VOLUME 50, ISSUE 5
OCTOBER 16–23 2017
NEWS
Capilano cleaners join union to fight for living wage.
OPINIONS
Taking a knee with Colin Kaepernick.
EDITOR'S DESK
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Carlo Javier capcourier@gmail.com
CAPILANO CLEANERS JOIN UNION
News
MANAGING EDITOR
Justin Scott manager.capcourier@gmail.com
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NEWS EDITOR
Christine Beyleveldt news.capcourier@gmail.com
Campus Life
Tia Kutschera Fox opinions.capcourier@gmail.com FEATURES EDITOR
Helen Aikenhead specialfeatures.capcourier@gmail.com ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
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KAEPERNICK’S LASTING LEGACY
Opinions
Rachel D'Sa arts.capcourier@gmail.com CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR
Greta Kooy campuslife.capcourier@gmail.com
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THE WORLD CUP AND GROWING UP BLACK
ONLINE EDITOR
Jessica Lio online.capcourier@gmail.com
Columns
COPY EDITOR
Leah Scheitel copy.capcourier@gmail.com ART DIRECTOR
Rachel Wada artdirector.capcourier@gmail.com PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Cristian Fowlie pm.capcourier@gmail.com COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER
John Tabbernor community.capcourier@gmail.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
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A HEALTHY STATE OF MIND
Feature
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NETFLIX PICKS
Art Shorts
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Andy Rice andy.capcourier@gmail.com COVER ART
Annie Chang
STUFF YOUR FACE AT STUFFIES
Arts & Culture
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Laura Melczer, Ramneet Kang, Jaslynne Gibeault, Luka Vasic, Annalisse Crosswell, Carlos Ascencio, Milana Bucan, Freya Wasteneys, Sarah Schmidt CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS
Janice Callangan, Jenny Oakley, Kyle Papilla, Tae Hook Kim, Annie Chang, Paul Boici, Rachel Sanvido
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MORELLO BROTHERS LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL
Sports
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THE CAPILANO COURIER
Carlo Javier EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
STEP RIGHT UP, DON’T BE SHY
OPINIONS EDITOR
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"YOU'RE WAITING FOR A TRAIN... (OR A BUS)."
VOLUME 50 ISSUE NO. 5
“Everybody move to the back of the bus” – Outkast Every year, the important figures of Capilano University plan their own respective strategies on how to alleviate one of the school’s biggest and longest lasting challenges: community. The Administration, the Faculty, the Blues, the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) and even us. We all come into the fall semester with grand plans about creating a community that students will be proud and excited to be a part of. While varying degrees of success is sometimes reached, there are two obstacles that make it damn near impossible to truly accomplish the collective goal. One, community already exists, it just happens to be segmented into little groups that are more or less apathetic about grander plans based around ideas of campus unity. Two, and arguably more pressing, is that there is an important figure that would have to “buy in” for the CapU community to achieve the holistic ideals that everyone aims for – TransLink. Coming into the 2017-2018 academic year, we saw one of the biggest community boosting amenities that CapU has ever established: residence. The only problem – at least regarding the community question – is that residence is off campus. This isn’t really a knock on CapU’s newfound housing since actually having housing, regardless of it being on or off-campus, is more than enough of an accomplishment for a first step. In the years that I’ve worked in student press, the lack of housing would often be a common answer for questions about building an energetic CapU community. The case was that CapU is a commuter school and staying on campus for any sort of festivity is the last thing on the minds of many students. That still rings true today. Even the students living on the residence take two buses just to get to campus. A few weeks ago, hordes of CapU students and staff found themselves trapped by a massive, near motionless traffic accident. The Iron Workers Bridge, as per usual, was a bottleneck that stalled traffic to a standstill. Those going to CapU, such as myself, other Courier
staff members and what I imagined to be hundreds of students, were effectively stranded. There are two buses that connect Burnaby, New Westminster and the Tri-City area to CapU. The 28 from Joyce Station, a route that picks up a high volume of students from Gilmore Station and the 130 from Metrotown Station, which also picks up its fair share of students when it stops at Brentwood. Students from Vancouver can take either the 210 or the 211 to get to Phibbs Exchange, and there’s always the option of the SeaBus. Other than the waterfront route, every bus that leads students to CapU goes through the dreaded Iron Workers, and when something happens, which might very well be every damn day, all hell breaks loose. The poor, built-for-failure road system that students take to CapU everyday is a nightmare waiting to happen and it would be amiss not to put more effort in pressuring both TransLink and the provincial government in working towards improving North Vancouver traffic. Much of our efforts and resources are placed on organizing parties and festivities. While these events sure draw crowds and sometimes truly impress the community, their benefits are ultimately restricted to short term results. Currently, the CSU is discussing with TransLink to increase bus service at the residence. While TransLink has stated that any changes to the schedule won’t come until the new year, the CSU’s efforts is an endeavour that I hope inspires more members of CapU to put the spotlight on our favourite transit providers. Community at CapU will never really prosper until the school becomes more accessible. Unfortunately, fixing that is out of our hands – that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
NEWS
BUSES REPORTEDLY SKIPPING CAPILANO RESIDENCE STOP CSU received complaints from RAs that buses aren’t allowing students to board Christine Beyleveldt
– PHOTO COURTESY OF TAE HOOK KIM
NEWS EDITOR
CapU BRAND STORY WINS COUP DE COEUR AWARD AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE The school’s brand identity continues reap recognition since its launch last year Jessica Lio ONLINE EDITOR
Victoria Miles, Capilano University’s director of communications and marketing, was presented with the Coup de Coeur Award by the Canadian Association of Communicators in Education (CACE) at a national conference in Edmonton, AB. on Oct. 2. Miles was recognized for her work on the University’s “brand story” which gives context to the new logo and visual identity that was implemented in November 2016. The new identity followed a months-long rebranding process, which considered input from various campus stakeholder groups and First Nations Elders. CapU’s updated logo, shaped similarly to an eagle’s wing - a symbol for wisdom, friendship and leadership in Coast Salish culture - emphasizes the spirit of diversity, creativity and unity that the University takes pride in fostering. CACE’s recognition follows two awards from the University & College Designers Association (UCDA), which the University received over the summer for its innovative brand strategy and recent advertising campaign. This major Lower Mainland advertising campaign ran between January and March of this year, and featured placements on billboards, busses, transit
shelters and terminals, along with print and online ads. It was strategically launched at a time when most students applying to post-secondary institutions hadn’t yet committed to a school, and the University hoped to entice high school students to give CapU full consideration as a viable choice for completing a meaningful post-secondary credential. “We were coming out with this very bold statement of our place as a university in British Columbia’s postsecondary environment,” said Miles, who has been working passionately to share the meaning behind the colourful new brand with students, employees and community members. At the conclusion of the campaign, the University partnered with Lux Insights, a third-party agency specializing in brand measurement and tracking, to conduct a study identifying perceptions of CapU within BC’s post-secondary landscape. Lux Insights found that respondents who observed an improvement in CapU’s reputation attributed the change partly to the new brand, which had only been in place for three months at the time of the survey. Respondents also cited CapU’s designation change from community college to university as a positive factor – a change that took place nearly a decade ago in 2008. The new brand having already penetrated consciousness was a strong indicator to the University that it was resonating with students in a strong way. Among other early indicators of the brand’s resonance, according to Miles, was recognition from professional peers such as Ken Steele, co-founder of Academica
Group and founder of Eduvation – two leading post-secondary news and research platforms in Canada. Of 105 post-secondary institutions between 2015-2017, Steele listed Capilano University as the top contender in Eduvation’s global survey of brand identity redesign initiatives. In his analysis, Steele also noted that CapU’s new brand could serve as inspiration for the “potential for reconciliation in Canada.” Miles echoed this sentiment and noted the logo visually represented the connection to nature valued by all members of the campus community. “It recognizes that we find our place between sea and sky, in this extraordinary positioning on the west coast. It honours our relationship with First Nations and it honours our value of all diversity. There’s a place for all of us here at Cap,” she said. CapU’s institutional research department and registrar’s office have both measured an increase in student enrolment that hasn’t occurred in several years. Miles expressed her confidence in the brand’s ability to encourage students to choose Capilano University as the place to complete a meaningful credential as they pursue the careers they’re interested in. Her hope now is that all members of the campus community will take personal responsibility for demonstrating the qualities that inspired the brand identity – unity, creativity, confidence, endurance and luminosity – and carry those values with them as they make an impact on society.
Bus services and fees were increased in July throughout the Lower Mainland, including increased service on the 130 bus towards Capilano University, all part of a 10-year vision laid out by Mayor Gregor Robertson for expanded transit services. A 10 per cent increase on bus services and 20 per cent increase on rail services, including the West Coast Express and three skytrains across the lower mainland are included in the first phase of this vision. But the routes that CapU students could really benefit from increased services on are the C15 and 212, travelling between Phibbs Exchange, Deep Cove and Seymour via the University residences on Dollarton Highway. At a Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) Board of Directors meeting on Oct. 6, Vice President external Noah Berson said that he had received complaints from several of CapU’s residence advisors that buses had been skipping the stop outside the residence despite not being full. The buses, he said, aren’t stopping because some of the drivers are worried that students will completely fill up the bus, despite only needing to travel a few minutes to Phibbs Exchange to connect with the 239 to Capilano University. “We're really concerned that when the school fills out the residence further in January, what has been an issue for students now will become a chronic problem, with our residence students unable to access reliable transit,” he said. The CSU contacted Translink in July before the start of the semester to discuss increased service and inform them that the current schedule would likely be a problem given the fact that there would be students living at the residence come September. Berson reported that they would primarily like to see peak service increases between 7:30 and 10 a.m. and between 2:30 and 6 p.m., when students are coming and going from campus. However, Translink reportedly said that no service increases would be possible until January 2018. Currently, the University is taking residence applications for the spring semester, and the residence can accommodate over an additional 100 students.
THE CAPILANO COURIER
VOLUME 50 ISSUE NO. 5
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NEWS
CAPILANO CLEANERS JOIN SEIU 2 Union is fighting for a living wage for all workers Christine Beyleveldt NEWS EDITOR
Delia Tanza hasn’t had a single day off in four months. She works as a private caregiver for a few hours every morning before she comes to Capilano University to clean five days a week. On the weekends, Tanza works as a cleaner and housekeeper at the Lynn Valley Care Centre just so she can put food on the table for herself and her teenage son. “The bus is my bedroom,” she said while rubbing her sore legs, because she gets up at 7:30 a.m. every morning and doesn’t return home until well past midnight. Analou Espina also works two jobs to support herself and her two children, because she only earns $11.75/hour without any benefits after nearly four years of working as a cleaner at CapU. Since the 1980s, there’s been a
push for post-secondary institutions to contract service jobs. Those jobs for the most part include cleaners, food workers and security guards, and contracts have marked worse overall working conditions and put many of these service workers in or near poverty. Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) Vice President External Noah Berson stated in their Community Advisory that “contracting out these services doesn’t need to be a race to the bottom.” However, CapU Senior Communications Advisor Cheryl Rossi responded by saying that the University doesn’t strictly accept the lowest bid, but also look at experience, capability, price and financial stability in the tendering process before selecting a contractor. She also stressed that the University does not employ the individuals who work for these contracted service providers. Best Service Pros won a five-year cleaning contract for CapU in 2015. They also won cleaning contracts at Langara College and BCIT in 2016, and immediately contacted the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) to negotiate 10-year voluntary recognition agreements with no benefits and minimal wage increases for their workers. CapU cleaners were not forced into a CLAC
agreement, but they are still earning minimal pay with no benefits. All of the cleaners earn between $11.50 and $12 per hour, far below the standard living wage, which, in Vancouver, is just over $20 per hour. The cleaners applied to the Labour Board to join the Service Employees International Union Local 2 (SEIU 2) and its campaign, Justice for Janitors, which Best Service Pros objected to at a hearing on Feb. 17. Their employer appealed to the Labour Board to stop the vote on the grounds that it would proliferate bargaining units. The Labour Board ordered votes that were cast by 27 out of 29 cleaners on Feb. 20 to be sealed. After months of stalling, the votes were finally unsealed and counted on June 27. The cleaners voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the union despite protests from their contractor and are currently bargaining with Best Service Pros. An open letter has been circulating the University since the start of the semester advocating for a living wage for all workers, not just those who are contracted, which has been signed by stakeholders including student clubs, other unions and faculty departments. Students have also signed a petition and agreed to support
the cleaners and all university workers in their fight for a living wage. “At the end of the day it’s their campus, this campaign is not just about contract workers but all precarious workers. So, this campaign is about all contract workers and the best kind of campaigns are the ones that come organically,” said Bro. Tanza and Espina reflected that one man on the cleaning staff who had worked at CapU for a couple of years was injured on the job, and was told by his doctor he would have to take a year off from work to recover. He was fired when he was finally well enough to return. “If I don’t go [to work], they will kick me out,” said Espina. None of the cleaners are paid if they can’t work, whether they have to take a sick day or because the University is closed. At a board of directors meeting on Oct. 6, the CSU voted to adopt a Living Wage Policy for all of its current, future and contracted employees, although they did not sign SEIU 2’s open letter and are not directly involved with the Justice for Janitors campaign. The board reached the consensus that there wasn’t enough time to launch an independent living wage campaign. Instead, the CSU believes that all workers deserve a living wage no matter the job they’re working.
