Capilano Courier | Vol. 51, Issue 3.

VOLUME 51, ISSUE 3

OCTOBER 9–21, 2018

Discourse is Dead

Why there's no help for Lisa Helps PG. 10

OPINIONS

ARTS & CULTURE

Rogue Rogen on Transit

Flippin' a 720 on a Downhill Bike

PG. 7

PG. 16

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

VOL. 50 ISSUE 3 OCTOBER 9-21

COVER: CYNTHIA TRAN VO

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News

NEWLY-ELECTED STUDENTS AT THE CSU

Have I, too, lost my ability to read? Not if I can help it.

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PHOTOS FROM CAPFEST

Campus Life

CHRISTINE BEYLEVELDT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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AZIZ ANSARI IS BACK

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MOUNTAINTOP MENTORS

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Opinions

Special Feature

12 CONTRACT DISPUTES IN ATHLETICS AND ARTISTRY Columns

14 BATTLING INJURY TO TAKE THE STAGE Columns

16 VEGFEST AT CAPU

Arts & Culture

18 ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE BLUES' NEW COACHES Sports

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ART DIRECTOR

MANAGING EDITOR

PRODUCTION MANAGER

NEWS EDITOR

COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

BUSINESS MANAGER

FEATURES EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

OPINIONS EDITOR

EDITOR & COLUMNIST PORTRAITS

Christine Beyleveldt capcourier@gmail.com

Helen Aikenhead manager.capcourier@gmail.com

Greta Kooy news.capcourier@gmail.com

Annalisse Crosswell associatenews.capcourier@gmail.com

Freya Wasteneys specialfeatures.capcourier@gmail.com

Nivedan Kaushal arts.capcourier@gmail.com

Megan Orr opinions.capcourier@gmail.com

Cynthia Tran Vo artdirector.capcourier@gmail.com

Melissa Gibbons pm.capcourier@gmail.com

Position Available! community.capcourier@gmail.com

Jessica Lio businessmanager.capcourier@gmail.com

Emma Lewicky, Nirosh Saravanan, Alexis Zygan

Stephany Gilson, Kyle Papilla, Laura Pummell

Cynthia Tran Vo

COLUMNS EDITOR

Rachel D'Sa columns.capcourier@gmail.com COPY EDITOR

Ashleigh Brink copy.capcourier@gmail.com

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of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of Musqueam, Squamish, Stó:lō and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

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uring the spring last year, our Community Relations Manager shared an interesting Globe and Mail article by Michael Harris with us titled “I have forgotten how to read”. From the title alone I thought it was nonsense, but the author had a point. He didn’t mean he had forgotten how to read in the literal sense that letters on the page became a blur of meaningless symbols. Rather he meant we’ve become so addicted to our digital devices and their endless stream of content that we just don’t have the attention span to concentrate on something as hefty as a book anymore. When most of us can barely get to the end of an article the length of the one I’m writing now, how is one supposed to stay focused with 500 pages ahead? It turns out even goldfish with their full nine seconds of concentration have longer attention spans than humans do now.

I love my books. With age and responsibility, I have less time to read.

Or so I tell myself. For the last few years I’ve only cracked open my novels in the summertime when I've had ample time to read, preferably sitting on my front porch in the dappled sunlight. But come fall they inevitably go back on my shelf to gather dust while I wish for more time.

I’m determined not to settle into that habit again this year. I had just started reading The Count of Monte Cristo when summer abruptly ended last year. Do you know when I finished the book? May. For eight months it sat on my bedside table untouched. I only had “enough time” to get back into Alexandre Dumas’ swashbuckling tale of a hero hell-bent on revenge while on a five-hour drive across South Africa’s Western Cape with rolling hills of purple fynbos passing me by.

Finding an hour to read a few chapters is a lot harder than it was a few years ago.

I have the time to read, although I usually spend it scrolling through my news feed

on Facebook after getting home from work. The pull of my phone is irresistible, it’s my “down time”. But it could also be spent reading or going for a walk and feeling the crisp autumn air on my cheeks.

I wonder how we got to this point. Where technology, which we use at school, at work and at home, is also our escape. If we spent as much time as we do with our smartphones as we do with anything else in the world, wouldn’t we eventually get sick of it? Is there such a thing anymore as limiting screen time? Or have we accepted that it has become an all-consuming facet of our lives?

Sometimes it just takes something incredible to lure oneself out of this sense of security created by handheld technology.

In my case, that’s a marvelous book. I read a lot of fiction, but more often have found myself enjoying biographies such as Amanda Lindhout’s A House in the Sky – her story of survival as a journalist taken hostage in Somalia, and Peter Godwin’s Mukiwa – on his boyhood in war-torn Rhodesia. Perhaps the best book I read this summer was Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. The book, simply put, is the story of a 12th century English town beset by misfortune but determined to build a magnificent cathedral. It was a story of survival in the face of opposing forces on all sides, and the triumph of the human spirit. And that’s what makes the best kind of story.

So, as summer turned to autumn again this year, I feared losing the time I spent enraptured by good storytelling once again.

But Harris’ article gave me a jolt, and it’s turned into a showdown of my own will against the shortened hours of daylight and the lure of my phone. I’m trying to set aside time to read every day. And I don’t mean the series of status updates and blog posts in my social media feed, I mean a good oldfashioned book.

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Captivate Returns to CapU for a Second Year The biggest event of the school year was back with a bang in 2018 ANNALISSE CROSSWELL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR PHOTO PROVIDED BY YATS PALAT

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garden that utilized a wristband system for those that wished to drink. On this change Palat said, “That was really, really, really important to me … because I wanted everybody to feel included. I didn’t want to separate the beer garden and the non-beer garden.”

Though the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) has yet to sit down with Blueprint to debrief and talk turnout, Palat said there were close to 400 wristbands given out at the event and 80 students went on to attend

the after-party. “It was a really rainy day,” said Palat, “and I actually thought that it would almost shut down the event or we’d have only a few people or maybe 100, but we had tons of people.”

Students who simply wanted to sit and relax at the event left because of the rain, but the students that wanted to dance and enjoy the music were not deterred, many of whom stayed the whole time. Students that went on to The Charles Bar stayed until the bitter end, continuing until the bar closed at 1 am.

THE CAPILANO COURIER

aptivate first lit up Capilano University’s Cedar Courtyard in 2017. The event was the first of its kind offered to students, but its cost raised a few eyebrows. This year, students and faculty had a better idea of what to expect, as did Capilano Students' Union (CSU) Vice President Student Life and member of the Events and Outreach Committee, Yats Palat, and the team organizing the University’s biggest event of the year. Blueprint also returned to Captivate this year as coproducers.

Captivate boasted music and a beer garden as it had last year, as well as the addition of a photo booth, jumbo-sized Jenga, food trucks and an after-party hosted at The Charles Bar in Gastown. The setup also differed from last year in that the stage was relocated to the designated smoking area.

The biggest difference that students will have noticed, however, is the open beer

Palat said the event organization passed with few issues, and no more stress than event planning usually incurs. The only issue that arose was the organization of the food trucks, and the fact that a few of them had cancelled at the last minute. Despite the changes this year, the fact that this event had been organized once before by Palat made the process easier, as did this year’s team of Blueprint staff. According to Palat even the liquor inspector was helpful in formulating a plan for the open setup.

Unlike last year, the event did not come at a cost of 80 per cent of the Events and Outreach budget. Knowing the event would be costly going into planning, the team had an allocated budget, put aside last year, for big events such as this. Of the $22,000 budget for Captivate, approximately $21,600 was spent – this coming out of a $38,000 budget for events during the 2018-19 academic year.

After the successful planning and execution of Captivate, the University has now asked the CSU to plan a similar event at the beginning of the Spring semester called CapRocks. For CapRocks, the University will give the CSU a $30,000 budget that is not associated with their personal events budget.

“This is the only real opportunity [students] get on such a large scale to enjoy themselves and drink and dance,” said Palat, who considers this year's Captivate to be a huge success.

Post-secondary institutions across Canada amend their policies to brace for the bud GRETA KOOY NEWS EDITOR

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he sale and use of recreational marijuana will become legal across Canada on Oct. 17. Legalization will give Canadians aged 19 and over the ability to purchase marijuana in a similar fashion to that of alcoholic beverages. As one of the most talked-about campaign promises of the Trudeau Liberals, Canadians have anticipated the legalization of cannabis for years. Although Canada has already had a regulated medical marijuana industry for the past five or so years, there is still a great deal of apprehension towards its full, recreational legalization.

Many post-secondary institutions across the country are still in the process of amending their policies with regards to cannabis use on campus. Unlike postsecondary institutions in the United States where cannabis remains illegal at the federal level and violation of the law can result in a compromise of federal funding, Canadian campuses will now have a choice in the matter.

“Policy related to drug use is addressed

by Capilano University’s Student Code of Conduct and WorkSafeBC’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulations,” said Cheryl Rossi, CapU’s senior communications advisor. CapU follows local bylaws in

regards to “smoking, vaping and cannabis”, and is currently developing their policies to meet specific regulations. “The University has moved smoking poles further from building entrances to comply with the District of North Vancouver Smoking Regulation Bylaw 7792,” Rossi said for example.

With cannabis legalization fast approaching, CapU recognizes the need for an updated smoking policy, one that will examine “its obligations to accommodate medicinal cannabis consumption,” according to Rossi, who added that “The University respects the rights of Indigenous peoples in their use of tobacco, or other substances, for traditional, cultural or spiritual purposes.”

To ensure the right steps are taken, the University has created an advisory committee to address smoking on campus. “The committee is responsible for a community consultation process, policy development, communications, implementation and enforcement strategy,” said Rossi. This new policy will take effect in early 2019, and will consider “the differences between smoking cigarettes, vaping, recreational cannabis and medical cannabis.”

The issue was also addressed in a Friday, Oct. 5 Capilano Students' Union (CSU) board of directors meeting, with a unanimous decision to approve a policy regarding the CSU's belief that both recreational and medicinal use of cannabis should be allowed on campus. Though this decision will not directly impact the legalities, which the University settles on regarding the use of cannabis on campus.

CSU representative to the advisory

committee for CapU smoking policies, Dhillon Dilnavaz, hopes that the views expressed in this policy will positively impact them."We believe that we should legalize and allow recreational and medicinal cannabis on campus," Dilnavaz commented on the decision.

A report released in early September by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) stated that 65 of Canada’s post-secondary institutions were “100 [per cent] smoke-free”. Included in these are schools such as Dalhousie University, McMaster University and the University of Regina.

Other post-secondary institutions including McGill University, Niagara College, the University of Ottawa and Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) are either preparing to - or already do - offer formal cannabis-related education. KPU, for example, has partnered with the National Institute for Cannabis Health and Education.

Although marijuana-related courses are offered at KPU online, the school had already released a smoke-free policy in early 2018 with a specific “plant-based” products section designed to address marijuana use.

Some institutions like the University of Manitoba are considering a blanket ban on smoking both tobacco and cannabis on their campuses. Others are considering limiting smoking to designated areas. The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) will take a “zero-tolerance” approach.

At the University of Guelph, smoking cannabis on campus will be prohibited, although edible cannabis could be tolerated.

Queens University in Kingston, Ontario shares a similar stance. Edibles seem to take on a different meaning for postsecondary institutions, like at the University

of Waterloo, which is considering allowing the consumption of edibles within residence buildings on campus. Smoking cannabis, however, is prohibited.

Closer to home, the University of British Columbia is revising its cannabis policy to reflect the same attitude it has on the smoking and vaping of tobacco on campus, the majority of which is “smoke-free”.

Several studies have shown that the use of marijuana can have serious and harmful effects on the brain, especially in teens and young adults. Cannabis places youth at the risk of developing psychosis.

