Capilano Courier Vol. 45 Issue 18

“Pushing buttons since 1968�

Volume 45

N O R T H V A N C O U V E R / / F e b ruar y 2 0 , 2 0 1 2

with Global Hunger // Art battle // skinny girls // and so much more ...

Issue N o. 18

TABle of contents Vol. Forty-Five | Issue 18

Pushing buttons since 1968

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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.

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CFS + CSU = WTF

Sta f f

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

C al e n d a r

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With obligatory Ryan Gosling cameo editor-in-chief

editor-in-chief

Samantha Thompson

Sarah Vitet

Fe a t u r e s

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Getting the hard facts about abortion in Canada

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Colin Spensley

Victoria Fawkes

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It's Oscar-mania season again!

Columns

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Breaking news: impoverished students get shafted by the Man once again a rt s e d i t o r

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Claire Vulliamy

Marco Ferreira

Gurpreet Kambo

humor

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O pi n i o n s

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Giving you the skinny on anorexia (sorry)

s ta f f p h o t o g r a p h e r

Jason Jeon

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I'm tired

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from the editor //

Shannon Elliott

Out of sight

RAWR!

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IN SPORTS

B LU ES CO R N ER Results from Feb. 17 & 18

By Erik Horn // Sports Writer The women’s basketball team took both their games this weekend, beating the VIU Mariners 70-68 on Friday night, and then taking down the Camosun College Chargers by a score of 68-46.

The men’s basketball had a loss and a win this weekend, after falling 68-84 on Friday against the Mariners, and then beating the Chargers on Saturday by a score of 70-62.

The women’s volleyball team picked up two wins over the weekend against the Douglas College Royals, the first on Friday in three sets (25-17, 25-15, 25-16) and then on Saturday, again in three sets (25-15, 25-18, 25-11).

The men’s volleyball team will have to put this weekend behind them, after losing both of their games against the Royals, the first in three sets on Friday (17-25, 1925, 22-25) and then again on Saturday (17-25, 27-29, 18-25).

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t’s been three months since Brian Mbaruk was last seen on a bus going to Grouse Mountain on his way to go hiking, and nobody has heard from him since. His mother, Mary Jane Mbaruk, was recently interviewed in an article for the Vancouver Sun, and her pain was striking: “There’s a uniqueness to this kind of grief,” she was quoted as saying. “Only those of us who have been through this can understand how it feels.”

I went to school with Brian for 13 years. We went through the French Immersion program together, from Kindergarten all the way to grade 12. Even though our class was small, we weren’t close friends.

I was a girl and he was a boy; the distance between us was established early, and we always managed to be in slightly different friend groups.

Because of this, I have hesitated for three months before writing my editorial about his disappearance.

Even though we weren’t friends outside of school, I still have lots of memories of Brian. In grade six, on the last day of school, we stuck as many pencil crayons as we could into his hair while listening to Green Day’s “Time of Your Life” on repeat. The next year, our 12-person class went on a trip to Quebec, and when we were all in a room together I remember Brian taking off one of his socks and holding it in front of a fan, blasting us all with foot smell as a prank. In grade 11, we went to France on an exchange, and the following summer, we made movies in a film program together.

I remember him having a clever, persistent sense of humour, and he once auditioned for the elementary school talent show by chugging a whole bottle of Pepto-Bismol (refilled with strawberry milk).

Brian was a presence during my entire public school education, and I liked him, but he didn’t cross my mind very often, particularly after we graduated.

When he went missing in November I shared the VPD alert on Facebook, like many other people from my high school. I was concerned, but hopeful that he would find his way home. When an update alert went around again, I began to actually get scared. Brian started popping into my thoughts; the idea of him; the fact that I wish I’d gotten to know him as an adult. I also felt irritated with myself for using his disappearance as an excuse to think about him, selfish, even. Do I even have a right to feel scared? He’s not my son, not even my friend anymore. His disappearance didn’t change my life at all, but I still feel affected.

There are five unsolved missing persons cases that the Vancouver Police Department are appealing the public for information regarding, including Brian’s. The other four are all men under the age of 30, but there are no current links between the files, nor do any of the cases indicate that foul play was involved in their disappearances. Now that I recognize one of their faces, though, the severity has never felt more real.

If Brian ever reads this, I’m already embarrassed by the sentimentality, but I still feel like it’s important. I really can’t imagine how Mary Jane Mbaruk feels, and I am so, so sorry that this has happened to their family. Years of school together has connected me to Brian in a way I’d never realized.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Brian Mbaruk, please contact the Vancouver Police Missing Person’s Unit at 604-717-2530, or your local police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

— Sarah Vitet // editor-in-chief

The Voicebox

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.

“Polling my friends to find out ‘Who is your favourite diva?’ Personally, I gotta go with my girl Mary J. Blige, but Janet was a close second. So I ask you, Voicebox, who is yours?”

Wow, yo. We are in two completely different diva realms. In my 2012 list of “top divas”, Mary J placed #98 and Janet didn’t even chart! Let me tell you some of my favourite selections. #1. Beyoncé. I can’t believe there is a question, but for those of you who need confirmation, I would highly recommend laying in your bed in the dark, turning on “I Miss You”, and counting exactly how many drops of tears exit your now-emotionally-raw eyeballs. She also coined the phrase “Diva is a female version of a hustla.” Not certain I agree, but props nonetheless. #5. David Bowie. The ultimate man diva! Bowie had a lollipop thrown in his eye at a concert and his sassy response was “That was my good eye!”

What a good sport. He also wore a Zoo York hoodie on Ellen once, visually declaring, “Look at all the fucks I give.”

#7. Shakira. Completely underappreciated on so many levels, but I really don’t know how one person can simultaneously combine smart, sexy, and endearing. She does it! I challenge you to contest that. Also, watching the video for “She Wolf” alone is one of the better choices I’ve made in the 21st century. Legs wide open in a cage isn’t necessarily setting women ahead, but she’s not a woman she’s a WOLF, you idiots. #29. Kelly Clarkson. Haters gonna hate. I think it’s sufficient to say Kelly looks like the type of girl who could out-Jagerbomb the best of us, and I’m pretty down with that. She also refuses to update her wardrobe, and there’s something about her commitment to early-2000s era “peasant” fashion choices that has gone so far into embarrassing territory that she’s made it awesome again. #31. Alanis Morissette. When I was 13, “Jagged Little Pill” meant the world to me. It’s still pretty much downright perfect. I saw her in concert the day Obama was elected, and even years removed from her rage stage, she still swung that hair around like nobody’s business. #86. Kim Carnes. I know absolutely nothing about her other than she sang “Bette Davis Eyes”, which is the greatest song of all time. That alone is enough for me to assume she’s awesome.

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

cFS TAKES CREDIT FOR WTF?!

CAMPAIGN

News Briefs

CFS accused of “Overstepping their boundaries”

University Board/Senate Elections Open

// Kailey Willetts

By Matt DiMera and Samantha Thompson // The runner and The capilano courier

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

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rganizers of a Valentine's Day press conference on student debt became frustrated with the actions of another student organization when it was discovered that the Canadian Federation of Students – BC (CFS-BC) issued a press release on Jan. 14 allegedly taking credit for their event.

The CFS press release called attention to the event, but made no specific mention of the actual Where’s The Funding?! (WTF?!) organizers who staged the event.

“I’m not actually sure how many campuses or how many schools participated,” said Zach Crispin, CFS-BC chairperson, when reached by telephone on Feb.14. He also was unclear about which schools were involved.

The WTF?! coalition describes itself as the largest student-organized post-secondary campaign in B.C., representing more than 160,000 students in eight student unions. The members of the coalition include the students associations at the University of Victoria (UVic), the University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU), Capilano University, Langara College, the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), the University of Northern British University (UNBC), and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).

After holding a press conference on the steps of the B.C. Legislature to call on the B.C. Government to commit to a long-term and immediate increase in funding to the postsecondary system, organizers delivered 5,000 individual Valentine’s cards to the Office of Advanced Education. The campaign is advocating for the elimination of interest rates on student loans, the re-establishment of a provincial needs-based grants program, and an increase to core funding for colleges and universities.

Jaraad Marani, director of external relations for the University of Victoria Students’ Society, (UVSS) explains that the WTF?! coalition wanted to change the message of student activism into something more positive: “Instead of shaming the government, we were making light of the fact that there are some issues with [post-secondary education] in B.C.,” he says.

Crispin said students at UVic and Capilano had taken the Valentine’s idea from an old CFS campaign.

“You know, we did Valentine’s Day cards coordinated out of our office last year. We decided not to do it this year, but some of our members took it on and this event occurred,” he says.

Teresa Grant, the WTF?! representative for the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU), expressed surprise and disappointment upon seeing the CFS press release.

"The CFS was not and is not a part of the WTF?! campaign. They were never contacted to be a part of the campaign," says Grant. “Capilano is the only institution participating in WTF?! that is a member school of the CFS, so taking credit, or playing with words like they did was overstepping their boundaries."

“In no way was the CFS involved,” says Marani, calling the press release “interesting.”

According to Crispin, the UVSS is also a member of CFS-BC, but UVSS chairperson Tara Paterson argues otherwise.

“It is the position of the UVSS that we are no longer members of CFS national or CFS-BC,” says Paterson.

The CSU did not participate in the CFS’s Day of Action when thousands of Canadian students rallied together for lower tuition fees on Feb. 1, opting instead to put their efforts into WTF?!’s Feb. 14 campaign.

On Feb. 13, a press release was sent out by previous CSU chairperson David Clarkson to promote the Valentine’s Day campaign. It explained that although their student union continues to

pay membership fees to the CFS, they preferred “a non-adversarial approach to advocacy.”

Grant was critical of the CFS for their past approach to working with government.

“The WTF?! campaign has worked extremely hard to have a valuable and open dialogue that works both ways with our elected officials, and with my experience and knowledge of the CFS, they do not hold that as a priority, and prefer taking a more in-your-face dictating role," she says.

Grant says that she is unable to speak for the other coalition schools, but does not believe that the CFS would be accepted as a campaign partner, citing the organization’s well-documented legal battles. Since 2008, the national CFS or its B.C. component have been involved with seven different lawsuits against B.C. student unions at Kwantlen, SFU, and UVic. “Both the SFU and UVic student societies have seen face time with the CFS in court, and so collaboration on such a campaign would not strengthen us …WTF?! is built on the idea of cooperation and consensus,” she says. “I believe one of the many reasons WTF?! aims to be so cooperative is because of the many negative experiences that some of the participating schools have had with the CFS.” Marani was more open to the idea, but said that the CFS hadn’t expressed any interest in joining their campaign: “I guess we’d have to cross that bridge when we get there,” he says.

Despite the controversy, the organizers believe the event was an unqualified success and were happy to see students excited and engaged about affordable education. Grant also noted that the campaign helped to create and foster stronger relationships with both provincial Liberal and NDP politicians.

According to Marani, this is the first time in his recollection that so many big schools in B.C. have worked together on a single issue, and the campaign organizers hope to continue building on that success.

The nominations for the student positions on the University's Board of Governors and Senate are now open. The BOG and Senate are the highest governing bodies of the University and together make the administrative decisions regarding the direction of the institution. Four student positions are to be filled on the Senate, and two on the BOG. The nomination forms are available on the Capilano University website, and close on Feb 22 at 4pm.

Last year's election ran into some controversy due to some candidates violating the election policy that prohibits campaigning during the voting period. At that time, the Registrar, Karen McCredie, decided to recall the entire election. One person who won a position in the first election was not re-elected in the second one.

By Gurpreet Kambo // News Editor

RIO GRANTED THE RIGHT TO SHOW MOVIES ONCE MORE On Feb. 9 the B.C. Government announced that it would loosen its restrictions surrounding theatres being able to screen movies and hold a liquor license at the same time.

The Rio Theatre, which had previously lost its ability to screen movies after Corrine Lea, the owner, received a liquor license, had been campaigning against the restrictions. Lea, however, says that the changes are not enough, as they will allow the theatre to screen movies at certain times of the day, but not at other times when the Rio theatre is serving liquor, as part of a set schedule. The lack of allowance for day-to-day scheduling means that the Rio will have to screen movies during the day only.

Lea told the Georgia Straight that her current state “is not that much of an improvement financially,” and she has plans to continue to negotiate.

By Claire Vulliamy // Arts Editor

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HUNGRY FOR ACTIVISM UN World Food Program rep discusses global hunger and what you can do

By Liam Park // writer

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n North America, the majority of us are lucky enough to think of “hunger” as “that thing that happens when you forget to eat breakfast.”

However, in this big, beautiful world of ours, not everyone is so lucky.

Douglas Coutts, a representative for the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) visited Capilano University on Jan. 31 to explain the real and present gravity of the world’s food situation.

His lecture focused primarily on the fact that, if we don’t make it our problem now, by 2050, it undoubtedly will become a problem that will have a much more direct effect on everyone’s lives. “[The] population of the world today is 7 billion. Our focus is on the bottom billion of the world, who are the most chronically hungry,” said Coutts. “400 million of [the bottom billion] are children – more than the entire US Population.”

This bottom seventh survives, on average, on less than $1 per day, 75 cents of which goes to food. Of the 25,000 people who die as a result of hunger every day, 18,000 are children.

“People aren’t dying dead from hunger,” Coutts explained. “Usually the deaths come from preventable diseases [such as] a cold … Most of those kids that I mentioned are dying from diarrhea, which of course is not a disease; it’s a symptom.”

A large part of the explanation for this epidemic is an intergenerational downward cycle: undernourished girls as young as 12 years old

giving birth to infants who are consequently undernourished. These babies are disadvantaged from the start, and their situation doesn’t get better after birth.

“It’s a one-time opportunity,” Coutts said. “If you don’t reach these children in the first 1000 days [of life], it’s not that the children are dead and die; their life span might be shorter, but the point is they never develop mentally and physically to their full capabilities.”

While the hunger tragedy grows despite the best efforts of the WFP and other aid organizations, there are victories for the activists as well. One of the major goals of the WFP is to get children in school and keep them there, especially girls.

In some countries where women struggle for social rights, WFP has begun a program Coutts referred to as “dad’s blackmail program” in which girls are rewarded with 1 L of cooking oil to take home to their family for every month they’re in school and keep their grades up. This alone provides enough incentive for many fathers to keep their daughters in school, a measure that will likely pay off substantially for that family’s and country’s future.