CSU RETURNS TO VICTORIA TO PARTICIPATE IN LOBBY DAYS "Where’s the Housing?" campaign will continue to push for on-campus accomodations Annalisse Crosswell CONTRIBUTOR
After taking part in a successful “Where’s the Housing?” campaign last year, the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) and the Alliance of BC Students (ABCS) are heading back to Victoria. From Oct. 15 to 18, Vice President External Noah Berson, Accessibility Justice Coordinator Andrew Dillman, Global and Community Studies Faculty Representative Anna Rempel, Students of Colour Liaison Divya Nanray and Board of Governors Representative Hassan Merali will be lobbying to make education more accessible for all BC residents. Last year’s campaign was aimed at getting on-campus housing for postsecondary institutions in BC. According to Berson, there has been a really positive response to the new residences on Dollarton Highway from the University and from students. The push now is for residences that are not just close, but actually on campus. It also seems that the community is not entirely behind this proposal with concerns for street parking. Not only is the CSU continuing to lobby for on-campus student housing, but also better tenancy rights for post-secondary students throughout BC. Though Berson acknowledges the need for universities to be able to maintain order within residence, he and his delegates’ focus is aimed at avoiding situations in which
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THE CAPILANO COURIER
Front row: Alex Lomelino (KSA), Emily Solomon (former CSU Women's Rep), Harsimran Malhi (LSU) Gloria Liu (UBC GSS) with Jordan Sturdy and Jane Thornthwaite (Back row). Photo courtesy of the CSU.
students are not afforded even the basic elements of the Tenancy A0ct. “We just want to make sure that all students have a fair say within any of these processes and really getting their rights under the tenancy rights,” he said. Berson said he felt most strongly about this topic of on-campus housing. He sees the potential, not only for students, especially for a commuter school such as CapU, but also for the community. Oncampus housing affords students the luxury of accessibility while also opening up houses for other lower and middleincome earners around Vancouver. It also frees up space on transit and creates opportunities for building more of a community within universities. In terms of this year’s requests, however, on-campus housing is their second priority with education for lower and middle-income students coming first.
VOLUME 50 ISSUE NO. 5
“[We want] debt that students take on to have no interest so that education is fair no matter what your background income is,” said Berson. This would be created by way of needs-based grant programs and would be aimed at providing equal opportunities. Also on the list this year is the need to eliminate interest on student loans and create more scholarships for graduate students. Despite recent cuts to interest rates, students who can’t afford to pay tuition up front are still at a disadvantage and, with better opportunities to be found outside BC, are moving elsewhere within Canada to further their education. The cut to interests rates earlier this year mean that students are already paying half as much interest as they were previously. But with the current expense of living in BC, and more specifically in Vancouver, students are asking for more.
The last request is straightforward. Those involved in the campaign want it to be known that continued support of the U-Pass program is important, and that funding of the 10-year transit plan is something that BC students want. “You start someone using transit in high school or you start them using it in university and you’ve get them using it for life,” he said. Berson expressed his excitement to be attending Lobby Days for the first time. He and the rest of the CSU think the new provincial government offers great opportunities for forward movement in these student matters. The campaign aims to keep the best interests at heart for all BC students, and most importantly those lower and middle-income students who require accessibility the most.
CAMPUS LIFE
UNITED WAY HELPS CAPILANO GIVE BACK Upcoming events on campus will raise money and awareness for North Shore causes. Carlin Parkin CONTRIBUTOR
This fall semester, Capilano University will once again be partnering with United Way of the Lower Mainland, to gear up for a campaign to raise money and awareness for various United Way sponsored projects on the North Shore. Programs on campus will run from Oct. 16 to Nov. 17, and feature events such as a paper airplane toss, a pancake breakfast, a book sale and 50/50 draws. The money raised on campus will go toward local organizations backed by the United Way, such as the North Shore Neighbourhood House or the bc211 help line. “It’s really important for Cap to be giving back to our local community,” said Erin Berry, Human Resources manager of development and engagement at CapU and employee campaign chair for this year’s campaign. “We’re the only university on the North Shore, we have a strong connection with all of our community partners, so it’s really important that our donations that we create here stay here and create an impact here too.” To that end, the upcoming events on campus will be collecting donations, but Berry stressed that the events are also put on to raise awareness about what the United Way is, what they do and the difference they make locally. The first event of the campaign will be an airplane toss on Oct. 18, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. in the Birch cafeteria, where students and staff will create paper airplanes and launch them from the second level mezzanine onto a bulls eye target in a kiddie pool. Whoever gets the closest to the target will win
CSU RESTRUCTURES CLUBS New system aims to improve funding procedures among others Greta Kooy CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR
Clubs on Capilano University’s campus were reorganized this year. The update includes changes to clubs’ executive committees as well as funding procedures. Student-run clubs can be a lot of work, and without the right amount of interest and support they tend to not stick around for long. In the hopes to resurrect the life of clubs on campus, and to make it easier on both new and existing clubs, the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) has made some alterations to the way clubs operate at CapU. These changes were also enacted to encourage more club activity and student participation, something that had been lacking in the past. Before this year, the CSU required just one club executive, leaving one person responsible for a club’s organization, activity and finances. Now, before getting approval from the CSU, a club must have three official executives, including a president, treasurer and secretary. “Therefore,” said Yats Palat, vice president student life, “you have three people’s worth of engagement and interaction,” and the likelihood of that club surviving and thriving is greater. Having three individuals responsible safeguards the club’s future and ensures that even if the founder of a club leaves campus or graduates the club will not simply collapse. Funding for clubs has also been simplified under the changes of the CSU. Clubs receive $200 every semester. According to Palat, this is “to help fund their events, to help fund their meetings. It’s hard otherwise for clubs to get together when they don’t have the financial support
a term parking pass. A pancake breakfast will be held on Oct. 31 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., also in the Birch cafeteria. There is a $5 minimum donation to participate in the pancake breakfast, but participants in costume will receive $1 back, with and another $1 off if they bring a non-perishable food item for the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) food bank. From Oct. 16 to Nov. 6, students and staff are encouraged to donate their used books, CDs, DVDs and records for a two-day book sale on Nov. 7 and 8 in the Birch cafeteria. Sorry students, no textbooks allowed. At each of these events, tickets can be bought for two 50/50 draws to be made on Oct. 31 and Nov. 17. Capilano employees can donate to the United Way via payroll deduction or credit card, and students can donate via cash or cheque by filling out a pledge form. For students, a donation of $25 or more is tax deductible. “This year, our goal [for money raised] is $16,000 with CapU,” said Peter Ko, campaign associate with United Way of the Lower Mainland. “And [in terms of] involvement, obviously every year we look for 100 per cent participation, but I feel as long as there is awareness about what United Way is doing locally, that, for me and United Way, is sufficient.” Students who would like to volunteer at the events are welcome to sign up by clicking the “Volunteer Portal” link at Capilanou.ca but everyone is welcome. As a final note, Berry added, “We just encourage everyone to come out, have fun, buy some 50/50 tickets, fly some paper airplanes and hopefully win a parking pass.” Follow the CapU United Way campaign on Twitter - @UWCapU – Facebook Capilano University United Way, and Instagram @CapilanoU United Way for updates.
that they need.” Funds are approved by the CSU staff, which means smaller requests can be made quickly and more efficiently. Clubs may request further funding, up to $500, which is approved by the CSU’s executive committee or the board of directors. On Sept. 21, the CSU hosted CapU’s inaugural Clubs and Collectives Day in the CSU Members Centre. The event showcased the different clubs and collectives available on campus and boasted free pizza and chocolate-dipped strawberries for students. “We expected to have close to maybe, 75 to 100 students. And that we’d get approximately 80 to 100 signatures,” said Palat. Within the two-hour span, nearly 300 students showed up, and over 200 signatures were given out. For a campus as small as CapU’s, that’s a significant number of signatures. Among participating clubs and collectives were the Accessibility Justice Collective, Young Women in Business, Anime Club, Capilano Yoga Club, Capilano Queer Collective and the Arabic Cultural Club. There are a total of 14 active clubs and collectives on campus, virtually something for everyone. The CSU Clubs and Collectives Day ran on a budget of $850. Funding for this event comes specifically from the CSU’s clubs line item. Of that, $600 was spent on food and the remaining $250 was given as a prize to the club that received the most signatures. The winning group was The Capilano Yoga Club. For more information on clubs at CapU, please visit Csu.bc.ca.
WHO YOU
STEP RIGHT UP, DON’T BE SHY Freya Wasteneys CONTRIBUTOR
Andrew Willis is a whirlwind of a person. He talks fast, walks fast and his voice projection is a drama teacher’s dream. He’s also a bit of a workaholic; between balancing school, a part-time job, his own radio show, and his work as the Student Academic vice president of Capilano University, he is constantly on-the-go. When asked how he balances it all, he looked a little sheepish, and pulled out a big, black agenda. “Now, I don’t show this to everyone,” he said conspiratorially, “I don’t use a CSU agenda – there’s not enough space. No, if it’s not in this book, it doesn’t happen. Everything is written down here. I live by this.” But at 28, no one would accuse Willis of living by the book. “My world is really weird, and different, and strange.” Willis is driven by his interest in people, and unquenchable curiosity. “I love people, I love being around them, I love engaging with them,” he said, putting an emphasis on his desire to create more of a sense of community at Capilano. Despite only being in his second semester of a Communications degree, Willis has wasted no time in bringing about the change he wants to see. “I ran for student VP because I knew it was somewhere I could affect how things are done for students,” he said, “Right now I'm focused on Open Education Resources [OER].” The push for OER is an excellent way to bring down the cost of textbooks, something Willis acknowledges as an issue and a barrier for some students. “It’s also just a neat way of learning,” he said, “I was surprised how high my grades were because I wasn’t just chained and shackled to, say, chapters three through chapters six, and I was provided hand outs relevant to what we were learning.” Willis also said he noticed a lot more student engagement and is keen to get more instructors to utilize this tool. He has also played a big role in the recent launch of Capilano’s new student residences. “I saw an opportunity, and I asked how we could make it a unique experience,” said Willis, “it’s a way to connect them with me, each other, the student union, or whatever interests them.” As a natural interviewer, Willis is obsessed with learning about what makes people tick. As a perpetual do-er, he is gripped with the desire to help people achieve their own goals. “That’s really what I wanted to do,” said Willis, “I want to be a presence for people at Capilano, and figure out what they want to do, and how we can make that possible. I’m always wanting to figure that out.” Willis attributes some of his passion for people to his own challenges and is aware that the learning process is sometimes a long journey. “It’s been 10 years of working and working, being very miserable, but then finding little things that worked for me, and finding people who were pointing me to the right areas that I wanted to go in.” For him, it’s all about knocking on doors, and utilizing the many resources that are available. In the meantime, Willis will continue to live his eight different lives, orchestrating operations from his excessively large California king-sized bed. “I sleep with my work - literally, I’m on one half, and as soon as I get home I have my laptop, I have my books, I have my binders, I have everything laid out, and inevitably I will have two microphones sitting there, and an audio pack, and I will just multitask from my bed,” said Willis, “I just really love to work.” If only we all had that problem.