However, similar studies have shown that the consumption of alcohol in excessive amounts can be more damaging than light, recreational cannabis use. Despite this, drinking cultures across colleges and university campuses remains prominent globally.

While it may not be possible for campuses to completely wipe out substance use, it is possible to caution students, faculty and staff on the negative effects of drug use. Ottawa’s Carleton University, for example, provides a digestible amount of important information regarding the use and effects of cannabis through their website, with the key links included to counselling and addiction services.

“We know that telling people not to consume cannabis or alcohol has been proven to be ineffective,” Debbie Bruckner, senior director of student wellness, access and support at the University of Calgary stated earlier this year. Despite many of Canada’s post-secondary institutions implementing new policies regarding cannabis use, some light and some not-so-light, time will only tell whether they will be effective or not.

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VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

Cannabis Legalization on the Horizon

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Meet the Students Who Ran in the CSU By-election New Students of Colour, Women Students Liaisons and Arts & Sciences Faculty Rep elected ANNALISSE CROSSWELL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR GRETA KOOY NEWS EDITOR

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

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oting for the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) by-election ran from Tuesday Oct. 2 to Thursday Oct. 4.

Before that, on Sept. 27, candidates wishing to enter positions not currently filled sat down in front of a group of their peers to answer questions about their potential roles.

Vacant positions this year included Women Students Liaison, Students of Colour Liaison and Arts & Science Faculty Representative.

This is what each candidate had to say during their question and answer period on Sept. 27:

Why have you chosen to run for this position and why does it appeal to you?

NIRMAL RAJ STUDENTS OF COLOUR LIAISON Running for Students of Colour Liaison, Nirmal Raj wants to work within the CSU and represent his fellow students. Originally from India, Raj sees representation among his peers as extremely important. Upon hearing about the vacant position of Students of Colour Liaison, Raj jumped at the opportunity, knowing that this was a group he could represent well.

MAKENZIE THORPE WOMEN STUDENTS LIAISON Makenzie Thorpe’s interest in the position began when she attended events at the University, including a self-defense workshop. Thorpe believes that workshops like the one she participated in are important in helping women build their confidence.

Running for the position of Women Students Liaison, she hopes to represent and give a voice to her constituents on campus.

ALEA RZEPLINSKI ARTS & SCIENCES FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE Alea Rzeplinski’s interest in becoming involved in student politics peaked when she saw that the roles her friends had undertaken within the CSU gave a voice to students on campus. She recognized the importance of their work and wanted to represent students in areas that did not have a strong enough voice among their peers. Running for the position of Arts & Science Faculty

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Representative, Rzeplinski wants to create an atmosphere where students are heard and feel acknowledged.

How do you believe you can best represent your constituents?

NIRMAL RAJ Raj described his representation of students of colour as hands-on, wanting to listen to the concerns and experiences of his fellow students. His goal is to bring students of colour together, hearing their voices and learning from them in order to better their experiences at CapU. MAKENZIE THORPE “I think I would best represent the women students by making sure that I’m available to be a part of the community as much as I can…” said Thorpe. If elected, her goals within the CSU include facilitating a good support system for women on campus, as well as help with the growth and access of the collective.

ALEA RZEPLINSKI If elected, Rzeplinski believes she can best represent her constituents in the Arts & Science faculty by first figuring out what concerns need to be addressed. She also plans on working closely with other faculties, using an intersectional approach, to ensure that all students feel represented as a whole.

What do you believe your strengths and weaknesses are?

NIRMAL RAJ Raj acknowledged his weakness as being nervous at times. However, he considers himself to be a sociable person, having connected with more students through his previous work with the CSU which he sees as an asset to the role of Students of Colour Liaison.

MAKENZIE THORPE Thorpe also sees public speaking as weakness of hers, as well as her introverted nature. She acknowledged that the potential role of Women Students Liaison would require her to become more extroverted.

Thorpe noted her listening skills as a personal strength and said she likes to

communicate and deal with issues upfront.

On her strengths, Thorpe also said, “I’m very self-motivated and I always like to give my 100 per cent if I feel like it’s coming from the heart.”

ALEA RZEPLINSKI “I guess I’ll start off with a strength that’s sort of a weakness interchangeably: I have a problem saying no. I like to say yes to everything and be involved with whatever I can, gaining as much experience as I am able to...” said Rzeplinski, who also sees public speaking as a weakness of hers. Her other strength is her sociable and observant nature, which helps her understand and be mindful of her surroundings.

Can you talk about your previous experiences with student politics, working with groups or nonprofits?

NIRMAL RAJ During his time at CapU, Raj has worked with the Centre for International Experience during orientation as a mentor for international students.

MAKENZIE THORPE Thorpe has previously been involved with the Girl Guides of Canada and has acted as an assistant coach. She believes that these previously undertaken positions represent her willingness and desire to work with various individuals and groups.

ALEA RZEPLINSKI Rzeplinski has participated in volunteer work for several years. She has been involved in initiatives across the Lower Mainland, including working with the homeless and volunteering for the Vancouver Children’s Festival and the Student Success and Retention Task Force, among others. Rzeplinski has also previously worked with the CSU on events such as Captivate.

What would you like to accomplish this year if you are elected to this position?

NIRMAL RAJ If elected, Raj’s goals are to communicate with students of colour about their needs.

“I want to provide more support to students

who self-identify as students of colour by gathering together…” he said, putting emphasis on socialization and language issues.

MAKENZIE THORPE Thorpe intends to improve the current Women’s Centre in the Library building, hoping to create a more welcoming space for students. She would also like to put more emphasis on promoting the space and making more students on campus aware of its presence and availability. Thorpe also hopes to enact more student participation in the collective.

ALEA RZEPLINSKI If elected, Rzeplinski would like to learn from her peers in regards to their wants and needs within the Arts & Science faculty. She also intends on resurrecting the Psychology Club and broaching the separation between the different faculties. “I would also like to create more of a community and peer mentorship program within the arts and sciences, where students who are in their higher years are helping out and guiding the young students,” she said.

Prior representatives in certain positions fell short in terms of expectations. How will you make sure that you will not?

NIRMAL RAJ Raj intends on fulfilling the expectations of his fellow students and the CSU by preparing his schedule accordingly and adhering to the responsibilities of his role as Students of Colour Liaison if elected.

MAKENZIE THORPE Thorpe will communicate with the CSU about their expectations and ask where previous elected officials have fallen short in order to avoid similar issues. She acknowledged that she is aware of some of the obligations as Women Students Liaison and has made changes to ensure she can meet all expectations if elected.

ALEA RZEPLINSKI Rzeplinski intends on observing other members of the CSU within their roles and adjusting accordingly, communicating with and learning from them.

CAMPUS LIFE

50 Years of Serving the North Shore's Need for Higher Education CapU celebrates its birthday with CapFest ANNALISSE CROSSWELL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR PHOTOS PROVIDED BY CAPILANO UNIVERSITY

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THE CAPILANO COURIER VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

he biggest event of Capilano University’s 50th anniversary has come and gone with overwhelming success. CapFest, an event planned over the course of more than two years, brought together all faculties to display the evolution of the University over its 50 years. The event had something for all, with attendees ranging from current students and faculty, to faculty and graduates from 1968 when the University first opened as a college.

CapFest, held on Saturday, Sept. 22, was organized by the Events and Ceremonies committee. Julie Vanderyagt, CapU’s manager of events and ceremonies, headed the committee in collaboration with Vancouver event planning company Cantrav Services Inc., whose planning efforts focused primarily on the Birch Festival area where Hey Ocean! played prior to headliners Five Alarm Funk. Cantrav’s responsibilities consisted of connecting with and booking artists, designing the space, bringing in stretch tents, portable washrooms and fencing and contracting Valley Traffic to manage vehicle flow.

Vanderyagt and her team also worked closely with the RCMP and liquor inspectors. “Because we had so much lead time and we made sure we were talking to the right people it went pretty smoothly,” said Vanderyagt.

With traffic being directed to the north end of campus, those attending CapFest began their day at the Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film and Animation, where musical theatre students performed music from the 1960s and 1970s. These looks back into history continued through campus with workshops spotted throughout. Included in the workshops were carving demonstrations and mini drum-making, among other things, for the Indigenous Festival in the Cedar courtyard. A kids forest artistry area provided entertainment for the younger attendees, who made crafts from what could be found in the forest. They also had the

opportunity to participate in a drum circle.

The Birch building hosted the Then and Now gallery, a history of the evolution of technology, registration and the student union at CapU, featuring a look at the 2000s and a showcase of classical music from alumni in the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. One of the biggest hits, however, was the alumni homecoming tent, located in the Birch short-term parking lot from 4 to 7 pm. A champagne toast at 6:30 pm may have influenced this interest.

Taking the opportunity to showcase what the University has to offer today, an experience fair was hosted in the Sportsplex.

Faculties showcased their departments with individual twists: the Human Kinetics department brought in equipment to test fitness levels, while the Communications department gave people the opportunity to grace the cover of a mock magazine. Power To Be, an organisation started by an Outdoor Recreation (OREC) alumnus, provided an obstacle course to represent the work the organisation does to allow people with accessibility issues to participate in recreational activities such as skiing and hiking.

CapFest drew a large number of attendees over the course of the day. “We had no idea what to expect in terms of turnout from this event … in terms of attendance we were quite blown away,” said Vanderyagt.

“Everybody was quite excited and encouraged by the number of people we had,” she said.

Bosa’s open house, which usually occurs in November, was brought forward in the events calendar and incorporated into CapFest. The turnout was greater than any previous open houses that have been hosted, to the point of being unable to keep up with the demand of people present. The Birch Festival area saw an attendance of over 4,400 in a seven-hour period, and though it is difficult to gauge numbers for the entire event, not everybody made it to this area.

Being such a large event, CapFest was funded predominantly by sponsors who are helping with a range of events over the course of the 50th anniversary year. This support also included essentially 50 per cent in discounts for the technology required in the Birch Festival area during the event. The presenting sponsor for CapFest and CapU’s 50th anniversary year is Neptune Terminals, a North Vancouver-based shipping company.

A total of 22 other Gold and Bronze sponsors also contributed both financially and in terms of an “...astronomical amount of community support,” said Vanderyagt.

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The Double-Edged Sword of Cannabis Legalization How government greed is getting in the way of a good thing ALEXIS ZYGAN CONTRIBUTOR STEPHANY GILSON ILLUSTRATOR

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

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t the moment, there are almost 100 cannabis dispensaries operating within the Greater Vancouver area, not including e-commerce businesses that distribute mail-order cannabis to consumers.

With legalization less than a month away, only 31 producers in all of BC have been granted a license by the government. This means that when consumers go to their local dispensary to grab a joint on Oct. 17, many may find the doors closed permanently, consequently forcing people to access cannabis from a medicinal dispensary or call up their old drug dealer. Due to a lack of trust in government, many may risk purchasing from the underground economy instead. Additionally, while employed at a dispensary I have spoken with customers that despite having their Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) card, choose to buy product from a technically illegal dispensary. This is due to the fact that the government’s product falls short when it comes to quality and potency.

These inconsistencies in prescriptions and dosages can be detrimental to the well-being of individuals who have built up a tolerance.

For those that have been using cannabis for pain management for decades, a strong product is necessary to ease their symptoms.

For the past four years, the dispensary I work at has been operating within a grey area market. My dispensary, and many others, have received backlash in the months

leading up to legalization, including fines from city officials costing up to $10,000.

