Capilano Courier | Vol. 51, Issue 13.

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VOLUME 51, ISSUE 13 MAR. 25-APR. 7, 2019

The Golden Age of Photojournalism


TABLE OF CONTENTS

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

The Future of the Capilano Courier

VOL. 51 ISSUE 13 MAR. 25-APR. 7

COVER: CHRISTINE WEI

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SUSTAINABILITY WEEK

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POINTLESSLY GENDERED ACTIVITIES

CHRISTINE BEYLEVELDT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

THE SCANDAL BREWING IN OTTAWA

ostalgia is really starting to set in. Another year has come and gone and we’re about to elect a new Editor-in-Chief to take the Capilano Courier into the next year and I'm filled with bittersweet memories. With a new publishing cycle next fall come new opportunities. Opportunities for students. And we want to remind you that our door is always open. The Courier tried to pass a fee increase in the referendum again this year and although we did lose again I haven't lost heart. We've been trying to pass a marginal fee increase for three years now after not having had an increase in nearly two decades, which means we're feeling the squeeze on our finances more and more each year. Sometimes it feels like we write these papers for ourselves, but I know that everyone who works at this paper has put their heart into it. For anyone reading this, the Courier gave me my start and if you have similar aspirations it can do the same for you. At the beginning of the year in our 50th anniversary issue I wrote about Capilano’s sense of community. So often I hear people complain that this University doesn’t have a community, but it does if only you look for it. You have to make an effort to get involved on campus if you want to get the experience out of it. The same goes for all things. We’re publishing our last round of online only stories for the semester next week and you’ll see a feature article about environmentalism. Two of us are working on this story at the moment - the result of some venting one afternoon over Facebook turned into a desire to break down an oft talked about topic and see what people really think.

News

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Opinions

Cover Feature

10 HIGHLIGHTING GLENN BAGLO'S WORK

Special Feature

13 THE END OF TELEVISION

Columns

17 BINGE-WORTHY TV SHOWS

Shorts

18 CAPTURE PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

Arts & Culture

19 TOTEM POLE GIFTED TO VANCOUVER SCHOOL BOARD

Arts & Culture

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VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 13

STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ART DIRECTOR

MANAGING EDITOR

PRODUCTION MANAGER

NEWS EDITOR

COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

BUSINESS MANAGER

FEATURES EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Christine Beyleveldt capcourier@gmail.com

Helen Aikenhead manager.capcourier@gmail.com

Greta Kooy news.capcourier@gmail.com

Annalisse Crosswell associatenews.capcourier@gmail.com

Freya Wasteneys specialfeatures.capcourier@gmail.com

Cynthia Tran Vo artdirector.capcourier@gmail.com

Melissa Gibbons pm.capcourier@gmail.com

Ana Maria Caicedo community.capcourier@gmail.com

Jessica Lio businessmanager.capcourier@gmail.com

Taylor Kleine-Deters, Tia Kutschera Fox, Mark Mapoles, Clarissa Sabile, Nirosh Saravanan, Valeria Velazquez, Alexis Zygan

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Sheila Arellano arts.capcourier@gmail.com OPINIONS EDITOR

Megan Orr opinions.capcourier@gmail.com

CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Sarah Haglum, Natalie Heaman, Coralie Mayer-Traynor, Jennifer Panata, Jessica Viaje, Christine Wei, Rachel Wong EDITOR & COLUMNIST PORTRAITS

Cynthia Tran Vo COLUMNS EDITOR

Rachel D'Sa columns.capcourier@gmail.com

CARTOONIST

Robyn Beyleveldt

COPY EDITOR

Ashleigh Brink copy.capcourier@gmail.com

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institution we serve happens on the unceded territory

Capilano Courier Publishing Society.

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

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It’s only fitting that this will be one of our last pieces. But what’s caught my attention so far while researching is that the onus is always on someone else. We conducted a survey of a handful of students and by and large we've been told that government action and better education is needed to combat climate change. But there was less willingness among our respondents to adapt their own habits. That may be because of how hectic everyone's lives are at the moment. University is a hectic time. But if you want something, sometimes you have to be willing to fight for it or make accomodations. The Courier may become a monthly magazine next year. I don't know what's in store, but I'm excited to see how it continues to grow and change down the road. That's the result of making accomodations to keep printing this paper year after year. We’ve all got to put the effort in. Whether it's to find a community on campus or to do our part for a good cause, we can't wait for others to do their part if we're not willing to do so ourselves. I don't know what's going to happen next year when I leave the paper that's been my home for five years. All I know is that the team that remains behind will continue to do great things with the paper. It's a small group of passionate individuals I work with, and that's what counts. I've watched people grow while I've been here. I've seen our loyal contributors be eager to get involved in our outreach or join staff and become one of the family. We hope to see you next year!


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CapU’s Student Affairs Office Introduces New Positive Space Program New LGBTQ2S+ centered program offers workshops on topics such as gender identity and pronouns to both students and employees of the University GRETA KOOY NEWS EDITOR

feel prepared,” said Marlatt. At the end of the workshop, students and employees are asked if they’d like to take the pledge of being a “Positive Space” explained Marlatt. “If you decide to do that, then we give you a sticker of the Positive Space logo, and you can put it on your laptop or your office door, and it lets people know that you have some understanding and that you’re open to a conversation and are a safe place for people to go.” “We think of ourselves as lifelong learners,” said Schaffler as she explained their joint experiences in participating and running similar workshops in the past. “By no means are we experts in the topic, but we’re very passionate. We like to learn from whoever’s in our audience, too,” she said. The need for such a program was made even clearer following an incident that took place on Thursday, Mar. 14, when two CapU students defaced the Interactive Art Mural presented by the Queer Collective as part of the University’s Pride Month celebrations. “[That was] one of those situations, as unfortunate as it was that it happened, and I hate that that happened, it has opened the eyes of many [as to] what actually can happen on a campus like this, and we’re not blind to the fact that it does happen,” said Schaffler. Several students

approached Schaffler and Marlatt after the incident took place. “You can’t say [this] is a safe space when something like [that] happens, that’s why we have to keep at these efforts, they’re continuous,” said Marlatt. “ Both Schaffler and Marlatt stress that the learning process is ongoing and ever evolving, and that situations like the one mentioned above can be prevented through education and fostering allyship. “[The workshops] will be an ongoing thing that we’re going to offer,” said Marlatt, “even outside the workshops, if someone wants to invite us to a class, or to a student group meeting, we will come.” Students and employees are strongly encouraged to attend the workshops, although Schaffler and Marlatt can be reached outside of those times as well. As for the workshops, no topic is considered off the table. In fact, students are encouraged to ask that specific topics be covered prior to attending one. “We came about this as programming for students, but more than anything we know that if we continue to promote awareness to not only students but also employees, we can start building the cultural shift that we want to achieve,” said Schaffler. “But overall, we just want to create more welcoming, respectful and inclusive spaces on campus.”

Gender Diversity Audit Reveals Issues Around Campus

ANNALISSE CROSSWELL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

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n an effort to make Capilano University more accessible to transgender, nonbinary and two-spirited individuals, the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) and Queer Collective have brought in Transfocus to perform a Gender Diversity Audit, the results of which were announced March 5 with the CSU, Queer Collective, CapU staff and Transfocus in attendance. Transfocus in a consulting company focused on the inclusion of transgender individuals, using both their understandings of business and transgender lived experiences to do so. The $11,800 (plus GST) audit, received

Letter to the Editor Dear Editor: Capilano University students, staff, and faculty will be interested in retired instructor Susan Peake’s participation in the April 14th 10 km walk at the Vancouver Sun Run in support of students. Susan is walking to raise funds for loan textbooks and scientific calculators for very poor, bright high school students in Kenya, E. Africa (where high school is not free). Pledges (like $1 per km) and direct donations to Susan’s efforts are invited . Tax

half of its funding from the University, a decision made by Jacqui Stewart, CapU’s vice-president finance and administration. The other half came from CSU budgets. Conversations regarding the audit began in the last academic year, but it wasn’t until July 3, 2018 that an agreement was signed between the University and Transfocus. The resulting report came to a total of 96 pages, outlining both things that CapU is doing right for their transgender community and a fair number of ways in which the University can improve. The audit looked at issues of accessibility throughout CapU including support systems and all of the IT services. Anna-Elaine Rempel, CSU president and vice-president sustainability and equity, and Lori Kosciuw, director of operations and advocacy, were involved in a lengthy process of getting the audit started. Of the issues outlined in the final audit, Queer Students Liaison, Michaela Volpe, noted a number of issues that will be focused on as priorities moving forward. “Deadnaming”, caused by an issue in the IT system that seems to indicate

preferred names as middle names on attendance lists, is one that Volpe noted as the most significant of these priorities. Volpe explained deadnaming as calling an individual by their legal name when they have chosen to be referred to by another. This can be extremely detrimental to transgender individuals who no longer associate themselves with their legal names and can lead to repercussions in the classroom. “It’s honestly one of the biggest issues we hear at the Queer Collective...students are getting deadnamed everyday,” said Volpe. This can have a huge impact on students’ mental health, but Volpe also highlights that it dissuades them from attending classes. “So students are missing out on their education because of a really, really dumb easy fix in our IT system,” she said. The issue even required students to deadname themselves in the process of signing Volpe’s nomination package when running for reelection this year. Another issue that will be focused on moving forward is that of gender neutral bathrooms, which raises a similar issue.

deductible receipts are available. 100 per cent of funds raised go directly to student needs. Funds are transferred to the Kenya office of KEEF - Kenya Education Endowment Fund - from our volunteer-run North Shore office. KEEF is a registered Canadian educational charity (www.kenyaeducation. org) working in the Kakamega area of western Kenya. The required scientific computers and revision texts are essential to students in their last two years of high school, preparing for national exams that determine if they will receive a tuitionsubsidized place in post-secondary studies. These items are not supplied in many schools there.

To make a pledge or send a cheque for Susan’s efforts and the student’s needs - or to learn more about KEEF’s work - please contact Shelagh at 604-415-9397 or shelaghag@shaw.ca. To make an online donation, please go to our website and click on the Sun Run designation on the “donate” page. Thank you for considering supporting very poor students in Kenya in their efforts to gain an education and a route out of poverty for them, their families and their communities!

Though there are a number around campus already, most buildings only have one gender neutral bathroom, which can also take time from studies. There is also an issue of being able to feel safe on campus, which is why the open-concept showers in the Sportsplex will also be targets for change. “It’s a lot of a safety issue, it’s a lot of a morale issue… student’s mental health is just being beaten down every single day,” said Volpe, who is passionate about making the changes. She was re-elected to her position as Queer Students Liaison on March 21, so will be at the forefront of instating the necessary changes next year. Rempel and Joshua Millard, vicepresident academic, are involved with helping communicate and advocate the issues with the University. Volpe commented that their role was the more balanced side of advocacy whereas she is a more passionately vocal advocate for the issue. The audit will provide a platform for these student politicians to do so and changes will likely be seen by the Fall semester of 2019.