THE CAPILANO COURIER
VOLUME 50 ISSUE NO. 5
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OPINIONS
“JUSTICE PRICING” ISN’T TRUE JUSTICE Filmgoers were charged more because they were white men Laura Melczer CONTRIBUTOR
A recent documentary viewing in a theatre in Victoria turned controversial when white men were charged more to get in. The event, organized by the group involved with the movie and not the theatre itself, called this new pricing policy "justice pricing." White men were charged $15 while members of other racial and gender groups were charged $10. Differences in the ticket price were to bring focus to the higher wages white men earn compared to their counterparts. White men still earn significantly higher wages than anyone
else in many workplaces and positions across the country. The event organizers and filmmaker Shiraz Higgins felt this was an opportunity to push forward “an important piece of overall conversation that is happening in society right now.” While it is important to raise awareness about income disparity, the justice pricing idea raises more problems than it solves. Now, it’s true that women and people of colour often get paid less, and there are higher costs associated with being a woman. Women often have to spend higher amounts on toiletries, haircuts and clothes than men, even when the products are virtually the same. Higher costs aren’t limited to a woman’s outward appearance either. Women have higher health care rates due to old sexist policies. Even the monthly period products most women have to purchase add up to a large cost many men don’t need to think about. People of Colour face similar problems, dealing with deep-rooted discrimination and paying more for basic products required for a good
standard of living. With minorities earning a lower income and dealing with higher costs to have the same quality of life as men, there needs to be a focus on how to even out wages and economic power. But (and this is a big but), the solution isn’t to force one group to pay more than others. The justice pricing idea doesn’t take into account that there are many more factors that go into the money in a person’s pocket. Income inequality will not be magically resolved by charging people differently based on the colour of their skin or what gender they identify with. Also, justice pricing depends solely on those who create the price to pass snap judgments on people. This “system” creates checkboxes that people don’t necessarily fit into. To have a fair or unbiased pricing system is more difficult than this model would have us believe. While statistically speaking white men make more than all other social groups, it doesn’t mean that every white man makes more than everyone else. Just as not
every black or Hispanic woman makes the lowest wage. Oprah is one of the highest paid people in the world, making many times more than the average white man. There are always going to be variations of income and demographics. Charging an entire group an increased price is surprise - not the same as changing the economic system. True, white men have enjoyed economic privilege all through history and up to the present. While we should be working to change the economic power and wealth distribution, it’s a more intricate problem than the creators of justice pricing suggest. Instead of justice pricing, people should pay on a sliding scale. That way, people can pay what they are able based on their economic status instead of a well-meaning, (but ultimately harmful), pricing discrimination system. Unless the event staff of this documentary know how to change our current economic system, there can’t be true “justice” until we all can pay the price— equally.
to a Harris Poll, 95 per cent of pet owners consider their pets to be part of the family. And a Harvard study found correlation between owning pets and lowered stress, cholesterol, and risk of heart disease. So, pets can clearly be important. Maybe landlords don’t care about the physical and mental well being of their renters, but they should care that on average, pet owners stay 48 months while a non-pet owner stays an average of 18. Some landlords have learned to take advantage of this statistic, such as Judy Guth, a landlady in California who has
a “pets only” policy. That’s right, you can only rent an apartment in her building if you have a pet. Up to two dogs and three cats. Of course, most of her tenants have lived in the building for over a decade so there’s not much luck in renting with her. The only oddity to the situation is that if your pet dies, you have to go adopt another ASAP or else you have to move. Really. While Guth’’s policy is probably way too extreme for most situations, something in between that and the no pets insanity of Vancouver would be ideal. There are landlords in Vancouver who disagree,
saying the solution is to build more rentals. While yes, that would certainly help, the problem is that many of these buildings get bought up and then sat on, never to be rented out. Ontario changed their rental laws years ago to be less discriminatory against pet owners, and they have not seen a significant increase in damages or problems with pets since then. So, Vancouver landlords, throw in that expensive damage deposit (we will pay it), click “cats and dogs okay” and be prepared for some of the happiest, healthiest, and most loyal renters in the city.
PET OWNERS NEED NOT APPLY Vancouver renters face the worst pet discrimination in Canada Tia Kutschera Fox
It happens almost every time: you’ve found a decent apartment you can afford, in an area near work, and it seems perfect. Then, at the bottom of the Craigslist ad you notice two terrible, familiar words: “no pets”. When you click on the “cats okay” or “dogs okay” option, rent prices rocket upwards beyond your budget and the options are cut down to a sad handful of spaces for rent. Welcome to Vancouver, the least pet friendly city in Canada. Let’s run some numbers. As of 2015, Vancouver’s vacancy rate was 0.8 per cent. To put that into dramatic perspective, the national average was 3.3 per cent. The housing crisis isn’t news to anybody, but something even less talked about is the increasing discrimination pet owners face when trying to find a home for themselves and their fur-babies. In 2015, Vancouver Magazine took a sample of 600 rentals on Craigslist across Canada’s big cities that had both “cats okay” and “dogs okay” ticked. They found 20 per cent of Calgary listings, 15 per cent of Montreal, eight per cent in Toronto, and just five per cent in Vancouver. It’s become so bad that in 2015 half of the pets the Vancouver SPCA takes in are from owners surrendering their pets, and 45 per cent of these pets were surrendered because of housing-related reasons. This is a ridiculous amount of discrimination. No landlord can legally post “no children,” and yet children can inflict far more damage to a home than a pet. There are not many stories of dogs scribbling on pristine white walls with indelible markers or burning carpets for example. While comparing children to pets may seem unfair, more and more people are choosing not to have children due to the expense, and are turning to pets as an alternative. According
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OPINIONS EDITOR
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KAEPERNICK’S LASTING LEGACY Why are we even debating “Taking the Knee?” Ramneet Kang
A wave of defiance grew nationwide on Sept. 25 after over 200 NFL players took a knee, locked arms, or refused to stand up for the American national anthem before a game. Much of the public was shocked when President Trump responded by calling for NFL owners to fire any "son of a bitch" who "disrespects our flag." It needs to be said that while the US Flag Code does list certain things as disrespectful to the flag – such as printing the flag on cups and plates or clothing – kneeling is not on that list. It is appalling that speaking out in protest of inequality and racial injustice in a “free and fair nation” has been misconstrued as a disrespectful act. The current political and racial climate has become such that players cannot easily exercise their first amendment of rights. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is credited with starting this protest back in August 2016 when he took a knee to protest police brutality stating, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” Fellow athlete and friend Eric Reid recently wrote an article for The New York Times saying, “We chose to kneel because it’s a respectful gesture. I remember thinking our posture was like a flag flown at half-mast to mark a tragedy.” Fox News contributor Stephen L. Miller expressed puzzlement with the gesture, saying that the national anthem wasn’t used to honor police officers but rather to honor the men and women serving in the nation’s armed forces. Kaepernick and his fellow kneeling players have all clearly explained that the primary reason for their gesture is
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! Road rage is good for you Greta Kooy CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR
Some people do yoga, some people write songs, and some of us casually say “fuck” under our breath 15 times in the confinement of our personal vehicles. Road rage is something we’ve all experienced at least once in our lives, either on the giving or receiving end. In larger cities like Vancouver, road rage tends to be normalized due to heavy traffic patterns and the number of flustered and irritated drivers. It’s no secret that Vancouver has some of the worst drivers, and for people who drive cautiously and mindfully these drivers can sometimes bring out the worst in them.
– KYLE PAPILLA
CONTRIBUTOR
to protest systemic oppression and police brutality against black men, speaking for those who cannot. They are protesting the flag about as much as Rosa Parks was protesting buses. What Miller and Trump also fail to grasp is that those who fought and died for their country did so to ensure a fair and free society, and a free society includes the right to protest. In fact, many veterans on Twitter showed their support for the movement by posting photos of them
kneeling down themselves. Interestingly, Mike Pence left a game in protest of the NFL players protesting. He apparently didn’t get the irony. Something else to keep in mind is that the time-honoured tradition of NFL players standing for the national anthem is as ye olden as… 2009. Athletes were thereafter “encouraged” to participate as a military marketing campaign to promote nationalism. Kaepernick has been likened to
civil rights heroes such as Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali. Using his free agency, he has donated over $900,000 to organizations working in oppressed communities and has sparked a revolutionary movement. Yet today, he’s considered an extremely polarizing figure and hasn’t been able to find work. Is America really more afraid of a black man on his knee than a white man with a gun?
A video of an intense road rage incident was filmed in North Vancouver and went viral on Sept. 19. The video shows the drivers of two cars, both stopped at a red light at the intersection of Main St. and Mountain Highway, become physically violent with one another. It’s unclear from the video what caused the altercation, but it resulted in a lot of yelling and a shattered rear window. Thanks to dash cam footage, as well as video evidence caught on cellphones, recordings of several other road rage incidents can be found all over the Internet. Simply typing in “road rage” into YouTube’s search bar will show hours upon hours of road rage activity, many of which result in the physical assault of one or both parties. Most people who experience road rage confine their anger to the inside of their cars, but as we can see in the aforementioned video, this isn’t always the case. While we obviously condemn the violence we see in this particular viral video (especially since there was a child in
one of the cars), road rage isn’t all about physical retribution. For many of us, it’s simply a way to blow off some muchneeded steam, especially after being cut off three times by oblivious drivers. In fact, casual and non-violent road rage can be a good thing. Cursing has been shown to relieve stress and actually calm you down. Seriously. In a study done at Britain’s Keele University, participants who swore to ease their pain and comfort themselves were able to do so much quicker and increase their pain tolerance. So the next time someone decides to turn left at the last possible second during rush hour, just remember a bunch of psychologists in the UK say it’s essentially therapeutic to release a nice big “fuck you.” Something as small as not using turning signals, or driving slowly in the fast lane can be particularly painful, especially when we’re in a hurry to be somewhere (as many of us are). At times, frustration towards other drivers can
surmount our feelings of understanding when the circumstances are dangerous. For instance, motorcyclists or bicyclists weaving hazardously in-between lanes can cause a lot of anxiety. So can wannabe drag-racers on the Lions Gate Bridge (who needs a McLaren F1 in Vancouver anyways?). Even the calmest of drivers have experienced these apprehensions, and when our lives are at risk we tend to be defensive. It’s easy to say “just forget about it,” or “calm down,” but it’s really hard to actually do. If you’ve driven in a busy city for a long time, it can be difficult to “just forget about it” when bad drivers happen to you every single day. Cars are expensive, and our lives are important, so when either is at risk of damage at the behest of terrible drivers, it’s okay to take it personally. It’s okay to get mad. It’s okay to ignore “calm down” in favor of “swear it up.” Just don’t exit your vehicle, otherwise you might end up in an embarrassing viral video.
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THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BABEBALL The Curse of the Billy Goat
Leah Scheitel
“The Chicago Cubs will win the last Pennant before Armageddon” – This is an old Milwaukee proverb that is found in the back of a book of W.P. Kinsella’s short stories, and while it’s hard to put stock in an old adage from the Mid West, this might be worth paying attention to. Last year, the Chicago Cubs broke a curse that plagued the organization for over seven decades when they won the World Series. It was the epitome of a nailbiting game that Hollywood screenwriters couldn’t even fathom – an intensely close game, with both the Cubs and the Cleveland Indians in the lead position at times. They were tied in the bottom of the ninth and had to go into extra innings to settle it, but not before a rain delay. Seriously, this is the shit that movies are made of. But the Cubs inched a win, a seemingly impossible feat. Their World Series win was the first for the Club since 1908 – 108 years, and the longest drought in the history of baseball since a Pennant win. It should be noted that the club that now has the honour of the longest Pennant drought is the Cleveland Indians, the team the Cubs beat, who last won in 1948. Seriously, this shit is better than Hollywood. As the folklore is told, way back in 1945, the owner of a local tavern, William Sianis, was pissed when he was asked to leave Wrigley Field – home of the Cubs – because
THE CALL OF THE WILD Are you Vitamin N (Nature) deficient?
