Cultural centre needed for cultivating Filipino community, locals say. P11
Twilighters show that rugby isn't just a young person's sport.
Recent random attacks lead to problematic generalizations. langaravoice.ca
The importance of gender diversity and related health effects aren’t recognized in healthcare as well as they could be, according to researchers at Western University under the Trans PULSE Canada project.
Kalysha Closson, a health sciences instructor and gender equity researcher with Simon Fraser University, said the inclusion of people with diverse identities in research is important to ensure all voices are being represented fairly.
“A big part of the work that we do in my research is making sure that we engage with people that have livedin/living experiences of the groups that we're interested in working with,” Closson said.
As the City of Vancouver continues to evict people from the Hastings Street tent encampment, those being ousted say they have nowhere to go. At least, nowhere safe.
The city, which has been attempting to remove people from the tent encampment on Hastings since last August, is suggesting people head to shelters or single-room occupancy housing, or SROs. But advocates and those being moved say those options are not viable.
Stuart Panko, who was recently evicted from his tent on Hastings, said that given the option of a shelter or an SRO, he would stay in his tent.
“I feel safer on the street,” Panko said Monday at a press conference held by drug user advocacy group VANDU.
Monday, bins provided by the city were filled with evicted tent residents’ belongings. Tents with signs reading “This tent is my home” were taken down.
Ryan Sudds, an organizer for encampment advocacy group Stop the Sweeps, said he has seen one person whose tent was being taken down in the middle of the rain refusing to move for 20 minutes despite having police and city staff surrounding him.
“He just didn't want his home stolen,” Sudds said.
Sudds said a police car with a mental nurse was subsequently called because the resident was purportedly in a mental health crisis.
The city will continue to “clear structures” and remove residents from their tents until the encampment’s eventual closing, according to a statement released by the City of Vancouver.
But multiple advocacy groups, including VANDU and Stop the
Sweeps, say leaked documents from the city showed plans for a more aggressive approach expected to begin Tuesday. The documents appear to show police will become more involved in removing people and structures, according to VANDU.
Downtown Eastside housing advocate Fiona York says the possible police involvement could simply lead residents to shuffle to side streets, shelters or somewhere less safe to prevent a violent interaction with police and enforcers.
“That may or may not be a longterm option for them,” York said. “But they may do that because they're faced with this forceful, but potentially violent police eviction.”
It may also steer residents to less visible places and from which they
will emerge to simply access community workers and services available to them, she said.
“I think for the most part people will just become more isolated and less visible,” York said.
The Voice reached out to the Vancouver Police Department and spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison for an interview but did not receive a response by print deadline.
However, according to a statement sent by the City of Vancouver, the actions in the decampment of East Hastings are in line with the city’s policy to address a “life safety risk.”
The city has been encouraging voluntary removal of the structures placed around the city and has since removed 600 structures since August, according to a city email. The city has linked unsafely stored propane tanks to recent dangerous fires in the area. It has also blamed the encampment for multiple assaults and noted an increase in weapon possession in the neighbourhood.
The Institute of Gender and Health (IGH), a federal government research institute, kicked off its IGH Listening Tour: Researcher Townhall on Monday, April 3 with a presentation followed by discussion with an audience primarily made up of academics. Monday's event marked the first date of a national tour.
Angela Kaida, a speaker at the event and an SFU instructor, said,“Equality means everybody has the same; equity means that we have the resources, support [and] attention based on what we need,” she said. “Health outcomes are not equitably distributed, resources are not equitably distributed and how we set priorities for whose health matters is not equitable either.”
Kaida said she sees the role of the IGH as important in the research field. “The last [IGH] strategic plan was probably created in 2016 or so to guide the way forward,” Kaida said. “The world we're in today — the threats that are being placed on the lives of trans people, … the ways that policies are being made, not informed at all by the science or about the lived realities of trans — is really frightening.”
Third-year Langara nursing student Robyn Culley said inclusion in the workplace has improved.
“Maybe curriculum changes in terms of educating healthcare practitioners, I think that's the first step,” they said. “But it also needs to be a culture thing.”
"They're faced with this forceful, but potentially violent police eviction.” By EMMA SHULAR By THEA CATIPON
Four years ago this month, families in Whistler were hosting 10 students from the resort municipality’s Japanese sister city, Karuizawa. But then the pandemic that shut down international travel also put the decades-long exchange program on hold.
Now, the Whistler-Karuizawa high school student exchange is once again set to go forward for 2024.
Karuizawa’s new mayor, Michio Tsuchiya, was sworn in last month, and within weeks, reached out to Whistler’s council to express an interest in rebooting the exchange.
In a February letter addressed to Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton, Tsuchiya described how the students looked forward to the exchange, and emphasized the importance of experiencing a different culture.
“We have learned so much through meeting new people and touching new cultures in foreign countries,” Tsuchiya wrote in his letter which Whistler’s council discussed in a March 7 meeting.
Crompton said the four-year pause was solely due to COVID-19 measures and that it was always the intention to restart the program and it was only a matter of when.
“It’s a really fulfilling experience for the kids,” Crompton said. “It’s pretty special.”
The Whistler-Karuizawa exchange stretches back 21 years, with 10 youths from each community participating each year. The recent four-year hiatus was the program’s first pause, said Penny Lafrance, a spokesperson for the Resort Municipality of Whistler.
Crompton said he has not yet spoken to Karuizawa’s new mayor in person, but he hopes to soon. Crompton also spoke of his relationship with former Karuizawa mayor Susumu Fujimaki, who participated in Whistler’s Canada Day parade by driving a golf cart through a hectic Whistler Village.
“The mayor was a tremendous amount of fun,” said Crompton. “I’m going to miss seeing him on a regular basis.”
Both Whistler and Karuizawa are resort municipalities and have hosted Olympic games, similarities that Tsuchiya said could put both cities in a position to learn from each other.
“I would like to promote exchanges especially at the private level,” Tsuchiya said in his letter to Crompton.
Ten Karuizawa students will arrive in Whistler in March 2024, Lafrance said, with the Whistler students leaving for Japan in October 2024.
Whistler students looking to participate in the Karuizawa exchange must be in Grade 8 to 9, according to the official Whistler-Karuizawa student exchange website. Homestay families will be required to undergo a police information check, and the Resort Municipality of Whistler will pay for half of the flight costs.
The new mayor and council of Williams Lake, B.C. have made Indigenous relations a pillar of their term.
One new councillor says it represents a major shift for Williams Lake, after years of strained relations between the local government and Indigenous communities around the city.
“Williams Lake is a pretty brutal place in regards to the lack of inclusivity,” said new Williams Lake Coun. Michael Moses, a member of the Secwepemc and Nlaka’pamux Nations. “A big reason I ran for our city council was to try to start repairing and improving Indigenous relations in our region, and in our city specifically.”
The January 2022 launch, under Williams Lake’s previous council,of a truth and reconciliation committee was “almost a direct response,” Moses said, to the city’s then-mayor sharing a widely denounced post on social media, claiming there was an “other side” to residential schools and that Indigenous people “want to be victims.”
