle, years ago, who is a carpenter.’ She said, ‘Well, you’re just finishing up your upgrading, so what have you got to lose?’ and I did the program.”

With the government supporting financially and WITT’s advocacy for women’s trade education, tradeswomen sparked up a network of internal support. They created Facebook groups and monthly meet-ups open to all BC tradeswomen. Naturally, bonds started building within this community.

“You find mentorships, or friendship, or people you can ask about child care, or whatever, or what are the best pants to buy, those kinds of things,” says Carr.

Even with all this support, when Carr first entered the industry there were still hurdles to jump. Due to a lack of women in the field, she was carving her own path into the industry. Once she graduated from the Sheet Metal Foundation program at Camosun, she had to figure out how to enter the field. She joined a sheet metal workers’ union, and was only the second woman to do so in that particular union.

“I felt like a unicorn everywhere I went,” says Carr. “It was unchartered territory here on the island to be a female sheet metal worker. And there were challenges at the beginning, and you definitely had the weight of the world on your shoulders. I think there’s a stereotype that trades are for big burly men, and it’s funny because I remember walking out on one of my first construction sites when I first started out, and there were men that were four feet tall, and there were men that were six feet tall, and there was buff men, and there was thin men, and men of every body type imaginable. And I remember looking at them and going, ‘If they can do it, I can do it’. That was a big awakening.”

A changing field

Today, women entering trades can use the support and experience from past trailblazers to enter their desired fields. This includes access to funding to get trades education. Any female student in the WITT Sampler program can access this funding; however, you don’t have to be part of this WITT program to receive funding. Many female students outside of the program are recipients of financial aid related to WITT. Pipe Trades Foundation student Vicky Yu is an example of this, as she is a recipient of WITT funding even though she isn’t in the WITT program.

“I started off at UVic and after three miserable years I dropped out and I was kind of like, ‘Ah, crap—I need a job.’ I’ve always really enjoyed working with my hands in high-school workshops and stuff, so I figured I might as well go to the trades,” says Yu. “I figured I am really terrified of getting electrocuted, so not that field. Water is cool. I guess plumbing would be smart. I didn’t even realize how many individual fields that the pipe trades consisted of—sprinkler filling, medical gas, a lot of different pipe trades that I didn’t even think of before I got to the program.”

Carr says that the attitude of women entering trades has changed immensely, and now young women can see themselves entering trades as a professional and serious career.  

“When you used to Google construction workers and go to images on the Google search it would be halloween costumes of women dressed up as sexy construction workers. Now when you look up women in trades you’ll see a whole bunch of BC women actually pop up first,” says Carr. “It’s changed. Now that you can see us and we’re visible now I have friends from 20, 30, and 40 saying, ‘Yeah, I wish I had the opportunity to do that, and I go, ‘You still do. 100 percent you still do.’ And so they go.”

Barriers and hoops

It wasn’t easy for modern-day tradeswomen to get a seat at the table. Pioneers of gender diversity in trades fought hard for these accomplishments, and every woman entering trades is still battling alongside them. One of these women is Camosun WITT coordinator Heather Solomonson.

“It’s really incredibly rewarding to see women have the opportunity to try out the tools and to get a sense for what kind of work they want to pursue in a supported and comfortable environment,” says Solomonson. “And then have them come back for their foundation training or their apprenticeship and then… come back in that full-circle capacity as instructors and supporters of the program.”

Like Carr and Yu, Solomonson didn’t plan on entering the trades, or for it to be her career. Unfortunately, their stories are that of a huge number of tradeswomen. Solomonson says that the default suggestion to women is too often a more academic route.

“When I was growing up there was sort of an expectation for me that at some point I would go to university and get a real job,” says Solomonson. “It’s really quite remarkable at this point to see how many students who end up coming to our trades sampler programs and get into the trades that do come from a university background.”

Some women need financial support to enter the field. Thanks to this assistance, women like Sarah Cooper, a WITT alumni and current carpenter, can access this career path.

“I became a single mom when I was pregnant with my second, and I used to work in an office and I hated it so much, so I started working with WorkBC and things like that. And they told me about the WITT program,” says Cooper. “I ended up, when my ex left me, [with] a two year old and I was pregnant with a baby. I was on welfare. I had to turn to social assistance to pay my rent and I was like, I don’t ever want to be here again. So, I figured out if I tried this and it worked out, then, great, so I took the program and did a whole 360, and now I never have to worry about money again.”

Since women aren’t commonly encouraged to enter trades it can be confusing to know where to start. Programs like WITT can be part of the solution. By providing a sampler program, women can be introduced to the trades that they’ve been sheltered from. The program isn’t by any means a holy grail, though. Women in WITT and other Camosun trade programs still endure the harsh realities of entering a male-dominated industry.

“There are definitely ups and downs,” says Yu. “I personally haven’t really felt the negative effects but some of my friends do feel like they have to fight harder to be included. But my experience has largely been really positive.”

Only approximately five percent of trades workers in Canada are women, according to figures from 2020.

“It is growing. We can see it here at the college as we continue our enrolment in the trades programs, and it is increasing across the country,” says Solomonson. “Province to province I would imagine there would be some variation on how many supports are in place and whatnot.”

These support systems help to produce higher numbers of positive journeys through trade education in BC. Yet, too often these are tales of those who got the luck of the draw. 

“General mentality, it’s a man’s world,” says Cooper. “And we need to change the outlook where it’s a man’s world. And a lot of women are scared, because of that mentality, to even try it. Luckily for me, I found an amazing boss, an amazing company. But most guys, these younger guys that are coming up, don’t really have that mentality as much. So I think it’s going to take another generation or two before this stuff changes a lot. You’ve still got your foremans and stuff who are still from the older generation, and it’s a man’s world. Until we change their perception that it’s not a man’s world, it’s an everybody’s world, nothing is going to change until that happens.”

Unsurprisingly, the public takes a long time to adapt to change, even in the fight for equality, and especially when oppressive patterns in social behaviours morph into different micro-aggressive outlets. That lingering stench of sexism can be found in terminology and workplace humour.

“I’m optimistic that something like that will happen but it’ll take a lot of work,” says Yu, “and people will have to be aware of their own implicit biases, because people still joke about, ‘Oh, a tradesmen is just a tradesman, you don’t need a tradeswoman.’”

Sexual harassment has been one of the leading forms of discrimination in trades workplaces. But there’s been success in making change in cultural norms in those workplaces, at least in Victoria.

“People don’t laugh anymore, or they’re learning to sidekick that person like, ‘Yo, you can’t do that.’ But it’s also cool because women are also speaking up and saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to tell you right now, you do that again and I’m getting you in trouble,’” says Carr. “So instead of us being perceived as aggressive, they’re realizing that no, no, we’re just being assertive and we’re setting our boundaries and we’re setting our expectations when we’re on a site.”

Aside from external influences, there are also individual barriers. Limited access to childcare, for example, is a major setback that primarily affects women. And not all women are fortunate enough to have the means to allow for childcare.

“I have an amazing mom who took care of my kids while I went to school and let me get homework done,” says Cooper. “And she still takes care of them now. She doesn’t do it for free; I pay her to do it. Which is great. When I went to school she did it for free, and now I actually get to pay her to do, it which is great. I’m from Ontario. If my mom still lived in Ontario I would have never been able to attend school, because I was on social assistance and there was no way to get childcare. So I would have never been able to get to where I’m at right now.”

Cooper says that she expected that it wouldn’t be easy and that she’d have to work harder to prove herself than the men would.

“I personally lucked out so much because the guys that I work with, and the company that I work with, I didn’t actually have to worry about that kind of stuff,” she says. “But that was a big concern. It was nerve-racking having to be surrounded by all these guys and not all of them would necessarily want you there or think you deserve to be there.”

Where do we go from here?

Carr says that because of her struggles and successes she found she had a passion for supporting and teaching other women entering the trades.

“I was also a softball coach, so for young girls, teaching girls how to support other girls, getting rid of the bullying mentality that there’s room for one alpha female at the table and teaching and demonstrating to other women that we just need to build a bigger table and there’s enough room for all of us,” says Carr.

Solomonson sees this too and has taken the time to see what next moves can be most beneficial. As she points out, there is still room for growth that can help make the support in place more effective. 

“BCCWITT [BC Centre for Women in the Trades] is doing a regional representative training program. It’s tremendous insofar as helping women at any point in their careers in the trades learn skills to be able to step up into leadership positions, to be able to take on roles within their unions, or come back as instructors, to be more confident in public speaking, or speaking up for themselves,” says Solomonson. “The more women we have in leadership positions the more we normalize women in the trades. Women need to be able to see themselves there too to be able to reach those goals.”

Carr says that she taught her students to document everything when she was teaching in Women in Trades last year.

“Dates, times, anything you have, document it, including your work, so that you don’t get accused of scratching a wall or wrecking an appliance when you are installing something,” she says. “And those are not things that are always taught to you when you’re on the job, and those are things that will benefit you down the road.”

Tips and tricks to manage discrimination around women being in trades can only go so far, though. If women can’t get to their jobs to begin with, because of other limitations to getting on the job site, they won’t even get a chance to use those tips.