Layla Kadri COLUMNIST
It’s clear that our modern society is generally less connected to the natural environment than past generations. In Vancouver, many might consider our urban sprawl to be very “green,” specifically regarding inner city green spaces, Stanley Park and of course, the great Sea-to-Sky corridor. We also live next to Squamish, the nation’s Outdoor Recreation Capital. Defining Vancouverites to be naturedeficient might be a head-scratcher, but the truth is – it takes more than physically
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COPY EDITOR
he brought his pet goat to a playoff game there and the goat’s odor was offending other spectators. Rumour has it that Sianis infamous words of “Them Cubs, they ain’t going to win no more,” acted as a curse on the Cubs, who didn’t win another championship until 2016 – all of this because some guy’s goat was insulted. The Chicago Cubs franchise spent 71 years as the butt of jokes, as they haven't played in the World Series since 1945. This lore acted as the inspiration for the Milwaukee proverb, among other stories and some Cubs fans lived their entire lives waiting for their beloved team to break the curse, in vain. There were many attempts to lift the curse, including several from Sianis himself. Sianis’s nephew went to multiple games at Wrigley Field with a goat as his
date in desperate attempt to lift the curse. Over the years, fans have gone to insane measures to lift the curse, such as hanging a butchered goat on a statue of Harry Caray, having a Greek Orthodox priest spray holy water into the Cubs’ dugout and sending the severed head of a goat to the club’s owner, Thomas Ricketts in 2012. The largest effort may have been in 2003, when a battalion of Cubs fans marched into Houston, Texas with a billy goat named Virgil Homer alongside them. They attempted to get into Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, the Cubs division rivals. Instead of getting into the park, they stood outside and read from a scroll that they were “reversing the curse.” For years, the idea of the Cubs ever winning another Pennant seemed
like an impossible feat, and it would happen when hell froze over or – as the Milwaukee proverb prophesizes – before Armageddon. But on Nov. 2, 2016, the Cubs won the Pennant. Exactly one week later, Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States. Make of that what you will, but since he has been elected, it has been nothing short of political chaos in the US, which has impacted the international political tapestry as a whole. On Oct. 12, the Cubs beat the Washington Nationals 9-8 to advance to the National League Championship Series against the LA Dodgers. If they win that, they will once again play for the Pennant, begging the question – can Armageddon happen twice?
being in nature to connect with it. The inner workings behind those reasons are a complex series of social factors. It may be due to urbanization, innovation and increase of technology, lack of leisure time, perceived wilderness risk, growing pressures from our economy, or simply the lack of immersion in nature as children. Many texts exist around the topic of nature deprivation and disassociation. Notably, is Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods published in 2005. The book shares the reality of how children today have grown disconnected from nature, and details its repercussions. It also shares research on how exposure to nature is essential for all facets of a healthy childhood development – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. It advocates for nature as a therapy for wellness and mental conditions, such as depression, obesity and ADHD, as well how outdoor education improves creativity and critical thinking. We can acknowledge that most of our generation’s lifestyles do inherently take us away from nature more than
past generations, and most would agree that it’s primarily due to our increased relationship and usage of technology. My six-year-old nephew has his own iPad – just 15 years ago, iPhones did not yet even exist. As university students, most of our education involves sitting down in classrooms and using a computer for assignments, research and readings. It’s inevitable that so much of our time is taken by sitting indoors with technology. And so, our first challenge is actually getting out into nature. We all carve our own relationships with nature differently, and that relationship means something unique to each person. In recent years, hiking has become one of Vancouver’s most popular trends. While popularizing the outdoors is a great benefit, the motives behind can be contradictory. Numerous hikers are climbing peaks just to take photos of the view, they leave the top in a span of minutes and completely forget to “take it all in.” When we view nature, whether it’s the local green path or a provincial park, if we only see it as a pleasant backdrop to
our fitness or profile picture, we’re not connecting with it. We’re considering it an accessory. Our relationship with nature is becoming artificial, more commonly experienced through virtual channels, such as Instagram, rather than direct contact. Many Vancouverites view hiking as a race to the peak, there’s a sense of accomplishing the mountain and it becomes more of an ego achievement. At this point, we’re seriously running the risk of future generations using their childhood experiences of nature as a benchmark for which they measure future environmental degradation. Imagine a future world where grizzly bears do not exist, and to that generation, it’s won’t be out of the ordinary. If we want to protect our environment and biodiversity, we need to create opportunities to reconnect with nature for both children and adults. We need to rethink how we spend our time in nature. We need not to slow down to truly take a view in, or to stop and feel a flower petal’s texture, or even to take your shoes and socks off and walk on the wet moss. Try it some time, I dare you.
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STATE OF THE DIASPORA The World Cup and Growing up Black
Kevin Kapenda COLUMNIST
By mid-November, 32 teams from across the globe will have earned a place at next year’s World Cup in Russia. For many people, the World Cup is little more than sports entertainment. A month-long comedy (or annoyance) based on triumph, failure and the elation from just the qualification rounds. Being both black and a fan of soccer in Canada, I assign more meaning to the tournament. To me, the World Cup allows people to engage with their culture, or embrace others, through a shared love for the beautiful game. As superficial as this
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often looks (drunks and hooligans), the World Cup allows us to place ourselves on this Earth, regardless of where we’re “from” or where we are in the moment. However, as I’ve grown older, international football has also got me thinking about access and inclusion. What happens when you belong to more than one group, and those identities are being questioned as mutually incompatible or undesirable? As a kid, the historic Les Bleus of the late 1990s and early 2000s were more than just France’s team. Many of their stars’ parents had been born outside of the country, while many of their players were indeed born elsewhere. Yes, the players were French, but they were also Caribbean, Arab, African and Portuguese. This plethora of identities has not only been credited with France’s success on the pitch, having reached four finals since 1998 in nine in tournaments, but also establishing them as one of the planet’s most popular national teams. Watching this immigrant-dominated team succeed gave me hope that perceptions of people who look like me may shift. That more often than none, we might begin to be viewed as contributors to the West and its
countries, rather than delinquents reliant on the welfare state. One of the tragedies of football, and sport in general is this belief that it is isolated from politics and should remain that way. However, in a game where national teams are embodiments of state history, from colonization and slavery, to immigration and citizenship policies, I find it hard nor rational to separate politics from football. Indeed, I support Brazil and Portugal in their respective rivalries against Argentina and Spain because in the former nations, black players are well represented in their national teams. Of course, the racial makeup of these four countries’ teams are not accidental. Argentina’s “no Negros” policies, and Spain’s reputation as one the most anti-black nations in Western Europe is why those rivalries impassion me. Looking at Western Europe’s top teams since the 1990s, it is evident which countries have embraced difference and dedicated themselves integration. Sure, anti-Black racism persist in the likes of Belgium, Germany, France, Brazil and England, but they are miles ahead of Argentina, Spain and Italy, where coloured players are often subject to racial abuse online and
in stadiums. After a lifetime of watching the game, I’ve realized that soccer is not separate from institutions of race and power – it’s a product of it, that is always changing. It’s difficult to conceive that many of Germany’s best players are ethnically black and Turkish, but that’s what is possible when winning is prioritized over racism and diversity is recognized as the force it is. Sadly, blackness is something soccer continues to have a hard time accepting. Ironically, “Black” players are some of the only footballers who have qualified for teams from all four continents. Still there are many who do not want them in their stadiums and on their teams. People are entitled to their beliefs. However, it is important that these beliefs are recognized for what they are. Perceptions of what those societies should be, and should be included and excluded from them. If you want to learn more about the world’s countries and their people, watch international soccer and refer to Wikipedia when confused. It’ll cost you far less than a university degree. I would recommend travelling, but depending on you are, you may find you’re not exactly welcome everywhere.
out at around 18 feet, and you are free to go as high – or as low – as you want. One of the things that novice climbers may not realize is that bouldering won’t leave you hanging on the side of a rock face a hundred feet above ground. It’s a short vertical climb, but if you really wanted the traditional rock climbing experience, DM me and we can set something up. With bouldering, your objective is to reach the top of the boulder from a specified starting position. Routes are referred to as “problems” and The Hive’s simple hex system – in place of the complicated V-system – allows you to
better gauge the problem. Although there are no ropes to protect the climber, you can simply fall onto the crash pad and try again. If indoors isn’t your thing, then you can rent gear from the Hive or MEC and get your boulder on outside. Daily rental for all your gear can be as low as $50 a day. And when you’re climbing, you get to look and feel cool with a large rectangle pad strapped to your back like a sail. Once you get the desire of getting your own gear, try on as many shoes as possible. Each brand fit different from others and different models are
designed for different purposes. Some are built for smudging, some for edging, some are for sport and others are for traditional bouldering. Get a pair that fits comfortably and try them out on the test wall at climbing stores. Due to the complexity and potential hazards associated with climbing outdoors, I’m not going to give you directions to local spots. Get out and educate yourself, ask questions, buy one of the few books that still contain hidden knowledge or make new friends. A hint: the Hive has a room that you can use to map out your next adventure.
GET THE &#$@ OUTDOORS But you can also boulder inside
Scott Barkemeyer WEARS SHORTS
Sooner or later, it’s going to get “cold”, forcing us to change the activities that we partake in. I emphasize the word “cold” since most of our readers don’t actually know what cold is. I’m talking about the -40°c I used to relish in Alberta, and not the blissful -5°c that we get out here in Vancouver. While we go through the seasonal changes, there is a great activity that can be done year-round, technically both outdoors and indoors. Bouldering is both individual and social. You can get into it for the price of a cheap pair of climbing shoes, a chalk bag and a crash pad (available for rent or borrow from your new boulder buddies). For those new to the sport, I highly recommend heading to the closest gym to get some of the techniques down and make sure you enjoy the activity before heading to the outdoors. Even better for Capilano University students is the Capilano Climbing Club. Meet friends, try out a new activity and fall onto nice deep mats. Get in touch with the club through the Capilano Climbing Club Facebook page, ensure your Wednesday evenings are free and you’ll be set for your first bouldering experience. Through the club, $17 will get you shoe rental, a chalk bag and a pass. Those who fear heights don’t necessarily have to avoid bouldering. The Hive North Shore Climbing Gym maxes
– JENNY OAKLEY
IN THE WINTER
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Having a brief check-in with yourself can be great – even better when you know what to look for BY JASLYNNE GIBEAULT ILLUSTRATION BY RACHEL SANVIDO
very year, millions of people struggle with stress and mental health. It can be hard to deal with these things by yourself, but you don't have to go through it alone. As long as we can understand some of the causes and things we can do to keep ourselves and others happy and healthy, we can learn to navigate these obstacles. Sadness vs. Depression There is a significant difference between sadness and depression that people tend to be unaware of. Sadness is usually triggered by a specific incident, which could be a difficult, harmful or disappointing event. Once that moment disappears or changes, the sadness that you experienced will slowly vanish along with it. Sadness is something everyone feels at many points throughout their life. According to Guy Winch, PhD, from Psychology Today “Sadness is a normal human emotion,” that eventually disappears. On the other hand, Winch describes depression to be an “abnormal human emotion.” Unlike sadness, depression is not triggered by events, instead, it can often come up out of the blue. There is a prominent physical aspect to some of depression's characteristics. People who struggle with their physical health are often prone to depression, which is why it is common for many older people to be dealing with it in their everyday lives. While it may cause some physical symptoms to arise, it can also worsen any physical issues you already deal with, or increase your risk of developing them later on. Depression can cause insomnia, which can lower your immune system making you more prone to other illnesses. Eating habits are also affected, fluctuating between overeating or a total lack of appetite.
