The Radical Campus

STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

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FIRST PEEK

June 9, 2014 · Volume 147, Issue 6

Maggie Benston Centre 2900 Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

The Peak office is located on the second floor of the Maggie Benston Centre, underneath Higher Grounds coffee shop.

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FIRST PEEK

If you’re a student like me, you probably have a list of awesome novels that you’re planning to dive into — but not until after you’ve finished school. Until recently, I’ve been under the impression that there wasn’t time to read just for fun, since I’m paying a lot of money to read the things on my course syllabi on a certain timeline — novels can wait until future me has fewer papers to write.

University exposes us to innovative ideas, and teaches us to think critically about the world around us. While this is undeniably a good thing, it goes handin-hand with a huge amount of assigned readings that invariably take priority over fictional novels that we read just for pleasure.

The problem with this is, for many of us, the years we spend in university coincide with the formative years during which we develop our adult personalities.

We build new neural connections as adults as a result of exposure to new experiences, ideas, and information. In a way, our brains

June 9, 2014

are constantly building and rearranging themselves to reflect what’s going on in our environment. This makes it important to consider what kinds of information we are consuming.

Couple this with the fact that it’s impossible to passively consume a novel — we must constantly employ our imagination to fill in the background details that a bound stack of paper covered in inky squiggles does not provide, such as the sound of the main character’s voice, the view out their spaceship window, or the smell of the wooden boards of their pirate ship, saturated with salty sea water. Getting lost in a book is a fun way to bolster your brain’s capacity for creativity.

Watching movies and wasting time on the Internet doesn’t require that we exercise our imaginative powers. This is bad news for students like me, because I’m pretty sure I spend more time on Facebook and Buzzfeed than I do reading novels. I know I’m not the only undergraduate who finds time to watch “Game of Thrones” every week, but hasn’t finished a book in the last two months.

About a month ago, I was invited to join a bookclub, and

almost turned down the offer.

“No time,” I thought to myself, no doubt while looking at a cat picture online. Then it hit me: I hadn’t read a page in a novel since the beginning of this semester.

I suddenly thought of past me, who loved reading more than anything, and who would be so disappointed to see her future pitifully devoid of stories and books. I joined the bookclub, and even suggested that we read one of the novels that I had delegated to future me.

Now, I make it a point to spend at least a few minutes a day reading for fun. I’ve already noticed a difference in my mood, and I feel more interested in my coursework. I can almost feel my withered neurons springing back to life, crackling with the energy needed to create the images I see in my mind’s eye when I read.

We are stunting the growth of an important function of our brains when we neglect to read books.

This is why we are responsible for supplementing our academic education with unstructured reading, where all that’s required is an interesting story of which that we can’t wait to read the next page. There is no substitute for reading a book, and we should make it a priority to spend time each day doing so.

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NEWS

June 9, 2014

news editor email / phone

Leah Bjornson associate news editor news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

Melissa Roach

The Sikh Student Associations at SFU, UBC, and UFV hosted “Reflections on the 1984 Sikh Genocide: Why does it matter?” The session addressed the specifics of what went on, as well as what can be done now.

Special guest Harinder Singh, an interdisciplinary researcher and global orator on Sikh and Punjabi heritages, led the interactive, dialogic event on the ever-lasting consequences of the 1984 Sikh Genocide.

The 8th International Gender and Language Association conference took place at Harbour Centre from June 5 to 7. The conference aimed to promote an awareness of how language affects differently gendered students in learning environments. Findings from co-chair Allyson Jule showed that teachers will generally encourage male students to speak more so than females. This could potentially have long-term effects on girls, making them less vocal in certain situations, such as in the workplace.

performing Scotland the Brave.

After Williams introduced everyone, SFU President Andrew Petter was the first to speak. He said, “Athletics is of course a hallmark at SFU, it’s a proud part of our history. It’s also key to our vision of SFU as Canada’s engaged university,” and that student athletes “epitomize that vision.”

The fifth annual Gathering of the Clan Breakfast invited SFU Clan alumni and supporters together to “celebrate the history and future of SFU Athletics” while raising money for SFU athletic scholarships.

The breakfast, held on Friday, May 30 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, was hosted by the 2010 and 2012 CTV Olympics host, Brian Williams, who was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from SFU in 2011.

Joining him were the quarterbacks of the most recent championship teams in North America’s two biggest professional football leagues: Russell Wilson, of the 2014 Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks, and Darian Durant, of the Grey Cup winning Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The event started at 7:00 a.m. with the SFU Pipe Band

Durant joined Williams on the stage, and Wilson joined them via a video feed from Seattle. Durant and Wilson were last minute additions to the speakers list, replacing another Seahawk, Richard Sherman, who was supposed to be a keynote speaker but pulled out shortly before the date.

Williams, however, assured the audience that Sherman was not “out golfing,” and had another commitment to the Seahawks.

The two quarterbacks, who went to rivaling universities in North Carolina, started off by

poking fun at each other. The conversation took on a more serious tone when Durant began explaining the importance of athletic scholarships to Williams: “It’s given me every opportunity in the world first and foremost. I don’t think I’d be sitting here today or being able to accomplish everything I have without scholarships.”

“Sometimes it’s hard for single parents, or even two parent households to be able to fund a very prestigious college education,” Durant continued. “To have a scholarship, to go to a prestigious university, to be able to receive a great education [. . .] is a wonderful thing.”

Once the quarterbacks were done, attendants were treated to breakfast. Olivia Aguiar, a sophomore forward on the SFU women’s soccer team, wrapped up the morning’s speeches on behalf of the athletes: “The Clan is a group of close-knit, interrelated families. Our family here at SFU, our Clan, is much larger than any of 400 student athletes; it consists of coaches, administration, equipment and personnel, physical therapists, alumni and most importantly everyone in this room today.”

Angus Reid, former BC Lion and SFU football alumni, spoke to The Peak about the

importance of this fundraiser: “[Growing as an organization is] great to do, but it’s hard to do, and you’re seeing right now the growing pains — but it’s inspiring to see the vision. We want to move forward and compete at a high, high level.”

“Events like this become so crucial, to one, raise the funds to be able to do it but also to bring people together and let the business community know what SFU is doing, and promote that vision, and I think it’s great,” he added.

Reid also touched upon the importance of student scholarships saying, “The reality was, I might’ve been able to pull it off [without a scholarship], going to school and playing sports, but it would have created another hardship that would have never allowed me to excel in either.”

Fellow SFU football alumni Nicholas Shuster echoed Reid, “[Scholarships] really gave me a lot of financial freedom, [. . .] it gave me the ability to really become a student athlete and put my focus into just those two things.”

At the end of the morning, the event had raised $242,000. These proceeds, raised in part by the $200-a-seat ticket price, will all go to SFU athletic scholarships.

NEWS

Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy — with all that recyclable waste you’re carrying.

Don’t be afraid if you don’t know where to toss your mom’s spaghetti — a new campaign is hoping to help students get over the “separation anxiety� felt when having to decide how to separate their waste at SFU’s recently installed Zero Waste stations.

Originally launched in January, the Zero Waste Initiative aims to double the amount of waste SFU recycles or composts by 2015, while diverting 70 per cent of SFU’s waste from landfills. “It’s one of the key goals of the Sustainability Strategic Plan for the university,� Rachel Telling, Zero Waste coordinator, told The Peak. “We’ve kind of taken the initiative to implement all of this stuff first, and we’re sharing it with other universities, so the idea is to become an industry leader in zero waste.�

On March 19, janitorial staff carried out a “waste audit,â€? collecting waste from the AQ 3000 level as well as Mackenzie CafĂŠ.

After sorting the waste into its four streams — paper, recyclables, compostable, and landfill — the team found that 47 per cent of materials were not being placed in the correct streams.

It seemed students and staff were mainly having difficulties disposing of coffee cups, compostable containers and foodsoiled paper, and much of the contamination came from mixing up the paper and compostables streams. These findings spurred the team to relaunch their Zero Waste campaign, on a new theme of “separation anxiety.�

Telling explained, “We were noticing the same items in the same bins again and again and again. Coffee cups, for example.

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June 9, 2014

So we wanted to make it even easier for people.�

The relaunch will feature updated signs based on feedback from focus groups. “It was funny because some people said, ‘There’s too much information on the signs! Too cluttered!’ and then the same amount of people said, ‘There’s not enough information on the signs!’� exclaimed Telling. “We tried to find a middle ground that would please the majority of people.�

In addition to providing clearer instructions, the relaunch involves a Zero Waste selfie competition — or, “Zelfie� competition. For the remainder of the semester, students are invited to take a picture of themselves recycling correctly and send it to the Zero Waste campaign to be entered into a weekly competition for a $50 voucher to the on-campus vendor of their choice.