“Childcare is a big one and I’d suggest that that’s for anyone working in the kind of industry that might have early starting hours and whatnot. There have been talks of some of the unions getting together and starting their own daycare services. BCCWITT has certainly taken a lot of lead and direction to have things like childcare available,” says Solomonson. “Bathrooms on site are something that always comes up when you’re talking to tradeswomen. Clean bathrooms would be better. There’s a lot of things that we don’t necessarily think about. Even finding PPE, personal protective equipment, that fits well. Finding pants that fit well, or boots that are small enough, or a good selection. There’s certainly significantly more of a selection for men. Finding gloves that are small enough is sometimes an issue, that sort of thing.”

Even with the unprecedented amount of opportunities in BC, there are, unfortunately, still setbacks due to cultural limitations. Support systems do a lot for changing how society views women in comparison to men in the trades but changing an entire culture’s entrenched belief that women are less than is a monumental task.

“I know I shouldn’t feel this way, but still when I realize I’m not as fast as the guys who’ve actually been in the industry before I feel I can do better, but it’s just one of those personal things,” says Yu. “The instructors do reassure me that I’m doing a good job but it’s definitely one of those self-against-self mental struggles where it’s like imposter syndrome.”

There is an incredible joy that comes with the job that any woman working in the field will happily describe at length. But, as Solomonson reminds us, there’s still a ways to go.

“At this point we still definitely have a lot of room and need the additional support in place,” she says. “I would like to see it be an environment where people are hired because they’re good at their jobs, and that’s the consideration that’s taken into play.”

Under pressure: Camosun students deal with the stresses of today

November 16, 2022

“Stress” and “anxiety” have become buzzwords of sorts, thanks to an increasing awareness of the importance of self-care. Rising inflation rates, pandemics, healthcare and housing crises… it’s easy to see why stress is running rampant. And Camosun students, as I’m sure you’re aware, are not immune to stress.

Students are stressed for a number of reasons, although there are resources available to help them out. But how effective are they, and can they be improved?

Tension on top of tension

Just like other people living in Victoria and surrounding municipalities, students are dealing with region-specific health, financial, and personal issues. But on top of that is the fact that we’re attending college, which takes lots of time and money.

“I would say financial stressors are big for students these days,” says Camosun counselling and student wellness manager Liisa Robinson, who adds that anxiety and relationships are other big reasons students come to Camosun counselling. “I would say that’s true community wide when you look at the city of Victoria.”

These concerns are only part of the problem, though. The effects that they have on everyday life is a stress factor within itself. Even adapting to it causes high amounts of tension, says Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive Jessie Niikoi.

“Time is moving so fast for some of us that we don’t even know where to stop,” says Niikoi. “People are always working on the weekend and doing school during the week, or working while doing school, like they work on school on school days and that alone is a lot of stress, because they don’t know when to take a break. That just negatively affects everyone. I’ve been there—if I had not had caught COVID I would’ve not stopped working seven days a week. It negatively impacted me because I missed a week of school, but it also gave me time to refresh myself. I realized it did not have to get to that point before I take a break.”

First-year Dental Hygiene student Melissa Haire says that trying to juggle everything is difficult for her.

“I work four days a week as a server so I feel like balancing, like putting school over work sometimes, is hard because it makes it hard to pay bills,” says Haire. “With midterms and everything it’s been a lot, and balancing my friends, school, and work and everything, I would say it’s been a lot.”

Haire isn’t receiving support from Camosun to manage her stress and doesn’t know what’s out there to ease the tension from school. That difficulty balancing work and school is a problem that first-year Economics student Michael Toora is also managing.

“I’m just coming back to school, so I’ve been working for the past eight years,” says Toora. “Working two jobs, quit one job, working 20 hours now, so a big transition for me coming back to school, especially full time. It’s definitely stressful, especially worrying about money, paying rent, all that kind of stuff. My income’s gone down significantly, so just trying to maintain a good balance… Right now I find that [I’m] just spending a lot of time on school, not a lot of time on friends and family, so it’s a give and take.”

Second-year University Transfer student Kit Caudron-Robinson (who is also on the Nexus Publishing Society board of directors) says that he’s more stressed out in general about whether or not there’s any real point in going to school after coming from the oil fields, like he did, where people already make good money.

“What’s the point in coming out here and struggling for so long to do a bunch of bullshit? And then [there’s] kind of the idea of, or the concept of, not really believing in the institution of university,” says Caudron-Robinson. “Seeing that a lot of universities, seeing that a lot of it is this kind of circle of, like, you need to write an essay but you need to reference other people who reference other people who reference other people. No one’s really saying anything new and we sit here in our ivory tower and talk about the rest of the world and all of the problems they face, but no one really has a solution.”

Help yourself

The average student’s stress levels are worrying enough to require attention. And while there’s an endless array of options that Camosun students can take advantage of, it can be daunting to navigate through.

“We have our [CCSS] website available and that has a mental-health resources page and that has different resources available to students. If you want to have a call just to chat and then talk about how you’re feeling, that is available,” says Niikoi. “The college also has counsellors available to all students, but given the time that everything is very busy most people just [use] online stuff. So we just have a lot of online resources and the [CCSS] website for students to just be able to find the resources that they can talk about the things they’re going through, because, in the end, talking about them is a way of helping yourself. If you’re able to talk about the stuff you’re going through, it puts a weight off the chest because sometimes keeping it in is not always the best. And just being able to access these resources that are free and available to everyone.”

Many of the students I spoke with for this piece weren’t aware of most of the help that’s aimed to support students’ mental health, so students are left to figure out how to help themselves.

“I just go for walks, listen to music a lot, like, constantly listening to music,” says Toora. “Probably the biggest thing I do is just go for drives, not great for the environment, but I love to go drive around the water. Or I’ll go up to Cattle Point. I’ll just sit there for like an hour reading a book, listening to music. I’ll go probably about about four or five times a week.”

Robinson would also recommend this as a mode of destressing. She notes that going outside is extremely important for managing both physical and mental health.

“Getting sunlight on your skin, which can be a bit hard in Victoria in the fall… I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience where you start having a grumpy day or you’re feeling a bit off or a bit low and a 15-minute walk can really shift that,” says Robinson. “Sleep is the other big one of those things that I’m always encouraging students to focus on and remember the way we integrate learning is when we’re asleep. So if you spend all evening studying, if you don’t have a good night’s sleep then it’s much harder for your brain to take short-term memory and turn it into long-term memory. So it’s not actually a very solid study strategy to pull all nighters.”

Putting an intentional study plan in place is a positive, and relatively easy, way that students can tackle their stressors. University Transfer student Aidin Huang found it extremely helpful.

“Keeping on top with schoolwork deadlines, for sure, and making sure that I’m organizing everything so I can get it all in on time and kind of gauging what’s the most important thing to do, what’s going to take the most time,” says Huang. “I personally usually have a bad habit of leaving things to the last minute, but I try to manage that. I handle it pretty well, I’d say.”

Extracurricular activities like clubs can be a great addition to students’ mental-health support networks.

“We have our club days, and we realize that a lot of students just come there to destress and play games and sit and talk with other students, and all of that just gives them a little bit of freedom, just a little bit,” says Niikoi. “I don’t know for the other students but I do feel like most have started using our resources more when it comes to just the clubs and our events. We [recently had] Diwali… which we [invited] not only the Indian students, we [invited] everyone. It’s just one of the many ways that students are able to just destress by just being able to communicate with others and not think about school just for a few hours.”

Talking with others can help lessen the power that life’s pressures have over a student’s mentality. Even thinking through anxious thoughts can be a form of de-escalating uncertainty.

“I’ve had pretty stressful days myself, just work, but tomorrow is a new day,” says Toora. “Things always get better. It’s not like it’s the end of the world, sometimes you just need to take a breath and realize what you’re doing isn’t the most important thing in the world, so don’t over-stress yourself. If it’s an exam, work, whatever, take a minute and take some time to yourself.”

Sometimes further aid is needed, though, because students don’t always find positive ways to get through their struggles. Partying too much, sleeping too little, and pushing assignment deadlines are all typical student habits that often do more harm than good.

“College is where no parents are available, you don’t really have to listen to anyone, some people are from far away,” says Niikoi. “If someone’s not used to drinking but then they come to a place where no one’s going to stop you from drinking, no one’s going to hold your hand and be like, ‘Stop.’ It’s just life in general that hits you hard when you’re out of school and you don’t know how to manage it.”

Is Camosun’s help effective?

Camosun has support systems for students, including counselling and other health centres, and the CCSS has mental-health allocations within its student health plan. But beyond this is the work the student society is dedicating to helping resolve factors that cause stress in the first place.

“Being a part of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, one of the biggest things that we always ask the government is to provide more funding for mental-health resources across the country. So we’re always making advocacy for students concerning mental health, and that’s something on the federal level,” says Niikoi. “And even for being members of the BCFS [British Columbia Federation of Students] we know one of the biggest things students are always stressed about is fees, and being able to advocate for students to make education affordable, and have less tuition to pay.”

In the meantime, some instructors are also trying to help their students endure their college experience more easily. 

“One of my teachers does breaks in every lecture to let people sort of reflect on what they’ve been learning, and kind of digest a little easier rather than just going through the whole thing like some of my other profs have been doing,” says Huang. “And I just think make people aware of the outlets they can access to sort of relieve stress or find help if they need it.”

