Capilano Courier Vol. 45 Issue 8

“Pushing buttons since 1968”

Volume 45

N O R T H V A N C O U V E R / / O cto b er 3 1 , 2 0 1 1

THE F O E UF TUR A I D E M PRINT with BUSH // KATE BEATON // RITALIN FOR KIDS // and so much more ...

Issue N o. 08

TABle of contents Vol. Fourty-Five | Issue 06

Pushing buttons since 1968

Contac t u s Praise? Damnation? Let us know what you think:

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on

TUESDAYS at NOON in MAPLE 122 Caveat lector

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 Publishing Society.

News

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Bush on Dick action not as sexy as it sounds

Sta f f

C al e n d a r

The Capilano Courier is brought to you by the following people ...

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Halloween is over … or is it?! editor- in - c h ief

editor- in - c h ief

Samantha Thompson

Sarah Vitet

Fe a t u r e s

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Yet another sustainable food feature

p r o d u c t io n mngr.

art director

featu res editor

n ew s editor

Shannon Elliott

JJ Brewis

Adélie Houle-Lachance

Gurpreet Kambo

Ar t s

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If you don't already know Kate Beaton, you must be internet illiterate

Columns

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THE SPREADEAGLE! a rts e d it o r

opinions editor

h u m or + fic tion editor

c op y editor

Claire Vulliamy

Marco Ferreira

Kevin Murray

Celina Kurz

O pi n i o n s

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Ritalin, video games, and venereal disease – sounds like a fun night in!

sta f f wr ite r

ad + events m ngr.

bu sin ess m a n a ger

w eb editor

Evelyn Cranston

Jonty Davies

Ricky Bao

Natahsha Prakash

C ab o o s e Toot toot! (That's the sound of the caboose)

19

O

the cove

r

n

Caitlyn Neufeld Caitlyn Neufeld drew the cover!

{ WORLD* } This

WEEK in the

What’s got us all riled up in the office this week?

Halloween on Monday makes university feel like elementary school (even more than usual).

That hole in the fence will never stay closed. Student activism!

Fleshlight has offered Lindsay Lohan one million dollars to use her vagina as a model. OMG yes!

from the editor //

Transferring votes

S

horter line-ups, reduced wait times, more affordable fares: anyone who uses TransLink in the Lower Mainland could easily give you a long list of ways it could be improved. The current transit system is far from tempting as a viable alternative to driving a car, though for youth, the elderly, persons with disabilities, people with lower incomes, and many others who cannot drive, it is the only option for getting around. As a result, TransLink sees nearly a million passengers using their various services every day.

Students in particular have a vested interest in the transit system, with the mandatory U-Pass included in your tuition, encouraging higher usage rates than ever before. As the civic election season gets heated up, many of the candidates have been offering their ideas about how to improve transit; however, similar campaign promises were made during the last election, with few actually implemented.

In 2000, a one-zone adult transit pass cost $1.50. Over the course of eight years, the price rose by 25¢ four times, resulting in the current $2.50 fare, with a full three-zone pass now costing $5 for only one and a half hours of travel time (hardly the length of time it takes to travel through three zones).

In the 2008 election, the COPE party promised to eliminate zone fares, with Gregor Robertson and the Vision Vancouver party expressing similar views. Robertson was actually targeted by the NPA party for an outstanding transit ticket that he had received as a result of a zone infraction (he traveled two-zones on a one-zone fare). When questioned why he hadn’t paid his $173 fine, he said that he was waiting for his court date: "I wanted to use the hearing to question the fairness of the fine and encourage improvement. Driving infractions that risk human lives have lesser penalties,” Robertson said in a 2008 interview with the Province. Nevertheless, although no other city in Canada has such a system, transit zones have stayed in place.

For this election, all parties have gone mum on the issue of zones, instead making promises about specific routes they would like to see improved. NPA mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton looked at Vancouver’s transit system and decided that her main priority would be to re-establish the historic Downtown Streetcar network. Yet out of every neighbourhood in the city, downtown Vancouver is by far the most accessible by transit, with 20 out of 36 bus routes passing through it.

Although many other areas have major issues regarding transit accessibility and efficiency, Anton has decided that connecting popular tourist locations such as Granville Island and Chinatown with downtown’s Waterfront station and the Olympic Village/Science World area is of more pressing concern.

On top of all the current bus routes that serve those areas already, there are also two Skytrain lines that connect those locations to the downtown core, with the Canada Line’s Olympic Village stop and the Expo line’s Science World and Chinatown stops – and both lines have Waterfront as their root station. Even with the high levels of transit interconnectedness in these areas, the fact that Anton has still made it her transit priority is not very reassuring, considering most Vancouver neighbourhoods have only one bus to connect them to the rest of the city, many of which have irregular timetables and infrequent or no night bus service.

“The Downtown Streetcar represents an important connection between our city’s past and Vancouver’s future prosperity,” says Anton

in a media release on the NPA website. “In addition to connecting the newest and oldest neighbourhoods of Vancouver, the Downtown Streetcar is likely to pay for itself within a decade of operation.” In other words, it will be both expensive to build and expensive to ride. If the NPA really wanted to improve transit’s self-sustainability, they might re-examine the 2008 closed-door pay raises the Greater Vancouver transit authority voted in for themselves, which included a $100,000 annual salary for Chairperson Dale Parker (more than twice the salary of his predecessor), and $1,200 for each meeting the directors attend, as reported by CBC. Both Vision and COPE are focusing their efforts on creating more frequent and rapid service along the Broadway corridor. Although there are two buses that serve this route already, it is one of the main transit options for getting to UBC and could certainly benefit from the parties’ suggested improvements, as the buses tend to be overcrowded. COPE plans to bring traffic light and transit coordination to the Broadway route, a system that is currently being used in the downtown core and on Granville Street. When a bus approaches an intersection, the light is frozen green until the bus is through, thus improving transit efficiency and travel times. As well as traffic lights, COPE wants to look into the feasibility of 200-passenger capacity buses (current B-Lines have a capacity of 120), and are promising to pressure TransLink to freeze bus fares. As the minority voice in the Vision-COPE coalition, though, it is hard to know whether these ideas will hold any weight.

Beyond following through on their promise to give equal transit opportunities for all post-secondary students when they helped implement the U-Pass BC, COPE and Vision did very little else in their three-year term to help improve transit accessibility and efficiency.

Only now that transit usage is at its highest rate ever, nearly surpassing Olympic levels, are the Metro Vancouver mayors deciding to take action. With an equally expanding population, weak areas of the transit system (such as sparse service in Langley and Surrey) are becoming increasingly necessary to fix. One of the more pressing needs is the completion of the Evergreen SkyTrain Line which would connect the Tri-Cities to Vancouver via Burnaby. By implementing a 2¢ per litre gas tax, the mayors hope to generate an additional $70 million per year for TranLink, who currently have no budgeted funds for expansions or upgrades.

As students, we see the results of a clogged transit system every day. Outrageous line-ups during the day and irregular service in the evenings, the frustrations of North Vancouver transit affect all of us who make use of our U-Pass. Many of Capilano’s attendees also commute by transit from locations all around the Lower Mainland, which adds in long travel times and waiting for transfers. With the municipal election candidates using transit improvements to help garner votes, it’s important to stay critical, as their suggestions affect you directly.

An essential service funded with tax payer money, TransLink should be kept in check to ensure they maintain an affordable, reliable, efficient means of transportation for the millions of people who rely on it every day.

— Sarah Vitet // editor-in-chief

The Voicebox Paul McCartney is converting to Judaism.

with JJ Brewis Look for the Voicebox on Tuesday afternoons in the Birch cafeteria, to anonymously “voice” your “opinion” on any “topic.” Introverted alternatives include emailing your opinion to voicebox@capilanocourier.com, or texting (778) 886-5070.

Is the moon really a UFO?

“Have you seen the dude who dresses like a pirate?”

I’m unsure if this message is just the subject of bad timing, but as Copy Editor Celina Kurz just informed me, it is actually “Halloweek”. She said this while parading in the room in a homemade skeleton unitard (or skeletard if you will). I haven’t seen this “pirate dude” myself, but I have seen a steampunk street musician downtown who wears Narnia-esque fawn hooves instead of legs. It’s pretty cool, but I just can’t get down with bagpipes, ever.

* Courtesy of LOL

“Uh, hi. I got the wrong number. But you sound really happy in your message. That’s awesome. I’m glad that somebody’s happy.”

70 0 5 .

6 8 8 .

8 77

Text

On my old voicemail, when my friend Faye used to phone me, she would always leave voicemails asking “Why are you angry at me?” Then when we would hang out I would forget about these messages.

It never made sense to me until one day when my boss called and left me a voicemail. At the end of his message, he said, “And you should probably change your voicemail message. It sounds like a doctor who has to tell people their spouse just died.”

“Why does Gwyneth Paltrow get so many chances to sing?”

My stomach hurts.

news

EDIT OR // Gurpreet Kambo // ne w s @ c api l ano c o uri e r. c o m

Protesters Go For Neither Bush, Nor Dick Former U.S. administrators get activists all riled up

By Sasha Lakic // writer

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

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ormer US Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton spoke at the Sheraton Hotel in Surrey on Oct. 20 as part of the the Surrey Regional Economic Summit. Attendees paid $599 to hear the former presidents discuss a “broad range of economic, business, and geo-political issues and trends,” according to a City of Surrey press release. The presence of the former US heads of state was challenged by about 200 sign-waving protesters, many of whom had come straight from the Occupy Vancouver encampment.

Efforts by Gail Davidson of Lawyers Against the War to have the police arrest Bush, due to his alleged war crimes in connection with the invasion of Iraq and detainees at Guantanamo Bay, were not successful. In a letter that Davidson sent to the Surrey RCMP, she states, “The Commander-in-Chief [Bush] and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. … There is no longer any doubt as to whether the [Bush] administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.” The letter goes on to state that the RCMP has a “duty” to arrest Bush due to “complicity in the widespread use of torture by the United States.”

Around the hotel, RCMP officers secured and cordoned off much of the area, and were additionally aided by continuous circling of four helicopters. The US Secret Service was also in attendance, though it was unclear in what capacity.

The protest itself remained calm except for some bickering between officers and protesters turning most vicious when discussing whether protesters may stand on the grass surrounding the Sheraton. There were no arrests, and an attempt after the speeches to blockade the exit of the motorcades with a sit-in failed, since the parking lot could be accessed from multiple entrances.

In an Oct. 20 press release, the RCMP said it was “very pleased with the overall response from protesters” while exercising “their democratic right to free speech.”

According to Matt Eisenbrandt, the general director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ), Canada has a legal obligation to indict George W. Bush on grounds of the authorization of “enhanced interrogation techniques”.

In this case, he refers to waterboarding, chaining prisoners to walls, water, food, and sleep deprivation, and “other horrific and illegal treatment” that four detainees of Guantanamo Bay, Hassan bin Attash, Sami el-Hajj, Muhammed Khan Tumaniand Murat Kurnazhas, were subject to, while in custody without any charges laid.

Three of the above have since been released, with bin Attash still in custody.

According to the UN Convention Against Torture, torture is defined as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is

suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

The US has signed and agreed to the convention, but it has not been ratified in Congress, essentially making it of no effect. Canada has both signed and ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, ensuring that Canada has a legally

binding obligation to extradite or prosecute perpetrators accused of torture or war crimes. According to the protesters who are opposed to Bush, Canada is breaking international law by failing to arrest both Bush and his former VicePresident Dick Cheney, who last September was the guest of honor at the Bon Mot Book Club at the Vancouver Club. At this event there were protesters as well, who were calling for Cheney’s arrest and prosecution.

According to the latest press statement by the CCIJ, Attorney General of British Columbia,

// Arin Ringwald Shirley Bond, has effectively blocked the CCIJ’s indictment against Bush. She could not be contacted for comment by the Courier’s press time.

Matt Eisenbrandt sees the blocking of the indictment as a purely political move by the Crown: “The AG’s office did not give any specific reasons as to why they blocked it. It’s most likely in order to maintain a friendly relationship with the US.” He reiterated that under the UN Convention Against Torture, Canada has the obligation to extradite any persons known to have authorized torture.

N e ws

We Don’t Need No Education Report calls for drastic changes to Canadian education system

By Lee Richardson // CUP Ontario Bureau Chief

T

ORONTO (CUP) – Canada's entire education system is in need of restructuring, according to a new report. Released Oct. 11 by the Canadian Council on Learning, the report says that without a national regulatory committee, Canadas education system will decline, leading to a loss of economic productivity and innovation.

“They talk about the dysfunctionality of postsecondary education,” says Glen Jones, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. “There are some criticisms and some of them are valid, but I think its going too far to say that its dysfunctional.”

The report is likely to be the final paper released by the CCL, which is set to close in spring 2012, after federal funding for the national learning organization was withdrawn by the Harper government last year.

“Some of the comments are made with greater vitriol than have been made in the past,” explains Jones, “but that doesn't mean that they dont say some important things.”

While acknowledging high participation

rates in post-secondary education and praising Canadas teaching staff and generally well-educated population, the report, entitled “What is the Future of Learning in Canada?”, criticizes the lack of a federal body that sets national goals in terms in education. Currently, education is the domain of individual provincial and territorial governments.

“The principal cause of the unacceptable and deeply troubling state of affairs is that our governments have failed to work together to develop the necessary policies and failed to exhibit the required collective political leadership,” states the report.

Another criticism revolves around research and development becoming a priority of universities, as they often move away from delivering a comprehensive education in favour of courting research funding from the federal government.

“We have a higher education system where there are very strong incentives for faculty to attempt to become great researchers, but there are not as many incentives for individual faculty, or the university as a whole, to focus on the quality of undergraduate teaching,” says Ryerson politics professor David Trick, co-author of the book Academic Reform.

“It’s almost as though high-quality teaching has become sort of a token aspect of our universities, a token area that we need to reward rather than something that is as celebrated as research,” says Meaghan Coker, a University of Toronto public policy and governance master’s student.

“That small example is one of many that indicates the imbalance between research and teaching.”

While some universities in provinces like British Columbia and Alberta operate under different models, some of which put an emphasis on teaching, provinces such as Ontario have switched entirely to a university model that concentrates on advancing research.

“We’ve often talked about finding balance between the two,” says Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance president Sean Madden. “Several of our policies are on quality of education, specifically advocating for quality of teaching, transparent teaching, and teaching development to become a larger part in a professor’s professional career progression.”

According to Jones, however, the major problem with Canada’s education system is a lack of available relevant data, which is needed before changes in policy can be achieved.

“We are behind many of our peers, and by that

I mean many other Western developed countries that have much better data about how their educational system is going,” says Jones, who added that the amount of data the government has regarding its education system is not enough to develop effective policy analysis at the provincial and territorial level.

“We need to know more about post-secondary education,” says Jones, “but it’s difficult to deal with because there [are] very few political advantages in investing in data.”

While the report calls for the formation of a national body to reform the country's system, Jones states that apart from a need for the federals to collect more information about the national educational infrastructure, such a reform might not be necessary.

“Many of the problems involve issues that can be done at the provincial level or territorial level, so I agree with the problems – I guess I disagree with their solutions,” Jones says. “But I think people have to take a step back and realize that in order to get policies that work, you really do need to make that investment in data and the public infrastructure that collects this information and allows for that analysis, and then you can have an informed public policy debate.”

Facing Genocide Rwandan genocide survivor Yannick Tona shares his story with Capilano students

By Mike Conway // Writer

“E

As part of this process, he pointedly says, “forgiveness is very important.”

