Capilano Courier | Vol. 49, Issue 12.

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VOLUME 49 ISSUE 12

PARIS, JE T’AIME

JUST FOR KICKS

Rising above racism and bigotry as we make sense of a world in turmoil.

A look at sneakerheads and their healthy obsession for the latest footwear trends.

NOVEMBER 23 - 29 | 2015

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

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CONTENTS

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02

03

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Cover Art

Editor's Desk

News

Cap You

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Columns

Features

SYD DANGER

WHEN TECHNOLOGY OBSCURES THE HUMAN TOUCH

STRAIGHT OUTTA KAZAKHSTAN

THE GENDER WAGE GAP

STUDENT WINS NATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY CAMPAIGN

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ETHICAL FASHION

Arts + Culture

CSU TO HOST DE-STRESS WEEK NOV. 23 TO 27

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UP IN SMOKE: WHY VAPES SHOULD BE REGULATED

Opinions

THE STAFF STAFF THIS ISSUE COURIER COLUMNISTS Andy Rice

Therese Guieb

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EXECUTIVE NEWS EDITOR

Carlo Javier

Gabriel Scorgie

EXECUTIVE LIFESTYLE EDITOR

FEATURES EDITOR

Kevin Kapenda

Mark Crickmay

OPINIONS EDITOR

ARTS + CULTURE EDITOR

FRED ULRICH JR. Fred Ulrich Jr. commonly known to the staff as F-U2 is a disgruntled alcoholic who once achieved his 15 minutes of fame playing the accordion for a now defunct band whose name we cannot publish due to, uh, standards. In this column, he’ll be talking about things that society just might be too caught up on. So he’ll be talking about a lot of things.

LEAH SCHEITEL

Christine Beyleveldt

Alva Tang

CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT

COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER

Cristian Fowlie

Syd Danger

ART DIRECTOR

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Tianyi Bao

Brandon Kostinuk

BUSINESS MANAGER

WEB COORDINATOR

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49 ISSUE NO. 12

CONTRIBUTORS TAYLOR LEE BRIANNA ENGLAND JACOB MUIR JESSICA LIO JAMES MARTIN

NATALIE MURRAY ANNIE CHANG MEGAN DIETRICH ZOE SOFIANOS

KEARA FARNAN

KAT WAWRYKOW

TIM HORAN

MARIA CENTOLA ANGELA SCHMOLD

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Leah Scheitel is really quite the polymath. She flew under the radar as one of the top students in the CapU business program last year, was a former triathlon superstar and knows the histories of both Saturday Night Live and each of the American secretaries of state by heart. However, in this column, she’ll talk about the two things she loves best — politics and men.

SABRINA KUHN Props to Sabrina Kuhn for being the most eager columnist of the year! Bonus points for being the first one to apply! After spending some time last year writing for the Courier to fulfill the obligations of the Arts and Entertainment Management program mandate, Sabrina is now writing without the requirements of her professor.

AKHMET TOKISHEV This column will feature the members of Capilano University’s international education community. Each writer will come from a different culture and each of them will talk about their experiences being immersed in a society much different from where they came from. This week, we’ll learn about Akhmet Tokishev from Kazakhstan.

THE CAPILANO COURIER is an autonomous, democratically-run student newspaper. Literary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Capilano Courier will not publish material deemed by the collective to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. The views expressed by the contributing writers are not necessarily those of the Capilano Courier Publishing Society.

EDITOR'S DESK

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WHEN TECHNOLOGY OBSCURES THE HUMAN TOUCH Andy Rice EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Nothing has influenced the way we perceive and process breaking news more than social media.

When suspects in 2013’s Boston Marathon bombing stormed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus, killing a police officer before escaping toward Watertown, a student posted live updates from his dorm room on Reddit.

When WDBJ news reporter Allison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were murdered on air during a live TV segment in Virginia back in August, the gunman posted a video to his Twitter account almost immediately after.

When terror attacks hit Paris on Nov. 13, the world watched and worried over Facebook as more and more information became available.

Even this week, we’ve seen footage being uploaded to YouTube from that now-infamous Eagles of Death Metal concert, showing the exact second when shots erupted, killing 89 and wounding over 200 at the Bataclan Concert Hall.

A photo posted to Instagram several hours after the attack all but confirms the death toll.

Our generation is seeing things we were never meant to see, due to the sheer reality that everyone with a smartphone — be they a shooter or an innocent bystander — is essentially a freelance journalist. And while our brains and our fingers have evolved well enough to master the technological advances put before us, our hearts run at the same speed as always. They need time. They want to get angry, express sadness and take a side. The problem is that social media allows us the luxury of framing news and events with our opinions and emotions, often before they’ve become fully formed.

That’s a loaded weapon in its own right.

Facebook and Twitter serve as a giant police scanner for the entire world, tuned to the frequencies of its every corner. But in the same breath, they’re also two of the trashiest gossip magazines you can imagine — not to mention political propaganda machines, a dark web for hate speech, a beacon for free speech and a catch-all for adorable cat memes.

Every post co-exists in this vast online community, kind of like the author behind it who, for better or for worse, is likely to carry those same values into their offline community as well.

This isn’t to say that social media can’t be a powerful tool for the greater good — it can be if we can finally agree on what constitutes supportive sincerity versus armchair activism — but it’s becoming more of a challenge with every tragedy that takes place. Even when people attempt to use it for recovery and for reassurance, they get gunned down metaphorically by the words of someone else who disagrees with their method of choice.

In the days that followed the massacre in Paris, many people opted to install a temporary blue, white and red filter on their Facebook profile photos as a sign of support. Soon, the flood gates opened for a debate on how changing your photo doesn’t actually do anything, or how it does, and how you were a lazy jerk if you did and an unsympathetic asshole if you didn’t.

Nobody is right and nobody is wrong here. Humans will feel how they feel and show it how they show it, but different personalities and cultures are going to grieve in different ways. That’s just reality. For me, it was an uncensored photo of the Bataclan aftermath that made this whole tragedy sink in. For someone else, it may have been a YouTube video or a Tweet, or perhaps something that hasn’t even been released yet.

Hashtags like #PrayForParis, #BostonStrong and #WeStandWithWDBJ have allowed us to keep tabs on each other’s sentiments after a tragedy, but they still don’t unite us. They’re simply

THE VOICEBOX

a way to say “Hey, I’m thinking about this, I’m thinking about these people, about what this means for them, about what this means for us all.”

More than anything, they’re a signal that, in our own way and at our own pace, our reconciliation process has begun. And for many people, that process will likely extend far beyond the lifespan of a status update on social media.

That’s perfectly OK. Humans of countless ethnicities and beliefs are connected through social media like never before, as if someone tossed the global population like dice. Yet, we’re more divided than we’ve ever been because that connection is solely based on fleeting interactions and judgments made through a computer screen. I’m convinced that no matter how far technology comes, face-toface interaction will always be better than Facebook-to-Facebook.

We must always remember that emojis are not emotions, the ‘Like’ button is not true love, and that a list of followers is not a roomful of friends. Forgetting that holds more power to destroy our civilization than bombs and bullets ever could.

You’ve been getting real crass in the past few Voiceboxes, you know? Take it down a notch, Carlo.

"Beer with a side of booty" written by Taelore Keyana — couldn't agree more! What a great read; arguments were on point!

What a nice thing to say.

We hardly ever get compliments, ya know?

You know it’s mid-November right? Why the hell do you guys have a holiday tree and holiday lighting and decos all over your office?!

Lovin’ issue 12 guys! Enjoy your winter breaks!

I’ll be sure to enjoy mine!

Wait, we got one more.

Come back!

The Voicebox is back! If you have any questions, concerns or any other bitchin’ to do, text it over to our boy Carlo at 778-865-2649. “Please text me,” he says. “No one else does.”

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VOLUME 49 ISSUE NO. 12

First of all, no one’s going to be on campus throughout December so we want to at least celebrate the Christmas spirit while we can. And by the way, it’s called goddamn CHRISTMAS. Fuck you and your fetish for political correctness.

It’s what you get after four years of working under one incredibly vulgar boss and another boss who’s not nearly as vulgar but is definitely quite the Picasso when it comes to painting his words with the brush of political incorrectness.

THE CAPILANO COURIER

Why, thank you!

TWEETS OF THE WEEK #PHUCDATBICH

with Carlo Javier

NEWS

THERESE GUIEB

EXECUTIVE NEWS EDITOR NEWS@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

STUDENT WINS NATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY CAMPAIGN

Idea for aquaponics project trumped 23 competitors at Chartwells competition Therese Guieb

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49 ISSUE NO. 12

EXECUTIVE NEWS EDITOR On Oct. 28, just a few days after a group of Capilano University Tourism Management students won the Link BC Student Case Competition, Chartwells announced that a CapU student had won the company’s Campus Projects campaign. Tourism student Ben Glassen, who was also a part of the group who won the case competition, bagged yet another gold for the institution.

Chartwells is a multi-national leader in the food and beverage industry, serving over 50 post-secondary institutions in Canada alone, including CapU since Jun. 22, 2015. Through its parent company, Compass Group Canada, Chartwells held its first ever Chartwells Campus Projects campaign. The competition was created to ask students from Chartwells-operated schools across the country to submit an innovative idea that can be used to create sustainable food services. The winning project would receive $5,000 that would be used to go toward implementing the idea on their campus.

Out of 23 submissions from 15 institutions, Glassen took first place with his proposal on an “Aquaponics Sustainable Food Pilot.” The top three winners included Mount Saint Vincent University in Nova Scotia for recycling and waste sorting on campus and SAIT Polytechnic in Alberta for a project called “Healthy E.A.T.S.” According to Glassen, Aquaponics is a technology combining aquaculture, fish farming and hydroponic food production.

“Aquaponics is an organic closed-loop symbiotic system based on natural pond biology and nitrogen cycles,” explained Glassen.

The waste from the fish is then used as fertilizer for the plants. The plants will then filter the water before pushing it back to the fish tank. Glassen’s proposal for the pilot project stated that, “With minimal input or waste, the system produces saleable fish, vegetables, nitrification bacteria and organic geoponic fertilizer.”

The idea for the pilot project came to Glassen when he was on a road trip to Los Angeles, California last summer while working on a separate project in Hope, BC. “I was there looking at the drought and being like, ‘water is a huge issue and locally in BC, fish farming is super controversial — what kind of sustainable technology would connect to this?’” he said. When he returned to Hope, Stephanie Hooker, coowner of You Grow Food Aquaponics, invited him to see her fish farm. “I’m standing in an aquaponics greenhouse where fish farming is done completely sustainably,” he recalled, “How do you do sustainable fish farming? All the waste turns into fertilizer for a full greenhouse of vegetable growth, and standing in this greenhouse is so overwhelming because it doesn’t smell bad like fish, it smells rich of all this organics and all these amazing herbs.”

Glassen saw that Aquaponics is a sustainable kind of agriculture in which students at CapU can learn from and con-

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tribute to, as well as for Chartwells to consider it as a resource for its food menu on campus. “The proposal that I submitted was to start an aquaponics club in which we would create an aquaponics garden on campus,” said Glassen. With the $5,000 cash reward, the club would first purchase a startup kit from You Grow Foods for $2,000. “We would allocate $1,000 to our first-year setup, which is sending our club members to the workshops to be trained to be able to operate the system but also to give clinics to [CapU] classes that come in,” explained Glassen. “We have allocated $500 for the next four years after the startup year to continue training people, to continue marketing, because the ultimate goal is for this to be a five-year legacy project on the small scale, and at the end of those five years we hope that the club has taken their own initiative to be looking how we can do this at a commercial size in a full-size greenhouse.”

Since last month’s win, Glassen has created a club at CapU for his initiative through the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) called the CSU Aquaponics Club.

Club members include Zoe Mathias and Haley Kuzek, who are CSU Environmental Collective members, Emma Courtney, an Earth Works employee, Christine Hudson, a Patch Works employee, Natalia

Pisarek from Power Works, Jackson Bucher, an Outdoor Recreation Management student, Michelle Gervais, CSU Business Faculty Representative and Alysa Huppler-Poliak, School of Tourism student.

The $5,000 prize is currently being managed by Sidharth Mohan, director of Food Services for Chartwells at CapU. “He [Mohan] has spending authority on behalf of the Chartwells project, and so if the club needs anything, we go to Sidharth…

Chartwells has asked us to use the funds as we go so that they can account for what those items are instead of just giving us a lump sum,” noted Glassen. He added that the money is accessible to the club whenever they need it.

“Our goal is to purchase a starter kit from You Grow Foods in Hope, which is a workbench setup with 36 square feet of vegetable growing space on the top of the workbench and a 20-foot fish tank underneath as well as some nursing beds to seed the beds to start them off,” explained Glassen. Several members of the CSU Aquaponics Club will also be heading down to Hope, BC to attend a workshop and training with You Grow Foods on aquaponics and the use of the kits. “They don’t produce these kits commercially… A lot of the other kits that you can buy on the market, they haven’t been tested for long enough,

so after a year or two they start plugging up, whereas this system they provide from Hope, it has redundancies, so we can mitigate risks,” assured Glassen.