As a result, legalization manifests as a double-edged sword with both favourable and unfavourable consequences. The risk of being shut down, or even raided, by the government on Oct. 17 remains a persistent fear. The government has already hired a taskforce, unrelated to the VPD or RCMP, to close dispensaries that fail to pass legalization standards enforced by the Cannabis Act. This act, however, does not incorporate medicinal cannabis guidelines.

Therefore, medicinal dispensaries must dispute the Cannabis Act if they desire to stay open past legalization. As a result, my dispensary is one of 50 included in a court case to apply for a license attempting to overwrite a law which bans dispensaries located near a school. This law represents a double standard amidst alcohol and cannabis industries, as it is only implemented for dispensaries but not liquor stores.

The government recognizes how legalizing cannabis can fill their pockets, from taxation, to creating a monopoly in

which they are in control of both sales and distribution. The government intends to capitalize on the legalization of cannabis by implementing barriers for craft-growers and home-grown operations. As a result, the grassroots protestors who fought for cannabis legalization confront constraints when joining the private legal market.

The legal need for testing the strength and potency of cannabis enforces an economic obstacle for growers who cannot afford an expensive testing facility.

Most of the cannabis sold at my dispensary is not tested to keep prices low because the majority of the growers produce small-batch quality strains. In order to remain legal some small-scale growers may partner with corporate giants. For example, Coca-Cola announced their interest in a collaboration with Aurora Cannabis.

Collaborating with a cannabis company is an innovative brand strategy implemented to sway the public’s increasingly healthconscious opinion. Coca-Cola hopes to establish a reputation associated with CBDinfused water, a drink with health benefits, rather than their sugary, caffeinated soft drinks.

While corporations and government forces exploit the cannabis market, the masses and grassroots organizations experience negative consequences.

Customers who shop at my dispensary have already expressed their distaste for the Cannabis Act and its implementation.

Many are happy with the grey area market in Vancouver as it is. Whenever a new act is implemented there are curveballs along the way and legalization is no different.

Hopefully, the government will modify the act to represent consumer desires and promote small-batch growers, as well as private medicinal dispensaries.

Contemplating Consent With Aziz Ansari back in the limelight, the question is: Has he paid his dues?

MEGAN ORR OPINIONS EDITOR

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f you’re like me, you probably spent most of 2017-2018 gasping and crying as more and more beloved actors, comedians and directors were accused of sexual misconduct. Gasping because, “Nooo! Not him too!”, and crying because, #metoo. It’s a tender, fragile and incredibly complicated issue. If you’re uncomfortable with reading about sexual assault, read no further, dear friend. I don’t take it personally.

When an article was posted on Babe in early 2018 - about the worst night of a young woman’s life on a date with Aziz Ansari - I was shook. He is Parks and Recreations’ loveable, if not idiotic, Tom Haverford from Pawnee, Indiana – he

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can’t be a predator! Not to mention the creator and star of the critically-acclaimed show, Master of None, that touches on many difficult subjects, such as racism and sexuality. So… is he a huge hypocrite? An anonymous “Grace” described the evening where Ansari, at the very least, sounded like a complete douchebag, and, at worst, sexually coerced and assaulted her. In a post-#metoo world, it seems like everyone is either a victim or a perpetrator. That’s practically true, with approximately one in four North American women experiencing some form of sexual assault in their lifetime, and with 10 times more women being assaulted than men.

In 2018 #timesup on men in power continually taking advantage of women.

With all of the stories of sexual misconduct (an understatement, in many cases) continually rolling out over the course of the last year, there is no denying the seriousness of this societal issue. As mentioned, many Hollywood favourites have fallen before our eyes: Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman and

Louis C.K., to name only a few (there’s a comprehensive list by Glamour, updated as of June 15, 2018). But something sticks out about Aziz Ansari’s story that has split fans and feminists alike.

In a prepared statement after the allegations went public, Ansari said, “It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned.” What this debate brings to light is a multi-faceted and complicated issue about more than just the alleged assault, but also about what consent looks like. Everybody can chant that no means no, but people grow quiet when we start to talk about how yes doesn’t always mean yes either. The young woman’s recount highlights the nuanced intricacies of sexual encounters and how often things aren’t as black and white as yes and no.

This also brings up the question of whether or not what happened can truly be considered assault, and who gets to decide what those parameters are? It sure as shit isn’t the crusty old men in charge, but then

who is it? Well, it’s “Grace”. If she says she felt violated, then she was. It doesn’t matter that Ansari didn’t know, or even if he should’ve known, it matters that she felt that way. That’s the thing about rape culture, and the excuse of men’s “sexual needs”, it works to invalidate women’s experiences and feelings.

So, with Ansari only now, some eight months after the initial allegations against him, returning to his regular routine of performing stand-up, the question becomes: has he done his time? Did the punishment fit the crime? He’s back to speaking on a stage, making jokes about “self-righteous wokeness,” while “Grace” is perhaps still reeling from their encounter. Sure, he isn’t an accused rapist, and doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with the other men in Hollywood who have committed such atrocities, repeatedly, but has he really made reparations for his actions? Has he learned anything? Have any of us?

Airbnb: A Dream and a Nightmare How the home-sharing app is both good and bad for travelers and owners

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closet or a surprise in hostel, bunking with a dozen strangers.

This summer I stayed in a total of five Airbnbs over the course of three weeks.

While my overall experience wasn't traumatizing, it did made me reconsider booking through the service again. My cheapest Airbnb – located in Montreal – turned out to be the best out of the bunch. Toronto was a cubicle, despite the spacious-looking photos I had viewed prior to booking. New York was a nightmare.

The place was covered in a thick layer of dust, had a roach infestation, no WiFi and black mould – not to mention that two out of three hosts attempted to scam me. Do a quick search for online articles trashing the company’s customer service, and you’ll easily pull up thousands of results. Though the service worked with me to compensate for the issues with one of my NY stays, when more troublesome problems arose out of another listing, I received no help whatsoever, despite my desperation for a safe place to stay. At the time of urgency, my cases were closed, without any help or

reassurance given. These issues could have been easily avoided if the screening process was a lot more thorough.

Additionally, upon arrival to all of my destinations I was greeted with polite reminders from the hosts requesting that I be discreet with my presence in the buildings.

Hosts currently continue to slide by, asking for their customers to say they are “visiting a friend” in order to avoid confrontation with neighbours and stratas. With massive amounts of strangers coming in and out of the buildings, leading to shared passwords and keys, it’s no surprise that home-sharing services pose a security threat.

While the new regulations work towards fixing these ongoing issues in Vancouver, they are still not applicable to most Vancouverites who are looking to venture out into the vacation abyss. Unfortunately, in the meantime, while we are waiting for the regulations to spread to other areas of the world, we’ll continue to be faced with disgust and disappointment.

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The regulations, while addressing smaller issues, work towards mending a RACHEL D’SA much larger-scale problem. In an effort to COLUMNS EDITOR alleviate the housing crisis, the new policies ultimately ban full-time short-term rentals in otherwise empty houses, and free up highn April of this year, Vancouver cracked demand living spaces for those looking to be in Vancouver for the long haul. No longer down on Airbnbs, transforming it for the better for its users. The city put in are frantic apartment-seekers competing place new regulations ultimately putting a with the nightly rates of short-term stays. ban on non-principal residences being used While the regulations are unfortunate for as short-term rental houses and apartments. those who are dependent on their Airbnb The city now also requires everyone shortincome, they instill a standard, which term leasing principal residences to pay should have been in place to begin with. By an annual $49 business licensing fee, in treating Airbnb’s like the businesses they addition to a $54 activation fee. are, requiring them to file additional taxes, annually renew a business license and pay These regulations were put into place into the Canadian Pension Plan, the service upon the discovery of many illegal shortis no longer a casual way to make money. term listings across home-sharing sites, While there are many listings for secure, including Airbnb. The service is notorious clean and downright gorgeous spaces, there for its easy-to-use, easy-to-access process, are just as many listings that put customers making it a breeze to find vacation homes all year round, even on short notice. In turn, in atrocious living situations. Forcing users to go through additional screening, weeds many property owners have been taking advantage of desperate travelers in need of a out the good from the bad, helping protect customers from experiencing a night in a place to rest their heads.

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Hey Vancouver, Put on the Brakes Seth Rogen’s TransLink announcements have already lost their appeal NIROSH SARAVANAN CONTRIBUTOR LAURA PUMMELL ILLUSTRATOR If you’ve been on the bus or skytrain in Metro Vancouver in the last few months you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Hey Vancouver!” booming over the intercom in Seth Rogen’s distinctive voice. However, earlier in the year, TransLink had announced that it would have actor Morgan Freeman record announcements for use across its services as part of a promotion with Visa until the end of August. This project came to a halt after Freeman faced allegations of sexual misconduct. Fortunately for Vancouver, Canadian actor and comedian Seth Rogen gleefully stepped up to the plate, offering to pick up after Freeman as a kind gesture to the community he grew up in. A few months later, the allure of the etiquette messages is starting to dry up.

Rogen later went on to make announcements for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) as well, which dilutes the value of what was initially a unique gift for Vancouver. In Toronto, the announcements were met with mixed reviews, though the TTC stated that feedback was mostly positive.

Communications Director Brad Ross remarked that they helped tackle an issue

facing commuters by taking a more casual approach, rather than “lecturing the public”.

However, they were also cited as being, “Annoying, hard to understand” and being unrepresentative of Toronto.

While the TTC has since dropped the announcements for “fear of being repetitive”, TransLink will run them until the end of October, which couldn’t come soon enough. Despite there being some initial buzz surrounding the announcements, they've started to lose their draw. You may hear some giggling on the bus as they play, but most commuters just mindlessly listen and follow the instructions conveyed to them over the speakers. TransLink should leave the announcements behind, with pleasant memories in our minds, before we start to loathe them.

If feedback from the public ends up being positive, Vancouver also has a large pool of talent to draw from, so if the need arises the likes of Ryan Reynolds or Michael Bublé could be called upon to add more variety to the mix. There is also the opportunity to have different announcements for different seasonal occasions, such as Santa throughout December. Though, if other cities wish to follow suit, Rogen tweeted "[He'll] do the whole country".

Although it was initially a fun idea, just

like having Christmas decor out for sale in September, if the announcements are out for too long they will go stale. This may lead to many ultimately resenting Rogen for what was once a sweet gesture.

If TransLink decides to keep him as the voice of etiquette on their services, they should at least consider using his laugh more often. Otherwise, it’s time to pump the brakes on the announcements.

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More than Mountains Started in 2016, Mountain Mentors is a one-on-one alpine mentorship program for self-identified women based out of the Sea to Sky. As the program enters its third year, co-founder, Brett Trainor, looks forward to the next evolutions.

BY FREYA WASTENEYS PHOTOS BY PETER WOJNAR

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t’s March, and fairly typical conditions in the Duffey backcountry. Overcast.

Light snow. Moderate avalanche conditions at the treeline, and considerable in the alpine. “Avoid south-facing slopes, look for signs of instability. Potential of a weak layer one metre down,” is the group consensus from the Mount Currie Coffee Co. At the trailhead, Brett Trainor, co-founder of Mountain Mentors, naturally takes the lead. After a routine beacon check, the group of skiers is on their way, following a skin track set by Trainor. The group weaves up through the trees and around steep cliff bands for a little over an hour, until the evergreens begin to shrink in size, and open up to a rocky and impressive looking alpine. It’s here that real decisions need to be made, and Trainor, who at 26 possesses the facilitation skills of someone twice her age, gently directs the discussion. Despite being a goofball at heart, Trainor takes the mountains seriously. The way up is through careful observation, planning and scouting lines, while the way down is all about letting go and enjoying the ride. Bond, build trust, gain skills and have fun. This is a mentality that she carries in both her personal and professional life, and is likely part of the reason Mountain Mentors has been so successful.