Today, Tona travels the world spreading his message to aid the fight against genocide. He makes three challenges to his listeners: “spread awareness”, “make a sacrifice to help your com-

munity”, and “take action”. For Tona, these challenges are personal mottos; they are part of his process of forgiveness and how he moves forward from such trauma. “Now, I use my story as a weapon – a calling – to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

// Britta Bachus

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

very day I thought we would die,” said Yannick Tona during an event held at Capilano University on Oct. 13. He was describing his and his mother’s sudden and desperate flight from home to save their lives during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Through Aegis, “an international student movement educating, campaigning and fundraising to end genocide and mass atrocities,” 20-year-old Yannick Tona recounted his story to Capilano students and faculty; of surviving the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and his journey to spread awareness and create dialogue in the hope to stop such human tragedies from happening again.

Tona’s story begins as a four-year-old boy, when he, his three-year-old sister, and his mother were suddenly forced to flee the Rwandan city of Butare on foot in the hopes of reaching the Democratic Republic of the Congo unseen. Yannick remembers being confused and shocked: “I was just a four-year-old boy, I knew nothing of life and death. I only knew that I loved my mother, and that was it.”

“It would’ve been bad just walking for a month,” explained Yannick, “but we had no food.

But it was more, we were walking for a month with no food with people trying to kill us. I don’t know how we survived.”

At that time in 1994, civil war had erupted across Rwanda. The event, widely reported in the media at the time, was a conflict between the three major ethnic groups of Rwanda: the Hutu, who made up a majority, the Tutsi, the ruling minority, and the Twa, a smaller minority. According to Tona, Rwanda’s colonial past played a role in the creation of such tension between ethnic groups in Rwanda: “When the Belgians arrived

in 1916, they created identity cards classifying people according to how they looked. If you were tall and skinny, you were Tutsi. If you were short, you were Hutu.” The Belgians preferred the Tutsi, remarked Tona, “because they looked European, like themselves.”

Though the tension created by the racial classification simmered for decades, the assassinations of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira were the sparks that set fire to an already precarious political climate. What followed was 100 days of bloody civil war and genocide, where an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 people (or 20 per cent of the population) were executed en masse, most of whom were Tutsis.

Tona’s family, being Tutsi, was also targeted.

“When the violence began, my whole family met together, [though] I had no idea what was happening. It was my grandma who came up with the idea that we would have to run away in small groups to make sure some of the family survived.” Sadly, in the end Tona’s grandma was correct: “They killed everyone, all my aunts and uncles and cousins, even my grandma and little brothers. The youngest was just a baby.” Out of Yannick Tona’s entire family (nearly forty people), only Yannick and his sister, mother, and father survived.

The grimness of the events Tona lived through strikingly contrasts his character and sunny personality; however, listening to him speak is a bitter reminder of how hate and horror can fall upon innocent and undeserving people all around the world. That is not Tona’s main message, though, which is one of optimism, hope, courage and healing. The reason Yannick tells his story at venues such as Capilano, he says, is so people can try to understand why the rest of the world did nothing to prevent this tragedy, and what can be done to prevent it happening again.

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news

GIVING DIRECTION TO YOUTH Canada World Youth celebrates 40th anniversary with rave reviews

By Evelyn Cranston // staff writer

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

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e are part of a worldwide celebration,” proclaimed Erin Rennie, organizer of Vancouver’s Canada World Youth (CWY) anniversary event that occurred at the Robert Lee YMCA on Oct. 19.

The event celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)-funded youth volunteer exchange program. Alumni from past programs, non-governmental organization organizers, board members, and current participants gathered to, according to Rennie, “reminisce, reflect, and plan for the future of the organization.”

While a multitude of various privately run programs exist for young Canadians to travel and volunteer overseas, CWY is unique in several ways. Each project consists of a team of 18 participants, ranging from 18-29 years old. Nine of the group members are from Canada, and each is paired with a “counter-part” from the exchange country. The team spends three months in Canada working on various volunteer projects and living with their counterparts in a host family house. The program then switches phases, and the team travels to the country in which their counterparts live, and spends three months in a similar structure. The weeks of volunteer work are peppered with Educational Activity Days, and participants are encouraged to make an effort to integrate into their host communities. One statistic mentioned in the evening’s speeches was that “the annual contribution of volunteer work in host communities by CWY volunteer’s represents close

to one million hours, or the equivalent of 520 full time jobs.”

CWY’s founder, Jacques Hébert, was, according to the CWY website, “a writer, editor, politician, and tireless globetrotter who travelled to more than 130 countries around the world, [who] was inspired by a deep commitment to young people and a desire to bring cultures closer together.” In 1971, he founded CWY, and to date, the program has conducted volunteer projects in 67 countries, from Rwanda to Honduras to South Africa, and given 34,000 youth what many describe as a life-changing experience. Six years later, Hébert founded CWY’s sister program, Katimavik, which focuses on volunteer work and group living within Canada. Rennie states that today, “Hébert’s vision is just as relevant. I think that if the Occupy Vancouver movement is any indicator, the youth today are just as passionate and have just as much energy and hope for change as they did in 1971.”

The participants of CWY get involved with it for a host of different reasons. Jory Cadman, a first-year Global Stewardship program student at Capilano University, participated in the environmental-themed British Columbia to Ukraine exchange program in 2009-2010. She states, “I just heard about [CWY] from a family friend and I really wanted to do it because I wasn’t ready to go to school, and I really wanted to get out and see a piece of the world.” She says it is a perfect set-up because it gives participants the chance to integrate themselves into a community, and learn “exactly what [they] need to learn.”

CWY has, over the past 40 years, evolved and changed as an organization. Marg Toronchuck

participated in an Indonesia program in 1978.

She feels that the core values that dictate the nature of CWY programs as laid out by Hebert remain intact, but some logistical, functional aspects have changed. “There is much more diversity in the types of programs now that way back in 76-77,” she states. “Another big thing is that when we went, CIDA fully sponsored us, so we didn’t have to do any fundraising …

It was not long afterwards that people had to start doing fundraising. I think that’s really good, we now have a lot more commitment from young people.”

Accepted participants are now expected to raise close to $3,000 in order to participate in CWY. Toronchuck acknowledges that having the program fully funded certainly had its benefits.

“When I was on the program, and I looked at the diversity of just the Canadians themselves, it was a whole range,” she says. “It may not have been as diverse if they had to find $3,000 to be part of the program. It gave a whole lot more people an opportunity they might not have had, had they had to raise all that money.”

Cadman appreciates that CWY gives any youth the chance to be a part of it, particularly as it is a program where “you feel safe.” She did point out, however, that ideally there would be more opportunity for people to go, because she knew of people in her participant group who had been waitlisted for up to three years without getting in.

CWY prides itself on inclusivity, and comprising the teams of individual members that reflect the diversity of Canada as a whole. Looking ahead, a Board of Directors representative states that “we plan to deepen our commitment

// Photo from Canada World Youth Trip by Evelyn Cranston to building youth leadership in the coming years, working more closely with youth from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities, youth from diverse cultural communities, as well as engaging youth from lower socio-economic groups who may have not yet had the opportunity to experience CWY life-changing programs.”

Another Global Stewardship student, Sarah VanAsselt, did the Ontario to Honduras exchange in 2010-2011. “During the program, I experienced so many things and I met a lot of people,” she says. “I think CWY is very effective.

There are a lot of components to it, and everybody has a different experience … [It has a] very effective learning environment.”

In fact, CWY is part of the reason she is currently in the Global Stewardship program, as she met someone on her exchange who had gone through Capilano’s program and told her about it.

She noted that the sustainability of what participants do is not “completely there, because you’re only there for three months, which isn’t a very long time, and then you leave.”

To celebrate their 40th anniversary, a worldwide celebration is taking place. There are 40 public engagement events in 40 different cities, all over the country and internationally, being held. The hope is that these events will honour the work that the CWY youth have done and the impact they have had on various communities.

“CWY gave me direction,” says VanAsselt.

“You learn a lot about yourself. You experience exactly how people live in their countries.

You live with their sanitation, what they eat, their transportation.”

the ca p ca l e n da r C e l i na W i th

Kur z !

COPY@CAPILANOCOURIER.COM

Contact us to have your event featured in the calendar.

D on’t forget the date, time, address, and price!

m o n d ay o c t. 3 1 HALLOWEEN YES FINALLY Hands down, my favourite holiday of all time.

Dress up! Carve a pumpkin! Do the Monster Mash! Get into the spirit! If anyone wants a high-five today, I will be giving them out for free.

You can find me in the Fir building, listening to Thriller.

All day long! Hooray!

t u e s d a y n o v. 1 OFF THE WALL TUESDAYS @ REPUBLIC Nothing is happening on Tuesday; why not get wasted? $3 high balls and $3 Tequila shots!

Top 40 and hip-hop music! No weird techno or anything, just some classic dance tunes that everyone can understand.

9 PM. Republic Nightclub (958 Granville St.). No price listed.

STILL CORNERS WITH GANGLIAN + WOOLWORM From JJ: What a better way to spend Halloween than with a trio of bands headlined by UK's "dream pop sensation" Still Corners. I can't wait to see a room full of skeletons and witches all blissed out swaying to this, drunk on gin. Opener Woolworm is fronted by last year's Courier editorin-chief Giles Roy. Sexy nerd alert!

Doors 8, show 9:30 PM. The Media Club (695 Cambie St.). $13.

8TH ANNUAL HEART OF THE CITY FESTIVAL This awesome festival has in fact been going on since Oct. 26. Check out their website at heartofthecityfestival.com to see what events are happening; there is a huge variety of performances, workshops, and presentations happening. For example, today you can hit up an open workshop with the Carnegie Village Choir, or an Aboriginal Celebration and Feast.

VANCOUVER NEWCOMERS CLUB Are you a lady who is new to Vancouver and wants to meet some new, local bffs? This is a club where you can meet new friends. “Activities include walking, snowshoeing, potlucks, concerts, and a book club.” Fun! There's nothing better than meeting new friends. Also it's at White Spot, my favourite restaurant!

6:30 PM. White Spot (1616 W. Georgia St.). Free!

JUSTIN BIEBER'S UNDER THE MISTLETOE It's the release of this album! Hooray! Even though the sadness of Halloween ending is upon us, we can all rejoice in the fact that for the next two months, we get to listen to Justin Bieber tell us that all he wants for Christmas is us. Only 55 shopping days left!

All day. Under the mistletoe. $12.99 on Amazon. com.

SALSA NIGHT @ GOLDIE'S PIZZA Enjoy some “salsa” with your “pizza” this Wednesday night! According to the event page, a teacher “from Latin Beat Dance … will be teaching Cuban Style Salsa.” Ay caramba! Lol. The lesson starts at 8 PM sharp, and music will go until midnight.

8 PM. Goldie's Beer & Pizza Lounge (605 W. Pender St.). $5.

LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL: MAMACHAS DEL RING UBC invites “campus community members and Latin American film buffs alike ... to take in a series of film screenings being shown this fall.”

Movies, movies, movies!

5 – 7 PM. UBC, Art Building (ART 386). Free!

DREAM CATCHER WORKSHOP This is a great example of the kind of things happening for the Heart of the City Festival! This workshop, hosted by Sandy Pronteau, will teach you how to make your own Dream Catcher, for free! Maybe this isn't a great example, but it sounds really cool to me.

2 – 4 PM. EWMA Art Studio (54 E. Cordova St.).

Free!

DAVID SUZUKI: THE GLOBAL ECO-CRISIS: IS IT TOO LATE? Come to the Chan Centre to “hear the celebrated academic discuss the current situations our planet is facing when it comes to environmental degradation and its connections with human society.” This would probably get me down, but it promises to be an “engaging and thoughtful hour.” 7:30 PM. The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. $5. Affordable!

VSO: LANG LANG PLAYS BEETHOVEN This is pretty much the exact opposite of “Keg Party at Wylie's House”. All I know is that Lang Lang comes pretty much every year and who knows if Wylie will ever have another keg party?

Who knows if JRR Tokin' is gonna be together next year? And there's no way Lang Lang is providing unlimited beer for a mere $5.

8 PM. The Orpheum. $38.25 – $110.

A VERY HAROLD AND KUMAR 3-D CHRISTMAS It's the premiere of this movie! Awesome! I frigging loved the first two Harold and Kumar movies. Fun fact: I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but when you are watching the second one, listen for random little fart noises and stuff obviously added in post-filming. It's high-larious.

A movie theatre near you! Probably about $12, $20 after popcorn.

KRONOS QUARTET WITH SOMAYUN SAKHI TRIO “Grammy-award winners Kronos Quartet and Afghan rubâb legend Homayun Sakhi will join together for a monumental collaboration …

Following separate sets, the two ensembles will share the stage to perform Sakhi's luminous Rangin Kaman – a soaring work that takes listeners on an impressionistic journey of Afghanistan.” Woah!

8 PM. UBC's Chan Centre. $57 – $63.

MICHAEL JACKSON THE IMMORTAL TOUR Cirque du Soleil does Michael fucking Jackson!

Jesus Christ, this is going to be magical. Please, someone buy me tickets to this. PLEASE. JJ Brewis, Art Director, is going; sooooo jealllousssss.

8 PM. Rogers Arena. $95.50 – $190.50.

TRICK OR TREAT ROUTE THROUGH YALETOWN This one's for the kids and short teens! Hit up supporting businesses for candy and treats, and then take part in a “Halloween Carnival”.

Woo-hoo! The witching hour is upon us! Don't let a ghost suck out your soul! Hooray!

3:30 – 5:30 PM. Roundhouse Community Centre and surrounding area. Free candy!

WHO WANTS TO DO SOMETHING AFTER CLASS WOODWINDS ON MONDAY It's Halloween! Anybody? To be fair I might be totally exhausted by this point, but it is Halloween, and I love Halloween.

9:30 PM. Somewhere where it's nice to hang out. Cheap.

HELPING PRETEENS MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES For a mere $5, you can learn how to “guide children ages nine to 12 to make choices that meet their needs in a healthy and positive way.” Frankly, that's great value for money. As a former preteen, I can say that it's almost impossible to make a preteen make a good choice.

6:30 – 8:30 PM. Queensborough Community Centre (920 Ewen Ave. New West.). $5.

w e d . n o v. 2 CUFF THE DUKE WITH HOODED FANG I remember Cuff the Duke from high school; my friend Jodie really liked them. They are currently touring their fifth album, the “poppy, sad” Morning Comes. Polaris Prize nominated Hooded Fang opens, and, frankly, I can get behind any band whose name is inspired by the great Mordecai Richler.

9:30 PM. The Electric Owl. $15.

THE FUGITIVES AND C.R. AVERY Ooooooh yes! The Fugitives read really cool slam poetry over sweet folk-y music and they make you feel feelings. C.R. Avery is a Vancouver musical treasure who will, frankly, also make you feel feelings. An example of feelings: happiness, hope, sadness, rocking out, being stoked.

8 PM. The Vogue Theatre. $20.

t h u r s d a y n o v. 3 TALKING PICTURES @ EL BARRIO Do you like free jazz? Check out these rad bros and prepare to explode your head! Fans of Mexican food will also enjoy El Barrio's delicious menu, which features food such as tacos, burritos, and chimichangas, as well as drink specials.