The team has also installed two stream bins — landfill and compost — in many of the washrooms on campus, hoping to divert a significant amount of paper towels to compost. With the help of Zero Waste educators, who will be available at stations on all three campuses for rest of the semester, the initiative hopes to transition to a greater focus on waste prevention in the fall.

With the relaunch in full swing, Telling hopes that students will take the time to consider what they are doing with their waste. “We see people sometimes just like, chucking things in them from afar,� said Telling; “Just take a second to read and make sure it goes in the right bin.�

You can follow Leah Bjornson

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6 NEWS

After much dispute at last week’s board meeting over two different concert proposals, this week a motion was passed to approve VP student services Zied Masmoudi’s proposal to host a Fall Kickoff Concert in a similar style to last year’s event.

The motion was amended to appoint Masmoudi as project lead, as well as to “aim to incorporate other facets of the SFSS.” The question was raised

by VP student life and birthday boy Kayode Fatoba as to how financially accessible the event will be for students. VP finance Adam Potvin replied that tickets will be subsidized as much as possible and that “the goal is to break even,” as it has been for previous concerts hosted by the SFSS.

Potvin presented his financial plan for his term to board for preliminary discussion.

His plans include filling the restricted surplus to $1.2 million, increasing the 20142015 operating budget by $120,000, repaying the space expansion fund the $2.44 million debt from the general fund that is owed from years of Highland Pub deficits, and giving the Student Union Building $2.22 million more than originally planned.

He hopes to accomplish this by using the repaid space expansion money for Build SFU, as well as some of the money made from the pending sale of the MBC to SFU — $650,000 of what is expected to be $3 million — to add to the operating budget and restricted surplus.

Potvin also brought up the idea of reducing the space expansion student levy, saying that as it stands, the SFSS is amassing $400,000 more than necessary each semester.

...continued on page 7

June 9, 2014

On the morning of June 4, Simon Fraser University held an exercise to test its emergency response plan in a full scale emergency simulation exercise.

This event involved all three campuses, with a major event in Burnaby involving the West Mall complex and parkade.

The event took place in cooperation with numerous first responders, including BC Ambulance and Emergency Response Team, and members from several police departments. These first responders were joined by SFU Security, along with student and staff volunteers.

In an effort to make the exercise as realistic as possible,

volunteers were provided with make-up to simulate a variety of injuries, ranging from simple scrapes and bruises to fatal gunshot wounds. These volunteers were also provided with varying symptoms that could progressively worsen if they were not treated quickly.

Terry Waterhouse, chief safety officer for SFU Safety and Risk Services, was thankful for the expertise and support of the first responders and the participation of the volunteers. In addition, Waterhouse stated that “the exercise was successful in deepening our learnings for emergency response and in strengthening our partnership with the RCMP — for the safety of all members of our campus communities.”

“The safety of our three campuses is a top priority at SFU, and this full-scale test of our emergency response plan is an important step in ensuring that we are prepared in the event of an emergency,” said Waterhouse.

He continued, “In addition to lessons learned, testing our response systems will help us to further develop our education

outreach, as we continue to inform and prepare our campus communities for potential emergency situations.”

Several RCMP members also stated that the exercise was a learning experience for them, as it allowed them to utilize their training in a real-life setting, helping to bridge the gap between training and a reality that they hope will never come to pass.

SFU Safety and Risk Services is preparing a more detailed release for the near future, once they have received feedback from all those involved in the day’s exercises.

Counselling services were also made available for those who felt they may have suffered trauma as a result of the simulations.

SFU Security is planning to organise similar events in the future.

This year’s Surrey Board of Trade’s Top 25 Under 25 Awards once again highlighted a number of exceptional young entrepreneurs within the city of Surrey, many of whom are affiliated with SFU. The winners included current SFU students, Amar Pangalia, Cynthia Su, Gunraj Gill, Kevin Cruz, Lara Ahmad, Raeniel (Rae) Holgado, and Winona Bhatti, as well as alumni Elvin Cheung, Jasmine Garcha, and Karanvir Singh Thiara.

The awards recognized these individuals as leaders and role models in the community, as well as for their efforts to provide

for their communities, usually through the development of programs and facilities.

Ahmad, co-program manager of SFU Enactus, expressed her elation at receiving the award, “It’s really nice to be recognized [. . .] to see all the effort from the team, that everyone at Enactus, has put [in]. [It’s] really exciting and that much more of a motivator.”

For the time being, Ahmad hopes to continue her involvement with Enactus. The club is part of “a global organization that uses entrepreneurial action as a catalyst for progress,” inspiring entrepreneurial ventures in the SFU community and beyond.

Ahmad was among three other award recipients involved with Enactus SFU. Fellow member Bhatti, founder of HUG Charity Canada (Helping Underprivileged Girls) and program manager of Banner Bags, said of her future, “There’s so many things I want to do. I’m the kind of person where I

see something, [I think], I should do it. For now . . . I guess I’ll see where that takes me.”

Holgado was recognized for being the project manager for Enactus SFU’s Count on Me program, which teaches basic financial literacy skills to those in the community in need. He said, “[It’s] a big accomplishment for me [and it] validates my tireless contribution to my community and my desire to become a successful businessman in the future.”

Being program manager has significantly affected Holgado, showing him that there is more to business than profit and that a positive impact is far more meaningful. He foresees expanding the program to other cities in the Lower Mainland and predicts that more secondary schools in Surrey will request Count on Me’s curriculum.

Holgado is not alone in hoping that this award may mean

increased publicity for his project. Thiara, a 23-year old SFU alumnus, and founder of Sahara, a youth mental health initiative that advocates for active mental health support, said, “Receiving [the award] will help bring more attention to the work [of] Sahara, [but] the satisfaction I get from being able to help others is the greatest award I can ask for.”

Su, co-program manager of Enactus SFU’s Entrepreneur of the Year (SEY) program, and winner of the Project Leader of the Year award at the 2014 Enactus Canada National Exposition, felt proud to be honoured among her peers. She said, “The calibre of [the recognized] individuals [. . .] and the work that they have done in and for our city is inspirational.

I am thankful and honoured to be recognized amongst them.”

Recipients will be presented with their awards at a ceremony on June 12 at Eaglequest Golf, Coyote Creek in Surrey.

NEWS

June 9, 2014

Not many undergraduate students get the chance to hold an executive position at one of the world’s largest global organizations, but SFU’s Gordon Ching just landed such a position with AIESEC, a prominent not-for-profit organization dealing with youth leadership and positive social change.

Ching accepted a position as AIESEC’s chief digital officer and global vice-president of digital marketing. The two year-long contract has taken him overseas to the Netherlands, where he is posted in the city of Rotterdam.

What began with a visit to AIESEC SFU’s clubs day table in 2010 has turned into a progressive career with the company for the 21-year old student. Ching made his way from being a lowly online media coordinator, to the Canadian national vice-president of marketing and communications, to now working on a global scale.

In his previous position, Ching worked with 17 people from across Canada. He was responsible for the organization of 15 global conferences, including the Canada Youth to Business Forum, also leading AIESEC’s Canadian Youth Voice Survey.

This new position has him working with a team of 24 people, from 18 countries across the world.

For him, the main difference from his previous position is the global aspect — something he believes aligns very well with SFU’s campaign to “engage the world.” “I’m not thinking about ‘how do I create change in Vancouver or in Toronto?” Now I’m thinking, ‘how do I create change across our 124 country network?’” said Ching.

Another challenge he faces in this new role is “[understanding] the intricate cultural differences, different communication styles, and how [he] can lead people across different areas.”

Despite being in a state of transition, Ching enjoys his new work. “I feel that with every new experience comes a brand new way to see the world and understand myself at the same time,” he said.

At the beginning of his undergraduate degree in human geography, Ching couldn’t have imagined the present turn of events.

He had a passion for climate

Build SFU hosted its second sustainability workshop last Thursday, during which project architects for the Student Union Building (SUB) discussed how they will incorporate feedback from students and staff concerning sustainability in the building’s design.

Architects from Perkins+Will presented feedback received during a previous consultation before outlining their goals for meeting students’ desires for an environmentally-friendly SUB. After tallying the responses, Build SFU found that students were mainly concerned with

energy reduction, followed by efforts at social and community engagement, and the inclusion of local and natural materials.

Jana Foit, lead architect on the project, spoke to the various goals outlined for the new building. These included promotion of social sustainability and a culture of environmental stewardship, the incorporation of sustainably sourced materials, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions — all while balancing cost, sustainability, and quality.