- Shelagh Armour-Godbolt, KEEF volunteer

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The audit focused on making CapU more inclusive for transgender, non-binary and twospirited individuals

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Capilano University’s Student Affairs Office has introduced a new campus-wide initiative - the Positive Space Program. The program operates as an interactive workshop series available to both students and employees with a purpose of raising awareness and supporting CapU’s LGBTQ2S+ community. The first of their kind on campus, the Positive Space workshops run for three hours and can be attended by anyone regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. CapU’s first Positive Space workshop was held on Friday, Mar. 8, and was open exclusively to students. The first employee-attended workshop will be held on Thursday, Mar. 27.

Planning for the Positive Space Program began in October 2018. Mara Schaffler, student success facilitator for transitions, and Remy Marlatt, student success facilitator for student engagement, identified the need for the program and set to work. “We thought, ‘we have to have this on campus’. It doesn’t matter who starts it or who continues doing it, but we have to do it now,” said Schaffler. “It’s all about allyship,” Marlatt added. “It’s about learning about awareness and about the LGBTQ2S+ community.” The workshops, led by Schaffler and Marlatt, cover topics such as gender pronouns, identity, vocabulary and discussions on how to be an ally, among others. Allyship, according to the AntiOppression Network, is “a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people.” Although the workshops are discussion based, several key interactive components are included. “We do myth busting, we look at [the LGBTQ2S+ ] acronym and break it down, we look at vocabulary, microaggressions, do case studies and [look] at scenarios that could happen at Cap, or might have happened at Cap, to make sure that people


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Sustainability Week Includes Events That Will Appeal to all Students Now in its third year, the week aims to focus conversations on waste ANNALISSE CROSSWELL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

a CapU senate representative and member of the CapU Works team, has planned Trash Talk with and Anna-Elaine Rempel, the CSU’s president and vice-president sustainability and equity. “It’s not easy [to be zero waste] and that’s why we kind of want to talk about waste...the practicality of it, for a lot of people, is really difficult,” said Kuzek. She has endeavoured to say ‘no’ to plastics

more herself this year, and understands that it can be difficult. While often posed as a need for individual effort, the systems that are in place make this more difficult according to Kuzek, a sentiment that is echoed in much of the public discourse on the topic. The discussions around campus next week will be aimed at changing this for students and giving them the tools to make changes.

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ith the current political and social discourse surrounding the importance of sustainability, this year’s Sustainability Week theme - waste - is truly in line with what is going on outside of Capilano University. From Mar. 25-29, Sustainability Week will feature a number of different events that Haley Kuzek, student sustainability organizer for CapU Works, believes will provide something for everybody. Though CapU Works is one of the smaller group on campus, comprised of just four student organizers and led by one staff member, they have now hosted Sustainability Week for three consecutive years. “It’s student-driven sustainability,” Kuzek said. “We’re all students here on campus.” What originally started as a daylong event, the initiative has turned into

a full week of on-campus activities that includes two facilitated discussion-style events, two events that feature speakers, a clothing swap and a movie night at the University’s residence located at 2420 Dollarton. “We just want to make it easier for people to think about and not jarr them with, like, scary images, but to say ‘hey it’s not that hard to make little changes on our own and to have fun with it,’” said Kuzek. While Sustainability Week has a large component that aims to engage students with the reality of sustainable living and it’s importance, the events also have a role in facilitating changes within the CapU community. Information from discussion groups will lead the changes that future CapU Works student organizers will implement, as many changes around the University inevitably extend over the course of more than one academic year. This was the case for the Greentainer program on the North Shore campus. Plans to further develop the Greentainer program will also be announced during Sustainability Week. The report will be announced at the Trash Talk event, which has been a collaborative effort between the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) and CapU Works. Emily Gaudette,

PHOTOS BY TAE HOON KIM

CSU Candidates Forum has Higher Turnout Than Previous Years Forums allow candidates to address students in an open environment and answer questions from their peers ANNALISSE CROSSWELL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

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ith the end of the Spring semester rapidly approaching, and the end of many current student politician’s education at CapU nearing, it is once again time for elections. The candidates forums for the 2019 general election, held March 12 and 14, began the information session by introducing students to their potential CSU members for the 2019-20 academic year. The March 12 forum provided an opportunity for

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those running for Vice-President (VP) and Business Society of Capilano University (BSCU) positions to speak, while March 14 provided the same opportunity to CSU faculty and campus representatives and CSU collective liaisons and coordinators. As with other years, these events did not draw in a big crowd, although there were more in attendance this year than previous ones. The number of candidates running in the election is also more promising, with a total of 27 candidates. "Each forum was very well attended. I think students at CapU are starting to realize the importance of paying attention to who gets to represent them," said Joshua Millard, the current vicepresident academic. While there are a handful of positions that currently have no candidates and a number of candidates running uncontested, some positions have three or four students running against each other. "I wish each race was contested, but I still think the number of candidates is exceptional," said

Millard. Though some candidates were not present for their respective forums, those that attended made a concerted effort to tell the student body what matters to them and why students should vote for them in the upcoming election. Despite the varying positions, the priorities mentioned by candidates maintained some themes and painted a picture for what the focus of next years CSU may be. Mental health, community, inclusion and student engagement were all issues that were mentioned by several individuals. "I love how each candidate for [VicePresident] Student Life is completely different, with a different personality and approaches the job from a different angle," said current Vice-President Student Life, Yats Palat. “No matter who wins, the University will be the ultimate winner." Millard was impressed by how excited for the roles individuals seemed to be. "You could tell right away how passionate and

excited each candidate was about the role they are running for," he said. This year’s election does differ slightly from previous years in that the BSCU, previously known as The Capilano University Business Enterprise of Students (CUBES), is a part of the electoral process. Having changed structures within the past year, the BSCU has moved from a process of being selected for their roles by teachers to being elected to their positions, with this election being the first that the group is taking part in. Voting for the elections begins at 9 am on March 19 and ends at 5 pm March 21. CSU members will be campaigning around campus during the week, but, for those that were unable to attend the candidates forums and want to know more about their candidates, statements can be found on the CSU website.


NEWS

CSU Queer Collective Hosts First Full Pride Month at CapU Events will run until March 29 and put focus on the University’s queer community GRETA KOOY NEWS EDITOR

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workshop, part of the CSU’s sexual violence and misconduct awareness initiative. Also to look out for in the next week are the “Sex Positivity with Self-Love Portrait” and “Art for All” events on March 26 and 28 respectively. To conclude the month’s activities, a movie night will be held on Friday, March 29 in the CSU Maple Lounge where there are promises of pizza and snacks, and screenings of Rent and Milk. “We put all of these events on because we care about them, and because they foster this real sense of community within the Collective,” said Volpe. “I’m honestly really proud to live in a community and to attend a school where we’re so actively supported, but there’s always going to be work to be done.”

CSU Receives $3,200 Grant from the Mental Health Commission of Canada The grant will be used for discussion groups on campus that will provide information for a new mental health standard ANNALISSE CROSSWELL ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

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n the Capilano Students’ Union’s (CSU) latest endeavour to emphasize the importance of mental health and provide support for students, they have applied for and received a grant from the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). The CSU applied for the partnership in December and will be used to collect information from students about what support they need and provide this to the MHCC. The information will then be used to develop a standard for Canadian students psychological health and safety.

This follows a standard that the MHCC previously developed for psychological health and safety in the workplace. The $3,200 grant will allow the CSU to provide food and incentives to get students to attend focus groups, as well as funding advertising for the seven workshops. The workshops themselves will be targeted at specific student groups that tend to have higher rates of mental illness, such as women, and queer and Indigenous students. Students will be asked questions in a discussion group, and will be able to provide silent feedback. The questions asked will tackle the specific challenges that students face with their mental health, their personal experiences and additional support students feel they need. “We're getting to a point where it's almost redundant to ask ‘why does mental health matter?’ We know that it is extremely important...” said CSU President and Vice-President Equity and Sustainability Anna Rempel. She is leading the initiative alongside Kate Jarman, director of student spaces, Lori Kosciuw, director of

operations and advocacy, Jessica Degaust, office coordinator and Jody Armstrong, community wellness strategist. Though it will not hold universities legally accountable, she believes that having a standard will give post-secondary institutions something to strive towards as well as providing an outline for students to approach their universities with when they are falling short. “It's us being able to reach out to our membership and be able to get a better understanding of what challenges they're facing, which helps us in all of our advocacy, but it also helps students across Canada through the development of the standard,” said Rempel. The workshops, though they are not directly aimed at improving mental health on campus, will likely allow the CSU to provide feedback to the University and make changes to their own initiatives. The development of the standard is tied to the Students' Let's Act campaign run by the CSU in partnership with the Canadian

Alliance of Students Association (CASA). The campaign called on students to write their comments about the importance of mental health on one half of a heart. The half heart was sent to Ottawa along with specific asks that CASA had for federal policy around mental health. The other half of the heart had a QR code that students could use to access the MHCC website where they were able to do a survey for the development of the standard. Rempel believes that professors sometimes forget that students have stresses outside the classroom and that, despite awareness, there are still stigmas surrounding mental health that need to be addressed. She stressed the importance of the process. “[The development of the standard is] necessary, because this, in some cases, is a life and death matter, but also because we as a university should be uplifting our students at every possible opportunity that we have to help them do the best that they possibly can,” she said. The workshops will be taking place from March 18 to March 19.

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PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MICHAELA VOLPE

Incidents like these have only reaffirmed Volpe’s passion to advocate for queer students on campus. “It’s really important for people, University officials especially, and students, to see why this is important and understand that we have a presence on campus, and we make up a large percentage of the campus,” she said. “We matter and need a space where we feel safe and comfortable. The reality is that queer people, especially in the university system, face a lot of barriers that I think we need to acknowledge more.” On Tuesday, March 19, with perfect timing, came the Collective’s next event, “Queerness: A History”, which focused on the queer liberation movement. Thursday’s events included a “Let’s Get Consensual”

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n previous years, Capilano University’s annual pride celebrations spanned the course of just five days. This year, the Capilano Students’ Union’s (CSU) Queer Collective, spearheaded by Queer Students Liaison Michaela Volpe, is hosting events all month long. In March 2018, Volpe, then a first-year student, lead a nine-person organizing committee as part of the Pride Week festivities. Since then, her role in the planning and execution of these events has grown significantly. “Last year was a lot more of sitting and listening and taking in information, and [events were] also a lot more directed at the University,” she said. “So [this year] we did more things for the

queer community specifically.” Pride Month events kicked off at CapU on Tuesday, March 12 with a workshop presented by the Queer Collective called “Let Your Freak Flag Fly”. On the following Thursday, March 14, the collective presented the Interactive Art Mural, described by the collective as a “community mural… focused on pride, self-love, and community.” Unfortunately, two members of the CapU community were not supportive of the Collective’s endeavours. “It was defaced with homophobic comments,” said Volpe. She described two students who had etched hateful comments into a space meant for acceptance and love, calling the incident “stressful”. “It was especially intense because it was in a very public area, right outside the Members Center,” she said. “They really believe that they’re protected on campus to be just openly hateful and [perform] a blatant act of homophobia.” The two individuals later returned to make more homophobic remarks toward Volpe and several other collective members directly. “They were very proud of what they had done.” The University is aware of the incident and is working closely with the CSU to hold the two students accountable. The CSU has since released a formal statement on the matter. “We were originally going to have the door to the [Queer] Collective room open during all of our events so that folks could wander around, come in and check it out,” said Volpe. “And then, because of that, we decided that it wasn’t safe. So, our door’s now closed and locked.” Volpe has seen pushback on campus in relation to Queer Collective matters before – just last year, when a referendum vote for a new Social Justice Fee was put forward, she encountered, in direct opposition of the CSU’s “Vote Yes” campaign, a very vocal “Vote No” campaign. “We’re still a marginalized community… and there are some people who believe that we shouldn’t be subsidizing minorities,” she said. “They just voted ‘no’ for everything. They were pretty active too.” The vote for the proposed Social Justice Fee failed to pass that year.