The WFP has also successfully implemented feeding programs in schools around the world, providing students with the nutrition they need to sustain learning. In Bangladesh, thanks to the WFP, schools provide students with a snack containing 80 per cent of their nutritional needs for the day at a cost of just 5 cents. Projects like these not only help the growing generation of students,

// Jason Jeon but also build on the infrastructure capacity of the local food processing industry.

One of the most important ways to address the hunger issue in the future, according to Douglas, is to make these global issues a larger part of Western education. When an audience member asked Douglas if he thought there were any countries or organizations making any tangible progress on global food policies, Douglas boiled his answer down to a concise, “No.” In order to address this goal, Douglas has in fact taken a sabbatical leave. He has been developing course material for a Hunger Studies Minor that’s being prepared in multiple universities, with the purpose of getting specialized people into the field.

Many people in North America see the images on TV of people suffering and wonder what they can do to help. For these people, Douglas wrapped up the night with a few suggestions, noting especially that there are people going hungry here in Canada every day. Douglas points to atrisk communities, which are present in many Aboriginal reserves, and suggests that students get their start in helping people by delivering food that’s past the cosmetic/aesthetic expiry date to food banks, taking pride in global stewardship, educating ourselves, and taking initiative.

Douglas ended his talk with a Haitian proverb that states, ‘An empty sack will not stand, so fill yourselves with rice and knowledge while you can, and take a stand.’

CSU News Roundup Things happened at the Student Union, and you paid for them!

By Beni Spieler // Writer

Student election results come in

WTF?!

The Where's The Funding?! (WTF?!) campaign continues to garner attention, both provincially and locally on campus.

“We are calling on the B.C. Government to commit to an immediate increase in funding to the post-secondary system on a long-term basis,” the WTF?! website states. “In order to achieve a more accessible and affordable postsecondary education.”

The campaign’s list of demands include the elimination of interest rates on student loans, the re-establishment of a provincial needs-based grants program, and an increase to core-funding for colleges and universities.

To promote this event on campus, the CSU is

Remedios continues to explain that he wasn’t able to attend a crucial meeting, and Teresa Grant was sent instead: “She ran with it, and things just kind of stuck. We decided later on that we should formalize this, and establish a WTF committee.”

At that meeting, a formal committee was also struck for WTF, which would act independently of the Ed Issues Committee. Grant and Remedios both nominated themselves to be the coordinator, of which the board selected Grant.

When asked about whether she thought this should go through the Educational Issues Committee, she said, “We didn’t find it to be the most effective way to run the campaign so we formed a sub-committee, for the campaign.”

With regards to Remedios' concerns, she said, “Everyone has the right to run for the position they want. … It’s ambitious; you really need to know your stuff. It takes a lot of work, but it really pays off.”

The soup kitchen is going to be held on Mar. 6 in the Lower Cafeteria during the noon hour.

CSU Executive faces controversy Embattled CSU Ed Issues Coordinator Nolan Remedios has also been tied up in other controversy recently. Concerns arose among the executive committee in January when it became evident that he had not submitted minutes for the two meetings that he is required to hold every month.

“I’d held the meetings, but I was told after that I didn’t have a proper minute-keeper,” he explains.

“Richard [Honkanen, CSU staff member] had told me before, for Ed Issues specifically, only he can do the minutes, not a student.”

The Ed Issues committee also has certain stipulations that don’t apply to the other committees: “I have to hold [meetings] before board of governor and senate meetings. If I hold a meeting, I have to have a certain number of board of governor and senate reps present, otherwise it doesn’t count as a meeting, even if students show up.” He continues, “Would you as a student come if all you’d hear about is what happened at the last senate meeting?”

It was also brought up that Remedios was scheduling meetings that other members were unable to attend: “We created a doodle page so that it would be easier to make the schedules.”

On one occasion he did not show up for the meeting he had scheduled. He explained that he had decided to meet with students in the cafeteria, and that the meeting took place in this manner.

He currently has not applied to receive his stipend for the months of November and December, which are the months the meetings allegedly took place. Remedios says he may or may not try to apply for those payments in the future. However, according to CSU bylaws, an executive member may only collect their monthly stipend up to 30 days after the end of the month.

Previously, a similar controversy arose due to another board member, David Clarkson, failing to collect his stipend for a period of 12 months.

He put forward a resolution at the November general meeting to suspend that bylaw so that he could collect his pay; however, the meeting was adjourned before it reached conclusion.

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

The CSU spring elections concluded last Friday, and two previously vacant positions were filled.

Hyerin Choi was elected as the International Students' Liason, and Brooklyn Kemp was elected as the Queer Students' Liason.

Both Choi and Kemp are students in the Global Stewardship program, a program that has dominated the CSU board for many years.

Currently seven out of 16 positions on the CSU board are held by Global Stewardship students.

The election had no requests for recounts, and so the results were officially ratified as of the previous CSU meeting on Feb. 15.

planning on holding a “soup kitchen” lunch event on Mar. 6: “The soup kitchen was done at UVic originally,” explains Teresa Grant, Social Justice Coordinator for the CSU. She continued to explain that reps from others schools would come to join the event at Capilano. The goal with this soup kitchen is to raise awareness of the WTF?! Campaign, to get signatures for the petition supporting the goals of the campaign, and to give something back to the student body.

“We’ve printed out a bunch of declaration cards in order to get signature support for the campaign … [and we] do a lot of outreach,” Grant continues. “Its a one on one kind of event [where you can] talk to people [and] hear their story. It’s about reaching people. We at the CSU love to feed people.”

The event is expected to serve 650 people, and was approved with a budget of $2,150.

However, a spot of controversy arose during the Feb. 8 CSU board meeting in which the Soup Kitchen event was approved by the CSU. Grant, who was elected as the Social Justice Coordinator, has been coordinating the WTF campaign for the CSU since joining, but Nolan Remedios, Educational Issues Representative, felt that this event should have been held under his jurisdiction.

“I feel that my capacity is seriously diminished by the fact that I have been given no control over the two campaigns that we're involved with that directly effect Ed Issues,” said Remedios. “Don’t get me wrong; that being said, Teresa is doing a great job. That kind of actually happened out of circumstance, more than anything else.”

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News

Green Campus Students, faculty create new Capilano environmental coalition

By Brittney Kroiss // writer

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the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

eflecting the growing focus by the administration on sustainability and environmental stewardship on campus in recent years, a new group of students and faculty have come together at Capilano University to promote the cause of a sustainable and environmentallyfriendly campus – and future.

Tiaré Jung is a student in the IDEA program who has taken a keen interest in food and environmental issues during her time on campus.

Last semester, Tiaré began to ask instructors what could be done to grow a campus-wide environmental movement.

According to Jeanne Mikita, one Capilano’s professors that became involved with this initiative, after a Sustainable Education conference last May, a group of instructors came together to brainstorm how they could consciously incorporate the issue of sustainability into their curricula. Jung’s line of questioning served as the catalyst to move forward on a broad campaign, and instructors from the from the Biology, Geography, Outdoor Recreation Management, English, Global Stewardship, and Liberal Studies departments came forward to support the idea.

What resulted from this was “Earthworks”, a film and lecture series focused on environmental and sustainability issues with their ideas for films and guest speakers that Capilano could host on campus. The group hosting Earthworks decided to call itself the “Campus Sustainability Network”,

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a student, staff, and faculty coalition whose goal is to lead a variety of university-wide environmental initiatives.

“There are so many people who want to see more environmental action on this campus, but haven't found the community,” explains Jung.

“I'm trying to make connections between students, different faculties, staff, and administration … EarthWorks could become the new banner for the environmental movement on campus,” she says, emphasizing that it could be a “home” for people who wish for a place for environmental activists on campus.

The Earthworks series has already had several events on campus. On Feb. 7, UBC Sociology professor Jennifer Chun, UBC English professor Chris Lee, and multimedia artist and photographer Gu Xiong were invited by the Liberal Studies Department to discuss their collaborative project entitled “Waterscapes”. The three conversed primarily about the issues surrounding the construction of the Yangtze River’s Three Gorges Dam, which is the largest public waterworks in the world.

The project, which isn’t yet operating at full capacity, has lead to “tremendous human displace and ecological destruction,” officially displacing 1.2 million people. Unofficially, it is believed to be closer to 3 million, and is projected to grow.

At the event, Jennifer Chun explained, “There is a continued displacement of people, not only of whose towns have been submerged, but an estimated 6 million who will be displaced in the future due to erosion, deforestation, and change in water levels.”

There is an entire generation of children being raised by their grandparents, while the parents go away to find work in coastal factories, because their homes and towns have been submerged in water.

Artist Gu Xiong, who grew up nearby in Chongquing, Sichuan, said that in revisiting the region, he noticed the large gap between the rich and the poor that has resulted from the industrialization and urbanization. He has made it part of his mission to use his art to create “images to carry on [the] issues”. While it is impossible to bring the Yangtze and Fraser rivers together, he says that “seeing one river makes you see another river differently”.

The Campus Invasive Plant Pull was another event that took place under the Earthworks banner, on Feb. 16. The hands-on experience started at 9:15am with an orientation and went into the afternoon. The idea for the ivy pull was suggested

by Jo Ann Cook, Capilano’s groundskeeper. A similar event took place six years ago to eradicate the invasive species, and spread quickly.

“We'd like to host a film and lecture series each semester,” says Tiaré Jung. “[We are] talking about having a campus wide food event and a clothing swap where we spread awareness for food sustainability and the life-cycle of clothes. I pitched the idea to our student team to wrap the year up with a final ‘EarthTalk’ – Sustainability Education Day – a showcasing, networking, collaborating event to bring sustainability and environmental issues to the forefront.”

The most exciting part of Earthwork for Jeanne Mikita is that “faculty and students are

coming from all sorts of areas who normally wouldn’t otherwise know what one another are doing.” These events give people from different areas, and are “spilling out with ideas” to come together and collaborate. She hopes that this will lead to something that will continue in upcoming semesters.

To credit students for their extracurricular participation, Mikita created the “Earthworks passport” which students can have stamped for attending an EarthWorks event.

The passports encourage instructors to acknowledge and credit the students who have taken an interest in sustainability, and additionally offers a variety of prizes, including a number of related books and films that students will be eligible to win at the end of the Spring 2012 series.

Other upcoming Earthworks events include The Status of Biodiversity in British Columbia presented by Marian Adair on Feb. 29, in which Adair, an ecologist, will discuss the status and importance of biodiversity in BC; Humanity and Habitat Destruction: What It Means for Pollinators and Food Security, presented by Elizabeth Elle on Mar. 22, where Elle, also an ecologist, will talk about how habitat destruction may have adverse effects on food security.

As well, a screening of the documentary Force of Nature – A David Suzuki Story will be taking place on Apr. 3.

For more information visit the Earthworks information page on Capilano’s website: www2.capilanou.ca/news-events/earthworks.html

// Jason Jeon

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m o n day f e b . 2 0 MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR WHITNEY HOUSTON <3

MY FRIEND STEPHANIE'S BIRTHDAY Stephanie is so awesome! She is beautiful, like Adele, and she's a makeup artist so she's really good at doing makeup (which is really awesome because I don't know how to do makeup at all).

She also shares my inability to not talk in a baby voice when she sees a puppy. Happy birthday, Stephanie!

t u e s day feb. 21 JANN ARDEN You guys, she's a Canadian icon! I remember I once was reading a copy of my mom's Chatelaine and she had an advice column in it! Like, she's not even qualified at all for that, but just for being such an icon they gave her an advice column. It was pretty good, to be honest. So there you have it!

8 PM. The Orpheum Theatre. $76 – $119.50

SINGERS TAKE NOTICE Musica Intima is going to be having auditions! Eep! Only THE BEST vocal ensemble in Vancouver! Auditions will be on Mar. 5 and 10, and if you're interested, send a “performing and education-related CV, one short recording/mp3 or link to a video/audio recording online of your solo singing (recommended), [and a] letter of intent max 150 words” to joanna@musicaintima.org

I HAVE A TUMBLR YOU GUYS Follow me! It's ryangothling.tumblr.com and I post pictures of Ryan Gosling where I photoshopped an inverted cross on his forehead and he says stuff like, “Hey girl, my love for you is like a blacken'd horse skeleton; both majestic and horrifying.” I think it's the best idea I've ever had.

VERONICA FALLS From JJ: I still don't I understand this band's name, but let me tell you that they're good, and would even be good if their band name was "Dolly and the Partons". Actually, that's kind of a cool name. I digress. Veronica Falls makes me think of the rich girl from Archie comics tripping down a flight of stairs. But the music sounds like a weird mix of beach pop with a sinister sneer. Just come! 8 PM. The Media Club. $13.

DID YOU KNOW THAT On Feb. 21, 1878, the first telephone book was issued in New Haven, Conneticut!

NOW YOU KNOW

w e d n e s day feb. 22 SPENCER'S BIRTHDAY PARTY Spring break is the perfect week to celebrate birthday parties. If you want to tag along on Spencer's birthday, we'll be going to the Cambie for pre-drinks, then going to Commodore Bowling Lanes and DRUNK BOWLING, and then going to the Blarneystone for SWEET DANCING. I love birthday parties. 6:30 PM. Cambie/Commdore Bowling Lanes/Blarney. Cost of lane rental/beer.

SCREENING OF THE BODYGUARD In honour of Whitney Houston (queen of pop, she's every woman, Rest in Peace, you were everywhere), Shannon Elliott, the Courier's production manager, will be hosting a screening of The Bodyguard, the classic romance film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, at her house. Tweet at her @shannonthecheet if you're interested. Snacks and kleenex will be served.

8 PM. Shannon's House. Free!

t h u r s day feb. 23 MOVIELAND/SCOTT FORBES/DAVE PROWSE My bff's new band, y'all! Movieland is the best.

Not only is my best friend in it, but they are a four-piece kick-ass all-girl garage-rock band; basically all of my favourite things about bands.

Scott Forbes and Dave Prowse are probably sweet too!

9 PM. Prophouse Cafe (1636 Venable St.).

Probably $5.

friday feb. 24 THE NORTH VAN SOCIAL CLUB Okay, this is the most North Vanniest thing to hit North Van I've ever seen. But! Featuring Mind of a Child, The Coalition, Dubai, and the Ivy League Brawlers, this is sure to be a fun show. Also, if you grew up in North Van, you've probably gone to high school or university with at LEAST one person from these bands. Seriously.