In order to maximize energy efficiency, the architects discussed various options, including LED lighting, occupancy sensors, and reduced plug loads for power bars.

Foit acknowledged that although “some of these strategies [. . .] are contradictory to some of the desires to have electrical plugs everywhere to plug in your laptop,” the architects feel that these features are vital to conserving energy in the space.

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The SFSS board of directors is placing a call for candidates interested in becoming their new external chair. The hired position would involve acquiring a good knowledge of Robert’s Rules, used to lead weekly board meetings for the remainder of the summer semester. The call-out will be brought to a close on June 19.

To cover the cost of hiring someone as external chair, board has moved to reallocate $900 from the year’s unrestricted surplus of about $3,000; the chair will be paid $75 per meeting. As for the selection of the chair, a group of board members has been tasked with choosing an appropriate candidate, whereupon the decision will be brought to board and put to a vote.

change, so he focused his energies on the environmental science aspects of the degree.

He explained that he later realized that if he wanted to effect real change, he would need a broader understanding of other things, such as economics, business, and politics: “I not only wanted to be an environmental scientist anymore but an entrepreneur or politician that can be a catalyst for massive and impactful change.”

This, in part, prompted him to get involved with AIESEC in the first place. He also said that, as a young person, he didn’t have much to lose in trying out something new. Ching emphasized that, “university is the best time to really develop yourself.”

Ching has been out of school for just over a year now, but he intends to pick up where he left off after his contract is up.

He stressed the importance of breaking out of one’s comfort zone, encouraging SFU students to “think beyond their local horizons, [. . .] reach out to an international audience,” and also to find deeper meaning in their degrees and “how they can bridge [them] into a greater social context to make a meaningful impact.”

“You need to understand the picture beyond your own discipline,” he concluded.

The architects also stressed the need for occupant engagement with the SUB to minimize energy use. When discussing how opening and closing windows can be useful in reducing heating costs, Geoff McDonell, the project’s lead mechanical engineer, asked students to, “treat [the SUB] like your own house.” He continued, “Would you leave your own windows open on a cold winter night? Probably not.”

in attendance was the possible inclusion of a community kitchen.

Despite student interest in the installation of solar (pv) panels, the architects replied that Burnaby Mountain is a “solar-challenged neighbourhood,” which makes it difficult to install solar panels that would generate consistent energy.

In an exercise at the end of the meeting, those in attendance showed interest in features such

as metering dashboards. Such meters would allow students to see the energy use of a space in real-time — for example, a bathroom’s water usage.

Although other large-scale ideas like an intensive green roof did not seem likely, McDonell told those in attendance that, “None of this is off the table. This is all stuff that we’re looking at in terms of what can fit and what can work.”

Potential features include LED lighting, occupancy sensors, and reduced plug loads for power bars.

The exterior of the building is likely to be 40 per cent windows, with the rest constructed using natural and recycled materials. Another feature that excited students

Graduation Photos

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8 NEWS

SFU publishing master’s student Rebecca Wolfe is calling for human assistance in machinetranslation, among other improvements, after conducting research at both the United Nations and SFU regarding multilingualism at international institutions.

Wolfe suggests that, in addition to promoting multilingualism, international institutions such as the UN need to effectively use emerging technological tools while better incorporating the human aspect of translation. Beyond the tools of translation, Wolfe warns that the UN needs to avoid becoming anglocentric as this could lead to cultural misunderstandings resulting from miscommunications.

During her undergraduate years, Wolfe took an interest in

June 9, 2014

linguistics, which eventually led to an internship in the UN editorial department.

She explained, “For me, it was interesting see how they handle multilingualism in a multinational, multilingual organization. So I had some firsthand research I was able to do to actually observe what they do for publishing practices multilingually, and then to gather information about the state of multilingual publishing today.”

Although the UN is committed to publishing materials in multiple languages, due to obstacles such as historical precedent and a lack of resources, they are not always able to do so.

Wolfe argues that constant translation into English may result in cultural misrepresentation.

In addition to discussing the dangers of anglocentrism, Wolfe’s thesis contains insights on the modern fascination and mass-use of machine translation as well as its error rates and efficiency.

“As anybody who’s tried to use Google Translate or any other online translators [knows], there’s going to be mistakes. You will get some crazy results. It is good to get the right translator and have some human translating at the other end of it,” Wolfe explained.

All the more challenging is that the technology in this sector does not seem to be improving. Wolfe stated, “If I used a machine translator five years ago, it would not be better than today.”

Although Wolfe believes that improvement will likely occur in the future, she feels that human intervention is required alongside machine processing to enhance the clarity of the translations.

Wolfe concluded: “I hope [my work] will be used by big

organizations, universities, by academic publishers, because my main point is that multilingualism should not be an afterthought, and we shouldn’t lose linguistic diversity because it is a pain in the butt to translate things.

“A lot of languages are dying today,” she continued. “My main point is that I hope people will not be afraid to take the time to do translating and to pay attention to other languages besides English.”

NEWS

According to Russian and Chinese state news, there may be plans to build a high-speed railway from China to Canada — a train ride of approximately two days when travelled at 350 kilometres an hour.

The route, which would stretch from Beijing to Vancouver, would foster trade and travel across several nations. It would span 13,000 kilometres, crossing Siberia before entering a tunnel to Alaska, through a 200 kilometre underwater tunnel in the Bering Strait. This area is considered one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world.

According to China Daily, the project is being pushed by an Alaskan company called InterBering LLC. They predict the total cost of the endeavor would be upwards of $35 billion.

Aside from the concerns surrounding the cost, some are skeptical that Canada, the United

Performers busked, danced, and sang at the first annual Buskathon, founded and organized by SFU philosophy student Samantha Dowdell.

According to Dowdell, the idea arose from her prior musical interests and through her band Alluvium. As a result, the daylong Buskathon occurred on May 31 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Rocky Point Park in Port Moody.

Dowdell explained the nature of the event: “Busking is

June 9, 2014

States, Russia, and China will be able to agree on the project in order to put it into motion. Even if the proposal were accepted, experts say it could take up to 25 years to complete.

Peter Hall, SFU urban studies professor, is doubtful of the plan’s immediate feasibility. “This isa surely a long way in the future, more of a speculation about possibilities,” he told The Peak. “But there is a long history of humans proposing grand infrastructure,

simply taking your talent out on the street, laying out some sort of spot where people can drop money for you, and sharing whatever with the world. If people like it, people will give you something.”

She described the event as a genuine “opportunity for the new and unknown artists to have a voice and present their work.” To make the event happen, Dowdell approached local artists, “seeking them out, [and] bringing them out into the open.” She continued, “Not a lot of people know this small community exists.”

Dowdell used her musical connections to put together a lineup: “I [asked] my musician friends, my band Alluvium, and another band called Blue Smoke.”

Most of the bands in attendance were acoustic. “We [didn’t] want

often going bankrupt on the first attempt — [think of the] Channel Tunnel, [the] Panama Canal — and once built it becomes a fact that does change travel and settlement patterns.”

Beyond fiscal and cooperative issues, Hall added that there could be a number of questions raised about the environmental aspect of the Beijing-Vancouver plan, were it to go through. “The environmental calculus would be quite complex,” he explained. “How is

them to blow out the park,” Dowdell said, laughing.

She also reached out to local high school music programs, with which she was involved before coming to SFU. “I [had] been trying to contact them and have them and students do promotions,” she explained.

Many places in the Lower Mainland require a license to busk, and only allow musicians to perform in a spot for one hour before requiring them to move on. There are exceptions when it comes to certain side streets, parks, and the sea wall.

However, Port Moody supported Dowdell’s event by relaxing its restrictions.

To keep costs down, Dowdell decided to keep things simple.

“It was funded by the city, really simple.” she said. She also reached out to many businesses

it actually constructed, what stops are en route, does it displace or reinforce carbon-intensive air travel, what fuel is used on the rail, and if electricity is used, what is the source, etcetera?”

Canada isn’t the only country China has its eye on — the Chinese have three other railroad proposals on the table, including one from London through Paris, Berlin, Warsaw and Kiev to Moscow; this route would split to end in either Kazakhstan or Siberia.

such as Cobs Bread and David’s Tea for sponsorship.

She explained, “[The community has been] printing posters for me, helping me out with contacts. [There’s been] a lot of email communication with people involved with the park — not much from the

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Another railroad, to start in China, would run through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, and Germany.

A third would start in southern China, running through Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia before ending in Singapore.

All of these plans would involve heavy infrastructure and international co-operation between the governments planning the railroads. China has already made statements saying that they would fund the projects internally.