Depression can discolour life, making it less enjoyable - it negatively impacts the way you act around others, the way you think as well as the way you feel. It is likely to be irritable and angry when you are prone to depression because even small annoyances can seem amplified and bother you easily. It can make even the smallest problems in the world feel like they are much bigger than they may actually be. Many people suffering with depression lose interest in the things that they once loved or lose motivation in activities they once enjoyed. They constantly feel down and often develop a feeling of worthlessness or a sense of not being good enough. Depression is a condition that countless people face. Knowing that you are not alone and that you can reach out for help is a valuable thing to keep in mind if you find yourself struggling. Talking to one of your closest friends, a family member or anyone you feel comfortable with will surprise you at how much it can help. However, sometimes you may need to speak with someone with more knowledge in the area. Experiences with depression can differ from person
“When you begin to understand what stresses you out, you can find activities that can regulate those stresses directly.”
to person, and you know yourself best. If you feel like your sadness just won't go away, or even if you're not quite sure if what you're feeling is only sadness- trust yourself and ask someone. Speaking with a counsellor or doctor is a powerful act of self-care, one that may change your life. Good stress vs. Bad stress One of the hardest things to deal with
is stress. As stress can lead to many other things, it is always good to try and manage it early on by keeping yourself organized. One method is to avoid procrastinating. Instead, plan when you will have time to complete your tasks so that you never have to rush, as rushing can induce stress. If you know you’re not
“Self-care is extremely important - it can determine how you feel and act. Yet, when we are stressed, we often forget about self-care. ”
a morning person, or maybe you’re just someone who takes longer to get ready, you should plan ahead and get up earlier to avoid the morning rush. During the school year, it is difficult not to fall behind on assignments. Having multiple assignments overdue and piling up can cause many to panic and not put in their best effort. One of the biggest causes of stress is overwhelming yourself to the point where you just don’t know where to start. A good strategy is to avoid looking at all of the work you have at once. Instead, pick one thing and try to accomplish that first. Capilano University counsellor, Keith Lam said that “It is a lot better to focus on one task at a time and finish it, rather than working on a bunch of things and stressing yourself out.” When you begin to understand what stresses you out, you can find activities that can regulate those stresses directly. That might be taking 20 minutes to rest after every hour of studying, listening to music, or drawing - whatever helps you feel more relaxed. That being said, sometimes a manageable amount of stress can actually be good for you. Stress can give you a burst of energy that can help you to maintain your goals, motivating you to complete certain challenges. It can also act as a warning
system, altering your natural reactions to physical threats by increasing your blood pressure and heart rate. Good stress can cause excitement, such as when your pulse speeds up but you are not afraid. When someone frightens you, your body releases a certain kind of stress, acute stress, which allows your body to react to the situation and then to recover from it. This type of stress does not take a heavy toll on your body, instead it serves as a natural defence. Self-care Self-care is extremely important - it can determine how you feel and act. Yet, when we are stressed, we often forget about self-care. “What you put into your body is what you will get out of it,” said Lam. If you are skipping meals and exercise while trying to juggle everything that is stressing you, you will find that it might be negatively affecting you both mentally and physically, further adding to your stress. Not eating proper or healthy meals has a direct effect on your mood. People say that the most important meal of the day is breakfast for a reason, as it gives you the fuel you need to start your morning so you can accomplish the things you have planned for the day. The other thing that is essential in self-care is getting enough rest. If you do not get enough sleep, it reduces your motivation and makes you sluggish. If you tend to skip out on proper meals and rest, you may find that you become counterproductive. After all, it gets harder to complete your tasks when you don’t have the tools you need to keep your body going. As well as getting enough sleep and eating well, exercise is a key to helping you remain fit and healthy. It might come as walking your dog twice a day, or going to the gym every second day. As long as you are getting some type of constant exercise, you will start to feel better physically and mentally. Counselling Services are available at Capilano University. Visit Birch 267 at the North Vancouver campus, or call 604-984-1744. More information for the Sunshine Coast campus' Counselling Services is available on their website, or call 604-885-9310.
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was able to capture a moment of peace on the increasingly famous log, hikers of Joffre today are lucky to get to the middle lake without encountering a lineup of people waiting for their chance to take a selfie on the hyper-popular spot. The dozens upon dozens of hikers and tourists who wait in line to take a photo with the middle lake log is representative of a fairly recent phenomenon in the province. Hiking, and various other backcountry activities are more popular than ever – business is booming and #beautifulbc has generated over two million public posts on Instagram. Not to mention the numerous other social tags regarding BC that Instagram users utilize. Yet a dark cloud is casting a shadow on BC’s latest trend. More hikers are coming to mountains completely unprepared, challenging steep slopes with mere flipflops on and often without an adequate supply of water. As much as clickbait marketing and Instagram has generated a buzz around the outdoors, it has also misled and misinformed people – hiking is not easy, and it was never supposed to be about getting the most likes on social media.
BC’s trails are as popular as ever, but what's behind the latest trend is hurting the integrity of the outdoors BY CARLO JAVIER ILLUSTRATION BY ANNIE CHANG
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uke Buehler first hiked Joffre Lakes in March 2012. The Capilano University second-year Outdoor Recreation Management (OREC) student was still in high school at the time of the hike. He had only just started to develop a liking for the outdoors after bonding with his dad’s new chocolate lab. Like most new and eager hikers, Buehler was admittedly unprepared for the snowy trek, recalling his own surprise and embarrassment after seeing other hikers ascend the trails with their skis. Down in the Greater Vancouver area, the coming of March signals the end of winter and the bloom of spring. Up in the mountains, however, the cold weather tends to persist for a few more months. Eventually, Buehler and his friends reached the end of the trail, having passed three majestic lakes and the rocky terrain that bookends Joffre. Describing the hike as “one of the coolest experiences” he’s ever had, Buehler returned to Joffre the following summer. During his second visit, the Provincial Park didn’t yet draw the volume of hikers and tourists that it beckons today. While there, Buehler was still able to enjoy the tranquility of the outdoors, even snapping a photo of the now-famous “middle lake log”. In the middle lake of Joffre, there lies a fallen log that floats on turquoise waters. In recent years, this log has become one of the most iconic images associated with British Columbia’s beautiful outdoors and is among the most shared BC-based photos you will see on Instagram. While Buehler
Having worked at Golden Ears Provincial Park for two years, Buehler has had his fair share of interactions with ill-prepared hikers – and he has some choice words for some of Vancouver’s most popular local websites and Instagram pages. “They have absolutely destroyed Garibaldi, and I would totally put Daily Hive and Narcity and places like that to blame, or Hikes Near Vancouver and all those Instagram pages like Discover Vancouver,” he said. “They post these professional looking, beautiful pictures of this place and all they tell you is exactly where it is, but not how to do it, how to get there and how to actually hike.” Blog and Instagram posts regarding BC trails are often solely focused on a particular image, and for the most part, they tend to be barren of any information regarding the hike itself. While the aforementioned websites and pages have certainly played a contributing role in reinvigorating the general interest in BC’s natural wonders, they have also, undoubtedly, enabled the lack of education that the North Shore Rescue (NSR) and other outdoor advocates have tried to alleviate. Mike Danks, team leader of the NSR revealed that their call volume has seen a 30 per cent increase in the past three years. Although he admits that the rise is only natural as the number of hikers continue to rise, he does believe that social media has played a major role. “I think a lot of visitors to Vancouver and new people to Vancouver see a lot of social media postings about these beautiful destinations and they don’t really understand the skillsets that are required to get to these areas,” Danks said. Misinformation and general unpreparedness are often the leading causes of outdoor emergencies. Danks stated that the backcountry – any trail and campground that’s inaccessible by car – is often underestimated by novice hikers. “A lot of people are very naïve to the conditions in the backcountry and they would typically go out with runners, a sporty shirt
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and shorts on, and think they’re going to just zip up to these remote peaks and come back and have no problems.” Another common mistake that hikers can make is to believe that the weather in the Greater Vancouver area will prove to be consistent in the backcountry. “Most of the summer, we still had snow in the backcountry and that totally surprised people because in the city, there were no signs of snow, but in the areas where there wasn’t a lot of sunshine, the snow wasn’t melting,” said Danks. Danks also cited name recognition and accessibility of North Shore trails as potential double-edged swords. “If you do an hour hike on the Grouse Grind, you can get into the backcountry very quickly and you can be very remote and without a cell signal incredibly fast,” he said. “The terrain, if you get off trail, even on the front side of Grouse Mountain can be very steep and treacherous.” Location-wise, the key rescue spots for the NSR include the St. Mark’s area on the Howe Sound Crest Trail, the Coliseum Mountain and Norvan Falls in the Lynn Headwaters Regional Park, as well as the backside of Grouse Mountain. While the safety and livelihoods of hikers are understandably deemed as the primary concern regarding BC’s trendiest past time, there is another figure in the equation that often finds itself disregarded and forgotten: the actual trail.
Established in 1911, Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island is the oldest designated provincial park in BC. The massive space encompasses nearly 250,000 hectares of mountains and wilderness and there were times when Brigit Forssman would be the only park facility operator (PFO) in sight. The second-year CapU OREC student has been associated with the outdoors her entire life, having worked in the industry for many years. She has done tours in several provincial parks on Vancouver Island, and has also worked as a naturalist interpreter – educating hikers about the ecosystems that exist in BC. Recently, Forssman wrapped up a summer
contract with Tiderip Grizzly Tours and is now giving tours in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve as part of mushroom season. While the root of BC’s hiking problem can be traced to misinformation and the lack of education and respect for the environment, blame cannot solely be placed on the shoulders of hikers and tourists. As with any governmental program, BC’s main bureau regarding the outdoors – BC Parks – has its own fair share of issues to overcome. Proper education simply cannot be disseminated without sufficient infrastructure, and BC’s trails simply cannot be maintained by a mere handful of park operators. “I can tell you a lot of the time, when I was hiking out in the backcountry, I was the only park worker within many kilometres out there,” said Forssman. “There’s no way for me, as a single park worker, to keep eyes on everything that’s going on.” According to both Forssman and Buehler, while BC Parks is technically “in charge” of the provincial parks, operation and maintenance of a respective park is actually handled by independent subcontractors. At the start of every negotiation phase, BC Parks will put up management contracts and auction them out to companies. The auction, however, works in reverse fashion of your typical bidding war. Instead of picking the highest bidder, BC Parks selects the company that will cost them the least. As Forssman put it, “Whoever bids the cheapest, wins.” This means that if a company were to claim that it can maintain Joffre Lakes Provincial Parks for $50,000 a year with a staff of 10 operators, and another were to bid with the price of $30,000 a year and a staff of five operators – the latter will win. “They’re trying to make it so that the operators want to spend less money and want to use less employees,” Buehler said. The irony baffles Forssman. While Canadian tourism continues to draw people in masses, the necessary programs to improve and adequately maintain natural tourist spots just aren’t enough. “A lot of the parks in Metro Van are about resource development and resource management and not necessarily about public use,” she
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said. “It means that we’re doing all this tourism development now, which again, I think has a positive side – it means that people get to interact with natural spaces and it brings awareness to beautiful British Columbia – but we are also not putting in the infrastructure that we need to actually develop those places.” These infrastructures refer to proper maintenance of trails, achieved only by having sufficient staffing. Without consistent voices of authority to help educate tourists and other new hikers, Forssman believes that the trails and campgrounds themselves would further suffer. One incident she can never forget occured in Cape Scott three years ago. A group of teenaged boys were camping in the park and for some reason decided to ruin the already limited water supply of Cape Scott. “They took dumps right next to the river that was people’s water source,” she recalled. “The water supply there is really limited and it was really limited that summer because we were having a major drought.” Once Forssman located the group, she saw that one of them had passed out before finishing his toast and beans. The barely eaten meal was carelessly left by the doorway of his tent – essentially creating a recipe for a bear attack. The systemic flaw in the way BC Parks manages the province’s many outdoor spaces not only leads to incredible understaffing of operators, but also to the very hazards that the operators try to protect these parks from. For his second year at Golden Ears, Buehler requested for his manager to move him from patrol officer to maintenance, so he could really see the inner workings of park operations. With his new position, Buehler was tasked with many janitorial duties, on top of beach, trail and campground maintenance. Some of the things he saw were nothing short of appalling. Arguably most shocking, was the recycling system – one that Buehler bluntly described as a “façade”. “It is written in the contract with the operator that recycling isn’t required, so they don’t do it,” he said. “We have bins out all over the park, saying that you should separate your glass, cardboard and plastic, so people actually do it, we have full recycling bins everyday. As maintenance, we are told to throw it in the garbage because it’s too expensive for them to actually hire recycling to pick it up.” This past summer alone, Buehler and a co-worker collected over 10,000 cans in Golden Ears’ premises.