8 PM. The Narrows. Price unlisted? Free?

saturday feb. 25

STEPHANIE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY Okay, so Steph's birthday was on Monday (remember, I put it up there) but she's not celebrating until today. I told you it was birthday week at the calendar! She's gonna go to the Old Spaghetti Factory and then to Vinyl to do some sweet dancing. Seriously, there's gotta be someone out there who just loves going to strangers' birthday parties. 7 PM. Old Spag Fact/Vinyl. Cost of food/drink/cover/present!

VICKI'S BIRTHDAY PARTY Special birthday edition of the calendar! Vicki is Evan's girlfriend. She's really cool! I met her at a couple parties and she was really nice to me, plus, she's from Newfoundland which gives her automatic cool points. Anyway, she's probably going to be hitting up '90s night at Library Square, so come and celebrate birthdays!

Evening. Library Square. $12 cover (free before 8:30).

THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS Okay, the other day I was talking about how I wish that I could just make up dates for people.

On that vein, this is the perfect date for that person in your life who maybe loves basketball!

Maybe they were super sad when the Grizzlies folded and they used to want to join the NBA/ WNBA! You can get nosebleed seats and sort of ironically enjoy it but also just really enjoy it. 7 PM. Rogers Arena. $26.20 – $136.70.

THE DARKNESS I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOVED/JUST LISTEN TO THE RHYTHM OF MY HEART/THERE'S A CHANCE WE CAN MAKE IT NOW/WE'LL BE (murmur) TIL THE SUN GOES DOWN. Did they make any other songs? I dunno!

8 PM. The Commodore Ballroom. $48.75.

BIG BOOK SALE FUNDRAISER Put on by Friends of the Library, at this event you can buy a bunch of books for really cheap! I friggin love book sales like this. I went one year without expecting to buy anything but like, once you're there it's like, “Oh, that book is rad! This author is rad, I've never read that before! It's only 50 cents!” And it's supporting libraries!

Best. 10 AM – 7 PM. Lynn Valley Public Library. $0.50 – $2/book

WOOLWORM/EEK!/HERMETIC/THE COURTNEYS Woah! Stacked! Woolworm is awesome, Eek! Is awesome, Hermetic friggin won Shindig a few years ago and is awesome, and I saw the Courtneys a few weeks ago and they fucking ruled! This is a type of show where you should mosh and drink the cheapest beer you can find and spit on the floor and wear dirty pants and SMILE because it's so fun. 9 PM. Interurban Art Gallery (1 E. Hastings St.). $10.

STUDENT LOAN FIRST RELEASE PARTY Student Loan is a new independent record label, and they are celebrating the release of their first record. Side A of the record is My Friend Wallis – Better Things to Come, and Side B is Watermelon – How I Came. The show features My Friend Wallis, Watermelon, and Koko, and will probably be awesome because the air will be full of the joy of record releases! 9 PM. The Astoria (769 E. Hastings St.). Price unlisted.

VANCOUVER COMEDYFEST CLOSING NIGHT GALA Featuring Bob Odendirk and David Cross! I'm old and boring so I don't know who Bob Odendirk is, but David Cross is sweet. I have only watched a little bit of his stand-up and mostly just love him for Arrested Development, but he is clearly a very funny man. “I blue myself”!!! This should be good, guys.

7 PM. The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. $40 – $60.

PLASTIC ACID ORCHESTRA W/ MARIA IN THE SHOWER Exciting! Maria in the Shower is a “folk cabaret” comprised of “wandering minstrels, entertainers cut from old cloth, storytellers traveling often and gathering tales as they go,” and the Plastic Acid Orchestra promises an “epic contemporary, rock-infused symphonic world.” Mind-boggling descriptions; this could be rad as heck. 7 PM. The Vogue Theatre. $20 advance/$30 at door.

DEEP PURPLE Woah! You guys! This is some seriously classic shit. My dad, I'm pretty sure, used to love Deep Purple. As far as I remember, they're really psychedelic …? Anyway, I feel there are going to be a lot of middle-aged dudes who used to smoke a lot of pot at this show, which would be kind of awesome in and of itself.

7:30 PM. Queen Elizabeth Theatre. $78.50 – $98.50.

BIG BOOK SALE FUNDRAISER HALF PRICE DAY Okay, same event as on Friday (and it's actually happening on Saturday as well, from 10 AM – 4 PM), except today, everything is half price! Yeah, it'll be a little picked over, but if anything, that just cuts out on stressful decision-making. I hate having to leave things behind!

12 – 4 PM. Lynn Valley Main Library (1277 Lynn Valley Rd.). $0.25 – $1/book.

AN EVENING FOR AMY This is such a big day for the Courier! This is Art Director JJ Brewis' pet project and (I'm gonna be singing at it lol). Anyways, you can check out the article in this week's paper to get a more serious idea about what this event is, but basically, it's raising awareness and money for women struggling with addiction and you should check it out! 8 PM. North Shore Credit Union Centre for Performing Arts. $25.

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sunday feb. 26

IJI/HALF CHINESE/COLLAPSING OPPOSITES/ FILARDO Eep! Two amazing shows on the same day?

What's a girl to do? Decisions are the worst. Half Chinese and Collapsing Opposites are two of my favourite bands AND I like them as people. And Iji and Filardo are probably sweet, too! They're from Phoenix, and it's always good to support touring bands.

9 PM. Zoo Zhop (223 Main St.). $5.

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F e at u r e s

➽

ED I TO R S / / Sarah vit et + Samant ha Thompson // s pe c i al fe ature s . c apc o uri e r@ gmai l . c o m

QUICK LEARNERS FORGET FASTER The science behind memory, studying, and remembering it Remembering Memories Past

By Colin Spensley // Columns Editor

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Q

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uickly now, think about last Wednesday. What did you have for breakfast?

Lunch? Can you list the ingredients in that meal? Who was your best friend in kindergarten? What are the capital cities of all the Canadian provinces?

These facts, at one point or another, had some relevance in your life. Now, they have likely faded into blurry memories. Now think back to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001: what were you doing?

What day does your Grandmother’s birthday fall on? Who was your first kiss? Perhaps these memories stir up more vivid images than the questions posed before, but why?

The factors that affect the importance of an event could be what cause a memory to stick, but it could also the number of times that memory is repeated in your consciousness. Scientists have struggled with these questions for over a hundred years, and have seen some fascinating breakthroughs in the last few years.

Brain Basics We rely on memory for nearly everything we do in our lives. From recognizing words in a textbook to remembering when to catch your bus, we simply could not survive effectively without the most basic forms of memory. It’s no surprise that memory is a complex and intricate part of our brain.

To fully grasp memory and the brain, we need to look at how memory is stored. This process begins with the entorhinal cortex, a region of the

For over a century, scientists have theorized over how the brain interrupts memories, stores them, and then brings them up again when needed.

German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus began research in this field in 1885 with his book Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology, which is still used widely today.

During his research, Ebbinghaus found that memory relies heavily on emotion and feeling – even in the most sterile of tests. He found that people attached significance to even simple three letter words like DAX or TYR when remembering them even though these had no previous relation to their lives before the experiments.

Ebbinghaus also pioneered research on learning and forgetting, dubbed “The Forgetting Curve”.

Ebbinghaus states that there are three stages of forgetting information which all depend on the strength of the memory. The first and most rapid stage of forgetting is within the first 20 minutes of learning, followed by one hour, and then four to five days. The rapidity of forgetting information is determined by many factors including the difficulty of the material and the emotional context in which it is presented.

Although we do not consciously control our memories and the speed at which we forget them, Ebbinghaus spoke of the studying method known today as “cramming”.

In his book Ebbinghaus claims, “He who learns quickly also forgets quickly.” This is a crucial tip to any students toying with the idea of all night study sessions the night before a mid-term or final. Optimal study times and different types // Desiree Wallace of auditory or visual studying are easy ways for brain. This cortex resides in the temporal lobe students to make the information stick. Although just behind your ears, and as a gate to memory what Ebbinghaus claimed about memory still serves as a network to all aspects of memory. remains true, students forced to cram might be “What it does is gather information from able to use some techniques that will allow them parts of the cortex and relays it deeper in the to still remember facts learned at the last minute. lobe to an area called the hippocampus,” says Mnemonic Memory Methods and More Tony Phillips, the Science Director for the CIHR Institute for Neuroscience. “The entorhinal cor- Although many psychologists and memory tex and the hippocampus are not just a one scientists will tell you that slow and steady will way street, however. It’s more of a loop in which always win the memory race, there have been information can come in and pass back out to some breakthroughs in the last few years that the cortex.” could help students cram better. Techniques Once a memory has entered through the en- such as optimal study time and mnemonic detorhinal cortex, there are three main stages to vices can help students fill their memory banks making a memory last. “The bits of information with facts and theories related to your next exam; are first encoded which is the first step of cogni- however, these adverse studying strategies won’t tion [and] this happens over a length of time. The help you much in the long run. second process is called consolidation. The inforMnemonic devices are tactics we use quite mation in your brain then has to go through more frequently, often unknowingly, to remember facts changes to be long lasting.” says Phillips. “The or details. Mnemonics are ways to relate large third step is called storage, which is where the amounts of knowledge to simple anagrams or nuinformation is located somewhere in the brain merical sequences. The Roy G. Biv abbreviation waiting to be reactivated.” for the seven colours of the rainbow is a simple The key to long-term memory retention mnemonic, which will hopefully stick within your is often referred to as the three “R’s”: Recall, hippocampus for a long time. Mnemonics are Recognition, and Re-Learning. These three meth- easy to create and incredibly useful once memoods of remembering all work in varying degrees rized. They don’t have to be anagrams or number of complexity and are responsible for even the sequences, either; just ways to associate small most obscure reminiscences. For example, “re- concepts to much larger ideas and information. call” is used to quickly remember the basic inforResearchers at UC San Diego have recently mation we retain. Who we are, what we do, and released a study that states that cramming just how we do it are all types of “recall” memory. doesn’t work when trying to remember informa“By recalling a memory you are actually reac- tion long term. Although in the short term you tivating a little network of activity, that contains may be able to remember the information you the information that constitutes the memory,” need to pass your next test, this information is says Phillips. usually forgotten very quickly – which could be

a problem in the future if you’re studying to become a brain surgeon.

However, if there is no alternative to cramming, the study does mention optimal studying time for cramming. The study claims that if you have a test on a class on Monday and an exam the following week, the best day to study would be Wednesday or Thursday. The day after class is too soon, and any time after Thursday would be too late. This is related to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve and how long it takes to forget information you’re trying to store. The best thing to do is study early and lay off the late-night, caffeine- induced cram sessions.

Making it Stick, With Science!

On Feb. 9, 2012, researchers at UCLA published their findings regarding memory and stimulating parts of the brain to help with memory retention.

“Our preliminary results provide evidence supporting a possible mechanism for enhancing memory, particularly as people age or suffer from early dementia,” says Itzhak Fried, the senior author of the research paper.

Their method of stimulating the entorhinal cortex in the brains of seven subjects who suffer from epilepsy has resulted in optimistic findings: “When we stimulated the nerve fibers in the patients’ entorhinal cortex during learning, they later recognized landmarks and navigated the routes more quickly,” says Fried. “They even learned to take shortcuts, reflecting improved spatial memory.”

The test involved subjects playing a video game in which they drove a taxi, delivering customers to various parts of a city.

Although Fried says it is much too early to begin plans for a memory enhancing “thinking cap”, the concept of memory stimulants has been floating around in scientific communities for a few years now. Phillips claims that neuroscientists are now very close to fully understanding the molecular biology behind what makes a memory and with that will come more scientific breakthroughs.

“This will open up a whole new field of opportunity by which we could physical manipulate that process and either erase an unwanted memory or strengthen a desirable one,” he says.

According to Phillips, these developments would likely take form as memory-enhancing drugs, and have other practical uses as well. The treatment of soldiers with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by helping them to forget a traumatic event or helping people with dementia from losing all facets of their memories are goals that Phillips and his colleges are working towards.

Phillips does warn of the potential risk of these memory-enhancing drugs giving advantages to the privileged who could afford them, saying that they would hopefully only be available to the elder or sick who truly need them.

“We are basically memory machines,” says Phillips. “So, the more we learn about memory, the more we learn about ourselves and human nature.”

Hopefully with these advancements in memory science, we will soon uncover the secrets of learning and cognition. However, until then, students will likely continue their 4am study sessions, trying to force names and dates down the funnel that is the entorhinal cortex, and make it stick in their hippocampus.

f e atu r e s

KEEP CALM AND HAVE A CUPCAKE Has our obsession with cupcakes gone too far?

By Claire McGillivray // writer

“T

hink about it. Banning cupcakes is almost like an assault on the national identity,” says Kathryn Oths, a University of Alabama anthropologist who spends much of her academic time studying food and culture.

Her radical statement was in response to the 2006 banning of cupcakes at George Mason Elementary School in Alexandria, USA. The Washington Post detailed the outrage of many parents, perhaps some not as radical as Oths, but of the same mind in their belief that cupcakes are a vital part of an idyllic childhood. Over the last decade they have become a trendy, everyday indulgence that has been enthusiastically encouraged by the mainstream media.

Cupcakes, then and now Cupcakes have been a treasured European decadence for over a century. Much like penicillin, cupcakes were born out of an experimental accident. A 19th-century American baker ended up making too much cake batter and proceeded to do everything he could to avoid wasting it.

By simply dumping the excess cake batter into little cups and tossing them into the oven along with his cake masterpiece, a beautiful delicacy was created.

Now, cupcakes are included in the celebration of birthdays, Valentine’s Day, elementary school cupcake drives, and even the occasional wedding ceremony. Cupcakes have become so popular that specialty cupcake shops are now popping up in metropolises all across North America. The shops offer a variety of cupcake flavours, but specialize in only one dessert item; an arguably risky business strategy.

Cupcake specialty stores often make bolder choices when it comes to flavour. “Mint Condition” and “Blue Hawaii” are both flavours offered at the Vancouver specialty bakery Cupcakes, run by Heather White and Lori Joyce. White and Joyce actually secured a show about their bakery on the W Network, called The Cupcake Girls. Additionally, several vegan and gluten-free pastry options are popping up in specialty bakeries around Vancouver, like Cassia Cupcakery on Commercial Drive.

Cupcakes in businesses suits

// Illustrations by JJ Brewis ality television. Saturday Night Live recently did a rap segment referencing the Manhattan West Village high-life that most specifically includes stopping for cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery in New York City.