In terms of finding a location for the aquaponics garden on campus, Glassen is still working to get one approved by CapU. “We are in the development stage so I’ve been working with Susan Doig [director of Facilities at CapU],” continued Glassen, “Between now and December, we are going to try and find that location and the goal would be that, because the system takes up to four months to cycle, by June we can already start seeing the fish and seeing the growth so that we can really get things going right away.”

Since aquaponics is a new type of agricultural farming, there are a lot of challenges that will be faced by the club to make sure the garden runs smoothly. “In aquaponics, the reason why it’s not as sustainable as a business model yet is because if one thing goes wrong, it all goes wrong. You lose your fish, you lose everything else. That makes it really hard because you have to balance three elements: the fish, the bacteria, and then the plants themselves,” said Glassen.

Another challenge is that Glassen is graduating next semester and he needs to find students who would be dedicated to keep the pilot going for four more years.

Glassen is also in talks with CapU professors to make the aquaponics garden a fourth hour activity for their students.

“With this pilot project I hope that we could prove that this is viable enough that if Chartwells invests in building a commercial setup that they will see significant value both with the produce but also with the buy-in and the marketing with students becoming involved with their aquaponics club,” he said.

NEWS

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SEMESTER IN REVIEW

CSU gathers to discuss highlights of the year Christine Beyleveldt CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT

Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) board members met for one of their last meetings of the semester on Nov. 13. The directors began by reviewing and accepting the regrets of absent members and welcoming new member Alora Wallace who represents the Capilano University Squamish campus. The board proceeded to take an oath of office, swearing confidentiality and promising to conduct themselves in a high standard.

In total, 14 meetings have been held over the course of the semester. The CSU approved the minutes taken down over the past three months and moved forward to discuss some of the highlights of the fall semester, seeing as there was no remaining business on the agenda that

had not already been concluded. CSU vice president of Internal Development, Zach Renwick, was the first to present his report. Renwick has been occupied this semester largely with the U-Pass Referendum, which was held last week.

Vice president of External Relations, Taylor Wilson, reported on the testimonial he gave over the issue of student housing, but said the issues that stuck out over the semester were legislation regarding student fees that were put toward funding capital projects such as housing, a review of postsecondary funding and a movement to demand downloadable online reading materials for classes.

Renwick announced that the Op-

erations Committee was working to develop next year’s budget, but noted that operations had been slow due to the inability to reconcile all committee members on a regular basis.

Vice president of Student Life, Kate Phifer, updated the board on her progress in hosting the week of destress, which is set to take place campus-wide from Nov. 23 to 27. Phifer also announced her plans to create a day for clubs and collectives on a date that has not yet been set in January 2016. The purpose of the event would be to let many of the CSU collectives come out and promote themselves to students. Last year, the CSU held an open house, which was a great success

in terms of letting students know what their union can offer them, Phifer hopes to achieve similar recognition for many of the CSU clubs that aren’t well known on campus.

Vice president of University Relations, Sacha Fabry, recognized that Nov. 13 was manager of Student Affairs, Peter Hedley’s, final day in office, as well as the last for senior communications advisor, Borjana Slipicevic. No candidates for either of these two positions are yet known.

U-PASS PROGRAM TO CONTINUE

Capilano University students overwhelmingly vote 'Yes' in transit referendum Christine Beyleveldt CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT

THE CAPILANO COURIER

Of the votes cast, an overwhelming 96 per cent were cast in favour of continuing the U-Pass. “I voted yes because it would get so freaking expensive to bus without it and I need to bus every day,” said first-year Liberal Studies student Dana Rossbacher.

Some students travelling from further reaches such as Port Moody and

Surrey have expressed concern over the prices because they are unable to utilize public transit but recognize the campuswide need for cheap transportation.

According to TransLink regulations, at least five per cent of CapU’s student body had to participate in the referendum before the U-Pass could be approved, even if the majority of the

vote was in favour of continuation. In total, 23.3 per cent of eligible student voters participated in the referendum, a near five per cent increase from the number of students that voted in the 2013 referendum.

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VOLUME 49 ISSUE NO. 12

Between Nov. 17 and 19, Capilano University students were asked to vote on the continuation of the U-Pass program, which provides cheap access to public transportation across greater Vancouver. CapU was just one of many postsecondary institutions asked to renew its approval of the U-Pass program, since TransLink wished to raise prices.

The Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) pledged its overwhelming support for the continuation of the U-Pass. “We voted in favour of endorsing the 'Yes' side,” said Taylor Wilson, vice president of External Relations. “We just realized how many of our students rely on transit and it’s an essential service.”

The CSU also revealed in their media package that they believed the continuation of the program would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the number of cars on the road.

TransLink wished to increase the price of the U-Pass from $38 per month to $39.50 per month beginning in May 2016, and again to $41 per month beginning in May 2017. If students failed to support the continuation of the UPass, CapU would have lost access to the program entirely, and commuters would have been paying as much as $170 per month for a regular bus pass.

“The definite concern with us is improving transit services to Cap,” said Wilson, noting that TransLink generally services students on the North Shore, but 62 per cent of CapU students commute from other areas of Greater Vancouver. “We hope to go to TransLink with the results.”

CAP YOU

CARLO JAVIER

EXECUTIVE LIFESTYLE EDITOR CARLO.CAPCOURIER@GMAIL.COM

WHO YOU: TANYA HALATA Humble pageantry Carlo Javier EXECUTIVE LIFESTYLE EDITOR Fourth-year student Tanya Halata will be graduating from Capilano University next spring with a degree in Communications that might have never been. “I first applied to Capilano in 2009 [class of 2010], but they didn’t have the Communications program yet, so it was for general arts and sciences,” recalled Halata. “I had one meeting with one of the registrars, and I left crying because they told me I’d have to do math and science, which totally freaked me out.”

Before returning to CapU in 2011 to begin her studies in Communications, she completed a diploma in fashion merchandising at Blanche Macdonald Centre, where she became interested in the marketing and public relations side of the clothing industry.

Like many other students, Halata also involves herself in causes that allow her to gain professional experience, but most importantly give back to others.

“I’ve been involved in multiple charities since a young age,” she said. For example, Halata is the executive director of Face of Today, an organization that works with at-risk youth and provides them with all types of fun activities to do. “We have a recording studio inside our offices, so we give kids from the Downtown Eastside the opportunity to come in and record their own music,” explained Halata. “We also have a wakeboard camp in Osoyoos,

BC over the summer and a whole bunch of other youth-oriented programs like art classes.” Another organization that Halata has given time to is the Hockey Education Reaching Out Society (HEROS), a sportsbased charity that works with underprivileged kids. “We use hockey as a catalyst to keep them off the streets, and away from drugs and gangs,” added Halata.

In addition to giving her time to causes, Halata has used the platform of beauty pageants to raise money and bring attention to issues that are close to her heart.

While she definitely enjoys using pageants to be philanthropic, she didn’t exactly throw herself into them like other contestants do. Halata began doing pageants in 2012 but would probably have never done any if it weren’t for a simple misunderstanding.

“I was actually approached by one of the people who ran the Miss World Canada pageant during some work I was doing,” recalled Halata. “They mistook me for one of the contestants, and I said ‘no, I’m just helping out at the event.’” After that encounter though, she decided to apply for the Miss World Canada pageant and never looked back. “We had to do swimsuit, talent… I raised over $5,000

for Variety Children’s Charity, which is crazy, and I ended up placing second runner-up in all of Canada,” explained Halata. “I wasn’t expecting this in my first pageant. I was kind of just thrown out there and was able to get second runner up and go on to do quite a bit with the [Variety Children’s Charity].”

After taking some time away from pageantry to keep up with school and her charity work, Halata threw herself back into that world again last year, when she competed in the Miss BC pageant, finishing in the top eight. Although Halata has many other commitments in her life, she is not ready to hang the sash up just yet. “I still haven’t decided, but I’m probably going to do Miss Universe Canada, which is Donald Trump’s pageant that takes place in Toronto,” said Halata. “It would be the big guns of pageantry. The girls are much older, like 26, 27, and have their master’s degrees.”

While Halata comes across as very ambitious and confident, she still suffers from anxiety she developed as a teenager. “I’m generally just a very anxious person, from a day-to-day sense of things,” explained Halata. “I am self-confident now, and one of the reasons why I did pageantry was to challenge myself.”

To help other people overcome anxiety, she has used her platform at pageants to raise awareness about mental illnesses and inappropriate stereotypes that exist about them. “I personally suffer from anxiety, and there’s a stigma that kind of revolves around mental disorders so I kind of used that platform to change that and work to abolish it,” said Halata. “People often fall through the cracks and get judged, or told they’re ‘crazy,’ for example, which is wrong.”

In addition to her philanthropy, Halata is also associated with a startup known as BrandNew Careers, a company that helps women get connected with employers. BrandNew is especially helpful to female students, as they may not yet have that many connections and job-hunting skills after graduation. “What we do is that we bring in women, brand them, help them with their cover letter, build their resume and link them up to any business they want to work for,” said Halata. “We basically provide them with the building blocks they need to advance within their field and become successful.”

As for Halata, her next move will be south of the border, doing communications for a public relations firm or the fashion industry. “I have a Green Card, so I’m going to move down to the States for a little while to get some experience down there,” said Halata. “Somewhere in California, probably San Francisco.”

PUTTING STUDENTS OUT OF THEIR MISERIES CSU to host De-Stress Week for anxiety relief at semester's end

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49 ISSUE NO. 12

CONTRIBUTOR As December approaches, post-secondary students tend to find themselves in a tangled web of anxiety and stress. The first semester of the school year is winding down which means the inevitable has come: paper deadlines, deadweight group members for your projects and of course, exams.

But have no fear — Kate Phifer, vice president of student life for the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU), has plans to help students alleviate some of their miseries.

From Nov. 23 to Nov. 27, the Capilano University community will be treated to a series of de-stressing events organized by the CSU. "I had a few motivations for DeStress Week,” she said. “The first is just to really provide members with a variety of activities and avenues to release stress and prepare for final week of classes and exams.”

In addition, Phifer wants to create a platform to highlight CSU members and clubs like the IDEA Library Club and Musical Therapy Students’ Association.

There is an exciting week ahead for

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those who are looking to take a break from their books and join in on all the de-stressing. Interested readers may RSVP to the Facebook event “CSU DeStress Week” for reminders.

9 pm, students from the Acting for Stage and Screen program will display their comedic and dramatic talents. Food and drinks will be available as well.

NOV. 23

Pie your Prof: Who doesn't want to kick off De-Stress Week by throwing pies in the faces of their professors?

Happening from 10 am to 3 pm outside the CSU Members Centre (LB 195), students will get the opportunity to finally divert their frustrations towards their professors. Students will be asked to donate to the BC Children's Hospital in order to throw the pie.

Dog Therapy: From 10 am to 3 pm, St John's Ambulance Therapy Dogs will be present for hugs and cuddles.

Best day ever.

Air Band: Get your band together, put on some spandex pants and rock out to your favourite song. The Air Band lip-synching battle is here and the CSU and United Way want to see your best air guitar and stage moves.

Students’ bands will get the opportunity to face off against faculty bands with prizes and bragging rights at stake. Teams with the most donations raised for the United Way combined with the best performance will win a prize. Register your rockstar team now on Facebook: CapU AirBand or email Erinberry@capilanou.ca

NOV. 24

NOV. 26

Musical De-Stress: Spend some time with the Musical Therapy Students’ Association. This event will run from approximately 11:30 am to 1 pm.

Student Improv Night: From 6 pm to

NOV. 25

Art Therapy Day: Three artists from the IDEA program will live paint for one hour with a model. There will also be a finger painting station and a large collaborative art piece.

NOV. 27

The CSU's health care provider, ‘I Have A Plan,’ will provide massages free of charge for students. The exact location is yet to be determined, but it’s probably not as shady as it sounds.

— TAYLOR LEE

Brianna England

COLUMNS

CARLO JAVIER

COLUMNS EDITOR CARLO.CAPCOURIER@GMAIL.COM

ALRIGHT, HEAR THIS Paris, je t’aime Leah Scheitel COLUMNIST Since I heard about the terrorist attacks in Paris, I have been dedicated to it to a level normally reserved for unrequited love interests. The majority of my conversations revolved around it, my social media feeds are fascinated by it, and with the exception of Charlie Sheen admitting that he is HIV positive, the only news I have read in the past week has been related to the attacks.

For better and for worse, trying to understand it is the only thing that is easing the pain, and from what I can see through social media and news outlets, I’m definitely not the only one that is feeling this way.

There hasn’t been a lack of articles and literature published since the attack, and social media feeds are bursting with a smattering of opinions, which is often more scary than helpful. But with 129 dead, 350 in hospital and over 150 counter-terrorism raids in Paris since the attack, there is a lot to understand and comment on. Another 43 are dead in Beirut after a double-suicide attack on Thursday and as the world’s leaders figure out what to do with an estimated three million refugees from the Syrian civil war, people everywhere are grappling for answers, even though it might not be the ones they want.