Launched in 2016, Mountain Mentors, is a nonprofit alpine mentorship program for self-identified women living in the Sea to Sky Corridor. Conceived by Brett Trainor, who was raised in the Comox Valley, and fellow co-founder, Thea Zerbe, originally from Minnesota, the program was born out of a desire for mentorship opportunities to encourage long-term outdoor skill development. After doing some research in 2015, the two found a gap in female-specific programming, and decided to take action.

“At first we thought that we would maybe copy what other people were doing, and just implement it here,” said Trainor. “But we couldn’t really find anything that had a mentorship-based model, so we kind of just made one up and decided to create our own program.”

Today, Mountain Mentors is a thriving

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community of women who mountain bike, ski, snowboard and climb. And, as the program enters its third year, Trainor and Zerbe feel that they’ve come a long way. The two never expected their brainchild to become as big as it did, but are thrilled to be able to provide such a valuable service to the outdoor community. “I’m just glad people wanted what we were offering,” said Trainor.

“People always say not to take business too personally, but I would say, to us, our business is really personal. We founded it based on our passions, and what we wanted to do, and we worked really hard to incorporate feedback every season – good and bad – about how we can make it better.”

While the program, in many ways, was a bit of an overnight success with almost 200 applicants in the first week of operation, the magnitude of interest presented its own challenges. “Our goal was to have 10 women participating in our first season,” said Trainor, who had been promoting the program through Facebook groups and word of mouth. “After the program was launched, we realized that we weren’t the only ones who were interested in seeking mentorship and growth, and we ended up filling up spots way quicker than we imagined.”

The biggest challenge off the bat was the upfront facilitation and mentor matchmaking. The two quickly realized that it wasn’t just about making strong matches based on personalities and goals, but also logistics. “We’ve done a lot of refining regarding what questions we ask to help us get to make strong, awesome pairings,” said Trainor. Through listening to feedback, and making

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little tweaks, the two founders have done their best to lay the groundwork for the community, but they credit the women participating in the program for making it their own.

Lucinda Sutherland is one of those women. The Whistler local, who hails from Scotland, found the group mid-way through their inaugural season. “I came across some photos on Instagram and thought, who are these rad girls?” said Sutherland. “They had just done the Spearhead Traverse, and I thought it looked really cool.” After following the group on social media, she saw that they were advertising for summer applications and decided to go for it.

Sutherland spent her first summer season as a mountain bike mentee, and caught a glimpse of the program’s potential. “I’ve been in Whistler for three years, and I found

it was just a really great way of meeting like-minded girls,” said Sutherland, who stayed on-program for the winter season as a splitboarding mentor. “For me, it’s great to have that community. We all gain and learn

As a splitboarding mentor, Sutherland found that taking the lead and teaching what she knew helped her build confidence. She was used to following more experienced friends around, and helping someone new

"I think a lot of women don't realize that they already have what it takes to be a leader and a mentor... I think when they step into those positions they end up learning a lot as well, even if they're not normally the person in a group to lead and speak up. It's really empowering to see that." – Brett Trainor things from the people in our lives, but it’s also just really important to be able to have that on a one-to-one basis as well.”

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Go to: mountainmentors.org/apply

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to the sport allowed her to gain perspective.

Having gone from being a mentee, she also had an appreciation for how challenging and vulnerable it can feel to be new to a sport.

“It can be very nerve-wracking learning something new as an adult,” she said. “Even if you’ve been snowboarding in-bounds for years and you want to try backcountry, it’s still challenging. I think it’s really cool to be able to help someone. I like being able to provide a non-judging environment of mutual support and respect.”

Every mentorship pair brings something new and different to the table, and Trainor notes that part of the beauty of the program is that you don’t necessarily have to be the best in your field to be a mentor. “I think a lot of women don’t realize that they already have what it takes to be a leader and a mentor,” she said. “I think when they step into those positions they end up learning a lot as well, even if they’re not normally the person in the group to lead and speak up. It’s really empowering to see that.”

Through the simplicity of the program’s framework, Trainor and Zerbe really give the power back to the mentorship pairings.

Apart from two or three facilitated meetings a season, which often combine minglers with skill boosters and workshops, the frequency of meetups beyond the monthly requirement depends on individual schedules and goals.

As a nonprofit, Mountain Mentors relies heavily on community partners and grants.

Through these, the girls are able to offer refreshers, and skillshare sessions with partners like Whistler-Blackcomb and local guiding companies. “The fact that we were able to be financially sustainable in our first year, and be able to get funding to actually operate, was huge,” said Trainor. “Our community partners really helped us run the program.”

Despite doing little to advertise, the program continues to gain more recognition through word of mouth, community outreach and their social media, which is run by their social media coordinator, Amitra Paris. Through this, the two founders have received interest from people outside the Sea to Sky corridor in places like Canmore, Revelstoke, Nelson, Washington and Vancouver Island. While Trainor feels flattered, she is also cautious about expanding too fast. “I don’t think people

realize that it’s just Thea and I running the program off our desk,” she said.

With both Trainor and Zerbe working full-time jobs, running the program, and trying to fit in their own mountain playtime, Mountain Mentors has been a labour of love, but also a commitment in a way the two never expected. For the first time this year, the two founders have decided to take on a Program Manager in an effort to think long-term. “We didn’t run a program this summer because we needed to spend the time doing strategic planning, figuring out what the program manager position would look like, and interviewing people,” said Trainor. “We picked someone, and we’re really excited for them to start.”

It can be tempting to go big right away, but Trainor and Zerbe want to make sure they can be financially responsible, and don’t want to rely too much on volunteer hours. “Definitely a long-term plan is to start running different Mountain Mentors chapters in new places, and as opportunities arise with people who are keen to spearhead it, we’re open,” said Trainor. “But right now we’re really focusing on making sure our program works here first, and refining what we do. If things go well with the program manager this year, then I think we’re really well set up to expand. But, we’re trying to do it slowly... And not mess up too much.”

With this, she laughs.

If anyone can do it, Trainor – despite being a little self-effacing – is the one for the job. With a BSc in Sustainable Development, experience working for nonprofits, a recently acquired MBA and Zerbe by her side, she looks forward to seeing what the next year will bring. “I always wanted to start my own nonprofit, or something that would help people, I just didn’t really know what it would look like,” said Trainor. “Mountain Mentors hasn’t only allowed me to follow my own personal passions and interests, but it’s also allowed me the creativity, and entrepreneurial opportunity to try something, and create something.”

As the air begins to cool, the community looks to the peaks for hints of snow. Skis and splitboards are scraped of storage wax, ready to be used at a moments notice. With applications for the Winter Season opening Oct. 15, the stoke is high.

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Haters Gonna

As the ongoing blowback against Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps borders on hysterical, it’s time for a reality check

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BY FREYA WASTENEYS CYNTHIA TRAN VO ILLUSTRATOR

W

hen we think of Victoria, we often think “slow-moving and quaint,” – a land of high tea, parliament, ivy-laced buildings and brunch.

Perhaps a tad traditional, but pleasant on the whole. Sadly, on the less flattering side, the city – like Vancouver – has its skeletons.

The enduring housing crisis, a staggering homeless population and polarizing political views keep Victoria divided. Since the municipal elections in 2014, Mayor Lisa Helps has been trying to make lasting changes, but her efforts to bring the city into the 21st century have been met with resistance.

Despite bringing experience, education and good intentions to her post, Helps has garnered more than her fair share of criticism. As we approach the municipal elections, there are many who seem resolved to take her down. The polarizing views, which she hoped to quash during her time in office, are more prevalent than ever.

While she has stayed

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true to her original platform, Helps has been criticized for reckless spending and vanity projects. Her successes, which when accounted for are numerous, often go unnoticed by those resolved to hate her.

Her 2014 platform promised to improve the active transportation networks, grow the local economy and build more affordable housing. She has done her best to follow through with these promises. While issues remain, no one can accuse her of sitting stagnant. The investment in bike lanes, bridges and housing may come with a high price tag, but this should not come as a surprise. The reality these days is that people say they want change, but balk at the financial realities of making such alterations.

Most of the hate directed towards Helps has been on social media through attack groups, ads and comments. In March 2018, the negativity caused Helps to delete her Facebook account, and the decision received a wave of attention in the media. “[Facebook is] actually designed to create segregated echo chambers” said Helps in an interview with the Vancouver Sun, “[It perpetuates] negativity, fear and anger rather than anything happy.”

The attention she received for deleting her

Facebook was nothing compared to the backlash she experienced more recently after she removed the statue of John A. MacDonald on Aug. 11. This act instigated yet another outpouring of hate on a variety of news and social media platforms.

Nicola Spurling, the Green candidate for Coquitlam, believes that constituents should have been consulted and that some backlash is justified, but finds the amplification of hate worrying. “My guess is that this hate was already there and people just had an issue to latch on to and to try to use against her,” said Spurling. “I also think that there are a lot of people who are stuck in their ways, who are afraid of change, and who are still clinging on to problematic aspects of our history. We can preserve our history without forcing people in our community to walk by this statue and relive the dark aspects of our history on a daily basis.”

Helps apologized in an article published in the Times Columnist but stated that she stood by her decision to relocate the statue. “The statue in its original location was a barrier to Indigenous communities’ engagement with city hall. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls upon all levels of government to engage with Indigenous Peoples on reconciliation action.

Without relocating the statue, we were not able to invite First Nations to city hall in good faith and respect,” wrote Helps.

In the future, she has agreed to consult the community, stating that reconciliation is a learning process.

The removal of the statue has been the cause of contention both locally and nationally, and has been yet another excuse for people to call Helps unqualified – a criticism far from reality. In addition to her experience as a city councillor, Helps has a Master’s Degree on the history of Victoria’s public spaces, experience working with micro-lending and non-profits and is currently pursuing a PhD on housing, homelessness and governance of poverty in Victoria.

Of course, there are those who will point out that there are still homeless encampments, and that housing prices continue to be an issue, but it’s also important to note that there have been improvements. An article in the Globe and Mail highlights Helps’ plan to construct “2000 units of housing built over the next 10 years,” noting that “just over half of it will be so-called ‘affordable.’” Meanwhile, she has also brought the retail

Hate Instagram (on a photo of a sunset no less) seem to hold a common theme. To name a few, she has been called “an absolute disgrace to the country,” “disgusting witch,” “vile woman” and a “traitor.”

“I hope your legacy gets erased as opposed to a man who did more for Canada than you ever have or ever will,” said one.

This is certainly not to say that all people voting against Helps are misogynists, but it appears to be an influencing factor in many of the online reactions.

When asked whether she saw a difference in how candidates were treated based on gender values, Spurling said “Absolutely.”

Spurling, who is transgender, has seen both sides of the equation. “As someone who's been viewed as a man and as a woman, I see the subtle and not-so-subtle differences in how folks are treated whether as politicians or as constituents,” she said. She did however address the fact that the removal of statues is a loaded issue.

“Seeing how polarizing the removal of statues in the US can be makes me think that she'd have received similar backlash if she was a man, but it may have been

targeted in different ways,” Spurling said.

At this point, it’s all speculation.

However, Markwick brings it back to the real issue. “We don’t owe each other the space to emote everything, we owe each other good reasons for the decisions we’re making. And until we grow that capacity, we’re really on thin ice when it comes to democracy,” he said. Regardless of whether the issue is gendered, criticisms should be viewed proportionally.

“If the noise about the statue persists, even after she’s apologized, then we’ve failed the task of making sure we actually elect people with integrity,” he said. “Where is the vetting of her opponents? Where’s the discussion about how they will measure up?” With every election, Markwick believes that constituents should bring the discipline of a juror. Citizen jurors to be exact.