As much as clickbait marketing may be ruining the very essence of the outdoors, Forssman believes there are developments to take solace in. Granted, there is a considerable increase in rescue calls, foot traffic and litter volume and governmental funding can seem hopeless, but at least people are going outside – regardless of the nature of their motives. Forssman admits that ultimately, the increase in usership in backcountry areas is a “net positive” and could very well help the development and protection of BC’s treasured parks. “The increase in usership also means that we get a better chance of people actually feeling strongly enough about these spaces [to] take care of them,” she said.
Having lived in East Vancouver for many years, Forssman used to refer to BC’s mountains as “the beautiful curtain.” Her friends would often comment about the allure of the mountains that surrounded the city, but would never actually peek behind the curtains. With the surge in popularity of backcountry activities, Forssman is finally seeing that curtain be pulled back. You could bet that most of Capilano University’s community members are familiar with Deep Cove’s Quarry Rock. While the initial lookout of the popular hike can often get very crowded, the upper viewpoint, where the power lines rest, tend to err towards the tranquility that most hikers seek. However, this viewpoint is also littered with hundreds to thousands of nails and shards of broken glass – likely from years’ worth of mountaintop parties, and little to no cleanup. This summer, Buehler took it upon himself to hike up with a rake, a pair of industrial gloves and a giant biodegradable yard waste bag with the aim of cleaning up the viewpoint. Anyone familiar with the spot would know that it would take more than one trip to clean up the area. Buehler, with the help of some friends, eventually started regular hikes to maintain the integrity of Quarry Rock. He would even use the Seymour entrance of the hike, with the hopes of encouraging people to use the alternate – but longer – route, to lessen the abuse that the main staircase gets. Any hiker who ascends to the second viewpoint of Quarry Rock today will see waste bags under the power poles. Anyone can help clean and when those bags are full, Buehler will happily go back up the mountain, replace it with a new one and hike the loaded bag back down. It’s a collective effort, one that isn’t bound by any legislated responsibility. BC is home – and paying respects to its natural wonders should be second nature.
THE CAPILANO COURIER
VOLUME 50 ISSUE NO. 5
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SHORTS
THE GOOD PLACE
FREAKS AND GEEKS
GLOW
TV’s best comedy is the one about death
The series that could have been
The best offensive critique of racist patriarchy on Netflix
Carlo Javier
Justin Scott
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MANAGING EDITOR
Kevin Kapenda COLUMNIST
THE MINDY PROJECT Mindy Kaling's rom-com was a smashing hit, until season five Christine Beyleveldt NEWS EDITOR
Anyone who remembers Kelly Kapoor from The Office. Well, the actress and writer Mindy Kaling left in 2012 to star in her own comedy series, The Mindy Project. Kaling stars as Dr. Mindy Lahiri, a hopelessly romantic OB-GYN looking for her "one" true love in the Big Apple. The Mindy Project is refreshing. There’s plenty of drama and gossip during complicated surgeries as seen on Grey's Anatomy, which is a huge bonus if you're squeamish. And Mindy herself is the polar opposite of the stereotypical Hollywood love interest: petite, blonde and innocuous. She laughs at her own bad jokes. She has a killer sense of style and a confidence in her body despite repeated jabs at her weight, and she hooks up with every man she can get her hands on. If the typical rom-com love interest is an example of the old trope that women are sugar, spice and everything nice, then Mindy is sarcasm, wine and everything fine. At least she was until the end of the show’s fourth season. Within a year, the staff of her practice, Shulman and Associates, is barely recognizable. The womanizing Dr. Jeremy Reed revealed a traumatizing past and started dating a string of women who walked all over him. Mindy herself has become unbearable right down to the way she speaks. Once sounding confident and witty, she now she just sounds downright vapid for a doctor and her catchword “ex-squeeze me” instead of “excuse-me” is overused. Only nurse (and reformed car thief) Morgan Tookers retains his inappropriate charms and keeps viewers laughing. I haven’t seen any new episodes from the sixth and final season, but from the buzz around it I gather there are a couple reappearances from some past favourites. This might be the show’s stellar comeback, but I doubt it. If you haven't watched The Mindy Project yet, give it a go. It’s highly fortifying and Mindy’s sense of humour in earlier episodes will cure any heartache better than a bowl of salted caramel ice cream. But unless its final season delivers a remarkable conclusion it’ll just be another one of those shows that ran far longer than it should have.
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Every great comedy in the sitcom pantheon rests its laurels on its cast’s dynamic chemistry, and The Good Place does exactly that. With its second season currently on air on NBC, and its first season wholly available on Netflix, The Good Place makes for perfect binge worthy television. With just 13 episodes per season, each running at 22 minutes, catching up should be no issue. While the foundation of the story follows the tried and true concepts of the afterlife – “The Good Place” is blissful heaven and “The Bad Place” is eternal damnation – the way it presents its characters is refreshing, and at times, thought-provoking. Lead actress Kristen Bell plays Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased saleswoman who mistakenly ends up in The Good Place when the life she lived was anything but virtuous. The gaffe ultimately wrecks havoc in the serene environment, and viewers are treated to some excellent performances by the rest of the core cast, which includes the likes of Ted Danson, Jameela Jamil and the delightful William Jackson Harper. The show carefully tackles the nuances of morality and features a healthy dose of humorous lectures on Kantian ethics. On top of it all, The Good Place doesn’t shy away from risks. Not only does it break the rules of great TV writing, it creates its own. Twists and turns are like unforeseen left hooks, shocking viewers time and again. The Good Place is irresistible television. It’s run-time, bevy of curves and cliff-hangers and its constant reminder that so much of death, is really about life, makes it the perfect show to binge watch.
If you’re anything like me, getting to sleep can be challenging. The second my head hits my pillow, my body is ready for sleep, but then my mind decides that it’s time to remember how poorly I handled a situation with a girl I liked in high school, or some other unimportant and embarrassing past event. Our teenage years can be some of the most confusing and we often feel as though no one understands what we’re going through. While it only aired for one season, 1999’s Freaks and Geeks is one of the most relatable shows I’ve ever seen. It captures the awkwardness of the teenage years perfectly, all while addressing serious social issues. A single episode can cover topics like a first break up, free speech and political freedoms, gender identify and how to cover up a hickie. Set in the early 1980’s, the show was the starting point for some of today’s notable actors. James Franco, Linda Cardellini, Seth Rogan and Jason Segal all starred in the show, and weren’t much older than their characters when they did. The show also does a good job of offering a diversity of characters. While viewers may not be able to identify with all of the characters, there’s a good chance that they will be able to empathize with at least one of them. Freaks and Geeks is not only entertaining, it’s also empowering. After all, we’re all freaks and/or geeks in one way or another.
Every great show has something that’s painfully bad about it. Netflix’s newest comedy-drama, GLOW, perfectly embodies this paradox. The show is about an upstart wrestling promotion set in 1980s. It’s named after the real-life Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotion of that same era, though the characters and gimmicks are fictionalized for the series. Starring Alison Brie and Beth Gilpin, many cast members of GLOW are dressed to elicit the male gaze, as is the case in professional wrestling. However, if you can look past that (though you shouldn’t) the show provides its viewers with a level of intersectional social criticism that has never been timelier given the political climate. Satirical social commentary is never easy, but GLOW is doing it in a way that most comedies don’t. Mirroring contemporary critiques of how show business sexualizes women and racializes minorities to entertain a primarily white and male audience, GLOW assigns stereotypical backstories to its roster of wrestlers. However, the on-screen anguish these characters display when reconciling their hyper-sexual and racist personas is what places GLOW in a league of its own. Unfortunately, many of the characters end up embracing these backstories, or internalizing that being cast is better than nothing – the main tragedy of showbiz. Overall GLOW is a glimpse into a cultural period not much different than our own. Watching how the characters cope with obvious racism and sexism in their non-wrestling lives makes me think of just how far we have to go. I’m sure it’d take Harvey Weinstein back.
CALENDAR
16 MON
STANLEY PARK GHOST TRAIN STANLEY PARK RAILWAY 11 A.M. - 10 P.M. / $12
The essential date night for any couple that loves Halloween. It’s cheap, it’s fun and they serve alcohol. The only downside is there is a 100 per cent chance it will rain on the evening you decide to go. Rain jackets are as essential as the Kahlua hot chocolate.
20
HEY OCEAN!
FRI
PAUL WELLER: A KIND REVOLUTION COMMODORE BALLROOM 7 P.M. / $79
Any musician past the age of 50 who is touring a new album should be greeted with skepticism. Paul Weller is no exception. A Kind Revolution does sound nice though. A good start to that would be not charging $80 to see your show.
17 TUES
WE ALL FLOAT DOWN HERE: A BURLESQUE TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN KING
BILTMORE CABARET 8 P.M. / $19.99 - $24.99
RIO THEATRE 7 P.M. / $25
Stephen King is into some creepy shit. Whether it’s fathers jerking off with their daughter on their lap or a group of kids gangbanging a girl. It’s uncontroversial to say his mind goes to some pretty kinky and slightly pedophilic places. Regardless, the idea of his books and themes blended with burlesque feels like the perfect marriage.
I remember when these guys were a big deal. Now they’re relegated to shows at the Biltmore, so that’s not exactly the career trajectory you want for a band. In fact, when you Google them, the only song that comes up is “Big Blue Wave” from 2012. But they are from Vancouver, so support your local artists, no matter how mediocre they have become.
VANCOUVER ART GALLERY
GRIZ
I’ve only been to the art gallery a handful of times, mainly because of field trips. However, every Tuesday entrance is by donation. Bring a toonie and get your yearly dose of culture.
Most people who are into electronic music and have branched out from traditional EDM have heard of GRiZ. His funk infused songs make for great music to dance to. However, GRiZ is at his best when there’s a live band behind him and, in my experience, there’s about a slim chance that’ll be the case. Still, any lover of electronic music should be at this show.
VANCOUVER ART GALLERY 5 P.M. - 9 P.M. / BY DONATION
18 WED
NO FUSS DAIRY-FREE COOKING TRUE NOSH COOKING 6:30 P.M. - 9 P.M. / $45
Anybody who has tried a latte with soy milk instead of regular milk knows how beneficial dairy-free products can be. Not only are they often delicious, you can also make them for your lactose intolerant partner. Cooking a dinner that they can eat without fear of throwing up after will score you some points in their book.
PNE FORUM 6 P.M. / $40
21 SAT
SIX WEEK BEGINNERS ASTROLOGY COURSE
19 THURS
It’s about time our favourite acrobats returned to Vancouver. This year’s tour has a steampunk aesthetic and looks to be as amazing as usual. It’s important to note that this year, they are doing tent shows instead of an arena and tent shows are always better.
If you like your football with 50 per cent less kneeling and 100 per cent less skill, then this is the place for you. I’ve been to three BC Lions games in my life and have gotten so bored that I left halfway through every time. I truly don’t know why anyone watches the CFL. Then again, I don’t know why anyone watches the NFL, either.