There are going to be repercussions to the attack, which ISIS has claimed as its handi-

work, and it is likely to come in many forms.

There are states in the US that have said that they will not accept any refugees from Syria, even though it is unconstitutional and most of the refugees are fleeing the same people who caused these attacks. Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has openly asked Justin Trudeau’s government to suspend the Syrian refugee plan, as it could “undermine the screening process.” Anonymous, the hacker group, has openly declared war on ISIS, and so has France. The country initiated bombing missions on Raqqa, Syria, dropping a total of 20 bombs on the Sunday night after the attack.

While there is still much that is uncertain about the three-pronged attack across Paris, one thing is undeniable — it is going to change things. It has already changed things.

The morning after the Paris attacks, a friend of mine asked if I was going to write something about it. I said yes, but had no idea as to what I would conjure, as I was in shock, saddened and slightly terrified of the events. Although it might be idiotic of me not to be, I’m not terrified of ISIS. I’m more terrified of the racism and bigotry that this could cause in people, driving us to polarizing opinions. The online shaming for putting the French flag overlay on profile pictures but not feeling anything for the other egregious crimes against humanity is

just a small example of how this will divide friends, neighbours and opinions. I’m terrified to see how much worse it can, and potentially will, become.

My friend and I started a long conversation about the events, the reactions and the roots of the issue. We sent essay-length messages back and forth, debating different facets of the problem, agreeing on most and disagreeing on others. I told him my hesitations about writing about this, saying that while I would love to have something poignant to say — something articulate to help bring insight and understanding into what’s happening all over the world, not just in Paris — I simply didn’t have the words. We exchanged articles, video links and critiques

from world leaders, all in an attempt to try and understand it just a little bit better — because understanding and watching John Oliver go on a profanity-ridden rant and these essay-long messages have provided any kind of comfort for me this week.

People heal and deal with tragedy in different ways. Some cuddle cats while others draw cartoons. Some people pray to a god of their choosing while others find hope in the new Adele ballad. But no matter how we heal or what comes of this, we have to learn how to talk to each other, about conflicting views and the shitty things that we can do to each other, because whether we like it or not, we are all in this together. And right now, it’s looking like we’re not all going to get out alive.

WHY YOUR FAVOURITE THINGS SUCK Following your dreams Fred Ulrich Jr. COLUMNIST

ing my own boss as a freelance musician, I’ve been ruined for working for somebody else. The freedom I enjoyed during the more Bohemian phase of my life is like a drug that I can’t kick.

What about that writing career I mentioned? Well, you’re looking at it. Shitting out this drunken, miserable drivel in a student newspaper – one that has deemed my band's name "too offensive" despite letting me dole out all the "fucks" I want with impunity – is the beginning and the end of my stint as a writer. Not surprisingly, I don’t think too many other publishers will be fighting over me once my contract here is done.

I have technically done what I set out to do, and now wish I hadn’t. Go get an engineering degree or start an apprenticeship in plumbing so you can live a comfortable life where your only “what if” is “what if I didn’t have so much money?” The problem with living your dreams is that you can’t just wake up when everything goes wrong.

If you’re still feeling the burning desire to add “published writer” to your resume, come check out a Courier story meeting in the new year.

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band and traded in the touring lifestyle for a much more stable gig playing cover songs in a house band at a now-defunct Vancouver nightspot.

Regular, paid work as a musician was an incredible concept to me at the time, but after a couple of months, even that started to lose its allure. The problem with playing the same dumb pop songs to the same crowd of blackout-drunk partiers week after week is that it really makes you question your purpose in life. I don’t care how much you think you love “Don’t Stop Believing” right now, I guarantee that there is a medical limit to how many times you can perform it in front of cokedup karaoke assholes before those opening chords start triggering instant diarrhea every time you hear them. I quit the cover band after a radio-related incident nearly compelled me to ramp my Car2Go off the Ironworkers Bridge.

So now I teach accordion lessons to children. I never wanted to teach, and I especially never wanted to work with the coddled germ-mongers our society calls kids, but my resume doesn’t leave me qualified for too much else that doesn’t involve flipping burgers. And it’s not that there’s anything wrong with working in the food industry, but after years of be-

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“Find a job that you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” they said. Oh boy, were they ever right. Turns out not too many people are looking to pay you to do the enjoyable creative activities you’d rather be doing anyway. Take me, for example. I worked my way up to being an internationally touring musician who later transitioned into being a published writer.

Sounds like the dream life, right? It certainly gets the ladies’ attention at parties, or at least until they realize that both of those absolutely truthful career descriptions come with absolutely no guarantee of fame, success or even a high enough income to warrant owing taxes.

The younger, more naive version of myself wanted to live life to the fullest.

Young Fred wanted to live with no regrets, no “what ifs?” After spending some time bouncing around between the various creative disciplines offered at Capilano University, I was tired of waiting for some great opportunity to find me. I was ready to strike out on my own and make my own fate.

My musical escapades began when I

tricked a certain band named [redacted by editor] into letting me join after secretly convincing their previous accordion player to quit. That guy should be thanking me now. We threw caution to the wind and gave up so-called necessities such as “jobs” and “homes” in order to live a nomadic life on the road in search of success. We drove all throughout the Americas in our converted school bus, living day-to-day by busking, playing illegal shows in abandoned warehouses, crashing house parties and sometimes even getting booked on a legitimate stage if we were lucky. We never knew where we would be sleeping the following night or how exactly we’d make the gas money to get there. It may sound incredibly romantic, or punk, or whatever you want to call it – we even had ourselves convinced for a while – but after long enough we realized that it just wasn’t worth it.

The final straw came while driving through a prairie town one cold February day when our bus hit a patch of ice and lost control. As we spun across multiple lanes of traffic, certain to tip into a death roll at any moment, my only thought was “this isn’t how I want to die. Not in front of a Dairy Queen in Butt-Fuck, Manitoba.” As soon as we were back on the more temperate west coast again, I ditched the

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INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PANCAKES Getting plucked out of Kazakhstan Akhmet Tokishev COLUMNIST

It was a hot summer of 2011. I was finally done with my high school final exams and was chilling with my friends online playing video games. I never thought that by the end of that summer I would find myself on the other side of the world.

I hadn’t even set my post-graduation plans when my father suddenly came and gave me a visa and a plane ticket to Canada. Only then did I start to realize that my life would soon change and that I wouldn’t be just a regular student in Kazakhstan. I was born in the USSR and my father had a dream to escape and move to Australia, but circumstances took his dreams away, so he decided to fulfill his dreams through his children.

Foreign education in Kazakhstan is very prestigious due to the country’s bad reputation for corruption within its educational system. It is also a good business there and there are multiple agencies that work with students and send them abroad. I was fully packed and was sent with around 40 students my age to Columbia College in Vancouver. I found this to be a good strategy when dealing with international students, basically to put them in a group and send them to an international college with other international students who could help them adapt to a new culture.

At the age of 17, a regular Kazakh imagines Canada similarly as to how a Canadian would imagine Kazakhstan. I had a few tips that helped me on my way to this

country: South Park and my grandfather’s passion for hockey. Yes, if your knowledge of Kazakhstan is limited to Borat, my understanding was quite the same about Canada and her stereotypes. Like in South Park, I thought that Canadians love to strike, never know what they want and never know who they are.

I expected Canadians to be Caucasian men with beards in their red-checked shirts swinging their axes in the snowy, cold woods.

What I realized when I came to Vancouver is that Canada is more multicultural than I thought. Going through Richmond, I felt like I was somewhere in Asia because the majority of signs there were written in Chinese characters.

Despite the fact that the country is multicultural, it was very easy to get my new friends confused. I’m an Asian-looking guy from a Central Asian country with an Arabic name who can speak Russian. It’s still very funny to see Canadians’ faces as their

cultural schema of “regular Asian” is damaged by controversial information from a Russian-speaking Chinese student.

However, the most noticeable differences I noticed when coming to Canada were taxes, park animals, yoga pants and pseudo-illegal stuff such as smoking weed.

I remember that I faced a lot of challenges in dealing with the Canadian tax system, a mysterious bully that’s beating your savings out of you and mystical tax refund system that no one told you about. Another noticeable part that surprised me was parks that are full of life, even in the downtown core. So much food is just hanging around there and no one catches it. The funny thing is that those animals aren’t afraid of humans. In Kazakhstan you would never see so many animals in parks, except for maybe pigeons, because there is a high possibility that animals in an urban environment will be caught and eaten by citizens (just kidding.) The real reason

comes from a lack of control on homeless pets in Kazakhstan, many of which hunt down animals in the parks.

Another thing that bothers me a lot are yoga pants. Believe me, I’ve seen terrible things, but there is nothing more terrible in this world than overconfident owners of yoga pants (again, just kidding.) I like the way Canadians, especially females’, attitudes towards dressing up with everyday casual clothes is represented by an infinite number of combinations with yoga pants. Most of those people are not really involved in yoga or doing any sports and that seems weird for an international student like me. For example, in Kazakhstan, people who wear athletic clothes every day are low-wage migrant workers and people from the countryside. On the other hand, females in my country dress up too much sometimes. Most of them will not shop for groceries or take out the garbage without make up, hair styling and appropriate casual clothes.

There are a lot of cultural differences between Kazakhstan and Vancouver, however, I don’t see them as obstacles. Vancouver was a new world to explore for me. And although my move from Kazakhstan was sudden and unexpected, I can’t be happier about how my life in Canada has turned out. This has been an experience I’m grateful for, and one that getting on that plane is something I will never regret.

WHAT IF I LEAVE THIS TOWN Seeking solace and giving refuge Sabrina Kuhn

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COLUMNIST

I tried so hard to write about something other than the current events around the world. I tried to write this week about depression, about how it can get worse in the winter and no one should feel ashamed for getting the help they need to manage it. But upon hearing the news of the bombing in Beirut, the attack on Paris, the bombing in Baghdad and the rampant discrimination against black students at the University of Missouri, it’s all I can think about. It’s all anyone on my news feed can talk about.

I saw a lot of hateful things on my news feed in the wake of the terrorist bombings in Paris.

I was lucky that I saw a lot of compassionate people speaking out as well. It was the hatred, the ignorance and the war-machine propaganda that scared me the most. I am lucky that living in Edmonton all my life, I have had one brush with war in nineteen years. Al Shabab (the group behind the shooting in Kenya that happened in April) made a list of targets and one of the named was West Edmonton Mall.

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My uncle works in that mall, my family’s house isn’t far from it and that mall is one of the busiest places in Edmonton. It wasn’t taken as a serious threat, and thankfully nothing came of it, but at the time it had the desired affect: terror.

I have seen all sorts of posts about being afraid of letting refugees in. I’ve seen comments that the screening process won’t be good enough, that they’re going to let terrorists into the land and it’s going to be the end of the world as we know it.

This notion is bullshit. Refugees have nowhere to go. Their homes are gone, they have nothing, they need help and they are running away from ISIS because the threat to their safety is real. The screening process will be adequate because our government isn’t just going to open the doors without knowing who is coming inside. Islamophobia is not going to get us anywhere but on the wrong side of history.

Where was Canada when the Jewish population needed help escaping Nazi Germany?

There was widespread anti-Semitism in the

country in the 1930s. People were outraged at the idea that refugees would come and take the few jobs that were coming the way of Canadians during their recovery from The Great Depression. A transatlantic liner, St. Louis, was full with 907 Jewish refugees and it made stop after stop after stop seeking sanctuary. Canada was the last option before the boat would be forced to return to Europe, and the government said no. The refugees were taken back to Europe and finally split between Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Great Britain. Then, the Nazis took over France and the Netherlands and 254 of those original refugees were put in concentration camps.

Does this sound familiar? History is cyclical, and it sounds to me like we have a choice to make. We already tried one avenue: turn them away. Knowing what we know now, we cannot lose compassion for people. No one ever blamed the German people for Hitler’s acts. No one blames Christianity for the actions of the

KKK or the Westboro Baptist Church. Muslims should have the same degrees of separation accorded to them.

On Remembrance Day, we say “Lest we forget.” Lest we forget the Chinese immigrants who died building the railroad, who were not allowed to bring their families over, who were paid as little as possible, who were put in unsafe work conditions. Lest we forget all the First Nations people who were forced from their land and into residential schools. Lest we forget that when the Allies freed people from concentration camps in Europe, they left those with pink and black triangles to die because those were the markers for homosexuality, which they said, was illegal and immoral. Lest we forget the effects of colonialism that have led to countless acts of greed, violence and genocide and has laid the groundwork for the extremism that is plaguing the world today.

We must learn from history and think critically at this time when there is such opportunity for things to go wrong.

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GABRIEL SCORGIE FEATURES EDITOR SPECIALFEATURES.CAPCOURIER@GMAIL.COM

THE RUNGS OF THE CORPORATE LADDER A look at misconceptions surrounding the gender wage gap Christine Beyleveldt CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT

Nov. 9 was not just another ordinary calendar day; it was the day that women officially stopped earning wages for 2015 in comparison to their male colleagues. It was over a century ago that feminists first picked up signs and marched out of their homes to demand equal rights, and while society has grown by leaps and bounds, the truth is that many women across the globe are still earning significantly less than their co-workers.