And as we enter our own race for mayoral candidacy in Vancouver, hopefully we can bring down the same critique upon ourselves. A hard task to achieve, but necessary nonetheless. So who are you voting for? More importantly – why?

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He laments that the distraction caused by Helps’ removal of the John A. MacDonald statue hinders constituents’ ability to deal with bigger issues. “I think the thing that really worries me is that the space that we need to deal with the meta-issue, which is the integrity of the government, isn’t there,” said Markwick. “Instead what we’ve got is noise.”

“While I think she could have handled the decision about the statue more effectively and more democratically, to see the things that she wants to get done in Victoria eclipsed by this one issue – especially when Victoria is faced with so many important things to address – is… well, it’s a little perverse,” he said.

Markwick admits that his “spidey-senses” tingle when it comes to the criticism of Helps. “My gut feeling is that some of the blowback is because she’s a woman,” he said. “It just seems to me that our ability to look at these things with proportionality, and to take a reality check about what really counts, to check our own judgement, are things that we owe to each other as citizens.”

There is no real way to prove that the flak she has received is related to her gender, but the comments on her

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vacancy rate from 11 per cent down to four per cent, and built a slew of (albeit controversial) bike lanes in the process.

That being said, every politician is bound to receive flak at some point in time. It is part of a healthy democracy to have discussions around what constitutes good and bad decisions, and to hold politicians accountable. But when constituents lose sight of the issues, and employ hate-fueled tactics and criticisms unrelated to the platform, it calls into question the validity of our political discourse. When constituents start making libelous claims about the mayor being a money launderer, like they did in a recent Facebook ad, we know we’ve reached a new low in Canada.

Dr. Michael Markwick is a member of the Communications faculty at Capilano University with a doctorate looking at the democratic communication and pluralism relating to the ‘war on terror’. As a Green candidate for West Vancouver-Capilano, he holds strong opinions regarding fair democratic discussion. “I think the fundamental issue we should be questioning our mayor and council candidates on, is their capacity to serve the people with integrity, to be free of conflict of interest, to be free of influence peddling,” Markwick said.

“These are foundational to have a democracy.”

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Greta's Grievances Keep the "Quiet Zone" quiet

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VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

GRETA KOOY COLUMNIST

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hen I first sat down to write this week’s column, I had every intention of writing about procrastination and working under deadlines, something I’m notoriously terrible at. Just as I began to work in the

Beats and Buckets The problem with contracts in the sporting and music worlds

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ontract disputes are just as common across the sports world as they are in the music world. This past weekend was a shining example of this.

Days after Lil Wayne’s long-awaited Tha Carter V dropped, so did the Seattle Seahawks All-Pro safety, Earl Thomas III. While Wayne’s album release was a triumphant moment for the Southern rapper, Thomas’ broken leg was the worst-case scenario ending to an already tumultuous situation.

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upstairs section of the library, the “Silent Zone”, I immediately scrapped that idea.

I took my seat at a cubicle intentionally far from other students, hoping it would be far enough away from the sounds of way-too-loud K-pop or fingers furiously pounding keyboards. You see, I need silence to work and think. I have the luxury of living alone, which is why I typically work from home where I can think out loud and drink as much wine as I need to in peace.

Unfortunately, my procrastination kicked my ass so hard that at this point the library was my only option.

I delicately opened up my laptop and carefully unpacked the contents of my bag, making every effort to be as quiet as humanly possible. It is the “Silent Zone” after all. Unfortunately, to my bitter shock and horror, apparently it’s not as silent as the name suggests.

I began to centre my focus on the blank screen staring back at me, hoping the words I had compiled earlier in my head would easily find themselves in print. That’s when I heard them, the totally unmuffled sounds of whispers and giggles coming from the cubicles I had mistakenly thought of as vacant. I quickly spun around in my chair, trying to catch a glimpse of loud mouths one and two, let’s call them Hal and Sal, fully prepared to send off an intimidating glare of discontent. Our eyes never met, but I had identified the demise of my focus.

They continued, completely ignorant of the several people now scowling at them, so clearly annoyed by their lack of respect for others. I finally released a stifled “shut the fuck up”, unheard by Hal and Sal. My lessmuzzled “I’ll cut you” did, however, catch their attention. Hal smiled, turned back to Sal, and continued to not “shut the fuck up” as I had hoped.

Let’s get one thing straight – students come to this part of the Library to actually work. The quieter areas are reserved for those of us who need to get things done – we who lack the ability to concentrate when surrounded by hoards of people and the smells of their food. Now, not everyone works like this, some people need noise and people around them to focus. Weird, but true. This is why there are officially three work sections in the Library: the “Collaboration Zone”, the “Quiet Zone” and the “Silent Zone”.

The “Collaboration Zone” is located on the ground floor and is intentionally arranged for the purpose of group work and casual study, the bullpen of student success. It’s completely acceptable to talk in this section, although the University does ask that you be “courteous” and be “aware of your volume level”. The “Quiet Zone”, which includes the Aspen Room, the LB128 Computer Lab and the Reserved Area, permits low-volume talking. This is a great area for those who need a slightly

less active area to work in without secluding themselves from all the action of the main Library space. The “Silent Zone” is located on the top floor.

Post-renovations, there is now a great big door at the top of the staircase creating a somewhat isolated area apart from the rest of the Library. Loaded with individual work cubicles and rows of desolate bookshelves, it’s the perfect area to catch up on homework, cram for an exam or throw yourself into that essay you’ve put off for the past month. Unless, of course, Hal and Sal decide to show up and ruin your afternoon.

I realize that there are simple solutions to this problem. I could approach these girls and face them directly, but I’m too much of a coward to do that. I could also just move, which is what I ended up doing. But it’s not about that, it’s the principle of the matter.

There are several signs posted on the walls of the “Silent Zone” that read, very clearly, “Absolutely no talking”. What is so hard about that? The whole campus is your oyster when it comes to talking and gossiping or whatever the fuck, so can we please have just this one space of blissful silence?

In conclusion, I beg you all to not be the Hals and Sals of the world. Be courteous, respectful and mindful of where you are and the people around you. And above all, please, shut the fuck up.

Tha Carter V was slated to release years ago, but due to a legal battle with his label, the album was held hostage for years. And, due to his contract, Wayne couldn’t release any other studio albums. While a football player’s contract holdout isn’t exactly the same as Wayne’s, it’s hard to ignore the similarities.

Thomas had been involved in a seasonlong holdout with the Seahawks. He was seeking a long-term contract with guaranteed money from the organization, or to be traded to another team. As a Super Bowl champion, six-time Pro Bowl participant and three-time NFL First Team All-Pro, Thomas certainly has the resume to demand a payday. His holdout saw him miss the team’s training camp and pre-season, eventually returning for the regular season opener to collect his game cheque (much of an NFL player’s salary comes in the form of weekly game cheques. For every game Thomas missed, he would have lost out on roughly $500,000 USD). Once the season began, Thomas continued his holdout by attending practices but not participating.

Instead, he only played in games. His reasoning was that he wanted to avoid injury until he had guaranteed money – a concern that clearly wasn’t unfounded.

Much like Thomas’, Wayne’s dispute with his label was financial. Wayne felt he was owed money by his long-time label Cash Money Records and was seeking to leave the imprint while suing them for $51 million USD. He felt he was underappreciated and was being taken advantage of – and he hasn’t been the only musician to feel this way.

Over the past decade, due to the rise of streaming platforms and hip hop’s mixtape culture, music labels have lost much of

their power. Artists can now release music on their own, without any sort of backing.

In fact, many upcoming musicians simply start their own labels in order to get around the difficulty of attaining a record deal and having to give up creative control and ownership of their music, in addition to large sums of money.

Athletes on the other hand, don’t have that luxury. While music streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music allow almost any artist to share their music, the same kind of freedom and independence doesn’t apply in the world of sports. Leagues are like the streaming platforms and teams are the labels – just think of Spotify as being the NFL and Cash Money Records as being the Seahawks. The difference however, is that while artists need no label affiliation to post their tracks on music platforms, players need a team to compete in their respective leagues, which gives the teams almost all the power. While Thomas’ holdout has made headlines all season long, it hasn’t been the most discussed.

Le'veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers has held out for the first four games of the season, and apparently intends to do so for at least a few more weeks. So far, he’s cost himself nearly $3.5 million USD. Bell’s holdout is just as much about his health as it is his pride. He’s one of the most dynamic and exciting football players in the game today and believes he should be paid as such. Of course, he already makes a fortune, but it’s not exactly unfair to want to be paid in accordance to what one brings to an organization compared to their co-workers.

Much like Wayne not being able to release music on any other music label due to his contractual obligations to Cash Money, Thomas and Bell are unable to play

for or receive a contract from any other team unless their teams trade them or until they reach free agency.

The good news for the players is that although they don’t have the same freedoms that streaming platforms have given artists, they’re getting more power.

Three years ago, another Seattle Seahawk, Kam Chancellor, underwent a similar holdout to Thomas and Bell. He skipped the team’s training camp, pre-season and the first two games of the regular season.

Although he returned for the third game of that season with no new contract, when he did sign his next deal, it was a good one. His three-year $36 million deal saw much of the money guaranteed. So, when his career was ended later that season by a neck injury, Chancellor wasn’t left out to dry. As of now, he’s collected around $25 million of the deal.

So, although team sports don’t allow the same autonomy that streaming platforms do to musicians, there’s no denying that athletes, much like musicians, are shifting their respective industries’ power structures.

By demanding more of their contract money to be guaranteed, players are giving themselves an insurance policy on their careers – something football players are especially in need of due to the physical nature of the game.

Unfortunately for Thomas, he never got his new contract. And while he’ll certainly have offers once his leg has healed, they’ll be nothing compared to what he would have gotten had he continued his play this season.

Really, young artists starting their own labels isn’t much different than Thomas flipping the bird to his sideline as he was carted off the field, only the artists have more power over their careers.

Digital Hurdles A talet told of telltale – video game labour and sustainability

JOHN TABBERNOR COLUMNIST

in the worlds they allow us to inhabit. But if we prioritize digital characters over the real people who shed blood, sweat and tears to bring us those characters, then maybe we have lost sight of what is truly important.

There have been rumblings in the video game industry for the last few years about unionization. These were usually met with resistance to the idea and pushback at all levels, but this year the conversation is changing. At the Game Developers Conference in March, the first talks in recent memory over industry-wide unionization were held.

Hosted by the advocacy group Game Workers Unite, discussions about workers’ rights, sustainable practices and direct action have never been more front of mind. In response to this latest studio closure, Game Workers Unite released a statement noting, “Unionization can’t fix Telltale after the fact, but it could have prevented so much of the damage to countless workers’ lives by ensuring benefits like severance pay and healthcare that lasts from job to job.” The current model for many studios and their workers in video games is unsustainable.

Whether unionization comes to the industry or not, the question of labour practices won’t go away. We as players need to be having these tough conversations alongside developers. How our games get made matters. Though one studio’s tale might be over, the story about labour in video games has only just begun.

assembling her singing career beautifully in Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) and 3 (2017), while resuscitating the teen movie genre in The Edge of Seventeen (2016).

Her performance in The Edge of Seventeen was lauded for her authentic and relatable portrayal of her character, Nadine, which at several times during the film, felt like she wasn’t acting at all.

In the film, Nadine goes through many relatable challenges, such as navigating dating and figuring out what it is you’re truly attracted to. On top of this, Nadine has a rocky relationship with her mother and brother, who ends up dating her best friend against her wishes. To top it all off, she is still reeling from the loss of her father a few years earlier, something anyone who has lost a parent at a young age understands.