In fact, recent agreements may mean China’s plans are not as far in the future as Hall might think. Laos has already signed on to borrow $72 billion from China to fund the railroad that will run through Southeast Asia, and China is building a railroad in Nigeria as a form of aid to Africa, providing jobs and infrastructure.

This railway will link Kenya’s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and its capital, Nairobi, and eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan, and will cost $3.8 billion.

Aside from Laos and Nigeria, no other countries have made formal commitments to the new Chinese railways.

province, mostly from the city of Port Moody.”

Dowdell said that community building was her primary focus. “I plan to make [the Buskathon] an annual thing, building it up,” she said. In light of the support she received from the community, she feels this could be a reality.

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OPINIONS

Did Hitler play strategy games?

In an article on Futurismic.com, “Seeing Like A State, Why Strategy Games Make Us Think and Behave Like Brutal Psychopaths,” Jonathan McCalmont adds his opinion to the raging debate on the psychological impact of video games. He links strategy video games with political psychopaths such as Hitler: the former causes the latter. McCalmont argues that strategy games turn liberalminded people into “brutal tyrants” because they shift their worldviews from humanistic to state-centered.

This argument is farfetched.

McCalmont’s article overgeneralizes the impact of strategy games as he ignores the fact that most players of these games can distinguish reality from fantasy.

He believes that the escapism of strategy games is no different than the escapism of corrupt politicians

Forewarning: the “F-word” is about to be used numerous times throughout this article.

The one rhyming with duck? Not so much. We’re talking about the other “F-word,” feminism.

It’s about time people stopped making the usual mistake of assuming feminism means putting women above men.

Recently, actress Shailene Woodley of the film Divergent was asked whether or not she

June 9, 2014

opinions editor email / phone

Joel MacKenzie opinions@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

into a state-centered view of the world where there is little concern for the human consequences of actions.

Yet, this comparison is erroneous simply because the players know they are playing a game. Such games, after all, involve actions that are impossible for an average person to accomplish, mainly the conquest of countries in different time periods and places. These time periods can involve the far off past or future as in Civilization or Starcraft, as well as worlds of fantasy like in The World of Warcraft.

McCalmont’s simplification of the impact of strategy games is also apparent in his use of historical examples to support his case. In one example, he goes so far as to argue that the major genocides of the 20th century were caused by the state-centered views of tyrants, the same views that are prevalent in players of strategy games.

However, the psychopathy of leaders such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao must have had some

incentives that are unrelated to video games, being that these games did not exist.

Not only is McCalmont exaggerating the negative effects of strategy games, but he is also ignorant about the games themselves. He thinks that they are all “politically savage.” They’re really not. A case in point is the game Civilization. It is complex, demanding that the player use many strategies other than shedding blood to win the game, such as via

cultural conquest or winning the space race.

There are also different political systems to choose from in Civilization based on the level of your civilization’s knowledge or circumstances at a particular point in time, as well as democratic elements within the game, such as the happiness level of cities. In addition, there are political, economic, and scientific advisors.

Civilization is a strategy game that is not just a lesson

in psychopathic tyranny but rather in political diversity. This can help the player exercise his or her democratic rights and gain a broader perspective of the world.

McCalmont’s belief that players of strategy are psychopathic tyrants or dictators with worldviews that exclude social realities shows that he takes these games too seriously. Any mature gamer will tell you that to play a game, you have to distinguish fantasy from reality.

considered herself a feminist.

Her response was, “No, because I love men, and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance.”

Oh good, yet another confused Hollywood star. Feminism at its core is about striving to ensure that women and men have equal rights and opportunities. Since when did it become such a dirty word that became synonymous with “man-hating” and “power-hungry”? Perhaps since people like Shailene Woodley continue to use and unintentionally spread this false definition of feminism.

With documentaries such as Miss Representation and movements by organizations such

as the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media showcasing the lack of equality between men and women in the very industry that she is a part of, Woodley is far too ignorant. Her comments about taking “men away from the power” only continue to play into the Hollywood trap of vilifying feminism, and pushing aside the achievements of women.

A two-minute montage played at this year’s Oscars ceremony depicting popular heroes in film showcased this vilification. The clip featured dozens of heroes, but most of them were male.

Within the clip, women were featured for less than 20 seconds, putting the male to female ratio of representation at 6:1.

Why weren’t more female heroes included? One can’t say

that more don’t exist. The clip could’ve featured famed “Tomb Raider” Lara Croft, our favourite witch, Hermione, or Terminator’s Sara Conner, among others.

younger generations to look up to, and has subsequently helped transform Woodley into Hollywood’s next “it girl.”

Woodley is being painted by the media as a role model for this younger generation.

It is thus even more critical that she understand the basis of feminism. Her dim-witted answer to whether or not she considers herself a feminist is now spreading a false notion of what feminism is to this younger generation.

You may argue that her publicist should have prepared her better for questions such as this, but this is on her. Misunderstanding the main principles of feminism in this day and age is just sad and unacceptable.

Crack open a dictionary, Shailene.

Hollywood’s aversion to celebrating strong female characters is clear. Yet, with her role in Divergent, Woodley herself plays a character that is being hailed as one of the next great female heroes.

Tris Prior, her character, has been called a new hero for

OPINIONS

June 9, 2014

My personal experience in university, for the most part, was of a place where enthusiasm was infectious, spreading wildly throughout hallways and corridors, providing undergrads with a sense of multiple possibilities for the future.

The idea that your degree can take you anywhere is a mantra lived and breathed by many, especially when we question the thousands paid in tuition each semester.

Losing the sense of security that my undergraduate studies provided me feels similar to losing a lover (albeit one whose expensive dates I will not miss). At SFU I met some of the most brilliant minds, built lifelong friendships, and acquired knowledge on matters beyond the scope of my imagination.

Now that I’m sending out applications for employment opportunities by the halfdozen each day and making

ends meet temporarily by serving coffee, the nostalgia of my time spent writing papers and frantically cramming pulsates through me, highlighting what a relatively enjoyable and honouring experience getting a degree was.

Questions and suggestions float around in my head in each moment of this transition period: Could I update my LinkedIn profile further? Have I checked my phone for any missed calls from prospective employers? Did I pursue the right degree? Should I pursue my master’s only months after graduating if my job applications are not triumphant?

What do I want to do with my life, exactly?

Of course, there is great relief simultaneously that comes from completing my studies.

Gone are the looming deadlines of term papers, the repetitive nature of some courses

11

within the same field of study, and the strains of financing education. Indeed, finding a relatively normal sleep routine after four years of writing papers during each hour of the day is miraculous.

But it feels like the undergraduate experience happened all too quickly. Certainly, studies could have been prolonged but it seems futile to do so without a defined goal.

It is encouraging to be told, by people with far more wisdom and experience, that this transition period too will pass.

Life continues. New opportunities will present themselves, learning will occur in a variety of forms, and time will provide the chance to reminisce and reflect about being at these unique crossroads.

At the risk of sounding like a clichĂŠ, truly do enjoy your time as a student. Seek involvement with the smartest people, the most determined of imaginations, and thrive on the inquisitive energy that is rare outside the setting of formal education.

After all, the privilege of being able to invest in your future is not accessible to all, and awakening to the reality of its end can be bittersweet.

Erickson was born in 1924 in the burgeoning Shaughnessy neighbourhood of a then-young Vancouver. His parents were members of the first generation of Vancouverites — selfdescribed pioneers whose interests lay in the promotion of art and culture in the community. With the support of both his mother and father, Erickson took an early interest in painting and illustration, eventually having his work featured at the Vancouver Art Gallery at the age of 14.

He served in World War II as a member of Canada’s Intelligence Corps, a position which sent him to India, Malaysia, and other areas in Southeast Asia. During his travels, he fell in love with Asian philosophy and art, a fascination which would go on to define much of his architecture.

Upon returning to Canada, he quickly developed a keen interest in architecture. According to a 2006 profile in Vancouver Magazine, “the story goes that Arthur Erickson’s love of architecture was born when he thumbed through a 1946 copy of Fortune and saw photos of Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert house.” Wright’s famous summer home, now the main campus of Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, is not unlike many of Erickson’s buildings — its wide open spaces and right angles evoke the expanse of our own Academic Quadrangle.

Erickson enrolled in McGill’s architecture program, where he graduated in 1950 with honours. Considered a prodigy, he turned down a chance to work with Frank Lloyd Wright, his idol, in order to continue traveling.