At the height of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, for the first time women began to venture beyond the kitchen and take on jobs as factory workers. Gender discrimination was rampant throughout the Victorian era, largely because women were seen as physically and mentally inferior to men. That attitude shifted in the 20th century after women were first granted equal rights, and later in the 1970s with sexual liberation, but the gap still existed because of differences in higher education. In 1963, women earned 60 cents for every dollar a man earned. “Today, the gap has shrunk and part of that is because of course women now have more equal access to post-secondary education than men,” said Graham Cook, a Capilano University Sociology instructor. Women weren’t encouraged to pursue higher education, and in many cases were denied outright. Education no longer plays a significant role in determining pay, considering that women are attending post-secondary institutions in record numbers and earning three undergraduate degrees for every two earned by men.

but ineffective government legislation has allowed equal pay to slide by the wayside. “In law, in our Charter of Rights, it says you can’t discriminate on the basis of gender, and so people assume because we have a formal law… you can’t pay them differently because they’re men or women.”

On average, women are still earning only 75 to 80 per cent of their male colleagues’ salaries, but it isn’t all to do with organizations coming out and announcing that they’re going to pay one person less than another, there are many pieces of information that are missing. According to the Globe and Mail, the wage gap in Canada is twice the global average, with women losing out on nearly $8,000 every year in comparison with the male workforce.

“There simply hasn’t been real political will to enforce the laws,” said Cook.

TRUTH WITH A GRAIN OF SALT Female workers are stereotyped as caregivers and fall into what the business-minded call the “mommy trap.”

Even though men are beginning to take on more domestic responsibilities, such as the cooking and the cleaning after long days at the office, typically childcare still falls to women. “As a woman, there are expectations that I will assume the primary duties of caregiving for a family,” said Taylor Smith, Social Justice coordinator for the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU).

choice but to take the required time off in order to raise a family.

Leading up to the Oct. 19 Federal Election, the New Democratic Party appealed to voters with the promise of a national $15 per day childcare system, which they argued would greatly relieve the burden of having to juggle careers and family. Cook pointed out that Sweden in particular has done well to reduce the gap in wages between the genders, because their system of nationalised childcare has allowed women to branch beyond the home and focus on careers. “They [Sweden] have had more social democratic governments, which means governments that are influenced more by trade unions and by commerce groups… We’ve tended to have business-oriented governments in Canada,” he said. Where the government chooses to focus on the wealth of the people as opposed to the wealth of the government, equality emerges.

The problem persists when naysayers argue that women would earn higher wages if they chose to pursue professions that require a higher education and level of experience. Doctors and lawyers make the most money, so why do women still pursue careers in education and nursing? This is the 21st century, and from an early point in a child’s education, they are taught that they will have a choice, that they may choose the path they wish to follow, “But the choices they make are within a menu that’s provided by society,” said Cook. Society teaches children that women will be mothers or teachers or nurses, and it teaches young boys that they will grow up to be CEOs, so by the time they are old enough to head out into the world, these ideas have become so ingrained that men and

PENNIES OR POUNDS

“Since the work takes place within a home setting, the economic value of the work lessens. Work that produces goods or services is usually considered productive.” It isn’t fair to say that women earn less than men because they don’t work as hard, when many see raising children as a full-time commitment and there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to commit fully to both endeavours. Rearing children is a difficult endeavour that few recognize, and therefore it isn’t ingrained in Canadian legislation. “A lot of women chose to have jobs that have more flexible and fewer hours so that they have time to take care of children,” said Cook. Simply put, childcare in Canada costs anywhere from $150 to $1,500 per month, leaving many lower and middle class mothers with little

down in mine shafts or on oil rigs as being at the highest risk for injury or death within the workplace. Women just don’t want to get their hands dirty. “However, occupations that pose a greater risk to women or are low-paying are usually not prioritized in the conversation,” said Smith. “Our perception of risk is shaped by gender stereotypes,” added Cook.

“There is social science evidence that… in particular in the initial salary discussion, that women will be less aggressive or less forceful in pushing for as high wage as possible,” said Cook. On one hand women typically don’t assert themselves in the same manner as male employees, often resulting in lower wages because they don’t demand better pay where it is negotiable. On the other hand, when women do speak up and ask for better pay, they are struck down, typecast as overtly pushy. “It’s not productive to think that Jennifer Lawrence is a “brat” for asking why she cannot be paid the same as male actors,” noted Smith. “In fact, we need women to be asking these questions in order to highlight our contributions as women in the employment sector.” The wage gap doesn’t exist because society is inherently sexist, but because the facts have been overlooked.

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— ZOE SOFIANOS

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“One of the big contributors to years past was difference in education and experience levels for women versus men,” explained Cook. “In the postsecond world war era… there would be barriers to women getting higher education and gaining experience.

They would start out and often end in the labour market in jobs that required less education and less experience.” Typically, professions such as elementary-level education and nursing would be left to women, whereas men dominated areas of the workforce that required a high degree of experience that would almost always allow them to be the breadwinners.

A few decades later, when Pierre Trudeau became the prime minister, pay equity legislation would come into play. “Pay equity says equal pay for work of equal value,” said Cook, adding that the fundamental idea should have eliminated any gaps in earnings,

women are pushed into fields that are seen as gender appropriate.

Typically, we think of men sweating and performing brutal labour

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AS NUMEROUS The reasons space continu James Martin CONTRIBUTOR

Space has always held a special allure ever since our ancient ancestors first gazed upon the splendour of the night sky. After centuries of telescopic study, more than half a century of regular spaceflight and the past 15 years of continuous human presence in space, the public’s fascination with what lies beyond our world has never been extinguished. In fact, space may be more popular than ever right now.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield generated an enormous amount of interest and attention when he made his space experience more accessible to the masses than ever before via social media during his 2012-2013 stint aboard the International Space Station. The European Space Agency’s Philae Lander probe collected over 455,000 Twitter followers during its dramatic landing mission on comet 67P one year ago. After hundreds of missions and decades of advanced telescopes that have brought us closer to the stars than our ancestors could ever have imagined, space remains a foreign and mysterious place, and our appetite to learn more about the final frontier has only increased.

“It’s universal for everybody on earth.

Everyone on this planet can see the sky at night,” said Dr. Jaymie Matthews, professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of British Columbia. “We’re fortunate in astronomy that people share that wonder. Before anyone had actually gone into space it was kind of this thing just beyond reach — this unobtainable dream, the subject of fantasy and science fiction — and then when it actually started to happen it was very exciting for people.”

STORIES WRITTEN IN THE STARS

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Our ongoing fascination with space has always been shaped by the stories we tell about it. In the ancient world, the moon, stars and planets of the night sky were mysterious forces that served both utility and inspiration. “Long before the big city lights, the sky was our big-screen television,” explained Matthews. “It was the clock, it was the calendar and it was the entertainment.

The constellations are a storybook in the sky where people found patterns in the stars and used their imaginations. There are adventure stories that would come again and again overhead, year after year.”

Later on, when telescopes allowed us to observe the other planets in our solar system

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and realize that they are whole worlds that may not be unlike our own, the focus of our stories from the night sky was changed dramatically. Matthews believes that unlike the stars, “our fascination with Mars is not something that’s really built into our DNA as a species.” The relatively dull reddish planet was never viewed as an especially ex-

citing object in the night sky until a well-off American astronomer named Percival Lowell came along around the turn of the 20th century. Lowell had studied drawings of the Martian surface by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli that featured canali — “channels” in Italian — that Lowell misinterpreted to mean artificial canals. The canali in question were actually an optical illusion from some of the telescopes of the time, but that didn’t stop Lowell from believing that he saw them too. Lowell went on to become a huge proponent of the theory that the canals had been constructed by a dying race of Martians who were trying to irrigate their deserts by transporting water from the polar caps. “This story really captured people’s imaginations,” said Matthews. “It had everything that you’d want. It had the strange creatures, it had the pathos of the sympathizing with a dying civilization, and Lowell was a good storyteller.”

The idea of alien civilizations, particularly Martians, has held a strong place in our cultural interest ever since. Lowell’s stories inspired H.G. Wells to pen The War of the Worlds, the story of Martians invading the Earth that went on to be retold in a famous radio play and classic 1953 film. “Mars had great PR,” said Matthews. Even after the Mariner probes sent back the first close-up photos in the 1960s and subsequent rovers have confirmed that Mars is barren and uninhabited, the public still hopes to find evidence that even simple life may have once existed there. “We still have this fascination with Mars, but I think it’s a carryover from the social inertia of more than a century of thinking that there were Martians, and I don’t know how long that will last. Our stories have always been about Martians invading earth, but really for the last 50 years or so it’s been Earthlings invading Mars with space probes.”

TRADING IN SCIENCE FICTION FOR SCIENCES Since the end of the space race, some supporters of space exploration have been disappointed by the apparent slowing of progress.

Only 24 people have ever travelled as far as the moon, and nobody has been back there since 1972. Without the massive budgets supported by cold war rivalries, space research has had to learn to live within more modest means. “The current going rate just to carry a kilogram from the surface of the earth to about 400 kilometres above the earth — a little more than the distance between Vancouver and Kelowna, but up — is about $20,000 USD per kilo,” explained Matthews. “The shuttle was supposed to bring that down to a couple hundred dollars per kilo, but it didn’t.

It turns out space is hard, and complicated, and although the shuttle is probably one of the most impressive technological vehicles ever created by humanity, it was not cheap.”

Fortunately, it’s the telescopes, unmanned probes and other instruments that have arguably delivered us the most interesting things we’ve ever learned about our universe. “There’s just this fascination with space, the places that we can’t get to yet,” said Matthews. “It’s that part of our world that seems beyond reach, so beautiful and mysterious, that teaches us more about this place. The questions that fascinate people about space are things like ‘How did the universe begin? Where did the things that make us up, the very elements and atoms, come from to make the earth and human beings?

Is there anybody else out there?’ Those are the kinds of things that fascinate everyone.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to ask those kinds of questions.”

Michael Unger, programs coordinator at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, echoed Matthews’ thoughts. “I think that now people are really interested and they want to know the science. People have been captivated by it because it’s a new age of discovery. It’s an unknown place for us to explore and find

AS THE STARS ues to fascinate and inspire these windows on the universe: connections to the observatories, the telescopes, the instruments and the space station, which connects us to that sense of wonder.”

Another important contributor to increased public awareness and access to information about space comes from outreach initiatives by scientists and institutions. “For a long period of time, the idea of a scientist spending time trying to explain things to the public wasn’t the kind of thing scientists were supposed to do,” Matthews explained.

“Carl Sagan became a kind of pioneer in the sense that he realized the importance of that.

He got a lot of flack from other scientists, people who didn’t know him that well kind of dismissed him because scientists aren’t supposed to appear on The Tonight Show or aren’t supposed to be witty and funny. But he showed how effective that could be. He opened up a new sort of attitude, he took the flack to make it possible for others to do that.

Now, there’s been a complete swing of the pendulum. People recognize how important education and public outreach is in science.

It’s one thing to make discoveries, but it’s another thing if nobody knows about it other than other specialists and scientists.”

Increased public interest in the science of space may explain the changing tone of how space is portrayed in popular culture.

Although many science fiction works strike a sort of balance between believability and

ing research for my presentation on Jupiter, I went to the library and there were only two books. In those books there were a couple [relevant] pages. Now, kids have access to the internet, and they have access to all this information. I think they are really interested in the science. Kids are naturally curious. If they are still interested by the time they get to high school or university, there already will have been huge leaps in the science, and I think that’s exciting for them.”

WHERE TO NOW? For the moment, it seems like Mars has once again stepped into the limelight as the darling of the public’s imagination. No longer viewed as the home of aliens, it is now seen as the next logical step in humanity’s perpetual mission to boldly go where no one has gone before. “We’re going to face a few roadblocks,” Matthews conceded. “Going to Mars, it’s more than just having rockets that can go that distance. The issue is that it’s an eightmonth trip one-way, far beyond the protecting umbrella of earth’s magnetic field. The issue is how to protect the human explorers when they’re out in space.” All the same, Unger is optimistic. “We’re at a really exciting time in space exploration. We’re not going to have the ‘JFK moment’ — the moon was a huge leap from where we were at the time.

The steps needed to take people to Mars, those are already in place, and it’s going to take a lot longer than one president’s turn. Now what we’re seeing is an investment in the future. We’re looking at long-term goals so that we don’t just end up on a one-time only trip to Mars and then never go back.”

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more fantastical elements, recent big-budget movies like Gravity and The Martian seem to show an appetite for science fiction that showcases space as the exciting setting that it is, without the need to dress it up with aliens or wormholes. Spike TV is currently developing a new show in this vein, based on Mars Trilogy books by Kim Stanley Robinson. Even video games are also focusing more on the scientific side of space. Kerbal Space Program is a popular game that challenges players to design and pilot realistic functioning space ships in order to conduct missions such as collecting scientific data from orbit or visiting other planets.

