Titan Tribune

By Amelia Kondor Vancouver had a municipal byelection on Saturday, April 6th. The byelection was called after city councilors Christine Boyle of OneCity and Adrian Carr of the municipal Green party left office (Kshatri). Boyle and Carr were both elected during the 2022 Vancouver Municipal election, an election which saw an ABC majority and Ken Sim elected as mayor (Kshatri). Sim and ABC were hoping to strengthen their majority in the byelection, running two candidates for the empty positions. Other parties running candidates included TEAM, headed by Colleen Hardwick, who ran for mayor in 2022, COPE, OneCity, and the Green party ("Long Lineups"). While municipal byelections traditionally have very low voter turnouts, this election had a voter turnout of around 15% which is "a 40 per cent increase from the 2017 byelection, when the turnout was around 11%. A total of 67,962 ballots were cast" (Kshatri). This unexpectedly high turnout comb...

By Wren Davies Picture this: It's 1970 and you are a young orca swimming with your pod in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Washington, in the United States. Suddenly, the water begins to speed up, you hear human voices and realize that you are separated from your family. You look for a way out but realize you're trapped. You can hear your mother squealing in distress, so you lift your head and hope to be rescued from the nets. You fight with everything you have, but it's no use; the people force you into slings, and then into a small water tank where you are transported to SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. You are put into a tiny tank, the equivalent to a bathtub for a human, and are forced to perform shows for food. You never see your family again, and you are alone apart from a couple of other young orcas that have reached the same fate as you. Your dorsal fin collapses due to the stress and confined space. You are bored and hungry and all ...

By Juan Manuel Lozada Corinaldesi On September 19, we experienced our first adventure outside of school, in this new stage as high school students, on the grade eight trip to Grouse Mountain, BC. This was a very fun experience: we all met new people, and we learned how to work as a team. It all started when we arrived at school, where everyone was excited to begin this new adventure. After waiting a long time, we got on the bus to get to Grouse Mountain. Along the way, we all met new people on the long road to our destination. When we arrived, we had to go in the skyride to get to the top of the mountain. It was a mixture of excitement and anguish, as we were all excited to go up and see the landscape from above, but going up slowly caused a bit of anguish since in general we thought we were going to fall. When we reached the top, it was cold and very foggy, but we were so excited that the weather didn’t bother us. Each student was grouped into their ...

By Amelia Kondor Earth day passed somewhat recently, and you may have noticed the Environmental Club’s posters up around the school. More importantly, you might have noticed or participated in one of their annual clothing swaps. Trying to prevent clothing waste isn’t something to attempt only for Earth Day, though. What are some of the ways we can take action to prevent this waste? Is clothing recycling really all it’s cracked up to be, and if not, what are some alternatives? “Making fashion circular,” is something often proposed when trying to find a solution to our current waste problem. Essentially, the problem with the way that society deals with clothing currently is that it has a linear life cycle. The textile industry is designed to produce new clothes that we wear – and it does a great job. Yes, there are plenty of issues in this process, like the exploitation of workers, but tons upon tons of clothing is created every year. More t...

By Luca Crema Black Phones give access to un-regulated content on the internet, and in the school setting, they distract students from learning. The BC Ministry of Education will start restricting phones at school in September 2024. Few details of the ban have been confirmed, but there are two likely contingencies: The mandate will restrict phones from the bell-to-bell schedule. This will deny access to phones in class, but during breaks, students will have access to their phones. Students will have access to phones during certain learning activities, which must be authorized by teachers. If teachers have the authority to allow phones during learning activities, the restriction could have an extremely slight change. Currently, without the phone restriction, many teachers operate their classroom with a policy similar to this. Students are prohibited from using phones, but a teacher can give permission to use device...

By Amelia Kondor Mining is one of Canada’s largest industries. In 2022, mineral and metal exports accounted for over twenty percent of Canada’s total merchandise exports, making up a total of 153 billion dollars (“Mineral Trade”). Mining is so important for our country that “In March 2021, the Government of Canada released its list of 31 critical minerals that are considered vital for the sustainable economic success of Canada and its allies” (“Mineral Trade”). These minerals can be found all over Canada, as shown by this interactive map . These minerals only scratch the surface when it comes to what Canada mines, as shown by this second interactive map . Canada is also directly responsible for many mines in other countries, so even these seemingly comprehensive maps don’t tell the full story of mining in Canada. The story of mining in Canada is also a difficult one to interpret, as trying to learn about mining leads to rabbit holes of statistics and in...