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Broga and the Pointless Gendering of Everyday Things Clever marketing equals terrible culture TIA KUTSCHERA FOX CONTRIBUTOR

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oga, the ancient 3,000-year-old practice from India, has exploded in popularity in North America in the past few decades. However, while yoga is traditionally practiced by everyone, according to a 2015 survey by Yoga Alliance, twice as many women practice yoga as men in the US. This is probably partly due to the fact yoga has a reputation for not being a “good workout” (I would pay good money to watch male weightlifters try hot yoga), that you need to be flexible and that it’s a spiritual practice. The first is categorically untrue – it’s all about the kind of yoga you try. And being flexible makes it easier, but just like anything, the more you do it the better you get. The last one is traditionally true, but North America has taken yoga and put it’s own capitalist, yoga pants-wearing goat/beer/chicken nuggetyoga spin on it. You can do yoga that is just for the physical benefits or you can take a more spiritual class if you so choose. The point is, yoga is for everyone and there is a yoga class for every possible thing imaginable. But this is apparently not good enough for Oxygen Yoga, who have introduced their brand new Broga class! That’s right, you manly men who are way too manly to take a bendy touchy feely nota-great-workout yoga class. There’s a class for you! And thus yoga has joined the swaths of pointlessly gendered things that have led to bizarre fragile masculinity issues. While there’s no one thing that is to blame for the development of toxic masculinity, it’s hard not to side-eye the aggressively gendered kids toys that teach people at an early age that inanimate objects must be matched with their gender identity. PSA: A girl does not need pink lego to enjoy lego. A boy playing

How Not to Take a Selfie Photos are great, animal abuse and death is not TIA KUTSCHERA FOX CONTRIBUTOR

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elfies, short for self-portraits, and selfculture are often touted as a product of an entitled, shallow and narcissistic generation. But documenting oneself is hardly a new phenomenon and has been around for centuries. Rather than taking a few extra minutes after getting dressed to snap some pics or pose at the gym, our ancestors spent hours and weeks painting themselves on a canvas and displaying it in their house or even trying to sell it. The urges are essentially the same. We want to be admired, we want to be remembered and we want something of ourselves to remain after we are gone. Yes, some people who snap selfies are narcissistic, but there have

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with dolls doesn’t mean he’s being “girly” or “gay,” it means he is pretending to be a parent. What a concept. This paves the way for marketers to continue to market a regular thing that everyone can use and then market a second regular thing but for the other gender! This is commonly done to neutral items which then have a twin packaged in pink or pastel

upsetting. The general formula is to take the product, wrap it in grey and black and use overly aggressive adjectives and then voila! A man’s product is born. Chapstick (hilariously called “Manstick”), loofahs (called “dual-sided cleaning tools”), sunscreen for men (not getting skin cancer was definitely too girly before) and even Q-tips for men (also called a “tool”).

a situation that has been cheekily called “septic masculinity.” My condolences to their partners. It doesn’t have to be this way. Marketers create and take advantage of these bizarre gender traps when really, if a man wants to smell like a “Cocoa Butter Kiss” deodorant, he damn well should be able to buy it and not feel obligated to buy “Primal Pit Paste.”

ILLUSTRATED BY JESSICA VIAJE

purple and advertised as for women. The more absurd the better apparently. Toothbrushes, tools, pens, earplugs, etc. all have their “for women” counterpart which also then implies that these items were not meant for women before. These versions are also usually more expensive. This phenomenon is called the pink tax. But when the opposite happens it gets even weirder and can get downright

Consumables aren’t safe either, producing gems like Brosé and bronuts (alcohol and food are so inherently womanly aren’t they?) No category is safe, nothing too neutral to be transformed into something men can safely use without becoming feminine by the mere presence of the object. It’s gotten to a point where masculinity is so fragile that some men refuse to wipe after pooping because they think it will make them gay,

been narcissists since the dawn of humanity so it’s not much of a point. There isn’t anything inherently bad about taking selfies. The problem is when others get hurt at the expense of a selfie. Unfortunately, this seems to be a growing issue. On March 9, a woman named Leanne (last name not disclosed) climbed over a clearly labelled safety barrier at a public zoo to “get some good pictures” of a jaguar. To the surprise of literally no one, the wild animal attacked her through the enclosure when she had come within reaching distance. She was lucky that another zoo-goer had the quick thinking to throw her water bottle in the enclosure to distract the Jaguar and Leanne survived. She did also eventually, rightfully, apologize publicly and acknowledged she was at fault and thankfully the jaguar was not euthanized. But the part that really gets into entitled culture is when in her apology she said the barrier needs to be further from the enclosure. The reasoning behind this is unclear. Is this so other assholes who climb the clearly labelled “DO NOT CLIMB” barrier take longer to get close to the enclosure and get mauled? Because for the

rest of boundary-respecting unentitled adults, the barriers worked perfectly fine. She acted like it was an accident, not her own choices and actions that led to her own dumbass getting injured. If the jaguar had been euthanized it wouldn’t have been the first time an animal had to die for a selfie. In August 2017, a baby dolphin got separated from its mother and was stranded in shallows at a Spanish beach. Hundreds of tourists crowded around the stressed baby, stroking it and taking selfies. By the time animal rescue was notified and came to help, the calf was dead. This is inexcusable and people who do this are pretty gross human beings. If you don’t care about wildlife wellbeing, at least consider your own. There have been over 80 reported deaths per year in the last three years due to people trying to get the selfie. Researchers at the US National Library of Medicine now even recommend that “no selfie zones” be introduced at dangerous spots to reduce deaths. My advice? Don’t die or be an ass in an effort to be remembered. You’ll be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

If a woman wants to wear earplugs on the plane she should feel secure in knowing the regular earplugs will work just as well in her feminine ears than the neon pink ones, and will be nicer on her wallet. The only way to win against pointless marketing is to not play the game. I encourage any men out there who want to try yoga to go to a regular goddamn class. (Then afterwards maybe you can treat yourself to a bronut!)


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1-800 SUICIDE

Why we should be more mindful of joking about suicide MARK MAPOLES CONTRIBUTOR

I just want to die.” It’s been a phrase that people have started to say more often these days and it has become a joke for friends to use to talk about things that are really hard. I heard someone say, “This exam is going to be so hard, I just want to die” the other day. It’s really weird to hear that. Maybe it’s because mental health has become more talked about in the last couple years and so people have become

Is Wizards Unite the New Pokémon Go?

CLARISSA SABILE CONTRIBUTOR

Capitalism Leads to Complacency Life is paying bills until your inevitable retirement and then death ALEXIS ZYGAN CONTRIBUTOR

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pathy leads to complacency, and the 40-hour workweek - a product of capitalism - produces a complacent working class. A working class with no energy to stand up to one's boss or the system that pacifies them. Even engaging in hobbies that do not involve escaping from reality through a screen

up thinking you were joking. That’s why we should be more aware of our language and how it might affect others. We should try and become a more supportive culture so when someone does talk about suicide, we can be there for them and get them the help they need. I would hate to see someone I know miss out on experiencing the joys in life because they weren’t taken seriously when they reached out for support. School is hard enough on its own with the stress of group projects, presentations, papers and exams – we shouldn’t make it even harder on certain individuals and joke about something that is a very serious issue to them. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, tell someone. For oncampus support visit counselling services in BR276 or email wellbeing@capilanou.ca, or in the community, call the BC Suicide Helpline at 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433).

in creating AR games. AR is a relatively new type of technology that allows users to interact with an augmented version of their real-world environment. Their partnership with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company proved a success in Pokémon Go, with the combined unique experience and diehard fans of the videogame. In a similar vein, the company partnered with Portkey Games to announce Wizards Unite. This is what gives the company an edge against other mobile games: their cooperative work with established franchises. Anyone that has read through the Harry Potter series probably read it three times or more, so any opportunity to return to the magical world will be taken in a heartbeat. Niantic released exciting details about its upcoming Harry Potter-themed geocaching game. They described players as “a new recruit of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force”, a group made by the magical government system to contain an unknown magical force called “The Calamity” from non-magical people, AKA Muggles. Apparently, magical things have begun to appear in the Muggle world and it’s the player’s duty to find and hide them from Muggle eyes. The plot may sound over-fabricated and cringey to nonPotterheads, but intriguing to those of us who are diehard fans. Similar to Pokémon Go’s Pokéstops, Wizards Unite players must walk around in the real-world and follow “Traces”. Instead of catching Pokémon, the player casts spells to retrieve the “Foundable” to return it to its magical place. The games share similar

game concepts – the difference is in its fictional plotline and new audience. Wizards Unite offers “multiplayer Wizarding Challenges”, which allows players to collaborate in defeating villains and creatures. The game features three different magical professions:

past few decades. Since everybody that doesn’t live under a rock knows what Harry Potter is, most people in a crowd have a phone and a handful of those individuals have data, the game will definitely draw attention and downloads.

have steadily decreased. Capitalism is manipulated by the rich and powerful, with just 10 corporations controlling what gets put on our shelves, while the working class exert their energy on meaningless decisions like making a choice in the grocery store aisle instead of concentrating on how to eradicate increasing employee misery. Many people in large metropolitans are still unable to invest in private ownership. The inability to influence the system leaves the working class detached from their goals and immersed in mind-numbing television and limitless internet rabbit holes. Unaware of how their actions are feeding into corporate greed, employees refuse to enter their office in the morning without their cup of Starbucks coffee because capitalism prevents them from pondering the constraints of their daily routines. By not standing up to their boss and the system that

pacifies them, workers are putting in over 40 hours a week to pay rent every month, a phone bill, subscriptions, student loans and a bus pass with just a few hundred dollars left over for groceries and entertainment. Life sometimes seems like one bill payment after another. Capitalism only benefits those who can afford to invest and acquire assets – leaving the rest of the population detached from their goals and immersed in mind-numbing activities. Switching channels on the TV may be mundane, but for many, it is a legitimate hobby. Sleep exhaustion matched with sipping coffee at 4 pm – the system of capitalism causes complacency. Studies show that a 32-hour workweek directly increases happiness, and six-hour workdays not only increase productivity but also leads to workers taking fewer sick days. Shorter work weeks means more time to