In October, Camosun held a Thrive Week, which included a mental-health first aid training course.

“[A] group of students… came in on their weekend to engage in a training to help recognize when their friends and colleagues are struggling to find help and good support,” says Robinson. “So what I think what’s really wonderful about the Camosun community in particular is it’s very supportive, it’s very compassionate. And so when that’s true, when you do start to struggle it’s a bit of a safety net that maybe one of your friends or colleagues will notice that you’re struggling, and will ask if you’ve reached out for support.”

Camosun seems to be aware that its students are struggling with stress, and is trying to provide a helping hand to students. So why are students still often dealing with their problems independently?

“I personally feel like they have resources available, but there’s not enough out there for students to know about it,” says Niikoi. “Because the first time you hear about mental-health resources is in orientation, and then after that there’s one or two events, but it’s not something that a lot of students get to know because then again it always happens during the time where everyone is busy with school so they’re more focused on trying to pass their exam than to go for a mental-resource meeting… I definitely feel there’s more that can be done, there’s more that they can do to put stuff concerning mental health out there, but it also depends on the student themselves.”

Moving forward

Although self-reliance does build useful skills for students to utilize, students are in a state of stress that puts extenuating pressure on them, so they need help from the college. And the solution to this lack of awareness can be quite simple: Camosun needs to provide students with more information about the systems that are in place to help them with their stress.

“Do they have a program right now in place?” says Toora. “I think people, students, are going to be stressed out about school balance, so maybe promoting it more so more people are aware that there’s opportunities to get help and to try to find solutions.”

Many students I talked to agreed with this; Niikoi says that students need to use their voices to generate change.

“I do feel that students need to bring it up because, in the end, students are the one being affected, so students need to speak up concerning things like this,” says Niikoi. “We just need students to speak up, because even though the college knows about it, they don’t know enough about it, because no one’s saying anything.”

Exploring the dark side of Lansdowne

October 19, 2022 

Halloween is just around the corner, and I’m getting excited. Although I’m not usually one for holidays, Halloween brings on a childlike wonder for me with its possibility of seeing something unknown or supernatural. And according to the Nexus archives, there is a history of paranormal action right here at Camosun. 

Of course, while reading stories of Nexus past my hopes of actually having a paranormal experience were getting higher. I would be one of the few to have a truly paranormal experience. Despite the many dramatized tales of Camosun’s haunted grounds, there aren’t many confirmed sightings of ethereal activity.

My young self’s gullibility is long gone and I’m a skeptic by nature, but I’m going to give it my best shot setting out on this ghost hunt: I’m searching the web to find the best way to conjure up the most activity possible and what to look out for.

I’ve come up with an entire day’s worth of activities to experience all the spooky cheer that Camosun’s Lansdowne campus could have to offer. From pumpkin carving in the Nexus office to taking advantage of Camosun’s haunted halls and even summoning beings from the beyond with a ouija board, I’m going to have some Halloween hoopla.

Haunted history

If you’re also not convinced of the existence of ghosts at Camosun, maybe a little history will help make you a believer. Since the buildings at Interurban are relatively new, most of Camosun’s arcane activity is at Lansdowne. On this campus, there’s one place specifically that’s known for having a ghost spirit haunting it: the Young Building. 

Young was built to be a teacher’s college in 1913, but during WWII it was turned into a military hospital. During its use as a military hospital, not all of its patients made it out alive, so the building had a functioning morgue.

I’ve personally worked one too many long hours in Young but the most otherworldly experience I’ve had is light exhaustion. However, according to the college itself and other reports, there’s more. Due to the building’s past, there are accounts out there of people experiencing something out of the norm in Young.

The college itself likes to play this up: in a recent Camosun news release, instructors recall a few times that there were encounters with ghosts in Young. One of these, for example, involves someone leaning out of a window, about to fall, when a nonexistent hand saves them. Another one is an apparition coming toward someone and then dissolving. Then there’s the apparent screaming coming from the basement where the morgue used to be.

It’s no coincidence that supernatural events happen on this campus. John Adams from Ghostly Walks has been quoted saying that it’s because of the buildings’ location on the volcanic cone that is Mount Tolmie. Here, the energy of peoples’ spirits that have passed on lingers and is bound to the land. Whether their stories are true or not, I’m getting into the swing of the spooky season. 

It’s the great pumpkin, Richmond House

To further the spread of the Halloween spirit the Nexus staff are adding a little holiday decor to the Richmond house—we’re carving pumpkins. And, as it turns out, pumpkin carving has a spooky history. Legend has it that there’s some actual meaning behind the mutilation of a gourd, scrapping out its guts, and making a demonic face out of the holes in its skin. 

According to Irish myth, there once was a man named Stingy Jack that the tradition is based on. He’s known as a trickster that pulled a fast one on the devil. He got the devil to climb a tree and trapped him up there by carving a cross in the trunk of the tree. The Devil made a deal to not allow Jack into hell if he would help him down.

When he died, the Devil didn’t let him into hell, but God wouldn’t let him into heaven either. With no resting place for his soul, Jack was left to wander the earth for the rest of time. To prevent being a victim of one of Jack’s tricks, Irish people began to carve demon faces on produce to scare him away. When Irish immigrants came to the US, pumpkins started to be used because they grow in North America. 

This wasn’t the only scary thing on my mind while carving a pumpkin (and you can see the end result of my handiwork on this issue’s cover). Injuries are a common occurrence when making jack o’ lanterns. This is unsurprising, seeing as oversized knives and artistic competition don’t necessarily pair well. 

Between the stabbing of hands, severing of tendons, and damaging of nerves, there are countless ways for the Nexus staff to get injured in this seemingly wholesome holiday activity. Still, it’s a fun way to eat up office hours and a way to spend some time together that’s more affordable than a corporate retreat. 

The other staff members at Nexus are also getting ready for the festivities. Zoe Mathers, our student editor, very generously offered to get us the pumpkins. Staff writer Nicolas Ihmels is coming in on his day off to carve. 

Nic and I start by drawing out some faces scary enough to ward away Jack. Surprisingly enough, even though we work at a newspaper, our office doesn’t have a decent marker to do this with. I guess even we aren’t entirely immune to digitization. More shockingly yet, we do have all of the other supplies needed.

We’re making our jack o’ lanterns at our desks so we’re using old newspapers to keep a clean working space. And since we have a kitchen in the office and used to have a slow cooker for some reason, we, weirdly, have some pretty big, and sharp, knives. Asking your boss which knife he thinks would be best for stabbing and gutting isn’t what I’d imagine happens regularly in newspaper offices. 

Then we start cutting into the gourds. It’s been so long since either of us has done some pumpkin carving that we almost forget how to do it. As seeds start piling up we begin reminiscing over our past holiday celebrations and traditions, like the toasting of pumpkin seeds, and the inevitable throwing of the uneaten pumpkin seeds in the compost a month later.

Due to changing schedules in the fall semester, we haven’t all been in the office at the same time in a while, so we spend a lot of this time catching up. It’s not that spooky, but it sure is nice.

A night in Young

Unfortunately, I can’t bring my co-workers with me to find apparitions. My night of ghost hunting begins alone, creepily sleuthing through the lower level of Young. Going into Young, even with the information I had researched, feels as routine as any other night. Most of my classes have been in Young and I’ve been there late studying too many times to count.

However, as I walk down the stairs to the basement, my nerves start to creep up on me. Maybe it’s all the overly embellished stories I’d read, or my desire to see something unexpected, but I begin to feel a chill up my spine. I am completely alone and start to feel very small, but I push on for the sake of ghost hunting.

The entire floor is empty, except for one abandoned janitorial cart. My paranoia is continuing to spike as I arrive at the door to the art studio. I know what you’re thinking, because I read past articles from Nexus to gain some insight on how to go about finding a Halloween story for myself. I know how overdramatic it sounds while reading it in the comfort of daylight. It’s a lot different when you’re the one in the story.

I keep getting closer and the hair on the back of my neck is standing up higher than ever before. My heart is starting to beat even faster… until I get to the door of the studio. Then it all stops as I start to freeze.

The knob is too easy to open, as if I’m having help from the other side, literally, but the door is heavy. I stand there in the open doorway staring into the dark and shadow-scattered room. There’s a reason why in the movies they use a single source of light that creates blackened figures and furniture that predates the past decade to nuance a fearful ambiance.

It’s more intimidating and scary than I thought it would be. I begin looking for a light switch, but my search is limited as I keep one foot out of the room. There’s no chance I’m letting a ghost get the jump on me. With no luck, I give myself a toughen-up-buttercup pep talk and enter the room.

The studio is sunken, so I find a feeling of safety standing at the top of the stairs at the entrance. A terrifying whistling is going through the room. A window must be open. Maybe it’s just my imagination, or maybe it’s the research I did on Young’s history, but I’m getting scared. I have to take a couple of steps back.

I can’t do it. I close the door and start walking away. Even with the janitor down the hallway, I can’t bring myself to go in. I have to take a minute, phone a friend, and try to ease my nerves, as the building’s regular, completely normal, noises of mechanics seem to play the perfect soundtrack to an Oscar-winning thriller.