According to Shrum, Erickson and Massey’s design was chosen unanimously by the judges because it met all of his requirements. “I had always felt sorry for UBC students who had to walk from building to building in the rain,” he said; Erickson’s design allowed students to travel from any one building to another without exposure to the elements. Shrum also requested that there be ample space for parking, and that all the school’s large lecture theatres be together and not, as Shrum described it, “scattered all over the campus as they were at UBC.” But Shrum’s final and most crucial stipulation — one that his advisors cautioned him would be too difficult for any applicant — was that “the university should appear in 1965 essentially as it would in 1995.” Shrum wanted a school which seemed complete on the day it opened, and could be expanded upon without fundamentally changing its appearance. In his 1986 autobiography, he deemed Erickson’s design, ultimately, a success: “Simon Fraser University looks almost the same now as it did the day we opened it, despite the great expansion that has taken place.”

As winner of Shrum’s design competition, Erickson and Massey were given two jobs: they were to implement their own design of Simon Fraser University, while also factoring in the design concepts of their four runners-up. Zoltan Kiss was put in charge of the Academic Quadrangle; Robert Harrison, the library; Rhone and Iredale, the science wing; Duncan McNab, the gym, pool, and theatre complex. Given first choice, Erickson and Massey chose Convocation Mall — in their minds, this would be the centre of the university, the meeting place for academic minds to exchange ideas and engage in discussion.

Years later, when the Mall became the centre of the radical political protests that came to de-

In the years following his schooling, he explored the Middle East and Europe, tracing the history of architecture from its beginnings in Mesopotamia to the lavish castles, aqueducts, and cathedrals of Italy, Spain and France. He returned in 1954 to teach architecture at the University of Oregon, and went on to earn a professorship at UBC at age of 33. During his tenure, he continued his travels sporadically, exploring numerous countries in Africa, South America, and Asia.

His fascination with international styles of art and architecture would inspire his own style, which was unlike anything that had come before, or since. By translating the organic design concepts of Asian architecture to the expansive green landscapes of British Columbia, Erickson would change Vancouver’s image forever.

After nearly a decade teaching in UBC’s architecture department, Erickson teamed up with his roommate Geoffrey Massey, a talented businessman and the nephew of Vincent Massey, former Governor General. Together, they formed Erickson/Massey Architects, a tiny firm based out of downtown Vancouver. Their first commission to garner national attention was the Graham House, a now-demolished residence on a rockbed in West Vancouver made entirely of wood and glass. Its open spaces, use of glass, and environmentally conscious design mirrors that of SFU — like our university, it simply became a part of the landscape.

Erickson and Massey were the perfect duo: the former had the creative genius and innovative spirit to design awe-inspiring struc-

fine SFU’s first decade, Erickson came under fire for his design. Despite an unwillingness to publicly comment on the matter, by all accounts, he was pleased: this, of course, meant that his idea had worked.

As construction began in March 1964, a journalist for the national magazine Saturday Night dubbed the work in progress the “instant university.” The name stuck — during the gruelling construction phase, Erickson would joke that a project of its scale would usually require two years just to prepare the drawings, let alone the construction process.

Typical of their partnership, Erickson and Massey split the work to suit their talents.

Stouck’s biography tells of one particular morning when Massey and Erickson learned that a shipment of concrete slabs had proved too thin to hold up the weight required of them, halting construction and pushing hard against their impending deadline.

Massey spent the entire day telephoning suppliers and contractors, trying to fix the problem; meanwhile, Erickson spent the day researching to find the perfect species of reflecting koi fish for the Academic Quadrangle pond.

Despite minor setbacks, Erickson and Massey, along with their ragtag team of fellow architects, finished construction in time for the university to open in September of 1965, right on schedule.

Its first semester had over 2,500 students in attendance, and SFU’s groundbreaking design — its wide open spaces, bold use of concrete and glass, and interdisciplinary structure — brought Erickson international acclaim. He and Massey won multiple awards for their work, and in the years following, Erickson would go on to open offices in Montreal, To-

tures, and the latter had the business sense and practicality to bring projects to fruition.

“It was a wonderful working relationship,” says David Stouck, SFU professor emeritus and author of the award winning 2013 biography Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life. “They really impressed their clients, because all bases were covered.”

Massey’s insight would prove instrumental in Erickson’s winning design for SFU. According to Stouck, one of the judges is reported to have said the design “sits like a well-tailored cloak on the top of a mountain.”

“What was unique about the design that he [Erickson] and Geoffrey Massey offered in the competition was that he didn’t create a bunch of high rises on top of a mountain,” Stouck says. “Instead, he saw the mountain as designing the shape of the campus.”

He mentions Erickson’s travels to Bali in Indonesia as a young man as a key influence: “What impressed him there was the way everything was conformed to the landscape itself. It was nature that determined the shape of things, not the human presence. So in his design for Simon Fraser, it’s terraced, just like the rice fields of Bali.” Erickson also looked to the Acropolis in Athens — an impressive structure, as much a part of the mountain as the grass below. Years later, Erickson would say that “the dialogue between building and setting is the essence of architecture.”

ronto, Los Angeles, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia — at one point, running all five at the same time.

“From the outset, Simon Fraser — from an architectural point of view — was radical,” Stouck says.

“In the old days, university campuses consisted of buildings that were separated from each other, and these separations represented a competitive spirit between departments. To put all these departments together and, in a sense, jumble them up to make sure that there was no sense of competition among the faculties was a completely new idea.”

Stouck also cites SFU’s interdisciplinary design as a reason for its political radicalism early on.

“When you bring everybody together, they’re going to start talking to each other about their disciplines in relationship to each other. Pretty soon, you have an entirely new and different idea of how education can develop [. . .] and of course, it attracted radical students, it attracted radical faculty, and that became part of its reputation.”

SFU, known to many at the time as “the Berkeley of the North,” quickly gained notoriety as a school for outcasts, political dissidents, activists, and starving artists. Its unique design played a big role in enticing potential students. “SFU attracted students who were not inclined to follow a crowd,” writes Hugh Johnston, a professor emeritus at SFU, in his book Radical Campus.

Though Erickson’s popularity would continue to grow after his work on the university, Shrum’s gradually sank — his old world approach to business and scholarship clashed with the radicalism of the SFU student body, and his chancellorship from 1963 to 1968 was an unpopular one.

Still, in his final years, Shrum remained proud of his accomplishment with Simon Fraser University.

In his final years, he would remark, “I am certain that nobody, in any part of the world, ever built a university in two years and six months that accommodated 2,500 students at the opening.”

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14 FEATURES

June 9, 2014

...continued from page 13

Five years after the construction of Simon Fraser University was completed, Arthur Erickson received a letter from the Prime Minister’s office. A newly elected Pierre Trudeau was hosting an artists’ dinner: prominent creatives from across Canada were invited to share their views on Canadian nationalism and identity, as well as a Parliament cooked meal. Erickson, as it turns out, was the only architect to earn an invitation.

Erickson’s resulting friendship with Trudeau — which grew so close that the latter’s advisors, fearing rumours of homosexuality, urged him to marry immediately — proved the architect’s introduction to the world of fame and extravagance that came to dominate much of the rest of his life.

His parties at his Vancouver and Los Angeles homes became legend. His friendships with Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Katherine Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine catapulted him to celebrity status. Erickson’s homosexuality, an open secret among friends, would remain a source of tension in his professional career in the decades to come.

Although his status as one of Canada’s star architects continued to grow with projects such as UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, Robson Square, and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC, Erickson’s personal life was fraught with drama. His longtime life partner, Francisco Kripacz, a businessman and designer who helped decorate the interior of many

Erickson projects, encouraged the couple’s increasingly decadent lifestyle, which kept them in near-constant financial strain. “[Kripacz] was a very extravagant man,” says Stouck. “[Erickson] was under the spell of that man for years and years. The Arthur Erickson story is somewhat of a Greek tragedy, and this was his fatal flaw, in terms of his career as an architect; on the one hand, his instinct was to live very modestly, but he was surrounded by people, especially Francisco, who wanted everything to be as lavish and exciting as possible.”

Erickson’s tragedy reached its climax in 1992, when he was forced to declare bankruptcy in Vancouver’s Law Courts — the same ones he had designed only a decade before.

However, the final years of Erickson’s life saw his career and reputation restored. After more than a decade of separation from the architect, Kripacz died of respiratory failure. Erickson’s international offices had closed, leaving just his Vancouver office — the same place where he and Massey started it all.

Erickson’s split with Massey in the mid 1970s damaged both men professionally and personally, a blow from which, one might argue, the former never recovered. “Even though he tried to surround himself with other people working for him that could manage the business,” Stouck notes, “it was never the same.”

