Established in 1930, Canta is the official magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 of the University of Canterbury Students' Association

University of Canterbury Students' Association

The University of Canterbury Students' Association is a student organisation associated with the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, established in 1894. All current students of the University have automatic membership. It is funded by students and is governed by a constitution through 12...

 (UCSA) of the University of Canterbury

University of Canterbury

The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...

. It is freely available around campus every Wednesday during term time. It is usually 32 pages long and A4

ISO 216

ISO 216 specifies international standard paper sizes used in most countries in the world today. It defines the "A" and "B" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available size...

 in page size.

Famous former editors include Denis Glover

Denis Glover

Lieutenant Commander Denis James Matthews Glover DSC was a New Zealand poet and publisher.Well-known for radical leftist opinions, he was often in trouble with authorities. In 1935 he founded the Caxton Press, which he used to encourage a less sentimental style of poetry in New Zealand than was...

.
There are a variety of sections which usually appear every week:

• Editor
• Letters
• UCSA President
• News
• Music
• Sport
• Arts
• Reviews
• Inquisition
• Fishing for Orphans cartoon

Canta is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association

Aotearoa Student Press Association

The Aotearoa Student Press Association is an association of fourteen student newspapers and magazines that are published by the student associations of universities and polytechnics in Aotearoa .The members of ASPA are:...

 (ASPA).

Controversy

In 1996 the Canta editors were removed after publishing a range of controversial articles including a Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...

 Nazi parody, a column purporting to have been written by Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

, a Tintin

Tintin (character)

Tintin is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé. Tintin is the protagonist of the series, a reporter and adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy....

 comic strip, and a list of student criminal offenders (a hoax). The editors claimed at the time that their sacking was more a result of their poor relationship with the university’s student executive council than anything else. An employment tribunal later found in favour of the sacked editors resulting in a substantial payout from the student executive.

Canta was again involved in controversy following the publishing of an article entitled "The Completely Unofficial Top 13 Ways of Cheating" in the issue preceding midterm exams in June, 2007. New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 newspaper The Press

The Press

The Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is owned by Fairfax Media.- History :The Press was first published on 25 May 1861 from a small cottage in Montreal Street, making it the oldest surviving newspaper in the South Island of New Zealand. The first...

 and internet news service stuff published an article which got repeated nationwide and on the evening news on channel 3. The university announced it was introducing a random seating policy in exams following the attention. Canterbury University Students' Association president Belinda Bundy said the article was not meant to be taken seriously. "I think we only ever saw it as a humorous thing, It was just a light-hearted reaction to all the cheating issues that have been raised recently."

In 2008, a weekly column entitled "Trust Deborah - She's Always Right" surfaced. This column features a weekly rant against different groups of people, ranging from "fat" girls (females with a BMI

Body mass index

The body mass index , or Quetelet index, is a heuristic proxy for human body fat based on an individual's weight and height. BMI does not actually measure the percentage of body fat. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing...

>22, according to the column writer) and Christians. In issue 21 of 2008, Deborah again made headlines by suggesting that Christians "have the mental capacity of a Down's syndrome-sufferer with a head injury", are "mentally defective" and declaring that she wishes that all Christians would die. Her articles have generated considerable "Hate Mail", published in every issue of 2009. This has had little effect on changing Canta Magazine policy.

Historical Columns

• A Bit of Banta - The Engineer
• The Lion's Share
• Good Bastard - Good Bastard
• Off The Wagon - Absinthe Jagermeister
• Fantasy Flatmates
• Anal Commando - The Anal Commando (Unplugged)
• The Bovine Free State

External links

• Canta's Official Site