“The creation of the committee was a response to bad press, and obviously, a very, very angered and pained reaction from the local tribal councils,” said Moses.
However, Moses says, the truth and reconciliation committee announced under the previous council “never actually came into existence.” Going forward, Indigenous relations will be a part of the community services committee, which Moses chairs.
The committee will look to examples around the province, such as the City of Kamloops and Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, which won the B.C. Reconciliation Award earlier this year.
Williams Lake council will also apply for funding from the Union of B.C.
Municipalities to fund Indigenous communications and host events, Moses said.
Moses says establishing Indigenous relations as a core principle of the city council was his “biggest dream,” but he did not think this was a realistic goal.
“I was really pleasantly surprised that the rest of city council, every single one of them, was incredibly supportive,” he said.
Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, the first Indo-Canadian mayor of Williams Lake, says that he wants to
work with every level of government for his term, including the local First Nations authorities.
“It is important to me [that the] First Nations are our equal partner and neighbour,” said Rathor. He said First Nations authorities are no different from any other level of government.
Steven Forseth, Cariboo Regional District Area ‘D’ director, has values aligned with the new Williams Lake council.
“At a local governmenthigh level, I do hope that we’re trying to still build and foster those relationships,
to really understand the concerns of Indigenous nations,” said Forseth.
“I think that reconciliation needs to be not just a checkmark on a checklist, but it needs to be culturally ingrained into non-Indigenous local governments as a part of culture,” said Forseth.
“We will work and proactively engage with our Indigenous neighbors, not just because legislation says we have to, but because it’s the right thing to do.”
New Williams Lake councillor wants city council to make inclusivity a core principleAfter a four-year hiatus, Whistler's high schoolers will be going to Karuizawa, Japan, on a student exchange in 2024. SKENTARO TOMA (UNSPLASH) PHOTO
“We have learned so much through meeting new people and touching new cultures in foreign countries.”
— MICHIO TSUCHIYA, KARUIZAWA MAYOR
“Reconciliation needs to be ... culturally ingrained into non-Indigenous local governments as a part of culture.”
— STEVEN FORSETH, ‘D’ DIRECTOR CARIBOO REGIONAL DISTRICT AREA
By RIVER KERO
By SAMANTHA HOLOMAY
ARevelstoke city council-
lor is between a rock and a hard place when trying to sell his local magazine. Revelstoke Coun. Aaron Orlando wears several hats in the small town: he has worked as an instructor at Okanagan College, volunteered for local radio station Stoke F.M., and was previously a city council member from 2014 to 2018.
Orlando is also the owner, writer, editor, and creative director of the local magazine, the Revelstoke Mountaineer. Before last year’s election, Orlando pledged that if
he were elected to council, he would sell the Mountaineer, not wanting to split his focus between his city council obligations and responsibilities as a managing editor.
However, he has found that nowadays, there are not a lot of people in the market to purchase a magazine.
“No one wants to buy a paper these days,” said Orlando. “It’s hard to make that look like a viable choice for someone who may want to purchase a business.”
While Orlando tries to sell the publication, he has opted to lay off a portion of his staff and transition them to freelance positions.
Reporter Nora Hughes, who has
been working part-time for the Mountaineer until she can move to a new job, said she doesn’t blame Orlando for selling the paper and understands it has been stressful.
“He has to do what he has to do,” said Hughes. “I understand he is not in a comfortable position.”
It’s a tricky situation for Orlando, but he is not the only municipal politician in B.C. elected to office while holding a role with a local publication.
Barbara Roden is the editor of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal, and was elected to her second mayoral term last year.
James Miller is the managing editor of the Penticton Herald, and
was re-elected to Penticton council last year. Miller has maintained that he will be able to keep his journalism work separate from his role with council.
Miller’s case has generated some controversy. After he was first elected to council in a 2021 byelection, a union representing hundreds of newspaper workers expressed concern.
“The managing editor of one of our member papers has created a journalism ethics controversy by getting himself elected to city council in a byelection. As a media union concerned with media issues, Penticton Herald managing editor James Miller’s election concerns us
too,” the newspaper union Unifor Local 2000, which represents some Penticton Herald employees, wrote on Twitter. “We’re also concerned for our members at the paper. How does the council reporter or layout editor, our members, cover a meeting in which his boss is involved?”
But in Revelstoke, some people say they are not too worried about Orlando’s situation.
Sophia Ratte, owner of a Revelstoke café called La Baguette, said she believes in Orlando’s integrity.
“I know Aaron, I’ve met him on several occasions, and I think him being on the city council is a completely separate issue,” said Ratte.
the shelter.
The extreme weather centre had relocated in late February from the church’s facilities to the park to deal with overcapacity and for greater safety.
you can’t use it.”
Anderson said they later found out that a small number of residents around the park had sent complaints and threats to the City of Surrey about the shelter.
By LAISA CONDESouth Surrey’s only extreme weather homeless shelter was shut down at Kwomais Point Park March 23 after complaints and threats towards the project, volunteers and its guests.
Mount Olive Lutheran Church and Options Community Service, a non-profit charity that provides social services in Surrey, operated
Brian Anderson, a member of the Mount Olive Lutheran and volunteer with the shelter, said organizers were caught by surprise after receiving a notice from the City of Surrey saying they wouldn’t be able to operate at the Kwomais Point Park’s facilities. Those facilities include a small kitchen, bathroom and a large room for the guests’ beds.
“On the day that the shelter was supposed to reopen when another [weather] alert had been called ... the staff were all set up and ready to go,” he said. “Nobody knew what was happening until they got this call late in the afternoon saying nope, the facility is not available,
“One woman was quoted as saying, ‘we don’t want that type of stuff in our neighborhood, send them back to Whalley where they belong’,” he said. “They were saying that their property values were decreased immediately.”
He said volunteers who earlier canvassed the neighbourhood to inform them of the operation in the park reported threats made against the potential guests.
“They said that they weren’t going to put up with it. And if they saw any of these people around, something might happen to them,” Anderson said.
During the time the shelter oper-
ated at Kwomais Point Park, there had been no problem incidents reported to the security staff hired by the church, according to Anderson. Cpl. Vanessa Munn, media relations officer for the Surrey RCMP, said she “was not aware of any incidents” involving people using the shelter.
Anderson said the City of Surrey could have handled the situation better.
“The way the city capitulated to that group without even checking to see whether or not what they were saying was accurate. And it wasn’t accurate at all, but they just gave it to them,” he said.
The City of Surrey did not respond to requests for comments before the Voice deadline.
Challenges and controversies have been part of the shelter since it began operation in 2021. For two
years, the shelter hosted by Mount Olive Lutheran Church operated as an extreme weather response, which meant it would only operate when Homelessness Service Association of BC sent out an alert.
Anderson said that the inconsistency of the shelter during that period created difficulties for staff and guests.
“[The inconsistency] made it difficult for the guests that came to the shelter to know whether or not the shelter was open,” he said. “It made it very difficult for the volunteers, for example, who brought the food to go to the various sources ... because they weren’t doing it on a consistent basis.”
These obstacles made the church come together with Options Community Services to consider requesting a permit for a temporary shelter to the City of Surrey.