It is difficult to pinpoint the catalyst for this bizarre media frenzy over cupcakes, but as with many trends, celebrity approval might have something to do with it. Since the turn of the century, cupcakes have had a recurring role on the hit television series Sex and the City. Lead characters Carrie and Miranda are often filmed at the famed Magnolia Bakery in New York’s thriving Manhattan neighbourhood.

Ever since their first appearance at Magnolia’s in season three, cupcakes have become a symbol of sophistication, gossip, and sex. The sugary treats have taken on the resemblance of, at the core of things, a forbidden fruit – a sweet indulgence to share with friends.

Cupcakes and charity work

Whether or not Sex and the City can be credited, cupcakes have become a peculiarly ingrained aspect of North American culture over the last decade. Of course, North Americans are not the only culture graced with these frosty treats.

Cupcakes and hot ladies Christianity Today, an international religious Despite the obscurity and the single-product publication based out of the United States, debusiness approach, cupcakes have taken modern tails one couple’s missionary work aiding women media by storm over the last number of years. Re- in Kabul, Afghanistan by passing on their knowlality television, in an arguably desperate attempt edge of baking practices. The article, entitled at inspiration, has fully embraced the global cup- “Helping Afghanistan One Cupcake at a Time”, cake phenomenon. Both the Food Network and written by Evelyn Juan in the fall of 2005, archives the Cooking Channel have several reality shows the experiences of Donna and Aziz (only first featuring cupcakes, including Cupcake Wars, DC names were listed due to issues of safety) during Cupcakes, and Sweet Dreams. work stays at the Women’s Centre in Kabul.

The popularity of cupcakes doesn’t stop at re“My heart was just so broken for the women,

Cupcakes vs. your personal trainer One issue that the media of cupcake-lovers don’t particularly address is the high sugar and fat content found in cupcakes. According to Eating Well magazine, “where good taste meets good health,” the typical bakery cupcake contains approximately 585 calories, 20 grams of fat and 12 grams of saturated fat. Even a store-bought cake mix, done at home, will likely contain around 298 calories, 14 grams of fat and 5 grams of saturated fat.

Surely, the popularity of cupcakes must be adding to a growing North American waistline. To counter these insanely high numbers, Eating Well recommends recipes (such as their own) with fewer calories and fat as well as “an ingredient list you can pronounce and half as much added sugar as the bakery cupcake.”

Their Raspberry-Swirl Cupcakes have 194 likes on Facebook, which is almost as high as the calorie count.

Cupcake motivations As the American women’s liberation movement activist, Gloria Steinem once said, “America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people.”

Her metaphor is quirky, but it hits a very vital point. Why, in a world where the United Nations reports approximately 25,000 people dying everyday from starvation and hungerrelated causes, is there a first-world obsession with something as trivial and insignificant as cupcakes? In a world fraught with war, poverty and famine, is it possible that cupcakes act as a pseudo-escapism for the privileged first-world population? Whether escapism or indulgence, cupcakes are undeniably making people happy.

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Capitalizing on the specific needs of a diverse range of customers, specialty cupcake bakeries can be extremely successful, especially in busy areas like downtown Vancouver. Cupcake businesses are currently so successful that entrepreneurs are creating how-to websites so that even

individuals who know little to nothing about business, but have a passion for cupcakes, can open up their own specialty shops. For example, cupcake-business.com, based out of the United States, offers access to an array of valuable “resources, supplies and inspiration.”

Though many could argue that cupcakes have become a somewhat passé fad, in the world of business and finance, cupcakes are continuing to hold their own as a viable and in-demand product. It’s difficult to predict whether cupcake popularity will remain a trend or fizzle as a fad, but if the last ten years are any indication, the industry will not be going down without a fight.

That being said, a number of desserts are competing to be the next big trend on the horizon.

Katie Sweeney, an avid lover of food and regular blogger on the website YumSugar: To Die For, reports that “food forecasters are predicting that Americans are ready to move on to the next big dessert craze.”

Sweeney mentions some likely dessert trend possibilities such as macaroons, though they are difficult to make, or the recent “cake pops”, as seen in a variety of flavours at Starbucks.

especially the widows,” says Donna in interview with Christianity Today.

Donna and her husband donate their time at the Women’s Centre in order to teach the women homemaking skills that they can use to generate an income. The Afghani women can then go on to work as cooks and housekeepers in some of the wealthier Western homes of Kabul, and eventually pass on their skills to other women by becoming teachers themselves.

One of the most important skills that these women are taught to develop is baking.

Pastries actually generate a prominent source of income for the women while at the Centre, a major charitable organization recently placed a standing order of 500 cupcakes each week. This unique connection is most definitely, if nothing more, further proof that cupcakes represent a shared passion, a societal indulgence, and a global phenomenon.

Cupcakes are also present in charitable organizations in Vancouver. On Feb. 16, the H.A.V.E. Culinary Training Society of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) hosted the 3rd Annual Cupcake Throwdown at the Chapel Arts Centre. The event supported dozens of cupcake artists in a throw-down competition. Event-goers received five taste-testing tickets as well as a ballot for voting on their top picks.

H.A.V.E. is a local DTES society “that provides foodservice job training and work opportunities to individuals in Vancouver who experience barriers to employment.” Focusing on cupcakes was a good way to bring attention to the organization while keeping the bakers focused on current pastry trends.

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F e at u r e s Examining

murder. In the United States, the Christian terrorist anti-abortion group, called Army of God, are responsible for many of the above-mentioned acts, as well as bombings, the assassination of providers, and anthrax threats.

the current state of

Stigma and Distance

abortion in Canada

By Sarah Vitet // editor-in-chief

I

n 1988, Dr. Henry Morgentaler challenged Canada’s abortion regulations in the Supreme Court of Canada, where they were struck down, found to be in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

A year later, another case was brought to the Supreme Court in regards to fetal rights, after a man tried to get an injunction so that his exgirlfriend could not have an abortion (Tremblay v. Daigle). The final ruling declared that a fetus has no legal status in Canada as a person, both in Canadian common law and Quebec civil law.

Since then, Canada has had no laws regulating abortion access; however, there continue to be multiple barriers for Canadian women faced with unwanted pregnancies, from societal perceptions and stigma, to lack of access in rural and remote areas.

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Access Denied

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In Prince Edward Island, the government does not provide any abortions at all on the island.

“P.E.I does send some women to Halifax,” explains Joyce Arthur, Executive Director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. “They will pay for their abortion in Halifax, but it’s an onerous process for women to go through.

Confidentiality is lost because of the paperwork, and they have to get approval from a doctor there, which adds to the delay.”

Women are required to travel off-island at their own expense, and the only other option for women facing an unwanted pregnancy in P.E.I is to travel to the clinic in Fredericton and pay around $800 for the procedure. “So [abortion is] really just an option for women who can afford it,” says Arthur. “Which is discriminatory, because young women, or low-income women, can’t even afford to get off the island.”

The P.E.I government will only fund abortions that happen in a hospital, not a clinic, and the woman must have a referral from two doctors. In 2011, only 49 women from P.E.I received an abortion at the hospital in Halifax, while 73 women went to the clinic in Fredericton and paid for the procedure themselves.

In P.E.I, “there have been reports of women trying self-abortions, and things like that,” says Arthur. Psychologist Colleen MacQuarrie, as reported by the CBC, conducted interviews with women in PEI regarding abortion. She recalls talking to a “14-year-old who found herself pregnant and was desperate to not even tell anyone she was pregnant, and so engaged in two weeks of intense self-harm, ingesting different chemicals, just doing anything she could to bring on a period.”

In 2011 the director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, warned that “there are plenty of girls and women who have tried to self-induce.” He emphasized that the costs of not providing abortions in P.E.I greatly outweigh the costs of providing them.

The Health Minister in P.E.I says that abortions are just one of a number of health services that the Island has chosen not to perform in order to save resources, though Arthur argues that this is a weak excuse: “All hospitals have the

EQUAL ACCESS, EQUAL RIGHTS equipment in place, for miscarriage,” she says, among other standard procedures. “So, it’s all set up and ready to go, they can do abortions.

It’s a bad excuse, except they don’t have a doctor there to do it. The anti-choice movement in P.E.I is strong, and no doctor there is going to do abortions because of the harassment they would get,” says Arthur.

Dr. Desmond Colohan is a pain specialist in P.E.I, and he spoke to the National Post regarding the issue: “The reality is none of the docs here are going to do that because they live this life, and they want to continue to live their life, I presume, and probably would anticipate the kind of political resistance they’ve run up against,” he explained.

There are reportedly eight obstetricians in P.E.I, a profession in which abortion training is part of their instruction; however, the government claims that no doctor has ever applied for privileges to perform abortions on the Island and been refused, which implies that no doctor has ever applied.

“Keeping P.E.I ‘Canada’s Own Life Sanctuary’,” reads an advertisement by the Right to Life Association in P.E.I. The organization is one of many groups who disagree that abortion should be made available on the Island.

“We certainly made it clear to the Minister that we’re really just beginning our campaign,” said association spokeswoman Anne Marie Tomlins, in the same National Post article. “It’ll get as big as it has to get to make things go away.”

With no intention of implicating the Right to Life Association, it is worth mentioning that doctors do have reason to be nervous when deciding whether to become an abortion provider or not: Dr. Garson Romalis, a provider from Vancouver, was shot and seriously wounded in 1994, and then attacked again and stabbed in 2000; the Toronto Morgentaler clinic was fire-bombed in 1992; and two other Canadian doctors were shot between 1995-97.

Globally, abortion providers have been the victims of escalating acts of violence, from harassment, stalking, and kidnapping, to arson and

Prince Edward Island is not the only province limiting abortion access. A 2003 study found that fewer than one in five Canadian hospitals provide abortion services, nationally, and those hospitals are located only in larger communities.

New Brunswick, similarly to PEI, does not fund abortions unless they are performed at a hospital. As there are only two hospitals that can perform abortions in NB, the demand is higher than can be met, so the rest of the abortions are performed at the unfunded Morgentaler clinic in Fredericton. This means women must pay for the procedure themselves.

The preliminary findings of a federally-funded study by Christabelle Sethna and Marion Doull indicated that “nearly 23 per cent of women who have obtained abortions in a freestanding clinic had to pay for it up front; 15 per cent travelled more than 100 kilometres from home.”

Clinics perform roughly 45 per cent of all abortions in Canada.

Manitoba did not fund abortions done at clinics until 2004, when a non-profit clinic successfully sued the provincial government to pay for abortion procedures. Quebec had similar restrictions, but in 2008 ruled that all abortions would be funded, without any limitations. In the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, abortions are accessible only in the capital cities, but the territorial governments do pay travel costs for women from remote areas.

Although access in B.C. is better than in other provinces, the public stigma regarding abortion continues to make the process difficult, and services are still limited to larger communities.

When Mary Scott tried to get an abortion in Penticton, she faced both geographical and societal barriers: “There’s no actual place in Penticton to get one [an abortion], so if you lived in Penticton, Summerland, etc., you had to go out to the one clinic in Kelowna (about an hour from here). They only do abortions on Tuesdays and are incredibly hard to get a hold of,” Scott explains.

Kelowna is well-known for being a community with active anti-abortion groups. As reported in the Globe and Mail, “protesters stage weekly vigils outside the Kelowna General Hospital, [and] a doctor has to be flown in from Vancouver to perform abortions.”

Scott says that due to protesters, the clinic did not have an answering machine, and every time she went past the clinic she was yelled at and called “a murderer.” When she went in for her ultrasound, Scott says that the nurse told her she was “wasting tax payer dollars,” and she was given very little advice or guidance.

“Finding out where services are available is especially difficult for women with no doctor, or an anti-choice doctor,” reads an article on the ARCC website. “When contacting hospitals and/ or doctor’s offices, women sometimes encounter anti-choice ‘gatekeepers’ who restrict information or refer women to pregnancy crisis centres opposed to abortion. The lack of information and the need for confidentiality is acute for women in rural and small communities.”

Globally While Stephen Harper has been popularly quoted as saying, “As long as I’m Prime Minister, we are not reopening the abortion debate,” Conservative backbenchers continue discussing the issue in the media, and in the past

F e atu r e s have brought forward private member’s bills in attempts to give personhood rights to fetuses, or ban coercion to have an abortion.

In April of 2011 the federal government denied funding to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), which had applied for an $18 million grant. Later in the year, the Canadian International Development Agency did grant IPPF with a $6 million grant over three years.

The renewed funding has been criticized by anti-choice advocates such as Conservative MP Brad Trost, who said that IPPF should not receive federal funding “because it supports abortion."

IPPF is an organization that promotes and advocates sexual and reproductive health and freedom internationally, as well as provides information and education, promotes access to services, and campaigns in order to improve legislation and remove barriers to services.

“We focus on increasing access to safe abortion services for all women who require them,” reads an article on the IPPF website, “especially poor and young women who are often forced to resort to unqualified practitioners in unhygienic conditions … Where abortion is permitted we train providers in safe and appropriate procedures, including medical abortion and counselling. Our clinics also care for women suffering from injuries due to unsafe abortion.”

The CIDA funding for IPPF is to go towards services in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan, and Tanzania.

In 2001, the United States Bush administration reinstated a policy which prohibited funding to non-governmental organizations performing or promoting abortion. Once the policy took effect, the rates of induced abortion rose in sub-Saharan Africa, leading researchers to speculate over the connection. A study done at Standford University in 2011 concluded that “reduced financial support for family planning may have led women to substitute abortion for contraception.”

A comprehensive global study of abortion was done in 2007 by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the Guttmacher Institute in New York, as reported by the New York Times.

The study found that abortion rates are similar in countries where abortion is legal versus countries where abortion is illegal; however, in countries where it is illegal, the abortions are more likely to be unsafe. The study indicated that 67,000 women die each year due to complications from unsafe abortions, primarily in countries where abortion is not permitted under the law.

abortion as to whether they are medically necessary or not, because that would require women having to state their reason and then someone having to decide whether their reasons are legitimate or not, and it just won’t work. You can’t have decisions being made around women’s health that are not related to what the woman needs herself.”

Arthur also notes that not funding abortion would be discriminatory, as women who are well-off could easily get an abortion, “but it’s the poor women and the disadvantaged women who are stuck, and that’s unjust,” she says.