Unger admitted that science fiction such as Star Wars played a large part in fostering his early interest in space. This is just as true

for today’s kids, as space has always held an extra special place in the imaginations of children. The difference now, he said, is how much easier it is for kids today to further pursue that interest. “When I was a kid do-

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answers to really big questions.” Unger said that some of the most exciting research happening right now involves using advanced telescopes for the discovery and study of very distant planets, some of which hint at the potential to support life. “We’re at the precipice of making some huge breakthroughs.”

For the less scientifically inclined, there’s still at least an aesthetic appeal to space. “It’s a very visual field,” explained Matthews. “We take lots of beautiful pictures which tend to evoke wonder in people. The Hubble space telescope website has one of the highest hit rates of all the websites in the world — and that’s including porn sites — because people love to see those images. They’ve been turned into posters and screen savers and so on.”

Even the less beautiful pictures, like the often grainy or distorted photos of barren moons and planets, still get people excited, such as the extremely wide-angle shots from the Curiosity rover on Mars. “It always surprises me that people are impressed because they don’t actually look that impressive.

There are no big mountain peaks, nothing that looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, but I think what impresses people and makes them so excited is that they realize that’s what it would be like to be standing with their boots in the soil of another world. It’s kind of like a postcard showing them what it would be like to be on another planet. Just the fact that they know that this is a real picture from another world is what makes it resonate with them.”

Certainly another important factor in space’s current appeal is a new ease of access. Despite the fact that most people living in urban settings can see only a handful of the brightest stars at night, people today are able to discover, experience and share news and images from space far more easily than any other time in history. “We’ve become disconnected from the sky in a personal way, but we’ve become more connected with the sky and the universe through the web and through social media, because in a way that’s unlike any other time in history we scientists can share the results of our discoveries with people,” Matthews explained. “We have

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CALENDAR NEWS

23 MONDAY

SNARKY PUPPY

VOGUE THEATRE 8 PM • $41 TO $53 + SC

If you’re enrolled in the Capilano University Jazz Studies program, you’ll know that Snarky Puppy are an insanely talented jazz fusion ensemble from Brooklyn. If not, you probably thought it was some washed-up white rapper from Malibu. My apologies for the false alarm. Either way, here’s some good advice: go see this band. You’ll love them.

CAPU JAZZ COMBO NIGHT

BLUESHORE CENTRE 8 PM • $ FREE

ANDY RICE

CALENDAR EDITOR EDITOR@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

15 24 TUESDAY

I find it both cruel and hilarious that Snarky Puppy (mentioned above) are in town on the same night that all students in CapU’s Jazz Studies program will be stuck on campus for a graded combo performance. (That would be like making the MOPA students watch each other’s movies on Oscar Night!)

Don’t go to this. Go see Snarky Puppy.

LIBRARY HALLWAY 9 AM • $ FREE

Every Tuesday for the month of November, the Capilano Courier has been hosting a meet-andgreet at various locations around campus. This week, you’ll find our pop-up tent in the Library hallway adjacent to the soon-to-be Starbucks cafe. Come see us for a free coffee and a copy of the paper and enter to win some cool swag!

Meet Peter Ciuffa, the “world’s only professional pasta-making actor.” He’s appeared on TV, started his own artisanal pasta company, Pasta Famiglia, and is soon to be a restauranteur once his East Vancouver nosh pit opens its doors. Rather than serving your food like 90 per cent of the other actors on the scene, he’ll teach you how to cook it.

25 WEDNESDAY

Urbandictionary.com defines ‘Air Band’ as that moment “when you're listening to a really good song and can't decide what instrument to pretend to play, so you switch up every few seconds.” I do this a lot while driving, and now it looks as though I can do it for charity.

Definite bonus. RSVP to erinberry@capilanou.ca for a spot on the list.

MICHAEL JACKSON TRIBUTE

THE BILTMORE 7 PM • $15

SingItFwd presents We Are the World, We Are the Biltmore, a Michael Jackson tribute concert featuring members of Hey Ocean, Dear Rouge, The Zolas, Bend Sinister, Wanting, The Boom Booms and more. Go to this is you ever wondered what MJ songs sound like with hand claps in place of the iconic drum grooves. Ooh, how indie!

26 17 THURSDAY

DISNEY ON ICE: FROZEN

27 VOLUME 49 ISSUE NO. 12 THE CAPILANO COURIER

A hilariously-named diver named Scuba Claus returns to take his annual plunge into the Strait of Georgia. Then, it appears as though he’ll be roaming around to the various attractions at the aquarium for the rest of the day. If Santa’s not your thing, there’s also an electric eel exhibit and a tree made from festive marine debris.

DARK SISTERS

Vancouver Opera presents the Canadian premiere of Dark Sisters, composed by Nico Muhly and featuring a libretto by Stephen Karam. The provocative story follows a woman named Eliza as she attempts to escape from a Mormon sect in the American southwest and free her young daughter from a polygamous fate. In opera time, it only takes her two hours.

SFU GOLDCORP CENTRE FOR THE ARTS 9 PM • $12 TO $15

The theme for this year’s Vancouver South Asian Film Festival (VISAFF) is Bollywood and Beyond. Programming has been chosen specifically with the intent to “engage, educate and inspire audiences by promoting free expression, cross-cultural interactions and understanding, and combating intolerance and stereotypes,” according to VISAFF.ca.

CHRISTMAS AT FLYOVER CANADA

CANADA PLACE PIER 10 AM • $14.95 TO $19.95

VSO: 50 YEARS OF BOND

The James Bond film franchise has become well known for its music, commissioning songs from dozens of artists over the years. The last time the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra put on a pops concert with a 007 theme, people lost their minds. This is a reprise of that show, just in time for the release of the 24th film, SPECTRE.

28 14 SATURDAY

ROGER HODGSON

RIVER ROCK SHOW THEATRE 8 PM • $74.50 TO $84.50 + SC The legendary voice of Supertramp is making the rounds on the casino circuit these days.

Roger Hodgson is famous for writing and singing many of the band’s biggest hits, including “Dreamer,” Give a Little Bit” and “The Logical Song.” Best of all, he has one of those voices that hasn’t aged a day since 1974.

DUNBAR HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR

DUNBAR COMMUNITY CENTRE 10 AM • $3

For 33 years strong, the Dunbar Holiday Craft Fair has delighted locals and visitors with a wide assortment of handmade items. Over 2,000 people attended the event last year and the 2015 instalment will feature over 140 confirmed vendors. Don’t bother driving — the #7 bus will get you there quickly and easily.

HARD RUBBER ORCHESTRA

RIO THEATRE 8:30 PM • $15 TO $20

Vancouver’s infamous Hard Rubber Orchestra has played in basements and ballrooms across the Lower Mainland, but somehow never at East Van’s historic Rio Theatre. The 18-piece big band will play selections from their newest album, Crush, which features many Capilano University faculty playing instruments or composing.

ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA COMMODORE BALLROOM 8 PM • $49.50 + SC

Dweezil Zappa is the son of the legendary Frank Zappa, and since 2006 he’s toured relentlessly to keep his late father’s music alive. This isn’t some hack offspring trying to make a quick buck either. Dweezil can actually play. And if you think his name is weird, just know that he has two sisters named Moon Unit and Diva Muffin. Actually.

HANSEL AND GRETEL

SHADBOLT CENTRE FOR THE ARTS 3 PM • $15

Hansel and Gretel is a famous German opera composed by Engelbert Humperdinck. (No, not the guy who sings “Quando, Quando, Quando.”) Five young opera singers from Burnaby Lyric Opera will tell the tale of a brother and sister who get lost in a forest after being sent out to pick berries, and how they murder a cannibalistic witch in self-defence.

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HOLIDAYS AT VANCOUVER AQUARIUM

VANCOUVER AQUARIUM 10 AM • $29

Disney’s Frozen is rolling into town — or, should I say, skating into town — just in time for winter. Ice dancing looks tough enough as is, but adding a giant snowman costume seems like recipe for disaster. That’s why I Googled “disney on ice fail” and was far from disappointed. (Highlights include the Beast losing his pants, Ariel falling and Lilo needing stitches.)

ORPHEUM THEATRE 8 PM • $18.75 TO $95

SUNDAY

I used to think King Crimson was yet another product made by Tampax, but boy was I wrong.

They’re actually a prog-rock band from Britain. And like any prog-rock band, they’ve changed members more times than Rob Ford has changed drug dealers. Go see them (and their original guitar player) and let me know if they’re any good.

VANCOUVER PLAYHOUSE 7:30 PM • $35 TO $99

FlyOver Canada is billed as part flying ride, part IMAX film and part sightseeing tour. Basically, you’re strapped in a pod, pushed out into a spherical screen and taken on an adventure.

For their special Christmas variation (running Nov. 27 to Jan. 5) you’ll be a passenger in Santa’s sleigh, gliding through the skies on a mission to find his missing elves. #dontbarf

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KING CRIMSON

VOGUE THEATRE 8 PM • $69.50 TO $200

PACIFIC COLISEUM 7 PM • $25 TO $95 + SC

VANCOUVER INTL. SOUTH ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL

FRIDAY

ELIZABETH SHEPHERD WITH NITECAP

BLUESHORE CENTRE 8 PM • $25 TO $28

CAPILANO COURIER POP-UP TENT

FRESH PASTA MAKING + DINNER

UNITED WAY AIR BAND

Nerd Nite is a weekly lecture series that happens to take place in a bar, which happens to be my favourite place to learn anything. The three topics being covered are mini aquariums for the tourism industry, the process of wine production and the moral and physical flaws in George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones characters.

What is NiteCap? Funny you should ask. NiteCap is Capilano University’s premiere vocal jazz ensemble. Sometimes, they sing backup for famous guest artists (or non-famous ones like Elizabeth Shepherd) and other times they go full-on Pitch Perfect and Glee. I was in the group for three years. Please don’t hold that against them.

GROUNDSWELL COMMUNITY CAFE 6:30 PM • $75

LB 195 11:30 AM • $ BY DONATION

NERD NITE V15

FOX CABARET 7 PM • $5 ONLINE, $9 AT THE DOOR

DISNEY ON ICE: FROZEN

NEWS ARTS & CULTURE

@CAPILANOCOURIER

WWW.CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

SNEAKERHEADS, BRUH An infinitely volatile attraction Mark Crickmay ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Sneaker addiction has always been a cult-like trend among collectors — a perpetual joy instead of a burden. With leading brands like Nike, Adidas, New Balance and Converse dominating the market with deeply rooted marketing, it’s no wonder that people feel the need to constantly keep one foot inside of the newest sneaker. From the evolution of the market to the display of increased popularity, we take a look at what is so appealing (and not) for consumers and collectors within the sneakerhead world.

THE EVOLUTION

THE DIRECTION Sneakerheads will always collect, but it’s safe to say that the market has continually evolved and shown signs of maturity in both production and means of collection.

“It was going way down, but I think quality is improving as people aren’t standing for low quality materials anymore. For instance, Jordan reissues this year were all ‘Remastered’ which meant the quality of the materials was better,” stated Martini, hitting the mark on one of the main reasons for the influx in popularity with collection. Justin Lau, an employee of Complex, now The Corner Store (a popular streetwear store in Vancouver) and Wings + Horns, echoed Martini’s sentiments on quality. “Definitely Nike has targeted this with their Jordan shoes. After years of com-

plaints they’ve gone back to using some original factories they would have used in the early 90s and have even started sourcing higher quality leather and materials. Of course, this comes with a minor price jump, but people haven’t seemed to mind the tradeoff.”

Where the market goes is another question — the sneaker market is international but there are always leaders in the market. “China is going to be huge, said Lau. “The growing population and their huge appetite for fashion and sneakers, it’s going to be a huge player in the sneaker market.”

THE RESELLERS It’s safe to say that resellers change the game of any environment they’re involved in, and Martini believes there’s a positive side of resellers that not everyone considers. “Well if you have the loot, [resellers] are awesome because you can get anything you want [from them],” he said, adding that for him the original point of sale still outweighs the resale game. “I prefer to see a kid buy a pair of shoes, lace em up in the shop and walk out in them. That’s a real sneakerhead to me.”

THE PLAYERS (COLLECTORS + RESELLERS) With any market, there are demographics and internal and external factors that surround it. Within the sneaker game there are a few main players: the buyers, the sellers and the resellers. Lau digressed that the market is not defined by any one type of person. “To be honest, there’s no real demographic. We see kids as young as like eight or nine who come in just to look who will be collectors eventually, to adults with families who had the original release back in ’85 who just want to recollect a childhood favourite.

The [female] market is also huge for sneakers — there are more female Jordan heads than ever, and also the influx of Chinese exchange students is a huge demographic of the sneaker market.”

Clearly, there is no one definitive type of customer — some people collect young, some collect later in life and some collect to simply resell and profit from the market.