Working on a Tinkerine DittoPro 3D printer, which is being used to create assistive devices.
Specially designed devices can help people with disabilities in their dayto-day lives, but can also be prohibitively expensive. That’s why Langara’s Applied Research Club is working to help connect people with disabilities with affordable technology.
The club is part of a network of volunteers using open-source designs to produce devices that would be otherwise out of reach due to cost or availability. The project, called Makers Making Change, is a project of the Neil Squire Society, a national non-profit organization that helps Canadians with disabilities.
During two events in March, the Langara club used 3D printers to create objects like bottle openers
and key holders that are designed to assist people who have grip challenges.
“I would say this was a great first date with Langara, and I’m excited
perhaps improve our efficiency.”
“Being able to fabricate these things at the local level builds better capacity to better serve people with disabilities,” he said.
Making assistive devices through a program like this can often be 90 per cent cheaper than buying them through a store, Leaman said. Design work is done in collaboration with the disability community, he said, with designs then further customized for an individual’s specific needs.
tor of Langara’s Makerspace, said that this work is a great fit for the Makerspace, which is a facility on campus with fabrication technology including 3D printers.
about the things to come,” said Chad Leaman, director of innovation at the Neil Squire Society.
“Langara has a very modern, new makerspace, and I think it gives us opportunities to look at how we fabricate some of our devices and
Making this equipment more affordable and accessible is an important goal for the Neil Squire Society. In 2016, people with disabilities in B.C. experienced rates of poverty that were 42 per cent higher than those without disabilities, according to a study by University of Calgary researchers.
Philip Robbins, faculty coordina-
“Our ethos is make things better, so working with Neil Squire [Society] was perfect,” Robbins said. Robbins said the events created an opportunity to go beyond the physical processes involved and teach people “about the ethics of what we're doing and the opportunities that these technolo gies give us.”
wider variety of designs that use other equipment beyond the 3D printers, such as laser cutters or other machines in the Makerspace that could create better finished products.
“Right now, most of their devices are designed for the 3D printer,” Robbins said. “The 3D printer can make any shape, but it doesn’t necessarily do it in the best possible way, the most durable way, or the most efficient way.”
is looking to work further with the Neil Squire Society to produce a
Vancouver sustainablilty businesses are pivoting as Vancouver city council will remove
month. Cody Irwin is the founder of ShareWares, a company that lets customers borrow reusable cups to avoid the single-use cup fee. Irwin’s customers can leave a deposit at kiosks inside partner
2022.
With the law no longer in effect as of May 1, 2023, ShareWares and other companies will have to adapt their business strategies to the new rules. Cafes as well must decide whether to allow customers to bring in their own mugs or not.
“We just have to pivot and figure out other levers that we can pull to be able to more easily transition,”Irwin said. For example, ShareWare has partnered with Skip The Dishes to provide reusable food containers. The company also works with festivals and events to help reduce their environmental Irwin, who does use thermoses and mugs, says he is concerned about sustainability, not about the 25 cents.
cup fee after May 1.
“We fought to keep [the law] because it was helping, but other things happened and we didn’t win that battle, but that’s all good,” Irwin said.
Irwin and his team will try to work with Vancouver city council to build new strategies for his company and
not understand why the fee was in place.
“When the fee was introduced people didn’t quite understand that it was like a mandated thing,” said Carol Kaesbauer, owner of Lee’s Donuts on Granville Island.
According to Kaesbauer, removing the fee will be helpful for tourists who did not understand the unique fees that Vancouver has.
“[People] from all around the world coming in, they don’t understand usually,” said Kaesbauer, “we won’t have to do the explaining all the time.”
Minh Dang, an accounting student at Langara, said: “It doesn’t really change anything.”
allow his customers to avoid paying fees on small purchases.
“We want to work with [Vancouver city council] … we’re gonna’ propose other new things to them,” said Irwin.
Businesses that were mandated to add the fee for customers welcomeed the change as many customers did
He added that while it may have some environmental benefit he does not expect people not to buy beverages in single-use cups because of the fee.
Breanna Chow, another Langara student said the new rule won’t affect her.
“If you’re going to have an initiative for the environment, there should be other things that can be done,” Chow said.
“Being able to fabricate these things at the local level builds better capacity.”
— CHAD LEAMAN, NEIL SQUIRE SOCIETY
“We just have to pivot and figure out other levers that we can pull to be able to more easily transition.”
— CODY IRWIN, SHAREWARES
Acontroversial Vancouver mining company is diving into the darkest area of the ocean floor for metallic rocks rich in minerals they say will bring a greener future.
However, scientists and the Indigenous communities say this will cause irreversible destruction.
Hinano Teavai-Murphy, an Indigenous person from French Polynesia who participated in a recent Vancouver protest against deep-sea mining, said she was taught to be humble and respectful to every living species. The practice established a deep relationship between herself, her people and the ocean.
“The ocean is the water when the mother gives birth. So, the ocean heals us, the ocean feeds us, it gives us some joy and pleasure, it gives us life. And that’s why for us, we owe that respect to the ocean,” TeavaiMurphy, who grew up in the South Pacific, told the Voice Canada issued a moratorium in February against mining in domestic waters, but that won’t stop the Vancouver company at the centre of a deep-sea mining controversy from exploiting the seabed internationally.
Rory Usher, public relations manager at The Metals Company, said the company intends to pursue
a commercial licence for international waters anyway.
“The only thing that the Canadian [government] actually committed to was not to permit mining in their own waters,” Usher said in an interview with the Voice. “International waters is where all the interest is at the moment.”
The Metals Company, known as TMC, is a leading player in deep-seabed mining. It is expected to begin mining commercially in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in 2024. The zone is a vast area of the Pacific Ocean that spans from Hawaii to Mexico containing an excessive amount of polymetallic nodules, known to be rich in minerals used in electric car batteries.
In October 2021, TMC’s investors filed a lawsuit against the company in the United States for allegedly making misleading statements by downplaying the environmental risks of mining the sea floor.
The plaintiffs said that TMC CEO Gerard Barron made a public statement saying the activity generates “zero tailing, zero waste.”
The International Seabed Authority, the regulator of deep-seabed mining in international waters, said in an emailed statement that it is seeing extremely low to no environmental impact in current exploration activities.
But a collaborative research report by the British Geological Survey, the National Oceanography Centre and Heriot-Watt University shows that mining the ocean could drastically
disrupt the aquatic ecosystem.
B.C. MP Gord Johns put forth a motion calling for the Canadian government to ban mining in international waters a year ago.
“There have not been sufficient environmental studies on the impacts of deep bed mining,” Johns said in an interview with the Voice. “We need to take responsibility that we’re allowing Canadian companies to go out and prey upon the deep-sea.” Catherine Coumans, the research coordinator of MiningWatch Canada, said TMC scientists working aboard the mining ship were concerned about practices aboard the company’s mining vessel that they leaked a video of TMC improperly dumping waste into the ocean from the ship.
“They’ve leaked notes that they wrote about how the monitoring was not happening in a way that was credible,” she said. “But they’re afraid to speak to the media.”
But TMC’s Usher downplayed the incident - “that was a brief overspill,” he said.