The ARCC also emphasizes that defunding abortion or imposing restrictions would be a violation of women’s rights to life, liberty, and security of person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. An article by Arthur from 2011 reads, “Women’s equality rights under the Charter cannot be realized without access to safe, legal, fully funded abortion – otherwise, women would be subordinated to their childbearing role in a way that men are not.” They also point out that the medical costs of childbirth are four times higher than the medical costs of abortion.

“Abortion must be funded because it is not an elective procedure, any more than childbirth is,” Arthur writes. “Pregnancy outcomes are inescapable, meaning that a pregnant woman cannot simply cancel the outcome – once she is pregnant, she must decide to either give birth or have an abortion. To protect her health and rights, both outcomes need to be recognized as medically necessary and fully funded, on an equal basis.” This echoes the sentiment expressed by the Morgentaler Clinic, “Every mother a willing mother.”

cies.” Another poll reported that 27 per cent of Canadians describe themselves as “pro-life”.

However, the ARCC warns that popular opinion polls are not a good way to make decisions regarding women’s health. “Voter opinion on this issue has been shaped by anti-choice misinformation, as well as lingering prejudice about women who have abortions,” they say.

Arthur also explains that 90 per cent of abortions happen by 12 weeks, the other eight per cent happen by 16 weeks, and one to two per cent are done by 20 weeks. Only roughly 0.3 per cent of abortions happen after 20 weeks, and in those cases there are major complications, such as serious fetal abnormalities, or extremely young women who were unaware of their condition.

“Late-term abortions are the ones that are the most desperately needed of all, done for medical reasons, and so it’s ridiculous to criminalize those,” says Arthur. “The idea of criminalizing abortion would just be from the myth of women having a lot of abortions, but that doesn’t happen,” she says.

Coercive forces Hof explains that another goal of the CLC is to ensure “protection for women being coerced into abortion.”

In 2010, Bill C-510 was put forward in order to amend the Criminal Code, and would make it illegal to coerce a woman into having an abortion. It was put forward by Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge and was not supported by Stephen Harper. Threats and illegal acts, such as coercion, were already illegal under the Criminal Code, and the bill did not turn into law; but it did spark

Medically necessary

According to Hof, “Eliminating the child should never be suggested as a solution with total disregard for subsequent effects on the mother and the child.” He believes that “in a civilized society it [abortion] should not be tolerated.”

In a 2010 online Angus Reid poll, 39 per cent of respondents responded positively to the statement, “The health care system should only fund abortions in the event of medical emergen-

// Illustrations by Kira Campbell conversation in regards to various influences over women’s fertility.

A 2010 study by the Guttmacher Institute found that women in abusive relationships were often coerced into childbirth: “Pregnancy promotion involves male partner attempts to impregnate a woman, including verbal threats about getting her pregnant, unprotected forced sex, and contraceptive sabotage,” the study read.

Prevention A 2010 report by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada showed that there has been a 36.9 per cent decline in Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate between 1996 and 2006.

“Teenage women in Canada are not more or less likely to be sexually active than they were ten or 15 years ago,” explains lead author Alexander McKay. “The difference is that we have seen a steady increase in the percentage of sexually active young women who are using contraception.

That comes mainly in increases in condom use, but also increases in birth control.”

In Canada, however, the Medical Services Plan does not universally fund birth control or contraceptives, though there are advocates that say they should.

In the United States, the Obama administration announced that all health insurance plans must cover birth control as preventative care for women, as it is also more cost-effective than dealing with unwanted pregnancies and births.

Many Conservative and Republican leaders have spoken out against the requirements, although they do not officially come into effect until 2013.

Globally, countries with the best access to contraceptives and sex education have the lowest abortion rates. The Netherlands, for example, have one of the lowest abortion rates in the world, and they have fully funded birth control, as do many other European countries with similarly low abortion and teen pregnancy rates.

In regards to the Canadian government funding birth control, Hof does not believe we should add more costs to the health care system. “Birth control and contraception are life style choices.

In no other situation do we facilitate choices by financially supporting them with tax dollars,” says Hof. “We don’t buy people cigarettes if they choose to smoke. We don’t use tax dollars to enable people who choose to do drugs to do so. The suggestion that people’s choice to use birth control should be paid for with tax dollars is wrong on so many levels,” he says.

However, Arthur counters that we give people free health care, regardless of why they need it, including smokers with lung cancer and people with addiction: “Ninety-eight per cent of women have used contraception at some point,” she says. “The main cause of abortion is unattended pregnancy, and the main cause of unattended pregnancy is no use or improper use of contraception. Women still have to pay for that, in most cases, and it’s expensive … Contraception is essential preventive health care for women – and all of society.”

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

John Hof is the president of the Campaign Life Coalition of British Columbia, which he describes as “the political activist arm of the pro-life movement in B.C.” The CLC puts on various campaigns both nationally and in individual provinces, including the 40 Days for Life campaign, the Defund Abortion Rally, and the Pro-Life day of Silent Solidarity. “Planned Parenthood,” says Hof, “should not receive a penny of Federal funding.”

One of the goals that Hof and the CLC are working toward includes “defunding of abortion from the medical services plan.” However, this has been attempted previously, with little success. In 1995, under pressure from the Committee to End Taxpayer-Funded Abortions, the Alberta government attempted to define “medically required” abortions as versus those that are not medically necessary in an effort to fund only those deemed required. The Alberta Medical Association and the College of Physicians and Surgeons were asked to clarify the distinction, but they refused.

“You have to leave it up to the doctor to decide, based on the patient’s best interest,” says Arthur.

“We can’t distinguish between different types of

Seventy-four per cent of respondents reported experiencing this kind of coercion.

The concern over coercion in regards to pregnancy and abortion is evident from both pro-choice as well as anti-choice groups.

Crisis pregnancy centres such as Birthright International advertise that they are “here to help you in making a decision about your pregnancy,” but critics suggest that they are misleading, and exist in order to coerce women out of having abortions.

“I have nothing against anti-choice places if they want to help women … [and] give them resources and support to have their babies,” says Arthur. “The problem with these hotlines and these crisis pregnancy centres is that they are very deceptive. You see, all the advertising [says], and they say, they will help you with all your options … but in fact, that’s not what they get … They engage in all the standard misinformation tactics, and scare them [women] and confuse them with really unprofessional counseling techniques.”

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

THE SHORTER SIDE OF OSCAR Academy's Short Film categories stand up to their bigger halves Running on similar themes, Tuba Atlantic, a Norwegian film, delves into nostalgia via a // Art director 70-year-old man told he has a week to live and he hype surrounding the Oscars is defi- wants to contact his overseas brother to iron out nitely more about pop culture than film- their relationship. making itself. However, the short film America's Time Freak attempts at forging hucategories, which have been a part of Oscar his- mour and science fiction into a tale of time travel tory since 1932, are becoming more prominent. where one man tries to undo all of his "stupid While the nominees generally go unnoticed to little mistakes" with mixed results. the general public, the shorts are finally getting In terms of personal coming-of-age films, it apsome airtime in larger cities. Vancouver's Vancity pears Ireland's Pentecost has done it a bit more Theatre, for instance, will be previewing the short legitimately, through the eyes of an 11-year-old films in the Animation and Live Action catego- boy put in a personal crossroads between his ries on Feb. 20 and 22. own endeavors and becoming an Altar boy.

The Oscars are certainly well-known for their ANIMATION star-studded audience, which sees the same faces on the red carpet year after year. The short In the UK's A Morning Stroll, the computer anifilm categories are more varied, however, and mation used shows a young New Yorker busily offer some recognition to the non-celebrity film- playing on his phone, ignoring a chicken hopping maker circuit. Because these films have much about at the next door apartment's stoop. less time with their audience than feature length America's La Luna, produced by Pixar's John equivalents, their jobs are that much harder in Lasseter, is a slick-looking adventure that has all connecting their story to the viewer, but when the markings of the Disney/Pixar combinations: done successfully, a short film is a great medium thoughtful character animation, sharp landin storytelling. Here is an overview of the three scapes, and childlike innocence, all revolving categories’ nominees for 2012. around a child taken out to sea on his first day of work in his family’s fishing business.

LIVE ACTION Canada's Dimanche/Sunday explores simple The offerings in this category almost seem to themes of repetition and redundancy viewed in outdo the Feature Film category this year in a routine train stop through a town used to its terms of gripping content. The interesting factor frequency, and the mundane reactions which go here is that the films have such a minute amount on to become rhythmic and musical. of time to hook their audience while discussing Another Canadian entry, Wild Life, showcases sincere issues. an English businessman who moves to the FronPerhaps the most exhilarating is Raju, a tier in the early 1900s, where his discomforts in German nominee about a German couple who doing so are shown through a series of letters he adopt, and subsequently lose track of, an adopt- sends home. ed orphan from India.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mister Morris The longest of the live action shorts, Ireland's Lessmore, the category's longest entry at 17 The Shore, runs just 30 minutes and sees a daugh- minutes, seems to be the edgiest in the catter reunite her father and his long-lost best friend egory in its uses of computer, 2D, and stopwho he hasn't seen for 25 years. motion combinations.

By JJ Brewis

T

// Katie So The Academy has certainly carved out a visually interesting blend of films here, mixing up Wild Life’s watercolour-looking scenes with the Pixar standard of computer animation in La Luna. Whereas Pixar films generally seem to scoop up the Full Length Animated Film category at the awards, their shorts never seem to make the Academy's mark – despite nominees almost every year in the past few decades, they haven't seen a win in this category for nearly a decade.

For American nominees, Flying Books seems like the best shot, while the National Film Board of Canada's two entries offer polarizing competition with more understated, classical animation.

DOCUMENTARY

who went from co-starring roles with the likes of Elvis Presley to becoming a nun. The short captures Hart's first-hand tale of the road she chose.

The Iraq War is represented here with Incident in New Baghdad, a 22-minute epic in which the slaying of two journalists is explored.

In the equally horrific Saving Face, a Pakistan/ USA release, the directors unfold a horrifying social issue in which many Pakistani women are attacked with acid, sometimes by their own husbands. The film does add a bit of light to the dark, in which they spotlight a doctor who returns to his home country to help these women.

The Barber of Birmingham is this year's Americana entry, though it does seem to have a huge amount of heart underneath. The film follows a Birmingham, Alabama barber; 85-yearold James Armstrong, whose shop's walls are covered with clippings and signs promoting social justice. Armstrong is known not only for his decades of haircuts, but for his social activism and his past as a foot soldier in the First World War On the note of heartwarming, Japan bounces back from last year's natural disaster in an artistic tribute to their country and its resiliency with The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. This film recounts the event of the tsunami, and the rebuilding of the country afterward.

Each of these nominees is altogether gripping, and each drives home an important part of society and human nature. With a short film capturing the essence of each cause, the Academy has its work cut out for them in terms of picking the winner.

Each of these categories is chock-full of deserving nominees, and it will be interesting to see which films the deciding committee ultimately chooses to reward.

A short documentary has the advantage that their subjects are just as gripping, but they do not need to fill excess time with plodding, unnecessary material, as often seems to be the case in full-length documentary films. The selection in this category is interesting in that it is the most varied: all of the films have very different subject matter.

Vancity Theatre will preview the titles in the God is the Bigger Elvis tells the tale of Animated category at 6:30pm and the Live-action Dolores Hart, a former promising film actress category at 8:30pm on February 20 and 22.

Round One, Fight!

Vancouver’s first Art Battle sees competitors get down and dirty

By Liam Park

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

// writer

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E

ight artists, ten canvases, and 20 minutes each: the Art Battle draws an electric and eclectic crowd of culturally curious onlookers.

The Art Battle, originating in Toronto, is an event that has painters compete against each other by painting in front of a live audience. Feb. 7 was the event’s first time in Vancouver, taking place at the appropriately named Raw Canvas wine bar.

At the event, the audience buzzes with anticipation comparable to the lively atmosphere of an underground cage match. In fact, back in Toronto, some of the battles did take place oneon-one in a cage built especially for the event, hidden in the basement of a local bar called Parts and Labour.

The battle itself is comprised of two rounds of four artists splashing, smearing, and spilling paint over canvases in an animal frenzy while the

excited audience marches around the painters assessing the artistic progress. When the time is up, the brushes, like the gloves of a tired boxer, fall to the side, and the audience members vote for their favourite painting. The winners from each round face off in a heated final round until, after another 20 minutes, the victor of the art battle is determined.

All the art made during the night is put up for auction, and those failing to meet the minimum bid of $50 are ceremoniously burned.

Chris Pemberton, the creator of Toronto’s Art Battles, is shaping a radical new scene in partnership with Steve Merkley and Raw Canvas.

Pemberton has brought the hype for the event from Toronto foster a new local community for the arts.

“It doesn’t have to be realistic, it just has to be awesome,” he says of the art they hoped would be created as a result of the night.

This intentionally vague and subjective condition has brought a diverse pallet of artists into the cage match including Jose Rivas, a 2010 graduate

of Capilano University’s very own IDEA program who carried himself into the final round with an impassioned technicolour portrait with stern lips: “You can’t understand someone just by looking at them; that’s why I use so many colours,” Jose explains.

Jose’s adversary in the final round, and the final champion of Vancouver’s first Art Battle, was Yared Nigussu, with a splash-heavy and sombre portrait of a man with obscured eyes: “Eyes can hide a lot of stories,” Nigussu explains. “That’s an infinite source of inspiration for me.”

Nigussu has made live painting a large part of his career as an artist, and as such was well prepared for the night’s battle.

// Karen Picketts Competition was fierce, and at the end of the night, none of the paintings needed to be burnt, a bittersweet result that will no doubt have pyroenthusiasts coming back for the next battle on March 6.

Raw Canvas is planning on holding monthly Art Battles, and they hope to be sending some of our own local champions to Toronto this summer with money earned from tickets, alcohol, and the auctioned art. How many artists they send depends on the success of the Battles locally, which means that the long line and waitlist at the door could be a good sign for artists looking to make their competitive debut out East.

A r ts

Remembering Amy Artists come together to reflect on a legend

By Victoria Fawkes // writer

J

uly 23, 2011 was a dark day for the music industry. On that day, the world lost the creative influence of R&B, soul, and jazz performer Amy Winehouse forever. Amy’s global impact on the world of music, fashion, and culture is still relevant to this day, and she is best known for bringing a modernized form of jazz music to a generation who would have otherwise never been exposed to it.

Amy’s memory, influence, and creative spirit live on in every fan’s mind, but for those who’d like to enjoy a more physical manifestation, you can always take in An Evening For Amy, a benefit concert happening in Vancouver.