ILLUSTRATED BY JENNIFER PANATA

Auror, Magizoologist or Professor. In contrast to Pokémon Go’s battles between Team Valor, Mystic and Instinct, Wizards Unite asks players to use their combined professional backgrounds to beat these magical foes. This takes away from the thrill of opposing other players. On the other hand, it might be easier to make potential friends rather than enemies. Both Pokémon and Harry Potter accumulated massive audiences over the

The mobile gaming community is far from accomplished in comparison to its console or computer-based counterparts, however Niantic managed to surpass virality boundaries that are not easy to reach. Will you play Wizards Unite? Honestly, if Dobby or Hedwig appear, the game might be too much to handle. Wizards Unite will launch in late 2019 for Android and iOS devices. raise conscious awareness of the system and engage in discourse and socialize with others outside of one’s primary circle to gain new perspectives. This would allow people to come up with solutions to improve the conditions of their existence. Most college students accept that they will be working until they retire. With an office job, days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months. Dissatisfaction towards the system grows into full-blown complacency. By the time most adults retire they forget what hobbies made them happy in the first place because they’ve spent the last 40 years of their life stuck on auto-pilot working as a pawn for the capitalist system. Eat, sleep, work and repeat. They have accepted their five days, eight hour each shift, workweek - with only two days left over for hobbies, entertainment and true connection.

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otterheads have a lot to look forward to: J.K. Rowling’s revealing tweets correcting misinformation about her magical universe, the escalating Fantastic Beasts film series, and now, a new mobile game called Wizards Unite made by the same developers as Pokémon Go, set to drop later this year. The augmented-reality (AR) qualities of American software company Niantic’s games are what initially fascinate players. Locations that were seen in the Harry Potter films can be accessed, just by strolling by a Starbucks café or post office. Niantic teased the ability to view a popular wand shop in Diagon Alley and interact with a creature like Buckbeak the Hippogriff, which played a tremendous role in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The distinct movie and book series references and unique AR opportunities are what will bring downloads to Wizards Unite. Niantic Inc. is well known for their work

we don’t fully understand. To help you comprehend what it’s like to be in the shoes of someone who is thinking about suicide, try saying, “I just want to die” out loud right now and pretend like you actually mean it. Now imagine trying to admit that to a friend knowing that your friend group jokes around about death and suicide. That’s a conversation that even the most courageous of us could not have. Reaching out for help can be the hardest thing to do for people considering suicide. Building up the courage to give life one last try and mutter the words – I just want to die – is tough, and for people to think it might be a joke makes it even tougher. In the 14 years that I spent wanting to die, I only ever reached out for help once – I was told that I must be joking. That is a hard pill to swallow, the person/people that you were hoping would help you ended

THE CAPILANO COURIER

Niantic announces new Harry Potter-themed mobile game

desensitized to the serious topic of death and don’t realize what they are saying and how it affects people. More importantly, people don’t realize that what they think is a joke, is a very serious issue for others. Hearing people joke about suicide makes it harder to reach out for help for those individuals who do have thoughts of suicide. That’s why we should become more aware of how our language can affect others and only use certain phrases when we are with friends we know. According to the World Health Organization, “Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15–29-year-olds.” It’s sad to know that the second leading cause of death in our age group has become a meme on the internet and is something people joke about in person. It might be because we are a culture that doesn’t openly talk about the hard things in life, so we joke about things


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SNC-Lavalin: What is the Issue and Why Should You Care?

The issue is a major political scandal, but it’s difficult to know if voters care

BY ANNALISSE CROSSWELL CYNTHIA TRAN VO ILLUSTRATOR

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ver the past few weeks the media has been inundated with commentary on the SNC-Lavalin case. The issue was first brought to light on Feb. 7 when a Globe and Mail article, citing unnamed sources, suggested that undue political pressure had been applied to Minister of Justice and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould’s decision in a criminal prosecution of the engineering and construction firm. Her decision was to not veto Director of Public Prosecutions Kathleen Roussel's stance against giving the company a deferred prosecution. In the weeks following the decision WilsonRaybould was first moved to Minister of Veterans Affairs, a cabinet shuffle on Trudeau’s part that seemed unnecessary, and then resigned despite having commented that she didn’t see the move as a demotion. In itself the issue may seem like just another political scandal, but the heart of this issue raises important questions about the sanctity of Canadian politics. It raises the question of whether the structure of Canadian parliament allows enough autonomy in matters that should be kept separate from the sway of politicians, such as decisions of legality that the Attorney General is meant to handle. It also begs the question, is our large voting demographic, the younger generation, paying attention to important matters such as these? Speaking to Anna-Elaine Rempel, president and vice-president equity and sustainability, on the topic of student engagement, the Courier asked whether it’s a simple task getting students to engage with politics – be it at the small scale of student politics or at the provincial and federal levels. The question elicited a chuckle from Rempel, “No, it’s definitely not easy,” she said. “...I think it really comes down to showing people why they should care and that takes a lot of effort on the part of those who are already engaged…” For some, scandals like the SNC-Lavalin case are of huge importance in determining which party will receive their vote in the coming election. For others political scandals are a complicated issue that they would rather not delve into and voting feels like a redundant task of ticking a box. Some individuals may even see it as a reason to start caring. That being said, the issue is complicated and hard to follow in the media without an already clear understanding of how politics works. So why all the fuss? SNC-Lavalin, an engineering and construction firm, is facing charges of bribery and fraud in relation to 2015 business dealings with Libya and had previously lobbied the federal government to defer the criminal prosecution. Prosecution would prevent the company

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from being able to take government contracts for 10 years, while a deferral would require the company to admit guilt, pay a fine, and agree to certain conditions to prevent future issues of legality. In the case of a deferral, the company, which has a history of attracting media attention for all the wrong reasons, would be able to continue to be contracted by the Canadian government. With 8,500 employees in Canada, the company has taken on large government contracts in the past. The argument that Trudeau made to Wilson-Raybould is that those employees welfare needs to be thoroughly considered before taking action. The pressure, according to the Prime Minister, was applied to ensure that the Attorney General had both adequately consulted those knowledgeable on these matters and taken the necessary time to deliberate.

So why all the fuss? SNCLavalin, an engineering and construction firm, is facing charges of bribery and fraud in relation to 2015 business dealings with Libya and had previously lobbied the federal government to defer the criminal prosecution. According to Political Science instructor, Tim Schouls, this process, in itself, of being able to lobby the government for a deferral is new in the legislature. Following in line with a number of other Western countries, Trudeau instated this change last year as a part of the federal budget in order to allow companies that employ Canadians to continue to take on government contracts. “...I think it’s framed in a way that, again, we don’t want to penalize those who are employed by these companies simply because the company itself was criminally negligent or irresponsible,” commented Schouls on the legislative change. When the proposed bill came into parliament as a part of the budget in March 2018, however, it was done so quietly. Though some MPs suggested that it should be debated as a separate issue, Trudeau also seemed to be firm in his decision to maintain it as a part of the budget approval. Essentially the issue comes down to whether or not Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did try to sway the Attorney General’s decision on the matter and whether this was to save 8,500 jobs or simply to protect a portion of voters that play a large role in his potential re-election. Information that might not come to light and, in the case of an investigation, could come far too late to inform the election. Schouls commented that investigations like this are a long-haul process that can take years. As it stands Wilson-Raybould has insinuated that there is more to the story,

saying in an interview that she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but is unable to publicly comment on exactly what happened to make her feel that resigning was necessary. “It’s one thing to be concerned about the welfare of individuals employed by a company who might lose their jobs. It’s quite another to pull a company from the brink of being prosecuted for explicitly partisan reasons, namely to secure your own prospects in the forthcoming election,” Schouls noted. He feels that following the shuffle, the new Attorney General will have no choice but to reject the deferral. Schouls also believes that WilsonRaybould’s gender and First Nations heritage played a role in her decision to speak up about the matter. His reasoning being that a male in the same position would be more accepting of the hierarchical structure of government and that being of a demographic that has been so thoroughly taken advantage of by government in the past makes Wilson-Raybould more sensitive to such persuasions. “...if you’re going to invite 18 women into your cabinet along with 18 men,” he said, alluding to Trudeau’s decision to take a feminist stance and maintain a cabinet of 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women, “don’t expect [the women] to passively accept the political system as it has been constructed by the fathers of federation…” While it seems inevitable that the scandal will negatively impact Trudeau’s already precarious position entering this year’s election, Schouls doesn’t believe this will be the deciding factor between his re-election and a Conservative or NDP government come October. While the NDP government has been measured in its response to the scandal, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has been shrill in his calls for Trudeau’s resignation. “Anybody that I’ve spoken to so far has been embarrassed by the behaviour of the Conservatives under Andrew Scheer,” said Schouls, who believes that the most likely outcome of the election is a minority Liberal government.

“It’s one thing to be concerned about the welfare of individuals employed by a company who might lose their jobs. It’s quite another to pull a company from the brink of being prosecuted for explicitly partisan reasons, namely to secure your own prospects in the forthcoming election." While the issue is complicated, it has the potential to play a huge role in the upcoming election. The amount of attention voters are paying to the scandal – and others like it – is also an important part of the discussion. Capilano University represents an important demographic of these voters who will live with legislative changes and political decisions well into the future.

Rempel has experience attempting to get students to vote at the student politics level, in trying to get students engaged with the municipal election and the provincial referendum for Proportional Representation electoral system, she found it difficult to capture students attention on political matters. This is was especially true at a municipal level despite the direct impact on students. “It’s a very mixed bag honestly…” said Rempel, regarding the student engagement with political issues. “It really depends on what you’re family situation might be. If you come from a really politically engaged family you’re much more likely to have an awareness of it, just because you grew up with it. If you didn’t you have to do a lot of that work yourself.” She noted that this changes depending on the focus of students politics. She believes most students would have an awareness of issues like these, without necessarily going out of their way to understand them. Rempel believes that a lack of engaging political education in the K-12 system is “a huge pitfall” and that much more could be achieved if this was changed. “I’m a huge advocate of really doing a much better job of teaching kids about politics from a much younger age,” said Rempel. On the other hand, Vice-President Academic Noah Berson, has a more positive outlook on student and youth political engagement. He believes that politics is playing such a large role in the lives of millenials who have started to become engaged out of necessity. “It’s a privilege to be apolitical and one we cannot afford. We are starting to take things into our own hands,” he said. Issues like the environmental turmoils we face along with the cost of education and housing are important motivators according to Berson. “This next federal election, will be the first election in Canadian history where there will be more millennials voting than baby boomers. Our generation has often been accused of laziness or apathy but the opposite is true,” Berson said. “While occasionally I’ll still come across someone while campaigning that doesn’t know anything about politics, the vast majority of student our age are interested in it.” He also noted that a massive number of those who voted for Trudeau were also millennials. To him, this signals hope that the engagement is there and will continue to influence Canadian politics positively. In reality it is difficult to know how engaged students are with the issue and will likely be more easily recognizable come election time. DISCLAIMER: As the Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) has no official position on the SNC-Lavalin case – and has little way of knowing how students are engaging with the issue – neither Berson or Rempel were able to comment directly as to whether this was a priority for students.