In 2006, just three years before his death on May 20, 2009, the Vancouver Art Gallery held a retrospective on Erickson’s life and work. Sketch-

es of Simon Fraser University and paintings from Erickson’s childhood decorated the walls as the architect fielded questions from interviewers beneath the Robson Square dome he’d designed 20 years previous. The exhibit’s curator, architect Nicholas Olsberg, reflected on Erickson’s legacy: “I don’t think the world knows what he means, and I don’t think Vancouver knows.”

Erickson remains one of just two Canadian architects to win the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, among countless other awards. According to friends, he was known to wear the medal proudly around his neck at parties and other social occasions.

Walking down the streets of Vancouver, it’s impossible to ignore Erickson’s impact on the city. Almost 50 years after his design of SFU brought him fame and fortune, there is nothing more architecturally representative of Vancouver than Erickson’s green roofs, glass windows, and angular concrete. His final work, Vancouver’s Trump Hotel — known to many as Vancouver’s Turn, a fitting double entendre — is set to be completed in 2016, almost a full decade after his passing.

Still, it’s hard not to think of Erickson’s life — part Greek tragedy, part rags-to-riches-torags parable, part epic journey — as being defined by the school he helped create. Atop Burnaby Mountain, in the midst of Erickson’s own concrete Acropolis, he lives on.

OPINIONS

Yet another ground-breaking technology is being covered by global news outlets: Google’s new self-driving car.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Self-driving.

For the last week or so, the vehicle has incited both positive and negative speculation. Some analysts have argued that the car will flop due to potential errors in its computer system, while others have stated that the vehicle will be hugely beneficial to the automotive industry.

Although it resembles a giant piece of rice with a face, the benefits of the vehicle’s safety and convenience mightily outweigh its drawbacks.

The Globe and Mail recently announced that the current prototypes for the car are bereft of steering wheels, brakes, and gas pedals. Run by electricity and an Internet connection, and with a motion sensor on its top that scans for oncoming vehicles and irregular surroundings, the car will take the user on a magic-carpet ride to wherever their destination may be.

Notice I say “user,” as the concept of a “driver” does not apply anymore, which isn’t something to be upset about! While some may see it as beneficial that the “driver” of a vehicle exercise physical awareness and social

June 9, 2014

15

acuity while driving, the “user” of Google’s car will experience the ultimate in vehicle safety.

The motion sensor will be able to detect and respond to surroundings instantly and far more accurately than a human driver would.

This may also be due to the vehicle’s current 40 km per hour limit, which, as CBC reported, would end speeding and provide intoxicated drivers with a safe ride home.

While it’s clear to me that the car would only be restricted to residential and other congested urban areas (rather than the highway), it could undoubtedly revolutionize inner-city taxi services, and eliminate yet another title: the designated driver.

Soon, the “sober” one will be able to pound back a couple more drinks and have a little fun with the rest, as the Google Car is sure to precede the automated-cab.

(And, no doubt, the automated pizza delivery service.)

More important than late-night partiers and automated pizza, the car would provide freedom of the road for elderly and disabled people. It was a very sad day for my grandmother when a doctor stated that she wouldn’t be able to drive anymore due to her health; her tearful, unbelieving reaction had quite an impact on all of us.

A piece of life is lost when one’s ability to drive is revoked; for many, driving is a profound sign

of independence. Google’s car will mean the elderly can maintain their driving freedoms, as well as allowing many disabled people a new freedom.

Certainly, this vehicle will not be for everyone. Because of speed limitations and

autonomy restrictions, there will be many who opt to remain fast and furious.

Regardless of preference, Google’s self-driving car will accomplish ground-breaking progress in vehicle safety. While there is small potential for computer

error, the car has the potential to eliminate almost every unsafe aspect of the road.

16 OPINIONS

The Montreal Canadiens are out of the playoffs. That’s a bummer, as I guess the Bettman conspiracy will last at least one more year. (While it’s hard to believe, the last time a Canadian team won the cup was in 1993, just after Bettman began his reign as commissioner.)

On the plus side, this means the Canucks could be the first Canadian team to win the cup in 20 years.

You may be surprised, however, to hear who I am cheering for in the finals: the New York Rangers. This may sound like sacrilege, as the Rangers not only beat my previous bandwagon team, the Canadiens, but also beat the Canucks in the 1994 finals. (Note: I don’t think you will ever see me cheering for the Boston Bruins.)

However, before the playoffs (after the Canucks were out), I chose three teams. I know three teams is a lot, but these were the three teams I could stomach contending for the Stanley Cup. My first choice, well ahead of the other two, was the Montreal Canadiens. First off, they were the only Canadian team left, and I think that is enough of a reason to cheer for them (although Toronto and Calgary would be exceptions for me).

Not only that, but they are a fun team to watch, and with small players like Brendan Gallagher defying the odds, they went against the grain of what a playoff team is supposed to be.

My second choice would have been equally, if not more shocking: the Chicago Blackhawks. Although they beat the Canucks numerous times in heartbreaking playoff matchups, I always respected them; they played a good game, and unfortunately, they deserved to win.

Not only that, but they play a game based heavily on skill. Although they are big and mean, their offensive game is something to watch, something that can’t really be said of the Kings.

June 9, 2014

Now, that just leaves the New York Rangers. My reason can be summed up in two words: Alain Vigneault.

Although some would rather see him crash and burn, and justify the Canucks firing him, I have always liked him.

He was probably Vancouver’s best coach, and really should have had a cup ring here.

That is not to say his firing was unwarranted. I still believe that the Canucks needed a shake-up in coaching at the time, just for a change. But that’s why I am still cheering for him, I think his firing was justified, not because he was a bad coach, but because things were stale.

I certainly would have rather seen Vigneault get his ring in Vancouver, but I will cheer for him to get one on another team (providing that team does not rhyme with “the ruins”). It should also be noted that New York’s crimes against Vancouver were a bit before my time, so I don’t hold that grudge strongly against them.

A smaller factor in my choosing the Rangers is that, in the Western Conference, the Blackhawks and the Kings are almost guaranteed a spot at the conference finals (though hopefully not for long, if you know what I mean). They seem to have a stranglehold on playoff success in the West. However, in the East, there is constant turnaround. It would be nice to see a team that is not a playoff juggernaut win the cup.

And really, who wants to see the Kings win?

Maya Angelou was a woman with the power to impact lives from the tip of her tongue to the turn of her pen. From a young age she was deeply affected by the world around her; Maya had a vision for how the world should be, one that we need to continue to strive toward today and tomorrow now that she is gone.

Born in 1928, Maya led a challenging life full of obstacles, racism, and pain, all of which she could have let cripple her. At the age of eight she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend, and subsequently stopped speaking after her rapist was murdered, presumably by her relatives.

Young Maya believed that her words, upon speaking about the incident, were the reason for his death. If her words could cause so much pain and death, she decided that she never wanted another to come to harm because of her. She went five years without speaking a single word because of this fear.

But finally, she realized that her words did not connote pain, but rather power.

She had the power to tell her story, and to positively affect the lives of others. Out of this experience and many others, she became an author, a poet, an actress, and an activist, among other jobs, to make ends meet in a world so cruel to women of colour.

Maya had the ability to bring a voice to the issues no one else could. She spoke from her heart, and encouraged others to follow.

Maya not only used her writing to inspire change in the world around her, she became an activist, working towards freedom for all despite their race. In this work, she

witnessed the assassination of fellow friends and activists.

Again, she could have called it quits, called it all too much.

Instead, she pushed on.

She continued to shape her experience into her writing and humanitarian work.

She led a life in pursuit of justice and civil rights for people of colour, and for all to have access to equal education.

Her fiery passion for equality and optimistic outlook towards the future fueled many of her peers and successors.

Maya once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

She pushed past racial and gender oppression just to tell us this. Now that Maya Angelou has left us, with her words and her actions leaving a mark on us all, it is our job to do the same: to push ourselves past all we know, specifically personal pain, and embrace all that we can be.

DIVERSIONS / ETC

June 9, 2014

17

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Are you Gay, Bi-sexual or just not

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION

Do you want to hear your voice on the radio?

To attend various music events? To have fun? Then CJSF radio is for you!

Join CJSF 90.1 FM as a volunteer and take a 45-­minute orientation tour WR OHDUQ PRUH DERXW LW 'URS LQ RQH RI WKHVH WLPHV WR ¿QG RXW ZKDW \RX can do and learn at your campus radio. (We’re in TC216 right over the Burnaby campus main entrance.)

1st Friday of the month at 3pm 2nd Tuesday at 4pm 3rd Thursday at 3 pm Hope to see you there!