I said that I would write this piece, so I’m going to do it. Worst-case scenario, my life could get turned into a Lifetime movie. Maybe it will hurt a little, but hopefully not. I just need to find a working light switch. One foot in front of the other, right?

A ticking clock heightens the bone-chilling atmosphere. I stand on the steps again waiting for the ghost to play games with me. My feet start moving from underneath me, but in my head, I’m still beside the door. I’m waiting for the inevitable slamming of the door behind me, but it never comes. By the sink there’s a painted hand mark and splatters of paint that in this low light look like blood.

Then, the lights turn on and I’m simply standing in an empty classroom. Are you kidding me? I’m so silly for getting so worked up over nothing. 

It’s in the cards

As the night comes to a close, I decide it’s time to bring out the infamous ouija board. Although using one goes directly against my mother’s wishes, I’m thinking why not? They’ve been used since the late 1800s for a reason, right?

I’m taking it upon myself to make my own board for this exposition. Thanks to Google Images and my computer screen making it easy to trace outlines, creating this makeshift board only took a couple of minutes. In the scheming of this ingenious plan, I forgot to figure out what to use as a planchette. Luckily, I wear rings, and I figure those will work well enough.

With the makeshift board and ring in front of me, I settle in on the Nexus office’s couch, which is as old as it is comfy (honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had a soul of its own that could tell some stories). I turn off the mellow music that was keeping me from getting too paranoid. Ghost talks, here I come.

I call out into the empty soundscape for some reaction. Nothing. I ask again for some sign of presence. The walls of this old character home creak and I start feeling slightly foolish again. I try one last time. My fingers start to shake and my subconscious is apparently sympathetic to the kid at the sleepover that moves the planchette on purpose. 

Who can say whether it was because I made it myself with a non-mystical pen and paper, or if it was because I’m using a heavy planchette for Richmond House’s spirits, but I’m not getting anywhere. With no luck with the homemade ouija board, I decided to try my tarot cards. In my research of tarot cards being used as medium technology, I found instructions on how to conduct a reading with the intent of reaching out to the other side. I’m in a relaxed space without distractions, as recommended. As I begin to shuffle through the cards I’m settling myself and trying to open myself up.

The possibility to give a voice to or hear from somebody who has passed on is a gift my existential self has been hoping for for a while now. Call it a Twilight-inspired pipe dream, but it seems like the easiest way to achieve immortality. With my objectives set, I can’t wait to start.

For those who don’t know, tarot cards are read in spreads. I’m choosing a five-card spread to communicate with a spirit, or at least try. The five cards represent the person, how they view their life, a lesson they’d like to share, something they wish they had paid more attention to, and a message they wish to send. 

I pick each card by shuffling the deck, closing my eyes, and waiting to see which card to pick. One by one, I get a card for each place in the spread. Now it’s time to translate their meaning with my little book of tarot.

The first card is supposed to be chosen with influence from the spirit to give a representation of themselves. The card chosen is Empress and is presented upright, so it stands for Motherhood, Fertility, and Nature. This is a very welcoming card and slightly comforts me. Maybe this ghost is a woman who had children. I like to think so.

Five of Cups is the second card, representing how she perceives her life. Since it’s presented upright it means that she looks at her life with loss, grief, and self-pity. So: less reassuring. This card is followed by one for a lesson she would like to share. The Ace of Cups is reversed in this place, simply meaning emotional loss, blocked creativity, and emptiness. The picture of this woman is starting to come together now—a grieving mother who was never able to move past the tragedy of her child unnaturally dying before her, so her depression consumed her for the rest of her life.

The next card is to help her reflect on something in her life that she wishes that she paid more attention to. Reversed in this spot is the Fool, which means she wishes that she had paid more attention to her patterns of recklessness and inconsideration, and to being taken advantage of. So either she feels as though she missed out on letting loose and making mistakes or she made too many of them.

A message from her to me is the intention behind the last card. This card is the Four of Wands upright, which represents community, home, and celebration. I’m choosing to believe she means that I should welcome the happy aspects of life into my own life more, and make sure I don’t let sadness take over like I imagine it did for her.

I’ve learned something from this night of spooky fun: Halloween is a truly unique time of year when anyone can choose to experience a child-like sense of vulnerability to the unknown for the sake of entertainment. The best part is that as a community we can use it to further connect with one another. So take advice from the woman from the tarot reading and enjoy every kind of joy you can for the holiday, no matter how silly it makes you feel.

You can sit with us: What Camosun College’s clubs life has to offer

October 5, 2022 

Lonely? Bored? Missing doing activities with others? There’s a way to fix that, according to those involved with clubs at Camosun College. Being a college club member has had an impact on Camosun students—it’s more than just getting together to, say, play video games or talk about psychology. They say it creates a sense of belonging.

As we all try to figure out life as students again here in 2022, that sense of belonging is in demand. So we caught up with those involved with Camosun’s club life to find out more about the connections that clubs have to offer.

Building a sense of community

Those who are currently involved with a club at Camosun know the value of the personal connections that can be made at club meetings.

“When I first came here I didn’t really know anybody else that was going to Camosun,” says Amy Lee-Radigan, who is the organizer of both the Board Games Club and the Video Games Club. “I entered as a bit of an older student… I had kind of missed the peer group that I would have gone to post-secondary straight from high school with, so I didn’t really know anybody at first. And getting to know people at CCSS [Camosun College Student Society] kind of just working at WalkSafe and going to clubs and stuff, that was where I really made the first of my friends on campus, so it was very beneficial for me personally, and I would really love to be able to pass that on to others.”

Some clubs, like the ones Lee-Radigan organizes, are geared toward outside hobbies or interests, while others are focused on more academic areas. Still, everyone is welcome to join clubs like the Psychology Club.

“You don’t necessarily have to be a part of Psychology,” says Psychology Club coordinator Ashley Pifer. “Maybe some parts of psychology interest you… If you have an area of focus that you would like to focus on, or know more information about, or that you’re interested in, we can bring in guest speakers and stuff in that interested area and they can speak to you and you can learn more about it. There’s kind of a variety of topics.”

And there’s room for new clubs, and people can be as creative as they like when coming up with the ideas. Morgan Maynard, for example, was just starting the Foam Blaster Action Club when I met up with him. Yes, Nerf guns.

“I hope to provide a fun, safe, optional recreational activity for those people who aren’t interested in traditional sports,” says Maynard. “You’re running around constantly, you’re ducking behind cardboard boxes, you’re doing barrel rolls, it can get your blood pumping like just about… any sport can, but at the same time there’s another aspect of knowing and building blasters that really gets into the engineering side and is intellectually stimulating as well, for those who are interested.”

CCSS clubs and events organizer Tagg Kelt says that clubs are a great way to meet like-minded students, including other students who you maybe didn’t even realize were like-minded. Kelt says that the CCSS is here to help students set up clubs.

“We’re sort of ambivalent to what kind of thing you want to organize,” he says. “So if you want to start the Young Conservative Party of Canada at Camosun, as long as you can find enough people at Camosun to do it, we’re happy to help you do it.”

Colleges and universities are a big ocean of unknown territory to figure out by yourself, and that’s pretty scary. Now that the world is starting to return to normal, students are able to take full advantage of their college experience.

“Having people on campus and having people around I think improves the overall value of college,” says Kelt. “It doesn’t just have to be a place where you go sit in a room so that three years from now you can make $29 an hour instead of $17 an hour. It’s a big chunk of your life and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t just be something you actually enjoy doing.”

And while COVID-19 easily could have been the end of club life on campus, the clubs at Camosun have managed to persist, or at least come back to life, in 2022.

“I think that especially coming out of so much social isolation over the past couple years, I think a lot of students are very eager to get back into that student-life aspect,” says Lee-Radigan. 

Stress-free involvement

Clubs at Camosun aren’t always for the pure enjoyment of becoming more sociable with peers. There are three different types of clubs that Camosun students can become involved in. First off, there are common-interest clubs, such as the Video Games Club. Then there are program-specific clubs that aim to support students of programs that are over one year in length, for example the Camosun Nursing Student Collective. There’s also a lesser-known category of clubs that are formed for the purpose of a class project.

“The only one we’ve really managed to fund is this one who was testing the sharpness of skates, some weird study, they were studying the sharpness of skates as it leads to injuries,” says Kelt. “They managed to get their faculty to support it and they managed to get a vote on it and they managed to get through all the hoops and I was just like, ‘Good for you guys, here’s $80 for shipping skates.’”

Pifer really likes having a club that focuses on a particular academic field but is open to everyone, not just Psychology students.

“You don’t have to belong to something in order to be there, and the wide range of variety in topics and that it’s very social for the people that want to be there… I think a lot of people got a pretty good understanding and kind of acceptance within the Psych Club,” says Pifer. “I really liked being a part of that. We’re all just a bunch of awkward college students just kind of trying to find what we want to do in life.”

And sometimes what we want to do in life is live out a classic Nerf gun commercial.

“I was really glad that that Nerf guy showed up because that guy just has all the energy in the world, which is what we need,” says Kelt. “He was telling me that him and his pals ran some non-profit one but the gym that they booked they can’t book anymore because it got flooded with sewage, so he’s like, ‘We don’t have a place to play anymore,’ so I was like, ‘Maybe you can play at Camosun.’”

