UNB repeats as AUS champs
The University of New Brunswick Reds scored early to power past the St. Francis Xavier X-Men 7-1 on March 6, for their second straight Atlantic University Sport title.
The Reds started off the first period with a goal by Cam Brace in the first period. Olivier LeBlanc and Tyler Boland scored later in the period.
“We wanted to try and get the lead and protect it as best we could,” said Reds head coach Gardiner MacDougall. “We had a couple key penalty kills in the first period and then were able to extend the lead as the game went on.”
At 4:34 into the second period Fredericton local Oliver Cooper found his way to the front of the net and scored on a wrap-around to give UNB a 4-0 lead.
The home team responded at 8:19, with captain Mark Tremaine cutting down the Reds lead to 4-1.
In the final three minutes of the period, Kris Bennett scored on a breakaway to put the Reds ahead 5-1.
Boland, who was named the Subway player of the game, added two more goals in the third to earn a hat-trick. Bennett was named the most valuable player of the 2019 AUS men’s hockey playoffs.
The conference championship is the 16th for UNB, and the sixth in the last decade. Both UNB and St FX will represent the AUS at the Cavendish Farms University Cup, in Lethbridge, Alberta, March 14-17.
“The national championship is the next step, and we’ll see how the rankings go,” said MacDougall. “We’ll get in a couple good days of practice and we’ve got an opportunity in front of us, but it is all about being best prepared for game number one.”
Green Party leader Elizabeth May visits Fredericton
The snow couldn’t keep Elizabeth May and the Green Party away. On Wednesday, Feb. 13, after most of Fredericton had shut down for the day due to snowfall, around 50 people packed into a side room at the Wilmot United Church to see the leader of Canada’s Green Party.
Fredericton was the fifth stop on May’s nationwide Community Matters tour. The east coast leg ran from Feb. 7–15, and included Montreal, Quebec City, Moncton, Charlottetown, Fredericton and Halifax. A west coast leg will commence in Prince George on March 2.
May opened with a short speech, mostly focused on the struggle of working in a party-based system.
“Partisan politics does get in the way of good decision making. Ideally, as Greens, we like working across party lines for better solutions,” she said.
On “corrupt business,” May was questioned about how we can disengage ourselves from these businesses when people are so intertwined with them.
“People elected to office need to take responsibility and make sure we exemplify the kind of values, conduct and integrity that restores public trust in our institutions,” she replied. “You need to take people who have broken the law, and regardless of who they know in the system, they have to be responsible, and if they’ve committed a crime, they have to go to jail.”
May also called for electoral reform, including the elimination of “first-past-the-post” voting, where the candidate with most number of votes wins the seat.
“It accentuates hyper-partisanship, it rewards combativeness, it rewards the wedge issue, it punishes co-operation, and it punishes consensus,” she said.
May said the system makes the NDP “aggressive” towards the Greens.
The biggest theme of the night was climate change, and more than half the questions involved the topic.
The last question of the night was asked by a woman concerned about the contentiousness surrounding the carbon tax and how it is seems to distract from more important issues.
“My intention is if people ask about the carbon tax, I will say no, I want to talk about the climate crisis, I want to talk about what needs to be done to avoid climate catastrophe, and I want to talk about the new economy, all the jobs, the positive things that will happen when we start responding to the issue,” May responded.
UNB to host Indigenous language celebration with songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie
The Mi’kmaq-Wolastoqey Centre at the University of New Brunswick will host an Indigenous language gathering celebration on campus from April 5-7.
The event is titled, Nikana’tunej (carrying language forward) / Namkomihptune ‘Ciw Weckuwapasihtit (carrying language forward for the ones not yet born). It will be held at the Richard J. Currie Centre.
Iconic songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie will be opening the gathering with a sold-out concert. Doors will open to the public at 6 p.m. for an opening ceremony with Elder-in-residence Imelda Perley and St. Mary’s First Nation Chief Allan Polchies Jr.
The gathering, which occurs during UNESCO’s Year of Indigenous Languages, will honour teachers, learners and language carriers.
The focus will be on Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqey language revival, through learning activities, language revival presentations, and celebration through song, stories, dance and more.