9 PM. El Barrio. By donation.

f r i d a y n o v. 4 KEG PARTY AT WYLIE'S HOUSE This is going to be epic, guys. Featuring live music, including the debut performance of Capilano's primary doom band JRR Tokin', along with Big Evil, Shooting Spree, and Bobby Bingo and his Go-Go Happy Boys. According to Wylie, it's a Halloween/Pajama/Fancy-dress/Toga themed. His house is in the middle of the woods.

8 PM. Wylie's House. $5 for beer all night.

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s u n d a y n o v. 6 AUUC COMMUNITY CONCERT + SUPPER PLUS DANCE The AUUC, or Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, is an awesome organization. This concert will feature performances of music and traditional Ukrainian dances, followed by a delicious perogy dinner and a community dance. I know there are tons of closet Ukrainians at Cap, so get out and support your culture!

3 PM, dance starts at 7:30 PM. Ukrainian Hall (805 E. Pender St.). $20.

MUSHROOMS GALORE: FUNGUS AMONG US There are three definable things I like about the title of this event. 1) Fungus/among us. 2) The idea of foraging for food really appeals to me 3) I love the word “galore”. According to the event page, you can “learn what's going on under the forest floor with botanist Terry Taylor as he explains the world of fungus and its importance to the forest ecosystem.” Terry Taylor is also a great name. 1:30 – 3:30 PM. Lost Lagoon Nature House (west foot of Alberni, Stanley Park). $10/5.

FREAKY FRIDAY Switch bodies with your mom!

From now until you learn to appreciate the different problems each of you have and stop taking each other for granted. Free!

TEDXCAPU Okay, this is at our school, and Ted Talks are cool, but it costs a hundred fucking dollars. WTF bros? It's not even a real Ted Talk! It's a TedxTalk! Even the afterparty costs $25 – who are they expecting to show up to this? Richie fucking Rich? News flash: he's a cartoon character. No one is that rich.

9 AM – 6 PM. Capilano University. $100.

VANCOUVER GUITAR SHOW The website touts this as “a great opportunity to move your excess gear, parts, and related collectables and merchandise.” Maybe … you need to do that? Maybe … you like guitars?

10 AM – 5 PM. The Croatian Cultural Centre. $10/Free for children under ten.

A NIGHT WITH NEIL GAIMAN & AMANDA PALMER What!!!!!!!! I want this! Internationally acclaimed author Neil Gaiman and “DIY-musician” (slash Neil Gaiman's wife) Amanda Palmer are coming to Vancouver. Who wants to go to this with me and hella fangirl out and make Neil Gaiman t-shirts and get him to sign them?

8 PM. The Vogue Theatre. $27.50.

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

DAVID SEDARIS GIVES A TALK World-famous writer slash radio talker comes to Vancouver! I don't know a lot about him, but according to editor-in-chief Sarah Vitet, he is gay, he used to to live in Paris, he's funny, she likes his writing; she advises just to read his books because they don't cost as much as seeing him live. 8PM. Vancouver Centre for Performing Arts. $50 - $70.

WHAT I DO ON THURSDAY NIGHTS Typically, I do my arranging homework, I do some copy editing, and I watch Community because it's my favourite comedy TV show. What do you do on Thursday nights? Email copy.capcourier@ gmail.com and let me know!

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F eatures

EDIT OR // Ad él ie Houl e- Lachance // s pe c i al fe ature s . c apc o uri e r@ gmai l . c o m

THE OIL PATCH AND THE IVORY TOWER A science student explores her mixed feelings about corporate research

By Shannon Palus // The McGill Daily (McGill University)

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ONTREAL (CUP) – On May 3, 2010, just two weeks after being elected to the editorial board of the McGill Daily, I began working at the WOW Lab at McGill University. WOW is a joint science and education research and design project that develops biology, physics, math, and chemistry projects for use by K-12 teachers in their classrooms to teach science in an interesting, engaging way.

The goal of the project is to make science education in Canada better; to encourage students to be curious, inventive, and to ask questions.

Sometime in those first few weeks, I found a news article tucked in a folder in the lab: the headline read “Imperial Oil Pledges $800,000 to McGill Project.” The project in question was the WOW Lab. The article ran with a photo captioned, “Should McGill accept money from a climate change denier?”

I.O.F. rollin’ in the cash money The WOW Lab officially kicked off on Sept. 17, 2007. The Imperial Oil Foundation founded the lab as a gift, an $800,000 gift, which is still the sum total of the lab’s funding. Everything from the orange paint on the walls of our room in the education building, to the flat-screen TV and the bookshelves that it sits on, to the hauls of PVC piping and glitter paint, to, most expensively, the team of McGill students being paid above-minimum wage … It’s all paid for by IOF. Maggie Weller, my boss, sends the IOF yearly updates, and they send back two thumbs up. According to Weller, they don’t stick their fingers into our work.

WOW Lab was founded by former McGill professor and science popularizer Brian Alters. A California native, Alters is an avid Disney fan – he refers to the student researchers as “imagineers,” and the WOW acronym stands for “Winners of Wonderment.” His method of teaching is over the top, and when critiquing our project ideas, Weller, in this light, often delivers the line, “Can you make that more ‘wow’?”

Still, I had some reservations about taking Imperial Oil’s money. “At least it’s not BP, right?”

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

Universities and corporations BFFs?

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This summer, I thought of that article again. The piece quotes heavily from Pascale Tremblay, the then-vice-president of university and academic affairs of the Post-Graduate Student Society (PGSS). “In an ideal world,” Tremblay said in the article, “we shouldn’t need to have these kinds of huge donations.”

With this in mind, I decided to go into the belly of the beast. I took the elevator to the 15th floor of an office building to meet with a man who explained that the “ideal world” Tremblay laid out is never going to happen. And, moreover, that it should never happen. According to JeanFrancois Nadeau, director of corporate relations at McGill, the university of the future, like that of the present, is one that will work hand-in-hand with corporations. Corporate funding for universities is on the increase – it’s not something that is going to be reversed.

“Corporate funding comes in many flavours,” Nadeau told me. A company interested in giving to McGill can donate tools such as microscopes,

services, or a building. They can give a lab a pile of money to work further on a technology or line of research that is interesting to them, or they can work more closely with researchers, drafting up contracts, suggesting ideas, and patenting the outcomes. They give money, in this case, but they also provide knowledge. This type of partnership is most common in the faculty of medicine and faculty of engineering, which, by definition, set out to create things for society. It can be beneficial to have a corporation that operates on the front lines of society – and markets real products – talking to these labs. “It’s about having a conversation,” Nadeau said, holding up his hands and then lacing his fingers together.

“Without corporations, the current model would not work. We need their money, but we also need their knowledge.”

McGill is not deeply entrenched in the corporate-funded model, but it isn’t entirely free of it, either. About 15 per cent of research funding comes directly from the private sector, which amounts to roughly $54 million.

I ask Nadeau if he feels frustrated by people who are against corporate research. “Frustrated?” he replied. “No.” To him, arguments against our university working hand-in-hand with corporations are misguided, based on the “urban myth that corporations are bad.” The way Nadeau tells it, it’s as simple as explaining to a fifth grader that there aren’t really spider eggs hiding in fast food, waiting for you to take a bite so they can hatch and spawn offspring in your esophagus.

To make an argument wholly in favor of corporate research, however, is to overlook more than just those cases where egregious conflicts of interest have cropped up. In science, conflicts of interest can operate subtly. Little mistakes and small decisions can accumulate into a sea of change until, one grant at a time, the whole community is chasing the wrong questions. In “an ideal world”, we might have no conflicts of interest, not just those posed by corporations, but also by government grants, or by the “publish or perish” model of success.

Eric Martin, a doctoral candidate at the University of Ottawa and researcher at the Quebec think-tank IRIS, is a strict anti-capitalist. He took a pretty strong stance against all things corporate. “I am totally opposed to any commercial research in universities,” he said.

To be clear, he is talking about all commercial research: both projects in which a corporation is directly interested in selling the results, and ones in which they hand over money through a foundation, and collect only a tax break and something to put on their public relations website. He is opposed to corporations giving money for buildings on campus. He is opposed to the Second Cup in the library at the University of Ottawa. “We have a Tim’s in our library,” I say. “That is disgusting,” he replied. When I spoke with him, he was on vacation, in a cabin.

I posed a question to Martin: what if a corporate-funded lab at a university is capable of curing cancer? He tells me that that’s the kind of a trick question that makes him look like the villain if he says it’s bad. He thinks that kind of research has a place, outside of the university, and that a university can better serve society by being free of monetary influence.

Martin says he’s conservative in a way: he wants to get things back to the way they were. “Histori-

The researcher will look at the contracts that corporations have at McGill, determine how accessible they are to students, and identify the processes that go into drafting them. Isabel stresses that this research is to be as non-partisan as possible.

They are not positioning themselves against corporate research with this decision, she explains: “In a lot of fields, like pharmacy and engineering, you want to see your research applied. We want to protect fundamental research, research that is led by curiosity, but we do recognize there is a demand for corporate involvement.”

Along with the work plan for investigating corporate ties, PGSS is also going to hire a researcher to look into the history of McGill as an organization. Isabel thinks that the current view of what a university should be is sometimes too romanticized. She recognizes that it is not only unrealistic to think that universities can’t work with commercial organizations, but that a lot of good solutions to problems can come out of labs // Stefan Tosheff that collaborate with industry. She just hopes cally, the university was a fortress,” says Martin. that the trend is one that can be monitored and To him, researchers should not just be separated kept at bay. from the world by an arm’s length, but by a whole One ring to rule them all moat and a doctrine of rules and beliefs. “University is no less sacred than the Church.”

In the middle of all this, in a sort-of panic, I There is something in Martin’s radical conser- emailed Andrew Komar, a master’s student in vatism that appeals to me: his ideal university is the faculty of engineering. “We obviously don’t one where research happens in a vaccuum, away live in a socialist utopia (much as I’d love that),” from the pressures of society – for curiosity’s he replied. sake, and for the general happiness of our minds.

In his research, Komar is working on building stronger concrete. He’s not currently funded by a “Mind-fucked” by the education system corporation directly, but he’s applying for a fellowTwo years ago, wrapping up my first year in the ship from the American Concrete Association. physics major program, I wrote an article that He knows that there are problems that can came out of an interview with Denis Rancourt, come up with conflicts of interest, but those are a former physics professor at the University of things to be watched and investigated – not a Ottawa who was fired for giving an entire senior reason to put a blanket ban on corporate money: class A+s. He called the current system of edu- “There [are] going to be good people who are docation a “mind-fuck.” After a year of labs that felt ing things for the right reasons, there are going very much like they were designed to mold my to be people who are doing things that are quesbrain into that of a drone who only studies and tionable.” That’s going to happen in any situation, listens to instructions, I agreed with him. he explains.

As I explained an activity called “Polymer On Komar’s right hand, there is a black wristBalls” to a fourth-grade teacher in July, knead- band that says “Friendly Atheist,” which he exing a wad of hardening liquid, latex, and vinegar plains he won in a blogging contest. On his right into a super-ball shape, he interrupted me: “But pinky, there is an iron ring. how do I evaluate my students on this stuff? They In Canada, when you earn a bachelor’s degree need grades.” in engineering, you don’t just walk across a stage Moments like those are frustrating to me – and pick up a diploma. There is another ceremostop trying to quiz your students, and let them ny, one that happens in secret, and it puts an iron have fun! – but they also make me feel like we’re ring on your working hand. on the front lines of something. I am being paid “It is to constantly remind you that you are $12 an hour to be creative, a creativity that is go- bound to society. You don’t exist in a vacuum.” ing to be channeled for the good of society.

Komar might not be into the brouhaha surroundWhile trying to sort through my feelings about ing the ceremony, but he subscribes to the sencorporate research, I followed up with the PGSS. timent behind this one. “We hold ourselves to Vice-president external Mariève Isabel ex- a standard, ethically,” he explains. “Even if you plained that the council had just that night, Sept. don’t do anything legally wrong, you can still 14 2011, approved her proposal for a work- mess up. You can have your engineering society ing group to look into how McGill is funded membership revoked.” by corporations.

So, where does that leave us, wide-eyed and Isabel is studying environment and French young and, as so many university students are, literature. In 2010, she read a report called Big politically left? We are going to grow up and, unOil Goes to College. The report looks at contracts less you intend on living in the woods and cutting that oil companies have with universities: the yourself off from the world, inherit a system in terms, the impacts, the loopholes. “It raised the which this is how things work. If they change, if question, how is it going at McGill? The thing is, they need to be steered on a course that is more we don’t really know.” ethical, it will be a subtle and slow process: little In August, PGSS hired a part-time researcher to ideas and small decisions. This is where to begin: find out, and as of Sept. 14, they decided to allo- we need to be sceptical. We need to be curious. cate even more financial resources to this project. We need to ask questions.

F e atu r e s

THE GREEN PAGES GUIDE Business sustainability in Vancouver, North Vancouver, and the Lower Mainland

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livestock feed and compost for use by local farmers and community gardens. When they receive non-biodegradable waste, Quest diverts it to community services who have better use for certain items or are equipped with programs to safely process them, ultimately reducing landfill waste and harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Quest has recently acquired a Ford Connect for smaller pick-ups and deliveries, which uses less fuel and is more environmentally friendly. They recycle with Urban Impact located in Richmond and their compost is collected by Smith-rite a company based in Coquitlam.

There is also a Quest outlet in the Student’s Union here on Capilano U's campus – their food Marine Drive in West Vancouver and a factory services are available to those who fill out a Quest outlet in Burnaby. Their website states, “For over membership sign up form. a quarter of a century, Dream Designs has been creating well-made, sustainable products in VanVancouver Tool Library – Commercial couver, Canada.” They have also recently introDrive duced a fashion line.

Vancouver Tool Library (VTL) is a cooperative Current owner and creative director, Bei Linda tool lending library located on Commercial Tang, explains on the website, "Our rising stanDrive. They carry a variety of tools for home re- dard of living should not come at the expense of pair, gardening, and bicycle maintenance, which the environment … There are always sustainable are loaned to their members free of charge. Their alternatives, and as a business owner, I feel obliwebsite states that they “are motivated by a vision gated to make those alternatives available." of our community empowered by the tools and However, according to Karen, one of the workskills needed to transform their homes and com- ers at the factory outlet in Burnaby, all of the matemunities into vibrant spaces that reflect a com- rials (which includes organic cotton) that Dream mitment to sustainability. To get there, we are Designs sources to make their products come all creating a community resource that will reduce the way from Turkey and China, and the towel the costs of improving and greening the places in material is sourced from Portugal. This is not a which we live, work, and play.” very sustainable process, as the fabrics travel a Caitlin Dorward, Communications Coordina- long way and use large amounts of energy. With tor at VTL, explains that they are just starting up two other retail outlets in the Vancouver area, the business and it is still very small. The store is it seems Dream Designs manages to keep susopen four days a week and is volunteer-led. The tainable working environments at the factory by main idea behind the business is the concept that spending less money sourcing cheaper material they are “supporting people to have sustainable options from abroad. lives; Vancouver Tool Library allows people to Dream Designs has three programs in place share resources, reducing packaging and manu- to foster sustainability. One is Banner to Bags, facturing costs.” where any individual or organization can mail in This ties in with the term “collaborative con- used banners, such as the seasonal ones hanging sumption” coined by Rachel Botsman and Roo above neighbourhood streets, to be recycled into Rogers, the authors of What's Mine Is Yours: The hand bags. Through Donate a Sheet, clean used Rise of Collaborative Consumption. Botsman sheets in acceptable conditions can be donated sees collaborative consumption as a social revo- and are then given to local families and individulution that allows people to “create value out of als in need, with the incentive of receiving a 15 % shared and open resources in ways that balance discount at a Dream Designs location. Their third personal self-interest with the good of the larger program, Textile Recycling, furthers fabric recycommunity." Instigation of such ideas like what cling by encouraging sewing old sheets, aprons, has been done with the VTL help create a more and clothing into re-usable products like tea cosustainable community. zies. Their website offers resources for inspiration of creative projects.