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Vancouver’s Golden Era of Photojournalism Glenn Baglo reflects on his 42 years documenting the City of Vancouver

BY ANA MARIA CAICEDO CHRISTINE WEI ILLUSTRATOR

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n a warm August day in 1971, an estimated 2,000 people gathered in Gastown’s Maple Tree Square for a marijuana smoke-in street party. Just one month earlier, Vancouver Mayor Tom Campbell had mobilized a new policing strategy dubbed “Operation Dustpan” to eradicate the influx of counter-culture, cannabis-smoking youth in Vancouver. Police arrested 59 people on possession or trafficking charges during the first 10 days of implementing the strategy. In protest, Vancouver members of the Youth International Party organized the smokein, writing articles in The Georgia Straight to promote the event. Glenn Baglo, then a 22-year-old junior photographer at The Vancouver Sun, arrived early on to capture the scene. The young photographer was bent on revolutionizing the paper’s approach to photography. “The Sun at the time used tons of pictures, lots of pictures. But a lot of the pictures were vacuous, pointless space-fillers,” he said. “I wanted to change it, to have more news orientation towards the stuff.” As an aspiring photojournalist, Baglo sent a portfolio of his work to a columnist at Camera 35 magazine. To his surprise, the columnist wrote him back. “He actually responded with a two-page, typewritten, single-spaced letter advising me not to pursue a job in photography,” said Baglo. After working for the now-defunct Ladner Optimist and Lionsgate Times, Baglo’s images were spotted by a managing editor at The Vancouver Sun, who offered him a summer gig at the paper. The fourmonth stint turned into a decades-long career. “Nobody worked Saturdays except the juniors, so that’s how I ended up with that assignment,” he said, referring to the smoke-in. Among the crowd were young dancing hippies, families with children, and bystanders who came to observe the scene. Some were smoking weed, some not. A giant 10 foot-long mock spliff was lit, and ice cream bars were being handed out. Towards the evening, the peaceful gathering was interrupted when mounted police officers arrived. Operating on a false report that windows had been broken, they charged the crowd. Baglo was right in the middle of it. “All the crowd split each way, and the cops went after them, and I ended up in the middle,” he recounted. Mounted police cornered people into doorways, beating them bloody with riot batons. One of the officers reached for Baglo’s camera, managing to rip off the strap as Baglo

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gripped tightly, narrowly avoiding getting trampled by the horses. 79 people were arrested, 38 of them were charged. It would come to be known as the Gastown Riot, and Baglo’s photographs from that evening revealed a grotesque display of police brutality that shocked the greater public and prompted an inquiry into the event by the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Baglo, who retired in 2012, spent 42 years at The Vancouver Sun documenting Vancouver. Influenced by his father, who was a Lutheran minister and hobbyist photographer, Baglo made his first prints from a Kodak box brownie camera at the age of 12, later taking photos for his high school dances and sports matches. “I learned that if you took pictures for the teachers you could get good grades without having to do the work,” he chuckled. I first encountered Baglo’s images in the photography book “Vancouver in the Seventies” by research librarian Kate Bird. Bird worked at The Vancouver Sun and The Province for 25 years as a graphics librarian. When she started, the photographers at each paper would shoot about 4,000 assignments annually, accumulating around 10,000 rolls of film each per year. Her job was to index the entire collection of negatives on a computer database. “I was ambitious about what we could put in at the beginning, but then that had to be pared down just by the sheer magnitude of it,” she laughed. In the mid-2000s, after working as a research librarian for other authors, Bird was approached by Greystone Publishing, who asked if she was interested in curating a photography book. The resulting book, published in 2016, is an expansive collection of photographs that showcases the plurality of newsroom photography in the 70s. “I wanted… to show the breadth of what was covered by news photographers at that time,” Bird told me. The photographs composed a portrait of Vancouver I was unfamiliar with and fascinated by. One photograph, taken in 1975 by Baglo, caught my eye. It shows children of varying ethnicities during a Canada week school assembly. They look dazed as they stare off in different directions, waving miniature Canadian flags. This photograph made me realize – in a way that only a photograph could – the wealth of stories and history of Vancouver that I have yet to explore, a history beyond the sanitized stories of the same white, male Canadian figures that were taught to me during my public school days. As I traced the silky black and white pages of the book, Baglo’s name kept appearing under each of my favourite images. I was particularly drawn to a photograph of a nude family embracing in the ocean, taken in 1971 at Wreck Beach. “I had them stand carefully, and waited for a

wave to come to hide all the naughty bits,” Baglo recounted. It’s an image that emulates the kind of fleeting intimacy that makes his work so magnetic. “In the early 70s, Glenn was a young man. He was like a young hippie, and so he had this other take that some of the guys that were in their forties and fifties might not have had,” Bird observed. “So for instance, they would send him to rock concerts ‘cause the older guys didn’t like it.” Before the 60s and 70s, Bird explained, stiff, posed photographs were the dominating style of newspaper photography. “There was no such thing as a candid shot,” she stressed. In the 60s and 70s, American photojournalists like Robert Frank spearheaded a style of photojournalism that favoured the unposed and realistic. Looking at Baglo’s photographs, the influence is evident. “Glenn was, at that point in his young career, a young guy working at a newspaper, and he had that documentary style that was the new way – whereas the older guys that were working at the paper were still doing that posed thing from the past,” noted Bird. Baglo’s photographs reminded me of the decisive moment, a term coined by pioneer photojournalist Henri Cartier Bresson that emphasizes the timing of a photograph – the defining click of the shutter that suspends action and tension, separating an engaging photograph from a mundane one. Anticipation, Baglo explained, is key. “I would hang around for hours waiting for the picture to appear,” he recalled. As I spoke, he got up to search for a photography book by Cartier-Bresson, but couldn’t find it, so he handed me a W. Eugene Smith book instead, his favourite photographer. Sunlight spilled over the 35mm and medium format analogue cameras that lined his shelf. He pulled a small, immaculately-kept 35mm camera off the shelf and placed it in my hands. I examined it closely. It’s a Leica M4 Rangefinder, the same camera he used to photograph Rod Stewart at his concert in 1971. “It’s not exactly intimidating,” Baglo remarked. I handed the camera back to him. “When I was shooting – I’m

basically like this – I got both eyes open,” he said as he lifted the camera up to his face, one eye under the viewfinder, the other looking directly at me. “So you talk about anticipation – you can see stuff moving in from the sides, and anticipate the person entering the frame, and see what’s going on around. Somehow-or-other, by looking at them like this, they’re making contact with you, not necessarily just the eyeball of the camera, right?” In the 1980s Baglo was promoted to Assistant Graphics Editor, a time he doesn’t remember fondly. “[I] worked my way up to the point of being totally useless,” he groaned. “It was like eight years of attending meetings I didn’t wanna go to.” Baglo eventually returned to working as a photographer, but by that time the age of image control had arrived. “PR people would go crazy because they wanted to ‘help’ me, and I didn’t want any help, I just wanted to observe and I wanted them to go away so that I could concentrate on what I was doing!” he exclaimed. “These days I don’t think you can get rid of a PR person. It doesn’t matter what you’re covering, they have to be there to try and manipulate the picture. That drove me crazy in the end.” In 1994, the Commonwealth Games were held in Victoria, and demand for quick turnaround times prompted The Vancouver Sun and The Province to experiment with digital cameras for the first time. The improved efficiency and potential cost savings lead the papers to purchase twenty Kodak/AP NC2000 cameras in 1995. A collaboration between Kodak and The Associated Press, the camera shot at 1.3 megapixels and cost approximately $17,000 at the time (to compare, an iPhone today shoots 12 megapixels and costs around $1,000). The Vancouver Sun and The Province became the first newspapers in the world to switch their photo departments to digital. It marked the end of an era of analogue photojournalism, and the methodology and aesthetics that came with it. “When you think of over 4,000 assignments per year, that’s covering all aspects of the city,” Bird observed.


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A HIPPIE FAMILY AT WRECK BEACH. JULY 19, 1971. GLENN BAGLO.

FLAG-WAVING STUDENTS FROM VAN HOME ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MARK THE START OF CANADA WEEK AT THE VANCOUVER COURTHOUSE. JUNE 21, 1975. GLENN BAGLO. THE CAPILANO COURIER

Material published with the express permission of: Vancouver Sun, a division of Post Media Network Inc.

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“Especially at a time when – unlike now when people have their own camera on their phone and can take a picture any old time – back then, not that many people were photographing the city except for photographers and artists, and various people like that. It’s quite amazing how much they covered everything that was going on in the city.” With so much news photography and video content now being crowdsourced digitally, it seems as though photojournalism, at least in its traditional identity, has suffered a death. “The business has undergone so many changes and is having such a hard time that – back in the day, with The Vancouver Sun in the 70s, there would have been almost, you know, 20 photographers. Now there’s, you know, one, or two,” said Bird. It’s not just the profession that’s suffered. One of the most remarkable things about Baglo’s photographs is the people within them and their ease with being photographed. I asked Baglo about a photograph of a crowd of fans at the Rod Stewart concert in 1971. It displays a mass of people, so many they blur beyond the frame. A woman is centred, with her arms dangling above her, she looks directly into the camera. I think of how her gaze embraces the lens, how unaware the other fans are of the presence of the camera. It seems impossible, I say to him, to capture that kind of image today. With online platforms like Instagram and Facebook encouraging the public promotion of self through photographs, it seems people have cultivated an association between being photographed and being exposed or surveilled. “I think people are posing all the time,” Baglo contemplated. “With everyone taking pictures with their cellphones and the like and then the subjects all have their preferred smile that they wear for the camera – I don’t know how you get an honest picture anymore.”

A GIANT MOCK SPLIFF IS LIT AT A GASTOWN MARIJUANA SMOKE-IN STREET PARTY, WHICH LATER DEVELOPED INTO THE GASTOWN RIOT. AUGUST 7, 1971. GLENN BAGLO.