As TMC is pushing forward from the exploration to exploitation phase, it is required to provide baseline research which presents a thorough description of the environmental and deep-sea habitat impacts caused by the activities. However, British Geological Survey research says insufficient baseline research is leading to the uncertainty to predict the impact of commercial scale exploitation of the nodules.
The survey showed that there was a lack of transparency within the ISA due to limited research findings being released, as well as closedsession meetings. The credibility and maturity of research methodologies are implausible given the collector data “was for three or four months,”
the survey stated.
Marine advocates said they are also worried about the ecosystem and biodiversity impact with the commercial operations as the mining activities are poorly assessed.
John Luick, coastal oceanographer of Austides Consulting, said the most critical concern is the dispersion of sediment plumes beyond the specific mining area and current mining technologies are not capable of resolving the issue.
Sediment plume is the unsettled fine cloud-form particles discharged from the robotic collection tools when the nodules are being picked up on the seafloor which could be released in the deep-water or midwater zone.
“If they [exploiters] go down and mine an area of one acre, the area which could be ecologically destroyed essentially could be 10,000 acres from that one acre,” said Luick, who has 20 years of experience in ocean research.
Luick said deep-sea mining should not be allowed until better technology is introduced, as living organ-
tures, such as whales and dolphins. It shows that the cetaceans will potentially be disturbed by the noise of the vehicles.
Member states from the ISA council and scientists said more research needs to be conducted to address the uncertainties of the mining impact, but TMC said they are going to submit a plan of work in this year, even if regulations are not completed by then.
Usher said there is a need for strong and stringent regulations but until now there is no specifics on environmental thresholds to monitor the activities, which is a mandatory submission to the ISA in July to obtain the exploitation licence.
Johns, who represents the riding of Courtenay-Alberni, said he is concerned about the ISA’s lack of transparency and that the regulatory process has been fast tracked.
“The metals company notified the sea authority of its intention to start deep-sea mining which triggered a rush to finalize,” he said.
Coumans said the ISA is a completely experimental form of governance over mining like a “black box” and has conflicting mandates.
“Its mandate is to protect this ecosystem for humankind,” Coumans said. “But it also has the mandate to allow mining in the area.”
“We need to take responsibility that we’re allowing Canadian companies to go out and prey upon the deep-sea.”
— GORD JOHNS, B.C. MP
When Lama Alrakad escaped the war in Syria and arrived in Canada in 2018, she was eager to find work in the film industry as she had been an accomplished film-maker and director back home.
She had a master’s degree and a decade of experience making both documentary and live TV shows, as well as films.
But that didn’t happen.
“I started searching for a job, but unfortunately found only survival jobs. They told me you should get a Canadian diploma to find a job in the Canadian film industry. So, I studied in Vancouver at the Visual College of Art and Design for three years and half,” Alrakad told the Voice
“After I graduated from the college, I applied for over 100 jobs, did some interviews and got rejected from them all. I keep telling friends and family back home, it isn’t worth it to come to Canada. You are going to waste your degrees, your experience, your life, your social status.”
She now works for the cities of Coquitlam and Port Moody, organizing and teaching in children’s programs.
“Plus, I am doing deliveries for two companies. I work almost 16 hours a day, seven days a week. I do my jobs in both cities to give a value to my life. I don’t make good money there. I do them to transfer some of my knowledge to the new generation in Canada.”
Seven years after a large influx of Syrian refugees began to arrive in Canada, some like Alrakad have struggled in B.C., while others have been able to establish satisfying lives in their new country. The Voice has interviewed a number of them to find out how they’ve fared and what changes they think Canada should make to better assist others fleeing war-torn countries.
Faisal (not his real name) arrived in Canada seven years ago. A tailor and successful businessman in Syria, he had no difficulty finding work here. Initially, he volunteered at Moore’s Men’s Store in Prince George, then was hired after the management observed his good work.
After one year, he and his family sought the warmer temperatures of the Lower Mainland. Once again, he found work in this trade.
He studied English for five years -and now is almost fluent. His wife took English for a year, but is now looking after r two very active sons, both born in B.C.
One son has a chronic medical issue for which he and the family are getting support. They are happy with their family doctor. They have gotten to know a number of fellow Kurdish people. Faisil has been
going to a nearby gym.
Asked if he had struggles or issues with anything since arriving here, he said life is good and he is “busy, busy, …no problem for me because I work…I want to be seeing positive.”
A recent report on the lives of Syrians in Canada found that 40 per cent of those interviewed were not working in jobs that matched their education, skills and experience. Almost one in five were working in transportation and warehousing, 15 per cent in retail, and 12 per cent in entry-level jobs like accommodation and food services.
The Syrian Refugee Lived Experience Project done by the Environics Institute with federal government
support, was completed last December. Researchers interviewed a representative sample of 330 people drawn from all 10 provinces. Each participant was asked 125 questions about employment status, household income adequacy, financial security, physical and mental health, language acquisition, culture shock, as well as the effects of COVID on their job situation.
Those interviewed who indicated that their household income was not enough to live on were mostly single women, aged 25-34 with a university degree, and living in western Canada.
Less than one fifth of Syrian refugees had a functional knowledge of
either French or English when they arrived. Approximately five years later, more than six in 10 rated their abilities in speaking, reading, writing and listening to English as good or excellent.
Shirene Salamatian and Stephen Wade work at Vancouver Community College (VCC,) teaching English to adult newcomers to Canada as part of the federallyfunded Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program.
Salamatian has noticed that the Syrian men seem to be particularly strong in verbal and listening skills but have more problems with writing and reading. The women are
generally enthusiastic learners. She said that ongoing issues with depression and anxiety are “huge.”
Sometimes mental health issues related to the traumatic events they have been through, losses they have experienced and difficulties in adjusting impact the Syrians’ ability to attend and actively participate in
class, Salamatian said.
Wade commented that they are fun to teach, have wonderful confidence, are not afraid to learn and that families are often large, strongly connected - and do “everything through family ties.”
Nahid Ghani, herself an immigrant from Iran, teaches in the VCC Pathways English programan accelerated program for immigrants with a reasonable knowledge of English when they arrive.
She is very concerned about her students who come with higher educational achievements not being able to find work related to their education.
“Consider a person who is affected by war, by displacement several times, with immigrationthey are already traumatized and then they come here. Canada advertises itself a lot, that we are friendly, welcoming, but it should go over the level of just words. Integrating these people into the workplace, into the society is very important,” Ghani said.
She noted that B.C. has a shortage of doctors and nurses. Yet immigrants who are doctors are working as cleaners, in construction or as cashiers.
“Is it right for society? We have to facilitate a pathway for these people. Government should coordinate with unions, or public sector to make it easier for immigrants to find a job that they want or are good at.”
Ghani introduced Alrakad to a Voice reporter as one of the educated immigrants who are having difficulty finding a place where they can use their education and skills and experience.
Alrakad still hopes to work in her field and wants the same for others arriving here.
“As a Canadian Citizen I hope my government Canada can understand that immigrants have a huge value and impact in the Canadian economy," she said. “We are people with degrees and experience; can serve our Canada in very good ways and give more value for the society.”