1311 APPIN ROAD 6 P.M. – 10 P.M. / BY DONATION
This is the haunted house to go to on the North Shore. This family-run haunted house started as a fun project to entertain the neighbourhood and has grown into the best Halloween attraction in North Vancouver. All donations go to the BC Professional Firefighters Burn Fund, so your terror is funding a great cause.
It’s hilarious that any person in politics would publicly advertise astrology. I hope Eby looks at the back of our paper and plans his week around how shitty it’s going to be. Six weeks is a very long time to be fed a continuous stream of bullshit. If you can put up with the whole course, please apply to be our new horoscope writer.
CONCORD PACIFIC PLACE 8 P.M. / $49
BC PLACE 7 P.M. / $25
VALLEY HAUNT
DAVID EBY MLA’S COMMUNITY OFFICE 6 P.M. - 7:30 P.M. / FREE
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
BC LIONS VS EDMONTON ESKIMOS
22 SUN
FOREIGNER’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR ABBOTSFORD CENTER 7 P.M. / $118!!!!
I’m so bad with most 70s and 80s music that I thought Foreigner was Journey and was surprised they were playing at Abbotsford. Looking at the two names, I forgive myself for that mistake. Either way they did do the song “Jukebox Hero”, so there’s that. But considering you could go to every other event on this calendar for the cost of one ticket, I would be hesitant.
REAPERS
HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR
If a ghost train isn’t really your idea of Halloween then maybe this is. Reapers has a haunted house as well as a ‘maze of terror’ for those who want to see just how much torment they can put up with.
I remember when Britannia Mine was a rundown exhibit that was terrifying 365 days a year because it looked so unsafe. Then they filmed the Scooby-Doo movie there and it got cleaned up and all the mystique was ruined. Still, I think a Halloween themed trip through the mine would be worth the cost of admission.
9423 GIBSONS ROAD 7 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. / $11 - $20
BRITANNIA MINE 10 A.M. - 3 P.M. / $15
THE CAPILANO COURIER
VOLUME 50 ISSUE NO. 5
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TAKING A BOW Music prodigy continues the tradition of offering the mic to Vancouver’s finest talent Milana Bucan CONTRIBUTOR
With five locations scattered across the Vancouver region, Trees Organic, a coffee and roasting house, has held the title of the best cheesecake around. For over 15 years, they’ve been hosting live music events every Friday, featuring some of the finest talent Vancouver has to offer. The event is currently organized by Marq DeSouza after original open mic host, John Pippus, retired from the position in June. DeSouza is “a veteran rock n’roll survivor” best known for his Solarbaby project, a band that produced two successful albums and now hosts the open mics on Thursday nights, welcoming aspiring performers in the heart of downtown, more specifically the Granville Trees Organic location. “Open mic started a couple of years ago, and it was sort of an option for Friday nights. Thursday nights are more casual, where anyone can come in and perform, no pressure, and both nights compliment
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each other really well,” explained DeSouza. Open Mic nights are held every Thursday night from 7:30 to 10 p.m. “We get some strange acts, and we get acts that really surprise me, when I’m just looking at them thinking how is this going to end up, but they go up there and they blow me away. We’ve had magicians, rappers, people doing poetry and it’s really fun,” said DeSouza. One of the venue’s alumni includes Canadian pop sensation Carly Rae Jepsen, who worked at the cafe and performed there for a while. Open mic and Friday nights have become an integral part of the community, bringing in crowds and regulars to hear a variety of musical styles, anything from rock, jazz and rap, even be entertained by poets and magicians. Every performer gets three songs, unless the cafe is not as busy, and in that case each performer has the option to showcase an additional song. “We have a lot of regulars that come on Fridays, thanks to John who’s built it into a quality evening. If you come down, you’ll get a certain quality that you might not get at other places. We take the time to book people to come in that are worthy of people’s attention,” said DeSouza. “It moves along so quickly, and even if you’re bored with one act, there’s going to be a different one on 10 minutes from then.” Friday nights have live music events held from 8 to 10 p.m., showcasing different local artists. “John was the one that turned it into what it is now: the format, the consistency and the quality. Who knows, if it weren’t for him,
VOLUME 50 ISSUE NO. 5
–MILANA BUCAN
ARTS & CULTURE
it would’ve ended some other time. He really took the time to put the work in and build it into a real event night,” said DeSouza. Years ago, Carly Rae Jepsen was part of the event, entertaining the crowd, until she moved on. Friday nights are different, where it’s a selected group of artists booked ahead of time. “We want to maintain quality, so it’s not really for beginners at all, it’s for people that
are up and coming. They either have a CD out, and are trying to make a name for themselves, and it’s mostly singersongwriters solo. We have had two people or trios come in, and we have all sorts of great combinations,” he said. Enjoy a night full of music and fun while tasting some of Vancouver’s tastiest cheesecake at Trees Organic. For more information visit Treescoffee. com
STAGING SOCIAL CHANGE A Vancouver theatre company continues its mission for a better community Sarah Schmidt CONTRIBUTOR
Since 1981, the Vancouver-based theatre company, Theatre for Living, has been using current social issues within our communities to respectfully bring to the stage what our society is facing, with the hopes that it will promote change. Using real-life stories and experiences, a mixed cast consisting of Indigenous and nonIndigenous members use the art form to create social change within our country. The theatre name evolved from The Theatre of the Oppressed to Headlines Theatre until 2013 when it was redeveloped into Theatre for Living. It has won countless awards over the past 36 years, and gained recognition as a major influence in the Vancouver arts community.
STUFF YOUR FACE AT STUFFIES Newly established South Korean eatery serves up treats to the North Shore Carlos Ascencio CONTRIBUTOR
Over the summer, a new establishment broke ground at the Phibbs Exchange bus loop (1571 Oxford street) offering up decadent treats for North Shore’s public transit faithful. Stuffies Pastries opened the doors to its stylish and welcoming enterprise on June 19, and though it seems to passing traffic that the business popped-up overnight, for Stuffies’ President Jin Lee, opening day couldn’t have been farther from that. After a year in just the developmental stages of the business plan, it took an additional six months for the building to come together. The South Korean company bought their equipment from Korea, and tailored the original products for the North American market. For instance, in Korea, they only have a couple of flavors consisting of red bean and vanilla. However since the transfer to Vancouver, the business has increased its variety, now including cinnamon, strawberry, chocolate and matcha stuffings, with the addition of gluten-free options. Lee is convinced that the key to success in the restaurant business is the customer service. “It doesn't matter how good the product is. If you don't have the service, the product means nothing. If I make you upset, it won't taste right. It's something human, something emotional, so I try to train my staff to provide the best customer service,” he said. Having been in the restaurant business for over 30 years, Lee clearly has what it takes to run a successful business. Before Stuffies, he
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In just the past five years, Theatre for Living has touched on topics such as LGBTQ+ (Voices of Love), economic prosperity and its relation to love (Reclaiming Hope). It has also brought awareness to the tragic history of residential schools and other forms of colonization, relating these traumas to mental health (Corporations in Our Heads). Through every project, the company embarks on creating change through healing and empowerment. Although mainly seen on stage in communities across Canada, the company has had the opportunity to spread their messages all across North America and Europe. Their latest work, šxʷʔam̓ət (home), directed by David Diamond, was performed at Vancouver's Firehall Arts Centre in March 2016. The project brings awareness to reconciliation and how it has been affecting people across Canada and how it still lives in current society. The title refers to a sense of place or belonging and the performance focuses on the community to create a “healthy Canada.” Acknowledging the makeup of a community is complex, they utilize the art of storytelling to create understanding and fellowship to spectators. Using history
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and not shying away from issues of theft, abuse, murder, abduction and assimilation in Indigenous communities even in current times, evoking emotion in the audience, šxʷʔam̓ət seems to have attained nothing but positive reviews. šxʷʔam̓ət includes Capilano University graduate from the Acting for Stage and Screen Program, Madeline Terbasket. For her, reconciliation is about caring for our land and not manipulating it through the use of private ownership and putting the planet before our own need for success. On top of her work on stage, Terbasket also works alongside PHS, a province-wide program that aims to improve specialized health services and works with Indigenous youth to find their voice and their place despite the oppression they will encounter living in current society. The threatre is a reflection of Vancouver-specific community, using cultural work to incite movement and development in Vancouver. Working with the community through relationships with many charities, Theatre for Living also offers personal and community building in both intermediate and advanced classess. These programs help train the community to use the
language of theatre and social change in their everyday life. Currently touring and presenting šxʷʔam̓ət, the company is in the process of creating new projects. Working on community development through workshops including topics such as violence, suicide prevention and antiracism, the company continues to be a large contributor of mental health and anti-bullying advocates within Vancouver. All the cast and crew members play a large role as social justice activists outside of the theatre, working with an array of charities, support groups and standing on government and community councils within the Greater Vancouver area. Theatre for Living is a small part of the community that is fighting to have their voices heard by our growing population. They are a leading example of how the beauty of art can create a movement and spread change. With Vancouver being such a diverse place it is performances and projects like these that keep the community and subcommunities across BC connected and growing together.
had built Koryo BBQ, a Korean fast food franchise with 27 locations across Canada. He sold it seven years ago to create a new low-cost place. Utilizing innovative automating machinery, Lee has managed to reduce almost half of the businesses expenses. A sophisticated system is in charge of making the coffee, baking and packaging the treats. “I can train anybody to run this concept in a week,” he said. The Stuffies experience starts even before crossing the shop’s doors. The smell of the pastries knows no physical borders, and the company’s flawlessly designed visual elements play a key role in the tasty experience visiting the shop. A neat and comfortable space welcomes every customer while the smooth sounds of jazz can be heard at low volume. While the shop holds high standards in every aspect, its prices stand incredibly reasonable, with a regular little “stuffie” (creme filled pastry) costing just 50 cents, with discounts available for bulk buys. The cro-tais go for $3.25 for the sweet fillings, and $3.45 for the savory breakfast ones. Lunch specials are also offered, consisting of a sandwich, soup and a salad just for $5. The successful future of Stuffies Pastries is clear, to the point that an expansion is already in sight. The business is currently hiring while planning to open up more locations across Canada in the near future, possibly a second and third location sometime this year. Stuffies plans to be included in Phibbs Exchange’s renovation plan, and hopes to have a booth at the loop so that customers can enjoy tasty treats and keep warm with coffee without missing their bus to run into the establishment. In the meantime, the business will carry on experimenting to improve its products, reducing calories and improving nutritional value. They will also be trying vegan options and seasonal fillings, all while continuing to put smiles on the faces of every individual that opens its doors. THE CAPILANO COURIER
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MORELLO BROTHERS LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL Reflecting on their on-and-off field relationship and success as teammates Luka Vasic CONTRIBUTOR
While Nicolas and Daniel Morello have spent nearly their entire lives together, playing for the Capilano University Blues Soccer team is the first time they’ve ever been teammates. “We’ve never played together. I’m two years older so he’s always been on the younger team,” said Nicolas. “We kind of did our own thing, I’d do my club, he would do his. That age gap wasn’t close enough to play together,” younger brother Daniel added. The two brothers now find themselves as two of the veteran leaders on the Blues men’s soccer team. Though they never played on a club or school team together before, they’ve built an on-pitch chemistry over the years, growing up practicing in the backyard. “We live together, we know how each other plays, I’ve watched him play so much, and he’s watched me play so much, I know what he’s going to do,” said Daniel. So far, being teammates for the first
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time has treated the brothers well, however it came with a price. “Sometimes it’s annoying. I’m probably harder on him than anybody else,” Nicolas admitted with a laugh. “I’ll say what’s on my mind to him and he won’t like it at all.” Daniel responded, “When he gets pissed off at me I want to play harder and better so I don’t have to hear it from him. That’s because he’s older too, I feel like when I say something to him, it doesn’t affect him, whereas myself I need to be better.” Living together, the siblings off-field frustrations sometimes follow them onto the pitch. “Not in games, maybe in practices. If we’re choked at each-other, maybe I’ll give him a nice little tackle,” Nicolas joked. “It’s a lot of talking. Playing wise we’re ok, but we’ll give a run at each other if were pissed off,” Daniel added. In the end, the brothers’ on-andoff field trash talking is to be taken as constructive criticism. Daniel is quick to assure that it’s all for the better. “Playing with him, I know I can trust him more than anyone else on the team. I know if he’s got the ball, he’s not going to make a mistake.” On car rides home from games, they will often discuss their individual and team performances, and how to improve. While the brothers look out for each
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other, there is no shortage of competition between the two of them. “I think he wants to try and be as good as me,” Nicolas said with a grin on his face. “It’s definitely a competition who can score, even though we’re both playing defence, he’s always looking for accolades, he wants to be the best guy on the field. That’s his goal, he wants to score a hat trick every game,” rebutted Daniel. “For me it’s score maybe once, and just play a solid game.” Nicolas made sure to clarify things in his own defence however. “No it’s not like that, I’ll say that to him, like ‘maybe I’ll score two, let’s see how many you can score?’ It’s just between each other.” That brotherly competition then follows them home and into any activity they do together. “We have a basketball hoop in the backyard and we go head to head, it’s the same with video games or anything,” admitted Nicolas. All the sibling competition and squabbling aside, the Morello brothers have been able to use their chemistry to help the Capilano Blues winning efforts, especially on the defensive end. “The last couple of years defensively we’ve been solid, we know what he’s going to do as a center-back and what I’m going to do as a winger,” explained Nicolas in regards to their chemistry. This has helped
lead the brothers to two consecutive provincial gold medals, including a national championship run in 2015, something they will always remember. “His [Daniel's] first year has been the most memorable. We started the season 0-5, then we came back and went to the national final in Montreal,” Nick recalled. “We got the silver unfortunately, but great memories for sure.” The two golds at provincials and a bronze in last year’s nationals are also among the Morello brothers most cherished moments playing for Capilano. Having played on the same summer team, Nicolas and Daniel did not stop working after last season ended. “We had games and stuff together, we were always playing through the spring and summer. We don’t really take time off,” said Daniel. In his fifth year, Nicolas is playing his final season for Capilano, but the brothers hope to play on a club team together after their time with the Blues ends. However, Nicolas and Daniel do not plan on stopping the good memories, as they have championship aspirations for this season. “I think we’re going to make another run at the gold at provincials,” said Nicolas. “We can definitely win it again and make another run at nationals.”