Dream Designs – Vancouver, North In terms of acclamation, Dream Designs is Vancouver and Burnaby a member of the Organic Trade Association, Dream Designs is a clothing and lifestyle store and is currently Runner-Up for the 2011 Best of with retail locations on Commercial Drive, Vancouver Georgia Straight competition. How much these make claim to true sustainability and environmental consciousness, however, is debatable.

As always, when choosing to purchase a product one must keep in mind the power of money. Whatever product bought is essentially a vote towards that company, and one must use diligence and mindfulness when doing so.

It is never wrong to ask a store questions about where their sourcing and production takes place, what initiatives they are taking towards leaving a small carbon footprint, and whether they consider the environment in their business practice at all. A well-educated consumer is a responsible citizen, especially in this day and age where it is easy to be swayed and influenced by the messages of advertisement and profit// Tyler Hughes oriented propaganda.

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

Greens’ also uses environmentally friendly cleaning products, biodegradable garbage bags, // writer produce and bulk bags. West adds that in the meat any businesses today are making and seafood section, “we want to introduce bioclaims of sustainability, advertising degradable trays and soakers [pads that absorb that they are working in the green- moisture used under product] over the next six est, most natural, and most eco-friendly ways to eight weeks.” They are also looking into adding possible. They are advertising to a newly recog- more of these items in the deli, where they also nized market: those interested in the sustainable use biodegradable take-out cutlery, coffee cups, production of food, clothes, and pretty much any and soup containers. product. With so many of the big chain stores Quest Food Exchange – Lower Mainland selling low-priced goods and producing mass amounts of waste in doing so, shoppers are Quest Food Exchange is British Columbia's larglooking for a greener alternative, and rightly so. est food exchange program assisting low-income But how can one be sure that the “sustainability” individuals and families in the Lower Mainland. promises being stamped onto products made Quest assists with meal planning, budgeting, and are true? job development skills, and is partnered with hundreds of social service agencies to help tranGreens Market – Kitsilano sition their clients from relying on food banks, to Greens Organic and Natural Market is a fairly becoming self-reliant. new grocery store, founded by two UBC graduTheir website explains, “By rescuing food, Quest ates in 2010. The website quotes that they are is not just feeding people; in reducing waste, we “passionate about promoting a sustainable, are doing our part to help the environment. Methhealthy and fun lifestyle,” and goes on to explain ane gas produced by decomposing food scraps in their vision of creating “a community-oriented local landfills contributes significantly to global grocery store committed to zero-waste, buying warming.” In rescuing food that would otherwise local where possible, and offering the freshest, go to waste, Quest Food Exchange is helping othtastiest organic and natural foods.” er businesses become more sustainable whilst Located on Broadway and Maple, Greens is dealing with the resources they have and use in a in Kitsilano, close to South Granville. This area sustainable manner. of the city is largely middle-class, a seemingly Lauren McGuire-Wood, Quest’s Community perfect spot for a business whose costs may have Relations Coordinator states that Quest's “main to be higher in order to remain environmentally objective is the reduction of hunger and poverty conscious. It is clear that they do not offer bargain in the Lower Mainland, and in effect, we are also goods or crazy deals; their target buyer is some- reducing the amount of food waste that reaches body interested in buying organic and local gro- the landfill.” According to the UN Food and Agceries, thus perhaps more willing to compromise riculture Organization, a survey done in 2011 economically. showed that almost 50 per cent of the food proGreens’ store manager Michael West assures duced in North America goes to waste. McGuirethat during high season (summer), the store Wood explain, “This happens at every step of the stocks between 80 to 90% of locally-sourced food-supply chain, and we work with various fruits and vegetables, adding that 100 per cent of organizations at each level to prevent this from Greens' produce is organic, and the meat and sea- happening. There is more than enough food being food section is 100% locally-sourced year-round. produced to feed everyone, but the distribution West could not estimate the percentage of their method is faulty.” health and wellness products that are sourced “We work with our partners to schedule picklocally, but did indicate that they deal with “doz- ups and deliveries; we do so in a manner which ens of small local suppliers who sometimes only is most efficient for our drivers, thus saving on provide us with one particular product.” The deli, fuel costs. Any food we receive by donation that “Beens” is located within the market and sources is unusable will be composted and its packaging all of its products from the produce, meat, and recycled; this is part of the Zero Waste policy we seafood departments. have at Quest,” says McGuire-Wood.

Greens’ deals with a number of different farms, In 2005, Quest collaborated with EcoAction as each farm tends to focus on one particular Canada, a government-funded project which crop. “Two of our main farms … are in Surrey, and helps to reduce greenhouse emissions and waste [we also source from] UBC Farm just up the road,” by composting and recycling. Through the Zero explains West. Other farms provide more specific Waste Project, EcoAction Canada contributed to crops: “[A farm in] the Fraser Valley provides our transform non-consumable solid food waste into heirloom tomatoes, Skipping Red Rooster in Vancouver provides our garlic and watercress, and Green Acres Organic Orchards in Kelowna provides our apples.”

Greens' paper and cardboard recycling are done with a company called BFI, the third-largest non-hazardous solid waste management company in North America. Greens’ hard and soft plastic, glass, metal, and compost are done through a company called The Recycling Alternative, based in Vancouver. Shoppers are also able to bring in their own personal compost to the store.

Greens’ uses non-heated air hand dryers in the customer and staff washrooms, and reusable cloth from roller dispensers at their hand wash stations. “Our dishwasher is a low temp model that uses significantly less energy than a conventional one,” adds West.

By Heather Welsh

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f e at u r e s

Illustrations by Caitlyn Neufeld

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n important event surfaces into the public awareness. You hear about it from a friend. You go on Twitter and some form of it has been tweeted and re-tweeted by posters you know and don't know, all connected by this shared event. You sign-in to Facebook, and someone you know has already posted a video. You watch and comment. It all happens within minutes. Thus is the most common cycle of life for spreading information in our society today. What does this say of the state of the media industry?

for coverage of politics, finance, and local news, we still turn to newspapers.

Reliability of Media

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

Are Newspapers On Their Way Out?

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The role of the internet in our consumption of news has become a common part of our reality.

The way we access media has changed dramatically over the past few years, yet the economic model that delivers most media to us has not really adjusted to reflect this change. The model of printed media is mostly one involving market dominance, and as a 2011 report from Columbia University entitled “The Story So Far” states, “The monopoly or oligopoly that most metropolitan news organizations enjoyed by the last quarter of the 20th Century meant they could charge high rates to advertisers, even if their audiences had shrunk. If a local business needed to reach a community to promote a sale or announce a new store, the newspaper and TV station were usually the best way to do it. Even if the station or newspaper could deliver only 30 per cent of the local market, down from 50 per cent a decade earlier, that was still a greater share than any other single medium could provide.

Newspapers depend on subscriptions and advertising, and generate added revenue from services such as classified ads, which are being replaced by free online equivalents like Craigslist. On a public scale, we are responsible for keeping media services like the CBC running by paying taxes. On a private scale, we support private media sources through our buying power and choices, for when buying a product, the company providing it is generally owned by another; for example, Maclean's magazine is owned

by Rogers.

The integration of digital media has been a shaky one, with the challenges of consolidating issues like subscriptions or free access, regulation or inclusivity, advertising or activism. We are drawn to the urgency of access and the variety of news on the internet, almost always for free, but there is reason to doubt the internet as a reliable and consistent source of news. If a thousand people tweet it, does that make it true?

If nothing else, our spending habits are an indication of where our support lies. In 1975, Canadians spent more to purchase daily newspapers than they spent on subscriptions to television channels and programs. By 2005, for every $1 spent on daily newspapers, Canadians were spending more than $6 on TV and more than $4 on internet access.

However, these figures don't take into account the increase in TV programming options and cost, and the variety of internet activities unrelated to news. A report issued by the Canadian Media Research Consortium (CMRS) on the state of the media in Canada further compares our activities related to media consumption, finding that the Internet and TV held most our attention, though we weren't necessarily getting news updates or detailed reports. The report shows our habits of browsing for entertainment, lifestyle, and special interest stories on the internet, but

Hot Off the Printing Press The state of the media industry riter W / / r u o s n

By Sarah Ma

Although most of us might agree that we can't live without the internet, it seems that we don't consider it a reliable source of news. A survey in the CMRS report revealed that only 34 per cent of the participants agreed that most or all of the information on the internet is reliable, while 58 per cent put their trust in newspapers. This may seem surprising, considering that our immediate inclination for finding information is often just to “Google it”. Are we, as Canadians, still sceptical of the internet?

According to an article in Forbes.com, 37 per cent of surveyed Americans chose the internet as a reliable news source, compared to 16 per cent choosing newspapers. “When it comes to newspapers and how they have been impacted by the internet, there is a consistent and significant ideological factor. Conservatives and Republicans don't like or trust newspapers, and Independents are not big fans either. However, if all Americans were Liberals or Democrats, you would be buying newspaper stock,” writes John Zoghby, columnist for Forbes.

Zoghby is referring to the economic model that newspapers currently run on, which depends on gaining revenue by selling advertising and from continued subscriptions of a broad range of readers. It's not that people have stopped reading, but that they have merely switched to technology. The New York Times, one of the major American news publications, has 30 million online readers, but a weekday circulation of less than 900,000 newspapers, which made up 80 per cent of the paper's revenue in 2010, according to a NY Times press release. Newspaper advertising has kept the NY Times in business, but the paper is missing out on opportunities for generating revenue from its online readers.

The staggering difference in volume between NYT's online and offline readers has to do with how our reading habits have changed. Many of these online readers are often casually browsing the free site, compared to dedicated subscribers of the print media who invest in the whole package, considering that they can't buy one article or section of the paper.

“The digital world has changed the revenue dynamics for publishers,” writes Matt Shanahan, analyst, in his blog for Scout Analytics. “In the print world, a publisher’s shipment of physical media was the basis for generating revenue. In the digital world, consumption of media is the basis for revenue … In other words, engagement is the unit of monetization.” It is this difference that separates online and offline readers – offline readers all follow one consumer behaviour in terms of advertising – they pay for a paper and read it. Online readers have more control in getting what they want quickly and ignoring everything else, including ads, and avoiding subscription fees by finding free sources.

A New Way to Fund Information “In the current model, for private sector media, it's paid for by people picking up a newspaper and spending time reading it … advertising revenue is very important. So that tends to encourage media that grab individuals' attention and what grabs people's attention is not necessarily the same media that's good for the broad public's interest. It's the more sensational stuff like bloody murder or sex scandals” explains Mark

f e atu r e s formation, form their opinions, and perceive themselves in the world and make sense of themselves. It's through reading and consuming different media sources that we're able to do that and learn what's going on. When you have information coming at you from a number of sources, providing a complex view of the world, hopefully we're able to create democratic frames of mind just by being exposed to more diverse opinions,” says Milne. She considers everyone a contributor to what we consume as media and cites initiatives like Shit Harper Did and Lead Now as a new direction in civic engagement.

The internet remains largely uncensored, which makes it the ideal platform for anyone to participate in. “How do we get more people to vote? How do we look at language, in terms of framing issues of gender and women rights?” asks Milne, adding that websites of this nature help draw in more diverse audiences, particularly young people. “These organizations were largely encouraged and able to gain as much steam and support through social media [and] the internet, and the panel [at Media Democracy Days] looks at how social media acts as a catalyst in creating more engaged citizens.”

Question Everything

content for a university that hosts 45,000 students representing diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and levels of engagement. VoterMedia has helped “bring together students that were not interested, necessarily, in student politics before.

And helped them realize that a lot of the issues that affect UBC … go beyond students who have a direct interest in politics, and really affect all the students that are part of the community for the years that they're here,” says Ng. Latham is now testing the project for the upcoming municipal elections taking place in five municipalities in the Vancouver Lower Mainland on Nov. 19, 2011. Blog sites reporting on North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, or Richmond will compete against other blog sites within the same municipality. The highest ranking site, chosen by readers, wins a prize of $1,000 allocated for each municipality to use as funding for creating, contributing to, and up-keeping the blog. Despite the draw – getting paid to blog – participation has been a bit disappointing so far.

It is indeed a new concept and promoting it can be a challenge.

“The average person is busy with their lives and may not have spare time, may not know how to start a blog, write a blog, and may not feel they have enough to offer. You have to have someone who feels that they have some opinions that are worth people reading about and [has] enough confidence to put themselves out there,” says Latham.

From the experiment at UBC, and his point of view as an economist, Latham explains that VoterMedia, through the quality of the blogs, will support in-depth commentary and detailed analysis, which people will often not spend a lot of time reading or researching.

“Knowing that it's behind there, that analysis will then indicate certain politicians you should vote for in the election, and voters will tend to follow that advice. Once VoterMedia build[s] their

reputation for doing a good job on that analysis, voters will vote [for the distribution of] the money, voters will follow their recommendations, but others will not spend much time reading their analysis; that's the difference,” explains Latham.

Media Has Room For Democracy The very core of Latham's concept depends on democracy. For the program to work, anyone can enter their blog, but only the best, as chosen by the majority, will be rewarded. Every aspect of it depends on the full participation of the content providers and the voters. Community sites that allow readers to rank site content and share their input by rating, voting and commenting are nothing new, however. On forums and websites such as Reddit, a post or comment with higher votes gains a higher position on the page, elevating its relevance for the site's audience, which can be quite diverse.

However, these systems have mostly been implemented for entertainment-based services and forums. Even if the subject leans on the side of heavy social commentary providing a community service, there is rarely a financial factor to drive competition. In the realm of political news, bloggers and innovators in media often go unrewarded for their work, unless sponsored by a certain party. The way that democracy factors into their efforts is through recognition, evidenced by the number of hits on a site and the widespread distribution of blogs through social media.

Gala Milne, coordinator for Media Democracy Days, has been involved in the conversation for almost two years and is a strong supporter of civic engagement and the concept of media democracy. Media Democracy Days is a panelbased event kicking off its ten-year anniversary in Vancouver this year. Interest in the event has helped it grow to a 3-day combination of film screenings, panel discussions and workshops.

“The media is where people get their in-

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

Latham, founder of VoterMedia.org. Latham is a financial economist working on political reform of democracies and corporations. He focuses on voter information systems, especially the economic incentives (or lack thereof) for public interest political journalism. He has developed a funding model which has been successfully implemented in UBC's student society for the past five years.

“We can reduce corruption and improve the policies of our governments and corporations by creating a better information system for voters,” said Latham in a 2009 publication paper entitled Global Voter Media Platform, explaining the concept of VoterMedia. Although the project started in the corporate world, Latham was inspired by the growth of the blogosphere to implement VoterMedia with online communities. Voters can rank blog competitors dealing in political matters relevant to their community, and winning blogs receive financial compensation. This promotes accountability in media production suited to the interest of the public. The main goal of this model is to improve our education level on electoral issues by encouraging the support of blogs with high-quality content that is useful for making voting decisions.

Implementing the model at UBC has given Latham the opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness and sustainability of such an economic model in promoting quality media production. The project's initial funds were a donation from Latham, but now the program is funded by the UBC student union. One of the blogs that started as a result of this program, UBC Insider, continues to engage students at UBC in the university's ongoing political debates and issues. In fact, the blog writers went on to work with the elected representatives, involving them directly in the dialogue.