Although there are other ways on campus to spend time, being a club member is a good way to get involved on campus with your limited free time as a student.

“It’s definitely not the only way to kind of have that experience and definitely getting involved in the student union and the other aspects of student life is a great idea,” says Lee-Radigan. “I’m not trying to say that this is exclusively the only way. I just think it could be if you don’t necessarily have time between classes to have an entire other student job and you don’t necessarily have time to engage in that way, but you have, say, 20 minutes or half an hour between classes to just come by and hang out and play some video games, it’s a pretty accessible and stress-free way to get involved.”

Causing effect

These clubs have had an important impact on those involved in an extremely positive way. Maynard’s college experience now includes putting himself up for potential rejection from students while trying to get signatures to get his club up and running during the CCSS’ Clubs Days event. By the end of his time petitioning for signatures Maynard got 35 people to put their names down: that’s a full classroom’s amount of students that he spoke with individually and who now he has a connection with. It’s that kind of person-to-person interaction that makes clubs worth their members’ time.

“We usually do it every Friday and it’s only for about two hours,” says Pifer about the Psychology Club’s meetings. “It’s not very long, we try to keep it short but enough time to have the guest speakers that people want to bring in or enough time to collaborate or come up with ideas and get information out for everyone, depending on what they wanted.”

Students do get extremely busy but there are mental-health benefits of relaxing and socializing with other students.

“Playing board games together, and definitely playing video games together—because we try to primarily play multiplayer games so that we’re having students play together—it’s nice, especially if you’re feeling nervous about not knowing anyone, I think it’s really beneficial to have a shared activity,” says Lee-Radigan. “I think it lowers the stress and anxiety of just trying to start up a conversation with a student that you’ve never met… If you’re both engaged in a shared activity then that stress can be lowered because you immediately have something to talk about.”

Beyond clubs providing another source of support, or an outlet for students to relieve stress and enjoy the fun of simply wasting away a little time, they also create an opportunity for some students who may not have the same accessibility to opportunities as their peers. Since anyone can create a club with enough support, if there is an activity that a student is not able to pursue due to financial means, creating a club can offer an otherwise unattainable experience.

“We wanted to lower the barrier for people who attend and maybe do things that they couldn’t afford to do otherwise,” says Kelt. “So, the Video Game Club—video games are expensive, but as a group we can pool some resources and lower those barriers so people can participate in that kind of thing. But, really, it’s to improve the lives of students on campus. That’s the main goal of having clubs on campus, is to improve their lives on campus and make people sort of want to be there past their academic reasons.”

Kelt calls Camosun a “real commuter school,” where students come to campus, do their classes, then leave. 

“That was certainly the case when I was a student here and not a lot has changed about that,” he says. “And Interurban is an even weirder case, right, because Interurban is kind of far out there, so people really want to get going when they’re done. Struggling to have a campus life or activities on campus is difficult but I think it’s worthwhile, and I think when we do achieve it students are grateful.”

By becoming part of this life on campus the doors to connection are opened easier for club members, and often extend beyond the club.

“I think a lot of aspects of school are stressful,” says Lee-Radigan. “So if you can have even just a few minutes of hanging out and playing Mario Kart and just a little bit of rest from that intensity I think it’s only going to benefit your day.”

First semester worst offender: What you really need to know as a new Camosun student

September 2, 2022 

My first semester at Camosun was hell. In June 2021, I graduated high school; the following September I started at Camosun with six courses and a part-time job. Little did I know that that was going to be a massive amount of work. Even though it at first seems like there isn’t much information you’d want other than what’s on your schedule in myCamosun, there are so many things I wish I’d cared enough to find out. So, in the spirit of the new fall semester, here are a few things that will, hopefully, make it easier for those new to Camosun (or for those returning students that could be doing things differently).

First days on campus

For the first couple days of classes there are a few things to be aware of, especially before getting into a routine or tight schedule. There’s the basic information the college will inform you of, like room numbers and a map of the campus, which are, obviously, important. What’s not on those lists, though, are things that just make life a little easier.

First off, never hesitate to ask questions in person at Camosun Student Services (second left through the main entrance of the Fisher Building) or online. The Camosun website is surprisingly easy to search through after a couple tries. The Camosun College Student Society (find them on the main floor of Fisher, around the corner from the cafeteria) is also always there to help out students.

What the college’s website won’t tell you is that empty classrooms are up for grabs for students to hang out or do work in. This is an especially great option if the library is full or if you prefer to work in private. The Ewing building’s computer labs and the auditorium in the Young building are included in this, by the way. It can take time to find the right one, as people may file in and a class may start while you’re sitting in the room, but then you just move on.

You have a couple options when it comes to looking for snacks on campus. At Lansdowne, if we’re talking cost/benefit, you’re better off just walking down to Hillside Centre’s food court. Your next best bet is the cafeteria on campus, because their fries and chocolate croissants are actually incredible. As for beverages, By the Books cafe is pretty good, but expensive; the cafeteria’s coffee is cheaper and is tolerable if you mix it with hot chocolate. (I can’t speak to the food options at Interurban because my classes were all at Lansdowne, but they do have both the Chargers Cafe and the Helmut Huber Culinary Arts Centre, which is a professional cook training cafeteria.)

If you’re a smoker/vaper, you have a couple of options in where you take a puff. There is no smoking on campus other than the designated smoke pits. You’ll find the best pit on the Lansdowne campus, with covered picnic benches, near the outdoor classroom between Dawson and the library. An easy enough back-up option is just walking off campus to any of the roads bordering the college.

Pay attention

Camosun instructors and staff give a lot of advice that may get overlooked because, let’s face it, there’s a lot of information to take in at first, and because new environments are a bit nerve wracking. Looking back at it now, there are definitely things I wish I had paid more attention to.

For example, the general student orientation events can be a good use of your time. These events can familiarize you with the campus and the various services or opportunities that you can take advantage of while at Camosun, and can also be a way to meet other students. I never went to the orientation days and there are a lot of things I missed because of that.

The Writing Center and Learning Skills service is one of the things that I missed learning about at orientation. If you have any problems with writing, or just need a little help adjusting to new teaching styles, definitely check it out. They can see students through booked appointments, or, if you’re in a rush, they can assess one of your assignments online.

A rather tired piece of advice on assignments that actually helps is to start them as soon as possible. It will give you more of a personal life and allow for unexpected life distractions to not derail your school workload. It will also allow you to ask questions to your teacher if you’re struggling with an assignment. You can do this in your instructor’s office hours; these should be taken advantage of because there’s nothing more helpful than direct one-on-one time with your teachers.

However, if you don’t get an assignment started in enough time to properly finish it, you can usually ask for an extension. Just be sure to ask for one as soon as possible, because asking within 24 hours of the deadline isn’t a good look. Teachers at Camosun are generally really nice and most likely will understand if you need a little bit more time. If it’s too late to ask for an extension, and too late to finish the assignment, handing work in late is most often accepted for two weeks past the deadline (this depends on the instructor and course, of course). Marks will be taken off, but it’s better than nothing.

Your syllabus also needs a fair amount of attention. If the last time you were in school was high school, the syllabus’ main purpose for you might simply be nothing more than a bookmark separating courses in your binder. However, college syllabuses are far more important and should be reviewed almost every week, depending on how organized you are. Reading your syllabus over will also save you from asking slightly embarrassing questions when the answer is right in front of you.

If you’re a transit user, make sure you don’t forget about the discounted rates on bus fare through the college’s U-pass cards. As U-passes are part of your student fees, a student ID card automatically includes the ability to be used as a U-pass, along with many other things (see the Camosun website for more details). Student fees are something all students should look into—tuition and fees are expensive so you should get all that you can from them. Student services, clubs, health and dental care, and even Nexus are all benefits of your student fees.

What you may not have heard

You’d imagine that all of the information you’d need would be included in the seemingly endless amount of information dealt out in the first couple weeks of class. But there’s so much that is, surprisingly, left out.

How to find information on D2L is a big one, especially considering the fact that every teacher uses D2L differently. So take the time to figure out where each one of your teachers puts their information on D2L. Almost everything you need to know about your course will be on D2L, and if you can’t find it, ask your teacher where it is. Within a course page on D2L there are multiple subtopics. You can also find out how much each assignment or test is worth in a course.

If you’re trying to access D2L on campus but can’t because the school’s WiFi is limited, try out the Eduroam network. It’s the best wifi on campus.

Another tutorial that’s missing from most information sessions is how to keep up to date with deadlines. For due dates there are a couple different ways to keep track of assignments and flipped classroom homework (where you do the homework assigned to that day prior to class). Personally, I would advise you to do them all because courses can get chaotic. First, there is the Pulse app; it’s a lifesaver and will notify any information that your teacher posts to D2L, such as grades, changes in class meeting plans, or information for the course. You could also enable notifications on D2L. You can choose from text or email, and decide what you want to be notified about. I went to the extreme on notifications when I found out about it, and it got very annoying, but you can always re-adjust after turning them all on. Writing everything down is also important, because—trust me—information can easily slip your mind until your teacher reminds you the day after it’s due.