By Uy Pham On April 5, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim held a news conference regarding the encampment of homeless people on the Downtown Eastside. The East Hastings Street tent city was being dismantled. This work, Mr. Sim said, was being carried out “with respect, compassion and patience” towards the encampment's residents. On the same day, dozens of VDP officers surrounded the encampment. Then, city staff got to work. Tents and shelters were torn down and loaded onto moving vans. Their inhabitants’ personal belongings were unceremoniously dumped into garbage bins. Thanks to the compassion displayed by City Hall, many unhoused residents found themselves evicted and without a place to stay. All the talk about “respect” and “patience” seemed almost like a cruel joke. Sadly, this action did not come as a surprise to many. For years, this type of decampment operation has been a feature of Vancouver’s approach to the homelessness crisis. Over the last...

By Anna Segelken     This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.   East Palestine is a small town in Ohio with a population of 4,739 people. It was founded as an industrial manufacturing town in 1828, and is now primarily in the orcharding industry. On February 3 rd , a 38-car Norfolk Southern freight train derailed as it was passing through the town. Eleven cars on this train were carrying hazardous materials which spilled out when the train derailed. The substances were quite flammable, creating a high risk of explosion, which would have decimated the town. To prevent a disaster, emergency crews drained the substances into a trench and burned them off, but this created a massive black plume of harmful phosgene gas and hydrogen chloride in the air. Texas A&M University has analyzed data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and found elevated levels of nine chemicals that ...

By Lia Low and Hiona Oyama   Inside cover art: Found Poetry by Megan Wong in ink Volume 05. Last month, the Vancouver Public Library (VPL) published the fifth edition of their teen ink journal. Each year, Secondary School students submit their creative works for a chance to be featured in this publication, uniquely made by and for local teens. In this edition of ink , there are at least four young, talented writers and artists from Templeton who had one or more of their works featured. In total, there were sixty-three teenagers from the Metro Vancouver area whose works were included in ink Volume 05. This year, the submissions for ink Volume 06 will close on April 15 th , 2023. The ink Teen Advisory Group ( ink TAG) at VPL design and assemble the magazine with guidance from adults, including guest speakers. Some of the more common types of work included are poems, short stories, and digital and traditional art. The TAG is a little different than the ink TAG. The ink ...

By Miranda Simanca (Ubyssey)                  By now most people have noticed the increase in prices these past couple of years. Whether paying for gas, living, or food costs, being a human is getting very expensive. If you have a stable job and work full time you can manage these extra expenses, but many people, specifically young people, are being hit very hard financially. University students, who spend most of their time in school and studying, are struggling to make ends meet. At UBC (University of British Columbia), its food bank has seen an 495% increase in use since 2022. Earlier this month the school made the controversial decision to cut funding for food security. This act led to a school walkout spearheaded by students on October 21 st , 2022. They marched in front of the union building to have their message heard. They made speeches, screamed chants, and waved signs to get the attention of the university....

By Amelia Kondor Even if you weren’t following the municipal election closely, you have hopefully heard by now that we have a new mayor: Ken Sim. The latest election took place on October fifteenth, and while there were many candidates running for mayor, there were only two candidates who stood a legitimate chance: Ken Sim and Kennedy Stewart. In the previous election, Ken Sim lost by less than one thousand votes. This election, he won by over thirty thousand votes. Why the change? There was one main factor: his party switch. Last election, he ran with the NPA (Non-partisan association), while this election he ran with ABC. In addition to him winning the mayoral race, every person running with ABC won their race. He formed ABC with three incumbent city councillors, Lisa Dominato, Sarah Kirby-Yung, and Rebecca Bligh, who all of whom won seats on the council again. Switching parties was a good call, as the NPA fractured, and he had the support of many incumbent councillors. The seven...