THE END GAME

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As with everything, there must be an end goal. For most sneakerheads, that appears to be finding their holy grail while also being a part of an interesting cultural movement.

“Honestly, I think people just love the relationship and community that comes along with sneaker collecting,” stated Lau. “Vancouver has a large sneaker community who gather a couple times a year at formal sneaker showings, who meet regularly almost every week at lineups at local boutiques and malls and also who interact with one another almost every week through various Facebook groups like Buy Selling Kicks BC. Of course, they also love the bragging rights that come with getting hard-to-obtain sneakers or having a bigger collections than your peers.”

Sneakerheads unite in many different ways worldwide, but individually each player has an end game — to collect their favourite pairs and be a part of a unique collective. Whether it’s searching mom and pop shops, calling out resellers or waiting in line for 24-plus hours — the sneakerhead craze has evolved into an eccentric passion for collectors that shows no current sign of slowing down.

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Collecting sneakers, like anything, likely began on a small but concentrated scale — building from roots in basketball, hip-hop and streetwear cultures in the 1970s.

The most iconic moment in the sneaker collecting would have been when Michael Jordan and Nike collaborated in 1985 with the Air Jordan. The downside to the Jordan craze was that the creation of so many models and variations oversaturated the market — a problem that plagues the industry to this day. “As a sneakerhead from way back, I remember when there were literally a handful of us hardcore collectors. Now everyone is a collector or reseller,” stated Jeff Martini, owner of Vancouver streetwear hotspot DIPT and creator of the Vancity streetwear brand.

The notion to “cop or drop” has caused a craze for collectors to create customer-managed sales for companies like Nike and Adidas. Customers are inevitably creating the hype for sneakers, not necessarily the companies.

Martini discussed the evolution of collecting in a defining manner. “There have been lots of peaks and valleys for sure and now with all the resellers I think it is a bit out of hand. I think the real problem is that brands such as Nike and Jordan are releasing too many retros. You can basically get anything now and if not, you know it is coming around again soon.” Martini

continued, “I liked it better when you had to hunt for stuff. Eventually people will burn out on, say, the current Jordan trend and it will die down for a big and then come back eventually. It always does. At the end of the day it’s all business and companies want to make as much money as possible.”

ARTS & CULTURE NEWS

MARK CRICKMAY

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR ARTS.CAPCOURIER@GMAIL.COM

BEHIND THE STYLE

On ethical, transparent and sustainable fashion Carlo Javier EXECUTIVE LIFESTYLE EDITOR

To live beautifully isn’t just driven by appearance.

MATT & NAT is a Montreal-based line that prides itself in designing and producing ethically and transparently sourced vegan bags, wallets and accessories. Its name is inspired by the symbiosis of material and nature and the company lives by its motto: “live beautifully,” which it defines as the appreciation of “humanity, creativity and positivity found in all of us.”

Creativity is evident in MATT & NAT’s catalogue. Their design effortlessly amalgamates class and simplicity. Its products also put emphasis on standard and classic solid colours, eschewing patterns that have become common trends in modern bags and wallets.

Design, however, doesn’t tell the whole story. MATT & NAT have championed ethically sourcing and transparent production.

The brand utilizes signature vegan leathers as well as recycled materials such as nylon and rubber. Manufacturing-wise, MATT & NAT’s bags are made in China, albeit in factories that follow the rules laid by United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other conventions and documents that centre on work standards.

Although MATT & NAT began its work in 1995, the company stands as one of the figures in the ever-ongoing discussion on ethical fashion. Over the years, the fashion industry has been placed under the microscope because of the repercussions of the growth of fast fashion – an aspect of fashion that’s predominantly driven by the market demand to bring in the latest trends from the catwalk to the stores.

Lucas Hui is a design consultant at a concept store called Secret Location. The store markets brands under a category they define as “True Luxury,” importing works of design-

ers from Milan and Paris. His job for both Secret Location and its clients is akin to that of a storyteller, creating a personalized experience, including styling and educating on product information.

According to Hui, the concept of fast fashion is a relatively new idea that's only truly come to light in the past 20 years. “I think it's changed consumer behaviour drastically,” he began. “Women used to buy a dress and wore it for every event. The fact that we think to buy a new outfit for every party, every date is only possible through fast fashion.” However, Hui believes that despite the consumerist behaviour that ultimately dictates fast fashion, the unethical side of the industry may also cause people to think twice before opting for the quicker cheaper clothing option. “If factors like child labor, fair pay, exploitation of third-world countries and environmental damage were

made transparent to the public then many people would realize the cheap prices and fadtrends just aren't worth it I think,” he said.

One of the monumental incidents that sparked the controversy around ethical fashion is the tragic collapse of Rana Plaza in the Savar District of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The building housed numerous garment factories for multiple brands from across the world and its collapse due to structural failure resulted in the deaths 1,129 people. Another 2,515 were rescued, many of them severely injured from the debris.

Much of the criticism towards the garment factories were due to the fact that despite the reports of structural damages in the building, factory workers were still ordered to return.

Banks and other shops had closed down due to concerns, but those that were required to resume work fell victim when the building

crashed during the morning rush. After this accident, fast fashion retail giants such as Zara and H&M were placed under the microscope for their involvement in factories with poor working conditions, ultimately leading to a safety accord signed by several designers and retailers around the world.

The common assumption is that higher end clothing tend to be produced ethically. “It all depends on brands,” said Hui, “Higher-end brands tend to take steps in making sure their sources are high quality. And for that to happen, they need to go to places with higher skilled workers.

And for that to happen the workers must be well paid. It's all a trickle-down effect.”

As demonstrated by MATT & NAT, ethical production is an entirely sustainable business option. On the other hand, consumers are left to make the decision on where they choose to shop. This doesn’t mean that fast fashion stores such as H&M and Zara should be vilified, however. There is a common misconception that every brand that mass-produces their catalogues are the devils of the fashion industry. This in turn can lead to snobbery from those who boycott cheaper products.

One of the ways to support ethics and sustainability without having to break banks by strictly buying from luxury brand is to resell.

For example, Closest Relay is an application that provides users with a virtual marketplace where they can “buy and sell once-loved clothing within the community.” Closet Relay’s model not only creates a sense of community through trade, it also promotes sustainability through reusing.”

Ultimately, being ethical when it comes to fashion comes down to choice, a choice that falls at the hands of both producers and consumers.

MAKE IT — A CRAFTY AFFAIR

Bringing the handmade revolution to the people Jacob Muir

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 49 ISSUE NO. 12

CONTRIBUTOR

Make It! The Handmade Revolution is an artist and artisan fair that provides a unique one-stopshop for everybody’s crafty side. This December, food trucks, artists and everyone in between will be descending on the PNE Forum to showcase their tastes and talents. Customers will have an excellent opportunity to buy nothing but good old fashioned handmade Canadian goods and may even contribute to a worthy cause while they’re at it.

Jenna Herbut, the co-creator and producer of Make It! was tired of the traditional craft fairs that we all know so well. “I felt like if there was a better vibe, my friends might come too,” said Herbut.

So she pioneered an event, starting in Edmonton, that includes not only crafts but also artisanal goods, food vendors, a beer garden, established artists and up-and-comers. “We now have over 250 exhibitors (Makies) at our show in Vancouver

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and 200 at the Edmonton event. We are expecting over 20,000 shoppers to come out to the PNE this year so the show has definitely grown a lot since we started,” stated Herbut.

One of those Makies is Jesi Carson, co-founder of Basic Design — a Vancouver based social enterprise design firm. Basic Design’s model is to use their profits to “meet the basic need of the community,” said Carson. “We’re working on a project called the Binner’s Project, which works with individuals who collect bottles for a living to reduce the stigma of [binning] and connect with the communities that they’re working in.”

This will be Basic Design’s second year at Make It! and although the fair is “not a lot [of revenue]… it’s a great way to get out there and get our brand awareness going,” said Carson. After attending a few different shows like Circle Craft and East Side Flea, Carson described Make It! as “a little bit more laid back. [It has] a lot of emerging artists, [and] it’s a lot of fun.” She appreciates that fairs like these “are taking consumerism out of the mall and creating awareness for craftsmanship.”

Another one of the Makies is Jason Blower, an Edmonton-based illustrator who describes his work as “a whimsical and rose-coloured glasses look at locations or storytelling that invokes some level of nostalgia and memory of locations and time.” He depends on these kinds of events for his annual income. “At least 50 per cent of my income comes from being at physical market,” he explained. The marketing done at these events is also critical, something Carson described as “a snowball effect.”

Blower is a veteran of numerous fairs and festivals in both Edmonton and Vancouver. “The events are not all that different, just different levels of scale,” he said. “I find that the community is different. People want smaller stuff because people in Vancouver have less space than they do out here in Edmonton… There’s more of a grassroots feel, due to the BC coast vibe.”

Craft fairs like Make It! allow people to get in touch with those who create things. “You’re not just buying… you’re participating in the interaction between the artist and the viewer,”

said Blower. “When people go to these things, they’re generating more income for the arts so [artists] can make more, go further with it, and bring more out to the community.”

Aside from being a community and culture powerhouse, Make It! has a charitable side as well. “We have a silent auction with items donated by our Makies and all the proceeds go to the Union Gospel Mission. It feels really wonderful to support such an awesome charity,” said Herbut. “If you are a creative person who wants to be inspired, there's no other place like Make It! I would suggest taking the time to chat with the Makies because they are amazing. I'm so grateful that I get to do something I love and support such an incredible community.”

Make It! Vancouver will take place on Dec. 3 to 6 at the the PNE Forum. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $7 which covers all four days of the event. for more information, visit Makeitproductions.com.

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MALE GROOMING Why the tidy beards?

Jacob Muir CONTRIBUTOR Trimmed up beards certainly aren’t anything new. The tidy look has been working its way into mainstream of beard culture for quite a while and it’s starting to become common practice for men to have a manicured look. We’re not talking about ZZ-top chin mops or Justin Timberlake’s slightlymore-than five o’clock shadow. These are bushy, yet defined; robust, yet sculpted and often coupled with an even more delicately-presented hairstyle.

Is it such a crime to have a lesser groomed beard, though?

Ian Daburn, co-owner of the high-end Barber & Co., related the scaling trend of beards in relation to pop culture. “Over the past five years, mens’ trends have been working their way to the forefront of fashion… In 2013 when the Oscars aired on TV, actors like George Clooney and Ben Affleck skyrocketed the beard trend into mainstream. Before that, only the West Coast hipsters were wearing beards and some say that in a protest of over-priced razors by large manufactures, the beard was reborn.”

Beard trends come from a variety of sources.

“Soccer culture influences hairstyles amongst men across the world. Hipster culture is big as well… A lot of hair trends, like fashion trends, start on the street,” said Graham Carr, one of the

head barbers at Regal Barbers, echoing Daburn’s statements on hipster culture and beards.

Equality in society has played a role in shaping up men’s looks as well. Society’s values towards women and perfection haven’t necessarily lessened. However, men are increasingly being held to similar standards. “I think society has changed it's views on men and women,” said Carr. “Most men care about what they look like.”

All of the major cosmetics brands have picked up on the trend as well. Some of the biggest makeup producers such as Revlon and L’Oreal have completely separate brand names and product lines all catered towards men. “Theres a common misconception with beards and maintenance.

People look at beards as a way to save time on grooming. A good haircut will also save some time in the morning because they require less work and product to make them work,” stated Daburn.

“Beards grow at the same rate as your hair, so keeping your beard trimmed is an important part of a healthy looking beard. We [at Barber & Co.] have two types of beard trims: a regular beard trim that is for the well groomed beard that needs some maintenance, and a Deluxe Beard Trim. [The Deluxe Beard Trim] is a much longer, more detailed service which includes straight razor shaving the neck and cheeks. People with either big beards that require more technical shaping or that need attention to detail should choose this option.”

As a result of trending beard styles, cosmetic products have also come around to include bushyfaced men. “Beard Balm and Beard Oil have become an important part of maintaining a healthy looking beard,” Daburn explained. “The high content of argan oil will strengthen and soften the beard, leading to a fuller, longer beard in no time.”

Beards have, and always will be, in existence.

It’s the general trend of the well-kept and stylized beard that poses as a trend. Ranging from having five-minute bathroom routines to lengthly sessions resulting in meticulously-prepared faces, beard styles can take their toll on men’s daily routines.

“A lot of our members see us between two and four times a month,” said Carr. “Grooming has become very popular among a lot more men. Professional grooming has always been of importance to professionals, but now it has spread like wildfire.”

Man Up Grooming is North Vancouver’s manifestation of the image-conscious male. It is a full-service barbershop offering everything from a hairstyling, to beard trimming, to pedicures. Their clientele are not all fashionistas or aspiring models either. “It doesn’t seem to be a certain type of person who wants that service or that look,” said owner, Alison Koch. “Sometimes, it’ll surprise me.”

Koch explained that the shop’s patrons range from industrial workers to dads brining in their kids, as well as young men from the local gyms.