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19: THURSDAY

18

ARTS

The Leo Awards, celebrating excellence in British Columbia film and television, kicked off on Friday, May 30 and filled the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver with the province’s most talented, adventurous, and dedicated artists. The awards ended on a pure note of red carpet glamour at the gala awards on Sunday.

Friday’s celebration honoured design, editing, music, screenwriting and cinematography. Anxious Oswald Greene dominated the Short Drama category and walked away with 10 awards. Continuum, the science fiction TV series set in Vancouver future and present, also led its Dramatic Series category, winning four awards.

Elysium, the Hollywood blockbuster starring Matt Damon, won Best Visual Effects in a Motion Picture.

Vivacious Beverley Elliott, who stars as Granny in the television series Once Upon a Time, hosted Saturday night. She kept the evening — which she called the “hump celebrations” — rolling, with cheeky jokes and a foot stomping song: “I’m Mad at Myself.” Kalyn Miles, 2013 Best Host Leo award winner, added her own brand of comedy via video clips of interviews with

arts editor email / phone

June 9, 2014

nominees. In one clip, Miles told Ryan Robbins, from Sanctuary, that he was good looking, then stripped to her underwear and hit on him for the rest of the interview. When Miles finally asked about his nomination, Robbins, almost speechless, recovered with a quick, “I deserve another one for holding myself together here.”

On Saturday, the Leos tipped its hat to British Columbia’s flourishing do-it-yourself production and distribution culture by adding two awards to Web Series, a new category introduced in 2013. Johannah Newmarch won Best Performance by a Female for Polaris, while Colin Cunningham won Best Performance by a Male for Fools For Hire. Best Web Series went to The True Heroines, a science fiction tale set in the 1950s about three housewives with superpowers.

The Vancouver Film Orchestra was on hand for the Sunday night gala with tight, punchy movie themes that brought a touch of dramatic tension to the winners’ arrivals on stage.

Co-host Christopher Heyerdahl opened the awards with the comment “Our theme tonight is technical difficulties. We hope you enjoy our feedback.”

The theme this year was actually abundance, in reference to the 1,052 nominations received, plus a slew of new categories, leading to a decision to extend the celebrations to three nights. Fellow host Zak Santiago made reference to this theme, as well as to the Save BC Film campaign that pulled the industry out of lean times in 2013. “Last year it seemed like everyone I knew was talking about plan B,” he said. “Now we’re looking at our best year ever.”

Continuum won Best Dramatic Series and two more awards. Down River , written and directed by Ben Ratner, added Best Motion Picture and Best Supporting Actress to the

Best Screenwriting award it took on Friday.

I spoke with Ratner and Jennifer Spence on the red carpet.

Ratner wrote the role of Aki with Spence in mind for the part.

When I asked Spence what about Aki she identified with most, she responded, “I like the nerd; I’m a nerd.” To see Spence poised elegantly on the red carpet, no one would think there was an ounce of nerd in her, but when she bounded onto the stage and clutched her Leo, saying “Holy sheeit,” I thought maybe, I saw a charming glimmer of it in her.

Tessa Perkins arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

Michael Eklund, known for The Watchmen and 88 Minutes with Al Pacino, won Best Supporting Performance for his role as the serial killer Michael Foster in The Call, a Hollywood movie starring Halle Berry.

The Student Awards, presented by Gabrielle Rose, who took Best Performance by a Female in Short Drama for The Corpse and the Courier, were an important part of the evening. As Rose said, “It is vital that the Leos promote, support, and recognize student filmmakers. They are our

future, and hopefully our future employers.”

One of the films nominated for Best Student Production, O Angel of God, was written, directed, and produced by David Manuel, a graduate of the Simon Fraser University film studies program.

And last, but by no means the least, Beverley Elliott delivered a saucy song to poke fun at the life of a British Columbia actor, “This Actor’s for Hire,” (cue Alicia Keys’ “This Girl is on Fire”). She brought the roof down and got a well-deserved standing ovation.

ARTS

Dennis Gupa, theatre director behind Colonial, Co.ERASGA’s provocative exploration of the colonization of the Philippines, is sitting in a plastic chair, watching Alvin Erasga Tolentino reconstruct a section of the performance. A multimedia dance piece conceptualized by the two, Colonial premiered in Vancouver in 2012 and toured the Philippines in early 2013.

The show was a hit on both sides of the Pacific, and Tolentino is currently preparing for a second tour. With an expected audience of over 3,000 people, Tolentino says he feels like Lady Gaga. “When does contemporary dance reach that many people?” he asks.

Tolentino moved to Canada in 1983, but he keeps close ties to his birth country, the Philippines; he met Gupa in 2007 while touring there. When they began Colonial, Tolentino wanted a collaboration with Filipino artists.

As Gupa puts it, “We were concerned with the honesty of the vision, and Alvin is a daring artist, strong enough to say no.”

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Gupa helped Tolentino bring four new generation Filipino artists to the project: Jon Lazam, videography; Angelica Dayao, musical composition; John Carlo Pagunaling, costume design; and Jonathan Tsang, lighting.

The project was not without controversy. Its Filipino audience challenged the artists’ politics, along with Tolentino’s empathy for the country’s post-colonial issues today. On one level, Colonial responds to Gupa’s questions about Filipino politics: “I wonder,” he muses, “why are we engaged in disputes between the US and China. Why don’t they just leave us alone to follow our course? In some way our government is still participating in colonialism.”

However, the question of the artists’ politics is a sensitive one.

In the Philippines, politics is still dangerous if taken too far. “We still have desaparecido,” says Gupa, referring to the Filipinos who were allegedly kidnapped by authorities. “We are moving out of that era now, but art has a responsibility to challenge. Part of being an artist is to transcend the fear of death.”

In exploring colonialism as a dancer, Tolentino had to bring up forgotten memories and embody the pain experienced in those days past. “The process strips me,” he says. “I have to empty my body, like

meditation, in a way. I give it as a physical offering, a prayer.”

Similarly, for Gupa, the project revolves around what’s been lost and what’s been found. “We have debris from the past,” he says. “Can we do something with the debris? We can reclaim it. We have archives, but there are other ways to engage with the memories.”

Gupa says he’s become sensitive to conversations that have arisen as a result of Colonial. “When the project is responded to, it gives us a chance to expand it and make it deeper.

We’re going to an area that celebrates their Spanish ancestry.

I am excited to bring an anticolonial view to that audience.”

Colonial’s opening falls on the Philippines’ celebration of independence from Spanish rule. This coincidence represents, for both Tolentino and Gupa, the tour’s essence: it was a long, episodic and communal process where the pieces came together in serendipitous ways.

Through it, both had the feeling that this project was meant to be.

Scribbled on a wall near the production site of the Bard on the Beach is the statement “Shakespeare IS God.” The present tense is always reassuring, especially for those of us who agree with Harold Bloom’s statement that “if any author has become a mortal god, it must be Shakespeare.”

But the origins of “Bardolatry” are not modern. It was in 1769 that the actor David Garrick held a three-day jubilee for the Stratford native, where he proclaimed him “the god of our idolatry,” and it was a century earlier in 1623, when Shakespeare’s contemporary, Ben Jonson, wrote the following about his friend: “Thou art a monument, without a tombe, And art alive still, while thy booke doth live.’’

I don’t mean to offend with such blasphemous anecdotes, but only to point to one of the more vile cultural norms of today: the relegation of Shakespeare to the confines of the classroom. Doing so has led most students reading him to the conclusion that Shakespeare is an academic exercise best kept as such, and reaffirms the echoes of students past: that Shakespeare is somehow too distant or difficult for them to enjoy and appreciate.

Of all the saddening opinions which have coagulated about Shakespeare, that last one seems the most unfortunate.

Shakespeare sits at the head of the Western literary canon because his works mirror life better than anything else. If there is any writer more

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apt to cure those stuck in the gloom of educational anxiety, it would be Shakespeare. The poetry of his works, what C. S. Lewis calls “the highest type of lyric,” is never as complex as people make it, and the merest attempt to comprehend it will usually lead to the clear manifestation of Shakespeare’s genius.

Counteracting such notions is always difficult, but one can hope that productions such as Bard on the Beach can help. One of the show’s producers told me that if the yearly shows can do anything, it is to remind or show people that Shakespeare is actually quite entertaining. After all, Shakespeare’s works were meant to amuse a stadium of individuals, most of whom were standing, for hours at a time.

If Bard on the Beach can help prove this, then perhaps it can also entice those flirting with the prospect of reading Shakespeare to dive in.