Yet despite her middle-class nightmarish antics, it is impossible to turn on Steinfeld’s character, like your selfish, but impossible to stop loving, teenage sister.

But perhaps what makes Steinfeld so impressive is that when she is not acting, she isn’t sitting at home flicking through channels. Since dropping her debut album in 2015, which was more of an EP and was re-released in 2016 with more tracks, she

has carved out a pretty successful career as a pop singer in a genre that is kind of going through an identity crisis. Her 2016 single, “Starving”, peaked at 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and at nine on the Canadian equivalent.

After going on tour this year with Charlie Puth in July, August and early September, she announced that she was working on a sophomore album to be released in 2019.

While we’ll need to wait a little while longer for her next album, Bumblebee is just around the corner. Though Steinfeld’s past films have earned their keep on the pages of newspapers and pop culture websites through critical acclamation , Bumblebee is sure to gross well over 700 million like past Transformers films. If True Grit was her breakout and The Edge of Seventeen her homecoming, Bumblebee will be her graduation to an A-list leading lady in Hollywood. When she becomes the next Jessica Chastain, don’t be surprised and act as if it came out of nowhere. You heard it here first.

VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

projects, Telltale was also notorious for unpaid, mandatory overtime. Often referred to as “crunch” in the industry, the practice is endemic and unsustainable. Put 10 game developers in a room and you’ll get 10 stories about 90-hour work weeks, burnout, ruined relationships and more. Even here at home in Vancouver, our game development studios fall under an exemption in the Employment Standards Act of British Columbia. This means they do not have to adhere to rules regarding “meal breaks, split shifts, minimum daily pay and hours free from work each week, as well as overtime and statutory holidays.”

Some corners of the internet are lamenting Telltale’s closure, not because it’s a blow to the livelihood of 275 people and their families, but because the fate of The Walking Dead: The Final Season remains unclear. Only the first half of the episodic series has been released, meaning the story lacks an ending. As fans, it can be easy to forget that the games we love are made by people. Demanding a studio finish a game when the real individuals who created it in the first place are left without severance might be shocking to the average person.

Often, most game enthusiasts are incredibly disconnected from the process by which they are created. This can also exist in other mediums such as film and television, but seemingly not to the same extent. It makes sense – we invest more of ourselves into games. More time. More money. Games are performative and we become wrapped up

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ooking back at the video game industry in 2018, most people will say that the story of the year will be Fortnite – its breakout success, obsessive fandom and sheer domination of the cultural zeitgeist. The game will have the industry chasing the Battle Royale craze and its games-as-service model for the next couple of years until another trend takes its place.

But this won’t be the 2018 story that will be shaping the industry for the next decade: it

will be labour.

In the past weeks, the industry has been abuzz over the shuttering of Telltale Games.

The studio found success in revitalizing the adventure game genre with its fresh take on choose-your-own-adventure style storytelling. Its adaptations of popular franchises like The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and Minecraft led to its meteoric success and rapid expansion. Seemingly overnight the studio kept signing new deals for games: Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy and even a now-cancelled adaptation of Stranger Things.

In the end, it wouldn’t be enough to save the company from being mismanaged, never quite able to get back on track even after bringing on a new CEO and restructuring last year. Though the writing seemed to be on the wall, without warning the company fired 275 employees on Sept. 21. A skeleton crew would be kept on to tie up previous commitments, but the rest were given 30 minutes to leave the building. Their work accounts were locked by the time they got back to their desks. No severance would be paid. To make matters even worse, everyone’s health insurance would expire at the end of the month, just nine days away.

Two weeks later, the remaining staff were treated to the same.

Aside from corporate mismanagement and growing the company too quickly, many reports paint a bleak picture of the studio’s work culture. Though home to hundreds of creatives who cared deeply about their

If She Ruled the World Why Hailee Steinfeld is on the edge of greatness

KEVIN KAPENDA COLUMNIST

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t’s been said that it’s not about the destination but the journey. If so, then Hailee Steinfeld is just about there.

After a string of supporting performances and a lead role in arguably the best teen

movie of the 2010s, Steinfeld is set to have her coming out party this winter when the Transformers prequel, Bumblebee, hits theatres on Dec. 21.

To date, Steinfeld’s career has not quite been that of a child star, but rather that of a child actress. She first broke out in the a critically-acclaimed performance as the child in the award-winning western True Grit (2010), for which she was nominated for numerous accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Not resting on her laurels, Steinfeld did what any young talent should do and what I believe is the mark of a great actor, which was to take on as many different roles as possible.

In 2013, she appeared in three films.

Ender’s Game was an action sci-fi, Begin Again was the story of her divorced dad struggling to find himself after the separation and Romeo & Juliet was her own romance movie. The former films were well received by critics and her performances in supporting roles praised. However, Romeo & Juliet, and her biggest role of the year was lambasted by critics. Little did that phase her though as she would put together an even greater run of films in the coming years,

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COLUMNS

No Pain No Gain How it feels to go against the odds in order to fight for a dream CLAIRE LUNDIN COLUMNIST A rotating spot with personal recollections of various students reflecting on their artistry.

This issue: Musical Theatre Claire Lundin writes about overcoming injury to do what she loves. student

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VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

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hen I was eight years old I thought I had broken my arm.

I was trying to show off my sick new dance moves at a Christmas dinner party, forgetting that I was wearing my sophisticated, lengthy dress and not jazz pants. One battement and I was on the ground. Waiting in the ER turned out to be much more excruciating than the pain in my arm – especially when that wait had just been for a sprain. I was told that sprains were harmful and that sometimes they hurt just as much as breaking the bone itself.

At the time I believed it and I believed that my pain was valid, and for my age and low pain tolerance it probably was. That was my “big injury” as a kid. I grew up always making safe choices and never taking risks that could potentially result in pain. Playing it safe worked for a long time, until I took the biggest risk of all: I decided to pursue musical theatre. And pain? It’s all part of the game.

Ten years after that fateful night of

rocking a little too hard around the Christmas tree, I discovered that, during my first semester of university, I’d developed shin splints and tendonitis in my legs.

Walking was no longer easy. Dancing was painful. My daily routine began including giving myself extra time between classes to take the elevator, icing during breaks and taking epsom salt baths nightly. In the past year alone, I have tried all sorts of treatments from laser to shockwave therapy for my legs – I’ve had multiple x-rays and ultrasounds to identify back and rib pain and I see a chiropractor, physiotherapist and

massage therapist regularly – I’ve had to adapt to a new lifestyle. I’ve learned how to better take care of myself, and that my pain is valid.

There was, however, a point last February where for the first time I felt my conviction in what I was doing, start to quiver. I was in so much pain and didn’t know what to do about it. I didn’t see how I could possibly get better when there was no time to rest. If my own self-doubt wasn’t hard enough, the comments were relentless.

I got used to questions such as “What’s your backup plan?” Questions came from

concerned adults in my life, and learned to smile and say musical theatre was the plan.

However, I was thrown off by the doubt in their maybes – “Maybe your body can’t handle this program. Maybe this isn’t the right industry for you. Maybe you should re-evaluate.” They were no longer questions.

They were suggestions. While I was physically drained, I sometimes think I was more so emotionally. The mental challenges of getting past an injury aren’t something you’re prepared for. These adults had valid points, but they didn't understand and could not understand that I had no other options.

I had to do musical theatre. For every step of pain was a story I told through song. For every specialist appointment was a moment of self-discovery in acting class. It’s hard to describe the need to create and tell stories to those who don’t consider themselves artists. It’s hard to describe the perseverance required and the determination it takes to get past the mental blocks. When I stopped listening to the maybes around me, I found the certainty in myself that I was doing what I was meant to do and ultimately, what I needed to do.

I’m not fully recovered. Slowly but surely though, I’m getting better. It’s worth it to do what I love every day, and worth it for what I’ve learned about myself. I am resilient. I am an artist. My hope is that 10 years from now, this will have just been my big injury from my young adulthood. I’ve learned and flourished from my pain. I know that what I feel is valid. And while a sprain hurts, and tendinitis definitely takes its toll on me, it has all been worth the risk. And if I had to, I’d choose it again and again – I do every day.

Naked and Not Afraid Accepting that it’s okay to not be okay

SCARLETT VANDERWOODSEN COLUMNIST

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ne of the first things I ever took pride in was my expert knowledge of how to apply foundation, which I had learned how to do before entering high school – and that I haven’t had cakey makeup since. At a young age, my parents put me in dance competitions during which

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I’d sit backstage for several hours. I’d be alone in a room full of strangers, granola bar and makeup traincase in hand. I’d pout at my mom for smearing thick gobs of cream makeup across my cheeks. Having control over the way I presented myself gave me great joy, and being thrown into flouncy tulle and spandex costumes didn’t quite amuse me.

My exterior presentation has always heavily reflected my innermost appearance.

I’ve come to learn that the mindset I’m in greatly affects my physical health and appearance. Ultimately, the more of a slump I was in, the more I’d let myself get out of hand with my diet and exercise, and from there it only spiraled more out of control.

Singing and dancing in front of strangers never seemed to phase me, until I was doing it in scraps of fabric. Something ultimately way more daunting when you need to come off as a confident character once the spotlight comes on. Performing alongside a mother of three with rock-hard abs and dancers that could kick my ass to the moon in stilettos isn’t the biggest boost for my confidence. Not working as hard on my physical appearance and health makes me feel lazy – something I would never assume based on anyone else's appearance.

The allotted time for getting ready between show-day rehearsal and curtain

call is usually a couple of hours. This is enough time for us to grab some dinner, do hair, makeup and a quick mic check, and more than enough time to take a look at the beautiful women around, and for the comparisons to begin. But despite the seeming perfection I notice surrounding me through my fluttering fake eyelashes, I’ve learned that everyone has desires.

My favourite motto has got to be “fake it till you make it” and that’s exactly what I do, along with every other performer. Feeling truly comfortable in your own skin is one thing, making people think you believe that you are hot shit is practically impossible.

What I’ve found is that confidence is the sexiest thing. This isn’t something I had to read about in an issue of Cosmopolitan to comprehend. It’s something I’ve learned and grown accustomed to throughout my time doing burlesque. And it was never an easy concept to accept.

During our Valentine’s season’s set of performances, my confidence was at an all-time low. Having been in a toxic relationship, I was finding myself gravitating towards my old unhealthy habits that helped me cope with my depression, which included letting myself be completely consumed by negativity. Other performers seemed to be dealing with their own versions of this, and we all shared intimate

details while assisting each other into our ensembles before showtime. Despite us all having our own stresses on our confidence, we managed to band together and push through a show because we spoke up about how we were feeling.

While that night acted as a bandage solution, it was the first step to healing all of our outlooks on ourselves. The real deal hardship is finding the root of our problems and really letting ourselves get to a place where we feel happy with who we’ve become. The truth is, I’ve never quite gotten there myself. But though I may have to fake my confidence at times to get through rough patches, the more self-exploration I take on, the more I’m slowly starting to believe that my confidence is real.

CALENDAR

OCTOBER 9

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CONSCIOUS MONDAY

MONDAY

POTTER’S HOUSE OF HORRORS

5230 72 AVE. SURREY VARIOUS TIMES / $10-30

TUESDAY

10 WEDNESDAY

Halloween is still a few weeks away, but you can get in the mood early with some spooktacular fun. No, it’s not Harry Potter-themed, but word on the street is you’ll feel like an unforeseen force is stalking you through the dimly lit halls of the 15,000 square foot haunted property.