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COLUMNS

Global Narratives Unexpected lessons

VALERIA VELAZQUEZ COLUMNIST

Conspiracy Corner A New World Order

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nlike most, I can’t remember my first day of school at Capilano University. To be honest, I wasn’t even excited to begin classes and I'm not going to be the one telling you how amazing my life has been since I came here to start university, because honestly, it has been one of the hardest, yet one of the most fulfilling things I have done in my entire life. I came to Vancouver from Mexico on Dec. 27, 2017. I stayed over at a friend’s house for the first couple of days, celebrated New Year’s Eve with a great

GRETA KOOY COLUMNIST

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irst of all, I need to preface this column by telling you that I could probably write not just one, but two dissertations on this topic. It’s simply not one that can be covered in the span of 800 words, and its complicated roots go as far back as the 1700s (arguably). Nevertheless, as my time here at the Courier ends, I felt an obligation as the paper’s resident conspiracy theorist to talk about the New World Order, and, of course, the Illuminati. For the sake of wordcount and brevity, this is the abridged version. The cliffnotes, if you will. The phrase “New World Order” has graced the covers of several books, albums and other forms of popular media for years, and can take on several different meanings depending on how it’s used. It was popularized by President Woodrow Wilson after the first World War, when he used the phrase in discussing the League of Nations. After Wilson, other powerful world leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev, President George H. W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush, have uttered the words “a New World Order.” Of course, none of these men were using the term

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party surrounded by amazing people and woke up with an undesired and one of a kind hangover. On Jan. 3, I moved to a place I thought was going to be the one I’d call home. It turned out to be one of the seven houses I would live in during the course of a little over a year. When you are first looking to start university in a foreign country you can only think of how much fun you are going to have, all the friends you will make, the parties you’ll go to, how you’ll be able to manage school, work, a social life, sleep and such. But then, BOOM, you get here and realize things are not as easy as they make them look in the movies. Truth is, it’s not as bad as I’m making it sound right now either. Of course, we all have our ups and downs, but that’s what life, in general, is all about, isn’t it? The only thing is that right now in my twenties, every down feels like the end of the world. During my first year at CapU, I learned to let go of a lot of insecurities. I think the biggest one was the way I speak English, with my slight yet existing Hispanic accent. I was so nervous about speaking that I didn’t even want to open my mouth in class to clarify a doubt or even ask someone for their name.I thought people were going to laugh at me for my broken accent, but now I like to think of myself as a half-foot-taller version of Salma Hayek. I’ve realized that my accent is part of who I am and I might

never reach perfect English pronunciation. The fact that I have an accent means that I can speak another language aside from English and that’s something many people only wish they could do. Another one of the things I learned was to value the things I used to have back home. When you live with your parents in your home country, there is so much you take for granted, such as having food in the fridge at all times, not having to worry about paying rent or even doing the laundry and cleaning up the house. The greatest thing I found I took for granted was my family. I didn’t know how much I was going to miss my parents and siblings until they were not around bothering me every day as they did before. This really hits the hardest on days when you get sick, or sad or even just stressed out. Those days are the ones when you really wish there was someone there to take care of you or even just hug you and tell you everything’s going to be alright. The thing I’m still struggling with is learning how to control my freedom. Yes, you read it right, control my freedom. It was so hard for me to come here and set boundaries for everything in my life. Suddenly, I went from being the girl who had to ask for the permission of her parents to stay over at a friend’s house, to being the girl who had the world at her feet and could do whatever she wanted. Having gotten a job (which meant I had

all this money for myself) and not living with my parents anymore, I thought I was invincible. I started to do all these things that I wouldn’t have normally done had I stayed in Mexico – some which were nurturing and put me in the path towards becoming the best version of myself and others which I’m not so proud of that pushed me sort of in the opposite direction. This push and pull went on until I reached a point where I felt I was taking one step forward and two back and I couldn’t handle it anymore. I felt I was abusing my freedom and so I started setting boundaries for myself and that itself is a fundamental part of growing up, maturing and becoming the person you really want to be. During this time, I’ve been through a lot – more than I can put into words in this column, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned is that growth (in any aspect you wish to think about) is not found in comfort. Throughout our lives we are going to find ourselves in situations that we don’t want to be in, having to do things we might not want to do at that moment, but we have to think about the effect it will have, good or bad, and decide if we want to go forth with it. Life is all about the decisions we make. They define us and every choice we make defines our path. As far as I can tell, if you’re an international student just like me, I know you’ve already made a good one just by coming here.

menacingly, but rather to describe shifts in power, typically after a war or significant political event. To conspiracy theorists however, the term New World Order means something much more secretive and sinister – to them, it refers to a group of ultra-powerful elites who are hellbent on world domination, made possible through various acts of mind and population control. The elites in this case include the likes of oil tycoons, royal families, political and world leaders, influential financiers and even international organizations like the European Union, NATO, the United Nations and the World Bank. Many theorists argue that evidence of the New World Order’s existence is “hiding in plain sight” and can be found almost anywhere if you look hard enough. The most telling example to them, however, lies within the Great Seal of the United States. Just underneath the “all-seeing eye” (which in itself is a conspiracy) reads “Novus Ordo Seclorum”. When (badly) translated, this reads “New World Order.” Other examples include the dedication marker outside of the Denver International Airport which reads “New World Airport Commission”, an organization that is non-existent, and the use of the “all-seeing eye” on the American dollar bill. The eye, which sits in the middle of a pyramid, is often seen as a symbol of the New World Order as it has connections with another ultra-secretive group, the Freemasons. The Freemasons are an integral part of this conspiracy theory, and they’re often linked to being part of the Illuminati. Although the word “Illuminati” has taken on a different face since, it was an actual secret society in the 1700s, leading many theorists to believe that it’s still in existence to this day. The Illuminati of the 1700s, however, was not out to rule the world. Instead, the fraternal group was made up

of free thinkers who advocated for things like liberalism and gender equality. Many conspiracy theorists will argue that the New World Order and Illuminati groups are simply runoffs of older Freemason practices, and is now heavily made up of members from the Rothschild, Rockefeller, Du Pont and Morgan families. The New World Order conspiracy is a complicated one because it’s made up of several sub-conspiracy theories (which we’ll touch on in just a second). For the most part though, the group’s focus tends to be on population control via mind control. Now, if I haven’t lost you yet, there is one real-world example of the government’s attempt at mind control: Project MKUltra. Several parts of the CIA-run project were declassified in 2001 which revealed experiments that took place over the course of nearly 20 years – experiments on human test subjects that focused solely on mind control using substantial amounts of drugs like LSD and heroin. Now, nearly 50 years later, conspiracy theorists believe that our governments have gotten craftier in their mind control techniques. This involves things like chemtrails and the contamination of our water supply to create a more docile and passive population. Other methods include the expansion of military power, mass surveillance of ordinary citizens and distraction through corporatism. The idea is that the easier we are to control, the easier it will be to establish the New World Order, one in which we have no power and will lack the ability to exercise any form of personal

autonomy. Essentially, a global dictatorship, a one-world government run by the powerful few. The conspiracy of the New World Order and Illuminati groups remained mostly dormant until the age of the Internet. Since then, they've arguably become the most well-known conspiracy theories out there. Secret conferences attended by the ultrawealthy and powerful, like the annual Bilderberg Meeting and Cremation of Care, only add more tinfoil to the hats of conspiracy theorists, and as more CCTV cameras are introduced globally, the argument for population control only gets stronger. I can’t stress enough that I’ve only barely scratched the surface on this topic, and

strongly encourage anyone who’s interested to do some extra “research”. If I can recommend one thing especially, watch something on the Cremation of Care. Just don’t watch it in the dark. ILLUSTRATED BY CYNTHIA TRAN VO


COLUMNS

Trying Times A Shave Above the Knee

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priestess Melisandre, “There is only one hell, princess. The one we live in now.” The end of Thrones will come later this spring. It will undoubtedly be contentious, as devotees of George R.R. Martin’s yet-to-be-finished A Song of Ice and Fire series will certainly have their gripes. The End of Television Even show-first fans like me will likely have complaints, since loose ends and unanswered questions are inevitable. But more important than how Thrones concludes, is the very fact that it’s ending. Thrones, as The Ringer’s Alison Herman said, “is the very last piece of television monoculture.” It is the biggest television program of the post-Sopranos era, and likely has a claim as the biggest show ever. It is certainly the most expensive to produce, and as we found out last year, the most pirated. When Game of Thrones ends, it will take with it, the last bastion of linear television. Linear television refers to the CARLO JAVIER broadcasting structure that programs THE ONLY EXCEPTION traditionally follow. For example, Thrones airs on Sundays at 6 pm, Grey’s Anatomy is on Thursdays at 8 pm, and The Bachelor is on Mondays at 8 pm According to he most on-brand ending Game of television scholar, Nele Simons, linear Thrones could possibly run would television isn’t just a mere broadcasting have to include the Night King construct, it also paves the way for a social and his Army of the Dead lay waste to experience. A set-broadcasting schedule the Westerosi civilizations and drive our allows millions and millions of people to surviving heroes past the Narrow Sea. watch the same content, at the same time. A victory for the bad guys would follow Furthermore, the shared experience can the long-established ethos of Thrones – one also extend after the show, as evidenced that eschewed conventional narrative tropes, by commentary, critique and conversation such as good triumphing over evil. Plus, that we conduct about our favourite shows if we were to accept internet readings that among friends and co-viewers. claim Thrones is a commentary on modern Thrones’ place in the pantheon of socio political issues such as climate change, television greats is indisputable. It’s among political polarization or general apathy, then the most watched shows in history, it’s the what better way to end than to have evil most pirated, and it’s the most expensive. triumphing over good. It would just seem Unlike other television titans like The Big ‘on-brand.’ In the wise words of the red

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You’ve already read about some of the goals I set for myself. I went to a barre fitness class, which was a part of me trying to find physical activities in a fun environment that I actually would enjoy. I completed a Whole30 days of clean eating, without alcohol, even though I thought it would be impossible for me. Then, last week, I wore shorts to the gym. First of all, I was uncomfortable before we even left the house, fidgeting with the waistband of my blue men’s Adidas Bang Theory (finally ending, whew), and Grey’s Anatomy (needs to end), Thrones remains in heavy demand despite the extra cost that its premium cable channel asks for. The most powerful weapon in any television show’s arsenal is the ending. It offers the long-awaited pay out to the seasons and seasons we invest in not only as viewers, but also as active participants in the culture around it, in discussions and critique. The end of Thrones comes at a time when we – active agents in the communications dialogue between producer and consumer – have displayed some semblance of power in effecting change in the process of content creation and production. Our very habits are the data that feeds Netflix’s infamous algorithm after all. Thrones stood tall amidst the rise of streaming, and once it concludes, there will be a massive vacant space in the television landscape. It’s fair to ask who will fill the crater that Thrones will leave. HBO’s Westworld exhibited tremendous promise in its first two seasons, and the cable company also has its highly-anticipated rendition of Watchmen in the works. Netflix isn’t going away, and Disney, Warner Media, and even Facebook are looking to secure some of that streaming revenue with their own platforms launching in the near future. Maybe we shouldn’t be looking for the

shorts. ‘Should I wear them higher or lower?’ If I wore them higher they would cover my muffin top, but then show more of my thighs. ‘Should I have shaved above my knee?’ I hadn’t done that since the summer. It also wasn’t warm outside and before even leaving, my knees had started to turn purple, which happens all the time because of my poor circulation, but people never see because I don’t wear shorts. When I got to the gym I was anxiously looking around to see if anyone was staring at me. Turns out, no one gave a shit about my legs. Surprise, surprise, but whatever issues I was having with my tree trunks before leaving the house were my issues, not anyone else's. This goal was set out of my desire to improve my self-confidence. I told myself that by March I wanted to feel confident enough about the changes I was making for my health to wear shorts to the gym. Even though I wasn’t sure if I was confident enough, I did it anyways. Although it was just wearing shorts and hardly an achievement, it did feel like a big moment where I realized that my insecurities are entirely mine and that means I am the only one who can or cannot give them power. That has been my biggest takeaway from this last challenging year or so of growth – that it really is all about how you frame things for yourself. ILLUSTRATED BY RACHEL WONG

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CMNS 236: Understanding More Television

losing weight. That is fucking hard though, because it’s about actually shifting your entire mindset from ‘I need to lose weight/ be thinner’ to ‘I need to be a healthier better version of myself’. That thinking goes so against the idea of success having to be something measurable, because unlike the numbers on a scale, ‘being healthier’ isn’t always quantifiable.