The Voice asks some of them how they are faring in B.C. seven years on
“We are people with degrees and experience; can serve our Canada in very good ways and give more value for the society.”
— LAMA ALRAKAD
“Government should coordinate with unions, or public sector to make it easier for immigrants to find a job that they want or are good at.”
— NAHID GHANI, VCC PATHWAYS ENGLISH PROGRAMNahid Ghani VCC PATHWAYS ENGLISH PROGRAM
As the Vancouver Park Board is poised to legalize drinking year-round in 22 city parks, critics say the move is contrary to new studies showing major health risks connected to alcohol use.
John-David Hutchison, who suffered from alcoholism in the past and is an addiction consultant today, is disillusioned about the potential effects of this new rules.
“My question is why? You know if people want to have a beer or a glass of wine in the park, they’re going to do it anyways,” Hutchison said in an interview.
He has been drinking in the park since he was a teenager, and although forbidden, he never had a problem drinking beer or wine where it was not allowed.
“Spending all this money, you know, studies and surveys and tests, and it’s a waste of money,” said Hutchison, who thinks the priority should be improving addiction and recovery resources.
“What has to change is the stigma around addiction.”
To understand the root of his addiction, Hutchison has used therapy and study. He doesn’t believe drinking alcohol in parks will improve people’s relationship with booze.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization released a statement saying that “when it comes to alcohol
consumption, there is no safe amount that does not affect health.”
The organization said that alcohol “is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance.”
Tim Stockwell, director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and an author of Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, noted that the WHO says alcohol is “a group one carcinogen, which is on the same level with tobacco and asbestos.”
Stockwell, interviewed by the Langara Voice, wouldn’t comment specifically on the pending Vancouver policy allowing drinking in parks, but firmly believes that people need to know what risks they’re facing.
“The only government in the world to have cancer warnings on alcohol containers is South Korea,” Stockwell said.
According to Stockwell, many countries are moving in the same direction.
“The truth is that alcohol is a carcinogen, even at low doses. It’s just a low risk … but it’s still a risk, people should be informed.”
The Canadian Cancer Society recently conducted a survey and found that 80 per cent of Canadians are in favor of warning about wellestablished diseases associated with drinking.
Stockwell is rather skeptical about the social advantages of drinking in the park with other people compared to drinking alone at home.
“Drinking with other people
can actually enhance the risk of violence,” he said, citing late-night alcohol-fueled incidents in cities’ entertainment zones.
“There are lots of issues to consider about people drinking in public.”
The pilot project to study the impact of alcohol consumption in parks began in 2018. According to the report commissioned by the Vancouver Park Board in 2021, public behavior was respectful.
The report also said that Vancouver Coastal Health did not encounter any significant differences in the number of alcohol-related emergency room visits, and there was no increase in alcohol-related calls either.
“The public was highly supportive of continuing the program,” the report said.
The newly-elected park board, controlled by Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC party, passed a motion in December directing city staff to “initiate a process to make the Alcohol in Parks program permanent and year round.”
At least two other studies offer a dimmer view of park drinking.
A 2021 report by the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research highlighted the increased costs of
monitoring the designated areas; an increase in trash collection and the creation and improvement of public restrooms in the parks. and other items listed in the report.
The City of Edmonton, which has carried out a similar pilot project in 2022, released a report last fall based on a survey of city residents. It found that 58 per cent of respondents were indifferent to the project, 22 per cent were against it, and only 20 per cent were enthusiastic about being able to drink the park.
Among that enthusiastic 20 per cent would be Edward Slingerland, a University of B.C. professor and author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization.
Slingerland said in an interview that alcohol as a “cultural technology” that has historically helped people overcome natural social awkwardness.
According to Slingerland, Canada, and in general, the Anglophone sphere, has a love-hate relationship with alcohol. “There’s a weird, puritanical fear and discomfort around things like alcohol,” he said, adding that historically English Canada regulated and treated alcohol as something dangerous.
Slingerland thinks that allow -
ing drinking alcohol in parks is the right step in and will help Vancouver develop a drinking culture typical of southern European countries that less inclined to abuse booze.
Slingerland said that Vancouver is a more liberal city compared to others in English Canada, so it is particularly suited to this new regulation.
“If you’re going to try it somewhere, it [Vancouver] is a good place to do it.”
At the same time, Slingerland is not impressed by the recent Guidance on Alcohol and Health report urging people to have no more than two drinks a week.
Slingerland noted the paradox of increasing the public use of alcohol within months of such a negative report about its effects.
“Contradictory policies, right?”
He thinks that the guidelines ignore the functional benefits of alcohol, which has always been a tool for social bonds. “You can’t just look at the risks,” he said.
Slingerland said encouraging people to drink together healthier than having them drink alone.
Amanda Farrell-Low, who works with Stockwell at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, strongly disagrees.
She told the Voice in a recent interview that any regulation that contributes to the normalization of alcohol use has a negative fallout.
“It’s going to likely encourage more people to consume alcohol.”
DANTE
“Drinking with other people can actually enhance the risk of violence.”
— TIM STOCKWELL, DIRECTOR INSTITUTE FOR SUBSTANCE USE RESEARCH
As a majority of the nursing force in B.C. approaches retirement, younger nurses are feeling new pressures within the provincial health care system.
On-going staffing shortages and burn-out have led to new challenges for those who remain in nursing.
And while the B.C. government has taken steps to address the staffing crunch, fewer people are entering nursing programs in the province, an investigation by the Voice has found.
Jennie Takata, a third-year Langara nursing student said her biggest fear going into the profession was the nurse-to-patient ratio.
“Today I had a client who expressed distress to me after an
interaction because they felt like the person was rushing that they were dealing with, which is really common unfortunately,” Takata said in a recent interview.
In January, the B.C. government announced it would cover the $3,700 assessment fee for internationally trained nurses.
The legislation is intended to ease the crowded application system for internationally trained nurses and streamline the registration process. While the focus has been on attracting international nurses, enrollment rates in B.C.’s nursing programs have decreased.
According to a 2020-2021 annual Licensed Nurses Education Canada Statistics report, graduation rates for nursing baccalaureate programs in B.C dropped 16.1 per cent.
The BCCN conducted a study that included Douglas, Kwantlen, BCIT, and Thompsons River University. It found that institutions that offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing saw a 7.5 per cent decline in enrollment.
To support those interested in nursing, Canada has endorsed $1.3 million to ease licensing for international nurses. The Nursing Community Assessment System tests internationally trained nurses on their training and if they qualify to practice in Canada. The costs of these tests will be waived.
The Nurses Union still predicts that by 2030, there will be a shortage of approximately 120,000 nurses. A third of practicing registered nurses will reach age 50 years or retirement. The province has added 600 additional seats for the nursing sector to counter the problem.
Ann Syme, Dean of Langara Nursing, expressed concerns about being ill-prepared for the future.
“Hospitals aren’t growing. They’re bursting at the seams,”
Syme said. “We’re densifying Vancouver, but we’re not increasing the capacity for health care in the province.
Syme, however, emphasized that it is just one aspect of the solution and applauds the government’s efforts.