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NO MORE SCHOOL BLUES Seven student-athletes received national academic awards amidst the department’s best academic year in recent history Justin Scott MANAGING EDITOR
For a long time, there was a stigma attached to student athletes in relation to their schoolwork. Many believed that students who also represented their school in athletics either had it easier in regards to marking, or purely registered in easy classes. This of course couldn’t be further from the truth. In recent years much attention has been given to the issue, whether it be from former student-athletes like the Seattle Seahawks’ Richard Sherman, or by TV shows like Netflix’s Last Chance U. And while many student athletes aim to achieve the grades they need to maintain eligibility, at Capilano University many of the athletes aim higher than that. Last year, the Blues had seven of their athletes named to Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association’s (CCAA) Academic All-Canadian list, the association’s most prestigious award. In addition to that, according to Milton Willaims, Blues athletic director, last year was the school’s best showing for athlete’s academics in over a decade. “2016 to 2017 was our highest GPA
average since 2007 across all the teams,” he said. “That was a 2.6 average, which some people might say ‘anyone can get that,’ but when you’re playing a sport and you’re practicing 10 hours a week, and then your weekends you’re playing so there’s another eight to 10 hours, and then plus a job plus school, it’s really tough.” Additionally, 44 per cent of the athletes finished with a 3.0 GPA or higher. One of the seven to receive the CCAA’s award was the women’s basketball team’s floor general, Ashley Dela Cruz Yip. The fifth year Psychology student who also has a job in addition to her schooling and basketball doesn’t always know how she balances it all. With eight to 10 hours a week of practice time, plus six more hours a week for games, that’s just basketball. She estimates that between classes and studying, her schooling takes up another 12 to 15 hours a week, and her job an additional 16 to 20 hours, plus four hours volunteering. All in all, that’s around 50 hours a week spread across numerous activities which are all tolling in different ways. Luckily for the athletes, Williams is
THE ULTIMATE LEAP
a former student-athlete himself and understands the pressures put on them from that lifestyle. Due to this, he has implemented an academic support coach system to ensure that each team has someone whose sole responsibility is to stay on top of the players academics. Additionally, CJ Pentland, the Blues athletics & recreation officer is always available for players who have any questions regarding their academics. When discussing the academic aid players receive from the department, Dela Cruz Yip identified both the systems setup by Williams as well as Pentland as strong resources. “Cap provides academic advisors for athletes and we have CJ who can answer any of our questions if we have difficulty with a class or need to course plan,” she said. Overall, it’s the department’s attitude towards academics that allows its players to see such success. While many other schools may see academics as a way for their players to access athletics, at CapU, it’s the opposite. “We stress with our coaches in recruiting that it’s student first,” said Williams. He knows
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Capilano’s newly formed Ultimate Frisbee team may be young, but they’re good Justin Scott MANAGING EDITOR
While the Capilano University Blues have long been known for their basketball, soccer and volleyball teams, the department recently expanded their athletic horizons. On Sept. 30, CapU not only competed in the Canadian Western University Ultimate Championships (CWUUC), they came home with a silver medal. And according to Milton Williams, athletic director, the second-place finish was no fluke. This tournament was not the first time CapU fielded an Ultimate team. Williams recalled how the school had a team in the past. “We actually had a club here a long time ago,” he said. That was more than five years ago, but now the school is once again entering the Ultimate arena. Williams has known that there’s interest in the sport from the school’s community for a while, but the timing was never right. Recently however, he decided it was time to pull the trigger. Knowing that the CWUUC was approaching, he decided to see what would happen if the Blues attempted to enter a team. “We quickly reached out to a few students,”
he explained. Excitingly, the department had enough interest from students that a team was formed. And these weren’t just any students either. Not only did all the players have plenty of previous experience, according to Williams, some of them are “national team calibre.” One of those students is Ty Barbieri. The tournament may have been Barbieri’s first time representing CapU in an Ultimate game, but it was not his first time dawning the Blues name on his chest. “This was my first time playing Ultimate for Cap, but I played on the soccer team in 2015,” he explained. In fact, 2015 was the year the men’s soccer team won the provincial title and took home a silver medal at nationals, so he’s accustomed to bringing hardware back to the Sportsplex as well. While Barbieri has always enjoyed
sports, it originally took some convincing to get him to try Ultimate. “I started playing in high school at Sutherland Secondary,” he said. “The coach there, Carla Keffer, paid me $10 to try it out, and I instantly loved it.” In fact, Williams and Keefer are now working together to bolster CapU’s Ultimate roster for future seasons. They have decided to work together to bring some of the North Shore’s top ultimate talents to the school over the coming years. “Carla Keefer is in charge of one of the top academies on the North Shore,” Williams said. “We got talking and the idea is, it is a recruitment tool for the University, but it’s also an opportunity for these kids to play another level up and not give up on the sport.” And play they will. While the CWUUC
that while the rare athlete may go on to play professionally after CapU, for most it probably isn’t an option. “I act a bit like a bit of a dad sometimes,” he admitted. “It’s like I’m talking to my own kids. I say the same things to them as I say to the athletes, ‘ask early for help, ask often, if you ask toop late there’s not much we can do. Academics is what’s going to put bread on your table, unless you’re really gifted,’ and there are a few that are like that, but the majority of us aren’t.” And when taken seriously, his advice and mentality allows athletes to thrive ingame and in-class. “It was really great,” Dela Cruz Yip said of receiving her award. “I mean, doing well in school isn't about getting awards. But when you get one and see how your hard work has paid off? It's a good reminder that you're doing things right and that all those late and/or sleepless nights were worth it.” With last season now in the past, it’s time to look toward the current school year. Williams has set an ambitious goal to have a zero-failure-rate come Christmas. “That’s really hard to achieve, but we do try to achieve that,” he said. He also likes to remind students that while things may seem overwhelming at times, sometimes it helps to look at the bigger picture. “It’s about the post secondary experience, the experience that you have at University that lasts with you a lifetime,” he concluded. Dela Cruz Yip plans on completing her Associate of Arts degree in Psychology at CapU this year then transferring to Simon Fraser University to continue her studies after. “I was and am still really proud of myself. I hope to get the same recognition for this season,” she said.
was the only competition CapU’s team will see this year, Williams knows of multiple tournaments in the Spring that he intends on sending the team to. However, these tournaments will be a warm up of sorts for what he has planned for next year. “Our intention is that we will get into a full-fledged circuit next year. So, we would have a half dozen tournaments that we would enter, culminating with the Western Canadian Championship, and if they’re good enough, then the national championship,” he said. Seeing as the team already took home a silver medal in their first tournament, it appears they have nowhere to go, but up. “I thought our first tourney went really well,” Barbieri said. “We came second falling to UBC in the finals. We have tons of potential but could definitely use a few more players,” he added. It should also be noted that while the team that was entered in the CWUUC was all male, the school hopes it will soon become a co-ed team and is encouraging any women who enjoy Ultimate to join. Tournaments aside, Williams sees this new addition to CapU’s recreation as a positive sign for the school and its community. “The idea is to get more students engaged,” he said. “The CSU is doing a great job of that, so what we want to do is contribute by offering competitive recreation.” He concluded by adding that “It’s a great way for students to participate. It’s great for mental health, it’s great for physical health and meeting new people and all those things.”
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HOROSCOPES
THE VOICEBOX
IF YOUR BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEK:
with Justin Scott
Do you know somebody with Crohns’s disease?
I do. Why?
Congratulations on another year of mediocrity.
I thought it was the dim sum at first But at this point, I accept it’s not
ARIES (March 21 - April 19):
Only 200 more days until the rain stops. Well I’m sorry to hear about your issue
TAURUS (April 20 - May 20):
Was the dim sim good at least?
“Until about 2 months ago, I thought the term Juggalo was just another word for Drag Queen. I'm 25.”
It’s fine if you’re a guy and shave your legs, but when you keep asking people to feel how smooth they are – it gets weird.
My dim sum was delightful. So do you have any home remedies? For what exactly?
GEMINI (May 21 - June 20):
You’ll learn that backpacking abroad is less of a party and more of a constant state of anxiety and terror.
My loneliness
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Friends and a bottle of wine
“I still look at my ex's Instagram and it's been 3 years since we broke up.”
The show I mean
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The Voicebox is back! If you have any questions, concerns or any other bitchin’ to do, text it over to our boy Justin at 778-873-7288. “Please text me,” he says. “No one else does.”
“When I'm cooking and I drop food on the floor, it still goes into the dish.”
LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22):
– “Captivate was the biggest party on campus... but it wasn't that big.”
SUDOKU 1
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VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept. 21):
Despite what they say, whiskey is a good substitute for coffee in the morning.
Puzzle 1 (Medium, difficulty rating 0.56) Difficulty: Medium
“My class made my highschool teacher cry by throwing crumpled paper balls at her.” “Half the basketball team has Superliked me on Tinder.”
I hope you have good dental coverage.
123456
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CANCER (June 21 - July 22):
Despite your best efforts, you’re still going to fail that test.
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“We were desperate to fill this space so we made this one up”
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SCORPIO (OCT. 24 - NOV. 21):
You don’t have anxiety; you’re just a bit of a wimp.
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SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22 - DEC. 21): Stop watching vloggers; it’s weird.
Generated by http://www.opensky.ca/sudoku on Fri Oct 13 23:35:06 2017 GMT. Enjoy!
Read more and submit your own confession at capilanocourier.com/confessions
LIBRA (SEPT. 22 - OCT. 23):
Did you know that Ronald Regan was really into astrology? He even had a consultant at the White House.
CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 - JAN. 19):
Whoever said laughter is the best medicine never had what you have.
AQUARIUS (JAN. 20 - FEB. 18):
If your life could be described in pictures, it would be one photo of a couch.
PISCES (FEB. 19 - MARCH 20): Tell your parents you love them.