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his week, let’s get real personal. I wore shorts to the gym – I know, wild. However, this was about more than the small amount of fabric itself, as my articles have so often been, this was about setting a goal for myself and doing it. Here’s the real bit: I have been struggling with my body for the last few years. As a teenager, I never even thought about my weight because I was always tall and naturally thin. When I moved out on my own as a 19-year-old, I was suddenly in charge of making sure I ate well and exercised and honestly, I was not much of a leader for myself. Like a kid left home alone for a night, I was eating whatever I wanted because I thought I could. Turns out, I couldn’t, and as my mid-twenties began to approach

and my metabolism slowed, my clothes got tighter and my self-esteem lowered. I wouldn’t say that I was ever extremely confident, as that’s something hard to come by for any adolescent, but I also never worried about my body. At least, not until a few years ago. I remember looking at myself in the mirror, examining all the fleshy bits of my body that I didn’t recognize – I had stretch marks and cellulite and folds that hadn’t been there before. In 2017, I decided to stop complaining and actually do something about it (Newsflash: I obviously didn’t stop complaining). Over the summer of 2017 I lost almost 25 pounds and was feeling super accomplished, so much so that I rewarded myself but eating whatever I wanted again and not exercising. By this new year, 2019, I had gained back all the weight plus an extra 20 or so pounds. Again, I stood in the mirror not liking what I saw. For me, it wasn’t even the physical aspect of it that was the biggest issue. I am an advocate for people being happy at whatever size they are, so what I was disappointed in was that I had so completely stopped prioritizing my physical health to the point that it was impacting my emotional well-being as well. I knew that it required not just a shift in my eating and exercise habits, but also in the way that I thought. So, I decided to become a person who sets goals. I focused on non-scale related things, because I wanted this to be more about making overall better choices than just

ILLUSTRATED BY CORALIE MAYER-TRAYNOR

next vanguard of linear television. Maybe the question to ask is whether or not we even need one. The streaming format has given us a seemingly endless library of television content to watch at our own leisure. More importantly, it’s given us control. We can now dictate what show we’ll watch, when we’ll watch it, where and how we’ll watch it. After all, the medium is and will always be the message.

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CAMPUS LIFE

On Thursday, Mar. 21 the Capilano Students' Union (CSU) hosted their seventh annual Rail Jam in the Cedar Courtyard. With freshly laid snow on the ground Capilano University's talented skiiers and snowboarders showed off their moves to the crowd of spectators. See capilanocourier.com next week for the full story about proceeds from the event! Photos by Melissa Gibbons

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MARCH

SUSTAINABILITY WEEK MOVIE NIGHT

GROUSE HALL CAPU RESIDENCE 7 PM / FREE

Cozy up with some snacks and blankets at the CapU Residence for a special movie screening of The True Cost hosted by CapU Works.

MEGAN'S BIRTHDAY ALL DAY

It's our Opinions Editor's birthday!

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GREENING FILM – SUSTAINABILITY WEEK BOSA THEATRE 11:45 AM / FREE

Listen to an inspiring panel chit chat with a CapU student and alumna about sustainability in the film industry!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELECTION THE CAPILANO COURIER

CAPILANO COURIER OFFICE NOON / FREE

We need you to help us elect our new leader! Pizza will be provided, come hang with your friendly neighbourhood campus publication.

CSU MEMBERS CENTRE 5-8 PM / FREE

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ART FOR ALL

Check out the display of art created during pride month! Come build new friendships and admire your talented fellow students.

JOBS FOR U! HIRING FAIR

BIRCH CAFETERIA 11 AM - 2 PM / FREE (REGISTRATION REQUIRED)

Worried about job hunting after graduation? The Career Development Centre is bringing employers to you! Meet over 30 employers, grow your professional network and maybe net yourself a job.

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MOVIE NIGHT MAPLE LOUNGE 4-10 PM / FREE

The Courier loves a good movie night. We don’t always have pizza at ours though. Imagine how much more roomy it’ll be in the lounge.

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24 HOUR MOVIE MARATHON THE CINEMATHIQUE ALL DAY / $60

You’ve pulled an all-nighter on that sociology paper, can you pull another for a curated selection of movies?

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SHORTS

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CONNECTION CAFE WAVES COFFEE ON ROBSON 10 AM / $10

The Connected Women and Waves Coffee have teamed up to host a connection cafe. Make new connections and enjoy a cup of joe.

INVESTMENT SUMMIT

THE WORLD WIDE WEB 10 PM / $40-90

Want to learn about investing but don’t know where to start? You could attend this online summit slap bang in the middle of the week for a hefty fee, or check out CapU’s own Todd Newfield’s upcoming course and receive some hands on mentorship.

RENAISSANCE FAIRE! THE RIO THEATRE 8 PM / $12

Our Editor-in-Chief was super disappointed to find out that this is actually a band of merrymakers “presenting” a Renaissance Fair. No dressing up in dirndles and clogs for the audience unfortunately.

NORTH SHORE WRITERS FESTIVAL LYNN VALLEY LIBRARY 9 AM / FREE

This year is the Writers Festival’s 20th anniversary! Canadian writers will be reading their work throughout Friday and Saturday and hosting workshops. There’s also a local author book fair!

CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL GARY POINT PARK 11 AM / FREE

You may be jostling for elbow space with hundreds of wannabe Instagram celebrities. But if you put your filters aside for a while to enjoy the sight of the cherry blossoms opening up and the warm spring sunshine, you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more.

REVIEW: PEPPA PIG RACHEL D’SA COLUMNS EDITOR

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t was the summer before my senior year of highschool, my final year of childhood you could say. My family had been trekking under the blazing Italian heat for a month and whenever we’d get back to our hotel we’d flop on the cool beds and flip on the television. One of the very few shows available country-wide at every hotel was Peppa Pig. The show follows the captivating and often tense adventures of Peppa Pig, her brother George (and the dinosaur toy he drags around with him everywhere he goes), their parents and various other families in the animal town. Since its 2004 start, this international hit of a show has branched into an entire franchise, complete with its own Disneyland-esque theme park, Peppa Pig World. It comes as no surprise that this show has been deemed golden -- it’s brilliant. I’d sip my iced acqua, a massive bag of Balocco cookies in my lap, eyes glued to the bright colours and bold shapes. The small bit of Italian that I do know came in handy and the visuals only made it easier to understand the complex plot points. I soon began to hear the doddling jingle in my sleep to the echoes of Italian Peppa chipperly saying, “Io sonno Peppa, e questo è il mio fratellino George.” Each episode would end in a fit of giggles with a high chance of muddy puddle jumping, and though the overlying tone is upbeat, there is definite tea-spilling and savage moments. New storylines unwravel and with them, new emotions. Peppa learned and I learned. When I stumbled across Peppa Pig I was approaching adulthood and I didn’t know where to turn. Finding herself in the midst of adolescence, Peppa works at navigating life’s ups and downs, much as I was. I was once a fearful bambina, however Peppa Pig impacted me in more ways than one and I stand here today a cazzuto figlio di puttana.


SHORTS

BINGE-WORTHY TV SHOWS REVIEW: GRAN HOTEL CHRISTINE BEYLEVELDT MOVING TO AUSTRALIA

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SHEILA ARELLANO ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

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CREATIVE COMMONS

ILLUSTRATED BY EMMA HARRIS

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vatar: The Last Airbender is an animated series for all ages. The wonderful story, the character arcs and the world building will entice you and immerse you within a world you’ll wish lasted forever. The series tells the story of the Avatar, who can control the four elements, unlike the other citizens of this fantasy land. The world is divided between four nations, each nation can bend a different element. Every nation corresponds to a different natural element: water, air, earth and fire. For 100 years, the fire nation has marginalized the other nations due to the disappearance of the Avatar, who is the keeper of the balance. The series begins when the Avatar reemerges from his 100year disappearance in the southern water tribe, yet he is still a kid and has a lot to learn about the world. From there, a journey to find bending teachers begins when Avatar Aang, along with his friends Katara and Sokka, decide to go to the northern water tribe to master waterbending and, in doing so, end the fire nation’s monarchy. But this will take time. Even though this is a show targeted for a younger audience, it appeals to all ages as the characters are complex, and the story is fast paced and engaging. The friendships, relationships and interactions will make you want to be part of Team Avatar and join them on all their awesome adventures to stop the war. At the same time, Avatar: The Last Airbender tells one of the greatest redemption arcs of all time. Interwoven with the storytelling , you will encounter wisdom inviting you to think about your own life. This series is a storytelling masterpiece that should be considered one of the great classics. Netflix has decided to create a new live action series based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, so keep your eyes peeled!

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re you a stickler for historical epics? Do you find yourself on the edge of your seat when the butler accidentally comes downstairs in black tie and causes a scandal of Downton Abbeyesque proportions? Well, then Gran Hotel is the show for you. It’s been called Downton Abbey on steroids, but this Spanish soap opera really is a masterpiece in itself totally void of similarities to Downton. The only similarity between the two shows is that they’re both period pieces, with Gran Hotel set in the fictitious town of Cantaloa, Spain in 1906 on a grand estate owned by the wealthy Alarcon family. A young waiter, Julio, comes to the hotel looking for his younger sister Cristina, who mysteriously disappeared several weeks prior. He lies his way into a job and begins investigating the hotel, joined by another waiter, Andres, and the youngest Alarcon daughter, Alicia. Julio and Alicia fall in love (this is a soap opera after all), but circumstances keep them apart – circumstances in this case meaning Alicia’s husband Don Diego Murquia. Have you ever heard the term “hijo de puta”? Because that’s what Diego is. An ambitious, possessive man who has far more in common with Alicia’s mother. The two of them are ruthless schemers. Alicia and Julio on the other hand are curious and sharp-witted. They’re lovebirds with a serious case of will-theywon’t-they going on. If misplaced cutlery can set your heart aflutter, then Gran Hotel will not disappoint. In Downton absentee silverware only means one of the wait staff can anticipate a sacking. In Gran Hotel it means a serial killer who's weapon of choice is gold-plated cutlery is prowling the streets of Cantaloa. Don’t worry, Julia and Alicia figure out what happened to his unfortunate sister, but one mystery will always be replaced by another. The characters will either melt your hearts or have you railing your fists in fits of anger. Don’t watch this show if you have heart problems. Or if you can't abide subtitles, because the entire show is in Spanish.