To support the intake of more internationally trained nurses, Langara offers support newcomers a program to familiarize them with how nurses operate here.
“What we have at school is a program called Nursing Practice in Canada,” Syme said. “It’s for internationally trained nurses who wish to come to Canada and be acclimatized and registered to practice in Canada.”
Langara puts them through a four-semester program to prepare
them for exams that would qualify them to work as registered nurses.
“We’re quite successful with it and … we do have a really good program that helps people through this bridging into Canada,” Syme said.
Intake for the program happens twice a year and is available to 40 international nurses.
General nursing intakes at Langara College also take place twice a year. There are 300 applications for the 72 seats offered.
“We don’t tend to market the program, because the numbers of applicants that we have are more than sufficient to fill our seats,” she said.
Despite the huge demand, it is challenging to attract young people to nursing as a profession.
ularly were asked to do above and beyond and became quite tired,” Syme said. “I think a lot of them were finding themselves saying ‘I think I’ve given up on the profession, I’m leaving’.”
The dire working conditions influenced the image of the profession, resulting in aspiring health care workers leaving the sector.
“The unintended consequences of that is that young people looking at nursing and would say, ‘I don’t want to get into that. I don’t want to be as responsible’,” Syme said.
She wants to see the nightmare stereotype of a nursing career change.
“It’s an amazing place to work. And there’s some really great oppor-
The COVID-19 pandemic required nurses to work beyond their limits caring for those in need. With crushing numbers of patients filling hospitals beds, the nurses had to adapt to a new work environment.
“They were asked to kind of pivot their practice to do different things that called for a different set of maturity and skills,” Syme said.
According to nurses and healthcare experts interviewed by the Voice, the higher demand for nurses that weren’t available exhausted the system. Nurses started to buckle under the stress, resulting in some leaving their jobs.
Syme believes it had a particular impact on the older generation of nurses.
“A lot of the senior nurses partic-
tunities for growth and development,” Syme said.
Ashley Essinger graduated in nursing in 2021 at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook. She worked as a care aide for 11 years before becoming a nurse.
She said her experience in school was a far more intimate one due to her small cohort, which she said was a positive.
“There were roughly 30 of us, which is still pretty big. It was a small town, so we really got to know each other and became very close,” Essinger said.
Essinger said that her short career as a licensed practical nurse has been far more isolating than when she worked as a home care nurse. Being a practical nurse requires working on her own more often than her previous job.
“Working as a healthcare worker I struggled to find my purpose,” Essinger said. “It’s been three years as a nurse and I’m struggling to find my purpose and I’m finding it harder and harder.”
Being a nurse is a physical and mental challenge. And some of the students studying nursing might learn they cannot stand the pressure.
Syme echoed Essinger’s comments about the level of commitment it takes to work in the healthcare system.
“There’s nothing easy about learning how to be a nurse,” Syme said. “And some of them just aren’t up for it.”
Overworked and understaffed hospitals as a norm these days lead to unhealthy work ethics and unprofessionalism.
“There isn’t enough staff, and there isn’t enough equipment,” Syme said. “People are tired and cranky.”
“Hospitals aren’t growing. They’re bursting at the seams ... We’re densifying Vancouver, but we’re not increasing the capacity for health care in the province.”
— ANN SYME, DEAN OF NURSING LANGARA COLLEGE
“It’s been three years as a nurse and I’m struggling to find my purpose and I’m finding it harder and harder.”
— ASHLEY ESSINGER, FORMER PRACTICAL NURSE
Agame design student from India, Siddarth Ravindren was one of many immigrants in Vancouver who only go back to their rental units to sleep.
“We would get up at six o’clock, go to school, and come back at midnight because we were not looking forward to going to that apartment,” Ravindren told the Voice in an interview.
His former apartment was on the 13th floor of a high-rise building on Hornby Street near the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The two-bedroom unit was occupied by 10 individuals.
According to the city’s occupancy limits, up to five unrelated people can share a dwelling. The bylaws are not actively enforced because of the ongoing housing crisis.
“When the housing markets get tighter, you expect to see more substandard housing situations emerge as people try to adapt,” said Nathanael Lauster, a sociology professor at University of British Columbia.
Impact on racialized communities
This overcrowding disproportionately affects working immigrants and international students, who are less likely to pay higher rents or know about zoning bylaws.
Ben Ger, a tenant organizer with the Vancouver Tenants Union, points out that immigrants sometimes don’t have a very good sense of their rights or are not very fluent in English and this works against them.
“A building that I’m currently involved with right now, almost every new person is Mexican,” Ger said. “They are getting taken advantage of.”
The landlord of a two-bedroom unit in the building that Ger is working with doubled the rent and started renting it out as a fourbedroom.
He was stacking two people to a room with no divider.
Insertion of fake walls is another tactic used to evade the bylaws that actually separate off what has been regulated and approved as a singlefamily unit.
“The landlord constructs fake units of their own made with plywood or chicken wire in order to rent out to more people and keep generating higher profits,” said Ger.
Ravindren remembers that he and his roommates were also given special fobs by their landlord to get into the building, which the concierge confirmed were different from the keys other tenants used.
“He had multiple apartments in the same building, multiple floors, which had people like us,” said Ravindren.
Decreased dwelling satisfaction among renters
Use of fake walls can hamper privacy and create confined spaces that affect the mental health and overall well-being of the tenants.
Vivin Oommen, an actor and film student from Dubai, was living with five other youths in a basement suite in East Vancouver until he finally moved out in late 2022.
“It almost felt like we were all in a hostel or something, you know, where everybody’s, like, so close to each other, that we just have to deal with other people’s lives and other people’s problems,” said Oommen.
Post-pandemic, more renters in Vancouver have felt the squeeze in dwelling units.
Following a “stay-at-home” order, it became especially tough for renters between 2020 and 2021 - not just in Vancouver but in all of Canada’s large urban centres.
According to a Statistics Canada study, compared with their prepandemic reports, around twice as many renter households (13.3 per cent) experienced decreased dwelling satisfaction compared with homeowners (6.7 per cent) across the country.
The study also showed that renters underwent added challenges in more confined spaces and were more prone to having problems with their dwelling, additionally reporting financial constraints and poorer general health conditions.
The housing crisis in Vancouver
There’s not actually a zoning board in Vancouver that governs occupancy issues within private property. City bylaw inspectors only respond if a neighbor raises a complaint.
“So, if someone makes a complaint that you’ve got three unrelated people living with you, the city could come and shut you down,” said former Vancouver Councilor and long-time antipoverty activist Jean Swanson.
But when complaints arise, the city can - and will typically - issue warnings and fines to the landlord for violating ordinances. In turn, that may result in an eviction.
Lauster also calls attention to the fact that many landlords get away with overcrowding in their rental
units because they are, incidentally, offloading some pressure from market housing.
“It’s also a bind that I think the city finds itself in because they really don’t want to be evicting people from what they would see as at least a livable housing situation, given the real shortage of housing in the city, but they will enforce the bylaws if they’re called upon to do so.”
