PHOTO AND VIDEO EDITOR Quincy Houdayer quincy@themanitoban.com
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The newspaper’s primary mandate is to report fairly and objectively on issues and events of importance and interest to the students of the University of Manitoba, to provide an open forum for the free expression and exchange of opinions and ideas, and to stimulate meaningful debate on issues that affect or would otherwise be of interest to the student body and/or society in general. The Manitoban serves as a training ground for students interested in any aspect of journalism. Students and other interested parties are invited to contribute to any section of the newspaper. Please contact the appropriate editor for submission guidelines. The Manitoban reserves the right to edit all submissions and will not publish any material deemed by its editorial board to be discriminatory, racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic, ableist or libellous. Opinions expressed in letters and articles are solely those of the authors. Editorials in the Manitoban are signed and represent the opinions of the writer(s), not necessarily those of the Manitoban staff, Editorial Board, or the publisher.
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Saudi Arabian students pulled from universities
Twitter dispute results in Saudi students stripped of scholarships
MALAK ABAS, STAFF
Over 8,000 international students studying in Canada have been left reeling following a decision by the Saudi Arabian government to pull students from Canadian universities.
A diplomatic spat between Canada and Saudi Arabia broke out weeks ago, when Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland tweeted that she is “very alarmed” over the abrupt incarceration of Samar Badawi — a women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia who has family living in Canada — and a day later, the official Twitter account for Global Affairs Canada tweeted that Canada “is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in #SaudiArabia, including Samar Badawi.”
Saudi Arabia quickly retaliated, announcing it was demanding that its Canadian ambassador leave, sum-
moning the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Canada back to Saudia Arabia, freezing “all new trade and investment transactions” between the two countries — and pulling its students from Canadian post-secondary institutions.
Much of this dispute continued over Twitter, with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry tweeting that “the Canadian position is a grave and unacceptable violation of the Kingdom's laws and procedures.”
Some students who have spoken out anonymously elsewhere have noted that they had been instructed by the Saudi government not to speak with media.
Abdullah Scholarship Program, which provides Saudi students studying abroad with funding that includes full health insurance, coverage of tuition, coverage of language training and a monthly stipend for living expenses.
rights violations, the country was also “making progress in the area of human rights.”
This may be in reference to the recent lifting of the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia.
As of fall 2017, there were 48 Saudi students studying at the University of Manitoba.
As of fall 2017, there were 48 Saudi students studying at the U of M.
While the Manitoban reached out to several students, and the U of M Saudi Students’ Association, no students agreed to speak on the record.
The U of M has put out an official statement through UM Today, its online communications arm, saying it is “working with the Government of Canada, and universities across the country, to ensure a co-ordinated response to this situation” and that more information will be provided as it comes.
Many Saudi students studying in Canada do so under the King
Students who were studying under this scholarship will find their funds frozen mere weeks before the beginning of the new school year. Despite the quick escalation of the Canada-Saudi Arabia dispute, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has already given assurance that the Twitter argument will not affect Saudi oil sales to Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that while he will continue to press Saudi Arabia on its human
Badawi, who was arrested for speaking out against the oppression of women under Saudi Arabian law, remains incarcerated.
There has also been no comment from either party so far on the status of the 2014 $15 billion arms deal from the former Conservative government, upheld by Trudeau, that would provide Saudi Arabia with Canadianmade armoured vehicles.
PHOTO BY QUINCY HOUDAYER
How to stay informed of emergencies on campus
As the school year starts, take the time to familiarize yourself with campus safety services
MALAK ABAS, STAFF
As students, faculty and staff begin the new school year, it is essential for everyone on campus to be knowledgeable of the many features implemented to ensure safety.
In the case of an emergency, the U of M will take several measures to alert students, faculty and staff of the situation and what to do.
UMERG is the U of M’s emergency text message response system. Students, faculty and staff who want to be subscribed to the system must opt-in, which can be done online. After opting in, the U of M will use text messaging to alert those subscribed.
The text service is only used in the case of serious emergencies that affect many people and require immediate action. For example, a text would
be sent out in the case of dangerous weather conditions, such as tornadoes, or anything that requires building evacuation. Any event that requires people to take shelter or buildings to be put on lockdown would also warrant an emergency text. Criminal activity that is not dangerous to the public will not be broadcasted. The message will tell the nature of the event and what immediate action should be taken. The text alerts may also be used to let people know when it is “all clear” and precautions no longer need to be taken.
one who receives a text “pass on the message” as, in an emergency, text and SMS systems can sometimes be slow.
If a class requires phones be turned off, the U of M asks that
also recently installed siren towers on its Fort Garry campus, which will go off in the case of an emergency.
For now, the texting service is only available in English and to people with Canadian phone numbers.