Jason Ng, blogger for The Social Capital, explains the challenges of creating homogenous

Although information on the Internet, beyond established and trusted sources, remains largely unregulated, Milne suggests that it is up to us to read and question what we are reading. The slogan for Media Democracy Days is “Know the Media, Be the Media, Change the Media”, a message that should resonate with anyone trying to wade through the overwhelming information available through publications on the internet, blogs, events and alternative printed media.

Milne says the key is to keep eyes open and question everything. Events such as Media Democracy Days are “encouraging people to know the media system in which they live, be the media in terms of participating and being involved, and changing the media, and in that way asking people to raise their awareness and increase their education about issues happening within the media.” In BC, we can turn to resources like Open Media, AMES, and the Media Education Foundation that are aimed at increasing people's understanding and awareness of the media.

Vancouver is rich in locally-produced media resources such as the ones Milne lists. The Tyee for example, is an online local news source that was born out of Media Democracy Days in 2003, and has grown to feature a diverse selection of journalists from BC. A relevant resource, the website has a “featured blogs” section which links to BC-based blogs that focus on a variety of subjects, ranging from advocacy, to marketing, to travel, and to global culture. The Tyee is also featured on VoterMedia.org and currently holds the top position in the Vancouver Voter Community.

Media Education Foundation is another organization that gives educational institutions licenses to stream documentaries on topics such as commercialization and gender. These organizations are part of breaking down the veil that the media puts up, according to Milne. They help make complex issues seem digestible and understandable.

The resources are out there. Milne explains that it is up to individuals to educate themselves and be part of the changing media landscape: “Change comes from inside. Whether it's becoming involved in groups [like Open Media and The Tyee], or becoming an investigative journalist; whether it's voicing your opinion on the state of Canadian media, or showing up to things.

Change happens gradually, and it's true that first the idea is knowing and being, [and] then working towards change.”

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arts

EDIT OR // Cl aire Vul l iamy // arts @ c api l ano c o uri e r. c o m

LADY ON THE INTERNET Web comic sensation Kate Beaton makes an appearance at the Vancouver Writer’s Festival

By Mike Bastien // Writer

O

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

ne of Kate Beaton’s first comics was a crudely drawn doodle done on MS paint with a headline of, “Whoops I am a lady on the internet,” featuring her as a stick figure in front of a laptop reading, “hey I think ur sexi I like ur comixs I think I am stalking u I hope that’s ok??” on the screen of her computer.

Now, with her new book Hark! A Vagrant on the top of the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover graphic novels, there’s no “whoops” about it. Combining art, wit, history, and eventually shedding the MS paint for hand-drawn comics, Kate Beaton has taken the internet by storm. She most recently made an appearance at the Vancouver International Writers Festival, in conversation with radio host Bill Richardson, where she was unique as a graphic novelist among many other authors of the conventional form.

Born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Kate Beaton aspired to be an animator as a child. She then got a degree in history and anthropology at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, but it was in 2007 when she first found her calling making comics. Beaton explains that it started out as a personal project: “I had been doing them and putting them on Facebook for friends to see, and then I got such a good response and encouragement from people to do my own website. So I just did, and never really looked back.”

Despite there being thousands of web comics, Hark! A Vagrant is one of the few to prove profitable. “I had no idea anything I made would be so well-received. The thing is, I would have been doing this anyway. Maybe not so much on a large scale but I would be making comics; I have been for a long time.”

Her popularity is due not only because of Beaton’s art or writing, but also because she has struck a nerve with a previously undiscovered niche. While most web comics such as The Oatmeal and Amazing Super Powers are about video games or pop culture, Hark! A Vagrant is about history. The majority of Beaton’s work consists of comics about historical figures such as Napoleon, as well a few forays into comics about

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mystery-solving teens and the adventures of an overweight pony. Beaton explains, “I chose to make comics about history because I think it's interesting and I like it.”

One of the most fascinating things about Hark!

A Vagrant is the art. In an industry ruled by comics done on a computer, it is somewhat fitting that a comic about history is done by hand. “I draw it with pencils and then I use a pen on top, it is terribly simplistic. I use brush pens for lines and I use greyscale markers and watercolour to shade it.”

Beaton’s work shows great skill in both facial expressions and pacing. The dialogue Beaton writes is also distinct compared to others in the medium: most of the dialogue she writes has no punctuation and is oddly phrased. “This may sound strange, but I think part of that comes from the place where I was raised. Cape Breton, like Newfoundland, is famous for odd turns of phrase, and while you wouldn't notice it if you were speaking to me, I've retained a lot of that different speech structure – especially with my approach to humour, which is directly related to the old Gaelic-style humour of Nova Scotia.”

// Kate Beaton drew this Squirrel Shark for our Arts Edior at ComiCon 2009!

While some people prefer to place importance accessed from just about anywhere, and larger on one over another, Beaton believes that art and comic companies are noticing. In order to find writing are equally important. “People like to an issue of Spiderman, one used to have to visit think of comics in terms of a division of labour a store that specialized in comics; now, these because some people are better at one aspect issues are easily accessed on the internet. Marthan the other, or because some people collabo- vel, DC, and Viz, to name a few, all offer online rate in this way.” However, Beaton says, “When content. It was recently announced that the you are presenting a story in words and pictures, American manga magazine, Shonen Jump, will there is no way one can just carry the other, cease print by April 2012 and become available and I believe most comic artists don't think of only online. them separately.”

As the print world fades, more people are usThe web comic industry is a booming one. ing the internet to discover independent gems.

Despite providing their content for free, com- Kate Beaton’s talents and quirky sense of huics such as Penny Arcade, xkcd, and Dinosaur mour have made her one of the most popular Comics are able to make money through web comic artists online, with a website that website advertisements and merchandis- gets 1.2 million hits a month. What’s more, while ing. Penny Arcade even has its own gam- other comics are moving from print to internet, er convention, Penny Arcade Expo, and Beaton’s success has even transcended her oncharity, Child’s Play, benefiting patients of line roots with the book sales to back it up. This children’s hospitals. could be explained by her love for what she does: One benefit to having comics online, as op- by combining her two passions, she has created posed to paper, is the wealth of possibilities found strips filled with humour and insight. in a digital medium: comics such as Loldwell, for instance, adds small animations to their panels. Kate Beaton’s comics can be accessed online at Another advantage is that web comics can be www.harkavagrant.com.

Local Crafters, Get Ready!

“The Window” is offering more to the art community in the Downtown Eastside

By Katie Shore // Writer

C

rafting isn't just about dried pasta sculptures anymore. The craft industry has exploded from a practice of old ladies and preschool teachers into a hip, expressive community that people really buying into.

People are not only purchasing the handmade wares; they are crafting on their own more than ever. Various craft blogs and communities like ThreadBanger bring easy and creative ideas to the every man and woman, with websites such as Etsy giving these crafters an opportunity to sell the end result. // JJ Brewis In Vancouver, we now have The Window Com-

munity Art Shop. Funded by the Portland Hotel Society Services, The Window is a shop opening soon in the Downtown Eastside that will be selling wares by local crafters, giving them an opportunity to gain exposure throughout the community. “We're looking to sell homewares, knitted items, soaps, and other sorts of gifty things,” says Katherine Piasta. “If you're more of an artist, we also love stuff like cards.”

Piasta is one of those spearheading the project and the opportunity could not have come at a better time for her. “I was working with Community Thrift Clothing, also run by Portland Hotel Services, and I was interested in doing something different. When I learned about the project, I knew immediately that I (Continued …) ➼

A r ts

Oh, You Busk? Are You Homeless Too? Rain or shine, misguided perceptions can’t put a damper on buskers

he weather in Vancouver can be atrocious for street performers, but this does not stop them, nor does it drive away the vast and wildly eclectic community of buskers.

Despite various struggles, there is little that can make a dent in the resilience, dedication, and high quality of Vancouver’s street performers.

As a city that is renowned for its consistent torrential downpour, Vancouver poses some difficult obstacles against both the morale and physical capabilities of street performers. Autumn in particular is a time of year that can see many street performers strapped for cash. Grace Cullingworth, Capilano University student and local busker, confirms that this is a “huge problem. You have amps, right? You can’t really have amps in the rain, and there aren’t really people walking by.” As self-employed artists, this factor makes it difficult for individuals like Cullingworth to support themselves, especially in the off-season.

Although Cullingworth is studying to be a professional thespian in Capilano’s Acting for Stage and Screen program, she is passionate about her music and speaks eloquently to the pros and cons of being a street performer in Vancouver.

She describes the conditions as being “really competitive. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a job, but it’s like being an actor … you need to be putting yourself out there, trying to get gigs.”

Cullingworth, alongside boyfriend Jeff Huggins, perform during the warmer months under the Granville Island Cultural Society’s Summer Entertainment on Granville Island (SEGI) program. The pair sing duets while Huggins accompanies the vocal harmony on acoustic guitar, their set fully amplified. Together they have had many positive experiences sharing their music with local art appreciators and passers-by. Even though Huggins has seen immense success as the lead singer of local alternative/indie rock band The Knots, winning the Royal City Song Search and the YouThink Magazine and Tom Lee Music co-search to find British Columbia’s Best Teen Band, he still enjoys busking whenever and wherever possible. Both Cullingworth and Huggins take performing very seriously. “As a busker, if you don’t have that professionalism, you won’t make as much [money] … We treat busking as our jobs. We are our own bosses.”

The business of self-employment is an additional challenge unto itself. As individuals, artists like Cullingworth and Huggins have to gauge whether or not a trip downtown will be worth it for that day. Factoring in unforeseen changes in

weather, traffic, and impromptu events or protests is key.

Cullingworth explains the challenges conversationally: “It’s gas and it’s transportation and it’s effort … it’s waking up early on a Saturday.” For buskers, each performance session can equate to a hard day’s work at the office, but it often isn’t seen that way. The real difference between busking as a profession and most other occupations isn’t the amount of effort involved, it is the consistency, or lack thereof, of a paycheque at the end of the day.

Along with other challenges, buskers must deal with the misguided perceptions and unfair judgements that our society appears to hold. Oftentimes societal norms or expectations can lead people to have negative reactions when encountering artists who busk. “You get weird looks … [people] are like, ‘You do that? You would lower yourself that much?’” Cullingworth counters this attitude: “As a musician, very seldom do I get to perform … How else do you put yourself out there? With busking you can go and perform everyday for hours.”

The couple prefers to busk at Granville Island over other locations. “We just hit the nail on the head every time we go down there. We’ve had really no reason to look elsewhere, we’re really happy there.” Granville Island, with its heavy foot traffic, is a unique performing space for Vancouver artists, and as such has regulations for buskers independent of other parts of the city. Buskers are specifically required to register at the The Granville Island Buskers Office, must have a neat appearance, and ensure that they are taking into account that Granville Island is a family-friendly location. Different areas are respectively designated acoustic and amplified.

Serendipitous opportunities will sometimes find the duo when they’re performing at Granville Island in the summer. Cullingworth explains that listeners will approach them and say something along the lines of, “I’m looking for wedding singers … I’m just wandering around because you get some really cool talent.”

Other interactions that stand out for street performers, apart from creating connections with their audience, are the bonds fused from performer to performer. A favourite anecdote of Cullingworth and Huggins’ is their interaction with idol Zachary Grey from Vancouver indie rock band the Zolas. While covering the song “You’re Too Cool” off the Zolas’ 2009 album Tic Toc Tic, Huggins caught sight of an unexpected audience member. Cullingworth explains, “We’re singing it [You’re Too Cool] and Jeff goes, ‘Oh my God, there’s Zach from the Zolas!’ … He sat down

about six feet in front of us and filmed us on his iPhone, came up and gave us hugs, put a toonie in our case.”

This mutual respect and tight camaraderie among fellow artists is a large part of what makes Vancouver’s busking scene so vibrant and productive. It also draws strong connections from Vancouver’s busking scene to a greater universal community that really has no borders.

Australian acoustic guitar player and vocalist, Johnnie Mac, has created an extensive project to encourage this connection between street performers by sharing a wealth of his own personal knowledge and research in an online community called Busker World. On the website, Mac details an extensive list of famed musicians who began their careers busking. Most notably on the list of famed buskers are Bon Jovi, Edith Piaf, Eric Clapton, Kanye West, Neil Young, Louis Armstrong, and the Beatles. According to the site, rumour has it that Paul McCartney and John Lennon busked in the streets of Liverpool under the pseudonym The Nurk Twins, or even before that when they formed the band The Quarry Men. Oddly enough, founding father of the United States Benjamin Franklin was originally a busker in his own right. Franklin “composed songs and poetry about the political situation of his era and performed them in public,” according to Mac. An excerpt from his autobiography, edited by Kenneth Silverman, refers to Franklin’s first published copies of original opinion, poetry and prose. “The first sold wonderfully, the event being recent, having made a great noise. This flatter'd my vanity. But my father discourag'd me. Versemakers were always beggars; so I escap'd being a poet, most probably a very bad one.” Mac’s webpage on famous buskers also details that Franklin’s father “discouraged busking by convincing him that the stigmas some people match to busking were not worth it.”

Today, the busking climate is substantially different than it was in the 1700s. Nonetheless, many of those same stigmas are present. Fortunately for street performers in Vancouver, although some of society carries prejudice, the laws around street performance have been created in a style that pays mind to the needs of both performers and city-dwellers. In compliance of such laws, buskers must be in possession of a valid permit at all times, unless they choose to perform at a permit exempt space, such as corners adjacent to Library Square, Science World, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, or directly outside public Skytrain stations. Acceptable performance hours for buskers are 10:00am to 10:00pm, with varying restrictions on volume

and proximity to other performers, depending on the neighbourhood.

Current Vancouver busking permit prices, as regulated by the City of Vancouver in conjunction with the Vancouver Police Department and the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, are listed on the City of Vancouver website as follows: $40.06 for a four month permit or $118.91 for an annual permit, tax included. The price doesn’t seem too steep for an individual to cover over the course of several months, but any capital and any investment is likely coming directly out of the artists’ pocket.

This includes costs of any rental technical equipment, musical instruments, and even whatever professional training the artist might have had in their lifetime.

Despite a variety of ups and downs that Vancouver busking professionals must take into account every day, the community isn’t going anywhere. As Cullingworth emphasizes, she’d never leave Vancouver to busk in another city.

“People in Vancouver have an appreciation for buskers because they’re all over the place. It’s a very artsy, ‘big’ city so you have that.” It’s this appreciation that directly channels into the motivation for many performers, like Cullingworth and Huggins, to go into work most mornings, and overall, this energy is what fuels the resilience, determination, and high quality of our thriving artistic community.

➼ wanted to get involved. I'd had an idea for a similar project on my mind as it was.”

However, The Window Community Art Shop isn't just a place where you can find unique items by local crafters. The space also aims to provide a community for artists and includes a crafting workspace. “The studio includes two giant kilns, sewing machines, and other supplies available to the public, right now for free,” says Piasta.

“We also hope to have different artists come in to host workshops that will be made available to the public.” The Downtown Eastside location is especially accessible and central to everyone in the Vancouver area.

So far, the community is being very responsive and getting excited about the possibilities

presented by The Window. “There's a store a little like this in my hometown back in the Midwest, and I love going in there because you never know exactly what you'll see,” says Tally Heilke, a Vancouver Island crafter who runs a successful crafting blog called I Could Make That. “You get that nice feeling of knowing that you're supporting local creativity.”