ART THERAPY

MEMBERS CENTRE AT CAPILANO UNIVERSITY 11:30 AM - 4 PM / FREE

Mental Health Awareness Month at Capilano University continues today with Art Therapy from 11:30 am to 4 pm in the Members Centre. If this is your first year of university, we’ll let you in on a little secret - colouring isn’t just for toddlers. It makes a comeback when you hit adulthood in a big way.

CORTEO

PACIFIC COLISEUM 7:30 PM / EXPENSIVE BUT WORTH IT

THURSDAY

MAPLE LOUNGE 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM / FREE

Mental Health Awareness Month is back with its third day of free activities on campus, this afternoon from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm in the Maple Lounge the CSU is hosting a Nintendo Switch Party. If anyone knows what that is, please do let us know.

SO YOU WANNA BE A FREELANCER

SUITES GENIUS 6 PM / $97

For the writers like us, So You Wanna Be a Freelancer is an evening long seminar-style workshop at the Suites Genius from 6 pm onwards for aspiring freelancers. Learn things like defining your service and when to finally consider leaving your nine-to-five job. Although at $97 I don’t think the audience they’re hoping to attract will be able to afford it.

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HARRY POTTER PARTY MIA NIGHTCLUB 10 PM / $15-20

If you were disappointed about the Potter’s House of Horrors not being Harry Potter-themed, be disappointed no more, because the wizarding world is out in full force to celebrate tonight. No owls or cats admitted to the Vancouver Edition of the Harry Potter Party unfortunately. But deck out like you’re going to the Yule Ball for a chance at a cash prize and prepare a charm spell, you never know who you’ll end up meeting there.

QUEERS AND BEERS (CIDER EDITION)

WAREHOUSE AT EASTSIDE STUDIOS 5 PM / $15 AT THE DOOR

Meet and greet, play video games and enjoy a craft cider. The name’s a little misleading if it’s not even about beer, but it is the cider edition after all. It should still be a fun time. Plus, drinking a cider is like having a full serving of fruit. Right?

APPLE FESTIVAL

UBC BOTANICAL GARDEN AND CENTRE FOR PLANT RESEARCH 11 AM - 4 PM / $5

Spend your weekend sober instead. Head over to the university most people will tell you you should have gone to and participate in the longest apple peel challenge. No guarantee you’ll win anything.

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WEDNESDAY

18 THURSDAY

19 FRIDAY

20 SATURDAY

21 SUNDAY

CLUB DAYS

MEMBERS CENTRE 11:30 AM - 1 PM / FREE

The CSU presents Club Days. Find the campus clubs discussing their goals and membership. Snacks included!

PARTY LIKE IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY ALL DAY / PRICELESS

It is someone’s birthday actually – our Copy Editor’s. 21 is a big year, so drop her a line.

VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

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NINTENDO SWITCH PARTY

Conscious Food Creations – a plant-based eatery – is having a pop-up Indian buffet dinner. Curry is perfect fall comfort food, and they guarantee if you come later there’ll still be plenty.

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Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo opens at the Pacific Coliseum on Wednesday night. Telling the story of a clown watching over his own funeral procession from the heavens above through clowning, pageantry, aerial acrobatics and incredible displays of the human body pushed to its limits.

SWEETERY CAFE + DESSERT 5:30 PM / $25 EARLY BIRD TICKETS

VANCOUVER SLOW MOVEMENT PANEL

BLUESHORE FINANCIAL CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS 8 PM / $10-12

CapU’s theatre doesn’t sit empty waiting for the Musical Theatre students to pop a number. On Thursday night, Happy Cities Project leader Mitchell Reardon and two other panelists will explore the topic of Vancouver’s anxiety-inducing atmosphere, and how to increase happiness in a city riddled with issues from housing affordability to

VANCOUVER’S NORTH SHORE CRAFT BEER WEEK PIPE SHOP 5:30 PM / $12

The official launch of Craft Beer Week at the Shipyard’s tonight will kick off a week of festivities at participating breweries across the North Shore.

Black Kettle, Bridge Brewing, Deep Cove Brewery and Hearthstone are just a few of the participating established breweries.

BIRTHDAY BASH

ALL DAY / BY DONATION 8 PM / $25

Double whammy, it’s our Columns Editor’s birthday too! I hear she’s offering cake to anyone who shows up to Indigo Indigo’s next gig. I also hear it’s vegan.

DIWALI FEST SURREY CITY HALL 2 - 5 PM / FREE

Diwali is one of India’s largest festivals. The local celebration is aimed at bringing cultures together across the Lower Mainland through events like belly dancing and musical performances.

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ARTS & CULTURE

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Bringing Vegans and Meat Eaters Together The success of CapU's first ever VegFest EMMA LEWICKY CONTRIBUTOR

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

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ur first-ever vegan-inspired event, VegFest, was held right here at Capilano University recently.

Presented by the Capilano Vegan Club on Sept.

27, planning for VegFest started in April, before the club was even officially formed. “We wanted to show people how simple it can be to lead a plant-based and vegan lifestyle and how fun and engaging it is,” said Breanna Blackwell and Maclayne Simone, the founders of the club. Whether you stopped by as a vegan, out of curiosity or to simply sample the free food, the festival was meant to show the University that there is a demand for plantbased food on campus and to display a community for other vegans.

Twenty amazing local vendors sponsored the event, sharing food, health and beauty products, including cruelty-free shampoos and vegan vitamins. The event, the ambitious new Vegan Club’s first, was not just a huge success but also had a great turnout, helping to promote the group. Blackwell and Simone, with the help of some dedicated volunteers, were able to enlist Amai Vegan Treats who showcased samples of coconut milk mousse as well as their pumpkin-spice “cococreme”, a dessert that was probably stolen from the heavens.

HerbaLand promoted various vegan gummies that tasted like Maynards Swedish Berries, some of which are even supposed to strengthen hair, skin and nails. Along with the vendors, VegFest had 10 presentations throughout the event, including King Zoom the Vegan Kid, a 12-yearold vegan activist who spoke on the “What, Why and How of Veganism” and his own beliefs.

Both Blackwell and Simone want to promote the inclusiveness of the Vegan Club. “It’s about bringing people together and showing other vegans at the school that there is a community for them,” said Simone. The pair are very proud of the event’s success, mentioning how many non-vegans joined the festivities. “And the feedback was just incredible,” added Blackwell. More than 25 people signed up for the Vegan Club by the end of the event.

Simone asks people to give veganism a shot. “Just try, be open to it. You don’t have to make a long-term commitment, just do your best.” She explains, “It’s so easy in this day and age to live in a way that doesn’t hurt other beings.” Supermarkets all over BC will almost always have a vegan section. “It’s literally as simple as walking two feet over in the grocery store and just picking the vegan version”, Simone said.

As the founding members of the Vegan Club, Blackwell and Simone want to ensure VegFest becomes an annual event and that the club thrives long after they graduate. In order for this to happen they will need students’ support. “We meet once a month and have free food. It’s not intense. It’s just really good.”

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How I Landed a Backflip-720 on a Downhill Bike Joshua Griffioen is a daredevil with big aspirations NIVEDAN KAUSHAL ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR KYLE PAPILLA ILLUSTRATOR

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I've broken my left collarbone four times.

I've broken my hip. That one was fun. I've broken – not sure what it's called – my left ass bone into four different floating pieces. Broken my wrist once. Definitely damaged my ankles – they click when I walk.” Joshua Griffioen, a second-year Communications student, is one of only six people in the world with documented footage of landing a backflip-720 on a downhill mountain bike. Since 2015, Griffioen has dedicated every riding season to learning this trick. “The first summer I tried it, I kept going until I had a concussion and I couldn't go anymore. The second summer, I kept going until I started coughing out blood.”

While backflip-720s are somewhat common in the dirt jumper and slopestyle community, Griffioen was attempting the trick on his 38-pound, dual-crowned downhill bike. As Griffioen launched from the jump, he threw his head back and down to initiate the counterclockwise, upside down aerial fury. “When you start spinning, you almost black out. You don’t know where you are, but your body can feel how far you’ve spun and how much time you have left to land. It’s only the last quarter of a second where you know,” he said.

After crashing more than 40 times over three summers, Griffioen finally landed the trick on Canada Day this year.

Born to a father who cycled Vancouver Island tip-to-tip in 24 hours, the 19-year-old daredevil’s wherewithal earned him the nickname Hillbilly Hucker in Abbotsford. Griffioen, however, is more concerned with self-exposure than glory. Aiming to become a

sponsored athlete, Griffioen has been compiling original footage of his spine-tingling tricks to captivate cycling companies. He dreams to compete in Red Bull Rampage, an international freeride mountain bike event held near Zion National Park in Virgin, Utah. Eventually, he plans to use his communications degree to launch his own mountain bike company.

“You kind of question, ‘Why am I doing this if I could die?’ But you do it anyway.” Griffioen credits his success to friends and the online mountain biking community whose influence continually pushes him to try gutsier tricks. Even the kitty decal on his 2013 Specialized Demo fills him with motivation. “I just look at that kitty and I’m like, purrrr. And then I go jump ‘cause cats are good at jumping I guess,” he laughed. Nevertheless, Griffioen is anxious to complete his highlight reel before midOctober. Scared of breaking his already cracked ribs, he plans to film himself doing a double-backflip over a cabin in Kamloops for the final clip of his reel. Backflip-doubletailwhip and a double-backflip-720 are next up on the list of tricks to learn. “Life is too short not to go big. When you're already so hooked to the sport, you feel like it can’t end there,” he said.

Follow Josh on Instagram @joshua_griffioen

Poets in the Kitchen: A Highlight of BC Culture Days Spoken word artist Johnny D. Trinh brought the North Shore community together through food and poetry CHRISTINE BEYLEVELDT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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Culture Days by spoken word poets Johnny MacRae, Anjalica Solomon and Andrew Warner who read original work aloud as well as covers of other poems, including A Ship’s Story, which told the tale of the Komagata

Maru arriving on Canadian shores.

“I think it takes a community to build an artist,” said Trinh, who, gesturing to the artists beside him, emphasized that the future of slam poetry is in good hands.

Soundwalking: Experiencing the Soundscape A lot can happen when you listen NIVEDAN KAUSHAL ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

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e congregated in the brick cul-de-sac on the south-east corner of MacLean Park in Strathcona, Vancouver’s oldest residential neighbourhood. There were 21 of us – 13 women and eight men – all with vastly different backgrounds. Some were academics with advanced degrees, others were new to the country and wanted to connect with their surroundings. I attended out of curiosity.

In the late 1960s, Murray Schafer, the founder of SFU’s World Soundscape Project (WSP), and his team of researchers recorded Vancouver’s sonic ambience to capture what he termed the “soundscape” – the sounds that holistically characterize a place.

The team regularly went on “soundwalks”, silent excursions that are specifically to immerse oneself in an area’s soundscape.

Guided by Helena Krobath, a digital archive consultant for the WSP, and Elizabeth Ellis,

an artist exploring the poetics of listening, we embarked on an hour-long soundwalk around the neighbourhood.

“Soundwalking itself is an artistic performance. You are shaping an interaction through aesthetic, sensory, cognitive and poetic filters,” said Krobath. As we began soundwalking through the neighbourhood, acoustic subtleties that would have remained unnoticed slowly unearthed themselves and captured my attention. I was taken aback by how easily sounds can divorce themselves from their original meaning. Distant traffic became like the ocean, its rhythmic roar washing the streets in patterned intervals like the tide. The far-off skateboarders resembled a percussive orchestra, their boards clicking and scraping against the ramp’s coping.

Our destination was the Strathcona Community Garden, but we first had to cross Strathcona Park. “As we walk across this field, match a physical gesture to each sound and let your body move you through this space,” instructed Ellis. While we awkwardly expressed what we heard in physical movements, a man riding a recumbent bicycle stopped to stare at our gawky movements. A fellow soundwalker turned bright red. Once I let go of my fear

of being judged, however, I manifested the caw of crows into sporadic arm-waving and goofy footsteps.