The three plays to be performed this year are some of his best. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s first true work of genius, punctuates C. S. Lewis’ recognition of the sweet thunder of Shakespeare’s lyricism, and his ability to weave a story through the creation of the most interesting of characters.

The Tempest, like so many of Shakespeare’s great plays, has divided many over the interpretation of its characters, giving more credence to the notion that, with Shakespeare, one can never exhaust all interpretative possibilities about his plays.

The character of Iachimo in Cymbeline, is a wonderful hint at the more famous characters of Shakespeare’s high tragedies, and acts as a positive vestigial of the author at his best.

All critics agree about the genius of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but hesitate when it comes to the latter two. Regardless of where the last two plays hover in a ranking of the Shakespearean canon, I suspect that they will prove entertaining and linguistically pleasing, and hint at the possible joys one can get from Shakespeare.

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Many of us know Douglas Coupland, the successful author: the man has charmed us with novels and works of non-fiction ever since Generation X in 1991. Perhaps fewer know Douglas Coupland, the visual artist, who graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1984 and has been exploring concepts of Canadian and pop culture, contemporary life, and the pervasiveness of technology through visual arts ever since.

Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything is a culmination of millings within these themes, and is presented through a stunning array of media including installation, photography, painting, lego, quilts, plastic containers, and nick-nacks he has collected over the years.

This manifestation of contemporary Canadian culture is Coupland’s first major, solo art exhibition, and it is big, beautiful, and thought provoking.

The colourful and comforting exhibition guides us through six central themes. The first, Secret

June 9, 2014

Handshake, explores Canadian cultural stereotypes and invites us to consider the familiarity of everyday objects that are uniquely Canadian. It is a sentimental display of often overlooked treasures, from prairie licence plates to miniature Canada Post boxes — all of which invite us to reflect on place and time.

In Growing Up Utopian, Coupland displays his brain-tickling lego structures to illustrate our post-war dystopic and utopic

banned out of fear of conspiracy; the local rulers thought that such places would encourage too much talk among intellectuals and, inevitably, dissidence.

It started like all good things do: from something vague I heard in passing. I heard from my friend that my other friend’s dad mentioned some cyclist café in an alley somewhere — the thought stuck in my head. It felt romantic somehow, like a secret gathering place for conspirators.

Only instead, hipster cyclists.

The thought captured the true feeling of the café. After all, some of the first cafés were

I did some digging (a Google search) and found the address of the mysterious biker’s retreat.

Seeking to camouflage myself I mounted my road bike and set off. It wasn’t the hidden smuggler’s den I’d expected it to be, and I found it with relative ease.

In fact it wasn’t even in an alley,

possibilities, capturing the possibilities of where we might take our world.

Words into Objects Slogans for the 21st Century is driven by Coupland’s question: “What’s something you can say, right now, that would make no sense to someone 10 years ago, or 20 years ago?” Coupland explained, “It’s the culture speaking rather than myself speaking.” This work is 172 bright captions, some humorous, some sorrowful.

A couple of my favourites include “Knowing everything turns

a fact that threw me off the trail for some time. The café was more capable of subterfuge than I had calculated; the bastard was hiding in plain sight.

Upon entering, the first thing I noticed was the minimalist decor. Faded wood trim, simple black and white menus and chipped paint gave it a Parisian feel. TV screens were showing elite level bike racing and old bike memorabilia dotted the walls. I’m no elite cyclist, but I still appreciate any opportunity to pretend I’m French.

Keeping with the minimalist themes of the café, I ordered a basic dark roast coffee and sat inside. Old school hip hop played over the sound system, the coffee was good quality and it was reasonably priced — all good signs. The menu offered all

out to be slightly boring,” and “I miss my pre-Internet brain.” As Coupland was allowing us to soak it all in, he muttered, “I no longer remember my pre-internet brain.”

Pop Explosion follows, a burst of modernized pop culture including framed Andy Warhol wigs and candy-coloured paintings inspired by icons such as Roy Lichtenstein.

In The 21st Century Condition, Coupland examines the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our lives. This collection also embraces smart phone technology

the basic espresso drinks (Americano, Cappuccino, Latté), but nothing incredibly extravagant.

There was a wide array of sweets and sandwiches available, all of which looked tasty.

Musette is a place for good honest coffee but it’s more than that. It’s a place for cyclists to connect and to share in their love of both coffee and cycling. It’s a farewell to traffic after a long bike ride; it’s the place where the next Hemingway could write his first book.

Normally, I would evaluate the café’s level of support for the arts but, with such a specialized café, it’s hard to judge. This spot offers information regarding local bike races and other cycling events and it does not discriminate.

Cyclist or not, it’s a great place

and blends the themes together in such pieces as a distorted photo of Osama Bin Laden which reveals itself better when viewed as a photo taken by a mobile device.

The last theme is The Brain, a collection of 5,000 objects Coupland has amassed over the years to resemble the way the brain functions. Coupland confessed, “I have been on that weird line between collecting and hoarding for quite a long time now, so this experience here, this is part of de-hoarding.”

He also remarked, “Collecting reveals a lot about you that you may not know.” The array of beautiful objects in this section is impressive, but their intimate organization and presentation is even more so. “I think every house in the world should have a brain room,” said Coupland.

Not only can you step inside Coupland’s brain in this exhibit, but you are also encouraged to stick gum on his face: Coupland placed a seven-foot tall sculpture of his head, entitled “Gumhead,” just outside of the gallery. Coupland describes it as a “gum-based, crowd sourced, publicly interactive, self-portrait.”

to write, read or draw. Musette supports the art of cycling and the art of community. Not to mention it’s a cheap vacation spot: cycle there and order a coffee, sit facing in, and with a little imagination you could be in Paris.

I would definitely recommend Musette to artists. Even if it does not directly support all forms of art, it does encourage enjoyable physical exercise in the form of cycling. Exercise is my tried and tested cure for writer’s block and I believe it can help any artist in need of inspiration.

June 9, 2014

COMMUNITY PHOTOS June 9, 2014

photo editor email / phone

Anderson Wang photos@the-peak.ca

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HUMOUR

NEW WESTMINSTER - A local man has put an end to his upcoming wedding ceremony after his future bride got off transit three stops earlier than he had predicted.

Marc Turner, a 24-year old SFU student, claims he was all set to spend the rest of his life with a girl he described as “his future wife” before having to call it off at the last minute.

“When I got on at Columbia, I just knew she was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with,” Turner explained about the moment they met, roughly two minutes prior to their tumultuous parting. “I don’t know if I’d call it love-atfirst-sight, but after my second glance I started planning our kids’ names.”

Turner said that in those first 30 seconds everything was perfect and he couldn’t foresee any possible way they would ever be apart again.

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“There were two empty seats on the entire train and she chose to sit next to me, so I got the message, that she loved me too, right away,” Turner remembered fondly. “There was even a couple of prime standing and leaning spots too, but she walked right by them, that’s how I knew she was ready for something serious.”

For the next minute and a half, Turner says he got all his wedding planning out of the way. The proposal, the ring, the guest seating arrangement, it was all taken care of in his mind.

“I was going to have the whole thing be kind of skytrainthemed because, well, that’s where we first met,” he laughed as he reminisced. “But then all of a sudden everything went to hell.”

Turner explained that in an instant, everything he had grown to believe about his future girlfriend and fiancee and wife turned out to be untrue.

“She had a backpack on so I assumed she was on her way to SFU like I was,” he said, bewilderment still visible in his face. “Sure, I had the wedding all planned but I wasn’t going to talk to her until with both got off at Production.”

“I knew that the time it took to wait for the 145 would definitely be enough to make her

my soulmate but all of a sudden she was getting off at Sapperton? I was shocked, this wasn’t the girl I had fallen in love with seconds ago.”

Turner said that he decided right then and there to end things and threw out all his wedding plans, and didn’t think twice about it.

“There was no point in dragging it out, the moment she walked out, I moved on,” he said, explaining he had already put two-and-two together that she must have been on her way home from Douglas College and there was no way that would work out.

As much as he says he’s forgotten about the whole thing, Turner still admits he sometimes thinks about the girl who got away.

“It’s tough because she was perfect for me,” he explained.

“She had blonde hair, she wore jeans . . . if only she could’ve just been commuting somewhere else, I’d be happily married by now.”

While Turner says it’ll be tough for him to ever love again, he expects that another marriage candidate will reveal herself someday, and she’ll most likely be someone he sees tomorrow who sits down for lunch in the general vicinity he’s studying in.

humour editor email / phone

Brad McLeod humour@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

HUMOUR

June 9, 2014

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24 LAST WORD

features editor email / phone

Max Hill features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

June 9, 2014