Having a clean look is less and less only for hip-

sters and businessmen. It is becoming increasingly expected of men across the board. “Even ten years ago when you watched the news, the guy is overweight or doesn't look that great and then the woman is there all picture perfect and beautiful,” said Koch. “So why does she have to be gorgeous to be on TV when he looks like some schlepp off the street?”

That discrepancy of image has been steadily closing. Men in the public world are expected to present a put-together image. We even saw jabs during the election with regards to hair.

According to one Conservative attack ad, Justin Trudeau’s only good feature is his hair. Conversely, one NDP attack ad said the same of Stephen Harper. One would be deceived if they thought any of the potential prime minister’s looks weren’t carefully crafted and maintained. This is public life, but the trend looks like it is spilling into private life as well.

Whether their reasons are emulating pop culture idols or equality with the expectations of women, men have recognized the need to look good. These are not just the men who need to look good like politicians and corporate executives, but everyone down to your average Gen X dad. The boom in the availability of products and barbers shows that men care and this isn’t just a trend — it’s the new normal.

IT’S ALL IN THE FAMILY

Paving pathways toward success for future generations Jessica Lio CONTRIBUTOR

Within family businesses, children are often expected to help out and contribute to the workplace as they grow up. Unlike well-established businesses that have been passed down through many generations, newer family businesses may have lower chances of survival if younger generations don’t choose to carry on the family legacy. It can be beneficial to learn many facets of business through the family business, but it could also be detrimental to future careers in some ways as well.

Erin Robinson, a Business instructor at Capilano University, recognizes that having working experience at a family business is valuable, but pointed out that it could be perceived negatively by potential employers if they underestimated an applicant’s work ethic or accountability.

Robinson, who worked in microfinance services at Vancity Credit Union, believes that a business can thrive when it knows its customers well and has strong communication networks. Although success can have different definitions, she believes that running a family

business can be very fulfilling.

“Working for a family business gives you a tremendous amount of opportunity. You tend to become a jack-of-all-trades,” Robinson continued, “It teaches you a variety of transferable skills and agility.”

“Small businesses have some opportunities they’ve never had before [including] the ability to get online through social media and get your message through channels that are cheaper than traditional marketing would have ever been. The challenge of that is your competitor base is so much more intense. Everybody’s online,” Robinson stated. In Vancouver, a new business’s biggest struggle is typically the cost of rent. For merchants, in particular, there’s also pressure to compete with the pricing structure of big-box shops.

However, as young adults, it’s not uncommon for them to want to take a different career path. When faced with the decision of staying at their family’s business or exploring other options, there can be a lot of pressure based on the future of the company.

The benefits of working for the family business appear to still be relevant to future career-seekers, though the deficits are unclear. Emerging entrepreneurs may stand a better chance at recognizing the future success of their potential family business.

As it stands, it doesn’t appear that family businesses lack in demand so long as they remain current.

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Leonard Nima, a project coordinator at Toyota USA who now lives in Los Angeles, told a similar story about working at his family’s grocery store in North Vancouver.

“Our family purchased Nancy Market in 2011. The previous owner had a strong stigma about him, and it took years to rebuild the grocery’s image,” Nima recalled.

“It took a full year of working as a stock boy, IT and cashier to build up our customers’ confidence in us delivering quality at a fair price. My days involved getting up at 6 am

to receive merchandise, cooperating with our workers to arrange the goods and juggling cashier duties at the same time.”

Still, Nima worries that may not be enough. He reasoned that, “People are attracted to businesses with the nicest packaging, lower prices and 24/7 customer service.” When considering the future of Nancy Market, he hopes his family can sell the business so that his parents can have the retirement they deserve.

Now in the early stages of starting his own company, Nima is incredibly thankful that his family chose to pursue their own business. “My family, at least on my father’s side, had a history of starting from ground zero and influenced me to take business school. They were putting in so much effort to keep the business alive, put me through school and deal with their own life problems at the same time.”

THE CAPILANO COURIER

Wilson Chu, a third-year business student at Simon Fraser University, has worked at his family’s grocery store, Tommy’s Market, since he was young.

“It’s where all my brothers and sisters started. We grew up wanting to be at the store all the time because that’s where family was,” Chu explained. In 1964, Chu’s father opened up the business in Burnaby’s Edmonds neighbourhood. Despite having only completed a fourth-grade education, his father has been able to successfully stay in business for over 50 years. He always taught his children the importance of customer service and building relationships with people.

“With small businesses, there’s a sense of family and community,” Chu explained. “You always have to make people feel welcome.”

In Chu’s opinion, the personal and profes-

sional development he got from working at the store has certainly given him an advantage when applying for other jobs. Growing up in a working environment, he had quickly learned organization, efficiency, cash-handling and communication skills while developing the intuitive ability to read people.

Chu’s decisions have been based on finding a balance between what makes him happy and staying true to his family values. “This is the business that we survive on and I feel that we should do our part. I love working at the store but I find that I get greater enjoyment expanding my knowledge through school,” he said. “I think the career path I have in mind is possibly more rewarding.

“Do whatever you think is right for you,” he continued. “I don’t think you have to commit yourself to one or [the other]. If you have the option and you want to branch out and do something for yourself, do it,” Chu advised optimistically.

OPINIONS

KEVIN KAPENDA

OPINIONS EDITOR OPINIONS.CAPCOURIER@GMAIL.COM

POLITICS AFTER PARIS

Why Canada shouldn’t walk away from ISIS air coalition Kevin Kapenda OPINIONS EDITOR

We all felt its wrath in some way, shape or form. Paris under siege, not like earlier this year at the headquarters of a controversial magazine, but in the heart of its city and streets, where its culture of liberty, equality and fraternity reigns. This attack served as a reminder to all of the world that there are some that seek to challenge our values, freedom and way of life with incessant threats of evil and violence. The tragic events of Nov. 13, should provoke a response from our government that is similar in tone to those of our allies, and in keeping with much of our history.

Much of our election campaign was centred on security and antiterrorism policy.

While security could not be more important for Europe right now, the same cannot really be said about Canada. A large ocean separates us from the continent, and any attack within our walls would most likely originate from inside them, unlike Paris where two of the seven attackers were discovered to be residents of Belgium. In spite of not living under the constant threat of terrorism, that doesn’t mean that Canada should excuse itself from the fight against it. Terrorism is an attack on all of humanity, and a continuous reminder of why the West must be unrelenting in its defence of peace and freedom.

When Justin Trudeau announced that he would take in 25,000 refugees by the end of this year, as opposed to the 10,000 the previous government had committed to, this proposal signalled a possible return to a time when Canada did more for those displaced by conflict around the world. While the policy was welcomed by many people, it has been met with skepticism and reluctance by others for a myriad of reasons, including equality, the disregard of other Iraqi refugees and security of course, all of which are valid concerns to have.

The fact that the government is using the UN’s resettlement quota of 10,000 as a basement, and not a ceiling, is something to be very proud of. Nonetheless, arguing that security should not be a concern for Canada, or any country resettling refugees for that matter, is not something a minister can rebuff over a press conference. It must be demonstrated over time. Delaying the resettlement target, which has already been stretched from New Year’s Eve, to Jan. 31, could not possibly do any more harm at this point and could lead to more support across Canada for a policy that has not yet been embraced by a definitive majority.

A large part of Trudeau’s campaign focused on Canada’s role in the world, and his perception that our country had grown out of step with its history and our allies throughout the west. While it bore some truth in certain isolated cases, it was largely elevated to a level that no longer justified the accusation. This war of words that was epitomized

in an Adbusters video showing a citizen of a another country spitting on a maple leaf flagbearing backpack really demonstrated how the Harper decade was not about the rest of the world, and our history, but Canada’s dominant political class and their unwillingness to supplement words with action.

When Canada began engaging in anti-Islamic State (IS) airstrikes last year, the US led coalition did not have many members in it, and was deemed contrarian to our history of refusing to prop up our southern neighbours’ lone wolf operations. Fast forward to now and that coalition is not so red, blue and white anymore. In fact, it’s triple that, with the UK and France now involved in the air campaign against IS too. With Australia also participating, I can’t think of another group of countries that are historically closer to Canada than the four English colonies (New Zealand providing military training) and the birthplace of our second national language (France). If they’re still not enough for you (or the Liberals and NDP), First and Second World War allies like the Netherlands (maple syrup, anyone?), and Russia are also pitching in from the skies.

If Mulcair and Trudeau are still looking for a supposed ally that is not involved with the campaign, I suggest Iceland.

The new prime minister says that he will pull our planes out of the region but continue to train local forces and contribute humanitarian supplies for the time being. While

this pledge appears noble, he has not given a reason for doing so, other than repeating that he campaigned on it. Air strikes are by no means affordable. They have cost Canada serious bank and could be used to fund some of the mystery infrastructure projects Trudeau is hoping to get started in Canada.

However, for most of our history, Canada has not been a Belgium or Portugal. We’ve been a dominant middle power, capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of France, Australia and the UK. Just last week, Quebec Liberal premier Phillippe Couillard and former federal Liberal minister Ujjal Dosanjh broke ranks with their prime minister, saying that he is wrong to pull our planes out of Iraq and Syria.

In the month following Harper’s defeat, we’ve already seen real change come about in the form of words and action. We’ve elected a government that doesn’t really seem open to doing anything much but talking.

The critical juncture in which Trudeau is at, with regard to quickly having to decide what role his government will play outside of its borders, will be legacy-defining even though he’s only three weeks into the job. Welcoming additional refugees is a great example of something more we can do as a country.

But if Trudeau chooses to go ahead with the withdrawal of our jets from Iraq and Syria, turning our backs on our historic allies, he won’t be able to say that it’s the Canadian thing to do this time around.

THE LOST BATTLE

Grantland’s demise is another loss for journalism Carlo Javier

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EXECUTIVE LIFESTYLE EDITOR For the past four years, Grantland stood head and shoulders above the rest of the players in the field of sports journalism.

Under the banner and funding of ESPN, the website produced some of the best sports analysis on the Internet. ESPN’s former ombudsman, Robert Lipsyte, even called Grantland as the sports media empire’s “home for actual sports journalism.”

Late last month, ESPN decided to shut down the acclaimed publication, stating that the company will be diverting its resources and time to other avenues. The move was hardly shocking, but still a tough blow nonetheless. Closing Grantland meant that ESPN, the world’s leader in sports coverage has effectively and completely denounced whatever remained of its journalistic purposes. Without the site, ESPN loses its last beacon of quality and thought-provoking content. ESPN will continue to push for overt sensationalism, eschew journalistic integrity and accommodate the highest bidder. In an age where society is much maligned for short attention spans and lack of critical thinking, Grantland’s demise isn’t just a loss for sports fans and sports writers – it’s a loss for collective desire for intelligent content and for journalism as a whole.

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The writing was on the wall.

Last spring, ESPN decided against renewing Bill Simmons’ contract, Grantland’s founder, editor-in-chief and noted outspoken critic of his own parent company. Simmons’ departure from ESPN was a long time coming. He had been suspended several times because of his criticism of First Take and his constant and corrosive criticism of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Although at the time, ESPN publicly stated it’s dedication to continuing the publication of Grantland, it was only a matter of months before that was rescinded.

The first domino fell in September, when resident film critic, Wesley Morris decided to accept an offer from the New York Times to become the publication’s critic-at-large. Morris had made a name for himself after winning a Pulitzer Prize award during his years with the Boston Globe, and his inclusion in Grantland’s full time staff was seen as an essential ingredient in transitioning the publication from its niche topic of sports to a generally accessible website. For years, he was considered to be one of Grantland’s most credible full-time contributors and he stood as one of the publication’s most important figures in its venture towards expanding from sports coverage to pop culture.

He gave Grantland some of its best non-sportsbased content, as his critiques and podcasts revolving around film grew to be some of the site’s most popular material.

Morris’ departure was followed by Rembert Browne’s relocation to New York Magazine.

Browne was noted as one of Grantland’s foremost feature writers, he’s amassed a strong social media following over his years with the website and his on-scene coverage of the Ferguson riots and controversies have been noted as one of the strongest perspectives published in regards to one of America’s most notable issues.

For now, EPSN has stated that it will honour the contracts of some of Grantland’s finest sports writers, including the likes of Bill Barnwell, Katie Baker, Jonah Keri and one of best NBA writers in the industry, Zach Lowe — none of which has produced any original content since the axing of their home publication.

ESPN’s decision to eliminate Grantland may seem like a minor, maybe almost unimportant story to most, but despite its focus on sports journalism, this development has deeper repercussions than it seems.

Grantland’s impact on journalism may be understated, but it is undeniable. For one, the site’s writers, namely Jonathan Abrams and Rage Bartholomew have worked to keep the pulse of long-form content journalism alive. Though the loss of Grantland doesn’t pose any sort of financial losses to ESPN’s total net worth, the publication’s principle of presenting and analyzing the reverberations and impact of stories as opposed to simply talking about “what happened?” will be sorely missed in the midst of ESPN’s increasingly

clickbait-driven content.