Over the last three decades, secondary suites such as basements and laneway houses have played an increasingly important role in meeting rental housing demand, according to City of Vancouver data.
Secondary suites in Vancouver are seen as affordable housing for renters, while providing additional income allowing homeowners to pay off their mortgages.
Ger said the housing crisis is still a reality and charging low rent for substandard, multiple units within a single dwelling is a dangerous trend.
“We need to understand this whole system is predatory and that’s why landlords can get away
one
with the prestigious status of helping the housing crisis when what they’re doing is taking advantage of people,” said Ger.
The City of Vancouver now faces an important crossroads. After the ABC party swept into power on Vancouver City Council last fall, one of their first acts was to shut down the Vancouver Renter’s Office in January.
Ravindren and Oommen have both moved on to better accommodations but every day, there are more international students and working immigrants moving to Vancouver who are not aware of zoning bylaws or their rights as tenants.
A common position put forth by LandlordBC, as well as tenant union organizers, is that the region needs to develop more social housing.
“I think we need a massive buildout of non-market housing,” said Swanson. “I mean, the province and the feds are inching a little bit towards maybe a few more nonmarket units, but I haven’t seen anything that meets the scale of the problem.
to housing and bridging the divide between renters and owners.
When Hannah Turner moved into her onebedroom apartment last year, she knew she’d finally found home, but like most B.C. renters she wondered for how long.
Turner lives in a one-bedroom apartment in a strata-owned building near Vancouver’s Commercial Drive. She says despite the rent being higher than her last place, its location and proximity to friends makes it one of the best places she’s ever lived.
“Here I’m next door to my best friends and their toddler. More than that, three of my friends live on my street or are a two-minute walk away which makes a big difference for me,” Turner told the Voice.
Turner, a professor at the University of British Columbia, has been a renter since 2005 and commutes regularly to UBC on transit.
Her building allowed rentals before the B.C. government enacted a new law last November restricting condo strata councils from imposing age restrictions or rental bans on tenants. The strategy was implemented to ease pressure on tightening vacancy rates that set a record last fall when they dropped below one per cent.
Premier David Eby said the increase in supply would also improve affordability for renters, but this aspect of the legislation has drawn criticism. Many renters, housing experts and activists believe the change doesn’t take account of the whole picture when it comes
According to data from B.C.’s housing ministry, there were nearly 2,900 empty strata units in 2021 based on owners who claimed an exemption from the Speculation and Vacancy Tax due to strata rental-restriction bylaws.
These units are presumed to have returned to the long-term rental pool after the new legislation was passed.
But so far, no data has been released on how many of those units have come onto the market.
Turner has noticed divisions between renters and owners in strata-owned buildings.
She says renters are often not looped into minutes from strata meetings and are not customarily included in the community to the same degree that owners are which she thinks contributes to division.
“All the people have been nice, the problem is not the people, it’s the way the system has been constructed,” said Turner.
Turner knows from experience that the ability to engage with neighbours and make democratic decisions in one’s living environment provides a closer sense of community.
She says it also helps with safety to be able to communicate information quickly between residents.
“I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with stratas, but
I think it would be great if tenants were more involved in that decision making. I don’t think that’s controversial.”
Affordability is another concern. Turner pays $1950 for her onebedroom - a few hundred more than she paid in her last rental.
It is now well below the current market rate for a one-bedroom in Vancouver, which surpassed $2500 last month.
CMHC’s Rental Market Survey for 2019 shows average rent for a one-bedroom in Vancouver at $1400 whereas the latest report from the popular rental platform Zumper says the average rent for a one-bedroom downtown hit a record high of $2800 in March 2023.
The average price of a one-bedroom city-wide is now $2600, which is an increase of roughly 85 per cent in four years.
Census data and a release from the City of Vancouver in 2021 says Vancouver has a particularly high incidence of low-income and inequitable income distribution when compared to other cities throughout Canada. The data shows that many in Vancouver continue to experience very low incomes, poverty, and homelessness.
The City of Vancouver’s ABCmajority council just voted to end its living wage policy in a closeddoor meeting. The policy had been in place since 2017 and was implemented to help support workers in the wake of rising costs of living.
Within B.C.’s residential tenancy act, a landlord can evict a tenant with two-months’ notice anytime they decide to move back into their unit. Though eviction regulations have been strengthened in recent years, there is limited data to show how effectively these new rules are monitored and enforced. Condos are particularly vulnerable to these types of evictions.
Stephanie Smith is the president of Lore Krill Housing Co-Operative where she has lived for the last 18 years and has extensive experience working with downtown east-side residents in housing advocacy and tenant law.
Smith believes this new strata rental legislation frees up the least stable of all rental housing and has doubts it is going to have much impact on its desired outcome of increasing the vacancy rate and supporting affordability for renters throughout the province.
“If David Eby wanted to do something that would actually serve renters and people in need of affordable housing, the next announcement that came out of Victoria would be for vacancy control,” Smith said. Vacancy control is legislation that ties rent to a unit instead of a tenancy. This means when someone must leave their unit, landlords are still restricted on how much they can increase rent and must adhere to annual inflation rates. Currently there is no limit to how much a landlord can raise rates between tenancies which provides incentive for landlords to evict or renovict tenants that are paying below-market rents. Smith doubts the new legislation will make much difference in affordability or supply within the rental market.
“What’s ended up happening to all these tenants, they are now living in apartments that their landlords can throw them out of if they or their family members want to move in,” Smith said. “So, we end up with all these folks whose tenancies can be ended for landlord use really easily.”
Andy Yan, director of SFU’s City Program, says the housing debate needs to consider more than arguments of supply versus affordability or renters versus owners.
“In one way, setting off between renters versus owners fails to understand what housing is. Housing is security and tenure. Having a community through which you feel a sense of belonging and a sense of security as being able to be in a place for a period of your choosing,” Yan said.
have
impact
“I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with stratas, but I think it would be great if tenants were more involved in that decision making.”
— STEPHANIE SMITH, PRESIDENT LORE KRILL HOUSING CO-OP
Andy Yan DIRECTOR CITY PROJECT,SFU
B.C.’s Filipino community is eager to have its own cultural centre to showcase and celebrate community members’ contributions to the province.
Filipinos are one of the largest ethnic communities in B.C. but still do not have a central facility in which to share their culture.
In a December 2022 mandate letter, B.C. Premier David Eby tasked Lana Popham, minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport, with making progress toward a provincial Filipino cultural centre. A renewed call for a cultural centre was issued in March 2023. Khristine Cariño, a member of the Vancouver Filipino Cultural Heritage Group, is one of many Filipinos who are looking forward to a
centre being established.
She has long understood the need to highlight the heritage of her homeland. After realizing many Filipino youths, including her own children, didn’t have access to resources to learn about that heritage, Cariño helped run multiple events and activities for her Filipino community at the Kensington branch of the Vancouver Public Library.
A few of these events included activities that taught Filipino youth their culture and classes that taught Tagalog, a language spoken on a number of islands in the Philippines.
“It was really fantastic because although our focus was just schoolaged children, the parents were coming, the aunties, the uncles, the grandparents,” said Cariño. “It became an intergenerational activity.”
