The Martlet

UVic Pride needs more space

Just inside the door of UVic Pride is a sign that reads “Welcome to the Closet.” The sign refers to the fact that the original blueprints for the Student Union Building (SUB) designated Room B118 as a janitor’s closet.

UVic Pride — formally the UVic Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Alliance — has grown and changed significantly since the SUB was built, but B118 has remained the same size. And anyone who frequents UVic Pride will tell you that it is far too small.

Ideally, the room of an advocacy group should serve as both an office and community space simultaneously, but the Pride office can barely accommodate one of these functions at a time.

Collective coordinators who want to get their work done are forced to choose between trying to ignore loud discussions taking place all around them or asking everyone else to leave what should be a welcoming space. It’s all too common during the school day to see someone walk through the door, hoping to hang out, only to leave again when they realize all the seats are taken. There are library books piled around the room due to a lack of shelf space.

One of the main reasons that UVic Pride has remained in B118 is the issue of funding. As one of the two advocacy groups that does not receive money directly from students, but only from the advocacy council control account, Pride’s budget is limited. The cost of renting a space in the SUB is determined by the square footage of the room, so therefore the move to a larger room would bring with it an increase in rent, which the group would struggle to meet.

Yet, a room change needs to happen. Queer students coming to UVic for the first time need to know that they have a safe space on campus that is always open to them, a place to get important information, connect with peers, and become a part of Victoria’s queer community.

UVic Pride’s capacity to be that space is limited by the size of its office.

It’s time to say goodbye to B118, and bring UVic Pride out of the closet.

Tara Paterson, Rachel Bergen and Gabrielle Sutherland

UVic Pride’s Coming Out of the Closet Committee

We need to respect rabbits

We live in a country that has been voted as one of the best countries to live in. Mahatma Gandhi once said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

I couldn’t agree more. You cannot expect people to be respectful towards their fellow humans when they have little or no respect for nature and their friends in the animal kingdom.

Supporters of a cull (read: killing) of bunnies are not showing much respect for our fellow animals, judging by the articles that have been written and published lately. In fact, they mostly see them as a nuisance or even as a threat to their everyday lives or, at best, as food for people.

Animals deserve much more than that from us. They were here well before the first humans set foot in this area. Humans are the invaders, so we must learn to live together with them in the best way possible with kindness, care and respect.

Those who support a cull or a harvest or whatever you want to call it are just looking for more and more excuses to justify an action which, in the end, according to my standards — and I’m sure those of many others­ — would still be nothing but a mass murder of innocent creatures.

We live in the best place on Earth. Let’s show the world that its citizens behave accordingly

Nabhraj Spogliarich,Community member