Piasca seems excited, explaining, “We just got the word out recently and we seem to be having a pretty positive response so far.” Their Oct. 27 opening, as described by the press release on their Facebook page, will have seen crafters visiting The Window in order to “show and tell” their crafts and potentially have them sold at the store.

The Portland Hotel Society is centred around

the Portland Hotel, where they provide permanent accommodations for 86 adults with difficulties such as addiction and mental illness. Another initiative of theirs is the successful second-hand store, Community Thrift and Vintage. The Window project is completely non-profit and serves only to benefit the artists and the community.

“The artists make 75 per cent of the profit and the rest goes back to the PHS, which will put it back into the store. What goes around will definitely come back around in the end,” explains Piasca.

“I love that handmade is becoming such a sought-after thing these days – it's exciting to see people realizing that handmade items can be – and often are – better made than their factorymade counterparts,” says Heilke.

The Window is a place for crafters not only to sell their wares, but a community for them to share ideas and give their work a flare that it may not have received otherwise. Perhaps this is what the future of the “gift shop” looks like – notfor-profit organizations that provide just the right amount of kitsch while continuing to give back to the community. So if you're into unique crafts, or are a crafter yourself, check out The Window.

After all, what could be better than an opportunity to give back to the community by purchasing something one-of-a-kind?

By Claire McGillivray // Writer

T

// Katie So

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The Window Community Art Shop is located at 9 West Hastings St. Community Thrift and Vintage is located at 41 West Cordova St.

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columns

E DIT ORS // Samant ha Thompson + Sarah Vit et // e di to r@ c api l ano c o uri e r. c o m

SEX WITH CHEETAH

Going home with the ugly twin

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the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

want to fuck a close friend of mine SO BAD. But he has a girlfriend. Should I wait for them to break up, or should I just try to get in there now? Their relationship sucks and he could do a lot better than her.

—Hopeless Bro-mantic

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He could do a lot better than her … with you, no doubt. God, how predictable. No, I’m not trying to take a shit on you; we’ve all stood in your shoes at some point. I myself have played the “hopelessly pining platonic friend” role more times than I’d like to recall. There’s only one real solution to this dilemma, though, and it doesn’t involve waiting around to play the rebound or doing any relationship sabotage. This is what you have to do: bone your love interest’s doppelganger.

This ploy works awesomely on so many levels! It blends your fantasy with a healthy dose of creepiness and a dash of unreality that if correctly executed will forever cure you of your friendlust. “But no,” you cry, “I love this person for who they are on the inside!” Shut up, bitch tits. I’ve even field-tested this method myself.

A few years ago I was under the misconception that I was in love with my good friend “Steve”.

He had this girlfriend who was a total dishrag. It was completely unbelievable that he would continue to date her when he could have been with me, because I rule. The situation was also horribly awkward because I’d drunkenly confessed my love to him at a Halloween party and been utterly rejected. So it’s understandable that I was spending my Black Friday sitting at home listening to Sinead O’Connor and getting buzzed by myself on my mom’s peach Schnapps.

It’s always in this situation when your wacky girlfriend calls you at around midnight and asks you why the hell you’re not at the local tailgate party. “Cheetah, get the hell off your ass and come to the quarry,” Tylene shrieked into the phone. “Somehow everyone we gradded with got super hot!”

“Dude, I hate all those people,” I moaned unhappily, taking another pull of the schnapps.

“It doesn’t matter, everyone’s drunk as shit!

And you need to forget about-” I thought I could hear a song by Sublime starting up so I hung up immediately. I’m such a loser, I thought fuzzily. Eat a dick, Steve! I’m going to go to this stupid tailgate party and fuck a stranger.

That’ll make me feel better.

I quickly threw on my sexiest TNA sweatshirt (it was a while ago, okay?) and threw the schnapps into a backpack. There’s no way I can

drive, I thought as I lurched out of the dark house.

The quarry was a 45 minute walk away, and the bus is for peons. I spotted my mom’s bike leaned up against the shed where it had been rusting all season. Fuck yeah, I thought as I sped creakily into the cold night, I’m going to make such an entrance!

I reached the quarry in record time, my hair blown all over my face like a crazy hag. It was every bit as redneck as only a North Van party can be. In the light of the bonfire people in various states of undress cavorted in the freezing night air; everyone was indeed “wasted as shit.”

I located Tylene and some other friends and we got down to some serious alcohol abuse.

There I was, minding my own business, when Steve walked by. I was about to say something probably embarrassing, but then I did a doubletake. It wasn’t Steve! He was the exact same height, same build, same stupid Beatles haircut, same bad dress sense. But his face … something wasn’t right. It was like someone made a second Steve based on a police sketch of the original.

Tylene saw him at the same time and made a wild grab for my arm, but I was already on my way over to this strange being. “You look like someone I know, dude!” I blurted crazily. “What’s your name?”

“Jamie,” he said, sounding uncertain.

“Whatever! Have some of my schnapps, Steve.”

Forty-five minutes later I was speeding down Grand Boulevard on the handlebars of my mom’s bike, fake-Steve pedaling away behind me. I’d turned off my phone because I kept receiving text messages from Tylene saying ARE YOU BLIND and THIS IS THE WORST IDEA YOU’VE EVER HAD. “Take me to your shag palace, my prince!”

I shouted grandiosely as we pulled into a dark driveway.

“Shhh!” hissed fake-Steve. “My mom doesn’t let me have girls stay the night. We’ll have to go in here.” He stopped at a rusting RV parked in the driveway.

“Cool,” I said, a little bit perturbed. “Uh … retro.

Is there a bathroom in there?”

“Yes, but you can’t flush.”

The inside the camper smelled distinctly of mold and mouse turds. Fake-Steve turned on a light and revealed what was basically a storage unit on wheels. Mounds of clothing, old toys and cardboard boxes filled the interior of the vehicle.

A narrow path led through the wreckage to the driver seat at the front.

“Uh … I’ll lay out some blankets on the floor,”

fake-Steve said awkwardly.

The light was dim, but it was much brighter than the bonfire at the quarry. In the tiny, smelly confinement of the camper, my buzz swiftly retreating, I could make out that he was definitely the uglier twin. My heart was filled with misgivings. I located the bathroom and gave myself a long hard stare in the tiny dirty mirror. What the hell was I doing? I’d taken this way too far. I wished that there were an etiquette manual for these situations. Ok, I decided. I’ll do ten minutes of making out. If I’m still feeling weird, I’ll bail.

Satisfied, I stepped out of the bathroom to one of the worst sights of my young life. Fake-Steve had used my absence to “prepare himself” by getting completely naked and lying spread-eagle on the floor of the camper, one hand on his dick.

The condom was already on.

“Touch it!” he suggested, grinning up at me horribly.

The awful tableau was broken by the camper door being flung open. “Jamie!” screeched a woman, looming out of the darkness, “How many times have I told you not to—” “Mom, get the fuck out!”

There was no way this was about to happen to me. I leaped over fake-Steve’s prone body and scrambled up to the driver door, piles of crap crashing down all around me. I practically

With Cheetah Powers // Columnist

// Sarah Taylor fell out the door, hearing fake-Steve’s mom’s scream of horror behind me as she discovered her son’s penis. My hands found the handle of the bike leaned up against the side of the camper and in less than a second I was astride my rickety steed and pedaling out into the night, tears of terror and hilarity streaking from my eyes.

Three days later, when I had recovered from my ordeal, I went over to Tylene’s to watch a movie. A few people were there, including Steve, but something weird had happened. When I looked at him, I no longer saw the person I was supposedly in love with. Instead, I saw his evil twin, lying naked on the floor of the Hoarders camper, giving himself a hand shandy. It was horrifying. I couldn’t even look real Steve in the eye. I was cured!

So what’s the moral of this story? Find someone who looks like the person you like. Go home with them. It will probably be a weird, shameful, humiliating experience that you will regret forever. It will be so twisted that you’ll associate the object of your affections with that awful experience for the rest of your life. You won’t even be able to look at them without shuddering a little on the inside. In other words, you’ll be free.

What have you got to lose, other than your dignity?

Records, Rain and Recreation

Music! Murder! Arson! Satan! put on your headphones? Is your favourite singer a ghoulishly face-painted moaning warlock?

If not, you probably haven’t listened to enough black metal.

From its early incarnations in the 1980s to current brutal acts, black metal music is often ave you ever listened to music while si- overshadowed by its preconceived reputation multaneously wondering if you’re hav- for violence, hate, fear, and a strong Satanic mesing a pagan spell cast upon you? Does sage. With ancestral roots spanning over a thouan icy chill run down your spine every time you sand years, some of black metal’s most influential “Children of the evil and demonic curse his love again.

Graveless souls awake, seem to ignite the flame.”

—Emperor (Night of Graveless Souls)

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With Colin Spensley // Columnist

bands claim that if you’re not Norwegian, then you aren’t black metal. The genre truly is a reflection of Norway’s ancient culture as much as it is a controversial and misunderstand branch of metal music.

The Norse people prior to 995 AD were a pagan people of varying religions and traditions. As Christianity spread over Scandinavia throughout the eighth century, it was strongly opposed by the pagan Norse, and was shunned until the

rule of King Oalf I of Norway. Oalf I had previously been a raider of many Christian and European cities and fought many wars with Christian states. However, upon returning to Norway in 995 after a fabled encounter with a Christian seer, Oalf ceased the raiding of Christian cities and used all of his power to Christianize his nation. This included the murder and torture of any pagan resistors and turning all of Norway into a so-called (Continued …) ➼

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Christian nation. This set the stage for 1,000 years of what some Norwegians would call religious oppression, and the basis for the movement of black metal.

For many, black metal is a rebellion against the church, more so than as an extremist form of metal music. The music is characterized by grim and foreboding tones – blast-beat drumming, dissonant chord structure and shrieked vocals.

Black metal is differentiated from its metal cousins, thrash and death metal, by the signature tremolo-style guitar playing and its satanic messages delivered in a uniquely shrill scream.

The Norwegian band Mayhem laid much of the groundwork for the visual aspect of black metal. Mayhem’s founding members were the first to don the now almost stereotypical corpse paint, which is white and black makeup accompanied by blood, spikes, upside-down crucifixes, and leather. Mayhem guitarist Euronymous and lead vocalist Dead would pioneer the genre with its dark atmospheric sound and terror-filled message. In 1991, to the horror of his band members, Dead took his own life with a shotgun. Their horror, however, did not stop them from taking photographs of the gruesome suicide and taking pieces of Dead’s skull to wear as necklaces. The photographs were later used as a Mayhem album cover, which received a great amount of attention from Norwegian media.

As a Norwegian music reporter points out in an interview with VBS, “They had an identity because everyone was against them.” The spotlight was set on these young musicians who cradled more than a passion for music in their hearts. What followed were a string of violent crimes and the burning of historic churches around the country.

Many of the crimes were committed by the group of black metal musicians in Oslo called The

Black Circle, revolving around the heavy-metal record store Helvete. The leader of this group was the young Varg Vikernes. He is the sole member of probably the most important black metal band to come out of Norway: Burzum. Vikernes had been sensationalized by Norwegian media and was the figurehead for much of the controversy surrounding black metal in the early 1990s.

The church burnings in Norway were Euronymous and Vikernes’ attempts to lash back at the Christian church, which they claim erased the ancient history of Norway. This included the arson of some 800-year-old churches, which Vikernes claims had been built on sacred pagan sites. “If the Christians have no respect for Norwegian culture, why should Norwegians have respect for their culture? … By burning churches some people felt like they were taking back the land. The intent was to open the public’s eyes,” said Vikernes. After a dozen church burnings in 1992-93, Norwegian police had become suspicious of The Black Circle.

Euronymous and Vikerne’s friendship fell apart over a record contact dispute regarding Mayhem, a band that Vikernes was playing bass guitar in at the time. On Aug. 10, 1993, Vikernes and his friend Snorre Ruch drove over 400 miles to Oslo to settle this conflict.

Vikernes claims that he had heard rumours of a plot to capture and torture him made by his ex-friend and bandmate Euronymous. When the two met at an apartment in Oslo to settle the conflict, Vikernes was attacked on the doorstep and proceeded to murder Euronymous, which he claims was in self-defense. Vikernes stabbed Euronymous 23 times, mostly in the back with a dull hunting knife. Within days Vikernes was arrested by police and taken to prison to await try in Oslo.

He was sentenced to the maximum prison sentence in Norway (21 years) for murder and the arson of four churches. “The church burnings were hardly mentioned in the court. They presented one witness in each case who claimed I had burned this or that church, and that was it.

‘Guilty’. Just like that. This process was repeated four times, and I was found guilty of kindling four churches, three of them having burned to the ground,” writes Vikernes in a testimonial posted to his person web page. “I am not going to say that I burnt any churches. But let me put it this way: there was one person who started it. I was not found guilty of burning the Fantoft Stave church, but anyway, that was what triggered the whole thing.”

With two of the founding members now dead and one incarcerated, the two most influential bands of black metal were put in jeopardy. It would have seemed like the black metal scene in Oslo would fall apart, but instead, it grew vastly more popular through all the media attention of Varg Vikernes and the fear he cast over Norway’s people, which was, of course, the intention. Bands like Emperor, Immortal, and Darkthrone continued to thrive in the genre and gain attention outside of Norway, spreading black metal across Scandinavia and later across the world.

Modern bands like Gorgoroth would continue to give a controversial side to black metal well into the 21st century. Gorogoroth seems to feed off the media’s portrayal of them as something to be feared and shunned. They prefer to be viewed as an ideological group whose music comes second to their satanic message of hatred, which the Norwegian media loves to report on.

Gorgoroth’s live show is a theatrical spectacle of morbid imagery and gruesome displays of

anti-Christian symbolism. Local police in Krakow, Poland seized the film of a concert that was recorded in 2004 for a live DVD, due to the criminal act of Religious Offence; a punishable law in Poland, as it is a predominantly Catholic nation. The props for this concert included severed sheep heads on spikes, gallons of blood, and crucified models on the stage.

In an interview in the documentary True Norwegian Black Metal, Gaahl (the lead singer of Gorgoroth) explains his philosophy of individualism: “I have no intention of getting a flock of sheep that’s just following me blindly, because then I would be just as bad as society … You don’t perform black metal if you are not a warrior. Black metal is a war against what everyone knows.”

The parallels in the musicianship between early 1990s black metal and current acts like Gorgoroth are quite apparent, but they do show quite different sides to the rebellion against Norwegian traditions. Many fans of black metal would not consider themselves Satanists, Norse men, or even hate-filled people. Luckily, over the past ten years the music has stayed true to its form, and any fan of black metal in 1991 is likely still a fan today. Vancouver’s Artep would probably fall into the genre, with their quintessential blast-beats and ghoulish vocals, although how active they currently are is a bit harder to distinguish.

There are few genres of music that can summon up gut feelings and visceral imagery as well as black metal can. The music is a spirit that starts in your stomach and rises up and grips you with an emotion that is as much dread as it is reverence. It also conveys a respect for the vivid landscapes of an ancient country with its snow-capped mountains, dark forests and gloomy skies. Black metal is the essence of Norway itself.

World of Violence

A Genealogy of Violence

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// Columnist

suicide rate. The two European countries most affected by the economic crisis, Ireland and Greece, also saw the highest increases in the suicide rate, at 13 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively. These are the casualties of the economic crisis.

Of course, the connection between economic shocks and elevated rates of suicide is not novel, as previous crises drove many to commit suicide.