For this event, Avalon Recovery Society and the Capilano University Jazz Studies Program have teamed up to remember Amy Winehouse and raise money for those struggling with addiction, with proceeds from the concert benefiting the organizing groups, as well as the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

Out of Amy Winehouse’s tragic death, there has been some good. Benefit concerts celebrating the life and music of Amy Winehouse have been held around the world since her untimely passing at age 27. Following Amy’s death, her family created the Amy Winehouse Foundation, a charitable organization which offers aid young people in need of support as a result of health problems, disability, financial issues, or addiction. The Winehouses have also been active in encouraging other fans

and supporters to organize fundraising events in her memory.

An Evening For Amy has had incredible support from the community. Part of the event includes live and silent auctions, for which the organizers have received donations of, among other goods and services, a spa experience and a trip to Mexico. They will also be auctioning original art from artists who have donated their pieces.

In addition, all of the vocalists, the stage manager, graphic designers, and makeup artists have generously donated their time, so that almost 100 per cent of the ticket and auction revenue will go towards the three organizations involved: the Avalon Recovery Society, the Amy Winehouse Foundation, and a new bursary for the Capilano University Jazz Studies Program.

Avalon Recovery Society operates the Avalon Women’s Centres in West Vancouver and Kerrisdale, which provide safe environments for women in recovery from addiction. Avalon Recovery Society provides opportunities for women to attend 12-step meetings, gain access to counselors, and more. The Capilano University Jazz Studies Program will be the recipient of a bursary established in honour of Amy Winehouse for music students whose lives have been impacted by addiction.

Catherine Bowers, an organizer of the event, has a personal connection to the show and its beneficiaries: “Avalon is where I myself found sobriety, and rediscovering music is what motivates me to use music as part of my sobriety,” says Bowers.

The importance of the concert goes beyond benefiting the charities: it is also a significant event for the performers: “At least five of the performers are in recovery, three of them openly in recovery. The reason they are participating is part of [their] recovery, which is reaching out to other people and sharing [their] experience with others,” says Bowers.

An Evening For Amy will feature passionate local musicians, from well-known professionals, to promising musical students, who will perform a variety of original songs and jazz standards that were performed by Amy Winehouse during her short life. Urban R&B, jazz, gospel, and soul will all be featured by the artists, who will put their own unique spin

// Shannon Elliott on the music that Amy Winehouse was so passionate about.

Fans of Amy know that her music, always filled with passion and emotion, had a therapeutic quality to it: “Singing always brings me joy, but when I have a chance to help a fellow or future student with my music, it is even more uplifting. I am thrilled to participate in An Evening For Amy and have the opportunity to help heal hearts and souls,” says Shanna Dance, a Capilano University student who is slated to perform at the event.

An Evening For Amy is on Feb. 26 at 7:30 pm at the NSCU Centre for the Performing Arts.

Tickets are $25 and are available online at www.ticketzone.com

Non-household name Ron Sexsmith is still dreaming big

By Josh Kolm // The Lance (University of Windsor)

W

agement sent out an e-mail to [Bob] just to see if there was any interest. They got back to us the same day and said they were really interested.

The dilemma was trying to raise the money to do it, because obviously I don’t have the kind of money Michael Bublé does.”

The making of Long Player, Late Bloomer was the subject of a documentary called Love Shines in 2010. The film covers the writing and recording process of the album, during which Sexsmith spends a lot of time trying to crack the code to breaking out of the niche he has held since the early 1990s.

“I was frustrated with my career because I felt like it didn’t have any momentum,” Sexsmith says of his mindset, as documented in Love Shines. “I think the movie was a little bit over-dramatic; the director was trying to make a movie where I was in a depression. And I was, but not 24 hours a day.

I’m up and down like everyone else.”

Even though it’s a constant motivator, Sexsmith has never had any conflicts of artistic integrity in his pursuit of success, because that has always been exactly the kind of music he’s wanted to create.

“I’m just a fan of pop music,” Sexsmith says.

“Whatever you’re working on, you’re just trying to get what you hear in your head onto the tape, and it sounds like a hit in my head. Sometimes it changes and goes in unexpected ways; you go with it. But I’m not sitting there thinking, ‘It doesn’t sound like a hit, we better put a different guitar solo on there.’”

Now nearly a year old, Long Player has reached a level of success that rivals anything Sexsmith has done thus far; it reached No. 1 in the UK and charted with Billboard in the United States. For the first time, one of his albums debuted in the Canadian Top 10, and was on the shortlist for the Polaris Music Prize last summer.

“It’s not like it did as well as Rihanna, but for my little world, it was great,” Sexsmith says.

He began to notice that the sales of the album had an effect on the tour: “In attendance, it was probably the best tour I ever had. It’s kind of bizarre, because I didn’t expect that to happen at this late stage of my career.”

The success of the album has given Sexsmith a tangible confirmation that his work is resulting in something: “There were points in the past where I felt like a rock star, when you’re able to tour with your band and good things are happening. I got to experience that tail end of the record industry where you record in New York and they fly you to L.A. for mastering, and there’s tour buses and everything. It had been a long time since I’d felt like that.”

“It’s kind of silly, but it really does have an effect on your self-esteem, to feel like things are happening. People are waiting outside a venue, wanting to say ‘Hi.’ All these things sound sort of frivolous, but they’re the things you dream about when you’re a little boy.”

Ron Sexsmith will be in West Vancouver on May 15, at the Kay Meek Centre.

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

INDSOR—Ron Sexsmith has never had any artistic qualms about his desire for success: “I never wanted to be famous; it’s just about wanting your music to be heard.”

The singer-songwriter – who has 25 years of experience, 12 full-length albums, a Juno award, and documented acclaim from Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, and Paul McCartney – has never been a household name like his heroes.

“I’ve always tried to have mainstream success.

I never set out to be a cult artist,” Sexsmith says.

“All my heroes were people who made great albums, and also had hits off them. When I was growing up, someone like Joni Mitchell or Neil Young could actually have a hit on the radio.

That’s a career I always wanted to have, but I realized it’s a whole different world out there today.”

On the closing leg of his tour, Sexsmith is making stops in Windsor, Meaford, and Alliston before finishing the follow-up to last year’s Long Player, Late Bloomer. Wrapping up a tour of the UK, Sexsmith is making a point to do a “thorough job” of Canada, and hit places he missed the first time.

“A lot of people are coming out to see the show because it’s the thing going on,” Sexsmith says about playing in smaller cities. “Bigger cities, all the people that are interested in my music will come to the show and know my records.

With the smaller town, you’re pulling in people that say, ‘Oh, I heard that Ron Sexsmith guy is good.’”

Even though it was never his intention to be the under-appreciated elder statesman of Canadian folk, it’s a role that he is able to live with: “I’ve always had a cult following, and I’ve been fine with that. Retriever [released in 2004] was one of the first albums that did pretty well [in Canada].

Sometimes, I’ll make a record that has higher profile than others, but I can usually fill a room with people that are really into my music, even though it’s not something the average person will have heard about.”

That sentiment seems to be Sexsmith’s career in a sound byte. He’s an artist who has never seen album sales that match his numerous critical accolades or ability to draw a crowd. The stagnating level of his success after so long in the game put Sexsmith into a slump.

“With the last bunch of records that I made before Long Player, I felt like my career was slipping away, and I was trying to stand up for myself.”

Long Player, Late Bloomer was produced by Bob Rock, who has worked with artists like Metallica, Mötley Crüe, and The Cult. Despite the possible genre mismatch, Sexsmith was eager to try something to get out of his slump.

“It was actually Michael Bublé who told me I should work with Bob, because Bob had produced his record. That was news to me because I thought Bob only did hard rock music,” Sexsmith explains. “It seemed like a crazy idea, so my man-

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DIVIDED WE STAND

Debt in someone else’s pants

I

// Columnist

Why should you suffer? Are you an amoral person? Likely not.

You could continue on and live on a pittance but there is another option: bankruptcy.

“Bankruptcy is a legal process that is available to anyone who is hopelessly burdened with debt,” according to B.C. Bankruptcy.

The point of this process is to give anyone the chance to start with a clean slate financially. The criteria for eligibility is fairly simple: you must owe at least $1,000, be unable to repay debts, your debts cannot exceed the value of your assets, and you cannot be currently bankrupt – sounds like most students.

The following assets can be kept by the individual: equity in a home of $12,000, work tools $10,000, housing furniture and effects $4,000, a vehicle that doesn’t exceed $5,000, and no limit for the amount of clothing you own! Most students who are in debt wouldn’t have anything more than that to be taken away from them, anyways.

The fear of having garnished wages disappears when you realize that your wages will most likely be too low to be taken away in the first place, considering the economic environment. Bankruptcy allows for everything you really need to survive.

Garnished wages would be an issue if you made more than a living wage, which is set at $18.81 for Metro Vancouver (interestingly enough, very far from the $10.25 expected in May for minimum wage). A living wage is an estimate of how much it costs to cover the basic requirements of living. Even then, the amount being garnished would be after your living expenses are paid for.

Since 2008, student loans are erased when bankruptcy is declared seven years after you cease being a student, which is considerably less time than the average of 14.5 years of debt repaying in the first place. The period of seven years is an increase from the two year minimum in 1996.

Take note that two years after 1996, the amount of student loan defaults had increased from 20 million to 60 million. This stat is to exemplify that bankruptcy isn’t something new that students haven’t used before. Of course, the // Miles Chic requirements include acting in “good faith” in student unemployment rates reached 20.9 per would fluctuate with the prime. The benefit of regards to loan spending and suffering in financent. According to a University of Toronto sur- paying a larger monthly amount means a shorter cial hardship, which means you can’t cop out of vey of recent graduates, as reported in the Uniter, pay period and less interest, which is hard to pull your loan if you’re doing fine financially. If you only 40 per cent were actually employed in their off for some folks. were living in a poor situation, the advantage to field of study. Students who graduate with a deThe average time it takes to pay off loans is 14 this option would be cutting the time in half for gree are not only on the job search for a career in and a half years, but can be extended to 19 and a a clean slate. their field, but out of necessity they are compet- half years with B.C student loans. Depending on Factor in all the challenges of scraping by ing within other job markets, which include the the situation, loans may last longer. with a full course-load, and the need for shelter, minimum wage market.

Then, consider the financial drawbacks. The food, and other expenses, your ability to get the Whether you’ve found a job or not after the total cost of a $25,000 loan with a variable in- most out of your education is challenged. This six months is up, the next step in the procedure terest of 2.5 per cent, and adding the six month can sometimes result in dropping out or getting begins, which includes a so-called agreement grace period of interest of $625 to the total loan, kicked out for bad grades. In 2007, Stats Canada with the government called “consolidation”. A the total interest payable would be $8,888. This revealed that one in seven students drop out of consolidation agreement would be sent out would be if monthly payments were $230 for post-secondary education institutions. Without a in the mail outlining how long it will take for a total of 14.5 years. Total cost for a $25,000 degree, you have debt, but no credentials to get you to pay off your loan, the type of interest education: $34,513. your high-paying job. rate to be used and if the grace period interIt could be worse: let’s consider if things don’t For most students taking out a loan for a est will be paid off immediately or added to work out with the repayment process. If funds post-secondary education will most likely bethe loan. are lacking in your bank account from unem- come a financial burden. With the high level of An option of fixed interest rate of five per cent ployment or low-wage with high costs of liv- unemployment, unsuccessful graduations, and and variable interest rate of 2.5 per cent may be ing, you simply can’t repay. From not honour- lifetime debt, the fruits don’t seem so appetizing, available depending on the agency. The former ing payments, you are charged non-sufficient even with the option of bankruptcy. Consider interest rate would be set at a higher amount, funds from both the bank and the loan services. your options before getting involved in high risk but would stay consistent throughout the loan. Compound this over a period of time and the investment and, if need be, contact your local The latter would start at a lower interest rate, but result is detrimental. bankruptcy trustee.

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f you can afford to pay with money that isn’t yours for your education, then go ahead, but if you can’t, then consider the scenario: postsecondary education is unaffordable, hence the need to take out a student loan. These loans, however, may be the death of you.

While studying in British Columbia, there are two government agencies, which may lend you money: the British Columbia Student Loan Service Bureau, and the National Student Loan Service Centre.

According to the National Student Loan Service Centre, this is how they operate: After the study period has terminated, the grace period starts. Within the grace period, which is six months after the termination of studying, payments are not required, but interest does start.

Using the example of a $25,000 loan, the interest accrued during that time would amount to $625.

The six months of this so-called grace period is there to allow you to find a job.

However, the assumption that you will be able to pay off your student loan debt after you graduate from post-secondary with your career job is a myth. In 2009, it was widely reported that

With Harrison Pratt

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Columns Not what not to wear

Sporty spice

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love sports! I mean, how about them Lions?

Oh, football is over? What about the ‘nucks?

They’re doing all right, right? Should I even be calling them that? I hope they make it to the Super Bowl again this year. I mean, Stanley Cup, or whatever. Uh … what ever happened with the Grizzlies, anyway?

So, it’s obvious that I don’t care about sports in any way. I mean, I have no problem with you liking them; I’m probably just bitter because I was never good at them. My legs are as short and scrawny as a couple of popsicle sticks, and children regularly outrun me on my jogging circuit. I have the muscle mass of a ten-year-old, and about the same height.

Luckily, I can recognize defeat when I see it coming and I devote myself to the pursuit of activities in which I naturally excel, such as Maximum Art, Championship PBR-Pounding, World Series Thrift-Store-Shopping, and Extreme BarLounging.

Unfortunately, I have one weakness that doesn’t fit into my sports-fail lifestyle, and it’s kind of embarassing, so don’t judge me. Here it is: I’m totally into jocks! I know, right? But I love them!

Girls and boys. Girl jocks are totally fun because they’re strangely impressed by your artistic “alternative” lifestyle. They give you workout pointers and they love it when you give them makeovers.

They also have the hookup on the boy jocks.

With Cheetah Powers // Columnist

These are obviously the sort of men you want to have in your life because they are ripped Adonises and you never have to worry about not having enough vintage vinyl in your collection to impress them. Everyone wins!

I know, these are the people we all hated in high school. But now that we’re all old and uncool together in university, it’s fun to hang out with people from different social circles. So, in order to attract yourself a new posse of gym buddies, I suggest that you invest in some cool vintage sportswear.