Past-due reminders are a great example of why attending class in college is way more important than in high school, especially when it comes to completing assignments. Depending on your teacher, attending as many classes as possible will give you so much more information that isn’t available online, and you won’t get blindsided by assignments.

On the other hand, there are some things you don’t need. There are notable exceptions here, but for lots of classes, you most likely don’t need to buy all of your textbooks. Depending on your class, you can just take thorough notes, review class slides (usually posted in the content section of D2L), or find legit online versions of the text. However, if you’ve already got your textbooks and you don’t end up using them, the Camosun College Student Society has an app where students regularly post their used textbooks for sale. This app is also a great alternative if you haven’t got your books and find out you need to have them, because then you’re getting a discounted rate and helping out another student.

Along with these reading materials are the mass amounts of assigned readings you’ll be given throughout the year. If you’re behind in your readings, use skimming techniques (first and last sentence of a paragraph) to still come to class at least somewhat prepared when you’re behind.

The most important prep work, though, is for exams. It might feel way too early in the year to start thinking about exams, but they will sneak up on you quickly, and they matter a lot more in college than in high school. The most common kind of exam at Camosun that I’ve come across is the open-book exam. These exams, especially for English, have harder questions than closed-book exams. If your teacher gives you the questions beforehand, take advantage of the extra time and spend the exam perfecting your answers and adjusting them to the question. Digital notes, if allowed, are great for this.

Speaking of final assessments, you should try to remember to save content from your classes at the end of the semester. Seeing as how you’re paying for the information that you’re given during each course, you should consider keeping what you can for future reference. I know I probably sound like every teacher out there, but this could be useful to have later on. Once the semester ends, your access to the course will be closed and all of that valuable information will be lost to you unless you save it.

Getting personal

Your personal life also needs some attention. There are a lot of misconceptions about what college should be like that end up making your life harder. Take it from someone who had to take summer courses and almost failed because I thought working three new jobs while studying would be manageable.

Not preparing for the worst is a great example of this. It’s a common theme among college students that they should be pushed to their breaking point because they’re young, or that being a student is easier than being part of the workforce. Yet, depending on what experience you have in college, it will be a really hard adjustment. So, work/life balancing is a great idea, no matter how cliche of a suggestion it is. This is because, inevitably, the work becomes harder—not easier—as the semester goes on. Putting less on your plate will allow for life to happen and potential setbacks to pop up without derailing your life.

Similarly, the best advice I ignored was that the all-nighter should be a last resort, and it’s not a sustainable option. It was the first piece of advice that my mom gave me, and I didn’t listen to it, but I should have. Instead of pushing through fatigue and producing work that is not up to your capabilities, getting some sleep and waking up with more organized thoughts will make finishing your work easier.

Then there’s the disparaged sources of help that many don’t utilize because of their stigmatization. For example, asking questions in class. Even though it might be slightly nerve wracking to stick up your hand and ask a question that might be stupid, you should. Yes, it might be slightly annoying to pause the lesson, and you may look like an idiot for missing it on the page right in front of you, but it’s better than guessing the answer and getting it wrong.

Above all, the best advice or recommendation I would give a Camosun student, whether you are new or returning, is to be diligent. It’s really easy to fall behind, lose track of the important stuff, and burn out. Remember that the first semester is the hardest, because it takes time to adjust and find a rhythm that works for you. Trust me: I went through it.

So here’s hoping that the advice from my hell can make your first semester heaven.

Fests go further: How festivals returned to Victoria

August 10, 2022 

It’s finally festival season again. The return of social gatherings is having an immense effect locally by revitalizing Victoria and bringing its citzens together. Victoria’s sense of community is being brought back through festivals, now that restrictions around social gatherings have lifted. But the return of festivals isn’t without its struggles.

In March of this year the City of Victoria announced that it’s providing $321,200 in Festival Investment Grant money to 41 festivals. Additionally, the government has offered in-kind contributions up to $129,500. However, even with financial support, it’s still proven to be extremely difficult to get back into the regular groove of things after two years of events being cancelled or postponed. Organizers are facing difficulties booking performers and vendors, organizing dates, and managing financial shortages due to a lack of revenue and high inflation rates. Nevertheless, since early May, Victoria festivals have been on, including events such as the Victoria Highland Games & Celtic Festival and the Victoria Pride Festival. And, despite the obstacles they’re facing, the fest season is still in full swing with, to name just a few, The Great Canadian Beer Festival, Capital City Comic Con, The Function Festival, and Rifflandia still to come.

Sudsy socialization

The Great Canadian Beer Festival (GCBF) is a great example of the diversity of local festivals at a micro—craft-beer specific—level. Given the nature of the event—lots of people eating and drinking together—the pandemic created a lot of limitations for GCBF, now in its 28th year.

“It was started by this wonderful group of craft-beer lovers and they really just kind of brought forth brewery festivals for the first time, especially tasting festivals,” says Victoria Beer Society event producer Rebecca Craig. “Great Canadian [Beer Festival] focuses on sampling a lot of product as opposed to an Oktoberfest, where you’re getting those giant pints, you know, that are like the size of your head. The festival is really about trying a really diverse lineup and sampling the beer, and learning about the beer, too. That’s kind of a core value for the Great Canadian Beer Fest, is having the breweries on site so that the craft-beer lovers can talk to them about it and they can talk about the product and sample them and learn about the product, and not just to get super wasted on a field on a Saturday night.”

Although some may be disappointed that there isn’t a raging beer party to attend in Victoria, because of the GCBF’s focus on acquiring an educated taste for craft beer, the festival is a great opportunity for students to learn more about their own taste.

“I know that Victoria has a huge craft-beer culture, and it can kind of be intimidating to get into,” says Craig. “There’s so many options and so many really great breweries and people really changing the game quite quickly that I feel like festivals are the best way to try a lot of beers and figure out what you like… Going to a beer festival you have access to 260 beers, you’re not really going to get that elsewhere. So I think for students just kind of getting into the beer world, if they know that they like beer and want to try a bit more, these festivals are a really fun opportunity. And fun to go with your friends, get some food, get some tastings, and hang out on a really nice summer day.”

The festival offers a larger opportunity to have fun and get out of the isolated COVID bubble we’ve been in for the past several years. It’s also an important moment in time for local festivals: people need to take advantage of them or they might die out.

“I think it’s just really fun as a festival organizer to bring new experiences for people to get out and socialize,” says Craig. “So I think it’s a really important notion and I also feel like in the last couple years we’ve seen the arts and culture sector of Victoria kind of slowly die away a little bit just because we haven’t had the ability to run events, so to get these going again is really important for so many sectors, so I’m excited to get this back running again this year.”

Beyond creating an experience for attendees, GCBF—which takes place this year on Friday, September 9 and Saturday, September 10 at Royal Athletic Park—also provides a great spark in tourism to Victoria.

“We expect to have close to 8,000 attend for the weekend, so obviously a big chunk of that is people from the island, or specifically from the south island, but a large amount of that is tourists from either up island or the mainland or from the States, as well,” says Craig. “So we really bring in this big crowd that’s going to be there for the whole weekend and use all of the city’s amenities, including restaurants and hotels and transportation, so I think festivals are huge for bringing tourism back into Victoria.”

Capital City community

Like the GCBF, Capital City Comic Con has a seemingly niche audience that has been eagerly awaiting the event’s return. Comic Con director Candice Woodward has been dealing with the ups and downs of restrictions for two years.

“There is so much work involved, and so much planning, and you have to do a lot of things in the background, and then of course you have to postpone again,” she says. “So it’s been a real challenge to just hope for the best and try to be positive about it, as well as everybody else. A lot of our groups are either non-profits… and they’re run by volunteers, and, of course, volunteering is harder to find with the pandemic going on. It’s definitely a weird world for the events industry right now.”

The environment at Comic Con—happening this year from Friday, September 23 to Sunday, September 25 at the Victoria Conference Centre and Crystal Garden—creates a community, and a special place for passionate individuals to share in their love of the nerdy variety.

“There’s so many wonderful attendees that come to it and everybody is so welcoming and inclusive. It’s just almost like a big family when it comes to all the people that attend it… Everyone is just really happy the week of the convention. And they embrace everybody, like everyone is just really friendly and welcoming, and that’s what I love about it,” says Woodward. “So it doesn’t matter if you love Star Trek or Star Wars, everybody has a bit of a common ground with enjoying a fandom and being passionate about their fandom to any extent. Some people absolutely go above and beyond with their fandom and other people are just like, ‘Yeah, I just like it.’ You can really feel the love and it’s just a great feeling.”

Something else Woodward stresses is that anyone who needs support services in regards to access issues can contact them to make sure they get what they need.

“We offer support services, so if anybody needs they can contact us and we can basically offer their support person a ticket as well to help them out,” she says. “They go through the VIP entrance and we have special lineups to move them to the front of the line. We just want everybody to feel really welcome and included and of course not have any issue the weekend of the event… It’s very important to us.”

Serving a function

Creating a sense of community and a place for everyone is a common theme in festivals, and that’s what organizer Charity Williams aims to provide with The Function, taking place on Saturday, August 20 at Ship Point. The event is new to Victoria’s lineup of festivals and is run by the BC Black History Awareness Society (BBHAS) for the celebration of BIPOC artists and the BIPOC community in Victoria.

