Media Advisories

VICTORIA, BC — Capilano students are celebrating today’s announcement of the new BC Access Grant — an up-front, needs-based grants program to support low- to middle-income post-secondary learners. This new grant program removes some of the financial barriers to education, providing students who need it most with financial assistance to access the education needed to start a new career and support a family. 

“It’s rewarding to see that students can have a direct impact on government decisions addressing affordable access to education” said Joey Sidhu, vice-president finance & services at the Capilano Students’ Union. “Capilano students have been advocating for needs-based grants in partnership with our lobbying partners the Alliance of BC Students, for seven years, so as we celebrate today we recognize all the work done by past student leaders that made today’s announcement possible.”

This $24 million investment over three years builds on last year’s elimination of student loan interest to make life more affordable for students in BC. Beginning this upcoming fall semester, students can expect to receive up to $4,000 per year, including those in programs under two years. 

“We’re excited about the introduction of non-repayable, needs-based grants because we know that these can help to reduce so many of the financial barriers that a lot of students experience when trying to start their education” explains Emily Bridge,  Capilano Students’ Union president. 

The province’s old needs-based grants program was cut in 2004, leaving BC as the only province in Canada to not offer a non-repayable grant program. This announcement today not only brings the province in line with the rest of the country, but also ensures students have the financial opportunities available to access the education needed for their career, and reduces the debt for new-graduates navigating BC’s affordability crisis.

NORTH VANCOUVER  — The Capilano Students’ Union, representing the students at Capilano University through their elected board of directors, stands in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people, land defenders, and water protectors at the Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en camps, and fully supports Wet’suwet’en jurisdiction and governance.

The organization’s solidarity with Wet’suwet’en is demonstrated with the personal involvement of Capilano Students’ Union board members and staff in solidarity actions across Metro Vancouver, including blockading access to ports, trains, and roads; this has resulted in the arrest of at least one student leader for defending Wet’suwet’en jurisdiction, and they have since been released. 

We do not support the continued colonial violence against the sovereign Wet’suwet’en people by the RCMP, and supported by the federal and BC governments and Coastal GasLink. We believe that these actions are contrary to these governments’ commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). These actions demonstrate that the principle of free, prior, and informed consent, a protocol written into UNDRIP, has not been honoured.

The Wet’suwet’en people have never ceded the rights to their traditional territory and their title has never been extinguished. The Unist’ot’en house group of the Wet’suwet’en has been reoccupying their traditional territory for the last decade, building infrastructure and rebuilding traditional systems of governance as a way to heal their people and the land. The enforcement by the RCMP of this injunction threatens the well-being of the Wet’suwet’en people and their ability to heal and peacefully occupy their territory, infringing on their human and Aboriginal rights.

We also support the demands of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs including:

• that free, prior and informed consent must be obtained before any industry may pass through their territory;
• that the RCMP remove themselves from Wet’suwet’en territory and cease restricting the ability of the Wet’suwet’en people to access their own land, territory and the resources they need for survival, infringing upon their human and Aboriginal rights; 
• that nation-to-nation talks be held between provincial and federal leaders to address the infringements on Wet’suwet’en rights and title; and
• that the RCMP stop enforcing the injunction and in turn threatening the safety of the Wet’suwet’en people as well as their right to occupy their own territory, right to use their own traditional ways of knowing, and right to  heal their land and their people.

We urge the RCMP to stand down, release the land and water defenders, and encourage the Government of British Columbia to engage in meaningful dialogue with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in good faith, honouring their commitments to adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls-to-action, and the Supreme Court of Canada’s Tsilhqot’in decision.

CSU spokesperson

Emily Bridge, president
Capilano Students’ Union
[email protected]
604.240.8837

About Capilano Students’ Union
The Capilano Students’ Union advocates for the interests and needs of its membership of more than 7,000 students by lobbying Capilano University and all levels of government. The CSU delivers student services, provides resources to clubs and organisations on campus, and hosts a variety of events each year to promote the social, political, recreational, and academic wellbeing of its membership.

NORTH VANCOUVER – February 7, 2018 – The Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) has been recognized by the Living Wage for Families Campaign as a living wage employer. This means that the CSU has committed to ensuring that its direct and contracted workers receive a combined wages and benefits package that totals at least the living wage for our region; for Metro Vancouver, this is calculated to be about $20.62 per hour.

The CSU’s board of directors recently approved a living wage policy, making it organizational policy to pay all direct and contract workers a living wage for their work, and determining that the CSU should be a public advocate for ensuring that all workers receiving a living wage.

“The CSU’s continued advancements in providing services, events, and advocacy for our members would not be possible without the work of our professional and dedicated team of staff,” says Christopher Girodat, executive director of the student union. “Our staff team, student and non-student team members alike, works hard everyday to support students; I appreciate this formal recognition that we are committed to supporting them in return.”

According to Perry Safari, president of the student union, paying a living wage is also about leading by example for other employers. “We know first-hand the barriers that our members face when navigating through post-secondary education,” says Safari. “When employers pay a living wage, including to student and part-time workers, it helps to reduce student debt, and reduces barriers to accessing post-secondary education.”Click edit button to change this text.

Spokesperson:
Perry Safari, president
Capilano Students’ Union
e [email protected] t (604) 910-5963

Background:
Christopher Girodat, executive director
Capilano Students’ Union
e [email protected] t (604) 990-7965