Interest on student loans needs to be eliminated
As students of Okanagan College and members of the many communities across the Okanagan, we find it inexcusable that the Trudeau government has yet to permanently eliminate interest on federal student loans.
On average, students pay $4,000 just in student-loan interest.
At a time when communities are in desperate need of economic relief from the COVID-19 pandemic, eliminating interest on the federal portion of student loans would likely see the money saved be directly spent in the community, aiding in economic recovery. Students would have more money to spend on rent, groceries and other essentials, and could help put funds back into local small businesses.
The Liberals’ promises to students in 2019 were dismal at best, but with limited financial support available to students throughout the pandemic, it’s about time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal government took the issues of young people and students more seriously.
It’s about time the federal government eliminates interest on student loans, as they have in B.C..
There is a great website, knockoutinterest.ca where you can learn more and take action with us.
Brianne Berchowitz, on behalf of the Okanagan College
Students’ Union Board of Directors
It turns out Saturday night was alright for fighting between Arizona and St. Louis.
Monday night, too. Coyotes and Blues players dropped the gloves in both games, which were the third and fourth consecutive against each other. They will play three more times in four days — that’s right, seven games in a row, like a playoff series that goes the distance, and a regular-season first for the NHL. Tensions will continue to rise.
“If you’re going to play a team seven times in a row, it’s going to happen,” Coyotes forward Conor Garland said. “You’re going to have individual battles and then team battles. It’s hockey. It’s just the way it goes.”
Especially this season, when the NHL cooked up four new divisions and scheduled all regular-season games within those divisions. That set up miniseries of anywhere from two to five games, with the NHL trying to limit travel in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Seven chapters of CoyotesBlues is an anomaly caused by scheduling changes forced by the pandemic.
Animosity is clearly up around the league with players seeing the same familiar, aggravating faces over and over again. There have been 37 fights already this season, and only two of the league’s 31 teams haven’t had at least one.
“There’s a little bit of bad blood that goes on between games,” Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli said after a game against Nashville that featured 32 penalty minutes. “The more and more we play teams, the emotions are high and these are the fun ones to play in because it kind of replicates that playoff kind of hockey.”
It’s not a perfect comparison. As Blues winger David Perron said, “There’s not a Cup on the line” and Lord Stanley’s trophy is far in the distance with the NHL just a quarter of the way through a shortened, 56-game regular season.
But the divisional schedule also means each game and point earned or lost is more important. It’s direct competition in the eight-team U.S. divisions and seven-team Canadian division for four playoff spots each, which leads to what Winnipeg forward Adam Lowry called “a little more chippiness.”
“Just the battles I think get a little more intense, especially as it goes along,” he said. “If you can get a couple games up on the other team, they’re that much more desperate.”
The Blues know how that feels. They’ve lost three of the first four against the Coyotes, including allowing a tying goal with 0.7 seconds left in regulation and getting beat in a shootout in the most recent meeting.
Asked if he’s tired of facing the Coyotes, Blues coach Craig Berube said, “I’m tired of losing to them.” Same for Vancouver, which was swept in its last two “series” — two against Montreal and three against Toronto. Those games got increasingly heated.
“It’s competitive and it’s intense,” Canucks rookie Adam Gaudette said. “It’s a lot of fun playing in these important, competitive games. Every series means something. That’s the way it’s going to be all year.”
A couple of title-winning coaches — Washington’s Peter Laviolette and Columbus’ John Tortorella — haven’t noticed their games getting out of control, yet.
Of course, certain events in games can cause spikes of hatred.
The Canadiens were none too pleased with a hit by Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers on Joel Armia last month, and Montreal coach Claude Julien added some grit to his lineup the next game against Vancouver by inserting Corey Perry. Garland mentioned a hit on teammate Nick Schmaltz that got Coyotes players’ backs up. And the next St. LouisVegas game could feature some fireworks after Golden Knights captain Mark Stone injured Tyler Bozak with a heavy hit.
“Shots that happened to Bozy or other guys like that, sometimes that can carry over,” Perron said.
Arizona coach Rick Tocchet said he sees a carryover from one game to the next against the same opponent, just like a playoff series. The roller coaster ride also shakes up emotions.
“One team’s happy, one team’s unhappy,” Tocchet said. “The team that’s happy, can you stay even keel in the moment? And the team that’s pissed, are they going to do something about it? That’s really why the chippiness comes out.”
Nashville and Tampa Bay weren’t even in the same conference until this season, but that didn’t stop them from combining for 60 penalty minutes in back-to-back games. Arizona and St. Louis didn’t play much in previous years either, but it’s fair to call it a rivalry, even if it ends up being temporary.