“It’s essentially just to elevate and highlight BIPOC artists, as well as create a community in Victoria… I felt it was important to give a space for people to come together and show authentically as themselves and also just meet people in different spaces,” says Williams. “I feel like people out here can sometimes be very separated and kind of be sucked in these little boxes that we tend to create around ourselves. I just want to give a opportunity for people to come together, hear new music, make some new connections, support BIPOC businesses, and support BIPOC artists. So that’s essentially the bottom line of the festival, is I just want to create a community. I feel it’s lacking. I want to feel like I’m a part of something that’s bigger, and that’s really where that came from, is kind of wanting to make a space where I could feel comfortable and where everyone else as well can feel that way.”

Williams is the youth engagement coordinator at BBHAS and plans youth events in the city to support BIPOC youth. She also runs a program called the Fifth Element that explores the five elements of hip-hop with BIPOC youth. The Function is an perfect extension of her work in the city.

“Myself and one of my teammates and friends organized the peace rally for Black lives a couple years ago and I spoke that day in front of about 10,000 people at Centennial Square. And it was the first time that… I’ve lived this kind of peace of happiness of seeing so many people of colour that I can relate to and finally kind of finding a place to come together,” says Williams. “So I wanted to create environments where folks can come together, if not out of tragedy, just out of pure joy and celebration and art, and so that’s kind of where it came from. It didn’t happen at that exact moment, it was a couple years of doing other projects, and this is kind of just the next thing to come out of that, of creating a bigger space and an opportunity for people to come together.”

The event’s support of the BIPOC community extends to its vendor selection, which will include BIPOC vendors from Victoria and Vancouver, such as Decolonial Clothing.

“I hope that everybody feels welcome there. I hope that everybody feels like they can see themselves in the artists and just feel like this is a space that they can come and keep coming back to year after year,” says Williams. “I tried to model after things that I went to back in Toronto growing up, which for me feels like a very multicultural and really just exciting place to live, so I kind of wanted to model a little bit of the things that I experienced in Toronto to this festival.”

The Function Festival is one of the recipients of the City of Victoria’s Festival Investment Grant. 

“The music and art industry is one of the strongest in Victoria and I think it’s really exciting that they’ve put such a huge amount of funds behind these projects,” says Williams. “And we’re just lucky to be one of the many who were selected to get a grant this year. We’re super thankful to the City of Victoria for offering us this grant and I can’t wait to see what we’re going to do with it. It’s really exciting”

A champion returns

Nick Blasko, founder of Rifflandia, also aimed to fill a gap when he created the music fest in 2008. Through the years, the event has expanded immensely, and although there hasn’t been a Rifflandia in four years, the time off was spent restructuring to remain prominent in the landscape of music festivals in Victoria.

“People who have come to the event through the years will see lots of changes. We like to think elevations. The core of the festival is still there, and Royal Athletic Park is the same as it was, but we’re running two stages. You’ll notice they’re much bigger, there’s a lot more video and production in general,” says Blasko. “We’re just trying to consider our audience. A lot of our audience has kids now… The audience has sort of grown with us and aged with us too. So we had to consider the audience, consider what they’re going to want, and try to show all the things in Victoria that we love, and just obviously work with the a lot of the same people that we’ve worked with over the years, some of our food vendors and some of our alcohol suppliers and so on… There’s a lot of different people in Victoria who contribute to the event.”

And due to the festival’s popularity, the vendors benefit from being at Rifflandia, which goes down this year from Thursday, September 15 to Sunday, September 18 at Royal Athletic Park and Electric Avenue. All these local events play an important role to the local economy.  

“We have a very specific audience that wants to come and see music, and wants to do some of the things that they enjoyed doing before COVID, so I can’t speak to the greater economy of things, but… if we can be part of an effort to revitalize and rebuild and re-engage people, that’s certainly something we want to do and that we want to be seen as doing,” says Blasko. “I think a lot of people, especially in service, are having a very busy summer right now. So we come just at the end of summer, beginning of fall, so we’re not quite a shoulder-season event but almost. I think definitely from a revenue perspective a lot of our vendors, whether they’re food vendors or any other of our service providers, we’re definitely a big part of their year.”

Rifflandia offers a special experience in live music, as it’s the only fest of its magnitude in Victoria.

“This experience to go to a major music festival is something you always would have had to travel off island to go do. Not too long ago you’d have to go to the United States or Europe to even go to something,” says Nick. “It’s a manageable weekend experience for the family, is what it is, where you see the same headliners that you’d go and see at these giant juggernaut festivals around the world but at a little park in Victoria.”

For students, especially those new to Victoria, the event can also offer a chance to learn more about their community.

“I think for those new to Victoria it’s a great snapshot of a community and a lot of the things that we love about it,” says Blasko. “It’s a great gathering, so you’ll meet people and you’ll be inspired, you’ll see all sorts of art, you’ll see all sorts of music, you’ll meet some new people. It’s just a very nice and friendly and exciting environment to be in. I think that for those who are from Victoria it’s just a great annual celebration.”

Finding community the hard way: Camosun alumni tear it up in roller derby

July 6, 2022

A blanket of silence falls upon the previously roaring arena as players steady their skates and brace for the impending hits and blows from the jam that is about to begin. The whistle blows; players bash into each other, and the following two minutes are a constant action-filled jumble of players hitting each other and trying to stay up after getting slammed into. This is roller derby.

Although the premise of this sport is initially confusing, the sport is fascinating. Sadly, many college students have probably never been to a roller derby game, even though local league Eves of Destruction (EOD)’s events sometimes have higher attendance levels than other local sports games. However, those who know about it love it, including the handful of Camosun alum who play for EOD.

So, to help visualize a game, imagine a large, flat, oval-shaped track. There are four players who are called blockers lined up with their arms huddling around each other. One of these blockers is called a pivot. They wear a line on their helmet and are the last line of defence against the other team’s jammer. The jammer wears a star on their helmet and fights as hard as they can to snake through or break through the wall of blockers and start making rounds around the track. Once they break, it’s a mad dash to make it around the track as fast as possible. After completing one full round, they start earning points for their team.

The sport has changed lots over the years, but derby’s intensity, even in a practice scrimmage, has not budged. Roller derby also remains physically and personally impactful to its players. The unique mix of drag-inspired personas and modern-day athleticism within the sport creates this effect, as does the community within various leagues, and those leagues’ relationship with their communities. For its players, the sport is personal, as it helps develop their physical and mental health. This is something that can be seen vividly within EOD, and through talking to the league’s players. The stories and descriptions from EOD members Tina F. Lawless (Hayley Williams, Camosun alum), Slaya SoLow (Leah ter Hart, Camosun alum), Toombstone (Kimberly Toombs), and Violet Criminal (Madeleine Harber) stand as crashing, bashing testimonies to just how much more roller derby is than initially meets the eye.

A flair for the athletic

Many aspects of roller derby have changed since its creation in 1935. Then, it was a rolling, all-out brawl that produced few serious athletes and fought sexism in sport through its inclusivity. Its modern form still displays the original intention of roller derby, but is more rule-based, volunteer-run, and community-driven. Subsequently, its popularity, meaning, and what it provides to its community have significantly evolved, but it remains a sport for everybody. Everybody who loves to get knocked down by their friends and get a hug afterward, that is.

“At the beginning, it was, like, fishnets and tutus, and, you know, kinda slutty, if you will,” says Slaya SoLow, who graduated from Camosun in 2021 from the Office Administration program. “Then it has got to be very mature and athletic, and then we had the whole wave of being awakened to be more politically aligned and more inclusive.”

“It is pretty amazing how the sport has developed to become, in general, its own thing and much more focused on the sporting aspect, which I love,” adds Tina F. Lawless, a 2014 Mental Health and Addictions and 2013 Community, Family, and Child Studies Camosun grad. “I also love that we can still have the camp and the weirdness of it all.” 

The EOD—whose next event is at 5pm Saturday, July 16 at the Archie Browning Arena in Esquimalt—has varying levels balancing the campy aspects of derby and sport within its multiple house teams. There’s their junior team, The Rotten Apples, and their rookie team, The Hard Cores. The league also has B-level teams, including Daisy Pushers, Margarita Villains, and Belles of the Brawl, otherwise known as the Brawlers. The EOD also has one Women’s Flat Track Derby Association charter travel team, The EOD A-Team. And along with a varying level of skill, roller derby teams can feature a varying level of campiness.

“It depends on where you play, for sure, because there are some teams that are more serious, and take it a little more seriously, so you have a little less wiggle room for costume, or some teams won’t let you wear fishnets if you are playing for a high-level game,” says Lawless. “In our league, our house team games and house teams kind of allow us to do whatever we want, so with having our fun names or having specified derby make-up or costumes.”

Although restrictions limit costume pieces that are easily ripped off, most players prefer more athletic wear than a tutu anyway. Yet, the campiness of roller derby past still shines through in the players’ socks, helmets, make-up, and even skates. Most of all, derby’s flair is apparent in the players’ names, although even that can depend on the level of derby.

“As we get up to the upper echelons of high-end derby, you are going to see more people just using their names. It gets a little less campy and a little more serious,” says SoLow, who adds that she’d like to see roller derby representation at PISE. “None of us are going to go to the Derby World Cup anytime soon, so there’s still a lot of us out there that like to play on our names a lot. For sure having the right derby persona and the right name is still a lot of fun.”