After opting-in, the U of M will use text messaging to alert those subscribed to severe emergencies
The U of M recommends that any-
rules are obeyed. Along with text and email notifications, the university will deploy other warnings if needed, including fire alarms, radio messaging to staff and public announcements via media. The university has
Along with subscribing to the text emergency notification system, anyone on campus should be well-versed in their U of M email account, which will be used during emergencies to provide information to all students and employees.
In the case of an immediate emergency, there are also red/emergency phones that reach over 800 endpoints throughout campus, which can relay
information in the event of an emergency where using personal phones or email accounts is not viable.
These phones can broadcast emergency messages in hallways, classrooms and elevators.
Outside of notification systems, the university also offers safe walk programs, a campus bike security unit and other services to keep campus safe.
Contact the U of M’s security services for more information.
To register for the U of M emergency notification system, visit https://www. umanitoba.ca/emergency_signup.html.
Garett Williams
Editor-In-Chief:
Contact: Editor@themanitoban.com / 474.6770
SkipTheDishes lawsuit challenges courts and consumers
Convenience marketed at expense of independent contractors and customer experience
MATTHEW DOERING, STAFF
As technology strengthens its hold on our realities, employers’ adherence to the tradition of hiring legally-defined “employees” is outflanked by the opportunity for enhanced profits by hiring so-called independent contractors. This reverberates through the service sector.
The “gig economy,” where workers are paid by the project — the gig — instead of the hour, feeds this frenzy. A lawsuit filed last month against third-party delivery company SkipTheDishes drives this point home.
Skip currently hires its delivery drivers as independent contractors. The lawsuit claims this is in violation of provincial employment standards because the company hires and trains the drivers, supplies the tools for them to do their jobs, sets compensation rates and pays the drivers. Independent contractors are a separate business entity from the company paying them. They also set their own fees and decide for themselves when, where and how to work.
The distinction between inde-
pendent contractor and employee is important as independent contractors are not covered by minimum wage, vacation or other conditionof-work clauses under the Manitoba Employment Standards Code.
In this age of app-based commerce, there is an increased prevalence of independent-contractor-filed lawsuits as employers push the scope of the legally-defined contractor. While every independent contractor/employer relationship is unique, the class-action lawsuit brought against Uber, for violating employment standards, by its drivers in Toronto was stayed given an arbitration clause that conflicts be resolved in the Netherlands, where Uber’s legal team is based. Internationally, the U.S., Australia and France have decided that ride-share drivers are independent contractors.
These are decisions with reasoning that may have bearing on the lawsuit against Skip. Just Eat, a British company, bought Skip in 2016. Details of this particular relationship between company and drivers remain to be
settled.
Skip is not alone in the app-based delivery industry — Uber Eats is coming to Winnipeg by the end of August as part of a goal of operating in 100 cities in Canada by the end of 2018 — but it is the most prominent Prairie example having started in Saskatoon and being based in Winnipeg. By hiring independent contractors, the company enjoys huge savings.
To increase profits, there are only a few options: to sign more restaurants, cut costs or increase fees. With 600 restaurants signed in Manitoba, part of a network of 12,000 across Canada with more throughout the U.S., Skip boasts annual revenue in excess of $20 million. Now, increasing fees is the quickest way to grow, as long as restaurant customers can afford the increases and continue to value the service provided.
The business model of third-party delivery is not one of charging a customer for delivery but of charging the restaurant for the service. That takes knowledge of the industry to ensure
pricing that turns a blackened ledger for all parties. If the restaurant cannot, it raises prices and passes costs
It is no longer enough to consider just the morality of sinking your teeth into that succulent beef patty in the convenience of your living room
on to the customer.
Skip charges as much as 30 per cent of an order, in a sector with slim profits. Fast food's average net profit margin is just three per cent, about six per cent for casual and full-service. These costs can become unsustainable, as Winnipeg’s iconic Stella’s Café and Bakery has realized when rising delivery charges affected profit-
ability and harmed customer experience and relationships. It also affects the customer. When the restaurant pays a per-minute fee for the order not being ready at pick-up, cooking delivery orders takes priority over ambience and service provided to in-restaurant paying customers.
To capitalize on the delivery and marketing networks of third-party delivery, the nature of restaurants is changing. Ghost kitchens — ghost restaurants — chop overhead and remain highly profitable by being just a kitchen or even many kitchens for different types of cuisine with no cutlery, no tables and no customers aside from their third-party delivery partners. Winnipeg’s first ghost restaurant is planned to open in September.
Ghost kitchens are either standalone enterprises or a branch of existing restaurants that split the dining experience from the take-out business. Future customers may see them as former favourites reincarnated to remain profitable.