“It’s like anything,” Garland said. “You spend time around somebody too long, you get aggravated with them, and you play someone seven times, you’ll get aggravated with them, too.”
MELBOURNE, Australia — Sofia Kenin knew this would be a tough test at the Australian Open, a potentially early end to her first attempt to defend a Grand Slam title.
Upon realizing she probably would be playing big-hitting veteran Kaia Kanepi in the second round, Kenin acknowledged, she “maybe kind of broke down a little bit.”
Kenin was right to be worried. And, with Kanepi at her best, this one was over quickly. Delivering 10 aces, Kanepi powered her way past the fourth-seeded Kenin, overwhelming the 2020 champion 6-3, 6-2 in only 64 minutes on Thursday.
“I obviously felt like I’m not there 100% — physically, mentally, my game. Everything just feels real off, obviously. It’s not good,” Kenin said at her news conference, where she wiped away tears. “I mean, I just — I know I couldn’t really handle the pressure.”
One person who knows how to defend a major title is Rafael Nadal, who shares the men’s record of 20 with Roger Federer.
Nadal shrugged off some heckling from a spectator before beating 177th-ranked Michael Mmoh 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the final night match, showing no signs of the back soreness that has bothered him.
Nadal was serving for the second set at 5-4 when a woman yelled out and made hand gestures as he prepared to serve. She yelled again at 30-0 and stadium security escorted her out of Rod Laver Arena. As the rest of the crowd started booing the woman, Nadal laughed.
After the brief delay, he hit two aces to finish off the set. He wrapped up the match 1 hour, 47 minutes.
Nadal said it was a “positive evening.” Except for one strange thing. Asked if he knew the unruly spectator, Nadal said he didn’t “and, honestly, I don’t want to know.”
In the preceding match on the main show court, fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina beat 16year-old Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-3, knocking the youngest player out of the draw.
Gauff had a breakout major in Melbourne last year, reaching the round of 16 with wins over Venus Williams and Naomi Osaka before losing to Kenin. But Svitolina was just too consistent when it counted, saving all four break points she faced and converting on two of the three she had on Gauff’s serve.
Kanepi said her winning performance wasn’t merely a case of taking advantage of Kenin’s nerves because “I was nervous, too ... playing the defending champion, that was the thought.”
Kanepi, 35, had beaten Kenin, 22, in their only previous matchup, part of why this was not a contest the American was looking forward to. Plus, Kanepi has been successful against some of the best on the biggest stages, with seven victories over Top 10 opponents at Grand Slam tournaments, including against then-No. 1 Simona Halep at the 2018 U.S. Open. And then there was recent form.
Kenin walked off the court crying after a 62, 6-2 loss last week in a tuneup event at the site of the Australian Open and explained afterward that her left leg was sore. Kanepi, meanwhile, put an end to No. 7-ranked Aryna Sabalenka’s 15-match winning streak last week and had won 16 of her past 17 outings.
With serves topping 175 km/h (110 mph), Kanepi saved all seven break points she faced. And she wound up with a 22-10 edge in winners.
“I couldn’t find my rhythm,” Kenin said. “I was obviously way too nervous.”
Her departure meant three of the top nine seeded women already were gone before midway through Day 4 at a Grand Slam tournament where routines have been disrupted by the pandemic.
Top-ranked Ash Barty did manage to avoid a surprise Thursday, but she blew a big lead in the second set and survived a shaky tiebreaker to beat Daria Gavrilova 6-1, 7-6 (7).
Other women’s winners included former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, who beat Danielle Collins 7-5, 6-2, and Shelby Rogers, who reached the third round at the Australian Open for the first time by beating Olga Danilovic 6-2, 6-3.
On the men’s side, the first all-Italian men’s singles match at the Australian Open in the professional era was followed by a heated argument between Fabio Fognini and Salvatore Caruso.
Fognini rallied from 5-1 down in the tiebreaker to win 4-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (12) in almost four hours. The verbal altercation started at the net, seemed to fade as the players went back to their courtside chairs, but restarted twice. A tournament official eventually intervened to break them up.
The 16th-seeded Fognini said he and Caruso were good friends and would leave matters on the court.
Fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas was pushed all the way by No. 267-ranked Australian wildcard entry Thanasi Kokkinakis in a 6-7 (5), 64, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-4 win. Also advancing were No. 9 Matteo Berrettini, No. 21 Alex de Minaur and Mackenzie McDonald, who beat 22nd-seeded Borna Coric.