At the end of the day, ESPN made a business decision, a decision that will allow them to generate a greater income with Grantland off the books. Deadspin’s Kevin Draper reported that the website generated an average of about six million page visits as whole. In contrast, Matthew Berry’s fantasy sports-based posts generated a similar number of visits per post, despite Berry focusing on the fantasy drafts as opposed to stories with real-life repercussions. ESPN continues to support Berry’s posts.

For the New Republic, although Grantland may not have generated the income that ESPN would’ve desired, it still managed to create something greater, something intangible, invaluable and rare in the age of short attention spans and clickbait-driven media. Grantland created a culture of readers who longed for more, a culture that actively looked for deep and intelligent content and most importantly, a culture that actually cared.

This might be a monumental moment for modern-day sports journalism, but this doesn’t mark the end. Websites like Sbnation. com and Hardwoodparxoysm.com will continue to provide the smart content that sports journalism sorely needs. But neither can replace the platform that produced content without the goals of amassing page views. It might be anachronistic to today’s popular media, but Grantland wasn’t about dollar signs – it was about passion.

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R.I.P. MOLSON VANCOUVER

Historic False Creek brewing plant to close Keara Farnan CONTRIBUTOR

In a recent article by the Vancouver Sun, it was reported that the historic Molson Coors brewing plant, located in False Creek, would be sold and eventually shut down for good. With Molson closing, millions of Vancouverites will no longer consume their favourite Canadian beer at a hockey game, house party or a bar, knowing it was brewed and bottled locally. Molson’s Vancouver brewery has been operating for 60 years and produces a million litres of beer daily.

Increased competition from local, smaller craft breweries and wineries, in addition to stagnating beer sales across Canada, is said to be the primary reason why Molson Coors is looking to sell its properties and increase efficiencies. This news still comes as a surprise though, since company director Geoff Molson said in a 2011 Vancouver Courier interview that Molson had no plans of closing whatsoever.

“It is clear that it is in the City of Vancouver’s regional context statement as industrial land,” said Kent Munro, the city’s assistant director of planning in a Vancouver Sun article. “We’ve had people asking about this site and its potential, but we say it is very important industrial land in the city after years of eroding.”

Even though Molson plans to build a new production plant elsewhere in BC, the company’s departure from downtown Vancouver is definitely a loss for the region. Vancouver is a great location for Molson, and not only because it is a convenient region for employees. The building in which they are planning to sell is filled with memories of when Molson first became a beer giant. When Molson Canadian lovers drive past its old location and notice the change, it’s definitely going to ignite memories of the lost symbol.

“I think it is the city’s intent to keep it as employment-generating land use down there in a great location, close to where people live and close to the city centre,” said Munro. “It supplies the west and we need it… It’s a good, strong performing brewery.

According to a summer report published by the BC government, craft beer sales increased by 50 percent between April and July of 2015 when compared to the same two-month period last year. The report also goes on to suggest that craft beer sales have more than tripled in BC since 2010. In those same five years, Molson sales dropped by just under 20 percent across the province.

As craft beer sales rise in BC, the earnings of large brewers like Molson Coors dip as a result. Currently, there are 113 breweries in BC, most of which produce craft beer.

“The craft beer community in BC has seen exponential growth over the past

few years – and as changes are made to cut red tape for our breweries and remove financial barriers, we can only expect strong growth to continue,” said Ken Beattie, executive director of BC Craft Brewers Guild.

“The liquor reforms our government have made over the last four months are helping BC craft breweries thrive all around the province,” Suzanne Anton, Vancouver-Fraserview MLA, told the Vancouver Sun back in June.

Craft breweries employ over 25,000 people, according to the BC government, half of which are individuals working in the pubs or “tasting rooms” that brew their own beer. The year 2015 was a very successful one for craft brewers considering an estimated $73 million of craft beers were sold throughout the province.

Increased competition from craft brewers is just one of the many issues facing large beer producers like Molson Coors. A CBC News article published last July reveals that beer sales are down across the country, in favour of wine. However, that article also suggests that stagnating beer sales are only affecting large breweries because they depend on liquor stores sales to turn a profit. As mentioned earlier, profits for craft brewers continue to rise in BC, transferring most of the

sales shortfall onto large beer companies like Molson Coors.

When Vancouver’s Molson Coors plant is finally sold next year, and relocated in 2018, BC will not be losing a piece of its history, but making it. Its departure will mark the beginning of a new era, when big beer began visibly losing out to Vancouver’s burgeoning craft breweries.

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CONTAINING THE SMOKE Why regulation of e-cigarettes is necessary for minors and public harmony Tim Horan CONTRIBUTOR

As we push forward through the 21st century, technology continues to advance at a staggering rate. This constant progression has allowed for innovations in fields that really did not need them. Breakthroughs have allowed for the digitalization of products that never really needed to be, like the highly controversial e-cigarette.

Electronic cigarettes or “vapes” are an electronic nicotine ingestion device that operates by heating a liquid made up of vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, nicotine, and flavouring, until it becomes vapour which is then inhaled through the mouthpiece. This liquid, called “juice,” is sold in vape shops that are becoming increasingly commonplace, and comes in a myriad of flavours ranging from Dr. Pepper, to strawberry, and even coffee. This juice also contains varying levels of nicotine, from ridiculously large concentrations to none at all.

Billed as an alternative to smoking, electronic cigarettes have become rampant in society. Anytime you’re walking around downtown you’re bound to run into some dude sucking on a vape, and subsequently voiding his lungs of a massive nicotine-laced cloud that smells like vanilla or strawberries. While this may kind of be off-putting sight to non-“vapers”, it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere any time soon. The vaping industry is expected to gross $3.5 billion, and since 2012, use of these devices has almost tripled.

As a response to the rising popularity of vapes, anti-vaping legislation has begun pop up in jurisdictions across Canada. While vapers insist that the smoke produced by vapes is not harmful to public health like that of cigarettes, there hasn’t been any significant research into what long-term health risks e-cigarettes could possibly pose to users and

Vaping has become an increasingly popular alternative to smoking. You can find people using them pretty much everywhere, and vape stores in Vancouver are popping up almost as fast as dispensaries. While I think that there should be legislation preventing

sale to minors and indoor use, vapes do seem to provide a more effective way of helping wean smokers away from cigarettes, which is definitely something any city and province should get behind when considering the hindrance tobacco addiction is to our health system. And although research on vaping is still relatively narrow in scope, e-cigs seem to possess fewer negative side-effects than smoking. It’s apparent that vapes are providing people with a safer alternative to cigarettes and personally I think that is enough to legitimize them. They may be the “fedora of smoking,” but they are easing pressure on our health system, which is positive for any city.

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those around them. However, when looking at the ingredients present in the vape juice, it’s pretty easy to tell that they are, in fact, much less harmful than smoking. Aside from nicotine, there really isn’t anything too harmful in the juice. Propylene glycol might sound gnarly, but it’s the same exact substance released by the fog machines at a concert. With this in mind, I find it incredibly difficult to find credibility in anyone who claims vapes should be regulated in the way cigarettes are.

However, I certainly don’t think people should be able to vape wherever they want to.

Those who insist on vaping inside just because they don’t view it as harmful are borderline dicks. I’ve seen vape users on the bus, in the movie theatre and even in restaurants. While vaping may not pose the same health risks as cigarettes, this doesn’t mean there aren’t any.

Also, aside from the potential health risks, vaping inside is pretty obnoxious. No one pays to see a film to have some douche flute blow clouds in their face. Just because it smells like artificial fruit and doesn’t contain the same poisons as cigarette smoke doesn’t make it any less obnoxious. Outside, who cares? But inside, everyone breathes that air and no one consented for you to vape at them. That makes you a vapist.

Another issue facing the use of e-cigarettes is that they are being marketed and sold to teens not yet old enough to buy actual cigarettes. While I understand that if teens want to start smoking they’re going to find a way to do so, I don’t think it should be legal for them to obtain products containing nicotine. This is certainly a way in which I believe vapes should be legislated. It doesn’t make sense to allow kids to be introduced to products like these, especially when it is known that people don’t only get addicted to nicotine, but to the physical act of smoking. We don’t need that to be introduced to our youth, especially when the specific health risks surrounding vaping are currently unknown.

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It’s Christmas Evening Play music for

Losing your Virginity to Santa Grown Up Christmas List Natalie Cole All I Want for Christmas Is You Mariah Carey Sleigh Ride Johnny Mathis Santa Baby Kylie Minogue Oh Santa!

Mariah Carey Back Door Santa Bon Jovi Here Comes Santa Claus Elvis Presley Nuttin’ for Christmas Eartha KItt It Came Upon A Midnight Clear Hall and Oates

(...9 months later) What Child Is This?

Rod Stewart

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Andy Rice EDITOR-IN-CHIEF If Starbucks’ latest release of crimson cups left you seeing red earlier this month, then you might want to look away. The Courier has obtained a copy of the original design, which was vetoed by Starbucks executives back in September.

In looking at the cup, its no surprise as to why CEO Howard Schultz and his team opted for a more minimalist approach. “Satanic Snowman,” as the Courier has dubbed the vessel, would have been terrible idea. And although 1,000 prototypes were manufactured and sent to national executives at Starbucks’ headquarters around the world, not all of them went to waste.

Mexico’s test cups have been ground up and used as filler in the company’s famous Christmas Blend while Canada’s will be put to a more unorthodox use — as insulation for the soon-to-be-opened Starbucks location outside the Capilano University library. Given the institution’s penchant for sustainability, this is likely the best Christmas gift facilities director Susan Doig has ever received.

Unfortunately, she could not be reached for comment before press time.

"Starbucks has become a place of sanctuary during the holidays," said Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks’ vice president of design and content, in a written statement.

"We’re embracing the simplicity and the quietness of [this year’s cup]. It’s a more open way to usher in the holiday.”

Compared to ‘Plan A,” anything is more open, and soon the CapU Starbucks will be open as well. If a few offensive cups are the only red tape that plagues the newest addition to campus, then the University will have plenty to drink to this holiday season. But if those walls could talk, then a campus coffee conundrum may be brewing in the new year.

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FIND THIS PLAYLIST ON OUR YOUTUBE SITE:

Starbucks gaffe creates sustainable insulation from consumer irritation

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White Christmas Bing Crosby

IN THE RED

THE CABOOSE HOROSCOPES IF YOUR BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEK: If you’re thinking about getting laid on your birthday, remember that one in every Two and a Half Men now has HIV.

ARIES (March 21 - April 19):

You’ll switch majors after a conversation makes you realize that saying, ‘I’m a doctor’ doesn’t get you laid as much as you thought it would.

LIBRA (Sept. 22 - Oct. 23):

Speak your mind and don’t be afraid of people’s opinions. That right, we’re giving you a free pass to be a total jerk to everyone.

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THINKING CAP

Q

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE SPACE MOVIE AND WHY?

“2001: A Space Odyssey. I’m a fan of Stanley Kubrick.”

— Riley Leiper Second Year Technical Theatre

SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 21):

TAURUS (April 20 - May 20):

No matter how much you search or how many pages of Google you scroll through, there is no meme appropriate for breaking up with someone.

It’s important to really listen to what your partner is saying. “Don’t stop” doesn’t mean “go faster.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21):

GEMINI (May 21 - June 20):

It’s not a coincidence your ex is calling you nine months after you two broke up.

“Star Trek, the last one. It’s so exciting!

I think they’ve taken an old, good thing and made it modern.”

— Heather Hildebrant Second Year Communications

You will be touched by an Angel for the low price of $50 a lap dance.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 - Jan. 19):

CANCER (June 21 - July 22):

The exams coming up for the three classes your parents pay for will have you really stressed out. Good thing you’re going to Mexico for Christmas so you can finally relax.

LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22):

If things are starting to weigh on you now, just wait to see what’s in store for you this week.

It’ll dawn on you that being cool has many different meanings. Don’t worry, you still don’t fit any of them.

“Disney’s Treasure Planet. It was from a very cool animation period where they tried a lot of new stuff. It was very inventive.”

— Tessa Pyrik Second Year Technical Theatre

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 - Feb. 18):

If love is blind then your personality is what’s keeping you from getting dates.

VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept. 21):

After a long trip you’ll finally unlock your vivid imagination. And people say nothing good can come from taking LSD.

PISCES (Feb. 19 - March 20):

You’ll be grateful when you think about all the money you’re saving on Christmas presents by having no friends or loved ones.

TO ADVERTISE in the Courier’s pages, please contact us by phone at 778-855-9942 or email Alva Tang, our Community Relations Manager, at community.capcourier@gmail. com. We are proud to offer discounts to non-profit organizations and North Shore customers. A full media kit with sizes, rates and deadlines is available on our website, CapilanoCourier.com. Classified advertisements up to 50 words are free for students.

“Star Trek: First Contact. If you haven’t seen it… make it so.”

— Syd Danger, Production Manager

SUDOKU

VOLUME 49 ISSUE NO. 12 THE CAPILANO COURIER

“Alien. I really like Ridley Scott and it’s a really good suspense movie.”

— Nicolas Mitsui Second Year Technical Theatre

LAST WEEK'S SOLUTION

— MEGAN DIETRICH