When we arrived at the garden, we were given 15 minutes to freely explore the vibrations of the area. It felt like an island anxious of being swallowed by the ocean of traffic that bordered it, yet it still danced harmoniously with the invading force.

“Sound is the best medium. You can create these powerful shapes and impressions and

feelings abstractly just by going out in the world and listening," said Krobath.

Too often I plug in my headphones and shut out the racket. Too often I discredit the realm of infinite sonic possibility as noise.

Noise, however, is only noise when heard. It becomes sound when listened to. "Listening connects us deeper to where we are, to time, to place, to each other,” said Ellis. That means silently and intently partaking in the soundscape around us.

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VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 3

he delectable aroma of asparagus sizzling in soy sauce, frying ginger and scallions fills the air of the CityScape Community Art Space on Lower Lonsdale. “We try to evoke memory with our words, with our food, with our stories,” explained Johnny D. Trinh, the Vancouverbased spoken word artist and Culture Days ambassador wielding the frying pan. It’s often said that good food brings communities together, and that’s exactly what the mouth-watering, steamed soy ginger scallion salmon Trinh made, did. It is a dish from his childhood.

Poets in the Kitchen, a cooking demonstration followed by a poetry reading, brought out a small but diverse crowd of people on Saturday, Sept. 29 for BC Culture Days. Culture Days is a three-day coast-tocoast celebration of Canadian culture with thousands of free activities every year over the last weekend of September. Organized mainly by volunteers, it was designed in 2007 in response to the success of Quebec’s Journées de la culture. BC Culture Days, held between Sept. 28-30 this year, included

events featuring Indigenous women artists at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Vancouver Opera, henna art, photo exhibits and speeches by artists identifying with disabilities.

Those who weren’t able to attend the event could follow along on a live feed streamed from Trinh's Instagram account. “I wanted to make an event that was accessible, because not everyone is mobile,” he said. Although, the obvious downside was that the intense smell couldn’t be captured on film.

The seafood meal Trinh prepared was one his mother usually prepared with white fish. He made it with wild sockeye salmon instead to reflect the Art Space’s “Journey of a Salmon” exhibit hanging from the walls around him. But before he began, Trinh led the small crowd in a meditative exercise where he asked them to imagine their favourite dish, and to let it overwhelm their senses. “Food is linked to memory,” said Trinh. “We need storytelling to survive.

I wanted to connect the two things [food and poetry] and show that we gathered to share a story.”

Trinh originally trained in theatre, and over time found his roles dissatisfying.

After moving to Regina, Sask. to pursue his Master’s he went to his first poetry slam, where he read aloud from a play that he had written and earned great reception. He quickly went on to perform at Vancouver Poetry Slam, and began filming cooking tutorials for his YouTube channel. Trinh was joined at BC

SPORTS

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Meet the Coaches Leading Despite the huge turnover in coaching staff, Chris Weimar, David Dooley, Alex Elliott and Daniel Huzar have recruited players for the 2018-19 season and are working towards success on and off the court.

PHOTOS BY VANCOUVER SPORTS PHOTOS

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our new coaches have been brought on to lead the Capilano University Blues to the playoffs this year, and with so many new faces, growing pains appear to be the common denominator between them. Leading the Blues this year are women’s basketball coach, Chris Weimer, who had his start with the Blues several years ago, and Alex Elliott, David Dooley and Daniel Huzar, who are coaching men’s soccer, and men’s and women’s volleyball, respectively.

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Chris Weimer

BY CHRISTINE BEYLEVELDT

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n avid basketball player in high school, Weimer turned to coaching fresh out of school.

“My sister, she’s three years younger than me, they didn’t have a coach so me and my dad actually helped coach that team,” said Weimer. And that was how he started on his path towards the Blues, although his connection to the local high schools remains strong. Off the Sportsplex court, he runs the Basketball Academy. He came up with the business proposal based on West Vancouver’s model while chaperoning one of Seycove’s senior trips to Italy, and was asked to run it for the whole district.

Weimer joins the Blues with ample coaching experience, including 10 years coaching the girls at Sutherland Secondary, seven years with the senior boys at Seycove Secondary and six as assistant coach

CHRIS WEIMER

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with the CapU women’s basketball team.

Former women’s basketball coach, Ramin Sadaghiana, left in the spring after working alongside Weimer for many years as his assistant coach at Sutherland. “When the position came up for the head coach here [at CapU], I told him if he applied for it and got it I’d be his assistant,” Weimer recalled fondly. And that’s exactly what happened.

In an interesting twist, he and Sadaghiana experienced coaching roles as assistants to one another. Six years on, Sadaghiana left the Blues and in April Weimer took on the role of head coach for the women’s basketball team.

It was already late into the recruiting season when Weimer came aboard as coach, only amplified by the fact that there was a high player turnover on the women’s basketball team this year. “Recruiting players is usually a year round thing,” he said. Most teams had already finished recruiting by the time he started. “I was a little worried there weren’t going to be any players left,” he laughed. Approximately seven girls left the team, and six first-year students and four second-year students have joined the team, making initiation Weimer’s top challenge this year.

“I’m a lot different now,” Weimer said of his coaching style. “I tried to control everything – I’d yell at the refs, I’d wave my hands around – a lot of new coaches do that.

Whereas if you compare me to now I’m still very intense but some things you just can’t control. For example the referees,” he said.

Going into the upcoming season, Weimer’s original goal for the women’s basketball team was to make the playoffs.

He reckons the team could be in the top half of the league, seeing as they won the provincial championship last year and came in fifth at nationals.

David Dooley

BY CHRISTINE BEYLEVELDT

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Literally my first word was basketball,” men’s volleyball coach David Dooley joked. If that sounded amiss, you’d be right. “Growing up, sport was huge in my family. My whole family are basketball coaches and players. So it was pretty sad the day I said volleyball was my sport and I transitioned away from basketball,” he explained. It was the camaraderie of the sport that attracted him, and even though his passion lies in coaching, he still plays at the beach with the Seaside Volleyball Club in White Rock.

Like Weimer, Dooley is close with former men’s volleyball coach Emmanuel Denguessi, who left the Blues and the team in good hands. Dooley applied for the coaching position when he first moved to Vancouver several years ago and was offered the job by Athletics Director Milt Williams, but he was living in White Rock at the time. “I didn’t want to do the commute,” he said, noting that the notorious travel time across the Lower Mainland deterred him, although now that he has established himself with the Blues the commute isn’t as bad as he once thought.

“I realized that the traffic out here wasn’t as

scary as it was in my mind,” he laughed.

Although Dooley had another reason for turning down the coaching position several years ago. “I wanted to get established in the teaching world first,” he said. And it was a natural fit, coaching and teaching go hand in hand, he explained.

Dooley also works at the Educational Transition Centre (ETC) in Surrey, a school for students who don’t have other educational avenues. Often they’ve gone from school to school and behavioral challenges make it difficult for the Ministry of Education to find a spot for them in classrooms.

Also hired late into the recruiting season, Dooley luckily retained several key players.

But unlike Weimer, he’s a new face at CapU, and is working hard to form close ties with the team.

For the upcoming year, the men’s volleyball team has three domains of goals covering their performance on the court, in the classroom and in the community.

Aiming high, the team aspires to make the national championship. As for academic performance, the team aims to average over a 3.0 GPA collectively. “And then our community goal is we want to be doing [a] big community event once a semester,” said Dooley.

“I knew that this was a pretty special team,” Dooley said of the men’s volleyball players. Despite not having a pre-existing relationship with many of the players and only coming to CapU at the end of the spring, Dooley is working hard to build up a rapport with the players, getting to know each and every player individually.

The Blues this Year Daniel Huzar

BY NIVEDAN KAUSHAL

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John McGowan and Tony Laurita, the other two assistants, have coached alongside Huzar for 12 and 15 years respectively.

Given Huzar’s vast knowledge of the game at the international level, he’s been sharing new strategies and formations with his players. “[The team] is doing a great job of taking in what I'm teaching and trying to apply it,” he said. Like all coaches, winning

is certainly on Huzar’s mind, though he prioritizes fostering a positive athletic experience for the team. He wants to see players become encouraging athletic leaders locally. “Because I’m new, we're all in our rookie season. The new technical side of things, new tactical side of things, new coaching staff, new philosophies – we're all going down the journey together.”

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DAVID DOOLEY

already established a very good roster,” he said. The women’s volleyball team has a total of 16 players – eight returning and eight rookies. While Huzar has been building new relationships with the team, he is no stranger to his coaching staff. Shannon Hopkins, a former BCO player under Huzar’s guidance, is now on the other side of the bench as Huzar’s first assistant coach.

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I was actually a big baseball player as a kid,” said women’s volleyball coach Daniel Huzar. While Huzar has played volleyball since Grade 5, he discovered his passion for coaching during his second year of university. Needing to fulfill requirements to become a school teacher, Huzar volunteered as a coach and was hooked.

“I realized I have a passion for coaching volleyball so I pursued it over the years. It's only been the last five or six years where it’s solidified itself.” As a North Shore resident of more than a decade, Huzar is strongly tied to the local volleyball community, helping youth to reach their full potential on the court. In other words, he was the perfect candidate to step into previous women's volleyball coach Cal Wohlford’s shoes.

Huzar brings extensive experience to the Blues. For more than a decade, the former libero – a defensive specialist on the volleyball court – was the assistant coach for the UBC Thunderbirds, securing seven national titles during his time there.

He also coached Team Canada at the 2017 International University Sports Federation (FISU) Games held in Taiwan, and served on the coaching staff for the Junior National Team three times. Locally, Huzar has coached for Volleyball Canada’s Centre of Excellence and BCO Volleyball Club. Under his leadership, the club won five provincial championships. Two players from the BCO stream played for the Senior National Team out of Grade 12.

Like the other coaches hired to oversee the Blues this year, Huzar was offered the position late into the recruitment process.

Much of the year’s recruitment effort was accomplished by his predecessor. “I only brought in two players because Cal had

MEN'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM

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HOROSCOPES AQUARIUS (JAN. 21 – FEB.19) All those years at bandcamp clearly paid off. It’s not like you need social skills.

PISCES (FEB. 20 – MAR. 20) Do you ever wonder why you can’t spot the weird annoying person in your class? It’s you.

ARIES (MAR. 21 – APR. 20) Maybe it’s time you started swiping right more. A lot more. You still won’t get any matches, but at least you can tell your mom you tried.

CANCER (JUN 22 – JULY 23) I see ghosts in your future. I hope you’re not on Tinder.

LEO (JUL. 24 – AUG. 23) I hate to be the one that has to tell you, but that new hairstyle you got is the “may I speak to a manager” cut.

VIRGO (AUG. 24 – SEPT. 23) Your 73 new best friends from Orientation are already sick of you.

Sorry, but someone had to say it.

LIBRA (SEPT. 24 – OCT. 23) You know they’re not going to text you back, right?

SCORPIO (OCT. 24 – NOV. 22) I’m sorry but you have to wait until Halloween to wear that slutty cat outfit.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 23– DEC. 21) Maybe look in a mirror before going outside tomorrow. Although, I’m not sure you can fix that face with an outfit.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 – JAN. 20) I sense you’re the kind of person who starts playing Christmas music in October. And you wonder why you don’t have friends?

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TAURUS (APR. 21 – MAY 21) You’re itching to get out of here, aren’t you? That itch isn’t just a nervous tick though.

GEMINI (MAY 22 – JUN. 21) You’re the evil twin. You ate the good one in the womb.

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