In 1928 for example, suicide rates in the United States swelled from 12 per 100,000 American citizens a year earlier, to 18 after the stock market crashed. But this relationship between the economy and suicides must be emphasized, for public health itself is deteriorating.

Another form of violence that has tragically increased since 2008 is domestic violence. With the family as the economic unit, it comes as no surprise that economic problems are carried into the home. The excess of pressures from either not finding work, taking a pay cut, or from working overtime to counter the reduced pay, shatters the stability that once existed for the working family. As the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) said, “difficult times do not cause domestic violence, but they do exacerbate it.”

And here's the catch: as economic pressures drive up domestic violence, those same troubled economic pressures also reduce the funds to assist these victims. Not too long ago, NNEDV conducted a regional survey, discovering that while 82 per cent of their affiliated shelters and agencies were experiencing higher demand

for their services, another 78 per cent said they were continuing operations with less revenue than previous years.

The battered victim now faces the double task of facing more abuse while receiving less help and protection.

The increase in the rate of suicide and domestic violence are just two of the many forms of violence that the crisis of 2008 has taken. First appearing as violent economic shocks, 2008 and its aftermath subjected the world to expropriations, terminations, and declines in quality of life. This was only the beginning, as these violent actions laid the foundations for more violence. As we enter into what is being called a “jobless recovery”, we must tread into the future with care.

In 2008, the late writer José Saramago wrote a clever opinion piece suggesting that those responsible for the global economic crisis – the bank managers, speculators, and others – should be arrested and tried at the Hague for their crimes against humanity. As the casualties of the economic crisis continue to grow, in the form of suicide and domestic violence, Saramago’s case should be pursued. After all, what were the effects of the global economic crisis, if not inhumane acts as “a widespread or systematic attack directed against [the] civilian population” (a partial definition by the ICC)?

Even if those responsible were sentenced, we are still left with the economic system that compelled them to seek profits in the first place. So long as the system stays, crises will remain a permanent feature of our world.

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

// Lydia Fu conomic crises are violent things. So when the economy trembled in 2008, violence naturally followed. One form it took, as was said in my last column, was the destruction of an unfathomable amount of private property: American retirement assets were reduced by nearly a quarter during the first year and a half of the crisis, while three million homes were foreclosed in 2009 alone. This is the economy exerting violence on the material value of its own goods.

But when the economy extends its long arms into the hard-earned savings everyday workers, forcing them to skip retirement and keep on working, this is violence on their very life. When a family is made homeless after transferring the deed of their house to the bank, this is also a violent event. But the violence did not end in the immediate shuffling of wealth after 2008. No, this violence merely migrated from the economic sphere and continues to haunt us today.

Following the expropriations of material goods, people do react – and often violently.

When Italian soldiers returned from WWI, they

came home to an economy in death throes. Real wages of the industrial working class had fallen 65 per cent of their pre-war level, while the lira was at a quarter of its pre-war level. Combine this with a population angered over sacrificing so much for so little in the war, and political disorder ensued. The streets of Italy were rampant with political violence, culminating in the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and his fascist cult of violence. The Third Reich also partially owes their success to economic failures, as one can trace the rise of Hitler right to the economic crisis of 1928.

For both of these countries, the people reacted to their economic predicaments by lending support to regimes rooted in violence.

But today, something else is happening. As these expropriations and the overall economic instability left – is continuing to leave – an indelible mark on the world, this violence has been internalized by those most affected.

Earlier this year, the Lancet explored the violent consequences of 2008 in Europe. In an article entitled “Effects of the 2008 Recession on Health”, the British peer-reviewed medical journal demonstrated a connection between the economic crisis and elevated suicide rates.

Before 2007, each of the countries surveyed saw steady declines in suicide rates. After the economic crisis, however, this trend was “reversed at once.” Suicide rates increased by an average of seven per cent in countries that were members of the EU before 2004.

Going further, the Lancet demonstrated a link between the severity of the crisis and the

With Dexter Fergie

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O pinions

Edi tor // Marco Ferreira // o pi ni o ns @ c api l ano c o uri e r. c o m

The New Flitstones Vitamins Lower recommended age for ADHD pharmaceuticals

By Claire Vulliamy // Arts Editor

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

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reschoolers are always learning new skills: how to brush their teeth, dress themselves, look both ways before crossing the street, and … now take their Ritalin? On Oct. 15, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) presented new guidelines at their National Conference and Exhibition in Boston MA. One of these guidelines included expanding the age range of children who may be diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication. Under these new regulations, children as young as four could be taking Ritalin.

According to The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, “the exact cause of ADHD is unknown”; however, as stimulant drugs treat ADHD by increasing the amount of dopamine in the brain, the common presumption is that ADHD is related to low levels of dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is involved with the brain’s reward system; things such as eating food and having sex are often cited as actions that increase the amount of dopamine in the brain. The supposition here is that children with ADHD have difficulty staying on task because they literally take less pleasure in their work.

According to the 2006 book Should You Medicate Your Child’s Mind?, psychiatrist Elizabeth J. Roberts MD argues that one can only diagnose ADHD if the child is unable to follow through even if they want to. That is, she writes, “If he is able to attend to the tasks that are important to him, your child may just be ignoring the things that he does not like or want to do.” Lack of interest, she outlines, is not ADHD. Roberts also explains that ADHD cannot be diagnosed when the symptoms could possibly be caused by any other disorder or factor in the child’s life. Her strict guidelines do not seem to be shared by the medical community at large.

Roberts names a case where a young girl named Ella, whose family moved constantly, was diagnosed with ADHD after receiving an abbreviated survey by another psychiatrist that showed only that Ella had difficulty concentrating. While often distracted in class, Ella was able to play with dolls quietly for hours on end. Roberts suggested a better diagnosis would be anxiety, induced by the constant change of schools.

A 2006 study conducted by a team in conjunction with the New York State Psychiatric Institute demonstrated slowed growth rates for preschoolers taking Ritalin. The study lasted 70 weeks, and showed that the children taking the medication were on average “one-half inch shorter in height and weighed 3 pounds less than expected” using data on the average growth of US children the same age, as reported in Science News. It was also noted that other side effects of Ritalin had more prevalence in this age group than their older counterparts, with one in 10 of the participants dropping out of the study due to the unwanted reactions. There are multiple possible side effects of Ritalin, including seizures, depression, and difficulty sleeping.

There are alternatives to Ritalin. A study in the Netherlands tested the effectiveness of changing the diet of children with ADHD. As reported in the Guardian, the study saw a group of 50 children diagnosed with ADHD given “foods with the least possible risk of allergic reaction – a

combination of rice, meat, vegetables, pears, and water.” Another group of 50 was given no special diet, only instructions given the parents to feed their children healthy meals, and to keep a diary of everything their child ate. The results saw improvement in 78 per cent of first group, as opposed to the second control group, where there was no change.

A study from 2004, conducted by researchers from the University of Illinois found that within a group of 400 children diagnosed with ADHD, those who spent more time playing outside in a natural setting had reduced symptoms, compared to children who played inside or even outside on manmade structures, as reported on Psych Central. The study was based on long-distance surveys and the results saw little variation between children of different socioeconomic status or sex.

The consensus in the medical community is that ADHD is a real issue, but it often becomes a convenient label to stick on any problem child.

Issues of mental health are much more complicated than they seem, and a variety of environmental factors shape our behavior. A child who has difficulty concentrating in school may have difficulties at home, poor nutrition, or difficulty sleeping. Last year, research by a Michigan State University economist, Todd Elder, found that about 20 per cent of ADHD cases are potentially misdiagnosed due to a child’s immaturity in conjunction with their classmates. As reported in Science Daily, “The youngest kindergartners were 60 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than the oldest children in the same grade.”

Psychiatry is a difficult field, as most diagnoses are based on behavioral symptoms alone.

Because there is such potential for misinterpretation of symptoms, there needs to be more of a graduated process of diagnosis as well as serious measures that prevent irresponsibility within the field. There is some consideration for this in place already: the guidelines from the AAP do state that

// Miles Chic ADHD behavior must be present in more than one situation, unlike in the case of Ella. Not only this, but behavioral therapy is meant to be a first resort; medication a last.

However, there is little evidence that psychiatrists and parents readily follow these guidelines. In fact, psychiatrics readily form financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies.

US Dr. Thomas Insel, who wrote a study on the topic, was quoted in the Prince George Citizen as saying that he believes that this results in “bias in prescribing practices”.

It’s not easy to diagnose a psychiatric disorder.

However, in too many cases diagnosis occurs due to the parent’s desire to keep their child running at the same rate on the educational treadmill as the rest of their class, and not out of interest in their child’s current well-being. Some have expressed concerns that our modern, instant, push-button lifestyle has fuelled short attention spans. In this case, nothing is more symbolic of this culture than the instant solution of medication.

C o lu m n s

What’s with the HPV vaccine?

Despite some controversy, Gardasil is still worth consideration

By Kaitlyn Shore // Writer

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uman Papilloma Virus, or HPV, is a sexually transmitted infection that, until recently, was barely spoken of compared to diseases such as HIV and AIDS. However, HPV has been shown to be a cause of several kinds of cancer, such as anal, throat and, most commonly, cervical. A vaccine, called Gardasil, has become readily available in the last five years to combat the spread of infection.

HPV causes around 75 per cent of the 150 cases of cervical cancer in BC per year. Recently, various media outlets, including the BC Cancer Agency and Immunize BC, have all been promoting Gardasil and pushing HPV prevention, specifically for females. Although males are carriers of the disease, the immunization is barely mentioned for male usage. Is the HPV vaccine the ultimate prevention method against cervical cancer? And why aren't these campaigns targeting men as well?

Chances are, if you are a university-aged female, you haven't gotten the HPV vaccine. This vaccine has become readily available in British Columbia, most notably to grade six girls. However, if you are a university student, this vaccine didn't exist when you were in elementary school.

“It's just that it [Gardasil] wasn't available to me when I was younger, and it's not on my list of priorities,” says Capilano University communications student Melissa Nemeth.

“According to ImmunizeBC, 6,000 women in BC develop pre-cancerous changes to their cervix each year – that means biopsies, surgeries, fear, and anxiety. Thousands of those cases could

be prevented, to say nothing of the 150 women in BC who develop full-blown cervical cancer each year, and the 50 who die from it,” says Michelle Reid, LACE Campaign Outreach Coordinator.

“The HPV vaccine is an incredible development in women's health.”

The LACE Campaign is a women's health organization which organizes many events, notably Pap Test Week, in which clinics stay open longer and increase the accessibility of Pap testing for women across the Lower Mainland. The LACE campaign emphasizes Pap testing as a right for females everywhere.

“The benefit of the HPV vaccine is that it can prevent infection with certain types of HPV strains from ever occurring,” adds Lisa Despins, of the BC Cancer Agency. “However, it’s important to remember that even if you’ve had the vaccine, you still need regular Pap [tests] to protect yourself from high-risk strains of HPV not covered by the vaccine.”

Not everyone believes in the safety of Gardasil. One of many anti-immunization websites, TruthAboutGardasil.org, is devoted to bringing down the vaccine. According to the website, the vaccine is causing extreme negative health problems in young girls, such as paralysis and strokes, and goes on to claim Gardasil has caused over 100 deaths. The website contains articles and links which negate the reported safety of the vaccine's usage. According to one of these articles, a young woman named Jessie Ericzon died as “a guinea pig for Gardasil,” as described by the mother, who blames the vaccination for her daughter’s sudden death. So far, the only widely reported side effects of Gardasil are feelings of illness just after getting the vaccinations and a

chance of allergy, especially if you are allergic to yeast. Because the vaccine hasn't been widely used for more than a few years, the long-term negative effects of the HPV vaccine are yet to be seen.

According to an international study conducted by the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, half of all adult men are carriers of the HPV virus. The American Centre for Disease Control (CDC) only concluded to suggest immunization for young men on Oct. 26. The CDC is an advocate for the Gardasil vaccine and has always strongly recommended that girls around age 11 or 12 should receive the vaccine. Immunization of young men will help protect them later in life from developing throat and anal cancer as a result of HPV. Although it was a major oversight by the CDC to not promote Gardasil's use for males

// Jason Jeon when they originally began to advertise it, their recent action shows their faith in the vaccine.

At this point in time, Gardasil is probably the most effective method of preventing cervical cancer. Studies trying to prove its danger have been inconclusive, and it is worth everyone going to their doctor to get the immunization. Does this mean you should stop getting your yearly Pap test? Definitely not, Despins concludes: “Paps are an extremely effective test for preventing cervical cancer as they identify abnormal cells that can be treated before they become cancerous or they find cancer in its early stages where the cure rate is higher than 80 per cent.” So, don’t forget to get your yearly Pap test (or, if you're a guy, yearly check-ups), and you might want to consider getting the Gardasil vaccine, no matter your gender.

It may be an inconvenience, but it could possibly save your life.

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

// Sweet ad by JJ Brewis

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opinions

Gratuity Not Included North American tipping customs, hold the fairness

// Kira Campbell

By Katherine Alpen // Writer

A

lthough you walk away after a restaurant meal, your tip remains, leaving more importance and cultural significance than the few dollars may seem worth.

There are two kinds of tips in restaurants: controlled tips, where the employer controls the flow; and direct tips, which go directly into the pocket of the employee from the wallet of the patron.

More and more, direct tips are being phased out in restaurants. Pooling tips is popular, because it encourages a more team-based work environment and minimizes squabbling between staff members. In larger, less full-service restaurants, the controlled tip system may be less equitable, as the work is more divided and there’s more non-serving staff to divide the profits between.

The bad servers and good servers are rewarded

equally in this system, negating the reason for tipping in the first place.

Christine Brown, a server of one year and hostess of five, says, “I used to feel bad about tipping out my supervisors at the last place I served, but when they help, it’s no problem. I wouldn’t make the tips that I do without help from hosts and all the staff. Definitely the kitchen, they work so hard.”

As a result of a poorly-managed controlled tips system, servers working at a Cranwell Resort in Massachusetts sued their employer for $7 million for withholding tips. Cranwell Resort, who settled the case with staff this October, was guilty of violating state law and not distributing the full customer-required gratuity to the staff. Laws addressing the distribution of gratuity aren't commonplace in North America.

Where patrons are concerned, there is always a divide in the value and purpose of tipping, but in reality, the wage and tip are one in the same.

Brown elaborates: “No one would do this for minimum wage. It saves the restaurant money: no restaurant (in Canada) would want to pay the servers what they really make after tips.”

Tipping does vary by region. However, it’s hard to discern which system really proves a win/win for both staff and patron. “In Australia, you don’t tip,” explains Brown. The servers are paid $20 an hour. It’s a job that they get paid for.”

In Finland, there is no minimum wage, and a tip is not expected; however, the lowest wage paid in restaurants is around $13 (CAD) an hour. In Iceland, the gratuity is included in the bill, leaving the quality of service delivered up to the self-motivation of the server, or the level of intimidation laid on by the boss.

Brown offers her opinion, stating, “I think [tipping] ensures good service; it’s incentive for the server and despite popular opinion, serving is not an easy job. The customers' experience relies entirely on the server.” When asked if she would consider working the same job without tips for a 50 per cent pay increase, she was quite certain.

“No, not at all … because I wouldn’t make as much money as I do now.”

Steve Dublanica, the author of Waiter Rant, a widely popular blog with a focus on serving anecdotes and customer un-appreciation speeches, has made a huge success off of terrible customers. Serving horror stories are not only fun to hear about, but often interacting with the public so closely and so consistently reveals a lot about people, often more than one would wish to know.