REVIEW: AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER


ARTS & CULTURE

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Capilano AEM Students Presents: Friendly Feud Yelling in the cafeteria for an acceptable reason! TAYLOR KLEINE-DETERS CONTRIBUTOR

THE CAPILANO COURIER

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n all Tuesdays through the academic year Capilano University hosts a campus-wide lunch hour where there are no classes held. For that sweet hour and a half the student population congregates around the campus’ greatest spread of food options before class starts again. On Apr. 2, from 12-1:30 pm, the cafeteria will also play host to a rousing game of Friendly Feud in the lower concourse. Friendly Feud is the project that three first-year Arts & Entertainment Management (AEM) students have been working on for most of this Spring semester. When the AEM team, consisting of Breanna Amodia, Samantha Gove and McKenzie Thomas were deciding what they wanted the event to look like they took into account that “[they] wanted to do a game-show style event and thought, ‘hm, Jeopardy or Family Feud?’” said Amodia. It was decided that a Family Feud-inspired event would be the best game that could be held in a busy area and have more than one person involved at any given time. In line with the traditional format of Family Feud, the answers to questions were sourced from a diverse population with answers catalogued by Google Forms on all four rounds. Each round will have four questions for teams to answer and the final

round will have five “fast cash” questions. “We still need some more answers to the questions for rounds three and four so please, please fill them out!” Amodia emphasizes. When asked about the content that has been submitted on the Google Forms Amodia laughed and said, “One of the

questions, that is not being used because the answers were so dumb, was ‘name a controversial Disney star’ and someone said Pocahontas.” And while that person’s answer was not technically incorrect, it was not the train of thought that the AEM team was pursuing. The event itself will be hosted by

Capilano Theatre Program’s own Marco Walker-Ng, who will be coming off of a successful run of playing Franklin Hart Jr. in CapU’s production of 9 to 5: The Musical. “[Amodia, Thomas,] and I are putting it all together” said Gove, “[And] I put out the idea to ask him because when he performed at the Talent Showcase before Christmas Break he seemed comfortable in front of a crowd and had the right personality for it,” she concluded, referring to having WalkerNg host the event. The point of the AEM Diploma program is to get comfortable working in event settings and all that entails. “We’ve sent a lot of sponsorship letters out” Amodia said. The prizes for the winning team are still coming together but gift cards for food shops are rumoured to be on the table. “We need eight teams for the tournament,” Amodia said. “Sign-ups are open now but will stay open until the event starts in the caf.” “This is supposed to be an opportunity for everyone to gather their friends and have fun at an event before finals start. It’s supposed to be super inclusive so that professors and other employees can play if they want to.” Amodia said with enthusiasm. If you are interested in signing up your team for Friendly Feud or are interested in submitting answers to the final rounds of questions you can do so on the event’s Facebook page. Make sure to make an appearance in the cafeteria on Apr. 2 from 12-1:30 pm.

ILLUSTRATED BY NATALIE HEAMAN

Exciting Capture Photography Festival Arrives in April The month-long festival highlights the many talents and skills of photographers from the West Coast and around the world NIROSH SARAVANAN CONTRIBUTOR

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he Vancouver Capture Festival runs from April 3-30 and it spreads across Metro Vancouver. The event has various art installations, exhibits and much more that portray the works of numerous recognized photographers. The festival is the largest event of its kind in Western Canada. It is dedicated to present the most appealing, lens-based artwork from both local and international photographers. With the photography world becoming more digital and physical images having a decreasing presence in the world, this festival increases the importance of exhibiting material photographs to the public. Digital photographs can often lose the intimacy with the audience and lack the full meaning and symbolism photographs once had. The director of the Capture Photography Festival, Kate Henderson, agrees that “images are a major facet of our everyday life. We scroll through

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seeks to tackle the issues Indigenous peoples face every day. Capture also seeks to inspire the next generation of photographers. By both running galleries as well as hosting workshops for youth The Capture Festival was launched in to participate in, 2013 and, since then, the importance of Capture wishes to a physical festival has been highlighted. “Festivals are important because they bring “support emerging artist at all stages of people together...While many facets of their careers.” This our lives happen online now, it is still very includes the highimportant to get together, create discussion school focused Flash and dialogue and take part in all of the Forward program, exhibitions and events that this festival which is an extrahas to offer. There is an energy during the curricular program festival that is infectious and exciting,” that helps nurture Henderson said. a creative process Contributions by Indigenous artists hold that “they may not be valued significance for the festival. “The working with within their majority of us are settlers on this unceded art class,” Henderson said. territory. We may feel a deep connection to this place, but it is not our land. There is For university students, the appeal can either be simply seeing the many free a vast, millennia-old history here that has been obscured. It’s important that the stories exhibitions and installations all across the Greater Vancouver Area, or attend the talks, of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleilfilms and tours for students to participate in. Waututh Peoples are heard and respected.” This year, this aspect of Canadian history is The festival is also seeking volunteers to help shown by the festival through working with with the festival in general, so don’t be shy several Indigenous women artists, including to reach out. Whether it be an administrative position or an opportunity for a photographer, two local Musqueam and Semiahmoo artists. Through ‘lens based arts,’ the festival there are many options available for anyone endless images on social media, and we are bombarded by images in advertising, television and online almost every minute of our lives. The ability and ease with which we can take and share photographs is astonishing and has definitely changed our relationship to images and photography. Unfortunately, sometimes this phenomenon dilutes and renders images meaningless.”

interested in Capture to get involved. More information can be found at the festival’s website or by emailing volunteer@capturephotofest.com. Capture Festival events are available all over the Greater Vancouver Area, from Surrey to North Vancouver. More information can be found at capturephotofest.com. ILLUSTRATED BY SARAH HAGLUM


ARTS & CULTURE

Carving Space for Truth and Reconciliation

Internationally recognized Coast Salish artists create a conversation piece with their new totem pole for the Vancouver School Board FREYA WASTENEYS FEATURES EDITOR

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including several notable sets of carved wooden doors at Emily Carr, the Vancouver School Board, BC Hydro and the Gordon Smith Gallery in North Vancouver.

“It’s not hard for me – I just allow myself to create and let it happen,” said Xwalacktun. “I focus on the message that I want out of it and the messages start coming out even

just through talking and dialogue with other people new things and ideas come up.” Even as he speaks, another pedestrian approaches curiously.

THE CAPILANO COURIER VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 13

eneath a steel frame canopy on the lawn outside the Vancouver School Board lies a 44-foot red cedar from upper Squamish. At the top hovers a thunderbird, wings folded upwards in a full dive to deliver a message. As the carvers work, more symbols and figures emerge and the pile of wood shavings grows. The totem is the latest project by Squamish and Kwakwaka'wakw artist Xwalacktun (born Rick Harry) and his son James Harry. Based around Truth and Reconciliation, the totem was funded by the school board to promote knowledge and learning about First Nation peoples as well as a respect for Mother Earth. Just off Granville Street on the bike lanes of West 10th Avenue, the spot sees a high volume of foot traffic. Xwalacktun takes a rare moment to rest in a lawn chair in the sun. As people pass, they peer in curiously, or stop to chat. “A lot of interested people have been coming around,” he said. He points out the small globe at the top of the pole, clutched between the wings of the thunderbird. “It’s coming down fast to let us know that we need to treat Mother Earth better,” said Xwalacktun as he verbally works his way down the pole. He points to the frog – the communicator and bearer of ancient knowledge and to the Coast Salish eye. “To remind us that we’re being watched by the creator, the ancestors, our community, family, friends and ourselves,” he explained. The project holds a special place for the artist as his first big carving project with his 29-year-old son, James Harry, who is working on the pole from the opposite end. The process feels symbolic with the two generations work towards each other. His son is working on a bear holding a woman and an eagle, symbolizing power within and vision for change. The work combines a number of styles and promotes diverse perspectives and communities meeting in the middle. The two are joined by Xwalacktun’s friend and assistant, Frank Darier Baziere, who hails from France and has been working with the artist for the past six years. “This is for Truth and Reconciliation after all,” said Xwalacktun. “It’s nice to have someone else who isn’t First Nations working on it as well.” Xwalacktun participated in his first carving activity when he was 12 and has been pursuing the art form for over 48 years. In 1982 he graduated from Emily Carr, and today he is internationally recognized. He has received numerous awards for his contributions, including an Order of British Columbia in 2012, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award in 2012, and BC’s Achievement Award as well as the Arthur G. Hayden Medal in 2016. In Vancouver alone he has been commissioned for countless pieces,

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CABOOSE

@CAPILANOCOURIER

HOROSCOPES AQUARIUS (JAN. 21 – FEB.19)

Look left. Look right. Both people next to you have smiles on their faces. You’re the odd one out.

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/CAPILANOCOURIER

CARTOONS SPOT THE DIFFERENCE ILLUSTRATED BY ROBYN BEYLEVELDT

PISCES (FEB. 20 – MARCH 20)

Time to buy a whole new summer wardrobe. It’s a good thing yours typically lasts four or five seasons before going out of style. ARIES (MARCH 21 – APRIL 20)

If you made a mistake this week be a grown up and just apologize. It’s better than having that awkward lingering silence for the rest of the semester.

THE CAPILANO COURIER

VOLUME 51 ISSUE NO. 13

TAURUS (APRIL 21 – MAY 21)

You take way too many pictures of your cat. We get it, he’s adorable. He only loves you because you feed him.

GEMINI (MAY 22 – JUNE 21)

You will meet a handsome stranger over a rousing game of Harry Potter trivia this week.

CANCER (JUNE 22 – JULY 23)

Throw caution to the wind and don’t study for your test later this week. We believe in miracles!

LEO (JULY 24 – AUG. 23)

Your emotions are as turbulent as the weather these days. Frosty in the morning, slick in the afternoon.

VIRGO (AUG. 24 – SEPT. 23)

We’d tell you to make logical decisions this week, but who really does that?

LIBRA (SEPT. 24 – OCT. 23)

Try not to be too disappointed when the Easter Bunny doesn’t visit this year.

SCORPIO (OCT. 24 – NOV. 22)

You’re going to have an amazing summer full of adventures.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 23– DEC. 21)

Don’t make excuses when your friends want to drag your sorry ass to Harry Potter trivia this week. Trust us.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 – JAN. 20)

You’re going to work seven days a week all summer. Ask Scorpio how theirs was when you meet again in September. 20

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