Still, Cariño said it was difficult to keep these activities running due to a lack of support and funding, and added that a cultural centre would not only help build support but also bring the Vancouver Filipino community together.
“I just feel very good about this Filipino community centre, because it won't just be a physical building but it is a community space where we run many things like what we've done in the past,” said Cariño.
Reynato Pablo, Cariño’s husband, is also excited about the cultural centre. Working in construction
during the day, Pablo also creates art based on his Filipino heritage.
“As a Filipino-Canadian, I take pride in showcasing snapshots of Filipino culture in my paintings,” he said.
Some of Pablo’s works include Gintong Ani (the title translates to “golden harvest” and it depicts farmers harvesting rice in the Philippines), and Kasiyahan (meaning “happiness” and depicting children playing around in haystacks after a harvest).
Pablo welcomes the new cultural centre as it might give him a space to gather with other Filipino artists.
“I think that that space would be very valuable,” Cariño said. “For one, as a learning space, and two, to help bring awareness to Filipino talent and their work by providing exhibit spaces.”
Shirley Tan, a Filipina-Canadian interested in Filipino literature, also supports the proposed cultural centre. Tan said that while older Filipinos are familiar with stories from their heritage, many younger people are not.
She adds that many of her nieces and nephews often feel they need to go back to the Philippines in order to learn about these stories and their roots.
“It would be great to have that cultural centre just right here so they can start learning about it here without having to break the bank to even do research on that,” said Tan.
voices can sometimes be stifled, as breaking into the arts industry can be difficult due to the financial strain, said Vancouver-based public artist and entrepreneur Jenie Gao.
Chen said.
Artist Sam Davis, who deals with chronic illness, said every artist is unique and the support given, financial or otherwise, should be unique to them.
By TY LIMWith graduation looming for many art students, questions arise about whether emerging artists, particularly those bringing diverse perspectives, are adequately supported.
Employment in the arts and recreation industry dropped 19.35 per cent to 272,381 employees as of January 2023 from 325,085 in September 2022, according to the Statistics Canada employment census.
Messages from unique artistic
“I don’t think the support is there in terms of diverse staff, financial resources, other forms of support to ensure that a cohort is both racially diverse and socioeconomically diverse,” Gao said.
Students browsing a recent Emily Carr University exhibition expressed their wants for supporting artists.
“Government subsidies are always good,” said Emily Carr first-year student Kris Reyes.
Featured artist Sidi Chen said that living as a queer Chinese person in Canada gives him a unique outside perspective. Chen said schools should have a more open mind about art.
“We need to recognize more diverse practices as professionals,”
“I think that’s where my interest is in actually helping teach people how to build practices that support them and support their needs,” Davis said.
“I think if we have more focus within the education actually around what each individual needs from the get go, that then everybody just is more supported, as they kind of go about their careers and operating within the field.”
Gao, Davis and Chen are currently featured in Emily Carr’s biometaphysicalmateria event, an exhibition featuring MFA degree candidates, running until April 9.
“The arts are part of the foundation of how our societies function,” Gao said.
“I think that that space [Filipino cultural centre] would be very valuable.”
— KHRISTINE CARIÑO, FILIPINO CULTURAL HERITAGE GROUP MEMBER
Breaking into art industry is tough enough and students want helpEmily Carr MFA student Jenie Gao at Emily Carr's MFA 2023 exhibition. TY LIM PHOTO
Rugby is a young person’s game — but not for members of Burnaby’s Twilighter Rugby Club.
Ranging in age from 40 to 80-plus, the Twilighters are members of the Cascadia Masters Rugby Union. Their mandate is to provide a place for players who are over 40 who still want to compete.
But since rugby is a physical sport known for heavy hits, tackling restrictions are in place for the Twilighters and the teams with which they compete. Those restrictions are organized by age and the colour of the players’ shorts differentiates them at a glance so a 40or 50-year-old player will go easier on an older player when it comes to tackling.
Ray Jung, club president for the last four years, noted: “We only play four 15 [minute] quarters, since we’re so old,” said Jung, noting a normal rugby match would last 60 minutes.
Preston Petrovitch has been playing since he was 15 years old and now, at 44, he says, “Rugby is [a] different animal than any other kind of sport.”
He sometimes suits up for the Twilighters and hasn’t decided when he plans to hang up his cleats, saying, “I try not to put a distinct number on it… I just love [playing].”
Even after multiple injuries — including over a “hundred stitches in this beautiful head of mine” — Petrovich says, “The only thing holding you back is yourself. So when you’re coming back off an injury, it’s all mindset, especially for an old guy.”
Petrovich’s partner, Lindsey Stevens, has been a loyal Twilighter
supporter for the past 10 years and says she has no reservations about him playing the game. “He’s fit and wants to play and he loves it, so I like
Twilighters. Not only is this her first year, it’s also her first year playing rugby. Lofano says she brings her daughter to matches and practices to show her that “women and girls are just as tough [as men] if not tougher!”
The Twilighters tied their last game, their 10th of the season, against the Evergreens 2–2 on the weekend.
Jung, said it was a “Hardfought game. We tried as hard as we can [sic] but we just let it slip by in the last five minutes.”
supporting [him],” she said.
Laura “Lolly” Harmse and Lauren Lofano are the only two women in the league. Lofano, 40, is one of the newest additions to the
Their oldest player 82 years of age. For more information on the Twilighters, visit their website, twilighterrugby.com.
SFU students share projects about evolving AI technology
By MILICA ANICStudents at Simon Fraser University say the implementation of ethics is key for a progressive future with artificial intelligence.
With growing developments in artificial intelligence, SFU students presented research projects at the university’s Computer Science
Undergraduate Research Symposium 2023, tackling the rapidly evolving technology and the ethical dilemmas that come with it.
Artificial intelligence is still a relatively new field, said Lucia Vo, a firstyear SFU computer science student. At a first-year level, her education has been focussing on broader concepts,
such as data structure and intro to computer science.
“There’s obviously lots of competing scientists… [the field is] in its infancy,” said Vo.
Parsa Rajabi, a second-year computer science major, said the idea of informing everyone that there is a bad actor in the room is important when it comes to the ethical dilemmas of AI .
Lucia Vo FIRST YEAR COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENT, SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
“There’s always bad apples in the bunch, but recognizing that they do exist … is probably the [most] important part,” Rajabi said.
Rajabi also said that AI literacy, the understanding of the positives and negatives of AI, and the question of at what age should children be taught about AI has “come up a lot” for him.
“The problem is that the teachers who teach within K-12 don't have the knowledge to teach it,” said Rajabi.
for student learning,
“The idea should be that you as an instructor should teach your students how to use it. But most instructors don’t do that because of fear of negative consequences such as plagiarism in the classroom.”
Gabriel Stang, second-year computer science student at SFUsaid there is a branch of AI called AI safety that talks about all kinds of about the negatives potentially associated with AI
“There’s a lot of interesting ideas about how to stop general artificial intelligence [from] doing things you don’t want,’’ Stang said.
“It's all mindset, especially for an old guy.”
— FRESTON PETROVITCH, TWILIGHTERS PLAYERPHOTO MANAK