A prevalent trend is stereotyping races and visitors from other countries as awful tippers.

“Tipping varies widely. [I think] it’s a tourist’s responsibility to know the practices of the country they are visiting. I’ve had tables that say ‘I’m not from around here, what’s the average tipping percentage?’ I say, thank you, its 15 per cent. Other people aren’t interested at all in norm …there are those people who don’t think it’s their responsibility to pay the wage of the server,” says Brown.

In such a touristy destination as Vancouver, this question comes up a lot with service industry workers. “In Whistler, at one of those ‘pick whatever you want and we’ll fry it for you’ places, on the bottom of the receipt it said something along the lines of ‘The average tip percentage in Canada is 15 per cent’. At first I wondered if they should get away with that, but then it makes sense after working for a while,” explains Brown.

This raises the question of whether it is fair to leave the decided tipping amount up to the guest, given that it is such a temperamental, subjective decision that can have a negative impact on the server and restaurant staff. The weakest link of our system is that the well-being of the staff depends on the good nature of patrons. Amazing service can turn the tables, but not always.

It would be nice to say that everyone is fair and generous with those who serve him or her, but it isn’t consistently the case.

Over all, Canada doesn’t do badly in their tipping customs; however, the system can't ever be fully perfected. A world where tips are divided fairly, where amazing service is ensured and receives fair and generous compensation is the pipe dream of restaurant owners all over the world.

Op-ed: It's worth noting a few studies debunking the belief that a server is tipped for how hard they work. According to a study by the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, although there was a positive correlation between tipping and service quality, the difference was marginal.

The research concluded that “while tips are a reward for service, they are not a good way to motivate servers, measure server performance, or identify dissatisfied customers.”

Further, according to an article in the New York Times, that same researcher Michael Lynn found that “customers are likely to tip more in response to servers touching them lightly and crouching next to the table to make conversation than to how often their water glass is refilled – in other words, customers tip more when they like the server, not when the service is good.”

But isn’t it just a game?

Batman: Arkham City’s troubling gender politics

By Gurpreet Kambo // News Editor

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hile gendered and racial discrimination is an ongoing issue in video games, occasionally one particular game comes along that makes the issue a focal point of discussion. The industry is overwhelmingly dominated by white males, even moreso in the current console generation, due to the decline of the Japanese gaming industry. Expectedly, it also overwhelmingly represents this rather limited perspective. Currently, critical darling Batman: Arkham City has come under fire for its portrayal of women and its problematic sexual politics.

While I have only put a couple of hours into the game, I can see where this criticism comes from.

The game has two primary female characters: Catwoman, a new addition to the game, and Harley Quinn. On a prima facie level, both women are highly sexualized. They are both skinny, with large breasts, and wear revealing attire – Quinn with a school-girl/Lolita outfit, and Catwoman with a skintight black suit. Both women’s outfits reveal hefty cleavage, which the camera doesn’t hesitate to focus on. The prequel, Arkham Asylum, also had a character called Poison Ivy, whose attire was perhaps the most revealing of all: a midriff-baring cardigan, and a tiny, vaguely plant-like bikini bottom (Ivy being a character who can control plants).

Their characterizations are also a dimension in the gendered dynamics of Arkham City. Quinn’s portrayal appears to be one of servitude to the Joker, one of the villains. She displays an almost childlike devotion to him, though he clearly has no such regard for her. The character does not show any particular personal agency other than what the Joker tells her to do. Surprisingly, the Quinn character is a former psychiatrist who fell in love with the Joker when he was an inmate at Arkham Asylum, where she worked.

It appears that the writers of the Arkham games, critically acclaimed that they are, may have given Quinn the short shrift as a character. Her past would indicate a level of personal agency that does not seem to appear in this interpretation of the character – everything that has been shown about Quinn is meant to purposely give the interpretation of her being “ditzy”, from her high-pitched voice to her “aw-shucks b-man” personality. Even Batman describes her as “never very smart,” in reference to one of her plans.

However, in a post on his personal blog, Girl Parts author John M. Cusick notes that Quinn may be one of Batman’s most subversive characters: “Harley was a doctor when she met the Joker, which means her ‘aww-shucks B-Man” shtick is all an act. Harley chooses to disempower herself, becoming a (dangerous) child. Just as, I think, allowing oneself to ‘go crazy’ is at once empowering and disempowering, i.e. seizing control by losing it.” However, this is too deep in the

subtext in Arkham, and the gamer has to work too hard to unpack this apparently problematic portrayal, as there is actually not much indication in the game.

Apart from her ambiguous ethnicity, the Arkham interpretation of the Catwoman character is conventionally “sexy”, a fairly standard Hollywood femme-fatale, right down to her “sexy” voice, manner of speaking, and sexual puns. Unlike Harley Quinn, though, she is clearly her own boss, and uses her sexuality to manipulate situations to her own advantage. A character can be sexual and not be sexualized, as characters that are sexualized are artificially done so to pander to viewers (and only a very specific group of viewers at that).

The issue of the portrayal and characterization of women is often just as much about context as well. Of course, it isn’t bad to have characters who are openly sexual – sexuality is a part of life, and our art and fictional representations should reflect that. It is in the way that the world

// Jason Jeon and characters depicted in the game react to that character that matters. In Arkham, as has been widely reported, Catwoman is referred to as “bitch” by many male characters in nearly every scene she is in (this is the issue which has spurred so much discussion online). It is also suggested by some goons that she is bisexual, as if that is a putdown. The same characters also suggest that Quinn may be a transsexual.

It is easy to see how this kind of abusive and disturbing attitudes towards women may fit within the dark and dangerous world of Gotham City; however, it is also easy to see that the game would not have lost anything without it either. Arkham City is certainly worthy of the price of admission, and I encourage anyone with an interest in the action/adventure genre to play it. The question remains, however, if we vocally criticize questionable content in blockbuster video-games, will the developers heed to our concerns? After all, they already have my $60.

Caboose F eatured F iction

Lifesaving Techniques

By Solveig Mardon // Writer

N

Edi tor // KEvin Murray // c abo o s e . c apc o uri e r@ gmai l . c o m

ick hears the crumple-screech of metal at the same time that the birthday boy dives off the shallow end deck, kicking the red letter-blocked NO DIVING sign. He drops the five feet from the guard chair, wet sandals clopping the deck. Throws his weight against the groan of double doors, white summer sun blanking sight for a moment. The sidewalk should be filled with a crowd, noise, sirens … but there’s only the slap-mark of blood spilling from the motorcyclist’s heaped body. The lump of the man’s leather jacket as Nick reaches his hand to palm the smashed torso. His lifeguard training marionettes him through the hopeless procedure.

Nick wakes up to chlorine, sweats it into his bedsheets; has every summer for the last six years. It reminds him of the electric instinct to run, and the horror of his first corpse. Later that week, the man’s wife and brother show up at the pool. They want to see the stains on the sidewalk, the path his body traced from seat to air to ground, skimming along the pavement, an illusion. They want Nick to show them.

After, instead of meeting friends at the park’s hilltop to drink beer, throw around a frisbee, Nick goes home. He sits at his laptop and squints against the late sun slipping onto the screen, flipping his face back at him in dull reflection. He writes a message to a girl he’d messed around with in spring. Does she want to meet for coffee?

Innuendo, innuendo, joke, day, place, time. He

flips to a separate page and clicks through photos of her posing on a beach, clinking a glass, pretty face painted at a hockey game. He tugs at his cock and falls asleep smelling chlorine in the bend of his elbow.

On Saturday he waits outside the coffee place for the girl. A block from the beach, he’s wearing swim shorts. She’ll have brought her bikini – Nick remembers her own appreciation for her smooth-muscled thighs, tight waist. When they were fucking she used to take off all her clothes and make him sit at the edge of the bed, hands tied, while she glided towards him, turning, presenting her yoga instructor’s body like a gift on a game show. They’ll pretend to talk about their summers; as it gets hotter that small aristocratic nose of hers will bead sweat. He’ll suggest a swim and they’ll jog into the waves. He’ll make her wade towards him, then slide his hand through saltwater towards her hip. He’ll demonstrate lifesaving techniques.

She turns the corner, sunglasses and white cotton. Nick smiles and reaches to chuck her under the chin, she lifts a freckled cheek for him to kiss.

Beautiful, he begins.

I’m goddamn starving, she grins, lifts her sunglasses onto her head. Her hair is longer now, blonde ends brushing shoulders. She nods towards the sushi restaurant across the street, grabs his arm and darts into the oncoming cars, thumping him on the chest. So how’s life?

Nick had asked the south deck lifeguard to cover for him, had stepped the man’s wife and brother away from the edge of the pool where a swim lesson’s noisy splash soaked their shoes. He turned and pushed the double doors. They followed.

Without words, he walked fifteen feet to the sidewalk, along to the corner where the intersection yanked sharp around the bend. He stopped. A faint outline of orange smudge still on the concrete. The morning’s clouds had burned off and Nick felt the back of his neck searing red. He felt all of their necks changing colour as they leaned over, three heads hovering, staring at that spot on the ground.

Guest Comix by Kate Beaton (see pg. 12)

Someone on the street had seen him crouched beside the mess, wrists covered in blood; they had called an ambulance, or maybe he had screamed for them to call one. The man’s chin and nose had been pressed to the sidewalk, torso flat to the sky. The siren’s absurdity as it sailed through the intersection, the paramedics lifting him by the armpits off the body, taking over; blue crisp linens, a neat swarm of professionals.

One guiding him to the side, holding his arm as he recited procedure, what he had done, what he had tried to do. Should he have flipped him over to begin CPR? The angle of the neck … he tried to get into the ambulance but they held his shoulders, closed the doors, wailed away. Hands washed and shaking, Nick had sat in the pool’s office, dialing the hospital. No one would tell him.

The late sun glided over the swim lanes, orange, unsteady. One of the paramedics called back.

The man had been alive in the ambulance, had died before the vehicle glided into emergency, its sirens switched off. Nick had done a good job, had done what he could, had done what he knew.

As Nick finishes telling, the girl stands up. Her skirt is creased, flipped up, inner thigh tanned, dusted with blond hair. He steps towards her, feels himself getting hard, giddy with her closeness. He brings his hand to her waist, she lifts her wrist to cut him off, bumps the table, bottle cracks-clangs on the sidewalk in front of a passing hand-linked family, rocks back and forth.

The kids, wrapped in towels, stop short at the lolling glass.

Jesus Christ, Nick.

She picks up the bottle, nods at the family, the eating ice cream, tourist, low-tide, city family and takes her sunglasses from the table. She wipes her mouth and crosses the street, slowly at first, then jogging until Nick can only see the white swatch of her skirt bobbing up and down, waving, waving.

S e xy B At ma n !

// Kate Beaton

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

// Shannon Elliott

Nick and the girl eat sushi, swallow beer on the makeshift patio outside the tiny Japanese-lettered awning. It’s the hottest day of the summer, and his second large Sapporo is making him feel that he’s in an air balloon, captaining his mind, floating above this scene. He can’t remember why they ever ended it, whatever they called it.

He looks at her and realizes that before today he has probably never seen her with clothes on. He laughs out loud.

No more daytime beers for you. She shakes her hair, tips her own bottle to her lips.

You’ll never believe what happened to me Monday …

He closes his eyes, glides up and over himself … the girl … the tourists eating ice cream on the sidewalk … the low-tide beach … the city … the roads.

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n u g t Sho Reviews!

Caboose

Dreams // Tiare Jung Dear dreams: I think we should go on magical metaphysical adventures. Spelunking the caves of mental potential, I’m sure we could come up with something more thrilling than having awkward sex, falling, being naked in public, or being chased by flamingos wearing crocheted leg warmers. Next time, I propose we meet in an alternate dimension of the subconscious, where we can explore a new avenue in our relationship – a more edgy, creative one, like where I’m a botanical tattoo shaman that tattoos people’s flesh with growing plants that actually perform photosynthesis through the skin, giving them limitless renewable energy that they can use to perform amazing and/or inane feats like parkour, powering hair straighteners, or providing an alternative to fossil fuels and saving the world. I will have the wit and eloquence of Oscar Wilde and be infinitely wealthy with laughter; insert consensual, multi-orgasmic sex somewhere in this formula and BAM! Together we’ll create a new dimension of ultimate sleep-induced escapist fantasy.

Pants

// Kevin Murray Oh pant, why dost thou hide me so? I long to be free, swinging in the breeze, cavorting and frolicking in the morning dew, but no; convention has caught me and its name is pant. That is you; thou art foul and wretched, an abrasion on mine slinky wiggler. Oh, how I long for freedom! Like a wretched serf wandering through the fish market in the stinky morning, replete with the wine stains of last night’s sordid tavern soiree, dazzled by the harsh glare of mine own constriction bulging free from a belt buckle of too-tightness. Oh pant, how many times have you thwarted my aim? How many streams have I wandered, only to bid goodbye to perfectly good boots when the alley’s angle is obtuse? May I never cross you, pant, for you are both gaoler and jail, support and solitary punishment; but I need you, pant, oh yes, for without you, I dost dangle all higgledypiggledy in the wind of mine own woozy wandering, spraying promises willy nilly … promises I dare not keep

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D R O W S S O R C Y P CU

Bro-Fisting // Mike Bastien

Teen Crush // Katherine Alpen

Bro-fisting is a sacred tradition among males, passed down since ancient times. It all started when Poseidon and Zeus defeated a bunch of titans. The two were so stoked they forged this manly ritual to celebrate; thus began the legend of Broseidon. Now it is used as a sign of true bromance, appropriate for whenever your bro does something radical, such as downing a jagerbomb or chainsawing a life-size statue of Tom Brady.

Under broutstanding circumstances, an exploding bro-fist might even be necessary. To determine if you are worthy of hittin’ some of your own bro-skin, ask yourself: would you bro-fist your bro if: There was a deadliest warrior marathon on Spike? If “Don’t Stop Believing” came on the radio? If a cat fight breaks out? If your wingman uses a lame pick-up line? If you acquire two playoff tickets? If you answered “no” to any of these, then un-pop your collar because you are a broser.

Try a “hug”. Hugs are the feminine equivalent of the bro-fist. They are often followed by an exchange of words about one’s feelings, and that’s lame, bro!

If I never hear the phrase “so who do you like?” again in the age of this realized universe, global warming might just stop in sympathy with my incredible joy. See, I was in Girl Guides for ten years, and I remember many a traumatic evening by the fire, with fingers still sticky from marshmallows-over-the-open-fire, when someone would drop the “L” bomb all over our preteen selves, releasing, as always, a tirade of “oh, he’s cute”, and “you would look so adorable together!” into our gooey faces like so many exploding s’mores.

Back in elementary school, couples were like rare animal exhibits; they would be passed by on the playground with all the reverence of clergymen in the Sistine Chapel. If they held hands on the swings together, the news of it would spread like wildfire throughout the school, but by the time it had reached the seventh-graders’ ears, they would have broken up. Do I need to explain what this all has done to my adult dreams? Sob. That’s why I love Maru now. Preferably in a bowtie.

// By Kevin Murray

With Sarah vitet

OC

The Hot Chart Sequined Uggs Like they weren't enough of an eye sore!

Hippies who love bacon Flesh is better when you're high!

BRATZ I miss those girls!

Taxidermy So trendy right now!

Justin Bieber Xmas Just in time for Halloween!

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 8

Steve Jobs biography How do they write so fast!

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* Bring the completed crossword to the story meeting at Noon on Tuesday and win a prize!