Jock people love this shit and they will always compliment you on your swagga, which gives you an opportunity to get in there and dazzle them with your brain, which is what I hope you spent your youth working on instead. However, I offer this Pro Tip: be sure that you’re at least minimally informed on any teams that you’re reppin’.

There’s nothing worse than getting called out for being a poseur.

Ideally you want to look like you stepped out of a track-and-field-themed rap video from the '90s. This look will improve the coolness level on anyone by at least 300 per cent. I mean, look at Drake. He’s probably one of the worst rappers in the game, and you never ever see him without a shirt on, because he has the doughy body of a lifelong tortured artist. But, he dresses like a star quarterback and everyone just flings themselves

on him! But I’m not judging … I mean, I don’t hate the player; I hate the game.

Cheetah Powers is a long-time hoarder and lover of fabulous clothes. She believes that a truly stylin' outfit should always be affordable, universal, and easy to pee in.

Student foodie

Don’t be a potluck party pooper

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or so. Luckily, if you are getting ready for a party, you can it stiffens, but since it is a dessert item I usupop it in the oven while you are doing that, and then let ally find I can pop it in the fridge the second it cool as you make your way to the soiree!

I get to the party, and it is ready a little later on; around desert time.

Ingredients: Approx. 350g wheel of brie (does not have to be exact) Ingredients: 400g package of puff pastry 2 300g packages of soft tofu (must be soft!)

3/4 cups chopped pecans or almonds 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 3 Tbsp honey 1. Before starting, preheat oven to 400 F. 2 tsp vanilla extract 2. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

1 premade graham cracker crust 3. Lightly toast your almonds or pecans over the stove. To do this, all you do is simply place your nuts in a pan and 1. Use a thick-bottomed pot and melt chocolate on turn your stove to medium heat. The key is to watch your the stove at a low heat. You can use a double boiler, if nuts; don’t leave them unattended. They will quickly and you prefer. Stir often to make sure the chocolate does easily burn, so toss frequently! They are done once they not burn. are browned. If you are not sure, let one cool and try one. 2. Have your blender ready beforehand with the tofu, va4. Roll out the puff pastry into a size that will completely nilla, and sugar in it. Once the chocolate is melted, pour wrap around whatever size of Brie you have. it into the blender; blend until smooth. Test your mixture; 5. Place the nuts in the centre of the pastry (exactly if you can taste the tofu, you need a bit more chocolate! where your brie will sit). You can also get creative and 3. Pour the smooth chocolaty mixture onto the preuse dried cranberries, or cranberry sauce. A sprinkle of made crust. These crusts can be found at all big grobrown sugar and thinly sliced apple is also delicious. cery stores; you can make your own, but I’m usually in Or for a more savory twist, try adding sautéed onions a hurry so I do not. and mushrooms!

4. Let it cool in the fridge for minimum of one hour or 6. Place brie down on nuts and fold the pastry around until firm. You can pop it in the freezer for the first ten it. Pinch the dough together. Place the pinched side minutes or so to speed up the process, but don’t forget down on the cookie sheet. The pecans will now be on about it! the top of the Brie. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until 5. Serve in small pieces; it can be quite rich. golden brown. hummus 7. Let cool for about an hour. You can cut it sooner but beware: it will ooze everywhere. Not necessarily bad!

Pros: Easy, and requires no cooking time! Everyone loves Puff Pastry Brie with Roasted Pecans hummus!

Chocolate Tofu Pie Pros: Salivation City! This recipe takes delicious one Cons: Not terribly exciting, but you can garnish it with an step further. Impressive presentation, slightly unusual, Pros: Extraordinarily good, full of protein and so easy to olive and paprika to make it look professional! versatile, and effortless; everyone will hail you. make! Shocking ingredients make for a fun time. You Ingredients: Cons: Can get pricey depending how many you are feed- can be sneaky and not tell your friends it has tofu in it 1 (540mL) can of chick peas ing, and time can be an issue. It’s simple to make, but it until the end!

2 Tbsp lemon juice must cook for 20 to 30 minutes, and then cool for an hour Cons: Requires refrigeration time after making it so that

he moment you agree to attend a potluck – the very second you RSVP – you are entering a social contract. It goes something like this: “I hereby agree that I, said potluckattender, will attend your potluck. In doing so, I will bring a portion of food that will be enough for everyone to eat. In return, I will eat all the food that my friends have brought. It will be delicious.

It will be fun. It will be great.”

Those are the binding terms of the potluck.

Some people arrive with crappy store bought cookies; those people are jerks, those people are an insult to the world of potluck. An attempt, or at least some veggies and dip, is better than nothing, and much better than store bought cookies.

A good rule of thumb to live by in these situations is bring what you would want to eat and cook to impress, or at least do your best! Your effort will always be appreciated.

With that being said, some days you just don’t have the time. You spent all day tossing around in bed and watching TV, or maybe you were huffing it at work for the past eight hours. I’ve been there, and I understand. However, throughout my potluck years, I have found some standout recipes that are extremely convenient and never fail to impress. They are fast, simple, and above all, super scrumptious. Each one has its pros and cons, but whatever the situation may be, one of them usually does the trick.

With Leanne Kriz // Columnist

2 Tbsp tahini (or peanut butter) 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup of liquid from chick pea can 3 cloves crushed 1/4 tsp ground cumin 1/4 tsp salt 1. Drain the liquid from your chick peas and save it in a bowl.

2. Pour chick peas and all other ingredients in a food processor. Tahini (a paste made of ground sesame seeds) and peanut butter are interchangeable; I prefer tahini, but you may not have this ingredient, so peanut butter will do the trick!

3. Blend until desired smoothness is attained. I prefer mine a little more grainy, personally.

4. Garnish with an olive and a sprinkle of paprika and serve with pita bread. Warm the pita for extra yumminess!

A potluck is a beautiful thing. It is a time to share some of your favourite and most appetizing recipes with all of your beloved friends. It doesn’t take much to whip up something delicious; you just need the right recipe or idea. Whether you blow some taste buds with melted Brie, be the talk of the party with a tasty tofu pie, or keep it classic with hummus, one thing is for sure: you will be on your way to being the potluck party hero.

Chow chow thrifty friends!

Leanne comes from a long line of food lovers, and has been cooking since she was eight years old. She has spent many years creating the perfect chocolate chocolate chip cookie. In spite of all of her food experimentation, to this day her favourite meal is still a delicious bowl of popcorn.

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

“WHY DON'T YOU JUST EAT A SANDWICH?” Many anti-anorexia messages just punish the sufferer

By Claire Vulliamy // arts editor

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've seen plenty of stomach-turning things on the Internet that have haunted me, like a .gif of a woman fucking a horse, a picture of anal prolapse, various Google image searches of skin ailments, and a video of a man killing himself at a televised press conference.

But I've never seen anything like this pro-ana porn,” writes Jezebel-contributer Tracie Egan Morrissey, on viewing anorexic porn website Skinnyfans.com.

The website Skinnyfans circulated around the media when the story of one of its models, Romanian Iona Spagenberg, was reported on by the Daily Mail. The 30-year-old model, who is 5’6”, has a waist measurement of just 20 inches.

The story was picked up by the website Jezebel of the Gawker network, which generally provides a feminist spin on pop-culture news. Morrissey's comment to Spagenberg and the Skinnyfans website, that the content was disturbing due to the fetishization of “the physical manifestations of an illness,” are fair, as the women are seriously underweight, and their condition is being exploited.

However, the tone of disgust is also directed towards the women themselves. Morrissey closes with, “I didn't need to see this shit on a Monday.”

These negative messages are not directed appropriately, they do not solve anything, and they even have potential to make conditions worse.

In a 2008 UK study, psychologists measured the level of “shame” in women with eating disorders. Defining shame in a psychological study is a challenge; however, the researchers introduced the term with references to other psychological texts and determined that it is a feeling “associated with a fear and anticipation of eliciting disgust in others.” They found that even compared to other patients with anxiety or depression, the levels of shame in women with anorexia and bulimia were markedly higher.

This may begin in childhood, but these feelings of inadequacy are reinforced by multiple sources. Girls with anorexia, bulimia, or who display any of the other symptoms of an eating disorder are often portrayed as shallow and stupid; their weight is often seen as more of a fashion statement than an illness.

Pink’s video “Stupid Girls” aims to parody shallow female celebrities and promote girl power, with Pink singing, “What happened to the dreams of a girl president?” In the middle of the video, there is a sketch where Pink, playing the part of an aforementioned “stupid girl”, trots into a washroom, saying, “ Oh my god, you guys, I totally had more than 300 calories. That was so not sexy.”

When her companion pukes in the sink after gag-

// JJ Brewis ging herself with a toothbrush, Pink’s response is, “Good one, can I borrow that?” and she proceeds to do the same. In this situation, “bulimic” and “airhead” are seen as synonymous.

Part of this is a lack of understanding about eating disorders. The symptoms of bulimia or anorexia are often the focus of much more attention than the root of the illness. Much of the media reaction to anorexia discusses the shock value of the sufferers' bodies more than anything else.

In harnessing that shock value, the late Isabelle Caro, a severely anorexic model, teamed up with

fashion brand Nolita and posed naked on Italian billboards to raise awareness of the illness during Milan’s fashion week. The billboards read “No Anorexia, No-l-ita.”

In an interview with CBS news, Caro, who weighed 66 pounds at the time, explained that she does not have any delusions about her body.

“No young girl wants to look like a skeleton. It’s horrible. It’s ugliness. You can’t believe anyone would want to look like that,” she said.

Caro credits her eating disorder to a terrible childhood, saying that she starved herself as an act of protest. Indeed, eating disorders are often related to a sense of self-control in the sufferer’s mind.

Just as those suffering from addiction, such as Britney Spears or the late Amy Winehouse, become portrayed as laughable and out of control, sufferers of eating disorders are blamed for their behavior and often portrayed as vain and dumb.

The real issue, however, is that the causes of disordered eating are not fully understood, and therefore, often not taken seriously. They are more often looked at as behaviours that the individual can control, rather than a legitimate disease. Because of this societal perception, there is a pronounced focus on the bodies of the sufferers, rather than their humanity. And this is at play whether one is aroused by pornographic images of anorexic women, or disgusted by them.

TV is pretty good, guys Haters gonna hate

By Jonty Davies // web editor

"They put an off button on the TV for a reason. Turn it off … I really don't watch much TV." —President George W. Bush, C-SPAN interview, January 2005

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grow with them – learning from their mistakes, mourning their misfortunes, and sharing in their triumphs.

To illustrate, consider the greatest show ever made: The Simpsons. From 1989 to 1999, Matt Groening's satirical sitcom changed the game for what a cartoon could be. It was hilarious, sentimental, and intelligent. The Simpson clan became a surrogate family for all of us; a reflection of our universal pathos.

Back before television, Charles Dickens would entertain the masses by releasing long-form stories in segmented publications. That format eventually found its way onto the emerging format of radio and in turn to television.

Think of the cultural phenomenon of Seinfeld; the visceral drama of Oz; the real-time mafia antics of The Sopranos; the brilliant silliness of Monty Python; and the charming insanity of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These are all legitimate contributions to the global artistic canon and they could only exist in one

// Britta Bachus form. (Have you seen The Simpsons Movie or worse, Buffy?)

Yet still you hear people say that there's nothing good on TV. You hear it all the time, vindicated by gawking and obvious references. Of course bad art is produced: every medium and genre is saturated with dreadful contributions. In fact, for every work that pushes forward the very foundations of quality, there are countless others actively trying to destroy progress.

Take, for example, the modern world of reality TV. Millions watch the cast members of Jersey Shore publicly humiliate themselves, justifying it with unfounded voyeurism and self-importance.

Feeling better about yourself by reeling in the flaws of others is no way to enhance your own personal value. It's a quick fix solution, like eating a candy bar when you're hungry – fast, easy and detrimental overall.

However, using reality TV to prove that TV as a medium is bad carries the same gravitas as saying, “There's no such thing as good music. Just look

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

ow often do you hear someone say that they don't watch television? You hear it all the time, peppered with varying faux-intellectual reasoning. It's one of the many ubiquitous things that people are condescendingly proud of.

Honestly, I don't buy it. Except, of course, with this one French chick in Barcelona – she was so cool that she didn't watch TV, didn't drink, didn't listen to music and, dead serious, didn't have sex (a lifestyle choice was not for lack of attractiveness). All she did was chain-smoke Gauloise cigarettes and look forlornly out the window, muttering nihilistic profundities. She was awesome.

So, if you're not a chaste French existentialist, get over yourself.

TV, like film, music, and paintings of the High Renaissance, is simply a medium of artistic expression. It's a unique one, too, in that it takes place in a long-form style. Any good story will be replete with good characters, and TV's drawn-out format allows for a more comprehensive acquaintance with those characters. A good movie is very capable of drawing clear character portraits, but 90 minutes is little time to welcome a new figure into your life and

at that shitty Nickelback song!” or, “Nobody has ever made a good film. Battlefield Earth exists!”

One of the true gripes with television comes down to advertising. Apart from constantly interrupting your favorite show, advertising shapes what you get to watch. Television is a huge revenue circuit, and its revenue is built on advertising.

With global revenue to the tune of $377.5 billion, one could see that advertisers have considerable investment in what you see on TV. Thus, they have great sway with programmers.

Advertisers naturally advertise with programming that plays to their market share (i.e., Polly Pocket ads showing up during the Rugrats commercial break) but with so much financial claim, advertising and advertisers begin to control the programming itself. Financial sway allows for parties of interest to dictate programming that will encourage viewership and marketable direction. Even more, those creating shows are inclined to build around the commercial breaks, rather than vice-versa.

In recent years, however, new outlets have provided opportunity to by-pass such realities. Countless internet sites offer entire series free of traditional advertising breaks, and even more reliably, Netflix has got your back big time.

Before dismissing the entire medium of television as a plague destined to ruin thoughtful civilization, look at its positive offerings and learn to be wary of its negative ones. You might just tune into something great. If you dedicate yourself to a fulfilling enterprise, the time you wasted is not wasted time.

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Tough Love Canadian spanking laws are archaic

By Victoria Fawkes // staff writer

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remember the first time the issue of spanking came up in a conversation for me. I was seven, trading Pokémon cards with my neighbor on my front driveway, when she told me she had to get home before dinner or her father would give her a spanking. I gaped at her.