Athletic achievement isn’t the only benefit of derby. The EOD community is a family, one that is always evolving to welcome even more potential players.

“When we first started, it was the fastest-growing women’s sport, we were very much a women-only roller derby family,” says SoLow. “Now we realize that women can take many different shapes and forms, there’s also co-ed teams, and we are definitely very gender-inclusive. Our language has changed quite a bit as well as we have evolved, so we are proud of our new culture and how inclusive we are. Basically, we have open arms, and anyone can play… We welcome everybody.” 

The EOD community

The Victoria roller derby community is snowballing. In 2008, the EOD consisted of one team of roughly 20 players; today, this has grown to six teams with over 100 members. In this large group, there are many different shapes of player.

“We are all very open and understanding, and I would say we have such a vast and eclectic group of people,” says Lawless. “Our youngest skaters, our juniors, are as young as 11. But in our adult league, we have 19-year-olds, and our oldest skater is 53. We have such an array of life experience that even just being in the presence of someone 20 years older than you, you get the comfort and you learn from their life experience, too. It never feels like you are hanging out with somebody who is 10 years younger or 10 years older than you. You just feel comfortable and connected. I never feel like there’s anybody who is judging or excluding within our group.”

Derby players are their own biggest fans, and it shows, but the second place quickly goes to anybody who has the opportunity to see some gameplay. But there is certainly an exceptional bond between players.

“You often hear people express that after a bout, just how they had no idea it was such a community,” says Toombstone. “You’re seeing these examples of people on the track who are in a game against each other, but as soon as the whistle blows—like immediately after, like the moment after the whistle blows—they help each other off of the track. They’re hugging each other and high-fiving the other team. It’s a positive way to play… This is a sport that is able to be competitive, able to be hard, and it’s also safe for people and it’s friendly. People see that in games and participate and get excited, even if they might not know what’s happening. I think that ripples out, and it brings people in, and that’s why we get these huge intakes of new skaters who want to come join our league because they see it happening and they just want to be a part of it.”

Everyone in the local roller derby community learns from each other, builds their knowledge and compassion, and grows together. And for some of the players, this journey had roots at Camosun.

“I took the Community, Family and Child Studies program and the Mental Health and Addictions program when I was at Camosun, and I would definitely say that that program opened me up to a lot of different types of people from different walks of life,” says Lawless. “I learned a lot about interpersonal communications and working with other people and that kind of thing. I don’t know if that necessarily helped me with derby, but it’s definitely something I think derby kind of mimics. I get a lot of that kind of stuff when I am with the Eves as well, because it’s just so many types of people, and learning to work with a team, and learning to work with other people. I use that kind of stuff, and conflict resolution, and all that kind of stuff a ton in derby.”

It’s remarkable that the players are as close as they are when they hit each other constantly, occasionally to the point of injury. Then again, that’s the point of the sport.

“The physical aspect of it is such a huge part, like being able to hit your friends is really a positive part of the sport because it’s done in a way that is safe,” says Toombstone. “Of course people get hurt sometimes, accidents happen, but you know we have really specific ways of which we [determine] what is legal and what is not a legal hit.”

“We go there, and we give it our all,” adds SoLow, “and we hit each other as hard as we can, and then we are all friends still, which is nice.”

The individual impact of derby

One of the most considerable benefits seen in derby is the personal effect the sport has on its players. Every local league member has grown through roller derby, whether through physical strength, personal development, or a mix of both.

“I believe we grow very much in community and with and around other people,” says Criminal. “Team culture always grows you if you look at sports psych. Team bonding will always grow you.”

“I’m a plus-sized person and growing up playing sports always felt judged or less than or like I wouldn’t get picked for teams because of the way that I look, and not necessarily because of my skill,” says Lawless. “But joining derby, it was so incredibly empowering to see different kinds of body types and everyone having a purpose and being celebrated… I never felt like I fit in anywhere more than I have at derby, being amongst so many different people… When I first started—again, as a bigger skater—I sort of felt like, ‘Oh, I am only ever going to block, I am not going to be a good jammer because I am not as fast.’ But then for the first four seasons I was playing I was only jamming, because I was good at it. It kind of breaks your ideas of what one single body type should be able to do or what one single person should be able to do based on so many different things. If you just give yourself or somebody else the opportunity, they can totally crush it.”

Beyond this community of inclusion, derby provides an outlet through sport and, especially, through expression.

“It’s had a huge impact on my life,” says Toombstone. “I joined roller derby in 2014, and I didn’t really know how to skate. I learned how to skate at [EOD information and tryout sessions] Raw Meat [and] Fresh Meat and then got into the league. I just had two young kids, I had wanted to do it for a long time and didn’t know how to get in. I also had stressful work. My work has always been very, very stressful, and I need an outlet that entirely takes me away to something separate. It does that for me. I don’t think of anything else when I’m playing derby. It also provides us, and builds our ability to be, better leaders as well because we all have to take on roles within the league.”

There are countless other ways this sport has benefitted its players’ personal lives. Each player’s experience with derby is personal; as many have said, it changed their lives for the better.

“It is for you,” says Criminal. “It is about you, community, and connection… The things that derby has done for people [include] them accepting themselves, finding queer community, some people have used derby as a tool for sobriety, or better mental health. For me, I would also say my relationship with my body has been impacted positively by playing this sport.”

For anyone thinking of joining derby, Criminal has a simple message: “Be prepared to have your life changed.”

“It’s the best adult community I’ve ever been a part of,” says Criminal. “Be prepared for all of the joy that it will bring you and do it. Do not let something hold you back from it, because I have truly never met anyone who has joined roller derby and been like, ‘I wish I did not do that,’ never. It’s for you, it’s about you, it’s about community and connection.”

EOD’s impact on the community

It’s because of the bonds within EOD that the league has had the ability to impact Victoria. Players that feel that bond try to share it with whoever needs a little community.

“They were keen to get to know me and very friendly, and they were like, this is awesome that you are excited to do this,” says Lawless. “I was listening to all of the stories of how derby changed their lives, and I was really inspired.”

There’s a good reason for this eagerness. Once someone is a part of the league, there’s an opportunity for development in many aspects of life. Each player is part of the community of Victoria, so their growth is also that of the community.

“Whether you are a captain of a team or you run practices regularly, or you are on the board, or you are in charge of merchandise or you plan, because bouts are a huge event. It’s a massive event that sometimes upwards of 800 people show up to. So you are talking about vendors, and sponsorship, and all this kind of stuff. So there is a lot of skill development within the community as well,” says Toombstone. “And I have learned a lot and have really gained a lot of confidence through derby. Not that I didn’t have confidence, but I didn’t have this type of confidence. I’d never led a sport, like a team, or been a captain, or led a practice… It’s real huge skill development for me, as well as a huge boost to my sense of what I can do, because I came from literally flailing on the track, and people can tell you that, to feeling really confident on the track… I feel my skills are at a level where I can provide other people with support and feedback about what they can do to work to get to where they want to be and be a positive derby role model.”

Each participant in EOD plays a very important role, and, in return, the EOD gives them experience and growth. To make this opportunity more accessible, the EOD offers financial assistance for skaters who need it through what they call a disadvantaged skaters’ fund.

“We also have equipment that we can loan or give to people if they are wanting to try but they don’t have the funds to be able to support themselves through it, because we want it to be accessible for everybody regardless of income,” says SoLow. “We’ve had instances where we’ve done lots of fundraisers for sock drives and things or the Open Door for the homeless centre downtown. And then we’ve also had league members that do individual period product drives for communities that have needed assistance in the past.”

Perhaps the most notable impact EOD has on Victoria is the space it offers for everyone who wants it.

“Derby seems to connect with people who are looking for something in their lives… Somebody who’s looking for community or connection, or is just looking for something fun to do or looking for new friends,” says Lawless. “Coming into derby, where I could just be weird and not worry about anything, I think it really just develops you as a person in general. I feel now that being able to present myself the way I wanted to present myself, even if it was just at derby two, three times a week, it allowed me to bring out my inner weirdo and be really who I wanted to be. It personally had a big impact on me, and really made me the person I am today. It created a really safe space for me to explore just doing whatever I wanted, like colouring my hair, trying different pronouns, or doing whatever I wanted to do. So, I think it creates a safe space where we all know that whatever you do here is cool.”

There’s a specific power within roller derby that changes its players’ lives. It’s a family with open, welcoming arms that reaches out to anyone searching for a sense of belonging.

“We’re parents, we’re sort of all the things, we’re nurses, some folks are teachers, some folks are doing their master’s in arts, we are kinda everywhere,” says Toombstone. “There’s a real standard that has been built out of the derby community, certainly in Victoria. In my experience it’s based in building community, supporting people to build people up, to bring people in and build them up, as opposed to criticize them or get harsh on them because they are not good enough. I think that reflects out into the community.”

“Then when it’s game day you just have to put your head in the game and just be focused and also know that you’re going to have a whole lot of fun,” adds SoLow. “It’s one of those things that is one of the most wonderful, terrifying, awful, exhilarating things you can be doing.”