Arguably, restaurants should SkipTheDishes to gain an additional revenue source, to broaden their customer base and to out-source delivery. However, the front of fathomless revenue is tapped by growing and multiplying fees. Increased customer awareness is at the cost of increased competition — no longer within a neighbourhood or cuisine-specific niche — to encompass a city-wide smorgasbord.
Skip the recipes, goes the customer-directed marketing, to discover your culinary neighbourhood, experience futuristic delivery and gain time.
But the restaurants already exist. To serve customers. Collated in a search engine or app. It isn’t about choice.
So instead, skip the real-time delivery progress. The ambience and service of any restaurant permeates the experience throughout the meal. It doesn’t terminate at its start.
If it is about time, remember, convenience comes at an expense.
What really matters? Supporting local gems or the profits of a nolonger locally-owned company that tarnishes restaurants’ reputations and allegedly saves a dollar at the expense of contractors’ livelihoods?
Until the Canadian courts reach a decision and the gig economy sounds the horn of retreat to bring independent contractors into the employee fold, and even after, the ethics of food have shifted. In today’s rushed world, it is no longer enough to consider just the morality of sinking your teeth into that succulent beef patty in the convenience of your living room.
Think, too, about the suffering of the independent contractor and the death of the experience of eating out.
GRAPHIC BY EVAN TREMBLAY
Inaction on Churchill rail a dereliction of responsibility
The
government-pursued judicial route is impotent and indifferent
DENYS KOVTUN
For more than a year Churchill has been cut off from the rest of the country. The only land link between Churchill and the rest of Canada is the Hudson Bay Railway line. The section of line between Gillam and Churchill has been rendered inoperable by the spring 2017 floods that damaged the track.
OmniTRAX, the Denver-based company that owns the line, declared that the floods and the $43.5 million required to repair the rail constituted a major unforeseeable circumstance that absolved it of responsibility to fulfil its contract with the government.
The agreement made upon acquisition of the rail line was that OmniTRAX was to ensure access to Churchill be maintained.In such circumstances, it would be reasonable to expect the government to step in and unilaterally buy out the line and restore the vital link to Churchill. Instead, the government has decided to pursue the issue through the courts.
The litigation process has been extremely slow. Last November, the federal government filed a lawsuit
against OmniTRAX for $18 million for allegedly violating its obligation to operate and maintain the railway.
This obligation stems from a 2008 agreement in which the federal and provincial governments each gave OmniTRAX $20 million to help upgrade the railway. OmniTRAX argued that the case ought to have been thrown out.
In January, there was a significant breakthrough in the litigation — the Canadian Transportation Agency agreed to hear a complaint filed by the Manitoba NDP about the failure of OmniTRAX to repair the line. In June, the agency ordered the company to commence repairs, and filed an order in the Federal Court to enforce the ruling. OmniTRAX will be appealing it.
demonstrated its willingness to nationalize large-scale infrastructure projects under the name of national interest with the purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline. The government’s decision to pursue cumbersome litigation over immediate action demonstrates a telling view of what
and a four-litre bag of milk for $10.
This February the federal government gave $133,000 to Exchange Petroleum, an airplane refuelling service, to offset the rising prices in Churchill and the provincial government spent $6 million to subsidize the town with propane for the 20172018 winter alone.
The government’s decision to pursue cumbersome litigation over immediate action demonstrates a telling view of what the national interest entails
the national interest entails. Both the people of Churchill and the nation’s coffers have suffered as a result of the federal government’s inaction.
Meanwhile, Churchill remains severed from the rest of the country.
The federal government recently
The long-term survival of the 900-person community and livelihood of its residents is in jeopardy. In 2017, gasoline prices went up 30 per cent, topping two dollars a litre, and food prices skyrocketed, with a package of meat being sold for $26
The longer the line stays unrepaired, the more government relief will be required to maintain the survival of the iconic town.
With the prices rising, some Churchill residents are contemplating leaving their beloved hometown. Thirty families have already left, and the local school is down 40 students since June 2017. With steep price increases and precarious employment, Churchill is no longer liveable for many people. As one resident expressed, “For us, the train coming back — it's not so we can leave. It's so we can stay.”
The question of purchasing the railway from OmniTRAX has been taken up by a consortium of Indigenous and northern communities and two firms from Ontario and Saskatchewan. The talks were progressing until July 3, when they broke down. A week later, however, the negotiations resumed, although it remains to be seen whether the ownership transfer will be concluded. While OmniTRAX attempts to extract every possible penny from the sale of the railway, the people of Churchill endure the effects of this flood-turned-political failure alone.
When the Liberals face Manitobans in the next federal election they will have to accept the fact that their unwillingness to buy out the rail left the famous northern Manitoban community abandoned and that they will be looked upon as indifferent and indecisive.