She noticed how confused I looked and explained to me casually that when she was bad, she got spanked. I didn’t get what she was talking about; my parents had never hit me, and I wondered how a parent could ever hit their child, in any situation.

There are currently 26 countries in which child corporal punishment is unlawful; Canada is not one of them. In Canada, the decision to spank or not to spank is up to the parent (or guardian) of the child, but no one else. As long as the child is not under two years or over 12 years of age, and

nothing but a bare hand is used, corporal punishment of a child is legal. Essentially, the government details how parents can legally abuse their children.

Although provinces are able to implement tighter legislation regarding spanking, none currently do. In the 2004 legislation Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth, and the Law v.

Canada, the Supreme Court passed a 6-3 decision legislating that the use of “reasonable” force is acceptable, and rejected claims that moderate spanking violated the rights of children.

Monitoring the level of force parents are using while hitting their children is seemingly impossible. The only way to know when a parent has overstepped the line is when the child cries foul.

As long as we treat children as second-class citizens who are sometimes deserving of physical abuse, the notion of a child stepping out of their role to challenge their guardian on a technicality is unlikely.

Sexual deviants, violent offenders, and other “problem” citizens are for all of society to burden. The attitude that spanking is “okay” creates a societal cost easily avoidable had the children in question been protected in the first place.

Some victims of spanking insist that they learned their lessons and suffered no lasting effects; other victims claim that they felt humiliation and fear during and after a spanking, and // Kailey Patton it made them mistrust their parents, even to Researchers have studied the effects of spank- this day. ing and other forms of child corporal punishFor those who believe spanking a child ment, and although the results depended on helps them to learn right from wrong, convariables, they were almost always negative. sider this: is it also okay to hit an adult spouse Many universities and health magazines, such when they don’t listen to us? When some paras Pediatrics, have investigated the effects of ents' children disobey them and cause them spanking, most of them recording results that grief, they may get hit, so what’s stopping them label spanking as a poor parenting skill that can from disciplining their other loved ones? This create lasting negative effects on the child. outdated form of thinking belongs in the time Some experts claim spanking can lead to sex- when wife beating and lynching was seen ual deviancy or violent and delinquent behavior. as normal.

When Sport Isn’t Merely A Game Pro sports as political propaganda

By Gurpreet Kambo // News Editor

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t's said that politics don’t mix well with … pretty much anything, really, except more politics. Whether they are from the realm of music, religion, or sports, for many, hearing nonpolitical figures express their political views is mentally distressing. How many times have you heard someone say that they’d like U2, if they’d “just stick to the music”? Musical taste and specifics of politics aside, at least U2 has the guts to provide the public with a point of view, and to challenge their fans to critically engage with their universe.

However, those who believe that musicians, athletes, and other entertainment celebrities should “stick to music” (or whatever their area is) are under a misconception. The music/movies/ athletes that they consider to be apolitical quite simply are not, because there is no such thing as being apolitical. Those that are perceived this way are merely acquiescing to the current norms and social values of their art and of their society.

Canadians would appear to prefer their national pastime – hockey – this way as well. Apart from xenophobic boors such as Don Cherry, hockey players and others connected to hockey have, for the most part, remained apolitical. Most recently, Tim Thomas, of the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, was skewered by the Boston media for declining to visit the White House in the annual event commemorating the cup winning team.

“I believe the federal government has grown out of control, threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people,” he said, in a statement to the media. “Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a free citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party … both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country.”

While Thomas, who is believed to be a Tea Party supporter, and other athletes such as Muhammed Ali need to be commended for taking a stand for what they believe in (Ali was not only a boxing maverick in his day, but was one of the

most important people in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements), their critics labour under the fallacious notion that, without these politically-minded athletes, sports are inherently non-political.

This is, in fact, the way that they are presented to the public. It would appear that the extent of political controversy in NHL hockey would be the length of suspensions given to players who commit infractions, and/or the occasional lockout/conflict by the NHL Player’s Assocation and the league.

Thomas’ conspicuous absence from the White House also lays bare the question – what in the world does a visit by a sports team have to do with Obama stewarding the American state? Clearly this has nothing to do with good governance, and all to do with garnering favourable press for the President by tying his image with the goodwill of champion athletes. Stephen Harper employs a similar tactic – in an effort to not come across as the cold and calculating politician that he actually seems to be, he makes every effort to have his picture taken at hockey games, in between cat inspired photo shoots and singing Beatles songs.

However, these are merely simple examples of a complex problem. Despite the so-called “non-political” nature of professional sports, politicians have often sought to tie not only their personal public image, as noted above, but also their broader ideology with the sports teams that have captured people’s hearts. They recognize the inherent cultural (and political) influence of sport, especially as captured by the all-pervading modern media machine.

“Historians have long known that you can learn alot about the wider culture by looking at sports culture,” said Dave Zirin, sports writer with the Nation. “Sports have always had an important social function … Sports culture shapes cultural attitudes, norms, and power arrangements.”

One of the most notable instances of sports being used to advance a political ideology was at the 1936 Olympics, which was widely noted as being the coming-out party for the Nazis on the world stage. Hans von Tschammer, head of the Reich sports office, believed sports to

be a "way to weed out the weak, Jewish, and other undesirables."

On a very abstract level, professional competitive sport is one of the most pure and perfect reinforcements of the modern military/capitalist state that we live in. Although it is often said that the concept of “competition” is a natural state for humans, this concept can be considered capitalist propaganda in itself, competition being the central ethos of capitalism.

Ljubodrag Simonovic, a Yugoslavian philosopher and former star athlete, called sport the “religion of capitalism,” and writes, “It is [in sport] that the contest comes down to a struggle for survival and domination which is completely in line with the dominant spirit of capitalism: the stronger go on, the weaker are eliminated. The purpose of sport is not the development of play, but the preservation of the ruling order.”

Militarism, an ideology that is essential to the modern nation-state, also ties in neatly to competitive sport. In both, the themes of masculinity and dominance over one’s opponent are conveniently given central roles in the narrative. Professional sports culture often appropriates the language of the military (ie. referring to soldiers as athletes), with the implication being that “going to war” is inherently an honourable occupation.

Clearly, sports and politics are already deeply intertwined in a way that seems completely

// Stefan Tosheff normal and natural. Those that point this contradiction out are the ones that are accused of “bringing politics into it.”

While professional sports in Canada aren’t as stridently politicized as they are in the U.S., hockey, the national pastime, is becoming increasingly moreso, on many tangible levels. Consider the new logo of the Winnipeg Jets, which is extremely similar to the former logo of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The Canadian Forces actually helped design it, as well – the kind of publicity in a hockey town that you can’t replicate with a typical ad campaign.

The CBC has played its part as well in slipping military propaganda into your hockey kool-aid: in 2010, Hockey Night in Canada had Don Cherry and Minister Peter Mckay head to Afghanistan, where Cherry even fired a live artillery round, saying, “Take that, Taliban.”

Despite the “non-political” nature of professional sports, just like most all other types of mass media entertainment, it comes embedded with deeply political messages that construct and inform our cultural and societal norms (and surely, not all of them are objectionable). However, as consumers of mass media entertainment, we must remain critical, and deconstruct what these messages are that are being embedded in our seemingly innocuous sports, movies, and music.

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

Banana LEaf

e woke from a painful slumber to bleak surroundings: the dark black sea, with its poor reflections and meaningless sounds. No other soul in sight, or anything discernible for that matter, except for a few empty bottles of hard liquor in the boat and a bitter stench no person could ever come to terms with.

Terror and hopelessness overtook him, and all his feelings converged in the unmistakable apprehension of death. He waited for the definitive sign, the memories which would pop up from the dark recesses of his mind to bid their adieu. Nothing happened for what seemed like quite a long stretch of time, so he forced the task upon himself.

It seemed the best alternative to remedy his mood.

He had perfected (so he believed) a method of escapism for such extreme situations of vulnerability.

He conjured up scenes from his childhood: unromantic episodes of ingested snot, snow fights, bicycle accidents, and successful malingering.

Friends and family were vague, blurred images.

Enticing young ladies came in much more detail and in abundant numbers, but were quickly dismissed, at times with kind words, but mostly with ferocious hostility. The growth of bones, the facial

If I am to die, he thought, I might as well award myself the luxury. hair. The first of everything, the best of everything, the worst of everything ... the last of everything?

From the quiet life of the French countryside to the wild unpredictable settings of the Amazon.

From the brutal sleepless nights of the urban jungle to the idyllic nothingness of the somewhere elses. The years of monogamy and repressed

desires, the years of savage freedom, and the joy and regrets that came with both. All the false and the real dilemmas, the false and real pleasures.

The incessant moves across the political spectrum ... A friend once told him straight, “You know that your political stance is a reflection of your personality? That makes you mentally unstable.”

An argument he could never counter.

In the dynamism of the exercise, he found himself shamelessly adulterating and fabricating memories. Questions of morality quickly arose and got put to rest. If I am to die, he thought, I might as well award myself the luxury. Perhaps also a choice of method of termination?

He felt his stomach roar and writhe. The eventual need for physiological relief had not yet occurred to him. It broke the chain of freely associated memory pieces and replaced the dreamy clouds with thunderous terror. He was afraid to stand up – it might tip the boat over – and yet

his pride was too strict to allow for the childish alternative. Why is it that the most glorious of lives must end in the most humiliating fashion?

He now focused his efforts on delaying the inevitable discharge and trying to remember the immediate causes for this bad fix. No success, as usual. In a frenzy, he stripped, started up, tipped the boat over and fell into the water. He gasped and yelled and then found a last blast of hope. He looked around and started a vigorous swim into the darkness. He knew he would exhaust himself in just a few minutes – and that would shorten the agony. As his breath was running out and his lungs contracted from the cold, he grew dizzier and more desperate. And then, his feet touched bottom, and he swam to shore in what felt like a fragment of a second.

His wife, who had awoken in the night to his absence, had come to shore and realized he'd taken the boat into the lake, and had also forgotten his glasses. She could see him lit by the moon and attempted continuously to shout his name.

Demented old men, she lamented, have to be kept under watch at all times; his resentment of such an arrangement was the cause of all their fights, but she'd once made some sort of promise to love him through sickness and all the bad bits. Before he collapsed onto the sand, he saw her and groaned: “Banana leaf.” She thought this was a compliment and giggled in relief.

By Scott Moraes

// Kevin Garret

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the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

NEW R OO IND CILITY F FA R U T IN AN V H T NOR

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caboose

Draaanks

Jones Candy Cane Soda Liam Park

WATER Claire Vulliamy

Weird Grape Juice Colin Spensley

Clamato Marco Ferreira

You’re not fooling anyone, Jones Soda. Your lid said “Stop Smoking”, but this is no doubt a ploy to have your consumers drop one vice for another, one with a far worse reputation. This clever disguise is prepping young children and reindeer for the sad life of cheap alcoholism by pretending to be a child-friendly beverage. Carbonation, red colouring, and a label that says “Candy Cane” is not enough to convince me that I’m not drinking fizzy mouthwash. In a blind taste study of Candy Cane Jones VS carbonated Listerine, the mouthwash scored a more favorable taste, and in both cases the studies participants needed their parents to drive them home. Fortunately, this is the only flavour with a clearly detrimental agenda, as bacon-flavoured Jones could never be so easily substituted with a bottle of leftover grease with dry ice in it, as that would congeal or kill consumers long before addiction took hold.

Everyone is always making a big deal about this stuff, like “oooh, we need water to live” and “dwindling freshwater blah blah supplies blah,” but personally, I think it’s not really a big deal. I tried it, and it tastes like nothing. Literally nothing. It’s like air-flavoured Coke. I checked the ingredients. No sugar. No nothing. Why would I pay for nothing, like, right? And tap water? The stuff that comes out of your taps? My dog drinks that stuff. I don’t eat the food that my dog eats, so why would I drink the stuff that he drinks? From trying water I learned that you can’t just trust what other people think, sort of like how my mom used to say something about, like, if my friend Buddy jumped off a cliff, would I do it too? Well, mom, I wouldn’t. Next time someone tells me how good water is, I’ll spit in their face and be like, “Well, you said you liked water, didn’t you?” Because your fucking spit is water and you’re drinking it all the time anyway, so why go through the BULLSHIT of paying like three dollars for something you can GET FROM YOUR MOUTH.

I don’t want to sound like a wimp or anything, but when the first full seedless grape snuck its way through the open tab of this can and into my mouth I almost vomited all over myself. My first reaction was not, “Oh, wow, a tasty grape to chew on,” it was more like, “HOLY FUCK I just swallowed a rat eyeball that somehow made its way into my juice!” Not being the type of person to be grossed out too easily, I emptied the contents of this squat can into a glass to see what I was dealing with: crystal-clear tangy grape juice with oddly translucent grapes suspended in the thick liquid. Along the lines of some fruit-filled Orbitz or bubble tea, this drink appeals to you if you love a good surprise when drinking from a can. Will the slimy grape slip past the net that is my teeth and slide down the back of my throat, only to cause an embarrassing retching fit in front of anyone you may be consuming this beverage around? Probably. Try tricking your friends, and take their picture as soon as one of those rat eyeballs winds up in their mouth; it’ll be priceless I promise.

What do tomatoes and mollusks have in common? Their essences come together to form the beverage Clamato. A combination of clams, tomato soup, and MSG. Clamato was invented by a couple of drunks who kept mixing vodka into their soup to save time at dinner. If that sounds good, also consider trying Beefamato, a combination of gravy, tomato soup and Worcestershire sauce put out as a beverage by the same company. I’ll finish off with my two favorite drink recipies for both Beefamato and Clamato: The Fishermans Warf 3oz Clamato 1oz Cod liver oil 1 can Kokanee Protein Margarita 4oz Beefamato 3oz Strawberry flavored vodka Blend with ice

With jj brewis

The Hot Chart TOE SHOES The fashion world tackles “the no feeling” NECKBEARDS Nickelback’s original band name

the capilano courier | vol. 45 issue 18

FALSETTO Comedy and natural talent just fucked

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GENDER NEUTRAL So Euro BON IVER Singular for “Fleet Foxes” WHITNEY HOUSTON Diva duets with Etta James in the afterlife URBAN OUTFITTERS SALE RACK I was not aware the rest of the store existed KISSING BOOTHS Tongue-in-cheek HITCHHIKING Chances are they’re going to Nelson, man MOVES LIKE JAGGER Two wrongs DO make a right!

OOOOooooOOOoOOOoOO!